iSkribbled

Sent from my iPhone

2010-04-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

I thought it wud be easy to post from my phone...I mean from my
iPhone :)
Apparently it's not :(

Amazing Amazon

2010-02-07T23:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I know I know it's Feb, but I guess it's better late than never... It's been ages since my last post. Writer's block?? Nah!! I am not a writer... me a part time skribbler :)

Last few months were exciting and also filled with anxiety- was in my city for vacation, extended the stay (due to an unforeseen event), worked from there, explored the city- its new malls, multiplexes and ate biryani- the best made in the world. All the things happened (to me, to my city) in the last two months of the last year definitely warrant another post.

Anyway, couple of months before my vacation, I did something which I never did in my life (no guesses please!!)- I pre-ordered a book. Having read all the Dan Brown's previous books, I was excited to get and read his latest "The Lost Symbol" on the day of its release. After a painful wait of about a month and half (which I regretted after reading the book), finally the release/delivery date of the book arrived. I rushed home from work not to miss the package. But guess what, the wait continued. The book's arrival date got delayed by a day. For first time I pre-ordered something and it didn't arrive on time (damn you Mr. Murphy!!). I wouldn't say I was disappointed or something as delays are not uncommon to me and it is just a book. Next day I finished reading the book. There is not much to say about the book except that it is not on par with its original. Like any other sequel (book or movie), it failed to impress.

As usual life was happening a day at a time and couple of weeks later I get this email from Amazon. Apparently, as per their records, my last purchase (remember, the pre-ordered book) made with them didn't get delivered on time and so they'll refund the shipping charges. Isn't that amazing. I was surprised, impressed. In so many years of online shopping at so many sites, this never happened in my life. Most of these e-retailers not even bother to check with the customers after the transactions are complete let alone provide refunds. A simple email asking the customers if they are satisfied or if there is any feedback about their recent purchases could go a long way. Every e-retailer out there must look at the way these guys are winning customer base by doing no evil. They just won one loyal customer for life. No wonder what started as a simple site to sell books became the Wal-mart of the internet.

Breath Taking

2009-08-10T23:47:00.000-07:00

Friends and Love are like inhaling and exhaling...You can't live without one or the other!

App for Anything, Anyone

2009-05-12T00:11:00.000-07:00

Its been only a couple of years since the Apple Inc., had introduced to the world a platform to develop apps for its cool gizmo, the iphone. But the number of apps that came out ever since and the pace at which new ones are being churned/coded out, seems like the sky will no longer be the limit for the apps on iphone. Literally, there is an app for just about anything, anyone...

I started to wonder what is it that Apple has done differently for this humongous success. Firstly, I think, it defined its own set of rules though mobile phone industry is not its domain. By starting to drive, it broke the industry's norm, which has been traditionally driven by the carriers (at least here in US). Secondly, the iphone with its awesome user interface and motion sensing capabilities has opened the doors for an entirely new genre of apps, which otherwise wouldn't have been possible. Lastly, it eliminated the complex business models prevalent in the apps market, thus mobilizing the masses to publish apps for it- I believe this is the key to their success. On an iphone you either buy one or get one for free. There are no subscriptions, limited usages and all that crap...

Needless to say, Apple has begun to change the rules of the game in mobile phone industry and as of now looks like the rest has to just follow. I think it is loud and clear that if you want to win, you have to win the crowds...

oh btw, I don't own an iphone :)

March Madness

2009-03-29T23:04:00.000-07:00

Nah, I am not following the NCAA...The other day when I looked at my mobile to know the time, something else caught my eye. You know what?? It is the date - I couldn't believe it is almost the end of the month...
The past few weekdays were as busy as the weekends...In between did try to catch up with whats goin on around- the economy, the job crisis, the movies and the Tata's launch of Aam Admi 's car- Jai Ho!
Oh yah, did switch off the lights for an hour for the earth day...kinda blacked out here, so more later :)

Andaru Paltix Neerchinra!

2009-02-07T00:24:00.000-08:00

The dialogue is from one of the RGV's films, which I watched many times...KSR's performance in it was outstanding...Anyway, I was thinking whats wrong if everyone learns politics or for that matter is interested in politics.

A lot of people around the globe turn a blind eye to politics or hate it. I think this is partly because of the way politics or politicians are presented in the cinema and partly because everyday a politician or two is in the news for bad reasons in one or the other corners of the world. I was thinking may be this perspective could be changed, if this art or science of governing is taught in colleges/universities like any other profession. I know few colleges teach political science but till date haven't heard of any politician who majored in it or any political science major, whose ambition is to join politics. May be a department in Univs, in which the final destination of the enrolled students is to join a political office. Just as the prospective medicos are trained by the practicing doctors, law students by the professional lawyers, the future politicians should be nurtured by the incumbent and/or ex-politicians in universities.

Back home (so far) politics is for people from political families or people with a community backup or silver or small screen stars or sports (I mean Cricket) personalities or filthy rich industrialists or local Godfathers. If not associated with these groups and happen to contest in the elections, then forget your deposit. Lately, this trend seems to be changing and there are some encouraging signs. In '99, CBN the then CM of Andhra, put an ex-commissioner in race against a veteran politician, to everyone's surprise, the former won over the latter. I am not saying that the winner of that contest is an ordinary man who made a successful entry into politics but is an educated man like you and me, is not a member of any of the groups like you and me. So there is a hope for people like you and me. For sure, even today joining a political office is not as easy as it sounds for anyone- educated, elite etc. But two to three decades from now, who knows?? There might be more openings for the educated in the political offices. I might be interested too...

On The Books

2009-01-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

The Appeal - It ain't got no appeal!

Freakonomics - There is nothing to freak out about it. A thought-provoking correlation the author presented is the decrease in crime rate in 90's and legalization of abortion in 70's...Seems too good to be true among the other factors that influenced the crime rate fall...Also, the motivation for a real estate agent to sell your house quickly mentioned in the book is truly an eye opener! Overall worth a read...

The World is Flat - With the advent of internet in the last decade, world has certainly become flat. The book seconds that! The economical rise of BRIC countries in the recent times as a consequence of this is evident and unquestionable. Somewhere in the book, the author says, every geographical region has its own advantages and disadvantages. I think the people and their respective governments should realize that, work together, tap the available resources and make their presence felt in globalization 3.0...The Wal-mart's supply chain model, which made it the grocer super power and the evolution of UPS from a mere shipping company to providing shipping solutions are noteworthy! Good book...

Calvin and Hobbes - Of course, no comments. The best of all!!

BTW a cool site to buy books, www.betterworld.com

Go-Win-Daa!!

2008-11-18T22:32:00.000-08:00

Our blockbuster super bumper mega hit skit....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8444135621368392371

Blind is Love??

2008-11-08T13:52:00.000-08:00

He: You know what!

She: What?

He: It's not true

She: What is not?

He: That your eyes show what you feel at heart

She: Absolutely true. Why not?

He: If you are blind in love, how does your heart's feelings shown??

She: Grrr...!!!!

Marriages And Marathons

2008-10-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I would ever participate in a marathon - half or full....Its not that I lack the motivation or the dedication or lack the time to train....I just don't see the point. I would rather run a couple of miles every other day for the rest of my life than run that many miles just one day in my life....But few friends of mine did participate in marathons recently. I was really amazed by the enthusiasm and will of these rookie marathoners who did not relax even during the long-weekend breaks and successfully finished the run.

One interesting thing is that, they are just in to 12-18 months of their marriages. Of all the activities one (or even couple) can take-up on earth, I don't understand why marathons?? It makes me wonder, if it is really the enthusiasm to run or simply an excuse to run away from their new lives....I definitely don't know the answer....But definitely married-life or life is a journey not measured in miles....I have heard (just heard) or read that marriages do bring in a lot of changes in one's life or life style but marriages 'motivating' people to become marathoners is unheard-of or unread-of :) Who knows one day I might as well end up in one of these marathons.....for a good cause though.....

Tropic Blunder

2008-08-25T23:34:00.000-07:00

Seriously...that would have been an apt title for the movie. You guessed it right - the Ben Stiller's new movie. I don't know how it is the number one for two straight weeks. I didn't like it...

I Survived

2008-07-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Its been almost four days since it gave up. The blue screen with messages (which btw didn't make a whole lot of sense to me) describing what possibly could have gone wrong displayed. But one thing was clear, it couldn't take it no more. Even a couple of hard restarts didn't do the trick this time, the same screen displayed over and over...With no laptop meaning- no YouTube, no Gtalk, no Economist, no Wikipedia, no Email- it appeared to me as if I was castaway from this world. Felt like I was incarcerated though I know I am free. Suddenly days seemed longer with plenty of time to do quality work and so moved things around to fill in the new found time slots and began to read this book "The Kite Runner". It is a father-son-illegal son story set in Kabul and States.

The no laptop day-1 started and ended quite differently. With zero dedicated browsing time , finished about one-third of the book in between my sleeps. Day-2 was different from day-1 too - Played tennis, phoned few friends (TG my phone was working) and completed a good portion of the story. I guess I didn't miss my lost browsing time much on day-2. I was done reading the book the following day. That day I felt like any other normal day, oblivious to the fact that my laptop is dead quite sometime.

In the last, not sure how many years, this is the longest I am with no PC. Very hard to imagine life without it. But honestly the experience was not as bad as I had imagined it would be. The one highlight is the gradual replacement of my browsing time slots with reading. I guess I got used to or may be adapted to the change. Isn't that true we, in fact all living beings must (or willing to) adapt to the changes around them in order to survive. I am no different. I think this is the fastest I have completed reading a story book thanks to my crashed laptop and also to my friend. One thing I realized for sure, laptop or no laptop- Zendagi Migzara....

Stick With It

2008-06-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

It doesn't matter how many times you fail. It doesn't matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because ... All that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.

Well said Mr.Cuban.....

MSM 1980

2008-05-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

Not a single day (at work) goes by without the mention of the acronym MSM. Lately, I have been thinking, if someone like me, authors an auto-biography what could it be possibly titled:

MSM 1980

The M's stand for 'My' and 'Memoirs' but 'S', a little unsure right now. It could be 'Sweet' or 'Sour' or 'SwOur'.

The Best Part

2008-03-31T10:42:00.000-07:00

The best part of an academic year is the break in summer.

In +2, it is after the day of entrance examination to the professional colleges and till the day the results are announced. (Well, for me it ended on results day....)

Once the semester exams are completed, life is bindaas till the night before the first exam (of next semester finals) in a professional college.

Depending on which side of the globe one is enrolled in a post-graduate college, the best part of the academic year varies. In the west, it is short- begins on the day of completion of final exam(s)/submission of project(s) for the courses enrolled and ends on the first day of next semester.

When working, undoubtedly the best part is the vacation time. It is even better if your fare is paid, as in my case...hu hu :)

No Skiing For Desi Men

2008-02-18T16:36:00.000-08:00

The title may not be applied to all but I think applies to most. Anyway, in the last four weeks or so went to ski twice though I know I suck at it big time...As always this time hoped that by the end of the day, (at least) I'd be able to ski down the beginner's slopes. So started to ski on a bunny slope and this is how it went. Every time I go down the slope not knowing how to control, crashed on the ice...I think out of ten such trials I was upright only twice..But each time I fell, got a free class...Few people around who saw my antics with skis were kind enough to teach me the 101's of skiing- how to maneuver the skis in order to control the speed, come to a stop without crashing and not to ski straight down the slope but to go down in a 's' path. In spite of the classes my crash numbers didn't improve much: fell down six times out of ten trials after...One time when I came to a halt (of course crashing on the ice) at the end of the slope near fence, overheard a fellow skier casually telling to the other that, it is how I intended to stop and it is no accident...She was absolutely right...

Without question my ski ventures if caught on tape, would become a candidate to be aired on AFV and would be a no surprise if voted as the funniest video of the week!

Rule of Thumb

2008-01-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

Today when my friend turned on the radio in his car, the RJs were just moving on to the Q&A part of the program from a discussion on the phrase 'Rule of Thumb'. After returning from a friend's place, out of curiosity I just did a (re)search on the same and here's something I found about it's origin:

It is believed that English law allowed man to whip his wife with a switch as long as it is no thicker than his thumb...Uh huff!!

For centuries bits of body are being used in taking measurements and I thought the phrase originated when this part of hand, the thumb is used to estimate or measure things. I was astonished; so checked few other results from the million or so returned by Google and found that such a law never existed and it is a myth...Sigh!!

BTW here's an interesting usage of the phrase[1]:

Tailors' Rule of Thumb: A simple approximation that was used by tailors to determine the wrist, neck, and waist circumferences of a person through one single measurement of the circumference of that person's thumb. The rule states, typically, that twice the circumference of a person's thumb is the circumference of their wrist, twice the circumference of the wrist is the circumference of the neck, and twice around the neck is the person's waist.

[1]. Wikipedia.org

Yet Another Year

2007-12-26T22:19:00.000-08:00

It is that time of the year when I sit back and plan on things to do in the next year and also start to wonder how I frittered away this year...I have been doing this (the planning part) for some years now...don't ask me about the execution/implementation part all these years though! Anyways looking back at this year, it started off quietly for me as any other year - the routine five day work weeks, in between visits to gym, occasional parties (and social drinking), Friday evening basket ball games, all night long game of cards over the weekends and tennis. In this part of the world where I am residing currently, weather is ideal for a game of tennis all year long and so started playing on a regular basis. Also planned to take few lessons but some how didn't happen (adding this to my to do list for next year!). In the second quarter of this year one of my friends bought a gaming console, XBOX 360. So for the next few evenings, nights and weekends was playing this one game called 'Gears of War' like crazy and soon got addicted to it. For me all the other activities took a backstage for a while. Believe me the graphics and background score in this game are awesome. With the time I was dedicating, soon finished playing all the stages, won all the wars, so slowly got back to my mundane activities-workout, tennis, hang outs with friends, work...

Interestingly, in the latter half of this year any topic of our discussion(s) at lunch or in a bar or sometimes even in our meetings either started or ended with talk on marriage or marriage proposal. Suddenly it seemed like the topic of the town. To me it appeared that, the cohort of people I know of my age, started feeling that it is the right time (or may be high time) to get married. And as expected this year most of my (guy) friends tied a knot-few to their college sweethearts against all odds, few to whom they have been dating for a year or so and few others to keep both sides happy, to their parent's choice. With the addition of few new members to our otherwise all guys gang, group activities have changed in the last quarter- the Friday evening basket ball games gave way to potluck events, the occasional hang outs around bars/sports-bars seemed like a distant past and the card games are played but not all night long. I think in my entire life I have never attended as many potluck events as I have in last two or three months. But no complaints here, since got to eat the delicious home-made food in all those events. These little changes (in day-to-day or past-time activities) in life are bound to happen anyway and it was just a matter of time. I guess also one has to re-define one's priorities as they move on....

Being an enthusiast of outdoor activities, I would say the best part of this year was visiting a couple of national parks during the three-day weekend breaks in summer and fall. The hikes there during the day really tested our mettle and the camping overnight in wilderness gave an opportunity to relax. I think this is all what I did mostly this year but the way this year is coming to an end is not exactly the same as it started for me or I should say not the way I planned...You know things have been a little complicated and unsettling lately. I do not know why, but what I do know is that I give a damn...

As always looking forward to a more fun-filled new year and hopefully things will settle down. Yeah! almost forgot to mention that this year also saw the birth of my blog. Ha-ha!

Fear Factor

2007-11-17T22:54:00.000-08:00

The other day, I watched this movie about a drug lord who ran one of the most outrageous dope smuggling gangs in Harlem, NY. His name is Mr. Frank Lucas and the movie is American Gangster. The making/storyline of this movie is no different from a typical gangsta estyle movies- the incumbent who built this gang brick-by-brick falls either sick or dies (suddenly), one among the henchmen (the hero) who is by his side all the time, learning insides of the trade, takes over. As it is true with any corporation to restructure or reorganize based on changing market needs/demands to survive or increase the profit margins, this organization is no different. The rookie boss alters few rules of the game by eliminating the middlemen and thus in a short period increases the revenues many folds. Not only professionally but also in personal life he makes some strides- happens to meet this good looking lady (apna number kab aayega??) and being rich and powerful, it is just a matter of couple of scenes before she falls for him. While all this is happening hastily on the bad guys side, there is someone who has an eye on their activities. Good guys (Cops, FBI etc.,) on the contrary maintains low profile, waiting for a right opportunity to conquer...they close in few times but (for various reasons) are not successful until the end of the movie...At last like in any other movie, the good prevails over the evil. All this is stretched (that is what I felt) over 160 mins. There are few (interesting) aspects in this genre of movies and hence irrespective of the popular opinion I watch whenever there is one playing. Primarily the modus operandi of these gangs- they demarcate the markets and operate within their respective zones; strictly no trespassing is entertained (Sab ganda hai per dandha hai hey!). Since no attorneys or written statements or stamp papers are involved, trust is the key to all their transactions; promises made are not meant to be broken and the deadlines are not flexible. All transactions are cash only. Since the stakes are pretty high there is no excuse for any kind of lapse in work for the team members. By the way, membership in the team is for life time and there is no other choice (Yeh woh raasta hai jahan mudna mushkil!). The other aspect is their lifestyle- date & drink::women and alcohol respectively. All the so called socialites they get to meet, date and mate is certainly a thing to be envious about their profession. I think apart from huge amount of money involved, the one other incentive to work as gangster is the free flow of alcohol in parties (and no ID is necessary to drink). Seems like work hard and party harder is their motto! But I know this is a kind of lifestyle which is adorable on reel and not in real. Although sounds stupid, worth a try... if not for real, may be in 'Second Life'...
Finally, I think the one influencing factor in all their activities is the fear factor- fear of death, fear of life...because there is no second chance!
I want to skribble more but seems like my body is against the idea..I am not going to argue with it because I know it is an argument that I am not going to win..So going to sleep now...

At Last...

2007-11-12T23:10:00.000-08:00

Couple of years ago, at about the same time, while on a subway in the city I read an article that this e-diary phenomenon of publishing one's own material is fast catching up (or may be caught up already) among the masses....At that point in time, I thought I should keep up with this Gen X by beginning to write. But of course true to my habit of procrastinating work, it took me close to two years to begin to write (write is an overstatement; may be Skribble). I was fascinated learning about the innumerable blogs published these days by aam junta on various topics;you name it, you are certain to find a corresponding blog. This new self-publishing of material has become such a serious phenomenon that, even the big corporations in technology, finance and broadcasting etc., in order not to be left out have begin to write. Few of them even have dedicated resources to write. With internet attracting a large number of unique users everyday, this has become a good marketing medium for product based companies, discussing their new launches, getting to know good/bad about the product from it's users and also (I guess) in better understanding their user's pulse. The perfect example would be the movie "Snakes on a Plane". Way before this movie was released in theaters, people started writing, discussing and guessing the story line providing a free publicity, much needed to the success of any movie with a poor subject. The much hyped movie bombed at the box office though. The reason (I believe) for the popularity of self-publishing is people are writing for him/her self and not giving a damn of what others might think. Wow! I started with an idea to write a line or two, hoping to catch up with this new generation of writers guild but looks like I ended up with some (in)substantial material. I am not sure how long will this zeal to Skribble lasts in me though...