Famous Quotes


“One who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.” ~Chinese Proverb

“When you love the unlovable and forgive the unforgivable, you’re free.” ~Bernie Siegel

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” ~Henry David Thoreau

“Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds.” ~Buddha

“A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.” ~Gandhi

“Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.” ~Buddha

“It is always easier to be right than helpful.” ~Barry Magid

“We wonder how people can’t see the most obvious things about themselves, yet we forget those people are us.” ~Ezra Bayda

“If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?'” ~George Bernard Shaw

“He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.” ~Confucius

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” ~Stephen Hawking

“Your body is precious. It is our vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care.” ~Buddha

“Physical gifts will break or fade, but your gift of love will last forever.”

“To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others.” ~Buddha

“No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.” ~Zen saying

“All that we are attached to is impermanent – so there’s nothing to get ruffled about.” ~Sara L. Weber

“You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.” ~Buddha

Best Business Moments…


Last two days my brain almost stopped working and I didn’t find any interesting topic to write… That is when I thought I can leave it to my followers in twitter and I got couple of ideas…

I want to share some stupid things I did in business, some may be funny, idiotic and stupid but would be interesting to read… Let my rewind and start shooting them…

  • First business meeting to get a corporate training project in a company in Guindy, Chennai. I didn’t know java nor any business thoughts… Still a student, I stood like an fool in front of their team… I didn’t give any appropriate answer in a meeting which lasted an hour… Today I can’t believe how I overcame such a situation…
  • An inspector from Employee State Insurance (ESI) visited my offer… ESI is like social security an compliance which companies in India must comply… When that lady entered the office with and approached me, I asked her to get out telling I’m not interested in getting any insurance policy…
  • Initial days I offered college projects for students to sustain… Three girls MCA girls came to office requesting for project… After talking a lot about java came to know those girls already completed a project in java and wanted to get a certificate… Ended up getting ragged by those girls…
  • My office boy brought a guy telling he has come for interview; actually he is a marketing guy and has come to sell his banking product… For fifteen min I was taking the HR round and only after finishing my interview both of us came to know that there was a mess…
  • I was hunted by Thiruvanmiyur police for two days and the constable found me after two day and yelled at me telling he was hunting me for 2 days… The address constable had been wrong and he somehow made it… I was scared a lot and he asked me to come to Thiruvanmiyur police station… When I visited the station I came to know that inspector was looking for a groom and the groom was working in my company and he was to get a testimony of his conduct… The way that constable took me to police station was very rude and I had high temperature once I came out from police station and recovered only after a week…

There are still more things, but these are the things I can immediately recollect… When ever I remember things, I’ll add them as sequel…

Thank you Folks


It is always encouraging to get recognition from people and when they write a blog about us there is nothing more motivating… I must take this opportunity to thank Yu Yu who is an ex-pat and helped me in hunting for people for internet marketing…

This blog of her has some word about me…

Next person is Swami Nathan we are neighbors and childhood friends… Swami is one person who reads my blog regularly and give me recommendations for my blog posts… In fact I must dedicate couple of blog post to him… This blog of him is has a couple of word about me…

Thank you very much folks…

Twitter for dummies…


WHAT IS TWITTER?
Twitter is a new social network (similar to Facebook) that lets you send messages to a huge range of people around the world. Your updates are limited to 140 characters, just like an SMS.

WHAT IS FOLLOWING?
Following on Twitter is like friending on Facebook – if you follow somebody you will get their updates. The main difference is that the other person doesn’t have to accept you as a friend for you to connect with them. I might follow you but you don’t have to follow me back.

HOW IS IT DIFFERENT TO FACEBOOK/LINKEDIN?
All of these networks can be used in many different ways – Twitter is just another option for you. I have found it great for connecting with a big range of people in different places around the world. Because each message is limited to 140 characters it means your messages have to be concise and that makes it easier to keep up with.

WHY WON’T PEOPLE FOLLOW ME?
There is some great advice about this at http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://mashable.com%2F2009%2F01%2F06%2Ftwitter-follow-fail%2F – it really helps if you have an interesting profile.

Thinking Tuesday…


Today was a smooth day and i worked from home, my mind was fully thinking about solutions to the challenges faced with delivery…Had detailed telecom with Mr.Bala Murugan to get his thoughts and we came up with some solutions

  • Project Manager is over loaded with work, he
    • Trains fresh programmers
    • Manages post sales which takes most of his time
    • Review daily reports sent by developers and send it back to clients
    • Review product development…

Planned to split his responsibilities and assign it to Team leaders so that PM can concentrate in his work…

  • For last one month there has been frequent internet disconnection…   

Planned to take another internet connection so that we can we will be backed up when there is any disconnection…

Then asked bala to conduct a Audit on reports and documents done by BDE, Admin, HR & Developers… Since this is the first time we have planned to do an audit, I asked bala to review and prepare a due diligence so that it would be helpful for second and third audits…

Still struck with marketing strategy for Cogzidel Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. Pls visit http://www.cogzidel.in to see the services offered and let me know if you have any ideas to market the service…

Moderate Monday


Last one week has been extremely exciting days at work… Today had been pretty normal day.. Had no sleep the whole night as myself and bala had some good business discussion…

  • Had a nice haircut…
  • Went to Maraimalai nagar to see if there is any SBI… There is no SBI from Vandalur onwards… Confirmed it by making a call to Just Dial…
  • Then went to Country Club and once again none of their managers were there in office… Poor investors, I think this is the company next to Satyam to con Investors…
  • Then attended SBI Property Fair – 2009… SBI representatives told me even they don’t offer loan to empty plots… Must work some loan for settling Pre-EMI with IDBI…
  • From there went to Chennai Citi Center had lunch, Aalu Tikki Chenna, Pani Puri & Swiss Coffee Mocca…
  • From there went to White Cliffs Hair Studio and enquired about hair replacement… They recommended me to buy a LaserComb… Right now googling to check the testimonials of LaserComb…
  • From there went and met Dermatologist and returned home…

There has been couple news/updates which were not that great…

Weekend in Bangalore…


Wait don’t make assumptions… I’m in Bangalore this weekend still working, yes this is an official outing and so far satisfied with the progress… In spite of the entire business schedule I made sure my weekend doesn’t get screwed…

I fixed all my business meet at Ranga Shankara a nice auditorium and has a nice coffee shop which is best suited for business talks… Though I can wrap my business meetings soon and attend a theatre show from EVAM… But the hectic bus journey made me tired and I overslept and also I don’t know what happened to me, I washed my cloths and cleaned the house before starting the day… By the time it was afternoon…

Bala called me and asked if we can finish lunch and move for meetings, skipping breakfast already took a toll and I said that would be nice and we freezed on my favorite andra style restaurant Adithi Restaurent in Arekere… Bala’s friend friend offered me a pickup, but I didn’t accept the offer instead I walked all the way to bus stop and boarded a bus and reached the place ahead of bala and his friend…

I’m happy that I’m living the way I want to live this 2009, once I reached Bangalore at 5 o clock in the morning… I opted to travel by bus, infact i had to board two bus to reach my house in Guttegere and I just spent 10 bucks, normally I catch an auto which will cost me 150 bucks…

By the time we finished our lunch it was 3 o clock and we went to café coffee day to have a small business chat with bala’s friend and once the meeting was over bala’s friend dropped us in my house… From my house i took my bike and  proceeded to Ranga Shankara with bala and finished a couple of business meetings which was productive… One sad thing was we missed out the theatre show, but i was surprised to see a lots of youngsters and the show getting a full house…

From there Ranga Shankara I took bala to Forum… There we booked a ticket for “The Hunting Party”, there was no banner for the movie and we didn’t know it was English or hindi or any other south Indian movie… We thought we can take a change and we book the ticket in Kiosk and we moved to apple store and had a peep into the latest products and then moved to food court… There I had 5 scoops of ice cream and then myself and bala had a review of the bhouchere content… From there we went to movie and I was happy because it was Richard Gere’s movie and I’m a great fan of him, also the movie was nice…

Then I drove bala to his friend’s house and while returning i missed the way, but it ended up well it took straight to my house and that was a short cut… But at 11 in the night i was soo dark and the road was deserted, driving at that time was a adventorous experience… Finally i reach home by 11 PM and got connected and did a analysis of all the meetings and emailed bala about my thoughts… I didn’t have any creativity or energy left on me but still wanted to have a blog post on my blog… So, I shared a funny quote I got from my friend Indrani and posted it, read some magazines and slept… 

Today it is 1.30 PM and writing this blog and don’t know if it would be that happening like yesterday… But planning to goto Garuda mall… Will share if there is any interesting experience for the day…

Thank you for sparing time to read about my experience…

Funny little quotes!!!


1. The US has made a new weapon that destroys people but keeps the building standing. It’s called the stock market – Jay Leno

2. Do you have any idea how cheap stocks are? Wall Street is now being called Wall Mart Street – Jay Leno

3. The difference between a pigeon and a London investment banker. The pigeon can still make a deposit on a BMW.

4. What’s the difference between a guy who lost everything in Las Vegas and an investment banker? A tie!

5. The problem with investment bank balance sheet is that on the left side nothing’s right and on the right side nothing’s left.

6. I want to warn people from Nigeria who might be watching our show, if you get any emails from Washington asking for money, it’s a scam. Don’t fall for it – Jay Leno

7. Bush was asked about the credit crunch. He said it was his favorite candy bar – Jay Leno

8. The rescue bill was about 450 pages. President Bush’s copy is even thicker. They had to include pictures – Jay Leno

9. President Bush’s response was to meet some small business owners in San Antonio last week. The small business owners are General Motors, General Electric and Century 21 – Jay Leno

10. What worries me most about the credit crunch is that if one of my cheques is returned stamped ‘insufficient funds’, I won’t know whether that refers to mine or the bank’s.

List of thing I’ve to do…


I’m writing this as a blog because I’m unable to think of a unique topic which I can write… Forgive me swami, still I’ve one request from you which I’ll will write it next week… Other thing is I’ve severe memory loss and thought you readers can help me recollect things…

  1. Paying Pre-EMI to IDBI which is 100% interest just came to know a week back that pre-emi’s are 100% interest… Had been paying pre-emi for last 28 months which is of no use, still the principle stays in tact… It can be converted into post-emi only when I construct a building as per IDBI terms… I’ve no idea to construct any building at the moment… So, need to look for a bank which offers me home loan for just land purchase I can transfer this loan also I want to merge my personal loan with it, if there are any banker or if someone can help out would be appreciated…
  2. Brought a Nintendo WII and the adapter got burned… Need to fix it and start using it… Also need help in finding someone who can fix adaptors…
  3. Claim refund from Country Club for the land purchase I made… I recommend everyone to stay away from this company, totally unprofessional and they are conning people… My take them legally if they don’t give me a refund…
  4. Must be regular to workouts and must at least reduce 3000 calories by this year end…
  5. Write a book about my college days, already started writing it, must wrap it at least by this year…
  6. Must finish writing content for cogzidel.com by next week…
  7. Join a photography course and must become a good photographer…
  8. Must tour Theni, Kambam, Thekadi, Kaniya Kumari, Munnar in next 6 months and shoot some good snaps…
  9. Create platform get residual income by this year end…

 

I think I can stop with this and concentrate on this and try to accomplish all the stuff… I think I can spare some time from my professional responsibilities… Will write a blog next year same day to tell how many of these I was able to do…

Thank you…

My Planning for Recession…


Off late we are hearing a lot of bad news starting from Lehman brothers to Satyam Computers… We all must be aware that we have just opened the Pandora box and we are yet to reach the peak of the recession… It is time for all of us to wear the socks and start planning for lean days ahead… I started my cost cutting activity already, as I clearly stated that I don’t have a lot of new year resolutions, these are some things I’m doing and I’ll be doing till I overcome this recession…

  • No new expenses list other than basic expenses…
  • Stopped buying merchandise. It is time to collect all the reward points in credit card and start using those points to buy things we need… To my surprise I’ve accumulated Rs.30,000/- as my reward points and made big shopping last month… I brought merchandise for next 2 years…
  • Cutting fuel cost… I stopped going for long drives on car… In fact stopped using car for this spring, just using scooter as climate is not that bad and started using more public transport…
  • Cutting on my visits to malls as I can’t control my desires and I tend spend more… In fact for last two months I’ve not visited Chennai Citi Center & Bangalore’s Forum or Garuda mall…
  • Work on your financials. There are two types of financial things we have to do, one is to plan our finance and the other is to monitor our existing finances…
    • Plan finances means planning our “expenses & savings” with our income…
    • Monitor finances is checking of Return on Investment, on investments we have made… Look into banking charges on our bank account & cards… To my shock only now I noticed I’ve been swindled by banks by making lot of charges and just made a visit to banks and got all things sorted… I’m saving almost Rs.5000/- a year on getting waiver from charges…
  • Cut on lavish parties… Generally I throw lavish parties for my birthday, that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop it, but it might not be the way I did for last 3 years…
  • Paid a year for GYM and I saved 50% of for the charge and also working on my fitness is the only New Year resolution… So, I think I’ll serious in my workout…
  • I’ve been an avid spender and most of my spending will be in fuel, food & merchandise… All that happens only when I go to lavish places… So made some investment to stay at home…
    • Brought Nintendo WII and will be playing inside my house
    • Brought a Camera and planning to learn photography… Will be visiting places where I can shoot and that too will be using Public Transport only :)…
    • Writing blogs so that I’ve the pleasure of sharing my experience and also improve my writing skills…
    • Networking and getting more friends…
  • Cutting on my mobile bills, I’ve been a High Value Customer for my service provider and no longer will I be one :)… Thought this is very hard, some how I managed to cut 20% but I still want to reduce this by 60%…

Over all I want to cut 75% on my expense compared to what I did for last 3 years… I’m somewhat successful in it as I was able to cut things by 30% and in months to come I’m sure I can reach my goals… Other important thing is I’m also looking on alternate source of income other than my salary like making some money  from my blogging, thought it is too early to reap results, in time to come I must be benefitting on the efforts I’m putting today… Also we have enjoyed the sunny days and it is time to be careful for the rainy days ahead… Think more than once before making an expense and do shopping during festive seasons to get some good discounts… Enjoy what you are doing so that you don’t feel the pinch of falling down…

For your information I got a report on past recessions and think it would be nice to share it here so that you can get some idea from history on duration of recessions and how you can plan… Wish you all a happy recession :)…

Peak (Recession Start)*

Trough (Recession End)*

 

December 1854 (IV)

June 1857 (II)

December 1858 (IV)

October 1860 (III)

 June 1861 (III)

April 1865 (I)

 December 1867 (I)

June 1869 (II)

December 1870 (IV)

October 1873 (III)

March 1879 (I)

March 1882 (I)

May 1885 (II)

March 1887 (II)

April 1888 (I)

July 1890 (III)

May 1891 (II)

January 1893 (I)

June 1894 (II)

December 1895 (IV)

June 1897 (II)

June 1899 (III)

December 1900 (IV)

September 1902 (IV)

August 1904 (III)

May 1907 (II)

June 1908 (II)

January 1910 (I)

January 1912 (IV)

January 1913 (I)

December 1914 (IV)

August 1918 (III)

March 1919 (I)

January 1920 (I)

July 1921 (III)

May 1923 (II)

 July 1924 (III)

October 1926 (III)

November 1927 (IV)

August 1929 (III)

March 1933 (I)

May 1937 (II)

June 1938 (II)

February 1945 (I)

October 1945 (IV)

November 1948 (IV)

October 1949 (IV)

July 1953 (II)

May 1954 (II)

August 1957 (III)

April 1958 (II)

April 1960 (II)

February 1961 (I)

December 1969 (IV)

November 1970 (IV)

November 1973 (IV)

March 1975 (I)

January 1980 (I)

July 1980 (III)

July 1981 (III)

November 1982 (IV)

July 1990 (III)

March 1991(I)

March 2001 (I)

November 2001 (IV)

*Quarterly dates are in parentheses

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research