Evolution by shopping...

Seems some poor guy got brandished in a shopping spree of gals and then as an after-thought came snippets of wisdom .....

The seven ages of the woman shopper

Personally it amuses me to see the extent to which marketing has fine tuned the art of observation. What was for a long time considered to biggest nightmare for men (watching a women shop) has now been described which such astute finesse that it almost seems like an artform ;o)

Googlezon...

While researching for my college magzine write up, got to read an interesting point of view -

Is Google Too Powerful?

Men who blew...

After staying awake till 4 am and having a packed schedule of classes from 8 am to 8 pm yesterday, I realised that it was not the best day to form an opinion. So after a good night sleep there is one thought which is still there is my mind, without the slightlest bit of remorse and hard feelings, I have been wondering all this while as to how did the Indian Cricket Team achieve the task of loosing with -

• A batting line-up of 7 batsmen
• Chasing (which is considered to be our forte)
• So much at stake (both in terms of reputation and performance)
• A coaching using most innovative techniques ( Six Thinking Hats et. al.)
  

Times of India reports -

It is understood that coach Greg Chappell, whose tenure is unlikely to be renewed, would give a damning report on India's performance though for public appearance sake, he kept repeating that rather than any individual's failure, the team collectively shares responsibility.

Chappell believed that the team collapsed under "the weight of expectations" which started building up soon after the team had suffered a shocking loss to Bangladesh in their group opener on March 17.

Chappell believed that the Indian players were under more pressure than any other international team members.

"I think India is definitely under more pressure because of the weight of expectations back home," said Chappell.

"It does have an effect, and I would say from the experience of the last few weeks, it definitely had its effect.

"Coming into the Bangladesh game, I thought the boys were a bit anxious at that stage, and the pressure built from there. That pressure had a bearing on what happened out there on Friday."


It seems, based on the statements mentioned above, that the root cuase of the mishap was the pressure to win, whereas till date I was under the impression that the reason why India Team was in West Indies was to win some matches and perform.

So much for the enlightenment and now back to some of the core competencies, the blame game and future planning has already started.

And then someone was reminded of the power of positive thinking - We didn't lose, the other guy won

Windows Live Writer

 

My first post using Windows Live Writer. Windows Lives Spaces Website describes this application as -

"Writer has lots of features which we hope make for a better blogging experience such as WYSIWYG authoring and seamless photo and map publishing.  You can also extend the types of rich content that can be inserted into your blog post by creating plug-ins using the Writer SDK."

test blog

test blog using remote posting feature

Google - समाचार

Google News Service now available in Hindi as well, says the Official Google Blog

More on this -> गूगल समाचार के बारे में

And more on how this service was developed -> http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/03/read-hindi-newspapers-or-magazines-on.html

Indifference....

I am amidst an inner conflict. On one hand I am feeling indifference towards a backlog thats looming large on my head, while on the other hand there is certain degree of stress thats looming in my head.

This is not the first time that I am experiencing this. I clearly remember my second year of graduation, where during the entire year I felt an in-built guilt and anxiety due to my previous years backlog in maths. During the entire academic year I lived under great deal of stress which no matter what I did, I was unable to overcome.

Even stranger was the feeling that I experienced the night before the re-exams, I knew I was not prepared well and I also knew that slogging a little bit harder at that moment would be help. Yet, somewhere deep within I felt exhausted and drained out, there was a feeling of being "emotionally drained out". Which I could hardly understand. There was a part of me that had given up and turned numb. This was similar to the kind of numbness a pain killer induces, wherein the pain and cause of the pain exists but the sensation is completely blocked. I knew that there was a part of me that was suffering and was deeply scared and yet I did not have the nerve to face it.

And again after almost six year I am in a similar situation and responding in a very similar way. The only difference is that now despite of my growing cynicism, I have the courage to acknowledge it. And face myself.......

Self Reminder

I have to write a post on - No Poach Agreements and the Bond Policy followed as a Recruitment Policy by the HR Department of companies in India.

Rocky Balboa

I have been a Rocky fan for a lifetime to say anything analytically, so let me use my favourite cliche - if have not watched Rocky Balboa you are missing something and living an incomplete life

What a way to complete the Rocky epic. And this is not about the fights and being an underdog, it goes way deeper. Its about coming in terms with oneself, the biggest and most worthy of all fights. I watched the last fight sequence holding my breath and my fists clenched, and the most moving emotion during the entire fight were not hate, revenge and wining, instead it was the battle for self-respect that both the boxers fought and in which both won.

Here is a snap of two of the most stirring sequences in the movie :

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rocky Balboa: You know I couldn't have done nothing without you... Yo Adrian we did it...
[kisses tombstone]
Rocky Balboa: We did it...
[Walks off into distance]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rocky Balboa: Yo, don't I got some rights?
Boxing Commissioner: What rights do you think you're referring to?
Rocky Balboa: Rights, like in that official piece of paper they wrote down the street there?
Boxing Commissioner: That's the Bill of Rights.
Rocky Balboa: Yeah, yeah. Bill of Rights. Don't it say something about going after what makes you happy?
Boxing Commissioner: No, that's the pursuit of happiness. But what's your point
Rocky Balboa: My point is I'm pursuing something and nobody looks too happy about it.
Boxing Commissioner: But... we're just looking out for your interests.
Rocky Balboa: I appreciate that, but maybe you're looking out for your interests just a little bit more. I mean you shouldn't be asking people to come down here and pay the freight on something they paid, it still ain't good enough, I mean you think that's right? I mean maybe you're doing your job but why you gotta stop me from doing mine? Cause if you're willing to go through all the battling you got to go through to get where you want to get, who's got the right to stop you? I mean maybe some of you guys got something you never finished, something you really want to do, something you never said to someone, something... and you're told no, even after you paid your dues? Who's got the right to tell you that, who? Nobody! It's your right to listen to your gut, it ain't nobody's right to say no after you earned the right to be where you want to be and do what you want to do!... You know, the older I get the more things I gotta leave behind, that's life. The only thing I'm asking you guys to leave on the table... is what's right.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rocky Balboa: Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that!

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A quick 101 for starters - Rocky Balboa (the character)

Movie Trailers - http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/rockybalboa/

The Official Site - http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/rockybalboa/index.html

Workaholic Me......

One of the common myth we all tend to live under is that there is a co-relation (positive) between being a workaholic and being productivity.

All of us (including me) have tried at somepoint or the other tried to push harder. And mostly its during the times of high anxiety that we tend to misinterpret ourselves and dissipate in unproductive ways.

Here is an article from Psychology Today, perfectly illustrating this - A field guide to the workaholic

Ye dil maange more........

As the placement season in the most exalted b-schools in India (the IIMs) starts and reaches its full frenzy within a short span of hours, the aspirations and determination of all management aspirants reaches an all time high, with the fattest ever pay package laid in the platter. This is the time of the year when we get to view a glitzy spectacle which proves two things : firstly, the paradigm shift that India has experienced and how we have moved towards a veiw point which evaluates a management gradute solely on the basis of how much was salary package he/she was able to grab in the placements; secondly, our sheer passion and single point agenda of living a salaried life.

The way I look at both of these, there seems to a paradox to me. Now since we live in a country of paradoxes, I have been tempted a number of times to ignore this, and follow the chalta hai law. However, now as I face the quarter life crisis and am in the process of confronting a number of issues and comming in terms with life, as I choose to view it, this issue again came to the fore.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Dream as - "a strongly desired goal or purpose". Desire is something that we long for, which also at the same time is furturistic in nature. Chase dreams, is something we have heard so many times in life and at times cherished too. However, how many of us have actually given it a thought at a decision point in our life.

A handful of students of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have once set precedent by making a stand at one of the most crutical decision point of there life, by making a choice to chase there dreams, not just a job.

One of most amusing and insightful statement in the article (hyperlinked above) was "The cushion of two more chances will also help the students to withstand the pressure from parents to get a ‘decent job’"


Post Script: Although it was very tempting for me to end this article in a "Moral of the story" format, but I refrained। I would like anyone who is reading this article to use his/her own thought process and formulate there own conclusion, because thats the first step towards an enabled life.


This post has also been cross-blogged at -> http://newvalleywest.blogspot.com/

Hindi Blogging

गूगल ब्लॉगर के नए feature के द्वारा मेरा हिंदी मे ब्लोग करने का प्रयत्न

Blogger has now intergrated transliteration for hindi blogging directly in the template :)

How to use this feature -> http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=58226#fonts


PS: (Peptalk) This should be all the more reason for me to write in hindi