Keep the spark!! :: Chetan Bhagat’s speech

It has been a long time that I copy-pasted some stuff directly to my blog. (except for my own TM projects) I normally don’t like the idea unless you’re regularly posting your own writings too. But I just got a mail with Chetan Bhagat’s speech to the incoming class of Symbiosis, Pune and thought of sharing it.  Now I’m not a big fan of Mr Bhagat’s books, but I really liked the speech.. It’s quite long, but some points are really terrific.. Do read it in full if possible and if you’re too busy, then may be you’ve all the more a reason to read this..
BTW, before I draw some flak for coming back to my blog after a long time and then too with a copy-pasted  stuff, I’d like to mention that I’ll be back with a post max by tomorrow morning. In any case, I need to keep the spark of my blog..

Inaugural Speech by Chetan Bhagat for the new batch at the Symbiosis BBA program 2008

Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.

Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party several months in advance just for the day they will cut their own birthday cake.

I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So how to save the spark?

Imagine the spark to be a lamp’s flame. The first aspect is nurturing – to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms.

To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn’t any external measure - a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house.

Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement.

But it isn’t the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won’t be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday? They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important.

Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature’s design. Are you? Goals will help you do that.

I must add, don’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school. Where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One last thing about nurturing the spark - don’t take life seriously. One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said - don’t be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It’s ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.

I’ve told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness and loneliness of purpose.

Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If things don’t go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you.

But it’s life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember - if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that’s where you want to be.

Disappointment’s cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don’t know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release.

Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result at least I was learning how to write scripts, having a side plan I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life - friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.

Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you.

In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty darn lucky by Indian standards. Let’s be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don’t. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don’t get literary praise. It’s ok. I don’t look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who  think I am more beautiful than her. It’s ok. Don’t let unfairness kill your spark.

Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.

There you go. I’ve told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.

I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, you eyes will shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something cool about saying – I come from the land of a billion sparks.

IPL Day: A drama beyond imagination!!

We had booked tickets for IPL match between Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI to be held on Saturday, May 17. (Yeah, I’m late again in posting it here.) Going by the quality of the matches played so far and the fact that this was a very crucial match for both the teams for qualifying for the semis, this surely promised to be a high-voltage drama. I was very excited as this was the first cricket match that I was about to see in person. But even my wildest imaginations could not have prepared me for the day that was in store for all of us,

So we left for the venue a good 3.5 hours before the scheduled time. There were five of us: Aman, Anuranjan, Gauri, Neha and me. Some more were to meet us at the venue itself. After having a quick bite at Wengers’ in CP, we proceeded to Kotla. After going through numerous security checks, finally we were there climbing the stairs to third-tier. The excitement was building up and every roar of the crowd made those 2 minutes on the way to the top all the more unbearable. And finally we were there on the top: the view of the flood-lit ground was mesmerizing to say the least. Though from the distance, it was not easy to identify everybody , but some like Mcgrath, Srisanth were most quite easily recognizable… Aman, the most experienced of us all, guided us to the best seats that he could locate. And I was still savoring the moment and relishing every bit of it. Bulb too had joined us there, other members of the group were lost elsewhere and after some phone calls, we decided it’d be impossible to locate each other.

Now the drama started unfolding.. Even before the first ball was bowled, the sky started turning overcast.. And perhaps even before we could start praying, the rain started coming down heavily and that too with a heavy thunderstorm.. And with in minutes, the covers were on the field and we were completely drenched in rain.. But yup, it was a lovely sight to see the rain coming down in the flood-lights…

Meanwhile, our prayers got answered and finally the rains subsided. After some time, the covers were taken off with some wild cheers from all of us. Finally the game started and we were treated to some phenomenal cricket by Veeru and Gambhir. Such was the pace of the game that when Bulb and I took a 5 minute break to get some soft drinks for the group, it had already costed us 4 sixes and dismissal of Gambhir. By the time, rain stopped game again, Sehwag had already raced to 48 off some 17-18 balls and Daredevils were blazing away at a rate of more than 10 per over..

But rain was to play spoilsport again.. And when it stopped after some 30-40 minutes, it was followed by a very strong dust-storm. Bulb, who was standing on his chair now, passed the oft-repeated remark “Bhatti ko pakad lo, ud naa jaaye”. And just as he finished, he almost lost his balance thanks to strong gush of wind. :-)  And if it were not enough, 2 minutes later, his specs were “gone with the wind” Hold on!! Not off his eyes, but from his pockets.. We had a tough time locating those, asking others and explaining to them that he wasn’t actually wearing the specs when they flew.

After some time, when rain stopped, we were able to locate the rest of the party, thanks to now almost half-empty stands as many had already left. With Dahuja supporting his hometown team (Kings XI,Mohali), cheering for Delhi got a whole new meaning. J Thankfully the players agreed to play, even when conditions were totally unplayable. Things like chips-packets and plastic bags were flowing all around (including the field) and at times, the batsmen had to ward those off with their bats. The match was already curtailed to 11 overs a side game and the Daredevils could not cash much on the blazing start that they had.

Second innings started without much ado, though the dark clouds were still looming around. And we were turning mad as the Daredevils produced one marvelous catch after another. All my eyes craved for at that moment was a replay of those three spectacular catches, but yes, there was this sense of excitement at being live witness to such quality stuff. And just when we thought the Daredevils were cruising to victory, Sehwag took the ball in his hands and that one over turned the direction of the match. It was already raining lightly and perhaps Sehwag wanted to finish off the mandatory 6 overs quickly. I too thought it to be wise move, but after that over, Kings XI never looked back. Finally when they were just ahead of the at-par score (with a six!!), they decided to walk off. The end was a bit anti-climatic as we in the stands never knew who actually was ahead. After 15-20 minutes, there was an announcement, which wasn’t clear at all in the noise, but the janta started leaving and then, (from someone who got a call after seeing it on TV) we got to know what we were already speculating: Kings XI had won on D/L method. People all around were dejected, though some like Dahuja were jubilant. As for me, I’d have preferred Delhi, but didn’t really mind the triumph of Yuvi’s boys.

Finally at about 12:30 in the night, a day full of drama had ended. Or so we thought. There was some more drama to come. The cab that we had booked was on its way from Noida. We instructed the driver to meet us at Raj-Ghat gate and decided to walk to the point. But none of us knew that Raj-ghat has multiple gates. The confused driver reached some other gate. Meanwhile we decided to relax outside the Gandhi-Darshan Bhawan in front of Rajghat. That as it later turned out was a very wrong decision. The place was mostly isolated and except for an occasional vehicle or two that passed by, there was almost nowhere there. And as soon as Gauri brought this subject, (“Yeh Dilli hai, Yahan kuch bhi ho sakta hai” ), a rogue man walked out of nowhere and started asking the way to Old Delhi. Perhaps he was testing whether we’re conversant with the place and I idiotically blurted out that we don’t belong to this place. Anu asked him to ask the guard of “Gandhi Darshan”. He then questioned that where has he come from. (“Tu Kahan se hai”) We decided to completely ignore him; and he started repeating this question to each of us, his voice growing sterner every time. Then he took out his cell-phone from his pocket( I was glad that it was just a cell-phone when it came out; In that one second, I had imagined more dangerous things.) Then he called up someone and started speaking: “Yahan 2-3 ladke hain, saath mein ek ladki bhi hai… Maine poochha to kuch bata nahin rahe hain.. Haan.. Yeh Raj Ghaat ke saamne hi hai” Obviously, he was purposefully being loud enough to make us listen to whatever he was saying. He walked away while he was still on phone leaving us quite tense and I must admit, a bit scared too. We checked out the number of each passing cab, hoping that it were ours. Finally in 2-3 minutes, the cab arrived and we breathed a sigh of relief. We located the man at the next crossing and he was still on phone. Not sure whether he was just a drunkard or had some more dangerous plans, but he surely succeeded in making us uneasy for a few minutes.

At the end of the match, one of us had rightly commented: The day was like an Ekta Kapoor serial full of every masala that one could think of: tension, excitement,drama etc. Perhaps, the fear factor was missing.. And the day-end made sure that we didn’t lose out on that front too..

Break the chain-II

Well, this is in continuity of my post “Break the chain”, a post directed against useless chain mails. I very strongly believe that all of us should behave like educated, responsible netizens and must cross-verify the contents of any mail before forwarding it. I admit that at times I too have fallen prey to these and have sent such mails, but still I won’t ever mind sending a damage-control mail before anybody tries to use the “information” contained in the original mail.

But often I feel that not all people feel this way. At times, I’ve got chain mails of “Forward this mail else…” from total strangers and by the time, I type down a stern reply to that guy, my inbox already shows 2-3 more mails (the same mail forwarded as a “reply-all”) from people, who felt scared enough of the mentioned consequences, but didn’t wish to bother their friends.

Though I agree that the most irritating types of forwards are the ones mentioned above (forward else..), still I feel that the most dangerous type of chain-mails are the ones which seek to (mis)inform. This is because many users take the contents too seriously and may actually try to implement those suggestions. In case the information is misleading or grossly wrong (as is often the case), this can prove harmful.

So about a month back, I got a forward from Mr. AA, the moderator of the yahoo group for our society. The forward provided some deep knowledge about things that a number of things about “Mobile phone emergency usage”. The mail claimed to tell us a number of things we never knew about our mobile phones. The content of the mail can be located at this link. The best part was that Mr. AA had specifically added in the end: “This is the kind of information people don’t mind receiving.”

I dutifully replied on the group citing the above link and mentioning that anybody would actually mind receiving a mail with any misleading info. (i.e. if he gets to know that the mail is misleading). I also pointed him to the link to my original blog-post on chain-mails and requested him to cross-verify things before forwarding.

From my past experience with such mail-forwarders, I was almost sure that the Mr AA (being the mod) would exercise his discretion in filtering out my mail and it won’t actually reach the intended audience. Not many people can afford to lose their face publicly after dispensing immense gyan on a subject. ( I don’t feel that correcting oneself is loss of face, but unfortunately most people do.)

So as my blog statistics show, Mr. AA did see my mail and visited my blog as well. But as expected my mail never appeared on the group. But surprise, surprise!! There was something unexpected in store for me. As it suddenly struck me a couple of days back, I’m not receiving any mails from the group. I got curious and checked that I’ve got no mails from the group from the time I sent that erring mail. I visited the group homepage to confirm what was quite obvious to me now: I was no longer the part of the group!!! I was thrown out for correcting wrong information!!

Thinking of it, I’d surely like to know the reasons why Mr. Mod decided to throw me out. Is it because of fear of “loss of face”? But think of it: Would people have minded if he had approved my mail to be sent to the group? I don’t think so.. But even if one person tries to apply any of the mentioned tricks and fails to get the results (Or may be get inverse results), that would be real loss of face.. What say, Mr AA??

I’m not terribly interested in being the part of the mentioned group. “The group is not for discussing society grievances”: Mr AA had once clarified when I had sent some issues with the working of the society. So I had assumed that the group was primarily for forwarded messages and thus, my interest in continuing with the group had dropped. But yup, there were some real good messages like the ones from a very experienced professor in our society. Would have liked to see some stuff like that. But this is not what concerns me.Primarily what hurts me is to see how man behaves even when he gets least of the powers. Rightly said: “Power corrupts, Absolute power corrupts absolutely”

To Sir, With Love

” hello chacha……..a bad news…….PRASAD SIR PASSED AWAY YESTERDAY AT 10P.M”

Got this scrap from my niece yesterday… I won’t say that I was shocked or devastated at this. In any case, I knew that he was terminally ill for some months now.. But still there was this feeling of something missing.. CM Prasad: One of the best teachers to have taught us in the school days is no more..

I still remember that when I got admitted to Class XI in Asha Modern School, I was in a dilemma over choosing my 5th subject.. Physics, Chemistry was fixed for science students, English for every student. Between Biology and Mathematics, my love for the latter made sure that it was my 4th subject. Of the limited choices for 5th subject, for sure,I wasn’t going to pick Biology (PCMB is considered a deadly combo). Heard that Computer Science staff and facilities were not that good. Finally, it was a choice between two last options: low-scoring Hindi and boring economics. My father voted for the latter thinking that this may prove useful in Civil Sevices examination that I was planning to appear for some years later. I found that reasoning good and went ahead with picking economics as my 5^th subject.

But did I say “boring economics” ?? It surely used to be boring when I studied it in Class IX and X ( for a paltry sum total of 30 marks for two years) Under the guidance of Prasad Sir, Economics was no longer boring. It was surely not about cramming bulky texts as I had thought. It was more about deeper understanding of human behavior when faced with limited resources (as the definition of economics says) It was quite interesting to study things like how psychology of a single customer affects that of a market as a whole.

Best thing about Mr. Prasad’s teaching was: instead of telling things straight forward, he made us reach the answer. He made us think by asking questions and leading us to the answers. Further he had such a well-disciplined approach of taking regular tests after each chapter.. These styles not only made us ace the exams, but also help us develop deep, deep understanding of the concepts. Even years after taking his classes, I still remembered all the fundas when we had elementary economics as a part of my engineering third year curriculum.

His sense of humor was good too. Nobody, who has studies once in his class, can forget his inimitable style of saying “On the chair!!” ( This was the only punishment that he used for any act of indiscipline: You were asked to stand on chair for 5-6 minutes. ) But something was there in this that even the guys, who didn’t fear getting caned or thrown out of the class, strove hard not to face this..

I really miss the chance of meeting him even once after I left AMS. Somehow i felt guilty of betraying his trust in me.. He had expected me to get 97.. (For a professional teacher like him, it was too big a thing to have said this personally to a student. ) Blame it on my hand-writing, bad evaluation or bad luck, but I could manage only 71 even after performing to the max.

But no matter what marks I got in my boards, nobody can take away the knowledge that he imparted and the indelible impression that he has made on me in the two years that I took his classes.
May his soul rest in peace and may we get thousands of teachers like him..

Toastmasters project#5: Are you concentrating too much on the road?

And Here’s my Project #5

Project#5 is titled:: Your body speaks” As is quite clear from the title, it expects you to use body-language effectively to reinforce your content. This includes (but is not limited to) gestures, posture and stage-coverage. You need to choose a topic that allows you to achieve these objectives successfully.
So here is my project #4 speech (Comments invited )

Are you concentrating too much on the road?

One of my old friends recently appeared for a driving test in San Jose. After he cleared the test, the officer on duty congratulated him and remarked that he was known for disqualifying Indians in the test.My friend was bewildered and wanted to know the reasons for the same. The officer assured him that he finds most of the Indians concentrating too much on the road. At times, they’re not exactly aware of the fact they can look at places beyond the straight line of traffic. He often finds them not enjoying the journey, but rather going along the traffic.
Let us ignore whether it has anything to do with clearing the test; I’d just like to ask you people how many of you feel that he was correct? Are not most of us just keeping flowing along the traffic? Well, not sure what you think, but I personally feel that he was right, at least to some extent.

We keep flowing along the traffic, barely realizing where we need to go. I’d go further to say: at times, we’re not even willing to stop for refueling, even when we’re running out of fuel. We fail to realize that our car is not exactly in the best shape and perhaps it seriously requires servicing to cope up with the demands of traffic. Of course, we’d love if the fuel tanker is full and the car is in best shape possible, but we just don’t have time for all this. Right??

Now you may think that I am exaggerating a bit, but actually I’m not.

Friends, it’s the journey of life I’m talking about. Life’s a journey, the mundane tasks that we keep on doing daily are the road, you’re the car and you’re the driver as well. . What I personally feel is that we’re concentrating so much on the road that we’ve forgotten to enjoy the journey or even to try to know where the road is taking us.

Now think of it again:
Are we not just going along the traffic? Most of us picked science, because this is what the toppers opt for. Then picked engineering because this is what Science students go for. Then, opted for Software jobs because this is where the money is. And yeah, many, many of us wrote CAT because this is what the best of the engineering students. Just go back and think, at which point you chose your lane yourself? Oh right, some of us actually did, but most of us, just chose to follow them, flowing along the traffic has become a second nature to us.

Okay, now you followed the herd and are in a lane, which you try to call as your own. Not a problem, as long as you know how to enjoy the journey. Frankly speaking, I don’t, but I’m trying hard for it. But even for those who do feel that they’re enjoying the life to the max, I sometimes feel that the enjoyment has become too mechanical, having a drink or two with people, having a lunch at a mall, seeing a movie at a multiplex are typical ideas of enjoying life for most of us. But what we miss in this fast pace of life are the small joys of life. The small joys, when you see a smile on someone’s face and know that a little appreciation from your side is the reason for this. The small joys, which come along when you do something meaningful without expecting anything in return. And if you try for it, the opportunities are plentiful. Try doing something for your alma-mater for instance. You may not yet be in a position to sponsor a college-fest, but sometimes just calling up your juniors and saying “Good job, guys” is all you need to do. A pat on the back can do wonders to them and the joy in their voice may be the joy that you may be looking for yourself.

I’ve just started my journey and at times, I find myself running out of fuel. But it’s these small joys that provide me the fuel to keep going. Enjoying the journey can be real hard if you don’t take regular time off to refuel yourself.
And well, even if you choose the right lane and get the fuel regularly, our cars do wear out with time. May be you’re no longer happy about the way the car’s doing. It may be time that it needs some servicing or may be a complete overhauling. And what do I mean by that in real life? Simply that, may be your current skills or life-style are not sufficient for you to move forward or to keep you happy. Try to keep learning. Join a music class, start a quiz club, think of learning a foreign language, write a blog.. Keep doing something that helps you polish your mind and makes sure that you’re simply vegetating away. Well, I need not tell this to anybody here; everybody sitting here surely realizes the value of maintenance. But remember, even for the best of the cars, timely and regular service is mandatory.

So just remember, if you’re the car, you’re the driver as well. The journey can be meaningful only if it’s you who’re driving your car to the right path, get the fuel regularly and get it serviced at regular intervals. Wish you all a very Happy, successful and meaningful journey!!

Toastmasters Project #4:You’re what you eat for your breakfast

I delivered my project #4 on December 3 last year . Yup, I’m a bit late for posting this, but I wished to have at least one non-toastmasters post b4 I start copy-pasting my speeches again..

Project#4 is titled :How to say it” It expects you to eliminate jargon, use right words and sentence structure and use rhetorical devices and questions to emphasize your ideas and to communicate ideas accurately and vividly. In addition, you’re also expected to incorporate the learnings of the first three projects.
So here is my project #4 speech (Comments invited )

You’re what you eat for your breakfast

The topic may have sent some wrong signals, but I’m not here to preach about vegetarianism or to talk about carbohydrates and proteins. I’ll talk about something else. But first here’s a little incident that happened some days back.

I was coming to office with my friend Rahul. At the traffic signal before the office, Rahul pointed to a pretty girl sitting in the car next to us. She was holding a bowlful of cut fruits and enjoying it while the signal was ticking down to zero. Spontaneously I started blabbering about how fast the life has become that a person doesn’t even has time to properly relish his meal. At this my consciousness, ever so ready to catch me off-guard reminded me that just two days back, I had skipped my breakfast as I had to finish off some stuff before our weekly status meeting and this wasn’t a one-off incident; this has been happening every now and then for some time.

Suddenly, I was reminded of this quote that I read some time back “You are what u eat for your breakfast” Going by it, perhaps I, who am not having any breakfast, am nothing, Yes, at those times, I am a nobody, a person who doesn’t have any life of his own. Anyways, the fact that I had a sumptuous breakfast that day made me feel a bit better.
Coming back to the topic, I really like this quote. I find this to mean much more than a quote about your eating habits. How? Let us see.

Breakfast is the first meal of the day, something that lays foundation for the day to come. Dieticians have proved that the breakfast provides you the necessary jump-start after 6-8 hours of sleep. Those who skip breakfast often feel tired, restless or irritable in the morning. Having a healthy breakfast helps you get ready for the tensions, the physical challenges that wait for you in the next few hours.
Isn’t then this quote true for every other aspect of life as well?

A good start is an important ingredient of the success to come. Psychologists have proved that childhood experiences of a person have a bearing on his whole life. Good education, for instance, is the starting of a great career. And that’s why you find parents queuing up for the admissions of their kids in the best of the schools. Extend this example to the corporate world and you’ll find that companies, which started with a bang, continue to hold that advantage for years to come. When Srilanka won the World Cup Cricket in 1996, it was largely due to the flying start that Jayasurya provided them in the first 15 overs in most of the matches. Rightly said, the greatest buildings are the ones, which have strongest foundations.

But is a good start in itself sufficient to guarantee you success? No way!! Your breakfast, however nutritious it may be, can’t see you through the day by itself. You need to supplement that with a balanced lunch and a healthy dinner later in the day. I bet every one of us must be having stories of some schoolmates, who were quite promising in studies or some other field in those days, but managed to ruin their careers by not following up to the great start that they had. To succeed, you do need an Arvinda de-Silva in the middle order to cash on the great start that Jayasurya provides because after a great start, it’s all the more your responsibility to make sure that you live up to the opportunities that your great start has paved for you.

And what to do if you fail to get a good start. What if the situations that dictated your start were beyond your control? I remember many of my batchmates who kept ruing about their lack of schooling in English medium and they really faced a lot of problems in campus interviews. So can a bad start have an impact on your entire life? Can missing your breakfast spoil your entire day??

Yes, surely it can, but only as long as you allow it to. I talked about my batch-mates, who didn’t have English medium schooling, but still there were others, who had a similar academic background, but they worked hard over their weaknesses the next four years and they were among the first ones to get placed in the campus recruitment. On similar lines, not all of us got opportunities and environment for public speaking in our school-days, but all of us are having delicious toasts of great speeches as our breakfast right here at Toastmasters. So every time you feel that you’ve missed your breakfast, just remember the girl at the traffic signal I mentioned in the beginning. You can have your breakfast when you need it and are ready for it.

So a great start is really, really important. Whenever you can, work hard, make your plans meticulously, have the required training and education before you delve into that dream venture so that you have a great start. Follow it up with more hard work, more planning, but if you fail to get a great start, never mind; you still can be a winner if you want to. As they say, no-one can go back and make a brand new start; anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.

What’s in a (blog) name!!

The first time I thought of having my own blog, I wasn’t sure of what I’d write there, but I was very clear about the URL that I want for that.. It had to have amitbhatnagar in it.. Luckily it wasn’t taken at blogger and I got my first blog : amitbhatnagar.blogspot.com

I wasn’t very regular there, but still I was quite frustrated when Blogger managed to miss the handle for my blog while switching from old version to new version. Having a fancy blog title (Spartan’s home, Racing towards Infinity etc) is different, but as far as the URL is concerned, I wished to have a personalised URL for my blog. Anything else was almost unacceptable to me. So moving to some other blog-publishing service was the only available option and that’s how this blog came into being. I feel that the URL should be crisp and easy to remember. And this was reflected in blogs of some of friends too (sandeepchandna.blogspot.com, anunaygupta.blogspot.com)

But it appears not all people think this way. Sample this:: cornucopiaofgobbledygook.blogspot.com: blog of one of my colleagues. It took me more than a minute to figure out that it’s actually not a randomly generated string of characters!!
And if this were not enough another of my friends (Akash) actually came up with a blog name formed of randomly-generated characters!! (http://nbqpprak.blogspot.com )
He wanted to have a title that represented his confused state of mind!! confusedsoul, confused, hotchpotch all were already taken..Suddenly the CAPTCHA string (word image used for verification) on the blog-registration form caught his eye and he came up with the worst blog-name that I’ve ever seen!! But yup,that successfully portrays what he wanted to use: confusion!!

Anyways, what’s in a name!! Having a personalized blog and not writing anything for months (That’s what I’m doing ) is worse than having a bad blog name.  Welcome to the blogger community Akash.  Hope you’ll be regular on nbqpprak and keep on inspiring me to write here too..

Toastmasters Project #3: Break the chain!!

I delivered my project #3 on November 6.
The title for Project #3 is “Get to the point” The expectations from this are that the project must have a General purpose (To entertain, to inform etc) and a specific purpose (something like to inform about ill-effects of procrastination). The entire speech should gel in well to support these purposes. And of-course No notes!!

Here’s the content of my speech:

Break the Chain!!

Did you know that if you’re being forced to withdraw money from ATM at gunpoint, you can inform the police by entering your pin in reverse?
Or that Coca-cola logo is a secret message directed against a particular religion and the blasphemous message is clear if you hold the logo in front of a mirror?
And off-course, you know that Bill Gates is sharing his fortune and you can be a beneficiary if you choose to forward a certain mail?

All of these seemingly unrelated examples are: appealing, interesting and informative; But the biggest connection is: Source of all of these are chain-mails and at the same time each of them is incorrect.

Mr. Toastmaster and fellow toastmasters,
My speech today is to urge you to break-the-chain:: to stop being part of chain-mails
Well, not all chain-mails are bad. My grudge is against the mails that seek to lure or threaten the recipient into forcefully continuing the chain: the ones, which are meant to spread hatred, superstitions or misinformation or simply to continue the chain. Yes, I’ve even seen a chain saying: let’s see how far it can get; just add your name to the list and forward it to your friends. Can it get any dumber than this??

At this juncture, many of you may be feeling what harm an innocuous forwarded mail can do even if it’s factually incorrect? This is what many of my friends argue. But believe me it’s more dangerous than it looks.

To start with, it can make you look like an idiot. Sample this: I got a mail from one of my juniors asking me to forward it to 10 guys and then press F6 five times. The mail claimed that after this, the name of my Secret admirer will appear on the screen. Such garbage coming from a software engineer!! I stopped reading his mails after that.

Many of us, who normally do not forward unsolicited mails, often give in to the emotional appeals and consider our job to the society done after forwarding such mails. I believe that most of us must have at some time received a mail regarding Red-Cross donating a cent for a cancer-struck child or for some 9/11 victim. What we don’t realize is the fact that we’re in fact causing more harm to the reputation and work of such organizations by forwarding unverified information about them. And then, they need to spend hundreds of man-hours for refuting the contents of the mail.

Coming to more serious effects:
Remember: often the original context of the mail is often lost in a chain and if some legal issue crops up and the mail is traced back to you, then you can be considered the author of that mail. Are you prepared to take that risk? Let us take a fictional scenario of Mr X, working for Microsoft, India, who gets a hoax-mail regarding a new virus attacking Windows XP. Mr. X forwards it to some of his friends thinking what’s wrong with being cautious. His friends forward it claiming “This comes from one of friends, who is working for Microsoft.” It won’t take more than two-three steps of the chain for that to become “This comes from officially from Microsoft” Very soon, MS is contacted for verification and when they trace the mail to their own employee, do you think it’s going to be easy for Mr X. I’ve read about employees losing their jobs on similar grounds.
Things can get worse for people who fall for such imaginary ideas. Think what can happen if you try the ATM trick and the tech-savvy robber gets to know that you were actually trying to inform the police.

Now that I believe I’ve managed to convince you against the dangers that this menace poses, here are some ideas to counter it.
The minimum we can do is not to be the source of any such message. A 2-minute search can reveal its falsehood. There’re sites like Break-the-chain and Hoax-slayer dedicated to the cause and they’ll give you scientific reasons why the particular message is hoax. But don’t stop at just ignoring the mail. If you’re able to establish the fakeness of the mail, do attack the source. Reply to the sender, mention the links and request him to write a damage control mail to recipients of this mail as well as the person from whom he got the mail. I know this may create a kind of reverse-chain, but this surely is worth it.
Further if you really like to forward something, ask yourself if you’re ready to be identified as the original source of message. Such simple steps and you’ve done your bit against this menace.

Dear Toastmasters, the e-mail is one of the best things to have happened to mankind in the field of communication. Let’s be responsible users and not abuse this great communication tool. We just need to use some common sense and follow some simple steps to Break-the-chain every time we encounter one!!

Print Technology Group Quiz

I conducted a quiz with my colleague Prajal within the print group some time back.
There was a decent turn-out with 13 teams (of three members each) turning up for the event. Five teams moved to the Finals on the basis of a written elimination round. The finals were won comfortably by the trio of Sugato, Reena and Akhilesh. Here are the questions (and Answers) from the elimination round of the Quiz. Most of the Qs are workable if you give them a little time.
As I had commented earlier too, the level of Quizzing even among the non-regular quizzers here is really impressive.
I really enjoyed conducting this quiz. Hopefully, I’ll be be back with another Quiz very soon.

The Print Technology Group Quiz

Elimination round Questions

1. Shinshu Seiki launched an electronic printer named EP-101. Which brand gets its name from the next generation of printers termed as “Son of electronic printer”
2. How many planets are there in the Solar System?
3. (visual) His second name is Buyukkokten. His first name is something which is a rage world over. Give us his first name.
4. Whose punchline “Life is our life’s work”?
5. In 1276, a ruling was passed in England applying this term to events that occurred prior to 1189, the year in which Richard I ascended the throne. In 1832, this definition was abandoned as a legal term, but common use has prevailed. What term?
6. How do you refer to an event that has a frequency of 1.16699016 × 10^-8 Hertz?
7. Identify the logo.. (Visual)
8. Stanford University Network lends its name to something very well known in the IT world.. What’s that?
9. IBM engineer David Bradley is credited with the invention of something called as “Three Finger Salute”. What exactly is TFS?
10. In 1988, to commemorate the birth centenary of Pt Nehru, what was launched by Indian government?
11. (Visual)Connect the dots by drawing four straight, continuous lines, and never lifting the pencil from the paper. The puzzle is difficult because people tend to confine their thinking to the square area defined by the nine dots. Once you get the catch, the puzzle is easy. Which English phrase originated from the solution?
12. If Land of five waters (rivers) is Punjab, what is the term for “water of mischief”?
13. What is the name of this great work of art (Visual)
14. For what purpose is Snellen Chart used?
15. Which brand of Indian TV set takes its name from a WWII rocket launcher?
16. What does a cruciverbalist do?
17. Eunoia is a rarely used term denoting a normal mental state. Root words: Eu + nous = good thinking. What’s special about this word?
18. (visual) This is the hand of a person called Douglas Engelbart. He’s credited with invention of X and in this pic, he’s holding the first X that he created. What is X?
19. What is claim to fame of a businessman named Bernard Weber?
20. According to the Dilbert strip, this invention has freed more employees from work than any other. Prior to this, people answered the phone personally and found themselves doing more work because of it. Which invention?
21. Anyone who has shopped online using a credit-card must enter something called CVV to complete the transaction. Expand CVV.
22. (Visual) First names are Frank and Tony.Connection: Cricket.
    Give us their last names.
23. Expand ICICI.
24. Carob seeds were used as weights on precision scales because of their reputation for having a uniform weight. Which unit derives its name from these seeds?
25. (Visual) Name him.

 

 

ANSWERS

1. Epson
2. Eight (Pluto is no longer a planet!!)
3. Orkut
4. Pfizer
5. Time-immemorial
6. Once in a blue moon
7. Bank of Baroda
8. SUN Microsystems
9. Ctrl-Alt-Del
10. Shatabdi Express
11. Out-of-box Thinking
12. Sharaab
13. Vitruvian man
14. Eye-sight testing
15. Bazooka
16. Creates (or solves) crosswords.
17. Smallest word with all the five vowels
18. The first computer mouse
19. Seven New Wonders
20. Voice Mail
21. Card Validation Value
22. Duckworth Lewis
23. Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India
24. Carat
25. John Warnock

Toastmaster Project #2: What’s in a name?

I delivered my project #2 on Sept 18,2007.

Following are the expectations from a Project #2 speech:

• Select an appropriate outline which allows listeners to easily follow and understand your speech.
• Make your message clear, with supporting material directly contributing to that message.
• Use appropriate transitions when moving from one idea to another.
• Create a strong opening and conclusion.

Time-limit:: 5-7 minutes.
And here’s what I spoke::

What’s in a name?

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Fellow Toastmasters, Mr. Toastmaster and Dear Guests

This was what Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet many years back.
Is really a name that unimportant? Or does it actually matter what name do you have? Let us see both sides of the names: names of persons, names of brands and names of places: we’ll explore them all.

If the names were really unimportant, why do companies spend billions searching for that key brand name? Why would politicians create such hullabaloo about changing the names of the cities and states? Why would parents go on surfing name databases endlessly before naming their children? Come on Mr. Shakespeare, even the name Rose has got an identity of its own. And you can find many sweet girls named as Rose after the beautiful flower. Not all girls named Rose are necessarily sweet-natured, but given a choice for a blind date, you’d surely like to meet a girl named Rose as compared to someone named let us say chickenpox. I know no one names her daughter that way, but if it were not for the name, why would you make that negative impression of the sweet girl named chickenpox even before meeting her? So isn’t it the name that’s driving the entire world?

After all, your name is your face to the rest of the world, it’s your first point of contact with a stranger; it’s your identity!!!
Well, not if you’re named something like Michael in the United States or Amit in India; In that case instead of being your identity, your name can give you a severe identity crisis. Just for the benefit of those who missed my ice-breaker, I’d like to mention again that there are 29 Amits working in Adobe, out of which six are in my team alone. We often have official mail interactions, in which the Developer Amit writes to the Quality Engineer Amit and the program manager Amit is marked a copy and it sometimes is confusing to figure out which Amit’ s Action items are stated in the mail.

Anyways, coming back to the original discussion; whatever your name may be, it is in fact your prime identity. And in case of a common first name, it’s your full name or even at times nickname that’ll provide you that identity.

In the corporate world, perhaps the names have become all the more important. The choice of a good brand name is considered critical for the success of a project. There are names which are taken as ambassadors of quality and even a new product from an established brand is in high demand even before the quality of the product is known.

A new height is reached when the name starts making the transition from being a Proper noun to a verb. The speech I’m delivering right now is supported by something known as Googling. Why to go any further when we’ve an example of the same here in Adobe itself? I believe everyone must be aware of the mantra in digital photography: Click it and then “Photoshop” it. The name has become a verb here!!! And it sells!!

So does it appear that the names are in fact the only things that matter? Was Shakespeare totally off-track when he made that remark? Are names really sufficient to take you to the path of success all on their own?

This may sound crazy, but there actually are people who believe that they can change their destinies by just changing their names. Recently a major bank not really popular for its services changed its name claiming “Nothing has changed except the name” I can almost hear the customers screaming: this was the only change we could have lived without.

And if the names were really that powerful, why are almost unimaginative company names like the ones named after the founders still popular? Hewlett-Packard and Bajaj are just few of such examples. Why would the two “Ritu Aroras” as mentioned in Ritu’s speech that day have two distinct destinies? Did you know that the Google brand, which we were discussing just now, is actually the result of a misspelling of Googol, the word for 10 raised to the power of 100? So if it were not misspelled initially, we could all have been happy Googoling stuff out whenever needed.

So what does all this lead us to? I still am confused: Do names matter or not? Digging a bit deep into it, we get to know that perhaps Shakespeare was at least a bit right.

I personally feel it works both ways. First you need to do your job, make your name and then onwards your name will make you out. So let us assume Google starts something new: let us say a new web browser: Google explorer. It’ll have a definite advantage over any non-existent name in the market: even over the Googol explorer if it ever comes up.

So Mr. Shakespeare, it wouldn’t have mattered if the flower were named something else in the first place itself, but now that the Rose has marked its name by becoming a symbol of Sweetness, love and beauty, calling someone/something as Rose does carry some weight and calling a Rose by any other name simply doesn’t make any practical sense.