Is the iPad worth "killing"?

There is an article today in one of India's leading dailies about the famed iPad "killer" from India. It is commendable that the product comes from a startup founded by 6 youngsters with the average age of 24; that all of them barring the MBA are from premier education institutes of India; that they took the bold step into the realm of hardware products which is not India's forte; that their innovative offering "Adam" uses half the battery life as the iPad and probably has the same ratio for the price as well. All excellent stuff.; kudos for the effort and for making India proud.

But after all the fanfare subsides and one really thinks about it, this question does come to mind; Is the iPad really worth killing?

I mean since the day it was launched we have seen numerous tweets, blogs, you-name-its about how it is nothing more than iPhone on steroids, it has no useful function, etc etc. The only saving grace for the iPad is the price range of $500 - $800. Which makes it attractive enough to add the list "things-I-dont-need-but-have-to-buy". But seriously is it worthwhile to put efforts into killing something that is already dead?

GM Diet: Day 4

Today is the day for 6 - 8 bananas and 3 glasses of milk. But that aint happening. A banana is well known to be a whole meal by itself. That got me thinking; I am a vegetarian, therefore surely, this diet is NOT drastically different from what I eat everyday anyway. Add to that the fact that never in my life have I eaten 8 bananas in a single day. It just dint add up and so this was the last day of the diet. I ditched the schedule and got back to my regular routine.

Lessons learnt:

1. Think things thru before you jump onto the wagon :-)

Obervations:

1. By no means do I propose that this diet is entirely ineffective. It perhaps is very helpful for people with the following dietary patterns:

a) Diets high in fat (oil, butter, ghee/clarified butter)

b) Over eaters. People who satisfy the craving rather than the hunger.

c) Possibly diets heavily inclined to meats and completely devoid of vegetables.

2. This might also help those people who have extremely sedentary lifestyles. Veggies and fruits will added minimal calories. So even if they dont lose any weight at least they wont gain any.

3. Lastly even though this will give you an intial boost in weight reduction, it is a tough one to sustain. Therefore use the boost and bring about an essential change in your lifestyle that would get you on your way to your weight loss gain. It needs a patient and sustained effort.

Good luck. Lets see if I can follow observation #3. My current goal is to beat my brother in Kgs lost by the end of march :-)

GM Diet: Day 3

Started the day with a medium sized baked potato for breakfast. Flavour with a little low fat butter, salt and pepper.

Followed that up with some apples and stir fried veggies. Since this was a monday, work helped in keeping my mind of my notional diet. Notional because I was eating everything that I normally do except my daily helping of carbs.

Today I threw in 45 mins of cardio for good measure (about 530 calories as per the treadmill).

Before the workout, I had a weigh in just to boost my morale. I weighed in a kilo (2.2 lbs) lesser than what I had started out with.

So far so good.

GM Diet: Day 2

After a night spent dreaming of vada pav, I woke up to day 2; the only veggies day. Have them raw or cooked as you will. Its a much easier day to get thru, at least for me. But no matter how many veggies you stuff yourself with, nothing can beat the satisfaction of being full that carbs give.

Nothing eventful happened on the day on the nutrition front. No noticeable weight loss either :-)

Tomorrow will be day 3 a mix of veggies and fruit.

GM Diet: Day 1

The first day was a really tough one and possibly the toughest of all the 7 to get through, at least for me. It was only fruits day and thats what made it long and difficult to get through. However, my wife's company and constant encouragement helped me finish half a watermelon, 2 pears, 2 apples, half a papaya and one orange. Doesnt seem like much for a regular fruit eater but for me it was the most herculean task given my dislike for raw natural produce.
It seemed very filling for an hour or two every time I had a serving of fruit, but soon hunger took over again and there was another plate of washed, cut and peeled fruit. Its rather easy to follow a diet if you have a wife who slogs in the kitchen just so that you can palatte the food you most dislike. I must stress that had it not been for my wife, I would have probably stopped the diet in the 7th minute rather than on the 7th day. Kudos to her.
It was a relief to get into bed at the end of the day, which meant I wouldnt have to have any more fruits. It also meant that there were only 6 more days to go and hopefully a first step towards some positive weight loss results.

How soon can you move on?

One morning as you sit in your cube tickling the keys of your keyboard, a security guy comes in and cleans out the cube next to yours. Next comes the the facilities guy, picks up the hardware, loads it on his cart and off he goes. The cube is clean, the guy who sat there jobless and you clueless. Thats pretty much what happened few "normal" days ago. What happened next was worse. There were thoughts of why was he asked to leave,  is it over, are you next, so on and so forth, until finally around 4ish a meeting is called by the higher ups and there is a little relief all around that this round of chopping is over. You escaped it; whether narrowly or not does not matter.

Then the plight of the guy who is no longer your cube neighbour starts to dawn upon you. And as you put yourself in his place, there is an uneasiness in the pit of your stomach and the general sense of depression. The tension before 4 was better than the depression after. Mails from a lot of whos who expressing regrets, ensuring you that this is for the best and asking you to move on. You do move on in the sense that you dont brood or sit with a droopy face and you do continue working, but really is it so easy to move on just yet?

Feeling proud: We'r N-abled !!

Whether we will create 5000 direct and 15000 indirect jobs in the US or not, whether my choice pick of Nuclear ancillary industry stocks do well or not, whether we have a power-outage less future or not, we are well on our way and I am damned proud of it!!!

Yes the N-deal is almost in our pockets and there are  thumping announcements of this news. I can truly say that this is the first time I just felt amazing after reading some really great news about my country first thing in the morning!!

It was just a generally happy and uplifiting feeling and perhaps there are no words to really describe it but I encourage all to share it.

My wife was a little amused by this and asked me how does it impact us if at all. Perhaps an answer to this one in my next post.

Jai Hind!!!