2012, this year...

This year was the weakest year for Web Wings since its inception; it will have only 6 posts in the archive of 2012 once this article is published. And the discredit entirely goes to me.

It’s not that I was inactive throughout the year or I did not write anything. I wrote, I kept on thinking on various things day and night; it was one of the busiest year for me. Probably that was the reason I did not get much time for blogging here.

Finally, I got some time today (thanks to bad health). Thought I should feed my blog today. As I write this article, waves of thoughts keep coming in my mind and they are random. When I think, the topics do not come to my mind in the right order or in a sequence and I think it happens with everybody. So I would write a lot of things, as they come in my mind.

This year, for the first time, I realized that I was growing old. There was a time when I could walk hours without any problem, I could work late in night and get up in the morning without any lethargy, I could climb stairs easily. However, I am having difficulties doing all these things of late.

This year, for the first time, I realized how the Indian culture and tradition, the trends that prevail in typical north Kolkata families, sense of responsibilities have become an integral part of me. As I see my son and my niece growing older, I keep on thinking how to give them the best cultural atmosphere, how to show them the true Indian lifestyle, how to impart good habits in them and how to let them experience the benefits of living in a joint family. This has helped me become more mature.

This year, for the first time, I have started thinking about my own behavior and activities. What is right and what is wrong, what will lead me to the ultimate goal in my life, whether I should do this or that – I started asking this kind of questions to myself.

This year, for the first time, we celebrated birthday of my son and niece. That’s a new thing in my life!

This year, I started working with Sramana Mitra as an ambassador for 1M/1M. I had a session at Startup Saturday for the first time; I won 1M/1M premium membership too. We organized Pitch Fest for Entrepreneurs in Kolkata on Nov 1 – something that happened first time in Kolkata.

This year, I started working with Aji at TechShu from March. It is a great experience indeed.

This year, I suffered from stiff neck many times, and finally have been diagnosed with spondylosis.

This year, we celebrated 70^th birth anniversary of Guruji, Pandit Manas Chakraborty who left us for heavenly abode on 12.12.12.

This year, for the first time, I started taking care of the core official activities of Paramparik.

This year, for the first time, I said NO to a lot of offers and to a lot of people. I rejected the ideas and proposals which were not going to help me anyway.

This year, for the first time, I tried to define the goals of my life. Instead of encouraging hundreds of temptations that come to my way, I tried to figure out what is the one thing that I want to achieve in life – something that would make me happy and make my life meaningful. I would not say that I am done with it, but the process has started and will continue in 2013.

All the good things that I did this year will continue in 2013. I have identified certain gaps in myself; I would try my best to fill them up.

To sympathize with the Delhi gang-rape victim, I am not celebrating Christmas this year. Wish all of us would find the solutions to our problems next year and we would be able to build a better nation. 

Dot Dot Dot

Last Startup Saturday session (July 14, 2012) was all about the dots – both the speakers Mr. Pradipta Chatterjee from Icon Consultancy and Aji Issac Mathew from TechShu revealed many dots. It’s up to you which dots will you pick and how will you connect them to grow your business. Topic was "How to take your Business to the next level".

Before delving more in to the topic, I have to make an important announcement.

Startups from King's College London to pitch @Sramana on 19th, July. To attend or pitch, register here: http://bit.ly/S7jj5q

Let’s come back to the topic. Here are some random dots that I collected from both the speakers.

Random Dots from Mr. Pradipta Chatterjee

From: Icon Consultancy

• When 3 or 4 friends start a company, there is an undeclared and unwritten commitment among them – everybody follow the commitments and they know that others are loyal to the system. As the company grows and new members com in, incorporating the same level of commitment becomes a challenge.
• There are different forms of compensation – it’s not all about MONEY all the time.
• Geographic location plays an important role when it comes to recruitment.
• You cannot ignore local culture and mindset while creating HR policies.
• You have to understand the psychology of young people when you recruit fresh grads – generation gap plays an important role in organizations too.

Random Dots from Aji

From: TechShu

• Congratulate yourself if you have survived for 2 years
• Don’t run a business for livelihood – for that you could buy 10 cows and sell milk. Run a business to add value, to make it really big.
• Do whatever you can to sustain – don’t buy clothes, sell jewelries, take the pension fund from your dad, don’t have pizza, don’t watch movie (added by me), do consultancy for others – if you TRUST YOURSELF accumulate fund in whatever ways you can to support your startup.
• Understand yourself – know what you exactly want – working somewhere is not at all bad – all creative people are not entrepreneurs – they can work, take the company to the next level and get immensely rewarded.
• Make yourself attractive – why people would like to work for you – what extra are you offering? Think Think Think!
• Ask how much value you are adding to your customers, to your team members. 

And finally Aji said that it took 3 years to create such smiling faces which is no less than Brand Equity. Aji also created few amazing slides, will try to share them later.

Elance - 1 Secret of Success in Bidding Shared

If you are the first bidder, chances of getting quick response and finally getting the project are as high as 99% - it might be a myth - just a coincident - but it happened with me :)

1 Truck Driver and 3 Policemen

At Gouri Baari crossing near Khanna a truck got stuck in the traffic jam around 9 AM today. 3 policemen were ordering to move in 3 different directions; the driver was moving in 1 direction and the other 2 were getting angry and making furious gestures.

Solid confusion hain bhaai ...

When your mind is on a mood to make errors

I made the same mistake twice.

I think sometimes our brain enters into a loop and keeps repeating the same mistake. If you ever spot such pattern, pause there and review your activities. Probably you could do better.

2012 - The Plus Year

Google started rolling Social Search in 2009 and today they introduced Search, plus Your World - 2012 is going to be different! Let's see how the industry adjusts with the changes.

I will not be surprised if Google starts showing completely different public web results to different people; let's see what they have in store in 2012!

BTW, watch this video - not only to understand the Search, plus Your World concept but for this video is so awesome!!