Convicted Atlas.....

Hey!!! Sorry for the delay, but was really caught up in loads of work last few weeks!! Have got our appraisals and even bigger targets this year!! Okkk...lets come back to our topic!! 'Convicted atlas'...don’t take it other ways, just attended by MBA convocation last month!!
WOW...What a feeling....wearing the black robe and that funny cap!! Once in a life time experience...... and to top it all Best team player award!!
In a way a very happy and sad moment.... Happy coz we finally became MBAs and sad coz this was perhaps the last time the complete gang was meeting at one place at one time.....donno if there will ever come a chance where 180 of us will be present together...but that’s life!!
All the clapping and cheering for friends, receiving awards, taking photographs, embracing each other, exchanging business cards, talking about all the moments we shared together......got a bit too nostalgic in the end.....
The 3 day trip to Pune was one of my best!!! Aint going to forget it for a long long time.......

Indore Trip- April 07

Wow!! What a year this has been. 4 Months and 4 trips!! Lucky me....It started with Nagpur Trip in Jan followed by Delhi trip for Corporate Training, Udvada Trip in March and now Indore!! Hope my boss does not notice this :-)
This was the first time I got an opportunity to visit this amazing city.. 2 of my best friends Gaurav Vaidya and Dharminder Singh both are from Indore and had planned the complete trip. It’s thanks to them that I and Sanjeev had such a gala time.
The trip was more of an eating Spree or should I say a hogging spree for 4 of us.
Day 1: We were greeted on Indore station by Dharminders friend with garlands, flowers being thrown on us and Rasgollas to top it up!! Never had I got such a royal welcome.
From there we headed to gauravs place where we were welcomed by his folks, sister and ever so loveable Niece Riya!!
Had some amazing Poha at gauravs place and equally mouth watering Lunch.
Next Stop was Chappan (56 in Hindi) a road where there are 56 Food Shops and stalls with all indori specialties like Poha, Kachoris, Samosas, Pattis, Sabbudannas and lots more. We tried almost any and every this available on Chappan....and this was just our Evening Snack which was followed by a visit to Sharafa ( another Foodies Delight) The place opens at 9 pm and people keep flocking for mouth watering Bhutta ka kees, Gulab jamuns, Dahi wada, Jalaba(10 times the size of a normal Jalabi) By the time we finished tasting everything Sanjeev was on the verge of exploding so was I.
Day2: As usual we got up a bit late had amazing Breakfast full of fruits, Namken and of course Poha ( I guess Poha should be declared the official food Item of Indore). Next we headed to Lal Bagh. Lal Bagh is a beautiful palace on 71 Acres of land in the middle of city. The palace was made of Italian Marble with Gold plating all around. Even though photography was prohibited we did manage to get some pics. The Palace had some very amazing things like an 11.5 feet stuffed Tiger, Hand painted sealing, 100 seater dinning table and more. In the evening we visited an amazing place called Nakhrali Dhani also called as Mini Rajasthan. One would actually feel as if he is in Rajasthan after visiting the place. Puppet Show, Folk Dances, Magic Shows, Camel rides....you name it they had it!! And to top it up some amazing Rajasthani cuisines....
Day3: Last day we got a taste of some authentic Punjabi Parathas at Dharms place......

To top it up on our way back we were accompanied by some really pretty Kingfisher airhostesses!!! Can’t ask for more........

Udvada Trip

Last week I was lucky enough to visit Udvada, the holy city of Parsis. The oldest and most sacred Atash Bheram also known as Iranshah is located in Udvada. Udvada is located in Gujrat around 200 km from mumbai. Reaching Udvada is a 3 hrs journey thanks to the beautiful National Highway 8.
A small town with old bunglows and peaceful surroundings is a complete contrast from our concrete Jungle mumbai. Mostly inhabited by Parsis the town is a good getaway for mumbai Parsis during the weekend. Good accommodation facility in famous Parsi hotels like Hotel Mek, Globe and Ashishwang makes it more comfortable to visit Udvada. The mouth watering Parsi food that we get in Udvada is another magnet which pulls us Parsis over there.

But nothing comes close to the satisfaction we get from visiting the Atashbheram. The experience is unforgettable. The calmness, Serenity and feeling of being in such a sacred place washes off all our tensions and problems which we are bagged with in our daily lives.

Visiting the Atashbheram in the evenings is another spectacle. As there is no Electricity in the Atashbheram, its the oil lamps which lit up the Iranshah.
A must visit for all Parsis atleast once in a life time.....

Digital Marketing Conference 2007

It was my first opportunity to attend a Digital Marketing Summit here in Mumbai.
The summit had some very good speakers and some not so good!! But I would rate it as a good one coz all the speakers managed to keep me awake throughout the conference. That's one parameter I use to rate a conference....
Some of the key learning's I have taken from the conference are:
1. "What are the top 10 problems our country is facing? And what business or a portal can I start which will help solve one or many of these problems" - Ajit Balakrishnan, Founder & CEO Rediff.com. This point really made sense.. coz when we look at some of the biggest sites around us, they are all business which have helped solve some problem or the other. Eg Google took birth coz we needed a good search engine to find things in the vast world wide web. Naukri.com came into existence coz people needed one single place where they could search, compare and apply to lots of Jobs at a particular time.

2. The 5 I's of Internet:
a. I: I the Individual coz unlike other mediums on the Internet every thing happens as per I the Individual. I can Read what I want, I can Write what I want, I can search what I want, I can say Yes/No to what I want.
b. Infinite: The world wide web is an infinite space where we can spent infinite time.
c: Impulse: Most of the thing we do happens on impulse. We are checking our mails and we see a relevant banner and click on it impulsively.
d. Interactive: Every thing on the net is interactive. Its always a 2 way thing.
5 Information: There is tons and tons of Information available on the net.


There were lots of other things discussed which were interesting but the above mentioned 2 things left me thinking. it was all followed with the usual Cocktail and Dinner.....