Can we live more sustainably please?

Sustainable living had always seemed to me as a remote idea, something which can be read in articles and books but is difficult to adopt in our daily lives. It's quite surprising then, that over the past few years we (as a family) have found ourselves adopting more sustainable habits in our daily lives. We have found this way to be more healthy, hygienic, and less expensive. There is also a sense of doing something on our part to make the world a better place. After all, we take so much from nature when we live, breathe, eat, work, travel; the least we can do is to reduce wastage of natural resources!

I must admit that at many times, these sustainable habits are directly against our consumption mindset. Why use that old mobile phone for few more months, when a new one will hardly cost a few thousand rupees with an exchange offer? They also take some effort to develop like any other habit. Why remember to take a cloth bag for shopping every time when carry bags are so easily available? Many times, the initial investment could be higher but they pay off in the long run e.g. a steel water bottle will cost more but is much cheaper to refill and carry in the long run.

Most of the habits I am listing below are already practiced by our parents, friends, and people around us. What definitely helps is to be less judgmental about these habits and learn the good bits from them!

• Extend the useful life of things by using them for a longer timespan, taking better care of things, and repairing them if it makes sense. When trying to buy a replacement, I check the last time I bought it and how long I have used it. This usually gives me time to think about re-purchasing, preventing impulse buying.
• When buying a replacement, exchange the old product or sell it on Olx. If it doesn't make sense to sell it, donate it if it's in a usable condition.
• Regularly donate old clothes, shoes, and other such items rather than stocking them. Use torn clothes for dusting & wiping.
• Use technology to reduce wastage:
• Apps like BigBasket Daily allow us to buy vegetables and fruits daily without needing to store things. This means less wastage and more fresh food.
• With apps like BigBasket, Amazon Fresh, etc. it's possible to order groceries when needed without stocking them. This generally reduces wastage.
• Smart bulbs reduce electricity wastage(and they are becoming cheaper by the day). Switching off lights & fans when not in use works too!
• Carry a steel/glass bottle on trips and refill it rather than buying packaged drinking water.  Similarly, carry it to the office and refill it rather than using paper cups. If you are paranoid about water hygiene, there are water bottles that also purify water.
• We chose a water-saving RO purifier that reduces water wastage.
• Collect the wastewater from the RO purifier and use it for cleaning purposes and watering plants.
• Avoid carry bags. Use recyclable dustbin bags. Reuse the cartons & plastic bags from our shopping.
• Avoid wasting perishable food: fill the plate with only what I can finish eating, use recipes that utilize left-over vegetables in the fridge, feed left-overs to animals.
• Walk/cycle short distances instead of driving. Use public transport when possible.

I am sure you would already be practicing many of these sustainable habits and much more. Do share them here and with friends/family! Every bit counts in saving the earth.

Why custom ROMs for android phones are like Chinese toys!

CyanogenMod, a popular custom ROM for android phones

Ok, I will admit it. I am tired of changing custom android ROMs on my Samsung Galaxy SII. I am running custom ROM and I am unable to boot my phone since last 2 days. Which ROM is giving me the sweats? Well, it doesn't matter. I have tried CyanogenMod, Slim Bean, MIUI and many more(these are the latest that I have tried, I cannot remember many others). Some are fast, some are customizable, some have unlocked features, some are based on a version of android which is not yet available for SII and increasingly all of them claim to be jack of all trades.

Installing custom ROMs has become increasingly easy. First, it required special software(e.g odin) to flash custom ROMs on your phone but now, once you have rooted your phone, it's as simple as downloading and installing from a zip. Custom ROMs can be installed as easily as themes!

But not without their own set of issues. First, rooting(required for installing custom ROMs) still requires some level of confidence about your computer skills and rooting voids warranty of phone. Even if you are confident enough, there are scores of custom ROMs for your phone out there( http://forum.xda-developers.com/  is a good repository) and choosing one among them is a matter of blind faith. Many of the ROMs are made by enthusiasts who offer absolutely no support and in my experience, most of them vanish after one or two release. This has been remedied to an exten with the emergence of well maintained ROMs like CyanogenMod and Slim Bean which even after updtaes but point to note: my phone ran on Slim Bean and it refused to boot after a well intended update :|

Not everybody has the heart to stay without his/her smart phone in case something goes wrong while installing a custom ROM(it does go wrong 5/10 times) and re-install all favorite apps after every install. Besides, performance improvement through custom ROMs doesn't matter much on a capable phone like SII (I have hardly noticed a big difference in performance on a custom ROM) and if you consider the argument, no enthusiast ROM developer can really know your phone better than the company which made it! Besides, my friend is always particular to point out the security issue arising from installing custom ROMs: what if its code includes a backdoor to sneak out all of your confidential information? If Apple can do it, enthusiast developers can go all the way stealing your information!

If you are excited about custom android ROMs, by all means go for it but remember; they are like Chinese toys which appear to be pretty good but do not last long . Sooner or later you will come back to original ROM which came with your phone!

In India, it isn't just about generation gap!

Is being the "best", the only option? All around us, success is measured by individual achievement: a student who achieves highest marks, a person who has the highest paying job or the biggest house or the most expensive car... is successful.

If you are an Indian in your 20's or 30's and reading this,have you ever wondered why our parents/grandparents never seem to be interested in getting the best clothes or dine at the best restaurant in the town or get the best smart phone?(assuming no monetary constraints). Why 'what society thinks' seems to guide their actions? How could they be in the same job for years and why would they still prefer us to have a government job which is respected in the society rather than one which pays more? Isn't that a generation gap or the age effect? Would we be same after 20 years from now?

"others" are important in East

"self" is important in West

To make sense of that, we must first understand that their are two major cultures in the world: Western and Eastern. USA is representative of Western and Japan  representative of Eastern culture. De facto, we Indians are a society which follows Eastern culture. While Japan is closer to India then USA, thanks to the Himalyas and the British Empire, for almost 2 centuries, India's Eastern culture came under heavy influence of Western culture. Japan suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of USA in World War II and thanks to US capitalism, there are more US firms than Japanese. All in all, this has exposed India(and the world) more to Western than Eastern culture and we have started considering the Western culture as the de-Facto standard. This only acclerated after Indian  economy integrated with global economy during the 90s

While we Indians belong to Eastern culture, we are rapidly adopting Western culture which has widened the gap between generations. Each generation in India is more Western and less Eastern than the previous generation. I will let you read an excellent excerpt on Cultural Psychology which answers few of the questions raised above(click to enlarge):

MOOCs(e.g Coursera): the next best thing on the web after Facebook!

MOOC: Massive Open Online Course

Certificate from Coursera(a platform offering MOOCs)

Online tutorials aren't a new addition to internet by any means. Many of us have taken up online tutorials sometime or the other. However these online courses were hobbyist by nature; they were all of different format/structure, scattered all over the internet; they addressed some niche field of study(generally related to computers); lacked any popular recognition and almost entirely lacked human touch(they were completely automated).

First, online courses were just text or videos followed by set of quizzes (e.g www.w3schools.com). Then, MIT pioneered the practice of putting many of it's credit courses as freely accessible online modules through the OpenCourseWare program (http://ocw.mit.edu/)[and thus online Tutorials became online Courses]. Many followed suit, including our own IITs and IISc(http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/). OpenCourseWare had the backing of MIT(no hobbyist!), it was a central repository of MIT's courses, all courses had a similar structure and the courses covered topics from several different fields of study. However, it still lacked something.

Enter the MOOCs on the stage. My experience is almost entirely with www.coursera.org (Coursera, founded 2012), the most popular MOOC platform(there are several others including Udacity, EdX). MOOCs are similar to any other online course except that:

• Each course is delivered by an Instructor who is affiliated to a University.
• Course is delivered through a series of lecture videos designed specifically for online learners(it's generally NOT a online copy of real world course)
• The course runs in a limited time window(e.g 14 weeks, much like a semester). The material becomes available one week at a time, as the course progresses and the assignments have to be completed within a fixed deadline to receive credits for it.
• Several(sometimes lakhs) of people take the course simultaneously in the limited window and they interact(discuss doubts, ask questions) on discussion forums associated with the course.The discussion forum is moderated by Teaching Assistants.
• On successful completion of course, participants receive a certificate signed by the instructor(subject to attaining sufficient credits). Certificate bears the name of Instructor and the name of University which offered the course.

What I like about MOOCs:

• EXCELLENT course material and fabulous instructors. Just consider some of the instructors whose courses I have taken till now:

         Bill Howe, Director of Research, Scalable Data Analytics,University of Washington
         Andrew Ng, Director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab, Stanford University
         Scott Plous, Professor of Psychology, Wesleyan University
         Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics, Duke University

• Most of the courses are designed for "life long learners" i.e they have minimal prerequisites.
• The discussion forums are lively and meaningful (probably because of good moderation). I have myself got into debates(sometimes hot) several times!
• The Certificate :) And the best part is, people have said in forums that the courses actually helped them change their major field of employment!

Brick and mortar schools and colleges have already started accepting credit earned from MOOCs (http://www.skilledup.com/blog/coursera-certificate-whats-it-worth/). When are you doing a MOOC?

Corporations: the religion of modern times?

credit: Dr. Yuval Noah Harari's course "A Brief History of Humankind" on Coursera

Have you ever wondered at the scale which the modern companies of our times have achieved?

• Walmart operates more than 9000 stores and has 2.2 million employees!
• McDonald's operates 34000+  stores employing almost 2 million people
• The Indian Railways operates 10000 trains daily aided by its 1.3 million strong workforce
• and many more huge, huge companies...

What makes them tick? 

The product/service which the company provides? Probably not.

The factories/offices? Cannot be as they are anyway replaced time to time.

The employees? nah! (however hard the employers try to convince otherwise). Employees retire and get fired to be replaced.

So, what is Apple or Disney or Ford or Sony? They did not end with their visionary founders or star employees and span over several products and over several decades! A corporation is a common thread which runs through several thousands of people and binds them together with a spirit of brotherhood across cultures and countries.
Corporations are simply myths, a set of stories which reside in the beliefs of the employees! Very similar to a religion or a cult which binds people together through mythical tales. As history bears evidence, religion is a fantastic tool to mobilize people. Wars have been fought over religion, homicides perpetrated and most recently terrorism justified in the name of the religion. Of course, religion also mobilizes people for good deeds like donations and charity work.

Next time you enter a workplace or buy a product or avail of a service, think of it. What's the story of that corporation? What binds together the people at that office? Is it just the salaries?

- Abhishek Kumar

The opportunity cost?

Phew!two months of internship comes to an end. I am on my way back to Mumbai and its time to get philosophical again :)

My internship was in Chennai, presumably, the worst location for to be in IT sector. After having spent at least two days in the other IT hubs viz Bangalore/Pune/Hyderabad/Gurgaon/Kolkata, I think I understand the popular perception. Anyway, the internship was at a bare minimum, eventful. Met a school friend in Chennai, went three times to Banagalore to meet lots of college friends from engineering and saw off my sister in Hyderabad as she begins her professional career.

Seeing of my sister obviously refreshed the memories of me leaving my home for first time(way back in 2004 for high school). I have been out of my hometown since then: living in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Gurgaon and Mumbai.It was a conscious decision of course, for a better education and a better life. But now, sometimes, I wonder about the opportunity costs involved(these mba fundas!) and I envy people who have lived their entire life in Bhagalpur(my hometown). I wonder what's better? Eating out, visit to malls, movies in PVR, parties in Discs and visiting my parents twice or thrice every year or to spend life living with parents, eating home made food and occasional visit to relatives. What's progress? My father moved from our ancestral village to Bhagalpur and I will most probably live in a metro. Is it that or is it something different. By the way, I relished the 21 days when I was at my home with a broken hand!

I know, i know, there are no straight answers to these questions. I want to return to my hometown someday and people in my hometown want to get out of there(at least those of my age) as soon as they can. May be I am too addicted to the ways of a metro to return to my hometown. Or may be I can find a compromise? A city like Chennai(but possibly in North India) :)

- Abhishek Kumar

Reflections:A train journey

Off late, I have been spending a lot of time travelling by train. When travelling alone, trains (especially the Indian Railway with its very flexible timetable) give a lot of time to reflect on just about anything. The trains and the railway stations in themselves are a microcosm of India and reflect a lot of our society/nation.
The reflections start as you try to get that tatkal ticket to get back home. You immediately realize that the sheer demand for everything in India and the gap in the ability of our existing systems to fulfill it, makes India an attractive marketplace for everybody.
You get that tatkal ticket (phew!) and when it costs almost the same to reach the railway station as much as the cost of a sleeper class ticket to your destination, you immediately understand why the Indian Railway can never be the ideal mode of transport we want it to be.
Ok, you get to the station and the train comes hurtling down the platform. You immediately notice 4 second class coaches, 12 sleeper class and 1 each of three-tier AC/two-tier AC/first class coach. And you should immediately thank God that in a deprieved country like ours, you are holding an AC ticket!
Now you are comfortably hosted in your seat and you get time to observe the station. Almost all major railway stations in India have recently been "beautified" without actually improving any of the existing systems. You are suddenly horified, is it what we are doing with our nation too! Projecting ourselves as the superpower to be on the International stage, glossing our achievements, and hiding our failures ( and to hide our failures, we cut off the communication lines in Kashmir, do fake encounters in Manipur, permit air strikes on maoists and transfer our society's victim to Singapore).
When food vendors enter the coach, they bring with them sweet memories of childhood when we wanted each and everything they brought. Some scolding and finally the item is bought! With money in pocket and freedom to buy whatever we want, buying stuff from the vendors is no longer that fulfilling :(
Finally, here is the destination, your own hometown. You get down from the train, take in a lungful of air and wonder at the opportunity cost of all the "progress(studies, job, money, blah blah)" that you have made!

- Abhishek Kumar

Lessons from a broken hand!

A broken left elbow actually.
We never understand the importance of some things in our lives until they cease to exist! Believe me, left hand IS an important part of our body and the sooner we right-handers start giving it the due respect,  the better.
Instead, we are so worried about little things in our life - someone did something to me, I didn't get I want and so on - when all it takes is a few seconds - anywhere, anytime and you are on a hospital bed, being philosophical for next so many days! And you wonder why where you so worried? after all; it hardly matters!
And how we take pride in being independent! Poor us! After an accident you suddenly realize, being independent, self-standing is no fun at all. If not for all loved ones who stand with us, bad times would be absolute misery! Believe me, bad times like a broken left hand are best times to savour their love and caring ;)
Finally,  you get a discharge and when paying the bills, it suddenly dawns upon you that those good for nothing; pesky insurance agents selling good for nothing products,  might, after all have something to offer! A medical insurance saves your pockets and the next time you see an insurance agent, you feel like offering him a cup of tea! And perhaps get a medical insurance for your own sake.
Armed with my advice, I sincerely hope that you will make the most of it when you break something next time. Happy unbroken living till then!

- Abhishek Kumar

Bits and pieces

Gurgaon is a world class city - but in bits and pieces.

The world class metro and the 28km Expressway connects Gurgaon to Delhi. At one moment you are relishing the swanky coaches of metro or the low-floor DTC bus, and the next moment you are precariously hanging off an auto taking a roller-coaster ride through the pot-holed streets to your office/home! If you are in your own vehicle, good luck finding your way out through the choked, pot-holed streets.

The skyline of Gurgaon is dotted with some of the best housing projects of India ( at least the advertisements say so!). But the grandeur of these ivy league apartments end with their gates. Grand apartments surrounded with slums are a common sight.

Of course there is a lot of money in Gurgaon, a natural consequence of which, is that, a lot of people have SUV's ( likes of Land Rover, Endeavour,  Fortuner, Pajero ...). And thanks to the roads here, the owners need not go off-roads for testing out there prized possessions.

One of the fastest growing cities of India has grown without a public transport system. Good luck if you miss your office's cab/bus in the morning. There is no other way than traveling by auto in the way mentioned above. And it has also grown without a drainage system. Please stay at your homes if it has been raining for more than half-an-hour. You wouldn't like to be drowned. Would you? ( and yes, the water logged streets are good enough to even overpower the SUVs! so the tini-tiny car stands no chance at all!)

Enough of roaming on the streets, lets enter into an office or a mall. The global Gurgaon exists here. Entering the door of an office/mall takes you to a different world. I dare say that these are as good as their counterparts in developed countries. Now who needs a tele-porting machine! Inside you will find global Indians - in bits and pieces. People trying to balance tradition with modernism. People trying to un-learn Hindi and learn English but caught in the middle. Girls matching western dress with traditional shringaar. Bachelors enjoying movies in a PVR while still missing the crowd. Parents enjoying there time with children in the swanky malls but uncomfortable with lovebirds. Families enjoying dinner but uncomfortable with whiskey being served on next table.

Gurgaon is a reflection of the balancing act of our country and our society. Time will tell wether we can become complete before it all crumbles down.

Savings and Investments

March is round the corner and people are scurrying to save tax. To the extent that it has replaced the  office gossips :( . But saving is not only about 'saving taxes'.
Of late, I have read a lot of literature on saving/investing ( and believe me there is no dearth of it! ). So, I decided to share it with other 'poor' souls like me before it slips off my mind.


Disclaimer: Please use your own head before making any investment decision :).

Saving and Investing are two different things. Saving is like storing your money at your home (more appropriately a savings bank account), while Investing is giving off your money(FD,NSC,PPF,ULIP,MF..) so that it can grow.

Why shouldn't you save: A saving accounts gives about 3-4% of annual interest. Inflation at present is, say 6% (inflation takes the value of Rs.100 in next year into account . You would have observed that what can be bought for Rs.100 diminishes every year. Didn't you hear your grandfather ruing that Rs.100 was enough for buying the ration for whole year in their times? A 6% inflation means that on an average things are becoming dearer by 6% every year.). Inflation is the devil here. And if the recent trend is an example of things to come, annual inflation may well be 7-8% for years to come!.

So Rs.100 in savings account becomes 104 at end of year but inflation reduces it  to 98.11 (104/1.06). At the end of the year you actually lost Rs.2 per Rs.100 ! By now, you must have understood that by keeping your money in savings account you are actually incurring a loss every year and that, for growing your money, you should invest your money such that it earns an interest of at least more than average inflation rate. This is not to say that you invest all your money, experts advise to keep 4-6 months of your expenses in savings account.

Roughly speaking, there are two modes of investing:

• Debt schemes
• Equity schemes

Debt Schemes: When you invest in Debt schemes, you lend your money to someone who is willing to pay interest in return. The popular debt schemes are:

1. Fixed/Recurring Deposits: You lend money to the bank and it pays you 7-10% of interest rate. The bright ones would have got it, it's more than the inflation rate ( by the way, did you notice that as inflation rises, interest rates on deposits rise too - can somebody explain? )
   National Savings Certificate/Kisan Vikas Patra : You lend your money to Government of India(GOI). Interest rates at present are at almost 8.4%  annually.
2. Government/Infrastructure/Company bonds: You lend your money to  GOI or public/private enterprises. Interest rate differs from company to company ( i will get back to why this happens)
3. Traditional Life Insurance: Here, you are mixing insurance and investment which is a bad idea according to people. Anyways, insurance companies generally invest in the above debt schemes on your behalf. As you would have guessed, interest rate will be less than 8% because insurance companies need to cover the risk of paying claims( which means giving out more money than what you gave them, poor guys!)

We will take a moment to get back to the question in point 2. Why interest rates on bonds differ from company to company? Well, suppose I own a ABH corp. Will you lend me money at 8% ? ( as a wise investor you should think: what are the chances of ABH corp going bankrupt?) . Now, would you lend me money at 20% (you have begun to think that may be i can, isn't it!)?  So generally speaking you will receive less interest on government/public sector bonds and more on private sector bonds according to the risk involved.

Equity Schemes: When you invest in equity, you own a pat of the company you invest in and share the risks with other investors ( if you bought 100 shares of ABH corp at 10 rs each  and  the shares fall to rs.5, you lost 500 rupees!). The company might be willing to pay you for sharing risk (as dividends) though this is not guaranteed. You make profit if company makes profit and you lose money if the company incurs losses. The various ways of investing in equity are:

1. The Stock Exchange: You can buy and sell shares of companies with a demat account.
2. Mutual Funds: The fund house takes money from you and buys/sells shares on your behalf. The fund house gets its cut for managing your investment.
3. ULIPs: Again these mix insurance and investment. Unlike traditional insurance, ULIPs invest your money in shares so the maturity amount is not fixed.

Wait, what about the interest rates on equity investment? Well, it's not fixed and it varies for each individual according to the shares, MFs and ULIPs he buys. However, generally speaking over a period of time (4-5 years), equity has 'always' given better returns than debt schemes. Why more than debt schemes? Because you took risk. When you lend to government or even a private company which is governed by so many regulations (think of SEBI), you are not generally risking your money.

So. why not invest all money in equity? Simply because it involves risk. What if you invested all your money in equity and needed a lot of it in 2007 when the share market was at it's lowest?, think over it, you could have recieved less than what you invested!

My advice (if you will take it) : Do some research before investing. The percentage of your investments in debt and equity should vary according to your risk taking capability.

P.S. Happy Investing!

Gurgaon - the city of dreams

mmm... May be, may be not, depends, actually depends on how much you earn!

Note: These accounts are largely from the M.G Road stretch of Gurgaon.

It's one kind of an experience to live in the millennium city of India. Everything is at your fingertips - literally. Just reach out for a phone, hunt for the proper number and remember your address, be assured that the damn thing/service will be delivered/picked-up from your doorsteps. Quite a few things in the city are enthralling, the express-way,office of the MNCs, the metro, malls, pubs, highrise apartments, showrooms of premiere brands  and the fairer sex ;).

In the office hours, while the roads are full to the bream, the metro 'flies' merrily(and mockingly?) overhead. If you are an autocar fan, you could just drool over the Audi's, BMW's, Mercedes' and so on (no, don't droll over the Honda's, I have always maintained that they are public-transport here), while waiting for crossing the road(God help you and don't forget to thank God every time you succeed). Aficionado of bikes? you can endlessly peer through the showrooms of Kawasaki, Yamaha, Ducati etc. As for me, the e-zone, the electronics store, the mobile store, mac  store, croma are good 'time-pass'. Not to mention the crowd too.

Gurgaon is home to CEOs, MDs, entrepreneurs and of course the lesser mortals. There are colonies where you can get bungalows only by invitation (it doesn't matter if you have bags of money). It boasts of world-class offices, apartments and schoools. People manage their business in US, UK from their office in here. Several expats and foreigners have a spare home here(Gurgaon is close to IGI airport).People in 20s driving BMW is a common sight.

Wouldn't it be so nice if I could stretch my hand and get a real feel of all these. Sometimes the heart yearns to be in that office, to be sitting in that car and to be riding that bike. The feeling is enticing and heady at the same time.

I am lucky

I recently joined one of the largest companies making enterprise software in ERP domain. Last few months have been like a revelation. I have traveled a lot for paperwork,interviews etc, spoken to a lot of people.

To be frank, I come from humble background. However of late, I have traveled largely in AC, shopped in malls and stayed in guest-house (largely on my employer's money). So there are people like me who know ye 'sab moh-maya hai' but are trying to learn the new ways, at the same time knowing, they might not be able to afford all this immediately on their own, but when they are able to afford it, they don't get labeled as newcomers( as the ones with new money in Titanic movie). Then there are people who can easily afford and are well versed with the 'high' life and are a part-and-parcel of the mall culture. And then there are people who are the backbone of the malls, the high-rise apartments: the drivers, security-personnels and other service-providers who don't dare to be a part of this culture even in their dreams.


So while I sit in AC bus, the driver's cabin is non-AC. While I travel in AC coach, there are 2 AC coaches and around 16 sleeper/general coaches in the same train. I work inside a nice swanky, air cooled office, the guard stands at the main gate in the sun and insurance agents are giving away their cards,under the sun. It feels bad when a person much elder than me calls me 'Sir'.

This makes for an interesting telling. In our office we have a large lobby. People after taking their lunch, take a post-lunch walk there because they can't go out in the sun. Now while people(including me) walk to-and-fro in the lobby, the sweeper keeps sweeping the floor from the opposite end. It feels bad and amusing at the same time. And he works with such a devotion!

I don't say that it is their's or somebody else's fault. Everybody's life has so many variables that I don't think any one or group of individuals can entirely determine the course of one's life (one of my learnings from my life!). Someone has rightly said, every work is important work.

Change is the order of life!

It has been a long time (almost two months!) since my last blog.

A lot has changed in past two months. From a college student, I have now transformed into an office going professional. Gone are the days of doing nothing the whole day and yet having a lot to do! The care-free attitude (sona, khana aur mast rehna). You are reminded of your responsibilities at the job from the day one, every now and then.

Yet, was this not what I always wanted? A good job, my own money to spend as per my own whims and fancies, for which I studied till now (at least for getting into a good college!). Man is never satisfied with what he has and I guess it holds for me too. There is so much out there to do, so much to achieve and so many gadgets to buy(yummy!).

This is my first long-time venture into one of metros. Not that Ranchi and Jamshedpur where I have done my studies were not big, but Delhi NCR is of another scale. All the cars,brands which I fancied are now in front of me (I am yet to reach to them but still), all the big companies which intrigued me are now around my office. Well, it's a new experience all-together. I am excited about my job, my future but to be true,sometimes the crowd seems overwhelming. All the bhashan one heard of cut-throat competition, of break-neck speed suddenly seems could have been true. Though I believe, it is fact of life. 

So, best of luck to me and my friends who are joining the industry. There is so much we have done and there is so much to be done!

Facebook Privacy

I must admit that I and my friends(as evident from their activity feed) have been hooked to Facebook in the last few weeks a big time. Apparently it's not just a local phenomenon, it is the reflection of the current trend as Facebook continues to grow in India at the expense of Orkut.

Facebook is pretty, fast and most of all damn addictive. However Facebook is much more open in the sense that if you are not careful you will unintentionally end up sharing your personal data with the general public out there on Facebook.

It's only fair that I read and understand the privacy policy of the website on which I spend hours pouring out my feelings through my status updates, comments, photos etc. Anyways, Facebook is recently having a lot of problems protecting user's privacy evident from here and here and here .

Since not everybody has the time and conviction, here are some important points from privacy policy:

When you access Facebook from a computer, mobile phone, or other device, Facebook may collect information from that device about your browser type, location, and IP address, as well as the pages you visit.

Because it takes two to connect(such as joining a group or liking a page), your privacy settings only control who can see the connection on your profile page.  If you are uncomfortable with the connection being publicly available, you should consider removing the connection.

When you post information on another user’s profile or comment on another user’s post, that information will be subject to the other user’s privacy settings.

Your public information may also be associated with you, including your name and profile picture, even outside of Facebook, such as on public search engines and when you visit other sites on the internet.If you delete “everyone” content that you posted on Facebook,  it will be removed from your Facebook profile, but you have no control over its use outside of Facebook.

And the scarry Facebook apps:

When you use applications and websites you are making your Facebook information available to someone other than Facebook.Information includes your and your friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, and any content shared using the Everyone privacy setting.

In practice, what this means is that all your data - all of it - must be effectively considered public, unless you simply never use any Facebook applications at all.

If your friend connects with an application or website, it will be able to access your name, profile picture, gender, user ID, and information you have shared with “everyone.”  It will also be able to access your connections, except it will not be able to access your friend list.

If you are logged into Facebook and visit a site which has got approval from Facebook, it can get and use you General Information without your approval!

The final nail in coffin:

Although Facebook allows you to set privacy options that limit access to your information, please be aware that no security measures are perfect . We cannot control the actions of other users with whom you share your information. We cannot guarantee that only authorized persons will view your information. We cannot ensure that information you share on Facebook will not become publicly available. We are not responsible for third party circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures on Facebook.



The guide to Privacy and a tool to see how your profile appears to your friends or anybody else is here . Privacy settings for who can view what information of yours can be controlled here  .

Why do I blog?

This is essentially a repost (part of the exercise of porting my blogs over from wordpress) albeit not without modifications.

So why did I, start blogging?

• Everybody (friends, actors, politicians …) has one( a blog , silly!!), so why shouldn’t I?

• Of late I had nightmares of being a hermit in my past life . Actually, I remember one evening we were having a discussion on blogs and it became glaringly clear that I didn't own one: "So you don't own a blog! So gross! How can you keep your thoughts buried inside you? How can you not let others connect to your feelings in this connected world?" What would have you done when faced with charges against humanity?

• TO ATTAIN NIRVANA!! Its what you achieve through blogs (these articles give so much importance to blogs, they must be really getting onto my mind)

• I am scouring for "time pass" activities, and this is a part of the exercise. Got you! it's the same on your side (time pass!) isn't it? Now, if you had something important to do, why would you be reading this? 

• I didn’t get time before 17/3/2009, 9:30 am to write a blog. No, I am serious. I mean there are  other things to do in life!

• I felt I had not yet achieved enough in life to start writing a blog. ( It doesn’t mean that on 17/3/2009, I achieved something spectacular. Actually at 9:30 am, it suddenly occured to me that by not blogging, once again I will not be achieving nothing).

• This "blog" field in my on-line profiles was really becoming a pain in the ... neck.

Thankyou CAT

Well, the MBA exams season is over and I am here writing this web-log(blog in short) because, yes you guessed correct I  didn't get any call from any of the institutes I had applied for (by the way these institutes were from top 15 so don't think I am good enough for writing blogs only!). Anyway, this post is not to rue over my in-achievements, let's get straight down to business.

The repertoire of MBA exams can't be complete without CAT. Preparing for MBA? You got to be taking CAT. Actually, CAT is the raison d'etere for many MBA aspirants. Now, after having prepared for CAT for about two-third of a year, I have been enlightened of the fact that just preparing for CAT itself has it's own advantages. Well, I see the skeptics already reaching out for me telling what the heck do preparations matter if you are not able reach your goal? Well it mattered to me and I believe it should matter to others:

Verbal Ability(VA) :  At least I now read a newspaper daily and believe me once you get the hang of it, you will never want to skip the news. It's a miracle that nobody had ever been able to perform for me, actually I remember how I took reading newspaper as a "paranormal activity" !! The funny part is, I realized that reading can be fun too!

Quantative Aptitude: How many times I had reached the nadir of my emotions when somebody said "You are an engineer, you ought to be good at mathematics!". May be I am not that good at mathematics but it seems I am fair at arithmetic though Probability,Permutations,Geometry still eludes me. Thanks but to CAT, I would have never discovered it.

Reasoning and Data Interpretation: No surprises here because it's believed the ability to analyze and interpret data is inborn but at least now when someone tells me "I am your father's uncle's ........" , I can workout the relationship quicker then previously when I would stare in his eyes for a long time!

And yes, one another important lesson that CAT teaches is humility, when after confidently giving the exams you discover that you got only so and so percentile and your so and so friend not that outspoken about his skills as you, got that much more!

the virtue of politeness!!

Recently I traveled to Howrah by train. As usual there was a lot of rush and I couldn't get a seat, apparently because I never carry a handkerchief ( I know it's a bad habit ) and I really can't throw magazines or any other stuff from the window to the seats (I don't know why, though sometimes, I wonder why I am like this  even after having been travelling in a train for more than five years now).

 Deviating from my topic, I made an interesting observation: those who didn't get a seat were somewhat refined people ( the "sehari" types) that goes on to prove my mother's saying that city people lack the essential survival instincts in a difficult world as compared to people from villages or small towns!!!

Anyways, the thing is that I didn't get a seat. Now, it's common here for four/five people to share a seat meant for three. I spotted such a seat with three people but after judging it's occupants, I was sure it was worthless asking them to share the seat with me. I stood beside their seat hoping they would take suo moto decision to share it.

Then, something happened!, at a station a fairly old man came to this seat and asked the occupants to share it with him, in a bit threatening way. It soon grew into a mini battle. But do you know who got to share the seat finally?? Me!! along with a token of praise for my politeness, though, I was not even a part of the battle. So, politeness pays off even today!!

BSNL 3G reaching masses?

It seems finally BSNL 3G service is reaching the masses, notwithstanding the high 3G set prices or high tariffs. Don't believe me?? See for yourselves:

Now only if BSNL people knew as much about their own 3G service (believe me, go to a BSNL office and ask them about their 3G service) or took only as much pain to advertise the service (I don't think even half of BSNL's customers, leave alone the customers of other operators know about 3G) , BSNL's fortunes would have been much better than what it is at present. Inspite of being the sole provider of 3G services in several circles, BSNL is loosing market share, another example of Government Sector's apathy.

What were IIT Kanpur people thinking ?

Or should I say, what "of" the people in IME(MBA) department of the reverend IITK thinking while making this masterpiece!!
Last night I was definitely shocked not to find my name in the GD/PI shortlist of MBA@IIT Kanpur . But then me and my friend were shocked once again at the general layout of the result page (what to do?, after all we are computer guys, isn't it!!).

 See for yourself(click on images to enlarge):

Why did the AIR text-box accept only 5 digits? Because of this:

For the skeptics , here is the original page http://www.iitk.ac.in/infocell/mbaprog/  , but don't blame me if IIT people correct the page!

GATE (M.Tech) or CAT (MBA)

I remember searching the exact terms "M.Tech or MBA" several times with no convincing answer. Now, since I have already been through the ordeal (not exactly because GATE is still there on 14th Feb, still ..) , I am ready to add a bit to the confusion .

To be frank, when I got into engineering college, I had never dreamed of b-school. I liked computers (computers are my first love), I got admission into Computer Science stream in a reputed college and was more than happy. I happily chugged along for 3 years, getting decent if not extraordinary marks (anyways people say you need to study the least in Computer Science stream).


Then towards the end of third year, suddenly everyone around me started making plans for future studies fueled by the recession . While many were content with prospects of getting a job, others considered M.Tech, MBA or MS. Almost half of my class joined a coaching center for MBA exams. Being an egoistic, how could I be left behind? But there was a serious doubt lurking in my mind, what do I go for? M.Tech or MBA. Giving GRE for MS was out of question, first because I am from a well-off family but not so well-off and second no one from my family has even gone to Nepal, save USA or UK.

On one side was the love for computers pulling me for M.Tech, on the other was prospect of quick+bright future with an MBA degree. No to say that M.Tech doesn't have a bright future, but as the state of things go in India, our country is still a "services" economy with much scope for managers but very little innovation through researches.Here, after doing an M.Tech, chances are few and far ( and that is my thinking shaped by what I have seen and mostly heard , I could well be wrong ), please note that I am talking about the general junta. Also, how many good research oriented institutions are there in India? except the IISC and IITs. Many a times I have had a feeling of disgust over the neglect of research-based higher education in India. Believe me, I had spent sleepless nights pondering over what choice I should make.

By now you must have figured out that I chose to prepare for MBA over M.Tech. After all, though I have an interest in technology, I hadn't ever imagined myself as a researcher. I had grown, fascinated by the Ambanis and Tatas (may be an aftermath of reading business magazines which I tried reading to get a sense of business). Many a times I have dreamed of becoming the king of a large business empire, preferably in the IT field. My preparation for MBA made me discover things about myself which I couldn't have had otherwise, which they call the "hidden self" in psychological lingo. I am not sure whether I will be able to get admission into a good b-school this year, but be assured I will, sometime in future. Let's see what does a mix of love for technology and b-school training bring about.


P.S : The views expressed are entirely mine. I am not advocating for or against any choice. As the saying goes " You always have a choice". May the force be with you!!