Randomized…

T20: There are 2 T20s that I want to talk about: India Vs Pakistan. Became an ‘app’ woman – only checking updates from the notifications of the app. While you are busy working, these notifications do help – they do remind you that something else is also going on in this world other than work or school A win against Pakistan if not in hockey at least in the world of cricket draws some contentment. Second T20 is of Airtel Super Singer’s. It was legendary Kamalhaasan’s presence made the show special (DD maadhiri thirumba thirumba naan solla maeten ) I admire him not only for his acting and skills which is a very common justification of being a fan, but also for his pursuits, bold ventures and sincere efforts. If you have watched the show this week, you would have noticed how he enjoyed the music and singing (by nodding and tuning his head and hands to the tunes). That’s the beauty of an artist – enjoying his own as well as others work.

Movie time: Watched NEPV (Needhane En Pon Vasantham) and NKPK (Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kanom). Gautham Menon has disappointed me. I am a big fan of his Vinnaithandi Varuvaya and with huge expectations, I watched the movie but it pushed me to a point “Please padatha seekirama mudinga”. It was a totally opposite experience when I watched NKPK. I did not have any expectations other than few friends suggested to watch it. Though I felt the start was a bit boring, the fun part started from “Ennachu? Cricket Velayadinom…” till the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Vijay Sethupathy has acted very well and so as others. The “Ennachu” disease has stuck me and I keep saying
that word, though neither did I play cricket nor did my Medulla Oblongata is repaired. I would recommend any Tamil movie lovers to watch it – You will have fun, you will laugh a lot, you will feel relaxed and at the end you will feel contended that you spent few hours worthy relaxing and entertaining yourself.

Cash flows: Ha…I always took pride that I am good at Math. With my ‘Financial Reporting’ coursework in progress, my problem solving and analytical skills are being tested. Only with two courses completed in my school curriculum, I feel that being an Entrepreneur is the most challenging and difficult thing in this world. It’s not about focusing on one area, it’s about focusing on almost all areas – Investment, ideas, revenues, people, talent, time, market share, economy, structure, design, employment, opportunity and also a bit of luck and being at the right place at the right time. Though Entrepreneurship is a long way to go, my current focus is only on tackling cash flows, balance sheets and income statements [Hair stands like Einstein's when I do financial accounting assignments. I should at least get pass marks in this course is my goal ]

Innovation: Reading articles, watching shows like ‘Shark Tank’ and ideation does not do any good unless there’s some sort of action involved. Travel industry is the major market that’s being targeted for innovation. Though there are yoga studios and checking the menu and ordering via an iPad in the restaurant seems to be new ideas, I’ve always wondered why not a ‘Red box’ (I don’t own some movies that are recently released and while the flight is delayed, need some form of entertainment to pass time) rental or ‘Book rental’ (I don’t need to carry books or my Kindle or nook) or ‘Toys rental’ (distract or engage the kids while waiting) in the airport [though the ROI may not be that great is a reason behind not having these rentals]?

Innovation starts from observation. Startup mantra is:
1. Finding a problem that YOU currently have
2. Building something that solves the problem
3. Iterating and never stop improving
4. For every iteration, checking if the end meets the means

“Empty vessels make much noise”: SFO women’s startup pitching competition is in Feb 2013. I wish I had an idea, a business plan and a prototype to pitch there, even if it does not scale or win. There’s an Entrepreneurship teaching campaign in Africa led by Babson during Spring break for which I really wish to go and teach kids about Entrepreneurship. I want to take internship in my dream company IDEO. I wish to go to India and work with NGOs for my non-profit start up to have a beginning. Sometimes, it’s like I want to do too many things and end up doing nothing

1 more week of break time and I rather use it efficiently and effectively writing blogs, eating & sleeping, watching movies and listening to music ‘Study mode’ button will soon be pressed after New Year.

Have a fantabulous new year ahead!!!

Enriching experiences

[Warning: Long post. Read at your discretion]

Taste buds: It’s a series of festivals…Halloween and then Diwali…As I said earlier, I’m in the road to breaking my routines. So, made up my mind to prepare 2 new dishes for Diwali this time – K (Kaaju Khathli) & K (Kaara Bhoondhi), it was! Poor me, with my tooth braces tightened, could not relish much of the Bhoondhi. But was grabbing the K sweet every evening as I passed by that small dabba where it resided. For everything I do, there’s either a self motivation or an inspiration from someone I saw – This cooking inspiration was from my friend ‘A’ who has a forte in preparing sweets like Badam Halwa, Kheer etc., For you all to believe that my hands on these two new items turned out well, here’s a picture [2012 'From Raji's kitchen' Copyrights reserved ]

Celebration time: Not only this, we had a Diwali celebration at work place like the ones that we had last year. My responsibilities spanned from ‘Rangoli’ to ‘Diya decoration’ and I did help sometime in serving desi food. After watching all those creative minds decorating diyas, I couldn’t stop my longing to do one. So, grabbed a Diya type that most of them did not pick and created a colorful one, realizing that the diya had only five petals. I thought it had six and started decorating with two different colors. Mine was an average creation. I saw some superb ones, gold plated, plush green ones etc. I’ve placed it in my cubicle now. It was a fun time with friends and colleagues enjoying some music, sports, dress booth, dance, food, ethnic decorations, Henna decorations etc. I couldn’t stay till the end for a group snap (Cha…I missed it this time) since I had to rush to catch my flight to SFO for my face to face MBA classes.

Traveling in trains: Though I did not have any clue of how trains operate in CA or the different public transportation systems (BART, Caltrain, Muni, Light rail), I did enjoy the journeys. I could use that 1 hour 40 mins train travels from Sunnyvale to SFO to review my class notes, do the case studies, talk to family and friends, browse, observe people and surrounding and sometimes munching snacks. I hail the technology of this time – My friends in those trains were the iPhone apps – Caltrain and BART and Google maps [No, I don't have iPhone 5]. I relied on them totally for my walks from train station to the class, getting tickets, checking timings and even sometimes some FAQs. I don’t know even if my other friends would have helped this much as how these apps did. Thanks to Technology!

Class connections: Since I am one among those who comes from a different state to the classes in CA, all my classmates cared to ask where I stay, how I commute, when my flights were. Every breakfast, lunch and snacks time was a time to connect with different people. During one of those lunch time, met one of the prospective student visitor who was asking about the classes, course work etc. I could see a bit of intimidation in her face watching us cramming through the presentations and case study reports even during lunch time.

Memory game ice breakers: Our first class was our final project presentation of the innovative product that we created as a team. All of us had this anxiety syndrome on how we were going to present and tackle through the questions from the other class mates and professor. The professor found our inherent anxiety and started the class with an introduction game where we had to tag our first names with an adjective which starts with the same letter as our first name and then tell about our job and a fun fact about us. The next person has to tell the names of those previously did the process and it continues on. We all had a notebook with all those names. I could have told ‘Relaxed Raji’ but I said ‘Reluctant Raji’ and the whole class now calls me with that name Snakes coming in my dream was a fun fact [Idhu fun fact-a? it should be a nightmare] about me and one of my other Asian class mate detailed that in their custom, if someone gets snakes in their dreams, he/she will get a very good guy in his/her life. I smirked and said ‘I have been waiting so long for one’ and the whole class giggled. The same Asian classmate told that she drives out the snakes in her dreams…I turned back and asked ‘Are you the one who drives away my luck of getting a good guy?’ After the whole game of introductions, we laughed much that the anxiety went away. Each team presented an innovative product prototype that has a potential to be in the market. I don’t want to reveal any of the product ideas here which will hinder our chances of being an Entrepreneur to create such new products. Though all of those products including ours were not mind blowing but each had its own usefulness and uniqueness.

Rocket pitch: Since I had been following the TV series ‘Shark Tank’ and some entrepreneurship forums and articles, I was aware of what a Rocket pitch was. Nevertheless to mention, earlier, I went to my professor who’s also a venture capitalist and said ‘I want to become a VC and what should I do to become one?’  He gave me a ‘bulb’ asking me to find what VC is and why I want to become one? I’m yet to find the answer for that We have to show case our product ideas to a bunch of investors within 3 minutes allocated covering all significant details that will make an Angel investor or a Venture capitalist to invest in the idea. The most important learning was the feedback and questions and insights shared by the other classmates and the Prof, after it was presented. It was a coincidence that I had glimpsed through ‘Steve Jobs’ presentation skills and tips few days before and it helped me to easily traverse through what was discussed. I’m seriously considering some tips to be put into action. There’s one big area of improvement for me, Public Speaking – Planned strategies in place and its going to take some time for me to implement and become successful in it. Some people are very good at it and they inspire me. Inspiration does not help in its entirety, some action needed from my end.

Role plays: This was the most fun part for me. We were put into positions of being CEOs and planning strategies and composing visions and subjected to “If I were the CEO of company X, what would I have done differently?’. After we reported the role play pointers, class discussions happened on analyzing and working through which would work and which wouldn’t. With a mix of different thinking abilities of people, I automatically learn new perspectives which I would have never even thought of. Another time, we were partnered and negotiate for a start-up company that we were about to start as partners. To my knowledge, I played it very well that most of the negotiations fell in my favor. High fives!!! But I failed considerably in the role play of how to give constructive feedback and gain momentum to work with others. My partner said ‘You are too humble and giving up easily. Give me a tough fight so that we can learn from each other’ for which I smiled (not knowing what else should I do).

These freedom of thoughts has brought out my openness in asking how to bring innovation at work place. I could see a change in me - Analyzing the business reports of the company which I never spent much time earlier rather than just reading it. As one ages, memory deteriorates. I try harder to keep up with the memory after I read various case studies and text book articles, but its not coming up easily. Any tips are welcome!

Time with friends: It was a (S)Funday! Spending time with friends, eating loads, watching movies and playing with ‘S’ (my friend’s 4 month old son) – A relaxing day after travel and studies. Flights are not being friendly with me these days. Missed the connecting flight last time (not my fault, airlines’s) and stuck inside the flight for 2.5 hrs due to some servicing yesterday.

Back home now and enjoying my ‘Me’ time – Yeah….it’s the first break time of the course! Time to clear the back log of reading magazines, watching video and movies and connecting with friends.

Deep sense of gratitude to all my friends and family who’s helping me in (m)any ways that they could, to achieve this ‘MBA’ dream of mine possible. With this thanks giving note, wishing ‘Happy Thanks Giving’!

The Finder

From cradle to cubicle, we work on fixing our shortcomings everyday and not working on our strengths – a line from Strengths Finder 2.0, a book that I got as a gift recently. Before I got into the online assessment, I was reading the first few pages of the book and went into contemplation mode – While this book emphasizes on focusing your strengths more, I believe in what has been said otherwise – ‘Your life starts when you go out of your comfort zone’; ‘Life begins when you give up being a caterpillar to become a butterfly’. There’s no one straight route towards the focus on strengths and weakness. To me, it goes hand in hand. You cannot just focus on one thing. While you focus on changing your weakness to strength, you should also have a grip on your strength. Though I don’t rely on an online assessment to know who I am or know my strengths or weaknesses, I was asked to take this online assessment to identify my core strengths and put those strengths into power play to transform my ‘goodness’ to ‘greatness’ at work. So, I complied

Do you know what your core strengths and weaknesses are? Have you found any strategies that worked for you in transforming weaknesses into strengths? If so, do share…most will benefit from it.

The Whirlwind week

Its been a year since I had been to Boston. Had lots of excitement to meet my nephew R and to enter into Babson MBA community. I’m going to keep this post short and cover all the activities in a nutshell.

Day -1: Played with R for a while…his observations, puzzle solving capacity, talking abilities…there were more to catch up. I couldn’t compete with him in solving the large set of puzzles that he have. Loved when he says ‘Not like that Chitthi’ when I tried to connect the puzzle pieces wrongly Aha…his American accent…I’ve to learn from him, I told my sister. Picked up the rental car (Welcome my first solo driving in the people packed Boston). Did a bit of shopping for the Business casuals and dozed off early at night.
Day 0: Accounting Workshop – My first day @ Babson. Met Prof PW. I had difficulties in completing my pre course work accounting course and hence signed up for this workshop. When I got a hold of the basics of Accounting during the first few hours of the class, totally succeeded in solving the first set of problems that he gave to solve working with a group. Connected to those people in my group while solving the problem. None of us had finance or accounting background. Income Statements, Balance sheets have shifted from ‘Oh I don’t get it’ to ‘I like solving it’ type. A set of ‘Account statistics’ and ‘Company matching’ group solving activities followed. It was great to brainstorm with others and come up with solution and eagerly awaited to see the solution that Prof posted and explained in the class. Keeping in mind that the whole week is going to be a very intense and exhaustive week, caught sleep early after getting
back home.
Day 1: The Auditorium was filled with so many people connecting during breakfast. Orientation was started by Babson’s dean followed by our fast track chief and the President’s ‘Entrepreneurial Thinking’ session. He was brimmed with enthusiasm and energy moving across the Auditorium while delivering the content. During lunch, we were asked to pick up a token at the entrance and sit at the table with the number that was in the token. It was a way to connect to people from different industries. Went to bookstore with one of my classmates to pick up our coursepack. Connected to so may people and got an idea of why everyone chose Babson and why were they there. There were some technical laptop setting sessions thereafter. It was a 8AM-9PM week with 1 hour driving up and down amidst traffic, school buses, I felt very exhausted by the time I got back home
Day 2 & 3: It was a session called ‘Techmark simulation’. We were divided into groups into each planet (divided into 5 planets and 5 groups in each) and each group represented a Management team trying to bring back Techmark to speed and reap profits. We were given 5 quarter periods spanning 1.5 hours each to solve and sell 3 products to 3 different countries based on the market statistics, economy and financial statements. You don’t understand anything right after reading this? That’s how we as a group felt too…After 2 periods, we could gather details and understand what was expected and by the end of 5 periods, we won in our planet. Was it a win by luck? May be or may be not, but it was a great experience trying to calculate, brainstorm, listen to various perspectives, ideas and coming up with a competing strategy doing all this inside a room packed with charts, flipboards, print outs and notes. By the end of day 3, my brain was about to explode
Day 4: Had an idea lab session with Prof DC to know about brain orientation, where ideas come from, working on gathering and multiplying stimuli and coming up with an idea only with a company name given. There were 42 different ideas that were generated in the class…Mine was the most dumbest idea But most others were weird, very different and out of the box thinking types. We were asked to pick up one idea as a group and pitch as a business plan with Potential customers, Business/revenue model, Target industries, Production costs in mind. It was another group interaction session which led me to think ideas come from divergent thinking and its not easy to pitch if you are not sure about what you want to do/implement. Had a welcome party in the evening where we connected to our Profs and other faculty members.
Day 5: We had our first 2 core course sessions. Without pre reading for classes, you cannot contribute anything in the class which led me to catch up with the readings early in the mornings. Class interactions count for grades and hence introverts like me were pushed to talk. It was evident that only when you talk, your thinking and ideas emerge and help you to leverage with that others think of. It was a great session to discuss about a case study of Innovation, How failures breed success and much more. Said bye to my learning groups and other classmates and thanked Babson for such a wonderful experience throughout the week thought it was exhaustive. Did a bit of shopping and dinner with Sis and R later.
Day 6: Went to CT with friends and saw fall colors. How long I had to wait for seeing the fall colors? Had a great dinner at A/S’s house after which stayed very late till 2:15 in the morning completing my assignments. Ha, when did I become a good student?
Day 7: Watched some TV shows with A/S and talked about those. Packed and got to the airport very early not anticipating that I would be missing my connecting flight. New experience of missing the flight due to technical snag in the aircraft and stayed at a Hotel arranged by the airlines.

Got back home the day after and went to work after a week. Felt like I had been in a different planet the week before

Intense coursework and busy schedules ahead. The interest towards the coursework has certainly multiplied after the whirlwind week. Got to go…Will catch later

Give a good book!

Time flies off easily. It’s been another year and another birthday around the corner – Not only a birthday but also a birthday wish

“Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime”

Books are the treasures of life. What’s the best trait that you can develop in a child? Reading habit. Reading makes a child to think, explore, focus, communicate, gain knowledge and create ideas. Reading is a discipline. While most people know this, not everyone in this world are able to develop this discipline in a child just because they cannot afford to buy a good book. We can change that and make at least some children to gain accessibility and own a good book which he or she can cherish for lifetime. That’s my birthday wish of this year – ‘Give a good book’ fund-raising campaign.

On my birthday, you all are going wish me to have whatever I dream of. This fund-raiser is one of the big dreams that I have for this year. Will you make my dream and birthday wish come true this year by donating whatever you can and make a child have a good book in hands?

With a book in hands, you can bring a smile in a child’s face here.
http://supporters.firstbook.org/goto/give-a-good-book

Thanks a million, in advance!

Bridging the gap – Part III

Meeting ‘Ra’:  Tried so much to meet ‘Ra’. I knew beforehand that it would be too difficult to get an appointment to meet him. So, I started my attempts to get an appointment few days after I booked the flight tickets to India. After many attempts, I got an appointment. G was the one who was in constant touch with me to get that appointment. I was a bit anxious and many things were running in my mind like what to talk, do I need to write a set of questions that I can ask him when I meet, will he accept the personalized gift of Inspiration that I had got for him and the feedback on Frozen Thoughts (Infinithoughts now) that my friends had insisted me to give to him. The day came but the chance of meeting him did not happen. I was disappointed to miss it after giving so many attempts. I thought that the chances of meeting him would have been higher if I had been in Chennai and not in Madurai. But a sense of hope prevailed when G updated me that Ra may come to North America this year. Chances are there that me and my friends will meet him.

My ‘young’ buddy: 2-3 years after P was born, I held her in my arms. I was probably 10 years old that time. From that day till now, we are friends Now she’s in college and still remembers me and wishes on my Birthday every year and tries to meet me whenever I go to India. Without any notice, she stopped by, at our house one day. We did a ‘high five’ and started talking. Amidst her non-stop talking about college, friends, movies, studies and future plans, I got to talk for few minutes about US and higher studies here. With my more than one attempt on GRE, TOEFL and constant musings about higher studies I think I should become a ‘higher studies abroad’ consultant She insisted that I should have lunch with her sometime. I tried to make an awesome dosa for her which stuck midway. ‘Awesome’ turned to ‘terrible’…Seeing that, with giggles, she ran away

The Super Singer replica: G Aunty, who was our neighbor few years ago, called one day. She was excited to tell one thing – ‘You know what? Whenever the super singer junior Stefi comes to the daïs and sings, all of us at home get reminded of you. You looked the same when you were young’. I told her that my sis used to tell the same thing when Maestro’s daughter Bavadharini comes to stage. Ha ha…I know what they all mean…I wish they told that I sang like Stefi or Bavadharini

Eye care: The first time when I went with Amma, at the registration desk, they asked my age. When I told the age, the lady said that she couldn’t believe it and she thought I may be around 24. That’s when I realised the reason behind her eye glasses With my frequent visits to the eye hospital for Amma, all the sisters there connected to me very well. Every time I went, they talked to me nicely. One of them gave her contact # and asked me to be in touch. Another one told that she was very proud to see me taking care of my Amma like that. Ore fan following dhaan…:P

Mall in Madurai: It was ‘new’(s) to me when I heard that they have opened a new mall in Madurai. Maduraiyile mall-a? I wondered. Went there twice and picked up some new fashionable dresses. People were very courteous in the shops. Even on a Sunday, there were only few shopaholics. We went to food court to try few dishes. French fries for 57 rupees – Are you kidding me? Not like big malls in Chennai, but I feel that this itself is big for people in Madurai

Second Chennai Visit: The route from Madurai to Chennai – NH is great. There are toll roads, service areas, sign boards throughout which I thought was a real development from what I had seen earlier. We made some stops before reaching the Chennai city and visited some houses/apartments. We went to a township P.G. where all the apartments looked like palaces. Though I am not a big dreamer of lavish lifestyle or owning luxurious bungalows, my Appa said “This is where I think you should live”. I said “this is where I can live if I were a billionaire ”  The sales manager’s native was Madurai and hence my family ended up talking for a while and had lunch with him.

After that, Appa, Amma and me went to the hotel talking about the horrible traffic in Chennai. We had wi-fi in the hotel and me and Appa used my iPad wisely. The next day, met B Aunty and her husband. We all had lunch together. She had bought some fancy jewelry for me as a token of her love and we talked about the initiatives that me and my friends had started. We talked about how we can provide education to some kids who cannot afford to get one and more on that front. After our lunch and back to hotel, my Amma and Appa said that the happiest couple that they have ever seen is B Aunty and her husband and they liked them. N’s Appa came to give her wedding invitations that I had assured to take it when I go back. My Appa and he talked about many things and I was listening. I wish I was there in Chennai for N’s wedding. But, there were lots of things to squeeze within few days of vacation.

Got the monthwise photos of my Nephew’s first year and loved it. Decided to pick a proper picture frame that can hold it. Then went to Grand sweets and picked up loads of items. With so much popularity of Express Mall, went there but returned empty-handed. Picked many books and DVDs for me and now my book shelf is overflowing (Padikromo illayo adikiruvomla ) The most surprising thing was without me telling that I was looking for Management/Business/Entrepreneurship books, my Appa was picking all those and giving it to me. My future plans are shaping well, I thought My Amma was giving a “What will she do with all these books?” look.

Met K & A, my previous company friends, for dinner. The ambience was great at AB and that was the first time I went to that restaurant. Casual talks about friends, family, life, personal things went on. Those canteen talks and breaks, birthday bashes, dance practices, cricket matches, organizing events, ‘what next’ talks, drop dead gorgeous following, Girls day outs – all those moments flashed – Golden period of my life. Very happy to be in touch with all of them and it was a pleasure to meet them after years, though the gang size has dwindled.

Most of my plans worked out with all those who I wished to meet (except Ra and college friends), what I wished to do and those that I wanted to eat (Mangoes, Butterscotch/Casatta ice creams, ‘Jayaram Bakery’ cakes in particular). Weeks went off in a jiffy.

Bye India and here I come, Colorado! There I was standing in the Chennai airport, waving bye to Appa and Amma.

- The End

English – An Interrobang‽

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language!

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and there would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don’t fing,
Grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?

Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,
What do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship…
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And in closing……….

If Father is Pop, how come Mother’s not Mop???

P.S.: Complexities could exist but still I like ‘English’ as a language

Source: Some ‘Old’ school friend [GVD]

At random…

a) Not dressed in suits, no Powerpoint presentations, no meeting rooms – Most start-ups start just with few ideas kicking in and around. The most productive and challenging is the first phase of how the ideas get executed. When you are putting those ideas into execution, you may come across a situation realizing that your ideas are not one of its kind. Reminds me of the frog story of two-step forward, one step back making the progress arduous
b) Put the biography of Steve jobs in waiting to read list and picked up “Founders @ Work” by Jessica Livingston from my book shelf. Reading this should serve some meaningful purpose
c) Bumped into two new Entrepreneurial ventures StudyEgg and Zomato. Want to explore? Check it out here:
http://studyegg.com/
http://www.zomato.com/
d) India winning the first test match against West Indies – No trumpets! Ashwin’s feat of 9 wickets on a début – Similar to a feat by RP Singh earlier – A job well done! Ashwin, is this a wedding gift of ‘pride’ to your wife-to-be?
e) Airtel Super Singer Junior – “Kaalu Kilo Karuppu Puli Manja Thooluda” [People who watch Super Singer Junior will understand this] Not only the kids have singing talents, the talents widen up to dancing, somersaulting, acting. Wondering if the parents train their kids when they are in their womb itself
f) Singer friend S suggested to listen to “Unna Kolla poren” from Aaravan. Liked it but not to the level that I liked “Sara Sara Sarakathu” – That’s totally a distinct feel
g) With Kamal’s B’day passing by, Muziboo playlists were full of his songs. Listened to “Pottu Vaitha Kadhal thittam” after a long time
h) Liked this quote that I read recently:
Search for a beautiful heart, but don’t search for a beautiful face. Coz beautiful things are not always good, but good things are always beautiful
i) Hurrah! – The picture with quotes that I voted for the “Love is in the air – best quotes” contest won The quote goes like this: To be your friend was all I ever wanted, and to be your lover was all I ever dreamed. The picture and the quote were good
j) Looking forward to11.11.11 @ 11:11 (IST) for another (r)evolution – ????? Will the hypes put forth by Almamater on this so far, be worthy enough?
k) Variety of culinary skills on the run – Pancakes, Oats Dosa, Bisibelle Bath, Bread Pizza. The “foodie” tag remains with me

With clock ticking and announcing that it’s time for sleep mode…With yawns and stretches…Good night for some and good day for some!

The Spark Plug!

It’s time for the after thoughts on Chetan Bhagat’s latest (r)evolution – “Revolution 2020″. CB’s inimitable style – Love, Infatuation, Friends, IIT washed away on the writing shores with few more nouns – Ambition, Politics, Corruption, Educational System. No brainer that this would enthrall the young ignited minds.

Varanasi: Rivers Varuna and Asi makes it Varanasi. Banaras. Kasi. City of Temples. Ghats. Aarti. River Ganga. GangaTech. City of learning. Sunbeam School. Sigra Cricket Stadium. Some call the city beautiful, holy and spiritual especially when introducing to the foreign tourists I think one could get a panoramic view of Varanasi at least in their imaginary wits from the specifics here.

Gopal: The lead character and the narrator of the story Mr.Gopal Mishra – One question that he asks in the beginning and in the end “Am I a good man?” and the author leaving it to reader’s jurisdiction first and later revealing that “You are a good person” – either way, the verdict would have remained the same. transforming to a good person from a bad person, be it circumstantial, takes guts and sacrifices – So, Gopal wins our hearts! From a farmer’s son stealing away classmate’s tiffin box, later compensating the stolen chocolate cake with laddoos, flunking the IIT-JEE, AIEEE exams and realising that he’s not an engineering material, feeling jealous on a friend’s potential, possessing a teenager’s inability to express his love, carried away by circumstances and indulge in bribery, enjoying the status quo of a director of an Engineering college, getting the lost lady-love, showing the status as a revenge later realising the cue of transforming bad to good and standing up to it by sacrificing the lady-love showing what everyone deserves – Gopal occupies our minds and hearts throughout the story. Gopal’s frenemy may have started Revolution 2020 newspaper as per the story, but the spark was made to roll only via Gopal. A spark is needed for mistakes to turn into success?

Raghav: One of the unique kinds. Passionate! Revolutionary! Ambitious! Potential Leader! [CB is right - Girls use lots of exclamation marks ] We need more Raghavs to turn this world a better place to live.

Aarti: A typical girl who struggles to decide if she should go with the mind (Raghav) or heart (Gopal). An aspiring Air hostess giving up her aspirations to align with family desires and get into hospitality industry. CB has the knack of intertwining the story by bringing himself at her workplace (Hotel Ramada) to meet her as Aarthi Raghav at the end.

• The online chat sessions, ‘understanding a girl’ complexity – CB brings the experiential reality
• One liner on ‘Regret’ that I liked – This feeling has to be one of the biggest manufacturing defects in humans
• In other parts of the world, speaking about income is a taboo while in India, it’s like sharing your zodiac sign, and that too if you have lots – Couldn’t deny this statement

Although one could predict the story as it goes, the ending had been exceptionally different for some. Having read all of CB’s earlier creations and knows his style of writing, I could guess the climax but letting Raghav become a politician was a surprise! This work of CB’s is an absolute commercial movie script material and as a reader, his ‘Five Point Someone’ still tops my charts.

Random ruminations…

• Something that you have to do, pursue, thrive upon – when becomes difficult, it remains as a challenge. And I am into a challenge now On liquid diet for 2 days. When something is deprived of, the yearning towards it grows. Diet regimen is seriously tough!
• What’s with this Eng Vs Ind series? Boring! No thrills – All Whitewash!
• Read the excerpts about Steve Jobs’s take on Microsoft and Google, his talk with former president Bill Clinton, his adamant behavior of not undergoing the surgery and his reasons behind. Missed the 60 minutes with Issacson on Steve Jobs but eagerly waiting for my pre-ordered copy of the biography of Steve Jobs [60 minutes is available online: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7385688n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox]
• One other book that I am waiting to read is Chetan Bhagat’s “Revolution 2020″. Although CB’s writing style is very familiar and similar to his earlier creations, I feel that his connection to the readers is very simple and direct. It’s that one quality that makes me read his writings
• Though watching Masterminds is a combination of interest and devotion, I like the post programme discussions with two of my friends who are dedicated audiences of this programme. The principles, the take aways, the humor, the inspiring moments, our own experiences – with all these discussed, a sense of fulfillment clings to my heart
• When the amount of well wishers you have is more, the joy that comes out of something gets multiplied. There could be 2% of people who hates you but that 98% of those people who love you and wish you for betterment shows who you are and what you are
• Watched 2 movies: 100% love – the title is apt for the story. How one transforms from childishness into maturity in love is the storyline. The performances and the movie was good. Watched the new tamil movie Muran. It was altogether a different story and Prasanna has again proved that he fits for a villain character
• It looks like I am getting to know more about parenthood these days as most of my friends are becoming parents
• With Halloween and Diwali coming up, some sort of festival preparations are going around. Badly missing my Diwali dance performances. Unless you try something new, you won’t know what you can become Started practising a rangoli design for the upcoming diwali celebration but came with my own beautiful design. Hope my design satisfies the organizers
• Exploring ios5 features. Epdi irundha naan ipdi aayiten? – Only used phones to attend and make calls earlier and now I talk about ios5 features and apps
• Bodhidharma, martial arts, zen habits, hypnotism – the promo of 7am arivu looks promising and interesting. Hope all the hype around it becomes worthy. Stumbled upon an interesting read about Bodhidharma: http://www.usashaolintemple.org/chanbuddhism-history/

Because of the depleted body and mind, I’m going to give a break to ‘Sundays with Raji’ this week. Have a wonderful week. Safe and happy Diwali!