December 19, 2008

Freedom Writers & Great Debaters - How to Grow tough people

I have been seeing a lot of movies..over the past 3 months.. but two of them 'Freedom Writers' and 'Great Debaters' have taught me how to teach Toughness... especially the kind of toughness you have to teach an young team when it requires to get into a place where everybody would think they are kids...they are wrong.. they can't do it.. , and you have to keep them from running away or panicking, and make them stand to failures, expectations and deliver.

freedom_writers.jpg

hilary-swank-freedom-writers-1-25-07.jpgIn a different perception, those movies can make you tougher if you relate yourself in to the characters of the students rather than the teacher characters I related myself to in both the films.

Both the movies are real-life based stories.. and as far as I have read, they have not exaggerated the story to make it good for the movies.. but may have in-turn been unable to bring everything that happened in real lives of the people involved into the movie format.

I cried when Hilary swank cried..
I smiled when Denzel washington smiled.
..

GreatDebaters.jpg
greatDebaters_full.jpgWhen the movies got over.. I was amazed at the presentation of them, and what changes such great movies could bring if they were shown to children and teachers all around the globe...

and then..
google tells me that the movies have already inspired people all around, and you could spend a day or two reading so much of the good changes the movies had already created.. organizations, funds for education, better teachers.. etc., all in america of-course.. and since both films talk about racism, black-white problems, you would see how they have helped the american culture. Like the 'Freedom Writers Foundation', something that has become immensely popular after the movie on Freedom Writers.

If you like teaching/mentoring, and you haven't watched either of the movies, I bet you should.
Because these are not just movies, they are powerful movies.

December 9, 2008

Been a while.. back again

Have been busy trying to settle down in life for a while.. but poor me, I never get the logic behind that thing.. "settling down".. as if I am unsettled.

Its been sometime since I wrote anything here on my blog. Here are quick updates.

> I got financially broke, this time around I found up some interesting job for myself in Bangalore and worked there in a company called craftsilicon.

>Yes, I am no more an independent consultant, though I have now quit this bangalore company to join another..

>Yes, you read it right, I quit that company already, I joined in august, and quit recently now in december, because I guess I can't work the way people want me to : "inside the box, strictly"... without doing anything out-of-the-box, innovative, and importantly without thinking big.

> What I observed working with craftsilicon, a product-based company with a few microfinance and banking products, is the product space in India is in a state which has all symptoms and can be easily called the nascent stage of a "boom". Indian companies have grown up to the idea of buying Indian software.. "Didn't they always do that?" you ask, and yes, there was always a market for indian software, but only for the cheapest and the basic most applications, not for something like an enterprise application. Yes there were these 'Financle' kind of products which are big for a long time, but not many products like that... and if I remember right, Finacle had its first indian customer also only after many foreign customers.

> So, that is something very interesting.. the product space growing simply means, Indians are now seen more mature in software development space...importantly by Indians itself. As a whole country, we always were considered one which lacks attitude and self-confidence. Now the tables are changing.

> Soon we can expect more software products, servers, who knows even operating systems churned out of India.

(Isn't this supposed to be a brief update... yes yes I remember)

> Then, I am now going to work in chennai .. back home. and I guess I found myself a very very interesting project in a new company. I can't share more details, but briefly, it is a home automation system, with your TV, and a few other equipments going IP way, and pushing service delivery say some 10% into the futuristic dreams we have seen in movies like wallE, where people sit in their couch and do a lot of things over the screen and touchpad, and probably get fat at the end of day.

> And then,
And then, I might be getting married soon. Ms. Right though can't still believe she has decided to marry me, and things are going that way for now, with 50% of my earnings going to telephone bills... and if I even ponder slightly towards that angle of discussion on the phone, the call gets cut with a bye only to provide for a longer call to make up for the fight with her.

> Who is she? .. the name is Triveni.

> Got very disturbed atleast a few times, a few minutes about what happened recently in Bombay, talking about the terror shootings which lasted "3 days" in a so-called "transforming" country, killing many, and with politicians still failing to understand/attach any serious thought to it, except for making new arrangements to win state elections shortly happening or already completed in a few states.

> The world media ripped Indian police system / intelligence system / security system inside out, going on to mention that Indian police still use the world war II extinct .33 pistol for their major operations.

> The ruling politicians just took to a 'sorry', 'we learnt our lesson', 'it will be better next time', etc., thoughts instead of keeping just quiet and show that they are badly embarrassed that they did just "Nothing" so far, that can't even give basic protection to people, and that too in places in bombay which are known as high-security zone.

> Everytime you switch on TV, still, you see some politician carelessly answering 'yes we couldn't do anything.. we have learnt our lesson'.

> Yet again, and still still still for so many years, so many times, Indian governance systems want an accident or problem to know when to change things.. The governance system, the police system, or any public system here in India, goes not by a process...but only by events that happen... that's the "if it happens, we will see what to do" attitude.

> While I felt bad even bombay wasn't secured to freak shooting, that too for 3 days, the 4th day, it was revealed it happened even after repeated security and intelligence warnings from many many numerous intelligence agencies around the world and from the country's own intelligence systems. It simply showed that people who received the warnings ignored it amidst the movies they wanted to see that day, or the election preparations they wanted to do, or just lazily thought they are just warnings 'if it happens we will see'.

Horrible..
I decided I am not going to vote here on.. I guess there is a new system in the electorate system in India, where one is going to be allowed to go mark their name on the electorate on the voting day, and just return without voting which will then become a 'no vote' and add to a 'no vote' count... instead of voting for any existing party which has ever been in power atleast once so far and couldn't use their opportunity when they were in power to fix anything...just anything.

That we are still having to be so dumb a country, not addressing anything that is required to help us grow. And probably here on I am going to see what best I can do directly to my environment and country rather than voting for some idiot or the other and expecting them all to deliver even one of their promises that means upgrading the lifestyle, rather than giving something free to make votes and degrading the lifestyle with freebies and freebies and freebies.


July 15, 2008

RadioHead releases a new album - but wait a minute

I was on code.google.com, and was surprised to see an image in the usually text-based search website. In what looked like an ADvert for RadioHead's "House of Cards", there was this interesting line.


In Radiohead's new video for "House of Cards" from the album "In Rainbows", no cameras or lights were used. Just data.

Images were all formed by some dots or english characters all through the video.. and it looked quite interesting to see something like this for the first time. Something like effects we have seen in the film series 'Mummy'. The extra effect on the RadioHead video seems like, they have allowed some part of the image formed by the data to pulsate or move high/low based on the music.

The technology uses a mix of contouring techniques + lasers + geographical information scanners.. to deliver the goods.

Interesting!! presentation.. Out of Box stuff. Shows why google was so excited about the idea that they put this on their website(they have a policy not to put images or adverts on their sites other than their logo).

You will find the video and more information on how it was created at:
http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/

radioHead1.gifradioHead2.gifradiohead3.jpg

July 7, 2008

3rd successive Clash of the Titans - The inspiring Rafa Vs Federrer Finals

The world of Tennis held its breath yesterday, as Rafael Nadal (Rafa), challenged Roger Federrer in the Wimbledon Men's Singles Final.

The match started with big expectations, because whichever of the finalists won, this final would be creating history. Also, this was the third successive time Rafa and Federrer were clashing in the Wimbledon finals.. both previous times Federrer reigning supreme and Nadal improving his game every year.

RafaelNadalWon_wimbledon200.jpg
If Nadal wins, he were to equal the tennis legend Bjorn Borg's record of last winning both the French Open and the Wimbledon in the same calendar year.

federerLost_wimbledon2008.jpgIf Roger Federrer wins, this would be his sixth successive wimbledon win, and could be poised towards beating another legend Pete Samprass's 7 successive wins at wimbledon. At the same time, Roger's sixth victory would surpass Bjorn Borg's 5 successive grand slam wins.

And so on.. the records were all there to be made, broken or to be kept.

Eventually, the 22 year old spaniard Nadal won his first ever wimbledon title, also his first ever title on grass court. Everybody is talking that this is a final that nobody who saw it live in the stadium would ever forget, and with Nadal winning, another era of tennis moves back with Federrer's achievements.


You should see the match hightlights and commentary here.

Photo Copyrights: wimbledon.org and getty images.

July 2, 2008

Will she.. won't she... will India go do the nuke deal with America?

You are in India, and whichever news channel or newspaper you try, you see one thing big .. Indian politicians mulling over the nuclear deal that they signed with America. They signed it and then they stopped doing anything about it.. That should firstly give Americans some sign as to how to trust India next times when anything is signed.

Anyway, coming to the real part. .. Firstly, I suggest you ignore the drama the Indian politicians are doing with this nuclear deal thing. Yes, DRAMA.. you got it right.. they are not **really** really talking the deal, neither is the prime minister Dr.Manmohan sign a very positive person trying to do something good for India. It is all happening because, they want the country and importantly the country's media diverted from all gross problems in India today..

Gross problems from were we are being diverted:

1. Inflation is in two digits and strongly rising and seems to be steady for long at the higher mark.. never happened before.

2. The stock market made some uncalculated bullishness after the present government came to power and fiddled with something in the market. Everyone kept on diverting saying it is because India is really growing very fast economically.. and now the obvious BIG crash happened.. everybody outside India and many politicians and a few people who knew about all the eye-wash and brain-wash made loooot of money in this.... last time it happened they made a scape goat of a stock broker Harshad Mehta and bundled every other problem on him and put him in jail for many years. .. this time they are trying all means to divert attention so the truth about many billion India rupees never comes out.

3. Petrol prices are uphill.. and though the government can reduce some taxes on it and help the people, they want to continue making the money in taxes without any any consideration for helping all Indians at large.

4. Real estate prices are exhorbitant, because none of the government control authorities on the prices are working, because if prices increase fast and quick, the government gets lot of money in taxes quite quick.

These are some of the problems that you and I are made to divert from, so we don't discuss it, talk it, voice it, protest it.. and the government and most Indian politicians in power today seem to be more interested in the benefit of people outside the country by helping them make more and more money in India, rather than helping Indians live. Capitalism is fine, but not to do it outright when nothing in the country is ready for it immediately except the Software industry.

So, are you still diverted into the artificial Nuclear deal chaos, and still thinking Dr.Manmohan sign is trying to do something for the country.


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