Cribs@Work

Wordpress beckons

2007-03-14T12:30:00.000+05:30

I am finally moving to wordpress. I never did like the name of this blog and wanted to change it for a while. I kind of started experimenting with wordpress and finally have decided to make the change today.

So please update bookmarks and RSS feeds to http://onelife2live.wordpress.com

....dont know how long all of this will last. It is possible that I may just get bored and say 'enough of it all'.

Justice??

2007-03-10T01:20:00.000+05:30

Did the gods who created this beautiful world also create mankind and his disasters?

Did the gods who created innocence and children also create Nithari and Child Labour?

Did the gods who created Love, Chemistry and Magic also create Jealousy, Sadness and Heartbreaks?

Did the gods who created Motherhood also create the need for a 'Women's day'?

What kind of poetic justice is this?

Character of a City

2007-03-04T11:41:00.001+05:30

What makes a person like a city or dislike one? Many a time I have used in my conversations with people, the term 'character' for a city. This thought comes from listening to the 'Dilli' song from 'Delhi Heights'. It is a pretty cool song and I thought it was a nice collage of Delhi.

Anyway, going on to the character thing. In every discussion, there have been enough defenders for each of the large cities.. the Delhi ones swear by Delhi...of course, the Mumbai-kar loyalists are the loudest and definitely Chennai has its bunch of lovers......a friend from Chandigarh claims nothing like her city...

But the thing about Bangalore...its a strange one...folks staying in other cities view Bangalore as this cool and fun place to be, which it is...but the number of detractors today that Bangalore has inside amazes me (for whatever reason) . Today most of the folks from Delhi or Chennai staying here dont like Bangalore.....given a chance, they would quickly shift out...

To me, its not so much about the traffic and infrastructure etc...its more about what can you associate with the city, what I call the character. Character is the essence or ethos of the city that needs to be felt. For me, when I travel or visit any city, if I can get a sense of that, then I consider my visit satisfying.

At some point, people have stopped making an effort to like Bangalore or understand the possible character of the city. When I started living here in Bangalore, it still had the 'small-town' nature, very laid back and it was just a clean beautiful city. Now I think Bangalore is in a confused awkward adolescence stage. Shes no longer a small kid nor is she an adult yet equipped to handle the growing up...yet the city is still an all-inclusive city which has accepted all into her folds (despite the politicians)

Like any city, there are the problems. But it's not all bad...
Well, maybe a Rabbi song for Bangalore is what is needed to prod folks into making an attempt to like the city ...

What's with stereotypes?

2007-03-02T12:40:00.000+05:30

What is with stereotypes? For all the loud claims of our nation being such a diverse melting pot of cultures, I think we also probably have the largest number of stereotypes. Of course, there is absolutely no scientific thought to this claim…
But over time, we have built such strong stereotypes…

Of course the most I have encountered are about the Madrasis and the Sardars. While it is a guaranteed laugh for many a party, I actually there are quite a few people who do believe the stereotypes. The fact that a CNN-IBN can run a poll on North Indians and South Indians and perpetuate the stereotypes is probably a proof point. It’s almost a sort of urban legend….people have heard the same stories so many times in different contexts that it becomes a reality…

So therefore Delhi-ites are all showy….the Madrasis (of course that’s half the country) are the ones who don’t know to enjoy life…they just love their curd rice….etc etc…

Well, this post was a result of Ideasmith’s post on ‘Men from the Metros’. So women, pick your city and you know how the men are….Somebody create a guide for the women!! :)

At the least, it’s a great read!!

Moments

2007-03-02T12:24:00.000+05:30

The moment has passed..
And the world is new..
Did not know that
New roads appear everyday

But then the question stays..
Do I wake up now?
Or wait for the demons to sleep?
Or will that never be?

I long for the moments of familiarity
But now I know that day is gone
So wake up to a new moment..
For the new demons and angels await

Wake up, oh child in you…
For the world is too beautiful
To not see it through
The eyes of the child….

~ Me

Ode to the Wind

2007-02-21T23:36:00.000+05:30

Bring with you the dawn,
Take away with you the night,
The night that has been too long,
Give me a brand new day

A day of sunshine,
A day that makes me want to fly
Set me free as you are
Make this day worth my while

If you did bring something,
Bring me the whiff of joy and love,
Hold my hand today,
For the way seems all unfamiliar

Bring me the wisdom
Bring me the good tidings,
Set me free as you are
Make this day worth my while

~ Me

Before Sunrise: The space between

2007-02-18T10:14:00.001+05:30

Time and again why this is such a beautiful movie....

I believe if there's any kind of God it wouldn't be in any of us, not you or me but just this little space in between. If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt.

Where are the Happies?

2007-02-16T11:54:00.000+05:30

Is it me or is the world so sad in general? Every blog that I seem to read has melancholy, sadness, nostalgia, disappointment and wistful thinking all over it....if not that, it is just intellectual ignorance written in the best possible English....
Where is all the happiness or is it that the happy people are all enjoying too much to sit in front of a computer and pen their thoughts...hmm...point to ponder....

The Angels

2007-01-28T10:54:00.000+05:30

The bard says “all the worlds a stage”
But pray tell me,
What act plays out here now?
What part do I fulfill?

He says, have patience
There is a reason for every act
Trust the director
And play the part

Friend, foe, angel……
I know not…
Trust the moment …
This too indeed shall pass….

Thank the angels
For they are here for you….
You may not know them….
But know that they are there for you…

~ Me

Where are the dots....

2007-01-23T14:16:00.000+05:30

...Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life....

- Steve Jobs @ Stanford

I wonder how my dots will look a few years from now... :)

This speech is probably one of the oft forwarded email forwards...but for the inspiring words that it has...his delivery of the speech was quite a let-down. I happened to see that on youtube.

We see so much of this kind of writing all around the place...but somewhere the majority of folks(including me) still plough on with their mundane existence awakening ourselves to the 'practicality' of life and just holding on to the dream till they get so bogged in surviving each day that they cannot stop to think of their dreams....

Damn the rational mind!!!

Give me a show....

2007-01-17T20:39:00.000+05:30

I want to become really famous. Does anyone know of a reality show that I can take part? Preferably someone where you can add a few racial slurs...oh..i can vow to give gaali..i dont mind it at all...

Its just crazy how the world is going gaga over a stupid TV show. Its amazing how hypocritical Indians are....we have probably one of the most complex societies that has a lot of foundations on casteist and completely racist lines. We are a society where we still fight against discrimination by gender...female infanticide...we have still dalits being persecuted...we have state-sponsored religious cleansing...

Yet we take the righteous route as if we were the symbol of equality...

Its turning out to be the biggest comedy event that I have seen in recent times. External Affairs Ministry making public statements and Tony Blair condemning the racial slur in the British parliament...
What is wrong with this world????

oh...by the way, I wonder how many of these righteous people actually saw the slur...Until yesterday, Shilpa Shetty was becoming a largely forgotten actress with no special talents to really speak of...now she represents an entire nation...
Seriously, something wrong with the world....

Maybe we should request Shilpa Shetty to become the PM of UK...its time we took on the imperialists.... :-)

Another part of me....

2007-01-14T18:26:00.000+05:30

I was thinking about multiple personalities and split personalities and how it impacts people. Is there a split personality in all of us which we may limit to certain settings and forums?

I think blogging in many cases could be a manifestation of this 'other side' of the person. I could be a very extroverted kind of person but my blog could be a reflection of the introverted side of me or vice versa. The side that I would want to keep away from the 'social image' that I carry amongst people.

In some ways, a lot of my blog posts have been in some sense, 'melancholic' which may not be the image I usually carry... (of course I could be completely wrong in how people perceive me..the Johari window, they say)

Maybe different people have different ways of harnessing and managing the other side of them. Is that why we hear about people who could be introverted in a social offline setting but are really the 'dude' when they take on an avatar online.... (Rediff Bol's shady TV commercial comes to mind...)

While I was discussing this with a friend about how a blog could reflect the anti-thesis of what you are normally....she brought the idea of this being like a personal diary....possibly...but a blog is in some ways a little different too...you still do want a few people to read and understand what's going on in your mind and respect you for that...whatever said and done, it does sometimes help build perspective within yourself...

We are the Game...

2007-01-05T16:15:00.000+05:30

This post is totally disoriented and will probably have no semblance of sanity but then it is a Friday.

What if all of life was one massive computer game with its multiple storylines and plots. Then, for every decision there would be at least 2 paths. There would be a parallel universe where the same characters exist but with a different story and plot. Of course that has to be true given that we are all part of the 'Matrix'. No program exists without an alternative subroutine.

In some philosophical way, this is probably true. At every point in time, we are always confronted with decisions which may or may not have a deep impact on how your life's paths turn. There is always a Sliding Door in front of you. What you do going forward is just a function of whether you took the door or not.

I have no idea or recollection why I started thinking of this. The only thing that came to my mind was 'deja vu'. In this computer game of life, maybe deja vu would be the cheat code which would allow you to make the decision of whether to take the door or not....some sort of a time travel thing so you know what the door leads to...

Too many things in my head, I guess...I am not making sense to myself...
Let it just be known that 'We are the Game'.....and next time, do take the door...

Jagjit Singh - Na Mohabbat Na Dosti

2007-01-05T15:52:00.000+05:30

ना मोहब्बत ना दोस्ती केलिये
वकत्त रुक्ता नही किसी केलिये

दिल को अप्ना सज़ा न दे युऩ ही
इस ज़माने की बेरुखी केलिये

कल़ जवानी का क्या हशर क्या होगा
सोच ले आज दो घडी केलिये

हर कोइ प्यार डुण्ड्ता है यहा
अप्नी तन्हा सी ज़िन्दगी केलिये

वकत्त के साथ साथ चल्ता रहे
यही बहत्तर है आदमी केलिये

ना मोहब्बत ना दोस्ती केलिये
वकत्त रुक्ता नही किसी केलिये

- Jagjit Singh

(Its difficult to type it right in Hindi. So for any purists,take a hike!)
Update:I also realized that depending on what Unicode font is installed, the font may show some mistakes....

No..not a retrospect on 2006

2007-01-02T13:09:00.001+05:30

IBNLive Sagarika Ghose's Blog calls it a new baby....Count on her to hyperbole it by a notch. While it is indeed good to see a lot of citizen activism, I think this lady takes too much credit for doing it. I think we did have some good things going on the last year. The most important of them, to me, would be the Right To Information act being actually used by quite a few folks....a lot of factors, not just CNN-IBN... (but to their credit, they have managed to create a mark in their short lifespan....)

While this all augurs well and it is great to be all happy and gay, I just hope the Indian media does not become the trash that American media has become...(and I am afraid that's where we are heading).

As I have observed in many of my previous posts, we are all happy about all the good things happening and are generally optimistic....and I know it is inevitable but it would be sad to see us all aping the American way of doing things and 50-60 years down the line, the next generation starts thinking about the 'good old days'.....

On a completely different note, her imagery of a new baby brings to my mind Rushdie's 'Midnight Children'. The first time, it happened when India was being born....Now are we looking at the next generation of Midnight Children? I have no idea when they were born or whether they are yet to arrive....but definitely something significant is happening around us......and it is indeed a fortunate yet challenging time for us to be in India when this transformation is happening around us....

Do Nothing...

2006-12-23T11:53:00.000+05:30

If there needs to be a wikihow to tell you 'how to do nothing', then there is something wrong with the world. Why is it so difficult to set time for yourself as a person.

People blame everything else but themselves for not finding time to 'do nothing'. I think the world just takes itself too seriously...

Well anyway, if you still need the instructions book on doing nothing, here goes

People and Life...

2006-12-20T17:41:00.000+05:30

I had written this sometime ago...but never came to posting it. I guess in some way this time of the year is appropriate for such a post, for 2006 has indeed been such a year for me...may put another post on what the year has meant for me...

'..People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which one it is, you will know what to do for each person....

When someone is in your life for a REASON . . . It is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically,emotionally, or spiritually....

What we must realise is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered. And now it is time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON . . .
Because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They bring you an experience of peace, or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person, and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life....'

~ Anonymous (courtesy Shiju)

Just set me thinking about the countless number of people one would have met along the way...Isnt life all about this?

The person who guided us, a bunch of lost kids back to safety in Sabarimala amongst the millions of devotees and disappeared by the time we felt calmer and safe....
the people who we meet on our train journeys, flight journeys..in airports...cards exchanged but never followed up...we sit and chat and then go our separate ways never to be remembered again...

Then there will be those rare folks with whom you connect like you have always known you were meant to meet and then try to savor them for a lifetime...the ones who you can take off from where you left it the last time you talked...

Hmm...in some sense Orkut and technology have removed some of the thrill of nurturing a relationship...

AFTERTHOUGHT: Maybe Orkut & technology are actually necessary to reach out to a larger world of connected people...

The Favor Bank

2006-12-03T22:54:00.000+05:30

Photo courtesy:Howies

I read about this the first time in Paulo Coelho's 'The Zahir' (in fact I liked this much more than the completely hyped Alchemist) and I thought it was neat.
It works like this...you do a favor to someone without hope that it will ever get repayed. However it does get deposited into this Favor Bank and you could be making deposits for a long time..but there will come a time when you need to make a withdrawal and for sure, you will find someone to make that deposit...

While today the world has become a much more cynical place and the fact that 'nice guys' are probably still making those deposits only, I still believe there is hope and think that there is quite a lot of goodness in the world, that which clearly comes out in times of crisis (think Mumbai for its multiple crises). Yet we have become so cynical that we do not think anyone deserves a deposit because we believe that there is no one there to help us make a withdrawal when needed.

Now that I think of it, I can relate this concept to what Kamalahassan had so beautifully portrayed in a movie that was not a commercial success 'Anbe Sivam'. In the movie, the simple point that he makes is that there is a 'God' in everyone...(not from a religion point of view) but the fact that most people are by nature mostly good and they would have made a deposit at some point or other into the favor bank. When they make that deposit, they become God for the recipient...and of course he does not do it expect a return favor...

It is indeed sad that this cynicism pervades everything in life today....

Oh..how can they do this...

2006-11-27T21:16:00.000+05:30

Since I have been brilliantly been busy doing nothing, the blog seems all desolate and lonely where there has been nothing new growing....

But then the world is the same, so why should I not have the same post again? Well now that I know Aishwarya and Baby B (as NDTV calls Abhishek) went to Banaras together (oh..my god...how can they go to a holy town together...chee..chee..) Well..too lazy to write anything..so here goes...

An Appeal to a Cable Operator (written in July)

Seriously, cant we have a holiday for one news channel a day? Maybe Monday, CNN-IBN, Tuesday:TimesNow, Wednesday: NDTV... you get the drift...its disgusting how unimaginative television has become...

These guys are spoiling the one enjoyable thing of television...channel surfing....I mean, an orgy over a 5-yr old boy falling into a well and now everyone has Mumbai, one year later...

If there is one thing where the cable operator should exercise his right of autocratic customer service,it should be in not screening one news channel a day...

Thank God for Seinfeld...

2006-11-22T22:54:00.000+05:30

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish

~ From Steve Job's Convocation Speech at Stanford....

It's 'I' all the way....

2006-11-12T14:53:00.000+05:30

There are different viewpoints on advertising. Supposedly the biggest challenge to advertisers is that with the latest technology (TiVo) and pay-per-view etc, consumers are now being given more and more the choice to NOT see ads. That creates a huge problem since the number of consumable items demanding the attention of the consumer is infinite while the 'attention pie' is just going on shrinking. So what does that translate into? How do advertisers hold attention...but this post is not about the challenges there..

The most recent ad that made me sit up was this one from Sony Ericsson for their Walkman series of phones (Low Bandwidth link). I think this was brilliantly executed and really would touch a chord with those groups of people for whom music is an integral part of life. But what struck me more was the images that they convey. All of the images in the ad are of individuals who are just enjoying the moment, their private moment with their own music even if they are surrounded by a huge sea of people. These people could be having huge problems but here they are at this moment, just immersed in the music and the only important thing being 'I'. Do we all not go through these moments or at least crave for these moments when we just can be what we want to be not thinking about what the next moment will bring?

I am quite sure, when they put the storyboard they probably did not think of it in so much detail. But I guess that is what makes a good ad. It should connect to people in different ways.

So if I look at it, what works for me in this ad is:
1. The images of 'ordinary' people in their daily setting
2. The music score for the ad, unobtrusive but still very much the soul
3. Most importantly, the concept of the music being their liberator...

I think Sony Ericsson is really getting this piece right.....

(Well, I guess I must also add that I am a die-hard Sony Ericsson fan all my mobile phones having been from this stable)

The other ad I do like from the recent ones on TV is the Ponds one showing these women all in a introspective kind of mood..have been trying to get a link to it online...even there it works because there are no gimmicks..its just ordinary people.I like all of these ads for displaying the importance of 'I'...People just tend to forget the 'I' in their daily dose of existing....

Kudos to the ad agencies...

Send me an angel...

2006-10-31T10:54:00.000+05:30

The wise man said just walk this way
To the dawn of the light
The wind will blow into your face
As the years pass you by
Hear this voice from deep inside
It's the call of your heart
Close your eyes and you will find
The passage out of the dark

Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star

The wise man said just find your place
In the eye of the storm
Seek the roses along the way
Just beware of the thorns

Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star

The wise man said just raise your hand
And reach out for the spell
Find the door to the promised land
Just believe in yourself
Hear this voice from deep inside
It's the call of your heart
Close your eyes and you will find
The passage out of the dark

Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star
Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star

~ The Scorpions

The Science of Employee Motivation....

2006-10-27T13:45:00.000+05:30

Employee motivation is a big challenge for any HR professional especially in the Indian IT sector where expectations management is a big issue..

This piece is a cool satire on the whole thing of employee motivation...would love to see managers using this....

The conclusion is pretty simple:

¤ When your company says "Great companies are made by great employees," they aren't talking about you.

¤ When your company insists that "Each employee makes a special contribution," that's not you either....

¤ When your company discusses its relatively low turnover rate, it wouldn't mind if it went up another point, if you catch our empirical drift.

¤ Your deep-seated fear of being revealed as a fraud who doesn't really deserve the job you have is unfounded. Everybody knows.

One Life to Live and Love....

2006-10-25T11:48:00.000+05:30

It is fascinating to think how the whole algorithm of life and mannerisms are programmed to change with age.

I happened to observe closely some of the mannerisms of my niece during these holidays. It is indeed an enriching experience. Maybe this was what was meant when they said 'the child is the father of man'.

I am not sure if all adults are like this but I think we all do lose out a lot of the 'child' in us. Anyone who can retain the persona of his/her childhood while gaining the wisdom from experiences will be a happier person.

If you observe a child closely, you will see that they do not think when it comes to articulating affection. There is no holding back...It may be a special hug or just an attempted conversation when they feel affectionate...

What changes as a person grows up? Why do we as adults become hesitant to show affection? What changes in the algorithm and when does this change happen? It could be love for a partner, respect for a parent, affection for a friend. Maybe the articulation is more subtle once you grow up...but i guess it might just help enrich the relationship if you do say it once in a while....

I am not saying all adults stop doing this but it may be worthwhile searching out the child in us…..

Home No More....

2006-10-16T23:15:00.000+05:30

I stumbled on this from a blog (via Ash) but I thought it was so perfect for all those people who have been living away from their homes...

"Andrew Largeman: You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone.

Sam: I still feel at home in my house.

Andrew Largeman: You'll see when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's just gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist. I mean it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I miss the idea of it. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place."

~ From Garden State

A little cynical about family but some of the things said is true.....i guess..

Make Something Happen

2006-10-16T17:04:00.000+05:30

I am not a big fan of Seth Godin though a lot of people seem to follow his blog and writings. But I like this post of his:

"If I had to pick one piece of marketing advice to give you, that would be it.

Now.

Make something happen today, before you go home, before the end of the week. Launch that idea, post that post, run that ad, call that customer. Go the edge, that edge you've been holding back from... and do it today. Without waiting for the committee or your boss or the market. Just go."

The URL to his post

Extending this a little further, seriously, I think we do tend to overestimate the importance of what we are doing, the report, the meeting, the deliverable that we stop thinking and just keep doing and stop caring about the real things....

I have this business.....

2006-10-12T22:58:00.000+05:30

It's always an experience to meet new people. You always get something new from people...but then ever so in a while, you get these googlies...

When in the US a few years back, I used to get accosted by desis on the street. They would make very polite conversation for a few minutes, boost my ego to the stratosphere (lots of energy, charisma..blah blah) and then the innocous remark...

'I have this business activity that I am involved in addition to my job. I have become pretty successful and I am looking for spreading this amongst more people.'..the first time I got conned into thinking this was something interesting. After a couple of meetings is when the dreaded word 'Amway'(now known as Quixstar in the US) comes out..

The thing about it is all these folks who do this business are trained in exactly the same manner. By now, probably everyone has been approached at least once. Get it guys, you are either interested the first time or never.

In the last 2 weeks, I have been approached by 2 people. I didnt know this was catching up so much in India. By now, I have become so used to the drill that when they use the word 'part time and business proposition' together, I ask them directly 'Is it Amway?'...unlucky that I couldn't see the expression on the face through the phone.I was almost rude to these guys...

But I guess, the one thing, the company needs to realize is,they are not going to score brownie points by doing what I can only term 'an attempt at deception'.
Guys, get a life!!! Don't trouble me with your fake attempt at polite talk!!

Time to move on....

2006-10-11T20:50:00.000+05:30

What is the motivation for a person to continue on their job and provide transition to another person who is going to replace them in another 30 days?

With the number of layoffs in my organization in the US and Europe, it is quite a strange situation to attend meetings where the host for the meeting announces that they will be leaving the company in the next few days. There is a strange awkward silence for the next 30 secs before someone makes an appropriate remark wishing them the best.

On the other hand, in contrast, Nilekani and co are sitting in the studio promising a $3 billion bonanza at the end of the year and a 40-45% growth expectation. The world is really turning around...

Now I am reading the book 'Three Billion Capitalists' which talks about the shift of power to the East. It sure is an interesting time.

But the real question is how long before we start thinking about our jobs under the scanner? I dont think it is as far as people might think it is.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Come to think of it, actually manufacturing companies have been doing it for a long time whenever they shut down factories. I guess the more protected class of white-collars have been left alone until now...

Festival Times

2006-10-09T22:25:00.000+05:30

I started writing this post when Dussehra was happening and I was travelling to Kerala. I was trying out mobile blogging and found it too much of a pain. Now that I am back in Bangalore and Diwali is almost here, fitting enough to continue the post..

There was a time when I used to like and enjoy festivals. But over the years, as the family started moving to different locations, the excitement over festivals has kinda come down. I guess it was also a growing up thing when it started becoming less 'cool' if you showed too much enthu about the whole fireworks thing. Also, Kerala was never big on Diwali.

But one thing is for sure, festivals really liven up the spirit of people. Everyday someone is asking me what's your plan for Diwali. People are going for long vacations. They are much nicer to each other (excluding Hosur Road). They are more sanguine about the month with the bonus expected for Diwali in the rest of the country and for Onam in Kerala. It's the same for Christmas anywhere else in the world. It's almost contagious.....(hey, I even remember the time when my company used to provide a large package of sweets...well those were the days of a small company...)

But I wonder how many of us really understand each of the festivals. If our generation itself has such a bad understanding of the history, what will happen when it comes to the next gen......But i guess it is still nice to see that even the yuppie couples of today with their kids, try hard to inculcate the festival spirit. I think these may be the last strands of 'culture' that we may need to cling on to if we need to continue talking about 'the great indian story' for years to come.

After all, it is the age when families rarely sit down at the dinner table together (despite what all the Karan Johar movies and the soaps might show) giving precedence to the TV and the mobile. I just hope I can continue the tradition of sitting at the dinner table forward....cant say thanks enough to my dad for that...though I have cribbed so many times about this during my childhood.....

Maybe Someday....

2006-10-05T14:38:00.000+05:30

Not too many taglines are as in your face as this one from Tata Safari...I guess it is to do with the phase one is in..I am sure a lot of my batchmates are saying...this maybe me... :)

When passing out of the corridors of a premier business school (some years ago), there were hopes, idealism, excitement..now it is just plain being content with smaller successes (which I call 'cheap thrills'). In my work area, I do have an option of interacting with people from different batches and it is interesting to see where each one of them are... it's almost worth an empirical study to see when cynicism sets in and when realization again sets in that it is actually upto you to turn that cynicism into productive energy....

Eternal Souls

2006-09-25T22:06:00.000+05:30

....
Jesse: Most people, you know, a lot of people talk about the past lives, and things like that, you know, and even if they don't believe in it in some specific way, you know, people have some kind of notion of an eternal soul, right.

Céline: Yeah.

Jesse: Okay. Well, this is my thought. 50,000 years ago, there are not even a million people on the planet. 10,000 years ago, there's like 2,000,000 people on the planet. Now, there's between 5 and 6 billion people on the planet, right? Now, if we all have our own, like, individual, unique soul, right, where do they all come from? Are modern souls only a fraction of the original souls? Because if they are, that represents a 5,000-to-1 split of each soul in just the last 50,000 years, which is like a blip in the earth's time. You know, so, at best, we're like these tiny fractions of people, you know, walking... I mean, is that why we're all so scattered? You know, Is that why we're all so specialized?

Céline: Wait a minute, I'm not sure I ... I don't...

Jesse: Hang on, I know, I know, it's a totally scattered thought, which is kind of why it makes sense. ..

From 'Before Sunrise'...Celine & Jesse...

Interesting thought....

Air Deccan - A second innings

2006-09-25T17:04:00.000+05:30

After a long time, I travelled by Air Deccan. There seems to be something happening over there. It almost seems like Capt. Gopinath got up one day and said 'I am sick and tired of people cursing my company. My employees are all becoming demotivated having been shouted at so many times.'

Let me run a market research to do a perception map for Air Deccan. So now we have the dear Captain making enough announcements about how they are making it on time 88% of the time and we are only late 12% of the time.

So he gives all of his employees this bright yellow T-shirt asking his customers to give Air Deccan a second chance. It's an interesting exercise to change the negative perception of the public.

In many ways, this is an important exercise for the company. They need to boost up their sagging stock, their customer satisfaction scores and their employee morale.

Let's see if the captain manages to pull this off too...

ps:Btw, captain, it is perfectly legal to provide some directions to passengers when and where the flight is going to take off from at least 30 min before departure

Hedonism - the only way to be

2006-09-23T13:05:00.000+05:30

I had almost forgotten how different Chennai was from Bangalore. After many months, I made a visit to this so deliciously Tamilian city...i have become too hedonistic these days to be really charmed anymore by Chennai.

Was like a sojourn to the old days...had a meal in one of those messes you find only in Chennai (and maybe parts of Malleswaram in Blore). great food..as clean as you will get for a 10Rs meal.

Living in South Bangalore amongst all the yuppies in Koramangala for a few years now, its almost become a given that the only joints worth existing are those that you can blow a lot of money for some normal food. I think it is good once in a while to do these kind of deviations...

It does feel I have come a long way on the road to hedonism...long live self-indulgence...one of my friends would agree.. :)

Smart Companies and the MBAs

2006-09-21T13:57:00.000+05:30

This is definitely a question that I have thought of on multiple occasions. What makes a company diversify into a totally unrelated field, burn up their own cash cow and finally sell the business to focus on their 'core areas' after a few years at a loss?

I liked this article by Guy Kawasaki. I think it is a nice way to put things in perspective..

Of course, I like point 5 best... :)

5. Restrict the use of experts to narrow areas. Never use experts to create your product roadmap or marketing plans unless you want MBAs who have never run anything larger than a school snack bar to decide your fate.

Ms.Bansal has also talked about the yuppie MBA. Looks like we are not a very well-liked group not withstanding the so-called money (havent seen it yet myself though...but i guess hope is the way to the future) ;-)

New York, New York

2006-09-16T08:46:00.000+05:30

New York is a great place, a city full of energy and a city that never sleeps..but when I am travelling back tomorrow to India, I feel good..

I feel so ready to travel back...I am usually the kind of person who likes visiting new places and try and understand the 'character' of the city.

New York should have been perfect. Dont know if it is due to the amount of work or the team I was working with...am sure glad India is calling...

I guess there are times when you want to be the adventurous one in the world exploring new corners and there are other times when you want to get back into the comfort zone that you are used to....

What a person is, I suppose dependent on how comfortable and what proportion of the time he/she likes to tread into the unknown...

The one good thing about this trip was the number of old friends I caught up with. I realized I knew so many people here - school, college, ex-colleagues, IIMB and some of them I had lost touch over the last 3-4 years and some of them I have not talked to in about 10 years...But its good to know that there are so many people who you can just pick off where we left off from...

Makes me think, I should definitely try living in Mumbai...

Sept 11 all over again

2006-09-10T11:03:00.000+05:30

Its that time of the year here in the US. The day that changed the world (atleast here) ..Sept 11 is coming up...

I managed to visit the World Trade Center site today. I do not know if it is always the case or specially decked for the day. There was this photo exhibition that presented different facets of the disaster...As I was looking at all of this and looking at all the TV channels here going on about '5 years and after' (probably even NDTV and CNN-IBN are doing this back home), a lot of thoughts went off in my head....

Why is it so much simpler for us to accept disaster? Mumbai has had many such catastrophes in the last decade. Still I cant think of any memorial for the victims or the public even stopping to think about the unfortunate victims. In the US, the media and the political machinery ensures the public dont put behind the event.

I guess this event sure shocked a nation that had become complacent and arrogant about its own superiority. It was unfortunate that this happened with the lives of so many innocents being sacrificed. However, maybe we do need a machinery within our country to give the respect to the dead....we are almost at the other end of the spectrum...

Life - A Multi-Act

2006-08-31T19:24:00.000+05:30

This is not the best of times... While the world may be fighting over larger things, my own little battles go on....for what is life without those?

No one has claimed life to be easy....but I now believe that life is as easy as you want it to be or as complicated as you want it to be....of course, if you have the luxury of a premier business school education, you are doomed for you are now destined to do a 2x2 framework for everything...

Which brings me to the long discussions I have had with 2 of my very good friends about the line between taking a rational decision (the MBA one) and the one about listening closely to the inner voice...especially wrt career, jobs and the way forward. I have personally gone through those times when I did my own share of analyzing to the nth degree whether I should do this or not....havent regretted it yet...even today I am making some decisions which for an outsider would seem irrational but to me it feels right....both the folks I talked to did not agree with me fully about feeling right....

The way I see it, end of it all, this Act will end and the next one will begin. So enjoy the time while you are in it......and dont worry, you will still reach the next act in good shape....this way or that way...It's difficult to feel this way all the time for me too (after all I am part of the 2x2 crowd...)

It is but no wonder that Shakespeare is so great...
'All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players'

2006-08-25T00:11:00.000+05:30

Ever so often you are brought crashing back to earth,
That's the thing about life....

2006-08-19T15:09:00.000+05:30

valarnnu poyathariyathe.. virunnu vannu balyam
ivanil thanal maram njan thediya janmam kurunnu poovayi maari

Lyrics of the song 'Mindathe' from the movie Thanmatra

Things Change...

2006-08-19T14:57:00.000+05:30

Things Change....

They most definitely do...

The last week has in lot of ways been as anti-climactic as it can get..a lot of things did not happen but things have been set into motion...

The shortest trip I have made abroad...had to go to New York, the big daddy of them all...(may comment on the city in a later post) for a really short trip....Now New York was one of the 43places in my list...so I should have been really excited for the great opportunity career wise and the fact that it is New York...

But then in the end not so much...how do any of these matter when you really are not relishing the moment?

Ever get the feeling that things are all happening around you, seemingly unconnected to you but somehow affecting you....

Maybe it is time to look to the skies for a signal...

The Infy Epic

2006-08-01T22:19:00.000+05:30

Infy is on a roll again. If there needed to be one example of using the media to the best of its advantage, look no further than Infy.

We have had so many firms in the country who have passed the 25 yrs. We have quite a number of firms that are more than $2 billion in size. We have TCS, the grand daddy of Indian IT doing a lot of things. But yet, no one remembers them as much as Infy.

The Infy way of media management probably had different agendas at different points of time. When Infy was this new kid on the block, they stayed low profile. Then they embarked on this strategy of under promising every quarter and then over shooting it always thus becoming the darling of the shareholders. That got it the visibility it desired in the markets.

Then came the days of the Global Branding. They did Nasdaq and did a lot of road shows in the US. By the time, the competitors had wisened up and the war for talent had become hot. Then Infy did that big $1 billion bash again telling the world, we love our employees ensuring that there are enough people still wanting to get into Infosys.

Now if you need to get into consulting, you need to again build that kind of visibility. To align with the international vision, they started the first ever widely publicized Global Internship program to brand themselves in campuses abroad.

Again the 25 yr bash and the 126 crores are all part of 'we love our employees' message. Today Infy realizes that the biggest challenge is again talent. So here you have all the directors of Infy sitting for television and talking in their own inimitable style again putting the desire in so many more young people to want to join Infosys.

But make no mistake. I dont think Infy is any evil corporation. In fact I think this media management is itself worth a case study...the changing faces of Infosys. I think Infy's success has been that they have been doing this before anyone even realized that you had to manage the media.

2006-07-31T23:03:00.000+05:30

....And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence.

From 'The Sound of Silence' by Simon & Garfunkel....

Probably the most powerful language yet...if you can read those unspoken lines, hear those unspoken words, feel those unspoken emotions....then you are truly the friend I seek....

Thinking Language

2006-07-30T01:27:00.000+05:30

Does the language that you think in make a difference in the way you talk/relate to people? You may have grown up thinking in your mother tongue. All your growing years, that is probably the language that you have grown with. That is the language you argued with your friends.

So it is quite possible that when you are emotional about a topic, you might want to shift to the language that you think in if you want to be more effective. Of course, if that language is English or Hindi, you probably can articulate better since the no of ppl around understanding these languages are larger.

As I have been called a misplaced displaced tam more times than I can remember, I have never been natural either in Tamil or Malayalam being a Tam in Kerala. The language I have been most comfortable therefore is English and that has become the language that I think in.

So if I were to argue with someone in anger, I would probably be more effective doing it in English. Lucky me!!

Disclaimer: This is a totally empirical hypothesis backed by no scientific thought what so ever....

Pondering thoughts...

2006-07-27T21:42:00.000+05:30

Like any other engineering B-schooler, I also keep saying that I should have listened more in my OB class. The only thing I remember from my OB class is the Johari Window, a pretty neat framework about understanding yourself and others. Today when my work involves managing people, this is becoming more important. However that is not the point of this post....

Last week, a friend of mine made a perceptive comment on my nature. While I always knew that in my mind,it started me off thinking. I mean, there are these snippets of your own nature that you always know deep in your mind, that could be your greatest fear which you hope people wont find.......you tend to find your own 'protection mechanism' to mask those fears...some stay aloof from people when it surfaces...apparently mine is to just talk a lot without conveying anything....

Therefore bringing me back to the Johari window.....it is apparent that each of us have a blind spot....how big that is is the question...when somebody suddenly sheds light on this area which you have been blind or pretending to be blind to,I guess it does shock you a bit....

Have been thinking about all this for quite a bit now...no answers yet...but I guess if life were that simple, then you would not need to attribute the screw-ups in this world to a much larger power....Maybe I AM becoming old....

Really need to get out of Bangalore......

An Appeal to the Cable Operator

2006-07-26T21:10:00.000+05:30

Seriously, cant we have a holiday for one news channel a day? Maybe Monday, CNN-IBN, Tuesday:TimesNow, Wednesday: NDTV... you get the drift...its disgusting how unimaginative television has become...

These guys are spoiling the one enjoyable thing of television...channel surfing....I mean, an orgy over a 5-yr old boy falling into a well and now everyone has Mumbai, one year later...

If there is one thing where the cable operator should exercise his right of autocratic customer service,it should be in not screening one news channel a day...

Thank God for Seinfeld...

UPDATE: It gets worse before it gets worse. Today it is the PM's residence and a bunch of rogue kids....

Friends maketh the day

2006-07-21T10:32:00.000+05:30

Yesterday was one of those great days when the day was dedicated to friends...from 6 till 11 i was almost just talking to friends on the phone or meeting them up...was a great feeling to think that so many ppl are thinking of you...

The first was an hr long call with a friend in Hyd and we talked about so many things...some personal experiences shared...the next with a batchmate from Chennai who had just come down from the US, more or less cribbed abt work...then met up a group of college friends for dinner with lots of goofy talk...then talked with another good friend from work who has been having a bad time the past few days with some pep talk....

Friends are what makes the world a much better place....Today when we are all working so hard, it is so refreshing to have people to talk to...the only people who do not keep expectations of this is how it should be....the friends that we cherish...may the breed increase....
Amen...

IBCD?

2006-07-16T00:06:00.000+05:30

What will we look like 10 yrs down the line? Will we be even more Americanized than it is already? Is it now more IBCD (Indian-born Confused Desi) rather than ABCD (American Born Confused Desi)

This topic came up with a friend today. This whole thing about 'culture' has become so diluted already. I for one definitely am part of this confused set of young people who are not ready to take the leap to western values but cannot still cling on completely to the cultural values that we were brought up.

If this is the case with people now, what would be the next generation be looking at? Will they have special tuitions for teaching 'mother tongue'? Will people still do the 'pujas'? Will we still fall at the feet of our elders when they bless you?

I think I have talked about this in a previous post. I believe our generation is in a critical period and what the position of India as a country will be in the future (from a cultural richness perspective) depends on the position each of us take wrt a lot of these simple things.

I think we are going to be the 'baby boomers' for the country.....hmm...that's a lot of things to carry on our shoulders...and we dont even realize it...

Melancholic

2006-07-12T11:12:00.000+05:30

"You know, you realize that most of the people that you meet are trying to get somewhere better,you know, they're trying to make a little bit more cash,trying to get a little more respect, have more people admire them, you know,

It's just exhausting!"

from 'Before Sunset', the movie

.........So very true....

A friend used the word Melancholy...and i couldnt get it out of me since then......it's such a beautiful word yet so tragic sounding....

2006-07-12T10:53:00.000+05:30

Everytime you tend to think of your problems as the biggest, something comes along and humbles you....the city that has had 3 different bruises in as many weeks...Mumbai in pictures

It is at times such as these that you feel that the world is a far larger place than you can ever imagine and you are probably much better off than many and therefore be thankful for what you have....

Oh...but can anyone unplug those camera crews for a while....

Batch Marriages

2006-06-26T17:44:00.000+05:30

It's that time of the batch when everyday somebody is getting married. Of course, I find it quite depressing that so many people are getting married. After all, this has a direct corelation to the number of friends available in your circle since the mathematical intersection of singles vs couples social circle is almost equal to zero.

Anyways, the other thing is planning to go for these weddings. You start with the whole gang (both married & single) saying..oh..they are all ready to go...
then closer to the date...it starts happening...first the married ones... my in-laws are coming...my wife has different plans..then the committed ones...i have different plans...(never mention it is for the girlfriend)..will be going home...

So finally it boils down to the last enthu people carrying on...so therefore as it seems, the number of people joining up from the batches will be probably one or two....hmm..is it then surprising that finally it is probably the colleagues who are the only ones turning up if it is somewhere close by...thank god for the social pressure on relatives...otherwise no one would turn up for weddings.. ;-)

Well, am planning to go for such a wedding..so now we are down to 3...am expecting 1 more drop out... :)

True Calling....

2006-06-25T13:51:00.000+05:30

Career and Job are probably one of the top items that are discussed amongst B-school grads especially the recent ones and I have written quite a bit on this topic. Anyway, was on the phone with a friend where we basically listed out why our jobs sucked and finally came to the conclusion why we wouldnt shift out if given a chance....

Think of it...everyone has a reason to be unhappy in their jobs....

The IT Management Grad says..hey i get paid peanuts and I do a lot of crap work including being secretary to the bosses...the sales guy in Jharkhand in the hotshot FMCG company does not have to look beyond the mosquitos and the stinking loos....the investment banker in Tokyo and London looks outside the office at 2am and finds that the rest of the world is partying this Saturday evening....the consultants are sick and tired of adding more bullet points to a PPT slide and doing the bit in a new city everyday....

Oh...if we thought this was the end of it...the schoolmates who decided to save the world with their medical skills look at the engineers and go on...you guys have been earning for some million years now...and i am still mugging from my books...

But then would I want to change from my 9-6 IT job..no saturday work..trips abroad...do what you want out of office....probably not...Would a doctor want to relinquish the satisfaction of helping a human being or saving a life...definitely not... Would the sales mgr want to not have the cheap thrills of exceeding his targets...probably not...

Yet we keep looking at the rest of the world and keep getting confused about how and what it could have been... but the truth, it is as it should be....

The guy upstairs truly has a wierd sense of humor....Maybe the whole thing about 'true calling' is just an overrated one....

hmm..just another cynical day....

Courteous??

2006-06-22T01:09:00.000+05:30

Mumbai has just been rated as the Least Courteous City by a survey conducted by Readers Digest. While the way they conducted this survey is vague, I think it does talk a little about the way cultures vary in the way 'courteousness' is defined.

One of the tests that RD was checking was if a person held out the door for the person coming behind. In India, no body would really think of doing this. We are all in such great hurry. I guess it was unlucky Mumbai was just polled for this. I dont think any other Indian city may have performed better (except maybe Bangalore given the number of techies who have gone abroad and seen this)

Anyway,the surprise is that New York was rated the most courteous. Given the size of NYC, I would have thought otherwise. But in this article NYC Mayor Ed Koch says that it may be after Sept 11. Do calamities change the way a city acts?
For example, Mumbai pulled itself together during the floods, during the bomb blasts in a way no other city could have done.

My take, is that,it is the quality of a mega city that allows it to become stronger in light of a calamity. To put it simply, people can not afford to get back to their lives as quickly as possible since it is a struggle to begin with especially in such complex ecosystems.

Final word would be that it was a little unfair the way this poll was conducted. and of course all news channels are also making merry out of it.

2006-06-19T23:30:00.000+05:30

525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure,measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?

- Seasons of Love - Music from the Motion Picture RENT

(from a friend's blog)

XXXX has come online....

2006-06-19T23:18:00.000+05:30

How many people do we actually message regularly from our messenger contacts? I presume not too many. At least that's the case with me and I think most people would probably be the same...

You start adding people in messenger and the contact list keeps growing. You chat with some, then lose contact and then for a long time, you dont talk to the person....

Then you one day notice the popup saying 'xxxx is online'. That's when you suddenly realize that you have completely lost touch with him/her. There is a small pang of guilt in your mind...you could have put in a little more effort to keep in touch....

The other person is realizing the same when you log in...but both still dont make that simple effort to just send a hello...both are too busy in their own lives and tell themselves that they will find some time soon....

But the fact is there is never a good time...that's why I have great respect for those few individuals who make that simple gesture to say the hi and renew the relation just for the heck of it....

And in that note, there are quite a number of ppl who diminish the value of this by calling it 'networking'. I personally think it is one of the most decadent of words...or possibly I have started disliking it since the usage in IIMB...

Technology may change and you may have all the Skypes but then nothing can replace the basic requirement - a will to cherish the relationships and friendships that one has acquired over time...

Soulful Soundtracks

2006-06-18T22:59:00.000+05:30

I started listening to soundtracks, i guess about 4-5 years back and since then I have enjoyed so many of them. I am now totally hooked on to instrumentals as a genre. But the thing about OST is that it is not easily accessible on the internet. I have been trying torrent for the last week and it's been great..getting more of these..

Well, anyway, just downloaded this track from 'Crash' the movie called A Really Good Cloak. If anyone has seen the movie, they would realize the scene I am talking about, probably one of the most touching scenes from the movie.

The point, I guess, I am making is that, if you have enjoyed the movie and can place the track in context, I guess you enjoy it even more. Every time, I listen to this, I can feel the moment from the movie...the kid, the father, the mother, the gunman and the invisible cloak....

hmm...really miss watching these amazing movies out here....

Orkut.....

2006-06-18T22:46:00.000+05:30

I have never been one for social networking on the web. Therefore things like orkut never appealed to me. However in the last 1 week, since I got onto orkut, I have been meeting people that I had lost touch some zillion years ago.

There was this friend of mine...while in school, we were real pals for a good 10 yrs....somewhere something changed and we started drifting apart.....now it's been more than 10 yrs and i suddenly find him on orkut....that's amazing...

I guess I am at that stage of life the value of friendship is so much greater..

I am converted....but still think i will mail more than post messages... :)

Look at photos past

2006-06-18T00:15:00.000+05:30

With the advent of the digicam, the number of photos one clicks has become so many that it almost is impossible to have those 'special' photos. But months later when you look back at your photo albums, it does bring memories of the good days gone by.

I have about 3000 photographs from my Europe trip in many folders in Picasa. On a day like today when there is nothing else to do, it is just good fun to go through them and refresh my mind about those umpteen trips that I have taken in the last 1-1.5 yrs...

However, this photo was taken in Bandipur Sanctuary. It was a lucky shot that I got but thought it was just amazing.....

Interview with God

2006-06-11T00:31:00.000+05:30

THE INTERVIEW WITH GOD

Note: View the presentation in the site at leisure. It's just amazing...

I dreamed I had an interview with God.

“So you would like to interview me?” God asked.

“If you have the time” I said.

God smiled. “My time is eternity.”
“What questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?”

God answered...
“That they get bored with childhood,
they rush to grow up, and then
long to be children again.”

“That they lose their health to make money...
and then lose their money to restore their health.”

“That by thinking anxiously about the future,
they forget the present,
such that they live in neither
the present nor the future.”

"That they live as if they will never die,
and die as though they had never lived.”

God’s hand took mine
and we were silent for a while.

And then I asked...
“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons
you want your children to learn?”

“To learn they cannot make anyone
love them. All they can do
is let themselves be loved.”

“To learn that it is not good
to compare themselves to others.”

“To learn to forgive
by practicing forgiveness.”

“To learn that it only takes a few seconds
to open profound wounds in those they love,
and it can take many years to heal them.”

“To learn that a rich person
is not one who has the most,
but is one who needs the least.”

“To learn that there are people
who love them dearly,
but simply have not yet learned
how to express or show their feelings.”

“To learn that two people can
look at the same thing
and see it differently.”

“To learn that it is not enough that they
forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves.”

"Thank you for your time," I said humbly.

"Is there anything else
you would like your children to know?"

God smiled and said,
“Just know that I am here... always.”

-author unknown

Disclaimer: I do not preach religion or faith. I just find this quite inspiring

Lord of the Flies

2006-06-11T00:09:00.000+05:30

Lost is one TV series that has been catching the attention of viewers worldwide. There is nothing new about a bunch of airplane crash survivors on an island with its perils. But it is the characterisation that works for the series. However this post is not about the series...

This series reminded me of a book I had to learn during my 9th or 10th class by William Golding called 'The Lord of the Flies'. I dont know if it is the way the book was written or the way my English teacher took us through the book...

The book talks about a bunch of kids stuck on an island in a similar fashion. Even amongst the kids, we have the natural leader who institutes governance and a semblance of civil society and then we have the rebel group who is against anything that is governed. As a result, we have some gruesome incidents where there are murders on the island all depicted by some gory imagery and this from a bunch of kids who are expected to be 'pure and innocent'.

Basically the point that the author was making was that, in the absence of a civil society, Man is not too far away from chaos and violence even if he is not exposed to it....

So therefore it really hits me when Lost has its bunch of adults who come from different backgrounds, prejudices and fears. All this would be a definite recipe for chaos. The series works because of the strength of the characters....the book works because of the strength of the message...

Muenchen calling

2006-06-10T16:22:00.000+05:30

To think that a few months back, I was in the city where the FIFA world Cup was played out yday makes me nostalgic for Munich. Though I lived there only for a year, it was a great time indeed.

hmm..would have been a great time to be over there now....with all the crazy football fans over there.... :(

Are we in America?

2006-05-23T16:58:00.000+05:30

I am now convinced that we are becoming a proxy for America.

We have these monstrous malls with a frenzy of consumerism on credit...We have debates on TV about whether Aishwarya Rai should have worn an Indian designer dress to Cannes...Now, we have the stock market doing a see-saw with 1000 pt drops and rallies....on the other side, we have sting operations...we have report cards on govt coming out...we have citizens protesting otherwise ill-thought out policies..it's all happening here in india...

Just add a not-so-bright leader at the top and I think it will be complete...i am sure we can find quite a few of them in government...

I know ppl will start saying I am not talking about the 'other side' of rural India & BPL families...no I am not talking about them....I am just talking about us spoilt city folks..

The party is on

2006-05-15T16:19:00.000+05:30

Maybe it is a little late in the day, but I just thought it was interesting the kind of messages that seem to be published in prominent blogs regarding the new government in Tamilnadu.

Celebration at Burma Bazaar

Alaphia's lament

Sambhar's rant

Though the DMK won fair and square, it almost seems like there is no real expectation from this government. It is almost accepted that things are going to go downhill with those near to the govt reaping the benefits. Will want to write a post later on this phenomenon of Sun TV...do we need a Chomsky?

I am just wondering if this is also an acknowledgement that the previous govt actually did a decent job but then the arithmetic of coalition politics just won here.

If nobody is really expecting good things from this government, then why did they get elected? (hmmm...reminds me of how President Bush got elected in the US with a really low popularity vote)

On the other side in Kerala, the youth have given up hope on any good thing to happen in the state irrespective of who is in charge. With VS becoming the CM, the expectation is negative. In fact, the only thing becoming news is the struggle between VS and Pinarayi Vijayan...

A time to reflect

2006-05-08T00:17:00.000+05:30

As of yesterday I have completed 4 years in office (hmm...as I start this, it almost seems like I am writing a note for the US president..)..well..I digress...

I have completed 4 years in office in the same company and the questions are so much more frequent. How can you stay in the same firm given the market scenario? Most of my batchmates have shifted at least once.

(at this point, I will mention that I have seen quite a number of people in my company who have stayed for much longer)

I was wondering what would be the factors to make a person stay for long or at least in my case what were the factors?

I guess the following have contributed:
1. The variety of roles that I have got involved in the company including onsite stints
2. The value that most of my managers have given to the work I have done or what I call 'personal brand equity'(an ego trip essentially :))
3. The general DNA of the organization - for eg, I believe my company has a fairly high quotient of work/life balance and it is upto the individual to do what he/she wants

But then there is the other side always gnawing:
1. Are you missing out something on the outside?
2. Are you becoming too comfortable within the familiarities of the company?
3. Are you still managing to learn something every other day?
4. What does the future hold in this company?

It's an answer that I dont have yet...

Sneak Preview

2006-05-07T19:21:00.000+05:30

Satyam Cinemas in Chennai are bringing for the first time in India a 'Blind Movie'. This is a concept where you go into the hall not knowing the movie name. I think this is the first time I have heard this implemented in India.

I was a very regular follower of this concept when I was in Munich. There it was called 'Sneak Preview'. The only thing we knew was that it would be a new movie premiered for the first time.

I guess I have had 75% success in this way. 25% of the movies have been real rotten. But it is a real cool thing to do. The anticipation of knowing what movie it is, is something really cool.

I dont think any of the Bangalore theatres have started this concept. I think given the number of vela people in Bangalore, I am sure this will find enough takers.

Is anyone listening???

Little Things......

2006-04-20T12:20:00.000+05:30

Now that my cynic head has been folded in for a while, let me rant on for a while feeling good about life.

Everyone talks about how it was a rotten day and how things went all wrong.
Hmm.....just a thought...what things would make you feel good at the end of the day? Would there be 5 things that you would list out....

These cannot be anything special like winning a Nobel Prize or anything (hmm..not that I know anyone who has a chance of doing that)...these have to be the little pleasures in life...what are those 5? Let me attempt at this....

1. Talking with a friend after a long time....especially those ones with whom you can pick up from where you left irrespective of how long its been..
2. A job well done...and i mean in the strictest sense, well done according to myself not wrt the world, the bosses, the peers...i can tell you that should not be very often if your standards are high enough....
3. Somebody stopping for you on the road to let you go first...that's such a rarity in India....but trust me, you do it once in a while and hopefully the other person acknowledges it, it feels great
4. A real great joke....long live the sitcoms...even better if it is something in life...i do miss those amazing sessions of completely non-intellectual talk in B-school which leads to nothing...as George says, 'this show is about nothing' (Seinfeld)

5.

- Nothing more to say about this

This is tougher than I thought.....

Anybody interested in doing this can tag themselves and let me know their list of 5... :)

Speaketh the minister 2

2006-04-20T11:41:00.000+05:30

Hmmm....after I had made a mention of the possible impact of the inexperienced chief minister, it looks the Honourable Chief Minister has already heard about it and has responded to it. I didnt know I was such a powerful spokesperson.. :)

Anyway, turning the argument on its head, maybe in some ways it is also good. Like in any B-school, you will have the real experienced guys (5yrs & more...we used to call them Lathis) and the real young kids (19-20 yr olds). Both of them have their own strengths. I guess similarly, having a chief minister who hasnt held office before may allow him to go ahead with schemes without being ambushed by other compulsions at least until he learns the trick of the trade. (oh...there my cynic head sprouts up again....in you go)

For the record, I do see the roads being taken up as a serious concern. The Koramangala roads are being tarred at a feverish pace and it seems to be the case in several parts of the city. Great!!

Back at Blore

2006-04-17T17:34:00.000+05:30

It always feels good to be back in Bangalore whatever people might say about the crumbling infra ..blah..blah...

After 2 sweltering days in Chennai, Bangalore weather is just 2 cool.

Speaketh the minister

2006-04-14T14:17:00.000+05:30

I like this question and the tone it takes. The day after, there seems to be no trace of the carnage that happened in the city just a day earlier. Like any Indian, all of us will just go back to our lives as normal. The media would call this 'resilience' or 'strength of the Mumbaikar' if this was in Mumbai....that's another story

Ah..now the reason I started this post...yesterday as always, every news channel was talking to anyone who was available and not burning buses (Mr.Kumaraswamy, the Chief Minister and Mr.Ajay Kumar Singh, the police commisioner very prominently visible)

I just dont get the chief minister. I am not sure if his inexperience is catching up with him quite quickly.
Yesterday when he comments on the law & order situation, it seemed that he had really no clue what to do. Also the way he articulates, there seems to be that 'laid-backness' seen in his words. Lucky for him, there are probably still a few good men in the Police Dept.

Also,he is going around approving projects many of them with conflicting interests and overlapping timelines. There is the Metro, the airport, the elevated highway near Electronics City. We are also actually seeing the first signs of activity. Somehow, I cannot see this more than the initial adrenaline pumping

The dangers are that a population which is already harassed by growing traffic problems finds itself inconvenienced even more. Of course, if these are planned well, I am sure the populace will live it through. But the track record really does not say much about the administration.

Why dont we have really good city planners supported by at least some capable politicians?

A City gone Crazy

2006-04-12T22:49:00.000+05:30

And just like that Bangalore goes crazy at the death of a veteran actor. I guess I can never be truly Bangalorean since I dont feel for the death of Dr.Rajkumar as much as the thousands of Kannadigas...

The security guards at my office were passing out pictures of 'Annavaru' to stick on the car windshields. The guard tells me 'for your safety only, sir'. I must admit I found it funny but I guess I would rather find it funny than with a broken leg or something.

I understand having a hero/role model to look upto. But to go crazy to the extent of creating violence at that is just something I cant figure out. The worst, they have just shut down the city...

For a poor bachelor like me who does not count his culinary skills as a strength, this was a nightmare. Hell, I didnt even have enough food stocked at home since I wasnt in town for the last few days. I hope tomorrow is a little better.

God bless the inventor of Maggi, the saviour always....

Pearls of Seinfeld

2006-04-06T23:34:00.000+05:30

Since I have no pearls of wisdom to offer the world now, I thought I'll put down some from Seinfeld, the show.

I have never been able to decide which was funnier, Friends or Seinfeld...

---------------------------
Telemarketer: Hi. Would you be interested in switching over to TMI Long Distance service?
Jerry: Oh, gee, I can't talk right now. Why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you later.
Telemarketer: Uh, sorry, we're not allowed to do that.
Jerry: Oh, I guess you don't want people calling you at home.
Telemarketer: No.
Jerry: Well, now you know how I feel.
[hangs up]

--------------------------
Jerry: Looking at cleavage is like looking at the sun. You don't stare at it. It's too risky. Ya get a sense of it and then you look away.

--------------------------
George Costanza: I just don't see what purpose is it going to serve your going? I mean, you think dead people care who's at the funeral? They don't even know they're having a funeral. It's not like she's hanging out in the back going, "I can't believe Jerry didn't show up".
Elaine: Maybe she's there in spirit. How about that?
George Costanza: If you're a spirit, and you can travel to other dimensions and galaxies, and find out the mysteries of the universe, you think she's going to want to hang around Drexler's funeral home on Ocean Parkway?

--------------------------
George Costanza: Someday, before I die, mark my words... I'm gonna tell that woman exactly what I think of her. I'll never be able to forgive myself until I do.
Jerry: And if you do?
George Costanza: Well, I still won't be able to forgive myself, but at least it won't be about this.

--------------------------------
"I thought you were happy-go-lucky."
"No, no, no, I'm not happy, I'm not lucky, and I don't go. If anything, I'm sad-stop-unlucky."
- Naomi and Jerry, in "The Bubble Boy"

---------------------------
What would the world be like if people said whatever they were thinking, all the time, whenever it came to them? How long would a blind date last? About 13 seconds, I think. "Oh, sorry, your rear end is too big." "That's ok, your breath stinks anyway. See you later."
- Jerry

------------------------------
"It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper."

---------------------------------
"Now they show you how detergents take out bloodstains, a pretty violent image there. I think if you've got a T-shirt with a bloodstain all over it, maybe laundry isn't your biggest problem. Maybe you should get rid of the body before you do the wash."

Bangalore - What comes to mind?

2006-04-04T15:23:00.000+05:30

Taking a cue from this what comes to mind when you think of Bangalore.

The Vidhana Soudha at night..

Originally uploaded by anitabora.

If you dont recognize this, this is Brigade road without the millions of vela people (Courtesy Anita Bora)

Mumbai - The Pride of India

2006-03-31T17:51:00.000+05:30

There was this book by Rohinton Mistry called 'A Fine Balance' which I read a few months ago. The book is set in Bombay and talks about the life of 2 tailors in Mumbai and their struggles to live in the 'jhopatpattis' (probably didnt spell it right). Their struggles to maintain their space on the footpath etc. In parts, the book was quite good. However this post is not about that.

So recently, I saw this feature on NDTV about the slumlords in Mumbai. This is something that has been spoken and woven into the plot very well in the book. I actually could relate this to the book better. Kudos to NDTV for featuring this really old story that everyone conveniently ignores - that of the worlds largest slum.

All Mumbaiite friends of mine keep extolling the virtues of the city (to which I have never been). By coincidence, I have been reading quite a number of things about Mumbai, the latest being 'Maximum City' where there is a detailed description about the 'dhanda'- the dance bars and the underworld and about the usage of the notorius 'Rent Control Act'. I do not know if it was the nature of the readings but frankly I get the impression, you go live in Mumbai to struggle and then feel elated about your victory over a miserable life. Arent all these about the blatant breakdown of normal social order? I am becoming more and more convinced that Bangalore is just getting unfair press. Having said that, I would like to live in Mumbai someday to see if what the people say is true.

Probably will get a few brickbats from the people I know in Mumbai. So to appease them, here is a post on how well planned Navi Mumbai is. It's good to know that we have a Chandigarh and Navi Mumbai to talk of as 'planned cities' even in this chaotic great nation.

Finally this post is not about Mumbai being bad or Bangalore being better but wanted to end with a few questions. What makes an effective city administration? How do we in India live comfortably in the midst of blatant violation of human rights? Have we just become too immune to all this? Is the burden of thinking about 1 billion people just too much?

91.0 FM

2006-03-30T11:09:00.000+05:30

One of my earlier posts was about energy levels of people where I mentioned how these rock concerts are such peaks of energy. I think one of the toughest jobs on hand requiring sustained energy levels is that of a RJ. Like any other Bangalorean who spends enough time on the roads (for more details, just keep watching CNN-IBN with its 'Eye on Bangalore' series), Sunaina, Darius and Vasanthi have become household names. The thing about these folks is the sheer energy that they carry in their voices.

Be it scripted or otherwise, it still is amazing just trying to pump in 'josh' in people through their voices. I am sure the millions of Radio City listeners are thankful to these folks. Darius with his dry wit, Vasanthi for her cheerful Good Mornings and Sunaina with all the josh in the evenings. (Not really a great fan of the others)

Just wondering if these folks would have been as good on television. Radio with its facelessness has its charms and really depends so much more on the personality of the RJ. But Television, I guess doesnt allow so much of that 'naturalness' that we hear from RJs...but then I have no clue about it really...

RC with all its 'Appukuttan Nair' and 'One and half Altaf' is good fun. But sometimes I do miss the music. I remember in 2001 and 2002 period, RC used to put such great English music especially Retro. Well, that I guess is another post.....

Eye on South

2006-03-28T12:47:00.000+05:30

With the number of proliferating 24 hr news channels, this was bound to happen. I mean the channels are so starved of news that they are all playing the game of 'i-can-do-better-than-you-with-exclusives' part.

Yesterday was the first time I caught CNN-IBN with its new avatar of focusing on the South. Suddenly all the news channels have woken up to the fact that more than 60% of the English speaking population in India lives in the South and they might want to address issues relevant here also.

I didnt realize all this when I saw NDTV with its show on Chennai's fitness fanatics (for nearly 30 mins) sometime last week or so. Man, these guys really know the South.....now with IBN also talking about it, this is really taking shape.

The sad fact is that none of the national channels have really any 'real' capability in finding the right stories from the south. But I must appreciate IBN for at least asking the question.

There was this lady guest on the show(i forget her name). She made an interesting comment saying that it doesnt matter where you are geographically located, you are just not capable of quality reporting from the south as of now and that this has always been the case even when DD was the prime channel. Hmmm... sad but true...

This blog is quite aan interesting view on the news channel wars.

Let's see how the 'Eye on Bangalore' series goes on in IBN for the rest of the week. I mean, dont people have anything to say about Bangalore other than the bad roads, crumbling infrastructure and the Metro. Hey, talk about the green parks...talk about the cosmopolitian nature of Bangalore....talk about weekend getaways....talk about expats in the city....talk about anything but roads...we all now know what road is bad....i am sure this city still has a lot of good things going for it....

Would you move to India?

2006-03-25T00:16:00.000+05:30

Just to add to the cacophony in blogspace about the phenomenon called India, I thought this article raises a fairly controversial question for Americans and Europeans.

The fact that such a question is being asked says a lot of the nations growing clout. This this desicrtics article where I found the Informationweek article they are also asking questions about whether as a foreigner, would you study in Indian schools?

In fact I believe, that's where the movement will start first since universities have always been the first to collaborate. The situation is quite evident in the number of exchange students that turn up in the IIMs every year. When I graduated in 2002,we had hardly 30 exchange students coming. Now I believe, IIMB gets close to 120-130 students every year.

It's great to feel good about all this. Maybe all this will take us up in the Happiness Index from our present 33rd rank.

The dreaded question

2006-03-23T22:10:00.000+05:30

Finally the question got popped. After a media frenzy which focused on the top 5 salaries in all the IIMs, even a veteran (after all 4 yrs is a long while in this age) like me was not spared. Got asked this twice in as many days. How can I work in a position like this for this money when people are getting $193000?

Just to clarify:

1. Never could digest Finance
2. Graduated in the worst possible year possible when the market was in the dumps (after all,you need to blame something other than oneself)
3. Dont relish working 70-80 hr weeks
4. And incidentally, just happened to be part of the rest of the 'normal' folks in the IIMs

However, if anyone has a job to offer with as much money and 1/10th of the working hours (ok..40hrs it is), I am yours to employ... :)

People with the attitude

2006-03-21T23:28:00.000+05:30

The Nasscom report that came out recently predicts skill shortages. But I think, we are already facing that in our daily episodes and the report is a trifle late. After all, people are what makes businesses tick and if you dont have the right people, you are doomed.

If you ask any project manager in the IT industry, he/she will tell you that a large amount of their time (bandwidth the official word) is used up on managing resource attritions and thereby transitions. I believe therefore the cost of attrition is becoming higher with every passing day.

The reason is that it is just so difficult to find a 'good resource', the good not referring in any way to their technical skillsets but to the attitude that people carry. Today, I was discussing with a colleague about how a project manager can really chill out if he has a bunch of good guys in his/her team.

But sadly, that is not reality. In reality, the team composition is usually similar to a normal distribution, with 1 or 2 really excellent people, at least 1 really mediocre person and the rest of them just average. So, if you are unlucky, you may not get the 1 good guy also. Then, you can say goodbye to the work/life balance everyone is talking about nowadays.

That is why I admire so much the gamble that Reliance takes. Here they are willing to spend 100 crore rupees on assembling the best possible team for their retail venture. They have got their fundamentals right. Mukesh Ambani knows that if he chooses the right people, he will just have to sit back and enjoy like a satisfied shareholder.

The faster IT companies realize this and do everything to bring down the attrition rates from the 20s, the faster they can save themselves a lot of trouble.....

Celeb ads

2006-03-20T21:11:00.000+05:30

How do companies take advertising decisions? The latest in the saga is of King Khan endorsing Compaq laptops. I am not sure ad agencies or companies are getting it right. I cant think of too many brands that have been helped by the celeb endorsements and disappointing that my firm has joined the group.

Khan says 'In the 21st century, desktop PCs are not only a boon for professionals but also a useful aid in children's education. I have seen computing add tremendous value to me, both at work and at play - inside the home and on the move. I am a technology buff, my latest passion is playing games on my laptop, which is really addictive'. Man, isnt that such a powerful reason for endorsing....dude, just talk about the 7 crores you got...

But I think SRK is having the final laugh....
Full Story...

On that note, I think Aamir Khan has done a decent job. Not too many endorsements and the ones he has taken up, keeping with his image. I love especially the Toyota Innova one which I think was perfectly Aamir.

Speak Up, Barkha

2006-03-19T23:27:00.000+05:30

I always try to stay away from posts on religion given the complexity of the topic and the kind of passion it evokes in people in India irrespective of sex, class, creed, education or income levels. But I thought this column by Barkha Dutt of NDTV was very well written. She does touch a nerve here and it is great to know that Indians are starting to talk in the open about taboo topics.

Over the past few years, I personally have seen people's attitudes change especially the tolerance we Indians keep harping on. I haven't stayed in any place where there has been an 'in your face' depiction of religion. In fact, I still believe Kerala, where I come from, has probably the best mix of all 3 major religions in the country with minimal issues. But even there, I am seeing more strong opinions coming out about specific communities even from my well educated friends which is a little disappointing.

But I also understand this is not a simple issue with a simple answer and hence I will leave it at that.....

Minority Report, anyone?

2006-03-18T23:26:00.000+05:30

If we look into the Internet browsing habits of people and do a trend analysis, I think a lot of information on what the person is going through can be understood. Now that Google with its Desktop Search program can theoretically store zillions of data points regarding browsing habits of people, I am wondering if this has ramifications beyond the computer into the offline space of a person.

Imagine that Google (it could be anyone else actually) does an analysis of browsing habits of people and thereby is able to predict what a person will possibly do. Given that more and more people are becoming wired on a daily basis, this is quite possible. Of course, the prediction algorithm will probably take some time in coming. Maybe this could be the beginning of a 'Minority Report' kind of situation.

For example, an employer knowing that person X has been browsing job sites xx% more than a quarter ago can safely assume that X is considering moving. If X has been browsing on suicide sites, maybe some agency should do preventive detention and start counselling.

Scary, isnt it?
Maybe we should start doing this more often!!

Back again

2006-03-18T23:23:00.000+05:30

Will now try this again. Now with a connection at home, maybe I will last farther this time

A Hairy Session

2005-08-19T16:49:00.000+05:30

Last weekend, I had been to this swanky hair saloon in Velachery Chennai. Though I have seen a lot of these on TV and movies, I have personally never believed in shelling out huge amounts of money for cutting hair. Gimme the 15 rupee cut anyday.

Anyway so dad, my brother and I went for this joint cutting session. I noticed that there is a very neat menu card (not a shady paper stuck on the wall) with prices starting from Rs.60 for a haircut to something like Rs.600 for a hair spa session. Given the prices, the number of people waiting was quite large. People were also shelling out amounts like Rs.1600 for a session. (didnt know Chennai folk were so extravagant) I almost felt nostalgic for our friendly neighbourhood barber with a shady bench and people sitting and discussing politics like they were actually running the government back home in Kerala.

Now that I have been running all around, let me come to the actual reason for this post. So while studying the menu, I noticed that this was a chain of saloons run by Cavinkare, the company that is giving the headaches to the HLLs and the P&Gs in the south. On paper, at least, it looks like a smart move. By getting into the 'service' part of the cosmetics business, they are now starting to reach the elite public in India who are becoming more and more comfortable with the act of grooming. Also, if they play their cards well, they can actually change their image to that of a classy company. Let's see how this story develops...

Anyway, so while we were waiting, my father makes the comment that even hair cutting is becoming such a sophisticated business (no offence meant to the barber community). So they will now expand rapidly into 10 saloons. Then they will require a corporate office and setup a HQ setup. And then...............they will go recruit the MBAs from IIMB (my alma mater)!!! I couldnt argue with that logic however condescending it might sound, really because that is when the whole MBA thing comes in. This actually goes back to a post of mine where I mentioned that MBAs are being taught to think in such a structured manner that they become so risk-averse.

Cant wait for the day when XXXXXXXX Hair Cutting Saloon gets a Day 1 slot in campus!!

India Ahead

2005-08-11T14:21:00.000+05:30

It's been a week since I came back to Bangalore and started logging in. Already I can see the differences. There is so much chaos for everything - the roads, in the office everywhere. I am just wondering when do people live here. We end up spending so much time in just doing the daily things that we have no time for anything else. There is just work, career, loans, bills, petrol prices. I am sure this is quite similar in other societies too but I think we are really up there in terms of paranoia. Not that things dont work here but it is a world away from Europe.

Actually we are becoming very similar to the US society. I think Europe is so much more laid back. They at least consider enjoying their life seriously and spend valuable time on that. We on the other hand take our work and job as the number 1 priority. Of course, the fact is that Europe is probably the one region in the world which is in real danger of being overtaken by the 'Asia' powers.

The US for example, has been going through this consumer frenzy for quite some time now which in some sense is actually causing the 8-9% growths in the Asian economies. Because of this consumerism, the Americans are all neck-deep in credit and therefore they have to put in even more hours to just pay their credit card bills. I fear that, we in India, are going towards that direction. The only thing that is different is that we do not have a social security net from the Government protecting us. Hence if the IT market just tanks one day, I wonder how a lot of us will be able to maintain this lifestyle.

A difficult proposition, indeed. If we want to do better as a economy, we need to spend as consumers. If we spend, we are in debt. If we are in debt, we are not happy anymore. We have to work harder. But then we get the comforts of life by doing all of this. We get more choice as consumers. We can travel to the Alps or to Sydney for holidays. No wonder, governance is so tough!!!

Hiring Peaks

2005-08-10T18:59:00.000+05:30

This was a forward that came sometime back to me from a friend...supposedly a quote made by a HR executive.

"Every day for the last four months I have been hiring. I come to office each day, hassle my recruitment team, agencies and consultancies for resumes, perform interviews, negotiate salaries and make offers. It's amazing to see how people negotiate for salaries and perks, no one asks anything anymore about what the job entails, what they can contribute, or how they can grow and realize their dreams here. It's about pay, and people are eagerly willing to display unbridled stupidity in managing their careers by focusing incessantly on money. Heck, the time it takes
to finalize an offer nowadays, I could send out an offer letter, go have several children, watch them grow, put them through school and then head back to office, the candidate is likely to have finished negotiating his pay and ready to join. This is all fine and dandy; it's a hyper-inflationary job market.

What's disturbing is the not-so-new trend of IT jobs flying out of India. I hear an 850-seater call center has decided to move out of India due to attrition and increasing costs. Hell, my own company has pushed out 100 jobs out of India into Eastern Europe, and I was part of that decision. We need to wake up and smell the stink of the decay we are creating all around us in the IT job market. Year-on-year end people here expect nothing less than 30 to 45% salary increases, where as the average salary hike in the US per year is 3% and Eastern Europe is 4%.

I could go on and on about the quality of the flotsam and jetsam that washes on to my desk in response to job ads, but we all know it. Sometimes it takes as many as 40+ interviews to close one position. Sad part? The bozos still think they are worth it.

At this rate IT India better ensure they have transferable skills,
because in a couple of years from now they will not have jobs to feed their money-frenzied lifestyles.

Let's do justice to the lessons the dotcom tried to teach us, what goes up must come down."

I think this is very true. I cant think that this kind of 40% hikes can go on for ever. I guess I can buy property in Bangalore once the dreams come down!!

In Air

2005-08-09T20:46:00.000+05:30

At the end of it all, I finally made it to the homeland. My friends had appraised me about how consistently Air India usually screws up but even by that standards, a 48 hour journey for a 24 hr one was a stretch.

The part that worked perfectly was the Air France part from Munich to Paris. After that, it was at the mercy of Air India. They did not deem it important that the passengers should know when they would be taking their flight to India. After all, a 12 hr delay is only incidental.
The only good thing about the flight was the party atmosphere in the flight. Based on my prior Lufthansa flights where we had to sit stiff and be favored by the crew, this was a great one. Everybody talks to everyone else. The air hostess was fun refusing to give me a pillow because 'she was busy' (to quote her words). She says, I have no non-vegetarian but I can give you as much booze as you want. I found all of this so funny. Made me wonder...is this the face of the country?

At the end of it all, we knew most of the other people in the flight and had exchanged business cards. Call it 'networking in the air'.

But then the worst was to come. A long 10 hr wait in Mumbai with the rain gods not in the best of moods. While Mother Nature has her own ways of getting attention, Air India really came up short on making life easier for the passengers. We had no clue as to when the next flight out was. They said 1 am and finally we took off at 4 am the next morning.

There was this French couple along with me. I could actually sense the frustration that was building up in them. They werent sure if they will get their baggage and also as to what the gate was and at what time etc. The whole thing seemed a bit amateurish to me, the way, Air India handles this whole thing. I think we have a long way to go before we can be a good tourist location. I am just suprised that so many tourists are still coming to India even with the amount of complications that they have to go through. There are so many basic things that can be done right without even making major investments for example by just putting enough people to help out the foreign tourists and provide them with information (after all, people are not a scarce commodity here). We can do all the marketing but if we cant follow up this with the basics back here, we can never be a serious contender for the 'share of wallet' in the tourism industry.

India Package

2005-07-25T19:26:00.000+05:30

Since this is my last week in Germany, I am in the middle of a frenzied packing and closure of all accounts blah..blah..So I havent had time to really blog (not that I was very regular anyway) but I am telling myself that once I am back in India, I will be a better blogger. So there will be no more updates until probably Aug 10th or so.

2005-07-17T05:59:00.000+05:30

One of the pictures that was exhibited at one of the gardens in Paris. I thought the expression on the face of this girl was remarkable.

An act of Honesty

2005-07-15T13:59:00.000+05:30

I think the Germans are one of the most honest and straight forward people I have ever met. Couple of days ago, a colleagues wife had lost her purse in one of the shopping malls with nearly 200 euros in it. The fact was that there was no form of identification in it. The only paper was a video library card.

Believe it or not, this person who found the purse actually took the pain to go to the video store to obtain the address so that he could go and post it to them. For my friends luck, this person recognized them when they went by his store and finally managed to give back the purse to him.

I dont think there are very many chances of this happening in India. Even if we are honest, we just wouldnt take the pains of finding the owner. This country amazes me for its values. It's quite sad that they are not able to adapt to the new fluid environment in the world as much as they would have liked to.

Louvre Collage

2005-07-14T20:28:00.000+05:30

Louvre Collage
Originally uploaded by bibinsr.

Views from the Louvre.

Again an amazing museum. By no stretch of imagination am I a connoiseur of art. But Louvre manages to amaze you with the variety of paintings and scultptures. However, I did think that the Mona Lisa was one of the most hyped stories in the world. There were so many paintings which were probably more beautiful than the Mona Lisa and so it seemed strange that people only want to see the Mona Lisa. The room where the Mona Lisa was hung was so crowded while the rest of the museum had so less people. Quite a marketing success!!

Paris City Collage

2005-07-14T19:44:00.000+05:30

Paris City Collage
Originally uploaded by bibinsr.

As a last minute effort to remove an entry from my wishlist, I managed to make a weekend trip to Paris - one of the truly great cities of the world.

Definitely a city with 'character'.

When I came back from the trip, one of my friends asked me whether I liked Rome or Paris. To me, both of these were so very different and amazing in their own ways. Rome is all about history whereas Paris offers everything - history, style, class. Rome takes you to an era back. Being an ICSE student, I had to learn Julius Caesar during schooling and it left a deep impression on me (thanks to my english teacher). So when I saw the Roman Forum, I could sense the greatness of the city.

In Paris, you get the feeling that you are in one of the great cities of the world. The Eiffel Tower is again one of the places where you feel that this monument lives up to the reputation. The 3 days that I was over there went by so quickly. I would love to go back to Paris and spend a less hurried vacation and soak in the Parisian ambience.

Emergency ahead?

2005-07-04T19:42:00.000+05:30

Cho Ramaswamy is one of the most respected journalists today in the country. In this rediff interview, he says that it is the time for an emergency in India. In a country where we pride ourselves on being the beacon of democracy in the world, this may be a discordant voice. But sometimes, I think this is indeed true.

Yes, we have a vibrant democracy that is now pulling along nicely ahead based on economic principles. We guys however, I think, tend to become smug with our own little successes quickly thereby becoming complacent. At this point of time where we have got this great opportunity to become a great nation of the world, I think we are still being hampered by hidden agendas. Not that the chinese model is the best, but I think some kind of a shock treatment is required for the bureaucrats and the politicians.

Otherwise, there is no reason why a flyover at Airport Road in Bangalore should take close to 2 years now. A 'plan' to build an international airport should not take 7 years. These are the kind of things that are hampering us.

So maybe an emergency of sorts is the need of the hour now. I wouldnt take it as far to call for a dictatorial rule but some sort of a hybrid model is definitely required. That is the only way to ensure that we dont stay happy with a 6.5% growth rate when there are so many countries in the world which are growing faster than us including China.

I am sure there are a lot of good bureaucrats around in different positions who have been sidelined by petty politics of their superiors. A good corporate organization will have a system in place to utilize the best employees in the best possible manner. Likewise, I think there should be a way of bringing these good people to positions where they can be most effective. I know this is a utopian view, but maybe that is what an emergency rule can allow us to do.

Of course, the caveat is 'who will you trust the country with today amongst the political folks available?'

A Fight against Poverty

2005-07-03T06:57:00.000+05:30

Everytime I hear some major campaign against poverty, I tend to be very cynical about as it seems to be with every thing now a days. So when I hear about the Live8 concerts, I am kind of sceptical. The difference about this event is the scale of it. I have never seen a concerted action like this before. But will the momentum last or will the action started by a few righteous folks fall by the wayside after a few months.

Let us be realistic. Every natural disaster or crisis in the part of the world other than the developed nations have never got the level of attention it requires. There is always talk about it for a few months but then after a while, the world just moves on. We are just too self-centered to really bother about somebody dying in Mogadishu.

Like in the case of the Tsunami, $7 billion was pledged in aid. The regions havent seen more than 40% of it six months down the line. In fact, CNN regularly reports relief items stuck and perishing in warehouses just because of red tapism. That is ridiculous.

I do not think any such program can be a real success until the respective Governments are involved. Of course, it would be idealistic to think that suddenly one day, the governments would wake up and say hey we actually need to do some work. So I guess this is probably the best way forward.

However I salute those nameless folks who spend so much time on this without expecting to be on prime television. They are the true heroes.

Big Brother

2005-06-26T00:46:00.000+05:30

I do not know too many Indians who actually buy original DVDs. So I guess any news of the great companies bringing in new standards of DVD is always interesting. But this news that I saw in Wired about how a research is happening where the consumer is expected to add his/her fingerprint or iris scan as an RFID tag to the DVD while purchasing is the height of crazy use of technology.

I mean, if I need to play my DVD on my DVD player, I might have to put in my fingerprint.
I know this will probably never take off but the thought is scary. They keep talking about 'Big Brother' is watching. There will soon come a time when we cant move a muscle without someone in the world knowing or tracking it. These are the times when I wish we did not have to deal with so much technology. It would have made life more simple.

Northwards 2

2005-06-24T22:05:00.000+05:30

In continuation of my property post....

I am wondering if the property cycle in Bangalore is linked by some factor to the job cycle and which cycle comes first. Now the job market is doing really well and hence people are getting more and more money and therefore taking more loans. When the job market starts getting saturated, the property market will probably see the impact but after a lead time. It will take some time before we see the impact actually showing up on the number of loans disbursed and the number of flats taken up.

What to do in India

2005-06-24T22:01:00.000+05:30

Now that I am going back to India, I have started thinking like any true returning India (except that I havent been able to save the kind of money I would have wanted to...).

Things to Do:
1. Buy a house in Bangalore (Not rich enough - high entry barriers)
2. Buy a car (Petrol costs Rs.47 in Bangalore - high exit barriers)
3. Change my role in the company (Low cost but high exit barriers)
4. Go back to my Cafe Coffee Day/Barista days (quite possible)
5. Do some travelling in India (depends....)

So at the end of this useful work, it seems like the only thing realistically possible is to go drink coffee....!!

Even more northwards

2005-06-21T21:43:00.000+05:30

Not a single day goes by without some conversation about the property prices in Bangalore. Though Kaps has made a comment about the prices in Chennai, I think Bangalore is way ahead of Chennai in the hype.

Now that I have had a respectable run of around 4-5 years of 'corporate experience', I find that most of my peers are now talking more and more about the next level of activities in the cycle of life more so in India - marriage, buy a house, a car blah blah...

But the kind of prices that I hear scares the shit out of me. The basic number that I have been hearing is 35 lakhs min for a 3 Bedroom apartment. That is like a loooot of money and I know for a fact, that almost all apartments get signed up for even before the first stone is laid.

If this is not hype, I dont what is. Many of my friends who have invested in property in Bangalore over the past couple of years have seen close to 100% or even more appreciation which is great for them. To add to this huge hype are the stories of builders cheating naive software professionals.

All this gives me the jitters!! To me, all this is an indicator of an impending correction in the property market at least in Bangalore. I think it is just a matter of when and my gut tells me, it is going to be sooner rather than later.

Finally Tagged

2005-06-17T18:04:00.000+05:30

Finally Kaps passed the book tag to me. To tell the truth, I am not a fan of these chain mails. Everytime I see something like this, I usually do not respond to it. It is almost a matter of principle for me that I should not fall under the pressure of spamming more people. Hence I am not going to pass this on.

But I am very bored today. Hence, here goes:

Number of books that I own: 100-200

Last few books that I bought

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
A House for Mr.Biswas by VS Naipaul

Last book that I was gifted
Well almost never looks like...I cant remember when the last time I got a book as a gift.

Last few Books that I read

In addition to the ones I bought recently, I have bought and read:

The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman
O Jerusalem by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins
Toxic by Robin Cook

Currently Reading

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Five Books that mean a lot to me

The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt - I think it is one of the best books ever that explain a concept in the simplest manner possible

Midnights Children by Salman Rushdie - If I was asked to choose one author, I would pick Rusdie. I have never read a work from a more intelligent author.

Atlas Shrugged/The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand - Really excellent. I have always admired the thought process behind these books

Den of Thieves by James B. Stewart - One of the books that was recommended during my B-school days when I still believed that I had it in me to do a finance job. Nevertheless, the book is a fascinating view of the Investment Banking world

Books I mean to read

The Moors Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
White Mughals by William Dalrymple

EMail - Less or More

2005-06-15T18:09:00.000+05:30

So my mailbox wasnt working for the last couple of days and man it was a tough day. It seemed to me almost that there was no purpose in me being in office. What it says is that the only work that I do is to read and reply to emails. Which brings back to the question asked so many times 'Is Email really productive or counter productive?'

I dont know why the image I get in my mind was of a small island of about 20 sq. m with one single tree right in the middle of a deserted river bank and I am just standing there wondering what to do. If I had any sort of talent in drawing, I might have tried that. Well that was a bit too far..:)

That's what email does to people, I guess. I just am too plugged!!

Reality Catches Up

2005-06-07T20:12:00.000+05:30

Now that the aura of Spain has died out, there is now a lot of action happening. The action of uncertainty. I have heard a lot of people talk about they being asked to go back to India due to some cost cutting measure decision taken somewhere else. So it looks like me is going to be the next casualty.

Not that I have too much of a problem working from India, it's just that the effort of relocation is quite something. So now I have started creating checklists for the travel back home. Of course, in Germany, it is doubly more complicated with the language barrier.

Now that I dont even have a home in Bangalore to go back to, I guess it is also going to be a start from scratch for me. I am hoping to make this a good opportunity to evaluate my options. But the most that I want to do for the first 3 months is to chill out.

I guess this is something that will keep coming up. Life takes a turn in the least expected manner at the least expected time. But I guess our greatest strength is to adapt ourselves to the changes thrown at us. However, what I do find amusing is the way different people react to this relocation exercise.

Around me, I can see people who are trying to come to terms with having to live in India after long stints in Germany. I have always been of the attitude...'if I have to go, I go back...what's the big deal?' I guess this is the closest I have come to being laid off. :) It might be worse for these folks who have been here longer. Thankfully I have not been here so long to have a feeling of losing out on something.

Anyway all this has led to 'me' being the only thing of interest in my life now. :) I am not even able to spend enough time to read all the blogs or sites that I like.

2005-06-05T05:05:00.000+05:30

Madrid - Bullfight ring view. Seems to me a sadistic pastime where an animal is being challenged by so many men prompted by 10000 or more people