Obsessed on doing good

I am recently obsessed with 'doing good' for the world. Now this has surprised me as well as I am not exactly kind and sensitive person. I have tendency to offend my most friends by being myself (sparing one who just doesn't care). So where does this idea of doing good comes from?

Let me clarify few things first:
I believe in comfortable life and enjoy finer things in life. That doesn't equate to branded bags and clothes but includes a $150 LOTR exclusive collection. Simply said I value money for what it brings. A
Secondly, I believe donation is not about feel good factor. I need to see direct beneficiary of my money. I have been working hard for it so better be a deserving person.
Also, I don't believe in quitting my job to starting 'saving the world'. I love my finance field and plan to stay in it. So I have 2 options: contribute part-time or converge my passion. The 2nd option is more viable and that forms the foundation of my MBA plans. (more on it later)

So back to my obsession:
It started with a thought - I can't change the whole world but I can change the world of one person. Think about it - sponsoring a kids education only takes fraction of my salary. I don't expect him/her to become the next CEO but if he can be simple clerk/technician atleast better than begging. Their kids will have some future. The revolution can start with one person.
Hence my belief in education.

As for environment - I am just being pure selfish. I need to breathe fresh air, clean oceans to dive in and great food to eat (I live to eat). I don't believe in animal causes because I don't particular love for them. But I do believe in food chain and after reading Wolf Totem I am convinced that they are here not here for diversity on the planet but for sustainability of our earth.

Conclusion, I don't believe in doing good for others but for myself. I don't believe anyone does anything without any expectation. I work for money that buys me comfort, my mum does household chore because she loves her family and expects our love in return - nothing wrong with it but point being 'expectation'. If nothing much - its about 'feel good factor' that all of us need all the time.

Ghulam Ali's concert

On 15th November I had once in a lifetime opportunity to hear to king of Ghazal - Ghulam Ali. It was really fantastic experience although not upto the par. I still admire his selection and now listing the ghazals and nzam he offered.
Started with: Har Ek Baat Pe Kehte Ho.. (http://www.mirzaghalib.in/mirza-ghalib-poetry/5)
Phir Issi Rehguzar Se.... shayad
The famous - Chupke chupke
Ye Baatein Jhooti Baatein
Dil Mein Ek leher Uthi (the various forms of Leher he presented was fascinating)
Punjabi Song -
Hungama Hai Kyun
2 more I can't recall - will add later.

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On techonology and laziness

Back in university I was an IT enthusiast. I used to subscribe to download.com and read up on latest softwares and download the trial items to judge their usefulness. I have discovered some fascinating tools thanks to my 'hobby'. Some of the tools that are now 1st things to download for me are:
Firefox - Only time I use IE is to download firefox package.
Mediamonkey - Excellent at organizing my music. I have retagged and renamed 4000+ songs of mine within a month. I can't believe I use to rename and retag each song... i.e. 2x editing...
Audacity - For mixing. Only way I could get my music for my dance easily done without professional help. Ofcourse Bharat Goel was a savior later.
Google - I am a Google generation. Though recently I have not been using it but I regret not getting a good email address with gmail. Otherwise would have done away with Yahoo mail.

Well the list is long but point is these tools are essential for my plugged in life.

Ofcourse the experimentation often led computer to run out of memory or cluttered hard drive resulting in frequent disk fragmentation.

But lately I have been very very lazy and done away with it. Resulting, lagging behind my IT quotient. So I have started to jump start my passion.

ICalendar - that allows me to sync my google calendar with outlook and nokia phone. How cool is that.
Ypop - i used to use it in school to download my yahoo mail in the Outlook. Just started to use it - hopefully I can improve my turnaround time on replying to the emails.
Will keep posting my latest finds here meanwhile. Hopefully I can get out of my laziness and return to my geeky self when it comes to softwares and gadgets.

Singapore ka don kaun?

This is my favourite picture of all the navratri pics this years. My dad took this when i was arguing with someone during the dance. As emcce I have had privilige of being on the stage at my terms and conditions. I have never seen myself as a powerful personality but this picture.... speaks for itself.

Singaore ka bhai kaun?

My apiration...

This pic was taken in 2005 - on my way to garden festival. I was then in my 2nd year and this skyline always fascinated me. This is the financial hub of Singapore and of the Asia. Then I took this picture and captioned that one day I will part of this skyline. Now, I am working in one of the best office building - One Raffles Quay on 28th floor that commands beautiful view.

Now as I see the financial markets crumbling I wonder what will happen of these towers. This time the bomb is bigger than that brought down the World Trade Center yet no one will see the fire, smoke and the shouts. Still everyone has been the part of hysteria.

I was young enough to remember crisis of 1997 when my dad came to Singapore with high hopes of landing a job. Little was he aware of the impeding financial tsunami. He returned and we had tough time staying afloat. I can still recall the tension in the house. I don't recall my father watching financial news or specific business news but still he and ultimately we were affected by the downturn. Only in 1999 we managed to come out. This is coincidental with economic expansion - probably its not a coincident; it may be due to economic expansion.

My dad has seen his fair share of changing economic landscape. Now its my time. This picture reminds me of my aspiration as a college student, my eagerness to be part of it. Now I am one of them but do I want to stay involved or step away to form a newer world.

This is ironic, the 1st 'tower' is a actually a monument dedicated to those who sacrificed their lives in 1942 war. In this picture it stands taller than the financial powerhouse. I wonder wat monument will be build for the millions of life destroyed by this crisis?