2010 Resolutions Review

So another year comes to an end. It has been ten years since I left my childhood home in 2000 after my tenth standard. 
I have come from Adilabad to America :) .. Its a cliche, but I want to look back. I want to thank my parents & brother for everything they have done for me. :). Thanks to dear wife for the wonderful moments we shared.Oh ya, I am sorry that we are not together as I write this,but most of the wait is over. Thanks to all my friends & colleagues who have helped me, supported me and encouraged me. Life wouldn't have been this great but for you. Thanks to my teachers & mentors for patiently guiding and growing me. 


With that gratitude, let me review the goals for this year. 
1. Health:

wake up at 6 am daily -

Not a success as being onsite, to talk with people in India, I had to sleep late which inevitably makes me wake up late. 

Exercise and run daily

I think I exercised for about a month, and then I went to different place and ran out of habit. And winter came and I completely forgot about running

Run a half marathon

No progress but it is going straight into my next year resolutions. 

Drink a smoothie daily (almost)

Did it for few days, then I didn't have car to buy fruits from costco and fell out of habit. Not sure it is going into next year goals though. 

2. Career

Avoid multitasking as much as possible

Old habits die hard. This is one of them, I get distracted very easily and it has not been an easy task to become more focussed and having more attention to detail. It is a work in progress and I would rate this was a good success. I used software tools, pep-talk, hard rules and still found it difficult to do one thing at a time. Finally, one technique called Pomodoro has helped me habitualize this. This is a simple system and you should try this if you want to become more focused. 

Do the best with what you have -  ( Should have zero issues with my work )

Ok this is not a smart goal, because it is not really measurable. But even with this ambiguous condition, I have to say, my best is far above what I have done. Due to the lack of attention to detail, made some blunders but apart from that a good year with work. 

Join another degree - either political science or Green energy

Hmm, didn't officially join due to disadvantages due to being on H1. But had a lot of education reading Hacker News. Hacker news is the single source after Kathy Sierra which made me get interested in UX & design.
Learnt a lot of interseting things like. 

Everyone can be creative by shipping - Seth Godin

 Real Artists Ship - Steve Jobs. If you like to receive links to interesting articles like this, follow me on twitter @thisisananth

So in this way, I am getting education without the degrees. Anyway, degrees are not required if you  are consistently creating things. 

3. Relations

Strengthen relations with existing friends with emphasis on giving

Develop relations with people in fields of interest ( alt energy, raw foods, music, pd)

Go to a trip with family once

I am in US now, so couldn't go to family vacations this year but apart from that I reconnected with lot of my school mates and new friends through facebook and my blog. This has been a very good year in this regard. Hopefully we will grow lifelong friendships. :) 

4. Finances

Earn 30 lakhs :) 

Hmm, wanted to test law of attaction with this but it fell flat :) Though, I saved more than all the other years in my life , fell far far short of that figure. I reached just 10% of the said figure. 

5. Personal

Write 60 blog posts atleast

Ohh.ya done :)

Write a short story and publish it.

Done - here

Read atleast 10 books this year and write the reviews

Fell short of ten but read some books though

The Switch

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

The War of Art (not art of war) 

and three other telugu novels. 

Apply and use 'Ten faces of innovation' in work to have atleast one innovation.

None I can think of  ..!!! Actually I didn't use them  ;) 

Apart from that I actually overcame the laziness to write an android application. :) 

So thats my year.. Hope you all had a great year 2010. I wish you, my friend, a very happy new year 2011. 

Book Review - Upbeat

Rajesh started a company during the dot-com bust in 2000. He says it was a blessing in disguise though he never felt it that way then. He tells his experience of what he learn then and about how to thrive in business having an 'Upbeat' attitude.

As the saying 'It is your attitude that determines your altitude," Rajesh guides us how to choose the right attitude in these tough times. He asks us to avoid the many traps which hit us day in and day out making us even more a part of the problem than of the solution. He prods us to be tenacious, disciplined, flexible and more true to ourselves. He asks us to set higher standards for ourselves and raise the bar in the market and in the process becoming more remarkable and valuable.

Rajesh always has a great take on relationships and network. He teaches how to leverage and improve the network in these tough times by adding more value to it. I liked what he has to say on strategy.

Imagination is a poor substitute for reality. Otherwise people will imagine their way out of their troubles. Reality is real. Now that you have accepted reality, you need a game plan to address this reality and accommodate in your thrive plan. This will call for ruthless re-priortization of your projects.

And finally he exhorts us to play the game rather than watching it from the sidelines by saying "you need to paly the game to get somewhere"

As it is said knowing is not doing, doing is doing, Upbeat has a D I Y helpbook, after it offering practical suggestions to implement the various ideas explained in the book. I liked the excercises very much and it will surely help in making the most of the book.

Seth Godin says that the content of the business book can be condensed into a few lines, and Rajesh's message in Upbeat is to choose the right attitude and focus on what we can control and to tenaciously stay the course. Then why write a book ? It is about the motivation, it is about the persuation and the call for action and Rajesh doesnt just stop there but offers practical tips on how to go about applying the ideas in the book. Ultimately, though it is clear that we have to invent our solutions to the recession problem, reading this small book would definitely put us ahead in finding our solutions.

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Love Aaj Kal - A love story of our times

I have just watched Love Aaj Kal and just cant wait till tomorrow morning to tell you how great a movie it is. Generally I prefer telling the plot of the stories but I dont want to do it for this. Just watch it on the screen. It is the story of our times where there is a confusion between career and love, the seperations, the break-ups, long distance relationships, the being far yet being very near. The story of self-discovery of what is more important in life, the fun and despair of modern times, the innocence and love, the missing and the pain everything packed in a two hour movie. I just loved it. Go Watch It.

Still not convinced.. then this is for you..

What is important? Do you want to continue a relationship even if you dont feel fulfilled? Do you just allow any relationship to fade only to come back after you understand what you missed? What if it is unrecoverable? What if it is not possible? What price are you paying to succeed in your career? What is really important. All these questions are explored in the movie and director succeeds in showing how the feeling of being in love doesnt change through the ages... Imtiaz Ali, the director to watch for..

Avakai Biryani Audio Review

Just listened to songs of Avakai Biryani, a new film produced by Shekar Kammula, directed by Anish Kurvilla. Music is by Manikanth Kadri, a name I have not heard before.. It stars newcomers named Kamal Kamaraju and Bindu Madhavi..

The first song is Adigadigo is nice melodius and calm number and good to listen to.. It is sung by Karthick.. will grow on you as you listen to it more times...

Next one is fast number called Chindesi Chinna Pedda... Has mass beats.. Has lot of excitement... I think it is a good dance number in the film.. It is sung by Ranjith, Rajesh and Tippu

Next song is Maamidi Kommaku, a fast melody sung by the music director and Saindhavi, is quite good but I think the picturization has to add to the song.

Fourth song is Nannu choopagala Addam sung by Karthick and Swetha is a melodius duet and is good and may be become the top song..

Next song is Veerudena sung by Shreya Goshal and Karthick is again a melodius song.. Lyrics are good in this song..

I couldnt hear the other song Nadiche Edu adugulu sung by Naresh Iyer but think it is good..

On the whole there are good melodius songs and might grow on us the more we hear.. The songs Nannu choopagala Addam and Adigadigo are the top songs of the Album for me..

Rating : 3/5

Listen to those songs

Desamuduru...Puri Jagannath...

He has done it again.. Normal story... villians kills heroines parents, occupy their house and take their money and try to marry the heroine to their son...A faithful servant helps her escape...And chance takes her to Kulu Manali and she joins a community of sanyasins and stays there....

While helping heroine escape, the servant is helped by the hero, who beats up the goons badly...They want to kill him... Hero a MAA Tv reporter is pressed by his parents to escape to somewhere.. He goes to Himalayas.. meets heroine.. makes her fall in love...and gets ready to take her back to Hyderabad.. In the meantime the villians discover the whereabouts of heroine and capture her and brings her back to hyderabad.. Hero meets the servant, knows about the whole pitiable story and rescues her...Thats the plot...A very ordinary plot...

But the taking is excellent...First half is excellent with the beautiful Himalayan surroundings, glamourous heroine...Second half is equally exciting with the fights and chases....

The comedy track of Ali is very hilarious.. His troubles start after a kidnap and how he ends up in the Himalayas is very interesting...Three songs are good... The mass song should have been more catchy.. Puri Jagannath has once again proved that he can make even a very normal story look very interesting with his taking.. A very good movie once again after Pokiri...


The sideline is that the hugely successful Pokiri was not able to generate interest in the Tamil audience.. I expected that because it was hit because of the punch dialogues and Puri's taking as the story was quite ordinary one...