Bumpy Road of a Startup

It's a continuous high and low. We receive an award on one moment, an important client becomes non-responsive on the next. We get a nod from a major client, one of our engineers leaves for a multinational on the next. If you like roller coster ride, bungee jumping, adrenaline rush, horror film or something of that sort, you gotta love the ride on a startup.

No guarantee of a paycheck at the end of the month, you punch your ATM card not to see the account is topped up by an invisible one. You got to plan for your next dollar, but you never know where it is coming from. Usually it comes from an unusual source. Boy! You gotta love this one.

So, how do you survive these? After all surviving is success for a startup, right?

You must know how to dream. Dream of a glorified future on the expense of the bumpy road ahead. That's the entry barrier to this territory. That's why it is not everybody's cup of tea.

Advertisers, please don't insult us

I will refer to two of the advertisements published in the recent dailies.

First one is published on The Daily Star on Oct 26 is by Brac Bank. No doubt it is a leading private bank. A bank respected by many, built an image as a pioneer in SME banking. A modern, tech-savvy bank.

The agency responsible for the ad creative is Bitopi, an affiliate of Leo Burnett.

So, what is the problem here? Nowhere it mentioned how much part of the credit card's annual fee would be donated to green fund. So, if at the end of the year Brac Bank pays altogether tk. 2 to green fund, it can certainly claim, it kept its promise. "Hey, we have just donated 0.000000001% of your card's fee to green fund. Be proud of yourself, and your bank." Neither the ad mentions which green fund it is going to donate to. Maybe Brac Bank will plant a sapling in its MD's house. That's a green fund!

However, the ad clearly conveys a message without a mistake. That the advertiser thinks the audience are a bunch of idiots. They will jump into getting the 'green cards' with a big hope that SOME part of the annual fee would be donated to SOME kind of green fund on SOME day. And believe it, this not coming from an ordinary organization. This is coming from a bank, that deals with numbers as its day job.

Now the other one. Also from a bank. Equally revered. Published on Oct 21 on the first page of The Daily Star.

The ad reads: 

MTB Centre, A green building.

MTB Center is a unique project with each floor attributed to one of the major energy sources such as trees, water, wind, sun and earth; and these components together define the critical balance of sustainability. 

What should I call it? Exploitation of the word Green? Again a bank, that believes in numbers only, did not mention anywhere how the building is energy efficient. Or, how much part of its energy is sourced form alternative or green energy source. In short, how on the world the building is green.

I visited Gulshan to see the building myself. I tried without success to spot any kind of visible solar panels or whatsoever. However, I found a little part of the building is covered with green sticker. Maybe that's how the building is claimed to be Green.

Central Bank's governor a few days back encouraged banks to go green. Look at the responses. I feel like I am a complete idiot. The readers of The Daily Star must be idiots. Prospects and customers of these banks must be idiots.

I am defeated by my 7 year old son

My 7 year old son, Meesam defeated me last week on a video game. Virtua Cop 2. I've never been able to cross all three levels at one go to face the final boss. I first played VC2 in 1999. I've put a few times more hours in this game than he did.  It took Meesam just a month to learn the game and cross all the levels.

Meesam and his sister playing with my Macbook

Is it a sign that he is smarter than I am? Or, am I too dumb not to reach at the end of the game? Or, am I too old (that shouldn't be -- I learned the game while I was 25, now I am 36). Or,  is it that children are just like that?

Should I be proud of Meesam? Or, be ashamed of myself? Or, stay indifferent? Any expert opinion?

I keep telling myself: "Welcome, this is only the beginning :)".

Finland Ranked First and Bangladesh 88th by Newsweek

In the research done by Newsweek on the criteria of health, education, politics and economy – Bangladesh ranked 88th while Finland 1st and USA 11th. Many of us are elated seeing Bangladesh first time ranked in double digit – in whatsoever category, by whatsoever authority. But I am intrigued by some of the comments from the champions. Here is one from some Kalevi supposedly from Finland

One in four people in Finland has to take psychiatric medication just to get through the day. Mood disorders have more than tripled in some population groups during the last decade (this trend is especially noticeable among young adults who have just entered the job market). Finland is also the top fifth most suicidal nation in Europe. But hey, if you want to measure well-being according to such indices as how many cell phones or Internet connections there are per capita, or how many people can read a newspaper or do basic math, then sure, we Finns are the champions of the world. It's just that these supposed indices of well-being do not seem to correlate with happiness in the real world of human beings. In fact, there would rather seem to be a correlation between them and unhappiness.

To really understand the high score of Finland in this and some other studies, you need to know that this is a country that strives to become the perfect living-machine, a society as a machine for efficient living. The general goal is to rationalize every aspect of life, much the same way as labor is rationalized in a McDonald's restaurant, until nothing escapes the standardization and control of the welfare machine. As a result of this pervasive institutionalization (or, indeed, McDonaldization) of Finnish society, life in this country has become increasingly alienating socially. People are generally estranged from their immediate communities, their neighbours and even their own families, and rely on the authorities (experts, professionals) in the most mundane problems of life.

Finnish sociologists conducted a study on people's reactions to school shootings in the U.S. and in Finland, where these “extended suicides” have become increasingly common in recent years. They found to their surprise that while Americans often sought emotional support from their immediate community, their neighbours, colleagues and families, Finns almost never did. What Finns did instead is typical of people living in an advanced welfare society: they sought the advice of the professionals, the doctors, psychiatrists and crisis therapists. When the study was publicized in Finland, many people reacted to it with a kind of scornful superiority. Some said that the results only show what a backward country the United States really is, and how advanced the Finnish welfare society. It did not occur to them that the results indicate something disturbing about their own society.

Finland is, indeed, such an efficient society that we have even eliminated the need for community and normal human relations. We are the perfect living-machine, a society as a machine for efficient living. I seem to be among an increasingly small number of people living in this country who still dare to ask, “What is the real human cost of this coldly rational way of life?”

Finland: the healthiest, most educated, rich and politically sound nation. Photo: Newsweek

Another one from Kraig Watson and liked by Kalevi –

What about enjoyment of life? i live in oslo and would have more fun in a microwave with a metal suit on.

And one more Jacob Matthan –

Is Finland the best country in the world to live in?

That is what a recent Newsweek report said.

It is obvious that none of the Newsweek Team have never lived in Finland!

Finns are the “Masters of Spin”. The country is controlled by an oligarchy of about 50 powerful families (It used to be 5 but the base has widened slightly during the three decades.)

The Oligarchy control the Media. That is the most powerful weapon in the arsenal.

The judiciary, police, bureaucracy, lawyers, and politicians are primarily corrupt. The laws of the country are written to run such a system, so the word corruption does not exist in their little world.

How else can the proportional system of Government exist. In one election it may be a coalition of right and centre, while in the next it may be left and centre, while in the next it could be right and left! the promises made in any election campaign are just words for the masses to consume. the real wheeler dealing occurs in the chambers of power after the election where the poor are sacrificed at the expense of the rich!

The politicians do what the Oligarchy tells them. In the process they throw a few crumbs to the Finnish Public!

The schooling system is a joke in that the students are not permitted to question their teachers. This takes the student to adolescence where the Finnish male is forced into compulsory military service which makes them into zombies. (Exceptions do occur, but they are exceptions!)

To not take part in the army service was considered traitorous till one son of a Finnish sitting President decided he world not join the army. A dilemma but it gave relief to some who were not the zombies of Finland.

The country has been run by a cartel system. There is no maximum retail price law. The Finns are fleeced. The Oligarchy convinced the Finnish Public that just because they paid highest prices, they had the “Highest Standard of Living”. Whereas the Finns just had the “Highest Cost of Living”.

As a result Finns have been the top “Economic Migrants” to every corner of the globe, starting with their neighbour Sweden.

On the other hand Finns do not tolerate migration into Finland, except when it serves their purpose as allowing prostitutes from third world countries to enter freely!

Even the word for migrant - immigrant or emigrant was demonized in Finland!

Every country has its good and bad points and so to Finland. Finland is a good country to live in, but certainly not the BEST! The grass always appears greener on the other side of the fence. The Newsweek team should live in finland for a short while and then they will realise the error of their conclusions.

 So, where on earth people are happy, then?

Bangladesh: Children on Boat.   Photo: Wikimedia

Freakonomics - Review of the Book

I made a quick review of the book Freakonomics by Steven D. Lavitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Well it did not yield me a mundane return, but I think there would be people who might like it anyway.

Freakonomics: Review of the Book

View more presentations from Shaer Hassan.

By the way, do you know who Ted Kaczynski is? He is mentioned at the end of the presentation. You know what? He got a post in his own name in Wikipedia! Must be a very famous guy? Click the link here: Ted Kaczynski.

Color Picker for Mac

I have been using Mac for a couple of years, and am never through with its enigma. Mac has so many gems under its hood!

If you were wondering like me how to get a color picker for Mac, here is the solution.

If you are using Mac OS X, just type DigitalColor Meter on the spotlight. Run the application. Point to any position of the desktop. Press command+shift+h to select the color.

To know the hexadecimal color code, choose 'RGB as Hex value, 8-bit' from the drop down of the application. Whereever you need to put the color code just type the value against R, G and B serially without space (666699 for the blue in above image). Voila!

There are other solutions to this color picker problem. But this is the quick and easiest. Enjoy!

Slow Movement

I found a video promoting slow movement a couple of months back:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html

Quite interesting, if you have moderate internet speed to watch this :).

My take? Europeans can afford the slow thing. We can't. While we, Bangladeshis are inherently slow, we top in corruption, poverty, bureaucracy, procrastination -- last thing we need is to be preached about slowness.

Yes, I know the Europeans... I've seen our CXOs and consultants in GP leave office during the daylight, while we are staying till 10 pm for next day event. For outsourced job, we stay up here at any odd time of the day and night, while they pick the time of their choice for product meeting. They remain unreachable for about a month during Christmas. Some of them are unreachable for almost a couple of months during summer, Easter, or god knows what.

Can we afford that?

If we are unreachable for a fraction of a day, we are labeled as 'unprofessional' . The next day the work and fund move to Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, Argentina or any of the myriad options they have.  

Slowness thing has some merit. But let's not slow down while we live in this dirty, problem ridden, unorganized jungle of homo sapiens. We need to be fast and real fast to make this country a better place.

Now is not the time to slow down. We are at a war -- an economic war, a war to make our country a decent living space. The people who are preaching about slowness, eradication of child labor etc. were really fast when they were at war. And they defeated the slower part of the world time and again. Now that they have a good system, they can afford to be slow. There is this stupid third world who works fast, cheap and stays up to take care of the price of their slowness. 

We, on the other hand, don't even have a system. We shall have to try many things, learn form mistakes with a hope that down the line we will have one. Riding on that we will be able to be slow some day; give time to family, friends -- play golf, switch off cell phone in weekends etc.

I think it's a crime for us if we be slow right now. We are supposed to be the leaders of the nation. We are the creme de la creme of the country. (The point that you are being able to read this post proves that you belong to the super privileged part of the population.) The nation does not need another "slow leader" now.

Japanese are workaholic. They work 16 hours in a day. They are super productive, innovative, fast and professional. Americans work hard, fast and long hours, too (we get quick feedback from them :-)).

So, let's not confuse by choosing the wrong idol. We don't have luxury to be slow, my friends. I mean... look around you!

Who are the heroes of our time?

Entrepreneurs are heroes. They are the value creator. They see opportunities while others see emptiness. They are the engines of today's economy. They are risk takers, the dreamers and the doers.

You agree with it or not, no matter what your mother said about the business people, no matter how high your father talked about the government  service, or however glorified your friend’s job in MNC seems, or how your brother bragged about his life in a developed country, how every children grown in this country with a dream to be a doctor or an engineer; entrepreneurs are the super heroes of a modern country.

They are the seeds, the organizers, the believers, and the challengers.

Good for Bangladesh that it has just started to know that. If it wants to prosper further, it must recognize the heroes and start honoring them every way it can. Citizens should better cherish to be one of them.

Not every person can be or will be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are the smartest, the wisest, the different and the rare breed of a society. You may not end up being one of them, but if you can, rush to be one.

What is there of more fun and rewarding in life than to dream of something, involve a team in your dream, work to materialize that, live to see your dream come true, live to see how life of many transformed positively  because of you, live to see your creation changing the society and transforming the country? And finally when you are not here, your baton is passed, things become larger and greater, and you still are the seed of a great entity. No one can take that away from you.

So, you the mortal and the small one! are you ready to be someone to create immortals — to create entities of limitless size?

If you don’t think you have the guts to be one of them yet; start by honoring them as the super heroes of your time.

This post is dedicated to Syed H. Rayhan, and all the entrepreneurs and wannabe entrepreneurs of Bangladesh.

What do you want?

You don't need to prove anything to anyone but to you.

Wanting the right thing is the most difficult part of the life. Achieving is fairly easy.

Most people fail for pursuing the wrong dream.

Bad Leaders

If good people escape and shy away from leading, any kind of person takes the lead. In general, Bangladesh is full of two kinds of people. Corrupt doers and escapist beholders.

Certification, or Not?

Any kind of certification tries to assure a minimum standard of the certificate holder. 

To get the certificate, you shall have to go through their process. Now, the problem is you can go through their process, get the certificate, without achieving the minimum standard.

How? there are many ways. You can dumbly memorize the stuff and reproduce in the exam, you can cheat, you can read the topic but still hate it and try to forget it after exam. In other words you get the certification without passion or love for the subject; so, eventually you don't relate it to your real/work life. You forget your learning soon and cannot utilize it in your life.

Learning from real life is always long lasting, although the process is slower than learning from knowledge acquired by other people. So, a mix of both of them is a good idea. Certification process in most cases emphasize on learning from documented knowledge, and undervalues learning from real life.

I blatantly dare to say that you can actually get an A in your graduation without learning almost nothing that you can contribute to your life. Well, if you wanted you could both take the learning and get an A, too.

In almost no subject, certificate is the ultimate thing. There are smart certificate holders, and there are dumb certificate holders. And usually the  exceptionally smartest ppl don't hold a certificate. That's because they don't need one, they think that's wastage of time and soon they reach to a level from where they can certify other ppl -- officially or unofficially :). That's why probably they invented the idea of honorary degree. Bill Gates got one from Harvard.

So, why ppl still run for and ask for certification?

Well, this is the next best thing to surely know someone as good or bad.

Not every dropout become Bill Gates.

Right, but not every phd founds Google either.

So, it must be something else, not certification. The X- factor of success is beyond the scope of certification.

Water for a Dead Hero, None for Lives

Every morning one truck full of water is wasted to wash the road and pavement in front of Bangabandhu Museum (Dhanmondi 32 - old).

 

I am sure, had Sheikh Mujibur Rahman been alive, he wouldn't like this squandering while hundreds of thousands of people in many areas in Dhaka are not getting  a drop of running water for months.

My Dream

I dream to build a school like this here in Bangladesh.

Anyone to join hands?

I am frustrated

I am frustrated to know so much I am endowed with and so little I give back.

 

I am probably among the top 5% gifted people in Bangladesh. Probably among the top 10% among the world. Well, that’s what is my guesstimate. But, that’s a scarily huge responsibility!

 

I don’t deserve this if I can’t give back enough. Many of us don’t deserve this.

 

We are the creme de la creme of Bangladesh at the point of building a prosperous country. And still we are, or at least I am yet to fix the goal, determine the duties.

 

Even frustration is not an excuse.

Which Private University is Good for Business Schooling in Bangladesh?

One of friends wanted to admit his ‘near and dear’ one to a private university and asked my suggestion. And I replied as below:

Apart from IBA, DU, JU, KU, NSU, Brac University, IUB, AIUB and East West studying in any other universities is sheer wastage of time, energy and money.

I would grade Presidency, Asian, World, SouthEast, Stamford etc. as 'C' category business schools. There are people who already have a good job and want to buy a certificate to add an MBA degree in their CVs to justify their promotion. The 'C' category degree only makes sense to them.

In the 'C' category universities, it is actually possible to get a degree with good standing without learning anything (figuratively). You get 'suggestions' before exams and you can cheat in your exams.

This does not imply all 'C' category university graduates are incompetent. There are some, who are competent business professionals, but that is not because they studied in those universities. They are good by their own experience and interest to learn.

Those universities don't guarantee any standard at all.

This is my opinion based on my perception. I didn't check all the graduates from all the private universities, but in my career I came across a few. And I am afraid most of the employers share similar perception as I do.

So, ask your near and dear one to aim for East West or better ones.

And if s/he thinks s/he can't do that. Ask her to try something else. Not everyone needs to be business graduate. There is BA in advertising offered in AIUB for example. There are graphics designing, fashion designing, web designing, bank management, personnel management, development studies... offered by many institutions. So many new things are coming and we need more of them. We don't need another dumb 'business graduate' from a C category university. Ask her to be a big fish in a small pond instead.

How Important are References for Getting a Job in Bangladesh?

There is a myth, in Bangladesh you won’t get a job without references.

I strongly disagree with this. Professional qualification and achievement come first, reference is checked at the very end. Everyone has that kind of reference if she is not lying on her CV.

Only reference isn't going to give you a good job.

There are exceptions. For unskilled labor i.e. for very unimportant roles, where anyone can do the job and not much is expected from the position - reference play an important role. Entry level govt. job, clerical job in banks, entry level programmer maybe who is expected to do coding without any tentative succession plan in place - are this kind of jobs.

It's very simple. If I have a company of my own, I won't hire my brother in the position of Business Development Manager or  CTO if he doesn't have any experience or track record of success. Business needs success, and I will only hire someone who has the most probability to bring me that.

Well, If my aunt request me a lot, I will probably consider hiring my cousin as an Assistant Administrative

Officer. Low risk, low expectation and low pay, too. 

So, if you want to break the vicious circle of references, be a high achiever, be visible. You can do that right from your own position. Internet, for example, is a wonderful tool to make yourself visible in the corporate radar. Make your own reference.

Recently one of my colleagues got a high paying job recently. The employer found him in the internet; read his blog. There are numerous examples of this kind.

I have a hypothesis. After five years, say from 2015 the employers will not ask for your CV, they will ask for relevant URLs. URLs of your LinkedIn address, blog address, published CV, published projects, contribution to the communities, personal websites etc. Employers will search on google to check your background. If you are not visible in www, you are nobody.

Sill a hypothesis, though :)

P.S.: Last 12 years, I worked for four companies of varying sizes ranged from 17 persons to 5000. References didn't work for me.

Passion Versus Patience

Love at the first sight. Propose your girl, by telling that you love her. Feel that you can give your life for her. Keep awake a night of a year for something you care, for someone like your offspring, fiends, or for the almighty creator (on Shab-e-Qadr, if you are Muslim, for example). Do great in your class or your profession in the first few months of your joining when you really need to prove yourself. All these are great. You really need to have passion inside you. So, they are great. Are they?

What about dedicate love and care of your whole life for someone? Endure and enjoy seeing the same face everyday when you wake up and every night when you go to sleep. Spend your precious time, offer your helping hands and brighten her day with your smile on each day of her life. Offer prayer 5 times a day without any failure, for your whole life. Be persistent with your integrity, hard work and sincerity for each day of your long career. What do you call them? Patience? endurance? Consistence? Perseverance? Are they great?

So, which one is great? Which one is greater? Passion or patience? Charisma or persistent sincerity? One time star performer or regular consistent player?

 

Success needs discipline, perseverance and focus. Unforgiving focus in good time and bad time, in easy days and hard days. And sacrifice everything else. If you don’t practice those in you life, don’t expect success. You really need to love the game, play good, and play as many games as it is possible for a human being, to be a Sachin Tendulkar in cricket.

I think passion is common, patience is rare. You need both to be successful, but second one is the most cherished one among two, and deciding factor for most as well.

Beautiful Life

A rather inspiring video from bdipo. For those who don’t know about bdipo, it is a site to help people with IPO application. They would fill up your forms for you, and give you an interface to search IPO lottery results. There could be more, I don’t know yet.

Good SaaS model apparently.

Why Companies Win in 21st Century?

Not a big deal, but this presentation gave me a job!

Why Companies Win

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

This is from Steve Jobs, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the world. I can’t control my temptation to affix it to my blog.

Spam in the Name of Allah!

I got an email to one of my group adds:

Send these 5 names to 11 muslims, believe me ur biggest problem will be solved Insha Allah.
Ya ALLAH
Ya KARIM
Ya AWWAL
Ya AAKH ER
Ya MUJEEB
Don't delete it. Try it even if u don't believe it.

Hmmm, I usually ignore this kind of messages. Or, if I know the sender personally, I dare to send him/her a reply warning him not to contribute in spamming.

Shamim from 38D batch of IBA posted a nice reply. I liked it so much that I couldn’t resist to share it to my blog:

Before forwarding this type of mail please think about some very basic things.

1. What is the reference of this speech. Is it supported by Quran or Hadith?

2. The Names of Allah is no doubt very good. But this way "5 names to 11 muslims", from where one has found this number?

3. "your biggest problem will be solved" encourages to use the names of Allah for the benefit of dunia, not for akherat.

4. You are assuring by "believe me". How can you assure that?

I suppose this is one type of Fitna. We usually receive this type of mail in several group mails also.

There are some assurances of financial improvement, official promotion, problem solving etc. So one with little knowledge about Islam sent the message to 11 muslims and didn't get any problem solved can make an ill comment to the name of Allah and lose his Iman easily.

Before circulate any mail relating Islam please be sure that it is supported by Quran or Hadith or both. because the responsibility imposes upon you.

May Allah help us to prevent ourselves from any Fitna.

 

I think this explains a lot.

Politicians are Bad

On the other day one of my relatives was saying our politicians are this, our politicians are that. He was nagging about incompetency of our politicians. Well, that’s not something new. That’s the usual and most favorite time pass of Bangladeshis.

In a BBC Songlap Motia Chowdhury quoted “A country gets the leader it deserves.” Truly said. Similar promise is made by Allah. In hadith it is mentioned, if a Muslim nation does not kayem salaat, Allah will provide tyrant leader for that nation. Well, what is the logical relationship between salaat and leadership – that’s another story.

If you think you would be a better politician, why don’t you run for one? If you are chicken enough not to do so, please keep your sorry mouth shut. Focus to some productive work.

You can’t probably make a difference to the whole nation, but you can for sure to a couple of persons’ lives or to families.

Ask not what Bangladesh has done for you, ask what you have done for Bangladesh (adaptation from JFK).

Should Software Engineers Read?

Software engineers should read, no matter companies give them special time slot for reading or not. Companies take only 8 to 10 hours of a day. What about rest hours? A good engineer reads everyday, one to two hours at least. 4/5 hours in the weekend. You don't have to go far, we have many examples of that kind of SE right here in Bangladesh.

I think SE is a profession which is more like an artist, a musician, a writer or a doctor. To be a good professional of these kinds one need to merge his/her hobby and work. If you are not that passionate or committed, don't nag by saying your company doesn't allow you time for R&D. Go and find some other job for living. Be an accountant for example. Accounting practice is almost same for last 50 years. In IT, if you are out of touch for a year, you are an alien.

IT industry in BD is not yet in R&D mode. We are still playing at the lower end of the value chain. Whose primary responsibilities is it to promote ourselves to higher value chain? Businessmen? Not really.
IT industry is always dominated by geeks. And it is engineers’ primary responsibility to bring in innovation, learn high value job and gradually create a situation where R&D becomes part of the company’s job.

So, if your project manager is mean enough not to allow you reading tech stuff when you are free, do it at home. Learn and implement some interesting things in your work and show your manager how your learning helped the company to yield customer satisfaction or save time of the developers. Maybe your manager will change mind.

Google releases Buzz

One of my friends wished Buzz becomes another Facebook.

I don't think it's gonna be something near to Facebook. Both Windows Live and Yahoo tried this, without much buzz in fact :).

The future lies in somewhere else; interoperability of social networking and IM. That means no matter what platform you are in (Facebook, Buzz, Twitter, Live, Yahoo)... everyone sees everyone. For example, being a Buzz user you should be able to add your friends in Facebook, without you ever signing up for Facebook.

I mean if a gmail user can send an email to yahoo mail users, why can't a Facebook status update reach a Live user (if both agree to see each other)?

That's something we deserve and should demand for, don't we?

Welcome 2010

Good bye 2009 and welcome 2010.

Where to start a promising and exciting year, other than right from the wild nature? To rejuvenate, to educate and to recharge ourselves with energy and promise we went back to the nature this January.

Lawachara is a national reserve forest located in Sreemangal, which is also famous for the highest rainfall, orange orchard, export quality tea, indigenous people like Manipuri and Khasia, and the natural reserved lake - Baikka in the vicinity.

We started our journey early in the morning.

The tea garden was fabulous.

The landscape was breath-taking …

Not quite was the navigation through it.

But there were hands to help

and little things that made us laugh.

The woods were dark and deep

and dangerous species lurking around,

but we had miles to go before we sleep.

As we knew 2010 is a year to fly

on the wings of our weaved dream.

[We took loads of pics visit our Facebook Fanpage to see more.]

She is only 2 years and 8 months, and I put her in school!

Is it too early to put one in school?

She is always eager to go to school, as sharp as any other kid of twenty first century, and don’t have much environment learn at home. So, I put her in school this January. Not very sure if I took a right decision though. But I am trying to do what I think is best for my kid. Hope, she will forgive me, if I am wrong.