Category: Personal

In Delhi, I did …

I am in Delhi right now and back in Mumbai tomorrow morning. Here are few things that I did on this visit. In no particular order …

  • Met @pjain. We have been planning to meet for about 6 months now. Finally caught up with him. Had a nice chit chat about barcamps and entrepreneurship in India.
  • Hogged onto “fried” Paranthas from Paranthe Wali Gali.
  • Saw Dev D. Finally. No more comments. Except that it was emotional atyachaar ;P
  • Visited Birla Temple – the same place where Mahatama Gandhi was killed in 1948. And for some funny reasons, you are not allowed to take your cameras inside the temple.
  • Practised driving on my dad’s car. Drove atleast 300 KMs within Delhi. I can now drive comfortably as long as its not the uphill part of a crowded flyover. 
  • Read WEB’s 2008 letter to shareholders (notes here). Did not understand a major chunk of it. Hopefully would get clarification at Value Investors Mumbai‘s Meeting No. 3 on Sunday.
  • Dropped my sis at Delhi’s domestic airport.
  • And Picked a friend from Delhi’s international airport.
  • Visited People Tree. Bought one teeshirt (for myself) and a bell (for a friend).
  • Dropped my phone thrice. Time to buy a new one.
And these are the things that I normally do, but did not do this time

Of Orbs and World Dominion

All of us are stuck in our respective orbs (time, state of mind, location, cubicles etc) and without having an iota of control over thoughts or even movements of anything of significance, we somehow are trying to justify to ourselves that we are gods and about two steps away from world dominion.

Ok, we can be replaced by me … to start with.

So, carrying on with the rant, here we are, 20 25 somethings, in pursuit of happyness creative orgasm, working at middle management level (really? or these levels have been created just to make us happy?), suffering from QLC, constantly comparing ourselves with our peers, trying to justify our careers and fat paychecks and in a constant state of denial. “We” are characterized by over-inflated egos, dreams that run nothing short of world dominion (again) and ideas that would put Malcolm Gladwells and Seth Godins of the world to shame.

To be continued …

MacBook. Fixed.

After I spilled water on my MACBook, I was told of 1000 things to do (a complete list follows) but here are few things that you MUST do.

  1. Switch it off. Water will act as a conductor and will burn the circuits. Do not, I repeat, do not switch on your laptop (or any other electric device) until its completely dry. You will have to resist the temptation to see if its working after you spill water. Please resist it and let the water dry.
  2. Remove battery. For obvious reasons.
  3. Somehow, remove water. Use a hair dryer, put it under the sunlight, usea lamp, a fan, even bury the laptop in a sack of rice.

And, yes my macbook works fine now.

Futility of the Blip on Radar.

One fine day, when Mother Earth is going about its revolutions and rotations, the birds are trying to hunt for birdseed, millions of men and women would be running around doing meaningless work, trying to justify their jobs and existence, someone on the radar, a blip would flash brilliantly. And then it will fade away. To oblivion.

All the meaningless things (read cribbing, working, blogging, traveling, sleeping, walking, talking, writing, reading, justifying, even thinking) that we humans engage in, trying to follow the crowd, in hopes of leading the pack someday are futile. We are just trying to while away time. And mind, the machine needs constant motion. It needs some cranks, something or the other keep itself occupied. We oil it by indulging in mental masturbation. It takes different shapes for different people. Some people play cricket, some create companies, some donate their money, some are left in oblivion, some think they think what they are thinking and the things that they think and not really worth thinking, some travel, some sleep and many dream. Most work. Without realizing the futility. Of being just a blip on radar.

09 Jan 27: Boredom, Information Management, Ideation and Hunt

Boredom, Information Management, Ideation and Hunt.

Somehow I am bored today and I think I go back to the old style blogging. Where I talk about things I do, did and will do. I am writing this while talking to a friend on phone, watching Rambo III on TV, fidgeting with Steve Jobs wallpaper on my Macbook. And thinking what to write. All at the same time. Talk of multitasking.

So, I am almost nearing the end of Snowball. Its a nicely written book on Warren Buffet‘s life. Apart from his personal life, it chronicles his business adventures and obviously, his lessons. Although, individual chapters are bit long, it is still a very readable book. The problem with reading thick books is that by the time you reach the 648th page, you forget what you read on the 37th. For the record and umpteenth time, Warren Buffet is one of my idols and if I could become just one-tenth of what he is, I would consider myself lucky.

I also started reading Value Investing for the second time. I am supposed to return it to Sandesh on the Meeting 2 of Value Investors Mumbai gang and hence the hurry.

This brings me to yet another thing that I have been thinking about for some time. Information. Its management and flaunting of the same. I read tons of things everyday. This includes newspapers, reviews and personal blogs. Mostly online. And as with all things, there is a lot of noise and a bit of signal. The trouble is archiving all this information and then retrieving it when required. Like, if I try and recall important events of the day, they would be Satyam’s new consultants (BCG) and investment bankers (GS and another boutique investment bank), 3 odd percent jump in the market, Supreme Court’s judgment in Vodafone’s tax case, TRAI’s call for companies who want to offer number portability services, Pfizer and Wyeth deal, usual noise in the press over Mangalore pub incident and then thousands of small noises in the startup scene in India and abroad.

I am sure I have forgotten lots of things that I would have found relevant while reading them. And am sure that by the time I want to use any of these things, I would not be able to conjure them up. So, how do you manage all that information? And more importantly, you know that you know all that but the world at large does not. And until the world at large knows it, there is no way you could put all this information that you know to use. It will become yet another Herculean effort in vain. Anyways, this is a rant for some other day.

A two point summary of the entire thing is that I need to understand information and its management and two, I love brainstorming, ideation and mental masturbation on things and I think I should be working towards a career ideating. But as they say, ideating is as commonplace as potatoes. Execution is what matters. Need to find someone who can execute things faster and better than I can ideate. Are you the one?

Of Cities, Size and People

I cant live in a large city/town. Maximum distance from one end to other should be not more than 45 mins. Why not 30? Why not 60? I dont have a number for it. I just dont want to spend a lot of time traveling. I want to know the people I want to know and not know the people I dont want to. I want to be as connected as I want to be. I want to have large enough social circle that keeps me busy and small enough to have time for myself. I want to be connected. And remote. I want … !

2008. Revisited.

Inspired by D’s blog, here is my own list of things in 2008. Obvisouly very hard to recollect but I shall take liberal help of my blog and do the same.

Jan. Bored.

Feb. Bored.

Mar. Bored.

Apr. Bored.

May. Bored.

Jun. Bored.

Jul. Bored.

Aug. Bored.

Sep. Bored.

Oct. Bored.

Nov. Bored.

Dec. Bored.

How about you … ?

2008. Looking Back. 2009. Looking Ahead.

In Jan this year, I was very convinced that it will a year that would bring along change and I would be lot more closer to my goals. I even made a list of things that I wanted to do in 2008. They were

1. Stay fit (I am unhealthy, need to control it)
2. Acquire/create/partner a business
3. Write a book – fiction/non-fiction will do
4. Create an online presence (rather than an online identity). This would involve re-restructuring of blogs, conscious effort to post better quality content, creating the website, participating on social and professional networking websites and finally meeting/creating/talking with other people online/offline.

Now, on 26th Dec, if I look back, apart from few things here and there, 2008 was personally a very very average year for me (to say the least). Off the 4 things, I did not do even one. I did try to eat healthy and exercise. I did start a novel. I did think of n00b.in. I did work on creating my online presence and created saurabhgarg.com. All 4 were initiated but died with time. Its not that they were difficult. Its just that I could not complete them. I lost interest mid way and let my mind wander.

In 2009, mantra is going to be FOCUS and DO. Yes I have come up with yet another wish list of things for 2009. In the DO year, I will make sure I FOCUS on things and get them done.

P.S.: Please dont be surprised by lack of work on the do list. Work never was, never will be a priority.