Chronicles of Gautam

Love them or hate them, but you cannot ignore Apple's products. The Ipod, Iphone and the Ipad have not just become iconic products of this decade, but have redefined the industry and become synonymous with the product itself. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I say music player = iPod and tablet = iPad. Apple has die hard fanboys, who swear by its products and have an almost blind adoration for the  person largely behind them, Steve Jobs. Few companies or people evoke such strong emotions or reactions as Apple and Steve jobs. Your Electronic Life as Apple sees it! After the spectacular success of the Ipad, it is natural that other companies want to have their share of the 'tablet' pie. But competing with the likes of Apple is no mean task, though lots of companies have tried, and failed ( Zune , anyone?). Interestingly Google has succeeded quite a bit in arresting the Iphone's free-rise, by developing the android mobile platform, and giving it away, for free ! Andro...

As tradition has it, I am back in Mumbai for this year's Christmas - New year festive season. For the 6th year in a row, I am spending this time of the year in Mumbai. Four years of my college and two years of working, I was never at home during Diwali or Holi, or Ganesh Chaturthi for that matter, but I am always here during Christmas and New Year; simply because I have had holidays every single time. As I look back over the years, I realize how much I have changed. Christmas time gives me a fixed point, some sort of rigidity to the timeline of my life, where I can look back and recollect over my last year. At the same time last year, I was thinking vastly different things, my priorities were different. As I said in some earlier post and repeat it here, life changes. For the last three years now, all I was doing this vacation was preparing for the XAT, and I must do the same now this year too. Wish me luck! Two of my pics from Seoul below: Me at City Hall Subway Station, S...

   Seoul - Infinitely yours Recently I had been to South Korea, one of the four ' Asian tigers' . Specifically, I had been to the very live and bustling city of Seoul, the place where the Miracle on the Han river took place. This event refers to the phenomenal economic success of the Seoul city in particular, and South Korea in general in the last 3-4 decades.  It is a story of the epic rise of a country from being war-ravaged  in the 1950s to becoming an awe inspiring, sky touching, electronics producing giant. A GDP growth chart is suffice to astonish us with the sheer growth rate and consistency with which South Korea has recorded its economic growth. South Korea's GDP (PPP) Growth from 1911 to 2010 - Source Wikipedia I was in Seoul for almost one and a half months, working for a Korean customer mainly to initiate them about our product and set up their development environment. I lived in a hotel for the first week and then moved to a service apartment for...

While on the bus the other day, I passed a spot where an accident had taken place. Usually most people stand up and crane their neck to get a glimpse of the scene. I am not one of them. I am sensitive in this sense, preferring  to move on rather than have a disturbing image affixed in my brain. Probably some poor guy must be lying in a pool of blood with many parts of the body broken and writhing in pain, or worse, dead. One split second before the accident, all was well and then Bang! His life just changed forever. This just underscores how fickle life is. We fret and fiddle and plan and arrange, and then just out of the blue  everything changes. All that we think changes. All plans change. Life changes. This does not mean we should not think about our future - that would be plain stupid. I just want to say how, in particular cases, the best laid plan can go awry. In case you are wondering if I am smoking pot, be assured that I ain't doing no such thing. Its just that I saw...