Today, the Skypes, BBMs and emails of the world have inhibited avenues of meetups to a large extent. No wonder how much a tweetup or a photo-walk tries to dissolve this gap, it is an ever increasing phenomenon in the digital age.

A lot goes to the increase in traffic, the underlying urge to perform better and make money or the very desire of staying busy and looking out for simplicity in a life that’s otherwise chaotic out of no sane reason. Sigh.

With broadband and mobile penetration, things are only going to get worse with time.

However, are there still enough ways where one can have a good conversation without a face-time and yet expect a near similar experience? I immediately ponder about some of the most amazing people I met, conversed and made friends with – all on the web. Not just that, an online connect often works as a catalyst to an offline meeting.

At the same time, the abundance of communities which claim to have ‘like minded’ people lead to a large noise/ signal ratio. Beyond a limit, one needs to prune his ‘available for’ list. For each one, his own.

How do you manage your meaningful conversations? How important are offline meetings for you?

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“Every morning in Africa, a deer wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest deer or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter you are a lion or a deer, what matters is, when the Sun comes up you’d better be running.” ~ Unknown

Image Courtesy: timsnell

This is not an uncommon pattern. I know a lot people around me, suffering from such an ailment.

The answer to this lies within short proverbs like these;

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the next best time is right now. ~ Unknown

Now you may relate it to your choice of salads – starting a business, quit smoke, starting exercising, changing your life, et al.

The key here is to start small, always. Thinking big or not is a personal discretion.:)

So what are you planting next? Not on the farmville, for sure.

Image Credits: Cawood

Entrepreneurship, I read & heard was exciting. It actually is! Nevertheless, it’s far beyond challenging than any book I’ve read ever gave me a hint of! But as they say, all good things that have to stay long, come with a huge effort. This is just that feeling.

It’s been a little over 20 months of driving a startup. What started with a bunch of logs tied together is now a boat with some good substance or wood in it. We’re aiming it to be a big ship. We’ll be there, no sooner than it takes all what it actually does.

The journey so far has been full of learning, joy, excitement, pain, tough decisions and nightmares. Sleep nights with coffee and beer, fast food regimes and weekend parties. Small means of happiness and great team spirit. There is much more to it than what the best of the books and courses would ever teach you.

But as the guy in a movie said, “mazza to khelne me hai”. You gotta take a jump to feel it. Not even a leap gives you the idea of what it is.

If I am to be grateful, in no order, I would put it to my understanding parents, my rocking co-founders and team, friends who have always been there and ones who were never out of it, irrespective of the differences we’ve always had!

To each one of you, I owe you a lot!

Nites.

Whatever, but I am in love with this machine. I have been having an iPhone 3GS for almost 6 months now and getting a mac has just added to the charm. Not that I was a steve/apple fan, but just that!

After getting hold of few basic apps like office, adium, evernote, dropbox, etc. I happened to install ecto, today. The proclaimed desktop blogging client for mac. It’s not even close to the more civilized WLW on a PC.

While I shall figure out alternatives or possible ways to run WLW here, I would still say, this is one of the best investments one would ever do. Thanks to the 10 hour battery life and the crisp graphics.

More, later.

We turned 1 on 19th January. That called for an awesome party followed by a 3D experience – Avatar! Though, I was too high for an effect to be felt!

Last month saw one of our first team-mates completing an year with us! It was a great moment. I thank him for being with us all those days when we had nothing to offer to him at all. Not even a computer to work. Today, I envy the 19” wide screen he works on against a dreaded 14” HP notebook of mine which keeps on giving SOS calls.

In an another breaking news, I got my first iPhone, a 16 gig, 3Gs from US, last month. Thanks to my beloved sis and a smart young man who helped it reach me. Time flew thereafter! Great applications to play with, hands on jailbreaking and more!

The ability to connect your thoughts across various hours during a day is something which I could take away. Work has been more fun since then! I am sure you would understand it, if you use one.

Next was an intern completing 2 months with us! Glad that he’s learning and more importantly keeping my faith of doing what is best expected off him. We honored him with a small token – a cheque leaf. Yeah, signed!

I am still looking for a few people. But that’s here!

There is a lot of online reading that has happened in the past few months. Though, I am missing out on the books, for a while. I guess I’ll still keep a pause on it for the next 2 months. April and May shall be hectic. A few processes to learn and practice at work, family affairs to take care of and more.

My fascination for a Moleskine has finally made me use one. I am still a little conscious of using it, rather penning down my thoughts. Wonder why?

Next tasks include restructuring my Google Reader feeds ( and enjoy them on the Reeder App on iPhone), and plan the content strategy for the Mediaredefined Blog. It’s been missing me!

Last week, we did an experiment to put alternate Saturdays off, giving all of us a extended weekend once every fortnight. The trial was a hit!

The day is undoubtedly much more calm and peaceful than several other Sundays Thanks to the day off yesterday that allowed me to sink in to the bottom,  sleep like a log, gorge on food and have a serene lonely walk in the evening. All this followed by wrapping up the routine tasks like paying bills, making calls to friends and family and other stuff.

Sunday it is and I am all the more composed, uncluttered and with a fresher mindset. Last night was fun writing blog posts, editing a couple of them and making grilled cheese sandwiches at 4 am! I was high on productivity.

Time to get ready and push off for lunch at a friend’s place. I love invitations for lunch! If my laziness allows, shopping is on my charts, next! End of season sale is on across stores. I guess it’s time to pick up some stuff today.

Wish you a happy Sunday and alternate weekends!

Photo credit: Jurvetson

Ships that pass you in the night
Are like dreams that don’t quite
Feel real in the morning, but
When you happen to see them
During the daytime, they seem
Strangely familiar: deja vu.

Or I guess, a little before!

No clues how did these lines originate but I was in love with them the moment I read them. I have always loved ships, as much as I love peace and serenity. One reason for me loving them is probably my love for the sea.

When I talk about keywords, there are times when I mean them beyond social media or the web. Not too sure if I was mistaken but there was just one keyword I wanted to put a dent on. ‘Life’. That sums it up pretty much.

No matter how rich and pleasing your periphery is but at night, when you come back, lie down and ponder, there is much more to it. If at all it matters. The core has to be dealt with. The periphery keeps changing.

One other context that made me disappointed is that Delhi doesn’t have a sea shore, leave behind a harbor! So the ships that pass by me are illusions for sure.  The multinational consumer electronics or the international apparel gig were not small but then, it was ship that took my mind.

I wish you stayed longer and the time stopped, only for good. I know it will. Once again, while we would sit, talk, walk and stop, smile and say something, say and say nothing. Then there would be the lighthouse which we would gaze all night over a bottle of wine. Trust me, it’s far more pleasing than looking into the moon, at times.

Tum Mile (slow version) continues to play endlessly, while I hit the publish button.

And yes, I am not a sailor, nor a writer. I am the same guy whom you would have almost missed like a train. Not sure if you already did!

Image credits: OneEighteen

There are times when this otherwise dormant blog of mine rises up to salute its readers! Today is one such day. After a jam packed fortnight followed by a peaceful entry to the new year, I was again fighting an emotional battle.

However, life around me is better now! Delhi is cold, swamped by dense fog as I draft this post and desperate to get a hint of sunlight to set things rolling.

The farewell to 2009 was awesome. We  had a great party (pics coming soon!), danced and ate like pigs and drove back to glory at 2 am! What preceded this was moving into the new office of Media Redefined in NOIDA. After a week long hunt for a quiet, cozy and clean place to get my team in and host some new folks, I settled down for the new den, 5 minutes from my residence. It’s been a week for I have been enjoying walking down to my office. It’s almost the new home for me now!

I am glad that 2 young folks are joining in our team this month, followed by 4 more from SRCC in May’10. I am looking forward to a new team to complement the requirement of the new assorted services on social technologies which we’re working on.

What’s next? A big thing! I am in talks with a leading multinational company for a large social media objective. Fingers crossed!

Not to forget, Media Redefined has it’s first anniversary on the 19th day of this month! Some surprises to get revealed. Watchout!

Wish you all a great year ahead! Cheers

We shall row it, on and on.

It’s 3 am and folks at MediaRedefined are at work. A couple of them are out to get some food. No we’re not at Kargil but at our cozy office in Vaishali. Warm jackets, half a dozen notebooks, A4 sheets, music, foot on table and redness in most eyes – guys are striving hard to get the project ready for the release.

A dozen pet bottles, empty packs of smoke and wafers died out midway before they reached the trash can in the kitchen. It’s chaos! But just as I believe, the best of the works one can ever do is done under chaos. No ease or peace can get you productivity as compared to the one achieved when the deadlines make a whistling sound in your ears and pass by.

Tonight is one such night. Yesterday was another one. May be I shall talk about it later sometime.

We’ve read, heard and said countless number of times that life is tough. Yes it is, but there is a toughness you might just love to see in your team. No, this was not to prove that we have one of the toughest teams in the world at work. But yes, there aren’t many I have seen like this before!

It’s been more than 12 hours since folks haven’t moved their asses off the chairs which I feel have lived their age. It’s time to get new chairs for the office. Before that, we need a new office in the first place.

Amongst a dozen people I answered and justified (or atleast, tried to) my choice of being an entrepreneur is that you see and mould things in your own good way and not just wait for them to happen. I know it’s easier said than done but I still love the fact. I am sure you getting it. Did I mention by now that I ain’t high? Trust me, if at all I am, it’s due to the lack of sleep and not an overdose of booze.

I have already crossed 300 words and still not sure of what to title this post as. It happens with me quite a few times that I think of a title when I am done with my appetite of adding words to it. I guess I am not done yet.

Yesterday, I was having a discussion with my co-founder, Gaurav that we could have screwed up the business within 4 months of starting up, or to sum it up, we nearly made no money in the first couple of months and how much is enough! Yeah, there is nothing as enough when you’re out to make money but there is a bare minimum to everything – just as it is 3 pegs to get to the tune – warna to gala bhi gila nahi hota!

I hope the propositions I  am working on mature well enough for us to ram into the projections.

I could go on, but may be the smell of food that the folks have just brought in is tempting enough to put a stop for tonight.

I shall keep them rolling, off and on – something which I love to do the most – wish it was the only thing I had to do – blogging! That get’s me the title of the post

Way to go!

Image credits: Alphageek