Thinking Thorn

Productivity, Pain and PHP

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

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

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

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

Red Rose

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

All my prayers could give

Was a single rose, red rose

And all I could do was

I kept on her tomb

Beneath that she was

With still extended hands

And hope in closed eyes....

Take care of mother.. Mother Earth

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

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

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

Technorati tags: environment, earth, concern

Playing for pride, pride of the nation

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

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

Technorati tags: hockey, sports, legends

Get maximum from your online time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visit to my provenience

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seven Mags I loved When I was kid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blog-Sutra

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

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

Technorati tags: blogs, blogging

Managing Blog, Time and Myself

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

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

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

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

welcome to blogosphere

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

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

Samvadiya by Bhaskar Lakshakar

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

Brown Men's Burden by Santosh Anagol

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

Invectives of Development Practitioner by Vineet Abhishek

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

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

Did I entertain You?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks and Goodbye.....

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

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

(Pics coursey: Cricinfo.com)

Some Pics

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

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

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

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

I wanted to kill...

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

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

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

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

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

My heart sank. How can people do this?

I asked " what happened to the passengers?"

"They were asked to vacate."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Technorati tags: society, riots, concern, thinking

Catharsis

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

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

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

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

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

Technorati tags: personal, life

BlueDot - Social Bookmarking Repackaged

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

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

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

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

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

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

Technorati tags: bluedot, social bookmarking, reviews, techtalk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Technorati tags: personal, blogs

Retirement Planning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some ideas, some plans and some compulsions

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

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

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

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

Technorati tags: life, blogs, thoughts

Thinking aloud: Risk

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

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

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

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

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

Lovers cannot be rationals, Rationals cannot be lovers.

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

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

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

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

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

Jhalak Dikh Gayee

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

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

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

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

Technorati tags: television, media, celebrities

End of Dichotomy

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

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

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

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

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

Technorati tags: personal, life, thoughts, blogs

Somethings i want to do now..

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

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

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

Manage your GMail

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

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

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

xyz+personal@gmail.com

xyz+business@gmail.com,

xyz+spam@gmail.com.

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

Tags: gmail, hacks, tips, productivity

Powered by Qumana

Digitally Handicapped

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

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

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

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

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

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

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