The Utterances of a Peculiar Mindset

A gentleman was once visiting a temple under construction. In the temple premises, he saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he saw, just a few meters away, another identical idol was lying. Surprised he asked the sculptor, "do you need two statutes of the same idol?"
"No" said the sculptor. "We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage." The gentleman examined the statue. No apparent damage was visible.
"Where the damage is?" Asked the gentleman.
There is a scratch on the nose of the idol. Where are you going to keep the idol? Asked the gentleman.
The sculptor replied that it will be installed on a pillar 20 feet high.
The gentleman asked- When the idol will be 20 feet away from the eyes of the beholder, who is going to know that there is scratch on the nose anyways? The sculptor looked at the gentleman, smiled and said, "The God knows it and I know it ".

An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly that made the world community smile.

A representative from India began: 'Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Rishi Kashyap of Kashmir, after whom Kashmir is named.

When he struck a rock and it brought forth water, he thought, 'What a good opportunity to have a bath.'He removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water. When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Pakistani had stolen them.'

The Pakistani representative jumped up furiously and shouted, 'What are you talking about? The Pakistanis weren't there then.'

The Indian representative smiled and said, 'And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech.'

And they say Kashmir belongs to them………………………………………..

After four years of association with blogger, I'm shifting to new place. Shifting is never very easy. Leaving behind your old memories and legacies and getting adjusted to new ones is never very easy. But then life has to move on.
Hoping that you will come to meet me at my new address. http://dineshsoni.com.

I just took the speedometer test of my internet network. And was astronished at the result. I did not know I'm getting 2Mbps downloading speed. Wow..

One year since I came to Mumbai and it has been:

1 year of fun
1 year of hard work
1 year of sheer learning
1 year of growth
1 year of being independent
1 year of being professional
1 year of survival
1 year of madness
1 year of happiness
1 year of MBA
1 year of projects
1 year of presentations
1 year of friends
1 year of Chetana
1 year of local trains
1 year of Mumbai
1 year of life...



Important Update: The post is inspired by a similar post by Tarun. If you notice, even the title is the same. When I visited his blog, the post and the title clicked me immidiately. And I thought why not use similar thing for my 1 year in Mumbai..!!! However, the idea of mentioning original author did not clicked me somehow. Maybe I could not understand the efforts Tarun had put in his post.
However, when I recieved communication from Tarun, the need to mention the name of initiator of idea clicked me. But the wrodpress thing as usual did not respond when it was supposed to. So there happened a delay of couple of days in updating.

Anyways, sorry Tarun for whatever misunderstanding that happened on the issue. And thanks a lot for the post.

What will you say about this news? The Indian media exaggerating every single issue like it is the *only* issue in the entire universe. Remember in the past the news about the love affair of tigers? Or even the story about "Alians stealing cows from the Earth".. These news definitely provide some fun and entertainment factor for a moment. But do you still call these channels as "News Channels"..? That's the "Big Bang Question".

A teenage girl in central India killed herself on Wednesday after being traumatized by media reports that a "Big Bang" experiment in Europe could bring about the end of the world, her father said.

The 16-year old girl from the state of Madhya Pradesh drank pesticide and was rushed to the hospital but later died, police said.

Her father, identified on local television as Biharilal, said that his daughter, Chayya, killed herself after watching doomsday predictions made on Indian news programs.

"In the past two days, Chayya had asked me and other relatives about the world coming to an end on September 10," Biharilal was quoted as saying.

"We tried to divert her attention and told her she should not worry about such things, but to no avail," he said.

For the past two days, many Indian news channels held discussions airing doomsday predictions over a huge particle-smashing machine buried under the Swiss-French border.

The machine, called the Large Hadron Collider, was switched on on Wednesday, at the start of what experts say is the largest scientific experiment in human history.

The machine smashes particles together to achieve, on a small-scale, re-enactments of the "Big Bang" that created the universe.

Leading scientists and researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, said the experiment was safe. They dismissed as "pure fiction" doomsday predictions that the experiment could create anti-matter, or black holes.

But in deeply religious and superstitious India, fears about the experiment and the minor risks associated with it spread rapidly through the media.

In east India, thousands of people rushed to temples to pray and fast while others savored their favorite foods in anticipation of the world's end.

"There were a thousand more devotees yesterday as well as today compared to (any) other normal day," Benudhara Sahu, a temple official in Orissa state, told Reuters.

Many women and children rushed to temples and observed fasts as they prayed for deliverance, officials and witnesses said.

Assurances by scientists and the media that nothing would happen counted for nothing for housewife Rukmini Moharana.

"I visited temple, prayed to god," Moharana said. "I am observing the fast for safety because god can only save us."

Even the God's own website could not save itself from virus. The site siddhivinayak.org throws this malware warning.

The best google logo according to me in recent times, celebrating the successful launch of Large Hadron Collider.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex, intended to collide opposing beams of protons charged with approximately 7 TeV of energy. Its main purpose is to explore the validity and limitations of the Standard Model, the current theoretical picture for particle physics. It is theorized that the collider will produce the Higgs boson, the observation of which could confirm the predictions and missing links in the Standard Model, and could explain how other elementary particles acquire properties such as mass.
The LHC was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and lies underneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. It is funded by and built in collaboration with over eight thousand physicists from over eighty-five countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories. The LHC is already operational and is presently in the process of being prepared for collisions. The first beams were circulated through the collider on 10 September 2008, and the first high-energy collisions are planned to take place after the LHC is officially unveiled on 21 October 2008.

Australians: Dislike being mistaken for Pommies (Brits) when abroad.
Canadians: Are rather indignant about being mistaken for Americans when abroad.
Americans: Encourage being mistaken for Canadians when abroad.
Brits: Can't possibly be mistaken for anyone else when abroad.

Australians: Believe you should look out for your mates.
Brits: Believe that you should look out for those people who belong to your club.
Americans: Believe that people should look out for & take care of themselves.
Canadians: Believe that that's the government's job.

Australians: Are extremely patriotic to their beer.
Americans: Are flag-waving, anthem-singing, and obsessively patriotic to the point of blindness.
Canadians: Can't agree on the words to their anthem, when they can be bothered to sing them.
Brits: Do not sing at all but prefer a large brass band to perform the anthem.

Americans: Spend most of their lives glued to the idiot box.
Canadians: Don't, but only because they can't get more American channels.
Brits: Pay a tax just so they can watch four channels.
Australians: Export all their crappy programs, which no-one there watches, to Britain, where everybody loves them.

Americans: Will jabber on incessantly about football, baseball, and basketball.
Brits: Will jabber on incessantly about cricket, soccer, and rugby.
Canadians: Will jabber on incessantly about hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey, and how they beat the Americans twice, playing baseball.
Australians: Will jabber on incessantly about how they beat the Poms in every sport they play them in.

Americans: Spell words differently, but still call it "English".
Brits: Pronounce their words differently, but still call it "English."
Canadians: Spell like the Brits, pronounce like Americans.
Australians: Add "G'day," "mate" and a heavy accent to everything they say in an attempt to get laid.

Brits: Shop at home and have goods imported because they live on an island.
Australians: Shop at home and have goods imported because they live on an island.
Americans: Cross the southern border for cheap shopping, gas, & liquor in a backwards country.
Canadians: Cross the southern border for cheap shopping, gas, & liquor in a backwards country.

Americans: Drink weak, pissy-tasting beer.
Canadians: Drink strong, pissy-tasting beer.
Brits: Drink warm, beery-tasting piss.
Australians: Drink anything with alcohol in it.

Americans: Seem to think that poverty & failure are morally suspect.
Canadians: Seem to believe that wealth and success are morally suspect.
Brits: Seem to believe that wealth, poverty, success and failure are inherited things.
Australians: Seem to think that none of this matters after several beers.

Liked the video? Want to spread awareness among your orkut friends?

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Here's wishing a very happy teachers' Day to all those who have walked by my life, teaching me a new lesson about my life. My parents, all my teachers, my friends, colleagues, classmates, associates, bosses, casual passer bys.. Everyone has taught me some new things in my life. Thanks everyone.
And most importantly, Thank you God for creating all these teachers and making sure I always get the best ones, Thank you.

And Happy Teachers' Day to everyone!!!

My friend raxit and his friends have developed an application name Mobile for Mumbai that will assist in finding the BEST bus from a particular stop to another stop in Mumbai. I'm among the earlybirds to have tried and tested this app. Here's a short review from my side about the app.

The application is completely use centered. It makes sure that any info needed will be available with minimum key strokes and within seconds. The usability factor for the user is surely the prime factor considered while designing the application.

The auto search and radio buttons make the task of searching the bus stops very easy. And the result page has very clear and simple interface, which makes the result display soothing.

Best part of the app is it works on mobile without having to send any SMS or having GPRS. So there is no money matter involved. And you can use this app with any Java enabled handset {which are available in market for as low as 2500 bucks and 80% people in Mumbai today own Java enabled handsets}.

If you want to be among the early testers of this app, you can Drop a line at pb@m4mum.com.

PS: Raxit also has another website MyKavita.com

Did you check out latest feature by orkut? SMS alert for the scraps. I tried it out but did not work out for me. My SMS limit is currently zero. Maybe it will start working from month 2.

Now that my birthday is approaching, I wish someone would bring this kind of cake for me..

Yesterday's newspaper (17th August) has a special advertisement. It says E-phone for Rs 9999/- The model looks exactly like an Iphone. And check the tagline "Twice as faster, half the price". Definitely aimed at iphone.

Did you check out the new theme by orkut dedicated to India? It just rocks man. It has our national flag and it says "Proud of you Abhinav Bindra". Here's a screen shot for you..

Before you start guessing the purpose of this post, let me clarify. I don't have a new crush. Neither am I seeing any girl who is trying to crush me.
Ok. So the story goes like this. I was waiting along with one of my friend (X) for another friend (Y) who happens to be a girl. So as Y comes and greets us with a cute smile, an arrow came sharp and hit X. Later someone said that this arrow was shot by some stupid person called cupid. So this cupid's arrow hit X. Or to keep it simple, X got crush on Y.
Now X was wondering whether to let Y know about the crush. He though that Y will not like the idea of X having a crush on her. And this will end up the newly starting friendship between the two. My suggestion to him was go ahead and inform her. Though there are no chances of she agreeing to the relationship {which anyways was not the aim of X I suppose}, it will make Y feel special about herself. Well, as far as I know girls, they like this feeling of someone having crush on her. Infact its with every human being. The idea of someone liking us makes us feel special. And the gender doesn't matter for this feeling.
After suggesting him, I tried to peek inside my past life and to check out how my crush story went up and how many times my crushes were crushed. My first crush was.. well very late. I was 14 that time. This girl was my classmate. In fact this wasn't really a crush. Cause I had no idea what crush means and what love is. It was just the teenage mentality of having the idea of liking a girl. This girl always knew that I'm having crush on her. One day when my friends asked me thousand times to inform her about crush, I went to her to talk about this.

I "I have crush on you".
She: How dare you have a crush on me?

For a moment, I felt as if a Police inspector is asking me, "How dare you kill Mr Gupta? Well, I never knew having a crush on a girl is really that big crime like killing someone.

I: "What do you mean by How dare you? I got crush on you and it just happened".
She: "I'm not that kind of girl."

Well, only girls can come up with such kind of statements. What did she mean but "that kind of girl"? Did that mean "I'm not kind of girl who will get easily impressed. You will have to try very hard to impress me". Or did that mean "I'm not the girl who wants to get into these relationships." Or did that mean "I'm not kind of girl who will hate you for having crush on me". Or did that mean "I'm not kind of girl who will find about crush by herself. You have to inform me in person". Or did that mean.... Ok. Too many alternatives. Better to ask her.

I: What do you mean by *that* kind of girl?
She: Shut up.

Wow. That's an innovative way to answer. Shut up. Two words. But when uttered with right intensity and pitch, create a fantastic impact. But why did she wanted me to shut up? Did i say anything wrong..? Anyways, its better not to ask for another clarification.

I: Sorry!!
She: Its okay.
I:(blank)
She: (with bit milder tone) So since when is this crush thing going?

Well, did that matter now? Are you gonna say yes if I say i've crush on you for 100 years. Or are you trying to find out the time invested by me on the crash and gonna calculate the ROI? Well, is their any return in the first place?

I: few months.
She: How many?

Well, she surely is trying to find out the time invested.

I: four months.
She: See Dinesh. You are a very nice guy.

If I'm really so nice guy, why are you not saying yes? Why are you trying to run away from me? Am I really a nice guy?

She: You are very nice, intelligent. Don't fall into all these things. Concentrate on studies. You have big future in front of you.

Ya. All right. I have big future and there are many more girls who are gonna be part of my the crush story of my life. Thanks for making me realize that there are many more opportunities waiting for me in future.

I: Thanks. I hope there are no grudges in your mind. I just wanted to let you know the truth.
She: Of course. No grudges. Our friendship won't change for this small thing.

Ohh.. so this is a small thing for us. Thank god. I thought for a moment that she will end up the friendship for this incidence. Or was I being too childish to think like that? Maybe yes..

I: Thanks
She: Btw, on this Rakhi, am gonna tie you a Rakhi.

Well, now that was a tsunami. So big punishment for such a small mistake? Now I realize how girls use this small dhaga of rakhi to keep the guys under control. Now I was supposed to treat a girl as my sister. The same girl I had crush on few minutes ago. WTF..

So that was the end of my first crush. It ended up adding one more girl to my sister's list.

To be continued...

A Great Animated Scrap for Independence Day Which you can Use in Orkut Scraps For Your Orkut Friends.



Screenshot :





Instructions :

• Copy the Code given below.
• Go to orkut Friend's scrapbook.
• Paste the Code There.
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• Enjoy !!

For all those who loved "Dark Knight". With special thanks from Vivek Khandelwal

Tired of buying the conventional Li-ion AA batteries that have to be either thrown out or plugged into an additional charging unit for hours to get back their power?

If you said yes, then maybe Moxia has an answer to your worries. The USB cell ,launched in Sept,2006 ,is just like any other AA batery just that when it gets discharged, all you have to do is remove the its cap and plug it into a USB port on your computer to charge.

Sweet ans simple, right?
Theres more to it:

* Doesn't have to be thrown like the alkaline batteries creating a toxic waste.

* No need to carry a charger, plug it into your computer,gamestation, TV or anything that has a USB port.

* The rechargeable AA NiMH Battery gives 1.2v ,1300mah output.

* The price is slightly on the higher side at INR 600.00 for a two AA cell pack (I bet fake models from China would already be available, so be careful)

* Also in the pipeline are other forms of batteries like phone batteries (see adjascent pic) the 9V battery(pic below) and the AAA batery.


These batteries are developed by Moxia Energy, a UK based company that specializes in renewable energy power resources and related innovative design and engineering solutions. Their idea is to help the human to cut off from the electricity grid for petty issues like lighting, fans, charging etc. !!

With their cutting edge technology focusing on the need of the hour (especially because of the constant decay in the conventional energy resources the world over) they would definitely inspire many a young engineers to focus on this international reality.

The Olympic 2008 is about to start in Beijing. And the whole world is excited about it. Frankly saying, I'm not excited. In last 4 Olympics I've seen, India could not manage to bag even a single gold. In fact we have bagged only 3 medals in last 4 Olympic games. And if we see the kind of approach our country, our countrymen and our government have towards the Olympic games, I don't really expect any better performance by our sportsmen.

So the bottom line, I'm not excited about the Olympic games. I'm gonna neglect it in my blog, twits and everywhere else. Unless except India bags another medal in the games. The Google logo for Olympic is great but. This logo excites me.. :-)

After having failed his exam in "Logistics and Organization" , a student goes and confronts his lecturer about it.

Student: "Sir, do you really understand anything about the subject?"

Professor: "Surely I must. Otherwise I would not be a professor!"

Student: "Great, well then I would like to ask you a question.

If you can give me the correct answer, I will accept my mark as is and go. If you however do not know the answer, I want you give me an "A" for the exam. "

Professor: "Okay, it's a deal. So what is the question?"

Student: "What is legal, but not logical, logical, but not legal, and neither logical, nor legal?"

Even after some long and hard consideration, the professor cannot give the student an answer, and therefore changes his exam mark into an "A", as agreed.

Afterwards, the professor calls on his best student and asks him the same question.

He immediately answers: "Sir, you are 63 years old and married to a 35 year old woman, which is legal, but not logical. Your wife has a 25 year old lover, which is logical, but not legal. The fact that you have given your wife's lover an "A", although he really should have failed, is neither legal, nor logical."

That beautiful rainy season is around. Agreed, its not really *too* fascinating in Mumbai to talk about beauty of rainy season. But the beauty of Sahyadris in rains is something no one can disagree to.
I've always been fascinated by the lush green environment in Sahyadris. Its the place and time where even the skies start appearing green instead of blue. And this is the ideal time for trekking.
I've always been an avid trekker. Have done more than 60 treks so far to visit different forts and caves in Sahyadris. But last some time, my trekking zest appears to be taking a drop. I haven't had a trek for last 5 months {Kalsubai trek being the last one}.

Ever since I came to Mumbai, I wanted to visit two trekking spots. Karnala near Panvel, and Mahuli near Asangao. But I guess am getting too lazy these days to take up my bum to these places.
Hopefully, soon I will visit these places and write a review for you.. *HOPEFULLY* :-)

People for the Ethical Treatment of Software (PETS) announced today that more software companies have been added to the groups "watch list" of companies that regularly practice software testing.

"There is no need for software to be mistreated in this way so that companies like these can market new products," said Ken Granola, a spokesman for PETS. "Alternative methods of testing these products are available."

According to PETS, these companies force software to undergo lengthy and arduous test - often without rest - for hours or days at a time. Employees are assigned to "break" the software by any means necessary and inside sources report that they often joke about "torturing" the software.

"It's no joke," Granola said. "Innocent programs, from the day they are compiled, are cooped up in tiny rooms and 'crashed' for hours on end. They spend their whole lives on dirty, ill-maintained computers, and they are unceremoniously deleted when they're not needed anymore."

Granola said that the software is kept in unsanitary conditions and is infested with bugs.

"We know alternatives to this horror exist," he said, citing industry giant Microsoft Corp. as a company that has become successful without resorting to software testing.

Now this is something we can call as a design.. :-)

This is how you have to keep your employees satisfied and happy. I wonder when will today's corporate world learn from sports..

Check out the breaking news on India TV. I was just wondering whether its a news or another episode of "Great Indian Laughter Challenge"

















PS: Mahesh Bhatt got fed up with Human romance and has decided to make a movie based on this news.

Got this at this site. This is a list of 17 mistakes any entrepreneur is liked to commit. The list is provided by John Osher. John Osher has developed hundreds of consumer products, including an electric toothbrush that became America's best-selling toothbrush in just 15 months. He also started several successful companies, including Cap Toys. He built sales to $125 million per year and then sold the company to Hasbro Inc. in 1997. But his most lasting contribution to the business world just may be a list of screw-ups he jotted on the back of a piece of paper.

To home in on what lies behind the 17 mistakes, Osher told Entrepreneur what they are and how you can learn from them to achieve your own level of perfection.

Mistake 1: Failing to spend enough time researching the business idea to see if it's viable. "This is really the most important mistake of all. They say 9 [out] of 10 entrepreneurs fail because they're undercapitalized or have the wrong people. I say 9 [out] of 10 people fail because their original concept is not viable. They want to be in business so much that they often don't do the work they need to do ahead of time, so everything they do is doomed. They can be very talented, do everything else right, and fail because they have ideas that are flawed."

Mistake 2: Miscalculating market size, timing, ease of entry and potential market share. "Most new entrepreneurs get very excited over an idea and don't look for the truth about how many people will want to buy it. They put together financial projections as part of a presentation to pump up their investors. They say, 'The market size is 50 million people that could use this product, and if I could only sell to 2 percent of them, I'd be selling a million pieces.' But 2 percent of a market is a lot. Most products sell way less than 1 percent."

Mistake 3: Underestimating financial requirements and timing. "They set their financial requirements based on Mistake 1, and they go ahead and make a commitment to this much office space and this many computers, and hire a vice president of sales, and so on. Before they know it, based on sales projections that were wrong to start with, they have created costs that require those projections to be met. So they run out of money."

Mistake 4: Overprojecting sales volume and timing. "They have already miscalculated the size of the market. Now they overproject their portion of it. They often say 'There are 200 million homes, and I need to sell [to] x number of them.' When you break it down, though, a much smaller number of those are really sales prospects. That makes it impossible to make their sales projections."

Mistake 5: Making cost projections that are too low. "Their cost projections are always too low. Part of the reason is that they project much higher sales. There are also unknown reasons that always come out that usually make costs higher than planned. So on top of everything, their margins are now lower."

Mistake 6: Hiring too many people and spending too much on offices and facilities. "Now you have lower sales, higher costs and too much overhead. These are the things that you see every day in companies that fail. And they all grow out of that first mistake: failing to research the size and viability of the opportunity."

Mistake 7: Lacking a contingency plan for a shortfall in expectations. "Even if you're realistic in your estimates to start, there are things that happen when you start a new business. Your sales ideas may be no good; bank rates may go up; there may be a shipping strike. These aren't the result of poor planning, but they happen. More often than not, entrepreneurs just feel that something will come along when they need it. They don't have contingency plans for it not working out at the size and time they want."

Mistake 8: Bringing in unnecessary partners. "There are certain partners you need. For instance, you often need money, so you're going to need money partners. But too many times, the guy with the idea takes on all his friends as partners. Many people don't provide strategic advantages and don't warrant ownership. But they're all going to get 25 percent of the company. It's totally unnecessary, and it's a mistake. Before people are made partners, they have to earn it."

Mistake 9: Hiring for convenience rather than skill requirements. "In my first business or two, I hired relatives. It was easy to do, but in many cases, they were the wrong people [for the job]. And it's hard to fire people, especially if they're relatives or friends. More time needs to be spent handpicking people based on skill requirements. You really need super-skilled people who can wear more than one hat. It just bogs you down when you hire people who can't do the job."

Mistake 10: Neglecting to manage the entire company as a whole. "You see this happen all the time. They'll spend half their time doing something that represents 5 percent of their business. You have to have a view of your whole company. But too often, the person running it loses that view. They get involved in a part, and they don't manage the whole. Whether I do this product or that product, whether I hire somebody, [I consider] how they [will] fit long term and short term in the big picture. Constantly try to see your big picture."

Mistake 11: Accepting that it's "not possible" too easily rather than finding a way. "I had an engineer who was a very good engineer, but with every toy we developed, he would say, 'You can't do it that way.' I had to be careful not to accept this too easily. I had to look further. If you're an entrepreneur, you're going to break new ground. A lot of people are going to say it's not possible. You can't accept that too easily. A good entrepreneur is going to find a way."

Mistake 12: Focusing too much on sales volume and company size rather than profit. "Too much of your management is often based on volume and size. So many entrepreneurs want to say 'I have a company that's this big, with this many people, this many square feet of space, and this much sales.' It's too much [emphasis] on how fast and big you can build a business rather than how much profit it can make. Bankers and investors don't like this. Entrepreneurs are so into creating and building, but they also have to learn to become good [businesspeople]."

Mistake 13: Seeking confirmation of your actions rather than seeking the truth. "This often happens: You want to do something, so you talk about it with people who work for you. You talk to [your] family and friends. But you're only looking for confirmation; you're not looking for the truth. You're looking for somebody to tell you you're right. But the truth always comes out. So we [test] our products, and we listen to what [the testers] say. We give much more value to the truth than to people saying what we're doing is great."

Mistake 14: Lacking simplicity in your vision. "Many entrepreneurs go in too many directions at once and do not execute anything well. Rather than focusing on doing everything right to sell to their biggest markets, they divide the attention of their people and their time, trying to do too many things at [one time]. Then their main product isn't done properly because they're doing so many different things. They have an idea and say they're going to sell it to Wal-Mart. Then they say they're going to sell to [the] Home Shopping Network. And then the gift market looks good. And so on."

Mistake 15: Lacking clarity of your long-term aim and business purpose. "You should have an idea of what your long-term aim is. It doesn't mean that won't change, but when you aim an arrow, you have to be aiming at a target. This [concept will] often come up when people ask 'How do I pick a product?' The answer depends on what you're trying to do. If you're trying to [create] a billion-dollar company with this product, it may not have a chance. But if you're trying to make a $5 million company, it can work. Or if you're trying to create a company [in which] family members can be employed, it can work. Clarity of your business purpose is very important [but] is often not really part of the thought process."

Mistake 16: Lacking focus and identity. "This was written from the viewpoint of building the company as a valuable entity. The company itself is also a product. Too many companies try to go after too many targets at once and end up with a potpourri rather than a focused business entity with an identity. When you try to make a business, it's very important to maintain a focus and an identity. Don't let it become a potpourri, or it loses its power. For instance, you say, 'We're already selling to Kmart, so we might as well make a toy because Kmart buys toys.' If you do that, the company becomes weaker. A company needs to be focused on what it is. Then its power builds from that."

Mistake 17: Lacking an exit strategy. "Have an exit plan, and create your business to satisfy that plan. For instance, I am thinking I might run my new business for two years and then get out of it. I think it's an opportunity to make a tremendous amount of money for two years, but I'm not sure [whether] it's proprietary enough to stop the competition from getting in. So I'm in with an exit strategy of doing it for two years and then winding down. I won't commit to long-term leases, and after the first year, we'll start watching the marketplace very closely and start watching inventories.

Simultaneously, I will keep the option open to sell it in case I can't get something more proprietary. That means I won't sign international agreements that would kill any opportunity to sell it to a multinational. I will make sure that the patent work is done properly. And I'll try to make sure manufacturing is up to the standards of any multinational company that I might try to sell it to.
Another exit strategy can be to hand the company to [your] kids someday. The most important thing to do is to build a company with value and profits so you have all the options: Keep the company, sell the company, go public, raise private money [and so on]. A business can be a product, too."

I got this as a forwarded mail. And I found it worth sharing with all the "nice guys" around reading my blog. Its a bit too long but worth spending few minutes.

This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl's every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.

This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they're at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don't end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.

This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn't worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you'd ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn't have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing "serious" between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: "oh, but we're just friends!" And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you're nice like that.

The nice guys don't often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don't seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can't. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as "oh, he's too nice to date" or "he would be a good boyfriend but he's not for me" or "he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn't possibly ask him out!" or the most frustrating of all: "no, it would ruin our friendship." Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can't figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I'm going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn't last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.

So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you're sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.

Well, I'm not exactly writing a book or anything.. But I'm just celebrating the 600th post on my blog. Hurray.. I finally managed to put up 600 pathetic posts to my blog. Party time...!!!

Google is celebrating fist day of summer with this logo. I don't know how much sense it makes to display this logo at Indian domain cause this is not the first day of summer for India or for that matter all Asian countries. I think they should put this logo only for US and Canada and around countries.

This came to me through a mail. Really loved it..