10 days into MBA !

Just finished the first 10 days of MBA . Incidently it has coincided with my getting the internet connection from the good for nothing Comcast Cable service. (I say "good for nothing" because Comcast cancelled my Installation Appointment 3 times simply because they could not wait for 10 minutes). That gives me the opporunity to get write this blog. Over the next one year, as move to my coveted MBA experience, I would like seperate my MBA life from the Normal boy next door blog which I have been writing for the last 10 months . (ok kuch jyada ho gaya ) . You can already see that I have updated my Profile reflecting my new status.

Will be blogging more at http://lifeathult.blogspot.com from now on. So keep watching that space for more updates from me.

JetLag,House Search and Ts...........

Into the fourth day of my 2nd US experience and things are finally beginning to look up ! First, I have been able getover the so called JetLag (I prefer to call it Lateral Time Shift ) which meant that I was awake for most of the time it was dark here ( Night Shift from USA for India ? Quite possible in the future) . Then in the day time I had to fight off the sleep (which I needed so badly) because I needed to search for a place which would be my home sweet home for the next one year. Finally my body seems to have got adjusted now to the time shift now.

And the house search meant I am talking to and meeting people completely unknown to me (like I talked to John, a Macho Realtor born in America for a 2 Bedroom Apartment, a Lithuanian Mother of three who wants to rent out her 3 bed Apartment,a Indian American who somehow wants to rent out the place to Indians only and so on ). Finally I have choosen the apartment being rented out by the American as my home for the next year and will signing on the dotted line sometime next week and moving into the place.

The search for the house took me to places like Wellington ,Somerville, Medford, Malden and some 20 T stations in between .( Ts are Bostonian way of saying Subways or Metro ). And had it not been for the convenient T systems, I think I would have spent a fortune in searching for my home. A 15$ weekly pass meant that I could travel any number of times to these places and the experience has been great to say the least. On Boston Ts , you are sharing space with students from India, China and what not countries talking in their respective Native languages, with old Bostonians who prefer the charm of the train to the hassles of Driving , with Spanish migrants from Latin America and perhaps most importantly with young Boston couples going for a date. (Boston Gals have off clean spotless backs, Necklines,hands and legs and thanks to hot "summer" days, they on display for free in the Ts.)

Another strange thing about the Boston Ts is that each of the routes have their own pecularity. The green line(each route is signified by a colour) for example turns into a tram/city bus once it is out of the underground tracks and in fact has to wait for the traffic lights to turn green (along with the cars/buses) before moving forward !!! The orange line trains are as long as a long distance train in Europe (ok they are not in 1/4th of the trains in India but for a city train,they are long). The red line trains don't have automated Voiceovers for station Information and the driver of the train himself shouts top of this voice "Attention everybody. The Destination of this train is Braintree. Brrrrrrriiiiinntreeeeeeeeeee.".

All in all a completely new experience. If you ask me if this is the most efficient subway System, I would say it is the best I have seen. Although somebody told me Delhi Metro is better but can't vouch for it myself.

First Impressions:Jet Airways will go places

Well my first blog from Boston !. Reached here yesterday evening after a 22 hr long journey. And luckily the flight journey turned out to be a really good one. Kudos to Jet Airways for starting a service from Mumbai to USA and setting high standards in terms of service and convenience. Having already travelled in the likes of NorthWest Airlines(NWA),Lufthansa and Air India, I can very well claim that the service which Jet offered was the best among these. So what did Jet so differently ?

For starters Jet Airways is using a Boeing 777-300 ER, which is a brand new long distance aircraft from the Boeing stable. Apart from offering a 3 class configuration, the best part was the ample leg room which it provided for the economy/cabin passengers. That Apart , the aircraft has personal LCD screens for every individual. Now this is not new of course, but the quality of the screen and the movie/music collections was amazing. ( Especially for we Indians, loads of Hindi movies both old and new). Again the in-flight cabin crew were the best ( both in looks and the service which they offered :)). The flight attendents were really courteous and helpful. This is really required on flights originating from India. Quite a few of them are travelling in flights for the 1st time and are not even sure as to how tighten the seat belts.(The Flight attendents of NWA were the worst I would say. They never respond to any of your requests).

We were given Menu cards for the food/beverages and the beverages on offer were really good. Like how many of the airlines offer Old Monk Black rum on flights ? Also the Indian Food on offer was really tasty and edible(by Airline food standards) when compared the stuff which other airlines offer. Another convenience is a small kit which contained the essentials like Toothpaste and brush. (These may be Small things but go a long way in improving the overall service). All in all, a long international flight where I did not get bored at all. (And No, there was no pretty gal sitting next to me in the flight.).

Full marks to Jet Airways and I do sincerely hope they maintain the same service levels in the years to come . Interestingly, by the next year , Kingfisher Airlines will start off it's international operations and going the benchmark Kingfisher has set in India's domestic flight service levels , I think the stage is set for an interesting battle between the two India based Airlines to grab a pie of the growing travel on the India-USA route.

From Bengalooru to Boston........

It is time to bid good bye to Namma Bengalooru (my Bangalore, the greatest city of the world) for the next one year atleast as I will be moving over to Boston on the 21st August 2007 to pursue my MBA. Till date most of my blogs have been focussed on the happenings in Bengalooru and India. But as I undergo multiple transformations and transitions (from the Silicon valley of India to the education capital of the world, from Cricket crazy India to the baseball madness of USA,from city of Rahul Dravid to the home of Tom Brady and perhaps most importantly from being a employee/worker to a Student,), so will this blog. From now on , expect me to write on stuff which are more US centric or rather more Indo-US centric ( perhaps things which impact we Indians in America. We now form almost 4% of the US population , not to mention the floating population of guest workers). Also will try and share my experiences of MBA and the multi-cultural milieu of which I am going to be an integral part for the next one year.

The journey begins with a 18hr long flight from Mumbai to New York City and from there on to Boston. So keep watching this space for more....... Next blog will be from the Perpetual Land of Opporunities.

Total Recall !!

Yesterday while shopping around in a busy shopping place in Bangalore, I noticed a long queue outside a Nokia Dealer Store. (The queue was much longer than the First day First show movie tickets line for a Shah Rukh Khan Blockbuster). My first thought was that the dealer is offering some freebies (or rather some free phones) and when something is for free or on sale, people will inevitably queue for them. (This is true in every part of the world including the so called developed countries like USA. Thanksgiving sales anyone ?).

But only later did I realize that the queue was for the replacement of the defective Nokia Batteries for which Nokia issued a product Advisory/Recall Notice. If you are wondering what that means, then welcome to the world of recalls/advisories whereby a Manufacturer admits that the product or part sold is defective and offers to replace it(for free of course). This must have been the first instance in India where a company by itself is admitting to a defective product on a mass scale and is offering to replace it. (It is a different matter that the Nokia's Battery recall is worldwide and is not limited to India). Now why is that we in India don't see such product recalls often ? Is that our production system is super perfect and flawless, and hence anything "Made in India" is defectless ?

Nay, we all pretty well know the reason. In a country where 200 Million struggle everyday just to get one healthy square meal a day, who has the resources to check for the lead levels in the paint used in some high end toys, which will be bought only by the super rich ? (Only last week, Mattel Inc. the worldest largest toy seller recalled millions of toys manufactured by it for precisely this reason ).While the poverty and the lack of resources may a prime reason, I do believe there are quite a few other reasons as well for this lack of "Total recalls".

Primary among them is the "Chalta hai" (It is working so it is fine )attitude of our people. As long as the product is working and is serving it's purpose , we in India are "OK" with using the product(There are exceptions to this rule of course) even if the product for example is producing excess heat. The second and perhaps the more important reason is the "repair and use" economy on which Indian economy operates . So if a product is defective and is under the so called "warranty period", the dealer instead of outright replacing the product, will try and make the product somehow work by using his knowledge and experience and because of the first reason cited above, we readily accept the "repaired" product instead of the new one. Not many products in India have "Replacement Warranties" . Most are service warranties.

But given the flat world we are operating in whereby products are getting manufactured in the best place at the best price (Mattel's toys were produced in China), it is time we consumers in India also start demanding replacement warranties . This will not only help the Indian consumers , but will also induce better quality control among the suppliers who are located in India and source out products to other parts of the world. Given the sensitive issue which outsourcing is (Mattel's recall of toys is already seeing anti-outsourcing lobby raising it's ugly head again with a "I told you so" face ), I think we are better off learning the lessons from the Mattel and Nokia story to introduce better Quality processes and control. After all good (or better ) quality is something for which we all strive for in our daily lives !!

First Impressions:CHAK DE INDIA ! rocks

Imagine you are at a Cinema hall. You watch the movie and the movie has a happy ending. At the end like in any movie, you have the names/credits scrolling out on the screen. In the typical Movie halls of India, as soon as the names start scrolling, people get up from the seats and start to walk out. But when you see that every single person in the audience has not moved an inch till the very end to watch the names/credits, you should know what impact the movie has had on the audience.

This is what precisely happened when I went to watch Shimit Amin's Chak De India, a beautifully crafted movie on an underdog Indian Women's Hockey Team going on to win the Hockey World Cup. The narration of the story was so gripping that it left the audience asking for more in the end. Hats off to Shimit Amin and Jaideep Sahni (the story, screenplay and dialogues are penned by him) for giving Hockey it's long due credit in a country where it is purported to be the national Game, but is hardly followed or played by anyone. (In fact ask any of the school going kids what India's National sports is, the inevitable slip of the tongue answer would be Cricket).

Shimit with the help of a power packed performance by Shahrukh Khan ( as a disgraced Indian Hockey Player , who takes up the challenge of Coaching the Women's Hockey Team to regain his lost pride), has packed the movie with the required patriotism, used the Male-Female chauvinism to his advantage and has brought out a movie which for sure will go down in the Indian movie history as a landmark film. (Apprently the movie is based on Mir Ranjan Negi, a real life Hockey player who coached Women's Hockey team which won the Commonwealth Gold medal in 2002 ). If Lagaan set the tempo for sports based movies in India, Chak De India takes it to the next level. So intense was the movie that the audience in the later half of the movie cheered to every goal which the hockey players hit on their way to winning the "Women's Hockey World cup".

But the real stars of the movie ought to be the small time actors and some real players who formed a part of the 16 member hockey team. Some of them really trained themselves for the Hockey game scenes and the training showed in the actual movie scenes. Also Shimit's filming of the hockey matches needs a special mention as it is very difficult to bring in the intensity into games which were actually not played in the first place !! . Some of the matches in the movie appeared so very real and seems like the production team has spent a lot of time and fortune to film these game scenes.

All in all , must watch movie for all our Cricket obsessed Indians. Shimit craftfully has even taken digs at Cricket in the movie and it makes the movie even more enjoyable especially for non-Cricket fans like me :). So go watch the movie for an entertaining and intense 2 hours !!. And I sincerely hope we Indians move out of the Cricket obsessiveness and take more interest in other games. (Or will it require another movie on say Football or basketball for this to happen ?).

Two more days !!

Yes!! The D-day has finally arrived. Exactly 48 hrs later, I will be joining the Unemployed Inc. after having spent the last 4 year and 10 months of my life working for my boss, my company and my projects and of course the perennially insufficient monthly salary.Gosh !! it seems like yesterday when I passed out of my Engineering College and desperately wanted to join the workforce. The only thing I wanted in those years was "the job". But the 58 months of work have finally gotten on me and for the next one year , I thankfully will not being waking up in the morning thinking of my boss, my company and my clients.

So what will I be doing for the next one year ? Well I intend to take the time off to complete my MBA in Boston and also find time to get to some more interesting aspects of life. So my Formal trouser, shirt,leather shoes, tie, laptop leather bag etc will now tucked away in some corner of my wardrobe. And out comes my T-shirts, Jeans , sneakers and the good old backpack.I just can't wait to get back to my student days again. The fun we had hanging out with friends in the college canteen, the movies we enjoyed together, the fun we made of our professors .

Of course, the MBA being a Post graduate degree which requires substantial years of work experience, the crowd will be much more matured, but again that is what will make things more fun.Also the fact that the students of my MBA batch are all from different countries will make this one year even more interesting. We are going to have students from China to Brazil to Latvia to Russia to India in our class. The cultural mela will be amazing. Can't wait for the day I will be landing in Boston !!

Indian Idol Enters the last Eight Phase

Yesterday's Indian Idol on Sony Entertainment Television saw the exit of Parleen Gill who on the day was atleast the 3rd best singer after Amit Paul and Ankita. But unfortunately performance alone does not make someone the "Indian Idol" . Had it been only performance on the given day, I bet Chang the dentist and Prasanth the Army man should have been out by now. Now I am not being too harsh on both these guys but after having set some exceptional benchmarks impressing one and all in the pre-Gala stage, we expected these two guys to be more consistent.

But over the last 3 weeks in the gala round,(where the stage has been reduced to last 8 from 13 in the initial gala stages) , Meiyang Chang and Prasanth have been the biggest disappointments. Both these contestants have excellent voices but unfortunately are not capitalizing on that. Add to that the looks factor of Chang and you potentially have a loved by one and all Indian Idol in Chang. But the basic thing an Indian Idol should have is singing and Chang has not been able to deliver on that front.

In fact the best two singers in the gala round have been Wild card Entrants Amit Paul and Ankita Mishra,one of them I strongly believe will go on win this event unless Emon or Chang come out with something dramatic in the next 2-3 rounds or Amit himself goofs up because of overconfidence. Amit Paul's performance of Pehla Nasha from the movie Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander was amazing and I think was sung even better than the original singer Udit Narayan.

So what next? My gut feeling says next two weeks will see the exit of Deepali and Puja one after other and unless Prasanth and Chang, come up with some great singing, they will be next in line on the exit door. So let's wait and watch .......

Human Resource Management

Off late I have been hearing a lot of stories about the movement of people across organizations and as I have already written,it is a direct consequence of the Talent crunch we are facing world over. So here is a story which I picked up from my roommate and close friend about yet another guy switching companies in search of greener pastures.

The Protagonist here is considered the superhero by his boss and colleagues alike and everyone really appreciates the extra mile he stretches in order to complete his work and also help the other colleagues' in delivering results. Our superhero after spending more than a year with company realizes that the company's growth plans are not matching his own growth plans(in terms of Moving up the value chain and also with respect to rate of growth). So he decides to move on and sends the dreaded (to the management) email with subject line "resignation".

But 3 days into his resignation, while the whole floor knows that he is moving on and is already discussing "what next?", the management team has not discussed the matter with our superhero. The least a guy who decides to move on expects from the management is a 10 minutes honest face to face talk. But here the management team in question does not even bother. This seems to really puzzle our superhero and finally after waiting for 3 more days, he himself walks to the corner office on the floor to speak to the so called "Unit Manager" and get his resignation accepted. In contrast, when the superhero had left his earlier company to join the current one, the Vice President of the company had walked up to him to talk about the resignation.

If a person who is considered to be the superhero by one and all in the floor decides to quit and the management does not even care to talk to him, let alone stop him from leaving, what kind of message is going down to the junior staff and the others on the floor ? "I as the company's employee am not being valued by the management and this could happen to me as well tomorrow". So even if the superhero is not perceived well by the management team, the least they can do is have a face to face talk and get to understand the reasons for moving on.

As an organization, we need to make sure that every person on the payroll gets his due not just in terms of paycheck, but also in terms of the basic human respect. And the most a person needs this respect is when has decided to move on. Also in situations like this, the organizations can uncover some larger issue (may be something is wrong with one of the line manager?). So I certainly believe that this organization is forgetting one of the basic tenets of Human Capital Management.(And the fact that it is a consulting company makes things worse. People are the only asset a consulting company has.)

My friend has already decided to move on from this company (see this is the ripple effect I am talking ) as he is one of the most junior staff there and he revered our superhero and took him to be his role model.

Myth Shattered !!

Have been busy off late with my preparations to head to the perpetual land of Opportunities - The United States Of America- for my MBA. Got done with one of the biggest pain points of travelling to the USA -the visa - over the last week. The Visa interview was pretty simple and lasted only 2 minutes.

Here is how it went about

Visa Officer(VO): So u r going for a one year MBA in US ?
Me : Yes , sir
VO: Looks at my funding and asks who is funding?
Me: Self and funds from School(loans, Scholarship etc)
VO (Looks at my passport): Oh you have an H1B from XYZ company.
Me : Yes, Sir.
VO: Did you work on the H1B?
Me :Yes sir 15months .
VO: Why did you come back?
me : Personal reasons.
VO: Show me your Degree certificates.
Me: Here they are sir.
VO : Oh you have a degree in XYZ engineering. What are you doing in a IT company?
Me : I do ABC stuff for my company sir .
VO(after listening intently) : You visa is approved. Passport will reach you in 2 days
Me :thank you !!

What is the "myth" I am talking of here? Well this is my 2nd visit to the American Consulate in the last 3 years and I found an interesting new addition to the entire visa stamping experience. The new addition is the manager of the Visa processing division of the Consulate who gives the Visa aspirants a pep-talk on do and don'ts of getting a visa. Apart from the usual "Don't lie", "No fake certificates", the one thing which shocked me was this statement by the Consulate manager. "What do you say when you are asked whether you intend to work in USA post your graduation?" So far the unanimous answer to this question in order to get the visa was "I intend to return back to India as soon as I complete my studies and serve my home country" and every damn so called "Visa consultant" wanted us learn this answer by rote. This despite knowing very well that no one wants to return to India without repaying at least some part of the hefty loan taken for the education and not many actually return without working unless of course you are on Full scholarship or have family business.

But the Visa Consulate manager's answer was "If you want to work in USA post ur studies, be honest about it. I mean how many of the visa aspirants for the F1 student visas want to spend 30K USD on US education and then not have the opportunity to repay it in the fastest possible way". This is the greatest myth I am talking off since I have heard the "No work in USA” statement from hundreds of aspirants of the coveted US Visa.

So next time any of you goes for the visa interview, make sure you are honest and confident about your intentions to go to US and the green Signal from Uncle Sam is yours for sure.

Is it really a Flat World ?

When the NY times reporter Thomas Friedman wrote about the World being Flat , most of us nodded in agreement and were excited about the new order of the world. But seems like a few of us are still living in history and when the "few of us" includes the likes of Steve Jobs and his Apple, it really makes the "rest of us" feel sad. How else does one explain the fact that the Apple's newest toy the iPhone will launched in Europe and Asia only by the early 2008.

Last week Apple released the iphone in the United States and it seems to be selling like hot cakes. And given the media hype generated ( remember Media is now living in a real Flat world with me having access to likes of NY times, Washington Post etc sitting right here in India), it should have been appropriate that the phone gets a worldwide launch. Apple is only encouraging the Grey market selling and smuggling of iphone by not going for a Worldwide launch. Remember how the entertainment industry is fighting piracy ? . It is going for Worldwide simultaneous releases of Movies ( The Matrix -III, Spiderman-III did it ).Also remember that a flat world implies that nearly 3 million Indians today travel across the Altantic every year implying that anyone can buy the iphone in the US and ship it across to his/her friends and relatives back in India.

One would have thought that technical issues like band spectrum are stopping Apple from launching the iphone everywhere. But ask any one in the grey market and all they say is " GEt the phone sir. I will unlock the spectrum for Rs100/- and you can use it". So not sure how long we really have to wait for the official launch of Iphone. Meanwhile I am asking my cousin in the United States to ship the newest gizmo to me whenever he gets a chance to grab one or two :)

Indian Idol and Mass Psychology

As the Bharat ki shaan Indian Idol( A rip off of the Original American Idol) enters the gala round stage, the audiences are being asked to vote for a talented set of singers. This week saw the end of Richa Aneja, who though a beautiful singer, I believe was a year or two early in trying to be the Idol of India. Nothing but her Childish voice did her in. But as they say, the show must go on and over the next few weeks , we will see the remaining 12 singers trying to outperform each other and win the Indian Idol.

One interesting aspect I observed over the last few weeks has been the role which judges and the organizers themselves are playing in helping the so called Janta to choose their idol. With not much separating the various singers in the show, I guess much will depend on how the Hosts, judges and organizers play out the game and in whose favor. For example, everybody who is a regular watcher of the show knows that Ankita is among the most talented of the gals but her Tom-Boyish looks go against her. But Ankita being the favorite of all the judges (and may be the organizers and hosts as well), they nicely fitted in a small trailer of how the rest of the participants in the Final 13 don't like her. This clearly is a playing with mass psychology strategy.

How you may ask? Well as an analogy just think of a typical road accident in India. You are driving your car on a main road at a decent city speed of 40kmph. All of a sudden, a guy on a cycle comes in from the cross road on the left to join the main road. Obviously you being the typical city driver don't expect this cycle and end up brushing your car's edges against the cycle. The cyclewaala falls off balance and gets some minor bruises. The good guy you are, you stop the car and check with the Cyclewaala if he needs some help. But a crowd gathers and for no fault of yours, you are held responsible for the accident and scolded left and right by the crowd. This is called the sympathy psychology. The mass hysteria is to support the weaker section or the suffering section. So by creating Sympathy for Ankita, are the organizers trying to increase the votes for her? Well only time will tell.

I guess the same thing is happening with Abhishek Kumar as well. Like what is the relationship between his being an Adopted child and his being a good talent. But still the Indian Idol showcased him as an adopted child. Obviously Abhishek will get some sympathy votes for this act of this. Let's wait and watch if this will help him win.

Apart from these gimmicks, we had the usual talents Emon, Chang, Prashant,Charu,Puja doing what they are good at !! Singing. Lots of people are putting their money on a gal winning the contest this time and the Ankita ploy may well be a part of the that plan. As of now if you ask whom I have put my money on? It will be a tough fight between Chang, Prashanth And Emon( with Prashanth having an edge as he will get more sympathy votes. He has been shown to be the sole bread earner of his family). I do believe one of these three will surely be the Bharat ki shaan this year . (Personally I have loved and voted for Chang). But can't say whom the organizers want to win. So let us wait and watch........

A Lifetime of Questions

Questions in essence are the core of our lives. Every single day of our life, we have to answer someone or something. Can you think of a single day of your life when you did not have to answer a question?.More importantly these questions have a typical relationship to the phase of life your in . Sample this question set and the related phase of the one's life.

When you are a School going kid
1) Beta(son), which School are you studying in?
2) Which class are your studying in?
3) Beta, Can you Tell ABCD.. to your uncle(gosh I hated it when my dad used to ask me narrate this stuff to his Friends to show off. Could never get past P)
When you have just completed your schooling and are enjoying the innocence of Adolescence.
1) What do you want to do after school ? (Meaning in Indian context mostly do you want to be a doctor or Engineer)
2) Why don't you apply for so and so college? (this mostly depends on your class 12 score) . And god damn everybody has an advice for you in this phase.
When you are just out of College and have somehow landed up in some job.
1) Which company do you work for? What does the company do?
2) How much is this Company paying for a fresher?
3) Oh you work for XYZ company!!, my friend's son/daughter also works for the same company. Do you by any chance know him/her ?(Would have loved to know the Daughters but unfortunately ,such references are less in number)
When you have worked for 2-3 years for the same company
1) Oh you are still with the company? Don't you want to change? (translated looks like the guy is not finding any other job, poor chap.) Why the hell can a guy not stay in the same company for 3 years and still be happy ?. (Damn!! one more question)
Two years hence
1) When are you getting married?
2) Are you searching for some girl to get married? (I wonder why a 26 year old guy can't stay single and still be happy!!)

So what does the Future of my Questionable life look like ? I guess this what is going happen in the next few years with me.

1) Which company you are working for? (this will stay until you retire)
2) Can we go to the Shopping mall today ?(Guess who can ask this question)
3) Are you planning to buy a house ? or Do you stay at a rented place ?

And thus will go on a life full of Questions (and Answers of course).

This is Glocalization!!

If you are looking for a profound example of the impact globalization is having on the simple things in life, picture this conversation between my friend who is located in US of A and me located in Bangalore( Bengalooru).

me : Hey buddy how are you ?
Friend : Doing fine man . Will call you over Gtalk this weekend.
me : I am doing to Belgaum(a Small sleepy town in Karnataka,India more known for it's state border row between Maharashtra and Karnataka) for a Cousin's marriage this weekend.
Friend: Wow!! you are going to Belgium. It is a beautifal country. And your cousin is marrying in Belgium. Lucky him. How did he manage that ? The world is indeed going glocal!!
me : hehehehehe.......

To Kill a Mocking bird..

13 days since I opened my blog !! . Well have been busy off late( would love to say that although all I was doing was loafing around). Anyway had the chance to read Harper Lee's 1960 Classic "TO Kill a Mocking Bird" in between all the loafing around. A book which lives up to it's recommendations.( quite a few of my friends recommended the book and the movie as well).

It quite literally transported me back to my good old days of growing up. While I did not grow up in a small town like Maycomb( the book is based this small Southern US town), I could easily connect to adventures around the Haunted House of Boo Radley.(a strange neighbour who was never seen by the Narrator of the Story in all the years she stayed in the neighborhood). Growing up a large neighbourhood which essentially consisted of first generation Immigrants from Small Towns/Villages of India to the soon to be Silicon Valley of India(My beloved City Bengalooru), I had my share of strange neighbors and even stranger happenings around them. Like we had a house two blocks off my house, where an old lady lived with her 3 ferocious dogs. Imagine a small two bedroom apartment with 3 dogs and a lady !! . So ferocious where the dogs that we used to change directions the movement we saw the lady taking her dogs for a walk. When not going for an Walk, the dogs where tied to a heavy iron pole (incidentally a street light pole:)) in front of the house. Still can remember the day, when our friend group decided that we had had enough with the dogs and we had to something about them.

So one fine day in the Summer Vacations, we decided that we will throw stones at the tied dogs and scare them!! . And because all this had to be done without the lady seeing us, we decided we will hide behind the apartments in the next block for this Dare-Devil act. Everything was planned including searching for the right kind of stones to aim at the Dogs. So on the designated day, we friends grouped and waited for the dogs to be out in the open tied to iron pole. When the time came, we started taking shots at the dogs one by one. I had barely aimed my first stone at the dogs when I heard a clanking sound( The sound of window panes breaking ). Scared as we were, we ran helter-skelter and hid ourselves wherever we could. Apparently one of my friends in over enthusiasm had broken the old lady's bedroom window. Evening came and nothing happened and we thought the matter had been settled. (We all positively hoped that the lady had not seen us running).

But late in the evening (usually the time the lady takes the dogs for a walk) , I see the old lady headed straight to my home. Scared, I ran inside the home and hid myself. But I could hear the lady narrating the whole incident to my mom and worse, even telling I was involved with the gang of children who broke her windows . The lady left soon after and you can well imagine what my mom did to me after that. All I can say is that I had to limp to the playground the next day and mutely watch my friends play .

Now when I reflect back, I think Dogs are afterall the best friend a man can have but I guess it was all a part of growing up. A passing phase of life.

Maa Kasam !! Maine kuch nahi kiya ......

This is what the BJP MLA Renukacharya is saying to the alleged sexual harassment controvesy involving a Nurse Jayalakshmi The "respected" is MLA is accused of having an affair with Jayalakshmi with pictures of the MLA kissing her in Public appearing all over the media a couple of weeks back.

And this week, the police filed a case against MLA Renukacharya for sexual harrassment . So what does our MLA do ? He of course denies the allegation . Politicians are experts in that , so nothing new here. But the way he defends himself is surely worth a blog . It reminds me of our 1970s Macho hero Dharmendra( Dharam Paaji to his fans) . Picture this statement from Renukacharya. "Mother promise, I am innocent. I have not done anything." . (Maa Kasam, Mein begunaah hoon. maine kuch nahi kiya aka Dharam Paaji style ). Also reminds me of my primary and secondary school days when we used steal chocolates/sweets of our privileged friends from the school bags/lunch boxes and when caught in the act, used yell out , Mother promise yaar , I did not do anything . XYZ stole them. Not me . Mother promise( with hands on the chest) " . Looks like our MLA went to school afterall :) but apparently is still to graduate from it .

If this was not enough, picture this statement from our MLA. "Jayalakshmi is characterless.She has relationships with many men. Mother promise , I have tapes of her deeds which I can release in the public . But I am worried about Jayalakshmi's future. So I won't make the tapes public. But mother promise , I have the tapes". Could not stop laughing until I rolled over on reading this . First the Mother promise thing, then then the "worry" about Future of Jayalakshmi. Talk of the soft corners which people have . As if not Releasing the tapes will make Jayalakshmi "Sati Savitri" . Innocent until proven guilty huh ???

Mother promise, If I ever meet this MLA, I will felicitate him for the free entertainment he is giving to people like me.

Non-Sense Cricket Commentary

It was the usual lazy sunday Morning and I was getting my Sunday dose of "The Times of India". Surfing through the Times, I turned to the sports page and as with if us Indians, checked for the Cricket News. And Surprise Surprise .India had virtually decimated the Bangladesh team with a mamooth total and was poised to win the Cricket Test match. Although not a cricket aficinado , it was really long time( ok long is relative here.That is why it is said that the general Public memory is short) since India was in a position to win a test match. ( ok I am sounding a bit like a Die hard Cricket fan now .Afterall India was winning against the so called Minnows of Cricket World Bangladesh. )

Anyway since I did not have any plans for the day, I thought lemme catch up with some India-Bangla Cricket Action and watch India Win . So I switch the TV on and start Channel surfing for the Cricket Match. And Bingo, there was Dhoni playing his usual self hitting a sixer :). But what was this noise from the TV .. Dhoni ata Pata. bhoom rang.. bum bhuoooos sixer !!!!!!....Ai what happened to the Ravi Shastri Commentary I was expecting ?? It did not take much time for me to realize that the live commentary was in Tamil.Yes you read that right. Tamil.Here I am sitting in Bangalore watching an India-Bangladesh Cricket Match with Tamil Commentary!!!(Bengali would have made better sense) . One look at the Channel logo and the pieces start making sense .The Channel is RAJ TV ( the channel now famously patroned by M Karunanidhi, the DMK King and TamilNadu CM) and it is indeed telecasting the match live. But where is Neo Sports Channel which had bought Cricket rights after making much noise in the courts and news ?

Turns out Neo Sports exclusively sold the feedshare to RAJ TV for the Telugu/Tamil Audience. Well we all know the Linguistic inclinations of the Tamil Nadu( no offences here). But why the heck is the feed being telecast in Namma Kannada Naadu Bengalooru ??? Forget about Bengalooru, why is this being broadcast even in Cities like New Delhi, Calcutta ?? Got to Blame it squarely on the Neo Sports and the Cablewallas.

Neo Sports got the exclusive rights for the matches but does not have Feed Share agreements with TAtaSky/DishTV for the Flagship Channel . Also for some reason NEO is blacked out by Cablewallahs. Hence we have the feed of Raj TV(free to Air Channel) instead of the Neo sports .But my dear Cablewallah/DishTV/Tatasky this was just a test match, that too between India-Bangladesh and even worse broadcast at a time when interest in Cricket in India is abysmally low. So you easily got away with this one . But you better STOP this non-sense commentary( atleast for the majority of the people ) before the next "serious" India cricket match else atleast Bengalooru will be witness to yet another Cauvery Riot like scenario. Good for me ( I get an off from Office) but bad for the country and the people . So please STOP this non-Sense. Period.

The Global Talent Crunch

You are the manager of a Global organization and are seeing a huge traction in new business opportunities for your organization as a whole . The proactive person you are, you want hire the best people in the business and build the team and the processes so that when the time comes, you are ready to grab the largest share of the opportunity pie. So you hand out a job description to the company HR manager/Recruiter asking him to hire the "best" available talent in the market.

The recruiter puts out the job postings in the local and national Newpapers(the conventional way), searches for profiles matching the requirement in jobsites like Monster.com, Naukri , Time jobs(Web 1.0 way) and finally even conducts a Virtual job fair on Secondlife.com (the web 2.0 way). And the end of it, you are handed out a set of resumes which more or less matches what you need. You interview a few of them, junk a few and finally put out an offer for a select few with joining Date :DD-MON-YYYY.

Come DD-MON-YYYY, out of the P number of people you offered the job to, only one of them joins the organization with the remaining P-1 being what is called as "no-shows". You as the manager had planned out the on boarding for P people ( Hell even the lunch table for P people was booked ) and are frustrated that P-1 people did not join your team . You reprimand the HR manager for not doing his job well and set him a deadline of having the P-1 people on-board by end of this week !!!. The poor HR manager panics and in turn takes his recruiting team to task for not having followed up with the potential new hires.

Finally what does the helpless Recruiter do ? Damned as he is,he starts contacting the remaining P-1 people and threatens them with Dire consequences like blacklisting,abuses thems and talks to them in a very unprofessional way while coaxing them to join the organization at the earliest. Do you think the any of the p-1 people will ever join your global company ? Not in their life !!. The recruiter is the one point contact for the new hires to understand the work culture and environment of the company and any sane job seeker would not like to join an organization which has a rude and unempathetic HR team.

So my dear Recruiter and the HR team, while I do understand your frustration, I believe you need to come to terms with the fact that good talent in today's booming times indeed scarce and this game of "no-shows" is going to continue for sometime to come . The Reality today is that we have a set of customers who are expecting innovations in product development and service delivery every single day, but unfortunately we do not have the set of people with the skillsets to deliver these innovations to the customers !!. So you have companies poaching people from each other and offering big carrots for hiring the "right" people. But what do you do if the "right" people are not available ? Afterall you have critical Client deadlines to meet.

Well the need of the hour is Re-training the existing human capital to suit the new world business innovations while at the same time hiring people who may not have the skills you require but have the smarts to learn the business skills you need and deliver the required Customer focussed solution. Easier said than done but it is always better than threatening potential new employees at Knifepoint.

PS : This threaten/abuse incident is true story and happened with one of the Big Four Audit Consulting Firms(Take a guess ,which one) recently when my cousin was looking for a job-switch. Do you think you and me ever join this organization ?

Liberalise Education ...

A world reowned Finance Educational Institute whose degree/qualification is recognized worldwide raises objection to another Institution using it's trademarked Degree Name . The Latter institute as a survival tactic claims that the world venerated institute is illegally offering the course in the Country and obtains a Court Order restricting the International Institute from offering the course.Where e Well I am talking of the CFA charter which initially raised objection to ICFAI using the CFA trademark name. So ICFAI turned the table on CFA and asked AICTE( which regulates the Technical education standards in India) to ban CFA from conducting the charter's Examination till further notice as the CFA charter does not have the AICTE approval. AICTE agrees with ICFAI although it is not sure if the CFA degree comes under it's purview and imposes a ban leaving about 2000 students in lurch.

How Sad !! . The CFA is one of the world's largest Financial Chartered body and it's degree is recognized everywhere in the world. In fact the top honchos in many of the Investment Banks and Equity Research firms in India and world are CFAs.And given that India today is opening all the sectors for Foreign Direct Investments and is allowing domestic companies to invest in Hitherto non existent sectors like organized Retail, Micro Finance etc., I wonder why education is being left out.

I am not saying that the government has not done anything but we still have a long way to go. Take for example the Rai University. It is a Private autonomous University which offers all kind of courses. While I can't vouch for Rai's Quality, I know for sure that it will not have many takers in the market . The reason? It is not recognized by UGC ( the Archiac University Grant's Commission) implying that a Undergraduate from Rai University cannot do a Post graduation in any other University in India. ( I heard that Eventually Rai got an Affilation with other Indian university but never a Full university Status)

While I am not vouching for a Free for all pass to create universities, I would like to see something like TRAI(Telecom REgulatory Authority of India) rule over the University System in India and allow other private universities to operate. Remember what liberal educations policy has done to the Singapore ? Today it has become an educational hub of Asia with likes of Insead, France and University of Chicago(Graduate School of Business) having Asia campuses in Singapore . Wouldn't you as an Indian not like to have Stanford University to open it's Asia Campus in Bangalore, India ?

That would be wonderful and will surely give the likes of ISB,IIMs competition on one hand while providing the Indians the opporunity to get world class management Education without having to cross the Atlantic ocean. Hope the day comes pretty soon. Amen.

Finally BSNL Wakes up !!

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd(BSNL) is the 3rd largest Cellular operator and the largest Telephone operator in India. Of course the public sector monopoly over the first 40 years of Independence helped in bringing in these numbers. But a company of this size normally has a substantial ad spend and makes itself the highly visible in the marketplace ( Remember the AR Rahman composed Airtel tune ? It is the de facto No 1 mobile tune at one time in India). That BSNL achieved this scale in mobile operations despite very minimal ad spend is a testimony to how price senstive the Indian Consumer is.

BSNL entered the Mobile Telephony space only in the year 2000 ( nearly 5 years after Bharti Airtel and other started) , but still using it's pricing power made in roads into the Indian hands especially in the Semi urban and Rural Areas. So having garnered so much of marketshare and having attracted it's consumers so easily , what has made BSNL finally bring in the Pretty Printy Zinta as the brand ambassador ? And why is it showing these ads in Channels like CNBC?

Well, of the many reasons, one of them surely is Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Controlled Reliance Communications . Reliance is fighting tooth and nail with BSNL in the very markets where BSNL had so far enjoyed undisputed numero uno position. It is hitting BSNL at the place where it hurts the most , the Rural Areas and the lower Strata of the Mobile telephony markets - The consumers whose ARPU does not cross Rs.300pm(USD 6$ per month) by launching phones for as cheap as Rs 777/-( USD 15$)- Also notable is fact that many of the loyal BSNL Fixed line customers are returning them to pick up Reliances' technologically advanced Fixed Service WLL phones . These market forces are compelling BSNL to revamp itself and Preety Zinta has answered there call(Literally at that).

So an elephant has woken up.. Will it Shatter the Earth beneath ? Well, will have to wait and watch.

First Impressions: Movie : Life In a Metro

Movies like PAGE3, JOGGERS PARK, BLACK FRIDAY have set the ball rolling for the new Age Bollywood Multiplex centric cinema and Anurag Basu's the Life in a METRO continues the trend by exploring the fast paced rat race which the City dwellers in India are leading. Helped by some brillant performances by actors like KK menon, Irfan Khan, Konkana Sen Sharma, Basu crafts the life in a metro weaving together the compromises today's metrosexual individuals make in order to make it big in Life.

Irfan Khan(Monty) as a 35 year old still searching for the love of his life (using the internet Marriage site Shaadi.com) stands out and you love to hate his character of a no nonsense guy who does not mind talking of Figures( both salary and Women's) in the Same light ( and sentence). Sharman Joshi(Rahul), as call centre worker typifies the India's IT generation with a Rs 15000/- per month salary dreaming of a 15 Crore business and is ready to go any lengths to achieve his dreams. Then you have Rahul's boss Ranjit ( KK Menon in yet another subdued performance), who is having affair with Neha( Kangana RAunaut) . Neha in turn is the roommate of Ranjit's Sister in Law (aka Saali) and also the secretly courted by Rahul.Ranjit's Sister in Law is a played by Konkana Sen Sharma , a 30 year old who is still searching for the ideal match in life ( Tall, dark, handsome, good sense of Humour, sensitive guy)

Sounds complicated enough already ? Well there is more ,with Ranjit's wife(Shilpa Shetty) having a small affair with Shiny Ahuja(Akash), a struggling Theatre Artist. Also Dharamendra as Amol unites with his College Life Love played by NAfisa Ali and acts as a catalyst for other characters in the movie to redefine their respective Life's priorities. How these characters try to bring in a Sembalance to the RAT race in life forms the crux of the plot .

BottomLine: An intense but entertaining movie which can be watched on a weekend.

Getting Duped and Infosys

Now don't be surprised !! I am indeed talking of arguably most ethical company in India Inc - Bangalore HeadQuartered Infosys Technologies Ltd- And you read the word Dupe also rightly. So how come I am using the word "dupe" and swanky clean imaged Infosys in the same sentence or phrase. Well, blame it on the marketing team of the Infosys, which has created a cult brand among Indians so much so that to the Common lay man "Software"/IT" is synonmous with Infosys.

And so whenever layman( read the non IT related guys like the Autowallahs, Thieves,robbers ) wants to have anything to do with Software, what does he do ? He uses the Infosys brand name. Not convinced ?? Read on...... Yesterday one of Colleague's apartment in HSR Layout ( a decently posh locality with lots of IT guys especially from Infosys/Wipro) had two strange visitors. Two guys wearing Tie and formal trousers( aka Infy employee uniform on Monday/tuesday) knocked on his door. They had a Piece of paper with them. The paper apparently was a Xerox copy of an Infosys Id card. They asked my Colleague if anybody of the name as in the Id card stays at his place/apartment complex.

Now my colleague busy with other chores simply says no the two people and inadvertently forgets to close the door leaving it half open. Half an hour later, my friend is frantically searching for his Mobile phone and watch. Any guesses on where his mobile/watch went ??? Turns out the two white Shirt/Black Tie guys visited 8 houses in the entire Apartment complex but got lucky with my colleague.

If this story does not convince you about Infosys, here is another one, this one in Chennai's Adyar( Another IT locality much like HSR, Koramangala in Bangalore) . A man stops an Infosys employee who has just alighted from the Infy bus and is headed home. The man tells the infosys guy that he is an Infosys Employee ( mind you plain rock solid English) and that he has just been transferred from Bangalore to Chennai . But apparently someone has stolen his baggage ( Of course the Infosys ID is in the Baggage he claims) and that he has lost his wallet/money/everything. The man demands money from Infy person and says he will return it once he joins Chennai Office the next day. He even gives his mobile number and Extn of his reporting manager( fake of course ) in Chennai Office Any guesses if the gullible Infy guy got his money back ?

So seems like the thugs can't leave even anyone including the icon of India's economic progress alone and want to use it's name to cheat the poor gullible people.
Afterall, all is not fair in the big bad world !!

Sleep@Work

The time on the bottom right corner of the computer screen reads 1pm indicating that it is lunch time and we need to have our daily dose of food and gossip in the workplace cafeteria. After spending an hour at the cafe, discussing the performance of the Indian Cricket team, talking of the new girl in the office next door and of course the usual management bashing ( in between all this you are also stuffing something in the mouth apparently called food), it is time to head back to the workstation for the actual work. Check your mailbox for an elusive mail from your friends and then you try to immerse yourself into your work.

Couple of minutes into work, the eyes seem heavy and you don't seem to be able to concentrate on work . You feel drowsy and dull ..... Nothing to panic.. Just that the afternoon siesta is calling you :) . And you start wondering, I wish my work place had a policy whereby I could sleep for 1 hour post lunch and then get back to work. Even better the office should make it mandatory for all employees and arrange for chairs which could be designed to converted into beds . Or arrange for a sleeping room much like a sports room, meeting room, conference room.

Well if you are the typical Office worker who can easily connect to what is happening above, you now have a solution in Nap pods . A company now provides a new service where employees of a company can take a siesta in a specially designed chair called NAPpods. The new addition to the pod family will improve productivity ,claims that the company manufacturing the sleep pods . ( Any surprises that the idea originated from an Indian :) ) . So first we had Free Lunch/Coffee, then we had recreation room, then Gym and Fitness trainers and now nap pods ......what can be the next thing on the improving employee productivity/satisfaction? Well Beer on the house everyday instead of the usual Water cans/Coffee maker ? :) .... The men will surely queue up for this one.........

Organizational Fundas :X,Y and Z

Company X : The company wants to recruit only the best in class people in order to bring out the top of the breed solutions to manage businesses and clients. So the company only hires those who have "consistent" Academic performance right from school . A lot of them outside (and even inside) the organization X scoff at this eligiblity criteria and say this is crap and education does not matter in the real world and it is the experience and skills that matter

Company Y : The outside people who criticize the company X includes people working in this organization. This company believes in hiring for skills and attitude and cares a damn about the educational qualifications, the reputation of the school/college.The only thing it looks for is : Can this person work for Project A which upcoming and is in urgent need for resources.

Now person Z joins company Y from Company X( having been recruited by X based on the "stringent" conditions) thinking that probably the "outside" people are right and all that one needs is the right skills. (Can't blame Z . The grass always appears greener on the other side).

6 months into company Y, Z realizes the importance of what X is doing. X by virtue of recruiting consistent individuals( the criteria though is debatable) ensures that it has a homogenous set of people who are willing to work hard for success thereby reducing the managerial overheads. MORE importantly Z realizes that X company has a vision , has leaders whose foot steps can followed to move up the value chain. This is because the people whom X recruited as consistent performers are the ones who have turned out to be effective leaders and are willing learn from anyone and anybody to succeed against all obstacles. ( in short they are the fire in the belly kind of guys ).

Why is Z thinking of all this ? Well, Y company has a bunch of experienced folks who call themselves leaders and managers and are trying to lead the way. Unfortunately there is no vision, no direction and no proactive future planning. The basic tenet a leader must have is the ability to think ahead and proactively forsee the problems. Alas.. the leaders of Y do not have any of this and even the middle management starts thinking .time to move on...... .This leaves Z thinking Should I move back to X ???

PS : X is easily recognizable, Y and Z are confidential for obvious reasons.

Jahnavi Kapoor Et al.....

The most celebrated wedding in India's modern history finally got over and the poor Media frankly did not get much sound bites thanks to the Amitabh ji decision to keep the whole affair private. But media is well.. media,and so it finally got the sensational bite needed when a little known "model" and "actress" Jahnvi Kapoor barged into the media conclave near Partiksha, the home of the Bacchans and claimed that Abhishek was indeed her beau. Now don't ask me which movie or ad has this person acted in. (Apparently she danced in the movie Dus with Abhi, did we even notice?)

So what happens to people like Jahnvi Kapoor ( or Naina or Haya god knows how many names she has) who forsake everything they earned so far ( not that she had earned anything substantial money or otherwise) for a 2 day fame/publicity. Over the next 2 days, the media will go gaga looking for her antecedents and precedents, try to prove/disprove her claim, some will come out in support of her, others will mock her. But after the initial brouhaha is over, Jahnvi kapoor and others like her will once again lead the life of obscurity with a lot of the people trying to avoid her and not wanting to do anything with her. Her Sobriquet would change from "one who acted in the Movie Dus" to " One who claimed to the actual bahu in waiting" to Bollywood's first family.

So is it all worth it ? If there is some truth the claims made, then it is truly worth it. Remember Udit Nayaran ?He had to accept that he indeed had another wife in Ranjana Jha and had to accord legal status to her. But the Abhi-Jahnvi case here mostly does not any ground. So long Jahnvi... if all you needed was some publicity and fame, you have got it from Aaj tak, TimesNow and the hundreds of blogs like this one.

The Karan And Sweta Nanda Gimmick

Last month NDTV started a new series "NextGen" ,hosted by Sweta Bachchan Nanda, the daughter of apna Bollywood's first family. The only bachchan not to have faced the arc lights as yet, I guess simply could not resist it anymore . So the first show had her interviewing Karan Johar which must have a ploy by NDTV to make Sweta comfortable since the Johars and Karan in particular are known to the Bachchans since the 1970s. Sweta I feel needs to fine tune her interviewing skills, but she did ok for a first timer .

Coming to the point here, this week Sweta Nanda will be on the Koffee with Karan ( produced by KBalaji KTelefilms??), the filmy talk show hosted by none other than Karan Johar. So what's happening here ? Exchange offer?. The "I will feature in your show and you feature in my show" seems rather self promotive with each of hosts/guests trying to get the publicity and eyeballs .Or is it a larger pact between NDTV and Star TV, the one time partners who are now competitors ? While there is nothing wrong in doing something like this, atleast some of the viewers will surely feel they are being taken for a ride. I mean how can the questions asked in the talk show/interview be realistic when you the guest/interviewer have known each other since they were kids. Obviously some of the uncomfortable questions will never be asked ( Like Karan being a Feminine sex symbol. Any comments ?) ?

So when it comes talk shows, I have always loved the one hosted by another Karan on CNBC. Karan Thapar's no non-sense approach even with people of the Stature of Vijaya Mallaya makes an interesting watch.

Moods Bangalore - Hyderabad Express !!

Laloo Yadav's dream of churning millions of rupees from the eternally loss making Indian Railways has brought in yet another first time in the world innovation. Well I am talking of branded trains with the first branded train "Kurkare Express" chugging out of Bangalore last week with the Kurkare ads painted on all the train bogies,tickets and wherever possible (and profitable) . So is this yet another Laloo gimmick or does it have some commerical value ?

Well if the experiment leads to greater sales of Kurkare and many more snacks in the Rural areas, then expect many more brands like Brittania ( Tiger Express), Tata Teleservices ( Idea Express) or who knows even Moods Express or the Kamasutra Express to chug along on the tracks.The experiment could also be a godsend for passengers looking for quality snacks while travelling in trains. Currently we train passengers are subject to cheap mimics of the top snack brands with the hawkers selling us "Kukare Chips", "Milky Biks" and "Dream Treats" biscuits and Even "Amul Chasti"s. From now on, if someone is travelling in Tiger Express , he could be exclusively sold only Tiger and Brittania snacks.Also it would be a wonderful if Pizza Hut or Mcdonald can have a Pizza Hut express or McD express on sectors like Bangalore-Mysore ,Bangalore-Chennai which have a lots of trains running in the day time. At present, lots of these trains offer cheaply made idly sambars, dosas and Samosa which are not worth the money in terms of hygiene, taste and Quality. So if train branding can be combined with exclusive marketing tie-ups, I believe this will be a truely successful endeavor. Are the Food Retail chains and snackers listening ?

American Dream...

Was reading the Rita Chaudary Article in The Sunday Times of India on the Great American Dream gone sour. The crux of the article was that there are hundreds of Illegal immigrants in the US who have gone on Tourist Visa but stayed on in the hope of getting the coveted Green Card and are now working in hotels as cheap labourers. Don't want to sound racist here(In fact I am a big fan of Gujju entrepeneurship) but the names given in the article suggested that the majority come from the Dhirubhai land. Now these immigrants cannot go back to India to meet their near and Dear ones even on short term visits as getting out of the American continent implies Deportation forever. Therefore there people have stayed in the US for years now surviving on phone calls and Pictures.

What was surprising was the tone of the article sounded as if the author was sympatizing these immigrants for not having met there kids/parents for years. But do they really deserve this sympathy ? I mean what is making these people enter legally a country and then stay on illegally for ever ? Who is responsible for there illegal status ? Certainly not the United States government. It is they themselves who came in on the Tourist visa and decided to stay on by doing petty jobs. Agreed that some of these illegal immigrants have made it big in the Land of Opporunities my owning Hotel/Motel chains but that is a miniscule percentage. ( I can vouch for this personally as I have visited motels in the US where the caretakers/room cleaners are all migrants from India legal or illegal with the Americans/Desis managing/owning the hotel) .

So let's not sympathize with these illegal migrants ( mind you I have no issues if you about migrating legally by taking the H1B-GC route). BUt I cannot vouch for Indians who work all night in gas stations at the minimum wages and aim to stay on in the hope of making it big once the "Green" signal is given by the US immigration Authorities. While this could have made sense in the 1970s , the current economic environment in India provides enough oppurunities to the willing entrepeneurs . So let us not waste our productive years in dreaming to make it big in the land of opporunities. Rather let's make the land we are born in the NEXT land of Opporunities.

Buses, Beer and Brawls :)

Had the chance to board a City transport bus (aka Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus in Namma Bengalooru, BEST in mumbai) after quite a long time yesterday. It was a late night (by Bangalore's standards) trip at around 10pm and as usual the occupants of the bus included people who had just had the daily dosage of Beers and spirits . Add to that the bus was jam packed with people jostling and strugling for every inch of space.

So in comes the conductor ( not as in the Music bands), the quintessential khaki clad Ticket issuer and money collector. ( They call him Conductor.. may be because he conducts tickets/money across the bus. ). The conductor also ensures that people don't stand on the bus doors Footboarding and also creates space(creative isn't it) by pushing and shooving the commuters together thereby aggravating already smelly sweaty situation the standing passengers are in. In his space creation endeavor, the ticket issuer (conductor if u like ), inadvertantly pushes one of the " Beer spirited " passengers . And there starts the verbal dual.

Spirited Drunkard (mostly a Migrant bhaiya ji from UP/bihar): Kyon dhakka de rahe ho bhai ??
conductor(in broken hindi) : door pe kada ho.. baaki log ko jagah do ?
Spirited Drunkard: Sarkari bus hai. Jahan chahiye wahan kade rahenge.
conductor(in broken hindi) : Bus sarkari hai lekin hum bus ke conductor hai .Jaise hum bolenge waise hoga
Spirited Drunkard: Humhe nahi hilenge
Another passenger jumps in support of our Conductor : arey bhai kyon halla kar rahe ho. Kaam karne do Conductor "saab" ko
Conductor with an Inflated Ego(saab effect) to the whole bus : pata nahi kahan kahan se log aathe hai . Dimaag ka dahi banathe hai. Khud to kaam nahi karthe, humhe nahi karne dete
Spirited Drunkard :Mumbles something to which noone is listening to

The driver on hearing the high pitch drama slows the bus and asks " Kaun hai? Yeh kya ho raha hai ?? ". By now someone in the inside the bus who is comfortably sitted has had enough of high volume shouts and chips in " Chup karo and Driver ko gaadi chalane do. Late ho jayega"

Couple of others shout their frustration on the Drunkard and ask him to keep quite. The Drunkard mumbles on, but onone cares.The bus chugs along and the conductor resumes his pushy duty.

Cricket Finally !!

I tried hard to stay away from Writing anything on cricket( the game of course) despite the eventful (aweful some will say) happenings over the last week in World of Cricket. But if you live in the country where Cricket is THE Religion ,even atheist like me cannot turn blind eye to the godly happenings around . You hear about it everywhere- the Office cafeteria, project meetings, manager's cabin, your next cubicle , resturants, the office cab and so on and so forth. And every damn body has an opinion on this great religious catastrophe which has befallen on us Indians.

But the most interesting part as far as I am concerned is the CREATIVITY the cricket lovers are showing while bashing Team India. Like we had a series of morphed pictures showing the Cricketing heros( or zeros ?) doing mundane jobs like cooking, selling coconuts and evening making Chappals( guess who) in their post Cricket World Cup life. Got another email forward which blamed the Indian's Team exit on Team Bermuda since BErmuda lost to BAngladesh despite knowing that BErmuda's loss meant India's loss as well. But the funniest and most creative was blaming Lord Hanuman for India's exit from the World cup . How ? Had Lord Hanuman destroyed Sri Lanka with his poonch( tail) while saving Sita from the clutches of Ravana( he is the mother of all Villians as per Indian Mythology) , today Sri Lanka could have been non existent and you cannot be beaten by someone who is non existent :)

But what has happened cannot be changed and so I think we should focus our life back on things other than Cricket (like for example directly discussing work at Project meeting than digressing over why India Failed._ Also use our Creativity for the better and bigger things in life rather than brooding over 11 men in Sky Blue pyjamas losing to 11 men in Navy Blue ones.

First Impressions:SpiceJet

After the horrifying experience my parents had had while travelling in Air Deccan , the India's self aclaimed "best" low cost carrier(LCC) , I had very minimal expectations from another LCC SpiceJet which I was boarding for the first time . I had already prepared myself for a delayed flight by booking a flight at the safe time of 5 pm even though I did not have to be at the destination before 8pm .

But the journey with Spicejet was indeed a pleasure . The flight was bang on time and departed bangalore at 5 pm . Also the cabin crew was really friendly and in flight service matched the services provided by the Full Service Airlines except that Spicejet did not offer any food on board. The passengers were offered candies at the start of the flight and later were served water. Constrast this with the Air deccan flight on the same route who not only delayed the flight by an amazing 6 hours as I have already written but also did not offer any inflight services.

If a LCC can maintain timelines and provide some basic amenities, I guess it is a paisa vasool and eventhough you end up paying about 300 bucks more for than the other LCCs,I believe it is worth the salt ( and money).

Last Day Syndrome

The Public Issue Advertisement in the newspaper said : "Hurry !! Offer closes today." The MBA institute website calling for Applications for the Academic year yyyy says "Last Date for the Application to reach us : xx-mon-yyyy " and the shopping mall announces the last day of it's Annual Sale "Clearance Sale Closes Today. Last chance" . Ask the mall owner who doled out the ad about the Statistics with the respect to the Sales on the last day and the answer you get is that the LAST DAY sale exceeds the total sales in the whole clearance Sale period. The same story repeats with the number of applications received in the last week of the application deadline exceeding the total number of applications received prior to the last week of deadline.

So why this Last Day/week syndrome and why is it that we wait till the last day or moment for finishing up unfinished tasks? The syndrome implies that even though we have ample time to send the application before the deadline, we invariably tend to procastinate to the last day. This mass human pchyology is exploited by marketers alike and they dole out special "offers" for the last day shoppers. So Why do we procastinate ? Well, the majority of the hoi polloi tend to work under priority and deadlines . The sale is on till Sunday(deadline) and Sunday anyway is boring with no TV shows, why not get to home on the Weekday and watch my favorite TV show(priority). Since the application can wait till xx-mon-yyyy(deadline) , why not wait till then and in the meanwhile finish up the other chores(priority) which are more important ? ( Now it is a different matter that the important chore could be a must watch Saif-Rani flick) . And on xx-mon-yyyy or a couple of days before , you will do all you can so that the application reaches the destination on time since that is the priority for the day. ( Like for example sending the application using SpeedPost instead of ordinary mail)

So what's the bottomline ? Well manage your deadlines and priorities and you will not need to rush on the last day to the shopping mall only to realize that the best things on offer have already been taken by the early shoppers.

Rashtriya Prodyogiki Sansthan, Warangal

These words written on a large black colored arch mirroring the Kakatiya Dynasty's architecture, BLARED at me at the main gate when I visited my alma matar for the first time since it got christened to the current name of National Institute of Technology from the Old Regional Engineering College.(REC) . So the first impression was that things are changing. Noticed that the main acadamic building was getting a facelift with a new glass facade much like our corporate offices. Also saw a new "chip Design centre" had come up next our good old classrooms, department Of Met. Engineering was renamed as Department of Met. and Mat. Sci.( we , the batch of 2001/2002 must take the credit for this change) .Both the Chemical and Met. department now boasted a first floor. A hostel block was built right next to our old 4th block.

At the end of my 1 hour physical tour, I was pretty impressed with the changes happening. But one visit to the Met./Chem department and all my impressions were washed away . Here is why .The first floor extension has been done pretty decently but alas are not serving their purpose!! . They were built to facilitate the development of new Material Laboratory and an advanced centre for materials Research. The purpose they are serving now ? Classrooms for the B.Tech 2nd, 3rd and 4th students!! so that all students can stay in the Department( Straight from the mouth of the HOD) Again the state of some of the existing labs especially the Physical Met lab and the FT lab are delibilated to say the least . Also noticed that there was not a single faculty added and the same old teachers were teaching the same old subjects in the same old style. Did hear of some new subjects like Polymer Technology but these are acutally not new as these were elective subjects in our time and now have been made a core course. ( Dint actually sit in a classroom but did notice Dr.C teaching the 3rd year with half the class sleeping exactly the same way we were doing about 5 yrs back) .

Apart from departments, the laidback approach at the Acads/cash section of the administration made me yawn. When I went in to the Office at 10am, I was told to come back at 10:30 am as "saheb nahi aaye hai". And at 11am, the clerks in the acad section were off for coffee !! and Of course like a typical sarkari office nothing moves without paying our "Saarus" some chai -paani. And the pace at which the office works, it was as if the office staff had the whole world under their control . Compare this with the hectic fast pace activity at our city offices with people shouting, papers and ideas moving around and u get the complete picture. Guess some of the staff still believe it is the 1990s.........

At the end of it all, I did notice one positive happening. A graffiti pasted at the acad section on the same day with a group of Students soliciting "revolutionary ideas" from the students to make NIT the happening place. Obviously the students too realize that being among the elite of the Engineering Talent in India, they deserve something more and they indeed need to keep pace with what is happening outside of the NIT walls and not fall into the laidback trap/pattern of the college.

PS: To the Director, NITW. Just changing the name and buildings facade won't do . What needs to change is the attitude of the people hods,profs, clerks and saarus included. That is what a real "change" is and that is why "change Management" is such an important management subject.

Orkut Zindabad !!

Yesterday was the 26th Anniversary of the day I stepped into this world. The day was rather mundane with me having to work late night in the office and it probably was my first "dry" Janamdin in the last 6 years. But courtesy Orkut, the day was brightened up by the amazing number of wishes I got not only from the people I know but also from the people whom I honestly don't know (in true sense.) The latter group are the people like my school classmates who I can claim to have acquaintances with and are people whom I have actually not met/talked physically for years now . So I have an image/perception of these folks which is 10 years or older and would love to meet these folks and know their story of last 10-12 yrs or so. But alas the distances make things so difficult.

But back to the point here, it is wonderful to get birthday wishes from these friends with whom I have spent my early "Happy Birthdays". Still can remember the day in school where you were "the" someone special, for you did not have to wear the wretched White Shirt-Blue Shorts - Black shoes uniform. Instead you could be at your best wearing "wrangler" jeans trouser (No shorts here) , a colorful T-Shirt and a so called Sports shoes. The Teacher would call you near the "blackboard" and the whole class would sing "happy B'day to you" only for you. ( OK I know we all sang that song in full volume only because we would get the melody or caramel Toffee at the end of the it) . Add to that you could be at your naughtiest best on day as the teachers will not scold/beat you . (After all it is your b'day). It was a top of the world feeling.

My heartfelt thanks to sites like Orkut, facebook,myspace and now the "tagged" site for getting me connected these special friends of mine. These sites have helped us connect with our long last friends and have done their bit to make the distances irrelevant. Of course it helps that these sites have a Birthday Remainder calendar else I sure would not remember any of those birthday dates. ( I hate dates )

A Note(able) Story !!

Ever wondered what happens to the crisp shiny currency note which you get when you withdraw cash from an ATM ? and what makes it lose the sheen it is born with?? Allow me to spill the beans .........

8 am : A the bunch of crisp notes fresh out of ATM slip into one of white collared salaried person's wallet where they experience their first wrinkling experience . The saheb boards a taxi to get to his workplace. Out of comes one of these notes ( the unluckiest one I would say ) and the saheb pays for the ride. Here the note which is already a two fold becomes a 4 fold as the taxiwaala stuffs the note into his beedi/ciggi/pan/Gutkha/pan masala filled pocket. The "Note" now has to play a forced holi with his new companions and loses all the polish and make up which had been given to him by our Central bank.

10 pm:After the day-long holi-play , the t-driver gives this note to a barmen at a local wine shop and gets his daily dose of "high" feeling. Here our great note first gets to feel the liquor and liquid and tries to wash his holi color with it .But alas the color not only spreads like a spirit but also adds it's own fine touch by concocting a nice color cocktail . Thankfully,before the note is completely soaked with liquor, the wise barmen puts it into the cash Register.

11:30 pm : Time for the bar to close. ( ok this is true only in the Silicon Valley of India. ) . Out comes the note again, now completely red . Note counting and money accounting Time folks.This time it is barmen's saliva which rubs salt to the wound . Add to that our barmen puts a elastic band over our a bunch of notes and even writes something on it. ( You can buy 1o notebooks with me says our friendly note) .

10 am next day : The note is back in the bank to be deposited by the now sober barmen . In comes a Seth asking for hardcash. Out from the teller's salivation and the seth's counting machine , it is now being used by the seth to buy some expensive jewellery from a jeweller. The jeweller says this note is too soiled to be accepted. Sait's says " Bhai lelo na . Agar koi nahi laga to mujhe hee wapas karna , mein kal aayoonga phir" . and so goes our note into the cash register ( again) .

11 am : chai time in the jeweller's shop . bhai 10 cutting chai lana . Chai waala is paid for our by now unrecognizable note. Chai waala says " Saheb nahi chalega yeh note"........ Jeweller says " Bhai lelo. Agar nahi chalega to mein hee le loonga. Roz to chai deto ho" ........ and thus the story continues until one day our note gets dressed (laminated) in plastic. And a typical Gujju businessmen pays for his lunch with the same cliche line " Chalega bhai . Nahi chalega to.................."

PS : To know why I am referring to gujjus here, just visit a pan shop in Ahmedabad.

Liz-Arun Contra View

The crux or essence of life I believe should be "view" and "contra Views" . I say this because for every opinion you have on a certain thing be it a movie, a political event, a book, bang comes another opinion which does not agree fully with your view and sometimes completely negates the essence of your view ( CONTRAVIEW ). And so just as I was kicking the media's ass over Liz-Arun marriage came a rather different viewpoint from none other than our Socialist Congress Leader and Tourism Minister Ambika Soni. Make India a "Marriage Tourism" destination !! by glorifying the marriage customs of India and making it attractive to the Foreigners.

Well does sound interesting .. if Yoga and Kamasutra could be marketed to the western world, guess the Indian Marriage should be a cakewalk for us ....... given that perhaps the only place where we conservative Indians really come out of our shell ,show off ,create a huge noise( literally at that ) and even dance our way thru ( remember parents chiding teenagers for visiting a Disc) is perhaps the great Indian Weddings. The pomp and grandeur of the Indian Marriages seems justified since the brides and the grooms in India get this chance to splurge and showoff just once in Life :) . Lucky westerners :)

PS: The last line is changing now but we still have a long way to go and the line still applies to 98% of Indians.

Liz-Arun, Prince, Ash-Abhi etc ...

Tune into Aaj Tak , Times Now , CNN-IBN, xyz, abc channels over the last 2-3 days ........ the only thing u hear is that "industrialist" ARun Nayar and "Actress" Liz oops Elizabeth Hurley getting married in desi style in some Palace in Jodhpur ......I dont understand what great these two people have done to India and do they really deserve the media attention they are getting in India ??? the so called Industrialist Arun owns a non descript Software company which the software powerhouses of India are not even aware of .......

The only guys to be blamed are the Media specially the ones like Aaj tak who started this Sensationalization of news .....remember Prince ? the 5 year old who got a 48 hr celebrity pass ??.. yet another example is the ash- Abhishek marriage . on the day the marriage was announced Aaj tak followed the Big B wherever he went, went into the family history of both Ash and Abhishek, how they met blah blah ....... simple question who cares ?? I guess there must b some solid TRP data to support something like this and so the hapless people like me who want see "actual" news are left with no options !! guess WWW is a better option than the idiot box....

But Why ?

Yesterday I landed up with something which I had never expected,never had prayed for and I dont know why I got it !!!....wont tell you what .. suffice that it was something which was good ....... but on the other hand .. there is something for which I have been praying for a long time , working hard towards that sacrificing my weekends and nites ....... and have been expecting that some day that will happen .......but somehow that one thing is not happening however hard I try !!! ......

Can someone explain this to me please???? whoever said work hard and the rewards will follow was somehow missing something .. agreed I worked hard even for the thing I landed up with ...... but I worked HARDER on this thing I did not and have not got ....... so what's the justification here ?

Messed up

I am having a sense of desperation now .. for some reason for some days I have not been able to get to something which I want get to .......... however hard I try somehow something in me stops me from doing it !!!...... what is it I really dunno . is it the fear of losing the existing state of harmony? or is it wanting to have the cake and eat it too.......somebody help me out of this messI am in right now ...... I wanna break free ........unshackle all the chains break all barriers.........

Smart Work???

Offlate there is has been a lot of debate between my colleagues on the Virtues of Smart work and Hard work. Simply put smart "work" is the ability to do the some work with the minimum efforts Vis a vis hard work .. which usually implies that ur putting ur arse out to achieve some results. But somehow this debate on Smart work veered to yet another discussion ........ Picture this .. I am assigned some work to do which is really new to be me .. and I will learn a lot from doing this work ......But I instead of doing the Work .. I "smartly" push this work to another colleague of mine who knows this work better and will complete the same work faster than me. Now the Question is this Smart work ?? Well DEpends on perpective ( my favourite ).

For if I look from my angle .. I have got the work done at the best Possible place and by the best person there by enchancing my own people management skills and improving my companies 's efficiency... Really ? Someone else will ask "did'nt you miss the chance to learn something new here ?".I mean people management is imperative and perhaps the most important skill one needs to learn..... but in doing this .. haven't you missed the chance to learn some new Technology or some new workcycle process?

This is exactly the Predicament which say a new CEO of a company faces. Do I look take a long term view and let my people add "real" value and bring a steady rate of Growth or else Do I take a Short term view and ask people to produce results ASAP and bring out a Stellar quarterly result?.

In the end , guess there is a thin line of Difference between the Smart work and hard work and I truely believe that the way to should be work hard but smartly :)

Optimism!!

The B school which I wanted to join so desperately gave out it's results today .. or rather yesterday by sending out emails to all the Admits.....and u guessed right.. I dint get any such emails/sms .. but wat is surprising is that they did not send a reject email either leaving us all ( I am thinking there will b many like me ) in the lurch over the weekend .......... the least they wud have done is send an reject email!!!

but they are Giving people like me a Ray of Hope ........ Even after all the Admit mails have been handed.. we as a bunch are hanging to the fact that they ( the Ad-com) did not send a reject.......... It is amazing how people are optimistic people are especially for certain things they desperately want to make happen .......reminds me of the famous hindi saying .. "doobte hue ko Tinke ka sahara dena "........
Anyway I guess it is time for me move on and think of my future plans.. coz the more I think over it ....... the more less optimistic I am of getting an Admit....(If this Sounds confusing .. forgive my state of mind)

Music, Songs and Nostalgia

Certain things in life remind of us somethings. It could some smell, something which we see or something which hear.... In my case somehow .. certain songs/sounds remind me of certain periods of my life. Picture this

1) THe moment I hear the songs from Dil Se .. I am transported to my first year in the college .. especially the ragging period of 2months .. I heard the Dil Se songs everywhere and anywhere over those 2 months which I call sweet hell .. I still I can remember me dancing on the Chiaya Chiaya Number on my freshers Party day ... ( It is a different issue that my friends did not perceive what I was doing as a dance )

2) Next when I hear the songs from the Movie "Mujhe Kuch kehna hai".. I am transported to the days of my industrial training in Vizag.. why ?? Just about every single day in the 4 months..my roomy used to wake me up with the songs from movie .. ( well dint have the money 2 buy any other cassette.. and my roomy had to listen to songs while gyming in the morning..)

3) The songs from the movie Gharshana( telegu) transport me back to my days in the US . Coz I listened to those songs on every long drive which I went for in the US .........

and not just songs .......there are many more sounds like the Sound of the old Petrol Autorickshaws( Not the LPG ones which ply now they sound different) reminds me of my native place .. coz up until my college freshmen days .. I had only travelled in an AutoRickshaws if I was visiting my native place

Workings of an Idle brain

The title cant be more oxymoronish........ how can something be idle but still work ? but it is the the human brain Afterall ... it is practically never idle....in fact it can never be idle.... it just needs to keep thinking something........

Sample this.. did not have to go to work today since the Cauvery riots were supposed to happen in Bangalore .So I thought let me relax and idlize brain....... but then my mind travelled all the across the globe to the US in just a matter of seconds..

HEre is how

Start : Cauvery issue -> Cauvery a hot issue in the mysore City -> Mysore city sounds familar -> Aah the Beautiful My Infosys Campus -> Infosys , my Ex-employer -> the Day I was told to go to US by my Manager -> My first Flight travel -> my journeys and Drives in the US -> Tring Tring-> END ..the phone buzzes and I am back to reality ... the phone is from my office colleague asking me if he needs to get to office today .....

Relationship fundas

Met up with a school friend of mine after a long hiatus . The usual Nostalgia gripped us where we laughed and poked fun at each other for the silly and now unimaginable things which we did in school.... ( Like playing cricket for the whole day after the first period attendence ) .. All was honky dory until my friend asked "how many relationships have been in all these years ?"

The Question forced me to look for answers to certain questions which I have so far avoided to the Hilt like why the heck did I not get into a "true" relationship in all these years of my adulthood......Whom do I blame for this single State of mine ??( The human in you always looks for scapegoats )

The answer I find lies deep within myself. I guess I need to blame ( aah.. here comes the scapegoat) the risk averse mindset which I have . I have had great friends with whom I have spend some really great moments and wanted to extend these friendships to something special Relationships .... but somehow.. The fear that what happens if she says the dreaded "no" .. the fear that I lose whatever good time I am having now if I take the next step .. meant that I maintained the Status Quo and waited for something to happen !!!!!!!! rather than going for the Kill...... Only later did I realise that it is only "me" who can make "it" and noone else ....... All I had to do was go with attitude "Come what may I will face it" ......but that is way it is ........ . someone else has made it happen and I am still the Relationship status :Single person who finds solace in saying "Don't care the world"

Born in the Wrong Year ??

I was not a very big believer in the Astrology and the Sun Sign predictions which are churned by the Newspapers and newsites Week after week. But seems like there is some truth to all this "Your destiny is decided by the Stars and Planetary positions when you were born" and the Year you were born if you were to follow Chinese Astrology

How was I convinced after being a non-Believer for so long . Well the salaries which fresh grads of out IITs RECs and IIMs are drawing in 2007 placement season have got me thinking. It has been 5 yrs since my placement season and I remember the highest salary paid out in my placement batch was about half the highest Salary being paid this year by my college. 100% growth in 5 yrs Flat. On the other hand, my own salary is grown by around 150% over this period and but on a smaller base and hence my Salary is now only slightly higher than the person who will work under me with Zilch Work Experience..... aah ..the smaller base .. Did I deserve that smaller base ??

My take?I was born in 1981( the Year of Rooster as per Chinese calender ) ..and so graduated in 2001-02 .. the year in which the stars of the US economy and consequenently the stars the Indian IT companies werent doing great. and so just to get a job and to be able to hang around that job was an achievement.....and my peers where just searching for "any" job which takes and keeps them for long. But someone who was born in year 1986 .. now has on an average 3 job offers even before he out of college !!!! aah he is plain lucky u would say .. but what is luck if not the tricks of Stars and Planets?

A Tribute to LM

Yesterday was a rather sad in my life. My first project manager in my professional life met with an accident and passed away. When I heard the news, for a moment I was thunderstruck not knowing how to react ....but now have regained my composure and I believe for all that she has done for us, she deserves a rich tribute.

LM was amazing technical manager who knew the nitty gritties of technology even as she was managing a 18 ppl project. If one hand we admired her technical know how, on the other hand we were astounded by her down to earth behavoiur and attitude. Also not the one to panic ( except of course when we had the so called monthly QA audits for CMM level ) and always calm about things.

She was one of few who inpsired me to continue in the my software company after having been disillusioned with the way IT industry works. Her hard work and dedication won my project the "best Managed Project" for year 2003-2004. I can go on and on about this wonderful person........ but cant really put my mind together as of now since I am yet to fully recover from the shock...
My god rest her sole in peace.

thank you LM all the help you have extended to me in the short time we worked together

Low Cost @ What Cost ???

Air Deccan I thought was making waves in the Indian Airspace by opening up the Air Travel Vistas to the common man. But I was really shocked at the service level which the airline is offering to the so called "first Time" travellers...given the treatment they are getting .. I think they are better off travelling by train or bus to their destinations.....wondering y I am bashing up Air deccan!! .. here is my story ( rather my parents story .. with my mom travelling the 1st time on Air)

Saturday 6pm: Schedule flight to Hyderabad. Had specifically booked this time as my parents wanted to attend the evening functions of a marriage.

Saturday 8am: SMS rescheduling the flight to 8pm ...... ( I thanked Air deccan since they atleast send an SMS !!!) but all the same shocked at the impunity with which they are rescheduling a late evening flight early in the morning ...... this plainly means the Airline is tried to squeeze it's Aircraft schedule and one Flight going amiss means the entire schedule goes haywire .... trying to drive down costs......but at what costs??

Saturday 2pm: rescdehuled again now 9:20 . then came couple of more SMSes.. finally the flight left at 1130 pm in the night!!!!!!!!! ....spoiling all the plans which my parents had.....they reached hyderabad at 1am in the morning

and must say we were lucky to be send SMSs.. just wondering abt the people who did not have this facility . .. an agonizing 6 hrs @ the Airport.. add another 1.5 since u r usually @ the Airport atleast an hr earlier...... so effectively 7.5 hrs .. now add another 2 hrs to this ......... and ur in hyd by train......

the same story repeats itself on return flight .. Scheduled time 530pm .. actual departure 11:45 pm.......so I am sure such stories must b happening everyday. and seems like AIR deccan has even developed a model to predict the exact time of delay !!!!!!!! sorry Mr. Gopinath .. this wont do ....you need to pull up ur socks...... else be ready to face the Indian Desi public Ire..... sooner or later

PS : Somebody was thanking AD for making flying possible to common man.... I think this LCC model cud have been brought in Mr. XYZ .. if not Mr. Gopinath .,..given the liberalization policies and .and I dont think I need to thank him for this pain

Management Talk!!!

Have you ever heard the CEO/EVP/VP of a company talk without using the following words: Streagy, Focus, Differentiation, go to Market, traction and so on and so forth. You bet not. Ask any question to them.. be it something as simple as "When is my next salary hike ?"..... which can answered pretty straight forwardly "6 months or 1 month "

but you get a 5 min lecture. He (or she I am not gender baised here ) tells the history( and geography) of the whole HR and compensation policy to us and explains the hike policy and goes on and on ....... until you forget the question you asked .......but luckily managers are a smart genre. they remind you of the question saying " but yes to answer your question of When the hike will happen"........ I think we will be doing it in the next 1 month!!!!!!! phew .. .thank you sir for ur prompt reply !!!!

But guess this is a part of the job for a manager .. talking and delivering the polished stuff.. the unpolished stuff may not b digestible by us .....something like saying " The HR policy makers have resigned and we are searching for a new HR head to formulate the hike policy" ......and being an aspiring manager .. I think I need to polish my polishing skills ...... :) so off I am to a Soft skills training institute

Paradox of Thrift : Macroeconomics

While each of us may have different to save money out of our regular income ( typically salary for the employees, monthly profits for neighbour kirana store and so on) , it is no doubt the primary reason is to secure our future against unforseen events. and Most of us save money in the form of Stocks, bonds,NSCs and of course some money is stored in banks etc for the lure of interests ....Have you ever wondered wat happens to the money which stashed in these bonds and NSCs and banks ( leaving aside stocks as they fall under different category of Risk driven savings)

While here starts the intriguing story of the money. The money you save in the banks is the money which is used by banks to lend out to investors and industrialist. The same money is used by the government to invest and pay for short term debts !!!!!!! ...The basis assumption of course is that of all the money which is kept by individual investors in banks, everybody will not withdraw the cash in one go. If that happens ( remember ICICI bank going bankrupt rumour a couple of yrs back) ....... then the banks are in for a liquidity crises and will run out of cash to pay it's own employees.

Now what happens if the ordinary people don't save and instead spend all the money which they get from regular income ? ..This is a really good ecomomic sign and helps the economy become a demand market and increases growth rate. At the same time, it implies that this growth cannot be funded with the domestic investments and for growth we will need to be now dependent on External Inflows ( the FDIs ) ........So one hand, less savings is better for the economy .. on the other hand it makes the country dependent on external flows to fund this growth ..........( the classic is that of the US economy ) This is commonly known as the "paradox of Thrift !!!!!!!!!"...

PS : Sorry if I am sounding like a economic prof ...