Kiran Naik

I became ready at 9.15 PM. Decided I will take Pulsar to Electronic city office. Yesterday night was a heavy rain in Bangalore. It rained all over night. Afetr a 500 metres drive, suddenly lady in TVS scooty turned rightside and stopped. I was behind her and suddenly appiled brake. Somehow pulsar did not stopped as expected. It was bit shaky. I thought its because of the hsudden brake. As I moved on to hotel for breakfast, drive was not comfortable. Had breakfast in Bansahankari new SLV and decided I will go by bus. Came back home, parked Pulsar. Waited for Volvo 600 or any 500 bus towards HSR layout.

After 15 minutes, got one BIA bus towards HSR layout. As I settled down, it was horrible traffic in BTM layout today. It took 45 minutes to reach HSR layout. From Banashankari, bus was crowded and no place to stand. The same waiting situation when I reached Silkborad to move to Electronic city. No buses at all. One provate bus came, I got into it. Ravichandran movie was on with a huge noise of speakers. Though movie was not so good, I started watching. By the time bus reached Electronic city, it took 30 minutes. In the scorching heat, I reached office. I am still settling down and sweating a lot. I have no effect of AC.

Hope I would reach quickly and safely to home today evening.

18th Night: Bangalore to Ranebennur by Rajahansa
I and Narayan booked the Rajahansa from Bangalore to Ranebennur for 10.30 PM bus. Plan was that I will get down at Ranebennur and Narayan would proceed in the same bus to Hubli. In his and my home, no one was there and we had dinner at Uttara Karnataka Rotti Angdai, near my home. By the time we left, it was 10 PM. As usual, we sreached for 15 minutes for great auto drivers to drop us to Majestic. Some autos did not even bother to look at us, some drivers asked where to go and with great typical autowala style, went in their own way. Atlast we got auto without meter. Fixed price after 10 pm:):).

Bus left majestic at 11 PM and bus was horrible. There were no curtains, seat was making some sort of noise. I and Narayan thought this is expected in Rajahansa. There were collegue stidents, who were enjoying the gossips, lot of noise in bus. Later they understood that it 11.30 PM and it was silent. I was tired and had a bit of sleep till 3 AM. Driver stopped for a cup of tea. I and Narayan had tea and then Narayan told, he did not got the sleep at alll. When asked why, he said: It was horrible experience. It started raining heavily.
I said: So what??? let it rain.
Narayan: Actually due to rain, water was coming inside from the top and whenever driver appiles the brake, water used to pour on the head. My bedsheet and dress has become wet and no way, I can sleep. Whole night, I was thinking, when driver would apply the brake and water would pour on me.

Apart form it, cool air was flowing inside all the time as window is not proper. He cannot close the window properly.

I was in so much sleepy and afetr tea, when I came and saw the bedsheet, I relaised, indeed it was horrible experience. Bedsheet has become completely wet and even his shirt. From Chitradurga to Ranebennur, we shuffled the seats and some how we adjusted and reached Ranebennur.

This is the most common experiece faced by the people who tarvel in KSRTC. I know, in red dabba bus (karnataka Sarige), exerience would be even horrible. Not sure, when KSRTC would improve their service except for Airavath – volvo service. I have travelled many times and its great. He gives bedsheet, water bottle and wet tissue. KSRTC Volvo service is great compared to the private buses like VRL, Kamat and others. Normal KSRTC bus is horrible and we are lucky to reach the destination on time.

Twitter users can now initiate a two-way voice chat with other users by typing “@call @username”–where “username” is someone’s Twitter ID–into any Twitter client. A new third-party offering from Jajah known as Jajah@call is expected to go into beta Thursday morning. During the beta period, the company said, the calls will be limited to two minutes, but the company will evaluate that length during beta. However, it sees the two minute period–after which the call will end–as “the verbal equivalent of a tweet”.

According to Jajah, an Internet communications provider with tens of millions of users, the service will allow a user to place a call to any other user, so long as the second person follows the first on Twitter and both have Jajah accounts. The service is free to use and is expected to work on any Twitter-enabled device, from PCs to smart phones.

One important element of the service is that users can keep their phone numbers private, yet be able to have voice chats with just about anyone on Twitter. To be sure, since the calls are initiated by one person, the recipient may well not be online, or may choose to ignore the call if they don’t want to talk.

There are currently several applications that allow users to create voice-to-text Twitter posts–known as tweets–but it does not appear that anyone has yet made it possible to initiate voice communications directly between Twitter users.

Coming on the heels of the announcement earlier this week that Facebook users will now be able to communicate with each other via voice–using a third-party application from Vivox–it’s clear that there is a strong interest, among service providers, at least, in taking leading social networks beyond strictly text communications. Whether large numbers of users choose to get on board is unknown at this point, of course. And given that neither the Facebook nor the Twitter voice services are being provided by the social networks themselves means that some users will choose not to get involved for fear of privacy, stability or other concerns.

Still, if these third-party services end up being successful, it would be natural to expect that Facebook and Twitter may decide they need to step up and directly embed such technologies into their offerings. And there is a precedent for such a move. After Vivox began offering Second Life users a third-party voice solution, the virtual world’s publisher, Linden Lab, decided it needed to take advantage of the technology. Today, thanks to a formal partnership, Vivox’s voice service is formally integrated into Second Life.

And while it may be some time before such a thing happens with either Facebook or Twitter, or any other major social network, one would have to think that it’s only a matter of time.

Courtesy: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-343824.html?tag=nl.e539

It has been two months, my friend Praveen has asked me to look for some old age homes in Hubli Dharwad. I have been procastinating it. Today I thought, let me look at some major sites and get the information. I googled for 2-3 hours, unfortunately, I could not found anything in the internet for hubli-dharwad region.
Pravee, I feel sorry, I could not complete your long pending work :(

I did my AOL(Art Of Living) basic course last year. I would like to share my memorable experience of the basic course part 1. Earlier I was bit reluctant to join the course. It was Deepak who motivated me to join. Whenever we are discussing I used to argue, Baba Ramdev is great as he teaches course free and very effective. It is absolutely true and no second thought.

I enrolled for the course here in ISRO layout/Kumarswamy layout center.  First day was as usual basic exercise and some basics of what the course is. I knew and heard a lot about Sudarshan Kriya by Guruji. I was eager to know what exactly it is. Thanks to our teacher who made the course very lively and interactive. After the Sudarshan Kriya, I was overwhelmed. The experience/feeling after Sudarshan Kriya is really wonderful. I felt so light and tension free. I knew it was good but did not realize its great until I experienced. Its a amazing experience. After this, I have been practicing it but not very regular. From last month, I have become regular. I started to feel myself good after doing Sudarshan Kriya.

I feel baba Ramdev technique is more on the physical level to begin with. By practicing for some time, you feel how effective it is and it relaxes the mind. I think; both (Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Sri Ravishankar) are different experiences to begin with and would lead to same knowledge ultimately. Sudarshan Kriya is more like a quick stuff and immediately relaxes the mind. Our AOL Teacher used to say “After Sudarshan Kriya, meditation needs to be done. That’s a entirely different experience you get”

These days, I am following Art of Living(AOL) activities. Mainly inspired by Guruji’s teachings and Deepak. By seeing all these AOL activities, my wife decided to finish her long pending activity. She decided to complete the AOL Basic course beginning from Tuesday August 11 2009. With no other choice:), I agreed to drop her to the center. As the AOL center is around 6 KM from Banashankari, I thought there is no point in dropping and again come back to pick up back. I decided I will also join the course as a repeater. As I have done my course last year.

I know so many people who have done the repetition of the course. This is actually on of the great things about the course and from second time onwards its free of cost (FOC). (Thats what was my thinking and thought I can give guru daskshina:)). I contacted another SRI SRI (Deepak) and he told it can be done any number of times. He contacted the center staff and he told me that you have to pay some amount of Guru Daskhina. I agreed. Later to my surprise, Deepak informed me that now they have made it as a fixed amount for repeater. It is 500 Rs. I agreed.

As usual on Tuesday, first day I attended the basic part 1 course and as usual it was amazing. I came early from office, picked up my wife on the way. After the course, volunteer called me up and said, you have to pay 1000 Rs. I said, I have already done my AOL basic course here last year. She said, Yes I know but Teacher told that yours is considered as first time. So you have to pay full course amount. You discontinued last time. I am stunned. When I asked teacher, he said “Yes. Yours is discontinued last time. As you have not come to the course at the last day of the course”. 

Actually I did not went last day of the course because of personal emergency. I had informed my teacher a day before. He said, ok try to make it and it is really very good. I had said “I would not be able to make it”.  It was a embarrassing situation. I had no choice. Either do the course as a first time class or drop the course. But I felt really bad and frustrated. I was thinking AOL and SRI SRI SRI Ravishankarji (Guruji) teaches lot of things about human values, making the world a better place. But what actually is happening now? The people and the teacher, whom I know and still these statements made me feel bad. I am sorry, I am not talking about here is the money and the fees. Its about the values, trust and confidence. SRI SRI SRI is a guruji and an incarnation in this era and but along the way, his values and teachings are somewhere are not followed properly. I decided, I would not go for the course.

It does not mean, I am against AOL and basic course. I really love the course. It has made the transformation in my life. The course is really amazing. Now I am thinking about the quotes which read as  “Anger always comes from frustrated expectations”

“Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting a bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian”

Here is one from Elbert Hubbard “Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation”

Jai Gurudev, give me the strength to not to have expectation.

Jai Gurudev!!!! Its been my first time visit to Art of Living(AOL) ashram at kanakapur road, Bangalore for Rudra puja, early morning today. I am blessed to see the Rudra Puja on the beautiful Monday Morning. During the month of Shravana, incidentally it is the first Sharvana somavara (First monay of Shravana maasa; considered as holy day). Brother Deepak(He is another Sri Sri – I would update this in separate post) , my mother and Anil (Friend and Devotee of AOL) left home at 7.10 AM and reached ashram at 7.30. By the grace of Guruji, Pooja was not yet started. All were waiting for Gurujis arrival. We went inside Vishalakshi mantapa ( a huge and must visit place of lifetime). I am surprised to see the huge Vishalakshi mantapa is filled with devotees. All are waiting for Gurujis darshan and Rudra pooja. Deepak made sure that, we get a nearby place to sit in front of Puja(pooja) Mandir.

As I entered into the Vishalakshi mantapa, I felt so different in myself. I felt I reached my home and as I settled down, I started  to mediate. Devotees who were standing started to come inside and everybody knew its none other than our Guruji is coming. As he entered into the mantapa, I felt more energetic and got the feeling that someone is so close to me has arrived. His arrival made me more comfortable(It was like, when you were alone and suddenly your very close friend had come to meet you), I felt very much contented in myself. His arrival made the whole positive vibrations and I was in Joy.

Guruji sat down to perform Rudra puja with as usual smiling face. By seeing him, all my Monday anxieties to go to office, thinking of this work to do, that work to do.. all got vanished. I felt happy. Seeing Guruji perform Rudra puja is like Shiva is doing the puja of another Shiva. One god worshipping another God… Really I am fortunate and blessed to see the Puja. Its all the grace of Guruji that made my day. As I am writing this post, I am not thinking of anything else other than Guruji. Guruji, please give the strength that I do not miss the rudra pooja every week. Every Monday Rudra Puja will be performed.

Guruji, Thank you very much for the opportunity to see you (H. H. Sri Sri Ravishankarji). I am blessed and I only have to say Jai Gurudev!!!!

I was reading articles and found interesting. This is a must video for small website owners, who are looking for advertisers or sponsors to reach the targeted audience. This video gives insight how CEO, VP’s look at small website segment.

What can small companies and start-ups without huge audience numbers do to earn money from their Web sites? At the Revenue Bootcamp Conference in Mountain View, Calif., panelists discuss pay-per-click ads, and why they might not be the best model for small companies. Rather, they say, finding a single sponsor or targeting a more specific audience could be a better strategy. Panelists include: Neil Chase, vice president of Author Services at Federated Media; Samir Arora, chairman and CEO of Glam Media; and David Kopp, senior director of North American ads at Yahoo. Moderator: Bill Reichert, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures.

Its a great news for all IT professionals, software entrepreneurs in India. It would have been fantastic, if he visits Bangalore. Bill Gates will be visiting India on Friday 24th July 2009.  Agenda is to inaugurate the fifth year anniversary celebrations of the Microsoft Research Centre and also to attend a symposium on "Research and Innovation – The Keys to India’s Future". The chief guest of the day will be the Indian Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal.
Mr. Bill Gates will also participate in a panel discussion at the event. Other members of the discussion panel include the Indian Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Mr. Prithviraj Chavan, Co – founder of Infosys, Mr. N. R. Narayana Murthy, IIT Madras Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala and the Managing Director of Microsoft Research India, Dr. P. Anandan.
He will also speak at a CEO forum hosted by NASSCOM and will make an announcement for the Gates Foundation with the Indian Ministry of Health. More details can be obtained from MSN site…

http://specials.msn.co.in/sp09/billgates/

Friday 17th June 2009 is a good day for my I10. After one and half years, I got the speaker to fix in my car. Thanks to Rajeev for taking the initiative and booking the alpine. I was bit hesitant to buy the speaker. One of the reason so many days, I am used to drive the car without the music system.  Rajeev made so much research and booked the system immediately.

Sunday, was a fantastic day. We got speakers fitted to my I10. I was looking for JBL. I went along with my friend Pradeep. Many of friends have JBL, one has altensic. I was roaming around in J.C. Road, M.G. Road, Lavelle road and Koramangala in Bangalore for the best deals for my car… I went to JBL dealer. The price quoted was good.. There were other speakers of Sony, Mercury and Polk. Somehow we got interested in polk. There were two series (MOMO and DBS). Both seems to be good and excellent finish and heavy weight.  We finalized the deal and dealer made sure, we got the our I10 back in 2 hours with all alpine system and polk speakers fixed.

All the time, I am with music in car now and feels like I got my dreams back. I am really enjoying the great music and its truly wonderful.

Thanks to Pradeep for making the best deal and making sure speaker selected is great quality. Ofcourse he has been very fascinated in technology, gadgets and motors. He is the key person to select I10 for me.