...shoOOonya...

Crusader, Foolish & Imaginative !!   Thats how someone described me lately :D   a friend from my MBA days ... we were never associated closely in either assignments or other projects and activities ... batchmates is the only word which could probably describe our love-hate relationship .. :)   and these were the words he used to describe me recently ... Crusader, Foolish & Imaginative !!   It was indeed a pleasant surprise ....  

I am your constant companion. I am your greatest asset or heaviest burden. I will push you up to success or down to disappointment. I am at your command. Half the things you do might just as well be turned over to me, For I can do them quickly, correctly, and profitably. I am easily managed, just be firm with me. Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with the precision of a machine and the intelligence of a person. You can run me for profit, or you can run me for ruin. Show me how you want it done. Educate me. Train me. Lead me. Reward me. And I will then...do it automatically. I am your servant. Who am I? I am a habit. The author of the above is unknown, but the words are right on target. If you make good habits, they in turn will make you.   But like the weeds in the garden, bad habits can take over your life. Make a decision today to pull those weeds.   I got the above in an email from...

Have a look at the year gone by in some stunning pics of the year !!   http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/the_year_2008_in_photographs_p.html   http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_in_photographs_part_2_of.html   http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_the_year_in_photographs_p.html   enZoy !!   And have a great wonderful happy joyful smile-filled fun-filled year ahead !!

A few days ago, over the weekend, i went to Jumeirah ... Jumeirah Hotel, Burj Al Arab Hotel and a small beach. Saw around, clicked a few snaps and went to the beach ... Stoood there watching the vast expanse of blue-green waters ... it was nice ... the small waves .. the splashing ... the sound fo the sea ... serene ...   After a few minutes ... there was an urge to go nearer to the water ... to step in it ... I was dressed in jeans and a heavy pair of shoes with my laptop bag on my shoulder (without the laptop of course - it had water and some snacks) ... not the dress code for a beach u see ..   But the thought had struck and so the jeans were folded and brought to the knee level .. the large shoes removed, a suitable plastic bag found and hung onto my bag ... and i was ready to go ... For a few moments i simply walked on the dry sand and then eventually on the wet sand ... the feeling was GREAT ! and then suddenly a small wave touched my feet and i received a ...

Two links with pictures of the Terror which raged in Mumbai !   http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/mumbai_under_attack.html   http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/mumbai_after_the_smoke_has_cle.html   I was in Mumbai during those times and it was unnerving ... thinking about family, friends and relatives who were out there in the nearby areas ...   I just wish such incidents dont happen again ...   Is someone up there listening ??????

One Tree Can Start A Forest. One Bird Can Herald Spring. One Flower Can Make A Garden. One Tune Can Compose A Song. One Smile Begins A Friendship. One Hand Clasp Lifts A Soul. One Star Can Guide A Ship At Sea. One Sunbeam Lights A Room. One Candle Wipes Out Darkness. One Laugh Can Conquer Gloom. One Word Starts A Prayer. One Hope Raises Our Spirits. One Step Starts A Journey. One Touch Can Show You Care. One Vote Can Change A Nation. One Life Can Make A Difference. One Heart Can Know Whats True. You See, Its All Up To You !!!   ------------------------------------------------   Got this in a an email forward and liked it .. so sharing it here ...

Optimism: A cheerful frame of mind that enables a tea kettle to sing though in hot water up to its nose - Author Unknown   - Courtesy Feras Mahmoud   Feras is my Change Management Counterpart at the current client location in Dubai. He send daily inspiration mails with quotes ... the above is from one of them !

  Next year lot of holidays in India are on Friday and Monday J   EnZoY and Be     Happy J   Holiday list 2009 S.No Date Day Occasion 1 26-Jan-09 Monday Republic Day 2 27-Mar-09 Friday Gudi  Padwa   3 01-May-09 Friday Maharashtra Din   4 14-Aug-09 Friday Janamashtami 5 21-Sep-09 Monday Ramzan 6 28-Sep-09 Monday Vijaya Dashami 7 02-Oct-09 Friday Gandhi  Jayanthi   8 19-Oct-09 Monday Naraka Chaturdashi/ Deepavali 9 25-Dec-09 Friday Christmas  

A picture is worth a thousand words ! Thats me ... And here is another picture that I clicked ... a fantastic moment captured in time ...

Well ... this is what i cooked recently ... looks good .. looks yummy ... right ?? Well ... thats about it ..the food i cook does look good. Also while consuming it , i will sprinkle some namkeen and put some chiops / wafers areound the plate so it looks even better. Dont ask me about the taste .. coz' theres not much to say I eat ! I dare not offer others to eat what i cook !

I never knew this :)   That my birthday actually falls on the (International) Children's Day !!   Universally, Children's Day is celebrated on 20 th November, every year. This date was chosen as a day to celebrate childhood. The date 20 th November, was chosen as it marks the anniversary of the day in 1959, when the Declaration of the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly adopted. In 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Child was signed on the same date, which has been sanctioned by 191 states, ever since. However, while 20 th November is universally celebrated as Children's Day, in India this day has been preponed to 14 th November, the date the marks the birth anniversary of independent India's first Prime Minister – Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.   So, all my life i always thought how close i was born to the Children's day without realising that i was infact born ON the Children's day itself !! COOOL !!  ...

A great compilation of the quintessentialities of the 90s in India .... ((  -- I loved it ... though of course i did not complie it ... Got it as a forward in my mailbox !!!   )) 1) You know the words to 'In-pin-safety-pin' and 'akkad-bakkad' by heart 2) Cricket is almost a religion for you, and you idolize at least one of Kapil Dev/Rahul Dravid/Sachin Tendulkar/Saurav Ganguly 3) You have read at least some Chacha Chaudhary or Tinkle comics 4) You've watched Shaktimaan on TV at least once in your life. And you can immediately recognize the character when you see him. 6) You couldn't wait for it to be December so you could have the Toblerone chocolates your NRI relatives brought you 7) You watched Cartoon Network, and then the late night movies on TNT that came after Cartoon Network ended. 9) You were THRILLED when McDonald's opened in your neighborhood (or even eight kilometers away) 10) Your first burgers were at Wimpy's or Nirul...

"India Definitely Rocks" 74 percent of final-year MBA students in Indian business schools said their preferred workplace after graduation was India. "Emerging market status notwithstanding, India definitely rocks!" states the survey of 392 India B-school students, done on behalf of Indian staffing company TeamLease. Only 11 percent would choose the United States. The report also noted that 0 respondents chose China as their preferred work location. SOURCE: "MBA Universe Survey on MBA students career aspirations," TeamLease.  

Obama's tribute to Gandhi in Victory Speech Barack Obama, who scripted history by getting elected as the first black President of the United States, has always seen Mahatma Gandhi as an inspiration who reminds him about the 'real message of life'. "Through the power of his example and his own unshakable spirit, Gandhi inspired a people to resist oppression, sparking a revolution that freed a nation from colonial rule," the Democratic Presidential-elect had said. "Gandhi's significance is universal. Countless people around the world have been touched by his spirit and example. His victory in turn inspired a generation of young Americans to peacefully wipe out a system of overt oppression that had endured for a century. And more recently led to velvet revolutions in Eastern Europe and extinguished apartheild in South Africa," the 47-year-old Senator from Illinois had said in his message on October 2, the birth anniversary of Gandhi. Got this info as a...

The US Presidential election results are out. OBAMA is the new President. What a Win ! The first ever Black President of USA. blah blah blah (You have already read it all) Now comes the hard part !! In 77 days, President Bush will return to Texas, leaving Mr. Obama in charge of two wars, a $700 billion bailout fund, a $10 trillion debt, an annual deficit inching toward $1 trillion and a stock market that has wiped out trillions in retirement savings. That's not to mention Medicare and Social Security trust funds sliding toward insolvency, an increase in joblessness and a faltering U.S. image abroad. The joke making the rounds in Washington is that after polls closed, the winner was sure to demand a recount.

There was a large telephonic company in the Midwest. After Korean war they developed a great program for training supervisors of telephonic operators. Graduates of the program were absolutely top-notch and the program was awarded many commendations, written up in magazines & studies by other organizations. But there was a problem. The graduates were so good dat as soon as a class graduated, most of them were contracted by other companies & hired away. There was a very high demand for these graduates as they were having excellent communication skills. The telephone company tried everything to keep its graduates - it gave them more money & fancy titles, it erected an  "Honour Wall", it send their spouses flowers on every anniversary etc etc. The other companies simply gave them more money & even fancier titles ! As u can imagine the head of the telephone company had many meetings to figure out ways to keep graduates from leav...

In the recent tumble down of the stock markets where people lost loads of valuation (read 'money') ...   a Trader commented ...   "This is worse than a divorce. I've lost half my net worth and I still have a wife." (Caught this on the status message of a friend, Karan Sadhwani)

The glass is not only half filled but there is nice refreshing fruit juice in it !!   Dont you think that is taking optimism just a tad bit too far ??  

When I got into Consulting ... friends said "Cool ! Now you will be travelling places !"   Well .. I did travel ... 14 months in Geneva, Switzerland - 6 months in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - now in Dubai, UAE ....   BUT   Ever since 2005 ... I have been away from Home ... during Diwali and also during my Birthday ... Fate invariably ensures that i am away from home, from family, from friends on these two very important occasions ...   Diwali is a festival where the entire family gets to come together ... its the festival of lights, joy, togetherness, lots of home made sweets, meeting relatives and friends, wishing everybody prosperity and happiness .... and so much more .... AND ... I end up ebing away from home !   My Birthday is a day when i am supposed to be at the centre ... wish wishes, emails, ecards, phone calls, gifts, party all flowing towards me from friends and family ... AND ... I end up being away from home ...   It all st...

When life does not find a singer to sing her heart, she produces a philosopher to speak her mind !    

"Alchohol may not be the answer for all your questions !" - Swami Vivekananda ... to which a friend of mine added ... "But it sure helps you forget the questions :)" - Vasantha Sapalinga (BTW ... NO .. I do not believe nor subscribe to the thoughts above. I am fine with the questions in my life and do not feel the need to 'forget' them using alchohol :)

The following quote is relation to the recent Economic / Financial Bubble Burst .. There are two sides to a Balance Sheet - Left & the Right ( Liabilities and Assets respectively).  On the Left side there is nothing right.. and on the right side there is nothing left.

I have never been a good student of Finance ... not even Economics. So all this talk of financial bubble, Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy etc was Latin and Green for me ... I came across an interesting blog post by Great Bong wherein a simple (yet complex for me) explanation has been attempted. Also, my best friend took some pity on my 'poor' state of mind (economically speaking) and sent me an even simpler version of the story which she received as a forward from someone who received it as a forward and so on ... I reproduce here that simple explanation ... and if the author happens to see this .. kindly write to me so that i can give the credit where it is due :) -----------------------------------------------------         Once there was a little island country. The land of this country was the tiny island itself. The total money in circulation was 2 dollars as there were only two pieces of 1 dollar coins circulating around. 1) There were 3...

Nice title na ... :)   but before you begin to think too much .. let me reassure it .. the title is a piece of fiction :)   Well ... I definately did not teach at IIM Shillong ... in fact .. I havent even been there.   But a very good friend of mine did. She recently visited IIM Shillong and took 2 sessions on Retail Marketing ...   So whats this about the title of this blog post ??? Read my friends post here and u will find me there (albeit tucked away in a corner)   Franky, i just helped my friend in her preparations and provided some good amount of moral support   :)

Speech by Bryan Dyson (CEO of Coca Cola) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air.   You name them - work, family, health, Friends and spirit and you're keeping all of these in the Air. You will soon or one day understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four Balls - Family, Health, Friends and Spirit - are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same.   You must understand that and strive for Balance in your life.'

came across this extremely beautiful wallpaper ... a lone island in the middle of the ocean with dark clouds over head ... it connected with me instantly ... and is now my desktops wallpaper ! whoever clicked this ... Thank You ! Do let me know ur name so that i can put it up in this post as 'image credits' :)

Bihar Floods ... You must have already heard about it, read about it, symphatised with the flood victims. wished you could do something but did not know how to do it effectively, easily ...  well ... here are two ways ... both simplified for you ...  First - Direct donations through your ICICI account. Today when i tried to login into my ICICI account, it automatically took em to a page where i could donate money for flood victims ... indeed ... it was definately a good gesture by ICICI to collaborate with GiveIndia.com ...  You can infact go directly to GiveIndia.com and donate for any cause of your choise ...  Second - a very unique and novel way for everybody to donate 'things/stuff' to flood victims by answering a few questions fo a quiz online .. spending one minute of their time ... and effetively donating biscuits, ropes, tarpauline, candles etc ... check out http://www.helpbihar.in/ and read press coverage of this initiative here  ...

So in the previous blog, you see where I work. Right next to the tallest building of the world - Burj Dubai.  Now let me tell you about the thought which struck me like a lightning bolt last week when I experienced some tremors of an earthquake on Sept 10 ... while working in office ...  The thought went like this ... Tremors of Earthquake .. furniture in my 5 storey office was shaking .. imagine the 'shake' in a 50 storey building ... in a 100 storey building ... now in the 160+ storey Burj Dubai standing next to us ...  What if ... it would be shaken adn stirred to result in a fall ... and that too in our direction ... woah ...  That was enough to scare the hell out of me ...  BUT all this was pretty short livedd .. a few mili-seconds maybe ... by then the logical side of the gray matter inside the head took over the creative side and explained very logically (obviously) that all the high rise buildings were made earth-quake proof and there was no real danger of them toppling...

Yeah ... thas where I am these days. The small tiny 7 floor building (group) to which the aroow is pointing to is the place where I work these days. Its the Emaar Square. My client company has office spaces here where our project team is placed. The seven storey building group is hardly visible against the 160+ floor Burj Dubai. Everyday I see the Burj Dubai (towering at 160+ floors - still under scontruction though) when i step out of office. Its amazing how high humans have gone in building the concrete pillars (and to think of it, there are plans already underway to have a second tower higher than this and a third which will be still higher)

The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men. I have never been happy with the Indian Education system ... I always felt the lack of 'thinking skills' . We learn (read 'rote'). We hardly understand. We rarely think. I dont think something is wrong with the education system. I think, we need to enhance it. We need to bring in practical creativity and thinking training into it. Someday ... maybe i will contribute to such measures .. :)

" Why must a heart break? Why must a tear drop? .... ....and why did I forget where I was going with this quote?

I read the following quote on the gtalk status message of a friend ... "Who said that open and close are with opposite meanings? You will always be open to the person...who is close to you!" I so very much agree with this .... BUT ... then my recent experience has raised a tough question .... How Much ???? How much open can one be to closed ones ? How much open should one be to closed ones ? i have never thought about this ever ... till recently. I was always an open book for my close ones. My best friends knew what was on my mind and what wa happening in my life. By sharing my life details with them, i got to understand myself better. I got to understand the situation better from a third person point of view. I got to understand my own mistakes which i would have not realised myself. And then ... recently ... i lost a friend to this openness ... and am on the verge fo losing another ... in the end it amounted to me sharing too much about my life with them ... "sharing...

Got this as a forward and thought of putting it here ... a touch of humour !! Dear Wife: I'm writing you this letter to tell you that I'm leaving you forever. I'vebeen a good man to you for seven years and I have nothing to show for it.These last two weeks have been hell. Your boss called to tell me that youquit your job today and that was the last straw. Last week, you came home and didn't even notice that I had a new haircut,had cooked your favourite meal and even wore a brand new pair of silkboxers. You ate in two minutes, and went straight to sleep after watchingall of your soaps. You don't tell me you love me anymore; you don't wantsex or anything that connects us as husband and wife. Either you'recheating on me or you don't love me anymore; whatever the case, I'm gone. Your EX-Husband P.S. Don't try to find me. Your SISTER and I are moving away to WestVirginia together! Have a great life! ----------------------------------------...

This Happens .... You cant think of anything to write !!