Hoorray!

Serve We can get anything today for money. This bartering of money for objects and results has undervalued the value of both money and the thing it buys. The irony is calling that effort or result bought with money as a “service”. What then, is the real meaning of service? Expending one’s efforts with no expectations of any kind in return is service. It is done for the sake of the effort, for love, for the betterment of the person receiving it. To serve is to learn, to grow, to realize, and to enjoy. The act of serving helps the person performing the service more than the person receiving it. It clears the mind and purifies the heart. Such is the power of service, where even those who at first are not inclined to perform the act willingly, are soon touched by the joy of service. After all, they cannot escape the virtue of happiness and contentment when it spreads from their own hand. We “I” do not serve. “You” do not serve. “He, She, It” does not and “They” do not se

Sometime back, I encountered a puzzle posted by a member in a LinkedIn group. It was called a Million Dollar Suitcase . A scenario with a challenge was described and we had to find a solution. It went like this: Three suitcases are all labeled incorrectly, and you must get the labels right in order to find the million dollar suitcase (the one full of hundred dollar bills).  The labels on the suitcases read as follows: $100 Bills $1 Bills Both ($100 & $1 Bills) You are allowed one test. You may remove only one bill from a single suitcase, after which you must make your determination. You can’t peek into the suitcases. Can you find the million dollar suitcase? The Solution I read about it and devised a solution before checking it out on the site. My explanation was: Assuming all of the suitcases are definitely mislabeled - we can safely remove one (i.e. the $100 suitcase) from the game and consider only two suitcases: $1 and Both.  If we select the one labeled &

Do you love masala movies? If you do, then you’ll definitely like Along The Way. To be true to the style of the book, it is the story of one Mr. VSA Tanikaburla by Mr. TGC Prasad. Venkata Subramaniam Adisankara Tanikaburla, also called as Venkat or more jovially as VSAT is our hero - who starts off as a very unassuming third year mechanical engineering student at NIT, Kozhikode and ends up as a... easy to guess if you like or at least have watched a masala movie - especially the Telugu or Tamil varieties. When you watch one such movie, you can predict what will happen next. This book is very similar, since it is full of cliches of the ‘boy-meets-girl’ kind and has everything - love, friendship, family, sorrow, trials and triumphs, except one thing - fights. In spite of the cliches, I couldn’t help laughing at the so many humorous digs at friends, girlfriends, parents, in-laws and most importantly - managers at workplaces. And our hero is honest enough to be “vocally self-critical”(

I've taken a really long break from writing - thanks in good measure to frequently disrupted internet connectivity. Added to that, my new "occupation" that never is, has also began and is eating up my time and health. I couldnt even record my experiences of the last year and explore what I might do this year on time. So here goes... Hopefully, like last year, this year too, I am looking forward to change. Many lessons were learnt and unlearnt last year, which began with a few painful happenings and peaked with my dad's undergoing a medical crisis. In the end, everything fell in place: dad's back in top condition, happy events(including a full two days spent with Swami Dayananda Saraswati, at his ashram!), new people, new hopes and as usual - backbreaking work. I travelled last year, though not as much as I wanted and not to too many new places. I am yet to learn a new language(German!). I have read loads of books, but far lesser than I could have with the ti