Of Caffeine and others

Posted on by
Reply
Last week the tapri ( road side stall) near our office was closed for a day and had somewhat added to the overall gloom. The dull and vary faces of people like me was very evident. Somehow those cutting chai’s vada pav’s and oily samosa’s seem to stir up some amazing conversations. Here’s a tip to the HR departments : Forget the snazzy canteens and juice bars. Ensure that the tapri is open and see your employees ( atleast some of them) stay motivated.
On a sidenote , here’s an interesting article by Malcolm Gladwell about the effect of coffee in the New York Times titled “The Java Man“
So much to say for a cuppa?
Yep.

The Java Man

Posted on by
Reply

Last week the tapri ( road side stall) near our office was closed for a day and had somewhat added to the overall gloom. The dull and vary faces of people like me was very evident. Somehow those cutting chai’s vada pav’s and oily samosa’s seem to stir up some amazing conversations. Here’s a tip to the HR departments : Forget the snazzy canteens and juice bars. Ensure that the tapri is open and see your employees ( atleast some of them) stay motivated.
On a sidenote , here’s an interesting article by Malcolm Gladwell about the effect of coffee in the New York Times titled “The Java Man“

A story script written in ASCII

Posted on by
Reply

I follow TED talks and one of my favourite speaker is Storyteller and Poet “Rives“.His talent and power of expression is amazing! One of his talks, a gem according to me is his story narration using just keyboard/Ascii symbols.See it to believe it!

Also check out one of my earlier posts about Ascii Art here.

Best of Youtube

Posted on by
Reply
Here’s a video by Matt Harding called “Where the Hell is Matt?”

In the video Matt dances for a little more than 4 mins.And there is only step (that’s a cute step imho) for the the entire video.Check out the video here:

This is precisely the reason why YouTube is so successful!
No poppadams, No Ads, No glitz,No Glamour just plain broadcasting yourself!

There's something about Honda…

Posted on by
Reply

Honda declared 1% sales increase(car sales up 20%) in 2008 while most of the car makers are shutting down plants and trying to keep themselves operational…

Is it just the product line?
I quote John Mendel, the company’s U.S. executive vice president.”"We’re not geniuses,We’re consistent.”

All Honda plants are so flexible that they can meet any demands of a particular car.This alongwith their line up of fuel efficient cars seems to be working…and during these times they can churn out more ‘in demand’ fuel efficient Civic’s and Accord’s.
Auto guys you listening?

Plagiarism in Art

Posted on by
Reply
I understand that something scientific can be easily ‘patented’ and protected from common use. But in music or other arts,how do you differentiate between plagiarism and ‘inspiration’?
I’ll digg more into this.
In case you are still wondering about this post,two of my favourite musicians Joe Satriani and Coldplay are in a legal case.Sach(J.S) is suing Coldplay for lifting his song “If I Could Fly” from his 2004 album “Is There Love In Space“.
The title track of Coldplay’s latest and fourth studio album “Viva La Vida” closely resembles to his song.
I am in a Catch -22 situation.A case of dual loyalty!

Book Catalogue

Posted on by
Reply
Considering that Shelfari has started prominently displaying ads(flashing ads of matrimonial sites & flat stomachs in 5 days) on its site,I have decided to move to GoodReads for cataloguing my books.
Though UI of GoodReads is simple,it repeatedly failed to import my list of books from my shelfari profile.I wonder whether this is for a reason….
Bugs can be tolerated but no unrelated ads please!

In Conversation…

Posted on by
Reply
Strangers.Those who help,those who ask for help,those who are reserved and those who think we know them since ages.Though most of these are ‘encounters’ are uneventful,some of them are really worth the ‘effort’.
On my last trip to Hyderabad,the day after the Mumbai Mayhem on 26/11,I met with one such enthu guy,the autowalla.Within minutes of getting into his auto and few glances later,he started proposing his theory on ‘why & how’ of the terror attacks.As someone watching and reading the english media (and so acceptedly one sided) I was amazed at his insight into the problem of terrorism plaguing our country.I was left as an innocent bystander when his discussions started to include other autowalla’s during traffic stops.If only our leaders could sense his scorn and disgust…and give a hearing to his choice of expletives,they would take action.At the destination ,he wished me a safe journey and refused my tip for a cup of chai,saying “Saab,aap bahut acche sunte hain” as if I was given a chance to speak!
The photographer who ‘advised’ me to wear a Suit jacket(yep they do have spare ties,suit jackets et al) sensing that my photograph was for professional reasons.Couldn’t thank him more.Saved me 5000 bucks.Imagine for 35 bucks not only do you get a set of 16 passport photographs,a soft copy of the photo,a jacket but also a crash course on Adobe Photoshop after my seemingly lame question on the software being used for digital touchups.
Amazing people!

'No Smoking' first in Germany

Posted on by
1

I read Business & Mgmt books mainly to learn from other’s experiences and also the interesting trivia’s these books sometimes mention.I am reading the book “Hitler and Churchill” by Andrew Roberts.

In this book the famed author compares the leadership styles of Hitler and Churchill,one being charismatic and the other inspirational.I would post a brief soon on this blog.For starters,Germany was the first nation to ban smoking publicly.Also German scientists then were the first to prove that lung cancer is linked to smoking.