Steve Job's Speech in Stanford Ceremony

This is an amazing speech by Steve Jobs in Stanford University's graduation ceremony!

Life Re-defined

"The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death. Whats that a Bonus?!?! I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first get that out of the way. Then you go live in an old age home. you get kicked out for being too healthy. Go collect your pension then when you start work you can buy a gold watch on your first day. you work for forty years until you are young enough to enjoy your retirement. you drink alcohol, you party and you get ready for high school. you go to primary school you become a kid, you play you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back where you spend your last nine months floating with luxuries like central heating, spa and room service on tap. Then you finish off as an Orgasm!!!! Amen"

And here is a classic to finish it……

"Looking at a cleavage is like looking at the sun. You don't stare at it. It's too risky. You get a sense of it and then you look away"

Tamil – The language and people

The above title would probably make the reader wonder if this is some sort of thesis? No Sir this is no thesis on Tamil it’s a mental recall of my observations of the language and people associated with it.

I have heard many people say that Tamilians( as the Tamil people are popularly known) are very crazy or obsessed with the Tamil language to the extent that apart from learning the English language they are least bothered to learn any other language.

Earlier I used to agree with the above and used to get into an argument with any Tamilian I met that why don’t they learn Hindi language as it’s the National language of India. It took me more than 25 years of my life to realize that Hindi is not the sole national language of India there are 21 other national languages in India, Hindi is one of them. If you find it hard to believe, please check (http://indiaimage.nic.in/languages.htm). When I learned this my view of the people and their language took a full U-turn.

It made me wonder that when we see any European country and its citizens, they are so protective and proud of their respective languages our immediate reaction is “Wow these guys really know how to preserve their language and culture” and when we see the same scene re-enacted in our own country’s state we label them as people who are rigid and stubborn with a nasty attitude.

Having stayed in Chennai for 2 years and having observed the people and their culture from very close quarters, I feel the entire country should be proud of them, they are the sole state as far as I remember who carry their language and their culture proudly on their sleeves as they are proud owners of a language which is one of the oldest languages that exist in the world today being more than 2000 years old and also one of the very few Indian languages totally independent of Sanskrit.

Think of Chennai and what comes to mind is the unbearable hot and sultry climate, but Chennai, the heart of Tamil-Land is also an unparalleled land of Passion.

Chennai is the sole city in India which has the largest Rock-Fan following throughout the country, want a visible proof of the same? Visit Saarang, the IIT-Madras annual cultural festival, no other cultural festival in the entire country has an entire pavilion dedicated to the rock stars who come in from various parts of the state and perform live, day-in and day-out for 4 days at a stretch.

Chennai is the place where you would find Bike-Crazy guys who exhibit a hitherto unseen or unfelt love for the sheer thrill of biking, driving endlessly on the endless ECR road for hours at stretch, performing stunts with their bikes which ends the line between “Man and Machine” and they are one entity in total, talking and breathing to each other oblivious of their surroundings doing just one thing, Enjoying the sheer thrill which is born out of Passion.

Being an Indian who has spend most of his life in North India I was a witness to strange forms of dance in parties or festivals, dances which never made any sense to me as I perceived them as a drill with some music in the background majorly of two forms – Arms high up in the air and jumping up and down and secondly of people dancing in a circle once they clap out and then they clap in. Chennai and its people taught me as to what sheer Passion combined with the right music can do to the art of dancing– It can give a “high” unheard or unseen before by both ways – Either by just watching them perform or jumping yourself into the fray.

Now after reading this you can do 2 things – Either ignore this and move on or jump in the boat with the “Tam” gang and learn there is much more to life than the monotonous routine, there is “Passion”.

The agony of matrimony

In our country there are two broad ways to get married – Love Marriage or Arranged Marriage. In the former one, you fall in love first and then get married and in the latter you first marry and then fall in love. I know many people would have views widely divergent from these two but then this article is not about types of marriages.

Now the past few months have been quite turbulent for me as I have opted for the second path of marriage much to the pleasure and satisfaction of my parents and the utter agony for me. I say agony because one of the worst things I have done in my life is to have searched for a bride for me through matrimonial sites and all.

The experience has been nothing short of disgusting for me as it has gone against my value system, my learning and my principles of life. I feel as if there is no difference between myself and the trader of medieval times standing in an Arabic market place and crying out hoarse rates for young girls standing on a pedestal in a manner that would disgust even the salivating dog. The then girl standing in the middle of the crowd on an elevated pedestal, being scanned from top to bottom as an object of worth underwent a trauma disgustful to be described beyond words, a trauma which killed a part of her self-esteem for the rest of her life. The agony the disgust experienced by woman doesn’t change today they were made to feel as inanimate objects then they are made to feel the same today. Then, most of the men used to feel elated as they were in a stronger role, deciding role and sealing the fates of completely unknown women, today the numbers go down but nevertheless the numbers remain.

I have now seen both sides of the fence from a girl’s angle when my parents were searching for a prospective bridegroom for her and from boy’s angle now.

What makes this “searching” process so demeaning is that girls are treated like objects not even cattle. And the girl’s parents are a willing party to this process makes it all the more frustrating for the girl.

Picture a girl - good looking, well educated, working at a respectable position in one of the best companies of the country, earning a respectable salary and leading a team of 8-10 people at her office. Now in her office setup she enjoys tremendous respect for the way she carries herself and the no-nonsense attitude she has.

She has learned all this from her parents - they have taught her the value of education, the respect one has to give to the work, how to carry herself so that she is respected by one and all.

Now one fine day the same parents tell this girl daughter u have grown up its time to search a potential suitor for u, now since we have seen the world far more than u and we are way more mature than u r we will do the honours.

The girl as always accepts it because its her parents they have never taught her anything wrong and they always wanted her to do the best, Now begins the ordeal. Every weekend when it is an holiday for her and she wants to rest or enjoy with her family begins her parade, she is all decked up and led into the living room by either the mother or sister.

The girl enters the room, she has her family there and a totally stranger family staring at her looking her from top to bottom, scanning her with their mental scanner trying to figure out everything which they have in their mental check list. Multiprocessing in the truest sense – When the scanning is going on at the same time the process is going on as to what wrong can we pick out in this girl so as to reject her and go on to the next house so as to enjoy the fun. All this time the girl is feeling as if “mother earth opens up and she sinks in it” as she has never felt so humiliated and wasted.

Now when the parents are short-listing the prospective grooms for their daughter they can afford to make certain adjustments here and there, they do not look for the best fit groom instead they look for a groom where their daughter can be the best fit. So what if he drinks, he is just a young guy he would improve after marriage, it doesn’t matter much if he is not a post graduate or doesn’t earn upwards of 5 lacs things would certainly improve after marriage. After all we cant go on rejecting guys like this, that way there wouldn’t be any prospective groom left.

Now the other side of the coin the parents are searching for a bride for their dear soon, here even if the girl has the slightest deviation from their ideal daughter-in-law her profile/resume is straight away brushed aside. Little thought is paid to the fact that the girl’s parents have send the resume with extreme high hopes. You are not brushing aside a resume you are extinguishing another lamp which they had lighted with such a lot of care and hope. While brushing aside the resume probably you have forgotten how disappointed you used to be when you used to receive a refusal when you were in the same position and how your heart used to wrench from within.

The demeaning part is not restricted for girls alone, its for boys like me too. When I receive emails from the girl’s parents saying “I request you to please reply back soon”, I feel like why is this gentleman begging in front of me, why is he not confident about his daughter. Or when I receive mails like “attached along with this mail are the particulars of my daughter, if you find them suitable please let us know we can proceed further”, why where did the girl’s consent go? Trust me friends, I have received such sort of mails from fathers of girls who are extremely beautiful, highly educated and well placed in the industry with salaries exceeding my salary.

The entire process has left such a bad taste in my mouth that I have suspended my profile from all matrimonial sites for another one year and would probably never re-activate them or even if I do I would have a proper methodology to go about it.

I get the feeling that what sort of civilized society do we live in? are we even fit of calling ourselves civilized? Our parents are not to be blamed solely because we(both boys and girls) are active participants to the same. Why do girls agree to getting “Exhibited” and why do boys become a part of this process. I am not saying our parents are wrong what I am saying is we have to show them a new perspective of things in the new world and show them there can be a methodology to go about it.

Emotional Intelligence

Your EQ is 140

50 or less: Thanks for answering honestly. Now get yourself a shrink, quick! 51-70: When it comes to understanding human emotions, you'd have better luck understanding Chinese. 71-90: You've got more emotional intelligence than the average frat boy. Barely. 91-110: You're average. It's easy to predict how you'll react to things. But anyone could have guessed that. 111-130: You usually have it going on emotionally, but roadblocks tend to land you on your butt. 131-150: You are remarkable when it comes to relating with others. Only the biggest losers get under your skin. 150+: Two possibilities - you've either out "Dr. Phil-ed" Dr. Phil... or you're a dirty liar.

What's Your EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient)?

Dedicated to the Ants

I owe this one to the ants for a long time........

Dedicated to the deceased ants of my room..

Once upon a time long long ago there lived a huge colony of ants underneath the door of the second bedroom of the flat on second floor of the green building in BTM in Bangalore.

Now incidentally this bedroom happens to be mine and Lazy Vadi’s bedroom. To Vadi they hardly made any difference as he is all dark and sour blooded mere mortal but for me they made life hell as I am a fair sweet blooded creation, a gift to humanity from the almightyJ.

Stepping into the room was an ordeal for me each day everyday with the result that I used to spend the better half of my day lying in the other bedroom belonging to Sri and Sattu much to their annoyance or in the drawing room and used to retire to my room only at mid night for obvious reasons.

So one fine day the “Lone Warrior” i.e. myself embarked on a crusade to wipe out the colony for once and all. Little did I know that what I had envisioned as a “One –hour fight” would turn out to be a “7-day battle”.

So on this one fine day which incidentally happened to be the first day of my weekend, I got one pack of M-Seal from the hardware store across the street. Started out with cleaning the hole with a pair of tiny scissors as I didn’t have any other tool for scooping and piercing, what followed was an army set loose on the predator (me) by the ant King. They started guzzling out as a red sea out to swallow anyone in their path. Seeing the enormity of the situation and cursing my short-sightedness with the choicest of words, I rushed to get some water which I poured into the crater and to my utter bewilderment the water all vanished!!

To avoid any further loss of valuable time and armed with M-Seal I approached the crater and covered it up with the long serpentine paste of M-Seal and lo and behold the crater swallowed the entire M-Seal paste and I was barely able to seal the ends of the crater. Satisfied at my job I left the ants to find their way out of the house themselves and proceeded to celebrate my victory as my Mission was accomplished.

So I pull lazy Sri out of his bed and force him to get ready so that we can go for a nice luncheon. What more could have sri asked for? The saying “Andha kya chahe Do ankhein” fits aptly on him as long as he doesn’t have to move any of his limbs and he keeps getting everything ready-made. So we go to Nandhinee Palace and have a nice scrumptious lunch all the time myself narrating long tales or epilogues by now to Sri of my victory in the one-hour war.

We come back home and I take sri to my room to show him my work of art and how my room is ant-free now. But what do I see? The ants have found another way of creeping down to the crater, seems like they had anticipated this D-Day scenario so they had this backup plan ready. The ants are now making their way to the crater by crawling in through the space between the door- frame and the wall. Now what should be my next step? Get more M-Seal and that’s what precisely I did, went down to the store and got more M-Seal. This time the dealer too was surprised as to why do I need so much M-Seal, I appraised him of the fact that there is a mini-war raging in that green building across the street.

Circa – Home again and in that my bedroom. I am busy sealing all possible crevices by the door frame where I could see and imagine ants creeping in. Now I am too tired and hence I retire to Sri’s room( as I am still scared to still sleep in my room in day time as the ants would locate me and kill me!!) for my weekend siesta.

After a more than lazy afternoon I come back to my room in evening and see the ants have found a new way this time they have formed two queues and are marching into the switchboard and from there god knows where. Now this one is easy to manage I get “Lakshman Rekha” the famed magical chalk piece and draw heavy duty lines around the switch board. Hallelujah it works and now the ants are frustrated and perplexed at what this new obstruction is. This doesn’t deter the ants and they search for a new route. I am amazed by their lack of tiredness and persistent approach to accomplish their target.

The pitched battle continued for another 5 days with the ants by now having become more organized and venturing out every morning in groups and searching for possible areas in my bedroom to re-build their colony. Any crack or crevice in wall or floor is their target area on which they target their all energies and start digging it or scooping it as the case may be. All this time I have started buying M-Seal by cartons and my room is taking the appearance as if it is being held together by pieces of M-Seal paste stuck here and there at random places. Little did it strike me that the task is easier since the army is divided now, I can just sweep them all off once or twice and it would be done.

The battle came to an end on the sixth day with myself pulling out all the M-Seal patches followed by a big sweep and mopping exercise and the grand finale – my cook stuffing all the crevices with turmeric powder which finally got my dear room rid of all the ants.

More important than the battle were the lessons I learned from the ants which I too followed resulting in a
mortal blow for them:

Always have a backup plan ready for emergencies: This was beautifully depicted by the ants in the first phase of the “war” as they had before-hand identified the crevices and cracks to be used in emergency.

Persistence- a Never say Die attitude: A tiny creature like an ant can have such a high doze of will power amazed me beyond measure and motivated me to display an even larger amount of the same.

Team Work: The ants were always working in teams – big or small. A single ant had a very high chance of getting lost in the vast expanse of concrete and hence teams. Only once when I did bring in my cook and formed a team with her, I was able to conquer the ants.

Strategy: Without strategy there can be no war, leave alone victory. The ants were intelligent enough to change their strategy form teams and fan out in all directions of the room only to retire some time later in the day to some collective place. I could visualize them all sitting and giving status update about their daily progress to their chieftain.

Speed of Attack: Dexterity is what the ants lacked. They behaved as if they had all the time in the world to go around searching for new locations. In the process I got aware of their strengths and exploited them to my benefit which finally resulted in their defeat. My final mortal blow was again a series of steps executed in a rapid manner – rounding up, sweeping, mopping and finally sealing the crevices with turmeric powder.

Case of Slipping Slippers

Today morning while waiting for the bus to my office I was witness to an incident. It so happened that there was this another guy who was also waiting for some bus like most of us standing at the stop.

The bus comes and this guy jumps on to the bus, in the process one of his sandals slip off from his feet. The bus has gained speed and this gentleman is looking back with a strange regret and hope in his eyes. Hope that probably some miracle occurs and the sandal flies back to his feet. But then we muggles cant expect miracles right? They are only for the wizard community.

Most of the people standing at the stop are staring in his direction and wondering poor guy now he has to buy again or whatever. Poor guy?? Probably because he was wearing a not so costly sandal to office, his shirt was loose, he was unshaved - all these indicate he is not in a position in his organisation where his appearance has any relation with his job. The other side even if he is not in an organisation makes things more difficult for him as he was clearly a man into his early 30s probably he has a family too to feed. A pair of sandal of 300-400 bucks for a lower middle class man can make a lot of difference.

My thoughts instantly went 2 years back down the memory lane. Besant Nagar beach chennai, Summers time(oh the best days of my life!!) just started we all guys have gone to the beach to freak out and we are playing on the beach when I notice my slipper floating away, I run to grab it but another larger wave swallows it and thats the end of the pair of my slippers. My friends asked me to leave the second slipper also there as it was of no use to me. No, I was very adamant I would take this back with me to the hostel it would act as a reminder for times to come and so it adorned my shoe-shelf the loner slipper for the next one year.

Coming back, as I too was a part of the crowd I was also staring back at the guy and then I, the hero stepped on to the road and pushed his sandal to the corner of the footpath so that even if he comes back he wont find it in a trampled state. Now all the eyes at the stop are turned towards me a couple of young girls even giggling off, people whom I might never see again. Within the next 5 seconds my bus arrives I board it and to my utter joy I see the person hopping back towards the stop.

New Bottle Old Wine

While travelling to my office every morning, I happen to cross a small slum-like area and during that time I am a witness to the various funny antics of little toddlers.

Today morning as I was walking down the road from a distance I could see two young girls barely 4-5 years old bullying another girl, one of them was shouting something in Kannada and the other one was hitting the third girl with a make-shift broom made of some leaves. Now this third girl instead of fighting back was walking down the street wailing loudly and both the other girls had a major smile of accomplishment on their faces :). On letting my eyes stroll a little further I could see 3-4 young guys again of the same age making pitiful faces at the wailing girl.

Compare this to another scene where these kids are replaced by young teenagers in college or pre-college mode when the youth is at their prime. Each teenager has a rebel in him waiting to just go loose. The entire scenario would remain the same only the bullying girls would be replaced by some rowdy boys and the onlookers would be more.

Times change, ages change, mentality doesnt change it remains the same.

Thats all for now.
Enjoy

My Idols/Inspirations In life

So far in the journey of my life many people have influenced me directly/indirectly. And many a times I have looked upto certain people for inspiration or to draw upon the hidden power. So in this blog I mention about the three people who have influenced me to a very great extent and continue to do so.

I have faced this question countless number of times who is your idol in life? - In Interview for admission to the MBA Program or job interview and the answer varied each time.

When I was a kid it was Papa because Papa is the best, he is the most intelligent and because "My Daddy Strongest". Dad remains a permanent idol today too apart from his intelligence its his calm nature and the vast ocean of patience he possesses. Ask him the same question 'n' number of times and he would never get bugged off. So Dad hats off to you yesterday, today n always.

The second person whom I adopted as an idol was my elder cousin Vivek Mahajan, Bhai is the Director of Oracle, Japan he is around 37 years old and is quite a heartthrob for many girls. He has an enviable personality, well structured body, 32'' waist and what not. A shaved head too , mind you its not bald its shaved. I wanted to be as successful as bhai, I want to still. He has a charishma about him which is hard to ignore, to possess that sort of magnetic personality is my dream and aim. So bhai aap jaisi personality mangta hai apun.

The third and the recentmost person is Mr. Sameer Narula, he joined MindTree when his company ASAP Solutions was bought over by MindTree. He must have got a decent deal and apart from that he has joined MindTree at a very senior level and to think of it he is between 35-40 years of age. Now thats what I call a perfect example of No Risk No Gains. He took the risk to establish his own company, developed their own niche and when the time was ideal sold it off. Look around yourself and you would see countless number of people punching away at their keyboards(exactly what I am doing right now), each person when he/she must have started off his career must have had dreams of turning around the world, making it the unprecedented big and all. But somewhere down the lane the risk taking ability reduces or rather diminishes totally with the result that their life becomes a monotone of home to office and back and so on. A few who dare to take risks get rewarded too - either ways but then thats what Risk is all about.
I have met Sameer many a times, had brief talk once or twice. He said the risk was certainly there but we decided to take it. Sameer you act as a continuing source of inspiration, I would certainly like to achieve close to/or more than what you have by the time I am of your age and then move on to bigger things. Now how would I do that is only which has to be decided by me.

Last but not the least The Mahatma is always in the back of mind, his unfaltering belief in the power of truth makes me move ahead remain honest both to my work and my relations. Persons like Mahatma come once in centuries but then the effect of their persona lasts for ages and ages to come. I am glad to be born in the land of The Mahatma. Yeh hi meri "KaramBhoomi" hai.

Back to India

I think it has become some sort of a norm for me. Publishing a new post only once a month, nothing less nothing more(though exceptions are always there).

These days I am back again to the job I do best - "Vellapanti" A hindi word which means Idleness in Angrezi i.e. In English language.

I think all the companies like to see me sitting idle as a showpiece for their ODC and doing no work, even after 2 weeks of joining back no work, no hassles as long as I am getting paid for sitting idle and surfing the net and blogging ;)

I had expected that I would probably experience some sort of a rude shock when I arrive back in India but nothing like that, alls fine. Even people whom I have been speaking to after coming back they have been asking so how are you finding India? Sounds strange cause all my life I have been in India only, staying in Sweden doesnt change my Indian core, nevertheless such sort of innocent questions are taken well in Stride.

I have resumed my going to gym lets c how long does it last, the longer it lasts its better because I have to reduce my "Baby Tummy" Hey are you listening???

Today thanks to Volvo all external mails have been blocked, this should increase our productivity especially my productivity :)

Nothing more to pen.

Enjoy...

Myself and Sweden

Hi guys,This might sound a strange mail but I urge you to go ahead and read it.

Since the time I have been here in Sweden inevitably when you see something you try to draw a comparision between India and Sweden.

Today Morning it was snowing heavily and is snowing now too. Now near our house there is a very busy traffic intersection and today Morning the traffic was stationary over there.. Mark my words it was not a traffic jam. In the very middle of the intersection there was a huge truck the ones with wheels numbering from 20 onwards and on and on. It was unable to go forward because of snow few of its wheels were rotating freely unable to move forward. so it was backing slowly mind you it was a very huge truck if it topples over it would be nothing short of a disaster.

Now all the other vehicles at all the four roads are waiting very patiently Absolutely no horns nothing, they are also getting late to their respective offices and they know since it is snowing it would take them still more time still patient. 2 young guys they came out from different cars and in Swedish they guided the cars to back down the street so that the truck gets enough space to backup and the cars backup all the way take a different route and move off..Nobody went to the truck driver to suggest something or anything like that because they know there are 2 drivers in there and they know the job best of handling such a huge truck.

All these while myself and my colleague Naveen we were watching the show from the pavement free of cost :)

Compare this to our India Horns blaring from all ends and highly educated, people who go to good offices live a nice lifestyle leaning out of windows and throwing abuses left, right and center. And the poor driver who is stuck he gets all the more uncomfortable and panicky. I have never scene as the above I depicted in th best of cities or localities in India. Inevitably everyone becomes an animal and the car horn their weapon.

Its not I dont love my country, my heart bounds with ecstasy when I realise its only 2 more weeks to leave for good ol' India. But cant we make it a bit more better than it is already.

Much of gyan early morning noon time for most of u... its your choice take it or leave it.. Have a wonderful fun filled weeknd.

Enjoy
Rohin

IT enabled Ramayana

IT enabled Ramayana

 LAN, LAN ago, in the SYSTEM of I/O-dhya, there ruled a PROCESSOR named DOS-rat. Once he EXECUTED a great sacrifice PROGRAM after which his queens gave an OUTPUT of four SUNs--RAM, LSIman, BUG-rat and SED-rughana. RAM the eldest was a MICROCHIP with excellent MEMORY. His brothers, however, were only PERIPHERAL ICs. Once when RAM was only 16MB, he married princess 'C'ta. 12years passed and DOS-rat decided to INSTALL RAM as his successor. However, Queen CIE/CAE(Kayekayee), who was once offered a boon by DOS-rat for a lifesaving HELP COMMAND, took this opportunity at the instigation of her BIOSed maid (a real plotter), and insisted that her son Bug-rat be INSTALLED and that RAM be CUT-N-PASTED to the forest with many many B-trees for 14 years  ????????

Away from India

Hello everyone, if someone is there.. its been a long time since I wrote so I am back again.. Yesterday Satya from HCL, Kolkatta had send me this link to Crystal Blur(http://aashraya.blogspot.com/) a new blog read it.. was captivating enjoyed it thoroughly... Articles like the one written on Crystal can refresh you thoroughly in conditions like these when you are very far away from not only your home but also your country.

Sweden is a nice country a clean country also no pollution no sand sahi hai..sometimes i wonder why cant India be so clean?? I fail to get the answer does anyone have any answer?

our office is good i am attaching a pic of myself in office over here in Volvo


Now someone might wonder is this some cafeteria or what no its the place where I work the table on which my lap is there is movable at the press of a button you can move it up or down...

And behind that in the pic through the window u can see snow all outside..

So you see apart from Yash Chopra films also we can see snow in real life.

In the week gone by I missed the marriage of one of my childhood friends :( but then thats the price I guess one pays to gain something life's all that gaining and losing something.

I am proceeding aimless in this post so I'd better wrap this up.

Thats all for now, till next time enjoy and bye bye















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