khddssd blogs

Note: Edited on 20 May 2013 to remove links.

There was I time when I would boot my blog editor on Blogger and post about every small leaf moving with every strand of wind. And then there came a time when I would post things that are truly monumental.

As we increasingly live in a digital world where every bit of data and information you put anywhere on the Internet can be searched and indexed and retrieved easily. And moving with the times, I need to change the way I blog.

I will no longer create a new post on every small update. Now its about one place for everything related to a particular topic.

• This might mean several edits on the same post.


• This would mean trouble for people reading my blog from RSS readers.


• This would also mean comments going out of context. This would mean more trouble.

But I think the trouble is worth it. A post would no longer remain a small rant on things. It will, over a period of time, become a long page with lots of details on a particular topic. It will become my personal Wikipedia. In fact I had realized this long back and hence the pbWiki.

Also I have realized that juggling multiple blogs is very difficult. Apart from contributions to mutiny.in, pluggd.in, venturewoods, I manage quite a few blogs. My photoblog, personal blog, new new thing, Friends from Creativeland, value investing and probably a lot more blogs that I am forgetting (yes unofficial MDI blog, MML blog etc.). It is very difficult to juggle between all these. You tend to put a lot of effort on creating one and promoting it and as a result you ignore the other ones to die their natural, slow and painful death.

What do you think? Should I post on every small think? Or one large post with lots of data and information works?

Originally posted on here.

Rabbi Shergil - Jugni

Rabbi Shergill - Jugni on Youtube


More I listen to Rabbi and more I connect with other Rabbi fans, more I like him. On Sonal's recommendation, I listened to Jugni. As compared to Bilquis where he talks about few heroes who laid their lives hoping for miracles, Jugni talks about India as a nation and things that we the people face everyday. The hard decisions we have to make. The trade offs. The sufferings. And the hope for a better future.

Lyrics (reproduced from rabbism.blogspot.com)

Jugni dekhan chali desh....
Jide janmay si kadi ved...
jidon kadyaa si angrez...
Ki banyaa usdaa....
Ki banyaa usdaa haal....
kede kite usne kamaal...

vir meryaa ve jugni....
vir meryaa ve jugni kehndi aa....
ek raah nawe aaj pandi hain..



Jugni jaa wadi kashmir ....
jithe roz maran das vee..
soni behnaa te sone veer..
oooo ro ro poochna..
ke jaghda tayi mukhnna...
jedo jhelum paani sukhnaa

vir meryaa ve jugni....
vir meryaa ve jugni kehndi aa....
ek neer nawe aaj behndi hain..



jugni jaa wadi punjab....
jithe padhe likhe bekaar...
bech zameenaa jaawen baahar...
uthe maaran jaadho....
uthe gori lain vewha..
peeche tabar take raah..

vir meryaa ve jugni....
vir meryaa ve jugni kehndi aa....
ek nayi udhari lendi aa....



Jugni jaa wadi bambai..
jithe sonda koi nahi...
sab labban cheez koi ....
kis kise noooo labbe...
jeno labbe woh bechain....
mathe matke uske pain...???

vir meryaa ve jugni....
vir meryaa ve jugni kehndi aa....
ek sah safar daa lendi aa....



jugni jaa wadi aaj dilli,,,,
uthe bheed ch ral ki bhuli..
kitho aayi teh kithe chali...
sab basar gaya...
jeddon aaya usno cheta...
taaki mukhea thaa usdaa belaaa....

vir meryaa ve jugni....
vir meryaa ve jugni kehndi aa....
aaj naam guraa daan lehendi aa.......

I have to reiterate that India needs more artists like Rabbi Shergill. We need people to understand the issues that confront us as a nation and its citizens. We need people to get everyone's attention towards these issues.

Music as a medium becomes is really helpful to hook on people from all walks of life to ponder on these issues. Initially people become fans (of the artist) and eventually the music. And once they know the music, they start understanding the causes that the artist is trying to talk about. They start discussing it. They start debating it. And finally they start working on it.

Bhayankar Thandi Beer

Rabbi Shergil - Bilquis

Last night, just before I slept, I chanced upon another song from Rabbi Shergill on Channel V. I just caught the last part of the song that ended with the beginning of our National Anthem.

Today morning first thing I did was download (illegally) the song. I heard it and it swept me off my feet. It is a must hear for anyone who even remotely thinks of India. While searching more about it, I realized that the song is about a month old and already has already been featured elsewhere on blogosphere (a very good post on Sepia Mutiny).

The song is available on the website of the album Avengi J Nahin at ajn.co.in. For those who prefer images to music, I found a low quality version on youtube here.

I will lift part of the lyrics from there, with due credits to Amardeep (Amardeep's blog).

Mera naam Bilqis Yakub Rasool
Mujhse hui bas ek hi bhool
Ki jab dhhundhhte thhe vo Ram ko
To maen khardi thhi rah mein
Pehle ek ne puchha na mujhe kuchh pata thha
Dujey ko bhi mera yehi javab thha
Itno ne puchha ki mera ab saval hai ki
Jinhe naaz hai, hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai, vo kahan hain

Mera naam Shriman Satyendra Dubey
Jo kehna tha kah woh kah chukey
Ab pade hai rah main dil main liye ek goli
Bas itna Kassor ki humane likha tha
Woh sach jo har kisi ki zubaan tha
par sach yahan ho jaate hain zahreele
Jinhe naaz hai, hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai, vo kahan hain

Mujhe kahte hain ? Manjunath
Maine dekhi bhatakti ek laash
Zameer kay beech sadak lakhiyonpur khedi
Aadarsh phansa jahan baataon main
Aur chor bhare darbaron main
Wahan maut ? ki ek khabar hai basi
Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahan hain

Maza naam hai Lavleen Kumar
Unnees june unnees baar
Unnees unnees unnees unnees baar
Unnees unnees unnees unnees unnees unnees .. baar
Looto to haath kholo bazaar
Nalaspora aur Virar
Cheeno zamin humsey
Bhejo humain pataal
Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahan hain

In this song, Rabbi talks about Bilquis Rassol, Satyendra Dubey, Manjunath and one Lavleen Kumar in the song. I know about Bilquis Rasool, Satyendra Dubey and Manjunath but can someone tell me who is this Lavleen Kumar? I searched his name and the context 19th Jun but could not find a thing. Someone please add here.

The lyrics talk about all these modern day Indians who have suffered because they thought they could raise their voices. Because they thought they could ask Y. Because they dared. Because they were Indians.

And their sacrifice probably got lost after our dear media moved onto other "more important" matters like health conditions of movie stars and relationships of cricketers. This song comes as a reminder for us. We do not want any more young engineers, management graduates to suffer the same fate. If these incidents fail to awaken the society, I wonder what would.

As I said earlier, the song ends with riffs from National Anthem and when it ends, you are left feeling good and bad at the same time. On one hand you are proud because you are humming your favorite tune. And you feel bad at the same time because music brings back memories of things being talked about in the song. The injustice, the call for action and finally the harsh realities of society we all dearly love.

In the end, I simply love the song and the entire idea of using music to spread word about India and being Indian. Do we know of more musicians like Rabbi? Can we please have more musicians like that in India?

5 versions of Super Mario Bros theme

Super Mario is a game that I have grown up playing. On youtube, I found these awesome vids.

Flute and Beat Box


Violin


Guitar


Piano


Play Symphony


WOW.. !
Image Credits: Faith9990 on Flickr

Why do I blog?

I have been blogging for quite some time now (infact I started writing in 2004) and tons of people have asked me this question. I think its about time I answered this one honestly. On a public forum.

So why do I blog?

1. Blogging is thinking out loud. When I write/blog, I actually put pen to paper and I think before I dare make my thoughts public. And hence when I write, it helps me think. Helps in ideating.


2. Blogging helps create an archive of thoughts. I have always made notes on notebooks of all shapes and sizes. A blog gives me a permanent place to archive them. I can now look at what I was thinking, what I was like way back in 2004 etc.


3. Blogging helps me connect to more people. Since the web is permanent, anyone, anywhere in the world can read my blog (with a bit of luck obviously) and can give me feedback on what I am thinking. This is simply impossible in a real world. My immediate circle of friends can only be limited and there is no guarantee that they would be interested in what I am saying.


4. Blogging Opens up minds. Before I was blogging, I was an arrogant and a mediocre person who lived in his own self created world. I thought I knew everything and I was above all. Moment I started writing, I realized that I need to learn a lot more and there are more people who can teach me things. I am still a self-claimed mediocre but no longer an arrogant one.


5. Blogging is fun. As simple as that. :)

I am often asked why do I copy-paste my posts on plugdd.in, venturewoods.org, mutiny.in etc. Again the answer remains the same.

1. Platforms like these give me a larger audience to express my thoughts to and more importantly get feedback from.


2. Writing is about reaching out and meeting more people. Independently, I can never reach the kind of audience these platforms can give me (and have given me).


3. Finally It is also about connecting to the people who share the same ethos and ideas. Wonderful things can happen when people talk. And blogging at these platform enables conversations.

In one line, blogging for me is that constant pursuit of learning and exploration. Why do YOU blog? Is it money? fame? connections? timepass? what?

1v1: Thinking vs Meditating

In one of my email conversations on mental masturbation with a very interesting gentleman, he said

I call my approach - meditating about an issue,
as opposed to thinking about an issue.
Thinking requires knowledge and a time target,
meditation does not require either.
But meditation enables one to come up with unique solutions that thinking cannot.

I absolutely loved the idea. Thinking is about coming up with perspectives on a certain topic from your previous knowledge or acquired knowledge within a time frame and with specific results as the targets.

Meditation on the other hand is contemplating what can be. Meditation is breaking all the conventions. Its like being virgin. Its a fresh start - all the time. When you are meditating you are no longer logical and pragmatic. You become evolved in the way you think. You go beyond the obvious.

What do you do? Think? Meditate? Personally, I think I think and I need to meditate more.

Bezos on Kindle, Amazon and EC2

BookExpoCast.com has this podcast where Jeff Bezos talks about Kindle and then Chris Anderson (Wired Mag, The Long Tail) speaks to Jeff about publishing industry, Kindle, Amazon and Blue Origin.

The podcast is very very insightful and here are my raw notes from the podcast. Please note that these are raw notes and I scribbled them while listening to the podcast. I might have mis-understood and/or mis-interpreted the podcast but there are so many gems of wisdom that it would be a crime to not post them here.

I am breaking them into sections.

On Amazon

1. Amazon was founded in 94. (I read later that Jeff Bezos created the Amazon business plan post his road trip across the country. I am planning to take one myself end of 2008. May be I will have some ideas too :D)


2. When he was founding Amazon, Bezos had more than 40 meetings with 22 angel investors to raise USD 1 mn for the seed.


3. Bezos also said more likely someone knew about the publishing business, less likely were they to invest in Amazon.


4. One Amazon customer has bought more than 1700 books. WOW.


5. Things like Super Saver on Amazon saves time and money or both Amazon and end customer. This helps them save by exploiting economies of scale and scope. They can ship two orders together faster.

On Kindle

1. It took more than 3 years to develop Kindle.


2. Kindle is a device that allows people to get books that they are looking for. And the ones they aren't looking for. Serendipity and accidental discovery of interesting books plays an important part of Kindle experience.


3. Kindle uses electronic ink. This is different from text that we see on a computer or LCD screen


4. While designing Kindle, the Amazon team wanted to capture few essential features of the system that they were making redundant. Things like book like form, ability to take notes, underline things etc.


5. Other important things were weight of Kindle, ability to read in sunlight, efficient on power-consumption.


6. The annotations and markings are stored on the Amazon servers. These are later searchable and can be accessed from anywhere.


7. Kindle wanted to make it easy for the customer to browse the books and eventually buy more titles off the store. (The streamlined the book buying experience by integrating the buy button on recommendation engine and then not charging customer for the download separately. The cost of the network/download is bundled with the price of the book)


8. Bezos made sure that the popular titles, including the ones on the bestsellers lists were available on Kindle right from day 1. This is important so that the customer who have spent about USD 399 on buying a device are not disappointed.


9. Someone sent a comment "it is about the message and not about the medium" - when they were comparing reading physical books with Kindle. (This I think is very important. We can make thousands of industries redundant if we focus on the delivery of the message).


10. Interesting statistic. About 6% of total Amazon book sales (by volume) now come from Kindle. Kindle customers buy as many physical book as eBooks. This was a surprising for even Jeff Bezos.


11. The grand vision for Kindle is all books ever published in any language anywhere in the world made available to you in less than 60 seconds. Which in my opinion is as large as a PC on every desktop. Kudos to Jeff Bezos for this grand a vision and ACTUALLY making it come to life.


12. He actually got CEO of Simon and Schuster on stage to talk about Kindle and how it is making it easier for publishers. (This was probably to address concerns of publishers - since the publishers have to first make the books available in electronic format).

On Future of Kindle

1. Amazon sees Kindle as more than just an access device. They are already talking about experiments like never-ending book and collaborative writing using Kindle.


2. Bezos envisions Kindle as a toolset for publishers and readers. He further talks about giving both publishers and customers these toolsets and let them surprise everyone else with their discoveries and inventions (I am reminded again of Jan Chipchase and his research).


3. Its also about finding the right readers for publishers. If you are a student in Iceland looking for books on biological traits of Saharan camels, you can only find them on Amazon. Or Kindle. Kindle thus acts as a platform where a publisher can find his audience and vice versa.


4. When asked if Kindle is already redundant with faster cellphones and other access devices, Bezos compared it with cameras. Every mobile phone has a camera now and people still buy smaller cameras and SLRs and other photography equipment. (I am sort of confused at this one. I think cameras AND Kindle both might get redundant at some point in time.)

On Bezos himself

1. Jeff Bezos is bald. :D (And so am I.)


2. 4 kids. 8.6.3 and 3. :D


3. "You do not choose your passions. Your passions choose you." Awesome quote by Jeff Bezos, when he was asked about Blue Origin. Bezos says motto for Blue Origin is Step by step ferociously and he says they are in an industry that helps humanity get into space.


4. Bezos says at one point in time that planetary alignments were needed to Amazon what it is today. Is he superstitious? (Am sure paparazzi would be snooping :D)

Other things

1. Jeff Bezos talk about a concept of "me time". A time that you spend away from everyone including your family, co-workers etc. This time is typically spent bathing, exercising, traveling etc. A Kindle gives people something to do in this "me time".


2. Awesome insight into way humans understand interactions. Humans are storytelling animals and we like narratives. (Actually wrote about branding as storytelling few months ago but I never developed the concept further.


3. What about used books? Is there money to be made there? Everyone wants to read books and doesn't really want to pay for the book prices. If there was a website to regulate that? A pre-web2.0 era website is doing that in Delhi. Is their merit in buying that website out?


4. You make money when you help customer make the purchase decision. This was in response to someone asking if negative reviews are bad for the business. All reviews actually help make the purchase decision. Negative , positive doesn't really play a role


5. On elastic compute cloud, the idea was to convert the huge fixed cost for customers into onDemand variable cost. (I wrote about onDemand economics for my Berlin School application)

The best part about any great conversation is the quality and quantity of ideas that stem out of there. For me, these are the things that I think have the potential to be businesses.

1. I think the Techcrunch Web Tablet probably stemmed out of the Kindle idea. And even though the commercial production and distribution might be years away, they want to stake a claim on the idea before anyone else.


2. How about doing something on the old books market in India. Especially in all the engineering colleges in India, the content remains same and thus there is a large chunk demand. And then obviously there is the long tail.


3. Search cost plays an important part in getting the buyers and sellers together. I wrote about Search Cost way back in Feb 08 and I think its about time I revisited that.


4. Purchase decision is an interesting thing to think about. My day job involves working on this purchase decision for some of the leading brands in India and there is so much that I learn everyday. Need to post about it. What if there was a tool that everyone trusted and assisted in purchase decisions?


5. The entire idea of making fixed costs redundant has been in existence for a long time. Things like outsourcing and contracts actually do that. But doing it to something as fundamental as network, access and storage is sheer brilliance. Airtel did that with their network in India and do far have reaped awesome rewards off it. What else can converted into variable costs? Brain power? Processing? Coding?

If you are listening to the podcast, please share your thoughts. And apologies for such a long post. I did not realize that I have taken these many notes.

Credits
Image: Gizmodo.com

Bored. Bugged. Pissed.

^
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Somnath Chatterjee expelled from CPI(M)

After all the drama that happened in the parliament, very few people actually stand out for their conduct in the parliament yesterday. Somnath Chatterjee probably leads the way. He made sure that the trust vote proceeded without major interruptions and moderated the entire discussion with a mastery of a ring master.

However, his party rewarded him with an expulsion for "seriously compromising the party position". His only crime? He did not resign from the post of speaker of the Lok Sabha when his party wanted him to.

Before the trust vote CPI(M), Mr. Chatterjee has been a member of CPI(M) for 40 odd years, asked him to resign from the post of the speaker so that the number of votes against the govt. goes up by one (the speaker does not vote in the confidence motion - he only votes in case of a hung verdict and his vote becomes a decider). However, Mr. Chatterjee stood high on his moral ground and decided not to resign and precede over the motion.

CPI polit bureau member Biman Bose said

Somnath Chatterjee might have acted according to the Indian Constitution, but our party has its own constitution and decisions are taken as per party rules

This is as ridiculous as it can get. Are we trying to say that Mr. Chatterjee was penalized because he put the Indian constitution higher than a political parties' rules?

And with all these shenanigans they are trying to take on Mr. Chatterjee who has served on various committees and has even won the coveted outstanding parliamentarian award (in 1996) for his conduct and contributions.

Obviously expulsion from a party does not threaten his position as the speaker. A speaker cna only be removed is a no-confidence motion is passed against him. It is real unfortunate to see leftist parties acting in such a rash manner and being very short sighted.