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According to me I believe that though you always have a choice from which you decide, we look at it as a single option.  Though we consider decision making as a “VARAM”  the ability to use it is always a tough task.  To stay back in US or go back to India are two choices we have,  But we consider them as only one option i.e what are we presently used to and what would we loose if we leave US.  Cant one think that this is an opportunity to gain back what they have lost?  those are the only precious and  priceless things which we have lost during the journey to the false paradise !

The other day I had listened to a talk given by Sheena Iyengar in TED about art of choosing (I have given the website link below) and was really surprised about the people’s perspective of looking at their choices. I wondered if its related to our decision to stay back and yet have a dissatisfaction of not being in our country.  Though the statement can be implied other way too !

Satisfaction and Happiness is something more than comfort and enjoyment.  I would like the readers to give it a small thought !

Watch Sheena Iyengar’s TED talk below:

As a part of my initial effort to write an article,  I would like to thank TG for giving me this opportunity. I hope  you find my first article interesting ! 

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In the CEO’s words:

The Epic Browser is the first-ever web browser for India and the first product from the software company Hidden Reflex.

Hidden Reflex is a software product startup founded by Alok Bhardwaj in 2007 and based in Bangalore. Alok, who was raised in the U.S., was inspired by the success of open source software and web 2.0 innovations. Hidden Reflex began as a team of three but soon progressed and now has dedicated teams working on two products simultaneously – the Epic Browser and NewsDrink. The company also has three patents pending related to its product innovations.

The company’s vision is to become the first globally recognized, consumer-oriented software product company in India. According to Alok Bhardwaj, CEO and Founder of Hidden Reflex, “We want to prove that India can be a hub for innovation in software and technology.”

Our mission with the Epic browser is to create the most secure, most productive and most “Indian” browsing experience of any web browser!

PC world’s review:

An Indian startup company Hidden Reflex has launched first ever web browser from India. Epic has been stuffed with many features and applications. It has something which we have never heard of before, an integrated antivirus protection in a browser. The built in antivirus and antispyware is powered by ESET. The browser has a sidebar with lot of widgets already installed such as skins, maps, jobs, news, gmail, yahoo, games and many more. Epic claims to have around 1500 free applications which can be added in the browser.

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Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Orkut are also included in the sidebar. You can log in to your account and on the same time continue working on other things. There are many utility functions in the Epic Browser which I liked. It has a free word processor, a to do tool, snippet app, timer and most importantly it allows you to access your files and folder from the browser itself. It also has an application called Indic which allows you to type in many Indian languages. Hidden Reflex claims that the browser supports 12 Indian languages currently. The browser also allows you to watch videos from YouTube in a small window, so that you can browse other websites while watching videos.

Epic Web Browser is build on Mozilla Firefox and is customized for the taste of Indian users. We liked the look, feel and speed of the browser and is definitely worth trying. Get the browser here.

Open source seems to be of great help in competing against the biggies in the browser market. Microsoft‘s Internet Explorer seems to be on its way down with a combination of bugs, regulatory bodies asking MS to have a browser ballot and other browsers gaining market share. Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome, Opera, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Internet Explorer are some of the web browsers jostling for a share of the pie and gain share.

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Read the news via eenadu.net

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Here we go (via Huffington Post) …

Joel Stein says he was going for humor in his opinion piece, “My Own Private India,” which ran in Monday’s TIME Magazine. But the Indian-American community — members of which serve as the butt of many of Stein’s jokes — aren’t laughing.

Stein’s piece focuses on the cultural changes immigration has brought to his hometown of Edison, N.J. since he grew up there in the 1970′s and 80′s:

“I am very much in favor of immigration everywhere in the U.S. except Edison, N.J. The mostly white suburban town I left when I graduated from high school in 1989 — the town that was called Menlo Park when Thomas Alva Edison set up shop there and was later renamed in his honor — has become home to one of the biggest Indian communities in the U.S., as familiar to people in India as how to instruct stupid Americans to reboot their Internet routers….

For a while, we assumed all Indians were geniuses. Then, in the 1980s, the doctors and engineers brought over their merchant cousins, and we were no longer so sure about the genius thing. In the 1990s, the not-as-brilliant merchants brought their even-less-bright cousins, and we started to understand why India is so damn poor.

Stein’s cracks are not exclusively directed at Indian immigrants — he pokes fun at himself and his (presumably white) childhood friends:

“The A&P I shoplifted from is now an Indian grocery. The multiplex where we snuck into R-rated movies now shows only Bollywood films and serves samosas,” wrote Mr. Stein. “The Italian restaurant that my friends stole cash from as waiters is now Moghul, one of the most famous Indian restaurants in the country. There is an entire generation of white children in Edison who have nowhere to learn crime.”

Several organizations have responded with outrage, criticizing TIME‘s decision to publish the article. For example, the advocacy group South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) issued a statement and online petition in response to Stein’s piece.

“Most offensive is his remarkably blasé tone about the discrimination and hate crimes that targeted the New Jersey South Asian Community during the 1980s,” the SAALT statement reads.

Both Stein and TIME have issued online apologies, saying they never intended to offend readers.

Time reacts to criticism…

We sincerely regret that any of our readers were upset by Joel Stein’s recent humor column “My Own Private India.” It was in no way intended to cause offense.

Stein repents..

I truly feel stomach-sick that I hurt so many people. I was trying to explain how, as someone who believes that immigration has enriched American life and my hometown in particular, I was shocked that I could feel a tiny bit uncomfortable with my changing town when I went to visit it. If we could understand that reaction, we’d be better equipped to debate people on the other side of the immigration issue.

—————-

What do you think? If you are a Desi, are you offended?

Or, is this big ado about nothing?

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Via Rediff:  RTI raises fresh doubts over Bhopal case

Did the Indian government guarantee Dow Chemicals, the parent company of Union Carbide, that it will not be held liable for the Bhopal gas tragedy?

An RTI response has raised fresh questions over the government’s position in the case, as it brought to light a letter written in 2006 by Dow Chemicals CEO Andrew Liveris to the then Indian Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen, claiming that the Indian government had said that his company is not liable for the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984.

If Liveris is to be believed, the assurance from the Indian government came even when an Indian court was still deliberating on the issue.

A copy of Liveris’ letter dated November 8, 2006, was obtained by US-based Somu Kumar of the International Campaign for Justice for Bhopal under the Right to Information Act from the Indian Embassy in Washington.

A copy of the letter and other documents obtained by Kumar from the Indian Embassy were circulated among the Indian media.

“Given the statements made by the Government of India [ Images ] representatives in front of all meeting attendees that DOW is not responsible for Bhopal and will not be pursued by the GoI, it will be important to follow through to ensure concrete, sustained actions are taken that are consistent with these statements,” Liveris said in his letter to Sen. [Full Article]

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Following is the speech by Chetan Bhagat given at the orientation programme for the new batch of MBA students at Symbiosis, Pune.

Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated.  The first day in college is one of them.  When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates – there is so much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.

Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party – several months in advance – just for the day they will cut their own birthday cake.

I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost.   So how to save the spark?

Imagine the spark to be a lamp’s flame. The first aspect is nurturing – to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms.

To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn’t any external measure – a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house.

Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement. But it isn’t the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr. Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won’t be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday? They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important.

Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature’s design. Are you? Goals will help you do that. I must add, don’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

You must have read some quotes – Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school, where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One last thing about nurturing the spark – don’t take life seriously. One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said – don’t be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It’s ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.

I’ve told you three things – reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness and loneliness of purpose.

Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If things don’t go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades – how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you. But it’s life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember – if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that’s where you want to be.

Disappointment’s cousin is Frustration, the second storm.  Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don’t know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release. Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved – movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result – at least I was learning how to write scripts, having a side plan – I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life – friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.

Unfairness – this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it – not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you. In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty damm lucky by Indian standards. Let’s be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don’t. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don’t get literary praise. It’s ok. I don’t look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It’s ok. Don’t let unfairness kill your spark.

Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is Isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.

There you go. I’ve told you the four thunderstorms – disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.

I welcome you again to the most wonderful  years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, your eyes will shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something cool about saying – I come from the land of a billion sparks.

Thank You.

Chetan Bhagat

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Here’s a little known fact about companies looking to hire – most of them don’t actually post their openings on job sites. They search job sites and then contact the few job seekers who qualify. What does that mean for your job search? If you’re not on every job site, you could be missing out. Want a quick solution to get your resume on every site? Try Resume Rabbit. They will post your resume to 85 different sites. It will save you hours of work. For a 10% discount click here.

I caught up with Dr. JP during his recent visit to USA. In this interview Dr. JP detailed the purpose of his visit, clarified his stance on the Telangana issue. The crux of the conversation is on his message of  ‘change.’ I asked him about the changes he would like to bring about in the four pillars of democracy: polity, administration, judiciary and perhaps in the Fourth Estate.

Is press responsible for flaming some of the incendiary rhetoric of today? Listen to what he has to say.

Interview and Broadcast date: 2010-May-08

Audio Language

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On The Job | Sanjeev Bikhchandani

The author is co-founder and chief executive officer, InfoEdge (India) Ltd, which runs the Naukri.com website. He writes a monthly column on careers and enterprise.

The question I am most frequently asked by business school and engineering college students, who are aspiring to be entrepreneurs, is: “When is it the right time to become an entrepreneur? Should I do it straight after college or should I work for a few years first?”

The truth is that there are success stories of all sorts. There are those who have done it after working for a few years as managers in companies—the Infosys founders are an example. Then there are people who have done it straight out of college—my good friend Kunwar Sachdev of Su-Kam inverters is one such. And there are those who have dropped out of college to become entrepreneurs— Bill Gates is the most famous name that comes to mind. There are people who do college and entrepreneurship side by side—Michael Dell’s story of how he founded and ran Dell from his college room is famous. Finally, there are those who became entrepreneurs without even going to college or completing their school education—the best-known story in India is of Dhirubhai Ambani.

There is no one right answer to these questions. However, you can always find an example to support whatever point of view you support. Time it right: Bill Gates dropped out of college to set up Microsoft.

The argument in favour of becoming an entrepreneur straight out of college is that once you are in a job and you get comfortable with the idea of a regular salary, you will find it extremely difficult to quit to do a start-up. This is especially true if you are from a premier institute and earning a high salary in a well-known company. It becomes worse if some years have elapsed since you finished college and you have now bought a car and a house and have EMIs to service. And later on, when you get married and start a family, it becomes nearly impossible to quit—you crave security.

The single largest reason why people give up on their entrepreneurial aspirations and continue in a job is delay in breaking out after college.

The argument in favour of working for some years in a job before becoming an entrepreneur is that you improve your reality check. It is well known that the Indian education system does not provide a great reality check to students. It takes several years of working after college for graduating students to figure out how the real world actually functions. You learn to work as a subordinate before you become a boss and that experience is important when your company scales up and you are managing a larger team. You acquire skills on the job that you would otherwise not have. You meet customers, get an insight into their needs and an understanding of the market. You get to know about business opportunities. You learn about processes and good practices that are useful years later. You build your network and credentials.

In a nutshell, working for a few years increases your chances of success once you do become an entrepreneur. The flip side is that if you get into a good job and work there for a few years, you may never actually quit to become an entrepreneur.

My view on this is that you should become an entrepreneur only when you are ready. I had worked for five years before I quit and became an entrepreneur. And, in hindsight, I would not do it any other way. I needed those five years to learn and mature and become a better people’s person. And you will know when you are ready. Your inner voice will compel you to do it.

The other time to become an entrepreneur is when you have such a compelling idea that you are totally convinced that it is now or never. Gates often cites this when he talks about his decision to quit college and set up Microsoft. He could see the PC age coming and he just had to be a part of it, but felt it would pass him by if he spent another three years in college. He just had to do it then.

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Lighter note here, observe the anchor’s over action/excitement, as if he is talking some sense.

Part I

Part II

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Here is the touching part from the story.

Krishnan sleeps in Akshaya’s modest kitchen with his few co-workers. Since investing his entire savings of $2,500 in 2002, he has taken no salary and subsists with the help of his once-unsupportive parents.

“They had a lot of pain because they had spent a lot on my education,” he said. “I asked my mother, ‘Please come with me, see what I am doing.’ After coming back home, my mother said, ‘You feed all those people, the rest of the lifetime I am there, I will feed you.’ I’m living for Akshaya. My parents are taking care of me.”