Robin's Personal Blog

Why this Blog?

robinsamuel — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:34:29 +0000

Since I am maintaining another blog with the same user name in Blogger, thought that it would be good if i have the same user name in wordpress too!.. Also importing all the articles, comments from http://robinsamuel.blogspot.com

When Words Fail You….

robinsamuel — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 08:47:00 +0000

No words can describe the sorrow the IIM – Indore family has gone through in the last 3 days. Two of our beloved friends – Nitesh & Neha are not with us any more. Thomas Campbell, a Scottish Poet once said,

“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”

Though the choral river may have taken them from us , it would never take them from our hearts. Nitesh & Neha, You will always be living in our hearts.In News
http://creativenits.blogspot.com/2007/08/when-hopes-died.html
http://nishantzworld.blogspot.com/2007/08/memories.html

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.

~From a headstone in Ireland

GoodBye Harry Potter! The Boy who Lived!

robinsamuel — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 12:13:00 +0000

It has been 10 years, since this ordinary looking boy with only a lightening scar to differentiate him, was introduced to us. A mere 7 years of his school life was enough to take us all through a roller coaster ride of happiness, sorrows & of course, endless debates.

Not by his skills, but by his magic he brought a frenzy among the kids & adults of today that has never been seen before. A magic that made kids & adults alike to wait for hours before the shops to get their first copy. A magic that had no counter curse not only in the Western World but all through the world. As an ultimate mark of his magic, today he has spawned an industry in the muggle world. A phenomenon with a minuscule chances of repeating itself. A Phenomenon that i am happy that it happened during my days of growing up.

A boy whom i am going to talk about, even during my grand old age(to my grand children!) – “Of how this boy took the world by storm”. “Of how we waited for his books to be released”. “Of the hundred forums we participated discussing his life”. “Of the joy he gave us when we reach the final page of his books”. “Of how he single-handedly showed the wizards & witches are also human”. “Of how we all wanted to be a wizard, if not Harry Potter”.

The boy who by his life @ Hogwarts made kids to look for their boarding school life that they hated until then. Finally the boy who showed that “Love transcends all magic”. A boy who showed friendship, trust & loyalty are not just the values of a bygone era. A boy who got all the stardom(that all of us desire) but still desired a normal life. Good Bye! The Boy who lived! You lived not only in the books but also in our hearts!

Talent Nite @ IIM Indore

robinsamuel — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 08:27:00 +0000

Talent Nite ’07 took place on July 15, 2007. A rocking performance by PGP-1(No surprises there). Read about it at IIM Indore Group Blog. [Yeah! IIM Indore Students' Blog is alive and back]. Add the feed-Life at IIM-I to your feed reader for continuous updates on Planet-I.

Sambhar Night @ IIM Indore

robinsamuel — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 08:18:00 +0000

To explain Sambhar Night, I have to travel back a year down in my memory lanes…

Flashback. zhig..

It was the first time that I have been outside TamilNadu for such a long time. That too, Indore being a God forsaken place, did not offer much to a foodie. And one month into IIM Indore, my mouth has started watering on just hearing the names of the South Indian Dishes i grew up with – Idli, Dosa, sambhar, rasam, etc. Then one fine day, PGP2 guys got the wisdom and decided to take us-PGP1 to a Tamil Mess – SICA around 20kms from IIM Indore… They said it is a tradition at IIM Indore among tamils..

That day I understood, how simple & common food that u grew up with can become the ‘Amirtham’[Elixir in tamil] of your life. I still remember the fulfilment i had after the meals that made me look double my size.

Flashback Over.. Back to Colour Screen..

And the tradition continues… Sambhar Night 07′ took place on July 7. And another batch of IIM Indorians got to savour the taste of amazing Tamil Food at SICA, Indore.

‘Blogs I Never Miss’ in My Feed Reader

robinsamuel — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:13:00 +0000

First to all greenhorns, A feed reader, is a client software or a Web Service which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing. For more about feed reader, can read it in Wikipedia – Web Feed Aggregrator. I came to know about them when one of my friends – Sreeram introduced me to Google reader and thereafter it has always been a love-love relationship between me and Google reader. It helped me to follow up a lot of blogs, even leading me to be the first commenter in most of the blogs. Slowly, It established itself as the first thing that i would open in my computer in the morning.

Now to the five Blogs I would never miss in Google Reader[Not in any particular order. Left out all the friends' blog since i do not want to bring my personal prejudice into this]

1. “How to change the World” by Guy Kawasiki – With the network he has developed, Kawasiki just brings so much value to each of his posts.

2. “Balaji’s Thots” by Balaji Balasubramaniam, a California-resident Tamil Indian – His narrative style of writing is great and that too writing about a matter close to my hearts – Tamil Movies – this means i lap up each of his posts. But it is a ‘No-Entry’ Zone for Non-Tamils.

3. “Kiruba“by Kiruba Shankar – The first person i have come to admire just from reading his posts. As someone who has established himself in the Indian Blogging community, you can learn a lot about blogging & internet from his posts. Regular unconferences and various meetings arranged by him is one of the key reasons “I want to be there” in Chennai.

4. “Digital Inspiration” by Amit Agarwal – Though not all the posts are useful, u get to use atleast a few of them.

5. “Chennaiist – It’s all about your city” – Again something I read because of the connections I have with this wonderful city. Thanks to this blog, I get to know more about it than its city dwellers.

As some one who is just six months old into the blogging community, I know i am still missing a lot of other interesting blogs. If u know any, ur suggestions are welcome..

The Week that Was – ‘Record Breaking’ [Shivaji & Campus Placement]

robinsamuel — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 07:57:00 +0000

Shivaji, the Craze

“Where are they releasing Shivaji @ Tirunelveli?”. This was the first of the series of questions that i bombarded the autowallah who was taking me home after my 2 month internship at Pune. Not only me, the whole Tamil blogging world has been set on fire with the pre-release Rajini mania. Even the English news channels were not able to keep this important news(!) from their headlines.. [Surprisingly such extensive coverage of 'Shivaji' was not even seen on any of the Tamil channels.. ].. Just the fact that a Tamil Movie ‘Shivaji’ was able to make the whole India sit up and take notice of it – amounts to a record breaking incident for me. Add to that, the following record breaking achievements by ‘Shivaji, the boss’ in Tirunelveli

First time, a movie is getting released in 3 theatres in Tirunelveli.. [Do you want any more proof that Tirunelveli is a city????]
50 lakhs was the amount paid by the theatres in Tirunelveli
Official rate of First Day, First Show Tickets – Rs. 1000/- [Just reminded of the famous Periyar comment - "There are fools everywhere"]
‘Daru’ was not available in any of the wine shops in Tirunelveli on June 17th & 18th. [Everything was bought by the Rajini fans. Truly A Rajini Movie release = 10 times Diwali for Rajini fans]

Jobs rain at Anna University

While the media was going gaga over ‘Shivaji’, jobs have started raining at Anna University, Chennai [comprising of 3 colleges CEG, A.C.Tech & MIT]. Out of 2300 students elgibile for the Placement process, around 1006 were placced in the first company – Tata Consultancy Services. It has now become a practice for Anna university students to set up the ‘Record for Highest Single Day Placement in a college campus’ for that academic year in India. Present Batch has also maintained that reputation by beating the last year Highest of around 800 offers in CTS in Anna university. Read about “TCS’ record recruitment at Anna University“.

Things I never Knew – Eve Teasing

robinsamuel — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:18:00 +0000

I never knew it. I was ignorant of it. I was shocked when I came to know it – “Silicon Capital of India – One of the prides of India – Bangalore – is unsafe for women” . I was dismayed when my cousin explained – “Why can’t she go to certain places in Bangalore?”.. “Why can’t she even go for booking tickets alone?”.. “How tough it is for women to be women in cities?”..

“Eve Teasing”.. For some of us, it is fun.. According to some of us, the victims deserved it.. Some of us are not even aware of it.. But for most of us, it is something we read in newspapers or something that only some skewed people mostly from the lower strata of the society do.. For me, Eve Teasing has always been associated with ‘Death of Sarika Shah’ rather than as an social evil that my sister or friends daily face. [Here 'Us' is people who may read this post]

If you belong to my category of men – who are not aware how rampant Eve teasing is there in the very own cities you live, please read wish list of women. It is really an eyeopener. [But also be aware that the wishes were collected through Internet so they are mostly from an urban crowd - where the Internet penetration is high].

Blank Noise is the organization behind collecting these wishes. Blank Noise is a public and participatory art project working both online and on the streets of Bangalore, Mumbai , Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad. It also has some innovative campaigns against Eve Teasing like “Collecting & Displaying clothes that women wore when they were sexually harassed in the street”. You can visit their blog at BLANK NOISE PROJECT.

“Eve teasing may be normal, but is it acceptable?”

Heard about twitter??

robinsamuel — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:57:00 +0000

Are you someone who regularly feel the need to update your friends & relatives – “What are you doing at that particular moment”. ‘Twitter‘ is the right thing for you.

A global community of friends and strangers are answering one single question: “What are you doing?“. You can update using your phone, messenger or right through the web itself. I joined it today and was really excited by the concept. You can access my personal twitter at http://twitter.com/robinsamuel. Just access http://twitter.com to sign up for this new social networking website.

Interview with President of World Vision – Excerpts

robinsamuel — Fri, 18 May 2007 15:30:00 +0000

One of the few things I know about my career is that
– after five years of corporate life, I will be taking a moment and re-evaluating whether I really want to stay there. So now itself, started short-listing things I can do if i decide to quit corporate world.

One Evergreen Option is to become a Professor in some well known college [There is nothing more exciting than entertaining 60+ students for a hour but still managing to add some value - that too, not for a single day, but for a whole semester.. Hmmm.. Looks tough enough for me..]

Another option – To join some social service organization and ‘World Vision’ heads that list of social organizations I would like to join. So I was very much interested on seeing the heading “Ten (or so) questions with Richard Sterns, President of World Vision” in Guy Kawaski’s Blog – “How to change the world“. Worth a read for anybody who wish to leave the corporate world and ‘go out and change the world’.

Certain Excerpts I liked from the interview -

“….. Today, we live in a world that tolerates extreme poverty much like racism was tolerated fifty-plus years ago. We can all become people determined to do something to change the world. We can speak up, we can volunteer and we can give. Ending extreme poverty will take money, political and moral will, and a shift in our value system. When enough ordinary people embrace these issues, things will begin to change. Margaret Mead once said: “Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. ….”

Question: What’s the biggest obstacle to get rich people to care about poor people?

Answer: The obstacle is that poverty is often not personal. If your next-door neighbor’s child was dying and you could save her for $100, you wouldn’t think twice. But a child 10,000 miles away whom you have never met, that’s just different.

About 29,000 kids die every day of preventable causes–29,000! These kids have names and faces, hopes and dreams. Their parents love them as much as we love our kids. We’ve got to make poverty personal. Stalin once said: “A million deaths is a statistic, one death is a tragedy.” We must try to see the face of the one child. “

Hope poverty in a far-away land also becomes personal to each one of us.