Randy Pausch died on Friday in South Virginia.
Strangely, I was speaking about Randy with my friend on that friday. I gifted her ‘The Last Lecture’ book and was telling Randy’s extraordinary story. While I was describing his story, Randy was living his final moments.
Randy inspired millions of Indians through his ‘The Last Lecture’. Randy Pausch will live on – in our hearts!
Related Items:
Randy Pausch’s Lecture of Lifetime on A Blog Less Ordinary
Serial blasts rocked Ahmedabad today afternoon. We are all safe here.
Mobile phone networks are down. We will keep our friends and family posted.
Bangalore was attacked yesterday. Jaipur was attacked a few weeks back. Clearly, India is challenged. These are testing times. Need for courage, faith and lending a helping hand. Need for keeping humanity ahead of everything.
Read Blast Note on Rediff
A picture is worth a thousand words. Mahendra Shah, the famous artist and cartoonist behind www.ameamericanamdavadi.com, has sent this picture. It says it all!
Check out the Rediff Site for Indian Railways – Rediff Trains Fare Search.
It is quick and effective. It has all the features of IRCTC Site. As a bonus, it shows cheapest flight options to your train booking query. Smart work.
Of course, IRCTC has improved its site and is deploying all the ideas suggested by Magnet’s Chairman Nirav Mehta . Thanks IRCTC! But there is a great room from improvement. We would love to make that happen!
Magnet celebrate its ninth anniversary last week. Nine years of making a difference, challenging assumptions, living the vision and moving ahead! It has been a remarkable journey.
We had picnics at both the offices and here are the snaps of the same. Magneteers also displayed some remarkable amount of creativity and energy. I was touched by their love and passion for Magnet.
Snaps of Magnet Mumbai’s Picnic to Royal Garden Resort
Snaps of Magnet Ahmedabad’s Picnic to Mahudi, Swapna Shrushti Park and Amarnath Dham
Dr Tushar Shah, Ahmedabad has launched an unique endeavor on improving English-speaking skills of Gujaratis. He has created a group called Wordphil wherein every member gets an SMS of an English word, its meaning and usage in a contemporary context. It functions daily (no holidays) for an hour from 8 am—the service is free. Anyone keen to join him can send him a request SMS on 09825034142, giving him your name and mobile number. There are no forms to be filled up.
Cheers to a good cause.
Magnet started its second development centre in Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Many people including candidates at recruitment drive ask me – why Ahmedabad? People are surprised that we chose Ahmedabad and not Pune, Gurgaon or any other city.
Our rational for choosing Ahmedabad was the following:
1. Majority opined that Gujarat had missed the IT Bus. Its lack of English Speaking populace, lack of professionalism and mobility among employees (not entrepreneurs!) and lack of serious effort by Government to promote IT were cited as the key reasons.
However, Magnet Team feels strongly that Gujarat would be cover up the lost ground in IT and emerge as a serious contender. Magnet would like to be the one of the first companies in the high end Web Technologies in Gujarat. Thus we live true to our tradition of being pioneers by profession.
2. Magnet wanted to choose emerging centres. We had considered Nagpur, Surat and even Kolkata. But finally we choose Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad has grown very rapidly in the last three years and the mega city is showing no signs of cooling off.
3. Magnet takes its contribution to open source and Gujarati world seriously. Most of our projects for Gujarati language technology are in Gujarat. We have exclusive MOUs with Mahatma Gandhi’s Gujarat Vidyapith in Ahmedabad and H M Patel Institute in Anand for Gujaratilexicon.
4. Ahmedabad houses our statutory auditors and our close friends and associates.
5. Ahmedabad has talented and passionate youngsters with dedication – the most important ingredient for IT Sector.
Finally, Ratan Tata said, “You are stupid if you are not in Gujarat!” That would lay to rest any doubts regarding Gujarat.
Sushri Asha Parekhji recently launched Dhiraj Chawda’s coffee table book Reflections. The book showcases Dhiraj Chawda’s selective work over the last fifty years. His best work is with the various publishing houses.
Dhiraj Chawda is hailed as the unofficial ambassador of India. In Bollywood, every film star vied to get photographed by him. Inspite of the technical limitations, he created magic using shadows, lights, backdrops and his creative imagination. He is an artist in true sense.
Reflections Coffee Table Book was launched on Dec 22, 2007 at Prithvi Theatre. The launch was attended by Ms Asha Parekhji, Ms Zeenat Amanji, Ms Priya Duttji Ms Swaroop Sampatji. Mr Shashi Kapoor could not attend the function as he was indisposed. Friends of Dhiraj Chawda from Bollywood, including Amitabh Bachchan, could not make it to the function due to passing away of Mrs Teji Bachchan the night before.
Within a span of one month, the book has got rave reviews and people are persuading Dhiraj Kaka to share his work further. Low-profile as ever, Dhiraj Kaka dismisses all praise and is busy clicking interesting subjects.
Year End Blast is part of Magnet Culture now and an eagerly awaited event. Monday Blast 2007 was held at Mumbai and Ahmedabad on Dec 31, 2007. View the snapshots to see what non-Magneteers missed!
Pratik Shah emailed me this useful information on handling robbers who force you to withdraw cash from ATM. I have not verified it though. Also, ATMs have CCTVs these days.
I have heard of incidents where thieves force you to withdraw cash from ATM. They also understand that people do not carry much cash. One such incident has happened to a relative of mine at Borivali West.
Anyway, here is what Pratik shared :
If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse.
For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM recognizes that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine.
The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you.
This information was recently broadcasted on TV and it states that it is seldom used because people don’t know it exists.