Online Rail Ticketing in India - Alternate Sites

IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) is one of the largest e-commerce sites in India. For many years it has been the only site to book rail tickets online in India. However; the site remains very busy because of huge popularity and traffic. Today, my colleague Aamir told me about alternate ticket booking sites. It was good to know that IRCTC has decided to end their monopoly over railway ticketing.

IRCTC API was opened in July this year and as of now there are couple of alternate sites which can be used to book rail tickets online. This is a welcome change as we now have additional front end interfaces to access back end of railway booking system.

Thomas Cook (India) Limited can be used to book general and Tatkal tickets at an additional charge of Rs. 9/-. It has a simple interface and it shows availability of seats in a nice floating section on the booking page.

Cleartrip has a fast and easy interface.

I hope, other players like yatra, makemytrip and travelguru will soon start similar service.

Holiday Productivity...

I love Diwali holidays. Actually, I love everything about this festive season. The shopping, the decorations, the family/friends companionship and the participation in special traditions, were
fantastic! All in all I had great time and thoroughly enjoyed my four days holiday.

And so what did I do for productivity during holidays?

I tried out online encrypted and automatic backup service from Mozy. I used the free 2GB account and I am satisfied that I could backup my most critical data without any hassles.

Next, I invested some time in storing my contacts on KeepM. This is a very lightweight and simple tool. I now have a central place to export/refer all the contacts and more than that I have a backup for the rainy days, just in case.

What else? Ummmm..Yes, I found some cool podcast sites on The People's Choice Podcast Awards 2008.

And last but not the least, I enjoyed watching/listening many great speakers on Premiere Speakers Bureau. I am very happy to find this site. I think this is a great place to know, listen, watch and engage with some of the best speakers from every field.

Few Good Web Sites#1

Here is the first edition of a few good web applications and sites...

Get Satisfaction
Site Description - Get Satisfaction is a community that helps people to get the most from the products they use, and where companies are encouraged to get real with their customers.

GroupCard
Site Description - GroupCard is a tool that helps you to select a great design, invite signers, and manage the card to perfection. Group Card lets a group of people sign the card before sending, which works well for sharing a card with officemates, friends, or family members.

Giveaway of the Day
Site Description - Every day we offer for FREE licensed software you’d have to buy otherwise!

SeeToo
Description from the site - SeeToo is a web-based application that allows individuals to invite friends and family to watch home videos with them in real time.
Select a video file from your computer. Invite a buddy to watch the video with. Watch together.

Dabble DB
Site Description - Dabble DB helps you create online databases on the web. Instead of downloading an application, you upload your data and then build your own database application. Screenshot of a table view You can import existing data or just start from scratch.

Docstoc
Site Description - Find and share professional documents

Blinksale
Site Description - Blinksale is perfect for anyone who needs to invoice clients for services or products sold.

blist
Site Description - Create & Share Your Weblists With Drag-And-Drop Simplicity. Whether you use Excel or a database today, blist is the best choice for easily creating and sharing lists on the web.

Remember The Milk
Site Description - Managing tasks is generally not a fun way to spend your time. We created Remember The Milk so that you no longer have to write your to-do lists on sticky notes, whiteboards, random scraps of paper, or the back of your hand. Remember The Milk makes managing tasks an enjoyable experience.

Jumpchart
Site Description - If you build websites for a living, you know that content organization and approval can be an overwhelming process.Unlike paper mock-ups, and tree shaped diagrams, with a Jumpchart preview, -clients just get it.

MeetingWizard
Site Description - Use MeetingWizard to arrange and schedule meetings and other events. As a productivity tool it makes the planning process easier and more effective.

ThinkFree
Site Description - View and edit documents and manage files with increased productivity

Tractis
Site Description - With Tractis you can create, negotiate and sign contracts, 100% online and guaranteed to be legally binding in the offline world.

SurveyMonkey
Site Description - SurveyMonkey has a single purpose: to enable anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily.

URL Spell Check
Site Description - Find spelling errors on your site

WebWait
Site Description - Use WebWait to benchmark your website or test the speed of your web connection.

TypeRacer
Site Description - Put your typing skills to the test with TypeRacer, which pits you against other players for the chance to win.

CouchSurfing
Site Description - CouchSurfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit.

Hostesls
Site Description - Find any hostel, anywhere in the world.

oDesk
Site Description - Hire, Manage, and Pay remote contractors as if they were in your office.

amazonmechanicalturk
Site Description - Amazon Mechanical Turk is a marketplace for work that requires human intelligence. The Mechanical Turk service gives businesses access to a diverse, on-demand, scalable workforce and gives workers a selection of thousands of tasks to complete whenever it's convenient.

Writeboard
Site Description - Writeboards are sharable, web-based text documents that let you save every edit, roll back to any version, and easily compare changes. Use Writeboard to write solo or collaborate with others.

Connexions
Site Description - a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute.

Personality Type

Dwayne Melancon has a very interesting post about the personality tendencies. It provides good overview of Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) model and links to free resources.

A couple of years back, I had taken similar test for my Insights Discovery profile when I joined my current company. The Insights System is built around the model of personality first identified by the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung.

I used the the free online assessments and I think, the results are good for self-understanding. We can identify the key areas for development and take action for growth personally and interpersonally.

Try these tools if you want to find out your personality type....

• Internet Personality Inventory Survey (This tool gives most detailed free report)
• Jung Typology Test
• The Keirsey Temperament Sorter®-II
  

Visit to local mall...

We went to local SRS mall for groceries on Sunday. As a prelude to the festival of Diwali, the mall was wearing a festive look with a variety of stalls, food, activities and entertainments.
Prachee, my daughter participated in the first dance event of the evening and won the prize - "The Jungle Book" (set of 8 DVD's). She went on to win the second dance event with a repeat performance and received a cash voucher. It was a great feeling to see her perform on stage and witness her ability to act on the spot without any preparation.

Prachee is 5 years old and all these years, I have been doing what any parent would do for their kids. But it was one of those moments when I got inspired by what she did, I felt that somewhere between the continuing demands & responsibilities of work and daily life I have lost the sense of being spontaneous and adventurous. I became aware of how I have been controlling, regulating and directing my life to achieve high level of success and how much of purposeful planing and persistence is really needed before taking action.
I need to question and discover that for myself.

The Crisis...

Thanks Phil and Robert! I will review the tools suggested by you.

Global economic slowdown is dominating the media headlines. Amidst all the negative news, expert commentaries and interpretations, I found this interesting article from Fareed Zakaria where he talks about the importance of basics & discipline:

The Crisis's Silver Lining

Some optimistic thoughts How to Use Economic Downturn to Your Advantage

Another interesting initiative was taken by The AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) through a campaign for Financial Literacy:

Feed the Pig

What does this mean for India? Experts are saying that India will feel the heat but not be consumed by the fire. I am not a finance expert but I can see that it is not looking nice. New uncertainties have set in the minds of people. I think, there is a learning for all of us. Indians had started spending lustily without much worry about the future and focus on the self development.
What is the right way to think - spend less than you earn OR earn more than you spend? I like this mantra - EARN YOUR BREAD BEFORE YOU EAT IT. In my view, there is no need to put limit on future and the wealth building plans. We need to focus on fundamentals, self development and creativity to invent new ways of bringing abundance in life and society.

World is going to change and I believe there are bigger opportunities after every big crisis.

Remote Control, Screen Sharing, Working Together...Collaboration

Thanks Ranjan! Good to hear from you.
I was distracted from posting by sheer procrastination and indiscipline. I hope to keep updating my blog on a regular basis...

Here are a few remote control/access, screen sharing and collaboration tools......

• CrossLoop
  

• Adobe ConnectNow launch it from Adobe Reader 9.0

• LogMeIn


• TeamViewer free for personal use


• Yugma works with Skype


• Bluehouse new online tool from IBM


• Yuuguu works with Gmail and Google talk


• FolderShare from Microsoft


• IBM Lotus Sametime Unyte Share
  

Slideshows...

Slideshare has launched this amazing widget called SlideShare Presentation Pack. This widget allows to display a collection of presentations on blog.
I am excited to put my favorites slideshows here...see bottom of the page.

More Quotes

Some more quotes.....

• Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.


• People waste more time waiting for someone to take charge of their lives than they do in any other pursuit.


• You are never given a wish without also the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.


• You are no bigger than the things that annoy you.


• Think digital, act analog


• Nothing is interesting if you're not interested.


• The world is full of willing people. Some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.


• Never complain about your troubles; they are responsible for more than half of your income.


• The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.


• Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.


• Persistence isn't using the same tactics over and over....Persistence is having the same goal over and over.


• In order to realize value, you have to first create it.


• If you dont love people, do something else.


• Live your life as an exclamation, not as an explanation.


• There is only one happiness in life - to love and be loved


• Real communication happens when people feel safe.


• Always buy a good bed and a good pair of shoes. If you're not in one, you're in the other

Motivational Poster

You can only die once…

Quotes

Everything that I post here is quoted from someone else. A piece of advise:
You shouldn't take everything you read on the net seriously... people like me post on the net.

• For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe.
  
• The sun don't shine on the same dog's ass all the time; the sun or the dog one will move.
• God put me on this Earth to accomplish certain things. Right now, I am so far behind, I will never die.
• When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it's only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it's two hours. That's relativity.
• Ok, wait a moment here. Hold on. There. Now you see the change was made in real time.
• There's a certain freedom in being totally screwed...
• Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar.
• One must work hard at procrastination, or something might get done ahead of time.
• It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.
• A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
• One person can make a very big difference. Most of the time, in fact, that's the only way very big differences ever get made.
• Power corrupts. Absolute power really turns on the chicks.
• Don't be humble. You're not that great.
• Love is the answer, but while you're waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty good questions.
• Sex without love is an empty experience, but as empty experiences go it's one of the best.
• Everyone has write access to your mind.
• When I die, I hope to go the Heaven, whatever the Hell that is.
• If life didn't suck, would you know what was going on?
• sorry about your computer trauma - this is why i work with people- no one expects them to work correctly.
• 'Do what I say, not what I do.' Shall be the whole of the law.
• Human errors can only be avoided if one can avoid the use of humans
• There is no right and wrong. There is only fun, and boring.
• Specialization is for insects.
• They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday.
• Women and cats will do as they please. And men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
• We live in a dangerous Age. To say how you feel is to lay your own grave
• The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds and the pessimist knows it.
• i'll listen to reason when it comes out on CD
• These are my principles. If you don't like them I have others.
• You're free to be as much of an asshole as you wish -- as long as I'm not paying for it.
• Hey, he knows the terms. I'm like a porn site. there are benefits and a tour for non-members but for the goodness, you got to join.
• There are two ways to tell a sexy male. The first is that he has a bad memory. I forget the second.
• Pay no attention to what the critics say; there has never been set up a statue in honor of a critic.
• A layman knows he has to kick it.; An amateur knows where to kick it.; A professional knows how hard.
• Beware the lollipop of mediocrity. Lick it once and you suck forever.
• The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.
• Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
• I don't care what you know. Your ego's writing checks your body can't cash.
• If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
• The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt.
• To reduce stress, avoid excitement. Spend more time with your spouse.
• If work is so terrific, how come they have to pay you to do it?
• Don't worry about the job you don't like. Someone else will soon have it.
• How you play the game" is for college boys. When you're playing for money, winning is the only thing that counts.
• Every morning I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America . If I'm not there, I go to work.
• Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.
• For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.
• The severity of the itch is proportional to the reach.
• Smile, it's the second best thing you can do with your lips.
• Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue.
• A pat on the back is only a few centimeters from a kick in the rear.
• Tell me what you need, and I'll tell you how to get along without it.
• Are your legs tired? You've been running through my mind all day.
• I understand. You work very hard two days a week and you need a five-day weekend. That's normal.
• Sometimes I get an irresistible urge to work hard like everyone else, but I just lie down until the feeling goes away, and then I'm okay.
• The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get to the office.
• It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.
• Kids in the back seat cause accidents; accidents in the back seat cause kids.
• Life is uncertain - eat dessert first
• Why be difficult, when, with a bit of effort, you can be impossible
• With friends like you, who needs conspiratorial governments?
• I wasn't looking for 'Mrs. Right', or even 'Mrs. Right Now', but more for 'Mrs. Right Here Buddy'.
• A friend is one who would help you move. A best friend is one who would help you move a body.
• Mixing woomen and alcohol is best done with a blender.
• You should never stand in love's way, especially if love is driving a bus.
• To err is human...to really foul up requires the root password.
• A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time.
• Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.
• When in doubt, use brute force
• If you can't convince them, confuse them.
• Better to let people think you a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
• I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting.
• The difference between a man and a child is the price of their precious toys.
• The biggest trouble maker you will ever meet watches you shave or put makeup on your face in the mirror every morning.
• The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before your boss does.

Life I Desire

I acknowledge that I have begun to procrastinate here. My last post was on May 29.

Last week, I attended TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) program "Start Small - Finish Big" focused on startup compines. It was very inspiring to meet many successful entrepreneurs and how these thirtysomethings are going about playing the game of life. I was particularly impressed by presentations given by Ashish Kashyap (CEO, iBibo), Rakesh Sharma (HP), Dhruv Shringi, (Yatra.com) and Sudhir Sethi (IDG Ventures). They went for what they saw so vividly in their mind. Their life choices have been driven by the urgent and not the important. All of them are essentially in the same business–– the business of creating value for others. These successful people just seem to know that at some point, one must begin and then simply keep on moving towards goal by acknowledging progress on a regular basis. Even though they too experienced resistance and fear but they did it anyway.

On the same line, Liz mentioned yesterday that all the successful entrepreneurs have one thing in common - They are very close to their families, it is the most important for them apart from their business.

Ok. I am not comparing with all the successful people but I alway knew I could do it better. I stopped myself, doubted myself, or believed I don't have enough money, time etc.
I admit that what and how I did things in the past didn’t really work; however I am on edge of my comfort zone. I am willing to move forward despite whatever fear and doubt shows up. For me, the road ahead is shorter than the road I have traveled. My time is more precious and I know - There is only the choice and the journey.

I am getting into the inquiry and question mode right now:

• What do I always do?
• What is my passion? (And I just found this new definition of passion - This passion is the permanent, lifetime love of something.)
• What really matters to me?
• What is next for me?
• What are the things I do really really really really well...?
• What are the things I want to give up?
• Never mind what I have done or others have done: What is possible?
• Am I ready to take a leap of faith without any safety net?
• If I was starting from scratch today, what would I do differently?
• Am I ready to make my future bigger than my past?
• How far can I go?

Am I not yet ready to begin to do, be and have the life I desire???

Experience of Failure

In my last post, I missed on thanking one of the important person in my life, my boss - Ravi. Thank you so much Ravi for your trust, support and love.

We had some interesting and motivating interactions in this week. He inspired us to assume a bigger leadership role in the company. He gave few important tips on hiring and interviewing people. One of the tip was to hire people with Experience of Failure. As managers we are more concerned about escaping the consequences of failures rather than leading our teams to success. We tend to be too self protective to seize a business opportunity. I think, one's track record of dealing with failures is a key indicator of his performance in an unpredictable future, his character and value system. Satya mentioned the same in his SMS today :

"Sometimes....Hurt is Needed to Make u Grow, Failure's Needed to Make u know, Loss is Needed to Make u Gain, coz sum lessons r best when learnt thru pain"

One of the thing I intend to learn is shorten the decision making process because it is better to make a decision and fail than to habitually wait until I am absolutely sure. I go to office to work and survive. Maybe I can narrow my perspective to survival. My job is to run the company and thats what I need to think about. I can focus on the day and organize moment by moment. I can become less heroic, less philosophical and just be in action with focus on the present.

On a different note, I am reading how Israeli executives, managers and business owners survive in crisis. How they run business under the shadow of terrorism.

From the book - There are more Israeli companies listed on the NASDAQ than from any other country. Israelis have very short memory - They bounce back from every situation and they plan for the worst. They are ready to alter the most thought through business plans very next day. Almost all the employees have a military background and each male employee serve the country for 1 month in a year for 30 years of their life. Investors and shareholders of Israeli companies does not believe in the long-term business plans, they believe in the leader, the manager - the person and his experience of running the business under crisis.

I am hooked on to this book...maybe I am identifying a lot of Israeli attitude with myself....

Thank you so much

Satya, Liz and Ranjan - Thank you so much for your support, love and commitment.

I am made up of many people....Parents, Anju, Pari, Gayatri, Praveen, Kiran, Manisha, Tarachandji, Alok, Harish, Prakash, Rajesh, Sarvesh, Repan, Varun, Sanjay, Vivek, Abdul, Adarsh, Ashish, Niwas, Gaurav, Kapil, Akhilesh, Anand, Asad, Vinod, Mahendiran, Sunil, Brijesh, Naresh, Aamir, Manish, Amit...so on..

I love you ALL.....Thank you for being in my life and really bearing with me...

Although I am in the driving seat here but my role is to journey with you and I look forward to help from authentic, real and powerful people like you.

I am committed to trust and generosity in all my relationships. I would say that my relationships with all of you are my finest, most credible expression of who I am and what I have to offer. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation.

Finally this is a demand on you - stay connected, committed & invested in my advancement, growth and transformation.

I am not a "self made" man. I am made up of all of you.

A new start

"I am not my thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, and experiences. I am not the content of my life. I am Life. I am the space in which all things happen. I am
consciousness. I am the Now. I Am." - Eckhart Tolle:Stillness Speaks

I have been in a constant journey to identify myself with stronger powerful identities.
Few days back I completed Landmark "Curriculum for Living" and "Communication Curriculum" and I started carrying a mental image of myself as someone who has transcended all interest in material possessions and is therefore superior, is more spiritual than others. I am now present to the fact that it was my ego who had found an identity and it did not want to let go. I have realized that the ultimate truth of who I am is not in I am this or I am that, but I am.

I am making a new start here. I intend to share thoughts, experiences, views, attitude, commitments, emotions and contents of my life. I don't intent to be perfect in my practice. As in my life I will make mistakes here as well but I am committed to increase my repertoire of ways to recover from my mistakes.