Bedeviled!

Sourav Ganguly, a phenomenon that happened to Indian cricket, is set to start another innings. If Sachin Tendulkar is an icon for everything nobody else is, Sourav Ganguly is the best example of a southpaw  become the poster boy of Indian cricket. I like to compare him to Rocky for a simple reason that both of them are non-conventional. People ridiculed Rocky and said he was doomed to lose, but came on top. People ridiculed Sourav and said various things about this technique, but he came on top, especially when most had written him off. The bespectacled hero of Indian cricket is  an individual who has transformed Indian cricket, and paid price for it by being kicked out through humiliation. Well, for starters, Ganguly quit alright, but the fact is that he was not given enough opportunities to make his case and whenever presented with a small opportunity, he made merry. That is the key – I read somewhere  – “Every opportunity is different. The next may be better or worse but it will never be the same“. Neither could he come back completely from Greg Chapell saga, nor could he become himself, though he was back successfully. Ganguly, a phenonmenon that happened to Indian cricket took ”underdog” team to the World Cup final, and lost massively due to the fact that the team was put together by Ganguly, a team that was not going to win easily, but did win many matches due to its gritty captain and his best commander Sachin Tendulkar. There 2 people then took the team where it was. They both cranked the numbers! and were very aptly supported by Kumble and Dravid. These four formed the pillors of Indian cricket. The problem with other three – Sachin, Kumble and Dravid are very nice guys. They probably are the best, calm cricketers I have seen, especially Indian cricket where everyone wants to make a point or two every so often. But one man – who changed the course of the Indian team was Sourav. Ofcourse he would have been useless had the other three been absent. But, the fact remains that India needed a captain who could “literally take” this team and run with it. This is Dada did and I admire him. And ofcourse, a everyone else it, I am too a big fan of six-hitting style.

But, this is not for cricketing skills or rubbing with the administration, while he was the leader. That comes as part and parcel of the package. This blog is to appreciate the “rumor” that Dada is all set to enter a place – where his stamina would be tested. As the rumor may have it, Dada is all set to take on Dalmiya and make a bid of BCCI top shot. Well, these might be just rumors or these may even be true, but the fact that Dada has an inclination and the grit to take on the big guys, is something already. He may loose or win, but he will leave a mark. Dada, wish you all the best! You ROCK!

These are the excerpts (interesting pointers) from Bill Gates talking during the graduation ceremony @ Harvard. Mostly, it looks like Harvard invites comedians for their graduation speeches. I did not understand why. But, the fact is that they have had atleast 3 interesting, non-comedians – Bill Clnton, Bill Gates and J K Rowling. I gathered this information from youtube, where videos are available. They have had Mother Teresa too, but her speech is not aired on youtube. Bill Gates mostly talks about caring and gives important pointers about how to care for people. These pointers are applicable in most situations..

• Improving your odds doesn’t guarantee success.
• To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution and see the impact.
• Cutting through complexity to find solutions runs through 4 predictable stages – determine a goal, find the highest impact approach, deliver the technology ideal for that approach. and in the meantime use the best application of technology you already have.
• The crucial thing is to never stop thinking and working and never do this – surrender to complexity and quit.”

Bhijalelya kshananna aathavaneechee fodani,
haladeesathee aasurlele halve man aani kantee
aayushya he chulivarlya, kadhaeetale, kandepohe

Naatyanchya hya bajaratun vikretyanchi dati,
aani mhane to varacha julavi shatjanmachya gathee,
roj natave roj sajaave dharun aasha khotee,
pane mitunee lajalupari punha ughadyasathee,
aayushya he chulivarlya, kadhaeetale, kandepohe

Durdeshichya rajkumarachi swapne pahatanna,
kunitari yaave haluch magun dhyaneemanee nasatanna,
nakalat aapan haravoon jave swatas mag japtanna,
an mag dole ughadave he diva swapn pahatanna,
aayushya he chulivarlya, kadhaeetale, kandepohe

Bhutakalchya dhun akshada tandul kele jyanee,
aani sajavala khota rukhawat bhadyachya bhandyani,
bhavishya aata rangavanyacha attahasahi tyancha,
hatavarchya mehndivar otun limbache panee,
aayushya he chulivarlya, kadhaeetale, kandepohe

– this is quite a famous song that I have heard umpteen times. Until now, I liked it just for its tune and music and a few words. But, just now I realised a deeper meaning a comparison that has been brought so simply. Wonderful!

Everywhere my eyes can see, across borders, across continents, my eyes tell me that people don’t want to be accountable. People want all the benefits that come out of anything but do not want to be accountable for. Most people want to get a product without doing much for it. They want it ready-made. Most people around me want to eat good food, for instance. They want it to come to them, ready-made. They dont want to cook themselves and yet talk about hliving healthy by eating “to-go” food. This make me laugh. I have been taught that generally, in a fair world, whatever you get back is the product of what you have sown the seeds for. Thus, I am of the opinion that to get good food, one must try to cook the food oneself and then try to showoff, if one must. Food is just an example of what goes around. The current economic slowdown, for example is not God-made. People across the globe have had habit of spending more than earning which in itself is ridiculous proposition. Anyone who made credit-card must have been really smart to know that people have this knack of wanting to spend more than they can afford. They want no accountability towards saving for the rainy day, and yet when the rainy days comes, they want “someone” to bail them out.  The idea itself is disgusting, but that is how the world runs, very smoothly infact.

Responsibility and accountablity are missing and I cannot find it, even after looking for it. Most people want to live lavishly even if they cannot afford. They want jobs even if they are not eligible. I dont understand the reason or the people or both.

When your boss tells you something of the order of the title, be ALERT. You cannot do much, but be aware that “you” are in for a trap. Opportunity for “you” means “you” have to do this crap.

Say someone says to you, “1) This is our project. 2) How about doing an experiment for our paper? 3) Can we write up our proposal? etc..”. Do you know what all these sentences mean? They mean following:

1) When you hear something related to “our” word, be ALERT

2) You need to decode the meaning quickly; In most cases, you should not be concerned with anyone that says “our”. But, as is the case in the real world, you will be under pressure to work with this individual to make sure that “our” project goes smoothly. The bottom line is that you will end up working on this “our” project. The most important thing to remember is that “our” project does not matter to you and you should be least concerned about it.

3) “Our” project, is successful, becomes “their” project; Corollary- “Our” project, if fails, becomes a “collective” failure. Beware of the word – collective. It means between you and me, me failed – that is why the project failed.

4) Most cases, one always has a “my” project which one should worry about. “Our” project is none of your concern.

5) I repeat – As soon as you hear “our” word, become ALERT!

Reno has a flavor! The flavor starts from the airport and it seemingly continues into the city.

Tahoe City has a atmosphere typical to being a Californian location. Squaw Creek Valley resort was interesting.

restructuring old blogs..

As I returned back from San Juan islands, I had some discussions with, say DAL. From the conversation, one thing became clear to me – the meaning of collaboration.

Collaboration definition: Collaboration is defined as the process in which one little guy has to do all the work, and credit is someone else’s.

Corollaries:

1) If this “someone else” is a big guy, then the small guy gets no credit.

2) If  this “someone else” is good big guy, the small guy (S) will get equal credit (equal means 50% for the 100% work he did!).

3) If “someone else” is a bad big guy, the small guy (S) will be asked as to why the work is taking more time than it should (time will be decided according to the convenience).

4) I cannot comment, due to lack of experience, what happens if you try to collaborate with “someone else” who is a small guy.

Vista sucks! I guess I am joining a zillion people who have already registered their sorrow/ anger/ frustration and any other type of negative feeling about vista. Make no mistake, I love windows and I am not someone who hates things just because worlds does so. I have had a new tablet since a long time but have not found much time to explore it. Irrespective of that, I have noticed that Vista on my machine makes things slow. It has many annoying features – one of them being – even if you are the admin you cannot add anything to program files easily.

My current problem was a looping message “windows explorer not working….windows explorer restarting”. It would not allow me to work and since yesterday night I have been disturbed since I did not know the solution.  While browsing through forums, it looked like some sort of codec was vista’s enemy, but there was no way to reach the file and delete it, if that was the problem.

After being a quandary for some time, I found out that if I hit alt + ctrl + del, I can reach the task manager, from where I can enter file->cmd->c->users->username->desktop-> and reach a cmd prompt. From there I used primitive commands such as dir, del, cd to search and delete the promlem creating files. After I finished doing this, suddenly the problem vanished and the machine was usable. I am curious if the problem will crop up again after restarting the machine many times. Well, we’ll see.

After all these years of higher education, I finally used the commands that I learnt in standard 9th. I am surprised I remembered how to use them by instinct since I have not used any of them in many years.