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Flight Cabin View

Well, the above said points did happen in that order. And that too at the exact moment when I kept fantasizing about my first trip on a plane!

All my problems started from political morons calling All Kerala Hartal due to someone not doing something…. and some such paraphenilia. Hence myself, Ajin and Bibin had to reach the Cochin Airport  in advance, in order to avoid the madness of the hartal’ists. 12 hours in advance that is!

Suffering through Twilight inspired mosquitoes, untimely rains, chilling cold steel chairs and the sirens of some minister’s car, we survived the night. Only to wake up to have a Rs 35 ka coffee which tasted as bland as orange-less orange juice and a Masala Dosa with lesser masala than a Diet Coke. Well, all three of us work in startups, and hence difficulty is our middle name. So it wasn’t exactly like it was a stress situation, but it sure wasn’t a million dollar deal either!

Security check, baggage check, claiming the boarding pass and everything else happened very quickly. Nothing eventful happened in the whole procedure, except when I was going through the security check and my phone rang – Bhaag bhaag DK Bose, DK Bose….

I didn’t dare put my phone on loud profile until 6 hours later.

We boarded the flight, fastened our seatbelts and watched the flight roar into the clouds. I for one, loved the take-off! My first flight ever and the power that surged through the whole aircraft while take-off just gave me a miniscule idea about the power it stored within. Speechless!

So there we were at 39000ft with nothing but clouds around us. I had already checked-in to the flight on foursquare the moment I boarded it. My next urge was to register a check-in at 39000ft, the highest our plane would go. Even networks promising 99% coverage do not have range above the clouds, and its another thing we are asked not to switch on our mobiles. So that was that.

As we were landing down at Hyderabad, I got 2 rods of signal on my network and my net connection was restored. 39000 or not, I just checked into the flight again and myself declared I was at 39000ft. Well, you can’t call it lying exactly. Just delayed truth 😀

Flight Cabin View

And just so you know, all these hulabaloo series of comedy of errors is in fact all cos of a simple decision of planning to go for #R10SGW 😛

Coming to the climax, though this whole blog post seems pointless and feels like it is written because I had this sudden urge to write and wanted to do so before I fell asleep, this is just half of the things that happened today. Not to mention the secret smile I thought the air hostess gave me, the asking of “Free Coke hain kya?”, the fight for lower fare with first the taxi driver and then auto driver, brunch from McD with friend’s mom’s credit card…… amongst others.

There were so many things happening today, I just didn’t want my blog to feel left out. And with the IEEE R10 SGW Congress starting tomorrow, I sure do hope the conference is worth all the trouble we made.

Ciao!!

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Monsoon Wallpaper

 “Life is full of challenges. The toughest is to get out of bed early on a rainy day”.

Being in Kerala, monsoon becomes an integral part of your life (as does hartal, bus strikes and Masala Dosa). Ranging from drivers splashing pedestrians to wading through the pot-holed roads, nothing defines a better season to overcome the challenges put forward.

Being an entrepreneur (the word I finally learnt to spell correctly) and the bug of blogging having bit me, I thought – “Is there anything that we entrepreneurs can relate to the challenges put forward by the monsoon season?”

Monsoon Wallpaper

I started on my journey forward to find answers to this question….

An hour of staring at the rain and 8 parippuvadas later, I finally came up with the following monsoon season problems, which I found to be pretty similar to the problems faced by us entrepreneurs-

  1. Waking up early on a rainy day – When you are in a comfortable situation, all cozy under the “blanket”, it becomes very difficult to come out of it. On one side there is the urge to continue on the easy path (sleep) and on the other hand you have the harder path (waking up and chasing your dreams). And then there is always the “5 minute more” excuse. Procrastination.

    Same is the story with entrepreneurs. For us sleeping on is no option. Moving out of our comfort zone for the things that have to be done is all what we do. Procrastination is something we know that can kill us. We fly, we run, we crawl. But we just don’t stop trying to move ahead.Somehow, we feel better chasing dreams while waiting outside a client’s office than under a blanket. 

  2. Cold Water Shower – Getting down under the shower is nothing short of torturous punishment in the monsoon. Yes, having hot water is an option. But then again, spending 5-10 minutes to boil the water, another 5 minutes to wait it cool down to usable temperature, would just waste about 20 minutes. And not to mention the amount of electricity used up by the water heater! Multiply that with two times a day to about 90 days and its bankruptcy magnitude of loss I tell you! And so everyone musters up the courage and goes with the quick 5 min cold shower.

    And that’s what we do too! Moving out of the comfort zone (again), to save time and money, we know to set out priorities right. We get accustomed to being in the most uncomfortable situations in the most die-hard moments. We understand the fact that after bathing in the cold weather with cold water for a reasonable amount of time, we finally conceive it as comfortable as a hot bubble bath.

  3. Reaching office on time – It’s almost as if the gods are against us making it to office on time. Roads doubling as waterways, unable to differentiate between the roads and canals, drivers trying their best to splash us down with water and kilometers and kilometers of mud. But still, no matter what the challenges, everyone makes it to office on time.For us E people (feels awkward using “entrepreneur” again and again. Makes it look too hyped up), all days are the same. Every single day we have to wade through logged roads, pave our way through mud paths, save ourselves from being splashed over by others and still make sure we reach the “office” on time. Summer, winter, spring, whatever the season. Makes no difference. One goal and innumerable hurdles. Just another day at work I say….
  4. Longer power cuts – I guess if you live in India you might be a regular victim of this. One drop of rain, one single stroke of breeze and electricity goes off. But that doesn’t hinder the lives of all these people. Does it? They stand prepared with emergency lights and inverters. They never let darkness cause a break in their routine (unless its day long power cuts).Not all of us might be able to afford inverters during our startup years. But we make it a point to always be ready for the worst. I have found many fellow entrepreneurs to be awesome time managers. If there’s no power for long bursts of time, many utilize that time to hold group discussions, call up old friends, pay bills (especially electricity bill) or just take the time off to relax and have a much needed break.

    Even at our office, during the past month or so, we used to have power cuts for long periods of time. And actually that was sort of the best thing that happened to us. We used that time to hold GD’s and have brainstorming sessions. Now, luckily it’s a daily routine.

    The GD’s. Not the power cut 😛

  5. Three/Four people under a single umbrella – Now that’s not something only entrepreneurs do, I know. But this aspect just couldn’t be left out. A startup almost always is a result of a team-work. Yes, there might be one/two main guys who have the vision of taking it forward. Of what values the company should behold. What its cultures should be. But all of it is just the sum total of every molecule of hard work and passion put in by the team. Together, they strive to make the common dream a reality. Together, they steer the startup towards glory. Together, they share the same umbrella in the heavy rain….

 

It’s as much fun enjoying the monsoon rain as it is building a startup. Gives an awesome feel of freedom. And pure joy. Both, which has to be felt to be understood.

So, how’s the monsoon rain at your end? 😉

Image Courtesy - simplifiedfm.com

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Michael Jackson Minimalist Poster

Michael Jackson Minimalist Poster

 

25 June 2009. The day the world lost one of its most priceless jewel in Music – Michael Jackson. Dedicate this poster to the legend.

 

Didn’t want to go with a vector of a moon, hence applied a grunge texture and Cloud filter to sort of give it a Moon-ish feel. Doubles up as a spotlight effect. About half an hour worth work. Pretty Happy with the result.

 

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Facebook e commerce

We live in times when actors play cricket, cricketers act as corrupt politicians, politicians watch porn in parliament and porn-stars become actors. No one seems to do what they’re actually supposed to. And still Twitter being down is considered to be a bigger tragedy than the National Economy being down. Aargh!

Somewhat similar is the case with Facebook I feel now. Wikipedia tells me its a “social networking service” but I have my doubts about it. Yes, for someone whose bread and butter is all about being on Facebook, am digging my own grave. But a man has got to do what a man has got to do. And that includes writing honest opinions.

Lets see Facebook from my eyes – a normal user plus a marketer. I enjoy my time on Facebook and also rack my brains on formulating strategies and run targeted Ad Campaigns for clients. Right from the moment I log into FB, am surrounded by all sorts of Ads. Right side Ads, Sponsored stories, Ads on my timeline, promoted posts, App Ads in mobile browsing….. the list goes on. Now, for a marketer, its good news – “Congrats mate! You’re ads are being bombarded on the audience”. Pfft. But as with all maniacs who’re mad about Social Media, I do too understand that’s exactly how it’s NOT supposed to work. But who’ll listen?

Now. changing my role from a regular user to that of being a marketer, I log onto one of the pages we manage and check its insights. BLISTERING STORM CHATTERING BARNACLES!!! Its all haywire. The post that was engaged by about 110 people, shows a virality of 1.3% and the post that garnered 4 likes shows a virality of 9.7%! Either the insights are totally screwed up, or I misunderstand the meaning of the word virality.

Facebook e commerce

And then you have the admin control panel. Where, once upon a long time ago you could see notifications and list of new likes by default, now you only see “Get New Likes” and “Promote Post”. I feel more like am being asked permission to be robbed than advertise as a marketer.

Moving on, I go ahead to promote a post in a client’s page since its something important. (Yes, I am mad enough to use the promote option ever since some guys over at FB decided to decrease the organic reach of page content from 80% to about 20%. I’ll kill the person who thought only about the financials of it). And then I get my third and final heart attack of the day. The minimum rate for promoting a post has been increased to INR 300! From 260 to 280 to 300!!

Reflects my blood pressure at the moment.

Literally too scared to move on, afraid it might ask for my bank account access next, I close the work for the day. And start thinking.

Yes, Mark Z also wants to make money. Yes, he also has bills to pay and salaries to give. But a product which started off as a Social Network has now lost all its beauty. Its more like a classifieds site now, with a secondary motive to act as a Social Network. At times I feel better staring at the Classified page of the newspaper than the Facebook Home screen. At least no one offers me an iPhone 4S for 95% discount here 😐

Facebook might as well be named the best E-Commerce site out there yet. As for what they’re selling and what’s their product? I leave it to your imagination….

facebook cartoon