The impending Age Of Abundance was prophesied in the scriptures thousands of years ago.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Doubling Down On Tech Consulting
Image via WikipediaThe immigration bureaucracy in this country is so fucked up, it's not even funny. It is like getting in line for a land line with the state ownned telco in Nepal before I left the country. It took years. Now they have mobile phones, easy to purchase, but the immigration bureaucracy in this country continues to stay fucked up. Bajeezus fucking Christ. I once quoted Lincoln on immigration. "I will prepare and perhaps my time will come." I felt like I was about to get the paperwork sorted out. But no, they went ahead and postponed the court date.
I guess I get to double down on tech consulting and plot to become my own angel investor when the time finally arrives, if it ever does.
I also recently got approached by someone to help take Shakira to Nepal to perform for a hefty commission. I am tempted to branch out beyond tech consulting.
Bryan Adams In Kathmandu
As for tech consulting, I have three associates in NYC looking daily for projects - it is not easy - and I have three teams in India always ready to get the work done. I could so scale at both ends. This is not bootstrapping, this is flying by your pants.
I guess fate will have it that I end up my own angel investor.
Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast
Ugh, Immigration (4)
Immigration Court Date: June 6, 2011: Prepared Statement
Paradigm Shifts And Challenged Assumptions
Image via WikipediaMy personal hero in tech Larry Ellison (Larry Ellison, Larry Ellison's Personal Life) often talks in terms of paradigm shifts. When entire industries collapse that is a tectonic paradigm shift. When banks collapsed in New York and freed up tech talent for tech startups, that was a paradigm shift. Larry's own life is full of paradigm shifts. My favorite detail probably is when one of his wives left him for a Harvard MBA. Wait, there is another. One of his wives had the option to take the family pickup or Oracle stocks. She picked the pickup truck.
Larry Ellison's Personal Life
The very best entrepreneurs cascade from paradigm shift to paradigm shift. Ordinary mortals don't even see the tsunami coming. When you ride the wave - you could also call it the tiger - a lot of your assumptions get challenged. What was just true is no longer true. And that is a hard thing to navigate. The ordinary person feels tremendously unsafe when that happens.
I look at the details of Larry's personal life, one failed marriage after another, and the many paradigm shifts Oracle has navigated, and no wonder I think his biography reads like fascinating.
Freshly divorced yet one more time Larry shot this email to a friend: "Congrats on getting and staying married!"
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Think Different
Yesterday some of my Nepali friends had a meeting about me.
"He is not like you and me. He is different from us," one said.
Months back another Nepali friend bought bakery products for me. That was his way of his saying this guy has become too Americanized.
There is a flip side to the coin: Americans coming to me from the Bollywood/yoga angle.
Happy 4th From My Friend Luke
The Facebook Effect
Meeting Fred Wilson In Person
From: Paramendra Bhagat
Date: Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 2:13 PM
Subject: {New York Metro Madhesi} Sunday ---- Come out and dance --- free event
To: nycnepali@googlegroups.com, New York Metro Madhesi
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137120103034144
http://www.acehotel.com/newyork/calendar/sundays-live-music-series
https://twitter.com/USRoyalty/status/90104312633622529
Ace Hotel
20 West 29th Street
Sunday, July 10 · 8:30pm - 11:30pm
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Alabama
Image via WikipediaDuring orientation week, fresh off the boat, I was saying hello to anyone and everyone. Finally it was the turn of this guy. He said, "Hi, I am Jeremiah, I am from Alabama, but I am nice." I shook hands and played normal. But I was like, wow, what's up with this guy, he feels the need to announce he is nice. What's going on? He is kind of immodest, don't you think?
It took me about a year to realize as the shit called racism hit me full force just as I formally ascended to the most powerful student position on campus.
He had meant that although he was from Alabama he was not racist or anything like that.
Like William Faulkner said, the past is not over, it is not even past.
Jeremiah went on to become my Class President.
Subhash Chandra Bose
Happy 4th From My Friend Luke
With John Liu
The Facebook Effect
Southern Hospitality
At The Buspark
On A Bike
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Facebook Beats Google Plus On Design
Image via WikipediaI Am On Google Plus NowFacebook Videocalling: I Am On Now
Google Plus is not a threat to Facebook just like Facebook Messages, touted by the media as the Gmail killer, has been no threat to Gmail.
Facebook has its advantages. It has mapped the social graph. Google Plus is not even trying to. Plus has a Google Buzz like awkwardness to it in terms of who all end up in your circles. Apparently you don't need people's permission before you add them to some circle. So it is a little diffuse.
Facebook has a sleek design. One of my very favorite parts of Facebook for years has been that font. How did they do that!
The starting point for Google is search, not social. The starting point with the Facebook experience is social. Just like FourSquare will beat Facebook in the check in space, Facebook will keep the lead in the social space.
But I see me using both services. There is a place for Google Plus.
My Google Plus stream seems to be dominated by the two social media stars Robert Scoble and Anthony De Rosa, the Ashton Kutcher of Tumblr. I like both fine, and I personally know Anthony. But my Facebook stream is different, although there too another social media star - Baratunde Thurston, another person I happen to know - shows up quite often. But Facebook is much more likely to throw up people I know.
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
I Am On Google Plus Now
Image via WikipediaLooks like somebody at Google read my blog post from earlier in the day. The Facebook Skype Integration Is Huge
Now if only people from the Department Of Homeland Security started reading my blog, I would be all set.
Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast
Subhash Chandra Bose
Hillary Clinton went to Beijing as First Lady to speak on women's rights. This was in 1995, I believe. In her hotel room she wondered if she might be able to read the Wall Street Journal. A copy mysteriously got delivered. That is when they realized the Chinese had bugged her room and were listening into her conversations.
So someone on her staff wondered aloud, I wonder if we could have pizza.
The pizza did not magically appear.
I am on, yo.
Facebook Videocalling: I Am On Now
Image by jdlasica via FlickrIt was easy to do. All you needed to do was go read the official Facebook blog post about it. The post told you where to go if you wanted to get in right away. http://www.facebook.com/videocalling
Call Your Friends Right From Facebook
Otherwise earlier in the day I complained I felt excluded.
Mark Zuckerberg is right. Facebook has the huge advantage that it has the social graph. Google might have to struggle to rebuild that graph. But I see me using both services.
Subhash Chandra Bose
Finally the British said, "You want independence? Okay, you can have independence. But you are going to have to give us Subhash Chandra Bose, dead or alive."
Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast
Ugh, Immigration (4)
Immigration Limbo
Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast
Ugh, Immigration (4)
@azipaybarah @NYGovCuomo Hello. I am here! http://t.co/8d2bpSS @jeffkurzonless than a minute ago via web 
paramendra
Immigration Limbo
The Facebook Skype Integration Is Huge
Image via CrunchBaseMy number one gripe with Skype is it does not have all the people on it that I wish were on it. This Facebook Skype integration takes care of that problem. Now you don't need a phone number of that person who is in your Facebook network. This is huge. This is bigger than Google Plus, a service I am not in yet. A friend sent an invite today but Google says they are so full of it. They did not let me in.
Happy 4th From My Friend Luke
The Facebook Effect
Southern Hospitality
Luke was my next door neighbor when I showed up. We were in the same suite. He was a music man.
I had brought a full supply of Bollywood with me. I also had plenty of Gazals. I would listen to them when I got a chance.
One day Luke approached me. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why do you listen to the same song again and again and again!"
I had been listening to tens of different songs.
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast
Image via WikipediaMy friend Jiwan who I am crashing with for now in Sunnyside convinced me yesterday that I need to go the political route to get sorted my immigration mess. "If the most powerful person on earth can take your help, why can't you take the help of that most powerful person?"
Seeking 10 Minutes Of The Senator's Time For Personal Reasons
(To: Linda at Senator Bill Perkins' office)
Hi Bill.
I have been in an immigration mess since late 2005. A no name State Senator in New Jersey just helped another Nepali get a green card in a month, and the story circulated and a close friend of mine has been urging me to approach you to get the same done for me. If you are in a position to help, I'd much appreciate. I'd remember till the last dog dies, like Bill Clinton said in 1992.
I came to America in the fall of 1996 on a student visa to the top
liberal arts college in the South where I got myself elected student
body president within six months of landing. I finished school in May
2001. After a year I was on OPT, Optional Practical Training. .....
a green card...... Believe it or not I did not renew the card. My
lawyer says I had the option to. I was working days, nights and weekends
for the democracy movement in Nepal at the time, the only Nepali in
America doing full time work to that end. I was not much thinking about me.
I was Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in NYC like you were
the first elected official in the city to endorse him. That was good
work. The day the national primary ended in 2008 they had me
disappear, machine politics at its most effective! They had me inside
for six months. Obama won. I was out a few days later. My first
immigration court date after that was in Chicago. There were two court
dates in 2009. The last one was in June, last month, that got
postponed indefinitely. This political asylum thing has been dragging
on like a bad dream. The three court dates have been about giving me a
new court date, that's it.
I am under the impression you have the option to use some political
levers at your disposal to get my original green card renewed,
backdated to the fall of 2005 when it should have been renewed. If
that can happen enough time will have lapsed that I would by now
qualify for a citizenship.
Once I have the paperwork I can start functioning at full capacity. I
am a tech entrepreneur who wants to go into microfinance in a big way.
http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2011/02/googlefacebook-of-microfinance.html
I can do for the Arab world what I did for Nepal in 2006. This wave of
democracy, done right, could hit all of the Arab world, all of Africa,
maybe Russia, maybe China. But right now I feel like my hands and feet
have been tied and I have been thrown into a corner. Such waste. And
there is the no small matter of Obama 2012. In many ways 2012 is more
important than 2008.
My alien number is ___________.
For now I request to meet you in person for 10 minutes.
Thanks.
Paramendra.
The Sheryl Sandberg Profile: The Tech Startup Angle
Image via CrunchBaseI am going to be honest. I went to this article first and foremost not from the gender angle. I remain curious about the career trajectory of this woman, as I stay curious about the career trajectory of Mark, The Zuckerberg. Little bits and pieces I have gathered on her life have only whetted my appetite. So I dived in for more details. She has had an amazing life story that both men and women can learn from. She is not a techie. She is an operations person. You can hope to become a billionaire going down that route as well.
Sheryl Sandberg: New Yorker Profile
Monday, July 04, 2011
Sunday, July 03, 2011
Google Plus Has Buzz
Image via CrunchBaseObviously Google Plus is no Google Wave or Google Buzz. This thing has legs. Has Google Finally Cracked Social?
Larry Page At The Helm
I Will Not Miss Eric
Friday, July 01, 2011
The Facebook Effect
Berean/Parisian Lina Benete in town for the weekend: work trip. We might talk more this weekend than we ever did at college. Facebook effectless than a minute ago via web
paramendra
Back to Thailand
Bollywood Show in Paris
Lithuanian Wedding
Beginning of the New Life in Paris
Facebook's Next Major Breakthrough
Image by Getty Images via @daylife(Article first published as Facebook's Next Major Breakthrough on Technorati.)Facebook's next major breakthrough is not going to be some nifty new feature, or yet another higher valuation, but its push for HTML5. It is going to be a major breakthrough for the industry at large when Facebook is not a native app on your smartphone or tablet but rather still a browser experience. That would be Mark Zuckerberg going toe to toe with his icon Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs felt snubbed by Mark when Mark did not play along with some kind of a "social" idea Jobs had for his music offerings. Jobs retaliated by integrating Twitter into his very operating system. Snub to Facebook. Mark retaliated by thumbing HTML5 in Jobs' face.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
On A Bike
On a bike you see a different city.
I biked along Broadway, across the Williamsburg Bridge, straight to 8th Avenue, then up north on 8th, into Central Park, made a few circles, then came down 7th Avenue, then down Broadway from Times Square, then down 5th Avenue from Madison Square Park, then a few lefts, and back across Williamsburg Bridge.
A few blocks from Williamsburg Bridge one black dude remarked: "First time I seen a biker stop for a black male!"
I had not even seen them until then. I had just stopped, waiting for my turn to cross the road.
I waved as I sped away.
Biking through the city was a serene feeling. The best part was going up on 8th Avenue for as long as the bike lane had been painted green, and then it got wild close to 40th Street.
Biking is like walking - the exercise, the sight seeing - only faster.
I almost ran into a cab door. Some dude abruptly opened the cab door when I was almost next to the cab. I managed to avoid.
I had no plans to cross into Manhattan when I got the bike out: borrowed bike.
It was tremendous fun.
Going biking for the next few hours across Brooklyn/Queens. Borrowed bike. Thanks Bhawani. #nycless than a minute ago via web
paramendra
Need to find a new place to live by tomorrow. Don't have a place yet. Funny how it always works out just fine. #nycless than a minute ago via web
paramendra
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
At The Buspark
I had been House Captain of one of the four senior houses. There were two junior houses, four senior houses, and then there was Gaurishankar, where people who stayed on to do O Levels and A Levels - Senior Cambridge stuff - stayed. Back then in Nepal school was 10 years. Then you sat for the nationwide School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exams. And if you passed, maybe you went to college. But high school was 12 years in places like America and Britain. And this British founded and run top school in Nepal had introduced O Levels, A Levels. Half of the students in Class 10 were selected to do O Levels. Half of those were selected to do A Levels. And this was already a school where you got into in Class 4 after sitting through nationwide entrance exams.
O Levels was two years in Britain, one year at this school. So you finished school in 13 years.
We had three vacations: summer, Dashain/Tihar, and winter. Dashain would be the Nepali Christmas. I was not from Kathmandu. Kathmandu is a valley, the capital. Half the students at school were from outside the valley. I was one of them. The valley students got to go home about once a month for a weekend. We went home for the three vacations.
Image via WikipediaI had given an excellent year as House Captain. We won pretty much every competition there was, academic, sports and otherwise. Morale was super high. The grades of the students went up across the board. I personally took charge of one student a year junior to me who was considered struggling. His marks were up by 20% across the board by the time I was through.
And a fight broke out on the soccer field. We won the match, there was a fight. I learned about it later. It apparently escalated. It erupted in the dining hall later, and one or two places on campus. I heard.
Our official color was blue. The red house were the sore losers.
But then things quietened down, or so I thought.
I had been the top student in my class every year to that point.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Circles: My Idea
October 28, 2010: Social Graph, Social Concentric Circles
May 19, 2011: Social Concentric Circles
Has Google Finally Cracked Social?
May 19, 2011: Social Concentric Circles
Has Google Finally Cracked Social?
The Sean Parker Analogy
This is weird. I am watching this video. And I am at the 27 minute mark, and I am like this is weird.
I am not into smartphones either. I mean, I don't even have one. I don't have a regular phone. I have a barebones prepaid. And the guy pulled out a primitive phone.
I am not into gaming. Reality is more fascinating than fiction. My World Of Warcraft is the crowd action across the Arab world. That's my "gaming."
I don't do product/coding stuff. For me it is about the user experience. Third parallel.
I don't care about money. But it is a good measuring tool. It is necessary fluidity. I have to convince myself it is about curing poverty for me to be able to think in terms of big money. If it is just, just, just about me, I am just fine where I am, and I need to find a new place to live by July 1.
That white male, how did he know these things?
White Male Conspiracy To Drive Me Homeless
Sean Parker, Billionaire, Was Really Poor Once
The Day I Got Called Sean Parker
Google And Apple Playing Tetris?
When Apple revealed its new operating system, the town was abuzz. Oh no, Apple is out to kill all sorts of sexy startups! And now Google is doing the same. Some very sexy apps out there might see fierce competition from Google. It is like Walmart came to town, and the mom and pop stores are going belly up.
Apple Is All Over The News
Driving Coast To Coast
I once drove coast to coast, it was about sleeping and driving, and sleeping and driving, and sleeping and driving. I wanted to get there fast. I did it. I went from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast. It was an experience.
When Wikipedia Beats Social Media
Great early computer scientists and engineers? Alan Turing...who else?less than a minute ago via Twitterrific 
jenny8lee
@jenny8lee This is where Wikipedia beats social media. :-) Or, long live Google.less than a minute ago via web
paramendra
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