Switching gears...

I am in anticipation of the possiblities for next 36 hours. I think I am a dare devil in many ways...otherwise why will I do this trip. I like the US of A, for many reasons. I fell in love with that place 10 years back and also fell in love with Mahesha, thanks to US of A...I will never forget the magic of Lake Tahoe. So I have all the reasons to like that country.

But, the 24 hr journey, it is not what I like. The cramped economy class seats...nothing to look forward. Plane journey is nothing but those trips I used to have from my home to eCity in BMTC bus, but, multiplied 12 times. When it is that bad, why do I do it. Plus the current situation I am in. The Pain killers are marginally helping, but I dont think I can lift any weight. Plus my big list of fears and phobias and motion sickness. Going with a 6 year old is such a huge responsibility. hmmm I am a dare devil. I read somewhere that the only way to get rid of some fears is by facing it! Spending 1.5 lacs for that, is it foolishness??? No answers are going to help. I am in a mood for some dare devilry :))).

Guess I will write all about it in after about 48 hrs !!

Open book...

OK..I am still very negative about certain things happening in my life..this is in continuation to my blog on "Right to talk". As a kid I strongly believed in my life being an open book. No secrets and no lies. Me being (lazy) me, and with poor memory retention, I always found it difficult to remember what story I spun and to whom, especially after that big one I told to my mom (I will never forget the after effects).

I took this stand that I will be an open book. No secrets and no lies. O M G it is so difficult to do that today in a grown up life. Essential truth (not necessarily lies) are required, to make your kid happy, your in-laws happy, your parents happy and most important of all,to keep one self happy.

But of late this has gone to certain level in my life, that I distrust many in my circle. Rita told me today, that I start with distrust in every relationship. May be because of what I have gone thru in the adult life in last 1o years, I have such an attitude!!

But then there are these other individuals who claim to be simple and gullible and then protecting everything about their inner selves. I am led to the conflict of developing trust with the limited, outer self I know about these individuals or destructing the consciously hidden outer self.

Of course, I know I will never know anyone for what they are and need to learn to live with the limited knowledge of the outer self and also learn, at what point I need to scratch the surface and see into an inner self of a person.

The right to talk....

When ever I see an American movie, one thing that catches my attention is the rights that are read out when someone is arrested. The right to remain silent. In India one of the fundamental rights is right to talk / express our opinion.

As a kid when I had a fight with a classmate the right I always exercised is the "right to remain silent". And in my eyes the other party looses their right "to express their opinion". It has continued till date. If some one has hurt me, then the first right they loose is the right to speak with me, until they have apologised for what they have done.

As we grow up, relationships become more complicated and does not come in vanilla flavour, and these rules change. But, it hurts , it hurts when some one thinks they have all the liberty to talk, when they have hurt me with their silence in the first place. Not only talk but further hurt my sentiments.

hmmm.... thinking hard on how do I break this chain?

Being an entrepreneur

As I continue to think about the possible business to get in, multiple questions keep poping up in my mind. One of them is "What does it take to be an Entrepreneur". One of my friends keep telling me that she is not an entrepreneur material (?!). Then there is another school of thought that only the hybrid of techie + management material can succeed if you want to be an entrepreneur in IT field. Well my feeling is
1. Should be able to multi task
2. Have more risk appetite than average human being
3. Perseverence
4. Trust in your self and your partners (I do not mean faith).
5. Thick skin

are some of the traits we need and these can be cultivated and not necessary to be born with. Not all can be born in a baniya family to run a profitable business. And not all need to be a techie to invent something.

One of the greatest invention of mankind is Time, and how to measure time. Fire was a great discovery, where as time was invented by Human. And this was invented in all parts of the world. We measured time diffrently in different parts of the world; in Kannada and Tamil we measure it in Jama / Jamam and is in different measures in different parts of India and has evolved beautifully into calendars and astrology and various art and science form. Though human life has been impacted hugely by this invention I am not sure how techie was the guy (gender neutral) who invented it or it was used in a Business sense.

Imagine in some ???? BC
Day 1
Cave Man's Daughter: Mamma, why is papa not at home?
Mom: It is morning. Papa has gone to get food.
Daughter: When will he come?
Mom: When you feel hungry.
Day2:
Daughter: Mamma, when do I get hungry
Mom: When your papa comes home
Daughter: When will papa come?
Mom : When the sun is on top of your head. (vola mom started to measure time...)

When the Daughter grew up and became a mom herself.

Mom: Son, I am going to get collect some firewood will be back soon
Son: When will you come?
mom: When the tree shadow comes near the cave

So they soon started to improvise time measurement ...

So great ideas can come from any conversation...Just need to keep eyes and ears open and willing to experiment. There is no right or one way to define what it takes to be a entrepreneur. But if we stop being alert, stop dreaming and and stop chasing the dreams, then one can forget the word Entrepreneur.

Krazzy 4

I dont know why I keep doing this again and agian...I went to see another Hindi Movie..Comedie genre. Hoping for some humor. I am not sure who is crazy here. Must be me who spent 750 bucks for a multiplex family expirence.

I could easily count the number of times I would have laughed. Very few witty lines and a overkill of using national anthem. We were good citizens when they played the anthem in the beginning, but, half the theatre refused to get up when the anthem was played in between. First, the theatre was still settling from the interval. My lap was filled with all eatables, including the ones aadi dumped on my lap so he can stand for the anthem. I was left feeling guilty for not standing up. I kept cursing who ever thought of that plot.

The saving grace was the Jackson style dress that SRK had and his mega screen presence for the three min he was on. I am not an ardent fan of SRK, but felt his screen presence after all that krazzy stuff. I was thankful that the movie got over. The mini dance by Hrithik was not good enuf to boost our morale. Me and Mahesha finally decided enuf of this....tilll the next time we go krazzzzzy.

humor me

Humor...the most toughest emotion. As a kid we are born crying and it is so easy to slip into that emotion through out our life. Humor we learn as we grow and is a difficult emotion. But it is a contageous emotion. I started watching many of the English sitcoms. The very first one that I watched during ther DD days was Yes minister. I couldnt follow a word in it. But I smiled every time there was this group laughter. Before we knew, the style had caught up with the DD serials. The first one I remember was Dhek bhai Dhek which used to come in DD metro. Those were the days were cable TV had just started but it was a big NO in my house.

I watch this reality show called last comedian standing. It is difficult to follow thier humor. But, I do love watching the reruns of Friends, Sienfeild, Fraser and other such sitcoms. Humor has no borders, no age and it will be a hit any day, if it is clean and good. Evidence TuTu Mein Mein, Crazy Mohan show in Tamil and the host of malyalam movies remade in Hindi.

Whay say? Can you Humor me.

My Dreams.. My life...

I had a nice long chat with a good friend of mine yesterday. It is helping me chase my dream to be a entrepreneur , I want to refine my dream and say I want to be a successful entrepreneur one day. I know I have to start today. Stop fearing and start doing. It is not like I am sure if i have is right big idea that I should chase, will I have the right set of people to support me etc. The last three to four months there have been lot of ideas that have been floating.

But, finding this site http://onstartups.com/ on start up cleared a lot of things for me mentally http://blog.proto.in/2008/02/23/startups-do-fail-whats-new/ is another good one. I am sure I want to be a entrepreneur and also a successful one.

I would prefer to attempt climbing this mountain than just being a salaried IT professional. Hope god, family and my friends are with me!

Back...

Back after the whrilwind tour. A lot happened in just less than 78 hours.

Chennai has not changed much in 8 years. I was intially surprised to see that there is no MALL culture in Chennai. But later it all made sense. In place where Saravana Stores is a cultural symbol, it will be difficult to have Forums and Garuda. I also liked the fact that the anna salai stretch dint have mordern glass buildings. It was a refreshing sight in comparison to our MG Road, where all hertigae buildings like hotel Victoria, Cavery Jn are now replaced with mordern steel and glass buildings.

Aslo, another good thing was seeing Mahesha away from his computer. He was relaxed & took care of everything. With my tension rising all the time it was great to see him cool. Aadi loved the beach. He would have played there all day. Next time, any beach trip, I should plan better so that aadi gets all the time he wants in water.

I missed a few things this time in Chennai. Couldn't take the Suburban Train. That's one thing aadi should experience. Hoping there will be another time in Chennai, when we will take the train. The other thing I missed was T-Nagar and Ranganathan St shopping. I saw my college campus, from outside. Would have been nice to get inside and show aadi where I studied.

One thing I will really cherish from the trip is the autograph I got from PBS. He was really sweet and also gave us a picture oppurtunity with him.