Look what I found. The significant ‘Back’ control pointing to my whereabouts in office. Often reminds me to get back to where I started – and thrash first principles like they were smelly roaches. In a peaceful way of course!

The first of many to come – Signs in and around Bangalore and Madras.

Spotted this one near Silk Board on Hosur Road.

I found this in Egg Factory, a good brunch place on St. Mark’s Road in Bangalore. The mug had a lovely handle, offering a comfortable grip. It is one of the simplest ergonomic marvels I’ve come across lately, and is available for sale at some of the kitchenware/cutlery stores on Commercial Street.

I remember roaming around the streets of Madras not so long ago, only to find the phone number of P.James scrawled in every wall, advertising his magic show. Talk about this to any true Madrasi, and you will be surprised that most of them have seen it at least once in their lives. This is what I would like to call ‘on demand’. Not because Google steals the spotlight today; because of social simplicity. More on social simplicity later, I’ll have loads to talk about it in exactly 3 years from now. Till then, here’s Avik accessing a socially simple phonebook.

Been tripping on this lately. Thanks Pallavi!

Search for ‘Prem Joshua’ on fizy to listen to his music.

When I first stepped into Bangalore, there was this sea of change I had to experience to start a whole new routine. Like any other moving out of the city situation, I had to leave behind quite a few things, which I wasn’t too happy about. Luckily, work kept me engaged and I didn’t have much time to wander around on the inside. Balu was the inspiration behind all the running, and Palit and Ritesh for all the ‘nautanki’. Valentino (the Bangalore version of the NID shack) felt like home to an extent.

Anyway, I finally realized what it takes to get down to ‘do’ things. I can’t believe I lived near the beach for over 20 years and didn’t realize the beauty of it; I should’ve literally ran my ass off when I was there! Unfortunately laziness worked in my favour. Anyway, getting introduced to few Team Asha folks probably did it’s share of the trick.

Today was a train wreck. It started off as the most innocent Monday (in office) that ever was, only till lunch to find out that I haven’t pushed my self enough to come to a concrete conclusion to what I was supposed to deliver. It’s one of those moments when I felt everything around me froze (more like bullet time, only that the bullet is traveling ever so slowly from one end of my skull to the other!)… But the best part about this is the striking similarity to the game. All totally Max Payne‘ish. The falling, all the red around me, the dream sequences, everything. I found out that it was about choosing the right weapon. Molotov Cocktail over some cheesy Uzi. The rest is about the next 4 days, and this week will conquer a new level in the game. And once I’ve chosen them, there’s nothing else left expect to ‘do’. It’s all a game anyway, isn’t it?

Apparently this is who I am according to Pallavi. Something to think about I guess

I experienced a very satisfying form of happiness today at work. Last month was quite hectic as it involved a lot of thinking and analyzing (conducted user research in a methodical and thorough manner). After all the analysis, the derivation of insights helped pave the way to what I learnt as/would like to call “the golden box” of design. The most important aspect of any design project I’ve learnt, the basis of design, encompasses one, and all of the guiding factors that help meet the desired ‘functionality plus novelty’ aspect that design is known to create. I’ve never experienced this in any of the design projects I’ve done before. Every following stage in the design process will heavily depend on this “golden box” as it clearly points out design opportunities that need to be addressed. It’s the magic I’ve been trying to understand all this time, and it’s finally here. There’s more I can write, but I’m going to wait a while before I can get it all together properly.

Some wise guy had brains…

For the earlier post where it wasn’t fixed, click here.

Came sunday, it was race day with enough hype around town. More than 20,000 folks all geared up with their music players and water bottles, and everyone was ready to hit the road. The Open 10k category had about 8000 people participating, all of them eager to finish their ten kilometers. The route was well mapped, started off at the Kanteerava Stadium and all through Cubbon Road. I had a well thought of playlist which helped me avoid water stops, inspiring me at every step to run that extra mile! (had some Aerosmith, Daft Punk, Brad Sucks, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stereophonics and Goo Goo Dolls). The run was terrific and I managed to finish off 10k in just less than an hour (59 minutes to be precise). One hell of an experience I should say! Looking forward to more runs like this one, hopefully a marathon. Peace to all the runners of the world.

Sunfeast 10K 2009 Running Route

Picture courtesy: Ritesh’s mobile phone