Author: anandnataraj

Entrepreneur, Blogger, Traveller, Pet Lover, Networker, Social Drinker, Party Animal, Movie Addict, Startup Enthusiast, Organic Gardner, Avid Reader....

Why Indians are re-born?


The angel Gabriel came to the Lord and said “I have to talk to you. We have some Indians up here in heaven and they are causing problems. They’re swinging on the pearly gates, my horn is missing, they are wearing Dolce and Gabbana saris instead of their white robes, they are riding Mercedes and BMW’s instead of the chariots, and they’re selling their halos to people for discounted prices. They refuse to keep the stairway to Heaven clear, since they keep crouching down midway eating samosas and drinking chai (tea). Some of them are even walking around with just one wing!”
 
The Lord said, “Indians are Indians. Heaven is home to all my children. If you want to know about real problems, give Satan a call.”
 
Satan answered the phone, “Hello? Damn, hold on a minute.” Satan returned to the phone, “OK I’m back. What can I do for you?”
 
Gabriel replied, “I just wanted to know what kind of problems you’re having down there.”
 
Satan says, “Hold on again. I need to check on something.”
 
After about 5 minutes Satan returns to the phone and said, “I’m back. Now what was the question?”
 
Gabriel said, “What kind of problems are you having down there?”
 
Satan says, “Man I don’t believe this .. Hold on.”
 
This time Satan was gone at least 15 minutes. He returned and said, “I’m sorry Gabriel, I can’t talk right now.. These Indians are trying to install air conditioning and making hell a comfortable place to live in by putting out the fire..fire is there to keep them uncomfortably hot!! Since they are so tech savvy, they were trying to start a telephone connection between heaven and hell..I am having such a hard time controlling and dealing with them!! Some were trying to start a chai – pakora shop, which I had to stop..I am requesting Lord to send them back on earth as soon as they arrive as re-birth”.
(Indians will be Indians..)
So this is the story why Indians are re-born!!!

Gave a speech on Entrepreneurship


Got an invitation to give a talk on Entrepreneurship at Tech Mahindra. It was a nice experience and nice to see lots of folks who were interested to know more about entrepreneurship.

All about Craiglist!!!


One of the many inspiration i’ve in my life is the evolution of craiglist.org the way it evolved form a email distribution list to world’s number one classifieds portal. I wanted to share some insights about the evolution;

  • Craig Newmark began the service in 1995 as an email distribution list of friends, featuring local events in the San Francisco Bay Area
  • Became a web-based service in 1996.
  • Incorporated as a private for-profit company in 1999.
  • Craigslist expanded into nine more U.S. cities in 2000
  • Four each in 2001 and 2002, and 14 in 2003.
  • The site receives over one million new job listings each month, making it one of the top job boards in the world.
  • The site serves over twenty billion page views per month.
  • With over eighty million new classified advertisements each month, Craigslist is the leading classifieds service in any medium.
  • As of 2009, Craigslist operates with a staff of 28 people.

Its sole source of revenue is paid job ads in select cities – $75 per ad for the San Francisco Bay Area; $25 per ad for New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon – and paid broker apartment listings in New York City ($10 per ad).

My first Case Study Initiative


At Cogzidel we have never documented all the solutions we solved for every challenge. I wanted to press folks in writing a case study and I wanted to lead from the front and wrote the first case study. There are more to come in future;

Challenge: We as a company didn’t believe on having a separate testing team to test our products. Because the projects were of short duration we always felt a testing team would make sense only after the development team unable to deliver results in spite of doing unit testing. But we were facing lots of challenges because of poor unit testing and many times we get a positive test report from our unit testers and our managers would pass the product to the client believing the words of their subordinates.

Most of the cases client comes back irated as there would be obvious bugs.

Solution: After doing a lot of counseling and giving reprimands nothing worked out as this thing got continued. We finally thought and got a suggestion from out CTO that;

  • Every unit tester must be given a target to find bugs in a product and we must have the bug report before sending to the client.
  • Team leaders must also be given a specific target for testing.
  • Team Managers also given a target on testing.
  • Final report goes to the CTO before sending project closure to the client.

Based on the number of bugs and size of the project CTO will analyze will recommend if the project can be sent for project closure.

Sleeping in the car


We reached Yelagiri hills by 3.45 AM and we cornered the car on a busy street. Life here got started by 4 and lots of people & vehicle movement started to increase and nothing disturbed us. But an old man woke Kavi asking if we want any room or guide.

From then Kavi didn’t allow us to sleep from then on and this is how we slept.

Had Dinner in a Dhaba


En route to Yelagiri came across a Punjabi Dhaba and we immediately entered the place.

Wonderful ambiance but food was ordinary. Here are some snaps;

Driving to Yelagiri


Had a long day of sleep & started my day by 8.30 PM. Picked up Rooban from Cogzidel & Kavi from Velacherry.

Then we drove to Mayajaal and we thought we have to do something different. We all unanimously decided to drive to Yelagiri.

Immediately we took U-turn and went to Kavi’s room and he took his clothes.

Then I asked my sister to pack my travel kit and to charge my mac notebook, because I need it to charge my BlackBerry. After having life has changed & business is not getting affected.

Today we will lead a pure gypsy life style. We will sleep inside the car or on road. Refresh on the road & take bath in some water stream. Will live blog all the experience. Please stay connected.

Trip to Katappana


Last Tuesday I went to a place in Kerala called Katappana a hill station bordering Kambam Medu in Tamil Nadu.

My friend use to hype about this place. Since I didn’t have a feel of it I took him lightly.

We casually started our drive from Madurai where in my friends picked me from my house in SS Colony which is en route to Theni.

We had non stop drive and crossed Theni, Samayanallur, UthamaPalayam, Cumban & Cumbam Medu.

Cumbam Medu a hill-station which is a part of Tamil Nadu and it has 18 hairpin bends. Roads were bad, people were tan looking tamils & dry trees.

One can see a 360• Change after crossing the check post. Lust green trees, good roads, fair men and women with typical Kerala costumes. I’ve never felt this change in borders.

Then in 20 min we reached Katapanna and all this 20 min drive I was startled to see posh bungalows and a town which was as posh like a city.

Then my curiosity made me to read about Katappana and I was amazed to know that the place houses many hospitals, educational institutes, shopping complexes & it is spice capital of Kerala. Also for some time land prices were much expensive than cochin.

Then we booked a room to refresh our self and proceeded to a toddy shop and I tasted toddy for the first time. Also I took some snaps of the place, toddy shop, toddy & hotel where we stayed.

Experimenting Google Keyboard Shortkuts


Anything happening with Google is a Buzz. Today when i went into google i got a message “Try Google Experimental” on Google footer. Immediately my curiosity made to try that link and immediately explore what is new they are trying. In the morning i tried keyboard shortcuts and by now i became familiar with it and from now i think i might stop using mouse any more.

For those who are new to this can try these shortcuts.

First you have to goto http://www.google.com/experimental/ and enable the experiment option. From then you will be able to use following shortcut keys.

Key Action
J Selects the next result.
K Selects the previous result.
O Opens the selected result.
<Enter> Opens the selected result.
/ Puts the cursor in the search box.
<Esc> Removes the cursor from the search box.

Watching Yadhumagi


Being a Sunday & Sunaina starrer I decided to watch the movie YadhuMagi. Right from first scene it is boring and scenes move without any connect.

Just only an hour has passed and crowd has gone restless. Only enjoyment is listening to the comment of the crowd.

One thing I’ve decided is to watch the movie fully. But for sure No Review for this movie.