a byte of me

Back in the game

2008-02-04T23:48:00.000-07:00

Am back again! Life has been hectic. I am trying to accomplish a lot at work and have a few coding and other projects going on in my spare time. The days seem short. The months seem short too. Every four or five days I look at the calendar and it just feels like it was yesterday. Today morning, the phone rang, the alarm cried and honestly, I felt like I had just slept five minutes ago. But it was true, I had slept for four hours almost. It didnt feel like it. So thats how life's been!

Honestly, today I got motivated to write this blog because of the ridiculousness happening over in India. Local politicians in Bombay (now called Mumbai) are making a big deal because a prominent Bollywood star chose to donate money to start a school in a different state. In a rash of regional politics, people have been rioting and making life harder for common citizens like taxi drivers. Read about it here and here.

Honestly, where is all their common sense. At least some place that didnt have many schools got one. Mumbai already has a lot of schools, doesnt it? But there are many places that could use one. But apparently some politicians are too keen on using violent tactics to obtain popularity. Too bad, the state government is a pussy too!

Traveling for Work

2007-10-29T22:48:00.001-07:00

The Television is playing in the background, my favorite show, Donny Deutrich's "The Big Idea" is on. He's interviewing Martha Stewart in a marathon session today as opposed to the five or six entrepreneurs that he usually flies through in one hour during a normal show. Its kind of sad since they're blabbering about just about anything. At one point he asked her what she wears at night and she replies a Night T-shirt, only to be followed by three ridiculous questions about what kind of a night shirt it is. I cant believe it is so pointless today. However, this is kind of good. Since I'm trying to get work done and useless blabbering in the background helps concentrate (believe it or not!). If it was interesting, I'd be watching the TV instead of working.

So I've come to a different city on an out-of-town client engagement. This is my fifth client within the first three months that I've been on. Most all clients engagements that I've been on so far have been two to three week engagements. Its nice because this one is in Olympia, the state capital of Washington. Its far enough from Seattle to not warrant a daily commute from home and so I get to live in a hotel. Its close enough that I can drive here. And I've brought a ton of stuff with me!

I've got more than three paper grocery bags worth of stuff which includes six books that I'm reading, lots of fruits and some food that I cooked in a marathon session on Sunday. And I've learned a few things about traveling and working.

* Staying in a hotel: Try to ensure you dont have to share a room. I cant emphasize how important this is in helping you spread out and make the room just the way you want it. Especially if you're going to be there for the next four nights. No matter how well you know your co-worker, sharing a room is still slightly awkward. This is usually a given for us except for trainings, when we have to share rooms with a randomly assigned colleague.

* Bring food: Bring lots of food, especially fruits that you like and convenience food like chocolate or nuts. I've brought it all, since I had my car and the convenience of my trunk space. I cant believe how fun it was working from 8:00 pm onwards while munching on grapes (my favorite fruit)

* Bring lots of stuff - if you're driving by car to the engagement and will be living in a hotel for more than three days. Spread out in the hotel room. Make it feel like home and you'll enjoy it. Keep in touch with friends.

* Bring as little stuff as possible - if you're flying. Flying is horrible and what makes it worse is lugging a lot of stuff and/or waiting for baggage claim. I absolutely hate traveling and only carry one carry-on as long as it is for one or two weeks. I have been carrying five pairs so far every time I've had to fly but on a coworker's advice, I'm just going to carry two pants and three shirts and just recycle them in different combinations. Anything to reduce the luggage.

* Play random television in the background - it helps make it feel like you're around people, if thats what you care for. Dont put on sensationalistic news. They're usually too good at catching your attention and retaining it. Dont watch reality television. I got caught watching that dance reality TV show while trying to work and guess what - I got no work done. I got more work done in the half hour when Donny and Martha were talking random stuff than I did in the entire hour and a half of the dance show.

* And last but not the least, bring at least one meal with you. Preferably cooked or whatever you have when you're home (even if its ready to eat stuff). Eating out grows old very quickly, no matter how expensive the restaurants you can afford to go to.

Thats pretty much it for today - maybe I'll write more of my experiences later on. For now, I'll get about an hour more of work in before calling it a night. Good bye and good night from the state capitol Olympia!

User Generated Content Goes Mainstream

2007-10-28T23:51:00.000-07:00

With the growth of User Generated Content (UGC) phenomenon that You-Tube and many other sites have brought about, there are definitely interesting after-effects to observe. One such case is of Nick Haley, an 18 year old freshman at a UK university who made an advertisement for iPod touch out of his love for Apple and its products. He uploaded his video on YouTube and it was so good that when Apple Marketing execs viewed his ad, they wanted to go main-stream with his ad and called him down to Cupertino, CA. They made an HD, production quality video out of the ad Nick had produced and now its running on major television networks during football, World Series Championship and Desperate Housewives.

Interestingly enough, there are copyright issues surrounding the issue - the fact that Nick was not commissioned by Apple to create the ad and used the soundtrack "Music is My Hot Hot Sex" by CSS as well as images and video clips from Apple.com. However, in a major boost to UGC and this entire realm, Apple acted very maturely by choosing to not make a big deal out of this and embracing this fan's creation. I can imagine a hundred other ads popping up for products people love to use in daily life. (Heck, even I feel like making an ad for Saturn, the brand of my trusty little car). New York Times ran a story about this on October 26th. "That's the whole point of advertising; it needs to get to the user," Mr. Haley said in the article on Times. "If you get the user to make the ads, who better?". Wired also ran a story on this, which also lists a couple of interesting observations and lessons from this.

The ad that Apple produced, kept the content almost the same (thankfully!), except for some advanced editing and better footage in some of the sections where the iPod touch plays the videos and the web-browsing. Its better aligned to the music, the production version, but the Nick Haley version itself is mind-blowing too. I kept watching it over and over again about 8 - 10 times tonight when I found out about it, its so good! The music is pretty catchy too!

Below is the original ad that Nick Haley posted on YouTube. Heres the link to The Apple Production Version that has been playing on television.

Isnt it cool? I told you so. Now check out the other version. Link: Apple's Edited, Professional version.

Mind-blowing, that this happened, isnt it?

Life in Seattle - Part 1

2007-10-21T23:15:00.000-07:00

Okay... its been long since I've blogged, but felt like I may post a few things today -

Work: Its coming along well. Kind of putting in 12-13 hour days around this time. Having fun while working hard.

KPMG - Jill, Shubham, Brandon, David. In Los Angeles.

I haven't traveled much out of town yet (other than training) considering this is a consulting job - which is good and bad. Bad because I'm not getting to see new places and do the traveling bit while I'm single, rack up miles etc. Good because its given me time to slowly get settled in Seattle, get to know new people, make new friends, get involved with an organization, make new contacts and so on.

Pike Place Market @ evening

Life: Have been going out to Seattle last few weekends. The last time I went, I remembered to take my camera with me. It was an interesting evening. I did some shopping on 5th Ave shopping district. Mostly over-priced, then marked-down some, clothes for work. Also walked towards the Pike Place Market and although the action there is mostly in the morning, it was interesting. It got pretty late, and as I was going back to my car, I ran into some homeless people and some drug dealers wanting to sell me drugs. One tried to ask where he can get drugs in India - I told him "Not sure" and made it out of there as fast as I could.

Puget Sound, just after the sunset

Otherwise, life is kind of hectic, managing so many things - grocery, cooking, cleaning, ironing, staying in touch with friends and family during weeknights and weekends and work 12-13 hours a day during weekdays - all on my own. My room too often turns into a mess. Heres a picture of my desk which virtually looks like that all the time. It gets cleaned every week and takes about one day, thats it, to get back to this shape. On the screen is playing The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch on CNBC every nights at 10pm PT. Watch it if you can, its fun.

New People: I've heard of the phenomenon called "Seattle chill" from quite a few people so far - the attitude locals can have towards new-comers, strangers. I kind of have experienced it, kind of not. I havent because I truly havent met any strangers yet! Other than the drug dealers and the homeless, ofcourse. The people I've met who I've known somehow or through someone have been truly awesome.

I met Sashi of Zonkmimi today morning for coffee and discussed a variety of things. I found out that he built a boat for himself out of fiberglass and that kind of excited me. I am motivated to explore this hobby, maybe build a model or so of some of my car designs... Seems like the dream of KMCL - Kumar Motors Company Ltd - when I was in 8th grade might come alive again. I'm going to look into this more as a potential long-term hobby.

I also have become good friends with Will, a colleague from work, who sort of shares the same passion for entrepreneurship, kind of go out there and do it attitude. We've hung out a couple of times and have had fun. Other colleagues from work are fun too. Most everyone is very warm and involving. Everyone mostly remembers I'm vegetarian when we all go out and thats kind of nice.

People in Seattle that are from the same Kutchhi community that I hail from have been great too. They've called me for dinner get-togethers a few times. I enjoy these a bunch! I feel like I relate to them. Also yesterday night, I went to Garba and Dandiya last night organized by the Seattle Gujarati group. It was a ton of fun.

Garba and Dandiya Raas in Seattle, celebrating Navaratri, an Indian Festival worshipping Goddess Amba.

Involvement: I've been involved with TiE recently, which is a Seattle-based chapter of the larger TiE that started up in Silicon Valley some years back with a focus on South Asian entrepreneurs and professionals. I'm involved in the PR capacity. We have the Funding Forum event coming up soon and if you're interested in covering it or attending or presenting a business plan, let me know.

I've been volunteering at the various company events for community involvement. One weekend we went and raked and cleaned the yard for a local school before schools began. There was a heart walk for the American Heart Association that I participated in. I'm also participating in the Junior Achievement, in which I get to go and teach a 2nd grade classroom for a whole day, teaching them about the "community", outside of home, that we all live in.

Home: I share my home with four other people, all at different stages of their lives. But everyone is nice, professional and independent. And we're beginning to have some good, fun times, interesting conversations and lots of getting to know each others. One is a Mensa smart, another is a coding geek, the third is very knowledgeable about herbs, healing and alternative medicine and the fourth is into many things like fixing-up houses, condos, real-estate in general as well as coding! Quite a variety. Its a big house and I love the feeling of living here. The best part - kitchen with a glass ceiling which lets the daylight in and makes it look bright and happy (you have to remember, this is in Seattle). Oh, and its got a gas stove too, which rocks!

Today evening, I made a red soup from beet, carrot, red cabbage soup (see above). It tasted pretty good. Pretty good? Heck it was awesome. It took my three hours, from the time it was conceptualized, to things boiled, to the time it was prepared, eaten and finally the utensils cleaned. All of us (three of my room mates and I) gathered around the kitchen counter and had it. Now thats called bonding.

Traditional Indian/Gujarati Meal I made last weekend - Chapatti, Red Cabbage Curry, Aam (Mango) Ras

I've been cooking at home more often than eating out. Which is good. Some of my experiments have turned out pretty well, others are well, just that - experiments.

Everything else is coming along pretty well. About to call it a night - it was a fun weekend, and I've had a good time in Seattle so far. I'm still trying to get to know more people and make more friends around here, but am happy the way things are going for me right now.

Jainism

2007-09-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

Its been fifteen hours since I've eaten anything. Thats right, fifteen! And I'm planning to go on for another twently one hours. What, am I nuts?

Today, begins the Jain festival of Paryushan. Let me tell you a bit about both as I know of it. Jainism is an ancient religion of India, still practiced by less than 1% of the population. Today, Jains are strewn all over the world, although the majority still reside in India. It is older than Buddhism and reportedly Buddha was born into a Jain family before renouncing his kingdom, family and the world and heading out on his own. Hence many principles of how he lived his life originated in Jainism and then found place in Buddhism also.

Jainism

The primary tenet of Jainism is non-violence to all living beings. Lord Mahävir preached universal truth for all times to come when he said, “One who neglects or disregards the existence of earth, air, fire, water and vegetation, disregards his own existence which is entwined with them”. The following ancient Jain aphorism is refreshingly contemporary in its promise and forms the basis of the modern day science of ecology.

“Parasparopagraho Jivänäm.”

It says, All life is bound together by mutual support and interdependence.

Paryushan

Paryushan is the single most important festival in the Jain religion. It is observed for eight or ten days by different sects. This year it is observed from September 8 to 25, 2007 with different beginning dates for different sects.

The purpose of life according to Jain teachings is to realize oneself, to experience wholeness, peace and reverence for all life. Therefore, the real purpose of Paryushan is to purify our soul by observing and correcting our own faults, asking for forgiveness for the mistakes we have committed, and taking vows to minimize our faults. During Paryushan we are expected to strive to minimize our worldly affairs so that we can concentrate on our true-selves.

Fasting is one way where we take our minds off the daily routine of figuring out what we will eat that day and what we will do. It is expected that the day is spent in a low-profile manner with some or very little activity. Fasting for the day actually begins at sundown the previous day and ends at sunrise the next day. The fasting is strict, so no food should be consumed during the period. Boiled water is allowed, although its consumption is also reduced. So since 7 pm yesterday night I haven't eaten or drunk water. I plan to drink water if I need to at some point later in the day. Since the focus is on self, I cannot look forward to it. I cannot think about drinking water or how I will relish the food when I break the fast. If I do so, the fast is considered broken when the thought enters my mind. Hence the focus is not just on improving yourself physically, but also concentrating on the inner self, the mind and the thoughts we have.

Personal Business Development

2007-09-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

Normally I'd already be in at work at this time. I usually get in at 7:30 am. However, from today onwards I'm trying a new schedule. As usual, I woke up at 6 and was ready by 6:45. I decided to spend an hour doing business development today. Well some business development for my firm, and some personal development. I'll call it time spend doing 'Personal Business Development'.

I had a few emails I wanted to send out for a project I'm on at work. A few others were personal growth and making new connections in Seattle area. Today, I'll get in at about 8:30. I'll try this schedule for three days a week and see how it works out. So far I've enjoyed devoting one hour of my morning to projects, both personal and work related that I'd like to see get ahead, but don't get much time at work for.

Labor day weekend was fun. A few friends and I went to Bear Lake in Utah. Its a beautiful lake. The water was so blue, I call it the Mauritius Blue. Check it out in the picture below. We boated and swam. And overall, had a great time.

Upates from work

2007-08-21T22:02:00.000-07:00

Well not really from work... I'm at home right now and its 10 pm. I'm now living in Seattle and its almost cold and rainy everyday. It even rained on my first day of real work - this past Monday. I considered it wishes from God above so I do well. Others consider it to be a natural process when clouds formed out of water vapor condense. Oh well, to each unto his own.

First week was local office training and orientation. Finished a few online trainings. Second week was spent toasting in 110 degrees in Scottsdale AZ for national new hire training. While the weather made it harder, all the great people I met from all around definitely made it nicer. I met so many people, I can't even recall everyone's names. Although, I'm getting better. I've invited most if not all the people I spent a few hours or more with and got to know closely on either facebook or the in-company-social-networking site our company has started. I hope to stay in touch with everyone. This is the third week.

I've left UVF, but not really. I'm away only physically. I still feel quite a part of it. I sent over a deal just recentlyto UVF and am in touch with many of the friends from there even now. It feels such a close part of me - the whole UVF experience. Its definitely the icing on the cake of my Utah experience. The awesome people there make it so good for me and then comes the experience, according to me. Very few other places in the world (or even United States) can a bunch of college students get to work with real entrepreneurs and real, big-time VCs and wheel and deal, so to speak. No, really. I've been involved with Jared, the managing director, in negotiating terms with a company we funded and later helping that company negotiate good terms with another company it was partnering with to provide its services and so on. I dont think even an MBA student at a prestigious school gets this kind of experience for a year, unless they're from Wharton, where UVF recruits and has a branch too. So Utah was definitely the right choice for me. At this point, I plan to go to B-school in a few years and know that the UVF experience will definitely help me get into one of the top notch schools. I do hope sometimes that the entrepreneur bug catches me before that. :) (and makes me successful enough to skip the b-school thing in between).

(By the way, Jared introduced me to two people, including the CEO from Unitus a few months back. Unitus is a micro-finance fund that funds MFIs - micro finance institutions who help poor people break the cycle of poverty by funding special projects for them - in India, Argentina and a bunch of other countries. They're based out of Seattle. Check out www.unitus.com. Its pretty neat. I'll get back in touch with them to see if I can volunteer and be of any use. I think I can use my deal analysis and other skills from UVF pretty well at Unitus and do things similar to UVF and be happy. PS - This line is straight from their website - "Unitus fights global poverty by using a venture capital model to increase access to microfinance". How about that? Perfect fit for me.)

One of my goals, for both short term and long term is to be really good at what I do. And no, I dont mean it as loosely as it is usually thrown around. I want to be so good that I can create content regarding that subject. I want to be the authority regarding it. To be able to spot new trends, consequences of current events and such things spot on. I know it still sort of sounds like fluff, but I feel like I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to do.

Another goal for the short term is that within one year I want to be promoted and sent to an international engagement or an international partner firm. I'd love to work with my firm in London, India, Japan, Vietnam or Australia. Suggestions of other countries where I'd like it are welcome too. But off the very top, why I picked these is because each of these is either a place I'm facinated about and have always wanted to go, or is a very rapidly up and coming country and work experience there would be fantabuloustic!

With that, its about time to go to bed, so I can get up tomorrow morning, go for a nice jog, then get ready, have a breakfast and go to work early. I got there earlier than my senior today and that was good. Score 1. He was pleased and so was manager. Things are going well at work and the people I'm working with are some of the funniest people I've met. Work day passes really quickly. I remember a time, three or four years back, when I was interning somewhere, and I'd look at the time and it was like noon. I'd look back at the time after three hours and it'd still be 12:15. Time went slowly. Here, time goes so quickly, that first time I look at the clock after lunch is 4:30 and I usually am surprized so much time has passed. So thats a good thing.

Signing off for tonight. Will be more regular from now on. :) Especially for my friend in Utah who regularly checks my blog and pesters me to update.

Wish me luck - first day at work

2007-08-06T00:20:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my first day at work. I'm excited, yet nervous. Not that working is any new to me - I've worked at UVF the past year, had an internship last summer doing the same thing I'll be doing from now on, and also held a few internships in my undergrad.

But the difference between what I'm starting tomorrow and what I've done in the past is that this is my full time commitment. In the past, I've always been in school and work has been part time or intern-type, albeit full-time. Tomorrow, I begin my career . Where I take it, is all in my hands. So wish me luck for my first day at work. :)

2007-07-31T21:44:00.001-07:00

Sold my desk, sold my chair. Sold my microwave and sold my bed! Also sold my friend's car. And then I packed and moved out of my apartment.

The last week was frantic, getting so many things done every single day. Today's my last day in Salt Lake City. Tomorrow, I head out farther west on my journey that started from Ohio after exploring Utah for two years in the middle. I'm headed to Seattle.

Yesterday, I went to UVF and said my good byes to fellow venture capital junkies. Said bye to Jared, Mark and Emily - members of the management who I got to know so well. Emily is getting married this week - good luck to her. Sorry I'll miss your wedding. Bid farewell to the guy whose family ventures office I worked in this summer - my boss, a good friend by now. These are places, experiences, people where I've learnt a lot, gained a lot of experiences and made friends for a lifetime. I will miss Utah.

Utah Rocks. For more reasons than one. Some of those, are above. The rest I'll explain in my next post. Seattle, here I come. Till then...

Goog411. Experimental.

2007-06-27T10:50:00.001-07:00

Location: Seattle, WA. I'm there to find a place to live for my upcoming move.

Situation: Helping my newly married friend buy things from WalMart. He doesn't have a car yet. I'm driving on I-405 south from Bellevue. There's a lot of traffic, especially for a saturday.

Problem: I can't remember which exit to take to get to WalMart. I've been there before, but that was last summer. I remember its in Renton, which is around exit 4, but the surroundings after taking exit 4 dont seem familiar. I would remember if I saw the street the exit leads to.

Solution: Immediately, I think of Goog411. I dial 1-800-GOOG-411. I'm just getting back up on the freeway from exit 4.
"Goog411. Experimental. (pause) Please say the city and state." says the voice on the line.
"Renton, Washington" I say. It recognizes what I said and repeats to confirm.

I'm already loving this.

"Please say the business name or category"
"Walmart", I say. Again it recognizes the name in first try. It comes up in the first result and connects me. I talk to the lady at Wal-Mart and find out they're off of exit 2, thank her and hang up.

I have found out which exit I need to take in such a short time that I have just merged back into the highway from exit 4 and its not even exit 3 yet. Its beautiful. Trust google to take technology and existing way of life to new heights.

For one, The voice recognition on GooG411 is better than any other company's that I've used so far. And I've used it many times already in at least 5 different cities, for different purposes, from locating a car dealership to calling an Indian restaurant. Its recognized names perfectly every time (except that you have to say Indian names in an American accent).

Secondly, they've taken the existing 411 concept, which is expensive and manual and converted it into a free service and automated it. I love it. I only wish the existing 411 services before Google came were not $1.49 per minute. If they were cheaper, like 10¢ a call, I figure more people would have used it. Oh well, Google is here now, to set them straight.

I sincerely hope, for Google and for the humankind, that this service comes out of the experimental stage, here to stay. For those who haven't used it yet, heres a cheat sheet. Go have fun.

Try again

2007-06-19T20:08:00.000-07:00

My first listing with Prosper.com didn't fund completely. I waited for seven days, the length of the duration of the listing, and watched the bids pile in one by one. Ultimately, I was able to raise 32% of my asking loan amount of $6500. But the interest rate I had offered was not enough. In fact within hours of posting my listing, I had received emails from at least two experienced prosper group leaders that the rate I was offering for amount I was requesting was too low. I decided to stay on and see what happens for experience sake, anyways. Now I'm planning to offer another listing, this time under a group, for a lesser amount (of $4000) and at a higher rate (of 9%).

I also had my wisdom teeth extracted yesterday. The doctor is good and my teeth were already erupted, so it wasn't too bad. But extracting wisdom teeth hurts the most out of all other teeth. I've been recovering for the past two days. My boss is so nice, he called me today morning and asked me to take today off and recover even though I was planning to go to work. My work this summer, an internship at a local family office, doing venture capital and some buyout due diligence as well as some technical help with their IT is coming along great. I'm getting to learn a lot and meet many new people. I'm also getting to spend some time at UVF.

I started looking at some places in Seattle on craigslist for my upcoming move. I emailed a few people regarding their listings, but haven't received any replies yet. I did receive one from a very paranoid person who wrote back very rudely about not wanting to give out their phone number. The listing didn't mention any pertinent details about the house, even where it was located in general, such as bellevue or renton or so on. There were many other details missing. Instead of writing a list of questions and sending it via email, I asked the person to send me their phone number and also gave them my own in case they preferred to call me so we could discuss more on the phone instead of emailing back and forth. They wrote back saying they will not give a total stranger her phone number. It was totally ridiculous. I had included my full name in my email to them. They could have googled me and known more about me than they were revealing about themselves by giving me their phone number. And I had given them my phone number too. Oh well, there are such super nutcases like that who want to find room mates online, but are even afraid to talk to strangers on the phone. Weird.

Apart from that, I have been reading about Casey Serin recently, the twenty four year old who tried to be a real estate investor and make fast money by flipping properties and the housing slowdown crushed him with a $2M debt load. He has rapidly become the most hated US blogger. I am not one of the haterz, the community of people who have taken on as job to hate him and his mistakes, neither am one of his supporterz, as he likes to call them. I cant decide whether to blame him or not. On one side, what he did is plain stupid. He deserves the blame for it. But on the other hand I pity him as well. Partly maybe because I relate with him and his big ambitions. I have also read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and other such books on real estate investing, that he fell for initially. He went deeper by attending the seminars that those authors hold and actually tried to do what they preach. I can see how someone can fall for their strong sales pitch and pressure and feel real estate investing is easy. I felt that myself when I was reading those books. But I didnt go down that alley like he did, maybe because I am less risk averse than him, or less stupid. Who knows, what will happen of him? Right now he is in Australia, maybe hiding from the authorities, although he doesnt say that, but I'm interested in watching what happens.

Peer 2 Peer Lending with Prosper.com

2007-06-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

Prosper.com brings forward the concept of peer to per lending on their site where people like you and me can borrow and lend money to other people. Borrowers have to reveal a lot of information regarding their income, expenses (voluntary) to get people to bid on their loan listing. Using the social security number, prosper polls the credit agencies to derive the credit worthiness of the borrowers, ranking them from AA (best) to E and HR (worst). Those borrowing with an AA credit get the lowest rates (usually between 8% to 10%) whereas those with the worst have to pay quite high rates. Lenders bid on loan listings, usually a part of the asking amount, about $200 - $1000 each. Multiple lenders bid on a listing to fill up the entire loan. If the listing is very popular, or low risk, many people bid and thus drive down the rate offered by the borrower so as to gain a piece of the pie.

Its a beautiful concept and I would like to be a part of the p2p lending community. I have created a listing to help me repay my higher interest college debt replacing it with a lower interest loan. My credit history is rated AA, have a pretty decent job that I start from August and my expenses are pretty low compared to my current income (as well as future income from August onwards). I am a pretty low risk investment and am offering 8% interest. I'll make every payment on time and will most likely pay the loan off early. If you'd like to help me out, please head on over to my listing here, sign up with prosper and bid on my loan any amount you feel comfortable investing in me. Thank you for reading and helping me out.

Summer of the Third Sequels

2007-06-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Has anybody else also noticed the plethora of movies that are releasing or have released this summer that are third of the sequels. Its an amazing coincidence that there are so many of them. Just counting off the top of my head, there are at least six of them.

Shrek the Third
Pirates of the Caribbean 3
Spiderman 3
Rush Hour 3
Bourne Ultimatum
Oceans Thirteen

Then theres also Harry Potter, which is not the third, but the fifth. Its awesome. And these are all series whose first two movies were major hits. I can't wait to watch all of them.

Speaking of which, I watched Ocean's Thirteen yesterday. It was pretty good, better than Ocean's Twelve anyways. But I think Ocean's Eleven trumps the thirteen still. What I like about thirteen is that it isn't lame like the twelfth. Also it is filled with detail so that you can watch it over and over again and deduce more about the plot, just like the eleven. You couldnt do that in the twelfth. Even though there were multiple twists in the story line in Ocean's Twelve, it wasnt filled with detail that gets used later in the movie and you make the 'Ah!' connection when you see it again.

Warning: Spoiler ahead. What I like about eleven better than thirteen is that they sweep clean. At the end of the movie, there is very little incriminating evidence if any. In this one they leave many at the end. George Clooney tells Al Pacino that he can't come after Clooney because "All the guys you know, I know. And they like me better". Well yes, except for the police. Which will come, since you've left so much evidence behind. All that said and done, its still a thoroughly entertaining movie and one I expect to watch again.

Tough Decisions in Venture Capital

2007-06-07T10:53:00.000-07:00

As glamorous as venture capital can get, it is also a very difficult profession. Unlike other professions, where one may need great in-depth technical knowledge in one field like chemical engineering, venture capital is a whole different ball game. You do need solid financial and due diligence skills, but you can get people to do that. We, the associates at my venture fund are the backbone that does that. But as I have risen above in the last few months, led teams, interacted with management at start-ups and partners like other venture capital groups, I am realizing that the whole game is different from the top.

More than any other industry, other than politics probably, venture capital (and private equity) is built on relationships and decision making skills. The entire deal flow in a venture capital fund comes from knowing other people and who knows whom. Thats almost driven by the top management, since they are the one who know many people in the industry that the young start-out employees don't. The top management get the deal from their contacts, make a decision whether to pursue it or not and then pass it on to the associates to start cranking out due diligence on the ones they decide to pursue.

But as I am discovering, that decision to pursue or not, can often be very difficult to make. For two reasons. One, is the fear of making a wrong decision and losing out on the next home run of the century. The second is the decision you have to make when it is associated with short time lines or other pressure.

For the first, the fear of losing out on the next home run, it doesn't really matter what decision you make. If you're good at what you do, you will do reasonably well even if you miss out on the next big run. Have a look at Bessemer Venture Partners' Anti-portfolio. The anti-portfolio is their candid way of admitting that they wrongly passed-on on many of the companies, like HP, Apple, Ebay and Google, that later were huge successes. But they're Bessemer. They're really good at what they do and have done reasonably well for themselves. But you and I, if we do that enough times, we can easily find ourselves on a losing game.

The other is the decisions you have to make under pressure. I just had my first experience on that and I surprizingly found myself between a rock and a hard place. In the end, I made a call and I really hope it was a good decision. Here is some detail without revealing too much. We were working on a deal that was referred to us by a great partner VC firm. We've really enjoyed working with them in the past and respect them too. We were asked to make a decision whether we are sure to move forward on the deal on a very short notice. Given it is summer and that we have to go through two different committees for investment, it is hard for us to make such a decision without polling a few of the various parties involved. Besides, the type of investment that this company would have been was absolutely new to us. So there was some fear regarding that at our fund too. But I have looked at the company before and like it a lot. I believe they have the potential to go out and capture a significant portion of the industry. In the end, I reluctantly made the call to pass-on, even though I didn't want to, to support our partners and to ensure that they don't lose out on the terms they've obtained by trying to squeeze us in. Oh well.

Its All About Perspective

2007-06-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was discussing Mitt Romney as a president with a friend at UVF and an interesting question came up that I haven't thought about. I live in Utah and most of my friends are Mormon. Romney is also a Mormon. So far, I have not come across a single Utahn who is supporting anybody other than Mitt yet.

Not that I can vote here or anything, but if it counts, I am supporting Mitt Romney too. I am not a Mormon (though a friend from Boston is convinced I have turned into one after living here. He often starts our IM chats by calling me that). I usually lean towards the democrats, but for this election, I really think that Mitt Romney is the best candidate we have so far. I don't care so much about his leanings as much as I care about his experience.

Mitt founded Bain Capital and led it for many years. He came back to Bain & Co (the management consulting company) when it was floundering and in one year turned it around to profitability without cutting any jobs. He led the 2004 Salt Lake Winter Olympics to profitability that no other Olympics in recent times has been able to do at least since 1984. He did a great job as Massachusetts governor as well. Nothing of this is new. But I really think that Mitt will be able to undo some of the mess President Bush has made including turning around the National Budget Deficit.

At this point, my friend was surprised that I care about America's deficit. Being from India, he thought that I would have cared more for Indian interests and wouldnt want the deficit to be turned around into a surplus. I can see some logic in it, but am confused whether that line of thinking truly holds at all? There are multiple questions here. First, Is America's deficit realy better for India's interests? I would argue No but I am sure that a counter argument exists. Also, so far my line of thinking has been to think about whats good for America - in an objective sense. Second question, should foreigners in another country care really about what is good for your own home country in terms of world economics or world politics? Do Americans living in other countries only think about whats best for America with regards to events in the country they are living in? How do other foreigners living in America think?

Weekend of Fun

2007-05-31T12:06:00.000-07:00

This long weekend, we went to Glen Canyon and Lake Powell. It was fun hiking along the beautiful canyons. The sun was out and it was hot. But we had the huge lake and its cool water to complement the sun.

We camped by the Colorado river one night and on the beach of the lake another night. For camping at the beach, when we were trying to find a spot to put up a tent we got our car stuck in the sand. It took a lot of revving and five muscular guys to get it out.

We hiked and swam in the water. We kayaked and the best of it all - went jet skiing. It was just beautiful.

Public Transport Nightmare

2007-05-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

I was traveling by bus number 8 to downtown today morning to work at UVF as usual. I got down at the State Street stop and just as I had bid the driver goodbye, a man asked me to show my ticket. I reached into my pockets and fished out the UTA pass and handed it to him immediately. UTA pass is the public transport pass that is given to University of Utah students that allows us to travel on the city buses and the light rail system (TRAX) for free.

No sooner have I handed it to him, that I realize what I was doing. Handing over my valuable pass to some stranger. Oh no! I consider snatching it back and running. Only then I look up to see the man wearing a blue shirt with the UTA logo and his name tag under that. Then I realize that he was the ticket checker from UTA. I relax. My pass is valid till September of this year and so I expect him to hand it back to me. Instead he squints and starts reading something thats apparently written in fine print on the back side. He then says "Sir, the card says 'Not valid for travel on bus routes'". I say, "What the heck? Let me take a look", and he hands over the card back for me to look. To my surprize, it indeed says that. Weird.

While I'm considering how that went unnoticed by me for so long and how could it have happened, he has begun adding up the fines on a device and says "Sir, your fine will be three dollars and ten cents." I am surprized that I have to pay a fine, but not so much so by the amount. $3.10. Measly three dollars and ten cents of fine. Never heard of that before. I think that normally, the fine would be $25 or even $50. I consider paying it off and walking away, but I couldnt comprehend the surprize of the "no bus routes" mystery completely yet. I keep looking at the card, turning it over and reading both sides again and again, questioning myself, almost ignoring him. How could I have missed that fine print until now? How do my friends travel to school using this card - we all have similar cards after all. How did I get by using this card on the bus until now - for almost two years. I make it a point to not let him know this detail, lest he fine me backdated for all these two years.

I'm still in my own world thinking all this, that the man reminds me again "Sir?". I put a hand in my front pocket again, grab a few dollar bills and am about to fish those out when I notice that the picture on the card is not mine. Now memory comes back and I figure out that card is not mine at all. In fact, all the differences between this card and my card are more apparent now. My card is horizontal and this one is vertical. I realize that this is someone else's card. In the excitement, I tell this to the ticket checker. Bad move. He points out that I have been using someone else's card to travel and tacks on another fine to it. Oh no! How stupid?

He mentions the new total "Its $13.65 with the additional fine, sir". I just find the amounts too ridiculous and am about to pay him when I decide all this feels just wrong. I decide this is unjust and am not going to hand over my money so easily. I will try to prove him wrong and find any excuse if that doesnt work. And if nothing works, just plain bargain. Yes, this whole affair feels so wrong, that it feels worth fighting for. So I try to explain my situation to him.

ME: "Sir, I am at University of Utah student. You must surely know that we all get a free fare pass. I obviously grabbed my roommate's card by mistake". I lie. I have no clue who the guy is in the picture. But why add another layer of complication. "Can't you excuse me this time, please?"

HIM: "I am sorry sir. I can't trust you on your word. Can you prove you are a University of Utah student?"

ME: "I sure can."

Then I think of how I'm going to do that. I instinctively start opening all the pockets of my backpack that I am carrying, hoping to find something. I cannot find anything that relates me to University of Utah in all the small pockets of the backpack. So I open the last and the largest pocket. It has my laptop. By this time, all my stuff from the backpack is out there lying around. It feels like I am wasting everyone's time and creating a big deal for no reason. But I decide to pursue this anyways now that I have started.

So, I take out my laptop and turn it on. As the desktop shows up, I see a folder called "Graduation pics". I am excited and show it to him. "Sir, you see this graduation pics folder? I just graduated this May and that will prove to you that I was a student and that'll prve that I do possess a card that is valid until September." I double click the folder icon to open it and look at him with pride of victory in my eyes. For some reason, he is getting madder. His eyes keep getting wider to the extent that his eye balls might pop out. I can't comprehend. So I look towards my screen. And I see that the Graduation Pics folder has opened up and all the pictures in there are not what I thought at all. In fact its filled with porn. My face grows pale. I'm embarassed to no extent. I have no idea how this happened. It seems like some sick joke someone's playing on me. The ticket checker seems angry. I seem to have offended him.

I decide to call quits and just pay him. I mutter "I'm sorry" slowly and I shut the computer and put it back in the backpack. I gather all the stuff lying around, dump it in my backpack too. I am still embarassed and can't look him in the eye anymore. I put the backpack on my back, pull out two ten dollar bills and hand it over to him. He hands me back my change. I feel lucky to have not been fined like a hundred dollars for traveling on a fake card that is not even valid for bus travel. I accept defeat. I begin to walk away and the man walks in the opposite direction. I look at my watch, its been half an hour. What a waste. I feel like a failure.

We are ten feet apart when lightening strikes my brain. Again. "Oh shit", I say to myself. How could I have been so stupid? "Wait!", I yell out to the man. He turns around, looks frustrated, but says nothing, almost wanting to ask "What now?" I fish out my wallet from my back pocket. I feel really stupid now. How could I have forgotten that I carry my own bus pass in my walet and I am indeed carrying it right now. So what, if I was carrying someone else's card? I am also carrying my own. I shouldn't be fined at all. With full confidence, I walk towards the man, open my wallet and show him my card, which is valid for travel on bus, train, everywhere. Heck even space. I feel confident. I feel victorious. He is mad. Almost furious. But he hands over my money back without saying anything. This feels so good. I am so happy. Victory at last.

And then, I hear something ringing. Its my cell phone. I find myself in bed, trying to find my cell phone on the side table with my hand. I wake up with a splitting headache. I can't comprehend. Was all this a dream? Its 10:30 am. The room is dark. Past fills my head. I decide that was a dream. I am in the reality now. Then I remember. I had woken up at 7:30, showered, gotten ready, had breakfast and decided to take a nap because that was way too early. All this had to be a dream. I wash my face and picked up my backpack to walk towards the bus stop to go the UVF. No ticket checker asks me for any thing when I get down. Was all that really a dream? Nightmare , really, if you ask me. But I never remember my dreams when I wake up. And not to this level of detail anyways? Could it be that that was the reality and this, what I was living right now a dream? This world is weird. I wonder how these fantastic dreams come about?

Jackson Pollock's Galaxy, a part of the Joslyn Art Museum's permanent collection. Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License v.2.0

Tagged: Dreams, Personal

Discussion of Cerberus purchasing Chrysler

2007-05-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

You have to check this out. NPR's show called Open Source had an hour-long discussion on private equity and the Daimler Chrysler-Cerberus deal in particular. Cerberus bought Chrysler (for $7.4Bn) in what is certainly not the largest private equity deal, but certainly going to be the most talked about deal.

There are many angles that people are exploring with regards to this deal. Some of these are: the deal structure and how in essence Daimler has actually paid about $145M to get rid of Chrysler, how if Chrysler gets revived under private hands it would be such a mega victory for private equity. Also how people are misconceived about private equity being just cut, slash and sell type of job where as in reality it is much more than that. Private equity is being compared to the leveraged buyouts of the 70s and the 80s and how people are misconceived that only financial types are running the show. Today's PE deals are mega-team works which involve not only the finance types, but also strategists, operations gurus and core engineers who have experience in the same field itself or a close enough field.

Even if you're not interested in private equity, but are interested in business, you have to check out and listen to this discussion online. It features Daniel Primack of PEHub who I have written about earlier, Josh Lerner, Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School and Robert Reich, Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.

Tagged: Private Equity, Chrysler, Cerberus

Random ramblings about today

2007-05-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

Today I pitched my first company to the investment committee at the venture fund. The investment committee is formed of three seasoned venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. These three, because of their experience, are so sharp that they tear apart even the most reasonable sounding business plans. To get past them, the investment has to be "really" good. Luckily, I was able to do a decent job (even though the rest of the team I had worked with wasn't there) and they are favorably inclined towards investing given I provide them with some data that I didn't include in the presentation.

After the presentation, I felt a huge relief and also felt quite good. But then came the bad news. My future employer with whom I start a job in August called to say that my H1-B visa petition was not selected in the random lottery. I hadn't received my master's degree by April 2nd, when they had to apply and hence my application was subject to the regular cap of 65,000 visas for which they had received over 130,000 applications within two days. :( :( :( Its very depressing. I have been in this country for six years now and contributed to the economy (spent) well over a hundred thousand dollars towards my education, living etc and yet it seems the country doesn't want me of my education. Its very depressing. As NPR said in one of their stories, its essentially a deportation order for US educated foreign graduates.

To the credit of my firm, they are committed on still hiring me and continuing for one year on OPT. When that runs out in May '08, who knows what will happen? They have said they will apply for H-1B again next year under the Master's cap, which they expect I should get without any problem. But there is a gap between May (when my OPT runs out) and October (when the visa is issued effectively) where I cannot work in the US legally. I can only hope that they will still keep me on the payroll and send me to work in the UK or India.

Although this year the Master's cap took a whole month to get filled, I am fairly certain that next year, even the Master's cap will be filled in one day (just like the regular cap did this year).
In the unlikely scenario that I have to leave the country and go home, its not too sad. I am fairly certain that with the experience in VC and an MS degree I will qualify for some great jobs in venture capital or microfinance in India or elsewhere around the world. That one thing is the only surety and helps me sleep soundly at night.

Nevertheless, from the point of view of a US educated foreigner, the whole H1-B fiasco is very frustrating. Its very disappointing to have this uncertainty looming over my head though.
Besides, I also dont like being called an "Alien" by the USCIS in all their press releases and materials. Are we really aliens? Foreigners - yes, but aliens? Its ridiculous! I really hope that this great country they called the United States of America, which itself is built on immigrants, thinks about this long and hard, brings about reform and learns to treat its foreign-born students and workers better.

After the disappointing H1-B news, I couldn't concentrate on work all day. There wasn't any work anyway. Everybody who was at the investment committee meeting today morning, felt the blues later on in the day after all the grilling in the morning. I ran into PacMan on iGoogle and played it for a bit. It brought back some happy memories of myself as a sixth grader glued to my green and black monochrome computer monitor for hours playing pacman. Decided to end the day early, came home and just tried to cope with the sad news by sleeping for two hours. Got up at 7 pm even more depressed and since it was still sunny and bright outside, I ran two miles at the liberty park. It was refreshing. Then I hit some tennis shots against a practice wall at the park, then came home and had dinner.

Thats pretty much for a lousy day that today was except for the successful investment pitch in the morning. That is the only thing that I really like about today.

Update: Isn't there any regulation that frees up h1-b multiple visa allocations wasted by people like this, who applied for and obtained more than one visa, possibly through consultants and dummy employers and are grabbing away opportunities from countless others? I'm beginning to get really disappointed with all this happening.

Tagged: Personal, H1-B

Into The Real World Now

2007-05-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

I am glad to announce that I have left the safe cocoon of academia behind (at least for a few years now) and plunged into the real world!

I have been absent from the blogosphere lately. OMG!!! I havent posted anything for more than two weeks now. I've been very busy working towards my final exam and projects. On May 4th, I graduated with a Master's in Computer Science. Its been a great experience, a roller coaster ride most times. I learned a lot during the last two years and feel very different from when I graduated with my bachelor's, only two years ago. I feel a desire to go out and do something. I have a job that starts in August. I have a million ideas of things I want to do. Business ideas I want to start a company with. Social organizations I want to start or join or work with. Things and methodologies I want to learn. Books I want to read. I'm already overwhelmed.

I have the summer ahead of me. I have talked to a few places for an internship, but am not sure what if anything is going to work out. If something does work out, great I'll get paid to live over the summer. If I don't, thats fine too for now. I can invest my time in working on a business idea. I will also continue working on deals at the Venture Fund. Yesterday and today, I sat at the fund trying to get the startup going, but accomplished very little. There is so much that needs to be planned and so much that needs to be done. I feel so shackled because I feel things move slowly. I need to be more patient and wait for a few months while I continuously work away on the idea to actually start doing business.

In the meanwhile, I just returned from Omaha, NE from Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting. Sadly, I am not rich enough to be a shareholder yet, but some day will definitely be. Its shares are currently trading at $108,500 for the BRK.A share and $3618 for the BRK.B share (which is 1/30th of the A stock). It was held at the Qwest Center and it was packed with 30,000 people, all there to hear pearls of wisdom from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. It was a great experience overall because I felt so motivated. I wish I can be like Buffett some day, own a large, successful company that is revered by so many around the world.

Tagged: Personal, Graduation, Warren Buffett

The Power of Proactivity

2007-04-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note about how proactiveness or proactivity can work wonders. Its just a matter of realizing that by being proactive, one gains a chance at obtaining what is wanted. I do consider myself proactive, but an experience today morning just pushed my level higher and I realized the tremendous power of proactivity all over again.

So I was walking with my girl friend towards a bus stop in the morning. I was hoping to catch a bus to go downtown to the venture fund and she was to carry on walking to the university from there on. Suddenly, one block away, I saw two buses coming - one that stopped at the stop I was walking towards and another that stopped at a stop where the buses were at that moment. I was 20 steps away from my stop when I started running to make it there on time. Unfortunately, I didn't make it and the bus driver didn't stop at the bus stop since there was no one waiting there. I dont think he even saw me running. Had the bus stopped at all for someone to get down, I would have gotten the extra few seconds and made it to my bus.

By now, the other bus, which was one block away had already stopped at the other stop which was across the street to my left. It picked up its passenger, shut the doors and was about to turn. I had written off my chances of getting that bus as well. No, I am not lazy and usually live life proactively myself as well. But I was damn sure that I was going to miss the second bus too. Even if I ran to get to the stop, I wouldn't have made it. I was resigned to the fact that now I would have to wait another 20 minutes for the next bus. By trying to run to this different stop and missing another bus again, I didn't want to be disappointed twice.

I am sure everyone has felt this fear of being disappointed at some point and it has probably prevented us from getting what we wanted. Often we feel like being introduced to someone influential and we think to ourselves, how can I just go and introduce myself. We just give up an opportunity because we fear the negative outcome. Our fears could be coming across as foolish or silly, or being disappointed by someone's negative reaction about our ideas or just plain missing the bus. And by giving up like this, we are almost guaranteeing ourselves of the negative outcome. We will never get what we want if we don't try. However, if we try, we worry we will be disappointed and in that moment, for some reason, avoiding the disappointment becomes our primary goal shoving our primary goal in the background.

Here is where positive thinking and being proactive can be useful. If we keep our goal in mind and do not give in to our fears, chances are we might actually get it. And in the end, if things don't turn out as we expected and we don't, in most cases, we are no worse of than we would have been if we didn't take any action.

How did my situation turn out you ask? My girl friend suggested to me "well, can't you take that bus?". I said "yeah, I can, but its already too late to get that one". The bus was now waiting at the intersection, about to turn right. I still had to cross the road to get to the bus. It was not my right of way to cross yet and there was too much traffic to just jaywalk. And if I waited for my turn to cross the street, the bus would have gotten its green light too and would have immediately turned before I even reached half way across the intersection.

Unexpectedly, she said we'll just wave and see if the driver waits. And thats what she did. And surprisingly the bus driver had seen me miss my previous bus while he was at his stop and was actually waiting at the intersection to see if I wanted to take his bus all this while. If she hadn't waved and urged me to try to get this bus, I would have needlessly wasted this opportunity to get to work early. All because of my fear of missing two buses in one minute and looking like a fool. In the end, I boarded the bus at the intersection and my friend saved me not only precious morning commuting time but I also realized a few things about how lost causes are saved, just by a pinch of proactivity. (*Image courtesy: ldsuccess.org here and here)
Tagged: Proactive, Thoughts

The Biggest Problem with India

2007-04-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I wrote how India is hot for VC and PE activity these days. But there is another side to this growth story as well. The story of what is hindering India from unleasing its true potential. And that according to me, is its politics, and the people running it - its politicians!

Image courtesy: Reuters Alertnet

In other news recently, it seems like US intelligence sources have published a report called 'India: The Islamisation of the Northeast'. Given that it is from Rediff, I am highly uncertain regarding the truth of the story. However, if it is true at all, it marks a very important step in India's progress for the following reasons. It is an acknowledgment from some agency that belongs to US that ISI is meddling with internal Indian affairs. Indians and Indian news have always claimed this, but it fails to make a stir in the international news and political circles. Granted that India doesn't need US approval for what it believes, but it helps every inch given that Pakistan and US have come closer and co-operated on George Bush's War on Terror. Even though it is just an intelligence report and nothing at the political/diplomatic level yet, its a step forward. Who knows, when in the future, this may help shape some US policy that helps India out in this regard.

To many Indians, this sentence - "some US policy that helps India out" may sound very harsh. But its time we admit it. Most of our foreign policy is blunder. In my opinion, India doesn't have cordial relations with any of its neighbors. It bent over backwards in helping Bangladesh gain independence from Pakistan. But then it failed to play its cards right and sadly for it, today Bangladeshi army and its intelligence is co-operating with Pakistan (Bangladesh's one time enemy) to work against India in the North East. Bangladesh was carved out of India's Bengal state by the British (resulting in West Bengal that belongs to India and East Bengal which is today's Bangladesh). These two regions, it seems, should be separate only in political boundaries. They share thousands of years of ties and common culture. They even share the same language. Shouldn't India and Bangladesh find easier to maintain friendship rather than bicker over religion? I blame India's leadership for letting this friendship wither.

India's brother country Nepal, who India claims important trade and political friendship with, also doesn't look up to India anymore. In undergrad, I met many Nepali's who would openly admit that almost all Nepalis hate Indians' guts! I don't know how true it is, but I think if some local says that, I feel like there must be some element of truth in it. The common man, the local on the ground is more in touch with reality no matter what the top level governments say. The saga of India having screwed its relations with Sri Lanka is no secret either. China is whole another story. After sharing so many friendly trade (the silk route), education (Nalanda university and the famous Xuanzang) and religious (Buddhist) links for thousands of years until the 13th century or so, how these two countries ended up hating each other completely beats me. And Bhutan and Myanmar - its other neighbors geographically or culturally, are too instable themselves. The sad reality is, India has no neighbors it can count as its best friend.

Now that we have established that, we have to look at some problems that arise because of these sour relationships. India is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the integrity of its own land. China and Pakistan claim entire states that have belonged to India in the past. There are many insurgencies going on within India itself - not only in its border states, but also states like Madhya Pradesh and Orissa which border no foreign country!

Given this state of the country, it is a surprise India is growing at all, let alone growing at 8% annually. And bulk of the growth should be attributed to the resilience and strength of the common Indian man and business-people, rather than the government (as it always takes credit). But this growth cannot carry on unless the government can figure out a way to stabilize the country internally as well as maintain good relations with its neighbors. One can only live peacefully and carry on with daily business if one doesn't have to constantly worry about his/her own life. If someone was waiting outside your door to bomb you the moment you stepped foot outside, would you even dare to go out to get milk, let alone go out to work? The answer is No!

Similarly, it will be increasingly difficult for India to conduct its own business with so much instability around in the future. Unless the top leadership takes things in its own hands and improves the conditions. This is an issue where businessmen cannot help. If they could, this would have been under control too! But this is entirely the realm of India's leadership. And for once, BJP and Congress - India's two leading national political parties - should stop bickering among themselves trying to pull each other down. They should work together to figure out what they as India's leadership can do to provide its countrymen the best conditions for them to conduct business within India as well as with the world and help keep India growing!
Do you think this will happen? Do you think the politicians will ever stop monkeying around?

Insurgencies in various parts of India
High & Low Intensity, Foreign Controlled Conflict: North (Kashmir) and Northeast
Internal Conflict: Central Parts (Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal)
(Image Courtesy: The South Asia Terrorism Portal.)
Article: Major terrorist groups operating in India

Tagged: India, Politics

India Hot Hot for VC activity

2007-04-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

Rediff.com reports latest that forty VC firms have raised funds totaling $400M to be invested in startups in India. Thats great. Last year (2006) total VC and PE investment in India was $7.5B as opposed to just $2.2B in 2005. This year $2.4B has already been invested in the first quarter, leading me to think that this year total investment will top $12B or so.

I wonder where all this money goes. Working at VC firm in America, I see why startups in America raise funds in millions of dollars. Having employees on your payroll in America is very expensive. Especially if your staff is composed of top scientists. You can burn through a few million dollars in one year easily. On top of that, marketing and sales costs are typically much higher too.

Comparatively, hiring people in India is much cheaper and many costs that you typically see in American startups are either inexistent or way low. So, it is my guess - and its totally my guess - without any research into data about startup funding in India, that an average startup company might burn through cash much slower than an average startup in America - and thus the need to raise less capital.

So if we are on average investing less money in startups, we must invest in a lot more startups to invest all that money thats flowing into VC and PE funds in India. But where are all the Indian startups that we must see blooming already? If India Inc's startups gulped down almost 28% of US VC investing (VCs invested $26.5B in 2006 in US), where is all the money going?

Is there a flaw in my logic that I am not seeing? Or are there other factors such as Indian startups taking longer to gain visibility or something else? It will be interesting to see. In the meanwhile, I will try to find some data about Indian startups in 2006 and 2005. Anyone know any good databases or good data resources for Indian startup arena? I know of Venture Source, but I afaik it has data only for US, Europe and Israeli startups (yes, Israeli! I was surprised too when I first saw it).

Apparently, the data that all news sites are reporting is from a study titled "Indian PE/VC Market Firing on all Cylinders-Liquidity all round" by Assocham and Ernst and Young. I am trying to find this study, but it seems it is too new for search engines to have indexed it or its restricted access. If someone can find it and send me a link or the file at indyman 'DOT' blogspot 'AT' gmail 'DOT' com, that will be great.

Another interesting read: Surging economy sees private equity investment soar. Wall Street Journal - Investing In India. (.pdf)

Update: Today morning 04/24, data for Q1 2007 VC investing came out. VC investors in US have invested just under $7.1B. This number is higher than all other Q1 results for the past 6 years, indicating a good forecast for the economy.

Tagged: India, Venture Capital

Deadly Mumbai Local Trains

2007-04-19T15:19:00.000-07:00

(*Image Courtesy: Sebastião Salgado)

Picture of Victoria Terminus Station of Mumbai during peak hours. From Sebastiao's Exhibit titled 'Exodus'

Ask anyone who has lived in Mumbai about getting around in a local train and you'd likely get one of the following two responses based on who you are. If you are a local, people would assume you know the dangers of traveling it and give you the directions. If you are a foreigner, people would advise you to stay away from it or words like "once-in-a-lifetime" experience will be thrown around. Wall Street Journal carried a very interesting story on its front page today about the dangerous mumbai trains (Subscription required). There is also a video with it, which is embedded below.

Its no secret that Mumbai trains that are used by millions of city residents to commute to work and to get around are over crowded. During peak hours, the trains normally carry 2.5 to 3 times the number of people that it can safely carry. Thats about 550 to 600 passengers per car whereas the number to safely operate is 200 per car. Even during non-peak hours, the trains carry more than 1.5x the load.

This may seem like a feat accomplished, but it really is very dangerous. The train cars are normally packed like animals with no room to move your foot. If you shuffle your hands in or out of your pockets, you may get into a fight with the person standing nearby because you have just hit them with your elbow.

(*Image courtesy Wall Street Journal)

The trains are so crowded that to get to the door from inside the car, you have to plan three to four stations ahead and get up and start making your way outwards slowly. To do that, you also need to know which side - left or right - your station will arrive at. If one doesn't plan well, it is impossible to get out because if you try to hurry, the crowd will push you right back in. Besides there are people hanging on by the doors who may fall out if you push too much!

Every year many people die from crossing the tracks carelessly, but even more so from falling out of running trains overcrowded beyond capacity. Many people also fall between the platform and the train due to the jostle of getting in or out when the train arrives. You must be wondering how this could happen? Believe it or not, but many platforms are not aligned to the height of the train (due to repairs carried out on the tracks, which leave them elevated and the contractor didnt level them back down to save costs - i.e. more money in his own pocket). So on many platforms the train is usually a foot higher than the platform and there is a huge opening for anyone to fall through! (So much for the combined talent pool of India's millions of engineers)

No wonder when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie decided to hop on to a Mumbai train while shooting for A Mighty Heart, it made world wide news.

The train authorities are seen regularly on television boasting about the capacities mumbai train network handles. They use popular words like courage and strength to describe the commuters and win them over. Thats why, whenever I read someone from the rail administration being interviewed, I don't pay much attention. In fact, I run far from anybody who starts boasting about today's state of mumbai trains. (*Image courtesy: BBC)

I consider that both the Central Railway and the Western Railway (the two government agencies that manage Mumbai's entire rail network) have terribly failed the Mumbai residents. Its a failure of the top level management in not understanding the demands of a growing metropolis of one of the fastest growing nations. It is a failure of planners that are hired by the railway. It is the failure of the politicians who prefer united minorities who establish illegal slum-type settements over the tax-paying, honest but divided commuter public. The city authorities almost have their hands tied by these politicians when time comes to demolish these illegally occupied public lands next to railway tracks. Thats why new rail lines cannot be laid and the frequency of trains cannot be laid. (At least thats what the rail authorities like to claim). But as you probably see by now, these are just some of the many parties to successfully play the point-the-fingers game when blame comes around. And nothing ever gets accomplished. (*Image Courtesy: http://www.cbc.ca)

I am certain that there are many things that can be done if the railway authorities wanted to. In the next few weeks, I am going to gather some data on the railways performance in Mumbai and draw some comparables with other cities metro and public transportation. If anybody has smart suggestions as to what can be done, please post those in the comments. And if you are one of the affected Mumbai residents, please think about this deeper than usual. Lets not shurg and slide this as a part of life as many of us Mumbaikars have gotten used to doing.

Tagged: Mumbai, Mumbai Trains, Local Trains

Condolences for Virginia Tech Shootout Victims

2007-04-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

My heart reaches out to all the victims and families of the recent shootouts at Virginia Tech. In two separate incidents, gunman Cho Seung-Hui, a 23 year old student killed 32 students and professors before shooting himself. Two people of Indian origin - Professor G V Loganathan who hailed from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and first year masters student of architecture Minal Panchal from Bombay were also killed.

I have been very deeply affected by the tragedy. For the last two days, I have not been able to concentrate on anything other than the tragedy. I keep tuning in to the news, both on the television as well as on the net. Being a student at a large university, roughly the size of Virginia Tech makes things almost real. I can imagine how vulnerable we are to such an event here too. I can identify with how the university community at VTech feels right now. But the fact that I almost went to Virginia Tech and would have been there right now had I chosen it two years ago makes dealing with this tragedy even harder.

Two years ago, while finishing my undergrad, I had applied to schools to pursue a graduate degree. After being admitted to six schools, I narrowed the list down to two. The two schools I was choosing between were Virginia Tech and University of Utah. I had received funding from both schools and they were both pretty equally ranked. I was too undecided about my research interests at the time to make a decision sitting at home from their web pages. So I decided to visit both.

I had received an offer from both schools to visit their campus. I declined VT's offer because it was my last semester in undergrad and the visit weekend coincided with some really hard deadlines in my course work. I could attend the University of Utah's prospective grad student weekend the next week. I learned a lot about the school and met the people, who were all great and loved the mountains that surround the salt lake valley. But in my heart I didn't feel like making an unfair decision after visiting only one university.

So I emailed people at VT and decided to drive out there the next weekend. I visited the campus, met a lot of people. I loved the campus - the buildings are all made out of Hokie stone and look so pretty. It is a beautiful campus. But it is located in Blacksburg which is a small town, almost like the town I was already in doing my undergrad. I wanted to move out to a slightly bigger city and Salt Lake won there. But that was not the deal clincher. There were two or three professors whose research interested me but overall the grad student and research atmosphere at Utah looked better. That clinched the deal and I decided to choose Utah over Virginia Tech.

I keep thinking where I would be today, had I chosen the other. I am not sure that I would have been one of the people in Norris Hall had I chosen VT. But I am sure my life would have taken a very different path in many ways than it has here. It just keeps coming back to my mind, the choices we make at every turn and how they change every single that follows.

I hope no body has to go through what the people who witnessed the massacre had to go through every. More so, I hope no family has to go through what the families of the victims are going through today. My heart-felt condolences go out to everyone affected by the tragedy.

Tagged: Virginia Tech, Thoughts

The Case of Increasing Carry on New Funds

2007-04-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

Daniel Primack has recently talked about the increased carried interest on new private equity funds in the PE Week Wire I mentioned about in a post here. Some buy out firms have increased the carried interest they charge their LPs from 20% to 25%.

For the uninitiated, fund investors are limited partners or LPs who pay the general partners, the GPs, fees to manage the fund and source deals, do due diligence etc. The GPs earn a 2-3% management fee every year and also something called a carried interest, which is about 20% of the profits.

So Dan argues that the GPs' thinking that the size of the fund (which typically is around $1bn for the ones doing this) would not allow them to invest and recruit in talent that will get poached by the larger $20bn and upwards funds. So they need to charge higher carry to be able to compete with them. Contending this is unethical, he goes as far as comparing it with the fund sizing during the bubble era.

"I’d go so far as to argue that bubble-era VCs were actually more ethical than today’s LBO crop (in terms of this specific issue). Why? Because VC carried interest increases did not get stapled to fund sizes. Instead, VC fund sizes grew purely as a function of perceived market opportunity/valuation. Such perceptions were wildly inflated, of course, but not intentionally so."

I commend Dan for his courage in openly admitting what he sees wrong in a newsletter that is primarily read by the people he is complaining about. But I don't see why this practice is unethical. It may be wrong and we do need a discussion on what is an appropriate size of carried interest for different sized funds. However, if the LPs of the funds who have done this are okay with it (since the LPs now only receive 75% instead of 80%), shouldn't the funds be fine to do it. In fact by doing so, I'd guess the GPs are under more pressure to perform and would have to work harder or actually recruit the talent they are talking about recruiting by raising the carry. They need to get higher returns so that they can justify this practice when they raise their next fund. So if they achieve 40% IRR instead of 30% on the last fund, they can argue that hey, we raised the carry, but we gained more as well.

We must also remember that the players (the LPs) in this industry are not rookies. They are not typical lay persons like you and me. They are not the person who can be easily taken advantage of. The LPs are managers of large pension plans or endowments who have significant pressure on them. They also have to the top attorneys and the best legal firms. If they can find a reason to go along with the increased carry, I am sure they have their own reasons. If an LP thinks this is stretching it too far, they have the means to sit down and negotiate with the GPs or the choice of not investing in that fund. Its as simple as that. In the end, every thing boils down to supply and demand. Doesn't it? Then should we really be worried that this practice of increasing the carry from 20% to 25% is unethical?

Tagged: Buyout Funds, Carried Interest, Private Equity, PEHub

Private Equity & Venture Capital Blogs

2007-04-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

Along the lines of my last post, heres a compilation of some top blogs that are related to Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Entrepreneurship that I check out and highly recommend:

Venture Hacks - An excellent blog for the non-networked entrepreneur. Started by Naval and Nivi, both of whom have some entrepreneurial experience and know things from both perspectives

StartUpBoy - by Naval Ravikant. Its title says Truth in Startups, and a whole lot less. I couldnt agree more.

NiviBlog - Nivi writes about everything - management, vc, entrepreneurship, life etc.

IWillTeachYouToBeRich - Blog by Ramit Sethi about personal finance, budgeting, entrepreneurship etc..

VC Circle - a blog on VC investments in India

I'll keep updating more blogs to this list as I come across more blogs that I like.

Tagged: Blogs, Venture Capital, Private Equity

Keeping Up To Date in the Private Equity World

2007-04-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about being at the University Venture Fund (UVF) is I actually feel a part of the Venture Capital and Private Equity communities. And I am not just saying it. UVF with its $18M fund and 11 investments is slowly becoming kind of a big deal.

To begin with, we have some great partners we work with. They source deals to us and we do due diligence for them. In the process we learn a lot about VC investing, due diligence and the partners get due diligence done faster, for free and sometimes a young, student perspective on some tough questions. Its a mutual relationship that works out great. Even on companies we might not invest in. I have closely worked with Ft. Washington Partners (an Ohio based fund of funds) and have learned so much from interacting with them and doing due diligence for them.

This exposure to the VC partners is a very important component of the educational mission of UVF. I noticed how much a part of the PE world I have become when I automatically stopped working on my computer when I heard something on the idiot box that was playing at UVF office. My ears had picked up the words "New York Times proposes PE gains be taxed at regular rate instead of the Capital Gains tax rate" on MSNBC The accompanying article is here. For the record, I think the idea is meritless since profits from investing in a company are technically a "capital gain". But I can see why this has come up. To many people, it seems like with the lower tax rate of 15% (as opposed 30+ %) for VC investors, "the rich only get richer". More on this later, in some other post.

Since then, I've wanted to keep myself updated with the PE industry and am so glad somebody recommended me the Private Equity Week Wire. PE Week Wire is written by Daniel Primack at the PEWeek which is owned by Thomson Financial. Their subscription costs money, but the PE Week Wire newsletter is free. Its top notch PE news in your inbox daily. Daniel does a great job of compiling top stories into a discussion format at the top and offers his perspective on some events. Then there are other news in a one or two sentence format.

If you have anything to do with the private equity industry or are just interested in learning more, I highly reccomend signing up for PEWeekWire.

Tagged: Private Equity, Venture Capital, University Venture Fund

Beautiful day to get things accomplished

2007-04-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

Today was a beautiful day to get things accomplished. I had to make a lot of calls for a market study we are helping out one company in which one of our venture partners are investors. Early on, the calls were not coming along pretty well. But then stuff started getting together and I got tons of good data.

After that, I dont know why, I decided to make a call to this person who I had been trying to reach badly a few weeks ago and given up. I got through on my first try and got a meeting for today itself. I wont tell you what it was about - but lets just say it was a step forward in the direction of me starting something of my own soon!

That was a great meeting and I celebrated by going to my favorite cookie shop - Ben's Cookies and buying 3 cookies for $6. Its damn expensive, but its worth it! They're so good.

In the morning, after the meeting with this particular person got set up so easily, I was convinced that today was a great day and things were going in my favor. So I made another leap and now have a meeting with a hedge fund manager for lunch on monday! That was also another jackpot!

And thats why I loved today! Things just rolled in my favor. And guess what, the sun is out, the flowers are budding, the birds are chirping, spring is here. Indeed it was a beautiful day.

Is the Satisfaction of Doing a Few Things Enough?

2007-02-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

At the behest of my dear friend, I am trying to understand myself better. I always thought I know myself very well. I know I am ambitious, and always want better for myself and the people around me. And ideally, the best for my country too (yes, I kind of feel patriotic most of the times somehow. more about that in some other post).

But I have never realized that maybe I am over-doing it. In the quest to know a lot, always do interesting, challenging things, I may be pushing myself too hard. I always judge myself. I am never satisfied with my current situation. The grass is always greener somewhere where I am not. And that place is always much farther than just the-other-side.

Heres what I mean: I am working towards an advanced degree in computer science. And that takes up all my time. But I am not content with just that. I like venture capital as well. So I am working at a $18M venture fund to gain experience in that. Its great experience and I love doing this. But until recently, I didnt understand that this is not common for most graduate students. Classes, projects, TAing takes up almost all the time for most everyone, including me. And then I find some more hours to devote to that. And then I decided to add to my love for trading and stocks by writing an automated trading system in Java using Interactive Brokers' Trading API. That took a few months of additional weekend nights.

All that is fun, but its crazy. Hectic. Beyond hectic. I hope that now you can start to cope the demands I make of myself all the time. Its not easy at all to do all these things at the same time and to do them reasonably well. And yet I have been doing it for quite some time now. Without even realizing that I am doing this.

And then I wonder why I feel so stressed out sometimes. Do many other people feel the same way? Like there is so much stuff to do and so little time? How do you use your time? Do you focus on one thing at a time (time being used as the period of a couple of months or so - counting all the major stuff going on in one's life at some given point)? Are many people the same as me? Or am I a unique species?

Greed and The Desire to Achieve

2007-01-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

A quote from the book Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis:

The most poisonous is the desire to have more now: short term greed rather than long term greed. People who are short term greedy arent loyal.

In my quest to succeed, achieve my so called "world domination", I need to remember to take things one at a time. I often have the tendency to do many things at the same time. This often leads to my experiencing heightened levels of anxiousness and busy-ness.

Back in the business

2007-01-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

After a long break of about 5 months, I am back in the business of blogging. My blogging fever seems to come and go in phases. Sometimes I have blogged twice or even thrice in a day and then there are gaps like this. Well, I really hope to be more regular this time around.

So whats happening currently in my life. I have been suffering from extreme fever and cold for the last three days. It seems to be subsiding now. Hopefully, leading into the week I will be fine. I attended the UPES (University Private Equity Summit) - a conference two days back. Its hosted every year by University Venture Fund of which I am a member around this time of year. UVF is the world's largest student-run venture capital fund. We have about $18M in the fund, about 7-9M of which are already allocated in the eleven or so investments we have made so far. We have had our first successful exit in Omniture, Inc (OMTR) a local Utah based Web analytics company in which we made about 81% IRR over a span of eighteen months. Not bad for a student-run venture club. Other investments are coming along and we hope to make a bundle of money. And gain real work experience too in the process!

Apart from that I am working on an automated trading project this semester. Work on that has been very slow so far due to technology issues. I hope to speed up work on that very soon. I am also taking classes to finish my Masters in Computer Science by the end of this semester. After that, who knows what will happen to me?

I am reading Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham. Its a very interesting book and the author has approached it very differently. What I really like about the book is that when the author uses certain examples or throws some names, he doesnt precede that with a page or two explaining the background. He just uses it assuming that you know most of it and if you dont, you will look it up on your own. That keeps the book from becoming uninteresting. I know of many other authors who'd have loved to do that to fill up pages. Read it if you get a chance. Especially if you're a programmer. Or should I say, a hacker. ;)

This friday routine I got...

2006-08-11T18:12:00.001-07:00

This summer I'm living in Seattle. And on fridays, I can take off of work early - its called the Weekend jumpstart, where you can go home at 3:00 and enjoy the beautiful long day, do what you want to. Mostly every friday I get home earlier than my cousin, who is also here in Seattle and gets home by 6. I go for a swim, go jog a little bit, and go to the library between that time and 6:00. Its a nice little routine I have established by now.

I get home by 3:30 from work and quickly go to swim in the pool. Usually there is no one there and I like it that way. It gets crowded by 5:00. Then I go for a quick jog and then off to the library to return last week's books and get new ones. Usually I get two or three books about each topic that I have been thinking deeply recently about, and want to get deeper into over the weekend and the coming week. I also get one or two books for pleasure reading when I am done reading the current book. I dont read very much for pleasure - just an hour or so, every other day or so before I go to bed. So it takes me three to four weeks to finish each book. I just finished Iacocca and it was time to get a new one. This time, I got The Namesake.

Today, when I started for work, I expected to stay there until 5, because we had a hard deadline today and we didnt know how long it would take to finish it. Luckily things were better than expected when we reconciled the different spreadsheets tracking our progress used by the different teams and we met the deadline by 1:00 pm and actually got out by 2:30. It was nice. Beautiful day too. Swim was fun, like always. I didnt jog today even though I went prepared to because my legs still ached from the long 2 hour walk I took to Cucina Cucina - waterfront area last evening. Then I went to the library and just got back right now. I got a few DVDs and a few books for the next week.

I'm watching: Grapes of Wrath, Dopamine, Wicker Park.
I'm reading: The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri.
I'm researching: Investing in mutual funds, investing in real estate and career stuff.

No, I'm not rich enough (yet! :)) to invest in real estate. But I have been thinking a lot about things - especially after discussions with coworkers who recently bought a house or a condo, some who want to buy soon and I want to find answers to the questions I have in my head about how things work. So, I now look forward to going out during the day, enjoying the new city and get back and learn new stuff. Happy weekend, and happy reading.

Stories from Detroit

2006-08-06T23:13:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography. And it was hell of a good read. I would recomment it to anyone who loves reading about business. In short, Lee Iacocca was a son of Italian immigrants who started with Ford Motor Company as a student engineer and moved to the business side pretty soon. He moved up the ranks and became the President. He was the father of the Mustang and other cars during his twenty-three years at Ford. When he was fired suddenly by Henry Ford, he joined Chrysler Corp and helped bail out the ailing company in a very short span. In the process, he became a celebrity of sorts - admired by many in the business world.

This book is full of interesting business stories and his views on things like labor relations, management excesses, turning aroung a dying company, dealing with the government and so on. It does manage to stimulate the reader through various twists and sometimes it feels like I am reading fiction. Its fun! But sometimes it does get rote when he introduces random people he worked with into the book and mentions some of his personal grudges with other people. Nevertheless, its a great book overall.

It goes into showing what all one must go through to be there and do that - at the very top of the corporate ladder. Its a true success story - and an attestation to the fact that this is still the land of dreams - where any body who cares to dream big and does the hard work, gets a fair shot at achieving that dream. That American Dream.

What would you call Shiv Sena? Patriotic or anti-national?

2006-07-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

Shiv Sena is a political party in India which finds its roots in Maratha identity. Its major area of influence is the state of Maharashtra, and particularly its capital - Bombay. Shiv Sena is known for its hard-nosed attitude and for not budging from its position. Ever! It has taken aggressive stances and is known to defend its beliefs by organizing protests, rallies and often resorting to violence.

It is also known for its vehement anti-Pakistan stance. It believes that India should stop sucking up to Pakistan time and again, stop believing false promises from across the border, not give-in to global pressure, and not try to make things work by making diplomatic gestures of peace like the Bus to Lahore started by ex-Prime Minister A. B. Vajpayee. I appreciate that. After a certain point, when the issue is not getting resolved, both parties need to stop pretending and making 'gestures'.

But what I dont appreciate is their anti-Muslim attitude and their party members' blind sycophancy towards the party. They are often willing to go great lengths to make a point, often hurting innocent people. This is where I make my point that Shiv Sena is on the verge of becoming anti-national!

Indian Muslims are as much citizens of India as are Hindus or anybody else for that matter. This open discrimination should not be tolerated, especially by the Election Commission of India. Secondly, Shiv Sainiks (as the party workers are called) often resort to violence and call off strikes and 'bandhs' as if it were their will-call!

Point-in-case, when the Party head's wife, Maasaheb, as she was endearingly called (and still is today) died, the party called for a 'bandh' in Bombay for 3 days. Bombay is the financial capital of India! Hello, wake up! Bombay contributes a large percentage (around 15-20%) of the national GDP! A few days of mourning, while quite nice for the dead one, it honestly affects quite a lot of business. It is also the same fragility of the city which is looked down upon in global markets.

But that is not it. They want their bandhs to be like a curfew. You cant get out of your house. Even if you want to go to the hospital. So if you take your car out to go anywhere during the bandh, your car will be pelted with stones, brought to a stop, and you will be pulled out in a way that would make you believe that you are really one of those Pakistanis that they hate so much, and beat up gruesomely! Even before asking where you were going. Maybe you were taking your wife to the hospital because she is pregnant. Oh well, too late! Shes probably dead anyways. After that, when almost nobody is coming out, they need to show their might by burning on of those red city buses operated by BEST (which is as much a lifeline of Bombay as the train system is, if not more)!

Shiv-sainiks may be the big-wigs, the hot-shots and may be the most powerful people of India. But that still doesnt give them the right to call for a bandh in Bombay. That city is as much mine as theirs. They have no right to hurt civilians and their destroy their property. Similarly BEST buses and trains are public properties and they have no right to destroy them!

Very recently a statue of Maasaheb was found to be desecrated and in an upsurge of emotion, Shiv Sainiks protested and made a big issue out of it. They stopped short of torching a BEST bus, but they still had to burn something. So they picked a tourist coach which was parked in front of Sena Bhavan - their own party HQ! This is appaling! The mature thing to do would have been to acknowledge that someone is trying to create them displeasure and they would not fall prey to it and respond by instead collecting money from party-workers and installed a new statue in the place of the old one.

By being so fragile, willing to cause violence at the slightest prick, they are falling prey to those who want to harm India. They are doing their work for them by spreading terror. From once being Bombay's strength, they have today become a liability for Bombay. The next time a terrorist wants to strike Bombay, they wont bring bombs and guns anymore. All they need is an axe and the ability to desecrate another statue. Then all the need to do is sit back and watch with gleeful pleasure as the sainiks do their work for them!

If this attitude of the sena isnt changed, there will be no difference between the terrorists who blew up 7 trains within 20 minutes in London and Madrid style attacks and Shiv sainiks who burn buses and destroy public property for their own agenda in the eyes of the common people of India! The question is, will they ever understand?

Mumbai Blasts - A letter to the Terrorists from Mumbai

2006-07-12T12:06:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, July 11, 2006, terrorists blew up the commuter train network in a series of 7 bomb blasts in Bombay (Mumbai), all within a span of 20 minutes.

Here is a letter to those terrorists that has been circulating on the net, from the people of Mumbai!

07/11/2006
Mr. Terrorist,

Even if you are not reading this we don't care. Time and again you tried to disturb us and disrupt our life - killing innocent civilians by planting bombs in trains, buses and cars. You have tried hard to bring death and destruction, cause panic and fear and create communal disharmony but everytime you were disgustingly unsuccessful. Do you know how we pass our life in Mumbai? How much it takes for us to earn that single rupee? If you wanted to give us a shock then we are sorry to say that you failed miserably in your ulterior motives. Better look elsewhere, not here.

We are not Hindus and Muslims or Gujaratis or Marathis or Punjabis or Bengaliies nor do we distinguish ourselves as owners or workers, govt. employees or private employees. WE ARE MUMBAIKERS (Bombay-ites, if you like). We will not allow you to disrupt our life like this. On the last few occasions when you struck (including the 7 deadly blasts in a single day killing over 250 people and injuring 500+ in 1993), we went to work next day in full strength. This time we cleared everything within a few hours and were back to normal - the vendors placing their next order, businessmen finalizing the next deals and the office workers rushing to catch the next train. (Yes the same train system that you targeted)

Fathom this: Within 3 hours of the blasts, long queues of blood donating volunteers were seen outside various hospitals, where most of the injured were admitted. By 12 midnight, the hospital had to issue a notification that blood banks were full and they didn't require any more blood. The next day, attendance at schools and office was close to 100%, trains & buses were packed to the brim, and the crowds were back. The city has simply dusted itself off and moved one - perhaps with greater
vigour.

We are Mumbaikers and we live like brothers in times like this. So, do not dare to threaten us with your crackers. The spirit of Mumbai is very strong and can not be harmed.

Please forward this to others. U never know, by chance it may come to hands of a terrorist in Afghanistan or Iraq and he can then read this message which is specially meant for him!!!

With Love,
From the people of Mumbai (Bombay)

Spring is here... finally

2006-04-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

And its time to shed off the bulky winter coat. Lie down on the lawn and smell the fresh cut grass. Feel the sun on your face and enjoy its warmth. And watch the squirrels frolicking around, playing with each other. Go on a hike and let the nature take you away to a new new land. The land of late sunsets, cool air with the warm sun, the land of spring. And thats exactly what I did on Sunday evening. Welcomed the spring with all my might and enjoyed it.

2006-03-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

While I was browsing a friend's album on facebook, I came across some pictures of me from a long long time ago. Actually, its not that long, but it just seems like it.

Its me and my friend Nga. We're surrounded by a bunch of Native American kids who we played with one evening. It was taken in 2003 on the Native American reservation called Rosebud. That evening, we were to take part in a ritual/ceremony of praying and inner cleansing called a sweat lodge. The elders who were going to conduct the ritual lived in a house nearby and their kids were playing (and other than the house, no matter where you looked, it was flat, barren land). Nga and I joined them in playing Cops and Robbers or something like that where they were the cops and we were robbers and they had to run behind us to tag us!

It was so much fun, oh my gosh! We got caught after making them run around and they climbed on us (so we wont get away) ha ha! Really cool!

Melanie and Adam visit Salt Lake City

2006-03-26T02:04:00.000-07:00

Melanie, a friend from Ohio Wesleyan University, and her boyfriend Adam visited the last weekend of February. I've known Mel since freshman year - thats about 5 years ago now, gosh! We had gone on the Vietnam trip together about a year ago.

We went around the city, then to the Mormon Temple and then to the Great Salt Lake. It was my first time being to the lake too (can't believe it)! People dont go there often because it is very salty and the air has a bit of stink in it. But it didnt smell that bad and being away from the city and in the open was fun! The lake is huge. Adam tasted to water to make sure it is indeed salty and they aren't lying. (He wasnt too happy after that)

An artsy picture of the American flag flying in the air above salt lake against the backdrop of sunset!

Tagged: Salt Lake City

Only in India...

2006-03-24T16:18:00.000-07:00

Some funny pictures I received in a forwarded mail...

Tagged: Humor

An update on my fractured knee...

2006-03-22T03:07:00.000-07:00

Heres an update on my knee that I fractured while skiing more than a month ago. I have finally recovered enough to stop using crutches after being on them for four weeks. However, those four weeks made me realize how difficult life is for someone who is handicapped.

Suddenly, something we take so easily for granted, like opening a door, becomes an activity that needs to be handled correctly. Since both the hands are required to walk properly with crutches, after pulling the door open with one hand, you have to quickly move that hand onto a crutch and then use the crutch to stop the door as it swings back in. At times people would hold the door open for me, but it always made me self-conscious of my situation. Being an independent person, I didnt always like it. At first, I liked those who didnt care about me and moved on with their business.

But I soon realized that everything I wanted to do had to be planned as to how I would do it. If I wanted to go fill my water bottle, I couldnt just take the water bottle and go to the water fountain. I needed my hands to walk with the crutches. Who would hold the bottle then? So I had to plan and carry my backpack to just hold the water bottle to the water fountain and back. And thats just one case. There was no way around to carrying a dish full of food from the kitchen to sit and eat except for not using my crutches at all. Can you imagine that?

So slowly, I learned to be okay with taking help from my friends. Friends helped me shop for groceries. One friend helped me get medicines from the pharmacy. Others asked me to move in with them in their apartment so I dont have to worry about food and other such chores where I end up walking without crutches because I need my hands to carry something. I thank everybody who was considerate and thoughtful and helped me out in one way or the other.

Although I havent completely recovered, atleast now I am back on both feet. I can put enough weight on my knees that I can walk. But once I start to run, I feel a seering pain go through my knee right up through my entire thigh in just three or four steps. So I can't resume andyhigh-impact activity like hiking, jogging, or skiing yet. I have to make do with stationary-cycling and elliptical machine for now. I can't wait to get better like I was before!

Google Launches Google Finance...

2006-03-21T14:04:00.000-07:00

... And its awesome. I am already a convert. I have always used Yahoo! Finance enthusiastically and even though I explored other options like MSN Money Central, Fool.com, Marketwatch, nothing came close to Yahoo! Finance.

But with Ajax, Google Finance definitely kicks ass (There is a reason I am not using the term "Web 2.0" here. Web 2.0 is not only Ajax, and I dont think it is here completely yet). One thing I really love is that the chart view is customizable. Go on over to an example (Google's stock) to see. Not only can you zoom into the chart using 1d, 5d, 1m, 3m, 6m .. standards that Yahoo's chart function allows, but if you click on the scrollers in the centre of the historical chart above, you can customize the period that you view the chart for. And it automatically pulls the news headlines for that time period on the right side. Even better, the news stories are tagged on the chart so you can analyze what major events caused the stock to go up or down.

Now scroll down to the Management section. As you roll over the names, you can see a quick summary and a picture of the person. No more clicking on each page and waiting for the page to load. Yay!

Another cool feature is that it remembers your last few quotes. Next time you go over to the homepage you can see the last few quotes in the "Recent Quotes" section.

I think Google Finance offers pretty much everything that Yahoo Finance offers and makes it better. There's probably more, but I will only be able to explore it more over the weekend.

Lately, I have kind of been mad at the rate at which new web services have been launching, all trying to make use of Ajax. But in the rush to get the product out there, getting it out half-baked. And that is usually very annoying. But I am very happy with Google Finance and I think they've taken full advantage of the new technology and used it appropriately (and not overdone it. This is very important).

Tagged: Google Finance, Ajax, Technology

The return of KMCL

2006-03-05T02:58:00.000-07:00

This is a car I sketched a few days ago. As a kid, I always dreamed of cars. This was when I was in the 8th grade. Rather than dreaming of just cars that exist, I dreamed of creating my own. Of how I'd make my cars. Of owning my own company and making beautiful cars.

Along the way, my friends named my so-called company KMCL. Abit stupid, but I liked it. So I went with it. And so was Kumar Motors Corporation Limited born. At least conceptually. It was kinda cool. I used to sketch cars on any piece of paper whenever I was bored. My drawing was more abstract than I make it sound though. I didnt just set out making cars. I would start with just drawing random lines here and there on a piece of paper. Out of it, would come myriad sketches of different things - people, planes and whatever the randomly drawn set of lines could possibly evolve into. More often than anything else, I managed to convert those random lines into cars. :) And I thought that was awesome.

But, I sort of gave up on sketching once I got more busy after 10th grade. After I joined computer science in 11th grade, I stopped dreaming of owning a car company, for good reasons :). Then suddenly a few days agoI was sitting on my study desk with my work for the day done. I was bored at 2 am in the morning, but I didnt want to sleep. I picked a scratch paper and started drawing random lines. And suddenly all this seemed familiar. And an hour later I had the following car sketched. (I used to name cars in those days. This one is still unnamed.) I am glad though that I am back doing something I always enjoyed doing.

Here is the whole cruddy sketch that I drew on that piece of paper where this car that is pictured above was drawn. With the bunch of lines that I drew initially to start me off, I drew the front of what would be a fighter plane of old ages. (very very light sketch, center. You can barely make it out.) Then (bottom, right) I attempted to make the plane bigger and it sucked. Then came the idea of a front grille and lights with a bunch of curves (left center) to start with. This evolved into a more refined sketch of just the grille and the lights (right center). Then I scaled the grille much smaller and tried to sketch my imagination of rest of the car in the remaining space. :)

Its a coupe, but has an uncharacteristically long bonnet. I like the doors however, with the much larger side window. I kinda like it, but there are many flaws. I myself have spotted so many - mostly related to scaling (of certain parts compared to others) and symmetry of design. But I feel its a pretty darn good start after a 6 year break and it makes me happy.

Tagged: Cars, Design

The kneebreaker jump...

2006-02-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

Now this is called bad timing. I was just getting better at skiing. And then, a fall I had while last weekend has caused me a fracture in my leg and has wiped out any chances of me skiing this season again. Now I have to walk on crutches... and that is no fun at all. :(

I was skiing at Alta the weekend of 11th February with a bunch of friends. I had already gotten bored of skiing the green and the blue-marked slopes on Sunnyside. So I decided to venture into an area, not frequented much by other skiiers. The snow was deep, and the path was a bit bumpy. Along the way, one of the bumps, sent me into the air for half a second. It completely took me by surprize because I wasn't going fast at all. I have not had to worry about landing back on the ground after a jump yet, so I didnt know how to. And so when I landed, I did it incorrectly.

The soft, deep snow gave way because of the impact, causing me to lose my balance and fall. While falling, I fell on my side and rolled because of the slope on my right, but my skis did not come off of the boots and they got stuck in the snow I think, causing me to twist my leg pretty bad.

I got up, cleaned the powder off of my clothes and felt a bit of pain in my shin. But it felt minor and I could walk properly and so I continued skiing, hoping the pain would go away later. After coming home that night, I took care of my leg by putting it in hot water for half an hour and then applying a muscle ointment. But the pain just kept getting worse over the weekend, until I got some X-rays taken on Monday which revealed a hairline fracture in one of my bones.

I am still astonished that this happened considering my fall wasnt that bad at all. But I guess the twist must have been bad. Luckily I didnt tear my ligament tissue or else I'd be bed ridden. So currently, I am supposed to not put any pressure on this leg for 2 weeks and just walk on crutches. I hope the bone heals and within the next week and recovers by the end of this ski season. I really want to ski again next season at least. Till then, I just gotta wait... Sigh!

Of Winter Olympics and More...

2006-02-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

Winter Olympics start today in Turin, Italy. In exact 31:05 minutes as I write this. And I am very excited. I find this very weird, because I am not the kind of person who would sit down and watch a sport on TV or follow a sporting event usually. I used to follow Cricket and Tennis when I was in India, watch them on TV and go for matches that were held in India. But after the Cricket match-fixing scandal came out in 2000 I sort of gave up following cricket, feeling betrayed as a fan. Along with Cricket, I canned watching almost all other sports also and plunged myself into other things, like my career.

But, recently I have been learning skiing and I love it more than any other sport I have ever played. I have always loved mountains and there is something different about going down a mountain with a high speed! People are drawn to Formula 1 racing and other speed sports for probably the exact same reason - SPEED! And thats exactly what you get to experience when you ski.

For that reason and the fact that I live in Salt Lake City, which hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics, I am motivated to follow the olympics this year. It seems that the 2002 Olympics have left a profound impact and have changed Salt Lake forever! The olympics still linger around here in the air. The people I have interacted with, who were here during the time, have such awesome stories to tell. One man I talked to at a small, local electronics shop said "Man, what a time it was. Firecrackers, lots of people, sports and excitement! Along with that came so much business also. I was so busy , and was working so hard that I fell sick. And yet I enjoyed the olympics. I would pay anything to bring the Olympics back here!"

Then there is all the new construction that took place for the Olympics, which we are taking advantage of as U students today. Even though I wasn't here in 2002, it makes me feel like I am a part of the winter olympics tradition somehow. Its crazy! In fact, the other day I was reading on BBC how the IOC is worried about the mega structures that Olympics leave behind in the host cities and is imploring future cities to scale down their ambitions of building moster facilities for the Olympics which never get utilized to their complete capacity after the event is over. In fact, it makes economic sense in bring back the Olympics to a city that has hosted it before, because then you ammortize the cost of building it the first time. Its money well spent. But the IOC feels it should keep rotating so that it can spread the Olympics more. I really feel that the IOC should strongly consider leveraging the already built facilities and help the host cities out since most host cities end up losing money on the Olympics. Salt Lake was one of the few cities in recent history to turn a profit. If so many cities end up losing money, I think hosting the games a second time (maybe after 8 or 12 years) will help the cities making more money to recoup the losses with relatively little expenditure the second time.

Moving along, there is another thing I noticed. I was going through the Athlete roster by country and I couldn't help but notice the disparity in numbers. USA has a total of 221 athletes participating in these Olympics. U.K. has 51. India has (guess....) 4! A measly 4. Every time the olympics or World Cup soccer or any other world sporting event comes along, India gets criticized for its lack of participants or the number of medals that we bag in comparison to the percentage of world population it has. So this is no different. But I really think that as it develops and the economy grows and India takes it's first steps towards being a super power, it takes steps to grow in other fields too.

Tagged: Salt Lake City, Winter Olympics 2006, India

My Name in Vietnamese

2006-02-05T23:33:00.000-07:00

Languages interest me a lot and I am always out to learn more and more stuff in different languages. So I have just learned from a friend what my full name in Vietnamese would be if we went for word by word translation by meaning. Its turns out to be that I'd be called - Hoang Tu Thuoc Tien Cuoi Lang.

Thats a loooong name! Its kinda funny! But kinda cool too.

Heres the analysis -

Hoang Tu = Prince = Kumar
Thuoc Tien = Elixir of Immortality = Amrut
Cuoi Lang = Town's End = Chheda

:))

Technorati Tag: Vietnamese

My Birthday

2006-02-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

Jan 26th was my birthday. And I really had a blast.

The fun junkies junta came by with a surprize pineapple upside-down cake and lots of birthday bumps for a party at midnight. Thanks guys, it was a lot of fun! :) (Except for those bumps! Ouch)

Mallika kept wishing me happy birthday all day whenever we talked on the phone (and even the day before). :). Vivek, Partha, Ashwin and Subodh called at midnight to wish.

Thanh called at 5 am while she was going to work in NYC (7 am EST). Felt nice to wake up to her voice.

She sent me an iPod - I had gifted her one about two years ago when they first came out. Thanks Thanh, I love it.

Then I went back to sleep. I woke up later in the morning and rushed to get ready. Opened the door and just as I was about to step out, on my door step lied a plate covered with foil and a happy birthday balloon tied to it. Inside were delicious home made brownies. No name. Hmm Secret Admirer. :) Thanks for the brownies and the balloon.
(Later I found out, it was this couple - a guy who goes to the U and we usually ride the bus together, and his wife - they live in the same apartment building as I do).

Later, Sharvari, a good friend of mine here in SLC gifted me an awesome bookmark and a card. Thanks Sharvari. What a blast!

Exxon Mobil posts highest profits for any US company ever

2006-01-31T11:06:00.000-07:00

Considering the events and gas prices of last year, does it come as any surprize that Exxon Mobil posted a profit of 36 billion US Dollars in 2005 - the largest ever for any US company ever in history! Just by the virtue of being in the business of oil, these companies control the US economy quite a bit. (For instance, many strategists fear the risks to the American economy because the Venezuelan government owns Chevron). And now, these companies, like Exxon, are making tons of money and have the financial muscle to wriggle their way through with their own agenda.

I feel that 2006 will be no different. Exxon will probably end up making more profit again this year. Gas had gotten cheaper just before Christmas '05 (in the high $1.90s) and is rising back up again (its in the 2.20s in Utah these days). I personally am glad my fuel usage has gone down after moving to Utah (where we have a great public transport system in Salt Lake City at least) from Ohio (where you practically have to drive to get anywhere). And I am more so also because I drive a fuel efficient vehicle which usually nets me 4o/30 mpg in highway/city driving usually. However, it really is time to consider alternative fuels and fuel efficient vehicles as a nation.I hope we make more advances in research soon. And I personally hope that SUV and truck usage and sales go down! (Sorry GM). I personally cant wait until I make more money so I can buy a Prius or some other hybrid. That dream is still 5 or 6 years away. Who knows what technology we will have by then ;).

Customer Service Done Right, Fifth Third Bank

2006-01-26T19:52:00.000-07:00

Its very rare that one comes across good customer service. And even rarer to come across it consistently. And hence I believe it deserves a blog post of its own. Most of my experiences calling customer service numbers of big companies have ranged from being "okay, but nothing great" to "exceptionally horrible". (Here, I feel obligated to mention that I consider Sprint Wireless's customer service to be worse than exceptionally horrible).

However over the past few days I have had the best customer service experience of my life. I am still a 5/3 bank customer. 5/3 bank is primarily a Mid-west bank (probably just Ohio). I have a few accounts with them, including a loan and I havent bothered to move those to a local bank after I moved to Utah (because I just didnt wanna go through the hassle, really). Actually, on a side note, I must mention that once I looked up their bank location locator service on 5/3 website to see if any locations existed in Utah. The search returned with the message "No location found in a 1000 miles". Ha ha! Its too cool!

But, coming back to the main point, I have had some things to take care of and over the last 5 days or so I have had to call in three or four times to their customer service. And every single time I had an amazing experience. Firstly, I was connected to a real live speaking person within a minute of calling. I never had to hold longer. Secondly, the customer service didnt keep redirecting me to diffferent departments - a single person took care of multiple things that belonged to different departments herself. Other companies would have redirected me to the departments (and there would have been a few dropped calls during redirection etc.... who knows). But this was cool. And every single time I interacted with someone, they exactly understood what I wanted and took care of it within minutes. Today, I called in with two or three different things, that were really complicated too (I cant reveal much details, although I wish I could, but I'd rather keep my financial information to myself) - and the whole process was over in less than 10 minutes! I kept looking at my cell phone in disbelief that it was showing the total call time as 8 mins 34 seconds. If it were Dell or Sprint or something, I'd still be holding on the phone, waiting to speak to someone! This is amazing! I think, maybe, I should write to them and appreciate their efforts.

Street Kids in Vietnam

2006-01-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

After starting to read Our Man in Hanoi's blog, I have sort of cultivated an interest in reading about work done by Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), especially in Vietnam. These days I only really only check NGO blogs in Vietnam, but thats because I don't yet know any interesting blogs by other NGOs in India or anywhere else.

But I recently came across a new blog run by Blue Dragon - I think its an Australian NGO in Hanoi that helps street children and provides them with support - especially saving from them getting exploited by unscrupulous people. They do a great job. The blog does make for a very interesting read. Check it out.

Life is a kaleidoscope

2006-01-21T01:12:00.000-07:00

You must have heard the phrase that life is a kaleidoscope many a times. At least I have. And we take it as granted everytime we hear it. Never really thinking deep into what it means really? I have been reading a book and for some reason, this phrase just put me into deep thought like never before. And truly, the deeper you think, the more you realize what a genius the person who coined the phrase would have been.

On the very surface level, you can think about how a kaleidoscope has so many different colors. So many different pieces. These pieces represent the pieces of our life. Our work, our family, our friends and so on. The colors are there for the different roles each play in our life. But on a deeper level, have u ever thought that when we see a pattern, it represents our life at that point in time. Its a unique image. Once you turn the kaleidoscope, things change and you get a new pattern. i.e. For every small change, your life changes and your life is the same no more. Its a new pattern in and of itself.

But have you also ever wondered about the fact that when you turn the kaleidoscope slightly, shards of glass fall into chaos before forming a new pattern. When something in our life changes, we all go through the same chaos for the time being. For that period of time it seems like all hell has broken loose and nothing can change anymore. But its only for so long, before a new pattern emerges and the chaos disappears. Slowly you start to recognize the new beauty in the pattern. Slowly you get adjusted to the new life.

And have you ever wondered that everything that happens - in the kaleidoscope or in life - is in your hands. Even a little thing, like turning the kaleidoscope ever so slightly, can suddenly change everything. How your life proceeds ahead is completely in your hands. Things like treating work seriously, being nice to people are all things in our control. If we let loose on any of these, life can change drastically.

And just when you are about to think I better not do anything wrong with my life or else things will change, hits you the realization that if you keep staring at the same pattern, the kaleidoscope gets boring. In fact a kaleidoscope that couldnt be turned wouldnt be much fun, now would it? Isnt it same with life? We all need a change from time to time. Just when we want to change is in our hands, but the just like the kaleidoscope, we have no control over what will change and what the new pattern will look like! We should always remember though, that life, like kaleidoscope is always beautiful; no matter what pattern is formed. Have you ever realized that you have never disliked a new pattern. At least I haven't. Isnt the same true with life?

Life is like a kaleidoscope. In so many ways.

The new signboard at OWU makes me go eeeks!

2006-01-20T22:32:00.000-07:00

So, I just read that Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU - pronounced as Oh-Woo), my alma mater, got a new welcome sign board. The Sandusky Street and Jaywalk intersection is one of the most prominent places on campus, where every visitor to Delaware at least passes by while driving on Sandusky Street and almost all students pass by this area everyday to classes and back. Having lived there for four years, I can still imagine the whole campus if I close my eyes. And I really enjoyed my time there and I really like the campus. I think its really pretty.

Recently OWU has gone through a lot of changes and I like most of them. Like the new steps to go down to Hayes from Welch residence halls (instead of the slippery, icy path). Like the new welcome center across from the Edwards Gym and its parking lot. But today I was just reading news from OWU and saw picture of a new welcome sign board it got and honestly, my first reaction was very disappointed. I think it looks ghastly. I know the old sign that was there was not great, but I think it at least looked better. No, make that - the old sign was awesome! They had gotten quite a few things right, the first time, which they just screwed up. This new sign has no majestic quality to it. Just see what I mean!

This is a picture of the old sign, taken when I graduated in summer '05. It looks green. Its pretty. I dont like the shiny tiles, but it at least says Ohio Wesleyan University properly.

This is a picture of the new sign, that was just recently constructed. Firstly, I think the pillars are too big and the words .OHIO.WESLEYAN. take a few minutes to digest (even for me, forget a visitor) and understand what really is written there. The sign should have been bigger, and there should have been more space between the words "Ohio" and "Wesleyan". (maybe I should become a branding consultant in life)!

Now, I agree that the new sign is placed much higher than before and is better visible to motorists who drive on Sandusky Street, rather than being half-hidden by grass. Also, the sign is much more consistent with the Ohio Wesleyan branding image and logo (which it probably adopted after the old sign was constructed), but still, it does nto have the same effect on people. I bet most people would just take it for granted. Everybody noticed the old one. Also, notice that the placement has changed... and it is really weird. It somehow is made to face its back to students who walk on Jaywalk everyday and the sign now faces the North Sandusky side more prominently. Whereas, the old sign, faced the Jaywalk as well as the students walking on the Jaywalk towards the academic side as well as both the North and the South Sandusky directions. It was perfect. The new one, its more business-like. As if the visitors and the perpectives are more important the students who actually go there. Plus the pillars look too big for the sign board. Its almost like having two large wrestlers carrying a little thing! Unh Unh! Not fun!

Oh well, I aint there anymore. So maybe it shouldn't matter. Or maybe it does! You know, only if such things matter to me, only if I feel strongly about my old school, my alma mater, will I still bewant to give money, and make an affordable education possible for other students like us. So maybe its a good thing that I still have such strong opinions about OWU!

Tagged: Ohio Wesleyan University, OWU, Delaware, OH

Lakota Wisdom

2006-01-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

I was going through my old files and binders and I came across the one I had used for my spring break trip to the Lakota Nation a few years ago. I was pleasantly surprised to see that in the back cover insert, there was still a page that I had read a few years ago, that held the four virtues of the Lakota people, sacredly imbibed into their Medicine Wheel.

Within the medicine wheel, the sacred hoop of the Lakota people, are four virtues:

WOOHITIKA
Bravery: doing the difficult things instead of running away.

WAKSAPE
Wisdom: the idea that learning is a lifelong process

WOWACINTANKA
Perseverence: the fortitude to keep trying

WACANTOGNAKA
Generosity: sharing of oneself with empathy and compassion

I do believe that these four virtues are not only necessary but also sufficient for one to live a happy and fulfilling life. All we need is faith in ourselves and in Lakota wisdom.

Tagged: Lakota, Wisdom

Hanoi oi

2006-01-13T02:07:00.000-07:00

Maan! Hanoi is pretty! All I gotta do to start missing it again is just look at its pictures again! Thats it. And it brings back all the memories of my time there, the people, the team and the experience we had! The fun, the difficult moments working with children with AO. All of it. And yet it is such a mesmerizing memory because almost everyone we met, AO victim or not, had the most amazing smile ever. It is aptly reflected in the pictures taken by OMIH that I came across tonight!

Maan, what is it with the people there? How do they get it? Their attitude, their smiles are so addicting. So charming. How do people manage to be so happy. To be more specific, even the most poor, old women who would weave things by the side of the road and sell them for really cheap seemed to be perfectly happy with their life. It was as if they had nothing to complain about. (And contrast that to the lives we live ourselves in the developed world!)

Thats the charm Viet Nam has for me. I believe that a place is defined not by how developed it is or how many sky scrapers it has, but by the people that live there. The locals. And hence I am in love with Hanoi. From almost everywhere I have travelled, Hanoi has been the only large city where I have seen such happy and beautiful people. I spent an hour looking through these pictures and missing hanoi!

Hanoi oi, the nao roi? Toi yeo hanoi!
(It means, Hey Hanoi, whats up? I love you, Hanoi)

Tagged: Hanoi, Vietnam

Christmas Lighting in Salt Lake City

2005-12-17T00:36:00.000-07:00

Christmas Lighting in SLC
Tagged: Salt Lake City, Christmas

2005-12-17T00:35:00.000-07:00

Another home (christmas lighting in SLC)
Tagged: Salt Lake City, Christmas

2005-12-17T00:34:00.000-07:00

Funky Lighting art! (naah! just a shaky picture, hehe)

University of Utah in the mountains

2005-12-16T17:37:00.000-07:00

Utah mountains
Tagged: Utah, University of Utah, Utah Mountains

2005-12-16T17:35:00.000-07:00

College within the mountains
Tagged: Utah, University of Utah, Utah Mountains

The future of my country, India

2005-12-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

One of the truths of my life is: I am obsessed with India. I think, like many other Indians (except Laloo P. Yadav, who can't), I have a say about it and its future. Unfortunately, the government ignores Non Resident Indians (NRIs) and considers us Non Required Indians. We aren't even allowed to vote in the national (prime-ministerial) elections if we live abroad. Its ridiculous!

So a friend, and I have started a blog. Its http://india2go.blogspot.com Its a medium for us non required indians to express our opinions about our country. (We've got nothing against those resident Indians though. They're invited to contribute also. In fact we need them too. To give us the day to day ground reality.)

Basically, its just meant to be a medium for everyone to express where we want to take our country in the future. And hence (at least currently) we intend to make it an open team blog where people who are interested in contributing material towards this area can join up by sending me an email. Lets see how it comes along. I worry moderating might be an issue. But then again, maybe it wont be. Anyways, if you'd like to check it out here

Tagged: India, India: Politics, India: Future

The end of my first semester

2005-12-15T04:21:00.000-07:00

I finished my last exam today at 3:30 pm. I chilled mostly all evening after that by going to the funky Salt Lake City Library and browsing books for a few hours. I found a very cool book on Jainism (my religion) which I have checked out. Hopefully I will dig deeper into it and learn more about it.

Then, I came back, watched TV for four (I cant believe it, four hours!!!!) hours (of very funny comedy) including Friends, Everybody Loves Ray, Sex & The City and Yes Dear. Then I had food at midnight. I cooked my favorite Chinese style Tofu Brocolli Stir Fry and had it with rice! Then I partly watched Kate & Leopold until I got bored of it. I find the pace of the movie too slow. And its too cheesy!

Then I decided to get down to work that I had planned to do once my exams were over. For one thing, I wanted to empty out my office. I did that at 3 am. The housekeeping and cleaning staff in MEB must think I work really hard since I am always there late at night when they are working there. Usually I am working. Today I wasn't. It was sort of different. Felt very awkward being in MEB late at night without having some study work on my head.

I wanted to empty my office because I wont be a TA anymore sinceI have been offered research assistantship for next semester with Dr. Regehr. So most likely I will have to move next semester and have to work in a lab (instead of my own office). Hence, I wanted to leave the office clean for who ever is assigned to it next. This is what it looks like now. Compare it to what it looked like during the semester when I had all my stuff there to make it cozy (since I probably spent more hours here than anywhere else).

My empty office

After that, I came back home and started watching the movie Closer for the second time. It had already begun playing; I started watching it somewhere in the middle - where it really matters anyways. I had last watched it with Sneha (the Shendiputra) over last summer at OWU. I must admit, what I thought of this movie differs drastically both times. More details about that are better left to some other post, though.

Just talked to my cousin from Buffalo. She just woke up (its 6:30 am there) and still needs to finish some more study for her networking final. Earlier this evening, after I got back from the library, I tried to save her some time from reading the textbook by teaching her certain concepts on the phone with both of us having our textbooks open in front of us and on the same page (since both our classes used the same text and I had studied it recently for my networking exam on Tuesday). It felt good. A new approach in distance learning I must say. :) Sort of like when two people watch the same television show and are on the phone at the same time too! Been there, done that too! Anyways, wish you luck for the exam, Mallika. Start studying sleepyhead. Im going to bed soon.

Tomorrow I need to take care of mundane tasks that I have been putting off for quite a long time, like return some stuff I had bought, go to student health and prove to them I have been sufficiently immunized and all! Argh! Why is the list of such mundane tasks always longer than cool stuff (like doing research! or skiing! or reading!) I will never figure it out. Maybe it just seems longer because these things I keep putting off and over a period of time the list builds up. Ah well! Thats how such things are to be treated anyways. Life is too short to pay much attention to such stuff, right?

Free Bird ... soon

2005-12-14T03:31:00.000-07:00

Its 3:30 am and I'm still studying for my operating systems exam tomorrow (or rather, today). It goes from 1 - 4. To think, in about 12.5 hours I'll be a free bird. Wow! The whole semester will come to an end. What a semester its been. Oh well, I should muse about it later on. My 5 minute break from study is over. Back to Operation Study! Ciao!

Pariksha - A Poem in Marathi

2005-12-10T00:02:00.000-07:00

Pariksha yet aahet
Abhyaas cha patta naahi
Basun me wachto lokanche blog diwasbhar
Laagnar aahe chaangli buch maajhi!

My attempt at a writing a quatrain in Marathi :) hehe!

Worst high school analogies

2005-12-09T02:03:00.000-07:00

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
- Chuck Smith, Woodbridge

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
- Russell Beland, Springfield

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
Unknown

More Worst High School Analogies. Hilarious!

The importance of faith in our day to day life

2005-12-09T01:11:00.000-07:00

This and the previous month have been a roller coaster ride for me. They've brought great news on academic and career fronts. I've also faced many crunch times academically when many things in different classes piled up on me at the same time, and I somehow managed to successfully handle them all. It felt awesome. I was on top of the world. At the same time however, on a personal front, the same period has been a bummer. It shown me the lowest of lows. Lots of things have changed. Unexpectedly. Unreasonably. Many things I would have never imagined could go wrong have gone wrong.

I care about my work a lot. I believe in maintaining a strict work-life balance (Work-life balance and how I have maintained it so well in the past - especially working an internship and an on-campus job, while being a full time student at the same time - is another topic I want to blog about some other day), and even though I am in graduate school I treat it seriously like I do any work. However, when the hours are long (I'm working until 4 am in the morning most days and then usually get up and go to "work" (school) again at 8 am) the lines between work and life often get blurred. I have worked hard to not let my personal life affect my academics, many times with success, however failing sometimes as well.

Recently however, my own faith has emerged as the sole way that could help me stay composed and focussed. I must admit that it hasnt always worked out for me. But I believe that that is solely because I have been spending lesser time believing, thinking and working on my own faith. Actually thats true since I began college four years ago. I forgot God when there was too much work and too many things to think about. In fact, as much as I hate to admit it, there have been times when I have gone months without even thinking about my faith.

Hence it is only reasonable and expected, that it would take time for me to build my belief in my religion back to the level when it was an important part of my life. Back to the level where it helps me face any quirk life throws at me. Not that it ever took up a lot of my time, but I at least spent some time almost everyday thinking about it, about God, my life and so on. Somewhere along the way, I gave up God's company and started walking alone. Funny how now that I am alone, I seek God's company.

In difficult times, people rediscover their faiths and so have I. I am glad for it. Its God's way of reminding me that I have forgotten him. I wish God has less evil tactics of reminding me that. But seriously, how much importance should one give to faith in day to day life so that we consistently maintain that connection throughout our life - be it when we are really busy and the going is smooth or when we are still really busy and the going is bumpy.

Dear Mom

2005-12-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Mom,
Tomorrow is your birthday. Wish you many many happy returns of the day. I hope you have a great day and a wonderful year ahead. I miss you.
:) Kumar

I want to ride a Minsk up country

2005-12-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

So I've added another ambition to my list of things/adventures to do in Viet Nam that already includes backpacking from north to south in Viet Nam. Next time I am there, I'd also like to rent a Minsk (pronounced as Min) bike and drive off into the mountains in the north with a few friends. I came across Emma Sedgwick and Russell Skingsley's old blog and read the article about their relative riding a Minsk motorbike up north and having a blast! What an adventure! Many years ago, I read a Nelson DeMille book called Up Country where the plot of the story is based in Hanoi, HCMC and up north in the country side. Although the plot was fiction, the places he describes in the book are absolutely real. (He is a Vnam vet and he went back to Vnam to research while writing this book).

Reading about the country side fascinated me then and it still fascinates me. I remember something about the Montagnards - the tribals that reside up in the country side - that they are hostile towards the Northern Vnamese government (or anybody that is there with the motive of establishing authority over them. They very much like their own independence and want to stay that way.) Otherwise they are a very friendly lot. I am not sure what the situation is today, but if others have taken trips up there, I am sure its quite possible and although dangerous, quite adventurous.

So now that I am bubbling with excitement, I am going to try to convince some Vietnamese friends of mine from school (OWU) to go there with me sometime. We'll have to come up with a time that works for all of us, but I'm ready to go as soon as next summer when school at Utah ends.

Break up

2005-12-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

In this space, I actually made a post about breakups and what makes them so sad. But later, browsing the internet, I came across another blog, that I really enjoyed reading and felt like I should let my blog reflect my positivity too. Too often we fall prey to blogging about sad things in our lives!

So heres to that blog. That made me change my perspective.

Although I dont mean I wont post anything sad if I'm really sad, but I want my blog to be a reflection of me. I want it to reflect what I am feeling that day. And if I am not feeling sad, bad, or down, my blog shouldnt be about those things.

So have a great night everyone. See you tomorrow.

A knack for solving problems?

2005-12-03T00:45:00.000-07:00

First a little background into the story.

So, I had this TITAN sport watch that I loved wearing. It was gifted to me by my dad on a special occasion two years ago. It has a lot of sentimental value and moreover its one of the most comfortable watches I've ever used.

Over the past summer, the battery died and since I was shopping for something at Wal Mart, I noticed their watch center and gave my watch in to have its battery replaced. The person at the counter went like "Wow, its a foreign watch! We dont get to see many of these here." Or something like that. I didnt know that it would eventually mean "Aaah I dont know how to change its battery and I may screw your watch up." So she changed the battery and handed it back to me and it seemed to work. A little later I realized that although it showed time, the buttons on the side were busted. They no longer worked. I took it back and they tried to fix it and when they returned it, neither the buttons could be pushed in, nor did it show the time anymore. They had made it worse than it was and they basically gave it back to me because they didnt know how to fix what they screwed up. I was furious, but didnt say anything out of politeness. I even paid the bill for the battery.

Then I went ahead and bought a new Columbia Sportswear watch for myself, which I liked, but later I found myself not wearing it since it was too bulky (and not as comfy as my old one). So basically I was going watchless for the last few months, using my cell phone as my time keeper.

So coming to the main point now, I was missing wearing my old watch a lot today. I had been waiting until I go to India next summer and get it fixed. But I could wait no longer. So I sat down on my computer desk with two screw drivers and opened it up very carefully taking out six tiny screws. It took a few moments to take the mechanism out of the plastic casing, examine it and then I realized that the Wal Mart watch lady had broken one of the four contacts. Then the next 10 minutes were used to fix it and I finally got the time to show up on the screen. I put the digital mechanism back into the casing and found that the buttons still didnt work. It took a few times of inserting and removing the mechanism from the casing to figure out a flaw in the design of the button system. It now required me to take all the buttons out from the casing as well and then put the watch mechanism into the casing and then put the buttons at the end.

Eventually, an hour spent, but I got the job done! And no, I am not an electronic engineer and dont know jack about watches. Looking back I realize this knack of solving problems is what drew me to engineering and computer science in the first place.

Is something wrong with Yahoo's anti-spam algorithm?

2005-12-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

Since its beginning, I have been a vehement supporter of Yahoo! mail. I love it a lot. When Gmail came along, I created an account only to capture my id before anyone else did. I refused to switch my primary mail (yahoo based) over to gmail mainly because I had no complaints with Yahoo and secondarily because its a pain to change email address and notify everyone etc.

One of the biggest reasons I support yahoo is for its spam detection capabilities and its efforts to reduce spam in this world with Yahoo! DomainKeys technology. Some rough observed statistics: Yahoo correctly identifies the 80-some spam I get everyday and throws them in the 'Bulk Mail' folder. I mean its almost precise. Once or twice a week I get to see one or two spam mails that escaped detection and ended up in my inbox. Thats a pretty good job on Yahoo's part. Also, there have been very few (almost none) false positives - mail that was not spam, but yahoo identified it as spam - its so good that I haven't had any false positives since the last 2 months or so.

Also, one of Yahoo's anti-spam efforts is to use captchas to prevent unscrupulous advertisers from creating new free accounts and spamming the hell out of everyone. A captcha is an image with squiggly letters, which you have to identify and enter to prove you are a human and not a bot, that we often get while registering for a new account on many sites. I know that sometimes when you send mail, especially to multiple recipients or groups, Yahoo asks you to verify using a captcha to ensure you're not spamming.

However these days, Yahoo captchas me on every single mail I send. Even when I am corresponding to people within my address books. Whats happening? Its ridiculous!

Also, one would think that their automatic learning algorithm (that learns things specific to your mailbox/email activity), where if you've exchanged a few mails back and forth in a conversation, the next time you reply to an incoming mail, it'd be reasonably sure that its not spam. But these days I get captchas even if its the 3rd or the 4th mail in a conversation and I'm replying to a previous mail sent by the person I am writing to.

I have no clue what has changed and from the little information I have, my conclusion is this: Either someone has been spoofing my email address and spamming the hell out of a ton of yahoo users. Hence Yahoo is suspicious and has flagged my account and captchas all my outgoing mail. If its not that, something is seriously wrong with their spam checking algorithm. Either way, its getting very annoying. I hope it gets resolved soon, or else I'm moving to Gmail. One can only have so much loyalty!

What is peace?

2005-12-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

Words of Wisdom on Peace from Pravs:

"We often say that we want a peaceful life.
We wish to be at a place where there is
no noise, no trouble or no hardwork.

But this does not actually mean peace.
To be in the midst of all chaos of life,
and still be calm in your heart -
is what 'peace' is."

Take a moment to think about it. Think whether your heart is truly peaceful?

At this moment in my life - indeed, there is a lot of chaos. The work related part of it will be gone in 2 weeks when school ends and we break for Christmas. The other part will stay. However, I strongly believe that it is possible to achieve true peace of heart even in the midst of this chaos. And hence I have started to work on it. I know it will be a while (like all things good for us that we wish to achieve), but eventually if we put our mind to it, nothing is unachievable.

Happy Birthday Dad

2005-11-28T00:12:00.000-07:00

This for my best friend, my dad. Happy 50th Birthday Dad. Thanks for everything - all the advice, all the opportunities, all the encouragement you have provided me over the years which has brought me to where I am today.

Mumbai

2005-11-21T01:41:00.000-07:00

Its sort of funny, I blogged about Ha Noi and that sort of got me thinking about Mumbai. (Also note that both names sort of rhyme...isnt it cool?)... so I went out and searched for blogs about it on technorati. Here is a cool travel blog that a couple from Portland, OR have started (it seems like they're gonna be in Mumbai for three months before they move on to other locations...) pretty cool... some day I'd like to take time off and just travel the world...

Actually, all this got me thinking.. what if I decide to just volunteer with some organization and spend some time in Vnam or some country. I'd really like to do it. But, should I finish my education and get a graduate degree and then go do it, or should I just go next year, take some time (maybe a year) off and then come back and resume studying. I realize that it would take me longer to get established this way. Also, a counter argument goes like, I can start working and take occasional trips during my time off, but that'd so suck since the trip would always be so short. And always like a tourist (eeks!). Oh what fun it'd be to see the world without being a tourist (sort of like the Vnam trip). Hmm...

Ha Noi, the city I miss so much!

2005-11-21T01:02:00.000-07:00

I was reading Our Man in Hanoi's blog which I used to read regularly before I went to Viet Nam in March. These days I dont read it as often as I should, but when I read it today, something he had written struck a chord with me. I feel exactly the same way towards Ha Noi and I couldn't have said it better:

" I don't love Hanoi, I'm IN love with Hanoi.

Really. That is what it feels like. Like I'm a 16 year old who asked a girl to the school disco and she said yes. And I'm skipping home punching the air and kicking up autumn leaves.

It feels like a drug. A drug that hits me occasionaly. One of pure euphoria. And I'm coming up on some strong narcotic and my toe is started to tap and I'm breaking out into an involuntary grin."

Below are some of the pictures from when we had been there, taken by Melanie Hill.

Ha Noi from the head quarters of Tien Phong newspaper

Rice farmers in lush green farms, calm in Ha Noi

Army of two-wheelers ready to pounce, chaos in Ha Noi (gosh I miss the close encounters while driving through roads packed with chaotic activity)

2005-11-21T00:53:00.001-07:00

My office in the School of Computing, University of Utah

2005-11-21T00:53:00.000-07:00

Suraj and Harsha (facing away) at the Diwali function at the public library (Oct 2005)

2005-11-21T00:49:00.000-07:00

Salt Lake City Public Library (inside) - funky, eh?

2005-11-21T00:48:00.001-07:00

Utah mountains - The best snow on earth to ski (April visit)

2005-11-21T00:48:00.000-07:00

Salt Lake City from a plane (from my April visit)

How can you understand what your country means to you?

2005-11-20T18:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I experienced something I probably have never. Its a feeling. Of patriotism, missing my country (not anything in particular about it, but just the country as a whole)! Sounds weird, but it was definitely that.

So I was sitting in an auditorium at a function celebrating Diwali (an Indian festival of lights) put up by the Indian Students Association (ISA) of University of Utah. The function started with a rather abrupt start by two people who wanted to say something like "we wish to welcome to this celebration of the vast Indian culture", but they started reading previously rehearsed lines that indirectly implied the above rather than greeting the audience directly! It was very awkward. However, after they were done, they requested the audience to stand up to sing the Indian National Anthem. On hearing this, I was delighted, as I dont think I have ever heard it or sung it after coming to the USA. Its been years.

When I go to watch Utah football games, each game starts with the American National Anthem. Its a lot of fun to observe people around me with their right hand on their heart singing along with it. And its a beautiful song. However, to be frank, it doesnt arouse any feelings in me other than "cool" because I dont identify with it. Its not mine. Yesterday however, when they put on a rendition of Indian National Anthem I sang with it and held my right palm on my heart to pledge allegiance to India. And I felt a tingling sensation in every single pore of my skin on my face! I missed my country. And when I sang each line of the Anthem, in my mind I thought of what that line meant and how it represented India. It really felt good.

I wonder if it is true that one can only realize the true value of one's country only when one leaves it and goes to another country?

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

2005-11-19T00:28:00.000-07:00

So about 10 of us went for the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie today evening (it just released yesterday). We went about an hour early so we can be ahead in the line to get in, but no! we were already late! Can you believe it? Getting there an hour early and we were one of the last ones in the line. So when we got into the theater, only the crappy front row or side seats with bad angle were available. People in the line were there with blankets and were eating and playing cards and it seemed as if they had been camping there for a night or so (i am sure they werent)!

The movie was good. I, like other reviews, also thought that the movie was the best out of all Harry Potter movies so far. Most of the scenes in the movie were exactly what I had imagined when I had read the book. Especially the beginning where the person/caretaker is boiling a pot of tea and sees a light on in the house across from his and goes to checkout the 'miscreant' kids when actually it is Voldemort with wormtail in the room. And then the snake passes by the caretaker who is watching the scene from outside the room and tells Voldemort that the caretaker is outside in Parseltongue. Then later on, when Harry and Voldemort spar in the cemetery just after Voldemort gets reincarnated in human form. Also his looks and features when he gets reincarnated. Everything is the same as I had imagined. And overall they have done an awesome job of seaming together the computer graphics and actual filming. You can only tell the difference if you are sitting there watching for it. Its very seamless.

One major thing that left me disappointed though, is that when I had read the book, Harry potter and the others are still in my head as 13-14 year olds. So seeing the grown-up characters was a bit unrealistic. But I dont know what else they could've done as casting some one other than Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron) would have been pretty drastic as well (even more than watching them so much older)! If I were to rate it, I think I'd rate it a 3.75/5.

With great busy-ness comes great drudgery

2005-11-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

After joining graduate school, life has gotten much busier. At any given time, I seem to have work in at least four to five different areas/classes (he he surprise!). With almost all my time going towards work, I would have thought that the time I spend on other things would be fun. it would give me a chance to unwind, relax and just take a break, u know? However, simple things like checking my non-work related email address that I used to enjoy earlier have now become a drudge.

For instance, I use a yahoo.com email account to get emails from friends, other e-newsletters from sites like Forbes.com, Wall Street Journal etc on topics that interest me (like technology, business etc). But these days, I am increasingly finding that I keep putting off checking my yahoo mail for two or three days in a row. And when I finally log onto it, its almost shocking to see I have 80-something non-spam emails that I care about and I have to at least do something about (either delete them without reading, or sort them in folders for later reading and some that need my attention right away).

This and other daily-life tasks have become a drudgery now and I unknowingly get very annoyed at the end of the process. I tend to then wish I didnt have to deal with this at all; although the very same emails I used to yearn to read about two months ago - I love to analyze business stories and catch up with the business and technology worlds, think about new technologies, even go indepth some times.

I am not sure why I feel that way I do. Have I just become inundated with work? Or is it something normal that everyone goes through? I dont know. In fact, a few days ago I had to renew my auto insurance and my current provider (from Ohio) doesnt provide insurance in Utah and so, much to my chagrin, I had to go and find a new provider. I knew I had to do this, and I just kept putting it off for many days until I really had to buy it because I just hate the process of auto insurance shopping (well who doesnt? But I didnt use to mind it as much earlier). So a few days back I put my mind to it and sat down looking at websites and getting online quotes as well as calling a few local agents. It took away almost an entire evening and then later I couldnt do any work at night either because the whole process was so tiring mentally. It was not tiring because it was a lot of thinking... it was the simple drudgery of repeating my information on multiple websites or on the phone with insurance agents that numbed me!

So all I ask from anybody, this world, whoever is just one thing - What would it take for a person to live a simple life? A life without having to deal with mundane tasks like shopping for car insurance, going grocery shopping, paying bills? (becoming a monk and going to Himalayas forever, although as much as I would like it, is not an answer I am ready to accept currently).

When all else fails, try a little Gelassenheit

2005-11-14T00:17:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I was discussing the Amish way of life with a few friends in Utah and I was asked: "So why live like that? What is the reason?" Honestly, I had no idea. Today I found it out. The Amish way of life, and the limits it imposes, stem from "their core value: Gelassenheit, which means yielding to Gods will" writes Ed Tenner in July 2005's Technology Review. (He has a cool article about how the Amish have developed cool technologies which conform to their way of life and how some of them are even more energy efficient than their conventional, electrical counterparts).

I find this concept very interesting and in fact it may actually have something that all of us can learn from. There are times when things just dont fall into place. No matter how much we try, we cant get that job offer or interview. Or that contract. Or get the assignment done on time. Whatever it may be. If you're putting in all your efforts, and not seeing the result, instead of getting completely bogged down and let it affect your productivity or the effort you need to put into something else, try a little Gelassenheit.

Also, it is possible, that after doing so, some miracle may happen and things may work out eventually. I've unknowingly tried this concept before and have seen it work with my own eyes. In one of my computer science classes at Ohio Wesleyan, I'd been stuck on a problem while debugging some of my code and had already put in hours behind it with no result. Then I completely left it aside and moved on to an assignment in another class. then later that day, while taking a shower, something struck me, and it was an assumption that I was making in my algorithm that I shouldnt have been making that was causing problems. It just came out of the blue. I wasn't even thinking of the problem in the shower. I feel that recently, I just havent trusted myself (or maybe God) enough to put things in His hands when I should have.

Luckily, my reading of this article comes at a great time. Lately, I've been dealing with two different things where I have put in a lot of time and effort without seeing any results. I have interacted with many people to get something done or to work on a situation. I've spent hours sending emails, talking to friends over the phone. This has been going on for the last at least the three weeks (and even more) and at this point I'm completely ready to give up. Now, I am really thinking of leaving both of these upto God and moving on! I think it is time when I try a little Gelassenheit and move on! Whatever God wants, will happen.

I think Windows Media Center rocks!!!

2005-11-10T23:05:00.000-07:00

Before I moved to Utah, I decided to upgrade my computer system. I had a decent system, but I wanted to get a flat panel LCD monitor and while I was getting that, I was like why not get a new system also. So I got a Sony desktop with Media Center and a whopping 200Gig HD. I was pretty excited about this system, but mainly coz the processor was an Intel P4 with Hyper Threading and had 512Mb ram. I didnt give a rats a** about Media Center. I played around with it and found it darn cool, but never used it then.
Then finally, yesterday I was watching a TV show on TV (the actual TV, not my PC) and I really liked the show. I had started in between and hence I didnt know what the name of the show was. Here in Utah, I dont get a TV guide channel with our cable service for some reason. So at the end of the show I decided to fire up my MCE pc and check in the TV guide that it downloads from the internet. That got me really exploring other features and I finally ended up setting a schedule to record the whole series every week. I also set it to record "The Apprentice" and "The Apprentice:Martha Stewart" which I've never watched and sometime want to try it out. I am just never home at the time it runs. I also browsed through 571 listings of movies that are gonna play in the next two weeks or so and set schedules to record some of them.
Now I dont know if I will have time to ever watch all that I have recorded but its nice to know that I at least have the option to watch some funny or some interesting shows when I am in the mood for it and I do have some time as well. Also it mostly happens with me that when I want to watch TV, I never find something interesting to watch. So this seems like it will work out perfectly for me. Now one thing I am not sure of... how much space does one episode of a series or one movie take up? I dont want to exhaust my space on my hard drive completely...
Also, another thing.. now I can multi-task... like right now I am watching that favorite show of mine while blogging - both at the same time (pic).. and having enormous computing power that today's systems offer means you can do both without your screen freezing or other problems that used to be observed in systems not so long ago... on my previous pc (which wasnt that old.. it had a P4, 512 Mb ram) if I tried to watch a DVD while working on a word document, ocassionally the screen would freeze on a particular spot in the movie for a few seconds until the processor devoted more computing resources to it. I guess having a hyper threaded processor does make observable difference...
Now I am already waiting for my next purchase - a new Apple laptop. Two reasons... since laptops and wireless access have become so ubiquitous, I miss having the laptop I used to have a few years ago. But then it was too bulky and wieldy and even if I had it now, I wouldnt have carried it anywhere. Although there are windows based laptops now available that are small and thin, I think that it would be cool to get one of the ibooks or powerbooks. Plus I have a pretty good windows system in my desktop. Time for some change ;)

Happy Diwali

2005-11-10T00:51:00.000-07:00

Wish you all a Happy Diwali and a prosperous new year
Also, wishing you Happy Ganesh Chaturthi ;)

Picture Credit: PravsJ mailing list. www.pravsworld.com

How Indian am I?

2004-08-21T22:49:00.000-07:00

I was reading the Sunday Times Of India ePaper of August 22, 2004 and came across this on page 14 "Open Space"...

India Shining?
Iread Shobhaa De’s column with great interest (‘Just do it, for India’, Politically Incorrect). I found a question she had asked at the end of her column very pertinent: “What am I doing for the country?’’ I am sure this question pops up, from time to time, in most of our minds, but we brush it aside like a painful memory.
It’s time we stopped asking for more rights and started thinking about our duty towards the nation.
What was most refreshing about Ms De’s article was the fact that for once, she was not bashing up the government or the powers-that-be. She is always critical of the government, its policies, politicians or anything that has political ramifications. Even if the government does some good, she has a way of twisting it to reflect some vested interest. Hence, this week, it was a relief to read patriotic and introspective words in her column. Thank you, Ms De.
—Udai Karan, via e-mail

and this made me think...what have I done for India? I always keep bashing the government, the system, sometimes the people. I always think of myself of more patriotic than an average indian! Is just caring for India patriotic enough? Is putting up an indian flag in my dorm room enough? (it may seem it is something not a lot of people do and since putting up a flag to display your patriotism is patriotic, lets not get lost...am i patriotic enough is the question?) Or is sitting down with friends while hanging and every discussion ends up in India patriotic enough? Or is putting up a happy independence day wallpaper with Indian flag from Pravsworld.com enough? I dont know. But these are the things I do or what happen to me! I wonder what I do for my country? Some day maybe I should sit down and contemplate on this issue.