Infinite thoughts

पाऊस आणि गारा ओल्याचिंब धारा भिजवून टाकती पहा आसमंत सारा

मला या खेळात सामील करून घेतल्याबद्दल मिलिंदचे आभार. खेळाविषयी अधिक माहिती करता हे पहा : काहीशी माहीती माझ्याबद्दल: वाचनाची भरपूर आवड - होती.. काही वर्षापूर्वीपर्यंत. पण आता कार्यबाहुल्यामुळे फारसा वेळ दिला जात नाही वाचनाकडे (परत वाचनाकडे वळण्याचा प्रयत्न मनापासून चालू आहे). तर प्रस्तावनेचे कारण म्हणजे मी नविन पुस्तके वाचलेली नसल्याने जुन्या पुस्तकांबद्दलच बोलणार आहे. १. सध्या वाचनात असलेले/शेवटचे वाचलेले वा विकत घेतलेले मराठी पुस्तक: सखी - व.पु. काळे २. वाचले असल्यास त्याबद्दल थोडी माहिती. वपुंचा एक अप्रतिम कथासंग्रह. अगणितवेळा वाचून झाले आहे आणि अजूनही परत वाचावेसे वाटते आहे. सखी, झोका, गार्गी, बाप सगळ्याच कथा उत्तम आहे. डोक्यात पक्की बसलेली गोष्ट म्हणजे - सखी. आस्तिक आणि नास्तिक याची इतकी सोपी व्याख्या मी प्रथमच वाचली. आस्तिक म्हणजे तो सगळ्या गोष्टींना होकार देतो तो आणि नास्तिक म्हणजे जो सतत नकारघंटा वाजवतो. अप्रतिम! ३. अतिशय आवडणारी/प्रभाव पाडणारी/(इतक्यात वाचलेली) ५ पुस्तके. सखी - व.पु. दुनियादारी - सु. शि. रक्तरेखा - प्रदीप दळवी राजाशिवछत्रपती - बाबासाहेब पुरंदर...

After spending so many years in the software industry, one can not be blamed to look at e-mail as primary mode of communication, specifically for the people who are heavily dependent on their customers who are across the globe. It is not always possible to have a face-to-face communication, rather it's rare. We mostly communicate with our customers/vendors over e-mails or phone. Telephonic conversation is possible in many cases, but one has to wake up early in the morning or wait till late evening if he/she wants to make a call from India to a person in US and this very fact poses limitation on it's usage unless it is forced. Whereas emails can be sent from anywhere, anytime irrespective of whether the recipient is awake or not and hence it has become a very handy tool. But the below mentioned article has rightly pointed out the short-comings of this easy way of communication. I had learnt them the hard way, but those who are new in this industry or new to this mode of communic...

It may not be new for many of us to spend 12-14 hours in company and doing work. It was the case even with me 3-4 months back. But then I had some relaxing time for till a month back. I was working 9 to 6 almost for 3 months. But after my recent US visit, the scene has changed drastically. I am practically working from 9AM to 10 PM with only two breaks - lunch and snacks. And still I am not able to complete my office work. No, it's not my fault, but the work itself has increased so much and I am trying to cope up with it. Plus, there are some other reasons out of my control which keep me busy through out the day. I had never imagined a day in company without orkut, without newsgroups, without coffee-breaks.. but it seems to be my destiny at least for next few weeks!

Google launched the equivalent of PayPal - Google Checkout . Google already has lot of other services (although not all are listed yet) which are becoming part of my day-to-day life, gmail being the most used. This new service allows user to store his/her credit card info for using during e-shopping, that too multiple cards can be saved. Isn't it a bit risky? Many services are getting converged in Google. There doesn't seem to be a good competition for google. Y! and MSN seem to be way behind. In money market we always talk diversified investments. Do I have an option in computer based services to diversify my vendors? I don't see that coming up in near future. If I loose my gmail password? All my data will be stolen in an instant. And that too with little possibility of getting any trace! I should look for some insurance company ... A new vertical in insurance business? :)

Outlook India is carrying an article on Mr. Lalooprasad Yadav, Railway Minister, India, about how he has turned the Indian railway from a-most-probable-candidate-for-bankrupcy to a second best profit making PSU (Registration required, else pick up Jun 19 issue of Outlook). You don't believe right? Same was my reaction earlier! A person, who is known only for his political shrewdness and bihari-zaTakaa, has done something that has left even IIMians wondering. Small steps to make the Railways a profit making organisation is the only thing that he has done. A simple thing like upgrading passangers from lower class to upper class to fill in the empty seats in upper class bogies. Isn't it a very common thing that airlines do normally? (yeah, ofcourse at some price, but they sure do, to get more occupancy on every flight). Laloo has done precisely same thing. I could never imagine he is that smart. Another important thing is that he appointed an OSD (officer on special duty) and ga...

Last few days had kept me busy in planning my trip to USA and hence didn't get time to post anything here. Lots of things have happened in last 15 days, but mostly they are related to professional life and hence won't mention anything more than this. On Monday, June 12, I received my visa and took a flight in few hours i.e. early morning on June 13. To my surprise, I completed check-in, immigration and security check in just 1 hour and that too without any hassles. It's quite pleasing, isn't it? Flight from Mumbai to Frankfurt was smooth. The cabin crew was good and very hospital. I started expecting same quality of service in my onward journey and soon realized it's not the case. We were served the snack and tea/coffee within 30 minutes from the plane took off i.e. 9:50 AM local time. And it was immediately followed by meal without any time gap. So, I had my lunch done by 11:00 AM and then there was nothing for next 5-6 hours. Even water or juice was not being serv...

You don't get it when you need it most And when you get it, you need it the least Isn't it an experience with all of us? When we start looking out for something, it's always a tough job. And in many cases you have to settle down for something that's not really what you want. And when you do that and when it's irreversible, you, surely, would come across what you were looking for. Life is strange! माणसाला आयुष्यात सगळे काही मिळते, फक्त त्याची वेळ चुकलेली असते ...

पावसाच्या मुग्धतेत, प्रेमाची आर्तता टपोर्‍या थेंबात, स्पर्शाची स्निग्धता वाहत्या पाण्यात, सहवासाची सहजता ढगांच्या गडगडाटात, मिठीची पूर्तता!

नेमेचि येतो मग पावसाळा या म्हणीप्रमाणे पावसाला आता सुरुवात झाली आहे आणि त्याचप्रमाणे रस्त्यांच्या दुर्दशेला. कर्वे रस्त्याची वाट लागलीच आहे पहिल्याच पावसात , आता बाकीचे रस्ते पण त्याच मार्गावर जातील. मागच्या वर्षी पण हीच बोंबाबोंब होती. प्रशासनाने गेल्या वर्षभरात काही काम केले आहे असे आत्तातरी वाटत नाही आहे. मागच्या वर्षी रस्ते वाहूनच गेलेले होते. आता यावर्षी काय होते ते बघायचे. हरि ॐ

2 wonderful years of life together :) Yes, it was my wedding anniversary couple of days back and I was off on vacation enjoying the first rain of the season in the sizzling state of Goa. Had a fantastic time enjoying beautiful beach - Arrosim in South Goa . A wonderful trip indeed...

Sensex went below 11K mark on Friday and a panic wave is getting spread. God knows what would happen today, will it recover or will it go down further. Being a novice, I started reading about the stock market few months back. Since then market was booming like anything, right from 8K mark to beyond 12K. Now it is crashing for consecutive two days and is forcasted to display the same trend. I always wonder how all these things work! Is this a real reflection of the current economy or is it again a bubble? If buble, when would we see the real picture? But if it's not it seems really good. All FIIs bullish on investing in India shows their confidance in our economy. But if that is so, why this recent crash? I am hoping a similar crash in real estate market. Given current market rates, "home" is becoming a dream for a common man, probably for all other than IT folks. I have been reading that IT folks are being blamed for this scorching prices in real estate, but I feel it...

सध्या आरक्षण फक्त शिक्षण आणि नोकरी या क्षेत्रांमधेच आहे, त्याची व्याप्ती अजून वाढवली पाहिजे १. प्रत्येक व्यावसायिकाने ४९.५% व्यवसाय आरक्षित समाजाबरोबरच करावा २. प्रत्येक व्यावसायिकाने ४९.५% सेवक आरक्षित समाजातीलच ठेवावेत ३. सार्वजनिक वाहतूक व्यवस्थेमधे ४९.५% जागा आरक्षित ठेवाव्यात ४. सर्व रस्त्यांवर ४९.५% जागा आरक्षित समाजातील लोकांच्या वाहनांकरता राखून ठेवावी ५. भारनियमनातील ४९.५% आरक्षित समाजासाठी करावे ६. प्रत्येक बागेत ४९.५% जागा आरक्षित समाजासाठी ठेवावी. ७. पोलीसांनी प्रत्येक गुन्ह्यामध्ये ४९.५% .... ८. .... मी माझ्या मित्रांची यादी बनवायला जातो ....

I should mention about couple of sites I recently come across. First is a counter that counts the visits to the pages - ShinyStat It is not just a counter but also tells about the referrers and other statistics such as different browsers used by visitors, their operating systems etc. It is because of the ShinyStat that I came to know that my blog has been listed on the website maintaing collection of marathi blogs - marathiblogs.net I was amazed by looking at the collection of the blog sites that are in marathi - completely or partially. Because of the listing on this site, my page views went up at least by 45%. It feels good that so many people are reading my blog :) Now the last one - my friend - Manish , who gave me the idea and software - Baraha that helped me in writing marathi blog. Thanks to Manish , ShinyStat and marathiblogs.net . (P.S: I don't yet know how I got listed on marathiblogs.net website ... )

हा एक असा चित्रपट आहे की जो मी कितीही वेळा बघतो. मला माहित नाही का ते. बहुदा "उटोपिया" मुळे असेल. पण कधीही लागला तरी मी बघतोच... मला असे वाटते की माणसाला जे प्रत्यक्शात नाही ते बघायला आवडते आणि त्याचमुळे मी पण हा चित्रपट वारंवार बघतो. काय नाही आहे त्याच्यात - काम करणारे सरकार, गुंडांना सजा देणारे सरकार, तरुणांसाठी रोजगार निर्माण करणारे सरकार आणि बरेच काही.... अनिल कपूरने काम छान केले आहेच, पण मला सगळ्यात जास्त काम परेश रावळचे आवडले. त्याने "शिवाजीराव वागळे"ला जे काही प्रोत्साहित केले आहे, त्याला तोड नाही. "शिवाजी वागळे" मधले चांगले गुण ओळखून, त्याची नस ओळखून त्याने बरोबर त्याला राजकारणात येण्यास उद्युक्त केले. त्यावेळचे त्याचे जे संवाद आहेत त्याला तोड नाही. जर प्रत्यक्शात असे सगळे झाले तर? आजूबाजूचे सगळे अराजक नाहीसे होईल.. खरंच होईल की सगळे मिळून "शिवाजीराव वागळे"लाच संपवतील? हे सगळे आज लिहायचे कारण ... मी काल परत एकदा "नायक" बघितला :) Let me translate all these thoughts in English now. This is one movie which I can watch 'n' t...

सगळे काही सुरळीत, सगळे काही व्यवस्थित मग आज असे अचानक, कुठून आले वादळ अवचित? सर्वांसोबत चाललो होतो शिखराकडे, अचानक एकेक जण साथ सोडे का? कोणास ठाउक? विचारणार तरी कोणाला, सोबत तर पहिजे ना, कोणाशीतरी बोलायला ओठ दाबून बसतो मी, चिडिचिप, वादळानंतरच्या शांततेत निपचित..... Copyright © 2006 Mandar Behere

I am always baffled by the commuters who want to break signals, overtake in haste and try to reach destination 15 seconds faster. Apparantly each driver is always in a hurry and can't afford to loose even 10-15 seconds during his way to office or back home. In trying to achieve that they will try to jump the signals, make others to jump the signal by honking endlessly, try to get to the front row while waiting for signal turning green and all such tricks. They don't realize how much stress they carry along with them while managing all such circus. And obviously, as a result of all this, when they reach the destination, they feel tired, exhausted and may be frustrated. It's time to take a step back and think. Is all that circus really necessary? Is it worth the stress that we carry along? Can we do something better? Yes. Here are some tips. When you are approaching the signal, try to get into appropriate lane, so that you can move smoothly once you get green. While waiting, ...

Do you like that pizza hut serves only Pepsi beverages ? Or McDonald's serving only Coke? Isn't it like you get stuck up with something because you like something else? Wouldn't it be nice if there were no tie ups between Pizza Hut and Pepsi or McD' and Coke? And now extend this imposed restrictions to internet. What if your internet provider provides very slow access to GMail and much faster access to Y! just because he has a tie-up with Yahoo? " Why You Should Care About Network Neutrality? " covers an excellent view of the problem. After pondering over the idea, I felt this idea of neutrality may not be really applicable to other aspects of life, like the ones I have mentioned above. Even though I prefer Coke, I do take Pepsi when I am having a pizza at Pizza hut. I don't say, "If there's no Coke, I won't have anything else". Same thing must be happening with other who prefer Pepsi and are visiting McD. So who is the looser? None of ...

I wanted to cover something about orkut before this blog, but somehow this topic got more attention. I was browsing through various communities on Orkut and surprisingly there was equal number of communities dedicated to the hatred .. "I hate ....." and "I love .....". It's not just about the names of the communities, but even in any community discussion, you can find people displaying their hatred and unfortunately justifying or taking pride in that. Hatred is such a malicious thing that it eats up all your energy in something that's not really worth. Instead one can utilize the same in other direction - towards the things that you love. I can understand dislike. You may not like each and every thing in this beautiful world. But hatred .. that something make me sad. It's not just on orkut, it's everywhere around you. If you take up any of the daily soap operas, you would find only conspiracy, hatred, treachery, betrayal. What kind of message is get...

Probably the most talked about topic... about 1,650,000,000 entries on google , but probably the least understood... Yesterday I happened to be at a function comprising of an orchestra, a comedy show and followed by dinner. The show was scheduled to start at 7:00 PM which actually started after 7:30 PM. The comedy show was scheduled towards the end of the orchestra, which got slipped in during the interval for the orchestra. The comedy show took almost an hour and thus the rest of the songs in the orchestra had to be re-scheduled post-dinner. Many of us who had attended the function only for the orchestra had to sacrifice half the show or had to wait till late nights. It has become a customery at least in Indian culture not to honor others' time. Surprisingly we find proud in saying IST means Indian Stretchable Time. We have lost, or should I say we never had, a sense of understanding value of time? It has remained only in the management jargons and not really understood or follow...