Of Orbs and World Dominion

All of us are stuck in our respective orbs (time, state of mind, location, cubicles etc) and without having an iota of control over thoughts or even movements of anything of significance, we somehow are trying to justify to ourselves that we are gods and about two steps away from world dominion.

Ok, we can be replaced by me ... to start with.

So, carrying on with the rant, here we are, 20 25 somethings, in pursuit of happyness creative orgasm, working at middle management level (really? or these levels have been created just to make us happy?), suffering from QLC, constantly comparing ourselves with our peers, trying to justify our careers and fat paychecks and in a constant state of denial. "We" are characterized by over-inflated egos, dreams that run nothing short of world dominion (again) and ideas that would put Malcolm Gladwells and Seth Godins of the world to shame.

To be continued ...

Swades - Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera

Last time I blogged about this song, I wrote,

Quite a few lessons and one of the best patriotic songs of all times in my humble opinion.

Coming back to the song, I stumbled upon the video on youtube I realized how much I love the song.

Delhi 6 Disappoints

I was really looking forward to seeing Delhi 6. A R Rahman's music, as always is really good. Prasoon Joshi's lyrics are meaningful and impeccable. The tralior looked wonderful. The on screen chemistry between Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor seemed interesting. The plot promised to be similar to Rang De Basanti. And beneath these tons of expectations, I went to see Delhi 6.

I came out disappointed.

I could go on ranting why its a bad movie and why you shouldn't bother even discussing it, why the story is week, why the characters are lost, why is it not about home-coming of a desi and all that.

In one line, dont bother wasting time and money on it. Just get the music and enjoy Dilli 6, Genda Phool and Masakali.

I am master of my own ...

via Harold's Planet

Couldn't have been more apt.

MacBook. Fixed.

After I spilled water on my MACBook, I was told of 1000 things to do (a complete list follows) but here are few things that you MUST do.

1. Switch it off. Water will act as a conductor and will burn the circuits. Do not, I repeat, do not switch on your laptop (or any other electric device) until its completely dry. You will have to resist the temptation to see if its working after you spill water. Please resist it and let the water dry.
   
2. Remove battery. For obvious reasons.
3. Somehow, remove water. Use a hair dryer, put it under the sunlight, usea lamp, a fan, even bury the laptop in a sack of rice.

And, yes my macbook works fine now.

Spilled Water. On the Macbook.

:(

My legendary Macbook - the home of my ideas and thoughts for last more than 18 months. I hope it get backs to shape soon :(

Tata Safari - Reclaim your Life

Respect.

(via Prateek)

Vande Mataram

Reminds you of something?

Shahrukh Khan's Poster

This is Shahrukh Khan's Twitter Account's background image. Click to zoom.

Futility of the Blip on Radar.

One fine day, when Mother Earth is going about its revolutions and rotations, the birds are trying to hunt for birdseed, millions of men and women would be running around doing meaningless work, trying to justify their jobs and existence, someone on the radar, a blip would flash brilliantly. And then it will fade away. To oblivion.

All the meaningless things (read cribbing, working, blogging, traveling, sleeping, walking, talking, writing, reading, justifying, even thinking) that we humans engage in, trying to follow the crowd, in hopes of leading the pack someday are futile. We are just trying to while away time. And mind, the machine needs constant motion. It needs some cranks, something or the other keep itself occupied. We oil it by indulging in mental masturbation. It takes different shapes for different people. Some people play cricket, some create companies, some donate their money, some are left in oblivion, some think they think what they are thinking and the things that they think and not really worth thinking, some travel, some sleep and many dream. Most work. Without realizing the futility. Of being just a blip on radar.

Google Ads on Youtube

Google Ads on Youtube are Live. About time Google made money with Youtube.

Luck By Chance

Saw Luck By Chance today. Amongst other things, Farhan Akhtar continues to impress with his performances. Konkana Sen Sharma looks gorgeous as ever. Isha Sharvani added the glitz to the movie. And then there were assorted stars, semi-stars, starlets, yester-stars, almost-stars etc.

Few things that I can recall from the movie

• luck, fate, destiny are all words coined by weak to justify their failure to reach their goals
  
• if someone is content in life, nothing would happen
• confidence is nice, over-confidence is not
• people who know you when you were growing up, they tell you the truth and you need them more than the new friends that you way. (reminds me of that quote, "people you meet on the way up, remember them, you will meet them on the way down")

All in all its a nice movie. If done differently, this could very well have been one of those "chicken soup for soul", "entrepreneurship 101" kind of movies - depending on the way the director would have taken the call.

Strawberry Frog - Dinosaur and Frog

Ever since I heard about this guy called Scott Goodson, I have been inspired by his work and his thoughts. His agency - Strawberry Frog is an interesting way to go about running an advertising and marketing business. Today on his blog, he shared this video that they made "a few years ago to have some fun with the way we do it". I think all agencies should learn from him.

GE Money to shut down Consumer Finance business

Economic Times reports that Jeff Immelt said

We will get out of consumer loans and focus on a few segments such as the credit card and infrastructure financing business, may be do a bit of commercial loan

Too bad. Although I left GE Money way back in 2007, it is still close to my heart. It was my first job post MBA and it was an awesome learning experience. Unfortunate that we weren't really made for each other and I decided to part ways.

And more importantly the report says that GE would miss its 2010 revenue target of USD 8 billion. Worried about my friends back at GECF :(

Offbeat Tracks in Maharashtra

I finally bought Milind Gunaji's (apart from being an actor, he is a photographer, traveller and author) Offbeat Tracks in Maharashtra (from FlipKart). I think in 2009, I will use that book as a guide. I will select a destination and strike it off the index once I have visited that place. Let me start with Amruteshwar Temple in Ratanwadi (close to Bhandardara - a pic of Bhandardara). I was there last weekend.

Other links
Milind Gunaji's Book in Marathi