Soya Says

Me and the legacy of 5th September

2011-09-08T04:42:00.001+05:30

As I sit through the night at the Bangalore airport, I thought about writing a blog on one of those days which has always been very important during our school and college days, the Teacher’s Day, celebrated every year on 5th September. For me, Teacher’s Day has always been one of those days where I remember some of the most influential people that I am lucky to have come across in my life. I also recall those events and celebrations that we used to have in the School and College.

One of my best memories of Teacher’s Day is when I took a Class 10 Math lecture during my last year in the school. I also won an award that day which was called “Best Future Teacher”. I was lucky enough to have Mr. Salim Khan (whom I was enacting that day) attend that lecture. Khan Sir along with Oza Ma’am are the two of my favorite teachers from school especially because their behavior has always been more than professional towards the students.

After finishing my school, the next 5th September was the beginning of my engineering, the first day in the college. Teachers in colleges are way different from teachers in the schools. A lot more professional in their attitude and always reminding you about how you are not in school anymore…this is the real world! I must admit, I learnt a lot from my friends as well in Engineering, and when I say ‘learnt’, I mean both studies wise and ‘other’ wise ;-)

After my engineering, I entered into the world of MBA, a place where everything should be called with a sophisticated name! And the first teacher’s day in MBA, I was on stage enacting the Chief Mentor Mr. Sandeep Manudhane in a comedy skit that a bunch of us planned. Infact not just me but the others you see in the pic also played different people from our B-School’s top team. That was undoubtedly the best Teacher’s Day that I have ever had.

One more teacher without mentioning whom this blog will stay incomplete is Mr. Ritesh Mishra, our IT & Systems professor during MBA. One of the most dynamic and professional people that I know of, Ritesh Sir has played a very important role in shaping my career. It is only because of the concepts of IT & Systems that he taught us in the class, I have been able to reach wherever I have managed to reach.

Lastly, I must mention, every teacher has years of learning and experience to offer in the classroom and they are all equal contributors to every person’s success. As I spent my 5th September this year sitting in the cubicle without any Teacher’s Day celebrations, I wondered if a mere ‘Happy Teacher’s Day’ message does justice to their contributions in our lives.

Roaming...

2011-04-11T00:03:00.000+05:30

Since my phone has been on roaming, I decided to name this blog the same! I have been travelling a bit for the last 20 days now. First it was Pune for IndiaSoft 2011 and then Bangalore. Although, I really like travelling but then there are times when you get bored and decide to open up your laptop and write a blog! In the train cabin of 4, I am the only male. Two are busy playing cards while one has been reading some fat boring novel since she boarded the train last afternoon.

Bangalore and Pune have both been amazing, especially for someone like me who belongs to IT would love to get a glimpse of the humongous IT companies that are situated in these two cities. In Bangalore, I had a chance to visit the Electronic City situated at Hosur Road. I must say HP literally owns almost half of the place. The remaining goes to Infosys! But in total there must be around 50 companies in and outside the area.

There are a few amazing things that I would like to mention in my blog. These are especially the ones that got my attention. So here goes,

1. The Bangalore Metro Project – My last visit to Bangalore was in 2009. Two years later a lot of work for the Bangalore Metro is complete. It felt really good to see the MG Road Metro Railway Station in its completion phase. But I think it will still take a couple of more years for the metro to be fully functional. I was completely amazed by the traffic authorities of the city. Since a lot of construction work is in progress at road sides, it is absolutely normal to have jams but thanks to the sincere efforts of the traffic authorities of Bangalore, you neither find jams nor so much of dust (particularly in comparison to Indore’s BRTS which is probably the worst example of a city’s transport construction)

2. The local language – I was taken aback by the acceptance of English as a local language in both Bangalore and Pune. The local population of these cities, Bangalore in particular, is very comfortable speaking English. I am talking about people of the lower class here, the salon hairdresser, the taxi driver, the bus conductor etc. who speak Kannada by default, can easily talk to you in English. So there are no issues if you don’t know Kannada and they don’t know Hindi. I think the acceptance of English is a BIG reason why they don’t have a ‘Karnataka Navnirman Sena (KNS)’!

3. Security force on roads! – This is something that instantly gives a ‘The Expendables’ feeling. But I am sure it is because of the terrorist attacks these two cities have faced in the recent past. If you visit the Osho Ashram area (near the German bakery) in Pune or the Infosys office in the Electronic City, Bangalore you are bound to give two looks at the commandos sitting in the firing position all the time! Also, did I mention their guns are big…the expendables again! ;-)

There are a few other things worth mentioning but I don’t want to make this blog a long one. As I close the screen of my laptop, two are still playing cards and one is still reading her fat boring novel named Eclipse. I wonder what kind of book it is…maybe I should join the two playing cards.

The best Apps around!

2010-12-11T18:14:00.001+05:30

‘Apps’ is the buzz word these days & more so if you own a smart phone. When I decided about writing a blog on the apps I thought about segregating them based on their operating systems. So here we will have a look at the top 5 apps of the top 5 mobile OS in the market. Let’s kick things off with my favorite mobile OS,

Nokia’s Symbian OS

1. Handy Taskman

Taskman gives you complete information about running programs & about free memory left on the phone (RAM, Phone memory & Memory card). You can also switch to or close any application or close all applications in one click! Taskman also gives you a recently used list & an application search function.

2. emTube

emTube is a great little application for viewing & saving YouTube videos. A recent firmware update gave users Flash Lite 3.0 but viewing videos in the web browser is not as convenient or as easy as using emTube. It has endless uses; out on the go & want to hear a specific song? Just search for it & chances are you can find the music video.

3. Podcasting

Podcasting can be set to download your favorite podcasts at set times & using a specified network. The search facility is also very good & if the application doesn’t list a certain podcast you can still get it using the URL.

4. Opera Mini

For the people who want websites to load as fast as humanly possible & want a desktop browsing experience on their mobile phone, Opera Mini is the browser for you. Opera Mini also reduces the data charges on your internet browsing as it compresses the data much more efficiently than the standard phone browsers, making it faster & more cost effective.

5. Sports Tracker

Using the built-in GPS module, Nokia Sports Tracker is a beta application that allows runners, walkers & cyclists to track & keep statistics of their workouts. Users can see stats such as average speed, total distance, altitude, & so on. Also, in a similar vein to the Nike + iPod Sports Kit you can export your workouts into a KML file & map your workout routes in Google Earth.

Blackberry OS

1. Viigo for RSS Feeds

Viigo comes equipped with a ton of RSS feeds from Technology to Science to Sports to Politics. Viigo also has an auto-configure option that allows users to type in their favorite websites & the program will automatically help find the site's RSS feed. Preconfigured feeds also allow you to easily set up traffic alerts, stay up to date with flight information, & track packages from UPS, the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx & DHL

2. Opera Mini for Web Browsing

The Opera Mini browser increases the speed at which pages are rendered on Blackberry devices by passing page requests through Opera servers making pages load much faster. Opera Mini also offers the ability to zoom in on pages & then zoom back out with the simple click of the Blackberry track wheel. It's fast, it's easy to learn, & it's free!

3. TwitterBerry App for Twitter Users

This excellent Blackberry Twitter app makes it easy to micro-blog with your Twitter account via your device. You can read tweets from your friends list, send your own tweets via your @replies, & even write direct messages directly from your Blackberry device. TwitterBerry also allows for quick access to spell checking by allowing you to pull up the Blackberry spell checker, to insert symbols, & even look at your friend's timelines & public timelines as well.

4. BBNotePad for Taking Notes on the Blackberry

BBNotePad is a plain text editor that allows for full documents to be written & even allows for code to be implemented. The application also provides three different text sizes & saves files as .txt files so you can transfer the files directly to your computer & open them in a word editor. BBNotePad also allows documents to be saved directly to your Blackberry device or via a memory card for easy file transferring. If you want to share your documents with other users the program gives access to file sharing via Bluetooth between units.

5. Vlingo’s Voice Recognition

Vlingo takes the capabilities of Blackberry Voice recognition to a whole new level. Not only can users dial a number by simply saying a name, but they can also perform web searches, such as saying "Find Movies in Chicago Illinois“. You can also launch Blackberry Apps with commands such as "Open Calendar" & compose entire emails & text messages by simply speaking into your device. It also gives you the ability to easily transcribe messages. You can simply dictate & Vlingo will type it for you.

iPhone OS

1. Apple iBooks

Apple’s iBooks isn’t just an e-book reader; it’s also an excellent PDF reader! The app uses an attractive bookshelf metaphor to arrange your virtual books & PDFs, & Apple makes quite a few older books available for free through its online store. As with many Apple apps, iBooks becomes more useful if you have more Apple devices, you can sync your bookmarks & notations with your iPhones, iPod Touch, & iPad.

2. AT&T myWireless Mobile

AT&T’s myWireless app tells you if you’re coming close to your monthly 200MB or 2GB data limit, how many minutes you’ve used, & when your next bill is due. It also lets you upgrade your plan if you’re using your iPhone much more than you expected. Checking this app periodically is the best way to protect yourself from unexpected AT&T charges.

3. Bing

The Bing app provides a scrolling photo search, voice search, & local shopping searches. It even has a bar code scanner to look up prices on goods in stores. The Social tool lets you connect to Facebook & Twitter & search your results from friends.

4. CNBC Real-Time

One of the best business news sites has one of the best free business apps on the iPhone. CNBC’s app starts with business news alerts; it also has a detailed stock portfolio tracker. Other than that it also has well-rendered graphics.

5. Dragon Dictation

Ever wanted to dictate a long series of notes & then e-mail or text them? Dragon Dictation can do that for you. Just load up the app, tap the red button, & dictate for a one minute at a time. It even has multilingual support, & lets you paste text directly to the iPhone SMS client.

Palm OS

1. AvantGo

AvantGo is free & offers plenty of local & national news & other information. Text-based interface is easy to read & customize; schedules updates to reduce sync time. With this app your Palm will keep you up-to-date.

2. Documents To Go

It syncs Microsoft Office documents including Word, Excel, & PowerPoint on your Palm. Documents To Go is the most complete product available for managing Office documents on the fly. It's a must-have for anyone who regularly uses both a Palm & Microsoft Office.

3. BugMe

BugMe lets you scribble notes directly onto your Palm screen & then schedule pop-up reminders. BugMe’s ability to jot notes on your Palm screen is fantastic. The reminder feature is a great way to replace the Palm OS memo application with one that's more fun.

4. Bubblet

It is one of the most popular games available. Endlessly amusing & challenging; requires both skill & luck. Every Palm user should download a copy of this addictive game.

5. Vindigo

Vindigo includes walking directions to specific destinations, as well as movie, restaurant, & nightlife reviews. If you travel to or live in any of the cities available in Vindigo & crave map-free travel or just updated movie listings, download this handy free app.

Android OS

1. Twicca

Twicca has full functionality for using Twitter, & in a package that is attractive & easy to use. It’s also hard not to appreciate the magical connotation of its name. Don’t let the image fool you; Twicca works in English, too.

2. Dolphin Browser HD

Dolphin brings most of the functionality of a full desktop browser. It has all the expected features, tabbed browsing, multiple windows & the like. Dolphin is very fast too!

3. Toodle Droid

Toodle Droid is an app that interfaces with ToodleDo & presents your To-Do list with a very basic presentation. You can add new tasks using Toodle Droid. The simplistic approach of Toodle Droid is what it attracts most of the users.

4. Speedtest.net

You can regularly keep an eye on connection speeds to see how things are moving along, & Speed Test is a nice way to do that. If you are familiar with the online test site speedtest.net, then you are already familiar with this app.

5. Google Voice

Google Voice turns the Android phone into a full Google Voice phone. There is complete control over how the phone integrates with Voice, including letting GV take over all aspects of phone calls completely if desired.

I hope if you own a smart phone you must have found this blog informative & helpful. Even if you don’t own a smart phone, it’s still a good practice to have some knowledge about apps as they are the ‘in’ thing these days!

It takes a Dabangg

2010-09-18T00:36:00.001+05:30

According to the earlier reports, Dabangg, starring Salman Khan, has broken all the records set by 3 Idiots last year (http://bit.ly/9k41aS). 3 Idiots was released on 25th December, 2009 which is when we normally have holidays of Christmas & New Year, probably the best time for a movie’s release. Dabangg too had the advantage of Eid but then it had several other things going with the motion. Oh and by the way I am serious about writing the blog on Dabangg so let’s get started with some of the best things in the movie,

No preaching, no management learning, no social messages – This is the best thing about the movie! The movie never wants you to achieve excellence so that success may follow, it simply delivers what it promises and that is entertainment. Pure 100% solid entertainment and if you look back, movies were always made for entertainment. In fact if you take a look at the list of the top 50 highest grossing films worldwide (http://bit.ly/c0cp3J), at least 40 of them are purely entertainment. However, I have nothing against movies with social messages Chak De! India is one of my all time favorites!

Superb action – The gravity-defying action of the movie is simply superb. A few scenes make a mark like the fight sequence at the railway station & the climax as well. Action-prime Indian movies are not as common as love stories but they have always had their share. Dabangg’s action can be termed as ‘stylish’ in its own way, something Salman gave birth to after Wanted.

Thick cast – Apart from the pivotal roles of Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Sonu Sood & Sonakshi Sinha, the movie contained various other veterans in supporting roles. This is something Wanted & even Ghajini couldn’t accomplish. So here you have Vinod Khanna, Dimple Kapadia, Anupam Kher, Om Puri, Mahesh Manjrekar & Mahie Gill in supporting roles, a thick cast indeed. A cast like this is a huge hygiene factor for the movie.

Munni Badnaam Hui – Apart from the amazingly shot & choreographed Munni Badnaam Hui, Darling Tere Liye there are other songs in the movie which stand out. Hud Hud Dabangg makes a huge impression, Sukhwinder Singh has done it again. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan proves his dominance with Tere Mast Mast Do Nain & Sonu Nigam excellently Chori’s your Jiya! The music of the movie is a hit & a huge plus.

Salman Khan – The name says it all. Salman’s fans never want him to act like the best actor in the country neither do they want to see him as ‘Auro’ or ‘Akbar’, they simply want him to get shirtless and kick some bad guys around. Salman does exactly that. Sporting a moustache for the first time in his career, Chulbul Pandey seems to be enjoying his character like anything.

I hope you enjoyed watching the movie as much as I did & if you didn’t, you can wait for another Hollywood movie where America would be under attack or wait for Anjaana Anjaani…(no?) pun intended :-)

5 things you must know about Ramadan

2010-08-23T00:07:00.004+05:30

Before starting this I want to make it clear that I am not an Islamic scholar. This blog simply has a few things that I feel everyone must know as a general knowledge about Ramadan & fasting. So I have compiled 5 things that everyone must know. Here goes,

1. Just like the Gregorian calendar there is an Islamic calendar which is based on the moon. Ramadan is the 9th of the 12 months in the Islamic calendar. It contains either 29 or 30 days. The variability is because it is a lunar calendar. If the moon is sighted on the 29th day, the following day is Eid ul-fitr. However, if the moon is not seen then there are 30 fasts & Eid comes next. So now you know why the saying “Eid ka chaand” is important :-)

2. There are five pillars of Islam one of which is fasting. This elaborates the importance of Ramadan. Following are the five pillars,

a. Shahadah – Aka ‘Imaan’. It is the belief in one God & the Messenger (Peace be upon him).

b. Salah – Aka ‘Namaz’. It is the prayer offered five times a day.

c. Zakāt - It is the practice of spending 2.5% of one's wealth for the benefit of the poor or the needy.

d. Sawm (Siyam) – Aka ‘Roza’. The fasting in the month of Ramadan.

e. Hajj – It is the pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca & Medina in Saudi Arabia.

3. Participating Muslims wake up before dawn & the ‘Fajr’ prayer to eat a meal (‘Sahoor’ or ‘Sehari’). They break their fast at ‘Maghrib’ (sunset) prayer time with a meal called ‘Iftar’.

4. Ramadan is not about simply staying hungry or thirsty, the message behind fasting is to practice patience, humility & spirituality. Fasting makes every Muslim realize that no matter how wealthy he/she is, there are people in the World who are deprived of food or water the entire day, thus we must help the poor monetarily (Zakat).

5. Ramadan is the month in which the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). This extends the importance of this sacred month.

The beauty of Mecca during the Ramadan cannot be expressed in words. Many Muslims reach Mecca just for the month of Ramadan which is a lesser form of Hajj known as ‘Umrah’. However, Umrah can be performed throughout the year & not just in the month of Ramadan.

Hope this blog was helpful. Peace.

Rain, Assignments, Obama, Nostalgia

2010-06-25T03:18:00.008+05:30

Last year & this time, the situation was pretty much the same. All of us (PROTON Fall ’09 batch), were busy with the heavy dose of pre-term assignments which we had to submit on the first day of the college. I used to work late nights on the assignments every day, pretty much similar to what I am doing these days. It was June & it was raining as well. Nostalgia!

So June, rain and assignments are pretty much the same this year too with the heavy pile of SIP report, SIP presentation, write-up & the VMU assignment to make. But what made me do this blog was a news that I recently read about Obama’s failure to handle the oil spill. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll mentions that half of those surveyed disapproved of Obama’s handling of the spill. Such polls are very interesting. How can someone who created history by winning the US elections in the most unorthodox fashion be simply disapproved like this?

Since this blog revolves around nostalgia, I reminded myself, how was Obama doing last year this time? I couldn’t really remember anything but I do remember making a presentation on Obama’s Middle East Initiative. That was probably the biggest thing going on the tabloids those days. 3rd June to 6th June, 2009 Obama visited Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France & Germany. At that time, Obama’s trip was a ray of hope for better relations between the Middle East & America. However, I wonder if a poll was to be conducted by Wall Street Journal/NBC about the outcome of that trip, many would disapprove it too. Is Obama all talk? Probably, Americans are the right people to answer.

Anyways, I went through the entire presentation that I made. Also, it was the first presentation that I gave at PROTON, some of my classmates may remember it. And since nostalgia is in the topic, here is the video that I compiled myself & played in the presentation. Enjoy :-)

If you are interested, you may check my presentation on Obama's Middle East Initiative on my website (http://www.soyasites.com/), heres the link

The iPad's "Flash Forward"

2010-05-16T00:31:00.006+05:30

The news is out! The all new Apple iPad does not support Adobe Flash! Now, I know what you must be thinking, "I don't know what Flash exactly is & I don't understand what's the big deal in iPad not supporting Flash?" The tagline of my blog is "keeping it simple" so let me keep it simple & explain everything.

Flash is a multimedia platform designed by Adobe which is used to add animation, videos & games on web pages. In even simpler terms, if you download videos from youtube.com they are mostly in .flv format i.e. Flash format. So does that mean if you open youtube.com from the iPad, most videos won't work? Absolutely right! They won't work. And the same applies to many other websites, even my personal website soyasites.com ;-)

Next question, “why did Apple commit such a huge mistake?” Actually, it is not at all a mistake. In fact iPhone & iPod have never supported Flash too. Steve Jobs recently posted his thoughts on why iPad doesn’t support Flash content. Below are the six major reasons with little explanations that I have added,

1. Adobe Flash is a 100% proprietary product that is not open and is completely controlled by Adobe - Yes, we do get Flash free of cost but still Adobe has full rights over it so if Adobe decides, it can start charging Rs. 500 per month for Flash

2. While most online video is Flash based, H.264 is a more modern alternative that is widely available – H.264 is just a new standard of video compression. Whenever you record a video it has to be compressed to some standard form, flv (i.e. Flash) is one of the standards which are used however Apple argues that H.264 is the next big thing & iPad supports H.264

3. Flash has significant reliability, security, and performance issues – In fact Apple even claims that the number one reason why Macs crash is due to Flash!

4. Flash technologies require software decoding, thus eating an unnecessarily large amount of battery life – So not using Flash will save battery life & hardware resources

5. Flash was designed in a world when input devices simply comprised of mice and keyboards and not touch – Basically, Steve is trying to say that inputs from touch screen are different from that of keyboard & mouse so Flash is not the right technology for touch screen inputs

6. Flash is a third-party layer of software that hinders the progress of development and the platforms it resides on, like the iPhone OS, for example – This means that Flash is like a mediator between the user & the operating system. According to Jobs, Flash hinders the progress of the operating system it is installed on which is the most important reason for iPad not supporting Flash

So these are six strong points given by Steve Jobs himself. Officially, Adobe may be slow in responding to this but one of their employees on theflashblog.com rightly points out the fact that millions of websites use Flash & without the Flash support, it would be foolish for Apple to claim that the iPad provides “ultimate browsing experience”. The image below shows how few websites look when you open them on the iPad, no flash content only the blue legos,

Shocked? Some of the protons may now be thinking about the iPad they are striving to win this December in the OSN competition. And did you see Farmville on the top? But wait before you make up your mind of not buying an iPad because Farmville is the only thing you do on the internet, Apple does have an answer to all this. According to Apple, many websites are now switching to HTML 5 content which is as good as Flash, take nytimes.com for an instance. The video it has on its homepage is based on HTML 5. HTML 5 is just the new version of the language which does most of what Flash does i.e. presenting content dynamically. The iPad supports HTML 5 & most of the mobile versions of websites use HTML 5 instead of Flash. Actually, Flash & mobile phones have never been comfortable together. The simple reason being the amount of hardware & software resources & battery life Flash requires running on the mobile phones.

H.264 format gels very well with HTML 5 & thus HTML 5 has become the best way to deliver videos on mobile phones. Many web video providers are working to adopt HTML 5 not because Apple doesn’t support Flash but because it is the best suited format for smartphone (including iPhone) users. However, Adobe will soon launch an “iPhone packager for Flash”, a system that converts Flash into apps that can run on iPhone. So Adobe may soon come up with similar ‘packager’ for the iPad as well which may stop this shift from Flash videos to H.264 & Flash content to HTML 5.

But then, Steve Jobs certainly has a track record of knowing which technology is about to come to an end. He launched the iMac in 1998 without a floppy drive. I don’t think I would have even seen a floppy disk at that time. Steve was smart enough to guess that floppies are coming to an end. MacBook Air, Apple’s slimmest laptop, comes without an optical drive. So, is Jobs right in judging that Flash’s time is over?

I don’t think Flash is dying anytime soon. But the new generation of web developers should probably think twice before using Flash in their websites. Even if the iPad fails (which is unlikely with the recent ‘1 million sold’ milestone) there is iPhone & other smart phones to worry about. The number of people using their phones to access the internet is increasing enormously. So either develop a separate mobile version of the website or use HTML 5 & H.264 videos to avoid compatibility issues. Who will emerge victorious out of this battle between Adobe & Apple will be decided by the consumers worldwide.

I thought the best way to conclude this blog was to add the video below,

Unison 2010 - From my eyes

2010-04-17T02:26:00.001+05:30

The 2-day annual event of PROTON, Unison 2010, is now over & it ended with Tapas playing the theme of ‘Saare jahan se acha hindostan hamara’ on guitar. I don’t think there could have been a better ending to Unison than that. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the core coordinating team of the event & hence extracted tons of learning experiences out of it. I will list some of the most important learnings in this blog which will help you not only in organizing similar events but also in day-to-day life.

My first & the most important learning was managing information. Everything must be with you in soft copy for reference purposes because you never know when you may require what information. It took me 7 excel files, 16 notepad files, 24 PPTs & 32 word documents in all to manage every single bit of information throughout the event. The information varied from the list of 92 prospect sponsors we visited to the 60 days schedule leading to Unison 2010.

In this blog I will list down my top 15 learnings from Unison 2010. I have tried to group learnings from similar experiences (for example approaching the sponsors) together,

1. For approaching the sponsors, the priority should always be given to local players rather than the MNCs or National companies. Local players have full authority to make marketing decisions while the MNCs or National companies will first send your proposal to their head office where all the power to make marketing decisions lie.

2. The best you can give to your sponsors is marketing their brand through your event. Let them know how much cost they will incur if they do it themselves. Tell them the amount of expected footfalls in the event, the number of posters, passes, billboards etc. you are planning to print which will include their logos.

3. Always try to create separate PPTs for different companies clearly listing their benefits. The biggest advantage of this is the fact that Smokin’ Joe’s might not be looking for exactly the same sponsorship benefits that Shell Lubricants maybe looking for.

4. Make sure your email attachment does not exceed 1.5 MB in size. Few email servers like that of Pantaloon & ING Vysya Insurance will not accept any email larger than 1.5 MB. So if you are forwarding your resume to any company make sure the attachment is lesser than 1.5 MB or it will simply bounce back.

5. Whenever you want to send bulk mails, make use of BCC. Most top people in the corporate don’t like their email address to be displayed in forward emails.

6. Whenever you have a 5 minute meeting with your boss, always list down everything that you want to discuss & keep the entire discussion to the point. The boss has neither any interest nor the time to listen to stories.

7. If you are the last person to leave the board room or any official meeting place for that matter, make sure you place the chairs at their right place & switch off the lights. You may not realize it, but it shows that you possess business etiquettes & are responsible.

8. In any kind of deal, nothing should be taken as obvious. Everything must be clearly mentioned in the MOU or the offer letter. Verbal confirmation is NO confirmation. Basically, if it is not signed by the authorized person, it is too early to consider it a deal.

9. The corporate world will not kill you for a mistake. It is OK to make genuine mistakes. But the only condition is that you must be promising enough not to repeat it.

10. Always maintain a to-do list. There will be numerous things to be done in a single day & you are most likely to forget one-fourth of them if you don’t jot down.

11. Arguments are necessary. A team of 5 may have 6 different ideas. Brainstorming will ultimately provide the best of the best idea to be executed.

12. There is no ‘I’ in the word ‘Team’. Thoughts may differ but every individual in the entire team must work on the consent of majority.

13. The amount of sleep never matters when you are doing something that you absolutely love. Your productivity will also double & you will realize it later on (probably when you get back to classes ;-)).

14. Few things are never under your control, for example, the sound system, electricity etc. Always make sure these have a backup as reliable as possible.

15. If you are organizing an event, always be ready to sacrifice the limelight you might have gained by performing on stage or simply staying in the crowd. You won’t get a chance for any stage performance, no time for visiting salon, no time for changing clothes, no time for taking photographs during the event & absolutely no time for socializing.

One must understand the fact that the success of an event does not depend on the completion of everything that has been planned, rather it depends on the ability to handle the unplanned things.

In the end, I want to mention that an event like Unison is not possible just because of the coordinating team. Due to time constraints at Unison, I was unable to thank a lot of people. I will use my blog as a platform to thank everyone involved starting with our Chief Mentor Sandeep Manudhane Sir for his constant support & inspiration, Manish Saraf Sir for having the perseverance to tolerate us for almost 3 months, Mitesh Sir for all the web support we needed, Dean Sir for granting us all the permissions we needed academically, the continuous motivation by all the faculty members, strategic support by the senior Protons of the committee, the IT people who gave us printouts/photocopies whenever required, Vishal Sir for his suggestions in formatting various official letters, the Security Guards for their support in letting the outsiders contact us, the reception ma'am for handling all the queries she received, Som Singh Bhaiyya for various operational support, all the participants who worked hard to perform & gave their best shot, Ajay Sir for his dedication, the entire Cultural Committee, the sponsors, the vendors & each & everyone of those who attended Unison 2010. Thank you all.

IPL, Bollywood & Girls

2010-04-04T03:49:00.004+05:30

“So how’s life?”

“These days are so boring yaar”

“Kyu? Any problem in the office?”

“Arey nahi, the temperature is rising, there are no good movies coming up & on top of that, all you see everywhere is cricket, cricket & only cricket! I really hate IPL & I really hate Shahrukh Khan!”

So one of my female friends (also an IT engineer) who works in Noida has started hating Shahrukh Khan. She said SRK is involved in promoting IPL & also owns a team (she didn’t even know which one). She also wonders why there are no good Hindi movies coming up as people who want to see movies will watch them, IPL or no IPL.

This conversation made me think a lot of things. Most of the girls don’t know much about cricket & few of them actually hate it. In fact the popularity of One Day Internationals was falling which gave birth to the concept of IPL T-20. Some of my male friends absolutely love T-20, they just cannot afford to miss a Mumbai Indians match. This is a huge point of gender disparity, isn’t it? I remember my childhood days when we use to play cricket, even the girls would participate but none of them would perform good. We had 4 girls in our group & it was compulsory for every team to have 2 girls in it, so that the teams are evenly separated!

But then there is women’s cricket, nowhere near to men’s cricket though as far as popularity is concerned but still India does have a national women’s cricket team. Jhulan Goswami, the captain of the Indian women’s team has never scored a century. Is that a proof enough to consider that cricket is just a man’s game? I don’t know.

The IPL matches begin from 4 PM & end around 11 PM, the prime slot of the moviegoers. In the first IPL season there was only one movie which succeeded to earn a respectable amount to be called a hit, it was Emraan Hashmi’s Jannat. But then it was again based on the backdrop of cricket. The first season of IPL made everyone in the Indian film fraternity realize that IPL is not the right time for movie releases. That is why you see “These days are so boring yaar” in my conversation above.

From fourth IPL season, there are 2 new participating teams viz. Pune & Kochi. I wonder if this may decrease the people’s interest. Total number of matches would rise from 60 to 94! If a huge Bollywood movie releases between the IPL, I don’t think it would make a significant difference. Ghajini would still be Ghajini if it released during the IPL too! (Of course, IPL had to be shifted to 25th December timeframe as I highly doubt Aamir Khan would change his release dates from the vacation days). This year the IPL ends on 25th April & the next Friday has a huge Akshay-Deepika starrer Houseful releasing all over the country.

With the number of matches rising up to 94 in next IPL & most of the girls not being interested in cricket & almost half of them find these IPL days boring, it has created a niche market for girls/women during IPL. It would be interesting to see if any other TV channel or an Indian movie comes up with something which is ‘girlish’ during the next IPL season.

To Blog or not to Blog

2010-03-18T02:40:00.002+05:30

Ever wondered how many blogs exist on the Internet? Technorati claims that there were 112 million blogs in the year 2007. More googling shall reveal that by the end of the year 2009 there were as many as 126 million blogs on the Internet. Bloggers are increasing every passing day. As a result, more & more information is being posted on the Internet. How much of this information is useful remains a question unanswered. This gives rise to a big, big question. Is blogging worth it?

I have been asking myself a question for a long time now, to blog or not to blog? Eventually, I decided to jump in & start it off. A lot of the credit for this goes to my colleagues who have started their blogs on all kind of topics. Apart from the chance to win the iPad (as a part of the first of its kind OSN competition going on at PROTON business school encouraging the students to use online social networking in the most effective way possible), there are several other reasons to blog. The most prominent one is the feeling of expressing yourself. They say that there is a book inside everybody & I feel websites like blogspot.com & wordpress.com have become libraries for these books.

But then like every other thing on the web, blogs too are easy to start & hard to maintain. Writing coherently is one of the most difficult & time-consuming tasks. Thus, most of the bloggers simply stop posting after few initial posts. But those who continue fall in love with it. I was recently chatting with one of my friends who told me that Twitter was replacing his girlfriend! I enquired how & bang came the answer, “I tell my girlfriend every small thing that happens during the day & I tweet the same.” Amazing!

Computers have given a new dimension to the ways of communication. First we had the emails, & then the personal web pages followed by mobile phone texting & now blogs. Even Indian celebrities like Aamir Khan & Amitabh Bachchan blog, the leading politician L.K. Advani has his blog at blog.lkadvani.in which was started as a part of BJP’s election campaign & there are innumerable examples.

I have decided that my blogs would keep things simple & not too much technical or philosophical. You may even get reviews about the latest hindi movie or the top 5 excuses for not reading case studies! I hope to continue posting stuff that interests most of my blog readers. Since this is my first blog, just like our first orientation session that we have for every subject at the start of each trimester, I wanted to write an orientation blog! Suggestions, complaints, comments & insults ;-) are most welcome.