The three of them had met after 3 years; reminiscing the days when they used to stay together. It used to be exciting - newly found jobs, a new city to struggle through/survive in and new stuff to learn at the workplace. Bachelor’s life had been exciting. Sitting there in the restaurant, sipping on their drinks they all were brooding at the starter in front of them; forks and spoons in their hands playing with the vegetables. Sheon was thinking about the strife his life had become, torn between the girl he loved and his parents who would not agree to their relationship. Samit was lost in thoughts of saving his job endangered by the recession, his two year old marriage and how he would retain the comfort and balance of his life in these turbulent times. Naveen was pondering over his failed startup, contemplating on what he would do next to get out of his 9-5 routine job. In 2 years since they had gone separate ways, life had presented different set of challenges to each of them and ea

After I bought my car, one of the first things which was fixed in the interior of my car as a decorative was a Ganesh Idol - that was gifted to me by my dealer itself. The next thing which I wanted to buy was the Indian flag - I finally bought it when we visited the Wagah border. After I had put up the flag in my car, I started noticing the interiors of other cars on the road, and found that almost 80% of cars had similar Indian flags in their cars. Then yesterday (which was Republic Day), I found that even auto-rickshaws had flags pinned up inside. This led me into thinking as to whether this "flag thing" indicates that we Indians are a patriotic lot and whether after 60 years of independence, we have shrugged our apathy towards the nation and started taking pride in being Indians. Well ... I really can't say. To the skeptic, this could as well be because car accessory stores have flags as a decorative or say hawkers coax you into buying these at traffic signals, and fin

Written Circa June, 2003 - inspired by a chapter in Alvin Toffler' s ' The Third Wave '  In the past permanence was ideal. Whether in handcrafting a pair of Boots or in constructing a cathedral all man’s creative and productive energies went towards maximizing the durability of the product. Man built to last. He had to. As long as the society around him was relatively unchanging each object had clearly defined functions and the economic logic dictated the policy of permanence. Even if they had to be repaired now and then, the boots that costed $50.00 and lasted ten years were less expensive than those that cost $10.00 and lasted only a year. As the general rate of change in society accelerates, however, the economics of permanence are - and must be - replaced by economics of transience. First, advancing technology tends to lower the costs of manufacture much more rapidly than the costs of repair work. The one is automated the other remains largely handcrafted operation. Thi

Written circa January 2003 Wars for long have been thought to be as bad omen. And every time somebody mentions War, pictures of mass destruction hover in front of our eyes. But history tells us that wars have traditionally been the powerhouse of technological revolution. The recent most world war, that is the Second World War, is the most flamboyant example of the above fact. Robert B. Young at the Stanford research institute studied the span of time between the first commercial appearance of a new electrical appliance and at the time the industry manufacturing it reaches a peak production of the item. Young found that for a group appliances introduced in the United States before 1920, including the vacuum cleaner, the electric range and the refrigerator, the average Span between introduction and peak production was 34 years.  But for the group that appeared in 1939-59 period, including the electric frying pan, television and washer and dryer combination, the Span was only eight year

As I have said earlier , writing is an old hobby of mine, much older than this blog. So a couple of days back as I was cleaning my old documents I discovered texts which I wrote during my engineering days when I did not have a PC, leave alone having this blog space to publish them. I thought why not post them here on my blog now. I am starting with those which are already typed and ready (other which are handwritten will need more time). Here's the first write up in that series: Future shock [written circa 2002-2003 at Age-21] In his book Future Shock , Alvin Toffler talks to accelerated pace of change and describes how men/women, youth, children and even animals are being or will enter paroxysms or orgies of withdrawal from the society due to future shock. He paints a horrible, dangerous and frightening picture of the seemingly insane society of tomorrow. He goes on giving instances to prove that the rate of rate of change is on the unending increase and how biologically and psych

Here’s what I have been doing since August this year (and expected to do till Dec): 8-Aug Received Car delivery 9-Aug Went to Pune on first drive itself 15-Aug Getting used to driving to office everyday 22-Aug Work on new version of www.arbitmba.com 29-Aug Went to Lonavala with friends; came back and worked on remaining pieces of ArbitMBA new version 3-Sep 5-Sep Ganesh Chaturthi - went to Madh Island; after the gruelling weekend in Lonavla Release of www.arbitmba.com 12-Sep Went home for Ganesh Visarjan 19-Sep 26-Sep 3-Oct 10-Oct 17-Oct Mad race at work - with multiple assignment's on head, working Saturday's and Sunday's But also stole visits to - (Not Just) Jazz By the Bay, Bandra Reclamation, St. Mary's Church on weekends 24-Oct Went home for Diwali 31-Oct @ home post Diwali 7-Nov 14-Nov Rush to complete current project@work - working Saturday's, Visits to Inorbit over weekend 21-Nov Tentative plan to visit Khetan's marriage 28-Nov Might go to Pune if Mom'

The news of an Indian origin financial advisor committing suicide after killing his entire family hit the headlines within hours of the event. I wonder if it had been an Indian farmer instead of a financial advisor, whether the news would have taken the same position on the newspapers. However, the stark similarity in context of the suicide with that of the Indian farmers prodded me to think which one of them was worse - the Financial Advisor's or the Farmer's. The farmer in India lives on the bottom edge of the economic ladder, is uneducated and enjoys little socio-economic security. However, the financial advisor was an affluent citizen (having made a fortune of $1.2mn once), had a social security number and was well educated. His committing suicide indicates a complete failure of the much touted "social security" which the west claims to be its achievement. However, look at it from another perspective. The financial advisor works on estimates and projections of se

I've recently bought a car (more on that in my next post) ... and have been driving around Mumbai - especially along the narrow traffic in front of IIT main gate.  Driving a new car on Mumbai roads is quite traumatic - because you are often driving barely inches away from the rickshaw or goods carrier which might be swaying from left to right (thanks to the potholes and uneven terrain of Mumbai's roads)  - and every moment you run a risk of kissing the bruised exterior of the next vehicle - and as a result getting a nice scratch on yours. Image Credit :  Guy Kawasaki Often when I drive, I also look around for other small cars and their sides. Almost 90% of them have scratches itched on them at some place; about 50% also have a dent or two somewhere. I suppose drivers in Mumbai have to resign themselves to the fact that their car will get scratches and dents sometime or the other - sooner than later. Trying to save yourself of this can only be stressful while you drive. I dare s

Note (Click to expand) This is an old blog post, I first wrote typed in 2005. 3 years later while cleaning my old Hard disk, I found it. Blogging was still a fairly new pursuit to me then and I was not sure if this post would be well received, hence did not post it. I know better now, that it is better to post than shove it away, so here it is. The question is not whether we will live or die - the question is whether we will be free or not - Subhash Chandra Bose I have been debating with myself whether to make this post or not for the past 15-20 days and finally decided in its favour. If it offends anyone in any way, I apologise beforehand. Think of all the activities that give you emotional or physical pleasures - love, food, sex, self-praise, anger and above all physical inactivity ( आलस ). Of course all of us would differ in the level of pleasure these activities give us, nevertheless it cannot be denied that all the above do give us pleasure to some extent. Notice the similarity

Shubham strikes again - he has tagged me with this topic this time ... well to be frank all that I want to do in my life is still unfinished, so this list could as well run into 100s, but let me try to hand-pick the top 5: 5. Startup Needs no explanation - I try to keep innovating even in my job; but starting up my own enterprise could be an ecstatic milestone. Lot's of ideas keep coming to one, but as yet nothing has come to mind which can make me quit my cosy job. 4. Become a columnist As I have written earlier as well, writing is an old hobby with me. I grew up writing for my diary, then the school magazine, also becoming its editor, then kept writing in private, till I started on this blog. However, my childhood dream is to become a columnist in a newspaper. Perhaps, I have achieved that dream by becoming a Long Tail columnist (on this blog), but it would indeed be a satisfying achievement to become a 'real' columnist. 3. Drive a Social organization Well, may be an N

Many of you must have read about the famous 'The Man in the Arena' speech by Theodore Roosevelt. The passage from the speech which has made the speech memorable and is oft quoted is: It is not the critic who counts;The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face in marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. However, I was reading the rest of the speech when I found another paragraph which was as thoughtful the first one ... here it goes: War is a dreadful thing, and unjust war is a crime against humanity. But it is such a crime because it is unjust, not because it is a war. The choice must ever be in favour of righteousness, and this is whether the alternative be peace or whether the alternative be war. The question must n

In 2004, on the same day as today, I made my first post on this blog, and I have loved every bit of it. Blogs are the individual's 'press releases' to the world - they are chronicles of what people do, think and feel about their lives - and by doing all this, blogs epitomize the much elusive state that mankind has been in quest of, since time immemorial - FREEDOM! And when it comes to freedom, lets hear from the perspective of freedom's champion - Mahatma Gandhi. I quote Louis Ficher: Gandhi believed in revealing himself. He regarded secrecy as the enemy of freedom-not only the freedom of India but the freedom of man. He exposed even the innermost personal thoughts which individuals usually regard as private. Guess Gandhi would have loved to have a blog :-) [I have quoted Gandhi on individualism earlier as well]. How correct Gandhi was becomes clear when you read today's authors talking about the importance of individuals in the present society. For example, Thom

Sourced from: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Ogilvy When someone is made the head of an office in the Ogilvy & Mather chain, I send him a Matrioshka doll from Gorky. If he has the curiosity to open it, and keep opening it until he comes to the inside of the smallest doll, he finds this message: If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs . But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants . Always hold your sales meetings in rooms too small for the audience, even if it means holding them in the WC. 'Standing room only' creates an atmosphere of success, as in theatres and restaurants, while a half-empty auditorium smells of failure. It has been found that the less an advertisement looks like an advertisement, and the more it looks like an editorial, the more readers stop, look and read. Therefore, study the graphics used by editors and imitate them. Study the graphi

I tried my hand at some amateur literature - attached is a short story I thought up on my way to home on last Thursday. Do leave your feedback in comments below. You can also download a PDF of the story from here . Thanks to my friends Abhishek , Payal, Shubham , Arijit, Somnath, Milind, Sabyasachi and Ashita for doing the proof reading and providing valuable inputs. The Tree A Short Story by Nikhil Kulkarni Murtaza watched with emptiness inside him as they chopped the massive trunk of the huge banyan into smaller prices to be loaded into the lorry. His thoughts went back to the day 45 years ago when he had moved into Mumbai. 20 years old, newly married he came to Mumbai from his native town Meermirzapur in search of a living. When he had told people in his neighbourhood that he was planning to shift to Mumbai after marriage – everyone laughed him off –“ Wahan kya Hero Banega? Arey bahot bada shehar hai – kaise rahega wahan par ?” [Will you become a movie star there? It’s a

A friends of mine who is in the US, sent me this YouTube link: While this India rising story is fast becoming a cliche, the video nevertheless makes things look quite amazing. And so many Indians abroad seem to be getting more and more sold on the India story. I however believe there's more to it than meets the eye!! :-) The troubles of working (or operating business) in India are quite irking - for example I was stuck for 2 hours today in Ghatkopar - fortunately the habit of having a book in my bag helped me - but imagine the amount of morning productive time I wasted! The stock market which went up and was hailed to stay put even as the US melted under sub-prime, has finally crashed today [ last reported it fell 1300 odd points]. The real estate prices which have been rising in speculation are already falling in smaller cities and while they have stayed put in metros - the whole urban dream seems to be crumbling because of the inability of the governments to be able to suppleme

Its become quite chilly in Mumbai - for the first time in Mumbai I am enjoying 'winters' the way I have known them to be (when I was in Bhopal). Recorded Temperatures in the island city are about 11-13ºC- and especially in Powai they seem to have dropped below 10 ... its a wonderful feeling. And it seems as if Jayant Narlikar's Science fiction which I read in my school days - which predicted snowfall in Mumbai in 2010 - is heading towards materializing. As the McDonald's advert goes - I am lovving it!!

Have you ever been surrounded by a flurry of activities - too busy to even notice that you are out of toothpaste - yet felt lonely and deserted? I keep bumping into this emotion time and again - don't know why! It starts mostly when you are asleep - and suddenly wake up with that feeling of being alone wanting that someone was around to whom you could talk to about the "certain" thing that was bugging you or to simply face another human being. And its not that you don't see faces after waking up - but you simply don't want to share things then. Nothing wrong with these faces, but you think they would never understand - and so your sharing will only aggravate this feeling of being lonely - and you keep mum. One realizes in such times that, after all, each one us has come alone and will go alone from this world - so lets make most of our times while we are here ...

A Very Happy New year to all those who are reading .... 2008 comes along as the stock market soars, the rupee strengthens and people talk all positive about India. It indeed feels good to be in India at times like these, some 3 years after the slogan was raised - India is indeed shining. So in this mood, I allowed myself to fantasize further. We went to the Gateway of India yesterday and I found the place quite clean as compared to my last visit, no pieces of paper thrown away, little dust on the footpath and no horseshit on the streets (due to the Bagghis ). I was surprised - what had happened? I saw a few dustbins around, but people had hardly taken up the habit of using them - they were still throwing stuff on the street. Then what miracle had happened? This was when my eyes fell on the army of cleaners with broomsticks in their hands fervently sweeping the footpath and the roads, and dumping the garbage in dustbins. I immediately recollected that I had found the railway stations

Out of 20 New Year Wish emails that I fired to my former colleagues in the UK (some of whom are now in Australia)- I got "Out of Office" messages from 12 .... the British truly love to be on leave during the festive season .... Something to learn ... to take life easier ... and maintain a work life balance!

There were two articles in the Hindustan Times (Dec 10) which I felt like reacting to. The first one was a very relevant plea for attention towards sensibilities of the disabled . No surprize that that article is written by a Britisher. In India, we have become so used to witnessing misery, poverty and disability that it never strikes our subconscious when disability is used as a comic element in movies. I never felt anything watching the scene in Om Shanti Om which makes fun of a limping character? Some of you may argue that no one is making fun of the disability but rather the character - well I think its a matter of sensibilities. The fact that we find a disabled character funny, clearly signifies we do not feel any pity and definitely no compassion towards the character. I am not surpized, no one in the censor board noticed this as well!! The second article is actually a news item about Maharshtra Knowledge Corp - creating its own version of the Wikipedia. What amazes me is our h