Punjabiyaa da josh ...

Sometimes I wonder what is my identity ? Who am I if people see through their social lens ?? Am I an IITian, Am I a boring computer scientist, Am I a baniya or a regular desi in california ? What exactly is my Identity.

The question which bothers most probably is how do I see myself and what exactly I want to look like through my lens ?

What I want to be ?

In my eyes I want to be the guy who lives and dies for his passions, The passion can be a startup, a cause, a sport, a hobby, a movie, my family or whatever The only requirement I have from my life is to do whatever I wish to do with my utmost sincerity and
energy.

How do I see myself currently ?

hmm. time for some introspection, specially since 2009 is coming to an end and is a good idea to look back on last year and give yourself some marks

2009 passions I followed and its rating
1) Marathon : Started in June, suddenly I got the running bug and decided to do marathons. I think I started with great passion running my first marathon in 2 weeks of training but then I did missed out on some training sessions and didn't complete the full marathon I aimed at (2 half marathons do not cut it) , Looking at the steep miles curve I ran here and all the injuries
I endured I will give myself a descent 7/10.0


2) interIIT dramatics : August 2009 also saw return of the actor in me with the Diwali Dhamaka InterIIT competition, This was one event where passion was flowing up the brim , The energy, the fun and the passion we had for this was unparalleled and I am proud to get a 10.0/10.0 for this ... This is the kind of passion I want to have in all my endeavors.

3) PanIIT business plan competition: August 2009 was a dammn interesting month looks like, It also saw the entrepreneur bug in me, worked on a business plan and was able to arouse interest from couple of VC's .. The passion I saw there was a solid 9.0/10.0 satisfying but not great enough I think.

4) DesiPandora.com happened in Nov-Dec 2009 and am pretty happy about the effort which we saw here, learnt a lot of things and had ton of fun ... working part time after a full day of work at linkedin or sneaking up work behind wifey back .. man that is also in 9.5/10.0 category ..


so in all folks, pretty happy with the effort in later half of they year, the bad piece is not a single point to talk about in entire first half ... 2010 need to be different I need a bigger fuller and better scores through out the year :)

one more thing saw this piece somewhere, and loved every word of it ...

"Yaaran di yaari ton Sadi jaan kurban e,
Ki Karna asi Paise te Wakhave nu,
Sanu aapne yaaran te hi ena maan e,
J raab ne dita hai Phooka Paisa lookan nu,
Sanu Baksheya Emaan e,
Jina marzi ehh Kar lain Dikhawa,
PUNJAB de Munde te Kurian Di WaKhRi PehChaan AE"

Introducing www.desiPandora.com

I have been very very busy lately, I got the entrepreneur bug this September. It is one bug which doesn't keep you down but keep you up all the time, all night.This bug is one of passion and bring so much of it to you that you become stronger than superman and can do stuff in minutes which sound like crazy weeks before.

I hope this bug stays with me for throughout my life as my identity is my passion, w/o it I am just one of the rat running in the crazy rat zoo we call this world.

Enough of the emotions here, please put your hands together and help me welcome to this world www.desipandora.com

I am very big fan of Pandora.com A superb music recommendation service to play a stream of songs given your choice of song/artist/album/category. They do music genome analaysis (beats, speeds, moods, chords, vocals) to give you recommendation for similar songs/bands/music etc Their recommendations are crazy accurate and I have discovered many new bands I were totally clueless about thanks to Pandora.

Lately I have been having urges to listen to nice hindi music and that is where the pandora model breaks, the cost of adding songs to their library is significant needing music analysis plus the model is not self serving one. I cannot add my own collection of songs to add to pandora if they dont already have it. Pandora have added songs in hindi but I think their library is not fully stocked yet.

Here is where desiPandora.com comes to rescue, It rides on the biggest music library on the whole planet aka youtube. Given any keywords it searches youtube for similar songs make an initial playlist and keep playing related/recommended songs till it can.

Riding on youtube means you can query with any keywords, any language words spelt in english, song title, movie, album, artist name etc. And it will try to do the best youtube aka google search can make out of it.

I am very excited, I can finally have my own customized radio station tuned to my mood at the moment be it metallica or jagjit singh it has it all .. it knows me and loves me always :)

How to eradicate poverty !!

have gone silent for a long time, was busy in few things and was thinking about few issues the issue which bothers me most is and what I cannot ignore ever is the fact
that in "India there are still 3000 children dying of malnutrition every day, today in 2009," It is an true eye opener shocking truth which make me feel very very ashamed of myself and all of our generation, knowing very well that We can change it, we can change all of this easily with just few hours a day by few of us..

How to eradicate poverty ?? What do you think ?? what is the best solution ..
in my eyes there is only one way .. Dreams !!

the solution is not to give away cheques/scholarships/jobs etc the solution is to give them dreams, the answer is to show them Yes .. you can .. tell them, show them the heroes they should follow .. who rose from the ashes to fly in the sky. India need to grow up and look into eyes its ugly side If we the so called educated intelligentsia acknowledge these facts and stand together to finish these .. it will not take more than 5-10 years to eradicate it completely...

This is a great article about how to eradicate poverty
http://www.nontoxin.com/how-to-eradicate-poverty-without-doing-charity/

On a personal note Me and Anju are starting involved with an NGO Asha for Education, We are also started working as Stewarts for two projects Tomorrow Foundation (a NGO working for education for the most underprivileged sector in Kolkata, India) and Basera-e-tabassum (Working for providing shelter to children orphaned in Kashmir crisis).

We need to do more .. all of us and now !! our next generation will be more ashamed of us than you can imagine ..







the logic is simple

Kapil Paaji and passion !!

I am a very big fan of Kapil Paaji, not his bowling style not his batting and certainly not his fielding. I just love the way Kapil inspires people around him.

It was always so obvious to see the fire, dedication and passion whenever he was on ground playing any country, The only other person I think came close to Kapil in passion would be Robin singh in my opinion. No arrogance, no attitude just never say die spirit and passion to play for the country.

This interview always fires me up, Always !!

http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2008/jun/20kapil.htm


'Perhaps that day was for me only' When you go into any ring with this determination, nothing can beat you, nothing can put you down, you are invincible. It was not luck they won the world cup in 83, it was just plain can do spirit !!

Simply Awesome !!

Harry Potter Me and a startup

I cannot deny it, I am a fan of Harry Potter from the very first day I read the first book. (It was actually Goblet of Fire for me :) and not the Philosophers stone)

The whole idea of a magical place is very fascinating to me, the hidden train station , flying car, parents memory album etc, The thing which strikes me most is how close are we in technology right now to actually have all those magical ideas turn to reality

I am particularly impressed with the photo/video album



there is no doubt it is the most personalized and sweetest gift you can give to someone .. And I think that would be my first startup idea too. Photos are personal and last for ever but sometimes they cannot capture the whole experience a video can provide. why do we need this

1) There are lot of people who are not tech savvy and sending video messages works but they cannot watch it "at will" and it is not personal ..
2) A Digital photo frame is a good solution for that but it keeps repeating itself and again need a setup to see, doesnt work out of the box have to on it and stuff ..
3) The experience I want to provide is exactly how Harry Potter would have felt looking at his parents video , listening to there voices just by opening a diary/album.

That experience and feeling I think is irreplaceable. I will update more about the technological challenges and cost factor about such a product.

Rudy !! The spirit of Youth !!!

Been a long time since I last wrote something, Just want to get the wheel rolling for 2009 :)

Happened to catch the last half n hour of "Rudy" today, Its one of those movie which fires you up and make you believe in spirit of the youth "Passion Hardwork and more passion !!"




one quote which also stuck me lately ...

"Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits." - Thomas Edison

We are given only one life and we have almost chosen what to do with it, there are two things which I thing we should ensure One find a goal worth living our life and second live every day with all the energy/passion we have as I dont want to look back ever and say if only I could have done more that time :)