Whatever...

Should I pop a Tablet?

2012-01-26T20:30:00.000+05:30

I have been ogling at tablet PCs for quite some time. Though iPad always seemed out of reach, the launch of Samsung Tab looked like the arrival of a affordable option. But my experience with touch-screen android phones was not very good (details in further post). So I kept weighing my options of owning a tablet - should it be the only computing device I have, should I sell of the laptop and buy a tablet, what would be the best combination? And I never came to a clear conclusion. Something always pushed me away from a tablet.
A few weeks ago in a casual conversation with a uncle, the answer emerged. A tablet computer was a consumer device. It gives a brilliant content consumption experience. Watching movies, reading blogs posts, playing games is awesome. But when it comes to creation, its a pain in the ass. My uncle owns a iPad2, supposedly the best tablet device of our time. But even he complained that a task as simple as responding to an email was laborious as compared to a laptop. Writing a blog post is far off the question. And this is exactly what pushed me away from a tablet.
If I can own a net-book for a fraction of a price, while having the capability to create as well as consume, why would I opt for a tablet? I totally agree that the consumer experience is to die for, but at what price? I hope someday I have enough disposable income (or friends with enough disposable income) to spend such an amount on a lifestyle product purely for content consumption. Till then the click of the keyboard is my favourite music!

Maternal Grandparents

2012-01-26T04:07:00.000+05:30

As I write this post, at 4 in the morning, my father in law is desperately trying to put our 3 month old daughter to sleep. He is the only other man in her life right now; other than me of course. Sometimes, she is more comfortable with him than with me. Similarly, she is comfortable with my mother in law. This got me thinking about my childhood. How was it with me? My maternal grandfather wasn't alive when I was born, so I don't have any memories of him. But I definitely remember my mother's mother. Then I realised that especially in India, most people have more attachment towards their maternal grandparents than the other set of grandparents. This is mostly true in case of nuclear families where grandparents are not staying with you.
In my opinion this has it's roots in the tradition where an Indian lady stays with her parents during the delivery. Not only does the child hear the mother's parents while in the womb, but is handled by them right after birth. Most of the time the maternal grandparents even accompany their daughter to her home to help her get accustomed. Those sleepless nights, those oil massages, the bathing sessions and all the play and laughter creates a life long bond between the maternal grandparents and the child. The father's parents can trump this only in a joint family by being with you for the rest of your life.

Being a father - I

2012-01-12T23:41:00.001+05:30

Yesterday I completed 3 months as a father and I decided to write on this right away. For those of you who haven't had a child, let me try to put it how it is. It's like having a new person enter your life, without any personality or baggage. You don't know the personality that will enter your life, you are going to make that person who s/he is. So obviously, it is different from marriage. Is it a responsibility? Hell yes! But then so is zipping your pants. Why did I wait three months? It took me that long to figure out what was happening. So here goes...
I always wanted a daughter. Everyone guessed from Shveta's looks, eating habits and what not that we would have a baby boy. But I deeply wanted a girl. Because I think girls are more balanced. Besides, a girl can do what a guy cannot but the vice a versa is not. Also, I wanted to bring up our daughter in a manner that would be unique with lots of freedom and adventure packed into her life. With a boy that would be given.
So, on 11th October 2011 [11/10/11], God heard me and blessed us with a beautiful girl child. I have been always been unsure when it comes to holding infants. Give me a year old kid and I will be her favourite uncle in under 15 minutes. But an infant with a wobbling head is a nightmare. I always ran away from holding any of my nieces or nephews. But when this 3.25 Kg bundle arrived, I was sure of myself. I knew I would hold her and hold her securely. She just felt right in my arms. She was too ...too...how do I put it....too young to recognize me. We had hardly spent any time together! So on the day she was born, there wan no feeling of something spectacular happening. It all went normal and went home and slept well.
The person who felt the real pains of our daughter's birth was Shveta. She is one woman of steel. And not just her. Let me put it in black and white here - men know shit about pain. Going through a labour without passing off is the worst form of pain one can have. Period.
The feeling started slowly sinking in day by day. More on that coming up. :-)

'Chrome'atic life

2011-12-31T15:07:00.000+05:30

I personally own a laptop and a desktop. The desktop is a windows machine and the laptop is a Ubuntu machine. A tried to keep the desktop as closely rooted to Microsoft as possible while the laptop is everything that is free in this world. But thanks to Shveta's increasing inclination and familiarity to Google Chrome (the browser thingy), this browser found it's way to both the machines.
Let me admit it at the onset, that it is one hack of an application. Kickass is the word! It can most efficiently take care of all your entertainment, information and communication needs. YOU DON'T NEED NO OTHER THING. Period.
But as the usage increased over time, I found my desktop getting slower. It took a lot of time to open applications other than Chrome. A coffee time conversation with friends, little Googling (ironic!) and some deep diving revealed that the culprit was Chrome itself. The browser is very much hungry - both for processor and memory. Hence, the desktop lost it's chrome as it had more ulterior tasks to do - like Photoshop, NFS etc. :-)
The laptop however retains it's chrome, an old version I gather - some 9.x me thinks. While, I type this post from my mother's laptop (a Windows 7 machine that is light years ahead of my laptop in hardware sizing), I realize it has a more recent version of Chrome - some 16.x. And it has something they call Chrome Web store. This store has hordes of things. Little web applications in various categories like education, games, shopping, entertainment etc. I tried my hand at a couple of things and I immediately realised what this is - a computer on a computer. All those things that you earlier installed on your machine are now a part of the browser. So Google has the rendering services, the storage on the cloud and now even the last mile - the applications.
This makes the other desktop applications redundant. They simply eat into your hardware. While chrome, on the other hand, starts bulging like a Hulk with every new app you install on it. Both put together substantially reduce thee performance of your machine and you begin to wonder why.
In my opinion, the best way to circumvent this is by uninstalling all your desktop applications. Have only the bare minimums and use Chrome for the rest of the stuff. I think I will try this out on my desktop soon. Keep watching this space for the results!

Hyderabad to Goa-by Road

2011-12-24T13:50:00.000+05:30

Yesterday (23/12/2011) I came from Hyderabad to Goa by our car (Ford Figo Diesel).
I took the following route:
Gacchibowli (Hyderabad)-->; Gulbarga --> Bijapur -->Athani --> Chikodi -->Belgaum -->Anamod --> Ponda (Goa)

View Larger Map

The drive till Bijapur is really smooth. The original route on my mind was Via Jamkhandi--Yargatti after Bijapur to get to Belgaim. However, locals advised me that Athani-Chikodi route is shorter and the road condition is better. Well, they are so wrong!
The worst part about getting from Bijapur to Belgaum via Athani is that there is loads of Sugarcane traffic. So in no time you are coming from 100 Kmph to 20 Kmph, very frequently!
I did the total distance of about 700 Kms in 12 hours 45 minutes. I left Gacchibowli in Hyderabad at 12:00 Noon on 23rd and was at my home in Ponda, Goa at 00:45 hours of 24th. There were 2 major (30 minute) breaks, one each at Bijapur and Belgaum. And there were 2 more 'butt breaks' of about 5 minutes each.
I had done the first 600 Kms in 9.5 hours and it took me 3 hours to get from Belgaum to Ponda. This is one of the most dangerous roads I have driven on in the southern ghats. The road condition (especially on the Karnataka side) is pathetic and add to it a ghat section with a drop in elevation of 2600m in 20 Kms road distance - that is definitely not for the faint hearted!

What are you - sail or anchor?

2011-11-27T11:32:00.001+05:30

In one of my earlier posts, I wrote on how I saw 2 ways of doing something. Today, I write about two kinds of people in the world. You will see these kinds of people everywhere - at work, in a family, in sport teams, art circles...everywhere!
One kind of people are the sail. They propel the entire ship forward. They are the reason things happen. They are the engine that drive the circumstances. They are always energized, raring to go and are mostly the stars of the gang; unless some thing goes wrong.
When things go awry, the anchor people are the ones who are in control. They keep things rooted. The sailor guys has been bragging a bit too much and has taken the ship on the wrong course. The crew is lost now and needs time to get back on course without being lost any further. The anchor people are your saviors in such situations.
So, who are you?

Eat Pray Love

2011-11-20T22:31:00.001+05:30

I have an unpublished post in inbox that I wanted to complete and publish today. It was about using death in reality TV. But then I saw this film - Eat Pray Love. And filled me with positivity.
The film starts with a lady's divorce thoughts. She is impatient, always seeking something and somehow not at peace with herself. She decides to take an year off and visit Italy, India and Bali. In each of these places through an array of people she runs into, she learns to Eat, Pray and Love. I cannot exactly write in words what the film is about. And that, I think, is the success of the film because it has conveyed something so unique to me that I cannot transfer the experience to you. You will have to feel it for yourself.
This film has definitely definitely shown me a new way in life. Highly recommended!

Gadar - Ek Khamosh Paani

2011-11-16T22:24:00.000+05:30

In a short span, I have seen two partition related movies.
The first one was Khamosh Paani. The movie set in the late 70's deals with the scars of Hindustan - Pakistan partition. The silent suffering of women left on the hostile side of border are aptly depicted by the amazingly talented Kirron Kher. It's a film that is loaded with subtext. Notably, the film stars only 2 Hindu actors, Kirron and Shilpa Shukla. This film has in fact been so well directed that it left me haunted for almost a week. The director, without being too much 'in your face' leaves a lot to the viewer's imagination. There are so many moments that compel you for a thought process that completes the image on the screen. The cinematography has also played a major part in the narrative. The camera has very realistically captured the arid landscape of Pakistani Punjab. There are some locations that are very peculiar, like a barber's shop or the bazaars. Scenes that are shot in such public locations give a different dimension to the film. They make the socio-political carnage more realistic.

The other movie is 'Gadar - Ek Prem Katha'. Many of you may smile or LoL at the mention of this film. The film has been butt of many jokes at many comedy shows. This was a major commercial hit 10 years ago. Even today, it is one of the top grosser Hindi films. The film is set in just around and after the year 1947.The film elaborates (for 3 hours mind it!) what happened during partition and the effect of these events on the life of two people deeply in love. The film is extremely melodramatic and is the exact opposite of Khamosh Paani. But still this film struck a chord with me. In my opinion, these acting in this movie is excellent. Yes. I will stick by that. There is a scene when Sunny Deol says " agar tumne is ladaki ki aur ek kadam bhi badhaya to rab di sau, gardan ukhad ke rakh dunga". When he says that with a roar in his voice, goddamit it feels like he means it. The film takes it's time in setting up the stage and dramatically unfolding the life of Tara Singh & Sakeena. When I saw the movie for the first time a couple of days ago, these were three hours very well spent. What I liked about the movie was that the sequence of events did not seem unnatural. The characters, both major and minor, were very well cast. You can't have a better Jat than Sunny and Amisha looks every bit of her character (for a change). What most people object to in the movie is the melodrama. But I found it quite normal and tastefully done. Then there are a few scenes like this one...
But, but, but, I cannot imagine any other actor doing this so convincingly. They say Cinema is an art of 'make believe'. And this and some more scenes like this may seem unrealistic to many, but to me, I was totally a part of them!
Any comment on Gadar would be incomplete without mention of Uttam Singh's music. The man composed about 8 songs, 4 of which were different renditions of the same lyrics.The melodious music was again a huge hit at the time.
While I started writing about 2 films to begin with, I have written more about Gadar than about Khamosh Paani. This kind of sums up the basic genre of both the films. Gadar has a of explicit expression through melodrama, music and action sequence. On the other hand, Khamosh Paani is more subtle and leaves a lot to the imagination of the viewer. But in my eyes, both movies are very impressive provided you watch them from the right vantage point.

The consolidation of channels

2011-11-06T23:37:00.000+05:30

Over the last 4 months, I have been completely off television. I have not been missing much, as I catch on my favourite TV sops on the internet and that too break-free. That got me into considering a high-speed internet connection and a IPTv service. Majority of the FM transmission I receive is in Telugu, the local language. So even that is not a persistent entertainment option. So most of the time I am onto internet radio listening to the genres and playlists of my choice, 'social' favourites etc. In short, over the past few days, I have seen two prominent channels of entertainment/information being completely replaced by the internet. Since then the subject of consolidation of channels has been on my mind - it's basically about what the internet has done to the rest of the communication channels.
The internet in a single master stroke has replaced the television, radio, newspaper, telephone and snail mail.We have an option of enjoying all these services through a single communication channel - the Internet. With access to internet, most of us have already stopped writing letters. The day is not far (more so in my case), when we will be enjoying all these service exclusively through internet. Your mess of cables will be replaced by a single wireless router. No more DTH antennae, no DVD players, no newspaper (and raddi!). We will just have one device in our homes which will entertain us, inform us and also help us stay connected. It's almost there! But then what is stopping us from such a revolution?
Primarily, the two elementary factors required for this revolution are lacking in substance:

Bandwidth pricing: Its is just in the last 1 year that I have started hearing of 10 Mbps broadband lines for domestic use at affordable rates. Delivering large amount of audio-visuals over internet implies the need for higher bandwidth. Government regulation and private companies need to move towards a more liberal approach towards bandwidth allocation to subscriber. Once, the consumers start enjoying a high quality transmission, there are no limits to this channel.
Content: I have written posts earlier on the importance of content. Though Internet has made it possible to bring every darn thing to the consumer, quality content is required on this channel. There are some companies like Rajashri Media in India who are aggressively getting into this space. However, given the capabilities of this channel, very little is done today.

I think in the next 2 to 3 years, we are going to get there.Be ready for a completely new experience.

Is there an Indian meltdown in the making?

2011-11-05T23:33:00.000+05:30

I had visitors today. Erstwhile neighbours who have now moved to their own house. As we sat discussing real estate prices , I realized that almost everyone I know had either bought a house or was planning to buy one. A good flat in any 'IT' city in India costs well around 5 million rupees.And everyone seems to have access to that kind of money, thanks to housing fiance companies.

What do these companies take to secure these borrowings? They ensure that that the borrower is employed and has the capability to repay. Most people working in the IT sector seem to fulfill the conditions. But the question is, will IT continue to bring in money from the west on ongoing basis? Especially given the economic conditions in America and Europe. Most of the real estate growth (at least the one around me) seems to be fuelled by IT employees.

These people have migrated to Hyderabad, Bangalore or Pune to join some IT company. Along with a well paying job, many also spend substantial time on 'onsite' assignments. This results in earning in foreign currency and hence more savings. This surplus cash is utilised to partly fund a house.Some who have bought houses early on, have already repaid their debt and are investing in more houses by borrowing more. Today, almost everyone who has spent more than 5 years in an IT company has a housing loan on him. That should be close to a million people!

We are already seeing a trend of rejection of Visas. Onsite opportunities are becoming scarce. Business is trickling in IT and the sector is not seeing the same growth rate it enjoyed a few years ago. If the western economy does not recover soon, many of us will soon be finding it difficult to pay our mortgages. When we thought India survived the 2008 slow down well, it could hit us hard now through a domino effect.

Solution to traffic woes - Game Theory

2011-09-12T21:16:00.004+05:30

An old thought gets its due today -

I have wasted numerous potentially productive hours stuck in the pathetic Hyderabad traffic.Traffic congestion, caused by several players trying to achieve a common (?) goal while they make choices that potentially effect the interests of the other players. This is a classic case of game theory problem. Yes, the same theory that John Nash proposed in a bar!
When in a perfect competition, a player must do what is beneficial not just for him but also for the group. Game theory has been applied to politics, wars, marketing and even biology. I think it should even be applied to traffic situations like roundabouts, traffic lights etc. This will lead to a simplified study of what causes these congestions and how to avoid them. Individual players should be forced to make choices that are beneficial to the group.
Having said that, there are two princiapls that are outside the purview of game theory and are imperative for solving traffic issues -

Enforcement - possibly today's traffic rules are an outcome of game theory analysis. But, the enforcement of these riles leaves a lot to be desired.
self discipline - no or minimum enforcement mechanism will be needed if the players (commuters) show some discipline.

Possibly we need to remind everyone of the story of two wise goats we heard when we were kids.

Creative Person?

2011-04-23T23:48:00.004+05:30

So what does a creative person do? Or rather when would you call a person creative? What is the qualifying criteria? The simplest answer would be someone who creates content. But what I observe around myself is that there are more channels than content. In fact, channel as a resource is unlimited now. And what happens when resource tends to infinity? Efficiency approaches zero!

From my own example, I have an email address on every possible free mail hosting service. Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, LikedIn, Flickr, Picassa, Photobucket ...the list is endless but I have an account in all these places (and yes, Blogger!). Where I have failed miserably, is creating worthwhile content. Neither do I write much email (personal 1 to 1) to people, nor do I receive much of them. All my mailboxes are flooded with spam and forwards from people that they have not put any heart into. Channels have become fads and we keep moving from one to the other. But we are not adding any value to these channels before moving on. Most of us are just crowd there.

On another note, most of the content seems to be coming from the west. Games, photographs, Videos, posts...the good ones are mostly from outside India. Have we Indians become mere consumers? Both material and intellectual kinds?

Work Ethics

2011-03-27T13:00:00.002+05:30

It has been more than 6 years since I have started working. I have worked in a bank and a couple of IT companies. I have had my share of good times and bad times. But last week or so has forced me into reflecting on the question 'what constitute my work values or work ethics?'
If you have a look at some of the top performers in different fields - Sachin Tendulkar, Big B, Aamir Khan, ARR, APJ, Ratan Tata, they all have a strong set of work ethics that they strictly abide by. This has only made their character stronger leaving no chance for anyone o point fingers. I have learnt over the last 6 years that this is something absolutely necessary. Having a set of rules for yourself helps in making decisions when in doubt.
Over the next few days, I am going to create a set of rules for myself. Some of them may be trivial, but they will help nonetheless. I plan to limit the number of such guiding principals to 10. May I ask each reader to suggest one distinct 'though shall...' type of statement?
Let's start with -
1) Though shall reply to an email within 2 working hours of receipt.

Freedom - Responsibility = Anarchy

2011-03-06T22:02:00.003+05:30

While on our way to office, I and Bijou had an interesting conversation about freedom without responsibility. The discussion was sparked by a traffic jam around us. :-)

What we got on 15/08/1947 was independence; to run this country as our's, toil for it's progress, restrain for its dignity and stand for its defense. What we would get in return was freedom. Freedom of expression, speech, religion et al. Freedom to exercise our fundamental rights. But this concept of independence should have been engraved into every Indian by the leaders of this freedom struggle and their ideological successors.

Instead what the leaders chose to do was to only stress on the rights of every Indian. There were social movements of very large magnitude for the rights of an individual or a group of them. But there have been no movements so far in 'independent India' that have made us realize our responsibilities. How many of us have thought about progress, dignity & safety of our country in our day-to-day life and what role each of us can play in this?

Nobody's asking for blood for freedom now. All the country needs is a responsible citizens.

Why the F$%^

2011-02-24T22:20:00.003+05:30

There is actually no reason to manipulate the title of the post. The post is actually about why we bought the Ford Figo.
Let me begin by confessing that I am more of a biker than a car guy. So when it came to choosing a car, we started by seriously considering a Hyundai Santro and moved all the way till TATA Indigo over a period of 2 months. The economics turned in favour of a diesel mill and it was decided to shortlist a few. The ones that were thrown off the list were:
1. Swift - Overpriced in my opinion. No air bags & ABS off showroom. Long wait (3 months)
2. Indigo - Tdi Engine is old now. No safety features. Poor quality of interiors.
3. Ritz - Unattractive shape.
It finally boiled down to the Indica Vista Quadrajet Aura+ with ABS. The engine felt peppy and we decided to overlook the quality of plastics for lack of any more choice in this price band. Just then a cousin recommended we consider Figo and strongly insisted we test drive it before booking any car.
A test drive confirmed that better half (mine, not the cars) was more comfortable driving the Figo. But it was a very tough decision to make. Head on feature comparison of both cars made things far more difficult and I literally had sleepless nights.
I decided to test drive both vehicles back to back. The interior quality and driveability of Figo were so good that I made up my mind. Ford has been acting pricey though since the launch of this model and I had to literally to fight for a good service. Yes, but that answers more or less why we bought the Figo!

Donating platelets

2011-01-06T21:09:00.003+05:30

Yesterday I donated blood platelets at the NTR Blood bank at Banjara Hills. I had responded to a post on my company's bulletin board asking for help. Then, they had enough donors.But fortunately they had kept my number and called me again when they needed.
The process is pretty simple. First your blood sample is checked for a healthy match. This takes about 45 minutes. After this comes the real process which goes for about 60 to 80 minutes. In this process, a needle is inserted into your vein. The needle has 2 (or 3, I don't exactly remember) pipes to it. In an engineers simple language, one pipe is suction and the other is delivery. Both of these go into a 'washing machine' like equipment. The equipment has a touch screen on which the technician simply sets how much of platelets he wants and what should be the suction and delivery pressure. Once configured (IT consultant jargon - beat that!), the process is initiated and a progress bar appears (like the one appears when you transfer files in a Windows machine). When I saw the progress bar, my next fear was that I would see an 'Abort / Retry / Fail ' screen. :-)
Jokes apart (thankfully), the machines operates in cycles where it draws blood, removes platelets from it and pumps back the 'sada' blood back into your veins. Overall the experience was painless. Only little 'uncomfortable' part was when the blood was pumped back into the veins. Otherwise, without any pain or side-effect, I am 600 billion platelets lighter.

A Page a day

2011-01-04T22:03:00.002+05:30

Not being able to dedicate enough time at home to blogging, I have decided to try out an alternate approach. The time required for blogging is more for thinking and putting the thoughts into words than actually typing the content. So, the first part will henceforth mostly happen in office in a diary. The second part will then be at home - a quick go at the keyboard.
This should hopefully help me in more ways than one:
1. Practice writing - as in real 'pen on paper' writing.
2. Second look guaranteed - I will go through my writing at least one last time while I type it.
3. Load balancing - If I don't find the time to type the post when I get home everyday, I can club multiple posts and type them all on the weekend. Thus the thought won't be lost (hopefully!).
4. Standard portions - I will try to limit the posts to a standard size. For now, I will stick to the size of this notebook page I am writing o. This will help me say stuff effectively.

Poke me when you think I am dozing on this one...

Criminal character

2010-10-22T12:19:00.001+05:30

As I drove to office today, like any other day, there were hordes of people on the road breaking traffic rules. Overtaking from the left, changing lanes without indicators, disobeying traffic signals…all of it. This irritates me the most (well second most, if you count ‘scratching nails on a blackboard’).

Why is that we need policing all the time to obey a set of simple rules? Why aren’t we civilized enough for this simple thing? Breaking all rules may take me to office in 25 minutes instead of the usual 30 minutes. But it increases chaos on the road manifold. It also increases the chances of an accident. And I am not even counting the stress it causes. We Indians being the wisest in the world, why have we failed to apply this simple logic?

Though I see this situation to be a lot better in Goa, it is not certainly ideal. People there have a lot more civic sense. Not out of education, mind it. It’s just the way people are brought up – not to harm others, bully them is something inherent in a Goan. Notably, on the back cover of my Driving License (Issued in Goa) is written the sentence ‘ A RIGHT NOT, A PRIVILEGE DRIVING IS’. This is the essence of the road transport policing in Goa.

It’s said, ‘Character is what you do when no one is looking’. For lack of policing, we will all break traffic rules. Or who knows, maybe also steal, rape or murder. Does that make all of us a criminal character?

The great Escape

2010-10-21T14:43:00.001+05:30

How to make the best of the time you have? Like this!

While I cannot post from my office, Blogger allows me to post via e-mail. I don’t know whether this works or not; but since you are reading this, I guess it does.

So many thoughts have crossed my mind while I am in office. My employers IT policies, slow data services on the phone are some of the things that have stopped me from sharing these.

I am wondering how I can overcome this … any ideas?

People Management

2010-09-13T21:29:00.002+05:30

My work over the last few months also involves intensive people management. I lead a bunch of 10 souls of different age groups, not much variance there though and the oldest member of my team is not older than me. I have realised that the following facets of human behaviour need to be considered by anyone in leadership position. These must have been definitely written in some book on leadership, but I have learnt them the hard way:

Ego - Mostly observed in senior team members who have as much work experience as you. These people could have been in your position but for some bad appraisal. Such team members mostly do not take any work allocation lying down. Typical responses are 'I will see what I can do' or 'Let me see'. And by the way, these people may also think that you have 'sucked up' your way into leadership.
Incompetence - These people may not necessarily be dumb. They may be acting dumb to avoid work. Or they may have earlier worked in a place where competence was not rewarded. There could also be a problem of low self-esteem in such people.
Westerners - I don't know what exactly to call such folks. But they generally have their preferences set. They will come when they want to, leave when they want to, take leaves when they feel like. This is absolutely fine in a western work environment. But in India, my boss does not understand that people have lives outside work.

I am not writing how to deal with such people because I am still learning that part. You guys go ahead and share tips!

मेरी दुनिया..

2010-09-12T11:47:00.000+05:30

दुनिया सिकुड़ते सिकुड़ते मुझ तक रह गयी है

कभी दुनिया का मतलब होता होगा मनुष्य, प्राणी और जीवन जात

लेकिन कुछ साल पहले दुनियाने अपना रूप बदला ...और थोड़ी अपने आप में छोटी हो गयी

मेरी दुनिया मेरा देश बन गयी

तब सोचा न था कि इससे भी छोटा कुछ हो सकता है

मेरी दुनिया के लिए जान देनेकी तक बातें हुई थी तब

लेकिन फिर और बटवारा हुआ और मेरी दुनिया मेरे मजहब तक आ रुकी

मजहब से फिर गाँव, मोहल्ले, गली और घर तक का रास्ता ज्यादा मुश्किल नहीं था

अब तो मै खुद ही मेरी दुनिया हूँ, बस कुछ ही दिन की बात है

जिस्म का हर पुर्जा अपनी आप में दुनिया बनने वाला है

और खुद की दुनिया बसाने के लिए, दिमाग, एक दिन, दिल की दुनिया उजाड़ देगा

Kutti Zindagi...

2010-09-05T10:43:00.001+05:30

I took this picture on a Sunday afternoon at Chandanagar MMTS Station. The kid in the background, at a railway platform, noise, dusty & sunny was sleeping peacefully. Looked like the street dog watched over.
It made me take the picture and think ... what zindagi (life) the kid has???

My Photography Workflow 2009

2010-09-04T15:37:00.001+05:30

My Photography Workflow 2009

Hat Tip: Bijou

Discipline...even in photography

2010-09-04T09:44:00.003+05:30

About a couple of months ago, I shifted to Digital Photography. Earlier, I used to shoot on film using my Nikon FM10. But because of the labour involved in getting the film developed or sharing these photographs over Internet, I chose to take up digital photography. Having bought a Panasonic FZ35, I have realised that I have shot more photographs in the last 2 months than I have shot in 5 years of film photography.

This comes with it's own set of problems. I now have hordes of pictures (and videos!) taken with different purposes at different times which should have their own life cycle. There are some really good pictures which I have lost already! Lot of junk pictures that are eating into digital real estate! So what now?

The answer seems to be lying in discipline...or workflows! Each picture or video should have it's workflow. They all should go through consecutive filtering and land up in different buckets based on classification criteria. How to decide these criteria is something very personal in my opinion. They can be genres, file types, processing levels, 'date taken' and so on. Backup mechanism, storage, archiving, online publishing, post-processing, RAW storage and god knows how many more things I will have to consider before 'disciplining' my photography.

Stranger to History

2010-08-21T15:09:00.002+05:30

I have been reading this Book for many months now. Interrupted by work load, travel and general laziness, I wouldn't actually describe the book as un-put-down-able.

I picked it up at the Strand Book Store in my office campus when I was casually browsing through the new arrivals there. What compelled me to buy the book was that it was written by a young writer, almost my age. Though buying the book was an impulse decision, I had minimum expectations. My experience with new age Indian English writers wasn't very inspiring. But Aatish Taseer's Stranger to history has been a pleasant surprise.

It is very difficult to classify this book into a genre. It is part biography, part travelogue, a bit of world history and much more. Aatish uses his journalistic experience to describe places, situations and societies. But more appealing is his ability to express himself - his precise emotions, dilemmas and idiosyncrasies of people and groups of various nationalities and faiths. The book outlines his journey from Istanbul to Pakistan, where Aatish seeks answers to many questions, some personal and a few not so personal.

If you like reading stuff that asks more questions than it answers, if you entertainment is not the sole driving force for your reading, this début novel is on my recommended list.

Of internet, self restrain and the un-edited world

2010-07-18T09:28:00.003+05:30

We all know what the Internet has done to content generation. Everyone with a streak of writing in him has taken to the Internet. Blogs, twitter, personal pages, flickr accounts galore! Even I am one of them. I get a kick out of the fact that my creations always have an opportunity to be seen. They are out there if someone is interested to appreciate. There are no gatekeepers between me and the world that is hungry for content...there are no editors!
The other day I picked up a book that was published about a decade ago. There was a stark difference in the quality of work I see around me today (including mine) and this book. Mind you this book was edited, by a gatekeeper. Then I started thinking, may be editing is necessary. Editor, the one person whose solely responsibility is to ensure that the content that passes through him is of highest quality, and coherence. Yes he was biased at times, he did behave like he owned the place. After all, the print was a scarce commodity. But not today, thanks to the Internet. There are no costs involved in getting your content published. I can merrily upload sub-standard content on the Internet. Keen people will keep visiting my pages with expectation and I will be wasting a lot of their time. The more silly words and pictures reach people through the Internet, the more tired they get.
In school, if I had to prepare a speech, I would spend 3-4 hours in a library and I would have enough content for a 30 min speech. Now, I spend days together browsing through incoherent material out there, ready to be 'googled!' So what do we do about it?
The answer may lie in self-restrain. If there is no one else editing your content, think twice before you press the upload/ submit button. Ask your self these questions -

Would you read this if this came printed in a book?
Would this help the audience in anyway?
If you had just enough space for one article or one photo or one video, would this be the one?

I see that we have a problem of plenty everywhere. We need serious self-policing to get some discipline and quality into what we do. Think about it, in different contexts, business, traffic, TV channels and let me know what you think.

The leech and the butterfly

2010-07-03T09:50:00.001+05:30

There are 2 ways to do anything, be it business, job, a hobby or just about anything. The leech way and the butterfly way. The leech way is just to stick it out. Be patient, resilient, determined (and sometimes even shameless) enough to be the winner. You may not be the best choice, but you can emerge as a leader just by the virtue of your determination. Being a butterfly on the other hand, you develop qualities that make people want you. Most of these qualities cannot in fact be developed but you need to be born with them. You need to be so good at what you are doing that people should 'want' you to be on their side.

India is becoming more of a country of leeches than butterflies. What are you?

The business of all that is complex

2010-06-24T06:48:00.002+05:30

Very recently I have been following Jason Fried's posts on 37signals.com. I am impressed by his minimalist thoughts and the whole idea of customers 'growing out of' and 'growing into' your product. Per Jason, there are just a certain simple features that customers really want and a product company should strive to be the best at those features. But beyond these features, your customers will always have some desires and will keep asking for more features. One should learn to say no to such demands and crowd the Product with features that only a few of your customers will actually use. These frills not only hamper the performance of the product technically, but also make the Product manufacturer waste a lot of effort in the form of product support and other allied activities. This seems to have been working for folks at 37signals.com and many more such companies (SFDC, Flip Video recorders etc.)

I then started thinking of this philosophy in the context of Indian IT companies. How could we go bare and minimal? How could we leverage the stance of simple and minimalist products taken by some of the product Cos. That is when I realised that we couldn't. Simply because we are in the business of complexity. We are here because our customers buy products (ERP / CRM suits which are very very complex) and then ask us to further customize them to meet their desires. With whatever implementations I have done till now, I have realised that no company utilises more than 50% of a product features, yet they want some modifications, bolt-ons to that product to meet their needs. That means the product already comes with a 50% flab. The product company has tried to put in as many features but our customer still wants more.

Our sales therefore is driven by rosy dreams shown to the client. Our requirement compliance sheets are full of compliance's and we can get the products to do anything. Sales pitches are full of 'we can do all this with a little bit of customization'. The customer never thinks about why the feature did not come with the product itself? I don't see (netiher do I want to see) a way out of this as complexity and desires seem to be earning me my daily bread!

Monetizing your talent.

2010-06-20T18:27:00.004+05:30

Some time ago I had post on a couple of business ideas. That is when the question of monetization came up. There was this portal I had envisaged where tenants and landlords could rate each other and the question was how does one monetize this? Thinking a little deeper on this, I came about thinking to myself - ' I have an idea which I think people could find useful. To make this idea a potential business activity, how could I make people pay for it?'. Then it struck me that one should think the same way about one's talent(s).
We all have a talent. That is a given. Singing, dancing, painting, acting, photography and so many more like that. If we can deliberate sufficiently at monetizing at (making people pay for it, or finding people who will), we convert our talent into business. That is when your interest becomes your work and work becomes interesting! Shouldn't be tough ...isn't it?

Rajaneeti

2010-06-12T16:21:00.000+05:30

Last weekend, with a lot of enthusiasm (and people) I went to see Rajaneeti - A Prakash Jha film with some of the best names in the Indian film Industry. By now all of you must have seen the film, so I will not get into detailing the plot or the storyline. Let's straight get to the point - did I like it? No. It was OK! But when Prakash Jha makes an OK movie, it is not acceptable. I would have liked an OK Ram Gopa Verma movie but not PJ. Probably Shool & Apaharan ( I have not seen Mrutyudand), built up a lot of expectations.
Rajaneeti, needless to say, is better than many of the recent films like Teen Patti, MNIK and what not. It has more substance than a one liner and the effort into story and screenplay shows. PJ has spent enough effort (and money) on casting with brilliant characters drawn from Mahabharat. In my opinion, nowhere else in the whole world, is there a characterisation like there is in Hindu mythology. None of the characters are black or white and all have their shades of grey. It was indeed a masterstroke from PJ to base his characters on Mahabharat. The casting was superb (but for three actors...more about it later). Many of the dialogs were well written and had the punch of a political background. The film did have a good graph throughout that kept me engaged, but...
Dialogs like ' tum mere jeshtha putra ho' - what the hell was this guy thinking man. Copy paste kiya kya Mahabharat se? All the hard work he did on 'Karara jawaab milega' he spoilt it all.
Why the fuck in the whole wide world would someone use 'Vande Mataram' tune in the climax scene? Yuck! Thankfully it was at the end so I was anyway walking out.
When PJ writes his own 'Three Mistakes of my life', they would be his 3 casting failures from Rajaneeti. I don't believe this is the same guy who boldly cast Dr. Mohan Agashe as the idealistic father in Apaharan. Just because she looks western, was there really any need to have Katrina Kaif on board? Did the character demand a western look? Bloody marketing gimmicks!! I would have preferred a mannequin dressed in a starched cotton saree on the screen. Nikhila Trikha, the actor playing Bharati, Ranbeer Kapoor's on screen mother was another failure. She had a fantastic scene with Ajay Devgan where she tells him that he is her eldest son (jeshtha putra). I wanted underplay and she went overboard with melodrama. Lastly, lets face it Arjun Rampal is basically a model, has a bad diction and should not have been cast. Kay Kay Menon would have been my man for the job.
That's about it...I am going out for a game of bowling. Catch you later!

How to change throttle cable in a Bullet

2010-05-01T12:27:00.012+05:30

For the uninformed (you can't be if you are on Facebook), I bought a Royal Enfield Standard 350cc motorcycle on 25th Novemeber 2009. This has been the fulfilment of a long (8 years!) cherished dream.
Here we are...

After exactly three months I faced my first breakdown on my way to work on a Friday. The throttle cable snapped. Thankfully I had a spare at home and I was pretty confident I could replace it myself. Having lived with a 1984 model Bajaj Chetak for 5 years, I was in the habit of applying first aid myself. This wasn't as easy as seemed though. I manage to get the handle side of the throttle cable out. But had issues with the engine (carb side). I checked with fellow biker Aravind (who also owns a Standard 350 that is as old as him). He said it was a pretty simple process and promised to join me in 30 mins. But once he came, we realised, RE had done some changes that had lead to this problem. Here is the issue -

If you refer to the picture above, I was supposed to unscrew 'A' and get the other end of the cable out from the carburetor. But the design was modified in these newer models, such that the nut 'B' and a part of the tank didn't let me unscrew part 'A'. They interrupted in the yellow area marked. This meant there was no way we could replace the cable without removing the fuel tank. Sad enough, I had topped up just the previous evening! We dragged the bike to a mechanic nearby who said he could fix it without removing the fuel tank. But when he started using his inhumane techniques on my bike, I called up RE service centre to confirm that we HAD to remove the fuel tank. I requested one of their mechanic to come and do the honours. He came and did this to the bike...

Unscrewing the bolt B in the picture needs a different kind of tool. That will be my next buy now.

The 2 Business Ideas

2010-04-30T18:07:00.003+05:30

I had twitted about 2 business ideas and had promised the details would be on the blog. So here goes...

JustGoa - See a different Goa every time

I have been consulted at least about 15-20 times by different people for their leisure trips to Goa. This idea is a fallout of the experiences.

This is a Goa specific travel company. I know there are hordes of Goan tour operators. But this one is with a different marketing strategy. This sort of concentrates on repeat business. The tours are thematic. Some of the themes would be -

Chillax
Religious
Eco
Celebrations (Weddings, Anniversaries, Receptions)
Corporate (Conferences, team building exercises, product launches)

The main thrust should be on maintaining the visit history of the tourists and ensuring they do not get bored with repeat visits. Aligning Marketing with capacity for special programs in monsoon, around long weekends etc. will definitely bring in a new angle to this business.

10ant.com

I am not sure if there is anything like this already on the Internet. This can either be an independent real-estate renting portal or can be a feature on any of the existing ones. The idea is to register every property, its owner and tenants on a single portal. Suppose I am an owner and own 3 apartments in Mumbai (I said suppose!!!). Now when I want to rent out any of my properties, I register myself and the property on this portal. There are also many tenants registered who are looking for a fitting property to hire. Till here it is just like any other renting portal. The difference is rating. Every tenant who takes a property gets to rate it and the owner of the property. The owner also gets to rate the tenant. The portal thus has the history of the apartment occupancy. Either of the party can know the disputes the other party has had and can choose which house to rent, which tenant to rent it to and and whether the owner is 'troublefree' or not.

I am not sure how to make money out of this idea though.

Tell me what you think people!!

Expressions to Communication 2 Infrmtn

2010-04-21T20:29:00.003+05:30

The emergence of language (spoken and not programing) has revolutionised the development of human race. All through history and ancient scriptures, I see an expression of most complex human feelings through language. Different forms like fables, poetry, shlokas etc. were used to build 'life problems' and solutions to those problems. The Mahabharata, The Ramayana, The Bhagwad Geeta, The Vedas, The Upanishads are just a few of the known literary jewels . Not just in Hindu religion but the Quaraan and the Bible are also huge achievements in terms of development of language.

Though diluted to a great extent, I see the trend continue until about 100 years ago or maybe even 50. In Marathi & Hindi, one can find substantial literary work in the last but one generation. I cannot say that about our generation though.

writing a letter was always an expressive act for our grandparents. Words has to carry both, meaning and feelings. But the telephone and Internet made us more blunt. Language, in our parent's generation, moved from being a medium of expression to that of communication. Letters were still written but occasional telephone conversations ensured that letters could be limited to communicate only and the expression bit could be left to telephonic chats. Our generation now has stopped writing. e are a 'mobile' generation. The maximum written communication we prefer is 139 characters. Technology, which could have boosted our literary skills has become a limiting force.

We have become exceptionally good at technology & science. We are answering questions (at least trying to) that have puzzled mankind for long. But, we have moved away from ourselves and our lives.

No Title

2010-04-08T20:52:00.002+05:30

Its not the first time this is happening, neither will it be last. An urge to cry, break into tears, yell, explode. At the same time control the tears for your office desk is not the place.

the feeling is like - buying a land on the riverside hoping to make heaven out of it. Toil to sow and cultivate fruits, flowers and big trees, animals - cows, dogs and birds - my idea of heaven. And then it never rains. Your land is barren now - a vast emptiness lies before you as you kneel and weep your heart out. Someone bought his SUV, someone built his 5 star luxury housing complex and your are paying the price because you need the rain for the little heaven of your dreams. The SUV wallah & the guy in the luxurious apartment are digging bore-wells for their dreams.

No longer is someone singing for happiness or writing poems or gardening. All of this and more is done for money - to buy SUVs & 5 star luxury apartments. Are we earning to live or living to earn?

I didn't let the feeling pass today. I wrote at the speed I thought & felt. I wept through words. I am glad I did. Probably I am one step closer to my heaven.

When the pen is mightier than knowledge!

2010-03-15T23:24:00.008+05:30

The title is a mere analogy I have drawn, the topic of the post is more to do with IT and IT consulting.

I have done 2 green field implementations, one in Telecom domain in India and one in pharmaceutical retail in the UK. Most of my dwelling has been in the Marketing and Sales Force Automation (SFA) space in both these implementations. While the Telecom implementation was in PeopleSoft CRM, the retail implementation was in the Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) domain.

When we first started with the Indian implementation, we faced major challenges like loosely defined processes, inadequate change management, untrained staff etc. It is here that I first thought if IT could really help our customer to achieve what they wanted - A better CRM? On a post dinner walk then it struck me. The Director of IISC

Bengaluru had once said in one of his speeches - "e-governance is not about IT. IT is just a tool. e-governance should first start with a willingness to change"

This is the exact point that lacked in the Indian company where were doing the implementation. I blamed it on the company for being typically desi and rushing into an IT implementation just because all the competitors were having new roll-outs. In some of the meeting, I even felt like this company was like a rich spoilt socialite that wanted a car because everyone else had it.

But then when I went to UK for an implementation, I realised it had nothing to do with being desi. almost everyone was the same. Brits being one of the most thoughtful and deliberating individuals had decided on a product to implement without a change management process in place.

Without a proper process study, user awareness/education and change management process all IT companies can at best be 50-60% effective. In most implementations, nobody has a freaking idea how to calculate the ROI of this implementation leave alone judging if it is satisfactory or not. Moreover, whether the implementation will change any processes, how to sell this change to users, how to speed up the change are some vital issues that I have never heard being discussed. While everybody is busy designing integration points, scheduling batch programs and coding to customize a certain business requirement, when the users are exposed to this change they are left bewildered.

In my opinion, the first this that should be undertaken before beginning of an IT implementation is a process study exercise. This should be followed by a change management planning exercise that will lay out the focus areas where change is likely to occur, the extent of this change and how to make this change smooth. The users should be taken into confidence well before the implementation begins so that they know the extent of their involvement in the implementation and can plan their work accordingly. This also helps them to gear up their thought process so that they have a mental note of FAQs that they may need to answer. Through the implementation until the go-live and even post, the change management plan should be followed.

IT being just a tool to help things happen faster, easier and accurate, needs to play a supportive role to this change process. The scene appears very different today though. Everybody seems to be emphasizing hell of a lot on whether the computing happens in the clouds or the oceans, or whether the product needs an upgrade. These are just the tools and should not become mightier than the business itself!

Why do I pray?

2010-02-23T23:51:00.001+05:30

My morning, when it starts, starts with three prayers I say. Two of them praising lord Ganesh and one of them for Godess Vijayadurga. Why these 2 Gods specifically? Well the truth is these are the only prayers I remember from my childhood.
Prayers are my way of saying 'aal izz well' to my heart. :-). I relate all the three prayers to the safety cucoons I have enjoyed till date. When I close my eyes and say each of these prayers, there is a distinct image associated with each one of them.
The first one is Ganapati Stotra, probably one of the first proper prayer my parents taught me.

Pranamya Shirasa Devam ( Vishwa Vinayak) With Meaning
This is a natural progression after your child has learnt the nursery rhymes of prayers. We stayed in a small rented house then, and we did not have a separate prayer room there. There was a small wooden Mandir hung on a wall just above the dinig table. I would sit on the table and say this prayer along with other prayers . A prominant image related to this stotra is that of a small cute Ganapati Idol that still exists at our place in Goa. When I say this prayer and close my eyes, it reminds me of my parents and my childhood. It kind of stands for all that they have taught me.
The second prayer I say is the Ganapati Atharvashirsha (yes, Ganapati is the faourite one here).

Ganapati AtharvaSheersha
Every Ganesh Chaturthi (Ganapati Bappa ka b'day), we gather at my native place and do multiple iterations of this stotra. This prayer reminds me of my grandparents and all the relatives I meet at my ancestral house. It feels good that there are some people back there who still enquire about you and are genuinely concerned about you. When I close my eyes and say this prayer, I am reminded of the morning we do this iteration exercise, me, my uncles, cousins and almost 3 to 4 generations of Desai family, bathed, with chandan on our foreheads, the smell of Agarbattis, as the rhythemic chant of this stotra reverberates.
The third prayer is that of Shri Vijayadurga. This prayer reminds me of my mother's home town, situated at Keri. Having lived very near to this place, I have fond memories of my childhood days spent here as well. This stotra reminds me of my maternal relatives especially my grandmother. When I visted her during holidays, at dusk, she would line up all the kids in the house (it was a joint family) and take us to the Vijayadurga temple next to the house. We would sit there and recite this stotra under her guidence. Even today when I say this prayer, I smell camphor and remember the fondness I enjoyed at my mama's place.
Saying these three prayers every morning is a brief mental trip into my childhood. It makes me fresh and I remind myself that there are people out there who will keep loving me irrespective of what happens through the day to me today!

Where do we begin?

2010-02-11T20:44:00.003+05:30

Consider a scenario where you are starting a new business, and are fairly novice in the area. Will you build competency first, or get business first? Is it not the chicken and egg situation that all entrepreneurs go through? What is the solution then?

I am of the opinion that one must first build competency, whatever be the costs. You may have to offer a service free to the customer to gain his confidence and make a mark in the market. There is no other way you can offset the apprehension in the prospective customer's mind. Consider this as the cost of entry into the business or a one time marketing cost. Ones you have put some experience behind you, made some name for yourself, it will be fairly easy to demonstrate capability in further proposals as you will have credentials to show off.

However, if you chose to win a deal first and learn at the expense of your customer, I look at that as a big risk. Yes, the risk does have commensurate rewards, but not worthwhile I think. The very fundamental of your relationship with the customer is a lie. Failure to deliver can cause irreversible damage. But this approach gets your cash counters ringing at a time when you are really in a need for it. A couple of lies, a good deal now & then, and you have all the time in the world to gain customer's confidence. Building a competency can take forever and you also run the risk of being taken for granted by the market.

What is the right approach then? A consultant would definitely start the answer with 'depends'. What do you think?

Gur Nihal Foods

2009-12-13T22:18:00.002+05:30

After spending more than 24 hours at home, and having chawal-kadhi for 3 straight meals, I suggested to Bijou, we go out for our dinner today. Ruling out any junk food consumption, Bijou suggested we go to a Punjabi place he new from the last lunch he had with Anurag and his TeamBHp mates. If the approach road was any indicator of how the place would be, I wouldn't even have lokoed that way. But, the bumpy ride was misleading and so was the ambience. The place looked like a roadside dhaba. There was a Punjabi Auntiji standing next to the entrance. That kind of assured me that the cooking would be supervised and there were lesser chaces of a chole with sambar masala being served.
We ordered a Punjabi Chicken and some plain parathas. The punjabi chicken was well cooked and just sufficiently spicy. But not much Punjabi from the ones served in other restaurant. How I wish we had tried the achari chicken. The parathas were freshly made and served hot but not rotis. I think rotis were mass produced and the couple we took were cold. I also missed tandoor roti. Next came lassi....sweet and just cold enough. Lassi is never to be had chilled. Only beer is to be served chilled. After having the lassi, I wouldn't have liked anything else to spoil the equilibrium my digestive system had achieved. But I was still a little hungry and there was a hand written poster on the wall anouncing Sarson ka Saag and Makki ki Roti. So we had some freshly made saag and a roti each. The Makki ki rotis were also freshly made and most importantly having come after the lassi, they didn't spoil the mood.
I will have a cup of warm milk now before I go to bed. It has been a feast i must say.

P.S.: The dinner cost us about 200 bucks

4 Seasons

2009-12-05T23:19:00.001+05:30

The dinner tonight was at '4 Seasons' Madhapur. Right across the road was my old office (the erstwhile Satyam Computers), it was literally a trip down the memory lane. This restaurant, on the second floor is nothing much to talk about in the name of ambiance. Having said that, they have certainly put their attention in the right place - the food. Ours was a simple 3 course dinner - Tomato Soup, Chicken Malai Kabab & Chicken Biryani. Being one of those 'nice' places where everyone wants to go straight from their office, this place is always crowded (and definitely on a Friday evening). If you go there with a group of more than 2, be prepared to wait, wait really long, argue and even fight for a place.
But once you are there, be ready to eat one of the finest chicken you may have ever laid your hands on (or dug your teeth into). They have all sorts of chicken preparations. After my reduced appetite over the last couple of years (surprisingly after my marriage ;-) ), I couldn't take another starter, but if I could, I could have something Lebanese. The restaurant has Lebanese, Mughlai and Indian preparations. The biryani wasn't something something great, but the chicken pieces in it were really soft, well cooked and well marinated. The biryani took eons to come, but the wait was worth it. I wish I could adjust a dessert somewhere but we were full up to the brim and happy with the food.
So the next time you folks want to enjoy a good meal, visit '4 Seasons' - vegetarians, get a life.

An evening well spent...

2009-11-22T21:36:00.002+05:30

Last evening me and Shveta visited the city. It was the first time we were in an explorer mood since we shifted base to Hyderabad. Unlike Pune, which was our last bastion, Hyderabad has fewer places worth visiting at an hour's drive. By 'places' I mean places like Mulshi, Lonavla, Sinhgad and places like that where you can find spot just to sit and relax in the company of nature. So we decided just to head straight to some place in the city and just have an evening exporing the place.
We decided to take the train to Begumpet and explore that part of Hyderabad. Although Begumpet is mostly to do with shopping for pearls, huge apparel malls, Westside, Landmark and other big stores. After disembarking the MMTS train at Begumpet, we walked past the newly built flyover, the ITC kakatiya and reached Landmark. It is really difficult to walk past a bookstore if you really dig books or movies. So we entered Landmark and spent a good hour and half there, looking for books and DVDs. Came out with 2 books, a Telugu learning guide and the Times food guide to Hyderabad/Secunderabad. We also bought an audio CD, Sacred Chants volume 3 by Kosmic music. There were so many other books and music we wanted to buy, but we were running out of time and we wanted to make it till Hyderabad Central, have our dinner and catch the last train home.
By the time we got out of Landmark, it was already 8 at night. As we walked towards Hyderabad central, we entered Home Store - Future group's furniture and furnishing store. After ogling at all the expensive furniture that we could buy if we had all the money in the world and a place of our own, we moved to e-zone, the electronic appliance section within this store. There was an offer going on, where they were selling a DVD player for Rs. 1999 only. My 5.1 channel speaker system was lying idle at home, there were movies getting downloaded on the internet, there was good music to be heard, what more reason did I need to buy a DVD player! So we grabbed one and by 8.45 PM made our way into Hyderabad Central.
We had decided not to spend any time shopping here but only have our dinner and dash for the railway station. We went to the Noodle Bar restaurant on the ground floor. It is a nice place with good ambience. Both of us having sore throats, were weary of air conditioned chill. We requested for a table that wasn't directly under the duct. The waiter guided us to one such cozy corner in the restaurant. They were serving a 4 course emperor meals that consisted of an appetizer or a soup, a main dish, rice or noodles and dessert. We liked the idea of placing an order on a paper that has tick boxes in front of every menu item. We were given these papers and pencils and left alone to make a decision. we only had to tick what option we wanted for the 4 courses and hand over the paper to the waiter. We ordered some vegeterian manchow soup and a potion of vegetable spring rolls to begin with. Both these dishes were served hot and pretty quickly. Although we shared a single serving of soup, it was just the quantiy for both of us and boy was it tasty! The spring rolls were one of the best have had in a long time (if i was more confident of my memory, I would have said 'best ever'). we then got ourselves some Chicken manchurian and chicken hakka noodles.Now this was not the best part. Especialy the chicken pieces. We bth have had better chicken in Hyderabad House. Just as the initial impression was beginning to fade out, the Noddle Bar sprung their last surprise on us. The best and the last impression came in the form of the dessert, called 'Darsaan'. This is by far the most unique dessert I have ever tasted. It is fried dry flat noodles, tossed in honey and sesame seeds. This last impression of the restaurant was a lasting one. Me and Shveta, we both loved this dessert and so repented that the noodles and the chicken (both not so good) had not left enough space for this fantastic delicacy. Although Times food guide does not rate the Noodle Bar very well, the food, the quick service and the dessert won our hearts. Our dinner for 2 came to about 500 rupees and all of it worth the money (almost). definitely recommendable if you are not much fussy about visitng a restaurant in a crowded mall.
The times food guide looks like a neat way of picking up joints to visit on week ends. Although the city doesn't have much for the eyes, I hope once our bike comes, we can visit most of the restaurants in the guide and let our tongue do the talking :-)!!

The right half of brain

2009-11-19T23:13:00.003+05:30

It took me a bit of googling to figure out that it is the right half of brain that is to do with imagination and artistic ability. So far removed I am from this part of life that I don't even remember which part of brain we use for it.
I recall a conversation I had at work couple of days ago. I was making a point there, that as we are trying to get better at communication, we are getting worse at expression. We may be able to write a concise email about all the things we need to get done for a project. But we hardly know to write a letter (or say an email) to our friends recalling our good old days in school. One of my colleague was of the opinion that the younger generation is smarter and faster than we are. But smarter and faster at what? Math? Computers? Science? How many of the children have a passion today? How many of them waste hours and days at painting? or may be swimming? The younger generation is getting increasingly left-brain-centric. Very logical and calculative in thinking. But the imagination does not have wings. The emotions are calculated. Ask a kid to imagine a sky in Pink colour and be assured to see a confused face. The empathy one could have for a fellow living creature has been narrowed down to some soft corner only for friends and family.
I have a young cousin back in Goa who cried when one of the buffalo in our stable died. Stupid it may sound to anyone, she felt the pain the buffalo's calf went through. She is not exceptionally well at drawing, but she has the patience to sit and try a Rangoli. She likes to have pets at home and maintains her own patch of garden. All at the age of 12. Many children need to be given a project in school to know names of some of the common garden plants. Where does this difference come from?
In my opinion, this difference comes from the way of life that we have chosen for ourselves. If we make a list of 10 most important things in our lives today, I bet 8 of them will be 'purchasable'. Our happiness, fulfillment, accomplishment are all achievable through that extra money we always want to earn. It has been a long time since I have heard someone dedicate his entire life to something other than his job. I sincerely hope I am in the wrong circles and there is still an increasing number of people who use & develop the right side of their brain.

THE film to watch out for...

2009-11-03T00:19:00.002+05:30

Naseeruddin Shah and the hidden talent called Arshad Warsi...watch out for Ishqiya by Abhishek Choubey who assisted Vishal Bharadwaj in Onkara and other films. Here is the trailer...enjoy!!

Mid life crisis.. is it?

2009-08-30T18:42:00.002+05:30

I am just back from a day trip to Mulshi - a scenic place near Pune. After returning from the UK, I spent most of my last 2 months at home recovering from the knee injury. The mood is a little upbeat.

But off late I have been observing a change in mood as the Sunday Sun moves westwards. An anxiety starts creeping in. Mostly to do with work. What is in store on Monday? Will tomorrow be painful? Is the Manager going to throw some new issue at me? Am I missing a deadline? Lot of such anxious thoughts that make my Sunday evening rather nervous. As I wake up on Monday morning, I am completely exhausted by these thoughts instead of being fresh from a weekend. I have been trying to analyse what this could be.

It appears that most of these thoughts crop up from a kind of insecurity or may be lack of confidence. I am scared of being pointed out as a loser, someone who did not perform. Or I fear I may be betraying my boss's expectations. There is always a struggle to be right - never to be wrong, never to be looked at as an idiot and most importantly to be trusted for commitment and sincerity. There is always somewhere a doubt that fingers may point at me today. Have I thought this through? Is this going to work the way I think it should? Do I know enough??!!

Enough, sufficiency, optimum are unquantifiable at the junction of life I am in. Do I earn enough? Am I responsible enough? Do I behave like a Manager or still a fresher? Should I be carefree or thoughtful and immaculate? Should I buy a bike and do road trips or be more sane and buy a house and settle down? I am not confident of the world at my workplace. It seems to be too strict to pardon a mistake. So I am scared. But is it really? Every decision I make, every mail I write, every conversation I have at work seems to decide whether I stay or I am thrown out. I keep thinking if 'this thing I am doing' could make me lose my job. And then the next thing I know is I am thinking of what I would do if I am not doing this? I start thinking of alternate careers, possible business ventures, where the money would come from and weired things like that. And all this does is takes the air out of my today.

I haven't been living in present since a long time. I am either deliberating on the past - should I have worked harder and become a doctor, should I not have quit Banking; Or I am deliberating on my future - should I start my own business or become a teacher, will I be able to move to Goa 5-6 years down the line, so on and so forth. Does it help me in anyway to make the decision now? Hell no! Last week I deliberately tried to keep these thoughts out of my mind. I have been quite successful. I am sure I will weed this out over a period of time.

Is this mid-life crisis? Whatever it is, I have observed that the best way to overcome this is to involve yourself in other activities. They could be any of your hobbies or simply socializing. I also avoid office talk as much as possible after work (and sometimes even at work)! I am also spending more time keeping in touch with friends and relatives, reading literary stuff - something that is not about business or statistics. I try to read Marathi books, poems, short stories and stuff that is pure pleasure. As of now this seems to be the right path...lets see where it takes me!

Community Supported Agriculture

2009-08-17T20:13:00.003+05:30

Most products have the cost of failure built into the price of the product. For example, a film. When a film gets made, there are so many things at stake, that the all these risks are covered by the premium on the ticket. If a film ticket was prices simply by dividing the cost + profit by the number of people watching, it would be pretty cheap. Or consider for example, the price of a car. The insurance premium that the manufacturer pays is built into the cost of the car. Or say a doctor, who conducts very risky operations get paid highly...and now you ask what's the point??

The point is, this doesn't happen with a farmer.A farmer faces all the vagries of nature or monsoon. Alll his risks are unmeasurable and unpredictable. But does he get to decide his pricing? Why does market not behave perfectly when it comes to agriculture? Why doesn't the theory of high risk - high return apply to agriculture? How does a farmer hedge his risks then is the main question!
The answer as I found today lies in Community Supported Agriculture. This is a fantastic system wherein buyers share the risk with a farmer. They are participants in the farming process economically and hence emotionally. If the monsoon isn't good in a year, and the farmer isnt able to grow enough tomatoes, the buyers will have to forgo the amount but may be compesated by a good winter and receive abundent peanuts. But since the risk is spread, it becomes insignificant to every individual. Morover, the farmer can concentrate on growing quality stuff rather than having to worry about selling it. There are various flexible models around the worls for CSA. Just google it up and its an interesting read. Looks like my next career move ;-)

Film piracy funding terror

2009-08-14T20:12:00.000+05:30

"Film piracy funding terror: US thinktank"

I have read about this many times before. Since the time I was convinced, I stopped buying pirated films and music from the street.
Have a read.

Good read

2009-06-12T00:25:00.001+05:30

If this is unbiased media, it is worth the read and raises many questions - here goes

Could this work?

2009-06-11T23:07:00.002+05:30

I am thinking of a business idea.
We have small shops all throughout India selling computer hardware. Along with this they sell or give pirated windows OS and MS Office for free. This is no doubt illegal an the only reason MS is mum about this is probably because of their business model. They would like the world to be dependent on them so that most applications are developed for Windows. They can anytime enforce the anti-piracy crusade making people buy their OS.
Is it possible to create a niche for oneself in this market by promoting open source software? Most of the home users tend to use multi-media, web-browser and office tools like word editor and spreadsheet. With the wide gamut of Linux flavours available now and companies like Open Office spending a lot of time and talent on development, I think is it very much possible. This can even be coupled with user training in these areas. Spreading the usage of open source software among the lay users and small business users can create a strong base for the development of open source software.
Even if one such enterprise opens shop in every town and city in India, it can then have a community based support system. A common knowledge pool can be created to support existing and upcoming players. This community can then even churn out training material, methodology, support strategy for open source software. They can be also a authentic feedback system for companies developing open source software.
Till the time open source does not come into the public domain and remains the interest area of the geeks, it's spread and hence growth will be limited. The day my wife is forced to use a laptop with Ubuntu...would be the dawn of a new era!

Cricket ...eh?

2009-06-06T15:12:00.003+05:30

I..sorry 'we' ...are going to watch a T20 match between Bharat and Bangladesh at Trent Bridge stadium here in Nottingham. When I told this to someone in office, he asked me if I play cricket? I just said No and skipped the discussion.
Later on when I thought more on this, Cricket to me was more like watching a movie. One doesn't care what is happening behind the scene and all that matters in entertainment. What matters is the end result...winning or losing!
There are actors...good and bad just like players, specialists of batting and bowling like heroes of action or comedy.
Update: This post was initiated yesterday when we were about to leave for the match. The match was fantastic, but the second half towards the climax got boring :)

Insider special

2009-03-27T20:50:00.001+05:30

Many people want to know about Satyam. How the fiasco was crafted? Did employees have any idea about something this big happening say about 2 years ago? Everyone wants to know a bit more than what comes in newspapers and Dalal street portals. So here is a ready reckoner to that extra bit you should know to gain attention at dinner tables and tea time chats...
Folks knew nothing. Everyone was pretty happy that they were employed by a company that was counted in the top 4 or top 5 IT giants of the country. It was like just another job. I quit Satyam not because I smelt something. I quit because I smelt money in my new job and it was a bigger machine, more disciplined and a bigger brand. The only sign that one may notice in restrospect is employees being without work for long period and still not being woken up from their slumber. But nobody noticed it then. It was all hunky dorry.
Even the directors and members of the top management claim oblivion. But in my opinion it is similar to Musharraf claiming oblivion to terrorism in Pakistan. Being unaware of such a big scam when you are in a position to have access to all the information you want is I think a challenge to ones intelligence and intentions. To put it in more naive terms - how would you feel if your 100 cc bike starts running at 140 KmpH? Wouldn't you suspect some foul play? When one is in the driver's position, he is completely aware of the capabilities of the machine <organisation>. When indicators show something beyond capacity, they should be questioned.But did Mr. Raju do it out of malified intentions? I don't know. It is difficult to know. Most aquittals in criminal cases happen because there is a lack of evidence to prove wrong intentions.
That is the max I have on the hot topic of yesterday. Oh ... and one more thing. I have bought about 80 shares of Satyam at present levels. So you know my view. :-)

Where have I been????

2009-03-22T16:59:00.001+05:30

Yes! Guilty! Not been in touch for last 2 months. Biggest sin a blogger can make. I am a criminal. Agreed. But don't you want to hear the story? So here goes...
It has been a not-so-active work life since I joined by new company. I haven't been really getting the projects. I have been doing org. initiatives on and off. But that's it. Nothing much. But off late, in the last couple of months, things have become exciting. I have been trained on 2 new products in a span of a month. And currently I am working on a pretty niche product. A Marketing Automation Application that Gartner positions in the 'Leaders' quadrant. So the trainig has been a big leap. And to add to it, I am on a live project implementing the same product. Talk about constant learning!
And if this was not enough, this project needs me to travel to United Kingdom for a 3-4 months period. So here I am taking advise from everyone who has even been to an international airport, weighing baggages, buying woolens in scrotching summer of Pune and what not!And all this ain't no be free. It comes at a price - that of working 11 to 12 hours a day. I have lots topics to write about - politics, time travel, UK trip and much more. But lets wait till I get the time. Till then adios!

Traffic as Life

2009-01-27T22:47:00.002+05:30

As I was commuting from office to home on the motorcycle today, the thought crossed my mind again; as it has several times, whenever I have driven on long stretches of highway. So I thought of sharing this with all the millions and zillions of neurons that follow this blog so closely :-).
There is a close resemblance between life and traffic on the roads.

One has an origin and a destination like birth and death of a lifetime.
But some journeys end abruptly before the traveler reaches his destination.
Some vehicles want to travel fast and sprint a short distance in shortest possible time. There are others that want to take their time to go the distance.
How comfortable your journey will be depends on your vehicle - the medium that takes you from your birth to your death; viz. your body.
You may pick up fights along the way. But more the time you spend fighting, lesser the distance you travel. :-)
You may break the law and cause inconvenience to others but along your journey, there will be someone else, more rowdy, who will treat you the same way.
There is always someone faster than you, it is just a matter of time till you come across him.

Life and traffic, as I see them, are great levelers. In the long run, nobody has an advantage over fellow travelers.

Jai Shri Ram

2009-01-26T10:42:00.003+05:30

An incident that reinforces my belief in the Hindu way of life - a group of 40 men from Mangalore inspired by the lord श्री राम beat up women in a Pub/lounge/restaurant. Here is the media byte.
Even if we take this with a pinch of salt and blame the pseudo secular media for some saucy coverage, the beating is for real. I am sure if I raise this issue with every swayamsevak I know, it is going to be sidelined. This in my opinion is the real danger.
It is time every Hindu wakes up and takes cognizance...mishandling women is a strict NO. NO SCRIPTURE IN OUR RELIGION REASONS THIS!

Aurangabad - Ajantha - Ellora

2009-01-02T11:46:00.019+05:30

The long weekend X'mas vacation presented a beautiful opportunity for a family trip to Aurangabad. Being the historically endowed town it is, Aurangabad has ample tourists spot to fill up three days.
Yours truly, accompanied by parents and wife drove down to Aurangabad in a Santro. We left Pune at 6.30 AM on 25th December'08. The total distance of 250 Kms to Aurangabad was covered in 4 and 1/2 hours with a break for breakfast.
Once at the destination, finding the right accommodation was the biggest pain. Aurangabad does not have clean economy hotels. The place looks more like business place and most of the hotel rooms are indecent to say the least. Good accommodation is available at MTDC, but it is always overbooked. Other good places are very very costly which include, The Taj, The Ambassador, Hotel Amarapreet etc. Minimum tariff at these places is close to INR3000 for a couple per room per day. So we took the easiest way out. We paid an autowallah 20 rupees to find a good hotel for us. the deal was that he wouldn't stop till he showed a place we liked. He was free to earn his commission from the hotel. At last we got a OK hotel at station road, 'Hotel Sai Palace' for INR800 per room-night.
Having dumped our luggage at our rooms, we rested till about 2.00 pm and set out for Biwi ka Maqbara. The amazingly crafted and neglected place took up close to an hours time . We got a taste of a street smart 'guide' at this time. He promised to show us around for just Rs.30 while others were charging as much as 100 rupees. Once we finalised him for his services, he walked something close to 20 steps with us. Spoke gibberish like 'ये मिनी ताज महल है। इसे औरंगजेब के बेटेने अपनी मां के लिए बनाया था। ये तभी बनाया गया था जब उनकी मां जिन्दा थीं। औरंगजेब कुरान लिखकर और टोपियाँ सीके ख़ुद की कबर के लिए पैसे जमा करता था। इसलिए उसकी कबर सिर्फ़ १४ रुपये और ७५ पैसे में मिटटी की बनाई गई हेई। औरंगजेब के मना करने पर ही बीवी का मकबरा सिर्फ़ आधा ही मार्बल का बनाया गया और बाकी मिटटी का। ' He repeated this over and over just to make it a lot of information. The he also offered three 'complimentary' शेर (which mind it he usually charges for). The water you see in front of the taj replica is full of moss and a sight for sore eyes. People sticking to their true nationalism, piss in the open and leave an aromatic short term mark of their presence at this heritage site.
Just at a stones throw distance from the Maqbara are the Aurangabad Buddhist caves. Unfortunately, the caves haven't got the attention the deserve. They are overshadowed by the grandeur of the Ajantha and the variety of the Ellora caves. But the Aurangabad caves were definitely worth the extra hour we spent. The hillock that hosts the caves boasts of a beautiful view of the surroundings with the Maqbara standing tall amidst smaller buildings. There are a few carvings that haven't been able to stand the test of time. They are subjected to extreme weather, and visitor's wish to leave a 'mark' in this world. By the time, we were done with the caves, it was dawn. We set out for पनचक्की - a flour mill driven by hydro-mechanical energy. This is special. Most of the historical monuments we see are static and at best we can appreciate the Civil engineering aspect, the grandeur, the intricacy of the carvings. But it is all static. पनचक्की - my friends is operational. As you can see in the video , the turbine actually rotates and so does the grinding stone atop. The water that comes, comes from a underground pipeline of & kms from the top of a hill. This is what I call engineering at its best. Mechanical parts built to last!
The second day (26th Dec'08)- this day was exclusively dedicated to Ajantha caves. Ajantha caves are 100 Kms from Aurangabad city. The drive is pleasing and takes about 2 hours. We had decided to start early but it was close to 9 am that we actually managed to leave the town. This in my opinion was our only mistake but we paid the price for it throughout the day. The wisest thing would be to leave Aurangabad at about 6 or latest by 7 in the morning. That would take us to Ajantha at non-peak hours and we would be done with seeing the caves by 2.00 pm. While in reality, we reached the caves at about 11.30 am. This is just the time when all the tour operators get bus-full of people to the caves. We along with these people spent close to an hour in the queue. MTDC has taken pains to preserve the Ajantha caves. So much so that, to preserve the paintings from the vehicular emissions, no private vehicles are allowed near the caves. The last 4 Kms to cave is to be traveled in nonpolluting vehicles (fare for A/c bur is Rs.12). Your car is to be parked at the base camp (Rs. 15 for car parking and Rs.7 per adult as facility charges). There are sufficient eateries at the parking lot.
Once at the caves, additional 10 bucks are charges per head. There is a steep climb from the ticket window to the hill top. However, there are palkhis available for the disabled. Being at the caves at rush hour, we had to spend another 30 minutes at the ticket window. Then we started the steep climb to the hill (there are well built stairs). Once at the top, a grand, magnificent, spectacular view of the valley leaves you speechless (while the climb had made you breathless!). . There are a total of 28 caves at Ajantha and only 26 are accessible. Further, not all of them have been completely carved in, not all are completely recovered by the ASI and most importantly, in all likelihood, you don't have the patience and strength to see all of them. So we took the best decision of our day, we shared a Marathi speaking guide with another group of fellow travelers. Mr. Patil never seemed like bluffing and was keen that you appreciate every minute detail Ajantha offers. His argument was simple - 'You are not going to come here again' and 'You haven't spent all the time and money to hide behind a pillar'. So we went from cave to cave, under the able 'guidance' of Mr. Patil appreciating artistic marvels. All the caves are magnificent to say the least. Whether it is the 'trick scene' of 4 deers with one head or the bull charging, all are masterpieces of the first order. As I went around in amusement, a thought struck me and it struck me hard. The artists of today, seem to be out of ideas to express their art. More than two thousand years ago, there were people who chose a place of about couple of square kilometers as their canvas. Chose the life and teachings of Gautam Buddha as the theme and went about expressing themselves. You can get a glimpse of their creativity when you see the stone ceiling painted in such a way that it looks like cloth. The sag and waving nature of cloth perfectly depicted using natural colours. Where do we see such a structure or even an attempt today? Are we too possessed with 'making it big'? Moreover, these artists of the yesteryear's, were aptly funded by the Kings. Does art today get the necessary support structure AND freedom from today's 'democratic government'?
There is more to write of the third day. That will have details of Ellora caves and Daulatabad fort. But I am fed up seeing this post in the draft section of my blog for such a long time. I will take the risk of publishing it incomplete and write more about Day 3 in subsequent post.

P.S.: Extremely sorry for the miss out on the video. Its updated now - Yenjoy :-)

Aurangabadcha Popat

2009-01-02T11:16:00.000+05:30

Hahaha. Last weekend (X'mas vacation) trip to Aurangabad. Details later.

I am booked

2008-12-20T15:19:00.003+05:30

After a long long time, I picked a book to read and fell in love all over again. I am reading Suketu Mehta's 'Maximum City' since the last 2-3 days. I am done with just 50 out of the 500 odd pages, that is about 10% of the book. I am not just in love with this book, but somehow the whole idea of 'reading' over 'watching' seems to grip me again.
Since morning I have been wondering what could probably make writing so much more connecting than a film. Surprisingly, I found the answer in my MBA, in MIS (Management Information Systems). The message should pass through minimum people to retain its true meaning. The writer writes a story, the director interprets it and tells it through the medium of actors. Actors being the thinking human beings they are (well at least the good ones), interpret every scene their way and present. Not to forget the prejudice and perceptions that the screenplay writer, the dialog writer and even the music director hold while they add their flavour to the original story.So what we watch is ultimately the amalgamation of all these hopefully unidirectional biases and thoughts. Thats what screws up the story in a film sometimes.
Reading, on the other hand, is direct communication between you (the reader) and the writer. The only weak link is the competence of the writer with language. There is no other 'person' involved in between that can alter the flavour of the story.
I hope you are getting me. :-)

Prime Time Terror

2008-12-12T09:20:00.003+05:30

After 26/11, I received number of forwards into my mailbox, proclaiming 'enough is enough', 6 steps or 21 steps the Govt. should take to combat terror, stories of martyrs of Mission Tornado, gory images of CST shootout, interviews of film stars and celebrities and every conceivable gossip possible (I am awaiting a forward on Kasab's love interest). Everyone has a good topic discuss now, at bus stops, coffee shops, at the dinner table and may be even daaru.
Media has given this incident prime coverage. Relatives of victims have spoken on television before the first tear rolled out of their eyes. New channels especially the Sabse Tej ones have even broadcast the journey of a bullet from a terrorist's gun to a soldiers chest. And we all have watched it in amusement on TV. We all have been scared. We all have been stirred. We all have been shaken.
Thousands of people gathered at the Gateway of India to protest the inefficiency of the Government. They had catchy slogans written on their T-shirts and on placards. The crowd enthusiastically clicked pictures, shouted slogans and gave media bytes. All so much filmy, so much Rang de Basanti. Now, what next?
Change in leadership at the state level, that too just one state. Will we wait for attacks on other states to bring about a change there? Are we going to be reactive only? Scared, stirred and shaen, but has the incident really woken us up? Or do we still thin that candle light and peace marches are going to solve the problem. Have the parents of Indian youth woken up enough to support their child's entry into politics? Have the Indian wives woken up enough to let their husband take up a lesser paying job, give up the luxuries of a sedan and that lucrative onsite trip just because their motherland needs them more? And above all have WE, the responsible citizens of free India, understood where every small penny spent on bribe, LPG cylinders in black market, pirated music/movies, cash payment of rent and property purchase is taking our country? Are we awake to the fact that black money from this market funds terror? Are we ready to sacrifice petty individual gains for the larger good? Stop blaming the politicians for their corrupt practices. They are just worthy representatives of who we are.

I have joined the Indian Army

2008-12-07T00:21:00.003+05:30

Now that I have your attention, let me get on with the actual post:

Here I sit today in 'Sanket' position. Sanket, my dear cousin, sits in the bean bag at mid-night with his laptop on his lap; I call this the 'Sanket position'.
Well too many things happening today. Lets take 'em up one by one.
I begin a new assignment at my workplace. I will probably end up giving a lot of consulting gyan but hopefully with some substance. Thats what it appears from the couple of meeting I had today.
I went swimming at our company's health club today. After a couple of rounds of the pool I discovered that there was a formal coach available. Not that I don't know to stay afloat, I have manage to do that for the past 20 odd years. But those are crude methods of swimming that come to you by mere survival instincts. I wanted to learn formal swimming where in the movement of my limbs could be classified into either strokes (currently it looks like the dance of a headless chicken). So here I am tired with an hour of swimming.
Dear wife is not home today. She has gone to Goa on a 5day trip and boy am I missing her. Not that she hasn't gone before and I haven't missed her before, but just saying it. So, I come back from work and cook with the help of my cousin. Three toast sandwiches and a couple of pegs of Vodka and the film starts looking interesting.
Oh I guess I didn't tell you about this. I am watching 'Shaurya' - a Hindi movie. KK Menon is a man who will hopefully carry the legacy of NaseruddinShah forward. I don't know if I have mentioned it on this blog earlier, but here I go: “Naseeruddin Shah is the best actor in th world”< period>.
There are two actors today who can carry forward the legacy: KK Menon and Irfan Khan. But imagine the strength of Naseerji's acting, it takes two contemporary actors to carry forward the legacy. No wonder, I want to be a Naseeruddin Shah when I grow up! :-)

Good night.

This is where our taxes go

2008-11-13T21:58:00.002+05:30

Penpricks are alert. See what they got for us...
If ministers and government office bearers are going to use up tax payers money for family picnics, I am not sure how far we will go with development.
Go...read on

Anil Bidarhalli - Bengaluru

2008-10-14T23:21:00.008+05:30

It has been almost two months since I met Anil while I visited Bengaluru (Bangalore) during a weekend trip around the independence day. That was the first time I met him, but the man has left a lasting impression. I had mentioned to him over a cup of coffee about my idea of this series. I never called him in the last 2 months because I wanted to fulfill my promise first. I am free to call him now :-)
Anil has a calmness that is very unlike people of his age. A maturity that one gains after seeing a lot of the real world. He has been successfully running a computer hardware sales & service business since last 4 years or more. At the age of 28, he has bought himself a Sedan, a Mac and has sufficient wealth to take care of his family (he is single and lives with his parents) and pamper his little sister :-). But wealth is only one aspect of Anil's business. His real kick is in vision.
Anil started his business without consciously starting a business. Well, that is how he likes to put it. He has just got over his +2's and he was helping his friends with their hardware problems. Gradually he thought of doing it professionally. After running it on the retail consumer mode for a couple of years, he thought of going the corporate way. But for serving corporates, he would need to be formally registered as a firm. That was the trigger point for the birth of his firm 'XYZ'.
Anil currently runs the show with a full time staff of 6 people an has clients who swear by him for service. His 'Anil touch' is evident in many instances. His office space is very unlike others. He has rented a house as his office and keeps garden chairs for his customers to relax while they are visiting his office. His office is not in a busy commercial area. It is in a quite neighborhood. Anil's emphasis is not on creating more sales figures but rather creating a space for himself in his customer's mind through consistent and personal service. His commitment to service is evident from his long and untimely calls with his customers. Some of his customers are 70 year olds who take his word for anything in computers.
Going forward Anil wants to get into software development as well. For that matter he had also tried his hand at it an year ago. It was an enterprise sales software. But he stalled the project as it turned out to be a non-profitable venture at that time. Anil intends to understand the Software development business better and get back to it. From whatever I know of him, he sure will get back and make a success out of it.
Here are the excerpts of an e-mail interview I had with him:

What made you get into business?
I was always interested in business since my school days. I regularly used to read economic times and news papers like that. I was a regular reader of Brand Equity and Corporate Dossier. The strategies and the boardroom discussions used to drive me crazy and I used to enjoy every aspect of the business discussed.I had planned to start business after my study is completed and have some years of hands on experience, little amount of money in the bank account. Then start business. I had my punch line " make things possible" ready long before i started my business.

What were the major challenges you have faced in your business till day? especially since you are a first generation entrepreneur?
the challenge was to find right kind of clientele as my way of doing business was not conventional wherein the targets are set and performance is analysed by the balance sheet. i do not contradict that balance sheet reflects the company but it was not for my kind of business in the beginning.I have evaluated my business by way measuring the satisfaction I have given to my clients. I have always suggested my clientele what to buy and also where at times. this sincerity of thinking about the client and his money has kept me ticking in the business so far.
as a first generation entrepreneur i initially had investment crunch and slowly i have reinvested the money that has been earned through my business. even now I am in need of investment and there are investors ready to invest in my company. I am being choosy, whether to take it from them or go ahead on my own.

What are your future plans for your business?
More services related to technology and bring all of them under one roof.

What advise would you give a first generation entrepreneur who wants to take the big leap into a business venture?
I am not that big a businessman to give advice but I can share what i should have done to make my business better. Before plunging into the business i should have planned little more and secured some investment then things would have been much easier. But the thing which made me continue my business is the urge to provide service to people.

First Generation Entrepreneurs

2008-10-14T23:13:00.007+05:30

The idea of having a series of posts on first generation entrepreneurs has been on my mind for quite some time. It amazes me how people without any background in business and almost nil support from their forefathers (in terms of experience as well as finance) manage to take the leap of faith. From my personal experience it is a very crucial and adventurous decision for a first generation entrepreneur to decide to be so. I have met and closely known various such businessmen across industries. I will share the journey of these men and my thoughts about them & their business in days to come.
I hope I am able to maintain some consistency and write on at least one entrepreneur every week. Look out for my posts with label FGE aka First Generation Entrepreneurs. :-)

Its here!!!

2008-09-16T20:58:00.006+05:30

Guys you wont believe this!!!!!!!!! Ubuntu is here ...on my laptop!!!!!
You can judge the degree of my excitement from the number of exclamation marks I am using!!!!!!!!!
Actually I initially decided to borrow a copy of Ubuntu CD but couldn't find one with any of the 1st degree contact. So I thought of buying a magazine that would have a complimentary CD of Ubuntu. But I couldn't find that either. Next option was to download and burn the OS on a CD. But I learnt from their portal that one could order an original Ubuntu CD and it would be delivered to my doorstep by a distributor from Bangaluru for as little as Rs. 250 (handling & shipping charges). That for me was like receiving a DVD of Amitabh's super-hit Don signed by Big B himself. I was so excited when I received the CD yesterday that I even took pictures of it so that you guys can have a look at it...

The installation was a breeze. It took hardly about 30 minutes to install. The only knowledge one needs to install Ubuntu is that of English knowledge. Here is the first screen-shot after installation.

I hereby declare Ubuntu as the best operating system I have ever used!!!!!!!!

Refresher!!!

2008-09-13T11:26:00.003+05:30

I was nearing a pathetic weekend, where nothing seemed to be falling in place. Too many household chores (mostly those irritating types) and no excitement at work. I was so damn pissed off with the whole weekend stuff.
But then I came home yesterday and my mood has been on the upward. It all started with a nice Fish cuisine dinner yesterday. Then the movie The Last Lear. Went to sleep at 1 at night. Today morning at 7, there was a group cycle ride planned. And this ride has been physically so consuming because of the terrain, but has done wonders to my mood. It wasn't exactly a 'group' ride per se. We were just two guys. Sundeep on his kool Merida was my companion on this drive. This collegue of mine has amazing fitness level (of course when compared to me, even a tortoise would look agile). He has been jogging and running for last 7 years and has taken up cycling recently. He bought this expensive bicycle just couple of days back and has been cycling at least 20 odd Kms everyday. Amazing fitness this !
Here is the route we took.

The NDA route
Find more Bike Rides in Pune, India

Cycling around the city

2008-08-22T23:43:00.006+05:30

Pune, it seems was once a city of bicycles. This non polluting environment friendly vehicle was a prime mover in this city. But not now! Now Pune is a highly polluted city bustling with two wheelers and cars. There are close to a million two wheelers in this city. Many economists may look at this as the great Emerging India Phenomenon, but that is so myopic.
To come to the point, a few weekends back, your truly decided to take a tour of the city on my Hero Ranger Swing. It was a cool 25 Kms trip that lasted around 4 hours with a lunch in between.
I started from my apartment at around 12 in the noon and was back by 4 in the evening. Starting from my apartment in Bavdhan, I climbed and descended the small hill of Chandani Chowk. Then just around 4 Kms away from home came my first break. I felt dehydrated immediately and understood how important it is to carry water with you while cycling. Ater cooling off for 5/10 mins and having a glass of lassi, I pedalled further. With minor interruptions from rains, I managed to take Paud road, Karve road, diversion at SNDT college, KNP, Prabhat road and coming out in Good Luck chowk from Bhandarkar road. This was one leg of the journey. A fact worth noting was that despite the halts and the cycling speed, it took me just 5 minutes more that it would have taken me in Car.
Wadeshwar is a restaurant you must eat at when you are in Pune. They server authentic South Indian food. Especially their Appes are just yummmmm!!! Having a good meal at Wadeshwar with the better half, I proceeded further. This time on a different route.
I crossed the entire length of FC road and touched the University road near Sahakar Sankul Junction. From here, it was a relatively flat road via E-square, University chowk, DRDO, Pashan circle and back home. I had decided on may way back that having consumed sufficient fluids at lunch, I need not take any breaks. Thankfully, I stuck successfully to my resolution. Not to mention I was all dead tired at the end of this journey. But the effort was really worth the exhilaration it provided.

Update: I found this sexy website that allows me to post a map of my rides. Not only that, it also calculates the distance I have cycled. Isn't that amazing!!!
Check out the route I took:

&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/india/pune/493294106326"&amp;amp;gt;The first city cycling route&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/india/pune"&amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Pune, India&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

2008-08-21T12:48:00.000+05:30

I do this from Suse 10.1

Did I tell you the story of a guy who was blessed with a bit of too much? Well, here go...

There was this fella, just got a job with a fat pay check, all married and all, bought a cool desktop for himself planning to have broadband connection so that he could blog his way to glory. ;-). The bloke gets blessed with a laptop of all things. Now he also has a broadband connection (at a whopping speed of 2 MBps). having resources including time at his disposal, he decides to try his hands at Suse 10.1.

Now my friends, I am using the inbuilt application in the OS to post this entry. I have also downloaded the latest version of scribe-fire which will work with the latest version of Firefox. Poor me has so much on hands now, that I don't know how to install these updates.

Video is not working as well so I have downloaded real player 11. Again I dont know how to install that as well. I hope I will make all things work over this weekend.

I had a small personal trip to Bangalore over the last weekend and have lots to share about this trip. It was one of the most enriching trips of my life to say the least.

Take care...

Scribefire the great

2008-07-22T11:33:00.001+05:30

It has been a long long time since I blogged and the primary reason for that is lack of blogging access from my workplace.
I had installed ScribeFire on my Firefox a long time back, but it didn't seem to authenticate my blogger account because of the firewall settings. A random try today however just clicked and now I hope I can blog at will.
I have a lot to say so keep watching this space...

My Soul is alive

2008-04-21T09:12:00.003+05:30

In the comments I received on this post, an 'anonymous' said that the first inference he could draw from the post was that my Soul was alive ...& kickkkking!!!! :-) And that is when I realised, how true it was!
The primary sign of a living soul is unrest. Once you stop thinking about what you are doing, you are so dead. One may not know 'exactly' what one wants, but she should be always challenging the status quo. The day I come to terms with my existence,my work, my life I will know for sure that a fire deep within (not of acidity) has seized to exist.
The comment has suddenly made me realise that this very unrest will make me do something interesting some day! Something that will make the world think I have achieved, and make me realise that i have taken the first step, increase the unrest within, and strive for more.
Thank you anonymous!!!

RSS - an answer to the caste discrimination

2008-04-15T13:28:00.004+05:30

One of my old post on Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh drew a comment today. It posed a few question about the stand RSS takes on the issues of caste system in our contry. The reader also asked if RSS could be a possible solution. And this, my dear readers in the fuel for this post.
Let me put forth some facts about the organisation called RSS right at the beginning.

RSS is a social organisation. There is no formal registration and participation is completely voluntary.
It is not a political, religious or profit making orgnisation.
There are no posts, there are only responsibilities (in fact that what they are called).

These facts make it clear that this is a place where entry and exit is pretty easy. There are no costs involved with either. Which means there is no-one who can tell you that he will get you registered with the RSS and do you a favour. RSS is for everyone. In my opinion it is a perfect place where caste ism cannot exist. There are no reservations for a certain community. The Sangha (as I would like to call it henceforth), believes only in an individual and not the community one comes from.
The Sangha cannot force anyone into not believing in the caste system since it does not control any individuals thoughts. However, it certainly practices non-discrimination. For example, I have been to a shakha which is like a grassroot level proceeding of the sangha. Here I have taken instruction from a non-bramhin, had food with, bathed, prayed and lived with lower caste individuals. It is what I practiced as a swayamsewak. The Sangha will not issue a diktat or a fatwa. It will merely preach by practicing. So more the number of people who start going to a shakha the more they will stop believing in the caste system.
Go through the facts I have mentioned about the Sangh and you will realise it is no different from Orkut...but the sangha comes with a purpose, with an ideology and with some discipline.
To sum it all up, RSS is as biased as Orkut, when it comes to an individual's caste. :-)

India Fund

2008-04-10T11:56:00.003+05:30

On my way back home, during my bus ride, as usual, India's Nehruvian rate of growth struck me and I was trying to find a solution to many problems.
Democracy gives importance to numbers. Mere numbers. Crooked politicians manipulate these numbers to gain absolute power. They use tax payer's money like their own and use it to gain popularity with the numbers. Bestow them with free education (not loans) and barter votes for favour or cash. The taxes we pay go into a pool and are (mis)used by the politicians.
How do I as a tax payer ensure that the money I pay as taxes goes where I want it to. Here comes the solution:
The government of India should float an India Fund. The sectors of investment should be education, health, defense, infrastructure etc. Every tax payer should be allowed to pay his taxes by directly putting his money in either/all of these sector funds. This way rather than the vote, every tax paying citizen will have a direct control over how his government allocates funds. He can then use the vote to ensure that each of these funds are spent judiciously.
The government will of-course want to do something for the poor. Then the government should earn its own money by providing value added services.
If the tax payers see that they are not reaping the benefit by 'investing' their taxes in a certain sector, the corpus of that sector will start decreasing. This is an indication to the government to increase the efficiency.
If the government wants to start a new project in a certain sector, they should bring out a detail project report which should be made public. The project report should be such that it should attract tax payers to invest in the sector. We can also provide a little flexibility by allowing a certain percentage of fund to be transfered from one sector to the other.
It may seem at first that the general tax payer will not invest in sectors like education and health as he can avail the facilities from private suppliers. But the tax paying citizen also gets a certain benefit from the education and good health of the people around who cannot afford private services. Hence everyone will certainly make some contribution to the 'uplifting the poor'.
Sole intention is to have some control over where my tax money goes. What do you think?

27

2008-03-30T18:27:00.003+05:30

As the clock struck 17:05 on 29th March 2008, I completed 27 years of existence on the 3rd rock from the Sun. I cant call this journey successful yet as the end objective has not yet been achieved (the end objective has not even been set yet for that matter :-) ). But the journey has surely been a pleasure. I have decided to zero in on short term and long term objectives for myself. I tried living each day as it comes. But the pleasure seems to be momentary and short lived...only for the day. I guess setting goals for oneself and achieving them over time will give more satisfaction. It is just another thing I want to try.

A political party with a stand

2008-02-20T13:58:00.003+05:30

I came across this full draft of a speech by Shri Adavani (leader of the opposition, Lok Sabha) which he delivered at FICCI.
As one of the comment says, the victory in Gujarat has lead to a change in the BJP. They now know for sure that development CAN be a valid issue for fighting an election and more importantly, winning it. All BJP needs now is fresh blood that can see the party do wonders for the country.

Why people break rules

2008-02-18T17:05:00.004+05:30

This is a topic I have been thinking over for some time. It is disheartening to see that breaking rule is becoming a norm across our country. As per a recent news article that is what even the government is observing. We dont need anybody's statement to testify this as we see it all around us. This post is an attempt at understanding why the law of the land is broken?

Let us first try to understand why laws or rules are brought into place. A rule is an attempt to make the playing field level. It identifies a set of criteria based on which decisions will be taken in a system. Forming a queue is the simplest form of rule. It identifies first come first serve basis for serving a person, no parking zones are meant to be kept free for free traffic flow so on an so forth. Becauase rules are more like cartels. The member who deviates has an incentive to do so than what he would achieve by staying in the cartel. There are certain market conditions in which cartels work. I will not get into the details of what cartels are (follow the link for that).
But lets see how industry avoid or tries avoiding breaking of a cartel.
First of all and most importantly, every member can be a whistle blower. Which does not happen efficiently in case of rules or laws. Every law abiding citizen should bring to light a violation because it is more like someone is reaping the benifit of breaking a cartel and stealing a part of the common public good that a cartel pomises. Secondly the cost associated with breaking of a cartel should be very high. A part of the punishment should be that you shouldnt be taken back into the system untill you spend sufficient time outside it or pay a hefty financial penalty. For example if you are seen building an extra floor over and above the permissible limit, your construction license should be cancelled for say 5 years. The punishment should be greater than the benefit one derives out of breaking a carltel.
Why do you think this wont work?

They still divide and rule...

2008-02-08T11:39:00.000+05:30

What the British and the Indian National Congress did for centuries together, the new age political parties are still doing the same...Divide and Rule. Only positive part is that they seem to be taking a clue from history.
Maharshtra Navanirman Sena - formed by a young politician Mr. Raj Thackrey, whose political aspirations made him come out of the shadow of his mentor and Uncle Mr. Bal Thackrey, is all out to break every skull that is not Marathi. Why? Because it has no real issues to raise. The Big T (of the Thackrey) did the same thing a few decades ago and became a major hit with the Mumbaikars. Once popular and in power, he skillfully shifted the line of divide from Marathi v/s Non- Marathi to Hindu v/s Muslim. Reason? arithmetic. Only Marathi votes can’t get ShivSena to win seats. So be more inclusive and garner hindu votes a superset of Mrathi votes.
So what’s Raj upto? Poor soul had broken away and was losing mind-space in the voters. Out of sight is out of mind. He had to do "something" to regain some media space. He referred his old notebooks and came up with a sure shot trick Uncle had taught him.
He and his men will now be arrested, he will give impressive media bytes, break the Hindu vote bank further into Marathi and non thus eating into the same cake that BJP and ShivSena already claim as theirs. Final gainer? Indian National Congress.
But, do not forget that Congress has a incurable disease. That of dissentful leaders. There is Mr. Rane who earlier broke away from the ShivSena to join INC who is right now in the dissent mood. So one can not overlook a possibility of an alliance between Mr. Rane and Raj.
Welcome to Indian politics...

Update: Read Atanu's Post and an article in Times of India by Tarun Vijay - editor of Panchjanya, a Hindi weekly brought out by the RSS.

Scott..

2008-02-05T11:31:00.000+05:30

I have been following this bloke eveer since I joined the IT industry couple of years ago. I admire him no only for his funny bone, but also for his ability to make his passion his profession.
Dilbert, which till now was a part of my feeds, is now an official widget on my blog. Keep visting this space for your dose of corporate humour and my banter.

How to know what you like the most

2008-01-24T14:08:00.001+05:30

Have you ever been in a situation where you take up something because you like it and then after doing it for some time you find you are no longer happy doing it?
That's what exactly been happening with me all along. Engineering, MBA, Banking, IT consulting, IT consulting with a fatter pay check. My dearest friend thinks I am cut out for an independent businessman. My mother and wife are in no mood to listening to a "I just quit my job" news.
Now I have serious doubts about my interests. Do I switch jobs with full information or are they out of mere curiosity? Am I to be called a fickle mind? How do people know right from the age of three what they want to do? Can't there be someone who wants to try out a couple of things before he settles down on something!!!
Right now I am hell bent on getting into acting. But now I am playing mind games with myself. What if I gt bored there? What next?
I want to find an answer to this question "How to know what you like the most...without actually trying it out?"
Mind helping me with the poll?

Why Lead India wont work

2007-12-11T11:13:00.000+05:30

All of us must be well aware of the Lead India campaign started by the Times Of India group. Yet a brief overview in their own words.
I think this is just another talent hunt program and is not going to help India politics or democracy in any way. The very reach of this program is limited to literate English speaking class of Indians. That could be hardly 10% of the total voting population. The real aam aadmi who decides the governments and hence the policies that govern us is far from basic primary education, leave alone English newspaper or television medium. As I have written in my earlier post real politics will still be nothing but manipulating numbers. As atanu says in his post here, untill basic education is given to each and every Indian citizen, it is stupid to expect rational thinking and unbiased opinion from him/her.
All that this contest will do is provide limelight to a bunch of opportunistic small time socialites, bring dinner table discussion on national television and increase the revenue of mobile companies through premium priced SMS and call services.

A question to SRK

2007-11-21T09:06:00.000+05:30

Found this article while surfing the www the other day. I think its a question that needs to be asked. It my sound like a party pooper to the SRK fans, but take your time and ponder over it.
Although the the writers other posts are pretty ordinary, I found this particular article quite interesting. Go on...read it.

4 days and 23 hours to go...

2007-11-20T10:21:00.000+05:30

The big day draws closer. The early visitors have arrived. The houses will slowly be filled and packed to their capacity. Everybody's eyes will be settled on the two people in the middle. As I write this post, it is just 4 days and 23 hours to time zero (25th November 9.31 AM IST).
Moods are changing in the dressing rooms. The preparations are fierce and the stage is all set for the big match...

भटी

2007-11-20T10:19:00.000+05:30

काल आँफिसांतल्यांन घरी जात्ना मी कसला तरी विचार करीत होतों. तेद्वां अचानक लक्षांत आलें कि मी विचार जर भटींत करतों जाल्यार भटींत ल्हियत कशा नाय ? म्हणुन ह्येँ भटींत.
ह्या फुडें भटींत ल्हियवेशें दिसलें जाल्यार सवय असावी म्हणुन...

i Cycle

2007-11-13T09:58:00.000+05:30

After having shifted to Pune, I didn't get the time to put my bike in shape again and take it out for a ride. Actually it is not so much about time as it is about motivation. There is a threshold motivation one needs to reach. When this motivation exceeds the laziness, you are game! In my case, it happened yesterday.
I walked half a kilometer, got the tires inflated, put in a nut that I had lost to transporting, got some lubricant on the drive and I was ready to go.
It was a ride with a purpose as I was going over to the Jawdekars for wedding invitation. Now I know why pune was once a city of bicycles. Once you cross over the hill of chandani chowk, it is fairly cyclable. Also the air is so chilly, you don't sweat much. It was a tough task for me although since I leave on the other side of chandani chowk. While coming back from the city chandani chowk is one hell of a uphill task. I got out of breath mid way. The air being chilly and heavy was the real problem now, as i breathed hard, i had a soaring sensation in the throat and my sinus started showing sings of coming back to life. Unfortunately for me, the elevator to my apartment is shut down after 10 pm (no idea why). So I had to climb up 5 floors. By the time I was at the door, I was seeing purple circles in darkness. I managed opening the door and crashed on the floor. As I gradually took in some liquids, I was fine.
I guess I will do this more often now to earn back the stamina.

The oscar for dilemmas

2007-11-07T08:55:00.001+05:30

As I was travelling from Goa to Pune in a Bus, I overheard some conversation and could see a lot of dilemma on the face of a fellow passenger. As the story evolved, I could connect with him. Thus it went:
They were a couple, he was with his fiance/wife/girlfriend (a non-ma/behen relationship). There was another girl (pretty) who wanted to a lady's seat. She could get it only if this gentleman would give up the company of his travel mate as there were no other female passengers on the bus. I have been through similar situation and have said no and felt guilty about it till the society at large did something equally unjust to me. But this incident in the bus the other day, sparked off some more such dilemmas that I have come across quite often. I thought of having a golden globe of dilemmas; put them on the blog and see which is the most common dilemma.
First being the one above, the second dilemma that comes to my mind is of cheating in exams. No No. Me cheating is taboo enough! It is someone else trying to steal an answer or two from your answer book. Do you let the person go ahead and provide him the help that he is asking? or do you let you conscience dictate his grades?
Third dilemma, I face every morning. Imagine this situation, the office bus/train is about to leave in 2 minutes, you have just over a minute to wear your shoes and collect your purse, mobile and handkerchief. The decision to be made is, do you wear yesterday's socks or run for a fresh pair? (same with the hanky). I am sick and tired of making this decision every morning. I am just waiting to get married wherein an authority will pass such judgements for me. :-)
Next one is a shopping dilemma. It pops up its head when you have gone around the world trying to find a Tee shirt you like. And then you find this one! But it is too costly. But you know, the price is negotiable. Still the salesman don't budge as much as you wished he would. Do you accept moral defeat and buy the tee? or you let your brain do the math and walk out?
I would be glad it you want to add some more dilemmas. Competition is still open and nominees may be added.
And the Oscar goes to...???

Is it the right time to start a venture?

2007-11-01T09:10:00.000+05:30

OK! For once a blogger is inspired instead of the readers. And I want to start a venture in product development. I have something in my mind on the lines of SaaS. I intend starting a company at my home (preferably in my garage so that success is guaranteed). But the main question is, is it the right time to start a venture?
With rising salaries in the industry, one will have to cough up a lot of money to hire good people. Although, the venture may be easily financed, break even may take a loooong time knowing the cost of recruitment in the industry today. So, wouldn't it be ideal to wait for a slow-down, may be a few lay-offs and a bit of panic in the industry. It will then be time when people will be ready to work for much lesser wages.
I may put a post on my business plan someday. But as of now, what is your opinion?

The beginning of the beginning

2007-10-30T11:19:00.000+05:30

In my earlier post, I spoke about the predicted downfall of Indian IT/ITES industry. The comments were on either side and one of the points that came out was the quality of India products. Be it manufacturing or services, India hasn't been spokes of much about for its quality. India Inc. has not spent significantly on R&D. In case of manufacturing, R&D requires huge investments in terms of infrastructure where as in case of IT/ITES, the investment needs to be on people along with that on infra. Now, for a better R&D in ITES, are we equipped peoplewise? To begin a massive overhauling in the outlook of the industry, where do we begin?
We begin where it all begins. Education. Let me talk a bit about education.
Do we have an education system that promotes an inquisitive mind? (a mind that will R&D!)Or are we simply creating labour, such large in number and so abundant in supply that nobody bothers about the quality .The price of this labour is bound to go down. When we boast of a large number of engineering grads. are they built (or taught) to be research fellows or to be mere labour?
We will have to start from primary education. An education system that is designed to teach kids to question and challenge. Inventions can not be expected from people who have been taught to accept things as they are. Not at least in competitive numbers. I don't totally deny the originality of our generation. But we haven't been conditioned to think like innovators. The education system that we are a product of still reads 'out of the box' as 'stupid'. Although we are capable of making path-breaking studies today, they are not sufficient to race ahead and stay there.
We will need an entire generation of Einsteins and an educational system that may not turn every kid into an Einstein, but will at least condition every mind to appreciate him.

Only the paranoids survive...hehehehehahahah!!!

2007-10-29T12:42:00.000+05:30

What does an IT consultant do on a weekend? Discusses global economics with his friends and tries..neah gives consultant answers to 88.3% of questions of the world (you wont understand the arithmetic behind the percentage...it's too complex).
That's what I did to the best of my ability and knowledge. But my friend ( he has an MBA from the real world and no B-school crap) posed a question "How long will the tech. boom last?" and I heard it as "How long will guys like you keep receiving hyped up salaries?". That was a dream shattering question. I saw a Royal Enfield Bullet (the bike of my dreams) fading into the distance. Would I still be affording Rs. 1 Lakh for a bike, say three years down the line? Would I be flaunting proportionate income X years (which I hope is multiples of 10) down the line?
Well, my friend has a fair idea of M&As happening across the globe in BPO, KPO and ITES sectors. He also knows of emerging countries who can prove to be competitive threat to India in these sectors and he also has some number (suffixed with billion and trillion) to back up his claims. Now, being a consultant gives me the liberty to talk about stuff that I don't know. So I did just that!
The argument goes that other countries like Philippines, Indonesia, 'East European' Countries and other countries whose names start with Q, X, T etc. and whose total population (including children) is slightly more than North Goa, hold a competitive advantage over India. They are culturally more aligned to the west, some of them know French, or speak English in the right accent. And the biggest thing is, they are ready to work at cheaper rates. The differentiators being narrow and the cost advantage being huge, and the cost of switching being minimal, Indians will lose their business and Mr. Laukik Desai will pack his bags for home and g(r)o(w) bananas there.
I say "hell NO"! I can work cheaper. So can most of us. Unless, inflation makes it non-viable to earn any lesser. And the differentiators are far bigger that the ones above. After learning English, the competitors gotta outdo us in technical education. Then they gotta outdo us in experience. Indian Cos. have gained experience in various verticals over the past couple of decades. So they have quite a distance to cover. Till then consultants will find something else that the competitors can't beat.
But the question sure made me paranoid till i slept. But I am glad some one wrote a book "Only the paranoids survive!". So tension illa !!!
What says the yous???

I got counter

2007-10-25T12:08:00.001+05:30

I know 2 posts in a day is an overdose. But this is not really a post. Its a promotional campaign. Hit my blog as many times as possible. I got a moral booster. And may be that will get the best out of me some day. Right now all that's coming out of me is cough (eeeeeeeeeeewwww!!!)

What does it take to...

2007-10-25T11:39:00.000+05:30

I keep wondering ... so many thoughts cross my mind every now and then. I also feel like sharing them with people. But then there is the initial hiccup of putting it in words, typing it, giving it direction and shape. but now-a-days a strange feeling overcomes me as I begin to type a post. On more than one occassion I have typed quite some content and then decided to delete it altogether.
I think I am bogged down by a limited number of visitiors to my blog. Or may be I need a 'hit counter' to keep track of hits although people may not be leaving comments behind. I will try n get one soon...
Also after having shifted to Pune a lot of thinking is happenig in Marathi. So there is an extra effort that goes into adopting it in English. May be I will start a blog in Marathi...
There is also a general lack of activity in life. I mean I have begun to think I am not quite adding value to the readers of this blog. If I was 'doing' something new/ different I could have shared with the you. There isnt much happening...
That reminds me!!!!!!!I have planned to buy a new bike for myself. Initially I was hell bent on a Bullet. But the price tag comes close to a lakh of rupees. I will prefer some thing max upto 70K. Pulsars have strated looking like toys now and their durability is a real concern. The new ones with a pointed ass look like they are made for at most 5 years. I have also heard about coplains about the digital speedos. So they will probably be my last choice. If anyone has exciting bike in mind, do let me know.
On the wedding front, preparations are on in full swing back at home. Invitation cards are ready and anytime I call home Aai/baba are busy sorting them, writing names or something like that. We had initially decided that we will post invitation to one and all. The idea was to asve time and energy and additional travelling burning of fuel and all such things for a mere invitatio. However, my uncles and relatives are all eager to distribute the invitations personally. And since a wedding is more about celebration than praticality, I and Baba sucumbed to them and the invitations shall be distributed personally to most of the people.
After I post this, i am sure I will feel like a ten more things remain to be said...and I will feel like putting another post immediately. But then to avoid having two posts on the same day, I will decide to put all those ten things in a post tomorrow and then as we all know...tomorrow never comes. "N" days down the like I will still be wondering "What does it take to be consistent?"

To .... Shopping wopping ho gayi????

2007-10-12T13:44:00.000+05:30

For those who have been out of touch with the events in the world that are effecting everything from the sensex bull run, the Indian Cricket team's loss right upto the instability of the UPA government, I am getting married on the 25th of November 2007. So shopping should supposedly be my top priority right now. However, I have managed to wash my hands off it except for the farments which need to fit me and need my measurements. So I am off the hook for quite a few decisions and 'to do' lists.
I pitty Shveta however. She has to make choices that need to be acceptable to one and all. right from her mummy, my mummy, her sister, chacha, mama, phupha and even the shopkeeper. I think marriage is the most interesting time in a girl's life. How much ever I try to think from her perspective, I will never unerstand the way she feels. Its a mixed feeling of leaving you parents for good and feeling bad about it while at the same time feeling good about the fact that you will be spending the rest of your life with the person you love. There are apprehensions about the new family you wil be joining. And the icing on the cake is 'expectations'. My dog is the only creature who doesnt have any expectations from Shveta...not at least that I know of!!!
It is one of the two things only a woman can handle (other being motherhood). I salute all the women of the world for this ...and a 21 gun salute for Shveta.

PS: I know this post has been off mark and directionless but right now all my thoughts funnel down the same way...to wedding and what Shveta must be going through.

Neem Hakeem Khatra-e-Jaan

2007-08-27T13:10:00.001+05:30

There is a new marking system for this play. It will be in kilometers. I cycled 15+15, 30 Kms (Chandanagar to Banjara Hills Rd. No. 8 and back) to watch this play. Dont ask me why. I just did it (and now 'feeling' it!!). So whatever Kms I give will be out of 30. That means that is the effort I would have put to watch the show, for what it was.

Overall the play gets a 17 Kms. A little below 60%, falling just short of first class. Neem Hakeem Khatra-e-Jaan is a an adaptation of an english play The doctor despite himslef which is a translation of original French play Le Médecin malgré lui by Molière.

The play is set in Hyderabad I guess. The central character is a good for nothing drunkard, Nathulal Bankepuria who has lost his job as a compounder with a doctor. He has been in this job for 6 years. He has a wife who always troubles him or vice versa but there are always quarrels. To get back to him, his wife convinces two courtiers of a deewansaheb that he is a Hakeem . These courtiers are in search of a doctor who can cure the Deewansaheb's daughter (Sharmili) who is blabbering nonsense. The girl is actually pretending to do so because her father is not allowing her marriage to the love of her life only because he is not as rich as the other option. The courtiers are told to bash up Nathulal till he agrees that he is a hakeem. He does so out of fear and expecting a good reward on possibly curing Sharmili. On seeing the patient, Nathulal starts making up stories about some imaginary diseas. He later comes to now the reality from Sharmili's lover. He arranges their eloping by disguising the lover as his student. The end is happy as the lover's rich uncle dies and he is formally married to Sharmili.

As you can see that this play is a farce. Some of the things I personally look out for in a farce are pace, flexibility and comic timing. Scripts in farce arent so great. Actors and directors can do wonders although. In NHKeJ, they tried sincerely, as they always do.

For me, the find of this play would be George (25Kms), who plays a small role as one of the two courtiers speaking chust Hyderabadi lingo. He has impeccable comic timing. Nobody on the stage matches him. For me he even overshadowed the main protagonist. I would experiment by giving him the main role for at least a show.

Sandeep, who played the main charater of Nathulal (15Kms), is a full time actor. But comedy doesnt seem his forte. He was wild, whacky and creative. But I looked out for timing and flexibility. It was there in meager proportions. I have seen him act in Otherness of the body and in their short film Vicharon ka Achar. he did a pretty good job in those places. But he wasn't the best here.

I am sorry I forgot the character as well the actor's name, but Nathulal's wife would win my second prize (20 Kms). She has a personality and a voice to suite farce. And she used it in style.

Other roles were comparitively small and did not leave an impact on me.

As far as adaptation is concerned Niyati did a good job for a first timer (18Kms). Some things that appealed to me were the name and the discription of the imaginary disease Sharmili has caught. WHat did not appeal to me much was that she could not give a geographical location to the play. Everyone was speaking a different language and place was not cosmopolitan. This is something that even the director/actor can imbibe into the play.

The direction was scatchy at times (18Kms). Having such young actors, one could have put their physical abilities to test. The casting was probably driven by who could give maximum time to rehersals (which I think is pretty normal considering that not all are full time actors). There was no music. Music could have added a totally new dimension to the play and could have made it more interesting.

Response wise, comedies are always crowd pullers. Sutradhar can bank on this to produce some fine comedies and take forward the theatre revolution they are heading in Hyderabad. I hope someday lots and lots of people will cycle more than 30 Kms to watch a Sutradhar play and will be glad they did it.

Bombers..dimaag bech ke aaye ho kya??

2007-08-26T15:59:00.000+05:30

Hyderabad got bombed, again yesterday. Around 40 civilians are expected dead. My Baba asked me if some militant organisation has taken responsibility. I am not sure about the organisation, but am sure it is headed by one hell of a moron. He seems to have no hint of a brain in his head.
Why then would he decide to kill Indian citizens. I am not going to argue like a socialite saying it is inhuman to kill innocent civilians. But I have a case for him. Obviosuly some one is trying to make a point to the government through these bombings. But what is the purpose of the bombings? Does he expect the citizens of India to rally behind the goverment to meet his demands? Arre bhai, we cant make the goverment do something for us, how can we make them do something for you? And if you want us to represent your demands, what are they? Who are you? Let us know each other well and then we can have a deal.
Or does he expect that the goverment will be touched, moved by these killings (although ministers claim that happens), and they will fulfill his demands. Oh come on boy!!! There are hundreds dying in this country as I type this post. Does it remotely look like our government cares for them? NO.
Then what do these bombings do other than wasting your time? Hit the nail on it's head buddy. Pick a few misters, kill some, kidnap some. Then you will be on talking terms. Then the other ministers will listen to you. Ask for a new state, nation, continent, planet. Any fucking thing you want.
You seriously need a consultant!!!!

More on happiness

2007-08-23T13:20:00.001+05:30

Sometime back I made a post titled "Happiness sale and other things". I got a comment from my friend Sumit on this post. It seems there are many people who are questioning their own definition of happiness. In my opinion its our entire generation. Some may come forward and agree to it. Some, choose to ignore, push it under the carpet, come to terms or simply give up.

Happiness as we all would agree is relative. What can make me happy may not make you happy. So what is the difference between you and me that makes us happy by different things. In my humble opinion, the answer is Maslow's hierarchy of needs .

A person will be happy because of an event depending on where he is in the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. A hungry person will be happy if he gets food, a jobless person will be happy to get a secured job. We need to identify our position in the pyramid and strive for what we don't have. The achievement of that will definitely make us happy.

In my opinion what we are trying to do is gather things that we have already achieved from the bottom of pyramid. For example, we have clothing, but we buy more and more of it. The marginal happiness we gain out of buying clothes has gone down substantially. The purchasing power of our generation has gone up substantially. So now, buying anything cannot make us happy any more. We have passed that portion of the pyramid.

Where we are currently, in my opinion, is the top two portions. We need to be acting on Esteem and Self-actualisation. Morality, integrity, confidence, achievement are some of the things we should be looking at. Being an ethical citizen, solving bigger problems for the society/country, striving towards a un-corrupt society are some of the things our generation should take up. This will definitely give us happiness. More than what Happiness Sale upto 50% off can give us.

The question to loners in AC Cars

2007-08-07T13:20:00.001+05:30

Do you ever feel guilty? We all curse the polution, we all curse the traffic congestion and we all curse the rising fuel prices. But have you ever given a thought to the fact that you are the root cause for it? Because you think it is un dignified to take public transport. Because you think you are so busy and your time is so valuable that Car Pooling is a dumb idea. A car is for four, and you are underutilising it by travelling alone.

If any of a loner in a car is reading this, I challenge them to give me 5 logical and worthy reasons that makes one chose a car for daily commute and not share it with anyone. Remember that these are the reasons you are chosing car over pollution, health & traffic congestion.

Happiness Sale and other things...

2007-08-05T23:00:00.000+05:30

First thing first! I am using an unconventional way of blogging here. I am posting this feed by writing a mail to certain id and I think thats cool! :-)
This was a pretty good weekend. I was busy and relaxed on both the days in just the right proportion. Feels goooooood!
Now about Happiness Sale. Hyderabad Central, the shopping mall has a happiness sale every now and then. I went there ones, say 6 months back and bought some things I did not want. That, I think best describes what our life has come to. Our happiness is now driven by Sales, discounts and offers. A software professional couple earning more than half a lakh a month, staying away from their parents, having given up their passions and interests for a 'career' have only deals and offers to look up to. Is that all that makes us happy? Maximum stuff for less? Getting maximum 'things' for our money?
What makes you happy?

Laukik

http://globestop.blogspot.com

A cosmetic fuel.

2007-07-30T11:29:00.001+05:30

Its been around a month since I started cysling to office. Not that I cycled all the 20 days. But at least 10 days out of 20 I must have cycled all my way to and fro.

Now people have started becoming a bit inquisitive about cycling. How I do it? Why I do it? I just met someone at the ATM yesterday, who was surprised that I cycle to work. Even he thought it was a good idea to cycle but gave me number of reason why he won't be able to cycle to work.

Its funny that people dont mind sweating it out in a gym on a bicycle that goes nowhere. They tell me they wouldnt mind coming to office also on a bicycle only if didnt make them look tired. So now it turns out that its not actually the comfort/effort that petrol gives you. Its more of a cosmetic fuel. Because you burn it just to look good in office. Else you wouldnt mind cycling. Funny!!!

Another commonly said reason is the road safety one. It seems our roads are not safe enough for cyclists. I am not quite sure of the statistics, but more people die on motorised vehicles than on bicycles. I am sure of that! And how do cyclists meet with accident? Not by banging into another cyclist or a pedestrian, they are hit by speeding motorcycle riders or cars. National Permit trucks are the safest road companions for various reasons like they dont speed in the city, stick to their lanes and ride mostly at night.

There is such a taboo about sweating when you come to office. Using deodarant, not using the same pair without washing and taking bath regularly ensures you never stink. But all people want is a reason to not cycle and flaunt their cars.

I have a question to all the people who travel alone in their cars...but I shall reserve it for the next post.

Otherness of the Mind

2007-07-19T11:19:00.001+05:30

I attended a 4 day part time workshop organised by Sutradhar Casting Agency .

The production at the end of this workshop was a more body based form of theatre performance. The performance was based on a selected poems of Chera Banda Raju and other revolutionary poets of Telangana. These poets triggered a social revolution merely by the content of their poems. As a result for the first time in the history, they were convicted of a conspiracy, arrested by the police and bruised both mentally and physically.

Although the content was from their poems, the underlying theme of the performace was state violenece arising out of religion, castism, poverty, arising global economy, graught or a disfuntional state.

Through the course of the workshop, i wasnt quite sure how the production would turn out, its impact. Having come from a more vocabulary, diction, voice throw and modulation based background in acting, I was a bit apprehensive of the outcome of the workshop.

Pranab (the digdarshak-as he would like himself called), kept telling us to feel the lines in our mind. He made us remember some of the most disturbing images from our personal lives. The workshop as such was pretty tiring and ohysically bruising.

Ther performace was titled "Otherness of the body". On the day of the performance Pranab kept telling us to be confident, and use the proximity to the audience to psyche out the audience. Our motto was to break down the audience with hard hitting scenes of violence and awake the sensitive self inside each one of them. Little did i knew that there is an otherness to the mind as well. While being the medium between the poets and the audience, the victims and the audience, my job was merely to trsansfer the agony in time from past to present.

But I underestimated the impact of the subject, poetry and the form of thatre we used. In the course of the performace, every audience that smiled, or mumered, pierced my heart. Every un-effected individual started looking like a threat to me, my family, the society and the generations to come. I might have taken all this too seriously, but the end result was that after the performance I broke down and wept like a baby. It was a bit confusing for my co-artists, but may be someday I will personally share with them some of my experiences from the past that lead to this outbreak.

Found a way

2007-07-04T13:47:00.001+05:30

Havent been able to Manage my blog from office for quite along time owing to "restrictions".

Found this wonderful online tool to do that for me.

So, expect more.

Repacing my life.

2007-06-30T12:58:00.000+05:30

Confused?? Dont be. I am just going to try something new with my life. Expectation is it wont cost me much, will make my life interesting at least for some time (months) and will probably 'repace' my life.
I dont know if this word - 'repace' has been used before; not at least in this context i guess.
I am not saying my life will be faster or slower, better or worse it will simply be not in the same pace it is now.
I am getting a feeling our entire generation is rushing through our lives. There is a hurry, to get somewhere. I am thinking of not sprinting, but taking a marathon.
This I know will come in steps. Will keep you guys posted.

well said

2007-06-10T00:11:00.000+05:30

Found this nice piece worth reading. Matches my thoughts to a large extent.

ohmagawd

2007-06-07T23:23:00.000+05:30

In a not so unique step to increase employee productivity, my company has blocked blogger as well as bloglines. The firefix addon is not working as well. So there has been a sudden drop in the posts and all of you in large numbers who follow my blog (hehehehe...feels good seriously), accept my apologies for not being able to initiate the series that would lead to the big day. hope i will be more regular hence forth.
As a first step in the direction I got engaged on 2nd of June 2007. I wont write much, but let me agree, it does feel different.
Take care all. Be good and do good.

I think like intellectuals :-)

2007-04-26T11:34:00.001+05:30

I think somewhere our thoughts meet or my thoughts are inspired by his. Read this article to know what i am saying.

The beginning...

2007-04-23T15:06:00.001+05:30

For those of you who don't know me or hardly know me or don't know enough about me, I am getting married...soon.

I am going to start a series of post in which I will try to do what a good blogger should. Share. Share my experiences as I go through 'the process'. The thoughts that inhibit my mind. My dilemmas, frustrations and joys. This, I hope, will be a guiding light for the 'wanna bes', a nostalogical (this is my special creation) moment for the 'been there done thats' and we all will probably end up sharing.

So keep watching this space...

Its not just me...its also her.

2007-04-14T15:53:00.001+05:30

Asit bought a Bajaj Pulsar 180CC. I had a 2 km test sprint with her. She was what she was...a 180CC machine driven by a crazy road maniac. Right now I own a Bajaj Boxer 100CC city bike, so simple arithmetic for me was I could do twice the 'stuff' on this bike. But looks like bikes are like wine (or women!!!) they need to age a bit.

Asit's bike is too young to 'satisfy' me. She should be couple of 1000 kilometers old and then I will sprint her again.

She couldn't cross 70KmpH and the front was a bit wobbly. But the sprint made me realize one thing ... it's time!