Thinking Thorn

Productivity, Pain and PHP

2007-06-19T11:56:00.001-07:00

These three P's have taken most of last couple of weeks. I just got a great boost to my productivity this week, after spending almost most of my office time (and a significant part of my hard earned money) at different Cafe Coffee Day and Barista, now I have my own office. Yes, it was almost 6-7 hours every day at these places with my laptop as it gave me comfortable working space, though this place was damn costly at one frappe/Cappuccino per hour and it was not doing any good to my caffeine addiction, but it was getting my things done. And every now and then a quick glance at tables around had enough eye tonic to recharge your batteries, if caffeine failed.

So now I have an office and need not worry about many things but the recent changes in job profile and some more responsibilities being put on me, the scene is not much different. Making things worse, is my back pain, which has bounced back like Saurav Ganguly and giving me really tough time. It ensured that I am not comfortable doing my set of very quick exercises which kept my waist size unchanged for last seven years. I am so helpless that if somebody slaps me or throw some punches on me, instead of me showing some old kick boxing skills, I need to resort 'Setting' (I learn this term during my graduation days, if you cannot beat some body, uski setting kar do, get him beaten up).

This weekend also got my old programming skills revived and really had tough time coding in PHP. It is really pain to write an application to run on server which has been configured by someone else. The task I thought I can finish off in jiffy took a lot, but finally I did and discovered that I am far better than most of these programmers' who told me that you cannot do it unless you have 'administrator' access to the server. I did it guys.

Red Rose

2007-06-18T10:52:00.001-07:00

All my prayers could give

Was a single rose, red rose

And all I could do was

I kept on her tomb

Beneath that she was

With still extended hands

And hope in closed eyes....

Take care of mother.. Mother Earth

2007-06-04T20:25:00.001-07:00

If you have kept yourself abreast of recent development on Climate and Global Warming, this is one issue which need to be taken seriously by people at large and not only by environment enthusiasts and activists.
Here is what we can do to make a small contribution individually to this big issue.
1. When going for shopping, make sure to carry bags/basket, so that you need not take paper or plastic bags.
2. Switch off all the electrical appliances when not in use. Save electricity, save environment.
3. Instead of using chemical pesticides and fertilizers, go for natural/herbal pesticides, Neem leaves are a good options for insectisides and pesticides and compost you can use instead of chemical fertilizers.
4. Save water. There are millions who are deprived of drinking water.
5. Restrict yourself from using plastic/things which cannot be recycled.
Spread the word, do it yourself and aks others to do it too..

Update: Read Aditi's Post Here , She has posted a beautiful poem, one of my favorite.

Technorati tags: environment, earth, concern

Playing for pride, pride of the nation

2007-05-24T08:44:00.001-07:00

The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Book on Dhanraj Pillay released
Dhanraj Pilley, the neglected sports legend and the player who went in the field to give more than 200% whenever he was representing his country has got very little attention from the common person in this cricket crazy nation. If he has been in news, it was for his fights with administrators or his emotional outbursts.
I have seen very few players, raising their game to new heights when they represented the country and two names stand apart, Leander Paes and Dhanraj Pilley. It would be interesting know his story, at least I am going to go for it. I am happy that he is getting his due now, though his book release was quite a subdued event.

Technorati tags: hockey, sports, legends

Get maximum from your online time

2007-05-20T00:28:00.001-07:00

Most of us spend a lot of time online doing stuff which can easily be done in a jiffy using some popular services and save you loads of time. Most of my friends think that I am using a lot of time doing blogging, social bookmarking, reading news on topic of my interest. In reality, I spend no more than one hour doing all this everyday. I just use the following regularly and get things done.

1. Google Reader and Bloglines - I have been into blogging since 2004 and keep a track of a number of blogs using Google Reader. This saves me from visiting all the blogs (and also from missing some of irregular bloggers who post once in a while), whenever a blog is updated I can see it in Google Reader and depending upon the topic and my interest I go through them. Though if a topic (sometime blogger as well) compels me to post comment I have to visit the blog. Once can easily categorize the blogs in Google Reader for ease of use. I categorize blogs on two basis, key words, and theme. Google Reader being from Google stable provides you with 'labels' so you can categorize (label) a blog into more than one category. I used to be on Bloglines, but Google Reader is far better option considering ease of use and other features.

2. Firefox and its extensions: Browsing with Firefox is a more productive and provides you loads of options compared to IE. This enables me to post bookmarks with just a click to Del.icio.us, Ma.Gnolia, BlueDot and discover some really great and useful sites using StumpleUpon. You can also install GreaseMonkey which gives you options to run third party scripts on a particular webpage in the browser. There are some very cool productive scripts using Gmail and GCalender. Though a word of cautions here, there are a number of extensions which provide no productivity and are more of a nuisance. They also make Firefox slow and unsteady so install extensions carefully. Google Toolbar is one extension you must have.

3. Remember the milk and Google Calender: The key to productivity is having a good habit of creating To Do Lists. Remember the milk and Google Calender give you this facility and loads of feature. Every weekend I spend sometime to create a ToDo List using Remember the milk / Google Calender. My Google Calender is configured to send me an sms (free of any cost and it works on most of Indian Cellphone networks) at specified time to remind me of a particular task . Remember the milk is a very good service and it can be integrated with Google Calender, though you can manage your Todo list using only Google Calender

4. iGoogle, Pageflakes, Netvibes: Startpages are very good tool to start your online journey daily. They gather all the things to one place and you can have a look at most of the things without hoping from one site to another. My iGoogle has Gmail Preview of mails, Wordsmith word of the day, news feed on particular tags, headlines from NYT, CNN, daily jokes, sports tid bits, remember the milk module, google notepad.. you name it and i have it there. So once I open my browser within 10 minutes I am updated.

5. Gmail and Labels: Gmail is one application capable of enhancing your productivity many time, if you can use it properly and know all its features and tweaks. I routed all my emails to Gmail only (including professional ids) and have applied a number of filters and labels. This saves me from checking my mails on different sites. Since I use Outlook for offline email reading, I keep one copy on gmail server, so even if I am traveling or do not have access to my laptop I can check them from any comp. It is also a cushion in case something goes wrong. You need to be a bit thoughtful while choosing Labels, normally I have some labels like M_I_T (Most Important Task), Rpl_Ltr (Reply Later), Useful_Info and so on. Once I read an email, I apply one or another label to it and that helps me in keeping track of these emails and necessary actions.

6. Windows Live Writer: Writing a blog online is real pain. So I use WLW (Window Live Writer) to write my blogs offline. I have configured all my blogs (I mirror post on all) so with one click I can check the spelling, adjust pictures, ping the blogservers... Though there are other offline blogeditors/writers but this comes with unicode support (to type in languages like Hindi, Marathi, Gujarat etc.), this feature is lacking in most of other options (Qumaana my earlier favorite was handicapped on this front). Technorati tags (now an inevitable part of a blog) can easily be added using this. So no need to remember <html> tags or ask you geek friend how to do this and that. It does everything. Though It doesn't support Yahoo 360 Bloggers.. :((. So to overcome this, I type everything in WLW and see it in WebPreview mode and then copy and paste it into Yahoo 360 compose box. It works fine.

7. Google News and Google Blogsearch: Open Google News and you will have access to all the major headlines so you need not go from one online news site to another. And if you are interested in particular topic, you just need to search google news with that keyword. Also if you are regularly searching news on a particular thing, its better to subscribe to customized search RSS feed in your Google Reader (will write about it later as this post is already getting too long..). Most of my friends are surprised when the start blogging and invariably I happen to be the first one to comment.. You just need to search on Google Blogsearch for a particular word (in my case I have four five key words which links all my friends... and whenever they are going online.. a mention to them is inevitable.. guess them..). For example, I keep track on if somebody is writing on Rural Finance, whoever there is an update I get it in my Google Reader. Though I have put some well thought filters to restrict spam or not so useful content.

Technorati tags: Sunday 7evens, Productivity, Google Reader, Rememberthemilk, Windows Live Writer, Gmail, Pageflakes, blogsearch, techtalk

Visit to my provenience

2007-05-16T03:56:00.001-07:00

After 5 years, I got time and opportunity to visit my ancestral place and my provenience. I have spent my early years in this place, which is located 9 kms from GT Road, near UP-Bihar border in Bihar. It is so close to UP that my Hutch SIM was not on roaming though I was in Bihar, it was still communicating through a tower in UP.

The occasion of visit or principal reason for visit was my sister's (cousin) marriage. First marriage in my family in last 20 years. And also, probably first time in last 10 years I saw all member of my extended family together.

Since my last visit (which was for one day at time of my grandmother funeral), the village has changed substantially. Though still not properly accessible by road (You cant reach this place by small cars as the roads are glaring example of corruptions and fund embezzlement.), but the work for new road is going on, hopefully next time I would visit this place it would be a pleasant journey from GT Road to my native village.

I had planned to move around my village (which I had not done since I left the village way back when I was studying in Class 3.) and first thing I wanted to see was my school. It used to be a two room building with no sitting arrangement for students as all the furniture we had was a couple of chairs for teachers. We had to carry empty Cement bags, which we used to spread on ground and study on that. The school was surrounded by mango orchard where in lunch break everyone used to visit if it is mango season to try one's luck, if one can find one delicacy from the orchard.

The school has changed as it has a new building ( but of two room only, they built the new building in place of the old rooms, see the picture) and I heard that they have got bench and desks for the students. But the attendance is thin, due to a new private school a couple of kilometers from my village (which charges Rs. 50 per month) and most of the upper caste people (only those who think that education can be of any use, and believe me they are in minority) are now sending their wards to this private school. I enquired about the old teachers, none of them are currently there, the school is manned by recruitment done under Shiksha Mitras (who get Rs. 4000 per month as salary).

In evening, when we were sitting with fellow villagers and guests who had come to attend my sis marriage, my father told us that there is some fight going on in the village. He told us that there was some noise coming from the nearby mohalla. We were still speculating what is the reason, then one of my cousin came and told that that was not a fight but the policemen were beating a lady. I asked why? It was not very surprising for me, I have witness the policemen's atrocities and attitude when they visit villages. He told me that somebody has filed complaints against the lady's husband and they came to arrest the husband and the lady protested and started abusing the policemen. It was disgusting. I have seen these policewala, they act as if they are god when they visit villages and take undue advantage of illiteracy and ignorance of these simpleton villagers. They are not aware of their rights and safeguards available, and even if they are aware of them, they fear the retaliatory action from the other policemen.

Technorati tags: villages, police, rural life, rural education

Seven Mags I loved When I was kid

2007-05-06T05:24:00.001-07:00

1. Chandamama - We were waiting more eagerly to get this magazine from newspaper wala then our results. Beautiful stories of Kings, stories from ancient epics with written with clear motive of promoting values and culture in children made this magazine immensely popular among kids.

Recently, Chandamama's last 60 years issues have been digitized, so those who want to gift their children a good read, devoid of gory action and violent fantasy, this is a great option.

2. Champak - Loved it. Cheekku (the rabbit), Meeku (the mice) and their adventures were superb, since 1968 this magazine has established itself as the number one Children's Magazine of India. A part of Delhi Press Group, they followed their group policy of not promoting any superstitious or bhoot-prate stories, but clean healthy entertainment for kids. Even today, I get my hands on any issue of Champak, I make sure to find Cheeku's column and read it.

3.Lotpot - Full of laughter and great comic strips. The stories were invariably successful in bringing laughter and making you go 'lotpot' . No advertisement and reading material from cover to cover at price of Rs. 2 (At present it is being sold at Rs.5). Though the paper was not great but stories were. Motu, Patlu and Ghasita's always used to find themselves in trouble in whatever they did. Though Ghasita was not the main hero of the Motu Patlu strip but his hair style and Haryanwai accent made him my favorite character.

4. Nandan - Unlike many children's magazine of that time, this one has backing of a one of the leading media house of country Hindustan Times Group and has some of the biggest name as its contributor. Edited by Jayprakash Bharti (one of the biggest name in Children's literature), it had/has strong focus on indian mythology and presented stories from Puranas and Upnishads. It was more structured and well presented compared to its competitors in 80's, there you had Crosswords, Find the Difference (Kaun Kitna Buddhiman), a very popular Tenaliraman. The Pari Katha Visheshank was its eagerly waited special issue by its readers. Vishwa Prasidha Kahania provided its reader the best of childrens literature from world over translated in hindi.

At the moment, it has gone numerous changes and is being edited by Mrinal Pandey, I just recently checked one issue from my brother, and found that the new avataar is no longer as fascinating. Earlier Nandan used to be full of stories and stories only. Now, they have started putting articles (probably following other mags), interviews and other pieces but somehow it doesnt reminds one of the old Nandan we were fond of.

5. Madhu Muskan- If anyone of you have read it, you would vividly remember, Daddy jee, Chustram Sushtram.. Great comic and great mag. I dont know whether it is being published today or not but it was really one mags I wanted to read again and again. I even had a collection of around 5-6 years of Madhu Mushkaan, but some of dear friends loyal to borrowed reading, betrayed me.

6. Suman Saurabh - Aimed at teens and probably only magazine in Hindi in late 80s and in 90s which went beyond storytelling and provided useful articles. Again from the stable of Delhi Press Group, I loved its Jasoosi Katha Visheshank (Detective Stroy Specials) and Vigyan Katha Visheshank (Sci-fi Specials). It is still going strong.

7. Balhansh - Though this was quite new compared to Champak, Chandamama and Nandan, but it can be categorized as more balanced reading experience for kids. Published by Rajasthan Government, it kept the allround growth of its reader in mind. While Kavi Aahat made people go hither and thither fearing his poems, Havaldaar Tholaram was no less then a mixture of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond with grey matters borrowed from the likes of Kaanti Shah and Raakhi Sawant, taking care of goons and evildoers as well as problems of common man. It has some great informative articles which were not very common at that time in children's magazine as most of the mags provided only stories and comic strips, the focus was not there on interesting or informative articles.

Now let me know, which were your favorites .....

Technorati tags: Nandan, Champak, Lotpot, Childrens Magazine, Books, Magazine

Blog-Sutra

2007-05-04T21:49:00.001-07:00

To blog humane, to comment divine.
Thou shall link your 'visitors'.
A blog-post a day, keeps visitors coming your way.
Once a blogger, always a blogger.
Every successful bloggers, has hundreds of visitor behind him/her.
Thou shall respect Copyrights and IPR.
Thou shall not beg link-backs.

Technorati tags: blogs, blogging

Managing Blog, Time and Myself

2007-04-28T10:01:00.001-07:00

So, I have been very irregular with my posts, comments and presence on my blogs as well as with my first love, reading books. Many books are left half-read, posts half written and many personal tasks neglected, fortunately I have been quite good with professional assignments (I don't compromise on that as they provide you bread and butter.)
So it was clear I was unproductive/underproductive considering total input (time and resources) and output and capability installed (talent and knowledge, oh.. I do have some.. some people say that and they never want to be hear that they are wrong!), now solution. Santosh, do something. You are quite good at suggesting others, now dont preach practice.
One of my strategy to achieve some goal have been to declare it in advance, I am going to do this. Doing this, I push myself to the limit to save my face and do that stuff as I have already proclaimed, second people keep on reminding what happened to the thing you were working on. So following the same strategy, here is what I am going to working on.
Blog
Hmm. I am not regular and most of the time I am handicapped by Blogger's block (just like Writer's Block). So I am going to have a weekly post ..Sunday Seven. So what is this? This is a list of seven things related to particular theme, topic, seven tips, hate list, love list.. etc. This will ensure that at least I am regular. And surely I am going to continue with whatever I am writing. So from now onwards, check every Sunday for Santosh's Sunday Sevens (hmm.. nice marketing..some time you need to pat your own back.. people dont like to do this for others..)
Some other blog resolutions as well ... comment regularly and encourage others and revive old links.
Books
So I love books then why I am not able finish these numerous half read books. First, Problem of Plenty, no fix timing.
So here is what I think would be quite useful for me... and its working already.

Prepare a list of books in priority of reading, so that you know which book you are going to read.
Assign a fixed time for reading book, at the moment I am reading them just before going to bed.

Lets see how many I am able to finish with this strategy.
Time Management
I am going to apply some tried and tested (by others) time management tips and techniques, so watch out this space, I would be sharing them here as well.

welcome to blogosphere

2007-04-24T22:16:00.001-07:00

Let me welcome some friends entering blogosphere. It is great pleasure to interact in real world and it is really fascinating to have them on blogospher. So visit their blogs, comment and explore some really wonderful persons :)

Samvadiya by Bhaskar Lakshakar

My batchmate at IIFM and a person with impeccable Hindi, deep insight on a number of issues and this is his second coming to blogosphere and this time it seems that Hindi Blogosphere is going to be blessed with his regular contribution. If you are thinking I am going ga ga over him because he is my friend, have a look at some of the posts from his earlier blog and let me know.

Brown Men's Burden by Santosh Anagol

Another Santosh :), here is an Yale PhD student ( mark my word, a brilliant Development and Behavorial economist in making) sharing his insight on different issues. We spent around 3 months exploring Cattle Markets and villages to study different aspects of dairy farmers and their behavior.

Invectives of Development Practitioner by Vineet Abhishek

Vineet my senior at IIFM who started his career with PRADAN and now a full fledged development practitioner. He is quite regular with his post and you will surely notice his knack for creative writing...

So enjoy .. and do not forget to leave your comments when you visit their blogs..

Did I entertain You?

2007-04-22T00:43:00.001-07:00

"Did I entertain you?" he failed to conceal his emotions and asked the packed stadium at Barbados.

Brian Charles Lara, will no longer come to entertain the cricket loving junta across the world, and believe me there would be a lot less number of people watching West Indies go into the field sans Lara. We would be deprived of the most artistic, moody, enigmatic and the most talented batsman of this generation, the murlidharans, the Kanerias, the Brett Lees can heave a sigh of relief, now they will not face majestic magician taking guard on the striker's end to torment them.

There would be batsman with better records, more centuries and more runs, but there would be no one who can bat with burden of a mediocre team on his shoulder, some perennial critics (Mr. holding, what will you do now ? there is no Lara to criticize.. get a new job) and ever opposing WCB, still writing epics after epic (375*, 400, 501), producing miracles (He scored 153* against Australia batting taillenders to defeat Australians, the innings is rated second best in the history of test cricket, and taking WI to 2-2 draw after 2-0 in favor of Aussies) and showing the world what is determination and mental fortitude (When most of the people were writing obituary of his batting when he was out of WI side, he came back with 196 in the very first innings of his return.)

When Steve Waugh was asked "Whom do you like most to watch as batsman?" the answer was a quick "Lara". Nobody provided better sight than Lara on song, he can do anything with the bat in hand.

Nobody twinkled his feet so and angled his blade so and keep hitting gaps like Lara, an intuition sharpened in childhood when he arranged pots as fielders to practise. In 2003 a man at deep midwicket was taken out and put beside another behind point. This comes from Adam Gilchrist in The Australian a couple of seasons ago. "Mistake," hissed Lara. Next ball Lara lofted to midwicket for six. Gilchrist taunted Lara to take on the two men behind point instead. Lara strung it between them for four. Next ball was straighter, Lara backed away and strung it through again. Best remain silent now, Gilchrist then decided. This was to demonstrate precision of his skill. But I particularly liked "mistake". 'You don't know what I can do?' was the strut. That is the Lara motif. --- Rahul Bhattacharya in his column on CricInfo

Thats what Lara was exactly, the maverick genius with a touch of ego what makes him special. On his way to the famous 153 agianst Australians, he faced 'the common manifestation australian sportmanship' from McGrath after he hit Lara on his helmate with a bouncer and the reply was equally befitting. He pulled McGrath, cut, drove to show that even he is down (sorry his team was down, the same 10 idiot travellers with Lara), you cannot rule over a Prince.

But his farewell was on a sad note, everyone knows that he watned to tour England and continue his test career, but he knew very well that some of the nincompoops who have power are sharpening their teeth to gnaw off his place from the team. So he did what was expected, quit on his own terms.

Those who watched his last innings, something was very clear, the team was not with him. I wonder how he managed to be with these folks. If you remember when Courtney Walsh retired the WI team gave him a gaurd of honour, no gaurd of honour from his own team mates. But the true stature of Lara was evident, when he walked in to bat for the last time, the English team gave him a very befitting welcome to the crease and the pressbox gave standing ovation to one of the all time greatest batsmen. The packed stadium was there to give him guard of honour.

The determination was evident when he came to bat, the timeing was there, the early shine of his shots were giving a clear indication what was on his mind, an innings to say good bye, the last treat from the Prince, but Marlon Samuels did not approve his plans.

But here is my answer to what Lara asked and I think many of you would agree with me.

"Yes. And Nobody entertained the cricket fans across the world like you did."

Thanks and Goodbye.....

(My earlier posts on Lara http://santosh.wordpress.com/2005/07/15/how-good-is-brian-lara/

http://santosh.wordpress.com/2004/08/27/lara-the-best/)

(Pics coursey: Cricinfo.com)

Some Pics

2007-04-18T11:21:00.001-07:00

I have been travelling a lot these days. And whenever, I found my camera, time and a good object to shoot, I did some clicking.

I love Palash from my childhood, probably one of the reason for this is I spent a lot of time in Palamu (Jharkhand) which is full of Palash (Butea monosperma) trees and I have loads of happy memories attached to that place and these trees. Its really beatiful sight to see these tree flowering, they turn whole forest red.

This picture I took near Itaujha (Small village about 25 kms from Lucknow) in Uttar Pradesh. It reminds the old song..'mere desh ki dharti sona ugle...'

I wanted to kill...

2007-02-03T22:34:00.001-08:00

I always wondered why people turn violent, why they want to kill somebody, knowing very well that it is going to ruin their life as well. Life gave me a first hand experience to explore the answer or should I say that enlightened me with answer.

As usual, every weekend I took a train to my home place, which is overnight journey from Lucknow and after spending weekend I was returning by Gwalior Mail (From Barauni to Gwalior). The train was already 10 hours late, when I boarded it. But since I had reservation in it and could not manage to get reservations in other trains, I was helpless and had to wait for this delayed train. Though most of the trains were running full, this train was empty (at least the AC coaches). Probably due to its history of late running, for me it was always an option to take when I dont have any pre-reservation made and had to go home as I got place in this train easily.

So we were only 3 person in whole AC three tier coach. We reached a small station called Bhatparrani, a station near Gorakhapur. Though the train was not scheduled to stop there, It stopped and seemed stopped for eternity. Hours went by but it did not move. I asked my coach attendent, whats wrong?

He replied " There is some problem at the next station, so train will go once the problem is cleared. Actually, people are burning train at Gorakhpur Station in protest of arrest of Jogi jee."

My heart sank. How can people do this?

I asked " what happened to the passengers?"

"They were asked to vacate."

My conversation with attendant was going on and we heard loud voices near by which were coming to us filtered by closed doors of coach. We looked out of window. A crowd of around 40 people was coming armed with sticks, swords and what not. Mostly in the age group of 12-30 years, but the biggest section was of 12-20 years old. They were shouting something, which we could not figure out. Hurriedly I put the curtains on the window and even before I could finish putting on the curtains a big stone crashed on the other window of our coach. Then come another.

We three just made our self safe from these stones by putting ourself away from window. We looked at each other. We three only. Me, a student of Scindia School who was going to attend his school at Gwalior after vacation, and a person accompanying him. They started knocking the doors. Luckily the attendant has locked the doors. They tried unsuccessfully. We gathered our luggage and decided to move to AC 2 tier coach, where we had around 6 more passengers. We moved to AC 2 tier. A six-eight month old baby was crying endlessly, probably sensing his mothers uncomfort and panic.

The mob went on crashing windows of the standing train. It went on for around 30 minutes. After that there was a pause, for ten minutes. But we could not muster the strength to come out of train and look for something for drink or eat (the train was standing there for more than 4 hours and it didnot have any pantry car.)

Then again the noise began. Same people returned and starting banging our doors again. Probably passengers traveling in AC coaches were easy meat as our windows had no protection only glasses and that too were broken, shattered by them. We were standing in one of the corners. All together. Praying. Suddenly a sword came through the window. Looking for something. Now voices were coming clearly to us after the glasses were gone.

"Arre phunk dente hain salon ko.. darwaja nahi kholte hain to.." (Lets burn them, if they dont open the door.) Somehow I managed to get a glimpse of this brave man who wanted to burn us alive. A boy of 13-14 years old. With a big stone in one hand and a flag in another. His opinion was supported by many.

I badly wanted to have a gun, one shot and you are dead. To make tomorrow morning headline. An innocent kid shot by an irritated passenger. Innocent!! I was becoming restless. No future, no ideology, no compassion everything was taken over by this pang of hatred. Suddenly I saw a person (around 30 years old, dressed in Khadi, I wondered if Gandhi could see his Khadi being donned by these maniacs). Here in the coach, the baby was crying endlessly. And his parents could do just nothing. Probably he needed some milk or water.

While the person was talking to the mob, stones were coming to the train.. suddenly some men in Khaki appeared and crowd started to move hither and thither. Shouting slogans. We got some relief.

After 30 minutes, the people were no where to seen. I looked at a tea seller on platform. Invited him in the coach, as we were too afraid to step out of the train. He came in and we got some tea for us and lots of question for them. We came to know that the idea to burn the train was dropped as some politician ask them not to burn the train.

I was shocked, so they were being controlled!! Controlled by some politician. The guy who wanted to bomb our parliament, should have been successful.

Now look at the picture published in Dainik Jagaran, one of the leading dailies of India. The caption given is “ People protesting ….” Look who are the people. We should be proud how our kids have become mature, the have developed strong sense of political and social scenario and now actively participating. If you look carefully, you can figure out who are the people at front and equipped with stick and stones. Invariable in mobs the theory of “Leading from the back” applies.

Consider if police tries to control the crowd and in order to control them if they have to resort to laathi charge (they have to, if not to control the crowd then to protect themselves). What could be the morning headline is anyone’s guess.

Technorati tags: society, riots, concern, thinking

Catharsis

2007-01-18T04:08:00.001-08:00

Smooth is the word which can never be used as adjective to describe my past 28 years. It has always been a roller coaster ride where I have seen more troughs than highs. Though this might not be visible to many as I perfected the art of cloaking my sorrow,putting on the plastic smile on my lips. But there is a limit to everything.

Now the inevitable is happening, I am breaking down, I can no longer carry the burden of numerous masks which people demand me to put on always. They need to be peeled off, though it might give pain but handling pain comes to me as swimming to fishes.

I keep on wondering whether I need to face this, am I destined for this or it is my creation ? Or is it the holy pyre that is needed for transfiguration ? Anyway, every passing moment when you struggle, either makes you stronger or teaches you how to handle failure (and even this ultimately make you stronger only). So the more you struggle, the stronger you become. But what to do, when you do not want to get stronger, there is no desire to be so, I do not wish to resist (which is the cause of struggle) I want to surrender or I should rather say I surrendered, but even then I am struggling. Probably this is to remind me that all the wisdome and all your wishes are nothing but a mere amusement for the almighty. Almighty loves playing games.

So what is next? Oh.. the same stupid thought. Planning future.. as if I have control over it. Almighty must be laughing, how foolish are these mortals, they plan as if they are God, they plan for months and years.. and then do not know of the next moment.

Technorati tags: personal, life

BlueDot - Social Bookmarking Repackaged

2007-01-09T19:15:00.001-08:00

Social Bookmarking has become new buzzword on the net with n number of sites coming up with this feature. Social Bookmarking in simple term can be defined as sharing links which you find useful or discover while surfing net, to your friends, contacts or public at general. Another aspect of social bookmarking is social tagging, so you tag your links with certain key words, so that person viewing the link can easily understand what this link is all about.
At the moment, some of the social bookmaring sites are receiveing more than a million hits per day. Some of the big names are
del.icio.us
digg
furl
simpy
myweb
reddit
magnolia
StumpleUpon
and ofcourse BlueDot.
So now lets discuss BlueDot. Founded by an NRI Mohit Srivastava and backed by some leading venture capitalist, BlueDot is touted as next bigthing in social bookmarking. When it was launched it got quite good review on all the major sites.
Let me list out some of the main features of the sites, so that you can have a go at them.
This site differentiates itself from other bookmarking sites on the following counts

Its eye catching design.
Social discovery through social bookmarking. Yes, this sites has made many features of social networking sites inbuilt. So you can discover/meet new people through the links (dots) they share with you.
You can automatically dot your blog entries on BlueDot, without any fuss(Click here for Details).
You can rate your dots, and you can put up a note about the link (though this features is now available on most of the social bookmarking sites.)
You can enjoy the different level of privacy options, so you can make a link public, private or share with a selected group of friend only.
You can setup Doting on your browser by just dragging and dropping a particular link so when ever you are viewing an interesting site, you can just click on the button and share it with whoever you want to. (For more info Click here)
If you have not setup doting on your browser, still you can create your dots, from any machine using a simple form.
You can comment on other users dot, though you need to have that user in your friend list.
If you have an account on del.ico.us you can easily import your bookmarks from del.icio.us, though they will be automtically tagged with default tag.
You can communicate to others users with inbuilt email/messaging facilty.

Apart from these, you can enjoy all other tools which most of the social bookmarking website provide.

You can share your bookmars through RSS as this provides rss feeds to your bookmarks.
You can upload your pics on your profile page (strangely this feature is not available at Del.icio.us)

So enjoy BlueDoting.. If want to add me as your friend on BlueDot.. visit my profile.. (you might find some really interesting links there..)

Technorati tags: bluedot, social bookmarking, reviews, techtalk

2007- Is this the magical year I was waiting for?

2007-01-06T04:37:00.001-08:00

First of all my delayed new year wishes to all who visited the blog, commented, mailed me and inspired me to keep on blogging. Wishing you all Happy New Year.

Though I am not a staunch believer in numerology, astrology or such other sciences, but some incident have tempted me to believe somethings. So numerologically me being a number 9 person, this year 2+0+0+7 = 9 , is a very significant year for me.

Anyway, even you take out the numerological factor, this is going to be crucial and eventful year.

1. Probably this is going to be the last year of my golden bachelorhood. Even thought of losing this makes me feel uneasy.

2. This year will decide, where I am heading to in my professional life. Professionally the most crucial year of my life. This year will decide whether I am going to be somebody or nobody.

3. After 4 years, I would be visiting my native village this year, It would be a nice experience to spend some time where I was born. I still have very fond memories of the school which I attended for 5-6 months. The school which had no desk, no benches and no proper place to study in the rainy season. The teachers, who wielded stick better than pen.

4. Some friends are bound to be lost in this concrete jungle, riding on the unruly behemoth of personal ambitions and professional compulsions (or professional ambitions and personal compulsions), probably scraps on Orkut would be the only thing to remind us of golden days. It has already started with everyone stepping into professional life.

5. In all probability, after using Windows XP for so long, I am going to chuck this out and try new Vista or Mac OS X.

6. By the end of the year, I would no longer be able to flaunt my back kick or side kick in Van Damme style. No desire to practice and no need to show off.

7. Karmic balance is going to be tilted negatively as I am bound to gather loads of bad karma.

8. The list of unfinished poems and stories would increase this year, as I am assuming that this year the weekends would be at my disposal and with no other addictions, I will surely test the hypothesis that I am a bad writer.

Technorati tags: personal, blogs

Retirement Planning

2006-12-20T09:04:00.001-08:00

Don't get shocked or be happy, I am not retiring, I am just doing planning for my retirement. And planning is one thing I have always been comfortable doing it. So in search of some good pension plan I landed up on ICICI Prudential's website. And played their Retirement Planning game.

A very simple game, they ask question about your life style, savings and they will predict what amount of savings you need to do every month to enjoy the desired lifestyle after retirement.

So I played the game. I filled all the questions and field required for getting predictions and suggestions. Some very simple questions and very simple answers. After 10 minutes of exercise, I got my result.

I need to save Rs.34458 to enjoy the current lifestyle (with some minor modification) after retirement. Huhh..

Now this is a real problem. Now its almost impossible for me to save this amount everymonth. Something must be wrong. How can this be possible? So did some analysis.. and got the solution.

I can change my lifestyle a little bit (actually start spending a bit more) and then I would be able to save money to enjoy the desired lifestyle after retirement. So what are the changes I need to make in my lifestyle?

Start Drinking One bottle (daily!!)of Royal Challenge(RC) or it can be Old Monk (actually these two names are quite motivating.. one gives me feeling that I am taking up some challenge and another one provides me the feeling of Spiritual touch .. afterall old monks are filled with knowledge and wisdom..) I want to sing ala Big B.. मुझे पीने का शौक नहीं.. पीता हुं पेन्सन बचाने को..

Smoking 1 pack of Wills oh..sorry costly.. Capstan

And no need to do any shadow kick boxing or jogging... (cool.. anyway its too boring exercise...just realized that almost all the beautiful girls have now switched to treadmills)

Now I need to save only Rs.14000 per month .. great.. that I can do.

You must have guessed, due to my no drinking, no smoking, and active lifestyle, the game predicted I will live upto 82 Years (don't want to live that long.. what will you do in that age.. nothing works..ya .. nothing..) So I need to save money for 37 Years (Ya, I am planning to retire at 45).

So little bit more expense everymonth on the above mentioned items (luckily my mom does not read my blogs.. ) and I have taken care of my saving blues...

Technorati tags: life insurance, Retirement Planning, Personal, Blogs

Some ideas, some plans and some compulsions

2006-12-16T23:30:00.001-08:00

Another Sunday morning and as usual my time to take a look on whats going on and where I am heading. Now its a habit to sit aside and take a note of happenings of my life and future path. Nope I am not making a statement or declaring that I am en route to something big or intend to make something big. It is just the fact that I love to think whenever I have time. Since my student days, I have been toying with some ideas and 'the time' decided at that time to go for implementation of those ideas has arrived. But nothing concrete so far. Reasons, I believe in giving sufficiently long gestation period for any idea (though sometime it is dangerous and while you are thinking over the idea, somebody has started implementing / executing), but I am quite aware of the fact that any idea in beginning looks like 'the brilliant once a life time spark which is capable of catapulting the world', start thinking over it and you will find that idea is just a myopic thought or impractical imagination or already implemented / existing stuff. I am still having those ideas alive, giving them ample time, discussing with people, reading their face while discussing (just to guess that their comments are genuine or not as I discuss most of the time with my close friends or people supposed to be closed friends and I have all the risk of getting biased opinions). So what are those ideas or what were those ideas and plans

Being a social entrepreneur or development entrepreneur is surely very high on my list and there are two-three ideas that can provide the launchpad. Somehow whenever I think of success, it is always related with making unexpected (as per the perception of people) happen and these ideas are no exceptions.
Becoming an author - my childhood dream and the one thing is bound to happen sooner or later. I am not claiming that I would be a successful bestselling author but I would be an author for sure.

Both of the above are very much possible. And at the moment I am just looking for enough background work that guarantees that the ideas do not fail due to poor execution, which has been the major cause of failure for brilliant ideas. Secondly, I need people who have similar dream like me. But all these will take some time, and right now the focus is time management, so I can optimize my output on professional (being a consultant/researcher surely not an easy job as it seems) as well on personal front.

Technorati tags: life, blogs, thoughts

Thinking aloud: Risk

2006-12-05T20:01:00.000-08:00

In one of the interviews, one recruiter asked me what is your biggest strength and my answer was ability to take risk. Though this answer was an honest one, but this was not strength I acquired over the time, this strength came from my background. I had nothing to show off and nothing to lose. So at every point of time, I ask only one question, what would be the result if I fail or what would be the worst scenario. And I know that I have already passed my nadir (if I think logically cancelling out something super-natural or extraordinary), I cannot get lower than that. I have already fixed a reference point and while taking any decision I just think, would it be worse than that? And if answer is no, I can take any step.

It is like traveling with no luggage. If you have lots of luggage you become handicapped, you have lots to think about when you try to change the vehicle. If you are having no luggage you can hop from one vehicle to another. The outcomes of success are like extra baggage you acquire; the more successful you become the more concerned about losing your luggage. The heaviest acquisition is others’ (specially near and dear ones) expectations; every body expects you to grow vertically. To keep on acquiring this useless baggage, which are ultimately going to tie you down with their weights. You lose your ability to move, you lose your ability to take risk.

The crucial thing here is to keep that reference point intact. The success which comes to your way might force you to change the reference point as you are going to be afraid of losing the paraphernalia which comes with success.

Technorati tags: Risk, Personal Growth, Blogs, Thoughts, Life

Lovers cannot be rationals, Rationals cannot be lovers.

2006-10-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

Love is a word made of two vowels, two consonants and two fools.

How true is the above statement ?
Very true.
Love cannot happen between two rational beings. So am I trying to say that all the lovers are fools or irrational being ? Have you ever studied what happens when you are in love? When love occurs, it takes control of mind. Heart starts to rule over mind. Logic fails. Rationale goes out of the system. You are ready to die for a girl/boy, you have just met, you had no relation with earlier. You remeber each inane/trivial detail about him/her. Your mind/brain which failed to remember, the class notes after reading nth time, suddenly has become so efficient that it remebers each everything about him/her withouut any efforts.
All persons, even hardcore rational beings, starts suffering from pangs of irrationality, whenever the matter is related with love, their love.
How can you explain, sitting infront of your lover and looking at his/her face, the joy you get is beyond explanation ? Can you get the same kind of joy, sitting infront of person other than your lover. No. You change your daily routine, the person who refused to leave bed before 8 o' Clock, can be seen moving around the house of his/her love, to just get a glimpse of his/her love. Take her/his name, and see him/her face turning red, eyes twinkle. Is there any logic behind it. No. There is no logic behind it.

Your heart is not bound of any logic. And thank God, for it. If there had been no heart, brain could have made life dull and not worth living.

Technorati tags: love, thoughts, blogs, personal, abstract

Jhalak Dikh Gayee

2006-10-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

Though I have not been very keen TV enthusiast, yet I have been watching Jhalak Dikhla Jaa (Celebrity Dance Competition on Sony TV) religiously. Some reasons, it is a great show and I really enjoyed watching non-dancers shake a leg in front to some of the greatest professionals in the field.

This weeks results episode, was really interesting as one non dancer but hugely popular person was pitted against three brilliant performers. Ajay Jadeja is clearly a non-dancer compared to Mahesh, Mona and Shweta. As expected he could not make it to the semifinals of Jhalak Dikhala Jaa. But, the way he embraced the verdict of public and decision of judges, really showed his real charachter. It was one of the most memorable display of sportsmanship. Probably that is the reason, why he still enjoys such a huge fan following. Those who have seen the episode, must have got a lesson on how to handle failure gracefully and sportingly.

On contrary, previous week I saw Akashdip Sehgal, blabbering after not being promoted to last round. He left no stone unturned to demean himself in front of millions of viewers. Sorry Mr. Sehgal, you need a lot to learn and the first thing is to learn how to accept failure with dignity and grace, as no one wins all the games.

Technorati tags: television, media, celebrities

End of Dichotomy

2006-10-05T04:41:00.000-07:00

Something was wrong somewhere, which I was not able to figure out. Everytime I had to choose between two totally opposite paths, which were taking me towards two different destinations and I was not sure which was the right destination. So, everytime I was making selection of the path, rather than selecting the right destination.

The strategy of 'lets see it' needed a change. Now, no more sight seeing, choose the destination and decide the path. So what to do! I am already on a path and travelled quite some distance. Do I have to change it? The ever questioning/doubting fucking brain comes into the helm. But not this time, dear. You are not going to steer the ship. Brain is too cunning entity to be believed of, somehow it convinces you of everything it wants. So reasons take backseat, discarded and dumped.

Okey I am ready to change the path, but which destination to choose or whether to choose any destination at all. Or just enjoy a path, anyway no destination is final. Destinations are just some stops on one or another path. The moment you reach there you see another one to go for.

del.icio.us tags: personal, life, thoughts, blogs

Technorati tags: personal, life, thoughts, blogs

Somethings i want to do now..

2006-10-01T04:32:00.000-07:00

Prepare a list of books which i want to buy once I am in India. In last six month, I did not buy even a single book, though i managed to read some in ebook version.
Watch lots of movies (Hindi Movies) to compensate for 6 months draught.
Learn SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences), actually not learn get mastery over it.
Enroll for Master level course in Economics Spend some time with my family
Buy some gifts for friends
Buy a domain for my blog
Buy iPod's latest model
Buy a Mac mini

Technorati tags: todolist, personal, san1378, blogs, updates

Manage your GMail

2006-09-18T02:58:00.000-07:00

Gmail provides some wonderful tools to manage your mails like tags, filters and labels. The following hack enables you to easily create numerous gmail ids from your gmail id.

You can add any word to you gmail id with plus sign and the mail will be delivered to your account as usual. For example, if you id is xyz@gmail.com , you can create ids like

xyz+personal@gmail.com

xyz+business@gmail.com,

xyz+spam@gmail.com.

Now you can create filters to automatically filter mails coming to these id in respective folders. One very good use of this hack can be while registering to many sites on net. Once you register to these sites, they start bombarding your mail box with spam mails. You can register to these sites with id xyz+spam@gmail.com and all mails coming to this id will automatically go to spam folder (you have to create the filter).

Tags: gmail, hacks, tips, productivity

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Digitally Handicapped

2006-09-08T06:16:00.000-07:00

NYT columnist Thoms L Friedman in his best selling work The Lexus and The Olive Tree remarked

While the defining measurement of the Cold War was weight - particularly the throw weight of missiles - the defining measurement of the globalization system is speed - speed of commerce, travel, communication and innovation. The Cold War was about Einstein's mass-energy equation, e = mc2 . Globalization tends to revolve around Moore's Law, which states that the computing power of silicon chips will double every eighteen to twenty-four months, while the price will halve. In the Cold War, the most frequently asked question was: "Whose side are you on?" In globalization, the most frequently asked question is: "To what extent are you connected to everyone?" In the Cold War, the second most frequently asked question was: "How big is your missile?" In globalization, the second most frequently asked question is: "How fast is your modem?"

Here in Freetown (Sierra Leon), waiting for 45 minutes, to get a crucial mail downloaded, I fully realized what it meant. My mail client is showing 'downloading 1 of 19 mails' and this message is being displayed since eons and the data transfer rate.. I am ashamed to reveal that its in bytes, around 8-10 bytes per second. The mail in question is supposed to contain some key information for the meeting scheduled next hour. I cannot do anything, the person who sent me the mail is not available on phone as he is not in network area.

It make me in very precarious situation, I am accessing Internet through wi-fi network installed by the hotel (where i am staying) and there is no other way to access the net. But the speed of wi-fi is pathetic. No connectivity would have been better. At least, I could have been relying on age old alternatives. But here you know there are 19 mails waiting for, do not know what is in store in those mails.

Lets see, if I can overcome this digital handicap, going to find some alternatives, probably a cyber cafe nearby, and hope that it has data transfer speed at least in killobytes.

Tags: Travel, Africa, Sierra Leon, Freetown, Technology, Internet, Thoughts, Personal

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Exploring Sierra Leone - Part One

2006-09-08T04:00:00.000-07:00

S N Brussels flight was scheduled at 18.05 hrs and everything went smooth, till we get into the plane. After getting into our seats and waiting for at least 30 minutes for plane to take off, we came to know that plane has been delayed due to security reasons. A passenger checked in his luggage, but did not board the flight and cabin crew is finding that person's luggage before they can take off.

After 2 hours of search they could find out the luggage and finally we took a breath of relief. After that the journey was smooth. Err..I am forgetting something, the sandwich served (Veg Sandwich) on flight is so far the best Veg Sandwich I have tasted. Really yummy. After 1.20 hrs flying time, the plane landed at Sierra Leon capital Freetown.

After getting Visa and other clearance I came out of Airport and got a ticket for helicopter service to go to Freetown city. After getting the ticket, it was wait and wait for my turn to board the helicopter. After asking how much time it will take. I was asked to wait. I realized after 2 hrs of wait that WAIT stands for West African Internal Time. So waited. Finally my turn came and I boarded the helicopter and after 15 minute, I was in Freetown main city. Took a taxi and straight to my hotel. Looked at my cell, time 12.05 am. So no chance to get dinner.

I asked hotel manager, can I surf the net? The answer was quite pleasing. "Our hotel is wi-fi so you can access from the room, if you have any problem, you can use it from our computers." So after getting into the room, the first thing I did was to boot my laptop and check the connectivity. Good signal strength, as my wireless network detector indicated. But, not able to surf any site. Some problems. But anyway, wrote this post, using newly upgraded Qumana (the old one sucked as it was damn slow and unstable, but this one is really breeze.) so that I can post it when I connect to net.

Tags: Freetown, SierraLeon, Travel, Personal, Qumana

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2006-09-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Going to visit one of the most notorious African countries, Sierra Leon, tomorrow. There was no plan for that, but urgent business requirement has forced this. So it would 4-5 days in Sierra Leon.

A quick check on google, throws the most common advices on traveling to african countries. Highest measures for security of luggage, avoid moving out in night and things like that. Also mention for water shortage in capital Freetown, where i would be.

Just came to know, that from airport I have to hire helicopter to go to Freetown. Never have experienced that, so going to get that as well.

Tags: travel, africa, sierraleone

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Google Image Lebeler - A cool and engaging game

2006-09-07T05:11:00.001-07:00

The tagging phenomenon is catching up and even Google is not untouched by it. Google has come with this brilliant game where users try to guess labels for randomly selected picture by Google. Google Image Labeler Beta is catching up fast in popularity as cool online tool, as well brilliant utility.

Once you log in to play this game, Google selects a random online user as your partner and throws a picture to both of you and watching the picture you have to select a label for the picture. Both users guess and select keywords which describes the picture and once they reach a common word, Google gives you another picture to play again. If you do not want to guess keyword for particular picture, you pass the picture and choose another one. The total time available is 1.30 minutes, within this you can guess as many pictures as possible. For each correct match (where you and your partner chooses the same word for the given picture), you will get 100 points.

So enjoy and help Google tag all the pictures with suitable words.

Tags: google, images, labeler, beta, game, tagging

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SuprGlu- Gather your online presence at one place

2006-09-07T05:11:00.000-07:00

If you keep on forwarding your different urls for your friends and readers for your different online activities like blogs, bookmarks, photos, feeds etc. SuprGlu is a cool way to gather all these at one place and easily share. It is one stop online display of all your online activities.

Presently we can easily configure it to display the following content easily, though you can add many more.

All consuming - All your consumption of Books, music, movies etc.
43 places - Share your passion for traveling.
WordPress /Livejournal /Blogger - Configure your blogs to get displayed automatically at SuprGlue.
Del.icio.us / Furl / Simpy / MaGnolia - All your bookmarks from these social book marking tools.
Flickr - Configure your flickr account to showcase you photographs as you upload them.

Configuring these is very easy, signup for SuprGlu account and then select above from the options given for configuring your content, give username you use on these sites and you are ready to publish all the content at one place. You can see an example here http://santosh.suprglue.com

In addition of the above you can also add any site which publishes RSS feed.

Tags: SuprGlu, Web2.0, 43places, Furl, Simpy, MaGnolia, Flickr, allconsuming, tech-talk

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Cruel Weekends

2006-09-04T02:42:00.000-07:00

Sundays are hellish. Tried everything to engage myself in something. Watched movies and listened to music, surfed net chatted with friends and what not. Reading has started to lose its charm for me. Mind is wandering here and there. Going into territories where there is nothing apart from sadness and pain. Thinking about failures, promises, mistakes, future and thinking about something, which is just not for me. Planning things, which can never be executed. Thinking is a disease, one should try to get rid of it as early as possible. And these days it has taken best of me.

I had read about the coincidence and super consciousness of nonliving. I don't know what was this but suddenly this song started playing on my laptop. I was listening songs and songs were coming randomly from my music collection on my laptop. This song from Metallica just seem to describe my state at the moment in first person.

I can't remember anything
can't tell if this is true or dream
deep down inside I feel to scream
this terrible silence stops me

now that the war is through with me
I'm waking up, I cannot see
that there's not much left of me
nothing is real but pain now

hold my breath as I wish for death
oh please God, wake me

back in the womb it's much too real
in pumps life that I must feel
but can't look forward to reveal
look to the time when I'll live

fed through the tube that sticks in me
just like a wartime novelty
tied to machines that make me be
cut this life off from me

hold my breath as I wish for death
oh please God, wake me

now the world is gone I'm just one
oh God, help me hold my breath as I wish for death

darkness imprisoning me
all that I see
absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
trapped in myself
body my holding cell

landmine has taken my sight
taken my speech
taken my hearing
taken my arms
taken my legs
taken my soul
left me with life in hell

Tags: personal, thoughts, metallica, lyrics

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Reading takes the back seat

2006-09-01T00:47:00.000-07:00

Last two months have been quite unusual for me, yes, I could not finish even a single book in these two months. Normally I could have read at least two books comfortably. I used to manage three-four books per month in my IIFM days. I picked up Beloved, (e-book) story of a black slave woman, from Noble Prize Winner author Toni Morrison (he got Noble Prize for Literature in 1993). I could manage only 36 pages that too in 5 days and that too in some 10-15 reading session, which never allowed to let the story take hold of me. But I think, this is just an aberration, but managing professional life and finding time for my favorite activities is becoming tough. Need for some serious time management steps, might have to re-read First Thing First by Covey (oh.. again reading, first have to manage time to read that..) Tags: Reading, books, Toni Morrison, Personal

Do not belive ..

2006-08-28T05:33:00.000-07:00

How apt the following lines are, i think at this moment no body knows better than me.

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." -Buddha

Technorati tags: Buddha Quotes Thoughts

Concentration

2006-08-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

After winning several archery contests, the young and rather boastful champion challenged a Zen master who was renowned for his skill as an archer. The young man demonstrated remarkable technical proficiency when he hit a distant bull's eye on his first try, and then split that arrow with his second shot. "There," he said to the old man, "see if you can match that!" Undisturbed, the master did not draw his bow, but rather motioned for the young archer to follow him up the mountain.

Curious about the old fellow's intentions, the champion followed him high into the mountain until they reached a deep chasm spanned by a rather flimsy and shaky log. Calmly stepping out onto the middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master picked a far away tree as a target, drew his bow, and fired a clean, direct hit. "Now it is your turn," he said as he gracefully stepped back onto the safe ground. Staring with terror into the seemingly bottomless and beckoning abyss, the young man could not force himself to step out onto the log, no less shoot at a target. "You have much skill with your bow," the master said, sensing his challenger's predicament, "but you have little skill with the mind that lets loose the shot."
(sourced from internet)

Technorati tags: Zen Stories

Bruce Lee - My Hero

2006-08-19T14:24:00.000-07:00

Bruce Lee has been my hero since my childhood. I have seen his movies numerous times and still whenever I see his movies being aired on any channels, I cannot help stopping my channel surfing and watch them. For me, he was and is the ultimate hero even today.

Though earlier the fascination was for his kicks and punches and the way he used to fight in the movies, but later the curiosity to know more about him, made me study him a lot. And the more I knew about him, the more fascinated I became.

Bruce Lee was the factor which made me learn martial arts, though I could never achieve what I wanted. Sometime my physical capability curtailed the progress, sometime there were other occupations and obstacles. But it helped me, it gave me confidence. I never had to bow down. Once again going through some really crucial phase of life, here I got some great wisdom from him. Yes, Bruce Lee was a Philosophy major and his philosophy about life and the way he approached his life can be seen from his words. The following lines from Tao of Jeet Kune Do (Jeet Kune Do is the martial art form he invented.)

Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. Awareness is without choice, without demand, without anxiety; in that state of mind, there is perception. To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. Awareness has no frontier; it is giving of your whole being, without exclusion. Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Here are some golden words from my hero..

Bruce Lee on philosophy of life

Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.
All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.
If there is a God, he is within. You don't ask God to give you things, you depend on God for your inner theme.
Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
The void is no mere emptiness, but is real, free and existing. It is the source from which all things arise and return. It cannot be seen, touched or known, yet it exists and is freely used. It has no shape, size, colour or form, and yet all that we see, hear, feel and touch is "it". It is beyond intellectual knowing and cannot be grasped by the ordinary mind. When we suddenly awake to the realization that there is no barrier, and has never been seen, one realizes that one is all things, mountains, rivers, grasses, trees, sun, moon, stars, universe are all oneself. There is no longer a division or barrier between myself and others, no longer any feeling of alienation or fear. Realizing this, results in true compassion.
Like everyone else you want to learn the way to win, but never to accept the way to lose - to accept defeat. To learn to die is to be liberated from it. So when tomorrow comes you must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying!

Bruce Lee on Himself

I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude.
I refer to my hands, feet and body as the tools of the trade. The hands and feet must be sharpened and improved daily to be efficient.
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
If I tell you I'm good, you would probably think I'm boasting, If I tell you I'm no good, You know I'm lying.
You just wait. I'm going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.

Some wisdom from the master

Simplicity is the key to brilliance.
Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.
The possession of anything begins in the mind.
It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.
If you make an ass out of yourself, there will always be someone to ride you.
A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.
Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself; do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.
To hell with circumstances. I create opportunities.
If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

Bruce Lee on Martial Arts

The main characteristic Jeet Kune Do is the absence of the usual classical passive blocking. Blocking is the least efficient. Jeet Kune-Do is offensive; it's alive and it's free.
When you fight, if it is a real fight, use every tool that you have, use your whole body. Use your fists, your legs, your fingers, your head if you have to, and hit them in every vulnerable spot, the balls, the eyes etc. to win.
I hope martial artists are more interested in the root of martial arts and not the different decorative branches, flowers or leaves.
Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back.

Some other heroes on My Hero - Bruce Lee

I have been around a lot of great martial arts fighters. Worked out with them. Fought them in tournaments. In my opinion Bruce Lee was the greatest martial artist who ever lived. I think Bruce Lee is the greatest martial artist ever. I don't think anybody is in his class." - Jim Kelly

"Lee, pound for pound, might well have been one of the strongest men in the world, and certainly one of the quickest." - Chuck Norris

I never stood in front of another human who was as quick as him. He not only had the quickness but he had the inner confidence to muster the conviction to do so. I've seen others who had the speed but lack conviction or vice versa. He was like Ali, he had both. I stood before both of these men, so I know." - Joe Lewis.

Tags: Bruce Lee, Martial Arts, Heroes, Personal, Life, Philosophy, Quotes, Oneliners

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being simple and humane

2006-08-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

Being simple and humane is not an easy task these days, you are always taking the risk of being misunderstood. Most of the people always doubt some ulterior motive behind every act which seems to be aimed towards making someone happy. Virtues like simplicity and kindness are seen as garbs behind which ambitions, ego, rapacity etc. prosper or as instruments to achieve materialistic desire.

It is very difficult for them to imagine that somebody is doing something just for the sake of doing it. It is just the joy of making someone happy, which drives them towards these noble intentions. Or it might be that somebody has helped them and they are just propagating the good deed.

But who cares? Everyone is entitled to have his or her opinion, and in my humble opinion the pleasure of making someone happy is worth anything.

Technorati tags: Thoughts Blogs Personal

being simple and humane

2006-08-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

But who cares? Everyone is entitled to have his or her opinion, and in my humble opinion the pleasure of making someone happy is worth anything.

Technorati tags: Thoughts Blogs Personal

Are you mature enough?

2006-08-15T02:37:00.000-07:00

This post Youth and Those made me think whether I am mature enough. My mom has always been saying that grow up..grow up.

When discussing the plight of teenagers with adults, i'm often chastised for viewing teens as mature humans capable of making reasonable decisions. All too often, people point to all that psychological research that indicates that teens are experiencing extensive hormonal rushes that impair their judgment. And then i go home to my 30-something friends who see a baby and start cooing as their biological clock begs for attention. And then i talk to people my mom's age going through menopause and being about as coo-coo as they come. And then i get calls from my older male friends who are experiencing their midlife crisis and think that trading in their wife for people my age is a good idea. I don't think that teenagers are the only population facing impaired judgment. In fact, i'm curious at what age one's judgment is really all that functional. Read More

So here is my test.. lets see whether i have matured or not.. (the list being taken from the post, as per th post these one should learn as early as possible..)

Learn to manage your own money including situations where you don't have enough money for something really important;
- Okey, learnt and doing.
Work to make your own money;
- Making some money
Learn how to come up with money for monthly bills;
- Ofcourse, i learnt it otherwise how i am surviving.
Learn how to cook, clean, and do laundry;
- Oh... dont know how to cook, cleaning and luandry .. can do but completely depedent on my maid.
Learn how to take care of small children;
- Small children.. let me make them first then i ll learn how to take care of ;-)
Learn how to handle sickness and doctors;
- i can handle sickness, doctors a bit doubtful.
Learn how to travel (airplane, bus, etc.) on your own;
- Yes ofcourse..
Learn to travel respectfully to foreign cultures;
- Yes, i did my best.. yet to get any recognition for that!
Learn how to handle being drunk;
- no idea, but know how to handle drunk people. I have started my kick boxing practice.
Experience being bullied, embarrassed, ridiculed, taunted, beaten up;
- ofcourse, otherwise why i could have gone for kick boxing classes?
Be exposed to people really different than you and learn tolerance and respect;
- everyday..
Face failure and learn disappointment + face success and learn humility;
- the first half yes.. success .. hmm yet to meet tete a tete.
Experience heartbreak;
- Oh.. dont remind..
Manage significant emotional or physical pain;
- refer the above question.. got both.
Handle the death of someone close to you.
- yes.

So got more than ten Yes... So... i am a mature person.. oh.. revelation!

Technorati tags: blog personal youth

Write you online biography

2006-08-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

Dandelife is new webite (still in beta version) which enables you to write major events in your life in a timelife format. You can write your own lifestory and connects to other person as well. Though the site is quite attractive, but feature wise it has a lot of chance of improvement. Though some cool feaures enables you to use your Filckr and Youtube media in your stories.

Tags: dandelife, web, internet, social

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Happy Friendship Day

2006-08-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

Being a policman son, i have been moving along with my father from one place to another, whenever he got transferred, we used to move along with him. This resulted in meeting new people, going to new places. But, in the process I lost contacts with some of my really great childhood buddies. Today, when i am wishing Friendship Day to all my friends, i dont know where these people are. I dont know even when I ll see these people I would be able to recognise them or not. But I miss you all dear. Some remarkable guys, colorful characters I love you all. Here are the people who made me special with their friendship..

Anand Kumar Tigga, Alok Agrawal, Monu, Kakku

my gang when i was at Manika, Palamu (jharkhand) and we had a lot of fun.Lost contact with all. Kakku is not in this world.

Chandrasekhar, Sarahuddin, Es Kumar

when I was in class ten. we all student of school which never went into 3-4 th class. Attendence and bingo.. out of class. While I am planning to meet Sarahuddin and Es Kumar, but no chance of meeting Chandrasekhar (Shekhar as i used to call him) as he was also a policeofficer's son and i dont have his permanent address.Just spent 2-3 years with them and then moved to Lesliganj (in Palamu itself) and then to Dhanbad.

Manoj and Pintoo

Two unique characters, while Manoj was a big Baba Sehgal fan, Pintoo needed three days to ponder over a joke and fourth day you can find him laughing alone.

Dharmendra, Sachida, Rajiv and Amit

My muzaffarpur gang. Dharmendra- the ever reliabel buddy, who is scheduled for some big things but just time has not come for him yet. Sachida- a realy gem of person, whenever i needed him, he was there and he will be there in future i know. Rajiv- The resourceful, most networked and the guy to rely upon whenever there is any panga. Always coming up with some great solutions. Amit- A person who wanted to be a software professional, became journalist. Got married to a very beautiful girl and living somewhere in Madhay Pradesh itself. Idiot got married and did not invite us.. the usual love marriage.. chupke se..

The IIFM Gang.. I am looking for class list,which i got when I was class representative.. frankly speaking all are really gem of ppl (I realized this after coming out of iifm).. but here are some names underlined and font size increased

Anil - Our dear Hawa Singh..always present there for me

Anup - Real examples of what friends are made for. Going great guns these days and gettign married in Jan. One of those friends, for whom you dont have to say thank you, when he helps you.

Akhand - The big guy with big heart. Out of my 3.5 somthing OGPA. 1.75 dedicated to him. The person who helped me in exam perparation. Still a bachha, when it comes to heart.. pure and innocent.

Rohit - Huh.. I always wanted to say that if it comes to computer, only I can do this. Couldnt say, he was around to remind me. He can do as well and can do better than me. these days meeting online.. and having fun.. cool topsy...

Prabhat - The bachha.. yet precocious kid when it comes to responsibilty and relationship.

Jashpal - Jhanshi Naresh.. Jitna likhun kam hai.. bande main dam hai.. kyonki saath main ham hain.. (oh shit.. i become a poet..).

Parth - Pyar baantate chalo.. the ever romantic and dancing dude..

Bhaskar - Sala hindi main likhana padega.. Kavi mahoday. Natmastak hun.. appke liye..

Priyank - Example of Potential and Performance (PP), batchmate, freind, colleague... and my coordinator. Did i mention that he is my hero as well?

Abhishek (my dear roomie..) - Bus Anand hi anand tha.. cool roomie..

Nitin - Kuchh bhi likhana inke baare main khatere se khali nahi hai.. nice guy to have around.. going great guns in hindi blog world..

Saurabh - The most sophisticated guy... i am still trying to imbibe some of his qualities

Rahul - Outspoken and outstanding guy in many cases. Voracious reader. me had a tough time.. one of constatnt victim of candidness and straight from the shoulder comments.

Swapan - Apana Carbon king.. and dont undermine is spiritual abilities.. always there for anything spirit'iual..

Alok, Abhishek Chaudhury, Pushkar, Akshai, Mandar ..........and list goes on...

Happy Friendship Day to you all...

Am I stupid?

2006-08-04T10:13:00.000-07:00

Everyday, when my car stops at red light, 3-4 small children start hovering around my car, spreading thier little palms, and invariably I give them 100 cfa (African Currency) to each of them. It has become a routine for me. Yesterday I asked my driver to get change for 1000 Cfa bill, and he gave me an allknowing smile and a look which was clearly indicating that i am a stupid.Wasting my money on these kids. Am I? Noway, i enjoy the look on the face of children, when they see my car. They know that the are going to get something. I dont want to disappoint them. I just pray God that dont make me disappont them anyday. Amen.

Technorati Tags: blog, life, thinking, africa

Meditation - A tool for inner peace or show off

2006-08-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

Meditation seems to be the new 'in' thing. Everybody is doing it, it has not became a tool for inner peace but for outer show off. We try to show off our Teacher, you want the teacher, who constantly appears on cover of leading magazines, charges 500 USD per hour. You try to show off the fact that you spend 2 hrs in mediation. You want to show off that you know 100 ways to meditate.
Everyone is trying to create the need, how do you think that one needs meditation. Will meditation solve all the problems ? Has meditation solved your problem or it is just the illusion. And how to do it? What is the right way? Am I not doing meditation when I am writing this blog, i am fully engrossed in it. I think of nothing but of this post. Am I not doing meditation when I am looking at beautiful face of my beloved, i think of nothing, my mind is focused.

Let us see what meditation means in common understanding..
Meditation is usually defined as one of the following:
-a state that is experienced when the mind dissolves and is free of all thoughts
focusing the mind on a single object (such as a religious statue, or one's breath, or a mantra)
-a mental "opening up" to the divine, invoking the guidance of a higher power
reasoned analysis of religious teachings (such as impermanence, for Buddhists)
(source: wikipedia)

It is state not the process. And the best thing about meditation is that it can be achieved through any activity, if it captures your whole attention.
Technorati Tags: meditation, meditate
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books, books, books

2006-07-31T02:12:00.000-07:00

1. One book that changed your life:
The Prophet - Khalil Gibran's masterpiece remains the most influential book for me. Everytime I read I get something new from it.
2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
Autobiography of a Yogi - By Paramhansa Yoganand. This is book is interesting like any thriller, thoughtprovoking, educating and spirtitual classic.
(I am not counting The Prophet here.)
3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
J.R.R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings.
It has everything to make you lost in the book.
4. One book that made you laugh:
Chacha Choudhry Comics
5. One book that made you cry:
Love Story by Erich Segal
6. One book that you wish had been written:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
7. One book that you wish had never been written:
Manu Smriti (Hindu Mythology)
8. One book you’re currently reading:
Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
Douglas Adam's - Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy

10. Now tag five people:
Pranav

Tags: books, reading

Firefox Performancing - Plugin

2006-07-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

Just installed Firefox Peformancing plugin for publishing blogs to my favourite Flock browser. Though Fock has inbuilt blogging tool but features are no where near to what Peformancing has on offer.
Now, i can automatically insert Technorati tags or Del.icio.us tags and can track traffic to my blog. Configuring blogs is just child's play, just insert your blog url and username/password and you are ready to post to the site.
So now using Performancing for better peformance blogging..

Technorati Tags: Performancing blog blogging

10 Most Innovative Biodegradable products

2006-07-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

The havoc caused by numerous old and outdated non-biodegradable product is really a major concern for the people all across the globe. And this has led to serious efforts being put in making products biodegradable. The following article on Ecofriend provides a list of 10 most innovative biodegradable products in the world. Right from bio-degradable Phone to Dish Scrubber. Chek it out.

http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/10-most-innovative-biodegradable-products-in-the-world/

Tags: environment, ecology

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By the River Piedra I Sat and Wept

2006-07-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

I am reading this book again and I have read it many times. Paulo Coelho has written many books and none famous than The Alchemist, but this book is special form due to different reasons and not all reasons being related to the story or book. A simple short and sweet love story, or should I say a 'spiritual' love story, but here the word spiritual seems superfluous as love for me is always spiritual.

Written in first person, it is a love story of a seeker and a girl. A girl who has lost his childhood friend, later to realize that he has become a seeker, someone who has a noble goal to make mankind evolve for better and to lessen the suffering of human beings, someone who has become capable of performing miracles. The girl discovers him and discovers herself in the process. She gets a new meaning, a new goal and a new life.

Reading this book is pleasure, the book oscillates between being a love story and a spiritual guide. Paulo Coelho's insight goes deeper in the story to make you feel the words.

But love is always new. Regardless of whether we love once, twice, or a dozen times in our life, we always face a brand-new situation. Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere. We simply have to accept it, because it is what nourishes our existence. If we reject it, we die of hunger, because we lack the courage to stretch out a hand and pluck the fruit from the branches of the tree of life. We have to take love where we find it, even if that means hours, days, weeks of disappointment and sadness.

The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us. And to save us.

Paulo Coelho, has chosen a simple story in simpler words to explain the complex meaning of life. This is a book, you must read if you have enjoyed The Alchemist.

Tags: Books, Paulo Coelho

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Ban on Blogging

2006-07-19T08:56:00.000-07:00

Department of Telecommunication (Govt of India) has issued notification to all major ISP of India to block 17 websites, including BlogSpot, TypePad Geocities etc. The blocking of BlogSpot and TypePad will make millions of blogsites hosted on these platform unavailable in India. The reason being given by the government is Terrorist are using blog sites to communicate. The step has raised several questions, but more significantly it has shown the metnal bankruptcy of decision makers.

If they think that by blocking blogging sites, they can stop terrorist from communicating, one can only laugh at this. Internet can be utilized in numerous ways to facilitate communication, blogs were just one of them. The only effective option can be to ban of Internet itself. The seems more like banning telephone lines as terrorist are using telephones to communicate.
Those (terrorist) who can deface/hack websites to put whatever content they wish, are surely technical competent to overcome the ban. Even an ordinary net user is capable of using proxy and defying such ban.
The step has exposed the technical incompetence of India in monitoring internet, while US and other countries are capable of scanning each and every email to ensure they have an eye on what happening, India has taken this kiddish step to put umbrella ban on all the blogs hosted on the major blog platforms. They could have easily blocked the specific sites. But I do not think in this world of information revolution, it is possible to restrict communication anymore. There are numerous way, even not considering Internet.

But this step will surely make some impact on bloggers and blogreaders. Most of serious bloggers will now switch over to private domain hosting rather than going for free blog platforms, some will switch to others blogging platform which have not been blocked. The use of blogreaders, RSS Feed readers is bound to increase. And not to mention that most of the blogs will have hit in the click per day as those who used to type the url and read the blog will have to look for other means.

Here are some steps which you can take in order to read blogs/post to blogs.

Use web-based blog/rss feed readers like Bloglines, Google Reader, Feedburner, Kinja.
Use webbased proxies to surf these sites. You can try

http://www.browseatwork.com
http://www.proxify.com
http://www.novalok.net

http://kproxy.com

You can use configure your web browser to access internet through proxies. To do that, open Internet Explorer, go to Tool in menu bar, then to Internet Connection>>Lan Setting >> Use Proxy Server and put proxy address and port and click OK. Now your browser will connect to proxy server first and all the other sites you visit will be routed through that address only. This slows down the speed a bit, but it has several benefits. It gives you unlimited access to web (If your organization has blocked some sites or messengers this can be a boon.). Some proxy /port addresses are given below but these are just few examples (many might not work, but search google and you can find thousand of proxies available).

IP/Proxy Address	Port
140.126.11.142	3128
65.64.31.217	8000
164.100.96.29	8080
212.24.227.78	8080
201.224.137.30	6588
83.229.126.249	3128
196.200.3.45	8080
69.60.111.6	80
61.135.158.122	80
216.195.42.214	8080
196.7.0.160	80
62.177.190.104	8080
83.149.26.32	80
200.167.177.3	3128
The list of proxies is compile from different sites. you can search the web to get many such more.

If you want to switch your blog to other platforms, here is a list of options that you can go for.
- WordPress - One of the fastest growing free blog platform.
- Xanga - Good fast option but user have to pay for premium version in which you can use templates of your choice.
- MSN Spaces - Microsoft's solution for blogging and social networking. Has module based interface, easy set up. You can use your hotmail id to activate it.
- MySpace - The phenomenon which has taken over internet has blogging tool as well.
- Yahoo 360 - Yahoo's version of MSN Spaces.
- BlogDrive - A good blogging platform, has some good templates designed for it which you can activate easily. You can upload images directly to BlogDrive for use in your blog sites, unlike Blogger, where you have to resort to third party image hosting.
- Lycos - Lycos has recently come up with some great features for bloggers. It desktop blog publishing too Qumana is quite a rage among bloggers.
- Tblog - Some good features makes this blogging platform quite a good option.
- Sulekha - The indian blogging platform, which has a large number of dedicated users, contributing to it. Lacks customization and other options..
- Rediff Blogs- Rediff blogs are quite popular in india, the best thing is customization, If you know CSS and HTML you can customize your blog to great effect.
- Indiatimes O3 - Indiatimes provides blogging facility for its users. Though the features are not as advanced as MSN Spaces or WordPress, but it has good user base. Quite popular among teenagers.
- Sify Blogs - Sify provides 10 MB web space for user's blog. It is still not much popular with bloggers, the user base is quite small.

For all my readers, they can access Thinking Thorn (http://santosho.blogspot.com) on its mirror site http://santosh.wordpress.com

Tags: blog, india, yahoo 360, wordpress, tblog, Qumana, bloglines, blogging, proxies

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Ban on Blogger.com and Blogspot

2006-07-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

The indian government has taken the 'stupid, kiddish and impotent' decision to ban 17 blogging sites, mainly including Blogspot.com and TypePad. That means my indian friends wont be able to see this site. But still, WordPress, MSN Spaces and Yahoo 360 are free.

So you can read my post at the following mirror sites which i maintained expecting that someday something might go wrong. And I was right, though certainly not thinking what has happened. Is India going China's Way. Anyway please update your bookmarks.

http://santosh.wordpress.com

http://san1378.spaces.msn.com

http://360.yahoo.com/san1378

and look for the new webspace which I am very soon going to put up on GooglePages http://san1378.googlepages.com

Tags: blogs, india

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Some Regrets

2006-07-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

Was going thru pictures posted by my batchmates on Orkut and found this. Once again it made me nostalgic. Not able to attend the convocation is surely one thing I miss. But its nice to see all friends/batchmates together, even if it is only on a photograph..

Tags: iifm, pfm2006, personal

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Tall, Dark and Handsome (??)

2006-07-11T03:55:00.000-07:00

No, i am not talking about myself, but i am talking about this phrase. When people (read girls) compliment somebody referring him as Tall, Dark and Handsome, it makes me think (don't worry i think on many such important topics). As you can see, Tall, Dark and Handsome are three different words, but highly interrelated. The two 'Tall and Dark' highly influence the third 'Handsome'. While the first 'Tall' affects it positively (ofcourse you should be tall and not of the height that you get request to change bulbs on lamp post without ladder) while the other 'Dark' affects it negatively. So 'Handsome' becomes the function of 'tall and dark' in the above statement. Normally in indian context, it means, sufficiently tall and not so dark.

But you must be wondering why I am wasting time on thinking over this. The reason is dear, in Africa, the sunscreen lotions are not working, it might be working for others but for my case, no luck. Though hardly exposed to direct sun light but .. and I have started getting complaints that i am getting darker. So in my case it would become.. Very Tall (6 feet, very tall by Indian Standards), Very Dark (don't have an instrument to measure..) and Very Handsome (????). Last one is giving the fight, even earlier also, used to get this comment only from the people who were having vision problem (i mean they cannot notice the finer details).. So now it will be Tall and Dark only.. getting a girl, Tall order and chances of her finding me 'Handsome'.. very dark.

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the week gone by...

2006-07-07T14:36:00.000-07:00

Got one year older last week. Though no celebration, got some calls from friends, some scraps, SMSs and that all. Though it reminded me of my IIFM days, when got numerous kicks on places you need not mention. People settled their account book, by hitting as hard as possible and result was ... a tough day in class room. Kept on changing position on chair to adjust myself in some comfortable position, without any success.

On professional front, the financial year ended on 30th June and following week was all about documentation, ensuring everything is in order. Still managed some time to think over the blog I initiated IIFMights which is surviving on contributions of Nitin and occasional contribution from this guy. Though there are many contributors who have contributed in past, but now they are dormant. So now onus lies on me and Nitin to keep this blog alive and I have put my thinking cap on for that.

Books and movies have taken backstage.. no time for that. But, yes did a lot of surfing and got some cool sites, which I ll share in my next post. Actually planning to write some regular stuff on technology and computer, so it might be the first installment.

Tags: personal, blogs, iifm

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Flock - The new browser on the block.

2006-07-01T12:35:00.000-07:00

Going through BlogLines top link, I just stumbled over this browser. Flock - A Free web-browser based on Firefox engine, has some really great features with cool looks (one can downloads themes and activate). The key features which i loved about this browser are

Photosharing made easy - I integrated my flickr account and it enabled me to upload photos to my flickr account by just drag and drop. It also supports Photobukets account.
Blogging made easy - It works as your blog publishing tool as well and supports almost all the major blog publishing sites (Blogger.com,WordPress.com, Movabletype, Xanga etc.) Though it is not as feature rich as Qumana, when it comes to blog publishing tool, but nonetheless it does a great work. I integrated my blogger.com and wordpress accounts without any hassles.
Newsfeed Made Easy - I have integrated Lektora in my Internet Explorer for newsfeed/rss content. But Flock has inbuilt newsfeed/rss reader and it automatically updates your newsfeeds. You can also import other OPML file to get you all feeds at one place easily.

Other benefits of being based on Firefox engine are inherently available. So it blocks popup, allows tabbed browsing, has enhanced security /anti spyware features.

Tags: flock, tech-talk, internet, blogging

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some movies, some books and a lot of planning

2006-06-27T00:26:00.000-07:00

After letting the DVDsgather dust for more than two weeks, I took pity on them and watched three movies this week. Three movies from three completely different categories.

Out of Africa - A beautiful movie, portraying life of a female storyteller, who goes to Africa and falls in love with a hunter.
Showgirls - This movie shows life of Las Vegas girls and the director does not leave anything for imagination. A lot of T&A. Elizabeth Barrkley makes sure that you get so much of flesh show that you loose all the interest for some while.
Pirates of Caribbean - A journey into fantasy land. Good entertainment.

Also got some good ebooks so have started reading them, but lost interest as reading them on laptop dilutes the interest. But, when you have something on a personality like Gurdjieff, you can resist it. Soright now reading about Gurdjieff.

The professional life demands the top attention, so a lot of thought into planning the week, increasing productivity, time management. How much it works, is to be seen.

Tags: personal, blogs, updates

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Mushrooming Growth of Social Networking Sites

2006-06-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

The success of MySpace.com and orkut.com has given birth to many such social networking sites. Everyday you open your mail box and find that xyz has invited you to be his/her friend. MySpace growth has been a phenomenal, and the claim that it will outperform yahoo.com in terms of click per day is not an overstatement.

Personally out of these too, I have been a great admirer of Orkut, as you come in touch with people you know. Even to see someones profile you have to be a member of Orkut. The absence of ads (unlike MySpace) makes it clutterfree, and there are almost all the features of social networking site. The only thing lacking in comparision to others ,is blog module in Orkut. I see all the possibility of Orkut and Blogger coming together (as both are now part of Google), and giving a tough competition to MySpace.

Seeing the growth of blogsites and social networking site, both Microsoft (http://spaces.msn.com) and Yahoo (http://360.yahoo.com) have come up with best features of blogs and Social Networking sites in MSN Spaces and Yahoo 360. But they are comparatively new player and do not possess any threat at the moment to MySpace. MSN Spaces and Yahoo 360, seem to be suffering from identity crises. As they are neither preferred as Social Networking Sites nor as blog sites. Both MSN Spaces and Yahoo 360 are not the preferred platform for serious bloggers due to lack of customization. Blogger.com and Wordpress.com along with livejournal.com are the main options for serious bloggers, who want free and good blogging platform.

Some new noteworthy sites which are getting a lot of attention as well as new users are MyYearbook (has all the potential to give MySpace a tough competition), Hi5, Ringo, YouTube (here you can post your video blogs) and Plum (though Plum is still availble on invitation only). Another networking site whicm aims at bringing people together for a cause (saving environment, climate change, helping needy etc..) is Care2 whic has some really good features and a novel concept.

For, the best blogging site is still blogger.com and best Social Networking Site is Orkut. MySpace might be a craze, but certainly i would prefer Orkut and Blogger than MySpace.

Tags: blogs, blogging, Orkut, MySpace, Networking Sites

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A Taste of Death - Thirty Days with UG

2006-06-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

An interesting book by an iconoclast, nonconformist on another iconoclast and nonconformist, in A Taste of Death – Thirty Days with UG, Mahesh Bhat shares his experiences of 30 days he spent with UG in Gstaad.

When I picked up this book, I knew what I was going get. Bashing up of institutions, assumptions, personalities and norms, some witty/acidic one liners and yes, some truth in-between.

UG and his protégé Mahesh, both have lived tumultuous life, and this clearly reflects in this book on many occasions. While Mahesh has been quite generous in using the word Rajneeshis ( for the followers of Osho),UG’s vituperative remarks about Jiddu Krishnamurthi force you to think. Sometime it made me think that they are still attached to them (Mahesh Bhat was an oshoite, who got disillusioned from his teachings and UG has been involved with Theosophical Society and J.Krishnamuthi).

Spending thirty days with a person like UG is sure to give you enough food for thought and if the person presenting is someone like Mahesh Bhat, so you are bound to get some interesting read. For example, everybody is going ga-ga over Yoga, but UG goes otherway as usual.

"Yoga and all the exercises that you guys do reverse the flow of energy. The only exercise that animals do is to run around for food, or run away from danger.”

The anti-guru epithet given to UG gets pronounced when he discusses these gurus and religious man with Mahesh.

"Human frailties and foibles are not accepted by me. They are okay for a religious man because they become a source of living for him. Don't you see, these gurus, psychiatrists, and therapists live off your frailties and foibles,"

Reading people like UG, Osho and Krishnamurthi etc. gives you a feeling that the main teaching of these people is to go against, against everything. They attract people by being different, being opposite to what you believe.

I don’t know whether this book will give you any insight on life, religion or spirituality, but certainly it will give you an insight into Mahesh Bhat and UG. Mahesh Bhat has been quite good putting forth his opinion along with that of his mentor.

It covers discussion on topics from higher planes to film making and UG giving some ideas to Mahesh Bhat for his new ventures. And in the process, you get some good ‘gyan’(Knowledge) from UG, have a look at some …

... You say, "I love you, I miss you," but you think twice before you make a long- distance call. That's why, folks, I always talk about money. That's the thing that reveals where you are really at.

"Knowledge is power. There is nothing like knowledge for the sake of knowledge. The quest for knowledge is to dominate your neighbor. This organism doesn't want to learn anything!"

"Money has nothing to do with happiness. But it is better to be miserable with money than to be miserable without it.”

"Attachment becomes a problem because of our wanting to be detached. What is wrong with attachment? Permanence: we cannot hold onto attachments forever.”

Tags: UG, Spirituality, Books

Satish Kumar- A remarkable person

2006-06-04T06:40:00.000-07:00

Few years ago, I cam across an article in Life Positive a thought provoking interview of Satish Kumar, a person talking about environment, ecology, holistic living. The interview made me to look for some more info on Satish Kumar and his works. An easy search on google gave me enough about this amazing personality. Since then I have been regularly following his articles and his magazine ‘Resurgence’.
Mr. Satish Kumar cannot be put into the category of charismatic leader or into the category of bestselling authors by many, but he is a living example of how one person can live a life in synchronization with nature and how he can contribute through his life. As program director of Schumacher College (an institution running several programs on communal living, ecological well being, sustainable life..) he has been instrumental in getting people like James Lovelock (Gaia theory fame), Fritjof Capra (author of famous The Tao of Physics and New Wisdom).
He has been greatly influenced by personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Binoba Bhave, Bertrand Russell and has devoted all his life to great cause of ecological well being. His strong belief in living a non violent and sustainable life style has made him a champion of ecological and sustainable movements, his influence has resulted in some great institution like Beej Vidyapeeth (run by Vandana Shiva) at Dehradun, India.
Inspired by Binaba Bhave he has himself taken many walking pilgrimage across the continent to promote peace, sustainable life and ecological wellbeing without a single penny along with him. The pilgrimage walk proved efficacy of human relationship, and how human mind is stirred by compassion and generosity even in this materialistic era.

Death in installments

2006-05-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

The divine beauty of chaste, untouched morning lilies
The symphony of bird chirping, leaves whistling
Sun rays, kissing dew on grass
Fail to attract me, fail to invite me.

Starving crying babies with imploring eyes
Trembling hand, finding food in garbage cans
A debile, rickety mother fighting infantile questions
Fail to invoke me, fail to provoke me.

Bouquet of roses, candle lit dinners
Love ballads, lilting melodies
Melting whispers, the rosy touch
Fail to enchant me, fail to captivate me.

The dreaded, inconceivable is happening
The eternal is dying to save the carnal
And I am getting death, in installments.

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Poverty Pollutes???

2006-05-21T01:25:00.000-07:00

“The root cause of pollution is poverty; unless we eradicate poverty we are not going to control pollution.” my professor proclaimed emphatically. You can see the garbage and dirt piled around these shanties and chawls . These places stink like anything. He continued to support his statement. I was wondering, though did not speak anything. But I knew, the truth was no where near this statement. Sometime, it is better not to argue as there is nothing to be gained. You might win the argument, but you will not make that person believe.

The truth is completely opposite. Have you ever tried to analyze these garbage piles? In any random check you will find, used cosmetics bottles, empty packets of chips, cans of Coke and Pepsi etc. etc.. These poor people hardly use these things. So how come they get piled up there. The people who are struggling to make their living, barely manage to sustain their life, cannot afford to buy those things. These piles are contribution of us, contribution of people who unsuccessfully try to satiate the voracious hunger of consumerism. We use them; we use these places for disposal of our sins, disposal for the byproduct of carnally consumption. We want to keep our neighborhood clean, beautiful so we need a place, a place to dump our garbage.

If you consider Carbon dioxide, Carbon mono-oxide, CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) etc. as major threats to environment, the main culprits are we rich people and not the struggling poor people. The amount of pollutants released by a jet plan or Boeing plan to facilitate journey of handful is several times higher than all the pollutants generated by a family in their whole life. People living such simple life cannot. They do not use cars, refrigerators or air conditioners.

If a new car manufacturing plant is established, it might boost up the economy and it might make your GDP, GNP and growth rate impressive, but it also does deprive some people of land, some people of an opportunity to breath in healthy clean air. The economist will talk about considering the social cost, offsetting the social cost. But can we really offset? No, while the cost is direct, the offset comes in form of benefits trickling through a long channel and dries up midway before reaching the people for whom it is meant.

The mushrooming bottling plants for Coke and Pepsi are not requirements of the poor. They don’t need it. They are satisfied with the water only. But, those who drink Coke and Pepsi ensure that they are deprived of their water. The water guzzling bottling plants make the water level go down and force the people living in nearby areas to suffer.

Poor never pollutes, it’s the rich fellow who pollutes and make the poor suffer. He pollutes and proclaims brazenly that poverty pollutes.

Tags: Poverty, Blogs, Pollution

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S.K. On Writing

2006-05-11T15:41:00.000-07:00

There have been very few books on writing, or for wannabe writers, as a lot of people belive that writers (i mean good writes) are born and not made. In search of some good books on writing I got my hand on SK On Writing by Stephen King. No, he is not talking about how to write horror/suspense stories. He goes into the finer details of writing.

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.-- Stephen King

The book is divided into two parts, the first part makes a very interesting read, as Stephen King tells us about his growing up years and his journey to a bestseller writer. And the second part deals in some good advices on how to become a good writer. Though many might doubt over his credentials to write about writing as he himself has restricted himself to one genre and has never been among those whose works the literary critics rave. But, he knows what he is writing whether he is writing a bestseller horror/suspense thriller or writing a book on How to Write.

The second parts gives some effective and practical guidance ( belive me there are not many books on writings which are straightforward for writers) for budding writers. He provides input on both front how to generate content and how to present. The book is full of examples and anecdotes from many authors and books.

The commonest of all, the bread of writing, is vocabulary. In this case, you can happily pack what you have without the slightest bit of guilt and inferiority. As the whore said to the bashful sailor, “It ain’t how much you’ve got, honey, it’s how you use it.” From S.K. On Writing.

Have a look at the following paragraphs from the books.

1. Talent renders the whole idea of rehearsal meaningless; when you find something at which you are talented, you do it (whatever it is) until your fingers bleed or your eyes are ready to fall out of your head. Even when no one is listening (or reading, or watching), every outing is a bravura performance, because you as the creator are happy. Perhaps even ecstatic. That goes for reading and writing as well as for playing a musical instrument, hitting a baseball, or running the four-forty. The sort of strenuous reading and writing program I advocate — four to six hours a day, every day — will not seem strenuous if you really enjoy doing these things and have an aptitude for them; in fact, you may be following such a program already. If you feel you need permission to do all the reading and writing your little heart desires, however, consider it hereby granted by yours truly.

2. I would argue that the paragraph, not the sentence, is the basic unit of writing — the place where coherence begins and words stand a chance of becoming more than mere words. If the moment of quickening is to come, it comes at the level of the paragraph..

3.No matter how good you are, no matter how much experience you have, it’s probably impossible to get the entire fossil out of the ground without a few breaks and losses. To get even most of it, the shovel must give way to more delicate tools: airhose, palm-pick, perhaps even a toothbrush. Plot is a far bigger tool, the writer’s jackhammer. You can liberate a fossil from hard ground with a jackhammer, no argument there, but you know as well as I do that the jackhammer is going to break almost as much stuff as it liberates. It’s clumsy, mechanical, anticreative. Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice. The story which results from it is apt to feel artificial and labored.

He explains the art of writing and how to improve writings skills with the help of some age old suggestions like "reading a lot" to some really interesting one "The adverb is not your friend." Overall the book is really an interesting read like his novels, yet full of practical advices and great insight into art of writing, I think this book is one of the very few books which really helpful for those who want to improve their writing.

Tags: Writing, Stephen King, Blogs

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A friend In need, is a freind in deed.

2006-05-08T15:16:00.000-07:00

There have been a lot of occassions when this phrase has taken form of extolment for someones help and cooperation. But for me, this adage reminds me of 'Google'. Ya, when I entered into the b-school, the first thing i realized that to survive there you have to first have to get a crash course in 'googling'. And very soon I realize that 'google' is a friend in deed. It has taken numerous forms depending upon my need, situation and mood. Right from my academic partner, someone who did most of my assignments to partner in crimes(!!).

You have to write a project proposal, solve a case study and after going through the assignment you find out that everything is going like Shoeb Akhtar bouncer and you are there on the batting crease without helmet. Thanks to daydreaming in the class when the professor was delivering those soporofic lectures, or you were unleashing your creativity (trying to beat Van Gogh and others in modern art) on the notebook while others were busy taking notes. What to do? Aks Google, be a little polite (you should know how to talk to him) and he comes up with exactly what you needed. Prepare cover page, ensure that your friend has shown a little differenc of opinion and not picked up the same piece. And you have hit the assignment for a six, though its a different issue that you have ensured that you have bowled out any possibility of getting anything out of that assignment, apart from grades.

You just came to know that Janet Jackson has provided some real exposure to those who were there in time. But alas, you missed. Again damn classes. You always miss 'the Best Shows' on the TV. Ask your friend to provide you a glimpse of the show. And within seconds, you will not only get the desired but also if you wanted to be author, you might feel like writing a biography of her. Thanks Mr. Google.

There are some people who cannot see other people happy. And most of the Network Administrator are like that only. The really useful websites are always blocked. But dont worry, if you have really established good relationship with Mr. Google and understand him well, he helps you, though not openly. Use 'Google Proxy' and chuckle at your success, though you badly wanted to inform the network administrator about the futility of that 'network management utility'.

Now you are employed and if you are as unlucky as I, you are in a place where 'omnipresence' of english doesnot hold good. Ya, people do not speak the language you know, and making situation worse, these are the people you have to deal with. Failure to communicate properly is overall failure. Google comes to help. Go to google language tools, type what you want to say, note it down, there you are, you have expressed your self. The mastery is to frame the questions, which can be easily answered in affirmative or negative, otherwise.. okey..you don't want any handicap of framing these kind of questions only. Get your laptop ready, write whatever you want to say, show him on the laptop and ask him to answer in the google language tool text box and you are done...

What you want more....

Tags: Google, blogs

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Come back

2006-04-17T02:52:00.000-07:00

Dreams are still there
In tearful eyes,
Though a little blurred
A little hazy.

Still heart lingers in your memory
Every voice seems yours
Every moment, I feel you
Every place I see you,
Smiling
Holding those wild flowers

Can’t you come back..
Once again
To hold me in arms
To give meaning to my life
To be destination of my journey

Can’t you come back..
From the heaven above.
Tags: Poems

If you see a camel fly..

2006-04-11T05:01:00.000-07:00

Some people saw a camel which was flying, they started laughing at the camel as it was flying too slow. The mocked the camel, and ridiculed him for his slow speed. No body could see that ‘a camel’ is flying. It is not supposed to fly, it’s a big achievement for him. Okay, for a bird flying is not a big thing, but when a camel starts flying is a big thing, it is a miracle.

Tags: Thoughts, Life, Blogs

Murphy's and Other Laws of Love

2006-04-09T04:48:00.000-07:00

All the good ones are taken.
If the person isn't taken, there's a reason.
Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.
The nicer someone is, the farther away (s)he is from you.
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
Brains x Beauty x Availability = Constant (the Cunningham-Isherwood Law).
The amount of love someone feels for you is inversely proportional to how much you love them.
You don't get to choose. You just fall.
A man can be happy with any woman as long as he doesn't love her.
Money can't buy love, but it sure gets you a great bargaining position.
The best things in the world are free --- and worth every penny of it.
Every kind action has a not-so-kind reaction.
Love and eggs are best when they are fresh.
Nice guys (girls) finish last.
Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness". ~ Bertrand Russell
Availability is a function of time. The minute you get interested is the minute they find someone else.
The best way to hold a man is in your arms.
The more you judge, the less you love.
The game of love is never called off on account of darkness.
. True love is giving all you have to someone you know you're going to lose

Change is the only constant..

2006-04-05T02:39:00.000-07:00

Writing to this blog after a long gap, a lot has change during this period. Student life at IIFM, Bhopal has come to an end and became a very beautiful chapter of my life. Suddenly visit to www.google.com has become less frequent, because now the assignments which I have got as an employee have to be done, you cannot use copy/past to complete them. You cannot even assign them to your friends (Alas! there is nothing called group assignment.) you have to do it individually. No counting of number of classes that you can miss per term, you have to attend each and every session. On the other hand, you get a substantial amount at the end of month (No need to call home for money!), instead of thinking how to meet expenses of whole month, some thoughts of investment which can provide better returns (you start realizing that bank interest rates on deposits are very low) starts coming to your mind. Now, no longer one thinks of placements at other b-schools and what students at other b-schools are doing (unless your alma mater creeps into the discussion.) For me, the change was too much. From India to Africa (Abidjan) . For me spending time with my family was the most precious things, now I find myself miles away, among completely different set of people, who speak different language, have different values, different culture and different attitude towards life. From once a week visit to bookshop to complete halt. Where can I go? There are no book shop selling English / Hindi books. I always used to dream about buying a lot of books once I get sufficient money to spend on them. Situation has not changed much in this case. Earlier I used to have a lot of books worth buying but not much money. Now, money is not a problem, but I cannot get the books I want to buy. My desperate visits to bookshops at different malls and shopping complex yielded no result. All you can get is French books and magazines. Though some English magazines I can get but not sufficient enough satisfy my voracious hunger. Though you can find a lot of those magazines, whose sell does not depend on the language, there is nothing to be read, but a lot to be seen. But, scarcity of English books has given me one more reason to learn French, apart from being necessity in a francophone country, so very soon I would be having something to read.

going insane

2006-03-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

Crossing a dark river
Moving like a just separated lizard tail
Feeling dejected, overcoming pain
Looking beyond this life inane
Companion, friend, guide, mentor
What do these words mean?
Thinking over these terms
And going insane.....

Some reasons to cheer...

2006-02-18T00:05:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was one of the memorable days. IIFM has given me a lot more than I deserve and Kalpataru (our annual function) added some more items in that list. First, it was Director's Prize for The Best Organizational Training (I) which I shared with my friend (Anup Singh) for my Organizational Training at Grasim Industries, Harihar. It was followed by the most coveted Director's Prize for Best Student. I was never expecting this award to come to me. But it was pleasant surprise to receive that, I must thank my juniz for that. (The award is given on the basis of OGPA and Votes given by junior batch). It was overwhelming to get almost entire batch supporting you.

"Thank you, PFM 2007."

The Director's Prize for The Best Organizational Training (II) was bagged by Anup Singh. Anup Singh did a clean sweep by grabbing Directors Prize for both the OTs ( a record in IIFM history).

Congrats Anup !!!

Tags: IIFM, B-School, Blogs, Bhopal

Happy Valentine's day

2006-02-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

Heritage Walk

2006-02-12T21:49:00.000-08:00

In the last month of our stay at bhopal we got an opportunity to have a hertiage walk.. and it was just beautiful experience to raise early in the morning ( and surely theb pleasure of seeing the heritage) .. i dont know when the last time we wake up at 5.30 am..

Congo Calling

2006-02-04T20:42:00.000-08:00

Only 23 days are left of my stay at IIFM,Bhopal. And probably 30 days in India. While all my friends are happy that they are going to spend some time with the family, I am feeling a bit low as I will get less than 10 days to spend with my family. But looking back, it gives a mixed feeling, when I joined the institute in 2004, there were a lot of dreams and uncertainties, today I feel lucky that I got what I was dreaming for.. its not exactly that, but that’s damn close to it. And uncertain, where future will take me. It’s a proud feeling when you have offers pouring down to you and you are facing problem of plenty. But, you have to make a decision and I took a bold one. To go to a country, which name gives a very different feel altogether. Ya, I am going to Congo. The war prone country in Central Africa. I could have easily opted for a cozy job in one of the leading banks at Mumbai or Hyderabad. But, I could not resist Africa (or US dollars!!). I am trying to get hold of French (Congo is francophone country), as I had a tough time there on my summers due to no knowledge of French. Life is a bit different right now after that decision. Some changes I could feel right now.

India seems to be more dear that it was earlier. I never knew I would miss India that much.
Indian movies… though I did not watch much in my last 2 years stay here at IIFM, Bhopal, but right now I am not letting any opportunity to see some good movies.
A regret that I could not see places around Bhopal and now I am leaving Bhopal. But really I loved this city. I’ll back to explore.
I feel scary thinking of a life where I have to search to get some good English books (what I could find were only French books.). My god.. how will I survive. Let’s see whether Amazon.com has shipping facility there or not.
People are saying I would be a changed person in Africa.. I don’t believe them. An Ass will be An Ass anywhere.
Going to miss a lot my friends .. and student life..

Some really interesting men..

2006-01-27T11:47:00.000-08:00

Some personalities really baffles you. There are so many greats, but this post deals with three personalities, whom i came to know through thier books. And all three have one thing common, whether you like them or not, they are going to leave their mark on you, once you go through thier books.
Che Guevera
The Cuban hero of liberation and socialist revolution has been a fascinating and enigmatic persona. After his execution on October 9, 1967 he became a youth icon world over.. The picture (displayed here) became the most popular photograph of the century and the photographer became legend. His autobiography still shakes you from within. Some of his statements throw ample light on his philosophy and beliefs. “Many will call me an adventurer— and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.”
“We must carry the war into every corner the enemy happens to carry it: to his home, to his centers of entertainment; a total war. It is necessary to prevent him from having a moment of peace, a quiet moment outside his barracks or even inside; we must attack him wherever he may be, make him feel like a cornered beast wherever he may move.”
“At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.”
“I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, you are only going to kill a man.” (His last words.)
I would have loved to spend few days with him and ask few questions. “ • Was it true that you ordered killing of children and when their mother asked to end their suffering they were also put to the same treatment?
• What did you consider you prime motivation to take up arm ? o I know you have written a lot on this, but was there no personal motive, was it totally for the principle of socialist movements and for the people of Latin America ?
Paramhansa Yogananda
His autobiography “Autobiography of Yogi” has changed life of millions and put Indian spirituality into new context. The book introduced the world to Mahavataar Babaji. The book is full of miracles and happening which are hard to believe. Still, the book made me believe everything.
Paramhansa Yoganand wrote in this book “A yogi through perfect meditation has merged his consciousness with creator perceives the cosmic essence as light, to him there is no difference between the light rays composing water and the light rays composing land. Free from matter consciousness, free from the three dimensions of space and the fourth dimension of time, a master transfers his body of light with equal ease over the light rays of earth, water, fire or air.”
Spending a few days with him and talking to him would have been one of the most fulfilling experience of my life.
Osho
One of the most controversial godman of ourtime. Put India on global map of spirituality and meditation, with his mix super marketing skills and super-natural oratory. Osho claimed to have read more than 100,000 books and has written more than 500 books (actually most of his books are tapes of his teachings, lectures delivered on different topics, which were later put into book form). If I could have got an opportunity and some magical power to get truth in form of answers to these questions….
• Did you believe in whatever you have written or preached, as you have contradicted your own teachings many times?
• You statements created a lot of controversy and it seemed that those statements were just made to create controversy and had no other purpose.
• You lambasted all the existing sages, philosophers and saints as well as other all time greats, openly. Though your teachings and philosophy have primarily been based upon writings and teachings of these sages and classic literature.
• Did you put focus on sex, primarily to attract western followers and put something new , a new form of spirituality, where all acts were beyond guilt and people can justify their activities, live a restrain free life and consider themselves pure and chaste ?

Ubuntu, Mandrake and Acer

2006-01-25T12:05:00.000-08:00

Linux has always been one of my fascinations due to its ‘geeky-nerdy’ appeal and the kind of control you have over the OS compared to Microsoft OS. So, I decided to load my laptop with a good linux distribution. I tried three distros of Linux, but without any success.
1. Ubuntu- A good distro, but could not detect my combo drive (I am using ACER TravelMate 4151NLCi with Philips’ combo drive.) Though the live CD of Ubuntu works fine on desktop and Toshiba laptop.
2. After failure of Ubuntu, i tried one of the best Linux distribution, Mandrake Ver. 9.1 but here also I could not get into second stage of installation and my laptop stopped responding after first stage of installation. I tried the same distro on Toshiba laptop, but I faced the same problem here also.
3. Lastly I tried Knoppix, an easy to install linux distribution and failed again. Though the distribution is working fine on desktops. It seems that Linux distributions are still having some problems when it comes Laptops, though I am looking for a recent version of my old favorite Red Hat. I am sure that is going to work. But if you have some solutions to the Ububuntu problem let me know..

Gabonese Art- Pics from Gabon

2006-01-13T06:21:00.000-08:00

These paintings depict the role of trees and forest in life of african people. I think the digital pictures of the paintings are not doing justice to their beauty....

My days in Africa II

2005-12-18T09:23:00.000-08:00

Sunday, 30th October, 2005

After breakfast, there was nothing to do, so I just spent some time on my laptop, listening to those songs which I have stored, just for single reason, that I got it from somewhere and my laptop had a lot of space. Sometime you have so much time that if you believe in the old saying that time is money, you will feel like billionaire. It was just like that. My guide here has gone to Libreville for a meeting and I was here alone, fighting with French language and giving very tough time to the person whom I am talking too. One of my seniors told me, don’t take tension that you don’t know French, make other person tensed that you don’t know French. And let him understand. So basically I was doing the same thing.

Afternoon, Paul came to pick me up and in his heavily accented but fairly good English explained me that we are going to visit the city and places around it. What more I could have asked for. Really great. Outside my hotel, there was a Landcruiser waiting for me. I just took my laptop, camera and passport was ready for action. First we visited a near by village to Makokou and it was really beautiful. Located on the banks of river “La river de obendu”, I asked for the name but Paul’s heavy accented reply and my ear’s refusal to get accustomed to that accent, suggested me not to waste time getting the right name. By the way, some Mr. Shakespeare has already explained the futility of names.

I went to the river and was surprised to see that the color of water was black. O my god, I am seeing a black river in this Dark Continent! I asked the reason to Paul, expecting some really interesting answer. But the result was a dud. He simply told this due to high content of iron ore.

Suddenly something caught my attention, some people were there washing their cars in the river and alongside them some girls having bath. I hurriedly avoided eye contact with the girls, who knows they might get offended and then I will have to spend some really good amount on doctors to get my face straight. There one punch is good enough to change the geography. But that did not happen luckily and Paul asked me to follow him and we went to them. I was greeted with ‘bonjour’, really these people are very courteous. I asked Paul “Can I take some photographs ?” and he replied me in affirmative.

I clicked some really good shots there.

Returning back to my hotel, I was lucky enough to meet ‘bady bhaiya’ and that too ‘sabse bade wale’. On the way, Paul suddenly stopped the car, and I could see some people moving and making noise. I asked the reason and he told me ‘get camera, photo, photo.. ‘ I was unable to understand anything what happened, why this fellow is asking me to capture pics of these people.

‘Se’paan’

What ?

Snake….

Then I looked at the crowed, on the ground there was huge black snake moving and two three person equipped with small sticks were there to tackle and him and 20-30 people around them. I took out my camera and from the car itself took some snaps. I asked about the snake and the answer was “it is black cobra”. One of the most deadly snakes on earth. And those people were treating him like harmless non-poisonous creature. Within few seconds, two-three strike with the small sticks and ‘bady bhaiya’ was flat on the ground. Though still moving rapidly, but unable to go anywhere. I was mesmerized by their skill.

The first thought that came to my mind was, there must be a number of ‘bade bhaiya’ and their family members in bush. (I was supposed to visit bush next day.) I quickly put my query to Paul.

“Not many”

You idiot. One is enough. I uttered some good expletives in hindi. He explained that they are normally found in and around homes. Not normally in bushes. It gave me some hope.

Software Engineer as Husband

2005-12-15T03:29:00.000-08:00

Got in an email forward.. worth sharing...

Husband : ( Returning late form work ) "Good evening Dear, I'm now logged in."

Wife : Have you brought the ring ?

Husband : Bad command or filename.

Wife : But I told you in the morn...

Husband : Erroneous syntax.

Wife : What about my new blouse ?

Husband : Variable not found ...

Wife : At least, give me your Credit Card, I want to do some shopping.

Husband : Sharing Violation. Access denied ...

Wife : Do you love me or do you only love computers or are you just being funny ?

Husband : Too many parameters. Abort!...

Wife : It was a grave mistake that I married an idiot like you.

Husband : Data type mismatch.

Wife : You are a useless nut.

Husband : Default Parameter.

Wife : What about your Salary ?

Husband : Access denied. File in use...

Wife : Who was in the car this morning ?

Husband : System unstable. Press CTRL + ALT + DEL to Reboot

2005-12-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

Great hotel.. Hotel Ass-Ok

My days in africa

2005-12-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

Saturday, 29th October, 2005 After 7 hours of train journey I reached to a small place called Booeu. And my god, if you do not know French here your life is hell here. So far I was always accompanied by one or another person who helped me in interacting with these. But in train, no one was there to help me out. And I was damn worried about how I am going to alight at my destination. It was night journey and everyone was sleeping and me thinking that if I go to sleep, might miss the station. I tried to know from other people that when I ll reach at Booeu, but what I managed to get from them is ‘later’, I thanked (‘merci’ the French for thanks) them for such ‘useful’ information. So I did my own calculation based on the info provided by my Libreville friends and slept for 3-4 hours and set the alarm in my cell, quite well earlier to my calculated arrival at Booeu.

Somehow or another I managed to alight at Booeu. The station was very small station, just like any small station in divine land of Bihar. So a feeling of nostalgia crept in. Four-five people were there on the station. I did an exploratory scan of the whole place to find the person, supposed to be there to receive me. Buy I realized the futility of the exercise, how I am going to recognize that fellow, to me all faces are alike, alien. I waited and waited, no one so far. With a laptop on my shoulder, a camera hanging at my hip and a face, distinctly different, were giving invitation for trouble at 4 am. After 15 minutes, I saw person approaching towards me, 6 ‘5” tall, double my width, dressed in blue denim and t-shirt. My heartbeat forgot its rhythm, from Indian classical, it changed to hardcore rock. I thought, its over. That fellow is going to bash me up and relieve me of extra burden of my laptop and luggage.

He pointed his finger to me and in voice which sent chill through my spine, barked “u mr. singh?”

I couldn’t belive my ear. All I could manage was ‘yes’ and deep sigh of relief. But for make it doubly sure, I asked “you from Olam ?” Answer was a soothing “ouis”.

He took my luggage and I followed him to Toyota pick up van, I hurriedly snuggled into back seat. I was happy that within a few hours I am going to reach my hotel and settle for at least 20 days. No more travel with the entire luggage. But I was mistaken. We started for Makakou and after few minutes it started raining heavily. After 15 minutes of concrete road, we shifted to ‘kachha’ road. And after another 10 minutes we were surrounded by big giant trees and no trace of any human being. Huge trees, and here these kind of forests are called ‘bush’, I couldn’t help smiling. I remembered my trip to Vellore, Tamilnadu, where all they had was some patches of 2-3 feet tall Acacia nilotica, and Subabool plantation and they called that forest. It was a journey which seemed never ending. After 20-30 killometer drive I could see some small house made of wood. The population density is very low in all part of Africa. Barring a few countries or for that matter cities. Kinshasha (capital of Cango) was an exception, when I visited the local market there, it was very similar to any market in India full of people and a lot of buzz. After 3 hours of journey finally I reached Makokou. Small city with big wide clean roads. Very less population. My first stop was to Mr.Anand’s house. The only Indian family in Makakou. And there I was greeted with south Indian breakfast and lunch. It was delightful to get some really good homemade Indian food.

After visiting the Olam Office here, I checked in my hotel. Belinga Place. Nice hotel by any standard. If you just remove food served here as one of the parameters. For a person, who prefers vegetarian food, its tough life here. You have to take non-veg food or starve. There is no other option, if you are not cooking yourself. So, I had only one option to resort to non-veg foods. Here, the first thing I learnt was what they call chicken and eggs. As they serve hell lot of different types of meat. So it is better not to experiment, unless and until you know what they are going to serve. You get monkeys, frogs, beef and god knows what not. So I decided not to experiment and go on staple breakfast of Omelet, coffee, orange juice and breads. Even the bread served here is different. It takes hell lot of time to explain them what I want. I got hold of some French words but the pronunciation, these idiots right something and speak something entirely different.

In the evening, Mr. Anand too me to a round trip to city which lasted for 45 minutes and I had seen all nook and corners of the city. Nice clean city. And best thing is that, it is as safe as any other city in India, or even safer than that. So I can easily roam around without any fear. A relief from security concerns, which were quite restrictive in Kinshasha, where I could not move out from my hotel room.

pics from africa

2005-10-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

Are you not getting comments on your blogs?

2005-10-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

Kya aapko pata hai ki ek blogger ko khushi kab hoti hai ? Ya, you are right, when he/she sees his/her blog filled up with comments. But do you know, why one does not get comments on one's blog. You know it. Ok great then. Otherwise read on. I have wasted my precious time (no one is buying it, its so costly!) to look into matter, ponder over it and produce the results of great churning.

Reason No. 1. (specially for male bloggers) Do I need to say something more. It has been found in latest research work carried out by a team of dedicated bloggers for the benefit of blog world, that if you are a male blogger, your chance of getting comments on your blog gets reduced by 86.345 per cent.

Reason No. 2. A blog devoid of email forwards, PJs and SMS forwards has very - very less chance of getting comments.

Reason No. 3 Any effort to put original ideas and original works, will result in further reduction in comments.

Reason No. 4 If only your friends are reading your blogs, chances are they will not comment. And if your friends, who are reading your blogs, happens to be blogger themselves, they will certainly not comment.

Reason No. 5 The more effort you put into a blog, lesser comments your blog will recieve. Reason No. 6 If your writing skills are like mine ( you are reading one ), hardly any chance of getting comments.

Know Me More...

2005-10-15T03:25:00.000-07:00

Ya.. I know about more than one year of blogging why now.. But a good idea can come any time and also it my 50th post on this blog.. People Call Me Santosh, Santy (there are some epithets/sobriquets gifted by my friends, but sorry cannot be published.) Experienced Heaven and Hell in My home state - Bihar My most favourite night activity Reading followed by Sound Sleep 5 Words that describe my personality Unpredictable, Introvert, Reticent (Unless I decide that I am going to kill you with my lectures), Kind, Intelligent (Well thats peoples opinion, you can have argument about that). Some Vices I Possess Ego (Discoverd throgh detailed meticulous analysis put by my friends.) Ambitions (The above mentioned vice might be mainly responsible for that, but it could be other way, too) Pride (I think you could have guessed it, with logical deduction from the above too.) The list is incompelete due to some of the vices coming into the play and forcing me not to disclose all of them.. Sorry. Some Virtues I Possess Again some virtues into action to stop me disclosing the list. Remember the famous saying that “Saying I am humble is an offence against the humbleness.” Favorite Drink - Coffee, Tea, Water Favourite Colours - White and Green Favourite Magazines - Readers Digest, Life Positive, National Geographic, PC Quest Some Key facts

Possess a great affinity towards wrong people, either I find them, or they find me. Hoping that you are an exception.
Frustrated that Hotmail was built by Sabeer Bhatia. He took advantage of early brith.
Once bitten by Intellectual bug, still suffering, right now on medication, 2 newspaper a day, 1 book every alternate day and 1 blog per day.
Very good at building relations with strangers. They become my enemies.
Expert in computers. Hardware. Programming. Networking. I am very good at programming and my programming language is of such high class that most time computer fails to understand. I am waiting for more intelligent computers so that they can understand my codes.
Got trained in kick-boxing, just to show off. Later realized the futility(thanks to some solid side kicks and great punches gifted by my dear friends and strained muscle in order to show off my fancy flying kicks).
Suffers from inferiority complex. Ok.. let me clear .. other people’s inferiority complex make me suffer.
Read almost all the contemporary philosophers (right from Vivekanand, Radhakrishnan to Osho and Krishnamurthi). Now can write a book on “Philosophy of Reading Philosophy”. Interested in funding the project.. welcome..
Spent almost one year in studying the computer security and thought that hackers are the most genius persons.
I am planning to write a book titled “Memoirs of a Teetotaler in Booze Parties”. This books is compilation of my experiences of parties that I attended. Just afraid of some friends. Believe me you can get enlightenment through these parties. Just attend the booze parties and don’t drink. I enjoyed more than them. Really fun.

Indian Blogosphere - The first show of strength...

2005-10-14T03:22:00.000-07:00

Indian blogosphere ‘s response to IIPM’s reaction to Rashmi Bansal and Gaurav Sabnis has been manifestation of Indian Bloggers increasing strength and reach. Blog is no longer a just a mean to publish your thoughts, likes and dislikes, it’s a potent tool in this electronic media dominated era. By resigning IBM, Gaurav has shown the character and coviction and undoubtedly he is the hero no. one for Indian blogsphere. The kind of support Rashmi Bansal and Gavrav has got from the fellow bloggers is awesome. On personal front, I have never had positive opinion about IIPM and its intellectual superiority. And ask MBA aspirants they will emphasis that IIPM is nothing but broad scale fraud being run on the name of business education. What can you say about this? Tall claims, dubious figures and ambiguous statements, is all you get from their ads. Recently they have launched their media house as well and I got hold of their new publication “Business and Economy”. I purchased it for the fact that I saw some awesome names as contributors (Chomsky, Naraynmurthi…) but going thru the magazine I realization that it is another vehicle to establish Mr. Arindam Chadhury as brand. There certain startling things coming out of this incident, some persons are writing that blogs on IIPM (those who are maligning and with dubious intent) has ruined the career prospects of IIPM students. Looking at the comments posted at Rashmi’s blog and the kind of language they have used, I doubt they had any career prospects. Second thing, the silence of mainstream media over the issue, barring a few exceptions, there were very few stories on this issue. The reason, IIPM is the biggest spender on print ads this year and no one is willing to loose this client. IBM could have boosted its image if it has gone a few steps ahead to support Gaurav, is IIPM bigger brand than IBM, or IBM cares more for 2000 laptop sales than protecting and supporting (that too providing only moral support, as I doubt that IIPM has anything favoring them on legal front). It could have been a big advertisement for IBM. Now can I appeal all the bloggers and supporters of Gaurave and Rashmi to burn their IBM laptops. IIPM has committed blunders by suing Gaurave and Rashmi and now instead of gaining mileage from this (they might have thought this only) they are nowhere. The kind of criticism IIPM has got and flakes it has received from all over the blogsphere, I think people will not take admission in that institute for just simple reason that they do not want themselves to be a part of this kind of organization. The relevant stories/blogs http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2005/08/fraud-that-is-iipm.html http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2005/10/im-disconnecting-my-cable-connection.html http://indiauncut.blogspot.com/2005/10/question-of-principles.html http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2005/10/lies-damned-lies-and-fake-blogs.html Some replies from IIPM http://iipmstudentfeedback.blogspot.com/ http://iipmranking.blogspot.com/ The article which started it all.... http://www.jammag.com/careers/articles/mbacorner/iipm/index.htm

AIMA-Infosys B-Games

2005-10-02T03:43:00.000-07:00

AIMA-Infosys B-Games.. what to say.. a nightmare for me and my team. Being the last years national champions IIFM was having quite a lot of expectations from us. And we failed and failed in the prelims. Since we missed the regional competition at Indore and New Delhi, due to our exams we had to participate at Coimbatore in a non descript (never heard before) engineering college, named Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology. Somehow we managed to reach there and got to know that accomodation has been arranged in a Aishwarya hotel and we have to adjust in one room. Imagin four ppl in one room. The visitors registers gave us a glimpse of participants as many participants were living in the same hotel. the only name we have heard was of IIM K, the other names were quite alien to us. When we reached SKCET the venue for the competition, we were pleasantly surprised by the infra of the college and got to know in the briefing that 57 teams are participating from Tamilnadu and nearby states. Though only 9-10 institutes were participating, almost each institute in that regions has sent 4-7 teams for the competition. Probably IIM K, XIM B, KIAMS, IIFM were the only institutes with one team. When the competition started they divided all the teams into a group of 7-8 and we had 8 teams and as per our knowledge based upon the results of the games played a couple of days ago, 2 teams were to qualify from each group. After two days of stress and labour we finished second in our group, but before that we got the news that only one team is going to be in the next round so we were out of the race along with IIM K, XIMB, KIAMS and many others. We could not digest our failure.. but accepted gracefully untill Mr. Natrajan asked for the feedback and some startling facts came out...

The gazettes which describe the market situations in the simulation games were same, as earlier distributed for other participants a couple of days earlier.
Almost all the local team have before hand knowledge of scenarios to be given in the game.
They told us even with the given scenario, one cannot do anything with the game... what can i say?
the local team (especially the host team) was having advantage of knowledge of all the gazettes and scenario and even though most of them 5 out of 7 lost but two managed to win.

I am still wondering what happened to AIMA.. how could they make such mistakes..

mothers...

2005-09-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

A story I liked very much (I got it from some website)… dedicated to all mothers..
When God Created Mothers
When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of "overtime" when the angel appeared and said. "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."
And God said, "Have you read the specs on this order?" She has to be completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 moveable parts...all replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a lap that disappears when she stands up. A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. And six pairs of hands."
The angel shook her head slowly and said. "Six pairs of hands.... no way."
"It's not the hands that are causing me problems," God remarked, "it's the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have."
"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel. God nodded.
"One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, 'What are you kids doing in there?' when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn't but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say. 'I understand and I love you' without so much as uttering a word."
"God," said the angel touching his sleeve gently, "Get some rest tomorrow...."
"I can't," said God, "I'm so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick...can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger...and can get a nine year old to stand under a shower."
The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. "It's too soft," she sighed.
"But tough!" said God excitedly. "You can imagine what this mother can do or endure."
"Can it think?"
"Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise," said the Creator.
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek.
"There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told You that You were trying to put too much into this model."
"It's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."
"What's it for?"
"It's for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride."
"You are a genius, " said the angel.
Somberly, God said, "I didn't put it there."

miles to go.....

2005-09-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

If you have a lot to write, you are not going to write anything. This is what I realized in the last couple of weeks. And the result was no post for quite sometime. This period has been dotted with many significant events, which could make quite a mark on ones life, and such one event was my decision to go for Olam Internationals, Singapore. Yes, I appeared for selection process for my second organization training and after a lot of drama and suspense, finally got thru. So I would be going for my second OT in some country in Africa (that is the most probable destination at the moment). So two months to those places, which have a lot of stories and myths (and most of them are not very pleasant to ears) attached to them. Lets see what is in the store for me. Time to prove myself, once again. The first Organization Training is still afresh in my mind, and will be for quite time, as it has put me on for the Directors Prize for Best OT, thanks to some great efforts put by my friend / OT partner Anup Singh. But this time, I think its very different. Wait, I am missing something… ya… marks of my mid terms examination are now coming to me. And surprise, surprise.. the last post that I wrote after my Livelihood paper stands null and void. The reason, the marks are something, which have defied my logic. I got more than 60% in that paper (its quite something considering the fact the topper got only 66). Same thing happened with Micro Finance paper. I was quite disappointed after the paper as all I had done in the paper was “a lot of Golas” and “Phatte”. When I got the marks it was 44 out of 50 and I was the topper. So it pays to beat around the bush, at least it paid for me.

Kissa Midterm Exam ka

2005-08-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

The whole story can be described in one line, What I studied was not in the paper, and what was in the paper, I did not study. So you can guess the results… The Climax of the story was my Livelihood Paper (Livelihood and Natural Resource Management). It was my optional paper. Probably my inclination to work for uplift of the downtrodden and poor was somewhat responsible for the decision, though considering the present scenario and situation, right now I am open for any sector, and for any organization (depending upon some key parameters…. You all know what those parameters for an MBA ) from Olam International to Pradan. Okk… I was telling you about my livelihood paper. The class notes provided are of around 300-400 pages, along with a lot of reference books provided. And my strategy from the first term was to start just before the examinations, and I did not realized the loopholes in the strategy until I saw the paper. Though, I always remember God before writing anything in examination, but in this paper that I was doing throughout the exam. I just glanced at my other friends and they were in the same position. Vo mujhe dekhe ja rahi thi, main usko dekhe jaa raha tha Na paper mujhe aa raha tha, na paper usko aa raha tha (courtesy my pagalguy friends…) Ultimately I had to write something. And my tried and tested theory came true once again. “You write the longest answer to the question you have not studied.” In our terminology “Gola Dena”. So, a lot of Gola in the paper and lets pray that I get something for my “golas” otherwise …. Few lines which I got in a mail forward aptly describe my midterm examination.. Samundar bhar syllabus hai, nadi bhar padh paate hain, baalti bhar yaad rehta hai, magga bhar likh paate hain, chullu bhar number aate hain, doob ke mar jaate hain." Lets pray that I don’t have to go for “Chullu bhar pani….” iifmdays iifm

Its Exam -Time

2005-08-04T04:45:00.000-07:00

Once again examinations to deal with... though situation quite different. Ill-prepared, huge syllabus, extra burden of Livelihood audit course (almost 300 pages, class notes, dont know how to cope with that.).. this time only hoping for some kinda a miracle to get over 3.55. Really its a tough time. Assignment, Presentation, Quiz... What a life ? Making situation more complicated, is the placement committee work ( top priority- Akhir roji-roti ka sawaal hai)....

2005-07-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

Here is my personality analysis done by AstroYogi.. Well seems quite right.. barring some awfully wrong observations.. --- Hi Santosh Kumar Singh,you are a Number 9 person! You have a keen civic sense and want to help the less fortunate. While you focus on the macroscopic whole you forget the microscopic components. You look at life through rose tinted glasses and the reality saddens you. Your enthusiasm helps you. You have a positive attitude and can communicate your feelings. You need to discipline your passions and sort out your priorities. Your strength lies in the creative field, so it is time to give your life a goal. You are very emotional and take offence where none was intended. Guard against becoming cynical and sarcastic. You strive for freedom and success. You are smart and witty and have an individualistic streak. You feel restricted by routine and feel the need to lead the way. Take care, however that you don't lose your sense of balance. Learn to square up to your responsibilities. Stop trying to find solace in drink. (सरासर गलत है, बदनाम कर रहा है ...) You are capable of finding novel answers to your problems if you apply yourself. Your zeal for life clouds your judgement. You have the tendency to give in to your indulgences. You must learn to be tolerant and compassionate. Stand by your commitments. Don't run away when the going gets tough. You are a live wire always in control of a situation. You like charting your own course and are not averse to taking risks. you are also original and resourceful. You like people who are not unnerved by adversity. You are quite taken up with your appearance and like to follow your own style. Your tough exterior often intimidates others. You are flexible and love challenges but tend to be impulsive. You are ingenious and witty. You have a multifaceted personality but you need to be more focussed to succeed. You are tactful and diplomatic. You are a very intuitive thinker and amenable to new ideas but take care not to be too swayed by others. Now see what the Astro-Yogi Palmist says about me.. Hi Santosh, you have a logical hand. Your mental agility is dizzying. You are an extremely meticulous and organised person. Of course, this makes you the 'planning' maestro(लगता है Policy & Planning पेपर में फेल नहीं करुंगा !). Seems like holidaying is not your primary form of recreation. You are a stickler for perfection, but you can be a popular team player. You have the twilight years to cherish. You have a long life span and will live to be at least 70. (लगता है बुढापे में तडप-तडप के मरना लिखा है !) You attach a lot of importance to customs and rituals. You prefer constancy and stability to change. You can be impulsive; not all your moves are quite rational. Look out! Stress could get the better of you. Your index finger being longer than your ring finger points to you being realistic but aggressive at the same time. Yet, you are not able to stand your ground at times. Your sense of judgement is finely balanced. Your middle finger being longer than the adjoining fingers in length signifies an even view towards life. You are extremely organised; seldom ever do you 'come apart' in any situation. You seem to have all stages of your life worked out to the last detail, and possess an unbiased and sagacious personality. You evaluate and analyse all your actions towards achieving your goals in life and get there through sheer dedication and will power. The top of your ring finger is in level with the base of the fingernail of your middle finger. You are a sweet talker and can seduce most people and bend them to your will. (काश, ऐसा होता ...) But this style may have only short-lived results! Your little finger is set evenly at the base with the middle finger. The scrupulousness in your personality is your finest asset. It leads you to take rational decisions. Your little finger reaches above the first flexure line (joint) of your ring finger. You have the gift of the gab and can talk endlessly - all you need is a listening partner. (मेरे दोस्त भी यही बोलते हैं !) You are deeply attached to your home (100% true..). Your headline is frayed at its origin. You come across as a secretive person. Your unhappy childhood seems to reflect in all your relationships. Your headline has a single ending. Your analysis is generally biased as your mind is closed to looking at all facets of an issue. No other individual can influence your thoughts (The next lines explain why... ). Your headline is medium straight. You are a highly rational individual. You are thought oriented and never act before thinking it through. You are a solid person with fantastic reserves of energy. A doting parent and loyal friend, you are very protective towards those whom you love. Make sure you don't overdo this. The commitments you make are for keeps. Your fateline is broken at the headline. Past experiences have made your personality rigid. But life must go on; pick up the threads and work towards achieving your ambitions. P.S. This post has some inline comments in Hindi, if you cant see them, install Unicode/Hindi fonts...

2005-07-28T04:13:00.000-07:00

Dont know what to write.. not in pink of my health, got viral infection, exams are about to begin and nothing is happening as planned. Let see, whats in store. Right now just pondering over this zen story...

The great Taoist master Chuang Tzu once dreamt that he was a butterfly fluttering here and there. In the dream he had no awareness of his individuality as a person. He was only a butterfly. Suddenly, he awoke and found himself laying there, a person once again. But then he thought to himself, "Was I before a man who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being a man?"

Bihar-Gatha

2005-07-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

Bihar, whenever I utter this word to non-biharis (here the non biharis = those who belongs to other states than Bihar, UP and Jharkhad), the reactions and expressions are something to relish.. I can recall many incidents... A couple of years back, I was in Mumbai for an interview. At the interview center I met a guy, nattily dressed (in jeans and t-shirt, with "a wisdom quote") with gelled hair, looking anxious, as I got to know later that his interview was scheduled next days. To making himself ready for the interview. He approached me, as I was coming out after the interview and after my dose of recently got knowledge and expert opinion on how to face that interview board and what to prepare for, he asked me for my email id. I took out my visiting card (I was working for a Computer Education Center) handed to him. A glance at the card, he was looking at me, like he was seeing Michael Jackson in Dhoti Kurta or for that matter, Adnani Sami doing break dance.. . Are you from Bihar ? Yes. And you have internet connection in Bihar ?? I just looked at his face there was no sign, which can indicate that he was going to disgest a positive answer..

How good is brian lara ?

2005-07-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sports/html/20050715T200000-0500_84235_OBS_HOW_GOOD_IS_BRIAN_LARA_.asp "In my mind, if Brian Lara wakes up in the middle of the night and decides that he wants to make a hundred, he will do it. He has got that sort of ability" Colin Croft Brian Lara - The Legend. The Prince. The Moody Maverick. Lara is going through a phase marred by contract agreements, hostile selectors/adminstrators and interna politics of West Indian Cricket Board. But, on the field, he is getting better and better. There is no question about his ability and his talent. In my opinion Lara was always The Best and is The Best(read my post on Lara which I posted a year ago Lara - The Best. Now legends are saying so too. Check the above link on Jamaica Observer's Website.

Thodi Khushi, Thoda Gham..

2005-07-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

Just changed the look of my blog. Thanks to Richa for brilliant template. I decided to remove the Haloscan scripts which let visitors to comment anonymously, as Blogger has improved its comment section, but it was a tough decision as I have lost all the comments made by my friends, with the removal of Haloscan script. Though I have kept the script to get them back, as we can merge the Haloscan comments with the blogger, but its a tedious process and I am not in mood to take that much pain. By the way, even these day Blogger is behaving like anything. Posts are not appearing on time (when I post it takes ours to get on the front page). Here, I am facing one more problem.. Cyberoam, our omnipotent Internet Management Software, is giving me tough time. First, Yahoo Messenger was closed (ya, no more online discussion with friends) and then Cyberoam got enlightened that all the blogs hosted on rediffblogs.com are porn. So no access to them. Bad!! Very Bad!! So now I cannot read my friends' blogs. What to do?? ....

For All the book lovers

2005-07-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

I am reposting my post, which I posted on my other blog, for all those person who love to read.

Ebooks Vs Real Boooks Being a bibliophile, I have always been in search of good books. Recently I came across several site where I can download books from my favourite authors and the collection on these site was quite awesome. Archer, Grisham, Sheldon etc all are there. Though I downloaded a lot of books from sevarl sites, till date I have not been able to finish one book in ebook format. Da Vinci Code was the only book I could go beyond 100 pages and ultimately I bought that books as reading ebooks never gives the same feeling of holding a paperback/hardcover book in hand and curling up in the bed. The following part is added on the request of another biblio Here are some links from where you can get these books. Classics http://gutenberg.org Thrillers http://greylib.align.ru/libthril.htm Detective http://greylib.align.ru/libdetectiv.htm Action http://greylib.align.ru/libaction.htm Others http://greylib.align.ru/libfan.htm You can find a lot of books by the following modern authors on the above sites. Shidney Sheldon Harold Robbins Michael Crichton PG Wodehouse Dan Brown Stephen King Robin Cook Douglas Adams Ron Hubbard Bernard Cornwell Ian Fleming Tom Clancy Forsyth Dick Francis John Grisham Dean Koontz Anne Rice JK Rowling etc.. And on the project gutenberg site you can find all the classics.

My Reading List For This Year and 2006

2005-07-09T02:44:00.000-07:00

This year I planned to read around 100 books, but could not achieve the target, and looking at the academic calender and schedule it does not seem possible. Though I think I have managed to read around 20-22 books so far, excluding academic or related books. But, the revised target for the rest of the year and first half of next year, is the following list. Ya, this time I decided to go for some meaningful thoughtprovoking books(subject to availability of books in libraries and purchasing power of my pocket), instead of Grisham, Archer and the usual stuff. Though Its very difficult for me to resist myself when I get a good book in my hand, but certainly the following books will be on my priority list. The selction of these books is based upon my reading in the last few years and reviews, and interaction with some friends who have read them. I will request your views on the books you have read in the following list. I have already finished the books written in bold letter.

Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton
Hermit in the Himalayas by Paul Brunton
The Age of Reasons by Jean Paul Sartre
Meetings with Remarkable Men by Gurdjieff
The Outsider by Albert Camus
The Plague by Albert Camus
By The River of Madeira I Sat Down and Wept
Autobiography of a Yogi by Yogananda Paramhansa
Many life many masters by Weiss
Sidhartha by Herman Hesse
Portrait of an artist as a young man by James Joyce
Notes to myself by Hugh Prather
The monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma
The power of now by Eckhart Tolle
I am that by Nisargdutta Maharaj
Song of Life by J Krishnamurthi
Freedon from the known by J Krishnamurthi
Art of loving by Erich Fromm
You shall be as Gods by Erich Fromm
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
The way of all the Earth by John S Dunne
The song celestial by Edwin Arnold
Cutting through spiritual materialism by Chogyam Trungpa
The Rebel by Osho
Books I have loved by Osho
Caravan of Dreams by Idries Shah
Feeling Buddha by David Frazer
Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley
Light on the path by Mabel Collins
The good heart by Dalai Lama

Six days of bliss

2005-06-19T05:59:00.000-07:00

Summer Project almost over and whats next, a week along with my parents, family and friends. Great. Simply Great. Six days of bliss. Still 3 more days to go, but planning is on. A chance to unite with friends, go to movie halls, buy tickets in black, whistle in the hall (unfortunately i dont know how to whistle !! But friends compensate for me also.). I haven't seen a lot of movies a these days, so going to make up for that. A chance to watch some of my fav serials (though only a few episodes) which I have not seen for almost a year. To play Cricket with my brothers and fight for doubtful runouts and dismissal due to rules made by the team ( a lot of rules there, to save window-glass and ball getting lost, it takes so much time for a new player to understand those rules that he might consider playing chess). Really I am going enjoy that. I am forgetting something.. yes. Home made food "Ma ke haath ka khana" after 8 months and good north india food after 2 months of staple dose of Sambhar, Rasam and Dosa. etc. Muzaffarpur's delight the 'Rasbhari Lichis', I am loving it, I can feel them on my tongue. Delicious really. Its really six days of bliss. I am in bliss by thinking only....

Ego - Can't Let It Go...

2005-06-15T01:11:00.000-07:00

Ego-a word which has more negative connotation and use, and very often people term someone as egoist. Me, being the victim on the several occasion. Is having ego that bad ? Can you find someone really without ego? I don't think so. If you do not have ego, its very difficult recognize others ego. To recognize ego, one has to possess ego. Why does X call Y egoist? Because Y talks about himself, he thinks that he is superior. Does it hurt you? Why you feel offended because Y is not talking about X, if he says X is genius (even if he is not) Y is very good person, but if Y says he is genius (even though he is), he becomes egoist. It is I versus You. You want to satisfy your own ego, you want the person in front of you to be in awe of you, you want him to talk about you. If I do not posses ego, I am not bothered whether he talks about me or him or anyone else. Why is 'I' most used word in the english language ? You say that he has ego. That indirectly means that you do not have the ego. Isn’t it indirectly satisfying your 'ego'. Doesn't it apply that you are good, you are superior to him, he is bad? The moment you utter the words, he is an egoist, you proclaim yourself superior to him. Hence, you proclaim your ego. The moment you start feeling others ego, you should realize that your ego has started working, you ego has awaken itself.

Karnataka Diary

2005-06-15T01:02:00.000-07:00

Last couple of days has been very hectic for us. Getting up in the morning at 7 o'clock to get ready for the field work, taking a quick bath or a quick decision to not take bath and then along with the team members getting packed into jeep (7 people including the driver) and then starts the real work, going from village to village and gathering information about the existing or potential pulpwood plantation. Though, the whole process of gathering information about the plantation is being carried out by our team members as neither we have the ability (no knowledge of kannada) nor the ability. The team members are really something, specially my namesake, a tall fair fellow, showing a great affinity for male jewelry, which I guessed either he has robbed his in law on the pretense of marriage or has some relationship with some jeweler from where he has got all that on installments, as the kinda of salary he is getting from the organization ( the org in consideration is one of the biggest conglomerate of India). He is a bit annoyed by us and our methodology, which the team follows, this might be due to 5 hours lecture we rendered to them in the workshop to train them . In his opinion, there is no need for such kind of exercise as they have been doing all this exercises all the years, though it's a different thing management has never got any substantial result from their exercise. So we started for Belur Taluk in Hassan district, I took my preferred back seat in the jeap (a result of my craving for leg space ). I tried my best to gather as much of karnataka as possible through my visual receivers, which were constantly focussed outside the window and keeping me busy in the analysis. Actually this is my way of keeping myself busy. Observe around myself and look for extraordinary in ordinary things. Sometime trying to read what is written on the signboards and posters, to know about the town or place. End result, cursing the kannadiga people for their lack of concern for people like us, who do not know kannada, almost all the boards were in kannada, or the information you are looking for is in Kannada. When we stop for the data collection, all the team members raid the puzzled victim. Thinking us as either police official or some other govt officials, a range of expression does a quick parade on their face. But the moment their hear the word Neelgiri and Survey, they start opening up and in some time we have 10-12 people surrounding us, trying to help us or help themselves I don't know. The most beautiful experience was visit to Sakleshpur, famous for its coffee plantation. There were a lot of Silver Oak trees with small canopy, talking to sky and creepers of black pepper had surrounded them, they looked more like green pillars ( Coffee plants were planted with Silver Oak trees as they need partial shade. ). Lush green plantation of coffee on both sides of road, and beautiful landscapes give you feeling beyond expression. I must thank IIFM for this experience, I doubt if any other institute provides such beautiful experience. Population density in this region seems to be very low, as we traveled around 20-30 kilometers and whole coffee plantation region was dotted with some groups of 5-6 houses. I found mostly women working in the plantations and nearby areas, dressed in shirt and a kind of Ghagra. Pleased in what they were doing, giving a cursory glance to our vehicle crossed. There were several boards declaring "World's Best Coffee Grows Here". Another great experience was visit to Belur, where we saw a great example of South Indian architecture in the Belur Temple, beautiful. It was just beautiful. Huge structures filled with wonderful example of subtle, beautiful carvings. I just wonder how many man days, it would have taken to build it. Cameras were allowed inside, a deviation from what was almost universal rule in Tamilnadu. I took full liberty of this. I must thank Mr. Bapat, a real gentleman who took several snaps of us. Then we headed for Hallebeedu, and visited the temple there. Next day, we got an opportunity to visit the village of our former Prime Minister Mr. Devegowda. Nothing special about the village apart from the road leading to the village, on which you can easily put your car in top gear and enjoy the rare experience of seeing your speedometer needle pass 100 kmh mark. Since we were to visit a lot of villages there, we had to take food in small hotel (if I can call it), that hotel we found out after asking a lot of people for a good hotel. I think that was the best hotel there. The served a food, which you can take only to fill your tummy, don’t ask about the taste. The served something looking like a ball (slightly bigger than a cricket ball ), I could not muster the strength to say yes to that. When I asked what as that, as some of my Kannadiga team members were relishing that. They told me that this dish was secret of Mr. Devegowda’s health, full of protein. We paid Rs. 15 per person for the lunch, which made me wonder that to survive you need not much money. Though food in K'taka or you can say in whole south india is very cheap, you can get good food for 30-50 Rupees, the south indian meals are very cheap compared to the north indian foods here. One thing surprised me that south indian states have comparatively high literacy rate, but visit a magazine shop and stationery shop, you would find only Kannada magzines on the stand, almost all the magazine are either film based or political. Its very difficult to find some good english mags even in the district headquarters. While in Bihar or UP all the news stand keeps a good range of popular english/hindi magazines. I think its due to a lot of people in these states preparing for different competitive examination. The need to keep themselves updated with wold affairs and different topics make them grab these english magazines. Contrary to that, here in Karnataka, I think majority of youth go for professional education, engineering / medical, and why not, getting 20-30 percent mark in the state engineering / medical entrance, guarantees you a seat. Thanks to the mushrooming engineering and medical colleges. But don’t ask about the quality (no offence intended to anyone), but most of the colleges are just a center for distribution of professional qualification. And their student end up working for 5-6 thousand rupees per month or opt for BPO career.

up-grades

2005-06-09T01:03:00.000-07:00

grades are out and now i have moved to grade A.... though I had faltered in my end term but good show in midterm ensured me my A. Somehow i managed 3.82/4.33 in this term to propel my self in elite league of A graders. But could manage only 3.55 overall. And now the only task is to maintain it. I must congrat my friend Mandar for brilliant performance in this term. A score greater than 4 out of 4.33 in this term and overa all 3.9/4.33. What a Performance !!! I must thank my friends for sending the grades through email. Otherewise i would have been waiting for them until my arrival to Bhopal...

Tragic Logic

2005-06-04T03:12:00.000-07:00

Mulayam Singh Yadav’s recent latest outburst against English language defies any logic. In this era of globalization, where knowledge of English has lifeblood of organizational communication, he talks about throwing out English from the system. Going by his records as Chief Minister of UP, he tried his best in his last two regime to “throw English out”. While Mulaym Singh preaches whole world the negatives of English and English education, his son is an MBA from on of the top B-Schools of world. Same goes for our own Laloo Yadav, he made “famous” statement “ Ye IT-YT kya hota hai?” but married his daughter to an IT engineer. While he shares the same views on English education, his son is studying in DPS, RK Puram. It seems that our politician have gone out of mind. Now there is another very “healthy” decision by our decision makers to ban all smoking on TVs and Big Screen. The logic , its injurious to health. Imagine, you are going to make a movie on a smokers story, you cannot film him smoking. The violence /rape/murder everything is OK on screen, but smoking an absolute no-no. Even we people are not very logical these days, somebody filed a PIL that Naina would discourage the people who are donating/receiving eyes . Our lovely Surds went berserk over Jo Bole So Nihaal. Let see what comes next, somebody might file a PIL that all the accidents scenes should be removed from the movies as that might discourage the bike/car drivers.

yahoo 360

2005-05-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

I have invitations of yahoo 360 which offers some great services. If you want to have one leave a comment of mail me at san1378(AT)yahoo.com.

On Summers

2005-04-27T07:18:00.000-07:00

right now doing summers at Grasim Industries Ltd. Hope to return with some more updates on the blog...

things never remain same

2005-03-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to hammer a nail in the back fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Then it gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say 'I'm sorry', the wound is still there."

Sir Stringer - the first non-japanese Head of Sony

2005-03-07T22:53:00.000-08:00

Howard Stringer has stepped in as the first non Japanese CEO of Sony Corporation; it’s a milestone in the history of Sony which has been the epitome of Japanese excellence. It’s a step which will generate a mixed bag of reactions, both from inside the Sony and outside of it. He has transformed the entertainment business of Sony, but as the head of worlds biggest electronics giant, can he once again do the same ? The biggest problem for him is the cultural difference, though his stint as CBS man and later as one of the major performer for Sony must have provided him a lot of wisdom, how to cope with the cultural difference. But here he has difficult task cut out for him, first of all he is an outsider as far Japanese are concern and making the matter worse his image of an outspoken person is not in sync with the Japanese. There are already some muffed voices expressing their resentment about appointment of an American as the head of Japanese firm, which has been a part of Japanese culture and almost every Japanese is proud of. But this is a great challenge for Sir Stringer, to silence his critics and take Sony to the new heights, in return of the extraordinary confidence shown by the Sony. For us it is time to wait, watch and learn, to see the amalgamation of American management style coping with the Kaizen and Just in Time or vice versa