Twitter's Revenue Model

Few days back, the number tweets exceeded the world population.
Also Twitter got to know about a recent small earthquake faster than the local media could get to know about it.
They have 70million users and they’ve grown 1300 odd% in a year.
But yet they don’t have a revenue model and don’t make any money.
So here are a few things I think they can do to become profitable.

• Divide the screen space and display ads.
  This is a tough one as people like Twitter for its simplistic view. But still there is a lot of screen space they can utilize. They can probably divide the page and on one side are the ads related tweets. These tweets can have graphical content which will stand out in comparison to the text based tweets. To tweet here ( lets call it b-tweets) you need to pay something to Twitter. They could charge you per tweet or per month with a usage limit or for the data content. Put in a lot of options which will give a lot of choice for businesses.
  


• Customized feeds.
  Twitter should ask people if they would like to subscribe for customized feeds of they're interests. Something like Yahoo does when you sign up, they ask you to check your interests. There would some people who would check for something which would make a portion of the users not complain about ads since they asked for it. Of course others like us should have the option of not getting any ads on our personal area.
  


• Communities/ Fan clubs
  Twitter should also have this thing like fans/communities where people with similar interests could have conversations. I think since Twitter is so open, there is no directions to the tweets; which is nice in a way but people should be able to direct it if they want to. Twitter could charge businesses for starting these communities to give people info about their product/services.
  


• Strike a deal with GOOGLE
  Also Twitter can strike a deal with Google and allow Google to access their site for real-time searches. This works for Google as well as they need to combat Facebook on the real time search front.(btw It takes a Facebook with 360mil users and Microsoft to take on Google and Google still rocks!!!)

I still haven’t given this much thought; I need to come up with more points.

Paa

I watched Paa last night.
I loved the movie. Amitabh Bachchan has acted really really well and my respect for him as an actor went up a few notches yesterday.
They story revolves around Auro- a 13 year old kid suffering from Progeria, a condition of advanced aging. Auro is the illegimate child of Vidya(Vidya Balan) and Amol Arte(Abhishek Bachchan).

Amitabh's expressions and body language as a 13year old kid is simply amazing. Vidya Balan has acted really well too. Movies with a "different" story suit Vidya more than those which involve wearing skirts and dancing. She has this raw beauty about her and she'd still be as beautiful when she just wakes up as she is all decked up. Ofcourse, since I'm head over heals in love with her, I could be slightly biased.The movie was directed excellently, the songs by Illayaraja were superb- especially the 'gumm summ gumm' song which I am totally crazy about. There was this background score which sounded like a tape recorder barely able to play- yet playing all the time which added to the effect.
All in all a lovely touching movie and a must watch for all ages.

SWAMIYE SHARANAM AIYAPPA

Yesterday there was a pooja for Aiyappa swamy at my aunt's apartment complex. I wanted to go out of belief to Swami Aiyappa. It was a huge gathering of about 300 people. The arrangements were done nicely with huge mantaps for Ganesha, Subramanya, Venkateshwara and of course Aiyappa.
I went there thinking I would just have a darshan, mangalarthi, take my prasad and go. There was loud music playing due to which i was not able to hear anything on a call i received. Feeling a little irritated I thought to myself "what a waste-all the flowers and lighting. that money could have been used elsewhere to provide food for the homeless.etc".There was some sort of orchestra by devotees who were all going in a group to Sabarimale. I actually started enjoying the songs and watching people sing with devotion. It was very nice. Everything from the songs, the singer, the little metal plates banged to add to the music, the casio- I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Of late since about a year or so, my religious activity involved going to the temple or saying a few prayers here and there. I felt I had lost the connection I had spiritually and it had become more of a routine. Recently I had been having a lot of negative thoughts which led me to move into a negative spiral. Attending to pooja, listening to the songs sung there has some how helped me get out of that negative spiraland I am really thankful for that. And I am seeing some form of that spiritual connection resuming again.
When I'm back in Bangalore I want to attend some bhajans more frequently. There is this Hanuman temple near Sophia's where every saturday there are bhajans sung. Looking forward to going for that every saturday.

TRIVANDRUM

I hated Trivandrum at first. Why would I? It was nothing like Bangalore. Also I went there at the wrong time. What added to that was I went there alone, usually batches from a college are called together. The fact that there is a very schoolish atmosphere at TCS there with rules everywhere did not help. I also went during peak summer and was given really lousy accomodation there. So I guess the first month and half at Trivandrum I became a loner. Preferred staying alone.

This was the absolute rejection phase where I could not like anything about the place. But the surprising thing was when I came down to Bangalore- and I did try coming as much as I could- I missed the peace I had there. Nobody to bother you, away from the problems, so close to nature everything.

Gradually I started accepting the place as it is, without any comparison. Started making new friends. I actually started like it. Soon it was like I was finding excuses to not go back during long weekends.

The best part about Trivandrum is that though it is the capital, it is such a laid back city. The place I was staying at is just a km and a half from the sea. There is this fisherman’s beach called which is completely empty. Much better than the commercial Kovalam beach which was just 2 kms away from where I stayed. The view from CLC( Corporate Learning Centre, TCS) is just amazing. Just coconut trees which looks like grass from the distance and the Arabian sea. The view from top is beautiful, the sea on one side and the start of the western ghats on the other.

My favourite place is varkala, where I’ve had so many fond memories. Sleeping on the beach, all night, drunk; going swimming pretty far into sea, standing on the cliff viewing the sea on one side and hills and greenery on one side while drinking beer. This has to be one of my favourite places in the whole world - not that I have travelled much- but still.

The place I stayed at is called TCS Executive Hostel. There is this little stream flowing just behind it- you could go sit there for hours and not hear anything other birds chirping and frogs croaking. There was this bar called B6 just close by where almost everybody from TCS would be there on Friday nights – they had to be there- there were no other bars nearby.

I came there during a really really tough period in my life, and I changed, and matured and learnt a lot. I made a lot of good friends – Rohith, Mamatha, Umar, Liza, Mansa, Rajath, Pawan, Ashok, Malli, Pooja, Bhanu, Chivu, Manohar, Harsha, Lovepreet ( yes that’s a name), Mindri, Praveen, Sameer, of course our HR Shafiq and Finance guy Ashutosh and Cheta from the Nayar shop and anybody else I might have missed out on. You made my stay awesome. Especially Rohith, Mansa and Umar

Thank you Trivandrum- my favourite place in the world( along with Bangalore that is)

My Farmville prediction

I think farmville is going to slowly lose its popularity and people will start getting bored of it. i personally don't play farmville much though my farm is now well maintained by my sister. Prefer Tennis Mania. But I know lots of people who do, but are not that rampant now as they were before. Farmville was differnt( though the idea was ripped off from elsewhere and implemented on a farm). The fact that you could interact with your friends and pass on gifts and fertilize their farms made it a very good social networking game. People who did not keep in touch were suddenly sending gifts to each other everyday. Also building something from scratch is nice and people started having farms. The fact that you needed to come back and harvest your crop regularly made it addictive and made sure people did not leave theirs farms. Soon there were competitions among friends to see who has a better farm.
But then what happened, or is happening or I think will happen is - people cant afford to spend so much time on their farms. When the excitement/ interest for a certain thing is more than the value you place on the time taken, you go ahead with it. Slowly the excitement of people is coming down. After you have a nice farm with a cow shed and 3-4 tractors- What next? There doesn't seem to be a definite end to building your farm which makes people lose the sense of achievement after adding something to your farm.Its like when you buy a new house you are all excited about decorating it and you keep buying stuff and doing your interiors. After sometime when you are settled , you don't really have to interest to keep doing more. The fact that your crop dies if you don't harvest it soon enough will further bore people and make them want to leave the farm altogether. That coupled with the fact that you don't have a "harvest all" option and that little fella takes so much time to move all over the farm makes it very time consuming.
So however popular it is, Farmville is on the decline. Give me a car racing game or a tennis mania game -where I can just play a game and forget about it - anyday

My Dad's India and mine

I Was discussing with my dad the other day about a friend wanting to quit TCS and join a start up with a friend. He found the idea absurd and gave his usual "you youngsters are not wise" dialogue. Now the wisdom of my friend not taken into account, the idea atleast must atleast be appreciated. But coming from a reasonably conservative middle class family, my dad's reaction is not all that wrong.
Back in those days, there weren't too many good jobs around. Now we have so many options.The existing jobs were mainly in the public sector. Job security was paraount. If you were in a decent paying job for a long long time, your future was secure. My dad's India did just tat and secured their future and ours. They saved up money-no frivolous spending- not like there were any good places to hang out and spend your money anyways. They not only secured their future but ours as well.
Now if you look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, if you don't have food water and shelter, you really cant think of job satisfaction or about making the world a better place. So our parents did just that. Secured the food- shelter part. There is another physiological need which is considered a bad bad thing- but lets not get into that. So now that level was set up, the next generation that is us could try for the higher levels. Which is why there are a lot more start ups, lot more people thinking about global warming etc.I think that India is growing the way it is because of the fundation set up by the previous generation. So we shouldn't be thinking that they are conservative. We can be the modern and fast moving because they were steady and conservative.
So when my dad thinks that sticking to a job which provides security is the way to go, he is just trying to come to terms with the change he helped to bring about.

CAT online

* this was a draft written loong back. It is the same for CAT' 10 as well

I have been busy over to past 10 days or so, so no new posts. Wrote Cat 09.. this is what i felt about it

• There were only 60 questions. So from being a '180 questions' paper a few years agon, it is now has only 60. this definitely removes speed from the equation. Gone are those times when you didnt even have time to read all the questions.
• Last year and the year before that, the questions were waay tougher. This time might not have been sitters but they definitely weren't all that tough to crack.

So basically Cat 09 was a very "feel good' Cat. Everybody came out feeling good about themselves. There in lies the problem.
Now Cat is not easy for sure to crack and the competition is intense. Very. So now what happens is since the questions were relatively easy and less in number, at the top, say 95 percentile and above, it will be very very close. The gap between the 98 and the 95 will be very very little. In such cases a little luck in one question could even swap a 98er and a 92er which sucks.This time, I just woke up from a hang over and went to write the cat with out solving a single sum. Since I had nothin to lose, I attempted almost everything which I thought would help me. But since the new Cat was craaaaazy, everybody's attempted just the same which really makes the luck factor play a big part of the equation.

My fav Barney theory

Jesus waited THREE days to come back to life. It was perfect! If he had only waited ONE day, a lot of people wouldn’t have even heard he died. They’d be all, “Hey Jesus, what up?” and Jesus would probably be like, “What up? I DIED yesterday!” and they’d be all, “Uhh, you look pretty alive to me, dude…” and then Jesus would have to explain how he was resurrected, and how it was a miracle, and the dude’d be like “Uhh okay, whatever you say, bro…” And he’s not gonna come back on a SATURDAY. Everybody’s busy, doing chores, workin’ the loom, trimmin’ the beard, NO. He waited the perfect number of days, THREE. Plus it’s SUNDAY, so everyone’s in church already, and they’re all in there like “Oh no, Jesus is DEAD”, and then BAM! He bursts in the back door, runnin’ up the aisle, everyone’s totally psyched, and FYI, that’s when he invented the high five. That’s why we wait three days to call a woman, because that’s how long Jesus wants us to wait…. True story.

The Relationship Bank

We can compare relationships to banking accounts.
Everytime you do something nice for the other, your crediting onto your account.The arguments and fights and misunderstandings debit from your relationshp account. Now there are things that you do, like the big things such as travelling together or spending the entire day together, these are big amounts that are credited. But they are few and far apart( Cuz doing them regularly is going to debit a lot from your actual account). My advice is to not rely on these big transactions. They're bonuses. For eg going on a trip or an expensive dinner to make up for fights doesnt make sense. But there are small things you can credit into your account on an everyday basis which on the long run adds a lot to the Relationship account( henceforth referred to as RA). They are things such as calling during to work just to tell the other person that they're on your mind, or telling them how much you appreciate what they did or telling each other what happened all day just before you sleep etc..These things ensure you have enough balance in your RA during the tough times. i.e your relationship is deep enough for both of you to fight through the tough times.
Now there are 2 ways most relationships handle their accounts.Like all accounts, the RA needs to keep growing. Remaining stagnant is not an option.

• Some draw big, deposit big. These couples have crazy fights and the lows are extremely low.But similarly the highs are extremely high. Such relationships are lot more volatile and more exciting.
• Some draw small, deposit small. Now these relationships are a lot more stable but not that exciting. The highs are just not high enough.

My relationship is more of the first sort. But over time we've noticed that we're spending too much from the RA and even though we're depositing quite a bit, the balance is not increasing much. So gradually a cost cutting phase has occured where we are trying to reduce the big withdrawals. To a large extent constantly keeping your mind on cost cutting makes you spend less. Here even maturity which I think has come over a 8-9 months of long distance has helped a lot.

Now investments. As the saying goes never live beyond your means, Never plan an investment (could be anything from meeting each others parents to planning marriage to having a common bank account to moving in togther) where you don't have the means to pay it through. So unless you have a sufficient balance, the investment is never safe.The investment differs from person to person. For some meeting the parent may not be such a big deal, where as for some it is a significant thing.

Locking of Investments. Sometimes some couples have invested so much in the relationship that though they know it is not going in the right direction, the are not able to disinvest. It is like being the relationship because you know no other way. Comparing this to the US credit crunch, when too many people have their money locked in investments they cant come out of easily, it reduces the liquidity in the market. Here it might be the number of eligible girls who you can start an RA with but she's locked in a dead investment :p

Also the return of investment . You dont invest something where you dont get good returns. Here the returns are stability, somebody to depend on with whom both of you can grow and help each other reach their max. Many couples forget this fact that the relationship should not be a liability but a bonus.

I am no relationship expert but I think if you look at relationships on the long run with these parameters, you will be able to get more out of your RA .

My Shared Auto

Aerial view of a Shared Auto

I travel everyday to work in a shared auto. The concept of a shared auto is something like a extremely scaled down version of a bus. The share auto guys go from one point to another along a popular path. They have regular pickup/drop off points enroute.

I start of near Ameerpet where the Share auto starts. Since it is the starting point, the autos are usually empty. The auto drivers wait till the auto is 75% filled i.e about 6 customers before leaving the place. So usually when I get into my auto I am made to wait a good 15mins before it actually leaves. He keeps moving the auto in random directions around a particular point(usually a bus stop) making a mess of the traffic and irritating the hell out of the bus driver.

Now this is a normal auto seen in most cities. But how people sit inside is a little different. In the rear- where normally 3 medium sized men can squeeze in- about 4 people are made to sit. Usually plump ladies with huge bags of vegetables or wailing kids on their laps. Sitting here is a luxury. The priority order goes like this - First ladies, then old men, then huge men, then middle aged men. So the smaller built young men like are usually made to sit in front next to the auto driver.Now in front there is a single seat with extended flaps on either side. The auto driver sits at the front edge of his seat. 2 men sit on either side of the driver. 2 more men are made to sit bside them. Usually the unlucky ones like me get this priveleged Corner. The area covered by my posterior will probably be about 5sq cm. I have to hold onto my bag in one hand and to my life in another. It is advisable to turn your neck at an uncomfortably weird angle to avoid the smelly armpit of the person just next to you.

This ride coupled with really horrible dichik dichik Telugu music costs me just Rs 15 :)

Is our Media ruining us???

Recently I came across this article http://www.bombaybar.com/in_joco_veritas/faucets_of_media_lore.php#more (really hilarious) and then when i got back home later in the evening (yes that means I blog and surf from work :P) I saw some channel having a major heated discussion about something so insignificant that I don't even remember what it was. Got me thinking.. There are many really stupid things that the media reports and blows out of proportion so much that I think it actually affects the intellect of people. The things which should be reported are never given much importance. Things like Renuka Chowdary or somebody else mailing pink chaddis to Mutalik got such prime time importance, it actually makes me wonder- are we force fed all this by the media or is the media dishing it out only cuz we're waiting to buy it. Either ways something is wrong. There are discussions about valentine day cards and MMS clips and the fact that SRK was not invited to Abhishek's wedding. When are we going to grow up?

Also another point I want to make here. Somedays back I read an article about how some start up was providing cold storage during transportation of vegetables and thus helping farmers gain more out of their crop. Quite frankly that inspired me. I wanted to do something innovative and help my country after reading that. We need stuff like that which make people proud to be Indian, which inspires them to do something new, something innovative, something for the country even if it just makes somebody just help an old man cross the road.. it is worth it. Day in and day out reading things like there was a robbery or some flyover is delayed- I agree we need to know all that- but on the main page we need stuff which inspires us, not saps us of our energy to go do something spectacular..Reading such negative things actually starts affecting the psyche of the people. Soon they just go "The construction is delayed by 6months..whts new" or "road jams..just have to get used to it".
I strongly feel the media needs to be regulated and instead of just hyping unnecessary things which dont really help anybody, it should work with the intent of changing our country, inspiring us to do better, enducing patriotism among us, make us just wake us everyday- read the newspaper or watch the news- fill us with pride and just make us go out there and do our best because our country deserves the best from us.

Honeymoon Phase Termination

In life, experiences are a lot like Indian marriages.. Your relationship could be that experience, it could be your experience in a new place or with a new technology at work.. so you get the point..but it is more apt for relationships
I have a good friend. Since he is an important part of my life, and might be mentioned in my further posts, he shall henceforth be referred to as ‘Sanakla’ .
So sanakla gets to know a girl (sanakli). This is the Introduction phase.
After this is the courtship phase. During the courtship phase sanakla impresses the sanakli and sanakli gets familiar with him. There the dropping of defences . Though people are highly opinionated, they start changing their opinions proactively during this phase.
After this is the honeymoon phase. During this phase people are blind in their judgements and they start seeing things through rose coloured glasses. Everything is awesome in this phase. The things people find cute in this phase are usually the things people find irritating later on.
Now please note… people can exit the equation at any moment in any phase. So what happens during exits.
For an exit to be called successful there are 2 critical requirements- timing and synchronization.
Synchronization as in the exit should be discussed by the parties involved and a suitable exit strategy can be developed. Else one partner could end up stranded.
Timing as in during which moment in which phase does the exit occur.
Now unfortunately for my friend Sanakla, he got caught on the wrong side of both the critical requirements. The sanakli exited at the Honeymoon phase with Sanakla still deep in the honeymoon phase which displays total lack of synchronization. Since this occurred during the honeymoon phase, our poor sanakla has only rosy memories of cute incidents. Things normally rated as 8-9/10 are amplified in the mind and rated 19-21/10. Since he never reached the Reality phase, he has not had the reality check which tells him 8-9 though good on its own is not a 19-21. Now whenever he meets a new girl, it is a comparison with a 21 which is pretty hard for the new girl to live up to.
So the solution for this problem is another Honeymoon phase with a proper reality check after that. But to get to a new honeymoon phase he needs to come out of this one first…. Which makes the problem recursive for poor sanakla :(

Primary Secondary and Tertiary

People, with respect to social interactions can be broadly classified as either Primary, Secondary or Tertiary.
Primaries.. are those who have fun irrespective of the type of group they are in. They are the fun part of the group, so the fun goes with them. They are bubbly, excitable, energetic and sometimes hyper.
Secondaries ..are those people who need to have primaries to have fun. But when in the company of a primary become energetic and bubbly and energized. Though they can also be sober and quiet when in company of non-primary people.
Then comes the Tertiaries.. these guys are sober all the time, irrespective of the group they are with or the people they are with.. you can pretty much be sure that they won’t be too involved in the wild side nor will they be a source of any fun.
The primary can’t understand why the tertiary is soo tertiary compared to his own energetic self. He doesn’t mind the secondary as the secondary becomes Primary in company of a Primary. But the primary needs tertiaries around him to satisfy his bloated ego. The primary needs to be source of fun and the cynosure of the group .If there is more than one primary and the chemistry between them not good, things can get fiercely competitive and it rarely ends up with 2 primaries bonding, rather the lesser primary ends up sulking.
The Tertiaries cant hang out with themselves as they find each other boring. Nor can secondaries hang out by themselves or with tertiaries as they don’t know where to start.
So for a group of friends who hang out, the optimal combination is something like this
1-2 primaries(depending on the size of the group).
4-6 secondaries( they add to the fun with out the competitiveness of the primaries).
3-4 tertiaries( they add to the stability and sanity of the group. The group led by a wild primary and followed by the secondaries needs a sounding board).
So after reading this, What are you? Primary, Secondary or Tertiary?

KILLER APPLICATIONS THAT GOOGLE SHOULD COME UP WITH

• A much awaited “G Drive” where you can just drag and drop onto your Online Storage device. Pretty much like Microsoft’s Sky drive, only a lot cooler as it is by Google.



• An “OFFICE G” to replace MS office.



• A “MEDIA G” software which plays audio and video in all formats, searches for related media info and updates the files. For e.g.: it should be able to search for the subtitle track for movie file. Also with handheld music players becoming popular, MEDIA G also sorts the music and updates info such as genre, year, artist etc so that it’s easy to use on your “G POD”.
  
  
• A G POD.



• A "G MONEY” for people to manage their personal finances. This is pretty simple yet necessary. I don’t know why Google hasn’t done something about it yet.
  BUY FACEBOOK, not just delete Orkut but Shift Delete it.



• Google handsets to go with Android with limited ads on your mobile if you go in for the subsidized version of the phone.



• Finally a Google OS that’s awesome enough to make Microsoft and Apple go out of business.

My Thoughts after a sandwich

If you follow How I met your mother, you will know what I am talking. It is not like I love sandwiches. But I’m not exactly a sandwich virgin. I have noticed something very interesting though. It’s my thought process after eating a sandwich. It’s like the speed of my thoughts increase so fast that my brain is not able to link them effectively. Also there are several concurrent threads of thoughts which arise from the same thread but vary so much. This variation among the threads is so much that one more thread arises just to analyze these variations. The whole combinations of these threads get very confusing and my brain seems to be a ball of active and dormant threads.
Another interesting thing I have noticed is that most of the thoughts are recursive in nature. Like I experience all these threads and I am thinking of telling this to somebody (MBA usually..Sorry if most of you don’t understand. This post is more for just expressing myself ) then there is usually a thread which is me actually telling somebody and one thinking I am experiencing the previous thread. All these threads and their analysis makes the bed spin when I close my eyes and opening my eyes just gives rise to more inputs for threads to arise which is why - KIDS STAY AWAY FROM SANDWICHES.

JAI HO! and the Indian need for Western acceptance

About 3 yrs ago, I attended an AR Rahman concert in Bangalore, held at Palace grounds( in the centre of Bangalore). Not many people attended that concert though, and lucky for me, I was promoted from Rs 600 stand to the Rs 900 one. 3yrs and 2 Oscars later, there was another Rahman concert, this time in Shamshabad, 50kms from Hyderabad, and believe me you had to walk quite a bit. And there was such a huge crowd that the previous concert in Blore seemed like a small village fair.
Now any true Rahman fan will acknowledge that Slumdog Millionaire, though good is not among his best. Jai Ho is no where in the same league as Kehna hi kya, or a Roja or even E ajnabi.. But people who never really appreciated these songs now listen to them and say “wow Rahman is good” . We know that Rahman is good, that he’s awesome.. But what I need to know is why was an Oscar required to make some of us realize that.
I have noticed this quite a few times actually.. the Indian need for western acceptance. The waiters are more polite to the Gore memsaab than the lady with the sari at tourist spots—though this could be due to the extra income in dollars .
This need for acceptance and appreciation from outside stems from the underlying belief that they are better than us and we need to impress them. I think we need to have more pride in ourselves as a nation. I know everybody says they are proud to be Indian esp around mid August and end jan but I feel that is very superficial. The schools play a major role in shaping the future generation and should involve a lot more of our culture, heritage varied as it may be, inculcate more pride about being Indian among the kids. The parents too should play a major role towards this endeavor. Encourage kids to buy more Indian. Why pepsi when you have lime juice or majge? May be not in everything, but where ever we can, we should buy INDIAN when ever we have a choice.
So we become more independent, so that we don’t lose much foreign exchange, So that we don’t need an award from outside to tell us that our Rahman makes magic with music :)
Jai ho JAI HIND!!!

Are YOU causing the Recession??

The Recession is currently baad...No liquidity in the markets..here in India salaries havent been slashed as in the US and Europe..but you never know...better safe than sorry..right...so we should be saving up for that rainy day..are you thinking that?? then you are contributing to the recession as well...if your salary has been the same/or reduced by a bit..you cut down on your spending by a much significant percentage, that further is reducing the liquidity doesnt it? so if you have been wanting to buy that pair of puma shoes or if you're a little up on the heirarchy, you wanna go on that Euro trip..go ahead..plan it..you don have to cut down on al your plans..go ahead and execute some..right now our economy isnt as robust as it was due to the cascading effect of the situation in the US..but we dont want the recession to start happening domestically do we?the americans made a mistake by not saving up.we dont wanna make a mistake by doing jus the opposite..there is always the middle path..for once Paris Hilton is right(for more on this read her blog/blore times)..go ahead spend a little..help in wht ever we can to jump start the global economy

Cheers!!!!

The story of a Cigarette

This may not be true to some, but i think its largely true...since i have gone thru this i will share wht i feel about it...how does one start smoking...for me it was the peers...for most it is the same..i did not want to smoke..i just wanted to be able to take a puff and leave it out wid flourish..trying to do tat got me addicted..to fit in..along with everybody...it might hurt somebody's ego to accept tat but its true wid almost every smoker..once the smoking is started...i started associating smoking with different feelings..

"i am happy..lets celebrate and have a smoke "

"i am tensed...man i need a smoke"

"bugger i fought wid my girlfren..lets go have smoke"

etc etc etc

Wht happens is when u smoke, the tobacco makes ur brain release dopamine which is also released during sensations such as happiness,joy etc. so ppl might say that they smoke cuz it give them the feeling of happiness..NOT TRUE..

At first its cool...then u lik the buzz...but aftr sometim ur body gets adjusted to it..Damn no buzz anymore...only the first cigarette gets u the buzz..soon that doesnt happen anymore as well..then u stil cont smokin..why? cuz its the associations..

its lik some ppl write a diary not cuz they can express themseves but cuz everybody writes it...soon they jus report events rather than feelings which doesnt serve the purpose at al..

To quit you have to first stop the associations..the associations are already there..then replace them wid somethin else..

"i am happy...lets have beer/chocolate"

"i am sad..let me go pet my dog"

etc

those who wanna quit don have to fight so hard if your emotional support systems(read associations) are strong

So smokers if you do come across this post pls leave a comment regarding my theory

The SECRET

If you've read of the secret, I am sure u'l knw wht i am talkin about.. wht most of these ppl say is- you got to visualize and see it happening. I hve not consciously tried it yet but i hve noticed that whenever i am excited about somethin i do visualize it in my mind...longing for it..imagining every detail..but the more i do tat, the more likely it never happens... surprising considering i do all the visualization without planning to..whts going wrong..i've been pondering...may b i am just unlucky..but i have noticed it happen to many... may b thats why ppl say go without expectation..tho i very much agree with that as whtever u get is a bonus wid that attitude towards life...if you really want somethin..its allowed to expect it to happen/work...cuz thats faith..WHY DOES IT WORK THE OTHER WAY THEN?? my explanation to that is when u long for somethin and really excited and visualize..u are dreaming..feeling the emotions an al as reqd but ur stil longing for it..THE SECRET says that u got think it will happen..KNOW IT WILL HAPPEN...thats when the universe conspires to make it happen..if you have more insight into the descrepancy...pls comment