I sleep well...always...

Hello Friends,

First of all, apologies..! This has been such a long time since I wrote to you last…! No excuses…! The turn of events was such that I could not hold on to one of my favorite hobbies. But, no excuses…!!

It is so ironically and unfortunately coincidental that my last post was regarding the terrorist attacks in Ahmedabad and this time also, I felt like writing when Mumbai burnt…

Much of the print and electronic space has been used, rather abused, to explain, to evaluate, to analyze, to describe and to condemn this ghastly of all attacks…!! We have seen our talkative news channel reporters doing overtime all these days… Celebrities coming up and showing their solidarity with the people of Mumbai…F***ing politicians coming and giving their stale statements and practicing age-old tactics of announcing compensations to the remains of the shahids… Nothing much to say… We all have seen this maha-natak…!

But…but…but… As responsible citizens of this great nation and largest democracy in the world, have we ever given an elaborative thought to our own role in this massacre…? I am not here to give any sort of lecture to anybody…!! Just read on the following piece written by Yours Truly and tell me to what extent you believe in whatever is written…!!

I SLEEP WELL

I slept when Kanishka was blown up! I slept when Hindus killed Muslims, when Muslims killed Hindus – regardless of age, gender or region! I slept when Sikhs were gutted and killed! I slept when Kashmir burnt! I slept when an airplane full of passengers and crew was taken to Kandahar! I slept when Biharis were targeted by a handful of sons of the soil in Mumbai! And so did I do when Mumbai once again burnt, and burnt well…! I am an Indian… I have a constitutionally approved fundamental right to sleep! This is democracy… So, I sleep…!

My country has been taken hostage not by terrorists... No! Not by terrorists, but by people within it… ruling it… and laughing at it... My country and my countrymen are held hostage and captive by its incompetent, uneducated, dishonest, exploitative, impotent and inefficient politicians, government and all its administrative machinery. But, I sleep well…!! It is me who sent them into the power, because I was sleeping while voting…!

Efficiency is shown in bribing and buying votes and seats. Competence is expressed in bringing down other parties. Expertise is demonstrated in bringing discord and playing divisive politics. But, I do sleep well…!!

Regionalism has reared its ugly head because I am sleeping… Reservation is still strongly advocated because I am sleeping... Corruption is deep-rooted because I am sleeping…

Raj Thackeray targets poor, unarmed north-Indians but sits snugly under tight security when terrorists strike. It is easy to hound the poor laborer from Bihar/U.P. than it is to raise your finger, leave alone your voice, against the organized terrorism. Crime and lawlessness are second nature. Criminals go free, breathing easy under a distorted system with hell lot of loopholes that protect their rights. Human rights activists will fight for the rights of the terrorists. But, I sleep well…!!

Every politician looks out for himself and himself alone. We have a Defense Ministry which defends only itself when it is found sleeping... When I do rouse myself it is only for me - to target the neighbor’s dog because his nocturnal barking is disturbing my beautiful sleep. No, a handful of 530 barking dogs in the parliament cannot wake me. Because, I sleep comfortably…!!

Criminals are made ministers because I sleep. Rapists go free while an eighty year old is penalized for smoking! Smoking is banned, bombs are allowed. This is democracy… Freedom of expression is birth-right…!!

I do not fear the terrorists from across the border. I fear the terrorists lurking within the country who wear Khadi and who always come in the guise of the unqualified politician, begging at my door with folded hands, a hypocritical smile on his smug face asking for my vote. Damn it…But, I sleep well…!!

Who do I vote for? The rapist or the religious fanatic…? The murderer or the underworld don…? Which honorable criminal is worthy of my esteemed vote…? See, I have so many choices…!! It’s democracy…!!

My heart bleeds but I will sleep on my soft mattress under my warm blanket. When I see movies like Krantivir or Rand de Basanti, the blood in my veins starts boiling. But, that is all of it! I am the long suffering, resilient Indian who has somehow lost his identity among Biharis, Marathis, Gujaratis, Tamilians, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Brahmins… The list is endless…!!

Do I care? Do I need to care? I don’t think so… As long as my sleep is not disturbed, I will stay calm and composed…! Please bear with me. I am an Indian. I love to sleep. And I will enjoy sleeping until and unless one of those flag-bearers of death will come into my house and start shooting and bombing here and there with their assault rifles and grenades killing my dear and near ones…!!

Huh…! That’s what I feel today. Every Indian would have felt the same after witnessing this tandav-nritya of terror and death. What should we do as the citizens of this country?

If anybody has something else to share, write your reviews in terms of comments. And yes, please give your opinion to the above poll.

Post your precious comments. Do send in your raves and rages as always. See you in the next post. Till then lead a safe and secure life.

Astalavista…!!

Hi friends,

FEEL THE TERROR OF DEATH…!!!

An e-mail is sent to all national news channels on Saturday, July 26, 2008; at around 6:30 p.m. from an anonymous e-mail id, alarbi_gujarat@yahoo.com. The mail contains, at the end of it, the title of this article …Feel the Terror of Death…!!! It is an open challenge to the authorities – Stop It If You Can. But the time this mail gives to take up this challenge is only 5 minutes. In 5 minutes, the police has to save hundreds of people roaming around on the streets of Ahmedabad…! And…before anybody can do anything, just after 5 minutes of reaching that mail, it is BANG...BANG...BANG...!!! The otherwise peaceful city of Ahmedabad experiences the most ghastly of all terrorist attacks in the history of India…!!! The serial bomb blasts in various areas of the city leaves over 55 people dead in Ahmedabad. The mail-sender had succeeded in sending tremors of terror all around the nation…! The mail was allegedly sent from ‘Indian Mujahiddin’, a home-grown terror outfit of SIMI (Students’ Islamic Movement of India), a banned Islamic student organization. SIMI is banned for promoting terror activities in India.

It was just another busy day on the streets of old fort city of Ahmedabad. Various areas of the old city were crowded with people as usual. Nobody knew that after some time the place, where they were standing and bargaining for fruits and vegetables, was going to get converted into their cremation center. At around 6:40 or something, the first blast took place in the Maninagar area, Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, leaving all the people frightened and rushing to take cover…! And then it was a series of bomb blasts, like what we generally see in the time of Diwali while bursting crackers, that simply left the city and the nation trembled…!!! One could see the Tandav Nritya of terror and death in just a short span of time! Many areas of the city were covered in this act of terror, such as Maninagar, Bapunagar, Isanpur, Raipur, Narol, Hatkeshwar Circle, Sarangpur, Thakkerbapanagar, and Sarkhej. Just look at these statistics: -

• 18 Bomb blasts
• Only in about 50 minutes
• Over 55 Dead
• Over 225 Injured
• Around 8 areas covered
• 2 hospitals also attacked

Any rock-hearted person can shudder by looking at these statistics. They left nobody untouched, be it women, be it children, be it old-aged, be it Hindu, be it Muslim! First time in the history of terror attacks, one thing was noticed in this particular incident that the terrorists attacked the hospitals, ripping apart all the possibilities of getting them back on the tracks of humanity. It is sure the terrorists have completely turned into monsters, carriers of terror, and the flag-bearers of death...!!!

By looking at the series of events that happened on Saturday and from the subsequent news, I could locate a few things in this horrifying event. The same type of incident happened in Jaipur, Malegao, Hydrabad, Varanasi, and latest to join the list was Bangalore on Friday. I think it was the modus operandy that was observed in this incident: -

• Use of crude and low-intensity home-made domestic bombs
• Use of timers to explode the bombs at the desired time
• Use of ball bearings and gelatin nuts to cause more damage
• Use of cycles, the common men’s vehicle, as the ‘death carrier’ so as to seem innocent
• Exploding the bombs in the crowded areas so as to incur heavy casualty

I think the blasts in Bangalore the day before were only a laboratory test before hitting Ahmedabad. The original target was probably Ahmedabad. We all study management in our MBA course. But, I think this time unfortunately the terrorists proved to be the better ‘managers’ than our authorities when it came to planning, strategizing and implementing their plans. The mastermind behind this attack must have planned the whole thing much before and that too in a full-proof manner. From the happenings, I could find a few things that can lead to discovering the dangerous strategy adopted by the mastermind: -

• Selection of crowded areas, and that too the busy markets, so as to create maximum casualty.
• Selection of the perfect evening time slot when all the vegetable markets are crowded.
• Strategizing twin blasts. One blast for grabbing attention; and then the other blast at around 10 meters distance when people out of curiosity gathered at the site of first blast (e.g. Hatkeshwar circle twin blasts). The time difference between the two blasts was kept only 20-30 seconds.
• At several places it happened that one bomb was planted at one location and the other bomb was planted at the Exit route which was to be accessed by most people to save life (e.g. Raipur twin blasts).
• Attacking the hospitals where the victims of the blasts are taken to.
• Selection of two main hospitals of the eastern city, LG Hospital and Civil Hospital; because most of the victims will be rushed to these heavens-in-disguise due to their proximity to the affected areas.
• Timing of the bombs in hospitals: bombs in the LG and Civil exploded after 20-25 (approx.) minutes of explosion of bombs in residential areas. The timing was perfectly set on an assumption that this will be the time taken by the victims to reach the hospitals.
• Exploding blasts in Bangalore so as to divert the attention, so that the attack on Ahmedabad becomes comparatively easy to execute.

From this revealing of the facts, one can easily determine that the terrorists have got support in the form of intelligent and educated young people who can plan maximum damage with the use of mind power in strategizing attacks.

However, there are a few things which are considered to be the reasons for the blasts: -

• The blasts are considered as revenge for what happened to the Gujarati Muslims in the post-Godhara riots in Ahmedabad
• Just have a look at the selection of areas by the extremists. (1) Bapunagar, VHP leader Dr. Praveen Togadia’s gadh; (2) Maninagar, CM Narendra Modi’s Constituency; (3) Sarkhej, Home Minister Amit Shah’s Constituency; (4) Raipur, Gujarat Assembly Speaker Ashok Bhatt’s Constituency; among others. All these stalwarts are said to be Hindu protagonists.
• The first serial blasts of this kind happened in Jaipur last year. On Friday, it was the turn of Bangalore. And now, Ahmedabad. Just look at the pattern. The States that have been attacked are Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Gujarat, respectively. All these States have BJP, allegedly Hindu party, in ruling.
• Some also say that the next target can be Indore, a city of Madhya Pradesh, another BJP-ruled State.
• The blasts are considered to be an answer in-the-face to Modi’s challenge to the terrorist groups to execute any act of terror in Gujarat.

Many of the numerologists have started giving their share of opinions by citing the date 26 as a very inauspicious one. Even though this might be just a co-incidence, it is interesting to have a look at their claim: -

• 26^th December – Tsunami
• 26^th January – Gujarat Earthquake
• 26^th February – Burning of the Sabarmati Express coach that lead to the riots in Gujarat
• 26^th June – Terrible Flood in Gujarat
• 26^th July – Serial blasts in the local trains of Mumbai last year
• 26^th July – Serial blasts in Ahmedabad on Saturday

As I am writing this, the news has come that Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) has seized another explosive material and the carrier of this material, Maruti Wagon-R, from Surat. One theory is also moving around that the strategy of the terrorists was to double the number of blasts in consecutive three days. That means, in Bangalore the number of blasts was 9, in Ahmedabad, it was 18; and in Surat the number was supposed to be 36. Horrifying…!!!

Hats off to our police and the ATS team for preventing another mind-boggling incident happening!

Also we need to thank the News Channels for their unstopped coverage of the incidents in Ahmedabad, and Bangalore. Just one thing which is irritating me is that the news channels are blaming the Police and the Jawans for not being proactive. I think this is not the time to find scapegoats. We should not blame our Jawans when they are working day and night for the citizens of the two cities, because they are ultimately the toys for our politicians to play with…! We should rather encourage them and not demoralize.

Also hats off to the people of Ahmedabad for taking the terror attacks with positive mind frame and courage, and showing the all famous never-say-die fighting spirit…!

If anybody is to be blamed, it should be our ill-willed contaminated politicians of this country. You know what? The other countries in the world are thinking of us as an impotent country and laughing their heart out to us! They think that India is just an elephant with loads of fat (here population), but don’t possess the killer instinct…! Whenever any such incident takes place anywhere in the nation, our politicians will start the same old recorded tap, “This is a very horrible act of terror…the investigations are going on…whosoever is behind this will not be forgiven…we will take harsh actions against them…blah…blah...!” This has been the standard response of all those bullshit f**king politicians. I am sorry I am using such offensive language, but keep your hand on your heart and tell me. Don’t you feel like shooting all these politicians to death at one stroke? My anger may be a result of my young blood. But can we tolerate what we recently saw in Parliament (the vote-for-money scam), the entire stage-show? If they can sell their soul and morale for money, they can sell anything, including our motherland, India. After each attack, we always have seen them holding high-voltage meetings which have turned out to be fruitless. So, if anybody has to be blamed, they are our politicians and nobody else. I think we as young India will have to take up the responsibility and initiative. We need to be in Police & Army, we need to be IAS officers, and we need to take active part in the Indian politics. One may ask what the hell then I am/we are doing in MBA. My answer to them is that we MBAs are serving/will serve the nation in our own way. We will take forward the brand India, and the India Inc ahead in the world. We are the intellect lot of the young India. I know I have gone off the track, but this was my fury and antagonism which needed to come out…

At the end, we collectively pray to God for people who died in this act against humanity and mankind. May their soul rest in peace and May God give courage to the relatives and families of the victims to bare the loss...!

So, this is the account of what happened in Ahmedabad on Black Saturday and what I believe about the happenings. If anybody has something else to share, please write your views on the subject in terms of comments. Show your love and respect for your motherland...!!! And yes, don't forget to give your opinion to the above mentioned question...! Yes, there at the top...!

Keep sending in your raves and rages as always. See you in the next post. Till then, live and lead a safe and happy life.

Asta-la-vista, friends!

Hi friends,

I am back again…! How are you all? We have entered the third semester very quietly and quite surprisingly, the result of second semester is out! And that too, so suddenly! Of course, there has been mixed reactions about the results. Not commenting on results any more, the college has reopened. But…we don’t feel fresh, do we? It’s so boring these days. No fun. No excitement. We probably need a break. At least, I need it desperately. But, can anybody help it? It’s fine, yaar. It happens. Now, let’s talk something serious today.

We know why we have joined MBA, right? I know what all bullshit things we have cited in our GD-PI sessions of GCET. Basically, we want money. Loads of it…! We are not all billionaires. We have not seen lakhs and crores of rupees floating around us. We want money! Fine! How do we get that is what matters the most. The easiest way to earn this money that we have found in life and that falls in our comfort zone is…join a good MBA course in some reputed institute! One may think why I am talking about all these at this moment. The reason is that the placement season will start soon! You know, across the world, there are only three seasons! But for us, the MBA grads, there is one more season called the placement season. And there will be loads of companies coming in and offering all sort of fancy packages. It will be like a Swayamwar for us. We decide which company we want to choose and not the other way around.

My point starts hereon. Till now, we have taken a conventional stand on these normal proceedings. Can we have a closer look at it, now? The issue is not as simple as it seems. This is a very complicated phase of our life wherein we decide which way we want to mould our careers and subsequently our lives. I have two questions to pose in front of you: - (1) Do we only need money, or also need some feeling of achievement/growth? (2) Should we opt for job or become an entrepreneur? If we decide to become an entrepreneur, what is the right time?

As far as the first point is concerned, I totally agree that in the initial phase of our career, we do need money. But what about the later part of life? Or, at least after some three-four years…! For the time being, let’s think we have started earning money. Enough of money! What next? We again need something interesting in life. A human mind always needs to grow from its existing position. If it doesn’t grow, it feels suffocated. It needs to come out of status quo. We always need to move on in life. So, after some time, there comes a stage when a person wants some sense of growth/achievement. We want to grow in life. We want to move further. We want to climb up the hierarchy. So, money doesn’t always motivate.

The first point was o.k. Moving on to the second point, there can be some of the wildest debates of all. There are advocates of both, employment and entrepreneurship. I leave the first question to you whether you want to take up employment or you want to be an entrepreneur. You have to decide what you want to do. Both have their own pros and cons.

But, if you want to become an entrepreneur, you will have hundreds and thousands of problems in your way. You won’t have a product. You won’t have any office. You won’t have customers. You won’t have investors. You won’t have employees. You won’t have systems and processes in place. You won’t have equipments. You will have to create a brand of your own. You will have to create your credentials in the market. The only thing you will have is…COURAGE! This is not to scare anybody. This is what is called ‘thinking on rational grounds’. Because of many such reasons, many of us don’t want to take a tough call in life. Fine! Even I am not sure what I want to do after completing my degree.

Now, think for a while, you are planning to start up your own venture. Then, the question of choosing the right time arises. One way is that you take some experience in the industry and then start you own business. I know that many of us have thought of doing this. Even our professors tell this to us. The other way is that you start it right from the beginning just after passing out from your institute. Both things have its own pros and cons. If you, first of all, want to take some experience, you will of course have benefits. You will know the nitty-gritty of the business. You will have a better idea of market. You will know who your probable customers will be. You will know how to put the systems and processes in place. You will know from where to get the business. All these things can work positively and prove fruitful. But when you decide that you want to do business now, the time may have gone! Just imagine that you are now married. You have your school-going kids. That is a huge responsibility, isn’t it? Till now, you were getting a fixed amount every month. You have your plans in place. You have settled your investments plans, home loan installments, car loan installments, insurance premiums, school fees of your children, etc. in accordance with your regular Pay-Cheques. Now if you have to start your own venture, you will have to devote your full time to it. You will stop getting your regular payments. You will have your entire schedule of things messed up. Remember, you have a huge responsibility of your family. This is the time, you can’t afford to lose, damn it! You lose and you are out. You don’t have a second chance to prove yourself. You have family pressure and thousands of other sabotages. You are not allowed to lose! Otherwise, you will have to start again from the scratch. You will suffer. Your family will suffer. One has to give a serious thought to it.

Now, what if you have to start you business from the beginning? The problems will be the same as mentioned above. But the major benefit will be that you will have time to rectify your mistakes. You will have time to own up your mistakes and start again. Because then you won’t have much of responsibility. More importantly, you will learn from the process. And this learning is the most crucial of all. Because, once you’ve leant the lesson, you won’t commit the same mistake again. In the first case, even if you have learnt your lessons, you won’t have time to put your learning in to practice.

Choice is yours. I chose this subject this time because I have heard many people saying that they will start their venture after getting some experience. I am of the opinion that if one has to start his own business, the right time is to start it right from the beginning. If you have the courage and the right mindset To Do It, everything else will follow. Be it investment, customer, employees or anything else for that matter. As far as experience is concerned, it will come with learning, failure, success and the passage of time. As mentioned above, the placement season will start soon…! Give it a thought as soon as possible, guys…!!!

Before signing off, let me tell you that this is what I believe. If you have some other opinion to share, do tell me by posting your comments and letting the world know about it.

Keep sending in your raves and rags. See you in my next post. Till then, live and lead a successful life…

Asta-la-vista, friends!

Hi friends,

Hope this post finds you in best of your soul and mind! It is raining outside heavily, as I write this post. And I am enjoying the mausam to its fullest. Hope you too do. By the way, you enjoyed reading about the life story of Steve Jobs of Apple Corporation, didn’t you? This time I am back with something about which I should have written some time back. Ever thought, why do people blog? It is actually a psychological process, wherein your latent desires to have your own space in this ‘crowded’ world is satisfied! You can do whatever you wish in your this world in which people come and share their views.

Is there any specific reason, why people write blogs? There are numerous blogs on the internet. People write and like the blogs of different kind, variety and tastes. There are blogs on history, music, movies, geography, architecture, marriage, love, automobiles, cell phones, property, marketing, engineering, finance, nature, human body, psychology, computers, gadgets, and lots more. You name it and you have it on the ‘blogosphere’. What drives a person to indulge into such an activity which is not so important in life?

Wait a while! Take a closer look at it!

There are various reasons for which people resort to blogging. Whether you read a blog or you write a blog, you are a blogger. There are various websites which provide you the valuable online space for your own sake! Blogs are not newspapers. Blogs are not magazines. Blogs are not somebody else’s opinions. The blog is completely your own space and your own world. Here, there is no compulsion on you to believe what other people believe or think or write. You are your own king. You write it out your own way. There is no body to stop you. If other people like your blog, they will comment on it. One can have an online discussion forum in the face of blogs.

In India, though, the blogs are not much popular. Around the world, the blogs are more famous among the youngsters. A lot can be done over a blog. People discuss various issues related to their life and the society. People discuss their tastes and preferences. I have seen instances wherein people discuss upcoming movies or some music albums online. People discuss some upcoming automobile model, or gadgets or computer operating systems. I tell you the latest trend. For example, earlier, the companies used to take the traditional route for reaching out to people. They used to do a survey or some research for knowing whether their new offerings will work in the market or not. If the results are preferable, they will go on and do a pilot study by selecting a few selected target segments. Now what happens is that the companies don’t indulge into such tedious and expensive activities. They just open up blog and invite people to discuss their tastes and preferences over it. This will give the companies some of the essential insights as to how to position their products and services to people. This activity is prominent in the music industry in India. Before launching an album, the music companies select a focus group on blogs and try to know their opinions about the albums. This will give them a hint as to what the population will think if the sample thinks in certain ways. So the blogs have their commercial uses also.

People also resort to blogging when they want to tell somebody about what is happening in their lives. Some people love to discuss their lives in public. Some don’t. I have seen people discussing their views about some issues concerning the society or the nation as a whole. For instance, people talk and discuss about the ongoing nuclear deal controversy in the nation. People also discuss stock market and the stock indices on blogs. I have seen people discussing inflation, population, poverty, living standard, nutrition, war, etc. on blogs. We know all these issues concern the society very much. One may ask that mere discussing is not the solution to any problem. I completely agree. But the discussion may lead to some sensible solution. Mostly, the blogging activity is the hobby of youngsters. So we can come to know what other youngsters, like us, think on some point.

One may ask why I selected such a topic for this article (post). But I wanted people to be aware of what is going on in the world. We as MBA grads should know new and innovative ways of communicating with people. For instance, earlier the chatting was considered as a nuisance at the work place. But today, many corporate meetings are conducted on chats and online conference rooms. As people don’t have time and the geographical distances becoming immaterial due to telecommunication tools, people prefer such new ways of communicating. By the way, as the cliché goes, every coin has two sides. While on one hand the blogs contain mature and sensible things, they also contain pornography and other adult material. But as sensible adults, we know what is best suited to our taste, don’t we? The choice is up to us. And why people like porn and adult material is another issue which needs a completely different elaborative article as it requires a totally unorthodox and unconventional point of view to deal with.

That’s it! This is what I wanted to write as of now. Hope you enjoyed reading this and got something new to know.

See you again in my new post. Till then, live and lead a happy and successful life!

Asta-la-vista, friends!

Hi friends,

Huhh…! I got at least some time out of a very hectic schedule after a long time…! Actually, I promised you people that I’ll write regularly on the blog, but, you know, it is very difficult to take time out of the series of events for your favorite activities. Recently the news has come that the iPhone has finally arrived in India, much easier, through the Vodafone route. Masha-allah…! What a phone! It is a kind of phone that is made, not of plastic or mettle, but of three and a half inches scratchproof bright optical glass. That means that the entire phone is a screen, wherein there is practically only one button for switching the phone on and off…! Along with the key-pad, everything is touch screen! The phone recognizes only the finger! The dimensions of the wallpaper changes automatically as you move the phone up and down, right and left!

Let us stop our talk on the iPhone, because we have to talk about something different today. No! I am not going to talk about i-Pod, Macintosh computers, iMac, iBook or even the Apple Corporation. I have to talk about the wide vision which was behind the creation of one of the 100 greatest companies of the world. We have to talk about Mr. Steve jobs, the creator of Apple Corporation, and his roller coaster ride like life. We have to talk about his phoenix like encounters with his life from top to bottom and from bottom to again top. We want to talk about Steve’s apple!

In 1984, an advertisement was very famous among the American youth in which a Big Brother is shown to be taking in trap the huge bunch of people and everyone was trying to get free of him. Suddenly, a young man in vibrant colorful clothes comes in the scene and helps the mob get free. The Big Brother was symbolic to another great company, called IBM. And the young guy was symbolic to the new company Apple Corporations. At the end of the ad, there comes the slogan, Think Different. That was the time when the IBM was the largest company in the computing industry. Desktop P.C.s were not as popular as they are today. The laptops were not even in the offing. Mobile phones were like fantasy films. Other IT products were the businesses of losing money. IBM was manufacturing huge dabba-like machines which were out of common men’s understanding. And it was still two decades to go for even conceiving the Intel Core 2D processors!

In 1984, a young scientist called Steve Jobs launched the Macintosh series which were quite user-friendly. This young and extremely intelligent twenty nine something guy was having the dreams of making the computers which were not like huge vessels for storing wheat and rice, but like the gorgeous girls of the swimsuit round of a beauty pageant…! At that time, he used to get the clerical job of writing the softwares done though some other company. This company, which was working under Apple, was… Microsoft! And the man in whom Steve had a lot of confidence and gave him a lot of work was none other than Bill Gates!

Steve got huge success in launching the Macintosh. People accepted the offering with both hands. However, Steve was very much ethical from toe to head. He was a man or pure hearts. He believed that the world can be conquered only through your mind and intelligence and not through malpractices in business. So he always believed in giving the best products to customers.

Meanwhile, Apple was getting bigger and Steve needed some professional people to run the business. So he roped in forty eight something Mr. John Schooly of PepsiCo in 1985 to run Apple. Now he wanted to conquer new avenues and new markets of world. He wanted to see his company at the top of all the business magazine surveys. He wanted the car of the growth to run faster and faster. But…but…but…! The car ran faster, and the driver was thrown out of his own car…!

The new CEO, Mr. Schooly, was not happy with his young boss’ unconventional style of running the business. He disliked Steve’s management practices and his ‘mindless’ ideas. He played a boardroom game, exactly like an Ekta Kapoor soap opera. In the very crucial board meeting, all the directors of the company voted against the founder director and creator of the Macintosh product, Mr. Steve Jobs, to drive him out of his own company…! Steve was shown the doors of the company which he himself created and led to the top! The directors believed that Steve was very much purist and idealistic. His ideas would work only in the laboratories, and not in the market. Steve did not know the ‘wise’ business practices. He always insisted on newer innovations and newer technological advancements, rather than business profits. Probably his ideas were dangerous for the future of Apple!

More than shocked with the series of events happening in his life, Steve said, “It sucked my whole youth!” He, later on added, “At 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone and it was devastating. I really did not know what to do next. I felt like I had let down the entire generation of entrepreneurs.” It was like the game of snake and ladder. Just think for a while, how you or I will feel if we get failure after reaching at the top. When you reach your manzill, suddenly someone comes in and pushes you only to drop you again on ground zero…! The half of your life’s perseverance is sunk. You have to recite the entire alphabet again! Later on Steve himself said that getting out of his company was actually a blessing in disguise for him, because he could shed all the burden of responsibilities of being successful from his shoulders and could start his innovations again.

The Mr. Nobody, Steve, started again once he was out of his super rich, super successful period. After three years, he founded a new company, ‘Next’. He launched Next Cube. It was an extremely powerful and much expensive machine at that time and probably, an offering to an immature market. It failed miserably. Then Steve and his company, Next, moved to the making of softwares and operating systems. His money and property were not with him, but his creative mind was. He showed an interest in George Lucas’ company, the Pixar Animations. George Lucas is considered the father of modern special effects in the films. Lucas was not interested in Pixar, so Steve took charge of the company in 1986. He entered into a contract with Disney in 1990. Pixar made the animations and Disney did the marketing and distribution of the animation films. Steve could read the future five years ahead. In 1995, the ‘Toy Story’ proved to be the huge success in Hollywood and Pixar never looked back.

But now this Steve was not the Steve of 1080s. He gradually became Zen Buddhist. Meanwhile, he saw Bill Gates climbing the success ladder with sheer business techniques and not with orthodox ideologies. By the way, the flagship product of Microsoft, the Windows operation system, is nothing but an adaptation of the ideas of Steve’s Macintosh computer. Bill Gates proves to be an extremely practically businessman who along with working for Apple also copied the technologies of Apple Macintosh!

Oh! You would ask what happened to Apple after Steve’s exit! Imagine a body without its soul! This is no exaggeration. After leaving its soul, the company instead of running, started crawling. Without Steve, the entire computer business in the world changed in the decade of 90s. Nobody could match the steps with the changing times. Apple Corporation was about to announce bankruptcy and it was about to become insolvent.

At that time, the then Apple’ boss, Mr. Gil Emilio took an unprecedented decision. He decided to buy a new operating system for the Mac computers. And the best and advanced operating systems were made by only one company in the vicinity, and that was Steve Jobs’ company, ‘Next’…! As per the contract between the Apple and the Next, Steve re-entered his own company after 12 years….! And that too, just for a salary of $ 1 a year…! But this time the new Steve was different from what he used to be back in 1980s. This Steve came with a lot of learning from life. Now it was his turn to stage the boardroom drama. In 1997, in the board meeting Steve once again was elected the CEO of the Apple Corporation. The new all-powered Steve created ‘Ometra’, the contract; wherein all the employees were made to agree to the term that the boss’ decision is final in any matter! Steve had already tasted the fruits of being the ‘ideologist’. Now he was a shrewd businessman, with a lot of practical mind setup. He knew that Apple did not have enough funds to carry out its research projects. So he played one big master stroke. He invited none other than, Mr. Bill Gates to invest in Apple…! Bill Gates was more than ready to invest in Apple, because the person, who copied the technologies of Steve, had to have the greatest trust in his capabilities! Apple was now on track again.

Steve was still purist and idealistic as far as the technological innovations and the aesthetic looks are concerned. He made the new ‘OSX’ operating system, which was a huge success in the market (In OSX, we already have different versions like, Chitah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger. Recently we have seen the successful launch of its Leopard version in 2007). Steve also launched the transparent computers in the market for the first time in the name of iMac. Then, we got the super finely designed, iBook laptop from Apple. In 2001, Steve made portable digital music player called, the iPode. Steve always considered the Windows operating System an inferior product as compared to the Macintosh products (which to a large extent is even true). He always called Windows as ‘Working in Hell’. But this Steve was ready to compromise with his beliefs for the success of his company. He, eventually, started making the Windows enabled Macintosh computers. The unimaginable success of iPode literally scrambled the pillars of world music industry! Just two years ago, he sold out his animation studio Pixar to Disney and in return, got the life-time directorship on the Disney’s board.

Steve re-entered Apple by playing the gimmick of taking a salary of $ 1 per year. But he, after getting into his company again, proved very influential and last year he was the highest-paid CEO of America! But amidst such an entire scenario, the time and life struggles had taken their toll on Steve’s health. He was diagnosed with Pancreas cancer. He fought with his cancer also and came back victoriously.

He sensed that the mobiles with music player were giving tough competition to his iPode. So, he decided to enter an entirely new market segment for Apple, the mobile market. And the result is in front of us…! The iPhone…!

Apple’s creativity has got a support in the face of a ruthless, hardcore, practical businessman. The Apple Corporation, today, is valued at more than $120 billion. Bill Gates has failed to proceed further from Windows. And Steve, with his mind power, has gifted us with some of the greatest innovations of our time. When the ever struggling and always winning Steve recently, in a function, told Bill Gates that ‘we have more past moments to cherish than deciding on the future road map’, everybody around could easily see tears in the eyes of both long time friends! He gave a very emotional, touching and quite inspiring speech to management students on their Commencement in the Stanford University in 2005.

This life story is much more exciting than watching a fantasy film, isn’t it? The story is of a young man getting all the glitz and glories in his heydays, losing everything because of dirty corporate games, and again through his own intelligence, coming back to the top! The story can inspire anybody who really wants to do something eventful in his/her life.

So, see you guys very soon in my next post again with some more exciting baatein…!

Till then, live and lead a successful life…

Asta-la-vista-babe!

Hi friends and Me,

This is my first ever entry into my blog after I created it a couple of days ago.

I probably don't know who r the people except my dear friends who would be interested in my writings, but this is perhaps for my own pleasure......

By the way, I am doing MBA and this is the time actually for my summers internship.

A lot of my friends are doing their summer internships at various prestigious organizations, like Torrent, Zydus Cadilla, Tata Chemicals, ICICI Prudentials, Barclays, SBI etc. However, I am doing it at a relatively less known company called, Dexter Consulting and Management Services.

But there is one thing for which my friends feel jealous about my SIP (Summer Internship Program, dude !) and that is, the kind of work I am getting over there. There I have complete freedom and flexibility of work. I am getting a complete control over my work. For example, I recently completed my project on DTH services, of which I was the supervisor of a team. I have with me my collegemates, Vishesh and Shachi, who were also the supervisors of their respective teams. We all were guiding the teams as to how to execute their work effectively. Moreover, I am learning some useful management learnings, such as team-building, team-handling, operations planning, leadership, etc. which are difficult to master when you are engaged with your class room sessions. (However, leadership is not my quality or strength, but my hobby........ dare i say that !!!!)

Enough about myself...!!! Actually I have not created this blog just for writing about myself. I want to use this platform for discussing some issues that may be relating to all our lives and we may be concerned about them, but have not given them a thought. So more to come in days to follow....... picture abhi baki hai mere dost......

Keep sending me your raves and rages....

Till then see you again in my next post... Live and let people live a good life....

asta-la-vista-babe....!!!