I’m nearing 40 and am just about beginning to learn the ropes. I really wish I started early. It was this realization that made me want to give an opportunity for my kids when they are young.

When I read about the ‘Movie Making Summer Camp‘ for kids, it fit in perfectly with my need.  I’ve joined my two kids in the camp. Its a two week course where the kids are taught about the basics of writing a story, how to transform it into a script, how to create storyboards and frame the shots.

More importantly, the course is taught by two professionals who have had years of experience in the movie field.  Madhumita Vijay had directed two Tamil movies, Vallamai Thaaraayo (starring Parteban and Chaya Singh) and Kola kolaya Mundhirika. She graduated from New York Film Academy in LA.

Her husband, Vijay Venkatraman is a film editor, sound designer and writer for feature films. he has extensive experience working with various advertising firms. He graduated from University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts in LA.

To me, who teaches the course is important and I was quite impressed not just with their profile but also when I met them in real life.

More about the them at http://moviecampchennai.wordpress.com

The book is hitting the printing press on Monday, 14th May at 4 pm.  But to do that, the book cover needs to be finalized.

We have nine book covers. But only one will have the privilege of making it to the printing press along with the book.  You can help choose that cover by visiting this specially created Facebook Page. Take a look at all the 9 designs. Click ‘like’ on the design that you like best. The one that gets the most likes comes out winner. We will be collating all the names of people who helped us in the Unconference wiki.

All the 9 book covers have been designed by Anjana Singhwi, the uber talented girl who is pursuing Communication Design at the prestigious Parsons New School for Design in New York.

We look forward to your participation and help. Here is the FB page you need to visit to vote. Thanks in advance.

You combine a creative eye with respect for deadlines, content requirements and graphic guidelines.

You will be responsible for assembling various audiovisual materials into a finished product with a production quality that’s of international standard.  You create a finished video that is highly professional and to the point, starting from graphics, photography, dialogue, raw camera footage, sound effects and other special effects.

You also have the opportunity to play a leadership role in hiring more people and running the video team as we expand the division.

The position is preferably full time.  However, I’m also open for exploring part-time option.  The position is based in Chennai.  If you are in and around Virugambakkam, Vadapalani, Saligramam, Porur, it would save on travel time.

Please help spread the word around. Know a good video person among your friends? Do ask them call me at 9841597744 or email at Kiruba @ Kiruba.com. Thank you.

The following advice is intended for aircrafts like Boeing 737-800 ( Jet Airways, SpiceJet ) and Airbus A320 (GoAir, IndiGo, KingFisher and Indian Airlines) but may be applicable to many others.

The Best Seat:  Want to get an Economy Class seat with as much legroom as a Business Class seat?  Then use these three magic words when you check-in.  ‘Emergency Reclining Aisle‘.  Now Repeat that 10 times loudly.

Don’t just ask for Emergency seat, ask for Emergency Reclining. This is the second row of emergency seats that not only has the leg room but its also reclining.

As a bonus, a good looking air-hostess will come to you to read out the emergency exit instructions.

The Worst Seat:  Its the row just before the emergency seats. Not only is the leg space cramped, the reclining is disabled as well. So is with the seats in the very last row. To make it worse, you have two toilets to deal with. Now you know what to avoid.

Trust that was useful. Do you have any aircraft tips to share?

During the conversation, the candidate asked me about our competitors in business. She specifically wanted to know about our USP and how we differentiate ourselves from the competition.

Typically, my answer would have been the 17 years I have spent in the digital space and how it continues to hold my fancy. But there’s something else that I value even more. Its Building Relationships.  Its the trait I have learned from people who I respect.

Almost 100% of my business have come from people that I have known earlier. Some for many years and some for few months. But one thing that’s commons is that when we started knowing each other, business was never part of the discussion.  When you remove any motive or business intention, its amazing how trust and comfort sets in.  Ironically enough, these two are the most important factors for a business relationship!

So, when I read this post by Rajesh Setty about the importance of building relationship by giving without expecting anything back, I dug every line.

I remember when I stayed at Rajesh’s home in Sunnyvale, he gifted me his Snowball Professional Microphone. I initially refused but he insisted. He said he rarely uses it and that it will be put to better use because I do  podcasting. Now every time, I record a podcast I think of Rajesh’s gesture and invariably talk about him with the achiever that I interview.  In my opinion, Rajesh dug his well one shovel deeper.

The reason why I found the article interesting is because it has an insightful real life incident by Mukund Mohan, a passionate and successful serial entrepreneur.    It tells the story of how a simple gesture of his started a relationship that resulted in his first ever business deal 3 years later. Recommended read.

Everyone who stands in the aisle know that the doors don’t open for another 10 minutes. So why bother?

There’s no time advantage either.  At best, they save 2 minutes but that immediately gets evened out when they are made to wait in the transfer bus and even more so at the luggage carousel.

I’ve seen this habit mostly in India and wanted to figure out the reasons behind this behavior.  Here’s what I could come up with.

1) Wanting to stretch their legs after sitting for long.

2) Having a false sense of saving time.

3) Herd mentality. When you see others standing up, you do too so as not not lose any competitive edge.

But by far the best explanation I heard  is from a fellow passenger who traveled with me in yesterday’s flight. He’s a Mumbaikar who now stays in Bangkok.  He says its a habit that we have acquired from our days of traveling in Buses and Trains.

We usually get up from our seats much before our destination comes because we have to weave and squeeze our way through the standing crowd to edge closer to the exit door.  Its a mentality that has sunk deep into us. He says we involuntarily do that even in flights.

Its the strangest answer I heard but it makes good sense.

What do you think are the reasons?

Reading newspaper in the morning is a habit that has been ingrained in me. I’m 38 years old. That’s 14,157 days since the day I was born. For almost every single day of my life, a newspaper has plonked on our door step every morning. My Dad had encouraged me to read newspapers early in life. As I grew up, waking up in the morning and reaching out for the paper has become an involuntary habit.

So, why am I discontinuing a habit I have grown up with? Here are my reasons.

It’s a Productivity Killer: When you wake up in the moring, your mind and body is fresh from a good night’s sleep. The first hour after you wake up is the most fertile hour of the day. Just the perfect condition to produce things of value. Author a book chapter, Write a blog post, Plan for the day…anything that makes you create. (Read my post: Be a Producer. Not a Consumer.)  Unfortunately, when we pick up a newspaper, we become a passive consumer. Not an efficient way to spend the fertile hour.

I Don’t Find 90% of News Useful: The only two sections I read are the front page and the sports section. I really don’t give a damn about politics which occupies the chunk of the paper. Buying a newspaper is like buying a whole music album when all you like is just one song.

Its Convenient Reading News Online:  With my iPad, the newspaper comes along with me and I get to catch up on news whenever I have free time. And I get to pick the news section that I’m interested in and ignoring the rest.

Why Pay for the Ads?:  While ads are important for the newspaper, they add no value to me. I can’t think of any ad that has profoundly impacted my life.  I totally understand that ads are how newspapers make their money but its time they revisited their business model.

Save the Trees: Really! If I’m given two options to consume news, I’d rather choose the more sustainable one. Lets spare the trees if we can help it.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against news. I strongly believe that one will have to keep oneself updated. I’m only against the medium of delivery. I find consuming news on mobile and iPad not just convenient but also sensible.

In my opinion, while the physical newspapers will die a slow definite death, the job of newsmaking will continue to prosper. There is and will continue to be demand for news. Journalism as an occupation will continue to be an evergreen field.

Giving up a newspaper is far easier than you’d think. Especially when you have another way to get your news fix. The easiest way to get out of a habit, is to get it off your eyesight. Hence the unsubscription. When the newspaper no longer comes to your home, how can you be distracted by it!

Think of how we sent our letters 20 years ago. Didn’t we seamlessly move to emails. The same will happen to news consumption as well.

So, what do you think of the decision? Stupid? Sensible?  I would love to hear your opinion.

If this question had come from a college student, I would not have blinked an eyelid. This was from a person who was branch head of a large Advertising agency. She currently holds a senior position at a major English Newspaper. A person with decades of work experience.

She said that she was very well versed with traditional media but was very new in the digital space and was determined to learn the ropes.

Her attitude impressed me. Most people  with her seniority and years of experience (including me) would cringe at the thought of asking for an unpaid internship in another form. She didn’t let her ego come in the way of learning and for that alone, she deserves credit.

It reminded me of Richard Branson’s words in his book, ‘Screw it…Let’s Do it’. He says…

“If you don’t have the right experience to reach your goal, look for another way in. If you want to fly, get down to the airfield and make tea. Keep your eyes open. Look and learn. You don’t have to go to art school to be a fashion designer. Join a fashion company and push a broom. Work your way up”

This is a powerful lesson that we should all learn from the lady. Learning is important. Ego isn’t.

Yup, I did say yes to her and look forward to working together.

I don’t recall ever reading a book about Swami Vivekananda. Nor have I learned any of his teachings. The closest I have been to ‘him’ is to visit the Ramakrishna Math in Calcutta but that was as a tourist. So, its a bit of surprise that I now spend considerable time on YouTube listening to his talks and reading about his teachings.

So, why this transformation?

On March 27th, I’ve been invited by MGR University to give a keynote speech at a literary fest to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. The Principal had such high opinion about me. She wanted me to give a motivational talk to the students. I had two choices when I received the call. To turn down the invitation citing my lack of knowledge on Swami’s teachings. Or take it up as a challenge, go beyond my comfort zone, and learn about the subject. I loved the idea of the challenge and said ‘YES’. I’m glad I did.

The scene now shifts to the airport.

The last two months has been heavy on speaking engagements. I’ve been traveling around the country speaking at corporates and conferences. I have been wanting to improve my repertoire and learn engaging stories to illustrate my points.

I decided to marry travel with reading. Here’s what I did.

Whenever I’m at an Airport, I pick up a book from the bookstore. The criteria for my book selection is that it has to be small and thin. Max around 100 pages. My goal is to finish the book before the plane lands at the destination. This habit has done wonders to my book reading habit…and my speaking skills! I always aim to include what I learned from the book into my next speech. Its worked out wonderfully. Now I look forward to more speaking opportunities for I know it also pulls up my reading.

What tips did you follow to improve your reading and speaking? Would love to hear.

I picked up a Reliance CDMA Tablet on the day of its launch recently.  I wanted to write a review then but wanted to make sure that I put in at least a week’s time using the tab before I talk about it.

I want to set the expectation right. I’m an Apple fanboy. I own two iPads (the first generation and iPad2). The reason why I picked up another Tab is because I wanted one that runs on Android to test out the apps.

In this review, I’m reviewing the Reliance Tab on its own merit and will not be comparing it with the iPad.  The Reliance Tab is available at Rs.12,999 while the closest equivalent of iPad would cost around Rs.30K.  The target segment is clearly distinct and is unfair to compare.

OK, with that out of the way, let’s dive in.

The Reliance Tab is the first CDMA tablet in the country. Coincidentally, I was among the first buyers of the CDMA phone that Reliance launched over a decade ago.

So why CDMA when Reliance already has 3G Tablets in the market? That’s because in some circles like Tamilnadu, Reliance does not have 3G licenses.

The Reliance Tablet is a 7 inch one and has a capacitive multi-touch screen with a 480X800 screen resolution.  The 512 MB is sufficient for browsing but would have gladly appreciated more power.  The MicroSD slot can hold an impressive 32GB and with the prices of MicroSDs falling drastically, makes sense to ramp it up.  Reliance throws in a 4MB 4GB card for free. (Thanks Saurabh for pointing out the mistake)

The Reliance Tab can be used as a full feature mobile phone and comes with its own wired ear phone. The voice clarity and sound is very impressive. For someone who wants to use both the phone and the Tab regularly, it would make sense to just carry the Tab but please for heaven’s sake, use the ear phone provided.  I always find people who place a tab to their ears look like a dork!

The Tab is 397 grams light and is quite handy. Its all black look with a nice silver lining on the side makes it look professional.

Reliance has integrated it own services.  It comes bundled with Internet Data plans and you get to save up-to 40% on yearly plans. The company has thrown in 2 months free subscription to BigFlix for movie viewing. It has tied up with McAfee to give one year free Mobility Antivirus.

Here’s my closing thought.  If your usage is just browsing, emails and games (which I find most Tab users predominantly use) and you are looking for a tab within budget, then I’d give the Reliance Tab a thumbs up.