The sun broke out of the clouds then, and it filled the world with sunshine. A few small earthern lamps had filled a boy’s hearts with hope in a dilapidated temple decades back. The same brightness and warmth now pervaded the hearts of everyone magnified – from the boy to the old man and from the children to the old men. It filled them with joy, and it spilled from the lips… here as a smile… there as laughter.

It was Utopia.

A snippet from a story that I wrote years ago…

If you are an attendee – our session is on thursday, but you will also see peeks at what we are doing all around MIX. Look in your attendee bags for a few surprises, including something nice for your laptop.

Stay tuned, and also check out the team blog for updates.

The last email I got from the man who I have often called my American dad was upbeat and full of energy – just like the very man whose office I had the good fortune of bursting into many many years ago. He mentioned as an aside that the cancer that he had beaten had come back but that he was supremely confident that he would beat it this time. About a month later, I got an email from his account mentioning that he passed away. Since that day I have been fighting away the sadness and trying hard to live up to the spirit of the man that inspired me to journey the road less traveled.

That day, many years ago, after I burst into the offices of the college Vice President – I had given vent to all my frustrations and my ambitions. I paced the room talking about my frustration at being unable to find enough time for research, and the paucity of student employment that hindered my ability to dream beyond. I talked about my journey from a small town in India to a small town in Kansas – and the temptation to give up. I talked and talked and through all of it this ram rod straight professor administrator sat behind his desk listening to me aptly and nodding to what I had to say. It was only when his office admin caught my eye from the outside that I realized where I was and who I was talking to. I skidded to a complete stop – unable to say anything further and expecting to be shellacked for being disrespectful. You see – I have grown up hearing "Guru Devo Bhava",  equating your teacher to God, in a society where teachers have tremendous authority.

I learnt my first lesson from him that day – as he calmly put into motion actions to create a new role within his office reporting to him and opening up avenues for me to engage in what little research activity that happened at small midwestern university. I learnt that day that action is the most eloquent of languages.

People were the reason why I could comfortably call Kansas my home, and Dr. Taylor was at the very top of that list. He inspired, advised and helped all he could and eventually encouraged me to make the move to Caltech. Along with a few others, he helped shape my future into something everyone would be proud of. He taught me how to start on the path to being a good strategist and it is to him that I owe much of my success as an approachable technologist. At the same time, I was very glad to play my part in his life – be it as the messenger boy in his budding romance or subsequently as a staunch supporter of mom Maria’s push to get him back to better health.

Even after I went to the west coast and they moved to Portugal – he and mom always wrote to me, emails full of wit and wisdom and warm benevolence.  When will you start your next company he asked – he wanted to invest in it. I had another home in Portugal they said, and a family that awaited my visit. Never did I imagine that I would not be greeted at the airport by my American dad when I finally visited. I will still go, because I want to see the land that he fell in love with and the lady that together with him nourished a young me with infinite care and amazing cooking.

Dad, I will miss you. No eulogies will suffice – you will live on in the lives of people that you have touched and inspired, continuing to teach and guide through your memory.

Dr. James S. Taylor (1947-2007)

One of the easier ways to become successful in an increasingly flat world is to identify a new market that has deep parallels to a mature one – understand the deltas and trends really well and apply the lessons learnt from the mature market to the new one. With that in mind, I think recycling is going to be a HUGE business in India. If I were an entrepreneur or investor looking to make an investment I would make one in the trash and recycling business. I know of many stories where people made millions in this business in the developed world. The same story could be easily emulated in a place like India. I saw some smaller trash picking operations while I was in Hyderabad and there are some global trash companies investing – but someone local with deeper pockets and a good understanding of the human resource situation who executes systematically would be able to reap huge rewards in a place like India. Some interesting execution points would be to (a) lobby government to bring about trash and recycling laws (b) make big pushes in terms of creating a brand name that is clearly associated with trash and recycling (like xerox is to copying) (c) create a profit sharing franchisee model to tap into the large low cost work force.

Further reading:

French Garbage Company Disrupts Community Initiatives

India’s tech trash heap – .net magazine (I wonder what part of a computer has grease)

Garbage too can make you rich

What I meant by the title of this post though – is this little one. She is the first kid in this world who actually turned up in my arms on the day she was born. I have been watching her grow, missing almost every moment that I have not been nearby. I only hope that my friend P (who by virtue of having done the easy little job of giving birth to this little bundle get’s to spend waaaay too much time with her ) will decide that my superbly sunny countenance will more than offset any gray skies of the emerald city – and move over here with D, rika and her twin siblings.

I was looking for a picture to host on Zooomr since I wanted to try them again, and I kept coming back to this one. I finally gave up resisting and so here she is.

Emerald Baby Hosted on Zooomr

Caltech Laboratory Animals Discover Secret to Life, the Universe, and Everything

Taking the campus completely by surprise, physicists at the California Institute of Technology announced today that a pair of white mice from one of the biology laboratories has discovered the secret to life, the universe, and everything. In a sudden epiphany, they also announced a reorganization of the department’s research groups, with the elimination of the elementary particle physics group as its primary goal…

Go read more here.

Someone wrote:

Why is it necessary to put your two cents in, but it’s only a penny for
your thoughts? Where does that extra penny go?

And someone replied:

It is better to give than to receive. You’re paying two cents to
contribute your own thoughts, but only offering 1 to receive them. The
extra penny goes for the better quality.

Ah.. those good old days

 The person who posted it claims its a prototype and from the stickers on the chassis it seems to support dedicated graphics. There is also mention of a SIM card slot for EDGE connectivity. FWIW a dealer chimed in on the same thread that the price is expected to be upwards of $2100 CAD if something like this ever makes it to the market.

Obviously this is a total rumor at this point (my standard disclaimer stands – i have no way to confirm or deny existence of such a device – I am just quoting whatever is posted on the web…) but if a tablet convertible designed along the lines of the very sexy LG T1 express I mentioned earlier turns up by Vista launch I will be very tempted to buy it as my next personal laptop.

Specs as quoted:

• Intel Core Duo (Core 2?)
• Nvdia dedicated graphics (7200?)
• 10.x” widescreen
• EDGE/GPRS integrated
• Hopefully a HD faster than the one in T1

Engadget, TabletPCReview et al have more coverage and photos.

Results will be made available on October 20, 2006. Thanks for helping!