Shift to wordpress

I have decided to shift my blog to wordpress. Here is the new link.
http://maxmayur.wordpress.com

Although I will be visiting here and will be posting some interesting stuff every now and then. I request my readers(?) to find me on the new link. This link is going to be phased out.

Take Care!

I Fear

I read a mail few moments back which talked about fears, many of them. It put me into a fearful position. :-P

Do I fear any one? or any thing? I don’t know. I’m yet to discover. But then if you don’t have any work in office, on one such days you can always roll your head hear and there, think stupidly and write such post. So read below few things people fear and my arguments with myself whether I should fear too or not. :)

• I fear god: But why should I? I don’t disrespect him, I don’t malign him. I’m not against his existence. I don’t debate with people about it. And I’m religious too. = I don’t fear god.
• I fear darkness: Do I? No I like it at night. It helps me sleep. Moreover I like horror movies.
• I fear my boss: :-D I feel like bursting into a laughter. There were times I used to hate my boss and wanted to dump him in a dungeon. I rather fear my boss’s stupidity.
• I fear death: Umm… again, why should I? Every one has to die, so will I. There is no reason to sheepishly say ‘I fear death’
• I fear failure: I could have said yes if some one asked this to me during my early days of engineering. But I always believe there is always a third way, your way. And believe me, if you fear failure, genuinely do so and never do anything in life. You will never fail.
• I fear ghosts: Bah! Show me a ghost first.
• I fear people, crowd: My suggestion, go and stay in the mountains. Help reduce the city crowd.
• I fear having a fear: Now thats a height. You don’t even know what to fear about. Great going!
• I fear love: Then I fear you.

Enough of fears. May be if I hear some more, I’ll update with y ‘expert’ comments.

Happy reading. Cheers!

Need advice?

Lot of people come to me for advice. They think I'm a 'gyani baba'' meaning a knowledgeable person. It really amuses me. I'm a guy with most ordinary record and absolutely mediocre intelligence. Dont believe? let me tell you who am I...

Through out my school life, I was an average student. I barely managed to feature in the ranks (only twice in numerous exams I appeared)

• Tried hard but couldn't get through in the Regional Engineering colleges. Although I was blessed to be a part of RKNEC civil branch.
• Managed to some how clear my engineering in 4 years.
• Failed in umpteen number of interviews before managing to crack CET and get through in MITSOM to complete my post graduation in marketing communications.
• Topped the college in only one of the possible 4 semesters.
• Changed 4 jobs in 3 years to move from junior to middle management.
• Started a business, booked profit and left it in midway.
• I'm earning more money than all my friends but lesser than all my colleague managers.

And I'm still not clear what I should be doing.

Despite all these facts and figures, I still think I can be a gyan guru.

Do you think you should come to me for advice? You are most welcome!

"sur with love" Jagjit Singh Live Concert

We went to the live concert of Ghazal Maestro Padma Bhushan Jagjit Singh, “sur with love” on sunday night (on 16 June 2008), the first live concert of my life. No there is nothing to laugh about. Now I have been a big spoilsport as far as the concerts are concerned. In the recent past, I have flunked quite a few of them. I tried for Pink Floyd in Mumbai, couldn’t get the ticket, tried for Parikrama, got the booking but couldn’t make it. Almost got the Dire Straits tickets, but this time he flunked. I finally managed this one and boy! what a concert this was.

“Sur with love”, as it was being called was staged at the plush Birla Matoshri Auditorium in Marine Drive, one of the posh locality in Mumbai (of course every one knows Marine Drive). Although I’m an ordinary fan of Jagjit Singh, I was surprised by the kind of audience they had for the show. The ever enterprising hostess Dolly Thakore mentioned that they had an audience ranging from 10 to 80 years. Whoa! quite a fan base Jagjit has, and rightly so. Excuse me for my audacity, but I think he has altogether a different genre of classical music. I’m not a classical fan but his silky voice leaves millions of listeners like me mesmerised. And Sunday was no different. So it started of with a relatively unheard ‘Kuchh na Kuchh to jaroor hona ha…’ ghazal and as usual ended with fast punjabi number ‘Dhai din na jawani nal chadhdi…’
In the process he sang ‘Hoshwalon ko…’, ‘Hothon Se chhu lo tum…’, ‘Hazaron Khwahishein aisi…’, ‘ Wo kaagaz ki kashti…’ amongst others.

Jagjit has been the famous, most loved and respected singer of the yester years. His silky voice and the sleek pronunciation of Urdu. Its more than commendable he draws such audience (BIrla Matoshri can accommodate over 1000 people, it was full well in advance). What should I say about him, I’m too small to comment on some one like him. We had this concert for close to 3 hours. But it felt like we could go on and on and on…

To end this post, I’m quoting 1 or 2 lines from his Ghazals.

“Mohabbat mein fark nahi hai jeene marne ka… Usi ko dekh kar jeete hai jis kaafir pe dum nikle. Hazaron khwahishein aisi ke har khwahish pe dum nikle”

“Muzko jonhone katl kiya hai, koi unhe batlaye naseeb… meri laash ke pehelu mein wo apna khanjar chhod gaye.”

Enjoy!

How am I feeling these days?

I came across this quote recently and was impressed. This how I’m feeling these days.

“Single minded but flexible, like a river forging its eternal route, I am dedicated to completions and natural conclusions. There is nothing that cannot be achieved. There is nothing that remains permanent. I keep on moving with love and purpose towards my destination. My resolve is firm, my aims are clear.”

Hmmm… May be I’m not that single minded, but I flow like a river. I’m dedicated to the completions I associate with work and the natural conclusions I associate with relationships. Impossible is nothing, it only needs the right effort at the right time backed by right intellect. Achieving the number one is possible, but being there forever is not. Nothing is permanent. You are challenged by the worlds fallacies every day and often you fall, fail to deceive. But I’m confident of my movement. There is only one direction I follow, forward! With conviction, purpose and agility. I know where I’m going. I believe I have reached there and am already thinking about my next quest. My resolve is firm, my aims are clear… so is life.

An interview with Google's Joe Kraus on How to Make the Web More Social

No, I have not taken this interview. Neither do Joe Kraus knows me personally. (but ah!, I would like to know him though.) I was just plain impressed by the way he gave an interview to Wharton. It pulled me to post it here. May be my readers (if at all...?) would like to read this.

If Wharton has an objection, they can very well rebuff me. I will remove it. Please feel free to contact. So here it is...
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Werbach: Hi, this is Kevin Werbach, professor at the Wharton school and organizer of the Supernova Conference. I'm speaking today with Joe Kraus, director of product management at Google and truth be told, a former high school mate of mine many years ago. So, good to talk to you Joe.

Kraus: Good talking to you. That was too long ago.

Werbach: It's kind of scary, isn't it?

Kraus: Yeah.

Werbach: So, you've done some interesting things with your career. You're one of the founders of Excite, the early web portal, and then started a company called Jot that was doing wikis and collaboration software, which got bought by Google. And then, to those of us on the outside, it seemed like you kind of disappeared into Google for a while and now you've come back out. So, tell us what you've been working on.

Kraus: For the last year I've been working Google's social initiatives, which are really kind of in a couple of main buckets. But, probably the largest one is the notion of, "How do you make the whole web social?"

So, the killer apps that have really worked on the web have always been about connecting people to one another. So, whether it is instant messaging and e-mail as communications to connect people to one another, whether it's photo-sharing as a way to connect people to one another through photos, or blogging as a way to connect people to one another through the words, people have always been social and the killer apps that have really succeeded on the web have always been social.

And really, the primary set of initiatives at Google that I work on are, "How do you make the whole web a more social place?" A lot of that is divided into a couple of buckets. One is this thing called OpenSocial, which we can talk more about. And another is a product which we've recently launched called Friend Connect. But, that's just the general rubric of how do you make the web a more social place.

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You can read the rest on the Wharton website by clicking here or on the title of this post.

Spain 4 Russia 1

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Euro cup 2008 football match between Spain and Russia. Spain, who won 4-1 are not the strongest or the best known team, but certainly they entertain no less. I know some Spanish league teams, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla amongst others. But nothing more than that. And most of these teams are over shadowed by the foreign players. Although I never followed the Spanish league all that much, I had heard that the Spanish play very creative football. I found out that what I heard was true.

So that match was very racy , full of quick moves and counter attacks. Russians were the first to put their shot on target but some how Iker Casillas (plays for Real Madrid) parried that away. With string of attacks and counter attacks, finally Spain broke away. Fernando Torres (who plays for Liverpool, England) ran down the right flank and darted a through ball for David Villa (plays for Valencia). Villa perfectly timed his run and hammered a pile driver beyond the Russian custodian. Russians tried their luck too, hitting the post from an outcome of a free kick and then one of their players heading on the cross bar. In another counter attack from Spain, it was David Villa again, who out ran the Russian defense and slid a low ball into the net just before the half time, this time the provider was Andres Iniesta (Barcelona winger).

Russians, hurt by the second goal, came back strongly in the second half. But their constant push for a goal allowed plenty of space for the Spain forwards to fire their counter attacks. Finally, 15 min from time, one such suave move was rewarded when Cesc Fabregas (plays for Arsenal) ran down the right flank and delivered a cross in the center to be met by, who else but David Villa. He celebrated the hat trick and Spain were out of reach of the hapless Russians. They did pull one back from a diving header off the corner 4 min from time. But it wasn't enough. Cesc Fabregas, who set up Villa's hat trick goal was finally awarded for being a wonderful playmaker that he is. He scored with a thumping header in the dying minutes to signal a perfect opening for the El' dorados.

Cheers for Villa! Cheers for Spain!