Steve Jobs : A Tribute

6:30AM, Friend of mine sents a message stating the shocking news of the death of one of the greatest innovators of all time. At just the age of 56, Steve Jobs had almost 1/3^rd of the world knowing him making him one of the most renowned personalities in recent times. There were rumors in the past of him passing away and I regreted this news as well. Turned on the TV to find out if the news was true. A legend in his own way, Innovation and Easy going in life was his key USP’s.

From “Steve Jobs is an American Entrepreneur…” to “Steve Jobs was an American Entrepreneur…” in Wikipedia was the next thing I checked out to find out if the news was true. Giving away his CEO post to Tim Cook in August I guess he already knew that his time was coming to an end. Exactly a day before his death the latest iPhone which is the iPhone 4S was launched {Probably the S stands for Steve – iPhone 4 Steve} . I have always had these 2 videos of Steve, one the very famous Stanford Graduation Ceremony speech in 2005 and the All things Digital Conference one on one talk with Bill Gates which was very hilarious at the same time very informative.

Steve had his own share of Bad Phase in his life and this was during 1984 when there was an Industry wide sales slump and following an internal power struggle and an announcement of significant layoffs because of the disappointing sales at that time, Jobs was relieved of his duties and he himself claimed that he got fired from Apple. After a while Jobs started all over again and came back to Apple Inc. He realized he’s been living in one of the most creative period of his life and that Innovation was the key if he wanted the company to grow. From iMacs to iPads he had a big hand in its development.

Not many know that Steve Jobs as CEO was earning just $1 as his salary, Others were all shares and in 2010 Forbes estimated his net wealth at $8.3 Billion. Jobs always stressed on the importance of team work and his model for business believe it or not were ‘The Beatles” as they kept each others negative tendencies in check; and they balanced each other. The totel of the band was greater than the sum of the parts. His importance in todays world can be witnessed by the kinds of Tribute he’s been receiving from all walks of life from Obama to Bill Gates.

Apple Inc Paid Tribute their all time Hero Steve Jobs by having his Photo in the home page of http://www.apple.com/. And said “Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

Steve’s all time Rival and a great friend Bill Gates tweeted, “I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Job’s death. The world rarely sees someone who had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come, For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely”

Google’s CEO Larry Page said, : He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. Google also posted a subtle tribute below its main search bar which said “Steve Jobs, 1955-2011”

President of the US where Apple Inc was born, Barack Obama said: "There may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than fact that much of world learned of his passing on a device he invented."

Twitter Tips & How to decode Twitter Psychos?

As an avid Twitter user i have come across lots of different people in this platform over the last 2 years. Now before getting into how you decode the Twitter Psychos let me give you a few Twitter Etiquette which you need to follow for a peaceful 'twittering' career. They are as follows;

-> No ASL Business in Twitter, People who really want this and is obsessed with this can go to this one site called www.orkut.com (:P)

-> Since its a 140 character business, Everything needs to be short with a Hash tag (#) to highlight the topic.

-> If its a late reply that you are making to a tweet, do it with a '#' referencing to what you are replying to, He/She may not recollect what that reply was for. Twitter has brought in a feature wherein you can know what that reply was for but this happens only in the Web and a few application, many do not have this feature.

-> Dont Follow people un-necessarily. If only a few people follow you and you follow a thousand people or more, many would assume you are a spammer. An in Twitter spammers are considered SATANS. :P

-> Humour is accepted but not tweets like "Just felt the Earthquake, it was damn fun" , Atleast a person reading the tweet has commen sense and knows that you were scared to death and just trying to show off giving a humour quotient to it.

-> Also, you dont you occasionally need to use the rest room? Please dont take your phone in there. There have been quite a lot in my timeline who has an update for everything from the 1st ball of a cricket match till the end of a match or if Shakti Kapoor or whoever makes an entry or an exit in Big Boss 5 or Big boss 25. You are literally getting some of your followers bored with one single topic and dangers/chances of you being blocked/unfollowd is very likely

-> Twitter is becoming a very common platform and chances are likely that your Boss/Manager/Parents/Relatives are tracking your tweets. You dont want an additional sheet of your tweets (Tweets containing offensive words against your Office/Workplace/Manager) along with your appraisal form My recommendation is to keep your account PRIVATE and enjoy cribbing, but make sure the people who request to follow you are not the people who are trying to hide from.

-> Stay within your limits, something what you can learn from the basic thing in twitter, the 140 character limit. That being said do not have more than 2 tweets with "...Contd" , It just doesnt go with the essence of twitter.

-> Whenever you send a DM (Direct Message) make sure you inform the recipient as well but mentioning him/her. Most twitter users are not used to checking their messages and its only the Mention tab that they look into (Unless they are using an external app like Tweet-Deck)

Now that you have known the Do's and Dont's (Well, according to me and my knowledge) lets see how do you deal with a few different people in Twitter, A friend of mine @Kofykat (Twitter Handle) wrote this post on her latest post titled "Twitter behaviour Decoded" where after reading thought i would write something on how to handle these people.

-> The Spammer : Just leave them alone, Dont ever reply to their tweets and block them as soon as you identify they are of this species.

-> The Orkutiyan : Basically this class of people are just kids or wannabe's who have recently got into facebook and have been wanting to increase their standard in their part of the world and join the Twitter world, Dont even think of following these class of people. Let them mention and RT and follow you, Just leave them un-noticed.

-> The Inspirationals : These quote centric people are just loosers and are just a mere Cut & Copy via Google so this are not Mahatma Gandhi's or a Martin Luther King, so these people dont make any sense either.

-> The RT-ers : People who increase their twitter count by counting on others, basically just RT-ing is their forte. Just mere loosers who have no thought of their own and depend on others, Request them now and then for stop RT-ing on a frequent basis and if that doesnt work out, BLOCK/UNFOLLOW them.

-> The Expert :These are ideally the class of people you would want to follow but then their extreme expert opinions can get you crazy, things like iPhone or Android kind of topics, being a layman you would be wondering what language is this he/she is speaking, There is no wrong following them very informative so i wouldnt quite club them into the Psycho category.

-> The Stars : Pure Bakhwas, First and foremost advise would not be following them. Basically there are wanting for more fans in order to make their promotions of movies and other endorsements easier and we are falling trap to it. I understand and know that Ra One is going to release via TV and i dont want @iamsrk to keep tweeting about it day and night.

-> The Foul language Tweeter : A complete NO NO for me, i wouldnt want to follow someone who is just tweeting all non sense and fill my time line with obscene tweets, people might think using those language makes them sound cool and all that but DUDE, that era has ended.

I dont know if there has offended anyone here or not but these were just my views and done in discussion with @Kofykat ( Blog : http://mychocolethandbag.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/twitter-behaviour-decoded/ )

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The Indian Grand Prix is Here!!

Buddh International Circuit, It may not be very familiar to many but in the near future it will be the talk of the town, not that it isnt at present as its just familiar with just the Motor sport enthusiasts. This circuit will host the 1st International Grand Prix on Indian soil, YES, you heard that right. India may not have the best drivers in the world indeed will host the most dangerous sport. Roaring at 307 km/hr it will indeed be a sight to watch for all the people who would have wanted to ride their machines at their machines provided the COPs a.k.a Mamu allows us to in the Indian Roads. This is indeed a stepping stone for all motor sport enthusiasts and youngsters looking to take this sport as their career in future.

28th October will stage the Practice session which will be followed by the Qualifying on the 29th and 'D' day which is the Race day on the 30th. I just cant wait to see the Green Signal at the starting Grid. All this excitement will only stick to me watching the race at home as from what i read from a few news articles, Its going to be very costly affair. Hotels are priced at almost INR 30,000 a night which is costlier for a person residing in Chennai, taking into considering the flight tickets to Delhi.. Singapore Grand Prix including the tickets would have cost me much lesser. So i have just scrapped the idea of watching the Grand Prix for this sole reason. And i am not that crazy a fan for Formula 1 as i have already experienced this great sport at the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2004. But for a first timer, I would highly recommend to experience the roar of the Formula 1 engines which is terribly loud.

The Circuit will be 5.14 kms long and the race will be a 60 lap one which the drivers will be covering 308.4 kilometers which will be covered in an approximate time of 90 minutes. The circuit is spread in an area of 875 acres and will have a seating capacity of 150,000 people much more than what Eden Garden (For those people who dont know its the Cricket Stadium in Kolkata) and the Salt Lake Stadium (Once the 2nd biggest football stadium in the world, also in Kolkata) can accommodate.

A Proud moment for all Indians having this motor sports here in India. With the presence of this new sport here in India, there are many things India has to look at considering the worldwide viewer ship of this extreme sport. Its time the world see India as the super power and have all the attention of the world. As per a recent study its not just the Hotel and the Tourism industry which will get a boost but also the Country's profile also gets a lift. In-spite of not getting a direct funding for the Grand Prix from the Govt, the Private players have played a great part in getting things together. Credits should be given to Force India Team Principal and Baron Vijay Mallya who played a great role in getting this sport in the sub continent.

Please look at the link below to have a virtual tour of the circuit which will host the Inaugural Indian Grand Prix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfNbMBuN0Uo

VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!

E7 C/o Nokia :P

First of all, My reason for absence here in my BLOG - Hectic work schedule (I so wish i could have a Blogging hour during my office hours)

First look at it and you are reminded of the N8 and people tend to ask you if that is a N8 you are holding, I got this question very frequently. The E7 design language mimics its N8 sibling, and consists of a flattened aluminium cylinder that features a 4-inch glass capacitive touch screen on one side. E7 has its own class and I’m sure anti-Nokia folks wouldn’t agree to this statement of mine. Its not the Phone that they are against but the OS in the form of Symbian. I agree that its high time that Nokia move into a better OS as an when they are upgrading their models. But one thing to be kept in mind is the fact that Symbian has all the necessary applications under them and why do you want to go into another OS and make things complicated? OK, Android is good for gamers and for ultra fast applications. Nokia does not want its Business class phones to have games on it nor does it want high speed applications. E7 like a mentioned is a Business class phone and a replacement for the very famous E90 Communicator users. Talking about the E90, I know few people who still have that phone in spite of using it for years that is because of its class. I have never been a touch phone person and have had problems in the past using the only touch phones, E7 came as a sense of relief as its got the qwerty as well which is so awesome to use. E90 and other communicators were really huge in size and that was the need of the hour then, times have changed and people no longer need such large devices. Users now want something more compact but at the same time with a full qwerty keyboard to type their messages on and a large screen for reading their mails and browsing the internet. I haven't used the Internet with my connection as yet but did try it through the Wi-fi which was so convenient to use.

The camera is not upto the mark (Rating 6/10), N95 8GB which I’ve been using for years has a better camera in spite of it being a 5 mega pixel, there is no close up mode for camera (Would you believe it) which is a flaw. Carl Zeiss lens would have been a better option than the one used in E7. Being a smart phone with 8 mega pixel camera I expected it to be really good. Camera overall has been disappointing especially during the evening, flash is really bad and you cannot depend on this machine for pics during the night. From what I’ve analysed it’s the glass window protecting the 8 megapixel camera and dual led flash on the other side which is the reason for the poor camera clarity. The speaker is very loud and clear but is positioned such that it becomes muffled slightly as soon as the phone is placed face-up on any flat surface.

After spending several weeks with the Nokia E7, there is absolutely no doubt that its one of the good phones in recent times, nokia has introduced and you cannot quite tell that it’s the greatest communicator of all time but comes close and offers a balanced set of features of any Symbian device to date.

In short this is what I would like Nokia to have if there is a E7-Version 2 which are -> Higher density display, an autofocus camera and a current generation processor and YEAH, a tasty serving of Windows Phone :P

Men Hate Shopping? Here is the way!!

This question has been asked over the years by many people but the answer may differ as everyone is entitled to their own opinions. This is my take on this mostly spoken about topic which both the sexes debate about. First of all as compared the weaker sex, Men have very less patience and you cannot expect for a guy to wait for hours and hours to get some clothes. One of the articles i read about the very same topic says that Men are scared at the fact that they might end buying something which they shouldn't have bought it in the 1st place. Its not only with respect to the Clothes/Attire but with respect to getting anything as such. My definition or for that matter, Men's Definition of Shopping is getting the stuff u want, make the payment and coming out of the store in like 10 minutes. Women for that matter would take here almost a day for this particular incident, I am not complaining as they want to be at their best and would take their own time in getting what they want to look good. I used to get crazy during the period of SALE and the moment any place they announce it, Its very common for a middle class guy like me to react to the word SALE in a very excitement mode. Went to the Esprit showrooms here in Chennai and i couldnt help myself but to grab a few tees from there. I was like which one to grab and all that, Having been selected as the Influencer of the Brand Esprit themselves here in Chennai i was given a chance to grab a few Tees and trust me they have a huge collection and i was confused on what to get and slowly as i realised i was going the Definition of the word "SHOPPING" i stopped myself from being greedy/picky and then grabbed stuffs which i thought were nice and came out of the showroom in exactly 9 minutes including the time taken for billing.

Now this is a challenge for those who think shopping is a pain, but then this is the easier way out!! After all that shopping in the Esprit Showroom i was told that there is a 50% Flat sale starting tomorrow for 3 days in all the Esprit Standalone stores in India and let this be a chance for all you guys out there to redefine the word "SHOPPING" with lots of excitement!!

Way(t)-A-Nad Unexplored!!

An extended weekend, made use of the Election Day leave as well and this sudden plan of going home on a tuesday evening, In the train and i have my 10 friends going to this place called Wayanad!! My mind had a 1000 questions of why not i join these guys who are looking forward to this 'exciting' trip they had been planning for a week or so!! I was of the opinion that i need to go home and all & that i'll not be joining for the trip considering that i had not been home for almost 3 months!! Had my mind pondering over these questions and then i thot, i had waited for 3 months to get home and why not another 3 days?? So i decided to join the 'TEAM' on the "Wayanad UnExplored" Trip and since i already had my stuffs ready for a trip i joined them. Got down into this Railway Station called Vadakara where 2 cars were waiting for us to hand over the keys as we had to drive to Wayanad which was almost 80kms from the nearest railway station. Went to the longest Drive Beach in South India called Muzhappilanghadu Beach and had this drive mind you at 12PM that is for your information when the Sun is right above your head.

Started the much awaited journey to the mountains of Wayanad and trust me they have some very exotic places on the way up there at the Top. Its one of the best places to be in South India.

Now Trips without Photography is not complete and for my liking we had 2 DSLR's in the form of a Nikon D3100 and a D200 and it was indeed a Photography competition, not for the best pic taken but for who would pose the best or in another words who the better models are among the group. I cannot miss talking here about the stop overs we had when we thought we wanted a break and take pictures for almost half an hour. Went to this Wild Life Sanctuary with the hope to see atleast one of the Tigers out of the 67 which the officials told us were there, we were upset for not having seen a single one but caught the claws of the Tigers who had walked down through the pathway.

Entering the kitchen was a omplete NO-NO for me and even my Mom wudnt allow me to enter and this was a very good opportunity which i got to experiment my cooking skills. As soon as we got into the Farm House (Forest House :P Seen Below) the 1st thing i did was enquire about the entire house and about the Kitchen and the localities around in getting groceries for getting something cooked.

Cooked everything what we could with the help of Egg and experimented on the various options with the help of others and had a nice time getting the kitchen dirty. We had a small Barbeque done as well much to the delight of the Non-Veggies in our group. Tried getting Paneer from the market thinking of doing a Paneer Tikka but it wasnt available in the entire district when we enquired .

Now the best part of the trip was waking up at 3.30 in the morning and going to the forests in the of getting to see Elephants in the forests, now some people might think this is a crazy idea but believe it or not we tried that. Went early in the morning to the place as suggested by the Caretaker and we couldnt see any Elephants at all and all we could see is Deers and only Deers!!

Nevertheless we enjoyed all the 3 days and will indeed remain as the best (Crazy trip in recent times)

F1’s Loss or Bahrain’s??

F1 Commercial Chief Bernie Ecclestone returned the multi-million Dollar Cheque to Bahrain in a refund of the license fees the Gulf State paid in hosting the annual event and this is what he said, “I want to be loyal to the King (Of Bahrain), because he is doing everything he can to put things right with his people. He doesn’t need people like me stabbing him in the back. Right from the start, we talked about the problems there, and he was straight with me. I am not there and I do not know properly what problems they are having. But the King was concerned about Formula One and our Safety, which is why he took the decision to call off the race”

This few lines are not something a die hard Formula 1 fan like me would want to hear and that too the host being my 2nd home “Bahrain”. It’s just too unfortunate that the event will not happen as scheduled but sources say that once the civil unrest in the Kingdom comes to an end the race will happen in the month of November provided the racers and the teams are agreeing to it. Formula1 governing body in its part is estimated to be loosing $100 million from the cancellation in revenues and being the season opener it’s considered to be a very important affair. The news came in the early hours on Monday, the 21st of February just 3 weeks before the green signal in the Sakhir Circuit was lit.

The last 10 days in Bahrain has not been the typical Bahrain I had known for years and it was reported that people came on to the streets and have gripped the country. Several protesters have been killed in the anti-government demonstrations. Some of the protesters has protested telling that the government was trying to defuse the situation only to ensure that the race can go ahead but the Crown Prince on behalf of the King cleared the allegations and announced the cancellation of the big event. The Crown Prince stressed on the importance of Political stability in the country and having the Sport a secondary concern.
The whole issue revolving Bahrain started in 1999 when the then Aamir of Bahrain Sk.Isa passed away and Sh Hamad took charge as the Aamir of Bahrain. A referendum poll was held the next year as to the need of Bahrain to be a Kingdom and Sh. Hamad became King Hamad of the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2001 with the referendum poll 97% YES in favor of the King. What I don’t understand is that very percentage of people are now against him putting charges that he has not been loyal to the Shia’s who comprise of the majority of the population of Bahrain.
How much Bahrain loses from the cancellation of the race depends on whether it can stage the race later in the year or not. If it can, presumably the race fee takes care of itself and the only expense Bahrain would have to incur the $20 million for the inconvenience of moving the calendar around. It is understood that the already issued tickets online and other media will be reimbursed by the organisers. (Its obvious that they have to do itas Formula1 being an expensive sport)
Now as far as tourism is concerned it could loose atleast $700m in revenues and this is because of the civil unrest in the Kingdom. Hotels, travel agents and toursim operators in the country stand to lose millions during this period and this is evident from the drastic drop in the number of foreigners coming into the country over the last 2 weeks and this will continue if the situation remains the same. The whole country’s economy is affected & Bahrain being a small country it cannot afford to loose this share of the Nations Income. Things get worse for small time vendors like restaurants where the weekend business is stopped from people coming from other neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The civil unrest has to stop and for the benefit of the country they need to come to terms and negotiations have to happen in full swing to keep the spirits of “Long Live Bahrain” alive.

16 Months = 16 Years

OK!! This title will be confusing to many but after you read this post you might as well agree to it. It all started on the 3rd of September 2009, having left the Job at McKinsey & Co. my only intention at that point of time was to pursue my higher education and I had nothing else in mind but to do my Masters in Management a.k.a MBA or for that matter what I did was a Post Graduate Program in Management. SMOT School of Business was not selected by choice but then it was my cousin and a few friends who had suggested this growing Business School which I thought is the best place to enhance my skills in the field of Management.
Started off the campaign to become a hard core Management Graduate with the Out Bound Training where we a bunch of young management aspirants were taken to this place called “Deenabandapuram” – A place in the middle of a forest in the borders of Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh. We were asked to leave behind our Mobile Phones and Laptops so that you are disconnected from the outside world. At first it was pretty weird but then got used to it and made me realize that even without gadgets we could live. Essentials of management were learnt in the 1st few months and I was able to relate to the hands on experience which I had gained during my work life to the actual theories in books. Library was something which was untouched by me and I mostly depended on the internet and felt that you get almost the same information or more as compared to the Library.
The entire 16 months went in a flash with modules like the Six Sigma, Essentials of Management Consulting etc topping my interest list. So many events to remember especially the inter-college competitions which we took part. Quiz was something of interest to me since childhood and I transferred that into taking part in Business Quizzes in various colleges and winning a few certificates as well to my name. Management as we all know is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objective and this was evident from all the activities we did at SMOT, starting with the Cultural Fest which we had to organize for the seniors, that was when we were only a week old in the Management learning arena. Now to the part of the title as to why I have it equal to 16 years, honestly speaking just to give it a good title and apart from that whatever I have gained by way of knowledge over the last 16 months was something I would take atleast 16 years to learn, that was the vastness of the amount of things I have learned over this period of time. When I now look at the reference books I have gone through for the entire course I look at myself in the mirror and ask myself “Did you really do that?” or was it the Entrepreneurship/Leadership motive inside me that led to putting in this much of effort which I have never done in my life. 16 months saw many challenges taken up in the right spirit and made it look very easy as the bigger challenges will happen in due course when we get to the real Corporate World. Chill Out’s happened almost every month and it was a day where we left all the books behind and relax amidst the tight schedules we were having. Being a fast-track program, long leaves/holidays were beyond questioning and at times we had classes for the next term before the exams of the current term ended.
16 months also helped us meet a lot of Industry people as the faculty coming into the campus were all from the corporate and it helped us in getting to know the live happenings in the work place instead of just getting the text book case scenarios. My interest in writing blogs was mainly with the motive of a few friends from SMOT and I cannot stop myself from thanking them for encouraging me in going forward with my blog. Overall a great experience of being a Management Graduate.