I am back!

Looking forward to make some blog posts:

• The year that was 2007
• Konkan Entrada
• Year Ahead

Wish you a Happy New Year 2008.

Remember this post few months back? >> ‘Ready for an adventure?‘

Time has come and I am off…

Here is the rough plan:

Alibaug to Goa - Coastal Biking Expidition

Maharashtra is blessed with 720 km of coast line. The expiditon aims to cover 500 km of on bike visiting all the sea forts on the way.

Schedule :
Day 1 : Saturday Dec 23, 2007
Early morning departure from Pune/Mumbai. Aim to reach Alibaug by 9 am. Pune / Mumbai - Alibaug - Korlai - Revdanda - Murud - Janjira

Day 2 : Sunday Dec 24, 2007
Kansa, Diveagar, Srivardhan, Harihareshwar, Bankot

Day 3 : Monday Dec 25, 2007
Harne, Kanakdurg, Fategad, Anjarle, Suvarnadurg, Anjenvel, Gopalgad

Day 4 : Tuesday Dec 26, 2007
Guhagar, Velneshwar, Vijaygad, Jaigad, Ganpatipule, Ratnadurg, Pavas

Day 5 : Wednesday Dec 26, 2007
Purnagad, Ambolgad, Yashwantgad, Vijaydurg

Day 6 : Thursday Dec 28, 2007
Devgad, Bhagwantgad, Bharatgad, Sarjekot, Sindhudurg

Day 7 : Friday Dec 29, 2007
Tarkarli, Nivti, Vengurla, Mochemad, Terekhol, Goa, Fort Agauda

Day 8/9 : Sunday Dec 30, 2007 - Monday Dec 31, 2007
Chilling in Goa!!!

Day 10 Tuesday Jan 1, 2008
Back to Mumbai.

Catch you once I am back.

Happy New Year !!!

Update: I am back. Amit has just posted on his blog about the trip and some pictures to go with it here. It’s a must read ;)

Oh! did I tell you all about the Paintathon I had taken part in? No. « wondering how could I forget of blogging about it » Shame me :|

Remember I was in Ahmedabad in August? There I spent most of my time at Prayas’ place. Some of his paintings adorned his walls and there were others lying in his studio. We also took time out to visit School of Architecture and hang around the campus for lunch. Laxmikant had also come down for the post-production of his film. So art was the flavour of the month. I have always been curious about various forms of art because of the obvious influence of my bro. Painting on a canvas was something completely new for me and I was game for it.

A couple of days before I was supposed to leave for Mumbai, I asked Prayas if we could paint. Felt like he was all ready for it and he was just waiting for me to prompt. He hadn’t had a brush with painting for a long time now. He said lets take part in a Paintathon. “Wow Paintathon sounds cool,” I exclaimed. I was thinking, Marathon… Hackathon and now Paintathon. Next I remember we went out to get a some canvases and extra colors and brushes.

For the Paintathon, we reserved the morning of the day I was supposed to leave for Mumbai. You can read up on how the events unfolded at Manjushree’s blog.

Here are some of the pics:

Here are the finished paintings:

Prayas:

Manjushree:

Akshay (my):

For inquiries to buy and order use the contact form. Offer till stocks last. ;)

Look at the complete album here:

Updated the links to the pictures

Had been to BarCampMumbai2 at IIT Bombay yesterday wearing the socialsync.in t-shirt. Tell me how do you like it?

Here is the reciepe:

Ingredients: Adobe Photoshop, T-shirt printing service, Watch, Mom, Friends, Bike
Preparation Time: 55 mins
Procedure:

• Decided on getting a T-shirt at the very last moment. For me it was around 7:05pm
• Fire-up Adobe Photoshop and start experimenting
• Ask mom for help with colors, placement etc.
• Keep track of time all this while. You can’t expect a shop getting it printed for you after 10 pm
• Freeze on the design only when you are satisfied position and color of all the pixels. (18 mins)
• Call up and ask friends if they have any clue of T-shirt printing services nearby?
• Get your bike and reach the shop with all the PSDs (22 mins)
• Consider yourself more intelligent than the shopkeeper as finally its you who is going to wear it. At the same time seek and value his strategic advice. Its routine for them but special for you.
• Wait patiently first while the negative gets printed (15mins) and then while it gets ironed (2mins) on the T-shirt
• Show it off ;)

Credits:
Mom (Color and Design inputs)
Sankool (For pointing out the small shop at Spencers in Inorbit Mall where I could get the T-shirt printed.)

P.S BarCampMumbai2 and SocialSync.in deserve dedicated posts ;)

Today, I watched Bee Season on Star Movies. The movie was griping gripping enough for me to watch it through till the end. Its a big thing because I haven’t sat through a movie off late on television. It’s different when you pay to watch movies in the theaters.

What I liked most about the movie was the characters, mystery around them and for a change things were inconclusive all throughout.

You can read more about the movie here. Oh, looks like the movie is adapted from this novel.

Update: s/griping/gripping

Am back from an awesome trek to Peb fort via Matheran. It was much needed and was at just the right time. Not sure if I would be able to organize/attend any treks anytime soon. Though, it was my second time to Peb, the terrain was much different than last time.

Some highlights of the trek (straight from our mailing list):

- A Dropout Log of friends who dropped out at the last moment could have also been written. Wat say GuysNGals? though I refrain from it as I believe all of them wanted to come but just couldn’t because of unavoidable circumstances. Hope you guys make it a point to come next time surpassing these circumstances.

- Trek was amazing. We made our move from green cover sometimes as tall as 5 feet, rocky patch and the final dip in the river 3 feet deep (shallow) was just the icing on the cake.

- Since we were fewer in number, we could be adventurous which at times meant we could be fearless and be lost (momentarily) and walk the road less travelled. Need I say that has made all the difference. ;)

- Hats off to Akshat to take that extra step and accompanying us for this trek. He had an implant in his left elbow.Wish you speedy recovery from all of us.

- All along the trek belonged to Bala. I am sure he would remember it for loooOooong and because of him we would too ;) No wonder he has posted the Trek Log too.

- Hip Hip HUrray !!

- Pics from Karthik: http://picasaweb.google.com/7.kartik/TrekToPEBFortNeral?authkey=u99R3-O-8_s

- Pics from ME:

- Browse the complete album by clicking on the image below:

Leaving you guys to read some post of the previous school friend’s meetups:
- Mahuli
- Juhu
- Karnala

Traveling overnight with myself here
with my destination nowhere near.

Sitting alone with an eager soul
I have many thoughts to console.

With innumerable uncertainties
and very few certainties.

Closing my eyes springs so many expectations
Each having a question mark notation.

Can’t keep my eyes closed for long
Its difficult to answer questions for that long.

For a change I stared at the naked moon
And then a lightning thought made me realize soon.

For now if I have the answers I need
Why do I have to answer questions from others indeed.

With this last thought I close my eyes
And soon the tornado dies.

- Akky

Sometimes you can have the most unexpected people in the most unexpected circumstances, to put you on the right track in an unbelievable time of 1 hour 6 minutes and 43 seconds.

Thanks.

You right! Saw the movie yesterday and just loved it.

Chak De India is amongst those very few sports movies from India which look real on screen. For me, the only other movie which holds this distinction is Lagaan. You really feel that the game is on and end up cheering for your team.

[continue reading if you have already see the movie as I would be disclosing the climax scene. I recommend you to go and watch it in the theaters]

Now the most interesting part of the movie. Few week back I had read the review of the movie online. The reviewer said that he hoped India had won the World Cup Final at the end. So, I knew India is gonna loose the Final. Now everything at the end was turning to be too dramatic and in the back of my mind I was thinking whatever it is India is going to loose. Now just before Bindia Naik took the last shot in the decider penalty shootout which made the scores India - 5 & Aus - 4, I said to myself “I don’t care about the review. India just has to win this. Chak De India.” Thats what happened, Bindia scored and Australia missed the last penalty stroke. I am so HaPpY we won.

Today, I really feel like I have done something substantial, something meaningful and something which gives me a feeling of a sense of achievement. Before you take any guesses it’s not related to some of my previous posts.

I am currently in Ahmedabad and day before yesterday I had been to my friend Prayas’ place in the evening. It was just a casual visit but I ended up accepting the challenge of teaching his son Pavan cycling. He had some previous failed attempts at learning to cycle and falling off which was the case on that day.

[flashback _remembering the day when i cycled on my own for the first time_]
I faintly remember my brother and dad teaching me how to cycle. But let me share with you what I rememebr of my first maiden cycle trip. I don’t remember how old I was then but I distinctly remember that my dad had taken me and Mandar to Prabodhan Krida Bhavan to teach us to cycle. I consider Prabodhan Krida Bhavan as my home ground. I played a lot of cricket there and have loads of memories which make me feel nostalgic of the place. Then we didn’t have a cycle of my size and so we would rent a cycle from a shop near the ground. So, we rented two cycles. Now I just loved a cycle named “Rough Rider”. It felt good. Mandar and me had a good understanding and so we would exchange our cycles at half-time. Then we proceeded towards the ground. After an assisted start from my dad I was off on my maiden cycle trip. I was surprisingly taking turns in the ground unassisted and I was so excited. It felt so great. Can’t express it here on the blog as I can’t feel the same now but I surely remember how excited I was. (weird isn’t it?)

[comeback _present_]
Since, yesterday it was raining all day, I had been there to help him teach cycling today. Pavan was playing outside with his friends. Now, I could see his friends cycling all over the place and so it was obvious even he wanted to learn to cycle. So, me and Prayas stepped out of house and were looking out for him. On seeing me he rushed towards us along with his cycle as if to show that he was all ready for the training day. To cut a long story short after more than 7 falls, some tweaking of his handle bar at a local shop, almost crying thrice, giving up completely once and one and a half hours later he was on his maiden trip on his bicycle. The excitement on his face has made me write this post. Though, I don’t clearly remember how excited I was after my first maiden trip, this reminded me of it and I sure was as excited as him if not less. He almost fell off after riding some distance and guess what he was asking while getting up, “Maine chalai na cycle, uncle maine chalai nah, Papa mujhe aa gayi nah cycle chalane?.” We gave him a resounding “YES” unanimously. In another half an hour he gained more confidence and the best part was him showing his mom(who he fondly calls aai) his cycling skills. Finally, I feel a sense of achievement and I am so happy for him as now he can cycle with his friends.

Manju (his mom) wanted to record this moment on video but till then it was dark. You can check a latest video of his on her blog here where he plays the lead protagonist. Now, these are the perks of being part of a film-making family. ;)

To end this post, here is a list of some of my memorable cycle trips:

- Cycle trip to Aarey garden with my brother doing all the cycling on the slopes and me enjoying sitting double seat with him. Though, the journey wasn’t very comfortable sitting on the front rod all the way but still enjoyed it.

- Cycling to Aksa beach in the morning with Narayanan (brother’s friend) and his friends. Never again did my plans of visiting Aksa beach materialize.

- Cycle trip from our farm-house in Mangaon (marked as Surve House) to a distant place Vhira (where my grand father had bought land and a well was being constructed) with my brother and dad. Again I was sitting double seat with my dad most of the time.

- Trips to various Ganesh mandals in and around our locality during Ganesh Chaturthi with my building friends.

Do you remember your first maiden cycle trip…?

Remember this post of mine. Adding a little more to the previous teaser post.

Last couple of weeks have been exciting, challenging, lonely, introspective and fun at times. In all its been an enriching experience to say the least. Are you guys still wondering what I have been upto?

Here is what it is all(_almost all_) about ):

rode on rails, some cool wordpress hacks, explored flex, almost released a facebook app, own two web2.0ish domains now, was on the verge of announcing a contest on the web, washed my own clothes (in no particular order)

We have taken a break from all this and just trying to re-align our goals and our deeds. We are happy to go back to the drawing board and get our act together. So, sorry to keep you waiting for a little bit longer (_may be a bit too long_) before I have something really interesting to share.

Here I am
This is me
There’s nowhere
else on earth I’d
rather be
(credits: Bryan Adams)

(The above post may make sense only to few. Others be patient and wait for some more spice from my side)

Its been ……ages… since we last met. If i remember correctly we last met in stone age. You were Baby puss and i was Dino. Being a dinosaur i barked like a dog. You were too too sweet then. LoL. If you want to read more about our story then plz go here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flintstones) if not then call me on 9819319609 and hear it from me.

Left this message for a friend of mine after seeing her offliner. Hadn’t heard from her for a long time now. Lets see what her reply is… ;?)

(will not keep you all updated though of the happenings. lol. unless she replies to this post)

Today, I received this mail in my inbox.

To: akshay.surve@yahoo.com
Subject: Dear Valued Paypal Member
From: service@paypal.com
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 01:32:51 +0200 (CEST)

Dear Valued Paypal Member

Your account has been randomly flagged in our system as a part of our routine security
measures.

This is a must to ensure that only you have access and use of your PayPal account and to
ensure a safe Paypal experience.

We require all flagged accounts to verify their information on file with us. your online
experience and renew.

Go to https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help-ext&source_page=_home
and login your Paypal account.

Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. For
assistance, log in to your Paypal
account and choose the “Help” link in the footer of any page.

Paypal

— here is another —

Dear member,
As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. We recently contacted you after noticing an issue on your account. We requested information from you for the following reason:

We have reason to believe that your account was accessed by a third party. Because protecting the security of your account is our primary concern, we have limited access to sensitive PayPal account features. We understand that this may be an inconvenience but please understand that this temporary limitation is for your protection. Please fallow the link below to restore your account access.

Case ID Number: PP-098-556-456

Click here to restore your PayPal account.

Thank you for your patience as we work together to protect your account.
PayPal Account Review Department
PayPal Email ID PP1207

The email looks authentic. You can also see the ‘https’ link with the email which means it is secure. If you click on the link you go the PayPal website where you can signin to your PayPal account. Simple isnt’t it.

BEWARE

I first check the link I have been asked to click on. If the link doesn’t start with paypal.com (or anyother service provider) then I refrain from clicking on such links.

Though, there have been times when I do click on such link just to check how close they are to the real thing. Today was one of those days and so I clicked on the link. Guess what? I had this message from Firefox:

Isn’t that cool. Firefox jst rOcks!

Yeah, I have taken this old adage seriously. How?… (Don’t read, < see to believe >)

Unpacking the MacBook

MacBook keyboard

MacBook

8)

‘COKOMBA’

Rearrange this to form a meaningful word and spoil the surprise OR wait for one ;)

I will be attending the BarCampPune3 today.

The lineup of sessions seems to be exciting. Personally I am interested in meeting new people, people whose blogs i follow, people who i have read about, people who i have spoken to on phone, people with whom i have had email exchanges with and finally few people who i have known. So, all in all its going to be an interesting bunch of people who I am going to meet :)

Hey if you qualify to be among the people who I plan to meet then do use the code ‘aiwa’ when you greet me :p (LoL)

Now I have interesting people to meet at the BarCamp, a Nikon 4600 and I also have a Sansa 2.0gb c250 player/recorder. Lets see if I can put them to some good use :>?

Before signing off allow me to link back to BarCampMumbai posts (2005).

BarCampPune3… here i come ;-)

The past one month has been exciting to say the least. There is so much to write about that this blog post would not do justice to all of it. So as the title of this blog post suggests ‘I am not going to leave it at this…’, I will be making some follow-up posts.

To give you some clue of whats cooking I would like to share some related tags:
pinstorm, treks, salher, lohagad, varun, trekking, entrepreneurship, nirma labs, technoentrepreneurship, startup, goa, school friends, bikes, juhu, rains (did I miss anything ;)

The pre-monsoon showers have hit the suburbs in Mumbai today. In the afternoon it felt like a furnace outside and now its raining later in the evening. Thats Mumbai for you in all its glory.

Now I take your leave and stand witness to this phenomenon.

Oh! Are you attending the workshop, “From Software Engineering To Engineering Software“. I will be taking a session on “Software Engineering and Ruby on a Rails Journey”. Meet you there!

Few months back we had Rakhi Sawant & Mikka:

Now we have Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty in top gear:

Rakhi looked upset about the whole thing but Shilpa may be liked it :p. Shilpa in her TV interview tried justifying the act by saying “Atithi Devo Bhava (Guest is like GOD)”. Isn’t that giving a whole new meaning to this adage? What was she thinking?

[to be updated]

[to be updated]

[to be updated]

I had to skip my breakfast early in the morning as I got up a little late. I wouldn’t mind skipping some more early breakfasts’ for some real discussion like the one yesterday at night.

Day 2 started with Madhu Bahai’s session on “Finding Fertile Ground”. He covered most of the topics from book with the same name (read more from here). Though, it was his insight and real life experiences were the ones to look forward for throughout the session.

Next up was “Building Cultures and Ethos in New Age Ventures” by Mr. Thyagarajan. We discussed Homestead.com (back in 2001) as a case study. There were considerable number of people who found the hiring, compensation and growth of the company unsatisfactory. Some even commented that the sole reason people would stick to this organisation which strives to provide good culture and thus pays 15% lesser than the industry standard is because the employees attain a comfort level. I wouldn’t agree with this as I strongly believe in the “Employee s come first” philosophy. To add to it Mr. Thyaghrajan also summed some fundamental principle new age ventures should likely follow, which include honesty, work philosophy (fairness) and desire to serve people. I couldn’t agree more with this thinking. Also. he stressed on WIM (what’s in it for me) & WIU (what’s in it for us) philosophy where the employees and employer have a clear understanding.

[updated later]

After lunch there was a session by Chirag Patel of Net4Nuts. The journey of Net4Nuts started with a web based product and now they are into mobile based value added services. He had his own list of Ps which he elaborated on. Few of the things I recollect are:
- Everyone is important. Everyone here involves just about everyone from employees, to customers and to even the accountants.
- Don’t compromise with people you hire.
- Be always aware about the environment you are in.
- Be fast to change.

I was very curious about session on “Fundamentals of Finance for Entrepreneurs” by Bharat Kanani (Sr. Vice President, GVFL). The session was too quick for me to follow or may be it was lack of sleep. The only thing about accounting I know is “Debit the reciever, credit the giver”, thanks to a week of commerce I attended at Narsee Mohanjee College of commerce. I would surely love to do a short course on commerce (do you know of any?). I had years back also tried to read “The Economic Times” regularly while on my bus journey to college in the morning. Most of the time (may be all times) I ended up having a refreshing sleep.

The last session of the day was by Chirag Mehta of IceNet. IceNet is a very well known ISP in Gujarat and very few (may be only one) who survived the competition from biggies like BSNL, Reliance etc. Now IceNet is also into product development with their flagship product Cyberroam client. He had a very interestion story of the tortoise and the hare to share which starts exactly from where the popular story we know ends.

During the day had some long discussions with Prof. Santosh Pullewar, Prof. Surinder Singh (both teach at Indira Institute of Management) and Neelkantappa H. s. I found them pretty receptive and humble.

Need I say looking forward for Day 3 ?

Day 1 of the Techno-Entrepreneurship Program lived upto its expectation.

Here is the schedule for the day: Day 1

The morning session started with Prof. B.H. Jajoo going through the program structure. He stressed on the fact that it was just a getting wet exercise and not swimming. He also stressed on the intensive nature of the program which is very true.

The next session was taken by Dr. Madhu Mehta on the “Challenges of the Techno-Entrepreneurship Journey.” He used slides extensively to illustrate what people think and then he would share his personal experiences and his take on things. His insight and practicality was particularly interesting.
Few of the things he put differently were:
- “There is Business and there are Entrepreneurial Ventures”
- “Me last attitude” expected from an Entrepreneur
(Some of this may make sense only in the context they were made)

Next session of the day was again taken by Madhu Bhai and was on “Appreciating, Analysing and Generating Ideas”. Here he made us think and look at things differently. One of the points he made was first assuming there exists a solution and then think of the solution. In this way one can leverage the full potential of the human mind by negating human tendency.

Next up was a session by Prof. B. H Jajoo on “Innovation Drivers in IT.” I must say this man is in love with his gadgets. He showed us everything from small USB drives, cool LED displays, latest PDAs, flexible keyboards for PDAs, USB HDD with media codecs and a small compass box sized linux box for multimedia (recordings, playing movies and music etc.). Did I miss something ? LoL. Look liked he owned most of it and was showing us things one by on like a magician popping up things from his hat.

Then we had a brief overview of “Elements of Business Plan” by Mr. K. Thyagrajan and Madhu Bhai. One of the things he stated differently from the more well-known belief was that a business plan is first for the entrepreneur and then for others. The premise of this statement was that an entrepreneur should work on his business plan first to think about all aspects throughly and internalize the venture. Later, he can adapt it to VC needs.

Later, we formed groups and discussed a case study of Homestead (www.homestead.com) a company which is out to create website for everyone and affect the lives of many in a positive way. It was really interesting to know about Homestead and its “Employees come first” culture. I believe building such an ecosystem is the trademark of an “Built to Last” company.

The last session was an informal meet with Kaushal Mehta, founder of Motif India a BPO startup. I did have an small interesting discussion with him about how he planned his entreprenurial journey and its much different then what I have/would like to do. (Would share it if I take out some time.)

Overall, I feel the first day is making me feel I have done the right thing by attending this program. I met people from diverse backgrounds, currently sharing my room with an interesting chap named Yatish from IISc (Sree u reading this?), met people who are facing problems with their startups and issues they haven’t thought of before, read case studies and met incubates at NirmaLabs.

Now, all I can say is I would be making an effort of trying to sleep but I have no clue when I would really sleep.

[update]

I did end my post here but the day was still not over and so much more happened before I slept. Yatish and me discussed everything from things that interest us to, creativity, imagination, product design, education, programming, quest to learn, entrepreneurship, cultural ethos of an organization, ideas, entrepreneurship and life in general. We must have wished eachother goodnight for atleast 3 times in between but then again continued to share our views. It was only after 4am that we slept.

The train Journey from Mumbai to Ahmedabad was indeed an interesting one. I am mostly not the one who initiates a conversation with co-travelers and it was the case again. Though, I am not averse to others initiating a conversation. I quite like it.

The lady next to me had boarded the train from Borivali. She had swapped seats with lady initially so that she and her husband could sit together. This guju couple offered me some chikis and chips also the usual whats ur name, what do you do and where are you heading stuff. When the couple got off the train at Baroda it was the lady back again at my side. The lady had over heard our conversation and so was interested in knowing where I was heading. Later on we discussed everything from NGOs, traveling, social entrepreneurship, books, cities and people. This lady I am talking about is Dipti Dhebar. She has been working with an NGO named Pratham Gujarat Initiative (www.pratham.org). From what I learnt Pratham focuses on education for the underprivileged and organizes balwadi for children aged 4 - 14 years. They have a curriculum of their own which she says is practical and more focussed on making the students literate. Pratham had a team of around 50 which decides the curriculum and topics included. Pratham followed a franchise model to reach the masses. She said that the franchisee model has worked wonders for Pratham.

I also shared with her some initiatives like Kshana(with which I have been involved) [www.kshana.org] and Toybank [www.toybank.co.in] with which some of my friends have been associated with and have been successes. I shared the essence of these organization which she found to be novel and interesting. Even she aimed at starting an organisation on her own in years to come. Social entrepreneurship is sure to catch up soon in India and become big as in the West.

She also invited me to one of the Balwadi’s and we exchanged numbers too. She did ask me to call her for any help I need while I am in Ahmedabad. We got into an rickshaw together as her place was somewhere in between Ahmedabad station and Nirma University campus. She also asked me to SMS her once I reach the Univesity Campus safely. Don’t people like her reinforce the faith in existence of humanity on earth?

Did I tell you there was burning smell all over in the compartment somewhere between Baroda and Ahmedabad and for which train was delayed by 20 minutes? Incidentally there was smoke seen in C3 compartment (I was in C1).

Wasn’t it an interesting journey?

Amit was here over the weekend for some placement activity of his. He is an HR (Assistant Manager) in Wipro. The last time when he was here we had a blast. We (me, amit and sankool) went around on bike to explore Mumbai’s night life.Had Pav bhaji at Bhagvati around 2:30 in the night. We spent rest of the night at Juhu Hotel near the sea side sipping coffee. The next day around afternoon Amit and me left for Borivali National Park. We checked out the Tiger and Lion safari where we saw a very cute white tiger. The Lions there were pretty boring. Later in the day Swapnesh joined us and we checked out Gorail Beach. We reached the beach just after sunset and caught a glimpse of the boats on the beach in an unforgettable silhouette. Later, we just passed our time on a ramp which extended in the sea. There was a continuous balmy breeze and the pitch dark sky along with bright stars rendered an unforgettable image in our hearts. For dinner we visited Punjabi Pind at Raghulela Mall. The place just rocks. If I had not been to this place I could say I had never been to Punjab, but can’t say that now. It was FuN.

This time around I was a little busy with things (some deadlines at office) and my trip to NirmaLabs didnt make things easier. He stayed over at my place and had dinner too. Mom had prepared some nice pulav and salad to go with it. We had a marathon session of debate after dinner. I must confess I am not at all good at debates. The last debate I remember I ended up supporting the opponent’s claim. If historical records are to be considered then Amit is a pro. Even then I managed to defeat Amit. Amit said he hadn’t practised it for long (What an excuse). Anyways the next day I had lot of things lined up to complete before I left the city so we couldn’t plan anything in advance. After a lot of confusion (from Amit’s side) we decided to meet at Andheri around 10pm. I somehow managed to reach on time. We decided to have dinner at Alfa. When Amit’s around I can depend on him choosing the menu. We started with Chicken Kutubshahi and Prawn Masala with Naan. Then went on to Chicken Afgani and Jeera rice. Finished with Rose Falooda and Phirni. Had a masala paan to top it all.

Invitation

We both are by instincts adventure enthusiasts. Amit has trekked more than 80 forts in Maharashtra. Some of which he has trekked multiple times. During dinner we were thinking of planning some adventure in the coming months. Amit wanted to trek the Himalayas in August - October. I thought of a cooL trekking cum desi trotting experience. The deal was to start with a set amount of money and set number of days and to try and cover as much of a particular location. Sounds interesting? Here is the formal invitation if you want to be part of this expedition. Pre-requisites include compatibility, excitement and zest to take things as they come by. Shoot me an email or push your comments here.

I will be attending the Techno-Entrepreneurship program from April 9th - 14th at NirmaLabs in Gujarat.

Whats interesting about this program:

• Focus on technology startups
• Sessions introduce a range of topics a techno-entrepreneur should be familiar with (think about)
• Interact with technology entrepreneurs
• Time for myself (as its a resedential program)

Expect detailed notes here on my blog from the program.

Last month I finished reading The Art of War edited by James Cavell. I found the book very objective and meaningful even today. No doubt its recommended in business and managerial studies.

Here are some incomplete notes from the first 5 chapters:

I

All warfare is based on deception.

II

In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.

III

Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:

(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.

(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.

(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.

(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.

(5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

IV

To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.

What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.

Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.

V

Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory. He takes individual talent into account, and uses each men according to his capabilities. He does not demand perfection from the untalented.

The last two lines is the mantra I stand by and follow.

People traveling on the Blue Billion Express and their relatives (more than a billion people back home) had a shocker of a time on the 24th March. According to Reuters, passengers suffered multiple injuries of which some are still serious. Most of the passengers were seniors and on a journey which was touted as their last. There are no reports of deaths.

After the accident, officials were quick to react and have announced that a detailed inquiry would be carried out by an independent body to ascertain the causes of the accident. Some officials blamed a coach of the express . Others claimed that the driver of the express favored senior passengers and did not have the fire power to drive to the destination. One official was quoted saying that “the disaster was waiting to happen.” According to a recent report the losses may touch $35M.

You would do the same only if you had access to our internal mailing list. Most of the time you have witty messages flying here and there on the mailing list. Yours truly, just posted one some time back and he can already hear the LoLs from far away. I hope everyone takes it in the right (milky) spirit ;-)

[Would only make sense to Pinstormers]