Tuesday, May 30, 2006

What's wrong with the picture?

See this picture in machlee's photoblog.

It didn't strike me at first. Average Indian male. In a public bus. Then I remembered how I got to see this picture. Through some people who choose to take a stand. Ask questions, uncomfortable ones. Make some noise. Blank noise. What an incredible idea!

If you haven't figured it out, here's the low-down. This picture was indeed shot in a public bus. By someone who is a complete stranger to this man. What makes this picture detestable is where the man's eyes are. For the simple reason that the someone who shot this picture is a woman.

Life

Friday, May 19, 2006

The old rickshaw man

I haven't ridden in cycle rickshaws much. Tongas, may be on the odd occasion while visiting a remote small town. Rickshaws I dont remember.

A friend tells me that she rode a rickshaw to school pretty much her entire schooling life. She has fond memories of the old man who took her to school and back, everyday, in sun and in rain, through potholes and inclines, for more than 12 years. She says she loves him like a father. And she means it. Something about that simple relationship moves me.

Just like this story from Annie. This line says it all, me thinks.
The old man called out to me. “Kahaan tak jaogi, bitiya (How much further, little daughter)?”

A simple matter of time

I am doing a hundred different things. Playing Frizbee. Playing the violin. A fairly rigorous MBA program. A hectic fulltime job that takes up more than its fair share on any given day. A social circle comprised of friends in the area. A preschooler that loves to talk. A 3-month old who is learning to demand attention. Maintaining the cars. Paying the bills. Doing stuff around the house (very rarely these days). Reading books. Talking to people. Keeping tabs on technology. Blogging. Reading blogs. Staying in touch with family, old friends, new friends. Jamming on wild start-up ideas with friends. Dispensing advice. You can see how things can get a little too crazy sometimes.

Was talking to a mentor at work this morning. He mentions something that I realize I have been doing kind of intuitively myself these days. Lets say something that needs to be done comes up. The brain gets to work right away. Prioritizing. Sizing it up. Categorizing it into a matrix: +Urgent +Important, +Urgent -Important, -Urgent +Important, -Urgent -Important. ++ gets all the attention. +- gets immediate quick and dirty response or none at all (depending on various factors, including how likely it is that the person will yell at me). -+ slides till death do us part. i.e. till it moves into ++. -- slides forever.

Some people use PDAs to do this. Some people use a notebook. Some people just remember everything. For a while, I've been using a mindmapping software called freemind. I'm not extraordinarily meticulous about it like the PDA types. I use it as a check-and-balance to assess how I'm doing at least once a day. It helps prevent things from falling through the cracks.

My problem is two-fold. One. I like to do things I'm passionate about first. Sometimes there are things in ++ that I dont feel passionate about. Kind of unfortunate. Like taxes, for which my passion level is zero. Zilch. Someone I know said that he picks up the task he hates the most from his TO DO list and does that first. That way, when he gets to the end of the day, the fun stuff is all that is left. Sounds promising enough. I just need to wrap my mind around it.

Second. I simply can't say 'No'. I have this nice guy syndrome, not that there is anything wrong with that. Though nice guys dont always finish last, you burn both credibility and efficiency in the bargain. Curiously, I find it easier to say no to some people than others. The art of saying 'No' when it matters is something I need to master.

Sigh! Gotto get back to stuff I hate. Meeting time. Ugh!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Rethinking writing - Writely.com

Here's the first of my thought-bubbles on web-based-collaboration-apps, or simply put, web 2.0, to use a much abused cliche, sites.

I signed up for a Writely account a few days before Google somehow came to know that I did and bought them out. Don't make the mistake of thinking that Writely is simply a browser-based replacement for the ubiquitous word processor of our time. Honestly, Writely doesn't have many of the so-called advanced features that big M's killer app does.

But it has a surprisingly nimble and responsive interface. If you're one of the skeptics that think a browser-based app can never replace a standalone app, try this one. Writely is extremely responsive, more so than Gmail, heck more so than Outlook, that a few minutes of playing with it convinces me that there is something here. A tangible, perceptible, seemingly tiny shift. Inspite of using the same keyboard. Typing the same thoughts. The paradigm has changed.

Working on a server can change the game. A little bit. I can invite someone to watch me write. I can invite someone to write for me. Write with me. Edit with me. Let me be the first to coin this crappy verb - co-write. In fact, I can invite more than one someone to co-write with me. The changes are reflected instantly, almost like desktop sharing, but much more efficiently. I can instantly see a world of browser-based presentations, spreadsheets, this and that. Google probably saw this coming and promptly bought Writely for small change.

Web-based-collaboration-apps. Ugh! Co-write wins, hands down.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Harbinger of change

Where I come from, today is election day. Lots of changes, but a whole lot is still the same. The same old parties with their fickle affiliations that change before, during and after every election, the same old promises, the same old freebies that are not really freebies.

I say same old, but there is hope... a silver lining.

For all the armchair complainers out there here's a shot in the arm, thanks to Chandrachoodan. You can't just complain anymore.





That is not all. If you haven't heard already, there is a silent revolution underway. A new party has been formed. By idealists. Seeking change. Better governance. No hidden agendas. More honesty. Accountability. Simple stuff, but profound. More encouraging is the fact that the online world has taken to them like fish to water. Bloggers like Suderman and Pravin have put in their two cents.

Blame it on Rang De Basanti or whatever, but there is change in the air. I can feel it. I can smell it. It may not be imminent, but there is hope.