The Hypersensitive Bharatiya

Last week Kamal Hassan’s 100 crore mega project Vishwaroopam was banned from theatres in Tamil Nadu and subsequently in Karnataka. It was cleared by the censor board, but then the government decided to ban it because it thought it insulted the Muslim community by portraying it in a manner unacceptable to some unknown Muslim organization.

Its woes does stop here, earlier Kamal Hassan was criticized for the name Vishwaroopam. The reason? it’s a Sanskrit word and it’s a Tamil movie. So Kamal Hassan has not shown respect to the Tamil culture by using a Sanskrit word to name his Tamil movie.

A friend on Facebook had recently put on a status about how rude and unpatriotic a guy was as he refused to stand during the national anthem played before screening a movie. He didn’t stop here, he also mentioned that he gave the guy a verbal thrashing about how he should be grateful to be born in India and is indebted forever to the motherland.

Recently Amitabh Bachchan was in trouble because he used the word ‘racha gaya’ for Quran, while someone claimed it was revealed by God himself and not composed.

These are just some instances that I saw or read about in the recent time. We are so insecure about our religion, motherland, and language or so called culture that we b urst into anger even at the slightest remark. Or we are just looking for an opportunity to get angry over anybody saying anything. It’s like we have just lost it. There is no tolerance for art and no tolerance for humor at all. Anyways the only humor we like is cheap takes at our women or perverted jokes.

Mindless things are imposed upon us and then an organization comes up to uphold them and we still call ourselves a democracy. Take for example the national anthem before a movie screening. Do I need to prove my allegiance to my country by standing up every time before a movie? By this viewpoint every day before going to work couples should read their marriage vows to each other.

We have become so occupied with such small things that it literally made up puppets in the hands of political parties. It is so easy for a political outfit to disrupt something and call itself the messiah of a particular religion, state or even the whole country. They know they never need to talk about development, better healthcare or law and order because our sensibilities have been killed by our hypersensitive nature to these mindless and irrational things. And to keep us occupied with that, let the drama of banning things, protesting against art continue.

It’s a shame that we a developing nation, a democracy are so easily swayed by such behavior. Just the reason I couldn’t help using the word Bhartiya and not Indian, in case I too might land myself a PIL.

Our obsession with quick fixes

I remember the time Fevi Quick first came out. It was such an exciting product that most of us would just want to play with it. We would usually get our fingers stuck together in an instant because if that. I grew up a little and I saw pain killers were the next quick fixers. Got a headache take a painkiller and get on with life.

But the last couple of weeks I've observed that quick fix has gotten into our attitude where we just want to quick fix things rather than fixing them right.

A girl gets gang raped in Delhi. Everywhere people discuss it and give opinions. Even on Facebook everybody gets busy putting status updates. But things that came out pretty strongly and hit me was what people suggested should be done. It mostly circled around chemical castration for the rapists or capital punishment. Someone even suggested send them to Saudi for better punishment. And let's not talk about our brain dead political class.

And I sitting here thinking how would this reduce rape cases? How will this deter rapists? How would this make my beloved Delhi safer for all my friends?

All these questions were left unanswered. But it told me most just wanted a quick fix and get on with life. Nobody bothered to think of making places safer (obviously which would require more thinking).

Take for instance bank robberies. Did making a harder punishment reduce bank robberies or making them hard to rob did? CCTV cameras, security guards, electronically guarded vaults made them a difficult target. I'm not denying bank robberies can't happen, but its difficult to rob a bank nowadays and it happens rarely.

So shouldn't we focus on making places safer for women. Like for instance making sure places like that munerika bus stand are less in number. Or deserted places are watched by CCTV cameras or frequently patrolled by police. Reducing police response time, making sure there is safe transport possible for women at night.

Why don't rapists choose a place metro station. Because of the fear of getting caught easily or not enough deserted a place to carry out the crime.

Coming back to punishment. It's purely my opinion that a society's role is to reform and not to discard. Throwing away a dirty shirt is an easy job than to clean it. They might have committed the most heinous crime possible, but can we use this as an opportunity? Can we reform them and perhaps use them to give messages to people. I still do agree a long sentence like a life sentence is a must.

If our parents, teachers, society discarded us every time we did something bad, this world be a very difficult place to live.

We really need to get rid of our obsession with quick fixes and start thinking of real solutions.

Would the economy be better off without MBA students?

Disclaimer: I am an MBA and I love my MBA. I am also proud of both these facts.

Now let’s answer some thought provoking questions.

Q. Are MBAs the best managers in the world?

A. No. But they are also not the worst and if you pick data, they are more likely to be in the better half. And managerial skills have a lot of do with personality, something not many MBA courses take in account.

Q. Are MBA better equipped than their non-MBA counterparts?

A. Yes. Numerous case studies, live projects do help. But again they don’t give a ready to use manual.

Q. But MBAs take wrong decisions, make mistakes. What about that?

A.  So do Doctors, Lawyers, and Economists. They are all human beings after all.

I am writing this article as I keep on getting constantly appalled by some people who look at MBA or perceive them in a certain manner and offer opinions. My knowledge’s sources range from anecdotes with friends, Social media and random article here and there. I used to ignore them mostly because I knew I had earned my MBA, worked hard during it, had a hell of a time, forged best relationships and was lucky enough to get a job also.

But then I saw this debate going on The Economist with the same heading and it made me think. And it was enough fodder to pour out something for my dying blog.

I can unabashedly state that I do not use most of the things taught to me by my professors during MBA. And neither do I use most of the things taught by my teachers since Nursery. So just to set the tone straight I don’t use most of the things I have been taught in the classroom. Although I am still trying to figure out a way where I can use log tables or at least apply differentiation in a day to day life.

But then what do I use. I use most of the things I learnt during the time I was not in the classroom. While playing football, captaining a chess team, finishing an assignment just in time, leading a group for a successful task and many more such activities. Quite frankly in my 8 months of work experience, it is hard to count the number of times my profile has changed, probably more like the opening pair for the Pakistan cricket team. But the work remains constant and so do the learning and hence the application.

MBA as a programme is still evolving and will perhaps always keep on evolving. The teaching methodology, the curriculum will keep on changing. The process will not remain the same. What will not change, is the outcome, of course we will have deviations and some errors also.

I need not take names, there are so many companies started by MBA in India, let alone the world, who are doing great. And so many more are led by them also. And here is where the problem has started.

I have noticed many companies tend to have strong institutional relationships and tend to form an elite circle where outsiders are not allowed. We might see some companies only hiring Harvard guys, some only IIM and not below. This eventually gives way to entitlement mindset. I am an MBA from so and so college and I will get job in such and such company with X package. And I will directly formulate strategy after finishing the management training. Companies need to break this mindset. Meritocracy should prevail at all costs and old boys club should be clamped down.

MBAs need to earn everything after MBA also. They should not think they did an MBA, hence they should get management positions, should be the strategy guy, need not get hands dirty, need not to sell and so on.

And finally I have met enough MBA who can’t even write a mail properly but so is the case with non-MBAs also.

Many things like risk appetite, leadership style and other facets of one’s personality determine what kind of decision he or she will take and not the degree one holds. We can always focus on the right cause rather than finding an easy scapegoat.   

As far as this question is concerned, I leave the answer to you, my reader.  

Flipkart is cool, Snapdeal not so…………

The last two month have brought a lot of things for me including the salary (twice :p). New job and salary has made me a kind of an online shopping freak.

First the good things and where else to start but Flipkart, so ordered Speakers from Flipkart and guess what got them in less than 48 hours. When it comes to books it got even better, ordered Jeffrey Archer’s False Impressions in the evening and got them in the afternoon next day. So obviously I’m in love with Flipkart for their delivery. And best part is yet to come, it’s called PACKAGING. I mean it took me at least 20 minutes and I finally had to rip it open. I think when the nuclear war happens; I’m going to hide in Flipkart packaging. It is actually that good.

Then came Myntra, I was totally taken aback by the 24 hour dispatch. I’ve no idea how they do it, but it’s awesome to see their delivery speed.

Now comes the worst part. Ordered an iPod dock from snapdeal on 1^st of this month, snapdeal promised to deliver it by 8^th (estimated delivery date). Ok, after through the two awesome experiences mentioned above, this seemed like eternity. And to top it, they send me a message on 7^th that they can’t deliver it on 8^th and conveniently changed the estimated delivery date to 11^th without giving any proper reason or mentioning any kind of compensation for that.

There goes the awesome online shopping experience for a toss. You see a product, you fall in love with it, wait for an eternity and then you’re told to wait more. I hope if someone from snapdeal is reading this, he really do look at what is wrong with their logistics, because so much of waiting period is simply unacceptable in today’s online shopping. As for other, happy shopping (online)

Welcome to the world of Social media where PEOPLE ACTUALLY HOLD THE POWER!

Last one week has been not the kind what I’ve been used to. That can be attributed to the transition to work from college. The initial euphoria did not last or to better put it never came. What has been going on is the hangover from college and Delhi.

But that has once again given me time to write and read stuff I used to miss because of lack of time, and even find new avenues. Of course one of the biggest thing making headlines has been Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s so called Sex Tape (Gone are the good old days when we had Paris Hilton sex tapes). He did went pillar to pillar trying to protect it and protect he did from the electronic media, Youtube. But suddenly it popped up all over the Internet and links were spreading like wildfire on Social Media webistes. And like one of my friends once said this is the best time for Brand Manager as because of the social media the brand has totally gone out of control and you can’t do anything now, Abhishek Manu Singhvi could do nothing.

He started using the clichés like its doctored, fabricated to tarnish my image and more. And then I happened to land on a podcast called All India Bakchod by two good upcoming standup comedians Gursimran Khamba and Tanmay Bhat. It had everything that can and will make people Abhishek Manu Singhvi call online freedom obscene, they frequently talked about taboo stuff like sex, gay love and much more. In one of their interviews on the net and they said the reason they picked up podcast over all other forms to reach their audience was because of the freedom it provides in terms of content.

So there you go we’ve Kapil Sibal all charged up to limit our freedom or in order words to safeguard their (the few powerful ones) backs. India is no doubt increasingly becoming an oligarchy, but Social Media has suddenly sprung up and made ordinary people powerful. We have unknowns worshipped as Gods on Twitter, who defiantly hold more influence than a cabinet minister on the Youngistan.

One might feel it’s a matter of time before one force gets heavier, but social media might just become like crowsourced media, remain the 4^th pillar of our democracy and do what the media is supposed to, or cannot do. Powerful men are feeling helpless against its might, but finally power has arrived in the hands of people as it should have been.

What is your GQ?

Yeah go ahead, take a guess. It’s not General Quotient and not even Gentleman’s quotient. And if you haven’t already Googled, it is Google Quotient.

Last week at NASSCOM Emerge’s Friday 2.0, the discussion was on personal branding. When asked what is brand, one of the answers that have stuck with me is your brand is what Google says about you. But seriously how many of us have actually Googled ourselves? It really throws up some weird and unimagined things sometimes. Like when I Googled myself except for the usual suspects like My social media profiles, blog etc I saw my name also appeared from my college’s newsletter as I used to write for it in those days.

Just then it struck me whenever I go to any conference or to any meeting, I end up googling the speaker as I did this time also. It just made me extra aware what my online presence meant. So I decided to list down somethings which anyone could do to enhance one’s personal brand online. These are not mine strictly, I did up a lot of them from my people I met or interacted online. Here they are 

1. Social media presence is hygiene and all have that. What matters is content. Are you an influencer on your friends (Facebook), followers (Twitter). What do you write about? And opinions do matter. Look at this article for some of the big influencers on Twitter.
2. The idea is to set oneself apart. Knowing what’s happening is just the starting. Like Joey from my beloved Friends you don’t need to buy a whole volume of Encyclopedia for that today. You can just follow some blogs or just simply go to Wikipedia. But more than digesting so much of content its necessary to produce some also. It is a two way street now. So create a blog and have a post up at least every fortnight.
3. The usual things like being funny, being a good story teller, writing even the most mundane topics in a storytelling manner always helps.
4. Comment on other blogs and make relationships. Once I just posted a comment on another blog. The comment had my blog link and I suddenly saw my blog’s traffic doubled in a week because of that, but here also quality scores over quantity.
5. Stay fresh and keep on updating your social life or people will stop coming to your blog and followers will unfollow you.
6. Have a metric in mind to know that you are really growing. Like the comments on any  post, pageviews etc. It can be anything but not everything.

And one last thing, Follow me on @Jatt_On_Hunt ;)

Is censor any relevant now?

I go through my Facebook profile and find hundreds of things which would have been unthinkable to be found on any public domain that was so much easily accessible some years ago. From derogatory remarks towards a religion, race and even towards sexes to obscene photographs and hoaxes, it literally has everything. Sometimes I feel it is like a Pandora’s Box. All in the name of freedom of expression and I in no way am saying that freedom of expression is bad or should not be allowed. To me it looks like one of the life’s most beautiful and at the same time threatening realties.

And then we have the YOUTUBE, The big bad daddy of them all. It’s got all and seems like has more viewers than Rupert Murdoch’s whole empire put together. You can put almost anything there and it doesn’t even have to be sane. And it doesn’t give a damn about the so called censor board. If I was to release an ebook of Rushdie’s Satanic Verses on youtube, the Indian Government won’t be able to do much and I hope someone listens and does that. They can’t trace the user. They can’t implicate youtube directly. The company is based out of US and headquartered in California.

So the question plaguing my mind “Is the censor board any relevant now?"

I make a movie and they won’t let me show some footage. Fair enough I cut it and make sure it’s right according to their standards. It’s released to the public. But I believe in creative freedom and also believe that the audience has full right to see my work. I release the edited part on youtube in such a way that it shows it is leaked and not officially done. There goes the censorship.

I mean these are just two examples. Internet is full of things that lot of people would want to censor, from free porn for all (not that I’m against it) to conspiracy theories to propaganda material. My concern comes when I see that not all minds have grown to take it all in a manner it is supposed to be. It may be because of age, someone’s culture or many other things.

So the old notion of censor has already ended. I believe we need to move one step further, educating masses, killing stereotypes, eradicating superstation, find logic if any for blindly held faiths. Not only this we need to make sure that its literature and art and not extremism which has the superior hand in the society if we dream to have something equivalent of a the ancient Greek society or have another Renaissance, which we badly need.

Just some Limerick

I was sitting in the class when she moved,

I was looking but no one knew.

My mind raced, and my heart went boom.

I just jumped and ran out of the room.

But she was not to be there,

Now I had no idea what to do.

I thought I’d go back, but she was screaming

On top of her voice and I felt demeaning.

I was about to slap,

But it was not my back.

And I thought I would never do,

It wouldn’t have mattered

But I know you do.

I just made the slip,

It was the easier thing to do.

I should have done better,

But you knew I wouldn’t do.

So it happened all unplanned,

Like a concert going to doom.

It was not a shortcut to hell,

But nowhere was it down bell.

Forever and forever

When I met you for the first time,
There was nothing worth a dime.

But then something I found,
And it just came around and around.

I never thought it would be,
but like it was meant to be.

In no time it has all changed,
And all that is left is just a frame.

Everyday I look for something new,
so that I can be a different few.

But no its always you and you,
just coming back and telling me,
that I had something worth more than one life,
something more than this life,
that would never leave me.

Now that you are a part of me,
How do I lose that part of me?


I hope to have that again,
Just to be that close again
And be that forever and forever.

Future looks gloomy!

I recently read an article which went by the name “It’s over for dollar and euro; get ready for Sensex 60000” in Firstpost.com. Yeah you read it right, it is no typo it is Sixty thousand. The author clearly seemed to me high on a few gallons of Red Bull, if not smoking Marijuana. Before I go forward let’s get the facts straight. The GDP of US is close to around 14.77 trillion USD. And the debt they are holding as on July 31^st 2011 is 14.32 trillion USD. So that puts the sovereign debt at almost 100% of US’s GDP. And going by the US treasury’s website from December 2010 to July 2011, one can see that the debt has been growing at a rate of 5.48 billion USD per day. So that’s about US. I would not go into how it is posed to service its debt, because S&P clearly seems to disagree with Obama on that at least.

With the S&P lowering US’s debt rating has given clear cut signals that now that debt is more risky. And a more risky investment demands more returns hence higher interest rates. Higher interest rate makes it even more difficult for US to service its debt. Whispers if not clear cut speculations have already started about US going bankrupt. If investors panic and start selling treasury bonds, there would be a large supply of US bonds which will far outstrip the demand thus lowering the prices and hence investors might end up getting peanuts for their investments. Now another fear is that due to such factors Dollar will also weaken and that can lead to countries shifting their Forex to commodities such as gold. Now here is bit of a wild assumption, we are all clear about Europe’s position, specially the PIIGS economies and the apprehensions on Euro. So it might happen that Dollar and Euro as the world’s two universal currencies might crash and international trade might start using commodities such as gold in exchange for traded goods.

Another possibility can be the emergence of Chinese Yuan as the accepted currency for trade, but that will surely take its time as it not that wide used today. But here also lies a problem. China is holding 26% of US’s debt, so if the US goes bust and dollar crashes, it will surely have an impact on China and on the Yuan. So even this also looks like a problematic area.

The reason I thought the article was foolish, because the author said the flight of capital will happen from developed economies and investors will invest in developing economies such as India. But he forgot one thing that when US became a superpower it created a lot of wealth and when it crashes, it will diminish a lot of wealth with it too. The investors all will have their wealth mostly in US dollar and when it crashes; their wealth will also be eroded overnight. So from where will the capital come to take the Sensex to 60,000?

Whatever might happen, one thing is for sure, if another recession comes and hits US hard leading to it being bankrupt, its ripples will be felt much more in India than last time and future does look gloomy!

One Last Journey

   

It was time to say goodbye. It was time for that one last journey. I picked up my iPod, made a new playlist from my favourites, mostly old Punjabi songs ranging from Mohammad Sadiq to Kuldeep Manak to ever unforgettable Gurdas Mann.    

It was time to fuel up and I remembered that Autocar Question which used to go by “What would you do with that last litre of petrol?” I thought I was going to have that moment now. Kicked my Bullet start for one last time and it was time for a nostalgic experience. It has been 5 years since I fell in love with it. It has seen it all, all my relationships, all my memories good as well as bad. It even saw the change in me. When everything around was changing it stayed constant with me. It is very hard to forget that last peg of Old Monk that I sipped with my best buddies with the Monk sitting pretty on the rider’s seat or that ride with my first love or that drive back at 2 o’clock  with friends in first year after youth festival of 2006. So many moments which all were running in front of eyes like I was sitting in PVR.

I am being totally honest when I say that it felt very indifferent to part ways with you. Yes I thought I would be sad but I was not. Instead I relived a lot of moments which have become an inseparable of me, moments which can only be lived and not described in words. Finally it reached its destination, I handed the keys over, looked at it one last time smiled and moved on.

18^th July 2006 dad gifted me a Royal Enfield Bullet. 18^th July 2011 he is going to sell it off and life, it will just continue like it always does. As off now the Royal vehicle is gone, but royalty shall continue.  

If Poets can enjoy their poetry, Painters their paintings, why can’t rich their money?

I was really confused last month when Ratan Tata threw some jabs at Mukesh Ambani for him enjoying his wealth. I don’t want to go in the discussion that he has not earned his wealth, rather inherited it. But my focus here is on someone who has earned his wealth. To be fair to the elder Ambani, he should be given credit for some of his wealth if not all.

He has been praised, criticised, ridiculed for his house Billion dollar Antilla. But what I fail to understand is why? I have met a lot of people in my life, who believe that spending more than necessities is wrong and they don’t take it in a good manner, sometimes even frowning on it. The so called society has always taught me not to show off my wealth as wealth is not good. Rich people are evil and certainly sometimes a public display of wealth can leave a bad taste in many mouths.

But my question is, is earning money a science or art? I certainly consider it an art. If it is a science please tell me where they teach it, I would be the first in queue to learn. There are people from different backgrounds, different kind of upbringings who have made it into the wealthiest list. There are people from different backgrounds, different upbringing who have become great painters and great poets. They all show it and we all love it but when a man steps out of a Mercedes or a BMW in an Armani suit and Gucci suits, a certain reaction goes which is nowhere near praise.

I find it hard to digest why some still detest wealth, wealth creators. Why fingers are pointed at them. If we look up and appreciate art, I would say we need to appreciate wealth creators also. I’m not at all going for others reasons such as the amount of people found employment when Antilla was built or when a Buggati sold. My point is limited to the mindset and how differently we see, perceive and react to money. I just ask the question why different reactions, just because its money and accumulating money is considered as greed, while writing 10 poems in a day not. Perhaps we still need to broaden our mindset and see things in a different way to understand them better.

Beer! 10 reasons why I love you.

1. You were always there for me.
2. You always gave me what I wanted, never demanding anything back like those Girlfriends.
3. Your friends Whiskey and Vodka are super cool too!
4. You were a constant company when I had the greatest time with my friends.
5. You were even there why I was alone, down and dejected.

6. You were not boring after those initial months of our relationship

7. You come in so many varieties and options and none of them are jealous of each other.

8. You make a perfect companion for a Saturday night EPL game or a Sunday IPL.

9. Wherever I go you follow me.

10. Because I know you’ll love it too!

  

Did Baba really get 55 Lakh missed calls?

Amid all the drama and hoopla of past 3 days, one number struck me as very odd. As I've a tendency to take numbers too seriously I decided to do some analysis of the news that Baba Ramdev got 55 lakh missed calls. I used a simple technique. A day has 24 hours, each hour has 60 minutes and each minute has 60 seconds. So multiplying all we get 86400 seconds. Now the next step was crucial, I took an assumption here and you can question me on that. I assumed that a person calling Baba will at least busy his phone for 5 seconds (Note- I'm not saying that the phone will ring for 5 seconds). So dividing 5 by 86400 seconds will gives us 17280, exactly the number of calls possible in a day if the above assumption is taken.

The next part was to calculate how many days are required to reach the magical figure of 55 lakhs. Just another calculation away. I divided 55,00,000 by 17280 and I get roughly 319 days. That leaves a question. To get so many calls has Baba been planning this for more than year?

How to add the Google +1 button to your Blog or post

Folks this is undoubtedly one of the most exciting thing to happen to my blog. Google as we all love has given us bloggers a boon. Now we can add the famed +1 button to our blog and to our posts just as I recently did to my blog. Its very simple and straight forward. You just need to copy and paste some lines and you'll be done. Just go to your Blog dashboard and then to design. In design click on edit HTML.

There search for head> tag. The easiest way to do it to hit the ctrl+F button and type it and you'll find the tag. After you have located the tag just copy paste the following code above or before the head> tag

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js">

After you're done with this, it's time to get the button. For that click here and it will redirect you to the official Google +1 site. From there get the code for the website and paste it in the html where you want to have the button. After that have fun and collect a lot of +1. And don't forget to click on that button below. Happy Blogging :)

For more click on the following links

Link 1 Link 2 Link 3

Harsh lessons learnt for life from my first year of MBA

Well folks I've almost completed my first year of MBA. The journey was not easy and had lots of tweets and status updates. I could not have done this without the support of my Friends, Family, Teachers (yeah both of them ;) ), all chicken corners and fast food joints in Greater Noida. Oops I forgot this was not end of second year, sorry wrong speech. So coming back to point the year bygone has told me many lessons which I swear I’ll never forget in my life. As I've a habit of forgetting things, I decided to write a blog about the 10 most valuable lessons I learnt.

1. It is always hard to stay awake in a class but easier to stay awake through a late night movie. Even after having a bucket at KFC. If you don’t believe me, aa forget it I know most of you are already saying “Been there, done that”

2. On the first day of the month you’ll be having Butter chicken with 100 pipers. On the last of the month you’ll be having Dal Roti with hostel ka paani. (This I have a feeling will stay ever after my MBA)

3. You’ll always remember the latest song and sing it even while sleeping, but you’ll never remember that economics theory even when the teacher demands from you in the class.

4. It is easier to wake up early in the morning to watch a cricket match, but impossible for completing a left over assignment.

5. You can always motivate a group for a sip of Royal Challenge, but never for that Marketing group assignment. (I bet Vijay Mallaya loves that, hope he gives me a job when it comes to placements)

6. Text messages are still the way for it, when you know you have your faculty over at Facebook too.

7. That mentos thing (late for class wali) never works in real life. Teachers are way too smart to fall for that trick and you just freeze when they shout or throw some sarcasm at you.

8. Do break rules but don’t get caught not only applies at the traffic lights but also in B-School life.

9. Never think weekends are supposed to be fun, you’ll only be disappointed.

10. Trust me. It was far easier to write this blog than a 500 words project report.

So there they are, if you also have some do share it with me at the bottom. For moment let the feeling that we are seniors now sink in.

Social media over a cup of coffee

As always last Saturday I’d nothing useful to do, and some said weekends are meant to be fun. Well quite simply no if you’re single, 22 and coming to a new place, knowing not many and having no bike. But I simply refused my usual self to exist and woke up at 9. Yes on a weekend I woke up at 9, when was the last time that happened?

But because of my kind friend Mudassir, it was not going to be the same tale again. He had emailed me earlier about a certain OCC (no it is not an abbreviation for Over a Cup of Coffee but Open Coffee Club) having a discussion about Social Media. Well after that it was just what I was missing for the past few weeks “A high octane discussion by people mostly young from different companies and some even from different countries”.

We were past the clichés pretty soon, and went onto some serious discussion. It was really exciting to meet few entrepreneurs and specially some who were in the social media space. Social media is such a space where every fifth person on Facebook and every second on twitter feels like an expert. Not that I’m questioning anyone’s expertise as I feel no expert, but there were really some good takeaways from the discussion.

One that really has stuck me is that Facebook was designed as a platform where people will stay and will be reluctant to leave. Well this thought had never crossed my mind. We all think of leveraging what this new Facebook revolution has given us. But in the process we all try to bring prospective customers to our website, so instead of that we are better off by keeping them hooked on the platform itself and engaging them as much as possible by discussions and debates. The idea that nobody likes to be sold to forcefully also add to this and makes the point that content is the king hygiene today.

Another important point was how much of a truth was behind what Facebook might tell me the profile of my TG. To be honest I know most of the links I’ve liked in the past few months were either obligations or were due to my conscience forcing me so that I keep my Facebook friends engaged. So if Facebook come up with some analysis of that data constructing an image of me, I won’t be surprised if I fail to recognize myself. And then is this article on Facebook which talks about some more things that have crossed my mind more than once in the previous few months. Perhaps that’s the reason I’ve shifted more to Twitter.

Ah Twitter. Then there was one of the most significant things I remember. Someone pointed out that instead of shoving our products down the throat of a follower on Twitter, one should try to collect information about what they tweet and perhaps make better products or even innovation, who knows what all is possible. I remember another person mentioning that he had written a book on Sanskrit. He had a Facebook page which had not many followers. But a simple comment on some forum discussing about Sanskrit brought 6000 followers to his page. Moral of the story, it’s not only about sharing on your own page but also at other places also.

I think Social media is in a nascent stage now, where not many can predict which way it will go and what consequences it will bring with it. A thing called Orkut was hip a few years ago and today it is as good as Gautam Gambhir’s facial expressions DEAD. But one thing is for sure, along with all the changes, it will definitely bring along new opportunities, open new business horizons and much more.

P.S-I would like to apologize to have not mentioned any names above. For the people who were present there and are reading, I had to rush as I had no breakfast that morning and can’t survive on a hungry stomach on a weekend so it was not possible for me to know some better. But there is one person I do remember. It’s Amarinder and Amarinder thanks for everything, for moderating and for arranging it all. I would love to attend more OCC meets till the time I’m here.

Comments are welcomed J

That’s how you hit two targets with one shot says Congress

Today an LTTE Leader made a sensational appearance hinting that DMK might have been indirectly responsible for Rajiv Gandhi’s death. But that’s not the crucial. The crucial thing is the timing. If we look back at most of the incidents around DMK and Congress one can easily sense what’s going on.

Before going on let’s have a look at some of the facts. DMK is the third largest party in the UPA coalition behind Congress and Trinamool Congress with a substantial 18 seats. The last two years of the government has seen more scams and allegations of corruption than bills passed, with DMK seen as the centre of it most of it. The media has mostly shown DMK as a corrupted party which has nepotism grounded in it. The DMK lost badly in the recent assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and the by the looks of it, it doesn’t seem that they will gain the lost ground soon and easily. And then the most important fact of them all, two DMK MP’s, one of them being DMK supreme’s daughter is behind bars for one of the largest corruption cases India has seen.

Enough facts now let’s see the ground situation. Congress suffering from bad public image is trying to put all corruption image on the face of DMK and even distancing itself from DMK sometimes. They cannot afford to leave DMK’s hand as if DMK pulls out, the government can collapse. So what they are doing is putting one foot in the door. Sonia Gandhi showing some closeness to J. Jaylalitha and reminding DMK they are just an option. I won’t be surprised if they leave DMK and join hands with AIADMK in the next general elections.

This was the Congress’s situation. Now let’s have a look at DMK’s state of affairs. DMK has hit an all time low. They have a very low public acceptance with them at the moment. So if they decide to pull out leading to a collapse of the government, they won’t be too confident while going for the assembly elections at such a moment. So they are in a situation where they can’t demand anything and can only sit and wait for things to turn better.

So it’s more of an alliance where nobody can do anything but to stay together. But Kanimozhi has been made a scapegoat by Congress to show DMK what they are capable of. Also this has shown how helpless a father can be in the wake of Indian politics.

Social Networking +1

I was going through my twitter Newsfeed when an idea struck me to relieve me of my boredom so I got down writing

Facebook ask me what I'm thinking, Twitter asks what I’m doing, Foursquare asks where I am and Orkut....aaaa. Ok forget Orkut I can’t remember, anyways it’s dead. I decided to create some fictional Social Networking website with some catchy status update asking lines.

1. Food&me.com

Yeah it had to start with food.

What’s hitting that belly?

2. IPLHooked.com

Who is getting the next curse?

3. PoliticiansToTihar.com

Oh this one is one of my favourites.

Who’s coming next?

4. YeahImfat.com

What’s the next excuse to console?

5. GeeksAreGod.com

For some of my geek friends

How many lines of code today?

6. OneSidedLovers.com

Who is the hot chick that just moved to office/college/school/colony blab blab............

7. DepressedExLovers.com

When are the next happy hours and what’s on your mind Devdas?

8. PoliticiansInTihar.com

Yeah one more

How much?

9. RajniRulez.com

Any Joke will do sire.

10. Bored4mOffice.com

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Eureka........Eureka!

Don’t worry, I was not having a bath when I said the above words nor have I discovered anything new. I was in my usual place in the office doing nothing but some reading and mind thrashing. But during the course of my meditation (of course mind thrashing) I came upon the news of LinkedIn IPO and I could feel the fears of some sceptics and laughs of some lunatics. For the past 6 months or so I been hearing a lot of talk of another bubble in the making from the bubble obsessed people, our now beloved friends Americans. To be more precise another dot com bubble.

The recent events like the takeover of Skype by Microsoft and the LinkedIn IPO helped a lot by giving a lot to talk and write. I couldn’t help but feel that the only reason many of the American watch News is to find another bubble or to create one. So obsessed are they with the idea of a bubble that even after having disastrous consequences twice in a decade they still want another one.

It seems like God has definitely blessed America or Americans as to say by once again listening to them. I have been hearing stories of people driving across States with posters on their cars saying “God give us another bubble”. But this definitely is not a dot com bubble, even if it turns out to be a bubble in the end. This time it’s all about social networking. Be it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Zygna or Skype. The buzz word is social networking. There are people saying this is not a bubble as all these have sustainable business models generating good revenue year after year. But so were the companies that started the last dot com bubble like Ebay, Amazon and its revenue not profits people.

But this is not where the things go wrong. I read someplace there are three kinds of entrepreneurs. The first are the innovators, the second are the ones who tweak and take it to masses and third are the cheap imitators. The third ones are the one which are most dangerous. It seems that most of the people who run to the markets to invest have either not read or forgotten that “All that glitters is not gold”. The LinkedIn IPO showed how eagerly people wanted an IPO from the social networking breed. With some shares going at double or more the initial price of $45, its valuation went straight away to $8 billion in the trading market from the $2.5 billion it had earlier.

And the Curious Case of Microsoft buying Skype has not helped, but add more fuel to the fire. By no means this looks like a bubble. It when every Tom, Dick and Harry is making social networking sites to make those millions (which I guess is already going on) and the rest of Tom, Dick and Harries think that they can rank in the moolah by investing is when things go wrong. Both things have started, but not risen to alarming propositions. The next year is going to be very interesting to watch whether Facebook or Twitter comes out with IPO and how big of a response come from people (it sure is going to be big). It’s after that, the people who would think that they missed the bus will be interesting to watch. As these will be the gullible ones to burn their hands by investing in the third category of ventures. So let’s wait and watch the movie. From the looks of the initial trailer or teaser or whatever you call, it looks to be an interesting one. I have already bought the popcorns and a nice comfy seat. For the moment GOD BLESS AMERICA!