When TATA said TA - TA

I was one of the person who eagerly followed the proceedings of TATA's small car wonder(NANO) right from the start. I was totally left speechless when Ratan Tata, unveiled the car at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India and announced to the world that India is on the door steps of becoming the super power. Specifically, i liked the way Ratan Tata gave the press conference "A PROMISE IS A PROMISE" - regarding the sale price of NANO. These wordings reached the masses and showed that he is the man of Integrity and honesty.

Then, the land scouting job begun and TATA zeroed in on Singur to put up their Mother Plant. There was lots of noises and government of west bengal jumped in joy. However, right from the start the problem brewing. Mamatadi was looking for some political mileage. She tried vigourously for the last few elections to topple CPI(M) government. But, every time she failed. Ironically, she got this Singur Issue to push her political leverage and to certain extent she attained that by winning all Singur local body election. I personally feel, she got carried away by this and started pushing for the cause of farmers, without knowing or trying to understand what farmers really want.

TATA's responded in a typical business way that "Time is Money" - she failed to understand and carried on with her Singur protest. She was adamant on 300 acres of land and failed to understand or realize that what will happen to the other farmers who willingly handed over the 697 acres of land. She failed to understand that, even if WB Government returned the farm land is it really possible to do the cultivation in the same land? The answer is big NO as most of the land is already dug up for construction purpose.

TATA waited and announced that the are withdrawing from WB, where other states like Uttrakhand, AP, karnataka and Gujarat are eagerly waiting to give them Red carpet reception. This Singur impasse should be a lesson to all governments across India before taking any steps in announcing big projects in their state whether its project or SEZ. They should take farmers opinion and proceed towards a smooth transition of land transfer. The should include those farmers as a shareholders in the project and make them also responsible. This will make things smoother and India can look for bright 21st Century.

The result of NANO pullover is nothing but a ego tussle between Buddha Babu and Mamta Didi. Nothing else. Both of them failed to understand the common farmers of Singur, who were puppets in the hands of politician.

While writing this, still waiting where the next NANO mother plant would be.

ROCK ON....ROCKS

yeh zindagi..........

i watched the movie ROCKON atleast 3 times in the last 1 week and specifically the last 15 mins, is the most absorbing moment of the whole movie. It captures the complete life cycle of the rock band who disintegrates due to ego, screen space and recognition. They came back again after a decade under the Same Band Name "MAGIK" - and provides enchating last 15 mins concert. Exhilarating! Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy - gave the lifeline to the picture. Unusual voice selection, complete different star cast. Trust me this is the 3rd movie after chhotisibaat, Roja where I enjoyed the movie and i might watch this movie any number of times.

I never thought Farhan Akhtar can give such a impact with his complete contrast role. Arjun Rampal - yes he can act too. Purab as usual he carried his witty style from his VJs time. Luke Kenny - i won't accept his performance his Luke. His couple of scenes in the final concert, where you can see him enjoying playing the key board is excellent. Prachi Desai, don't know exactly what her role his, just couple of scenes, which can be done only with the audio background. Koel puri..not a glamour quotient either.

Overall, Abhishek Kapoor gave us an excellent product to cheer about. For me, i watch that last 15 mins to cheer me up. Foot tapping music, excellet cinematography. The movie moved me to start my guitar days again. Wait for my performance one year from now !!!

......yehi hai zindagi

i'm still alive

Just to inform all of you that i'm still alive and will be mostly updating my blog this weekend.
Having an hectic, erratic schedule.
Wait till then

PARLIAMENT - 2008 -- Best Movie of the Year

Casting:
ManMohan Singh - Hero
Sonia Gandhi - Heroine.

Cameo Role:
Amar Singh

Supporting Cast:
Advani
Shibu Soren

Villians
Prakash Karat
Mayawati

Extras:
Ajit Singh
Chandrababu Naidu

Comedian
Lalu Prasad Yadav
&
Rajdeep Sardesai.

One of the best movie ever witnessed. All sort of actions, drama, anti climax everything involved in this movie. Movie is pretty long ran for almost 10 hrs. But thanks to the MPs we got good breaks inbetween (real meaning adjournment). Somnath Chatterji(ji) was like a bar girl where he pleaded, shouted and tried his best to get attention. The result, he was strewn with money (ofcourse the money which was given to the MPs has bribe).

But the movie ended in the expected manner, NDA never tried to overturn the table.

Any how i rate Parliament - 2008 as one of the best movie ever.

Rating 5/5.

I'm SECULAR..But i'm Hindu Fanatic ... If i follow Congress way

The following illustration shows the apathy of the current congress government and i'm not biased or against any religion.

Lessons from The Marathon Monks - How to Achieve the Impossible

Hi all,

Another article which conquered my mind is the Marathon Monks article from financial hack.

Will be adding my comments in coming weeks. But worth going through.

Genshin Fujinami

I’m big on goal setting. While I don’t always reach my goal, I know that I get a lot further toward it than I ever would had I never set the goal in the first place. Some of the goals I set are quite difficult and there are definitely times that I want to give up on them, but more times than not, I reach down inside and keep moving toward the goal. Whenever I want to give up, I think about the Marathon Monks.

The Marathon Monks are a group of Japanese Buddhist monks that are part of the Tendai sect located in the mountains looking over the ancient capital of Kyoto and have a quest called Hieizan Sennichi Kaihogyo (Mt. Hiei 1000 Day Journey) that would seem impossible. Yet over 45 have completed it, the last being Genshin Fujinami in late 2003. The goal is to run the equivalent of the entire equator - or once around the world over an 8 year period. Here are the details of the journey for those that try:

The first three years the monk will run approximately 18 miles a day along narrow paths in the mountains in nothing more than a pair if straw sandals and a robe (sorry, no state of the art running shoes or other gear). He must do this up and down trek along the mountains paths for 100 straight days during each of the three years. He starts at 1:30 in the morning each day and he needs to return by 9:00 AM because he is not excused from his regular daily chores which he also must complete each day.

In years four and five, the monk will travel the same narrow mountain path in the early morning hours, but increase the time to 200 straight days no matter what the weather - come rain, come snow, even come hurricanes.

In year six, he will increase the distance to 37 miles a day, or more than a full marathon each and every day for 100 consecutive days. He must return each day to do his normal, everyday chores just as all the other monks are required to do.

When he has completed the sixth year, he will endure the doiri: seven days and nights - 168 straight hours - (this is actually a recent relaxation of the rule because too many monks were dying when the doiri used to be 9 days and nights) sitting in a proper prayer position without any food, water or sleep. There will be two monks watching over him at all times to make sure he doesn’t sleep and he keeps the proper prayer position.

In year seven, the monk will increase the 100 consecutive day run to 52 miles a day, or the equivalent of 2 full marathons. While the daily chores he is required to do will be reduced during this time, they will not be eliminated.

The final year he will go back to where he began and run the original 18 mile course for 100 straight days.

Oh, and lest the monk decides somewhere along this stretch of eight years that it’s too difficult and he wants to give up, each and every day that he runs, he carries a rope and a knife with him. If he should fail to complete the course, the monk is ready to use one of these to either hang or disembowel himself.

Whenever I think about this story, the obstacles that I am facing with my goals seem pretty minor in comparison and the story gives me the motivation to keep going after my own goals. Here are some of the lessons that I come away with from this story:

Consistency pays off: While I wouldn’t exactly call starting off by running 18 miles a day for 100 straight days as taking baby steps, it does show that getting into a routine and consistently moving toward your goal on a daily basis will eventually get you to your goal no matter how impossible it may seem. As I have mentioned previously, 90% of game is not quitting. There will be times that you want to, but if you can come up with ways to motivate yourself to keep going during these times, you will eventually reach your goals.

Make the consequences of failing worse than to keep going: Being expected to kill yourself if you decide to quit is a pretty good motivating factor to keep going even at the lowest points. While I would never suggest that you make quite this drastic a consequence if you should give up on your goal, I know that putting in place consequences that make it more difficult to give up is important when I set up my goals. If I keep my goal to myself, then it is much easier for me to quit because nobody but me knows that I didn’t accomplish it. This is not the case if I tell everyone I know about the goal since I know many of them will hold me to it. Be willing to make consequences for not reaching goals and you will work much harder at achieving them.

Continue to do your regular daily stuff even when pursuing your goals: There are a lot of people that believe that they should give up everything else to concentrate entirely on one specific goal. While this may be appropriate in certain circumstances, I think it is a bad idea most of the time. Even during this impossible journey, the marathon monk is required to do the same daily chores as the rest of the monks.

When I started the sites and blogs, it was in my free time. While I did work a lot of hours each week on them, it was after finishing up my regular job. Had I quit my job and tried to build the income from day one, I would have failed. The income that I was earning at the time allowed me to live while putting in all my extra time into the sites and blogs. That’s not to say that you don’t have to make major decisions on time allocation, but in most cases you can reach your goals while still maintaining the daily necessities. Disregarding your daily tasks will often lead to failure.

Plough through obstacles: There are going to be a lot of obstacles no matter what your goals are and you are going to have to fight through them. Just as the Marathon Monk has to run no matter what the weather conditions, you are going to have to face the obstacles that are put in front of you and plough through them. While it would certainly be easier to wake up in the morning, look at the crappy weather and say that you were not going to work toward the goal that day, being able to get yourself out of bed and face the obstacle will get you closer to your goal.

The impossible is possible when you set your mind to it: Take a minute and reread what the Marathons Monks do over an eight year period. If you asked anyone if they thought it is possible, I would guess that most people would simply laugh in your face. Having run a marathon and being able to barely walk the next three days after finishing (this despite training extensively for it), it boggles my mind that 1 person has completed it, let alone more than 45. It goes to show that when you set your mind to reach a goal and if you are determined to reach it, the impossible often becomes possible.

Lessons of the Square Watermelon

Recently, i came across this article and found it interesting enough to post on this blog.

Hope you all enjoy and get inspired from this article.

Japanese grocery stores had a problem. They are much smaller than their US counterparts and therefore don’t have room to waste. Watermelons, big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the grocery stores that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it. That is how I would assume the vast majority of people would respond. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach. If the supermarkets wanted a square watermelon, they asked themselves, “How can we provide one?” It wasn’t long before they invented the square watermelon.

The solution to the problem of round watermelons wasn’t nearly as difficult to solve for those who didn’t assume the problem was impossible to begin with and simply asked how it could be done. It turns out that all you need to do is place them into a square box when they are growing and the watermelon will take on the shape of the box.


This made the grocery stores happy and had the added benefit that it was much easier and cost effective to ship the watermelons. Consumers also loved them because they took less space in their refrigerators which are much smaller than those in the US meaning that the growers could charge a premium price for them.


What does this have do with anything besides square watermelons? There are a few lessons that can you can take away from this story which help you in all parts of your life. Here are a few of them:

Don’t Assume: The major problem was that most people had always seen round watermelons so they automatically assumed that square watermelons were impossible before even thinking about the question. Things that you have been doing a certain way your entire life have taken on the aura of the round watermelon and you likely don’t even take the time to consider if there is another way to do it. Breaking yourself from assuming this way can greatly improve your overall life as you are constantly looking for new and better ways to do things. This was one of the most difficult things for me to do because most of the assumptions I make, I don’t even realize that I’m making them. They seem perfectly logical on the surface, so I have to constantly make an effort to question them.

Question habits: The best way to tackle these assumptions is to question your habits. If you can make an effort to question the way you do things on a consistent basis, you will find that you can continually improve the way that you live your life. Forming habits when they have been well thought out is usually a positive thing, but most of us have adopted our habits from various people and places without even thinking about them. I have changed a large number of habits that I have had after taking the time to question them and continue to do so. Some of them I have know idea where they came from while others I can trace to certain people or instances in my life. It’s a never ending process, but by doing this, you can consistently strive toward making all aspects of your life more enjoyable instead of defaulting to what you have now.

Be creative: When faced with a problem, be creative in looking for a solution. This often requires thinking outside the box. Most people who viewed this question likely thought they were being asked how they could genetically alter water melons to grow square which would be a much more difficult process to accomplish. By looking at the question from an alternative perspective, however, the solution was quite simple. Being creative and looking at things in different ways in all portions of your live will help you find solutions to many problems where others can’t see them. I am not a creative person, but I’ve found that the more that you look at things from different perspectives, the more creative I have become. It’s a learned art and builds upon itself.

Look for a better way: The square watermelon question was simply seeking a better and more convenient way to do something. The stores had flagged a problem they were having and asked if a solution was possible. It’s impossible to find a better way if you are never asking the question in the first place. I try to ask if there is a better way of doing the things that I do and I constantly write down the things I wish I could do (but currently can’t) since these are usually hints about steps I need to change. Get into the habit of asking yourself, “Is there a better way I could be doing this?” and you will find there often is.

Impossibilities often aren’t: If you begin with the notion that something is impossible, then it obviously will be for you. If, on the other hand, you decide to see if something is possible or not, you will find out through trial and error. Many of the lessons above are what I used to create my online income. As I’ve said many times, it’s not easy, but it’s certainly not impossible. Even for those of us that are not A-List Bloggers, creating a full time online income is quite possible as I have shown.

Take away the lessons from the square watermelons and apply them to all areas in your life (work, finances, relationships, etc) and you will find that by consistently applying them, you will constantly be improving all aspects of your life.

Source: www.financialhack.com