Mind At Work

Review of 'The Mine' By Arnab Ray

2012-01-30T02:16:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer: I'm a friend of the author. Much to my dismay, he hasn't promised me anything to write this.

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If I were a Bollywood hero, at this time I should've been in India, trying to trace the author in one of his many book launch events, with the sole purpose of avenging the trauma his book caused my wife. But hero, I'm not. So, I'm at my laptop at quarter past two in the morning, writing this review, while my wife is sleeping next to me, perhaps being haunted by images from the same book in her nightmares. Shameful.

Actually the only word that truly describes the book is repulsive. Perhaps revolting also fits the bill. Yes, the famous humour blogger and author of MIHYAP has come up with the kind of stuff that leaves a terrible stench in the mouth. And from what I understand, that, precisely is what he set out to do in this makeover second book.

'The Mine' is a horror story, but not along the lines of 'Zee Horror Show' or 'Andheri Raat Mein Diya Tere Haath Mein', which of course you'll perhaps associate more with the author. However, in this book Arnab almost makes it a point to not have a single line that can make you smile, leave alone laugh. Through the story of an assorted cast of characters with a past, brought together at 'The Mine', where funny things are going on, we are brought face to face with a different kind of horror, that lies deep within ourselves. The kind that we can't even dare to accept while introspecting. In case I give an impression that it's a philosophical novel which asks you to look into your heart and listen to your parents (I love K3G) I am doing it completely wrong. Think of any sort of macabre grossness and you will find it in the pages of 'The Mine'. Some parts of the book are so explicit in its gory details that I felt uncomfortable to talk to him after reading the book knowing what his fertile imagination is capable of cooking up! If you're thinking of sweeping that girl you've been fancying for sometime by gifting a copy of this on the day of Saint Valentine's feast, consider yourself warned.

I personally have always felt that Arnab is a far superior writer while tackling serious issues and topics and his thorough research for so many of his blog posts have helped me and others to understand many complicated world issues in a very personalized and descriptive fashion. 'The Mine' is the epitome of his serious, focused, researched and nuanced writing.

I don't want to give away any part of the story, even inadvertently, because I feel the very essence of the book is in facing the unexpected and is best enjoyed by going in with no preconceived notion, besides being ready to bear some very hard hitting ideas. [Plug: The Mine is available here, here and here among others]

It takes immense courage to present oneself, so early in one's career, in a completely different shade from what the audience expects and then to shock them with the kind of negativity and gore as is there in the book. I will perhaps even go to the extent of comparing this book to Sir's (SRK for the uninitiated) anti-hero roles during the early 90s. And I don't compare people or works to Sir very often or very lightly.

Running With The Bulls!

2012-01-28T00:34:00.000-06:00

I do not claim to be a basketball fan. In fact far from it. Growing up in India in the '90s meant I did come across the occasional basketball game on TV every now and then, but quickly moved to the next channel hoping against hope of having cheerleaders in our game of cricket one day. In hindsight it seems Lalit Modi was silently listening to my prayers. But that's not the point of this post.

To me basketball was Chicago Bulls. It was this large man, sticking out his tongue and wearing the prime number 23 jersey and scoring points, winning games and helping me win points in quiz sports rounds. Later on I Wikipedia-ed him several times to understand the magnitude of his contribution to James Naismith's hoop and ball sport and. But even then I can by no means call myself a basketball fan.

However, given that fact that we're in Chicago and the Bulls were playing a game at United Center, and there was a pre-game between Kellogg & Chicago's Booth School, almost the entire school descended upon the stadium, with me and my wife in attendance. The tickets were affordable, and we got purple coloured Kellogg # 1 t-shirts to cheer our school!

To me sports is cricket and all comparisons usually begin and end with Eden Gardens and Ferozeshah Kotla (the only 2 stadiums I have watched the sport in - Tests, ODI & T20s) and the Bull's United Center at first was much more of a luxurious multiplex than a sports stadium.

Entering the court-side takes you by surprise because of the intimidating size of the indoor stadium and the extravagant, glamourous paraphernalia. We went mainly for the atmosphere and of course to cheer for Kellogg and were richly treated to a solid performance by the Kellogg team, destroying the Booth team 15-8 in the pre-match! So, now I have friends who have played in the United Center:)

Kellogg beating Booth

The Bulls V Bucks game was a heady concoction of sports + entertainment and kept us on our feet (also literally because we had standing tickets!) for the 2.5 odd hours it went on for. The scoreline was 107-100 in favour of the home team, and this also meant the entire stadium could go and ask for their free Big Mac! McDonald's had promised a big mac to everyone if the Bulls scored more than 100 points and won the game.

The match underway in the massive United Center

It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, shared with friends, for whom this was the first time at an NBA game as well. The moment of the evening for me was just before the match started, when they dimmed the lights in the stadium and started off proceedings by introducing the Bulls. The most glamorous live sports event I've seen till date. Shot a video with my phone camera which I'm sharing below, forgive the quality.

Times Of India V The Hindu

2012-01-25T23:25:00.000-06:00

The battle of Tamil Nadu's english reading newspaper audience has began.

India's largest circulating English daily, trying to take on the Tamil King, 'The Hindu' in its own territory launched this campaign in December 2011.

The normally polished Hindu was quite direct in its rebuttal in the form of this ad that it launched in mid-Jan 2012.

The scene seems to be getting steamier!

Thank You Moo!

2012-01-20T22:10:00.003-06:00

A few days back I came across this article on Mashable that mentioned Moo.com, a speciality business card printing company, has partnered with facebook to make 'facebook cards' or fancy business cards made from your facebook timeline (including your profile and cover photo) with some of your personal information such as phone number, email ID, website and any quote that you choose. What's more interesting is that were giving away 50 such cards for free to the first 200,000 people who signed up for the service. Usually when words like free, facebook and startup come together I sign up before realizing what I'm signing up for and this was no exception.

This evening I received a package in the mail with a box of the most attractive business cards I have ever had. Here's what the cards and the package look like.

The package

Above: Front and Below: Reverse of the cards

Not only are the cards printed with the highest quality of paper, but also the customer service was impeccable with friendly notifications at each step of confirmation of ordering, shipping and delivery.

Hooked on to Moo? Here's how you can get the cards, free and otherwise:

To get the offer, first click on “About” under your basic info on your Timeline. Then scroll down to “Contact Info” and roll over the little business card icon — you should see a rollover box that will direct you to MOO. In order to take advantage of the offer, Facebook users will need to have enabled Timeline.

To place a regular paid order on MOO.com, sign in through Facebook and check that the aggregated information from your profile is correct on the card. Then you can flip the card over to add a favorite quote or phrase before printing. Currently, the cards are for sale in 50-card bundles. Facebook Cards are available at $15 for 50, $30 for 100, $45 for 150 and $60 for 200.

And here's a big thank you to Moo! Will be handing out these cards to the next 50 new people I meet. And I start with the Kellogg Marketing Conference tomorrow morning!

P.S: If you're ordering your set of cards you can use the code G2MSCG and get a 15% off.

Movies Roundup 2011

2011-12-28T20:35:00.000-06:00

Once again it's the list making time of the year, and just like in 2009 and 2010 I have made meticulous notes of the movies (that released during the year/I watched in theatres during the year) of 2011 and am keen on sharing the information overload with you. However, unlike in the previous years where I provided a synopsis of my top 5 Hindi & English movies I have decided to take the tedious way of sharing my 140 character review of all 22 movies I watched this year. Okay. Lazy way. These are my tweet-reviews of the movies soon after watching them and documented here for posterity. For the rest of stats lovers in you, as usual we will do the number summary like in the previous years.

Year # Seen H:E Top Rating Avg Rating

2007 32 22:10 9.0 5.78

2008 30 23:7 8.5 6.35

2009 24 18:6 9.0 6.85
2010 25 16:9 8.5 6.62
2011 22 16:6 8.5 6.77

Before we go into the entire list of movies and their scores, here are the Top 5 of the year for me, in rank order.

Rank 1

Rank 2

Rank 3

Rank 4

Rank 5

And the complete details follow.

The Tourist- Swift, thrilling, somewhat predictable. Beautiful locales and absolutely stunning lead pair. 0.5 extra for Jolie & Depp. 6.5/10

Dhobi Ghat - Vibrant, fresh and visually appealing. True to it's style leaves the story open at the end. Captivating 95 minutes. 8/10.

No One Killed Jessica - Cinematically left a lot to be desired, but made up for it with the spirit & positivity. Vidya - A+, Rani - B-. 7/10

Yeh Saali Zindagi - a dark, crime comedy that teases you with equal doses of scares and laughs all through. Superb performances by all. 8/10.

7 Khoon Maaf - beautifully picturised dark comedy, haunting & thrilling almost throughout. Could have been 20 minutes shorter. 7/10.

Rio (3D) - Typical witty, funny & entertaining Hollywood animation movie keeping you engaged for 2 hours. 3D adds to the fun. 7/10.

Shor In The City - What a movie! For the 1st time you will not only use Tusshar Kapoor & 'good movie' together but also 'very'. 8/10.

Source Code - Reminds you a lot of Inception and a bit of Vantage Point. Typicall sci-fi thriller, edge-of-seat etc. Recommended. 7/10.

I Am - a stunningly sensitive depiction of four heavy subjects without getting preachy or overtly dramatic. Brilliant portrayals. 8.5/10

Chalo Dilli - a genuinely humorous story with endearing performances by Lara & Vinay Pathak. Resembles Bheja Fry in places. Worth it. 7.5/10

Hangover 2 - perhaps the best example of reproducing something that worked in the past, with minimal tampering. My guilty pleasure. 6/10.

Kung Fu Panda 2 - Delightful story about Po & and his bumbling antics, endearing characters, holds your attention. Good, expected. 6.5/10

Delhi Belly - Crass, toilet humour ridden and wannabe. Still had me in splits in parts. Bold. Tries too hard. Usual senseless climax. 6/10.

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows (Part 2) - And with that my childhood is officially over. 8.5/10 [Rating is emotionally inflated]

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - Fresh & engaging. Beautifully shot. Reminiscent of DCH & Rock On in tone and content. Strong performances. 7.5/10

That Girl In Yellow Boots - Gritty and gripping throughout with an ending that can leave many repulsed. Brilliant performance by Kalki. 7/10

Bodyguard - Will take immense efforts to come up with a worse movie. Glad that we sneaked into the next screen w/out paying for it. 2/10

Ra.One - A visual extravaganza. Shoddy start. Outstanding visual effects, at par with the best. Wafer thin plot. Unpretentious. 6.5/10.

Rockstar - Imtiaz Ali leaves no stone unturned in dishing out a mega disappointment. Contrived & hackneyed. With plastic for a heroine. 5/10.

The Dirty Picture - Predictable and over-the-top in most parts. Points to Vidya for her earnest efforts, Emraan a joke. Disappointed. 5/10.

Royal Bengal Rohoshyo - a pleasant surprise from Sandip Ray after the previous Feluda disappointments. Relived those childhood moments. 7/10

Don 2 - Very (Slick. Classy. Gripping. Pacy) SRK is charm, wit, elegance & stardom personified, and that could be unabashed fanspeak! 8/10.

World's Best, #1, Fantastic, Mind Blowing!

2011-11-22T22:57:00.001-06:00

The subject line pales in comparison to the protagonist of this piece, Dr. Engg. Real Estate Agent, Vaccuum Cleaner Salesman and Inventor Punit Sethi.

There are social media experts and then there is "World's Most Popular Social Media Expert as declared by Google" And as his Google+ profile says, in a Bond, James Bond way, "Google my name...Dr Punit Sethi is an"

Where do we start with Dr. Engg. Real Estate Agent, Vaccuum Cleaner Salesman and Inventor Punit Sethi. Let's take the easier route and refer to his introduction. Following are the excerpts:

1. Engineer cum Author.. with MTech, MSc, MBA & PhD. Infra, Power, Highways, Real Estate, TQM, Six SIGMA Expert. Google declared World's Most Popular Social Media, Corporate Communication & FB Expert. Author. Messenger of Peace for World Harmony.

2.Google declared Dr Punit Sethi an Indian Engineer cum Author as facebook expert and his book “Luv U Mate” on facebook as most popular in the World‏.

And at this point you are beginning to doubt the claims of Dr. Engg. Real Estate Agent, Vaccuum Cleaner Salesman and Inventor Punit Sethi, aren't you? Before you sin any further let me share the bona fide Yahoo India news article which confirms that Google did indeed Dr. Engg....Sethi as the most popular expert on Facebook.

Ha! Read that Pope & Rajinikanth joke? No? Good time to do so.

Anyway, moving on to the more concrete accomplishments of BTech (Civil), MTech (Infra/Environment), MSc, MBA, PhD, Member American Society of Civil Engineers, Fellow of Institute of Valuers, Fellow of Institute of Engineers, Member of Indian Roads Congress, Member of Indian Buildings Congress, Chartered Engineer...Lead Auditor QMS, ISO, IMS, OHSAS, EMS, NDT Punit Sethi.

He's penned the first book to win not only the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Booker of Bookers but also the Oscar & the Filmfare Awards - SPREAD LOVE NOT HATE; LUV U MATE!! And once again I notice the strains of disbelief in your eyes oh ye naive readers of this blog.

For you cynical netizens nothing will work unless the 'Wall Street Journal' itself confirms the facts in any blog post, isn't it? Fair enough, here's the revered WSJ itself informing you how the respected Indian minister Kapil Sibal launched the greatest book on earth. And sales have been moderately swift, promptly pushing the Bible to the 2nd spot within a few hours of its launch. Oh, soon after the WSJ article, our own Economic Times followed suit with a post about the greatest book of all time.

Okay, so now that the skeptic in you has been taken care off, the curiosity to know more about the man must be killing you from inside. Fret not, Lord Sethi has once again out-thought you and left enough footprints on popular social networking sites to sing his paens. You can find his illustrious career on LinkedIn, engage in some intellectually stimulating conversations on Facebook and follow his 140 characters of wisdom on Twitter.

And yes, even this cutout of the Indian cricket skipper couldn't escape Dr. Sethi's charisma and decided to take part in the book launch.

We're honoured to be living in the same day and age as Engineer + Doctor (PhD) = Doctor ♥♥ Engineer & a humanitarian. (Engr with MTech, MBA & PhD. Infra, Power, Highways, Real Estate, TQM, Six SIGMA Expert. Google declared FB Expert. Author. Messenger of Peace for World Harmony) Dr. Sethi.

P.S: If anyone has any information on this giant among men please do not hesitate to share in the comments below.

And It Snowed!

2011-11-10T15:32:00.001-06:00

November 10th, 2011 will remain a special day as I could finally get "watching snowfall" off from my list of 'Things To Do Before I Die' list. In fact, technically the moment arrived earlier this morning around 8:00 AM when I was walking to school and it was the exact opposite of what I had always expected it to be. Forget about snowfall, it was more like 'spit-fall' and that too by someone who wouldn't do too well in a spitting game. My friend could just not be convinced that those little white things floating around were snow flakes and not pollen grains.

However, on my way back this afternoon, it happened. Complete with the intrigue and romance associated with the phenomenon. I was waiting at the traffic lights when suddenly, out of nowhere, the sunny Evanston skies turned a dull shade of grey and the entire place got covered with the tiny little cold specks that magically appeared. And then things became more aggressive! The specks became little spheres, almost like micro hail stones, and the temperature dipped to freezing levels. The roads, sidewalks and lawns started to be painted white. What a moment!

In case you're as excited about the first snow as Veni & I were, here's a photo captured by her from our house and a video below that I took while braving the sudden attack of the icy globules.

Check out the snow covered roof of our adjoining house!

Ra.One - Review

2011-10-30T16:50:00.001-05:00

Disclaimer - I am a rabid SRK fan. I have made my fanaticism clear and public many, many times in the past. I am also a a lover of cinema, and when I review movies I keep my personal biases aside, unless I mention otherwise. I am not wearing my fan hat to write this review. Will appreciate if this respected in the comments.

Okay, let's get started.

Is Ra.One SRK's best movie till date? The answer is a definite no, not even close. Is it even worth spending the time (2:45 hours) and money to go and watch it? Absolutely yes.

The best part about Ra.One is that it does not make any claims of propagating deep messages through a layered storyline, changing the way you look at movies or life forever, or even making you chew over the story after you've left the theatre. It's in your face, visually spectacular and unpretentious. Yes, there is the overall theme of good presiding over evil, but that's more of a side effect of a simple superhero versus super villain story. For it to even avoid that one needed to film leaves fluttering in the air and maybe some critics would have still found that to be too pseudo-deep.

Story in a nutshell (which is pretty much the story itself) - video game developer dad, cool son, create video game with super villain to gain son's approval, supervillain gains AI (artificial intelligence), takes human form and goes rogue, superhero follows suit, in the end superhero vanquishes supervillain and everything is fine with the world.

As SRK and team have been claiming all through their hyper-charged promotions this is an Indian fantasy movie which will appeal to the kids with its world class special effects and simple storyline. And for the many of us who are not kids if the mind-blowing VFX is not enough to hold us to our seats the constant reminders of this being a film that is not taking itself seriously and often poking fun at itself and other popular references (like the initial dream sequence with Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt and SRK) should be decent value for money. The pace of the movie restrains you from giving in to the urge of checking mails on your phone and most of the gags, yes sometimes racial and stereotypical, will cause some of the people to chuckle some of the times.

The screenplay is fraught with anomalies (such as Karwa Chauth happening before Dusshera) and a curd and spaghetti (!) eating south Indian father suddenly turning out in a Michael Jackson outfit (and driving his son to school in the same) and many more. But the point is we aren't going to watch a superhero movie to dissect the deviations from the realms of reality, are we? In terms of performances I wasn't very impressed with the young Armaan Verma (playing SRK's son Prateek) but that's perhaps because I found his hair to be too long and he portrayed the typical 'smarter than alec' kid which irritates me. Most of the supporting characters such as Sahana Goswami, Dalip Tahil, Satish Shah etc. were caricatures of different stereotypes and were mostly bearable and sometimes funny. Arjun Rampal in the Title role of Ra.One was his usual plastic but good looking self and given that he needed to play a robot he passed off fine, even if not making a lasting, sinister impact as one could've hoped for. Kareena Kapoor looked stunning throughout and climbed many a rungs in my favourite actresses ladder with a seamless performance of a neo-modern wife and mother with the light, naughty side. And did I mention she looked stunning with the few extra kilos? Yes, she did. Finally, SRK. The Subramaniam character came across as a bit forced with no real identity as it was a caricature of the 'average 'South Indian'' (yes, I know there are no South Indians) but he can sleepwalk through these roles, and since he's invested more money in it than ever before the performance remains quite endearing, a bit like Suri from 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' (which remains one of my least favourite SRK film). And as Ra.One he was a mix between himself in My Name Is Khan incorporating a lot of Rizwan and many of the superhero movies such as Terminator, Ironman and even Robot. The fact that he always seemed to underline that he's not taking himself seriously and doesn't expect you to either helped in making it a fun watch which could have easily become a preachy bore.

Bottomline - far from SRK's greatest movie but a fun watch with outstanding special effects, action and moments of humour. A definite one time watch in the theatres. Goes with the usual Indian masala movie warning of leaving your brains behind.

P.S:

A well balanced review of the movie here by Arnab Ray, a chronic critic of Sir.

And if you really want to know the flaws in the screenplay and why it's not believable then here's a comic strip review by the fantastic Sahil Rizwan.

1955-2011, Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T14:59:00.000-05:00

God blessed us with you. May God bless you.

Apple.com Oct-5-2011

Google.com Oct-5-2011

XKCD

BoingBoing.net

Microsoft London's Flag Flying At Half-Mast

The iCon

The end of Jobs-Gates meme

Never Before aired ad of Steve Jobs from 1997

Also tributes by the following people:

Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder Apple

Tim Cook, CEO Apple (letter sent to all Apple employees)

Barack Obama, President of the United States

Larry Page, CEO Google

Sergey Brin, Co-Founder Google

Eric Schmidt, Chairman Google

Bill Gates, Founder Microsoft

Jeff Bezos, Founder Amazon

A very moving tribute to Steve Jobs by Parminder Singh, my friend and Apple's 1st employee in India.

Scott Adam's (creator of Dilbert) ode to Jobs (thanks Manan for the link)

Write-ups by Tech Writers who worked closely with Jobs.

Walt Mossberg (AllThingsD)

Brian Lam (Gizmodo)

Michael Arrington (Uncrucnhed, founder TechCrunch)

Stephen Fry, Writer (thanks Abhishek for the link)

[Will keep adding more articles to the list]

Rebel With A Focus!

2011-09-07T01:52:00.003-05:00

Disclaimer: A personal post on cameras and photography.

Thrilled to welcome the newest member to my photography family - the Canon 500D (also known as the Rebel T1i) with the 18-55 mm kit lens, 55-250 mm telephoto lens and the 50mm f/1.8 II Prime lens!

Had been checking the mailbox at least five times a day over the past week since I placed the order and have not spent much time away from the device since the package arrived this afternoon! I have a feeling it's going to keep me very busy during my next 2 weeks of break before classes resume for the Fall quarter. Here's a closer look at the beauty.

Canon 500D with 18-55 mm lens mounted

Canon 55-250 mm Lens

Canon 50mm F/1.8 II Lens

Here's the latest family members, clicked by the Nexus S phone camera.

This follows my previous loyal Canon companion, the Canon S3 IS purchased during my first visit to the US more than four years back. That was the time I was beginning to develop a knack for photography, and generally doing a lousy job by clicking anything in sight. I must say the S3 IS has been one of the best purchases till date and I would like to believe I learnt almost everything about light, apertures, shutter speed, macro etc. from it. Given it's portability compared to the Rebel I think I will continue to carry it with me for a long time.

The Canon S3 IS

And here's a look at my very first camera, bought in August of 2005, my second month of starting on my first job. I guess most of my colleagues from Google, Hyderabad still have nightmares of me creeping up on them and going trigger happy with my Kodak Easyshare CX 7310!

Kodak Easyshare CX 7310

This post will be incomplete without mentioning the following people whose inputs where highly valuable in going for the DSLR along with the lenses, and ones I will keep pestering for some time for tips, tricks and sudden panic attacks. Also, a good idea to check their albums/blogs/sites as they all do a darn neat job of capturing moments. Thank you (in alphabetical order)

Nagalakshmi Viswanathan

Sumodh Tharien (he's a good but lazy boy)

And finally here's the first shot taken with the 500D (Focal Length 51 mm, Shutter Speed 1/60 seconds, Aperture f/5.6, ISO:400).

Rest of my photos (all with the Canon S3 IS) available here.

P.S: Amazon has become one of my 5 most visited sites since moving to the US and especially during the camera hunt. Highly recommended.

KWEST - Around The World In 7 Days

2011-09-02T01:21:00.003-05:00

The following article, capturing my first couple of months at Kellogg, was published in my Financial Times blog today. Reproducing without any edits.

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In late August around 750 Kellogg students and their joint ventures (more commonly known as partners in the rest of the world) left on 35 trips to countries from Australia to Zanzibar and everywhere in between. This was a part of the annual Kellogg tradition of Kwest (Kellogg Worldwide Experiences & Service Trips). These trips are voluntary and although they not a part of the curriculum an overwhelming majority of students take part.

Each trip is led by about 5 second year students, following their summer internship. The idea being to help the incoming batch of students to get to know each other in an informal environment. Students have non-stop fun for a week, while at the same time helping the local community, – cleaning the streets of Florence, painting a swing in a school in Punta Cana or building homes in Nicaragua. During this period participants are not allowed to mention the country/state they are from, or their education and professional background until the ‘big reveal’ during the trip! It’s absolutely amazing seeing everyone trying their best to second guess each other’s stories and mostly failing miserably!

My wife and I were a part of the trip to the Dominican Republic and I am at a loss to know where to start and what to include in this post about one of the most memorable weeks of our lives. From the moment the 26 of us, groggy eyed at 3am boarded the bus from Evanston to Chicago Midway airport until we returned home a week later it was a blur of activities, food, parties, beaches, buggy rides, playing with school kids and what not. It was quite literally a bunch of strangers getting on a flight and going to an exotic island to come back with some friends made for life.

We stayed in Punta Cana, an eastern beach town of the Dominican Republic. The trip leaders did a fabulous job of ensuring everything was taken care of down to the minutest details. Unfortunately they couldn’t account for Hurricane Irene which decided to pass over the Dominican Republic in the middle of our trip. But we were not a bunch to be easily deterred, so when we couldn’t hit the beaches or the pools we ended up conducting a hotly contested quiz competition and a highly animated game of charades!

The week included a mini-golf tournament and of course was peppered with some of the most delicious meals available on the island of Hispaniola.

The highlight of our trip has to be the Xtreme buggy tour where we drove six, stripped to the bone Volkswagen Beetles, through the rough, wet, interiors of the island into its rural pockets and mines and quarries.

The weather was on our side and pumped up the adventure level by opening up the skies while we were in the middle of nowhere. The drive through the heart of Punta Cana in the blinding rain and the water splashing all over us was an experience of a lifetime!

We visited a small public school, run by a local, not-for-profit body and spent a day with pupils painting a newly installed swing.

Although most of the children spoke only Spanish and most of us English, it was remarkable how quickly and effortlessly we bonded.

We all returned from our various trips and our social networking streams are brimming with updates and photos of Finland, Belize, Ecuador, Croatia and dozens of other place. There are also frequent notifications of ‘…is now friends with ….and 10 others’.

Of Added Value, Lakeside BBQs And More

2011-08-15T17:25:00.000-05:00

Before I reached this pleasant university town of Evanston I had heard a lot about the ‘global exposure’ that a Kellogg MBA provides. However it wasn’t until the 86 of us, from 26 different countries, were put in a room that the word ‘diversity’ assumed a real form. We have an ophthalmologist, an Olympic participant, a few that have served their national armies, some entrepreneurs, a fruit marketer and a fruit exporter (they had a lot of notes to exchange), a Jeopardy champion and a crazy, funny Belgian, as well as a host of equally fascinating people among us.

Suhel Banerjee in class

Classes started where our undergrad ones had finished, conveniently forgetting the fact that most of us had lost all touch with books for at least five years! The first few weeks were spent in trying to keep terms such as “added value” and “value added” at arm’s length from each other.

We learnt how a fat boy in a hike is actually a bottleneck in a manufacturing operations process and spent time in malls taking notes of how different brands organise their clothes in stores, as well as paying attention to the distinct sounds and smell in every store. The one woman in our team of three was of the opinion that we spend a few days instead of hours in the store for best observations. She was overruled.

Personally the highlight has been that I now have friends from all over the world, including countries such as Venezuela, Slovakia and Peru, places which I mostly associated with the soccer world cup and Miss World pageants. Oh, and of course the food! How could I forget the lakeside barbecues.

This past weekend we organised a ‘Global Food Festival’ where we had food stalls from India, Korea, Israel, France, Brazil, Chile, Holland and many other countries. All the food was prepared by the students and their partners and what an evening it was! Takeaway from the evening, the Brazilians get quite mad if you call their mojitos anything but caipirinhas!

The August 2011 global cuisine festival

It’s almost surreal that we’ve already completed two months of our one-year programme, and with the end of the first quarter coming up this week we are almost quarter MBAs!

Looking forward to the coming months, and am shocked to find out that what is described as summer here in Chicago, is what is described as a mild winter in most places of India.

Restaurant Reviews: Flat Top Grill & Adis Abeba & A Dutch Barbeque

2011-07-03T01:55:00.000-05:00

My complete absence from this social media world of ours can be attributed to the comeback of things like professors, classrooms, home assignments, all nighters and the like, and for that I apologize. Also, a piece of unsolicited advice, if you ever plan to return to books after half a dozen years, be prepared for a rough start! And with a heartfelt tribute to Jimmy Amarnath & Dada, I start this post.

Postor Shobji

Despite what's described in the previous paragraph I continue to be a believer of "Good food will keep us alive" and the past 10 days or so have been quite enriching in the culinary quotient. Our move to Chi-town started with my school friend Boudhayan picking us up from O'Hare and not just giving us shelter on day 0 at his place, but also whipping up a most memorable lunch of Bhaat (steamed rice), Doi Maachh (Catfish prepared in a yoghurt gravy) and postor sabzi (A very typical Bengali poppy seed dish).

Doi Maachh

Flat Top Grill

The 1st of the 2 places I wanted to talk about is the very unique concept restaurant - Flat Top Grill. Located right next to our university accommodation in Evanston, this cosy little eatery works on the "pick and choose your own food" idea. Quite simple really - pick up a plate and fill it up with rice/noodles of your choice, then proceed to the extensive vegetables section (most of it is boiled/half cooked), followed by the meats (chicken/beef/pork/calamari/octopus - you name it, they have it) and finally the array of sauces. And you're just one step away from your final dish. Give your collection of items to the chefs at the large open kitchen at the front of the restaurant and they will stir fry your food and it is sent to your table. I got some mushroom-asparagus-pork-octopus-rice combination in a hot & sour soup, while Veni went for her chicken-noodles variety. And all this very reasonably priced at $9/person and you can go for unlimited helpings for only $1 extra/person. The whole concept, decor, food and service was top class and highly recommended if you're in one of the places where they are located. If any budding food entrepreneurs in India is reading this then you have a business plan on your hands.

Select Rice/Noodles & Vegetables

Select your sauces & meat

Leave your bowls with at the table, to be stir fried

And see your hand picked ingredients getting freshly cooked in front of you

That's it! Enjoy your meal!

Adis Abeba

The other place was an a little Ethopian restaurant, again not too far from from McManus Apartments. I had heard a lot about Ethipian restaurants from Veni as she had visited one last year in California, and the 'No Cutlery' policy at such places obviously was an added attraction for someone like me who has used his hands for a majority of his meals. Also, was very curious to see the reactions of the cutlery bred westerners at using their hands for eating their food, and must say their enthusiasm and adeptness at the new practice left me impressed. The restaurant is somewhat unimaginatively named Adis Abeba (which is the Ethiopian capital for the uninitiated). Besides the no cutlery rule, they other intriguing custom at the place is that at every table there's only one really large plate of food that's brought and everyone eats from the same plate. Much like the communal dining tradition of the Kashmiri Wazwan. There's a large wheat & millet based fluffy bread on which a variety of meat & vegetables is served along with some Ethiopian salads. Along with this additional breads are provided in a side dish. We ordered one combination of a spicy lentil based thick paste, some minced well done steak and chicken drumstick in a spicy sauce. The bread and the accompaniments were lapped up in no time, leaving no space for the traditional Ethiopian coffee which was being eyed at since we entered the place. Again, at $20 for a meal for 2 this is a great option for good North African meals in the area.

The bread is a hybrid between rotis & appams

And that's the communal plate with the meat & vegetables

Hungry! About to dive in

And on Friday we had a Dutch Barbeque Thank-God-It's-Friday party at a fellow student's place where almost the whole of Kellogg descended. With plenty of freshly grilled meat for the burgers and hot dogs, it was an evening which is definitely going to be repeated quite frequently in the coming weeks.

The dutch party in full flow, with the flag et al

Meat being grilled by Francis from France who doesn't think much of American food

Party's complete with plastic tulips!

And that's the meat of it!

And One Last Thing

2011-06-02T04:00:00.001-05:00

Sent this email to my colleagues earlier this week.

1 day to go. Feeling yet to sink in.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Hello Googlers,

I know I am not particularly well known for the brevity of my emails. I have a hunch that this one won't go a long way towards changing that opinion:)

This Friday will be my last working day at Google. And I don't have a clear idea about what that feels like. Somewhat unreal and not nice is all I can confirm at the moment.

6 years can be termed as a decent amount of time in most people's careers, more so when it's your first job. When you add one of the fastest growing companies in history, a dynamic industry that reinvents itself every week and a billion plus market just starting to adopt the Internet, it becomes a heady mix of learning, development - both personal and professional and forming of exceptional strong ties and bonds. I have read many of these farewell emails where people attribute a lot of their learning and experiences to Google, I attribute all of mine. When a company has that kind of a role to play in your life, it's not easy to express your gratitude in a few words. I could say my time here far, far exceeded my expectations and I would still be off the truth by a fair margin. Overwhelmed.

Watching the Indian Internet landscape emerge from nothing to the blossoming stage it is in now, from very close quarters, has been awe-inspiring. Moving from our '6 chairs and a table' excuse for an office in Vatika Atrium (Gurgaon) to the robust teams that we have now set up across Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad has been a fulfilling journey. I take immense pleasure in the fact that I will be able to say "I was a part of that story" in years to come.

Revenue graphs going up and to the right is great. Internet users exploding is music to the ears. However now when I look back at the journey from RMZ, Hyderabad till today what really stands out are faces, of colleagues, turned friends. I have way more friends in Google than outside and the bonds that we share are among the strongest. Well, I guess the fact that one of my colleagues became my wife a few years back says it all!

If I were to make a tag-cloud of the fun times I had I guess the ones in the biggest, boldest characters would be - Dogfooding products yet to be launched to the public, Food, Offsites, Inquizzitive, Misc-India/Gur, TGIFs, Sales Conferences, Food, Holiday Gifts and the countless lunches which covered every topic conceivable and were by far the best brainstorming sessions ever.

All this still leaves one question unanswered - what am I up to? I am moving to the US for my MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Chicago. Goes without saying, if you're in that part of the world please do make it a point to catch up!

But of course that doesn't mean you've seen the end of me:) You can still reach me at suhel.banerjee@gmail.com and I will be happy to connect with you on social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn. If that's not enough you can find me quite active on Twitter and my blog as well. And if you find me too active at these places, please do remind me to go back to my books!

Google is a world class hub of technology, a brilliant business, a caring organisation, a social revolution and most importantly Google is family.

Thanks for everything.

--
Suhel Banerjee | Manager, DCS | suhel@google.com | +91XXXXXXXX

6oo6le

2011-05-16T03:28:00.002-05:00

Dear Google,

Looks like it's been a year since we corresponded. How time flies!

Since I poured my heart out last year, I will keep it simple this time. Just wanted to let you know I am still as fond of you as I was 6 years back. You never fail to win me over, and the occasional gestures of gifting the Nexus 1 and Nexus S didn't go unnoticed. You pamper me spoilt and I never cease to indulge in public display of affection.

Also, always remember, whether we are physically together or not, we will always be in each other's thoughts. Will talk more about this in a few days. Anyway, let's leave such sombre thoughts for later, as of now let's recount some of the happy moments from the past!

Love,
Suhel

Google Hyderabad reception. September 2005

Lights out in Google Hyderabad. February 2006

My desk, Google Gurgaon. June 2006

Halloween, Google Gurgaon. October 2006

Team Google, San Francisco. March 2007

Google Gurgaon. April 2007

Google Mountainview. July 2007

Google India offsite, Goa. October 2007

Team Google India, a Karaoke bar in Sydney. March 2008

Google India offsite, Westin Resorts, Sohna. November 2008

Google India OSG team, Gurgaon office reception. April 2009

Google Singapore. November 2009

Google India offsite, Bentota, Sri Lanka. November 2009

Google APAC offsite, Tokyo. June 2010

Google Sales offsite, Singapore. October 2010

Veni & I, Google India Conference, Hyderabad. November 2010

Google Music Beta Review

2011-05-15T05:20:00.000-05:00

Last week Google announced the launch of it's online music service - Google Music Beta - at the annual Google I/O Conference. As expected, it received a lot of attention from the Tech media and also as has been the case with some of the newer Google products the beta is 'By Invite Only' to begin with. You can go to the homepage and request an invitation now. Someone from the team was kind enough to send me an invite last evening and I have been playing around with it since then.

In a nutshell Google Music helps you to upload and manage your entire music collection to/in the cloud, sync it with your Google account and then listen to it at anytime from any machine or mobile phone as long as you have access to the Internet through a browser or a mobile app. Some of the innovative features are listening to free songs available through the Music app and something called 'Instant Mix' which creates a playlist from your list of songs based on the kinds of songs you select. Also, if you don't have internet access at all times the Music app keeps some songs, the ones you listen to most often, cached so that you can hear them while offline.

I took screenshot of the steps involved in the installation process and producing it below. You can also find a video of the launch demo at the end of the post.

Though I am not the greatest music afficianado, a big, geeky thumbs up from my side to the product!

The email invite

Landing Page on music.google.com

You can add free songs to your library at this stage

Prompt to download the 'Music Manager' app to be installed on the machine where you have your songs

The Android Market place which hosts the Google Music app

Unfortunately I couldn't install it on my Nexus S as the app is not available in India

Installing the Music Manager on the machine

Now you need to sign in using your Google account

You can select how you want to sync your songs

You have the option of updating the Google Music library automatically when you add new songs to your machine

Adding the songs to the Msuic Manager

And we're ready to listen to music on the browser!

That's the inside look at the Google Music player, with the songs being constantly added.

Finally, here's an official video explaining and demonstrating Google Music.

Gurgaon/Delhi Only - Furniture For Sale

2011-05-09T04:50:00.000-05:00

If you/anyone you know, from the Delhi NCR region is looking at buying the following items, please reach out to me at suhel.banerjee@gmail.com These will be available during mid-June 2011.

Also, will really appreciate if you could pass it along to your friends/acquaintances staying in this part of the country.

In case you can't see the embedded sheet below, please Click Here for the complete list of items and prices.

From A Tuesday Evening To A Monday Morning

2011-05-02T02:02:00.000-05:00

That September Tuesday evening I was in Durgapur, at my aunt's place, preparing for my 11th Standard 1st term Maths exam the next day. Had just come back from an 'adda' session with friends and customarily checked the TV once before starting to revise the chapter on Permutations & Combinations. And no, I am not making that up. What I saw on the television that evening has perhaps been shown more than any other footage in the history of televised media. Never got around to revising anything that evening. Don't remember how the exam went. Didn't feel like it mattered much that day. Here's what the US president had to say soon after the heinous attacks.

This morning, a Monday, I was at home in Gurgaon. Had just got up from sleep and was going through my Twitter timeline. Squinting at it, more like it. That's when I saw some tweets mentioning the death of Osama Bin Laden, the orchestrator of the crime theatre of that Tuesday, almost a decade back. Reports, mostly unconfirmed, were flying thick and fast, and there was some talk of President Obama making an official announcement very soon. Switched on the television and in 30 minutes or so got to see this.

Maybe today it is a lot more symbolic than what it would have been 9 years back, but still the circle is complete. the enemy has been hounded. It's a good feeling.

The #indvspak Post

2011-03-31T06:07:00.002-05:00

It's been less than 24 hours since we beat Pakistan in the 2011 WC semi final to proceed to the final against Sri Lanka. Whether this was the biggest match in history, as proclaimed by some commentators will be decided by history, but no two ways about the fact that it was a big, BIG match. Given that most of you will be in a very forgiving mood, I plan to use the cheap trick of not coming up with any 'original' content for this post but rehash some of my tweets from yesterday. Also, a big thank you to everyone for the mentions and RTs. Cricket was so much less exciting without Twitter.

All tweets are in chronological order, starting with Wednesday (30-Mar-2011) morning. And for the record I am a Sri Lanka fan and facing the biggest dilemma of my life for the final.

[Photo credit: Cricinfo]

Ahhh...yet another Wednesday. Those neither here nor there boring, meaningless middle of the week feeling. Oh. Wait...Wed Mar 30 02:06:01 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

A billion and a half. RT @Gunjan47: Don't be disheartened - billion people can wish all the clouds away #MohaliWed Mar 30 04:06:51 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

Ah sheesh! RT @sidvee: Haha RT @nayakgirin: RT @_logik: Sehwag is taking the game out of Nehra's reach. YoWed Mar 30 09:24:31 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

On a serious note, will she shed her clothes if we win the cup or this match? And will it be televised? Youtube links?Wed Mar 30 09:54:24 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

RT @sidvee: Fixed the DRS. Fixed the third umpire. Fixed Misbah-ul-Haq. Well done BCCI. We rule cricketWed Mar 30 10:11:57 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

Being anal here but the Egyptians did believe that RT @thetanmay: Sachin is God. Sachin has 9 lives. Therefore, God = Cat. #RaviShastriMathsWed Mar 30 10:17:46 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

I think we are seeing the effects of a billion plus prayers. Can't be explained any other way.Wed Mar 30 10:34:58 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

As much as Sachin is trying to be polite and refuse favors. RT @sidvee: Pakistan want to win this for SachinWed Mar 30 10:37:17 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

If this indeed is the 100th 100 then for the rest of his life Sachin will be very embarrassed with the billion replays of this innings.Wed Mar 30 11:14:54 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

More importantly is he supporting the country of his birth or work? RT @jhunjhunwala: Is Ajmal Kasab watching this match from Jail?Wed Mar 30 11:26:11 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

"Ab players ki nahi, prayers ki zaroorat hai". The legendary dialogue improvised upon by @VSJabberwockyWed Mar 30 11:53:02 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

Indian team sacrificing 'just a match' to protect Indian culture and a woman's modesty. Blame Poonam Pandey.Wed Mar 30 12:16:17 via webSuhel Banerjee
suhel

Raina, bhagwan tujhe bahaut Umar de.Wed Mar 30 12:24:08 via webSuhel Banerjee
suhel

No. The Sachin innings was the biggest ad for prayers RT @madmanweb If we lose this, can we say with conviction that prayer doesn't work?Wed Mar 30 13:03:09 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

Following a few Pakistanis is giving my timeline a beautiful balance. One that our bowling line up currently seems to be missing.Wed Mar 30 14:06:16 via Chromed BirdSuhel Banerjee
suhel

All you salivating at the mention of Poonam Pandey, remember her promise to do 'it' is after India wins the WC not this match. 1 more to go.Wed Mar 30 16:51:49 via webSuhel Banerjee
suhel

Will Gary Kirtsen become the first South African to reach the World Cup final? We had taken a Kiwi 8 years back as well.Wed Mar 30 17:02:35 via webSuhel Banerjee
suhel

It's We versus Us on Saturday. Mumbai, here we come!Wed Mar 30 17:14:51 via webSuhel Banerjee
suhel

Rip Van Winkle beat Peter Pan. RT @diptakirti: Afridi, great job done. But the original 18-year old had to win today. Sorry.Wed Mar 30 17:23:46 via Chromed BirdSuhel Banerjee
suhel

Cricket & I will be the winner on Saturday. We have won the World Cup:-)Wed Mar 30 18:03:13 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

Now that Sachin has scored 85 in his last 5 innings the law of averages is on his side for the 100th 100 in the final.Thu Mar 31 03:52:28 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

How I wish this final was a real war and not just a game. Would have been so much easier to support India, no questions asked.Thu Mar 31 04:30:52 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

2 teams with a fairytale first world cup final. 2 teams humiliated by Australia in their second world cup final. 2 teams ready for their 3rdThu Mar 31 08:48:44 via Twitter for AndroidSuhel Banerjee
suhel

Really heartening to see the number of Indians who felt Wahab should have been the MoM last night instead of the man himself. Well played.Thu Mar 31 10:02:35 via webSuhel Banerjee
suhel

Praying For Japan

2011-03-17T06:25:00.001-05:00

The Tragedy

On Tuesday, March 11, 2011 a massive earthquake of magnitude 9.0 struck the Eastern coast of Japan. This was one of the worst earthquakes in the history of mankind and a series of frequent aftershocks, many of them over 6.0 on the Richter Scale, have been felt in various parts of the country for the past one week. What made the matter worse was that the tremors sparked off a massive Tsunami (Japanese for 'Harbour Wave') which devastated large parts of the country with the water from the ocean flooding the adjoining areas and washing away houses, cars, roads and everything else in it's way. Finally, due to the tremors the electric supply to the Nuclear power plants in Fukushima has been cut off, and this has caused some leakage of radioactive particles as the cooling devices have not been working for a few days now.

Light weight planes and cars washed away by the Tsunami

More Photos from The Big Picture: 1, 2, 3, 4.

How Can You Help?

AMERICAN RED CROSS: Emergency Operation Centers are opened in the affected areas and staffed by the chapters. This disaster is on a scale larger than the Japanese Red Cross can typically manage. Donations to the American Red Cross can be allocated for the International Disaster Relief Fund, which then deploys to the region to help. Donate here.

GLOBALGIVING: Established a fund to disburse donations to organizations providing relief and emergency services to victims of the earthquake and tsunami. Donate here.

SAVE THE CHILDREN: Mobilizing to provide immediate humanitarian relief in the shape of emergency health care and provision of non-food items and shelter. Donate here.

SALVATION ARMY: The Salvation Army has been in Japan since 1895 and is currently providing emergency assistance to those in need. Donate here.

AMERICARES: Emergency team is on full alert, mobilizing resources and dispatching an emergency response manager to the region. Donate here.

CONVOY OF HOPE: Disaster Response team established connection with in-country partners who have been impacted by the damage and are identifying the needs and areas where Convoy of Hope may be of the greatest assistance. Donate here.

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS: Putting together relief teams, as well as supplies, and are in contact with partners in Japan and other affected countries to assess needs and coordinate our activities. Donate here.

SHELTER BOX: The first team is mobilizing to head to Japan and begin the response effort. Donate here.

[Source: Yahoo News]

Like so many other organisations, Google too has been working very hard to help in whatever way possible and we have come up with the following:

Centralized information
Our Crisis Response page—now in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean—organizes all of Google’s efforts, with links to valuable resources such as emergency hotlines, Person Finder, blackout schedules, maps and links to relief organizations receiving donations. Ninety-three percent of mobile users in Japan don’t have top-of-the-line smartphones, so we’ve recentlyoptimized this Crisis Response page to make it more readable for a wider range of devices. You can also access that version by scanning this QR code:

Person Finder
Within the first two hours of the earthquake, we launched Person Finder so people can enter the names of those they’re looking for or have found. You can now also search by entering mobile phone numbers to see if they match any listings. And as with the Crisis Response page, Person Finder has also been optimized for those without smartphones. There are currently more than 250,000 records in the database (including names shared with us by NHK, the national broadcaster in Japan) and we’ve heard several reports of people who have found their loved ones safe.

To help the many people in shelters get word of their whereabouts to loved ones, we’re also asking people in shelters to take photos of the handwritten lists of names of current residents and email them to us. Those photos are automatically uploaded to a public Picasa Web Album. We use scanning technology to help us manually add these names to Person Finder; but it’s a big job that can’t be done automatically by computers alone, so we welcome volunteers with Japanese language skills who want to help out.

Satellite images
We’re also working with our satellite partners GeoEye and DigitalGlobe to provide frequent updates to our imagery of the hardest-hit areas to first responders as well as the general public. You can view this imagery in this Google Earth KML, browse it online through Google Maps or look through our Picasa album of before-and-after images of such places asMinamisanriku and Kesennuma.

Mapping
You can follow developments on the ground by looking at several maps that track changing developments. We’ve mapped rolling blackouts for areas that are affected by power outages. With data given to us by Honda, you can now see which roads have been recently passable on this map or this user-made Google Earth mashup with new satellite imagery. We’re also constantly updating a master map (in Japanese and English) with other data such as epicenter locations and evacuation shelters. And with information from the newspaper Mainichi, we’ve published a partial list of shelters.

Translation
Use Google Translate for Japanese and 56 other languages. You can paste in any text, or enter the address of any web page for automatic translation. We also just released an early experimental version of Google Translate for Android to help non-Japanese speakers in affected areas.

Donations
Visit our Crisis Response resource page to find opportunities to donate. When you donate to Japan relief efforts through Google Checkout, we absorb processing fees—so 100% of your money goes to the organizations. Google has also donated $250,000 to help the people of Japan recover.

To keep up with the latest developments on our efforts in Japan, follow @googlejapan (tweets are mostly in Japanese) or @earthoutreach (for our mapping and imagery efforts) on Twitter.

[Source: Google Blog]

A Daruma Doll

In our Google offices in Gurgaon and Hyderabad for example we are painting the Japanese Daruma Dolls, which the Japanese regard as a talisman of good luck [Source: Wikipedia] We're also sending some notes to the people of Japan [Photos below]

Googlers painting Daruma Dolls in the Gurgaon office

Let's all pray the people of Japan. If there's one country we could count upon to overcome this disaster it would be the Land of the Rising Sun. They've done it before and we're confident they will do so again. God bless Japan.

Believe

2011-03-10T03:02:00.003-06:00

This incident happened last week to a colleague of mine based in the US. Reproducing it from the text of her email. Will urge you to read till the end and share the story with as many people as you can. One of the most incredible stories you will come across in a long time.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have a very special story to tell you.

As some of you already know, I lost one of my closest friends last week. Just 2 weeks shy of her 32nd birthday my friend Allie Greene lost her 2 year battle with colon cancer.

Allie was an incredible woman who inspired everyone around her with her courage. After being diagnosed she took on a new mantra, BELIEVE. She truly believed in herself that she would get better, that she would conquer this disease and eventually become cancer free. For 2 years she approached her life and her fight with more gusto and spirit as most healthy people don't even muster, myself included. One week ago, she lost her fight and said goodbye to her husband and 3 year old daughter Riley.

Allie had spoken to us often about the unforgettable party she was going to throw when she was cancer free. There was this fantastic great big red barn that Allie had spotted. She pictured herself there celebrating and dancing and singing to her favorite country music star Brad Paisley.

When it came time to sit down and make the funeral arrangements Brian knew just what to do. We set in motion a Celebration of Allie's Life. We had a list going of all the things we needed, flowers, caterers, etc. And at the end of the list Brian said to my husband Jason and I. "Oh and try to see if you can get Brad Paisley there, with a wink. Now for those of you who don't follow country music, that was the equivalent of him asking us to get JayZ, Beyonce, Alicia Keyes or Justin Timberlake.

Well my sister in law and I decided to take that ball and run with it. For weeks we had felt hopeless and kept asking ourselves what can we do? How we help Allie? Finally we were given a task, something to keep us busy. Something to keep us from thinking about our incredible loss. We started putting together a video. We combed through the hundreds of pictures we had of Allie and her life. We naturally picked a Brad Paisley song, and at the end of the day we had posted a tribute video of our friend Allie up on YouTube.

In all fairness this is not something we would normally d. This should be evident by the amature video and poor sound quality, but we were under a time crunch. I caught myself a couple of times creating this saying, there's no way he's gonna see this. But then I thought about Allie and her mantra. BELIEVE. We proceeded to post it on Facebook and Twitter. We really just hoped her friends and family would see it.

I have never UNDERESTIMATED the power of YouTube and Social Media more than on that day.

Within 24 hours of posting that video we had over 3,000 views and a phone call to my friend Brian from Brad Paisley himself! We were ecstatic! Brad spoke Brian for 30 minutes and just asked him all about Allie and the person she was. He said he had seen the video on YouTube (through Twitter) within 4 hours of when we posted it. Over the next few days he was bombarded on his Facebook page, his publicist's email account and his manager's voicemail. He even received it from one of his friends, Sheryl Crow! We were amazed that he would take time out to call Brian and just let him talk. A complete stranger.

Yesterday was Allie's funeral. A gut wrenching day filled with sadness and loss. A day that could have and should have been just awful. Would you BELIEVE me if I told you it was one of the most uplifting days I have ever had?

Brad Paisley showed up. Brad and his wife came to the Big Red barn and helped us celebrate the life of Allie, this special person, woman, mother, wife and friend. He payes for about a half an hour and made a new friend in Brian and a whole barn full of BELIEVERS.

I have never seen so many smiles at a funeral. Grown adults in awe and mesmerized by what was transpiring before their eyes. I got to meet Brad and his wife and all I could think to say was thank you. Thank you for restoring my faith in people. Which he quickly and humbly brushed aside as something anyone would do.

As a Googler I was so excited to share this story with you all for so many reasons, and here they are.

I have never been more proud of YouTube and am amazed by what 1 video can do. Over 10,300 hits to date.

Social is not abstract. It is tangible. It is monumentally personal and affects how we live our lives.

Try to guess how much of this was done via mobile device - including Brad's first glimpse?

There are still good people out there, as is proof by everyone who forwarded the video, all the way to my new idol Brad Paisley.

I will ALWAYS BELIEVE.

Thank you for reading this. Please pass it on if you like. I hope more people can hear Allie's story. If you'd like to read more about Allie please check out teamallie.com

Google Birthday Doodle For You

2011-02-23T00:49:00.001-06:00

I was very presently surprised when I found this doodle on my Google homepage this Sunday, which was my birthday.

Got a lot of queries about this one as I put the picture on Facebook and so wanted to clear all doubts and answer the queries.

1) No, it was not visible to everyone in the world, however much I would have loved if that was the case! This was a personalised logo, visible only to me, only on my birthday.

2) No, Google did not do this for me because I am an employee. We do have a few lucrative perks, this is not one of them. Any Google user can get this Doodle on their birthday, and here's how:

a) Go to your Google Profile

b) Update your birthday and you're done!

If you go to the Google home page on your birthday (when signed into your Google account) you should also find the customised Google Doodle, with the little mouse over "Happy Birthday [firstname]"

Go ahead, get your own Google birthday doodle.

P.S: This was announced in this Google Blog Post.

S. M. Krishna's Speecho Portuguesa

2011-02-16T03:29:00.001-06:00

A lot has been written and tweeted about our Minister for External Affairs, S. M. Krishna's reading of the Portugal Foreign Minister's speech instead of the Indian one at a recent United Nation's meeting. Most in fact mentioned he went on for 5 minutes before realising it was the wrong speech. Well, as in most cases there was some fire behind the smoke, however it wasn't as bad (5 minutes) as it was made out to be!

Here's a video of the gaffe, [source thestar.com and http://jacobjoseph.com]

Graphical Representation Of Valentine's Day

2011-02-11T04:35:00.000-06:00

My opinions on Valentine's Day are similar to the rest of the world's about this blog - non-existent. Don't care a Hallmark's card or Muthalik's underwear about this day. Luckily my wife also shares my views and we have saved a lot of time, hassle and money on long lines at restaurants, ideas to surprise each other and gifts on this day. However, to quote Voltaire, to the public display mongering lovers I say " I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" [Source: Wikipedia] against the fundamentalists spewing inanities like "Okay to kiss, but not in public"

Anyway, this is not an 'Opinion' post but a simple graphical representation of this very expensive day. Here we go.

Source: www.coolmaterial.com

Review of 'Cricket: All You Wanted To Know About The World Cup'

2011-02-10T00:08:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer: Diptakirti is a "social media friend" of mine. Though we haven't met in real life yet, which is a shame, we're regularly in touch through Twitter and Facebook and also have a common circle of friends. In spite of the above I have tried my best to keep the review completely impartial and unbiased.

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To begin with I didn't like the name of the book, one bit. Given it's the first book of the author of the extremely humorous blog 'Calcutta Chromosome' I expected better than a summary of the book as the title. However, after finishing the book (in 2 hours flat!) I realised it is perhaps an attempt to come across as honestly as possible, because this book is not exactly a work of fiction. It's a reference/guide book to the World Cup of Cricket and probably the author didn't want anyone to buy the book with any misconceptions about the contents of it.

'Cricket' (going forward in this post will refer to the book by that simple moniker) has the potential to become the Bible to thousands of 7-14 year old cricket crazy, statistics mad kids across India. Especially the quizzing, trivia scavenger types. And that brings me to my next point that I found a bit odd, Puffin Books (the children's book arm of Penguin), the publisher of 'Cricket' for some inexplicable reason decided to put '12+' in large big fonts on the back cover. There's not a word in the entire 170 odd pages that I wouldn't be comfortable saying in front of a 5 year old. [Update: I have been informed that "the age recommendation Puffin puts is from the 'reading/comprehension' proficiency angle and not the content. Kids below 12 years would not be able to read so much text comfortably"]

Finally, coming to the contents of 'Cricket'. I wish Diptakirti had written this 15-17 years back and the budding quizzer in me (specialising in sports, and super specialising in cricket) would have put him on the highest pedestal I had for writers. It really has "all that I would have wanted to know about the world cup" and could have helped me bulldoze my opponents in the various cricket quizzes that crop up during the WC season. However, yesterday when I finished the book it was more like a refresher session of Complex Equations, India's Independence Struggle or the Merchant of Venice (ICSE 2000 text book) rather than coming across new concepts, stories and theories that I had never heard of before. Not that I knew everything that's mentioned in the book, at least I definitely didn't remember it all, but somehow missed the "Wow, that's a neat piece of information!" moments. To be fair I had been a very active cricket quizzer all through my school & college life and given there was only 5-6 World Cups to cover, almost all of us knew everything from the colour of Kapil Dev's shoe laces to Lance Klusener's girlfriend's favourite boy bands.

But this was during school, maybe college. Over the past 5 years or so my association with cricket has dwindled down to the occasional ODI championship final, or close games involving India or the IPL. So, what I was really looking forward to was to get acquainted with the players of the other 13 teams participating in this WC. Have almost no idea about who they are and how good/bad they are and what to expect from them. This is a section that is conspicuous by it's absence. There's an in-depth coverage of the Indian squad, and just as you turned the page expecting the rest it goes off into yet another ode to Sachin Tendulkar article. So after the 2 hours, my WC knowledge from the past has been thoroughly refreshed and polished, but I am still as clueless about the WC starting in less than 2 weeks as I was before starting 'Cricket'.

Now, when I read the review so far I realise I am painting a picture which is far from what my thoughts on the book actually are! The well researched statistics, the junkets of trivia gleaned from over 35 years of the WC, the jovial sketches of players, coaches and commentators, the most spectacular matches which the present school going generation couldn't watch live, highlighted and described with the love and passion for the game - all this put together makes it a must gift have for most school going kids and the grandpas spending the majority of their time in front of the television sets watching any and every cricket match that's on TV. If you're starting your quizzing career (we quizzers take this trivia tradition very seriously!) you'll never regret getting your hands on this mini-cricket omnibus.

Let the cup of joy begin!

P.S: You can buy the book for Rs. 169 from Flipkart.