Last Man Blogging!

The past few months have indeed been hard to endure for avid sports fans like me. Beginning with the Tour de France and culminating in the sordid saga of the Pakistan cricket team’s alleged ball tampering and Darrel Hair’s subsequent moral capitulation, the integrity of sporting heroes has never been more seriously questioned. For starters, dozens of cyclists were disqualified from participating in the TdF for being possible beneficiaries of an illegal blood transfusion program. A reigning Olympic 100m gold medallist and joint world record holder was found guilty of committing a second doping offence. The Old Lady of Italian football, Juventus, was demoted to the Serie B for her involvement in match fixing. And the event that shook me the most, Floyd Landis’ positive drug test. In one fall swoop, he tore to shreds all the respect he gained from his now disgraced epic ride.

However, all is not lost. I still believe that there are a lot of unsung sportsmen who would much rather taste defeat than cheat to enter into the limelight. And I respect them as much as I admire a Tiger Woods or a Roger Federer who dominate the competition through their sheer magical abilities. Here is to hoping that all sportsmen soon learn to embrace the true ideals of sport!

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Check out our requirements at the following links:

PHP/LAMP - Software Engineers & Senior Software Engineers

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Meet you soon.

On the Digg Video section, I was fortunate to come across an inspiring story of a father-son duo, the Team Hoyt.

Update: I had to remove the link to the video on YouTube/Google Video because it has since been deleted from the server.

What’s with the post title, you may ask. Well, in case you have’nt seen KANK (Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna), please don’t. The plot is weak and is only matched by the bad acting of SRK and Rani Mukherji. Two of the protagonists (SRK and Rani) who fall in love are each stuck in an unhappy marriage with their respective partners. What is bizarre is that there is no real effort by either of them to make their existing relationships work. With the exception of Amitabh Bachchan and Kirron Kher, the performance of the lead actors is eminently forgettable. If you decide to leave before the scrolling credits at the end of the movie, rest assured you won’t be the only one.

On the subject of marriages, Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink is an interesting book that details a study undertaken by Dr. John Gottman, a relationships expert. If I remember rightly, marriages can be in one of two phases viz. Over-riding Positive Emotion (OPE) and Over-riding Negative Emotion (ONE). For instance, if your partner stands you up or shows up late by an hour or more and if you have thoughts like: “Wonder if she is safe or if she is stuck in a traffic jam”, then it would be an example of an OPE. However, if you mutter to yourself “This crazy b**** must enjoy making me wait”, your relationship may already be in ONE big mess. Dr. Gottman can determine to a high degree of accuracy if a marriage is headed towards a break-up by just observing a married couple interact for a few minutes. All said and done, remember to never ever treat your partner with contempt because that is a symptom of a really troubled relationship.

Coming back to the subject of KANK, I have to admit this was the first time I’ve watched a Karan Johar flick. Figuratively speaking, if I was, until now, a virgin to KJ’s films, then I was sort-of royally screwed by watching KANK. Spare yourself of such an ordeal!

If only I got a penny every time someone asked me this question ever since I quit my job, I would have by now retired to someplace in Hawaii. My friends, (ex-)colleagues and even neighbours I’ve never previously met all seem to ask just this one question - So, why did you quit your job?

People often expect a pithy answer. But the truth is, I don’t have a laconic reply for this question. Of course, I could answer that this move is in line with my dreams and professional goals; but that leaves the un-explained part about those dreams and professional goals.

So, here’s my detailed explanation:

1.) I have always nurtured a childhood dream of creating, building and leading a business venture out of the strength of my character. My dream is to create a start-up and challenge myself to the limits. At 26, I am young enough to chase my dreams. So, here I am, seizing a wonderful opportunity in an entrepreneurial venture. After almost a month, I’ve found entrepreneurship to be far more exciting and satisfying than my previous life as a Computer Scientist in an amazing technology company.

2.) I have with me an incredible set of co-founders and an excellent team. All of us are close friends having graduated from the same university - BITS, Pilani. We have exceptional leadership ability as well as technology expertise in the founding team. We know that we can kick ass if we execute well.

3.) A bit cliched, but true. There really is no such thing as failure in entrepreneurship. Even if you fail, you end up learning something invaluable. (Note: I am in no way suggesting that entrepreneurs should intentionally execute the wrong strategies because it is a great experience to fail.)

4.) As much as I realize that the chances of becoming immensely wealthy are pretty low, there still exists a possibility of making a lot of money at a very young age.

5.) A lot of viable career paths open up if you are a technology entrepreneur. For instance, lots of venture capital firms place a premium on candidates with prior operational experience in start-ups.

6.) Oh yeah, entrepreneurship makes for a great segue into business school if one is interested in the same.

So, if you are considering a career change in order to follow your dreams, I’ll leave you with an English translation of the Roman poet Horace’s famous Latin quote - “Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero”. It means: “Seize the day, trust as little as possible in tomorrow”.

Hello and welcome to my blog.

Yes, I have finally decided to create a blog. Apparently, we are running out of available blog user names on WordPress faster than we are running out of penguins in the North Atlantic. In these pages, I actually hope to catalogue some of my life’s epiphanies, experiences and my opinions. Some of my posts may be funny — like what I’ve done so far in my life; others may however touch upon more serious topics — like what I want to do in my life.

While I realize that the world possibly needs another blog like a fish needs a cigarette, I do pray that the day will come when unsuspecting readers click on a bazillion ‘i-get-a-cut-if-you-click’ ads and make me rich beyond my wildest imagination. Nevertheless, if you, the reader, benefit by my canons of wisdom, I promise not to hold it against you. Of course, it all depends on whether I get the time to chronicle events as the journey through my life unfolds.

Stay tuned.