Chronicles of Nikhil Baliga

Swami Gulagulaananda said: " I definitely know what you are thinking... " When I used to hear the term "Out of the box" and many similar terms, I used to immediately dismiss them as management jargon. I still believe that most people who do use these terms are using it just because it has a nice ring to it - not because they truly understand it. The truth is, however, that very few people actually  think very differently. I'll give you a simple example. This is a trick I learnt ages ago, from whom, I remember not. But go ahead and try this on others, and you will find this to be true. Now I am going to perform this trick with you, so play along, ok? Here goes... Think of a number between 1 and 9 Multiply that number by 9 Add the digits of the two digit number that you got. Now that you have a single digit, subtract 5 from it If the answer is 1, letter is 'A'. If the answer is 2, letter is 'B'. If the answer is 3, letter is 'C'

Swami Nikhilaananda said: "Yaaaahhhooooooo!" I was excited when I heard that the Yahoo! Open Hack was around the corner when I received an email and read the tweet - It was time for the mayhem to begin. This was my second Yahoo! hackathon. The first one had been a brilliant experience. There are a lot of things to speak about Yahoo Hackathon. The sheer energy of people around you makes you go wow. Most people have that aura of intelligence on them. This year, the event was held at Sheraton, Yeshwanthpur. I reached the venue on time, well, about 30 minutes past the actual beginning time. I found that quite a lot of people had gathered before me and had taken their seats inside the smaller room. I was done with my registration quite soon, and I wanted to have some coffee. I had skipped my breakfast at home (as has become my usual practice lately) and then my eyes fell on them - the most coveted item of the Hackathon... No, not the prize, the bean bags. I picked a nice spo