The Youth Brigade

via punetech.com

Pune has a Barcamp this weekend – on Saturday, 14th November, from 10am to 5pm, at SCIT, Hinjewadi.

Posted via web from A Poet & A Photographer

Posted via web from A Poet & A Photographer

The OpenCoffee Club will meet on Nov 7th, at SICSR, Model Colony to discuss how to bootstrap Sales in the US, the largest market for IT in the world.
CEO's, BizDev Heads from successful companies will be in attendance to help guide your efforts and answer your questions.

- To RSVP and for details click on:
http://punestartups.ning.com/events/next-meeting-hitech-selling

Posted via email from Pune

Posted via email from Pune

A diary remembers all thats precious in your life,
A photograph makes old memories ripe,
A song brings that gone moment alive,
A dream is to live it one more time…

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This was my first attempt of photographing Diwali Fireworks. I had just got my Canon EOS 30 back in 2003. Was up all night taking a lot of snaps, very few turned out well. Presenting one of those few…

Happy Diwali to everyone.

Posted via email from A Poet & A Photographer

I remember the incident - I was in a restaurant, and one girl in our group was especially charming. So I, like any other male, tried to put on a wooing act. You know the routine, a nanosecond extra eye contact, a few more nods to whatever she says, and attempts to throw in those one-liners which you know you wouldn’t if she weren’t there. And it seemed to be working. She leaned forward when she spoke to me, and every now and again, we’d have a small conversation of our own, separate from our group. She laughed at my approach with the fork and knife, and I teased her about her hair band, which had little teddy bears.

Yes, we were flirting. A while later, she asked me the question - what did I study? I said engineering, without any particular meaning attached to it. And then like a cold metal rail, she went stiff. My jokes weren’t funny any more. Her eyes wandered to everyone else.

What was it?
Why? Why? Why?
Two days later, I still couldn’t get over my great start that had dissipated listlessly upon mentioning my education. Engineer? What was wrong with that?

My mom had wanted me to become one since I was five! I had to call her. ‘So what happened to you that day, hot and cold, missie?’ And then she said, trying to be nice, ‘Well, it’s just that I am skeptical about engineers as friends. I don’t know, they can be, you know, very logical and everything…not very touchy feely’.

Not touchy-feely. Now what the heck did that mean? Well, she obviously did not mean it literally, since girls don’t really suggest that sort of stuff, certainly not in the first meeting across the table. I guessed it was something to do with feelings, sort of having an emotional side. The stereotype being, the nerdy guy who sees relationships like laws of physics, to whom love is just a bunch of chemicals going crazy in your brain, and getting to know a person means obtaining their bio-data.

It’s time to set the record straight. It’s true that a lot of what engineers study (and they end up studying quite a lot), has to do with formulaes, laws and numbers. No matter how hard we try, some of the vocabulary we read all day gets into our language. So when my mother said, ‘Are you getting married next year or not?’ I was liable to say, ‘Well, at this moment in time, the probability is relatively low,’ and felt it was completely normal to say it. And when my sister went sari shopping and couldn’t explain the shade she wanted, I told the shopkeeper the percentages of pink, orange and red in the sari.

Yet, ladies, I don’t think we’re bad at relationships, love and getting to know people. We too, can be touchy-feely, as that is part of our education as well. The reason for this is that most engineering students live in the ultimate educator - boy’s hostels.

Now, let me explain how this plays into this ‘touchy-feely’ thing. Relationships. Imagine eating, sleeping, brushing your teeth, bathing (ok rarely this one) and partying with the same people all the time. So, when you are kicking that bathroom door down for the tenth time, or when you stand in line for ‘gulab-jamuns’ in the mess, and when you are done with the vodka bottle and sharing all your secrets, you know it is good practice. Yes, hostels maketh the man.

So, next time you are in a flirtatious situation with the techno types, go on, flirt a bit more. Of course, I am biased towards my kind, but if you find the conversation turning too geeky, just ask them, ‘So, what were your hostel days like?’ and chances are, you’ll see a heart behind the calculator.

Coming back to my missie, I thought of what would make me win her over. Flowers… too cheesy. Music… don’t know her taste (nor trust mine). Teddy bears… don’t even go there. Desperate for some good lines, I just turned it right back at her. ‘Yes, I know what you are saying about engineers. The thing is, unless people with depth like you start hanging out with us, we won’t get any better. Can you meet me some time for some touchy/feely… oops, I mean coffee/tea?’

She giggled. When they giggle,you have won.

Hence proved.

Posted via email from A Poet & A Photographer

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over $100 billions, that is Rs. 5 lakh crores. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing. Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billions, that is, over Rs 20 lakh crores. Yet the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger. Indeed a contrast.

But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from Japan, China and even India. Virtually others save the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars. India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billions in US securities. Japan's stakes in US securities is in trillions.

Result. The US has taken over $5 trillions from the world. Want to know it in rupees? Rs 2,50,000 crore crossed. So as the world saves for US; Americans spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going that is for the US economy work, other countries have to remit $180 billions every quarter, that is, $2 billions a day, to US$. Otherwise the US economy would go for a six. So will be the global economy. The result will be no different if US consumers begin consuming less.

A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China or, China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US. The same is the case with us. We have invested in US over $50 billions. But the US has invested less than $20 billions in India.

Why the world is after US? The secret lies in the American spend, in that they hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends is what makes US attractive to the world to export to US. So, US imports more than it exports year after year.

The result. The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, it has habituated the world to feed on its consumption. But as it needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money. It is like a shopkeeper providing money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. The customer will not buy, the shop will have not business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper-financier.

Who is America's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan. Yet it is Japan, which regarded as weak. Modern economist complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force them spend, the Japanese government exerted. Reduced the saving rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend. Their traditional postal savings alone is over $2.2 billions. That is, Rs 60 lakh crores, about 8 times the GDP of India. Thus savings, far from being the strength of Japan, has become its pain.

What is the lesson? That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just spend, but borrow and spend. Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous India-born economist in US, told to Dr. Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, he said. On imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This, he counselled, will put India on a growth curve. But like Japanese we too are not obliging.

Modernists may not, but one who has read the Mahahbharata will, know. A Rishi by name Charuvaka gave the same advice when Pandavas were around, which many modern economists are giving today. He told the people to spend and be happy. If need be by borrowing. No need to repay, if you cannot, he counselled. No sin would attach, he assured. Fortunately his advice was rejected by us thousands of years back. That is why perhaps we are alive as a nation. Our old companions are in archives today.

Now we have the very same advice. That is saving as sin and spending as virtue. This is central to neo-economists, Caution. Before you follow this neo-Charuvakas, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend after you exhaust your savings. This is what US has done in the last two decades.

Courtesy: The New Indian Express, Chennai, July 26, 2002

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The plan was to goto Nashik @ Sula Wines. Then we decided Bhandardhara instead. But for just a one day trip we canceled all of that and went to Mulshi instead.

Stayed at a resort right next to the lake.

Quite an experience it was…

Posted via email from A Poet & A Photographer

Morning opened with a warm meal by ma,
The breezy afternoon played a soothing raga.
With friends, coffee n tea had a fun walk on main,
Now make me fall in love O october rain…

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