Pondicherry Trip: "Give Time a Break"

View all

Get your own

Pondicherry: Trip Log 

Members: Mukul, Sushil, Varun & “Raja Hindustani” (the auto-driver)

Start time: 01:45 AM, Tuesday, 23^rd June, 2009

End time: 07:15 PM Tuesday, 23^rd June, 2009

Total travel: 200 Km

Total trip in city: 40 KM (auto), 4 KM (walk)

Total expense: 2500 INR (approx) 

What went great: “Raja Hindustani” – the auto-driver. He showed us the full Pondicherry with full warmth.

- Passing night @bench – awesome adventure experience

- Covered everything on low budget in Pondicherry

- No hotel-checkin done

What went wrong:

- Time – Reached Pondi at around 3:45 AM without any pre-plans

- High price cab booking – Booked a taxi on very high rate from Manamai to Pondi (1600 INR)

Total duration: 1 days

Going: Mahabalipuram – Great Lakes - Pondicherry

Coming: Pondicherry – Great Lakes

Weather Conditions: Very hot/Humid

Vehicle: Car, Auto, Bus

After a long time...I am back to back-packing mode. It was slightly strenuous for my leg which is still recovering after accident. But still it was quiet a good exercise and check before getting into trekking trails.

Mukul and I were planning to go to Pondi after exam on Monday but somehow due to sleep deprivation because of exam lot of “promisers” did not turn up and even we cancelled our program with a poor group strength.

Went to Mahabalipuram in evening (5 guys), took few “bottles” and reached to the Mahab beach. Had the gala-time there. While coming back to Great Lakes, Sushil who was in FULL MOOD after having the “Som-Ras” declared that he’s not going to college instead we will all go to Pondi. He was sponsoring it and we will be the organizers. What a TREAT?

We all booked a cab on an extravagant rates, on which no one would have ever gone to Pondi. Finally, an “Ambassador”, that too non-AC came to Great Lakes gates (At least should have given the AC car on such a price…huh no value additions). I hurriedly put my (or rather Bharat’s camera, which I am not giving him back shamelessly…LOLzzz) cam in a bag, also took sunscreen, goggles, phone-charger and few first-aid medicines.

Finally at 1:45 AM we 3 (sushil, Mukul, Varun) were talking to air and sleeping “non-sensely”.  Driver asked me where to drop us, I told him on beach. :D

Reached at around 3:45 AM to Pondi @Prominade beach. There was “Le Cafe” – 24 hrs coffee shop nearby. We went there but oops there was nothing in the café till 4:30 AM. What a 24 hrs café?

Anyways we went to a 24 hrs tea shop nearby (India is still a bigger service provider than those western services, there was no board on tea-shop about 24 hrs service but still it was giving service more than it might be promising. After tea-session, we returned back to beach and quickly slept on the benches on beach near Le Cafe. Thanks to Pondi Government. It was around 5:00 AM by then.  By the time, Nupur’s and Sandeep’s group was there in Le Café. I took a quick stroll at the place keeping Sushil on bench. Took some pics with Mukul and alone. The place where we were is called a Promenade Beach.

Promenade beach 

The 1.5 km long promenade running along the beach is the pride of puducherry. There one can relax or take a stroll at any time of the day. On the sea front are several land marks. The War memorial cold and dispassionate throbbing the memory of last dreams, the statue of Joan of Arc blazing an inspiration, the heritage town hall, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi standing tall, Dupleix statue, old light house, the remains of the old pier, the old customs house, speak the splendor of the by gone era. The well furnished tourist information centre is situated in esthetically heritage building facing the sea to cater to the need of visiting tourists.

I took few pics of the place and again slept on my bench ;D. People, dogs and crows were all around us. Even then, the hangover on all 3 of us was keeping us in full confidence for lying there….LOLz..

At 8:30 the sun became unbearable to me and I asked both guys to make next plans. Sushil was in big time difficult mood and wanted to take more rest. We decided that He will take a room in hotel while we both guys will explore Pondi.

Pondicherry Tourism office is on the Promenade beach. I enquired there and came to know that bus starts at 9:30 AM. We freshened up ourselves in the restrooms in tourism office. I must say that toilets were really clean and well maintained. Generally we don’t expect such things in govt. Then we started searching for a restaurant for breakfast. Sushil in the meantime started searching for Hotel to sleep. Oopps…Hotel rooms were too expensive…none less than 1500/day…Sushil finally gave up the idea to take a room…We made a big mockery out of him. Bechara!!!

After breakfast, reached back to Tourism office and found 3 giggling south Indian girls on reception. Hmmm.. .govt is playing smart here. The ticket for local trip was of 250 INR and bus starts from there only if there are 10 people. We waited for 7 more people to come but no body appeared. Disappointed and cribbing in front of those girls who were still giggling…huh…we came out after waiting there for 1 hour. As soon as we came out, a autowala came and finally at 400 INR, he decided to show us the Pondi. The auto driver name was – “Raja Hindustani”. He knew Hindi and  English very well and boasted about roaming whole of the India in an auto. During that time we never knew that was the best decision we took after coming in Pondi. J

10: 15 AM - The puducherry Museum

Reached to Puducherry museum where lot of collection from Chola dynasty and others have been kept. I generally like museums and took a lot more time to explore and kept both guys waiting for me.

The puducherry Museum is located on Saint Louis street and is open on all days except Mondays and national holidays between 1000-1700 hrs. The museum is located in the former Law Building. The museum has a collection of rare bronzes and stone sculptures from the Pallava and Chola dynasties and artifacts excavated from Arikamedu (an ancient port just 7 kms. from city that had trade links with the Roman empires).

 

     The Foyer and Courtyard have various stone statues and a fossilized tree trunk.

 

     On the ground floor, the major attraction is the central space with 3 curious transport mechanisms - a coach, a palanquin (sedan chair) and a pousse-pousse (an earlier version of the rickshaw) which required two attendants, one to steer and one to push.

 

     The bronze gallery displays the images of gods and goddesses together with a wide collection of temple lamps; used across different dynasties down the centuries.

 

     Pre-Christian relics which you will find here, such as remnants of Greek and Roman jars, pieces from the Tsung Periods in China and beads made from glass and precious stones were dug out from the Arikamedu site, just south of puducherry.

     The museum also has a Geology room, a shell and fossil room and a collection of handicrafts, coins, church relics and French furniture.

10:45 AM - Manakula Vinayagar Koil

The Raja Hindustani took us to  Manakula Vinayagar Koil temple. There is an elephant called Lakshmi outside who blesses if you put coin in his/her trunk. Somehow I managed to get the photo clicked. I was little bit afraid but later felt too happy to get the pic.

     This temple is more than 300 years old and is dedicated to Ganesha. It has a golden spire and walls portraying forty different forms of Ganesha. The temple also has a smaller shrine dedicated to Lord Murugan, who is Ganesha’s younger brother. Over 5000 devotees flock to this site everyday. The temple compound also plays host to ‘Lakshmi’, the temple elephant, who uses her trunk to dispense blessings and to collect coins from the devotees.

11:15 AM - Shani Temple

Later we have been taken to a very new temple of “Shani Dev” coming up near Pondi. The temple does not show up in Pondi tourism but it was Raja Hindustani’s idea to show the temple to us. The temple contains 9 planets Gods with Sun in between. The temple is very new but very amazing. Truly it was worth watching to see the temple. 

12:00 PM  - Auroville

Reached to Aurovile at 12:00. Raja Hindustani told that the place is mainly meant for foreigners and Indians are less inviting to participate in Auroville. We had a lot of fun talking about Auroville. On entering, we have been shown a video about Auroville. Later, we started out “trek” to Golden Gobe which was around 2 km away from gate. Golden globe remain open for public only upto 1:00 PM. We  rushed for the place as it was already 12:30. Too hot, peak hour of heat. This small trek seriously drained out everything out of all of us. Thanks to Mukul who kept on motivating us to walk fast and reach before time. Finally we reached to Golden Globe and took few pics there. 

 Auroville - or the ‘City of Dawn ’ - was conceived as a place of research into the ideal of human unity by the Mother, the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo. The idea is to build a futuristic city where people of goodwill can live together in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. Auroville came into existence in 1968. Its Charter says, “To live in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness”, and describes it as “belonging to nobody in particular, but to humanity as a whole”; as a place “of constant progress”; and as “a bridge between the past and the future.”

     Located around 8 kms north-west of Puducherry, Auroville was designed by the French architect Roger Anger. Around 2,000 people live there in settlements with names like Grace, Fraternity, Fertile, Certitude and Transformation. Nearly two-thirds of the residents are non-Indians.

 

     Architecturally speaking the buildings are a combination of modern western and traditional Indian elements, set in a rural landscape of deep red earth and widespread forestation, with narrow earth roads linking the settlements. The residents are involved in agriculture, administration, commerce and handicrafts, alternative technology, education, healthcare and development projects, the latter including AuroRE Systems, an international award winning unit involved in solar photovoltaic and thermal systems.

     The central Matrimandir, which is not a temple but a place for individual silent concentration, is set in an area of 62 acres at the centre of the emerging township, and is seen as “a symbol of the Divine’s answer to man’s aspiration for perfection. Union with the Divine manifesting in a progressive human unity.”

     During the inauguration ceremony of Auroville on 28th February 1968 , soil from 124 countries was placed in a lotus-shaped urn and mixed to symbolize universal oneness. This urn is today sited at the centre of an Amphitheatre in the Matrimandir Gardens . The Matrimandir’s 12-sided white marble Inner Chamber has a 70 cms diameter optical-quality glass globe at its centre, onto which a shaft of sunlight is focused by way of a roof-mounted heliostat. The light falling on the globe acts as a focal aid to concentration.

     The Auroville Visitors Centre (Ph: 0413 – 2622239) is located near Bharat Nivas, the Indian national pavilion in Auroville’s International Zone, and is open from 0930 to 1730 hrs every day. This Centre has a permanent exhibition on the history and philosophy of the project, an Information Service offering books, brochures and leaflets on various aspects of Auroville, three boutiques, a bookshop, and a cafeteria providing refreshments and international cuisine. Introductory videos on the township and the Matrimandir can be seen at the Centre by request.

While coming back we took few pics at Big Banyan tree which is the main centre of whole of the Auroville estate. I managed to take few more pic here and there while both guys were waiting for me outside. :D

Badly exhausted due to 4+ km of “sprint”. We were truly hungry and had our lunch at a decent restaurant near to Pondi Beach.

 3:00 PM Paradise Beach :

After dinner to went to Pondi sand beach, and passed a serene time there for around 30 min

    

Located 8 kms. from the town, along the Cuddalore Main Road this beach can be accessed from the Chunnambar Resort. Flanked by a quiet flowing creek on one side, the beach can only be accessed by boat

3:15 PM  - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Reached to Aurobindo Ashram and took blessing from at Samadhi.

The Sri Aurobindo Ashram located on rue de la Marine, is one of the most well known and wealthiest ashrams in India, with devotees from India and all over the world flocking to it for spiritual salvation. Its spiritual tenets represent a synthesis of yoga and modern science. It is open to the public daily between 08-1200 hrs and 1400-1800 hrs. Children below 3 years of age are not allowed into the ashram and photography is allowed only with permission of the ashram authorities.

 

     The Ashram was set up in 1926 by Sri Aurobindo Ghose, one of India’s greatest philosopher-poets, who originally came to Pondy to escape persecution by the British. It was after arriving in puducherry, that he was drawn into the spiritual realm and discovered the power of yoga. His philosophy deeply rooted in yoga and his writings inspired a number of followers.

 

     One of them was a Parisian mystic, painter and musician called Mirra Alfassa, who was so inspired by his philosophy that she stayed on in puducherry and was instrumental in establishment of the ashram. After Aurobindo’s death in 1950, the running of the Ashram was entrusted to his chief disciple and companion, Mirra Alfassa, (also known as ‘The Mother’). The idea of Auroville or the “City of Down” was conceived by ‘The Mother’. She died in 1973 at the age of 93.

 

     The ashram’s influence can be felt in most of puducherry. The main ashram building is where the mortal remains of Aurobindo and the Mother are kept. Their ‘Samadhi’ or mausoleum, which is generally surrounded by supplicating devotees, is in the central courtyard under a frangipani tree and is covered daily with flowers.

     Some of the ashram’s facilities like the Library and the Main Building (during collective meditation) can be accessed, only after obtaining a gate pass from the Bureau Central or some of the Ashram Guest Houses.

3:40 PM - Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Reached to the beautiful Church.

Located on Subbayah Salai, this white and brown neo-gothic church is one of Pondy’s finest Catholic churches. It was built by French missionaries in the 1700’s in a contrasting Neo-Gothic manner, with towers flanking a central gable and stained glass windows on the side. The church has an imposing entrance and the beautiful stained glass panels depict incidents from Jesus Christ’s life. Further along the southern boulevard is the cemetery which has some interesting tombs with ornate marble decorations.

We were completely exhausted and asked Raja Hindustani to take us to Liquor shop to buy some syrup  for us back to college. Raja Hindustani in auto itself showed us few more monuments most of us which were on beach road and we already had a glimpse of them in early morning. Simply putting the description as got from tourism website.


Children’s Park & Dupleix Statue

   It is a seaside park with a statue of a Dupleix. Marquis Joseph Francois Dupleix was an integral part of puducherry’s colonial past. He was the governor of puducherry between 1742 and 1754. The 2.88 m tall statue of Dupleix stands at the southern end of the park. Even though Dupleix left puducherry in 1754, French recognition of his contribution came only in 1870, with the commissioning of two statues-one in puducherry and the other in France.

The Mairie

   Located on Goubert Avenue, this charming white building, facing the sea almost transports you to France. Use your imagination a little and you could very well be on a French sea side resort. Today it houses the offices of the puducherry Municipality.      

Le Café
It was once the port office when the railway ran along Beach Road from the South Boulevard to the old 240 meters iron pier. A cyclone in 1952 largely destroyed the pier whose remains can still be seen poking out of the water.

Gandhi Statue  

This is a highlight of puducherry. A four-meter statue of Mahatma Gandhi is surrounded by eight magnificent granite pillars, which were supposedly brought from Gingee, a fort some 70 Kms. from puducherry.

French War Memorial
The French War Memorial on Goubert Avenue is solemn reminder of those brave soldiers who laid down their lives, for their country during the First World War. Every year on the 14th July (Bastille Day) the memorial is beautifully illuminated and homage is paid to those brave martyrs.

19th Century Light House

This light house was used for the first time on July 1st 1836 and continued to be used upto the year 1979. This now- abandoned lighthouse stands on the edge of the sea.

Daaroo time

Finally came the most important part. Buying “Daroo”. Pondicherry is among the few of the places in India where you get duty free liquor. Raja Hindustani took us to a good liquor showroom from where we bought 4 Half, 4 quarter of Signature, 4 King fisher can. Gave one beer can to Raja and he took us back to beach. We sat on beach and had a gala time with beer. We rolled our cans in newspaper so as to keep public eye away from us. I think it was the best part of whole of the Pondi trip. Sitting on rocks, at beach, waves splashing water on you with a beer in your hand. J

After passing a leisure time at beach we packed our bags finally to go back to college. Asked Raja to drop us at bus stand. Had few pics with him to keep the moments with him memorable.  At 5:00 PM we caught the bus for Chennai. By 7:15 PM we were back to college. Amazing, unforgettable trip.

Truly, as Pondicherry tourism says – “Give time a break”. We gave a full break to our “time” J

References of visiting places: http://tourism.pondicherry.gov.in

Don't Jump to the Conclusions too Early (Dedicated to Dr Rakesh Singh)

The write-up is dedicated to Dr Rakesh Singh - the Economics professor of Term-1 at Great Lakes. The first lecture was just an introoduction session where he wanted to know about the expectation of MBA crowd. I thought the lectures will be great as no one else has dedicated his lecture in this way.
For next few lecture I did full pre-reads and expected that I would learn a lot more from the lecture but utter dismay happened when he gave big assignments, taught a little in class and asked questions when people were not even much aware of the financial terms. Probably. his expectation were too high. My interest in economics was going down day by day. Finally when I was required to give the feedback where I gave the worst feedback, as I didn't add much of a value to my perspective of economics. 
Point to be noted - there were 3 more lectures remaining when I gave my feedback. Those 3 lectures were the total transformation. In these 3 lecture, Dr Rakesh Singh taught so well that it changed my total perception about him. Whatever he taught was so crystal clear and thought provoking that I read and googled to know more about subjects he taught in the lecture. He didn't tell just the concepts but he taught the ideas, real application, practical utility of economics which were truly necessary for creating interest and boggle the mind. 
Finally the last lecture - "The Story of India (Economical)" was truly captivating. The way he narrated the story of India was highly touching and emotional for me. I felt like as if I am really present when the Indian story was getting written. The way he connected geo, political, cultural, social, technological, global perspectives to the economics of India and also the way he compared Indian economy to other economies of the world was just so real and absorbing. Sometimes, I felt why the hell I am following the same mundane things what everyone is doing. There is so much to do for India, for our people, for our villages. The place called "India" as well as "Bharat" (as Dr Rakesh Singh divided India into urban and rural respectively) is so much of full of opportunities yet we are not able to utilize them. I may never forget this session.The lecture was full of commitment, honesty of thoughts and fact/figures. 
Probably I have got interest in economics too. Yesterday I read an article in Economic Times about "India WPI going negative". However I forgot WPI when it was taught initially (because of no interest creation that time) but just because of the getting a passion to know about India from depth. I googled and tried to understand all economical terms (WPI too) of the article and finally interpreted it well. Truly, it's just the passion that drives not the lectures.


Hats off to you, Sir. I think you exceeded our "expectations" and I am your ardent FAN from now onwards. I apologize for coming to conclusion and perception about you so early. It's the learning for me. Hope you will 
forgive. Thankfully, I have changed your old feedback with a new feedback and saved myself from a big blunder. :)


PS: 

Dr Rakesh Singh's blog (hope people may be interested)
Books by Dr. Rakesh Singh 

My 2 Minutes Presentation

2 min | Solo speaker | One speech | Patriots | NO PowerPoint :(
Today was my first solo presentation at Great Lakes. It was for Business Communication where I was required to speak for 2 minutes in front of the whole class on any topic. I am not a good speaker and my mind processor is too slow in words-generation on stage that even 2 minutes looks to be a life to complete...i hope stage fearing people must be knowing what i am talking about...probably that's the reason that I write blog instead of speaking publicly...LOLzzzz...anyways hope my public speaking fear will be removed, which will be one of the takeaways of my MBA from Great Lakes...(so sure :D).

Choosing a relevant topic was truly difficult task. The aim was that the topic should be able to interest people, people should have fun and most importantly they should remember the speech forever. 
I short listed few of the topics like: 
Experiences kind: Trekking, Himalayan Expedition, Biking, Entrepreneurial, Blogging
Informative kind: RTI, YHAI, 
Demonstrative: CPR

Unfortunately, I didn't want to tell about my trekking, biking, blogging, entrepreneurial experience to MBA junta because experience not delivered properly may become a failure. Moreover, people already told their hell lot of experience. 

Informative was ok but people don't show much interest in information after IT revolution because they have google which is much smarter than me.


I still remember my training of CPR (first aid technique) in 2005 in MindTree Consulting where the speech for training was highly hypnotizing. The speech was so effective and well delivered that even now I remember CPR and its concept. Finally I targeted the "new segment" (as in marketing :D),i.e. the demonstrative style of presentation which looked to be unique to me. I chose CPR as my topic and googled each and everything  about it. The idea was to have a Doll with me on which I would be showing CPR technique.
   
How to do CPR?


Downloaded material 1 day before and in the evening before the day of presentation made a draft structure of the presentation. Went to Bharat to present it while it was in draft version. The ideas were not well connected during that time, but even then Bharat understood the overall presentation and gave his invaluable feedbacks. He told me to structure it properly and get ideas in a better flow. In night i collected the Krithika's Doll from Akansha. 

During night, drafted a final version of my speech and this time victimized Mohit to listen me, who came for tea-session at 2 AM. Practiced it 3-4 times at around 3:00 AM. (Insomniatic, Biological cycle distrubances). Before going for the class, practiced it 4-5 times alone and once in front of Bharat again who was highly impressed with a phenomenol improvement in my speech. He gave few more tips which i kept in mind. It looks to be a good preparation overall.


The final Show

Finally in class, before getting my number, I don't know, suddenly my heart strted beating badly...Stage Fear was creeping inside me again...huh!!! My turn came, I reached on stage, class laughed, murmured because of doll with me. 




Took the mic and tried to anchor it, but damn...mic just din't want to fit inside my pocket...tension building up...finally it tucked somewhere...huh..
Started my presentation as expected...took it till the end with Sara (my doll's name) smoothly...the practiced work...but in the end of my speech I just forgot the  punch line which has said by Albert Einstein...phew...what the heck...why just the last line...I already told junta - "As Einstein has righly said - "....mow what i dont remember whot he said...I ultimately blabbered something...which only few people understood and they told it was right... :)...sheer Serendipity...LOLzzz

Overall, I think presentation was received well from audience. In fact Aravind was so excited that he started singing - Sara Sara (name of my doll)...LOLzzz...other guys were amused by my demo (or rather say inappropriate actions), however few ladies felt offended without any reason. The purpose to keep presentation interesting and unforgettable has been achieved. People are still talking about "Sara" - the doll...hope such fun will keep going on...:)


Thanks to the good preparation and help by my friends...hope to perform same in future too...complimenting and patting back myself as we generally do before going for any Himalayan expedition -- "Sabash, Sabash, Sabash". (Ask me if u want to know how we do...it's fun)



Coming to most important part for me


Class Feedback:
Positives: Great Idea (Yes, that was, as in Marketing we say - "Differentiation"), Confident (Ooooo it's a great news...i was feeling so nervous inside...thankfully it never came outside...), Informative, Well prepared, Demo was a great show

Delta (I don't assume that there is anything negative in a feedback): Bad closing (Forgot the punch line in the end...so bad :( ), Left side faced only (oh dint thought about it), Pronunciation (few words I said in my Desi language...Lolzzz...need to improve truly), making the Doll as secretary does not fit in such a serios topic (hmmm...point taken), the speech was becoming vulgar at times (mmm not sure if I tried to enact any vulgarity...but may be CPR's actions by me looked like that...oops people were thinking about Smooch, Intercourse...what a point...now i think i am totally successful...LOLzzzz)



Special thanks to Bharat (consultant), Mohit (influencer), Akansha (doll deliverer), Krithika(doll owner), Aravind (for singing Sara) and all audience for valuable feedback.



Finally  putting the presentation if it may be useful for someone:

Hello friends this is varun  and meet my beautiful secretary - Sara. Together we will demonstrate ABCs of CPR.

Sara can you please lay down.

CPR means Cardio Vascular Pulmonary Resuscitation.  It’s life saving technique in which you can help a person who has stopped breathing, and whose heart may have stopped beating. Thousands of precious lives are lost every year due to cardiac arrests, electrocution, accidents.  Many of them could be saved just by giving CPR at right time.

I will come to demonstration part which is as simple as ABC in which A is Airway, B is Breathing, C is Circulation. So, Sara, the victim have got cardiac arrest and she is unconscious.

A - AIRWAY

·         Shake victim gently and shout "are you okay?" (use doll)

·         If no response, call emergency medical system -112 or 101 then,

·         Tilt forehead back and lift chin carefully to open victims' airway (show on self)

B - BREATHING

·         Look, listen, and feel for breathing (make expressions for all)

·         Then we will give the “Kiss of Life”. (hand gesture for quotes)

·         If not breathing, pinch victim's nose closed and give 2 full breaths into victim's mouth (show one breathing demo)

·         Make sure that the chest rise while giving the breaths.

C - CIRCULATION

·         Check pulse (use Doll)

·         If there is no pulse, begin chest compressions.

·         For it hold your hands like this (show the crossed hand),

·         Keep elbows straight (show straight elbows)

·         Put hand on sternum which is nothing but the bone where all your rib bones converge (tell thru rib and chest)

·         Depress sternum 1.5 to 2 inches. (while demo)

·         Perform 15 compressions to every 2 breaths.

·         2 compressions per second.

·         check for return of pulse every minute.

When performing CPR, keep in mind that the person you are working on is clinically dead: You cannot make the situation any worse.

Nothing could be great than saving someone by giving the kiss of life.

Albert Einstein has said: “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”

Thank you!!!

Sara,  wake up…Sara…(lighter note)

END of speech!!!

-----------------------------

The 10 20 30 rule of PowerPoint

I like the 10/20/30 principle of PowerPoint by Guy Kawasaki. Read on...

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Source:

http://www.presentationhelper.co.uk/10-20-30-rule-powerpoint.htm

Guy Kawasaki is a venture capitalist. He listens to hundreds of people trying to pitch potential products to him. In this article Guy evangelises a technique to keep all presentations to less than 10 slides and no more than 20 minutes and a font size of at least 30.
I suffer from something called Ménière’s disease—don’t worry, you cannot get it from reading my blog. The symptoms of Ménière’s include hearing loss, tinnitus (a constant ringing sound), and vertigo. There are many medical theories about its cause: too much salt, caffeine, or alcohol in one’s diet, too much stress, and allergies. Thus, I’ve worked to control all these factors.
However, I have another theory. As a venture capitalist, I have to listen to hundreds of entrepreneurs pitch their companies. Most of these pitches are crap: sixty slides about a “patent pending”, “first mover advantage”, “all we have to do is get 1% of the people in China to buy our product” startup. These pitches are so lousy that I’m losing my hearing, there’s a constant ringing in my ear, and every once in a while the world starts spinning.
Before there is an epidemic of Ménière’s in the venture capital community, I am trying to evangelise the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.
Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. (The only difference between you and a venture capitalist is that he is getting paid to gamble with someone else’s money). If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business. The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:

1. Problem
2. Your solution
3. Business model
4. Underlying magic/technology
5. Marketing and sales
6. Competition
7. Team
8. Projections and milestones
9. Status and timeline
10. Summary and call to action

You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.
The majority of the presentations that I see have text in a ten point font. As much text as possible is jammed into the slide, and then the presenter reads it. However, as soon as the audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead of you because it can read faster than you can speak. The result is that you and the audience are out of synch.
The reason people use a small font is twofold: first, they don’t know their material well enough; second, they think that more text is more convincing. Total bozosity. Force yourself to use no font smaller than thirty points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well. If “thirty points” is too dogmatic, the I offer you an algorithm: find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That’s your optimal font size.
So please observe the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. If nothing else, the next time someone in your audience complains of hearing loss, ringing, or vertigo, you’ll know what caused the problem. One last thing: to learn more about the zen of great presentations, check out a site called Presentation Zen by my buddy Garr Reynolds.

---

This article was written by Guy Kawasaki at Atherton, California. Guy is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Forbes.com. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. where he was one of the individuals responsible for the success of the Macintosh computer.

Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way.
You can read more articles like this on Guy's Weblog at blog.guykawasaki.com

Gaining back the Confidence!!

 
After a long time of hibernation from sports due to accident, today I played badminton full fledged. After my accident I thought I will never be back to the sports. But life is not that bad either...:)

After accident in December,(http://kwlvarun.blogspot.com/2009/04/lifes-been-rollercoaster.html) now the leg is much better condition now but it still needs a lot of improvement...quadriceps muscles are still weak...A screw (out of 4 screws fitted inside my leg) have started paining during movement of leg...it pierces my knee muscles while walking ...getting more ROM(range of movement) of my knees is becoming more and more difficult because of the surgical screw...it pains a lot on waking up in the morning...I want to get rid of it asap...hope I will get some vacation from Great Lakes soon...


Coming back to sports, I could not run and still unable to make fast moves...even then it feels so great to be back on the court...
Football probably will remain no-no due to huge risk of injury...:(

Hope my leg will improve soon and I will be back on athletic track and Himalayan trails...Currently my leg ROM(range of movement, flexion) is around 115 degree while normal is 145 degrees...hope for the best...


Back to Life, back to Sports...Welcome Self...:)

Got the Crew Cut!!!

After a long time, I have got crew haircut again...it feels so comfortable to be in military style.
All right but this time it was just incidental that I got this amazing cut...The story of my first hair-cut at Chennai:
8 Jun, 7:30 PM, Manamai, Chennai
Reached to barber shop...No barber at shop..inquired nearby...barber in park reading newspaper...
Me: Haircut?
Barber smiles and come to the shop
Me: Use zero machine for slight trimming...(it's hot in Chennai better to have trim)
Barber: He smiled...I understood that he didn't understand...(Language blues...during my stay in Blore it happened several times...barber never says he didn't understand wot u say...)
Me, I didn't like the haircut.
Me: Ok,  Please do the crew cut - "Military cut".
Barber: Smiled...as if he wanted to do this at first time itself...
Me: No troubles...(I whole-heartedly love the crew cut, Reasons: No hair-maintenance, no comb, less wash, less oil...he he...I am not hair lover)
So finally I got the Crew cut....plz do join the Crew cut community with me... :)

Working for EDF

All right so finally I am into my own space. I have been selected in EDF i.e. Entrepreneurship Development Forum at Great Lakes. During my form submission, I wrote about my interest in Entrepreneurship, joining and working for EDF at Great Lakes and now finally I am into it.

My first meeting with Professor Veeravalli, an esteemed and well nature gentleman with a great industry exposure, happened yesterday. There have been few strucure in which EDF will work and I will keep sharing.

Currently I am working for EDF Branding and Marketing where I need to sell EDF@Great Lakes everywhere.

My Space Journey and Customer Services

I saw a nightmare tonight...I hired a spaceship for the space adventure trip for my family for 3 days. They took us on a great tour for 2 days. We enjoyed Moon, Mars etc. After 2 days of tour, the driver asked for the payments as he needed to refuel. Happy from my last 2 days tour, I gave him full 3 days money i.e. one day money in advance. The next day when the spaceship came at my home, he was late then they took a full round of the city by road. They had cigarettes, guthka everything as these local bus waala do. Finally when I asked what the hell they are doing still on earth. They told me that they can not go because of some problem in the spaceship which may cause danger in space.
I felt cheated. I asked for my money back. The driver said that they don't have any money as it has been given to the owner. There was a lot of altercation. Finally, evening arrived, exhausted we reached back to our home. The last day has just messed all fun of whole trip.

Well that was a nightmare...but this is the condition of Services in India...There are hell lot od promises when you go with money but once that money has been handed over, the show ends. Then, you see the real picture.
There is a lot of work and improvements still to be done on customer service part in India.

Group Cohesion and Development

 (Picture taken by Supriya. SK16)

Recently, I saw an English movie – Miracle (as asked by Prof before session). The movie is a real story about young, restless and individualist hockey players transformed into a great US hockey team, who later won the 1980 Winter Olympics. The movie is about building THE team, raising the team spirit to higher levels, sense of belonging. The most important message it conveys is about group cohesion which increases the performance of the team significantly.

What is cohesion in the group? It’s the feeling of attraction, connection, positivity towards the p for the reason of friendship or due to the pride one feels on joining the group. Many groups use the “hazing”, in forms of sacrifices or doing something extraordinary to before joining the group. It increases the cohesion of the members between each other as well as towards the group as a whole. Organization and institutions follow a difficult procedure to select the right candidates. It’s just a modern ways of hazing, so as to get right people in the group. Also, organizations spend lot of moolahs just to create a great cohesion between team members.

I still remember the great cohesion developed between members during Sarkundi Expedition, one of my very difficult Himalayan Expedition. Our group name was Sarkundi-16. Within 10 days the members developed a great cohesion for each other as well as for the SK-16 as a whole. We passed all difficulties with a great co-ordination, shared the food, water and basic necessities with each other. The great cohesion of SK-16 became as the benchmark for all other groups later.

 (The Sarkundi Expedition - SK16 group)

(SK-16 group at the base camp after completing the expedition safely. Even on having people of extreme demographics, the group developed a high cohesion and friendship in just 10 days. Probably the difficult goal put us together. Most of us are still in touch with each other. Miss you SK-16.)

But I was surprised with a study being done upon the relationship between group cohesion and performance. It was found out that performance of the group have higher impact on cohesion than vice-versa. Hence,

Performance à Cohesion == Higher Impact

Cohesion à Performance == Comparatively Lower

It nullifies many assumptions that cohesion may lead to better performance. Instead, the focus upon increasing better performance may lead to greater cohesion between team. However, most of the organizations focus upon increasing team cohesion, probably because it is objectively achievable or it’s the HR’s bread-butter. :-O

Another interesting study was the importance of group norms. Norms are major deciding factors of a team to accelerate or retard its performance. Let’s say the people in the group made the point of working less or being unproductive then on having a higher cohesion the group’s performance will significantly decrease. Hence, keeping right norms for the group is highly essential to get a high performance team. The role of the leader here is highly significant as he needs to set productive norms for the team while keeping the team cohesive.

Group Development happen in stages like Forming (members become familiar), Storming (tensions among members for status), Norming (establishments of rules, roles, structure, relations etc), Performing (achieving goals) and finally Adjourning (termination and completion of tasks). Also, each group members passes through various quantum of commitment towards the group which happens during entry, acceptance, divergence and exit from the group.

Leadership

A leader needs to know the importance the cohesiveness in the group and how to leverage it. He should also know about the group development and group life-cycle to articulate his decision and actions accordingly. Leadership is important to get high performance team by increasing cohesiveness of the group and keeping productive norms in place.