Category: People

A, B and C

One of the latest pieces of work that has really caught the fancy of the world has been Anurag Kashyap and Abhay Deol’s Dev D. It is a story of this young lad, Dev, a rich dad’s poor little boy, an obsessive lover, an escapist, disillusioned by the world and in search for something that he calls love.

So much for Dev and his psychedelic life. Let me talk about me and a couple of my friends. Let me call these three people A, B and C. All three have a fairly enviable education background. All are beyond their prime now (28 types).

A works for India’s most visionary entrepreneur’s prodigal elder son’s one of million companies. This company is one of few organized players in India’s burgeoning retail market. A is one of the most extraordinary people that I have ever met. Although he doesnt put a lot of time and effort in coming up with insights and ideas but whenever he does so, he comes up with gem. His words are worth their weight in gold and diamonds and platinum. His thoughts are very clear and he knows what exactly he wants out of life and work. He is also one of the laziest people you would ever meet.

B works for a “conglomerate” with businesses ranging from chemicals to locks to rocket engines to foods to retail to real estate to medicine and to what not. If we legalized gambling and prostitution, they would have launched that too. Of course they would have put myriads of hierarchy and long designations for doing seemingly innocuous work. Anyways, B is an engineer by education, manager by designation and Shikari Shambhu by character. His sole aim in life is to make more money than anyone he knows, own the biggest house amongst his reference group and retire with enough in the pension fund. Nothing wrong about it. Just that its a different story that he is not doing anything about it.

C thinks that he hard to understand for most of the people that he knows. Including C himself. Actually that’s what C thinks. He is often branded random, frivolous and fickle minded. He is trying to ride some 19 boats at the same time and needless to say, failing at staying on course. He work a 8:30 to 5:30 job and leaves his office strictly at 5:30, goes to his place and stares at the wall and TV for about 5 hours before he sleeps.

So, three of us, our life stream can put any number of Devs‘ to shame. A typical day for each of us is VERY predictable. We probably are the cheapest targets for detective agencies. Sitting here, in my office, I can tell, with 100% certainty what the other two are upto. For example B is trying to scroll through his gtalk chat list thinking who he can chat up with. A would be out of his office smoking umpteenth cigarette of the day. I can also say for sure if you asked the other two about all three, everyone but A would know what others are upto. A’s secretary might have some answers.

Not that we dont try to break out of this monotony, its just that we are constrained by things that seem out of control and we dont even try to move out of the rat race. For A, its lethargy, for B, its security and for C, its, well he doesnt know.

Dev was better. He at least had an outlet in blur of alcohol. We dont.

P.S.: Title changed from “Putting Dev D to shame” to “A, B and C”

The “New” India Post

Although I try to avoid comments on anything related to work, but this has caught my attention. Exchange4Media reports that India Post has unveiled a new campaign to try and resurrect the 154 year old organization. As a part of the campaign, O&M Delhi has come up with a new logo and a tagline – “Giving wings to your dreams”, which in my humble opinions looks like a line created with Dilbert Mission Statement Generator

New India Post Logo

The agency says that the new logo “depicts yellow flourish on a red rectangle, symbolizing an envelope. Yellow represents a rising sun, while red, signifies the dawn of a new era.” I mean all that is fine but it lacks the class and panache of the simple, classic and yet powerful logo. Who would remember the “dawn of a new era” few years from now? I did not even realize that the yellow pseudo-swoosh on the red background is supposed to resemble folds of an envelope.

What about all the people that India post touches? Think for a minute about people who live in semi-urban and rural India? For a lot of them, postmen and post-offices act as sources of information, news, money, access to reading and writing, gossip etc. Would these people be able to adapt to the new logo easily? Would that trust on the postal system stay concrete? Wouldnt there be a disconnect in their minds when all of a sudden they see changes in the colors and imagery?

India Post - Old Logo

Agreed that the 150 year old institution is reeling under the pressure from Telephony and Internet (emails substituting letters and postcards), private courier companies (for freight carriage and bulky deliveries) and so and so forth. Agreed that India Post is seen as yet another sarkaari company with bureaucracy, painfully slow work environment, lack of enthusiasm and motivation amongst employees but just a new logo and communication is not the way to go about it.

Project Arrow was an initiative in the right direction – to make post offices more than just delivery and access points for mails (there were talks of setting up Internet kiosks, selling insurance, data collection etc.). The idea was to modernize the postal system and revitalize it. They hired McKinsey to work on the turnaround strategy and with the work so far, I am not very impressed. So much for consults being top preference for management graduates.

Ideally along with a management consult, India Post should be hiring a HR consultant to put some sense in their employees to start with. And then the marketing and branding consultants to help out with communication part. Its always an incremental process and has to be like one baby step as a time.

I am very disappointed with the new logo. And since we live in a democracy, I can not really do anything to stop Mr. Scindhia Junior to actually not use it. And with due course of time we will get used to it. We saw the same with Godrej, Shoppers Stop, Canara Bank, Axis Bank, Union Bank of India and their new logos. There is a huge hue and cry when the new logos are revealed. And with passage of time, people get busy with their lives and forget. The institution losses. The identity is lost. The classic era fades away. Only entity to win is the agency that has created the new logo and has charged pretty bucks for it.

Please note, the opinions herein are purely mine and mine only. Please also see my Discovery of India. The timing of the new logo and my discovery is purely coincidental!

Independent India and Independent Indians

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT THE NEW NEW THING

I got this SMS from Sonali (she doesn’t blog yet)

While v celebrate 61 years of independence, i hav just one ques fr u – after spending more than 2 decades in this 61-yr old country, r u a proud indian or an apprehensive indian? I first heard the latest rabbi song ‘bilqis’ 5 days back on india’s independence day and am still haunted by it. And i am still looking fr n ans to the ques raised – ‘jinhe naaz hai hind par woh kahan hai?’

And since its 9:30 PM, I am in office and don’t have anything important to work on, I thought why not some self-reflection. Please beware that this is going to be a rant where I go on a mental trip and hopefully get an answer. And to put things in context, the song that Sonali is talking about is this. And while I am writing this, I am listening to it.

So the question asks me if I am a proud Indian or an apprehensive Indian. In one line, a short and sweet answer is that I am a proud Indian. And more than apprehensive I am confident, curious and motivated, all three at the same time. If you asked me why, I would have no real reasons except for the statement that everything India is, defines me (large, full of contradictions, basking in the past glory, struggling to cope up with realities of world fast changing world) and everything I am, defines India (young, mediocre, forward-looking, ambitious, trying to prove a point, wanting to lead the world).

And now the longer version of the story. I am confident because I know that in last decades, thanks to few good decisions by some individuals (including my parents, policy makers and my professors), I have got myself bare minimum education required to actually understand things and take an informed decision. I am confident that since I know quite a few things, I would take a decision that is in the best interest under prevailing circumstances. I am no magician with a magic ball to gaze through and predict what the future holds for us. However, at the same time I know that I am on an adventure trip where I chase things like glory, intelligent company and huge rewards for my efforts. And I am ready to take the risk for the same. I am not sure about the results but I dont mind trying.

I am curious. Because of my background, I know a few things and now with all the learning opportunities that this connected world gives me, I want to know a lot more. I want to learn and apply the lessons in real life and use them for my advantage. My curiosity keeps me going. To look beyond the obvious. To dig deeper. To investigate further. To reach the root of a problem and work on it from there. And once I am informed, that is the time when I feel I can be at my best.

And I am motivated. I am motivated because I cherish the freedom that came as a result of a long and hard struggle by millions of Indians. I understand that my life is so much better simply because I can take decisions without fearing any retributions of any kind. I understand that the very act of thinking like that is a privilege. And since I have that privilege of thinking and working in a free world, I know that I need to make the most of it. twiI need to preserve it for the generations to come. I have to leave something behind as a legacy (or even a simple gift). What better gift can I leave behind than freedom?

So what does Independence mean to me? I have thought about this a lot of time and every time there is a different answer. At times conflicting and at times comforting. But the essence remains the same. Independence for me is the complete freedom of thoughts and actions. This would mean being financially, morally and socially free. Apart from the financial freedom, all the other kinds are offered by the environment you live in. In my case it happens to be India. I did not choose India. It was something that was forced upon me (along with a lot of other things like my parents, my family, my physical appearance, my receding hairline etc.). To be very honest, if I could choose a country, I dont know if I would have chosen India over other “developed” and “free” countries. But now that I am an Indian and I have become what I am, there is no choosing things/people/countries. Only thing that remains debatable is how to take India to new heights.

There are tons of things that are awesome about India. And then there are many more tons that needs to be changed. Stories of corruption, favoritism, red-tapism, bureaucracy, laziness, mediocrity, procrastination, organized religion etc. are in abundance. Rare are the instances of honestly, brilliance, dutifulness, obedience etc. Still rarer are stories of Manjunaths, Dubeys, Kumars who have raised their voices and laid down their lives fighting for causes that they believed in. And there are people like Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar and Vijender Kumar who have broken the age old shackles and have proved themselves on the toughest platform they could have participated. I can go on talking about the likes of Kalpana Chawla, Kiran Bedi, Lt. Saurabh Kalra, NR Narayamurthy, Azim Premji, Dr. Bose (not Netaji), Sam Pitroda, Mother Teresa and host of others who have not only raised the bar and made us proud but changed the way, the world at large perceives India as a country. More than changing the perception of the world around us, we should be talking about changing the way we think about India as a country. The way we think about ourselves. What we have and how we can leverage them to reach farther.

A country is made of its people and is what all these people, decide to make it, collectively. It is very easy to play the blame games and curse the “system” but it takes courage to actually voice an opinion. A country is a place where we all have agreed to live (in a lot of cases by choice and in few cases by default) but since we are here and now is our time, one needs to contribute and do whatever one thinks is in the best interest of the country and self. It can be as elementary as teaching your maid or as monumental as casting your vote in the elections (which as numbers would prove, only less than 65% of Indians do). A country is not about You. It definitely is not about me. It is about us. It is about we. It is about India. We need to move beyond the petty battles of YOU and ME and work collectively for US

Change is something that is very interesting. Change is one of those things that everyone desires and asks for. And moment there is even a glimmer of change, everyone starts resisting it. But why am I talking about change all of a sudden when we are talking about India and being an Indian? What do you think things like our opinions, our leaders, our policy makers, our education system, our perceptions, our thinking, our actions need?

And coming bacl to what Rabbi asked, “Jinhe Naaz Hai, Hind Par Woh Kahan They, Jinhe Naaz Hai Woh Kahan Hai?“. Do we have answer? I dont know about a lot of things and I don’t know how to weave beautiful stories and poetic text but I know one thing for sure. Next time, there is someone who challenges my India, I would be there and I would stand tall and be counted.

What is your story? Please share. Please ask yourself. Please ask your friends. Please ask strangers. Please investigate.

1v1: Thinking vs Meditating

In one of my email conversations on mental masturbation with a very interesting gentleman, he said

I call my approach – meditating about an issue,
as opposed to thinking about an issue.
Thinking requires knowledge and a time target,
meditation does not require either.
But meditation enables one to come up with unique solutions that thinking cannot.

I absolutely loved the idea. Thinking is about coming up with perspectives on a certain topic from your previous knowledge or acquired knowledge within a time frame and with specific results as the targets.

Meditation on the other hand is contemplating what can be. Meditation is breaking all the conventions. Its like being virgin. Its a fresh start – all the time. When you are meditating you are no longer logical and pragmatic. You become evolved in the way you think. You go beyond the obvious.

What do you do? Think? Meditate? Personally, I think I think and I need to meditate more.

Bezos on Kindle, Amazon and EC2

Jeff Bezos + Kindle

BookExpoCast.com has this podcast where Jeff Bezos talks about Kindle and then Chris Anderson (Wired Mag, The Long Tail) speaks to Jeff about publishing industry, Kindle, Amazon and Blue Origin.

The podcast is very very insightful and here are my raw notes from the podcast. Please note that these are raw notes and I scribbled them while listening to the podcast. I might have mis-understood and/or mis-interpreted the podcast but there are so many gems of wisdom that it would be a crime to not post them here.

I am breaking them into sections.

On Amazon

  1. Amazon was founded in 94. (I read later that Jeff Bezos created the Amazon business plan post his road trip across the country. I am planning to take one myself end of 2008. May be I will have some ideas too :D)

  2. When he was founding Amazon, Bezos had more than 40 meetings with 22 angel investors to raise USD 1 mn for the seed.

  3. Bezos also said more likely someone knew about the publishing business, less likely were they to invest in Amazon.

  4. One Amazon customer has bought more than 1700 books. WOW.

  5. Things like Super Saver on Amazon saves time and money or both Amazon and end customer. This helps them save by exploiting economies of scale and scope. They can ship two orders together faster.

On Kindle

  1. It took more than 3 years to develop Kindle.

  2. Kindle is a device that allows people to get books that they are looking for. And the ones they aren’t looking for. Serendipity and accidental discovery of interesting books plays an important part of Kindle experience.

  3. Kindle uses electronic ink. This is different from text that we see on a computer or LCD screen

  4. While designing Kindle, the Amazon team wanted to capture few essential features of the system that they were making redundant. Things like book like form, ability to take notes, underline things etc.

  5. Other important things were weight of Kindle, ability to read in sunlight, efficient on power-consumption.

  6. The annotations and markings are stored on the Amazon servers. These are later searchable and can be accessed from anywhere.

  7. Kindle wanted to make it easy for the customer to browse the books and eventually buy more titles off the store. (The streamlined the book buying experience by integrating the buy button on recommendation engine and then not charging customer for the download separately. The cost of the network/download is bundled with the price of the book)

  8. Bezos made sure that the popular titles, including the ones on the bestsellers lists were available on Kindle right from day 1. This is important so that the customer who have spent about USD 399 on buying a device are not disappointed.

  9. Someone sent a comment “it is about the message and not about the medium” – when they were comparing reading physical books with Kindle. (This I think is very important. We can make thousands of industries redundant if we focus on the delivery of the message).

  10. Interesting statistic. About 6% of total Amazon book sales (by volume) now come from Kindle. Kindle customers buy as many physical book as eBooks. This was a surprising for even Jeff Bezos.

  11. The grand vision for Kindle is all books ever published in any language anywhere in the world made available to you in less than 60 seconds. Which in my opinion is as large as a PC on every desktop. Kudos to Jeff Bezos for this grand a vision and ACTUALLY making it come to life.

  12. He actually got CEO of Simon and Schuster on stage to talk about Kindle and how it is making it easier for publishers. (This was probably to address concerns of publishers – since the publishers have to first make the books available in electronic format).

On Future of Kindle

  1. Amazon sees Kindle as more than just an access device. They are already talking about experiments like never-ending book and collaborative writing using Kindle.

  2. Bezos envisions Kindle as a toolset for publishers and readers. He further talks about giving both publishers and customers these toolsets and let them surprise everyone else with their discoveries and inventions (I am reminded again of Jan Chipchase and his research).

  3. Its also about finding the right readers for publishers. If you are a student in Iceland looking for books on biological traits of Saharan camels, you can only find them on Amazon. Or Kindle. Kindle thus acts as a platform where a publisher can find his audience and vice versa.

  4. When asked if Kindle is already redundant with faster cellphones and other access devices, Bezos compared it with cameras. Every mobile phone has a camera now and people still buy smaller cameras and SLRs and other photography equipment. (I am sort of confused at this one. I think cameras AND Kindle both might get redundant at some point in time.)

On Bezos himself

  1. Jeff Bezos is bald. 😀 (And so am I.)

  2. 4 kids. 8.6.3 and 3. 😀

  3. “You do not choose your passions. Your passions choose you.” Awesome quote by Jeff Bezos, when he was asked about Blue Origin. Bezos says motto for Blue Origin is Step by step ferociously and he says they are in an industry that helps humanity get into space.

  4. Bezos says at one point in time that planetary alignments were needed to Amazon what it is today. Is he superstitious? (Am sure paparazzi would be snooping :D)

Other things

  1. Jeff Bezos talk about a concept of “me time”. A time that you spend away from everyone including your family, co-workers etc. This time is typically spent bathing, exercising, traveling etc. A Kindle gives people something to do in this “me time”.

  2. Awesome insight into way humans understand interactions. Humans are storytelling animals and we like narratives. (Actually wrote about branding as storytelling few months ago but I never developed the concept further.

  3. What about used books? Is there money to be made there? Everyone wants to read books and doesn’t really want to pay for the book prices. If there was a website to regulate that? A pre-web2.0 era website is doing that in Delhi. Is their merit in buying that website out?

  4. You make money when you help customer make the purchase decision. This was in response to someone asking if negative reviews are bad for the business. All reviews actually help make the purchase decision. Negative , positive doesn’t really play a role

  5. On elastic compute cloud, the idea was to convert the huge fixed cost for customers into onDemand variable cost. (I wrote about onDemand economics for my Berlin School application)

The best part about any great conversation is the quality and quantity of ideas that stem out of there. For me, these are the things that I think have the potential to be businesses.

  1. I think the Techcrunch Web Tablet probably stemmed out of the Kindle idea. And even though the commercial production and distribution might be years away, they want to stake a claim on the idea before anyone else.

  2. How about doing something on the old books market in India. Especially in all the engineering colleges in India, the content remains same and thus there is a large chunk demand. And then obviously there is the long tail.

  3. Search cost plays an important part in getting the buyers and sellers together. I wrote about Search Cost way back in Feb 08 and I think its about time I revisited that.

  4. Purchase decision is an interesting thing to think about. My day job involves working on this purchase decision for some of the leading brands in India and there is so much that I learn everyday. Need to post about it. What if there was a tool that everyone trusted and assisted in purchase decisions?

  5. The entire idea of making fixed costs redundant has been in existence for a long time. Things like outsourcing and contracts actually do that. But doing it to something as fundamental as network, access and storage is sheer brilliance. Airtel did that with their network in India and do far have reaped awesome rewards off it. What else can converted into variable costs? Brain power? Processing? Coding?

If you are listening to the podcast, please share your thoughts. And apologies for such a long post. I did not realize that I have taken these many notes.

Credits
Image: Gizmodo.com

Somnath Chatterjee expelled from CPI(M)

After all the drama that happened in the parliament, very few people actually stand out for their conduct in the parliament yesterday. Somnath Chatterjee probably leads the way. He made sure that the trust vote proceeded without major interruptions and moderated the entire discussion with a mastery of a ring master.

However, his party rewarded him with an expulsion for “seriously compromising the party position“. His only crime? He did not resign from the post of speaker of the Lok Sabha when his party wanted him to.

Before the trust vote CPI(M), Mr. Chatterjee has been a member of CPI(M) for 40 odd years, asked him to resign from the post of the speaker so that the number of votes against the govt. goes up by one (the speaker does not vote in the confidence motion – he only votes in case of a hung verdict and his vote becomes a decider). However, Mr. Chatterjee stood high on his moral ground and decided not to resign and precede over the motion.

CPI polit bureau member Biman Bose said

Somnath Chatterjee might have acted according to the Indian Constitution, but our party has its own constitution and decisions are taken as per party rules

This is as ridiculous as it can get. Are we trying to say that Mr. Chatterjee was penalized because he put the Indian constitution higher than a political parties’ rules?

And with all these shenanigans they are trying to take on Mr. Chatterjee who has served on various committees and has even won the coveted outstanding parliamentarian award (in 1996) for his conduct and contributions.

Obviously expulsion from a party does not threaten his position as the speaker. A speaker cna only be removed is a no-confidence motion is passed against him. It is real unfortunate to see leftist parties acting in such a rash manner and being very short sighted.

Dance of Democracy

What does the trust vote mean for India ..?

After all the drama that we witnessed yesterday, it actually comes as a breather that govt. is actually solid and will be till the next elections. Yesterday, probably was the blackest day in the history of independent India. From allegations on the ruling government to personal remarks to show of cash in the parliament to utter disrespect to the constitution, we saw it all. The entire world saw it all. And this is the world’s largest democracy we are talking about.

And now the ordeal is over, we need to focus on few things. First and foremost the Manmohan Singh govt. needs to clear its name out of the very serious allegations against them for influencing the vote. Then they need to make sure that the reforms and developmental activities do not stop. Obviously with the next general elections less than a year away, focus probably would be on taming the inflation, cooling the prices and leaving the feel good factor behind.

Coming to the proceeds and developments yesterday, I think whatever happened has happened for good. The govt. is no longer a mere toy in hands of leftist parties. The govt. now knows that they can function without trying to appeal to the whims and fancies of their “partners”. Leftist parties have always been pro-people and anti-development. There is nothing wrong with it. Not that they dont want the country to develop but they are so myopic in their vision that they often forget that we need to move on at some point in time. Until we imagine the possibilities, we cant really achieve them.

The government was a mere puppet in left’s hands and left actually threatened at every available opportunity to pull the support. Only to prove a bloody point and in turn making the country unstable. They were always anti-reforms, anti-industrialization and anti-development. No wonder even though we have the best pool of human capital, we are still lagging behind the world. We are employing people anywhere and everywhere just because we demand that they need to be given employment. Compare us with countries where people actually spend time creating intellectual capital rather than manning ATM machines, automatic parking meters, elevators in malls, mending grass on lawns of rich and famous etc.

Now that left is out of the way, the government can proactively work on issues like privatization, FDI in retail, opening up more sectors for competition and evolution, so on and so forth. I am not sure that govt. will actually take large and/or concrete steps in this direction but at least they now have an option.

Lets talk about Ms. Mayawati for some time. She actually believed that she was going to be the next PM. In a speech yesterday she said that it was a conspiracy of BJP and Congress to stop a dalit woman from becoming the next Prime Minister of India. Are you kidding me? Ms. Mayawati as PM? I know shes a great politician and leader but excuse me. And I think its about time she should stop using that stupid racism card and move on. These pranks will take her and her elephants only so much far. I think with this trust vote, she has been completely sidelined. Congress will never ever work with Mayawati again. BJP, although they dont have a clear prime ministerial candidate after aging Mr. Advani, would not want Mayawati to become the PM. For me, Ms. Mayawati can now rest for a few years and keep her dreams of running the country safely in the deposit box.

What about BJP and Mr. Advani? Everyone knows Mr. Advani wants to be the PM. He has been trying to topple the govt. ever since he got elected as the leader of opposition. He is one of those leaders who can change his thoughts and stands at the drop of a hat. Remember Babri Masjid? Remember Jinnah incident? Remember Godhra? There are tons of them.

Anyways, BJP as a party for me is about oldies whose best is behind them. They are now living their unfulfilled dreams of ruling the country and itching their names in the history books. They might win the next elections but again they do not have a clear leadership. I would not be surprised if someone like Narendra Modi is promoted through the ranks as the next prime ministerial candidate. Everyone else in BJP can speak really well but they dont really stand for something that the country can buy.

Rahul Gandhi was a revelation yesterday (speech on Youtube). He probably for the first time stood up on this large a political arena and got counted as a formidable politician. He took objections from the opposition, answered them gracefully, was probably the first time when he left the mark. All the years of hard work on him is reaping fruit. His speech made a lot of sense and he actually made a point when he said that energy is linked to poverty. He used anger, passion, silence, anguish, disgust, loud voice, humor at the right times to make sure the speech was effective. In his speech he made it clear that he is not looking at the nuclear deal just as a solution to energy problems but as a tool that India can use to become the next super-power. He showed confidence in the youth in country. He said country was brimming with confidence and self belief. This is for the first time when I am confident that he could be a good leader and I would want to give him the responsibility to run the country. And considering that majority of junta voting in the next elections would be young Indians, no points for guessing who would they want to vote for.

I must also mention Omar Abdullah here. Omar Abdullah gave one of the most passionate speeches during the session (speech on youtube). He has always been one of those few leaders in India who I always thought has the brains, intellect and potential to be an effective leader. He spoke about India, Indians, Kashmiris, religions, his past mistakes in political career. He was very good on all issues. He will sure play a larger role in the development of new India when the new blood comes to the power.

With Rahul Gandhi and people like Omar Abdullah, Navin Jindal, Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindhia etc. coming of age, I think the time is ripe when the old must pave the way for new. When the old must handover the baton to the new and let them lead the country into a new era. When we should move from being a caste and religion based country to a country where developmental takes the front seat and efforts are made to reach the poorest of the poor at the same time.

The bigger question to ask here is that when would India reach in hands of people who are positive in outlook, are looking forward to development rather than petty politics of caste, religion, short-term gains. People who have strong Indian roots and are still looking at the world as their playing field. Leaders who see India as a superpower rather than a country of a billion poor people.

Only the time will tell and we will watch.

Mental Masturbation

Just came out of a brainstorming session with my boss. He calls these sessions as Mental Masturbation.

Someone on Urban Dictionary has defined Mental Masturbation as

The act of engaging in useless yet intellectually stimulating conversation, usually as an excuse to avoid taking constructive action in your life.

For us, its usually one short 20 minute session where we talk about things that we dont really get time to talk about. It could be things like the future of business to way people think to why people communicate to why are we what we are to anything under the sun. It generally starts as one person introducing a subject and then everyone debating on things. Awesome ideas come out of it and its as satisfying as an orgasm can be.

And it gives me immense satisfaction to be a part of mental orgy. I think if I can do this day in and day out, it will be simply awesome. And in my humble opinion most of the radical ideas that have moved the world have come as an outcome of mental masturbation. If anyone wants to engage in a mental orgy, please drop a line.

Happy Birthday Kunal Garde

Today happens to be Kunal‘s Birthday. Happy birthday kAgE. Hope you have a wonderful year ahead and both of us co-start something that changes the world.

From those early days at MAC,
when we won every competition we participated in,

to that trip to TITS,
where we won the textile quiz against all odds,

to our two year consecutive win,
at IP University‘s cracking competition,

to those cable Internet days,
provided by one Mr. Gokhale,

to those days at INT,
where we met Mr. I-IS,

to those times when we planned to create a company
and call it Cyntax Labs,

to all those gaming days,
where you have taken my arse mercilessly,
at q3dm17 and q3dm6,

to those days when cracking was fun,
and you taught me how to use SoftIce,

to that trashing that you gave Team MML,
at a CS tournament at AIT,

to all those biking trips,
that we have had on your Electra and my Caliber,

to those infinite number of hogging sessions,
at the van and all the Agarwal’s,

to our conversation last night,
about the next idea to take over the world,

every moment has been awesome fun. You have played a large part in making me what I am today. Your birthday is probably the best time to say Thank You.

Have an awesome year ahead. And hoping against hope that you read this 😀

And for other junta, Kunal is an awesome and fun guy to be around. He is still single except for those one off riffs with another guy (PA) from MAC. Any takers?

Just found out, its Katrina Kaif’s birthday as well. For the uninitiated she is the same chick that cant speak Hindi, cant act, has mile long legs, looks the same in all songs she does and is very full of herself.

Tete e Tete with NR Narayana Murthy

Went to the Mumbai airport to drop a friend. And amidst the crowd was standing a old guy wearing faded denim jeans, a white shirt and carrying his own bag. I looked at him and dint realize a thing. And then a friend screamed “Oh .. Fuck .. Its NR Narayana Murthy“.

We debated how can he be standing there, looking lost and all that. We took one full circle and yes it was him.

Before we could step out of our car and shake his hands and all, his taxi arrived and he left. This was probably the closet I have reached to someone who is super rich and does not mind lugging his own bags.

Wow. One of the richest businessmen in India standing at an airport waiting for someone to pick him up. No security. No air around him. No fancy attire. No chauffeurs. Will I ever become what he is?