Many times I find Taxi drivers in south Mumbai, who are in such a hurry to wade through traffic that they forget to notice that there is a fare waiting on the side of the road. In a hurry to surge ahead in the traffic laden streets of Mumbai – they overlook the little opportunities that stare them in the eye. Aren’t we all too like those Taxi drivers, who just want to go somewhere, without thinking where? In our jobs, we are all running, to outsmart the other, to grab even larger pay checks, to rise faster through the corporate ladder; to buy a bigger house, in a more expensive locality; to buy a car, an newer car, a more expensive one – WHY? Are we all not just running in every direction possible – just faster … speedier … farther – without even knowing if there is a destination out there which we will reach, if there is a reward out there to grab, and even ignoring if there were some rewards on the way – we keep running and see just the road and nothing beyond !! I wonder!

I was trying to hire an auto-rickshaw to an unfrequented place – almost ten rickshaws refused to travel to that place before one agreed. Amused, I asked the driver why he agreed, the answer he gave set me thinking. “Sir, most autowalahs only keep running in a particular direction. They run away from home in the morning, as the day progresses they change their direction towards home. But what each one of them forget is that, our job is to ferry passengers – to travel in a direction which they desire; not to pursue our own agenda. I am ferrying you to the place you want to go now, I will earn my bread by the money you pay – then even if I have to ferry back empty to my home – it will still turn out to be a small profit; never a loss. On the other hand the other rickshaws which refused you will probably have to ferry all the way to their home empty – not earning any fare and burning his fuel anyhow. Very few auto drivers realize this.” There was a lesson for all leaders in the above

The title of this post is just to went out my frustration at the animatedly friendly line you see in invitation emails for Shelfari (Do we like the same books?) . Actually, I am not frustrated at the service or the way it introduces itself - my objection is to something else ... read on if you are interested. The service is really an amazing concept - I wish I would have thought it and launched it. The way it introduces itself too is really good. Having tackled with the problem of 'introducing' websites myself - I do feel this is one of the better ways to do it. But isn't there is a limit to how many times you invite a user?? My first point is that if a user has invited me to the site and I haven't responded means that I am not interested in the service for one reason or the other. It could be pure disinterest or may be that I don't have time for it. Either way - I AM NOT INTERESTED!! Then why should the website send me a 'reminder' for the invitation?? Th

Today's Hindustan Times Op-ed has an article by Sujata Anandan around Vidarbha farmer suicides etc. It throws light on how misuse of credit by people compounds the situation created by poor rains and lack of proper irrigation. I quote: My sister spotted a vegetable vendor at the local market who had been defaulting in payment for months. When she swooped on her, the lady brazenly told my sister she had taken the loan not to buy a stall, as stated in her application, but to marry off her daughter. " Mera kaam ho gaya. Muzhe ab zaroorat nahin . (My purpose has been served. I do not need you now)," she said. Most of the money borrowed by farmers goes not into seeds or crop but into paying off their debts to moneylenders, the dowries of daughters or gambling dues... Moneylenders were big business in Andhra Pradesh's villages, too, but then the state government came up with a scheme to settle with those bloodsuckers and banned their return to the villages. Suicide rates

Yesterday evening around 5.45 PM, our department secretary asked everyone in office to assemble for birthday celebrations of a colleague. I was in the middle of something and so was in two-minds whether to join or not. After some seconds of haggling in my own mind, I decided not to go. So with everyone at the celebrations, I was sitting all alone at my desk - feeling hungry I went to the pantry to get some grub. There were no wafers or biscuits left - so reluctantly I got some coffee and came back. And then it happened!! My cellphone rang. In a hurry to pick it up, I spilled the coffee on the table! I immediately moved my laptop aside and ran to collect tissues; but by the time I came back the coffee had spread further and had touched the edges of my laptop. While I was wiping the coffee off the table, my laptop went off, never to start again! Being the end of the day, IT dept could not help me - a replacement could be arranged only today evening. Lesson learnt- a decision made in a sp

I wonder if its politicians or psephologists whom we should blame for perpetrating more casteism in the society. I read the following in an article on inclusive development in Hindustan Times last month - About 88 per cent of India’s SC/STs belong to this group of poor and vulnerable. Similarly, about 85 per cent of all Muslims other than the SC/STs and 80 per cent of all OBCs except Muslims are poor and vulnerable, living below per capita consumption of Rs 20 per day. Only 1 per cent of SC/STs, 2.4 per cent of OBCs other than Muslims, 2.2 per cent of Muslims other than SC/STs belong to the high income rich group, of having a per capita consumption above Rs 93 per day. Further, 86 per cent of all illiterate and 79 per cent of all those who received education below primary level belong to this group. This shows congruence of all those people in India who are poor, deprived and discriminated. The last line is a clever piece of interpretation. Is it "people who are poor and deprived

A marathi playing the role of a Chandigarh'ite, a Garhwali that of a Haryanvi, a Kerlaite that of a Bengali; isn't that the best example of National Integration? But even more, it is testimony to the script and direction of the movie - Chak De India! . Chak De India, indeed excels in both the screenplay and direction. The story of Mir Ranjan Negi, rehashed as Kabir Khan's tale is inspiring - but the way each character in the movie is etched, is what makes it even more interesting. Whether it is the brash Komal Chautala (played by Chitrashi Rawat), the bright striker Preeti Sabarwal (Sagarika Ghatge) or the no-nonsense Nethra Reddy ( Sandia Furtado ) - each character is believable yet far from being stereotypical. The story is based on the life of Mir Ranjan Negi - but the writer (Jaideep Sahni) has also successfully integrated issues like regionalism, groupism, and arrogance of seniors into it. Shilpa Shukla gets full points for her portrayal of the arrogant senior Bindiy

I was Googling for B.A.G. films - a medium sized production house, but was surprised when I did not find their homepage among the first few entries on the search page. I scrolled down the whole page, went to the next page - still only external page mentions to it. Astonished, I went back to first search result - it was amusing- why should Dynamic HTML Central turn up when I search for BAG? And then I realized - this was indeed the homepage for BAG, but the developer did not even bother to change the 'title' of the page. He picked up a template from Dynamic HTML Central, changed the text and the links in it and lo - the page is ready. He didn't even bother to edit the 'Title' of the page, which in the Google listing appears as 'Dynamic HTML Central ...". The internet is the epitome of collaboration and open source. Huge number of scripts and templates are available for reuse for free. So using one of these scripts on your company's website is no crime.

IEB has put up two posts [ 1 ] [ 2 ] on increasing divide between the rural and the urban. My own interpretation of it is of the divide between informed and uninformed - either way, there is no denying to the fact that there exists a gap which is further widening with the influx of technology and development. Many a times we debate as to how to reduce the gap, the whole system of communism is based on reducing the inequalities in the society. However, time and again it has been proved that inequalities are bound to occur; a fallout of Darwinism - they can only be reduced but cannot be eliminated. In fact, as the failure of communist system has shown - any attempt to eliminate inequalities leads to lack of motivation in individuals to compete and succeed - thus leading to stagnation of the society at large. Yet, if socialism exists -what does it mean? I interpret socialism as a just system where every human being is guaranteed basic rights and comforts. A socialist society will have in