Existence ...

I found this interesting dialogue from the movie 'Dead Poets Society' .....

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

What will your verse be ...
What will your verse be ...
the dialogue has so much of passion built in the words... even the ppl who havnt seen the movie nor the clip can get the feel of it ... amazingly well composed ...

Collections ...

I am not sure since when i got interested in quotes... i had my share of likings for cool quotes, motivational quotes, inspirational ones and so on ...

i started searchin for books on quotes in bookstores, on google... i wuld be subjected to plenty of them... few of them appealing ... but the problem was i couldnt remember quite a lot of them
and i culdnt go back and have a look at them too.. since i wuld hav forgotten the source too... i wuld just know the jist of it or what it related to ... but not the quote

then... i started collecting qu0tes so that i culd go back and look at them and try memorizing them... i have collected a good no. since my MBA days .... but the usage has been limited as of now... the collections are not just quotes... any sentence or a statement which i feel is appealing at that point of time ....

with time i guess will keep posting few of them...

Ships ....

Ships are safe at the harbour... but thats not what they are built for

Marathon

After i posted my 'Om Shanti Om' post... i realised that i havent updated my Marathon post....
i did run the marathon on Oct 28th in Delhi .... takin my marathon tally to 3 in 3 diff indian cities...

i managed to finish the 21.092 km run in 2h 16min ...

managed becoz.. had sprained my leg on friday, 2 days before the marathon, durin a practise run...
yes .. u can call me a psycho... since i ran...things were fine ... till i hit the seventeen km mark... then the leg gave away... the last 4 km was more than a walk and less than a jog ... and finally i was able to clear the finish line ....

Om Shanti Om

Saw the movie just an hour back in one of the very old theaters of Delhi... the movie is pretty decent ...
movie is watchable once
but Deepika any no. of times....
she looks absolutely gorgeous in the movie ...
SRK is still giving fabulous performances year after year, movie after movie...

the movie spoofs few of the old actors in the first half...
second half has most of the new actors .....

the story line is a bit let down...
but given the powerful performances of the actors, one is always captivated to whtevr tht is happening on the screen....

if u havnt watched it yet... its time for u to go thru the experience ....

A city life ...

As some people know, i have moved from one small city to another big city. In the small city i used to be an hitech engineer for a large organization, travelling 22 km daily. In the big city i am a consultant for a small organization, travelling for 22 min daily. Both distances are one - way.

What makes me wonder is in both places, i get frustrated during the journey. Vehicles are everywhere, too much of smoke, everyone keeps honking, no one cares for the rules, the list goes on and on... but by the time u reach ur office or home, u will be completely drained.


What i fail to understand is, why do we have to put up with all that, the kind of work what i was doing before and now, are different but they have one thing in common. Given the telecommunication network we have, 80% of the work can be done from any location. If thats the case, why do we have to put up with all this. Why cant we work in a place where we have some peace, where the mere thought of going to the office or home, doesnt make the hair raise, where the decibel and pollution levels are low.

For my current job, i have to travel a bit, when i have to meet up with clients but in a IT setting u dont have to do that. I am not suggesting u sit at home and work, but we can leave the hustle and bustle of the city and move to quite and peaceful sub urbs and work from there. Since majority of the people working in these kind of companies migrate from different places, relocation should not be a problem as long as basic amenities are present. This way there will be less irritation and frustration among the employees. What a nice thing to happen to all of us.

Why cant the people who take a call on the location see what most of us see.

Demanding Sport

This discussion happnd in the winter of 2006, when we were practicing for the marathon. It was about what was the most grueling sport. After you have run for some 27 km, the first thing that comes to one's mind is the marathon. We moved to Decathlon and Triathlon. We agreed upon triathlon as the most demanding sport. But what we missed out that day was Tour de France. Arguably, the most demanding, most challenging sport in the world today.

Here is an excerpt of an amateur cyclist who cycled only a single stretch of the tour. He has expressed his experience in a wonderful way. After running the marathon, i couldn;t agree with him more.

Marathon time !!

yup...
i am running the marathon again.. but only half this time.... as far as runnin is concerned ... this year has been a fruitful year for me .... starting with StanC mumbai marathon in Jan and Bangalore midnight marathon in May .. it has been a wonderful experience. Going on the same note i am planning to take on the gruelling delhi circuit this time around... the marathon is scheduled on 28th of October and i have barely moved out of my 8 month slumber .... its been 3 days since i have started to wear the running shoes again .... lets c how things go on from here.....

My personal times of the marathon

Stan C full marathon - 42.195 km ... 4h 40min
Blore half marathon - 21.097 km .... 2h 30min

well as u can see there is an aberration in the times here.... for StanC marathon .. i had put in 4 months of practise ... for the blore one .. not even 4 hrs ...

hopefully will improve on my half marathon timing this time around ....

running is one thing that keeps me going ... atleast i found something to pursue in Delhi...

-Raghu

Another Links URL

Sergey Brin's page on Stanford....
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~sergey/

Larry Page's page
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~page/

Technical paper on Google search engine
http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf

Stanford technical reports
http://infolab.stanford.edu/TR/

Elements of Style
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strunk_and_White

Back again !!!

Think there are more posts abt me cumin back than actual posts ...

some update...

did my first international travel last fortnight..
was in 4 different countries in 4 consecutive days .. :) ...

it has brought in some difference in the way is see things in India..
wht exactly i am not sure...

one thing is for sure... w.r.t some countries we are not just 1000 kms far but 1000 yrs far... with the rest we are still behind ...

have a vague idea about certain things... will pen down when the vagueness vanishes but not the idea ...

Coming back after a long time !!!

Not that i was too busy or something ..
not that i didnt have any thoughts to pen...

thoughts were plenty...
time was at hand ...
but what i lacked was the enthu ..

Its been a long time since i hav worked with enthu...
i cant remember when was the last time i had enthu...
may be my TI days... never durin my MBA days...

but yesterday i worked with enthu...
the long lost enthu.... not to the true potential...
but there was passion in what i was doing...

An Irony ....

Our country is driven by monsoons, but when ever monsoons hit the country, everything comes to a standstill.

The economy slows down if there is a slight delay in the monsoons, once the monsoons hit the cities slow down.

Strange are the way things are !!

Dimension

All these while, i have been thinking about lots of stuff to a great deal. All this thought have contributed something to my life. But where it takes a back seat is when it comes to work. I have been thinking specifically about general things and generally about specific things, well when it comes to work a general thought will not do any good. I think its time for me to reduce my indulgence is thinking about things that are way too general and start thinking more about the work i have.
Atleast, it pays.

Motivation !!

This week i had a discussion with the CEO of the company. The interaction was to know and understand what was happening with us, what we were up to, are our expectation being met, so on and so forth. As expected, the discussion revolved around our current assignments, how r v faring, what are the expectations, etc. Then there was a bit of management gyan. Well, if u interact with the top mgmt, you cannot escape the gyan sessions. I don't know whether it makes sense or not, but as i see it now, it doesn't.

Then came the topic, which is the inspiration for this post, well it was about self inspiration and self motivation. The CEO wanted to us to be self motivated and not try to imitate any of the existing employees. If one is interested in the project and he/she sees it as his/her own brainchild, then the inspiration and the motivation comes to get up everyday in the morning and go and give it your best for the work. There will be no boredom. One has to look "inward" for all the inspiration and the enthu.

Well, i would have brushed this off as yet another gyaan, but what stopped me from doing so was the imitating part. It didn't seem to be logical, hence an objection was raised by yours truly.

My ideas and thoughts about motivation are different. To start with, most of us do not have much clarity in what we need to do or want to do. Without this clarity, one falling in love with the project or the work is not possible; if it is possible, it is not sustainable. Therefore this route towards self motivation doesnot work with us.

Years back, i had seen a movie called "Enemy at the Gates", yes, this is the Jude Law one. In this movie, the reporter says to the general that if you need civilians to fight for you, you cannot do so by pushing them on to the battle field. We need heroes who will inspire them to go and fight. Thats what i am talking about here.

What we need in an organisation are heroes. People who are excellent at what they do, people whom others want to imitate. By looking at these people, one gets the desire to be one among them. Once the desire sets in, it will give rise to rest of the things. Others start looking at the qualities the heroes possess. They look inward and assess the qualities they have. They see the difference and try to cultivate what they lack and fine tune what they already have. Through this process, they know more about themselves, they will be aware of their limitations and their talents. Then the rest will be history.

Essentially the point being, one needs heroes for inspiration, with this inspiration, motivation follows. Once you start looking inward, slowly self motivation will follow suit.

I dont hav much clarity about lots of things, but here and there i hav a bit of clarity on the rest.

Thats' Success

I came across this beautiful poem today through mail. Thought it will be good to have it on my blog since i intend to post my thoughts on success and our pursuit of excellence.

That's Success!
By Berton Braley

It's doing your job the best you can,
And being just to your fellow man;
It's making money - but holding friends,
And being true to your aims and ends.
It's figuring how and learning why,
And looking forward and thinking high;
And dreaming a little and doing much,
It's keeping always in closest touch.
With what is finest in word and deed,
It's being thorough, yet making speed;
It's daring blithely the field of chance,
While making labour a brave romance.
It's going onward despite defeat,
And fighting staunchly, but keeping sweet;
It's being clean and it's playing fair,
It's laughing lightly at Dame Despair.
It's looking up at ! the stars above ,
And drinking deeply of life and love;
It's struggling on with the will to win,
But taking loss with a cheerful grin.
It's sharing sorrow and work and mirth,
And making better this good old earth;
It's serving, striving through strain and stress,
It's doing your noblest - that's success

The below post ...

The below post on Dehradun was written when i was too sleepy. I noticed myself dozzing off while writing the post. Don't know why i pushed myself to complete the post. I haven't read it again to check whether it makes any sense. Whtevr it is let it be the way it is.

I had plans of writing few blogs during the weekend. But was caught up in shopping and setting up home on saturday and British GP , Wimbledon on sunday. I tried to make a list of it but i feel it is better to post when one is in the flow.

Yet another Dehradun trip !!

Yup, I had been to Dehradun yet again. This time around i was fortunate enough to visit Mussoorie too. I tried to convince three of my friends to take sick leave to accompany me to Mussoorie, and i was successful with one of them !, but as fate would have it i had to travel alone. Well, during the journey i became friends with the driver and we had a nice conversation through out and he narrated some of his experiences to him. It was different but it was interesting.

This time around the journed was awesome. It had rained the previous night. Early in the morning, dew drops had settled on the grass and it was reflecting the golden rays of the sun. It was a wonderful treat to the eyes. Then came the pine trees, with their long brown tree trunks and the dark green leaves and the lush green carpet around them, it was a sight worth watching. I was very much ecstatic looking at the very sight in front of my eyes. I was happy that i came to this place at the right time.

I set out in the morning at around 2:30 in a Innova. The driver was good, the road was clear and we were in Dehradun by 7 types. Then our little hunt for our little place started and instead of doing the southern leg i ended up doing the northern leg first. Well Mussoorie at 8 in the morning is a wonder by itself. At around 7000 ft above sea level, one can look at the clouds below. The mist on the green tops of the mist will play hide and seek, simply exaggerating the beauty the mountains hold.

There was a wishing well on my path. I stopped the car and looked into the well. At 6500 ft, how can one expect the well to have water within 50 ft. Guess there is some sort of an imbalance in the table.

Whtevr it was, this was one of the most wonderful short trips i had.

Pirates of Caribbean ...

Its 2 in the morning of July the 5th and i came back to my room just now. I had been to Noida to watch the third in the series of Pirates of Caribbean. I have not watched the first two parts, and the people who understand the movie would have confidently guessed by now that i wouldn'y hav understood a thing about the movie. Well their guess is bullz eye. Even though my friend had watched the earlier parts, he had difficulties in understanding the storyline of the movie. The action scenes are competing with our bollywood ones. It had been a long time since i had seen a movie with miserable and disgusting action scenes. Johnny Depp brings in some fun into a boring ordeal and Ms. Knightley breathes life into the dead souls. :) ...

Overall a movie worth avoiding.

Business in India links

http://www.ibef.org/
http://www.indiaeverywhere.com/
http://www.investmentcommission.in/
http://www.ciionline.org/ - Confederation of Indian Industry
http://www.incredibleindia.org/ - Official Tourism Website
http://www.pppinindia.com/ - Public Private Partnership
http://www.indiainbusiness.nic.in/
http://infochangeindia.org/

http://www.india.gov.in/ - National Portal of India
http://www.indiaimage.nic.in/
http://dipp.gov.in/ - Dept. of Commerce and Industry
http://finmin.nic.in/ - Ministry of Finance
http://www.fundoodata.com/ - Directory listing of Indian Companies

-Raghu

Brand India ...

In the 2006 Davos meet, Indians launched 'India Everywhere' Campaign. It was carried out to bring in awareness about India, the expertise of Indians to the world. The campaign was well accepted and appreciated by the people. There was indianess all around the place, with people wearing indian dresses, eating indian cuisine and dancing for indian numbers. Does this mean, the campaign was a success. Well, once could not say anything for sure. The campaing started ripples in the world, but the strength of the ripples depends on how we fare from now on.

Here is a list of few websites which are inline with the 'India Everywhere' phenomenon.

http://www.ibef.org/ - Indian Brand Equity Foundation
http://www.indiaeverywhere.com/




Check this, to find out how brand India was built in Davos.

Another week ...

The week ending today was my third week at office. I have not written much about my office in the blog. Guess its time to do so.

I work in a consulting company in Delhi. We consult for both government and private parties on infrastructure. The division i work primarily consists of people from my campus. Its kind of new in the campus with seniors from batch of 2005 and 2006 before us. I work in vertical which deals with real estate and SEZs.

My first two days in the office had gyaan sessions or induction , in office parlance. The third day i was introduced to the project. Fourth day i did some work and the next day i had the client presentation. Yes, within the first week i had a client presentation.

From then on i have been working on the same thing. Had a site visit too. Have got most of the information that i require. But it seems there is a lack of direction for me to proceed. My boss is sick and my super boss is too busy with other demanding assignments. So that leaves me all alone in a project that i don't have much idea about.

But everything said and done, the experience has been good. Yup, So far so good.

Thomas L. Friedman ...

Excerpts from Friedmans' commencement speech at Rensselaer. Check the below post.

First, What you learned in college really matters.
Second, what you learned to imagine in college matters even more.
Third, how you implement, how you implement what you imagine is going to matter most of all.

In the future, the most important competition is the one between you and your own imagination.

If it’s not happenin’, it’s because you’re not doin’ it.

“Always work like you don’t need the money, always fall in love like you’ve never been hurt, always sing like nobody’s listening and always, always live like it’s heaven on earth.”
- Mark Twain

“Tom, I know why you’re an optimist. It’s because you’re short and you can only see that part of the glass that’s half full.”

Commencement Speech

Following are few of the good commencement speeches in recent times. My friend suggested me to go through this.

The first one is by Thomas L Friedman at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute.

http://www.rpi.edu/academics/commencement/address07.html

http://www.charityfocus.org/blog/view.php?id=1514

The above link is Infosys Chief Mentor N R Narayan Murthy's commencement speech at the New York University ( Stern School of Business ) on May 9, 2007.

Interesting articles. Worth every second you spend on it.

Topics of interest

Currently, i am pursuing certain subjects / topics because of the interest i have in them or just to satiate my curiosity. Here they are :

Indian Emergency
History of the nation and the world
Private equity
Consultancy
Entrepreneurship
Relationship
Expectations
Sports

As you must have noticed i hav a wide range of interests. I feel that the variety just helps in shifting my thoughts and to remain sane :).
The first two are out of sheer curiosity. I got interested in emergency after i read the book 'The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, it describes what people go through and the trauma they experience in the hands of absolute anarchy. I was very much moved by what i had heard. The next day i saw 'Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi", a hindi movie which touches upon Indian emergency, the movie forced me do start diggin about the subject. The more i dug, the more i wanted. I wanted to know everything about it, thats the way i caught the interest.

The next three are entirely due to the education i have had and to facilitate me to make most of my life.

The next two have kept me busy when i am all alone, in the last two-three years. I still don't know how to handle , to react, to respond to these. I guess i am better now than what i was.. but it is still not up to the mark. Whats the mark, i don;t know that too.

Sports are my passion... they were before.. they will still be for a long time to come... i have to start playin squash and find a track to run... i want to take part in the marathon again... i like swimmin a lot.. with the current weather.. it will be awesome to swim in the mornin... got to find a place to play and to swim .. to relive the best days again.. :) ..

Heaven of Freedom

I came across this master piece from Rabindranath Tagore in the book "IT happened in India" by Kishore Biyani, the pantaloon chief. This verse has so much of meaning and it is still apt in todays life too. Once you go through the verse , you just cant help but ponder .

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free..
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

-- Rabindranath Tagore

My 50th Post

Well after 3 yrs of on and off flirting with my blog... i have reached a milestone ... as the subject says this is my 50th post... i wanted to publish something else but i happened to notice that i had made 49 posts till date... i think this week has got something to do with numbers... this week is supposed to be the 25th week of the year ( well it happens once every yr too ).. and "The Week" magazine had published some 25 unsolved mysteries of india in the past 25 yrs ... and "India Today" had a cover story on the nation in the past 60 yrs.. so with me readin all this stugg.. i culdn't resist the temptation to contribute one from my side to the number game... and here it goes my 50th post .... :)

Dehradun Trip

Yup, I had been to dehradun on Thursday... well it was a one day trip and i could not go to mussoorie. It was not a leisure trip but a business trip. As a consultant one has to visit very good places for totally different reasons.

I always Dehradun was a hill station, somewhere in northern India. For me all the hill stations shimla, nainital, darjeeling, mussoorie etc.. is a pack of places which are up there in some part of north india, which is a night journey from Delhi. Before i moved to Delhi, i had made plans to visit all these places during my stay along with my friends. But i did not the opportunity is going to come so soon. Here i went to Dehradun, to get a relief from the scorching heat of Delhi.

The drive was good, since the roads are much better, with hardly any traffic at 4 in the morning. Its a straight road that goes on and on. It had rained in Delhi few days back, as a result of which, the land on either side of the road were covered with lush green grass. Early morning, when you are driving towards the east, u see the orange sun in ur eyes and the light is somewhat different. One can see the rays passing through the fully grown trees with the dew drops reflecting whatever light that falls on them, on a long black road with green grass on either side... thats a scene worth watchin and one cannot help if one's mind drifts away and appreciate the beauty of nature.

As we stopped for a tea break, i read the address of the hotel and behold i was on the grand trunk road. The road which i had read about in my history books. Suddenly the name Sher Shah Suri came to my mind, then Akbar, my history lesson, the teacher who taught me history and the friends i had during that time. All of sudden, i became nostalgic. Its a interesting phenomenon.. when minor things trigger a chain of thoughts and those thoughts touch upon one's feelings.

Reached Dehradun at 9. It is not the place i expected to be. The weather is more or less similar to Delhi. It is highly crowded. Narrow roads and it is too commercialised. Guess, capitalhood has harmed the place. After a day in Dehradun, i felt my hometown Bangalore is much much better. Alas i left the garden city and came to delhi for work. When rest of India moves towards Bangalore, i moved away from it. People say it helps to swim against the tide, well i am sure that they didn't have this in mind when they said that.

The return journey was terrible. I had a stomach upset due to the lunch i had. I slept through the return journey, no more thoughts, no reflections. It was a simple drive back home. Reached Delhi at 1.

Thats the end of my Dehradun trip. Fascinating and interesting. I will be visitin it again very soon.

Delhi !!

Yup... i am in Delhi now... after 2 wonderful months in Bangalore... i came to Delhi to start working after my MBA ... i am not of that types.. who keeps their fingers crossed, with butterflies in stomach before they embark on a new journey...

Well i knew that Delhi was hot... but i didn't expect wht i had to bear whn i landed at the IGI Airport... i boarded the flight in blore in the mornin of 9th June, the temp. read 22 C .. thanks to the showers the previous nite... i landed in Delhi.. and the thermometer was screamin at 49.5 C.. for someone who has spent their entire lifetime in Blore... 49.5C is like an oven... i felt i was fried... the hot blasts of air didn't ease the situation a bit.... i didnt know how i would survive in a place like this...

the newspapers next day made my life a bit bearable... as per them the previous day's temp. was the highest recorded in delhi in the past decade... it didn't mean nethin... but only respite was that i hav experienced the worst and whtevr will happen now will only be for the better...
did u call me an optimist?? ... well .. i dont hav ne options u c... :) ...

The pursuit ....

Today, I had a discussion with a very close friend of mine, Bhushan. It was about '****** is the end of the world'. It all started when i saw those tense faces with hands trembling, knucle breaking, sweaty palms.... ppl put in so much of fite for this particular thing.. and if things do not turn out the way they want it to.. they will not be able to accept the situation.
I am a strong believer in the process.. for me the means are important than the end... i will enjoy the pursuit more than the outcome of it... therefore i never get tensed under these conditions.... but what i learnt today was that... this attitude of mine has costed me dearly... i hav lost the passion , the drive to do achieve things... i get satisfied very easily... i never put major fite .. i think i used to do it once upon time... but recently never... the sense of satisfaction is absent.. even though in the long run it does not mean anything....

the point here is , it is just the means or the ends that matter... what matters the most is the combination of the two....

My LL story

I finally managed to find time to get my learner's license for a LMV. The last time i had been to the RTO they rejected my application since i didn't have the proper proofs about my residence. Well, they didn't accept my college id card as a proof for my DOB and my 2-wheeler license even though both of them had used the same proof.

This time the setting was different. It was not in the RTO, but in a place called WIAA, don't know what it stands for, but u can get licenses from here. I had all the required documents, i filled up the form and was waiting in the queue admiring the picture of the handsome man on my form :) . i got my number and sat in a corner waiting to take the test. I had a book with me and started reading it. The choice was bad, it was a heavy book. Since i had nothing else to do i continued reading. I could see others in the room mugging away to glory to clear the LL test. The criteria to clear the test is to score 11 right answers out of 15 questions. I felt 4 wrong answers on a traffic test is too liberal, and i felt passing criteria should be 15 on 15. Well, how difficult can a LL test be.

When my turn came, i walked in and paid the fee. Went into the biometrics sectio, got my photo clicked, gave my thumb impressions for the first time along with a digital signature. The system was smooth and well organised and automated. Then it was time for the test.

It was an objective test and one had to choose 1 out of 3 options. I sat in front of the comp with confidence sky high. The insrtuctor was explaining to me how to use the comp, i didn't listen to him and started taking the test. To my disbelief i got the first 2 questions wrong, one was on identifying a HTV through a license plate (?) and another one was punishment for blocking traffic ( ans is supposedly revoking the license ). I came back to all my senses, my 15 on 15 saga had vanished and i was trying hard to clear the test. The next ten Qs were a cake walk since i got all of them right. The thirteenth one i was hasty enough to choose hospital for a plus sign instead of a first aid box. The challenge had come down to the last 2 questions. The 14th Q was a blinder, what is the punishment for illegal parking, due to my experience with the second Q , i didn't click on " the driver will be fined" but i chose cancelling license and behold that was the right answer. All my miseries were put an end with Congratulations flashing on the screen. At last i was able to get my hands on my LL, i crosschecked and left the office as soon as possible. It was one hell of an experience.

My Bombay trip ...

Ahd (20/01/07 - 5 am ) - CST - Bandra Reclaimation - Andheri (W) - Matunga - Wadala - Azad Maidan - Dombivali - Dadar - Andheri - Bandra - Bandstand - Borivali - Kandivali - Andheri (E) - Santa Cruz - Mulund - Vile Parle - Ahd (23/01/07 - 2 pm)

These are the places i visited in the last four days... started from Ahd on 20th Jan returned on 23 rd Jan... tasting the delicacies of Mumbai. Started off with Dinner at Matunga, followed Shell fish food in Dombivali then the chicken biryani at the Hersche bakery , Dosa from Andheri ,then the gujju food in Mulund... It has been one of the big time hogging long weekends i ever had... i hogged like crazy.. hogged like mad... hogged whtevr i culd lay my hands on... blurp !!!

Few more quotes on running ..

was browsing for some quotes on running, came across a few....

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running." - Inspirational sign on a runner's office wall

"Out of the silver heat mirage he ran. The sky burned, and under him the paving was a black mirror reflecting sun-fire. Sweat sprayed his skin with each foot strike so that he ran in a hot mist of his own creation. With each slap on the softened asphalt, his soles absorbed heat that rose through his arches and ankles and the stems of his shins. It was acarnival of pain, but he loved each stride because running distilled him to his essence and the heat hastened this distillation." - James Tabor, from "The Runner," a short story

"I like running because it's a challenge. If you run hard, there's the pain - and you've got to work your way through the pain. You know, lately it seems all you hear is? Don't overdo it' and? Don't push yourself.' Well, I think that's a lot of bull. If you push the human body, it will respond." - Bob Clarke, Philadelphia Flyers general manager, NHL Hall of Fame.

"It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys." - Emil Zatopek

"It's elevating and humbling at the same time. Running along a beach at sunrise with no other footprints in the sand, you realize the vastness of creation, your own insignificant space in the plan, how tiny you really are, your own creatureliness and how much you owe to the supreme body, the God that brought all this beauty and harmony into being." - Sister Marion Irvine, 2:51 PR and 1984 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired...You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going." - George S. Patton, U.S. Army General and 1912 Olympian

"A lot of people run a race to see who's the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts." - Steve Prefontaine

"Once you're beat mentally, you might was well not even go to the starting line." -Todd Williams

"Marathoning is like cutting yourself unexpectedly. You dip into the pain so gradually that the damage is done before you are aware of it. Unfortunately, when the awareness comes, it is excruciating." - John Farrington, Australian marathoner

The week has come .....

After a gruelling four month long practise session, we have arrived at the last week of our training schedule. Three days from now we will be running the StanC mumbai marathon. We followed the training schedule religously for the first 3 months, then came the term break and all hell broke lose. We had injuries with our runners, thank god me and Paro were spared from it. Then we hit on our busy schedule and couldn't find time to carry on with our training. Its not just lack of time, at times we were lazy too. I remember myself frauding one day, so that i could get a couple of hrs of sleep. Eventually i was christened FFG for my act.

With ppl coming back from injuiry we resumed our marathon practise only to realise that our body had relaxed a bit too much. We had lost our running ways - the stamina was gone, the pace was lost and so was the morale. Fighters we are, we pushed ourselves more and more till couple of them got injuired. It forced us to reduce our training schedule to such an extent that we couldn't run the 32 kms part of training.

The maximum i have done is 27 kms at a stretch as of now. I need to carry this to 42.2 kms. A mere thought of it makes my mind go bonkers. Will i feel i will be able to do it, atleast crawling the last few kms :) . Not sure about the weather though, most of our runs were late in the night at around 1 am - 4 am. In the actual run we have to bear the Mumbai afternoon sun and the hard surface of the road.

All i hope is that we go in one piece and come back in one peace, completing the marathon.

Runnin post ..

got a couple of quotes on runnin...


" I ran and ran every day, and I acquired a sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never, give up, no matter what else happened."- Wilma Rudolph


Run with me, Run for the year
Run for the laughter, Run for the tear
Run with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away
- Adapted from "Dream On" - Aerosmith

India Poised

India Poised is a new initiative from the Times of India Group.

The campaign brings to light the happenings in India. They have a well written Anthem. It is as follows :

Me back !!!

After a few days of introspection, a rajasthan trip and a wonderful time with close buddies i am back in the campus. The mundane campus life has started. My marathon practise is yet to start full swing, owin to the tough schedules we have. :) ...

I have been readin these days... read a bit of works of vivekananda.. its kinda heavy... so moved to other lighter stuffs such as Don Quixote and Joan of Arc... both of them are an interesting read... they talk about leadership ...
currently i am readin 'Thinking Strategically', strategy is what i like ..and this book is all about game theory and its application in strategy... truly an awesome combination...
dont be surprised if i pitch in with few examples from the book time and again...

thats it for now.. will keep posting.. regularly from now on...

a startling fact... there are about 200 million blogs which were dormant the whole of last year.. thank god..i rescued my blog from it... :)

An evening well spent ....

Me and my friend Asuti, I have not introduced him to the blog yet but will do so later, were coming back from shopping, on the way we saw this huge hoarding of 'Janata Raja' on the road and felt like going to the play. It was already 7:50 pm and the play was supposed to start at 8 pm. Since we were on out bike, we zooomed past the traffic and reached the place at 8:10. We somehow managed to get an entry into the play even though we didn't have passes. These are the few times u feel good about the way things work in India, if not we would not be able to see the play.

I will write about the play in another post. In the break we went out to get some dinner, the Qs behind the counters were long, we stood in the Q, played with the kid in front of us and managed to get hold of some coupons. We ordered a masala dosa, a pizza, paav bhaji, 2 coffees. After a long time I had an awesome masala dosa, even the coffee was amazing.

The play was interesting. I met one of my gujju buddies during the play. Had a chat with him too.

All in all, an evening well spent... bahut majaa aaya !!!

Times wastin...

With reference to my earlier post, i came across this song in the movie 'Walk the Line'. I liked the way Cash and June, sing this song. The lyrics is too good. I have pasted the lyrics for ur convenience.

Carl Smith - Time's A Wastin' - June Carter Cash

Male: Now I've got arms
Female: And I've got arms
Together: Lets get together and use those arms
Female: Lets go
Together: Times a wastin'

M: I've got lips
F: And I've got lips
T: Lets get together and use those lips
F: Lets go
T: Times a wastin

F: A cakes no good if you don't mix the batter and bake it
M: And loves just a bubble if you don't take the trouble to make it

T: So if you're free to go with me
T: I'll take you quicker than 1-2-3
F: Lets go
T: Times a wastin

(Instrumental Break)

M: Now I've got blues
F: And I've got blues
T: Lets get acquainted and lose those blues
F: Lets go
T: Time's a wastin

M: Now Ive got feet
F: And Ive got feet
T: Lets start to walk with a lovers beat
F: Lets go
T: Times a wastin

F: You've got me feelin love like I never have felt it
M: You're full of sugar and Im think I'm the burner to melt it

M: Now I've got schemes
F: And I've got schemes
T: Lets get together and dream some dreams
F: Lets go
T: Times a wastin

Walk the Line !!!

The other day i was watching 'Walk the Line', its a movie about Johnny Cash, rather its the story behind Cash and June Carter, his second wife. It has few insights into his childhood but focuses mainly on his singing career - how he approached sun records, how he performed on stage, the way he started introducin himelf as 'Hello, I am Johnny Cash'. Then June Carter enters the seen, and the pace of the movie quickens.

The movie goes into the usual guy meets girl, girl likes the guy but she has constraints, guy is already married with 2 kids and so on. Cash will become a drug addict, due to which his performance suffers, he loses his wife, his contracts and friends. By then even June is also divorced from her second marriage. She stays with Cash to help him come back to his normal self.

There r a few gud songs both of them sing together before he proposes to her on stage. That part is truly romantic. Overall its a gud movie to watch. After watching the movie, i have downloaded Cash's songs and listening to it. They are pretty good.

By the way, the female lead, Reese Witherspoon won Oscar for her role in the movie.

Email Links ...

Here is a list of email providers with their capacity..
came across this on the net.. thought it will be helpful for a few

Yaycos 3GB http://www.yaycos.com
XasaMail 2GB http://www.xasamail.com
MasBytes Unlimited http://www.masbytes.com
Walla 5 GB http://www.walla.com
FreeOla Unlimited http://www.freeola.com
GMX 3 GB http://www.gmx.net
Intper 2 GB http://intper.es
Maktoob 1 GB http://www.maktoob.com
Interwaysmail 1 GB http://www.interwaysmail.net
SpyMac 1 GB http://www.spymac.com
Rediffmail 1 GB -> 2GB http://www.rediffmail.com
JLMail 1 GB http://www.jlmail.com
Suredid 1 GB http://mail.suredid.com
Omnilect 1 GB http://www.omnilect.com
GMail Unlimited http://gmail.google.com
EmailPinoy 1 GB http:/mail.emailpinoy.com
Yahoo! China 1 GB http://mail.yahoo.com.cn
Gawab 1 GB http://www.gawab.com
Megamail.cc 1 GB http://www.megamail.cc/

Here is another interesting link .. to send large files via mail...
http://s2.yousendit.com/

You find a file too big to send by email try YouSendIt, a free service that lets you send a file up to 1GB to another PC or person. Just type in the recipient's email id and upload the file. The recipient is then notified by email and has upto 7 days to download the file. No passwords, no software to install, no accounts to create, and normal/secure transfers. This free service can even provide Data Security Encrypted HTTPS session (SSL/TLS) to make sure your data is secure.

Khukri Memorial

During my Diu trip, I happened to visit the Khukri memorial. It houses a 25 foot long replica of INS Khukri which went down 40 nautical miles off the coast of Diu on 8th December 1971. It was hit by 2 torpedos fired from the pakistan submarine PNS Hangor. INS Khukri has been the largest war time casualty India has ever experienced. The sinking was a great learning for the indian navy who were over confident of their prowess. 18 officers and 176 sailors went down along with the battle ship. The memorial is erected on the shores of Diu. Do visit it once if you happen to be in Diu.

The detailed article on the sinking of INS Khukri can be found here.

Friends ...

I was thinking of old friends today
And how many of them have slipped away.
Moved, got married, or stopped calling so much,
Found new friends, got busy, and just lost touch.

It reminded me of falling leaves.
Every autumn the leaves fall from the trees.
Some stay longer than others,
but eventually - Each leaf must fall, I'm told,
Leaving the tree alone to face the cold.

Why is it that in the time of utmost need
The leaves would seek to leave the tree?
And when we need our friends around
We look and they can not be found?

Of course these friendships come and go
And in the spring new leaves will grow.
But I prefer autumn friends of old
With crackling laughter and colors bold.

It saddens me now I must admit
How somehow, someway,
I did forget Laughing with old friends of mine
During summers when the sun would shine.

And then I thought of you.
That one stubborn leaf that won't let go.
That clings despite the winds that blow.
Fighting ice, and snow, and winter's stings
Hanging on right through till spring.

So I guess that's what you are to me -
The very last leaf to leave the tree.
I know it seems silly, but it's true.
When I see that last leaf...
...I think of you.

Not my own... got it from my friend... hence can't reference it.

Dimension Z ....

In dimension Z, there are strage moments. Euclid was not always right. He assumed parallelness, in constancy, right to the end of things; but a non-Euclidean way of being is also possible, where the lines come together, far out there. A vanishing point. The illusion of convergence.

Yet one knows it's more than illusion. Sometimes a coming together is possible, a spilling of one reality into another. A kind of soft enlacing. Not prim intersections loomed in a world of precision, no sound of the shuttle.

And one moves slowly over this other reality, beside it and underneath and around it, always with strength, always with power, yet always with giving of oneself to it. And the other senses this, coming forward with its own power, giving itself to one, in turn.

Courtesy : The Bridges of Madison County

The Bridges of Madison County...

I completed the book during my journey back to the campus. Its a lovely book, read it if you can get your hands on it.

Here are few excerpts from the book.

The old dreams were good dreams, they didn't work out, but i'm glad i had them.

I move in dimension Z, the world goes by somewhere else in another slice of things, parallel to me.

You are always dealing with markets, and markets - mass markets - are designed to suit average tastes. Thats were the numbers are.

Profit and Subscriptions and the rest of that stuff dominate art. We're all getting lashed to the great wheel of uniformity.

The virtues of Amateurism - The market kills most artisitic passion than anything else. Its a world of safety out there.

With time in my pocket, weather on my side .....

W.B. Yeats : Realism, economy, sensuousness, beauty and magic.

All marriages, all relationships are the inertia of protracted custom. Custom brings predictability, and predictability carries its own comforts.

If time permits, probably i will write a line or two about the book, the way Robert Kincaid and Francesca Johnson danced together and fell in love, those four days of passion and a lifetime of memories, their sacrifices and their ends.

Author : Robert James Waller

India Everywhere phenomenon

After 'Feel Good' and 'India Shining' phenomenon, its time for 'India Everywhere'. This was the theme in World Economic Forum meet in Davos in Jan this year. This phrase coupled with 'Fastest growing free market democracy' builds a strong 'Brand India'. As i see it, its an attempt by India to reach out to the world. It has noticed the potential the world has in store and Indians want to have a piece in the pie. The govt. has adopted a focussed strategy to woo in investments and have a steady and an increasing flow of capital. India ensured that it is 'hot and happening' at one of the world's most powerful networking events.

The event presented the country as an attractive destination for foreign investment, as an emerging manufacturing hub and as a credible partner for world business. In addition, it highlighted the Indian government's policy reforms and showcased the country's cultural diversity, with the overall goal of helping Davos participants gain a deeper understanding of Indian people and markets.

Knowledge wharton does a thorough analysis of the Indian hope trick in this article.

Few of the associated sites in this front are
India Everywhere
Indian Brand Equity Foundation

A great PR job, a well thought out marketing strategy has made the world to sit up and notice India, it all depends on how we take it forward. Whether we capitalise on the opportunity or falter as we have done before, time will only tell.

Kumaon Regiment ....

I stumbled across this article while surfing the net. It talks about how the 13 Kumaon regiment stood against all odds and the govt. apathy towards recognising them. Kumaon regiment is one of the crack troops of the indian army receivein many honours, but the recognition ends there. No one knows about them. Their sacrifice has gone unnoticed, only few quizzers apart from the soldiers families have some idea about them.

13 Kumaon's Last Stand: Chushul, November 18, 1962

Most of us studied the Alfred Tennyson poem 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' in school. The Battle of Thermopylae we read of with goose bumps. We all know about Custer's Last Stand. And the battle cry 'Remember the Alamo!' resonates with us.

Yet, none of us has heard of the 13th Kumaon Battalion's Last Stand at Rezang La, Ladakh, in the Battle of Chushul, on November 18, 1962. I think this is a great pity.

For, let us remind ourselves of these examples of heroism:

· The Battle of Thermopylae in ancient Greece in 480 BCE, where 300 Spartans under Leonidas stopped a Persian army of 250,000 at a narrow mountain pass. They died to the last man, but provided enough time for the rest of the Greek army to escape to fight another day.

· The 13th Light Brigade of the British Army at Balaclava, the Crimea, in 1854. Six hundred and seventy-three men rode at Russian artillery and were decimated.

· At the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, in 1836, several hundred Texans held out against the Mexican Army before they were killed to the last man.

· Custer's Last Stand was the Battle of Little Bighorn, 1876, in Montana where the Sioux nation under Chief Sitting Bull wiped out George Custer and 265 men.

And finally:

· The C company of the 13th Kumaon Battalion, under Major Shaitan Singh (Param Vir Chakra, Posthumous) held off a fierce Chinese attack on November 18, 1962, at the Rezang La heights that they held. Massively outnumbered and outgunned, the defenders died almost to the last man, and expended their last round. All 114 men were killed or wounded. But they succeeded in blunting the Chinese assault, killing as many as a thousand Chinese in the process at Rezang La and at nearby Gurung Hill. Thereafter, the Chinese did not push further towards the Chushul plain. It was a critical checkpoint on a potential Chinese advance on Leh.

The story of 13th Kumaon is the kind of thing that would make the patriotic Indian stand tall with tears in his eyes. Yet, we do not stand in silence for a moment in memory of Major Shaitan Singh and his gallant men. No poet eulogizes them as Tennyson did the Light Brigade. There is only a small memorial at the site, which says:

How can a Man die Better than facing Fearful Odds,
For the Ashes of His Fathers and the Temples of His Gods,
To the sacred memory of the Heroes of Rezang La,
114 Martyrs of 13 Kumaon who fought to the Last Man,
Last Round, Against Hordes of Chinese on 18 November 1962.
Built by All Ranks 13th Battalion, The Kumaon Regiment.

I am indebted to the Bharat-Rakshak web site for this information as well as a long article on the Battle of Chushul by L N Subramanian. Yet, why is there nothing written about them along the lines of what Tennyson did, as in these excerpts from his stirring poem:

Half a league half a league
Half a league onward...
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred...

Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd;
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die...

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;...

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade...

Why have Indians so consistently ignored the great sacrifices made by our soldiers? Why isn't the story of the valiant 13th Kumaon a part of every child's textbooks? Why have we let these brave men die unwept, unmourned, and unsung? Just as we let thousands of soldiers die in Kashmir, in Kargil, everywhere, they are mere cannon fodder. India needs a draft, so people in power feel the pain of their children dying for the nation.

I think I know why there is no official celebration of the Battle of Chushul: the government can hardly bother to honour the Unknown Soldier on Kargil Day. Then how will they remember something that happened forty years ago?

There is also an element of shame. Congress governments were unwilling to talk about 1962 because it brings out the fact that 'someone had blunder'd' and that was their deity, Jawaharlal Nehru, along with his defence minister, V K Krishna Menon. Admitting this would leave them shamefaced, so they just let the soldiers 'but do and die'. Even the current government is unwilling to publish the Henderson Brooks report. Why? It will at least shed some light on what happened.

The media in India should have taken this up in the absence of governmental action. But the media, influenced by Chinese propaganda, has portrayed the 1962 war on Chinese terms. Aping the Xinhua propaganda agency, Indian media mavens have taken the stand that the war was India's fault. As though Indians, with no mountain divisions, would go over the Himalayas and attack the Chinese in Tibet and Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh!

The Marxists in India say the 1962 affair was an internal matter for the Chinese, as they have generously 'awarded' Arunachal Pradesh to China. The Chinese believe this, too. They told the CM of Arunachal Pradesh recently that he did not need a visa to go to China, as he was a Chinese citizen! Americans, Britons and Australians accept China's lies, for it suits them to support China.

But we know that all this isn't true. Individual Indians must remember the 13th Kumaon. As the Quebec motto goes, Je me souviens: I remember. And I shall always remember those brave men of C Company who died in a frozen wasteland. For me. For you.

One day ...

One day i shall fly
One day i shall soar high
One day the world will watch
One day i shall shine.

Hope i live long enough to see this day...
even though its me who decides how soon i see the light of this day..

Nostalgia...

For all you have done... thank you mate...
For all that you are .... I love you.

Love ....

I wish i knew a pretty song
i could sing for you ...
Special words of joy and love
so we could start anew

I wish i knew a story
to tell you every night
A sweet, romantic one
to make your heart feel light.

I wish i could write a poem
A verse to make you see
you mean more than all world
and all it holds for me.

I wish I knew what i could say
or knew what i could do
To make you feel the love for me
That i've always felt for you.

Schedule ...

Sit in front of the comp .. start givin finishin touches to the software already developed by some1 else :) .... work on this , work on tht... teach ppl how to use the s/w u developed for them... help them with their difficulties...

feed the data ... arrange for the logistics... hav pizza breaks.. coffee breaks in b/w... brainstorm the rules... build the framework for next days activities.. hav a meet .. .discuss issues , queries... speak over phone.. hav more pizzas more caffeine.... snatch some sleep while u can...

handle HRs ... speak to ur batchmates... help the needy... guide the greedy...
all in all... do whtevr possible frm ur end...
take up many roles... assume responsibilities...
accomplish wht needs to be done....
with no margin for error...
to ensure tht...
"alls well tht ends well"....

this is how i survived the 1 week of high stress, high tension and high drama...
but in the end it leaves me with a wonderful experience and a good bunch of friends...:) ...

no 1 outside this place can understand y ne1 should put in 20 - 22 hrs of work everyday for somethin that doesnot give you anything in return apart from experience...

well.. this is wht we want to do.. like to do... wht we get in the end of the day is the sense of satisfaction... for this we are ready to give whtevr we hav got time and again....

"one for all and all for one" ....

Marathon ....

Its a wierd experience i must say, the connect between the mind and the body.

I realised it while i was running. I run with a friend of mine who is a bit slower than my comfortable speed, since i like company while i run... i prefer to run slow than to run alone.

While running my mind tends to wander a lot... sometimes i dream .. sometimes i think... thats when i noticed the pecularity. When i dream, i instantly switch to my comfortable speed which is faster than the speed at which we are running and when i start to think i tend to slow down.. the more i get involved without my thought , slower i become... dunno why it happens... in both the cases i am not focusin on the run.. sometimes i run fast and sometimes i run slow....

i think even our mind behaves like a processor ( rather it must be the other way round) ... when ur thinkin .. u consume lot of ur mind space hence the legs do not get so much attention from the mind as required... but when ur dreamin .. the mind is relatively free.... it eases down at u switch to ur comfy levels...

hence i come to a conclusion that ..thinkin is a heavy process but dreamin is a light process....
dunno which is better ... but thts the way it is....

CCCS presentation

Another CCCS ppt down the drain. The prof makes u feel tht u hav done nothin.. that u r unfit to be in the place where u r.. u r the dumbest creature on the planet...

all those 8 hrs of work for the presentation ...
u just stand there and take what ever the prof throws at you.. any cross point will be turned out as somethin fraud... the problem lies in the articulation..

everything boils down to the general strategy of the company.. wht it is i am unable to fathom... whether it is focusses, differentiative, me too... whtevr doesnot mattter... u cannot hit the nail on the head...

General Reading

U know wht.. it is very important for people to be abreat with whats happening in the world outside... so one has to read newspapers, watch news channels, read bizz mags, do this and do that... blah..blah....

Its not just the knowledge of current affairs which make few ppl great... its their voracious reading ability that makes them what they are... i subscribe to the view that reading builds character, it makes ppl of substance...

One of the few good things i have learnt from my childhood is to read... i used to read a lot ... yup mostly novels, fiction, cartoons.. i started with Jeffrey Archer's "Not a Penny more Not a penny less' and Sidney Sheldon's "If tomorrow comes" while i was in my eight grade... i kinda liked these two... they still remain as my favourites... I went on to Enid Blyton.. reading through Famous five, secret seven and whatever i could lay my hands on.. then it was the turn of John Grisham, Robert Ludlum.... Frederick Forsyth and Michael chricton couldn't have to wait long .... with cartoons filling up the gaps... i was on a reading spree... In engineering i got hold of few of them who had an interesting collection... i went on and on...

As i grew.. i moved to a bit of seriors reading... moving away from fiction was boring initially... but it became interesting whn it made me sit back and think.... hav learnt few things frm books ... more is in store in the future...

I feel Books are man's best friends. U can read them at ur leisure.. well not entirely true.. once u get into the book... u can hardly close it ... one cannot resist the temptation...

In order to keep up with the readin i hav decided to do general readin for atleast half an hour a day.... i hav a bet with my friend Bancho.. that if any one fails to do the gen. readin on any given day... each one has to pay the other 100 bucks... a gud disincentive to persue a good habit...
hopefully i will continue this...

The marathon exercise

The practise has helped in discovering myself. IT might seem to be a bit far fetched, but nonetheless it is true.

I am not a selfmotivated person. Until and unless someone is breathing down my neck i don't push myself to do anything. Not that i am lazy, but i lose interest in what i do after sometime. Initially i used to start things on a grand scale but couldn't sustain it long enough. Instead of working on the sustaining part, whenever i came across a good idea i would think it through and later feel that i would not sustain it and stopped taking initiatives. I solved the wrong problem here. I have tried to push myself to do things but after sometime i lose interest, motivation, dedication, determination.. u name it, I have lost it... but bcoz of these ppl i hav managed to do it...hopefull i will be able to sustain it till Jan 21st... i am still working on the learnings form this exercise... hopefully it will help to get me back on the track of self motivated, enthu, cheerful guy i once was...

StanC Mumbai Marathon

Since childhood i liked to play, run.. i am not sure whether this is correct... I feel i like the smell of my sweat or rather sweat dripping from my forehead... my sweat all over me gives me kinda high.. :) .. maybe its kinda wierd but this is wht i like... due to which i liked runnin.. since thats the simplest thing which makes u sweat..

Then i met these set of ppl from my coll. A major, a CP king, the reserved Tulli and the Amazon Paro who had just began their marathon practise. It was a perfect match. I needed company for me to run and here they were. They needed more people to take part in the marathon. Hence i joined hands ( or legs) with them and then our marathon practise kick started. Running almost daily, following the prescribed schedule sacrosanctly, with disincentive schemes for ppl who miss the training, the marathon practise is on for almost 7 weeks now. Well thats one heck of a time period to sustain something.

The marathon is on Jan 21st but its a 20 week training schedule. Sometimes its kinda interestin, sometimes highly boring, sometimes thrillin and fewtimes extremely painful.. but the gang we are we just motivate eachother and carry on.

I bet if left alone i wouldn't have persued it even though i feel i can run the full marathon with a bit of practise.

To write !!!

I am back...
again after a long time.. failin to keep the promise i made in the previous post. I dunno why i keep doing it quite often. Guess I am not a great writer which stops me from posting frequently or rather i take refuge by considering myself not a good writer. Well if i don't write how am i going to become one. With all these writing takes the last priority. If i have absolutly nothing else to do, i login to blogspot. Well u guessed rite, I am kinda free now or rather i have made myself free :) .

For a long time i wanted to pen some of the work i do, things i did, or things i intend to do. I will provide u with a list of post i plan to write. Since i have posted here probly i will be motivated enuff to post them pretty soon. Here they go...

First things first.

1. StanC Mumbai Marathon - Jan 21st

2. Runnin on the street- late nite/ early morning

3. Jodhpur/Jaisalmer Trip
The desert safari.. my expectations.. how it matched, exceeded and failed...

4. Delhi trip part II.
I have written the first part and the second part is due for quite sometime.

5. Relationships...
Yup, I plan to write few things about relationships, things i cherish about them, things i despise, things i have learnt, things i am unable to fathom.. well to put in a nut shell.. it will be Relationships through my eyes.

6. Classes / Group preps
The unforgettable moments ... things which hav taught me those little stuffs i have learnt in this place...

7. Flash - Success rate of 100%
From a debutant to ....

8. Competitions - how i manage to fail all of them

9. Dangs - The place to visit...
One awesome bike trip with an exciting group of friends .. probably i will post some pics as well....

I want to make the count touch 10.. i am thinking very hard to find the tenth one... i should be able to think something.... hey.. here it goes.. not an interestin thing to write about but at a later date it mite bring a smile on my face.... hopefully...

10. Our CCCS presentation

By this weekend i hope i will be able to write about them.

To Delhi and back Part I

Last weekend i had travelled to Delhi to visit one of my good friends. I had never seen Delhi before and I always wanted to see it. Even then i had not made any plans to visit Delhi. But my friend forced to make my trip and off i went to the national capital.

Way to the Railway Station...

All my friends know how punctual i am. When it comes to boarding the train too i was late not that i was doing timepass, i had couple of meetings just before i left. I was delayed considerably and i was all ready to go by 5:30 pm for the 5:45 pm train. Alas it is half an hour from the campus to the railway station. I didn't have any other go, got on the auto and told him to go to Sabarmati station which is half an hour from the campus and from the main railway station, thought with some luck i will be able to catch the train. The autowalla rode as if he had all the time in the world, with a little bit of pesterin and pushing, i managed to get to the station by 6 pm and was wondering what will i do for the next 15 mins since i am early. Went to the railway station and saw the tracks were narrow gauge, i was taken aback. when i cross checked with the station staff, there were considerate enough to tell me that the train comes on the main line which is half a km from the station on the other side.. i culdn't see the main line because my view was blocked by 4 goods trains. Cursing myself, i ran with my bag to reach the main line, crossed 2 goods train since they were smaller, the third one was a long one and i was right in the middle of it. Then the real adventure began, i started to climb between the bogies but the train started to move all of a sudden. i got down and waited till the train passed. Now the last one, no luck either, i was again in the middle of it. Thought of crawling below the link, it was low enough to not let me thru easily and the grease would have spoilt the white shirt i was wearing. The link was high enough so that i culdn't jump over it easily. After examining the gap between the bogies, checking the strength of each of the metal pieces that were placed inbetween i climbed on the link. During the climb, some part of time i was freely suspended in mid air. With all sorts of acrobatics i culd manage to get on the other side of the train. Never knew crossing a train was that difficult, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. Once i crossed, ppl who were waiting for the same train started giving me dirty looks because it is not common for passengers to take that route to reach the railway station :) .

The train arrived and i was very happy to board it. If not for the adventure it wouldn't have been so satisfying to board the train !!!

The Journey

I went to check my seat and behold i see a young pretty girl sittin in the seat next to me. Well not everytime u see pretty girls travelling with you in the same compartment as yours :). The "shy" guy i am i did not strike a conversation or exchange pleasantries. I just went and sat there, when the train started to move i started readin "Elephant Song" the book i carried to read through my journey.

After readin abt 10 pages i see the seat next to the window empty and i parked myself on it. I started speakin to the guy in front of me. he was a businessman from UP and was travellin whole of India on some business. He started narrating his life to me. His education, marriage, his passion, business and football. We discussed football to a great extent since that was the only common thread we had. He had played for few clubs in the past and was into coachin now, and i play football. Its always interestin to discuss a sport with someone who is knowledgeable about the same. We discussed the technicalities, strategies, curving kicks, flank defense, front attack and what not. After that i received a call and was on phone till i got out of Gujarat. since roaming was not enabled on my cell, thanks to the telephone dept, i culdn't take refugee in my cell after i crossed gujarat.

This was just the beginnin. There is more to come !! will pen it down probably tonite.....
if i dont go to Rajasthan.

Perfect 10

Here is a list of people who achieved perfection in the games they played. These are not any miniscule achievement. These were played when the individuals represented their country, when the media had made them superheroes, expectations were sky high. They never disappointed anyone and etched their names in the books of history. The accomplishment reflects not just the talent they had but also their mental strength, their grit and their passion.

1. Jim Laker - 10/53 at Old Trafford
2. Geoff Hurst - 1966 World Cup Final Hat-trick
3. Torvill & Dean - 1984 Winter Olympics 9 perfect sixes
4. Anil Kumble - 10 wickets against Pakistan
5. Mark Spitz - 7 gold medals in 1972 Olympics
6. Frankie Dettori - Winner of all 7 races on Sep 28, 1996
7. Steffi Graf - 1988 Golden grandslam
8. Jesse Owens - 4 gold medals in 1936 Olympics
9. Nadia Comeneci - Perfect 10 in 1976 Olympics
10. Jonny Wilkinson - Golden left boot in 2003 Rugby World Cup

Here is the source.

15 yrs of internet ...

OMG.. its been 15 years since internet has entered the world...
what a phenomenol growth it has seen in these 15 years, it has been a part of everybody's life...
one cannot imagine a life without browsin the net... its a one stop solution for nethin under the sun.. well beyond too...

on the 15th anniversary here's a list of top 15 sites on the net ... courtesy guardian

1. eBay.com
Founded: Pierre Omidyar, 1995, US
Users: 168m
What is it? Auction and shopping site

2. wikipedia.com
Founded: Jimmy Wales, 2001, US
Users: 912,000 visits per day
What is it? Online encyclopaedia

3. napster.com
Founded: Shawn Fanning, 1999, US
Users: 500,000 paying subscribers
What is it? File sharing site

4. youtube.com
Founded: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, 2005, US
Users: 100m clips watched a day
What is it? Video sharing site

5. blogger.com
Founded: Evan Williams, 1999, US
Users: 18.5m unique visitors
What is it? Weblog publishing system

6. friendsreunited.com
Founded: Steve and Julie Pankhurst, 1999, UK
Users: 15m
What is it? School reunion site

7. drudgereport.com
Founded: Matt Drudge, 1994, US
Users: 8-10m page views per day
What is it? News site

8. myspace.com
Founded: Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, 2003, US
Users: 100m
What is it? Social networking site

9. amazon.com
Founded: Jeff Bezos, 1994, US
Users: More than 35m customers in over 250 countries
What is it? Online retailer, primarily of books, CDs and DVDs

10. slashdot.org
Founded: Rob Malda, 1997, US
Users: 5.5m per month
What is it? Technology news website and internet forum

11. salon.com
Founded: David Talbot, 1995, US
Users: Between 2.5 and 3.5m unique visitors per month
What is it? Online magazine and media company

12. craigslist.org
Founded: Craig Newmark, 1995, US
Users: 4bn page views per month
What is it? A centralised network of online urban communities, featuring free
classified advertisements and forums

13. google.com
Founded: Larry Page and Sergey Brin, 1998, US
Users: A billion search requests per day
What is it? Search engine and media corporation

14. yahoo.com
Founded: David Filo and JerryYang, 1994, US
Users: 400m
What is it? Internet portal and media corporation

15. easyjet.com
Founded: Stelios
Haji-Ioannou, 1995, UK
Users: 30m passengers last year
What is it?: Budget airline


Its a very interestin article.It talks about how gutenberg revolutionised the thinkin of the common man and draws parallel from this to Tim Berners Lee's invention of the WWW.

Unnecessary formality ...

As usual, i am back after a long time...
its not tht i dont hav nethin to write or time to write... its just tht i dont push myself to write... however hard i try .. the last thing i do is to write ... well sooner or later i need to get rid of this habit of mine...

now cumin back to the topic...
i came across the title as a description for a ceremony we regard in high esteem... the response was on a class survey that was circulated in the class..
regardin class surveys .. we used to hav it durin my undergrad days.. it was very much fun and the whole class used to be part of it... we used to pick somethin thts of common interest to the class and pass on the survey across the class when the class was goin on .. at the end of the class i used to write few of the responses on the board.... man, life was so interestin then.. i miss those days.. well almost.. not those where i hav been the victim of the survey :) ...

since i entered into post grad.. didn't hav nethin similar to it durin the first year.. in the second year .. in order to kill time me and my neighbour started this survey on "wht do u think marriage is".. as it made its way thru the guys.. it had only lustful remarks such as licensed sex ... unrestricted sex .. so on and so forth .. we had to chip in with couple of senti lines to
keep the sanctity of the survey.. well there were few interestin responses but the one tht caught me is the topic of this post...

there was plenty of discussion over the topic.. but i am not goin to write about it now...
will surely do it sometime later....

The Quote ...

Well.. comin back after a really long time..
i hav promised myself yet again tht i will be a regular blogger...
but this is one promise i hav not been able to honor... but the promise saga continues..

ok.. back to bloggin...

i luv quotes.... ne witty retort impresses me...
i used to hav a gud collection of the quotes i had come across...frm the books i read, newspaper, conversation and evn i subscribed to quite a few quote sites too...

these days i hav started browsin thru wikipedia very often... thts one place u get info abt everythin.. i don't vouch for it.. nonetheless it gives u whtevr info u need ... i agree there are some doubts regardin its authenticity.. but thts the last thing tht bothers me....

while generally browsin thru wikipedia... i came across the Richard Bach page...
came across his quotes... i tell u i hav come across lots of them.. but his is a class apart...
i luv the quotes because it helps u to stop and contemplate on things.. gives u a different perspective to think about... eventually one feels it shuld be obvious...

my favorite quote from his collection is...

---->
I used to think that the purpose of language was to communicate. That if we were clear enough and careful enough, we could make anyone understand anything we write, make them see anything we see. Not so, I found.

The only people who can understand us are the ones who already know what we want to tell them, and then the best of our writing can merely remind, can simply whisper, "I know that, too."

Have you ever wondered why some readers love a book and others just don't get it? I'll tell you why (but you'll understand only if you already know)

------>

gud isn't it...

one of my good friend culdn't get thru an interview... she was down in depression.. she was not the rite fit for the profile.. she felt bad because she failed in the interview.. and she culdn't digest the fact....

That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.

"The Bridge Across Forever"

guess.. this will do her some good..

ok..
folks.. bye frm me ...
will try to keep the promise i hav made...

The WACky Time

Well... comin back after a long hibernation....
my first since i joined MBA....

will post my experience of "MBA" sometime later
whn i find some spare time

WAC as for the non MBA junta is Written Analysis and Communication
wht crap each one of us written somethin or the other in our lifetime
and done lots of analysis b4 we got here...
people with workex would hav created lots of reports
so y spend time on something which doesn;t add any value to u...

well my friend, the simplicity ends here
WAC is one thing where even the native english people might falter ...
the subject curbs the natural talent and the free flow of thought
and claims to provide a structure and logical flow to the thought process

believe me thts the last thing u get out of here
if u haven't got out of the insti yet... (only for the ppl who understand wimwi ways)
atleast as far as WAC 1 in term 1 is considered

u do some shitty analysis, spend ur weekend pouring thru hazaar internet sites
churned out by google... discuss with ur friends..
and come up with out of the box alternatives.. creative thinkin will be awarded
thts wht they say...

u see to it tht ur thoughts, ideas, analysis everything combined do not exceed 1000 words...
well it boils down to sort of precis writin for few and OMG ttthhhhooooouuuuussssssaaaannnnnddddd words for the rest...

the deadline is fast approaching...
clock strikes 3:45 .. the submission window opens...
then comes the gruntin sound of the printer...
whn it starts churnin out papers and more papers..
a small group assembles around the printer...
whr they "thank" the profs and the TA for the assignment

how can people realise technology if it doesn't fail...
the printer says Jam in tray 2....
intellectuals as we are... we don;t knw how to rectify it...
u need the printer mgr and set it right...
the worse part ppl don;t learn anything they want the printer mgr to come for the same error umpteen no. of times..

with the report all done and one glance @ clock which reads 4:25 pm...
shit... the submission ends @ 4:30... thn comes all popular WAC run...
whr u run to ur classroom to submit before time... which most of us manage to do so..
thn comes the time of relief... whr one forgets to submit the soft copy

we need to submit the softcopy of the assignment at two places..
ya.. u read rite... soft copy to be copied to two places..
well one is impressed with the intellectual level of the system..u see..

u hav ample amt of time for submission... well by 11:59:59 !!!!...
evn then manage to forget and lose a subgrade...

and now regardin the grades...
the guy who gets a C and a B ... doesn't hav a clue of
how he/she got wht he/she got...
its a random grade generating algorithm these ppl follow...
whtever is the reason they will force u to get convinced tht
the gradin is right for ur report...

this is WAC for u...

Azim Premji's lessons learnt

Here are the few lessons learnt by the richest Indian Mr. Azim Premji in his life. I was in Wipro for 6 months from July 2003 to Dec 2003 because of which I have some kind of attachment towards Wipro 'n its chairman.

The lessons :

o Believe and Begin with your strengths
o A rupee earned is of far more value than five found.
o Learn from your failure
o Realise the importance of humility
o Strive for excellence
o Never give up in the face of adversity
o Keep open to changes, but do not compromise on values
o Have faith in your ideas

These are the pearls of wisdom ... coming from such distinguished 'n accomplished gentleman.
As i look at my life .. i feel i have a long way to go before i realise the true value of these lessons....

Source : Premji's lessons

Should companies favour fresh grads or experience people

I came across an article in economic times addressing the issue of experience over a fresher. THe key spokesperson in the article is one Mr.Peter Lorange, president of IMD, one of the world's leading business schools.

Here he talks about pros with experience as "growth sponsors", they are the ones on which the company should bank on future growth instead of the fresh talent with an MBA degree. I don't subscribe to this view entirely and nonetheless i am not contradicting it too. Fresh talent will be "growth sponsors" too, with their new ideas, their passion for work, the drive to do things differently will do a lot good to the company for its future growth.

The experience people do have certain pluses to their credit : their understanding of the market a nd the thing between their ears will be more mature will help the company in a different way.

In conclusion, I feel that depending on the circumstances the company should go for freshers or retain the experience pros. Both have their own pluses 'n minuses, there should be an healthy mix of both of them for the company to see a more 'n more positive slope in its growth curve.

Source : Business guru favours experience over MBA

Silicon Silicon all the way!!!

As I work in a semiconductor industry a posting on Silicon...

Every1 has heard of ICs - those small 'things' in any electronic gadget. Those who are informed know that these ICs are made up of silicon - the semiconductor material.

The company i work for, works on cutting edge technology , striving hard to meet the unproven but globally accepted Moore'slaw - the no. of transistors integrated in a given area will double every eighteen months. Even I play a simple role in achieving the inevitable.

One fine day when i was contemplating about my future, my roadmap in the company , my career I stumbled across this thought :
Since we are actually shrinking the silicon every 18 yrs ( 65 nm as of now), what will happen once we hit the physical limit of silicon.

The IT revolution is not going to come to end just because we have hit the silicon limit, IT has grown beyond that.I checked this with my superviser too who hadnot thought about it. After questioning other ppl i finally found solace in Google. When I googled this is what i found.

There are lots of research happening to find the next bext thing once the limit is reached. The two most important ones are :

o Optical computing.
Using light to process the data, as of now we use light to carry data, using the interference property of light we can build logic circuits. Check the link at the bottom of the page.

o Quantum Computing.
Using atom as the storing element. If an Electron in an atom is in a energised state, it is logic 1 and the stable atom is logic zero. If this materialises it will be a quantum leap in the area of computing since photons are faster than electrons and the volume of storage will be gigantic.

The research is goin on in both the areas, but nothing concrete yet. But things look very bright in the future.

Source : Silicon

Google Google all the way

Wht follows Google ???

Oogle , Gaggle, Moogle, Frugle, Poogle, Smeagle.
and many more..

One of the best links I have seen on the web yet - Very creative !

wikipedia on RD

I have been reading Reader's digest since ages, always felt RD always had something new and useful, till i came across this article published by wikipedia. It tells about a pattern which i had missed all these days and about the narrating style of the few articles. Over all its an interesting read, even if you don't subscribbe to the view expressed.

Despite its old-fashioned image, Reader's Digest is regarded as one of the most professionally made magazines in the world. Articles are edited for authenticity and controlled by an elaborate editorial hierarchy to ensure that the final product is integrated into the Reader's Digest discourse. This discourse is highly homogeneous, and articulates a very specific set of conservative values, some of which are important aspects of the dominant representation of American society.

This political stance is considered so pronounced that the University of Guelph stated publicly that they carry the magazine only as an example of propaganda. Secondly, this model is introduced all over the world, but without being presented as "American". The local Reader's Digest editions quite consistently attempt to create ambiguity about the American, international or local character of the magazine.

Every issue has the same structure. There is, for instance, always one survival story (called "Drama in Real Life"), at least one individual achievement story, a medical article, several moralizing stories on human relations, several articles with practical advice, and some politically inspired stories in which bureaucracy, crime, radical ideologies and other behavior inconsistent with the dominant ideology of the magazine are exposed.

The internal structure of articles also corresponds to an elaborate and fixed model. The survival stories, for instance, have a blurb presenting the drama in medias res, then return in time with an elaborate description of the initial situation. Rescue doesn't come at the very last paragraph: there is always time to restore the initial peace and formulate a lesson. The last sentences often thanks the Lord or mention the medals awarded by the story's heroes.

The Digest features three types of texts. A first group are the articles condensed from other magazines. Both their selection and condensation are done by two independently working editors, checked by a third, and approved or corrected by at least two senior editors. The same goes for articles written exclusively for the Digest: authors are asked to write articles of normal length, which then pass through the same condensation and editing procedures as other articles.

Finally, the Reader's Digest has a policy of what is called "planting" articles. It commissions articles it would like to reprint, donates them for free to other magazines for integral publication, and then publishes a condensed version. This practice of "pseudo-reprint" makes it possible to "innocentize" messages by attributing them to another instance.

Although for decades the condensations from other magazines constitute not more than 30-40 % of the editorial pages, the Digest continues to present itself as a reprint magazine, as an overview of journalistic discourse in the United States and abroad.

[edit]

World view

The following are some of the basic values founding the discourse of the Reader's Digest.

• Individual achievement. Digest characters are always struggling, against bad luck, against systems and regulations, against diseases, and their only weapons are their own courage, cooperation between individuals, and an occasional helping hand of God.

• Optimism. Most Digest stories have happy ends. There is only one other case: the article may acknowledge in the end that there are still many difficulties to overcome, and give advice.

• Moral conservatism. Though the Digest has from the beginning written very openly on sexuality, it has always been emphatically in favor of traditional marriage, loyalty to your country, discipline and charity, and against feminism, free sex, positive discrimination.

• Free market economy. In almost every issue, the magazine fights taxes, government regulations, budget deficits, labor unions, and for many decades the Communist system. All these ideologemes fit into a rather elaborate and consciously reproduced doctrine.

source Wikipedia

The best of 2004

Ever wondered whats the best that happened to you in a period of time.

Well I can't list the best things that happened to you, but here is a list of the best of 2004.

Believe it or not, BLOG is the #1 word of the year.

2004 : The Spirit of Time

This slideshow by GOOGLE on the events of 2004 is simply awesome.

Check it out

Tsunami .......

The word Tsunami will mean different to the people who stay on the coasts of south Asia and East Africa. Tsunami created havoc on the lives of the people both coastal and the terrain denizens.

Walking down my memory lane, I had first come across the word tsunami in my High school geography text, well I believe that neither my friends nor the people who studied that text would have imagined tsunami to be like this, forget the damages and the lives it would have taken. But its very sad that tsunami has made its presence felt with such a high death toll.

May the souls of those perished rest in peace and my heart felt condolences to the bereaved families. My thoughts are with them.

Here is a link to relief agency websites.