I PUBLISH, THEREFORE I AM

The other day, we were playing dumb charades ...yes! I really think there is a good takeaway ;-). It's all about understanding the dumb guy, and about the dumb guy trying to be understood. There is only so much a person can do, but what is really cool about the game is that the opponent team makes total sense out of the dumb guy's body movements (obviously! it's because they know the answer), but the dumb guy's team remains clueless whatsoever, this is why people have  a universal vocabulary for dumb charades , something like, thumbs up means an English movie, and thumbs down means a Hindi movie. This confusion is not just specific to dumb charades, it happens in real life too. When we try to say something, those who know the subject find it really easy to understand and everything looks perfect, but those who are new to the subject get confused. Now that I am a technical writer , I do feel audience analysis is very essential, this brings me to one other thing tha...

When I think of search, I think of google. When I think of restriction, I think of twitter. Twitter restricts you with the kind of content you put up as your update, and thats what sells. People know for sure that it's a two line blog post a.k.a a tweet, and they also know that everyone gets just two lines to make a point, which is really tough coz we are not used to replying emails in one/two lines . Also, twitter updates are full of text which is really awesome coz people dont get distracted by other kinds of media, unlike facebook , where we have ads on the right, a wall full of photos, videos, quizes, invitations and what all. If you ask my opinion on twitter's 140 character restriciton then I'd say, people dont get to express, instead they get an opportunity to impress someone with 140 characters, thats really a good thing coz you dont want to listen to my long story , instead you want to know whats so impressive/special about my story, if ...

This product talks wonderfully about itself, the bottle comes with a story, and surprisingly it's not like a sales/marketing pitch. How cool is that ;-). Click the image to enlarge - You have got to read this Why waste water when there are so many other things to waste. Like, time. Yeah, Waste time. That never hurt anyone. Save Water, Waste Time.

There is a new smarty pants in your office, there is a new nerdy kid at home, your smart cousin - who is a big shot - wants to learn what you do at work, to help you without actually being capable of helping you out. We meet people who are fully loaded with questions, but, certain questions they ask are secondary to us and frankly, we don't have answers for it. How do smart people avoid silly/secondary questions, they start off by saying " That's a good question...blah blah blah " or " They repeat the question and...blah blah blah ". There are many other ways of making others think that you are going to answer the question without having to answer it. Some people are afraid that they might get caught, so they start off by saying " I am no expert at it, but...blah blah blah " or " I have not thoroughly been exposed to this but...blah blah blah " or " In my perspective...blah blah blah " The next time you run into a guy ...

Yet another publishing technology coming into limelight, this is so damn frustrating - not coz I had the same idea in my mind (but kinda remote), but coz it's so damn neat, and it seems so obvious. People are gonna love it and it's gonna sell like hotcakes. Paper.li is the next big thing; not many know about it, but take it from me (and the rest of the world), it's gonna be a very useful online tool. These people are gonna deliver a newspaper to your account in every 24 hours for the kind of news you wanna follow, i.e. they take feeds from your twitter account and present it fabulously to give you a newspaper like experience. Mind-blowing...no no Mind-blasting ;-). Simple idea, not so simple implementation. I wonder what is the final product gonna be like, coz the site is still in alpha mode.  I din't make this product for a set of people, I made it especially for you.  PS : I feel, we are slowly moving into a market place where everything (product/...

Be curious, seek improvements and always be on a lookout. What happens? You get lucky . See all the unreasonable guys around you, somehow they always get lucky; being unreasonable gets you closer to being lucky. I find it really funny when some guys study just 5 questions out of 10, and get the same 5 questions in the test, that's why they say " Life isn't fair ". On a closer look, guys who study in the end, squeeze as much as possible, and let go of the fear of failure/unknown. Guys who prepare in the last minute go in full momentum, they are the fastest in the last mile and that is more than enough to beat the joggers. The last mile is very crucial and you gotta run as hard as you can, if luck strikes, you might as well win the race. PS: Contrary to that, the last minute run can be fatal if luck doesn't strike . What happens? You get peed on ;-D. PS: I got lucky, pure luck - First page of Hyderabad Times

The prices attached to special dishes is not based on what goes in its preparation, instead, it's all about how they present the dish and what the chef has to say about the so called exotic dish. That's called MISDIRECTION - What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes ( John Travolta said so ). It's simple, we pay the price only when we are made to believe that the dish/product is worth it, so, its not you who decides whats worth it and whats not. Happy being a consumer? :-D Chef attack : I made this Italian egged pasta spoilt with cheese  (that's the name I could think of) with yesterday's bacha-kucha kadak roties ;-) ; I had to put all the cheese and egg to make the roties consumable ;-). You see, I don't waste food...:-)

We have around 5-10 online start ups a week with hardcore funding from all kinds of Venture Capitalists ( VCs ), you might wanna know who's buying your time . Almost always, some wise ass comes up with an out of the box idea and we follow that idea till some other wise ass comes along and showcases a better idea. All we do is network and share information with people around the globe; easier the interactions, better the idea. Some of you just wont go out of your FB page , should you find yourself amongst them, trust me, you need professional help right now ;-). Long live orkut , FB has virtually wiped out the whole idea of scrapbook. I am sure, in a few years, some other guy will provide a better idea to the "Wall" in FB, and we will simply leave behind our very own FB profiles to follow the new idea. The point I am trying to make? Share Share everywhere, all kinds of information reach our profile/inb...

No no no nono no...what you see is what you get  gets your attention. A wonderful ad I spotted on my way to the office. C'mon, Go get a good F*****CK, everyone needs it ;-D. F*****CK a.k.a FASTRACK eye wear

Someone stole my PEN DRIVE or I may have just dropped it somewhere. Information is wealth and now I am poor ;-). Just because I am a Writer from the Product documentation team, I have only one solution to these losses. Readme.txt file inside the pen drive. You have to see it to believe it (Click the image to enlarge) By the way, the contents of the pen drive makes it easier for you to understand how crazy the guy really is. One more thing ,  People just cant stop advertising themselves, The guy shamelessly tells you to click on his blog ads (That's called determination) ;-).

You can't fool everyone and if you think you can; then we have a winner, you have succeeded in fooling yourself. Again, you can't fool everyone every time, its kinda cool to not do stuff and get results but that's gonna take you somewhere (half way) but not there (all the way). I realized it coz I thought I could - I want to be in publishing (which I am) and wanna go a long way in it but I get these comments about my grammar, one women said- " You still suck at grammar after around an year, you have not changed at all ", that is by far one of the best constructive criticism I have received. I dint realize it when the person mouthed it, but, (today) it suddenly popped in my head that " who am I trying to kid? I have got to work on my grammar coz I wanna be in publishing and it's a pre-req (long- prerequisite ;-))". You can't fool everyone every time, Certain things are essential and you need to do/learn them (for sure) to...

I just realized that telepathy is really a beautiful thing. Our Indian movies show in one scene: " some guy a.k.a hero is getting beaten up " and in the other scene: " that guy's mom feels something bad is happening to her son; who is in some other part of the world ". That sounds like "truck loads of crap", but, I think its true, not just the mom-son thing but the whole concept of you thinking about someone and feeling exactly what the other person is going through in someplace else. You wait wait wait and you just want something to happen, it happens in that very moment. It's like, I am thinking about a person in my head and that person calls/texts/mails right then. Similarly, you see or sit right next to a person and you know that you will connect well with that person. WHY? The ambience says it all, its clear synergy/telepathy. Thoughts are in the air and the strong once actually enters the other person's brain and tells them stuf...

Temples give you a good think time coz they are clean & maintain silence. But, when the temples are far off, we need to schedule our visit. It's really well said that you should go to a temple only if you are really interested and if you have belief in whoever is that you are praying. If you dont want to go to a temple today, no harm in postponing your visit to some other day. Similarly, if circumstances are not good and there are other factors hindering your visit on any particular day, It's wise to postpone your visit. BUT WHY? AN INCIDENT Morning, my father went to his office and was all set to start at 3:00pm to Srisailam which is a 4-5hr drive from Hyderabad. His colleagues did not want him to go on this weekend due to some work, But, just because everything was planned, he dint care to think of cancelling the trip. I was not at all interested as I had already seen the place. On the first place, I was not even a part of this trip as one of my...

Dedicated to a guy in my office There is this person I know in my office who just talks logic & tries to be a scientist in his conversations (not literally). His modesty can sometimes drive people nuts, never listens to anyone for his work issues coz it's always his way or the highway. At times, he acts as if he is listening to you but he might just be nodding without understanding a word...he usually does it when you talk negative or if it's a drag, that's how he flushes the unwanted. Whats the irony? Morning h e comes to the office, eats good healthy breakfast & listens to some soulful music to calm himself, then he would search google & webmd .com for insights on men's health & other such health related articles, apart from the usual work. Then while returning home he smokes a couple of cigarettes & pours in some booze in his system. Again, the next day morning, the same healthy breakfast & health article reading. Who is he trying to fool? It...

Man! that was clearly one of the traditional ways of wooing the public & somehow convincing them to vote for you (actually, trying to convince). It was my first time to such an event. What could I make out of a political campaign? It’s not that tough to be the one It’s really tough being there & doing what other have been doing for long/ages Overall personality & popularity is the key to selling oneself- really!! People judge the book by its cover & not by its content (still). a glimpse of what I saw...zoom it- you'll find duplicates of Vijaykanth & MGR The poor & the unprivileged is really gullible & it’s a cake walk for politicians to fool them One does not praise oneself directly instead he makes others in the game look stupid You always have loopholes , it’s just that you got to research your opponents thoroughly & properly unearth their wrongdoings Entertainment is really what generates & glues the crowd to where the speech is abou...

How on earth is this justifiable. Really, you make the situation controversial and then act innocent when questioned. All are westerners in the family & they know the significance of the middle finger but they still flash them for the press usage. Reading a news paper & watching someone show you their finger straight to your face...damn it, no thanks. ( Oh k, I was overreacting..;-) ) Going to polling booths to vote Rs 500 + lots of effort Getting a mark on the middle finger Rs 100 + Celebrity status The whole family flipping their bird for the press Priceless I know it feels great but you don't have to be so damn frank Now, probably there might be an uproar but whatever man...their intentions are good but the way of display is not that encouraging. They are public icons, kids will start flashing their birds just coz they are doing it (how cheap!!). PS: Anyhow, I have no personal grudge on this family...Amit (Ji) ;-D...is one of my fav PS: Its funny...

Each one of you can give your side of the support and fight global warming. Here's how you do it.. Just switch off all the lights for an hour (actually, all electrical usage)...sounds like a big sacrifice as our lives are powered by electricity right! lets experience earth for a change. check this earth hour movement... EARTHHOUR.IN PS: if you are reading this & it's not the 28Th of march 2008...still you can support this by just switching off your lights, its no big deal (just a couple of minutes, that's it)...go ahead & do it!! cheers

Finally, India on the rocks. I had this post in my mind since the SLUMDOG SUCCESS but due to some reasons it got delayed. We won the OSCARS , actually the slum lifestyle won it for us. Why do such movies from India do so good globally, that's because they have the true Indian essence to it. Its quiet obvious but still I'd mention that the Indian essence is shear poverty & injustice. If you have noticed movies like Water Earth Laagan Slumdog Millionaire Gandhi do great at the box office but have not been a hit in the Indian film industry nor with the Indian audience, that's coz these movies project our lifestyle, we get to see these things day after day (Its a routine hence not enjoyable). But the foreigners are stunned to witness something so inhuman still present in countries like India. So, they are prone to appreciate & enjoy the movie. As a matter of fact, even Indians appreciate & enjoy things in the line Poverty & Injustice. How exactly? In India the...

This is no joke man, somebody coming up and trying to blow up one cricket team just for the sake of it. These terrorists are so damn equipped that even an army would be put to test in such unprecedented conditions. Situation analysis- I don't know everything about this incident nor I intend to know more coz I am tired of watching hours of news for these timely terrorist attacks & lets face it, no one can do anything to such things. As far as I know Srilanka Team is traveling in a bus In the heart of the city Lahore, terrorists open fire @ the Srilanka team bus & the police Terrorists have hand grenades, AK 47, bazookas & all sorts of weaponry. They kill around 5-6 police & probably injure rest of them They run from the spot & now its catch me if you can situation. Preparation- they wanted to keep srilankan team as hostage, so they got dates & stuff for a long stay/trip. This was the police van Now, who's helpless...nobody to blame, some people just want...

Mannnnn ! Yesterday was really some experience. I am never been qualified as careless & have always taken care of my things. But my cellphone (a 15K asset) was outta my hand for those 2 hours, I was damn tensed but not even a bit worried about the phone,I couldn't digest that I can loose such a thing that too in my workplace. I just wanted that guy, so that i can blast his skull off. Again, it was not misplaced, it was a clear case of robbery; In a way it still does not qualify for carelessness..;-). Those 2 freaking hours Minutes after the two guys - Balaji & Pavan left our office, I started my search for my mobile, thinking that its on my desk. When I came to check, apparently Gattu sir himself handed over the phone to that robber thinking that its his phone. Came down running till the main road , no luck. Went to the office, called the 2 guys- those f*** ers & the conversation was justifiable that those two had take my phone. How? my phone was switched off, he s...