Infinite thoughts

Facebook Mafia Wars Scramble Chain Reaction Evony Orkut Twitter ... Getting bored with all these applications/games :(

While commuting from my office back to home, one day I noticed this new restaurant opened on the road to Karnatak Highschool, just before CDSS. From outside it looked pretty big and attractive enough to at least try it once. And so I was there on last Sunday, with a strong wish to have some good Punjabi food. And this restaurant dismayed me heavily. Here's the story: We ordered the sweet corn Veg soup and their supposedly "special" starters - "Tiranga Kabab". The soup was thin like water and the vegetables were not cooked properly. Then came on a huge plate, the kababs. The plate had more quantity of salad than the kababs and half of which the waiter just took away. The kababs, all of them were on sweeter side of the taste, also were completely dry. With every other bite, I was having a sip of water. In the hope to have some some nice Paneer dish, order was placed for Kadai Paneer, along with Dal Tadaka and Bundi Raita. The Paneer was pretty nice and soft, but a...

.. even if maids don't turn on time, .. even if Ritz delivery is still a week ahead, .. even if many of the roads have got replaced with pot holes, .. even if Pune is still facing water shortage, because IT IS RAINING THROUGH N THROUGH for last couple of days!! This brings a great hope back to the table that even after a delayed start, we might still get "average" rain fall and we might still have good crops and hence good year ahead. So far, the picture was looking gloomy, even the government had started acting in anticipation of a bad year, kind of acknowledging the bad weather conditions and its impact on the economy. Let's hope for more rains!!

Here are some links for weekend reading: Best new way to make an Internal Sale - Seth Godin NY Times and Wikipedia save Reporter's life by NOT Reporting on his capture - Tech Crunch how to take on the role of product manager in a new industry - Pragmatic Marketing $1M Netflix Prize Google Chrome OS Google Chrome OS: Dissecting A Great Marketing Announcement And Some fun links: Watch out where you put your ads - Business Pundit

This comes as 100th post on "Infinite thoughts", rather slow rate than the name suggests :) It took almost 4 years to reach this mark, statistically speaking 2 posts per month. But practically, there were many months of inactivity, many sudden spikes and similar things, basically lacking consistency. Not surprised. It really takes lot of patience to be consistent. One can not find any single pattern with the posts on this blog. It is completely random. But more importantly, this blog has served it's purpose - providing me a platform to express my thoughts without the fear of whether people will listen to or not; whether someone is interested in it or not; whether what I am saying is correct or not. Thanks to the internet, blogs and all supporting applications, who have made this a very smooth process. Happy blogging!!

A good friend of mine, Arun, has announced a packaged tour of less known Hoysala Kingdom . For the readers in and around Bangalore, visit India Travel Blog for more details.

Here are some links for this weekend: Google Shares It's Need for Speed - TechCrunch Are Upload Speeds The New Broadband Selling Point - GigaOm Building Successful Long Term Relationships - A VC Why Am I Here? - Seth Godin How to Use Twitter as a Twool - How to Change the World - Guy Kawasaki

Update: This is an old post saved in draft mode for almost a year. For some reason, which I don't remember, I didn't post it and found it today while screening through the list. Amidst the much hyped Indian economy's struggle to keep up the pace, some good news has arrived. Abhinav Bindra has won a gold medal at Beijing Olympics 2008 . This comes as a welcome surprise considering usual dismal performance of Indian sportsmen at this world stage. In India, there is only one game and that is Cricket. However bad performance the Indian team may display, almost every Indian will still hope that India will win next match. At the same time, we show complete lack of interest in any other sport. Sania Mirza tried to steal the show many times, but lacks consistency. Same is the case with Paes and Bhupati . We know both of them more for their bickering than their game. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathor , who bagged a silver medal in Athens Olympics 2004, seems to be nowhere in picture in 20...

Some links for weekend reading: The Choices we make - The India Uncut Blog Two Questions on Empires and Scale - Emergic - Rajesh Jain's Blog What's off the table? - Seth's blog 3 Ways to Perfect Your Elevator Pitch - Business Pundit And some fun for the weekend: http://manbabies.com Thinking Outside the Box Doesn’t Work in Geometry Class

After a long time of inactivity, I have become very much active socially. Facebook , twitter , Blog are some forms which are helping individuals to remain connected socially. In these days of busy lifestyle, we don't find much time to connect with other folks - friends and relatives. But given the very nature of Human Being, he/she is ought to be a social person, barring few exceptions off course :) These social media have helped in fulfilling this basic need in a very effective manner. No, I am not saying these platforms are replacements for in-person conversations, but these are definitely feeling the gaps. If these wouldn't have been there, how would I connect to a friend sitting in the Uncle Sam's country and still both of us are updated about each other? At times it also helps in converting acquaintances into good friends. Few of you might also have experienced that there's very less "fear of rejection", since the rejection would happen in private and not...

In his recent post on GigaOm , Om Malik has sited a very good insite on how a startup is formed: Back when I was in college, as a chemistry student, I came to appreciate the atom more than anything else in the world. Atoms, when bonded with other atoms, form molecules. Some of these bonds are magical and the molecules can, in turn, be magical things. Startups are essentially the same. Atoms are the individual people; he company is the molecule. And that’s what makes our journey into the future — some of it predictable and a little bit of it unknown — so enjoyable. Three years into the opportunity of a lifetime, I still have a spring in my step as I leave my apartment, for I can’t wait to be with each one of my team members. I found this most relevant to my current Read - High Performance Enterprenuers . It aptly puts how a team at a startup should be. Read entire article here .

This is a very good sarcastic update on my earlier post - Disturbing News . Read Amit Varma's posting at India Uncut - It’s All In The Jeans . :)

Came across with two disturbing news yesterday. One of them actually has become common, but still felt disturbed when I read about it. Intolerence against the immigrants - you might be thinking about the MNS movement against North Indians, but I am referring to something else. Apparently, a group in Australia is playing havoc against the immigrants, and incidently they are Indians. While we are showing intolerence for the people migrating within the country, our fellow countrymen aspiring to immigrate to another country are falling pray of same thing. While I understand and sympathise with the natives to a large extent, I can not simply support their actions. Every person in this world seems to have become insecure (or is forced to feel insecure by media?) and that is leading to such nuisance. Read the news here . Not understand the real problem - A college in Kanpur has banned western outfits for "women". The reason given for this ban is to avoid eve-teasing. Now, this is ...

Interesting list of items that can be done by those unfortunate folks who either have lost the job because of the recession or were unlucky enough not to have one at first place. I have started becoming fan of his writings. Lots of things to learn from his posting. I had something similar in my mind while on the topic of unemployment in general, not necessarily due to recession. Specifically in India, we see many young folks not getting the right job or not getting it at all. But many-a-times what is observed is they either waste time with friends of same problem, or they go the depression way. How many of them really take effort to improve their skills and make themselves more markettable? How many of them think that they can actually spend part of their time towards NGOs and spend rest of the time in honing their skills? Many of the items listed by Seth may not be directly applicable in Indian context, but how about replacing them with some of the tasks that fit the bill and get goin...

After finishing off the book " Games Indians Play - Why We Are The Way We Are ", I have started with this highly acclaimed book by Subroto Bagchi - " The High Performance Entrepreneur: Golden Rules for Success In Today's World ". I am getting hooked to this book for the simple reason of easy narration. The examples stated are very common and I can easily link to those examples and hence can see the author's view pretty easily. However, I think this impression is very premature as I am through just a couple of chapters. In my earlier read "Games Indians Play", something similar happened. That book disillusioned me completely. I was looking for the answers how to tackle the games, what are the solutions or how to play those games yourself, if the need be. But the book didn't answer any of the questions. It just mentioned how are we, and didn't say much about "why" are we the way we are. Hoping to have a different experience with thi...

Just started with the famous one - Games Indians Play by V. Raghunathan. Came across a very powerful thought - A Glorious past can hardly be a consolation for a sorry present!! WOW!!

Very good taste; good service; adequate menu and nice ambiance - this how Xia could be described. Located off Karve Road, Near Sharada Center, this is definitely a new addition in the list of destinations for Oriental food lovers. Priced at an affordable rate (Approx Rs. 250-300 per head for 3 course veg meal) Xia offers a different taste for it's food items. To name a food - Thai Curry (Red/Yellow), Burmese Noodles, Indonasian Rice in the main course, Veg Tempura, Crispy Corn Chilly Pepper for starters. The restaurent has two storied seating arrangement, one is outdoors and the other closed one. Outdoor place is very close to the road and hence one may find it pretty noisy. If you want somewhat peaceful meal, choose the other one. The seating arrangement on first floor is much better than the ground floor and if you are a group of 7-8 persons, upstairs would be the right place for you. Overall, it's a good place to visit, definitely more than once :)

Recently attended nth corporate training - for a change this time it was actually good and I was completely hooked onto that through the day. Plenty of "Role Plays" and the discussions after that taught a lot. One common thing that I don't like about all these trainings is initial introduction part and to be specific - Tell us something unique about yourself!! Given the fact that I have been attending similar training since past 2-3 years and that there is very less churn in the company personnel at my level, I happen to attend the training with same folks most of the time. And every time everyone ends up with same "unique" thing about himself/herself. It gets so boring at times. I can imagine that the trainer is new and thinks not all participants know each other very well, but how does this unique thing help, God only knows...

Without breaking the suspense, I would just say 8x10 Tasveer is a one time watchable movie that too not in any multiplex. One can wait till it is available in video library or even till small screen premier. The story is about a person having super-natural power of going into the past 1 minute through any photograph. While he uses this to the rescue of the needy persons, he lands up in a situation where he needs to use this power for his own sake - to find out if his father's death was an accident or a murder. Once the plot is set, the story takes kind of predictable turns. It becomes easier to guess what the end is going to be and fails to keep the audience locked in the story. Akshaye Kumar is okay, Ayesha Takia-Azmi doesn't have much scope for acting as such, she just needs to be around. Anyone could have done that role. Frankly speaking no one leaves the feeling that this role couldn't have been done by anyone else. Movie seriously fails considering that it's a N...

If you cut lane, that is okay. If you rash drive that is okay. If you don't check emissions, that is okay. But if you park your vehicle, just two inches outside the faded marking, you gotta pay for that. Then it doesn't matter whether you have parked in the parking zone/side. It only matters if traffic police van passes from there. No, it didn't happen with me, thankfully. But I keep on seeing these kinds of incidences everyday, near my office and other places as well. Has anyone from the traffic department really thought why the mechanism of toeing vehicles to police station is not having any permanent effect? Why do people keep on parking vehicles in no parking zones or apparently just on the border? Do they want to take chance or are really unaware of the traffic signs or just be ignorant? Or is it a case that the fine/punishment is not at all acting as a deterrent? I feel all these questions should be considered by the authorities and see how to solve this problem.