Well I was riding the bike/bus to work through much of 2011 and 2012. I still carpool.
Didn't notice any monster teeth growing on me, now that I use a car. The hair did grow a bit longer there.
Filed under 'surprising things you learn while randomly browsing the web in a meeting'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Ceylon
"What captured the Indian listener were the film songs. The golden age of Hindi film music was in the 1950s and 1960s. Radio Ceylon was at the right place at the right time to reach out to the target market of millions of listeners - the station popularised the movie songs, including the talents of playback singers Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, K.L. Saigal, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi, S. Janaki and others. This was a brilliant move by Radio Ceylon as Bollywood film music was banned by All India Radio and other Indian radio stations at the time. This led to increased listenership for radio programmes such as Binaca Geetmala. Radio Ceylon had a captive audience."
Way to shoot yourself in the foot AIR. Banned Bollywood music? Really? The government has been making it its business to define Indian culture for us for too long now.
Today we celebrate our independence day.
Uh oh! I'm in deep trouble. I was registering for a website and typed in the username "Jainasaurus". Android autocorrected that to Jihadists. I didn't notice and submitted my request. I'm sure this put me on all kinds of ugly lists. All this while I'm still in the US. Dang, wonder what they'll probe me with at emigration.
आखों देखी - from someone I trust...
Congratulations MyGola team! What wonderful news.
http://assets.amuniversal.com/5a5be750a4340132cbc6005056a9545d
Up next, Jon Stewart "talking" about American Exceptionalism.
Good morning world! Sharing adorable cuteness to make your Sunday special.
(Edit: Some folks misinterpreted this post to think I quit Thinvent. This post is about BloomReach. I founded Thinvent - I can never quit it :) )
So, after a long time, I ended up at this large e-commerce site (I was searching for a spare part). Instinctively, I scrolled to the bottom of the page, and frowned, "Parsing is broken again. Got to file a JIRA."
Then I remembered. It's been eighteen months now.
Ah! Sweet startup life. You never actually "quit" a startup. You just stop working there. A part of you, a part of your heart and soul, continues to live there forever.
What a vegetarian meal looks like in Japan. Vegetarians and vegans have a seriously bad time in Japan, as compared to other far eastern countries I've been to such as Taiwan.
Wow! I had no idea worms were this prevalent. A third of the world population? Is that an exaggeration? I should at least administer de-worming tablets to my boys, just in case!
Oh, well. I guess fighting with each other is just practice for AAP folks, before they go and fight corruption. Please keep up the good work @[100044199231121:2048:Aam Aadmi Party], we need to weed such crooks out of our system.
Anyone wanna join me for a standup lineup in SF this weekend?
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/funcheap-comedy-night-comedians-with-criminal-records-tickets-16357545860?discount=FUNCHEAP
I looked a lot for poverty when I was on Tokyo. And I couldn't find it. So I searched for it online. You know how it is, when you look for something in real life and you can't find it, you try to find it online. Anyway, the Internet said there is poverty in Japan. And finally, on the penultimate day, I found homeless people. In the strangest place too - right under the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. Which says a lot about my lack of intelligence, because that's where they should be. Right under that double phallic symbol of government ostentatiousness, that's where they all were with their carts and bags all wrapped up in tarp. What a great sense of irony the Japanese poor have. So anyway, I was glad to see them. And before you take me for some sick sadist, think about my earlier posts. The Japanese have elegantly solved so many problems that plague India. So I'm always looking for solutions and ideas to copy. But it looks like even the great Japanese do not have a solution for poverty. Which makes me feel a little better about the grave injustice we're meting out to the poor in India, because hey, it's a hard problem. Makes me a little happier. Well anyway, I know what you're going to say at this point. That there isn't any poverty in Scandinavia. But I haven't been to any of the Scandinavian countries. I barely got done with Japan here, ok. So give the guy a break.
If at this point you can't tell that I just got done watching a Woody Allen movie, then you are, well, then you don't know me well enough.
See the big problem with the Internet is that sometimes it's not there. And the questions are there. And by the time you get to the Internet those questions aren't with you any more. You know what I'm saying. Like every time I'm on an airplane, I see these exit doors. And on them, in big red letters, they've explained how to open them. Now I don't know if you've seen any of those movies where the protagonist opens the door of a flying aircraft and it begins to depressurise. But I have. So every time I look at those doors, I wonder if someone could open them mid-flight. Not a terrorist; I'm not afraid of terrorists. I'm afraid of stupid people and temporary insanity. It could be me. It could be you. It could be anybody. Don't you have that moment sometimes when you're standing on the balcony and you're thinking, 'what if I had some crazy fit and I jumped off'. And the next moment you're thinking, 'hey, why would I jump off. I have a happy life. I wanna live'. And the whole thing leaves you scared. Not scared of heights like me. Scared of your own mind. Well anyway, I don't wanna go up to an air hostess and ask her creepy questions like this. It's not polite. Also they might flag me for being a loony and handcuff me when I disembark from the airplane. You know, some cops standing their with handcuffs trying to be polite and tough at the same time.
So this a note to self to read about this whole airplane emergency exit business once and for all and get my mind at rest. If there can be such a thing as a restful mind. And I don't understand why you're reading my private notes to myself. It's kind of creepy, you know. You should see a therapist. It'd be good for you.
Here's something you don't see everyday - a building capped by a very large turd. Japan, you shall be sorely missed.
Look ma, isn't that just like the doodoo I made this morning?
Google auto-awesomed a photo I took. Lovely. Looks like postprocessing plays a huge part in making a photo look wonderful.
How do they do this without mechanical turks? If algorithms can select which filters and frames make a picture look beautiful to humans, how far are we from having robotic overlords.
Near the Tokyo SkyTree
How perspectives change. The streets of Golden Gai in Tokyo are about as narrow. The houses are smaller. People thrive, and manage to keep their homes and surroundings clean without outside support. They probably have better access to sewage and water supply in Japan though...
Guess where Delhi Metro got it's creepy pink and white flower logo for women's only coaches from.
When in Tokyo, visit the Golden Gai.
Why?
Because when you walk out into Shinjuku, your brain will flip.
Not sure if the mannequin is supposed to be peeing on the wall or humping it.
Move over Times Square. All those photos you see of flashy Japan growing up - suddenly in my face. Astounding!
The Japanese OWN cute. They have the cutest kids, the cutest scooters, the cutest cartoons...
But when the girls dress up in cosplay and talk like little children - that's not cute, that's weird and creepy.
Don't do it don't do it don't do it. Remember you're petrified of heights!
T shirt seat covers. Must make some for my cars.
The first dude I made friends with in Japan turned out to be Israeli. My prejudices just came and bit me in the butt.
They fit a bar with DJ into the basement of an 8m x 8m hostel. These Japs know how to enjoy life.
Sake time!
Those with a keen eye among you will notice the wooden speakers, vinyl turntables and humongous vacuum tube based amplifiers. Some total connoisseur has built this little place.
Panic: the feeling that creeps in when you realise your instant food stash won't last the length of your Japan trip, and the Japanese totally do not get (warm) vegetarian food.
No one cares about stop signs any more. So we posted a scary dude in the middle of the road to indicate Wrong Way.
I need retractable ears. The current model doesn't handle cold weather well. I can't be carrying a cap or earmuffs everywhere I go.
Japanese metro trains are a lot less fancier than Delhi metro. Are we being oversold? Anyway, I'm glad the Japs helped us build our metro. No one can understand human congestion better.
This is what you get for ₹1000 a day in Tokyo. Come to think of it, the dorm at Secunderabad station is actually better. This makes Bangalore's cube farms look good.
If you think this is bad, there's a gaggle of boisterous Australian backpackers sharing my room. So glad I'm on India timezone and will be returning late.
This picture reminds me of the Republic Day Parade commentator - इस झांकी में दर्शाया गया है प्रकृति, धरोहर और विकास का मिलन।
Japan deserves a better camera than my phone. Also, I'm underdressed for this cold, wet place. Brrr.
You sit in your own little corner of the world for 35 years and fancy yourself an inventor. Then you step out and realise how much has already been done that should first be copied. Not that I haven't seen them before, but to actually use japan's toilet innovations is another thing completely. The tap triggers every time you flush - it's beyond no touch. The water is reused of course so there's no wastage even if you're gross and decide to not rinse your hands. The space and material saved is awesome. Also a non aggressive reminder to all us gross people to kindly wash our hands.
मठरी की दुकान
Gagan Jain, I have arrived in the land of vans. Everybody drives a van in Japan. I belong here.
This video is worth a watch because it's so totally random. I half expected catwoman's Iyer father to call her and say, "Daughter! It is 4pm. It is getting dark outside. Enge nee?"
Friends who've been to Tokyo, give gyan. What can I experience in two days?
They say age and experience give you wisdom.
Having children makes you very vulnerable. You may have been a child yourself; your friends or relatives may have children. But it is only when you have your own children, or children are born and grow up in your own home, that you truly understand their innocence. I now know what violence, fear and hate can do to children. I cannot imagine children around the world going through this horror.
Think of the children. It is not a rhetorical tactic or a meme. It is the truth. Before you cast another stone or fire another shell, think of the children.
Glad to know @[3305488:2048:Ittai Barzilay] has stopped jumping off planes in search of beauty and thrill. There's plenty of that on terra firma. Such beautiful pics.
Ten years of git. Git is awesome because it solves all the pain points with SCMs. IMHO, Linus hasn't done any major projects other than the kernel and git, and hasn't had any serious employment beyond the kernel. Yet he understood all the pain points in all kinds of software development. Does that make developing the Linux kernel the granddaddy of all software development experiences?
Are you serious? They just inaugurated the IPL? Didn't they just get done with the World Cup? Like, yesterday they were all in Australia. Do none of them have families they need to spend time with?
I couldn't even get past the front page of the Hindu today. What a bad news day. Ghettos in Kashmir for Pandits. Fake encounters in AP and Telangana. Minister abusing his privileges to compromise flight safety. And the NGT just screwed the resale value of my Ford.
Looking up to the greats
Combating nature with nature, not concrete!
आज का विचार
Ha ha ha. Boy, do I know people who survive on pity.
“I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else.”
― G.K. Chesterton
If you've had the misfortune of working with me, or being in my care (if there can be such a thing), you would know that I do not respond easily to being called. Usually, anything less than a nudge in the ribs is a waste of your time. I'm not absentminded. I'm concentrating very hard on something I really care about. And I don't care as much about you. Or your thing. So there.
Sometimes I feel sad for people who are incapable of being completely lost in their work. Things I fail to notice while working include minor earthquakes and fires, nightfall and subsequent daybreak, hunger, managers and vermin.
The folks at Wonderla are so courteous it's almost unnerving. And they're not artificial. They really, genuinely care about your experience.
Then you show up at Bangalore airport and are jolted back to reality.
Nilay can't stop raving about the fact that we just shared the lift with Rahul Bose. Kavin couldn't care less.
Thank you Hana Qazi for the whatsapp magic call. One call and my frog whatsapp transformed into a prince.
My American friends, it is ok to just say goodbye at the end of a business call and hang up. You don't need to drag on for minutes talking about the weather at the other end of the planet, how my whole family is doing, etc.
You notice how us Indians are always getting our work done, even though we spend all our time on ndtv.com or some cricket site. It's because we don't waste time being nice to each other. If you build genuine relationships with your colleagues, it's harder on you when you stab 'em in the back on the way up.
Horrified by what they've done to M G Road. So ugly.
I want to understand why these updates are still coming from the AAP page? Shouldn't they be coming from the Delhi Government's page? Is the party going to claim credit for everything the CM and Deputy CM do in their official capacity?
Reliving the kids' travel through photos they took.
I am requesting your feedback on this concept note, "Technical Solutions for Free WiFi in Delhi". If you care about …http://t.co/LRzQWAj1iw
I am requesting your feedback on this concept note, "Technical Solutions for Free WiFi in Delhi". If you care about the digital divide, free WiFi in Delhi, the AAP government, or me, then please, please take out the time and review this proposal: http://goo.gl/rm2Pbk. Leave your feedback using the Google Docs commenting feature.
As with so many of my other projects, this has been languishing for long. Now the Delhi Government's consultations meetings are about to begin. Hence the urgency.
If anyone with communication skills would convert this presentation into something readable and presentable, I shall be forever indebted.
Tagging some of my friends: @[712729720:2048:Osama], @[100001861602434:2048:Ravishankar], @[100001934831980:2048:Rupam], @[704551429:2048:Tushit], @[633385995:2048:Prateek], @[601093713:2048:Mayank], @[644286457:2048:Goli], @[764308664:2048:Alistair], @[668315149:2048:Anupreet], Bhaskar, @[1084671056:2048:Tanu], @[1004023253:2048:Dhanada], @[572712352:2048:Mrinal], @[576646904:2048:Neha], @[1314871454:2048:Kiran], @[100002104093966:2048:Arvind], @[564198067:2048:Balaji], @[595895909:2048:Gurumoorthy], @[724386128:2048:Mora], @[100003022770007:2048:Joseph].
Bought some smoked Gouda cheese last night. Ate a bit. This morning I'm still stinking and weird. Some foods, I'll never understand.
Nilay actually had to spit out his bit. The experience made him reinvent the idiom 'one man's meat is another man's poison' all by himself.
Wisdom through satire: http://oglaf.com/heel-empire/
Statutory warning: while this comic is OK, the rest of the site is NSFW.
From what I remember, IIT M pretty much always allowed you to take a semester off. They were more than happy keeping you for more than the prescribed four years ;-). What is new here?
The boys are in full combat gear!
Kavin is wearing an oversize T shirt that looks like a nightshirt, in case you were wondering.
The boys in full combat gear!
@[739589583:2048:Gowri Krishnamurthy], if we had written our thesis now, we'd be famous on the Internet. We were working with genetic algorithms twelve years too early.
