The India-Brasil love saga

While I was in Brasil last year, I kept hearing about a new novella (soap opera) that was going to start - Caminho das Indias (The Passage to India). Even strangers would tell me about it and break into fun conversations about India and its culture. It was heartening and fun sharing my perspectives.



Just today, I got reminded of this, in an article on Rediff by B S Prakash - the Indian Ambassador to Brasil. Do check it out - all that he says is true. The novella has indeed become a huge phenomenon there, and all my friends back there keep talking to me about it.

Its definitely a wonderful portrayal of India (most of it at least, unlike Slumdog Millionaire which did quite the opposite) and Brasilians just love ropas indianas (Indian clothes!), music (my friends love Salaam Namaste), incense sticks (I bought and gifted some myself, in Rio de Janeiro) and the colorful culture.

Like B S Prakash mentions jokingly in this article, it would indeed be fun to have a soap opera about Brasil made in India! ;) Interestingly, there's also another novella running in Brasil currently, about China - called Negocios Com China (Business with China) - Cheers to BRIC nations! :)

Search for Caminho das Indias on YouTube for some videos!

Action and Results

Stemming from a Twitter discussion I was having today with @rashmid I began to think about all the buzz around global warming, hunger, insert_global_or_local_problem here and the massive amounts of action surrounding these and other issues.

I’ve seen this action in person, volunteering my time with projects with kids, the poor and even during the horrifying tsunami incident – and believe me, its heart gratifying. Touching, inspiring, moving to say the least.

As an entrepreneur / business person or even on a basal level, as a logical person – it still poses a stark question in my face – action, yes – happening at the local and global level yes. But what about the results? Where’s the universal scoreboard?

Couple of years back after leaving Microsoft, I picked up a copy of ‘Leaving Microsoft to Change The World’ by John Wood. It caught my fancy because of the title of course, but it had me gripped once I started browsing through it. John Wood quit a lucrative, enviable position at Microsoft Australia – reporting at times, directly into CEO Steve Ballmer – to start an NGO, initially based out of Nepal. Their charter was to create a ‘room to read’ for young children who didn’t have the means to study. They created libraries and schools.

What fascinated me most, was the way their model worked – they would map individual / corporate donations against action, or rather results. That model is widely used these days by a lot of NGOs – I don’t care who pioneered it.

Bottomline – I’d love to see local efforts reflecting in a global scoreboard or check sheet which maps donations/actions taken to make positive change happen, with the actual results. Now wouldn’t that be wonderful?!

Celebrating my 28th Birthday – Viva Brasil!

Sitting at the lounge at the Mumbai International Airport sipping on some white wine, I toast to myself on my 28th birthday – I was actually doing this – going to Brasil and Ecuador – South America ahoy!

As the land of sun, sand, exotica and wilderness beckons me, I am reminded of Paulo Coelho’s character in The Alchemist. This was meant to be.

Next Update: From Brasil!

New kid on the blog!

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the new kid on the blogosphere - my little brother Sagar Karkhanis!

Sagar just finished his C.A. Final exams and loves studying and following world markets. Through his blog, he wants to 'demystify' investing and stock markets to help the common man understand the basics and professionals with some super exclusive personal analysis.

My old readers would reckon that he was selected by DNA to interview his icon, super broker Rakesh Jhunjhunwala 2 years back!

So head on over to Sagar's brand spanking new blog, and gain from his passion and expertise!

Cosmological Thoughts on turning 29 [Repost]

No, I didn't skip an year. Just thought I'd share an amazing post by a friend, Vineet Gupta, ex-colleague from Microsoft and one of the coolest, smartest people I know.

Even though I didn't get to know him too well when we worked in the same team, I was pleasantly surprised at reading his 'cosmological' post - because I could relate to his thinking so much! Cosmology and studying and marveling in the universe has always been something close to heart for me... Leave me alone on a starry night on a hilltop with a clear view, and I'm a happy man!

Over to Vineet.

Speaking of astronomy/cosmology, I just learned of a sky watching club in Mumbai which I'm glad about. But for most of us who never find the time to even look up in the sky for 5 minutes sometimes, here's something incredible, incidentally by Microsoft - The WorldWide Telescope. Think Live Earth or Google Earth, then zoom out into the universe - that's WWT. Yep, they've freakin' mapped the universe, and I can't stop raving and unraveling in it. A MUST see, literally out of this world experience!!




Microsoft WorldWideTelescope

IndiBlogger Meet Mumbai Q2-08

This Sunday I went for my first IndiBlogger meet. IndiBlogger is an Indian blog directory and I had never registered on it, so it was a good excuse to do so, too!

The planning and agenda seemed very professional, and the venue was the Kohinoor Hall opposite Siddhivinayak temple - also a good thing, so the line-up looked very impressive. I didn't know what to expect, but was looking forward to some fun, meeting interesting new people, pimping my blog and not sleeping through my Sunday :)

After the formalities and intros, it got more participative. I like meets to be participative - its boring to listen to one person all the time, even if that person is me (hell I'm a Leo, I'm supposed to love the limelight!). Everyone had a one minute of fame and folks were out-funning and out-performing each other with their stories. Noteworthy mentions:

"I write about good parenting.... no I'm not a parent" - 24 yr old Ronak, who looked younger than 20.

"I started blogging when I was feeling lonely. It's helped a lot. Blogging is a very emotional thing for me!" - Anjuli

"Hurr hurr!" - Abhishek

"I think I should start a sex blog" - Clement

Then came the skit. I found this a nice little addition - the story was simple, but the team did a great job putting it together and playing it out to us. Kudos, team IndiBlogger!



After a pav bhaji and ice-cream break, there was a talk by Microsoft on Windows Live Writer for bloggers, SMSGupshup.com and Ronak on professional blogging.

All in all, it was a good mix of planned stuff, impromptu stuff and fun stuff - while getting to meet a bunch of interesting peeps. What else do you expect from a blogger meet?! See you guys next time!

Hey, Taxi!

Sometimes I wonder if I'm a compulsive chaser - you know, running behind cabs, buses, trains, girls, deadlines... blah. My friends who know the stories don't find these things funny anymore. It's a seamless part of my personality for them. Forget the personality anal-ysis. Let's cut to the chase, quite literally.

Yesterday evening, I got out of my building in a hurry and waved to a cab. I was on the wrong side of the road, (the driver's side of the cab), so I opened the door, shoved my bag inside, and noticed that he looked bruised on his left eye - a recent wound, perhaps from a street fight... next, I walked around the cab to get in from the other side (the one by the pavement - the correct side).

Just when I was about to open the door, the cabbie just took off! I was like - wt@^#$%? For a moment I thought he was just warming up the cab, so I just stood there hoping he'd figure out I had not got in yet... but the more I stood there, the cab just sped away. I do a few quick checks - red light, check. No valuables in the bag except a nice perfume, check. By now the cab is already at the next signal, and I'm still standing where I was supposed to board it. Wait a minute, red light?! Dimaag ki batti jalao, apni akal ladao!

People standing around and the cabbie behind noticed what happened, and before I knew it - this was the scene... my cab has sped away to the next signal, I'm running to catch it, the cabbie behind me is honking away to stop that guy and has started chasing him in his cab, and onlookers are shouting to stop him. Filmi, no? ;)

Just when the signal turns orange, I reach, open the door and said to him laughingly "boss, sirf bag leke jaoge kya Lower Parel?!" His expression was priceless. He was confused, embarrassed and very apologetic. He had thought I got in from the other side when I had just dumped my bag in it! Throughout the ride, he kept saying sorry, and I kept laughing at him and telling him it's alright and all fun!

I love Mumbai cabs and talking to the cabbies - they always have some interesting stories and insights on life. This guy now started telling me how his day started off all wrong, how he got beaten up by some people a few days back because he was not a local and such. We had a good discussion on the state of things, how narrow minded people have become, etc. What really moved me was his take on things, in spite of what life had given him in the last few days. He was still positive, a sheen in his eye, accentuated by the black and blue bruise under his eye... and most importantly, a vision for a nation united... India as a winner in multiple disciplines. Putting the bag chase incident behind me, I marveled in his beautiful vision and a mind focused on putting mind over matter, in spite of the atrocities he was subjected to.

I got down and wished him a great day ahead.

In hindsight, chasing the cab was a good warm up for my workout :) I was headed to the gym, Day 2!

Sex on a plane

Writing this blog post in the middle of watching a movie...

My grandma is sitting behind, knitting a sweater or something, and pauses to ask me what movie I'm watching, hearing all the dramatic noise.

"Sssnakes on a Plane" - I speak too fast usually, so I make sure I am audible and clear

Granny mumbles something and asks me back - "Snakes or Sex?"

I skip a heartbeat. "Snakes, snakes!"

Yours truly by Gayatri

I was douced into this little game by a friend Gayatri. All I had to do was sign up and she'd tell me 8 random bits about myself, stuff which she knows at least. And this blog post is to honour her 8th commandment, i.e do a post on it!

Leave your names lil ones!

1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my favourite/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. 8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your blog. YOU MUST!!

Gayatri's responses (with inline comments on the same by me)

1. You're a nice, chocolate-getting boy!! Thank you!
2. Uncle Kracker!:P:P
3. Punch!
4. Will you beat him up for me? :P Pleasure'd be mine. Pain his.
5. At, MTV sitting and discussing kickass stuff that never took off., And, you dropping me to the station! And, you saying I was SOO young :(:(
6. An old, dying animal :P Hahaha
7. You could be a wanderer all your life, couldn't you? Absofreakinlutely!
8. ! There you go!

Fashion Sense + Civic Sense

The weekend gone was a fine blend of the fun and the serious. Checked out the Chivas in Fashion Tour at the ITC Grand Maratha on Saturday, followed by a promising and charged up meet with fellow Facebook citizens of Mumbai for making the city a better place. Here's the lowdown.

Chivas in Fashion Tour
Classic Kaushal style, I reached the show mid-way - so I missed the first part by Wendell Rodrigues, but still managed to check out Malini Ramani, Rahul Khanna and Rohit Gandhi's collection. Now, let me first tell you that I'm not a fashion critic, but as I told a lady friend at the event "Since you women complain a lot about us men having no fashion sense, I decided to make it here and change that". With that disclaimer, I now present you with my expert comments...



I really liked Malini Ramani's collection - bright colors, sporty and yet, very stylish - it had a great, fresh appeal to it. Oh and the models carried them off phenomenally well. Khanna and Gandhi presented mostly evening wear and club wear in rich dark fabrics.

Photos by my friend Nishant Desai. He takes up photography assignments.

My Mumbai

Last week, a fellow trekker sent me an invite to join this Facebook group. The mission statement read "My Mumbai aims to raise environmental awareness amongst the citizens of the greater Mumbai community, by actively involving them to work towards a cleaner and healthier environment".

Since I identify with, am appalled and feel I should do something about such issues myself, I decided to attend the first meet, which saw a bunch of us young Mumbai citizens perched in the founder's living room and bombarding problems and solutions for improving living conditions of the Mumbaikar (begin small, dream big - as one of the participants Jeet says). It was amazing how well the time was managed, taking each aspect separately and thawing it up - right from how this organization could potentially launch and shape up to who would take onus of what - and then breaking down to the problems and solutions. All within a matter of, just over an hour. Topics ranged from energy conservation and global warming to garbage disposal and waste management to air and sound pollution and such.

The closing was the most interesting part - we decided to get into action mode immediately! The group dynamics was great and we already seemed to know each other since always. So the next half hour saw us walking down Worli Sea Face, walking up to strangers and talking them into switching to CFL bulbs from incandescent bulbs. At the end of the exercise, we had already made decent progress - from identifying a problem to talking about solutions, to hurdles and potential workarounds. I left knowing well that this was another great Sunday spent productively, creatively and constructively. Cheers and God Speed to My Mumbai!...

... and a Happy Monday to you - have a super productive week :)

Mumbai Domestic Airport - The Wow! Experience

I'm in the field of design and user experience, and people sometimes need to be explained what the latter means. Let me start by saying that design is perhaps a subset of user experience. Marketing could also be a part of the user experience as a whole, besides design. To make things simpler, let me use this post to rave about the Mumbai domestic airport experience.

If you remember the domestic airport as a shoddy place where everything was dirty and chaotic, you obviously haven't been there lately. The lower terminal is brand spanking new and has a slick, futuristic design, completely spic and span. From the moment you enter, there's a sense of vast open space, very well lit. Hallways have trees planted along with a seating desk. Tons of seating space in fact. Clean loos, a cyber cafe, some great snack counters, Crossword bookstore, Cafe Coffee Day, Stop and Go (a mini Shoppers Stop), really swanky lounges - it's great to see a transformation from a filthy airport to a wow experience!

Essentially it's not just a great looking place only, but also a completely new, richer experience for everyone.

Peace on arrival

What's more, you'll be in for a pleasant surprise on arrival in Mumbai - no more getting 'taken for a ride' by the cabs and rickshaw drivers with excess fare demands. Every person who gets into a cab or rick is now given a handy leaflet which has both rate cards printed! This my dear readers, is what great user experience is all about. Understanding what users need, want and expect - and soliciting a wow! reaction. Naturally, I can't wait to fly next!

Catching up with Bangalore

Back in Bangalore for a week while returning back from Kerala where I'd gone for a friend's wedding... realized I have a lot of catching up to do with this ever changing city! Detailed notes later, but here's some quick points...

• The Metro project is actually underway, and MG Road looks ready for a major facelift.
• Lotsa new restaurants and clubs. Checked out Soul Cafe, Mast Kalandar and Foodworld Gourmet so far, besides regular faves Coffee World, Konark, Sunny's (where I decided to try something new this time... mahi mahi and sauteed chicken in brandy. Both yum. Pradipta tells me the mahi mahi was a little overcooked, especially since there was wasabi by the side).
• Muthu's is gone. So is Spiga's :( Chowringee Lane has moved to Banerghatta Rd :(
• Day one yesterday was disastrous for a photo session - was drenched in rain while at Lalbagh, which looks fresh as ever but the flowers were mostly semi-dead.
• Checked out Printo's for on-demand printing. Fairly good service.
• Anita's photo exhibition, 'Wide Angle' was awesome. They were doing a fundraiser for AIDS affected kids. Hats off to the beautiful photos, the photographers and the cause!

Taxi No. 3837

I've always wanted to write about Mumbai's cab/taxi drivers. Firstly, I prefer using cabs over buying a car (convenient, ubiquitous, maintenance free compared to the latter and I don't add to the madness of the traffic with another honky, polluting machine). Secondly, it's fun talking to the cabbies who always have a million things to talk about!

But today specifically, I have strong reason to salute Mumbai's cabbies. Having dropped my grandma to my aunt's place in Goregaon, I was about to get off from the cab after paying him, and at that precise moment in recent history, the skies decided to cry out loud and it started raining heavily. The station was about 30 feet away and I was bound to get drenched. The cabbie however, asked me if I had an umbrella. When I answered in the negative, I was pleasantly surprised that he got off from the cab, took his own umbrella out and ushered me into the station's shed!!

In hindsight, it was something which really saved me from falling ill as I was already down with cold and headache since Friday night. Perhaps my collected karma of being good to cabbies paid off, but hats off to Taxi No. 3837, and all the cabbies of Mumbai!

An Akanksha fulfilled Sunday

This weekend I had one of the most rich Sundays I've ever had.

A quick flashback first - Not too long ago, I made friends with a Harvard student via Facebook, Karina. She's in India for 2 months working with NGO Akanksha and helping to empower kids who come from lesser privileged societies. While I've been hearing a lot about her fantastic work here all the time, I really wanted to experience it myself and help in some way too.

So, waking up way too early for my Sundays at 8 am, I joined her and met up with her kids at the Nehru Planetarium. There were about 15 kids and they were split into groups which were given projects to work on. One group was given the topic of importance of education, the other was working on curbing bullying in their community and yet another was given the task of helping reduce garbage and promoting cleanliness.



First, the kids made posters pertaining to these topics, even as I watched with awe, how Karina was managing the kids so beautifully - adding some inputs, being stern sometimes and helping in streamlining their thoughts.



After this activity, it was 'action time'. The activity of the day was to visit the kids' community right behind the Planetarium and address the issue of garbage and promote cleanliness. To that, one team had written a letter to the BMC (the policy part of the strategy...) and all of us were then going to go from door to door to spread the message (...the social change part) and conduct a signature campaign against garbage. To set a precedent in their community, the kids were armed with gloves and trash bags and would be collecting 'token trash' from homes which we were going to visit and later dispose them in the right place - the garbage dumpster.



The biggest irony of the garbage issue in this community was that people were used to throwing garbage in the 'naala' (water canal) which ran along the area, even as there were proper garbage dumpsters provided about 50 meters away!



It was heartening to see the passion with which the kids spoke to their own community, put up the posters to promote education, cleanliness and a responsible community. At the end of a 2-3 hour exercise, we had collected 50 signatures, 6 full bags of trash and a hell lot of learning.

I also got to know how much of a difference Akanksha is making for these kids and the awesome work my friend has been doing there.

The debriefing session was pretty interesting too - Karina asked the kids a lot of questions about their experience and their answers were very mature for their ages! The bonhomie, attitude and sparkle in their eyes were all things you had to see for yourself! I was pleasantly surprised, yet happy to see that positive social change is possible.



We later treated the kids to a show at the Planetarium and later took them to the Nehru Science Center, both of which the kids loved. Some strong mentions I'd like to make here...



1. The new Planetarium show sucks. I've been a BIG fan since I was a kid, but I think this is the worst, most boring show ever. I didn't know there was a change (the earlier one had a great start with a 3D city tour, great music and content) and was a bit disappointed, but K & the kids liked it apparently.

2. Nehru Science Center on the other hand has improved SO MUCH! The staff was way too nice - they insisted on a students' discount since we were from Akanksha. The installations are brand spanking new. Gardens are well kept - parakeets, rabbits and some great flora. A fantastic 3D show (for just 20 bucks more). I couldn't get enough of it... nor could the kids!

Overall, a super Sunday it was indeed. Next Sunday I'll be joining them again for a video-edit session courtesy of my ex employers Hungama.com

Read Karina's notes on her blog | Photos from the day

Cheers to 07.07.07!

Another update at 3 AM :)
In case you haven't noticed, today's date is in triplicate - 07/07/07!

My friend Shilpa in London tells me she's going for the Live Earth concert which is a special event to raise climate change awareness with 20+ various artistes. Check out www.liveearth.org and make a pledge like I did, to help make a difference.

Additions to my favorites
With thousands of awesome new websites mushrooming every week, my bookmarks - both local as well as the ones on del.icio.us, Spurl and Google Bookmarks have been flooding. Here's some of the best ones you may wanna check out...

Expensr - Log and track your personal expenses. Much needed for me!
Flixster - Write and share movie reviews (and more awesome features!)
Traineo - Fitness community
Vimeo - New and improved video sharing community (prefer it over YouTube)
Burrp - local restaurant, cafe and club reviews from India.
Check out my current reviews or bookmark my profile for updates

• Hae Kum Gang (Korean), Bangalore
• Saapat Raman, Bangalore
• Casa Del Sol, Bangalore
• Konark, Bangalore
• Koshy's Jewel Box, Bangalore
• 3 Storys, Bangalore
• Desmond's, Bangalore
• Golden Star Thali, Mumbai

Random Notes at 3 AM

* Nick is coming to India again!! :)
* Megan's going back to the US just before her birthday :(
* Love the new drinks from Yogi Vita - imli, amla, nimboo, kokum
* Picked a new book - The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara
* Workout schedules have gone awry. I need discipline!
* Personal travel plans in a mess - too busy to have fun right now.
* Upgrading my system after ages this week! From an AMD Athlon XP with 512 MB RAM to a Intel Pentium CoreDuo processor with 1.5 - 2GB RAM and a flat screen monitor. Next on the cards: Windows Vista!

Behind the seen - 8 facts on me!

I've always pooh-pooed (however that's spelt!) word games. But heck this one is for narcissists. So here's my response to Sakshi's tag...

Rules of the game

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
4. If you fail to do this within eight hours, you will not reach Third Series or attain your most precious goals for at least two more lifetimes. [Er, okay….]

Here goes nothing

1. My first paycheck was at age 13. 30 bucks for 2 lines for a telly show. Don't ask.

2. I've never smoked, fed a shark, driven a car or kissed. I never intend to change the status quo for the former [Update: Never say never?! :)].

3. As a child I was a pretty good gymnast - yea, the paunch today won't let u believe that.

4. I've been off the telly for 11 years.

5. I was almost kidnapped. Twice.

6. I did my first bungee jump without any fear at all. Only after I jumped, I felt the butterflies in the tummy thing, for like a nanosecond.

7. I'm a college dropout.

8. I probably have ADD (Attention deficit disorder). Ironically, I like things in order - so I also probably have OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). Am freaky about hygiene and putting things in places. Or arranging bottles so the labels show - symmetrically.

You've been tagged!

• Nick Gray
• Suman Kalra
• Akshay Mahajan
• Rama Thoopal
• Megan Scheminske
• Karen Menezes
• Nirav Mehta
• Vishal Gondal

More useless info: Just received 2 simultaneous updates via my Facebook Firefox toolbar...
* Swati Iyer is happy that its the weekend!
* Tushar Chaudhary is awaiting the end of a very long week!

We all work for the weekends, nay? :D

Mumbai Bloggers Meet Notes

Just back from a fun bloggers meet at Seijo. Made possible by the wonderful 'partners in crime', Melody and Sakshi Juneja. Thank you ladies. Thou rocketh.

For me, making it to the meet was probably an adventure in itself! Till late evening, I had (a) a TON of work and things to do, (b) a new project coming in which I declined (beat this - a simulation of a porn website for a movie scene which was to be shot this morning! I told my prospective client how they could do it themselves) and the best part... (c) an empty bank balance! (long story). Finally around 11, I just got out of the house with 60 bucks in my wallet and 'dropped in' at the ATM. Miracle of miracles! A cheque of just enough amount had cleared just in time :D Phew! Off to the bloggers' meet...

Random Notes

• For turning up at 11 for a party that started at 8 pm, I wasn't too late!
• The Indian blogosphere is replete with beautiful ladies :)
• Bloggers are not necessarily party animals. They tend to stand in a circle.
• Suggestion to Saks & Mel: Bonfire next time?
• Seijo IS expensive. Friggin' expensive. Old monk + Thums Up = Rs.360!
• The G-string has arrived in India. Hallelujah! (an 'outsider' unfortunately)
• Sakshi goes into a 'loop' and repeats stuff after tripping on long islands. :D
• That tune stuck in my head is apparently Bob Sinclar (Zookies). Got MP3?
• The one thing everyone agreed in the end: Mumbai rocks!

Met a lot of fun people and made some interesting friends tonite!
Melody (The Voice in My Head), Sakshi Juneja (To Each Its Own), Shiju Thomas, Amit Varma (India Uncut), Divya (Chronicus Skepticus), Akshay Mahajan (Trivial Matters), Gaurav (Gauravonomics), Sumit (Twisted Difference), Piyush Bedi and Pankaj (2 fundoo friends of Sakshi).

Overheard "I'll have sex with you on top of the Taj Mahal!"
- Non-drunk girl to happy girl

Defining Virgin territory

Sometimes you don't need to be a marketing guru to predict brand moves. So when I was confidently talking to my friend some weeks back that the Virgin Group would somehow manage to enter into the Mobile & VAS space in India (which was just announced), I had very little doubt and more conviction.

The Virgin brand
It's simple. Virgin is one of the smartest, savviest and most agile brands around the world, cutting through insane number of businesses and owning more than 300 brands. They believe in the potential of a market and get there eventually. From whatever I've observed about them (brand Virgin, Sir Richard Branson and the whole group), I'd say they have a simple credo: Any space is virgin (and they capitalize on it, pardon the pun!) if you really listen to customer needs, pain poins and create a vibrant brand to market the solution and create value for the customer even in a fiercely competitive environment. (And create passionate evangelists like me who don't get paid jack shit for talking about them!)

In fact I'm a big fan of Virgin and Branson's way of doing business - so I'm only too happy to see them spread across sectors in India. In case you haven't caught the drift, here's a quick summary of their India presence (to the best of my knowledge).

• Virgin Atlantic (airline) - connects Mumbai and Delhi to London
• Virgin Comics (comics) - Branson + Shekhar Kapur + Gotham Chopra + Sharad Devarajan
• Fever 104 FM (radio) - A joint venture between Virgin Radio and Hindustan Times
• The Mobile Store (retail) - Joint venture with Essar Group
• Virgin Mobile (mobile) - Proposed 50:50 venture with Tata Teleservices
• Virgin Galactic (space travel!) - A collaboration with Deluxe Travel and GD Goenka World Travel [Updated as of 16 Oct, 2007]

... and the list will go on. What I'm willing to put my pennies on? Virgin Hot Air Balloons! Please, oh please get them to locales like Ladakh/Kerala/Munnar or something! More about Virgin here.

My Bookshelf

My Bookshelf
Originally uploaded by Kaushal Karkhanis.

From left to right...

* Some work-related media
* Bruce Lee's Fighting Method (not read a single page)
* Profile of the Perfect Person (not read a single page)
* Fit For Life (not read a single page)
* A.N.Shanbagh - In The Wonderland of Investment (read about 20 pages)
* Kris Cole - Crystal Clear Communication (1/4th done)
* Do not dig a grave and bury your career (not read a single page)
* Pleasure Zone (not read a single page)
* The Skill of Self Management (read a few pages)
* The Art of Self Defence (not read a single page)
* Yogasanas (reference)
* London (just bought this today!)
* Kishore Biyani - It Happened in India (half way through. AWESOME read!).
* Maverick! (finished reading. Highly recommended)
* Maldives (reference, for going there!)
* Web Marketing in a week (not read a single page)
* Pooja Lulla - Angel and a Half (author is a friend. read a few chapters. fun!)
* Business Plans in a week (reference)
* The Present (not read a single page)
* Screw It, Let's Do It (screw this book. pick up the autobiography instead)
* Every Man (read a few pages. great guide for every man, really)
* The Big MOO (finished. interesting, inspiring)
* Japanese Phrases (konnichiwa! Eigo o hanashi masuka?)
* Balancing Life & Work (dont have time for it)
* APJ Abdul Kalam (President of India) - Ignited Minds (not read a single page)
* Learn Kannada (learning. swalpa swalpa)
* Learn Gujarati in a month (ee pan thodu thodu avdech)
* Learn Japanese (watashi wa Kaushal san!)
* M Scott Peck, MD - The Road Less Travelled (finished. great book for anyone)
* Richard Branson - Losing My Virginity (finished in Goa - LOVED the book)
* Rich Dad, Poor Dad (finished in Goa. fantastic read for learning about money)
* some movies in a box, Batman, memento from Microsoft
* Bottom - The 10 Day MBA, 101 Things to do before you Die (fun fun fun!), Freud for Beginners, Japanese for Dummies, B&W photos, razor, some movies).