The 10 Mins Life

"You can take 10mins of your time to do ........" fill in the blank with anything someone else wants to improve in your life.

It might be the priest saying "You can surely give 10mins of your time for God", The Yoga instructor saying "10mins of these assans a day you will live a healthy life", Your Girl-Friend telling you "Can't you spend 10mins talking to me?", Your best friend "Dude, you can surely take 10mins to hit the Gym." , Your professor saying "You should read your lessons everyday for 10mins atleast", Or maybe your Boss "This work will take only 10mins of your time"

All these 10mins in the end I feel is more than the God given 24hours in a day, What say?

The main problem with this "10 Mins life" idea is that these things these well-wishers would want us to do might be a 10min job, but the stuff to do the "10 mins stuff" properly is not 10mins. 

Take an e.g

Girl-Friends asks you to spend 10 mins with her, do you really thing it will be only 10mins??

Boss asks you to do a 10min job, but the time to end your current work, start the 10min one and do it properly goes for more than 10mins.

Hit the gym for 10mins?? Joking, hello it takes 10mins to go till the gym.

Seriously people 10min life doesn't work, Its like trying to live your life in fast-forward all the time. Stop the 10mins life, Live life slow, enjoy each moment, Life's not a race my friends.

Spend an hour with your girl-friend and don't hit the gym, if she really loves you she would like you spending time with her and won't mind you fat (P.S if you really want to lose weight, life her up, multiple times :P)

"Its better to spend time doing what you love rather than doing what others want you to do",

I am sure everyone will agree to this statement.

But the question now is I am advising everyone, can I follow my own advice?

I fail at all new-years resolution anyway so this time me taking a Christmas resolution to not hurry through life and enjoy life to the whole.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Laziness - Moving Mankind Forward

The dictionary definition of Lazy - averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion; indolent.

But I guess none of us ever had to actually look up Lazy in the dictionary, Majority of us have heard that word used countless number of times, I guess 1 of the real words you really learn as a baby will be lazy or laziness (not in English but surely in your mother tongue). Your mom calling your dad lazy, or your dad calling your elder brother lazy or basically everyone you know calling you lazy.

Being called lazy has such a negative connotation to it, I wonder why? Now that I think of it if someone is calling you lazy they are actually recognizing your inner potential. If you really think about it, the world around us wouldn't be the same if it was not for the contribution of some real Lazy people.

It's the lazy people who invented the wheel & the bicycle because they didn't like walking or carrying things. Its the lazy person who said lets fit a motor into this bicycle and thus the Motor-Cycle was born. A baby Diaper is an invention to not keep cleaning up after a baby again and again. These new age industry with all its automation and robots, ever thought the concept of a Robot came into being just cause of a person too lazy to do his own work.

Don't denounce us lazy people, its said "The best way to get any difficult work done at the shortest time possible is to give the work to a lazy person, He will surely find a way to get the work done in the shortest time in the most efficient way"

{All you bodybuilding hunks who get the girls, thank us for reducing your competition by being too lazy to hit the gym, ever wondered how much more guys you would have to compete with if we all left our lazy boys and hit the gym}

So all you workaholics and hard working idiots next time you see a lazy person don't abuse him but try to learn from us, what can you learn

Efficiency :- Like I said above, we the lazy people will always find the most efficient way of doing something at the shortest time possible, after all if we are working too hard we can't be lazy right? Think about it, if you people didn't have lazy people like us searching for doing things more efficiently you people would still be stuck in the stone age.

Delegation :- what better way not to do work than to delegate? Ever looked at your Boss and wondered, this guy doesn't do anything yet earns double than me, well here is you answer, he is a better manager as he knows to delegate.

Stall and Eliminate :- Learn how to stall and procrastinate stuff, the more you stall and procrastinate work you might end up seeing someone else doing that work, or that work itself becoming unnecessary, thus you don't waste time doing stuff which is unnecessary in the end.

Quick Work :- Sometimes when you stall (see above), it turns out that the thing you are stalling is really important, and needs to be done. If so, you will find this out when someone else who needs it done gives you an urgent call and 10 emails, asking for it to be submitted. This is when urgency comes into play, and it is a great motivator. You will get the thing done. But that urgency didn't exist until you stalled for a week. So the trick is to wait to do things until the absolute last minute, when you will be super motivated to do them. So don't schedule some of your tasks until the last possible time you could start them and still get them done before deadline.

Don't laugh at us you time-starved people of the 21st Century who find that even 24hours of the clock is too less. Learn from us the above qualities and you will find you  have plenty of time to do things you actually love. Learn from us, the lazy people, the actually smart people how to do things efficiently and you will find you have got enough time to stuff that actually excite you and not do the boring stuff only.

So what basically learn this

"Work Smart, Not Hard"

But what am I doing here trying to teach you people what it means to be lazy? I got to go and catch some shut-eye.

Contradictory Proverbs: Exposing hypocrisy of our Elders quotes

Remember your school days and when the teacher told you the story of the "Hare & the Tortoise" and used to end with the proverb "Slow and steady wins the race." Then when you reached back home and you were idling on the sofa watching TV arguing with your mother there is plenty of time for you to do the homework she would lecture you saying "Time and tide waits for no man."

I know its for two different situations but have you ever thought that both these age old sayings are telling you two contradictory things? One is telling you being slow and steady will get success and the other tells you to hurry as Time doesn't wait for anyone. "All good things come to those who wait." is another proverb that contradicts the saying "Time and tide waits for no man". Like I said I know both apply to two different situations but if you really think about it, the quotes that our elders and even their elders liked to quote so much to us are contradicting to each other.

Silence is golden. BUT The squeaky wheel gets the grease. / Crying child gets the milk.

"Silence is golden" I have never understood this statement, how can silence = gold?(or silver?) I never got a chance to ask this as whenever I was quoted the above statement it was for me to become silent (and asking questions is not silence!). But then as the other proverb puts it unless you make noise things won't get done. Only if a baby cries does the child's mother know he/she is hungry and gives the child food.

Birds of a feather flock together. BUT Opposites attract.

A magnetic north pole attracts the south pole, "Opposites attract" is a oft used phrase to explain why two very different people become a couple. but consider this, you always tend to be in company of people like you, majority of your friends will have some similarity with you. Yet again here we have two sayings that are exactly opposite to each other.

Practice makes perfect. BUT All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

"Practice makes perfect" how many times have you heard this, to make you do things repeatedly this is a very often used proverb. Practice again and again till you get achieve perfection. But practice = work right? but all work and no play makes jack a dull boy, remember? (I don't remember any elders telling me this proverb and sending me to play. Hypocrites!!!)

Look before you leap. BUT Strike while the iron is hot.

Attack the iron while its coming out of the furnace, tackle the problem when you come to face to it not 10 days later when the problem has morphed into 20 more problems, absolutely agree to that. But what is this "Look before you leap", Isn't that telling me to consider the problems from 15 different angles and then to tackle it? Spending my time looking at it from different angles, isn't that letting the problem go cold before I get around to tackle it??

To quote some more

The pen is mightier than the sword. BUT Actions speak louder than words.

Wise men think alike. BUT Fools seldom differ.

The best things in life are free things. BUT There's no such thing as a free lunch. 

Do it well, or not at all. BUT Half a loaf is better than none. / Something is better than nothing

Don't cross your bridges before you come to them. BUT Forewarned is forearmed.

Doubt is the beginning of wisdom. BUT Faith will move mountains.

Great starts make great finishes. BUT It ain't over 'till it's over.

You're never too old to learn. BUT You can't teach an old dog new tricks

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. BUT One man's food is another man's poison.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. BUT Out of sight, out of mind.

Too many cooks spoil the broth. BUT Many hands make light work.

So what do we take from this, that our elders and their elders didn't know what they are saying, or being human actually make them hypocrites, making and using saying / proverbs as and when it fits them? Well actually I don't know. But what I know is that even I will be using these sayings as and when situations suits me (which makes me also a hypocrite, doesn't it?)

I am going to end this post by saying :-

Hold fast to the words of your ancestors. BUT Wise men make proverbs and fools repeat them.

There and Back Again: Savio Story

Some time in July 2008:
After 4 years of B.E  I was waiting for the day engineering would end. Was tired of the boring lectures, faculty droning on and on about something (seriously I don't remember a word what I had learned in 4 years of Engineering). I already had a placement in my hand from a MNC so was chilled about that part too (its another thing that due to recession the MNC called us for joining only 1 year later, of-course I didn't join the MNC cause of obvious reasons). So was pretty tension free was looking to enjoy a long holiday.But fortunately or unfortunately my friends were not so tension free as me they were going around knocking on company's doors for jobs. And yours truly being as sporting as he always is (another thing I was looking for timepass) went with these friends of mine to Zeus Learning Tech and again  fortunately or unfortunately I was the one selected from all my friends (these friends of mine congratulated me but also gave me gali's :) )

30th July 2008 onwards
I went from being a student to a tax payer. Well seriously let me tell you it was not real fun for me becoming a salaried guy. Why you are asking? Well!!

1. In the 1st One and half years it was real slog. Late nights in office, later nights in office, all nighters in office you name it. There were days in which we spend more that 40 hours in office. Not fun dude. Not at all fun.
2. Money in the pocket at the end of the month was good no doubt. But it was my hard earned money. I really had second thoughts before I spend it. (seriously you don't feel the pinch as money running away when you are spending your own toil)

So was it all work and no play, Nope here was plenty of play, Best thing about Zeus was it didn't have a formal structure to it. Suited absolutely well to a guy fresh out of college. You could go to your PM put your hand around his shoulder and tell him something is wrong. Or you could remove your frustrations by beating him  up on his Birthday. No formals, go to office in a t-shirt jeans no one would say anything. Team Mates were great, made a lot of friends. :)

Well if everything was so great, why did I quit? Wait lets put the question in another way. Was I happy with the job? Straight answer NO. I was not seriously enjoying what I was doing. Everybody said I was doing great, got good appraisals,promotion etc (didn't mention before, I was a Senior Software Tester). The job didn't feel suited for me, wasn't seeing any real growth in the company. Seniors (I mean the PM's) were real good but seriously I had a inner feeling inside me that I can and will do a better job than them (Not trying to hurt anyone, but that was the feeling inside me). In 2 years I felt I have learned what ever the company could teach me, both the good and the bad.

Zeus gave me chance in designing of some projects, give juniors to delegate work to, responsibilities. Anybody looking from outside would feel like I was in a perfect setup. But "Dil Mange More", feeling I can and do something better kept growing inside me.

Jumping jobs was a option but then again I would get stuck in the same rut some other place, wanted a good jump. Had time on my side to take risk, So MBA, why MBA? 1 word answer - MONEY

Well a MBA is much more than a money, its a chance to get a good role in a organization, go from being a follower to a leader, what it means to be a leader, how & why leaders take some decision. It seems like a good bus to climb on to. Well so here I am

1st July 2011:
2 years 11 months of travelling the corporate ship called Zeus am jumping to a PGDM ship of Welingkar B-School. Searching for directions, searching for new horizons, good lucks and wishes in my ears off I go. Well follow me right here saviojosev.blogspot.com to see which shores this Ship is going to deposit me on :)

All the best to me

Review - Immortals of Meluha

I have read many books but never have actually written a review of any book, don’t ask me why I chose this book to write my first review but here it is.
I would like to warn readers here if they haven't already read the book “The Immortals of Meluha” that this review contains plot details and may spoil the fun/mystery of the book if you are planning to read it later.




The “Immortals of Meluha” is the first novel of the ‘Shiva trilogy’ series by Amish Tripathi. The series is based on the premise that “Gods were once human beings; it was their deeds in the human life that made them famous as Gods”. A thought which the analytical part of me really accepts. My Analytical/Scientific part of my brain really has bit difficulty in the concept of Gods/Superior beings. It’s easier for me to believe in Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection. (That doesn’t stop me from calling out God's name when I faced with a difficulty, Hypocrite amn’t I?). Any Indian will love this book, the books Bollywood style story telling will really interest Indian’s


The story takes place in the imaginary land of Meluha. -  A near perfect empire created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest monarchs that ever lived. The once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe perils as its primary river, the revered Saraswati, is slowly drying to extinction. 

They also face devastating terrorist attacks from the east, the land of the Chandravanshis (reminded of present day India-Pak) who appear to have allied with the Nagas, an ostracised and sinister race of deformed humans with astonishing martial skills. The only hope for the Suryavanshis is an ancient legend – ‘when evil reaches epic proportions, when all seems lost, when it appears that your enemies have triumphed, a hero will emerge’ (Sounds like a typical Hollywood film tag-line right??).


The story begins with Shiva’s tribe moving into this country on the invitation of the present King Daksha who has been inviting tribes to join his Kingdom in the hope that this hero will be found. When Shiva’s tribe reach the city of Srinagar they are received there by Ayurvati, the Chief of Medicine of the Meluhans. On their first night of stay at Srinagar the tribe is given Somras after which the Gunas woke up with a deep fever and sweating. All except Shiva but his throat had turned blue. The Meluhans announce Shiva as the Neelkanth, their fabled saviour and take Shiva to Devagiri their capital city.


En-route we meet our hero’s heroine Princess Sati, the daughter of Daksha and is a vikarma, an untouchable in this life due to sins of their past births. (I have never understood the concept of caste / untouchability but this is a discussion for another time). She rejects our hero’s advances but ultimately Shiva wins her heart and they decide to get married, even though the “vikarma” rule prohibits them from doing so. Enraged by the so called obsolete law, Shiva declares himself as the Neelkanth and swears to dissolve the vikarma law. Daksha allows Sati to get married to Shiva, amidst much joy and happiness. (Note here how a King allowed the change to a law for his/his daughters benefit, he agreed to change the law standing behind the Neelkanth Shiva, reminds me of the corrupt Indian politicians who know some laws are wrong but still don’t change them till they them self are benefited or they have someone else to take the responsibility for them).


The turning point in the movie (Oops! Book) come when Mount Mandar where the legendary somras is made is attacked and scientist there are killed. Shiva declares war on Chandravanshis. Using his tactical brilliance Chandravanshis are defeated and The Chandravanshi king is captured and brought in front of Daksha. He becomes enraged seeing the Neelkanth and is taken away. It is the Chandravanshi princess, Anandmayi, who tells them that they had a similar legend that the Neelkanth will come forward to save their land by launching an assault against the evil Suryavanshis. Hearing this, Shiva is dumbfounded and is utterly distressed. With Sati he visits the famous Ram temple of Ayodhya, the capital of Swadweep. There he meets the priest from whom he comes to know about the karma, his fate, and his choices in life, which will guide him. After talking to him as Shiva comes out of the temple, he hears a scream. Running to the location he sees in horror as a group of Nagas kidnap Sati and run with them. (Thriller end which makes you panting for the sequel).


I liked this book for the way the story is told a Bollywood potboiler: fast-paced action, flashbacks and, definitely not the least, romance between Shiva and the princess of Meluha, Sati. (The movie based on the book will be coming soon). Also how in many ways a book set in 1900BC reminds me of the modern world. I would really recommend this book to everyone.

End of the world

End of the world, Judgement day, Apocalypse etc are fimilar words to every one. Countless movies, books and to that matter even songs have been written about the 'End of the World'. The word has been roaming about in the news lately as May 21st was supposed to be judgement day (Predicted by some American guy), but the world is still ticking guys. Ever wondered why humans are so worried about the end, how every body would be judged etc? Is it just an quintessence of man kinds nature of always looking into the future and never leaving in the present?

Lets examine it, Isn't it a basic nature of humans to worry about the future? Havn't we all worried whats going to happen 1, 2 , 5 or may be even 10 years into the future?  'Have to invest in this so that I can live comfortably after I retire' isn't this a common thought in our head? Or 'Forget the movie, I need to study to ace the exam and get a good job'. I know I might be over simplifying. But seriously all of us are worried about the future.

OK. So might be worrying about the future is basically a human nature, but why is it End of the world scenarios always so scary? Why is it always people dieing, earth getting flooded, or fire or stuff like that? Why can't Apocalypse be a happy day? Why can't it be like 1 fine morning everything in the world is good, there is food for everyone, no one ever dies etc etc. Why is Apocalypse always depicted as a real hard time?

Why is it that the bad always need to be punished for their crime? Why can't on this glorious new day of Judgement all criminals, terrorists, rapist etc see the light of their way and repent and redeem them-self? Why is Judgement day required? Why is it required to punish people and put them in eternal fires? Look at this scenario 'The father of a little girl is a robber, the child loves her father a lot, but on judgement day the father is condemned to the eternal fire while the child is sent to heaven, would that heaven actually be a heaven for her without her father?'

To any one reading the above lines and thinking its 'end of the world' is a western concept I would like to point that End of the world and judgement of man kind is there in each and every culture. Hindu culture says right now we are in Kali Yuga The last of the 4 ages (Yugs). If we look about each and every civilization talks about the end of the world. Why is it man cannot live without the fear?

So do I think end of world will never happen? Well I don't think there will be a judgement day or something like that. But I feel end of the world as we know can happen in many ways.

1) Nuclear War (World war 3): Terrorist get the nuclear bomb and blast it in Israel, Israel blames Pakistan, USA (and other European countries) support Israel and H-Bomb Pakistan, China rises to defend Pakistan and bombs the western world. Pakistan nukes India, Russia joins the party and behold we have our own human judgement day.
2) Asteroid hitting earth :  Well an Asteroid had taken down the mighty Tyrannosaurus and family, might be another one is waiting to say goodbye Homo-sapiens.
3) Nature : well in this category there are plenty of ways nature can bring judgement day. A super bug (virus or Bactria) resistant to all medicines get released onto man.  A major volcano blowing up covering the sky's for years with ash blocking sunlight. Global Warming changing worlds weather pattern causing crop loss and large scale starvation and death.

Now is this going to happen on 24th October 2011 (the new date predicted for end of the world) or 21 Dec 2012 (the end of Mayan Calender) I don't know. But I know if we live worrying about when we are going to die we are not living at all. (Point to wonder, You can die at this every moment reading this, but you didn't did you?)

Visit to a IPL match in a Cricket Stadium

For those who keep reading my blog, know that I am not a big fan of cricket, my friends had literally cursed me for my views about the worldcup. But I have to say the freaking excitement people got after India won the semi-final and finals I was really left wondering whats the big deal about cricket. Its such a boring game.

But then I am not know to be a very patient fellow, so the 20-20 format of cricket might be made for people like me who don't like wasting a entire day for a silly game, watched a few matches on TV but still I didn't understand whats so great about cricket.

People used to talk about the atmosphere in the stadium, So when a friend of mine from office said he is going for a IPL match, I said even I am coming, forget the 740 Bucks for the ticket (there are even more costly tickets, we took the cheapest one). I wanted to know what this atmosphere was.

So on 4th of May I was going to watch Mumbai Indians Vs Pune Warriors (A thought: Are IPL teams dividing India on the basics of city and state at the time when we need more unity in India?)

The first question my dear friend asked me when he saw me in the morning was "Why are you supporting Pune?" I was like "what do you mean? I am coming to watch the match, and not really supporting either team." He said, "You are wearing Black, Black is Pune teams color, don't you know? You should have worn Blue, Mumbai Indians color". So that was my introduction to the match.

Anyway we left office early, another colleague of mine had brought his car, so the trip to the stadium was comfortable, only thing was the traffic and finding a parking spot over there. I have to say the D.Y Patil stadium people & Policemen there really tried there level to keep traffic moving, but the crowd was so great that it was a failed effort from there part. But one real bad part was converting of E-Tickets (printed from the Internet) to the actual tickets, It was not at all organized properly. The ticket converting place was at one end of the stadium while entrances was at the other end so had a real big walk, also the managing of giving the tickets was also bad.

Anyway after collecting the tickets we entered the stadium, we are not allowed to take in anything to the stadium, not even water. Luckily everyone of us had left our stuff in the vehicle itself. But I can understand the security aspect of not allowing to take anything inside. But what irritated me was the lootofying of people inside by the D.Y Patil stadium people cause of it. 20Rs for a small glass of water, For 2 small samsosa Rs. 60, For a glass of pepsi (half filled with ice) Rs. 60 again. Plain robbery. I am not even talking about the cost of other foods. You guys are not allowing us to carry water inside, then coolers should have been kept for the public. Already the ticket costs are so high on top of that you are keeping this extravagant cost also.

By the time we reached our seats (P-stand, 4th level, at the very top of the stadium) the toss was over and the match was about to start, Need to point out even though D.Y Patil stadium is Pune warriors home ground majority of supporters were of Mumbai. (To be expected, as stadium is at Mumbai). First batting was of Mumbai Indians, Opening pair of  Blizzard & Sachin, the feeling was like the entire stadium had come just to see Sachin not the match.

Seeing the players on the ground my friends who had come with me were able to differentiate between different cricketers from such a distance, but for me all looked the same, I was reminded of a old Cricket game on my PC in which you get the ground view, and the ball racing towards the boundary ;). Even the cheer leaders were very far from our seats for me to enjoy their show also :(

No commendatory in the stadium, I was missing the irritating voice of the commentators which we are so used to while watching match on television to keep us in the know whats happening on the field.

I have to agree the first Innings was fun, with Mumbai Indians cheerleaders dancing at every four-sixes on any song the DJ was playing, and there were plenty of fours & sixes. It was fun, but I have to say the second innings was boring, DJ & music stopped at 10 P.M due to the noise rules, Pune lost their first wicket on first ball itself and the second innings was real boring. I was bored.

Am sure interested people have already watched the match on TV, or read the newspaper for details so I am not going into match details (I am sure I won't do justice to it also). But some points of the match was real fun, Like listening to the crowd cheering for Sachin, really people consider him God (I don't), the ball from Malinga to Yuvraj in which he got out, Yuvraj feel down, (the crowds reaction), apart from that the masti my office-mates were doing. Had a nice time. My friend mentioned about hearing the sweet sound of ball hitting the bat, I heard the sound, but sorry my friend, I don't know what you found sweet in that. (It was after the DJ was turned off, and the crowd was quite, I preferred the music and the noisy crowd buddy)

So is the atmosphere inside the stadium different, Nope Its still oxygen-nitrogen mix, Am I more interested in cricket after the visit to the stadium-Nope, was it worth 740 Bucks - Nope, Match will be more fun to watch on a big screen with your friends. Will I go to a stadium again to watch - not if I am paying 740 bucks, anyone else takes me I will be glad to go.

But I want to say thanks to that friend of mine, who took the inisative for going to the match, Thanks Rashesh for the Cricket Stadium experience