Bits and Bytes from my Life

Following are some snaps of colleges and Universities I studied in. While in India I got an opportunity to take snaps of my old colleges so I thought I will bring it all together.

University of Mumbai(Bombay): University for my Undergrad(Bachelors)

Elphinstone College where I did my junior college(11th and 12th).

K.C. College where I studies for my Bachelors program

       UNC at Chapel Hill: University where I did my MBA.

Kenan-Flagler Business School where I did my MBA.

We just returned from our 3 weeks vacation from India. It was a visit after 4 years and we could really see the difference. Development is everywhere lots of bridges, roads and cars. Economy is booming and people are spending. Things are really expensive even compared to US standards. Just an example, Houses cost much more in Mumbai than in US.

Following are few snaps from my visit which show the new and old living together in India. We in US talk about renewable energy. It was surprising for me to see wind farms near my village. I mean my village is real village and just see the contrast, first couple of pictures are of wind farms and other 2 are of bullock carts and bulls which are still used for transport and agriculture by few.(of course 90% of agriculture is based on tractors and other modern equipment).

Saw this amazing video on Bill Gates. It is worth a watch… Bill really changed the way computer industry has come along…

Enjoy

Today while flying back from Dallas I picked up this book. I wanted to read something that I could finish in couple of hours and was valuable in business terms. This book turned out to be a real good one. There is some fluff in it but some content is real great. George has really done a great job of keeping it in around 100 pages and highlighting the key future strategies.

According to George the 5 key strategies to look forward to are

1. Supply Chain Gymnastics : Our infrastructure on west coast is crumbling and in future importing things from overseas through sea route may not be feasible. How can you react as business to this?
2. Sidestepping Economies of Scale: Bigger may not be always better. George talks about disposable factories. It is not a new concept, it is very common concept in project oriented industries where you setup small manufacturing operation on project site. 
3. Dynamic pricing: Ability to provide unique price to individual buyer. I have heard about this in past but George brought it home with a great example. Example he gave was of toll charges which change based on traffic patterns using RFID. It is being tested in Washington state.
4. Embracing complexity: Other way of putting this is increasing and accepting configurability of products. Every individual should be able to uniquely design the product he desires. Great example of this is MINI.
5. Infinite Bandwidth: Leveraging high speed Internet bandwidth to change business processes or even define new business models.

It is a good book and will highly recommend it to everyone. Enjoy

It was a long weekend(memorial day) in US. We had 3 days off so we decided to go to Vancouver for couple of days. Vancouver is very similar to Seattle, similar weather, similar shopping places and life style. We loved the downtown area and Stanley park was beautiful.

The only negative part was 2 hours wait at border while going and another hour while returning. That took away all the excitement we had. We visited the Punjabi market in Vancouver. It is a good place to visit you feel as if you are visiting a small town in Punjab(I have never been to one. :)).

Stanley Park & Downtown area

Just came home and switched on the TV to watch Hillary’s comments on Bobby Kennedy’s assassination. From first look of her comments it feels she wants Obama assassinated so she can get the nomination.

That is disgusting. I am not sure what to say about this. What does she want? She lost the delegate race. She has lost more states to Obama. Her supporters disenfranchised Florida and Michigan first and now she wants to count there votes because she can do anything to win the nomination. If she cared about them she should have done that in Jan when the decision was made. She says she won the popular vote without counting the caucus states like Washington where I live. WHAT THE F**K is this. AND now she wants to stay in the race so someone can assassinate Obama and she can become the nominee. THAT IS DISGUSTING AND I AM DONE WITH HER.

This is amazing. Never seen that many people for a Rally. Waiting for results from Oregon and Kentucky. Obama will get majority delegates and I don’t think DNC has the guts to refuse him the nomination. I know Obama can win because this campaign is run not by just him but millions of people like me who have never actively participated in politics and are now ready to do our part.

Go Obama. :) 

Portland Rally: "Wow, wow, wow"

By Christopher Hass - May 18th, 2008 at 9:07 pm EDT

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More from Portland, via the Associated Press:

Barack Obama : : Change We Can Believe In | Obama HQ Blogger: Portland Rally: "Wow, wow, wow"

Couple of years back I wrote a post titled 4 Cars in 5 years and yet not satisfied…. It described my obsession of buying cars. I had owned 4 cars in 5 years. Since few more things have changed.

After moving to Seattle, we sold our 2 cars and bought 2 new cars. We bought a Toyota Camry 2008 model which I will drive and just last week we bought Mini Cooper for Swati. It is an amazing car and Swati loves it. It was her dream to own a MINI. Take a look at few snaps.

It is very tiny car but really spacious for 2 people. The best thing, it is convertible. :):):) Love it.

I have never looked up to Moore but I read this endorsement from Michael Moore and I was impressed. "Obama the movement" and I am part of it. The movement that has excited many folks like me. I really hope he wins tomorrow. I hope Pennsylvanian’s denounce the negative tactics of Hillary and elect Obama.

It is amazing Hillary calls Obama a elitist. If elitist means more intelligent that makes sense but a black man raised by single mom who choose public service instead of high paying job is elitist and First Lady married to Bill Clinton the governor and president is not. I just don’t get it. I have stopped watching TV because of Hillary and her negative campaign. I hope and pray Pennsylvanians do the right thing tomorrow.

What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.

That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what’s going on is bigger than him at this point, and that’s a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him

Michael Moore Endorses Obama, Calls Clinton Tactics "Disgusting" - Politics on The Huffington Post

This weekend we visited Copper Creek Lodge near Mt. Rainier. We reached the lodge on Saturday evening. The house/lodge was GORGEOUS!!! Just 2 miles from the entrance of Mt. Rainier. It had a rustic log home feel to it.

We all had lot of fun. We played multiple card games, played Taboo, had some drinks and sat in the outdoor hot tub in middle of night at freezing temperatures. It was amazing.

Today morning we went to Mt. Rainier visitor center at Paradise. We also stopped at a water fall on our way. Whole mountain was covered with snow. It was beautiful but most of the trails and views were snowed out.

From left: Sudhir, Swati, Mel, Anush, Lea, Bose, John