Commentaire

I read the following definition of 'Remarkable Life' on this link:

A remarkable life is one in which: (1) you do something meaningful that you enjoy; (2) you have a flexible schedule that you control; and (3) you earn recognition and good (enough) compensation.

It is not too far off the mark.

The flash floods in Ladakh that occurred on 6th August 2010, have terribly affected the lives of some of the nicest and kindest people one can get to meet anywhere. I personally have received their warm hospitality and unselfish help at a number of times.

A group of us are coordinating with locals in Ladakh, a number of NGO's and the Army to identify the affected families and support them. Our aim is to make a visible difference to at least a few families, rather than just sending relief material/money to any sort of a fund where we have no clue about its effective usage.

Till date we have identified 56 families in 19 villages, that have been badly affected by this catastrophe and need help. Their details are listed on this spreadsheet.

To see what you can do to help them, please check out the following link where we are posting regular updates about this initiative -
http://ladakhrelief.blogspot.com/

You can also stay in touch through this Facebook page -
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leh-Flood-Relief/136641186378983

Let's try to make a small difference to someone's life. Please do forward this information to your friends and colleagues who would like to assist in this effort.

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Travelogue update from Mt Whitney Second Attempt
Original travelogue follows below update
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I was able to reserve day permits for Mt Whitney on 29th of July for 2 people, but this time, Arun was busy (his job in Apple) and as half expected, no other friends were free. I was not happy at the prospect of doing the trip all alone. However, it had to be done.

The "move" in the title does not refer to a company change or change in physical location. It refers to a martial arts move.

I recently saw a Stanford University lecture on the errors introduced in the Bible (New Testament) in its two millennium long journey since Jesus' time. Its absolutely worth the 50 minutes of your time.

If you are trying to make sense out of the title, please don't, there is a reason I christened this blog as Assorted :-). As expected, 2009 is turning out to be pretty hectic so far, and I guess the rest of the year would be on similar lines. Last year was great fun with all the travels and the rally, but for this year, as of now only Stok Kangri looms on the horizon. And chances of it happening do not appear too bright to me (so far).

In between all the usual humdrum, I read some good stuff in recent times, and thought of sharing them here. Here we go.

I am sure, like me, everyone has seen their fair share of quotes on the internet, but this particular one, with its interesting twist, caught my attention...

THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH... errr, if thats all right with the rest of you.

Another funny twist of language happened a few days ago in a shopping mall... I was waiting in the checkout line behind a middle aged lady, when I heard some commotion at the back of the line. An older woman had collapsed/fallen due to dizziness or so it seemed at the moment.

Ever felt, what the heck am i doing? Am i going somewhere? Am i on the path of achieving whatever i would like to? And i am not writing this in parlance of only the professional career. This includes the personal goals one might have for themselves e.g. learning to play a musical instrument, running a marathon, learning foreign languages, helping out community, writing a book etc.

These thoughts do tend to cross once a while in my mind, and for me at least, the reason is an overt need of achieving targets (or measurable goals) at a reasonably fast pace. I tend to get a touch restless, if things are not happening quick enough or in some cases not happening at all.

I always thought that money was created by Government and banks just deal with it in largely the following way - take money from depositors and lend it on high interest rates while giving a small share of this interest rate to the original depositor.

It seems this was done a very long time back. Now, banks need to have almost no money from the depositors in the vault to give someone a loan. They "create" money on the go. Sounds incredulous?... watch this video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279&hl=en

This comment is pure gold. It came from a Startup Hacker, Troy Simpson, in the context of a discussion centered around the point that whether programmers waste their youth in front of the terminal.