Pushing The Limits

After a three month monsoon break and a dislocated finger, and on barely three hours of sleep, i din't think doing a 40 km ride was physically possible, but we did it. Okay, so we've done longer rides before. We've been all the way to Borivali, Vashi (both 50k) and Thane (62k), and even climbed Malabar Hill thrice on a single ride. Okay, we had a pretty long break at our destination waiting for the rain to stop, before riding back. But, much to my amazement, even after deciding the return journey was beyond us on just the first day back in the saddle, after trying to get back by train (and failing miserably due to the crowd) and after promising to go easy on the pace, we still rode back in record time.

For much of the return journey, i was in the the zone. Head down, pedals kicking over as if driven by a mechanized motor, kilometers flying by. The zone, that amazing period of time when its mind over matter, pain is taken out of the equation, and all that is visible is the destination. When you don't realize how far you've come until you sit back and take a look behind, and when you take a moment to think about it, you can't quite come up with how you achieved it.

Which got me thinking.. are we really pushing the limits in our everyday life? Have we really explored how far we can be stretched? If we think about any of our past achievements, can we say beforehand that we had it in us, and the result was guaranteed? Isn't each milestone a new discovery of having been stretched beyond the limits we thought we were capable of, and setting a new benchmark for ourselves?

Loads of questions. Loads of unknowns.

PS. For those unfamiliar with the geography of this beautiful metropolis of Mumbai, a nice map can be found here.

I map my rides using an amazing app called Strava, a running and cycling GPS tracking app that automatically maps your rides, and provides analytics for speed, elevation and comparison against other online athletes.

Also, a photo of the beautiful Gokuldham abode of Lord Krsna from today morning. 

Hope you all had a safe and pleasant Janmashtami celebration couple of days back. Until next time, Jai Shri Krsna!

Finger Little, Plaster Big

A bit of a delay between posts owing to my travel schedule, and the fact that i've been pretty much left handed since last Monday, which really affected typing speed and slowed down work. This is what my hand looked like for the better part of last week.

I've realized typing one handed is much faster on a mobile device than the laptop, so i wrote this one, alternating between my phone (Galaxy Ace) and my moms Galaxy Tab 2 and switched back to the laptop for links and photos. The blogger app is quite frankly useless in this regard. At best, its a notepad for drafting future posts while on the move, and needs major improvement.

Also, i've learnt to do a few more things left handed since the day i broke my finger. Quite a learning experience this, being one-handed. Bathing, shaving, driving (yes, one handed!) climbing up and down ladders on anchor handling vessels, editing screenshots etc All the usual everyday stuff. I even got an opportunity to drop down to my college, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar, on the day of my Paradip trip, and i grabbed it with both hands, plaster and all

The good news is that the plaster came off yesterday, and the minute i got to flex and bend my fingers and wrist, i was reminded of this scene from Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the part where he peels off his external skin and reveals his metal skeletal structure underneath. The way he flexes his fingers at '0 min 37 sec' is *exactly* what i did with my hand the moment i was free of plaster. (one can nowadays find absolutely *anything* on the internet i reckon)

Alma Mater - Part I

Wow, what a packed couple of days its been!

Thursday afternoon saw us at Paradip Port, on an Anchor Handling Vessel we recently financed, to be deployed for SPM Maintenance and Operation off the Indian coast. If some of those terms went completely bouncer, lets switch back to regular English. I will translate the terms and explain what such a vessel does in complete detail in a later post. Meanwhile this is what it looks like. Its absolutely beautiful to behold, and much bigger than what the photo suggests.

This was my first visit to Paradip Port, or to any port for that matter, and it was an amazing experience. Paradip is one of the 12 major ports in India, situated on the east coast in the state of Odisha, at the confluence of the river Mahanadi and the Bay of Bengal, about 100 km from Bhubhaneshwar. It mainly handles bulk cargo of iron ore, coal and crude, and has 14 berths with a max draft of 14m, capable of accommodating bulk carriers of up to 100,000 DWT. This is what it looks like from an aerial view.

Just to put it in perspective, here's a screen grab from Google Maps. Its amazing what all you can do on the computer nowadays using the internet and some simple software.

The port was a beehive of activity, with 10 bulk carriers, either offloading coal, or loading iron ore. All were geared vessels aided by on-shore material handling cranes. Amazingly, the website maintains up to date information on exactly which vessels were berthed where, and the exact amount of cargo transferred on each day, available the very next day. Impressive information management systems for a govt. enterprise. We were incidentally right next to MV Jag Rani and MV Monica P  

The port is equipped with broad gauge electrified railway line of East Coast Railway (ECoR) right up to the harbor, which allows the cargo to be loaded / unloaded directly onto railway wagons, or alternatively, taken via tippers to high stacking piles covering several square kilometers and surrounded by screens to prevent coal dust and fines. The slowdown in iron ore export was evident, with ore-filled trucks lining two entire lanes of the Chandikhole - Paradip Highway NH 5-A up to a distance of 30 km from port.

So, this post is threatening to turn into quite a long read. You must be wondering by now why this post is titled Alma Mater. Well the trip wasn't just about a port visit, a vessel inspection, and a day spent away from my desk. I also grabbed the opportunity to drop by my alma mater Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubhaneshwar, for a post dinner QnA with the 1st and 2nd year students. More about that in the very next post. Cheers!

 

The Proximal Phalanx

Yesterday i fractured the 'Proximal Phalanx' of the little finger on my right hand while playing football.

Before you ask- Yes, there *are* such bones in our body with ultra cool names like 'Proximal Phalanx'. Yes, you *can* fracture your finger while playing football (a game primarily involving use of feet and head).. by falling on it. And yes, the arrow in my diagram is facing the wrong direction, because its there to show the direction my finger was bent in, not to point out the fracture itself.

There's something exceedingly beautiful about sliding into a tackle for the ball, clearing the danger, but getting up to find your finger bent 60 degrees at the joint in a direction its not supposed to. Okay, that last part isn't beautiful at all, but (in hindsight quite surprising and very confidence-inspiring) in the moments that followed, i calmly grabbed the awkwardly-positioned finger with my other hand and bent it back into a straight line. 

If you're interested, and have exceedingly good eyesight, the third bone from the fingertip is chipped just a little at the very top on the outside, caused by scraping the bone above it whilst the latter was being forced into the direction indicated by the arrow (this was explained to me by the good doctors at the hospital, apparently my eyesight isn't 'exceedingly good') Enough gruesome details for one day. Surprisingly, there was very little pain after i put it back in place. No blood, only swelling around the joint and mild discoloration. Definitely not enough to justify the humongous plaster stretching right up to my wrist.

Anyways, since last night, apart from being the butt of several 'where-did-you-put-your-finger' jokes, i have been struggling to master daily activities with my left hand. Eating, drinking, brushing, gargling, typing (one handed) are just some of the things you should practice doing with your other hand, to be prepared for eventualities such as this one. Or, you could just avoid getting into slide tackles. But, what is life without risk. Cheers!

A Cavil on Chronology

The last couple of posts were titled 'Act II, Scene I - What Lies in Store' and 'Act III, Scene I - The Reading Habit'

We studied the five Acts of 'Julius Caesar' over five trimesters in the 9th and 10th grade. With its twists and turns; plots and sub plots; and the eventual oratory climax delivered by Antony, 'Julius Caesar' had a substantial influence on shaping my mind, and the result is apparent in the title of each post.

In pretty much the same way that Acts changed as the drama unfolded, heralding a change of characters, costumes, locations, props and moods; < kborlikar.blogspot.com > will also switch Acts to herald a change of theme.

Each Act will typically follow a central theme over several Scenes. Act I is an introduction to the blog and its structure. Act II started with an in depth review of an app, while Act III followed with a glimpse into what i am reading. More Acts may follow about things which are an integral part of my life and as i branch out into a different theme, a new Act may be born.

The only difference being, while the literature followed each Act till its demise and switched to the next one in chronological order, this blog may keep alternating between different Acts, depending on the theme of each post. I only hope i can keep you as glued to my stories, as we all were to His. Cheers! Or rather.. 

"Antony: Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot, 

Take thou what course thou wilt." 

 < Exit Antony >

{ The complete text of Julius Caesar can be found here, and audio-file here }

The Reading Habit

Fred Wilson wrote an interesting piece a few days back, about the slowing adoption of e-books, v/s paperbacks.

“Many of the early adopters of ebooks and tablets .. have made their move. The diehards aren't going to make that move it seems, or they are going to take their time.”

One would then expect the obvious move by publishing houses to price the paperback product at a premium to the e-version to drive e-sales, but it has not materialized. Instead, the cost and ease of purchasing a paperback has steadily fallen (via e-retailers) while e-books prices have been lower than paperback, but not much lower, as seen from the table below (for a popular fiction title)

Title		Flipkart	Amazon
Inferno (Dan Brown)	Paperback	Rs 375 ($ 6.25)	Rs 390 ($ 6.50)
	e-Book	Rs 345 ($ 5.75)	Rs 337 ($ 5.60)

Investopedia explains very concisely why the above phenomenon occurs:

Large publishers have overheads like office space, utilities, salaries (editors and graphic designers) and marketing spends, which aren’t necessarily eliminated in the case of e-books. The savings are only in the form of physically printing the book and the physical distribution process (margins to bookstores and inventory cost). Thus, the pricing gap between e-books and paperbacks is small.

So, all of the above has only served to take the brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries out of business.

Three simple questions come to mind here.

One. Do you think the real cost of producing the paperback is being priced in? Not in money terms, but the actual environmental impact, the number of trees axed, the amount of green cover lost to the world, to read a simple story over a couple of days (which then yellows on a bookshelf somewhere)

Two. Will we ever have the same emotional tug of physically progressing through a page-turner, from a tablet or a laptop? Horizontal on the living room sofa for hours on end, skipping meals and a good night’s sleep till the last page is done.

Three. Is piracy a factor in the above equation? It is obviously much easier to obtain a pirated copy of an e-book, while on the other hand, the reduced price of a paperback has effectively countered rampant piracy in the physical version (from my experience in Mumbai)

So, while we contemplate the fallout, i am heading back into the depths of ‘A Dance with Dragons’, the fifth volume of the amazing series ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ by George R.R. Martin. After meandering through the last one-and-a-half volumes it begun moving, and regained that un-put-down-able feeling which carried me through the first three. Will harp on this series a bit more in following posts. Meanwhile, Cheers! Feel free to leave your views in the comments section!

{ Fred Wilson is a VC and Principal at Union Square Ventures, an early stage VC firm based in NYC. Their biggest known investments so far have been Twitter (2007), Tumblr (2007), Zynga (2008) and Foursquare (2009). I have been a keen follower of his blog since 2009, for his views and insights on the different aspects of start-ups and technology, as well as his simple step-by-step explanations of  finance related concepts in the section 'MBA Mondays'. He has been a major inspiration to start my own blog }

'What' Lies in Store

Its been more than a year since Whatsapp entered my life, and is such an inherent part of it now, i wonder how people passed their time in the pre-Whatsapp era.

For the uninitiated, 

Whatsapp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages using the same internet data plan that you use for email and web browsing, available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia. 

Created by ex-Yahoo! employees, Brian Acton and Yan Koum, Whatsapp is a nifty little app which allows one - to - one as well as group chats, with a maximum group size of 50. It also has (most importantly) nil advertising on its interface. Here's why, explained by the creators themselves. Its free for a year and costing $0.99 p.a. thereafter (on all platforms, since 17th July). (Incidentally, the creators were so kind as to extend my free usage by another year. Thanks Brian and Yan!) 

So, what Whatsapp has done basically is eliminated sms usage, much to the chagrin of telecom companies and other instant messaging apps like iMessage, Blackberry Messenger, Gtalk and Facebook Chat. Staying in touch with friends abroad is a breeze, creating groups for different friend circles encompassing people in locations all over India and abroad is now possible, and various activities can be coordinated now, that would require several phone calls or mass messages before. 

By the way, it is also a bit distracting. And by a bit, i mean a lot. The ease of forwards and broadcast messages has made jokes and memes repetitive and an utter nuisance throughout the day. I have actually taken to switching off internet services while at work nowadays and checking in every hour or two (which saves a surprising amount of battery charge) to reduce the pings and the overwhelming desire to reply to each one (there is also a mute option within the app for silencing specific groups)

Over the last couple of months, some amazing numbers have been revealed by the company. It recently surpassed 250 million active users worldwide (greater than twitter) and now handles 27 billion messages per day. It is quite a feat for an app or software to spread all over the world and gain mass acceptance so rapidly, especially one that has no formal advertising or promotion expense (just word of mouth) What is it that has made Whatsapp so attractive and an instant hit? What gives it the edge over competitors? (WeChat from China has tried very hard, with voice messages and Lionel Messi in tow, and Whatsapp has responded by incorporating voice messages in its latest version)

So, what lies in store for this behemoth going forward? Thus far they seem intent on not monetizing user data and information, and offering unlimited usage. What other sources of revenue are possible from this user base? Will they turn to social networking and gaming? Or will they offer corporate solutions by defining a whole suite of <chat-email-calender-task manager> for mobile and desktop devices, all integrated into one? Only time will tell. Until then, keep sending those forwards in. Cheers.

The Introduction

Having browsed through numerous online introductions and summaries of eminent and not-so-eminent personalities (the latter being friends and acquaintances :P) i have come to the conclusion that modesty is lost on the human race. So in the interests of following the herd, i shall do the same with mine own.

< Statutory warning > Many of the sentences in this post will start with an 'i'

I am currently pretending to be a credit analyst at a leading financial institution in India, which basically allows me to sit at my desk the whole day typing away at my laptop, whilst staring at spreadsheets and financials full of numbers.

On a more serious note though, the asset finance division where i work is concentrated on building a portfolio of niche equipment with specialized applications like heavy lift cranes, work-over rigs, aircraft pullers, trans-shippers and anchor handling tugs. Having grown up in awe of (and wanting to someday operate) all types of huge machines, probably explains why i love my job

The profile also gives me an opportunity to travel to sites where the assets we have financed are deployed. Somewhere along the short two year journey, I realized that any other finance professional (read i-Banker, hefty pay packet, BMW/Audi in garage, typing away at his presentation for 15 to 20 hours a day) would never get to experience the exhilaration i look forward to in my job. So, just to make up for the lack of those materialistic things quoted above, I will expand in great detail about the amazing trips and how these man made marvels work, in later posts.

Meanwhile, proceeding in reverse chronological order, the two years i spent studying for my MBA, before taking up a job in finance, have been the most productive years of my life. Luckily, i stumbled into an awesome set of friends who made life on campus an unforgettable experience. It is possible that they may, too, have a few posts dedicated to them somewhere down this road.  

Time off from work is generally spent in a variety of sports. Luckily i am quite good at very few sports, so there is always space to improve, be it badminton, football or cricket. Of late, cycling has entered my life with some regularity on Saturday mornings and also brought with it the beneficial side effects of cutting out Friday night binges. Of course, like almost every other person in this world, I can also be found on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Until next time. Cheers.

The Beginning

So i have contemplated writing a blog for a long time.

At first it was about the platform to adopt. Inspiration and flow of thoughts tend to hit me at any and all times of the day, whilst having a bath, in the middle of a football game, or on my bed trying to fall asleep. So the decision to start with 140 characters was easily taken, with the device always at hand, at first via sms, and then through a mobile app.

Writing came easy too, ever since school time essays, right through press releases and promotions in grad school as part of the Media and PR Cell, and later, on Facebook, as buildup for an awesome sporting event (more on that in later posts) But the central theme of a blog eluded me.

It still does.

After a little bit of research, a lot of procrastination and having overcome pure laziness, < kborlikar.blogspot.in > is finally here. For starters, this space is about all that is an integral part of my life and makes it more meaningful, expressed in a bit more than 140 characters. It will be used to brazenly plug things that i use everyday, describe what i am up to and harp on whatever else occupies my mind and inspires me to wake up and face the daily routine.

Please feel completely uninhibited in the comments section and throw as much criticism my way as possible, your point of view and insights will only serve to improve the discussion board and my thought process. Cheers.