Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Thought Provoking Article...

http://www.quora.com/Salaries/How-good-is-a-salary-of-INR-16-lakh-p-a-for-a-21-year-old/answers/3317809

Salaries: How good is a salary of INR 16 lakh p.a. for a 21 year old?
 Answer-
I'd like to answer this question a bit differently. I have earned substantially more than this amount (around 8.5 lakhs in 3 months) when I was 21 and got offered around 60 lpa when I was 22 (I am 23 now). And I left it all. Now I earn Rs15,600/month doing research in a humble lab of a humble Science institute in India. Point is, 21-30 is the time to explore, to travel round the world and do things you are really curious about, fall in love (again?), start a revolution (scientific for me) and learn how to play the guitar maybe? For all this, you need one thing: freedom and lots of it.

And I am pretty sure, that an employer who pays you 16 lpa is smart enough to take away all your freedom. I have friends who earn similar figures and who live significantly mundane lives drifting from one weekend to another. You are too young to do that (unless you are constrained by other serious things like, you need money for your poor parents, but then people like that don't ask such questions :D). 16 lakhs is the price of your freedom. 16 lakhs per annum for a 21 year old is the worst thing that could possibly happen to you. And I feel sorry, because you're probably not courageous/confident enough to reject that offer.

I am posting this as anonymous. First, I don't want to sound like a pompous douchebag. Second, I don't want to piss off my "high-earning" friends, I love them and they pay for my food/booze on weekends. :D

PS:
I went through the comments, and I see most people have missed the point I'm trying to make here.

1.Lot's of people seem to be worried about how I made 8.5 lakhs in 3 months and what the 60lpa job was. The entire point of the post was that money does not matter! And it isn't very impressive either. Zuckerberg had a billion dollar company at that age! But then, I live a pretty comfortable life with the 16,000 I earn.

2. There are also people who doubt the veracity of this answer("full of lies?"). I do not care for them, but for the people who have derived even a tiny little bit of inspiration from my experience, I'd like to add this: I am no extraordinary guy, people like me abound in the IITs (I am from one myself). I was working for a US company on consecutive internships and later got offered a job in the same. Top branches in any IIT will have people like this.

3. Some have pointed out that many young people have loads of responsibilities, and I have acknowledged that in my answer. The path I've taken is probably not for them. The post is for the people who are not bound by anything, and yet settle for mediocre jobs wasting their energy trying to please their bosses. If you could get a 16lpa job at 21, you could build a 1.6 billion dollar company as well, that too, doing what you love. Isn't that better?

4. Finally, I'd like to ask you a question which I asked myself a year back. How many IITians do you know who have changed the way you live? Not too many. The problem is with our attitude. Most of us are averse to failure, simply because we've never really seen failure. Most of us will do what our parents, friends and girlfriends want us to do. Most of us do not even think what we really want from our lives! I am urging you to think and act, before age gets the better of you. Either life takes you where it wants, or you take life where you want. Choose wisely.



Monday, November 18, 2013

Saturday, November 16, 2013

15th November 2013

Though I know that the time stamp would appear on the blog, it was necessary to have that as the subject. Its a day, I probably will not forget for a long time.
Though the day was meant to be for Sachin and only him, after his innings ended, I actually forgot even to check the score of the match. The end of Sachin, actually meant the end of the match for me. Never thought that, I would have this trait too.

Nevertheless, moving further in the day, which made the day even more eventful, was the meeting of some close friends. Some gifts, and not to mention a feel good factor.

The evening was allocated to the Guitar class, and I must say that trying to play the guitar can be painful to the fingers. The finesse with which the teacher played some lovely songs, only motivated me to learn the musical instrument only faster. Yes, I would want to play the instrument seamlessly and play well. Thats my wish and I would want to prove to myself that I can do it.

What I hadnt planned and expected was what was to follow. My visit to the ashram. It had been a very long time that I went there and did meditation. But today, I did visit there and felt I was always there and meant to be there. Felt so much at home and cool mind. The feeling as if I didnt visit home for a long time was actually persistent. And what followed in the drive back home, was not the radio, but the meditation songs.
Blissful and beautiful.
What a day ..

Sachin - End of a long Episode

Away from all the high level of publicity of the retirement, there is a person, who truly loves the game. All that he really wants was to play cricket. The rest of it just followed him. Only reason, he was able to play for this long.
To be frank, I really hated him for the past few years. Though he was not playing upto the mark, was still a part of the team, while the rest were gradually sidelined, including the biggies like Saurav, Rahul , Laxman.

But as the day folded today, and when I read the newspaper headline, 'Bharat Bandh', it had a deep impact on me. It was no lie. Just because, we had him on the crease and for just one time, one couldnt expect anything less. I too wanted to see him bat one full day, one last time. Though all I could manage was just to watch his fifty, and even before I reached office, I realised, it will no longer be able to see him bat again.
There was a feeling of a sudden death, though I least expected it to happen to me. But then it did happen.

The feeling which one had when we left college and to realise, we might never meet some of our closest friends ever. Something similar. But the tenure with this person, was real long. 24 years. I can say, from the time we have started to play cricket, it was him and only him. We left cricket long back. But the shots that we would copy of him, still remains intact. The standing style, with the bat. The way he would collect the ball. Rotating the bat in the hand, before taking the crease.
Though I moved away from playing the game, he playing was thought as if I was still playing. I think most of us were and are thinking of the same. Somewhere today, that me playing the game died.

Over the past few years, it was the other players, who had earned more respect than Sachin. But then today I realised, I never saw myself in them. It was only Sachin.

I had planned to write a lot in this blog, but I think I can save that for another day, and let my thoughts linger in this..
15 Nov 1989 - 15 Nov 2013.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

The little discussion

It just started as a little discussion between both of us at office today. Just after winding up for the day, Sid came over to have the little chit-chat that we normally have around photography.
And then within a few clicks, we moved from Lightroom to LightZone to everything in photography that we could possibly talk about. Not to mention about the never ending debates between Canon and Nikon. Neither lost,but we both won.

Its so mesmerizing to know that, there are so many common traits that we all have and discussion just helps to bring them out. From blogging to photography to bike rides... guess most of us have these as a common hobbies. Its just a matter of bringing them to a slightly regularised manner.

Plans of creating new photo contests, trying some wedding photography, were all on the cards. Just a matter of implementation. And its not too far away....

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Disturbing News

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Campa-Cola-compound-BMC-moves-to-disconnect-water-power/articleshow/25653949.cms

After hearing of this news, it became very uneasy for me to think, as to why families who have bought apartments , years back and today they are being thrown out from that.
On what basis did the builder obtain the clearances and on what basis did the govt give them. And instead of punishing them, the people, who are duped of their hard earned money are told to vacate and their homes will be destroyed.

How can humanity get so bad ? And this is a SC verdict ? Cant believe...

Updated : 13/11/2013
The Supreme court has issued a stop on the demolition until May 2014. Some faith restored back into Supreme Court.


Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Interesting Travel Related Site

http://tripthirsty.com

Came across this interesting site for Travel. Where you can find the ideas as well as join others for trips.
Not much commercialized as yet, but looks to be promising.

Looks like I will need to have one blog only for writing all the travel related sites, with so many of them popping up every single day.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Posting blog from mobile

Posted my last blog and this one from my mobile. After seeing the contents and the formatting, doesn't seem to be a good idea.
The contents didn't seem to flow properly. Maybe there is a link in typing and thought processing. But then again same theory would have come up when we stopped writing and started to use mostly keyboard for writing.probably a matter of time....

Eventful weekend

This weekend can be called as a very eventful weekend. Though I can't say that I could get anything productive this weekend, but the sense of achievement for the things completed was immense.
The Saturday morning started with a doze of cricket, which was very very refreshing after so many years.
The rest of Saturday went in trying to complete the tasks which I had planned to, but nothing went my way.It was the evening which was very enriching.I started off my guitar classes.indeed something new in my life. It was a real recharging session.And all that I know is that I need to learn it properly and should be able to play a few songs at the end of the day.
The Sunday was even different.The landmark quiz was scheduled and the major part of the day was allocated for this.The questions were indeed very very tough and challenging.What more satisfying in doing an activity which you are involved as well as an audience.
Finally a weekend spent well.

Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Visit to Delhi - Day one

It was a long-awaited trip, though never was on the radar for planning. The visit to the capital city of India as well as to visit one of the 7 wonders of the world, The Taj Mahal.
After having it postponed many times, we finally, decided on a date and booked the tickets to Delhi.
I will not go much into the planning, instead will tell what we did and what should be ideally done, if you are planning a trip to Delhi.

We planned for 4 nights, 5 days trip. We started early Saturday morning from Bangalore. Landed around 10 am at the Delhi Airport. We had booked a hotel in Karol Bagh, mostly by looking at the feedback given by various travelers on tripadvisor.in.  We booked two rooms in the Hotel Metro View, and they gave two rooms facing each other, so quite convenient. The hotel was nice as a whole, except for a few minor issues. But the price and the location quite made up for it. I must say, its quite worth from cost as well as cleanliness.
It was less than a 2-minute walk from the Karol Bagh shopping area and 5 min walking distance from the Metro station.

The high-level plan for the 4 days was -
Saturday - Land in Delhi by 10 am. Leave by 1 pm for sightseeing a few places
Sunday - Trip to Agra - Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Fatehpur Sikri
Monday - All monuments are closed, so rest day and some shopping
Tuesday - See remaining must-see monuments
Wednesday - Return

We had planned to go sightseeing the same afternoon in Delhi. We had booked the car from ziptrips.in/. Though the planning was good when we speak to the PR folks online. But it didn't give us a complete sense of satisfaction. I cannot say, they were not good, but I was not happy completely. If the question is whether you should use their service, the answer is 'you may'.  The car was good(Innova), and the driver was driving well. The issue on the first evening was on the timing and planning. Though we had planned for visiting 5 places, we could manage only 2 primarily due to time constraints. The issue in this service was in the expectation you have been set and the little timings which get delayed by various factors, like walking distance, traffic, etc.

We had planned these for the half-day-

  • Red Fort
  • Lotus Temple
  • Rashtrapati Bhavan
  • Parliament
  • India Gate
The walk to the Red fort and in the Fort is quite a lot. I think it makes a lot of sense to take the Audio Guide there, but note that the duration is 1 hour. A minimum of 2 hours is needed to see the place properly, including the walk to the ticket counter, time to buy the tickets. 

Some pictures -





Red Fort - New Delhi




All the monuments close by 5:30 or 6. So you need to finish all those before that. On Monday all the monuments are closed.

The other monument which we managed to see was the Lotus Temple. It's in a completely opposite direction from that of Red Fort and only later we realized it was a bad decision to visit it, only from the location point of view. We should have visited the places closer to Red Fort and finished them off. This is where I was expecting the expertise from the trip organizer.

The Lotus Temple is indeed a marvelous place to see from outside. It's a majestic piece of architecture and worth seeing. When we reached there at around 5 pm, there was a very long queue to enter. It was till the footpath outside for around 200 meters. I guess it was more due to the fact that it was a Saturday. The queue was fast enough and managed to reach inside within 15 min. Again a long way through the green lawns. But not a place to sit, if one is tired. After removing the footwear and entering the temple for meditation, it was a quick exit. Its a place for meditation and not really a religious place. More of a spiritual one. But the heat inside the monument, makes one come out faster than you had planned. I had a similar experience at the Pyramid Valley In Bangalore.

Some pictures of the Lotus Temple





It was almost close to 6 by the time we were out of the Lotus Temple.

The remaining places, we thought we would be able to see from the outside, even if it's late. But apparently, the Raj Path is closed after 6 and we couldn't see the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Parliament. The driver informed us that we can only see the India Gate from the outside. That's what made us disappointed. Out of the 5 places, we could see only 2 and the 3rd one which was possible, was only from outside. Only later we learned that it was possible to stop and see and the driver gave us the wrong information. That's when I say ziptrips.in was not up to the mark from what I had expected.
But we still managed to get the vehicle stopped on the side road and took some pictures of the India Gate. We were lucky to see the full moon. It was indeed a sight.




This was in short the activities on Day1. The blog for other days will be updated soon, along with a to-do list and 'what-should-have-been-a-better-way to see Delhi as per my experience.

Hope you enjoy the post and the pictures.