July 2010
4 posts
4 tags
3 tags
The 70-20-10 Rule.
While surfing through Johnathan Mann’s A-Song-a-Day collection, I came across this rather interesting graph which he calls the 70-20-10 Rule. He argues that on an average, 70% of all his songs would turn out to be mediocre, 20% of them bad and 10% would be the good ones. If he wrote one song a day instead of one per week, the number of good songs that he would write in his lifetime would...
4 tags
Row D - Seat 278
When I was 10 years old, Leander Paes won the singles bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympics - the first individual medal for India since Dadasaheb Jadhav’s win in 1952. 14 years later, it was awesome to see this man do his magic at the Center Court - he was playing as hard as ever before and every time the game seemed to slip away from him, he hit back. And that’s the pattern you can...
4 tags
WatchGreat cities are not known for their buildings & monuments alone, but for the unique cultural identity that they build for themselves over many decades. As a tourist, if you asked me about Mumbai, it would be very difficult for me to list out 5 places that could make you feel the magic that Mumbai is! You have to live life like a normal Mumbaikar - take the morning local train to work, pick up...
June 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Kaun Kiska Bhagwan.
After haggling with 3 cab drivers, I thought the days of paying a cab by the meter were long gone. This realization comes as a shock to any true Mumbaikar. You can always find us bragging about our cab drivers & autowalas, especially when we are held at ransom by the ones in Bengaluru & Chennai. Seeing my plight, a cab driver in his late 50s walked up to me and asked for the departure time...
3 tags
Still Alive.
A cloud gathers, the rain falls, men live; the cloud disperses without rain, and men and animals die. In the deserts of southern Arabia there is no rhythm of the seasons, no rise and fall of sap, but empty wastes where only the changing temperature marks the passage of the year.
It takes a while to appreciate Thesiger’s notes on the Arabian desert. It’s so true.
Over time, the desert...
November 2009
3 posts
March 2009
1 post
My Auroville Days
February 2009
2 posts
4 tags
A road-trip against global warming.
“Why this mad, insane plan to travel across India in a caravan of solar electric cars and jatropha trucks with solar music, art, dance and a potent message for climate solutions? Well … the world needs crazy ideas to change things, because the conventional way of thinking is not working anymore.”
- Yes, they could. So they did. by Thomas Friedman in the NY Times
“It doesn’t matter what people tell you. It doesn’t matter what they might say....”
– Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic) (via thresca) (via myownmelt) (via onherway)
January 2009
13 posts
4 tags
Going to school is fun.
Couple of months back, I had blogged this. Yet another idea that could end up being a mere blogpost! But then, to see the folks at GTS work on such ideas to motivate kids to attend school, is simply awe-inspiring.
Success stories of educated women that inspire girls to go to school.
Hardships of a boy going to a school get transformed into an experience of joy, learning and...
4 tags
3 Questions.
Gaurav Mishra raises 3 pertinent questions on using social media for social change -
How valuable is online activism without offline action?
What are the conditions under which online activism leads to offline action?
In general, how does one reduce the gap between online activism and offline action?
While our Fellows are getting geared up to launch campaigns to support change at the...
4 tags
Snapshots from my Dream Run.
Belgian Herge: By believing in his dreams, a man turns them into reality.
A special thanks to all those who supported my run at the Mumbai Marathon and gave their 2 cents towards the cause.
And thanks Sonali, Claire, Kalpana, Anju, Will & Co. for making it a whole lot of fun!
Dream On.
ROTFL.
Seth: So, what's the GP, RA?"
Ryan: I have no idea what you just said.
Seth: "Game plan, Ryan Atwood
Ryan: You're just using initials now?"
Seth: Yeah, it saves time.
Ryan: Well not if you have to translate.
Seth: GP.
Ryan: Game plan?
Seth: Good point
The other side.
Well, what if there are no openings come this May—literally none. No job postings. No on campus interviews. No job fairs. This isn’t a fantasy. It’s happening right now. Even the companies that are showing up to job fairs aren’t hiring—they’re just there for branding. Let’s not even talk about the number of people getting laid off everyday. You know what that makes all these students, and everyone...
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to...”
– Anne Frank (via buttonjar) (via angad)
5 tags
Running for a cause.
A day to go for the Mumbai Marathon.
I’m all excited to be running. And more importantly, to be running for a cause that I truly believe in.
Founded in 1999, Dream-a-Dream provides children from vulnerable backgrounds with non-traditional educational opportunities designed to allow them to explore, innovate and build important life skills. These life skills are fundamental to child/youth...
Dream job.
It really can’t get better than this.
But then, I don’t know how to dive, snorkel & sail. Damn!
“Are you the Schlumdog Pauper?”
– Jyothi Menon to ME
Brand wars.
While flipping channels on TV, I was shocked to see ads of Complan & Horlicks, both hitting out at each other other, like kids caught up in a brawl. Now, both are waiting for the teacher to sort things out. Kids… grow up!
Competition & insecurity sure makes kids out of men.
Tribe called us.
Brilliant post on how social media enables you to connect to people beyond your own tribes and creates opportunities for you to participate in social change.
This is exactly what our Fellows intend to do at Grassroutes in the coming months - to build a tribe, across tribes, that will contribute towards change at the grassroots.
A poem for these times.
… If you can wait and not be tired of waiting, … And never breathe a word about your loss; … If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son!
- IF, Rudyard Kipling
November 2008
13 posts
Naked & Brave.
On a hunch, I googled around for a mini-camera device that could have been used to figure out the location of the terrorists and number of hostages taken at the Nariman House. Shouldn’t our Forces have things like these?! And if you heard the marine commando’s interview on TV, he was talking about how difficult it was for them to find terrorists in the dark. Should I assume that our...
Numb-ers.
At present, the poverty line at all-India level is Rs 327.56 and Rs 454.11 for rural and urban people per capita per month respectively.
- Health & Family Welfare Ministry, Government of India
We are a country with 26 crore people below the poverty line. Think about a family of 4 surviving on 60 rupees a day in a city!
While you are it, here’s an interesting article by Dilip...
Connecting ideas to lovers.
How do you connect a guy who has an idea, to those, who would love to work with him on the idea?
After our experience with Grassroutes, I’m convinced that to a large extent, this depends not just on the number of people you successfully reach out to, but on,
The number of people who broadcast your idea forward
The growth of this chain of broadcasters
Usually, hardly 5% of your...
RTI 101.
I attended an inspiring workshop yesterday on the Right to Information Act and ways in which each one of us can put it to use. The workshop was conducted by G. R. Vora, who has worked alongside Sailesh Gandhi and filed many RTI applications in Mumbai. The talk was divided into 3 parts - The RTI Act & the clauses, the application process & ways to re-appeal, and examples of cases where RTI...
Saying NO to free rides.
I happened to be gtalking with UdayKiran while working on some material for the BITSAA Graduate Scholarship Program. I knew that he was applying for MS next fall and his application is very impressive - with 4 filed patents under his belt and a very high GRE score. I asked him if he was applying for the scholarship since the scholarships are open to pass-outs as well. He refused saying that he can...
October 2008
17 posts
Spread the word.
http://jaagore.com
Insomnia.
Success (& goals, money, happiness) seems to depend on the value you add to the world around you.
There was a time when the world was just you, maybe your family & your close friends… now, its about your workplace, your society, the world itself. In this pursuit of success & adding value to the world, I have been made to believe that I’m adding value to my life. It’s...
WatchImagine.
Start working on your application.
Spread the word.
And, praise the Lord for his music.
“People don’t do favours for a faceless voice.”
– My dad
Pass it forward.
Kiki had gifted me Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture as a parting gift when I moved out of Bangalore. The book is a brilliant read, no doubt. I was thinking of gifting the book to a good friend of mine on her birthday today. On the way out, I saw Kiki’s gift lying around in the shelf and it just felt like I was killing the spirit of the book. It’s a book that’s meant to be...
Thought. Spoke. Did.
What we had in common - our restlessness, our impassioned spirits and a love for the open road.
- Che Guevara, Motorcycle Diaries
After BITS, there was a time when each one of us (Abhilash, Keki, Goutam, Me) had to take a turn somewhere in search of our own identity, our future. But all along, there was this common emotion, this common idea that we had discussed over innumerable cups of chai...
Timeless words.
Me: (at the prospect of another night-out for work) ... for night-outs like these, Pilani mangta!
Aparna: Pilani is in the heart. I always go back to Pilani when I'm lying down in a dark room with some brilliant music. :)
Me: Wah! :)
Money, the Grim Reaper.
“He had once left his room keys back home in Bangalore. Later, when the keys were dispatched by his parents by post, the postman slipped his keys back into his room at IIT.”
- A friend recollecting one of the funny college episodes about Rajaram.
At such times, I wonder if we have ended up giving money all the right to decide who lives and who dies.
2 more farmers committed suicide...
ME on the world timeline.
14.7 billion BC : Beginning of history according to Big-Bang Theory.
4.5 billion BC : Planet Earth formed.
3 billion BC : First signs of primeval life (bacteria and blue-green algae) appear in oceans.
600 million BC : Earliest date to which fossils can be traced.
530 million BC : Earliest vertebrates (jawless fishes known as agnathans) appear.
430 million BC :...