How are you today? I hope you are good. I am not, not lately.

Most people know me as a passionate guy with great will power. But things have not been the same lately.

I used to think that stress, anger and depression are something that need not to be bothered about, and one can moderate them oneself if they want to, but I have started to feel that it’s not the case anymore for me.

I have realized that these mood disorders are hindering in my productivity. Infact, I am going through the worst era of my productive life. I read less, concentrate less, sleep less, relax less, work less,… and stress more, anger more, anxious more, depress more…

I started making excuses to myself, I deluded myself that I am doing the best I can. All this time I was surrounded by clouds of nothingness, my mind has become a black hole.

Good thing is I have found the cause of this issue. Some choices I made past year, which felt like the best thing to do at that time, now seems like the worst mistake of my life. But now that I know it, I am taking that cancer and removing it from myself physically and morally, for once and for all. It hurts a lot to do so, but I am doing it anyway.

However, the stress has risen to a whole next level, putting me through not only mental, but physical pain, which now seems like not so easy to cope with alone. So, I am looking for some medical help with a psychiatrist.

I know I will get over this problem too, just like always, I just hope to get rid of this fast, just like always .

Lucky are the people who are fools. For they have little mind to understand how things work, and have made themselves understand that nothing is under their control. They learn to be happy with what they have.

Lucky are the people who are irresponsible. Since it is easier to be consistently irresponsible than it is to be responsible. Its not them who suffer, the people who suffer because of them are often the people who care about them.

Lucky are the people who are selfish. For they have more than one person in the world who thinks only about them.

Everyone else is unlucky.

My high school had really weird timings. Infact I guess most schools in India have got weird timings, or maybe all schools start pretty early, and if it is so, I guess they should all change it. Anyways, my school starting pretty early at 7 am in morning meant that most of the children won’t be able to wake up early enough to have breakfast on dining table. They would either munch on the way to school or some other way. Near my school was this little shop. It was the only shop opened so early in the morning. It sold burgers, sandwiches and other fast snacks. I never liked those guys, cause the quality of their food was below average and the cost they used to sell it for was way more than the usual, and lastly, they didn’t even treat us well. But we had no other choice, as it was the only shop opened so early and we were hungry.

Eventually, one day we saw another shop, just as small and standing right opposite to this one. The vendor was smiling and the shop also looked pretty neat and nice, obviously it was new. I couldn’t resist visiting it. Luckily, the food quality was just as good as average. I mean, even though it was average, it felt good, also the price were usual. So this shop was cheaper yet better qualitatively as compared to the old shop. It didn’t take two days for the new shop to steal all the crowd from the old one. Well, the old shop vendors did decrease the price but it didn’t help them much, cause children didn’t forget the ill-mannered staff. I don’t know if they improved quality as I never tried them again.

Account 2

Recently my Omnia was giving me a lot of troubles, so I had to send it to Samsung Service Center. They told me it will take around 15 days to get fixed as they need to replace the touch panel. I couldn’t afford to lose the calls I would get during this time, so I decided to buy a temporary cell phone for these days. Of coarse, I was looking for a pretty cheap phone for only 15 days. During my lunch hour, I saw a big Vodafone board, visited that shop, asked them for the specific Vodafone model I was looking for. He said that he is not an official Vodafone retailer and the board is only there for promotional purposes. So he didn’t have the model I was looking for, but  he offered me to check out some other models. I thanked him for offering and asked him if he can guide me to the nearest Vodafone store. He bluntly said he don’t know. I didn’t like that. Anyways, I came out, I asked another shopkeeper about Vodafone store, and he told me that it was just four shops away. Now, there is no way that the previous shop keeper didn’t know where the Vodafone store is. He just didn’t want me to go to a competitor, or worse, he was showing the frustration that I wasn’t interested in the phones he was showing to me. Anyways, I found the store and bought the phone (and eventually lost it after 15 days). Now my Omnia is back in Service Center, and this time for over 30 days. I had to buy a new phone, and I didn’t want to buy the same model from Vodafone again, but while still being random, I was careful enough not to buy from that shopkeeper who didn’t help me find Vodafone store last time. Because I don’t like him.

Account 3

I am very fond of Delhi Chaats. I am not talking about the Delhi Chaat that we get here in Mumbai. I am talking about the various chaats that we can get only in Delhi. You have to taste it to realize that something can even be so tasty. Anyways, I tried almost all shops in Mumbai looking for that taste but couldn’t find it. I found it once in some shop in Infinity Mall in Andheri and it was almost nice. Unfortunately my luck doomed and the mall caught fire one day, and was burnt badly and closed. Later when it reopened, the specific shop didn’t. I was since looking for another place to feed my appetite for Delhi Chaats. Finally I came across this shop in Inorbit Mall in Vashi, called Only Parathas, and it was my lucky day. Now I just need to show them my face and they already know my order. I must have showed this place to tens of my friends. I am sure those shopkeepers must have made some jokes about me and my fancy for Delhi Chaats.

So last week, I visited them with my brother and a friend and ordered 3 plates of Tikki Chaat and Bisleri and 3 Red Bulls. They only has 1 chilled Red Bull and the other two were just not as chilled as one would like. We told them to keep it in freezer by the time when order is ready, but the shopkeeper replied that he will rather get us chilled Red Bulls from another shop, and so he did the very next minute. Not to mention he was proudly smiling at his own customer service when he said that. Now I normally tend to hate people who are proud, but I would rather flatter someone with pride if it means a better customer service to me. I like this guy anywhichways though.

Moral

• Just because you don’t have competitors today, doesn’t mean you will never have them.
• Don’t just sell your products/service; make a relationship with your customers. It helps against competitors.
• One of the ways to make a prospect your customer without being able to sell the product is by giving remarkable customer service.
• Don’t hesitate to recommend a competitor if that is what best suits the needs of your customer. They won’t forget the source. Most people never remember the great article they read online, but always remember they found it trough Google.
• Whatever you do, good or evil, there is always a blogger somewhere writing about you .

They say his father was millionaire. Sure he does deserve it, his forefather bought that right for him. They went out of their way to deserve so much that the effect lasts till generations.

They say he had a jack, they say he got lucky, they say it was over-hyped by media. Why him? Why not you? Did he do something you didn’t.

They say it happened to him, they say the accident made him famous. It’s right, that happens sometimes, so you say the fame he got out of escaping that accident is something he doesn’t deserve. You are right. He won’t be able to live upto this fame if he don’t deserve it. It won’t land him into a great job, won’t get him any commercial ads, won’t get him hired as V.P. for Facebook. If he deserve all this, he will still have to do something relevant, if he doesn’t deserve it, his name will simply fade as soon as it came into limelight.

Things which make noise, initially catch attention, but soon get discarded; but good music is forever, although people may take sometime to appreciate it.

Some days back, I found two litter bins below my table. It gave me mixed feelings. Good feeling that I got two dedicated litter bins now and bad feeling that probably am too dirty for one bin.

Today I realized that there are four litter bins in my cabin, one at each corner and I feel trashed already. It looks a bit funny to me, but not as much that I can enjoy everyday.

Some things are best when in limits.

Old Version

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant’s a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

New Version

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant’s a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).

Opposition MP’s stage a walkout.

Left parties call for “Bharat Bandh” in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]“, with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for GrassHopper in educational  Insititutions & in Govt Services.

The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it “a triumph of justice”.
Lalu calls it ‘Socialistic Justice’.
CPM calls it the ‘revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden’
Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later…The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multibillion dollar company in silicon valley.

100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ..

As a result loosing lot of hard working ants and feeding the grasshoppers, India is still a developing country……

Messing a Startup or Starting up a Mess

You maybe spoiling what you already have

I hear this a lot: “I am going to start an IT firm”, “I have started something with my friends”, “I am setting up a backyard office” and blah blah. Out of all that I have seen, most successful of new startups are those who start maybe alone or with a bunch of like minded intelligent friends. But those who just saved some money and then hire a development company to realize their visualizations, are mostly a big fail. At times I see some sound minds, who are great at consulting opening up small service provider companies, with all good intentions; but end up with frustrated clients and spoiled reputation.

Starting up in India doesn’t mean you can afford to be cheap

In India, communication is a lacking factor and we must accept it, that we are not native English speakers. Even though there are many people who understand technology very well, communication becomes a big hurdle and they can’t be used well. Clients from all over the world keep complaining, that they have hard time communicating to their outsourced consultant in India, which only makes work hard to be done. Many a times, there are various IT companies who get to design a product or service for western countries, but due to lack of knowledge of western culture and unwillingness to research on the same, they end up making something which doesn’t really meets the clients needs, resulting in rework, extended deadlines and client’s frustration.

Many people think of starting up a company in India to be of great advantage in terms of cheap labor. Yes, that is right, but make sure that your services are reasonably priced so that you can maintain the quality. Many entrepreneurs assume, that they are pretty clever at what they do, and don’t need an equally clever staff. They think they can spoon feed every task to every employee, but my dead friend, if you think so, then I think you are not aware of height of dumbness of people out there. To run a successful company, employees need to be just as intelligent as the management. You can’t afford either of them to be dumb, not good for you, neither for your clients. Some great person said, “One great programmer is equal to hundred good programmers”.

Research before you startup, unless you are Paris Hilton

No offense with Paris Hilton, she is hot and what she sells, she don’t need to do research on that; and even if she fails, well, she will still have a lot more than what you have ever seen. But you must do research before you start a company. Research about your audience needs, find your competitors, analyze their market shares, set up some goals, mark some deadlines, structure a budget, know what kind of employees you need, where can you find them. Do you need big investment, or you can work with your partners and experiment your ideas first. What is the least that it takes to do your best? You are spending money, spend it wise.

You are starting your business, but creating jobs for others; Make it stable

Its great that you have left your job now and are planning to start your own business. Now you can probably work according to your own timings and don’t have to be answerable to anyone. But did you realize you are creating jobs for some people who will work with you. Do you think that the kind of people you want to work with, will also like to work for your small startup company in their right minds? Does your product have enough potential which they will also be able to see for a promising future and long term career commitment? Are you sure that you will not run down your company and have enough backups to secure the jobs of your employees? Failure is not the end, but people don’t forget.

I didn’t mean to discourage ambitious people with this post, just wanted to discourage ambitious people with crappy ideas. Believe me, even I have got many crappy ideas in my mind, but lets accept it and don’t make a fool out of us and waste everybody’s time and money, and probably save it until we are hit with some really bright idea?

Goal Keeper's Dilemma

Similar is the case with Mumbai Police. Their achievements and hardwork is merely appreciated acknowledged by public, but their mistakes are highlighted in bold letters by media all over. Every aspect of society has it’s own flavor of corruption meld into it, it doesn’t mean that you call the whole sect to be corrupt. Mumbai Police suffers from this common mindset of public more than any other organization. As many people we find to be corrupt in Police, we must understand that number of honest officers is always much more than those of corrupted officers, which is why we can roam fearlessly in streets and can have sound sleep in nights. Not acknowledging their honesty, hardwork and loyalty will only discourage their commitment to their duty, which is not in favor of anyone.

There are so many times when I have been helped by Police, without even asking for it. Long back when I was in school and lost my way, I approached a police officer and told him I am lost and don’t have enough money to hire a cab either. He managed a bike and dropped me at my doorstep and left.
At other instance, I lost my two months old Omnia last January (it costed around 35k back then). I made a complaint to the railway Police and they found my phone in four months. All I had given them was my IMEI number. I feel pretty strange because every time I tell someone that Police helped me find my phone, I get weird reactions like “did you have to pay them for that?”, “wow, they really did that; you are lucky!!”.
Most recently, I was getting late to my office, and approached a cab, and the driver totally neglected me to take me to the destination. The moment I turned around, I saw a traffic Police man behind me. He asked me if the cab driver declined to take me where I wanted to go, I confirmed positively. He quickly stopped another cab and asked him to take me where I wanted to go. Meanwhile, he prepared a complaint slip against the cab driver and fined him. For a moment, I felt that I shouldn’t say that the cab driver declined and should prevent him from getting fined, but then I thought that it will be so discouraging for the officer who was honestly being helpful, following his duties. I reached my office on time.. thanks to the officer.

Now I completely understand that I need not be so thankful for such act by them, as its just part of their duties. But we are raised in such a way, surround by all the bad talking about Police in media, T.V. and people around us, that I can’t stop myself from being amazed by how helpful they can be. I guess this is about time that we should change our mindset and start respecting them, for their choice of profession and the everyday challenges they undertake to make our life easy.

Bloggers don’t have impact because they have a lot of readers, they have a lot of impact because of who their readers are (my readers, of course, are the most sophisticated and cloutful on the entire web).

I normally reciprocate self braggers, but this quote was too clever for anyone to feel that way. It kind of sounds as if he is praising himself, but on the back of the head, it directly strikes you that he is calling you most sophisticated and cloutful at the same time; and then you instantly feel (and want to feel) that he is right. It reminds me of another incident when I used to convince my friends to do stuff or make them agree with me on a statement that I wanted to do or say, by using “we” and “us” instead of “I” and “me”.

People are more concerned about how their life is affected by whatever happens, whoever does it. Everyone loves to talk about themselves, but unless you are Priyanka Chopra, you must talk about your customers if you want them to hear listen to you.