Man and Emotions

Hey folks,

It’s been quite a long time since I posted on this blog. Not that I’ve been busy, just didn’t have the inclination to sit down and post. A lot of draft posts lined up but nothing completed. To those of you looking for a cheerful light-hearted post, don’t bother reading further. This isn’t it. On the other hand, if you’d care to know what’s been going on in my life in the last 3 weeks, please read further.

The last 3 months in life have been totally amazing. Not only on the work front but also w.r.t personal life. People who’re close to me would know that I’m a born Leo. Arun would vouch for how short-tempered I used to be whilst in college. Probably, Sathya might vouch for it too.

The day myself and Srinath started Sit, to discuss our personal value and belief systems on a quasi-public platform, we (knowingly or unknowingly) ushered into our lives a movement towards increased tolerance and openness. To many, this might sound like a statement worth ridicule. But to the few who have known either (or both) of us well pre and post Sit, the difference would be quite visible.

To this day, there are people in my circle who laud this openness and there are people who criticise it to the core. The truth is that neither of them is wrong. I chose to go ahead with the openness because somewhere inside me, it felt good to continually keep changing for the better. Irrespective of who or what brought about the change.

About three months ago, I told Srinath I would make the first ever attempt in life to remain a lot more patient. To tolerate a lot more destructive and constructive criticism. To remain calm and react to them with a balanced state of mind. A lot of people were responsible for this little attempt. Namely, Dr Annamalai from Gandhi Study Centre, Milind Jadhav, Srinath himself and finally, my greatest inspiration in life, M K Gandhi.

Randomness has been my best friend and worst enemy, both at the same time. It waited for 22 long years to let the above mentioned piece of wisdom dawn upon me. But, fortunately, it gave me enough chances to test my patience and my conviction towards the word I gave to Srinath.

As my Facebook and Twitter trail would indicate, work-life has had a lot of positive progress. So much so, that a few people who had written me off have bothered to contact me and let me know I’m doing a good job. Nice. But there have also been some really pressurising times when I used to work hours together for no apparent progress to take place.

Those pressurising times made my process of transition towards a calm, balanced self a bit more elusive. Every human being has an emotional high point and every human being makes mistakes. But, fortunately or unfortunately, they had to take place at the same time in my life. This led to a lot of unnecessary complications and a lot of emotional pressure.

I have always kinda had a fear of offending people. As a result, (in recent times) an apology from my side would never be a moment too late, if the mistake is/was on my part. Sometimes, the apologies would get a little too much. People are different. So, there is also a chance that someone would get offended by an excessive apology!

It is a little sad that I’ve been completely ignorant of that fact in life till now! A little incident involving such a person created quite a bit of emotional pressure over 3 weeks of time. Srinath, Teal, Pavithra, Arun and LVS would remember this incident. They usually know everything there is to anything in my life. I didn’t bother telling Vinay, Vinay and SrinathC for (their respective obvious) reasons best left untold here. At best, they would’ve noticed that I wasn’t normal.

I have to kneel down and acknowledge the support that all of them provided to me during this rough patch in life. But for them, I would’ve lost my cool completely, long ago. A special thanks to Saranyan for telling me a few subtle points about my own personality. Some things I had failed to notice even after some introspection.

It was VERY difficult, trust me. But, I’ve kinda made it through the rough patch with as much patience and balance I could muster on my mind. Naturally, due to work life and its pressures, I would’ve had emotional high points and would’ve lost my cool. I felt like a naxal who wanted to return to society and lead a normal life. Society would never accept him initially. But, over a period of time, even Society would change seeing the conviction of the guy towards leading a normal life and towards patiently awaiting forgiving. Though these emotional high points led to a lot of complications, all it took was one single long conversation to set things straight.

The first time I waited patiently for a person in life, it has turned out to be a nice outcome. The first time I tried to consciously maintain the balance of tolerance and self-respect-breach. The first time I stepped forward to admit all my mistakes upfront. The first time I continued to show respect for someone who was totally pissed off with me and kinda ignoring me. This moment in time, as I’m typing this post, I feel a sense of victory I have never ever felt before in life.

Not even when I’ve done my best feats and not even when I’ve won prizes. This seems beyond all that. The sense that I have won trying to do something I never believed I could do, only 3 months ago. It is truly an amazing experience.

Time might fly and people might come and go in my life. This incident will stay as the one that lead my transformation towards greater tolerance, greater patience and a stable balance of emotions.

I just felt like putting this up as a regular blog post. No specific reasons. More of gut feeling.

Will post in the coming weeks about a lot of positive and VERY happy things.

Yours Skeptically,

P.S. I have tried my best to put down the outline of incidents. The granular details need not be dealt with here. There is an alternate space for that.

The Chronicles of Insomnia

Hey folks,

This is my first blog post from college. I’m kinda having fun here. Not started studying, as may be evident from the long gtalk sessions!

It’s been a nice month, this one. I’ve realised that I was more observant than I had ever imagined. I had managed to notice a lot of things that others seemingly missed. Things that relate to most people’s lives for that matter.

Other than that, there has been a lot of progress on the work front. A social media internship for a company called Electrosocial has been the most happening thing for the last 2-3 weeks. I’m kinda liking it a lot. The content is delivered twice a week and packs a lot of insight with relevant links for further reading. I was even asked to post once on their blog and contrary to my guest-post record, the post has come out very well!

You can find it here. About a month of the internship is left and I think it’s only going to be more interesting!

I also got my hands dirty with a small-time market research project for the college involving life insurance. Learnt a lot of things about professionalism and how it doesn’t come with age and 2 years IT work experience for certain people. A lot of networking with some CXOs from the insurance industry as well. Not that I knew enough about insurance to engage them in conversations!

Other than that, I’ve kinda dusted my old stuff a bit and have started working on a small idea I had in the past. I’ve luckily found people to work on it with, this time. So, you can expect a post on that in the future on this blog. It would involve research, more research and even more research. But not the typical geek nerd research! This is more of logical analysis relating to life.

Me and 2 other people here have kinda developed a business idea and would be working on polishing it soon. Hope that works out as well. It’s a nice thing and fits the current market well. There is a funny thingie here! We had actually spent serious time researching for some business ideas and we thought of this one while randomly chit-chatting in class!

I’m going to be involved in organising an event in Chennai in November. Though this is still in the preliminary stages, I’m sure it would pick up momentum in the coming weeks and would be an amazingly fun experience for me.

A couple of conferences, some contests, (hopefully) one research paper, a video for Sit and some work for Mozilla are other stuff in the pipeline.

This post also serves as a reminder for me. I tend to get a little too forgetful and irresponsible if I don’t have my commitments listed in a single place!

As for the post title, I’m kinda experiencing early signs of insomnia. It’s a state I’ve forced onto myself, in a way. I’m hoping to take a week off sometime in end August. Let’s see if that works out!

Yours Skeptically,

P.S. Most of the content on this post was completed in college but the computer guy got mad and drove me off the lab. Apparently, I hear he hates working. Understandable. India still has a lot of scope for change!

Reaching out

Hey folks,

A recent unpleasant happening in my dad’s extended family has totally shaken my belief system and has pushed me to look at the rest of the World with a lot more compassion and care.

I was thrown awake to the rude fact that the best metric to judge the quality of one’s personality is the number of people who genuinely cry when he is no more. This fact just made me see my own ‘close’ circle in a different way.

So, here it goes. If I have ever hurt your sentiments or have ever imposed my views upon you or have ever been a complete asshole, I unconditionally apologise for the same and assure you that I would put my best effort to see that I change for the better. I would also like to let each one of you know that I am there for you and that I shall help you out in whatever way that is best possible. I assure that I will give you a shoulder to cry on and a hand to pull you up when you’re down.

However, although I don’t expect any tangible return, I would feel better if I could get a little care from your side too. A pat-on-the-back occasionally and a good joke every now and then.

In the upcoming week, I shall personally contact every single soul I value and shall do my bit to make his/her life happier and easier. For others, I’m always there. All you have to do is just ask!

On a more serious note, I request all of you to make it a habit to get a master health checkup done every year on a recurring basis. In the most unlikely of cases, this should cost you around 5k. It is usually lesser than that, I think.

I also request you all to put in some effort and try to avoid procrastinating things. I am doing that from this very moment onwards. I will try hard not to procrastinate in life. For all you know, I might not be there to execute things tomorrow.

Yours Skeptically,

P.S. I hope this post finds you all in good health and a pleasant state of mind.

Protocol, My Foot!

Hey folks,

I had the opportunity to talk to a self-made entrepreneur who tried his hand at politics during the recent elections, from Chennai. Contrary to public perception, this guy is accessible just on paper. His contact details have been put up in the public domain, yes. But little do people realise that there is a whale of difference between approachability and accessibility!

He is often portrayed as the man who rose to fame from a very humble background. I have no heart to deny that. That is a success story that needs to be documented for future entrepreneurs to read, no doubt. But many people have two sides no?

Behind that ‘next door guy’ image, this man has a far darker side. He is someone who expects to be given paramount importance wherever he goes. He expects limelight, fame, popularity, attention and the ‘wow’ factor wherever he goes!

The man can’t even talk proper English but goes around flaunting his educational background! I am tempted to think that every educational institution, however great it might be, has some amount of error in choosing candidates, about 5 misfit people out of every 100 or so. I guess this guy got into those places because of such an error factor.

A standing example of the fact that appearances are deceptive, this man actually contested in elections and won nearly 16000 votes. I can understand if illiterate folks have no etiquette and a lot of ego, because they ain’t educated, dammit! Srinath (Boss) used to keep telling me years ago that a good proportion of the fellows passing out of the country’s topmost educational institutions add no value to the country but have a very high ego. I realise that now, thoroughly!

I am even prompted to believe that illiterate (or lesser literate) folks would do a better job managing the country’s government than well educated fellows like this entrepreneur!

Of course, I wasn’t supporting him at all during the elections. I even argued with one of my juniors, who was supporting this guy during elections, saying this guy can’t make one hell of a difference. The man has no track record doing any proper societal service, either physical or intellectual! Yet, he shamefully claims that he is going to save the country from greedy politicians! Dude, have you ever done some self-introspection at all in life? Have you atleast heard of the word ‘Self Introspection’ ?

Learning: Never ever ever buy the face value that people depict! Such a value is almost never the real one! Watch out for the real sides of people!

Yours Skeptically,

P.S. It’s such a coincidence that I’ve known a couple more people who passed out from the same institutions as this guy, very well for a long time. They’re such nice people that I’m guessing the error-rate theory I’ve come up with has to be true, indeed!

2008

This is my 22nd year of existence on the face of the Earth and I can, quite certainly, say that none has been as special as 2008 has been. There are a lot of reasons, good and bad.

The learning that I could get from experiences in 2008 was enormous. Something that has never happened to this extent so far.

Here’s what I’ve learnt.

1. Never exercise anger immediately. When feeling angry, postpone the impulsive action for 30 minutes. See if the anger still exists. If it does exist, go ahead. Otherwise, get on with life.

2. Always know clearly as to where to draw the line between friends and best friends and between friends and acquaintances.

3. Never judge a person by mere looks. That is the worst way to do it! At the same time, never under-estimate anyone. You never know who would become what tomorrow.

4. Be egoistic if you want to, but never show out anything. It doesn’t help one bit.

5. If someone praises you, don’t blindly brush aside the praise. If you deserve it, take it. There’s nothing wrong. If you dont’ deserve it, pass it on to someone who really deserves it.

6. Never say die. There is always more than one way to do anything in the World!

7. Never talk to people about your aspirations. Keep them within yourself until they have materialized!

8. Don’t postpone anything! You never know if you’d live to see the light of the next day.

9. There is no point talking/cribbing about anything. Get down to action! That’s all that matters!

10. Dont’ get over excited/enthusiastic about something and end up over-pressurizing/irritating peers.

11. Finally, Don’t assume XYZ is your friend/best-friend because XYZ talks well and treats you well. Never ever! There are a lot more things to it. Don’t decide hastily.

Apart from the gyan, there are also a few memorable incidents that have given me the energy to go on with life.

1. The fun that I had with Arun during the project days. We ended up putting slides in a different random order for each review and got the staff mad at us! Changed the algorithm on University Review day just before the External Examiner came to see our project! There were time when I lost interest in the project and Arun has to be given due credit for pulling me into it whenever necessary.

2. Signed up to become a Mozilla Campus Rep. Did little ground work in the end. Contributed to their forums and bug billboard.

3. Started this blog and ‘officially’ started blogging.

4. People like Srinath V, LVS, Arun, Pavithra, Sowmiya, Ash, Sathya and GAPP have influenced my life and lifestyle a lot. They have to be given due credit as well. Some have shown me my positive side and some have shown me my negative side. I’m grateful to each one of them in a distinct way.

5. Dropped Infy. This was something I never realized I could. It’s not something great when looked at in general. Lots of people do it now-a-days. But for me, I never knew I had the courage to take a risk in life. All these years, I’ve been a very safe player doing things the no/little risk way. The encouragement I got from friends has been something startling.

6. Worked hard for MBA. This is another thing I’ve not done in life. I’ve never WORKED HARD for something related to academics so far. Whatever I’ve gotten in School and College has been only what I could do with an ordinary effort, nothing phenominal. The first time I worked hard for academics was while preparing for my MBA entrance tests. For many, MBA entrance tests might not be tough at all. But for me, they are. I do have to admit that I’m just about above-average and I’ve worked really hard this year. Really hope something materializes in the coming days/months.

7. Started the SIT with Srinath V. This is another thing I’m proud of. We have managed to put the idea from paper to practise in these 8 months. We have learnt a lot lot through various experimental measures. Although it isn’t formally an NGO yet, I would say we’ve managed to create a good NGO model for the SIT through a (severely-battered) learning process over the last 8 months. We do have to thank all those who’ve stood with us and helped us do things without expecting any tangible returns. We have set a few personal targets w.r.t the SIT for 2009. I am only hoping that we manage to reach all of them soon.

8. This is more of a learning through a set of events. I’ve learnt that there is no use running behind a single short-sighted target most of the time. I was looking around for a single solid internship in marketing for about 2 long months. Around June-July I guess. Nothing really materialized. I lost heart and dropped the idea as such. Now, in hindsight, I realize that I have learnt a more about Marketing and People’s Minds in the last 6 months than what I had expected to learn from any internship. Maybe I would’ve learnt more from an internship but my personal expectations are met and that’s all that matters.

Apart from all this, there is one thing that has been a bit disappointing for me. Arun left India on July 28th 2008. I couldn’t get to meet him even once during his last week in India (before leaving for the US). Now, it looks like I won’t be able to meet him for the next 2 years! The same goes for Navneeth as well!

In all, 2008 has been THE single most important year in my life for both good and bad reasons. It will be long remembered in my mind as one year that largely shaped me.

Yours Skeptically,

P.S. I’m tired of using ubuntu live for 2 weeks now. Is Windows XP even available anywhere in Chennai?

aaaaargh!

I have been having this small disorder for the last 2 or 3 days. Suddenly one night my left eye started irritating and, me being the easily-pissed-off types, I fought with my eye and tried to dig out the dirt. The irritation stopped for some 30 mins and came back mildly again. I didn’t let it bother me and slept off. The next morning, I wasn’t able to open my left eye easily. It was that afternoon that I realized that my left eye was almost perennially red! I thought it was some infection and asked my mom for some cure. Both my parents brushed aside my allegations of it being some infection and said it was due to the heat.

But, now, It’s confirmed. I have Madras Eye. I’m gonna have to stay indoors for a few days and take eye drops as medication. In this regard, there are a few more sad things that are bothering me more than the Madras Eye.

1) I can’t go to ‘Iron Man’ with Srinath tonight.

2) I can’t go down to Landmark and scavenge on ways to spend my 750 bucks worth gift voucher this weekend.

3) I will, most probably, have to postpone the first meeting of the SIT.

4) I can’t play cricket with the guys here for another 2 days at-least!

5) I have to sit and watch TV with my eyes closed, at times!

6) My parents won’t let me sit on the computer for hours together!

Damn this Madras Eye! People tell me that this is not the ’season’ for Madras Eye (as if it’s some exotic fruit delicacy! damn!).

So, there it is. I’ve got an out-of-season eye infection now!

Yours Skeptically,

uleadin

P.S. I’ve got something that’s not available in this season. Is that great, by any chance?

A Comedy of Errors!

I got pissed off with the lack of entertainment during the day in the month of May. The evenings are taken care of by the Indian Premier League. The daytime is, however, a suicidal bore! I decided to download some recent old Tamil movies and watch them and learn how to write reviews and how to judge films. I also decided to start off by downloading Billa 2007. I got hold of a torrent from seedpeer and started downloading. Given that I’m on BSNL limited plan, I download only form 2 AM to 8 AM everyday. The download goes well from 2 AM to about 7 AM. Suddenly something happens and my download speed comes down to below 1kbps. There was a funny thing that I noticed here. On the first day, I had put the file for download only at around 6 40 AM IST. As usual it started off at 50kbps and then almost zeroed down at 7 AM IST. Here’s the funny part. The upload rate alone continued to be  above 65kbps for the entire session.  And, there were about 20 seeds and 1 PEER! I had only downloaded some 59MB! How can my torrent keep uploading the 59MB at a greater speed for a longer duration to only ONE SEED?

Yours Skeptically,

uleadin

P.S. I hope to be able to download Sivaji DVD RIP next.

IT’s over!

We buy three newspapers at home everyday and a few more on Sundays alone. Out of the regulars is The Economic Times. I was prompted to read an article on the IT sector in India by my dad and it has proved to be quite an eye opener. You can read it here. It presents a slightly shocking picture. IT majors have stepped down the aggression with respect to recruitments. It is expected that campus recruitment can go down by as much as 15-20% from current levels. This is generally attributed to two main factors, the hike in value of the Rupee and the Sub-Prime economic breakdown in the US.

The hike in the value of the Rupee is due to several reasons. Exports in all sectors (actually, most of the important sectors) from India have gone up in this FY. Of course, it is also attributed to the weak economic situation in the US that is pulling the value of the Dollar down.

The Sub Prime breakdown is a very interesting one. The story starts with the September 11 attacks and the IT recession in the US then. The Government had no way to improve the economy because everyone was apprehensive about spending every dime from the pocket. It’s pretty obvious that only a positive cash flow can improve an economy. So, the Government decided to do something that it considered ingenious then. Now, however, it’s feeling the pinch. ‘Prime’ is generally something with paramount importance and quality. Sub-Prime is something that is not of paramount quality. Hence, ‘Prime’ loans are loans given to people with good financial soundness. Sub-Prime loans are loans given to people without proper collateral and repayment capabilities. The Government decided to give loans to all kinds of people from all facets of society to encourage them to shop and spend and thereby improve the economic situation of the country by creating a positive cash flow all round. This was where the Government got carried away and even instructed private banks to give loans to every Tom, Dick and Harry around! The problem here, again, is that the private banks in turn borrowed from top banks from all over the World (for loans that might never be repaid). Banks like ICICI had to write off a part of this money in their results QoQ. All this made sure that the Dollar doesn’t go up in value at all. The Government of US has to find a suitable way/ways to plug the loans and re-direct the US from it’s path towards economic insolvency.

As a direct result of these factors, the margin of profit for the IT majors has gone down. They wouldn’t increase their bill to the clients because of the fear that the contract might get shifted to other alternate firms from growing markets all over Asia. Thinner margins, lower reserves, high employee base. This is something that no company would love to encounter.

If you’re planning to look at IT in India as a career option, I strongly advice you to keep yourself up-to-date with trends in IT and remain competitive and aggressive throughout your career. Otherwise, chances are that you might get chucked out at any time.

Yours Skeptically,

uleadin

P.S. I would say that the healthy lifetime of the Indian IT industry would be another 5-8 years maximum after which it’s certain downslide would begin.

the gen next idea

I have this habit of talking to my dad about something or the other at nights. Not a very long conversation, not more than an hour. It was during one of these conversations that he was telling me how his friends’ children thought their generation was competent and their previous (my dad’s generation) was terribly incompetent. He said that most kids my age thought high of themselves and low of their parents in the career and competence sense of it. The fact is that these people rarely realize the importance of a factor called ‘growth rate’. When one has decided to make a comparison with the past, one has to look at the opportunities that prevailed then and those that prevail today. There will always be a clear difference in this factor. I have to agree that this factor is conveniently neglected to blow achievements and accolades out of proportion. Also, the ego that people have these days has simply shielded them from looking at a factor as important as this. It’s not right to look at the bottom line and decide in these kinds of issues. This is not like writing a book review or a gadget review. It’s an issue of performance of an individual and I personally think that it deserves a deeper look into it. I don’t know how I came to this stand but I don’t intend to change it. So, all you ‘Gen Next’ fellows, please don’t think you’ve moved mountains. These days mountains come with roller skates making it easier for you whereas for your dad they came double riveted to the ground.

Yours Skeptically,

uleadin

P.S. My Infosys job, itself, is supposed to pay me more than what my dad got at 40. This doesn’t mean he’s an incompetent dunce and I’m a genius! Never! Never ever!

Joseph Vijay = Leonardo de Caprio?

I was reading this review on the new movie Kuruvi starring Ilaya Thalapathi (Young Lieutenant) Vijay on behindwoods. More than half way through the review I realized that it sounded almost exactly similar to a local version of Blood Diamond! I am literally shocked at the fact that Dharani who was remaking all hit telugu movies has decided to copy Hollywood! And who can be better than Vijay to do the lead role?! Vijay always acts in remade or stolen scripts so that he never fails. I am sure he has no guts to experiment! And, for this fact alone I prefer Ajit to Vijay. I hope I don’t hear Vijay fans comparing his ‘excellent’ acting skills with those of Leonardo de Caprio!

Yours Skeptically,

uleadin

P.S. I was/am/will-always-be a die-hard Kamal Fan!

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The ambitions of the uleadin!

Looking back into the past, I realized that there were so many professions I wanted to take up. I was thinking of all that today morning and decided that I write on some significant dream careers I had in mind.

PhD:

This was a career that I was looking at before passing first standard. My dad always wanted to do a PhD but couldn’t because of many reasons that I don’t want to mention here. He wanted to realize his dream with my help and brain washed me to take up a PhD. Of course, neither of us were serious about it. He knew it too!

Chartered Accountant:

This career option was largely inspired by my uncles. Three of my four (maternal) uncles are Chartered Accountants. Srinath is also aspiring to become one because his father (my eldest maternal uncle) is a CA. This was partly due to my mother’s brainwashing also. She must’ve wanted her son to stick to the family lineage.

Teacher:

This was one of my own ideas. I once wondered how wonderful it would be to bash all the kids around you and be the big boss. Later did I realize that my teacher dreams were for this and not for my passion for teaching!

Pilot:

This dream was inspired by my fraternal uncle (chittappa) who wanted me to fly high for some reason I still don’t know. However, he did not brainwash me and this dream quickly escaped from my thoughts.

Professional Keyboard Player/ Music Director:

This was a mad dream I had while learning to play on the Keyboard. I know it’s very funny but then I was in class 5 or 6 then. So, I had no idea as to how difficult it was to become a Music Director. The dream vanished pretty soon (before Class 7). But the passion for Keyboard playing stayed on till class 10.

Central Excise/Income Tax Department of the Union Government:

This was a result of me watching all those tamil films which show nothing but corruption in Govt offices. I was astonished at how rapidly people made a fortune to do the jobs they were already paid to do! I was prepared to take bribes and live a King’s life. This greatly upset my dad as he had thought he had brought me up with a lot of ethics injected into my mind. He did do that! I was the one who went mad for money. Later I realized how wrong I was about taking a bribe.

Web Designer:

This was another ambitious career I wanted to take up. I was starting to learn HTML and other markup languages whilst in class 11. I was thrilled by the whole idea that I could design web pages and all. Now I can very much realize that it is not so difficult, but at that time I thought it was super cool!

Software Engineer:

This was the time I had to study Visual Basic in class 12 and VB fascinated me a lot. For the first time, I was creating applications that were running on windows. My Software! I thought it would be super enjoyable to do this forever. This was one of my longest ambitions and I had it till I entered 4th semester in college.

Equity Analyst:

This was a result of me beginning to follow the SENSEX and NIFTY. I was really excited that I could make a fortune sitting at home by buying the right stock and selling it at the right time. I wondered if I could do this forever. Moreover, I came to know from my dad that I could do this for someone else as well and make more money if I became an Equity Analyst. Somehow, this ambition didn’t stay for long too.

Event Manager:

I was involved with culturals in college and this made me think if there was a lucrative career in Event Management. It was only later that I realized that there were too many other things wr.t Event Management. Moreover, I couldn’t find any internship opportunities in Event Management. This made me half-heartedly forsake Event Management as a career.

The fact is that this list is not exhaustive. I am stopping it here so that this doesn’t become too long a post for you guys to read! There are a lot more ambitions that uleadin has/had in mind.

Yours Skeptically,

uleadin

P.S. Sundar, I’m looking for some innovative comments from you this time.

SEO. Anyone?

I’ve been largely fascinated by SEO (Search Engine Optimization) lately and am learning about it from various sources. I’ll be trying to toy around with this blog until I become a decent SEO guy. In fact, as of now, I don’t even know if it is possible to toy around with this blog using SEO. Let’s see. As of now this page comes sixth in Google. It’ll be nice if I can bring it onto second or third place.

Yours Skeptically,
uleadin

P.S. As of now, Amazon ranks first in Google for these keywords. Hope to beat ‘em too!

UPDATE: I saw only now (2 mins after posting this article) that this blog ranks third. I’m clueless as to how. Any explanations?

IPL = Indian Pervert’s League?

There has been the controversy about the cheerleaders in the IPL who have dressed in an exemplary manner. We need to appreciate the lack of self consciousness in them! I am told that unlike in India and other third World countries, the flesh show exhibited by these ‘cheerleaders’ isn’t due to their family’s poor financial status. They are well off in most cases. Why this uncouth way of making money then? I don’t understand too!

Next, I want to find out as to why there’s so much hue and cry over one’s dressing rights and the rights being stripped off the cheerleader females. I think they’re being stripped of something else, not the rights. For all of you who think it’s one’s right to dress in whatever way one wants to, try running nude on the road one day. It’s most likely that you’ll be arrested by cops for public nuisance. For heaven’s sake, this is not a violation of one’s right to dressing!

It’s about obscenity alright. But about obscenity in the wrong context! It is a cricket match series. Why is there a flesh show on the side? What is the purpose that the spectators are sitting in the stadium? Is it for the match or for the flesh show? If it’s for the match, they can do without the flesh show! If it’s for the flesh show, they can find exclusive places for that purpose outside the city. They don’t need to be searching for that in a cricket stadium!

I also do not agree that citing Khajuraho temples as an example and trying to get away is right! Khajuraho temples were built for that exclusive purpose of the sexual elements of the religions of Hinduism and Jaininsm. They were not places built in the middle of a family entertainment park or a family restaurant or a family shopping mall!

They were meant to be watched by adults to learn the various facets of sex life! Even today, when one goes to Khajuraho, there will be moral police waiting to say that it’s not advisable for children. I can assure you that. But beyond that, if you’re determined to explain the facets of sex life to your three year old kid, nobody can do anything! I’m only saying that cheerleaders are being placed in the wrong environment for their flesh show! A cricket stadium is not the place for flesh show!

If you go on saying that all this is part of the cultural shift, accept a few other things also. Then I won’t find anything objectionable in cheerleader costumes. Accept love marriage, inter-caste marriage, sex before marriage, living together, public kissing, same-sex marriage and the like. I’ll shut my mouth and won’t say anything about cheerleader costumes!

If you’re trying to adopt western culture, it’s always welcomed! But do it in totality! Don’t take the parts you want and conveniently avoid the rest! Be Black or White, Don’t try to be Grey!

Yours Skeptically,

uleadin

P.S. Don’t make the IPL, the Indian Perverts’ League instead of Indian Premier League.

Change is Here – Part Two

I had done a small write-up on people who had influenced me, my attitude and my career. This is just a follow up to that. There were a few more people who deserved a mention but didn’t strike me at that time. So, here goes.

Sathyanarain:

Sathya has been known to me for a long time from the good ol’ Rapture days but not beyond a “hi-hello” rapport. Recently we came to know each other quite well and I realized what like-minded fellows we were! We almost think alike, act alike. We even decided to get together and have a start-up to gain some exposure! But then, all that put aside, Sathya is a great humane worth knowing in all senses. Very humble as well. Somehow, he never gives in to allegations of him being in love with a certain fair-skinned female from my college.

Raja Marthandan:

Raja, again, has been known to me for not more than 2 months. But the rapport I share with him is like that of knowing him for ages. The fact is that he’s pretty humble and jovial for the position he occupies. He’s the Head of Corporate Communications for Southern India for Adlabs’ BIG FM. He’ll look as if he’s straight out of college but he’s been in Public Relations for over 4 years! I went and spoke to him about public relations as a career but he ended up giving me a clear perspective of advertizing and journalism as well! All that over a coffee table at his office! Not only that, even after that episode he’s managed to stay in touch and listen to all my ramblings! I help him out with his internet marketing/PR in whatever little amounts I can whenever possible. Great guy to know!

My Gang in College:

I do have to attribute a good deal of my college life fun to this gang of people consisting of Raja Deepak, Sundar, Navneeth, Navneeth, Rafi and Praveen. Be it the time we sit in the stone benches to gaze at passing females or the time we sit together and play hangman in class or the time we do other unmentionable things in college, There has never been a dull moment with these guys around. A Special mention has to go to Nithin for making the long bus journey interesting throughout the last year. A special mention also has to go to my Dept staff for giving me that extra bit of liberty in running around the department and not attending class at all. I doubt I would’ve gotten this privilege had I studied in some other reputed college.

Pavithra:

I’ve known this female for not more than 3 months. The only common topic with her was my MBA, I thought. But I was in for a surprise. There was a lot more to her than I thought! A very versatile personality. I can remember the times when we sat together to choose which course she should take up and which institute. Loads of fun! A well read, well behaved person. Many thanks to Kalaivani for referring me to Pavithra!

That’s about it I guess. I don’t think there’s anyone I left. If I remember someone I left out, a new post will feature them.

The story of the uleadin

There have been a lot of people who have questioned me as to why something as meaningless and wierd as uleadin was chosen to be associated with me. There have been innumerable instances when uleadin would not be read as you-lead-in but as ulleaahdeen giving me a lot of discomfort. People would instanty feel that I was,apparently, obsessed with 5th century arabian names!

Frankly, this has happened too too too many times. I decided to write a post on the origin of uleadin and how it became my handle on the Internet and that it has nothing to do with 5th century Arabia!

There was a time when I had a dialup connection (ok, I had it till last year, so what? ) and I was studying in school. Back then, if you googled your name/handle and got results within the first page you were considered super cool. I googled my name and got a million results and nothing relating to me was within the first 15 pages. I didn’t waste time on looking beyond 15 pages. I decided I wanted a handle. Somehow, I came about choosing prazmataz as my handle then. I can understand it is supremely pathetic and that’s why I decided to change it a year later.  I was in 10th when I was tired of this prazmataz thing. I read a review about some ulead photo studio thingie. I knew ulead wouldn’t be available for sure. I tried uleadin and it clicked. I signed up for uleadin [at] yahoo [dot] com. That was the first time I used uleadin as my handle.

I was happy that it was more unique than prazmataz then as it returned no english results on google. That did it. From then on, I have used uleadin in each and every login option available. All my logins are uleadin till date.

The fact that my name returned a lot of irrelevant results and that uleadin returned no english results was the prime reason that made me choose uleadin as my handle and made me move from using my name everywhere to using my handle everywhere. I would also recommend that all of you use a handle as it makes your internet identity more unique.

Yours Skeptically,

uleadin

Change is here

Hi folks,

I have changed a lot since I joined college. From my physical appearence to my attitude, I’ve changed quite a lot lot. I am sure it has been a direct influence of college life and the different people it presented me with. I just thought it would be apt if I put down the names of the most significant people and what they did.

Aditya S:

Adi was the first senior I knew closely in college and remains that way till today. He was the first quiz crazy person I got affiliated with in college. All the time I spent with him would account for some of the heartiest moments I had in college life. He got me introduced to a lot of things like Open Quizzes, Orkut, setting my own quiz paper etc.

Sowmiya K:

Sowmiya was and has been my only consistent open quiz partner. She has become more than just a friend now. Sowmiya was (and is) like a mirror. She has remained a constant observer of all my activities. She has known and knows everything that has ever happened to me whatever be the magnitude of the incident. She has sort of filled that gap of not having grown up with an elder sister in my life. I would attribute a lot of decisions in my life to her encouragement and support.

Aishwarya S:

Ash is again a senior who I started talking to (much) after she passed out of college. She has always stood by me and has helped me with all kinds of things. Even today, if I’m unable to decide on something I ask Ash for help! Ash has this brilliant quality of cheering me up in no time even if I’m down in the dungeons! There have been countless number of occasions where she has done that and I am pretty much grateful to her for that (apart from a lot of other things). Ash still owes me a big gift though! I’m confident she’ll give it to me after reading this post atleast!

Arun M:

Arun is probably the closest of friends I’ve had all my life! There has never been a moment when he’s turned me down. He has always stayed by me and has changed a lot of things in me. He was instrumental in bringing my stubbornness down big time! He has also taught me how to assess people and how to maintain a good rapport with everyone around me. He has helped me out in innumerable occasions treating all my woes as if they were his! There were even a lot of times when I’ve wished I was Arun and not myself! In fact, when we’re together we’re rarely serious about anything (unless there’s a problem either of us is/was facing)! There’s never a dull moment when he’s around.

Srinath V:

Srinath is a cousin, or maybe something even more divine. I would even call him my mentor as he has influenced me in more ways than one. He completely changed the way I look at things, especially the society and people around me. We’re the first friends that each other had in life. We do fight on a lot of things even today. But if either of us has a problem, the other would be the first to offer help. We’ve always been partners in crime be it whatever crime! I’m sure our relationship won’t change for eternity! Together we watch the most obscure tamil movies around! He watches Telugu movies also! I don’t!

LVS:

LVS = VidhyaShankar = Ragnarock! Most of you wouldn’t understand that, but I’m sure those who know of the pre-requisite incidents would understand. LVS has also been a constant source of encouragement for me. He was one of the few people I respected from his batch. He’s the Godfather for many in my college even today although they haven’t seen him face to face. How? We carry on his legacy w.r.t all departmental activities. He’s a sort of a legend I would say. Working under him is such a divine experience. I’m sure those who know him well will agree with me.

Kalaivani:

Kalaivani has helped me out a great deal in deciding and refining the career road map that I presently have in mind. I have not spoken to her while she was in college. I was surprised that she knew me all the time! I have to be very grateful to her for the help and advice she gave me during my brief prep for MBA entrance exams. I’m sure no senior would ever do this much for a junior who he/she hasn’t even met in person. She deserves a mention here for referring me to a lot of people from whom I could get valuable career guidance as well.

The TCSI Gang:

The TCSI gang comprizes Vijay, Ravi, Rajaram and Vimal. The irony here is that they’re Srinath’s college classmates and hostelmates! How I came to know them so well is another story altogether. I wanted to mention their names as a single group because the group and my affiliation with the group changed my life a lot. I didn’t come to know of them one by one and hence I cannot say who influenced me in what way. They made me look at life from a very pointful perspective. I’m still marvelled at the way they look at things in life. I’m sure they’ll remain forever as close as they are to me now.

Dad:

Finally, I’d like to mention about yet another good friend. My dad. Sometimes I wonder if other dads would behave like this with their children. My dad has given me an enormous amount of freedom which in itself is a testimony to the magnitude of trust he’s placed on me! Never has he questioned me beyond reasonable terms! Never has he radically prohibited me from doing anything! He has tried to give me anything and everything I wanted/want in Life. And, he’s succeeded in doing that I should say! He has never ever tried to impose anything on me! I’m sure I couldn’t have had a better dad!

These are the people who came to my mind immediately when I wanted to write this post. This doesn’t mean that nobody else has helped me and that nobody else is of any use to me. It is just that there are a lot lot of people around me who help me in a lot of ways. I wanted to write on those people who came to my mind when I thought of the post. No offense meant for the others. This is my line

“If you’ve helped me in some way, don’t worry. I remember you. I’ll help you when you’re in need, before you ask for it. Much before you ask for it”

Yours Skeptically,

uleadin