Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Paulo Coelho's quotes

If everybody loves you, something is wrong. Find at least one enemy to keep you alert.

You may try to please everybody, but at the end you will not be in peace with yourself.

Don't beg, don't ask. Just thank God in silence for all the blessings in your life.

The way you see yourself will often determine how people see you.

Love cannot be held prisoner because it is a river and will overflow its banks.

Changes happen when we go against everything we're used to doing.

You have two choices in life: a] to find a way, b] to make one.

Everything in your life can change, except ONE: your passion.

Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning.

The strongest love is love that can demonstrate its fragility.

Intense life is not complete without a touch of madness.

No one is going to love you if you don’t love yourself.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Raavanan video clip

I hope you all like it :-)

Friday, July 23, 2010

Titanic

For the past four days, I loved doing an extensive reading about this grand ship. I never imagined this kind of real story she once carried on her maiden voyage, followed by her final plunge into the Atlantic. It was a surprise package with loads and loads of emotions prevailed with her. I was so fortunate to read some fabulous books on her and now I am so glad that I knew few good information about her. What a voyage she had taken in the year 1912! There was so much character, human emotions, courage as well as cowardice that happened on just one night. Reading about her was like stepping my feet onto the ship myself. And yes, I traveled with her and felt such a heart wrenching experience.

It was so intense reading for me and this luxurious ship was all I carried in my mind for the past few days. Even in my dreams I could see her images and those few brave hearts who gave a courageous fight against nature and also against fate. What if I and you all were on the ship on that night? Have we put such an unselfish act which eventually could have caused our lives? Those men and women who dealt with the cruel fate of being on the ship on that night really needs a big salute. And there certainly remains so many unanswered questions on her which will remain for each one us to wonder and only God could answer that. After all these years for being in the highlight on and off, what she's doing right now is sleeping in the heart of Atlantic, her remains barely showing the elegance she once carried, poor old lady.

Must read books on her:

Titanic - An Illustrated History by Don Lynch,

Titanic - A Journey Through Time by John P. Eaton and Charles A. Haas,

Titanic - The Last Great Images by Robert Ballard,

Ghosts of the Abyss - A Journey Into The Heart Of Titanic by Don Lynch and Ken Marschall.

Beautiful words put down by Robert Ballard in his book Titanic -The Last Great Images are given below:

"The interesting thing about Titanic is that you can study the story for years, learn all the facts,have it down cold, and yet still find that, every once in a while, it's hitting you all over again. Why weren't there enough lifeboats? Why didn't they slow down? What did they feel? That isn't going to go away, and people will continue to be led to the story. On a rainy afternoon, someone is going to find a decaying copy of Walter Lord's "A night to remember" on the shelves and start reading. In a hotel room somewhere, a man who can't sleep is going to flick the television at one in the morning and be drawn into the James Cameron's epic. After singing about it around the campfire, a little girl is going to start wondering why, exactly, husbands and wives and children lost their lives. Books and films may come and go; even wrecks can disappear. They just get us started. What we seek is the human story at the heart of Titanic. That will never perish."

It was indeed an incredible journey which I put forth after more than a decade of knowing her through a movie and my love for her has now deepened for better reasons. May I wish you all a very good journey which awaits in front of you and please don't miss a chance of traveling with it. May you experience a remarkable journey which broadens your vision and may you profit the wisdom from it. It could possibly happen through a short travel or a book or a new place or with new people. At the end of the day, all you prosper from it is an experience. Bon voyage!

Monday, July 19, 2010

The world's most successful dropouts

Bill Gates - dropped out of Harvard University in 1975, he was the founder of Microsoft and he is currently the Chairman of Microsoft.

Larry Ellison - is a two-time dropout. He went to both the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago. But he never got a degree. He is now the CEO of Oracle corporation.

James Cameron - He studied physics in Fullerton College not for a long time. He dropout to become a film director and he created some of the late 20th-Century's most stunning and expensive science-fiction movies like Aliens, Titanic, Avatar.

Steve Jobs - In 1972, he dropped out of Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He's the founder and CEO of Apple Inc.

Henry Ford - he was a dropout at the age of 16, who later became the founder of Ford Motor Company.

Steven Spielberg - Spielberg attended California State University, where he majored in English; however, he left school in 1968. He's the director of legendary films like E.T.-The Extra-Terrestrial and Jurassic Park.

Mark Zuckerberg - dropped out of Harvard University. He is an American entrepreneur best known for Co-founding the popular social networking site Facebook.

Michael Dell - He dropped out of the University of Texas, Austin to become the CEO and Founder of Dell Inc. In 1992 at the age of 27, Dell became the youngest CEO to have his company ranked in Fortune Magazine’s list of the top 500 corporations.

Dhirubhai Ambhani - dropped out of school to become a business tycoon in India, Founder of Reliance Industries.

Subhash Chandra Goel - is an Indian who dropped out after twelfth grade, is the Chairman of Essel Group. His pioneering channel is Zee TV.

Wai-wai-wai-wai-Wait a second. Is this post misleading? I have no intention of encouraging any people to drop out either from school or from college. My underlying statement is, although millions quit completing studies before completing them, very few of them go on to become rich. What the above list of the super-rich dropouts signifies is that in business, a top degree is not as important as having the right aptitude, attitude, determination and vision.

This certainly proves that skill, good ideas and passion are sometimes more important than a university degree.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Titanic Museum

A decade back, I was totally moved by a movie which portrayed a passionate love story, which recreated the Romeo and Juliet magic in an enormous ship. A movie which won all the possible awards and also became the most acclaimed movie of that year. I must have watched that movie countless number of times and I could still recollect some of the beautiful dialogues in that movie. A movie which stole some million hearts around the world and to umpteen number of lovers it was their moment in a ship and they also promised each other to be "Jack and Rose" in their lifetime. It was purely a James Cameron's incredible craft and the movie was Titanic. And here I am, after more than a decade standing in front of the grand ship, a replica of Titanic in Branson, Missouri.

It was a beautiful long drive from Texas to Branson, which we took last weekend. This world largest Titanic museum was a massive and half scale version of the original ship. Water sprayed from her bow, realistic looking iceberg at her side are well depicted here. We were greeted by the costumed crew members and was given a boarding pass written in the name of an original passenger who traveled in the ship in 1912. Only at the end of our voyage, in the memorial room gallery we came to understand that whether the person in the boarding pass survived or not on the night of the disaster.

The whole place was so realistically recreated and it was like walking in the real Titanic and hearing its entire story. The exhibits showcased some of the finest moments in the ship, some of them are letters written during her maiden voyage, her passenger's belongings, deck chair, life jacket, photographs, dinner menu card, the grand staircase, the luxurious first class room, the simple third class cabin, abundance information about the ship, so on. Going through the exhibit was very touching moment and we felt like we stepped back in time. This museum has the pride to own the most accurate model of Titanic, which is 18 feet long and took two years to built by an Englishman.

The Grand staircase in the museum was a magnificent replica which definitely showed the luxurious ambiance the Titanic carried on water. It brought back the memory of Rose meeting Jack at the clock in the movie. It was such a splendid staircase and walking on it was really a 'Jack and Rose' moment for us. It was such a breath taking structure and it will never wind up from my memory anytime.

Just by going through the artifacts in this fabulous museum, I realized the incredible work put down by the director Mr. James Cameron in the movie. He really is an master craftsman. He had done a perfect job in recreating the enormous ship with all the minute details. And to my surprise most of the incidents he showed in that movie were all really happened on that night when the ship went down under water. Let me list the few below.

On April 14, 1912 at 12:45 AM, Titanic's first starboard lifeboat was lowered into the water. Sadly, it held barely half its capacity of sixty four passengers.

When everyone in the ship realized that their final hours is approaching, the Titanic's bandmaster Wallace Hartley along with few brave musicians played songs to calm the passengers until the final plunge.

When ordered to get into a lifeboat, a woman named Ida refused and stepped aside, holding her husband's hand tightly.

The first preference of getting into a lifeboat was given only to woman and children but the President of White Star Line, J. Bruce Ismay sneaked into one of these life boats, which forever earned him a bad name, "J. Brute Ismay".

The two survivors Lucy and Sir Cosmo were the only two passengers who were called to testify for the accusations of bribery on that crucial night. They promised five pounds sterling to every lifeboat passenger to prevent its return to the site of the disaster.

A woman named Margaret Brown who was in the lifeboat no. 6 fought with the commander, even threatened to throw him overboard, for refusing to go back to seek survivors.

When the ship went down, nearing death from hypothermia, a man named Fitzpatrick blew his scout whistle and attracted lifeboat 12 and he survived.

It was all a scattered real life incidents and Mr. Cameron was brilliant to put together and came up with a wonderful script. Hats off to him.

It was such a memorable moment for me to go through the exhibit and I felt emotional by visualizing such an enormous, luxurious and thought to be unsinkable ship went down under water in her maiden voyage claiming thousand lives. Fate had cruelly sealed the lives of so many people and also the grand ship.

I am going to learn more about Titanic, her passengers and their final hours soon, through books written on her. Will keep you posted on that. Please take a look at the video below to have a glimpse of the museum. No photography was allowed inside the museum and these pictures are taken from the museum website.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Stock Market

I first heard this term through my curriculum. I had no idea what it would be like in spite of learning it. I always wanted to graduate in English Literature to explore the Shakespearean world but somehow fate had other plans for me. I have graduated and also did my master's in Economics and I never felt happy about it. Couple of years back I got an opportunity to try my hand in stock market trading along with my brother. We were like two crazy little kids trying to enjoy with it rather than learning it in first place. Result of it was we both were severely, badly hurt by the too much of fun. Then we both have decided to stay out of it anytime, all our life.

After coming to US, I happened to hear about some of the great legends in stock market investing and the first thing I did was started to read their books. Although I was not sure at that time whether I would be either trading or investing in stock market, I read some of the wonderful books and was amazed by the interesting facts from the legends in this business. All my life from what I heard I was in a notion that stock market is only about gambling until I came across few amazing people in this business like Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch, Benjamin Graham and so on.

Now I can tell that I know little about this industry and can advice people to learn about it rather than have fun with the numbers. And for the first time in my life I feel that I am so happy that I am an economic student. Now it really makes sense (my love will always remain with the Shakespearean world though). Stock market is not a gambling business if you handle it properly. Its an wonderful investment opportunity for the people who can learn and be patient. Think about long term investment and please think about stock market. The best advices on stock market that I could sum up for you are laid below...

Learn more about some of the legends in this business and start investing early in life, don't trade stocks.

Pick some quality stocks and invest for a longer period of time. Own some good long term growth stocks. Longer your time horizon, lower is your risk.

Diversify your investment. You should not invest in one particular stock. You should pick few quality stocks instead. Consider holding few dividend paying stocks in your portfolio.

Don't invest in stocks all at once. Invest over a period of time. Invest when the stock market falls and don't when it is so high. Buy low, sell high.

Be patient. Be an investor, not a speculator. You should never be greedy in this business.