Kon-Tiki: Name of the GOD for native people from Polynesian islands. Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer named the raft Kon-Tiki, which he used for his expedition across Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands. His purpose of this expedition was to show that South Americans could have settled in pre-Columbian times using material & technologies available at that time. In my blog, I intend traverse the journey of connecting dots in the past & present. Reference: wiki
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Ethics and Transparency....
Life isn't so easy if one is all ethical and transparent.It makes things questionable whether I have chosen "reasonable" way or not ... especially for utmost vital decisions of life? Probably these are the times when personality as an aspect comes out.
:Dhan
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Aamir Khan - Striving for perfection
Aamir Khan for his upcoming movie was shooting in my hostel campus, we were fortunate enough to see him performing live. So I was watching his schedule at 3:45 am. He was inside the hostel room (this room was designed specifically for shooting, and it is almost like any other of hostel room around and ensured not to disturb hostelites as far as possible) and there he was, completely involved into his character. Once The take was okay'ed he would rush outside the room and sit just in front of the room, he joined the chess game which he left unfinished before going for the next take. And he started playing it with the same concentration and zeal. When director called up for the next take, he was pretty much there with his whole energy and engrossment into it. This quick transformation from one role for reel to another in reality was amazing. His game continued for whole night and the guys in front of him kept changing, obviously there were first year students who were having some breathing time.
Aamir has been playing every possible game in campus. He was seen playing Baddy with us, then cricket, Long tennis, football, TT, volley ball, and of course chess. and almost, after each game, he is smiling with his posture upon the request of fellow IIMB'ians to have a snap with him.
I guess his body is now toned down. It's no longer like what we have seen in Gajini. It's obvious since he hasn't got access to well equipped gym and probably his character in this movie doesn't need that. Even Sherman Joshi and R madhavan are simple & down to earth, they are easy to access and ready to talk general things.
In front of our canteen, Boman Irani was asking whether he can smoke there or not. And with little apprehension, he lit his sigar (it wasn't some simple sigarrette but something like that).
Raju hirani, I felt is good human being. Very considerate.
Friday, January 02, 2009
iStanford
It's the first time Stanford University administration has allowed student to access university servers-data without secure protocol/applications.
Do we have such people in India, both in terms of student and the administration? Or atleast can we facilitate/foster it?
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
A quote from Mahabharat (Bhagvat geeta)
सध्या महाभारताचे ठराविक भाग पहातोय .. त्यात ऐकलेलं हे वाक्य; श्रीकृष्णाने अर्जुनाला म्हटलेले एक वाक्य .... अर्थातच संजयच्या ’दैवी’ दृष्टीमुळे आपल्याल समजलेले. मी विचार करत होतो की युद्धभुमीवर युद्ध चालू असताना सारथ्य करताना श्रीकृष्णाला एवढा वेळ कसा मिळाला की त्याने अर्जुनाला जीवनाचं सार समजवलं ?
थोडं शोधलं, त्यावर एक युक्तीवाद असा केला जातो की श्रीकृष्णाने सुक्ष्म वेळ नियंत्रीत केली आणि अर्जुनाला साक्षात्कार घडवला ..... पण मग मला संजयचं विशेष वाटतंय यासाठी की त्याला ही सुक्ष्म वेळेही अनुभवता आली.... म्हणजे तोही gifted होता का ?
अजून एक मालिका NBC TVवर चालू आहे ... Heroes काही काळापूर्वी मी त्याचे काही भाग पळवत पळवत पहायचो ... त्यात Hiro
कडे अशीच काहीसी क्षमता असल्याचं दाखवलय .. अर्थात महाभारत आणि ह्या Science Fiction मध्ये compare करण्याचा काही प्रश्नच नाही .. असंच आठवलं म्हणून खरडलं.
Title to the post
Couple of things I have been watching:-
- Recently whenever I look at news papers, online reports, and news channels; all of them are reporting losses that corporates are facing or dip in their profits, sales, etc.
- Probable, colleges like mine are few of the first in India to feel the heat of the global turmoil.
- Sometime in next week, I want to write marathi post about this article I read online. I am finding some relevance to what is happening around and what worse in business scenario can be expected with it. Basically the author, in this article talks about how the financial collapse are unavoidable and government actions in supporting the banks can lead to worsening the situation.
- Google has been finding it difficult to see promising competitor in its online streaming business i.e. the famous youtube.com. The name is HULU. It's a formed with a joint venture of NBC and Fox and it is becoming popular with TV shows and movies. More importantly, it's gaining commercial support unlike youtube because corporates (like MGM, etc) are skeptical about youtube's position in respecting copyright informations. Just because HULU is more focused on TV shows and movies, it's likely to be successful in the targetted video streaming business
- Crude oil prices have plummeted below $60 to $59.39 - 20 weeks low price despite cut in production by OPEC. It's interesting to know that OPEC countries haven't cut the production by the declared number of barrels i.e. 1.5 million barrel cut was expected. But it is heard that they have cut the production byt 800,000 barrels a day. Why haven't they cut it by more 700,000 barrels? Probably, it will greatly impact their economies of scale operation (shall I call it as reverse of economies of scale ?)
- Mr. Prime Minister, Doesn't want to reduce prices of oil products in India? Indian o companies are making profit of more than Rs. 4 on sale of one liter of petrol and bearing loss of less than Rs. 1 on sale of diesel. The argument proposed for the same is, sale of diesel is far more than that of petrol.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Relations
I don't know why sometimes I get philosophical! It is good to think so at the same time, at the end if it, I feel, it does not help much. Since I already peeked into philosophical territory, let me scribble one more sentence here - as told by one of my prof.
"The last shirt has no pocket !!"
:D
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Back with new machine !
I was really in trouble. Anyway this wasn't my first time to be in trouble :-) I was even had better trouble times ;-) They call it - साला नसीब हो झेंडू तो क्या करेगा पांडू !
Anyway!! So with this new machine, I have regained my powers.
Mean time I was enjoying at home for more than a week. Let me tell you that one week is the maximum term break duration I could have grabbed in my life at this college so far. These 10 days, (okay, 9 days to be precise) gave me very much needed breathing space. And there is no other comfort like being at home. How could I have chose to loose an opportunity to trek any fort being at home. So I managed to trek Rajgad for one more time. Awesome is the only word to describe Rajgad.
Hopefully I will be able to post few snaps of my recent Rajgad trek in next post.
Till then Njoy Madi !!
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Tuned with time
So here I am ... back to square one or should I say .. the thing I love to do at any given time, especially when I have moved out of Bangalore and traveled to some of the places which I have always been longing for visiting. There are some really nice -butter, some bitter too, experiences on my travel-way till here ... so Dj stay tuned... to pour them here !!!
Till then ... Njoy Madi :-)
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Khosla ka Ghosla
Vinod Khosla, as I mentioned about him in my last post is Pune born Technologist, Venture Capitalists, Commercial Environmentalist (?)
- Studied in IITD then in Carnegie Mellon University and then MBA from Stanford School of Business.
- Founder of Sun Microsystems
- Was partner in Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of founders of The Indus Entrepreneurs
- Owns firm - Khosla Ventures funding indian households through MicroFinance
- Founded ck12.org as it quotes :: "CK12 aims to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the US and worldwide. Using an open-source, collaborative, and web-based compilation model that can be manifested as an adaptive textbook - termed the "FlexBook", CK12 intends to pioneer the generation and distribution of high quality educational web texts". I am curious to see how they will be doing it so now waiting for their actual launch.
- Significantly investing in Ethenol Industry in US. What I mentioned in my last post is also part of it.
- Has invested in Praj Industries listed in India - not sure if he is also on BODs of Praj.
- Writes blog. and I am yet to figure out what is Prop 87 as he has mentioned many times in his blog.
- Is associated with Zaplet.com which is now MetricStream.com - it is Governance, Risk, Compliance, Quality Management Solution provider company. It's ComplianceOnline.com give online training for these mentioned things. By the way Tata Consultancy Services is also one of the metricstream's partners.- Serves as Directors for renowned companies like Juniper Networks, Siara Systems, Qwest communications, Centrata, Corvis Cooperation, Corio, SEEC, Infinera, etc.
What all this man has been doing. Can you sense 'Sense of Vision' in his attempts so far ?
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Coskata
'Coskata-Coatue' pronounced as "co-skate-uh co-too". This Wildlife Refuge is famous for its white-sand beaches, salt/sweet water, excellent fishing environment, oak woods and also historic light house. This is a natural and partially developed ecosystem that accommodates rare and diminishing habitats, plants, and birds.
This is the place that influenced the founders of Coskata Inc who were there for visit to Nantucket island. They were amazed by the beauty and natural wonder of this place. And this visit to the land refuge concluded as booster to their effort and inclination of preserving Mother Earth in though commercial but efficient way, so is the establishment of Coskata Inc to generate bio-fuels/ Ethanol under $1.00 per gallon (whoop) that too can be ported to any part of world and it can process any material as input which include waste materials, tyres too using their proprietary bio-reactor designs.
Coskata Inc. has made available the 3 step process of converting input material into Ethanol through first converting input material into synthesis gas, then deriving energy from oxidation of the converted gas (fermentation) and finally separation and recovery of Ethanol.
You see, there is a roaring concerns to the traditional auto car manufacturers. The concerns will mostly turn out as threats to their survival of business in next 20-30 years if they don't take necessary measures to tackle the major causes of concerns -
1. Depleting oil reserves : The OPEC still rules. Recently they have decided not to expand their capacity.
2. Increasing environmental awareness : World is becoming really worried about this. As one can see the thoughtful actions being taken by different country groups G7, EU, etc. WTO is working and establishing norms for countries involved in it.
3. Country specific economic preferences: Developed countries are encouraging the R&D efforts of Private players, entrepreneurs for finding alternatives to oils/gases and reduce dependence of third countries for oil import and ultimately reduce the trade deficit.
No wonder GM motors , Ford motors and now TATA motors, M&M in India have started emphasizing on environment friendly ways to drive/sustain their business in future. So it's clear that GM has extended strategic partnership with Coskata Inc. So are Khosla Ventures, Advance Technology Ventures and Great POoint Ventures.
Coskata claims to have their processes and bio-reactor design being validated by world class research labs, universities and companies. It has sought help of academicians from various universities.
Founded in 2006 by Todd Kimmel and Dr. Rathin Datta, the company has compiled a strong IP portfolio of patents, trade secrets, know-how and assembled a first-class management team ... Wow !! So in all this company, as experts are saying, will be bringing revolutionary changes in Ethanol industry.
Remember Vinod Khosla ? The same techie and businessman who was founder of Sun Microsystems is involved in Coskata through his ventureship.
Also we have Praj Industries which is one of the leaders in Indian Ethanol Processing industry and to an extent can be called successful one. So long way to go for Praj looking at the pace with which the companies in US are moving in Ethanol processing.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Yoga with Shipa Shetty
Shilpa Shetty featuring in Yoga video would definitely give commercial and glamour value to it.
Surely, I am not the guy who can have 'say' about whether she has done Yoga Steps properly or not :D but it has a reason for me to be able to induce a thought of practising Yoga one more time ;-)
Old pick
While surfing came across old stuff on rediff..... hmmm ... not really too old but in case of rediff, which people normally access mainly for recent news, happening and money, career related information and buying activities, (email - I left it). That's why I don't think people dig much in older stuff available with rediff.
This business quiz is about Infosys. Revisited interesting facts :)
Mia Rose
Almost a year passed, I didn't follow much about her. Not that I forgot about her but apperantly didn't happened. Just recently I came across her video again. Now her video is being posted my many of her followers-fans.
But now it really shows the kind of platform youtube has given her and many such aspirants. Just with couple of music instruments, a camera given this nice voice and beatiful face a chance to release her own album, 3-4 sites of her won, huge fan following.
Great going !!
Kudos to youtube for this proposition given to new-bees and even more for following the ethics of the game to possible extent. It has restricted sensitive contents across board. It i s good to see that hentai followers are not flooding it.
Really it has brought a transformation phase in internet era and still a lot to be exploded. It is very easy for any common user to have his video on web and sharing it with others, see how easy - friends go for bowling, shoot their excitments, upload it to youtube and they can watch whenever they want share with anybody. And it have become possible just because of Youtube and Adobe.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Unmaad is On
Santy came down to IIMB campus to enjoy Satarday evening. Arguable he has missed the ecstasy of Yamini happened in earlier month and Zero, Mother Jane show happened yesterday.
Erlier, I have never been able to apprecited Rock songs much. But magic of live programs is something different. I actually loved the show by Mother Jane band. Their lead vocalist ' Suraj' is good. First thing I noticed about him was his generosity and his humane nature. Their guitarist 'Deepu' was also very good. It's great enjoyment to listen and appreciate the skills of the guitarist in live program.
Strings were also here. But despite of being an international band, I didn't find it so fascinating. Mainly because, I have not heard many of their songs and only partially been able to recollect their popular numbers.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
What they say ...
1. Passion - Passion to create a difference and the ability to stick thru the ups & downs can only be there if there is that passion.
2. Patience - Sift them many ideas, validate & then launch. Understands that this is not about spreadsheets, but real revenue & real benefits.
3. Be a good listener - Ability to listen and willingness to accept another point of view provides flexibility. A good listener is always alert towards getting insights from those who may have a more experienced view about the topic under discussion.
4. Be a good team member - Understand that you need a team, by yourself you'd be stretched to execute.
5. Leadership - Must be a good leader, understand people issues and is able to manage them thru the difficult journey. Especially managing a peer group is a serious challenge.
6. Share - Be generous about sharing ownership of the company with others who take the risk with you. Team must stay intact thru thick & thin including your investors.
7. Value, not valuation - Must be focussed on creating value & not a valuation. If one creates value, valuation will automatically follow. Remember this is not & should not be a short journey.
8. Inclusive - In growing companies, people need to be empowered to keep them motivated to deliver. Delegation and, more importantly, inclusion in the growth strategy is a great motivator.
9. Flexible and not stuck on his idea only - Entrepreneurs who recognize that things do and can go wrong are more likely to succeed. Though this seems obvious, this often is the toughest aspect of entrepreneurship if not imbibed at the incubation stage itself.
10. Understand that success is not dependent only on a great idea. Execution is equally if not more important.
- Praveen Gandhi
First birthday in 'B'
I am back from the traditional IIMB B'day celebration. I am still feeling my back n A%$ burning.
And now it has become really painful to sit anywhere. But I am glad. Though people are busy in Summers and Mid-term preperations ... our own CR and Khidki dragged me to the 'L^2' - normally that's where the Hooshing and other ceremonies take place.
Great to see great going day ahead. Though there are thoughts about Summers, etc .. having a nice time now.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Mirgadh Trek - Old pick
This was one of the exhaustive trek, I ever experienced. Myself, Dr. Ayyaz, Dr. DattaSagar and Raju were the member of team to trek Mirgadh and no one of us had ever visited this area, around Pen-Panvel. Raju was the senior most member in our group in fact he is. I heard a lot about Raju from Ayyaz and in my opinion, he is gem of the person.
Despite being senior person, almost close to age of my uncle, Raju could easily get involved into the younger groups and I have noticed 'this' some more times whenever I visited B. J. Medical college hostel. By profession he is a photographer from Sangamner. Originally from Lahore, had to come with family because of 1947 India-Pak split and settled in Pune. Very particular about things, still very patient - key founder member and claimed to be the only one because of whom the Mountaineering club in B.J. Medical College is still active and has established as an autonomous entity. I know, I have much more to say about Raju, but I will stop here and share the trek pics.

One of very few silent moments in life. We were only four people on the top, we were sitting here almost for half an hour sitting silently. Ekdam chup. I can't calculate what is the outcome/ gain, etc stuff like that at this point of time. It is just different.

This is something to be seen in presence. Amazing example of human intelligence using primitive tools available, beside the indication of adaptability nature of human being.
We had been walking for last 5 hrs almost without any major break and here we were on the flat surface on the top and still unaware where to go !!
While we moved from one of the end of the Songadh to Vyaghreshwar, we came across a village of approx. 20 cottages. People out here were talking about the Bauxite elements of the metal, usage of it in the Aeroplane, space shuttle. We went little dumb here. We thought that they were saying something is there on 'BACKSIDE' :D

Next day, leaving the Mandir to next unknown destination, we wanted to go Sarpoli. Yeah and to the back side of this Mandir, there is a small water kink with constructed tank. Very cold water, We bathed in that tank, next day when I went there to fill the drinking water bottles, Cobra passed with the falling flow of water.
Though this trek was exhaustive, it gave me very nice friends - Raju and Datta. Raju is in regular contact with me. He keeps on calling and inviting me for Treks, rapplings, etc. Datta is busy doing his internship in Sasoon Hospital. Ayyaz is extremely busy studying in Delhi. And here I am - engrossed into the flow of the activities in I-I-M B.
I am really missing the environment during rains and it is a different fun of having treks during rains. I am feeling jealous of my dear friend Yogesh, he is trekking almost every weekend and that too in this season. But I am happy about him - at least he is consistently able to do it.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Bloodbath on Street
'Financial services, investors, etc have been focusing more global, the FII (for us they are normally from US and European countries) investing into the developing countries like India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan etc. But any significant moment in their respective base countries make them to withdraw their money from these market to remain cover their position it with the gains obtained from the developing countries. Which obviously creates panic in the local investors in these developing countries.
Who is worst off ?
The small investor who is unable to understand the happening in the global markets or unable to understand the money making minds of the FII, etc.
But any small investor can be prudent enough if he is able to track the events around and little judgments about the market in general so that he can save himself from dragging in such situations.
Disclaimer - Such a vague article. I just tried to scrap something without much thought.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Learning what I missed to enjoy
...... When I was working with Selectica, everyday I used to check my clock to record the travel time to office from home. Lesser the commuting time, I used to feel more challenged (??? ;-))
....... By that time I had just learned to swim. I used to set a mark on the other bank of the tank and used to record the time to cover the distance in shortest possible time. Again challenged (??? ;-))
Slowly after few days I realized that it is not fun of driving so fast or swimming so fast. I am missing the point to enjoy the journey. I started driving and diving(?) slowly (sorry!!! it was not equivalent of dragging - it was normal pace), while driving I started observing people around me. Then I watched them at the signal, how most people become race runner. It was fun watching 'those' people, some days back I was also one of them. I started looking around, bazaar, banners, Bolds & Beautiful, and realized that -yes- really serious and funny things happens around and we don't notice because we are running behind something for almost nothing.
Now when I have landed on this campus, I again realized that I am undergoing the same phase of getting carried along with the fast pace of this place, then come the day, I felt that this is not something what I enjoy the most or what I want the most out of this place, I sat back for some time, started moving around the campus, started talking to my friends on campus, calling up my school friends, colleagues, family, etc. More important is I realized that it is required to have 'Bigger Picture' out of whatever I am looking/understanding currently.
Cheers,
:D
Post to be completed ...
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Nothing to write
This blogger.com really sucks ! Its usage of Ajax has removed all of the text I typed for last 10 minutes from the posting window. It has strongly reminded me of 'Windchill' - The copyright product of PTC. I was part of the Windchill development team. In Windchill one can have multiple versions and iterations of the documents, parts, assembly, etc. And he can selectively delete the iterations and versions of the same.[Too much techie!]
Unfortunately it is not the case here.
Anyway. On the Wednesday night, our mid-term was over. All exhausted ppl, especially junta from my section who had undergone three exams in a single day were omnipresent (at least) in PVR, Banaglore ;-)
Chilling,
:D
