celestri.org

Dear President of the United States (POTUS),

How are you? I believe you will be visiting India very soon and more precisely you will be in Bombay (yeah, I still call it that) on Nov 6-7. I would have loved to meet but I’ll be out of town and thus the letter.

Had we met, I probably would have asked what are you doing in India? I voted for you and still have a refrigerator magnet of your slogan “Yes We Can.” Your campaign platform was about “change” but when I talk to most of my friends in the US, they say the only change is what’s in their pockets. I think it’s great you are nation building with India but seriously what are you doing about the US.

So far the only “victory” I see is the health care reform bill. And when I talk to people in the medical community they all the say the same thing – more money down the toilet. As far as TARP is concerned it appears it was a way to help the bankers line their pockets and that’s it. People are still loosing jobs, homes and their sanity.

Anyways, I don’t want to be a downer because I’m sure you get enough of that back home from your friends over at Fox News.

Since I won’t be around, I’ll give you some pointers during your stay in Bombay:

• As you land into Bombay you can compare and contrast the landing into Los Angeles. In Bombay all the blue you see are sheets of blue tarpaulin (tarp) since there are many slums around the airport. In LA all the blue you see are the pools in people’s backyard
• If you see guys holding hands it’s not because they are professing an alternative lifestyle but instead a sign of friendship, not sure why they just can’t fist bump
• You might notice red stains on the road, that is not because some fight took place but because of India’s love affair with paan – which is a tobacco and when mixed with some other stuff creates the colorful stain

I really hope you make an effort to come to Bombay every year because I have NEVER seen the locals at the BMC/MCGM work so hard. They are painting, scrubbing, planting, trimming and making this city look great for you. Normally, the MCGM is about as effective as the SEC which means nothing gets done and it’s all about passing the buck – but because of you, real “change” is happening for us folks that live in Bombay.

Enjoy your travels,

Manish Jain
US Citizen

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.