Cancer: Steve Jobs and my neighborhood

Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer. He was one of the richest in the world. He left his empire, and loved ones - money could not make him live another day.

A 2 year old kid and a 50 year old lady in my neighborhood are diagnosed with cancer.
They are on treatment. I wish them good health.
While everyone in a state of shock, it reminds me, life is short - really short.

When you meet someone with cancer, do not try to share the pain. He’s already in pain. He does not need you also in pain. He needs to release his pain.

You can try to make him smile.

I remember the days, I used to visit my mother’s sister, who had just been amputated by diabetes. I meet her with all smiles and make her laugh. I did the same for other patients in the ward. Doctors did not like me first, but I made them laugh too.! Few days later, patients would share their funny stories with me. They were waiting for me to come - not for food - but for laughs.

As I said, life is short. It is the truth. You and I may never know - whether we may get cancer, or (I wish) not. But don’t live like you are bullet proof. Live each day as if it is your last.

Androids for village development

Kids at Maharatenna in Kandy, using an app in Google Nexus One phone

In January 2011, when Fusion was discussing with Tag ID, on our ambitious venture in to
"Smart Village" (using smart phones for village development in Sri Lanka), price of smart phones was a barrier at top of the list. Now in October, the project is moving forward with some refreshing learning's.

Read Tag ID post.

Read Fusion Blog.

Thanks to Android OS popularity, things have changed dramatically. Now android phones can be bought at Rs. 13,300 (roughly $ 120) in Sri Lanka. Amitha has done a good survey of models and prices below Rs. 35,000, in his blog post. Read Amitha's post.

Are you a android user? How do you think Androids can help meet challenges in rural Sri Lanka?

An inconvenient truth

I blog about building communities, because I enjoy it.
Your office is a community. Your family, relatives, and your neighborhood too.


We all like to contribute to our communities. Problem is - some may don't like what you do. Then you think they are either jealous or stupid, may be both. You harbor bad feelings. You crave for appreciation, but what you get is criticism and worse, sarcastic remarks. What can you do?


1. Ask Questions
Very simple. Yet you forget to ask important questions at a crucial point cos you forget, because you are busy- and have no time to think. Later you fire fight a lot because you did not ask a question.
"Who has time to ask all those questions?"
I hope you may not ask that question.


2. Then listen
This is the hardest part. You just listen. No questions, no emotions. Just listen. Take down few notes.


3. Think fresh
Go to a quite place, alone. Go through the notes. Make a new plan.

Let's focus !

We live in the age of distraction. Internet is a necessary evil. It makes us efficient. 

Bad news is - it can make us efficient in doing wrong things. 

That's when we have to gauge the effectiveness of work we do.

Steve Jobs : A celebration of Life

Brief Bio:

Abandoned by his own parents, given up for adoption by foster parents, Jobs dropped out of school to follow his instincts. At age 21, he founded a powerful computer company called "Apple" in 1976 - eventually to be thrown out by his own board in 1985.

Shattered, he goes on to make another tech company called " NeXT" and a breakthrough animation company called " Pixar ". Fate has it, NeXT was taken over by Apple and Jobs returns as CEO of Apple in 1997. He stepped down as CEO in August 2011- in the way, making Apple the best tech company in the world, overall, ranking only behind Exxon, the oil giant.