being practical...

Have you ever had a feeling where you know the other person is wrong. He / she is going on a wrong path. You know from the bottom of your heart that he / she is going to face lot of problems in his life later because of this attitude. You try from the bottom of heart to improve his / her conditions, many times getting insulted, abused, with a feeling of being useless and crap given by other person, but you care for the other person so intensely that you suffer in silence? You do not reciprocate in anger, you do not try to argue because you know that will not improve the conditions and only will make things worse.

Human mind is illogical many times. I admire (?) those people who call themselves practical because they can control their feelings so intensely and give that I do not care attitude. Many times these people make you leave wondering, am I being coward by not reacting back or by showing I do care attitude. It gives a hell lot of feeling of being in-confident. You know the other person is nowhere near you, but you continue because there is some kind of bond, by which you feel responsible for the other persons betterment. Its complex. Is this the sign of you being weak at heart and mind? Is arrogance and self centered attitude correct? There are many questions which many people like us some times ponder upon.

How do these people react when they understand the mistakes they did some time back, but can not revert back because time has passed. With time things change. But only if some people were more wise, more concerned about their own well being, they could make this world a more better place.

Being practical is good. But being practical at the cost of others by hurting others is definitely not good. Many people realize their mistakes later in their life. And then there are only regrets to fill ....

India..a crazy circus

Indian cities are feeling like a crazy race. A race where everybody seems to be only running behind more and more. Lots of people on the road. Lots of cars on the road. Lots of buildings near road. Lots of people in eateries. Its like a big circus. Where different people are dancing on different tunes.

All the people of my age are getting married. Everybody owns a plush flat and a car. Everybody talks about things which seem so different to me. Everybody is in the race. The race which I guess will now end only when they will retire. The race to own a house. The race to have that big fat paycheck. The race to occupy the best place in the restaurant. The race to occupy best place in McDonalds. The race to get ahead in traffic. The race to break traffic rules. The race to beat one another in honking of horn and owning a car. The race to get ones's child enrolled in best school. The race to plan about his future like should he be promoted through sports quota for getting admit or any other means. IT industry surely has brought a big revolution. Atleast in terms of race.

I feel lost in this race. I feel am I some one who is feeling ousted already before the race has started? There are hot girls with hot t-shirts smoking out hukka in some of the joints. There are cool dudes with more cool bikes. There are newly settled and married couples, trying to adjust the EMI of their newly purchased house and car. There are couples who are planning their babies and what all to do when she arrives. So many things have changed and they will change similarly in coming time. And you get to see this all daily on roads, I observe.

Money brings confidence. Material possessions bring confidence. I see lot of confidence everywhere. I feel am I in-confident? I feel lost.

Its a race. A never ending race where people do not even understand that they are a participant already. India surely is a market to watch for in the coming decade.

Yes, its a market where things are for sell and everybody wants to buy everything.

3 idiots and IIT and me.

3 idiots is a nice name. This movie comes with a nice message. But may be since I already knew what was going to happen in the movie to some extent, I was not so intensely moved. But I really like Amir for all this great work. He is awesome. I admire him a lot for all the good stuff he has done so far.

I remember my first interaction with Indian Institute of Technology, on which this movie is based slightly. Well, there was a time when once I tried to get into IIT after 12th desperately. I studies intensely but I today understand my method of preparation was wrong. There was not much awareness about IIT around 10 years back when I appeared for it. Out of entire Pune students, only 3 students managed to get into IIT in my batch. One of this was my room mate from SP College hostel, Vipul Mehta, who is pursuing his PhD at present in US after his dual degree in Mechanical engineering from IIT. The proportion of students getting into IIT from Pune increased slowly thereafter, with I guess around 150 students securing entry in one of the IITs this year. There is huge awareness now, which was missing totally then. Well, after desperately studying for 2 years, when I failed to make through the exam. I know how badly I had cried on the day of announcement of results.

IIT always fancied me and I never left a chance to visit it when I happened to get a chance during Techfests, the technical competitions held at IIT Mumbai each year. I used to share room with Vipul for those 2,3 days. I still remember the first visit of techfest, when I saw Vipul with his robot :) There was an intense envy in my mind, as in why I am not here, why I have not built this robot :) I have some great memories from IIT interactions. Anurag, my other room partner, who studied from JJ Grant Bombay for his medical and now researching HIV in UK, if you are reading this, do you remember your confession of proposal to your wife, to your friends during one of these days? We were like Aha, the first love in our friend circle :)

Amir plays an excellent character. He sends really good message. But mostly it happens that students and parents in their pursue for money after engineering forget all they did during engineering and join some IT company and become some developer, earn money, get car, marry and stay happy (????) there after. Well, Amir our country faces so much dilemma in terms of money that people chose to ignore what they love or fear taking risks. They think it is their duty to get into the prototype life that one sees around, if they will try to break out of it, they will be punished severely. Well also not everybody is as intelligent as your character. Well, not everybody is really aware of what they really want or what they are really good at. Or many times some people like me, who keep on struggeling to find what they are really good at, many times time flies by :) Some times people like me, get interested in everything :P haha. So there lies a different sort of problem altogether :) Well, how many of you are doing what you are doing, because you know you want to do that? Especially all those IT folks who are out there.

Nice movie Amir. I admire you for your hard work and quality. May we keep on getting the excellence like this always.

Staying in Context

One thing I am heavily observing after my arrival in India is that it is very difficult to stay in the current context. You are bound by so many external stimulus that many times the context changes extremely fast.

An average urban Indian has a whole lot of different ways of behaving because of the different contexts he goes through each day. Consider the daily routine. Home, traffic, office, traffic, home. Traffic forms an integral part of this daily grind. Consider the case of planned city development. Indian boasts only a few planned cities like Chandigadh, just 3 or 4. So majority of India stays in cities which are extremely badly managed, are on the verge of breaking under growing infrastructure. Consider the rapid urbanization and the traffic flow in each city. Pune, for example is supposedly the fastest grown city in India in recent times. So at present it is undergoing tremendous stress. Now consider the stress developed by its citizens who travel daily for their daily work. Consider an average home size in Pune, it is around 1 bedroom. (not confirmed by any source but my own assumption).

Staying in context is staying aware of what is happening around you and being aware of oneself. When one gets bogged down by such a huge population constantly in terms of population and traffic. One do not get time to think about things and analyze things. For staying in context one needs to have atleast some silence around oneself at some times. Indians take things for granted and become a part of this daily grind. So maximum Indians still show the lackasidal attitude towards the society as such and the development. Since my arrival, I have been witnessing some nice measures and nice initiatives on governments part to revive the desperately needed reforms. But it will take time.

Till that time, Indians will stay out of context. They will suffer. They will show the same problems despite growth and this growth is in terms of new malls sprawling up city skylines, new vehicles being added to city roads. globalization is good because it is making Indians aware of the grave problems they suffer and why they need to act fast, instead of basking in ones own self created glory of past. Globalization is bringing quality and changing things at a much rapid pace.

Watching India from outside India like lets say from USA and watching India from within India is a different story. It is the same as doing something by staying outside system and doing something by staying inside system. You know what I am talking about, if you understand the problems :)

2012 and America and Scientists

I watched the movie 2012 today evening. An awesome devastation epic of magnificent scale. Any catastrophic movie always has a huge scientific crew on board. This movie had the same. Some national level scientists who advise President of United States about the aftermath of such catastrophes.

This movie brought the memories of my days at UC Santa Cruz, USA. I got to witness the extreme scientific research culture for a period of 2 years at UC Santa Cruz. I sat amongst top scientist in US in the field of Computer Science. I attended discussion of scientists from US national laboratories, defense laboratories, research laboratories. I listened to stories of my lab mates who were intern at such labs, who were employees of such labs. How I yearned to be one of them many times secretly and some times openly. I picked up many of their good habits. I learned to be patient, listen more intently, think more deeply, observe more keenly. I developed an intense taste for silence. I witnessed the craziness that they do. The passion they exhibit. The intelligence they possess. I was a part of Storage Systems Research Center (SSRC). I was lucky to be surrounded by an all white crew of labmates who were all PhDs, who I always felt lived in a different world, exhibited different priorities and showed different interests. Every time, I was there amongst them, I cursed myself as why I am not an American? Why I do not have so many facilities and research grants? I cursed India and its politicians for its lackasidal attitude towards science and research.

US is a country which values your intelligence. The scientist and professors in US are considered extremely honorable. They command a respect. They exhibit an aura around them. Where I am headed? I do not know. But I do get thrilled by their idiosyncrasies.

2012 brought back lot of good memories. Many Indians who do their Masters from US never understand this culture that US is known for. The extreme science and research culture. They are in their masters program just to get that fancy $$earning job, and have a tag of NRI. We Indians seriously lack to appreciate some cultures and feel an intense pride in our legacy. And we say proudly "Mera Bharat Mahan".

Silicon Valley Startups vs Indian startups...

Silicon Valley is the peak of tech innovation and attracts the best brains in the world. The drive for innovation, passion for competition and the excellent supporting environment is the crux of what silicon valley is. I feel so fortunate that I some time back was present in this charged environment.

Silicon Valley start ups and beyond reach of Indian Start-ups if one starts comparing. The startup culture / entrepreneurial culture is slowly picking up pace in India. Most of the startups present in India are from Banglore and Pune region. Most of these startups are service oriented start-ups. Like they try to provide some existing service which is present in manual or physical format in the electronic format. E-commerce based companies like Indiatimes shopping for shopping, Tastykhana.com for ordering food online, eLagaan.com for filing income tax online etc are some such examples of startups in Indian market. These start-ups are not driven greatly by technology as compared to their Silicon valley counterpart. A silicon valley start-up boasts a team of Phds, Masters, Psychologists etc. The emphasis is on the technology and the execution of it. Indian startups are based on Ideas and their execution and generating business and making lives of people around easier. We in India have our basic problems very different than USA. We do not have a great research environment, which is necessary for building great products which are recognized worldwide, that is why it is impossible to see next "Google" arriving from India. Behind every successful story there is immense hard work supported by great minds. Our minds are programmed to think in a stereotypical way. So it is highly unlikely to get something quality out from India in coming immediate future.


The latest trend in Silicon Valley startups is based on analysis of social networking data and predicting patterns out of that. Use this information for other purposes. Make analysis of this data on parallel architectures and draw conclusions from the same. Web based innovative startups are the norm. And these startups have a unique idea unique to American soil. They can not be applied to Indian contexts.

I so wish someday, we in India see so much great research that our talent refuses to leave to US for better career in research. I so wish Silicon Valley type startups making their presence in India, sometime in near future.

A better India, a better world

I am reading the book, "A better India,a better world" by Mr. Narayan Murthy. founder of Infosys. This book is mostly about the deeply troubled civilization called India as it is present in the current form, as compared to the more civilized societies present in the rest of the world. Mr. Murthy proposes different solutions and how India could be made a better place for the next generations.

I am so able to identify with all the points Mr.Murthy mentions. I have always believed Indians are so self engrossed in their own ways of behaving that they really do not want to progress. We are the least progressive society, if we consider the talent pool we posses. Comparisons with developed nations and west arrive and India lacks behind in every aspect. Professionalism, ethics, values, role towards society and community, philanthropy, education etc etc.

The book mentions the real problems as faced by Mr.Murthy and the role of youth in building a nation. I feel so bad, when all around me I see youth power getting wasted because lack of correct direction of thinking. Without exposure to many things, Indians tend to behave like a frog in a well. He behaves like a king, arrogant, non-humble, over materialistic and without a vision. We are poor and many problems result because of that, but most of the times we Indian do not have many values which I have seen in Developed nations. Families instilling values in their kids while they are growing is a different thing. Most of our families themselves are so deeply under exposed that our kids end up growing looking at wrong values. And those with good values, believe, they are elite and if they want to do justice to their values, its better they migrate.

Mr.Murthy mentions deep problems in Indian society and how with good exposure and willingness of the correct set of people, things could become good. Optimism is always good. On hope world survives.

Jet Airways

I flied back to India today. United Airline from San Fransisco to Hong Kong and then Jet Airways, from Hong Kong to Mumbai. Jet Airways impressed me so much that I really did not want to get out of the flight after it landed :)

United Airline seemed to be the most boring International flight I had so far. Ok types cabin crew, ok types food, bad aircraft, bad entertainment. Jet Airways, was the best airline I flied so far. Their cabin crew bowled me completely with their smile, bright costumes, young age (18-23), hospitality, and great friendly attitude. I almost fell in love with all the air hostesses they had on board :P 10 on 10 for Jet to have such a wonderful crew. I have never seen any International airliner, giving such a great service. Singapore Airline came some what close. The crew was so great that I just felt like complementing each of them individually for the great service they were offering. How unlucky I was to have a chance of just greeting two air hostesses with my compliments, who were waiting to see passengers off, after landing at Mumbai airport. How I regret it :( No, seriously, they were amazing and I am sure, every passenger onboard felt the same way. They had such a charisma :)

The food was delightful. The aircraft quality was wonderful. What a great way to land in India. So I am back to India finally. It feels awesome :)

And the memories of those great young Indian beauties are still lingering on my mind and make me feel good every time I recall. Kudos to Jet Airways. Given a chance, I will always travel by Jet in Future :)

Beauty is contagious. How true it is. And I love beauty.

People and Self help...

I have often found this important paradox. The less education you have, more mature one thinks about himself / herself. Self help is considered a taboo in that case.

I remember roaming around in book stores like crossword in Pune, in search of good books and some direction to think. I used to spent lot of time in these book stores. Self help books are a great source of self awareness medium. I am reading a book titled "Seven habits of effective people". They say, a book is like a gold mine, it always stays rich. So true. Many times I have heard people saying, we do not like to read books, We learn by observing. I would like to ask them one question, what are you going to learn if you keep on observing wrong people and wrong behavior? How are you going to improve if there is dearth of good people around you who can motivate you, show you correct path, tell you correct thinking pattern? If there is such a scarcity of such people around you, how can this claim be valid?

Books, come handy in these situations. But I have observed one more thing related to books. For a person to understand what is written inside a book, it is equally important for him is to identify with the book. If a person can not understand, what book is saying, he will get bored and leave the reading part. Now one other observation I have is, many times a foreign country or a stay in foreign country, exposes one to situations which one can not imagine, sitting in ones host country. These experiences are unique and beyond imagination. I many times feel pity about those Indian wives who do nothing but sit at home and raise kids in US. Life in US could be extremely traumatic if you have nothing to do. I observe these ladies many times, the sad look on their face, the feeling of helplessness. What is it to have a life confined in a sophisticated country, if it is limited to your home and an outing in a nice car on weekends. US is an extremely individualistic country. People who had different behavior in India, start showing different behavior ones they get a sense of this atmosphere. Its sad and extremely bad many times. A foreign stay gives lot of time for introspection, since there is plenty of time in hand. And you have your head, which can think and analyze if it has habit of that.

Self help books become a great source of inspiration in such situations, because now you can identify with most of the problems they mention. You feel an "Aha" moment, once you identify with certain scenario mentioned in the book and on which you were trying to seek a solution so desperately for a long time. Art of living and such courses is a nice attempt in the same direction. Awareness of anything is important. It brings lot of changes in ones attitude. I have enrolled my parents in an "Art of living" course and they seem to be enjoying it. But for a common man, many times this is useless. Under ones ego and pretext of knowing everything, people in India, make fun of such things. They detest such things. I read somewhere, "Only fools are extremely certain of their actions, wise people are always full of doubts, because they know, a more wise person could exist somewhere, who might have a different opinion about the same". What we see in India, is a lot of foolish behavior.

Self help books, and such courses help in avoiding such situations, but they are effective only if one has gone through such situations and could introspect in ones spare time. I wonder how great India could become if one understands such things and makes a wise move in that direction. Education is important. It atleast gives you a door to more wisdom. Self help books are great, if one wants to really have some self help.

The Story of India ....

Viewing documentaries has become a favorite obsession of mine recently. I recently watched a great documentary by "BBC" titled "The story of India". This documentary talks about Indian civilization and how once a rich civilization got invaded by different rulers.

This documentary is divided into seven parts, giving invasions from Romans, Muslim, Agfan, British etc. Discusses the notion of a rich India and its importance to west. The silk, spices, fertile land of South, the trades, kings and their dynasties etc. Discusses the cultures as present in Southern India, the temples and their history. Kings like Chandragupt Mourya, Ashoka, Chol dynasty kinds like RajaRaja etc and how different kings had different views in terms of religion, culture, vision, humanity etc. Talks about the impact they had on then people in terms of the way they rules and the different cities of India like Varanasi, Patna, Ayodhya and their religious importance. Talks about philosophy of life and different religions like Hindu, Budhism, Sikhism, Muslim etc and how these religions spread during course of time during different periods of history and the effect it had. In short this is a great documentary which makes ones think on the way things happened in past and the reasons why they happened that way.

While I was watching this documentary, I was carefully analyzing different questions that were occurring to me. Questions like why caste system spread, questions like why India is so poor, why we are so divided in so many different aspects, why their is difference between west and India and why Education is still not a basic right in India. How cultures such as Tamil culture influence religious sentiments and how strong the religious influence could be. Why different cultures prevail in India and how managing India as politically managing all these things is a herculean task. I also happened to read a book by Infosys cofounder Mr. Nandan Nilekani "Imagining India" recently. It talked about the India as it is since it gained Independence and how different transitions in Indian politics happened in due course of time. Watching this documentary made some points even clearer as this documentary stops exactly where Mr. Nilekani starts.

History as I look back at it now, seems a lot fascinating and interesting. Especially with abundance of documentaries made available through file sharing networks like bit torrent. Many observations occur to me like, shouldn't history be retaught to some extent when we are grown up, during our formal years at professional schools? It is largely said that it is during our school years as children that we imbibe lot of values, which we carry as future citizens. We learn many lessons from history but are we really mature enough to understand what is being taught in our schools? We learn civics and lot of social subjects during our schools. But as I recall now, I really did not understand many things that were taught in civics, and feel intrigued by lot of questions. How interesting it would be to have some such experiments like documentaries and other things which are made possible by technology, to be retaught in professional environments. Often when we grow, we tend to get intrigued by many questions, which I feel could be answered if we take a hard look at the history the way it happened and could learn some lessons.
Egypt, Rome, Greek, India, China all had their own say in history. How many of us have really learned about Hindu religion? Or for that matter any religion. I now understand why in the history books some kings were called eminent scholars, because they possessed any immense quest for knowledge and for wisdom. While watching these documentaries I many times end up recalling lot of questions and memories of some passages of history lessons, that I once had, when I was a young kid in school. And I am so much fascinated again, by history that I really want to read all of it, as much as I could. I am sure, I will find lot of answers to lot of my questions, while I re-read / watch it.

Different civilizations, different kings, different rulers, eminent personalities, different religions all had some lessons to give to us, from where we could learn a lot. Lot of our miseries could be solved by learning from them. Point is do we care enough to really understand that many of the questions that we want answers for are right here? We just need to take a hard and wise introspect to find the answers for them. And we will be more wise.

Let the history prevail....

Happy Dipavali :)

Some festivals are really special. I love Diwali. I love different shades of Diwali that I have seen so far from different angles.

Diwali in hostel life when I was in school. Diwali when I was at home for brief time. Diwali at Santa Cruz. Diwali at the new place in Mountain View with different set of friends. Different types. Different nature. Different celebrations with different people.

As a child I never understood importance of Diwali or any festival, since we are not that much of a religious family. All the enthusiasm I had seen so far was with my mom, when she used to take utter pain in decorating house, lighting it up, doing all the things like Pooja etc. Or how some of my friends were so cheerful in school hostel days on occasions of Ganesh Chaturthi etc. Some how I was a lot aloof in those days. I guess because I had no reference with me to compare. I guess because I had lacked the large family feel which celebrates festivals with equal zest and cheerfulness with lots of relatives and friends. I today understand importance of good relatives and a great friend circle and the people whom you grow up with. These are the people who shape up you as you grow and these are the people whom you look upto and seek motivation. If there is something wrong with this support system, things get messed up pretty nicely. I guess, very few families are blessed with good cheerful atmosphere filled with lot of relatives who are equally good and lots of friends and elders to look upto. I understand the great importance of this support system and how I missed many of these things. And these realizations happen because I have been going through lot of personal transitions lately, by staying in company of diverse people of different cultures and traditions, since I landed in US. Stay in US has done a great favor to me in terms of all this since staying in India, its very hard to understand and get this exposure. I am so happy I am understanding lot of such things.

Hostel life had also taken a toll on my capability of understanding of all the concepts of bonding, festivals, get togethers etc. I think I craved heavily for emotions always, which I did not understand then as a child. Well its good that I at least understand all this now :) Better late than never :) Once there is realization and awareness, somethings could be done, lack of awareness and even if that awareness is there then personal ego, is the cause of many miseries we constantly see around.

Diwali in hostel is something I frankly do not recall at all. I so damn curse my memory for it. Diwali in Deogad was good. Lighting up entire house with electric bulbs, then lighting up colony. Mom used to take so much pain in doing so many things. How I regret now not able to do and understand importance of things then. But I guess, me and my brother seriously lacked company of equal aged children with us, which makes a childhood really special. Small families and staying in a small village have these serious drawbacks I guess. There is tremendous lack of exposure in terms of many things. Diwali in Pune was good, but it lacked the grandiose nature I guess that it could have had. We mostly enjoyed the lightening crackers that were burst by others in Pune skyline from our 6th floor terrace. Again, there was lack of friends in Pune of same age, since we did not grew up in Pune and were there just as students and then during job stay. Again, I did not realize the importance of Diwali then and festivals then.

Diwali in Santa Cruz was awesome. We had a great small Indian group of around 10-15 students. Bengali people were prominent in here. Followed by South Brahmins and some north Indian public. Well cultured Bengalis are extremely cheerful. They have an aura around them. They are sweet. Almost all the students in Santa Cruz were PhD students and mostly couples of my own age. It is here where I really understood importance of families, bondings, couples, festivals, culture and all the happiness life carries other than the professional life. How well cultured and educated families bring more exposure and hold ties together. How the thinking maturity appears even in celebrations and how life could be so peaceful if is present in correct set of people. First year Diwali was great, where we did potluck dinner, pooja, danced, enjoyed. Second year Diwali was even more awesome. There was an elaborate Pooja, which made me feel blessed with its peace and soothing touch. It is in Santa Cruz that I appeared for a course in Art of Living and understood how meditation could bring lot of changes in ones thinking methods. Those were some of the best days I had. We cooked dinner together on diwali night. I had eaten a well cooked full fledged dinner after lots of months and felt nothing could be more blissful than a life contained with good food :) I was so happy. I was in great elevated mood. Here is my blog entry from last Diwali night when I was extremely ecstatic.

And now I am here with again different set of people. These are all Maharashtrians and mainly all localites from Pune, who never had witnessed a life outside Pune till they came for Masters in US. Some of them grew up as friends since junior KG and till Masters in USA, to the extent that they shared same rooms :) What could be more blissful than this? These kids were brought up in great well cultured families which is reflected from just being with them. Who always tell the tales of how fun filled their childhood was with their parents and relatives that surrounded them mostly. Sometimes comparison comes to my mind with my own past. Its natural. I can not suppress those thoughts. Many times I feel, I so missed so many things unlike these kids, who always had some one to protect them, guide them and take care of them while they were growing up. It must have been a great childhood, complete with full fun and no responsibility at all. Pune is a great city to spend your childhood in by gone days. It had its own traditional charm which has started missing since it is becoming cosmopolitan, since introduction of IT. Every development comes at some cost.

Diwali here is going to be good. Surrounded by these great kids, who have an altogether different charm of their own. They enjoy, live every moment, are bonded greatly with their families and Maharashtrian traditions. Lack to some extent the miseries of bad world that lies outside and its problems. I am understanding a totally different way of living from them. It feels so good to be exposed to so many traditions, understand their importance and how they could make life cheerful. It feels bliss. Problems are there always, but occasional happiness that comes from such things, carries its memories for a long time and makes you extremely positive towards things that lie in future. You demand a better future for yourself and for everybody because if everybody around you would progress, then only you would be able to enjoy it with everybody.

Wish you and your family a very Happy & Prosperous Dipawali. May the blessings of Lord always be with you and may your life always sparkle with joy,happiness,peace,love & success. May you be blessed with all the happiness in the world and develop strength to combat the problems with vigor and great attitude.

-Mrunal

Gandhiji ...Will you come back for a day?

An article by the famous youth author Chetan Bhagat in Times of India.

Dear
Gandhiji,

You left us 62 years ago. If you were still around, you would have been 140 years old. However, we have not forgotten you. You are on every banknote and most stamps. There are many statues of you. Prestigious roads in almost every city are named after you. Our politicians try to model themselves on you. They wear the fabric you promoted, they quote you at every instance, they've got a photograph of you in their office and some even eat and live like you. There are books, TV programmes and movies about you. Seriously, you'd be impressed at how much we still adore you.

However, there are things that won't make you feel proud. The India you spent all your life making free, is far from free. True, the white guys are gone. But there are still millions of poor people. In 60 years, we are still among the poorest nations on earth. This lack of money leads to a lot of problems in healthcare, infrastructure and education. In education, for instance, many children still don't go to a good school. Those who do, don't get into good colleges. And those who go to college, don't get good jobs. We need to get rich, and fast. Not only to make more schools and colleges, but also because most Indian problems are linked to lack of money. Yet, it is considered un-Indian to think that way. The young generation, which thinks like that, is considered materialistic and greedy. The older generation takes the moral high ground - slowness in work is termed patience, non-stop discussion and no action is called careful consideration and lack of improvement in standards of living is countered with claims about the need to live with austerity. And yes, in many cases politicians who speak like this claim to be your fanboys.

The younger generation wishes you could come down for one day and clarify these points. Is progress un-Indian? Is change bad? Is a desire to see my country as rich as some other nations materialistic? Is getting things done fast impatience? If you blessed our purpose of making a developed India, the job would become so much easier.

The young generation needs you down here for something else too. We have a new battle here, just like the one you fought with the British. The enemy is not so clear like it was in your case - the white people. Our enemy is the old school of thought, or rather the people who defend the old school of thought. They do this in the name of antique Indian policies, culture and values. You could help identify this enemy more clearly. Many people who are at the helm of affairs now have served India for decades, maybe with good intentions. But obviously, they don't want to accept they screwed up. We wish they would though and we'd have a national day of shame. It won't be easy, but from there we can make a new beginning. But they won't, for they are in power. And to defend themselves and their ways, they don't mind crushing the aspirations, ideas and talent of an entire generation.

Yes, there is a lot of talk of India being a young nation and youth power. However, youth power is the biggest myth going around India right now. Of course, youth has spending power - we can buy enough SIM cards, sneakers and fizzy drinks to keep many MNCs in business. But we do not have the power to change things. Can the youth get a new college opened? Can the youth ask the government to give tax incentives to MNCs to relocate jobs to smaller towns? No way. We are wooed, used but seldom heard. If you came down, you could unite us. You used religious festivals as social events and propagated your cause. You understood that people need entertainment to bind them. Perhaps, we could integrate colleges in the same way, link all colleges - maybe for their annual festivals - and the message of change could be channelled through them. We have amazing technology such as the Internet now.

You would use it so well. If the youth unites, there could actually be youth power.

With our purpose blessed, enemy identified and youth united - we could take the first steps towards the new Indian revolution. After all, China had one, and only after that, did they get on the path of true progress.

But if it is not feasible for you to come back, we'll have to try to bring about change ourselves. If we can be inspired to do that, we can say we have not forgotten you and understand the meaning of your birthday. We hope you had a good one up there!

Lots of love,
the younger generation
(also known as Youngistan, Gen X, Gen Next and Gen Y depending on the brand you're talking about)

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Stay Hungry, Stay foolish - Motivational speech by Steve Jobs - CEO, Apple

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12,2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.The first story is about connecting the dots.I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months,butthen stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with,
and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one
good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be
priceless later on.

Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in
the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky ,I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple
in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over. I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from
Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now. This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.

Appreciation

I many times wonder why people fall short of appreciating things that deserve appreciation?

Appreciation is very good. Even if it means saying things are good even if they might not be great and outstanding. It helps build positivity and confidence and a feel good environment, which is beneficial for both the receiver as well as contributor. It gives motivation. It makes one feel being noticed and for however small time it might be, worthy of doing something that has some value.

We are humans. We stay in society. We depend on each other for different things. We constantly feel threatened by competition for better things. All it takes to keep moving forward in such a competitive world is a bit of notice of the work that you have done. Some positive words, some encouragement, some positive attitude that even though things might not be great, they will improve in the future with more hard work and concentration and dedication. A small note of appreciation can go in a long way to establish all these claims in the receivers mind. It will build a feeling of respect towards you, because you care to take a note of his/her work. Criticize if it has fault, but be constructive. Criticism is also a type of appreciation, though it might in a different sense, but still it conveys the main message, that Yes, somebody cares, my work is not a waste.

All it takes on ones part is to be frank and open minded and value the quality. You might be present in an environment where all the people around you are extremely ahead of you in terms of whatever you are doing. If in this kind of environment, you get neglected because you can not be on par with them, it could act as a major deterrent in that person progress and thinking attitude. But this is what that exactly happens in our society. People chase the bright, they chase the ones who are already established and could provide immediate benefits. Many a stories could be found where a small appreciation could have resulted in long lasting impression in ones mind.

Appreciation is good. It helps both parties. You do not do any good by discouraging a person who is trying to do something. The appreciation by you might result in a better confident attitude which might bring more talent, which might bring out hidden positivity. If you want to be better than your competitor do better work, build healthy competition. It will result everybody. The positives of appreciation are much higher than the negatives.

Try it. Be good to those who try and appreciate the efforts they take. Because all it takes on your part is some word, but it might be the only hopes the other person has in terms of moving ahead.

A Mentor ...

Having a guide / mentor who helps you get the vision is one of the most important things that could happen to a person in one's life.

I always cry aloud on what is the importance of exposure and how it matters. A mentor kicks in exactly at this stage. He is the one who gives you the correct exposure to the outside world when you are still growing. When you are grasping for the newness of the outside world. Many people find mentors in their parents may be father / mother, many find them in their teacher, many in their Professors, many in the colleagues. The person may be different but the role stays the same.

Exceptionally fortunate are those kids, who are born in a family of well educated, well connected people where there is large awareness and exposure right from the early age, from the time when you are groping yourself with new child like enthusiasm and questions, the role of mentors grows manifold. Here is your chance to grow to your potential, develop intellectual curiosity, ask the right questions and most important get most of them answered in the most appropriate manner. Fortunate are those kids who get such early exposure.

Fortunate are those kids who get an outstanding teacher who makes them believe in themselves and in their abilities, when they will grow up to face the changing world. This teacher may not be at all well knowledgeable, what matters is how he makes you interested in whatever he knows and teaches. Such early stage development and confidence brings a lot of different attitude in a kid's mind later.

Getting a visionary Professor during ones formal higher education is equally important as this is where the "Big Vision" of what one wants to do in one's life later comes into picture. This is the critical stage when you can transform those ideas that were bubbling into real life work. This is where one can get correct guidance to what direction to go in one's life and what vision to have and how to achieve it. This is where you learn how to address the correct problems and how to find the correct solutions or at least make a sincere wise attempt towards them.

Exceptionally fortunate are those who get a spouse who is equally enthusiastic about his / her other halves interests and take pride in carrying them forward. He / She also acts as a mentor to guide you during your troubled times, when you need direction, when you seek some one so close to yourself to whom you can confide in your personal space and personal thoughts and on whom you can rely and trust when the entire world seems to be going against you.

Fortunate are those who get some mentor of some sort during atleast one of these stages. And I would say unfortunate are those who even after realizing the importance of these stages could not get one of these. Really unfortunate are those who even after getting one of these, could not make use of them for their betterment under their ego and over-confidence.

A correct mentor is very important. He / She can make your life great if you find the right one.