Verbology
Monday, May 09, 2005
  Long Adrift
When you are hanging out with your batchmates at 2:30 am in the management institute night canteen ,waiting for your egg parantha to douse your hunger pangs, the promises you make to each other to forever keep in touch and communicate continuously even after passing out, seem to have the strength and the sheen to stand the test of time. But maybe its delusion caused by the hunger, or your own naivete, those promises just dont hold! People get busy with their own lives, courtship , long punjabi weddings, settling down with spouse, trying to navigate the first workplace and trying to fit in etc etc just does not allow for the 'staying in touch' that everyone had promised each other. Hmmmm...

Funny the more the options to stay in touch - the phone, the Skype, the IM, the email, more the lack of contact ! Any reasonable explanation out there ? Maybe Malcolm Gladwell , the philosopher of the day. might have written something about it!
 
  Getting Things Done - Well I always thought it came naturally to people !
Punishing deadlines, multiple ( too many to count ), special interests, drive for results, branding mania ensures that there is lots to do , too little time and thus constantly shifting timelines. In the end of course dissatisfaction ! So I have been doing some reading around getting efficient and productive and basically getting stuff done within boundaries of reasonable time. Well not surprisingly have settled on the 'Getting Things Done' methodology which from what I read on the web, half the corporate world is using. Well the other half better adopt it fast otherwise the resulting productivity gap will be too stark ! David Allen is the bloke who got this out of his head and of course the books ( 2 in this case ), the website and the corporate training seminars have germinated ! But the method has appeal coz its simple yet rigorous, can be set up using simple stationery, I have read both the books and am beginning to get a hang of the system though am not fully there yet. More in a future post.
 
Thursday, May 05, 2005
  The SWITCH, SANJAY's WIT and GOOD FRIEND RAHUL
Yes after lots of voyeuristic oohs and aahs on the apple.com site and the mac stores here in Singapore and in Malaysia, the switch has finally happened ! I am now the proud owner of a MAC MINI, the latest Apple machine to hit the world and Microsoft ! Gosh its lovely, gosh its easy, gosh its pretty, gosh its almost invisible, gosh... !

So the love affair with iLife, iWork and other yummy easy to use and intuitive software has started for me. So the next big presentation for work that I am creating will be on this machine which i will convert into a quicktime move to play on my windows laptop infront of 60 odd employees ! Hopefully the lovely slides, the lovely transitions and the funky music I put together on GarageBand, Apple's music composition software will keep them awake :-) My Mac Mini and my Play Station Portable go together very well ! Synching movies, music and photos to and fro is just a dream... So the next time I have to go to Bangkok, I can rely on my PSP to dish out the entertainment and not the lousy airplane entertainment...

BTW I just got inspired to restart blogging after I stumbled upon my colleague in Gurgaon, India's blog. Sanjay Lakhotia who was one of my first managers when I joined my present organization in New Delhi on the 1st of June 1999 straight from IIM Kolkata. Yes some memories there ! Sanjay - good postings about the dilemmas of consultants. As usual very very witty ! (DC and I were just discussing your and Avneet's sense of humour ) Way to go ! Keep up the posts ! Hopefully I can... Link to Sanjay's blog http://sanjaylakhotia.blogspot.com/2005/05/kya-consultant-hai-hum.html

Good wishes out to dear friend Rahul Batra who is right now in Dubai interviewing for a role with a premier global consulting firm. Currently pursuing his MBA at INSEAD in Singapore, Rahul and I started our working life in New Delhi at my current organization's New Delhi office. He stayed for about 4.5 years moving to Mumbai and eventually Singapore in the bargain when he left for new experiences in strategy consulting and then the MBA. He deserves the best out there. So All the best !
 
Thursday, June 03, 2004
  A new shiny gadget and blogging on the move
At last I got my latest new shiny gadget. This time its a phone cum email machine cum mobile web browser etc in short the new Hiptop phone offered by Starhub for the first time in Asia. Having read a lot about its exploits and success in the US, it was time to see it in real. I was all set to get the Blackbeey to enjoy always on email and web browsing but imagine my surprise to see the hiptop being advertised in local Singapore newspapers. And just in the nick of time.

I am loving it and enjoying the ability to use yahoo messenger on the go and browse the net while out of the house, in the bus, waiting for flights, pushing the trolley at the supermarket and practically eveywhere else. I still haven't taken it to the bathroom yet because I am just scared I will be spending too much time on it.

You know what? This blog is being posted while I am sitting by the pool and my 4 year old is upto his usual pranks.

Next gadget on the horizon?
 
Monday, May 10, 2004
  The desire...nay lust for new technology
My lust for new technology, new gadgets continues unabated. Everytime I think the next gadget I procure will make my life simpler, and better to live! But guess what, that never happens! Every new gadget just adds to the bottomless well. Its great to get my hands on a new shiny piece of hardware, trying to figure out every functionality, every option, every permutation and combination...but for only so long. Post that the new gadget loses its sheen ( in my mind ! ) and its the hunt for the next upgrade, the next all new version, the faster, shinier, lighter version! Phew!

The gadgets I love are PDAs ( Pocket PCs and not Palms yet ), Mobile Phones, Computers, MP3 and MP4 Players. Here in South East Asia, probably the most creative and competitive market for personal electronics, every other month there is a new version, a new upgrade of a gadget that promises the next best thing in productivity, entertainment and portability. And yes there I am scanning the gadget magazines ( Stuff, PC World, Pocket PC Magazines and the likes ), looking at the lovely gadgets, just salivating!

God its expensive, and frustrating and weekend consuming ! Right now for example, I am planning on getting two new shiny gadgets:

1. An upgraded Pocket PC. I have a Dell Axim X5 which I brought in Malaysia 14 months ago. Its bulkier, a tad slower than the models I am now seeing in the market. Plus it does not have wi-fi. So I am considering the latest HP , Toshiba and Dell models to add to my kitty. Concurrently I am looking at how I can dispose my current Dell off in the second hand market. Since I travel a lot, I am also doing comparative pricing analysis on the Pocket PCs I like, which is driving me mad. So far I think I will pick up the HP 4550 with an integrated keyboard and onboard Wifi in Thailand where its a couple of S$ cheaper.

2. A Blackberry or a Handspring Treo 6000. I have to get a new mobile phone contract for 2 years because I have recently moved to Singapore. So along with the contract I am thinking of buying one of the two phone cum email machines. The lure of email on the move is just too much. The flashy awe inspiring text on the ads of the telcos and the vendors promoting the desk free email access is something that I am quickly succumbing to.

Will let the rest of the world know what I buy and decide to defer soon...
 
Sunday, May 09, 2004
  A start...at least
Ok here goes.

I have finally made a tentative start into creating a space I can finally call my own on the vast and far reaches of the internet. For so long, I have daydreamed about setting up a website like no other! But where is the time, where is the know how, where is the energy? With all the incessant travel, all the things at work to tie up and re tie up, it was just one deferment to the other.

So I thought blogging might be the 'low hassle, low time' option to start off with. Sure, I might not have a website that I can call truly my own. I might not have a web site which makes it to coolhomepages.com ( a recurring dream and fantasy for me !), but what the heck... Rome wasnt built in one day!

I hope I can keep up to the routine of posting regular blogs here, and aim to talk about routine random themes which are omnipresent around me - travel, spots, places, food, work, technology and maybe more. Besides being a vent out for some residual creative energies that I think I have, I hope I can get in touch with my friends all over the globe.

 
Can Communicate or Cannot?

Name:
Location: Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

29 Year old. Working in Singapore. Originally from India. Married with a boy of 4.

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May 2004 / June 2004 / May 2005 /


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