End Game

I read a very nice article other day in live mint written by Sanjeev Bikhchandani, co-founder of Naukri.com. He talks about his experience with VC community. He says they had hard time convincing VC that they don’t have an intention for exit any time sooner. They are in it for a long run. How ever for a VC it is not so as he has a stipulated timeline to exit. He will always have an End Game in his mind.

In real life I have been also asked similar questions from VC. It took me some time to understand the rational behind the question. Basically we need to understand how does a VC makes money. Most of the VC will choose a market or technology to invest. They invest in some 10 companies thinking at least 4 of them will do well. And most of the time they will. Thus these 4 investments will makeup for the rest of the 6 investment losses. This is just a thumb rule. This may vary from VC to VC.

VC will take a stake (shares) from your company. Now there is no standard theory which says how much stake will he take. It all depends on your Business Plan, market strategy and things like that. They would typically evaluate the idea and invest. Now most of the time he will tell you that he would exit by 3 to 5 years. If he hasn’t then you should understand that. I feel there is nothing wrong in his exit plans as there would be newer investors who would be willing to invest as and how you grow, based on how much value you have created. Most of the time VC himself will find newer investors to invest. Now this is where he makes money by selling his shares to a newer VC.

VC can make or break your company. What is important is you need to safeguard your company. Because they are in it for their interest. This is their game and they would like to end the game as early as possible. You need to figure out how long would you would like to be in it.

First few baby steps as entrepreneur

“Magic of  Thinking Big” is the book which changed my life. I still remember the day when I decided to change my field from  harder Mechanical to the much softer IT. I never thought I would be coming so far. I have covered many a distance in the last 10 years. My entry to Bangalore was the turning point for me. After that I didn’t look back. Not to mention how difficult the turn was. People bunk exams, but I had to bunk an interview to create my new way. Any ways the hitches and glitches which I passed through were many but none of them matter now. What matter’s is only “What Next” and nothing else.

In the year of 2002 when most of the ".com" companies were down with the bubble burst, I got an opportunity to work in a start-up. The founders were young and wanting to make their own dent in the market. I sailed in this boat for an year. This opened up a new door for me and I was exposed to Software  Product business, SME business and the markets around. At the same time this bug of “wanting to do something of my own” was chewing my mind and I was looking for different avenues and options to start. I saw an opportunity in this very Company as the founders were split and were on their own. I proposed the idea and Bingo, I was part of the new venture. This is how I became an entrepreneur.

There is no hard rule which says this is how you need to start or something like that. I had taken my first step towards my entrepreneur journey without even asking my friends or parents. I thought that was the best thing to do at that moment and I did it. Now when I look back I feel I did the right thing. 

Rules of the Jungle

Often in paper and the television it is portrayed that success in entrepreneurship is overnight. But it is far away from the truth. We need to see how long the so called “over night” was. For some it is years and for some it is months. The later ones are the luckiest. Very often it takes many years to accomplish. In the recent years however some of the tech companies like YouTube & Skype have changed some of these dynamics. But still it is not over night.
Speaking of my own experience it took us some time to get somewhere. It took us 3 years to raise money. Not that raising money is an accomplishment but without money you can’t do any business. And most of the new age entrepreneurs are all from a middle class family. So expecting financial support from friends and family is ruled out. At the maximum you might get moral support that too if you are blessed. So before starting of your own you better know what are you up to. Get your feet wet. Take some time to feel the water and then jump. At least you will be mentally prepared to face the challenges. Very often we start when we are in peak of enthusiasm and when that drains off you quit saying it was difficult. Of course the journey is difficult. When you are in jungle don’t except the journey to be smooth.

ಅನಿಸುತಿದೆ ಯಾಕೋ ಇಂದು

ಅನಿಸುತಿದೆ ಯಾಕೋ ಇಂದು ನೀನೇನೆ ನನ್ನವಳೆಂದು

ಮಾಯದಾ ಲೋಕದಿಂದ ನನಗಾಗಿ ಬಂದವಳೆಂದು 

ಆಹಾ! ಎಂತ ಮದುರಾ ಯಾತನೆ 

ಕೊಲ್ಲು ಹುಡುಗಿಯೊಮ್ಮೆ ನನ್ನ ಹಾಗೆ ಸುಮ್ಮನೆ 

ಮುಂಗಾರು ಮಳೆಯ ಹಾಡನ್ನು ಕೇಳದವರೇ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಜಯಂತ್ ಕಾಯ್ಕಿಣಿಯ ಬರಹ ತುಂಬಾ ಮದುರವಾಗಿ ಹಾಡಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದಿದೆ. ಭಗ್ನ ಪ್ರೇಮಿಯ ಇ ಪ್ರೀತಿ ಮತ್ತು ನೋವನ್ನು ಅನುಭವಿಸಿದವರೇ ಬಲ್ಲರು. ಆಹಾ! ಎಂತ ಮದುರ ಯಾತನೆ. 

Software Product Management, how different it is from the traditional?

I have been fortunate to work on Product Management for the most of my career till date. I have worked on all the aspects of PM, be it innovation or market research or productisation of an idea or market launch. I often got the opportunity to meet Product Managers from different industries. On one such occasion I met a Product Manager from Auto industry, one of the most matured industry. We shared our notes, discussed about our respective products and the challenges we often encountered. During the conversation he casually argued with me  me saying "After all how different Software Product Management can be? " I didn't have much answer to it at that time. But now looking back there are quite a few differences compared to the traditional PM. At least couple of them are worth mentioning.

First of all the entire business model is so different as compared to the traditional. Why? Because in Software PM the Beta launch is your commercial launch. Time starts ticking from here. How ever you look at only acquiring new customers/subscribers who may or may not (which is usually the case) be paying. You will figure out later in the stage probably during growth stage on how to make the  money out of your customers/subscribers. Many a times its not your customers/subscribers who shall pay the money but its your advertiser. This is a huge shift from the traditional Product management.

There is nothing called production line and cost in Software Product Management. You build it once and you sell the same to all. Only different is the License keys which are unique to each customers. These days there are no medias/boxes which shall be shipped as well. So what is the result; you end up in huge margins. One of the most successful product (Which is MS windows) has more than 70% as a margin. Another advantage is your cost of prototyping is very minimal as compared to the other industry.

At the flip side, Yes! there are quite a few challenges and threats.  You will have the competition from "Copy Cats" and "Me Too" all around you, almost at the very next day of your launch. There is no essence of "touch and feel" in the Software Products. Lack of maturity in building the Product as compared to Auto and Construction.

There are of course, significant improvements in the Software Product Development Life Cycle in the past few years. With Rapid development tools, UML and Agile methodology the life shall be much simpler and smoother. 

Feeling sleepy

Its 2 pm in the afternoon and I am feeling sloppy. Don't know why.Usually I don't feel this way. May be its because of the rush in the last week. I am sitting at client place in Pune and needs to prepare for the status meetings. Yes, to tell them what we did in the last week. These review meetings some time are so funny, you should attend some of them. I remember some funny incidents happened in the past with some of my clients. This was one of the biggest mobile company in India. The VP used to sit on Every Friday for Review after lunch. You could very well tell that he is feeling sleepy by looking at his face. This used to resemble the "Sabji Mandy" in my home town. Except for the Noise every thing else used to be same.

Ok, Now I should get back to work. see you guys!!

Back to Stoneage

A political party in India wants us to take back to stone age. Very recently the party's top leader made a statement of getting rid of computers if they win election -09. If these leaders have educated children, should ask if they will vouch for it. I bet they won't. Any lay man with some common sense will say computers are the way to go. In an era where people are talking about progress using computers, these leaders want to ride back in time. In the current scenario political parties are ready to do any thing to get voted. No wonder they are at the receiving end of Boots instead of Votes.

Padya - 2

ಜೀವ ಜಡರೂಪ ಪ್ರಪಂಚವನದಾವುದೋ |
ಆವರಿಸಿಕೊಂಡುಮೊಳನೆರೆದುಮಿಹುದಂತೆ ||
ಭಾವಕೊಳಪಡದಂತೆ ಅಳತೆಗಳವಡದಂತೆ |
ಆ ವಿಶೇಷಕೆ ಮಣಿಯೊ - ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮ | ೨ |

This world of living and non living forms, is surrounded by an unknown energy, which is complete by itself, which is beyond imagination, which can't be measured, let us bow down to this superior

An Introduction to Mankutimmana Kagga

Mankutimmana Kagga is one of the finest literary works in Kannada. It is written by Dr D V Gundappa famously known as DVG in the early 40's. It is a collection of 945 poems written in 'Halegannada' meaning 'Old Kannada'.

I will write the poem and its meaning in English starting from this article.

ಶ್ರೀ ವಿಷ್ಣು ವಿಶ್ವಾದಿಮೂಲ ಮಾಯಾಲೋಲ,
ದೇವ ಸರ್ವೇಶ ಪರಬೊಮ್ಮನೆಂದು ಜನಂ ||
ಆವುದನು ಕಾಣದೊಡಮಳ್ತಿಯಿಂ ನಂಬಿಹುದೊ |
ಆ ವಿಚಿತ್ರಕೆ ನಮಿಸೊ - ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮ |೧|

The lord Vishu who is the creator and the sole reason of this world, who creates the duality, he who is the Parabrahma, the lord of lords. Even though people can't see him, they still have faith in him and believe him. Let us bow down to this miracle.

Slumdog with an Oscar

Today the whole country is proud on Rehaman. He got his first Oscar award for his original score "Jaya Ho". Though not one of his best, I am at least happy that Oscar awarded for the one who deserved it from quite some time. Rehaman is working with foreigner directors for a while now. All his hard work paid results now. Congratulation to the whole Slumdog Millionaire crew for your great performance.

'A (Hole)iday in Techie’s life'

TV is on, and on the selected channel 'FRIENDS' the famous comedy serial is being beamed. It is Chethan’s favorite serial. He watches it every day. Joe is his favorite character. It is his dream to meet all actors of FRIENDS. He is so deeply involved in the serial that he is oblivious of the outside world.

Burrrp!!

The calling bell sound was so irritating that he almost jumped out of the Sofa he was couched on.

“This sounds like hell” he shouted. “How many times do I have to tell the landlord to replace this jangling bell with something idyllic!” His anguish is justified, for his monthly rental remittance would be accompanied by a demand for the replacement of the calling bell, and each time the latter has promised to promptly comply. “This time I will replace it myself and deduct from the rental amount.” he thought.

“Courier.” Even the summons-like voice seemed pleasant vis-à-vis the jangle of the calling bell. He opened the door. With a big smile on his face, the courier handed him an envelope saying, “Morning sir, Vodafone bill.” He was wearing blue dress and a blue cap that read 'GTDC'.

“Sign here sir." said the boy pointing to the form with a pen. Chethan signed on it. "Your name and phone number, sir?" He wrote that and took the Mobile bill. He closed the door and opened the envelope to see the bill.

“Rs.1782/-! What the Hell!”

“How to keep track of the calls we made”. He thought Vodafone is cheating him by charging him for the calls he had not made. He thought of going to consumer court to sue them. He recalled his friend's words: “Do you know how many cases are pending in the consumer court? More than 1000, man!”

“Justice system in this country is one big chaos,” he thought. He tossed the bill and sat on the sofa again, rolling his eyes back to the TV. Well, everything came at a price: He had to endure a series of advertisements.

“Do you have to burden us with tonnes of advertisements!” he said raising his voice, as if the producer of the show was seated before him. He wanted to switch channels; he looked around for the remote. He couldn’t find it between the books and papers lying on the sofa. He realized he was sitting on it. He heaved his butt a bit and retrieved the remote with his left hand. He pressed the buttons. Nothing happened. He banged the Remote on the sofa edge and pressed again. Nothing whatsoever. He banged again and pushed the batteries and pressed the buttons again.

“What’s wrong?” he said. He tried targeting the Remote properly towards the TV's infrared dot. The channel would not budge. He adopted novel strategies. He now started gyrating his limbs. It appeared as if he were rehearsing break dance. Finally deciding to use the selectors on the TV panel, he got up. But by that time the main program resumed.

His relief was short-lived, for even as he reflected that it was great fun to fumble with different channels than watch the same channel for one full hour, the power was off and TV screen went blank.

“IT city is living in dark,” he thought. It was the fourth time since morning that power supply was cut off. He heard some noise and rushed toward the bathroom. His washing machine was sitting quiet at the corner typically like a dog waiting for his master’s command. Eyebrows locked, he eyed it for a while. “Hell, it will start allover again when power supply is restored. It will be the 3^rd time,” he said to himself. His washing machine was an automatic, which drew water directly from the tap. “Why can’t you resume from where you had stopped?” he said to the washing machine, “Stupid machine.” “Forget it” he said and went to his bedroom. He was feeling hungry. He reminded himself not to miss his early Breakfast. “Not having breakfast is like running vehicle without petrol” he recalled a modern day proverb. With his shorts and T-shirt on, he went to 'Guru Sagar', the restaurant three blocks away.

Approaching him, the waiter placed a glass of water before him, retrieved a soaking finger from it and raised his eyebrows 'Bray'. Deciding not to sip the water, Chethan asked for the menu.

“Idly, Vada, Khara baath, Kesri baath, Rice baath, Tomato baath, plain dosa, masala dosa….. ” His words were faster than a bullet train. Used to restaurant food for quite sometime now, Chethan reflected that they all tasted the same. “Idly vada” he ordered. Waiter went away without saying anything. His silence means “Okay, I will get it”. This is the default demeanour of the waiters in Bangalore's eatouts. All restaurants are doing well these days in Bangalore. Most of these had 'Darshini' suffixed to their names as in 'Upahara Darshini'. But these days 'Darshini' has paved way for 'Sagar'. We now have 'Shanti Sagar', 'Guru Sagar' etc.

Returning, the waiter placed a plate containing the Idly Vada on the table drifted away as if he has nothing more to do with it. You will have to call out to him at least twice if you spotted a fly in the dish or discovered that it was yesterday's leftover. Let's say he will simply take back the plate. If he did the encore of walking away without uttering anything, consider yourself fortunate, for he is wont to argue with you, “This is how we will serve, sir.” Now you are left with two choices. Either eat it as it is, or eat it along with very same words the manager sitting on an ornate chair would dole out to you if you went to lodge a complaint with him.

He silently munched the Idly vada and went home. He opened his laptop and started to browse. He visited indiatimes.com and watched some revealing photos of select models, and then glanced over the gossips about his favorite move star. Then he started to browse websites on stock market to check the share values in which he has invested some of his salary savings. This is what many a software engineer does as soon as he starts his day at office. He will browse websites like rediff.com or indiatimes.com to get some news about movies, movie stars, current affairs and share market. This will be interrupted by his manager who coasts by his desk and will start asking him about the bug, which he was to have fixed by now. He will begin expounding about the logic and algorithms, which he has arrived at to fix the bug. The manager will listen patiently and will give an expression of having understood the situation and appends a bit of his own advice, which will be totally irrelevant to the bug. Eventually he says “Keep up the good work,” and accosts the next person.

“What the Hell” Chethan screamed silently. He immediately picked up his mobile phone and called his friend. “Did you hear that” he said. “I lost money man” he said with panic. “I lost money too” said the voice from other side, “Share market plunged”. He spoke to him for a while and hung up the call. He was relieved some. “I am not the only one” he consoled himself. He visited other websites and noticed that many people had similarly expressed their anger. Some people blamed the UPA government and some others blamed the world market. Web sites are like a virtual Fish market. People were shouting different things in different ways.

Tring! Tring! Tring! His mobile started to ring.

He opened the flip and said “Hello”.

“Hello Sir, am I speaking to Mr. Chethan?” asked a crooning female voice from other side.

“Yes.”

“Sir this is Priya calling from Denmark Bank. We are giving credit cards at zero annual fees. Are you interested?”

Chethan’s Face turned red. This was the time to vent all his anger.

“Where did you get my number?”

“From our database, sir?”

“Who gave you the database?”

“Our Manager, sir”

“What is his name?”

“Sorry sir, we are not authorized to give his name”

“Then why the F*** did you call me? Why are you disturbing me in the morning? Did you get my reference from a contact of mine?”

“No sir”

“I will lodge a complaint against you. You people don’t care for our privacy. What the hell you think about your self? You will shortly be served a legal notice."

“But sir”

“Don’t interrupt. Listen carefully. I will see to it that your agency is closed. I will blah blah blah blah.”

Burp! She disconnected the call. But Chethan is unaware of it and keeps up with his tirade. He realizes it only much later.

He started browsing again. “What a bad day” he thought. He had taken a day off to study for his online MS exam. “I should watch a movie to cool it off” he thought and started to browse to book the movie ticket in PVR. He picked up his mobile and called his friend.

“Hey, what are you doing tonight?” Shall we go to the movie ‘Yes Man’?”

……..This article is edited by my dear friend Ramprasad. My sincere thanks to him.

The White Tiger

I bought this book on the streets of Bangalore where they sell duplicate books for less than half the price of original. Sorry Aravind, this would mean I am promoting privacy. Sorry for that. But I am happy for buying this book not for the cost but for the content and his writing style. With simple English and a humor touch its a good book to read.

The story is about a Village boy who becomes a driver and later an entrepreneur. Most of the story is in flash back. The story starts with Balram writing a letter to the Chinese Premier. Balram, the village boy who is the main character in the the story, was compared to White Tiger by his school inspector. Balram who hails from a sweet makers family, thus with last name as Halwayi. Writer has given a beautiful picture of how the landlords exploit the poors in vllages. His dreams of studying in school was short lived since his brother takes him out of the school and puts him in a tea shop to pay back the loans. He learns to drive a car after over hearing about the payments for a driver while cleaning the tables in the teashop. He comes to delhi with his land Lord as his driver. Delhi and its lifestyle is explained beautifully. The lives of drivers is beautifully written as well. It is in Delhi the writer kills his land road and runs away to Bangalore. I didn't like this part since he has written it as if its not a big deal to kill some one. Later in Bangalore he starts his Taxi service which was a booming industry because of the BPO/IT industry.

Over all the book is nice to read and you can carry this to read while travelling.

What is happening here?

In the recent past we have heard many stories in the NEWS channels about political parties hitting North Indians, women in the Pub, damaging public properties like buses and shops. Parties like MNS is been very active in finding out which North Indian is working where and how ti politicize the issue and gain some cheep publicity. This trend is also in run in the neighboring status like Karnataka where women in the Pub are beaten up in public. Adding more fuel to the fire, some of the news channels where present at that very moment capturing it live in their camera as if its a cricket match. This news was on air in almost all the NEWS channels for quite some time. Things don't end here, Mr Pramod Mutalik is live on TV and says that they have done everything right by hitting those women and would continue to do so in the future. This according to him is against our Indian culture. They call themselves are custodians of our culture. Shivsena's spokes person gives a statement that they are against women going to pubs. What an irony, the chief of Shivsena wants Red wine to drink and Cigar to smoke.

If we dig little deep in to such matters, we fill figure out that these are some trivial issues and have least importence at this moment for our nation. Just because some women in the urban India go to pub, drink wine and dance that doesn't mean we are loosing our culture. I guess the percentage of such women is hardly anything. Even in MNS case, the Maharashtra government reported that more than 80 % of the employed are from Maharashtra. Then why people like Raj Thakarey and Pramod Mutalik are making it a big issue. The only reason is their cowardliness to fight issues like corruption, poverty, child labour, etc. Even today in many places common man doesn't have a proper shelter to live, pure water to drink, and good food to eat. If you look at the urban problems its hell mounting. Slums, Pollution, bad roads, Traffic Jams, delay in construction all have become like part of life in almost all the cities. Why can't our political parties taks such issues and fight against the government or bodies?

Many news channels air such silly news to gain the TRP. The importance given to such news is so much that many of the important news have been forgotten. Some time its raises questions and doubts over the moral duties of such channels. These channels seems to be misusing the freedom. Its time now that Indian government should have a board to control/monitor these media. Media has to play an important role in bringing better governing practice. Media has to use its power in the right direction. Media will be playing an impotent role in shaping the future of this country. Millions of people in India every day eat and breath TV.

Today many people have lost their confidence over the government and political leaders. This is no good for the future of this country. Judicial system has lost its importance. We stand in top 10 for the corruption. We are one the most polluted country. 80% of the jobs are unaccounted in our country. The percentage of people paying Tax is very low. Politicians do you want any more issues? Can't you fight for such important issues? Do we need to leave our jobs and take care of these problems also?

Knowledge

To know is knowledge. To know about what? To know about man, material, etc. But how do we gain knowledge?

Man starts learning since his birth. Scientists have even proved that a baby learns from the days of its mother's womb. To support that statement, we have a mythological story where Abhimanyu learnt his first half lesson about the art of war when he was in her mother's womb Subhadra. It was lord krishna who was telling the story.
Man is a bundle of flesh when he is born. None of our five senses will be working properly. A new born baby's eye sight will be blurr initially. It can notice only dark colors. So is the case with other four senses. The sense of taste starts working the moment baby starts drinking the Milk. Initially baby will not even understand that it is suppose to drink the Milk when it is feeling hungry. Because both Milk and feeling of hungriness is very nave to it. It is here where we first start to accumulate the knowledge. As the baby passes the age, all its senses starts working better and better so is the cognition of knowledge and at the age of 7 they will have their first cut of impression about this world.
Now let us for a moment try to understand how do we learn. Man typically learns through his experiences. When we see an object, the light which falls on the object and reflects, falls on our eyes, and it reaches our brain nerves. It is here where we actually see the object. And if you see it for many times there happens a Synaptic connection which helps you to remember that object. The Eye, which is a sense organ was believed to be the place where man sees the object which was later disproved by other scientists. In the similar fashion we listen, taste, smell and hear. Our mind stores the information as images. That is why it is quick to learn for the children if you show them an object associating the word. That is why they show the image of an Apple in the book. Thus we keep accumulating the knowledge day by day.

ಯುಗಾದಿ ಹಬ್ಬದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು

ನನ್ನ ಎಲ್ಲ ಮಿತ್ರರಿಗೂ ಯುಗಾದಿ ಹಬ್ಬದ ಹಾರ್ದಿಕ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು
ಹೊಸ ವರುಷವು ತಮಗೆಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ನಲಿವು ತರಲಿ

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Cause and Effect

"To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction", this is newtons third law. I feel this is universal law also because for every cause there is an effect. This world is full of cause and effect. In fact this world itself is cause and effect. There is a reason(cause) for every thing we do (effect). We eat because we feel hungry, isn't it?

There is a scientific and Philosophical angle to it. In science we call it as Cause and Effect and in philosophy we call it as causality. First is the subset of second. I don't think i have to explain about the scientific angle. Lets see about philosophical angel.

Who am I? Where was i before my birth? Where will I go after my death? Who created this world? These are all some of the questions which I used to go through during my teen age.Its difficult to answer. Because neither I have seen life beyond death, nor I have met any one who have seen it. Does it mean it doesn't have any answer? May be yes may be NO.

In the recent days I have been going through Upanishads. I did get quite a few answers.

Cause and effect is the imagination of our mind. Of course mind itself falls in the causation. If you read Mandukya upanishad you will get enough of knowledge on this. If you observe your dream which is nothing but electrical pulse we will understand this world as well. This world is created by our mind. This world comes in front the moment mind is switched my mind. We don't know what happens to this world when we are in deep sleep. We don't realize that there is some thing called world during deep sleep.

I vaguely remember my early 5 to 7 years since my birth. I don't remember things happed right after my birth. I don't remember how was it to see this world for the first time. May be I didn't know what is this world at the time. Like the fish doesn't know that it is in the water until it comes out of it. We learn about this world through our senses. Touch, Smell, Taste, See and Hear. The knowledge about this world is fed to us through these five channels, isn't it? So when we touch some thing an electrical pulse is sent to our mind. In the dream also an electrical pulse is sent to mind when we touch some thing in the dream. Now how can I touch some thing in the dream when dream itself is not real. Hm... now is the time to think about it. I leave you with this thought. Dwelve on it.

Should we build school/hospital instead of Mandir/Masjid in Ayodhya?

Yes, we have to.

From a very long time we have been claiming, “India is a developing country”. I really don’t know how many more years we may take to get the status of Developed Nation. I suppose population is not the problem. It is not utilizing the young talents, a talent about which the whole world is talking about. Surprisingly none of our leaders understand this. Even if they do, their hunger for power does not allow them to do any thing. Building Mandir/Masjid is one such example. For India to become a 'DEVELOPED COUNTRY' we have to stress more on 100% Literacy, Better education and Technological growth But all this is possible when our Leaders get time from handling issues like Mandir/Masjid in Ayodhya.

From our history we learn that our great kings fought for power and religion among them selves to lose to outsiders. Now we the literates are repeating the same thing instead of putting our time and energy in developing the country. Building a school/hospital at Ayodhya would put a hold on Communal riots and make way for our growth. It will be one of the best things, if we can build school/hospital instead of Mandir/Masjid. School is like a machine, which constantly keeps producing the literates. Who knows, we might just get another A.P.J Abdul Kalam from that school.

Though India is secular and every one can fight for his/her religion, it isn’t necessary that we have to fight over constructing a Mandir/ Masjid. Building a Mandir/Masjid at Ayodhya won't help any one. I don't agree with religion heads when they say they are protecting their religion. Which religion are they talking about? The Lord Ram is known for his peace and truth. Why fight in his name? It really makes no sense. Who are we building this Mandir/Masjid for? How can it be of any use to a poor man in Ayodhya? At most he can beg out side the Mandir/Masjid. Can a Mandir/Masjid provide enough food for poor people in either community? Can we get rid of corruption & poverty? No we can't. Then it is so surprising that few people in both the communities have corrupted the minds of entire people in the country. The impact of this issue is so much that even students and corporate talk about building Mandir/Masjid.

As great Bernard Shaw says, “Progress is impossible without change. And those who can not change their mind, can not change any thing”, we need to change the way we think, specially the people who have the authority to change the country. If we keep fighting for trivial issues like this Mandir/Masjid, no wonder we might have to search for another Subhash Chandra Bhose for freedom struggle

Its all in the mind

When I was in 10th standard, I had a black color pant, which was my favorite. I used to wear it many times. I met with 3 accidents while I was wearing that. Then I decided in my mind that Black is not good for me. How stupid isn't it. I know many of the people have made up similar decision at one or the other time. But we hardly realize that its all in our mind. How can some thing be good for some body and bad for others. Color Black itself is neither good nor bad. Its just a color nothing more nothing less. Then what made me to feel that it is bad. It is those accidents which made me to feel that. My association to black color since those accidents made me to feel that.

Lets take another example for a moment. In our past we get annoyed with people. We keep saying "that guy irritates me a lot", "My BP raises the moment I see him" etc. Have you any time thought what made you to think like that. The man whom we are angry one is not good or bad. Its the story which we build up in our mind about him. In once of my friends circle there is a girl about which my close friend always had a bad opinion. But I never felt so. Now what should I conclude, She is Good or Bad? She is neither. She is what she is.

My mentor used to tell me, when you are walking on the road, you will find a Rs100 not fallen down. You will pick it up and see if it is really a Rs100 note. If yes then you will put it in your pocket else if it is not then you will throw it and move on. whole thing would take-up maximum 15-20 sec. In the same way if some body body criticizes you then take it, analyze it, if its worth to implement then take it else through it in the air and move on. All this should take you 15-20 sec. He said its all in the mind.

I have been working on his suggestion more than an year now. Its really worth it.

In search of name and fame

I found this video when i was casually browsing YouTube. The Singer in the video has touched abut one of the most driving force in the human life. "To be Famous" It's rare to find people who will say I don't want to be famous. I am not an exception to it. People find different means to become famous. With the out burst of TV channels it has become all the more easy to become famous over night. Recent shoot out at the USA and other parts of the world should be a live example for it.

I remember an incident during my collage days. We all friends had been to a personality development program during our vacations. The trainer asked each one of us to go on stage and speak some thing. One of my friend went up and said "I want to be controversial" Every body started laughing. I hardly realized what was he saying at that time. But now I know what he meant.

I think It's a great feeling to be famous. I can only think because i am not famous. When you walk on the road people will recognize you. When you are busy at shopping others are looking at you. You get a good treatment because you are famous. I think there are many more advantages of being famous.

But there is flip side to it as well. A very close friend of mine is a TV celebrity. She keeps telling me that she misses her private life. On the road people watch you, your move, with whom you are. Its most likely that you will get in to lots of rumors.

What ever it may be, I just want to be famous once.