I have often found myself entering somebody’s house and trying to relate the interiors with the way the person is, if i know the person well from before it is not very interesting but if i am visiting the place for the first time and the person is also just an acquaintance then my brain is immensely tickled. I have also found myself making assumptions about behavioral patterns of individuals based upon the way they have done up their living spaces…for example a white couch gives an impression of modernity and keeping one updated with the latest trends whereas a black leather couch goes to say that the person is very risk averse and likes to play it safe most of the time.

I recently visited a cousin’s place in Bombay and came to know that the interiors were done by the owner of the apartment who also happens to be an actress, i was rather amazed to see the classy feel exhibited through the furniture which is rather missing from the kind of cinema that she ends up doing, anyhow am sure and so was well affirmed by others that she would have had no role in getting the interiors done, so guess that says it all.

Try it out at a friend’s place the next time and maybe this helps you know him/her better….do let me know if any of you have had similar experiences…

Just like we reap what we sow, recessionary period is also a result of cumulative mistakes, though the recession that we are all living in right now has a lot to do with the fallacies of human nature but without going there lets concentrate on whether we can derive some good out of it. I personally would vote against recession being the right time to start a new venture as people are less keen to spend money and get into the savings mode to try to save for the future and worst times. But cynics would say that recession is great to start something new as the costs are lower and skill set is available at a cheaper price.

Let me enhance the discussion by elaborating on what kind of a new venture am i referring to – a designer wear collection, now i have still not made up my mind as to whether i should start it from a base location or if this should be completely mobile. Traditionally i would need to take up a place, which itself in a city like Bangalore is going to cost me a bomb because it seems as if recession has not even touched the real estate market in this city. So a handsome amount of money will go towards acquiring a decent size place in an upscale community like Indira nagar, Koramangala or around MG road, as compared to that wouldn’t it help if i invested that amount of money in my collection instead and go mobile…i fully well understand everybody’s confusion on a designer store going mobile but that’s something about which i am keen to know everybody’s response and am also seeking suggestions on.

Secondly i am trying to source designer wear and highlight some hidden talent for which i want to get introduced to some fledgling designers who are eagerly waiting to showcase their talent, i cant go the tested and proven route coz i am just starting up and hence cannot stock Ritu Kumar’s and Rocky S’s. I would rather go for the more amateur designers as i personally believe in a lot of innovation.

Hopefully this post of mine would have given you an idea of what to expect in my future posts, it’s all gonna be about my new venture and i would constantly seek everybody’s feedback just as a confirmation to know that i am on the right track.

Introspecting on the reasons why i am forced to conclude this, the biggest glitch that comes to my mind is lack of planning. In a company with a total strength of maybe 50 people hiring even one more employee should be a collective decision of the management, clients and maybe even the project team(if the person is being hired for a particular project, as in my case). Let me elaborate on why i think these people should be a party in the selection process, management  will obviously identify the need based on client requirements and then try to fill it, the responsibility to provide clarity about the profile can be best provided by the client as they produce the requirement. Its is managements role to identify somebody who best suits the client requirements, the team plays a critical role too as they are the ones who will include this new person in their team and make him/her feel comfortable and optimistic about his/her career growth. Even if one of these fail at doing their part right the complete hiring process can go wrong.

Providing the right level of motivation to a new hire (especially a lateral hire) is as important as retaining an old timer and hence commands considerable investment of time and money. Its is important to have clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the new hire before bringing him/her on board, its important to see an alignment between the individuals goals and the goals of the company on the whole, unless these factors are considered it is hard to retain a person who is still fickle minded and has once risked being in the open market…that too not long back!!!

http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/nothing-will-ever-be-the-same-again/

Though my post is not gonna talk about 26/11 or any other terrorist attacks or calamities before that….my post is very mean and talks about our very own relationships, wherein we do or say things and move ahead, don’t these small incidences of bitterness change everything? I think they do….think about it… the question is can we avoid this and insulate our relationship from all that we dont wanna hear, from all that will change how we look at each other forever…can we? 

Don’t we just move ahead the next day thinking that “Its Allright” but is that the truth or is it just postponement of whats coming…a change in our perspective, a change in how we look at LIFE, a change in our personalities, a change in our motto to live life fully each day, a change and the biggest one in how we feel for each other. It just changes everything and indeed nothing will ever be the same again….

Well a post will follow-on why has it been difficult making room for myself in my own country….even when i have been away for only 3 years….but this ones dedicated to the Kindle only. So post my enquiry i met up with a Kindle owner through these common groups that Amazon has in place for people to share their experiences on Kindle….i finally held a Kindle at a Borders in Thousand Oak, CA and liked it instantly, the feel was perfect, it was extremely sleek and something about the placement of the buttons gave me a feeling of utter simplicity. I didnt immediately go deep into the functions and stuff but was informed by the owner that its pretty easy to move around, the best thing was being able to buy books instantly without even going through the hassle of entering ur credit card details. The owner was kind enough to share her experiences and one of them i particularly remember was when she told me that she could use the Whispernet to buy books on kindle while she was on a cruise from the US mainland to Hawaii…she was so excited about it that it just registered with me…it indeed is great and makes me wonder at how much can get done with just the click of a few buttons…thanks to the internet and the founders of Kindle.

My Kindle delivery did get a little delayed but it just seemed long also as i was eagerly waiting for it…i had bought books and they were also delivered to my kindle even before i had the device in my hand…it indeed was a great idea to buy a kindle and i have to thank my husband as i wouldnt have bought it without his constant reminders and detailed discussions with me about how much would i love it and how handy it would be to have lots of books on one device and also to be able to read it from there, i always kept going back with the argument that it would be nothing like holding an actual book and reading it. Thankfully he could coax me to buy it and now i am very happy with my decision…i carry it with me all the time, in fact it has been a boon in India where it takes ages to get from one place to another be it work or home.

The battery life is awesome, i can run mine without charging throughout weekdays and then in case i use it constantly on the weekends i need to charge it once and its up and running for the next entire week…the inbuilt dictionary is easy to access and finally the ability to write notes fulfills all the necessities of a reader like me. Am delighted with the performance and would encourage people to buy it as now its available in an International version as well, i missed it and hence can’t use Whispernet or the wi-fi in India, dont know why Amazon is able to  enable that on my Kindle too, on an enquiry they suggested selling the US kindle and buying the international one, but i think i am fine with it right now….maybe upgrades will come later…till then ciao and hope this helps indecisive people like me make the right decision.

A few days back a cousin of mine told me that he had picked up a Sony eReader for his wife during one of his trips to London and that iswhen it occurred to me that there are other products that i should consider before a make a decision of buying somethingworth close to $400(with the case that i have in mind).  I read a little bit on the comparison between the 2 devices…some of these blogs with comparisons are highly technical and i was completely blown off but some of them were informative and made me aware of stuff like i would be unable to use the wireless service of Kindle outside the US and hence would have to resort to the regular way of plugging the device to my laptop and loading an eBook( exactly like the Sony eReader). Secondly the other restriction that i came to know about was that to buy a book from the Amazon eStore which Kindle accesses i necessarily need to have a credit card with a US billing address, which is strange to me but that is how it is.

The only drawback with Sony that i could understand from most of the reviews that i read was that it will not support DOC and hence it needs to be converted to RTF using a free converter called Caliber…all thats ok but now i wanna find out the format most eBooks are sold out in. The Sony eReader is almost &100 bucks cheaper as compared to the kindle, the screen size is the same, aesthetics look similar and with a couple of buttons here and there nobody seems to have a mjor problem with the placement of the menu items.  I have heard great reviews about Kindle’s battery life, still not read a lot about Sony on that front…that will surely be a factor to consider for somebody like me who wants to own an eReader for the convenience of not having to buy and carry bookloads with me. Its an ideal choice for people like me who have been moving from one corner of the world to the other, with the airline’s restrictions on baggage weight getting stricter day by day i have always had to leave my books behind, mostly distributing it among friends.

Any suggestions which would help me make this decision are more than welcome…i have a deadline of mid July to buy the eReader so please be kind enough to provide inputs before that.

Needed to edit this post just to clarify that reading the book on a 6″ display with the E Ink screen is am sure a completely different experience than reading it through the iphone App, i am sure abt that coz i personally own an iPhone and its not a great idea to read a book on a palm size display especially coz the battery keeps dyign out as the 3G iPhone has only a day long battery life as compared to the 4 day battery life of the older model. Had read about it as an alternative to eReader’s on a couple of blogs but wouldnt suggest anybody to go for it….nahh not a great idea.

Posted April 30th, 2009 by SavingsMela in Business Services India Corporate News SavingsMela.com

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– David O. McKay

This is probably the best quote that i have read ever, the important question though is that do we aptly exercise our Freedom of Choice or do we mostly give in to others choice of influencing us and making us do what they want. This very very short and simple sentence has a lot of meaning and energy as these others are the people whom we love and when we get influenced by them we usually are under the impression that we are exercising our choice of getting influenced and hence there is nothing wrong about it and we are still FREE…

There comes a stage in life when you realise the duplicity of your choice and then you wanna break away from the dependance of your choice on others,  sometimes life gives us options to do so amiably but mostly we have to bear the brunt of it for the rest of our lives….

“What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that may cost and wherever it may lead.”

– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Everytime without fail before starting to write i have 100 things going inside my head that i want to write about and then i start linking them and realize that all those are result of my personal circumstances and hence should not be put up on the blog…it would be unfair to torture people with such confusing and out of the world life situations that i always find myself in.

In this state of mind the best thing to do is to grab a book and not leave the comfortable seat of your reading chair until and unless you are done with it completely, i have been looking for nail biting kinda stuff that i cannot stop myself from reading for quiet some time now but havent come across any as yet…any suggestions in this area are more than welcome, have a long hold queue for 2 books in the library and everyday i open my inbox with the hope of seeing an email from the lib saying that yeah its your turn now but no like every other good thing this will make we wait forever too.

Work is a drag too…my company supposedly got a fairly big deal at the client space though nothing seems to have changed, like any other indian company there is no celebration and wont it be stupid to celebrate in this kinda economy but i would say why not, i would rather feel more like celebrating coz its anytime a bigger deal to get another project when the market is tanking so bad…its an attitude issue and will take long to resolve.

I am reading this post again and again and it is hard for me to comprehend the essence of it, i leave it for the reader to judge whether they want to keep visiting this blog or not, if they decide not to then i would just add them to the list of people who have already completely given up on me….huhhh

These *%%$%# reports will take you through the details of every damn restaurant, club or bar where u placed ur &^& and will also tell you how expensive that measly act was…it also shows you item by item what you bought in this entire year, some of it you have already used and thrown off…i am like why the hell is it still talking abt those wine bottles and chocolates and what nots and we dont even have those anymore….what can u say?? or do??

Anyways dont mind this blabbering of mine, just ignore and be happy. Enjoy the biggest recession ever….atleast we will have some inspiring stories to tell our kids…stories of our struggling times…huh!!  zzzzzzzzz