Sunday, January 31, 2010

Random Act of Kindness

 I was browsing live journal website when I came across the question: " when was the last time you did any random act of kindness?" The question caught my attention. I kept thinking about it. If was with great difficulty I could figure out what, of all the acts of kindness (if I did any), will be considered random?
 First I thought donating to Haiti relief fund would qualify for random act of kindness. It in act of kindness, yes; but in it random? I knew about Haiti, I read about it, I heard about it on radio, I saw the disaster on TU. I knew about it and hence helped it. It wasn't random after all.
Then I thought of the concert I attended which was part of fund raising campaign for Association forIndia's Development. A friend of mine was organizing it. Again I couldn't convince myself that this was random. If it wasn't for the friend I wouldn't have attended the concert nor would I have caned about that organization.
 Still thinking about random act of kindness landed me with two acts which can be random. First , a couple of months ago I wrote a biog on helping people with managing and lowering taxes by suggesting things they can do at the end of year.Read about it here.I had no obligation to waste it nor any advantage of doing so. But I sure hope it helped the people who read it. I guess this act can be considered random act of kindness.
 Second, a year ago when I was moving my apartment I had loads of clothes , some books and ass that I no longer use, but are in great condition. I was about to throw away since I no longer needed them. Instead I donated the clothes to Goodwill, books to a library and CDs to friends. I figured out that there are people for whom books and clothes were luxury. I truly wish they get what they want. And I sure hope this can be called random act of kindness.
What was your last random act of kindness?

Investment game update

A week ago I started an investment game to get my friends and I to think more on investments and to discuss the strategies. Got five of my friends sign up and a week later just two to actually invest in something. The other three didnt start investing and hence they are still at $10K. Nishant invested in MOT which tanked on Friday taking him to -1.14%. I invested in NRG which I thought is undervalued now. unfortunately it went down taking me to -1.19%. So currently I am in 5th place while Nishanth is in 4th place. The others, still yet to make a trade and hence in 1st position :) Come on you people, start trading!

Italy tour - Naples

The first impression I had when I walked out of the Naples railway station was "Wow! This looks just like Secunderabad railway station." It is pretty dirty especially with the rain that poured the previous night. There are so many people just standing at the exits from railway station with a weird look that I was thinking about Rick Steve's suggestion "Keep your bags close to you." The hotel we chose was very close to railway station, just 200m that we just walked.
The hotel was good for most part. The city itself was interesting. Narrow lanes, loud crowd, thin walls, lot of immigrants. Interestingly we found so many Bangladeshis there. Almost every phone booth, internet center was run by Bangladeshis.
Naples is the birthplace of pizza. You would be surprised that the pizza over here is a totally different concept that what you get from Pizza Hut or Papa Johns. The crust is so thin that it reminds you of Indian Chapati. Tomato sauce is spread over it, with some vegetables and there it goes into the oven. Before they serve you, olive oil (plenty of it) is spilled on the top of the pizza. Good food was a bit difficult to get in Naples.All the recommended ones were below the expectations.
Naples city is probably in one of the best locations I have seen. It has mountains on one side and ocean on the other. Due to its location, the city is sandwiched and hence crowded. City attractions include bunch of museums, couple of churches and archeological sites. The best museum of Naples is the National Museum of Archeology which contains the artifacts found while excavating Pompeii (about which you would read in a while). Another good museum to visit is National Museum of Capodimonte. This museum contains the collection of the Capodimonte family and is a worth a visit. I liked the garden around the museum and the great views up from there. You can see the port, the beautiful coast line, and ever busy city sounds fade away. We had great time visiting these. The toughest part was to get there. You have to take bus transportation and it is erratic. Make sure you check out the schedule before you leave.
Apart from those two museums we didnt do much in Naples. We used it as a base to visit Pompeii which is about 20 mins in train ride from Naples. Make sure you get the museum pass if you plan to visit either of the museums and Pompeii. It would more than pay for itself. We took a train back from Naples to Florence. It took about 5 hours in an intercity train. If we had taken a fast train it would have taken just 3:10hrs, but cost us 3 times :)

Friday, January 22, 2010

Welcome to my new investment game!

Folks, I invite you all to join me in having a fun-learning experience, a new investment game to test your strategies in stock market. The rules are simple:
  • you get $10K virtual money to start with
  • you have 6 months to invest
  • you have all the options as you would get on the real stock market
  • $9.95 commission for the trades
Thats it.
Why should you join?
For one, it is going to be fun to play a game with others. The other reasons include:
  • See how others are investing
  • Learn from them or teach them how to invest
  • Discuss the strategies involved in investing
  • Understand the market and why the market is reacting/behaving like it does
  • Understand how your friends think about money :)
Come join me in this game!
Use the information and directions below to join the game.
Game ID: sureshd1
Game Password: sureshd1
  1. Open this link and read the competition summary:
    http://vse.marketwatch.com/Game/StartViewGame.aspx?id=sureshd1
  2. Click on the 'Join Game' link.
  3. If you are an existing Virtual Stock Exchange member, enter your Email address and Password in the login panel and get set to trade. If you are a new user, follow the link to register - it's easy!
  4. Follow the instructions and start trading!
Join now, and see if you can win my Suresh and His friends game 1 competition! The more participants the higher the level of competition. Can you master the market

Thursday, January 14, 2010

I am humbled!

Dont know if you folks follow TED, but if you haven't already checked out, check out this link you would be amazed.


India needs more of such practical people than bookish knowledge.And it definitely needs people who dream big and go after it. Its a pity that Indian community somehow becomes complacent quickly and is very risk averse. You go and tell someone you wanna try something new and 90% of people would say why do you want to take risk when you are properly settled, blah blah blah.. But what is life without taking risks for what you believe in? As a community we need to encourage people to take risks, better themselves and reward even those who failed while taking risks. We need to change our mindset and help, encourage the people who want to make a difference in the world.
I've become immune to the feeling that I should continue to work in the same field as what I spent my schooling in. More and more I realize that given a chance and if I were properly exposed earlier in life, I would've not chose engineering :) (dont get me wrong, i love engineering, it equipped me with lovely skills that i can use in daily life and i see most people struggling with them). i seem to miss the social aspect completely. i dont feel i am being useful to society directly. compare me to a doctor or a dentist or a nurse (who needs much less education than we do) and getting that constant feedback from the people you directly serve. i think thats lovely. what i think i am trying to say is that personal satisfaction of feeling that what you are working towards matters to some one is truly amazing.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Italy tour - Vatican

Vatican is the smallest country in the world and probably the place every Christian wants to visit at least once in his/her life time. It is also very rich, population growth of almost zero % (it is +ve due to swiss guards who can have kids). They have their own currency, their own shopping malls (with no taxes), their own army, and almost everything you would like to have in any affluent country. By the way Vatican is the smallest country in the world.
Allocating a day should be more than sufficient in Vatican, unless you want to waste time in the lines and / or want to explore the city in full details. It is a great city, take time to absorb the beauty and grandeur. Don't haste here. If you can afford, take a guide with you and get every thing explained. It has very interesting history.
Here are the places we visited and my opinions on those places.

Vatican Museum

 Probably the largest museum in the world (so they claim), it has more than 1500 rooms. These are private collections of popes (about 200 of them ).  I wonder how rich the Popes must have to even get such a large private collection. It is full of frescos, wall hangings, paintings, sculptures, beautiful corridors. It would take almost 11 days to go through the museum even if you spend only 10 mins per room :). You have guides who walk you though the highlights of the museum. We just took one of those tours. They are expensive but save you loads of time since you can get to skip the usually very long line in front of museum. The guide was very engaging and explained various paintings, sculptures, their history and some not so great things that you would like to share with kids :). Overall it was damn impressive.

One of the ceilings had a great painting which I thought was an etched sculpture on the top. here is the picture of the same.  Apparently this a common technique in painting (called French style or something)

St. Peter's Basilica
No doubt the grandest of all the churches you would ever see, this is the largest church in the world. It is so damn huge that it takes a while to walk from one side to another. It has the famous Dove window by Bernini, the works of Michelangelo (piata and some paintings) and beautiful St. Peter's Center altar. If you look down you can see underground rooms (think Angels and Demons). Oh yeah you can also see where the Camerlengo sets himself on fire in Angels and Demons :) It is beautiful to the extent you would loose interest in all other chapels and churches :) 
Sistine Chapel
Home of the famous Michelangelo's fresco, it is considered, probably, the most sacred chapel in the world. It is pretty small when compared to other churches and chapels you would find around, but the fresco and the meaning that he wanted to convey is awesome. It conveys genesis, 9 part fresco and some other total christianity related stuff that I didnt understand much. This is where the cardinals select next Pope. By the way, you cannot take any pictures since Kodak owns the copyrights to the fresco :)
St. Peter's square
Its so huge that you can accommodate about 200,000 people at once. Its probably one of the best sights you can ever get. It is in almost a circle, with an opening at one end to let people come in and at the other end is the entrance to St. Peter's Basilica. All around you would see tall cylindrical pillars and a beautiful corridor. In the middle is where you find another fountain, beautiful as everything around it. (this is where a dead guy is found in Angels and Demons).

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Italy tour - Rome

 Landed as Rome Fiomucino airport. Immigration check was a breeze. Went to tour information, bought Roma pan and took a train to Rome termini. From there took a local subway to Cavour station to check in to Hotel. We were so tired that we just crashed until evening. In the evening, we went out to a walk starting from Piazza del Popolo down to Spanish steps, Trevi fountain, and then to the subway metro station to take it back to Cavour station.

Piazza del Popolo is a very beautiful plaza for people to meet, socialize, flirt and generally relax. As any place in Rome, it is full of scultptures, a beautiful fountain, and a great views around.
We went down walking in the streets and entered a good looking restaurant, and we had one of the best pizzas ever. Even though the food was a bit expensive, it was very delicious. After the dinner we went walking in the streets of Rome until we reached Spanish steps. As usual it was great with sculpture, another fountain and plenty of people just sitting around sharing a great time. Plenty of love birds and roadside romeos having fun and generally in a great moods. From there we just walked down to Trevi fountain.
Getting to Trevi fountain is damn interesting. You would go through small gullies, narrow pathways, and some dark ones too. You keep wondering if you are on correct path and voila there it is, buzzing with people, unbelievably crowded and just plain engrossing that you would forget the crowd around you. Absolutely stunning. Designed by Lorenzo Bernini (who is also responsible for bunch of fountains around), it is a must see if you are visiting Rome. Spend a bunch of time there, relaxing, just admiring the beautiful scenery.
Next day we started on our day long walking tour of Rome starting at Colosseum. There is no doubt about Colosseum being one of the seven wonders of world. Built around 70-80AD, it is by far the best historical monument I've ever seen. I was jaw dropped marveling its architecture. Imagining it filled with 50000 spectators hooting for the gladiators fight truly amazes you. I was totally baffled by their ingenuity in designing the colosseum, with almost every detail worked out. They even had lifts to get the animals up when gladiator is not watching. They had aquaducts coming in to fill the arena with water to make it entertaining for folks. Romans were bloodthirsty folks. Even though I am amazed by the architecture, I was kind of taken aback by what it is used for :)
From Colosseum we strolled into Roman Forum. This is where the action during Roman civilization used to happen. This place is full of arches. If a king wins a war, they build an arch for him. I have no idea why they build an arch instead of something else like a building :), but thats what Roman's did. It has Basilica, a market, the senate, a court, a church and best of all it is in a valley so that the people in palaces on Palentine Hill can just look down their balcony and see what all is going on. Oh yeah! it also has the place where Julius Caeser got stabbed to death :) (Et tu Brutus...). We strolled through the arches, the building and finally reached Palentine Hills. By the way if you were wondering how they built it, they got slaves from Africa to "help" them build it ;)
By the time we reached Palentine Hills we were a bit tired and hungry too. So, we just roamed around to see how big their palaces were. Interesting on the other side of the Hill is where circus maximus is. This is where they used to have charriot races. I think Romans used Hills for their homes and the valleys for socializing. Great concept. Circus Maximus is not really worth all the walk to it.
After seeing all these great monuments, we set forth to see Pantheon, the building that inspired hell lot of others including Jefferson's memorial in Washington DC. It is well hidden from the main roads. But the magnitude of the building is just awe inspiring. Its so hard to imagine that they could build such beautiful and strong buildings centuries ago (while the new ones that we construct now will probably not withstand a strong wind,lol). Pantheon is amazing, the art inside is beautiful and of course as with any other monument in Rome, it has a beautiful fountain in front of it. Dont forget to have a gelato near Pantheon, it is amaaziiinnnggg.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

New Year Resolutions

I dont remember the last time I had New Year Resolutions, but I did a list for this year. May be this means I was not satisfied with my performance last year. Anyway, here they are:
  • Get in touch with my old friends and keep in touch
  • Start a blog and pose questions soliciting ideas from others on how to solve them
  • Try to set up a competition in SCH schools that promote entrepreneurship amongst school children
  • Keep in touch with Trichy folks and keep abreast of NITT-USA group
  • Go to gym at least 3 times a week
  • Write blogs regularly
  • Buy a home
  • Read a book a month
  • Get to know more about photography
  • Become a small business owner and get it successful
  • Read news at least twice a week
  • Help at least couple of friends/family members achieve their goals
Need to check this and see how I am doing in a quarter ;)

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Italy tour summary



This post has been long overdue. Not sure why I had it in the drafts until today...

=============================
 Recently I've been on a tour to Italy and it was awesome. Just a few days in another country can teach you so much more than what you can read in books for a month. I intend to write all about what I learnt, what I observed and what I felt. To start off I will summarize my trip in this blog.
We have been to Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Florence and Venice. Let's start with Rome.
Rome
Of all the cities in Italy I visited Rome was the best. Just walking down the street and you would find a fine blend of history, modern life style and beauty. We visited colosseums Circus maximus, Roman Forum, Palestine Hills, Trevi fountain, Piazza del Popolo , Pantheon etc.
 Colosseum is truly amazing. walking down there you can literally feel gladiators fighting, The Roman crowd cheering and admire the engineering that went into it. Imagining this 2000 years ago would just blow you off No wonder it made into Seven wonders of the world.I was so engrossed in its architecture and marvel.
 Roman forum and Palatine Hills are close by and this is where most of the action during Roman times happened. They had markets, courts, churches, public stages which can be used to further ones cause it was indeed truly democratic. You literally walk the same place Julius Caesar walked. Just on the top of the hill are the palaces of the kings. From their balconies they can see almost everything going on in the city.
 Rome is full of Pianos, Roman version of plazas when people can meet, talk, have fun. Almost all or them have beautiful sculpture around. pantheon's architecture inspired numerous buildings across the world including Jefferson's memorial and Lincoln memorial.
 Vatican
 The smallest country in the world but undoubtedly one of the richest per capita. It's museums and churches are testimony of the riches the country enjoys. St. Peters square is so huge that it can accommodate about 200,000 people at a time. and it is surrounded by amazing architecture.St. Peters Basilica, Sistine chapelare just so gorgeous that theydeserve all the credit they receive.Vatican museum is full of sculptures,paintings and frescos, very gorgeous.

Naples
Probably the worst city we visited. The only season to visit Naples is to go to Pompeii and see the Natural museum where they have the display of things excavated from Pompeii. The location in which Naples is amazing. Mountains on one side and ocean on the other. It does provide some beautiful views.
 Pompeii
A city that was destroyed in 76 AD , it was frozen in time by the lava from Mt. Vesuvius that engulfed it. Pompeii in its peak time must have been way ahead of other cities. they had markets, churches, amphitheatre that can host 50000 people and from anywhere you get awesome views to Ocean. The most interesting part is their street cleaning system. They drain water down the streets.
 Florence
 Home of Uffizi, Academia etc but we truly felt Florence is hyped. Except for David and couple of other paintings in academia they can close it. Uffizi gallery was good but it doesn't deserve so long lines. City of Florence is very small and there is hardly a time you would need to take a bus. Duomo was very interesting and there are some good Piazzas around.
 Venice
 Truly a marvelous story and city, built an a lagoon that is sinking, it offers a great experience that is unique to this place. Cruise down the Grand Canal, walk in the streets of Venice , visit Murano glass factory and have fun at San Marcos. These are the things to doin Venice.transportation is damn slow on water buses called Vaperetti. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the slow life style.