Lord of the Flies

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

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?

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

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

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

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......

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

A Hairy Session

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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 

Barcelona - A city where you find everything - beaches, history, entertainment. A beautiful city 

Toledo - A small but beautiful town on the outskirts of Madrid where the famous Don Quixote was supposed to have lived with its beautiful old streets 

Views from Spain 

A Time to Spain

I know I have not been doing this regularly enough. It's just that Inspiration is becoming a little hard to see in the mist out here.

But also, I am now travelling to Spain for the next 4 days. Hopefully this will be a good trip. I get to see something that I never would have really put on my things to do list - watch a bullfight.
(I dont know why, the only image that comes to my mind was this report on Sun TV I saw a long time ago about this competition of taming the bull somewhere in Madurai)

So am hoping to be back on Monday. Will put a post on the trip.:)

To leave or not to leave

As the Indian IT job market is booming, I can see more and more folks are relocating back to India from all of the developed countries. People who have lived for extensive periods of time abroad make this momentous decision to go back. As we bid farewell to one of our colleagues who was going back after 5 years in Germany, I started thinking about the nature of this decision

While living abroad, you tend to take for granted some conveniences and mode of operations. That train is expected to come in at 8.21 and it will. You go and dump the garbage in the right place (after separating out paper, bottles and other waste in 3 categories) [Sidenote: this is actually done in Germany. I cant think of any other group of people who will have the patience to do that]. You almost never honk your car horn. You give the pedestrians the right of way. You do not cross the road until the pedestrian light turns green. You almost never go to visit families without giving advance notice. The word 'please' is the one which is used the most.

I could go on.....

I wonder how much time it would take for people who go back to India to get used to the way of life there. I am sure the kids will be the first to adapt back to the Indian style of doing things. However, for the grown ups, it is probably a struggle at least for the initial months. People react in different ways to this. As I am seeing in the posts of at least one of the bloggers who seems to be struggling to come to terms with India while on his holiday from the US. (At least in this case, I sometimes feel, the guy either takes himself too seriously or he just doesnt get it)

So then why do people make the move back? I guess social networks would be the primary reason. I am sure that the situation of us vs them I mentioned in my previous post is true (albeit to a lesser extent) even in the US. You finally want to be be amongst your own class of people where you are most comfortable. There comes a stage in the family lifecycle when you need to provide the 'roots' to your kin. I guess that is the time when people really start contemplating a move back. Of course, with the number of opportunities that are now being seen in India, I guess the decision has become a little easier.

Bhai Bhai

Throughout my childhood, I have always heard and imbibed the feeling that 'Pakistan' was the enemy country who wouldnt hesitate to harm our nation at the drop of a hat. Of course, the multiple wars and the hype surrounding Indo-Pak cricket matches alongwith Kashmir and Kargil did not help either.

However, in a world so far away from our own, here in Europe, Pakistan and India go together. If we see a person who may be looking like a desi, the probability is almost 50% that rather than an Indian, he could be a Pakistani too. While I have always felt offended in a strange sort of way to be called a Pakistani, I now realise that for the local people here, there is nothing to differentiate between these 2 countries.

Yesterday, I am waiting at one of the bus stops. This guy comes along with another guy (my first impression is that he is a Turkish guy) and asks me 'aap hindustani ho?' Then he tells the other person...'maine bola na ki ye hindustani hai. Hum sab ek hi hai. Main Afghani, ye Nepali aur aap Hindustani'....I was like..'wow, never have I thought in such a manner'.

I guess in the European world, we would all be classified under 'brown skinned Asians' (if I want to take a racist overtone). In fact I am realizing that not just the South Asians (Pakis, Indians, Sri Lankans, Nepalis) it is also the Middle East folks (Iraqis, Turks etc) who are in some way clubbed together. There seems to be an almost unspoken word of solidarity. Of course the feeling is much stronger between Pakistanis and the other Muslim communities.

To me, it is interesting to note this 'we' vs 'them' undertones..(the 'them' being the whites). But the fact is that these are all unspoken. We can sense them in many places, the fact that we are not 'them'.

So that brings me to the question, if we are so closely linked to the Pakis in the rest of the world, is there any point in the quite explicit hate campaign that happens (or rather used to happen) in India or Pakistan against each other?

The marvels of nature!! I took this shot from my balcony. A beautiful rainbow 

More of the East Meets West

As part of my series of discovering India in a foreign shore, I went to this Prem Joshua concert in Munich. Prem Joshua is quite known in the fusion music scene in India but may not be very mainstream. His music would fall in the genre of Trance/World Music. I love his kind of music and therefore jumped at the opportunity to go listen to him.

The guy is quite talented. He was playing all sorts of instruments - flute, santoor, sax...It's always great to hear his kind of music.
So in this concert, I found that there was quite some interest amongst the Germans. The place was almost packed. But I am not sure if I should find it strange that I was probably the only Indian in the crowd. For the locals, it was more of a different way to spend a Friday with quite a number of people wearing Indian dresses to suit the Indian theme evening.

I wonder why no Indians really go for such events. Maybe because trance is not so big in India where we have so much other music to choose from. There was also this girl (cant be more than 16 or 17) who was dancing to Prem's music for some of the songs somewhat in a traditional Indian dance form. To me, it was clear that there was nothing great about her dancing style as I have seen much more graceful dancers in India. But of course for the locals, it was just good fun.

But then, the thing that struck me was using this as a marketing tool. If the Indian Tourism Department could conduct shows like this in some important cities and generate interest amongst the foreign community to try out India, it would be worth it. This show was organized by some small private organization and also probably because of the singer's German background. Some targetted marketing would, I am sure, reap rich dividends. The kind of clientele that come for these shows are not the college going kids who do not have money to blow on a trip to India. It is the working couples (30 or 40 somethings) who are richer and therefore probably are the best bet to think of a trip to India who come to these kind of shows.

Maybe I should go to work for the Government for sometime. It would be something different to do and who knows, I may be actually able to add value. :) But let's be realistic. I will probably be disillusioned faster than I can say 'Government' & of course the money is not good enough.....
(On a side note, I wonder if anyone would have thought like this about 20 years ago. I know working for the Govt. was such a prestigious thing to do sometime back....& now I say i should try it because I am bored of the corporate brigade...quite ironical..)

Chemistry

I havent blogged for a week now. I guess sometimes you need to earn your living and work. But it was more of having nothing to really say.

Anyway, I saw this movie 'Before Sunrise' which came out in 1995. The sequel 'Before Sunset' has just come out last month. This is about an American guy and a French girl who meet on a train in Europe. The guy is returning to the US the next day morning and he requests her to accompany him in Vienna for his last night in Europe. In the end, they promise to meet at the same platform after six months without exchanging numbers or addresses.

The thing about this movie was the chemistry between the actors. In some sense, this movie is almost like a documentary with most of the movie being dialogues between these 2 and almost no other characters. But the screenplay is so good that you can sense the romance growing as the night goes along.

I think creating such chemistry on screen is so difficult. I think it is becoming rare to see such sensitive movies be it Indian or Hollywood. They used to say that about Amitabh & Rekha.

Most movies today are a reflection of the society as it is today - fast, no time for anything. Even romance has become a fast moving one. The Karan Johar genre of movies reflects what I believe the situation in todays society...(as they say in Kal Ho Na Ho...che dhin mein ladki in....) It's finally SRK's charisma which wins. :)

The beauty of this movie lies in the leisured manner in which these 2 characters get to know each other. They touch upon so many different topics that it is so very believable.

I am now looking forward to see 'Before Sunset' (they are now meeting after 9 years)!! and another thing to my 43 things list - visit Vienna...

Rulers of the world

Ever wondered who decided things in the world? Is it President Bush given his status as head of the world's only superpower? Wrong!!

It is actually 'The Bilderberg Group' that rules the world. The first time I heard about this on CNN, I was amused. This group, I believe has been in existence for the last 50 or more years and they have been meeting every year. Membership to this group is only by 'invitation'. The 120 odd members who meet every year are usually the most powerful people from the US and Europe and has included Alan Greenspan, Henry Kissinger, Pres. Bush, Pres. Clinton, Tony Blair, Melinda Gates . They meet once a year and no one really knows when and where the meetings happen every year. The meeting is 'secured' tightly and no official response is ever made out.

There is already a Wiki entry for this group. This year, the conference is expected to happen in Munich this weekend. But then no one really knows.

It is interesting that such a powerful group of people are part of an organization like this and yet this has been kept down with such a low profile. That says a lot of the clout of the organization. I wouldnt be surprised if a lot of the important decisions impacting the world had their genesis here. By the way, no Asians or Africans allowed. It's only for the Western world.

Some interesting links about the Group are in this page:

Almost sounds like the 'Da Vinci Code' and its secret society...:-)

Energy

Every time we have been in school or college or in the office, we meet with so many different people. Once in a while, we feel that this person is really good. I have personally felt that about many a person, this person will probably go a long way. I have felt that about a few of my batchmates in IIM Bangalore.

So what are the symptoms of such a person? Is it intelligence? Is it self-confidence? I think it is a combination. Earlier I had this empirical formula:

Intelligence x Hard Work x Luck ~ Success

I had always believed if you are not as intelligent, a lot of hard work and some luck should see you through. But now I feel there is a 4th factor which is probably the most important actually. I call that 'Energy'. I am noticing more and more that it is very clearly people who show a lot of 'energy' in whatever thay are doing that finally end up being the 'success' other people aspire to. These people are usually the center of the conversation in most of the sessions and it is not because of their official position. They would rather do something wrong rather than do nothing at all. Also, they tend to transfer part of the energy to the people around them and galvanize them too.

I started off this post as I was watching a concert that was being shown on TV. To me, that was Energy personified. These rockstars really epitomise energy. It must be really something to galvanize thousands of people to a frenzy.

Well, let me wait a few years to see if my impressions of the folks in my batch were true!!

Doors of Wisdom

There are times when you want to kick yourself for doing stupid things. Yesterday was one of those days.

Here I was in a great Sunday leisurely mood going out into the night for taking a walk. I step out of the apartment and then I realize 'I hadnt taken the key'. For sure, I had been extra careful not to leave the balcony door open. Sunday 10pm. In a country where not a single store opens on Sundays, cant speak a word of the language and didnt even know my neighbours really...why wouldnt I want to kick myself?

So I go and wake up the Housekeeper who doesnt speak a word of English(still dont know what she thought of me...). She was a sweet enough lady that she woke up her husband to come and help me out. So we try our door for about 15 min with no luck. Finally my neighbour comes out (thankfully, he speaks English) and he says, why dont you go and sleep at a friend's place and arranges for a locksmith to come at 8 am the next day (Bless him). He also adds 'If you dont find your friend in or something, dont sleep on the streets. Give me a call'. What an exciting thought!

Thankfully my friend was in. It turned out it was not a good night to visit him as he was awake most of the night with a production support issue (didnt know people actually did work at crazy hours like this..well that's a different post altogether).

So finally I come back home at 8 the next day...the locksmith comes in...and he doesnt take more than 4 sec to open the door...that must be the fastest anyone earned 70 euros ever. I felt so foolish....maybe I should have tried fiddling with the door for some more time...maybe I shouldnt have been so stupid enough to put all my keys inside. I dont normally convert to rupees...but this one warranted that...what a way to burn 4000 Rs/-.

So some lessons for people going to a foreign unknown city:
1. Never keep all copies of your keys inside
2. Know thy neighbour
3. Speak the language
4. Always have a backup (a friend's place to crash) :)

3 years and running

Was about 3 years ago that I graduated as a pompous corporate citizen from the hallowed halls of one of the 'premier' B-schools in the country. Like the rest of my 180 batchmates, we were told that we are this great bunch of people who will create a difference wherever we are. To use an expression from a professor when he was ridiculing our resume writing capability, we were 'god's gift to mankind'. (..that sounds so hollow)

Coming May, it would be 3 years of post-MBA experience. So today morning I come in, one of my batchmates puts this question to the group 'what has changed in these 3 years?'. While that question led to a volley of emails mostly making a mockery of the whole corporate setup, I think the question is quite relevant.

I am part of the cynics category who believes that in most cases, people hate their work (or if not hate, are just plain indifferent). They dont probably even like what they are doing. It is only the lucky few and the brave ones who get to work on something they love. The rest of us are all people looking for the comfort of 'security' rather than the satisfaction of doing something interesting.

So did the 'premier' education change anything in any of us? For sure, it did. My view of the world pre-2000 is different from now. In fact, I think rather than prompting me to do something different, it just made me so risk-averse, that I have become so comfortable in this life. The education did provide me with an ability to think in a structured manner which kind of also subdued the most important ability required - to listen to your gut instinct. So I know I will probably do well and probably lead a comfortable enough life but that is about it.

One of my very good friends, made a quote which I am reproducing without his permission:
"Life is a game of snakes and ladders'...
if ur lucky u get the ladder..
else you take the normal route one step at a time..
if ur f****d u get the snake..."
I thought it was pretty good....I am not sure if it was original. Sorry, dude..:)

I am sure there will be people who think that you need to create your own ladders. But sometimes this obsession with creating the ladder and climbing to the top kind of takes away from the 'living' part because you tend to black out the more important things in life - relationships, pursuing interests, maintaining friendships etc. I could think of so many things. There is no wonder that so many people are compiling the 43 things list as mentioned by Kiruba in his post.

Visit India?

Since the time I have come to Europe, I have remarked many times to my colleagues here that India has so much more to offer as a tourist location than probably whole of Europe. However the fact is that Europe is so tourist friendly that they get so many tourists visiting them. I think that is true for Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore.

Supposedly, the 'Incredible India' campaign is creating a few stirs. To me, it is only one of the campaigns amongst Thailand's - the heart of Asia, Malaysia - Truly Asia which are all really good campaigns. TV spots are all good but that is not enough.

In addition to the spots on TV, it is important that the government works offline with the people who matter to get more attention to India. More important than that is to ensure that the problems back home are sorted out. Today, it is a struggle for any tourist in India starting from the 3 hr queues at the Customs (I also have had to stand in these queues and I was thinking at the time what first impression will this make on these tourists?) to taxi-drivers and guides trying to screw them over.

Well, at least there seems to be finally some effort to managing these.
This report talks about how Renuka Chowdhary, the Minister for Tourism is actually driving a campaign for this amongst the people who are Customer-facing.

I must confess, when Renuka was made the Minister for Tourism, I thought, 'What? will a woman who has been this glib spokesperson for Congress really do something worthwhile?' I must say, I am pleased that Tourism is not being thrown to the backburner like every other government does and there is some serious thought given to what we need to do. Renuka, I think, is doing a better job than any other previous minister.

I just hope we manage to maintain the momentum. There is such huge potential in this industry and can really make the lives of so many people in India.

Bollywood calling

Never would I have imagined that Bollywood would be interesting to a country like Germany where their own language is so dominant in every form of communication and are almost perceivably xenophobic. In fact it has become so popular that there is at least one Bollywood movie every month on some of the German channels.

Friday, when I was going home from office in the bus, the driver asks a friend and me "Have you seen 'Sometimes Sad, Sometimes happy'?". We then realized he was refering to Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. He went on for the rest of the 10 min ride about the movie and how he loved it. Kal Ho Na Ho(Indian Love Story) too was a big success. All the major shops have these DVDs. Based on the success of these 2 movies, a whole bunch of Indian movie DVDs are getting onto the mainstream shopping lines.

I was wondering why these movies are catching the interest of people in Germany. Asked a few people. An interesting comment that I got is the idea that India has managed to hold on to its culture (based on the movies) in the face of globalization [Sidenote: Dont know how much these 2 movies are really about Indian culture].

In fact, I think Germany is going through a difficult time of trying to hold on to their culture but losing out slowly to the American corporate invasion. Given their dilemma at this, they are appreciative of the strength of the Indian culture and tradition.

I just hope that is the case. I think it is just a matter of few years when we will be going through this conflict in India and our generation is the one which will have to really struggle especially when the next generation comes along. It is really important we are clear about our bearing or else in a few years, we will be in the same boat.

Courting India

Yesterday I was at my video library talking to this friendly German owner there. He was remarking how he feels that the Indians in Germany at least seem to be much more confident over the last couple of years. He thought that most of us were this shy, reserved characters and that now things seem to be changing. Well, I unabashedly took that to be a compliment to myself as to how cool I am....

I would think to a large extent, it is true. At least people like me who are in that part of the social pyramid where good things are happening, have had a large personal boost of confidence not just because of the education but also the general confidence levels in the country and the image of the country in the world.

Anyway, he also made this comment that more than China, India would probably be the one to watch in the next few years. Well, I didnt respond at the time. To me, it has always been 'Great! we are on the right path. But are we doing enough?'.

But on the other hand, it really makes me feel proud that we are slowly in the radar of the most of the world as one of the nations to be reckoned with not just a push-over. So when I read this post on
Business Week about how the two aircraft manufacturers are sweetening up to the Indian airline industry, it feels good. And of course, we just had the Chinese warming up to us.

But I think in all, this is a good time for our politicians and bureaucrats to play their card well and negotiate to our advantage. I think Japan, China all grew to what they are today based on some smart negotiation with the US and Europe. Japan had a trade surplus with the US for a long time before the US realized what was happening. With China, it is the same now. Sometimes, I think we dont negotiate hard enough. We always try to be the 'good' guys and be fair and thereby lose out.

In a Sitcom

Have you ever felt that you are part of a comedy sitcom as you sit through some of the meetings in office? I think far from being a drab boring place, the office can be really a funny place sometimes especially when virtual meetings happen.

Me was part of this meeting where about 90 people were joining from all over the world. As it always happens, if not planned well, can quickly turn into a chaotic situation. So anyway, here I was, sitting and listening to people offering suggestions about how to run the meeting so much so that the only thing we could hear being said was 'I cant see the screen' or 'How do I connect?' all after 15 min of the meeting starting...

Then of course, you have the heavy breathing sounds on the phone and the poor presenter trying to maintain some semblance of sanity and asking people to go on mute. I had just watched the original 'Office' series from BBC a few weeks back. I could really get where Ricky Gervais got his inspiration from.

For me, this was the most hilarious meeting I have ever been in. It was so funny that I felt I had to make a post about this.

Flea Markets

Had been to a 'Flea Market' in town today (similar to a Garage Sale in the US). Quite an amusing concept where people sell anything that they dont want to keep at home. But the array of products is just amazing with anything from TVs to clothing getting sold.

I am not sure we have anything of this sort in India. Also will it work? On one hand Baazee (now eBay India) has become so popular selling both new and used products on the web. But Baazee does not require the person to be acting as shopkeeper in person.

On the other hand here, people actually sit the whole day with their 'wares' on display. I am not sure if people will actually do that in India. To some extent, I think the 'dignity of labour' will itself prevent us from doing this exercise. Probably the household help would be enlisted for doing this sale or something.

Changing Quarters

Two corporate earnings reports caught my attention over the last couple of days. Apple reported that their revenues were 70% up Y-o-Y. Infosys reported that their revenues were up 50% Y-o-Y. By any standards, both outstanding results.

Yet Apple shares lost close to 9% value, Infy close to 5%. As a result, both Wall Street and Dalal Street took a beating. The reason:both of these companies gave conservative guidances for the next quarter. It almost seems shareholder expectations are reaching ridiculous levels. Corporates just have no breathing space with every 90 days bringing an hour of reckoning. The 'American' way is so all pervasive now that no public firm can escape this scrutiny.

I guess all of this pressure will finally translate to the employees working in all of these firms. Already I can see most of the tech firms still trying to find innovative ways of cost cutting so that they can still hold on to their margins. Of course, many of these are directly linked to employee benefits.

The question is where will this stop? I guess companies will need to find a balance amongst employee well-being, looking after shareholder interests, finding new growth engines & a whole bunch of other objectives.

Catch 22

I think this is probably one of the cleverest books/movies ever. The pure simplicity of Catch 22 and the way it looks at war satirically is really one of a kind. I thought there were some really cool quotes in the book which I thought I will put here:

"...Let somebody else get killed."
"But suppose everybody on our side felt that way."
"Then I'd certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way. Wouldn't I?"

"'They're trying to kill me,' Yossarian told him calmly.
'No one's trying to kill you.' Clevinger cried.
'Then why are they shooting at me?' Yossarian asked. 'They're shooting at everyone,' Clevinger answered. 'They're trying to kill everyone.'
'And what difference does that make?'"

"How much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of creation? When you consider the opportunity and power He had to really do a job, and then look at the stupid, ugly little mess He made of it instead, His sheer incompetence is almost staggering."

"'They didn't have to show us Catch-22', the old woman answered. 'The law says they don't have to'
'What law says they don't have to?'
'Catch-22'."

I think the book became the icon that it was just because of the sheer simplicity of the concept and definitely one of the funniest. I guess we could really have these Catch 22 type of situations for every aspect of our life. I am sure people can think up loads of Catch 22 situations in their lives.

For now, whenever I crib about work, invariably somebody will make the comment
'ya, everybody hates work. You are not the only one'...so I guess i should go on 'what difference does it make?' in Yossarian speak

Development at a cost

Yesterday was talking to my sister who has just gone to Kerala to my home town travelling from Mumbai. Supposedly nothing much has changed over there. Karunakaran and Muralidharan are still making a joke of governance over there. The communists are still a major force.

Over the past few years, my visits back to home have reduced so much. But every time, I start to think, when will these guys realize so much more is happening outside? I mean everything remains almost exactly the same everytime I go back.

Anyway, (putting down my nostalgia cap) my sis was saying that she likes it that way that nothing much really happens. The reason "Bombay is cool..lots of things happening always...but when I come home, I want to savour the true 'Keralaness' of the place..and dont want to see another Mumbai with the same sort of restaurants, malls and the like"

Maybe that is what places like Kerala should capitalize on. Develop keeping in mind the true 'character' of the place unlike in places like Bangalore where there is no longer a real 'character'. I think Europe does that quite well. Most of Europe (at least based on the places I have been to) is a tourist haven but things have been done up well enough to maintain and retain what is truly characteristic of the place.
In this article in Indian Express the author, a Pakistani, recounts how it was different in Kochi than in Bangalore.

Germany and Jobs

For the past few months, news from Germany hasnt been good with unemployment figures touching a record high 12% last month. In a country where labour unions hold a lot of clout, a concept such as wage auctioning on the web is bound to rub people the wrong side.

But to me, it shows how the situation is really going from bad to worse. Already, the government has reduced unemployment benefits which has kind of pissed off a lot of people. (Imagine earlier, you could actually refuse jobs that the government offered and continue to live on welfare money). Obviously things had to change. So now the country is on the road to a long and painful process of change.

This has raised concerns amongst the expat community whether the locals would become more antagonistic in the future. To be fair, Munich has definitely not given that impression to me. Maybe it isnt the case in other parts of Germany. Probably something to keep in the back of the mind.

Friendly Neighbours

In the recent past, there have been quite a number of good will gestures that are happening between the neighbours, India, China and Pakistan. I think, in some sense, we are probably moving to a more practical mode.

It's an interesting thing about China. I think there is no other country in the world that really stands up to the US & the EU. Now we have all of these textile imports talks happening where the US and the EU are contemplating putting quotas on the amount of imports from China (expected to have more than 30% of the world market). I think it is a good time for India to leverage this opportunity.

Of course, we never planned for the Jan 1st dismantling of quotas and hence we are not able to capture market share like the Chinese. But in any case, it is a good time to work with the Chinese and try to make up for lost time. I think, we in India, tend to become self-satisfied pretty quickly with our small wins. We do have some of the largest producers of denims etc in the world yet we do not have as large a presence as China has in the textile world market. Yet we are so smug about it but not doing enough.

This article from IHT speaks of a new era in the Indo-Chinese relationships. In fact they go a step further to call it the rising dominance of Asia in the world. Makes good press, but I just hope we act quickly on it.

In fact the thing I really think is true is the speed of action in India. Even though things have changed a lot, there needs to be a much faster response to the changing market scenario. With the state of coalition politics as it is now, it is very difficult with the number of internal agendas floating around. But I think there is a lot of optimism in general about the country which is great.

We need to take some cues from the Chinese for sure!!

Joining the Times brigade

I have been observing from the sidelines the increasing number of critics for the Times of India and the amusing 'Slimes of India' name. But I used to have a little more respect for the Eco Times which at least until last year, I used to be a faithful reader. I guess the Times Group have tampered with ET also so much.

This report is a perfect example of how these guys will write anything to get people to click on them. Other than the first sentence, there is not a single statement in the report which has any sort of relevance to the title of the report.

If it were not for the real lousy interface of The Hindu, I would have been happily reading it.

Why cant we get a better alternative to the Slimes?

Statistically speaking

Of course, the Pope's death is a quite a common discussion topic at the coffee rooms. After all, CNN did manage to cover it 24x7. Have a look at this post by Nilu where he rants about the TV network. Strong words!

I forget why I started off this post.
ah...So I started wondering how many people in the world look up to the Catholic Church. I ended up at the CIA factbook and found these numbers:

Christians 32.71% (of which Roman Catholics 17.28%, Protestants 5.61%, Orthodox 3.49%, Anglicans 1.31%), Muslims 19.67%, Hindus 13.28%, Buddhists 5.84%, Sikhs 0.38%, Jews 0.23%, other religions 13.05%, non-religious 12.43%, atheists 2.41% (2002 est.)

Even if you consider just Catholics, it is nearly about 17% of the world. The Pope really IS a powerful position!!!

Passing Away of a Figurehead

As the news of the passing away of the Pope came out, the reactions have been profound and varied. To me, that shows the power of the Catholic Church and the significance it holds for millions of people in the world. I dont think there is another more powerful figurehead who can unite people from all around the world.

I have always felt that the Church is probably one of the truly global organizations in the world (not in any negative sense). In Kerala, where I come from, there are a large number of Christians. The Church plays an important role in their lives like for the millions of Christians around the world. But I am amazed at how a message from the Vatican percolates to even the small churches in the countrysides in Kerala such as a call for donations to a world cause.

If you compare the Church to a corporate organization, it shows how 'systems' and 'processes' are important in managing a global organization. I dont mean any of this in a condescending manner, but I think there are corporate lessons to be learnt in understanding how this system works.