Journey 2.0

Eight Tips for dealing with criticism...

2009-01-15T11:53:00.003-05:00

The Happiness Project is a blog I read very often, Gretchen Rubin has very interesting things to say and deal with every day life circumstances and remain happy through those experiences.

She has a useful post on how to deal with criticism. I don't handle criticism particularly well, though consciously I've tried to improve myself in this department for last 2-3 years. There are some tips which I've applied on ocassions and it has worked, but discipline and patience is missing during most times.

Please read her post here.

Mumbai under Attack

2008-11-28T17:45:00.003-05:00

This is very shocking and disturbing to say the least.....Feelings of anger, rage, frustration, paralysis, nostalgia all at once. This is my city, my Mumbai.

Taj is not only a heritage five-star hotel, it is a cultural landmark, it is the city's identity, it is where one of my cousin sister's got married, it is where we used to take cousins coming from out of town......

Seeing this violent incident unfold on TV is leaving me numb and blood is rushing into my brain. My immediate family and friends are safe and sound (as far as I know), but I feel very helpless for the city and family sitting here in US.

Mumbai after this will never be the same.

Quick Links:
A very nice piece by Sambhit Bal at CricInfo.

Longest day by Vir Sanghvi.

Quote of the day

2007-03-08T20:05:00.000-05:00

Rather than telling, "You look good in that suit," tell the person, "That suit looks good on you."
- Dale Carneigie

The voice tone and selection of words are very important in any conversation. It can convey right signals and create a positive impression. I don't believe you need to butter people or say good things about them for creating attachment or liking, what you need is genuine interest to listen and talk, give true and honest opinions, be helpful without any hopes.

Great people do it well, I'm trying to get better.

Spending patterns of youth predict adult money management

2007-03-07T01:08:00.000-05:00

Small but nice post from Auren Hoffman.

Spending patterns of youth predict adult money management.

Top 3 Most Watched Sports in the World

2007-03-06T20:08:00.000-05:00

Since the Cricket World Cup is beginning in next few days, a debate at work about the most watched Sports started my quest to find out the Top 3 Most Watched Sports in the World. Someone asked me this question and my immediate reply was:

Soccer
Cricket
Was not sure, Tennis or Golf

Being from the Indian sub-continent Cricket had to be in the list, I even joked that if the population of India increases further it can be the most watched Sport.

My colleague asked me a valid point, What do the Chinese and people in Far East follow? I was not sure what sports do they watch. This can change viewer-ship rankings. She told that Tennis might be No 2 and Cricket might be No 3. Seems reasonable, but does anyone have a better answer to this question.

Which are the Top 3 Most Watched Sports ?

A thumbnail of a 20-20 cricket match between England and Sri Lanka (Image Courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:England_vs_Sri_Lanka.jpg)

Dixie Chicks - Not Ready to Make Nice

2007-02-26T14:19:00.000-05:00

Probably everyone of you know that Dixie Chicks won 5 Grammy Awards this year including the Song and Album of the Year. But I'll still mention about it, because I have been listening and viewing their song video over and over. Sometimes simple things like watching a song or movie gives you lot of happiness, I want to register in blog the joy this song and video has given me for the moment. 'Not Ready to make Nice' is one of the nicest songs I have heard lately. If you haven't heard the song, listen to it right now, it's not worth missing.

See the original video below (they even performed at Grammy's)

In March 2003 just before the US invasion of Iraq, Natalie Maines (lead singer) provoked a controversy by stating publicly in a concert "and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas". Read the whole Political controversy on wikipedia.

This song is their response to the 12 words that erupted the controversy, anger, boycott, criticism and the death threats the band received and their nonacceptance of the war and their stand on Peace.

What I liked?
I like the passion and power with which they sing.
What I loved?
I love the statement, the courage, the music they play. Go Girls!

India - Growth and Unemployment

2007-02-17T14:02:00.000-05:00

On one hand the world is going ga-ga over India, we read about India's sudden growth in the last 4 years and the India rising story in the media. The outsourcing boom, Software industry and the BPO sector has increased the Purchasing Parity and changed the lifestyle and attitude of the urban population. But on the other hand the rising economy has also increased the inflation and the rising costs of daily domestic goods. This has made the life very expensive for people who live on fixed budgets and whose lives have not been touched by this rising Indian economy (this is a huge percentage of the population).

The situation in rural areas is even worse, high unemployment is not helping either. I think all this will change as the literacy level will increase and the BPO sector and Software industry will open offices and start to operate in these smaller Indian towns and cities. It'll take 2-5 years for this to happen, but more than time it will need commitment and dedication from people living in these towns to prepare and better educate themselves for this new opportunities ahead. This will solve at least couple of other issues:
- Will reduce the migration of rural population to Class I cities like Bombay, Delhi, Chennai, etc in search of work.
- Once people in Class III towns will see their peers prosper because of good education, the next generation in these towns will leverage on the previous generation's success and improve it further.

Another article I came across last week was the article in CNN on India not becoming a superpower till it reduces its poverty. Very nice article, I agree with the contents and the reasons given in the article, BUT I don't think agree with the TITLE of the article. Average Indians have no aims or ambitions of becoming a SUPERPOWER per se, thats the last thing on their mind. What they want and what they are struggling for are meeting their basic daily necessities like food, shelter, clothes, education for their kids. India is a young democratic country and what it has achieved in 60 years is commendable, we still have a long way to go and we will.

Nevertheless, nice article and nice read. Educate yourself.

Best Photos from the World Press

2007-02-15T19:41:00.000-05:00

We all take lots of pictures of ourselves, when we travel, when there's an occasion, party, marriage, birthday and with the world going digital it's been very easy to store and share these memories. Sometimes the best pictures are taken by random amateur photographers and whenever I see these random pics on Flickr or Photobucket I get encouraged to learn and better understand the art of photography rather than just clicking them from a distance without any understanding of the camera, lens or the light.

I came across the website for the World Press Photo organization (non-profit) which organizes the worlds largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest. World Press Photo of the Year 2006 goes to a picture by a US photographer of some young Lebanese driving through a South Beirut neighborhood devastated by war. Also while you're there don't forget to check out the Prizewinners Galley 2007 There are some mind-blowing pictures especially of the US marine returning back to marry (Portraits), Darfur Refugees (General News), Settler woman struggles with Israeli security officer (People in the News).
Go help yourself and see something nice! (Winners of the contest from 1955-2006)

While on the topic of pictures/photos, Techcrunch gives a nice overview of the Online Photo editing websites. This is a very hot space and there are lots of Web 2.0 companies in this area.

Anyone wants to share any of their random work ?

Quote of the day

2007-02-08T19:29:00.000-05:00

First of all, I'm back after my 2 month long hiatus. I'm all fine, nothing happened to me, BUT But but I did get into trouble. The trouble that I've got myself into is to be HAPPY, CONTENT and SPARKLING henceforth with this nice and beautiful person. Most of my friends know but for all that who don't I did meet this amazing girl who I've decided to spend my life with. And I'm all happy, excited, ecstatic, cheerful for this new life ahead. I hope to continue with my regular blogging going forward.

So the random saying that I remembered when I overheard something was

"It's not what you don't know, it's what you know that generally lands you in trouble"
- Some random website which I don't remember now.

There are so many occasions in life where you're like..... 'GOSH, It would have been so much better had I not known about this thing'. Well, personally I feel that so many times; at work, with friends and family. Its just so much better if you don't all the complex details and politics of human relationships with each other. I hate times when I've to behave as if I don't know about some news, issues when I actually know them. I would rather like to be surprised by not knowing them than to put up a false face. Anyways, that's me.

What are your thoughts ?

Quote of the day

2006-12-07T11:59:00.000-05:00

"The more I think about things, the more I see no rhyme or reason in life -- no one knows why some things work out, and some things don't -- why some of us get lucky -- and some of us..."
- Bella (Gina McKee) in the movie Notting Hill. Notting Hill is one of my favorite movies of all time.

I'm fascinated by the randomness and luck in life, though I don't think about luck/randomness while doing anything good/bad but time and again I realise after the fact why some complicated things work out so quietly and ordinarily and some simple issues give you such a hard time. I believe perspectives and attitudes in life plays an important role in how you pursue each day, week.... life, work. It's remarkable how people having positive attitude always end up having happy experiences and outcomes even in a new situation.
For e.g. A survey in NYC for people looking for street parking in NYC every night/evening always find parking, not because they know the streets or spots to look but because of their attitude.

I'm sold.

Talks and Discussions - Bhushan

2006-12-05T23:25:00.000-05:00

I invited Bhushan Shah for writing this post, he's the B dude I mentioned in the previous post who recently visited me from Chicago. He has taken forward the discussion of conversations and has elaborated his views on his migration process to the US as a student and asked me to take this post further as a discussion. So I urge all of you to write about your experiences if you ever stayed away from your home country, families as students or on work. People who've never gone through this process can give their views (if any) on what stopped them or what they think about the process. I've been a passive reader (without putting my comments) to many blogs, but this discussion would kind of give me a reality check on how many people actually visit my blog (not that it's important).
So for discussing it further write in your comments. Bhushan would surely appreciate it. Thanks!

For clarification, I'm the 'PJ' in the post and those are my initials. Some of my friends from SAKEC have given me that nick and it's one of my many nick names.

So after much nudging from PJ I am sending the following for his blog.

First of all let me thank him for his great hospitality and I do hope to return the great treatment. I feel the same about meeting old friends or new acquaintances. The interesting thing about meeting old friends is that the conversation begins where one left off, the time passes but the bonds remain as strong as ever. Not particularly sure about being more or less mature, but one thing does remain constant and that is “change”. I believe our reaction and adaptation to change shape our experiences and eventually who we are.

We had an opportunity to talk about myriad of topics and it could have been a broader discussion had time permitted. The interesting thing about it all is that PJ and I were addressing all of them with the perspective of “FOBs” (I don’t consider us Fresh of the Boat, but for lack of a better term for people in our shoes). Now as I write this note I wonder how the whole discussion would have shaped had we been in India, or even if the same topics would have been discussed.

Five years back the decision to come to the US was a no brainer, all of us pretty much were swept by the euphoria. Now students considering coming to the US have much higher stakes to evaluate. All of us are risk takers and the differentiating factor is our appetite for risk, some take the plunge and others keep wondering “what if”. The challenges of surviving in the US have been far from subtle but with every struggle there is a sense of achievement and the satisfaction of being fit enough to have survived it. Not sure how everybody else feels about the whole migration process but I would surely like to hear about it. I constantly struggle with the fact that no amount of success or monetary remuneration can compensate for the time we spend away from our families.

Someone once told me that “Life isn’t simple”, my instant retort was that “Life is as simple as we want it to be”. Have we all then added more variables to the equation of life?

Knowing that PJ and I are from traditional Gujarati families had we both decided not to come to the US, we would have met over a Sunday dinner in Mumbai with our respective spouses and the discussion would have been completely different. I also wouldn’t be distracting you with this blog :).

Saludos!

These were excellent thoughts and was very well written. Thanks Bhushan for writing this one for me. This exercise will foster good exchange of individual perspectives and views and hope it encourages you to write your own blog. I'm sure it would be a very good read.

Here's the last day (late night at Dunkin Donuts) picture with Bhushan during his recent visit.

Dialogues - Fuel for thoughts

2006-12-01T18:49:00.000-05:00

I love good dialogues especially with old friends whom I'm catching up after a long time. All of us cross paths with a lot of new people during our school/college years or work life, some interesting and some not so very interesting. I was fortunate to meet some very interesting people (hope they find me interesting too... ;) ) whom I shared good camaraderie and were a regular part of life for those growing up years.

Life is moving at a faster pace than ever and friends who once were everyday buddies have become rare planned ocassions. I'm fine with that, c'est la vie..... BUT I want to grab those rare ocassions, have fun, catch up on old times and make the most out of it.

There were couple of ocassions recently where I met old buddies from USC and SAKEC and I enjoyed every moment of it. B (buddy from SAKEC) was at my place for a weekend and we met after almost 4 years. Both of us have changed (matured if you say so....) he always was, but enhanced further with an MBA which he got recently and I'm yearning for. We had some nice dialogues on so many different subjects, even hard to remember. Big conversation on why he went to Business School and what can be done for getting into a good school, good job after MBA, Marriage, Business Opportunities, Job Opportunities, War in Iraq.
Thanks for stopping by!

I also met Harish and Babloo in Virginia 2-3 weekends back and it was good to see both of them after a long time even though both are just 4-5 hours far. We had nice lunch/dinner at a restaurant in Baltimore harbor. (I love restaurants on water-fronts). It was good to see both of them.

This year I also went to my first Thanksgiving Dinner at a colleague's place which I thoroughly enjoyed without doubt. Met some really fascinating and delightful people (my colleagues family and neighbors) had sumptuous Vegetarian food and desert. Had nice chat with my colleagues family, I was struck by their humbleness, simplicity and love for simple things in life. Gave me a lot of fuel for thinking about the world and approaches in life. Looking forward to my next meeting with them. Thanks for the wonderful dinner!

I look forward to more such encounters with old buddies and new interesting people who will mature to old buddies with the investment of time and many such conversations. Anyone passing by, I'm always ready to meet for a dialogue over lunch/dinner. I'm only a phone call away!

This topic reminds me of 100 Years by Five for Fighting.

Fareed Zakaria on the current era of Globalization

2006-11-22T21:00:00.000-05:00

Fareed Zakaria is an editor at Newsweek International magazine, he writes on Foreign Affairs. Some time ago I read a very nice article by him on the India Rising story.

He wrote in the article:

India's growth is messy, chaotic and largely unplanned. It is not top-down but bottom-up. It is happening not because of the government, but largely despite it. India does not have Beijing and Shanghai's gleaming infrastructure, and it does not have a government that rolls out the red carpet for foreign investment—no government in democratic India would have those kinds of powers anyway. But it has vast and growing numbers of entrepreneurs who want to make money. And somehow they find a way to do it, overcoming the obstacles, bypassing the bureaucracy. "The government sleeps at night and the economy grows," says Gurcharan Das, former CEO of Procter Gamble in India.

I feel the problem with the government is that there is no competition. Anyways I digress....

The reason for the post is yet another article I read today and this time Fareed talks about how despite of the current wars fought by the US and Israel, the world economy is still growing and how Bush is pre-occupied by Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Israel, Lebanon...... and what are the problems ahead.

The highlight of the article is where he explains how the Markets are smart:

Markets are supposed to be smart. What are they telling us? That the current era of globalization is more powerful, widespread and resilient than many people realize. Today we are living through something practically unique—simultaneous growth worldwide. The United States, Europe and Japan are all doing well, but so are China, India, Brazil, Turkey and a whole slew of former Third World countries. Their rise is powering the new global order. Emerging markets now account for 30 percent of the world economy and for 50 percent of global growth last year. One important benefit has been that advanced industrial nations have maintained extremely low interest rates for almost two decades, enabling some countries—such as the United States—to grow faster than many experts predicted. This could not have happened without two global deflation machines, China and India, which keep prices low in goods and services, respectively.

Quite true, as the world is flattening and globalization will become a norm, the competition and inequalities in the world become will also become more prominent yet some countries/economies will continue to thrive irrespective of the neighborhood bombs and border wars. As Fareed writes in his article "There is no way to turn off this global economy, nor should one try."

Whatever you want it to be ..... - PJP

2006-11-18T11:26:00.000-05:00

I thought of doing something different for this post. I invited one of my FOB buddy to write a post on my blog. (will invite some more friends over time). I want all my friends to start and maintain their blog. So this exercise will give them some food for thought. I follow some of my friend's blog and it gives me a chance to see a different side of all them which I don't see while we're together hanging out. So without further adu, I introduce my good friend PJP (a.k.a Smiley baba, Hrithik) who has written this post after lot of coaxing. He's one of the people who has a profound impact on me and I'm sure on many others, he always does the right thing at the right time and I admire it. Be generous in your comments and encouarge him to start writing regularly. So here is Mr. PJP......

Well my very dear friend invited me to write an article in his blog space. For some reason he has a misconception and thinks I have good writing skills (or maybe he was just pulling my leg which I didn’t realize ....until now) In any case I thought of writing something but then the difficult part was to come up with a topic. Should I write about the Indo-US nuke bill (which by the way passed with a whooping 85-12 in the senate) or should I write about my reaction after reading a blog of an Iraqi girl (articles that makes you realize and appreciate how fortunate you are). Should I write about my conversation with an old college friend which refreshed my college days or should I write about semiconductor and technology which I work on. So as creative as I am, I thought of writing on the topic of the topic itself.

I think the topic of the blog tells the kind of person the writer is in great detail. Is he emotional? Is he a person with political views? Is he very observant? Is he a tech savvy? Usually you would find a same kind of theme in different blogs written by the same writer. It’s more like all the Karan Johar movies (infact now even the songs in his movies confuse the hell out of me.) I find it interesting to understand the psychology of the writer. Some bloggers have money as their motivation; some are just pouring their heart out hoping someone is reading it. For some writing is just a passion. Some are writing to enlighten the world (or atleast that’s what I think they think). Of course then there are people like me who don’t know why and what they are writing. My friend told me that he does not care who reads his blogs, he just writes it and feels satisfied. I was impressed by that thought.

I guess you can write about anything and everything, share it with the world and still have more to talk about. Recently, researchers have analyzed the dynamics of how blogs become popular. There are essentially two measures of this: popularity through citations, as well as popularity through affiliation. In anycase I am not looking for popularity but just wanted to write something down. A question before I sign off : Reading my blog what kind of person am I ?

Don't forget to answer his question....

Here's a pic from our Chicago trip in Dec 2004 after both of us sailed through some tough times.

Life without Experience is no fun Life

2006-11-16T23:35:00.000-05:00

My colleague recently received an e-mail from a young English woman who has 19 million in her name (in some will or trust) which she can receive only after she gets married. So apparently she's looking for someone to marry her and she'll give 30% of the money she'll receive to the person who marries her, so my colleague asked me if I'm available (he was joking)..... I was like yaa yaa sure, I wont have to work for the rest of my life, I'll retire .....

But than as I was thinking about this, I don't think I want to get/earn money like this, what's the use of getting money this way, what's my experience in this. I want to work to earn and I don't ever want to retire. I want to have the satisfying experience of working and want a fulfilling life which I feel I'll be missing without life's experiences. The more I understand about life and see people around me, I see we all have different backgrounds, different upbringings, different thoughts about pursuing life and we each carry our unique experiences on our shoulder each day and share with others in different breadths. We all talk to each other about our positive and negative experiences, may be however simple they are like dining at a new restaurant, or visiting some cool place in Italy or Hampton's, or your experience of visiting a particular lawyer or accountant. And we always see famous actor/director/artist/politician giving interviews about their life experiences. There are so many websites which are dedicated for product reviews and user forums where unknown people discuss their ideas and experiences.

However, there are somethings in life which I feel have to be experienced personally, you cannot take someone else's word for it.
- Experience like travelling through a foreign country where you don't know a single soul.
- Experience like coming to a new country for studies
- Experience like doing something really noble alone, where you're touching people's lives who cannot do things for themselves.
- Experience of sailing through the rough waters of entrepreneurship.
- Experience of fighting for something you feel is right (Y4E, Save Darfur, etc)
- Experience of falling in and falling out of love (both are important)

I do not like to form my opinion based on someones experience, but it's always good to listen to what they've to say even if you do not entirely agree. It's always prudent to listen to what your elders/parents have to say even when you feel there is a generation gap or difference in circumstances, because although the young person has never been old, the old person once was young.

Some mistakes that can be avoided after listening to others experiences:
- Watching a bad movie or eating at a restaurant your friend has told you to avoid.
- Avoid visiting a bad business/accountant/lawyer/doctor about whom you've read or heard. (I recently visited a very bad/rude Rental office when I was looking for a new apt, have been kicking myself ever since, because I had read/heard about their bad behavior)
- Making the same mistakes over and over again.
- Avoid consulting/listening to pessimist people because it's remarkable how "happy people" just seem to find the bright side of a new situation.
- Living an unhealthy life by either smoking/eating junk/no exercise and than living on medicines.
- Rash/Stupid/drunk driving and than sitting in the hospital with broken bones with pain and anguish for yourself and others (Read: I'm not against people drinking, I'm against drinking and driving).

I read a very nice quote "Although the young person has never been old, the old person once was young. When you look up the age ladder, you look at strangers; when you look down the age ladder, you are always looking at versions of yourself. As an adult, those fantastic younger incarnations can seem either long left behind or all too continuous with who you are now."

Peace & Love always.........

Where am I ?

2006-11-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

This was between 12am - 12:30am on a Friday night (early Sat morning) in the city, I had missed the last bus from Port Authority to NJ. So had to come to the PATH train station at WTC to travel back home.

I had already forgotten/dropped my monkey cap in the SUBWAY train as I was sleep deprived and also had a full stomach (had Indian Chinese at Tangra Masala which was deliciooouuussss). Arriving at the PATH station I was a little surprised to see so many people at that time of the night. But than it's the CITY, the scene at the station ........

There was a bench under a big flood-light where some people were having a nap after a long week or may be after the Friday night revelry; some people were reading and some were just observing (like me). Lots of other people were standing under the light so that they can get little bit of warmth from the light on a cold night.

- Chinese/korean/japanese girl was sleeping and resting her head on her boyfriend's shoulder.
- A bald guy was enjoying this time with his wife/girl-friend as they were almost making out.
- 3 South-Indian guys were standing and discussing something really intellectual and fundamental.
- A lean guy had just got off his 12:00 am shift (probably a Doorman or a security guard) was observing everything.
- African-American teenagers (guy and a girl) were practicing/discussing some of the cool dance steps, may be they were part of a dance troupe.
- A middle-aged man was deeply engrossed in his news paper and was reading the market trends and graphs.
- Another Indian guy was just wandering aimlessly on the train station thinking something deep (atleast it looked that way)
- Another couple away from the bench and light were showing their affections to each other as they waited for the train.
- Couple of old Hispanic ladies (who again may have just got off their work) were wearing jackets, gloves were fully prepared for the cold weather and looked like frequent travellers on the train were talking animatedly.
- A tall woman (may be in her late 30's) was elegantly dressed with the NY style overcoat and was carrying the typical travel-bag with wheels was reading a novel as she waited.
- Another American (financial types) was busy doing some work on his black-berry.
Some others were either on the phone or were seeing everything around as they were waiting.

But there was this calm on the station which is so ephemeral and uncharacteristic of the city which is usually a circus, chaotic and a toal frenzy during the day. I guess people were a little detached as they were welcoming the weekend and getting ready to spend time with their family/friends.

On my earlier visits to the city, I came home motivated, energized, lively, spirited, zealous. But this time I brought home collected, restful, patience and relaxed feelings.

A different experience!

Quote of the day

2006-11-06T23:46:00.000-05:00

Dr. Muhammad Yunus is the developer and founder of the concept of microcredit. He's a Bangladeshi banker and an economist who founded Grameen Bank.
Grameen Bank and Dr. Yunus were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year (2006) for advancing economic and social opportunities for the poor, especially women, through their pioneering microcredit work.

On winning this prize in an interview he said "One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like and ask how we could have allowed such a terrible thing to go on for so long."

I was moved by reading this. Hope he achieves this goal. The world would be a much better place.

There was a lot of debate when he won the Nobel prize for Peace and not the Nobel prize in economics, but I feel the Peace prize is apt because by solving poverty he's fighting on two fronts. Not only is he solving the BIG economic problem but once this people who get economic freedom are less likely to get involved in terrorist activity, or other disturbances. They've something to look forward to in life, will work doubly hard to remain clean and will motivate their children and others in their society for a purposeful life.

Ramblings on Sports

2006-10-14T01:25:00.000-04:00

My friend Harish has a very good post on Sports and Superdome Re-opening He explains his love for sports and the positive effects of sports on the life of people, especially after major tragedies like Hurricane Katrina or Sept 11. I've personally witnessed his madness for Indian Cricket team during the 2003 Cricket World Cup.

"But, what I love most about sports is the worlds into which it can take you. As a fan, brazen emotions spill forth, and you maintain little control over yourself. I have spent many sleepless nights because of too much joy or too much sadness, whenever my favourite team wins or loses a final. It's all part and parcel of being obsessed with sports and I love each and every bit of it"

Except Cricket and USC Football games, I've never felt anguish or frustration. And through the years the anguish for the Indian Cricket Team is also becoming less. You need some kind of madness and passion to support your team die-heartedly even when they are not performing well. Sadly but truly, I'm a fair weather follower.

But I want to change my attitude because "It's not winning that's important, it's how you play the game."

Peace.....

The Great Indian Water Challenge

2006-10-07T14:41:00.001-04:00

The Indian economy is growing at 6.5-7.5% for the past couple of years and economists are forecasting 8% growth for fiscal year ending in March 2007. Even as we are racing on this growth trajectory there are numerous challenges that face India in the 21st century; education, poverty, healthcare, AIDS and clean drinking water to name a few. New York Times was recently running a story on the water management crisis in Delhi and the sad state of the Yamuna River on whose banks Delhi was born. (The article is a good read)

Here is a gist of the article "The combination has left water all too scarce in some places, contaminated in others and in cursed surfeit for millions who are flooded each year. Today the problems threaten India's ability to fortify its sagging farms, sustain its economic growth and make its cities healthy and habitable. At stake is not only India's economic ambition but its very image as the world's largest democracy."

The article also says near the end "Yet the most telling paradox of the city’s water crisis is that New Delhi is not entirely lacking in water. The problem is distribution, hampered by a feeble infrastructure and a lack of resources, concedes Arun Mathur, chief executive of the Jal Board"

This water crisis exists in all the major Indian cities and it's worse as we go in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Inspite of heavy rains and floods last year on 26/7 in Mumbai, you could still see water tankers operating in Mumbai and supplying water to so many city buildings. Where's all the water going ? (read DailyPanga almost at the bottom of the page)

A World Bank report India's Water Economy: Bracing for a turbulent Future, by John Briscoe states (it's scary) "Unless water management practices are changed - and changed soon - India will face a severe water crisis within the next two decades and will have neither the cash to build new infrastructure nor the water needed by its growing economy and rising population". This is something that's predicted to happen within our life-span, so obviously I'm scared.

There are solutions to this problem and the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi have a initiative called Rainharvesting, read more about it here and here
In short it means "In India the monsoon is brief. We get about 100 hours of rain in a year. It is this 100-hour bounty that must be caught, stored, and used over the other 8,660 hours that make up a year."

The problem at hand is serious; will need serious policy change and disruptive innovative water-management solution to yield successful results. But the least we can do is follow something we learnt in the 3rd or 4th grade, Stop wasting water!

Comments Welcome.

Quote of the day

2006-10-05T22:10:00.000-04:00

"Formal education just does not bring in academic knowledge, it also brings with it curriculum, discipline, forbearance, competitiveness, understanding, vision and so many other qualities that are essential for everyday existence in a normal society."
- Anonymous

I don't remember where I read it, probably in some article on the net. Copied the line on my notepad and when I was looking for something today, I found this. But whoever has said it, it's a very valid and true statement.

Personally, going through a field change so early in my career has helped me understand some of the qualities mentioned above, not that I've all of those . Higher education has improved my thinking process and helped me make tough decisons without losing by sanity and calm, it has given me the self-confidence to work with people smarter than myself without getting into their hair. It has given me the ability to appreciate the antithesis of work life and importance of learning beyond the text-books.

To find one's true purpose in life, individuals have to look beyond textbooks, to be able to experiment and make mistakes, to learn from one's actions, to take feedback and start again. Learning happens only when we sit back and think and analyse our actions. This helps in realising our sense of purpose in life.

Wafa Sultan

2006-10-03T23:13:00.000-04:00

For those of you who've views about the current conflict going on in the Arab world, watch the video of Wafa Sultan below. Read more about Wafa Sultan here.

Another long but interesting and insightful view of the Arab World by Haim Hariri, read it here.

Pehla Nasha

2006-10-02T23:08:00.000-04:00

'Pehla Nasha' from Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar must be a favorite song for most of the desi guys of my generation. The reason, this movie came out when most of us were in school probably in 7th or 8th grade, which is the time most of us started getting smart and interested in the opposite sex. I watched this movie 4 times in the theatre and endless times on cassette and cable TV. When I listened this song again today I remembered those old days and where I watched the movie and kind of recollected the past.

That's the affect of old songs and movies on me, I just go into the tri-state. Whenever I listen to some not so recent songs, I'm unconsciously remembered of the past; when I first listened to those songs or when did I watch that movie and whom did I go with, and stuff like that.

I'll list some songs and movies which have attached memories.
- I listened to Say Boom Boom first time while I was still in school.
- Gali Gali Mein from Tridev (Bollywood movie) when I had gone to Kashmir with my family (I was 9 years old).
- Dil Chahta Hain was the first Bollywood movie I watched in US with my FOB friends.
- Every time I watch some heroic patriotic movie, remembered of Border which I watched with my Sion buddies.
- I'm attached to Sar Ki Hain Yeh Bahar by Strings, one of my all time favorite songs, from the moment I listened to it on my trip to Matheran (hill station in India)
- The Matrix Reloaded is the only movie I've slept from start to end (went to watch it in Kodak Theatre, Hollywood)
- First listened to Californication when my room-mate used to blast it in our first year of stay at USC.
- Watched My Best Friend's Wedding on 1st April, 1998 with a very good friend.

There're endless such situations, which I may have forgotten. Can someone help me remember them which involves you ?

NYC Pictures

2006-09-15T08:18:00.000-04:00

Some of the recent pictures of the 'Mind-boggling Manhattan' that were taken in the past weekend.

Thanks to GK, Harshal, Babloo and Chen for the pictures.

Drinkers vs Teetotalers

2006-09-15T00:28:00.000-04:00

The Times of India writes about a study published in the Journal of Labor Research on how the drinkers make 10-14% more salary than the non-drinkers. The reason they make more money is because of their higher 'social contacts'. The recent study contradicts results of a previous study done by Harvard School of Public Health.

Personally, I've noticed that there is a community that gets built by people who smoke/drink, its natural because when you go down the street to your local bar to drink or go down at your workplace/school to smoke you tend to talk to fellow smokers who soon become friends because of similar habits. This way your social contacts increase, which can eventually lead to more business, better opportunities, more pleasure, more money and probably a shorter life. When you neither smoke nor drink you've very limited access to this community and its social contacts.

Munnabhai and 9/11

2006-09-11T23:42:00.000-04:00

Watched 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' last week, whoever has watched it or will watch it will definitely like it. The movie is really really upbeat, motivational, feel good, hysterical, freshening, mood changing...... so on and so forth. Came out of the theatre smiling and fresh. Arshad Warsi and 'Sanju baba' are simply awesome, Sanjay Dutt is one of the Bollywood actor who has matured with age (like the Hollywood stars) I started liking him after he cut his long tresses, visited the jail, came out and starred in Vastaav, Kurukshetra, Mission Kashmir, Munnabhai MBBS. One of the actors who has not worked with the Johar's and the Chopra's to make a name for himself and Lage Raho... is one of the movies which does not have expensive clothes and locations but still a classic.

'Gandhigiri' was and is an awesome concept, not sure if its applicable everywhere in today's day and age but not totally irrational either. I read in Mid-Day that "a group of young people in Bombay after watching the movie noticed the disposed off tickets thrown all over the place, they started picking them up and threw them in a waste basket." So all you 'mamus' practise Gandhigiri where and when ever you can .......

My 9/11 story:
9/11 or Sept 11 was a black day in American history, much has been written about it. Everyone of you must have seen pictures, watched documentaries and read all about it. On that fateful day, 5 years ago I was just 1.5 month old in US and was enjoying the FOB days. I was in deep sleep (snoring.... ;) ) after working on my home-work late previous night. I used to live with my room-mates and didn't have a TV or a cell-phone. I came to know about the attack when my father called me from India and told me about the attacks. Frankly, I didn't even know what was WTC than. Completely ignoring his concern and being sleepy I assured that everything in LA was alright and went back to sleep. Very soon UV's bro called and we all ran to Apt 1 in our complex which had a TV and started watching the news. After watching the news we came to know of the hijacks and started wondering what was in store for us. I was naive about US and sitting in LA far away from NYC didn't quite understand the destruction and implications of the such an attack.

Next few days after reading and watching the news, realized that life ain't gonna be easy in the already down US technology market for the brown skinned. If I remember it correctly we had a class of 457 that day as scheduled, our Prof didn't cancel the class. Now after 5 years and living in the tri-state area so close to NYC I get aggravated seeing ground zero. I may not feel the same pain like the New Yorkers who have lived through the attack, but I do feel agitated remembering the attacks which killed about 2,973 people....no correction 2,973 families.
Hope this world finds peace, can Munnabhai's Gandhigiri help us here ???

Some of the recent pictures from Ground Zero, NY

Quote of the day

2006-09-05T17:58:00.000-04:00

"We are measured......
not by what we are, but by the perception of what we seem to be;
not by what we say, but by how we are heard;
not by what we do, but how we appear to do it."
- Anonymous

Read this quote on someone's office door at my workplace, it's so very true.

To overcome the above effect and have a positive impression, people change attitude, behavior, demeanor consciously/unconsciously. We talk what others in our peer group want to hear and do things what others expect us to do even if we don't believe in it.

I guess its a way of life......

Is there anything like Cultural Progress

2006-08-31T22:57:00.000-04:00

I was discussing about the recent Lebanon-Israel conflict with a colleague and we started rambling about lots of issues related and unrelated to the conflict. We talked about the American influence, who won who loss, Syrian influence, Arab countries, Cuba, terrorism, previous wars Israel fought with its neighbors, globalization and progress. All this in a matter of 15-20 minutes.

Than as we were discussing about the progress of countries, he made a very important point (which I had read about in The World is Flat) he said that "these Arab countries inspite of being so oil rich are so far behind in progress and people of these countries do not know the meaning of progress, freedom, innovation, equality between sexes, democratic rights. Things should change."

This made me think about issues of culture, customs, strict rituals in under-developed African, Asian, Middle-eastern nations, where people follow customs and rituals which are different than the western way (progressed way). In some of these countries women are not allowed to speak unless asked to, strict dress codes, no voting rights. An African village require its women to remove their clitoris. I respect their way of life but in some cases I feel things should change for better and feel right in imposing changes to improve their life and life of future generations.

Questions:
- Are we (the developed, educated, lucky) right in imposing this change ?
- Can we assure them "You'll be very happy after the change, trust me" ?
- If they're happy the way they live, and if the ultimate goal is happiness, who are we to correct them ?
- What makes us right and them wrong ?

A la Carte - Mumbai Ishtyle

2006-08-25T22:40:00.000-04:00

Food is a very important part of life for most of us Indians, often our conversations and life revolve around food. One of the the reason being, the diversity of India and variety in cuisines. Each state has its own cuisine and further each communities have different customizations to that cuisine.

Apart from the yummy 'ghar ka khana' most big towns have awesome roadside eatries which should not be missed. Me being a pakka 'Mumbaikar' have enjoyed eating at these stalls.

Mid-Day (popular Mumbai daily) recently carried a great tid-bit on these roadside food items (which promted me to post on this topic), very nice read for all the Mumbaikars.

You can read it here or here's how it goes.

THESE are some peculiar twists to food items. Very unique, very Mumbai, these hybrid food items are available on city roads and smaller restaurants. They have a unique flavour that says: khao, piyo, mazaa karo, Mumbai ishtyle. What we like about them is:

How the sandwich wallahs sprinkle sandwiches with slivers of crisp sev to offset the softness of the bread with some crunch.
How the corn sellers sell the kernels without the cob, and baste it with a dollop of butter.
How the diet vada pav has brown bread, but inexplicably a fried vada sandwiched between it.
How the enterprising bhel wallah fries noodles puts masala and coriander on it and passes it off as Chinese bhel.
How we have an American Sev Puri, where some westernised topping on the puri gives it that Amreecan flavour.
How Pav Bhaji vendors sell only a masala pav option with so much butter that if the bread was wrung out the butter would form a puddle in the plate.
How some Udipis sell a Maruti dosa, which is as big as the front of a Maruti car, or how they pass the hat around with a topi dosa.
How the fruit platewallah embellishes the plate by sticking a slice of cucumber on one of the fruits.
How fruit juices go by the name of Ganga-Jamuna, Maara Maari and believe it or not, even Bunty Aur Babli.
How the milk at Energee booths has two pieces of cashew and a quarter sliver of almond and calls itself masala milk.

These roadside restaurants become meeting places for couples, friends where sometimes lot of quality time is spent. The ones near school and colleges are extremely busy where the regular goers use their influence to get their order faster.

Some of the famous joints (Kisan's Dosa, Health Juice Center) in my locality even have a community dedicated to them on orkut (each one having 100+ members). As I saw these communities on orkut a smile came on my face that's when I travelled 8k miles in 5 seconds, I remembered my evening walk to Kisan's Dosa and the world best 'Apricot Orange' and 'Orange Blossom' at Health Juice Center.

Anytime you're in Mumbai don't forget to try one of these places, also I'm ready to try new places on my next visit. Any suggestions ?

Airfare Predictions, Find Cheap Airline Tickets - Farecast

2006-08-24T23:18:00.000-04:00

Farecast is a startup that predicts whether air tickets for your travel time are expected to go up or down and gives you a tip whether it's the right time to buy or you should Wait. They even have a Confidence level (probably a p-value of some statistical prediction model) and Fare history which tells what's the lowest and highest fare for the last x days.

I first heard and used Farecast when someone at my workplace introduced this novel concept to me. That version was only covering flights originating from Seattle or Boston. Recently, I received an e-mail from them which announced new markets and Newark, NJ was one of them. SiliconBeat reports they've 55+ originating cities now.

Think about it ..... if you were to know when is the right time to buy your tickets and how much you can save if you follow their tip, isn't this cool.

I did a search for travelling on a weekend in Nov 2006 from Newark, NJ to San Jose, CA and the tip I received was to WAIT as prices were expecting to go down by $40. When I did a search for the same cities but travelling on Sept 1, I was told to Buy with a 70% confidence.

Expect this prediction feature to pop up on other travel sites very soon. So all you frequent travellers, be smart and start saving with this service.

PC World lists 100 Best Products of the Year

2006-08-24T22:41:00.000-04:00

PC World magazine has come out with a list of 100 Best Products of the Year, the list is interesting because it has products from e-mail application and other tiny utilities to huge HDTVs and expensive chip-sets. Last I browsed through the list I found I was using or have used in the past atleast 20 of those products. Each time I browse through the list I find atleast 1 new product that I've used or currently using.

Some products on the list are like del.icio.us, Mozilla Firefox, DealNews, Yahoo Mail & Maps and yes even Blogger is on the list at no 33. Since I'm not a big gadget freak (can't afford too) I've not used many of the cameras, LCD TVs and montiors, etc products on the list.

One product that I expected to be on the list were Cell phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson but I only found T-Mobile SDA Cellular Phone at no 62. Its amazing how life is getting so dependent on these gadgets and digital products.

No more Next:

2006-08-20T21:41:00.000-04:00

I've decided to no longer put the Next: that I used to put at the end of each posting.

My Reasons.....
1. No one is waiting or want to know about my next post.
2. I cannot blog about other small topics/news/websites I want to write about till my Next: topic is posted, for eg: Impressions of a FOB is a topic I was supposed to blog about next, but I need more time to write about it and meanwhile I came across Farecast about which I wanted to write, but couldn't write.
3. Many times I ain't that articulate to think about the Next: topic or frankly have a topic in mind about which I want to write.
4. My creativity (exaggerating a little bit here) is being lost if I stick to a routine and can't post about things I want to write at that moment.

Hence good bye to Next: topic feature. But surprisingly, I know the topic for my next post after this, which I won't tell. Ssshhhhhhhh...............

Experiences of a FOB

2006-08-19T15:48:00.000-04:00

FOB or a fobbie is a slang phrase which means 'Fresh Off the Boat'. I was and still am a FOB (like many others) who came to US some 5 years ago as a student for my Masters. Coming to a new country, new culture, new climate is tough. But what is tougher is adapting & accustoming yourself to this new environment and retaining your culture, temparament and recollection.

It is that time of the year when foreign students come to US universities for further studies. I came across 2 such graduate students (family friends) who've come here for doing MS and MBA. Meeting and talking to them took me straight to a path I had crossed some years ago, 'My initial FOB days'. The initial struggle and adjustments were never forgotten but as time passed, I became more comfortable in the routine work life and live for the weekends 'syndrome'.

I've nothing but good memories of my student life, I was blessed with really good roommates (very very important) and wide group of friends. Some of whom I've known for years even before I came to this country and others I'll know and grow more fond of no matter which part of the world we're in the future.

As a FOB going to a big and expensive school like USC has issues, issues about housing, courses, on-campus jobs, studies, funding, internships, full-time jobs (order in which they come in a FOBs life). I too went through this cycle, like many of my friends. For some of these issues I was lucky, like housing (right place, right time worked). Also thanks to M. Shah who drove us around the campus for housing. For others like on-campus job I switched many before sticking to a place. There was a lot of back and forth for the courses (my own immaturity). There are other experiences like cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, disagreement between friends, dealing with competition which I'm not even considering to write about. Actually a whole blog can be dedicated just to cooking and cleaning escapades.

The moments, stuations, pranks, encounters that a FOB faces will have a lasting memory, personally it makes me what I'm today. Through these experiences you'll learn to live on your own, be responsible for your own decisons, learn time management, be organized, learn whom to trust, whom to believe, whom to ask for help and whom to help..... in general it will define your attitude in life.

With each passing day a FOB makes more friends, acquaintances, colleagues and in doing so creates his 'home away from home'. This comfort zone will be touched by innumerable people. I was lucky to find this comfort zone in my roommates, my 1st year neighbors and my friends at Monmouth St. As a FOB, I also experienced help by people who had no rhyme or reason to do that good to me, but they did and I'm grateful to them.

Life is but an experience, experience of hanging out with friends at night, experience of growing up, experience of being foolish, and lots of others. My suggestion to the new FOBs ......
Go find and enjoy your own! Experience ......

Next: Impressions of a FOB

Below some of the (old & unclear) pictures with my closest buddies from my FOB days.

Undecided Post

2006-08-16T22:26:00.000-04:00

Why Undecided Post ? I've to decide the next Blog topic in advance before I publish the posting that I was writing. I've to think about the topic and prepare a framework in my mind. When I finished my last post on 'Lessons of Back Pain' I had no idea what I'm gonna blog about next, totally unprepared. Hence the Undecided Post which is going to cover 'Blogging'.

Blogging has created so many new dot-coms in the Web 2.0 space having products like blog editors, site metrics tool, RSS feed readers & aggregators, advertising & search tools to name a few. These products help novice bloggers to set up quickly and improve their blogging experience & for the professional ones to spread their content, increase viewership and gain from advertising.

Most of these products have a free version which makes it really cool to use them. I use some of them (Also use Google Analytics not in the list). When I decided to blog I was researching about blogging platforms, Typepad vs blogspot vs wordpress vs blog.com I found a very good comparison between Typepad and blogger. Typepad was the winner in features & ease of use, but at the same time I was not ready to spend money for the monthly subscription. I decided to compromise on the features for now. May be someday if my blog becomes popular and I can afford to pay the subscription fees I'll move to Typepad. BTW blogspot is improving and new features were added recently which will make my move all the more difficult. Check this post of Google Operating System on "The New Blogger".

Here's the A-Z of Professional blogging for first time bloggers. Also check out DesiPundit's Tools for Blog Niravana on pbwiki. (wiki's are another mind blowing concept, I'll blog about them in near future).

Here's to motivate all the non-bloggers who are considering, contemplating, intending, aspiring to write their own blog. Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspiration fame quit has regular day job at a software firm to become a full time blogger. You can read the story here. So all the non-bloggers try to taste this 'mind food', its addictive but very healthy!

Next: Experiences of a FOB

Lessons of Back Pain

2006-08-10T23:03:00.000-04:00

Back Pain is the number one cause of disability in the United States for people under the age of 45. 70% people in the US will have episodes of back pain at some stage in their lives.

Recently I suffered from back pain which was acute & not very serious in my case, still I've decided to blog about it. My reasons & lessons are below.

My back went 'OUT OF ORDER' when I bent to sneeze on a Wednesday morning in June this year. After pain relieving cream & pain killers didn't help I visited an Orthopedic Specialist who recommended 6 weeks of PT after my X-Ray came out to be normal (no herniated or slip disc). My condition was called lumbosacral strain and spasm. Someone at my work place suggested reading Healing Back Pain Naturally - by Art Brownstein. This book gave me lot of insights about the causes for this physical pain & also recommended back exercises. (Highly recommend this book to anyone who has back trouble)

My mind started thinking what could have caused it, what was going on with my body! Have I put on weight? Did I lift something heavy? Slept incorrectly? Bad sitting posture? Stressed? Why was I in pain?

Stress & Bad sitting Posture partly answered my inquisitiveness.

I started taking PT sessions at Twin Boro Physcial Therapy which was close to my workplace. T. Carpenter (M.S. in PT) was my therapist who decided the therapy program for me. She was helped by L & To. Attached is a picture of these amazing guys (from left L, T Carpenter, To). At Twin Boro, there were patients of different age groups, some younger than me and others older. Each one was there for a different pain or strain but the purpose of everyone there was the same. Getting back to Life without pain.
Lesson 1: Adversity, Pain, Problems (physical, economical, environmental, etc) can come to anyone in life at any stage. Age, social or economic status don't matter. You can take it as an opportunity, learn from it & overcome it or cry over it. Though I'm very young to have Back Pain, I'm glad it happened sooner than later so that I can be more cautious and careful in future.

T. Carpenter & her crew diligently helped me & worked with me in reducing my anguish and frustration. The simple talks, jokes (TubeLight), discussions (about Crocs) while working out helped to unwind and divert attention from pain.
Lesson 2: I read somewhere "Help is always around the corner, you just have to ask." When in a dilemma/problem look around and you'll always find people ready to help & work with you. I've learnt to ask for help. Thank you T. Carpenter, L & To for all your help. You guys rock. Keep up the good work.

My pain has reduced and my back is stronger, yet I know some days I'll feel perfectly fine and on other some uneasiness. It may take some disciplined exercising at home & time to heal my back completely (that reminds I need to do my exercises today).
Lesson 3: Back trouble is not the only ailment I'll suffer in my long life (Yes, I'm going to live long). It's the start but certainly not the end of life for me. I've learnt to be positive & patient with life. As Daniel Powter sings in Bad Days

I don't know if I should be sad or happy to finish my PT sessions. Actually I'm both, happy that I'm feeling better (and Hey, I also save $20 on copay .... ;-) ) and little sad because I don't get to meet & work with the Twin Boro crew.

This has been a rather long post, tried to shorten it whereever I could and removed all the extra mirch-masala. Also attached are some of the pictures with T. Carpenter, L & To, also a log of my exercises.

Next: Undecided post

Objective of my blog

2006-08-06T22:25:00.000-04:00

I feel blogging is a very very powerful means of communication. It has revolutionised & changed the internet and web world. I've been reading blogs for the last 3 years, but for the last 1 year have been an avid reader. But the idea to write my own blog is only couple of months old. Once I decided to write my own blog, I started to think what will I blog about. I don't have any special talents, hobbies and neither I'm an executive and nor very knowledgeable in any technology or subject that I can keep blogging about. I never wanted to write a day-to-day or week-to-week activity/diary kind of blog. So what should I blog about ???

For the last 1 year or so I've been reading a lot about web/technology, startups, world politics & disasters, venture capitalism, current affairs, Mumbai, India, attitude in life, etc. I feel I've become fairly opinionated and express my views & thoughts to my friends, family & colleagues. In addition for the last 2 years there've been disasters like Tsunami, Mumbai floods & blasts, wars, earthquakes, Hurricane Katrina and there was a big personal loss in my life. These things made me think deep & hard about my role in society, family, community.

I'll be touching on topics mentioned above and I'm sure as I move ahead & grow in life the topics of the blogs will change.

The blogging technology & concept has opened a new form of journalism, which I would like to call journalism without journalist and these new breed of journalists are unbiased (to a country, political party, religious sect most of the time) and they may be inaccurate or incorrect in their assesment, but the opinions and expressions are still valid.

Also Through Blogging
- writers are made out of ordinary people, not by choice but by American occupation of Iraq in the case of Girl Blog from Iraq
- Like minded people are brought together
- Thoughts, views & opinions can be strongly communicated like Ben Casnocha's blog
- New lessons can be learnt & information can be gathered like this MBA blog and Guy Kawasaki's blog.

I intend to keep blogging reguarly and make my posts short & interesting for you to read and me to write.

Next: Lessons of Back Pain

Bells and Whistles

2006-08-03T23:30:00.000-04:00

I started writing my blog some days ago, but haven't written anything meaningful yet. I decided on writing a blog couple of months ago and was sure that whenever I'll start writing a blog, I'll add all the cool stuff to my blog. So some of the cool stuff I added are:

- RSS Syndication using FeedBurner
- Subscription to my blog using FeedBurner
- Search my blog using Freefind
- Created a cloud of my del.icio.us tags
- Created my Blogroll using Blogrolling
- Added Technorati link

I don't think many of the Bells & Whistles I added would be used by anyone..... hey I don't even think my blog would be read by anyone but I'll write it anyways. ;-)

Some of feautes I'm considering adding are:
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
- BlogStreet
- MyBlogLog

So till I start writing meaningful, there are some burning questions & talks going in my mind. Read about Qana massacre in the Israel-Lebanon war.
This week I also came across this amazing, smart and powerful speech of Majora Carter at TED. You can watch it here or download by going to TEDTalks. Find out more about TED here.

Majora Carter makes you think about your role in the society, how the surroundings around you influence your growing up, your attitude in life. How do decisons of some influential policy makers changes life of thousands of non-influential citizens. On the positive note, it also shows how can fight, dedication, involvement of groups like SSB transform the quality of life for South Bronx residents. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005.

What is your contribution to the society, to your city and its people ?? What are you doing to make this world a better place ??

Next: Objective of my blog

First Post

2006-07-21T20:07:00.000-04:00

Hello World!

My first post after trying really really hard for a good blogname, finally settled using my first name.