Alibaug to Goa Biking Expedition Dec 2007

यह सुनेहरा असमान,
एक विशाल चित्रभूमि

यह समुन्दर की लहरें ,
असीम हैं उनके दायरे

यह सूरज का ढलना,
ढलना फिर उभरना

यह पंछीयोंकी उड़ान,
अमन का पैगाम

यह खूबसूरत समां,
हर दिन नया चित्रहार

- Akky

Akshay & Amit - Alibaug to Goa Biking Expedition Dec 2007

People waste too much time and energy in arriving at a decision; not enough in capitalizing on it – Akky

Aug'10

To the serene lake and
the misty mountain peaks
I dearly missed them
all this time

To the sound of silence and
star gazing at night
I am going to miss you
all the time

To the very special moments
and spotting the pink butterfly
I will treasure you
all my life

I am just back from
a trip to paradise
and now I wonder, why?

- Akky

P.S: To Paradise and Back revisited.

Feb 2009

मिले थे सिर्फ दो बार
ज़िन्दगी भरकी सौगात मिली
कभी ना भूल पाए
ऐसी प्यारी यादें जुड़ी
बस यूंही बातों बातों मैं
यह दुनिया उलझती गयी

चाहकर भी फिर ना मिल पाए
आखिर गलती भी हमारी थी
हमने कसम जो खायी
आपने उसे निभाई
बस यूंही बातों बातों मैं
यह दुनिया उलझती गयी

डरते हैं उस दिन से
जिस दिन आपसे टकरायेंगे
क्या पता उस दिन भी आपको
पुरानी कसमें याद आएंगी
बस यूंही बातों बातों मैं
यह दुनिया उलझती गयी

घम नहीं हमें किसी बात का
नाही कोई तकरार है
बस मिलनेकी चाहत है
और उसी दिन का इंतज़ार है
क्या कहें, बस यूंही बातों बातों मैं
यह दुनिया उलझती गयी

- Akky

Photo: Artist's Rendition - June 2010

In you,
I see a rock star
I see an opera singer

In you,
I see a carefree bird
I see a conscious soul

In you,
I see a compulsive talker
I see a absorbing listener

In you,
I see a torrid lover
I see a understanding partner

In you,
I see a spoilt brat
I see a loving mother

In you,
I see a confused girl
I see a woman of substance

In you,
I see my fantasy
I see my girl

- Akky

P.S: If you like this, you may also like to listen to My Girl by Temptations (on YouTube)

Singhagad in the rains

Chasing the sun,
we were on top of the clouds.
At nature’s mercy,
we were enraptured by the hatched conspiracy.
– Akky

Launchpad McQuack - If it has two wings, I can crash it!

Ask for another chance from the people who believe in you, not to prove yourself but to prove them right – Akky

_

A night so silent,
after the rain and thunderstorm.

A night so lonely,
I find it to be really long.

- Akky

Golden Gate Bridge, SF - August'09

The single biggest factor that holds everyone down is the fear of failure or rejection. Once you circumvent it you are always bound to win. Either you win the chase or you win over your fear. – Akky

Close your eyes
Open your arms
Feel the drift
Take the leap
- Akky

 

A glimmer of hope
And a dash of curiosity

A reassuring glance
And a loving hug

A peaceful sunset
And a generous gesture

A magnanimous bridge
And a dreamy skyline

A dazzling necklace
And a childhood boot house

A cacophonous beach
And a tangy delicacy

A restless sea
And a balmy breeze

A moonlit face
And a twinkle in the eye

A comforting exchange
And a heartfelt confession

A welcome pause
And a connect for lifetime

A sumptuous meal
And a historic monument

A long drive back
And a coffee after midnight

A night to remember
And a day I won’t forget

- Akky

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you look back in history and read the lives of the greatest of warriors who inspire generations after generations; you read how unanimously they won their battles, how they earned respect from the enemies they fought and how valiantly they fought their last battle. For once the result doesn’t matter. Today, I feel the same for Mumbai Indians. You made us proud, you won my heart. – Akky

Sunset at Juhu Beach

It’s been a while
a while feels like ages

Eyes have been looking
been looking for you

I knew I’d notice
I’d not miss

For I have been waiting
been waiting for this

I want to tell you
tell you how it feels

And I have no doubts
Yes Baby, it’s You

- Akky

Solo flights - Paragliding at Kamshet Oct'08 (Photo Courtesy: Rajsekhar Aich)

Light on my feet,
I am ready to fly
Not born with wings,
But I have the zest to try

I am not afraid to fail,
I am not shy
I belive in me and
I m the one who wants to fly

- Akky

P.S: Re-phrasing the moments while I was preparing for my first solo flight :)

Update: Kunal sent me this video of my first flight. Yaaay!

Last week I had been to see Harishchandrachi Factory, a Marathi feature film which is India’s official entry to Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film Category. I throughly enjoyed the movie and I am very happy to see some outstanding Marathi movies being produced these days. In fact, I pulled in my cousin to the theatre with me who hadn’t seen a Marathi feature film for years because he hadn’t witnessed the new wave of Marathi cinema.

In a line: It’s a Charlie Chaplin take on the struggle of Dadasaheb Phalke in making Raja Harishchandra in 1913, India’s first feature film.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Although, I could be a little biased but I would rate it higher than 3 idiots. Even if you understand very little Marathi, I would still urge you to not miss this film!

Set yourself a goal.

Set yourself a deadline.

Define success at the start.

Make a plan to make it happen.

Build a team to help you.

Get the team to sign up, head and heart, to the plan.

Understand there will be hurdles, barriers. Accept them. But defeat them.

Work each day toward getting things done. A little can do a lot.

Keep the end goal in your mind at all times.

Understand the importance of your energy. Your stubbornness. Your persistence.

Half way through a project is always the lowest point. You are neither at the start, nor at the end. Energy dips, morale is low. Have a day off.

The next day remind yourself why you started it in the first place.

Focus. Focus. Focus. But focus on the most important thing.

Tell the world what you are doing.

Tell the world your deadline.

Celebrate progress. Any progress.

Never give up.

Look back at how far you have traveled. It will surprise you.

It will also tell you that you are closer to your goal than ever before.

Keep going.

Then one day, after many, many days, you will complete your goal.

You got there in the end.

Your words and your deeds are one. Most people in life are just talkers. But you are a doer. Well done.

by David Hieatt

Source: DoBlog

I am inspired and short of words. I would rate this only second to Steve Job’s ‘How to live before you die?’ commencement speech and that would be on the basis of the role they have played in my life at critical junctures. I just can’t thank David enough for this and the least I could do would be to follow the path.

Logan Square, Philadelphia (place I wrote this down)

Few years back
I said to myself
Said to myself
that You were the one

Even that day
I had no doubts
Had no doubts
deep in my heart

I wanted a chance
to look in your eyes
Look in your eyes
and confess my love

I promise I tried
to ask you out
Asked you out
but you weren’t convinced

Now that I think
I should have tried
Should have tried
and given my best

Here I am today
and I want to confess
Want to confess
you’re still the one

I don’t expect
for you to feel
You to feel
the same as I do

I want you to know
that all I wish
All I wish
is good for you

Nothing’s gonna change
of what I feel
What I feel
is my love for you

Years down the line
and all I fear
All I fear
you may still be the one

- Akky

P.S: I wanted to compose this into a song but that didn’t happen :( and it was one of the reasons why it took me so long to post it on my blog. So, for now enjoy the lyrics of what could have been my first debut single ;) Click here to see Logan Square in all its beauty.

akshaysurve.com December 2009

I get bored with the design on my blog so often that I keep playing with its look and feel all the time. I have just made a switch to a new design and look forward to your views on it. Even if you have no opinion on it – please do drop in to say ‘Hi’. Feels good :)

Mid-air San Francisco to Chicago

“Every sunrise that fights to breakthrough, germinates a million hopes to soon follow through.” – Akky

P.S: Liked this one? Would love to read your comments. You may also like others from the Quote-Unquote series.

ISB iDiya 2009 - Winner

“Success or failure is not a reflection of who you are, its simply a local maxima or minima.” – Akky

P.S: Liked this one? Would love to read your comments. You may also like others from the Quote-Unquote series.

Colors of the 'Monsoon Sky' from my window

“A freshly painted canvas is up in the sky, any single moment you can give it a try.” – Akky

P.S: Liked this one? Would love to read your comments. You may also like others from the Quote-Unquote series.

Reaching for Nirvana - By Rajsekhar Aich

“Hunger is what it takes to earn the bread.” – Akky

P.S: Liked this one? You may also like others from the Quote-Unquote series.

Baby V & Akky

For a moment,
I was lost in another moment.

In that moment,
I lived a thousand moments.

The next moment,
I was back in the moment.

Now for a moment,
I again wanted to get lost in that moment.

Alas, I had found that moment,
Now how could I again get lost in that moment?

- Akky

P.S: Liked this one? Just for fun you should also check “The Moment” which has a totally different flavor. Would love to hear back from you. Click here to browse through few others. You may also like the Quote-Unquote series.

Windscreen on a rainy day in Philadelphia

For a moment,
I was lost in another moment.

In that moment,
I lived a thousand moments.

- Akky

P.S: Liked this one? Just for fun you should also check the “Parody of a Moment“. Click here to browse through few other rhymes. You may also like the Quote-Unquote series.

Mumbai has been plagued with a series of controversies recently over the Mumbaikar vs. North Indian and Marathi vs. Non-Marathi issues. Being a Maharashtrian myself it would make me uncomfortable at times when in the media or elsewhere you would have people who would represent the so called Marathi viewpoint. None of their statements would strike a chord with my sensibilities.

Today, in the noise of the *roaring tiger* and the *meow of his cubs*, Maharashtrians in Mumbai and all over the world finally have a voice that resonates with what’s in their hearts in none other than the Master Blaster – Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Sachin made a comment,

“I am a Maharashtrian and I am extremely proud of that. But I am an Indian first. And Mumbai belongs to all Indians.”

Sachin is not only the greatest batsman in the history of cricket but one who truly embodies all the qualities to be called an idol.

Feels like singing…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sabarmati Aashram - MaR '07

Stream your thoughts,
Bring it on.

Let them flow,
Keep it on.

Even if no one cares,
I am tuned to your song.

- Akky

P.S: A rhyme for all my Facebook friends and Twitter followers. Liked this one? Would love to hear back from you. Click here to browse through few others. You may also like the Quote-Unquote series.

Amol Surve and RenSu Yang exchanged vows in the presence of close relatives and friends on the 3rd of October in the beautiful city of Sedona (Arizona, USA) at the heart of the Oak Creek Canyon.

The wedding planners (Amol & RenSu) did a fabulous job in ensuring that it was a unique and memorable experience not only for the bride and the groom but also for everyone involved. The highlight of the event was the confluence of the Hindu and the Chinese wedding customs. Add to it the attention to small details right from the wedding invitation to the wedding favors made it feel very special.

Please join me in wishing the couple a lifetime of great happiness, peace and fulfillment.

(Sometimes the embedded video takes a while to load. If you are on Facebook follow this link)

Ads4Good.org - Engaging people in the act of Giving

I am really excited to share with you that we have launched Ads4Good today.

From the website:

Ads4Good is a unique initiative which allows everyone with a blog or a website directly raise funds for their favorite cause for free.

I think you should visit ‘Why Join’ to know why and how you can join the initiative.

Read more about the causes we champion for:

• Education
• Animal Rights
• Poverty Alleviation
• Environment

In the next few days I would love to share with you how it all started and why I think this would change of how people look at online giving.

I would really appreciate if you show your support us by doing any/all of the following:

• Signup with your favorite cause
• Fan us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter
• Use a twitter overlay image of Ads4Good through Avartize

iNDiAn CEO WitH SiddhiViNaYak tEmPLe in the BAcKdRoP - 03:45am JuL'07

Every single day I fail to deliver
And every single day I don’t live up

Every single day I face failure
And likewise every single day I don’t give up!

- Akky

P.S: Liked this one? Would love to hear back from you. Click here to browse through few others. You may also like the Quote-Unquote series.

Mid-air San Francisco to Chicago

I don’t know how it feels
To find the love of your dreams

The one you are destined to meet
Could be seated next to your seat

An unknown looking glance
Could lead to that chance

A couple of introductory greetings
May lead to future meetings

Sharing your life’s motivation
Initiate an engaging conversation

You may go different ways
And that is how things could stay

So don’t hold back even that slightest thought
Why keep anything in your thinking hat

For all you know you may never see
The love of your life from your dreams

- Akky

P.S: Liked this one? Would love to hear back from you. Click here to browse through few others. You may also like the Quote-Unquote series.

You cant describe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence, thats all anything ever is, nothing more than coincidence. There are no miracles. There is no such thing as fate. Nothing is meant to be.

500 days of summer

Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2009

Even though I don’t run a marathon to win, on finishing I always emerge as a winner. – Akky

Villagers we met en-route to Harishchandragad

Every single day reinforces my fundamental belief that people are good and they would like to exercise this inherent urge to do good without having to go out of their way. – Akky

is in the theater about to watch Orphan with my sis. Watching a horror movie after years… not sure if it is the right thing to do :|

Don’t carry baggage from your past experience, only take forward your learnings.
- Akky

Lakshay - It took him 20 years and 4695ft to find himself!

Today, I revisited my Harishchandragad trek page which had long been ignored and had broken links and images. Finally, I have updated it and in the process I got lost in the memory trail. I also updated the title of the page to ‘Harishchandragad – My personal success story’; Yes, I think of it as a personal success story. If I look back it was not the toughest trek that I had undertaken but under the given circumstances it definitely played a role in helping me identify with my traits early on. Even today I strongly believe tough and uncertain situations bring to the surface what lies deep within. I am not particularly sure how enjoyable a read it would be for you, I would still recommend reading it.

Having spent the last 3 years working with startups either contributing as a part of a team or  founding one, I can categorically state that there are many dull and not so interesting tasks that need to get done. This is against the accepted notion that working with startups is all about doing interesting kick-ass work.

Over the last two years I have grown from thinking of doing only interesting work to making work more interesting. Although, there is a subtle difference in the wording the latter is more powerful and puts you in control. You reserve the opportunity to choose your own attitude towards your work and thats what works the best.

Recently, reading “Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results” reinforced this thought process for me. The book is a parable which draws from the success story of the Pike Place Fish Market in making their work more interesting.

Take a look at how the workers have fun at the fish market throwing fish around and bystanders cheering them all the way:

Click here to view the embedded video.

What makes me write this?

One reason was I just finished reading the book a couple of weeks back but its not the only reason. Three days back I was discussing about work with a friend of mine, lets call him PS. PS has completed his MS this summer and now has joined the technology wing of an investment company. With an year of prior experience in a IT company and completion of his MS I thought the company that recruits him would have a specific role for him and he could start contributing directly. This wasn’t to be true and took me by surprise. He would be undergoing a 3 month training program on C, Unix, Java and other technologies and would be inducted by one of the projects in the company. I was stupid enough to ask him, “You still don’t know the work or project that you will be assigned to, how do you feel about it?” He said, “I am sure I would love the work that I will be assigned to!“

Pluggd.in is running a fortnightly theme on Social Entrepreneurship and I had the opportunity to write a guest post on Social Entrepreneurship. You can read it online by clicking here. Please feel free to give your feedback on the article in the comments there.

I would sincerely like to thank Ankur, Utkarshraj and Aishwarya for reviewing it and providing inputs on a very short notice.

Next week I look forward to cover ‘Landscape and Opportunities for Social Entrepreneurs in India’. So, hold your breadth until then…

Click here to view the embedded video.

We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight.

We are going to live on. We are going to survive.

Today we celebrate our Independence Day!

Remember watching this movie with my brother on the big screen close to 14 years back and this for me as rightly put is the setting for a true Independence Day – when the world would come together as one and fight evil as one!

P.S: If you haven’t watched the video before – go watch now!

Lake Raleigh - (click to see the bigger version)

Trails could reach places
But the road couldn’t

Woods were dark and motionless
But the birds weren’t

Ripples travelled far and wide
But the water didn’t

Time passed and skipped beats
But the moments didn’t

Life will take a turn and shall try to move on
But thankfully the memories won’t

- Akky

P.S: Liked this one? Would love to hear back from you. Click here to browse through few others. You may also like the Quote-Unquote series.

Parktowne Place Apts - Linx Cafe, Philadelphia

I sat
Time flew
It took me
9^1/2 hours behind.
- Akky

“Decide for yourself; leastways you will have no one else to blame.” – Akky

Today, I shall be conducting a session on ‘Web Applications’ for faculty from various colleges attending the Short Term Traning Program on Web Engineering at Don Bosco. I have been told that there would be close to 45 faculty members and I am really excited. Primarily because I have always found faculty members to be more curious and eager to learn than students. I had also received some very good response and feedback the last time.

Embedded is the presentation I have made for the session. Feel free to comment and leave your feedback (…although it would make little sense without commentary from *yours truly* ;)

View from Peth Fort during Monsoon

Love is in the air
and its been a long time of despair.
Even I want to witness this affair.
- Akky

P.S: Attempt at writing a haiku. Would love to hear some feedback and extra points if you can guess the context right :)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Background:
This is a real™ video of me shot by Sankool while we were traveling back home in a local train. I had pulled an all-nighter the previous night and was probably a reason for inducing this jig. This video is old but still never fails to amuse me :)

“Tring, tring…. tring, tring…”, my phone rings in a subdued tone. Thats my ring tone and its subdued because I don’t like loud ones. I was expecting Sankool to arrive around 11:15pm. So, my initial guess was it was his call since I had asked him not to ring the door bell but give a call when he arrives. While glancing at my wall clock I happened to receive the call in a hurry realizing it wasn’t him. It was 12am and on the other side I hear one of the sweetest ‘Happy Birthday’ songs sung to me. Before the song got over and I could recover from this pleasant surprise I could hear a hustle outside my door. So, I opened the door and it was Sankool. While still on the phone and getting greeted by Sankool someone else barges in behind him. It’s Amit! Amit had come down from Pune and I totally didn’t expect him. By this time I kind of managed to keep the phone down but still not completely recovered from the flurry of surprises.

What followed next felt like a gang bang. Amit and Sankool over powered me and I couldn’t even cry for help as parents were asleep by then. Amit had ulterior motives as I hadn’t caught up with him for a while and had given his plans a slip for many times now. He made most of this opportunity. This surely didn’t leave a bitter taste all thanks to atleast a 100gm of gulkand which was emptied in my mouth prior to this.

While I thought everything had cooled down and they were at peace; Sankool had different plans. Sankool brought in a paste from kitchen what looked like a cake batter and Amit joined in for the festivities. They splashed it all over my face and Sankool kept asking me, “Guess! what is it?”

Non-Ayurvedic Glucose pack

For the record, it was Parle-G mixed with water. Yucks! Finally recession has hit us in the face ;) For all the shutterbugs here is a better pic.

Posing for the camera - click click!

Varun *thankfully* arrived late (and was not part of the gang bang; could have proved fatal ;) but scored a few brownie points by getting a Raspberry cake:

Attack - hapacha ;)

Amol and RY called up late night and kinda took me by surprise. Love you.

Amit and I had a lot of catching up to do – had been a while when we met last (that was 26/11). He would be marrying on the 27th of April and I was posing him all sorts of intriguing questions about marriage and how difficult or simple was it to take *the call*. I shall be attending his marriage in Kanpur next week – anyone joining in?. It was 5am when we finally went to sleep.

Now, its around 4pm when I am writing this down and for a second it feels as if all this happened yesterday. And then I am reminded of ragda patice and the special cake mom baked for me in the morning. Thanks mom. Not to forget a flurry of SMSes, calls, missed calls, emails and messages on Orkut and FB from near and dear ones.

Thanks to you all for making this a day I shall cherish.

“I am an a$$. I seldom tell people what they want to hear, I tell them what they need to hear.” – Akky

“I don’t climb mountains to conquer them but to get conquered.” – Akky

April has arrived. OMG! Yes, its already April. But it just feels like last week I had a blast celebrating the arrival of 2009. I am making this post as a reminder to myself and to relive some of the interesting moments in the first quarter of 2009.

January

KFC Ice Cream Sundae

Homemade tasty Aloo Parathas

Celebrated the New Year in Powai by the lake side. After relishing on some crunchy chicken at KFC we headed to the Powai lake alongwith the Ice-cream Sundaes their combo with the homemade Aloo parathas was just perfect.

SocialSync Whiteboard - makes sense?

January, also began on a very interesting note for SocialSync. We had the opportunity to discuss some investment opportunities and set our milestones for the next few months.

Standard Chartered Full Marathon 2009

Running and completing the Standard Chartered Mumbai Full Marathon was another big high. I must say here that unlike the last time when I ran the half marathon I was a tad bit smarter. Although, I did practice for the Marathon and was pretty regular back in September/October 08; I lost momentum and form as December arrived and by mid-December I was in a very bad shape. It was around early January that I made up my mind to run the Marathon smartly by re-accessing the situation based on my limited practice. A few more practice runs and I started feeling better. On the day of the Marathon I feel I did a fabulous job of recognizing my limitations but stretching them enough to complete the Marathon.

February

February was in its true sense an eventful month.

I finally made a trip to Bangalore. Overall I kinda liked the city; wide roads, footpaths on both the sides of the road :),
parks, pleasant weather and row houses. Public transport is bad and very costly at times.

Felicitation at Bangalore Airport

The first day was really long and now I sincerely hope it had never ended – all thanks to the fantabulous escort. Walking the streets of Bangalore and discussing Haute Couture to some unheard and for some unimaginable interpretations of God idols would remain etched in my memory for ages. God save God. Need I say, there was a tomorrow and then yesterday was just memories to treasure.

Yahoo Open Hack Day 2009

I won the ‘Best socially mobile hack’ at the Yahoo Open Hack Day 2009 !!! OYeah!

Me at Yahoo Open Hack Day 2009

Yo! Anil Wadghule

Yahoo Hack Day 2009 - Xen and The Thinking Mind

David Filo, the co-founder of Yahoo had come down specially for the event and was also one of the judges. You would probably not even notice his presence in a crowd of 10 people; he speaks less and comes through as a honest and humble person. The event was very well organized and the atmosphere was ecstatic. I won a 8GB 2nd gen iPod touch for my hack and believe it or not I gifted it to my brother; I am sure he would make much better use of it. The event wouldn’t be complete if I don’t happen to mention Anil who had come down from Pune; and we code jammed all night. I just slept for less than an hour sometime in the morning the next day after I had done justice to the idea I had chosen to work on. Staying up late and writing code comes oh so naturally to me – so I feel I had an unfair advantage among the 300+ hackers who participated.

RangDe - Akshay & Pavan

Pavan having a comfy ride

While in Bangalore I stayed at Prayas‘ place. Being with him is always enriching and thoughtful. Add to it having a blast with his son Pavan (in pic above) and some spiritual discussions with the grasshopper.

The highpoint of Bangalore was meeting some very interesting people and teams working on refreshing ideas

March 

March started off with a lot of excitement. Sushma maasi (aunt) and BabyV (Varsha) were going to come down to Mumbai. I am sure you must have heard of Varsha from me before or read about her on this blog before.

Varsha - Miss Photogenic

I ended my last blog post on her, wishing she remains as crazy as last time and may be shes taken it seriously :) Good for me, I still can play pranks on her!

On our way to Pawna Dam - Lonavala

On one of the weekends Mom, Maasi, Varsha and me drove to Lonavala. The drive was just fantastic. This was also my first time on the Mumbai – Pune Expressway which was a treat in itself. What worked for us was we didn’t have a long itinerary to follow for the trip; we were just looking for a weekend break. On the first day we visited the Karla Caves in the afternoon and later in the evening witnessed the beautiful sunset at Rajmachi point

Sunset at Pawna Dam - Lonavala

The next day we got up late, had a late lunch and headed straight to Pawna dam. The drive to Pawna dam was exciting with steep slopes and blind curves. The lake, boating, the ducks, peacocks and the sunset was just the perfect setting for spending ones Sunday evening. No doubt it inspired me to write this few weeks back.

The last two weeks of the quarter were great fun too. We made some terrific progress on the SocialSync community platform all thanks to Pavan.

The Inspirational - Y Combinator

YC is an inspiration. It took me close to two years to finally take the leap and submit a application – you know I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t for the right purpose, right team, right idea and right time. And this time the summer cycle is taking place in the Bay area; now isn’t that reason enough ;)

Engaged or Married? - Sorry, April Fool :)

Now how could I sign-off without letting you guys know of a very interesting tale. Last week I ended up playing a prank; or rather my friends just drew into it. I ended up uploading the above pic of me and my sister Mamta on Orkut *without* any captions. Within the next 36 hours I was flooded with 15 comments, 5 scraps, 3 calls, 2 SMSs and 1 email – all congratulating me and asking me whether I got ‘married or engaged?’. The timing inadvertently was so right that I didn’t have to scout for a April Fool’s prank ;)

Wrapup

Finally, I am myself amazed of how eventful this quarter has been. Sometimes it makes sense just to take a breather and look back at one’s journey; and this is what I did. Feels good now! I really would like to thank each and everyone mentioned/missed above to make this special for me. I am really looking forward for the next quarter and you can sure expect me to get back and cover it up for you :)

“Anyone can run a marathon, but not everyone does.” – Akky

To the late night balmy breeze and
the morning sunshine,
I dearly missed them
all this time.

To the lazy ducks and
the skinny peacocks,
it was really nice to meet
for the first time.

I am just back from
a trip to paradise
and now I wonder, why?

- Akky

“Sometimes it just pays to think less and do more. Amen” – Akky

“Don’t just say you have changed because change is impermanent.” – Akky

is feeling doped up after DevD

Close to two weeks into the new year and not a single post! Unfortunate but not sad. Things have been chaotic but not totally out of control. Sometimes its fun just to observe chaos as is.

If you are reading this or you have been continuously checking back for updates which you haven’t found then I really apologize for it. I would really appreciate if you leave a quick comment so that I know you were around. Many thanks and have a splendid 2009! Happy New Year :)

Before I go to sleep I am trying to remind myself of what I was missing all this while. The adrenaline of adventure, the energy from the rising sun, the stillness of the lake, the calm of the setting sun, the chill in the late night breeze and the quiet of night. Oh, hell yeah! I dearly missed all of this. Revisiting all this in a single day has been a treat.

Goodnight to me, sweet dreamzzzZZZ!

Finally, I have been able to take a ‘Power Break’ from work! Power Break is essentially similar to what a ‘Power Nap’ is for sleeping. More important you don’t loose grip over your work and come back more focussed. I will be spending this weekend at The Native Place. More updates coming your way soon.. ;)

Surprising! Back in the year 2001 Google had no clue of Facebook, TechCrunch, Michael Arrington and the likes (source). But it still knew me back in 2001.

Feels great :) Thanks Google!

“All business books are misleading. They only discuss the dumbest of events in hindsight which later turned out to be the best things to happen to anyone. ” – Akky

I feel I am free, albeit for a moment. If only I could tell you all how occupied I have been especially for the last two weeks. Its been really crazy. Now that I have checked off the 3 longest standing items on my todo list, I really feel relieved. By coincidence it also happens to be our Independence Day :)

Are you really interested in knowing those 3 items? Aha.. nope, I surely don’t want to pin them up here to be reminded of them again.

By the way I was just wondering why does August tend to be a crazy month year after year. You remember last year? I don’t know.

Few hours back I was watching this documentary on Nat Geo of 3 guys deciding to walk the whole Great Wall of China from its South Western tip till the Pacific. Thats close to 4500 km and a temperature shift of -40*c to +40*C (Gobi Dessert). Real crazy isn’t it? At the end it was just one guy who made it till the end and it took him 15 months. Other notably fascinating documentaries that come to my mind were finding the source of the Amazon river and locating the mystical place Shangri-La. Those guys finally stood by a puddle and pointed to it as the source of the Amazon, the world’s largest river by volume. I would sure like to do something like that… anyone have ideas? Not sure why? but I am longing for a true vacation already. Come December and I have some exciting plans, though can’t wait that long;)

“A good start is just half done. Good finish ensures battle is won.” – Akky

P.S: Credits » bE A SmArT FiNiSher

(Click on the above image to browse the complete album)

“Be alarmed and take serious note if you see yourself always occupied with urgent things on hand and leaving the important ones to become urgent.” – Akky

“Screw-ups aren’t all that bad, especially because you can think of them years later and have a hearty laugh.” – Akky

“Everyone digs a pit. Some use it to litter, while others use it for their grave. Only a few see it as the initial phases of the foundation for their multi-storied building and so they keep digging harder.” – Akky

“To start with its the passion, nearing the end is the sheer joy of fulfillment. So, its the midst you need to overcome with focus and a lot of persistence.” – Akky

“Everyone does his best to justify the path one chooses to follow. I have realized I am no different, except that I know I do.” – Akky

“If it is you who can fix things right, then why wait for some divine intervention.” – Akky

“Failing and not knowing why is a classic case for ensuring more failures.” – Akky

social|median harnesses social filtering to help you keep up-to-date with news that matters to you.

From their website:

socialmedian is a social news service that connects people with personalized news and information. socialmedian enables you to easily keep up-to-date on the news that matters to you and to people who share your interests.

Currently, they are in ALPHA (heard of web applications in BETA before? eg: Gmail. Alpha is a milestone just before BETA ;)

What I like about them the most is their approach. Jason the founder and his team at TrueSparrow are not churning up code all the time (like you would like to believe of a product in ALPHA) but constantly looking for feedback from their ALPHA users. At the time of writing this post they already had 2468 alpha users signed up and most of them active.

Now, it is this approach of theirs which I highly appreciate and when Jason announced the social|median design contest I had to pitch in.

I throughly enjoyed the whole experience of participating in the design contest while the product is in its ALPHA and probably help shape its vision/roadmap. My participation in the contest is a story in itself and it will probably unfold sometime soon on this blog (may be partially).

Interested in seeing my entry for the contest? For you all I have a special annotated version of the files I sent to Jason unlike the ones uploaded in the contest.

(I would recommend you to see the first and the third at its original size by clicking on the preview images below. The notes would also help you figure out what’s the application about.)

User’s signed in homepage:

User’s signed in homepage after clicking on expand profile:

Web 2.0 network on social|median:

You can go through all the entries here. To vote for me you can follow this link. I would highly appreciate if you take time out and make an informed decision by going through all the entries. Since, all the designs are also effectively ALPHA ;) do leave your comments here or on the individual design pages for the designs.

Thanks for taking time out and participating in the voting process. Looking forward for your feedback.

Update
Jason has been grateful and has extended some ALPHA invites to social|median for you! Grab them soon before they are gone. Leave me a message along with your email and I shall send you the code for the ALPHA invite.

Results are out:
Results are out and you can read more about it here. I didn’t win but I hope I did add value to the whole process. In all I am extremely happy with the contest and my entry for the feedback I received from fellow contestants, unknown friends (from what I noticed there were atleast 3 comments which went missing from that post after I read them. so if you see your feedback missing do push it to me on my email as I really value it) and well wishers. Thanks once again for your support.

“One day I will not remain as dumb and as foolish I am today. And that is what I fear.” – Akky

P.S: The one in the pic is Akshat. I am behind the lens :)

What to change?
Simply put I would like to start getting up early (be in the early riser group) and see if it affects me positively. Do you feel the same?

Is something wrong without it?
No, in fact I can go without it. Currently, I consider I have a schedule which allows me to put in the requisite amount of hours in my work and other activities that I want to indulge in. Overall I am happy with the pace of things and I have learnt to avoid the areas which produces the guilt feeling.

I will give you a small example here: Now the ideal time to go for a run/jog is early morning. I have tried my hand at it numerous times and finally settled at time around 9 pm. Now, I wouldn’t say I failed in all the previous attempts because all the times I consoled myself rationally that it was not the right time *for me*. Sometimes saying to myself that ‘I need more sleep as I have slept late’, ‘I am not the early riser kind of person’, etc. Bottom-line: I decided that it shouldn’t make a big difference if I jog/run at evening/night plus I get to avoid that guilt feel of not being able to meet my goals. This has worked wonders for me. I have been able to do all the things I want to in the time I have and surprisingly without the guilt feeling of not waking up early. For all these years I have enjoyed working late nights. I Feel it comes naturally to me. I love the calmness of the night, I love its silence. I feel hitting all-nighters (here, here and so many times) is a trait which I am proud of and has benefitted me over the years.

So, why now?
Right from childhood this has always been in the back of my mind. I have tried but I have not stuck with it for various reasons (they may seem rational while hitting the snooze button but not any more). I want to give it one more shot and for the simple reason that I know I can. But, from my past learnings I also know I can come up with some rationale to avoid it and so this post and a call for everyone who wants to cultivate this habit. So, let not make it an individual struggle but a collaborative experience.

What’s the game all about?
Lets play this game as a team. Remember, together we can.

Format:

• We shall draft the rules of the game together. :) All of them should be personally acceptable to each of us participating.
• We play this game for a fixed time period (say 30 days)
• We won’t make it a closed struggle. We shall publish online our small victories (waking up on time on a particular day) and write about our big failures (not waking up on time on some day)
• Seek active advice from people and allow anyone to comment of scold us if we don’t act by the rules.
• We shall not give up unless we are out of the game (you break the rules more than x times and you are ousted). Winners get accolades, looser feels the shame (but they can give it one more shot if they feel like and emerge as winners)

Hope you get the gist?

Vision
Is this only about getting up early? No, not at all. This is about change. This is a part of an un-named project that I am initiating (its yet to have a name and I am open to your suggestions, any?) Oh yeah, I can hear in the background cheers of… “yes we can, yes we can… ;)”

So are you game?
If you want to become an early riser than this is for you. Please leave a comment below or contact me on my email.

Updates

Barka and Anil have joined in :) Please give them a standing ovation (or better send them some words of appreciation in comments below. Pokes and vampire bites a strict no, lol)

For updates head straight to 42times project wiki project page:

• 30each

If you would like to join in, you can leave me a message below or contact us through the contact page on 42times project.

“Discover thyself and the world shall take notice.” – Akky

Take a closer look here on Wikimapia.

Akshay Surve said on Wednesday that he will not be part of the Olympic torch relay in New Delhi this week as … (I am sure you can imagine the rest of the story with references to Baichung, Aamir, Soha and now even Sachin.)

Media (specially, 24 hours news channels in India), please stop being elitist and flash the title of this post in your “Breaking News” section ;) You can also use my head shot with the news :)

Please, I hold the sentiments of everyone who have accepted or even declined the offer to run in the Olympic torch relay in high respect. This rant of mine is only targeted towards the media.

I never noticed this in Skype..

“Silence the coward within.” – Akky

Yes, I have once again cut down my RSS intake. It’s just a little above 150 now. Feels lighter :)

Update: Looks like its a cleanup day. I read a series of left over posts today and finally few minutes back just pressed “All Items” and then “Mark all as read”. Feels much better now. Why didn’t I ever think of this before (?)

P.S. Leave me a link to your personal blog below. I would love to keep pace with it ;)

“There is no harm in going all out for your goals, unless you don’t aim to achieve them.” – Akky

David, creator of Ruby on Rails recently made a post on his blog related to PHP. He did have some good things to say about PHP and as he rightly pointed out that it deserves some more respect from the community in general.

From his blog post:

I’ve been writing a little bit of PHP again today. That platform has really received an unfair reputation. For the small things I’ve been used it for lately, it’s absolutely perfect.

I love the fact that it’s all just self-contained. That the language includes so many helpful functions in the box. And that it managed to get distributed with just about every instance of Apache out there.

For the small chores, being quick and effective matters far more than long-term maintenance concerns. Or how pretty the code is. PHP scales down like no other package for the web and it deserves more credit for tackling that scope.

I have always respected and utilized them for tasks which leverage their inherent strengths :)

Bachao! Bachao!
I’ve heard whispers
- they are planning
to ravish me 2nite.
Bas tum mujhe
bacha sakte ho!
Tumhari aur sirf
tumhari, Kesari

What would you if you receive an SMS like this?

“If only starts decided the outcome, not many would have made it to the record books.” – Akky

“Utilize today, to not waste another tomorrow for today.” – Akky

I have submitted an entry to the N2Y3 Mashup Challenge.

From the N2Y3 website:

The N2Y3 NetSquared Conference brings together a unique mix of people from the public and private sectors to develop and release Mashups designed to provide deeper insight into the social issues affecting communities around the globe.

I have proposed ‘SocialHub – Dashboard for Social Change‘.

Thought behind SocialHub:

If you think you do, when you do you should share because when you share you spread awareness and make people think.

SocialHub is all about aggregating the latest and most popular content from various social change initiatives (platforms, websites, blogs) together and create a dashboard for social change.

SocialHub will act as a starting point for you and me who want to keep themselves updated about the latest and most popular content related to effecting positive social change. In addition this will also be of great value to social change initiatives to be showcased and build traction among its constituencies.

Proposed Status:
This is at a concept level. I would also like to add that like a true mashup its best to hack a version 1.0 and follow it up with an iterative approach to build upon recommendations from the community.

Proposed Roadmap:

To achieve our goals plus build upon learnings from verticals like web2.0 and technology. I would like to propose an approach which is heavily borrowed from ‘popurls‘ and learnings from ‘techmeme‘ and ‘digg‘.

To start with we will feature the latest and most popular content from top websites in their categories. As we move on we will take into consideration click-through, social filtering, recommendations and personalization to leverage the long tail.

Project page at N2Y3 Mashup Challenge:

http://www.netsquared.org/2008/conference/projects/socialhub

I would really appreciate if you could vote for my mashup entry provided you like it. Also do explore the Project Gallery which boasts around 120+ mashups.

Voting ends in the next 24 hours so you need to Hurry!!! (reads like a super-bumper offer).

Voting Rules:

1. Please register and log in to the NetSquared site.
2. Go to the project page. http://www.netsquared.org/2008/conference/projects/socialhub
3. To vote for a project, click on the voting badge or “Add Project to Ballot” link at the top of the page.
4. You may only vote once for a project.
   You must choose at least 5 (and up to 10) of your favorite projects. So please visit Projects link to review project proposals from others. Your ballot will only count if you have atleast 5 projects.
5. Submit your ballot to cast your final votes. Once you SUBMIT, that’s it!

General Observation:

I was going through the mashup proposals in the Project Gallery and most of them (I am generalizing, but thats what I feel) were in BETA. Contrasting it with SocialHub I would say is at the Concept stage. So here are some encouraging words from the Netsquared team:

We want to help separate apples from oranges this year. That is, we believe projects at the ‘concept’ level would benefit from being evaluated separately from projects that are much further along. To this end, please identify which phase you believe your project is in

I would like to add that although SocialHub is in its ‘Concept’ state its very much hackable ;)

Thanks:

I did mail people who I thought would be interested in the mashup challenge for some feedback and support. It was good of some to revert back quickly in support. Thanks. I am still scouting for your views and feedback.

“Do not think beyond the choices you can make.” – Akky

I agree I do a lot of egosurfing and its not just today that I have confessed to it. I have done so in the past.

Today, was just another day and I did what I love to do most on Google. Searched for “Akshay Surve” on Google and see for yourself.

Take a look at the screenshot attached below:

Those links below the first search result are called sitelinks. Here is what Google has to say about them:

The links shown below some sites in our search results, called sitelinks, are meant to help users navigate your site. Our systems analyze the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they’re looking for.

We only show sitelinks for results when we think they’ll be useful to the user. If the structure of your site doesn’t allow our algorithms to find good sitelinks, or we don’t think that the sitelinks for your site are relevant for the user’s query, we won’t show them.

At the moment, sitelinks are completely automated. We’re always working to improve our sitelinks algorithms, and we may incorporate webmaster input in the future.

The surprising bit here is that Google itself doesn’t have sitelinks under its search result (when I made this post). Google after all is the least SEO’d website ;)

“Seo By the Sea” has a very interesting article related to sitelinks and the patent related to Google’s listing of Internal Site Links.

I always thought that I was sound at White Hat SEO and understood it well. Looks like this would be a good addition to any SEO expert’s resume.

Now let me quickly share the reason I was pleasantly surprised. I was working on a master plan from the start of this year.

• Get to the top of search results for the query ‘akshay‘.
• Get my pics on Google when you search for ‘akshay‘.

The current one at the top is the Wikipedia page of Akshay Kumar. Defeating it would call for a celebration. Getting my pictures in search results at the top is going to be very difficult. Till then you could treat your eyes to Akshay Kumar’s pictures when you search for ‘akshay‘ on Google.

I started at number #10/11 around December/January. Now I am at #5 (here when I search for ‘akshay’, it may vary at your end depending on geographical location). Now I have got the sitelinks featured for akshaysurve.com which surely means Google is taking notice.

I never wanted to realize, what is sky,
I was happy knowing I could touch it someday.

I never wanted to realize, how far is the moon.
I was happy knowing he would come to greet me everyday.

I never wanted to realize, how big is this world.
I was happy knowing things around me is my world.

I never wanted to realize, what is rain.
I was happy knowing even God shed tears like me.

I never wanted to realize, what it is like to win.
I was happy knowing I will get to play one more time.

I never wanted to realize, what people expect from me.
I was happy knowing what I want for myself.

I never wanted to realize, what is right.
I was happy knowing things I wanted to do.

I never wanted to realize, all these things.
I was happy knowing nothing about them.

- Akky

“Summit is only a point from which one can safely return.” – Akky

Context: Thumb rule to follow when on a hike.

• TrEk ki YaAdEiN DoStOnKi zUbAaNi
• Dhak Bahiri – An Unsuccessful Attempt, Successful Hike

Yes, I am as fit as I ever was (well almost)! Remember of my 4 week training for the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2006 – 21 km and the follow-up stunts which ensured that I couldn’t continue running for months. Later, I did try getting back to running but couldn’t continue on a regular basis.

So here I am back after a good run with an improved timing from a similar previous run before.

So, what next? Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2009 – 42 km. Looks like the Bandra – Worli Sea link may be part of the track. Anyone game?

“You need no more reasons to give your best than to prove right the people who believe in you.” – Akky

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.
I have lost almost 300 games.
On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed.
And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is precisely why I succeed.”
- Michael Jordon

P.S.: I will be adding another stream to my website ‘Quote-Unquote’ where I will try to post some of _my pithy quotes_ ;) There will be some you must have already come across on I Am and some which I haven’t penned down before. Post frequency will be 1 in 2 weeks. Would you find it to be interesting? Post ‘+1′ in the comments if so.

Update: Thanks, guys. Here it is » Quote-Unquote

I still feel the same.

Was browsing through some of my older posts and came across this rhyme I posted nearly two years back which still holds true for me.

Would be interesting to know how many of you relate to this particular rhyme?

Do use WordPress? Heard of K2? If not, then you really have to give it a good look.

From the K2 website:

K2 is an advanced template for the blogging engine WordPress developed by Michael Heilemann, Chris J Davis, Zeo, Steve Lam and Ben Sherratt.

It won’t make you coffee, sing songs of sweet regret or sit at your bedside when you’re ill, but it might make life just a tad bit easier for you.

Think of it this way: Where WordPress is everything that goes on behind the scenes, K2 is everything that reaches the readers of your blog.

WordPress itself takes care of authenticating users, fetching and sending data to and from the database and provides you with the backend administration interface.

K2 on the other hand is the frontend of WordPress. It’s main concern is displaying the data fetches through WordPress in the right way at the right time. Furthermore, where more basic themes like Kubrick have little situational awareness, K2 cares about you and is always trying to make sure you are presented with exactly the tools and data you need.

K2 supports syles. Much like the main theme can be styled by using different CSS files.

K2 also has a stellar Sidebar Module(SBM) which is much like WordPress Widgets on steroids. Though, WordPress Widgets do have a more cleaner approach as they hook onto the WordPress Plugin API. On the other hand, SBM has a better UI to configure and more granular control for the users. Couple it up with solid API for the programmer. You can even disable SBM from the K2 admin panel to support WordPress Widgets.

So, here is my first SBM for K2.

Recent Category Posts – K2 Sidebar Module

Someone also had requested this as a sidebar module at the K2 forums.

Again and again I am reminded of the ABCDEFG problem I read in “The Nudist on the Late Shift — and Other True Tales of Silicon Valley” by Po Bronson.

“The ABCDEFG Problem.” I call it that because all good programmers have tons of choices to work on, A through G. Some choices seem cooler and some seem dumber, some possible and some improbable, but as to the payday lurking behind the door, they all look alike. They’re just A through G, take your pick. Choice A may be 3DO, and choice G may be $2 million of Microsoft stock, and Choice C may be a quarterback with four Super Bowl rings, but you just don’t know. It’s sort of like choosing one million units of foreign currency by which country’s paper bills have the splashiest colors, or making a million-dollar bet on the NCAA basketball tournament by whichever team has the sexiest cheerleaders. The variables that programmers have to go on (A-G) are not the variables that determine the outcome (X, Y, and Z).

And rightly said, “The variables that programmers have to go on (A-G) are not the variables that determine the outcome (X, Y, and Z).” So, do what you love and have fun coding :)

You can read an excerpt from the book here.

P.S. Hanisha, I still have the book I borrowed from you. Thanks :)

I had been on a hike to Dhak – Bahiri Caves in the Sahyadris. Though we planned it out as a short night trek it ended up being one hell of a long adventurous hike.

Amit, Mohit, Vikram, Varun and Me started off from Lonavala around 2:00 am at night. We lost our way initially in the city but the choukidars (watchmen) got us back on track. We had to reach Tungarli Dam and follow the trail half-way (approx 6kms) towards Rajmachi. Then take a right and hike towards Mansarjuma range. It took us 3.5 hours to walk in the moonlight with a couple of breaks in between to reach a place which looked like a village. It was breezy and so we though of sleeping for a couple of hours and hike the rest in daylight. We accidentally discovered a Hanuman temple while it was still dark and slept in it.

We got up by around 7:30am by noises around and so tried to figure out our location. We were at a village and it was good to know that we were still on the right trail. We also met another group which were asleep in a school nearby. They pointed us in the direction of Dhak vaguely and we took off so we could reach early. We were still 2.5 hours away from our base, Kondeshwar Temple.

What followed next was following a trail in the wrong direction for another 1.5 hours through the jungle. At a point we were totally confused and couldn’t find a distinct trail. It was then that I indulged in photographing wild flowers.

Finally, we decided to get back to the village and ask the villagers. We had already lost 2 hours, had 2 bread packs and just half a bottle of water. Back in the village, we understood where we missed the trail from the villagers and refilled our bottles. We thought of having breakfast and then continuing the hike. We had our bread with a generous serving of butter and moved ahead.

This time we were on the right trail. We could see the village, the dam, Rajmachi twin forts (Shrivardhan and Manoranjan) and a distinct trail most of the time. It was 11 by now and we were hiking in scorching heat. We followed the trail through the forest and finally got a glimpse of Dhak. There it was standing tall and a delight to our eyes after so long. Finally, we could see our destination and thus pull ourselves through rest of the hike.

–

–

Our next stop was the Kondeshwar Temple. We took rest in the temple for some time and started off for the final stretch. We had grossly miscalculated the time needed to get here. Initially, we were thinking of reaching Kondeshwar by 6am and now it was 12:45pm. The last ST bus service from Jambivali (nearest village) to Kamshet was at 6:00pm. So, we had to make sure that we reached the village by that time.

Most of the last stretch was through the jungle. Feels good to have vegetation to protect you from the sun.

Finally, we reached the point from where there is a steep descent to approach the Bahiri caves. After a 30 feet descent on the right you see a big cave which can accommodate atleast 30 people. From there crossing the rocks and climbing up leads you towards the Bahiri caves.

The path ahead looked dangerous. There was a clean fall of 80 feet of the left and the inclination was around 70 – 80 degrees throughout. The footing of the rocks was a few inches at most places. Me and Amit ventured ahead, others rested in the cave. Actually, they kept a close eye on our movement and guided us along the path when needed. It was 2:30 pm and the basalt rock was hot. No way could we support ourselves on the rock face. Our fingers had a burning sensation each time we took support on the rock. The climb was getting riskier. With no solid footing along the path stopping was not an option. We somehow got ourselves to safer location where we could stand on our feet without taking support from the rock. Next up was a vertical climb and then a rope climb to top it all. Because of the lack of water intake we were more susceptible to cramps. It was then that we decided that we better stop. Lets make another attempt, next time in the morning. Finally, it was a sane decision and we carefully got ourselves back to the cave where others were waiting.

Thats it! We headed back to the village and had some refreshments before hopping onto the ST bus to Kamshet. Journey back home was long (Kamshet – Lonavala – Kalyan – Slow train – Dadar – Borivali) and I reached home at 1:30am. All along the journey I had an incomplete feeling but the satisfaction of not doing something outrightly foolish.

All I want to say is, “I will be back ;)”

Click on the image below to look at the complete album:

I have been playing around with Erlang for some weekends now and I find it to be really interesting. I like the functional programming paradigm too. The syntax reminds me a little of Prolog (from my engineering days).

Programming Erlang: Software for a Concurrent World is the Pickaxe book for Erlang written by Joe Amstrong. Joe designed and implemented the first version of Erlang in 1986.

What’s all this fuss about Erlang?. This and recent articles on reddit got me interested in Erlang.

Yariv Sadan has also developed a web framework on Erlang named ErlyWeb. ErlyWeb is in its 0.7 version and has some Rails kinda feel to it but doesn’t look as clean as Rails because its on Erlang. Not many people get it but its actually because of Ruby that Rails does most of its magic its said to do. ErlyWeb is a commendable effort and I really want to give it a fair shot before I form a opinion about it.

I have a very interesting project in mind where Erlang fits the bill perfectly. More about it sometime later ;)

E-Week India PLEDGE

If even one of the below resonates with you, please pledge:

Today, I renew my Pledge to an Entrepreneurial India.

I Will:

• Break barriers between industry and academia
• Foster information flow between the sectors
• Regularly include entrepreneurs, industrialists, investors and professionals in campus programs
• Find new and innovative ways for students to experience industry before graduation
• Facilitate faculty interaction with industry
• Work to bring the discoveries of the lab into society
• Innovate in my work
• Consider working for start up companies
• Stop complaining – and start fixing the problems and barriers to entrepreneurial growth
• Change my thinking from, “Why?” to “Why not?”
• Continue, always, to dream big and work to bring those dreams to reality
• Encourage and support others, so that we all might live in a richer, better India.

Take your Pledge here!

Saw “Valu – The Wild Bull”, a Marathi language film. I don’t remember the last Marathi film I saw in the theatre. Did I ever see one?

Valu is about a small village in Maharashtra, which finds itself in fear of a destructive wild bull. Two city officials arrive to catch the bull, which they find far more tricky than they anticipate. They travel with a documentary filmmaker from the city who films their mission. The camera interests and involves the village folk far more than cornering the bull. After many adventures of their own and with the village elders and inhabitants, they finally succeed. The film looks at village life on many levels, ranging from political rivalry, family tensions, forbidden love, all of which is observed with wit and subtlety. What emerges are aspects of the human mind: on one side a sense of curiosity, mystery, competitiveness and friendship, and on the other, abrasive egos, the blinkered one-sidedness of religion, and the tenacious will and need to survive.

Source: http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=18673

Everyone of us liked the film. Lakshmikant also gave his mark of approval on the technicalities of the film.

Pros:

• Well defined characters and strong performances.
• Universal humor. More of situational and character based humor.
• Compact. Not even for a second did my mind wander away from the movie.
• Beautiful picturization. The village has been portrayed realistically.
• Relief. No fake looking enacting of popular Bollywood movies.

Promo of the movie:

View other promos.

A sure must see after Shwaas.

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