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Mohan from Infosys sent me an email a few minutes ago about his personal tragedy. Reading through what they had to go through recently brought tears to my eyes.

Mohan and his wife were traveling on Jet Airways Flight 9W 229 from Brussels to New Delhi with their 4.5 month old baby Aditya Mohan. For reasons unknown, the baby stopped breathing and long story short - was pronounced dead on arrival. Reason given - “death by  Asphyxiation by choking”

Please read the detailed story here and here.

Mohan has written a detailed version of the story here.

It is a long journey to India and I know that there are a lot of parents who travel to India with infants. Like Mohan says, I hope no other parent has to face the kind of tragedy they faced. Our family offers our deepest condolences to Mohan and his family.

Please support Mohan and his family by signing an online petition to request authorities to conduct a full investigation.

It is sad to hear this and may GOD give all the strength to Mohan and his wife in this time.

I was first introduced to the concept of Mini Saga by Dan Pink. It’s been a couple of years and I have written 26 mini sagas.

For starters, a mini saga is a story in exactly 50 words. Not 49 or 51 but in exactly 50 words.

My new manifesto published on ChangeThis is based on these Mini Sagas.

I also partnered with my a close friend Suresh Gundappa (who is a celebrated photographer) to combine a photo with each mini saga.

There are 15 mini sagas in the manifesto and for me, it is an attempt to present a thought, insight or a lesson in just 50 words. I have put my heart and soul into this project. However, I know that the verdict is in your hands

I want to thank the following people who made this happen:

1. My cool friends at 800-CEO-READ (especially Dylan Schleicher)

2. Joy Panos Stauber at Stauber Design Studios

3. Suresh Gundappa of Silicon Valley Bank (blogs at Meditation Photography)

4. Bill Sherman at Aha Moments

You can download the manifesto here (PDF, 18 pages, 2.9MB)

Mini Sagas: Bite Sized Wisdom for Life and Business

Have a great Wednesday!

I know. Jiffle should have created this screencast to show how to use Jiffle. Mea Culpa.

Hari and I are thankful to Andrew MacNeill who has created a cool 5 minute screencast on “Using Jiffle to Schedule Meetings”

Here is the link:

Screencast: Using Jiffle to Schedule Meetings

(Courtesy: Andrew MacNeill)

Have a great week ahead!

My friends at Center for Great Management are putting together a virtual seminar by Dan Heath (co-author of “Made to Stick”) on August 28, 2008

The book was a fascinating read and I am sure the seminar will be equally exciting. Here is the link to more information about the seminar:

Dan Heath Seminar: Creating High-Impact Ideas That Work

Have a great week ahead!

This is a public service announcement

Anyone with reasonably good credit will get a lot of unsolicited credit card offers in their mail. I am sure your mailboxes are filled with them. There is a simple way to stop them. You can stop accumulating junk and also do your small part by reducing waste.

You need to call the following number and ask them to register your name to opt-out of these offers.

Pre-screen & Opt-out Notice

1-888-567-8688

Note: You have to register every name in the household separately.

Corp-Corp.com is organizing a networking event for executives in the staffing industry in Santa Clara, California on April 19. I will be speaking there on the topic “Rainmaking During Times of Recession“. Here are the details:

Date: April 19, 2008
Time: 11 AM to 3 PM
Location: TiE - Silicon Valley Conference Center
2903 Bunker Hill Lane, Suite 108
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Link: Corp-Corp CA Event
Fee: $50

If you are in the staffing business, you might want to look at attending the event to network with other executives in the same business.

Have a great weekend!

I am very excited that Jiffle has been selected as a finalist in the 2008 Webware 100 Awards by the editors of CNET Webware.com in the Productivity category. The 300 finalists were selected by editors from more than 4,600 qualifying Web 2.0 services nominated by Webware readers and company representatives. The users will decide which services are the Webware 100 winners by voting for their favorite service. The winners will be announced on April 21, the day before the Web 2.0 Expo opens.

Please make Jiffle a “Webware 100″ winner by clicking here

Exciting things are happening for us at Jiffle. The service was developed over 18 months. We are in version 3.1.3 now - most of the changes implemented in the last two versions are based on extensive feedback from our customers.

Jiffle’s mission is to help people schedule meetings. Currently our focus is only on 1-1 meetings. Our research shows that a significant number of the meetings are between two parties. There may be more than 2 people in the meeting but large majority of the meetings are between two parties.

Hari and I have one goal for Jiffle: To make it easy for our client’s customers to have the most convenient way to schedule meetings with our clients.

We have created the following tutorials and quick reference guides to assist you.

1. Sharing your calendar in emails : View Tutorial or Download Quick Reference Guide

2. Publish your calendar on your website : View Tutorial or Download Quick Reference Guide

3. Using Jiffle with WebEx : View Tutorial or Download Quick Reference Guide

There are more announcements coming from Jiffle soon (probably early April).

Will keep you posted.

Those who are using Jiffle, Hari and I thank you from the bottom of our heart. Those who are not, please give us a try.

Thank you.

That is the topic of my talk at the event organized by IIT Delhi, Entrepreneurship Support Program

Here are the details

Location: Synopsys, 455 N. Mary Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA
Date: Wednesday March 26th
Mixer: 6.00 pm to 6.30pm
Presentation: Rajesh Setty 6.30pm - 7.30pm
Q&A/Discussion: 7.30pm - 8.30pm
Fee: $15.00
Contacts: Rahul Kapoor (www.rahulkapoor.net) or
Sanjiv Goyal (sanjiv.goyal@droisys.com)

More info at: IIT Delhi Wiki

I am supporter of Entrepreneurship Support Program (ESP) and I continue to maintain my rule of speaking for free for Non-profit groups that are doing exciting work.

Background for my presentation:

On a lighter note, if there is a “crash course” on Pre-Entrepreneurship, there is a high probability that it can only lead to someone on a “crash” course

All entrepreneurs need a boost in their capacity to execute with minimum resources. First-time entrepreneurs need a double shot of the same. My goal in the one hour is to highlight how a wannabe entrepreneur can prepare to be on the “other side” of the fence. What can one do today when he or she is “not an entrepreneur” to build that additional capacity that will come in handy when he or she really becomes an entrepreneur.

While I believe that “what you do as an entrepreneur” is important for you to succeed, what is more important is “what you do as you lead up to be an entrepreneur“. The talk will focus on some parts of what you can do in preparation for being an entrepreneur.

If you are already an entrepreneur, the topics I will be covering will provide a refresher course on items that you should have been engaged but you might have missed because you had no time

Look forward to meeting some of you there.

Guru, founder of Boomer411 has a nice write-up on the difference between a discovery engine and a search engine.

Here is the link:

Boomer411: What is the difference between a discovery engine and a typical search engine

Disclaimer: Boomer411 is one of the portals powered by Rawsugar (owned by the company where I spend more than 100% of my time - Suggestica)

[Sidenote: How is more than 100% possible? Simply because Silicon Valley Workaholic License mandates that I spend 200% of my time working ]

Partial list of sites powered by Rawsugar is here:

1. Invincibelle - discovery part is powered by Rawsugar - focused on multicultural women

2. All About Steak - built in partnership with Kansas City Steaks. It’s all about steaks

3. Theologika - It’s all about theology

More soon…