Ranjan Jha's Blog

A Mauritian Holiday

2011-12-09T18:44:00.001+05:30

Unusual couples, brought together

Some by choice but all by destiny,

In the shared seclusion of Mauritian island,

Breaking the ice, bonding for life.

The New Normal

2011-10-11T09:11:00.000+05:30

Let stories be told and gossips unfold,
but love should not be disturbed,
together we'll reach for singularity,
till it becomes our new normal.

Sleepless Nights

2011-09-09T22:05:00.000+05:30

A dozen dawns of sleepless nights,
Unrefreshed, but I still feel alright,
Budding dream that kept me alive
I'll not sleep till I make it realize.

* Met an Old-young lady this morning at the breakfast in Hotel Hilton. Rockaway, NJ. We got talking, she told about a project that she is working on apart from her day job at a leading chemical company...how hard she working to make it a success.

Saturday morning

2011-07-30T10:41:00.001+05:30

Unusual silence of Saturday morning,

Wind chimes and musical monsoon,

Shabby sheets and lazy lovers,

Peace within and peace outside.

I have hit a wall

2011-06-26T11:48:00.002+05:30

Past few months has been …well the best word I can use is different. Yes, past few months has been really different. On the personal as well as on the professional front. But I had to post something, it has been so many months, so here are some of my observation from the current phase of my life:

First, I have hit a wall

Yes I have. It is a serious issue and hence the title. I just can't write, my attention is worse than my 8 year old nephew and it has become really difficult for me to complete a single task without making an extra effort and I have no clue on how to deal with it.

Second, A man's desire needs to attain a critical mass before it converts into a sustainable action.

It has been more than a decade that I wished to join a gym and do something about my fitness. I remember my first year in Delhi University, gifted with a lot of time to waste, I decided to join a gym …went into one but was intimidated by girls lifting more weight that I could ever imagine and the high cost and never went back. After three years, when I joined Symbi to do my Master's ...gym, yoga and aerobics was compulsory.. but I still managed to find a excuse for evading...I was just too lazy to get up at 6AM in the morning and I always procrastinated. After all these years…even after staying in a house in USA with well equipped Gym...I could never managed to turn my desire into action, until this year. I have spent 2 months, March and April, in a hotel in NJ, USA. All I did was to get in the car, go to work , come back, eat rice and sleep. For the first time I gained 5 Kilos in 2 months, I felt horrible. The first I did after landing in India that evening was to join a health club. Now it has been more than a month and I work out daily with no shame or fear… and I love to run on the treadmill

Third, I have stopped reading

I don't know why and when it happened, the last book I read was How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins in March this year. After that I have bought several books and most of the them are lying around my bed, half read or yet to opened. But I have few books that I want to complete this year and here they are:
1. Operation Red Lotus History of 1857 written by the Tope family. I bought this book at the Rajiv Chowk metrostation and was impressed by the presentation and the abstract .. will surely read this by year end.
2. Digha Nikaya: The Long Discourses of Buddha
3. Majjhima Nikaya: The Middle-Length Discourses of Buddha. My interest in Buddha and his teachings continues and grows more I read about him.
4. Resonate by Nancy Durate: I bought this at JFK Airport last month, it is very useful book that focuses on creating visual stories that makes presentations better. I read few pages and want to go cover to cover soon

Fourth, there is no substitute to spontaneity

Particularly when you are writing, it takes the effort out of the task and makes the entire experience so easy and enjoyable. I wish to be more spontaneous. .

On a misty winter morning..

2011-03-02T12:36:00.002+05:30

Inquisitive, She asked one day
"how do i make you feel?"
I said, "Dear, holding you is like
holding a warm coffee mug
on a chilly winter morning".

Again, she inquired
" Do you even miss me?"
I said, "Sweets, you're the movie
that keeps playing in my mind,
I wanna kick you out at times!"

She just won't finish, asked,
"How much do you love me?"
She asked with a twinkle in her eyes.
How do I quantify love?
In Kgs, pounds, watts or calories!
Perhaps time is the best way to do so,
"More than yesterday!" I said.

Hoping to end the conversation,
I grabbed her hands and walked,
She holded, smilled, ready with another
And asked "....

My wish list for 2011

2011-01-16T17:37:00.001+05:30

I will always remember 2010 as year where I was tested...to the maximum. I failed. I sustained. I suceeded. I retrospected and I learned the importance of being truthful to oneself.
2010 was a beautiful gift from the creator...a true mixed bag which took me to the next level in life.
So what do I wish in 2011, a few things. So, here is my list dear God if you happen to bumb into my blog:

I wish that traffic jam near Sec 62 and NH-24 in Noida be eased out and I should not have to travel more than 30 mins for work.
May I become a better driver this year(I want to have a year without accidents).
May I be content in my new job and new company.
May all the people around me be healthy and happy, I realized how difficult it is to loose someone dear to one.
I want to get rid of my anger and restlessness.
May I become a better a listener this year.
I wish that I experience peace within myself. That I can continue to practice the beautiful lessons learned in Igatpuri.
A year free of natural or artificial calamities. Especially if the Mayans are correct about 2012 then we certainly deserve a peaceful 2011. No more Oil Spills. No more earthquakes. No volcano erruption. No floods. No natural stunts please

And That's it! As a resolution I promise myself to continue writing...for one more post a month .. for another year!

A slight bend on the road

2010-12-05T22:05:00.002+05:30

There is famous Chinese saying which goes something like this 'Be careful of what you are wishing for it may come true!'. I still have to learn from this phrase as things do hppen and I have absolutely nothing to complain. Few months back I was complaining that I need change in the way things are happening as it such a boring steady state.... and things just turned upside down.

Firstly, I shifted to my own place which I bought two years back. But dealing with the builder and their contractors is such a pain in the rear. They will never complete things on time and you to have be around on top of their heads to make sure they work as per your timelines. Since past two months it was my daily routine to drive all the way to Indirapuram and make sure that things are happening shout at the supervisor, the carpenter, plumber, electrician who will not do things till you are around
all the time. The concept of delegate and forget and assumptions that people will do work professionally is completely null and void in our scenarios. You are made to feel that they doing you a favors by doing the work for which you paid a fortune!

But finally, it managed to complete just hours before the house warming, I still wonder how it happened! I moved in with my friend the next week and then I realized that the house is a little big for 2 people.. Our voices echo when we talk!! It will take a lot to adjust and get used to the new place. The other thing the way you treat a rented place and your own place is different ... and the paradigm shift is automatic ..I have become a little more careful and cleanliness conscious. The maid has to be sure that cleaning and dusting is proper! The cook has to keep the kitchen tidy and I myself clean the bathrooms! So weird ... I am doing things which I never bothered to care for.

But yes at the end I do enjoy living here...especially the view from my bedroom ... a wide
balcony which open nicely and the view of concrete jungle of Indirapuram from 9th floor is pretty amazing..it’s certainly not New York but yes... I can say that Indirapuram has its own Skyline! Mornings are misty ...afternoons are warm and I can see the sunset in the evening behind the buildings lying on my bed.

So that was moving in..Which also changed few more things. 3 of us who have been staying together since the day we left college (close to 5 years now) finally decided to go our own ways. A strange thing but yes ...when the companions change..life changes too in its own little way.

My office has also shifted from sector 60 to sector 126 on the expressway, and now I have spend almost 2 hours daily commuting to office. I dislike the morning traffic, the honking and the near misses everyday. High time that I get a four wheeler...

So things are in transition and somehow I see myself at the same spot where I was last year. In transition. I came from US after a year. Was settling in a new place. Confused mental state. I am so familiar with this feeling. This time I have decided to remain calm and watching as things unfold.

Cheryl and Bryan

2010-10-02T14:13:00.007+05:30

"...I often wondered about Cheryl and Bryan"
"Who?"
"Cheryl And Brian " as she pointed towards the name inscribed on the bench we were sitting "Do you think they were happy?"
"Well..who knows..but they were together"
"is that happiness? ... I suppose we will never know about them?"
"Well I think..they have joined the war..and he went off to fight in France and she stayed behind in London..slaving away the ammunition factories...both of them wondering..when or if they will see one another again..and in tension and terrifying start which propelled them through the hardship and difficulty of army..You know like a fully taut bow and arrow, the greater the tension before it launches the further it goes... Well I think Love is like that and I always felt Cherly and Bryan aachieved great distance beacuse of which.."From the movie: Scenes of Sexual Nature

Religion or just a community

2010-09-19T14:37:00.004+05:30

The HC judgment on Ayodhya dispute is about to delivered in few days, the country is again debating whether the verdict or even the issue makes sense after so many years? I wonder:

Building a temple or mosque on place which has seen death of so many innocents will please which God or Allah?
Is it really a matter of faith or a community's ego?
Will Muslims and Hindus be prosperous (economically, socially and spiritually) if a temple or mosque is built over the site?
Will popularity of Ram or Allah decrease if a temple or mosque is not build over that site?

Hinduism or Islam are they religion or just communities? The whole concept of universality taught by every religion has been forgotten, tolerance no longer exist in any community. Perhaps we need a new word to describe Dharma, the universal law of nature. The meaning of religion has changed, it is more sectarian now. The issues or debates around religion are sensitive, but browsing through I came across something which was inscribed on stone by Emperor Ashoka 2300 years ago, and every word is so relevant even today:
One should not honor only one's own religion and condemn other religions. Instead, one should honor other religions for various reasons. By so doing one helps one's own religion to grow and also renders service to the religions of others. In acting otherwise one digs the grave of one's own religion and harms other religions as well. Someone who honors his own religion and condemns other religions may do so out of devotion to his religion, thinking, 'I will glorify my religion'; but his actions injure his own religion more gravely. Concord is good. Let all listen and be willing to listen to the doctrines professed by others. (Rock Edict12)
Where has such wisdom gone?

Monsoon and a little more

2010-08-28T23:26:00.001+05:30

There is something magical about these Monsoons. Irrespective of the fact that they always keep you wet...whether its raining or not(I am referring to humidity just in case your mind wandered elsewhere). Suddenly the whole universe becomes so dynamic...as if God has pressed ctrl + F5.... and things gets refreshed... clean air, green trees, fresh flowers, Yamuna for a change becomes a river ...even the old, dull faces in office looks fresh! It rains almost every morning here in Delhi and I like the sound of rain ..thunder ...mixed with soulful sound of morning Aarti played every morning in my neighbourhood temple ... as if nature is reciting its own poetry and the entire universe is enjoying it. Those few minutes... I just keep my eyes closes while lying on bed and enjoy the music to the fullest... These moments makes the sufferings of summer worth while.

I recently complete reading 'The Road Less Travelled' by Dr. Scott Peck and I can confidently say this is best book I have ever read ...I am sure I will be reading it again and again at various stages in my life. How frequently do you come across something which address the real cause of the problems we all suffer from? It makes such a beautiful connection between psychiatry and spirituality...clears so many obvious doubts and misconceptions around Love, Faith, Religion and Relationships. Sincere thanks to Ravi whom I met in Igatpuri for recommending this book.

What else? My reading interests have slightly shifted over the past few months.. after a series of Management books.. btw.. the another good book I read is 'Know How' by Ram Charan. A very practical book ...lists skills of people of who know what they are doing. Somehow my interest in Buddha has grown a bit too much... call it a post Vispassana effect or whatever. I recently read 'Buddha: The Spiritual Master' by Supriya Rai. A very simple books which gives great pointers for further discovery. Next in the list is The long discourses of Buddha, I have been looking for this book at various book shops in Noida but still not been able to find it.. worst case i have will have to place an order online and wait for a month for the book to deliver.

Finally ...feeling really good to be back in Noida after two months...this years has been really hectic and I am really hoping to spend the rest of the year at one place.

Swamped

2010-07-21T07:48:00.001+05:30

    ...with work
    with motion sickness.
    with a desire to reach a destination.

Tired --
of a playful mind..
a painful neck
fast running clock!
  of little writing
unfinished books.

Happy--
for a peacful soul(!)
for sound sleep
...a clear concious
...morning breeze
...evening Moon
...a lasting music, who is playing it?

Memories

2010-07-04T20:22:00.003+05:30

I have little say, a lot little to share.
These woods turned green to grey,
water passed under the bridge.
but memories were made,
Some like a line on water
they vanish as they appeared
Some like line on Sand,
they remained for a while, but
were washed by the morning wave.
But some will remain forever
Like a line on the rock.
Engraved and chiseled,
buried deep in conscious mind.

New blogger on the block!

2010-06-06T20:49:00.002+05:30

- Fight -

I' m feeling a great mind fight
Got me thinking me in hind sight
How can I make you feel light?
I wanna do the right, alright

Should I fight my ego?
Or give up and just let go?
Better to be your Amigo
Than to lose you, Bingo!!!

Rajesh Rajagopala Kannan is quintessential desi who takes the daily train from New Jersey to New York Penn Station. After spending hours daily for years staring at women hoping that something will work out, he finally decided to utilize his time better and opted for blogging (via iPhone)... the above is one of his yet to be posted poems.He is also my room partner, a great friend and an upcoming poet-blogger, check out his work at Life On the Move

10 Days: Part II

2010-04-14T20:31:00.001+05:30

The concept made a lot of sense when I learned about Vipassana in 2003, but there wasn't any need and the value of the knowledge was not appreciated.

As Nitin Kamble whom I met on the last day of the course said.. "Life main Jhatke lagte hai tabhi log aate hai yahan" is so true, the quest to gain equanimity and a realization of the bigger purpose of life will complete my reason of going to Igatpuri. The 10 days were the toughest, I dragged my feet..literally mostly due to numbness after long period of meditation and partially due the serious effect that it started showing from the third day. I would go to the teacher everyday after the daily discourse and ask why I am feeling like this? ...and he would say very calmly ..It means your are doing the meditation right. Well, thats interesting but How do I deal with it? I kept asking this question every day till day 7 when I got the answer ... he said.. stay with it and it will die.. don't create a craving or an aversion towards it. Realize that there is problem, observe the sensation it produces with equanimity and its strength would decrease...the more you crave or hate the stronger it would become... and it happened. Its strange the way mind and body works. As the deeds of the recent past surfaced... as quilt, cravings, hatred, intense love and what not... I felt like running away ..everyday. When I shared this with my teacher. .he said ..this is how i felt in my first course!

From 4AM to 10 PM everyday .. I counted. I would complete my first half with great enthusiasm but the second half the efforts of the first started showing up. I din't sleep for 10 days.. yes thats true, but i would get up fresh in the morning.. astonishing but very true. When I asked the teacher.. he would say again..with a calm smile "it means you are doing good"..How? Well ...the entire day all your mind is doing is observing and not reacting ..only the body tired, the mind is quite fresh... I bought the idea...If I wouldn't have ..I would have definitely gone mad by worrying about my sleeping disorder. Vipassana is deep operation of mind and you learn that through your experience not through lectures.It gets intense as the days progress and at the end of each day you get to learn about the causes behind your experience and the next steps.

10 days.. i forgot about my work? The last day a NSD actor asked me what I do for living? It took a moment to recall that I work In HCL as a Business Analyst. And I was surprised..I never thought about my work in these 10 days.

But then thats the way a vacation should be ... when you are actually away from the daily routine... cut off ...and with yourself. I realized. It was tough to face the facts of the mind and body...i.e. myself. But I felt so good at the end. A sense of real happiness at the end. So much that it brought tears rolling down the cheeks..and you don't crave for it....when was the last time something similar happened.. I couldn't recall.

So what kept me going for these 10 days. One, quitting the course midways would have been embarrassing and wouldn't have made things better. Two, I felt really good after each meditation session. Even though the happiness was for a short while. But there was this thought which caught my attention on day 3 and still roams in my mind every now and then. The first words that came out of Buddha's mouth after he was enlightened were:

Seeking but not finding the housebuilder*, I have traveled through the round of countless births. How painful is birth over and over again. Oh housebuilder! You have now been caught! You shall not build a house again. Your rafters have been broken. Your ridgepole demolished. The unconditioned consciousness has been attained. And every kind of craving has been destroyed.

*Housebuilder can be thought as God or Creator, house being the body.

The above sound so good in pali ...but keeping that aside .. Can you imagine this guy's happiness?!

10 Days

2010-03-24T07:40:00.001+05:30

10 Days -Of freedom from the worldly affairs.
10 Days- Of confronting myself.
10 Days- Of complete silence.
10 Days- Of intense learning and un-learning.

10 Days- Of seeing things the way they are.

10 Days - Of Vipassana.

I waited so long to do this, but thing happen at their own time and this was the right time as lately I realized that i need to get a life! With a little excitement and lots of fear(whether I would be able to complete the course... over-expectation... am I running away!) I am starting a journey which I thought I would never make .

Two Questions

2010-03-07T23:43:00.000+05:30

Have you found joy in your life?
Answer:
Has your life brought joy to others?
Answer:

These two questions are yardsticks.The answer to both the questions are not affirmative right now. Beginning a journey which aims to simplify life and find peace.

In Conversation

2010-02-26T19:04:00.003+05:30

I had a dream the other night,
I was chatting with God.
He sat on a rock,
A step higher than mine.
Attentive, his chin on his palm,
listened my stories with smile so calm

I went over my problems,

wishes, dreams and expectation.

I told him everything,

from past and things from present,
As if I have met a long lost friend.

My agony vanished, as I talked,
nothing to complain,
desires all entertained.
Smiles replacing all my pains.
I felt relived, was it his miracle?
I looked up to him a curious smile.

Talking helps, my Son,
make friends and make them listen ,
all your thought, plans and emotions.
And leave the rest upon me ,
Enjoy this journey and come back to me
He remarked, vanished in the cloudy skies.

10 things about '09

2010-01-10T16:43:00.002+05:30

This is going to be an half hearted attempt, let me warn few readers that I have and myself. What to compose or what to write as the year winds up. Most part of the '09 was spent away from India on project, so I would say work took the priority. Highlights were few. But Still worth noting down.

So here the list of 10 things I learned/cherished/achieved or just happened in 2009:

1. Getting up consistently at 645AM and reaching office at 830 AM and leaving work exactly at 430 PM. Rain, Sun, Snow, Wind no matter what, my routine never changed!

2. Finally Figured out how avenues and streets in NYC, network of path, subways and NJ transit work. I was forced learn when I had to reach La Guadia Airport at 2AM and flushing Meadows for US Open.

3. Crossed a bucket list item- Watched a Grand Slam Final(US Open '09).

4. Traveled from Maine to North Carolina, awesome trip.

5. Spent an entire weekend on a beach.

6. Worked with the some of the best brains in the industry, people who have written books, Harward, MIT, IIM passout.

7. Almost got addicted to American Football, now I know most of the teams, their Quarterbacks , strategies and what not...

8. Aaah... Bungi jumping and the highest and fasted roller coaster ride in the world.. that was something..a real heart in mouth experience.

9. Watched the complete seasons of How I met your mother, Scrubs,Two and Half Men..I tried watching 24, Prison Break and CSI..those crime stuff but realized that I am more of comedy guy.

10. Made few great friends, after a long time with folks who are outside my professional circle.

2010 has started and started on a big note, a lot of thing happening simultaneously. I hope it turns out to be a good year, a great one infact! Wishing all a very happy 2010!

Goodbye.

2009-12-15T03:18:00.004+05:30

On gloomy Monday Evening,

Depressing cold and raining,

Lets not make it worse,

by making goodbyes elaborate.

Just a nod, my Friend,

Stay well and we'll meet again.

[USA, Dec 2009, EndofTrip 5]

Emerald or Jasper?

2009-11-28T11:01:00.002+05:30

Its suppose to be an event
Achieving, being someone. I wondered,
From Childhood to Adult,
One day something would happen,
like birth and death, all of a sudden.

Fifty times around the Sun,
Unknow, now to my own Son.
Where did I falter?
Perhaps it was the Astrologer,
Must 'been Emerald or the Jasper!

Writing is not an easy task.

2009-10-29T10:20:00.000+05:30

Writing my dear is not an easy task, especially when its done on computer. Your thought undergo lots of interpretations and typing is yet to become man's natural instinct. I often wonder if we had web where we can draw and paint and write rather than type. You see drawing is natural to human beings, remember you started drawing before you started crawling. Somehow I tend to think better when I write rather than type. I wished the web was read & write rather than read and type. Perhaps then it would have been more original, less copied and more created. More colorful and less textual.

I often loose my thoughts as I sit on the computer but I can start writing even being thoughtless when I have paper and pen. Its been 40 years my dear friend since this web started and I am yet to meet an internet Frost, Wordsworth or Tagore.You need to be in woods and frozen lakes to write about it. You can't become a nature poet by sitting on a laptop. Electronics has made us so mechanical, how do we use to pass our time when we were young? I can't even recall that now. I certainly had more real friends when I was young, now I have more connections less friends.

How do I capture the colors of fall? The mist in the air, the freshness in the wind and the feeling that something is about to happen. Perhaps the best way is to click a picture and paste it here. A moment can be captured, how can I capture a season?
The changing colors of leaves green, yellow, light green, red, orange and what not. Thousands colors every where in this season which other wise would have been so gloomy and depressing.

Writing is a very difficult task. Especially when you are addicted to it .You can't do it on a computer. Those pings. Those urgent mails to respond. The itunes songs. Stocks fluctuations. News feeds. Too many distractions to handle. You need to have a concentration of a Crain to do so. And I wished I could concentrate harder. My mind bounces from place to place like a crazy ball. Form one tab to other. Either the song is not good. Or the wallpaper sucks. Something is always wrong...

I often wonder that electronics and internet were meant to make our lives easier... well it has done that. I can now web conference across oceans, my laptop screen is the window to the world. But I miss the rigor at times. You see, If i have to write a paper, I google for content and almost always the right information is available to me in 0.01 secs. The very essence of research is lost. I remember in school to prepare a chart I used to browse through hundreds of magazines to get the right picture and in process read plenty of not so relevant but great stuff. The fun was in rigor. Browsing through books and getting excited after finding the thing you needed and in process we used to talk to many people who use to provide pointers.
Yes, that rigor is lost. And you know even with more information I feel dumber. Spontaneity is now my lost attribute. Writing my friend...

Excerpts of the conversation I had with a Rutgers Student at Penn station.

Did I see this at Times Square, NYC?

2009-09-18T08:27:00.001+05:30

Seems like we are had a recession in every decade... So what's so special about this one?

I love this one, right on times square where the ball drops(millions of crazy people brave the wind and the winter to see this ball cover some 5 feet distance on 31st Dec!!)
Benjamin Franklin saying " I'll be back" ... perhaps inspired by the terminator series or the speculation of yuan taking dollar's place as global currency... whatever, but a very strong message at a very right place.

US Open '09 - It must be Love!

2009-09-15T08:29:00.005+05:30

Arthur Ashe Stadium- I was there!!

Walk on

2009-08-31T08:53:00.006+05:30

Standing at the cross roads.

the last conversation,

I wished would never end,

finally concluded.

Nothing else to say and nothing else to hold.

Staring at each other,

Who will blink first?

I held my breath, She held her tears.

She winked, blinked away her tears.

And he took her away,

I stood there for a while

Took a deep breath and walked on.

Lovers part, their love remains.

With weight off my shoulder,

but a slight pain in head and heart.

I thought this too shall pass and walked on.

My my my it’s a beautiful world

2009-08-03T04:19:00.007+05:30

The worst happens when your life hits a steady state. When the boring daily cycles of life try to confine you in its monotonous cacophony. For some it becomes a way living and for other a challenge to get out from. Unfortunately I find myself in similar phase where all seems good, too smooth and easy to do.

I need a dream to chase,a regular cubical job is good till I spend minimum inside it and maximum outside..but then that also becomes boring. I often wonder what makes a person an entrepreneur, is it a lust to earn too much money?Or is the desire to see a dream live in flesh and blood? I think it has to be the combination of both. Money drives many things in this world, Idea or the intellect becomes the engine for the pursuit. Lately, I am feeling that urge and the restlessness... the key reason is my desire to earn more money because I have set some highly ambitious target for myself. Like:

Owning an Island and building a beautiful resort on it. And a stunning motor boat to buy groceries from the mainland. The island will some where in the Arabian Sea...how about one of the dweeps of Lakshadweep? Are they up for Sale?

Next, To be able to take a vacation at any point of time...but as I am writing I realise what does money has to do with it? Oh yes, it does play a role as you should be able to pay for your own vacation but when do I need a break has more to do with my willingness than anything else.

To be able to travel across the world. To visit Iguazu Falls which is on the border of Brazil and Argentina, The Bay of Fundi In Canada, The Dead Sea, Masurian Lake district in Poland, Snorkling near Maldives, A weekend in Sikkim, kailash Mansarovar yatra, A month in Kashmir without fear or force.
My my my it’s a beautiful world
I like swimming in the sea
I like to go out beyond the white breakers
Where a man can still be free (or a woman if you are one)
I like swimming in the sea.
My my my it’s a beautiful world

But look whats happening here the more I write, the more I realise. Perhaps the most cherished dreams have nothing to with money, for instance writing a song with perfect melodies, writing a book (yes! my American golti experience) or getting a six pack(or atleast to be able to run couple of miles without a break), to have French girl friend (this one has more to do with luck).

Or simply, to be able to experience extreme happiness..the kinds you see on a priest's face, or on a grandmother's who has met her grandson after a long time, the singer on Broadway when the group of people stand and applaud his song, when families unite, old friends meet...or to be able to say yes I have done it all and have no regrets only memories to cherish, when at the dusk of life.
What a feeling it would be!!

Perhaps this is as good as it gets
When you’ve given up the drink and those nasty cigarettes
Now I leave the party early at least with no regrets
I watch the sun as it comes up I watch it as it sets
Yeah this is as good as it gets.
My my my it’s a beautiful world
- Beautiful World, Colin Hays

2009-07-21T09:26:00.004+05:30

What can be better than spending an evening, watching the sunset on the horizon, lying on the grass thinking about all the things that are left to do in this world or just nothing?

What can be better than getting up in the morning and walking along the sea shore, bare feet, feeling the cold wet sand, feeling the little pinches of shells under the feet, watching the sun rise, birds fly and lungs full of fresh hair?

When all noise around seems like music,What can me better than a moment with a realization that your mind, body and soul are in sink with nature?

3 Things I learned today

2009-06-23T05:27:00.006+05:30

1. A million rupee on roads lifts an estimated 123 people out of poverty. In other words, a million rupee spent on roads can reduce poverty seven times more effectively than same spent on anti-poverty scheme.

Source: Imagining India by Nanadan Nilekani.

2. If I do not make the sale, I only have myself to blame.

Source: Bridging the Gap, Quoted by Jeffrey Gitomer.

3. Comparison between a Manager and Leader:

Manager (cost center IT): Concerned with process.

Leader (value adding IT): Concerned with results.

Source: Michael Schaffner

Where are you my precious?

2009-06-03T08:41:00.010+05:30

I walked down the road,

Evening around 5 O'clock.

with ipod plugged in my ears,

insulated from the world,

this drizzle, reminded me

of an event which was so magical.

We crossed each other everyday,

exchanging fake smiles,

walking in anticipation,

Looking for moment or an excuse

to engage her in a conversation.

It never happened.

her eyes so black,

a Gold around her neck,

Everyday I saw bit more of her,

with courage not enough to talk to her.

I prepare myself everyday

For the next evening,

again we pass, staring

then smiling later frowning,

Ohh, what a beauty, that glow

She is the one, I know.

That day I decided,

No matter what, today,

I will pour out my heart,

I strolled down, rehearshing

the speech so well prepared.

She came, fresh like a flower

soaked in the evening drizzel,

We crossed, with our eyes locked

and stood staring at each other,

Talked about weather and things

which now I can't remember.

My universe stood still,

I watched as she talked mischievously,

with a rhythm in her body.

Till the Diamond in her finger

caught my attention.

"That must precious" I said

"more than my life" she replied.

Damn!! she is married,

heavens fell, she felt my grief,

"One day, we all find our precious"

She said with a charm so vivacious.

We walked away.

Taking a breath, I pondered

Pearl in Oyster lost in deep waters,

waiting to be discovered

Where are you my precious?

Randoms

2009-04-26T09:50:00.004+05:30

With most of the action happening at work , I am thoughtless and have absolutely nothing to write:-

I take my daily train from Metropark station in NJ to Rahway, every day I see hundreds of desi's and after spending almost 3 months now most of the faces are familiar. The majority of population here are south Indian and I love to follow the conversation that happen between NRIs.

NRI 1 : "Hi, Whats Up?"

NRI 2 Just nodding, I guess it means he is fine

NRI 1: "So you live here ..nearby.. only??"

Every sentence must end with 'Only'. The train is never on time ...only. You can't install this component ..only. And it get better when Women talk- I called my in laws this morning...only.

And for others specially with North Indians... every sentence must start with a big "No" even if it means 'yes'.

No..no...you know...you are right..we should do it this way .. only

I see a lot of stories at this station, so many people who have came from the other side of the globe to live an American dream. They live a very temporary life here hoping that one day they will pack there bags and will go home. But, things gets complicated as they stay, the market is not good, the mortgage must be paid, kids education. I find it so unusual when I see a kid with quintessential Indian upbringing having an American accent. The dreams that their parents have...which is Indian so far from reality.

I love staring at people , yes, let me admit over here. I often get inquisitive when i see a stranger and start imaging there story. So when people must have Ipods and Iphones to spend time while waiting for train or bus ...for me the time flies by staring at them and thinking whats going on in their mind.

After procrastinating and perendinating for months I finally started jogging last week. The weather has improved and the cricket season in new jersey has started and I really want to be fit so that I can enjoy these games ... well its fun and I will surely learn some Tamil this time.

I am still reading Nandan Nilekani's Imagining India. Apart from the ideas he had put across the one that impacted me most is his story where he tells that if he had not joined Infosys and took that risk in his life he would still be a regular Indian taking a daily train to NYC, that's my fear. I am scared of being 'regular'.

Why working 4 days a week is good for economy?

2009-03-22T20:38:00.008+05:30

One a fine Thursday morning, I finally got up at 6 AM after snoozing my cell phone alarm for an hour and while staring at my own face in the bathroom mirror, a thought sparked in my sleepy mind:

Won't it be good if we had to work for only 4 days a week? Every week we had Friday, Saturday and Sundays off. A four day work week and a long weekend every week.

Personally I am exhausted by EOD Thursday, I do go to office on Fridays and work but I see that all major decisions are often postponed for Monday and mostly the productivity is equivalent to zero after lunch. But this might sound like an excuse coming from a sloth who never wants to work(Oh BTW I love my work). So, I started thinking more about it here are some of the arguments I came up with:-

1. The economy is bad, money is not flowing in the market and people are not willing to spend. I hardly spend on weekdays and all the expenditures are postponed till weekend and this is true for most of the people who have a job and work from 8AM to 5PM. If we give another day off people will spend more. What will they do when they have 3 days a week off? plan more trips with family, eat out more, spend more... credit will start flowing again and economy will finally start moving north.

2. The productivity will increase. Yes it will . Regardless of how many hours we work in a week most tasks are going to get accomplished each week just as they did before, we just need to be more efficient in working and reduce the times we spend in coffee, cellphone, Internet browsing, personal mails and gossiping. And a long weekend is surely a motivation to work more.

3. Working parents get more time to spend with kids, they will be able to read to them, play with them... it means more happy kids and more happy parent and happier employees >> more productivity and better office environment. Goes very well with Obama's Idea of Education reforms.

4. Fours days week is also a Green concept. We spent less on travelling, consume less fuel, save a lot on oil cost to the country. Low emission of green house gases. Less traffic on roads. Just imagine how much fossil fuel will be saved if the entire world travel one day less to work. Not only this, we will save electricity, paper(less paper cups consumed for coffee and tea), parking...

5. Will boost tourism, most of the tourist are locals in any country .

Well, these are just the few reason that came to my mind. Excited by the idea, I started sharing it with people, my room partner ridiculed it saying it means a lost in productive hours every week and eventually people will start treating Thursdays as Fridays. The project manager laughed at it and said its a good Idea and advice to post it on the blog and I am doing it . Few appreciated it.

I started browsing the net and came across this very interesting article by Prof.Goose who shares my view and came with Sixteen Reasons why this might be an Idea whose time has come. Read it and you have more reason to believe why you should be working 4 days a week .

Green Applications

2009-03-05T21:30:00.008+05:30

I am very fond of WordWeb and have been using it very frequently since Somya introduced it to me sometime back . As not all the good things in world are free, my trial version expired yesterday and before I could continue using it, WordWeb asked me to answer the following:

How frequently do you fly In a commercial Airline in a year?

Zero
1 return flight
more than 1 return flight

Well, Courtesy my profile and my company I have to take more than one return flight in a year and I honestly chose the 3rd option only to get a shocker from wordweb

Wordweb is only available for free to the people who fly very little because two medium-distance flight is equivalent to more than one tonne CO2 emission, more than sustainable fper-person limit for an year. The licensing model is designed to allow relatively non-wealthy people to use the program free of charge, and to provide a small incentive for other people who fly a lot to cut down.

I get the message the WordWeb is trying to convey though its Green application and may be that's the way to go ahead,but as an end user what should I do if every application on the web turns 'Green'?

Quit my job and stop travelling?
Pay money to wordweb because my company makes me fly more often?
Advise my company to make me sail through a boat across seven Seas... 4 times a year!!?

Uninstall the application and reinstall being cognizant of the Licensing policies and the off course the intent of the message.

I think I got the answer.

A take on current Crisis.

2009-02-28T22:52:00.007+05:30

If the economy continues this way, Obama keeps trying his best to delay the inevitable. Offshoring trends are taxed, the pioneers of globalization decides to step back. Americans do not rise up the value chain, instead they start putting the blame on Indians, Koreans and Chinese for there misery ...How should we respond?

In his recent article The Open-Door Bailout, the award winning Author and Journalist of NY Times, Thomas Friedman points out that one of the bright ways of stimulate the economy is to leave it to the 'brainy Indians'. This is what he says-

“All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans, they will buy up all the subprime homes, work 18 hours a day to pay for them, immediately improve your savings rate — no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And They will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans"

He was highly criticized for pro-immigration views and very soon after that Obama imposed tax cuts for companies offshoring jobs. But will it impact the offshoring trends?

The entire financial sector is in mess, the last thing they want is a rise in there operating cost. The Pharma sector is already competing over low cost drugs and the lack of blockbusters in recent years have forced them to optimize operations. No wonder some of the recent big IT offshoring deals are from Pharma sector.

If changing the IT vendor was so easy, How many customers dumped Satyam after the recent scandal? None. Zero. Zilch .Zip. The cost of transition is too high for these companies. And some how there is a faith that Satyam will come up from its mess. One thing that all India IT companies are good at is transforming and continuously changing there business model. We have came a long way from Y2K to Complete Service offering. From BPO to Business transformation. But offshoring will be affected. All we need to do is a have a solid plan B:-

Diversify, the companies will have to seriously think outside Cost arbitrage. No matter how much we claim, we are still not there.
Go Global, Hire more local workers make them work with there offshore counter parts 24*7.
Innovate at home. Look Within. The reverse in trend is good news for India. For us its always been easier to work for US companies than to work for Indian state. Things will change now as we will be forced to Innovate.

And for the H1Bs who thought that America is the only place "to be", time to go home may soon arrive and may be that is the best thing to happen as India is the place where all the action is taking place.

In Transit –Yet again

2009-02-02T17:52:00.001+05:30

Sometimes it is so difficult to capture moments, moments which make remarkable impact in life.

Why is it so? I think the answer is otherwise, perhaps only artists and Poets have this gift. Capturing moments in words weaved beautifully or painted vividly. I don't have this gift, no wonder the most impactful events went undocumented.

So, where I am right now? At London Heathrow international airport waiting for my connecting flight for Newark, USA. Yet again on another engaging assignment for much longer duration.

How do I feel this time? More clam, unlike other trips, where nervousness and anxiety took over.

How do I feel about my stay? I think I am prepared to stay long this time. A solid reason is that I am going to a familiar place and living with a good friend and looking forward to the super bawl party at his place!

Anything new you learnt about yourself in between trips? Yes, whenever my neck hurts it means I am tensed and stressed!

Best thing about this trip? Managed to befriend a really pretty airhostess in British Airways, an Indian with an amazing British Accent first time I was awed by the voice more than the aesthetics!

Hello 2009, With a Smile

2009-01-01T20:52:00.004+05:30

2008 ended, few hours back,

I find myself without inspiration.

Trying hard to summarize the years gone by,

Was it a loss or was it a sensation?

Learned the similarity between projects and Pregnancy

During my stay in New Jersey, In January.

The useless tension of an ending relation,

In Feb, I screwed up unnecessarily.

March, I came back

realised home is perhaps the best place.

April, May there was so much time to rest,

at home and its best when at Office.

June, on a project back to Jersey ,

which ought to be completed

perhaps only on God's Mercy.

July, August found new Friends,

and we said this will gone on

till the silver river ends.

September, on a flight back home

realised even with Friends,

away I have never felt so alone.

October, with a broken a little finger

bought a house on which Mom said

without a Wife, She will not allow me enter.

November, Lost my Dearest Granddad

And things remain never same again,

How fortunate we were to be brought up by him

and how unfortunate I was to be not there with him.

I was aspiring high,

New Role and New challenges at work,

Made me work hard and Struggle

and December, I found myself in deep trouble.

So Much was my misery that my Dear Friend

Scribbles

2008-12-21T12:26:00.004+05:30

Let me walk through the thoughts that pour in mind as I woke up late this Sunday morning:

It was so foggy late last night, so much that I could hardly see my neighbourhood building. There is nothing like walking on a road on winter night under yellow sodium Street light. I think that's the beauty of Delhi and the entire NCR region. The often crowded Atta market becomes beautiful, mostly attributed by the beautiful in colorful cloths. I like Delhi winters a lot, the temperaments of the people are under control, the coffee tastes better, the bazaars are bright and look fresh.

Why does time flies by so fast? 2008 is ending, the memories of new year is still fresh and can't believe its year end. There used to be days in school when weekends used to be so far and every day used to be painful, Maths homework was never up to date. Hindi classes were pathetic. English teacher was like monster. Every day used to be a challenge. So much that my memories of final years of school are fresh and scary. And I often dream of flunking in my 11th and 12th standards. Even the three years of grads were quite long . But these two and half years of work has been super fast. I wonder if the pace of time remains same the day when I will be retiring is not so far away. God things are so scary. May be because when we were studying we had time for every thing ..studies..sports and what not. Our time was managed by school time table and parents, But when we took control of our lives, we messed up everything and found time for nothing!

I learned something special this week. This thing was casually said to me by a Senior at work. The situation is ..I am going through another profile change, something totally different from what I am doing now and I am having difficulty keeping up with the change. Discussing my current scenario and whether I should take the new role or not and How will I be able to handle the pressure, expectation and I am not at all prepared to move completely to a new geography... he remarked "Ranjan, you think too much about the future, as In what you will be doing when you will be 50 or 60 year old, why don't you take one day at time and see how it goes?"

And it worked... I was screwed up thinking too much about how its going to happen, which converted into stress... I started taking one thing time.. one by one..each day .. and I feel better... and slightly more confident than yesterday. I realise I have really messed up many thing in life by over thinking. And the best thing happened on the spur of the moment... examples are plenty.

I am an Indian

2008-11-30T21:35:00.005+05:30

I am an Indian.

A country with great contradictions,

Captured differently in our heart,

with different reality on the ground.

A Land where which prides in its culture

Where it was OK to build temple of Kamadeva

Hundreds of Years ago

But it’s not OK to canvasize your Imagination now

As it doesn’t satisfy a Sena’s ego.

A land of brave people,

and weak leaders elected by brave people.

A nation where politician seems to come

from the most deprived class of the society.

Uneducated, Ignorant, Senseless, Irrelavent and Useless.

Where Modis and Mayawatis move with layers of Security,

Insecure of people who they are suppose to serve

And Crib about national security.

A Land where President Holidays in South East,

And a party plans to hold Bandh,

As Mumbai Burns.

A Land where politicians can’t be criminals,

Where a Godfather kill South Indians to become a Neta,

And his Godson kills North Indians to become a bigger Neta.

Where people will not recognize you as fellow Indians,

But as Biharis, Marathi and Tamilians.

Pride in my religion is gone,

Hindu or Muslim – I am scared to tell anyone.

Pride in my state is gone,

I wish the pride in India remains,

I am an Indian and I wish to remain one.

The pride in the leadership is long gone.

How to write a good blog!

2008-11-26T12:41:00.002+05:30

I found this very interesting article circulated by the Knowledge Management Team of My Company with an intention of promoting corporate blogging. Very relevant to all the fellow bloggers and can be kept as a check list for every blog post we make:

So copying straight from the mail circulated, here are some of the best blogging practices:

How can you make sure that people read your blog? Here are a few tips on writing a good blog, and making sure that your readers stay interested.

Make your opinion known: Be Personal - People like blogs because they are written by people and not corporations. When writing your blog, make sure that you write the way you talk. You can even ask your reader questions. This will encourage your readers to leave comments on your blog, and come back to read more. If you write as if you are writing a formal letter or a business report, readers will get bored and will switch over!
More the links, more informative it is! - Support your post with links to other web pages that are contextual to your post.
Write Less - Give the maximum amount of information with the least amount of words. Time is finite and people are infinitely busy. Blast your knowledge into the reader at the speed of sound.
250 is enough! - A long post is easier to forget and harder to get into. A short post is the opposite.
Make Headlines snappy - Contain your whole argument in your headline. Check out National newspapers to see how they do it.
Include bullet point lists - We all love lists, it structures the information in an easily digestible format.
Make your posts easy to scan - Every few paragraphs insert a sub heading. Make sentences and headlines short and to the point.
Be consistent with your style - People like to know what to expect. Once you have settled on a style for your audience, stick to it.
Keywords are the key! - Think about what keywords people would use to search for your post and include them in the body text and headers. Make sure, the keyword placement is natural and does not seem out of place.
Edit your post - Good writing is in the editing. Before you hit the submit button, re-read your post and cut out the extra portions that you don't need.

Whats Happening?

2008-11-05T22:29:00.004+05:30

Well so many things-

The bad one first:

Broke my little finger in an accident couple of weeks back. The moment I realised that i had broken my finger, I was more angry than in pain, why do people drive on the wrong side that also on the red. So furious I was that I got up, checked whether my Friend is fine or not, marched towards the 15 year old kid and slapped him tight on his face with the other hand, came back and rode my bike to the hospital which was on the other side of the road. Later only to regret that I should have not slapped the kid, the poor chap was only delivering tiffins and must be in a hurry. I remember how we use to shout at Bahadur when he use to be late for dinner during the final years at DU.

The next couple of day passed in guilt, wondering how will this metal rod be removed from the finger and writing a business case with one hand(it wasn't tough as I realised that I do more of copy paste).

As I am still recovering from the broken finger, caught this really bad cold which will just not go away, I must have wasted thousands of tissue paper in 3 weeks in spite of severe instruction by our admin dept. not waste tissue paper and user your own handkerchief...cost cutting...you know!!

The worse was that I was aligned to a manager who is expects stars in no time...he kept selling me every junk of work by saying "Ranjan, this requires a bit of thought leadership" and I kept buying it. But when you are in misery sometimes you get the best of the advices.

And some good News-

Visited my village. an awesome awesome awesome experience. Saw some of the most wonderful places..like the place where prospective grooms with their resume use to assemble to be chosen by the girl.

Decided not travel till Feb and explore more areas in business other than business analysis.

And my fav.

Bought an 1769 sq.ft three bedroom flat near Noida. Might be moving in by Jan end.

Such a memorable Journey

2008-10-12T22:14:00.002+05:30

My Grandfather was ill and its been more than 15 years since I have been to my village in Northern Bihar.

It was such an emotional journey, some things just don't change.
Some times they just become better, as they grow old.
Some eyes will alway recognize you, no matter how long you have been away.
Few memories will never fade, and few people you will always remember,
and they will tell stories about you that you never knew,
How you were chased away from a sugarcane field when you were 5 year old,
and you broke your leg and promised God never to go out with telling your granny.
Few legs will never get tired, they will be always young to show you around,
as they alway did when ever you visited.

There eyes were wet when you came and were wet when you left.
But they have a hope that you will come again.
A hope that you will keep the family close and one like always.
A hope that you will never forget the place you were born and keep visiting.
A hope that you will be there to give a shoulder,
when they start there last journey.

A walk to remember.

2008-08-27T08:59:00.004+05:30

Have never felt the breeze hitting my face so softly
Moist and cold in the midnight.
Aware of every breath I took,
Oblivious of the crowd, In the company of Friends
Away from every one else.

We Strolled down the Brooklyn bridge,
admiring the midnight beauty of the New York City.
The factitious lighting glorifying the beauty of tall buildings,
Artificial waterfall , synchronized to extreme.

I noticed a yellow line dividing the bridge in two lanes,
One for cyclist and other for pedestrians .
No wonder the traffic was high our side,
While the other was empty.

Lost in my thoughts, contained in my being,
I dint realise when I crossed the yellow line,
Till I was knocked by metal rod and the next moment,
found myself lying on the ground crying with pain ,
In a moment I was ware that I was hit by a bike.

Saw a women in her late thirties,
struggling to gather her breath, helmet and bike.
Her head has crashed into the rusted iron barriers.
Friends rushed, few towards me and most towards her,
Every wants to help a woman.

Her eyes were wet, I felt terrible
She got up and said :
"I was looking down and biking and didn't see you"
I was staring at her holding my bleeding arm,
her pain was less physical unlike mine.

She continued:
"My Husband left me today for someone younger,
it would have been best If I would have died.
Some times people cross the line without realising the damage
a tiny mistake can do to others...
I hope you are fine."

I nodded.
Just a drop from her eyes fell,
She gathered herself and biked away,
Like a wounded Doe.

Engraving a thought in my Mind,
I just kept walking, holding my arm.
Unaware of the breeze,
Unaware of the crowd, unaware of myself.

Snitched.

2008-08-04T06:37:00.005+05:30

Stolen from Amitabh Bachchan's blog.
I was reading his blog on Friday and ever since then these two lines are running in my mind again and again..couldn't take it anymore so decided to post it here.

As I try my best ...

2008-07-21T06:22:00.003+05:30

As I try my best to remain ahead of my work, I realise there are so many things that I have to do and have almost forgotten to do everyday. Things like writing a blog post regularly, I tried hard to increase frequency of posts but have been out of ideas lately... or may be not...they are about half dozen post waiting to be published..half heartedly...half written. Perfect example of lack of commitment.
Blogging is a good way to organise thoughts and I think that's the reason why blog. Because I realise that thinking has not helped me much in resolving issues of my life, as engaging a crazy mind which keeps hoping places every nano second for one situation for a significant amount of time is impossible. And I have lately realized that Issues that are resolved and decisions I have taken used little amount of brain power, intuition and gut feeling are used more. So using this space again to engage my mind for a while...here are thoughts that are crossing as I write:

1. The 'Teach India' campaign by times of India is something I really look forward to catchup with . I followed the 'Lead India' campaign last year and was very happy when my school senior and friend Satyam Darmora was among the Delhi finalists.

2. I have came across some really nice blogs recently which I have bookmarked and have to read. The Business Analysis Blog Started by Tarun is very impressive. I have read most of his post but want to engage in conversation with him regarding some of his ideas. Also I found Ankesh's blog very interesting and ...have to graze through his posts.

3. My neck is hurting really badly, have to clear my mind on lot of things which I have been thinking over and over again.

4. Iphone: To buy or not to buy? that is the question.

5. No matter what I am not extending my trip beyond 16th August...

6. How to utilize the free coupons provided by Continental Airlines? The coupons will expire by the end of this year and I am still thinking of the places that I can see in US. Vegas Is too hot right now... is there any other place I can go?

7. I am seriously planning for sabbatical once I return back home, 2 weeks of nothingness... planning to visit my home in Bihar and meet my grand parents. Me and Vineet have been planning a trip to places around Bhopal, also Dhiraj is shifting to Jaipur and may be trip to Jaisalmer is something we can plan. But first place will be my home in Mumbai.

8. How to improve my bowling run-up, though I am able to generate good amount of pace but still my speed decreases as I reach the wickets. I really look forward towards our weekly cricket matches on Sat morning, NJ Red Vs NJ Blues at JFK High School Base ball ground in Edison. And its fun.. to watch 34 year old south Indian techies running after the cricket ball, controlling body bweight ...aiyo..amma...anna daa...wanga... and then the cricket ball. Catches are rare and every six is celebrated as astonished Americans watch matches from there garden ... figuring out why are we not playing baseball??

9. Had one of the best exp. recently when we went to see the mighty Niagara falls.... the 'Maid Of Mist' tour is awesome.... the boat stops right in the middle of the falls...the view of water thundering...falling...white as milk...among mist is thrilling. Another highly recommended trips is speed boating around statue of liberty-- with music and speed and Ocean and the New York skyline... you feel royal.
10. Have realized the importance of hair on a man's head. My roomies is a 30 year old, fitness freak , Wall street Software engg. earning a very handsome salary. Since 2 years he has been looking for a bride ...but nothing has materialized as apparently south Indian girls consider marrying bald guys as sin. A gem of a person that he is ... this exp. has left him no option but to go for expensive hair implant. And they say Guys are particular about looks!!

Untagged!

2008-06-09T08:38:00.002+05:30

Here are the answers Somya

1) LAST MOVIE U SAW IN A THEATRE? Iron Man and Indiana Jones . Back to back

2) WHAT BOOK ARE U READING?? Who Says that the elephant Can't Dance?

3) FAVOURITE BOARD GAME? none

4) FAVOURITE MAGAZINE? Business today, India Today

5) FAVOURITE SMELLS? Aha.. the smell of winter arriving in mid october. Pollen grains mixed in mist ...early morning or late evening.

6) WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? Feeling of being 'Abandoned'

7) WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN U WAKE: Let me check my mails...

9) FAVOURITE FASTFOOD PLACE? McDonalds

10) FUTURE CHILDS NAME? no Idea...but I would like to have twins..a boy and a girl

11) FINISH THIS STATEMENT---'IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I'D': I would by a huge farm house in some hill sation..start a company and for the rest of my life work from home

12) DO U DRIVE FAST? nO.

13)DO U SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? No

14)STORMS--COOL OR SCARY?cool

15)WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? fiat padmini

16) FAVOURITE DRINK? orange juice

17)FINISH THIS STATEMENT-IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD: I always find time for things...Infact I always have time

18)DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?no

19)IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE? blue..shining blue.hehe

20)NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS U HAVE LIVED IN? too many: dehradun, delhi, kota, mumbai, pune, banglore in India. US: Irvine, LA, New Brunswick, NYC, Madison, Rahway, Metropark, Boston.

21) FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Cricket, football, tennis, hockey

22)ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? She is an elegant dumb idiot, with a nice heart, excellent sense of humour and funny teeth.

23)WHATS UNDER YOUR BED? Nothing

24)WOULD U LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?? naa... that will be too boring

25)MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL? Used to be night owl...now a morning person

26)OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP?Sunny Side up

27) FAVOURITE PLACE TO RELAX? My Home in mumbai

28)FAVOURITE PIE? Apple

29)FAVOURITE ICECREAM FLAVOUR?Vanilla

Nomad

2008-06-07T01:26:00.003+05:30

Never ever in my life have I felt so exhausted. After travelling travelling almost the entire east coast of US this week, consistently getting up at 4 AM in the morning and sleeping at 1130PM(off shoring sucks!!) , this Friday evening was so much awaited. After playing cricket almost after an year on Saturday, tennis on Sunday and a forced GYM session on Tuesday all I could think was of a blanket and a bed. The schedule was so tight that weekend seemed years away and finally when it has arrived ... sleeping is not in schedule.
I have found some very interesting Friends here, 2 guys sharing an apartments, same age groups and its been fun. My friend who is also my landlord wakes me up at 6 AM on Sat. as his cricket team needs a bowler. The rest of the weekend I just hang round with him...and this weekend my other roomies friends are coming and we will leave for Atlantic city ...on Saturday night.
I want to put together a post on creating storyboards form BAs... I wish had some time to gather my thoughts.
But its OK. In fact everything is awesome. Fundamentally.

Moonless Night

2008-04-29T23:52:00.003+05:30

Moonless night, its 1 AM and I am still active,
Winding up the work skipped in office.
Thoughtless and blank often I wonder,
What will be a life best lived?
I look upwards, trying to make some patterns
of stars faded by street lights.
A white dwarf or a big bang...a star ends.
Our death defines the way we have lived, I reckon.
What will be a perfect death?
Kissed your children on the forehead,
Hugged your wife, they are all happy and steady.
Read the last chapter of the book.
Switched off the lights,
Thought for a while about the day,
Closed my eyes and made an easy transition
from this one world to another.
I wish to die in my slumber
... Moonless Night, often I wonder.

2 years down the line.

2008-04-17T10:25:00.007+05:30

I received this mail from the proactive HR department of my company exemplifying that what significant change I have made to 40 thousand collogues of mine. As they say 'HCL have not been the same’.
What a day it was, 17th April 2006. Ten people were joining HCL Tech from my college, seven were joining NCR offices, Kedar was suppose to Chennai office so his induction was in Chennai ,Manish and Saritha joined HCL Comnet in Noida and they had separate and a rigorous induction program. The seven of us: Pradeep, Saurabh Chhawchharia(Chocho), Gaurav, Pragnya, Sandeep(Sandy), myself and Bhusan arrived a day prior to joining at the HCL guest house near Kapashehera Border, Gurgaon-Delhi border. We knew that HCL was inducting 'Management Trainees' in small batches and I think all anticipated that there will be students from other colleges joining with us. Very soon we realized that few people from IIIT Pune (I2IT) have already joined along with a girl from SITM, Pune. After shaking hands, getting to know each other and catching up with classmates, I think we were all excited about the next day, the day we will be induced.
We all had decided that best will be to take a walk from guest house to office as the building was hardly a kilometer away. So the next morning, most of us got up pretty early, I couldn't sleep the entire night partly because of the Air-condtioner and mostly because of anxiety. So all of us got dressed in our brand new formals, Girls in Salwar Kamiz, most of were confused whether to wear a tie or not and finally we all decided to drop it, started our walk towards the HCL building. Around 8:30 we all started, the moment we stepped out of Surya Vihar(the society where guest house was located), something was awaiting to surprise all of us, hundreds and thousands of people were on the road marching in the same directions, with lunch boxes in their hands, few were on bicycles… its seemed like a political rally. Gaurav, who is from Delhi, told us that they are all factory workers. I still couldn't believe my eyes, people people every where... we soon joined them. Fascinated by the crowd, Sandy could stop taking pictures of all us in the human flood from him mobile phone. We all reached Manak exactly at 9Am, completed the formalities and were given temporary ID cards. The attendant at the front desk guided us all a big conference and asked us to wait for Rashi kaushik, the HR. The building was beautiful, much better than its average exterior. We all sat around the round conference table SCITians on one side, I2ITian on the other. I couldn't stop staring at Anurag Barwalia, a wiered looking guy, with a long tika on his forehead and often smiled to show his chutki stained teeth. Who knew that me and Barwalia are going to be working for the same business unit and will also become room partners and good friends. Barwalia turned out to be a really simple, hardworking guy with confused ambitions. Then there was Goppu, a big man with a big heart, we all remember his dance with Rashi Kaushik on the final day of our induction.
Rashi walked in, she was big fat lady with a school teacher like attitude. Very quickly she introduced herself and distributed booklets which contained schedule of all presentation that we have to go through in next 5 day. There were around 25 ppts from various BUs heads, quality folks, testing teams, SBU heads, HR representatives, Admin, finance and finally with our LOB head, the Corporate VP, Rajiv Swarup. The first session was by sanjiv jain, the HR head, he introduced us to HCL and its glorious history. In the middle session a very pretty girl walked in, Charu Murali from Birla Institute of management. As all heads turned towards, we came to know that she was supposed to join in Bangalore and got herself transferred because of some reasons, but finally a pretty face in the crowd. Next, we had a session with BAG(business acquisition head) head, Shiva kumar kollunguta, a very impressive gentleman. During his presentations he asked quiz questions and distributed KitKat for right answers. Charu won a couple...beauty with few brains. As we went ahead day by day with the boring presentation, we came to know that it’s going to be an interesting period. I was thoroughly confused, I was from relatively technical background and now I had to wear a hard core MBA hat, Chocho shared my agony, I remember it took me months to convince myself that I will be doing something different. Later I realized that my technical background was of a great help in the days to come.
As the sessions continued, on the second day the most impressive presentation was from Sidharth chowdhary, the head of retail business unit. He very clearly told us that he is going to select one of us to work with him. Retail boom was rumored to be the next big thing in India after IT and Laloo Prasad yadav and all were hoping to get into it. After his presentation he asked us to introduce ourselves and tell what our aspirations are. When my turn came, my confusion came out very clearly in the short speech I made. I had no idea what was expected out of me, all my days in Symbi I have done coding in Java and hated my colleagues in Business Management and Systems for being superficial. I told him that I wanted to be in technology and domain really doesn’t matter as I had no idea about retail. Very soon I realized that I had screwed it. Pradeep was chosen to work with Sidharth, perhaps because of his clarity thinking.
On Thursday we were told that the BUs will be announced on Friday and before we move on to our respective units we all have to showcase our talents. Rashi was furious about our lack of participation in the PPTs and told us to keep her izzat on Friday eve in front of HCL’s senior management. We had a single night to prepare ourselves. After great amount of discussion we decided that we will perform a skit ‘dropti ka swamywar’ , Charu was suppose to sing and the best item was a dance performance by sandy, chocho, Goppu and gaurav on ‘Jungle main bole koyal’ from the movie Taal. It was great Idea by Goppu where they performed an expressionless action dance… which is kind of indescribable. The show was a great hit, except.
As BUs were announced we came to know that Sandy and Pragnya and most I2IT folks will have to leave for Chennai. Sandy and Pragnya left HCL as year later to join Satyam and Infy respectively. Chocho joined the MPE BU. Ever since he has joined, Chocho is having a dream run and is the only one in our bach to opt for project management profile while. Me, Charu, Anurag and Deepti joined the DSG mega account , after six months of doing nothing we moved out to different verticals I went ECMP, Anurag remained In DSG for a while later resigned because of frustration, Charu went to e-learning has been doing really well. Deepti went to Chennai to join logistics. Gaurav and Bhushan joined Government vertical, they are now in EEG and retail resp. because of lack opportunity in the domain.
2 Year hence, I think I have finally been able to gain clarity in my vision, ambition and aspirations. It was really tough to do things you have never done when people expected you to be best at it. But finally none of us have ‘arrived’ but we all know where we have to go from here.

Uphill I started

2008-03-26T01:19:00.006+05:30

Uphill I started, the higher I went the better it looked.
My Vision got wider, details diminished.
I fancied the steps that I have to climb,
I forgot the steps I had climbed.
The memories of the future, the experience of the past.
The warmth of the Sun, anger of the wind,
A step closure, a step away.
I want to keep climbing,
The journey must continue, the reach may not happen.

They say, you must reach the top to be succesfull,
...and do what after that? My journey will end, alone and no where to go.
Success perhaps lies in choosing your own destinations, one after another.
Success lies in the journey, living life on my own terms, planned or unplanned it doesn't matter.

Blogcamp Mumbai on 29th March

2008-03-14T14:25:00.007+05:30

Another Camp for Blogging enthusiasts. On 29th March. At IIT Mumbai.
Updates: Blogcamp Mumbai Style Blog.
Registration: Blogcamp Mumbai Style wiki .

Previous Blogcamp:
Blogcamp Pune: http://blogcampune.blogspot.com
Wiki: wiki for a look at last camp

Next Blogcamp will be held in Delhi. Updates to be published soon.

The great digital divide.

2008-03-13T12:48:00.005+05:30

Human being by nature are not racist, we normally like to mix with people who do not look or think like us. But at the same time we also have a general bias, we tend to prefer the company of people who are like us in some way or the other. People from a same community will live together, people speaking same language feel more at home with each other, people with same political view gel pretty well. Can you imagine a congress politician subscribing to BJP newsletter.
Like everything, In a overall neutral society we have small polarised sections. These formation happen gradually in a real world.

In 1971, economist Thomas Schelling performed a very simple experiment with a very strong result. He began his experiment by drawing a grid of squares on a piece of paper creating a pattern resembling an over sized checkerboard. Each square representing a house lot. He then randomly placed a black and white marker in some of these squares. Black and white representing Black and White people. Assuming the community to be fully integrated now, blacks and white living together with no preferences. He made one assumption now, if the percentage of the neighbors of the same color fell beyond 50% the family would move to nearest square to meet this need. Assuming this he started moving the squares and soon realised the board was totally segregated. All whites on one side and all blacks on the other.
He explained "small incentives, almost imperceptionable differentials, can lead to highly polarized results". Meaning, social realities are fashioned not only by the desires of people but by the action of blind or mechanical forces.

Though this kind of polarization takes a lot of time to happen in the real world where there are many hurdles to be crossed to reach this polarization. A family will look in to hundreds of thing before changing the neighbourhood.

Now, imagine a world where there are no such hurdles, where people can move around at will to there nearest neighbourhood, or even better, where people can create there own neighbourhood.
A world where there are no speed breakers: the web.
With lots of cool things around and Googles, yahoos, amazons, microsofts of the world providing, tracking and encashing on personal needs of the people. We live in communities, where we want to live in. We interact with people who talk like us, think like us...blog like us. The blogs/communities/sites/portals we visit link to places which are similar in nature. The web is moving towards Radical Personalization, and most of the time we don't have any control over the content that is fed to us. Somebody is tracking our behaviour by the clicks we have made in past. Our window is becoming narrower day by day.

Our online communities are polarized, we are able to find like minded people very easily on the web. It is well founded thought that deliberation between like minded people leads to ideological amplification. The more we interact with like minded people, the more radical our ideas become. With no critics around we see the world through a very limited window and through great confidence. The Web 2.o generation is a generation with radical ideas. It is affecting our lives.

We Indians were never radical in our nature, with nations living inside nation, it was always impossible to have polarized nation. We have always interacted with people with various communities and different ideologies and hence were never radical in nature. But things may not be same in future.Examples: What is happing in Maharastra is triggered by relatively young leadership. We are seeing avery radical face of religion and terrorism who hire and operate via web.

Learned form 'The Big Switch' by Nicholas Carr.

What am I upto these days?

2008-03-05T08:56:00.003+05:30

Life restarts after every trip, almost 3 weeks later I am back to usual. Have started playing squash again and Salsa on weekends. With not much work at office, following things are running in parallel, simultaneously:
1. I am trying really hard to get back to some kind of fitness regime, I feel like 200 kgs. Though the condition is not that bad but I am going to make sure that I utilize these summers in the best way and sweat as much as possible.
2. This project was like a blessing, I have learned so much about the current trends and how companies are looking at using Web 2.o as serious business proposition to engage the customer.
3.I have started working on developing a travel portal using open source portal platforms, have been discussing my ideas with some friends and Tarun. He has worked on some of these platforms and is going to make sure that this portal see the light of the day. Perhaps the most exciting thing now days.
4. Spending lots if time with my elder sister who went through a really low phase.
5. I am reading this book called The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr. An outstanding book, he draws a fantastic parallel between Edison his inventions and the present day software business the way he pioneered the Idea of distributing electricity as a serviceand how we are moving towards SAAS and the world wide computers concept. Writing in a lucid, engaging style, he weaves together history, economics and technology to describe how and why computers are changing — and what it means for all of us. From the software business to the newspaper business, from job creation to community formation, from national defense to personal identity.
In one of the sections he says that the World Wide Computer (Web 2.0) is creating a huge economic divide. Individuals are becoming richer by using UGC (user generated content). People contribute as a hobby , their wisdom is used not by organizations but by individuals who have built these sites to earn lots and lots of money. The best part is no body feels bad about.
Look at youtube, flickr, craigslist and the latest plentyoffish.com which is run by a single person.

...and another trip ends.

2008-02-14T00:55:00.007+05:30

I am wrapping up another project for a Healthcare Major in USA. For the first time I got a chance to work with a diverse team, A doctor with an MBA degree, a senior manager and lot of consultants. The best part was the client, a very senior guy with a PhD in marketing, a very nice and knowledgeable guy he made sure that I receive the 'tip of the day' from him everyday before I leave. Once he said: Ranjan, Projects are like pregnancy, and drew a big smile on the board and plotted it against Excitement (on Y axis) Vs Time. We start on a very high note with lot of enthusiasm, but as we get deeper in to it the excitement decreases as we face problems...and it almost zero in the middle....but once we complete it, the excitement is back .... just the way pregnancy is...for women…off course.

My role as a business analyst was to weave together the thought process, well, I was also the Web 2.0 expert ...which I can say I am familiar with now (after the project). Almost a dream project for any Business Analyst, got to explore many aspects of the modern trends in web...and used it for building the product.

I often feel that we people (business analysts) end of writing stories which is like a dream ...and believe it or not it ends up in reality ...and its sensational watching them turn into reality. Every time a technical guy asks me any question during the execution...my heart stops beating... now what have I missed. The toughest time was when I was made to sit with tech lead in the same cube in my last project... I use to go to nasty extent to save my requirements... no matter what they are always right and I will always stand by them.

The major learning from this project was how to convert a Business Strategy in to business requirements. With variety of people around, the key is to keep focus on the project... and drive the conversations...which can go any where... you know the way Americans talk :)

A day like Hundred days

2008-01-20T15:39:00.002+05:30

Early morning, I slept early as my mind was heavy and the heart heavier.
Woke up with same feelings which I thought sleep will take away,
I cant run away from myself.
...Wish I could, for sometime at least.
I feel certain way, I think the other and convey something else.
Am I murderer. No, I am not.
Then why do I feel like a one.
The mirror say something else.
The eyes are always dry... 'cause they are distant from my heart?
Winters used to be lovely, where has it all gone?
delving in dark,
Melancholy, I feel like getting rid of myself.

Thank You!

2008-01-01T21:57:00.000+05:30

Dear God,

Thank you so much for making 2007 as the best year of my life. I have cherished each and every moment of this, so much that I have events associated with almost every date of this year. This year is a landmark as it has triggered many events in my life. Perhaps the only year I thought about myself, I questioned myself, came a bit nearer to myself. After a long time I managed to complete an entire year without falling Ill or being admitted to hospital, Thank you so much for keeping me fit, I promise to take care of myself from now on. I will miss 2007, but I am so ready for 2008. Almost anything and every thing desired of consciously or unconsciously was granted to me in '07, so, I hope that you will keep the trend for '08, and I promise to keep my desires with in 'limits'.

I don't want to make any resolution as I don't want to limit myself. But I do promise that I will reduce my coffee intake and move toward becoming teetotaller.

Thank you once again.

Yours,
Ranjan

22nd to 25th Dec 2007

2007-12-27T10:33:00.001+05:30

Its was such a peaceful weekend. Like previous year Vineet and I decided to take some time off and plan something for the coming holidays. If I travel by choice be it for vacation or anything, it has to be mountains, preferably a place less known. Couple of my friends have recently been to Dharamshala and the nearby city Mcleod Ganj... never heard of the city so decided to go and explore.
So we started off on Saturday, reached Dharamsala on Sunday morning around 630AM. McLeod ganj is about 30 mins away from Dharamasala, this place inhabited by Tibetans who came along with Dalai Lama in 1959 , lots of Monks dressed in their traditional attire, chanting, walking up and down from the monastery with their shaven heads ...exactly the way we have seen them on discovery channel. Very few Indians are seen there, though the place is very near to be Haryana and Punjab, the reason I believe is we people like to see places where things can be 'done' and where there are lots of things to 'check out'. This place is different, there are certain regular tourist spots but these are definitely not the kinds that are in Nainital, Mussorie or any other famous hill station. This place is meant for people who just want to be in sink with nature for couple of days, enjoy the whether, good food and lovely walks around the place. I will seriously recommend this place to anyone who hasn't had a conversation with himself lately. The place is not at all commercialised, its just too simple, so simple that at the end of two days I really started wondering why do so many foreigner come here.... well, there is a reason for that also, will abstain from putting up here.
With nobody around to disturb, there few things that must be done once you are here .
1. Most of the hotels are good and have nice room facing the mountains, check-in to these hotels and stay for at least 2days and 1 night.
2. Hire a cab and explore all regular places like dal lake, Dalai Lama temple, waterfall etc.
3. Eat lots of Tibetan food, especially Momos... they are too good.
4. take walk from your hotel to the old church in the evening... that will be a walk to remember among the clouds :)
5. The place has amazing restaurants, go out have the laziest and longest lunch of your Life. We started at 12 in the noon and ended at 3 pm. Why hurry!!
6. Don't even think of trying 'a ayurvedic Tibetian message' if you are an Indian, nobody will entertain you!

We left for Delhi on Monday night, for the first time I travelled in a sleeper bus, got badly punished for eating lots of chicken. We reached Delhi on Tuesday, had promised by sister and nephew for 'tare zameen pe' on Christmas. We went for the late night show and I was just awed by the sensitivity and sensibility of the movie. Was just wondering, Aamir Khan is Mel Gibson of Indian cinema.
Today is 27Th Dec and it feels like new year.

Squash, Supply Chain, Salsa and two weddings

2007-11-26T23:15:00.000+05:30

Woke up today morning with this terrible dream that I have failed in my class 12th examination. I need to put this here, It's been almost 4 years since I passed out from college, but I keep getting these dreams that either i have failed in my class 12th exam or in my graduation final year. It's such a relieve when I realise that i have passed all these exams and am working now...

The sudden realization that I have got very limited amount of time in this world and have to do so many things have triggered me towards variety of activities. The first step was to get myself a good mean of transportation. I wanted to buy a car but my budget dint permitted me to buy Honda Civic and since I don't know how to drive, I thought learning, then buying will consume a lot time. Finally settled for a bike to make travelling easy. Next, I forced myself to become an early riser by playing Squash at Noida Stadium. Sports is perhaps the only thing that can force me to get up early in the morning. I strongly recommend Squash for anyone one who is interested in wild and fast games, believe me half an hour is enough to keep you on toes for the rest of the day.
Next, I have started preparing for CSCP, (Certified Supply Chain Professional).Reason being,my hunger to do more domain related projects is increasing day by day, I want to learn things which I have never thought of, which are complicated and a new thread running in the minds influences the behaviour of other threads in a very positive way.
And Finally, I have started learning Salsa again, a very special thanks to a fellow blogger for partnering up with me. We are gradually picking up the basics...
Me and Tarun have just returned from a fabulous trip of Patna and Kolkotta where we went to attend wedding or our friends Amit and Saurav. It feels so strange watching freinds with whom we have grown together, getting married. Wishing Amrita and Amit, Lipika and Saurav a blissful married life. Guys after getting married now you fall in the category of friends where we will have to think 10 times before calling you, you know... perhaps its the wrong time..they might be busy ;)

Things I learned In past few weeks.

2007-11-13T23:14:00.001+05:30

In future, not companies but their Supply chain will compete.

This is true.I would have loved to discuss this over here but will rather put it in a separate post after exploring a bit more. Examples: WalMarts Vs Any other retailer in the world. But Walmarts is suffering a midlife crisis and its competitor Target is doing much better, what can be the reason? This will determine the future of IT industry. The companies with best delivery model will succeed.

During requirement gathering, pay a lot of emphasis of business process. A little haze in the process will bring thunderstorm during development.

This statement is said by the great ranjan jha :))
This is my personal exp, a little gap or the little voice that you ignored will get louder down the line. clarify each and everything, one thing will lead to another, its better to bring everything on the table right in front. Stakeholders do not like tough questions, but a BA bust asks ugly questions.

Companies with content oriented website and not so complicated requirement must consider Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007(MOSS 2007) to build there extranets

I have written a Case study on it... will love to share it with you guys...mail me :)

Ways of Peaceful Warrior

2007-10-28T11:35:00.000+05:30

I started writing about business analysis, but thought about something better which I found a month ago and will like to share, I must have watched the movie,Peaceful Warrior, many times and the following clip at least a hundred times.

The following dialogues carry the essence of the movie and a thought always to carry along:

Socrates: Where are you?
Dan Millman: Here.
Socrates: What time is it?
Dan Millman: Now.
Socrates: What are you?
Dan Millman: This moment

Dan Milman isa former world champion athlete, university coach, martial arts instructor, and college professor. This movie is adaption of The Ways of Peaceful Warrior, one of the many books that he has written.

Moments that took my breath away...

2007-10-26T15:36:00.000+05:30

Some moments are like lifetime, as some one said: the moments that matter are the one that take our breath away. These moments are so usual but make lasting impression.
The first day in school. Dad preparing us for school and mom poacking our lunch. Waiting for bus. Coming home after playing cricket whole day with dirty feet and hungry stomach. Riding bicycle on a rainy day, we always had raincoats but never used. Standing outside the class on the "inspection" day because my notebook is not upto date and "checked". The fear of getting caught when not properly dressed for school. Dirty shoes. Trying to concentrate when friends are playing and they are shouting my name.The anxiety. Reading comics. Exchanging them. Putting up comic stall and renting them. Super Commando Dhruv and Nagraj. Billu and Pinki. Chacha Chaudhry and Prait Uncle.The feeling before exams started. The feeling on the day we wrote our last paper. Those discussions after each exam. Wrong answer..awww. Right answer...yesss. Summer vacation. Collecting leaves for science holiday work. Coming back from summer vacation. Wearing blazers in winters. School farewell, girls dressing up in saree for the first time and their highlighted lips.
The day I left home for higher studies. The first day in an unkown city. Ramjas College. Delhi University. Lecture Theatres. Elections Campiagns. Kamla Nagar. Route 816. Blue Line. never buying tickets as we were "Staff". Placements. Placement Cell. Batch meetings.
The first dance.The first time our hands touched. The first time I heard my heartbeats.
First Salary. First gift for dad and mom. Their pride, my happiness...

There are so many moments...and there was a moment when I was born, I don’t remember that. And there will be a moment when I will die...and I will not remember that... the moment which will actually take my breath away. Life is all about moments that take our breath away. There must be life on the other side.

Being out of words

2007-09-30T23:46:00.000+05:30

It’s been a long time since I expressed, shared, preached or boasted about something... what I mean to say that it’s been long since I have blogged.
Today is a dull Sunday morning; introspection seems to be a good Idea.

Communication is biggest reason for success or failure of any project. It’s good to have fights and heated discussion among team members. The biggest advantage is that you let out the negative energy and room is made for positivity. Learned this thing from my personal experience, me and my project manager recently had an ugly fight in front of our boss. A good fight in which I brought all the things that I thought If would have been done in some other way (my way) would have given better results. And she pointed out incidences where I screwed up. We both accepted that we had bad feelings about each other...in the end we both decided to start afresh.
The result: First project was big failure, second was a huge success and we doing our third project together and with a better understanding and no undercurrent we are working as team not as offshore and Onsite team.

Some times it’s very important to make a person fight with you...or vice versa. If you really care about your relationship with that person, Fight as if you want to kill that person...shout as much as you can...blame as much as you can…Let everything out. Your points won’t be accepted that is for sure. But in the end you will have be good friends. That is assured.

I remember me and my elder sister use to fight like enemies. I remember punching her in her eyes once because she ate from my plate without my permission. I still regret doing that...we dint talk for 3 months. We shared the same room, studied on the same table, washed dad's car together, went to buy vegetables together (she used to drive and I would sit quietly and talk to each other in third person).
Those were the days, its been 8 years since she is married and not a single week has passed that I haven't visited her.

I have to do this with another very close friend of mine... this is long due.

A weekend in Vegas

2007-08-29T02:40:00.001+05:30

My travel plans are still not confirmed by my company, it’s like, I may return this weekend or in mid Sep or in Oct. I had plans of going to Las Vegas coming weekend as it’s a long weekend here in US, but with so much of uncertainties, I decided not to miss it. So we hired a car and set off on a non stop 6 Hour journey through the tropical desert of Nevada.

It is so true that the journey is better than the destination; you have to admire the journey before you get awed by the destination. How can mankind build a city like this in a desert? With absolutely not sign of living beings anywhere in the route. It’s a straight road... around 300 miles…straight like my nose. Everything heard and said about Vegas is absolutely true. It is 'the Sin City' and the 'entertainment capital of the world' and what’s makes it even more sinful is that it is affordable.

Instead of going into the details of why it is called a 'Sin City' (incidentally the city has dropped marketing themselves as 'sin city' as it brings bad name to it!)

I would rather show you the video of the famous fountain near casino Bellagio’s.

The most ambitious, commanding water feature ever conceived! Bellagio's world-famous fountains will speak to your heart with opera, classical and whimsical music while flirting with your playful nature through their carefully choreographed movements. It sweeps away by breathtaking union of water, music and light.

Just watch this!

Just one of those things.

2007-08-18T13:01:00.000+05:30

The following lines will flow the way they are coming to my mind.

I have been watching a lot of movies these days, really a lots. The reason is I get a really good bandwidth when ever I am in US and I am able to download movies real fast from torrentz. I am addicted. I left reading which I use to do a lot before buying my laptop. Anyways... soon a way will be worked out, I know I will get bored soon.

There is a saying that goes like this: the mind will find a way to achieve a goal, which it sets. Not being very careful on the words I have written but the meaning which I am trying to convey is whatever unconsciously we think/ desire for, mind finds a way to achieve it. I believe in this theory.

Few months back I didn’t even know how to make a sandwich. If left alone with all the ingredients, I would have starved myself to death. I didn’t know how to cook. But I always wished to be a cook, subconsciously, I remember very well. My room partner in New Jersey, who use to cook, was all drunk one night and I was hungry like a dog. I couldn't go out to eat as nothing was available ad that point of time, I was new, in a new country, new culture...all that crap. Well, I didn’t had any other option, searched on Google 'how to prepare aloo gobi' ...and since then I’m becoming a better cook ...everyday.

I’ve always wished to see an experienced business analyst work. To learn from him on how to run the show, you know business analysis is an art... really. After completing my first project as a business analyst, I knew what all I have to learn. How to control the expectation of the stakeholders, how to say 'No'... basically how to drive. I knew it would hard to get an a chance like this, that curiosity was subconsciously so much but really couldn't do much about it. In this recent project, the client himself is Business Analyst for 13 years... and its a pleasure to watch him work. Though we don't get along very well but that's another story.

I wanted to play tennis, always, I had this feeling that I can be a good tennis player. Scenario changed, my current room partner had all the things ready ( a dozen tennis balls and an extra racket) all he needed was a partner ...and here I am, past one month everyday.

Well, there are more examples like this. I will like to hear a different theory related to this. As what I am saying seems to be uncontrollable.

What I am planning to write in coming week

2007-08-10T05:06:00.000+05:30

Its been a long time since I wrote something really good... I am completely torn.
I am not able to decide what to write and what not to. Should I make blog a 'Business Analyst' Blog or keep writing things the way I am writing. Personally I would Like to it to have more work related articles...but that will decrease the frequency of post which is already very bad.

So going through various things that are happening ...I decided to write down the topics I am thinking to write about in coming day(next one week).

1. Summary of various articles by Geri Winters. She has got an amazing insight on Business Analysis, I just love her articles. I will take her permission before publishing the contents. I strongly recommend subscribing to her newsletters for BAs.

2. Learning from the current project. As my current project is coming to an end I have a lot to share.

3. About Hollywood, Universal studios, I will be going to Disney Land this weekend so lot exciting experience to share.

4. Me and Vineet have been discussing a lot of things, which he is scared to share as some of his female fans may get angry. I decided to post it on his behalf. A short story on Vineet Abhishek and ladies in his life (just kidding!!), will surely write this one if I am in 'that' mood.

....there is no where on Earth I will rather be

2007-07-14T22:48:00.000+05:30

Not writing this post because I am in very beautiful place...As I am yet to explore.
Not writing because I managed to escape the heat of Delhi, which I always wished.
.......... There is absolutely no reason to be happy in this trip of mine.
I am working with a very hostile client.
I am a budding Business Analyst, working really hard to learn the tricks of the trade, my manager often wonders why I want to remain a BA, he doesn't see any growth in this path... I dint try convincing him but he is happy that he is got a BA who is willing to travel any time.

In fact the situation is much more complicated ..and hard to put together. I was getting very inclined towards Agile Methodology few days back and almost made my mind to switch company. I might be paid much better than what I am getting here.
Witnessing so many things happening around me since previous few weeks, I realised one thing, it takes a lot of effort to get yourself recognised in an organization.
And its very easy to blame things and keeping switching companies through out for few bucks.. I decided against it ...let me stay here for a while...I see more learning when your are in adverse situation. Its good to be beaten up at times.

I can switch ...move to pune, proximity of my home ... but I will miss Delhi winters... and I don't want to.
I can switch... move to a new company...but I may not get the flexibility ... I receive here.
I can switch ... but I will be considered experienced there...I always want to be a fresher from the campus :)
.... So let me stay here for a while.
And here so much is the randomness around the role of a Business Analyst... Actually its simple... If you cant code a particular activity...give it to a BA.

There is so much to be thought out ... the problem is that I am Libran.

City of Angeles

2007-07-08T22:31:00.000+05:30

I am on my second trip to US, this time its California. I am on a strange assignment this time....well, I will write more about the work after sometime.

My final destination was Orange County and I had a connecting flight from LosAngeles. Waited Around 5 hours for the flight at LA Airport and it turned out that the flight was for only 30 Mins(including Landing and Boarding!) and only 10 passengers!
But what took me off was the beauty of LA and the way it looked from Air in Night, as if God has scattered all his Gold and Diamonds....
I tried taking some pics...but they are no where near to what it really looks like

The BlogCampPune Experience

2007-06-27T10:46:00.001+05:30

I am the laziest person you might have ever met, I was on vacation for past two weeks and had decided to put a post about Blogcamp immediately after attending it, and its been just 11 days and finally I got myself writing again.

BlogCampPune was organised on 16th June at SCIT and was supposed to be a bloggers meet with no specific agenda or to put it in a single word it was an Unconference.

This is how wikipedia defines Unconference:

An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is driven and created by the participants, generally day-by-day during the course of the event, rather than by a single organizer, or small group of organizers, in advance. To date, the term is primarily in use in the geek community. Unconference processes like Open Space Technology, however, have been around for over 20 years in other contexts, for example in Future studies as Future workshops. There are also parallels with science-fiction fandom, in which a low-key convention with less structure, not focusing on professionals and guests of honor, is called a Relaxacon.

A very nice concept if (un)organised in a proper way can turn out be a real knowledge sharing event.
The concept of unconferences goes very well with bloggers becasue of a simple logic as I feel. The some total of expertise available i.e. combined expertise of blogger available is any time much much more than the "experts bloggers" sitting on the stage, it will be useless too choose few to do the talking, bloggers need continuous comments, criticism and claps on what they opine.

Blogcamp Pune was certainly an experience to be remembered, many bloggers came and spoke, most of the discussion took off stage ...in the groups ...few in threads running in the class room.
Some really impressive presentations were made, my Fav. 'How to make your blog popular' by Ankesh Kothari. There were some self claimed celebrity Page 3 bloggers, many people from mainstream media and many many startups with fascinating products.

The blogcamp could have been more successful if we would have managed to (un) organise it better.
A very important lesson that was learned was to always have a different thread running for sponsors. They often end eating a lot of time.... about 75% of the discussion were from sponsors in all the threads!!

I have plenty of snaps...will upload it soon on flickr...definitely by this week end.

16th june is the bloggers day in Pune!

2007-06-14T15:44:00.000+05:30

16th June. BlogCamp Pune. Symbiosis centre for IT.Be there.

Some thoughtful moments..

2007-05-06T10:39:00.000+05:30

Some where in Boston

Stollen from the walls of Haward Business School.
Update:
Here are some of the Pics of ongoing trip.

MBA Interview - How to screw it!

2007-04-13T08:31:00.000+05:30

This is the compliation of the discussion between me and Vineet or let me not take the credit from him, its his creation I just added my experiance. But the point to be taken is the incidences are real!

1. “My favorite novelist is Sidney Sheldon….. ” (and then after realising the enormity of the goof up) “…and Ayn Rand and Eric Segal and Jeffrey Archer.”

2. Questioning the faulty selection process of the institute.

3. Your formal dress for the interview is comprised of pink shirt, green jacket, creamish trousers, metallic blue tie and black shoes.(This what he actually wore for one of the interviews!)

4. Frequently pointing fingers behind your back (where there is no one) while answering.

5. When asked why you want to do MBA after Physics (H) you answer (most laconically) - “why not MBA”

6. Kick the interviewer …..while making yourself comfortable on the chair…say “sorry… Cant help it I am too tall…”

7. Keep looking at the interviewer below her kneck… when ever her dupatta slips…and smile innocently

8. When asked questions from mechanics …say “my core expertise is Nano technology and I can forsee certain signatures that biology and nano tech will merge one day…” and look thoughtfull.

......................
Am really struggling in getting a post out on requirement analysis...will try to get by this weekened. Just becoming lazier as I am getting old!

Another blogger...

2007-04-06T01:30:00.000+05:30

"Goals have been achieved, but I am feeling restless
Aims have blinded me, they have left me faceless.
Here I come to my senses feeling enlightened
Will I serve the humanity, my heart is silent.
Engulfed I have been in this material world
By desires not straight, they are entwined and curled.
This day I have a mind more vicious than my heart
There it goes again to get tamed by the worldly hart."

Vineet Abhishek started blogging today and I am really very happy about it. My classmate at Ramjas College and a very close freind he is a genuine poet. Check out his poems here.

Blogcamp Update:

Blogcamp Pune will be held in SCIT, Pune on 16th June. read this article on techgoss.com, our first coverage.

A trip to Boston

2007-03-26T09:56:00.000+05:30

" I remember the days when we used to have long endless discussions,

when we had this freedom to speak our minds,

Now there this voice hush,hush,hush,hush,hush,...

and the silence...."

I dont exactly remember the quote as its written on the wall of one the halls in Harvard Business School, but it there was something, that made me keep staring at it for minutes.

Its been exactly one month in US and I found no difference between New Brunswick and Noida... till Saturday. The work is so demanding that I have been sleeping only for 5 hours and haven't been able to see the places here and I myself should be blamed for this. Ankur(my school friend dehradun) is living in New Jersey City since past six month and we planned to go to Boston(nearly 300 miles from my place) this weekend. So on saturday me, Ankur, Pranav and Hari started out for a trip which I beleive will be something I will always remember.
The first stop was at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, a huge place where I could see young people boozing and old one playing. We spent a good 4 hours there watching the crowd, at the discotheque... just hanging around. We spent the rest of the night at Ankur's friend place in Connecticut.
The next morning we left for Boston. The drive to Boston from Connecticut is around 3 hours and for me the time passed like seconds. I was just amazed to see the frozen lakes and the woods. The only problem is that you cant stop on these highways and click some photographs... too bad. Spring is comming, but looking at these lakes... its gives a feeling that the water is too lazy to flow again. Our first stop was at massachusetts institute of technology, spent some time there, had a long photo session. Harvard University just 3 miles from MIT, I was more interseted in seeing Harvard University perticulary the Business school. I dont know whether I have enough words and patience to describe each and everything that I experianced at HBS, but it was something which I will always have with me.... may be like to come back to this place as a student to do a real MBA.

p.s. will try to upload the pics on flickr soon and post a link over here.

First few days in USA.

2007-03-05T07:43:00.000+05:30

I am in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA. Landed here last friday and its been 10 days. My travel plan was well made and I had asked a freind staying here to book a hotel for me. To my surprise(and to his) the hotel was on a Highway, there is nothing nearby except a gas station and restaurant. So I spent my last weekend(and first outside India) watching snowfall through my hotel window and witnessing green lawns turn into white carpets and its beautifull.
Monday morning was my first day at office. I am here as a business analyst and my job is requirement gathering and process understanding. I had absolutely no Idea how to do it. For the past one week everyday I go to office with a blank mind and I dont know there is some power which walks me through the entire day safely. All I know is that past one week I have learned more than what I have learned in past one year. Now I know how to conduct a User Requirements meeting, what questions to ask and how to write an User Requirement Specification(URS) Document. Thanks to jetlag that wont allow me to sleep in nights and since I am in office I can sleep in day, till now I am on schedule and doing just fine.

Yesterday I shifted with some of the freinds here and now I feel better, after 10 days i was able to speek hindi and eat Indian food. Past one week all I have eaten is tasteless wraps with lots of green uncooked vegitables which I will never eat in India.

New York City is only a hours drive, I have heard this city itself is beautifull (I have seen some of the most beautifull in my life girls here). My be by the end of this month when I will get some time to loosen up, I will see these places and ....
Winters have never been so beautifull.

Thoughtless.... Again!

2007-02-16T19:09:00.000+05:30

Friday evening.. absolutely nothing to do, I am in office as usual thinking of posting something but nothing is coming to my head. Its blank and the colour I can see in my mind is white(though there is bouquet of a dozen roses on my table, I will tell the story)..spotless and I am left thoughtless.

Past one month I have been slogging with a adobe product just to prepare myself for the assingment which is going to kick start my career as a business analyst. Its a dream role as I really have no intentions of going into project management, however hard this organisation may try! Simply because I think project management is more of people management and you have to depend on too many people to get the work done. So here I am more nervous than excited though its going to be my first outside India.

Now here is the valentines story. Reached office as usual, some college kids have joined HCL recently so they were pretty much excited about the big V. The whole office was decorated with balloons and flowers, events were organised in the cafe and suddenly the whole HR deartment was active. Everything was okay, except a dozen of roses on my desk. One of my salsa partners sent me a beautiful bouquet with a card attached which said beautiful things about freindship and made my collegues at work wonder how loving girl freind Ranjan possess. More emnbarrased than happy she made me feel like a girl! I always hated giving flowers to girl. I just not that type. You know the very feeling of waiting for somebody with bunch of roses in my hand is terrible. I can do anything but flowers, and I have paid for this weakness of mine few times. Being too rude to the senderI prefered leaving the flowers on my desk till they are dead and the office cleaning staff can automatically clear it up. Today, monday morning, its gone.

I always use to think how can people be 'difficult'' to work with... than I met my project manager. She is 'Just Married' 34 year old woman who always puts her team member in 'confronting' situation. I never had trouble working with people, infact the last manager I worked with was disliked by every one and after initial clashes we went on to become best buddies in office. But this lady is just impossible. May be at the end of this project I can put a post on 'how to handle difficult woman'.
What else should I write about?

BlogCamp Pune

2007-02-09T17:06:00.000+05:30

Tarun always surprises me with the kind of ideas he keeps coming up with on infrequent basis, the last time I was taken off was when he started the unofficial magazine for our college and the mag. was a bit hit as it contained every peice of gossip people wanted to listen and talk about and this time its BlogCamp.

Blogcamp Pune is being organised(or unorganised) in june this year, the intent being bringing together bloggers from around the world together and make them all talk. Its not a conference(an unconference) as it doesnt have any agenda, but bloggers themself need to figure out how this 'coffee break' should turn out.
The conversation that takes place at these kind of gathering is highly interesting and perhaps the blogcamp will be the best place to figure whats going in the mind of fellow bloggers.
Though the concept is not new 'Blogcamp' has been organised in Chennai last year and was Indias Biggest Blog Unconference, I bet this is going to be bigger.

For detail visit the blogsite BlogCamp Pune
And add yourself to the wiki here.

Why am I writing?

2007-01-30T18:06:00.000+05:30

Since past few days I was badly stuck up with LDAP; the problem was that you cant create user in Adobe LiveCycle (a software which helps in automating workflows in an organization) it takes only the LDAP user. So having no clue about LDAP I had to make a complete LDAP instalation, create a directory and all that crap that only networking people in Symbiosis used to do. For me LDAP meant 'Last day at Partecs(the company where I did internship)'.
Thanks to the bloggers and the lousy documentation that open source people do I was able to manage some how.

The story holds a lot of relevance as most of the geeky searches that you make on search engines now days point to blog enteries and thats exactly how I got into blogging.
Still not a very convicing reason but the fact is that I love writing. Blogging is an ultimate media to express I dont know why the media want to kill bloggers ... Read this Blogpost by Jace.
Personally talking, each time I write I am a better individual, okay I am not making a big statement but at core I am very confused person a typical libran(Some time I do believe that what ever Linda Goodman wrote about Libran Man, wrote keeping me in mind!), blogging give a lot of clarity to my tought process. And yeah I do put in a lot of effort before I write anything,. And the very feeling of sharing is amazing, I love the fact that people are reading what I am writing and some time it does make sense to them.

Parag sir has inspired me a lot ... and relate very much to what he says about Blogging. The slides are highly informative and contain some of the bloging best practices. Infact he is among the people who inspired me for blogging. The more people start sharing what they are learning, the faster this world will become a better place.

Some times a blog is just a medium to express when nobody is listening to me, its like talking to myslef; Sometimes its just a shoulder to cry, and sometimes its just a pat on my own back and sometime a kick on my own butt!

update:
Here is an interesting article:
Social Media Goes Mainstream by Dion Hinchcliffe

Looking Back, 2006

2006-12-29T14:40:00.000+05:30

Past few months, I have spent half my time on Gartner and Forrester, so much that the Forrester wave's haunt me in the nights and the Gartner's Hype Cycle keep me occupied the time I am in my senses. I really wanted to put a post on 2006 as it was the most dramatic year of my life both personally and professionally and couldn't think of a better way to express it as the above curve almost depicts the way the year went. There were some bad times, there were some good, and I really struggled.
In the end I just feel a bit more matured and confident. I met so many new people, I lost contact with so many old people who were very dear to me. I was the cause of pain for many so obviously the later part of the year was painful for me... I realised this fact.
Happy New Year!
Update: I was in jaipur for new year, had plans for shimla but couldn't resist hanging out with undergrad friends almost after 3 years. So me, Kundan, Vineet and Anil had a great time in Jaipur, we also went to Ajmer as kundan had this urge to visit Ajmer Sharif. Same old people, same memories to share, same passion of pulling each other legs; time never changes when you are with old folks.

The World is talking, Are you Listening?

2006-12-18T11:19:00.000+05:30

It hasn't been too long since I started blogging, only six month. Slowly realised there is all together a different world over there and the virtuality of blogosphere came to reality on 16th Dec at Global Voices unconference at India Habitat Centre.
Before I move ahead a brief about GV:
"Global Voices Online is a non-profit global citizens’ media project, sponsored by and launched from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School.
A growing number of bloggers around the world are emerging as “bridge bloggers:” people who are talking about their country or region to a global audience. Global Voices is guide to the most interesting conversations, information, and ideas appearing around the world on various forms of participatory media such as blogs, podcasts, photo sharing sites, and videoblogs. "

The meeting sarted with a brief intro about GV by the founders Ethan Zuckerman and
Rebecca MacKinnon, the primary aim of GV is to make the world listen to what is happening the world except America and western Europe. So were the participants, bloggers from Maldives, Tunisia, Brazil, China, Uganda, kenya, France, combodia, Poland, Germany, Taiwan and only few from India were present. Well the most unusual gathering where the first question people ask " Are you a blogger?" answer: "yes" next question " What do you write?" answer" hmmm.., some tech, some biz and mostly crap".

The next session was a discussion about How to increase the outreach? The discussion aimed towards enabling every person to blog and not just limit blogging to the 'elite' class.
How can somebody who doesnt have even the basic means to gather his living blog or benefit from blogging. It does sound weird but its true, people can benefit from blogging, the impact may not be immediate.

The next two session were mostly focused on 'translation' and 'tools and tech'. GV is having major problem in translation and various ways were discussed to counter this.

Blogging gives individual a lot of power, suddenly the world becomes your audiance and this can be used/misused. Its like an open source journalism. Most the people use blog to share there day today personal experiance, which is good, but just by expanding our horizons a bit we can address issue which is often not addressed by mainstream meadia. Blogging is becoming a serious thing. The outreach needs to be increased, perhaps, encouraging the students and working professional will help in increasing the outreach. Parag Shah has written an interesting article on learning professional and blogging. During the coffee breaks I had a discussion with Stuart who pointed out that the best blogs he came accross were from the Phd students, who infact converted there blogs into research papers.

Web 2.0 phenomenon made internet collaborative, everyone is contributing, everyone is talking and everyone is listening. Salam Adil gave very nice thought which can be made a punch line for increasing the outreach:

The world is listening, Are you Talking?

WithIT, WithoutIT

2006-12-05T18:07:00.000+05:30

Ever since I left Symbiosis Campus, things changed, which was quite expected. We passed out went on to our respective companies and started working. Started Working, every thing was was new and exciting, the first day at work, the first project, the first salary.
We had goals to achieve when we were in college, these were short term which added on towards 'dream' we all had, which kept the day to day life exciting. The trend continued when we started working and the excitement continued.

Seven month hence I know how my carrier path ought to be and its a long term goal which will take some time to achieve and I am working towards it. But lately, I realised that, I am a person who cant live without short term goals. My professional goal is enough to keep me excited about mondays. But thats not enough, I need quick result, success or failure that doesnt matter. I need some thing to work on after I reach back home, some thing which keeps me excited about the weekend, some thing which I have to complete in the coming week, some thing other than ECM( thats the area I love to work and working in). Some thing unpredictable need to occur at unharmonic intervals.

It was always there , I realised last week only after completing one of the short term goals.
When in college playing volleyball after classes was one the things that kept me alive, while playing volleyball , smashing(spiking) was always an area of improvement( I hope Harsha(who is wasting time finding an Ideal Job )will coment on it). After volleyball placecom job kept me busy. So, I never had this feeling neither the realization.

Now life has become more predictable and the day is lost in office, nights mostly in sleeping. Things will happen but at there own pace and I am too impatient to wait for things to happen which leads to frustation some times (and result in this kind of post).

I decided to do a certification in Supply Chain Management and started preparing for it. The high cut off required to pass the certification kept me quite motivated everyday and night. Last sat was the exam and I hope to clear the exam, the result will be declared in jan. The exam was great exp. and I realised I need to keep doing such thing doesnt matter I pass or fail.

So what next, I am really bad at dancing, so bad that I missed college parties because of that. It often led to odd situations, decided to get rid of this weakness and this sunday enrolled for Salsa classes. So every weenkend I will be learning salsa for the next one month.
This will be the toughest thing I have ever done in my whole life.

Breaking the monotony

2006-11-07T19:08:00.000+05:30

Life tries its best to trap us in cycle; you wake up in morning, read newspaper, go to office, check mails, get a cup of coffee and the work starts. Its a blessing if you have work which is interesting(challenging, as many people say; but I believe that more than work people you work with are challenging), the day ends, you go home, you get 2-3 hours of life and its 12 O'clock, you sleep as have to get up early in the morning, its a cycle a vicious cycle.

We all live a very usual life, a very similiar life. I talk to people and I ask " whats up?" they reply "nothing", none of us have a story to tell. We dont have time for things we like to do or pretend liking to do. We plan too much and implement less; very often I get this feeling there is so much genarality in my life that may be some time back some where in this world somebody might have lived a life which is same as mine or might be living a smiliar life; I might be just repeating what he did or somebody is doing or somebody will.

How do I break this monotony? How to get out of this cycle?

I will like to live a life which changes daily, I dont want to recognise the person I was yesterday.
I am asking too much and I am using too much 'I's which I really hate. Thinking this thing since a long time, it was decided that something will be done pretty soon which is going to change my life completly.
I want to live a new life... everyday. I want to tell a new story everyday!

Need, Want, Love

2006-10-31T15:29:00.000+05:30

"... But we fumble along as best we can, trying to reconcile the needs, wants and loves that drive us (and have driven all life on Earth since it began) with the realities, pressures and scant opportunities of modern civilization. The result is not pretty, and often ghastly. If we're wise, we learn to laugh about it, because the only alternative, too often, is to rage or weep. In love, as in all things, we do what we must"

Need, Want, Love by Dave Pollarad of How to save the world

Best Of Robert Frost

2006-10-10T15:23:00.001+05:30

Here are some of the best lines of various poems that Robert Frost has written,Which I like.

The Road Not Taken

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I--I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Birches

I would Like to get away from earth awhile
and than come back to it and begin over.
May not fate willfully misunderstand me
and half grant what I wish and Snatch me away
No to return. Earth's the right place for Love;

The Death of the Hired Man

Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.

Mending Wall

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again,"Good fences make good neighbours"

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it's queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep

Sam Walton: Made In America

2006-09-25T15:02:00.000+05:30

I really wanted to learn a lot about the retail industry, attending training and presentation gives a very high level idea but certainly helps. I knew about Sam Walton and that he has written an autobiography, so decided that I will start by reading his book. I bought a copy of his bok at Mumbai airport (do visit the book stall at domestic departure, you will definately get the what ever you want).

Sam Walton's Made In America is his story and how he went on to establish the biggest retail chain of the world. I had read a lot of autobiographies but Sam's the one I really admire. He build a company whose stats are mind blowing and the best part its was never noticed, never faced any competiton eniterly because of its strategy and has been ruling since 1962.

So why is his story different?

The 'I' factor which is highly pronounced in autobiographies of great buisness men (read Jack welch or Lee Iacocca) is missing or you wont feel it. He was a born retailer, no mind blowing startegies , no high figh meetings, just simple implementaion of things which he learned from other retailers while visiting their stores around the world. I dont say jack Welch achievement is less compared to Sam but if somebody wants to know what entrepreneurs are made of this book is highly recomended. I strongly feel that the success of WalMart can be replicated in India it will just need another Sam Walton to do it.

Thoughtless...

2006-09-07T20:06:00.000+05:30

Its like sitting on the bank of a river and watching the river flow...
So many thoughts and still nothing to write, I dont know how this post will turn out but I am just going to put them as they come.

I spent 3 hours today clearing my old mails from my mailbox, going through them and deleting... I had plenty of time today as I am moving to new project under a new mentor and I am pretty excited about it.

Why there is so much fuss about 'vande matram', Gandhiji during one of his'fast unto death' in Bengal during partition time had to face a similiar situation... ok ..let me give a bit of background. During the partition when the riots started both on eastern front(Bengal) and on the western front(Pakistan), the Indian gov. put 30,0000 strong army to curb the riots on the west and Gandhi in the east. The riots in the west, as we all know killed countless people and the east was controlled in months and no life was lost since Gandhi took over. He said no one should be forced to sing 'vande matram' or 'raghupati raghav' as its voilence ..simple..and it worked. And today we cant understand this simple thing... may be thats the irony of democracy.

'Simplicity' is a very complex word. It means being connected to yourself all the time which is very tough.

I am reading Sam walton's autobiography these days, its story of the worlds most successful retailer and Walmart. I will put a review in my next post, but I am really amazed how simply he did it. Ok, just to quote some figures: Indian retail industry in estimated to be 238 billion dollors and Wallmarts alone is 30o billion dollar company much ahead of its nearest competitors(carrefour, 80 billion dollars) and much bigger than the Software Industry.

People have problems expressing their feelings. Why?
This what I think:
Feeling are really hard to express and putting them in words is perhaps the toughest task. We need to understand the diffrence between 'toughts' and 'feelings' , its same as mind and Heart(I do believe in its existence). We 'think' in some language but we dont 'feel' in any thats why its tough to express and tougher to understand.

Here I am ...

2006-08-25T19:34:00.000+05:30

For days and for years the question whic puzzled and troubled me most were quesions pointed towards me...." tell me about yourself?"
I tought and I still stand by that why do peolple ask these questions... how can I know about myself. Well I should know as I am "Me", may be i never thought about myself never observed my behvioural patterns ..yeah thats true. So it always made me happy when people use to coment one me, or when my school teacher left a note about me or said something good in parent- teacher meeting.
I was good in sports and good in studies, my teacher use to say if he improved his handwriting he will get atleast 50%more marks ... and thats where I put the blame for not getting good marks.
Marks never bothered me.. I remember my father caught me reading comics during board exams and i got a nice treatment for that. I was always( and my mom still believes) was the worst all the brothers and sisters.
But I had this special believe in myself that " I am good" not matter what..

Got into college, completed PG... every thing was unplanned... wanted to do engg. .. but studied physics... than thought of doing MCA but ended up doing MBA... during college placement wanted to get into development but now am into something which is not development(am still not confident about my role)... but I am still doing good :)

I miss my undergrad days .. God ...falling in love with every other girl you meet at college but not having enough guts to even talk to her... delhi girls were really good... and my college had the best sample... and than one day I graduated and my dad said "grow up" and I said " Dad I am 6'3" ".

ps: No secial purpose for putting this post, sometime I do Think about myself :)

Remembering Ustad Bismillah Khan

2006-08-22T18:48:00.000+05:30

Its been almost fours years now and the memories of the day is still afresh.
I some how managed to get two passes for a concert that was taking place in dehradun, it was organised by SPIC MACAY(www.spicmacay.org) and Ustad Bismillah Khan was playing Shehnai along with Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia on flute. I was in dehradun, had just completed my second year at Ramjas. So me and my elder sister who has a great liking for classical music went to IMA where the concert was taking place.

I was shocked to see such a great crowd there at IMA, Spic Macay fests are common in delhi and in our college we used to have over night concert but hardly use to get any audience.

The concert started, Bishmillah Khan sahab plays with family, all his sons play shehnai and the yougest one accompany him on tabla, he came on a wheelchair so week yet so charming the kind of greeting he got from the croud was so touching, he played only for about 45 mins some thumri and a pashchami geet. More than the music I like what he said between recitals, like he will say " Ab umar zyada ho gaye hai isliye zyada der tak reyaz kar nahin pate" later after a long speech he will say with a child like innoccence " Hum to sangeet zande hai, isliye zyada bolenge nahin, hame bashan dena nahin aata". He will continue playing and in between remembering the old days he will say " Hamare time pe kya jalse hua karte the, banaras main.... aaj kal to bahut he kam hote hai" than " Kuch bhi ho jaye apne bachcho ko sangeet ki shikhsa zaroor dejiyega, yahi hamare liye sabse bara inam hoga."
After playing some thing really good he will often break into singing the song himself. Day before yesterday I was watching him on TV, he was singing the same song ... on his death bed.

He lived his live some how managing to keep himself and his family(66 member family totally depended on him) above poverty line, and had strong believe that he will never choose laxmi over saraswati. I have watched many classical singers play but that day the feeling was different going home... and so is today after he has left this world.

Words Wine and Wisdom

2006-08-18T18:47:00.001+05:30

"भावुकता अंगूर लता से खींच कल्पना की हाला,
कवि साकी बनकर आया है भरकर कविता का प्याला,
कभी न कण-भर खाली होगा लाख पिएँ, दो लाख पिएँ!
पाठकगण हैं पीनेवाले, पुस्तक मेरी मधुशाला।।४।"

"चलने ही चलने में कितना जीवन, हाय, बिता डाला!
'दूर अभी है', पर, कहता है हर पथ बतलानेवाला,
हिम्मत है न बढूँ आगे को साहस है न फिरुँ पीछे,
किंकर्तव्यविमूढ़ मुझे कर दूर खड़ी है मधुशाला।।७।"

Madhushala
http://manaskriti.com/kaavyaalaya/mdhshla.stm

Coming back to doon

2006-08-16T17:42:00.000+05:30

I had planned a long time before for the coming 'long' weekend, but certain events took place and the original plan had to change.
So I was left with few options like goining to mumbai or stay back and sleep.
Mumbai I didnt wanted to go, my parents were here last weekend and I was not sure if I will get the tickets and didnt had any other motivation.
It just needed a invitation from dhiraj to make the whole plan ... and decided to got to chandigarh... and in the process i made a plan for ddun also with school friends.

12th and 13th I was in Chandigarh and 14th and 15th in ddun, It was a much needed break and Sitting in office today completing this blog and feeling not at all tired even after a long journey.

The best thing I liked about chandigarh apart from dhiraj ke ghar ka khana was girls, simply amazing. Ok, I wont be giving reasons for that but I will quote an incident:

Dhiraj was taking us for 'golgappa' and we parked the car and discussing the kind of lovely creatures we had seen in the eve near sukhana lake, for some reasons he to remove his specs... i quess for cleaning and he regreted doing that even tough it was for a very small period of time.

Be it boating in sukhna lake, passing through those awfully small gates in Rock Garden or just moving around in Asia's biggest rose garden, I enjoyed chandigarh a lot.

There is one thing more about chandigarh: you get out of your home.. turn on the music ... before you could complete a song you will reach your destination, its a very small city.

14th morning I left for dehradun, reached ddun around noon.

I stayed with Ashish Pal, my KV friend, currently struggling both on personal and professional front, met him after 3 years and he has hardly changed... well he rescued me at the last moment and I will always remain thankful for that.

His place is very near to Indira Nagar, perhaps the best place in ddun to stay, tea garden is near by at walking distance and amazing view of woods and the best thingis that its near to my school.
So in the evening we went for a small walk near tea garden... than went for a ride ...explored the old places ...mussorie road, shahstradhara road, rajpur road

There is one thing about these shivalik mountain ...they challenge you. Pune is very similiar to ddun but the hill are some how not "fresh". The dense greenery is missing and the thrill that alitude provides is not there and there is nothing like having a bike ride from ddun to mussorie.

The 'Practical' Approach

2006-07-26T21:03:00.000+05:30

Some people take descisions which are very 'practical' in nature. Why are decisions taken which are practical in nature?

This is what I think:

The first picture that comes to my mind when I say the word 'practical' is doing the first physics practical way back in class 9th. We called it practical as its some done for 'proof' of a concept that was given by some one... or for believing in a theory. Practicals were suppose to convice that things are as they are tought to us.
If you want to change things or break the theory or give a new theory ... we conduct experiments.

I believe people who take 'practical' decisions are often going the 'safe' way which is consiting of less risks.
People who take risk, or choose the experimental way, may succeed or may not succeed, they go by there intution more than they go by their brain... they follow the other way...but in the end they have this feeling of satisaction which is devine.

Should we live a 'safe' and 'practical' life?
Should we take decisions which are 'practical'?
Are we than living life on our own terms?
Can we become a achiever by being practical?

MeghaDoota

2006-07-26T19:38:00.001+05:30

I have this unusual liking for poetry, it keeps on coming up from time to time.Its weird and unharmonic. I remember the when I was in class sixth, I really liked this poem by Vikram Seth, 'Drinking Alone With the Moon', I liked it so much that I went on to the extend of cramming the whole poem and even today I remember it word by word.
The next one i liked was again by Vikram Seth, 'The Frog and The Nightingale', We had it in our class 10th, Its so amazing... so humourous.
My next venture with poetry was in graduation...this time 'liking' was so much that I went on writing a poetry... I will put it as a blog...sometime...ok ...read.. its here.
This time ..suddenly .. I found my self reading 'MeghaDuta' by Kalidas(obviously in English).
Here is a prologue about the poet and his masterpiece

The Meghaduta (which translates literally as cloud-messenger) is a lyrical poem written by Kalidasa, considered to be one of the greatest Sanskrit poets. A short poem of only 111 stanzas, it is one of his most famous works. It recounts how a Yaksha, after being exiled for a year to central India for some unknown transgression, convinces a passing cloud to take a message to his wife on Mount Kailasa in the Himalayan Mountains. The Yaksha accomplishes this by describing the many beautiful sights the cloud will see on its northward course to the city of Alakaa, where his wife awaits his return