"Steve Jobs : The Man ............."

If you have not read this before, here is a fascinating speech by Steve Jobs. This was given to me two years ago by K C Mahesh, my previous Team Manager. If you like this, you should read the latest book on Steve Jobs, iCon, the greatest second act in the history of business.

Here are a few highlights;

Steve's mom put him up for adoption, as a new born.
Dropped out of college.
Got fired from the company he founded.
Diagnosed with fatal pancreatic cancer ...

I've read this article morethan a dozen times, especially when I am feeling low. Please do read every word of it, and don't stop with reading it just once...

***: Read it in peace, without any disturbance. Thanks a lot KC. This article has really helped me a lot.

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005. I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college. And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition.

After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.

I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.

But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30.

And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out.

What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly.

I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you…

"Am I Dreaming......."

The verses of an English song from a Malayalam movie.

Movie Name: Manju Poloru Penkutti (2004)

Music Director: Alphonse

Lyrics: Kaithapram

Year: 2004

Producer: Dream Team Productions

Director: Kamal

Like the shadows fall on the night of shining stars

Why do the clouds whisper the words

I can never feel again

Am I dreaming am i seeking somethin I dont understand

And now here I wait for a brand new day

Why do rangers live in the heavens up above

Is there a silents of stoling are all the moments so lonely

I wait alone

Why do strangers walk in the guides of living hearts

Why do the smiles and words contain shadows of the deepest light

Am i dreaming am i seeking somethin i dont understand

And now here i wait for a brand new day

Wow why do rangers live in the heavens up above

Is there a silents of stoling are all the moments so lonely

I wait alone

And then the darkness is gone ,there'll be a day not far away

I will reach for the sky take on my way and fly away

Like the shadows fall on the night of shining stars

Why do the clouds whisper those words

I can never feel again

Am I dreaming am I seeking somethin I dont understandand

Now here I wait for a brand new day

"Movie Review : Vel"

Here's the review on the Movie - Vel as mentioned in my previous post.

I believe this the movie where in Asin and Surya are being casted together after the smash hit Gajini. I would be doing injustice to the crew of the movie, if I dont say that "Vel" has met the expectations.

The roles done by Surya is not challenging as his in role in Gajini. But, they way he has handled the roles makes it look special. He has adopted different body language and different dialogue delivery style for both the characters.

Asin (Swathi) did not have much to perform in the role. But I believe, these days all the movies are hero centric and the character played by the heroin is not given much importance.There are a few scenes in the movie where her talent for acting comes to the fore.

Kalabhavan Mani has delivered an outstanding performance in the role of the villain, and Vadivel's comedy rocks. From being a comedian in Malayalam, Mani has moved up the ladder and has proved his amazing acting potential.

Director Hari has done his part well by giving equal importance to both characters played by Surya and the movie has steady pace. The only negative I felt about the movie was that the songs slowed down the pace of the movie.

The story is about separated brothers. They grows up in different environments. One becomes a private detective (Vasu) and the other a village hero (Vel). (Remeber the old hindi movie themes - lost brothers re-uniting???)

Vel's and Vasu's mother (I do not know the name of the actress), is unable to forget the lost child. Through out the movie you can see her in tears, thinking of the wellbeing of her lost son. The movie shows that she has been the same way for 27 years.

Vel is taken care by a family in Dindigul and the family members love him so much. His grand mother (Lakshmi) is very much fond of him and couldn't live without him. By coincidence Swathi finds Vel and intimates Vasu. Vasu goes to dindigul and meets Vel. The dindigul family refuses to send back Vel. Vasu satys with Vel for couple of days and on his return, he requests Vel to go to Chennai as Vasu and live with his mother for a few days. Vasu stays back in the Village as Vel.

During Vel's stay at Chennai, Swathi's uncle and aunt comes from Malayasia and wants Vasu to put a ring on Swathi's finger. Vel is forced to reveal that he is not Vasu. Whereas Vel was dealing with Mani using muscle power, Vasu corners Mani through details found through his investigations.

The movie goes on based on sentiments of the families on Vasu and Vel and fights between the villain and the heros. The script of the movie seems to be good. The Music score by Yuvan Shankar Raja is not exceptional. Only two songs in the movie are commentable whereas the others can be tagged average. The special effects are amazing, especially in scences when Vasu and Vel are shown together.

It has been directed in such a way that the viewers are never bored. Good mix of Romance, Action, Comedy, Sentiments... the list goes on and on.

In short : It's a movie worth watching. An entertainer.

"Movie Review : Azhagiya Thamizh Magan"

It's been quite long since I have written anything about the movies that I happened to watch.

By coincidence, I happened to watch two movies in the same multiplex -Maayajaal, around 17kms from Chennai. It is said to be the largest multiplex in south India with six screens, and they are adding another six to it. Maayajal is also a weekend hangout (got to have bucks!!!). It has a sports village, a karting track, swimming pool, a bar, bowling arcade, a shopping center... and what not.

Now, let me get into the real stuff. I happened to watch the movie "Azhagiya Thamizh Magan" yesterday. To promote the movie the producers have even casted Sha-kee-lah (am not sure how her name is spelt).

Vijay plays a double role in the movie - Guru and Pradeep. Both the villain and the hero look alike (almost like twin brothers), but is not related. By the interval time, I wanted to get out and thought I would rather spend my time in the Karting track rather than wasting it before the screen.

I was disappointed and frustrated. To watch some of the sequences in the movie, you should leave the following things back at home:

1. Intelligence

2. Consciousness

3. Brains.

Unlike many of the movies, Ashish Vidyarthi is not a villain... (villians also need a change).... Shriya plays the role of Vijay's lover and also happens to be Ashish Vidyarthi's daughter. Some of the fight sequences in the movie, would actually make you want to hit your own head. If Newton was watching the movie, he would have re-written the concept and the law(s) of Gravity.

All of a sudden, Guru's ESP is triggered and his visions starts to come true. After visualizing a scene, where he ends up hurting Shriya, he flees to Mumbai so that no harm comes to her. The movie seems to be dragging in many shots.

The story is based on the life of two men. One an ordinary man, the embodiment of all the good things in the world. The other, a mean money lender whose only aim in life is money and the pleasures it offers. Everything breaks lose when Pradeep (the impostor) decides to act as Guru (hero) and marry the rich Shriya. The rest of the story is how the original Guru goes about saving Shriya from the impostor Guru. In short, you can call the theme of the movie as "Love Vs Greed".

Shriya has to act as if she doesn't have a clue on who the love of her life is. All through the movie, she runs into the arms of the wrong man.

The final scenes of the movie portrays her being hospitalized after being hurt by Guru. She delivers spicy dialogues on sex and virginity to the Villain. Hearing the dialogues, the villain changes the outlook of his life and becomes a good person!!!!!! Unbelievable???

Overall experience : Waster of money, time - A movie which can only be enjoyed by die hard Vijay fans.

I wanted to write about the other movie "Vel" also. But having the patience to remember the sequences and write about the movie in the most polite and courteous tone I could manage have taken its toll on me. I will write about "Vel" as another post.

Dipawali : Time to run away??

India is known as the 'Land of festivals'. Perhaps the most widely celebrated among them is Diwali, also known as Dipawali - The festival of Lights.

A festival celebrated by the rich and poor, by the young and the old - across the country to lighten up their lives. It symbolizes unity in diversity, as each of the Indian states celebrates it - in its own special way. An exemption is Kerala, where Dipawali is not a major festival. It is celebrated only in some areas of the state or by people of a certain community.

I love seeing the firecracker's explode in the sky, splashing different colors, lightening up the entire sky. To watch the night sky on the eve of Dipawali is a treat to the eyes. Children often compete to to crack the crackers that go boom, bang and vroom. It's a tough competition and families pour in money to buy crackers. In the area where I live, I know families who spend 50-60k for the crackers.

Now, isn't that too much? Instead of burning crackers for such high amounts, they can provide food for the needy. The houses in my area spends money in lakhs for the crackers. Result : Never ending explosions. It's fun in the beginning, but as the crackers go off, the fun ceases. The decibel level of the crackers are too high that you almost start thinking are you in a war or not. No wonder why Mallu's like me run away. Keralites are not used to such high level noise pollution and can hardly bear it.

There are references in the `puranas' on the importance of fire as a source of light during night, and of sound doing the job of identification in the absence of light. `Diyas' and fireworks therefore symbolise the significance of light and sound in human life. These beliefs should be followed, but not at the cost of human lives and grief in place of happiness.

A shift from deafening crackers to delightful sparklers is always welcome. A possible solution is having limits on the decibel levels for crackers and banning the sale of those that exceed it. In my area, compared with the previous years, less crackers went off. Government has been trying to create awareness about noise pollution through the media. Sadly, even people who know the rules do not care to follow them. It is high time that people should discipline themselves. One good thing I can say about Dipawali is that I get to eat lot of sweets :)

It's the festival time and most of the seats, even in the IT sector is empty. The traffic seems to have lessened over the couple of days. Perhaps, this would change tomorrow. May be, some would decide to stay over for a few more days and return. Obtaining a ticket to get back to Chennai seems to be a herculean task... whoo...look at the waiting list in trains from several destinations.

It's safe to stay indoors during Dipawali. People are buying and cracking unbranded Firecrackers. On last Wednesday, the police arrested 16 people for selling Firecrackers on the road. The unbranded firecrackers is a risky business and one should be extremely careful.

As always, we also get to see a lot of really careless people who are having fun on the roads. How can you ever forgive someone who goes on setting fire to crackers which explodes at high decibels, that too in front of a hospital? People seem to become insane. Think of a heart patient who is undergoing treatment. Ride in a two wheeler and if you are not careful, you would get hit by a cracker that is being thrown aimed at passing by vehicles.

Walk around any street and you can find many-a-chain of crackers. They set it up for about 30m in length?? Imagine, once it starts, it goes on and on and on. It's the festive season.. who cares about safety, public convenience, other's health? no one.

Crackers, if used sparingly and carefully, are a source of enjoyment. But ignorance, carelessness, negligence and recklessness invite trouble. May be people would start valuing life if cracker mishaps and Diwali accidents happen and media gives enough coverage.

The crackers and fireworks that we burst and light for a few hours of pleasure are the result of many months of toil of poor children who work in hazardous conditions for meagre wages. By saying no to crackers, we can at least mitigate child labour, if not eradicate it completely.

Life in Chennai

Chennai (Madras) is India's fourth largest city and the world's 36th Largest Metropolitan Area. Built by the Brittishers. It was a small fishing villge earlier.

"The founding day of Madras is considered to be August 22, 1639. It was on that day, in that year, that a sliver of land, where Fort. St. George stands today, was transacted by the East India Company.The deal was struck by Francis Day, his ‘dubash’ Beri Thimmappa, and their superior, Andrew Cogan, with the local Nayak rulers.It is believed that this deal was made on August 22, 1639".

Chennai is the only Indian city to be attacked by the Central Powers during World War I, when an oil depot was shelled by the German light cruiser SMS Emden. After independence in 1947, the city attained the status of the capital of Madras State, which was renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969. Following are the sister cities of Chennai :-

1. Denver, Colorado, United States.

2. Volgo Grad, Russia.

3. Frankfurt, Germany.

San Antonio, Texas has also expressed its interest in being a sister city to Chennai.

(source: wikipedia)

Now, after years in Chennai, I think that my lifestyle has become more zombie like than that of many Tamilians. I spend much of my day basically passing time between meals. Very rarely do I eat three times a day.

Work timings are so odd that all I do is Eat, Work, Watch TV, Check my mails and then sleep like a pig. Work is supposed to be thrilling, and I love my job. Wish, my previous department was not full of earjackers, as is the case now. Some arguments strikes me as a red herring.

Work apart, its time to talk about food. I know that I may be completely wrong and that there would be many who would disagree with me. Believe me, am known to be a good eater!!!! But I could not be true to myself, if I dont agree that the taste of food at the restaurants in Chennai have completely ruined my love for food. I barely have any appettite when entering a restaurant. You either have to visit a high class (or third star and above) to have tasty food or eat whatever junk you get. Now thats what deserve to be called "pathetic".

For anyone who visit Chennai, the primary concern is its climate. Chennai lies on the thermal equator and is also coastal, which prevents extreme variation in seasonal temperature. Most of the year, the weather is hot and humid. I have experienced summer temperatures upto a whopping 44, where in you will be fried if you step out.

I have also seen the rains in Chennai, and the temperature coming down to 21 (like last week). It rains from mid-September to December and some times in late march. The soil is not soild, and once it rains you should be careful walking on the banks of the road, as most of the terrain is muddy.

I would like to comment on the politics and politicians in Chennai, but is refraining from doing so. Chennai or Tamil Nadu cannot boast of National Parties which are strong. They are driven by local parties like DMK, ADMK, PMK and so many MK's (Munnetra Kazhakam).

The people here in Chennai are movie buff's and worship film stars.... huh... don't be surprised. It happens... Many a times, I've felt that the youngsters learn to drive by seeing the races that happen on the big screen. Sighs... now you know how safe the roads would be.

Night Life in Chennai comes to an early end, thanks to strict orders from the city police. Pubs & discotheques shutdown by 11 or 11.30. If you frequent the pubs in Bangalore, you would call most of the Chennai Pubs as "Bars".

If you are a Go Karting fan, I would suggest "Kart Attack" on the E.C.R, owned by Narein Karthikeyan himself. There are a few other karting tracks like the one's at Maayajal, MRF Danny's Karting, Kart beat. Try it for yourself... I find the Kart Attack track to be the best.

There are a few amusement parks also. Rather than I mentioning it over here, you can find it using google search :-). Google these days have become Human beings' best friend.

One of the best things I find about Chennai is that the city seems to be built for shoppers. Have cash (ora credit card) and you can get most of the International Brand's in Chennai. If you are looking for computer hardware & other accessories then the right place is Ritchie street. You would find a wide range of products available at the lowest prices (beware of duplicates).

If you are a movie buff and do not want to spend hundres buying DVD's, then visit the local stores of Parrys. Audio, Video CD's and DVD's as well as electronic goods are available at unbelievably lower prices. Want to buy Clothes & Jewellery, you can buy for days at various shops in and around T.Nagar.

Moore Market was known as the ultimate flea market, with just about anything available, including all manner of birds and animals as pets in the courtyard. Sadly, Moor Market does not hold the old glory anymore. You would get second hand books or indian re-prints(duplicate) of any books here.

Enough of Chennai for now. Will write more about Chennai later. Are my blogs turning more educational than shedding lights into my thoughts? May be my thoughts in itself is educational.... time will tell. Happy blogging.

The Compulsive Confessor

The first time I ever came to read about eM was when I read an article about her blogs in Malayala Manorama, a regional daily in Malayalam. At the time of writing this, her profile had been checked out by 15,643 people. A thousand more and would equal up to the number of blogger.com bloggers in Chennai. This in itself establishes her popularity.

I am just starting to read her posts and I find that eM is true about her feelings and is bold enough to publish them.

It is also interesting to see that eM gets comments even three years after posting. I was amazed to find that she had posted Summer colds on Monday, June 21, 2004 and got commented on Thursday, June 21, 2007 8:39:00 AM PDT, three years after the post. This shows the reach and popularity of eM's blogs... I guess she is the most widely read Indian Blogger.

Confess : To admit or acknowledge something damaging or inconvenient to oneself... and eM has chosen the title so meaningfully. Not many women in India would dare to write what she writes about. It is said, you shouldn't read dairy of another person. But blogging has re-written the concept to "a Diary should be read, and that's why it is written".

eM seems to be an extraordinary bold woman who knows her passion and shares her strengths and thoughts with those around her so that they learn from her experience and life. (even when the world tells her otherwise). She has also created a group of fans to her blogging. I know that my opinions or expressions dosen't matter, as she is an already established blogger and is read by many.

eM says "My blog is an integral part of my life, but it's not my life. I'd be upset if it vanished tomorrow, but I wouldn't be heart broken". I only wish people who read her and recognize her keep the information to themselves, or it would be too difficult for her to write openly.

All the best eM, go on.... not many are bold and courageous enough to write like you.

About Blogs : From the City of Bloggers....

I have kept many-a private blogs, which I haven't shared. I believe, this is now time to go about going public with my blogs.

Whats best to go public other than writing about Blogs, themselves.

A search showed that there are 8,400 Bloggers from Chennai in Blogger.com alone... others have accidentally set their country as "Afganisthan" and so on... Hence the total count of Google Bloggers alone from Chennai can approximately be counted as 17,000 or more.

On the whole it is estimated that there are 5 million active Bloggers... now, think of those who are not active, Like me... that would also add up to a million... wow.... amazing, isnt it?

In my experience there are two categories of blogs. One is the traditional web-log where a web surfer shares his online discoveries. And the second is the web diary where person shares his or her thoughts of the day. Most blogs of either style often have elements of the other style once in a while. A diarist will often discuss a link while traditional web-loggers will commonly ramble on about something that happened to them that day.

The term was coined in 1999, and today Webster’s dictionary defines a blog as a “diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page.” More importantly, it says that blogs are “typically updated daily” and that “blogs often reflect the personality of the author.”

When I discussed blogging with a friend, the response was "Why are you going to do it"? or "What are you going to do with it".... my answer was "nuthing and a simple smile". Every blogger has his/her own answers to that question.

Some do it, to reach individuals with critical information, to express opinions, to teach students writing skills, or simply as an outlet for personal frustrations. Some do it for the passion of blogging.

An answer I found on the web for the above question is posted below:

"We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results."

Don't you think, thats a perfect description of blogging?

As a writer, I love sitting down to blog. When I start a post I have no idea where I'm headed. I just put down my thoughts. Some times I do write with pre-defined plans, but that's not the case most of the time.

But blog writing is like going off for a walk with no predetermined finish time or route, sometimes the walk is through the fields, sometimes along the streets. The typing: different from what I might write with a pen, the pen being much closer to the heart.

I write whatever comes to my mind; things that I’m passionate about, people I care about and issues that disturb or alarm me. To me, my blog is a place where I can think, express and be myself.

Well, I think that's enough for a first public blog... is it not? Will continue later with another one.