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Getting out of Facebook Fatigue



We have a saying in India - "Nayi nayi Dulhan sabhi ko achi lagti he" (Everyone like the new bride). Can the same be said about Facebook now when the number of FB users in U.S has gone down for second straight months? No doubt that Facebook brought us closer to our friends , made the web world a small place to hang around but also brought the need of managing our online image and hence the need to self-censor. Plus those frequent irritating updates on your newsfeed from one or two individuals in your list making you think if you really want to know about all their activities until you want to sleep with them.

There is no doubt that facebook growth at some point of time will moderate given the fact that it depends on the internet penetration of any given country. The law of diminishing factor will start playing its part. So it should not lose sleep over the stagnating number of users but rather focus on how much average time its users are spending on Facebook, how much it can engage its users. If this user time is decreasing or stagnating , then it should certainly be wake up call as it will directly impact its advertising revenue. It is still a smaller player than Google as far as the ads revenue are concerned but certain to go through the adoption curve which perhaps would tilt the revenue share the other way.

At times, people get confused and start valuing a web company on the basis of the extent to which it engage its users.For example , Angry Bird - the game is inherently very engaging and the player gets so immersed in it that he/she gives little notice to the ads ; so it still proves to be a bad business. Now take Google, they increased the value of their Adwords by creating several non-immersive pages around google.com that makes us sitting on its sites for far more time than say when Google started. The adwords remained the same , the ads quality is more or less the same, even the way they try to get noticed is same but still we are seeing more of them with more opportunities to click on them. And then they introduced the win-win adsense and started syndicating the ads to billions and now with Android , they have captured the mobiles space. 

So here is the lesson for Facebook - Invent multitude of products and features as done by Google. But they have not done it yet. Facebook.com needs be more than a place where we can share some updates, chat a bit, tag friends, upload some photos, and do a bit of gaming - not one where we come only to refresh ourselves , sort of entertain ourselves unlike Google where we go for our needs - searching , gmailing , sharing docs et all.
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Grade Inflation : Life Beyond 100%?

We met this U.S lady during our recent Sri Lanka trip. She had been travelling around many countries including the likes of India, Indonesia, Thailand et all since last 7 months or so. Believe me she was not on any vacation sort of. She left her 2 years old coshy job in Hollywood and then an offer from Versace to chase the things she is passionate about. She don't pay for her flight tickets but rather manage it from the airmiles she gained during her sales stint on her job.Touring around these countries was as she said her way of 'educating herself'. She stayed in India for around two and half months , got trained in Yoga(a certified one) and want to become a part-time Yoga trainer. Her ultimate aim is to work in yachts and become an 'international resource'. And her talks reflected the amount of knowledge she has gained of the countries she has visited. I never heard of Delhi Belly until Aamir Khan picked this 2 words for his upcoming movie but she knew it well with her dose of you tube clips.

Can we Indians afford to do the same? Even when we have world's all wealth? A break from the work and/or studies? Remember those application forms from your dream company asking for any gap in studies/jobs? And if it exceeds 6 months except when you have dropped preparing for IITs, you will end up being a non-serious candidate. You lose the edge over one having a 'continuity' with no gaps. The recruiter (read the society) wants you to be occupied - even when the job you are doing sucks you and kills you every moment, even when that engineering and doctorate degree makes your life more confused and more meaningless. Keep running else someone else will move ahead. Keep running else someone else will defeat you. 

This fear of losing has perhaps defeated our generation from core. Grades and percentages has become the hallmark of our existence in this society. Just pick anyone just anyone from any corner of the world , lock him/her in a room with those bundle of book to mug and he/she will finally vomit it in any exams - there is no rocket science in it, there is nothing great about it but still it is what count here - how fast , how good and how efficiently you can do it- this is the race we are entangled in. And still we are running and we will even after the 100% cutoff is here.But for what? We don't know. Perhaps to make your nearby uncles and aunties happy, perhaps to keep their mouth shut.

Why do we need to listen them? Why can't we have a life beyond grades? Why can't we educate ourselves the way we want? Why can't we learn the things we are passionate about?

Manipal Jinx

This is the place where patients from all over India come in hoards everyday to get the best in class treatment at Kasturba Medical Hospital. The Pharma market in Manipal is very large with an average monthly sale of around Rs 2.5 crores which is what prompted us to study the sales pattern of the medicines in this land of doctors, engineering , medical & MBA students. We could get hold of 2009 medicine sales data from the popular medical store here to carry out a secondary research of a sort and here are few of the findings :
  • Amongst the drug manufacturers , Cipla shows a significantly higher sales. Perhaps a collusion with the local drug stores.
  • There is a high sale of Varaday used for treatment from HIV 1 infection.The maximum sold drugs being: Antibiotics, HIV Drugs and Insulin.
  • The sales of Anti Depressant is highest in the month of November, December and July. These are the months in which students here have their examinations.
  • The top over the counter drug is iPill tab.
  • The medicine sales is not dependent on the discount offered on it.
  • Sales of Immunoglobulin drugs increases in winter season. It is protein enhancer and it shows that people tend to work out more in the winter season.
  • There was a co-relation found between the high sales during the month of December and January of the protein supplements and the medicines treating Plasma Volume Expansion caused due to the intense strenuous exercise. Yes, the guys seem to try to look best before the forthcoming valentine day
Expected this? Does it alarm a ring as to why parents hesitate to send their children to Manipal? Do you still have doubt over this? Read the full report here. This is the image the students passing out from here at some point or the other struggle to break.

To be honest, there is much more than Love, Sex and Dhoka here. The engineers, doctors and MBA grads from here will vouch for the quality of education imparted here. And many of them have done and are doing exceptionally well in their fields. You get what you are promised. Not like those other prominent colleges - say one in top 10 claims a WiFi campus but still takes monthly charges from their students who opt to use this widely advertised service; From Microsoft to Google to Oracle to Samsung , you name any big shot company and it visits the MIT campus. Ask any MBA guy or a CAT aspirant , where lies the most disciplined and rigorous B-School in India?

And yes yes, you need to get your general knowledge fixed if you still think that Manipal lies somewhere in distant north-east corner of India. As a recruiter sitting in any of the big cities in India, if you still claim it's 'far' then check how much time to and from the airport you spent in a Bangalore or a Mumbai or a Delhi where you would prefer a visit anytime anyday stuck in heavy traffic (like it?)- you will take less of the time from the Mangalore Airport with a scenic view to die for. And the railway station is Udupi - Yes the same land of Krishna Temple where your parents would want to drop by anytime you can plan for them. And the same place for whose food you pay a premium to eat in your comfortable cushy zone (Did i say noisy, polluted?). Come here and see the new gen free India whose part you always want to become but cannot as it's not available anywhere else.
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Angry Bird T-Shirt

:)

1 moment. 2 hearts. few words. Lost 4ever.

"Its so hot here" - said the Boy. The girl understood this time around and moved away.

Forever.

"Wherever i am whatever i do , the center of my thoughts revolve around you."

Years later

"Wherever you are whatever you do , may the center of the world's happiness revolve around you."

"You know what , mere cheeks pink ho gaye  :)...teri wajah se...aaj itni garmi thi ..aur tera wala stole is very warm tht's why"

The chick talk , instead of sending to her chick friend , she mailed to one wrong guy by mistake.The guy became her Mr.Right while the existing one faded in his darkness.

"Bahut khaya, peit bhar gaya" She said apparently putting her hand on her stomach. "Achha? Sahi mein? dhikaao" he asked and in mischief started pretending to approach his hand towards her. She sensed it, uttered her typical "(d)hattt" and took a couple of steps back

and got hit by the truck.

PS: The post title is inspired from Facebook Wall status of my friend Subhashis.
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