Sameer Agarwal

We use Microsoft Communicator for instant messaging at work. Communicator has an option of setting a status message which is visible to everyone who has you on their contact list, but in a rather non-intuitive manner (see below; the pinned note; on taking the mouse over the status message of the contact appears as tool-tip text).

I did use to check status messages of other people on my contact list generally, but I thought that was just me and my quirks. So I thought I’ll test it out.

And so, I put a status message saying that

FY09 planning for iKnow on… If you bothered to check my status - well, then may as well pass on some ideas

Now who would read it I thought. But the truth of the matter is that several people did. Interesting….!

PS: iKnow is an integrated Knowledge Management, information and communications program for one of the teams (Decision Support and Analytics Services [DSAS]) at Hewlett-Packard.

Hell, rant again. Seems like I’m the most inspired to blog when I have a rant. Why on earth will I want to make a rant public? I guess it’s similar to just “talking it out”. So here goes.

One thing that really pisses me off is when people can’t say it straight. I don’t seem to understand why this fear psychosis really spans everyone - across gender, ranks and culture! I guess there is one set of people who have the courage/assertiveness to say things the way they mean and the other much larger set who can’t.

Why can’t Yes or No be easier to say. Whoever believes in Ms Rand anyway! There is no black or white for them; it is all gray and as ambiguous as it gets. Some people survive on ambiguity for they feel it keeps their options open. Am I one of them? Very difficult for me to answer, but I sincerely hope that I’m not. May God always give me the courage to call a spade a spade. Amen!

Ok I’m feeling better now

It’s been 6 years that you’re gone but the memories just keep getting more vivid. Everything I do, everything that happens reminds me of you in some way or the other. I’m trying to become what you wanted me to… I know you’re there helping me out… Always be!

Love you Papa

I’ve been hibernating for two months now. Been completely off blogging; off reading; off exercising. Crazy how I get so caught up in life. Looking at the past two months - it started with getting awfully busy, ‘that’ broke the routine and the discipline was gone. End result - a completely weird routine…. It’s funny how blogging reflects my personal patterns. If I’m blogging regularly that sort of means I’m more organized those days. Hehe!

Anyway such hibernation happens to me every once in a while. The good thing is that I do wake up! Let’s see how long I stay awake this time….

I was chatting with an acquaintance who wanted some advice on how to establish their startup (actually the idea) with a target segment of internet users. Not that I’m an expert in this area, but I did give him my two cents, and I thought I’ll put them up here as well.

The assumption is that the company/personal blog will be the primary vehicle to ‘establish’ that connect. So here are some tips on successful blogging:

1. Write regularly and briefly (heard of Flash Fiction?!). Most blog readers, read regularly but have a very short attention span
2. Monitor your traffic (including your RSS feed). Analyze what kind of topics are working (getting more traffic, comments) and which are not.
3. Subscribe to RSS feeds of active bloggers. Keep commenting on their blogs actively - it’s easier to get noticed like that
4. SEO is not dead. Optimize your blog and try to own some keywords - show up on the first page for keywords that matter. Be diligent about tagging each of your posts
5. Create groups on Facebook, Orkut and similar community sites. People notice groups because of friend feeds and typically subscribe themselves as well (me too) - so you can get some eyeballs by leveraging the chain effect
6. Get your blog listed on as many blog aggregator sites as you can

Of course these are basics. More professional help is available at Blogworks run by a person called Rajesh Lalwani. And no, I’m not getting paid to write about them. Just that I discovered them lately and found them interesting!

Must be a simple question for some, but the most difficult for me. I guess I’ve been trying to figure it out forever. Heck my conclusion is that I’ve no burning ambition in life - an ambition for which I may give up everything, or give ‘it’ everything.

A little secret. People often ask (typically in training programs and interviews) what my ambition is. Sometimes I’ve been honest enough to say that I really do not have an ambition, but sometimes I just make up something. And it’s not that, that ’something’ is not something I want. Well I do want ‘that’, but does that qualify to be a burning ambition. Heck, no.

For the time being I’ve given on identifying my burning ambition. Guess I’m fine without one. It may be a very mediocre thing to do (being fine without THE BIG goal), but well I haven’t found it yet.

So. So what if I don’t know what the big goal is yet. How about the small ones that keep coming to my mind everyday. I read somewhere recently that writing ‘it’ down brings commitment to a thought. So well I thought, why not. Let me write down, and possibly keep writing my-goals (that’s the tag I intend to use for similar future posts).

Here goes. Some of the things I want out of life (Disclaimer: some of them will be VERY contradicting, but that’s how I am!):

1. I want to be an entrepreneur - run a startup
2. I want my startup to go public
3. I want to make a lot of money
4. I want a  life of solitude - with nothing to do
5. I want to read all the books on the planet (or the ones that count)
6. I want to go back to school - Harvard
7. I want to travel at least 50% of the globe
8. I want to go on a cruise
9. I want to own a yacht
10. I want to do sky-diving
11. I want to do scuba diving
12. I want to learn how to play the guitar
13. I want to learn how to play the piano
14. I want to learn how to swim (funny but yeah I don’t know how to swim!)
15. I want to learn Waltz
16. I want to learn Salsa
17. I want to learn French
18. I want to learn horse riding
19. I want to learn how to fly a plane
20. I want to own my private jet
21. I want to live away from the city, in peace and tranquility with no material interests whatsoever
22. I want to…

Well that should be enough for a lifetime. Maybe no. I’m sure I’ll keep adding to this list. But I guess the more important thing is how many I accomplish out of this list. Let’s see……..!

Reacting to a story by Times of India here. Shankar M Bidari, police commissioner of Bangalore, very proudly says that before his predecessor Ajai Kumar Singh did not regulate live bands:

did business worth Rs 1 crore every day, of which Rs 50 lakh came through robbery, extortion and land dealings

Wonder what sort of study was commissioned to arrive at this data. Moreover, if the police has this data, then why not use live bands as a bait to catch the robbers, extortionists and land mafias?!

Now read on, this is interesting. These people have obviously no idea what they’re saying -

The commissioner said this was a clear indication of the reason for increasing crime. “We are not against music or entertainment but don’t want any activities which will increase crime in the city,” said Bidari.

Okay. So what’s the correlation Mr Bidari? I don’t see any. If the criminals are spending their money on patronizing live bands, does that mean that the relation is causal? I mean are criminals committing crimes because they need to spend their loot on live bands? Well forget all this, did you ever study economics?

My blogging patterns are very random (see below). I’ve been blogging since Dec-04 and there have been months when I have posted 20+ entries and there have been several months when I’ve not posted any article at all! I’m not a professional blogger, and I know that a lot of people are not waiting for my update anyway - so probably that is one reason for my random blogging motivation (or lack of it)!

But that’s no big deal. Personal blogging patterns are of no major importance - why the hell analyze it?! But maybe they mean something. Is there any correlation between how much one blogs and their happiness levels? Between blogging and time availability. Between blogging and number of blog views/comments/unique visitors.

Or perhaps, blogging and how much one is spending - too much spending means you’re having lots of fun (mostly) and hence have no time for blogging?! Of course it could be the other way round as well - when you spend more, you are ‘doing’ more things, and hence have more to talk.

Let’s see. Below is a 2-series graph that illustrates my blogging and spend trend over the last 14 months.

See a correlation? Maybe not…

How about now? See the trend lines? While the expense is coming down, the blog entries are increasing.

Logical… Maybe yes, maybe no! More research required

The love/affection is one sided - the woman either does not reciprocate, or may even abhor you/the whole idea. Still want to marry her? Easy! Just rape her. Yes, you read it right - rape her.

At least that’s what the Orissa High Court has proclaimed (not verbatim of course; as an ‘in-effect’ interpretation). Catch the full story here, but here’s an interesting byte:

…either languish in jail without bail or marry the victim and enjoy the freedom…

Enjoy the freedom. Well, yes thank you sir!

Or does it have any? I don’t have too much data around it but at least my perception is that India is not at all serious about the Olympics. We’re still plagued with mediocrity and politics (wonder what’s this Monika Devi doping case all about). Seems like we’re comfortable with being at the bottom of the medal tally. Sports it seems is not a matter of national pride for us.

Sure. How can a country that still grapples with poverty and illiteracy and unemployment ever take sports seriously? So what if we are a nuclear power? So what if we have some of the richest individuals in the world? So what if have a growth rate of 9%? So what if we are a billion people? So what?

Cricket is what matters to us. So what if we haven’t won even a cricket world cup in the last 25 years? So what if cricket is not even played at the Olympics? So what? We’re the richest cricketing board in the world. Isn’t that enough? Alright. Everyone wants an incentive. What’s wrong if a sport is supported because there is evidence that it makes money for all stakeholders? Who cares about national pride - what’s it worth anyway?!

Here’s what wrong. ‘Greatness’ is a perception. The greater others perceive you to be, the greater you feel. Of course, vice versa holds true!

Just a thought. Probably the spectatcular Beijing Olympics opening ceremony did it to me. Probably the fact that a larger percentage of the 56-strong Indian contingent did not even bother to join the opening ceremony did it to me. Probably the casual attire of Sunita Rao (in a sports jacket of all things; and wonder what she was doing there) did it to me. Probably…