Its not IIT Mumbai .

This post is for those who cannot differentiate between brand names and city nomenclature.

I guess the Govt of India 50 years back while establishing one of the elite technical institutes, was unable to foresee the Raj Thackeray trend.(I guess there was no McKinsey at that time that could predict the Bombay to Mumbai campaign )
But then with absolutely no respect,(and yes I am being RUDE) IITBombay is a brand name and for the record its a single word.
Its not IIT Mumbai .

There is nothing like IIT Mumbai .
No body in the world knows IIT Mumbai.
People have known it as IIT Bombay.
Stop tagging photos on facebook as IIT Mumbai.
Stop referring it to as IIT Mumbai in thanking speeches,endnotes, debates,discussions.

Spam beyond inbox!!

Although I have joined the facebook group- “I don’t read newspapers anymore” my MINT subscription still continues. The Wall Street Journal articles are my favorites.
The first tab that I open after checking my mail , is my feed reader followed by twitter and facebook.
When it comes to TV, which is a rare phenomenon, I prefer sticking to Discovery and TimesNow.

Whatever medium I may choose to update myself and the world, my immunity towards the Ads is one thing that has increased exponentially.
Not that I don’t see ads or I use Flash Ad Block, but the fact that the Purple Cow is nowhere to be seen. The last time when I actually clicked on an ad it was a friend’s birthday who still believes that Google Ads on his blog would fetch him dollars.

But then a couple of days back I decided to contribute to google’s earnings. I actually clicked on a couple of ads, noticed the ads on Mint, actually watched a movie on TV wtih a gazillion of breaks (this one was the worst of all). And then I concluded that

• I wish the TV had google ads, they can be actually more effective.
• The ad placement and targeting in the print media is nothing but pathetic.The internet still did fairly better since google new my search patterns so I was given highly targeted ads.
• Customizing ads on newspaper according to reader’s interest might actually result in a better ROI for the Adverstisers, which although is immeasurable for the moment.
• Last but not the least, if you compare the amount of spam we are literally exposed to, courtesy the offline print media, the gmail spam folder would take ages to catch up
  

The fact that while a advertiser
would invest in getting the prime spot hoarding, airtime during the matinee hours , grab the front page for advertising , I or for that matter intellectually mature people would simply ignore it very genuinely. I guess it’s time for CMO’s to read Purple Cow.

Relative Terms

Relativity is a term that often goes beyond Einstein.Not the fact that Einstein's concept of relativity was false, but then the people we relate to are often not so compatible with the older version.
The concept of relativity and absoluteness has often resulted in laying down the foundation of the best of controversies ,errors,confusions not to mention the frustration.

Good Will Hunting , is one of the best examples that covers all the emotions when it comes to comparison and setting standards, because for more then once what seemed trivial to Mr Will ,was rocket science for his Professor Gerald Lambeau.
And when Will Hunting sets a paper on fire ,which had the solution to a equation that his Prof was struggling with, for ages and believed that it could fetch him the NEXT NOBLE, a flood of emotions are expressed in the scene when Will tells him that

"You know what is this..this is fucking easy for me "
And this is where relativity comes in.
While the Prof felt inferior, frustrated,helpless Mr Will simply moved on for his standards were beyond the scope of his professor.

Infact the concept of absoluteness itself is relative as there are no permanent standards.

So the next time you start comparing things, start getting judgmental, have prejudices, do consider the fact that You Cannot Compare APPLES and ORANGES.

Train No-2955

A picture is worth more then 1000 words.

Now,if you are thinking that i have exxaaggeerated the entitre thing by putting up this foto.
Beleive u me ..nothing less then this could explain the situation on 2955- BCT-JP Superfast Express.
























For this diwali ,and new year i just had a couple of resolutions---
I M NOT GOING BACK TO JAIPUR FOR THE NEXT DIWALI.
n
the reason for saying so is nothing but the journey of the lifetime i had in 2955 .

A train where booking a Tatkal seat can fetch you Endurance Award.
A train whose passenegers are awarded Red n White Bravery award .
A train where meeting people who were so close to the Confirmed Seat.
A train where atleast 100 passengers would claim the Waiting List 1-Title.
A train where people are willing to stand in the the Loo (both English and Indian) .
A train where you get to know about the High's and Low's of a Gujati Family.
A train where you can meet Jignesh,mahesh,suresh,Ramesh Babu and Deenanath ji.
A train where you would need to wait atleast 10 hours before you can actually see the "loo"

A train that teaches you --DONOT USE INDIAN RAILWAYS DURING VACATIONS.
n if you are really desparate use nothing less then a 2nd AC.

Information Explosion...

These are the best of times,these are the worst of times.For today we live in a era where almost each one of has access to an unimaginable breadth and depth of information.
But then the era of Information Explosion has more and more air blown into the Bubble.

Thanx to the information explosion.
SPAMMING ,although being the last thing that a marketer would ever like to do , seems to be on a high .
Filtering content is another challenge that people are now getting used to.
And to add to that the hyped Talks ,workshops,Sessions,Lectures are getting monotonous

The podcasts have replaced the interviews.
Slideshare has replaced powerpoint presentaions.
Youtube has better talks or workshops .
Add to that blogs .
To be precise , now you can actually choose to stay out of a event ,since you know for sure, the Internet has better alternatives.

As far as my experience goes ,yes i was a die hard fan of GYAN.
I craved for it.
I used to read almost over 100 blogs a day on social media,SEM-SEO,Blogging,Internet Marketing......
I loved the sessions at Barcamps.
I enjoyed being a part of this ecosystem that was evolving like never before.


But then , i guess what looked like the driving force for joining such communities, turned against itself. And the obvious reason being perhaps the INFORMATION OVERLOAD on the internet
Add to this -the general story telling .

"THE MOST CLICHED STORY"

I was a common man. I had a idea--but had no idea how to implement that. Then we thought over it .
But then we had no money. Then we bootstrapped Then we hunted for VC's. After n iterations in the product plan,
and 2n meeting's we got funded. n now ,I am THE ENTREPRENEUR.

With all due respect to the ecosystem and the entrepreneurs .Nobody would or even can/ever raise a question over your credibility as a entrepreneur or the amount of efforts you have put in.
But then,
As the audience we get this story everytime..in Livemint, on Radio,Podcasts,Blogs n everywhere.
If you can present the entire journey as a casestudy , it might add more value to the story.
Telling the general story,i guess really wont attract ME.

So today i think twice before i enter a session on Startup's or VC's speaking, or rules of blogging,tips on Internet Marketing,or for that matter even technology.
And even if i enter it ,the repetition of topics, drives me out.

The freshness quotient ,i guess has been lost or atleast decreasing.
Everytime i see a mailer/poster about a session by XYZ , i think !!!

DO WE REALLY NEED TO GO AND LISTEN TO THEM ?
WHY CANT WE LISTEN TO THEM ON A PODCAST
OR SIMPLY READ ABOUT THE RULES OF .........
WHY DO WE NEED THE SAME THING OVER N OVER N OVER?
DONT U FEEL saturated ALREADY?

I guess i need a break,BADLY. SO I shall logoff from the Community for a while.

Attention Prof's and Studnets-

If u think you are the worst professor alive
believe you me you are definitely wrong.

There are people alive who claim to be professors with no talent what so ever when it comes to teaching and they can definitely beat you in the RAT race.

And if you think you are "THE STUDENT"
Believe u me ,this time u are definitely wrong.


P.S >>> Felt this on the 5th day of the 5 th Semester attending lectures of the 5th Course i registered for. This is definitely not Pre Sem/Insem/MideSem/EndSem frustration.
Genuine, honest thoughts of a Under Grad.

Love Thy Smoker

Love Thy Smoker!!

With this blog post ,i would like to introduce Malvika Parmar, as a guest author on this blog. Malvika happens to be a old school friend, whom i met after 6 years courtesy Social Networking . Since i have only 1000 Mb of space left on this blog, i shall register a new blog to introduce the epical stories of Malvika.



I am a person of very peculiar and sometimes strange likes and dislikes, and I guess the latter outnumbers the former. So I thought that since this is my first post, let me just pick something on which I have plenty to talk about-the ‘dislikes’. Sounds contrary to the title? Well, I don’t blame the readers! But seriously, I am going to discuss one serious ‘dislike’ of mine.

I often come across people saying, “I hate smokers”. And this is exactly what I seriously, positively DISLIKE. I really fail to understand the logic behind it. Let me dissect the statement now, in an effort to understand the deeper meaning hidden within the spaces. To hate “smokers” means hating people who smoke (we are not talking diesel buses here for god’s sake). I don’t as often hear people saying, “I hate nose diggers” or “I hate men peeing on the pavement” as much as “I hate smokers”.

If you are so against smoking why don’t you say “I hate Marlboro” or “I hate cigarette lighters”? That would really be more logical. Its insane to hate someone for a habit that only goes to harm him. And yes this reminds me of the good old rationale of ‘passive smoking’ which people often come up with as a defence to their hatred. To all those people who think passive smoking of cigarettes would kill them, honey, the vehicular pollution affects you much more adversely. So you can start saying “I hate automobiles”!

I can understand if someone says that he/she hates the habit of smoking, like Mahatma Gandhi said, “hate crime and not the criminal”. Just imagine you have a very dear friend who you have known for a very long time and share a great bond with. Will you start hating him if he starts smoking? Will he suddenly be a less of a friend or a lesser being? He would undoubtedly hold similar importance and significance in your life. In fact you might just become a lot more caring for his lungs. I fell in love with a person who smokes and that really changed nothing, just like it wouldn’t have mattered if he snored while sleeping.

People, smoking is just another habit and I urge you not to judge a person’s character by a single habit. It pains me to think that people who lie, cheat, deceive, bitch and backstab their own friends get more respect just because the don’t possess any of the so called “anti-social” habits.

I am not a chain smoker. I smoke like ten cigarettes annually, but some of my dearest friends smoke on a regular basis. And whenever they are subjected to this social bias just because of one habit and others ignore any talent or the kindness they possess, it hurts me to be a part of such morally blind society.

This article was a result of a long argument with another friend of mine who apparently “hated” smokers. I managed to change his stance to an extent and thus I decided to write this article with the hope of changing a few more ‘opinions’.

So as they say, in spite of all the inhibitions and doubts, “love thy neighbour”, we can also follow another modern ‘sister saying’ “Love Thy Smoker”

Reality Check --India US Nuclear Deal !!!

These are the best of times.
These are the worst of times.
Today when we have access to a breadth and depth of information, some of us still continue to live in a virtual world. While some of us live in a world away from cause and effect, some of us live a life which is more driven by the things happening around. The latest thing happening around forced me to share some of the facts and figures.

And while I write this post,I continue to wonder over the Intellectual Immaturity the Media has been creating. The image as portrayed by the media of the Indo US nuclear deal is nothing less then " a step towards the Utopian World".

The quick check on what people believe Nuclear Deal is –

* It offers uranium at cheaper cost
* It provides us rocket science technology for Nuclear Energy.
* It offers us Cheap Reactors.

They believe so because they have been told by MEDIA –

· It provides us access to Latest Technology

---strengthening indigenous program.

· Access to Uranium and Reactors

---To help our power generation.



Reality Check –

· Since we use HW reactors, Fast breed reactors that are based on Thorium Utilization (a technology that is much better then Uranium based reactors) and we have 90% components that are indigenous ,why the hell do we need Tech Imports ?

· We have Uranium resources sufficient only for 10000 reactors,in a world where we hardly have 140 reactors operating.

· Quality of ore possessed by us varies from 0.1% to 14 -15% ,where as the Uranium Hubs in the world including Australia-Kazakhstan's exported ore is of < 0.1% quality.

· There is enough Uranium for all the Nuclear Supplier Countries but just not for us the lesser mortals.

· We are signing off with a nation that REFUSED TO ACCEPT US AS A NUCLEAR POWER AFTER POKHRAN.

Reality check for the Media---

Integrated Energy Policy, Volume I ,Xxii

---"Even if a 20 fold increase takes place in India's Nuclear capacity by 2031-2032 ,the contribution of India's nuclear power to energy generation, at best is expected to be 4 -6.4 %

For possibility of such a marginal contribution, our Government and Media are hell bound over mortgaging our strategic interests.

Growth of Nuclear power is indeed a definite solution for Energy Crisis and need of the hour but rather than continuing with the perpetual dependency and import we can explore our options and expand our capabilities.

Last but not the least—

Some more misconceptions—

1. 1.GOVT must see some point in this

* At a point in history our govt went to the extent of buying Cowdung
* We bought pulses,rice,wheat at very high costs while our farmers were waiting for their crops to be sold at nominal prices.
* We want to have One Laptop One Child program ,when we are struggling with figures at Primary level !!!

2. The Media –they cannot be stupid !!

Those who still believe in present media please mail me back, I have better reasons to not to trust them.


Facts and figures --
Collected by Anurag tripathi- anurag.r.tripathi@gmail.com-Phd Student -Dept of Chemical-IIT Bombay from Talks by Arun Shourie ,P.K.Iyengar,A.N.Prasad

Reality Check-Indo US nuclear Deal -

These are the best of times. These are the worst of times. Today when we have access to a breadth and depth of information, some of us still continue to live in a virtual world. While some of us live in a world away from cause and effect, some of us live a life which is more driven by the things happening around. The latest thing happening around forced me to gather few quick data analysis on "Indo-US Nuclear Deal".

And while I write this post,I continue to wonder over the Intellectual Immaturity the Media has been creating. The image as portrayed by the media of the Indo US nuclear deal is nothing less then " a step towards the Utopian World".

The quick check on what people believe Nuclear Deal is –

· It offers uranium at cheaper cost

· I T provides us rocket science technology for Nuclear Energy.

· It offers us Cheap Reactors.

They believe so because they have been told by MEDIA –

· It provides us access to Latest Technology

---strengthening indigenous program.

· Access to Uranium and Reactors

---To help our power generation.

Reality Check –

1. Since we use HW reactors, Fast breed reactors that are based on Thorium Utilization (a technology that is much better then Uranium based reactors) and we have 90% components that are indigenous ,why the hell do we need Tech Imports ?

2. We have Uranium resources sufficient only for 10000 reactors,in a world where we hardly have 140 reactors operating.

3. Quality of ore possessed by us varies from 0.1% to 14 -15% ,where as the Uranium Hubs in the world including Australia-Kazakhstan's exported ore is of <>

4. There is enough Uranium for all the Nuclear Supplier Countries but just not for us the lesser mortals.

5. We are signing off with a nation that REFUSED TO ACCEPT US AS A NUCLEAR POWER AFTER POKHRAN.

Reality check for the Media---

Integrated Energy Policy, Volume I ,Xxii

---"Even if a 20 fold increase takes place in India's Nuclear capacity by 2031-2032 ,the contribution of India's nuclear power to energy generation, at best is expected to be 4 -6.4 %

For possibility of such a marginal contribution, our Government and Media are hell bound over mortgaging our strategic interests.

Growth of Nuclear power is indeed a definite solution for Energy Crisis and need of the hour but rather than continuing with the perpetual dependency and import we can explore our options and expand our capabilities.

Last but not the least—

Some more misconceptions—

1. GOVT must see some point in this

· At a point in history our govt went to the extent of buying Cowdung

· We bought pulses,rice,wheat at very high costs while our farmers were waiting for their crops to be sold at nominal prices.

· We want to have One Laptop One Child program ,when we are struggling with figures at Primary level !!!

2. ShivSena is supporting them –Can they spell the word "uranium"?

3. The Media –they cannot be stupid !!

Those who still believe in present media please mail me back, I have better reasons to not to trust them.