Life in Bangalore

1.       “No Parking Zone. If parked here All tyres will be punctured with extreme prejudice” 2.       “Love thy neighbor but not while driving,” 3.       “This is a highway not a runway” 4.       I am curvaceous, Be slow! 5.       Drive like Hell & You will be there !!! 6.       Live for your Today…Drive for your tomorrow 7.       Mind your Brakes or Brake your Mind 8.       Hospital ceilings are boring to look at … Avoid Accident 9.       Be slower on the Earth than Quicker to Eternity 10.   Make love not war…but nothing while Driving

One of the habits that I am beginning to cultivate these days is to “Journal Daily” . Journaling  is nothing but recording the activities and events of the day. It would be much similar to “Personal Diary Writing” except that there are much more benefits to extract out. First benefit of a journal is that it captures the thought. This is important because if you dump it on the paper you would get rid of thinking about it again which is a freedom from “tyranny of impoverished thinking”. The next time the thought arises you would be thinking how to act on it. Second benefit of a journal is the Perspective. Lets take a scenario where an argument  cropped between you & your friend that turned nasty. As you record this event in the journal, you are surely bound to record it as a narration from a third person’s perspective. This account will definitely be more sober which will really help you understand the crux of the issue without the emotional baggage. Thir

My date with the Bangalore Book fair continued for the 6 th consective year . I was first introduced to it by my dear friend Arul Srinivasan (currently in San Diego,California). Till then, I was a very reluctant reader confining myself to the newspaper & the news magazines. And then I read the book “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” by Robin  Sharma. It was an enlightening book due to the fact that it energized me every time I happened to read the book. I realized  the power of Books & Reading . It also prompted me to write while being part of the Toastmasters Club. A person committed to learn would need both Self-realization and Implementation. Books provide the mirror to your self. Implementation is altogether a different topic in which I am a certified slacker. Nevertheless I love books simply to gauge myself. Following are books in my library that I would recommend for anyone : 1)       The monk who sold his Ferrari – Robin Sharma 2)       The Professional – Subrat

'You've got to find what you love,' – Steve Jobs This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005. I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be ado

Multi-Tasking is the “In” thing these days irrespective of its effectiveness. Added to that, we live in an age of Information overload. The combination of the two pose a great challenge to the human memory (at least for me) resulting in Ineptitude…which in plain English means “Forgetting “. One of the solutions proposed by  the Productivity Guru David Allen (Getting Things Done) is to dump your memory on the white sheet. I have tested this method “brain dump” and have had a good measure of success. The only time I found it does not work  is when I fail to review the items on the white sheet. I usually carry a pocket notebook and pen with me. Whenever I get reminded of a task, I just note the task in my pocket notebook. By this way, I don’t go into memory recursions later to remember the task that I wanted to do but forgot the task itself. Remember that I am not talking about doing the task.  I am just talking about the collection process of all the things that yo

Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain… It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives. My parents set the foundation of my life… I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home- schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep - so the family moved from place to place and, without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father. My parents set the foundation of my life and the valu

I used to have this Goal of Daily Physical exercise for the past of several years. The problem though was I was never a regular at Physical Exercise. It used to be in Fits and Starts. My longest streak of exercising was for around 21 consecutive days. I started to think about this recently on why exercise has never made into my life as an habit Following are my observations on my irregular exercise routine: Usually the day’s agenda forced me to decide if I felt motivated to go out and exercise. If it was an hectic day, I would get bogged down and prefer to lie down in the bed rather than exercising On Somedays,  I woke up so late that I would prefer to run through the daily chores rather than spending the time in exercising Last and the most important reason was sheer laziness. I preferred to get that extra half-hour sleep in the bed rather than slugging out in the Park And one fine day  I read an article by Leo Babauta’s four steps for changing habits 1)       Sta

If you need 20 lakhs at the age of 65,how much do you need to save per month assuming 7% interest? -If you start at 20, its Rs.510 per month -If you start at 40 though , its Rs.2280 per month …So start investing   early which is today.   Spend less than you earn …Approximately 40% of families live off 110% of their incomes…Count to 10 before you buy Invest Wisely …..Save at least 10% of your Income Buying with cash, not credit , can help you cut back on spending. People spend 12-18% more when using credit cards than when using cash… so   simply pay with cash not plastic You need a safety net to deal with an emergency. Ideally you'd have enough to pay rent and bills for six months, but even a three month cushion can be a big help Tracking your income and expenses will help you understand where you can improve . Maybe you're spending too much on going out to eat or could be saving just a little bit more each month. Finding tools to help you track spending can be a

“Buy a Wonderful Company at a bargain price” - Warren Buffett Stock Investing is as simple as that or as complex as that depending on if you are the person by name Warren Buffett. So how do you define the “Wonderful Company” ? According to Mr.Buffett, a Wonderful company is one that yields highest Return On Capital, Year After Year. Return On Capital is nothing but the Equivalent of Return On Investment. It is computed as following;                 Return On Capital =          Net Profit + Interest Charges                                                          Equity Capital + Debt Capital               Once you have computed the return On capital for atleast the past 5 years, the next question that would pop-up in your mind   is How much return on capital is good enough? My personal opinion is it should be something   at-least   5 -10% more than what the Bank Fixed deposits yield to justify the risk involved in Stock Investment. So what are you waiting   for