Weekly Whims

முதற் சாப்பாடு

2010-12-31T01:06:00.000+05:30

உச்சி வெயில் பொழுது - தீக்

குச்சி தானே பற்றுவது எளிது!

சிறுவனுக்கு வயதோ ஆறு - அவன்

பொறுமைக்கு வயதோ நூறு! தினமும்

வெறுமையே பார்த்த வயிறு! வாழவைப்பதோ

வறுமையை வீழ்த்திய பாசக் கயிறு!

ஆம், பொறுமையாக நின்றான் வரிசையில்!

நீளமோ சீனப் பெருஞ்சுவரை மிஞ்சும் - நிற்கும்

களமோ கதிரவனின் கனலை விஞ்சும்

கிழிந்த கால்ச் சட்டை,

முதுகில் நாமப் பட்டையிட்டது

ஆசிரியரின் மரக்கட்டை!

விலங்கைக் கடித்து விலங்கு உண்ணும்

விலங்கை அடித்து மனிதன் உண்பான்

மனிதனை மடித்து விலங்கும் உண்ணும்

மனிதனை அடித்து மனிதன் உண்பானா?

ஆதாரம் அந்த வரிசயில் உண்டு!

வலிமை மிக்க, வன்மை சொக்க

வாட்டசாட்டமான வாண்டுகள் முன்னே!

நலிவுற்று, நூலாய் நைந்து நசிந்து

வாட்டமடைந்த வண்டுகள் பின்னே!

விரலாலே சரியாக எண்ணி விடலாம் அவனிடத்தை -

விரைவாக வரிசையின் பின்னால் இருந்து!

தொட்டியில் மிதக்கும் மீனைப் போல் - வாங்கி வருபவர்

தட்டில் மிதக்கும் சோற்று பருக்கைகள்!

பணக்காரனுக்குஅதைப் பார்த்தால் பசியே எடுக்காது!

பாமர சிறார்க்கு அதைப் பருகினால் பசி எடுக்காது!

சத்துணவு என்று பெயர் - உண்டுவிட்டு

செத்துப் பிழைப்பதோ உயிர்!

பள்ளி சென்று வருவதே பெரும்பாடு - பாதையில்

கள்ளிச் செடி நிறைந்த முற்காடு! இடையில் பிணத்தை

அள்ளிச் சென்று எரிக்கும் சுடுகாடு! வழியில்

எள்ளி நகையாடும் நண்பர்களின் கூப்பாடு! இருதலைக்

கொள்ளி எறும்பு வாழ்கை ஏன் பிற்பாடு?

ஏன்?

... அவனுக்கு அதுவே அன்றைய முதற் சாப்பாடு!

முதற் காதல், முதல் முத்தம், முதற் கலவி -

இவற்றை விட உந்துதல் அதிகமாய்,

பற்றுதல் பலமாய் இருப்பது முதல் சாப்பாடு!

முற்றும் முழுவதுமாய் நாளுக்கு ஒரே சாப்பாடு!

பெற்ற அன்னையாய் வாழ்வளிக்கும் முதற் சாப்பாடு!

உற்ற நண்பனாய் காத்து நிற்கும் உயிர் சாப்பாடு!

பேழை இல்லை இதயத்தைப் பூட்டி வைக்க

2010-12-28T22:58:00.003+05:30

பேழை இல்லை இதயத்தைப் பூட்டி வைக்க! அவன்

கோழை அல்ல தோழமை எள்ளி நகைக்க!

வாள் கண்டு அஞ்சாத வாலிபன் - இன்று அவள்

தாள் கண்டு தயங்கிநிற்கும் வயோதிகன்!

ஆயிரம் குதிரைகளைக் கொன்று குவித்தவன் - பசும்

பயிரை-ஒத்த குமரிகண்டு தலை கவிழ்ந்தவன்!

எங்கு செல்வது?

யாரிடம் சொல்வது?

எப்படி வெல்வது?

கண்டான் ஒரு வழி --

காகிதம் எடுத்தான்,

கண்களை மூடினான்!

கதிரவன் மங்கியது,

காதல் தங்கியது,

கவிதை பொங்கியது!

பொங்கிய சோற்றையும் - உள்

வாங்கிய காற்றையும் காக்க வைக்கலாகாது!

தேங்கிய காதல் கவிதையும் அப்படித் தான்!

மடலைப் படித்து முடித்து மடித்தான் - வீரனாய்

மனத்தைக் கடித்து ஒடித்து நடித்தான்!

வழியில் அவளெதிரே நின்றான் - பின் அவளை

விழியால் ஒருமுறை தின்றான்! கன்னங்

குழியில் காணாமல் சென்றான்!

புறக்கண்கள் நான்கும் மகிழ்ந்து பேசின!

அகக்கண்கள் இரண்டும் கலந்து வீசின!

நாணம் அவளைப் பற்றிக் கொண்டது - பேச்சில்

ஊனம் அவளை தொற்றிக் கொண்டது - காதல்

பானம் அவளுடலில் ஊற்றி கொண்டது

சிரித்துக்கொண்டே பின்வாங்கினாள்!

புரிந்துகொண்டே முன் நோக்கினான்!

"பார்க்கலாம், நாளை!" சென்றாள் அவள்.

"பார்க்கிலா? எவ்வேளை?" என்றான் அவன்!

ஆம், நாளை தெரியும் - அந்த கவிதை

கதையா? கற்பனையா? அல்ல காவியமா என்று!

2010: Kollywood Top 10

2010-12-28T00:37:00.002+05:30

138! That's the number of Tamil movies released in 2010! (It's the highest in the recent years: 111 in 2007, 117 in 2008, 130 in 2009 - A Steady growth indeed!)

It was an eventful year for Tamil Cinema. A 'thalaivar' movie made the entire nation turn Robo-maniac! Few movies reiterated 'a good story can be the real hero' (E.g. Mynaa, Angaadi Theru, Vamsam). On the other hand, light comedies without strong story lines were well received as well (E.g. Boss, Goa, Tamil Padam etc). As usual, some movies with good star performance couldn't do well in box-office (esp. Raavanan, Ratha Charithram). While the old age heroes (Rajini & Kamal) did their part well, the new age heroes (read Vijay & Ajit) terribly disappointed their fans. A good year for the Sivakumar sons!

Here is my listing of top 10 movies:

10. Naan Mahaan Alla: The second half just pulled it down to 10th spot. The good performance by Kaarthi and the interesting theme made the film escape with a spot in top 10.
9. Paiyaa: Screenplay was the hero. Decent performance by actors with some beautiful songs helped the movie. Lingusamy (my university alum!) didn't disappoint audience like he did with Bheema!
8. Raktha Sarithiram: Brilliant performance by Surya. But just the replica of the first part in Hindi. Somehow the movie couldn't gel well.
7. Manmadhan Ambu: We expected much more from the Kamal, KSR combo. Nevertheless it wasn't bad. Watchable once!
6. Raavanan: Oh, this is the third movie with a killer combo (Maniratnam & Vikram) but bombed in box office. Made it to top 10 thanks to good performance and excellent cinematography.
5. Thamizh Padam: An awesome entertainer by the debutant director Amudhan. Completely refreshing.. Every time you watch it!
4. Boss Engira Bhaskaran: "Nanban da" - watta tag line! No story, No tears, No logic! Just did the magic of making everyone in the theater laugh!
3. Singam: Can easily be rated the best masala movie of the year, with all ingredients of a full-fledged entertainer. Superb performance by Surya as well! Full Paisa Vasool!
2. Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya: The best romantic movie of the year. Technically superior movie with brilliant performance and the interesting screenplay made it almost to the top slot.
1. Enthiran: Whatever said and done, it's a Rajni movie. The Numero Uno has to none other than the thalaivar. Not to forget the effort from technicians, quality animations in tamil cinema, the buzz it created and the budget!

The following 5 movies may very well could have been the top 10 but I couldn't watch them fully:

Madrasapattinam
Mynaa
Nandalala
Angaadi Theru
Goa

Another 5 deserve a special mention for being the most hilarious movies of the year (!!?!!)

Virudhagiri
Sura
Aasal
Kutty
Jaggubhai

Looking forward for an entertaining 2011!

Is She a Normal Child?

2010-12-23T20:15:00.000+05:30

She's not a normal child. Or, is she? Can somebody understand her?

Her parents had all the money to buy the toys. But she never played with them. She was expressionless most of the times and didn't react much when people speak to her. When she joined the kindergarten, her teacher and the fellow kids thought she was deaf and dumb. But people soon found that she was more intelligent than many other adults. She read books and spoke like an adult (if at all she spoke!). Why is she like that?

She never got much attention from her parents - the busy business man and the ambitious journalist. It was the grandma who looked after her till the age of 4, after which she liked to be away from Grandma as well. Her parents would hardly speak to her. By the time they were back home, she would be locked inside her room. Her mom was very upset why she wasn't like any other child - when the mom expressed her concern, the kid would simply end the conversation saying "Don't worry, I am well taken care of!". Of course, she doesn't speak to her dad or the servants. Does she talk to anyone at all?

The answers were revealed on the Christmas eve of 1995. Like every other year, the house was well decorated for the Christmas party. No wonder there were many friends for the business man and the journalist. Everyone was having fun while the girl was missing. In the evening, mom saw her when she was dressed in a white gown like an angel. As usual, the girl didn't utter a word in spite of mom's continuous chatter.

Nobody felt she was missing as it was not unusual for people to miss her presence. It was when the dog brought the girl's watch from God knows where. Mom went berserk with grief - She searched all through the house but in vain. Slowly the news reached the ears of everyone in the party. 100 suggestions and 100 comments from all the directions!

The dad was deeply contemplating on calling up his friends for help. There came the ring!

The man on the other side, "Hello. I am Dr. John from 13th Avenue. Is there someone unwell at home?"

Dad felt like hanging up saying it was wrong number but he continued "I don't get you!"

"Hmm.. there is this little girl at my home asking me to visit her home.. to check her elder brother," the doctor revealed.

Intrigued, dad asked "Is the girl approx. 5 years old? Is she wearing white gown? But you see, I have only one child! She does NOT have any siblings!"

"Er, I don't know about siblings. But she looks like a 5 year girl... yeah, she's in white gown!"

Dad and mom rushes to the hospital in their Benz. She was forcibly brought back home.

The girl was very upset that her parents didn't care about her brother as well. He was supposedly lying in her room with high fever. He was the world to her! The caring brother visible only to the little girl!

Manikkam to Baadsha

2010-12-21T19:06:00.000+05:30

What motivates soldiers in war field? To fight valiantly! With enormous vigor! Leaving behind their family and wealth at home! Being ready to sacrifice their precious lives!

Is it patriotism? Is it money? Is it fame? Is it ego? Is it satisfaction? Is it a sense of purpose?

Hmmm.. apparently, the most powerful force behind the soldiers' motivation is friendship. They see their friends, with whom they have spent their life 24x7, lying next to them, lifeless with eternal silence or screaming with acute pain for life. The adrenalin rush the soldier experiences can make him do the impossible! This is also well portrayed in the recent movie - Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey.

Oh, yeah! The director of the Ranjni film also used this logic to magically transform Manikkam into Baadsha.

Kalladi

2010-08-29T17:58:00.000+05:30

Welcome back!

Kalladi: Tamil equivalent for "Hit with Stones". I know it rhymes with some names!

The GAMES with all its WEALTH derived from COMMON people, are being played by the colossal corrupt officials. Our politicians are breaking the record in every field - telecom, mining, and now games! Much has been shown in media, debated in news papers - we are simply appalled by the magnitude of the corruption.

The corrupt politicians are afraid of CBI / police, Court & trials, media, opposition party - everything except COMMON man! Because the politicans know that we are true followers of Gandhiji - forgiveness and tolerance (Tolerant to the level of appointing the same minister so that the remaining national spectrum allocation shouldn't be left uncorrupted!) and most importantly indifference. Had Gandhiji been here today, he would have belted all of us for our tolerance and indifference.

Getting back to the games: what should be the way ahead for us, the COMMON people? One way is putting all these controversies at the back-burner and focus on getting the game running - after all, 'It's a matter of National Pride'. Or, teach these politicians a lesson by revolting the game in every way possible as it has been well captured by Chetan Bhagat here.

Agree with Chetan Bhai - Revolt the game! In addition to that, KALLADI - Stone them wherever you see them! There should be nation wide protest against these corrupt politicians - We should bring such a disgrace to them that they should never be able to contest in any election. In fact, they should never be able to get out of their new home i.e. the jail.

Life is what you say it IS!

2009-12-31T02:10:00.001+05:30

This is the 50th post since the birth of "Weekly Whims". It all started off with this post where I resolved to write 50 posts in 2009. This is the 51st post of the year and I can claim that I fulfilled the only resolution of 2009 . Yes, not all the postings were 100% on-time, nevertheless managed to complete a half century! Not all shots were perfect but still not out and kicking.

It wasn't easy for someone like me who is not a professional writer. Yes, definitely not for a lazy bum like me who used his bike to travel distances less than 100 meters. While some posts made sense, some others seemed like fillers. For many weekly posts, I didn't know what to write till I force myself to write, which made me question myself "Why such a resolution? Why such a stupidity?" The answer was always "You said that this is what you will do. Just do it!" Life is what you say it is!

Sure, we can't control everything that happens to us every time. But with whatever random cards we receive from the shuffled pack, we can use our intelligence, judgement, common-sense, intuition and emotions to make it an enjoyable and meaningful game. Ultimately, it's not just about winning the game.. it's all about how well we play the game with what we are provided and what we receive.

Happy New Year - 2010! Have a great year ahead. :)

PS: 2010 will not have a resolution of 50 posts. But will keep the blog rolling as much as possible.

Mad?! You Or I?

2009-12-31T01:29:00.001+05:30

Where are you from?

When I face this question from people outside Tamil Nadu, I have to explain my place with its circumference. So, my answer invariably goes as "Do you know this place called Madurai?"

In spite of frequent visits, Madurai is one of the most confusing cities to me - Not because of its concentric, lotus-like layout of the central part, but because of its well-convoluted & well-congested roads, and innumerable one-ways! Whatever direction you go, you find temple towers, textile shops, mobs of people and idli kadais! I guess the Idli shops gave the city its stature "Sleepless City".

I think the name "Madurai" should resonate with "shopping". First time visitors of Chennai's T.Nagar are invariably surprised by its crowd and copycat shops - Not the one who is familiar to Madurai! If your town is within a circumference of 100 KM of Madurai and if your family has at least 1 woman, you are dead! In the name of shopping, you would be roasted like the poor little thing that is pierced into the grills of the chicken kababs! Just imagine.. You can't complain much; The grilling is slow, grueling and doesn't have any visibility of completion; You just keep going around the same place again and again! When needed, they scrap a portion of your ass(et) i.e. money. You will not be spared till everything can be completely scrapped out of you.

Historically, the city is associated with its great culture -especially amazing temples and tamil poetry. Yes, the temples still remain the same. I doubt the "tamil" aspect of the city. The city's slang doesn't have any resemblance to the poetic tamil. Yes, it's not as scr**ed as Madras Tamil - Nevertheless bad enough that one finds it difficult to associate it with "Sanga Thamizh".

From ancient times, the city is also known for its valor and bravery. I think it's true till date. People's weapons speak more than their mouths - Be it the local thug or the women at home! No wonder, the city has one of the most treacherous political mafias and goondaism. So, given an option, try not to get into any conflict with Madurai-tes. ;)

It's anybody's guess why I like the city irrespective of all its pitfalls. :)

More precious than Gold!

2009-12-19T19:20:00.001+05:30

A friend of mine (who happens to be a working-woman) once asked me - 'I am working. How can my prospective mom-in-law ask me 50 savarans of gold as dowry? I like this guy but this is ridiculous. I can't budge to all his mom's demands just because I like him.'

Fair point. Why should she? But.. till her marriage, she probably can't openly fight with her prospective in-laws. It's a bit ironic that even today, the dowry system hasn't been uprooted in many sections of the society. How can we eradicate it? As the famous dialogue goes - to beat the system, you have to be part of the system. How about showing the greedy in-laws a detailed financial model showing them that the girl is much more precious than the 50 savarans? Here is what the numbers speak.

Ideally, if you are a working woman earning around 20,000 per month, you should ask your in-laws apporx. 1000 savarans (979 to be precise!). Suppose they say that they want 50 savarans, subtract it out and ask for 929!
The Net Present Value - NPV of of the working woman (only the salary included) is Rs. 1.3 Cr while that of 50 Savarans is mere Rs.6.6 lakhs. Nearly 20 times more precious!

In Year 2040, the girl's Cumulative Future Value is around Rs. 13 Crores, while that of the 50 savarans is just 66 lakhs.

If you need the excel sheet to support these figures, let me know (for guys: to convince your parents not to ask for dowry.. for girls: (a) to make their in-laws feel embarrassed when you tell them your NPV or cumulative future value.. (b) to convince your hubby on why he should let you go to work (i.e. if you prefer to work). And if you are a non-working woman, don't bother - your monetary value could be very high as well considering the insane amount of household work you do - from teaching your kids to cleaning the vessels to managing your in-laws!

Hope the figures keep the greedy people's mouth shut!

Assumptions behind the model:

Gold price assumed at current market prices. Inflation assumed at 8% based on historic data from 1970 to 2009. If we ignore the 2008-09 boom in gold price, the figures could be still lower.
Girl's salary per month is Rs. 20,000/- with an increment of 10% per year and every 5 years, she gets a bonus of additional 10%. This is still conservative as wage inflation for Indians is as high as 15-20% these days.
The girl's NPV calculation is very conservative as well. No retirement or pension benefits assumed. Assumed to work only till the age of 55.

Why should Air India be sold?

2009-12-19T17:27:00.001+05:30

Because..

The flight rarely takes off on-time. When it lands, there shall be guaranteed delay! God save you if it is your connecting flight!
The captain realizes that the flight is out of reserve oxygen just before the take-off (and tries to fill it in 20 mins but fails even after an hour..)
The air ghostesses are lazy, completely out of shape (and at times, a rude). Also, they are as oblivious as the passengers on any information about the flight or its timings.
People running the airlines don't have any intension of making it profitable.. Here is a sample: Only airlines with Non-refundable tickets priced higher than refundable tickets..

You need either the Passion or a Focus on Financials or a Sense of Service (to the society) to run an organization. They killed the Passion of Tatas to nationalize the airlines. Of course, they ensured it's running consistently in loss (who cares? after all, it's tax payers' money!). Forget about the sense of Service as the word doesn't feature in the airlines' dictionary. High time to sell the airlines!

730000000000000000000!

2009-12-03T00:11:00.003+05:30

Late in the night, a thief stumbles up on a rich man, takes out his revolver and demands 'Quick.. Get me all your money'. The man replies 'Do you know who I am? I am the Minister of this country.' The thief replies, 'Ok then, get all my money' This may be an old joke, but relevant to this blog.

730000000000000000000. Can you even tell how much rupees this could be? Difficult indeed! According to outlook magazine (source), it's just the portion of Indian public money (in rupees) identified as scam, corruption and other illegal forms since 1992. I was so surprised and disturbed when I read that the money, swindled by some politician, is equivalent to 1/5th of his state's budget. It hits hard as it is one of the poorest states of the country with significant tribal population.

Last week, happened to watch my all-time favorite movie 'Indian' again. What can we really do about these corrupt guys? Capital punishments as in the movies 'Indian' or 'Anniyan'? Don't think any amount of moral lesson is going to change these people.. How about stripping them and run over by road rollers? Stone to death? Throw into hungry tiger's cage? Burn alive? Peel the skin off like an orange? And spray salt and pepper on it? Let the elephant to beat him to death? Suck the blood till nothing is left? Place innumerable needles all over the body? Hang upside down till he dies of hunger? Treat them like a dry fish? Freeze them to death? Tie the 2 ends of his body with the trucks moving in opposite directions? Use like a door-mat in Mumbai local trains or in crowded stations like Dadar or Andheri during peak hours? Chop them into pieces, prepare special hyderabadi human biriyani and serve it hot to animals in the zoo?

All these may sound very violent or inhumane. But can these beings ever be considered human beings?? Also, it's not as if they don't understand what they are doing.. conscious blunders.. they are very much aware that it's against the welfare of the people and society.. Still they do it to satiate their limitless greed.. Moral science, Justice, Systems, Policing, Karma, God etc won't help! Get the force called fear to drive away this greed! Even if the killing is cruel, it's justified as it serves a greater purpose of teaching an important lesson to the rest of the country!

No viboothi please..

2009-11-21T23:58:00.002+05:30

Long live the short stories..

It was my 22nd birthday. I am usually lazy to visit temples. Up on my mom's insistence, we decided to put a salaam to Lord Shiva. It was half past 6 in the morning. After having the quick dharshan of Mr. Shiva and his wife, we sat in the temple. I was half-asleep. When I had my eyes closed, mom thought I was in deep meditation. For a moment, she found a great saint in her son. (After all, she knew that spiritual Guru is not a bad option for an aimless and jobless maverick!) Her short-lived happiness vanished soon and she whispered to my ears "Dei erumai-maadu, ezhunthiri da" (Wake up, you beautiful buffalo!)

I slowly opened my eyes.. Just blocking the view of Shiva was a beautiful young girl in lemon yellow saree. Wow, what a beauty! She was tall, lean and instantly attractive! Maybe a mix of Nandita das and Katrina Kaif, I thought! I felt like being in heaven. For a moment, I wondered whether Lord Shiva, like my mom, mistook my nap as meditation and gave a free pass to heaven. The confusion was resolved by mom's voice 'Let's go!'.

I told her, 'Ma, Dharshan is not yet over. Please wait for another 5 minutes.' My mom didn't have a clue of the Dharshan I was talking about and replied 'As you say - it's your birthday' The lemon-yellow-saree's eyes were completely closed and her lips murmured something. I was watching her closely like a doctor examining the patient. She was done with the Dharshan and was preparing to go around the temple.

I told my mom, 'Get up, mom! Let's go around the temple.' Mom said 'You forgot or what? We have already completed one.' I replied, 'Ma, that was for Shiva.. let's do one for his wife' Mom got a little angry, 'You can't play with the rules of the Gods.. it has to be either 1 or 21 rounds. I don't have time for 21.' Like an unhappy kid who was refused a toy in a shop, I thought of playing tantrums. Realized I was a grown up and hence told my mom, 'Ok then, wait for a minute - Lemme finish the last part of the dharshan.' The last dharshan was delightful.

After the dharshan, we went back home. I felt "what a way to start the year". In a single day, I would have thought about her more number of times than my family and friends put together. While I know it was pure stupidity, I felt it was God's signal for something. (Human beings have the bad habit of referring to God for all favorable reasons). I wondered how can I meet her again - Maybe in the temple again? Why not?

5.30 AM, the next day. The alarm clock started blaring near my ears. My dad, who was used to hearing my alarm at 7.30 was perplexed. But as usual, he chose to ignore - He thought I would snooze it. But I got ready and was ready to leave the house at 6 AM.

Before leaving, I informed my mom, 'Ma, Shiva opened my eyes yesterday in the temple. Decided to go to temple everyday.' Mom gave a doubtful look but didn't inquire further.

I sat in front of Lord Shiva and nearly waited for 30 mins. 300 questions in those 30 mins - Will she come today? Will she come alone? Will it be lemon yellow again? Should I talk to her today? Should I propose to her today itself? Should I ask her name? Will someone in the temple realize my intentions? Will Mr. Shiva will get angry for misusing his temple?..... Before the 301st question, the beauty entered the scene. Sky blue was the lucky color that day. It was a simple chudidhar but I felt it was extremely pride to be chosen by the beautiful lady.

I completely focused on the job at eyes - noticed all the tiny little things she was doing. She went to the Nandi statue in front of Shiva and told her wishes secretly into its ears. I felt like telling her "why do you whisper all your wishes to the lifeless bull?? I'm standing here.. a real bull, who can fulfill all your wishes"

I followed her when she went around the temple. She halted and noticed me following. She gave a look and asked "what do you want?" I have never become so nervous in my life. I didn't know what to say. Just blabbered "some viboothi please" (viboothi is the ash Tamilians wear in the forehead as symbol of God-knows-what). She cleared off the viboothi in her hand to the small stainless steel bowl kept for collecting the viboothi. She replied with her sweet voice "you can take it from there" I thought of asking her "Will you die if you let me take it from your hand? Or will I die if you apply it on my forehead?"

I applied the viboothi distinctively on my forehead. (Till date, I had eaten more viboothi than applying them on my forehead!) I was wondering whether I should apply it all over the body like the Axe deo spray. Will this new spray help the girl fall for me? I also wondered - would viboothi ever come in different variants like Chocolate, Musk, Lemon, Spicy Black, Sports, Cool Blue etc. Before I was back from my dreams, she wasn't there.

I made it a habit to visit the temple everyday. For the entire next month, I was very regular. The schedule was very simple. I would go at 6 AM, dream about her for 20-30 mins, follow her when she went around the temple and most importantly ask for "viboothi please". She never got tired of it. She always pointed to the near by stainless steel bowl. It was a bit confusing - Had she not liked me, she would have shouted at me. At the same time, things haven't improved at all than point to the bowl. Stupid it may sound, but I had resolved to speak to her only when she gave the viboothi from her hand - a gesture of she accepting me.

It was Dec 10. The 31st day of my visit to the temple. My hunch told me something substantial will happen today. She didn't come till 7 AM. I went berserk and searched her all over the temple. Around 7.30, I returned back to our usual place in the temple. There she was - a bit late, but she was dazzlingly beautiful that day. I felt I should tell her my intentions today as things have gone too far.

My heart started beating faster. I was already sweating. May be tomorrow? No, I remembered what my dad used to say "Do it today as tomorrow never comes". (Though I never used it for studying) I slowly approached her. Idiot, you should have at least brought a rose - my mind was getting upset. It immediately contradicted itself - Ignore me. I am a little bastard - go ahead and show your heart to her.. girls like a loving heart more than the roses.

I was very close to her. A cute little girl came running towards the lady. The little girl had a beautiful rose in her hair - I was in 2 minds to pick it from her hair and give it to the lady. At that instance the unthinkable happened. The little girl asked the lady "Who is this uncle, mommy?" For which the lady gave a fitting reply, "Who knows? Maybe a mental case.. poor fellow.. but very religious. Likes viboothi a lot like you.."

That day, before I asked "Viboothi please", the lady offered viboothi. I was very disappointed and said "No viboothi please" and never ever applied that ash on my forehead.

While coming back home, I liberally used all the bad words I know, at the makers of Olay, Santoor, Lakme, Garnier, Fair & Lovely and zillion other products which make it difficult for guys to differentiate between married and unmarried women.

E-nable or E-ngulf?

2009-11-21T20:29:00.001+05:30

Let's think of a common Indian. He can get an entire medical check up done from the click of a mouse; Get an insurance with in 5 mins from online service providers; Can compare the policies to through sites like policy bazaar; Can discover the right rent / price for the house through innumerable tools like Makaan, MagicBricks, 99acres; Find the best loan rates through Bankbazaar; Get the best discounts on books from indiaplaza, flipkart and, best travel options from aggregators like ixigo; Can research about gadgets and gizmos from Naaptol, Compare India and ebay.in; Of course, leading the charts are online banking sites and job portals..

The list keeps growing everyday! Let's call these E-nablers - they simplify the otherwise mundane, tedious tasks. For e.g. to get an overseas travel insurance for my parents, all I had to do was spend 5 mins over internet, which otherwise would have swallowed one day.. If India's E-nablement can be so advanced, no doubt about developed economies.

Ok, let's change gears.. With these E-nablers, people should ideally have more free time than good ol' days.. right? In reality, we spend less and less time in real world. No doubt, E-net is not just an E-nabler, rather an E-ducator, E-ntertainer and E-connector. But aren't these facebook, secondlife, mails, blogs, videos, online news etc etc taking more share of our life than they should ideally take?

[PS: And you now know why the weekly post got delayed so much ;)]

Small world tossing a coin for Mumbai

2009-11-01T13:41:00.002+05:30

It's a small world and we are well connected. Seems like most parts of the world can be reached from the nearest city in less than 48 hours. Very interesting maps here - http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/small-world/. How would the maps look if we include data networks as well such as fibre optic cables, under sea cables, wireless towers etc?

Some tips for M.S. Dhoni here.. Head or Tail? As per the research, you should ask for what's facing up while tossing the coin,

A coin is more likely to land facing the same side on which it started. If tails is facing up when the coin is perched on your thumb, it is more likely to land tails up.

And, here are 50 reasons why Mumbai is City No. 1!

After all, spams aren't bad always!

2009-10-25T19:01:00.001+05:30

Here are some ideas to escape, when you are being asked for Status update by your boss..

Psychological plays: Exploit the weaknesses of your boss. Few samples of HIS weaknesses..
- Forgetfulness? Tell it's the same status as 5 mins before - Let him lose his hair trying to figure out the last status.
- Laziness? Tell you need his feedback on the last update sent. He would never ask where's the status again.
- Micro-management? Preempt him by giving status updates as frequently as possible. Micro managers are typically interested in the quantum of updates than quality.
- Perfectionism? Convince him that quality work needs longer time to get updates.
Technological plays
- Use the technical ignorance of your boss - Say that the status has been updated in the never-heard-before module of frequently-heard utilities like SAP, BI, SalesForce, SharePoint etc. Your boss will frequently talk about them but never understands the head or tail of using them.
- Rely on the unreliable. Spam is one. Windows. Hardware. Software. Mobile phones. There are lots to help you!
Frivolous plays
- Take Boss's diversion OUT: What's your boss interested in? Katrina Kaif? RajniKant? Big Boss? F1? EPL? Sensex? Real Estate?.. There should be few things that excites him more than the appreciation of your boss's boss.
- Keep your diversion IN: "Look" serious at work - It can be GTalk, Facebook, Y! Games or an online Sudoku. After all, status updates are an unproductive usage of one's time!

Crackling Fun-filled Diwali

2009-10-19T19:36:00.001+05:30

Around 1 AM. It's the day following Diwali. We were back from the movie Blue. Like heavy fog in hill stations, the Mumbai streets were filled with thick layer of pollution. "Man, crackers and Fireworks dent our environment" was be our initial reaction. And it's natural for people to resolve to not burst crackers quoting reasons such as Pollution (Air, Noise) and Child Labour. I was just wondering whether bursting them is so bad..

As a kid, I used to love bursting crackers. My place is ~25 km from Sivakasi - with my relative running a fireworks factory, we get loads of crackers for free. The crackers are kept not in small bags or boxes, rather in large jute sacks. Then, for a week, it's complete fun with friends and cousins.. To give you a sample..

Hold the cracker in hand and throw it up in air just before it bursts - You will get chided by the trespassers for doing so
Burst high intensity crackers (such as atom bomb) inside the coconut shell - The kid whose shell couldn't be found out is the winner!
Tie a thread between poles and have rocket / train crackers zooming between them
When you are tired of bursting crackers one by one, take a pile, light it up, run and hide behind your door. You will have real fun! :P

Obviously, all these seem risky today. Nevertheless they are complete fun those days. Even today, while I personally didn't burst crackers, I love watching them sitting on my window. Festivals like Diwali and the associated fun and celebrations like fireworks are the major element of happiness for people, esp. for the middle class which travels in metros and other public mass transit systems.

India's 80% of fireworks production seem to be from Sivakasi. People estimate fireworks industry to be ~Rs 1,500 Cr. (Source: ET, I'm pretty sure some consultant would have done the estimate. Neither can we accept nor deny! Turns out to have a per capita consumption of Rs. 12 in India. If we assume 20% of the population bursting crackers, it would be a reasonable Rs 60/- per head). This industry is the bread and butter for some 40,000 people in and around Sivakasi. With increasing awareness on environmental issues, this is not going to be a growth industry (This year they have estimated a drop in 20-30% in sales due to awareness programs and poor monsoons). On top of it, it is one of the most difficult businesses to be in - safety and legal issues, constant threat from activists, need for continuous innovation and some levels of copying from Chinese industry. Life is really tough for these people. While the economical impact from this industry may seem minimal on the country's economy, at the individual family levels, the problem could be intense.

So, to summarize, blindly saying "Don't burst Crackers" (Or increase taxes to reduce consumption) is like saying "Stop traveling in cars" or "Close down thermal power generators". It's not to downplay the ill-effects on environment. It's just to say that our efforts should be to find out economically viable alternatives than to shun the crackers. How about Eco-friendly crackers, Smoke-less crackers, Noise-less crackers, Fire-less crackers.. but all of them completely Fun-filled! :)

Visualizations

2009-10-07T18:57:00.005+05:30

Stumbled upon an interesting site providing interactive graphs.. Just to give you a flavor, few examples:

Cumulative Emissions by country in the last 250 years - US alone has contributed to 30% of emission, top 3 countries contributed to nearly half, and top 6 to nearly two-thirds. So today, when the top emission countries preach to developing nations to look after their emissions, it's like a serial rapist advising people to follow celibacy.

Shakespeare's Favorite words - Yeah, the word "Love" is the clear winner. Distant competitors are "Beauty", "Mine", "Sweet", "Eyes" etc

Alcohol Consumption Worldwide - Do you believe that world-wide per capita consumption is the highest in Uganda? People in Uganda drink 60 times an average Indian drinks. (Poor India ranks 157 out of the 182 countries considered - I'm pretty sure the consumption of our special rural preparations such as toddy, kallu etc are not taken into account. It grossly underestimates the capabilities of people in Rural India - I know of few villages where most men easily drink couple of liters of kallu everyday, whose alcohol content easily outweighs the drinks in developed nations). Most of the European countries rank top in the list.

In a second

2009-09-27T16:33:00.001+05:30

Life can change in a second. It's the theme of the ads of Tata DoCoMo, which introduced per second billing in India. It is an immediate success in India.

Hmm.. Life can change in a second. How true it is! Irrespective of how hard / long you think and plan, all it needs to make a life changing decision is a second. :P

Listen to Learn!

2009-09-24T16:50:00.001+05:30

Last week had been quite a bit of travel. Talking to people of diverse nature is quite an experience. From a 3rd standard little boy to college friends to the practical cousins to the elderly aunts & uncles, people carry interesting thoughts about world. Of course, they vary quite a bit in their concerns and opinions. Nevertheless, a lot can be learnt by listening to people!

People are paid pico peanuts!

2009-09-13T21:51:00.001+05:30

4 AM! Everyday! When you and I would be fast asleep! It is the time when the farmers / vendors from the near by villages reach Dadar Station in Mumbai and try to sell their basket of vegetables. Selling is not an easy job! Irrespective of the freezing cold or the scorching sun or ruthless rains, they just need to sell. Competition is very stiff with a very long queue of people sitting on the floor and selling - Less to differentiate one from another - everyone competes on the price. And their business risk is no less! They take a huge inventory risk - If you don't sell by end of the day, it's GONE for one and all. For the kind of hard work and the risk, are they reaping enough returns? Single and simple answer is NO!

Look at artisans, people who are skilled at making handicrafts. Or the person who repairs your watches. Or a weaver. Or a factory worker - In chemicals factories. In biscuits companies. They make TANGIBLE things and are SKILLED at making them. You and I can't imagine being skilled like them. Nevertheless they get paid in fractions of what you and I would get paid for.

The last category is the most difficult of the three. People who do the toughest, most risky jobs and the jobs people feel uneasy to do. To give a flavor of what I have in mind: Sweepers / scavengers in a city like Mumbai with large slums like Dharavi and Govandi. Or workers who migrate from villages to cities for the construction of high-rise buildings, [each of which, unfortunately seems to suck the lives of at least few workers during the construction - nobody cares about them and the death news is never made public]. Or those who work in dangerous environments like mines, fireworks / fuel / power plants. Their lives are more vulnerable than ours. Still they get paid in peanuts. In relative terms.

So, it's not the hard work, the risk taking abilities, the skills or the vulnerable jobs, which decides the level of salaries / returns. Then, what's deciding them?

Intelligence is probably a necessary condition. Today's information age has definitely placed undue weightage to intelligence than others (probably it's supply-demand equation!) Second is Environment (e.g. your family, school, college, friends etc) and the exposure, support and guidance it provides. Third is what they call Luck - the timing and the opportunity. Unfortunately, you don't have too much control over these three.

I am not downplaying the importance of hard work and attitude. Yes, they are necessary and important. Just that they don't play the primary roles, they should ideally be playing. At least, when it comes to Money!

It is very hard to accept it. The only way I put myself to peace is by telling - after all, money is not everything!

Sachin's 25+25.. Shouldn't it be 26 + 26?

2009-09-06T03:34:00.001+05:30

Yesterday Sachin suggested a new format for One day cricket - i.e. to have two 25 over innings to ensure fairness and avoid un"due" advantage for toss-winners. Few more ideas to make cricket a "Fair" game:

West Indies team should be banned since there are no "fair" players. South Africa can play provided it has all fair players in its squad. India won't have a problem since players who are not fair can use one of the innumerable number of creams available in the market (Yes, fairness guaranteed in 7 hours flat!)
Current format is unfair to bowlers - i.e. only batsmen have gloves, helmet, pads, in addition to something called "bat". To make it a "fair" game, (a) batsmen have to be made "handsmen" to hit the ball with hand OR (b) the bowlers have to be given gloves, and an instrument (like a revolver) to shoot the ball.
Existing format is favorable to big-hitters. When the ball is bowled at 140 Kmph, it's not difficult to hit fast / hard. What's difficult is to hit it slow / light i.e. "contain" the ball at such high speeds. The ground should have concentric circle. If the ball is contained within the innermost circle, the player gets 10 runs! The farther it goes, lesser the runs!
2 Vs 11 players. Bowlers get moral support on the ground while batsmen don't. Unfair to the batsmen indeed! After every ball, batting side captain should be allowed to talk to the batsmen. Better would be to allow all the 11 players from the batting side to be on the field. Similar to how the bowling team is trying to stop the ball from reaching boundary, the batting team will try to send the ball to boundary - it would be a truly team game.
The current format is unfair to umpires in multiple ways. (a) The elderly umpires with tainted eyesight have to see where the ball lands / travels in such a large ground and that too, 360 degree from the center of the ground! Either the ball size is to be increased and colour changed to some fluorescent green or flashy orange OR they should be given electronic high resolution binoculars fitted with sensors which can track the balls automatically (b) There is "man of the match", but there is no "umpire of the match" or "man of umpiring" - so, should give an award to the umpire who gives the most number of OUTs and/or boundaries.
It's called "ODI" - "One Day International" - irrespective of whether it's a day match, night match or day/night match. It's completely unfair for the nights. So, usage of the term ODI should be banned.
Cricket seems to unfairly rhyme with wicket. Apart from wicket, there are important aspects in the game like score, ball, bat etc.. So, to make it fair, we should have names like Cricore, Criball, Cribat, Critumps etc
Bowler should be allowed to stand and throw the ball, while batsman has to run and swing the bat in a specific manner to hit the ball - Any player with suspected action in swinging the bat has to go through grueling session by ICC to get cleared for playing in any international matches.
Instead of ball being thrown, the bat has to be thrown to hit the static ball.
Last but not the least, why should it be stopped at 25 in Sachin's suggestion? Isn't it unfair to the letter "Z"? We should have 26 big overs (overs can be called "over C", "Over R" etc) and 26 small overs ("over m", "over t" etc)

The list can go on and on... The game can be made fairer by having less of the existing cricket elements and more of elements copied from other games such as foot ball, tennis etc. Nevertheless, cricket is such a complex game that it can never be made fair to everyone. Btw, who said life and cricket are always fair? That's where the fun lies!

The impressive 50!

2009-09-02T10:54:00.001+05:30

Was pretty impressed by the last issue of Outlook Business magazine - it has come up with the stories of 50 social entrepreneurs in India. If you have missed the print version, don't miss it online:

http://business.outlookindia.com/content.aspx?site=2&issue=5021

Quite amazed at the ideas, intelligence, passion, energy and the conviction of these entrepreneurs towards larger social causes. Definitely, a lot to learn from these people.

My favorite picks for the list:

A School For Principals: Fixing India’s education system—one principal at a time
Rustic Voice: Winds of change are blowing through this Tamil Nadu village, thanks to a rural BPO. The venture has made a big impact both socially and commercially
Web Of Development: How one man spawned 20 businesses, 4,618 self-help groups, 75 market committees, 19 cooperatives, two societies and one company
The Fair Price Shop: He wants to make Bihar the vegetable capital of India. And give all—farmers, vendors, consumers—a fair deal
Building Bridges: LabourNet links informal sector workers and customers seeking their services.
A Fab Move: In one stroke, William Bissell solved a supply problem and made proud shareholders out of thousands of artisans
King Of Hearts: Dr Devi Shetty’s Narayana Hrudayalaya mends hearts—low-cost and on a large scale
Bank At The Doorstep: Fino’s army of 6,000 agents is bringing the unbanked and the underserved into the financial services fold—by going to them
Little Mac: He wants to do a McDonald’s with low-cost and clean products for the poor
Clothes For Work: Anshu Gupta collects clothes for the needy and gives them a lifeline

Text courtesy: Outlook Magazine

Was just reminded of the 2 gem of the professors at IIMB who introduced us to social entrepreneurship - Should salute them - Prof. Srinivasan R and Prof. Trilochan Sastry.

Kanthasamy - Konnect missing saamy!

2009-08-23T23:18:00.001+05:30

Managed to watch the much-awaited Tamil movie 'Kanthasamy' starring Vikram and Shriya. Touted as a stylish flick with a social message, the movie is a good time pass. It is a movie on black economy and how the hero, like Robin Hood, uses his brain and skills, to help bridge the huge disparity between rich and poor.

Ok, this post is not going to be the review of the movie. It is more on the core social problem that the movie is trying to address. In my opinion, the movie takes a myopic view in concluding that "money", "rich people" and "black economy" are the reasons for poverty.

Poverty is the most difficult social problem, in fact, the core of all the social evils. In my opinion, there is poverty / poor people because of 3 major reasons (in descending order of priority):

Poor people themselves
- People don't make an earnest effort to come out of poverty - due to either laziness or accepting it as fact of life. (The 3rd reason could be lack of opportunity, which is more related to #2, #3 below). Just to give an example, many beggars or slum-dwellers do so because they DECIDE to do so.
- The lack of effort stems from ignorance, which in turn boils down to lack of education. The ultimate culprit of poverty! (By "education", I didn't mean just going to school - I meant a combination of "Practical knowledge", "Learning", "Exposure", "Skill development", "Removing Ignorance")
Government, Social & Political Structure
- Politicians don't want people to come out of poverty and their ignorance, as people becoming intelligent would endanger their existence. And this could be one of the reasons why many of the governments and politicians don't make any drastic measures to improve the current state of affairs.
- Second is a structural problem. It's an age long, classic debate on "Socialism" Vs "Capitalism". Some people believe that "Socialism" could be the elixir to solve the problem of poverty. If things have to be distributed equally, there is never going to be wealth in the truest sense. There needs to be incentive for people's hard work, efficiency and constant strive for improvement. At the same time, I don't believe that a pure play capitalism is the right way to go. The right mix, as they say - a "right" regulated free market, will be the life saver. And yeah, it's not easy to get the "right" structure but I feel our governments does a very poor job in getting a reasonable structure.
Rich people / Business Organizations
- This is what Kanthasamy movie is talking about. Illegal hogging of money and resources by few greedy people - They evade tax, exploit human and natural resources. While it's clear that black economy is not good for the overall economic system of the country (and in its worst form could cripple the entire economy of the country), it's a bit debatable that it IS the cause for economic disparity:(a) Significant number of "poor" people are involved in the activities related to black economy (b) With its poor execution capabilities, sometimes you feel a private player could better utilize the resources than as Taxes in Government's hands. (Not here to argue that Taxes are to be evaded / abolished. No debate at all on the existence of "Government" and "Taxes" as its financial means of existence - Just a thought to counter the argument that black economy is the cause for poverty). But yes, fixing this would help reducing poverty given that #2 is fixed.

It's the killer combination of these 3 that makes any practical solution very difficult to implement in our country. Ideally, we 3-way approach is needed to uproot poverty completely.

However, we should appreciate what the movie says in the end - Rich people / organizations should do more social / charity work - An excellent example is adopting villages. Yes, very practical solution! And for that matter, we know lots of socially responsible organizations like Infosys, Wipro, ICICI, Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, Ford etc. It's important that more organizations involve actively in CSR activities - not just for the sake of name, but with a real intention.

Search Trends

2009-08-16T22:39:00.001+05:30

Hmm.. YouTube is no longer a hotspot only for teens and adults. It's the number one search item by kids too. (For the top 100 keyword search by kids, click here. 5 out of top 100 are searches for YouTube. This list would be useful for parents to understand kids' world). The top categories of search are related to popular TV channel's programs, singers, games, social networking sites. And of course, the kids are quite curious to know about sex & porn. I couldn't find any supposedly education or learning related searches by kids. ;)

Studying the search trends of people is a good time pass and does give great insights about what people use Internet for. For e.g. today's Google Trends (for India - ALL people, not just kids) lists the following top 20 items

Three out of the top 10 is about cricket. At least half a dozen belong to colleges & admission. Quite interesting that 2 of the searches are related to Tamil movies (Aadhavan, Pokkisham) even at a national level. Seems like people want to download "Kaminey" barely 2 days after the release. Nokia seems to be the hot search term, not just for the day, but in aggregated terms for the last few years

History will repeat if you don't...

2009-08-09T23:07:00.001+05:30

This has been a weekend of depression and economic uncertainty. While I (or for that matter, the entire world) had been directly and indirectly affected in many ways due to the economic slow down, I haven't read a full-fledged book on this topic. Yep, finally got to read a couple of books on this. One was by the renowned business advisor, Ram Charan titled Leadership in the era of economic uncertainty. Another by the famous NY Times OP-ED columnist, the last year's Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman - The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008.

While both the books had the tone of what to do and not to do in times of crises, the two looked at the issue in the completely different manner. Charan looks at things at micro level - Less factual, more pin-pointed advices to leaders - More futuristic on what one should do. Krugman's treatment is fully macro, highly factual - More historic on what one should NOT have done. First one is very light and told in plain simple language for a 'Manager' (Read as a person who is intellectually deficient, one who doesn't have patience to understand the intricacies). Latter one is a bit involving, nevertheless not targeted only for economics students. Both are very interesting reads. I would suggest both of them.

One thing came out very clearly out of these 2 books. However painful, the downturn had and has been, be it for a nation, or a business, or even at a personal level, it does have its doses of lessons to be learnt. It's a period which helps identifying who you are and what you truly stand for. It's period in which one has to deeply think and prepare oneself not just to cope up with the current downturn but also to emerge stronger when things resume - The downturn needs not just mental prepared to escape it, rather the courage, the risk-taking ability, unconventionality, innovation and swiftness to emerge stronger. Last but not the least, history will repeat itself till you learn the lesson. Just that it could become harsher each time.

Bhivpuri Trek cum Rappelling

2009-08-03T11:41:00.001+05:30

It's a place called Bekare, 2 kms from Bhivpuri station, which is around 80 Km from Mumbai. It's one of the best places to visit during monsoons - Lush but not dense forest, gushing but not violent waterfalls with occasional villages in between. Nisarga Bhraman made all the arrangements for the trip and there 7 of us from ATK. Rather than writing too much, let the pics do the talk.

Getting ready in the crowded Dadar station..

Reached Bhivpuri station

Wow, what a transformation from a crowded city to this awesome village!

Reached the base camp by auto and now time to trek for 1-2 km by the sides of a stream..

You get occasional glimpses of cattle crossing streams and having a soothing bath!

On the way to the base of the waterfall..

Reached the base of waterfall

Almost on top..

A natural pool to relax at the top.

Time to rappel down!

All friends rappelled down as well..

After the rappelling and sumptuous lunch, we headed for a trek in the rains. Once we reached the top of the hill, we were speechless -the place was completely green with grass, accompanied by mild breeze and drizzle. We lied down in the grass. Yes, one could call it a heaven. (Oops, we didn't take any pictures!)

And by the evening, we were back to base camp and we reached our respective homes by 9 pm! Yes, the Sunday was a real fun day!

அம்பி, நம்பி, தும்பி, தம்பி!

2009-07-27T00:21:00.003+05:30

(1) ஆரம்பித்தான் அம்பி..

பிறப்பு முதல் இறப்பு வரை,
குழவி முதல் கிழவி வரை,
நாடு முதல் காடு வரை,
சாலை முதல் சோலை வரை,
அரசன் முதல் ஆண்டி வரை,
அனைத்தும் தேடல் தான்!
தேடி, ஓடி, நாடி, வாடி
முயன்றான்! முடியவில்லை!
முடிந்ததில் மகிழ்ச்சி இல்லை!
பிறப்பு முதல் இறப்பு வரை தேடல் தான்!

(2) நடுவில் நுழைந்தான் நம்பி..

குழந்தைக்கு பொம்மை மீது
குமரனுக்கு பெண்மை மீது

வண்டுக்கு மலர்ச்செண்டு மீது
நண்டுக்கு மாமிசத்துண்டு மீது

நதிக்கு கடல் மீது
பதிக்கு ஊடல் / கூடல் மீது

கலைஞனுக்கு கதை மீது
கவிஞனுக்கு கவிதை மீது

குயிலுக்கு பாடல் மீது
மயிலுக்கு ஆடல் மீது

பிறந்தவனுக்கு பொருள் மீது
துறந்தவனுக்கு அருள் மீது
இறந்தவனுக்கு இருள் மீது

அனைத்தும் காதல் தான்..

அன்பு, ஆசை
நோக்கம், ஏக்கம்
மோகம், தாகம்
பல பரிமாணங்கள்
ஆககல் முதல் அழிதல் வரை
அனைத்திற்கும் அஸ்திவாரம் காதல்!

(3) தூங்கி விழித்தான் தும்பி..

கருவறை நுழைய.. செய்தேன்
எண்ணிலடங்கா விந்துக்களோடு!

அன்னை கவனம் பெற.. செய்தேன்
அன்பு சகோதரனோடு!

விளையாட்டில் வெற்றிபெற.. செய்தேன்
அடுத்த வீட்டு பையனோடு!

தேர்வில் முதல் வர..
தோழமையில் பிடிப்பு வர..

காதலியை கை பிடிக்க
கயவர்களின் கை ஒடுக்க

மக்களை பாதுகாக்க
மாக்களை சாதுவாக்க

தன்னை உயர்த்த
பெண்ணை ஈர்க்க

மண்ணை வெல்ல
விண்ணை வீழ்த்த

செய்தேன் நாளும் பொழுதும்!
மோதல்!

வாழ்க்கை என்பது மோதல்!
மேதை டார்வின் சொன்ன மோதல்!

(4) தடுமாற்றம் இன்றி தலையசைத்தான் தம்பி..

தேடல்
காதல்
மோதல்
சாதல்

இது மட்டுமல்ல வாழ்க்கை..

இவை அனைத்தையும் உட்கொண்டது!

மேலும்..

உத்தமமானது, உயர்வானது!
இயற்கையானது, இனிமையானது!
சொல்ல போனால், எளிதானது!

வாழ்க்கை என்பது "வாழ்தல்"
உனக்காகவும், ஊருக்காகவும்!
உண்மையாக, உயிரோட்டமாக!
விழிப்பாக!
நிகழ்காலத்தில்!

Your ideas for new jobs?

2009-07-20T00:44:00.001+05:30

From Lower Parel, my friend S and I asked the taxi-wala to take us to Kamathipura (Near Mumbai Central) - He gave a shocked look but drove us there without speaking much, but he refused to get inside the lane after reaching the entrance. We finally ended up walking through the slums to reach the 13th lane where the Chandramani Municipal school is located. Seems like the 15th lane is one of the most well known red-light areas in Mumbai. Chandramani school houses many social initiatives for the underprivileged children and youth from the near-by areas.

One such initiative is Smile foundation's STeP program (http://smilefoundationindia.org/e_learning.htm ), which is "an effort towards creating a pool of employable youth from the underprivileged section" Through the organization, we met a group of ~20 youth - Many of them were a bit shy and maybe low on confidence, but full of determination in their eyes to learn and get ahead in life. We decided to help in whatever small way possible. As many of them were in the age group of 18-22 and were doing / have done HSC / Bachelors, their major concern was "How can I get a decent job?"

For any job, 3 things are needed: Preparation, Provision and Presentation. How can we help those youth in these 3 areas? In our first interaction, we chose the "Presentation" esp. Interview and communications skills - We did a decent job with mock interviews, Dos and Don'ts of interviews etc. (Back at IIMs, when we had insane iterations of writing resumes, we used to crib "what a waste of time" - It's not a waste anymore: we hope that experience helps us develop resumes to make a difference to these youth)

Through future interactions, we are planning to join hands with Smile foundation to help the youth "prepare" for the job and "provide" them with relevant opportunities. These two depend a lot on the kind of job they are keen on taking up. When we asked "what kind of job do you want?", many of them were clueless, while few of them said "Retail management". One of the guys confidently said that he would like to work for the city center mall, which was just a km away from the school. I wasn't sure whether he is exposed to all kind of opportunities.

Just to repeat: the youth under consideration are are 18-22 years old with very basic English / computer skills. Many of them had studied commerce in their HSC. There are more women than men. Our challenge for the next interaction is to figure out the potential list of jobs / careers that these youth can aim for. Some of the ideas that popped up during our return journey were Retail, Restaurants, Malls, Accounting, Automobiles, Textiles etc. But traditional way of thinking is not be good enough! We need simple but smart new ideas.

You got an interesting one? Please share with me.

Reviving Virudhunagar

2009-07-18T01:16:00.001+05:30

<<Post delayed due to my mini-vacation at home>>

For people who don't know: I hail from a place called Virudhunagar (VNR), a remote town with less than a lakh population and about 50 KM south of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. Recently visited my home town after a long time - Was wondering how the town has changed over the last 10-20 years.

Let me start with the education in VNR. A large number of people in the town spent insane amount of time and money to build free schools offering quality education. No wonder the Ex-TN CM Mr. Kamaraj was born here. Do you believe that such a small town had once produced many IIT students and NTSE scholars, all through free local coaching? While JEE coaching is no longer available in the town for the last 15 years, the town continues to get reasonable success with NTSE.

Today, my school is glimmering with lots of new buildings, new tie and lots of young staff . Also, it's now the proud host of the annual, month-long-exhibition during summers. The pink color half-sarees have vanished from our main rival school. I am sure the rivalry between the 2 schools would continue as long as the human race continues to have men and women. Ok, to put it differently, I feel the town is yet to see a good co-ed school.

Today, the town also has a technology / engineering college. You may ask which town doesn't have one today! Still, this one is special as it's not promoted by a cine-actor or a wealthy business man. Am very delighted to know that the college has established a name for itself within years of commencement.

While it feels nice to bask on the good things of the town, there are areas where it is significantly laid back - conspicuous among them are Infrastructure and Economy.

You see excellent highways till the point you reach the town. Just when you think things have improved, you are in for a rude shock. Be it roads, water, drainage or power, I see least difference from the town 20 years back and now. I know it's not just the bane of my town, but for many towns in India. Nevertheless, I am very disappointed with the mountainous corruption and the lousy job carried out by the politicians and the officials.

It's quite unfortunate that even with a good bunch of smart people, the town hasn't made much economic progress - the real economic growth has been pretty stagnant over the decade or so. The town once had the advantage of being the manufacturing center of edible oil and a trading hub of almost anything tradable. While it still has some dominance over oil production (thanks to companies like Idayam group), the trading business is dwindling at a phenomenal rate. Yes, thanks to the trend of disintermediation in today's businesses.

Added to the woes are the emerging demographic profile of the people - As one of my old teachers said, "Today's youngsters with decent education no longer prefer to stay in the town." Decreasing percentage of working population could have following implications:

On demand side: Consumption shifts predominantly towards essential commodities and healthcare (sounds like the economies of Italy / Japan?). This leaves the town with significantly limited business opportunities (as Government plays a significant role in both of those sectors.)
On supply side: The town as a whole could become more risk averse - could lead to slowing of innovation, entrepreneurship, pursing new business opportunities and ultimately very low capital investment

These two implications are not independent and once they get into a cycle, they could produce disastrous results.

Oh, enough of cribbing about the problems. Are there ways to get out of this cycle and revive the town. Of course, where there is a will, there will be a way! Here are some quick ideas which can be explored..

First and foremost: For anybody in the who town wants to do something good: please forget all your politics, ego and constant complaints and join hands with each other to do something constructive. It's high time you work for the people than your name and fame. [I know there are still many people doing excellent job with good intentions - but a better coordination and a swift action at war pace is required to achieve anything significant!]
Next, create a master plan for the growth / revival of the town with clear milestones. It needs to take the inputs of, and have plans / benefits for all stakeholders - politicians, public servants, business entities, women, students and children. Everyone cooperates, contributes and benefits.
Please be ready to develop new skills than preparing & eating "poricha" parotas (i.e. fried Indian Bread) We need to have more skill development programs for students and adults. Create crucibles for generating ideas and businesses. The program should develop real confidence and capabilities for the participants.

And a last one...

With economy being the backbone of the entire issue - Once it's revived, there is a good chance of the overall revival. I feel VNR needs to choose and specialize in a new industry. And it can't rely on its internal consumption to grow further. It needs to get synonymous with an industry - the likes of Tiruppur and Sivakasi or Kanchipuram or Naamakkal. It should use the existing capabilities and resources in the best way possible to create a not-so-easy to replicate idea / industry. It needs to create a niche for itself. Let's explore options..

Primary sectors? With unfavorable weather, land and poor supply of weather, pure play agriculture would be a distant dream. Nor do we have oil or forest. However agribusiness and food processing (can be categorized as Manufacturing as well) seem like potential candidates. India with its humongous population and very poor food processing capabilities, it's seen as one of the sunrise sector. The town's history of trading in agricultural products should help in its favor.
Tertiary sectors?
- Trading? Retail or Wholesale? Yeah, it had been our bread and butter in the past. But with the changing structure of industries, having a centralized trading hub seems impractical. With the advancement of technology, there is less opportunity which is aligned with existing people's capabilities. So, for now, it is ruled out.
- Services? How about IT, Hospitality, Finance, Entertainment or Healthcare etc? Sounds interesting and new - But do we have enough skilled labor pool? I doubt it. Yes, we can create yet another Rural BPO, but creating the likes of Bangalore or Gurgaon for IT doesn't seem feasible. I didn't mean we should shun any opportunities in services. Just that it being a differentiator for VNR in the short to medium term is questionable. Also, the development won't be inclusive of the entire population.
Secondary sectors?
- Manufacturing? I think it's good way to go. Its proximity to 3 ports in South India and the well laid out rail and road network should benefit geographically. The existing cost of land and labor are very low as well. I think manufacturing industries such as food / dairy processing, mass electronic / semiconductor products, cement / concrete products (there are some 3-5 cement factories near by), Health / personal care products, Furniture / durables etc are good candidates.

We just need few historians, technological experts, economists and business minds to sit together, brainstorm and identify THE industry. If the right industry is clearly identified and properly planned and executed, it could the revival, the people in the town have been looking for!

The Nomad in a Saree shop

2009-07-05T20:44:00.001+05:30

There could be hardly anyone who is not mesmerized by the Tamil song 'Kangal Irandal' from the movie 'Subramaniya Puram'. My friend J said the movie is rocking in Kerela these days. We decided to catch up the movie 'Naadodigal' (Means "Nomad"), starring Sasikumar, who was the director of 'Subramaniya puram'. What an environment! Have never seen such a crowd in Mumbai enjoying the movie to the fullest - It's a different experience to watch it with a crowd that whistles, shouts, claps and creaks for a significant portion of the movie. Beautiful interweaving of comedy, friendship and love - the necessary ingredients of Tamil cinema - but doesn't feel unnatural like the usual masala movies. The movie made me think for a while.. about the friendship as portrayed in the movie. I am sure it would definitely bring back the memories of some good old friends to anyone. It's is a must-watch for its wonderful first half.. second half is overly emotional and doesn't hurt one giving it a miss!

Oh, ok.. Let me come to title of the post. Mom told me over phone "Need to buy sarees for your sisters da. I am bored of the sarees in Tamil Nadu (Truth is that she would exhausted all the categories in TN!) Why can't you get some designer sarees from Bombay? They look very beautiful with Priyanka and Aishwarya." I felt "you didn't get anyone else to get sarees huh?" But decided to get it as my mom rarely asks me to do anything. Of course, I needed guidance - I asked her "which colour? what type? Give me all spec" Her reply, "Can't decide based on colour da. You look and decide. It should be designer saree. Different from what you are seeing in TN". I soon realized that either she won't give me the exact spec or her way of giving it won't help me choose. I said "Ok, ok. I will get 2". I thought for a moment whether I should take any of my female colleagues / friends to help me pick the saree. Decided against it as I would end up spending more time in shopping than doing it myself.

We were done with the movie and walking back home. It was a reasonably big shop in Matunga in Mumbai - with its two floors and glass windows, one can clearly see the flashy display of dozen sarees - For a moment, I had a doubt - was it really a saree shop or could it be a curtains shop? I double checked - Yes, it was a saree shop. The word "sarees" was mentioned in the board and I saw the dolls inside the shop wearing sarees. I entered the shop. The sales men were a bit surprised. With a doubtful look, one of them asked "Yes Sir" (To me, he sounded like "No, we don't need any management consulting. We are better today without them!"). I told myself "Act like a customer, man!" - I replied "Yes, I am looking for 'designer' sarees". The term "designer" was the highest technical term I know of in sarees. With his next question, he bumped me off really - "What material sir? zsdfsdfs.. or asdfsdfds.. or asdd.." All sounded Greek and Latin to me. Didn't want to show him my ignorance. Replied "Well, good to know that you have all these categories! I am pretty flexible - Show me all of them. I will decide."

My reply made the shop keeper a bit doubtful. He continued, "What is your budget?" Again, I didn't want to sound silly by telling arbitrary numbers. Told him, "I am flexible with budget as well. If I like something, I will pick." My broken hindi with a liberal mix of English words should have revealed my identity to the next sales man. He asked "Sir, Tamil ah neega?" (Are you a Tamil?) I asked "Will the reply get me additional discount?" Nitin (the boy's name) replied "No sir but I can help you select". Thus began our saree selection process.

Within a minute, the first saree was chosen. It matched all the criteria - (a) Yes, it has lots of "designs" - "designer" saree criteria matched (b) Have never noticed that kind of sarees in Tamil Nadu - "it should be different" criteria matched (c) For a couple of seconds, I imagined whether it would look good with my sis - "Yes" was the intuition. Deal was done. Nitin was pleasantly surprised - he didn't have to put any effort to sell the saree to me. I told Nitin, "I really like this saree. If you manage to get me any other one as good as this, I will pick that as well"

Nitin tried showing a couple of other sarees. I soon realized it won't help. I told him - "Wait, I will have a look at them from the shelf itself." A quick glance - Nothing matched the first saree. I said, "let's pack". He said, "Sir, I will take you to another shop of ours."

The other shop. Packed with ladies. (Before a new sales man was allotted to me, I overhead the chaotic discussions and innumerable requests of ladies like open this, fold this, show it up, show it down, show under white light, show under yellow light, show without lights, show with that border, show with this combination, that design, more sober etc. Man, women are really artistic and selective.) Again, I picked up a new saree in a couple of minutes. This time I wanted to act a little more artistic - I asked him "Can you open it up and show" - He opened and showed. With a surprise, I asked "What is this? You try to cheat huh? Half of the saree doesn't have any designs. It's plain simple inside!" He, with a bit of giggle and an inch of smug, said "no sir, this comes inside like how it was inside when folded". I tried to make up saying "yeah, I know that. But this one seems to have less designs than its peers". He was like "No sir, nothing like that. Do you want to measure it?" I promptly replied, "I trust you, man. Please pack both the sarees!"

The sales owner was stuck in awe. He had a reasonably good sales with least effort - neither his shop's space was occupied nor his sales men were pained. I thought I should add atleast some value - I told the shop keeper, "Dude, do you know how much of your operational expenses been saved due to this sales? You should give me some better discount." Owner with his wide smile said, "Sir, we already have the best price. Have given you 20% discount already. Can't reduce further" - I continued, "Hmm.. You should encourage valuable customers like me. If you give me better price, there is a good chance that I would come again." With a wide grin, he said, "Sure, sir.Please. Definitely come again" Sarees were packed and I was about to move out - the fellow customers in the shop still couldn't believe someone picking up 2 sarees in no matter of time. The owner handed over a voucher worth 1000 bucks. I knew he won't do it but I still asked, "Can I redeem it against the current bill." To which, he promptly replied, "No sir, this is for your next purchase" I smiled and said "Thanks!" I was telling myself, "Will I come again or not. It all depends on how well the saree is being received!" ;)

Will Google "Square" Off Wolfram Alpha?

2009-06-28T14:19:00.001+05:30

Semantic search and structured results are finally becoming reality - from re-search papers to real-search engines!

If you haven't tried Wolfram Alpha, give it a try. It is too good with some certain predetermined set of queries. Like:

But... be ready to accept its "no results" for 90% of your queries. Yes, it would be premature to expect it to be on par with Google when it comes to the results. We should call it a good analytical tool than a result-fetcher.

Of course, there are other semantic engines - Hakia, SenseBot, PowerSet (now part of Microsoft), DeepDyve, Cognition. But they don't seem to be very impressive (except maybe Hakia), as they are too limited in their capabilities or they have very narrow focus like Health, legal etc. It could take few more years for them to be more useful.

Google also revealed its baby from its labs called "Google Squared". It still may not be categorized as full-fledged semantic engine. All it does is present the results in the form of a table and you can define columns. Hmm, seems very exciting and does have very high potential. Suppose you want to get all Bollywood stars along with their personal details like DOB, whom they are going around with now - you can get it in single click. Fastest way to get gossips huh? Or if you want find all the companies in Sensex with their market cap, revenues, profit and P/E ratio, it's again, a single button away! But wait.. "Squared" is still at its infancy - For most of the queries, it does returns results, but the results are completely arbitrary. For. e.g. when you try the following query -
http://www.google.com/squared/search?q=indian+software+companies
the results ("squares" as they call it) don't make much sense at all. Again, it would take some years for Google to be synonymous with "squaring" like "searching".

Let's not become over-ambitious. One step at a time. There are existing engines like Hakia, Yahoo Glue Page and Ask which present the search results in a more engaging and useful manner than the traditional view of Google. The latest sensation, Bing, the 2nd innings of Live, the old lady with the sexier outfit, also has some marginal improvements like categorization and mouse-roll-over-summary of search results . Yes, the undisputed leader of search, Google, still needs to catch up with these new ladies.

But you know what... All these knowledge doesn't make me or most of the common people change their search preference. Google is still the King when it comes to the results, the content. Its simple, clean and fast response has been liked by everyone in the past. Will it still be the case in the age of Semantic search?

Re-Cycle

2009-06-21T23:04:00.001+05:30

The first rain of the season. Its smell. The associated cool breeze. Yes, the rains of Mumbai have been pretending, threatening and teasing their arrival for more than 2 weeks. Finally got some minor drizzles over the weekend. What could be a better way than to experience it by Cycling?

What was started as a small eco-friendly initiative has become a real fun weekend activity for my friend R and me. This weekend, we decided that we would cover some of the best places in Mumbai by cycle -

Marine Drive: With its pukka road, amazing breeze and the Arabian sea to watch on your sides, this is clearly the best place to cycle in Mumbai. Ideal time to ride is Sunday early mornings (before sun, with literally no traffic, except fellow people who cycle / jog).
Worli Sea-face: Another good place to cycle by-sea. The stretch is shorter and narrower than Marine Drive. It also gives better residential feel while cycling.
BKC: You would wonder how such a vast commercial place in the middle of the city could still be peaceful, clean and less crowded. Yes, it was.. thanks to weekend. If you ever decide to cycle in Mumbai, don't miss BKC on a weekend.

With cycling, one gets a different feel for the city. I got present to the environment, the roads, the trees, the beauties, the sad states of the city on a scale more than I had ever done while traveling by car / bus / train. Be it the small incline / bumps in the road, or the innumerable gully cricket matches (happening simultaneously in a small ground which you would think is impossible), or the distressing living conditions of the people in slums (even in the areas considered to be upscale in Mumbai), the intensity of the experience is higher.

And even if you are not the type who goes gung-ho about the "experience" of the city, cycling is best as it burns the extra fat than the hydrocarbon. As a matter of Fact, one should give cycling a big thumbs up for multitudes of reason - Fun, Feel, Fuel and Fat. So, what F does it excite you for?

Nice Vs Nasty

2009-06-14T21:07:00.001+05:30

Vikraman, a famous director in Tamil Cinema, known for his movies with feel good factor, makes run of the mill movies appealing to family audience in '90s. The heroes in his movies are so nice to people that you would wonder whether they have any self-respect and why such impracticality. Being nice is ok, but being nice to a girl who ditches and humiliates him is simply atrocious. Yes, happened to watch "portions" of his movie ('Unnai Ninaithu') starring Surya. Man, I should accept that I just couldn't appreciate what the hero did in the movie. It's title of the post - Being Nice vs Nasty. The immediate question that popped up was "Can one be nice to a nasty person and vice versa?" The exploration continued...

Before jumping into the analysis, I feel one should be Natural and Normal before conditioning our responses. However, when we have the option, time and wisdom to think and respond, it does make sense to think which way to respond.

Someone once said "What you give is what you get back" - If not always, it's true in most occasions. Being nice may seem nice as you get back lots of niceties, but in reality, it's a little nasty for 2 reasons: (a) It may not be your "real" response (b) You might spoil the person who should have got it right the first time. It's stupid of you to be nice to your kid who keeps making the mistake intentionally. Or if someone whips on one side of your ass, doesn't make sense to show the other side. You don't have to be nasty, but it doesn't make sense to be nice either.

The positive aspect of nastiness is that it could be very effective learning tool. It prepares us to face the real world. A kid only exposed to niceties from its parents is sure to face a shock when it enters the real world. A bit of nastiness and challenge could hit us hard - to learn, to understand and to mature as a person. The parathas won't have the yummy taste without the beatings it got, nor does the diamond shine without the abrasiveness it faced. Same story with your muscle and gold.

People always mistake whom to show their niceties and nastiness to. We have this insane habit of constantly judging people and rank them vis-a-vis us - from job, money, power and personality to family and friends. Through this comes the fictitious spectrum of superiority and inferiority in people's mind. You would have seen this in roads: Some auto driver hits a car, the rich guy from the car gets out and smashes the driver. Yes, it happens if the driver is meek and poor. Same doesn't happen for a 100 kg sardar truck driver with his muscles trying to break out of the shirt. Similarly, a drunken man slaps his wife but doesn't have the balls to resist when an employer slaps him. A teacher shouts at a student but becomes an yes-women for all the unethical activities of her higher officials. We show our power to the powerless and resist to show where and when it's required or challenged.

A true leader or a person who commands high respect from others never tries to be unnaturally nice to whom he considers his superiors. Nor does he screws the life of other category of people. He would be nice to the less fortunate group; remain confident, not sweeten the words and not lick the ass of the so called superiors.

To summarize, being natural is more important than the other two "N" cousins. What's is easy, favourable and doable may not be the best of the responses and most importantly, we might have to introspect and swap our current way of responses to people.

From the diary of Mr. Gagan

2009-06-07T16:54:00.003+05:30

Jul 20: Today another poor soul joined our security forces. It takes the security personnel count to 5 for this apartment. For an apartment of ~125 houses with 400-500 people, I still believe it's understaffed. For providing round the clock security and maintenance, we people are paid peanuts. Yes, it's not a difficult job to do: opening & closing the gate. Still, we deserve a decent salary. Ok, forget money. At least some respect for the work we are doing!? Hmm.. these bloody residential morons treat us like dogs!

Jul 21: Yesterday was night duty and had a terrible experience with that Saale Sanjay. Rarely does any car come to the apartment after 1 am. It's unfair to expect me to be awake all night! That too, I should open the door at the sound of his car!? Hello, car makers of this world - can you please make some noisy cars than those as silent as hunting tigers? Let me come back to what happened.. He got out of the car, abused me to the core. I couldn't do anything than the apologetic reply of "Sorry saab, won't happen again." I still couldn't forget his last statement 'you sons of b****, you dogs eat like pigs and sleep like buffaloes. From tomorrow onwards, no food before night service.' Yes, I felt like a dog for being dependent on him.. and a buffalo, not for its laziness, but for its thick skin. Oh, God! I hate this job. Will I ever do more than the opening and closing of doors? And than the stupid salutes to these non-deserving people? Will I ever get a decent job?

Jul 22: I think God listened to my prayers. Tomorrow onwards, I will be shifted to Lift operations for wing B. While I am happy to be shifted to a cooler place. But I need to be a little careful, as wing B houses the arrogant auditor and the powerful politician. Our security person Ramu, who was working earlier in Wing B, got slammed every day. He even got slapped couple of times. Let me hope nothing like that happens for me.

Jul 23: I can't do this job. My happiness is very short-lived for a day! This new task, let me tell you, sucks totally. People want the lift to be in their floor the moment they press it. In the morning, every moron invariably shouts "why does it take so much time? you lazy bast***!" This city is impatient, people are impatient. Except may be my lift which is completely patient and takes its own sweet time to move from a floor to another. The universe is against me! City is ruthless full of cruel people. God, save me! Please send me back to my village.

Jul 24: After a long long time, something really nice happened today. For the first ever time, I heard the word "please". While I was stunned and remained speechless at her beauty, she entered the lift and said "Bhayya, 13th floor please". I didn't turn my face and looked at her. But the lift was filled with her brilliant fragrance and an unexplainable cheerfulness. Lift seemed to have reached 13th floor way too faster this time. She smiled and said "thank you bhayya". I replied "welkom madam". For the next 15-20 mins, I was just thinking when the lift would go back to 13th floor. And finally, it went. She entered the lift laughing with a young man. I felt a little dejected. But nevertheless, was happy for seeing her again. The lift started moving down. She asked me "Does the lift operate even during power cuts?". I replied enthusiastically "yes, madam. this is all time work. no rest lift. 24 hours work. security work 24 hours also." She had a mild giggle and said "good good. thanks a lot". I didn't understand why she was giggling, but it was good to watch her that way. For the next couple of seconds, I felt I should have told her "don't worry madam, even if the power back-up doesn't work, I will carry you all the way to floor 13 in my shoulders". She was telling to the man standing next to her, "ok bhayya, i think we should confirm this house for rent. Looks good. Nice location and amenities." I had a sigh of relief.

Sep 24: Nearly two months, since I last wrote my diary. There is a reason why I'm writing this now. Ms. Deepali, who made my heart race when she said "13th floor please", had shifted to the house in 13th floor along with her brother and mom. It's interesting how my life changed after Ms.Deepali shifted here - it has really become a Diwali. It's true that I initially perceived her as a thing of beauty. But soon realized that she's more than that. A person with a beautiful heart. Did I tell you what all she did to me? When I told my sad story to her and that I was in the edge of complete dejection about life, she didn't sympathize with me. She just said 'Who said life is fair and people would be nice to you always? Unless you make an effort, it's never going to change. What's the point in just regretting that you haven't studied? Who is stopping you from studying now? I will sponsor your education through distant learning program. You can use your free time. Will you sincerely make an attempt?' It was the day that changed my life. Still today, I'm pressing the up and down buttons of the lift. But I am doing it happily since it's just a part of my life. My bigger aspiration is to get the bachelors degree in the next 3 years. With the motivation of Ms. Deepali, I am sure to do that as well. After all, the world is not as bad as I thought it to be. There are gems of people. I just need to look around.

For a change..

2009-05-31T21:51:00.002+05:30

For a change, this post is in Tamil. Apologies if you can't read it.

ஆழ் கடல் சூழ்ந்த ஆளில்லா அக்னித் தீவு அது!

அமைதி வேண்டுமென்றேன் அன்று,
அது போதுமென்றேன் இன்று..

அன்னத்தை புறக்கணித்தேன் அன்று,
அது புறமுதுகு காட்டியது இன்று..

பாசத்தில் பற்றில்லை அன்று,
பற்றிக்கொள்ள ஏதுமில்லை இன்று..

இயற்கை சூழவேண்டுமேன்றேன் அங்கு,
சூழ்ந்தது போதுமென்றேன் இங்கு..

தனிமை இனிமை என்றேன் அன்று,
அது இனிக்காது என்வாழ்வில் இன்று..

--
எட்டிய தூரத்தில் படகெதுவும் தோன்றவில்லை..
அருகில் தோன்றிய வானமோ எட்டவில்லை..

புரியும் மொழி பேசிக்கழிக்க தோழன் இல்லை..
எதிரே நின்று பேசும் குயிலின் மொழி புரியவில்லை..

தாகம் தணிக்க தேடிய குடிநீர் கிடைக்கவில்லை..
தேடாமல் கிடைத்த கடல்நீர் தாகம் தணிக்கவில்லை..

சற்று நேரம் களைப்பாற ஒரு மர நிழலுமில்லை..
நித்தமும் எனைத் தொடரும் நிழலோ களைப்பாகவில்லை..

கண் மூடி எனை மறக்க நல்ல படுக்கை இல்லை..
கடல் படுக்கைக்கோ மூடிக்கொள்ள கண் இமையுமில்லை..

வேலை செய்து பிழைக்க வேண்டிய அவசியமில்லை..
அவசியமற்ற இப்பிழைப்புக்கோ இனி வேலைஇல்லை..

--
கண்ணை மூடினேன்
கடலில் மூழ்கினேன்
கழுத்தை நெறித்தேன்
கதிரவன் தோன்றினான்
காலை உதித்தது
கதவு திறந்தது
காற்று வந்தது
கனவு கலைந்தது!

Move on

2009-05-25T13:29:00.001+05:30

Our house was sober on Saturday - It's the house of 3 die-hard fans of CSK. All were deeply disappointed with the dismal performance of CSK in IPL-2 semi-final.

I tried hard to convince myself saying that it's after all a game, winning & losing are all part of the game and that "the better playing team deserves to win", I just couldn't let it go. I'm sure every die-hard-fan of DD or CSK would have gone through the same. Eager and Enthusiasm to experience every CSK match... Wearing a not-so-sophisticatedly-designed / coloured jersey which when worn, made people in the roads give a weird look at you... Yes, a month long dream and drama finally ends with disappointment. Not just that - you lose the chance to play in Champions League. You had such a great batting-line-up, you topped in the league table and finally end up nowhere - that's what was frustrating.

Saturday night. As they call it, I told myself "Let me take a step back" - I realized there is a strong correlation between my Happiness Index and the performance of India Cricket team and off late, CSK. Why so? Why so much attachment to a cricket team? Why not such an attachment to let's say MI or RCB teams (I love these cities as well). So, it's not a phenomenon of city. Nor is it completely cricket. All that were needed were inclusion of some players I admire in the team, the team winning some (if not all) matches and some free time to watch and think about the matches.

It become clear that there is no clear-cut-rational why people follow some team over the other. Most people follow some team and keep following it for no reason. People shift their loyalty based on the winning teams. There are people who support teams just to frustrate their friends. But "attachment" is the stronger and evil cousin of "supporting". It makes you feel the extremes - be it happiness or dejection.

The next day. People at home forgot that CSK lost - life looked normal - Everyone got busy in lazying around. Friend commented "there are bigger problems to face in life". Comes the bliss part of attachment - Unlike commitment, every attachment will eventually get over. Some of them after a day's dream. Others after few weeks or years. Yes, eventually, we all "move on" in life.

Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh,

2009-05-18T15:15:00.001+05:30

Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh,

You along with your UPA colleagues have made people laugh at the predictions of experts such as Swaminathan Aiyar, N.Ram, Cho Ramaswamy and the 'never-accurate' exit polls. It's clear that people have voted for your capability, integrity (though both questionable at lower levels) and stability. Yes, you had the lady luck on your side. Nevertheless a "thumbs-up" victory and my hearty congratulations for the same. Here is a set of requests from yet-another Hindustani:

The Basics:

Right people for your ministries: Getting this right is more than half job done. Remember what happened to the National security with Ex-Home Min Mr.SP. Please don't compromise on the quality of the ministers based on pressure from allies or oldies playing the "loyalty" card. Please give priority to Clean and Capable people. I really liked the idea suggested by Director Shankar in movie Mudhalvan (Nayak in Hindi) to have 2 ministers for every department - an enthusiastic youth accompanied by a wise experienced. Please look at its feasibility. This election saw a never-before emphasis on youth both from electing and elected.
Play long term: Hopefully you don't have the headache of constant black-mail from your allies. So, please don't resort to populist initiatives. Rather go with what's good for the country in long term. You have good full 5 years to play full on.
The crucial 100-day plan: By "play long term", I didn't mean relax and let things happen at its own pace. Be it a new born baby or a beleaguered economy or a bankrupt organization, the first 100 days are crucial and set the stage for the future progress. I request you and your colleagues to not get complacent over the victory and ignore these initial days.

The "3-E"s:

Education: Things have changed quite a bit since the years of Lord Macaulay. Though our overall literacy rates are still low, we have moved from the stages of simple "increase literacy rate". India needs to have its focus shifted towards "Quality Education". A complete reformation, transformation and a transmutation at a war-like speed is required. Please don't just rely on panels which does an exhaustive analysis and stops there. A collaborative result oriented action required. Think of Public-private partnership. Encourage better coordination between central and state governments. Develop new programs for personalities and corporate to adopt schools.
Economic Development: Whatever bad is said and written about Mr. Modi, he should be acknowledged for bringing Gujarat its vibrancy (or at least the image which would help in economic development). If Modi can do it to Gujarat, why can't Mr. Manmohan do it to the entire nation. Yes, simple things like making the nation attractive for foreign investment and working closely with industry players. It might read a bit Management-ish, but please try to draw a road-map for the next 5-10 years for India - What are the core industries that we need to focus on and how can India be more competitive in the increasing globalized economy.
Empowerment: A progressive empowerment (unlike your UP allies) especially for Rural, Women and Youth. I know you would attribute this election win to the aam-aadmi policies. I agree with you. Please revive some of the popular large-scale, high potential initiatives, which were largely ineffective due to poor execution. Need for the country are the initiatives on Youth Empowerment, Vocational skills development, Support to Microfinance / Self-Help Group /Small enterprises & entrepreneurs. Please get a passionate and capable person like Rahul for this department. We need to get this done at any cost.

I know that all these are easier said than done. But freedom from non-progressive parties should definitely make it easier than your last term.

I also know you know all these. Still.. we Indians become very expressive when it comes to having expectations from politicians. Yes, our expectations are running high. Hope you fulfill them. We would soon know whether our Singh is the Real King!

Guide.. Chide..

2009-05-11T00:22:00.001+05:30

The Age of 13 to 18. An important transition period in the adult kid's life. Mysterious physical & physiological changes. Significant pressure in studies and peer recognition. Important decisions about career. People try to find his own identity. A period in which the entire world is full of "enemies". A transition from a happy playful place to a serious, unfair and cruel world. The teenagers start understanding the world and most importantly understanding themselves.

Such an important and challenging phase of life. But does our society understands this and treats the teenagers the right way? In my opinion, it's a big NO. Especially, the parents and teachers who play a significant role in shaping the lives of teenagers.

First, the parents: Many parents still treat the teenager as a kid - they want the children to do what they think is ideal for the children - Do this, do that, don't watch that, don't play, study, don't eat that, eat this. Yes, there is good intention. But what's the use if it's counter-productive? Most parents deny the freedom the teenagers yearn for. Yes, it's like walking on a tight rope - No that easy to take sides - to be strict or liberal. Those who have taken the extremes have probably screwed the good prospects of their child. So, what can they do? First, make a very honest attempt to understand the child. One has no choice but to be a friend, as a teenager doesn't like anyone else except his/her friends. Physically and mentally try to be young. Try understanding the Gen-X culture - what they like, do, see etc. Talk their language. Listen to them. Take them around places. Treat their friends well. Yes, it's too much to ask for. But the rewards are plenty.

Second, the teachers: I feel there are 3 levels of teachers: (1)
Officers: They are just Salary-Drawers. They have absolutely no regard for the development for the students - "As long as I get my salary, it's fine" kind of mentality (2) Preachers: Teaching is an obligation and a ritual for them. They do their job reasonably well, but they stop at teaching what the text book says (3) Gurus: Best among the lot - really committed to the students - teaching is their passion and they truly are interested in the welfare of the students. They want to develop students as good all-rounded personalities. They teach, explain, listen, coach, guide and most importantly understand. I feel the current split between the 3 categories would be - 50-60% in #1, another 30-40% in #2 and a meager 10% in #3. Most people agree that that the quality of teachers and teaching has been going down a lot (esp. in semi-urban and rural areas). Even if we have 20% of teachers in #3 category, we can significantly improve the lives of teenagers. To do that, a concerted effort is required from Government, teachers and private organizations. The educational department has to develop and build people like the Infosys & Wipros of the India.

So.. before chiding and guiding the teenagers to behave in a certain way, the parents and teachers of India need to really understand the children.

Disclaimer: This post is NOT a reflection of how I was treated as a teenager. Rather, what I saw, knew, heard, read from friends and others.

Whom to trust? (Part 2)

2009-05-03T19:32:00.001+05:30

Trusting is like setting on a voyage while "not trusting" is staying on the shore. With trust comes the risk. No risk, no return. No risk, no life. To live, one needs to trust - at least to live as a human being. Having said that, it's important that we take "calculated" risks.

Trust derives from one's reputation - the congruence between words & actions. Trust is expressed at multiple levels - be it for others [politicians, strangers, acquaintance, friend, dear ones in the ascending order], OR for oneself [physical, emotional, intellectual, intuitional (or 'spirit'ual) and one's core values].

So, it doesn't matter whether you trust X or Y. But you need to trust something to move on in life. I think it wouldn't be wrong saying "Start trusting, start living"

Whom to trust? (Part 1)

2009-04-27T00:52:00.001+05:30

"Today you can't trust anyone" - started my pessimistic friend. Let's call him PF. PF went a little philosophical, "Forget anyone else. Can you trust your own self? Your emotions, your belief, your desires, your intellect, your decisions, your intuition. All of them can put you down. All of them can cheat you!"

PF continued "My intellect said I should become a Banker. Seems like I was wrong. My emotions told me firmly: if at all I marry, I should marry this girl. What a terrible mistake! My childhood desire was to buy the biggest and fastest buses and trucks possible, which I feel are totally absurd today.

I once believed in Gods in temples, which seems like total immaturity today. My human design system asked me to be nice and caring towards people - but today, I feel honesty matters than anything else. My intuition told me everything can't be so fickle and fake - but you know what.. Let me not fall into the trap again! Let me not trust it again!"

For a moment I was shaken. PF isn't totally wrong - He has a point. For heaven's sake, you never know whether you live in a real world or a Matrix. So, is everything fake? You can't trust anyone including your own self?

My answers to PF in Part 2 of the post next week.

@Regular:

Was just reading the book Tuesdays with Morrie

IPL: Economics and Entertainment

2009-04-19T22:38:00.001+05:30

From being the "Manoranjan Ka Baap" last summer to going live as "Ek Desh Ek Junoon" yesterday, Indian Premier League (IPL) saw big drama this year - the clash between Government & IPL organizing committee resulting in bumper prize for South Africa. Yes, we are going to greatly miss the usual shouts, roars, bellows and the boos which we were used to in the last season. Nevertheless, let's hope the healthy clashes on the ground between the players would give us solid entertainment.

Just a minor personal digression: The first clash between Chennai & Mumbai teams was a good fun. Remember, IPL is no fun unless you support a team. I have been strongly supporting Chennai from the beginning. But this year, things have a changed a bit - Mumbai, a stranger city till last year, has become an integral part of my life - the city is like a wife to any Mumbai-kar (because you will have all reasons to love and hate it simultaneously). So, when there is a clash between your mother and wife, which side will you take? I think many men just try to escape; few 'fairness' fugitives, who try to be impartial and instill justice, just gain the hate of both; the third smart group acts as if he's supporting mom in public and privately confesses (or lies) to wife that he just acted up. Coming back to the point: I can't disown my motherly team after the arrival of a new lovely team. So, the pecking order is still Chennai and then Mumbai.

Last year, I being relatively free, managed to watch most of the matches. My father looking at people's craze for IPL, commented "If the entire country is watching cricket like this.. if everyone is sitting in front of the TV instead of work or study, what would happen? God save our economy!" Yeah, he is a mathematician, not an economist. Nonetheless, a valid concern. To paraphrase, the key is question: Apart from entertainment, will IPL improve / hinder the overall economic activity?

Of course, it's a clean case for improved economic activity in South Africa. So, let's try to focus on the economic implications for India. For simplicity sake, let's assume higher economic activity means additional "end user" consumption.

Let's categorize the universe of population into 3:

Category X - Non-spectators: People like my Dad, who doesn't watch IPL at all. It doesn't change their world in any way - Let's assume their consumption is unaltered.
Category Y - Jobless Spectators: They watch the match at the cost of other "economically" non-value added activities (e.g. instead of IPL, watching Roadies in MTV, chatting with a friend, fighting with spouse etc) - Ok, I understand your concern - "How can you say that I don't add any value by watching Roadies? I am exposed to Ads, which in turn could induce consumption." Yes, it would, but similar things happen with IPL as well. So, there could be change in consumption, but very less scope for "additional" consumption
Category Z - Obsessive Spectators: These people watch matches at the cost of other value added activities. E.g. You decide not to go out for dinner / shopping, you close down your shop earlier than usual, lower efficiency in job due to lack of attention to customer / software coding etc.

So, for category Z: If the additional consumption resulting from watching IPL outweighs the reduction in economical activity, we have the case for positive impact on economy from IPL. I read IPL II will rack at least Rs. 800 Cr., with more than half of it coming from TV telecast. Last year's avg. TRPs (TV rating points) have been in the range of 2-3. Let's be conservative and assume TRP to be 2 and 50%-50% split between category Y and Z. This implies 1% of targeted population have been actively watching the match. If the major targeted audience of IPL is little less than 20% of India's population (200 million), TRP of 1 (1% of 200 mn) implies 2 million people.

Estimation of additional consumption: Approx. Rs. 1,350 Cr:
- Direct Rs. 300 Cr. from merchandise, players' salary, job opportunities for IPL / franchises etc
- People traveling to South Africa from India: 50 matches with 20,000 audience per match => 1 million audience. Assume 1% of this audience is traveling from India =>10,000 people. Additionally, assume another 250 Indian players (30 players per team) and 250 people from IPL organizing team. Overall 10,500 people. Assume 50% use Indian carriers. Assuming an expense of 50,000 per person, it would be additional Rs. 26 Cr (Seems not much!)
- A marketing spend of Rs. 300 Cr. - Let's assume marketing people don't throw away money without getting value for every buck that they spend. So, the present value of the returns from the marketing spend has to be at least Rs. 300 Cr. Assuming average 15% profit margin, this would translate as additional Rs. 2,000 Cr. in companies' top line. Again with 50-50% split between Y & Z - 1,000 Cr is just shift in consumption while Rs. 1,000 Cr. is additional consumption
Estimation of Z's reduction in job efficiency: Rs. 360 Cr
- With India's per capita income of Rs.52,500 (US$ 1,050) - with 240 working days in a year, this would translate as Rs. 220/- per day per person. Yeah, probably the per capita of the target audience might be higher than the overall average, but again it could be compensated to some extent by people who don't earn (e.g. students and kids) - So, let's assume it to be just double - Rs. 450/- Let's assume a 10% reduction in efficiency for 40 days for these 2 million people => Rs 360 Cr

So, even if you think the so-many-assumptions in the above calculations are to be changed, the gap is way too much that it makes me believe that IPL brings in more economical activity to the country than otherwise.

Forget economics! Even if IPL doesn't bring in any additionally economic activity, the entertainment that it brings in, is worth having IPL for! Simple nah! ;)

@Regular

With ongoing battle between movie producers and theatre owners, Mumbai is deprived of good movies. So, just resorting to IPL and books - One hundred years of solitude and The art of war.

The First and the Last

2009-04-12T23:50:00.001+05:30

It was a small shop near my home - The repair beds, bags, sofas etc. The first ever time I visited - to get my shoulder bag fixed. With my broken Hindi, I tried explaining the problem to the owner, a fairly old man. I know - My Hindi would have made him ask this question - "Are you from Madras?" For a moment, I thought these North Indians think anyone down south as Madrasi. But our man was different - He followed with the question "Kerala or Tamil Nadu?" After I replied "Tamil Nadu", his mouth widened with a big smile, beaming a mix of black, red and yellow lights from his partly-available-pan-strained teeth. He started singing a popular old Tamil song "Ponal Pogattum Poda.. Intha boomi-yil nilaiyaai vaazhthavar yaarada.. " (let bygones be bygones as nobody in this world is mortal..)

For a moment, I was stupefied. To say the least, his Tamil was better than my Hindi. He then elaborated how he learned this song: 'I don't Tamil, but when I was in my school in Gujarat, there was a singing competition. While everyone chose to sing in the languages known to them, I chose Tamil'. He went on for a couple of minutes about the competition and the song. As I was tempted to ask the question on his interest in Tamil, our man pre-empted with the answer: 'Her name was Paarvathy - She was a Tamilian - She is a very good lady.. very intelligent girl' He completed by winking, 'She taught me not just to sing, but so many other things in life.' His face and the corresponding expression changed quite a bit when he talked her - a mix of happiness, longing & some nostalgic feeling, a bit emotional - Can't exactly describe how the man was different explaining about this First Love.

Yes, THE first love is quite unforgettable and nostalgic for many people. In fact, it's not just love - the first day at school (yes, I know - most of you would have cried and revolted to go to such a place), your first day in your dream college, the first job & the first month salary, the first ever visit to a city / country abroad, the first kiss, making love for the first time, your first baby and the first ever time you hold the baby in your hands, first ever time your kid beats you in a game or sports. The list goes on.. the list of "first"s you cherish (and regret in some instances) can be never ending. The first is always special, as you can have only ONE first.

Same logic to the Last. The last day in college, last day at work, the last conversation before the death of a loved one, the last day of leaving your homeland (as a refugee to some other country), the last few days of a dying person etc. [The last can be an exception to kids. When moms ask their kids to stop the TV / games and study - Kids invariably say "Mommy, one last game pleasssssse.." - The Gods of the Universe know that it would never be "ONE" last]

People distinctly remember the First and Last. Their commitment, awareness and level of involvement would be at their best. How would our experiences be, if we treat all of our activities, work, play and conversations etc to be The First or The last?

@Regular

Summer has begun and we completely, fully, wholly, entirely, and totally experienced it when we planned for a trek at Kajrat, 100 KM from Mumbai. The scorching sun spoiled the otherwise good trip.

The book "The circle of Reasons" was abandoned after reading the first quarter - Quality writing, but was was too boring to my taste. Currently reading books with interesting and esoteric titles such as "Life after Life - Actual case studies that reveal there is life after death" written by a doctor who studied 150 people with near death experiences, "Conversations with God - An uncommon dialogue - Book 3". Yes, I am skeptical of both the books and their concepts, nevertheless exploring.. :)

Confront Congestion

2009-04-05T22:59:00.002+05:30

India's 300 million city dwellers add up to one-tenth of the world's urban population. Mumbai could soon cross Tokyo as the most populated city globally. Population in Delhi has grown by nearly 10x from 1950. The graph below shows how the population (in Million) has grown in some Indian Metros:

So, it's higher economical activities / opportunities VIS-à-VIS higher cost of living, higher pollution, ruthless traffic etc..

Ok, the post is not to debate on whether this growth is good or bad. Rather to look into how well prepared are we to manage this. Especially, Traffic Congestion.

Yes, it's a no brainer that we are not prepared fully.. just to give you a sample:

In the last ten years, road length increased by 20% and cars by 132% in Urban India.

Does it bring you bad memories of being stuck in traffic and cursing everyone left, right and center (the political parties / Govt); the front, back, sides (the vehicles & fellow drivers); the top, middle and bottom (the people - friends, family & work)?

On a serious note, traffic congestion is a dead weight loss to the society as it affects people emotionally (losing patience, getting irritable, not spending time with family etc), financially (losing businesses, delays), environmentally (more fuel consumption) etc. Again a couple of samples:

Delhi NCR area - 420 million man-hours are lost every month due to traffic congestion
Congestion costs Bengalurians $1.8 billion a year in fuel and vehicle maintenance alone

Oops! 420 mn hours of torture monthly for people! Imagine how many Dads would have shouted at their kids, husbands at their wife, bosses at their poor employees! All thanks to the congestion! (And Salman Khan won't give you prize in Dus Ka Dum to guess the % of people who attribute "coming late" to "traffic jam" - Yes, by far, it would be the highest!)

Fair enough, one of the most irritating problems, the urban India faces! But what about the solution? Had it been so simple, it would have been solved by now, right? Or are we missing something?

For a common man, it's all about solving his own problem: Skip the signal, travel in opposite / wrong lanes, change lane abruptly, take a U, R, L, Z where it's not supposed to be taken etc.

For bureaucrats / government bodies, it's all about Obligation (if not Omission). Optimization is a distant dream.

Researchers all over the world, be it in mathematics, physics or economics - have tried / been trying to develop models. (Take this sample: a study by IISc suggests a simple solution of synchronizing Bengaluru traffic signals in a particular way to reduce waiting time) Yes, millions of solutions proposed. Implementation / Coordination is the missing link.

You ask an MBA person. He would say - at a high level, it's just common sense to solve this problem - do one or a combination of the following: increase the supply (roads, infrastructure), reduce the demand (personal vehicles), improve the efficiency of meeting the demand with the supply. He / she is good at solid structuring, result-orientation, efficiency etc. All these are good, but what about practicality?

So, to confront the ever growing monster called traffic congestion, you can't fight individually - you need an army. He is a terrible villain - you need Amar, Akbar and Anthony to join hands to beat him! Yes, what is needed is the coordinated effort from different streams such as Research institutes, Government bodies, Private organizations (or Management entities) and most importantly the People.

*Data Source (In addition to Wikipedia, Google): Sify, The Hindu, Wired

----

@Regular:

You get a long weekend, this is what would happen. A mix of awesome movies (To Kill A mocking Bird and The International) with bad ones ( 8x10 Tasveer - Bollywood / Akshay Kumar Movie - A very poor execution of an interesting idea; Ayan - Tamil movie starring Surya / Tammanna - Surya, please don't go down the drain as some thala(pathi)s are doing - we expect good movies from you!). Also catching up with The Maximum City and The circle of Reasons.

Munna-Bayya CSA

2009-03-29T22:08:00.004+05:30

Munna is 7 years old and all his seven years are spent in the slums of Mumbai. Yes, life has been harsh & ruthless to him, but never ever had he felt it to be unsafe. With his entire family around, especially his 17 yr old Bayya, he never thought the world could be unsafe. Yes, it felt safe until that Friday. Until that "incident" happened. In the past, more than once, Bayya had asked Munna to do "things" which Munna never understood completely - but he completely trusted Bayya and just did. Yes, until the "incident" happened. Munna was shattered. He was horrified. Though he doesn't understand everything even today, Munna realized Bayya's intentions weren't right after the incident. He had started feeling dirty himself and shameful for all the things he had done for his Bayya. For a week, Munna couldn't sleep properly. At nights, he has been getting jitters and nightmares of demons stripping him and asking him to do things he had never imagined.

The incidents of "Munna"s are not very uncommon, as per the National Study of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) 2007 which claims that more than 53% of children in India report facing some form of sexual abuse. Yes, I can hear you "I can't believe it. It is shocking". Yes, it IS.

Many felt the extensive coverage of Mumbai's Mira Road incest case is just typical of media - overrated & sensational. I beg to differ. If media gets a little bit more intelligent, it can create a much wider awareness of the bigger social issue - Child Sexual Abuse. Most people are not even aware of what it's, how intense the problem is and how can it be handled.

As a first step, openly talking about it and spreading the awareness is of paramount importance.

Hmm.. I can sense how majority of the Indians would easily ignore the issue citing (a) it's too bad to talk about anything with the word "sex" in family or in public (b) it's too sensitive a topic to handle for them / kid (c) "I'm insensitive because it hasn't affected me, nor am I expecting it to affect my family in future."

It's like how people opposed Sex education in school, citing it's inappropriate in a country with its rich tradition, culture and values - but you know what - we are the third most populous country, when it comes to AIDS

Let's wake up hypocrites! Yes, 53% is an alarming number for a country which boasts itself of having revered family values.

Most of the information that follow are courtesy Arpan, an NGO working out of Mumbai on CSA.

Why should we bother about CSA?

CSA happens more often than we think - yes, 53% facing some form of abuse. Unfortunately, half of the offenders are trusted personalities of the child like family, friends, relatives & neighbours
It affects the child at physical (illness), mental (trauma), emotional (shame, depression), social (withdrawl, overtly sexualized behaviour) - at no fault of their own
Most importantly, victims often become future offenders - Study says 50% - if not checked properly, it could grow like a virus!

Check out the arpan website on how to help the child be aware of and prevent the issue. It's not just to help kids, but also for the adults to become aware.

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

@Regular

Currently engaged on the novel "The Namesake" - The story of a Bengal family in the USA.

The Movie "Watchmen" - Quite liked the special effects, story line (except the climax) and the music - Just that the movie could have been easily split into 2 or 3 parts. The other movie "Broken English" was a ok-ish - Expecting "Enlighten" to screen much better movies in future.

Nature is calling!

2009-03-23T20:05:00.003+05:30

@Random

The novel Kite Runner made me remember my childhood days. Oh, no.. I'm NOT going to list down what all crazy things I did as a kid - Rather relate 'one' childhood habit, we are all aware of, to how different professionals could probably do today.

Disclaimer: Just a pure imagination! Laugh it out and ignore - Any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental.

In many instances, kids ask for loo, not because they want to, but because they are sick and bored of the class - They just want to go out, roam a bit and have some fresh breeze. The process by which you go about asking your teacher for loo depends on the class, school, the mood of the teacher and the timing. For e.g. it's highly unlikely that the teacher allows you, if you ask him when he's in a bad mood or when you ask close to the interval. Most importantly, you should have earned the trust of the teacher that you are genuine - You can prove the same by one of these (a) study well in the class or be the teacher's favorite (b) ask for loo less frequently (c) last but not the least, you should have pissed in the class room in the past - this is probably the best way to put real threat to the teacher - The moment the teacher sees you asking for loo, he says "please go ahead.. you don't need to ask.. just please go".

The process of asking gets more sophisticated as you move up in class as well - In class 1 or 2, you raise your hand showing 1 or 2 fingers. By high school, you write your need in a paper with details such as name, purpose, time level of urgency etc. Ok, don't get nostalgic about your pissing days.. let's come back to the blog..

Just an imagination on how the following set of professionals would go about on the issue of Loo with the superiors (or managers or clients or customers)..

A Software Guy X: To his colleague Y, "Man, this manager is sucking big time.. He doesn't even let me take a break for loo or sutta.. He goes 20 times everyday in the name of networking or 1:1.. But when it comes to me, he says I should work more efficiently by avoiding breaks.. Now I found an idea.. an idea that can change my life.. I will tell him that innovations happen in rest rooms and that I got my best ideas when I'm pissing." Y replies - "Seems like an idea, let me know if it works".. 1 week later, X's tables and computers are being shifted.. X's manager smiling to his glory and telling to Y, "You know what! X is getting a special desk, a place where his brain works the best.. where he becomes very innovative.."
A Marketing Professional: To public, through his ad: Mom says to her kid "Aaj Loo-na bandh" - Kid is very upset.. goes to upstairs and pisses on neighbours flower pots.. comes back and sits quietly on his chair.. Mom looking at his gloomy mood says "Ok, drink the milk.. go & loo". Kid smiles and says "Neighbour ka phone aayaa thaanaa.." It finishes with "Vishwas karo, Pandiware bathroom fittings! Never ever your kid has to loo on neighbors' plants"
An Investment Banker X: To his VP Y, "Mr. Y, Do you think we should really go and suggest the client to buy Sulabh & Co? The client is already in deep sh**. Buying that Looing company on top of it will kill the company". VP with his sarcastic smile, "Who cares about that man? Market is heavily undervaluing Sulabh & Co. They should definitely consider acquiring. We should pitch as if it's a high value add for them. We can say them if required, we will do a loo show in the road, and help the founders raise money"
A Consultant: To the client, "You need to build a chain of restrooms throughout the country - Not only does it give you an unparalleled competitive advantage, but also helps to backward integrate your operations in a cost efficient way. In addition, your sales people would be all the more happy to use them from all strategic locations - It gives them the extra edge which your competitors lack currently. Our preliminary evaluations reveal that your top-line will grow by 52% and bottom-line (no pun intended) by a whooping 133%. In the past, we have worked with many such clients and have developed a proprietary framework - We suggest you hire us - We will visit all the locations spread across multiple geographies, verify whether it's worth investing by actually looing"
A Politician: To the speaker in the assembly, "Loo-ing is my birthright. How can you just let only people from XYZ party piss and bar us from doing so? Till our last breath, we will fight for our birth-right. And members of XYZ are making it an unnecessary political issue - that we are not delivering our duty. Let me assure you, Mr. Speaker - for every 5 mins I spent on Loo, I worked for 10 mins extra in the office. We do a great service to the country by frequenting to loo. Our party have a great tradition and ideology on looing. If anyone comes and says we shouldn't loo, I will cut his.. hand"
The Super Star Rajni: Everyone is surprised that Superstar never asks for loo. They ask for his secret. He says in his own style "Naan eppo poven, enga poven-nnu yaarukkum theriyaathu.. aanaa, poga vendiya nerathula kandippaa poven" ("When I go, Where I go, nobody knows! But when I have to go, I will go!") He finishes it with, "Aandavan solraan, Arunachalam mudikkuraan" ("God proposes, Me disposes"). While this dialogue was going on, some random fellow rings the bell in the near by temple - Oops, superstar says "Sollittaan" ("He said so") and starts pissing in the same place where was he was standing.

@Regular

Jokes apart, "Kite Runner" was an amazing read. It took me to the country which the world today is associating with Terrorism. It gives a glimpse of how the terrorism and wars have affected common people.. I would highly recommend it for anyone.

Two Nasiruddin Shah movies this week - Firaaq and Barah aana - While the former is very serious as it takes the sensitive topic of common people behavior in Gujrat post the 2002 communal rites (the directorial debut of Nandita Das), the latter is about the life of 3 people in the bottom of the pyramid: how they hate their menial jobs & are being exploited by their bosses and how they end up doing what they have never imagined in their life - A bit funny but makes you realize the hard realities of life of poor people. Both are good short movies without item numbers of random females or heroes dancing with his chest open for public view. Watch them, if you have a flavor for them.

Visited Elephanta Islands after being in Mumbai for 9 months. Amazing place. It's a 1 hr 15 mins of boat ride from Gateway of India. You can spend a couple of hours in the island - Apart from the awesome caves and carvings, you get to see nice Indian handicrafts made of marbles, stones, silk, wood etc. If you ever visit to Mumbai, don't miss this.

What drives you?

2009-03-15T23:45:00.003+05:30

@Random

Happiness. Food. Love. Status. Power. Money. Sex. Fun. Contribution. Success. Recognition. Peace. Rest.

This is fairly the list most people would come up, when they are asked 'What single thing that drives you to do what you do?' Each of these would have varying levels of driving power with few of them being the 'ends' with others the 'means'. Yes, the prioritized list "depends" on the person.

Hmm.. so what?

Because, knowing the answer helps in 2 ways:

Know thyself better - aids to choose the right profession (leisure activity or for that matter, 'anything' that one wants to do in life) and do it an effective and efficient way (Yes, MBA with consulting career corrupts one's mind to use cliched jargons like these! ;))
Know a bit of others, so that you can suitably motivate them!

So, let's continue with our analysis...

I think these forces can be mapped to 3 different human emotions. First is fear - that of punishment, non-acceptance, death, deficit, hazards, injury, security etc. The motivational tool associated with fear is 'stick'. Second is desire (and its stronger cousin greed) - that for luxury, wealth, beauty, power, acceptance etc. The motivational kit that works with this emotion is 'carrot'. The last one is passion. This is probably more self-driven than the other two. Can also be summarized as getting motivated externally vis-à-vis inspired internally.

This is how, you and me, the non-psychology students would think and come up with an unstructured analysis. Never mind - The infamous "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" is a well accepted, structured, exhaustive and most authoritative analysis on human motivation. Seems like all of us climb up the pyramid till we reach Self-Actualization!

Courtesy: Wikipedia
(Click the figure to read the text)

Not bad.. our 3 emotion analysis fits as well - Fear: Levels 1-3, Desire: Levels 2-4, Passion: Levels 4-5. So, to reach higher levels, you need to move from fear to desire to passion as the motivational tool.

Oh, yeah.. like any other tool, these can be used in both ways - constructively or destructively, as life keeps the options always open for us. As human beings, we should exercise our mind to think and choose the 'right' path.

@Regular

Gulaal was the movie. (Gulaal - in Hindi means the red power used during Holi). The movie takes you to the world of modern day Rajputs. True to its caption 'Love, Power and Revolution', it had all the elements but in a distorted manner. Director Anurag Kashyap's yet another non-conventional movie. Almost everyone in the movie is imperfect, selfish, and tries to accomplish his / her own agenda - Be it the manly Kay Kay Menon or the lady Kiran who goes to any lengths to attain the power or the innocent Dilip who brings the twist in the end - every character is well etched. Except may be the drug addict cum lady lecturer, who apart from giving philosophical dialogues to Dilip (e.g. "you loved her so much that you didn't see her") doesn't fit well into the story. It's a serious movie (except may be in a couple of place with dialogues like "Mere paas maa hai"). Definitely, a different experience watching the movie. I would say do not give it a miss.

Off late, I lost hope in motivational / self-help books. In many cases, they are cliched, very biased, impractical, too-obvious, repetitive and inaccurate. My belief just got reinforced with the last book I read. I was deceived by the categorization of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" as "Business" both by Warner books and my librarian, in addition to the book-selves of my B-school friends. The author himself agrees that he is a terrible writer, but he clarifies one needs to be a good seller - like how his books are selling like hot chocolate cake. I'm not saying the book is 100% bakwaas - There are few sensible things like:

Learn to use your emotions to think, not think with your emotions
Don't work for money, let it work for you. Work to Learn
With each push, life is saying "Wake up, there is something I want you to learn"

But it could been said in far few pages than 260. Hmm.. seems true - "Quality of the product is less important than how much you understand your customers and how well you sell it"

The Donkey and the Monkey

2009-03-06T19:11:00.006+05:30

@Random

Approximately 35,000 feet from ground level. Somewhere in between Bangalore and Delhi. The air-hostess and the woman sitting next to us gave a weird look. Yes, some brainless card game! After an hour of playing, we did some random discussion on Physics and my friend A managed to help me recollect some of the interesting concepts. One such thing is:

P*V / T = constant

Don't worry - this is not a post on physics - There are people who can do much better job.

I thought I would relate this "Pressure" in human context. Human beings are exposed to pressure day in and day out - Kids from their cruel parents for performing better in exams; a husband getting bidirectional pressure from Saas and Bahu; an employee from his evil manager; a guy from his finicky GF to behave properly; a girl on the social pressure of looking good.. Hmmm.. infinite pressures!

Pressure could be deadly for people - it could fundamentally change the way a person behaves. You would wonder is it the same person pre and post-pressure! People could become snappy, agitated, angry, worried... But Dilbert's manager would say People should Profit from Pressure, it Pushes one to Peak Performance (man, enough of P**s!! Let's keep aside that argument for a later Post!)

Ok, if Physics 'Pressure' is to Human Pressure, what about V & T in the equation? I think the Volume can be equated to mental calmness, the Temperature to anger. I believe the law would still hold good. When you increase pressure, the person loses his volume (calmness) at a certain level of anger; or if the calmness has to be retained at the same level, the temperature (i.e. anger level) goes up.

So, when pressure is applied, is it a choice between losing your calmness vis-à-vis showing it as anger? IMHO, not really! The key is in realizing the age old principle of You can take a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink. Yes, we need to play the role of the horse which deliberately denies to drink - Be ready to not take pressure altogether - Like rejecting offers from taxi-walas, when you exit the railway station!

Next time, when the pressure is exerted, remember the horse! I think one should remember a Donkey, which seems much more relaxed! Just Chill and things will be better than when you take pressure!

Ok, this approach may not work for people who are used to relish pressure and rely heavily on it to perform (hmm.. yes, deadlines in colleges!) If pressure works positively, play on! You can probably remember Monkey - which gets more excited, jumps around when there is pressure! It becomes ultra productive!

I guess it's much better to be a Donkey or a Monkey than being a usual human being in case of pressure. ;)

So, who are you? A Donkey or a Monkey?

@Regular

Last week had an amazing trip to Dehradun and Mussouri. Friend M's marriage went on fine and the trip was awesome thanks to the wonderful gang.

This weekend is again gonna be some more trip.. to deep south.. Movies and Books update next week!

The game of understanding

2009-02-25T23:51:00.005+05:30

PS: Post comes a little earlier than usual thanks to my travel plans for the weekend. Don't want to miss another deadline this week. :)

@Random

Mastering human psychology is all about being non-judgmental, declared my friend S (who happened to be a psychology student as well!). Seemed a bit counter-intuitive to me! I thought it is all about understanding oneself and others - given that psychology is not a 0 or 1 logic, also implies some sort of judgment. But when I thought more about it, the "non-judgmental" part made some sense.

Majority of our world revolves around our judgments, perceptions, view points etc. It's like viewing the world with a coloured glass - you are really not sure whether what you see is what it's. As the story goes, we are like a fish or a frog that thinks that the world can't be bigger than its pond.

But people are so self-conceited that they believe that they understand things, especially "they understand other people". The problem arises, not just because of not understanding, but also because of misunderstanding. So, "non-judgmental", I think, just suggests us to be open, not jump to conclusions (way too early) and at times be ready to say "i don't know", "I don't understand".

Ok, exploring further on the game of understanding others.. As I noted earlier, I believe we are wearing some glasses almost always invariably to constantly, continuously, consistently and at times inconsistently create interpretations, meanings and views.. We start identifying ourselves with the spherical balloon that we have blown through the air called perceptions.. Different people have different balloons around them and there are infinite balloons floating around in this infinite world. People understand other people when the worlds have some overlapping area.

There are 2 view points on understanding people: One view point is that human beings are very predictable and hence can be easily understood. Another view point is that it's really complex for 2 reasons: first, the understand-ee / human-being is really complex; second, Understand-er, as I said earlier, is incapable / reluctant to understand others. To explore this further, I just tried doing a front of the envelop estimate on what percentage of people understand others.
(Click the picture to enlarge)

If you can read the text from the above figure and if you think the assumptions don't have Himalayan errors, we can arrive at a figure of 5.4% of people correctly understanding others. Just 1/20th of the population understands other people correctly!

I believe the keys to understanding people are (a) being aware that you are unaware of entities called 'others' (b) making a conscious decision that you want to be considerate of others (c) be willing to say "I don't know yet"

Just to clarify: non-judgmental may not mean not making judgments at altogether - after all, we can't live without judgments / perceptions. But just being aware of our faulty judgmental system. Esp. when it comes to understanding people!

@Regular

Would be traveling to 2 of my favorite S.Indian cities, in addition to Delhi for few friends' marriage. Just started off with the first chapter of "The Elephant, The Tiger, The Cellphone" - Reflections on India in the 21st century by Shashir Tharoor.

Will update this section in detail next week.

Value based decision making

2009-02-23T13:54:00.003+05:30

@Random

Business, as they say, is all about 'Value' creation by fulfilling some needs. In doing so, the major issue, organizations come up with is 'Decision Making' (DM) - Given the limited resources, they keep asking 'What to do?', 'How to do?'. As Porter said, business strategy is all about making choices. However, it's one of the most difficult things to do, given the grays, maroons and violets, the context of DM spans across. Something that helps companies make quicker and probably what they call 'right' decision is having prioritized "core values". One example recently I read was from Johnson & Johnson. How its then CEO, James Burke, made a decision, which literally make the busting company come back, post the Tylenol cyanide episode. The company had the prioritized values as: customers, employees and shareholders in that order which simplified the otherwise humongous & complex decision making process.

Decision Making in personal life is as complex, if not less, as of that of business - time & energy consuming, its grayness. So, will having prioritized set of personal values help one make quicker and righter decisions? I felt the answer should be "yes". Yes, values may not be a cure-for-all for all the DM problems in life, but could definitely help in reducing its complexities. History tells the same: People with strong values make tougher decisions and achieve otherwise difficult to achieve things - Gandhi (Non-violence), Harichandra (Truth), Karna (Generosity). If you think these are too old to be practical: Mohammad Yunus (Economic development for poor), Kalam (Technology dev for 3rd world country), Dhoni (Always Team First). Yes, there will be millions of examples.

Few additional things that I felt about values:

There needs to be a strong association with the values. We need to live by it
Not that all the values have to be fixed through out our life. As we mature, values can get moulded. But some of the most important and core values have to be static
Values are not just meant for accomplishing big things in life. It helps even making day-to-day decisions simpler. E.g. Meeting a good old friend Vs GF, or working Friday late hours Vs taking your kids for a movie

Ok, fair enough. Agreed that we need to have values. It's not just the realization which is difficult - it's actually coming up with the real personal values. Yeah, absolutely. There is no systematic process to find it out than to do a relaxed but determined self-inquiry.

May be on a relaxed weekend, go to a desolate island, a beautiful beach, a lush garden, a lovely park, a country side travel, or simply your own balcony.. Sit with a freshly brewed coffee or a refreshing Darjeeling tea and set your mind on what particular virtues made you completely being yourself, at the same time, everyone (including you) felt happy and proud about you.. Balance between past (how we were) and future (how we want to be).. It might give us a glimpse of our values..

The third and probably the most difficult part is "living" one's own values. Environment may not be positive, situation may not be conducive, we still need to live it. The more the struggle we go through, the stronger will be the association between us and our values. The stronger the association gets, the struggle becomes lesser. Not to mention, the reduced complexity of decision making! :)

[After thought] Added after a day:

Ok, I wrote only the positive side of the story of having values. Yes, values could lead to conflicts, which in turn could be destructive. Countless examples in the history. So, it's not just important to have values for oneself, but rather respect others' values as well. In fact, it should be our first value to have non-destructive, positive values, giving enough value to others' values. :)

@Regular

Travelled to Hyderabad for D's marriage - Visited Hyd after quite some years. Felt the city refreshing and probably much more developed. Got to meet good old friends. Good weekend trip!

As I writing this blog, Slumdog millionaire got 8 records and our fav. ARR got 2 Oscars as well. Was touched by his humbleness when he thanked his mom and God (yes, in Senthamizh!). Some connection with the book I started - Shantaram - A long time pending one. But this biggie needs quite some free time to finish off.

I should definitely write about this philosophical tamil song "Pitchai Paathiram" from Naan Kadavul by Ilayaraaja. It kept me hooked to it last week. Deeply meaningful, probably asks why there is much ado about life, its struggle, its constant materialistic search and the constant "me me me"? Even your body is not our creation - the lyricist (Ilayaraja) says we are all beggars and our body the plate we carry.

Doing away with Dualities

2009-02-16T01:00:00.003+05:30

@Random

Life is just beautiful. Look at the smiling baby, budding rose, sun rise, lush forest, beautiful peacock, cute parrot, playful puppy, tantalising aroma of food, impressive Taj, amazing Aish, handsome Hrithik.. there is beauty everywhere.. there is joy everywhere. there there are friendship, love, parents, work etc.. so many things to cheer about.. You just need to be positive and be happy always. This is one way of living.

It was one of the empty Mumbai locals. The time was fast approaching midnight. A guy with a long stick enters the compartment. Yes, he was blind but wasn't a beggar - started shouting at his peak for selling buds and plastic covers for 5 bucks. You get down the train and walk home - you see the slew of people sleeping on the sides of the road (including kids less than 2 yrs). Then there was this old man trying to sell channa for as low as 2 rupees. Then the dog with 3 legs struggling to move ahead. The next day morning. It was the near by kirana store. You see this really small kid (with dirty torn cloths and running nose) begging desperately to the store visitors - The store-wala is shooing away the kid. You can't resist but getting a biscuit pack for the poor little one. Then, the crowded train - people just struggling every day to earn their living. Then, the road-side hawkers who are sweating and shouting the whole day for tens of rupees. "Come on, stop it", I can hear you shouting. It's the reality of life. Most human beings are not happy. Life, inherently is sad, painful, sickening and depressing. This is another way of living.

Which one of the above is probably the right way to live - Be happy & unaware of things around OR get muddled with sad aspects of life? Yeah, there is no simple answer to this. And it's not that these are discrete states for different set of people. Just that each person will have one state dominating over the other.

I thought more about it. Happiness/Sadness, Peace/Revolt, Surplus/Deficit, Powerful/Weak, Beautiful/Ugly, Superior/Inferior, Positive/Negative. Let's call these dualities. Probably, life is not about dualities. We would never feel complete in one of these dualities. The feeling of neutrality and equanimity but with a strong sense for action and a clarity of thought is what we should constantly strive for. And I believe it would help in the betterment of the self and the world around.

And Psalm of Life captures this vividly:
Reference Courtesy: My DeaR friend

A PSALM OF LIFE

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream ! —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way ;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
Be a hero in the strife !

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
Let the dead Past bury its dead !
Act,— act in the living Present !
Heart within, and God o'erhead !

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time ;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

@Regular

The tamil movie was called "NaanKadavul" (means "I am God"). A very dark and hard-hitting movie. But hats off to the veteran director Bala for his boldness and making us aware of the lesser known worlds - those of Begger Mafia & Saadhus who proclaim themselves as Gods. When you come out of the theatre, it takes a while to come to normalcy.

"Life of 25 people" seem to be the pattern of the books I picked up this week. Be it "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish", which discribes the struggle and success of 25 Indian entrepreneurs OR "Lasting Leadership", which tells the story of 25 global business czars. Both are interesting and different from each other - Will post more about it next week once I complete them.

Brands and Contradictions

2009-02-08T23:30:00.001+05:30

@Random

Warning: Lots of references to Indian advertisements

A couple of months back, there were giant billboards in Mumbai - the Mom pours a packet of potato wafers which transforms and lands as oil in the kid's bowl. The caption said 'potato chips contain 25% oil'. Recently, all those billboards were replaced with Marico ads of 'Saffola Zest' with the caption "It's baked, not fried". Hmm, smart ad with a smart product placement - don't you think so? Yes and No. 'Yes' because it targets and lands well in the minds of today's consumers who can't get away without junk food, but feeling guilty of eating so. 'No' because there is potential for confusion - I can hear a consumer asking 'All through my life I have seen and known Saffalo as a cooking oil brand. Suddenly one fine day, you come and say that oil is bad. Isn't your oil used for frying?' Can you see the contradiction?

But is contradiction new Indian consumers? Let's take the case of popular Indian Brand ambassadors. Yes, the King Khan - He endorses the ultra premium Tag Heuer, then poses for the premium Bel Monte suits, the next moment he says 'Tanda Tanda.. Cool Cool' or 'Hai handsome.. hai handsome..' for Emami personal care products and for the Linc pens (the list goes on). Ok, let's take another example - Amitabh Saab. First, he makes the woman in swimsuit ogle at him (read as his premium Reid and Taylor suits), next moment he's selling Dairy Milk in a college canteen (yes, Pappu Pass Hogya!). Hmm, seems like what B-Schools teach is different from the real world - brand ambassadors have a personality and it needs to match with that of the Brand personality. Aren't these multiple personalities portrayed by the ambassadors contradicting with each other? Wouldn't it cause confusion in the minds of the consumer?

It has NOT yet. We have seen and enjoyed the same above-mentioned characters singing & dancing for the diametrically opposite "Main hoon Don" and "Pan-banaras-wala" songs. We still relate to them as actors and not as brands. We are just fine with that.

Having said so, I thought I would try something completely non-sensical: What if we replace the supposedly positioned as 'class' products with the 'Mumbai mass' products. Here we go..

There is a custom of eating Vada Paav in Mumbai. You hold it firmly with two hands symmetrically.. open the bread.. feel the rich aroma.. have a bite.. take a pinch of fried green chilli.. It ends as: You just don't eat a Vada Paav. You earn it! (Original: Cadbury premium dark chocolate)
[Context: Advertisements for alcohols are banned in TV, so the marketers do a smart job of promoting the brand using related products like music CDs. Suppose Mumbai corporation decides to ban eating pan in public places (with the objective of making the city clean) and subsequently all ads on pan as well. Pan sales crashes like Sensex. So, our Pan-walas engage a leading ad agency to come up with an ad to promote the consumption of Pan. The marketers find that there is high correlation between people who eat pan and those who drink cutting chaai (half glass tea). So the ad goes as follows..] The common man of Mumbai is just sitting at home watching TV, without having pan. Suddenly, a thundering sound. People are dancing outside, chewing something in their mouth.. they seem to relish everything.. It ends with the caption: Life is calling. What are you waiting for?.. Banaras Cutting Chaai. (Original: Smirnoff Cassettes and CDs)
A series of Mumbai Local Trains go one after the other with people hanging not just around the doors, but wherever there is a bar to hold in the chassis. It ends with Mumbai Locals, Desh ki Dhadkan. (and the driver applies the brake) Dhak Dhak.. (Original: Hero Honda)

Mumbai mass is always a class apart. May be you can't just use adapted ads. You need to be innovative, at the same time comprehensible, short and to-the-point. But contradictions are fine! After all, we are Indians! :)

@Regular

The 'Emosanal attyachar' song raised the expectations for the movie "Dev D". I would say the movie was a bit of a disappointment. Yes, it was eccentric and bold.. and its way of portrayal of modern day Devdas was unique. But I expected much more humor than just the brazenness and alcoholism.

The book I was reading last week carried the title "Business Games" - thought it was to do with Game theory. But it was a verbose self-development kinda book. It wasn't path-breaking, nevertheless some of the core concepts were interesting:

Not just in business, we just keep playing games everywhere. Most of the games are played within a frame - frames are our thoughts or the meanings we make. The frame or the context decides how we play the game. So, you can choose what game to play or how to play. So, play positive, life enriching games
Meta thinking - thinking about your thinking, feeling about your thinking, thinking about the feeling you have for your thoughts - i.e. recursive thinking
4 access to our power - Thoughts, Feelings, Speech, Action. Take responsibility for all these - by Observing, Owning, Accepting & Appreciating.

Adieu to Attachment

2009-02-02T00:23:00.003+05:30

@Random

Do your duty to the best of your ability, O Arjuna ... abandoning attachment to the results, and remaining calm in both success and failure

One of the well-known and much debated teachings of Gita. Today, the immediate response to this from people: This is idealistic, impractical and non-sense. How can one survive without attachments? There is attachment everywhere - Relationship, Work, Wealth & Self - Dialogues like 'I love my work since I am so thrilled at getting the results', 'I hate this work, but still do it since I have to get this big house', 'You know, I am so much attached to my wife that I can't stand anything bad happening to her'.

So, it seems fair to conclude that a non-attached life is equivalent of death. Hmm, Not exactly!

First, let's try to understand why the so called 'wise' sages are hell-bent on non-attachment: As much as Mr. Attachment gives joy & excitement, he is skilled at pushing one to the other side of the coin. For example, if you are so attached with your spouse, let's say - when he or she goes through a pain, you will go through it as well. Analogy is that of a parasite attached to the tree - when the tree is cut, the parasite suffers as well. Or let's say, you are attached to the poor street children & have a very good intent of helping them - But the their current state of affairs is so deplorable that you just can't do anything other than crying with them.

But it is also true that one can't live without attachment since life ceases to have meaning without attachment. Hmm.. unless, may be, we replace Mr. Attachment with someone else, who could keep us moving in life, still not get us to the mire of sorrowful states.

Ladies & Gentlemen, let's welcome, the one and only, the star of the attitudes, the never losing, the ever enthusiastic, Mr. Commitment!

I think that's what Gita tries to say in the first part as "Do the duty to your best" - I think we just need to start saying "Committed to my spouse", "Committed to the friendship", "Committed to the roles & responsibilities of my job", "Committed to my employees", "Committed to the street children", "Committed to the country", "Committed to the peace" etc

May be, not just saying, but being!

@Regular

Expected another 'Rock On' from Farhan Akhtar - But 'Luck By Chance' was a disappointment. Yeah, I have this predilection for fast movies, but LBC is way too slow for anyone. But yeah, appreciate the honest effort from Zoya Akhtar.

Oh, I should tell about this place called "Manee's" in Matunga, Mumbai. For the Authentic-Tamil-food-sicken-Mumbai, Manees is a bliss. You would get rice & sambhar served in banana leaf with all kootu, poriyal & aviyal. It's not even 25% of the best southie food you would get in Chennai. But still, we enjoy it.

Last time, when I went home, I picked up a random book on Business games - I was reminded of the game theory taught in B-Schools, which I, like most people, enjoyed learning. So, started off with that book which explains them in the context of NLP.

Bonjour Bonjour Avalanche (Wk #04)

2009-01-29T12:04:00.007+05:30

Hmm, seems like deadlines ought to be instituted and made sacrosanct for my blog posts. Going forward, 12 midnight Sunday it is!

@Random

'The progress of the nation at the perils of its politicians. And it's unfortunate that most of them are corrupt, dishonest, incapable & selfish' - the easy way Indians pass the bucks for any problem. Not to deny that, I thought 'Chuck the politicians, what's wrong with our Government officers?' - To that end, this post is dedicated to some thoughts on Public Service (PS)

Have you ever seen people preparing for IAS? The hard work, the commitment, the intelligence! They are some of the best brains in India. Not just IAS, but the officers working in departments such as Education, Infrastructure & City management, People welfare, Finance, Economic Development etc. If PS is not working well, there is something wrong in the system. I tried drawing the parallel with private organizations. The overarching root cause I felt for the problem is that Indian Government as a HR organization is failing miserably (I know you would complain that HR in your pvt organization is inefficient & dumb as well! But after working in a public service for a week, you would say your current HR is far more efficient and beautiful!). To get to the specifics:

1. Poor Leadership

In public service (PS), if a leader is honest, predominantly his subordinates tend to be honest as well. So, there is this great china wall between honest and dishonest crowd in PS. Then there is capable vs incapable category. It doesn't take an IAS officer to come up with the following 2x2 matrix.

(I know some people will have reservations reg. the choice of animals with claims such as the mosquitoes at their home is very intelligent and very very honest. Ok, assume a dishonest mosquito which doesn't repay for the blood it sucks and a creature incapable to escape even the blow of a hand or the one rupee coil. And for the animal activists, the post is not to demean any animal - I love / fear a mosquito as much as a lion - Both bite and suck your blood! Oh, enough of justification, let me get to the post!)

So, when the head of the department is a lion, the entire department behaves like lions. Some people hate to be led by lions or cows, as these animals expect their subordinates to be kempt as well.

Ideally we want the PS to be an Utopian world full of lions - Neither the lord Brahmma who is touted as the creator nor the Indian Govt HR which recruited them made it possible. So, we need to be put up with other animals as well.

One might think fox is the most dangerous of all, but contradictory to popular belief, it's the mosquito! A fox takes his share, but gets the job done partly. Irrespective of his cunning behavior, he has some stuff which makes progress possible. The cow wants to keep its hand clean oblivious of getting things done - could lead to possible exploitation of public resources. So, foxes could turn out to be better than cows. Actually, mosquitoes are differently capable - capable of making negative-development with all the public resources. So, the primary objective should be to get rid of them. As my consultant friend says, you can either kill them or move them from quadrant one to another. Morphing a mosquito to a lion may not be possible overnight. But moving them towards lion via fox or cow is not impossible.

2. Recruitment & Training Process is weak

Inefficiency, favoritism, unfairness, bribery and reservation are widespread in PS recruitment process. Yes, there are some reliable and rigorous selection process such as IAS / IPS. But the cadre below it have issues. The entire process need to be revamped. How about forming a forum / regulatory agency / industry body like SEBI, TRAI, CII to take care of the recruitment and training process in a fair and transparent manner.

Unused brain or bicycle, both will start rusting - need to be used and overhauled periodically. So,we need to make their jobs interesting, engaging and periodically provide training

3. Lack of Performance Management

Oh, this is the most important reason for the very poor performance of PS. If my age matters more than the results I produced, I will snore at my office chair the whole day gulping the aging tablets. There needs to be handsome rewards for excellent performance. The PMS should separate the weed from the pulse. There should be pressure on the under-performers. There should be severe punishment for preaching the code of conduct. The HR department should act like the watchdog with which the mosquitoes and foxes dare to survive. I know what you are asking - how can this PMS be without politics and bureaucracy - we can't uproot them even in private organizations easily - Yes, it's going to be difficult, but instituting a PMS is lesser of the evils compared to not having it.

To summarize, our PS officers are not born mosquitoes, but more because of the systems and processes, which when revamped can go a long way in ensuring the next generation of growth for India.

@Regular

The dance in the beat Prabhudeva
The beat in song is DSP
The girl in the groove Nayanthara
And to rock the floor Ilayathalapathy

Feel like dancing? I felt so when I watched the tamil movie Villu. But my Mom felt like sleeping. In night shows of action movies, she sleeps happily in the last 1 hour. But Villu was far more efficient in making her sleep in the first half itself. While returning from the movie, I asked 'Ma, do you remember what happened in the movie?' To my surprise, she told me the entire story. I asked 'I saw you sleeping. But how?' She replied with her usual smile, 'I was awake for the last 10 mins. The villain gives the executive summary of the movie!' I continued 'The movie was so noisy, how did you manage to sleep?' She replied 'The movie is no different from others - 5 sequences of dance followed by fight followed by heroic dialogues. It feels more heavenly to sleep than being awake in the hell' Oh, too much to tell these to a Ilayathalapathy fan! I quite liked the dance sequences. Vijay's foot never seemed to be in ground - be it dance or fight sequences. A 100% vijay movie. Give it a miss if you ever hated him or his movies.

Got to visit City of Sentamizh and God's own country. Hey Kerela, you always mesmerize me with your lush forests, winding roads, cool backwaters and the beautiful women. Kochin was no different. Quite an interesting place! Got to see a different marine drive.

Oh, how can I miss telling about the book I read - The Great Indian Novel - Shashi Tharoor's intellingent and funny blind of Mahabharata with modern Indian history. Absolutely brilliant! Not that it's a page turner (esp. for people who hated 'social science' subject in school days), but was quite exciting, humorous and thoughtful. A definitely recommended reading! Now curious to read the original version of Mahabharata by Rajaji. Also, picked up the novel 'Critical' by Robin Cook.

Individually Poor, Collectively Rich (Wk #03)

2009-01-20T13:16:00.005+05:30

@ReelNReal

The book "We are like that only" was quite an exciting read. It gave some simple but unconventional & wow insights about Consumer India. The author Mrs. Rama Bijapurkar, gives two compelling take-aways

Develop 'Made for India' strategy. Dont try to replicate your global strategy here. Reasons being (a) India is a bundle of contradictions - Any truism about India is negated by another, (b) Schizophrenic India: The pattern of many Indias becoming many more Indias will continue, (c) DNA of Indian society is "This as well as that"
Dont ignore Consumer India just because it's complex to understand and difficult to execute in. She is affirmative that Consumption in India is certain, even if people are abysmally poor. She calls it "The Great Indian Number Trick" - i.e. Individually poor, but collectively rich. Couple of humorous quotes, "Consumption is like maternity, a certainity. Income is like paternity, merely a matter of inference."; "Consumer India is like a drunken man - 2 steps forward, 1 step sideways, 1 backwards. But eventually, he will be back home"

This blog is not just to give you the summary of the book. Nor is to recommend you to read the book [Though given a chance, I would do so ;)] - The catchy phrases "Individually poor, collectively rich" & "This as well as that" just stuck me. I tried to recollect any personal experiences. Here it goes:

Share Auto* - People wanted the convenience of getting dropped near their home and probably the convenience of sitting while traveling. Public transport is less frequent and have limited stops, but private auto-rickshaws are way too expensive. Came the Share Auto Service! Frequent. Convenient. Affordable.
Self Help Groups - The successful emergence of women SHGs and Micro-finance is a clear case in point. Banks and organizations which once ignored them have started taking notice. Yes, not as strong as a lion, but garner strength through the group of cattle
Amman Pongal - This is prominent in Tamil Nadu, if not everywhere, definitely in villages and semi-urban areas. For the less-informed, it's a yearly celebration for the small Goddess idol kept in every street - residents pool in money (as small as 10 or 20 rupees) for the festival and get a sense of it being THEIR function. One can't imagine such a fanfare from that kind of population. True indeed, collective richness!
Surf + Wheel - I remember when I was a kid, the product Surf Excel was considered very expensive but works well with washing machines. My parents used to use 1 spoon of Surf Excel and another spoon Wheel in the washing machine. Yes, innovations started happening in Indian households before the R&D labs of Unilever.
Chota pack - The miniature version of everything! From shampoo to coke to vodfone. The packaging innovation helped mineral water, which was considered only to be served for the rich, reached poor through 'Water packet'. Indian housewives buy vegetables on a daily basis. Everything is cut, sliced and made affordable. An interesting piece here is the triangular coconut slice (It's a different story that its size get reduced when the moms send their sons to the shop ;))
Organized Retail - Who said organized retail is untested, unworkable with Indian poor. The famous Saravana Stores in T.Nagar, Chennai is on par and at times ahead of Wal-marts of the world when it comes to operational efficiency. Quite true that Kishore Biyani himself acknowledges it for being inspiration to Big Bazar.

Yes, Indian mass wants choice, quality at affordable prices! Perplexed at how everything is possible? Yes, possible - Where there is Will, Skill and Brill! And if Rama and CKP are to be believed, the Thrill is guaranteed!

--
*Share Auto - Bigger size autos used in cities like Chennai - it allows people to board or alight at their desired location. Fares are marginally higher than public transport.

@Regular

I thanked the Almighty for being 30 mins late to the movie Chandni Chowk to China! Expected it to be a laughter-coaster, rather it was a crying-coaster - The poor Sidhu of the movie gets sentimental with every damn thing - from potatos to his step-father to his girlfriend to her dad to Liu Cheng (if you are curious to know who this is, watch the movie!). I am sure the Cricket Siddhu would have made us laugh a lot better than CC2C's!

The Ferry ride @ the Gateway of India, the reopened Taj Palace & Towers and the bustling streets of Colaba, InOrbit mall - Yes, finally.. I have spent time in these much-talked about places after being in Mumbai for 6 months. The queues and the crowd really made me think are we really in a slowdown.

I think the thread and the theme continues - another book on India. 'The Great Indian Novel' by Shashi Tharoor is next on cards!

Have a colour-full life (Wk #02)

2009-01-11T21:28:00.002+05:30

@ReelNReal

Was wondering why the side walls of the railway tracks (of Mumbai locals) are painted in maroon. Similarly the lower portion of train coaches. Came the answer when I saw the lower portion of a bridge being coloured naturally in maroon color thanks to the beings called human. Yes, welcome to India, the land of Pan-lovers.

Colours! Some people claim content is more important the colour. Yes, absolutely! What matters is how good the tea is than the colour of the cup. Still, one can't defy the importance of colours in our life - Many a times, colours become the content. As we know, colours have 2 angle to it - scientific and emotional.

The science of colours is really amazing. Different colours have different properties (such as frequency) that helped scientists to make many discoveries - e.g. to guess the composition of a galaxy or planet by analyzing the missing colour (which ought to be absorbed its atmosphere) of the spectrum. The reason why an object is red is a bit counter-intuitive: It's red because it contains all colours except red (To be scientifically right: It absorbs ALL the other colours and reflects red) - So, next time when a person reflects "good deeds", don't just blindly go by that :P. The industry which has benefited hugely from the scientific improvements of colours is entertainment - from B&W movies to stunning colourful movies - makes one believe that it's worth spending 250 bucks for a single movie.

But what makes colours more appealing to everyone is the emotional angle. We know of wars in the past due to skin colour and still the differences are not completely rooted out. Colours have the power to emote different feelings in us. It could be different for different people - age, sex and culture could play major role. A kid chooses jazzy colours - lemon yellow frocks, pink gowns, bright blue pants - I have seen Moms telling to kids "no, it's not a nice colour" - who defines 'Nice', I would say. Men get embarrassed when associated with pink. Some people have a strong preference / liking for a colour that they would invariably use it for everything - Blue shirt, blue bag, blue desktop theme etc. Some people go with what general public likes - what others feel beautiful, stylish and appealing. A mix of the 2 extremes would be good.

Different colours stand for different purposes. "Go Green" is the mantra for environmentalists. White stands for peace. Black stands for expressing opposition / condolences. Red stands for passion. Yellow stands for New/bright. Blue stands for cool. This reflects in how people want to paint their houses, offices and commercial complexes.

Another interesting area where colours are heavily analyzed is products and branding. Marketers ask this question frequently 'Shall I change the colour my product to improve sales?' Advertisers want to register in consumers' mind through colours. Red is coke and Blue is pepsi - marketers have succeeded in registering this in people's mind. You and I won't believe how much companies are spending on getting the colours right for their logo and branding.

With so much beauty being evoked through colours, it's definitely worth to wish a person "Have a colourful life!" I wish you the same!

But are colours just meant for eyes? What would different colours mean for say, a blind person. I think his higher perception capabilities of other senses might help distinguish colours - Just that he might not know what we call as red is red. I am sure he would have a colourful life as well, probably not in the literal sense of ours!

@Regular

Saw: Madagascar 2 - Complete fun for 89 mins that we didn't realize that the movie got over. Man, I should tell you, the penguins are way too awesome!
Read(ing): We are like that Only, the book by Rama Bijapurkar, saying Indian consumers are not about logic, rather magic!
Visited: (a) Kyber @ Khar - L^2, the infamous drink, dance and chit-chat night of IIMB was replicated at Mumbai - We couldn't replicate the campus atmosphere, neverthless it was good fun. (b) Noodle Bar - Good place for people fond of Chinese - You gotta make the noodle of your choice - You can't blame the restaurant for it not coming out well (c) The 'Croma' @ High Street Phoenix - Made us wonder when they are going to break even!
Met: The other day when I was getting back home, saw the posters "Remember Hanuman, Vote for Monkey", "You like Milk? Vote for Buffalo", "For Auspcious prosperity, vote for Elephant"- I couldn't look at the details of the poster - I just thought that the college elections have gone innovative and felt like laughing for the moron who chose Buffalo and Monkey. Last week I realized that it was the new and interesting campaign to save tiger. What I missed in the posters is the tag-line that follows the voting request - "Vote as the NEW NATIONAL Animal" - Last I heard, this has created quite some buzz in colleges and malls. You can check out the website of the 2 energetic brains behind this - http://www.sproutsenvttrust.org/ and if you want to vote, follow this link. What I quite liked about their idea is the whole angle of positiveness to their programs. Also, met a lot of old friends this week.
Quote of the week: A leader sees a leader in everyone

Never give unsolicited advice (Wk #01)

2009-01-04T21:12:00.005+05:30

Mr. X said cheerfully, 'Happy New Year!'
I replied 'Thanks! Wishing you the same. Have a great year ahead!'
X continued 'So, what are your new year resolutions?'
I replied 'Nope, I didn't make any'
X immediately said, as if he is Columbus' Akka Purushan (Bro-in-law), "Yeah, right. What's the point? People eventually break all resolutions!"

World full of 'X'es! ;)

I have inherited a bit of do-it-when-people-say-you-can't attitude from my dear friend P. Yes, I am going to make a resolution! Weekly blog! (that's why the title "Wk #01"!) - The resolution is to get an unbeaten half-century i.e. "Wk #50" by end of 2009.

It's a resolution trying to prove wrong that resolutions are invariably broken. I wanted concrete answers for the 'What If I ..' questions viz: (1) Am not in a mood to blog (2) Am really busy (3) Run of topics (4) Feel that it is completely useless to blog (to me and others) (5) End up in an eventuality like getting ill

Out of the above four, personally, I found #1 is the most difficult to handle - Just reminded of what my friend K says "Be committed to your word, not mood". The answer to solve #2 & #3 came as: Have 2 sections in every post - @ReelNReal (like the current posts - any Random topic under sun), @Regular - very brief update on what/whom Saw, Read, Visited, Met during the week. #4 is ensured, since I resolve to write only interesting / useful / funny stuff. The regularity helps me to be more disciplined and do more of meaningful things. No point discussing #5 - Make-up posts if required.

Ok, time to get into the post..
----------------------
@ReelNReal

Lets get to the topic of the post: Advice! Something people find it easy to give, tough to listen to, tougher to accept and toughest to practise. But it's absolutely interesting to read what advices inspired the most successful people, the words of wisdom which made them keep going irrespective of all odds. Business Today (Jan 11 issue) has a nice cover story titled 'The Best Advice I ever Got' for 60 successful Indians (mostly business-men). Here is a summary of the most interesting advices:

Son, One of every 10 men who are born in this world, 9 men work for the tenth. Prepare yourself to be the tenth - Jamshed Irani, Tata Sons
Reach for the stars, but always keep one on the ground - L N Mittal, ArcelorMittal
Whichever decision that will give you peace of mind and help you to go to sleep peacefully in the night is the right decision. Listen to your conscience - Seshasayee, Ashok Leyland
Results matter, efforts don't - Jignesh Shah, MCX
Shreya Marg & Preya Marg (Beautiful & Difficult path) - Choose the difficult path, since it leads to your desiny, while beautiful path is a destiny in itself; Believe in the present and do justice to it - Prasoon Joshi, McCann
Follow Your heart. It's better to go wrong on your instincts than on someone's else's - Aamir Khan
Never take more than 1 risk at a time - Venu Srinivasan, TVS
Take your work seriously, but don't take yourself too seriously - Piyush Pandey, O&M
Ultimately, management is common sense - N Sankar, Sanmar
Invest in people, empower them - Harsh Mariwala, Marico
Every problem can be traced back to failure of Management & Leadership - Akhil Gupta, Blackstone
The most important principle in life is humility and conservatism - Uday Kotak, Kotak Mahindra
Understand your true strength - M V Subbiah, Murugappa
Poor know a lot more than us - Vikram Akula, SKS Microfinance
Live and Let Live - Venugopal Dhoot, Videocon
Go with your Gut - Malvinder Singh, Ranbaxy
Be fair in life, work and relationships - Deepak Puri, Moser Baer
When you allow yourself no choices and risk everything, the survival instinct in you will bulid up an obsessive passion. It'll give you the courage to be successful - Dilip Chabbria, DC Design
Share the credit for success, take responsibilty for trouble - Madhavan Nair, ISRO
First know what you really want from life - Aditya Puri, HDFC
Every failure opens up a new Vista. Learn to fight failure with a spirit of challenge that will make you stronger - Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon
Have total Shraddha (involvement, devotion) - Gopinath, KingFisher / Deccan
Do what you really love doing, and nothing less than 200% - Chetan Maini, Reva
You have the right to the actions, not the fruits of it (from Gita) - Harsha Goenka, RPG
Trust your intuition - Gautam Adani, Adani
Reinvent the wheel - Sivakumar, ITC
Remain focussed in times of crisis and use it as an opportunity to become stronger - Shantanu Prakash, Educomp
Surround yourself with the best people and set them free - Raghav Bahl, Network 18
And finally, the title quote - Vinita Bali, Britannia

I tried to group these. The winning categories are 'Facing Reality' and 'Knowing & Following your heart'

Ultimately what makes the difference is not knowing, rather practicing. :)

@Regular

Saw: Ghajini, Slumdog Millionaire - Both are must-watches
Read(ing): The Theory of Everything, Stephen Hawking - Collection of his lectures on the orgin and probably the fate of Universe - Good for anyone interested even a bit in Physics / Astronomy
Visited: (a) Newyorker Restaurant in Chowpaty, Mumbai - Isn't my personal favorite, but good for people who love pizzas but getting bored of Dominos and Pizza Hut (b) Kurla, Mumbai - Got to witness some of what I saw in Slumdog
Met: 2 New people, each with an interesting conversation

Bye, Have a good week ahead! See you next week.

The Theory of Convergence

2009-01-02T15:42:00.005+05:30

Frequently, I stumble up on the question "Is there an Ultimate Truth?" - I am sure I'm not alone here.

Few schools of thought on this rather intriguing question:

There is ultimate truth (UT). With our limited comprehension in various fields, we come up with infinite theories, beliefs & hallucinations. We claim what we think of as UT is indeed the UT. The spectrum of this interpreted UT is wide: Love, Music, God, Selflessness, Family, Friends, Work, Fun, Work, Booze, Joy, Pain, Awareness, Service, Sex, Money, Inventions, Making-a-difference, Death, Sleep, Universe, Being, Self, Commitment, Integrity, Power, Happiness, Success, Patriotism, Peace and 'I, me and myself' - to name a few. People have freedom - they choose their UT, which in turn gives some sense of meaning to their life.
There is nothing ultimate or truth about 'Ultimate Truth'. This is simpler of the two thoughts since (a) it's too common that people of first category shift from one UT to another in the passage of their life, which in principle, defeats the definition of 'Ultimate' in UT (b) It's always simpler to deny something and ask for proof than proving.
The third and last group would say that we really don't know.. May be that UT is intentionally left unanswered, since answering would end the struggle and joy of living. It's like a thriller - who would be interested in watching if the story including the twists, plots and the end is known? Out of the 3, this is the safest and simplest.

Like many of you, I had (am having) been through all the 3 schools at different times. Only the third state makes it possible for one to be through the 3 possibilities. Though it's the simplest, human beings never stop and settle for simple things. We always ask "What Next?" We would like to explore, seek, know and eat the apple.

I started thinking of the pillar areas, we human beings analyzed, tried to understand, have shown interest so far. Through our reading, listening, thinking and experiences, we lived and believed in all these areas through out our life - not just our generation, but millions of them. That made me feel that we can find out the Ultimate Truth based on, what I would call, the Theory of Convergence - If there is something that all the pillar areas could converge to, that would be the UT. Yes, the convergence of Science, Business, Spirituality, Arts and Society. Pictorially, something like this [Ok, excuse me - This's definitely not an insightful piece of venn diagram - Just decided to include a picture for the first time in my blog ;)]

Yes, it's not that easy to find the convergence, given billions of population with trillions of ideologies under each area and zillions of conflicts and battles among these areas. Yes, traditionally there been more fights and incongruities than convergence among these pillars - E.g. the fierce fight between science and religion, the incompatibility between society and business. So, is it possible at all to find the one that binds all these areas? Can we get a genius who discovers the deepest insights that could potentially connect all the dots?

Let's HOPE we find. Let's HOPE we get.

Year End Comparison - RNBDJ Vs Ghajini

2008-12-30T11:39:00.002+05:30

What kind of stupidity is this? Comparing Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (RNBDJ) and Ghajini? Where is the connection? Both are different type of movies - completely different genres, story, heroes, style, narration. One is 'Ghar Ka Khana' and another is 'Feast with all masala'. You will compare just because they got released in the same month and you managed to watch them both? What the hell is that?

Yes, I understand your concerns. But let me tell you, irrespective of its differences, there are few similarities in the movie - Let me explore them in this post:

Memory Loss Effect: In Ghajini, it's apparant - Sanjay (Aamir Khan) suffers from Short-term memory loss. In Rab Ne, it's very subtle - The girl Tanni (Anuksha Sharma) suffers from permanant memory loss - yes, someone who can't remember her husband's voice or face
Terrorizing fights Effect: In both the movies the heroes fight difficult villains. The fights are way too violent and terrorizing. In Rab Ne, it's a humungous and gross sumo fighter who is made to fall on the floor in a single flow and in Ghajini, with a single blow, he makes everyone hurl and fall on the floor.
The Duality Effect: In both movies, there are 2 different versions of the same person. The girls in both movies get deceived of the true identity
"Shake Shake" Effect: (Courtesy: McDonald's commercial) The heroes shiver and shake in both movies. Suri (Sharukh) in his usual style makes his hands, lips, face and entire body shake, shiver trying to deliver very emotional dialogues (Yes, girls went crazy and shed the tears whose magnitude could solve the water problem in India). Sanjay was shaking his head vigorously frequently (yes, camera man / editor had to do it so that people can understand that he's getting confused and not remembering anything)
Old Daddy Effect: The heroes get to romance with girls of their daughters' age, some call it grand-daugther. (I can hear my N.Indian friends saying "what the heck? Your southie heroes romance with great grand daughters" :P) But it's good fun watching them - Tremendous effort from both given their age
Pani Puri Effect: Did you notice? Both the heriones take heroes to pani puri shop
Girly-2-wheeler Effect: Yes, the guys had to sit behind the girls in the two-wheeler tricks, chases and stunts
Lady Teacher Effect: The girls teach the heroes. Tanni teaches Raj to dance. Kalpana teaches Sachin (Aamir) to act.

This list is just indicative - We can go on just like this. Let me conclude with the last, both movies managed to have a good paisa vasool, bring smile to the producers (though it's not guaranteed for viewers) - ultimately, that's what matters no?

Ashtavakra Gita

2008-12-29T17:03:00.003+05:30

Came across Ashtavakra Gita. It's supposed to be the conversation between Rishi Ashtavakra (Yes, he is the one who listened to Vedas from his mom's womb as per mythology) and King Janaka - containing some of the core teachings of Vedanta in a lucid manner. A bit abstract, but really short and sweet. Some seems too Impractical and Instructional, but still worth giving it a try since some of them are truly Insightful. Don't ask me more about it - Like you, I am pretty new to these.

Some excerpts from the poetic translation:

To be free,
shun the experiences of the senses
like poison.
Turn your attention to
forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, simplicity, truth.

A single understanding:
'I am the One Awareness,'
consumes all suffering
in the fire of an instant.
Be happy.
You are unbounded Awareness'
Bliss, Supreme Bliss

He who is unattached,
untouched by opposites,
free of desire,
experiences neither pleasure nor pain
as events pass through.

When there is no 'I'
there is only liberation.
When 'I' appears
bondage appears with it.
Knowing this,
it is effortless to refrain
from accepting and rejecting.

Realize Self in All and All in Self.
Be free of personal identity
and the sense of 'mine.'
Be happy.

One who abhors sense objects avoids them.
One who desires them becomes ensnared.
One who neither abhors nor desires
is neither detached nor attached.

The great soul
remains poised and undisturbed,
whether in the presence
of a passionate woman
or observing the approach of his death.
He is truly free.

One who knows Self,
whose mind is serene and spotless,
does not desire to give up anything,
nor does he miss what is not there.

Having had enough
of the endless workings of the mind,
the wise one comes to rest.
He neither thinks, nor knows,
nor hears, nor sees.

The mind of the liberated one
is neither troubled nor pleased.
It is actionless, motionless, desireless
and free of doubt.

The liberated one
does not exert effort
to meditate or act.
Action and meditation just happen.

Depending on nothing,
one finds happiness.
Depending on nothing,
one attains the Supreme.
Depending on nothing,
one passes through tranquility
to One Self.

When one realizes
he is neither the actor
nor the one who watches,
the mind-storm is stilled.

In short, the great soul
who has realized Truth
is free of desire, enjoyment and liberation.
In all of space and time
he is attached to nothing.

Goals

2008-12-28T14:27:00.004+05:30

We are getting to the end of an eventful year. Every news paper and news channel is busy with covering 2008 - Terror attacks, Economic turmoil, Olympics & Cricket everywhere. People would be ranking whether the year was personally a blockbuster or mediocre or disaster. Few would be working on resolutions for 2009. That stuck me to think on its remote cousin know as "Goals". To be more specific, I was thinking whether one should have goals or not. If you feel "What a silly question - If you want, have it, otherwise leave it. What's there to think about it?", you are not far - closer to how I might conclude. ;)

First, coming to "why this question?" I believe answering this question could fundamentally change the way we live our lives. I think there are 2 different ways of living: (1) Take life as it comes (2) Have goals and constantly strive to achieve that. A bit of clarification here: Under #1, there are 2 sub-categories: (1a) Be open to opportunities that life may throw at you and give your 100% (1b) Be a lazy irresponsible bum. Obviously, (1b) is out of any discussion here. The fight is really between #1a and #2. In some sense, it's like the classic fight between Fate (call it Karma / God / Luck / Fortune / Universal plan) and Intelligence. Supporters of Fate say 'Everything has been planned out in detail for you - You just execute it honestly'. Advocates of Intelligence believe, ‘It is stupid to think that someone decides your destiny. You and you alone plan and execute everything.’

Let me take my personal example. Some of you, who know me, would be surprised on why I talk about Fate, since I 'come across' as an ambitious person. (Looks can be deceiving ;)) Let me tell you, my best of, what they call, 'achievements' happened not by absolute planning and meticulous execution - but more through opportunities and by enjoying what I was doing. On the other hand, there are many instances where I had set the goal "A", but ended up getting "B" - Too many examples in this category: Targeted IIT, but went to CEG; Yearned for top US Schools, but worked for Trilogy; Envisioned to be a great coder, but excelled in management and the IIM gates opened (literally got B over A here!) Thought I would die for this one girl, but was reborn anew. Similar story with job. But on hindsight, I think it is best that B has happened to me than A – E.g. Had I got what I initially targeted for, I wouldn't have experienced the great life of Trilogy and eventually an exciting career in India. Thanks the entire Bs! Some of the happiest days of my life had been when I took life as it is - giving 100% to whatever opportunity that pops up. So, as I see, there are 2 issues with setting goal:

Figuring out what is the right set of goals for oneself – Most people say 1000 things on what their dad / kid should do, but can’t go beyond half a dozen when it’s intended for them – typical conversations like “I really don’t know what’s good for me”, “will I be able to do this”, “this is not for me”. Or that people become too greedy and end up setting too ambitious goals which don’t make much sense later
Second, we forget about living the life when the focus shifts solely on the final objective - it's like a mirage - you constantly run behind something - there is never an end to it.

Let's now take a U-turn to explore the other side.

From childhood, we have been encouraged to have goals / ambitions and almost all motivational books suggest us having goals – Don’t think so many people can be collective idiots. Tam saint Thiruvalluvar says Ulluvathallam Uyarvullal (Means “Think Big” – oh, nice caption for Mr. Anil Ambani!). They say aim at star to shoot at the sky and fortune favors the brave. Going back to my personal examples: Who knows, I got "B" just because I tried for "A" and / or that I didn’t give my 100% for A. Also, it might be short-sighted to architect our lives just based on past. Life is like a stock market - one can't predict tomorrow based on yesterday - Everyday is new. Apart from my personal example, I think there are few reasons why it makes sense for everyone to have goals:

Goals help one to stretch himself.. to bring out his best. So, if not for personal reasons, goals might be good for the progress of the society at large. Many people who made great discoveries and improvements had a great vision or an ambition.
Goals are somehow related to one's personal, professional, financial or societal developments. So, it's difficult to skip them - You need to have goals, unless your goal is not to have goals.
By nature, human beings are desirous (if not greedy), want their ego to be satisfied, want recognition (both self & others), need a sense of contribution / doing work, prefer being in control of their lives - Having goals could tie all these.
For many people, though having goals may not be the best way to go about, there is no other better way - Life is not generous enough to always throw things at us - not having goals or aspirations could lead to boredom, desperation and frustration. For most people, life could be difficult and clueless without proper direction in the form of goals.

Ok, do all these mean we have no other choice but have goals? Of course, NOT. It all finally boils down to our values and how we want to live our lives. In fact, most people spend more than half of their lives trying to figure out what life really means. I think life is nothing more than what we say it IS. If one says life is all about "Peace", he can choose to not have goals and be content with whatever he has. If you define it as "Success", have tones of goals and go about accomplishing them all. If life is all about "Happiness" - It's a mixed bag - some people are happy about doing something, for others, it's doing nothing. The list can go on. Just would conclude with 2 points (a) We can do whatever we want, unless we regret later in our life for doing / not-doing something (b) One can keep an eye in the destiny, but still enjoy the treasures and pressures during the journey.

So, are you going to have goals? Irrespective of whether you are have it or not, have an awesome year ahead. :)

Mumbai - A week of transformation!

2008-12-04T21:54:00.005+05:30

Mumbai. What a transformation within a week! From a passive, helpless city TO an active, WE-CAN-attitude city. The leader-less, organization-less, promotion-less pure-citizen-based initiative of yesterday - mobilization of thousands of people near the Gate way of India - with people expressing their views - It was simply electrifying to be part of the crowd.

Like most others, I also felt it was just an emotional pouring or a spam, when I first got a random SMS from a friend last Sunday. But it was totally IN-ACTION yesterday. People shouting to their core - "Bharat Maatha Ki.. Jai", "Vande... Mataram..", "We want... Action" etc. The environment of huge mobs carrying posters ranging from "Enough is enough", "A'chut'han", "Vote for 49'o", "We want justice", "No Security, No Tax" etc. Flaunting the tri-color flags was scintillating. I wrote and carried a A3 poster with my favorite phrase "ONE India". We didn't forget to sing our national anthem with atmost sincerity. I could imagine how the freedom fighters would have felt!

Till yesterday, I used to wonder whether people protesting like this could make any REAL difference - Yes, people make their point - it also looks good to say to your friends that you have participated in it - that's it - everyone would go back to normalcy after a week. BUT yesterday definitely gave a different HOPE. The rage people showed on politicians - the way they are becoming aware of things happening around them - the way they call others for action - the way they get into action - all are really promising. If not great leaders emerging out of it, they are getting prudent enough to chuck ch**** out of the system. The politicians can't take it for granted that people are dolls who will just dance to regionalism / ideologies OR dogs which will run for the bone they throw. People want Justice, they want Change, they want their Tax to be used properly, they want Security, they want a Justification of the official post. And most importantly, they didn't just stop at asking what the politicians can do for the country, they discussed what they can do for the country. That is REAL difference.

The other day, my friend referred this long but thoughtful article on why poor countries are poor. In line with that article, no doubt our politicians have a played a major role in keeping this country in a pitiful state irrespective of its great resources. Hello... Our dear politicians, please Jaago Re. We have woken up - You can't keep cheating us! If we make a mistake in electing a wrong person - we shall throw him out and find a new person. In a country of 1.2 billion people, we are not short of leaders! Hey Joker, if you can't truly deliver what you promised, make way for others! These thoughts were reflected in the entire crowd.

Before I conclude this post, I just wanted some concrete ideas for a cause. It was great to sing the national anthem together in a group - Reminds us of our nation and our patriotic feelings - Reassures that we are ONE India! Mumbai does a great deal by having the national anthem played (in screen) in theaters before a movie - ensuring that we think of the nation at least for 0.8% of time we spend on the movie. In fact, I was so happy looking at the level of respect Mumbaikars give when it's being played - standing still, either singing or remaining silent. It's definitely a great deal. Now, the question is: How can it be done nationally?

Yes, I was told, it used to be played in theaters earlier, but was stopped after the reasoning that people are not respecting it properly - Seems like they reasoned it "Better to not have it than disrespecting it". Yes, point taken. But that's not a solution - it's like "When people don't follow the traffic rules, I will remove all traffic signals" - My comparison may sound extreme - But the point is simple: For anything and everything, there will be some dissidents. Why care about them? Think of the positive impact it could have. Even if it's one person, it's worth it. I also presume people's attention would go up with the latest inspiring visuals in big screens (yes, thanks Bharatbala).

Ok, let me come to the action part. It can be made possible in 2 ways - make it mandatory (through Government) OR inspire the theater owners to take action. Yes, the second solution may not be very sustainable in long term. But in any case, to make it happen, we need the buy-in of all the stake-holders: Government - State & Central, Theater owners and People. Few quick top-of-the-mind ideas. If you have any ideas / suggestions to make it happen, please comment.

Theater owners: Target cities first - the multiplexes are more organized - Few owners to target - Through the top management or its board of directors, try to influence companies like INOX, Adlabs and PVR. Even if one makes its mandatory in ALL its screens in ALL cities (Yes, it will get a good PR for the Co. for doing it), others will follow it. Pretty soon, I believe, small theaters would follow - Not doing it would be not just a lack of respect for the nation, but the fact of being left out of the big league.
People: Media can play a huge role in it. Some NGOs and volunteers can chip-in to create awareness.
Government: Yes, Government Ji, if you implement it, i'm sure you can put it in your "List of achievements". But how can we influence you to do it? But.. Please don't tell us we need to BRIBE you!

Will post an update when I make that difference.

Stop Talking.. Start Doing..

2008-11-29T18:49:00.002+05:30

62 hours. 195 killed. 295 injured.

We have been watching the TV last 2 days about Mumbai Terror attack.. With varying comments like "Man, our security system Sucks!", "We know that it's coming to Mumbai - it's a matter of 'when' - how can they let it happen", "Mumbaikars are so insensitive to burn crackers in such a situation!", "TV channels are trying to make it so dramatic", "Where is Raj Thackeray?", "These terrorists are so clever", "Few dozen terrorists have brought an active city of 2 crore population to its knees"... and a detailed discussion following each comment!

Talk.. Talk.. Talk.. Till we die!!! So, what can we do? Feel sorry for the people who lost their lifes? Express deep condolences? - Who needs all our sorry and condolences? The middle class as usual speaks, feels and forgets after a couple of weeks. These don't matter to lower class. The upper class seeks footage, assesses the material damage to their businesses. People unanimously say "Government has to solve this issue. We are helpless in these situations!" The talk continues - "But you know.. Government is incapable.. It's corrupt.. It gets priority all wrong.. Till we have dirty politicians, nothing is going to happen". Enough of talks.

Not just terrorism. Take any other social issue - Pollution. Poverty. Corruption. Child Labor. The list goes on.. Our talk goes on as well.. Endlessly..

Didn't mean we shouldn't talk - Of course, our words become actions. What I meant is useless talk.. empty speech.. the attitude of being an eternal cribber.. constant complainer! So, next time - when you think you can't make a difference - when you think you are not interested in taking further action - pls dont talk - you can better spend that time in selling an additional pepsi or write 100 lines of software code or serving another customer in your shop - just do honestly - atleast that would serve the country than your pointless talk.

I feel 98% of social work is done by 2% of the committed people - the action people - the selfless people - they just dont have time to talk like us.

In fact, I feel even this blogging is pointless - it's just another way of talking..

From today, let our actions speak more than words!

Black Tiger

2008-11-25T23:30:00.003+05:30

White Tiger: Read a fiction after a long time. Thanks SK, BK and Mam for the B'day present!

Gripping. Entertaining. Humorous. Shocking. Infuriating. Humiliating. A roller coaster of emotions while reading this simple-yet-thoughtful book. I quite liked the way the story unfolds; the language, interpretations & narrations - as from a poor-innocent-villager-driver-murderer-turning-into-smart-entrepreneur.

Yes, on one side, I laughed at the sarcasm, wittiness and the humor in the novel. It made me realize some dark truths about India. Thoughts like: 'Come on, you can't do this to them - the under-privileged', 'Man, am I living in this country? Completely oblivious to what's happening to the poor!', 'S**t, the system is really screwed! How & When can we fix it?', 'We need heroes of Shankar movies to weed out these morons - unethical, corrupt and sucking politicians, bureaucrats & business-men' preoccupied my mind.

But on the another side, his criticisms and remarks on India made me rage with anger: 'Yes, I know my country is not perfect. But is it as bad as he portrays?', 'An American / German / Chinese or any other country man will have equally bad and imperfect things to write about. But will they do so?', 'Is this how an Indian has to present India to an outsider?', 'Thanks, Aravind! you have done a great honour to your mother-land. You made us proud of you for winning the award', 'No wonder the sadistic western judges voted it out for booker award - Who wouldn't like bad-mouthing a threatening, rising neighbour, esp. when the expatriate of the same house becomes the messenger', 'Dude - you are giving a very biased opinion!'

I tried to synthesize and resolve these incongruous view points: The very fact that I had the first view point means that I agree that there is mess - yes, every Indian would agree that there is mess. So, in addition to the self-proclamations of "Incredible India!", it wouldn't harm facing the grass root-level reality. Unless we face it, we won't solve it - we would just be in the conceited state. So, let's face it! But, how about the biased opinions? Screw opinions, man! Who cares? How does it matter if a neighbor thinks that there is some problem in my family - what ultimately matters is the happiness & well-being of my family. But my dear friend, it's not shielded any more - In an increasing flat world, what matters are the impressions and opinions - A country portraying itself as 'powerful with big brother attitude' would be successful in ensuring due respect from small boys, another nation advertising as 'safe, peaceful and sound political system' would simply attract flooding inflow of investments. So, "impression management" is very very very important!

"Haa Haa.. I know what happened to all those big big companies which tried to trance people with their false impression management systems.. so, you better be yourself.. people would appreciate known devils than an unknown Gods.. What have impressed outsiders is the ability of this devil to rise among the self-proclaimed-gods and getting noticed.. Yes, a devil with a messy past.. But future is definitely bright.. We may be just be black devilish tigers.. Nevertheless have the power and capabilities of a white tiger.. So, my dear friend, don't give up HOPE.. Let's imagine India and Create ideas for the new Century*"

Thanks Adiga for this entertaining book. Sorry, for being a little harsh on you - But it helped.

*PS: Got to read 2 chapter experts of the forth-coming book of Nandan Nilekani - "Imagining India" - Very promising - Looking forward for it.

Need more proofs?

2008-11-23T01:28:00.003+05:30

Moon. Light. Rain. Breeze. Sea. You.

Yes, they said all these should feature in my first poem.

Can one survive 1000W electric shock everyday? I defy physics whenever you go past me!

I had 1 million thoughts yesterday.. You played dual role in all of them.

I saw a two-petal red rose in my life.. yes, your lips!

"Let's make it Green" became my slogan though I'm not an environmentalist. (Yes, it's your favorite!)

They categorized as 'day' and 'night'. I too have 2 categories - 'Eyes' and 'Mind'. (Yes, the way I see you!)

Thanks waves, for the cheers! One reason why I like bringing her to beach.

Don't you know I'm behind you. Everyone in the college including the professor & the bench know it!

Even my puppy advised me to propose. You would blush if I tell its idea of proposing.

Used to wonder why I was born.. Got clarified on Jan 27th - the day I met you.

Aren't the white long dresses extremely painful? You seem to wear it everyday in my dreams.

Meteorological department can predict rain with 100% accuracy for 1 place in this world. My heart - 24x7 (after I met you!)

I hate attending classes. But I will fight for extra classes, evening classes, weekend classes. At least they bring you to the college.

Let Rahman not hear you laughing. Would use it as new musical instrument in his composition!

I'm happy. I won the bet with my friend. Accurate prediction of what you would wear for a week.

Can a man fly? that too in water..? Been doing in it for an year!

India would be a super-power, if people work like my HEART. Doing double-duty.. sincerely.. passionately.. consistently..

Who said only mouth can speak? Every cell of mine can speak clearly.. yes, your name!

Oye Sun: fire Mr. Moon, appoint a new guy who can beam like you - Her mom keeps calling her after you-set in the evening!

"See all these.. Read them all.. You wrote me all these.. at various points in your life.. I kept it safe so that it would be useful one day like today.. You have been asking why I call you an 'Idiot'.. Aren't these good enough? Need More Proofs??" -- Mrs. Krishnan handed over the diary to Mr. Krishnan. Both had a good laugh looking at them!

ONE Ideology.. ONE India..

2008-11-19T15:58:00.003+05:30

What makes a nation tick? Make it leap ahead of others? Bounce back from a crisis?

The overarching answer I could think of is ONE ideology - a common ideology - ONE that binds the entire nation - ONE that inspires every one in the nation irrespective of their age, sex, profession & socio-economic status. Prominent examples where ONE ideology worked would be revolutions, freedom-movements, national war etc. Japan's demolition in 1945 and raising from ashes is a good example. It's similar to companies having ONE sound vision with stakeholders' buy-in doing much better than others.

Ok, let's shift our focus to India. Yes, India has amazing diversity in culture, language, religion and what not, ideologies - I greatly admire and being proud of the same. But is this really helping in the progress of our ultra-capable nation. Ideologies like "My religion is superior", "Need a separate state for us", "THE Champion of Political party XYZ", "Cinema actor fan club", "Reservation for my caste", "Job preference to sons-of-soil" etc are like 16 horses trying to pull the chariot in innumerable directions. Beyond a point, all of these just take away people's time and energy than adding real value to the progress. Wait, by ONE ideology, I didn't mean that people shouldn't have any other ideologies - rather the ONE ideology should be the "primary" ideology for most people - people can freely have N+1 secondary ideologies.

The immediate questions that pop-up are -

ONE ideology stems from the assumption of "progress" being the priority of the nation. But who decides this priority? - one says "progress", another says "diversity", third one "freedom". My opinion: freedom without power & progress is like big empty pot - you can 'someday' fill it with all you want, but when? It has been more than 60 years! Adding 'Diversity' may not help much - just makes the pot - a big 'beautiful' pot.
Does the boundary of 'Nation' make sense in today's 'flat' world? Only 0.008% of India's population works for Infosys. In my opinion, the entire nation hasn't progressed to the level of thinking / talking about ONE world.
What's the ONE ideal ideology? Is it possible at all to come up with only one? Yes, It's going to very very challenging. But the example of "CHANGE" ideology pepped up by young Obama gives us the hope of YES WE CAN! (the actual execution of the ideology is yet to be witnessed, but getting it right with people's buy-in is half-job done!)
Who will promote, champion, lead this ideology? Who will empower & inspire others to live this ideology? Are our politicians sane enough to think of national interest? Is it going to be business man or a social worker or a public figure or media? Will we get another M.K.Gandhi? Who is the ONE?

The search continues...

Little things..

2008-11-18T23:56:00.007+05:30

Buzz! Buzz!! It was the calling bell. Half asleep, Aditi's consciousness told someone is at door. She acted deaf to enjoy the extra bit of coziness - curled back into bed thinking 'Who knows I am awake!'. Buzz again! She couldn't act deaf again - door was opened.

It was Valli, the house servant.

Aditi sleepily asked "What Valli? It's just 6:30 AM! Why half hour early today?"

Valli said "Maaf keejiye ji.. Aaj beta ko hospital leh-jaana.."

Aditi - "oh, ok. ok.. Finish work quickly and go home early"

Valli began the usual house-sweeping and utensil-cleaning at a brisk pace. Aditi entered the kitchen and started preparing the tea for her. That day was different - She didn't know why she felt so, but she thought she should prepare tea for Valli as well. She made an extra cup.

Aditi handing over the tea to Valli, said "Have chai Valli." Valli was a little hesitant - "What is this ma? You serving tea for me!". Aditi said "It's ok, Valli. please have it". Unexplainable joy in Valli's face, heartful thanks in her eyes.

Same day. While heading to office in Taxi, Aditi thought "Sometimes we take things for granted - things like - servants are supposed to serve us.. how wrong it could be.. Compared to the services she does for me, what I did was nothing.. It's just a small thing.. a simple thing.. a little thing.. but making a big difference to Valli.. I'm so happy for whatever I did today.. Hope her son gets alright soon!"

Her thought related it to other things in life - "In some way, it's not just our servants, rather the people who love us the most - parents, kids, spouse and close friends.. we take them for granted.. we forget to appreciate them.. we forget to reciprocate their love.. Little things like playing hide and seek with my son.. a funky-tshirt as surprise b'day gift to my dad in 50s.. calling a school friend who admired me in school days - to just say a 'hi'.. yes, little things to me.. makes a big difference to them!"

From that day, Aditi never missed the opportunity of preparing an additional cup of Chai for Valli.

From Today...

2008-11-17T10:39:00.004+05:30

From the diary of Mr.Common Man:

Till Yesterday..

I WORK like a donkey for my living
I FIGHT like a dog for my survival
I HOG like a pig for my growing
I CHEAT like a fox for my approval
I PLAY like a kitten for my pleasure
I LAZE like a buffalo for my relaxation
I KILL like a lion for my supremacy

From Today..
I am a MAN. Yes, I GIVE like a man to others & the society! Thanks to GiveIndia.org!

Top 3 predictions

2008-11-12T20:06:00.002+05:30

It's fun to play the game of predicting future. Let's come up with 3 random predictions for 3 random people..

Super Star - Rajnikanth

He will enter politics, quit then and enter again (though will never hold any major post)
The next generation Tamil Kids would love to play/see Rajni toys/animation shows - "Ranjnee-Show", "Scooby-Kanth", "Super-Star-Man"
His movie "Enthiran, the Robot" will do so much collection that it would take decades and a heavy depreciation of Rupees for the new tamil movie to match its collection

Ultimate Queen - Aishwarya Rai

Would have a baby boy who is to be named starting with letter "A"
She would venture into Movie production, many of which would have good collections in UK and US
She would head "Bachans Foundation" which would soon become India's one of the biggest social organizations

The Wall - Dravid

Would play a villian role against the super hero Shivraj Kumar in a Kannada movie (Yes, Shivraj's 150th movie!) which would later be dubbed to all Indian languages. The movie would also feature Cricket bat stunt
The "Dravid Cricket Academy" would attract talents from abroad. BCCI would mandate every new Indian player to get coached for1 week to learn the tricks of test cricket batting
He would chair the committee set up by ICC for the new format of the cricket called "S-Format" (Short for "Senior" Format). This format doesnt require running or scoring runs - winner is chosen based on S3 - Style, Stamina and Strength

November Twelfth!

2008-11-12T18:34:00.003+05:30

(Short Story 2)

"You know, today is a special.", John started.. holding Maha's hands.

"Don't tell me you took bath today!", winked Maha.

"Chup! something to do with our relationship"

"Hmm.. couldn't think of anything.. you tell"

"Gals are simply dumb! boys have to explain everything! It's 143rd time we are meeting secretively in this park"

"My God! You keep track of all these! You beat cricinfo statistics!"

"Yeah, it's women who typically keep track of all these.. our case is just the reverse!"

"Hmm, who decides all these 'things-to-be-done-by-women'?"

"Its our culture! And it's how Venus creatures are designed. Though there are abberations like you!"

"Enough of mindless chat, John. Tell me what's happening with your job search. You don't behave like a 24 year adult", a bit of seriousness in Maha's face.

"Correction - 23! Hmm.. I'm doing my best, Maha.. even yestereday talked to my uncle's friend.. ", the glow in John's face seemed to fade

"You know what.. my parents are becoming very serious about my marriage.. Soon all my tam bhram aunties will begin the groom-hunting-process. I am very scared!"

"Tell your dad you won't marry anyone but me"

"I told you thousand times John.. my family is very orthodox.. they can't imagine any one from other community to be their son-in-law, forget different religion! A mega-drama is soon to be staged once the secret is out! Hmm.. I hope I can initiate the conversation after you have a good job. I am much worried.. But you seem to be very careless!"

"Maha, dont tell me I am not serious - I have never been this serious for anything else in life. You mean so much to me. I can't imaging a life without you. If you happen to marry someone else, graveyard wouldn't be too far for me!"

"Enough John, don't put senti dialogues like these - we have crossed that stage.. show me it in action!"

"Come on, Maha! You saying I am not taking any action?"

"I am not saying so - I am just saying you dont seem to have the focus and commitment"

"Oh.. yeah! amazing! welcome to the world of commitment! The world which men understand and live-by more than women!"

"Why do you have to talk about women in general?"

"Yeah, you girls are just focused on getting things done for you. You never care about how men feel. Have you ever heard stories of women dying for men. Mental asylums and suicide attempts appear only in men's dictionary."

"Love should let people Live, not die!"

"Nor do I say so. It's just an indication of how committed men are! If things don't work out, women would be sad for few weeks, may be months.. worst case - few years.. life will resume normally after that! Men are not like that!"

"Who says all these to you? Don't get all these wrong impressions from movies! Women are more committed than men! We don't check out every damn person of opposite sex in the roads! We dont yearn for 'more beauty' every moment.. We are committed to one person!" - this is Maha

"Hmm, you speak so much! If you are so committed, why can't you just say 'yes' to the registration marriage"

"Come on, John! How can I forgo my parents who supported me, helped me in every possible way for the last 22 years just like that.. I cant run away from home - I would like everything to happen with their blessings!"

"Then, I dont think it's going to happen! Maha, you gotta decide - Me OR your Parents!"

"John, why speaking like these?"

"Because I am seeing so many live examples outside - Gals leaving guys just like thst. Rock solid hearts you people have!"

"You are not understanding John. Most women in our country are made to be dependent on men - father, brother or husband. Additionally, the difficulties, disappointments & betrayals in the name of "love" and "marriage", which we go through, call for higher level of cautiousness, patience and courage!"

"You mean to say that I would cheat you and that you don't trust me!"

"John, I didn't mean that.."

"Then, what? You are just proving the point - women are just pure simple selfish creatures!"
Tears started rolling in Maha's beautiful cheeks.. She just started walking with waterfall of tears "You dont understand, John! Let's just leave it!"

5 years later...

Maha holding John's hands, "John! Can you tell me why today is special for us?"

John laughed "This tracking job gets shifted to women after marriage!"

Maha ignoring his comment said "A turning point in our life - the day which changed our lives! The day which really made you become serious. The day I left you in the park with tears.. the day which brought out the talents in you to get this amazing job within 20 days.. ultimately the marriage of the most loving and most fighting pair.. and the cute & lovely kid named Nitin! The magical day.. Yes, Nov 12 it is!"

Short Story 1

2008-11-05T21:17:00.005+05:30

As Ranjan was hurrying back home from office on a busy friday evening in Mumbai, multiple things were racing in his mind - Should I take the train or the bus? Will I reach home in time? Will I disappoint Nandita and Aruna once again? What if that 'stupid, dumb & cruel' manager calls me again?

It wasn't more than 5 seconds - His phone started ringing "Pappu can't dance saalaa...". Oops, what he didn't want to happen finally happened - The Nokia was flashing "Abhishek Nayar". He was in two minds - "Should I pick it up or not?" He built up his courage to shift the phone from his left side pocket to right side without answering the call. Mr. Saturday would never satisfy with a single attempt - "Pappu can't dance saalaa.." again - Ranjan felt like shouting "This Nayar saalaa can't let me be in peace!"

Nayar was blaring from the other side "Ranjan.. Toot gaya.. laptop chaalu nahi kartha hai yaar... this bloody thing is not booting up again.. I told nah - you didnt fix this f***ing thing properly - the all important presentation with Mr. Ratan Tata is in the laptop.. I need to present it today.. Come right now!" Call was disconnected. Ranjan felt helpless. He told himself "I shouldn't have joined this stupid job - IT support in a world famous Investment Bank - All these dumb-a**es call themselves intelligent, but can't fix a simple thing with their laptops"

5 years back, Ranjan shifted to Mumbai after he married Nandita. Aruna, their lovely kid, is one of the smartest kids Ranjan has ever seen. In fact, he believed that Aruna has more computer knowledge than the i-bankers in his office. He loved his family so much. The only complaint the family had about him was his punctuality. "The little one" at home had been pestering him to take her to "Kungfu Panda" - He had managed to say "next week" for 5 weeks. Today morning, the little one, being smart said "I know you. You won't book tickets. And even if you book, you won't come on time. Myself and Mommy going. You just sit with your computer and manager - both of which don't have any brain." Finally, Ranjan was moved - He told Nandita "Let's not disappoint Aruna once again - book the ticket for evening show today - I will be at home by 6 PM" - Nandita laughed "Don't make false promises! It's fine if you dont take her to movie. I don't want yet another story of booking and not making for the movie." Ranjan said in Super star Rajini style "Book pannu. Naan oru thadava sonna, nooru thadava sonna maari" ("Just book - My one-time-telling means 100-times-telling" ;))

As Ranjan was rushing back to office, the above scene flashed in his mind. He thought "Yes, today story over. Little one will behave like a big mother. Wife would wait with a knife. Yes, everything is over!" It was already 5:30 PM. Evening show is at 6:30 PM. Chiding the fate & fat (Nayar), he reached office at 5:45 PM. Nayar was typing something in his laptop while happily munching Domino's pizza with double cheese . Ranjan thought "what the hell is this?" Seeing Ranjan, Nayar said "Oh, I forgot that I had called you. I solved the problem". Ranjan "Oh, what was the problem?" Nayar laughed and said "I went to my neighbors room and tried to boot a laptop there!" Ranjan wanted to kick the sick Nayar. He told silently "Nayar.. Real jackass you are! Thank God you didn't go to your neighbor's house and tried to ..... " Oops, already 6 PM. No time to think about Nayar now. Time to run to house - He was sure he would reach by 7 and would miss the movie as usual.

His Sonata watch was showing 7.17 pm when he entered the house. TV was on - Cartoon Network channel - Tom was getting it left, right and center from little Jerry. He thought "Don't worry, Tom.. you are still better than Ranjan" He sat on the sofa silently. Nandita was cooking and happily singing "Vaseegara.. " ("Zara zara.." in hindi!) He didn't have the guts to talk to her now. He started shouting "Aruna Kannu.. where are you?" - Came the immediate reply "Daddy, dont disturb me.. I am playing in computer - will talk to you later." Ranjan was baffled by the behavior of the 2 girls at home. Came the sweet voice of Nandita with hot filter coffee and aromatic samosas, "Have these.. you deserve them. Don't panic - haven't added anything mischievious in food!" Ranjan didnt know what to do - He started gulping the coffee and stuffing his mouth with a samosa. She said "Slow, no hurry! The movie is only at 9:30 PM"

Jaago Re.. Oram Po..

2008-11-04T20:15:00.004+05:30

It happens with Chennai Autowalas - Yes, my blogs. Dusting off my blog after a long time.

Scene 1: Mumbai Airport. Just before the departure of my flight to Chennai, had a conversation with a friend from Janaagraha on their new initiative with Tata Tea - "Jaago Re! One Billion Votes". I am sure many of you would have seen and appreciated the TV ad. The initiative is very commendable for multiple reasons

Its new approach with the strong message of "Agar aap soyenge to desh kaise jagega!"
Making voter registration a much simpler process esp. by leveraging technology
Endorsement by Election Commission
Support of a corporate body - Tata Tea
Execution by a dedicated Janaagraha team (with most of them below 30 years and alumni from IIT Madras who devoted their career to work for social causes)
Last but not the least, the YOUTH factor - the initiative is to be driven by youth - Yes, true to what Vivekananda says "Give me 100 youth, I would change the fate of the country."

It's an excellent case of how multiple stakeholders can work together to begin a new era - a change that many have wished to bring in.

Scene 2: Chennai Airport. Landed at Midnight - I couldn't believe myself for having gotten an Auto from Airport to Nungambakkam for Rs.150, that too without any bargain. Yes, remember Chennai! The driver immediately proved his kindness and honesty by helping a poor airport worker on the way. I couldn't avoid but to ask him "Chennai eppadi irukku?" (How is chennai doing?). The conversations during the rest of the journey were interesting. (It's interesting to have conversations with auto drivers - they mirror the mentality of a common man and they know / see the mentality of many random people who travel in their autos). He began with how inflation is affecting the common man - He gave a statistics, which I never realized and found hard to believe - a tomato costs more than Rs.2! His point was that Government is driving the inflation and that the politicians just suck out people money (whenever he mentioned politicians, he promptly prefixed the Tamil abuse starting with "thev.." - I couldn't resist but to laugh at hearing the Senthamizh!). I decided to listen than giving gyan on inflation. He continued "I may not pay income tax, but i'm paying tax indirectly - from the match box to the petrol. Have these political Bas***** ever utilized the money properly? Look at the roads... For sucking and looting people's money, they and their families will never have a good death." Yeah, I asked the question, most of you have in mind - "You are complaining so much.. what did you do to change it? Did you vote in the last election?" With an ephemeral laugh, he said firmly "I'm 49 years old and have given up voting long time back.. I also encourage my family to not vote." Filled with rage quickly from tummy to eyes, I remarked "You dont vote.. but just keep complaining huh?" He quickly responded "Are there any good politicians or parties here? All are bas**** Whom will I vote for?" He made it clear that he doesn't support any party / politicians and that he believes in just 4 things in life (a) Being an MGR fan, though he never supported him as a politician (b) Lord Muruga devotee (c) Responsible family man (d) Honesty in work. I said "Hmm.. you wouldn't bother about what is happening outside your life. yeah, there are bad politicians.. but you won't make an effort to change things". He replied "Nobody can change these. I can't change the world. I will just do my work honestly and will help the person next to me in whatever small way I can". Auto reached door #9, **** Street, Chennai. Would have been nicer to hear more of his view points about life and politics, but just had to thank and bid adieu to him.

People might be perplexed by the title of the post! "Jaago Re" in hindi means "Wake up" - A call for action from others. "Oram Po" in Tamil implies "Leave way for me" - a typical phrase used by autowalas. In a broader sense, the 2 scenarios depict 2 different ways of living. W.r.t. voting, they imply different standpoints. In fact, it's not just the autowala - lot of people give up on voting saying "No good politicians", "things can't be changed." My good friend quoted this article - she said it makes much more sense to take an economist view and not vote in India today.

So, should we shout "Jaago Re" or "Oram Po"? You decide what you want to shout, but I would make my call loud and clear "Jaago Re"! I strongly believe - voting is not just a "civic duty", "self-interest", "make-a-difference", "feel good", "look good" factors, rather it's the "foundation" for many things. Like a foundation for the building, it incurs a significant cost at the beginning and may not have any immediate perceptible benefits, but it's absolutely necessary for a solid building. Voting may not be a cure-for-all solution. It may not be the ONE step, rather step one for solving many social issues.

So, what are you waiting for? If you haven't registered yourself, go ahead and register to vote at www.jaagore.com and no harm in spreading a good message to others! :)

Saadhveeka

2008-05-05T16:50:00.003+05:30

Coach S2, Seat Number 23. Beautiful evening! Mild drizzles, which showered as a panacea for the hot month of May! I boarded the train and it was just leaving the station.

I looked around. Nobody seemed interesting to talk with – A couple talking to each other; an old man noting down something in his torn diary and a mid-age woman reading a novel. So, I continued with Chapter 4, India Unbound. So much information in that book that I had never thought of thinking! Huge price for hating history in school days!

Kreeechhhh…. The train stopped at Thirumangalam, a town near Madurai. It was still drizzling. The evening had almost bid adieu and the night baby was ready to smile with its white teeth, moon.

Perfect setup! A young & beautiful gal boarded the train. Silently, I prayed “Oh, God! Save me from this boring crowd around. Please let the girl come and sit near me.” God wasn’t deaf that day! Wish granted!! I felt heavenly.

She said “Berth number 18”. I thought “Good number”. She sat next to me. She was simply gorgeous! I couldn’t believe my eyes – She was wearing capris a.k.a pedal pushers (For tam guys: Mukka-Kaal Panttu) with clean shoes and a nice sleeveless t-shirt. I wondered how come such a gal from a village. We remained silent for few minutes, but I couldn’t control the excitement and eagerness to know more about her.

I began with a pretty mild voice -- “Hi, Are you from Thirumangalam?” She gave a wired look and replied “No, from Bangalore.” I felt a little awkward, but didn’t bother too much. Quite liked talking to her, so didn’t feel like stopping. Continued “Where in Bangalore?” I think she felt a bit comfortable now. In her sweet voice, she replied “Padmanaba Nagar.” I knew the place but looked a little baffled. She clarified “It’s the place near the famous house of Mr. Kumaraswamy.” Then, I shook my head, as if I understood things. I replied “Oh, Great place, it is! How come in this village?” She was quick to reply - “Came to visit my Grandpa.”

She gave a very brief intro about her. The most striking part was her name – “Saadhveeka”. It was unique and sounded blissful. Fell into love with her name immediately. She explained, “It derived from Sanskrit – It means Some one who is very peaceful and will get everyone’s respect” I was in a double-mind to tell the meaning of my name, since it sounded a little scary, but continued and proclaimed “My name in Sanskrit means Six-Face!”. (My parents were generous enough to add more stuff to my name, which I simply ignored for the sake of simplicity.) She sounded excited (Not sure whether she was surprised or scared! ;))

I was thinking what to talk next. Came in handy, the usual-but-never-boring “What’s your hobby?” I thought I should ask it in a different way and asked “So, what are your interests other than your studies / work”. 1000 watts bulb in her eyes and teeth (We probably could have turned off the lights in our compartment). She talked in-length about her interest in oil painting, glass-painting and some other craft which she does with mud and beads.

During the conversation, I realized she didn’t seem to know much about Tamil Nadu, not even the places near her grandfather’s village. I thought that was my chance to strike the chord. When asked about the places she had visited in Tamil Nadu, she listed few places and narrated random descriptions about each of them in her melodious voice.

When my chance came, I started telling about the places. She listened with keen interest, occasionally blinking her beautiful eyes. We crossed Thiruparankundram. I moved back to show her the temple and the enchanting view of the near by hill, unfortunately it wasn’t visible because of poor lighting. She seemed to enjoy the history & mythology behind the place.

We were crossing the Vaigai River, which to my surprise, was over-flowing with water on that particular day. I explained her some stories behind it esp. about “Aathula Alagar Eranguthal” (Lord Vishnu getting into River) – She got excited and jumped from her seat to get a glimpse of the river.

Lots of conversation and I thought she was pretty comfortable talking to me – Felt happy. I thought, time for some personal questions to her. I didn’t want to jump into very personal questions abruptly – I wanted the conversation to flow smoothly. Since the conversation was on Gods, I asked her “Who are your favorite Gods?”

Was quite surprised and laughed at the response!

“Bal Ganesh, Hanuman and Hanuman Returns”

I told myself “This is the digital age of internet and animation. This is what you should have expected, when you asked the question to a four year old sweet little girl”

No Wonder why the Indian Animation Industry is on a Roll.

How much for Central Station?

2008-04-28T14:55:00.006+05:30

“How much for Central Station?”

“Sir, you tell how much will you give!”

“It’s ok. You tell!”

After some silence, with a smile he said, “70 bucks, Sir”

Thought myself “Guy seems reasonable. No need to bargain much!” Got into the auto and told him “Ok boss, make it 60” (It’s a sin to not bargain with Auto drivers Chennai!)

“No Sir, not much business today!”

Yeah, 10 bucks won’t make a big difference to me, but may not be the case for him. So, didn’t talk more about the fare.

“Which route should I take, Sir?” he asked

I replied, “If you are a Vijay (Tamil film Star with huge number of fans following!) Fan, take the Ponamalli High Rd – You can get a glimpse of his huge cut-out of the forthcoming flick, Kurvi; Else take the Mount Road.”

He said enthusiastically “I will take the Mount Road, Sir”

“Boss, please stop calling me ‘Sir’. Also, I am much younger than you!”

Came his next question “Ok nga, should I go faster or slower?”

“I have lots of time. You can go at your own pace!”

I found the guy interesting. After a couple of minutes, I initiated the conversation, “I would like to understand auto-walas – their concerns and a little about their businesses”

He started revealing the secrets – business models, strategy & revenues etc. Though he didn’t use the business jargons, I would say he’s pretty smart in business.

First, he said how much he makes per day –

Gross Revenue = Rs.800-900 (1200, if it’s a lucky day!)
Fuel Expenses = 300
Auto Rent = 150 (Most of the auto-walas drive the autos from Settu – They need to give Rs.150 per day excluding maintenance charges!)
Operating profit = 400-450
Daily personal expenses = 150
Take home = 250-300
All figures are “per day average"

I told, “Hmm, that doesn’t seem like great money for someone who works very hard from early morning till late night. So, why can’t you try to increase your revenue by improving the occupancy rate?” (Yeah, this is what Airlines try to do!)

Came the reply, “We, the auto-walas are bound to a particular area. My Auto, for e.g., belongs to Anna Nagar – In our area, we can pick up any customer. In other areas, we can pick up customers, only if those autos don’t want to pick them up. We begin the day from our area and after every trip we try to come back to our area. On the way, we drive slowly and try to get customers. We also try to take the route of crowded places. After 8 PM, we go only to areas near our homes. There are auto drivers having different schedules – people starting very early in the morning and going early evening; starting late and drive till mid-night; there are night-drivers as well”

I exclaimed “Looks like a tough business!”

We were half-way through the station. After hearing my sympathetic response, he paused for a moment and said “Sorry, sir. Really Sorry, sir!”

He opened up, “Sir, I had drinks today and sorry to drive you when I am drunk!”

“Hmm, what did you drink – Beer, Whisky, Brandy or Rum?”, I asked inquisitively

He tried to justify --“Just a very little of Brandy. Really Sorry, Sir. I had some major issues with my uncle. That’s why drank.”

I lectured, “Yeah, I don’t say you shouldn’t drink – it’s up to you. But not while you are driving - you are risking the lives of travelers like us.”

He replied apologetically “What to do sir, we lead such a life. It’s not just me. 90% of the auto-drivers drink and drive. If you are really concerned, I can get another auto for you, Sir”.

I was astonished with that unverifiable and alarming statistics he gave. I replied “It’s ok. I don’t mind. Next time, when you take someone in your auto, please avoid drinking”

He was silent for few minutes. I guess he felt guilty.

I began the conversation again “So, who are the major pain-points and competitors for auto-drivers”

“Traffic police and share-autos”, came the immediate response!

He continued, “Share-autos charge 5-10 bucks per passenger. People who want to travel in the main roads have almost ruled-out using expensive autos. We can take only interior & long routes that these guys don’t cover”

I thought myself – The share-autos ensure that their vehicles run continuously – Theirs is a high volume business and normal-auto is a high margin business.

I told him “Yeah, added to that MTC (the Govt. owned metro buses, which are very economical) is planning to introduce the hugely successful 'mini-buses' concept in Chennai, I was told 1000 of them!”

He was smart -- “Yeah, it would affect our business to some extent, but share-autos would be heavily affected. It’s their direct competitor!”

I was about to reach the station. I just wanted to conclude the talk with some food for thought for him. “You could reduce your personal expenses by nearly 50%, if you reduce taking drinks. Your take home salary per day could increase as much as Rs.50." Keeping a serious face, he replied "Sure, Sir. I will try to reduce drinking."

I concluded "Have you heard of this Rs.1 lakh car by Tata. Once it’s available, will you buy one and start driving it instead of auto?”

I didn’t expect that reply from him.

“I am completely aware of that, Sir. I am a mechanic myself and have a diploma in the same. In fact, I was the proud owner of a reasonably big car mechanic shop – we did all sorts of things – servicing, painting, repairing.. everything!! But.. but.. unfortunately, I encountered a huge loss of more than 5 lakhs rupees and I had to close down the shop. So, I resorted to driving a rented auto”

We were in front of the station. I was very much interested in knowing the reasons for such a colossal loss, but time and the place didn’t permit. I just handed over 70 bucks and patted on his back saying “Don’t bother, your dream business will prosper soon. All the best!”

With bright eyes and smiling face he bid adieu “Thank you very much, Sir!”

Mind Trading

2008-04-24T10:18:00.002+05:30

In B-schools, you are asked to wear others' shoes, esp. when you are analyzing case studies. In Edward De Bono's lateral thinking, you are required to wear different hats. I am sure, most of us would be receivers of "Can't you sympathize with that poor fella?", "Why don't you empathize with me?!", "Think from my perspective." Hope all of these would help in better understanding of people and the situation.

8 PM, last Wednesday. The dinner plan with my friend didn't materialize, my bike got punctured and the auto-walas in front of the Bangalore Central asked insane money for a 5 km journey. Decided to experiment something - Walk till Trinity Circle, explore people and places on the way & travel in the local crowded bus. Quite an interesting experience it was!

Walkers, Riders, Pillion-Riders, Sleepers, Road-Side Enterprises - the aggressive entrepreneurs and its loyal customers, Beggars, Traffic Police, Poojaris, Auto-walas... I told myself "Let me play the Mind-Trading-Game" - When I see a random person in the road, try to think of what might be running behind his mind - his joys, worries, concerns, ambitions, objectives etc in life. Most people seem to be lost in thought. I guess they don't even realize they are walking in M.G.Road or crossing the ING building. But apart from the usual ones, there are lots of interesting observations!

Next time, dont tell you are bored when you have to travel all-alone or when you have nothing-to-do at home. Just take a walk and start noticing people around! It's interesting & fun!!

Paanch Punch Pics

2008-04-18T11:11:00.003+05:30

4 days. 5 Movies. Finally, moved them from my 'TO-WATCH' to 'WATCHED' list - Taare Zameen Par(TZP), Jodha Akbar(JA), Jab We Met(JWM), Page 3(P3) and U Me Aur Hum(UMAH). Yes, they had been lying in the former list for quite sometime (except the last one).

Quite liked all of them. Different themes. Different actors. Different levels of seriousness & fun. TZP took me to the world of children. JA to the period of Moghuls. P3 to the lesser-known side of few Mumbai cliques. JWM to Punjabi marriages & running trains. UMAH to cruises and asylums. Hmmm.. but is there anything in common among these movies? Apart from the obvious factor of being bollywood movies without the usual masala stories, I found the following interesting connection.

In all movies, the characters face tough-to-handle life problems - TZP: Problem of a child & its parents, JA: Political problem, Page3: Social problem, JWM: Pre-marriage problem, UMAH: Post-marriage problem. But they all try to handle the problems in an UNCONVENTIONAL manner.

TZP: Ask the basic question "Is what you call a 'problem' really a PROBLEM?" and most importantly try to understand the so-called-problem from the 1st person. Find the root cause of the problem. Try to solve root cause than reacting to the symptoms.
JA: Collaboration instead of head-on competition & fighting to solve the problems. Yes, I mean Akbar's approach of hindu-muslim cultural synthesis & collaboration - including Hindus in the courtyard, marrying Hindu princesses (seems like Akbar had 40 wives! Gowarikar, can we expect movies like - Akbar Jodi No. 23 ;)] etc
P3: Be part of the system, while you want to reform the system.
JWM: A cool attitude simplifies the problem and a better way to handle it. (So, the next time someone dumps you, burn & flush it out OR use your friend's phone to call the person and you-know-what-to-talk)
UMAH: Never lose hope in solving the problem. When there is love and that you are determined to solve the problem, you would solve it. At least, you would learn to live with it.

Also, impressed with the kind of PATIENCE that the characters show in solving these problems. Any difficult problem needs time and continuous effort to be tackled.

Mentoring Mentality

2008-04-17T15:43:00.002+05:30

Experience is the best teacher in life! Yeah, but life is too short to experience everything in first person! So, fortunates are the ones who get right mentors. These mentors have the ability to positively impact our lives – They guide, motivate, direct, suggest, enlighten, correct, criticize, comment and most importantly share their experiences! The extreme case: they become our living role models. But getting the ‘right’ mentor is not that easy – He or She needs to (a) Understand you (your personality, ambition, likes & dislikes etc) (b) Understand (and have good experience & insights in) the environment / field in which you would like to be mentored (c) Have good people skills & a genuine willingness to help without selfish motives (d) Time (e) Have a reasonably long term association with you (i.e. doesn’t make sense to have different mentors every other month!)

I set my mind to think on “Apart from satisfying those hard-to-meet conditions, how can we get the right mentor?” Few tips I could think of:

Be open and “listen” to what people have to say for me, be it my workplace, home or any social groups
Initiate talks with senior / elder people – Seek their advise, Listen to their experiences
Choose people whom I have high regard for – Unless I respect him, it’s tough to follow what the mentor says
Do the conversations with him make me think deeply? Do they change my perceptions or course of actions which ultimately yielded positive results?
Am I able to connect with the person?

Oops, I had so many people helping and guiding me at different points in life, but what about life-long mentors? I couldn’t think of any one other than my sister. Hmmm, I guess I should take the initiative, as the Tamil proverb says “Crying child gets the milk”.

Couple of things before I close down: Seek mentors’ help, use their advice, but preserve your individuality and the ability to analyze & make a personal decision. Be willing to genuinely mentor and help others, since the world runs on the principle of GIGO (Good In Good Out / Garbage In Garbage Out)!

Begging & Payer's Dilemma!

2008-03-28T21:45:00.012+05:30

Two parties. One transaction. Different levels of exchange. The world runs around this simple funda! Few examples: Ideal Business - mutually profitable with equal exchange. Donation & true love - Giving without expecting anything back. Greed - Expecting more than what you give. Stealing - Taking without the knowledge of the counter-party. Begging - Getting without any obligation!

Similar to Prisoner's dilemma, (With 2 players, optimal solution is possible with cooperation. But the players end-up with a sub-optimal solution due to lack of trust, since trying to cooperate when the other competes has higher penalty!) Payer's dilemma is a major issue - Yes, both might lead to suboptimal solutions.

Payer	Beggar
		No need to beg	Need to beg (and he begs!)
	Don’t pay	Ideal, if Beggar resolves not to beg	You didn’t help the needy!
	Pay	Laziness supported & beggar gets free lunch, if he decides to beg	Sub-optimal, but might be inevitable

The dilemma is to pay or not - by paying a beggar, am I helping him? Or is that I am promoting begging as a profession and impede his learning of any skill? It's a very tricky situation! But it's clear that begging is good for none: Beggar - no descent lifestyle, no sustained income, he doesn't develop any skill; Payer - Loses money without getting any service in return; Country - No net addition to the GDP. Hmmm.. Seems ideal to have no begging. Is it possible? If so, how? Will a ban on begging help? To answer these, we need to answer the very basic question - why does he beg?

People beg because of (i) Incapability - physical or mental (ii) Unemployment - Unfit for existing jobs or unavailability of jobs (iii) Laziness. [There is a fuzzy fourth category, predominantly that of monks who does it in the name of spirituality - Some genuine monks beg because working for a living is inferior to them; fake monks will come under the "laziness" category. This fourth category goes beyond the scope of this post!] Among these, lazy beggar is the troubled category - the payer's resolution is simple (it shouldn't be supported) but the solution is tough - You can take a horse to water, but never make it drink, esp when it has determined to not drink! Also, it's not possible to differentiate the beggars - lazy beggars hurt themselves or lie or put up a false image to earn people's sympathy. Yes, "information asymmetry" problem!

Looking at the reasons, two things become clear. First, a simple ban might not work - it might backfire with still worse consequences (a banned beggar may die / suicide or turn into a thief / anti-social element) and/or turn out to be ineffective (It would be a rule on paper like the prohibition of smoking in public in Chennai). Second, the beggar is not the sole reason for begging - the payer, the society and the government are all parties to it. Unless there is a concerted effort from all, it's tough to uproot begging.

I believe the begging problem can be reduced (if not eradicated) gradually in 2 stages (if not overnight):

FIRST, Slowly and gradually move the existing beggars away from begging pool

Plan and create "Beggars Rehabilitation Program" with funding and support from Government, NGOs and Wealthy individuals (if required, add a new cess for income exceeding a certain limit). Register all the existing beggars in every town, city and village under this program
Categorize the beggars - The "incapable" has to be sent to the corresponding NGO or Government sponsored helping homes; The "unemployed" should be arranged for skill-development programs; IT could be leveraged to create a database of these people and it would be an ideal CSR initiative for companies to employ people from this database. Lazy beggars should be given strict warning to not beg, else face severe punishments (Remember the Tamil movie Anniyan!)
The program could also create centers in every town (similar to government departments or NGOs) - People who want to help the beggars should donate to the centers than directly to the beggars to avoid the "information asymmetry" problem.

SECOND, Stop the inflow of people into begging population

This calls for bigger things - Efficient, Good & Incorrupt Government; Zero Child Labor; Marginally Low (Zero is bad for economy!) Unemployment
Build / Improve homes for "incapable" category & "skill-development" centers
Set a future date for complete elimination of begging
Creation of Beggar's helpline - If you happen to see a new beggar, call them up!

All of these may seem ambitious, but where there is a will, there will be a way!

I am sure government officers, politicians, people dedicated to & socked in social service would have better information, context and ideas to make a beggar-free India than this computer-science & management graduate. I wish they come forward to make it a reality! :)

Force called 'Fear'

2008-03-26T18:51:00.006+05:30

Utter Darkness. Bottomless Pit. Sky-high hill. Ultra-speed wind. Abyssal Ocean. Mysterious Sound. Poisonous Snake. Hungry Tiger. Angry Elephant. Man-eating Shark. Black Cat. Giving a Speech. Final Exam. Important Interview. Ghost. Skeleton. Blood. Death. List goes on! For human beings, the entity that unifies the list is "Fear" and its related cousins viz phobia, panic, scare, terror, guilt, paranoia, nightmares, anxiety & worry etc.

The list is understandable. But I was baffled by my friends' fear for getting into 3-ft H2O, jumping from 4 ft height, riding on 100cc bike at 60 kmph, climbing on a small rock, talking to a Prof & walking in darkness. "WTH", I thought. But my friend gave a profound statement - It's quite natural; everyone has his/her own customized list of fears and no fear is inferior or superior. Yes, it made sense and I tried to enumerate my list - Oops, quite a long one! (Let me not list them here to make you realize how stupid my fears could be!)

Three questions kept lingering in my mind: (1) What exactly is fear? (2) Can one be fearless? Rather, should one be fearless? (3) How to avoid unnecessary fear? Being an expert neither in Psychology nor in Physiology, I can't give a comprehensive scientifically-proven answer. Neverthless, I will make an attempt, since people keep saying "Don't fear" [Nice tamil quotes like - 'Anjathey', 'Accham Thavir', 'Accham illai, accham illai, accham enba-thillaieh; Uchi meethu vaan idinthu veezh-gindra pothilum accham illai', 'Accham enbathu madamaiyadaa, anjaamai dravidar udamaiadaa']

I would explore Fear in 2 different ways. First: fear spans past, present and future. Foundation of fear is PAST - We start developing fear out of our personal experience or what others tell us. That way, our society, upbringing, parents and friends play a major role in what we fear for. When your father keeps saying "Never climb rocks. You will slip down", you inherently develop a fear for rocks & heights. (Side Note: In Tamil movie "Thenali", the hero Kamal Hasaan has countless phobias thanks to his bad childhood experience) Going by this logic, fear is not completely natural to human beings. Fear is an experiential emotion in PRESENT - there are lots of physical & psychological changes that happen when we fear. Fear is associated with uncertainty about FUTURE. When there is certainty, there isn't any fear - A person sentenced to death knowing the exact date, time, place and the procedure of dying won't fear for death as much as a normal person. Second: Major stems of fear - (a) Fear of Death / physical discomfort (b) Fear of Rejection / Failure (c) Fear of losing one's respect / ego / identity (d) Fear of losing an external entity (e.g. loved ones, money, motor bike)

Like many others, fear is a double-edged sword. Being fearless is great, but it's stupidity to believe we shouldn't fear for everything. In one sense, fear stifles our improvement, fends off taking bold decisions, avoids changes & exploring new paths, obstructs stretching oneself. It eats away our productive time, brings in stress & tension, makes us poor-performers (esp. because of stress & tension). At times, it makes us behave unnaturally. On the other hand, fear drives away our laziness, makes us careful creatures & good future planners.

So, the key is to differentiate necessary & unnecessary fears. Fear of punishment (e.g. murder, robbery, copying in exams etc.) goes to "necessary" bucket i.e. always fear to do wrong. Clear "unnecessary" categories: things on which we don't have any control (e.g. earth would be hit by a meteor, germs in your just-cleaned hand etc); hiding our true personality (e.g. fear that someone will stamp us ignorant) - i.e. no need to fear for being natural & ourself; unproven & non-experiential stories (e.g. darkness, ghosts etc). [Just reminded of this: the phrase "God fearing" is an excellent selling point for Grooms in matrimonial advertisements. My belief: "fearing God" goes to the "unnecessary" category. Unless you experience , don't fear, instead pray Him out of Love, if you believe in God. Once you experience, it's your choice!] The problematic area is the gray section - E.g. Fear of exam is both good (makes you study at least 1 day before the exam) and bad (tension leading to poor performance!), Fear of death - Good (insurance for your dependents) & bad (Never makes one enjoy the exciting white water rafting, mountain climbing). In such cases, try to answer whether the fear helps or hinders the improvement / experience / enjoyment of self & others. To summarize, the litmus test to differentiate the fears - (a) Punishable? (b) Not controllable? (c) Being yourself? (d) Unproven & Not experienced? (e) Helps or Hinders?

Half the job is done with the differentiation. Nevertheless, the 2nd half is not that easy. Fear might emerge from our subconscious mind and hence simply telling ourself "don't fear! don't fear!!" at the surface level may not help. Head-on fight with the fear or denying the reality might not help. First, we need to be aware that we fear, observe the sensations because of fear. Few ways to tackle the fear: (a) From the PAST angle - awareness that fear is unnatural & is shaped by just our experience and that there are many other people who don't fear them; don't believe everything that we hear, read and see (b) From PRESENT - Engage in some activity that we like; Pass on the fear to someone else - God / Guru / Our loved ones / Our Higher self, if we believe any of them (c) From FUTURE view point - Big picture view - will my fear help in anyway to serve a higher purpose; Awareness that the uncertainty can't be ruled out because of our fear & that we can't take control of everything; Realize that it's just uncertainty, outcome is not yet known, one can worry if the outcome turns out to be negative instead of worrying about it even before it has happened. Another way is to understand the stem of fear and tackle it: (a) Death - everyone will die one day (b) Failure / Rejection - What's life without ups and downs - Trying & failing is a lot better (c) Ego - Better to be a known devil than an unknown god (d) Losing external entity - one doesn't even have complete control on oneself; Nothing is permanent in this world.

Yeah, similar to many of my earlier posts, all these methodologies seem simpler on paper, but it needs lots of effort and prudence to be fearless than being driven by the Force called Fear.

Hampi "Rocks"

2008-03-24T10:41:00.004+05:30

With most of my trips in the past, I would be dead tired during the return journey. The last trip to Hampi has been an exemption - Felt rejuvenated after the trip. Yes, it's yet another enjoyable trip with lots of fun with friends, but the interaction with nature & historic ruins is different! The weather was just perfect - It started drizzling the moment we boarded the train and the nature continued its cool shower throughout the trip. The experience of lying on the rocks by the river side with mild drizzles, pleasant breeze, sun playing hide & seek with moving gray clouds and absolute silence except the occasional chirping of birds and the rhythmic flow of water in the near by river is something beyond comparison!

I can't do justice to the greatness of Hampi through this post, but still my 2 Paise. :) I was simply amazed by the countless number of temples built of gigantic stones with beautiful carvings & etchings. Most of the temples were missing the vigraha (the statue of the main god in the temple) & many other statues were beheaded - Yes, seems like the temples of Hampi, the capital of once prosperous Vijayanagar Kingdom were destroyed after the kingdom was captured by Muslim Sultans. These days, people don't give due spiritual significance to most of these ruined temples, since the main vigrahas are absent - Good in a sense that these are not crowded, the beauty is not destroyed in the name of rituals! We saw some temples being excavated and recreated. In fact it's not just temples, but the entire city from queens' bath to the elephant's stable to the bazaar to the tank to the palace seemed to have been built in stones with highly artistic sense.

Seems like Hampi is not yet exploited in the name of tourism - The ruined town still looks desolated without much crowd - but that's what makes it more exciting! You can be at peace with the nature and ruins - We didn't bother to visit all the places of historic significance, but wherever we went, we enjoyed spending hours in peace! Few places we enjoyed the max and you should never miss if you visit Hampi:

Virupaksha Temple - The main temple near the bus stop & the Hampi Bazaar - [One of the very few monuments still regarded as temple by people. Tit bit: Don't be deceived by what's called the "inverted image" of gopura - it's just a painting in a dark enclave!]
Hemakuta Hill - Series of structures built on a hill - Simply awesome to have a walk over the hill. You start from the sides of Virupaksha temple and end it near the monolithic Gorgeous & Gigantic Ganesha statue!
Vittala Temple - Need to travel 12 KM from Hampi centre. It turned out to be my favorite monument in Hampi - esp. the stone chariot and the astonishing stone pillars used to make musical tones.
Palace & the Mint - Don't expect a leela palace here, there are just remains of the place. Also, I believe they are just rebuilt from the excavations. It takes 10 mins to just travel the entire area by bicycle.
Dibba - Center of attraction of the royal enclosure, a tall pyramidal structure (Top portion seems to be missing & one climb to the top!) - Gives an amazing view of the surrounding enclosure
Tungabatra River - One can reach the river either from Rama temple or Purandaradas Mundapa (near Vittala Temple) - The river was just pleasant when we visited, neither gushing nor dry. Coracle ride and river side walk are never to be missed!
Mango Tree Restaurant - The only restaurant that we liked in Hampi. It gives a panoramic view of the river and you get to eat under a mango tree with nature's intimacy!

Hampi may not sound exotic for people who don't have a flair for history or monuments. But it's not case - Apart from the river side walk, coracle ride & bouldering opportunities, one can't escape falling in love with Hampi's rocks & ruined creations from stones! Yes, Hampi rocks!!

One should definitely experience Hampi at least once in life!

Mobile Business

2008-03-20T05:14:00.002+05:30

As of Sep 2007, there are 210mn mobile subscribers in India and is expected to go up by 300mn by 2008, which translates to 25-30% mobile penetration - pretty impressive for a once-termed "poor country". From a school student (Knowledge Management, Strategic Planning for homework) to auto-walas (Customer Relationship Management) to street-shop-vendors (Supply Chain Management), mobile is a big boon - It has fundamentally changed the way certain people do business!

Wait.. the post is not about mobile phones, rather about interesting "mobile business" in the world's largest Railways network - Yes, within moving, day trains of Indian Railways. Yeah, they offer various categories of products: (a) Eatables (Major chunk!) - full-time food, beverages, snacks, fruits; (b) Entertainment / play items targeting children; (c) Personal care - Flowers (yes, women in south India like to get down from train fresh with flowers), (d) Fancy products like bangles, ear-rings, key chains etc; (e)Education / Recreation - Books, newspaper, magazines; (f) Textiles.

Apart from food, all the other categories are sold by hawkers. Selling process is heavily dependent on the impulsive buying behavior. Here is a sample: books by small local publishers (printed in cheap paper, priced Rs. 10-20, with attractive titles for a typical middle class) and pirated DVDs - the selling process is quite interesting - Seller brings a bundle of products & hand it over to you saying you don't need to buy but can just flip through them. Three problems with these businesses: (1) Unlawful, since no permission from Railways (2) Disturbance to travelers (3) some are sub-quality products. The other side of story is different: it's rice & rasam for poor fellows doing these businesses; good & useful time-pass for travelers (esp. for the Indian middle class which doesn't spend much time on shopping! - But metro women are fast catching up with people abroad!!). So, rather than banning them altogether, Railways can promote them after carefully eliminating the problems.

So, here are few suggestions:

Simple:

IRCTC has done a wonderful job w.r.t. food - they can extend it to other categories
Strict rules to prohibit the sale of unlawful products like pirated DVDs, books etc
Provide movable trolleys for the sellers
Have big TVs similar to buses
License to sellers of different product categories
Sell those frequently used in trains - locks, chain, tooth brush, playing cards etc

Ambitious:

Dedicate a coach or a part of it as "Mobile Shopping" - Have mini-shops as in exhibition - People can walk in for shopping during travel
"Movie Theater Coach" - Designate and design a coach as theater running multiple shows per day - People can get tickets for the latest movie shown in the mobile theater
Short education / training / seminar sessions - e.g. cooking, oil painting, basic computer, spoken english, personality development, yoga, meditation, dance, table etiquette, vedic mathematics, abacus
Mobile Restaurant
Aquarium, museum, gaming zones etc
Library / Reading room / Book shop
Recreation hall with chess and other board games
Spa / Massage, beauty parlor

Yeah, all these sound exciting, but economic viability & customer interest are questionable and hence needs a more thorough analysis. Even more pertinent question to ask is "will Railways be able to implement and maintain them well?" [We all know of one service which is maintained very badly in every coach! ;)]

All these are fine and might get implemented in future, but one should never miss the beauty of country side and the fun of watching innumerable interesting things sitting in a moving train! :)

PS: Shall explore business opportunities in stations/platforms in a different post!