Jayakumar Balasubramanian

Its interesting to observe the way we Indians think! We apply logic and build complex software. But forget to apply basic common sense in many aspects. Following are some simple examples from Bangalore: Nobody talks about laying proper roads to Bangalore International airport before opening it. The airport construction is complete now. But it takes more time to reach the airport by road than the flying time to Chennai. Out of the blue another set of activists, workers, media talk about 'What to do with HAL airport?'. The majority of the road traffic (during the office hours) is due to knowledge workers traveling to ITPL and electronic city. Yet the proposed metro rail route is not covering both the places. Always IT employees complain about not getting autos to reach their homes. Auto drivers complain about not getting 'savari' all the times. More demand, more supply! But still there is a problem. How come one third of cubbon road can be declared as 'auto lane...

I understood quite a lot of things by observing people who attend landmark forum. Primarily the educated, upper-middle class, urban population attend this and they don't have any clue of what life is all about. The materialistic life style has taken toll totally, which makes them live a miserable life with wrong perceptions, notions and beliefs. Suddenly they realize that the situation it out of control and start thinking about 'one-stop' solution for all their problems. They look for one 'thread' on which they can hang on for rest of their life and forget their worries. The start identifying the thread by attending course like: Landmark forum, Art of living, Ramdev yoga and then getting associated with them. Other examples include: Kanchi ashram,ISKCON, Saibaba ashram, Aurobindo ahsram, Amritanandamayi etc. In a way all these organizations and courses teach almost the same universal values like: humility, responsibility, community service, treating everybody equal,...

It’s been 6 months since I attended Landmark Forum in Bangalore. For people who don't know what this is all about please check out this link . I have mixed opinions about the course. Let me share my first set of thoughts about this course. Let me explain the course structure first. It’s basically a three day plus one evening course primarily focused on personal transformation. Each day starts about 9 AM in the morning (sharp) and goes on till 11 PM in the night, with grueling sessions. Each day has only very few break in between, that too at odd timings (11 AM, 3 PM and 7 PM). A well trained ‘forum leader' will be leading the course for about 400 participants. He has a pre-defined courseware and speaks non-stop for all the three days. These leaders are extremely smart people and ruthless in expressing their viewpoints. The landmark education forum has internal methods of identifying, coaching and grooming these leaders. Coming to the course contents, it’s completely a westerniz...

I was reading Andy's blog and found this interesting piece about Ergonomic laptop stand (Using 3-ring binder as laptop stand).It was very easy to try at my workplace and worked wonders. I am feeling extremely comfortable using my laptop and typing speed has increased to a greater extent. Check out the couple photographs below and its really worth trying! Tail piece: I have read Andy's 'Word-of-mouth-marketing' (WOMMA) book recently and become a fan of it. Will write the book review very soon.

So many things has happened in the last three months, when I was not blogging! Last month, Ram Shriram (One of the early investors in Google) was in India and I had a chance to watch his interview in CNBC. It is probably one of the best TV interviews (in the similar lines of Dalai Lama , Azim Premji ) I have ever seen. I was completely hooked up with each and every word Ram was speaking in rhythmic, soothing voice with clear thoughts. The text version of the interview is available here in the CNBC website. Here is my favorite portion (especially the highlighted one) from the interview. Very simple statements but very realistic. Q: How important is it for you to have an Aha moment every time you put your money into something? A: It is important to realize not every investment will be a Google. Q: It would be great if it turned out to be that way. A: Yes. So, every ten years or so, you will see a Google size company emerge. But in general, it takes committed entrepreneurs, great teams t...

Last weekend I attended the summer edition of Barcamp Bangalore . This is my first Barcamp and I found it very interesting! To start with, its amazing to see the energy level of attendees. They were all highly pumped up and it was showing up with almost everyone I have met. Compared with a hierarchial corporate setup, it was organized as a completely an informal, flat and free-flowing setup. Every session was packed with very interesting questions, debates, critisicms and smart answers in eight different tracks . I was mainly interested in the 'startups and demo' track and spend almost the whole day (saturday) there. I was able to see pretty good web 2.0 applications (Example: http://www.lifeblob.com) demonstrated for roping in the technology enthusiasts. There was an interesting session (according to me) hosted by Prof.Suresh from NSRCEL at IIM-B on the topic 'Startup pains'. He was asking the campers about the list of problems faced by aspiring Entrepreneurs and what...

I stopped writing blogs ever since the year 2008 has started. It was mainly due to some priority tasks (both personal and professional side) occupied my time. Now its high time for me to get back to the habit of blogging! This break has given me more energy to venture deeper into the blogosphere. Stay tuned.