3 IDIOTS- All is Well

Watched 3 Idiots yesterday. The intial story line is based on the story "Five point someone". The film is about 3 student's life in an engineering college.Rancho (Amir), Farhan ( Madhavan) ,Raju Rastogi( Sharman Josi) are the 3 students doing mechanical engineering. The hero Rancho is playful but still manages to top the class. During their party time the other friends ask's Rancho how he manages to top the class always. The answer is simple " I love machines" . His mantra is "Do, what you lke". He suggests Farhan to chase his dream of photography of wild. He tells Rastogi to get off all his fears in life and it will make his more sucessfull. Do do they chase their dreams? ... That is about rest of their story.

The film comes down heavly on our Indian educational system. It brings out the fact that our educational system lacks the practical approach. I think it is absolutely true. I have seen many times that a person with diploma knowledge can repair a machine while a engineer either never attempts to do it or just has a theoritical knowledge on the same. We all have been tuned towards doing practicals for nothing more that marks. One another aspect which add up here is the natural intrest of the person. Many are being forced to do what their parents dreams rather that their own natural intrest. Our carrer path are decided by our parents intially. In my state you study your 12th standard either to become a doctor or an engineer. Students who dont make to both of these settle for arts, science courses. Mostly this is the case in small towns. May be big cities like chennai are an exception . At an age of 18 do you really have the knowledge to decide what you should study.... mm ... surely I didnt have it ... may be I was dumb... I notice many of the pepole around me also didnt have it ... I think it is surely related to the exposure level you get to .... With increased penetration of internet and television this will surely get changed.... the sooner the better...

If you are bored or confused about what I am trying to say .. better go the film .. The narrative is entretaining and refreshing.

The film also shows a women delivering a baby, a delivery happening at the cafetaria.... Surely it is not the heroine delivering the baby. Then what does this have to do with the film ... Surely the team has linked every thing in an intresting manner. Dont miss it...."All is Well"...:)

Read 2 States by Chetan Bhagath

Read the book "2 states" by chetan bagath. The book is about how a punjabi boy and tamil bramin girl get in to love and mangage to marry. You are sure to have seen this story in any tamil or hindi movies. The narration makes the book an intresting read and it is in true chetan bagath style. I really like the mind voice and comments that accompany the author during any coversation with the girl and other chararcters. I think it is the second best book after "Five point someone" by the author. The author had made fun of both tamil and punjabi habits in many places. There are some point which I found a little too much like both the girl having beer, chicken and sex ... Not sure .. but it seemed a little too dramatic at this place . Also the author made good fun of the banking company he worked for ... otherwise it is a good read ....

Prism in Silvelright

If you are new to prism in silverlight ... Go through the following video links. Gives you a good overview of prism.. pretty basics and gives emphasis on MVVM.

http://www.infoq.com/interviews/Prism-Glenn-Block
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/akMSFT/Creating-a-modular-application-using-Prism-V2-Part-1-of-4--Creating-a-shell-and-modules/
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/akMSFT/Creating-a-modular-application-using-Prism-V2-Screencast-24--Visual-Composition/
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/akMSFT/Creating-a-modular-application-using-Prism-V2-Screencast-34--Implementing-views-and-services/
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/akMSFT/Creating-a-modular-application-using-Prism-v2-Screencast-44--Decoupled-Communication/

Go Kiss the World

"Go Kiss the world" is a book written by subrato Bagchi.... I came to know about this book from one of my friends( Monish the Great). This book is filled with the experience of Mr.Subrato . Words of wisdom keeps flowing all along the book. I have captured the points that I felt really good...

1.What happens when you are continuously displaced ... You explore everything around you, develop curiosity - new lands , customs,food, and ways of doing things begin to draw you in. You learn to survive on the strength of who you are, just for this day, today. You build ingenuity in order to survive. You trust strangers and, hence, strangers trust you. You build intuitive capability to sniff trouble- which can tell when to leave a bar. You become an interesting person, because you have lot of stories to tell. Finally you learn to move on.

2. Subrato's mother is blind. During a discussion she comes up with the following views: " Shabdha(Sound) is bhrama(life)". Sensing that Subrato was unable to comprehend with her views, she knocked the surface of the dinning table,twice gently and asked, where did the sound emanate from ? Was it just my hand ? No, it was the table replying to the knock. If I were to knock on any other surface, the sound will be very different , varied each time, It is the way the seemingly inanimate world speaks to you. There is a brhama in every ting. As long as you are willing to knock ,even the inanimate will respond.Each time without fail.Animate and inanimate are disctintions born of perceptions. In reality everything is living.

3. There are inevitable times in every life when we all must step on a thorn. As I step on the thorn if I have tendency to blame the thorn the pain has a tendency to linger;Sometimes the pain expands as time passes.What we can do is to learn from the pain and move on.

4. "If you want a guy to do a first-class job,give him a first-class ticket". I look at organisations and their obsession with making life better for folks at the top at the expense of the smaller folks who actually matter.

5. As a child you are ready to receive materials, gifts, words of advice, guidance from all. As we get on with the concrete business of life, we lose our capacity of receive from people. The capacity to receive asks for humility. Humility makes the mind an empty vessel that can receive. The capacity to receive expands where there is the willingness to give back-only when we return what we receive, and we are blessed to receive even more.

5. Most people we meet do not have a special reason to remember us, nor are they interested in what we have to say or what we actually do. We live in a world of information overload and attention deficiency. People we meet are often looking at us but thinking about somethings else. Given that, it is important that in every situation one has to be not well prepared but razor-sharp to create instant engagement.Be it a job interview, presentation or a meeting, we all have a very short window to make the right impression, and unfortunately most of us miss it. The question on Diego Garcia had given me that short window to make my mark.It is what I call the Diego Garcia moment of my life. If you want to know about Diego Garcia,read the book ;)

6. Our lives are like rivers- the source seldom reveals the confluences.Does a river fret over the long journey and about its end just as it is about to spurt? It simply doest not do that, caring instead to flow, to begin its journey , and on it ways build a beneficial relationship with anyone who comes in contact with her. I feel this is the best on in the book.

7. A salesperson learns to take rejections as a way of life .Sometimes a customer can be downright abusive.Yet ,good salespeople learn that the real meaning of a 'No' is 'Not now'. A proud salesperson is always the product of a great company.If you can get under the hood and determine whether a salesperson has genuine respect for this company, be assured that the organization is good and worth doing business with. - I think this applies all walks of our life.

8. We all have some talent in us- be it singing, writing, painting or sculpting.If we nurture and cherish it, it makes our life fuller. Yet so many of us choose the uni-dimensionality of a work life, always citing lack of time to pursuer a hobby.If we make a small commitment towards keeping our talents alive, one day it becomes a beautiful gift, which nourishes us, makes our lives complete. - I think this applies greatly to all our software people, where we are very committed to make our life unidirectional ... Lets try to break it of ...

9. One interesting discussion between Premji and Subrato: "My job is to push you till you find your own limit.When you do,you have to push back. I do not have the road map. You have to create one on your own.The most successful US presidents are the those who knew what they wanted to do and how to do about it within the first ninety days in office. This fact applies to all senior-level jobs as well. If you cannot do what you want to achieve within the first ninety days, you are probably never going to get anything done.

There is lot more this book speaks about ... lot about business,principles, how MindTree was formed and most importantly talks lot about people who were around him. It was interesting to read how these persons form middle class families made in big.

Really a great read....