Thought Garage

I am not a big fan of Upma. Never really liked it so much, though I eat when I have to. But somehow my 3 year old loves it. If you ask what she prefer for a breakfast on the bed, she always says Upma. And it goes without saying, she gets it. So today is one of those days. It’s the second time I prepared it in the last few days, and oh boy! I nailed it today. It was awesome. Even I really liked it myself and my daughter loved it so much she comeback for seconds. Yahoooooo !! While preparing I was wondering, what most people that cook in the family go through , to prepare something that you don’t necessarily like, but you do it anyways because others love it.  Hats off to you all.    Am I getting my first lesson in what matters when you care? Hmm, that may sound little heavy on the breakfast table, but I guess I made my point.  Have a nice day.

“ T here are about 6.7 Billion people in this world that we know of.  Whether you believe in ‘Creation’ or ‘Evolution’, this human race started with a tiny number. It is quite amazing to see how fast it multiplies. What is more amazing is that every single individual in that 6 billion crowd is born ‘unique’.  Quite literally, you are born to be  one in a billion , whether you believe it or not. “ This was the Introduction to my latest and last speech in Toast Masters club, ‘One in a Billion’ as part of International Speech contest.  As much as I believe that each one of us can be that 'one in a billion' personality, I admit the reality as I perceive it and some times feel alone in that belief . A famous quote says 'You are what you think'. It is also true that ' you are what you think people think about you '. If you think people think you are smart, then you act smart and become smart. If you think people think you are dumb, you will become dum...

Focus is all about saying NO.

Thanks a ton to Blogger, I love the new Template Designer. In a few clicks, my ‘ The 365 Day Cooking Challenge ’ blog got a beautiful, delicious juicy red tomato garnish. I’m loving it.

What kind of a person you will be if you were to live just by your Intuition? This is the prompt from Trust30 for today. The secret of fortune is joy in our hands . – Ralph Waldo Emerson If you could picture your intuition as a person, what would he or she look like? If you sat down together for dinner, what is the first thing he or she would tell you?  (Author: Susan Piver ) Intuition is the ability to understand and make decisions quickly without conscious reasoning.  We normally refer to this as gut feeling or instincts as well. So the prompt try to reveal if you were to live by your true instincts what kind of a person you will be? Will you be any different? Totally different? or just the same? To an large extent, we can also paraphrase the prompt to “heart or mind” ? It goes without saying that heart represents the intuition, instincts or emotions and often the irrational behavior while mind represents the conscious reasoning and rational behavior. In my life, a major...

I had long believed that Capitalism and particularly the Private Sector is a key to a country’s growth and economic well being.  But looking at what Private Sector has done to US, I started having second thoughts on the whole idea. Read the following excerpt from TIME magazine that reveals Private sector failed to create any new jobs in US while still reaping profits and expanding its markets. Myth No. 3: The private sector will make it all better There is a fundamental disconnect between the fortunes of American companies, which are doing quite well, and American workers, most of whom are earning a lower hourly wage now than they did during the recession. The thing is, companies make plenty of money; they just don't spend it on workers here. Half of Americans say they couldn't come up with $2,000 in 30 days without selling some of their possessions. Meanwhile, companies are flush: American firms generated $1.68 trillion in profit in the last quarter of 2010 alone. But many...

If you ever got interested in Silicon Valley and wanted to visit to learn more, just like me, this may help you understand what it is all about a little better and well, plan your visit better . This post at StartupDigest has some links to learn more. I haven’t gone through all of them myself yet, but something I read on this post changed the whole perspective of looking at it. Silicon Valley is not a specific place : “ Silicon Valley ” is much more a state of mind than any one physical location. You can be in San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto, or Berkeley and still be in “ Silicon Valley “. Source : http://startupdigest.com/2011/06/09/welcome-silicon-valley/

What is really important to learn to first survive, then compete and ultimately win in this Internet powered Smart Phone driven Flat world ?   Here is a great video that puts this question in the context of learning "Math" at schools. Key question asked in this video is Should we continue to spend a great deal of time in learning how to 'calculate' or should we focus more on conceptualizing and formulating problems and using computers to perform computations. The argument the author makes is that we MUST do the later and at the earliest possible. If you understand the argument, you can easily replace "math" with any thing in the world or any branch of science for that matter. The argument still makes a sound and very important case. In fact, if you realize, this is NOTHING new. We have been redefining continuously what we need to learn and how we learn throughout the period of evolution. The resistance and incredibility are just part of that evolution. J...

“You don't have to learn the language of a great poet to write beautiful poetry. Master your own instead.”

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This is always a very tricky question to delve into. Will there be any chance the  H1B rush we have witnessed in 2007 and 2008 may come back this year in 2010 or just like last year, will the cap remain unfilled till the end of the year? I think, it will be a repeat of last year. May be, the cap could be reached little earlier than last year. The official H1B year 2011 starts from October 1st of 2010. USCIS has already started accepting petitions starting from 1st of April, 2010. As we can see, the rush of 2007/2008 did not happen this time. Last year I wrote that I would be surprised if cap limits are reached any time during the year. That proved to be true. This year, while the situation remains the same in many aspects, the improvement in market conditions may accelerate the filings just a little and may reach the cap little earlier.

Kailasgiri offers quite a view point to get a hint about the scenic Vizag and its surroundings. The beach, pictureseque city and decor by hills.

This is a real story of a horrific experience with an Indian Doctor that just got creative. Declared an Emergency to be admitted as in-Patient at once, a real emergency condition that was not even worth delaying his lunch break, if not admitted in their hospital.  And got too concerned about your health and took every extra precaution he has ever known, in your best interest, when he knew that you could pay up.  Thanks to Sujatha Hospitals, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. One of my family members got dehydrated (we didn’t know initially it was dehydration).  As the Family doctor wasn’t available at that moment to answer our questions, based on symptoms, we went to see a doctor at a near by hospital. After basic vital checks and learning that patient recently travelled to USA, the doctor told us that the condition was serious and patient must be admitted immediately and to be given fluids by IV at once, and also prescribed 4 more injections (3 of which were to be admini...

It has been a phenomenal and eventful year and yet its time to bid farewell to 2009 and Welcome 2010. I wish you all a Wonderful and Eventful New Year 2010. I hope some of your dearest dreams will come true in 2010, as I believe, you will Make It Happen . Do whatever you do the best. We are all so lucky to have a dream. And I believe, Its time. Let us Just Make It Happen . Its 2010 .   Just Make It Happen. Its 2010.

Aren't startups pay to present at DEMO? Or any similar conferences? What's the fuss is all about? Startup Scam: Paying to Pitch Puts Power Players on the Warpath Over the weekend, the blogosphere has seen a small but profound eruption of wrath over angel investor groups that charge startups to pitch them. Jason Calacanis' blog post on the topic, wherein he went as far as calling out these groups by name and posting each group's pricetag, inspired "me too" posts from Fred Wilson and Robert Scoble. All parties seem to be in agreement that the practice is despicable and should be stopped. But like every hustle that preys on the gullible or less talented, pay-to-play pitching models will be perpetuated until made illegal, and no amount of blog posts will shame these investors into changing their behavior. So, should these scams be made illegal? I get little skeptical whenever a web company buys advertisements so heavily in print media. Why it took so long time for...

There used to be a huge crowd at Diwali Mela. What happened this year? Is it the weather or DFW Indian community lost interest in the mela itself. A couple of pictures outside the Cowboys Stadium where the main events are going on. And this last picture is inside the stadium.  The big TV was not switched ON. And the field appears to have been completely removed for rework. We all thought the event would be inside the stadium, but it was organized outside.  Its good that we got a chance to go inside and look around. Anyways, the stadium is awesome. Despite the drizzle every now and then, we had fun.

TV9’s smart use of Microsoft Windows Surface in analyzing election results.