Posted by Rahul Desai on Tue, Feb 02, 2010
Wooppiee! My tweet was ‘published’ (as in ‘printed’) in today’s Times of India – Pune Mirror (Feb 2, 2010 – Page 31 Variety). Boy, am I excited to see my name up there! Probably my trip to Shirdi did some trick… (I just can’t stop blushing – as if I had won Nobel prize for World Peace!!)
Always wondered what Twitter or Tweeting’s worth? Besides growing your business (with the help of some serious corporate-gyaan from Hubspot on utilizing Social Media and Inbound Marketing), you can actually get your name printed/published in a local newspaper!
I had stopped reading 
Pune Mirror ever since they dropped ‘I love Pune/ I hate Pune’ section. Now I realize I had been missing on some good stuff from good people. Thanks a lot Dev for bringing this to my notice. You’ve made my day!
Happiness!
Posted by Rahul Desai on Tue, Oct 27, 2009
History repeats itself. Earlier today, in the evening, I was sitting at home sipping the best coffee in the world (I made it); and it suddenly felt if I was getting back to my good old routine.
Well, talking of ‘repeating’ the only thing in common was the coffee in the evening and The Economic Times – Editorial page. But that too was good enough for me to plunge into the days in Bhopal. I can still remember how I finally grew the habit of reading The ET, thanks to
Raghu (CEO,
iBranch.in). The better, I am now at this
new home (/house/flat/apartment) of mine with absolutely no looking back.
So I landed up at the spiritual column - ‘Cosmic Uplink’. Although the article wasn’t the most interesting of all times, this one part made great sense to me:
“
…the pursuit of atmasuddhi involves freedom from all aspects of one’s past and 
present, which have the effect of sullying his soul, reflected in unnatural developments or situations, obstacles, shallow relationships, fruitless transactions and such irritants, which most persons are heir to.”
Munch the rest of the article at
this link.
Posted by Rahul Desai on Mon, Oct 12, 2009
There was this note from Khushboo on Facebook some time back about listing fifteen books (in really short span of time with some other wacky (whacky?) ‘rules’). One of the rules talked about listing ‘the first fifteen books I’ve read’. One, it was real hard remembering fifteen book titles, let alone having read them. Two, what's the point?
Anyway, so here’s the list of first fifteen book-titles I could recall. I’m afraid I haven’t completed reading them all, but that’s not mentioned as mandatory in the ‘rules’. So I’m good. Here’s the list. (Oh, here are the ‘rules’ for the convention sake.)
Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. List fifteen books you've read that will always stay with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in less than 15 minutes. Tag friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the note - upper right hand side).
- Bedtime Mailbox - Dr A Bakthavatsalam
- Being Indian – Pavan K Varma
- Buddha, His Life and Teachings - Osho
- Business Lessons for Entrepreneurs - Mark D Csordos
- Company of Women - Khushwant Singh
- Death at My Doorsteps - Khushwant Singh
- Dhirubhaism - A G Krishnamurthy
- Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat
- From Sex to Superconsciousness - Osho
- Gandhi: A Sublime Failure - S. S. Gill
- Ganghi, Gandhism and the Gandhians - Thomas Weber
- India Unbound - Gurcharan Das
- Indian Muslims – Where Have They Gone Wrong? - Dr Rafiq Zakaria
- Notes to Myself – Hugh Prather
- Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle
- The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari - Robin S. Sharma
- Train to Pakistan – Khushwant Singh
- Wings of Fire - Dr A P J Kalam
(Oops! That makes it eighteen. Chuck the rules!)
Posted by Rahul Desai on Fri, Oct 02, 2009
Article title courtesy: Symantec
Road to Cutting Edge ’09.
The big difference being, when I write ‘Road’ I actually mean ‘Road’. Lately with my highly conscious efforts to get into some good shape (other than ‘round’ shape), I had to make some serious commitments. One of that happens to be my daily (evening) visit to
Air Life Studio (the gym) around 7 PM.
I now know what they mean when they say ‘road to success is not easy’. My 3 km journey from my current residence to the gym is ‘that same road’ they’ve been talking about. While I can be home in less than 5 mins on my way back, reaching the gym during the evening peak-hours takes me at least 25-30 mins. ‘Deadlock’ jams at Parihar Chawk traffic signal (one of the most prominent, busiest, narrowest junctions of Aundh suburb) starts testing my patience and willpower. If waiting at the signal for ages and crawling at less than 10 kmph were not enough, the other day a bicycle-rider gladly slipped through small gaps, bumped onto the pedestrians’ path to ‘cycle-track’ and disappeared. While I was still stuck in the traffic at the same place and envying thinking how lucky he was, he passed back in the opposite lane – probably done with his work (out).
Pune. Poona. The cultural capital of the state of Maharashtra. IT-hub, Auto-hub, and what not. So where do we stand as citizens of such a significant city? Even after overnight facelift of the city (God bless
Commonwealth Youth Games 2008 committee) the situation isn’t that different. With new wider roads, we have wider traffic jams. Honking seems to be a habit, and people seem to get some blissful pleasure in blowing horn even during a normally moving traffic. I was once reading this age-old
article in Times of India and I’m afraid the situation is no better.
Stepping out to the city streets is a courageous task. And after all this struggle, you don’t just reach the gym - you practically achieve ‘Nirvana’ every day.
Posted by Rahul Desai on Fri, Jul 24, 2009
It’s like I waited my whole life… for this one night…
It’s gon’ be me, you and the dance floor…
It’s so amazing how we unknowingly manage to find things that can bring smile to our faces – take this random video I ended up with. If not enough, they can actually make us write an article.
Okay, before you get impatient and click on the video link – here’s a brief history: Discovering this video was unintentional. I was actually browsing through Twitter Feed and realized Dharmesh-bhai had been tweeting from Twidroid during an American Idol meet (or something similar – and better). Restlessly finding a better alternative for TweetDeck, I thought I had finally found the solution. Not to my surprise, I found the application was no good for my computer use and instead found this youtube.com link on the top of their list. /* End of History */
And so I saw this video once. Saw it again. A couple of times more. I kept thinking what was it that made me feel so good about and… Eureka– this entire video had 
great relevance to Pritesh-Shilpi’s wedding and mainly Pritesh’s jaan (Sorry Shilpi, you missed it!).
I can clearly recall that winter evening in Surat (Gujarat) – Kirsten-bhabhi, Hilde, Dharmesh-bhai (can’t specifically remember him dancing though), Vipul-bhai, Eva-bhabhi, Chintan, Bina, Paul (American/Indian Dancing Idol), Bhavana, Shivani, Dharmang (the rising star), Krupa, Maya-aunty, Mahesh-uncle, Janak, Yogesh, Vaibhav…
For that matter, the eve of the wedding… some out-rehearsed dance performances! Given a choice, I want to relive those three days again. And again.
By now, I’ve seen this video at least sixty times (including at least ten times at work – ten being an understatement). It kept feeling like I had been trying to look for something inside that video… and then it struck my mind: I am actually eagerly looking forward to Yogesh and Vaibhav’s wedding. (I’m equally cool with Khushboo or Meha’s wedding as well).
I need to attend a wedding (Read jaan) ASAP.
Congratulations, Jill-Kevin!
Thank you
Chris Brown for ‘Forever’!
Posted by Rahul Desai on Sat, May 30, 2009
‘Go Green’ seems to be the Mantra of the moment. Not sure if it’s an outcome of the recession, every organization is talking about it – big time. I recently happened to attend one of Microsoft’s technology conferences - Tech.Ed 2009 (SHOW TIME!! :D), which had lots to say in this regard. (I'm curious on learning more about Symantec's role in this line. Anyway.)
And while I thought it was just big enterprises’ business, I recently came across a very nice ‘Special Report’ in The Economic Times, all about ‘going green’ using technology. While their purpose was to elaborate the potential of a concept called ‘cloud computing’ as an eco-friendly option reducing some direct expenditure for SMEs; my interest is to highlight the understanding of the three keywords:
- SME
- Cloud computing
- And, Go Green.
Although the article talks all technical stuff, they’ve neatly explained the concept. Go ahead – it’s not so bad.
The dramatic economic meltdown over the past few months has proved to be a veritable tsunami for the Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs). However, the turn of events has induced the SMEs to revisit their existing business models that had helped them to survive and grow in the past.
In the process of achieving this objective, Information Technology (IT) has 
emerged as one of the most critical elements of growth. The era of ‘making-do’ with an accounting package, a payroll application, and a bunch of spreadsheets populated with unreliable and irrelevant data, from a management perspective, has now ended. In today’s scenario, real-time information based on transactional data being captured at an operational level across functions and locations, triggers and alerts from the management’s dashboard, and re-designed business processes and workflows that are enabled electronically are all becoming essential in order to survive and grow.
The IT budgets for SMEs have been increasing significantly over the past few years. However, large portions of these budgets have been earmarked to procure ‘tangible’ products like PCs, servers and networking hardware. SME offices and factories have undergone tremendous change from their previously traditional ‘paper-and-files’ formats to an upgraded ‘Monitor-Keyboard-Mouse’ environment. Furthermore, open offices have now transformed into an air-conditioned maze of cubicles.
Impact of IT usage on environment
India’s increasing expenditure on IT and its resulting influence on the environment needs no further emphasis. The software hubs in India have been experiencing firsthand, year-on-year increase in ambient temperature. The impact due to the increasingly unmanageable traffic caused by the commuting of IT/ ITeS workers is also extremely tangible, and needs no further elucidation.
However, what needs elaboration is the fact that the overall environment change we have witnessed of late is primarily due to the increase in IT usage by relatively few large business enterprises-primarily in urban areas. The potential carbon footprint of the coming wave of increasing IT usage by literally millions of SMEs across the country is definitely an environmentalist’s nightmare.
Cloud computing
The challenge lies in providing a solution that addresses the SME’s need for IT-based solutions at extremely affordable prices, while simultaneously reducing the environmental impact dramatically. Cloud computing is increasingly becoming accepted as the only way to address this dual challenge. Cloud computing is an offering that involves a ‘disruption’ in the way IT is delivered to customers and consumers. Cloud computing envisages huge data centers hosting software that end-users can access through the worldwide web in a safe and reliable manner. However, the SME would need to invest in providing simple, low-cost, low carbon footprint internet access devices (also called thin-clients, netbooks, etc.).
Affordable options for SMEs
Instead of incurring capital expenditure for procuring servers and software, and then incurring additional revenue expenditure for managing these on-premise installations, customers would now be required to pay only for accessing this software as a subscription on a pay-per-use basis. The offering would not only obviate the need for an SME to incur any capital expenditure, but also eliminate the need for recruiting, training, and retaining expensive IT professionals. This “sachetisation” of access to IT with the resultant ‘pay-per-use’ affordable pricing-is expected to enhance IT penetration in the SME segment positioned at the bottom-of-the-pyramid.
Environment-friendly for the SMEs
From an environmental perspective, the low-cost devices that the SME would need to procure would each need only 10 to 50 W of power as compared to 150W+ required for a typical PC. As these devices would have no moving parts and would not become obsolete in a couple of years, the resultant increased lifetime would mean phenomenal reductions in potential e-waste generation. In addition, as end-users could access their data from anywhere and at anytime, the amount of commuting and travelling that information workers are required to do could reduce dramatically.
Environment-friendly at the data centre
The preclusion of millions of power-hungry servers, and the resulting reduction in additional air-conditioners and UPS/Battery combinations will significantly reduce the impact on the environment. Significant R&D in server technology-blade servers, multi-core processors, developments in basic semi-conductor design that
reduce the need for heating and cooling-is also driving data centers to become more environment-friendly.
Cloud computing effectively addresses the needs of SME customers and enables them to manage their businesses more efficiently, and in an affordable manner. Not only does it offer SMEs the option of pay-per-use without upfront capital expenditure and high-cost IT professionals, but it also enables the SME to access the latest technology while ensuring that the carbon footprint generated is minimal.
Cloud computing is in – how about you?
.
Posted by Rahul Desai on Fri, May 29, 2009
- Done with all the books you have in your collection and wondered what to read?
- Hate fiction, and need a break from philosophical/idealistic books?
- Ever felt that urge of reading but not sure what to read?
- (With my limited collection of books, this is the permanent challenge I face every now and then.)
Well, The Economic Times Editorial page is the place for you. Of all the articles, ‘Cosmic Uplink’ has always done wonders to me. Without dragging it further, here’s a short story I recently read in that column. The message of this short-story is much shorter than the story itself – however, it channels us to ‘the ultimate’. I liked it, I hope the same for you.
A seeker once went to a Master and asked to be initiated into enlightenment. The Master replied, “Tat tvam asi - you are That. The divine self lives within you. Meditate on that Self, merge in that Self, realise that Self.”
“Is that all?” said the disappointed seeker. “But I already know that. Please reveal to me the inner secrets, the real stuff!” The Master replied, “That is all I know.
This is the entire caboodle. I have no other secret. But since you don’t seem to be satisfied, try the Master who lives down the road.”
The pupil hurried to the other guru and posed the same question. “I do not part with my teachings so easily,” replied the teacher. “You’ve got to earn them with sincere sadhana for 12 years.”
The seeker agreed at once and was assigned to clean the cowsheds as part of sadhana day after day. Thus the years went by, with the seeker dreaming of enlightenment as he shoveled cow-dung every day. Finally, the great day arrived and the seeker ran up to the Master who said, “Oh Son! How well you’ve served me. So here it is: Tat tvam asi; Know it, meditate on it; merge into it.”
“Is that all?” cried the enraged seeker. “But that’s exactly what the first guru said.” “Well,” the guru replied. “The truth hasn’t changed in 12 years!”
Time for introspection!!
Posted by Rahul Desai on Thu, Apr 09, 2009
Suhas and Hiral – one of my closest friends and one of his closest cousins, resp – recently brought this amazing game from one of their (common) closest cousins, a game called
OSHO – Heart to Heart Tarot (
A Unique Tool for Spiritual Quest).
The ‘tool’ had a big set of cards – big in size, like those real (stupid?) tarot cards. Every card had an amazing picture painted on it, with a word/virtue linked to it – things like wholeness, patience, deathlessness, and eighty odd such cards. The other thing was the book - the instruction book, which had detailed description about the attribute written on the card. Like any other simple ‘game’, one had to pick a card (spread upside down on a table, next to a magic crystal ball – just kidding) from the bunch and the ‘Reader’ would read out the significance from the Instruction book (or just speak out of mugged up knowledge). Simple as that!
The interesting part, it was a ‘game’ for all of us - the night
Suhas and Hiral brought this ‘tool’ in, it was pretty late and I was half asleep. They still made me pick a card and it read ‘Listening’. Then someone (
Dipal?) read through the instruction book, and I was quite impressed by the excerpt, I had to tell
Kaushal about it. Kaushal is an insanely crazy Osho-fan. He dropped by my place, I showed him the cards, he made me pick one and guess what? Of eighty odd cards, I
happened to pick “Listening” again!
Considering these coincidences and the motive of the ‘tool’, I fondly started believing that it was a ‘message’ and I had to pay attention to that. Probably
God wanted me to ‘listen’ to what He had to say about ‘Listening’. (Now that sounds/reads dramatic!)
Whatever be the reason, I felt it made great sense – Listening:
Listening is one of the basic secrets of entering into the temple of God. Listening means passivity. Listening means forgetting yourself completely – only then you can listen. When you listen attentively to somebody, you forget yourself. If you cannot forget yourself, you never listen. If you’re too self-conscious about yourself, you simply pretend that you are listening – you don’t listen. You may nod your head; you may sometimes say yes and no – but you are not listening.
When you listen, you become just a passage, a passivity, a receptivity, a womb: you become feminine. And to arrive, one has to become feminine. You cannot reach God as aggressive invaders, conquerors. You can reach God only… or it will be better: God can reach you only when you are receptive, a feminine receptivity. When you become yin, a receptivity, the door is open. And you wait.How true!
Posted by Rahul Desai on Sat, Aug 16, 2008
"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." Alan Cohen
“The key to change... is to let go of fear.”
‘
Change’ as they say, is the only constant. It’s inevitable and it’s here to stay. So how do we go about living with changes (unpleasant, unwelcome in most cases)? I don’t have any magic mantra for that. My knowledge is limited to this webpage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change
However, one of my friends happened to find more. Here are some points from the email she forwarded. Thanks,
Neha!
Most people appreciate change — as long as it's happening in someone else's life. We all admire those who face major challenges in their lives and grow from their experiences to become better and stronger people. How brave and exciting! What a terrific story! But when we face change in our own lives, we feel very different emotions: we feel doubt and fear, annoyance and anger, sadness and guilt.
The current economic downturn has forced many people to make major changes in their lives. Some have had to change jobs; many others have had to change their spending habits. But regardless of what the economy does, our lives change all the time, whether we like it or not. And if we want to be happy, we have to accept this reality with some degree of calm and courage.
Change is called for whenever we're required by circumstances — both internal and external — to step out of our comfort zone. That's when we have to let go of our old familiar ways and customary habits. Sometimes this challenge comes in dramatic forms as when, for example, we're struck by a natural disaster or a 
serious illness. Sometimes there's less drama but there can be just as much trauma if, for example, we change jobs or decide to go back to school or start up a personal business. Of course, regardless of the size of the challenge, some people decide not to take control of the situation and they stay victims for life. Others, however, call on their inner strengths and find a way to come through better equipped to handle life's next round of challenges.
Let's look at a few concepts that can help you deal with change.
* You have what it takes. We all have the strength to meet our challenges. This is a birth gift that we all received. But the only way to find our strength is to accept the challenge and face down our fear of change.
* Get inspiration from others, but know that you have to meet your challenge on your own. It's fine to look to others for tips or for inspiration. If they can do it, so can you! But trying to copy what others have done to resolve their challenges may end up draining you instead of empowering you.
* Learn from your past. If you look back at your life, you'll see that you've faced plenty of challenges before. Now ask yourself some questions. What got me to change then? What skills did I use to deal with the challenge? How did I feel after I changed? What have I learned from that experience that I can use again?
* You're going to have to let something go. In order to bring something new into your life, you will have to let go of something you've grown accustomed to. If you want to start your own business, you're going to have to give up the security of the paycheck you've been getting. If you want to get healthier, you're going to have to let go of the pleasure you get from eating whatever you want. No matter how much you may want to fight this truth, change means giving up one thing in order to get something else.
* Take responsibility. The single most important element for a successful change is commitment. You have to accept that you can and will change, and that the choice to do so is up to you. You may not be able to control the outcome and you may have to make adjustments in your plans, but there is no one to blame if you don't make the effort yourself.
Makes sense?
Posted by Rahul Desai on Thu, Jun 12, 2008
An Old Story:
* The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.
* The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
* Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
The Indian Reality:
* The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.
* The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
* Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
* NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
* The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
* Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.
* Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.
* Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities.
* Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.
* The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).
* Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.
* CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.
* Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.
* Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.
* Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.
* The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
* Arundhati Roy calls it 'A Triumph of Justice'. Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden'.
* Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
Many years later...
* The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley,
* 100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India,
..AND
* As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers,...
India is still a developing country...!!! :-(