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A couple of days ago I was introduced to a video featuring a guy name Salman (Sal) Khan (not the no talent Indian actor) and was blown away by it. Sal quit his job at a hedge fund and started a non-profit teaching academy delivering content via YouTube.  When you watch the video you get the sense the guy really loves what he is doing and the concept is so simple – teach people via short 12-15 minute videos on various topics.  He has done over 1400 videos by himself. I watched a couple on the sub-prime crisis and he was able to distill the contents into basic blocks of info.

In India, education is broken and many investors (private equity and VC’s) are chasing the “next generation” of teaching institutes. When in reality, something delivered via the internet would be a great start.

You can check out over 1400′s videos at http://www.khanacademy.org/

For all you math geeks, today marks the 5th anniversary of this blog. A lot has changed with blogging and many things have not.  I decided I would take this opportunity to talk about several things: brief history of my blog, the future of blogging, general observations and blog analytics.

Brief history of my blog & the future of blogging
I never meant to setup a blog, instead I wanted a way to share photos with family members and back in 1999, I created a static homepage at homepage.com. Then about 5 years back I wanted something more dynamic and not just static HTML files, so I started to look around and came across b2 which turned into WordPress. I started to blog and didn’t really know where it would lead, but it turned into a mechanism for me to improve my writing skills, focus on topics and interact with folks from all over the world.  The main driver for setting up a blog no longer holds true, all my photos are now residing at my Facebook account. Which leads me to the next topic – the future of blogging. 3 years back it was all about setting up a blog and publishing your content. Today, there are several options and for most beginners they will end up housing their content on a social networking site since it’s easy to setup . It’s not the end of blogging but I do think standalone platforms like WordPress have a hugh challenge battling Facebook and Twitter. As for this blog, I will continue to blog but I can’t say where it will be 5 years from now, I just hope it will be as entertaining and fulfilling as the last 5.

General Observations
People always ask me about blogging and ask what the secret is. I’ve realized original quality content is what it’s all about. If you have original content or thought provoking topics you will get traffic to your blog.  Initially, I would blog about events from Apple just like 5 million other bloggers. I soon realized there is no point in talking about the new Apple widget, let someone like Engadget or Gizmodo break it down for people. I found my niche when I moved to India, I realized I had a hugh audience that could live vicariously through me.  The posts with the heaviest traffic are the ones about my experiences in India. My number one post is about the November 26 attacks in Bombay, 15% of my traffic still views that content even though it’s 8 months old. If you are looking to start a blog I would highly recommend topics that you are passionate about which will automatically lead to original content. If you don’t generate the type of traffic you were looking for at least you got to brush up on your grammar skillz!

Blog Analytics

• 338 posts, ~ 1.3 posts per week
• 9,000 pageviews was the peak for a single day (November 26 attacks)
• 36.11% of my traffic comes from Google
• 52.44% use Internet Explorer, 33.85% use Firefox
• Top 3 keywords: apple, store, mumbai (I really need to contact Apple India and get some love)
• Top 3 countries: India, US and UK

Cheers to another 260 weeks of random BS!!! Having lived in Maryland I’m pretty sure I’ve traveled on Route 260 before.

Fail. Up to this point, one of the best commencement speeches I’ve heard is from Steve Jobs (SJ). Recently, I came across a commencement speech (PDF link) by Paul Tudor Jones (PTJ) addressing a bunch of 9th graders. I thought the same thing, what could PTJ possibly tell a room full of 9th graders, apparently enough to get even my attention.  Some background on PTJ, he runs a USD 17 billion hedge fund called Tudor Investment Corp.

Most of his speech centers around what he terms “the dirtiest word that any of you 9th graders know…and every adult in this room has had to deal with this in its many forms and manifestations. It’s the other F word – Failure.”

We all have our ups and downs and many times the downs seem unbearable but you have to persevere and get through it. What makes PTJ’s speech memorable are the real world experiences and realizing many of us have been there…I know I have. I’m sure many of those 9th graders have no clue how enlightening his words are or will be in the future.  Since mistakes and failures are too painful to think about we end up revising our personal history. But, hopefully in the future you will be able to “connect the dots” and realize all those past stumbles have led you to where you are today.  It’s very easy to preach the previous statement but very difficult to navigate when you are going though one of those down phases.

When one door closes, another will open, but standing in that hallway can be hell. You just have to persevere.

As they say, it’s the journey not the destination. And in India that journey tends to be VERY bumpy.

Like most people, I’m still in shock and sad about the turn of events in the life of Michael Jackson (a fellow Hoosier).  For the past 24 hours I’ve been glued to BBC and CNN International watching clips of him, for some reason MTV India sucks…oh wait they always suck.

I still get goose bumps when I see two clips, the one showing him doing the moonwalk during the Motown 25th anniversary special and the other is the Thriller video when he starts to sing “cause this is Thriller…”  The guy was a musical genius and sadly most of us let him down.

I’m guilty, whenever I would hear his name over the past several years the first thing that would come to mind – alleged child molester, what a freak! Now, I feel like a total jacka!@$, because when he was alive I treated him like a leper and now that he is gone – a legend.

I personally could not have helped him, but what about his friends from the past – Quincy Jones, Jesse Jackson, Ron Burkle, etc… The more I read online, the more it appears his inner circle of handlers were rotten to the core and only looking out for themselves.  It seems he had a revolving door of business managers, financial advisors and attorneys, I’m sure all were “yes” men.

The only person that should have gotten compenstated is the brains behind the acquistion of the Beatles music catalog. In 1985, MJ paid $47.5 million for ATV, which included the Beatles songs. MJ sold 50 percent of his interest to Sony for $90 million, creating a joint venture, Sony/ATV. Current estimates of the catalog’s value exceed $1 billion.

The legal battle for his kids and assets have only begun.  I’m assuming he willed his estate to his kids and hence everyone will want to take care of the kids.  The concerned parties will each have their take on why “it’s in the best interest of the kids to stay with xyz…”

Anyways, back to CNN International and remembering a living legend that is no more.

The Atlantis Hotel located on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai had it’s grand opening on Nov 20th, 2008 the same day the world equity markets were hitting multi-year lows. The hotel is based on the mythical Lost City of Atlantis, the irony is that Dubai seems to be some what lost at the moment – massive debt, collapsed economy, over capacity and no one stepping up to save it.

Back in 1998 I spent several weeks working in Dubai and the common theme was “I’m just waiting to get my US visa and then moving.”  In 2005, it changed to “Dubai is the place to be, it’s the Hong Kong/London of the Middle East.” I would constantly hear from friends and business associates who said Dubai was the place to be, “it had more money then God” and if anything goes wrong Abu Dhabi would bail it out. Abu Dhabi is one of the world’s largest oil producers and home to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority the monster USD 1 trillion sovereign wealth fund.

The Dubai myth is over.  It’s clear Dubai has more borrowed money than God and Abu Dhabi is quietly buying marquee assets at distressed prices some of the names being thrown around are the real estate company Nakheel, the Emirates airline and the Dubai Metro.

Several family and friends went to Dubai two weeks ago and got to see it first hand. Malls were empty even with the Dubai Shopping Festival going on.  Most construction had stopped and high end villas were down 40-50%. People are leaving their cars at the airport and heading back home. The last statement might be hype but the reality is Dubai is bust no matter what metric you look at.

All this is not really surprising to me, what is shocking is the velocity of how fast it collapsed. Back in July 2008 major news organizations where talking about how Dubai would weather the global economic storm because of the growth potential. I remember talking to several people in early September (pre Lehman bankrupty) and they kept on telling me how great Dubai was doing even with the world markets collapsing. If Dubai can collapse then anything is possible.

Below are several links detailing the boom and bust of Dubai.

Boom:
CBS’s 60 Minutes – July 2008
NY Times - July 2008. Some great quotes…laughable now.

Bust:
DW-TV (via YouTube) - February 2009
CBS News (via YouTube) – February 2009
NY Times – February 2009

Last weekend was the 2009 edition of the Mumbai Marathon. For the 3rd time I participated in the Mumbai half marathon (13.1 miles, 21.1km). I ran the half  in 2:07:14 which is a personal best for me, the previous 2 Mumbai half marathons I completed the run in 2:16. I ran over 200 miles practicing for the half marathon and expected to shave maybe 5 minutes off my time, but to shave over 9 minutes off my time felt pretty damn good.

Goodbye to 2008 and HELLO to 2009. I’ll keep this post short and sweet, my resolution for 2009 is around getting back to basics.

Also, if you are reading this via an RSS reader, checkout my new blog layout. It’s a whole new interface for 2009.

A bit delayed – Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. I’m sure many of you are ready to put 2008 behind us, it’s been one helluva ride. My recap: financial crisis, home values melting, car sales plummeting, wealth erosion, Beijing olympics, President Elect Obama but most tragic was the Mumbai terror attack on Nov 26. I’m really looking forward to 2009 and hope things get better, but from all the data that is coming out the financial outlook is even gloomier then 2008. My plan for 2009: more vacations, getting in shape and getting back to basics!!

On a side note this is my 300th blog post…thanks again!

I really didn’t think much about Barack being a black presidential candidate, but after seeing Jesse Jackson cry during Barack’s victory speech it really drove home the point that change was in the air.  To think that during the 60′s blacks were segregated and then a little over 40 years later, Barack is voted into arguably the most powerful position in the world…that is a hugh leap forward.

I hope he can steer the ship in the right direction and not give into party politics. Transparency should be central to whatever he does (to a degree of course), the Bush administration failed and even with the USD 700 billion they screwed up.  Many of the public documents describing how things would get done were blacked out when it came to compensation…that is totally ridiculous, taxpayer money is at stake and we should know down to the penny who is getting paid and how much.  Barack should make it mandatory that any entity requesting money from any Federal bailout program should have the companies top officials make their tax returns publicly available. If companies want the Fed to “show them the money”, I think it’s fair for the taxpayers to say “show me your tax returns.”

Change is here and on the web at change.gov

Yup, I mailed in my ballot and it should be over the Atlantic Ocean on it’s way to Montgomery County, Maryland for processing. Do I believe Barack can fix everything of course not.  Do I think he is better then the alternative, of course. McCain scares me and Palin reminds me of a pushy PTA board member. McCain had a shot, but to think that Palin could become president if McCain chokes on a steak should scare any die-hard GOP card carrying member. Yeah, Barack is black – get over it. Barack brings about a new way of looking at things and it might work or not.  I rather try than stick with what has NOT been working for the past 8 years.

(hat tip to Jeff N. for the image, not sure where he stole it from)