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Twitter Stutters!

2010-03-19T11:38:00.001+05:30

Tom Siebel - Inspiring and Intelligent

2006-07-19T16:16:00.000+05:30

The very best of Tom Siebel is shown in his commencement address at the University of Illinois Champagne Urbana where he was awarded an honorary doctorate. Tom's speech is below.

University of Illinois-Urbana Commencement Address
Thomas M. Siebel
14 May 2006

President White, Chancellor Herman, members of the faculty, graduates, ladies and gentlemen,

I'm profoundly grateful and touched by the distinction and honor and great compliment accorded me by the University of Illinois. I am overwhelmed, as a matter of fact.
In this important place, on this important day, and in this very wonderful assembly, it is a tremendously impressive thing to an individual in my position.

I want to join with your families in congratulations for your accomplishments. And I want to talk about what happens next.

I want to talk to you about some decisions that you will have to make. I want to talk to you about what you can expect and opportunities that you are likely to encounter. I want to talk about making a difference. About leaving the world a better place than you found it.

There is a story attributed to the notorious oil magnate, John Paul Getty, Sr. When asked about the keys to success by a young intern, he explained that there were three such essential elements.

First, get a great education. Attend the best schools. Study hard. Be prepared. Become an honor roll student.

Secondly, work hard. Be the first to show up for work. Be the last to leave. Work weekends. Nights. Always do your best. Be a top performer.

The third key to success --- and most importantly -- find oil.

There is some truth in this story.

Think for a moment about the immense opportunities that are before each and every one of you. Your productive careers will span the next six decades.

Six decades.

Think about it. Six decades.

In the next six decades the body of scientific knowledge as we know it will increase by a factor of three or more. You will have the privilege of participating in that phenomenon. Many of you will participate significantly in some of the most exciting developments in the history of mankind.

Some of you will discover cures for cancer. Some will perfect the hydrogen fuel cell. Some of you will control influenza pandemic. Some will lead the colonization of outer space. Some will create new companies. Make new products. Create Jobs. Develop new food sources. Foster Prosperity. Husband Peace.

The world will be a better, healthier, happier place for what you will do.
Those of you who take this route will make sacrifices. Lots of sacrifices.
You have all studied history. Think back upon those individuals who have made a difference. Really made a difference.

Think about it. Think about Winston Churchill, Michelangelo, Louis Pasteur. Think about Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, Isaac Newton, Johannes Gutenberg, Steve Jobs. Think about Sally Ride and Margaret Thatcher. Think about Martin Luther and Martin Luther King

You have all studied these people. These great leaders are representative of that group who collectively articulated those concepts and principles, the sum of which constitute our perception of the universe, as we know it.
Those great people brought us gravity, electricity, germ theory. They invented the printing press, movable type, the Internet, the Basilica, the public library, the modern university. They created nations, our religions, and democracy. They discovered outer space. And they brought us the very concepts of individual liberty and human dignity.

These people changed the world, each of them. Collectively, they, and their like, conceived of the world, as we understand it today. Let’s look upon this group and see what they had in the way of common traits.

How about education? Some were exceptionally well educated. Some were mediocre students. Many were uneducated.

Work ethic. In general, these people were driven. They were focused. They got up earlier. They worked longer. They were tireless. Some were out there. Eccentric. Almost maniacal. Some were troubled.

They all achieved – and they all achieved at great personal cost.
In addition to amazing work ethics, it seems that these people were unusually sensitive to what was going on around them. They heard things that other people could not hear. They saw things that others could not see.

You might call it vision. A moment of clarity. Insight. Inspiration.

Whatever you call it, at one or more moments in their lives, they saw something. Something different. And they were able to recognize that it was different. That is was potentially important. And they did not let the moment go unnoticed. They did something with it.

Be sensitive to that moment.

It will happen to you.

Do not let it go unnoticed.

So we have a group of mixed education.

Tireless work ethic.

Great vision.

Perhaps most importantly however, they also were very, very lucky – each and every one.

Now don’t discount luck. It will be a critical component of your success. Some people say you make your own luck. There is clearly some truth to that. These concepts of work ethic, vision, and luck seem to be interrelated.

Take Tiger Woods, for example.

Work ethic. He is arguably one of the hardest working, best-prepared athletes in sport. His physical conditioning and practice regimens are second to none.
How about vision? Well, Tiger Woods can see every shot before he takes it. He can see the launch angle. The trajectory. The landing, the bounce, and the roll. He can literally see it every time before he takes a swing. Think about that.

And luck? Well, let’s just say it might not be entirely a coincidence that he seems to get more lucky bounces than any person in golf.

There is most certainly truth to the idea that you make your own luck. I encourage you to be very alert to what is going on around you. Let’s explore this luck thing a little bit further.

There will be some moments in your life when the stars simply seem to align. You will flip a coin 10 times in a row – and it will come up heads every time. You will look up and you will notice that the wind has been at your back every day for a week.
Be ready for that moment. It will happen to you. Some of you will recognize it and know it for what it is…great, good fortune.

Some of you will be preoccupied with matters of the moment to notice. Perhaps stress or simply the distractions of daily life will get in the way. Others will see it for what it is.

There will be such moments in your life. Seize that moment. That is the start of the next company. The cure for cancer. The hydrogen fuel cell. The next great thing.

There is clearly a non-rational process at the heart of such ideas. It’s an idea. It’s a vision. It’s a feeling. It is something that you know to be true. Take it and run with it.

Take it. When it happens, take it and run with it. Run with it. Don’t listen to all the naysayers. The experts. The authority figures. They will stand in line to tell you your idea is impractical, impossible, unrealistic. Don’t listen to them. You know it to be true.

This is the opportunity you have been waiting for. This is what you are here to do. Don’t take no for an answer. Make it happen

Let’s switch gears for a moment from the sublime to the mundane and talk about getting started. How do you get started? What do you do now?
Many of you have not yet figured out what you want to do for a living. Don’t feel bad. Most people don’t. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I left college. My first job out of undergraduate school was working as a cowboy on a ranch in Idaho. From there, I became a laborer on a construction site in Sun Valley. I managed a shovel.

How do you get started? First thing, you need to get a job. How do you do that? I guess there are a couple of ways. A common route is to get as many interviews as you can, until someone offers you a job. And then you take it and make the best of it. I do not recommend that route.

My suggestion to you is that you find an industry that you find interesting. Say biotech. Or travel. Perhaps entertainment. Communications. Aerospace. Automotives. Within that industry identify a high quality company that you would like to work for. Located in a place that you would like to live.

And then get hired there. Learn everything you can about the company. Study it on the Internet. Read its annual reports. Become an expert. And then figure out how to get a job there. Any job. It doesn’t matter.
Write the CEO. Write the VP of Engineering.

Get yourself an interview and explain that you want to work for that company – no other company -- and you are willing to take any job to get started.
Get a job in the mailroom. The help desk. The front desk. Customer service. Don’t worry about the salary or the title. Just get a job. After you get in the door, then the rest is up to you. Make it happen.

One closing thought. I want to talk about ethics.

Today is Mother’s Day -- a most appropriate day to talk about ethics.
Ethics. You will have the opportunity to cross the line every day of your lives, every day of your professional careers. In little ways. In big ways.
Some opportunities will be more tempting than others. Some will seem inconsequential. Some will appear common practice.

Here’s a litmus test that you can use.

What would your mother think?

What would she say if you told her about it?

If you use that test to gauge your behavior, you will do the right thing.

That’s it. Thank you, merciful God; we’ve reached the end of the speech!

But for you, it is just the beginning.

Work Hard.

Be attentive.

Always be watching for that lucky moment.

Good luck to you all.

And, most importantly, have fun.

Make it look easy.

Smile a lot.

I thank you for your kind attention.

Birth Pangs for ClearTrip

2006-07-04T10:11:00.000+05:30

Adieu BillG

2006-06-16T12:49:00.000+05:30

How much am on the anti-microsoft software side, cant help admiring the person BillG though he might be the one responsible for all the wrong doings of the company. To build a world class company in 30 years is phenomenal and this article by Joel shows how a technical guy running a software corp makes a lot of difference to the most important products.

Hats off Bill!!!. You have inspired a generation to think big.. (though I dont concur with most of your ideas!!) Perhaps this is a crucial turning point in the life of Microsoft, the rudder has to sail in the right direction as there are very rough winds in the form of competition that the company never had to face.. It is going to be very interesting to see how they are going to pull it off.. the mass is against them..

Good Article on Reservation

2006-06-02T11:56:00.000+05:30

RUTHLESS MERIT
- A glimpse of the hazy contours of a brave, new India
swapan dasgupta

There is an English disease, peculiar to a particular class, of using language to mask feelings rather than express them. Indians are different. Our political class is naturally prone to hyperbolic disorders. The past few weeks have, however, been an aberration. We have witnessed the novel spectacle of Indian politicos falling back on diplomatic understatement and even reticence to avoid the ignominy of incomprehension.

When the human resource development minister, Arjun Singh, played out the factional war in the Congress by peremptorily adding 27 per cent to the existing quotas in Central universities and specialist institutes, the initial reaction of the affected classes was one of disgust and despondency. Yet, the opposition was uncharacteristically mealy-mouthed and cautious, so unlike the outrage that greeted another Thakur’s equally cynical attempt to redraw the political mosaic in 1990.

The official discourse has been distressingly predictable. Social justice, everyone agreed, is a good idea but shouldn’t some thought also be given to merit, particularly now that India’s economy is far more globalized than in 1990? Shouldn’t the announcement of new reservations have been preceded by consultations with all political parties? And isn’t the time ripe for a “creamy layer” exclusion clause?

For lack of application and originality, take the Bharatiya Janata Party as a case in point. As the premier opposition party it had a natural obligation to respond to the United Progressive Alliance government’s initiative. Yet throughout the ill-fated Bharat Suraksha Yatra when leaders proffered their opinions on a variety of subjects that are not even remotely linked to national security and terrorism, neither L.K. Advani nor Rajnath Singh said a word on the mounting controversy over reservations. Indeed, it was not until last week —nearly six weeks after the HRD minister made his move — that the topleadership of the BJP met to formulate a coherent response. The partywas paralysed by the fear that any response which revealed its innerdisquiet would alienate the substantial OBC support it had built up over the years. Its leaders fell back on inanities about social justice and social consensus. Language became the instrument of obfuscation.

It was the spontaneous revolt of medical students, first in Delhi and subsequently across the country, that changed the rules of engagement. Unlike the anti-Mandal protestors in 1990, who enjoyed the surreptitious backing of both the Congress and the BJP, today’s agitators were not blessed with political tutoring. Apart from the cricketer-turned-parliamentarian, Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is not exactly a political heavyweight, no politician of consequence came forward to embrace the Youth for Equality. At best, the agitation that finally compelled the Supreme Court to intervene was complemented by the angry resignation of two members of the Knowledge Commission, a largely decorative body dominated by friends of the present regime.

The political innocence of today’s protesters was very revealing. Whereas the conventional wisdom in the national parties that depend on cross-caste appeal was that nothing must be done to trigger a backlash of the beneficiaries of the new reservations, the protestors were not bound by electoral calculations. Indeed, most of those who participated in the street protests, hunger strikes and public meetings probably nurtured a healthy disdain for the prevailing political culture of India. In a country where most legislators don’t even know how to handle a personal computer, the anti-reservationists took the aid of SMS, email and blog sites to link disparate groups across the country. With finite resources, modern communication methods became the instruments of forging solidarities and creating new pressure groups and political communities across India.

In time to come, historians will look back on the protests of April and May 2006 as the first modernist upsurge against a decrepit political consensus. The nature of the demands put forward by the Youth for Equality point to a heartening freshness, particularly when contrasted with the tired rhetoric of India’s elected representatives. The demand for equality of opportunities was once the signature tune of progressives throughout the world.

Unfortunately, the discovery of affirmative action by the Sixties’ sociologists had relegated this republican aspiration to the dustbins of political activism. The youth revolt has resurrected this forgotten ideal. It is a plank that now awaits political adoption.

Second, whereas Hindu social reformers of the 19th century and nationalist stalwarts of the 20th century had made eradication of caste identity a symbol of an emerging modern India, the practitioners of electoral democracy have banked on caste-based mobilization. By once again positing an aggregative Indian identity, the protestors have implicitly questioned one of the central assumptions governing political mobilization.

Viewed in totality, the anti-reservations stir has been one of the most cosmopolitan movements witnessed in recent times. It has been defined by a vision of India as a modern, dynamic capitalism. There is none of the angst-ridden, anti-imperialist and counter-culture piffle which characterized the student movements of the Sixties. This was a movement which symbolized the determination of a section of India to face the world on terms of equality, minus controls and crutches. This was a movement of a vanguard, not a class. No wonder there was a striking mismatch between their aspirations and the mindset of a government hell-bent on creating a nation on doles and crutches.

Finally, this was a movement which successfully broke through the hierarchies and inhibitions of gender. The sight of highly motivated young boys and girls joining hands for a common objective went contrary to a stereotype surrounding women’s participation in public life. This movement demonstrated that a separatist agenda prefaced on shrill feminism is not imperative in bridging the gender divide. In the emerging India, women have as much of a vested interest as men in ensuring a level playing field for all.

A movement which breaks the mould of existing politics is bound to draw flak. However, the political class has been uncharacteristically restrained in its criticism. This is partly because there is a tacit recognition that a 49 per cent reservation could have a long-term debilitating effect on the competitiveness of India’s knowledge economy. At the same time, there is a belief that the anti-reservations stir is ephemeral, elitist and selfish. The charge of the Communist Party of India’s national secretary, D.Raja, that it was an “upper caste stageshow” reflecting “the greed of the new generation in an unequal society” will find an echo in populist circles.

That a movement based on the principles of ruthless meritocracy is going to be confined to a few economically vibrant enclaves is obvious. Even assuming most of the participants were nominally upper-caste Hindus, it was no more an upper-caste movement than the early nationalist movement was a Brahmin conspiracy. The self-image of the movement was markedly anti-caste rather than upper caste. This may explain why its reach was limited to the centres of academic excellence and the citadels of the new economy.

As an electoral force, the anti-reservations stir is unlikely to make an immediate impact, except perhaps contributing to the decimation of the Congress. Yet, the movement has a larger significance. This is the first movement conceived and conducted by a generation that has come into its own after the process of economic liberalization began in 1991. This explains its sharp rupture with past student movements.

Given India’s demographic profile, political parties will be signing their own warrants of obsolescence if they don’t internalize the emerging trends. In the anti-reservations stir, we have glimpsed the hazy contours of a brave, new India.

Assertions

2006-06-01T16:03:00.000+05:30

Correctness addresses a slightly different reliability concern. Whereas exceptions facilitate robustness through an ability to recover gracefully from a range of exceptional conditions, correctness deals with ensuring a program does the right thing during normal program flow. Since correctness pertains to normal conditions, Java's exception-handling facilities do not readily assist correct program creation.

JDK Assertions Primer

Ajax Multiplayer Chess

2006-03-10T18:47:00.000+05:30

This is a java-script multiplayer chess. it's very good for playing quick games (no log-in) and a replay-mode is included to view your last game and others in pgn-format.

read more | digg story

Write your own operating system :)

2006-03-10T18:45:00.000+05:30

Kernel development is not an easy task. This is a testament to your programming expertise: To develop a kernel is to say that you understand how to create software that interfaces with and manages the hardware. A kernel is designed to be a central core to the operating system - the logic that manages the resources that the hardware has to offer.

read more | digg story

2006-02-15T09:17:00.000+05:30

Google Acquired MeasureMap
Measuremap is a UI based Web Analytics product and would most likely complement the earlier acquisition of Urchin.

Way to Go - Zillow
Came across zillow.com an extensive, never imaginable repository of real estate information. Im not sure if such data will ever be in the public domain in india even for somebody to start thinking of creating like zillow here. Neverthless enjoy the site for now.

Oracle snaps SleepyCat
SleepyCat is one such product that I have always wanted to try out but never did. I have always preferred or referred it as BerkeleyDB and I guess that is how it in the FOSS world too. Im planning to give it a shot sometime very soon, as Im analysing a few of such in memory db offerings and other caching mechanisms like memcached.

2005-12-23T10:13:00.000+05:30

Ogg Vorbis

Ogg Vorbis is a new audio compression format. It is roughly comparable to other formats used to store and play digital music, such as MP3, VQF, AAC, and other digital audio formats. It is different from these other formats because it is completely free, open, and unpatented. Click here

Distributed Caching using Hashmaps

http://www-db.stanford.edu/~manku/research.html

Yet another AJAX site

www.meebo.com

2005-12-09T18:48:00.000+05:30

Web FrameWorks Unlimited

A feed of every major technical forum will present atleast one framework a day. Smalltalk supposed to be "The OOPS Language" has been long proclaimed dead. But every modern OOP language claims its existence to smalltalk and no book on Java fails to pay a "rich" tribute to this illustrious predecessor. Well confusing.. I started with WebApp Frameworks and now talking about smalltalk.. Believe me smalltalk has risen to present its new avatar with a WebApp Framework SeaSide developed for Smalltalk. Seaside has got rave reviews all over and is being touted to do to Smalltalk what Rails has done for Ruby. Well most of these make very interesting and rather surprising reading.. a framework reviving a language... huh.. well that seems to be the order of the day but.
Not to be left out you have Django and Turbogears for Python .Java, the internet language has been relegated to a position of nonexistence. The good old struts is not even a worthwhile competitor to all these hypersmart frameworks... But surely the all this opens up a large field and a plethora of choices to develop websites in a jiffy..

2005-12-09T18:33:00.000+05:30

Google Inside....

Wondering what languages power Google .. Here is the list..
"In actual progress stuff, C++, Java, Python

Some Perl used by Operations (others almost have to get permission to use Perl)
PHP creeeps in for in t ernal webapps
Saw Ruby sneaking around
Small amount of C# " says Greg Stein of Google.
For more on this Go here.

And Google too feels Python is cool and easy to use than Perl.. Python Rocks..

Psst... Gmail Core is written in Java....

2005-10-18T17:28:00.000+05:30

Google Throws up....

A search of "Http" on google throws up the following results all except any useful link..

2005-10-17T16:18:00.000+05:30

Y2K at 1985.....

One of the earliest threads on the then usenet groups on the impending Y2K problem can be found here

2005-10-17T12:41:00.000+05:30

Paul Graham shows the way.....

A must read essay "How to Start a Startup" for anyone who has an idea of starting a company or interested in good sensible practical business reading . It is available here

"So if you want to invest two years in something that will help you succeed in business, the evidence suggests you'd do better to learn how to hack than get an MBA"

And the evidence is there are only four MBA CEO's in the Forbes top 50.

"There are plenty of other areas that are just as backward as search was before Google. I can think of several heuristics for generating ideas for startups, but most reduce to this: look at something people are trying to do, and figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't suck"

"You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible"

"In a startup, your initial plans are almost certain to be wrong in some way, and your first priority should be to figure out where. The only way to do that is to try implementing them"

"A 10% improvement in ease of use doesn't just increase your sales 10%. It's more likely to double your sales".

"So if you want to win through better technology, aim at smaller customers"

"If you build the simple, inexpensive option, you'll not only find it easier to sell at first, but you'll also be in the best position to conquer the rest of the market"

"In technology, the low end always eats the high end. It's easier to make an inexpensive product more powerful than to make a powerful product cheaper"

2005-04-08T14:32:00.000+05:30

well in my quest to do some "insightful" reading i landed up on quite a few articles regarding Crosssite scripting on the wiki. It gave a very good idea on the security loopholes that could unknowingly be open and with a potential to cause good damage to the business running on the server.
Working on a few sql perf tools came across something called a puma (internal to oracle) which rather than throwing up crude explain plans , explains the sequence of the query execution based on the driving table/index and is very extensive. There is absolutely no inference to be drawn by the person trying to tune a query on seeing the puma report, it is all there .

2004-12-09T17:15:00.000+05:30

Well im going to schedule my 2nd GMAT on the 9th of Janauary 2005. i have decided that im going to go for it, i have umpteen excuses to give myself to go for it in 2006. Well i know the work pressure is going to be at its highest in the last 1 yr for me, but then i feel i have let excuses rule my life so far this time Im going to fight it out hard and try to come out successful. Well my plan goes somethign like this :-

1. GMAT preparation.
2. 4 Essays to be completed before the end of this month. That is about an essay a week from now, which i know is again going to be really challenging but then I claim and also feel that i love to work in tight deadlines and for long days in whatever little opportunity i have got. This is going to be deciding in how much i can commit and how much I deliver. Im game for this.. it is going to get into full throttle from today.

well the reason that im pushing this hard is in case ( i know it is a big ? as of today) then i can be rest assured that i have throw my perennial problem of procrastination out forever. let me see.. i will keep updating with more of a detailed schedule of my GMAT prep and my progress..

This task has got more to do with proving a point to myself than gettting into ISB.. Let me see am trying to give a new perspective to my fight to get into a B School...

2004-12-01T13:13:00.000+05:30

well it has been 6 months since my last post on the blog and i know these are the heights of irregularity. Well these 6 months were supposed to be the make or break period for me in my career, either i could have pushed on the gas pedal and gone to a different orbit or laze around where i was already. well so far im doing the latter. CAT came and went , i had requested for an appointment with GMAT and it breezed across and am almost at the end of yet another calendar. An year which i thought would redefine my career and one in which i resolved to really turn a new chapter has only belied all expectations. But I still have a chance, irrespective whether i take ISB or not i need to get a call to prove to myself that it is time i either shrug this side of mine or sink into it and lie forever. For making the ISB dream happen i know i have a big task at hand. My schedule goes somethign like this till the break of new year and probably even into the first week of the new year. GMAT study (have to up the score to around 730's), essays and recos . All these together at the same would be considered a cardinal sin by most bschool aspirants or the bschool inmates but then thatz wat i have at hand now and am keen to do it well and find success at the end of the journey.
Well one thing i would like to tell myself is once you decide on something stick on to it put your heart into it and never roll back or be depressed by any setbacks on the way. Well this the biggest blunder i have committed so far in my life. Taking important decisions too slow and late and then drooling over the rightness of the same. This has defnitely set me back by almost 3 yrs in my life, but then i hope that i get determined never to again let this happen at any stage in my life again. A lesson learnt early. Lets see how things go.. Im not gona wait till January 1 to uptake all this transformation, it is going to start today December 1 2004. It is a test to see if a totally different perspective to the way one lives can be achieved by sheer resolve and determination. Well only time will tell..

2004-12-01T12:56:00.000+05:30

At the Sentosa Island, Singapore

2004-12-01T12:44:00.000+05:30

Me at Oracle HQ.

2004-06-23T19:24:00.000+05:30

'The Art of Negotiation'
_______________________________________________________
Israel Prime Minister meets PLO Chief Arafat to find peace on the Middle East conflict. Before the negotiation starts, Prime Minister requests that
he be allowed to begin with a story. With full agreement from Arafat, he begins.

"Years before the Israelites came and settled in the Promised Land, Moses led them for 40 years through the desert. One day, the Israelites began complaining that they were thirsty and, lo and behold, a miracle occurred and a stream appeared before them. They, including Moses, drank their fill and then decided to take advantage of the stream to do some bathing. When Moses came out of the water, he found that all his clothing was missing.

'Who took my clothes?'Moses asked those around him. 'It was the Palestinians,' replied the Israelites". "Wait a minute," objected Arafat immediately, "there were no Palestinians during the time of Moses!"

Prime Minister calmly says, "All right, now we've got that settled, we shall begin our talk"

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"The journey of a caterpillar being transformed into a butterfly is a romantic one,but the experience is not a pleasant for the caterpillar.In the process of that transformation,it goes blind,its arms and legs fall off,and its body is torn apart as the beautiful wings emerge"

Sumantra Ghoshal ,Management Guru on Leadership and Change

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Do What You Love
In 1960, a researcher interviewed 1500 business-school students and classified them in two categories: those who were in it for the money – 1245 of them – and those who were going to use the degree to do something they cared deeply about – the other 255 people. Twenty years later, the researcher checked on the graduates and found that 101 of them were millionaires – and all but one of those millionaires came from the 255 people who had pursued what they loved to do!
Now, you may think that your passion for Icelandic poetry of the baroque period, or butterfly collecting, or golf – or social justice – might consign you to a permanent separation between what you love and what you do for a living, but it isn't necessarily so. Vladimir Nabokov, one of the greatest novelists of this centurey, was far more passionate about butterfly collecting than writing. His first college teaching job, in fact, was in lepidoptery. REsearch on more than 400,000 Americans over the past 40 years indicates that pursuing your passions – even in small doses, here and there each day – helps you make the most of your current capabilities and encourages you to develop new ones.
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Really Cool One Liners

Dreams - Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so.Don't ever let anyone steal your dreams.
Faith - Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand.
Ideas - A good idea plus capable men cannot fail; it is better than money in the bank.
Achievement - God will not look you over for medal, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.
Faith - Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.
Character - Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
Achievement - The achievements which society rewards are won at the cost of diminution of personality
Effort - What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover.

2004-06-16T15:02:00.000+05:30

well to give an overview of everything else outside the World of MBA. Appa had the back operation and it was quite a sight and feeling for me to be at a hospital. I would rather say i have been really fortunate not to have been to the hospital as a patient or visitor at all so far in life until this happened. It was something which was totally new for all of us home. He should be back to normal in a few months and get back to his philanthrophic pursuits, which might have to be toned down henceforth.
Had a chance to watch Yuva..(Obviously where else !!!) Well not many people liked the movie for watever criticism of the episodic screenplay. But then ManiRatnam really thrills me probably, well not surely my views would be influenced by my like for the director. I just loved the way he stitched the three characters at a common point, it is something which is very new in Indian cincema.. This is something which i have always noticed in Mani's movies which probably gives a point to the critics that characters are not sketched too well on the screen but then the man has so many thoughts to put in the large canvas doesnt offer him the reels enough. This aspect was very visible in Yuva where he just zipped through certain portions even before the viewer could undrstand wat was happening it was gone. The best shots of the movie where ofcourse Abhishek's performance.. well the man really showed steel in the role and showed skin with Rani. Personally i luved the Ajay Devgan part, probably there was nothing in it. but then the point put forth and the rallying of youth to change the face of India from the clutches of politicians was something which i have been nurturing in my heart for long.. hence i felt very much attached to it and reinforced that i need to do an MBA and get famous and rich and get back to serve the country. This is probably my biggest motivation to go for it with full zorr...

2004-06-16T14:52:00.000+05:30

well wat to say but tht this is atrocious... i will the most dubious distinction in the world for being the most lazy person.. this is jus getting too annonying for myself in the first place. am just not able to peak to my potential.. leave alone peaking am no way near even 10% of my top gear performance. Wat is more disgusting and alarming is that the goals i have set myself to conquer in the next 6-9 months are those that i have dreamt of for long and those which are most close and cherishable to my heart. I know the success in those endeavors will catapult me into a new league where i would be unique and away from the crowd and script huge success stories not just for myself but for ppl around me and some huge corporations. I just have to get out of this rust and really focus right from today well no but right from this moment because the opportunities and challenges ahead of my in that path are too big for me to lose bcoz of my procrastination (God Forbid noone should have this degree of this character as me ). Me just gona do it. Throw all my dirty past and get along because i need to get there at a B School to realise my dreams in life. It is not that am failing in my current job but then this is not something that gives me the satisfication bcoz i hav always dreamt of me as a leader and somebody in the forefront of decision making.
Then probably i have cleared my totally cluttered mind of thoughts and convinced myself about one thing for sure. Come what me i need to be at the IIM or ISB next summer and that this is my last chance to create and lead a life i had always dreamt of and tat i think im capable of succeding.

2004-05-28T19:33:00.000+05:30

Well then got a feel of classrooms after nearly 2 1/2 yrs.. since the training at inautix... had test on the first class.. well i was really struggling though to get my mind running n thinking because of various reasons.. one it was morning 7am and two bcoz it has been ages since my brain has got rusted.. perhaps as there is a gym to tune n tone ur physical self.. ur mental thinking and exercising i personally feel go a longer way to help you feel confident , fresh and alert.. But then i had started on my journey for CAT. Today was the verbal reasoning class.. well i think this is one section i need to crack at CAT.. bcoz this is one section where i feel quite comfortable at teh start of the course itself.. So this weekend wd be for closing the probs in the TIME reasoning material!!!.. My love for the Dabba Dinner is over.. well it came to sudden end well dono y i felt it was too monotonous and tasting the same way.. so off i go to Balaji yet again :-(

2004-05-18T20:19:00.000+05:30

To the other side of this is the debate on tv right now as Madame Sonia Gandhi indicated she would not like to be PM. The lowest levels the Congressmen would stoop to prove their loyalty to her is pathetic. They are fighting it out by putting the pride of the country and the people behind. Comments like 'India will become a terrorist country', 'India sarvanaash ho jaayega agar aap nahi aaye to'. First of all i dont understand y should the privated meeting of the Congress Parlimentary Party be wired live across the country.One just couldnt sit to hear all this.. Cant something be done about all this.. Cant all these parties the Congress , the Left who are just making a big tamaasha out there be brought to book. First they drive the investors crazy with reckless irresponsible statements about the markets and they play around to win political mileage just to elect a PM.. Well this is not to say other parties are any behind.. Well they have turned running a great country to a harakiri..
Perhaps never b4 would most of us have felt so passionate about all this happening to our MotherLand..