entropy

What a pleasure it is to rhyme,
To do it more often, one needs time.

I'm home alone for Christmas, I have to pass time!
If you don't fear the dark, a little holiday with yourself is not a crime.

An indulgent to-do list with privacy so sublime,
After ages, I even have the courage to clear out my den's slime.

Its even cold outside, I've got no hills to climb,
I fancy treating myself to Maggi, but with a touch of thyme!

Just like my den, my mind needed ridding of its grime,
I'm sure this will help me, get closer to my prime!

De-fragmenting your thoughts, I realize, doesn't cost a dime,
Ah, what bliss is traffic-gazing, sipping soda and lime.

So take a few days, this experience you should mime,
While I try to better this rhyme, may be by giving it a chime!

Posted by aks at 10:57 PM 4 comments    

Labels: Rhyme

Now this changes everything, yet again! Technology is advancing at eye blink speed, what exciting times these indeed are! It's official now! Google eBooks is here and Amazon, although at the top of their game right now, might have to soon bow down to the giant. While the publishing people world over were still waiting to see the right direction their industry would take, Google very quietly kept scanning every damn book they could get hold of. Seemed like such a waste back then, because face it, with all the legal problems and not great quality how many of us really used Google Books? Not many I am guessing. There were number of factors for that, the main being lack of a readable device! It was just not possible to stare at a computer screen and read the Lord of the Rings(oh heck, the sheer size of its paperback version itself would scare me away). But all that is set to change and what I firmly believe is probably the most important invention of this century in many many ways, E-Ink Technology would pave the way forward. When I first saw an E-Ink screen a few years ago, it seemed quite drab and also the content wasn't there yet, but that is not the case now. Google has entered the eBooks market when the time is ripe. A million tablets and eReaders cropping up all over demanded access to one giant central source of content and Google will certainly cater to that. Although Amazon still remains the preferred eBook vendor for most publishers, Google's bigger collection could soon change that. The beauty of it all lies in the cloud! Any book you ever buy will be accessible from any device of your choice and you can start reading from where you left off last.

The way we deliver content for education is set to change completely and this time for a long time to come unless we find some way to just download wisdom from somewhere in the near future. With increasing maturity of eReaders the day is not far when school kids wont have to lug heavy backpacks anymore, instead just one interactive E-Ink based device and it makes so much sense! No matter how many saplings green initiatives have planted, a shift to E-Ink is what will save our trees ultimately. Everyone will own a library on the cloud! The last decade saw the shift from paper based teaching and learning with the onset of the laptops and this shall culminate with touch based eReaders becoming a worldwide standard, doing away completely with paper, stationery and printers! RIP Gutenberg.

So do yourself a favor and go buy that really expensive hard cover you always wanted to own, it might fetch you quite a sum in pawn shops half a century from today.

Posted by aks at 7:26 PM 6 comments    

Labels: E-Publishing, Futuristic

So you must have heard, facebook is said to take over the world, facebook will be the new internet. But did'nt we say similar things about the Internet itself at its inception? I assume we did. Postal departments all over the world protested the wrath of the e-mail and now the way we look at e-mail itself is said to change. Fmail seems like the most logical next step, I am continued to be impressed by this Harvard dropout. Just like most Indians my generation, I've always been loyal to Google and its million services and could've never imagined a life without my gmail id. My work email apart, there's no denying that most of the people using gmail today as a personal mail tool, have their inboxes cluttered with Facebook notifications. So where do you share photos? ideas? kickass quotes you come up with on the potty? an amazing article you have to share with friends? latest updates from your favorite product manufacturer? get together with old friends in various groups? Chat? Pretty much every part of your personal life which you would want to keep public, is on Facebook. So what do you use Gmail for again? err... umm... *awkward silence indeed*

I am guessing just a few tweaks like video chat, google docs and other services sync and a little time getting used to the idea in general is all it will take for Facebook to quite literally take over our lives. Do I mind it? Not really, because it makes perfect sense. As long as I am in control of my privacy settings and not being pushed into anything, it'll make life very convenient. Facebook certainly has become a default for finding people, you can't do that on Gmail. Quite ironical that you might still 'Google' the person in question and Google itself would direct you to the said person's Facebook page. Websites for small time manufacturers, marketing promotions, event promotions, wedding invitations, birthday parties etc etc which used to be such a fad back in the day is so passe now. What's the point of going through the hassle of creating a website and ultimately marketing that one link on Facebook? The audience does not want to be directed to a million different webpages which basically hold the same damn information! Solution: Facebook Page! From Madhuri Dixit to Ferrai, whatever interests you is on facebook. All you gotta do is 'like' the page! No more bookmarking URL's. Simple, plain and effective why? 500 million active users! You dont need to be a marketing guru to figure out where to make noise. It is sad how Google did not foresee this. To me personally, this definitely marks the downfall of the Search Giant, at least from the personal lives of the internet population. But I must say, Google has tremendous promise in becoming the most preferred client for professional mail, not anytime soon though what with the cloud still being 'not safe'.

All this got me thinking, what the hell? Ultimately I am being told what to do! I don't have a choice now, do I? Can I afford to not be on Facebook? No way! But why are we allowing it then? Because we asked for it. Because we asked for one genius to clear out the chaos and show us the right path. Corporate Anarchy I firmly believe is how all these giant wars are going to end. Just imagine what the world would be like if we had just a handful of companies, say four or five which would make everything for us, "simplifying" our lives. Corporate Governance would not be far either in that case. I am not saying one way is better over the other. Its merely an observation that Anarchy made perfect sense to man once upon a time, he fought wars for it and then realized Democracy is what makes more sense. Moving on, although Democracy did give us a lot... it created the chaos we are in today and that will continue to increase. Two Hundred years from today, all men will be equal, in race, religion, etc etc and how are we gonna get there? Anarchy it is! And if we survive, I guess the cycle of struggling for freedom shall prevail once more. Matrix, anyone?

P.S. For the uninitiated on the title, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook was prudent(?) enough to carry around a business card which read, "I'm CEO, bitch".

Posted by aks at 7:24 PM 7 comments    

Labels: Futuristic, Social Media

Six months it took for me to fix my creaky door,
I wonder why I was ok with so many mornings going sore.

A few drops of oil and a state of mind to mend it,
That's all it took and I am glad I could end it.

Since that day, my door keeps venting,
How he could hear me creak as well and how I needed mending.

Funny how times change, how six months an unbearable pain,
Becomes just a flash in the pan, when reminiscing it stroking your mane!

Facial hair, scattered although it might be,
Growing it with care is the only chore that now...keeps me even slightly.

Just when its time to turn another page,
To fall into slumber giving rest to my rage.

I see the colors so vivid, the sun begins shining,
Alas its time to go to sleep, on a Bright Monday Morning.

Posted by aks at 4:54 PM 1 comments    

Labels: Rhyme

Weekend o sweet weekend
Why is it so that thy have to end?

Two days is all u can afford
And thats the only time i have left to wash and fold!

Why do come and why do u go?
Why dont u just stay and take it slow?

Why do u let a million plans flow
Why cant we just lay and play cello?

I wish you visited after every hard day
then be more productive, I may!

I guess i'll just have to live with u for now
unfair u r and how!
I shall now get back to the usual pound
well I guess I'll see you around.

Posted by aks at 2:42 PM 0 comments    

Labels: Rhyme

I have always been very proud of calling myself a Hyderabadi. May be its just the easy way out to answering questions about my "native place" :-D, but seriously... I love the place. But there have been times when I've felt like I could've done better and I can't help blaming it a bit on how Hyderabad functions. Although majority of the population speaks Telugu, North Indians have been settling here since forever, thanks to a huge Hindi(Urdu) speaking population and now the IT magnet that it has come to be. But to me, its still a wanna-be cosmopolitan.

I'm gonna be fair here and not think about Mumbai or even Chennai for that matter. But its a known fact that Bangalore has progressed much faster even though we started out pretty much at the same level. There is not a lot of difference today between the volume of business generated by IT in both places, neither is there is a difference in world-class education. If Bangalore has IIM, IISC, Hyderabad has ISB, IIIT, NIFT, NALSAR and so on. But there is still a huge difference in the outlook of the people. The native population is a very conservative lot.

A few days back I was having a conversation with a friend from Mumbai. I was telling him how I came about to be an engineer. I was telling him how more than 50% of Hyderabadi engineers came about to be so. If a kid is "bright"(typically in state syllabus this would mean the kid can chant the vedas and his math textbook with the same accuracy), it'll become his family's mission to somehow try and push him into one of the IIT's. For all you know, the kid performed well in his sixth class final exam in the hope that his parents might buy him a new video game. But instead the cable TV gets cut and he finds himself in a dungeon called "IIT Foundation Course". From now on, the entire universe around him makes him believe that he was born to be a geek. That's it, sports/dance/TV/girls/all other not-amounting-to-engineering-skills hobbies out the window. I can go on and on about this but to no avail.

The point I am trying to make here is that the immense potential for creativity in Hyderabad is dying. India Inc. certainly needs a lot more quality engineers to move forward but not at the expense of murdering creativity. I used to be of the opinion that the IT revolution is responsible for this, but no. No matter what stream, today, you cannot runaway from technology. I have learnt that the hard way. It is common nowadays that people from various backgrounds end up coding. But that's ok, the industry demands it and you get paid, so why not? Generally, people from other parts of India have made a more informed choice of career compared to those from Hyderabad. The simple reason being lack of exposure and acceptance. Commerce graduates are often looked down upon in Hyderabad as if its the end of the world. This is not done!

Very specifically, I'd like to see the following changes:
- State syllabus has to change. Just mimicking CBSE/ICSE should do.
- Career counseling should be made a part of school curriculum. Typically kids who want an off-beat career, start looking at options after 12th. But its already late.
- Internships/Industry training should be made compulsory in engineering!

These problems you might think are generic and the whole of India suffers from it. But no, in Hyderabad, it is even more so. I am very proud of the fact that Notion Ink chose Hyderabad to develop their famed Adam. I hope colleges in Hyderabad will draw inspiration from this and start encouraging real engineering projects, industry alliances and entrepreneurial incubation centers.

Posted by aks at 3:19 PM 17 comments    

Labels: Education, Hyderabad