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Why so stressed?

I am sitting at the Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivagi airport. Although still fresh in the morning, the air around the place I am sitting is filled with stress. Yes, stress.

 

Around me are half a dozen gentlemen, all wearing expensive suits and watches. All of them have a tablet (laptops are so old fashioned). Their luggage strolleys look brand new (as if they purchase one every time they travel).
I walked up to the newspaper stand nearby. There’s The Times of India, some local newspaper and one section which doesn’t have anything. I suppose it had The Economic Times, which all these gentlemen around me have taken up and swallowed. Yes, I can see two of them hiding behind The Economic Times. I think they are competing against each other to grasp everything so that they can stay ‘ahead of the curve’. The other gentlemen are doing something on their tablets, but I don’t think they are focusing enough. They seem to be switching between applications which one usually does. Two of them have also purchased ‘Business Books’. I can see some edition of the Harward Business Review with one of them. Can’t figure out the other one. But there’s an image of a man well dressed like them and pointing his finger somewhere. I think he must be some ‘Leadership Guru’. Ah another friend walks up and takes the last available seat around. And he is carrying the ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ book. But no one seems to be reading those books. Once in a while they flip some pages and move on to their tablets. Do they have scanners in their heads? I don’t know.

 
But they all look very stressed. Now you know whyI said the air is filled with stress. I don’t want to sit here. I decide to find another place. I can see two seats lying vacant. There are some kids sitting around. And they are reading some comics. One of them is playing a game on the PSP. Yes, I want to sit here. A 3-4 year old is reading an illustrated story book. These kids look so happy. I decide to sit down and write this post.

 

Let me stop here. I want take my Kindle out and continue on the Hardy Boys Mystery. Before I sign off, I just hope that 20 years down the line, these kids are not stressed like those gentlemen. I just hope so!

Why is English so foreign in Hong Kong?


The Amazing Hong Kong Skyline

 

I recently traveled to Hong Kong with my wife and intended to write something ASAP. Thanks to the piled-up work, I finally get an opportunity to post something. Hong Kong is just amazing! It is one of those places where you can experience everything. A great modern city, mountains, beaches, the up markets and the street shopping for the bargain hunters. Great food (well only if you are a non-vegetarian unlike me!). Theme parks, fishing villages, exciting hiking trails, high-speed ferry rides, the open top bus rides…..the list goes on!

We just had 6 days with us, so we could only cover the major attractions – The Peak, the Victoria Harbor, the unique light and sound show- ‘The Symphony of lights’, the Lantau Islands, the Ocean Park, TST, Avenue of Stars. 3 long nights of street shopping. And a day trip to Macau, of course.

The strangest thing I noticed there was the fact that a random average person you speak to, will most likely not understand English! I know it is China. But it is strange because the British have been there for over hundred years and Hong Kong has been handed over to China just a decade ago. And the fact that it is still a Special Administrative Region (SAR) which enjoys being one of Asia’s prominent business centers. And that it is a tourist place. Why is this then? And then you travel to Macau. The situation is even worse.

The other strange thing was that a few tourists requested to click photographs with us!!!!! I suspect they were from mainland China and were tourists like us. But come-on. I thought Indians were everywhere……..they why were we so special? Whatever the reason was, I wouldn’t complain on this one 🙂 . It made us feel special.

It was a great experience overall. While we were leaving, Hong Kong felt so familiar. Travels through the MTR, the TST area. We thought we could guide anyone, anywhere! There’s a lot much to do than we could cover. But there’s definitely, the next time!

 

How important is your blog post’s title?

Before you go on to read, just pause for a while and think what this post is all about just by reading the title.

Chances are:

  • If you are a techie, thoughts like SEO, page rank etc. will come to your mind.
  • If you are a business guy and all that stuff, chances are that catchy, positioning  etc. come to your mind.
  • And if you are somewhere in between (probably like me), then a mix of above would flash across.

Opps!  nothing came to your mind?  Go and relax! Probably you are quite tired.

So how important is the title anyway? I won’t write all about the catchy stuff, SEO and all that. It is pretty well covered on the web. Instead, I would like to share my own experience on this subject.

Almost two years ago, I wrote a post on getting Reebok and similar watches being offered as freebies, out of sheer frustration. While I chose the title carefully, little did I know that it would become the most read and most commented article on my blog. “free reebok watch” would show my article as the top result on Google search. You can read the post here. Go read some of the comments.

Before we move on, I would like to post some of my favorite comments on the post:

  • “hey I read this.
    Plz Please Plz….
    I also want watch, Plz give….
    I never won any gift from internet or any other way.
    So I request you please arrange only 1 watch for me….
    Thanku very much.”
  • “from reading your offer i think that this is a very nice service than any other else,so plz consider my coment and snd me instruction on my mobile from where i have to get my prize.
    Thank You!!!”
  • “send we 500 rupees i will send u 5 Rebook watches. i bought them in 80 rupees”
  • “hiii this is harsha i watch this and i want 2 won this rebook wrish watch and i didnot get any thing from u plzzzzzzzzz plzzzzzzzz plzzz offer this watch to me plzzz”
  • Thanks 4 a very fruitful advice …..n do cooperate me to have this damn bold n beautiful watch as soon as possible
  • Dear Sir I like this watch please sir send me this watch at my postle address Mian Ijaz Tahir C/o Al-habib Super Store College road Burewala District Vehari Punjab Pakistan I will wait for it thanks.

There are many, you could read on if you have time.

Now my most favorite ones from two gentlemen Nithul and Naveen:

  • “nithul the way u r wasting the money of public is horrible. if u donot have the capabilities to beat a company then dont blaff that they take the help of reebok. u know u are a stupid creature who are promoting this stupid blog with reebok”
  • “Saalo comment marne par tumhe kon watch dega ,
    ye sab sab ko pagal bana rahe hai…
    apni website ko advertise krna chate hai..
    and now finally i want to buy a reebok watch upto rs 200 ,,
    (reebok square model)..
    hai koi maai ka lal jo dila de..
    hai toh mail me at
    naveenyadav929@gmail.com
    i m waiting….”

Once in a while, I get these really funny comments, it just makes my day! That is the thrill of blogging.

Now coming back to our topic on the importance of title, I can’t emphasize on it more. The title is damn important! I think my post was really crisp to have people miss the following:

Update

hi everyone, thanks for your comments. This post was just meant to express how companies are attracting customers. I of course do not have these many watches to spare! I never expected so many people to comment !!!!!

Note that all comments posted above were received after posting the update. But I hardly think anyone read it (even though it is highlighted), else I shouldn’t have received the first set of comments. Keep in mind that commenting on a blog post is really rare! Those who blog  (and track) would know. Probably out of 250 people reading an article, one would comment. Given the fact that so many people have commented on this post asking for the watch, I can confidently say that they would have just read the title and possibly the first couple of lines.

In principle,  it is just the title which motivated the people to respond to my post. If they really read the entire post, the comments would have been different.

So next time when you write that blog post, remember that it is worth spending that extra minute to think about the title 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

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Faster than light? Yes Sir! Possible

 

The reason I am compelled to write this post is that I’ve just got a payment reminder for the domain. I must write something, else I’ll not feel good while releasing the payment. Thanks to Ankit, I haven’t yet paid anything for hosting.

I didn’t know what to write about. So I will just mention a few pointers on faster than  light travel which I have come across recently. We all know that Einstein’s relativity puts a limit on the maximum speed through which anything can travel; and the limit is the speed of light, which is constant.

  • Yes, imagination can be faster than light. One of my teachers told me long ago. But this is Philosophy. And not Science.
  • The limit is applicable on anything travelling through space, but not the space itself. Space can expand faster than the speed of light. And this is what the consensus is.
  • If a particle is created at a speed greater than the speed of light, then theoretically it can travel faster than light. But the question is, how can it be created at a speed which is faster than light? But it is all theory you know, so no harm knowing about this. Maybe a particle from another universe where Einstein was not born to discover relativity, somehow sneaks into our universe faster than light and continues to travel at such speeds.

I read an interesting interpretation somewhere. One can’t ‘encounter’ something which travels faster than light. To understand what it means, imagine that two of us stand 1 feet apart. And suddenly, the space between us rips apart at speeds faster than the speed of light. So we may be moving away from each other at faster than light speeds, but we wouldn’t ‘encounter’ it. We would never be able to see each other until the space keeps expanding at those rates. But hold on! If such a thing does happen and suddenly someone disappears from our sight, wouldn’t that itself prove that faster than light travel is possible?  By not ‘encountering’ each other, wouldn’t we actually ‘encounter’ faster than light travel?

Wow! I just did a thought experiment like Einstein! And also found a paradox. Not bad. And that too triggered by a $10 domain renewal bill. Innovation can’t be this cheap. Something must be wrong. Find out 🙂

Finally I get to see a mummy!

A mummy at the British Museum, London

I wouldn’t call it a childhood dream, but it has been quite a while since I have been looking to see a mummy. I am sure a lot of us want to. The Egyptian history is probably one of the most fascinating ones. Mummies and Pyramids would be on the hit list of anyone who even has a little interest in history (or may be with no interest in history, these could still be something which one would like to witness!)

I just had a few hours to spare on an otherwise busy trip to London and had to pick on one thing to see. It was not at all difficult. I had read that the British Museum has a rich section dedicated to Egypt and that made it easy! I rushed to the museum and straightway headed for the Egyptian section. And I was not disappointed at all! Just at the entrance of the section, I witnessed a mummy (the one in the photograph above)! It was really a great feeling, I must say.  I always though about a planned trip to Egypt to witness the Pyramids as well as the Mummies. I never knew that I wound witness a mummy here, in London (well the English couldn’t get the Pyramids here 🙂 ) . But then, life does throw surprises.

I also attended a 30 minute guided tour on Egyptian history by one of the curators (and bugged him with a few questions towards the end!). I saw a lot of other things as well, but I don’t really remember what else I saw. Such was the thrill!

If you are in London, don’t miss it out…