Ahemm..first my apologies for tying a camel’s tail to a pony’s tail – this post is akin to that. Totally 2 unrelated disciplines being compared 🙂

Agile – as you know is what we use to create kickass products.

Spiritualism is to me the exploration of the Why? – Why are we happy, or sad. Why did we come on earth, why we die?

I practise Agile at work, and explore Spiritualism constantly in all things.

During one of my meditations it hit me – A developer practising Agile, and what Spirituality teaches us are so common.

The Now

Our mind is like a pendulum. It either swings to the past – oh I did this, said this, he spoke rudely to me that day, I missed giving a good repartee .. or swings to the future – oh what will happen if I don’t file my tax returns, what if I confront my colleague tomorrow.. it goes on and on – swinging back and forth. And when the pendulum hits the Now – it is where happiness is – pure unblemished joy. It stays for a fleeting second.. and then goes on to dwell in the past or future – leaving the joy as a memory.

We try to get to the now.. and hang on to it – and it is a lifetime’s effort to get there – and then you get enlightened… perhaps.

When I first heard of a “Story” – in the Agile context – I was told to focus on that story alone while developing. Not to worry about the future stories in the pipeline, or the changes in requirement that might or might not come, or what the nearby developer pair is working upon. Focus on just your story, and do a great job on it. Everything will turn out to be just right.

As a developer, as you focus on just the story ( with a little cross-eye on an open ended design ) the outcome will be 100% Bug free and your story will sail to QA complete effortlessly.. and then you hit God Mode in your team.

The Now is your Story.

Death & Failure

As you get more spiritual you get more comfortable with Death – the big end. Because you know it is not the end, but the beginning of another adventure. You will be tossing out all that you earned, and will have to start all over again. However some of the intelligence you acquired – will come to help in the next adventure. Dejavu, Gut instinct, Karma are all that.

There is a parallel in Agile as well. It taught me to scrap everything I had worked, and start from scratch if there is a need – Agile is comfortable with change and does not crib ( unlike giving a big Change Requirement Document and a bill ) My backyard has many dead bodies – some unfinished abandoned projects and some code, some perfectly working stuff.. but had to be archived and might never get opened again. However, someday it will all come to use. Even if the Story I worked on never gets to production or the project fails to see the light of the day – the learnings are enormous.

Most of the good discipline I picked are from failures – either from my own handiwork, or watching other developers mess up.

Celebrate Death & Failure!

Discipline

One can read as much as you want on Spiritual books, or listen to all the lectures from Spiritual Gurus – but the real joy is in practising it – in a disciplined manner.  Only when you sit down to meditate do you experience bliss. For best results – lot many things have to be followed – like food habits, health routine, sincerity of actions, purity in thought.. Break any one of them – you get nothing in the end.

Again for an Agile project to be successful – just reading books and viewing lectures from Agile Thinkers is not sufficient – the team has to be disciplined at every step. Standups, near abstract stories, continuous builds, unit tests, automated tests, periodic showcases…. break any one of them and the project is doomed.

God speed my Agile Developer friends!

Yours Truly
The Agile Guru 🙂

This post is a 101 Introduction to Raspberry Pi.  I will show you how to use a Raspberry Pi to create an Apple TV, Chromecast equivalent, and also read and push your home temperature to a server.

It is the best time to be a geek! There is 3G everywhere and 8MB Bandwidth at home and office. Geeks everywhere carry a super computer in their pocket now!

TBs of storage are now available for a dime. Everything is backed up realtime to the cloud. Even if you lose your device or hard drive crashes, it can all be downloaded back. Maps and GPS Accuracy is spot on. The stuff geeks have now makes James Bond look like a kid showing off in a School Science project.

And we need not deal with Windows or IE anymore. It is either Android or iOS or Ubuntu or OS X.

And then comes this Raspberry Pi to the party – from the open source hardware movement – a cute little computer – the size of a palm – which costs just Rs. 2,500 and can do a hell lot of things.

How to procure a Raspberry Pi

I got mine from Amazon.in – protocentral was the vendor. Just the raspberry pi ( motherboard, 4 USB, HDMI port, ethernet port ) will be 2,500. I also got a kit which had a SD card with the OSes, USB dongle, a breadboard, a few resistors, a capacitor and a power supply (which blew off). Also ordered a DHT11 a temperature and humidity sensor – it is 99Rs. It all came to Rs.5000.

Raspberry Pi or Arduino?

Just like the yin-yangs of vi emacs, android iOS, raspberry pi also has a yang – it is this Arduino. While Raspberry Pi is from UK, Arduino is from Italy. From what I learnt Raspberry Pi is good for beginners – understands Python and is more general purpose and can only talk digital. Arduino needs C ( segmentation fault – thought I had broken up with you) and is more rugged and can talk analog.

Some say start your prototype on Pi, then manufacture on arduino. Might know more about this as I keep digging.

Setting up Pi

Apart from Pi you will need these things

1. A TV with HDMI input
2. A keyboard
3. Mouse
4. 8GB or more SD Cards
5. Ethernet cable, and a router ( alternative is to share wifi on laptop over ethernet port )
6. A laptop/desktop – to format SD Card

Raspbmc 

If you have a spare SD Card, format it to Fat. Then download Noobs Lite – Network Install Only – http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/, unzip and copy the entire folder contents into the root of the SD Card.

Boot the Pi with the SD Card, and it will show an option with a few OSes.  Choose Raspbmc – this is
the XBMC port and turns your Tv into a Smart Tv.

Here you will have to connect your Pi to the router through the ethernet port – so it can download the OS ( around 700MB ). The setup is entirely automatic and does not ask for any configuration. The default user account is pi and password is raspberry.

There are so many Add-ons and settings that are available – like a Youtube Add-on, or a subtitles Add-on for Movies. There is also a free XBMC Remote app on iOS and Android  with which you can connect to the Pi to control TV.

Raspbian

This is a regular light weight debian port. Works quite well in the puny pi. You can get another SD Card and install Raspbian ( same steps as raspbmc above ) – so you can swap the 2 sdcards.   There is also a multi boot option so you can boot into Raspbmc or Raspbian or more. I did not try this.

Say Hi to GPIO

GPIO – General Purpose Input Output. This is where things get interesting. There are 8 pins which can either send a 5V voltage, or receive a signal.

I wired the DHT 11 – Temperature and Humidity sensor to the Pi and was able to read the settings. Was quite easy.

1. The circuit layout I got here : https://chrisbaume.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/beer-monitoring/. Looks scary – but it is actually a very simple circuit. My skills are not that great, just followed the circuit to the T and it worked at the first try.

2. Get the Adafruit drivers and see if you can read the sensor.

git clone git://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Raspberry-Pi-Python-Code.git .

cd Adafruit_DHT_Driver #go to the folder where DHT driver is present

Adafruit_DHT 11 14 #11 is for DHT11 sensor, 14 is the Pin I used

If you get temp and hum in output with numbers, then the circuit is working fine. Sometimes it will not give any reading, and a hex error will show up.

3. Next is to push this to a server. Again it is super easy.

First – create an account at thingspeak.com and get a key.

I created a shell script which will call this python script with the temperature as argument. Then this script will post the readings to thingspeak.

Shell Script :
#!/bin/sh
SCRIPT=”/home/pi/playground/Adafruit_DHT_Driver/Adafruit_DHT 11 14″
TEMPERATURE=`$SCRIPT | grep “Temp” | awk -F ” ” ‘{print $3}’`
echo “$TEMPERATURE”
HITTHING=”/home/pi/playground/mycode/kandivali_temp $TEMPERATURE  “
THINGSPEAK=`$HITTHING`

Python Script :

#! /usr/bin/python
import datetime
import logging
import time
import httplib, urllib
import sys

# The feed id and API key that is needed
thingSpeakKey = “getyourownkey”
tempvar=”nil” 
for arg in sys.argv:
 tempvar = arg
if (tempvar != ‘/home/pi/playground/mycode/kandivali_temp’):
 print “Updating ThingSpeak “, time.strftime(“%A, %B %d at %H:%M:%S”) 

 params = urllib.urlencode({‘field1’: tempvar, ‘key’:thingSpeakKey})
 headers = {“Content-type”: “application/x-www-form-urlencoded”, “Accept”: “text/plain”}
 conn = httplib.HTTPConnection(“api.thingspeak.com:80”)
 conn.request(“POST”, “/update”, params, headers)
 response = conn.getresponse()
 print “Thingspeak Response:”, response.status, response.reason

 if (response.reason != ‘OK’):
  print “Problem, “, response.status, response.reason

Here are a few readings I got – https://thingspeak.com/channels/25022

Next step would be to merge the shell script with Python ( still learning ), and run this as a cron job every 3 minutes or so.

The above concept is “Hello World” equivalent of Internet of Things. I can connect to any sensor, and   when things go bad – ( lets say the temperature starts spiking ), can send a notification on a phone to someone. The possibilities are infinite.

Some Gotchas

* Pi is configured to UK Locale by default. When you hit Shift 2 ( to get the @ symbol ) you will get a Pound symbol – and so on. It is annoying. Just go to /etc/default/keyboard and set it to US and reboot.

* I connected an external Hard drive, and Pi was not detecting it. The external hard drive needed a power source before Pi could detect it.

* Pi can be connected to a USB port of the laptop. Need not  hunt for a free power slot. Figured this out after the usb power plug blew up.

* Looking at TV and typing tires the eyes. Instead set a Static DHCP IP and then ssh to pi using Putty if you are on windows  ( ssh pi@192.168.1.111, password raspberry ) and can use your laptop’s keyboard.

Happy Baking!

Way back in 2000, I first heard about man purse in a Seinfeld episode and had a good laugh. Little more than a decade later,  I find myself using one. Here is me defending in the court on why I use a man purse.

Your Honour, Men needed just a few essentials those days. A purse/wallet + keys, a mobile phone + a hand kerchief and a comb on the back pocket. Real men don’t need to carry a pocket note book. They write stuff and lose it behind credit card acknowledgements.

If you were a metrosexual male then you will need a deo, a face wash, a mouth freshner, a hair gel, a hair spray, a hand sanitizer, a hand moisturiser, a sunscreen etc. – you would have dragged all these in a suitcase – and guys like you would have been husbanded soon and you will still be dragging that suitcase but with the kids diaper or the missus’s stuff. I am digressing. Back to the defence.

Some men carry a book to impress women but then it is best carried in hand – otherwise what is the point.

Then iPods came. And we could still squeeze it in along with the cell phone. And on vacation men will typically wear those cargo pants with pockets near the kneecap and can carry a point and shoot, extra 8MB memory cards and even spare batteries. Not a problem. 

Then Steve jobs re-invented the phone and for a brief time I thought – wow – now I can carry my phone, iPod, book, music, camera – all in one. Back to good old 2 pocket days. 

I was so wrong. 

With more power, comes poor battery life. While on the road, heavy GPS Usage, or even reading and responding to emails on the move would drain battery and the phone will not last even half a day. 

So had to carry a battery backup, charger, and the cable. 

Then I started using the iPad and fell in love with it. It is so convenient to respond to emails, read a book, or a magazine or play those gorgeous games.. and I could not fold it and put it inside my pocket. 

Then I saw how women were enjoying a blissful life carrying all the paraphernalia in their hand bags.   Same time I spotted hipsters carrying those smart man purses and got tempted. Perhaps I should get one too. 

After I moved to Mumbai I felt liberated. No one gave a hoot to what you were doing. All are so engrossed in inventing an excuse for arriving late for a meeting – they do not have time to glance at you and pass a judgement. 

I kept looking – most looked like a laptop bag, or the sales man tried to sell a woman’s handbag..  and finally found the one made for me in a Hi Design Store.

Now it carries a lot many things – my bike papers, keys, smart cards, reserve cash, battery backup, battery backup’s backup, iPad, headphones, balaclava, cables, mouth fresher, deo… and so many that I am almost in the territory of a metrosexual man.

It gives a sense of peace – which is hard to describe. Your honour you have to experience this bliss. When you know your phone and iPad are fully charged and you can wait forever in a mall while the missus shops, or when waiting to pick up someone from the airport – you can listen to music without worry of draining the battery, or read a book, or write a blog post – like this one.

The defence rests its case. Hope the court will forgive me for laughing at the Man purse back in 2000.

And to my Man friends, get a Man Purse – why should women have all the fun!

Too many books to read…too short a life.

Here are my books roundup of 2010, 11, 12, 2013

After my 2013 post an ex-colleague of mine in TW, Apoorv, suggested some of his favourites.

Surely You’re Joking, Mr.Feynman!
by Richard P.Feynman

Feynman is this famous Theoretical Physicist who was involved in the top secret Atomic bomb project that brought World War II to an end. He also won the Nobel Prize for his work in Quantum Physics. Theoretical Physicists should be boring guys right? Wrong! He is one hell of a guy. The book is full of  pranks he played on others, observations of how ants march around and the experiments he did with them, how he mastered the drums in Brazil, how he learnt Portuguese, experienced astral projection on salt tanks.. it is an endless list. I am writing this post almost after a year and still Feynman’s jaunts are fresh in my memory.

Thanks to you Apoorv, 2014 got to a brilliant start.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman

Buoyed on by the success of Feyman, I took up this second book. It was outright hilarious to the core. How the demons will try to create havoc and everything will go wrong. The Omen kid will be a dud and they will try to salvage the situation.

But I quickly lost interest – this might be strange – but I was never a fan of the British style writing. Have given up on Ask Jeeves too – sorry Jeeves fans!

This book is hilarious at first but then I got bored quickly – the humour becomes monotonous and the laugh turned into a smile to an acknowledgement to a hmm and I stopped.

A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hoseni

What was I thinking when I picked this one up. Perhaps it was too much humour and I wanted to bury myself in sorrow. This book started alright, but it got darker and darker. And more darker and more depressing. And even more depressing and more tragedy started coming in endless procession. Mariam and her husband’s second wife with her baby try to run away to Pakistan from Kabul and they get cheated and were sitting in the Police station pleading the policeman not to tell their husband. And I could not take it any longer.

Stay away from this even if you are a sucker for these kind of stories – will put you in depression all day. Why does anyone write these things?…. sheesh.

Buddha ( Volumes 1 thru 7 )
By Osama Tezuka

This is a Manga style comic and is a brilliant portrayal of Buddha and his life. And ton of work has gone into creating this magnum opus. Each page has got so much detail that I would not like to turn the page. Have to take it in slowly and let the content sink in. I first planned to read one volume a month. But by May I could not wait any longer and finished the rest in May itself.

Strongly recommend – won’t make you a Buddhist – yes there are a few Buddhist gyan spread out – but its too less and not impactful – but you will enjoy the story of how a religion was born and how Buddha struggled all along.

Adultery
By Paulo Coelho

My all time favourite author’s new book. Was a dud. A perfect challenging life as a Journalist, a loving Husband, two kids, living in the best place on earth – Switzerland and she decides to ruin it all by committing adultery – why? Well read the book for the pages and pages of justification.

Towards the end she and her husband do a para gliding session and she becomes an eagle in her mind and reforms herself – this part is why I worship Paulo Coelho. Just for this brief part towards the end I forgive you Paulo! Awaiting your next book.

And you can give this a pass. And Winner stands alone too. Pick up any work of his and get yourself spiritually entertained.

Three Body Problem
by Cixin Liu

This is a Science Fiction out of China – not that well known but it should be. I rank it along with Dune and Enders World. Involves Aliens and Multi Dimensions.

If Interstellar gave you a headache because of 4 dimensions in the end –  the story goes into 11 dimensions. There is Virtual Reality, bit of History of Civilisation and Quantum Physics, Spirituality, Aliens and Nano material.

Very strong recommendation if you are a Sci Fi fan. Will love every page of this book.

Jupiter Travels : Four Years Around the World on a Triumph 
by Ted Simon

Mid 2014 I got stuck by the Biking virus – which seems to be striking all middle aged men. And one day I had to spend 6 hours in Delhi airport waiting for my flight. Was researching on bikes and stumbled on this very interesting book and thanks to Kindle had it in my iPad in no time and started reading. Oh I love technology. Years back in Bangalore, I read about an author called Neal Stephenson in Wired magazine and hunted for his books all across Bangalore – but could not find a single work of his. Later I got his books in Kindle.

Back to this book – this crazy British journalist decides to take his Triumph bike around the world. He starts just before the Egyptian war with Israel and rides his bike right across Africa till the very tip – and what a journey he has – with punctures, accidents, miraculous escapes, help from kind souls, thieves. He has a very holier than thou attitude at the beginning but it eases off and starts appreciating people more as the story progresses.

The story slows down after he crossed the Atlantic and is arrested and kept under lock up in a Brazil police station after being suspected of espionage. He is out now and is travelling across Argentina. I open this book whenever I am stuck with the routine virus – my passport to a different alternate life – as I ride pillion with him experiencing what his soul experienced some 5 decades back.

HyperSpace
By Michio Kaku

Interstellar woke up the suppressed curiosity in me about Space and Multi Dimensions.

This is a good book that tries to follow the hunt for the Grand Unified Theory. The new developments in Quantum Physics and how close are we to unravelling the truth about the universe. Reading this helped me understand Three body problem better on how the secret to the Universe is hidden in the sub atomic particles.

If you have read Brief History of time, which was written some 2 decades back I guess, this is a good continuation of it and covers the astonishing progress we have made during this time.

And for 2015…

The Martian

Already half way through – simply brilliant – this is the 2014 Book of the year as voted by GoodReads. And one of the important characters in the book is the head of Mars Mission – his name is Venkat Kapoor – and I find it very distracting 🙂

Being Mortal

I already got a recommendation for this by Prakash from my college.

One of Chetan Bhagat’s 

This year want to read Indian authors, and want to read the most successful writer of our times.

The Suitable Boy

It has got 1500 pages or so.. bring it on.

Bhagwad Gita 

The Art of Living course is based upon Bhagwad Gita. Also it is one of my life plans to read all the holy books across all religions. Let me start with the one easily accessible.

Calculus 

It is all rusted, and want to start from basics again – so I can understand String Theory and continue my Physics education. If you know of any good book do suggest me.

Got back from an exhilarating trip to Chennai.

I was filled with nostalgia – partly because of the campus, partly my old friends – and laughed my heart out like good old days.

However there were times when was discussing the not so happy moments. Will eat the frog first and get it out of the way.

Old Age and Cancer

We are all peeking into middle age, and our parents are peeking into old age. With it brings its own challenges. We are still building our careers and with both husband and wife working nowadays  it is difficult to provide round the clock care to our parents who need total care. A few of us are going through this phase now.

For San and I – after having relocated to Mumbai – we have no family / friend support system like we had in Bangalore – it is quite a challenge. Luckily there is a Startup in this area – Portea Medicals and they supply trained nursing attendants to come home and look after the patient. This might sound as a plug for Portea, but truth is – I am really thankful for this startup for their service – and also I am doing what I recommend  my Customers to do more (  http://venkat2.blogspot.in/2014/12/fight-good-fight-startups.html –  on Customers – Trust us, Refer Us )

The next thing we discussed was cancer. It has become as common as Heart Attack or Diabetes. A friend and his brother, a Pancreatic Cancer Specialist himself, were presented with a choice for their mother suspected of a cancerous growth and they together decided to skip surgery.  Thankfully the diagnose turned out to be negative. Also heard of stories where the battle was won.

Surgery is expensive, and it leaves the human body in tatters – and does not guarantee non occurrence. Not only that – the drugs they inject are expensive, and zero research happens in India – these drugs were tested on Western Patients – are they even suitable for our Gene Pool?

It is a tough choice and I dread to make a decision like this for my near and dear.

For myself I know what I want if such a day comes and I have to decide for myself – it will be love,whiskey wine and morphine – after this little inspiring article I read in ET recently.

So with this my friends, having eaten the frog – lets move on to the other fun stuff!

Passion

One of my friends – a final year Project mate of mine – is dabbling in short films and wants to direct a full featured film – there was a session on Passion – and I believe it would have fanned the flame in his heart. Go for it boss – the journey is what matters! #weRcheering4U

And the session was a riot – moderated by a “colourful” Super senior of us from 1984/85 batch – his CEG achievement – he was suspended for 6 months for having involved in a messy fight – when he stood up for his batch mates against ragging by seniors!

Madhan Karky, an ex-CEGian and also an ex-Professor of CompSci Dept was in the panel. He happens to be the son of the famous lyricist Vairamuthu. He explained how hard it is for him to make a mark in the film industry – under the shadow of a giant. He also said how he is mixing his passion ( writing lyrics ) with his CompSci background ( he writes code to mine rhymes ). #impressed

Entrepreneurs

A good friend of mine has started up in Silicon Valley – by my calculation it will be the 9th Startup to come out of 1998 EEE batch. Some day I will be able to write a full book on this prodigy batch of CEG!

One of my batchmates has now grown his Startup to a 200 employee company and is planning to take it to 500. #hellyeah

Another – a second generation entrepreneur has turned around a business, and is setting sights on the global market. Another has put his current one on cruise control, and is starting a new one. Some are in between jobs and twiddling their thumbs whether to start up.

Also I bumped into a 1960s pass out golden senior! He had recommended our startup to his community in the early days and even arranged for a demo with the management committee. I was so happy to see him .

Had lot of learnings on hiring, marketing, scaling.. With friends you can be open and candid – wish I had more time to chat. Was just like old days – when we used to study for exam and exchange notes – felt the same camaraderie still.

The biggest take away for me was to plan my work life and home life better. Right now it is tilted way too much towards work. One of my batch mates is single handedly managing both the company and home. #respect #inspired

The Trichy Story

One has relocated to Trichy from Bangalore and was heavily marketing the city – like how Narendra Modi campaigns for Gujarat – on how the BPO industry works, how it is super easy to get a CA for a song, how the rate is set for all skill sets ( pst..pst.. cartel  ) – something you never get to see in a magazine or TV expose!

And my friend is planning to run for an election here. Hats off buddy.. be the change. We are with you in this. #yeswecan

Make in India

I missed all the morning sessions ( long story – not important ). Post lunch attended sessions – one was on Make in India. It was about Manufacturing Industry. The challenges are different. Like poor quality vendor suppliers or lack of quality labour or BE students who do not know any of the technical jargon – having come out of a Tamil Medium. And what these industry stalwarts are doing to change things. #hatsoff

Also there was a heavy dose of advise for the students to take industry internships seriously and not just go there to hang out – but get on the shop floor and learn all they can during that time. It left me squirming in my seat – once I had an opportunity to spend the semester vacation in an Electrical company in Coimbatore but I choose to spend time at Orissa with my parents. Sitting there, 18 years later I realised I missed a great experience.  #waterhasflown

Health

A few of us have a healthy paunch! While it is a sign of prosperity – it is also a warning sign. Whenever discussion meandered into the belly girth, I suggested Standing Desk. Sit only for 1 to 1 meetings or to take phone calls, but when you are working – stand. Also try to have standing meetings – meetings are short, people speak less, are attentive and it is healthy.

Remember the new slogan – Sitting is the new Smoking!

Run, Cycle to work, Take Stairs, Standing desk – so many things one can mix in a daily routine. Yes I do it all! Was telling someone – I lost my dad to high BP and heart attack. My mother has diabetes – and I am not letting genetics decide my end game. #togoodhealthforall

So thats all folks.

May CEG and its tribe shine brighter & forever!

2014 is coming to a close.

It has been a very interesting time for Startups. A Government change, with it expectations, a rising economy – which in turn will benefit startups.

Billions of VC money flowing into the ecosystem. Traditional investors become Angels.

Here is my wishlist for Startups – new and old for 2015 – to Fight the Good Fight.

Gain Customers, not Facebook Likes

No Short Cuts please. Gaining traction, gaining customers is not easy. This is the most important metric for any Startup. Not the Facebook likes, Alexa ranking, Twitter Followers – these will come automatically once customers start signing up.

To gain customers – you need to have a kickass product. Not a 80% almost there product, but a 200% going beyond the wildest customer expectation product.

To reach there, it takes lot of hard work, lot of iterations – there is no short cut. 

Do not start a clone 

There are so many problems waiting to be solved. If you have 2 ideas – one which is never tried before ( like a Music Lyrics Translation site – for Indian Movie Songs across all languages ) against doing the same thing a Startup X is doing ( an E-Commerce, Grocery Delivery etc.) – do the one that has never been done before.

There is no guarantee either of the ideas will succeed – but with the never been tried before – you get the first mover advantage, there is a good chance you will get noticed, you can get Media to notice you, a team will form around you and will dream the dream you have.

Go the Distance

The biggest differentiation I see between US and Indian Startups – is not in the area of Technology. We are as technically advanced as US Startups.

The area where US Startups shine is they go the distance. They give an end-to-end solution – always. They do not stop short of solving the entire problem.

I see many startups who have reached 80%, and do not complete the entire 100% or go beyond 100%.

For eg. Dropbox – they did not stop with just Windows and Mac – but created installers for Linux – how much ever small the marker share for Linux was. Or Uber – the end to end seamless workflow they have built – something which our Ola, or Meru has not been able to do yet.

Customers – Trust Us, Refer Us 

This message is for Customers – start trusting us. Do not view Startups with suspicion. Transact Online, Pay Online, Give a chance to an idea, try that carpool, download that app, provide feedback – if the Startups succeed – so will you.

And please – please – pay for the value you receive. Just because FlipKart gives huge discounts do not arm twist Startups to give discounts. Not all startups are Flipkarts. Most are broke eking out a living and every Rupee you pay us is valuable – and we will give you 100X Value in return. 

And last request – you love our product – tell your friends, share it in Facebook, Tweet it, email your colleagues. Most of the startups do not have the budget to put a hoarding on a Billboard or play an Ad on TV – but your kind referral will take us a long way.

Big IT Company Employees

This message is for the Brilliant Techies sitting in the Big IT Companies, reading Rashmi Bansal  and attending Startup Events – put in your resignation papers and Start Up – or join a Start Up. We need you more than the Big IT Companies.

We have a huge pool of Technocrats in India – locked up in the Big IT Companies – and this base is larger than Silicon Valley.

Imagine if we all start hacking and forging new ideas – imagine what we will create!

Here is looking forward to a happening 2015 – a Bigger, Better, Beautiful StartUp World.

After the Vibram law suit, I got disillusioned with Bare foot running. Also running on Mumbai Roads, bare foot is not practical – it is dangerous.

I ran barefoot for about 6 months ( on Sports Authority of India’s track in Kandivali), then switched to Bata shoe… which got worn out pretty quickly.

Then I switched to Nike Free Run 3, and for the last 2 years this has been my running shoe. I have clocked close to 930Kms on this and the soles have worn off pretty well.

I enquired about Nike Run 5, and it was close to 9k. I literally stopped on my tracks – this is crazy.

Couple of weeks back, San pointed to a Sale in the Puma shop next to our office. I looked around, and found this interesting shoe – the Puma Mobium.

The sales guy knew about running and said this is not a heels strikers shoe, but more of a front to mid foot runner’s. This is the ideal way to run from what I have researched.

This was also 9k, but they had 40% off. Did a few trial runs in the store and liked it.

I have been running 5ks the last few runs, and today went for 8.6Kms ( wanted to do a 10k, but stop signal came to brain and I couldn’t over come it ). It is quite good. I find I did not do heel strikes anymore, and I was landing more on the mid foot. With Nike, if I do not focus, I will invariably do a few heel strikes before I realize and remind myself to land more on the mid foot.

The pace is slightly better.. don’t know if it is a placebo kind of thing, or the new shoe did really help a bit.

Also, this shoe breathes well – on windy stretches I felt the wind inside my feet. Will know once the summer arrives – if this will prevent blisters.

The shoe is a bit flashy – a few years back I would have said ewww.. but I am getting younger you see – got appreciation from Prithvi’s school friends while we were waiting for the School Bus.

It has been 4 months since I started practising Sudarshan Kriya – I learnt in Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Guruji’s Art of Living course.

I do some deep, slow, fast, medium paced breathing.. as per the instructions – for some half an hour – almost on a daily basis. And have got some wonderful effects.

Anger

It is a goner. I don’t outrage anymore – like I used to. I do feel I am a little slow when I am confronted.  But it gives me time to think and react – instead of just shooting from the hip and later feeling bad for having reacted the wrong way.

I can think back how I was 4 months back – where I was stressed and frustrated most of the time – and how I am today – a world of difference. I don’t know if people around me can see it, but internally I feel I am more in control, patient and at peace.

Clarity in Thought

If you are a full time wearer of corrective glasses, and once in a while when you wipe it clean the whole world looks sharper. It is a similar feeling. The world looks clearer and beautiful – I see the sky and sun more often and admire its beauty. The plants in our balcony, and the Apartment Complex’s landscape are more greener and visible all of a sudden. The kids, stray dogs – all look cuter. The world has always been the same, but looks much different, much beautiful and loving.

Single Tasking

Part of my frustration earlier was I could not do all the things I wanted to do. Even while I work my mind will be planning the next few tasks – or I will keep switching tasks and will end up doing nothing – and will get more frustrated.

All this has changed the last few months. I do only few tasks – high priority ones – and do them one at a time. The task that I am doing, I do it with full attention. Even if a few tasks do not get completed, I do not get frustrated.

End of the day I feel I have accomplished a lot, and my productivity / throughput has increased tremendously.

Living in the Now

Earlier when I used to play with my kid, my hands will be throwing or catching the ball and I will be doing it mechanically. The mind will be off somewhere thinking of a bug, or a feature to be written, or outraging on some twitter post I read. Nowadays I give him the full attention and play whole heartedly just like a kid. I have read so much of being mindful – and wondered will I ever be able to do it like how they describe – well I am slowly getting a hang of it. Still far away from being totally in the now – but with lot of practise I can get to it. There are so many tasks that I perform in a day to practise and become good at it.

The best state of mind I ever had was immediately after the 4 day Art of Silence course I attended. The effect lingered for almost a month, and slowly dissipated. Nowadays I briefly get into the same state mostly after doing Sudarshan Kriya and will last for sometime but not the entire day. Might have to go for one more 4 day course to recharge and find out how to be in this state all the time.

Art of Living Course is the find of 2014 for me. Thank you Guruji for having created this course.

I attended a 4 day Art of Silence course – conducted by Art of Living foundation.

It was mind blowing.

Day 1 

I was one of the very few newbies. 95% of the participants were repeating the course – some even for the 14th time. This course happens every week in Bangalore Ashram. In Mumbai it is conducted twice a year – it is like a special program for the busy bodies we Mumbaikars are.

We do some mini games, some gyan, getting to chat up with the fellow participants ( 58 were there in total ) – bank executives, marketing specialists, students, young professionals, retired gentlemen, elderly ladies – what a mix! Then slowly gradually Sangeeta Didi ( she is one of the earliest disciples / teachers with Guruji Sri Sri Ravishankar ) introduced us to the concept of silence and gave a practical suggestion to call home and inform before hand – that when I come home I will not communicate – not even a nod of the head, or SMS, or email or chit of paper. Also was not supposed to read a book, listen to music, watch TV – or any distracting activity. Have to fully be with me, myself and my mind.

I turned off Cellular access, Wifi on my phone – so no notifications will show up and distract me.

Day 2 

I pick up a headache early in the day which will just not go away. One after the other meditations followed – all were guided meditations. My mind was going nuts. It was jumping with  joy – of getting the entire stage and that too with the entire limelight, infinite red bull supply, a nice comfy sofa for it to sit and a nice quiet auditorium – with just one audience who has to listen to everything and anything it wanted to think,sing,speak – ugh.

While I was undergoing meditation it was comforting. Moment it was over the chatter will start to give me a head splitting headache.

They had arranged for a nice SatSang – the only time we are allowed to open our mouth and sing – but  mostly it was only Chants. For a brief while when I immersed myself in the singing the headache went away – but moment it was over the headache was back.

That night I had a tough time going to sleep. But had a nice deep sleep once I fell asleep.

Day 3


When I woke up I checked – there was no headache. Reached on time ( 7 : 00 AM ), did the yoga – Padmasan – for the first time in my life – then Sudarshan Kriya – and felt great.

Had to eat food quietly. Since I cannot make eye contact with the other person sitting in the table I had to stare into the plate, the spoon, the food – and eat. Quiet mindful eating. And the Satvic food (no onions or garlic ) tasted so good. Loved it in fact. It was all Marwari and Jain dishes and enjoyed fully.

Then more guided meditation one after the other with short breaks inbetween. No headaches – I was at peace with that mind fellow and it was being in bliss the entire day. There was one meditation in motion – which was so painful but yet so wonderful when it was over. Actually the coach – Sangeeta Didi – was so encouraging and I was able to pull it off. I will not spoil it if you are going to attend this course some day. Ask me in person I will show how it is was done.

Meanwhile the back started hurting. I stand the entire day at work nowadays so thought my back was strong, but sitting all day on the floor started giving me trouble. I saw quite a few folks have a yoga chair. Actually on day 1 they brought it for sales – I the brave thought – huh – this is for oldies. I am this fit guy and nothing can break me. And I oh so wanted the yoga chair. Think of a chair without any legs. You can nicely comfily sit on it for hours and hours and medidate. Grrr.

Anyway – coming back to the story. Evening it was Satsang. I was very much at peace. Was in love with the world. Wrote a letter to myself – which I can read when I go back to the wild world.

The chants started. The live tabla, the guitar, the melodious voice – all started some reaction within me. I was so grateful – like I have never been ever before. For my parents, for Sangeeta Didi, for Sangeeta, for Guruji – for everyone – and I wanted to badly go thank Sangeeta Didi while she was leaving – but remembered I am not to speak – and I choked literally. And   tears started flowing. Islands don’t cry and neither do I. It was weird. I was smiling at myself all teared up but did not want the emotion to go away so switched off the mind who had started its ego game and just bathed in the moment.

I end the story here.

It was an amazing adventure. There is a whole lot of mystery waiting to be uncovered.

Before I close had to thank Sangeeta. ApartmentADDA had an unexpected front page coverage in Times of India, Mumbai on Monday and demos had filled up like anything over the weekend. I volunteered to skip the course and do a few demos ( was looking for an excuse as I was not sure if I can cope 4 days of silence and the unknown) but Sangeeta was stern that I attend and I am thankful for her. She said she will handle them. And she was giving marathon demos that weekend when I was sitting in bliss – and Sunday evening when I met her she had lost her voice.

And by sheer co-incidence, Sep 18, 2008 is when I wrote the first line of code for ApartmentADDA. This silence course started on Sep 18, 2014. Makes me wonder is it all pre-programmed?

Jai Gurudev.

I was reading Madras Day celebrations everywhere and was feeling nostalgic on Chennai. There are so many memories in that hottest city on the planet.

I remember bike rides – on those long beautiful stretches between Guindy and Mount Road via Kotturpuram bridge. And the nice shady stretches at TTK Road. And the curvy road at Beasant Nagar  ( last I visited they had bumpers on the curve – bummer ). And the last few years before I left in 2000 – the Velachery to Shollinganallur stretch via Medavakkam and the god awesome crash I had on Mahabalipuram road trying to see how far the needle goes in a Splendour. ( It did not go beyond 85kmph )

And food. The Ponnuswamy’s and Anjappar’s – alas – I might not be able to indulge there anymore having turned a meeto-taller ( like teeto-taller – you will see it in oxford dictionary next year 😀 ). The   bread omlette at High Look bar – next to IIT – at night 2am. The kotthu porrotta at Mangudi mess. The Fried rice at the Road side Chinese shop. The Saravana Bhavan mini meals – and the coffee.. which elevates you to heaven at every sip.

Fruit Shop on Greams Road and Qwikys. Have spent hours with friends discussing on the future and ideas and nothings.

Eloor lending library. Spent a fortune there. Read the entire Calvin & Hobbes collection.I had gone to say hi to a school friend of mine ( how I met him is a puzzle – no phone, no email, no facebook those days ) – he was a copy writer that time – he gave me a photocopy of Calvin & Hobbes and it piqued my interest. Through him had an opportunity to attend an oscar like awards ceremony for Advertisers.

The temples. The one at Beasant Nagar on a sea shore with the sea breeze and jasmine flowers and gaudy sarees. The one at Mylapore which is like a journey through time. The live carnatic music and the pious looking sincere faces.

Central. So many pickups and drops.  Blue mountain – the most sought after train to and from Coimbatore – and the groggy eyed trips to CEG from the station on a Monday morning.

The Beaches. Have so many memories. Everytime I go they all come back flooding to me. I have visited Beasant Nagar beach  so many times – with so many of my friends and family.

And CEG. Met so many humble smart intellectuals. Made so many friends. One of them turned to become more than a friend and later my life partner. Went from an introvert to someone who can pass off as an extrovert ( still I am an introvert at heart ). CEG put the mojo in me – that I can pull off anything.

The wife calls ourself as Banjaras and we are never rooted to any place. Every few years we pack our pot and kettles and move.  She has a kind of love hate relationship with Chennai. But mostly its love I believe. Chennai still tugs my heart – despite the heat withstanding. I keep seeding her now and then – why not Chennai for the next stop.

Oh Chennai, my Chennai – stay young and conservative and don’t change – I love you the way you are.