Money... Saving's ... & Me!

Day before yesterday, post lunch, I and 3 of my fav colleagues, decided to take a walk around the lush green, serene office campus as we vacated the cafeteria well before time. :) As usual, we are experts at discussing everything under the sun, In JD's terms, " Though I am unmarried and don't have any kids, I keep giving funda's to people on these topics, I wonder what will happen to me, the day I actually get married and have kids... who will be giving me funda's ?? :D"

So here we were discussing about our work, job profile and our all time favorite topic... MONEY!! When we started discussing that we have some decent no. of yrs work ex and not a single penny as saving and were amused at how people around us had saved up so much and even got married! The facts were actually astonishing & I guess, I have been the biggest jerk around :) undoubtedly.

"Where does the salary go???", was sri's question.. and we all were wondering that are we truely basking on a very exotic & lavish lifestyle? Well the answer was certainly not! To be honest, I know the reasons for my expenditure and barely any saving, but is that an excuse that I am giving myself?? In that case, it's high time that I did some retrospection and caught a hold on the situation. 

 I follow a blog quite closely, www.entrepreneurs-journey.com , which is always full of good, interesting well-versed stuff that any entrepreneur should be aware off. Although I show no signs of a capable entrepreneur, knowledge always comes in handy :)... accidentally happened to read this fascinating article on Freelancing by Ali Hale and decided to view his blog which speaks about getting more out of life. For a day-dreamer like me, I thought it would be fun to read someone's thoughts/opinion and see how much I can relate to it.  Ali Ventures was an amalgamation of my four years of engg. hostel, knowledge sharing sessions in some or the other room :) but there was one article which caught my eye.. More for your Money . It's an e-book written by Ali on how to practically make an effort on monitoring savings and where is the money going?

In my opinion, she has blended her thoughts well and suggested some good, practical methods to make a difference in your monthly budgets but this is for the beginners (i.e. people who have recently started getting the feel of the currency and their hand's are always twitching to grab some new stuff) . What I liked best? "Don’t fall into the trap of spending a lot of time to save a little money"... I think this is something I should remember. Anyway, it's a good read for all and hence, I decided to share it.

Hope this helps some one, some where :)

Cheers!

Blauk.com.. "I saw you there.. and I thought.."

Blogging is Passe, welcome to "I saw you there .. and I thought..." :)

When I read about this concept in the Hindu, I was taken aback by the whole idea of this kind of macro blogging and felt that this concept made no sense. To my surprise, http://www.blauk.com/ is setting a new trend. Indians, who are often branded as stereotypes, are actually breaking the norms & utilizing a site like blauk.com to post there opinion on strangers decorously.

The concept...quite simple and neat.. it's a short blog service which allows you to post macro blogs about random people you meet/observe. When I first saw the posts, they were hilarious. :) People have provided some amazing information such as when and where they saw the person which lets the readers identify themselves and connect with it. The good thing is, it's uncontaminated ;) yet loud; so makes total sense! But how is Blauk.com going to maintain a healthy platform for strangers interaction is something we would have to wait and watch.

The idea has great potential in today's socio-networking site savvy world & hat's off to Samson Manickaraj, the creator, who claims that this is bigger than twitter and facebook. Considering the fact that it's just 4 weeks old, it will be exciting to watch it's flow. Check it out people :)

Cheers!

Welcome 2010!!

Why me?? Why today?? Couldn't this have happened yesterday or tomorrow? were some of the questions that my sis asked me on 31st dec '09, a remarkable day in her and my life! The world was preparing itself for the great surprises in store for them in 2010, people looking forward to finding new partners & settling down :), getting into schools of their choice for higher education, finding a new job with a new pay package, getting back to hobbies long gone, making resolutions to loose or gain weight... We (I and my family), were blessed by a shock... nerve reckoning incident which totally re-enforced my belief in the super-natural power.

Home, a place we all feel safe, our habitat! What happens when someone nasty has the key to your safe zone? Some one insane keeps a track of every movement of yours? What would you do, when suddenly, one fine afternoon, you open your door and find a stranger waiting for you??

On 31st dec '09, my sisters budday, the remarkable day when she got placed into a company during this recession, a day when she was more than happy receiving gifts and best wishes.. she walked into our house which was apparently locked, by opening it with her keys & was resting. Fortunately, after 10mins, my mother also came back home. They both, as usual, were having a discussion on her gifts in my mom's room when a shadow passed behind my sister. My mom freaked out and started screaming, they started looking around, when the ghastly creature, who was hiding under the dining table, pushed them and ran out. My sis froze! My mom kept screaming and I was not surprised that no one came for help.

There were too many questions running in my head, when I heard about it from my weeping and howling sis (after a minute of the incident) who had lost her senses for more than a day. Though I asked her to triple check no one was there in that small 2bhk and if any grill was opened.. I was more than glad that they were unharmed.

This was not the 1st incident in our building, it was the 3rd... and despite the fact that someone from the building was surely involved, the guard was never changed! Nothing was done to make the building more secure. I have never seen such terribly insensitive and non-nonsensical people around who thank god that it was not their house and just walk away, leaving the situation totally unattended! What a ridiculous way to leave yourself to the mercy of some stranger who knows you are helpless! This was an incident in the broad day light where no one say him coming or leaving the building. How ironic is that????

What I learn't: wherever you buy a place to live, first make sure your neighborhood has Humans living and not morons!

This post is totally from the heart and may contain mistakes (language wise)... pardon me!

Online Circulating library for Bangalore, Pune & Mumbai

I was desperately looking for an online library to get back to my second love, Reading! After ages, I felt that something was lacking... something that I was missing... and for the lamest reasons! So I decided to find a solution & hence surfed on the Net god, Google.. Guess what, I was lucky and found something really interesting, and I am sure it will be useful for all the book-lovers in Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai!For all those who pursue reading as their hobby and need a good place to regularly get their hand's on the latest and not so latest books :).. especially who live in the net savvy Bangalore or Pune and rocking Mumbai, http://www.librarywala.com/ is an excellent way to keep your hobby going.

They are an extremely reasonable & a great option for the hard or smart working geeks in the above mentioned cities. Personally I have not enrolled yet, but will be enrolling soon & will post an update about my opinion on their service here. Apparently, They home deliver your choice of books within 24 hours, you can keep the book as long as you like with no penalty (which is a boon for freaks like me, as I can never ever finish a book in time... why?? :P Good Question! Although I love reading, higher priority stuff will always barge their way through my schedule & use up all my time :P ) & They have a pretty good collection too I must say!


So folks, if you are looking for someplace which can provide you good stuff to read at reasonable price and libraries are always a boon :) ... do check this site out, http://www.librarywala.com/
Chao..