The Chronicles of a Happy Life

Check this out. Has anyone seen this kind of thing before? It would be interesting to know how much these people spent on it.

Watched Omkara. nice movie. What is it about Ajay Devgan that makes him so fundoo as a ganster? I just loved his role in Company and now in Omkara.

Got quite a few of my midterm marks. I’ve made lots of stupid mistakes and strangely quite a few people here simply don’t make them. That’s the bad part. The good part is that I’m hoping that by the time I’m through with this place (rather, this place is through with me), I’ll be able to be consistently fast and accurate under high pressure situations.

We got our HRM mid-term marks yesterday - it was actually more of a strategy paper. I had always thought that I was good at that. My marks are below class average. Today we got our OM marks. I love that subject. It’s got the exact mix of soft stuff and hard math to interest and excite me. My marks are barely above average. I’m doing better in the other subjects and anyway, marks have lost their sting. I’ve seriously started to look at them objectively as indicators that tell me how well I’m doing instead of having some intrinisic value. But, OM still hurts. It’s been less than an hour since the papers were distributed. I should be back to normal after a while.

I’m starting to like ID. I’m still half scared of it because in almost every class, we are asked to take a psychometric test and I worry that one of them will reveal that I’m only a phony and not a very good manager. So far, that has not happened. But anyway, I like it because I think I’m understanding myself and the world a lot better because of this course. Also, I took this Myers-Briggs test. I don’t think I should reveal the results here - they are way too accurate.

Went on the 2nd IIIT-IIM treat in history :D It was fun. Thank you Vipul (I cannot bring myself to call him by his dorm-name!)

I’ve been listening to songs by Dido a lot lately, esp videos ;) Heard my first Dido song only a couple of days ago. Here are its lyrics:

“White Flag”

I know you think that I shouldn’t still love you,
Or tell you that.
But if I didn’t say it, well I’d still have felt it
where’s the sense in that?

I promise I’m not trying to make your life harder
Or return to where we were

I will go down with this ship
And I won’t put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I’m in love and always will be

I know I left too much mess and
destruction to come back again
And I caused nothing but trouble
I understand if you can’t talk to me again
And if you live by the rules of “it’s over”
then I’m sure that that makes sense

I will go down with this ship
And I won’t put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I’m in love and always will be

And when we meet
Which I’m sure we will
All that was there
Will be there still
I’ll let it pass
And hold my tongue
And you will think
That I’ve moved on….

I will go down with this ship
And I won’t put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I’m in love and always will be

I will go down with this ship
And I won’t put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I’m in love and always will be

I will go down with this ship
And I won’t put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I’m in love and always will be

When we are children, we want to be just like our parents.
When we are teenagers, we become over-conscious to their slightest flaws and want to have nothing to do with them
When we grow up, we end up just like them.

Links
Why firefox eats so much memory?
The Evolution of Software Development - nice pic :)
History of Computer Science
10 reasons to buy Windows Vista
Multi-Touch Interaction Research
The history of kissing
Some cool cartoons on the Danish cartoon controversy
Firefox extension for gmail space

Arrived at the city of boiled beans early in the morning today. The AC bus ride was much better than I expected. It would’ve been even better if it would have been possible to switch off the speakers. I was forced to listen to Telugu/Kannada garbage at night and the stupid ‘Good Morning Bangalore’ programme in the morning. The RJ, Basanti was practically stammering - apparently, she was trying to speak very fast to be cool but was failing miserably.

Racism in India against Indians
Bhago has written about how Indians were being discriminated against on their own soil! I did some googling and came across this site which had this to say:
“Having moved, we were now situated near the tourist cop, and what ensued really bothered me. He was preventing Indians from moving North past an arbitrary line in the sand. The locals, mostly groups of fully-clothed, pervy looking men, just sat at the line, gazing into the “white” section of the beach. One kid even had a pair of binoculars. I went over to ask the cop about it, and he said that the locals aren’t allowed past that spot because there have been problems with white women getting harrassed, and sometimes even groped, by the locals here. I was left with a funny feeling, after all, is self-imposed racism a tolerable facet of modern society when that racism serves to better improve the lives of those locals through the tourist economy?”

Power of diversity (Another extract from the same site)
“…This may explain why Indians are so mellow: the Muslims slaughter cows in the face of Hindus, then the Christians eat pork, which would ordinarily piss off both the Muslims and Hindus. Of course, the Hindu boys hold hands, which flies in the face of Christian homophobia. And the Jews just sit back and throw their hands in the air!! See, Indians have to be laid-back, otherwise they’d blow each other away in minutes. Its the ultimate testament to the power of diversity…”

Links
On Gandhian self sufficiency
Yet another site relating to startups
The Harvard Business Review List - Breakthrough Ideas for 2006

Boot Camp @ Nagarjuna Sagar
CL arranged a trip for all its PDP (Personality Development Programme - basically, GD/PI prep) students with IIM calls to Nagarjuna Sagar. The resort, Punnami resorts was simply amazing. The AC/TV equipped rooms were simply amazing and a pleasant surprise (I’d been expecting a poorly-lighted dorm!). I knew that such royal treatment would be routine after an IIM education - but before?!

We had a lot of fun and also learnt a lot. They showed us a video about IIMA (the video was meant for recruiters) - and one dialogue stuck in my mind - “Students from IIMA are expected to behave in no different a manner than people from royal families. They are supposed to take initiative, aim high and achieve their goals and there’s no stopping them.” I’m really inspired.

Felicity
Won third prize in IT quiz. I was overjoyed as Satvik’s team came fourth >:-). There’s nothing I like better than defeating a worthy adversary :-D

Also, won third prize in BizUnderstanding. I was heartbroken as there’s nothing worse than doing badly at something that you thought you were good at :-(

Mr and Miss Felicity was good. I esp liked the ‘bad dog, mad dog’ song. Contrary to some people, I really think Himanshu Agarwal deserved to win. I agree that all the answers in the ‘question round’ were ‘world peace’ answers but his answers were simply better.

The best browser
Using opera is so cool. It’s quick to open. There’s the easiest possible shortcut for increasing the text-size (+) and there’s even one for increasing it in large jumps (C^+). It also eats up lesser RAM than Firefox. And importing bookmarks from Firefox into Opera is so easy…

Open FireFox -> Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks -> File -> Export -> Save (as html).
Open Opera -> File -> Import and Export -> Import Netscape/Firefox Bookmarks.

I just realized that some of my earliest blog posts were on finding a good browser. I feel so stupid for using firefox for an entire year X-( Btw, all my blogger posts have been successfully imported to wordpress. Thanks, Pati. Also, now that I copied and pasted this text from notepad onto wordpress editor - the wordpress editor looks primitive. Opera is also not perfect :-(

GD/PI prep
I really need to build content. And I need to get at least a basic understanding of _primitive_ sports like cricket, olymics, etc. And I hate keeping abreast of current events unrelated to business and technology - like reading about two brothers who’re fighting, again! There are also several subjects that I need to brush up study (why did I take up Project Management?!!) before I go in for the interview.

At least, I’m happy that I’m ok with the introspection questions - One tough question was, “Why MBA?”. I did a lot of soul searching to zoom in on my answer, “blah blah tech consultant blah blah”. As for the other tough question, “What are your chief weaknesses?”, friends and family quickly rose to the ocassion. My mom gave me _five_ major weaknesses in a flash - she didn’t even have to think for a second :-|

Fate?
Ever come across a person, or heard about one that you think could’ve been you had just a few things in your life turned out differently? Last night, I was cleaning out my ‘Bookmark’ archives and stumbled onto Ashish Kumar’s blog. Check out his profile:

IITK, B.Tech, CSE -> Microsoft, Redmond -> Entreprenuer, Tekriti
Tekriti has one product so far: TekUnity a solution for managing a housing society (corny? I know!). They also provide services - outsourcing and product development.

Cool Links
Make money by selling companies, not products!
Find music that you’ll like. (It didn’t work for me - I disliked two out of every three songs their engine recommended, but I think it was a nifty idea)

Bill, watch your back!
New Google Desktop grabs more of MS’ turf
Google Sidebar
Google launches operations in India

Help Wanted
Does anybody know how to make sure that smiley’s remain in ASCII form? The pic-form completely distorts the text, esp for someone like me, who uses them extensively.

SOLVED: There is a checkbox in ‘Writing Options’.

Also, is there a way I can get a paragraph format (the first sentence is indented to the left for each para) in wordpress?

I just read Imagining the Google future (thanx, Slashdot). This is a set of four different future scenarios for Google. The Ray Kurzweil one is shocking - his scenario is cheekily titled: ‘(Circa 2105): Google is God’. What is even more shocking is that it’s difficult not to believe him. Read his books - The Age of Intelligent Machines and The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence for more information.

Why do you like computers?
Patently absurd - the mahabharata over intellectual property at RIM (from Slashdot)
How an ‘old-media’ guy is running one of the world’s best tech companies?
Google at work on desktop Linux (from Slashdot)

1. This blog turned one year old.
2. After my first mock interview, I was told that I need a really strong answer for ‘Why MBA?’ since I’m giving up a 6L job at a great company.
3. I realized that I’m not really convinced that I should do an MBA now.
4. Musa and Patel gave a treat at Gufaa. The best ambience, ever!
5. Lots of congress delegates have come from all over the country to pee in our campus.
6. The Dean’s Merit List Party happened and I missed the fried fish. I’ve the highest regard for my professors’ choice of reading material (the books are not at all bad in a literary sense. One could carry them on one’s arm at a literary critic banquet without being the slightest bit embarassed) and I’m thankful to them for organizing this event when they needn’t have done it, but I’ve absolutely no use for a fifth Gitanjali or books like ‘500 great personalities’. Give me cash.
7. Went to CDAC today. Almost starved to death, thanks to the dedication of DVD.
8. I’ve found that I think in bulleted points - not paragraphs or poetry as I think most people do!
9. No, that still does not give me the answer. No.

Links:

A very nice photo blog
An idea I liked
Open source Introduction to micro-economics

Perfect for long chats. Looks good. Really cool and fresh. Jassi, thanks for the intro.
Cool blue at CCD really rocks :)

Links of the day:

Enjoy the coffee, not the cups.
Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic
How Steve Jobs grabs media attention
Windows Vista
IIIT to become PMO during plenary
Quick and Dirty Reading strategy
What I learned at MIT
Trackback and Pingback tutorial on wordpress
something recursive

In 1944, C.S. Lewis delivered a speech titled ‘The Inner Ring’ to the graduating class of Kings College at the University of London. He asserted that the strongest of all drives is the desire to belong to an ‘inner ring’ - an imaginary circle of the important. But, he warned, status is like an onion comprising endless layers. No sooner do you crack one ring than you become obsessed with getting to the even-more-exclusive ring inside that one.
- Source

Links of the day:

Three simple actions that doubled my website traffic in 30 days
New interest in software products
How to Interview a Programmer
Chapters from latest Tech books for free
The Daily Brad