Weapons of Mass Collaboration

Even before the net age barged in with all its might and gusto the concept of "six degrees of seperation" was a prevalent thought! It says that everyone of us is no more than 6 individual away from each other! So this implies

1. World is just 6 ppl wide!
2. I am just 6 people away from all influential who's who of the world (that should be such a reassuring thing, divine gift for a person who is looking out for BIG favors :) )
3. Any company is just 6 people away from all their customers
4. I am at max 6 ppl away from my soul mate, so on and so forth...
   

The concept according to me reflects the potential of all the collaborative efforts we are experiencing today. Its the potent force over which the collaborative tech wave has been riding. The collaborative techwave has been happening, churning, taking shape, moulding and remoulding the virtual biz environment. This wave has actually made a big dent in many areas like eComm, socializing, marketing etc. and thus bending a few traditional existing rules and creating new ones. A few have termed the force as 'Wikinomics' - the theory and practice of harnessing the power of mass collaboration and a few even call it the 'weapons of mass collaboration' and 'corwdsourcing'. There are umpteenth example today a few we all know and a few might be lesser (and many new are coming up with brighter ideas) known but all of them are riding on the same wave. GNU, Linux, Wikipedia, Google, youtube, SmartMobs, innocentive, Human Genome Project, Second Life, MySpace, Blogosphere etc are all the successful manifestations of the same thought!

More on 'WMC' in my next blog...

Vital Corporate Lessons - Rule1: TKNC

A friend recently gave this vital lesson of survival for all the new joinees in the corporate world. It might be cliche'd for veterans but should atleast be the corporeal first aid kit for the freshers :D Read below and if you find it useful let me know i'll convey your regards to him!

TKNC: Table ke neeche chupna(hiding)

It is a very handy and unique concept. By using this one can very easily deceive their Boss’ in believing that hum log bahut busy hai…thus making sure ke kuch aur kaam na mil jaaye. For this chup-chaap office aao, dheere se apne friends ke saath mail-baazi karo …aur jab junta kat rahi ho toh bheed mein ghar katlo…But dhyan rahe, boss ko ek bhi mail nahin maarne ka….boss ko aisa feel karwao ki tum exist nahin kurtey ho but actually it’s the other way round tumhaare liye boss exist nahin kurta hai :D
Bhoolke bhi apne boss ko apna cell no. nahin dene ka…(unfortunately inspite of being a veteran i gave it on the first day itself so dont get carried away :P) If it's very important and urgent toh let him email to your id …why unnecessarily give ur personal cell no. to any anjaan person!!!! Woh alag baat hai ki uske liye apni hazaaron mails mein tumhaara id dhoondna is next to impossible! :)

Crucial Caveat: By all means make ur presence felt in the HR dept, kahin woh tumhe na bhool jaaye stipend ke liye!! So Rule1-TKNC mein bas 2 stakeholders hai "HR dept" n "U"!!!!

~I think i have quite a few jem of friends like these so many more corporate rules may follow and i would finally complete my post MBA with honors :)

P.S. The prestige act of the above narration by my friend to me is that this sermon was given to me when i was doing his boss's job while he was ofcourse applying TKNC and i was... DUMB ME!! :( And to add salt to wound stipend ab tak nahin mila hai...

Laal Syaahi...

Is laal shyaahi se aakhir, likhta toh main kya likhta?
Lakh boonta shabdon ka jaal, par saach saaf dikhta…

Koshish uski thi purzor, dost bane rahne ki
Aankhen band ki thi humne, par nakaab saaf dikhta…

Log pareshaan dikhte the, khoob unhen samjhaya
Khudko samjhaana chaha bahut, par sawaal saaf dikhta…

Hanskar-hansaakar chahat thi, khush rahne ki
Kitne badle aaine ghar ke, par ashque saaf dikhta…

Lamha lamha kat’ta hai, Kat’te lamhon se
Sadiyaan beet chukin hain, par zakhm saaf dikhta…

Kab tak jhaakengi is Lau ko, yeh jar-jar hoti deewaren
Toofan ka kaam tha aasaan, par jaadoo USKA saaf dikhta…

..ME

Evolution of Jimbala

"Neothink, buzzAd, redtomato, GoBingo, filamentus, chaipaani, Tomrecall, Branddead, Adpulse, greysell, there4IM, Adwise, Admire, Admormal, ADminister, ADwokate, adwokay, totalbulbs, adventure, adscapist, adscape, agoondo, adrex, jimbala, loosebulb, adwise, adwiser, adicing, icingsugar, potluck, adsizeXL, adnormal, loosegun, GoBanana" (20 more such words were there which i have screened off coz they were more cuppish than kitchenish... for more on 'cup n kitchen' visit the 'wise n otherwise' blog... which is still under construction though :P)

Wondering whats all this eh!? :) well those are the weird but sweet fruits that we bore in flat 30 min brainstorming for a name (sorry cant reveal the purpose for the name yet! but smart people who know us can take a intelligent guess at it ;)) we (Tomato n myself) did in our cubicle. The top 4 we filtered were
1) TotalBulbs
2) there4IM
3) GoBingo
4) Jimbala
as these were the ones which had the highest amount of 'hatke' factor to them the rest had their roots in something or other we could think of!! Can you guess the winner amongst the final 4? If yes you shall get the honor of featuring in one of my upcoming posts! :P

P.S. Use "jimbala" instead of "Apunbola" in the song "Apunbola tu meri lailaa.." and sing... its an absolute GoBingo thing and yes TotalBulbs there4IM :)
P.P.S. Can you use all the words (mentioned in quotes at the beginning together in a paragraph? :)

One Tee Less!!

One needs to be very fortunate to celebrate 2 holis @ NITIE. A few may of course differ as I understand that world is full of divides :) And strangely Holi @ NITIE is a perfect example of, Divided we sleep in bliss in our cells and united we fall in mud pit :D

It starts of with a usual bonhomie of people gathering at one place, applying vivid gulals and wishing each other a colorful life while the dhol plays in the background. Once you have a good enough quorum the craziness sets in and increases exponentially as time increases!

# The 'Chun Chun ke': The wild calling and pulling of the reluctant ones... then wild rubbing of color at them making sure that they get their lesson straight that either be proactive at this or be locked inside an iron chamber!
# The 'Spot the Spot': As all are smeared in color by now... So the million dollar competition begins, Find the clean vacant spot on the body? Erase that spot as if it never existed and get satisfaction of a lifetime.
# The 'Bone maalish': Hey now what??!! Let’s get deeper beneath skin... so then it begins the hard and barbaric re-rub trying to apply color not to skin but to muscles and bones!
# The 'Mud Barse': What next!!?? And by now people are broke on colors too... so junta suddenly goes philosophical, "Lets go back to from where we have come and where we shall go in the end!" Only that the pit dimensions are not exact else would be a good dress rehearsal for the ones who get buried! And the royal janazaas and juloos of people being carried away to the pit starts. (Slight change in this part of the sequence this year was that water was scarce :( )
# The 'Tee Time': And then cometh the sequence I like the most, one which sets NITIE holi apart!! The start of this is the best thing of this part. And this part is the exact replica of how a riot starts in a tense environment... all it needs is a seed a start! If it is avoided nothing shall happen... but just one spark and everybody is tee less and topless (okay taking in consideration the sense and sensibilities... ALMOST :)) so here I go one tee less...
# The 'Holi Dip': The grand closing ceremony happens in our very own Pond. Though it’s considered dirty and unsuitable for swimming by many but I know it’s much cleaner than many beaches we flock too and then atleast at that point of time we all are dirtiest and filthiest of all :D And yep the fish within hate us... they bite you and a few even jump out of the water and come right till your face and say, "Get Lost!!" :)

That’s it!.. Atleast the crazy part of it. And yes of course if any outsider happens to visit the campus anytime after 3 p.m. he/she is bound to go insane looking at all those scattered torn Tee Shirts around :D

P.S. Oh yes one might absolutely contend on the fact that how could me be fortunate after all that happens ;)... so let me strengthen your point a little more... I lost my 3.5K specs last year in the pond (DON'T ASK HOW! Can't reveal as it is harmful to my esteemed reputation) and this time have to sacrifice my room key in the same!

Sarhad

Reminded of WAR by "Turtles can Fly" thought would also post this small rhyme i once wrote on the same topic...

sarhad par lagi aag ko
lahoo ki varsha se nahin bujhaya jata
suno apne dil ki dhadkan ko
barood se dilon ko nahin milaya jata

kya hua hamare vivek ko
ke ik insaan insaniyat par goli barsata
haansil ho ga kya kisiko
bas ik aur taaboot pahadon se neeche aata

kitni zamein lagti jeene ko
ke koi jag jeetne nikal jata
roko jeetne ki is hoad ko
bas dhara ko lahoo se seencha jata

itihaas gawah hai sacchai ko
ke jung mein koi nahin jeet pata
dekho mahaan ki mahaanta ko
ke kisi aur ki haar par jashn manata

baatenge hum aakhir kis kis ko..
taaron se dilon ko nahin baata jata
kholo dil ke darwajon ko
ke dushman bhi yaar ban jata

dekh hamaari sankeern soch ko
hoga woh ram-raheem bhi sharmata
mitaa do sabhi sarhadon ko
ke pane ko aur kya rah jata

...ME

E-2-E

Today even a small IT startup might call themselves an E2E (End-2-End) service providers.. so one can imagine the extent of E2E the biggies might be talking of.. infact for them i guess its, Eternity-2-Eternity now :) So in this era of our IT finnesse, maturity and high end capability its very hard for me to believe that an employee of one of these biggies has to wait for 10+ days for his login id and is still waiting!

The entire sequence has been very funny out here. After 2 odd (yeah i know 2 is an even number) days the infra team says that the HR hasnt told them anything about us. The HR female, dumb of the species (wait ladies dont draw your guns and start shooting. I am not being sexist here, what i mean is the entire HR department and this particular female in specific. Infact I doubt whether she does anything more than getting various paper formalities done by new joinees and then utter politely with a big grin, "Welcome to the human poultry farm") says she thought my manager would intiate that.. Whoaa.. and who is my manager maam!? Do i get to choose one myself!!?? Okay so w catch the senior HR, dude this time, he says, oh okay so you people need a login too.. hmm.. okay i'll try "initiating" that! (we were totally unaware of what that innocent 'initiating' meant at that time)

Two more days whoosh by and daily I keeping paying my deep homage to the HRs of the world. Then the dude cutting a sorry figure says, eh actually i am unable to 'initiate' the process (i reda that as, these infra people have barred me out of it all... i swear next time i would allot a boss rather than 'initiating' it myself) may be you should ask your boss to do something for this. Fortunately i had a boss by now so i knew who..

Boss, with a smile, Hmm.. okay so you people still dont have it! (as if that was our winter project and we have utterly disgusted him with our failure!) So he also 'initiates' it and a couple of more days pass by. And by this time I keep paying my deep gratitude and reverence to all of them!
Then one day when I again enquire (read beg) the Boss regarding my login he too cuts a sorry figure... Oh yeah actually i tried 'initiating' but theres some problem in between. (in short, I am helpless too these infra people have not even spared me :() But well i will email people sitting in chennai for help in this regards and I m leaving for UK today.. meet you after 4 days!!

So thats it.. the HRs are enjoying themselves with other new joinees and interviews.. the Boss is busy entertaining clients in UK and I am still banned from any access. I ofcourse have stopped visiting people for login ID now. To add salt to the wounds.. its not that since I didnt had my login i was having a free ride at office... I was made to work like a dog for first 7 days :(

Turtles can Fly

The movie i recently saw (ofcourse on my lappy... its been more than a month that i have watched a movie on Big purdah) was one of those good movies that touches and etches somewhere deep inside and leaves you silent for quite sometime. A kurdish movie with english subtitles. The movie revolves around the lives of kurd refugees just before America is contemplating to invade Iraq (saddam). The refugees who dont have any say whatsoever in the war but to wait and watch for others opinion on which there life depends (only thr life ofcourse coz they dont have anything much that belongs to them) Their only aim and prime goal is to save the lifeforce within and keep dodging death!

"Satellite..Satellite..", people scream for the central character in the movie. Two things of this character that catches the eye are his name and his bicycle. A lanky boy with a strong voice, he is the leader of all the orphans and organizes them for daily work and wages. Their daily work primarily involves disarming leftover mines by hand and selling it to nearby arms dealer. The scene where the 'boy with no arms' (another prominent character but with no name, who lost his hands in a blast accident while disarming one of those mines) disarms a mine with his mouth is one of the pinch scenes. The boy with no arms has a sister named Agrin, a beautiful girl for whom industrious Satellite falls for. Agrin is a rape victim of iraqi soldiers, bears a child called Risa when she herself is a kid. Risa entices with his innocent laf and voice. The boy with no arm loves Risa but Agrin hates him for the memories he reminds her. Agrin makes a few attempts to get rid of him and finally there comes a scene which just strangled me for a while... she ties a big stone to risa and puts it in a deep pond!!

The movie ends with Americans toppling the Iraqi government and hence the temporary end of war. In all this play of seriousness and melancholy there are a few lighter moments to the movie. Like the one where one member from each family stands out there on a hill and there family members keep yelling, "slight left... slight right" then the one where elders ask Satellite to shuffle and find a news channel (bypassing the prohibited ones) and translate english for them etc.

what i still fail to understand is the movie title "Turtles can fly"... if anybody has any clue please enlighten me. I would strongly recommend the movie to all who like real life potrayal of people.

Who moved my Kitchen??

"Dude, who moved my kitchen?" .. i find me interrogating myself very frequently!

Rings a Bell!?..and you also feel there is some mistake there!!?.. if it does then first let me congratulate you as you are one of those smart individuals who seek inspiration from mice and its various glorified activities and desires! :) Further confirming my belief that one could draw inspirations from anything and everything in this world be it spider, mice etc.

But a block of cheese doesnt appeal to my appetite at all and i ofcourse am not a mouse... and hence the 'Kitchen'.

My Kitchen at NITIE was so darling and important to me and I always used to think that its going to be with me for ever. But somehow it slipped no matter how hard i wanted to hold on to it. So one thing for sure that has happened is that my kitchen has been moved by somebody and i am starving to death now. The mouse said, “They keep moving the cheese.” (Change happens.) Worst i am also stuck and lost in the maze (read cubicles) that too a quizzical and enticing one. And all that my daily search and toil in this maze leads to is discovering Cups of various shapes and sizes.

Tragedy is that though i always smelled my kitchen, I never realised that it was ever cold or old :(. So need of the hour is
->movement in a new direction to help me find new Kitchen
->to let go of old kitchen, and the mouse said sooner you do that the sooner you find new kitchen.

And yeah now i realize the importance of the mouse saying at one point, “Noticing small changes early help you to deal with the large changes to come.”

Dont know whether i am 'Sniff' or 'Scurry' and would depend more on what my mate in the circumstance Tom would like to choose for himself :). Going by the saying, "If you do not change, you can become extinct" i might be heading right away to extinction if i dont find my Kitchen soon. Dear reader..Wish me LUCK

Last but not the least, for all those who are reading this remeber:
“They keep moving the Kitchen.” (Change happens.)
“Get ready for the Kitchen to move.” (Anticipate the change.)
“Move with the Kitchen.” (Actually make the change.)
“Enjoy the taste of new Kitchen.” (Enjoy the fruits of change.)

yeah.. yeah..i m BACK!!

Gosh!! its been months since i scribled here... The system out here at B-Schools just puts you on a different frame of mind and shackles you to it so much that one can just not try and get out o fit... go tmy exams from 3rd and just started with my first subject... got 7 subject to mitigate and long days and very very short nights lie ahead in store for me!!

So till then i shall again be lost in this crowd of self proclaimed managers... but promise to be back!

O&O

interim thoughts...: Of Surveys...

Many suns ago, it so happened that one such door to door 'surveyors' had come to our house and on enquiry by mom, it turned out that he was a college student doing this in his vacation. I was promptly kicked out of an afternoon siesta to talk to him with an order to get the address and get out on the streets. It was my first 'job'. It was for one of those research agencies that operate out of a small office. We had to ask for women under the age of 35 for this survey. Imagine the dangers of a young man, knocking on doors and asking for the respondents of this category. Needless to say, there were many closed doors. At 15 rupees a form, it was quite a low paying job.But, it did teach me a lot. Selecting the right respondents for one, was critical. Here my multiple language skills came in handy. Since I could communicate with reasonable proficiency inHindi, English, Marathi and Malayalam I was able to get a decent hit rate. Walking in the Mumbai sun, trying to get some survey done was really some experience. And yes, since it was a huge 7 page survey, I did fill out some information myself. At the end of it, there was a carrot. We handed out a deodarant sample which was worth it for many participants. Although we were not supposed to reveal to the respondents that we would give a sample, some of the surveyors often used it as bait to get respondents.I remember it fondly, because it was my first 'job' in that sense. A summer well spent on learning "Emotional Intelligence", trying to talk to total strangers, putting on a smile even when one is frustrated and learning a little bit of empathy towards the door to door salesmen on whom we slam the doors ever so easily.Those days, few apartments had security guards, so it was easy to enter into an apartment (not more than one respondent per building, they said). These days, it is a lot more difficult to get a survey done. Wonder how they do it.

Youth Curry - Insight on Indian Youth: Mirror, mirror on the wall

Bennett Coleman & co (the publishers of the Times of India) would have us believe it is launching Mumbai's first "co-created newspaper". This, 2 months after DNA - Daily News and Analysis from the Zee-Bhaskar group - had plastered Bombay with its hoardings asking you to help create its soon-to-be launched newspaper.No doubt the DNA survey is more an exercise in making people feel their opinions matter than a serious exercise in market research. But, you know it has actually taken place. You've seen the surveyers in their purple uniforms, they've rung your doorbell - or that of someone you know.On the other hand, Bennett's 'massive direct contact program' is something I have learnt of through an article published on page 1 of today's Times of India. This does not mean that the almost-ready-for-launch Mumbai Mirror will not live upto its claim of being the 'first paper designed for - and by - the young Mumbai reader'. You don't have to survey 11 lakh people to design such a paper. The Mumbai Mirror has a good - and young - team in place which may well deliver on its promise of being a no-nonsense paper for the young.But in the same spirit of no-nonsense, why this nonsense that we-too-have-done-a-survey. The 'survey' idea is owned by DNA, by trying to appropriate it you become a me-too.Secondly, whatever survey Bennett undertook was at a scale far smaller than DNA. Hence it is likely to be viewed as a false or exaggerated claim. Which again is something young people are extremely allergic to. To thine own self...In actual fact, the 'Mumbai Mirror' survey is a door-to-door sales exercise. Says a student who is on the sales team," We are going to housing societies with the dummy copy and signing up subscribers. It is Re 1/- per day ie Rs 30 per month and we have to get a minimum of 8 subscriptions a day or we don't get paid for that day's work."Bottomline: If 'Mumbai Mirror' is to truly 'cut the faff and connect with the new reader of today' - as is its stated intention - it needs to treat the young with a great deal more respect! And it first needs to look into the mirror and be true to itself.by "youthcurry"...

MANDI@NITIE

Well we had our MANDI exercise today. It started from 10 in the morning and ended at 12:00 in the night. It was a direct selling exercise and i covered entire south mumbai giving demo to people af all caste & creed no matter to which strata of the society they belong... and i just enjoyed talking to ppl... connected with many of them... sales ho ya na ho baat karne mein mazaa aaya... in the end our group made a sales of 8200 Rs... and we have got a few prospective orders too :)
There was a huge coverage on Sahara channel today also there is 5 min coverage of this in CNBC hindi (AWAAZ) tomorrow at 8 am...also in many newspapers like asian age and all...IT WAS FUN!!Chaloo tired like a pig after wandering for almost 13 hours ...shall go to bed...

The Photo-Op!!

I am stillwaiting for my D day i.e. 20th July...Well the surprise tests here have started and as expected i am fairing badly at them :( but have to take that for the timebeing. Well to top it all have also started bunking lectures ;P

Yesterday we havehad 3 hours photo session... one group and one individual pic of allfor updating the NITIE website... and it was all fun... Navy BlueBlazers were compulsory and only 3 of us had it so the big hunt beganand in an hour all of managed to get hold of one from our benevolentseniors... then started the best fit challenge..ppl trying andexchanging them to get the one that fits them the best but in theprocess a few were doomed to suffer ;) And yeah the gals were supposedto wear sarees and God they took an hour to change into a Saree...Isit that time consuming?? or that the art of wearing a saree is gettinglost so everytime its a first time for girlzz :)Finally the entire batch of wud be managers were ready and it wastime for the final take of the group pic at a location which wasfinalised after a lot of delibration... three takes and the groupphotograph was done. Then started the agonizing queue for individualpics and i as usual have to wait for my turn till eternity coz my rollcall is 72 (since my school days have always had a tailender rollnumber no matter if you short the names by first names or surnames imaintain my position :)) And after 55 min of wait mera number aaya andsuddenly the photographer's cell buzzed and he went out with his cell :( for almost 10 minutes i was standing there looking at the lights for some time and then at the walls and contemplating on how all this trouble that i have endured for just a pic of gonna add value to me or any wud be managers ;)

THATS THE WAY IT IS....

Well thats me!

When I spread out my hand here today,
I catch no more than a ray
To feel of between thumb and fingers;
No lasting effect of it lingers.

There was one time and only the one
When dust really took in the sun;
And from that one intake of fire
All creatures still warmly suspire.

And if men have watched a long time
And never seen sun-smitten slime
Again come to life and crawl off,
We not be too ready to scoff.

God once declared he was true
And then took the veil and withdrew,
And remember how final a hush
Then descended of old on the bush.

God once spoke to people by name.
The sun once imparted its flame.
One impulse persists as our breath;
The other persists as our faith.

--Robert Frost

Back to School

27th June is the date to go in sunlights history book. It is the Day when he went back to school after 4+ years of sloging in various industries. But unfortunately for him it was all not so very smooth. Even today he is shuttling between his college(NITIE) and Company(MBT) and waiting for 20th July to get relieved from his professinal duties.