[From: Amit Choudhary] To MBA or not to MBA?

Hello Folks,

This may sound like a relevant article for many confused soul like me. Are you same ?. If yes, read on Brother & Sister!
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To MBA or not to MBA?
For graduates, personal skills can rate higher than specialist knowledge. Tony Martin weighs the options.

To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2002/mar/09/mbas.business

Annals of Medicine: The Checklist: newyorker.com

Annals of Medicine: The Checklist: newyorker.com

How to Identify a Good Person?

The question intrigued me for past few days after I was condemning myself of believing someone I should have never. This has happened quite a times enough for me to vent out my anguish in search of a good friend amongst the hundreds I meet every month. Being a science student from an academic point of view where there is reason for everything like Stars twinkle due to refraction and changing refractive index in space, I was interested in finding out some equation or theory which when applied to any new entity I come across gives me fair chance of knowing him and at the same time not get emotionally attached only to see me crying later.

The theory I propose is simple but can be easily argued upon since I lack analysis data of over 1000 people and how it faired. But if I have to put it like this why not should I put it in Science Journal and get accolades :). Coming back, here's my theory.

"If a person has basic courtesy in place, he/she is worth giving a shot."

When I say basic courtesy I mean, if he/she needs something from you , they will request and say thank you and not snatch it away with snobbish face and you don't have to go and ask it back as he/she will be alert enough to give back.

I don't mean that my theory is full proof but what I think is, if we can weed out 95 out of 100 it is worthwhile to let ourselves fall for 5 rather than 50. With this we will start with a positive note with 5 and if all five turns out sour we will be better off with lesser grudges and for the rest 95, we will start out with negative taste which overtime can be corrected seeing good coming out of those 95 and hence we may end up surprising ourselves.

Any feedback on my theory is WELCOME..

Stay Tuned!

Deepavali Celebrations in Office

Pic Courtsey : Arun Kr.

Why Perseverance is difficult ?

He conquers who endures. ~Persius ( http://www.quotegarden.com/perseverance.html )

Many a times we come across such quotes which act as light house for wailing souls. There are moments of quick fixes where certain immortal figures like Noble Prize winners or an Olympian picture act as panacea but the disease still persist. Of the many moments I have been more conscious of my behavior in the recent times and I realized that Self-Doubt is the Biggest Enemy. There are times when I are doing better than the 90% but I still see the 10% ahead of me and get dispirited of never being able to make it as I am still far far away from my reference point. Also, if the desire to do certain task need regular assurance compared to the ones which we instinctively take-up, the chances of persevering in rough weather further lessens.

Its just a small writeup to test blog post through email feature. More about the topic later.

Love You,

Amit

Incredible Cyclothon 2009 !!

The joy to participate in Cyclothon started last night when I was not able to sleep due to the excitement of seeing dawn and riding bike with thousands odds which kept me awake till 1:30 a.m. The alarm shotoff at 4:30 and I was not sleepy. Got ready and off to Malleswaram tocatch Bus.

The view on the road to BIEC was awe-inspiring. People carrying theirbikes on the top of Car, tied behind the car, in Motorbike and allsorts of possible ways were on display. I could see how each one waspumped up. On reaching the spot waited for other friends to join inand then moved to collect my bike. The arrangement was pretty neat and it was easy to locate the storehouse. Took my cycle and at around 9,the corporate riders were flagged off. (Pic Courtesy : Rajaneesh )



My joy knew no bounds when I saw the entire stretch reserved only for cyclist. It was enough adrenaline kick. I registered as part of Corporate Cycling of 25 KM and was even able to manage getting 40 oddsfrom my office with the help of Mathew Pylichen, Palani,Harish andothers. Close to the returning point at 12.5 KM, I met Vijay from Philips and we asked each other, "Dude, What say. Should we go for 36?". The prompt answer was "YES". We passed the 12.5 K limit and were able to manage 18 Km and return. With the passage of every KM after 18, it was getting tougher and tougher but the view of all ages participants kept me moving. The urchins at the sides where coming close to shake hand and thumps UP. I felt like a celebrity :). Finally made to the Finish Line and was smiling ear to ear with the satisfaction of self-belief and perseverance.
I am sure each one of us had a gala time and have our own long story to say. Shoot!!

Enjoy !!
Amit

EMI

The title of this post is inspired by a Bollywood movie sharing same name. I happen to be neglecting to watch this flick for quite some time just because the print was not of good. quality But, today I decided to go for it as pass time during my dinner.



The movie revolves around the life of people in debt with home loans, personnel loans and credit card loans. It shows how much pain and embarrassment loan recovery agent inflict upon defaulters. It staged how a husband and wife plan to divorce due to unbearable pressure of monthly EMIs. In one case, a father takes 10 lakhs to fund his son's foreign MBA studies where the son later drops out in the middle of the course only to see one day how his dad is humiliated by these recovery goons.

Truly, lives of several people is loosing peace because of the desires to have more than what one's means allow due to peers pressure or uncontrolled desires. Also, after watching the movie I felt a sense of relief and calmness thinking that "Good that I did not pursued my MS else I would have ended up taking more than 8 lakhs loan and my entire family's life and peace would have been now mortgaged.

Today, again I have made up my mind not to pursue any plan if its cost is more than 3 lakh loan but rather be satisfied with low risk pursuit so that the welfare of my family is taken care with peace. God I wish all families who are seething under the pain of loan to get out of it and live at peace.
AMEN !!

First UBUNTU walk !!

After days of procrastination and lots of planning, today I cleaned my system and reinstalled Windows (difficult to get rid of old habits) and love of all free Humans, UBUNTU...

I feel great as it going to be a learning experience and will also get rid of nasty windows "Software Counterfeit" error message and lot of security.

Love You Open Source

Amit

I am Critical Mass

I was already a mass when I was born but today I became a part of critical mass of my country who has got some responsibility to shoulder (Thoda Gyada ho gaya). Today (28th March 2009) will be considered as my first baby step to add force to already rolling ball of "SAVE EARTH" of moving to alternative mode of transport which is pollution free and keeps your waistline slim. Well I am talking about bicycle as an alternate option which I have been religiously adhering to for past 3 months by commuting to my work which is close to 5 KM (3.1 miles) from my house. Thanks to Bala who motivated me to take this up.

So what is special about today?

Ahha... Today was Critical Mass day in Bangalore. By Critical Mass Day I mean, it is a day which is celebrated every last Saturday of the month where a group of amateur or veteran cyclist, cycle in city and create awareness about bicycle riding as feasible option. It was my maiden tour as I have been missing the earlier ones because of silly reasons which I don't want to remember and make fool of myself.

This time, we met in Cubbon Park where the total count reached 74 cyclist including few women and a cute looking baby girl on her kid-cycle with supported back wheel and a young boy of close to 8 yrs old on a regular bike. It was a great mix of personalities. I was lucky enough to locate my two office colleagues Mathew (the Veteran) and Manu (the Sports maniac) among the mass. Also I started exchanging hands with other people and there was not an iota of discomfort.



Ek baat kehna toh mein bhool hee gaya (I forgot one detail to mention)

We also had Sharada from Arghyam who did a great job by helping us know the quality of water we consume at home by arranging a set of sceinticfic kits and also gave all of us a Biological H2S Strip test kit as gratis. He took great effort and all the people who got water samples ( I got it too from my landlady) has their water tested. Great Service to nation Sharada. God Bless you !!

How can I forget Prashant Mohanty. The man who all time was cracking PJ's and howling at his best voice not to forget he is among the founders so the rest abt him we can discuss in private :).

We began our journey close to 4:30 pm. towards North Bangalore (I felt so good. It was towards my house). Some placards and posters and media attention made it a paparazzi stuff. We headed towards Sainki Tank and then further ahead towards Malleswaram. In the midst we has few stops where we waited for few who strayed from the flock. The quizzed and smiling faces of onlookers was good enough proof that we are making an impression in their mind and a question "What am I waiting for?" to ponder over.

We had our first bike salute (you hold your bike upright) near a temple. The pujaris too came out to bless the good cause and the by-passers thumped Up.

It was coming to an end. We reached a quite location to catch up with air and water. There was an introduction session and I hardly remember 10 names. I am sorry about it but my memory capacity is already full. I have been long planning to get a PHD (Portable Hard Disk). Then what followed was some serious discussion (culprit : Prashant) where he discussed about sharing responsibilities of coming critical mass and more personnel commitment from all of us by means of taking care of blog and coming with self made posters. We all agreed unanimously like primary school kids :)

Finally people started leaving in groups in the direction of their homes. With Sriram, Prashant, Igy and others we planned to eat Idli and have Tea. I was dying to eat something as I didnt had anything since morning. Somehow I missed :P. (The one with "V" is me)

On my return journey my front break wire got torn and I was driving more cautiously back home only to dash on my bed and find myself again starving at 9:45 p.m. Well I did celebrated Earth Day.. No lights between 8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m (except my punkah was fanning , :P).

On a pleasent note : I feel blessed to meet you all and making good friends and also kudos to organizers.

Note : To know more about Critical Mass Bangalore click here

Happy Riding,
Amit

Yuva

युवा

हे युवा

कुछ कर

कुछ आदित्य , कुछ अनूपम, कुछ निर्नात्मक

जो इतिहास के पन्ने में, स्वर्ण अक्षरो में

हो तुम्हारा नाम

अपितु कल ज़िन्दगी तुझसे हिसाब मांगे

और तू अगले ही पल अनंत चिंता में

****** अमित चौधरी********

Gulabi Gang

Hopping through world wide web, I came across an article about an all-women group called "Gulabi Gang" in a village of Uttar Pradesh. This gang does not support any political party but finds it way out through demanding the rights of people in the villages.

An article with a short video elaborating over their initiative can be found here : Click Here

Happy reading,
Amit

Chromosome ends and human health and disease

The title may seem daunting to most people thinking what on world do I know about chromosomes and is here to speak of. Gladly, I must appreciate your understanding of my brief (10^-100) knowledge about biology science of chromosomes.

It was Monday and with no extra strain to your brain, it was my office day. I was not feeling well for the past few days and hence decided to take rest instead of going to office and working in air conditioned facility thereby aggravating my bad health. I went out for my lunch and on my way back purchased news papers comprising of The Hindu, The Times of India and DNA (The motive was to do comparative study of available news papers so that I can form a decision about what to order to my vendor). Surprisingly, an ad at the 3rd page of The Hindu caught my attention where it showed a lady (no surprise, right!!) standing quite confidently. I became interested to read. I realized that the lady is a great scientist in the world of biology with great awards to her list.
I found myself in a dilemma because just few minutes back I decided to finish few topics in C++ programming language on account of free time I was having but this news made me think and I asked one question to myself, "How important is this seminar for you?". Back came the reply, " I can study C++ tomorrow but I cannot attend a seminar by someone so esteemed later in life. If I miss this opportunity I will not get the next one. Also its an opportunity to be in an academic setting for few hours which will rejuvenate my eagerness to learn". With this answer I executed my plan and left for the venue on my Mercedes (my beloved bicycle) at around 3:45 p.m. I reached the venue (IISc, Bangalore) at around 4:05 p.m. and was surprised to see that the J.N.Tata auditorium was getting packed with the progress of time. It was the after long time (the first being at IIT Techfest 2005) when I was seeing an auditorium packed with human beings for some science topic apart from normal multiplex audi's.

The program started at its prescribed time of 4:30 p.m. With a brief introduction about the speaker (which I liked) Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn took on the podium. One thing which I have observed in the scientific world that people are highly cordial and they speak soft unlike in management or industry setting where it is usually louder. Also the academicians are seen smiling and speaking with great inner peace which I have always adored. Maybe the reason could be the ecstasy they are always in as a result of the pursuit of knowledge.

She started her topic with a picture of an old Indian lady (I am sure she took someone Indian so that we can easily relate to her) and a curt question of "Why do aging occur?". With the progress of the presentation she elaborated on how our chromosomes plays and important part in aging process. The two important terms she was emphasizing about were telomere and telomerase. How shortening of chromosomes makes some one susceptible to diseases like heart attack, aging and other known diseases. It was though very interesting to know that smoking plays a big role in decreasing the life span of user as it impedes the chromosomes duplicating capacity. Also with her research she was able to proof that chronic stress (be it related to married life, Job or exam etc..) highly contributes to malfunctioning of chromosomes leading to early death or associated medical complications.

It was a new experience for me where I was getting exposed to a complete unknown branch of sceince and though I couldn't compete with someone with biology background, I think I was able to assimilate 20 % of the information while the rest got lost in some interim day dreaming and unknown terms.

Some of the interim thinking/day dreaming I was doing was (i) Can I be someday as good as her ? (ii) Is research my calling ? (iii) Will I be getting calls from universities for my MS? (iv) What if someone bomb the auditorium and lastly (v) There are some really good looking girls in the halls. Will I be meeting such beautiful ladies while I be pursuing my PhD and do I still stand a chance? :)

Layoffs News in 2007-2009 (Global Meltdown era)

The latest economic crisis has already caught numerous eyes due to its deepening effect. Meanwhile, I got interested in its effect to social life of people. As a part of my project I decided to compile all the news in regard to layoffs that has marred media from January 2007 - December 2009. Also will try to get some of the biggest industry news in this period and some human stories regarding their fight against odds. It will be updated as an when I get to hear something related and also would appreciate if you can help me with this compilation by bringing to my notice similar news (with due acknowledgment to the contributor ).

1st Feb., 2009
1. Violent unrest rocks China as crisis hits (Click here for more details)

30th Jan., 2009
1.NEC to axe 20,000 (Click here for more)

24th Jan.,2009
1. Citigroup to axe 6,500 employees (Click here for more details)

10th Jan.,2009
1. US aerospace giant Boeing to shed 4,500 jobs (Click here for more details)

16th Dec.,2008
1. Fiat lays off 48,000 for a month during Christmas (Click here for more details)

9th Dec., 2008
1. ArcelorMittal to cut over 1,550 jobs in Germany & Belgium (Click here for more details)


Disclaimer : This is just a compilation of the news. The truth maybe sth else but thatz not what I am doing here.

SMS 90088 90088 & Know Directions

Friends,

Ever wondered you can get directions to a place just by SMSing a message. Yes, its true for now. LATLONG is one such service available for elite Bangaloreans (I mean for all bangaloreans :) ) Its a good news to few atleast who are relatively new to bangalore or find it difficult to remember routes. You just need to send a SMS in a required format at 90088 90088.

Use keyword WHERE to find out where a place is.

For example, use: WHERE tyagaraja nagar

WHERE gnr kalyana mantap NEAR jayanagar

WHERE suranjan das road

WHERE icici atm NEAR south end circle

Use keyword GO to get help going to a place.

For example, use:

GO rajajinagar entrance FROM itpl GO victoria layout TO navrang cinema

GO hebbal flyover FROM dairy circle

The link to Latlong website is http://latlong.in/cgi-bin/latlong where you can test it with demo. The courtsey for finding these wonderfull informations goes to Praveen (http://spraveenitpro.blogspot.com/) whose blog I happen to bounce on bychance. He is a follower of http://criticalmassbangalore.blogspot.com/ BLOG.

Happy Riding,

AC

For Hire...

The trouble times teach us alternative career path. I am on one of them. Do not fear and you can be confident on my chopping skills. I have proven track record of undertaking any tough assignment and finishing it to fine details. You can be relaxed when U know I am on it. There have been times when I have worked artistically on my subject of torture though may seems brutal to their well wishers.


Opps!! I was talking about choosing Chef as my alternate career option. What did you think ?

Oh my Goosh !!!

KnowHow Air Kiss :)

The wikipedia starts with "The air kiss is a ritual or social gesture whose meaning is basically the same as that of many forms of kissing." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_kiss). This act of kissing is mostly seen in movies and in celebrity shows where the two parties do some strange act of kissing in air. I was never interested to know about it until the moment which made me to do some brief research on its details.

An old friend of mine is expected to see me and I will be meeting her after long time. After completing a brief planning of her visit, I came across a strange doubt. "Should I hug her or should I just handshake her ?"

I don't want to get too close to her and make the situation uncomfortable for both of us and nor do I want to give her cold welcome. Then a sudden idea of the "strange act" came to my mind. After doing some Google on the world wide web I came across this video which very lucidly explains the theory and demonstrates elegantly the idea of kissing in air. I am sure everyone of us might come across a similar dilemma someday but take my word, this social gesture is not at all rough but a very educated way to express your warm welcome to the other party.

I am herein posting the 70% video as my free video converter do not allow 100% conversion. The link of the video is at the bottom and you can use that to see the remaining..

Please do leave a comment on what is your idea of this situation and how would you react to it. Well, let me see how it turns out in my case ;)

Check out the video here :)



Click here to go access the complete wiki article and video


Happy Kissing...Muaaaah !!

Recession .....Ways it has affected my life

"What!! No Graduation Party for our batch", yelled one of my batch mate when we came to know that Fidelity is not giving Graduation Party for 2007 batch freshers. This was September 2007 and we were litle aware of the implications of market performance leading to the fall of financial giants like Lehman Brothers, merging of Merrill Lynch with Bank of America, billions of dollars in form of bailout and the entire Iceland country going bankrupt and many major companies laying off employees in large numbers.

Today on 9th January 2009, my position has changed from spectator to one of the participant in this economic turmoil which shook every country across the globe. My company has announced to sell of its India back office to other IT players in market and the finer details of which is still awaited. There has been a budget cut in my project and I have been moved to ON-BENCH (for non IT Professionals, being On-Bench means you don't have project to work on, you are a liability to the company and you go everyday to office and sit idle and get frustrated).Some of the behavioral changes which I witness (better to say I have forced upon) in myself are :
1) I no longer go to Shanti Sagar (High end restaurant in my resident area) and have moved to cheaper options.
2) I go to Reebok showroom which is now running at 40% FLAT Discount, only to embrace the apparel, shoes and caps etc.. I wish to own but let it go after turning over the price tag which overshoots my estimate (less than $4).
3) I recently bought a bicycle for Rs. 5000/- and have vowed to restrict my expenditure for coming 3 months to balance out this purchase.

I must admit that I am having an overall increase in mental pressure and decline in self-confidence when I think of what am I going to do if I am laid off. My plans for post graduate studies is also running in doldrums looking at the meager chance of getting scholarships or funding from universities who themselves are struggling to keep the system running at these times. One thing which I appreciates about the present challenging period is "Trouble times makes oneself tougher and more efficient". It is now that the companies/individuals are able to realize some of their suicidal decisions or spendthrift attitude which can jeopardize the business/personnel life in long run or god forbid can leave them struggling to survive. Moreover, it is at this time when some frauds and inefficiency of the system gets on headlines. Looking at the case of Murdoff and Satyam Computers which have been sponsoring their frauds program smoothly for years now find it hard to conceal it in trouble times like at present and end up getting exposed to public. The world begins to reflect on their decisions which acts as a learning curve and more efficient laws are laid out for future security.

It was not far but just 7 years ago when the world saw its first modern day economic crisis in 2001. There were allegations, reformation and reflection but no one anticipated a worse crisis so soon. The reason lies behind the human psychology of "Forgetting" and chase for "Pleasure". The lessons learned where soon forgotten, the bull was charged, not knowing where its heading to, leading to the fall on face.My take-away from my learning is, the entire universe is a "Chakra", it will come back again and again to its starting point in time to time. I should learn to live in bare minimum and nothing competes self-employment.