Showing posts with label Gyaan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gyaan. Show all posts
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An analysis of Facebook Instagram Acquisition

10 April 2012 View Comments »


The news that is buzzing all around now is of Facebook's $1Bn acquisition of Instagram. While few are terming it as a bold strategic move by Facebook, many are talking of the bubble. Inspired by Dan Frommer's numerous posts at SplatF, I decided to my own version of what I think of this move by Facebook.

First things first - as Zuckerberg of Facebook and Kevin of Instagram already said, Instagram will be remain an independent entity and hence it is more of like Google's acquisition of Youtube than Google's acquisition of Doubleclick.

Should Facebook buy Instagram ?  

I would say downright that Facebook should have bought Instagram. Reasons are here:
  • Instagram has 30Million+ users . Not to forget that that number is only on iOS platform. The number is only going to explode after its recent launch on Android platform.  ( Android holds >50% of Smartphone market share and Instagram's Android app was downloaded more than a million times in 24 hours of launch  ). It is the fastest growing Mobile social network.
  • Facebook gained its popularity on web due to Photos. Though it is both photos and apps that draw more crowds to Facebook these days, the start is through photos. Instagram is a photo based mobile social network and could become a potential competitor to Facebook on mobile.
  • Every smart phone has a camera and hence photos play a much bigger role than they played on web during Facebook's initial days. You can't just ignore the most popular mobile photo social network.
  • While instagram's growth rates are astonishing, they are a super lean organization with just 13 employees. It will be super easy for Facebook to integrate Instagram's small team into Facebook.
  • Facebook is one of the most popular mobile apps but its app really is shitty. Attempts to bring out a better Facebook mobile app did not work till now. They could probably use someone from Mike and Kevin's team in planning  a better mobile app in future. ( I know it is not a talent acquisition but I think the effect of having a great mobile developer team around can always teach a lesson or two for others )
  • Mobile is going to be the future of social networking. Mobiles are more intuitive, well-equipped and accessible for social networking and hence they are going to rule the future of social networking space. Apps like Instagram and Path are going to play a major role in this change and Facebook cannot deny the reality.

Was 1Bn$ justifiable?  

While almost everyone agrees that there are all reasons why Facebook could buy Instagram, many people can't understand why Facebook paid such a huge amount of money for a startup that is earning zero revenues. Like every time, people started talking about bubble. But, there are sufficient reasons as to why Facebook, rightly, decided to pay so much of money on Instagram.

When Yahoo previously had a chance to buy Facebook for the same 1Bn$, they backed off thinking that it was too pricey. It surely was pricey at that moment, but Facebook has soon outgrown Yahoo and there was an opportunity missed for them. Now, Facebook is in a similar position now. Infact, it is even more forced to buy Instagram because it has potential to become a competitor to Facebook. Though Instagram may or may not worth a billion, they are going to lose much more if they are going to ignore it.

Secondly, Instagram has shown the ability to maintain stickiness. One of the factors that helped Facebook was the stickiness and they know the importance. In addition, Instagram is a content generator. It has 5 Million photos uploaded everyday and hence will surely be worth a lot for Facebook.

The Instagram team can help Facebook in future, in its mobile strategy and help them grow there. Mobile is the place where Facebook can gain a lot in future.

Finally, my conclusion is that the 1Bn$ might be high on the scale of valuation but Facebook is playing a safe game here and doesn't want to take risk of ignoring competition. Taking that into consideration, the valuation is justifiable.  
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Emotions - Love

07 March 2012 View Comments »



Today's rambling is about love. Not the brotherly love, or parental love. It is about the love that is shown a lot in Indian movies - the love between a boy and a girl. I am not a romantic, so don't expect to see the filmy, romantic stuff here. I have not even tasted love. So, I am mostly wrong about what I say here. Nevertheless, I like writing and so be it. People already in love, please excuse me. 

Love is an emotional thing, more than anything else. Once, I did a short survey by asking different friends of mine about their definition of love. Unsurprisingly,  their definitions said about themselves more than anything else. A sensitive person says  stuff like 'Love is life. Love is everywhere. Love is eternal.' etc. A disturbed person says "Love is trash.There is nothing like a true love". A so-called practical thinker says something like "Love is one of the ways in which you get to choose a person whom you are going to share life with " . A confused soul says "Love is that feeling of sleeplessness, dreams and late night chats". They don't know that it is actually called insomnia. A romantic, in his charming style, says "Love - an exhilarating experience that brings two little souls together to form a romantic bond". Well, I did not understand it. 

What I know about love is that it is just another name for friendship. There is a difference between love and friendship though. When it is friendship, it is a reciprocal thing . You are a friend with the opposite person because he is your friend. There are no responsibilities or promises in here. There is a lot of freedom here. In contrast, love is more than being just a friend. You have a responsibility in here.  You want to see the opposite person happy. The lack of freedom here is not a hindrance coz, in return, you are getting a person who is acting out of responsibility for you and is more reliable. It is simple, but many don't really get it. Our hearts are more powerful than the brains!

There are expectations in love. Actually, you have more expectations in this form of love than in any other relation. The problem with having lot of expectations is that you are going to be disappointed when they are not met. And, as much special the 'love' relationship is, it is the most fragile of the relations. You can just break the relation and move away unlike the others like father-son, brother-sister etc., relations. And , it is also a relation that is the most difficult to fix once broken.

I came across this quote on Quora, which I totally believe in - 
Marry your best friend: If the person you're the most comfortable with isn't your spouse, make them! (Assuming this person is not your family member)

Love is a relation where we get to have choice. And, still we let only our hearts do the thinking. We act totally aligned with the cliche 'Love is Blind'. Even though, we have an obvious choice beside us, we go around shopping for the 'love'. We don't let the brain come in and just go behind someone we know nothing about. This is the only relation where you have a choice, and it is the only chance for you. Logically, you think that you would weigh in all your options before taking a step. But, no. You like someone, even without knowing anything about them. Sometimes you get lucky and the person will be a perfect spouse for you. But most of the times, you are in for a bumpy ride. People who can bear it, just endure it silently. People who can't take it anymore, say bye bye to the relation.  

I typed so much of wisdom above but even I fell for such a mindless stuff. The heart simply overpowers our mind. Involvement of heart is totally important but only heart and no brain is a perfect recipe for a disaster. You may call it love, but I will call it a disaster.  

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65 Lessons I learned about Entrepreneurship

02 August 2011 View Comments »


For starters, I started a personalized merchandise company with couple of my friends while in my final year of graduation. When we jumped into this business , we knew nothing about Entrepreneurship. Not just that, we even did not know anything about merchandising, the core of our business. All we had was the zeal for making money and the knowledge that the top market players in this business are not yet indomitable. We thought that is all that is needed, as we had high esteem about our skills. But as every first time entrepreneur experiences, the ground realities are different. Once you are into it, you will learn a lot of lessons.

Though I parted with my first company within an year and a half, my interest in entrepreneurship has never left me. During the course of the year that followed, I learnt many more lessons. Here goes the compilation of lessons I learnt and probably you are not told when jumping into Entrepreneurship.

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How I landed in a well-paying job even though I know nothing

03 June 2011 View Comments »


For folks who don't know it yet, I recently joined a job in a startup that pays me well. But I am not going to describe the job in here. If you are looking for the job description look at this link. But I will explain how I landed in this job even though I know nothing about the technologies mentioned. I know I can make it an e-book with the title "How I got a job that pays me Million bucks per hour" and sell, but as a valuable dormant reader of this blog, I will give it to you for free.

Once I decided that I need to take a break from Entrepreneurship stuff and land in a programming job, I started to realize how tough the journey is going to be. I expected people to lay red carpet to their companies inviting me to join so as to utilize my entrepreneurial-socialmedia-seo-webmarketing-analytical abilities. But the reality is different. Companies want people who give results and apparently results come only with relevant experience. So, my two years sabbatical with entrepreneurship, social media, internet marketing etc is counted as no experience in these companies. And hence I started applying to fresher roles. But too bad that I was considered old for those roles and hence resume was never shortlisted. Moreover, I was told that it takes at least 1-2 months for the calls to start appear as resumes move very slowly in the corporate hierarchy. This made me restless.


I come from the world where things happen very quickly. In that world, if you are late by even a minute you might have shut the door on a life-time opportunity. But here it is different. Two months seemed too long to me. So, I laid out a plan on how I am going to minimize this time and land in a job that fits to my requirements. The plan I chalked out was as follows:

1. Prepare a Resume

Everyone knows that a resume is the first step in your job preparation. But the problem is not many people allocate sufficient time in resume preparation. For me, as I knew that my major problem is getting shortlisted (as I am confident I can get through once shortlisted), resume was a matter of utmost importance. Firstly, I selected a template that was very suitable for me to highlight my strengths and hide my weaknesses. I am not asking you to lie here, but asking you to hide. Luckily, my resume had enough points to fill 4 pages. Now, I shared this draft resume with at least 30 of my friends and took suggestions from them. Important of their suggestions was to reduce the size of resume. Recruiters have to wade through hundreds of resumes and hence their attention span is very low. So, you need to keep your resume as short as possible highlighting all your strengths. With their help, I reduced the resume to 2 pages. Then I got two friends, who possessed the best writing skills among my friends, to proof read the resume. With that done, I have finished the resume preparation. We need to make our resume easily shareable. So, I uploaded it on Scribd so that anyone who finds it good can forward to recruiting companies easily.

2.Job Portals suck

Everyone knows it. Still, I do not want to leave any stone unturned. After all, I am looking to land in a job very quick. So, I uploaded my resume into all the job portals. When people apply for jobs, they concentrate only on top job portals. But the real jobs are at niche job portals. They are more focussed and the companies advertising jobs over there are very clear about their requirements. Moreover, it is comparatively easier to grab the attention of recruiters there. So, I scoured for the niche job portals and applied in them too.

3. Set your expectations

When most people go out on job search they are not very clear about their requirements. They get desperate in job search and opt for any job. But if you don't choose a job that reaches your expectations, there is a high chance that you will repent in your job. So, define your expectations clearly. My expectations were that the job has to offer me high experience of programming, very good pay , job security and a good growth rate. I think most of them will have the same expectations. I even wrote them on the whiteboard in my room so as to not get tempted by jobs that have most of these qualities except one. I want my job to have all these not one less.

4. Learn the most popular technology

As I said before, I was considered a nobody because I did not have proper programming experience. I was so low on confidence that I believed what they said was right - that I know nothing about programming. It was good in a way. This led to me to decide that I have to do some learning before attending job interviews. As, my expectations did not include work in specific technology, I decided I will learn the technology that has high number of jobs and growth rate. A small research in the job portals, world wide web and my network made me choose JAVA as the programming language that I need to learn to get the job I wanted. So, I decided to learn JAVA. Not just programming, for any field you want to do a job in, I think, it is important that you be equipped with the knowledge of most-popular technology.

5. Leverage your network

Network is everything. We heard it many a time. But this should be the best time that you can utilize your network. Everyone has a network. Your college friends, your alumni, friends of friends, School friends, relatives, colleagues of parents, Online friends etc., all are part of this network. As any job consultant/ job portal would tell you, the maximum number of jobs are attained through network rather than portals, walkins etc. So, I decided to use my big network for my job search. Using your network means not just you but all the people in your network doing the job search for you. As I can't reach to each and everyone telling about my job search, I used the social media. I published my resume, along with what I am looking for, on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. I put the same as status message on my IM accounts and made sure  they remained online for the most part of the day. I also mailed to my alumni groups, startup jobs mailing lists, and my friend groups.  Many people contacted me after this blast saying that they are referring me/ forwarding my resume in their company. Some good people even offered to send my resume to people in their network. It really worked.

6. Don't be shy

The most important thing you must realize is that we are begging for a job. Beggars can't be shy. If they are shy, they can't earn their bread. Most people are shy at asking others for help in their job search. That doesn't work. I decided that I am not going to be shy. I know that people are going to ask me why I am quitting entrepreneurship, or how I did wrong by going for entrepreneurship etc. But that doesn't matter. And I need not hide my decision. So, I told everyone that I am looking for a job and I was not shy in doing so.

7. Practice daily

Though I was completely immersed in doing the above activities, I never stopped practising. I don't know if the maxim "Practice makes man perfect" is right  but I am sure practice makes you learn things easily and remember them better. So, I picked up random problems and tried solving them in different ways. StackOverflow is a very good source to pick up IT related problems and learn from.

8. Be humble

All the points above are pre-interview strategies. The real war starts when you are actually shortlisted and being interviewed. I made sure that I utilize my learnings before to get through the interview. While answering the questions is important in interview, it is also important that you be humble while answering them. Your confidence shouldn't be misunderstood as over-confidence. Adding a bit of humbleness in your answers will surely help in this. You can show humbleness by using a soft voice, ensuring no bragging in your talk, giving succint responses etc

9. Be Yourself/ Be honest

You need to open up with recruiters. Many people try to answer the generic questions "Tell about yourself" with the most generic by-hearted responses. I made sure that I don't prepare for these questions before hand and speak my heart out. Because of this act, I may not get the job but I will be sure that the interviewer knew what I want before offering me the job.

10. Understand your limitations

Everyone thinks that they know their limitations. But the problem is we don't understand them. I made sure that I list my limitations before the interview and when the question landed in that area, I clearly said them that that is my limitation. Agreed that I tried to hide my limitations in the Resume but in the interview I wanted to be true about the limitations. If I don't say that I am weak in that particular area, the recruiter might ask more questions related to  that making the most part of interview hapless.

If you are not yet bored with the above stuff, here goes the simpler stuff of how my job happened. After following the above points, I got many people to help. One of my long-forgotten friends has seen my status message in GTalk and referred me about a job in an exciting startup. I forwarded my resume to them and that happened to be the first and last interview in this job search :) I said I do not know the technologies ( JAVA, Spring and Hibernate ) they needed yet but they were happy about my resume and my performance in the interview that they believed I can learn it very soon.

Though I was not really excited about my job while joining, I can now say that this is the best programming job that can happen to me at this phase of my career.

Oh, by the way my company is hiring now. Here is the JD. If you are interested mail me your resume at santosh.lakshman(at)yahoo(DOT)com
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10+ Reasons Why I bunked most of my College Classroom sessions

21 April 2011 View Comments »

Well, college life is the most awesome phase of life for everyone. That is the time when we enjoy the life in its pristine form. We don't have the pressure of parents forcing us to pursue their unfulfilled dreams. We don't need to worry about the future phase of life that is infested with worries that come in different forms and sizes like job, marriage, kids etc.

My college life is no less. Like everyone, I too feel that my college life is the best of all. This is the time I made some great friends, got attracted to some marvelous girls, faced some unpleasant rejections, enjoyed some lucky successes and discovered a lot of new passions. This is the time I  had lot of happy moments, a few very sad moments, and many memorable moments.

Whenever some one asks me why my college life was like what it was - my reason is that I bunked most of my engineering classes. Every college student likes bunking classes. I am no less. My college too helped the cause by not making attendance compulsory. They probably believe that we are mature enough to make our own decisions and that is the reason why I love my college a lot.
So, I wondered why did I bunk most of my College classes. Then I arrived at the following 10+ reasons for why I bunked my classes.

1. Friendships don't happen in Classrooms

Everyone knows that you can't have fun in a classroom. And, you also know that friendships are formed during fun time. So, if I don't want to remain alone through my college life, then I have to go out and make friends. I need to go for fun trips, watch some random worthless movies and play games that are designed for kids. After all, friends are the ones who are going to help you in preparing for exams :)


2. Lecture Slides/Notes Zindabad

As the Gen-y students we need to be advanced in every aspect of life and adopt the new technology.So why not adopt the latest revolution that is Lecture slides ? There are some class room notes that need to be photocopied, for everything else there are lecture slides. My college being one of the premier institutes in the country there is no dearth for lecture slides at all. There are even advanced versions made using the imaginary flow chart given below.

3.  Professors Bore me to Death

Well don't get me wrong. I love my professors and they are knowledgeable enough to teach. But most of the professors are old and they are too slow. The entire lecture explained by them in a 1 hour class can be grasped by glancing over the lecture slides for 15 minutes. Moreover, we anyways refer lecture slides at the eleventh hour. So, why do we need double work?

4.  The Curriculum Sucks

The world knows it. The curriculum that is designed in archaic times is no way in sync with the current industry. I know it and you know it. Why should we waste our time in these closed spaces? Instead we can go out into the world and keep ourselves informed with the latest advancements.


5.  Love doesn't blossom between closed walls

College is our best chance to get a girl friend. We need to make the best of this opportunity or else we run the risk of spending a lot of our youth without a partner eventually falling into the trap of arranged marriage. But love doesn't happen in those classrooms. Love is out there flowing in the parks, food-joints and hangout places. So, off I go in finding my lady love.


6.  Time is valuable

College life is very short. Before and after it is cluttered with all those panic attacks and hence we need to make the most of college life. We need to find time to do innumerable activities like watching movies, playing online games, offline sports, hanging out with friends, planning parties, outdoor trips, pursuing passions etc. Amidst all these allocating one-third of a day for lectures is too unrealistic.

7.  I already know it all

Having got admission into the college via the prestigious entrance test, we already know a lot. Much of the curriculum  in the early days is already  known to us during our preparation for the entrance and hence we need not attend the classes. Moreover, as intelligent as we are , we know lot of stuff that was learnt during our pursuit of topics of personal interest.


8. Self Study is the best Study

We are mature enough to learn all by ourselves. In addition, the advent of the internet has made  it easier for us to learn from.  There is abundant amount of information available out there that can be learnt by only self-study and not by lecturer's age old methods.

9.  Practical Knowledge is essential

While theory bores you out and makes your brain empty, it is the practical experience that is going to make you wiser. So, we bunk our classes in pursuit of practical experience at the places where it is more probable to be found.

10.  Classes are Bonus

My friend Manoj Lambo was recently mentioning on Facebook that he is spending approximately 100 INR per hour for lectures. (His assumption was that fee per semester is 50K and number of hours per semester is 500 so its 100 per hour) But my thinking during college days was different. We pay our college for the Degree they confer us. The lectures are the free offer that comes with them. So, as a staunch believer of the maxim - You get what your pay for - I decided that lectures are not worthy enough.

Now, don't ask why I said 10+ but there are only 10 here. I just lied to you :)

The above were my excuses during college time. My thinking is a lot different and matured now. Do wait for my next post "10+ reasons why my reasons for bunking classes are not reasonable"
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Being Organized, Taking Action and Realizing Results

11 July 2010 View Comments »


I always used to wonder why a seemingly simple goal-tracking website like 43Things is so popular among the blogger community. I couldn't realize the importance of goal setting until yesterday. Yesterday, I came across The Millionaire Entrepreneur Forum and my usual interest to read random threads has made me realize that goal-setting, planning, becoming organized and tracking results are the very important aspects for someone to become successful.

The first thing I realized is that I am managing my time very badly. I am currently juggling with my websites, CAT preparation, new business ideas, family, friends and others. One day, I am totally immersed in my websites, the other day for new ideas and sometimes with friends. But, never did I do things in an organized way. I still am enjoying life/ reaping benefits. But, now I feel may be I will get more if I am bit organized.

So, I am now determined to get it all organized. The first task I am going to do now is buy a wall-board. I also am thinking of taking up The Challenge. So, from now on my regular schedule will include - The Challenge, Blogging on Eureka Tips and here, CAT preparation, and Exploring new Opportunities (Yeah I am going to do it as a task). 

Tell the world before you are going to quit smoking because if you ever want to start it again, you would be afraid of them - A Telugu Proverb
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001- Imaginary Beautiful Girls in my college

15 December 2009 View Comments »

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Lovers love lovely loveless life

23 November 2009 View Comments »



Most of the 'Single' humans around me are always yearning for a life with a loving partner. Agreed, that since long , I have been (and am ) desperate for a GF of my own :) . And, that has been one of the major factors that has allowed me to observe those love birds around me. With that kind of experience, I can say the following deductions.

Become more responsible:

If the love is really on the air, you can observe that the people who are in it will become more responsible. The life (especially student life) which used to be more of fun and enjoyment will now become responsibilities, aims, goals etc. Agreed, you would anyway have to take up responsibilities in future, but now it comes somewhat early.

Change of Goals/aims:

I am a believer in Change (this is not Obama hype ). Still, this change is different. Especially, if you wanted to take some unconventional path like not applying for a job or taking a filmi career <as opposed to engineering> etc., then you will be forced to change your path. As the responsibilities increased, you need to get settled faster. And, most of the times , decision of the other half will be on priority.

No risks, no adventures:

If you are like me you would like taking risks in life. You might also yearning for adventures. But once you have fallen for someone, you got to lose your risk-taking attitude. There is something/someone you have gained recently and hence don't want to lose them. You might think, before also you had parents, siblings etc., who stop you from taking risks. But the attitude is different. Previously, you would have thought, if something happens to me there are my parents to take care of. Now its different. If something happens to me, who will take care of my loved one?

No freedom of..:

Previously, taking advantage of your 'single' status you could have flirted with anyone, commented on a girl/guy, boozed out with friends etc. Now you don't have that freedom. Obviously, your loved one wouldn't allow you to flirt with someone else. Moreover, everyone knows you are nomore 'single' and hence you won't get a person to flirt with eventhough your lover is generous enough to allow you to flirt. You couldn't comment on a girl/guy coz most of the times that person will turn out to be a friend or relative to your loved ones. Booze out with friends- forget that coz now you are health, money, and lover-conscious.

PS: I am still single and am in search of a GF. Anyone interested can forget what is said above and contact me :) Read the full story

 

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'Praja Rajyam' Movie Review

20 May 2009 View Comments »


Geetha Arts magnum opus movie produced by Allu Aravind has failed to reach expectations of audience. Here is a brief review of the movie -

Banner: Geetha Arts
Producer: Allu Aravind
Directed by: Mitra
Cast: Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan, Nagendra Babu. (Allu Arjun and Ram Charan guest roles)
Writers: Paruchuri Brothers
Parental Guidance: Some obcene language by Posani and Shobha Rani

Story: The title cards are played for too long with Allu Aravind telling people to wait for the train. Finally the said train arrives and the party is launched in Tirupathi with a solo number by Chiranjeevi.
The initial response in theaters is terrific and the story starts to unfold. The movie gets boring in the first half with no punch dialogues by Chiranjeevi and same old stale lines of Paruchuri Brothers. The dialogue “Ganji Benji” got good response from audience but being a serious movie, the audience were expecting to see some intelligent lines about themselves, not the hero. As we start to doze off listening to the same old cliched lines, things start getting serious when the slums in Bheem Rao wada are vacated by ruling party politicians to build party office.

Interval bang: Pawan Kalyan erects vinyls of ruling party leaders in the middle of road and makes controversial remarks about all of them. Lot of whistles in theater and everybody is back on track.

The movie becomes interesting all of a sudden. Provoked by village ex sarpanch CBN, school teacher Roja makes remarks on Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan. Chiranjeevi’s assistant Shobha Rani and house servant Posani lash out at Roja and she lashes right back at them. Things get real ugly and the village people are surprised by the beautiful language these guys are using to get at each other. Chiranjeevi declines to apologize for the behavior of his assistant. The ex sarpanch is also quite on the issue. Much to the audience’s relief, we have Pawan Kalyan and Renu Desai’s wedding and a brief melody song follows.

After a lot of drama, finally the election dates are announced. As the story proceeds towards climax, we see some twists when friends like Parakala leave the party and start telling everybody that it is not a party but a company owned by Chiranjeevi and Allu Aravind.

There is a side thread running with Allu Arvind playing full fledged detective as opposed to detective’s assistant in Chantabbai. In this movie he is trying to find who the two coverts are. He knows the exact number of coverts but he cannot identify who they are. The character of Allu Arvind is confusing as he does comedy some times saying they will win 292 seats, does drama by challenging dasari to come to Anakapalli and plays the villain to party cadre and hero’s fans of 30 years.

Right before climax, there is confusion as to who is going to stay till the end and who is going to leave the train. Finally the train reaches its destination but realizes that all the compartments are lost on the way. We see the hero walking towards the evening sun when the end title start to roll.

Analysis: The movie started sooraj Barjatya style with promise by Chiranjeevi to keep it a clean entertainer but audience were shocked to see obscenities from artists such as Shobha Rani and Posani.
Rumor has it that director Mitra has left the movie midway and producer Allu finished it.

Artists Performance: Chiranjeevi looked tired and uninterested. Although there were moments where he has shown spark by being different from other actors, he failed deliver a memorable performance. The surprise element of the movie is Pawan Kalyan who sadly disappeared 20 minutes before the climax and his character was ended abruptly. Nagendra Babu has a brief role in the beginning of the movie. Devender Goud is passable. Shobha Rani did some over acting while Padma scored as dignified lady. Read the full story

 

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How I won an Ideapad Netbook?

06 April 2009 View Comments »



For the outsider Masses, a small Legend for start

  • APOGEE - A technical festival organized by the students of BITS-Pilani . APOGEE 2009 was held in the dates between 23rd-27th March 2009.
  • IBM Web 2.0 Quiz - A quiz organized in APOGEE 2009 by IBM.The quiz consisted of an initial round of online test based shortlisting, then a 30 question multiple choice Web 2.0 related quiz followed by a presentation of case study.
So with that small legend , I will come to the point. As many of you( are there many?) might know, I won the IBM Web 2.0 quiz in this APOGEE. The event was held for the first time on campus and I became a lucky winner of it. And the more exciting part of it is that the prize I got was a sexy, ultra-thin Lenovo Ideapad S10. It is a netbook with all the beautiful qualities of a normal Laptop. For people who would like to know more about the Netbook consult this Ideapad S10 review.( I thought of writing a review myself, but again backed to stay on the topic).

So a small story:

I participated in different events in APOGEE 2006 and APOGEE 2008.And both the previous times I won second prize in one each of competitions. APOGEE 2006 it was in MathXtreme, a mathematics a,b,c,d (I mean MCQ) online test (prize money Rs.200) and APOGEE 2008 it was in Byte for Thought, a computers related quiz (prize money 1200) .APOGEE 2007, I did not participate due to other commitments I had.

And before beginning of this APOGEE, I was in a total bankruptcy situation. Every BITSian will be in this situation one or the other time, but ths is the first time I was in so bad need of money. On a lighter note, I was longing to go to redy and have a shikanji(lemonade) of Rs.5 and I did not have money for that . So someone enlightened me saying that everytime you participated in APOGEE you won prize money. Why not this time? Yeah, that sure is very inspiring though the fact is I was actually twice lucky. So I thought- "Yo man, lemme particpate in these events and make a lot of money". So there went I, craving badly for some pocket money.

I actually went to the finals in an event called Science Quiz( a group event) , where we were shown the path to the hell with their "easy" questions. We successfully showed people that luck too makes you reach finals of some quizzes.Then the next event I had some chance was called Who Dunn It?(again a group event) - where we had to solve several rounds logical questional at faster pace. We lost it in a tie breaker and weren't able to reach finals.

Then, some of my friends ( Kaka, Arvi etc) who saw the IBM quiz promo in some event, have felt I stood a strong chance and informed me about it. So there went I and the rest is all the normal saga of "How I won an Ideapad Netbook?"

But what is there in this short story?
Actually, if I would have reached finals of Who Dunn It, I wouldn't have participated in IBM quiz, as they were both scheduled at same time. And the prize of Who Dunn It, even if we would have won would be around maximum of 3000INR shared among we 3 individuals( remember it was a group event). So me failing at Who Dunn It, laid red carpet for my Ideapad. So the usual quote
A failure doesn't mean a loss. It is actually a great gain in the disguise of a loss to make you remain alerted.
A small thing that is bothering me is that I still can't get my shikanji at redy due to the unavailability of Hard Cash :( Is there someone who wants to trade a netbook with a redy shikanji?



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Some kind of reincarnation

12 November 2008 View Comments »

Of late, I am not blogging here.I just felt like I am not just writing a blog but forcing people to pretend that they are reading my blog.As this is my personal blog, I felt there shouldn't be a need for poking people always to read this blog.But one comment by my favorite hell man has made me rethink my decision.I would just go out with my old way and spam people to read it.After all, I have got some loyal readers :)

There is this friend of mine, who wanted to see more feel in my posts and there is this one another reader, who wanted me to continue the girly stuff.I am just lost of how to satisfy all these readers.I am unable to cater to the needs of the precious 3 readers of mine.I wonder how those with more visitors do it.Anyway, I decided this blog title without any subject of matte rin my mind.But lemme try to post somethign that suits to it.

Just in everyone's life,though it is a lonely bastard, there would  always be moments in which they think that they have acquired a new life.There will also be moments in which they feel they have almost lost their life.The thing to remember is in both the situations,in reality, you are reincarnated.People just feel reincarnated when some good things happen to them in life.When they have a bad experience, they forget that they are again reincarnated and just think that they are Zombies- the dead corpses that are roaming around hopelessly.

Difference between the Zombies and the reincarnated souls is just that the Zombies feel they are Zombies and those blessed souls feel they got a new life.After all, it is a matter of thinking.The way you control your brain is the way it controls you.So just at all the turning points you would take in a roadway, you should just feel that you have crossed the most deadliest turn and hereforth there is no more danger.But if you think that you have crossed only a slightest turn and there are more deadlies ones to come, it only makes you encounter one.Moreover, the highway you are on may turn into a path full of pebbles,thorns and it may even become the deathball arena.

If you confidently confide of your confidence, the culmination of crazy careers will not be any coincidence 

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The Story of my Cab Driver

20 September 2008 View Comments »

There was this cab driver in my PS (Yahoo! Bangalore), who was very active and I went in his cab some twice or so.Yesterday, I left company at 12midnight and came upon this driver again.He seemed to be filled with a lot of josh then.Then I started just talking with him and asked him about his daily routine.The topic moved on and he shared his story with me.I thought the story is worth mentioning here.Its like one of the greatest real life love stories I may have been contemporary to.The story goes as follows(Ofcourse, I am rephrasing the story but not storyline):

Once there was a Muslim family with a daughter named Shabana.By the time the kid was around 2 years, she lost both her parents.One of their relatives took her and put her in an orphanage. There a Mallu family adopted the child and named her as Shubha. Shubha was seen by those Mallu couple as there own kid and made her be happy always.When she grew older she got a job in HR for some nice consulting company with a pay of around 80k per month.So life was going happy and blessed for them.

One day, she had a small quarrel with a cab driver when she hit the cab drivers cab when getting down from her cab.The next day she has to go in the same cab of the previous day's driver.So they just had a nice laugh and so knew each other.The guy said that his name is Azham and she told her name as Shubha.From then they became sort of like friends.

Azham is not actually a poor guy.He has 4 cabs on his name and he's the only son of his parents. His hobby was driving and so he used to drive his own cab. Friendship between Shubha and Azham got better as the time passed.Then this guy, Azham, inquired of Subha, got her birth certificate etc and realized that her name was Shabana and she was brought up the Mallu parents. They also got to know that they were both born on the same day except for the gap of hours.

With some more incidents, their friendship turned into love.After some hiccups, they both got married. Azham has discontinued his B.Com in his second year. Shubha told him that as she is in a good job, she doesn't want him tio be looked down by her friends and colleagues.So she asked him to finish his B.Com.So he joined B.Com.Meanwhile with Shubha's and Azham's earnings, they bought a car, 2 houses for them.Even after Azham joined for B.Com he did not stop driving as it was his hobby. Azham successfully finished his B.Com with 92.8% .

Subha got pregnant in the meanwhile.She had to undergo sizarian as the kid was above normal size. But Subha has seen Azham's cousin having a sizarian and put for 12 hours in ICU. Seeing that she felt she doesn't want to be far from her new born kid for even 1 hour. Even Subha's mother supported her. This made her not budge to sizarian and she wanted tog o only for a normal delivery. Even their family doctor said Azham can't live without you. But still she did not budge. In the whole matter Azham did not say anything against Subha.

Just hours before Subha's delivery, doctors said , Azham has to choose among the kid and the mother. Then Azham said he will go for his wife and not for the kid.So doctor's went on with it. But by God's will, the baby has turned over. And doctors could not save Subha.So Subha got expired.The next day even the child got expired. This broke Azham's heart.

He sold all his cabs and those properties. Now he drives his cab for Yahoo! offices. Night at 12 he goes for a trip from Yahoo! EGL office to Marthahalli side and in the morning at 8.30 he goes for one trip on another Yahoo office. He stays with his parents with no aspirations or anything else.His In-laws offered him their brother's daughter but he refused saying Subha is the only person in his life.He just remembers her like that. Read the full story

 

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Pull is better than a Push

15 September 2008 View Comments »

As the classics Physics problem goes it's always easy to pull a buggy rather than push it under normal conditions.So why does this technical thing come here? I always see people saying you should help people around you and so forth. Ok, I am fine with it. But what frustrates me is this - the so called great people sacrifice themselves and even their lives to help the people around them. Whenever I see them, it only reminds me of the above classic Physics theory.

For me, helping others is always a good thing. But I would suggest you to help only when you are in such a state where you can help. For example, I can't forgo my studies(OK, whichever is your favorite.But here may be this example suits well) to teach some people in the slum. By this again, I don't mean the rich are the only ones to help others.What I intend to convey is only a satisfied and blessed hand should try to hold other hand reaching out for help.So here goes my Pyramid Pull 'philosophy" (PPP).

Think of a pyramid.Take the base area to be the highly populated class and the top tip as the Number One position.So indirectly I mean to say take the area to be proportional to the population and the height from base as the level of achievement.It perfectly suits a practical life. For any desire/goal/wish the number of people with particular level of achievement is always inversely proportional to the amount of achievement i.e., quantity is inversely proportional to quality.

So, for convenience , say, the levels be marked from 1 to 10. Suppose you are now on level 1, you should always concentrate on making yourself to level 2, but not on pushing one of the persons in level 1 to level2 .Remember that the area of level2 is lesser than level1.So if you push a person to level 2 while you being at level 1 then you have reduced your chances to level 2 .As there is no level 0, in this case there is no need of a pull.

Now take the case of you being on any level from 2 to 9.Now again the same theory follows against pushing a person to the top level.But here comes a new situation.Now, you can pull your friend from lower level to your level.Before that first make yourself to the top level.Thereby you get the chance of building a network which helps you in future.Also you can make it spread by saying the person on your lower level to pull a person in the even lower level to him.Thereby your chain sustains.With help from the person on the top of the chain entire chain propagates and each and everyone advances to the levels above.And because, the person on top of chain had to make a lot of effort he will have support from everyone from the bottom of the chain.Remember one more thing, you have to only pull the person just below your level but not the person on level 1.This makes the chain haphazard and doesn't help you in any manner.Instead, always prefer to force the person immediately below your level to pull a person below in order for him to make it to a higher level.

Then comes the ultimate phase of you coming to level 10.Now that there's no other level on top you can't pull a person above his level.This leads to dissatisfaction in the level 9 members.They, now, don't have any chance of making it to level 10 if they are going to support you.So they will plan to pull you down instead of you pulling them up.So in this situation comes the role of great wisdom.Pull should always work and it works here too.Make the persons down your link in the chain feel that they are going to make it to the top by building a virtual layer above you and you climbing it.What????Virtual layer??Yah, actually what you are doing is now making the pyramid leave the ground and fly off.You will get everyone below your levels to feel they reached to the next level by making the pyramid go up with collective effort.Again the pull factor plays its role here.You pull people down your link, they pull below them and so on.But surprisingly, the push comes back here.The people on level 1 will now push themselves from the ground to heights.This way a proper working system should be.


If you forget your level and think to bring everyone to your level then that will be the end of development.Always, the point to be remembered is individual is greater than a nation./So first the individual should develop, then his family, then may be his street, then the town,then district,then state and so on.But again, the individual will be at the top of this entire development face.He should be the shoot of a creeper rather than being at the root of it.

For this post, I thought I will relieve you from those Bold Quotable Quotes. Read the full story

 

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Precious Moments - Things you would like to look back

Ha, whoever the visitor makinghellperfectplace2enjoy is, he really makes me feel special.Man you rock.His last comment though offtopic reminded me of this cool video.So just wanted to share it with you people.This is a famous "Gateway of India" scene from movie BluffMaster.
I am not a good reviewer of movies myself but still would like to express my view (after all its my blog :) on this special scene.The way Boman injects it into viewer's mind is really awesome.He starts it with the character's seemingly stupid banter.Though it seems stupid, the character puts in all its efforts to console the Hero. It irritates the hero and even audience initially.But from that state of low ebb, slowly he makes the hero and the viewers realize the essence in the gyaan he gave.That's a really commendable way of injecting things into a non listening customer.May be I should conclude with a quotable quote:



It's not idiotic my friend, it's just idiographic
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The closest and the perfect relation

14 September 2008 View Comments »

Ha, may be my last post has made some chaotic remarks and might have produced a highly confused state in atleast some minds and questions like "Has he gone mad?","Is he highly pessimistic?","Am I so lonely?" etc.But the answer to the question at the is perfectly answere by one of the readers by a weird name "makinhellaperfectplace2enjoy" .That is exactly what I wanted to convey.Ofcourse, there is also something extra(otherwise this post wouldn't have made it way here :) ).

Yeah, continuing with the last post.

It is you, the idiot, who has left all your old relations and fell behind the new ones.

But what is the reason behind? See deep into the heart and you will know.In most of the cases(well most) , you did not break the relation. It's just that you have moved away from the person involved and the relation slowly got vanished.But still the relation always exists there as a strong entity. It's kind of like the case in which you are in a well with a good rope to help making way out.Though you are currently not on the surface, you still are sure you can get to the top as and when you want.This case is a similar one ( well, you may not really be in a well now and may be in a heaven sorts.Still, this holds) . So you can bring back most of your relations by a simple initiative.May be some times a snail mail does it all.So it's not that you are lonely. It's just that you got a new land to stay on.

But what is it that makes you move far from all your current relationships? To be frank, it's just how a human mind is made of. Human mind always wishes for a change in life.I am sure all those seemingly "contented" people still seek a change in the way they live.And this is how it will always be.A college going student thinks "Ohh! God save me from these assignments".But when God blesses him/her with what (s)he wished for by giving unexpected holidays, he says , "Damn these hols! Gotta get some work man!". This kinding of thinking of human makes him/her to change his daily chore(BTW if it's changing why is it called a chore).When you change your chore, you sure have to change some things in life.One of those is the people with whom you remain in contact. Your relation with your parents changes only when you get a new job and find no time.You missed the relation with your siblings only when they are married(a change of chore ;)) or some other change.You got away from your old friends only when you changed to a new school or college.So, my friend, it's all dynamic.Life changes and so you have to change your relations.So again the question comes.

Is there not one relation which I can say is everlasting?


For this what I can do is quote the best possible explanation by makinhellaperfectplace2enjoy :

such a relationship exists n its the relationship u have with urself...............

a person knows ,somewhere deep in his heart WHAT HE IS>>>>

the relationship is constant and permanent and always getting stronger as he explores himself with each passing moment...

THE momentum of centre of mass in CM frame is zero..


I would also like to add one my favorite quote to it.

ME is Matter and Energy.ME can neither be created nor destroyed.It can only be changed from one form to other.

So make friends with ME.Though you know or not, you are already doing it.It's inside you and your relation gets better with every experience of the so called relations. Read the full story

 

Relations? Huh! not affairs my dear!

12 September 2008 View Comments »

Relations? What are they??? Obviously they are not just the affairs(you spoilt brat). They are actually a part and parcel of your life. Your parents, your siblings(a big word for those brain eating creatures), your friends,your girl friends (the s in friends is intentional ;) ... the list goes on.These days we have also got those pseudo relationships as in IDPop etc (I will blog about them later). But what it takes for a relation to be ever lasting? Before that may be we have to define what is called an ever lasting relation?

In my dictionary, a relation can be termed as everlasting iff (see the double f -it means if and only if) the relation stays always the same from the time it got stemmed till the end. Maybe it can be strengthened but it should never show even a slightest decrease in the quality.

So which relation you may term as an everlasting one? Not just India, my friend, think global. If you think about it you are really in a fix. Now, you realize that there is no one in your life with whom you can term an everlasting relationship.

You and your parents are not as close after crossing your teenage as much as it was before.So that relationship is out of question.Then come your favorite opponents in the boxing ring- your siblings.One day, you or your siblings get to marry someone from alien lands and there ends the story of your relationship.C'mon you have to think harder.May be you will find atleast one.No way.Your past Girl/Boy Friends? They are already a past memory.If you are married then may be that alien could be your savior.No it still doesn't help.Some day after you are blessed with offspring(I think they should be called halfspring , a spring that is not yet full).Then you and your beloved half get less time to spend among yourselves.Again the affection got diverted. Ok, may be your offspring will fill that gap with a hard gummed relation.No way.Offspring is always to kick you off and when they are out of teenage they finish their destined deed.

And forget about those silly relations like uncle,aunt,nephew,cousin etc.So in your entire life you did not find one person who could make a perfect everlasting relation with you?Hey, you forgot the most important part of your life.Your friends (yay) .They are surely gonna save me out of this trauma.Isn't it? No again you are ditched. Tell your best friend?I am sure the answer wouldn't be your first friend of life.Huh! So whenever you get a new friend, the new friend is sweeter that the old?Or may be the distance between you and the old friend made you feel the new one your best friend?What falling into another trauma?My friend in the whole conversation (I know it's not really a conversation), you forgot one point.The thing is

It is you, the idiot, who has left all your old relations and fell behind the new ones.

So are you the culprit?Think about it.May be you will fond answer in my future post. Read the full story

 

The mighty Luck,Yuck and **ck factors

22 August 2008 View Comments »

Haha, that could be the only possible funny title I could think of for this article.I also warn you that you require a bit of sense of humour(my type :)) to understand the details in this post!

This guy, who is just into the whole new world, asks "how do you rate a person's life here?What are the criteria that could decide the way he lives it?"

Then that old dumb <you kno wat > answers "Common!Why do you ask this question again and again?It's known to everyone that it's decided by their fate.The fate is the thing which decides their life and the fate is based upon your previous life's deeds.Sometimes He doesn't wait long.He answers your deeds in this life itself." .

Heyy stop!What's all this shit you are talkin man?I dunno how you ppl suck at philosophy. C'mon! Just break that ill feeling of yours.In the end,all that matters is based only three idotic (yeah!) factors - the Luck,Yuck and #$ck factors .These three factors collectively decide the life of just another dirty spine on the world."Huh!only 3?" you ask.Yeah, I say.So what are those luck,yuck and #$ck factors?Yeah, Coming to the point with those ugly big subheadings.

Luck Factor:
 You go to a grocery and buy those big and yellow(I call it shit)-colored mangoes paying above the market value. You tie your mouth till you reach your home thinking you will share it with family and eat there.As soon as you go there, you try to cut it without even washing.But all your happiness gets evaporated when you see those mangoes blessed with those insects.Ha!That's called ill-luck.When you saw it in the store, there was not even a hint of those leggy creatures.You wonder why the hell did it happen only to me and not to others.Because their luck factor is normal and you know what your Luck Factor is my friend! You would also never realize that it could have been even worse.Suppose you were in such a hurry that you don't even wait to cut but eat it directly?You would have ended up with a mouthful of the dirty leggy creatures.That's called a bad-luck.You see now,how important role this luck factor plays in designing your life?
So now coming to the old classroom theory,Luck Factor is one of those factors which determines the design of your life.You see it is what that has made Mr.Bill Gates the one with heavier pockets compared to Mr.Steve Jobbs(I know many oppose to my opinion on this, but I know you understood the essence).You cannot decide your Luck Factor, but you can understand and get accustomed depending on that.Luck Factor has many dimensions.It can be ranked may be like Good Luck,Normal Luck,Ill Lock,Bad luck,Worse luck.There are no demarkations or anything to this classification.It all depends on your mindset of how you take it.If in the above practical case you feel that your Luck Factor is normal if you think of the case of mouthful of insects.But if you think of the case of people who are not gifted with those creatures in their share of mangoes,you will fee that you are ill-lucked.So it comes down to this.

You cannot decide your Luck Factor, but you can rate it as you want.
Ok enough of the Luck Factor, now onto the next ugly thing.

Yuck Factor:
After knowing your Luck Factor, now you think may be you can get a refund from the shop keeper for the loss you incurred in the form of that Mangoes.So you go to him.As soon as you go there,the first thing you do is yell at the shop keeper, "Hey yooo $#!@er!Where in the hell do you get these big damn yellow things man?What would have happened if I had not seen these leggy things?I would have ended a mouthful of them?".The shopkeeper makes a cool move and tries to pacify you.He calmly explains you how he cannot know what is present in the mango.You do not budge.You go on yelling it.All the while, the shopkeeper maintains his calmness.In the end, you won't get the refund.Instead, you feel those Yucky remarks of people watching you and the shop keeper arguing.In the end, you have been rated Yuck by many people.If in future, you would try to talk to one of those audience, I am sure you will be treated with Yuck feeling.
Yuck factor(may be the name doesn't sound apt,but that's the best possible rhyming word I got to it) is that factor which determines how much people love you and how much they hate you. A single word for it is "impression".And to get your things done by people, you got to have a good impression with them.This could be got by many ways.Sometimes by money, sometimes by helping, sometimes by your own deeds and some other times by the Luck Factor.So the quotable quote is
My friend, Yuck factor is the factor determining how people perceive and follow you.Yuck Factor, unlike Luck Factor, is mostly determined by your own actions and some times by Luck Factor.
Ha,this post is going real long but wait for the third now.

$#ck Factor:
 One of my friends was seeing this wonderful girl in my class room since an year and half.He never talked with her much but he just like her and hence followed her.He used to be like the most greatest lover of all time.Now in comes this dude, a new neighbor of her, who in a span of a week directly goes to her and says "Hey! Wanna date ?".That's it! She goes with him that day, like him and from then on they become the cutest pair I have seen till now.And here my friend breaks down into tears.It took him a whole of an year for him to recover.But with this what comes to the fore is the $#ck Factor.My friend sucked at it and the dude is really an out performer in this factor!

After the practical example, most of you people would be thinking that the $#ck factor is the looks and personality.But it's not.The $#ck factor is the willingness to take those risks.C'mon if you think of something, $#ck just go for it!That's what which could make difference from those nerdy stupid.The $#ck Factor though appears not so important one, you have to know that a delay of even a second could cost you a life.So the end line is
The $#ck is that thing which points out your willingness to take risk and how fats you act upon decisions.So $#ck everything and just go for it
Ohk, may be now I can stop.But just remember
There is no $#cking shit called Fate.The only things which design your life is yourself and it can be gauged on the mighty Luck,Yuck and $#ck Factors.
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