Nirav Mehta on life, technology and future
September 28th, 2005 — ગુજરાતી - Gujarati
We met with an amazing gentleman last week. Ratilal Chandaria has spent two decades working on Gujarati language. He has created an online dictionary containing more than 1.7 million words. GujaratiLexicon.com has English to Gujarati, Gujarati to English, Gujarati to Gujarati, Opposite words, Idioms and Thesaurus.
Ratibhai himself is full of energy and passion. We really salute the work he and his team have done.
September 26th, 2005 — GNU/Linux
Want to use your iPod with Linux? Or want to install a Linux based system on your iPod? Here are a few links:
September 24th, 2005 — General
Have you tried an iPod? If you try an iPod, you will not take any other mp3 player in your hands. When I got the iPod 30GB photo, I stumbled by the sheer beauty and audio quality. Then I figured that the navigation happened via the click wheel, and I dropped off my chair! Then I got my iPod Mini. And I was flattened by the simplicity and style.
Then there is iPod Nano! The black 4GB iPod Nano is the sexiest iPod I have seen. Rather, the sexiest audio player I have ever seen. It’s cute, curvaceous, inviting and when you play it, it blows you off! It’s thin and light yet can hold about a thousand songs. You certainly have a strong lust for this sweety!
Read more about the Nano on Apple website.
If you want to see how does the Nano look if you opened it bare, go through this excellent piece about the entire experience of the Nano - from opening the package, to destroying it and looking at the internals.
September 24th, 2005 — Freedom
Are there any shortcuts to happiness?
What is the world of self-help books and spiritual gurus that show you the way to happiness?
The Apollo gods of Greeks said - Know Yourself. You are responsible for your happiness. At the same time nothing should be in access - not even happiness! 2305 years later, the happiness industry is going to touch $12 billion.
You are happy or unhappy through your own actions. Nobody else gives you happiness or sadness. But we don’t believe in this now. We blame the government or the mother in law or the boss or the wife for everything. Philosophers have long said that happiness is not in money, you can’t buy happiness. Yet we are after money.
There are more happiness coaches in Britain than dentists! Without any formal degrees, a life coach would charge 100 pounds an hour for directing you to happiness. The market of self help books has shot up in the past few years. Paul McKenna’s Change your life in seven days is selling like hot cakes. Seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey is an all time favorite. John Grey’s Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus shows how a couple can understand each other and stay happily together. On the other side, Steve Salerno’s Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless talks about the big the marketing driven business of self help.
Really, the source of happiness is within you. Happiness is momentary. We should be ready for sorrow. Your actions are responsible for your happiness or sorrow. This is the Indian philosophy - and is cheap and effective!
Adapted from Kanti Bhatt’s article in Chitralekha 26 September 2005. You can read the full article here.
September 23rd, 2005 — Landmark
I assisted in the Landmark Advanced Course on 18th September. The left home at 6.30AM and reached back at 4AM! But the twenty one and half hours were worth the experience!
I reached Jai Hind College (the venue) half an hour early, so took a stroll by the sea side at Nariman Point. The morning breeze was full of oxygen and I took enough of it to go for the whole day! Met the Production Supervisor of the course at 8 and got started.
The first task was to clean up the area - the stage area from where the coach speaks and the audience area of chairs. The rule - the job should be done with velocity and must be impeccable. I sweat was dropping off my forehead by the time I finished the task. Then was cleaning the water glasses and arranging them in an orderly manner. Then to fill them up.
I have never worked under somebody. I have always been the boss. Performing these chores got me the experience of following instructions; the struggle to perform an impeccable job in a time bound fashion, and the occasional grumble towards the boss. I also experienced what are the qualities of an effective employee - ownership, creativity, aptitude, persistence, communication and the ability to handle situations.
The supervisor asked me if I am good with Internet, I grinned! I then ran out to take an article from the Internet for the session. Managed to pull together the piece on time and got a big appreciation for it. And I said to myself, I am good at what I do for a living!
In one of the exercises, I got to sit next to the leader on the stage. The exercise was related to media. We had selected a story from a newspaper in the morning that I would read. Accidentally, that whole page was missing from the paper when it reached me on the stage! I then had to resort to my creativity and imagination to narrate the story - without it actually being on the paper! It was action packed and I learnt from the leader how to keep my cool in the worst of situations.
A lot of other things and lessons. The firefighting to get the tables arranged, taking care of the water stations as needed, the task of doorman, and post midnight toil to move the tables back to their original place and do the packing. And then to find taxi to get home. And to sleep on the way back!
The day’s high moment was to witness the new possibilities course participants invented. The whole group was excited, overjoyed and ecstatic. They recited poems and danced. And we couldn’t stop but celebrate.
It was indeed a day where I got three times worth the time spent!
