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The more I learn, the less I know

December 31st, 2009 | 2 Comments | Posted in Musings, Personal

That could pretty much be the mantra for the year gone by.

Parenting: Bringing up Mansi has been the highlight of the year gone by. Snehal and me can’t imagine living a single day (for Snehal its probably a hour) without Mansi. Kids can be so selfless and stubborn at the same time. While each day we learn a bit more about parenting, we realize that there is so little we know about it. And that keeps us going and makes the journey very memorable

Startups: I am onto my 3rd startup, the second time around in the Internet space. Life in a startup is always very unpredictable but usually there is always a method in the madness. We’ve been doing pretty well at Quikr and hopefully the next year will be even better. Its a crucial year for us. Having spent nearly 90% of my career in startups, I continue to be amazed by the vibrancy of small companies. There is so little I know and so much to learn.

Technology: The tech industry keeps redefining the rules every 15 days (probably even faster) and it takes a herculean effort to keep pace. But thanks to the Internet its become a bit easier. Some blogs like Techcrunch have become the mecca of information. Email for example has undergone a huge transformation. I remember setting up the mail server at my 2nd job. It took us 5 months to get a domain and get things started with an archaic text only interface. The 2nd time around, 5 years later, we went with setting up MS exchange and burnt a huge hole in our IT Budget. The third time around, 2 years later, we partnered with Netcore to get things kicked off. We were up and running in 3-4 days. The fourth time around, 7 years later, we signed up for Google Apps. We were ready to go in 6 hours flat.

Reading: I can never get to an empty Google reader screen. I have 148 subscriptions and very little time to go through them. The more I add subscriptions, the less I am able to read. But I have my A List which I swear by and not a working day passes by before I have read the A list

Music: When I took a look at the Last.FM Best of 2009 List, I realized that the music industry has moved far ahead from where I left it at. Inspite of my 35 gig collection on my iPod, there is so much music still be experienced

Travel: The more we travel, the more we want to travel. There is so much of the world to see. This year we took a mini break to Kamshet, near Lonavala and did nothing. Nothing! No sight seeing, no reading nothing. We just played with our daughter, drank and ate good food. It was bliss.

Food/Drink: The more cuisines we experience, the more experiments we make with food. 2009 has been the year we, as a couple, discovered the joy of salads. The more single malts and beers I taste, I realize that there are so many single malts and beers left to taste.

On that note, 2009 has been a great year, here’s to hoping that 2010 brings with it more joy

Cheers!

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Music and me

December 24th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted in Musings

Music has been central to my being ever since I discovered Billie Jean on a cassette which had FM recordings sent by my aunt in the US. This was 1988. College is where I discovered rock, mostly Def Leppard. Grad college is where I got exposed to various types of music, thanks to living in a hostel for 4 years. Music varied from A to Z, A-Ha to Beatles to Yes to ZZ Top. One band I got exposed to which really changed my love for music was 10,000 Maniacs. I eventually ended up owning all their music and all of Natalie Merchant’s music after she moved away from the Maniacs.

Once I started earning, which was also the first time I bought my first CD, Eagles - Hell Freezes Over, is when I started buying some alternate music like INXS (they were not so popular until Hutchence killed himself).

My idea of exploring music was to pick movie soundtracks or borrow music from friends and then pick a CD of an artist which I liked. I discovered gems like Sarah Mclachlan, Alisson Krauss this way. The financial muscle gave me the liberty to experiment with artists (since buying albums was a big risk - what if all songs didn’t turn out to be good?). And thus began my experimentation while also stocking up on all the rock classics like U2, Floyd, Led Zep and such like.

15 years hence and my urge to experiment has dwindled. Call it old fashioned or anything but somehow I just like the old music barring some pursuits in Jazz (mostly instrumental). Guys like Dave Brubeck make an evening very memorable, more so if you are nursing a nice single malt. I have tried a few interesting artists like Andrea Bocelli, Micheal Buble but the list is very small. Its funny. These days I have much more spare money to buy music but I guess I’ve lost the ability to borrow/buy music which I can explore and then build on.

Hopefully I’ll be able to find some interesting music in 2010. Any suggestions?

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

December 3rd, 2009 | No Comments | Posted in Uncategorized

Came across a lovely quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson on this post by Gotham Gal

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded

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