BUG ME NOT !

I hate free registrations...esp. for magazines where i need to remember/copy-paste a username/password for a site which is not paid...It's unnecessary and discourages genuinely interested readers from reading a column/article...There are many examples-businessworld,the time magazine page,newyork times,etc....
Well...I found this cool site that allows you to get the usernames-passwords for sites with free content...Bugmenot ! Revolutionary and cool...Try it sometime
Now..to find a site or figure out how to get usernames/passwords of sites with paid content !!!
;-}
It's called hacking..I know...

ritz

How to...

What do you need to start a startup ??

1. Start with good people,
2. Make something customers actually want,
3. Spend as little money as possible.

If that sounds simple,Listen to this !..

"If you want to do it, do it. Starting a startup is not the great mystery it seems from outside. It's not something you have to know about "business" to do. Build something users love, and spend less than you make. How hard is that?"

;-)

Good article...Found it on a blog...More here..

ritz

On the other side of the table...

Why the title ?The whole story...

Last Saturday evening and office as usual...make my way home after a stroll along marine drive and colaba(fantastic and one-off location in the world-probably the only place where the poor and the rich survive....together....) ..the reason was a search for d$%e...but..ahem.. didnt find any..stupid me !!(If only it were chennai ! i knew where the supply-chain started there ! right under the cops' noses ! think i have said enuf....;-)

Just about make my way home when i get a phone call..It's my Former Finance Prof. and "fellow-blorean's-are-the-greatest-and-blore-is-the-coolest-city-on-the-planet" comrade...NO...make that fellow "blorean's-are-the-greatest-and-blore-is-the-coolest-city-on-the-planet" comrade and former Finance Prof. (in order of merit ;-)

We chat up and i remind him about the mail I had sent a coupla days saying "it would be great to meet and catch up"...and BOOOOOOOM !!!
He asks me to be part of the interview panel to select IITM MBA's next incoming batch (batch 2007) !!!!!

To say that I was tongue-tied would be an understatement..To think that 3 years back i was at the other end of the table and now...hmm..anyways...
I happily agreed knowing that I would forgo a Sunday morning nap anytime for the place that has given so much to me...

Next day...Made it to IITB round 10:30 AM...conversation between me and vols from MBA@IITB..

Me:Would you mind telling me where the IITM interviews are going on ?
She:Are you here for the interview ?
Me:yeah..something like that...
She:Uhh...Actually...dont mind me saying this..but..i dont think a jeans and kurta combo would go very well for an MBA interview...
Me:I agree..Only If you are a student...and not a part of the interview panel !!!!

hehehe...felt good saying that ! the look on her face was worth a million $...

She:Ahem..I mean..I think...I am sorry...
Me:Let's spare each other the uncomfortable moment...and would you be kind enuf to send in a message ?
She:Of course,sir....
(SIR !!! SIR !!!!!!!!! Long time since i heard somebody address me like that !!Last time was when some of my juniors thot they were being obedient by addressing me "sir" !!)

Evil me !!! ;-}

(People who know me in person will attest to the fact that I can be really mean when i want to and dont think twice before hitting below the belt too !!-If i beleive it's worth it and that the other person has crossed the sacred line !!!)

I am in...into the room that is....exchange the hi-hellos and get to work..observe for the first few interviews and then start was my thinking..I got into the groove..slowly and then into the thick of it...and must say i enjoyed it...

But it's scary too...imagine asking questions on a subject that the student has studied for 4 years and having no answer if asked the same in return..

All in all...a fantastic experience...watching the Prof's decide on whom to select and whom not to using all kinds of weightages,matrcies,etc...they call it a "horsocope" for some vague reason...
Hope i did justice to a place i grew up mentally in...and has changed me so much...for the better...

Part 2:

Last week...was fun too...friday nite birthday bash with a bunch of friends...get locked out of the house on a hung-over saturday morning...call almost everybody i know to kill time and realise that people u thot u knew very well are talking in a language u hardly recognise !!! Wait for the maid till mid-afternoon to walk in with the keys..saturday nite..Knopfler rocks mumbai and I enjoyed every moment of it (i spent a 1000 bucks and went alone !! and i still enjoyed it !! that's saying a lot !!).Sunday nite was Prithvi theatre...irish coffee and...seeing Makarand Deshpande and Sonali Kulkarni !!!! Freaked out on that !! yeah..all ye mumbaites must be going thru it daily..for a non-mumbaite it's fantastic wokay !!

Makrand's lines from Swades were too much..
"Rasta kho gaye ho ? Tum agar chaho toh mein tumhe raasta dikha sakta hoon" !!

so apt for the situation and symbolic for what Mohan Bhargav is going through at that time...

So..am i living the life in mumbai or what !!!!
;-0

ritz