Came to know about this video from a tweet of @avinashkaushik

1 – First Important Lesson – Cleaning Lady

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one:

“What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?”

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?

I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

“Absolutely,” said the professor. “In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say “hello.”

I’ve never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

2 – Second Important Lesson – Pickup in the Rain

One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960’s. the man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man’s door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached..

It read:

“Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. the rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband’s bedside just before he passed away… God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others.”

Sincerely,

Mrs. Nat King Cole.

3 – Third Important Lesson – Always remember those who serve..

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

“How much is an ice cream sundae?” he asked.

“Fifty cents,” replied the waitress.

the little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

“Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?” he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing.

“Thirty-five cents,” she brusquely replied.

the little boy again counted his coins.

“I’ll have the plain ice cream,” he said.

the waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. the boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies..

You see, he couldn’t have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

4 – Fourth Important Lesson. – the obstacle in Our.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping! the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. the purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. the peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

5 – Fifth Important Lesson – Giving When it Counts…

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5 year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. the doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.

Deep breathing and saying, “Yes I’ll do it if it will save her.” As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded.

He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, “Will I start to die right away”.

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

the things we admire in men: kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system.

And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.

~ John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968)

“Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like you do when nobody’s watching.”

via http://divyasharad.blogspot.com/2009/07/5-important-lessons-5-beautiful-stories.html

We the Webrepers

We the Webrepers at Kolkata Bloggers Meet 09

the event went on for 5 hours and believe me we did not realize it even once. Mr. Abhishek Rungta saw his watch at 10pm and said “Tum log 10 baja diya”. the expression said it all.

Most of the people I interacted had one single opinion they had never seen such a mass gathering of web 2.0 people in kolkata ever before and this included people like Abhishek Rungta, Aji Issac Mathew, Arun Agarwal and Vikas Kedia. the best part of the meet was that all the bloggers were interactive. Even when we had a tele conference with Mr. Vikas Kedia which was a little dis-engaging had about 5-6 bloggers going and asking questions which was fantastic.

the presentation by all the speakers was just fantastic. But if you ask about my personal favorite I would go with Aji and Mr. Arun Agarwal.

Aji provided some great stats in his presentation and used the blogs for the participating bloggers which made it even more interesting and Arun Agarwal involved all the listeners so well.

And you know what I won the best Idea award for having an India Internet Summit here in Kolkata. And with all the bloggers promising to share the stage once again for it, I am sure we will do something bigger next time.

Without the support of Mr. Abhishek Rungta this Kolkata Bloggers Meet 2009 would not have been possible. So THANK YOU Mr. Rungta!!

Also thanks to Nabin and his team from CCD, Amit Kejriwal, Prabhanjan Panigrahi, Anand Kedia, Bijay Rungta, Debleena, Ranjan Upadhaya, Shyama Kant, Shirsendu Sengupta.

Here are the links to the pictures and blog posts of Kolkata Bloggers Meet 2009:

Yogesh Goel
Anirban Saha
Kamanashish Roy
Saikat Sengupta
Aji Issac Mathew
Abhishek Rungta
Manoj Jain

Will keep updating it…..

Kolkata Internet Summit: Where all the IT companies or webmaster form Kolkata and other nearby places meet and share there ideas. This will help us to unite and develop the web based industry in this part of India. Are we far behind compared to other cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad?

India Internet Summit: Once we are successful with Kolkata Internet Summit, we can move forward to have India Internet Summit (IIS). What we will do there? Time will say… (this was selected as the best idea in Kolkata Bloggers Meet 2009)

International Webmaster Conference: Why not in Kolkata by 2011?

Guys and Gals its time to Map Kolkata on the Web.

Proposed Date:8th August 2009 | Saturday

Proposed Location: CCD; Sector V; Saltlake City; Kolkata (will be confirmed soon)

Proposed Time: 5 PM onwards

For more details visit http://www.webreps.in/

For me it’s just been over 4 years at Great Media Technologies Pvt. Ltd. And this being my first job I have learnt a lot here. I started as a novice and today I have enough knowledge and working experience to offer free consultation to my friends on how to make their website and market it. the journey had been a great one.

More importantly I have learnt dreaming – dreaming big and working hard to see the dream come true.

And the credit goes to Vikas Kedia. I like his attitude towards work, patience and the way he actively chases dreams. You will hardly find much about him online. He works behind the curtain and successfully runs some of the biggest online communities. Let me tell something about Vikas Kedia.

He was exceptional all throughout his academic career. He got his bachelors degree from Sri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi (One of India’s premier commerce colleges) and he completed his MBA from IIM- Bangalore in the year 2000. Vikas Kedia was amongst the top 5% in his batch of 201 students. He was offered a possible $100,000-a-year job by MMG, a New York based company that he declined.

Why?

He was dreaming about starting his own company and he did it right after passing out from IIM.

Although his first software company did start off well but soon found it in grey waters and had to be closed later. He describes this as the toughest period of this life. He went jobless and at the same time racked up some huge credit card debts.

When going gets tough, tough gets going.

But these events did not deter his determination and soon he found himself a decent job and hence became debt free soon.

He then started a debt based online community which in five years has more 150,000 registered members. Today, his company employs around 200 best and bubbling minds in the industry. And I wish I could talk about the yearly turnover of the company.

He is been our inspiration all the way.

Want to know more about Vikas Kedia? Read these:

Wikipedia; Rediff; Business Line; Wired;