A conversation between a Soldier and Software Engineer in Shatabdhi Train .........An interesting and a must read!

Vivek Pradhan was not a happy man. Even the plush comfort of the air-conditioned compartment of the Shatabdhi express could not cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project Manager and still not entitled to air travel. It was not the prestige he sought; he had tried to reason with the admin person, it was the savings in time. As PM, he had so many things to do!!

He opened his case and took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use.

"Are you from the software industry sir," the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop. Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car.

"You people have brought so much advancement to the country, Sir. Today everything is getting computerized. "

"Thanks," smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a look. He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man was young and stockily built like a sportsman. He looked simple and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury like a small town boy in a prep school. He probably was a railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass.

"You people always amaze me," the man continued, "You sit in an office and write something on a computer and it does so many big things outside."

Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naive ness demanded reasoning not anger. "It is not as simple as that my friend. It is not just a question of writing a few lines. There is a lot of process that goes behind it."

For a moment, he was tempted to explain the entire Software Development Lifecycle but restrained himself to a single statement. "It is complex, very complex."

"It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid," came the reply.

This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence crept into his so far affable, persuasive tone. "

Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in. Indians have such a narrow concept of hard work. Just because we sit in an air-conditioned office, does not mean our brows do not sweat. You exercise the muscle; we exercise the mind and believe me that is no less taxing."

He could see, he had the man where he wanted, and it was time to drive home the point.

"Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized. You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any of the hundreds of computerized booking centers across the country.

Thousands of transactions accessing a single database, at a time concurrently; data integrity, locking, data security. Do you understand the complexity in designing and coding such a system?"

The man was awestruck; quite like a child at a planetarium. This was something big and beyond his imagination.

"You design and code such things."

"I used to," Vivek paused for effect, "but now I am the Project Manager."

"Oh!" sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over,

"So your life is easy now."

This was like the last straw for Vivek. He retorted, "Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder. Responsibility only brings more work.

Design and coding! That is the easier part. Now I do not do it, but I am responsible for it and believe me, that is far more stressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest quality.

To tell you about the pressures, there is the customer at one end, always changing his requirements, the user at the other, wanting something else, and your boss, always expecting you to have finished it yesterday."

Vivek paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with self-realization. What he had said, was not merely the outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need not get angry while defending the truth.

"My friend," he concluded triumphantly, "you don't know what it is to be in the Line of Fire"

.

The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization. When he spoke after sometime, it was with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek.

"I know sir.... I know what it is to be in the Line of Fire......."

He was staring blankly, as if no passenger, no train existed, just a vast expanse of time.

"There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night.

The enemy was firing from the top.

There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom.

In the morning when we finally hoisted the tricolour at the top only 4 of us were alive."

"You are a...?"

"I am Subedar Sushant from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at Peak 4875 in Kargil. They tell me I have completed my term and can opt for a soft assignment.

But, tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes life easier.

On the dawn of that capture, one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker.

It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety. But my captain sahib refused me permission and went ahead himself.

He said that the first pledge he had taken as a Gentleman Cadet was to put the safety and welfare of the nation foremost followed by the safety and welfare of the men he commanded... ....his own personal safety came last, always and every time."

"He was killed as he shielded and brought that injured soldier into the bunker. Every morning thereafter, as we stood guard, I could see him taking all those bullets, which were actually meant for me. I know sir....I know, what it is to be in the Line of Fire."

Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of how to respond. Abruptly, he switched off the laptop.

It seemed trivial, even insulting to edit a Word document in the presence of a man for whom valor and duty was a daily part of life; valour and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epical heroes.

The train slowed down as it pulled into the station, and Subedar Sushant picked up his bags to alight.

"It was nice meeting you sir."

Vivek fumbled with the handshake.

This hand... had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger, and hoisted the tricolour. Suddenly, as if by impulse, he stood up at attention and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute.

It was the least he felt he could do for the country.

PS:- The incident he narrated during the capture of Peak 4875 is a true-life incident during the Kargil war. Capt. Batra sacrificed his life while trying to save one of the men he commanded, as victory was within sight. For this and various other acts of bravery, he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, the nation's highest military award.

As we rush through life!!!!

In Washington, DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

About 3 minutes:
The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At 45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

This experiment raised several questions:
1.In a common-place environment, at an inconvenient or inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
2.If so, do we stop to appreciate it?
3.Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

Learning: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made... how many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

LETTER FROM A GIRL TO JRD TATA!!

It was probably the April of 1974. Bangalore was getting warm and gulmohars were blooming at the IISc campus. I was the only girl in my postgraduate department and was staying at the ladies' hostel. Other girls were pursuing research in different departments of Science. I was looking forward to going abroad to complete a doctorate in computer science. I had been offered scholarships from Universities in the US... I had not thought of taking up a job in India.

One day, while on the way to my hostel from our lecture-hall complex, I saw an advertisement on the notice board. It was a standard job-requirement notice from the famous automobile company Telco (now Tata Motors)... It stated that the company required young, bright engineers, hardworking and with an excellent academic background, etc.

At the bottom was a small line: 'Lady Candidates need not apply.' I read it and was very upset. For the first time in my life I was up against gender discrimination.

Though I was not keen on taking up the job, I saw it as a challenge. I had done extremely well in academics, better than most of my male peers... Little did I know then that in real life academic excellence is not enough to be successful?

After reading the notice I went fuming to my room. I decided to inform the topmost person in Telco's management about the injustice the company was perpetrating. I got a postcard and started to write, but there was a problem: I did not know who headed Telco. I thought it must be one of the Tatas. I knew JRD Tata was the head of the Tata Group; I had seen his pictures in newspapers (actually, Sumant Moolgaokar was the company's chairman then) I took the card, addressed it to JRD and started writing. To this day I remember clearly what I wrote.

"The great Tatas have always been pioneers. They are the people who started the basic infrastructure industries in India, such as iron and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives they have cared for higher education in India since 1900 and they were responsible for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Science. Fortunately, I study there. But I am surprised how a company such as Telco is discriminating on the basis of gender."

I posted the letter and forgot about it. Less than 10 days later, I received a telegram stating that I had to appear for an interview at Telco's Pune facility at the company's expense. I was taken aback by the telegram. My hostel mate told me I should use the opportunity to go to Pune free of cost and buy them the famous Pune saris for cheap! I collected Rs30 each from everyone who wanted a sari when I look back, I feel like laughing at the reasons for my going, but back then they seemed good enough to make the trip.

It was my first visit to Pune and I immediately fell in love with the city.

To this day it remains dear to me. I feel as much at home in Pune as I do in Hubli, my hometown. The place changed my life in so many ways. As directed, I went to Telco's Pimpri office for the interview.

There were six people on the panel and I realized then that this was serious business.

'This is the girl who wrote to JRD,' I heard somebody whisper as soon as I entered the room. By then I knew for sure that I would not get the job. The realization abolished all fear from my mind, so I was rather cool while the interview was being conducted.

Even before the interview started, I reckoned the panel was biased, so I told them, rather impolitely, 'I hope this is only a technical interview.'

They were taken aback by my rudeness, and even today I am ashamed about my attitude. The panel asked me technical questions and I answered all of them.

Then an elderly gentleman with an affectionate voice told me, 'Do you know why we said lady candidates need not apply? The reason is that we have never employed any ladies on the shop floor. This is not a co-ed college; this is a factory. When it comes to academics, you are a first ranker throughout. We appreciate that, but people like you should work in research laboratories."

I was a young girl from small-town Hubli. My world had been a limited place.

I did not know the ways of large corporate houses and their difficulties, so I answered, 'But you must start somewhere, otherwise no woman will ever be able to work in your factories.'

Finally, after a long interview, I was told I had been successful. So this was what the future had in store for me. Never had I thought I would take up a job in Pune. I met a shy young man from Karnataka there, we became good friends and we got married.

It was only after joining Telco that I realized who JRD was: the uncrowned king of Indian industry. Now I was scared, but I did not get to meet him till I was transferred to Bombay. One day I had to show some reports to Mr Moolgaokar, our chairman, who we all knew as SM. I was in his office on the first floor of Bombay House (the Tata headquarters) when, suddenly JRD walked in. That was the first time I saw 'appro JRD'. Appro means 'our' in Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by which people at Bombay House called him. I was feeling very nervous, remembering my postcard episode. SM introduced me nicely, 'Jeh (that's what his close associates called him), this young woman is an engineer and that too a postgraduate.

She is the first woman to work on the Telco shop floor.' JRD looked at me. I was praying he would not ask me any questions about my interview (or the postcard that preceded it).

Thankfully, he didn't. Instead, he remarked. 'It is nice that girls are getting into engineering in our country. By the way, what is your name?'

When I joined Telco I was Sudha Kulkarni, Sir,' I replied. 'Now I am Sudha Murthy.' He smiled and kindly smile and started a discussion with SM. As for me, I almost ran out of the room.

After that I used to see JRD on and off. He was the Tata Group chairman and I was merely an engineer. There was nothing that we had in common. I was in awe of him.

One day I was waiting for Murthy, my husband, to pick me up after office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing next to me. I did not know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about that postcard. Looking back, I realize JRD had forgotten about it. It must have been a small incident for him, but not so for me.

'Young lady, why are you here?' he asked. 'Office time is over.' I said, 'Sir, I'm waiting for my husband to come and pick me up.' JRD said, 'It is getting dark and there's no one in the corridor.

I'll wait with you till your husband comes.'

I was quite used to waiting for Murthy, but having JRD waiting alongside made me extremely uncomfortable.

I was nervous. Out of the corner of my eye I looked at him. He wore a simple white pant and shirt. He was old, yet his face was glowing. There wasn't any air of superiority about him. I was thinking, 'Look at this person. He is a chairman, a well-respected man in our country and he is waiting for the sake of an ordinary employee.'

Then I saw Murthy and I rushed out. JRD called and said, 'Young lady, tell your husband never to make his wife wait again.' In 1982 I had to resign from my job at Telco. I was reluctant to go, but I really did not have a choice. I was coming down the steps of Bombay House after wrapping up my final settlement when I saw JRD coming up. He was absorbed in thought. I wanted to say goodbye to him, so I stopped. He saw me and paused.

Gently, he said, 'So what are you doing, Mrs. Kulkarni?' (That was the way he always addressed me.) 'Sir, I am leaving Telco.'

Where are you going?' he asked. 'Pune, Sir. My husband is starting a company called Infosys and I'm shifting to Pune.'

'Oh! And what will you do when you are successful.'

'Sir, I don't know whether we will be successful.' 'Never start with diffidence,' he advised me 'Always start with confidence. When you are successful you must give back to society. Society gives us so much; we must reciprocate. Wish you all the best.'

Then JRD continued walking up the stairs. I stood there for what seemed like a millennium. That was the last time I saw him alive.

Many years later I met Ratan Tata in the same Bombay House, occupying the chair JRD once did. I told him of my many sweet memories of working with Telco. Later, he wrote to me, 'It was nice hearing about Jeh from you. The sad part is that he's not alive to see you today.'

I consider JRD a great man because, despite being an extremely busy person, he valued one postcard written by a young girl seeking justice. He must have received thousands of letters everyday. He could have thrown mine away, but he didn't do that. He respected the intentions of that unknown girl, who had neither influence nor money, and gave her an opportunity in his company. He did not merely give her a job; he changed her life and mindset forever.

Close to 50 per cent of the students in today's engineering colleges are girls. And there are women on the shop floor in many industry segments. I see these changes and I think of JRD. If at all time stops and asks me what I want from life, I would say I wish JRD were alive today to see how the company we started has grown. He would have enjoyed it wholeheartedly.

My love and respect for the House of Tata remains undiminished by the passage of time. I always looked up to JRD. I saw him as a role model for his simplicity, his generosity, his kindness and the care he took of his employees. Those blue eyes always reminded me of the sky; they had the same vastness and magnificence.

(Sudha Murthy is a widely published writer and chairperson of the Infosys Foundation involved in a number of social development initiatives. Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy is her husband.)

Article sourced from: Lasting Legacies (Tata Review- Special Commemorative Issue 2004), brought out by the house of Tatas to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of JRD Tata on July 29, 2004 .

Facebook Addiction...how to get rid of it...

Facebook - with a subscriber base of approximately 500 million users, is the top social networking site in the world. It is believed that half of its users (which amounts to around 250 million people) log on to their Facebook account every single day without failing.

Facebook Addiction Statistics

The available statistics on Facebook addiction reveal that an average user spends around one hour on Facebook every day. Even though spending roughly an hour or so on Facebook doesn't really amount to addiction, the way this practice affects their actual life does amount to it. A recent study conducted by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research revealed that one-third of women in the age group of 18-34 check Facebook in the morning, even before they brush their teeth. Around 21 percent of the 1,605 surveyed for this study admitted that they wake up in the middle of the night to check Facebook. The fact that a large chunk of Facebook users belong to the 35+ age groups is no less surprising. Such is the craze of this social networking website that people nowadays seem to prefer instant messaging over face-to-face conversation. More than 100 million users access Facebook through their cell phones. These Facebook users are twice more active as compared to those who use their personal computers for the same. If the time spent on Facebook by the entire world is taken it consideration, it adds up to a whopping 6 billion minutes a day.

to know how addicted to face book are you...,click on below link..

http://theoatmeal.com/quiz/facebook_addict

Facebook Addiction Symptoms

• You wake up in the morning, and first thing you do is log onto your Facebook account.
• You spend more than an hour on Facebook - at a stretch or in short episodes over regular intervals.
• You and your siblings converse through Facebook wall and messages, even though you stay in same house.
• You can't seem to stop thinking about Facebook updates and comments when you are offline.
• You check Facebook for updates and comments after every hour at your workstation or on your cell phone.
• You look forward to get home in the evening so that you can see what is happening in cyberspace (on Facebook to be precise.)
• Your Facebook wall is full of status updates, comments, and applications that you just used.
• You can't go for a day without using Facebook, and even this thought makes you go into sort of depression.
• You give priority to Facebook over your commitments in professional and personal life.
• And lastly, your day ends with you checking Facebook for that one last time and bidding people 'good nite' through your Facebook status update. (You may even get an urge to wake up at middle of the night to see whether anyone has commented on your 'gud nite' status.)

how to get rid of your Facebook addiction?

step-1

Admit you might have an addiction to Facebook. and keep track of what you actually do on Facebook. After every Facebook session, ask yourself: "What did I just accomplish by checking Facebook?" Odds are, you're probably just logging in to see if you've been poked, or for updates of when your friends change their profile image, write a new note, add a new song to their favorite music, and do other little things that you can really live without knowing. But those might be the little things that keep you on a very short leash. At first you're confirming a new friend, and next thing you know, you've spent an hour looking at all the new people you're connected to. Recording your Facebook activities can help you realize how much time you actually spend getting nothing constructive done.

step-2

Define your goals on Facebook. Make a list of what you really want from it. Why did you originally sign up? So you could remember friends' birthdays? Find and keep old friends? Meet people with similar interests? Whatever your goals may be on Facebook, you need to make sure that you devote your time there to accomplishing those goals, instead of going off track with activities that get you nowhere. If you have no goals (i.e. if you signed up just because you had nothing better to do), skip the next step.

step-3

Make and follow a Facebook schedule. After each Facebook goal, write down how much time and at what frequency you'll need to be on Facebook to achieve that goal. Then write down the total number of hours, per week, that you should be spending on Facebook. If it seems like too much time, adjust your activity times accordingly. Following this schedule might bring your Facebook addiction under control without requiring you to quit altogether. Some examples:

• Stay in touch with college friends - Check every other day, spend no more than 15 minutes responding to messages only from college friends. (1 hour per week)
• Maintain my group - Check every morning and evening for 10 minutes each, only to remove any spam or junk. Note to self: do not respond to posts, comments or messages during this time. (2 hours, 20 minutes per week)
• Keep my group interesting - Spend 30 minutes every other day reading all of the comments and responding. (2 hours per week)
• Finding new friends - Browse profiles for 30 minutes, twice a week. (1 hour per week)
• Total maximum time I plan to spend on Facebook: 6 hours, 20 minutes.

step-4

Think of other things you could be doing with your time spent on Facebook. If you find yourself spending, say, 10 hours a week on Facebook, make a list of all the other things you could accomplish in that time. You could:

• get fit
• Spend real time socializing with people really in your life
• clean your room
• volunteer
• Read a book
• Listen to music

step-5

quit Facebook. If you've created a schedule and couldn't stick to it, or if you've decided that any time spent on Facebook is wasted, then you may need to quit cold turkey. This is a last resort, and is easier said than done. There are two options here. You can deactivate your account or delete your account:

• Deactivate your facebook Account - this lets you take a breather without losing the information; or
• Permanently delete your Facebook account - this is the real end, everything will go!
• If you've started any groups, transfer admin rights to someone you trust.
• Clear every last bit of information from your profile. Don't forget to remove your photo!
• Send an email to your Facebook contacts explaining your decision to leave. Include your current contact information so they can get in touch with you without Facebook.

step-6

Find alternatives to using Facebook. If you've gotten into the habit of using Facebook messages instead of email, update your email address book so you can get in touch with your friends and continue your correspondence outside of Facebook.

step-7

Find a Facebook substitute. A lot of people get addicted to Facebook because they check it when there's nothing else to do, like in between classes, or during a lunch break; then the curiosity spills over into time that should be spent doing other things, like studying or working. You need to find something to do during those little windows of time in order to prevent relapse. There are several ways to give yourself a "Facebook patch":

• Stay away from the computer as much as you can. For many of us, getting in front of a monitor is a default activity. Try to find other things to do that'll keep you away from the computer and therefore, Facebook. Keep a notebook. Meditate. Finger weave. Learn to do impressive tricks with a tech deck. Call your friends on the phone or do something fun with them in person. Anything that you can do anywhere and for short periods of time is good.
• If you're at a computer during critical relapse times, find another website to log onto and read instead of Facebook. Yes, you may get addicted to that instead, so try to find something that's actually a constructive pursuit, like checking news websites, learning a new word each day, sharpening your mental skills by solving a sudoku, practicing that foreign language you decided to learn...

Tips

• Keep a list of your Facebook schedule (if you have one) and your non-Facebook goals with you and in front of you at all times.
• Once you've discovered your capacity for being addicted to Facebook, you should probably avoid other social networking sites like MySpace.
• As with any task that involves discipline, it always helps to do it with a friend. One option is to have a trusted family member or friend do this for you.
• For those who found out you can re-activate your account, try this before you de-activate your account: Open up notepad and type in some random text (lskdjfd). Login to Facebook and change your password. Copy the text that you just typed in notepad in the password fields and change your password. Deactivate your account, and clear your clipboard history.
• If you are looking for a way to actively decrease the frequency of your Facebook visits, change your password to a long string of numbers. Write this down on a piece of paper, and place it somewhere that is annoying to reach or out of reach. This way, whenever you want to log on, you will need to dig out the paper for your password. This is to deter you from logging on by making it a chore. If you start to remember the numbers, just repeat the process.
• To keep updated about your Facebook friends' status updates, subscribe to your friends' status updates RSS feed in your email program or other RSS reader that you already use. For example, you can get this feed in MS Outlook 2007 where you can read what your friends are up to along with your email. This eliminates one major reason people regularly log in to Facebook.
• Stop using facebook mobile to update your status etc. Uninstall it from your phone if you have a downloaded version (ie. iPhone, Palm etc.)
• If directly after you open your internet browser, you start typing in facebook.com without meaning to; you just do it out of habit. You should probably cut back on the FB usage, having something so potentially useless (i.e. Facebook) taking up so much time in your life, it's probably a good decision to find something better to do. Read a good book or something, it will make you smarter, and make it easier to talk to girls in actual person also.

source: internet

Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address...one of the famous and inspiring speech in the world...

you tube video link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky ­ I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation – the Macintosh – a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So 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 didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me ­ I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything ­ all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Steve Jobs, CEO ­ Apple Computer

A Tree that lives for 50 years worth more than 32 lakhs.....

A Tree that lives for 50 years generates....

Rs: 5.3 lakhs worth of oxygen,

recycles Rs: 6.4 lakhs worth of fertility and soil erosion control,

creates Rs: 10.5 lakhs worth of air pollution control and

Rs:5.3 lakhs worth of shelter for birds, animals and insects.

Besides, it provides flowers,fruits and lumber.





when even one tree falls or is felled, the nation loses something worth more than 32 lakhs.

when even one tree is planted or saved, the nation earns something worth more than 32 lakhs.



We should save trees, that is our responsibility…

why go green????

Over decades together, the depletion of ozone layer and its preservation had been the high priority of environmentalists and developed nations and campaigns about educating the masses of the importance of reducing carbon emissions thereby helping the preservation of the ozone layer. Now, there are a lot more issues along with this that has been worrying the environmentalists, one of this being depletion of natural resources and increase in CO2 emissions, pollution, wastage of resources, and so on. With the expected world’s population to explode to around 9 billion by 2050, it has become a great concern that people will only have 25% of the resources that were available in 1950. Already, some of the world’s natural resources have been depleted and with this growing population, it could lead to a major crisis of the natural resources.

It is high time we start saving clean air, fuel sources, water and soil for the future generations along with saving money and assets for them. How many of us agree with this thought? So why throw away things that could be recycled? To read these facts on recycling, it only takes a few seconds and to actually put it in practice would only take a few minutes in a day.

• It is believed that a ton of paper that is recycled saves 7000 gallons of water, 380 gallons of oil and as much electricity to electrify an average household for 6 months.
• One aluminium can recycling can save electricity needed to run a TV for 6 hours.
• Recycling one glass bottle saves as much electricity as to power a 100-watts bulb for 4 hours, so calculate the amount of energy one would save by using an energy saving bulb.

On one hand, the effects of throwing away leads to wastage of energy and resources, and on the other hand, the emission of carbon products into the atmosphere increases global warming. While it is essential for a certain concentration of CO2 and other gases to be present in the atmosphere to retain the radiation that enters Earth without which the whole of the planet would experience freezing temperatures of around -18C, increasing concentration leads to increase in surface temperature of the Earth by about 6 degrees +/- 2 degrees, and this warming will increase with time leading to disastrous consequences. Have a look at what the consequences could be:

• Increase in sea level as a result of melting of ice caps hence making coastal plains uninhabitable.
• Agricultural productivity could be majorly affected due to global warming.
• Depletion of ozone layer
• Change in weather systems could occur due to warmer climate resulting in more droughts and floods and stronger storms and extremes of weather.
• Spread of diseases on a bigger scale due to increasing temperatures which would have otherwise been contained due to cold weather conditions.
• A major change to ecosystem could occur with most organisms moving towards the North and South pole.

It is not a mission impossible to reduce these carbon dioxide emissions. Developed countries have started taking various measures to reduce their emissions at all levels right from schools, universities and colleges to houses, supermarkets, industries, production units etc. Hence remember, even a small effort to reduce household emissions could help the future generations to a great extent.

Try to recycle items that could be recycled so in order to save energy, water and natural resources. Things like batteries and electronic items when thrown away emit dangerous chemicals that leak through the landfill and pollute the groundwater, and also contaminate the soil which is important for our crops which in turn causes health risks to humans.

It is each and every individual’s conscience that should prick when we throw away things. Think about the landfill space that is occupied as well. The more that is sent to the landfill, the more space it occupies and more resources to get rid of them. The less we throw, the greater the benefits and longer will our landfills last. It is high time people start thinking about the community and society in these terms also.

The best place to start the reform should be schools as they serve as a catalyst for the community. It would involve parents, teachers, government, local businesses, administrators and environmentalists to get together to decide and educate themselves and others of what it means to recycle, what best recycling of resources could be done, and practicing them at school, homes, offices, manufacturing units, thus keeping the surroundings neat and healthy to breathe and live.

Government and other officials should spring forward in their efforts to look for ways to expand recycling and bring awareness amongst the masses on waste reduction and its harmful effects. It would be best to encourage and motivate manufacturers and companies to be environmentally compliant and energy efficient.

So what’s the wait for. There are a lot of things that we as a common man can bring changes and reforms. Let’s GO GREEN, let’s get hand in hand, strive to reduce emissions and wastage, encourage recycling and pave way for pure and clean surroundings for our future generations.

How JAMSHEDPUR got that name??????



In 1907 when Sir Frederic Upcott, chief commissioner for railways in India, heard that Tata’s were going to set up a steel plant in India, he replied:



”Do u mean to say that Tata’s proposed to make steel rails to British specification??Why, I will undertake to eat every pound of steel rail they succeed in making”.



Jamsetji had gone to England to bring steel manufacturing technology for a steel plant which he wanted to set up in “Sakchi” in eastern India, but British steel manufacturers had refused to do so. Anyway he brought it from USA and established the plant.



In the next decade Tata’s supplied to the British government for the First World War, 1500 miles of steel rails which made possible the shifting of troops and war materials in Mesopotamia.



In recognition of the contribution of Tata steel, Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy, came in 1919 to Sakchi and said:

“I can hardly imagine what we should have done during these 4 years of war if the Tata company had not been able to give us steel rails which have been provided for us, not only for Mesopotamia but for Egypt, Palestine and East Africa, and I have come to express my thanks….it is hard to imagine that 10 years ago this place was scrub and jungle; and here, we have now, this place set up with all its foundries and its workshops and its population of 40,000 to 50,000 people. This great enterprise has been due to the prescience, imagination and genius of the late Mr. Jmasetji Tata…

This place will see a change in its name and will no longer be known as Sakchi but be identified with the name of its Founder, bearing down through the ages the name of the late Mr. Jmasetji Tata. Here after this place will be known by the name of JAMSHEDPUR.




It is Jmasetji Tata, who at the beginning of 19th century conceived for India the first Steel Plant, the first Hydro Electric Project and a University of Science (IISC, Bangalore) ‘the like of which England didn’t have at that time’.

about right to education act..in short

Elementary Education is now a fundamental right of Every Child

The passing of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 marks a historic moment for the children of India.this act says that all children between the ages of 6 and 14 will have the right to free and compulsory elementary education at a neighbourhood school. There is no direct cost (school fees) or indirect cost (uniforms, textbooks, midday meals, transportation, etc) to be borne by the child or the parents to obtain elementary education. The government will provide schooling free of cost until a child’s elementary education is completed.25% of seats in private schools will be reserved for poor children. The Central and State Government will bear all costs

Through this education has become a Fundamental Right in the constitution of India. From 01-04-2010 this Act comes into effect. This can be called as a great milestone in the history of India.

But around 7 million children in India today hang around our homes and our

neighbourhoods instead of going to school.

there is something you could do and should do.!!!!

The maid’s toddler, the kid who tinkers around at the local garage, the boy who delivers the groceries home, the watchman’ s son, the driver ’s daughter, the newspaper boy who’s always running errands for the society, or the bai’s baby.…..most of the time we aren’t even aware if these children go to a school at all. Nor do we ever bother to find out. Even as they’re growing up into illiterate adults in front of our very eyes.

They should not be seen around your home at all. They should be in school.

Studying, like any normal child is supposed to.

They could all be in school, If only you asked them why or showed them how.

However, the Right to Education Act now asks us to do precisely that. ACT. Ask questions, nag parents and pester kids who hang around our streets to hang around a school instead. And find them the easiest way to do it.

So let’s stop pointing fingers at the authorities for once.

And let’s ask ourselves what we can do for our children.

doubts regarding right to education act

Why is the act significant and what does it mean for India?

The passing of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 marks a historic moment for the children of India. This act serves as a building block to ensure that every child has his or her right (as an entitlement) to get a quality elementary education, and that the State, with the help of families and communities, fulfils this obligation. Few countries in the world have such a national provision to ensure both free and child-centred, child-friendly education.

What is ‘Free and Compulsory Elementary Education’?

All children between the ages of 6 and 14 will have the right to free and compulsory elementary education at a neighbourhood school. There is no direct cost (school fees) or indirect cost (uniforms, textbooks, midday meals, transportation, etc) to be borne by the child or the parents to obtain elementary education. The government will provide schooling free of cost until a child’s elementary education is completed.

What is the role envisaged for the community and parents to ensure RTE?

Schools will constitute School Management Committees (SMCs) comprising local authority officials, parents, guardians and teachers. The SMCs will form School Development Plans and monitor the utilization of government grants and the whole school environment. RTE also mandates the inclusion of 50% women and parents of children from disadvantaged groups in SMCs. Such community participation will be crucial to ensuring a child-friendly “whole school” environment through separate toilet facilities for girls and boys and adequate attention to health, water, sanitation and hygiene issues.

How does RTE promote child-friendly schools?

All schools must comply with infrastructure and teacher norms for an effective learning environment. Two trained teachers will be provided for every 60 students at the primary level. Teachers are required to attend school regularly and punctually, complete curriculum instruction, assess learning abilities and hold regular parent-teacher meetings. The number of teachers will be based on the number of students rather than by grade. The state will ensure adequate support to teachers, leading to improved learning for children. The community and civil society will have an important role to play in collaboration with the SMCs to ensure school quality with equity. The state will provide the policy framework and create an enabling environment to ensure RTE becomes a reality for every child.

How will RTE be financed and implemented in India?

Central and state governments will share financial responsibility for RTE. The central government will prepare estimates of expenditures. State governments will be provided a percentage of these costs. The central government may request the Finance Commission to consider providing additional resources to a state in order to carry out the provisions of RTE. The state government will be responsible for providing the remaining funds needed to implement. There will be a funding gap which needs to be supported by partners from civil society, development agencies, corporate organizations and citizens of the country.

What are the key issues for achieving RTE?

RTE has been notified by the central government on April 1, 2010. Model rules for states have already been finalized while those for the Union territories are in an advanced stage. RTE provides a ripe platform to reach the unreached, with specific provisions for disadvantaged groups, such as child labourers, migrant children, children with special needs, or those who have a “disadvantage owing to social, cultural economic, geographical, linguistic, gender or such other factor.” RTE focuses on the quality of teaching and learning, which requires accelerated efforts and substantial reforms:

* Creative and sustained initiatives are crucial to train more than one million new and untrained teachers in the next five years and to reinforce the skills of in-service teachers to ensure child-friendly education.
* Families and communities also have a large role to play to ensure child-friendly education for each and every one of the estimated 190 million girls and boys in India who should be in elementary school today.
* Disparities must be eliminated to assure quality with equity. Investing in preschool is a key strategy in meeting goals.
* Bringing eight million out-of-school children into classes at the age appropriate level with the support to stay in school and succeed poses a major challenge necessitating flexible, innovative approaches.

What is the mechanism available if RTE is violated?

The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights will review the safeguards for rights provided under this act, investigate complaints and have the powers of a civil court in trying cases. States should constitute a State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) or the Right to Education Protection Authority (REPA) within six months of April 1. Any person wishing to file a grievance must submit a written complaint to the local authority. Appeals will be decided by the SCPCR/REPA. Prosecution of offences requires the sanction of an officer authorized by the appropriate government.

How does RTE translate into action and become a reality?

Substantial efforts are essential to eliminate disparities and ensure quality with equity. Unicef will play an instrumental role in bringing together relevant stakeholders from government, civil society, teachers’ organizations, media and the celebrity world. Unicef will mobilize partners to raise public awareness and provide a call to action. Policy and programme design/implementation will focus on improving the access and quality education based on what works to improve results for children. Unicef will also work with partners to strengthen national and state-level monitoring bodies on RTE.