Meri Matrix - My Dream World

Blocks - The Game

2007-01-29T14:46:00.000-08:00

Try this in your free time.

Most Horrible Crime.

2006-10-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

Anybody has any clue what could be the most horrbile crime on this earth. At my native place, we have a popular quote: "The root of all conflicts/war can be traced to three popular sources - Land/Wealth/Women". In hindu mythology, there are numerous stories to support this quote. However, in here I had found the fourth one - SICK PEOPLE.

I mean, till date, i use to consider 'rape' as one of the most horrible crime in the world. If you make me the judge, perhaps, I would always give more harh judgement instead of the usual 'seven year imprisonment'. However, I am dubbed as extremist by my friends. But I guess even the 'extreme' moderate would give not less than 'public execution' of the 'sick' category of people. Ok. Ok. Finally I will come to as to what I am talking about.

Recently Fed arrested few people in child pornography case. Now my argument is that why do we really keep the punishment for this crime anything less than 'public execution' of the offenders. I mean, how can a person get aroused or anything of that sort by seeing those cute little figures. I tell you what. Western society has become more tolerant of the heinous crimes of human ages. we often hear these in news and forget. we don't feel them unless we have a first hand experience of someone we directly know. We are not moved. However, there is no logical argument that we should spare the offenders in this case. And my only concern is that these should be punished publicly - nothing less than execution - so that people can take lessons - like in olden days.

what affects me most is that nearly all the offenders were from most educated and cultured part of the society and if our education and culture cannot move them to think away from their 'abnormal instincts', perhaps they should be executed. They are do nnot belong to human species and hence demand an extermination. Hmmm....Exaggeration. Not quite.

My argument is like this....we give punish sentences to the offenders in order that he realizes his mistake and after serving for 'x' number of terms, he can be rehabilatated back to the society. But, how can you ever expect a 'sick person' to get back normal to life again. How do you deviate from this....I mean I don't understand that any type of 'punishment' can actually change them. I suspect it would make the matters worse.

Please leave in your comments as to what you think of this. Why this has moved me soo much because, I also has first hand experience of someone with whom I am in direct contact with :(

Inches in Life.

2006-10-15T15:53:00.000-07:00

First listen to the speech for the superb speech delivery effects of Al pacino and then try to fantasize an Indian actor doing the same. i could only envision Amitabh Bacchan - Living Legend and Nana Patekar, who had delivered this type of speech in his previous movies.

Now consider the 'real' meaning of the speech. I will write about it more but really, when you are dperessed and in crises, all doors closed, listening to something like this might help.

Feel Good factor : IIT

2006-10-06T04:31:00.000-07:00


Real Advantage of introspection - You get good...PROUD of your past achievements, which you may have either taken for granted or forgot. Well here is one for sure.... A TV program telecasted in US (CBS) about Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). Listen carefully to the statements made by many within the film about IIT system in India.

Indian Drive to Automation.

2006-10-02T04:18:00.000-07:00


This is how we drive to automation at least on the traffic arena. Now obseve closely. Nearby shops are closed - that is either it is off office hours or an holiday - That is not peak hour traffic and this is not peak 'traffic city' - Can anyone imagine peak hour traffic in peak traffic city like Banglore or Mumbai?

Steve Job's Speech in Stanford Ceremony

2006-09-29T04:52:00.000-07:00


This is an amazing speech by Steve Jobs in Stanford University's graduation ceremony!

ABC of Application Essays

2006-09-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

For the past six weeks I am trying to write the Application essays for my dream school. This fall, it might be a turning point for my career or one more struggle year added to previous ones. Whatever be the fate, only tide of time will wash away the dust from the future. But the aplying to B-Schools is a tough job - tougher than it looks like.

Ok here is my journey till date. When I started with my GMAT prep I thought, GMAT is the toughest part. Once this is clear - rest will be cakewalk. Fair Enough. This was at the time when I used to falter in my prep tests. Phew!!! Let the GMAT be over, I will again be comfortable and have a breathing time. I will fly in the air again and as my friend prasoon says - I will be able to see the 'blue sky' again. He has some theoram of 'Blue sky' - which says that when you are under immense pressure - you stop seeing that the sky is blue. You get detached to the world. The state remains till you are out of that pressure. Once it is done you can see the 'blue sky'. So I thought - my blue sky is waiting after my GMAT.

And so it came. I could see the blue sky after my GMAT but that didn't last for long. Immediately I started with the Essay writing stuff and thought to write the app essays of three schools - what an idiot I was even to think of it in first place. All other work like arranging transcripts and reccos were also included in this two months time period.

Let us keep the schools as L, C, W. So it started with the L essays. Huh!! Pretty easy. I always knew why MBA? and stuff. This is cool. Next!! Ambitions?? Huh!! Another sitter!! And so it went. I thought to extend my 'rest'. One of my MBA friend adviced me that I should not act stupid and immediately start with it. And on the weekend, I started with it. Gosh!! I could not tell you the feeling on that day. Imagine a person writing his first love letter surrounded with the crushed paper strewn all over the place and the site of the person with knees on table. I instantly realized that this is going to be the toughest portion of the entire App. A few more weeks and it only increased the number of crushed paper in the neighbourhood - Phew!!! I guess the blue sky coverted to 'blues'.

Anyway, finally I was able to have a proud Draft version of the essay and sent it to friend to have a third eye view. I was devastated by the reply. It seems like he had put RDX beneath my essays say BLAST. I had to undergo the labor pains again....And for an easy stuff like Why MBA????? That was the funny part. However, just like your first love letter - you want to be perfect, you need to be perfect - You got to be perfect. There is no escape (unless you decide to change your opinion about your love) , no mercy and no easy way out...

I believe the hardest part of any essay is the forced self introspection. Because when you do self introspection for yourself, you tend to gain but if somebody forces you and say - Hey look, try to ascertain your past pieces of life and build four walls and show me what rooftop you want? - What do you do? You do as he says...Because he is the boss at present. Sometimes this forced self introspection leads to self depression when you think excessively about your scattered past and are unable to join these pieces to give you a larger than life image. Well, welcome to the Club MBA. I don't wanna discuss my story of the essay writing for the second school - C. However, I totally dropped the idea for W so you are better judge as to how it faired for C... :).

However the story is far from over....But it gives you a good fuel to discuss it with your boss.. Yes, I mean it. With your boss!! If your boss really cares about you and your future, I don't think he has any problem with your decision to take a break to build your career and future. If he has....Change your job....Well in my case, I enjoy discussing these cycles with my boss ( incidentally we share the same institute background..so a rapport is already there).

IIT JEE Prep...

2006-09-23T16:39:00.000-07:00

The following Yahoo IM is the inspiration of this blog. Hope it will help in general..First I thought that I will write reply back but then I thought that whatever I might write may be applicable to many candidates...So why mail...Why not Blog? I had put name as *****.

"hey sir! thanx for adding me. my name is **** and am a high school student.am in 11th standard at present,and am kinda preparing for the IIT JEE exams.i dun think i am gonna make it,but as they say,what's the harm in trying! so that's what am doing,and that's what's about me.i would love to know more about you sir and i would be obliged if we strike some good frndship here.hope to hear more from you.c ya.gnite."

Ok. In this I am not going to be a moral advisor or any stuff like that but I would definately want to narrate my own story and I think stories help, true stories.

I had my schooling from CMS, Statio Road, Lucknow. And in class Tenth, whenever I came across any IIT student I instantly felt immense amount of respect. Quite certain, IIT was a distant dream back in those days for almost all of us. And why it should not be...Not only you, whole of the family earned a lot of respect. I lived in an irrigation colony where there were not many instances of IIT qualifiers. When I was in XI standard, only 'one respected bhaiya' achieved the hallmark. Not sure whether I can make it or not, I started very poorly in class XI. The adolescent age syndrome led me to do everything else but IIT prep. The resultant - In the my class XI I came second position from the bottom. The memories of that are still fresh. Till that time, the distance between me and IIT was increased to infinite amount. The toughness of the exam and my wasted year - Gosh - I am certainly not for IIT. Something was sure after my class XI. Something changed after that. From the start of Class XII, I became more responsive and 'kinda' believed in myself. I would not say that I instantly believed that I am going to make it but it was gradual. The determination was solid but the guilt of wasted year was also accompanying it. How the change of heart happened after Class XI is another story - something personal - in nutshell it was my Dad, who was much troubled with my acts in Class XI. The point is that in class XI - IIT was distant dream - too big to hit, at the start of Class XII, it was too big to miss.

*****, when I saw your message, I could feel that you are much better than me. At least I was negative about the IIT selection at the end of my XI exam and you are 'kinda preparing' and Why? because everyone else is. Sort of trend. My advise is DON'T DO THAT. If you want to make it to IIT, just start believing that you can do it. That change of attitude would make a lot of difference. Remember Nike - 'Just do it'. That should be the motto. And after wasting my Class XI like hell and being the lowest strata of intellectual hierarchy - there was one thing which segregated me from the rest. The determination set me apart. I was not the super born intelligence - not that I hd proved anything of that sort till date but the ability for hard work is there. That is the fundamental trait that I knew I had. And guess what - when you start believing yourself - others do. I formed a study group with one of my friend in my class XII and started with the Physics and Maths coaching - typical trend. Throughout my prep, I could not feel the difference, the difference of the attitude is just as big as intelligence.

So first of all, forget about the tons of intelligence required to clear the exam, forget about what other have to say about you today (think what you want to say them tomorrow), forget about that your school doesn't have the history of producing IIT as the adjacent school has.. Alas!, forget about everything else. What you should do is to change your statement from 'i dun think i am gonna make it' to 'i know i am gonna make it'.

And its not that day dreaming will fetch you a seat...No. Not right. Dreaming is the first step. Hard work the second. Put in your consistent hard work and do not get dismayed by the (un)crackable questions of Irodov or TMH. That will happen and you will have your own cycle of low times but right now...Believe in yourself and Don't prepare kinda.....NEVER. Either you can or you cannot and whatever you think - You are right in that. Don't let the school teachers or fellow students remarks about you determine what you are and what you can do.

So from now on...its not the case 'what's the harm in trying'? Believe me, in IIT you are not going to compete with scores of students who are appearing for the Exam. Chances are, 99% are with the attitude 'What's the harm'. Rest 1% get selected.

Will be delighted to clarify any other doubts you might have but the basic pretext is - Remove the self doubt first. I might not solve the irodov question 'doubts' now as it had been some 10 odd years when I left preparing but I can try to help you discover you already know - You will make it.

What is Management - Part 2 (Humour)

2006-09-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

One of the Chain mails but worth revision:

A Professor at one of the IIM’s (Indian Institute of Management)
was explaining marketing concepts to the Students:

1. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say:
“I am very rich. Marry me!” - *That’s Direct Marketing.*

2. You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous
girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says:
“He’s very rich, marry him.” - *That’s Advertising.*

3. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her
telephone number. The next day, you call and say: “Hi, I’m very
rich. Marry me.” - *That’s Telemarketing.*

4. You’re at a party and see gorgeous girl. You get up and
straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink, you
open the door (of the car) for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her ride and then say: “By the way, I’m rich. Will you marry me?” - *That’s Public Relations.*

5. You’re at a party and see gorgeous girl.
She walks up to you and says:
“You are very rich! Can you marry ! me?” - *That’s Brand Recognition.*

6. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: I
am very rich. Marry me! “She gives you a nice hard slap on your face.”- *That’s Customer Feedback*

7. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say:
“I am very rich. Marry me!” And she introduces you to her husband.-
*That’s demand and supply gap*

8. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before
you say anything, another person come and tell her: “I’m rich. Will
you marry me?” and she goes with him. -* That’s competition eating into your market
share*
9. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before
you say: “I’m rich, Marry me!” your wife arrives. - *That’s restriction for entering new markets or Regulatory Markets*

Interview Process: Reverse the tables.

2006-09-23T07:28:00.000-07:00

Here is the purpose of this blog - Design an interview process, the outcome of which is agreeable to both the parties - the interviewer and the interviewee. Many a times, the very process is agreeable only to only one party - the interviewer. Also the process incites the sadistic tendencies of one party and nervousness on the others. The potential loss is for the company and only company. The interviewer does not loose anything as he is not the stakeholder of the company and interviewee, under reasonable assumptions, will find another job anyways.

So the bottom-line is to find a process which is gainful to the companies. I guess, I wanted to read this blog to every HR (typically software firms) and get their critical comments.

Lets analyze the normal process first and the fallacies associated with it and then try to find out the solution around each fallacy. I am not sure of the other industry but I am aware of the process in the Software firms.

NORMAL INTERVIEW PROCESS: An interviewee resume is short listed by anyone from HR to the manager of any division. He is then screened over the telephone just to make sure that 'wasting time' on this candidate is worth enough or not. After that we have the face to face interview. This can be one to one or many to one relationship. In a well planned environment, the interviewee might have series of rounds with increasing toughness after each round. This gives him the feeling of the reducing 'inches' to the 'final goal'. However, the problem arises when the sadistic tendency of the interviewer comes into picture. This is not abnormal and anyone who had given multiple interviews or even heard interview stories will readily acknowledge it. For example asking questions which were tangent to the nature of the job or asking the questions which have no relevance at all with anything in the name of checking the ‘lateral thinking’ ability. This puts of the good candidates. Outside the interview room each candidate claims the irrelevancy of each question and asking what is nowhere related to normal programming practice.

SUGGESTION: My only take is that interviewer should be more qualified than the interviewee and particularly in the topics he is taking the interview. The interviewee should not feel that the interviewer had asked tangential questions just to harass him or anything of that sort. Now how do we decide that is it the sadistic tendency of the interviewer or the false claims of the interviewee? The answer lies in the ‘reverse the table’ approach. After the interview is over from one end and interviewer dismiss the candidate, we should reverse the table and swap the roles. Now interviewee becomes the interviewer and vice versa. This will give the chance of the interviewer to show him that he is indeed qualified more than the interviewee – if he is able to answer satisfactorily to the interviewee. This can be judged by any third party of the company itself. Quite often, few people are famous to have the sadistic tendency within the company but then HR asks them to ‘help’ in the interview process. So in the ‘reverse table’ scenario the onus lies on the interviewer to show that he is better qualified than the interviewee in the topics in which he had rejected him.

Can you envision such a process?? What do you say about such a process???

My Law on Decision Theory.

2006-09-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

Ok. I dont have much time to write in detail but before I forget, here is what I thought while a walk from my home to PATH station.

"The fallacy of our decisions more often lies in the
inherent assumptions of our logical conclusions"

Will write more sometime later but what do you think? Isn't it a deep statement? At least something like that...Anyway, I was proud of myself when I originated this statement.

Stay Tuned...

Shock Result

2006-09-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

Just Now I recieved the news that I had been ditched by IIM A...I mean, I don't understand, how could it be? After 730 in GMAT and a Engineering degree from IIT, how could it be? Total number of years of Exp would be approx. SIX and then also...

Needless to say that I am at an all time low...If this is the response of my highly likely school then its better to hope little for my low probability school. Anyway, will try the fight as much as I can. Bloody Hell. I preponed my GMAT because I wanted to meet the deadline of IIM A and substantially reduced my GMAT prep time. Scored 730 because of it and now here I am....REJECTED.

Will need more time to sink in, I guess. Anyway, these days I am feeling an all time low. Proffessional and Personal both. Seems like Life equations had begun wrong or what???

Lets see when do I recuperate from these feelings...........Waiting...Still Waiting!!!

Self Eval: Marker Date Concept.

2006-09-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

I think it really helps. For self Evaluation-Put a marker date with the event name and move on. Enforce Tracking quite often and you are done. You will get a fair enough view if you are honest. Not making any sense.

Ok. here is what I think. You think about yourself as a Tech power house and your boss ridicules you to make you look like a powder house. Now it may be the case you boss is a sadist specie but it may also be that he is right. Only thing is that he choose to pick a topic in which you were weak. You cannot be the 'master' of the small world 'Technology'. Its simply very BIG. Now when you are being ridiculed or humiliated, you made a promise to yourself that you will shake the world and show in a matter of time that you are a far better learner. How can he say like this? Isn't it? The baseline- You make a self committment.

Now after few hours, days or months, you forget it ALL. Simple. You don't remember the ridicule or the criticism because tide of time is strong enough to wash it like a beach sand dunes. Can you see where I am upto. Probably.

So here is the recipe - Whenever you make a self committment, put a marker date on the Blog itself and review it. You can put into the Outlook reminder task and others but With Blog you are exposed to online junta AND when you make a committment not only to your self but in front of public - it makes a difference.

For example, I said that I will control my anger sometime later and whenever I revisit my blog, It reminds me of my committment. Sounds good in theory but not easy in practicality. Same will Power and determination issue would surface again and again.

Try this, if it doesn't work - Let me know. I will figure out a way for you. :)

MARKER DATE: (TODAY): Need to upgrade my Tech Skills. Because of GMAT and MBA focus, I am out of touch but need to revisit them. For Me, For Myself and For Myself And deep desire to show someone, mmore than one in fact - No Names Please.

Brief History of Me.

2006-09-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

These days too much oof self introspection going on. Reason is that I am applying to B Schools and currently in the process of writing essays - certainly the most painful process in the entire Application process. Anyway, the essay writing force you to think....think and think. You are forced to think in terms of Who you are as person, What are your priorities and where/what you are trying do with your life? Hmmm. It may sound easy to ears but when you shincerely do, its difficult. At least for me. Anyway, in this process of self introspection, I decided to write a blog and this is what I did in my proffessional career till date. Its really good to stop and look back in time and relish your achievements. Try it sometime.

CITICORP: I graduated from IIT Kanpur, the most coveted institute in India and somehow across the world, and got the campus placement in CITICORP OVERSEAS SOFTWARE Ltd. Now this was one of the most prestigious jobs from the entire department in IITK among our batch. The job was in mumbai, the most populous city of India with approx 20 million population, and the Manhattan of India. In the initial phase of the job, everything appeared quite contradictory to the notions held before joining the job. However, I realized the potential of my social network skills. I must say that the only thing I earned in my two years stay in Mumbai was the array of friends, typically hard core bankers.
I can now understand why I have so much of interest in Finance and Banking? Perhaps the first job had a huge impact on myself. I would rather attribute my friendship and mentor with one of my closest friend Satbir Singh, the hard core banker, along with many others as one of the biggest asset during my stay in mumbai. He even gave me beginners banking books, which further increased my curiosity. My belief in MBA got much strengthened when all my senior friends shared their 'glass cieling' experiences due to the lack of MBA. I still remember one of my genius friend, Pradip Nettar, who qualified for BBC Quiz Champion round, advised me very strongly to go for MBA. This was reciprocated by many others who shared the same feeling, particularly my reading club senior friend - Hari, with whom I occassionally have debates from anything to anything. I believe my MBA feeling got ingrained a lot after seeing/hearing my friend's experiences. The other good habits I cultivated were playing Squash in the morning - I slowly learned that its my favorite game and Trekking.

Achievements:

Learned the processes of the Citi - a remarkable experience. Developed interest in the Core Banking after seeing the way Citi moves. Definately my first choice of employment.
Found new interests - Playing Squash in the morning and Trekking. The rise in 'health conscious' index was also in mumbai.
Started Blogging - I say its an achievement.
Trekked the hishest peak of Maharashtra state - Kalsubai and also to Gangotri, some 16000 ft. from the seal level - the longest trek of my life - five days.
Social Networking - Identified and worked on my new skill. I still have some very good senior friends in Citicorp, most of them in different places than mumbai but still in touch.

Setback:

Tried to give CAT [Common Admission Test], an entrance exam for MBA in India but got hepatitis C just before the exam. Still managed to get 97% overall but could not get thru.

INFY: Time to move on. However the decision for the change was triggered by the merger of the Citicorp with Polaris, a vendor company of Citicorp. I joined INFOSYS in Bank of America group. I didn't knew at that time that my experience with Bank of America is a long way to go. The first project was a nightmare. The reason was that in Citicorp the work was not technology intensive but over here I was promoted to the role of Team Lead. Now there were expectations to maintain. First Job...Hieghtened Expectations...and struggle started. The problem was compounded with the structure of the team - three girls and me. It was fixed cost project for Infy and the deadlines were extremely tight. So the challenge was to learn the new technology, understand them and make the team members understand them as well. It was my first experience as a team lead and subsequently the people management. I learned that I was pathetic at people management. I could not understand the unproffessional nature of others, prioritizing the home stuff over the proffessional demands. I was more critical and had frequent round of misunderstanding with my manager, who was also new to these technologies. The only way out was to take all the work by myself - I thought. It was a big mistake and I was extremely stressed out. 18 night outs in 24 days. No weekend and no holidays. Desperate to proove myself at the new job, i finally tried to complete everything by myself and in the end, I was completely burned out. The project was not a failure but also not a success. There were many defects and my second attempt at CAT suffered extremely because of this project. I lost the CAT battle once again and perhaps the MBA dream at that point.

Learned a few weakness - loss of temper, early judgement and over committment. In the second project, life was cool. The irony of the life was that when I wanted time for CAT preparation, I got the hottest project and when I didn't wanted a time for myself - I got the coolest one. Phew.... Anyway, this time I discovered my interest in Real Estate. The RE was booming in India and I anticipitated correctly that people want more info about this sector. In the free time, I researched many areas, builders and places to invest and was amused at the Broker Business. Inspite of the NET, how can these brokers survive. why do seller and purchaser both need to pay the fees to broker. The ultimate hieght was that a seller and buyer, both were in INFY and then also they can find each other via broker. Created a Yahoo group for that purpose and it was rage in INFY. Currently that group serves as a local repository of the interested parties in INFY and people use it for selling, purchasing and also gathering useful Info about the builders - the most important aspect before making any decision. People used to share their bad experience they had with builders and it immensely benefited many.

Achievements:

Pushed the limits of my work from working 15 hours a day to 36 hours at a strech. This I realized after I did it in my most stressful project till date. I guess I can work for more if there is a demand. :)
Created a Real Estate group that was instrumental in brought interested parties under one forum and then it outcasted the broker, cut the group deals and centralized the useful infor at one place. Developed a deep interest in Real Estate and invested heavily in it.
Involved in a Defect free delivery in my second project. This earned a praise from the delivery head and client - the dream of any team lead at that time.
Got promoted to Team lead role.

Setback:

Identified the Emotional Intelligence problems with myself during the hottest project in my tenure.

AFTER INFY: After Infy I joined TechSpan with a brief interval of Qwest. I joined Qwest because of two reasons - I was frustrated at the maintenance work at INFY and high technical work required at Qwest pulled me. I got a salary raise of 110% ws definately a bonus. However, in Qwest I quickly realized my mistake of domain change and switched back to Financial services and continued my experience in the same industry. As I said, I feel comfortable with Finance than any other industry even if it means writing simple code. Anyway, I joined Techspan and was put into Bank of America again. Got married during the transition and for the next few mmonths life went smooth. Still had the hitch for not getting into CAT, India's premium MBA door, but I started to look big - the GMAT. Perhaps getting an MBA is still a distant dream for a guy from Indian Middle class primarily due to the gigantic cost factor.

CHARLOTTE - Then came my first US experience - Charlotte. It was an eye opener in many respects. The work moves at a drastically different way at onsite than at offshore - First Learning. To be honest - Life was so cool at Offshore. The project was again one of the hot project as I was sent in to replace two guys - both senior - and worse the project was in UAT phase. I was sent on such as short notice that I had to read the Design Document of the project in flight. :( . One more senior guy was recruited but unfortunately his mother expired and then he also had to go to his mother place. Resultant - All alone and the heat was on - I mean UAT phase is direct interaction with users - first time - totally a new team to handle at offshore - GULP. Contrary to the expectations, the struggle did not started at the technical level. I faced much the difficulty in the accent problem, understanding the client - resultant - I rarely spoke in the meeting. This frustrated the already stressed out client - Tom. I still remember one our senior manager, Vinod Gopinath, used to make me understand like a friend, treating me like a buddy. I guess, I learned a lot of the people management from Vinod and one more friend was added to my asset. With Vinod's help I slowly started speaking in the meetings, pushed myself to open my mouth and this won the Tom's confidence. My technical experience helped me a lot in quickly overcoming the technical knowhows of the project. The next most difficult learning was the processes. The Bank of America processes were a difficult to understand at first - sometime frustrating - but slowly I could see the viability. Same was the case with Citi processes. Anyway, by the end of the project - Tom was confident and I guess he was satisfied as well.

NEW YORK: To be continued.

Do you need the Newspaper?

2006-08-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

Today I discussed with one of my most intelligent colleague - Jitu and he told me that it took him 4 hours to read the New york times. He was troubled because he cannot do so everyday. Now being a traditional non conformist [Oxymoronic], I questioned the need to read the news paaper in the first place? Before reading any further, ask yourself why do you actually need the newspaper.

Is it because you want to subscribe to daily news?
Is it because we want to be up-to-date?
Is it because our fathers had started this tradition and we ought to continue this [as in most of the cases] blindly?

Years ago, there was a prediction that with the rise of the online form, the print media would be dead....DEAD. However, it never happened and now the same gurus say that consumer would always want the news in black and white form. Is it? I believe, all these predictions and explanations are reverse engineered rather than having any logical base.

Ok. This is my prediction and this is what I do: I don't suscribe to a Newspaper rather I buy it on weekends - when I know I will have time. Many a times, it is hard to find time even on weekends but that's ok. For the weekday stuff, I prefer the Economist or any weekly magazine about the current affairs. If in India - Please Do Not Subscribe to India Today. Its a tabloid in the name of Current Affairs. If you do no believe it, take any month and compare the editions with that of the Frontline. I believe it has to do something with the owner company. Times Group is renowned for its tabloid features and Hindu Group for its qaulity. Lets Not digress the issue.

Is the Newspaper a Waste: Definately NOT? I don't mean that however, for people like us, who rarely use the news, its a big waste. We struggle to get the relevant material out of daily newspaper and many of us cannot do it on a day to day basis. Also, a vast majority do not actually require the news with that pace. What I mean is that if we are not in the stock business or any other business, where daily news can make or break a decision, newspapers are a waste. It is only in those business, where the news is used on a daily basis - Newspaper makes sense.

For example, warren buffet spends the first ten hours of his day reading dailies and newspapers. For rest of us, its better if someone [Economist] categorises the news neatly in respective folders, and give it to us in a capsule form. It's easy for us to digest the news capsule over a weel's time rather than on a daily basis. During the spread of the week, you can find your own time to cover the magazine. If you have a real interest in any topic like Business - Subscribe to Businessweek as well.

As for the Breaking news - I get the daily gist by Google News. This is what I do practically almost everyday after checking my mail - In Office. ;) It takes not more than 5-10 minutes a day.

Do we really need the newspaper. What do you think ??

What is Management?

2006-08-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

Do we really need the hard work every time to win the race? I guess not. This is one of the recent thoughts that came across to my mind. I will try to make my point with the help of an analogy.

ANALOGY: Consider the horse race. Everyone knows this. Now there are three stakeholders involved in a race. First and foremost the horse, second is the person who places his bets on the horse and third the owner of the race course. Now in every race, who does the hard work – definitely the Horse. What is his gain – None. I really don’t think that his diet would be in direct proportion to this winning numbers. Now let’s look at another stakeholder – the bet placer. If he had done his job properly – he is a sure winner. His job is to identify the winning horses. And the third party – the owner of the race course. Whether the horse wins or looses or whether the bet placer wins or looses, he is (nearly) always at the receiving end – a Winner.

TRANSLATION: Corporate world. Owner is the Shareholder or typically the owner of the company. It’s not that he is ALWAYS the WINNER but the very existence of the company means that he is at the receiving end. The bet placer is nothing but the Management. A good management job is to identify the WIN horses. They are not expected to do the real work but then they are real reapers of the rewards. And then there is the third category – poor horse, the actual doer. He is the one who is unaffected by all LOOSE and WIN Syndrome. His job is to WIN and take his salary back home. No matter whether he wins or loose – he will get his salary.

It might sound as a pessimistic or cynic for the hard worker but it’s not like that. One needs to go thru all the phases of this OWNER-MANAGER-WORKER syndrome. Unless you are a born inheritor of the OWNER such as Ambani, Tata or Birla, you have to pass thru all the stages.

So in Conclusion, I believe that Management is nit picking of the winning workforce and allow them to do their best. Make the way so that they can find the best of their potential and quetly see the magic work. Call it Leadership....Call it Management. Whatever.

Will write more….but how did you like the analogy. BTW, this is all because these days I am in the process mode of thinking excessively about the Management and only Management.

Control My Anger

2006-08-24T18:06:00.000-07:00

I had often been dubbed as 'angry young man' [of course sarcastically] in college. I never took it seriously. However, after five years of graduation, I sometime feel, I had these fits of anger. Somehow, after I read these books about Emotional Intelligence and all, I am not able to control my own anger. The rage is so huge in degree that all the learnings at that point is easyily forgotten.

Anyway, will try to control my anger in future. Be it in my personal life or proffessional life. :(

However, there was one major learning today. NEVER TRY TO MAKE ANYONE UNDERSTAND OF WHICH HE/SHE IS NOT CAPABLE TO UNDERSTAND. Use the vocabulary, which others understand. The key to interaction, the successfuly interaction is that you have analysed the context in which others live. Now after you UNDERSTAND that context, use the paticular vocabulary which suits that context. Saying RIGHT WORDS AT RIGHT TIME TO RIGHT PERSON will give desired result. Anyone being WRONG...and you are screwed!!!

In the end, Aristotle sums it up the Anger philosophy - ' Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power, that is not easy.'

GMAT Result

2006-08-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

Here is my debrief for my GMAT exam.

Here is my debrief:

Background: Indian Engineering background and hence a neglect towards the Verbal was there from the very beginning. Started for the GMAT on previous occasion as well but had to drop it because of professional and the personal reasons – Last year 2005. Used this forum but not religiously. Most of my posts are split in two time frames – Last Year Sep-Dec and this year from june-july. Anyway, Last year I identified the SCs and RCs as my worst nightmare and after a gap of four months, I had to include CR in that group as well L.

I came to NY/US in May this year and was taken aback with the hectic lifestyle. Finally I decided to apply in one Indian school which had apparently the last date as Aug 10. So after settling out in NJ, I searched for the available dates ASAP. It seemed that 31^st July was the possible date for me. Moments after registering for the GMAT, I logged onto Amazon and ordered Manhattan SC, Manhattan CR/RC and 11^th Official Guide to GMAT. So in nutshell,

Target: 700+
Time: 6-7 weeks
Arms & Ammunition: 1000SC/1000CR and all the guides. This was continuously updated going forward.

I knew three things had to be followed. Kill SC. Kill RC and Kill CR. Maths was not a problem. Only thing was that I needed to work on my silly mistakes. Anyway, prep material came by mid june and I started with the Manhattan SC. Honestly, I didn’t find it much interesting.

KILL SC Strategy: I made my SCNotes on top of PSahil and Spidey Notes and incorporated the Manhattan SC fundas which were not there in these two notes. Next, I started hunting 800Bob and Erin posts. More often than not, you will find a rule attached with an explanation. That’s the key. Copy-Paste all the relevant discussion and highlight the Erin/Bob’s explanation. Similarly, I made an Idiom Notes on top of an already existing Idiom List and jotted/collected all the SCs which I got wrong because of the Idiomatic usage. These notes, I revised weekly and in the beginning I revised the Idiom Notes – at least every alternate day. However, all this didn’t improved my accuracy level in SCs drastically. It was the solving/pounding 1000SCs which helped a lot. But before pounding 1000SCs, I made sure to cram every rule, every idiom, every *** I can and then solve it. Only to see that still there are rules which needs the attention.

KILL CR and RC Strategy: Anything which appeals to logic is not difficult. This belief alleviated the fear of CR but RC’s persisted as I had never been a consistent reader. I started pinging the gurus in this forum left and right and one advice I would like to quote from stucco-“What would you do if you take part in Olympics? You prepare more than what you are required to do on the D day?” Hence he suggested to direct my CR energy to LSAT material. I found this most logical and upgraded my arms and ammunition with few LSAT papers. I procured them from scoretop site. There were some 20 but I had time for only 5-6. However, after solving those 5-6, I was comfortable in RC and CR and more important than anything, I was confident. I can say this because there was a change of attitude when I solved 1000CR after practicing LSAT material. Not to mention-attitude was positive. J. Try this and if you are not satisfied, Let me know. I will definitely try to help you out. J

QUANT: I practiced quant not with the objective of understanding quant but with the motto of working on my silly mistakes – specially DS. I had some material which was supposed to be the toughest in GMAT-Some Math archive of Manhattan and I solved that first before starting with the GMAT level. Again, there was a top down approach for the difficulty level as practiced in Verbal.

Battle Prep: All this battle preparation left only one week before I could identify another less popular problem – the stamina syndrome. I had given only one full length test {and omitted the AWA part in the test} only to discover that concentration was abysmally low in the last 45 minutes – supposedly most crucial for Verbal. So final problem was identified as stamina. To mitigate the risk due to this problem, I gave in 6 Full length exams in last six days. Three Manhattan and Three Kaplan. Score doesn’t matter but the ability to sit consistently for four continuous hours did.

Here are scores anyway. Manhattan 670/700/690. Kaplan 570/640/590. And in the last two days-Sat/Sun. I decided not to give any test, against the popular consensus of giving at least both the GMAT Prep test-at least.

G Day: Sitting for two and half hours of test after your full office day is nothing more than trying your sadistic instincts on yourself. But in process, I had been prepared for the worst. I could not find any lack of concentration till the end. One more thing, for AWA, I read the most neglected part of Official guide-AWA and its two sample solutions and referred 800Awaguide.pdf a little. The end of exam cam surprisingly early, it was 26 minutes to spare in Q –EXPECTED and 26 Minutes to spare in V-HRADLY EXPECTED. Deviation from the normal - I didn’t received any boldface CR in the entire exam and I received 4 RCs as compared to normal three with four questions each and last one was having only 3 questions. I didn’t counted but felt that there were more SCs than CRs and CRs level were normally tougher than OG. Anyway, after seeing the score, I felt like – “Never won the battle but finally won the war”.

Final Words: Strong believer of Open Source Foundation and really hate when courses like Manhattan, Kaplan charges fortune for nothing. Would like to help anybody in terms of material/guidance/assistance/support. Not to mention I have plethora of legal and illegal material for every part of the exam, which even I could not complete in the brief time period. Anyway, doesn’t matter. So please let me know whether I can be a help to you in anyway. I think, I can specially help people, who have a weak VERBAL instead of QUANT as for QUANT, I don’t feel the problem. Only condition for the help is that you in turn have to help others in a similar fashion – basic premise of open source.

Google vs ORACLE?

2006-07-07T14:48:00.000-07:00

Ok. Everyone knows that 'Google' is a search king and Oracle is a Database giant. But isn't it possible that these two 'giants' might compete against one another in future. The reason I say so is due to the fact that common thread shared between their revenue model is 'Search'. The only difference is that Google searches the NET and Oracle searches the database but what if Google decides that it will launch its own arena of databases, which will be processing much faster proccessing than the conventional databases in the market, the largest one being the ORACLE.

Google had already taken Microsoft by horns, in making a suite of products which are in direct competition to MS products, and many are in line or are hidden in rumours. More often than not, 'new' product launch by google turns out to be true and simultaneously the worst nightmare for product companies, whose revenue model is based on the 'conflicting' products. Imagine Picasa, a free software for Imaging. Now if that is 'free' from google with hundreds of features, why would anybody buy Photoshop or any other Imaging software. As if this is not enough, Google recently went in for a deal with DELL where the DELL laptops will be equipped with Google's suit of products instead of MS.

'New' google product rumoured are Google Operating System, Google Browser...

Can we say, A Google Database??

Anti Quota: Turning Point(s).

2006-05-28T04:18:00.000-07:00

I am not trying to provide a day to day news by writing this blog, however, I want to track/highlight the major breaks in this 'congressial fiasco'. Just as it happened in last anti quota protests, self-immolation 'concept' has started out today as well.

Refer this: Self Immolation News

I sincerely wish that these self immolations stop 'Right here Right Now'. I mean, how can anyone even think like this. Had there not been a spate of 'suicides' by innocent students [Even from Class X] in last protests and what results do we get out from those suicides? None. Do you really think that 'sacrifice' of this nature is going to have any result on these 'thick skinned' politicians. I don't think so. Now coming to what could we do? We cannot sit ideal. Then my dear friend, if you are so passionate about the issue, then join the forces against the quota. If you are still not satisfied, try something remarkable, may be watch 'Rang-de-Basanti' once again but please in the name of God, Don't 'self-immolate'.

Hunger strike and other forms of protests are still ok but self immolation is not pardonable. I believe that no one even sympathises with the 'sacrificer'. Do you? It's time to take some radical decision(s). I have a gut feeling that down the line, we will have to make a 'choice between two evils'. The percentage of Quota qould be reduced but 'honorable Mr Singh' would still linger on to it. I sincerely believe that if we[Anti Quota] loose this battle against the politicians then 'India Shining' is very soon going to be 'India Sunset'. If we win, it will be the win of our democracy and 'hope' in India will still be alive else, ' Jai Congress'.

Note: Kudos to Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav for his comments on this 'fiasco', totally driven by politics rather than any rationalism. I didn't get why everything is linked back to 'farmers' but at least he said the right thing [Reasoning might be screwed but you can't expect it. Do You?]

Mulayam on Quota

Reservation Fiasco on Global Arena.

2006-05-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

Time is running always running against your dreams. I had a major exam of my life at july end and I also want to read/write tons and tons of blogs. Anyway, I will try to write as much as I can.

This time because of reservation fiasco, our country is in international news. I mean, a coverage by TIME, Economist and Businessweek about the internal political issue of india is a written testimony of India's Global presence. The links are provided in the last. However, it's really sad that this had finally been decided. I mean, I could not even imagine the situation would look like. 50% QUOTA in IIT/IIMs and other premier institutes. I guess, there should be a QUOTA for the 'general' class because now, with all the reservations in place, 'general' would definately be in 'minority'. Wow, Good Concept after all! Why don't we fight for it. May be it could act as a stimulant for another 'burning issue' to our politicians.

Anyway, the implications in all the three following articles are sad particularly sad and bad for India. The implications range from socio politic to economic.

Economist on INDIA' Reservation.

TIME on INDIA's Reservation.

BusinessWeek on India's Reservation.

MUST READ ( If you are concerned for this matter )

The damage done to our socio economic framework by this policy is incalculable, that is for sure. However, for our country, who is going to avenge this heinous deed. 'Justice is more than Revenge', so what 'justice' do we seek now [ After getting betrayed already ].

Anyway, this policy is sure going to open new 'justifiable' reservations for other lower castes. Long Live Congress for it's amazingly cruel decision for our country.

My First Quote: Amits First Law of Loyalty.

2006-05-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

Ok. Great people say great words. I am not claiming to be in the likes of 'great' people but certainly while discussing few 'hot' subjects with my colleauges, I get these 'great' quotes. Let me be frank. This is perfectly self thought quote, without being derived from either the murphy's laws or the other 'ad lines'

It started with the furious discussion of the 'loyalty' towards ones company. Now, attrition in Software companies is something which previously used to give headaches to HR managers but now, it had started giving the 'nightmares'. Scores of people claim to 'restructure' the organization in effect to bring 'this number'down. I also believe that proffs in MBA colleges might also used to teach this 'loyalty' towards the company and 'How to retain your best employees', 'Loyalty programs'. However, during the discussion, one idea struck me. What the fuss about loyalty? What happened next, is in my first quote [many more to come ;) ]

"Loyalty is in inverse proportion to the number of oppurtunities"

Now generalize this to any damn thing. Be it personal life or proffesional. This rule holds. I thought of many cases and this law, like the murphy's holds true in most, if not all situations.
You dont agree. ok. Try yourself. Think of any case, where you consider 'the given person is extra loyal than required'. Now see, how many 'similar' opputunities exists in that domain/circumstancec. Able to count on your fingers...If not, he is more of an exception rather than a rule. ;)

Indian Real Estate Market: My Views

2006-05-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

A new discussion forum for Indian Real Estate. Not only
Bangalore but other metros are also listed out here.
http://www.realestatediscussions.com/

Some other info about the Indian Real Estate.

I believe after the Stock Market debacle, all eyes are set on Real
Estate, another booming market in India and everywhere else. To
analyse the veracity, please follow the links I found and would like
to share.

Any comments/feedback/suggestion, are more than welcome.

Article 1: http://iht.com/articles/2006/05/15/business/indoprop.php
Gist: A FOR Real Estate article. Pretty much of what we see all around.

Article 2:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/03/news/economy/realestateguide_fortune/index.htm
Gist: An AGAINST article and inspite of fact, it purely discusses US
Real Estate markets, I have included this as one might get an
idea/feel for the 'current' anti real estate factors. For Americans,
it might be the Warning bell, but going by the Stock market history as
to when NASDAQ sneezes, BSE catches cold, it might get a hint for us
as well.

Article 3: http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4079027
Gist: WARNING. This is an year old article but reason for including it
is the wide array of factors used in researching the real estate
market. Reading this article should definately call for a
reconsideration of the factors used to view the Real Estate Market, till date.

On Reservation Quota Policy.

2006-05-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

Below is the mail which inspired me to write this thing. For the past couple of months, we could hear this qouta stuff 'again'. Thanks to the obnoxious Indian Political System, which gives us a chance to witness such ugly faces again and again. Have we not witnessed enough of students being burned alive? Have we not seen all those protests in the past? Yes we do. In fact, we don't have to dig too far in our memory, it's all in there. It's not easy to forget all the gory incidents of innocent students with 90% burns, is it?

Anyway, coming back to present, here we are again. This time, he is 'Honorable' A Sin instead of V P Sin. Thanks to the increased wisdom or the lessons from the past, this time we don't mark protest by immolating ourself. These bastards have very 'thick skin' and it is not easy to percolate it with a call to humanity. Nope. That's not what's warranted.

I have this conversation with few of my friends, some of them, I want to mention. One is prasoon and other is jitu. Sometimes, during the discussion, I feel so agitated that I simply dismiss every damn idea and propose my solitary solution. EXTERMINATE the mites. i prefer to call 'them' as mites. For those still grappling with, 'them' refers to our Honorables. What do you do when you find that a corner of your house is infected with termites. You call a 'davaiwaala' and get the corner sprayed. Right. The same will be done by those handfuls, who consider this country as 'our home'. For rest, 'chalta hai' attitude is here to stay a long way. I sincerely believe that for few problems, it requires no brainstorming, no honest effort to find the 'right' solution but simply to exterminate the root. Mind you, for those currently living in a different 'corner' of the house where 'termites' have not reached yet, only days are numbered. Sooner or later termites will make their way to each and every corner of the house. Lets learn from history.

In the mail below, Subject is "Rang de Basanti sirf dekhne se kuch nahi hota, kuch karna padega" but the moot question is: WHAT TO DO? Asking anyone to leave his job and join the agitation is something, which cannot be accepted by anyone and everyone. However, back in IIT days, if somebody asked me to join any stir/agitation and the same guy told me that I don't get a DP [ Disciplinary Provision] for the same, I would be among the first ones who join the stir. However, don't expect such a sane process from a middle class guy. Infact, middle class guy is the most 'affected' if this bloody quota policy comes into effect but I believe he would be the last to 'fight' this battle. Somehow, reasons are obvious. Mired in a series of 'daily' survival battles, he is too tired for another one. Don't get me wrong. I am not discriminating the students and doctors from 'middle class' but however, I am talking for a typical office going guy, who has kids in class tenth. Imagine a cartoon character from R K Laxman. I am talking of him.
If somebody, like our Father of the Nation, could give us a clear direction, with a clear sense of purpose then perhaps, we can pitch in 'middle class' in this warfare. If we turn back and look at history, I guess, Jai Prakash Narayan had done it in 1975 Emergency time, involving the root masses, who were the very victims.

Anyway, to conclude, I can only show my protest by writing a blog like this and raising a middle finger to our honorable and saying it aloud "teri maa kee aankh".

International NEWS on India's Reservation Policy

Friends,
Dear friends please spend some time to read this. U can make a difference.
As u all guys know that there have beeen lot of protests going on against the raise in reservations. All of us stuggle for months and years to make our dreams come true; No body in the government is bothered about that. This new policy of govt ll be a major road block in the development of our nation and creation of a caste free society. I want to share some developments occurring here with respect to this issue.
Abt 2 weeks back the Students Union ( SU ) of AIIMS ( UGs and Interns ) started the protests. they held peaceful march. Their main demand was to meet Honbl. Arjun Singh and to express their concern regarding the hike in reservations. What they got in return. Water canons, tear gas shells and Lathis. Some of the interns who were beaten were my friends and i could see their injury marks. Worse, some were girls. Sad isnt it ? Well next few days due to their constant struggle they could get to meet Dr Arjun Singh. No positive response was obtained. He however promised that before sending the bill to cabinet, he would inform the SU. The students continued to boycott their classes. Other medical colleges of delhi also joined. We Resident Doctors of AIIMS however were not actively participating. We wore black badges and attended few rallies.
12 th May saw a new beginning. Our medical students were brutally assaulted by Delhi police. Injured were brought to AIIMS. Fracture hand bone, head injury, blunt trauma abdomen with intra-abdominal bleed; > 300 students were manhandled including girls, stuffed in buses and taken to police station. I remember the dialogue from RDB. This incident will prove to be a final nail in coffin for our Congress Govt. At around 3 pm the Resident Doctors Association ( RDA ) of AIIMS announced an indefinite strike. All Junior Residents ( Acad or Non-acad ) & Senior Residents boycotted. Protest rally was organized that day.
13 th may was the worst day in the history of our Indian Independence and so called Democracy. Medical Students of Mumbai were beaten like animals. Infact animals also are never treated like this. Every body would have witness the brutality of the Mumbai Police.17 - 18 year old medical students were beaten up. Future of our country treated like this? And these are the same Police Men who come to our OPD and ask for peferential treatment. Shame on them. And listen to what Bhujbal said on TV. I thought we need a real RDB now. This incident triggered the suppressed fire in each and every individual. We at AIIMS went on INDEFINITE HUNGER STRIKE from 14 th morning joined by medical students from MAMC Delhi, Lady Harding, RML Hosp, Rohtak Medical College . Slowly the fire spread to diferent states of our country. You know what happened in Blore. Calcutta, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Gujrat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala boiled in protests. Students of Delhi University ( BSc BCom...) also joined the strike
The hunger strike in AIIMS continues. More than 100 students and residents are sitting in the heat since 14 th morning just on plain water. Believe me we slept in the open last night empty stomach. Its only when rain started pouring we had go inside the audi and slept there.
The IMA has announced comlete medical bandh today ( 15 th may ). Doctors from all over delhi have come to AIIMS and are holding protests. IITs and IIMs have joined the strike. Even patients and their attenders were of full support towards this cause. One man said," My father is admitted in NS department and is fighting for his life and death, but i declare that i have no objection with ur strike. I support ur movement and the cause for which u re fighting. Our country needed this."
All of us know what is right and what is wrong. Having said that i feel that each one of us should follow our conscience. I ve written this message because i felt there are many of who might not be aware of the exact situation. I request each one of u to please forward this to all ur friends, Medicos or Non-medicos. Every common man needs to be aware of the injustice and should be involved in this effort.
This Movement will be a revolution in our independent country and will be the most significant event after the British Rule. It ll be the cause for the rewriting of Indian Constitution where just and meritorious people are not singled out and put to taste the adversities and someone else enjoys the benefit.
The government cannot hide its inadequacies in providing equal opportunities to the under priviliged in rural areas by increasing the reservations. They have ruled the country for so many decades and if in this time they are not able to provide equalilty in primary and secondary education for in dian citizens they cannot mask their failure by providing reservations at each and every level. Its ridiculous. The whole issue of reservations was a political gimmic of the present govt to garner votes.
Its time that things are not taken for granted by any one. Let it be a senior minister police or anyone else. Whole of our nation needs to get aware of the amount of hardwork and sacrifice we put to achieve our dreams. We should not allow anyone to make a mockery of our struggle in future.
Thank U Friends.
Dr Kiran,
Junior Resident,
Internal Medicine,
All India Institute Of Medical Sciences,
New Delhi

MakeMyTrip or MakeMyTrauma

2006-04-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

Booking tickets from MakeMyTrip was nothing less than a traumatic experience. Being a net Savvy person, I had always preferred to book tickets online rather than any agent or otherwise, however, this was the first time, I opted for an online agent. Here are my experiences with makemytrip.

CONS:
1.) The Customer Service is pathetic. In fact, there is no room for customer service. Lets explore the options.
First is Toll free number 1-800-11-8747. Try this and no number from Bangalore will ever reach it. You will get an ERROR message as soon as you press the last 8 digit. If you are brave enough and wanna try the STD number : +91 11 2653 3251, then you will hear the 'Thank you for your patience, Your call is important to us. All our representatives are busy..' eternally.
Next is there Email/Feedback suggestion which will never ever respond back. I guess, its some junk feature of the web.
There is only one Local Office in Delhi. For Rest of India, you are at your own.
Finally, there was some online chat funda [which is now duly removed], which was the only answerable from makeMyTrauma.

2.) There are numerous complaints of 'negligence' from this online agent. Sometimes dates of booking are mismatched, sometime its the time of the flight. Most common complaint is regarding the 'Delivery of Tickets', which they dutyfully forgets every now and then. There are few chain mails circulating in Infosys for the same.

3.) Also, when you book tickets from this site, you will be given a number, a reference number. PLEASE NOTE IT DOWN. It wont be stored anywhere in the site thereafter. Yes, you have a login facility but that is nuts. When you click on 'My Itenary' your Page doesn't move. It wont show any of the Booked Ticket history or any past transaction. So if you loose that reference, only God might help you. Site features are very poorly managed.

4.) Do Not book the tickets from this agent if you are outside Delhi or less, you are far from South Delhi - where the office of this trauma is located. In case of issues like these, you can at least catch hold of these guys and not pain yourself, in case you are in Bangalore or anywhere else.

Example in Point: One of my cousin in USA booked the tickets for his parents back in INDIA. As he had heard the name, MakeMyTrip quite often and he thought that service must be good. He was as helpless as me and two days before the flight date, tickets were nowhere. Then he contacted NY office and blasted them all. Next day tickets were delivered. Usual time for the delivery of tickets is 3-4 days after you book but it normally turns out to be usually 1-2 days before the Flight date and that too if you persists.

PROS:
1.) There are definately some plus points. First of all, the site is very fast.
2.) Next its fare pundit feature is too good. If you want to look for all the alternatives from Bangalore to Lucknow, it will show all the combinations for connecting flights with full details. I usually had to struggle between the match of the timings between these connecting flights.

Optimization Technique:
Use the sites to get an idea of timing of the flight and then book the tickets for the journey via the bidding route. There are many sites which does the same. Try www.travelguru.com It has a Bangalore office. In case time is less or for whatever reason you are going by any of the online agent, Make sure they have a 'physical office' in your area. This is one of the most important feature else you will regret deeply, if you have to.

Playboy in India, IF...

2006-02-20T06:39:00.000-08:00

Anyone wondered if Playboy had been in India and if our society was tolerable enough for that kind of culture then what it could be like? Of course not. Its very easy just to shun the very idea as it's in contrast with our current culture. But if you sit back, relax , take a deep breath and then think again, probably thats where we are heading. Consider this, it's now easy for girls to get skinny, shun any last pieces of clothes,if remaining and get the stardom. Ofcourse, these short and simple steps are followed by many and jackpot is yet hit by few, however the number of instances had definately increased. Point to ponder, the list is growing.

How come in the last two years we have a plethora of heroines who had no job/role apart from utter disrespect of wearing decent clothes. You want names/examples. Ok. Here goes the list. Top of the house, Mallika Sherawat [And God she seems 'real' ugly at least to me], Neha Dhupia, Aunty Jaitley, Raakhi Sawant and list goes on and on. Its not hard. Just sit down with Mtv on for few seconds and you will get many more.

So I was just wondering that if Playboy,India starts the recruitment then who all could qualify as most prestigous 'models' of this company. Definately, aunts like Mallika, Neha, Celina would be dreaming all day long for it to become true. Prooving my point, there was even the rumour that Mallika had been offered by playboy and she was again in news.

Does anyone think that it could be a possibility. I do. Now comes the facts. More than half the examples I mentioned had been currently disowned by their respective families for the sheer nuisance their daughters had created in the showbiz. [ Raakhi Sawant and Mallika Sherawat both had been discowned ]. But these is more to the news. Raakhi Saawant had been supported by her mother and same is the case with sherawat babe. Do we see a change of behaviour, increase of the threshold, push of limits in our indian 'parents'?

Only tide of time can tell about this but if the trend goes like the current, with the same pace then I believe the mentioned scenario is 'inevitable'.

The ArthaShashtra

2006-01-29T08:58:00.000-08:00

Well, Lazy creature had returned. Too much of hectic life in new york. Initially thought that I would write about the blog on new York but because of this unholy word 'procastination', I could not do so. Anyway, today I will be writing more than ever. But before that an achievement o mine.

Yesterday I made it clear (to myself) that I would be completing the CHANAKYA serial, which had fascinated me more than ever. Anyone who hears that I am watching CHANKAYA reverts back with the alike questions : "Hmm...So You want to become Chanakya?" OR " Hmm, So You want to learn ArthaShastra?" OR " Hmm, Sahi hai Yaar, Badey aadmi ho gaaye ho??". Well the argument to those questions are hidden in an parallel analogy : Do you become or intend to become a Gladiator when you watch it or claim to be your favourite movie? Does anyone thinks or least of all comments that you are gonna make MATRIX when you put this movie to your favotie block? No. But why the same with CHANAKYA. Anyway, I am not seeing this serial because of anything like these but for the simple reason that according to me its one of the 'best' serial ever made in the history of Indian television. Hindi is more pure than previous two epics - RAMAYANA and Mahabharata. The claim to fame of these serials is much greater than Chanakya but if you consider the message to society, the acting of various individuals and a thrill to watch [as in all other serials - you already know what is going to happen next but not in chankya. thanks to our low knowledge of history], chankya scores much higher - IMO.

Well, I purchased the full serial in Eight DVDs as compared to Planet M - where you get the full serial in a collection of 47 CDs because its more easy to carry and manage. Also, there was a price differential of some 1500 as in Planet M you get the deal of 2500 and in DVDs, you will get it around 1100.

To begin with the serial never started with a low note and the speed was at lightning pace afte the entry of chankya. I mean its very difficult to switch off to any other work. And Kudos to Prakash Dwivedi - producer director and main lead of the serial. That guy had an amazing delivery of speech and that too in 'shudh' hindi. I mean, even now, its very difficult for me to understand, if you loose concentration. Thats the best part I like. Its not one of the serial which you can watch by doing a parallel task - bring a cup of tea, knitting and other miniature tasks. You have got to be involved when you are watching it. One of the beauty of this serial is the message it provides to the country and more importantly to the society. Could not elaborate too much because it would take volumes to do so but one thing I learned out of this serial is that your fight should be against a cause rather than any individual. True, when any harm is done to us, we revert back and our target is the particular individual but its the other way round. Fight for the cause not for individuals.

Anyway, Anyone and everyone should watch this serial once in their lifetime, most importantly if you are an Indian. When this serial started on DD-I, our age was not in that category where in we can understand the complexities of the socio-politcal framework, least of all if its in 'shudh' hindi. But now, we can not only understand it but appreciate it - not only the serial motto but also the acting of the individuals, which in my opinion is superb.

Try watching this serial and if you know me, get this from me but only after my 'biwi' completely watches this else she would thrash me down. Believe it or not, I thought that in todays world where praise is only meant for never ending operas of saas bahu, encapsulating the same illicit relations again and again, someone could actually like this serial. Hats off my lady for appreciating this serial. I had always detested not only people like ekta kapoor and corrupted serials made by her but also in large of the general public, who had made these serials popular. God do not make me Information Minister at any point of time in my life because the first thing I am certainly going to do it ban all these morally corrupted serials forever and punish Ektaa Kapoor and others alike for 'preaching/advocating' moral corruption to society in more than one ways. Lets not digress the topic - More on that in sepratae blog.

Thats it for now. Happy Watching.

Tech Humour

2006-01-20T10:09:00.000-08:00

Got somewhere in the chain mail but its too much to be posted on the blog.....Also, I dont have/had a girlfriend but would really think it would be enjoyable to read it...

The Customer Complaint [MALE] :
Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed- that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a- lot of space and valuable resources. In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activity. Applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Hunting and Fishing 7.5, and Racing 3.6 I can't seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications. I'm thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the uninstall doesn't work on Wife 1.0. Please help!

Frustrated Customer.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT REPLY:
Dear Troubled User

This is a very common problem that men complain about. Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it- is just a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an- OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING!!! It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend- 7.0. It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files>from- the system once installed. You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings-Alimony-Child Support. I recommend that you keep Wife1.0 and work on improving the situation.

I suggest installing the background application "Yes Dear" to alleviate software augmentation. The best course of action is to enter the command C:APOLOGIZE because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.---- Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance. Wife 1.0 comes with several> support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0, Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2. However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag 9.5. Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0 !----

WARNING!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3. This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system.

Best of luck,
Tech Support

Algorithm : Marriage Certificate in Bangalore

2006-01-09T04:54:00.000-08:00

I got the M. Certificate as required for my wife's H4 visa certification. Following documents are required. Here is the address where I got mine. BDA Complex,Koramangala - 34. Its above the Railways Reservation Counter.

Timings: [Mon-Sat] - 10:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Documents Needed:
--> Age proof for both the bride and the groom.
--> Address Proof - Gas Bill/Telephone Bill.
--> 5 Passport sized Photographs with both the bride and bridegrrom as togather.
--> Rental agreement copy.
--> Marriage Card and photographs.

Step 1. Go to the guy in chamber no.3 [mukund] and ask for the form.

Step 2. Fill in the form with all the details. You need to fill in any three witness along with the address and the form. - No need for the physical presence of the witnesses.

Step 3. Produce all the documents with the Xerox copy.

Step 4. Wait for the guy to give you a call. - Approx time : 20 minutes.

Step 5. Pay the amount [I paid 650/- but people told me it takes less than that ].

Step 6. Get two copies of Certificate and get it laminated. - THE END.

And thats how you get your marriage certificate in Bangalore as compared to a months wait time in North India.

Discount Books in Bangalore

2006-01-02T03:41:00.000-08:00

Bangalore Books Shops

Have you ever bought a book from Gangaram or Forum's Landmark? Sometime I think that its literally useless to buy 'any' book from these shops which gives no discount to the customers at all. I had surveyed a lot for the discounted books in bangalore. So here is the gist of my experiences along with the results, for the benefit of everyone.

1.) Strand Book Stall : This is one of the best of all the book shops I had witnessed till date. I was posted in Mumbai before coming to Bangalore and hence I know the level of commitment these guys are having in procuring any book. Bangalore shop is very very small as compared to the shop in Mumbai, but still it has a wide gamut of books. And if you cannot find the book, just order it. Minimum discount on All the Books is 20%. On Penguin Collection you will find the discount to be 25% and there is a discount section where you can find 30-50% discount. Just visit the site and see the level of dicount percentage. Summary
Location: Manipal Center - Building in which IMS center is there.
Min Dicsount : 20%
Collection : Wide array of collection.
Second Hand : None.

2.) Blossoms : If you really are a book lover and you relish to 'hunt' a book on its own, this is an ideal place. Here even the shopkeeper might now have an idea the worth of a book. Neatly categorized into various sections. This shop really serves you if you are a fiction reader. You will find a plethora of novels - starting at 50/- rupees and best part is that you can return the book after you finish at 50% or so. Isn't it great.
Location: Church Street - opposite Ameoba
Min Discount : 20% on New Books - And For old it varies but in general - No Complaints
Collection : You Name it - You Get it.
Second Hand : Yes - Huge.

3.) English Edition : Move a little further down the church street road and there you would find a JAVA CITY cafe. opposite to that is the English Edition. The collection is not that great but certainly you would find books, which you can gift, the collector's' edition. I mean the Mein Kampf - hardbound for 300 Rs. Some really artistic works of Readers Digest and other art form like Monet` and Picasso for heavy discount prices. But that is not a regular feature. You have to either regularly keep visiting the shop for updates or you have to depend on luck.
Location: Churh Street : Opp JAVA CITY
Min Discount : Not really on all books but some collection edition you find at surprising prices.
Second Hand : No.

4.) In Touch : Not a big shop by any standards but people living in koramanagala can use this shop at its own convinience, specially for technical books. It gives 15% discount on all technical books. If you feel lethargic enough to go to the shop then you will have to buy a book from this shop. I mean this shop stands in chance against the likes of Landmark and Gangaram only.
Location : BDA Complex - Koramanagala
Min Discount : 10-15% on Technical Books.
Second Hand : No.

Thats all from my side. If anyone wants to aff his/her experiences then he/she is free to do so.

Happy Reading.

Dhoni : Dhoo Daala.

2005-10-31T20:22:00.000-08:00

Splendid...Just watched the match between India and Sri Lanka and still could not get over the feeling it produced. While watching the match and Dhoni's performance, I simply felt pity for that guy as he ran out of target else he could have broken more records on that fortunate day. he could have surpassed 194 of Saeed Anwar, given few more balls, he could have broken the highest indian record of 186 of Sachin, the Maestro. Hmpphh...Anyway, this is just the start of the journey, and there are miles to go before he sleeps, and on and on.

Will he continue to repeat the miracle, only time will tell but one thing is for sure, he had rekindled many extinguished hopes of many cricket fans, who had stopped watching cricket for umpteen number of reasons primarily being the poor performance of our Team India.

But I really wanted this type of performance against the unbeaten Australia. What type of reaction it would generate in Kangaaroos when every bowler is mercilessly slaughtered in every direction. I just want to see their reaction, who are already famous for sledging.

Ok that's it for now, Let's hope these type of miracles are repeated again and again.....

October - Travel Month.

2005-10-31T04:36:00.000-08:00

I am not sure wether I checked my astro dictation before the start of the month but I am sure that it should have a lots and lots of travel. Ok here goes my month breakup.

Week I: It was in US. I travelled all along from US to India at the end of the week. How much, some 9707 miles on papers. That comes to a little more than 10000 in Kms.

Week II: I was in Bangalore and at the end of the week, I went to my hometown, Lucknow. So I travelled from Bangalore to Delhi and then Delhi to Lucknow. Add Another 2000 + 500 Kms approx.

Week III: Had a plum time in home and at the end of week I had to travel to Jammu, a long awaited yatra. Add another 1000 Kms.

Week IV: Had a enyojable, yet tiring journey in jammu and was back to lucknow. Add another 1000 .

Phew....That was awesome, isn't it!!! The total comes out to, 15000 Kms, approx.

And add to this, that I have to travel to bangalore next week again....

Journey never ends...

Kingfisher - The King Class.

2005-10-25T04:05:00.000-07:00

I had traveled nearly from every airlines on domestic sector namely - Jet Airways, Air Sahara, Deccan, Spice Jet Indian Airlines and Kingfisher. This is to share my experience with the Kingfisher airlines when I went to home.

I booked my tickets from Kingfisher for Bangalore to Delhi and then a connecting flight to Lucknow with an appericable time gap of 2 hours. On the day of journey when I went to office for a printout of the ticket, I was shocked to see the time of the same flight to get changed from 1:10 p.m. to 5:20 p.m. My connection flight from Delhi was itself at 5:15 p.m. The whole itenary seemed to be in doldrums. Anyway, on my way to airport, I just tried to frame my arguments against the Kingfisher chaps. I had already experienced similar situation with Indian Airlines[At that time the strike by pilots was the reason] and I knew that they would go by-the-book approach and ay type of screaming/yelling is not going to help. Finally I reached Airport and I straight away went to Kingfisher counter. On hearing the case, he asked us to meet the supervisor Malini [don't remember the name exactly].

Preparing for a verbal assault I marched towards her and she asked very politely about the situation and took the tickets for Delhi to lucknow and said that she would be back in a minute. I was rather surprised by this treatment. Anyway, she came back and told me that there is no flight which can take you to Delhi so that you can take this Flight. Then she inquired that I have to go to Lucknow or there is some plan in Delhi as well. When she knew it was the former case then she checked the availability of last Delhi --> Lko flight which was Air Sahara 8:30 p.m. First she checked for the availability and gave us the open tickets for the same added with an apology.

With this new ticket there was very less time gap between the arrival of Kingfisher flight at Delhi and departure of Sahara flight from Delhi. It was just 20 minutes and to make situation worse, Arrival and departure are different terminals and it takes time to pick your luggage and go from Arrival to Departure. I again made a request that I don't want to check-in any baggage and all my luggage should be adjusted to Hand baggage section. That requested was also granted and I consequently I reached home[Lko] at 9:30p.m.

The whole point of the story was that I was really impressed by the service and the customer handling process. I had a very bad experience with Jet Airways on the service issue and more than that on customer handling way. Simply putting, I was not expecting this type of service from any airlines. In future, definately, my first choice of airline would be Kingfisher and then any other.

Criminal Waste

2005-10-25T03:45:00.000-07:00

This is really pathetic, specially if it happens to be in developing countries and more if the same had been done by its educated class. Issue is none other than the habit of wasting/leaving the food after one's meal. I had seen this habit in one of my cousin, an educated, highly educated infact but irrespective of that, she had a habit of leaving the food in large amount after nearly every meal, whatsoever. Even I waste food sometimes but its not a habit. What is painful is the regular wastage of food in the name of 'my nature'/'my habit' and alike.

I still remember that I also had this vulgar habit of wasting food and that too regularly when I was posted in Mumbai. There was my friend Satbir Singh [Seven Years Senior to me] and he ridiculed me for wasting the food regularly. The term 'criminal waste' I had burrowed from him. I thank him for bringing a change in this habit. Now there are occasional times when I waste food. There are times when you know food is of very low quality, one more bite and you would yourself in hospital next day, sometimes you miscalculate and get overstuffed very early, granted. But if excuses spill every now and then, perhaps things need to be straightened up. Also, please don't make an excuse for the nature like 'This is my nature'. Sorry Mam!! You doesn't belong in India where you very well know that more than half of the population starves for one full day meal. [Don't go on stats..but more important is the theme].

I hope, if this blog could partially change the fooding patterns of at least one person....

Reading an Interesting Theory.

2005-10-22T00:49:00.000-07:00

Just now I read Broken Window Theory in a book. Really impressive I guess. Will write more once I am finished. However, I finished two posts which were pending from the long time. Next I will write my long posts of Charlotte Experience/ Flight Cancellation at Amsterdam/ Kingfisher Class.... This is just to remind myself so that its not lost in time....

Ciao...

HELPLINE: Hello, Bhaat can I do Saar?

2005-10-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

Have anyone really tried those helpline numbers, wether its the bank[in particular ICICI], or your mobile[in particluar Hutch or Airtel], your DSL connection [I tried Dishnet DSL and Hathway] or any fixed landline phone [I had this Tata indicom].

I had some very bad personal experience in dealing with all these help-lines. in some of the cases like ICICI and Tata Indicom, its more of the ST [Self Torture] lines or SPT [Self Patience Test] lines. Similar voices had been enhoed by many of my friends, and is often the talk to discuss over the lunch or the tea breaks [if not discussing the bad performance of company or the stocks or anything else of credible importance].

This is the normal procedure. You have a problem with the service provided by any service provider and you dial the helpline number. Now the problem starts from that time itself.

Journey Begins:
In many of the cases you may find the 24x7 helpline as defunct. Ring would go to eternity but not a single sould would have time enough to recieve your call. You feel ridiculous as you might think that 'What are helpline numbers stands for?'. As they say in chinese, Long journey begins with small step, hence, your journey to misery had just begun. This I had experienced in particular with my fixed line operator providing the Wireless Local Line. There was some issue with the billing and disconnection happened before the reaction time. Miserable, when tried to call helpline in day time - No one answered - It was repeated with one hour interval but result in every case was same. And this very company claims to have a turnaround time of complaints in three hours [when you go to book a connection].

Cruise Control:
Now lets say someone picks up the phone and at first u thanks god and try your best to control your already fuming anger and ask your query in as much polite voice. After verifying you upside down [this is a mammoth excercise in case of Banking call centers. You might be expected to remember your mothers maiden name which you must have filled four years back while filling out the application form. After all 'Hum Hai na' to torture you] they will finally come to the query. In most of the cases, they would furnish the information you already know, information for which you might get either from the site or somewhere else but you won't get the satisfactory answer. All these call centers had a typical by-the-book approach. Ok. If a customer calls...say hello....then verify the customer credentials...and then if query A....say Solution A....query B...Soln..B.......continued. If you still could not find the solution, politely pass on to the other 'executive buddy' of yours, which is anyway never going to be picked or try to give circular logics.

Dead End:
If all the above fails and customer is still persistent then your trump card should be 'Bhaat kan we do saaar' [This is the typical kannadiya style answers I had heard most often]. I guess all these executives are trained in advance that a customer on phone is analogous to thunder storms who can scream, shout or yell but cannot rain. Hence you are safe. However, if you are hell bent on it and goes on further and demands the manager name/number, you will be told in a plain vanilla language that its against the rules. Hai Koi Jawaab!!!

Prevention is Better than Cure:
So please, next time you subscribe to any service and you are provided with a flashing helpline numbers and more than than that, if it is accompanied by even more audacious claims, then simply ignore that. Believe me, that 'executive agent' won't be anywhere when you will face problems of your lifetime. So make sure to ask for any other contact number in case of any emergency. Do not forget to ask for his/her immediate supervisor's contact details.

Someone described insanity as : Doing the same things again and again but expecting different results. Lets learn from the experience...

Strange Phenomenon : Any Explanations?

2005-10-21T23:42:00.000-07:00

Recently I discovered a strange phenomenon and with the help of any logic, I was not able to explain the situation, howsoever weird it may seem. Some of you might discard the following event as ambigous or untrue but strange it is, its true.

As usual, it was a boring Monday and I was in an auto enroute to my boring office to complete a boring project. Auto driver was skilled enough to cut across the traffic and its subsequent jams. We came over to place were on the left of the roadside we had butcher's shop and an open ground behind the shop guarded by walls from the three sides. But it have sufficient space left. Assume a shop at the corner of a rectangle and all the sides as walls but one of the length is roadside[alongside of shop location] with no walls. Only point I want to emphasize while explaining this geometry that any person at the opposite corner had plenty of space to run away, if he wishes to. He is surrounded by walls from three side but one side is wide open.

Now comes the strange part. Just the diagnol of the shop there were the chickens and the goats, who were feeding themselves with leftover grass and on the other side of the diagnol, there was this butcher doing his normal work - butchering the 'unlucky one'. Since I am a veggie, I could not dare to look that it was a chicken or a goat but it was big enough to be a goat. Anyway, the strange part is that, all the fellow animals grazing were not tied. They were absolutely free to roam around. The act of butchering was very much visible to them, yet they simply ingnored it. They kept on grazing with much of cool, calm and composure.

My question is that, why is it so? Inspite of their fellow partner being butchered mercilessly in front of their eyes and subsequent process of skinning going on, why are they not tempted to flee away. They had ample space to do that but they didn't. Hard as I may try, but was not able to explain this phenomenon, at least with any logic.

Can anyone explain this??????

East Vs West : My Views

2005-09-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

So we come to this discussion again. However, this is not a discussion, this is simply the observation which I have during my short trip to US. The inferences in this observation are not hard liners but somehow I do believe in them. For example, in India, Business is best done by Gujrati's or Marwaari's or Punjaabi's is not a defined rule but yes, its a common belief in India, likewise, on the same lines, few more points were added to the belief system. Very soon, I would write about the spate of experiences, good,bad or ugly, which I had in this trip. Coming back to the observation part.

West has more of the transaction based society. It doesn't matter wether you meet someone in the bus, rail or in the lift. Smile and say, 'hello! how are you doing today?'. A little bit of informal chat and as soon as the lift opens, transaction is over. You forget that and move over. A little bit of good feeling might linger on you for a while, depending on the transaction. However, this is not the case in East[India for sure]. You need to know the other guy/gal before these type of transaction. In fact, this activity is not viewed as transaction, it would be started somewhere in the past and continued in the present. For example, I join a new office and get introduce to a new colleague of mine. The relationship had started at that point in time. Then I meet that guy in my building/lift/bus anywhere, we talk, we talk and enhance the previously started relationship. So its like, relationship based society. You simply won't bump into anyone and say, 'hello! how are you doing?', least of all, if the involved parties are of opposite gender. That could be termed as unruly or bold move for some undisclosed expectations.
We in East typically follow the EARN-->SAVE-->SPEND model but in west, its like EARN-->SPEND-->WHY SAVE AT ALL,IF? I borrowed this viewpoint from my brother-in-law [with whom I had discussed this scenario very often]. Needless to say, you can see Credit Card business proliferating like anything in the west but hardly a presence in the East. There are other problems for Credit Card companies like, lack of judiciary in the East to get the recovery but that is not the case as strong because, credit card companies are do flourishing in metros, where younger generation follow the western model than the traditional eastern model.
Penultimate point, its something to do with the Survival issues. In east, especially in third world countries, for majority of people, survival starts when they step outside the doors of their home. From the time to take an auto or bus or local train to working in office to tons of many other issues. This is not the case in west, or at least, I didn't find it. People enjoy life more than to 'simply live it'. Survival is not on their minds as it is occupied with us. The very term 'survival' can have many connotations but in this context I only mean the daily fights by which we live our daily life.
Last but not the least, there is a predominant feeling of individualism prevailing in the west as compared to the east. West had strong tendency to see the part rather than the whole and east enjoys visualizing whole rather than the part. In west, people had a strong tendency to see the logic of a part, understand the rules of that object and move forward. However, in east, we have a tendency to look the problem in the wholistic fashion, understand or try to understand the complete picture with all the relationship rather than just the rules of an object and then proceed further.

Mobile Phone Usage & Cancer

2005-09-22T07:48:00.000-07:00

This is supposedly the last post of today but I couldn't help it. It had been three months in America and there are too many of the observations, out of which, following is the most interesting.

In India, talking on mobile and driving is banned. Reason are but obvious, it could result in negligence and lead to an accident. However, same doesn't exist in America. It doesn't matter that number of accidents in America are much higher than in India but this rule is still non existant here. And if you really get a chance to observe the streets of america, just note that you will find 6 out of 10 cars, where driver is talking on mobile and driving. Just too much of hectic nature.

But there are umpteen number of articles where the mobile usage should be decreased due it's harmful effect on Human Brains. This effect is greatly accelerated when the person is inside any closed metal container, cars, trains and buses fall in that category. Reason is simple enough to understand.

Mobiles work on funda of elecromagnetic radiations...Recieving and emitting. But when someone is in closed metal box, then radiations emitted are reflected back not only to the person with mobile but to all the people in the neighborhood. Hence, it has detrimental effect similar to that of 'passive smokers'. So please avoid using your Mobile phones in trains and buses or any public place. Let your excess usage harm you and free others.

Good Article on HARMFUL MOBILE RADIATION

Chicago GSB Information Session

2005-09-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

Currently I am in charlotte for a small visit to the client side from Headstrong and there was an information session on GSB - Chicago for its MBA program. Lucky enough to know it a day before, got registered and atteneded it.

So the session was hosted by Wachovia, needless to say many alumni of GSB who attended the session were from Wachovia itself. It was in the Wachovia Building 40th floor. The scene there was awesome. I had never been to 40th floor of any building and I could literally see the entire charlotte. More Specifically, it was spectacular view in the night. Anyway, coming back to the session, it was wonderful and an experience in itself. A day before I had browsed the site itself but could gather few infos, which could be valuable, if you apply.

Session was presented by a lady Christine, and I guess Americans are fairly marvellous in the Art of Presentation. I had attended the information session of ISB at India but this was really awesome. Neat structured presentation with perfect body language. However, its the interaction with Alumni and the Q & A session after the information where I tend to gain from the whole session.

From the presentation, it was evident that GSB focusses on finance. This was also evident from the profiles of the alumni came to attend the session. nearly all were from Wachovia Bank and rest were also I-Bankers. I mean, where do find a full trading platform in synch with Bloomberg for MBA students perusal. But the best thing of GSB lies ahead. It allows students to pick there own courses. That means, there are only little of core courses and plethora of electives. There could be two aspect to this, as I can see. University perspective and Student Perspective. [And may be Employer Perspective]

From University perspective, it works perfectly fine giving student the freedom to choose the road map where he wants to. Why should an Investment Banker aspirant be forced to do a course in HR? Sounds Logical. Really Yes. But if you look at the employer perspective, if you are hiring from GSB, go for specific skills only. General Management could be termed as weak in comparision to other B-Schools, where there is a clear distinction of core and electives, with core outnumbering the electives. It might be the case from an employer perspective...Don't you think so ? However, from the student perspective, there can be too much concentration for a high demanding course, for example, in 2000, everyone wants to do a dotcom or entreprenueship course. What to do then? How will you manage this flexibility.

When I talked to alumni about this, then they said, it had NEVER happened that way. There is always a set of students who are interested in diverse courses. Hmm...Should work fine. But this is what I can think of. As a student however, I guess, the onus should lie to him/her to choose the course map. Many a times, you discover during the courses that you have an interest in HR rather than what you thought of as marketing. You should be allowed to take HR electives as compared to marketing.

I had seen this coupling of major even before joining the MBA instituted in SPJain. If I remember correctly, then they ask for the major in your application form or prior to interview itself. I guess, I totally unsubscribe to this mode of education. How can a student claim to be interested in doing a major in finance. He can only use the market stats rather than his interest to drive at the conclusion. What do you say ? Is it right or wrong ? Debatable..Isn't it?

Anyway, that was it. Seems quite a long blog. And one thing I forgot to mention. There was a free flow of Whisky/Vodka/Beer/Coke..anything you want. So at least, people who were not ineterested in applying had something to have and not a complete looser.

Salaam Namastey: Half Baked

2005-09-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

Watched this movie just now and returned with an ambivalent feeling. I mean, how many movies are made on the concept of couples knowing each other very well before marriage. Many. But what is unique with this movie is that it glorifies the most debated and to some extent hated, the 'live-in' relationship. People with even a slight disposition to this 'type' of relationship are certainly going to see some worth in just going for it. The movie does produce some solid grounds for reducing the initial inertia, if there is any. The story revolves around Nick and Amber, two individuals who are always right in their own stride. The movie can be completely segregated into two hemispheres. First, in which the story line is weak and emphasis is on comedy. It is continued till the intermission. Life is beautiful . Then just before the intermission, reality stikes and entire second half is loaded with scenes which try to build the plot, display melodrama and similar stuff .

Of course, the song in which eight month pregnant preity is dancing and swinging was meant for diffusing the drama or the comedy is still not clear to me. We should better check with the director behind the logic of picturasing that song.

However, till the end, director suddenly realizes that the unique selling point of the movie is comedy and not a melodrama, and then starts the vulgarizing moments in the movie. For me, except for the last part, movie was ok but last part screwed it all. I mean, how can you display comedy in the labour room and with such cheapness. Abhishek Bachhan might look funny in that role but it was but obvious that he his trying to put his father's shoes of comedy [which definately does not fits in].

Ok, so here we are again with a half baked story line, half baked comedy and half baked melodramatic emotions. After munna bhai MBBS, just putting Arshad Warsi would set a smile on the audience face. Fair Enough. But after that, you need a story, dialogues and many other syncronous events to continue the smile or transform that smile to an laughter. The guy is full of talent but you need to use it. Simply stereotyping won't do. Audience were duly entertained by the 'ek-jactly' javed jaffrey, short it may be. So with all this hald baked recipes, what do audience get. An ambivalent feeling.

And now here is it that why I feel that this movie glorifies the so called 'live-in' relationships. The story line explains the full fundamentals that why it is necessary in life, I mean the stress on the importance of knowing each other before marrying each other and signing a 'No Run away' bond with somebody. But it hardly shows the other side of the story, I mean the stress was not there. In fact in the middle of the story, Amber realizes that she was too much self centric with her and she never even thought about her family for once, but that was it. After that it was over. It was very much limited in showing the other side of the story.

Anyway, this is definately not a film critic but yes, it is definately what I feel after the movie.
Half Baked.

Decision : The Tough Part.

2005-09-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

Sometimes in life you have to take a tough decision and when it's based on your instincts rather than facts, then it's more difficult. It is said that heart problems are the royal disease. Now I can understand the logic behind it. Also, there is more element of truth when you say that 'If you work on Wall Street for more than 10 years, you cannot work any more. Perhaps, trading platform are not for the 'weak hearts'.

Anyway I will come back to my story. I had this sister of mine who had done her engineering from not so elite college of lucknow, my hometown. The placement council was as pathetic as any 'sarkaari' office in India. Inspite of that, she landed herself in the job of ICICI Infotech. In your sophomore years, when you get a job, I can very well understand the ecstasy, the very feeling of it. It cannot be explained, it can only be felt. I remember.

But then the story changed, ICICI Infotech or better 3-i had the most weird rules of the game. Strange is the corporate world. You find any one vulnerable and try to exploit it as much as you can. Can we say this as Darwinism, perhaps not, Marxisim, definately not. The more appropriate word would be , the much used and abused, Capitalism. Lets not digress the topic any further. So the issue was that these 3-i guys thought that since we are hiring the candidates from a lower rung college, so lets play a dictator role, a typical master-slave relationship. We ask for your certificates, you give. We ask for abnormal security amount, you deposit and many other rules like it.

Inspite of all these so called draconian terms and conditions, people were ready to join, not to exclude my own sister. And her logic was not all togather baseless. Why to loose one thing, which you have for something which you only Hope to have. My best friend prasoon says, 'A Bird in hand is always better' and I usually agreed with him. However, when I sincerely thought back over this, I found that we should shun this so called opputunity and try our chances with the more burgeoing Bangalore job market, which was at that time considered a heaven for the job seekers. Definately you listen to those scary tales of candidates, who are living in the PG houses for more than years and still searching with thier job. Tales like these definately scare you and resist the temptation and go back to the 'play safe' middle class theory.

After reasoning myself many times, I finally tried to give it a shot. Tried to convinve my sister and rest of the family to stay with me for few days, give her best try and she would definately crack some good company. Till date I am not sure wethear she agreed out of fear or respect, two most complimentary emotions, sometimes one leading to another. Anyway, she agreed and I then tried sincerely to place her resume everywhere. Being in IT myself for four years, initially I thought, it should not be a herculean task. I was wrong.'Life is Beautiful' only in movies and 'reality bites'. Freshers were a strict no no. Even in my company, they didn't even considered the resume. However, thr fight continued and then in real sense I experienced the darwinism, 'Survival of the fittest'. At least you need to fight, and that is more important. Finally we got the call from Infosys, one of the premier company in IT. I decided to target this company with the spirit of 'Do or Die'. One of my friend Ritesh had given me this funda which I still remember. You need to continously keep trying, eventually things would crack. Sounds like Bergofsky principal but it applies to life in an unbeaten way. We did tried our level best for this 'oppurtunity' and eventually she cracked it. She made it.

I was not there to share this joyish moment but more than her I could relieve a sigh because it was my decision to play a gamble with the chances in bangalore rather than some screwed up company. I could still not think of the consequences, if this wouldn't have turned this way. Prasoon always says, you did the right thing for her but I know, I did the tough thing for her.

However, the best part in the whole excercise was that I could sense the heat felt by all these managers everytime. When somebody's lifeline is resting on the decision you take, you will also be having sleepless nights along with him/her, be it an individual, your department, you company or anything. Situation get a little more emotional when the involved party is your near and dear. 'If the end is well, everything is well'

Habits Habits Habits.

2005-09-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

Single Word, yet powerful enough to make or break lives. A life, which can be made a success or a disaster. Rightly said by Stephen R Covey that habits ae the sole determiner of one's success or peril. We all want ourselves to be successful, the very defination of success may vary according to individual, however, its the root cause embedded into each life living in this society.

Why do we have habits which are not good for us but we still continue with it? Doesn't we want to grow, mentally, financially, physically and in every other way. Yet we cannot change our habits which best suits us or can we?

I myself had a very age old habit of procastinating, yet I have tried to live with it rather than trying to change it upside down. I had accepted it as a way of life. For example this blogs, I thought that I would write my own experiences on a weekly basis but I just could not follow it. Perhaps, I had this habit of living my life in an URGENT mode. I rarely find the time for things which are important for me.

But Now I am gonna change it. Belive it or not. Enough is Enough. It may be that I might fail but I will try that for me, for myself and only for myself.

Expect many blogs in the way as I decide to live my life in the important mode rather than urgent mode. For those confused with this jargon of 'important' or 'urgent' modes, you should definately read 7 Habits of Effective People. And believe me, it's not that I had read the book just now and having this self realization. No its not.

Anyway, I would write more blogs and try to 'fight' this habit, bad habit of mine. Lets pary that I emerge as a winner after this battle which begins now.

Government of INDIA did it Again.

2005-09-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

It seems that GoI, Oops, the respectable GoI and its HONORABLE bunch of ministers can never rest in peace. They must continuously strive with their true spirit for the upliftment of the country and its subjugated and wretched people. What are those matters in which our popular ministers wants to look into are but obvious.

Anything in INDIA which had started to click is the target for the ministers. Latest buzz is the IIT and its admission process. Recent spate of news had brought two brands of India into limelight, namely IIT's and the IIM's. Hence its imperative for our popular leaders to tamper with these prestigious institutes so that they may loose its sheen.

I guess whole psychology behind these type of moves is to just attach you name to something which is popular. Dearmost Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi had done in past with the IIM's and now next obvious target is IIT's. For the past 25-30 years, no one ever questioned, how the IITs entrance exam needs to be conducted. That was one of the hallmarks of these institutes. But no, our ministers cannot see this debacle. O Mighty!! The poor had been secluded from these premier places, however no poor might complaint.

Why does the honorable ministers and respected GoI concentrates on the eddorts which are screaming in their own for the upliftment of the country, foremost being the INFRASTRUCTURE. Some questions to ponder over....

--> Why every now and then fingers are raised over the screwed up infrastructure of the country? Particularly exploding cities like Bangalore. For the past five years, the proposal for the International Airport is there without any ground work. But no..Deciding the Pattern of IIT and Fees for IIMs are more important. Infrastructure can wait, as it has been.

--> In Delhi,concern over the security of women had been a perennial problem and it seems, it will be. It seems, delhites and other north Indians have started to live with that fear. Daylight rapes and daring crimes won't even make news these days. Who cares now? Its a NORM. Its like threshold of people tolerance is being raised everytime.

--> Take any International magazine, Fortune/Forbes and Businessweek and they all have the same comment. India is a brainpower. India had tremendous potential and blah blah....And we all take pride in that. True. But what we tend or INTEND to miss is the second column which says that INDIA is still 100 years behind the developed nations [recent UN report] and it will take that number of years to catch up with the current pace of infrastructure development.

--> The pathetic stage of judiciary has been accepted by our people. No raise of eyebrows, no article in newspapers, now columns in magazines over it. Why? Because people of india, the democracy had accepted it and nobody wants to crib onto it again and again, and again. It won't even sell.

I am currently in US and I can see only one big difference between INDIA and US. These guys had beaten us fair and Square in the Infrastructure ball game and everything which falls in line after that. Couple that fact with the well run judiciary and viola, we are 100 years behind them, inspite of getting a term 'BRAIN POWER' from the same guys. Huh!!!

It works like this. Corrupt Politicians leads to Malicious Political will/needs leads to corrupt state leads to week/meek judiciary leads to rising crime leads to weaker democracy breeds corrupt politicians. This is self satisfying chain.

God, give india a miracle day, when we can dream, at least dream, to find just one day, just one week, just one month or rather just one year to rise in our beds and find all these 'honourable' politicians are gone.Where, Who Cares but away from this country?. The root cause of all this evil.

Radical Alternative for Working Proffesionals.

2005-04-28T23:25:00.000-07:00

How many times it had happened that you had so many pending work to be completed on the weekens that your weekends had been more stressful than your working days. As for me it is more often than not situation. You tend to jot down the paticular work and you schedule them according to the priorities like submitting the telephone bill,getting new clothes for the next office party,etc. And if time permits after fulfilling your week's pending tasks then most probably you would want to relax/chill in some restraunt/movie theatre.

The question is can you do it ? I mean, you just look at the parking problem in BIG BAZAAR or the Forum on Saturday/Sunday ? If you have the mood to take your family to some cozy place on weekends, can you find one ? I could not, even if I pay the premium price ? The basic problem is that you are not the only one to seek little chill-pill after the stressful week. There are thousands os thousands others in line, and unfortunately they have the same time to chill as you do. Its the problem of demand ans supply, or better put in hindi, 'ek anaar sau beemaar'.

What is the solution for this. I could think of one alternative in which the companies organize the weekends and give time-off policies for employee. At least, a good policy can take the additional stress from the employee. In the current scene, most company policies have saturday sunday as off and they have time-off facility, where in an employee can plan to have a time-off in case of some emergency work or plan it in advance. Usually it is restricted to two per month. In companies like infosys, even this is not there. You have these many leaves and that's the end of story. Some companies like accenture has the policy of comp-off, where if you come on saturday and sunday then you need not to come on one working day.

Why can't I have someday during the week where I can swap with it with the saturday or sunday as the working day ? And also, this flexibility should be in employee's hands. He in consultation with the team and manager can swap his working day with any of the sunday/saturday. Lets analyse the situation in this context.

Advantages : Tremendous. Everyone can avoid the bulk traffic days. Friendly for the consumer and also for the market. Imagine this, all the days of week they have to open the shop and when can they expect the customer, mostly on two days. Knowing this fact, they cannot just close the shop as one or two customers can come during all the days, but if you consider bulk, its on the weekends. If suppose, traffic to their shop is divided in this fashion then how convinient it will be for them. As for consumers, they are saved with the perennial problems of parking,traffic, over crowded lines, full houses and alike. These might seem little in magnitude but it is definately inducing too much of stress. That is when we say that in todays life we have too much of stress. On weekends also, you don't get solace, but what you do get is full blown restraunts, full house movies, over crowded brigade road and loads of frustration.

Target Audience: I would like to say that this could not be applied to any company, in any working scenario. In banking industry, you cannot apply this policy blindly. This can be applied to any company, where the work has modularized approach and individuality is respected within the team. Example, Software. The typical software work can be classified in majorly two catogeries. The development and the maintenance. The two has its own cycles of lean and the critical phase. During critical phase, neither manager expects to give leaves like these nor employee expects he will get one. However, during the lean phase, arrangement can be done. Usually, work is assigned to the team members and then its upto them to deliver the code. It really does'nt matter that he/she is coming on saturday or monday. So why to bother him. Similar arrangements can be made for the maintenance group. There are many caveats to this but a well thought of policy would prohibit all the apprehensions and would restrict the abuse of it.

Disadvantages : If only employees don't understand the use and starts abusing it, then its going to be the pain for the company. If something like this is not tried by giants like infy/wipro then it could be a little difficult to manage, however, my contention is that taking stress out of employee is more crucial than worrying about the fallacy of the policy. Also, it should be blindly put in the practise. Have a trial implementation and if it is allowed then why not let it go...

DEGREE OF PERSONALITY

2005-02-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

The title of this blog is a little ambigous. However,
whatever I am feeling, I could not find a more suitable
title than this.

From last few days, I had been shopping extensively
and more particularly, those items, which I had never
shopped in my life, at least alone. The reason for this
was that i had to transform the Bachelor House to a Married
Couple's HOME. Anyway, coming back to shopping excursion
point.

At every stage/shop, I realized that somehow I am not getting
a good deal, that I am being looted by these shopkeepers
in the name of MAHNGA CITY, BANGALORE. Wether it was
furniture,TV or any other item, same story everywhere.
This continued even after a comparative analysis from
your already experienced friends.

Hence, I tried to develop a method after observing a pattern
in every shopping excursion. Lets start with an example.

Suppose, I have to buy furniture [A NON BRANDED ITEM]. Now
I have four shops suggested by four different friends and
as usual I get confused. I appreciate price at one shop,
quality at another and likewise. What to do ? Which one to
select ? To avoid that, just FIX ONE ATTRIBUTE which you know
for sure. Say for example, after research you come to know
that MARKET PRICE of TEAK WOOD is 750/- per kg [hypothetical].
Now with this fact, you check in these shops. Taking practical
examples, you will find a difference in the prices
what these shops quote. If one say its 1200/- and other says
1500 then the DEGREE of these shops is 1.6 and 2.0 respectively.

Hence, you are paying 60% and 100% HIGHER price on nearly
every article or somewhat near to it. Point is, you will get
a fair idea what these shops are charging for their BRAND.
Will help you in getting a VALUE FOR YOUR MONEY.

Let me tell you my case.

I went to a DVD shop in Koramangala. The shop looked pretty
nicely built and enough 'collection on display' to justify the
premium charged by it. I knew that normal price for DVD was
30-35 in koramangala area. However, when I asked the rental
value of a DVD, I was told its 75/-. Surprised, I asked the
reason for this and was told that USP of this shop is that
they have all the ORIGINALS. Just to validate my theoram
of DEGREE, I picked up one DVD and casually asked the price of
it. [Movie was RAINCOAT : And from my shopping Experience, I knew
beforehand that price is 359/-]. First he tried tp check it and
then said, the sticker had been removed but its not less than
700 bucks. Instantly the theoram was validated. The DEGREE of the
shop was 75[HIS PRICE]/35[MARKET PRICE] ~ 2.0 and similarly, he
was quoting the price of these DVD's double the value they were.

Hence, that's the fundaa I developed. Now prior to shopping, I
gather ONE FACT which I know the Market Value and then calculate
the degree and decide afterwards that the premium charged is
justified or not. At least, I don't feel as helpless as I used
to before.

Living with the phenomenon known as OOPS.

2004-09-24T06:21:00.000-07:00

After 15 Feb, 2004 my proffesional life took a major turn. Prior to that I was running after the Management. The entire meaning of management at the begining was the Xtra fat pay package plus a life at par with the IAS in corporate standards. After three Yrs Exp. the image of MBA metamorphed from STYLE to POWER. It is the decision making power which resides with the MBA and in corporate world all that matters is DECISION. So anything which CONTROLS this sole factor is bound to get its share of Pie. Needless to say, the growing number of aspirants after this realization in many connoted ways. However, after the failure to clear CAT this time led me to take the Technical career more seriously than I had ever did in past.

This led me to study those topics which I had either ignored till date or read only for survival. My total experience till date is in JAVA,an Object Oriented Programming Language [concepts known popularly as OOPS]. Thereafter, began the quest for linking the OOP with Life. Somehow, I guess that I had this particular knack of linking everything with Life [Previous post : Trekking in Life's Framework].

So let's begin with OOPS this time. We will go one by one fundamentals and their reseblance with the life. However, before even I begin, let me tell you that philosophy with OOPS had already been done by OO GOD : Grady Booch.

OO Principle 1 : Encapsulation - Also called information hiding: Ensures that objects cannot change the internal state of other objects in unexpected ways; only the object's own internal methods are allowed to access its state. Each type of object exposes an interface to other objects that specifies how other objects may interact with it. Now replace objects with the people or characters. You should follow this principle most pertinently in your preffesional life. The anomaly of this particular rule is that You Should NEVER indulge in Loose Talk. However, easier said than done. We could hardly resist the temptation to do so, be it on the breakfast, lunch table or smoking zone. The dark side of this rule is that if followed more religiously, you get the image of DARK HORSE at your workplace. So bottomline is that you have to optimize it somewhere in between, just like when developing Software system. The best example of Encapsulation is when you consider any company as Object. Whatever may be the Internal State of the Object/Company, they are hidden from the layman. There is proper MEDIA Cell which interfaces with MEDIA and let us know. Every company has media spokesperson for the same. Sounds funny. Perhaps it is !

OO Principal 2 : Inheritance :-"Inheritance defines relationships among classes in an object-oriented language.As you move down the hierarchy, each class adds its own set of class-specific fields and methods to what it inherits from its superclass or superclasses."
This is more visible in Normal life. Genetic inheritance is the most visible and talked about phenomenon among layman. Family has a tendency to loose his temper and hence justifies the misbehaviour, another example like Gujjus and marwaris had the business in their blood. To an extent you can guess the person's behaviour from the environment inherited, however not always a RULE of thumb or properly implemented in Real Life world. More real life examples you could see when you read Grady Booch's OBJECT ORIENTED ANALYSIS AND DESIGN.

OO Principal 3 : Polymorphism : Again, one of the pillar post of OOPS. This principle says that object can have many forms [Poly-Morph] and the method behaviour will be decided at runtime. Before expounding on this principle I wanted to lift a quote : "A Friend in need is Friend Indeed". Now considering the friends as different objects and their respective characters as their respective methods one would behave differently in different environment [Runtime]. One should be aware of the runtime behaviour of the other people to avoid getting malicious surprises. If implemented properly in one's life, this could serve as a very strong principle to be get a CONTROL over factors sometimes considered "OUT OF REACH".

Pretty Long article and more abstract. Any comments/feedback/suggestions are more than welcome. However, before closing I need to emphasize on this fact that there are many process in JAVA which you can relate to daily life and get one's life more structured and managed. For Example, JVM-garbage Collection is one of the concept which I liked very much. May be sometimes I write on that as well. Next is the relevance of Design Patterns in Object Oriented World which could be directly related to the 'GAMES' of Psychology in GAMES PEOPLE PLAY by Eric D Berne.

But all these in different blogs...Someday I will write that too....

Trekking in Life Framework

2004-08-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday our group went to yet another trek to so called highest peak in Maharashtra - KalsuBai. In the entire episode of trek I realized one amazing resemblance - The close resemblance between Life and a good trekking expedition. Just got a thought to share all those learning/feelingswith everyone.With the optimism of good weather throughout the day we started our journey in the absence of sunlight at 6:30a.m. The four hours journey was a pleasant one,thanks to Radio Mirchi and a cool weather. From the starting point of the trek when I first looked at the height of the peak, scores of thoughts flashed through my mind. Is this the highest peak? How will we trek this steep seeming to be a rocky mountain? What about the weather - Is it really going to be an ally or an enemy during the trek? and lot more. This we can also find in real life. Most often than not we somehow doubt the nobility of the mission/goal set by ourselves only at the starting point of the mission.True Confessions - At least it happens with me not often but sometimes. Anyway, after the speculations we began are journey with much enthusiasm. While going uphill, I followed the famous Chinese proverb till I reached the top - "The longest journey begins with the short step". In fact, this was the second parallel drawnfrom the life. Whenever going uphill,take short steps and dont try to race unnecessarily.It might exhaust you before you can reach your goal.The next very important lesson I took from this trek was that after starting towards the mission - there should be no turning back. Also, when you are climbing high in your life [Just like a steep rock in trek], NEVER LOOK BACK. It will not do any good, rather when feeling tired and taking rest, sometimes little bit of retrospection can give you the soothing feeling - " So Far, So Good".These were among the few lessons learnt while going uphill and of course on accomplishing thefeat when you rest at the peak,it gives you a satisfactory feeling,which cannot be compared with any material thing.While coming downhill there were again a few important learnings incremented to already learned. When you are coming downhill, be very sure to place your footsteps at the firm ground. Make sure it is not loose rubble and if its ineluctable, be overcautious.Also,while climbing down, Never ever try to gain speed because momentum may land you in a place where you don't want to be even in your worst nightmares.Well, this is all I can recollect at this point of time. But the best part of trekking I personally found out was the better appreciation of the existingmaterial things. At night after trek, when I looked at the swirling fan, I found that as a luxury. The bed was much warmer and cushy than it had even been. I found it really amazing to look the ordinary things in the most extra ordinary way. Surely this magnificent transformation in my outlook was the result of the trek previous day. I must say that to go on these treks, one requires a perfect blend of determination and courage more than anything else.

Dishnet DSL : BIGGEST Mistake : Bangalore

2004-08-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

DO NOT GO FOR THIS CONNECTION. It is the biggest mistake of my lifetime, may be
some horrendous crimes committed in the previous lifetime.

After waiting for 5 months for the connectivity I was a victim of their most pathetic
service.

For more victim stories.

http://www.mouthshut.com/readreview/16833-1.html

I am not the only one.

Plz Avoid falling for the temptation, Broad Band. It's a very NARROW BAND
with Dishnet.

A M I T G U PTA

The Art of Wash.

2004-08-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

Have anyone wondered that how tough it is to wash your own clothes coupled with the fact that if you DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO WASHING MACHINE. From the time I had left college, I had also left the luxury wherein I give all the dirty clothes to washerman for Rs 2/- per piece and get well ironed clothes door delivered.

But now I am in job and those hostel luxuries are gone. Its not that BAI concept is absent in here but the moment you see that hitler style wash of your Extra sensitive clothes you somehow detest giving your sensitive clothes to that insensitive ATYACHAARI-BAI.

On the first day of her employment, BAI went inside the bathroom with a commander-in chief like gait. We could not unravel the mystery behind this until we heard the missile like blasts coming from the bathroom. Once, twice and then it seemed that it went into recursive loop. We ran down to closed battlefield and discovered that BAI-JEE had taken the clothes wash on the battlefront. She use to grab the innocent cloth[properly soaked in washing soap solution] from one end, aiming at the hard ground, she used to rotate the soaked cloth, with full force, 360 degree and BANG. Somehow this process got into recursive loop and process seemed going on and on and on. No Mercy for all those clothes which had a very stylish labels warnings attached when you bought them. Seeing the pathetic stage of our dear/expensive clothes, we [I and my friend] decided that its time for LAYOFF of BAI-JEE and take the command in our own hands.

Then started our quest for washing clothes and exploring the vieled benefits shrouded under this art. It was the Saturday afternoon and all the clothes were properly soaked in a bucket for the past 3 hours. I started with the process. Sat down on the ground,put out one cloth [ shirt this time ] from one hand and took the soap bar in another. Now came the crucial question as to which strategic place in the shirt I should APPLY the soap and then rinse with the brush. I took four points and then started rinsing it with the brush. After 5 times per point I felt little ache along my spinal chord. Laborious job, Huh! I would do it, Pretty easy job. Just a matter of few more minutes. By the time I was done with rinsing, I need to soak it again in the fresh water to get the soap out. Till now, I was sitting there for past five minutes and I felt an urge to strech my legs. The process continued this way and after clearing half the allotted slot I felt tired like anything. All the ANJAR-PANJAR of body were crying - RELAX PUTTAR, SOME OTHER TIME but the soul cried NO, IT'S NOW OR NEVER.

As the process continued the number of strategic points in a cloth kept on reducing and more significantly rinsing points also reduced, till the time they disappeared altogather.

Then came the Herculean task of drying those soaked clothes. Till now, I was feeling tired in the same manner when I used to feel it on my first GYM's day. Phew! I gave a dirty look at the bucket holding the clothes soaked in fresh water and then picked out one from it. I grabbed the shirt from one end and continued twisting the other and water oozed started oozing out. I felt a slight twinge in my muscles already crying for relaxation. I dunno how I did all the items in the bucket one by one but the last one was just too much. It was a JEANS. I really did'nt knew how much of water this single piece can soak until I started the same formula on it. Goddam it!
Why is the JEANS fibre so thick ? I hated the guy who invented the miracle called, JEANS.

By this time, seeing my condition my roommate had already abandoned the idea of washing the clothes by himself. However, I boasted that there is No ALL-IN-ONE excercises combi pack as provided by the WASHING your own clothes. By this time, nearly all my muscles were feeling aches in various degrees. After this excercise, I just though about the typical indian housewife, who has the daily job like this.

My certain belief is that if this excercise pack is marketed well by any intelligent person, then he could easily beat the VLCC - that Slim FAD among ladies. Also, I appreciated the fact that Why the Ladies who do all the household work did'nt require any VLCC course to maintain themselves. Mind you all, these facts were totally diffused to oblivion as I was thinking about them lying in my bed after such a sternous excercise with a combined potential for YOGA-GYM-AEROBICS.

Last but not the Least, if you still don't believe it - Perform it to Believe it!!