Capt. Gopinath’s story is very engaging. His story reminds me of the Indian soda commercial “Seedhi Baat, No Bakwaas” (Straight talk, no BS). He is the kind of entrepreneur I like. He believes in doing rather than talking.

“Strategy” is the most abused word in the entrepreneurship universe. It’s easy to understand why – the word makes one “sound” intelligent. The more one peppers one’s talk with the word, the more “entrepreneurial” one will come across.

If you are looking for high octane BS and to pick up new business buzzwords to add to the BS toolkit, this book will disappoint. You can probably count on one hand the number of times Capt. Gopinath has used the word “strategy” and other similar intelligent sounding  buzzwords. He went on to build India’s largest private Airlines by doing what made sense to him – not by giving presentations and talking endlessly about strategy.

His mantra is simple – immerse yourself in your work. Talking is not the same as doing. (Are you listening Obama?)

Wonder which pavilion he will walk back to – Kerala or NY?

“I have quit a UN job with a good salary for the salary of a minister in the government and find it extremely upsetting (that charges have been made),”

So the dude himself has confirmed it today – he IS still stuck in NY.

Wonder when will the suspense end – what will happen first – will he stop tweeting or will he get his knuckles rapped by Madam Soniaji?

Watch this space.

A Tai Chi class in Totley has been evicted from its current location of All Saints church hall.

The church wants to focus its attention on a Christian perspective but through doing this has had to tell the exercise group to find a new home for their class.

Reverend David Rhodes from All Saints Church in Totley told BBC Radio Sheffield why he had taken the decision to ban the class:

“We feel very upset about the upset that this has caused. We are not critical of the people at all. We come from a wider perspective within the church and we see Tai Chi as being an aspect of the Chinese Taoism religion. We want to uphold a whole life spirituality that centres on Jesus. And we feel that the two things clash. We are concerned that we stay consistent with that.”

Note: Follow this link to the story on the BBC website and watch the video. Hilarious!

In scale, I was disappointed much more watching Road, Movie than I was watching Dev Benegal’s previous film, Split Wide Open (which btw also figures in my “best of the worst” list). The reason for the bigger disappointment was Abhay Deol – I like the actor and his choice of films, and had assumed since he was in the film, it HAD to be good.

If there is anything positive about this film, it is the Cinematography. But net-net, this is a horrible flick – don’t waste your time and money.

“Al-Qaeda is trying to destabilise the whole of South Asia hoping to provoke war between India and Pakistan. India might not show restraint if it suffered another attack like the one in 2008 on Mumbai.”

Hard to tell if he is is echoing India’s frustrations, or if he is nudging India – after all, the power of suggestion is pretty strong. India has shown extraordinary restaint so far, and 26/11 was not a unique case. What makes Mr. Gates think the next attack could be the last straw? I wonder if he is suggesting to India that she could make the next one the last straw if she so chose.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8470357.stm

Google became Google because of it’s fantastic positioning. They were THE search engine. However, with every passing minute they seem to be broadening their focus – and bit-by-bit they are chipping away the foundation of their strong brand.

Every passing minute it is becoming harder to answer the question – “What is Google?

• Is it a search engine? Yes
• Is it a news aggregater – Yes
• Is it an advertising platform – Yes
• Is it a platform for software developers to build applications – It seems so, Yes
• Is it a book archive – Yes but I have never found a full book. If I have to read excerpts, I would rather go to Amazon, the experience is much better.
• Is it a comparison shopping service? – Yes, isn’t that what Froogle is? But why does it have the same interface as Google Search?
• Is it a photo sharing portal? – Yes; but I like Flickr better
• Is it a smart phone? – Yes; but from what I have heard it’s nothing like the iPhone
• Is it an OS vendor? – Yes; I heard it is; but not sure how good their OS will turn out to be; the early reviews are mixed.
• Is it a Blogging Service provider? – Yes; but it’s pretty bland. There are better ones out there, like WordPress.
• Is it an email service provide? – Yes; and a damn good one at that!

Google is trying to extend it’s brand beyond advisable limits. It’s becoming unclear what Google is, as it is becoming unclear who Google’s main competitors are. It seems to be fighting wars on too many fronts at the same time – even going to the extent of pissing of old friends like Apple and turning them into adversaries.

Whichever way Google goes, it will definitely make for a very interesting management case study in the years to come.

Wonder which will happen first – will he get his knuckles rapped and stop tweeting? Or will he be stripped off his union ministership and be left free to tweet away all day?

Let’s wait and see how it goes – I am sure he will ‘tweet’ us faster than his brain would have completely processed the message he let loose in the wide world of the web!