Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Summer 2007

I watched this movie Summer 2007 last week. The movie started like any other college crowd movie - add style, sex and viola the movie would run. I survived the initial part of the movie to reach the rest of the movie set in some village.

The rest of the story was so gripping and meaningful that it left you thinking at end of the movie. How, you could live in an illusion that India is a $1 Trillion economy and I belong to this India and the other India where farmers suicide is a norm and not an exception, I am untouched by it. You need to accept that even that India is part of your own India and sometime the paths will cross and you will not be untouched by it.

Brilliant movie.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

What I don't like about Apple?

I have always been a fan of Apple and its products. Therefore, today might be my first ever anti-Apple feeling and a post here.

Over past few months I have seen that Apple comes out with a iTunes updates quite frequently. While, I like constant updates, I don't like the amount of download required to update my iTunes. Everytime I start updating my iTunes, it starts with a download of about 12 MB, followed by multiple downloads, totaling over 50 MB. This is not fair. I am sure there can be an intelligent updating possible which only applies a small patch and updates my iTunes. Even if that is not possible, what Apple should do is to allow download in multiple sessions. Currently, the whole update happens in one session and if it fails, I will have to download the whole damn thing again! With unreliable and slower internet connection this is really painful. Apple update should work like Windows update. Download the update silently in the background over multiple sessions and then offer to install it.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

3 Books

I recently bought and read three books. This is important because I don't consider myself anywhere close to a reader, leave alone avid reader. All three books were by the same author, Chetan Bhagat and these were all his books - The three mistakes of my life, one night @ the call center and Five point someone. The best thing about his books was that these were an easy read. I could see a story on television running in front of my eyes. I could relate to all the stories. Nice work. Looking forward to more books by this author.

Next on the agenda:

1. Freakonomics

2. The complete guide to accelerating Sales Force Performance :)

6 Steps to Greatness

Here is a summary from Prof Rajeshwar's class:

Step 1: Reverse the way you get out of bed

Step 2: Look for good in other people

Step 3: Learn how to greet people

Step 4: Establish Symbols

Step 5: Take care of your physical health

Step 6: Feed your mind

Here are the steps in details.

Step 1: Reverse the way you get out of bed

What this step really means is that you should challenge your comfort zone. You come out of your bed in the same way everyday, without consciousness. This is like a metaphor. You should seek what you really aspire. This should not be constrained by what you feel is realistic, because the limits are only in your mind. Of course, there is ambition and then there is over ambition which is when your ambition exceeds your capability. But when you live a dream, you only will know whether the goal is achievable or not. Give it a chance. Change after you have lived it for some time. Because if you would not look out for it, you would not get it.

This also suggests that you should be impractical, irrational while setting your aspirations. You should write down your aspirations and repeat it to yourself everyday. Everyday in the morning, as soon as you wake up say to yourself as if you are what you want to be. Last thought that you have at night, is the first thought in the morning. e.g. if you put an alarm to catch at flight at 4 AM, you would wake up 5 minutes before that. Your mind gets tuned to it. So, write a script and chase it. Stay focused!

There was an experiment done where a few flies were put in a glass tumbler and the glass was covered with the book. The flies tried a lot to come out of the glass, but their struggle failed. After some time, they were hovering near the top of the glass. Then the book was removed. None of the flies, flied out. From their experience they knew they couldn't come out. But they were so wrong. So, don't let your experiences limit you from chasing your dreams. You never know when the passage exists. Keep looking out for it.

Step 2: Look for good in other people

Consciously look for what is good in other people. Admire them for their good. Don't look at their shortcoming because that humanizes them. Look for the gold not dirt. Gold is difficult to find and you have to neglect a lot of dirt to find gold. Darkest hour is just before the dawn. If you see bad, good is just around the corner.

Praise is always acceptable. If you praise someone, there will never be a time that a person will be offended by it. This is a great tip for networking. It can be very uncomfortable, but still needs to be done. You should always look for good and develop others.

Step 3: Learn how to greet people

You should always greet others with energy. A cold Hello is just not enough. Show enthusiasm. Stretch yourself to show the enthusiasm if it doesn't come easily. Differentiate yourself.

Step 4: Establish Symbols

This one is a little tricky. You should develop your anchor. e.g. your calmness could be your anchor or symbol. And it should be one. Its like God. Whoever it is, doesn't matter. It should be someone and should be only that.

Step 5: Take care of your physical health

Would you sell your eyes if you were paid a million dollars? If not, then value them accordingly. Take care of your body and physical health. The old adage that if health is done - something is gone is very true. A health body only can have a healthy mind. Only mind and body are your own - develop them!

Step 6: Feed your mind

GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out works for the mind too. Don't feed garbage to your mind. Feed it healthy content like Classics, Motivations, Heroics, Good literature and Good thoughts.

Try to follow these six steps and greatness will be yours!

Tata, bye-bye, and good riddance?

Interesting Read:

http://infochangeindia.org/200809067321/Environment/Politics-of-Biodiversity/Tata-bye-bye-and-good-riddance.html

Monday, August 18, 2008

Is MBA about giving fundas?

My wife complained to me yesterday that ever since I have come back from my MBA school, I have started giving fundas to everyone. She mentioned while listening to a conversation with my friend over phone, that every statement he made, I had an opinion on it. I classified it as either good or bad, useful or useless, interesting or bad, so on and so forth. Her argument was that may be the other person just made a statement and didn't expect that statement to be evaluated on my scale.I didn't agree to her initially but it forced me to think. So, what is it? Is it that MBA helps you to think through everything and helps you make quick decisions or is it that just get so much accustomed to giving your opinion as a part of "evaluated" class participation while discussing the case studies? Whatever it is, I think I need to take this feedback and work on it.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Another Indian Paradox

There was a news item recently that there are more religious shrines in India than schools and hospitals combined. Although, I don't find anything wrong with that, it does reflect that we Indians are quite religious and our belief in afterlife and karma is supreme. Now, the paradox lies here. We all go to temples to get some favor from God, and add to our account of good karma, but for doing this, we add so many more bad karmas. e.g. we pay to get vip darshan, we do not follow any discipline or rules and at drop of hat push people, jump lines, avoid lines, not even caring for small children and infants. We look at beggers with harted, scold them, no do anything to make their lives better but we will give away hundreds in the temple which will be used to make the temple better, add gold to it and make it more attractive and bigger to invite more people and add to this mayhem.

BTW, why do I say that its not baffling that there are more religious shrines than schools and hospitals, because not every one is sick and needs a hospital at a given time and only people of certain age go to school, which is only a fraction. But everyone goes to temples and prays - everyday! or at least they are supposed to. Therefore, I didn't find this news item that striking!