Thursday, August 25, 2011

The Super Multi-tasker or Issues with Attention Span?

As I pause every evening before I leave for the day and wonder whether I should shut down my Macbook - that's when I look around to see tons of stuff open. I can't get to close my Keynote files, my MS Powerpoint files, my Google Chrome browser instances, my Safari browser instances and basically anything else open!

Is this because of my low attention span? Or is it because people are just sharing too much information. More than what I can comprehend? I open a link, read half way through and then someone sends me something else or I go back to working on a presentation. And at the end of the day, I have so much of stuff open that I really don't know what I can close!

My faithful Macbook is the one that suffers through this! It does take it all well though. I wonder how any other laptop would have put up with this! My HP gave up on me..... Well HP gave up on HP (No wonders here!).... My dell survived close to a year.... My Macbook is still going strong.... And to add to it... Steve Jobs helps many such MEs....He even got Lion to bring us back to where we were even if we shut down! He gave us multiple desktops (Which I can't seem to remember to use!!). He gave us a reading tab on the browsers - to put things there to come back to later!

Going forward, I have to start closing up on things!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Different types of fighters?

I was over at a friend's house a few weeks ago and something he said still sticks in my head. He was just getting past a fight with his girlfriend and was talking to her when he asked all of us around, "When you fight, do you fight only for that incident that you started fighting for or do all the other things you've been irritated with the other person also get into the picture?"

This actually got me thinking! It's been in my mind for quite a while actually. I think this can help us categorize our friends in buckets. In my humble opinion, they could probably be the below:


1. The Goody Two Shoes: 

This is the breed that tries to smile through everything that happens in and around them. They actually intrinsically start believing that smiling is their only option out or into any situation. These guys are sometimes unbelievable. They always are the ones controlling a situation and keeping people in check. They would pass super awesome dialogues like, "What are you going to get out of fighting with him/her?" or "Smiling takes less energy that frowning" and the likes!

So what are these guys thinking of when they get into a fight? Simple - They just don't get into fights! They keep all their thoughts into their head and basically dismiss them as nothing! But what they feel is nothing could be something just locked up. 

Beware of constantly pissing of such people as when they explode, they really do! And then the floodgates are open - They will bring up every teeny weeny thing you may have said or done in the past!

2. The fire-breathing Dragons

These are the short-tempered dudes who flare up at any given moment for the smallest of things! They will flare up for about a minute or two and then probably instantly cool down.

The more we understand such people, the better friends they will be. These guys are generally very genuine when it comes to fighting. They get angry, but are angry only for what you said or did right then! They're not really thinking about any other thing (Rather, they don't have the time for all that). 

3. The Silent Wizards

There is yet another type that is probably the most interesting of the bunch. It is this type that passes with a mysterious elan and you hardly ever do get to know what they're thinking or doing. They reserve their thoughts and feelings and ponder over them time and again.

More often that not, fighting with this lot is pointless as you really wouldn't know why they're angry with you. The fight may have started over something simple, but in reality the person is fighting coz of a whole other reason. That other reason could be something that happened days or months ago!

These guys will usually bring all the ammunition they can to any fight and it makes sense for you to get to a quick end here. Don't prolong the fight since the longer you take, the more the other person will bring onto the table and into the fight!

So what are the other types?  

Monday, August 15, 2011

Yet another Chapter - Mumbai calling!

Made the plunge finally. And today the world glorifies entrepreneurship to the level that its almost considered cool! In fact, for a while, I was almost on top of the world as people kept praising me for my courage and what not! And then reality hits you! You're out on your own, you really can't go out spending money like you know you're going to get more at the end of the month! You politely deny dinner invites from friends since you don't want to look at a huge bill! All of this and more! I think the word entrepreneurship is highly abused and misused (Similar to how innovation came and went).

However, I will focus on hiccups in startups in a new blog I plan to co-author with my partner and other interested startup bloggers. I would rather focus on Mumbai - The city of dreams and potholes!

I've been in Mumbai for a month now and I can't help but notice the following:

1. People are in such a hurry that they literally and figuratively step over other people's toes
2. It just rains like there's no end
3. The crazy pot-holes
4. The nicest of people here are the auto-rickshaw drivers!
5. The CRAZY property prices
6. It's almost impossible to find a house if you're single. Even more difficult for single girls
7. It's almost impossible to get a postpaid/prepaid mobile connection or an internet connection without a house or some sort of local address proof
8. Autos are actually cheap! (I'm from Chennai where auto guys charge you fares to take you to the moon and drop you in the next street)
9. I've seen more fist fights here in a month here than in Chennai for years!
10. There is a lot of bread consumed here - As Vada Pav, Samosa Pav, Maska Pav and what not!

A month gone and I can't help wonder why the government is not making the efforts required to improve the choked state of infrastructure in this city! One of the most densely populated regions in the world, Mumbai is filled with traffic and the fastest mode of transport in the city is the local trains. Travelling in the local trains is an experience of its own. It's only when I stand watching the train arrive that I wish I was born a girl. There's a separate compartment for ladies in the train that generally has some space for breathing. The guy's compartment is more packed than a tin of sardines. And in all this crowd, people are still able to fight and throw a punch. The other day I was in the train and I could hardly stand. Two guys got into an argument and one guy actually threw a punch!

For all the noise that is made about immigrants into this city, I now believe that the immigrants are actually the nice and polite people. Most Marathis have a tone that comes of as rude and they are so many swear words flying around the place that you would start believing that people haven't grown up after those high school days when swearing with friends was actually considered cool!

Ok, here's some advise for single folks coming into Mumbai looking for accommodation:

Remember, it's going to be very difficult for you to find a place and you should give yourself a good one month time to find a place. You may want to make arrangements with family or friends to stay for that one month. Getting a place here involves giving your resume to the society, getting an approval certificate from the society, getting a police clearance and then you have to register the lease! It's very difficult to find a place without an agent (for single folks) and hence you will have to plan on paying brokerage too (1 month's rent). Some brokers would tell you to just lie to the society that your folks will be staying with you etc, but I would advise against it as I have heard that some single folks have actually been evicted after taking possession of the flat. You would have already paid the brokerage then and you may be back to square one.

As you begin settling in Mumbai, its wise to look around and get the numbers of all the shops around you. They deliver anything and everything to your house here! Right from medicines, groceries to tea and coffee! Also, Mumbai is open pretty late - you could probably find a decent number of shops open even at 10pm and after. Accordingly, work also begins relatively later - at around 9:30am or 10am.

Getting a 3G connection - If you are like me and have to have a fast 3G connection on your phone at all times, you may want to get a Vodafone connection. I've been using it for about ten days now and have been very impressed with the download speeds. I did a speed test and at most places I see speeds above 3mbps which is impressive (I used to get around 200kbps with my "3G" connection in Manila). However, all 3G connections are capped at this stage. The highest plan with Vodafone is around 1200 Rs a month with a 5GB cap on data usage. I'm sure this will change as competition increases. However, to get your connection, you must have address proof and hence I would advise that you get a prepaid SIM card from whichever place you are coming from (in India) and use it on roaming (Roaming charges aren't that high in India). It's easier to probably get a prepaid from your place in India. Rules are pretty strict in Mumbai coz of the terrorist strikes etc!

If you are going to be working with the media and advertising industry, you way want to start your day late, coz most of these folks come into office really late and leave pretty late too.

Will update more in my next posts! Stay posted for some awesome stuff in the mobile marketing arena!