Whatever...

As I was commuting from office to home on the motorcycle today, the thought crossed my mind again; as it has several times, whenever I have driven on long stretches of highway. So I thought of sharing this with all the millions and zillions of neurons that follow this blog so closely :-). There is a close resemblance between life and traffic on the roads. One has an origin and a destination like birth and death of a lifetime. But some journeys end abruptly before the traveler reaches his destination. Some vehicles want to travel fast and sprint a short distance in shortest possible time. There are others that want to take their time to go the distance. How comfortable your journey will be depends on your vehicle - the medium that takes you from your birth to your death; viz. your body. You may pick up fights along the way. But more the time you spend fighting, lesser the distance you travel. :-) You may break the law and cause inconvenience to others but along your journey, there will...

An incident that reinforces my belief in the Hindu way of life - a group of 40 men from Mangalore inspired by the lord श्री राम beat up women in a Pub/lounge/restaurant. Here is the media byte. Even if we take this with a pinch of salt and blame the pseudo secular media for some saucy coverage, the beating is for real. I am sure if I raise this issue with every swayamsevak I know, it is going to be sidelined. This in my opinion is the real danger. It is time every Hindu wakes up and takes cognizance...mishandling women is a strict NO. NO SCRIPTURE IN OUR RELIGION REASONS THIS!

The long weekend X'mas vacation presented a beautiful opportunity for a family trip to Aurangabad . Being the historically endowed town it is, Aurangabad has ample tourists spot to fill up three days. Yours truly, accompanied by parents and wife drove down to Aurangabad in a Santro . We left Pune at 6.30 AM on 25 th December'08. The total distance of 250 Kms to Aurangabad was covered in 4 and 1/2 hours with a break for breakfast. Once at the destination, finding the right accommodation was the biggest pain. Aurangabad does not have clean economy hotels. The place looks more like business place and most of the hotel rooms are indecent to say the least. Good accommodation is available at MTDC , but it is always overbooked. Other good places are very very costly which include, The Taj , The Ambassador, Hotel Amarapreet etc. Minimum tariff at these places is close to INR 3000 for a couple per room per day. So we took the easiest way out. We paid an autowallah 20 rupees ...

Hahaha. Last weekend (X'mas vacation) trip to Aurangabad. Details later.

After a long long time, I picked a book to read and fell in love all over again. I am reading Suketu Mehta's 'Maximum City' since the last 2-3 days. I am done with just 50 out of the 500 odd pages, that is about 10% of the book. I am not just in love with this book, but somehow the whole idea of 'reading' over 'watching' seems to grip me again. Since morning I have been wondering what could probably make writing so much more connecting than a film. Surprisingly, I found the answer in my MBA, in MIS (Management Information Systems). The message should pass through minimum people to retain its true meaning. The writer writes a story, the director interprets it and tells it through the medium of actors. Actors being the thinking human beings they are (well at least the good ones), interpret every scene their way and present. Not to forget the prejudice and perceptions that the screenplay writer, the dialog writer and even the music director hold while they add ...

After 26/11, I received number of forwards into my mailbox, proclaiming 'enough is enough', 6 steps or 21 steps the Govt. should take to combat terror, stories of martyrs of Mission Tornado, gory images of CST shootout, interviews of film stars and celebrities and every conceivable gossip possible (I am awaiting a forward on Kasab's love interest). Everyone has a good topic discuss now, at bus stops, coffee shops, at the dinner table and may be even daaru . Media has given this incident prime coverage. Relatives of victims have spoken on television before the first tear rolled out of their eyes. New channels especially the Sabse Tej ones have even broadcast the journey of a bullet from a terrorist's gun to a soldiers chest. And we all have watched it in amusement on TV. We all have been scared. We all have been stirred. We all have been shaken. Thousands of people gathered at the Gateway of India to protest the inefficiency of the Government. They had catchy slogans wr...

Now that I have your attention, let me get on with the actual post: Here I sit today in 'Sanket' position. Sanket, my dear cousin, sits in the bean bag at mid-night with his laptop on his lap; I call this the 'Sanket position'. Well too many things happening today. Lets take 'em up one by one. I begin a new assignment at my workplace. I will probably end up giving a lot of consulting gyan but hopefully with some substance. Thats what it appears from the couple of meeting I had today. I went swimming at our company's health club today. After a couple of rounds of the pool I discovered that there was a formal coach available. Not that I don't know to stay afloat, I have manage to do that for the past 20 odd years. But those are crude methods of swimming that come to you by mere survival instincts. I wanted to learn formal swimming where in the movement of my limbs could be classified into either strokes (currently it looks like the dance of a headless chicken)...

Penpricks are alert. See what they got for us... If ministers and government office bearers are going to use up tax payers money for family picnics, I am not sure how far we will go with development. Go... read on

It has been almost two months since I met Anil while I visited Bengaluru (Bangalore) during a weekend trip around the independence day. That was the first time I met him, but the man has left a lasting impression. I had mentioned to him over a cup of coffee about my idea of this series. I never called him in the last 2 months because I wanted to fulfill my promise first. I am free to call him now :-) Anil has a calmness that is very unlike people of his age. A maturity that one gains after seeing a lot of the real world. He has been successfully running a computer hardware sales & service business since last 4 years or more. At the age of 28, he has bought himself a Sedan, a Mac and has sufficient wealth to take care of his family (he is single and lives with his parents) and pamper his little sister :-). But wealth is only one aspect of Anil's business. His real kick is in vision. Anil started his business without consciously starting a business. Well, that is how he likes to ...

The idea of having a series of posts on first generation entrepreneurs has been on my mind for quite some time. It amazes me how people without any background in business and almost nil support from their forefathers (in terms of experience as well as finance) manage to take the leap of faith. From my personal experience it is a very crucial and adventurous decision for a first generation entrepreneur to decide to be so. I have met and closely known various such businessmen across industries. I will share the journey of these men and my thoughts about them & their business in days to come. I hope I am able to maintain some consistency and write on at least one entrepreneur every week. Look out for my posts with label FGE aka First Generation Entrepreneurs. :-)

Guys you wont believe this!!!!!!!!! Ubuntu is here ...on my laptop!!!!! You can judge the degree of my excitement from the number of exclamation marks I am using!!!!!!!!! Actually I initially decided to borrow a copy of Ubuntu CD but couldn't find one with any of the 1st degree contact. So I thought of buying a magazine that would have a complimentary CD of Ubuntu. But I couldn't find that either. Next option was to download and burn the OS on a CD. But I learnt from their portal that one could order an original Ubuntu CD and it would be delivered to my doorstep by a distributor from Bangaluru for as little as Rs. 250 (handling & shipping charges). That for me was like receiving a DVD of Amitabh's super-hit Don signed by Big B himself. I was so excited when I received the CD yesterday that I even took pictures of it so that you guys can have a look at it... The installation was a breeze. It took hardly about 30 minutes to install. The only knowledge one needs to install...

I was nearing a pathetic weekend, where nothing seemed to be falling in place. Too many household chores (mostly those irritating types) and no excitement at work. I was so damn pissed off with the whole weekend stuff. But then I came home yesterday and my mood has been on the upward. It all started with a nice Fish cuisine dinner yesterday. Then the movie The Last Lear. Went to sleep at 1 at night. Today morning at 7, there was a group cycle ride planned. And this ride has been physically so consuming because of the terrain, but has done wonders to my mood. It wasn't exactly a 'group' ride per se. We were just two guys. Sundeep on his kool Merida was my companion on this drive. This collegue of mine has amazing fitness level (of course when compared to me, even a tortoise would look agile). He has been jogging and running for last 7 years and has taken up cycling recently. He bought this expensive bicycle just couple of days back and has been cycling at least 20 odd Kms e...

Pune , it seems was once a city of bicycles. This non polluting environment friendly vehicle was a prime mover in this city. But not now! Now Pune i s a highly polluted city bustling with two wheelers and cars. There are close to a million two wheelers in this city. Many economists may look at this as the great Emerging India Phenomenon, but that is so myopic. To come to the point, a few weekends back, your truly decided to take a tour of the city on my Hero Ranger Swing. It was a cool 25 Kms trip that lasted around 4 hours with a lunch in between. I started from my apartment at around 12 in the noon and was back by 4 in the evening. Starting from my apartment in Bavdhan , I climbed and descended the small hill of Chandani Chowk . Then just around 4 Kms away from home came my first break. I felt dehydrated immediately and understood how important it is to carry water with you while cycling. Ater cooling off for 5/10 mins and having a glass of lassi , I pedalled further. With m...

I do this from Suse 10.1 Did I tell you the story of a guy who was blessed with a bit of too much? Well, here go... There was this fella, just got a job with a fat pay check, all married and all, bought a cool desktop for himself planning to have broadband connection so that he could blog his way to glory. ;-). The bloke gets blessed with a laptop of all things. Now he also has a broadband connection (at a whopping speed of 2 MBps). having resources including time at his disposal, he decides to try his hands at Suse 10.1. Now my friends, I am using the inbuilt application in the OS to post this entry. I have also downloaded the latest version of scribe-fire which will work with the latest version of Firefox. Poor me has so much on hands now, that I don't know how to install these updates. Video is not working as well so I have downloaded real player 11. Again I dont know how to install that as well. I hope I will make all things work over this weekend. I had a small personal trip t...

It has been a long long time since I blogged and the primary reason for that is lack of blogging access from my workplace. I had installed ScribeFire on my Firefox a long time back, but it didn't seem to authenticate my blogger account because of the firewall settings. A random try today however just clicked and now I hope I can blog at will. I have a lot to say so keep watching this space...

In the comments I received on this post, an 'anonymous' said that the first inference he could draw from the post was that my Soul was alive ...& kickkkking!!!! :-) And that is when I realised, how true it was! The primary sign of a living soul is unrest. Once you stop thinking about what you are doing, you are so dead. One may not know 'exactly' what one wants, but she should be always challenging the status quo. The day I come to terms with my existence,my work, my life I will know for sure that a fire deep within (not of acidity) has seized to exist. The comment has suddenly made me realise that this very unrest will make me do something interesting some day! Something that will make the world think I have achieved, and make me realise that i have taken the first step, increase the unrest within, and strive for more. Thank you anonymous!!!

One of my old post on Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh drew a comment today. It posed a few question about the stand RSS takes on the issues of caste system in our contry. The reader also asked if RSS could be a possible solution. And this, my dear readers in the fuel for this post. Let me put forth some facts about the organisation called RSS right at the beginning. RSS is a social organisation. There is no formal registration and participation is completely voluntary. It is not a political, religious or profit making orgnisation. There are no posts, there are only responsibilities (in fact that what they are called). These facts make it clear that this is a place where entry and exit is pretty easy. There are no costs involved with either. Which means there is no-one who can tell you that he will get you registered with the RSS and do you a favour. RSS is for everyone. In my opinion it is a perfect place where caste ism cannot exist. There are no reservations for a certain community. T...

On my way back home, during my bus ride, as usual, India's Nehruvian rate of growth struck me and I was trying to find a solution to many problems. Democracy gives importance to numbers. Mere numbers. Crooked politicians manipulate these numbers to gain absolute power. They use tax payer's money like their own and use it to gain popularity with the numbers. Bestow them with free education (not loans) and barter votes for favour or cash. The taxes we pay go into a pool and are (mis)used by the politicians. How do I as a tax payer ensure that the money I pay as taxes goes where I want it to. Here comes the solution: The government of India should float an India Fund. The sectors of investment should be education, health, defense, infrastructure etc. Every tax payer should be allowed to pay his taxes by directly putting his money in either/all of these sector funds. This way rather than the vote, every tax paying citizen will have a direct control over how his government allocates...

As the clock struck 17:05 on 29th March 2008, I completed 27 years of existence on the 3rd rock from the Sun. I cant call this journey successful yet as the end objective has not yet been achieved (the end objective has not even been set yet for that matter :-) ). But the journey has surely been a pleasure. I have decided to zero in on short term and long term objectives for myself. I tried living each day as it comes. But the pleasure seems to be momentary and short lived...only for the day. I guess setting goals for oneself and achieving them over time will give more satisfaction. It is just another thing I want to try.

I came across this full draft of a speech by Shri Adavani (leader of the opposition, Lok Sabha) which he delivered at FICCI. As one of the comment says, the victory in Gujarat has lead to a change in the BJP. They now know for sure that development CAN be a valid issue for fighting an election and more importantly, winning it. All BJP needs now is fresh blood that can see the party do wonders for the country.