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:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1502441/

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…

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 :)

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;)