offline...

going off the web for the next 100 hrs

now this will be something interesting to observe ;)

Rural Networking ?

Info on my native village -> Ganapur Village

OurVillageIndia.org is a portal which is bringing mine as well as scores of other villages on the internet. Nostalgia apart this is a great move towards making rural India convergent.

Alootechie, a popular portal on Indian Online Industry reports that -

A dedicated team of Indians and Indian Americans are developing OurVillageIndia.org that seeks to provide information about census data, geographic location, infrastructure facilities, local government, history, prominent people, interested volunteers, change-makers and NGOs for all the 600,000 plus villages of India.

Here is the link to the original article ->

So whats the way ahead ?

Make way social networking, lets look forward to Rural Networking.

social engineering...

Working from a cool airconditioned room, as a management consultant and staying away from my hometown in Uttar Pradesh, I had in a way disconnected myself from the political realities there.

Today, a chance click at this article -> The woman with a fascinating personal story and a unique political style and reading through the well written article led my thoughts wandering in some many directions.

The socio-political strcuture of the state has gone through a very big tranformation in the last two decades. The role that regoinal parties now play over there is so strong that even the biggest national event hardly makes an impact (politically).

Last state elections in Uttar Pradesh have been the pinnacle of her success in understanding the psyche of the people of the state and have also been called as one of the biggest experiments in social engineering in the recent times. As this article points out - Mayawati's social engineering proving successful -

Nonetheless, this transformation reflects more an adaptation of the party to the
socio-political scene in Uttar Pradesh than a profound change of identity.

In management parlance there is so much about leadership and change management. Charismatic leadership and how can it impact/change the direction of an organisation is a eternally debatable issue. I dont endorse the views and idealogy of the political party that she heads. Still could not stop myself from noticing in her, a live example of charismatic leadership which so strong that an entire social class look up to her and keep giving her a mandate. She had the audacity to think big and have a vision. Although, the extent to which that vision has benefitted her vote bank might be a matter of debate, still its admirable to see the rise of a lady to highest political position in the state. And as the photo article points out in its conclusion -

You must remember that her training was not of an ordinary politician.

finally...

12th July 2006 -landed for the GD/PI

10th May 2008 - walked away with the certificate

so long...

Today marks the completion of five years of living on my own. I left home five years ago. Lived in 3 cities, landed up in 4 jobs, picked up a management degree somewhere in between. Relocated a mind numbing SIXTEEN times (still sounds unbelievable, but its a fact).

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals - Zig Ziglar

I have yet to achieve my goals, however the journey so far has certainly taught me a lot. I have changed, for better or for worse is something that I will only be answer a couple of years later. The vision of life, how it should be, still drives me. I am imperfect, yet I search for perfection. Atlantis, utopia, delusion... have heard so many adjective for what I dream of life. Still it drives me. The facination is never going to end. Its like the gold rush that has driven so many people to a life of emotional roller-coaster, passion and madness.

Hurdles...

Simplicity is the most difficult thing to achieve. As can also be infered by my writings as well ;) hence for a change I directed my thoughts to what others have to say. Was doing a search of quotes on "hurdles", was looking for some real kicka** stuff and found two which really shook me off the slumber-

I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games.
On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot... and
missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is
why... I succeed - Michael Jordan

my nobrainer: It takes courage to conquer your fears and go beyond. Everyone of us fails. And fails a lot. What really differentiates a winner from the rest is not strength and power but the grit and the determination to stand up after falling down. So time to remember the classic moral science adage- failure is the stepping stone to success.

See everything. Overlook a great deal. Improve a little —Pope John
XXIII

my nobrainer: See everything- be observant, awareness is what makes life "live". Overlook a great deal- we drain so much of our energy on thinks that are just not worth the time and the effort. Fretting and fuming over petty issues will take us nowhere. Improve a little- Even if we do a single worthwhile thing a day, it will make a huge impact on the quality and way of (our) life.

no regrets...

"The follies which a man regrets most, in his life, are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity." - Helen Rowland

Reminded of the tagline- Just do it

And its popular spoof t-shirt tagline - Just did it

PS: Do ask...

Local train reflections...

Often the local train commute leaves me feeling cramped and exhausted. Today morning was a similar experience. Tried to think myself away from it. Tried all kind of thoughts, from humorous to cynical, even thinking about a previous post that I had written about this was of no help.

Read previous post here -> My daily commute in Mumbai local train

Getting philosophical in the mornings and feeling dead as a log on the way back home. And standing for an hour both ways doesn't help improving the mood either. Its really frustrating to see a train arrive fully packed at 10 pm. At times all this drives you insane, and things start to seem beyond comprehension. Then again, I realise that this the price that I have to pay for choosing to live and work in a metro.





Waiting for the day when this becomes a reality (atleast for me) -> Home Advantage











Photos taken from Bleu 551x Mobile camera (1.3 Mega pixel)

Rural BPO : re-visited...

Its so good to see a positive trend that you have been tracking for sometime, to be on the rise.

Back in 2006, saw some changes happening in the BPO space in India. And for the first time saw the coming up of Rural BPO's - http://mynobrainers.blogspot.com/2006/12/rural-bpos.html

In a recent article Outlook Business has shortlisted this amongst 25 ideas that will change our lives.

Read full article here -> Rural BPOs have the potential to transform the employment landscape of Indian village

Sunday brunch...

mehnat ka fal kabhi-kabhar namkeen bhi hota hai... saath mein crispy aaur tasty bhi :)

nothing can beat the taste of an aloo paratha... its a perfect sunday delight...

thanks Maneesha for the tag line ...

Chance Vs choice...

A fatalist will always leave things to chance. There is a comfort in living a life devoid of choices, or rather making someone else do that for you, be it your elder siblings, friends, parents, girlfriend, boyfriend, the higher power, angels, daemons, god. Letting someone else decide for you is a safety cushion. You don't have to evaluate options, calculate the risk/return and make a decision.

With so much of uncertainty around, at the best one can arrive at a mere informed guess through which at attempt is made to mitigate the unsystematic risk .

Finance teaches you to diversify unsystematic risk through diversification, whereas in real life situations its specification that works. The more you tends towards a situation with certainty (in your determination) the better equipped you are to handle/ face it and be in control.

So when the choices that we are making aren't really choices in absolute terms and the option of non-choice seems the easiest way out, then what to do (again a matter of choice).

Every living entity (except humans) have been programmed to follow a pattern in life- birth, growth, survival, breeding, feeding and dying. Its only we who have been left to (fatalist viewpoint) / given the opportunity to (individualistic viewpoint) evolve on our own, into whatever we can make of ourselves and opportunity that we have been given.

How to Present Like Steve Jobs

Its worth the time and effort to read and ruminate over the legendry presentation skills of Steve Jobs (Co-founder, CEO- Apple Inc.). Also, have a look at the video clip of the iPhone launch.

http://www.bnet.com/2403-13068_23-194984.html

Passion and charisma may not be an acquired skill, but you might be plain lucky even if a fraction of it brushes off on you.