Trivial Matters ( Part - II )

During my schooling most of the time we did not have watches. It was difficult to tell when the periods would end. I was tall enough to be entitled to back bench I was luckier to get a window seat, overlooking Nandu’s compound (He was a petty part time farmer who grew vegetable just outside our school boundary. Window had grill and we used to have sunlight coming in till the lunch time. Hence I used the Jantar Mantar style to track time. Probably it was the best thing to find when the boring classes would finally come to end. It used to be pretty handy if there were crux situation and knew that I will be in receiving end of teacher’s wrath. So the periods were neatly marked with the pencil, ready for the minor alignment for summers and winters can be incorporated. A real trivial thing to substitute the watch but did mean a lot to me those days.

After 10th grade I got the opportunity to study in a residential school near Chennai. This required a long travel in a normal class. It used to painful especially when you were near the destination. I used to be glued to the window all the time. Ticket collectors used to be annoyed with us as all the time we used to ask him how far we are from the destination and how much time it will take to reach there. So there was a big necessity to find the way out without speaking a word to anyone. In this process I found a way that by mere watching and with help of a pen and a watch, I could tell how far is the destination, expected time of arrival and the most important the speed of the train. No rocket science, just the power of observation.

If you have electrified tracks you will see that there is a numbering mechanism where in on the top is a larger no for example say 252, and then on the bottom there a number system which goes like this 1/16 . This 1/16 keeps on changing per pole and it becomes with the second pole 2/16 and once you cross 16/16 the top line number will change to 251. Hence the conclusion is 16 poles are equal to one kilometre. The top line number reduces because it indicates the distance to a major station or junction where the train will get terminated.

Hence all you have to do to calculate the speed of the train is to time the kilometre travelled. You keep jotting it at regular interval and then the simple mathematics to roughly predict when you will arrive to the respective station. Trivial isn’t it?

In my final year of graduation I finally gave in to my ambition of being an entrepreneur. I always wanted the attire to be also of one and hence came my challenge with the neck tie. To this date I am a regular with the neck tie and have a good collection of the same. But not many know the science involved in wearing a simple thing like tie, A truly a trivial matter.

When I started wearing a tie it used to never perfect. All the time one or the other end used be larger than the other. If the inner thing was large it could be tucked inside the shirt but it also resulted in the other end too short and would look awkward to wear. Hence a formula was derived to sort the matter out. All you need is stand in front of a mirror and adjust the tie with the desired length from your neck to the belt. Once done from that point you need to measure from the thumb to the end of index finger fully stretched. This is the point you have to start tying the knot and you will arrive with perfection to the desired length. Thou minor adjustment might be required from tie to tie and that you can gain that from experience or you can ask the expert and inventor of this science. The calculation is simple the length from ones starting point of the thumb to the index finger is what it takes for the knot to come in and hence it is always perfect. There might be other way around but to this date I carry on with my trivial innovation.

Walking is passion for me, even after I met with a nasty accident where I almost lost my right let knee down. That was the time when I did not even hear about pedometer and I wanted to calculate the distance I walked. Calorie burned was not the there in my mind but calculating distance was surely some interest to me.

Luckily Internet was there to offer me a quick solution. I downloaded a converter and tried to see what a step would count for. Roughly a step we take while walking is about three feet long and 3 feet = 1 yard. Now all I had to do is to find how many yards are equal to one kilometre, and it is 1093.613. That means if I take about 1100 steps it is a kilometre of walk and those interested in calorie count can proceed forward or if you want to save hassles just buy an inexpensive pedometer. Till this date whenever I take a new route for my daily walking I count it thoroughly to be sure of the distance I covered on that route.

This is as trivial as it can get, but you cannot carry the pedometer every time with you. I had one of this equipment but lost it as it is too small and it can easily snap away from the belt. This calculation came handy to me once when few friends were debating over the length of walk in our colony football field. To end the debate all I required is to count the steps and arrive at almost perfect numbers.

Finally a project which I think is still viable. During my graduation days with help of my friend Mohit, I did meet a HAM Radio enthusiast. He was a retired army man in probably in end of the eight decade of his existence. He painfully explained us what it is all about, with his over sized radio tuning in his Morse code device in a tiny room he had earmarked for his hobby in his apartment.

Those days Internet has not found its way to my ears, must be in quite nascent stage with the US army. He explained us that he could talk to anyone in world fee of cost. Once the interesting part was over he went into a caution mode where he started mentioning details that the misuse of this device was impossible. He did mention that government gives licenses and kept a keen watch on what was transferred. Matter almost ended until I met another friend of mine, to whom I did explain about my findings probably to sound more intelligent. This guy was even more keen to assert his intelligence and told me that the data transfer is possible thru this, and one of his friend in US is also into it and is already been able to do 300bps (Baud per second) data transfer using Ham radio.

Hence my project started, as others all in my mind. I thought 300bps is quite less we already had 1200bps modems in market by that time, but was enough to do text based transfers. Hence I started dreaming about my own version of today’s Blackberry. The advantage was I could send message to any part of the world. Integrate the solution with the computer etc. The plus was that like internet it was almost free and had even wider reach to every nook and corner of the world. To this date this advantage still remains with this technology, you really need not worry about the connection any where even in the deepest of jungle with any inhabitants.

Later with the advent of Internet I thought of further integrating it with internet with a gateway solution anywhere in the world. There were problems and I had solutions too for them. Like since this service was free and worked in broadcast mode what could be done if we had huge traffic once launched in commercial real life world. The solution was that Ham could be used as technology demonstrator and for commercial thing a new frequency or a satellite transponder could be bought. Probably if miniaturisation of this device is possible it can be part of any handheld device. I still somehow get excited thinking if this technology is feasible there can be many advantages and add-ons example global Bluetooth kind of technology. Well I need to end here as this part too is getting quite big.

There were many other but I did try to choose best amongst them. Well what else I just wait for your feedbacks and most importantly I do want you to share some of your own experiences, please do.

Trivial Matters ( Part - I )

In life people keep on inventing or discovering few things on their own. This might be quite trivial for one and important to another. I did have fair share of these discovery moments. I thought to pen some of them which I think were great moment when I found them out. Some of them were larger projects and I had my share of setbacks on them. I leave it to your judgement how trivial they are.

My first moment was when I was about 6-7 years old. In hot summers some time we used to sleep on roof of the house along with our grandfather, it was spectacular site to watch the clear sky, those days it used to be clear sky. I could cite the moon in all its glory winning and waning. While it is to wan I could see crystal clear the rim of the moon on the darker side. I concluded that this phenomenon was due to the earth shadow. All I know by that time is that the moon reflected the suns light and did not have its own light. I remember confirming form my grandfather and it was one delightful moment for me to find this out all be myself. It is truly a trivial matter if I look back but was a great moment for me those days.

Life becomes serious as you grow up. Sky was replaced with a fan to gaze at. An idea stuck me that a perfect automobile can be build using this motor. I used to dream of building an automobile using it someday or even better driving one. Till this day I do not know driving probably waiting for my dream cart to ferry me wherever I want. So the research started with one of the encyclopaedia in my grandfather’s collection. Gosh, I now understand how much I missed internet those days. What I found out was no breakthrough in the technology itself but I found an enhancement for the same, a perfect renewable energy concept. What I saw was a simple diagram still fresh in my mind that of a U shaped magnet and a coil running thru it, explanation was while you turn the coil it will produce electricity. Now this was the bingo moment which started the stint of my day dreaming. What I thought was the battery could power the motor initially for the vehicle to move and then I could have four of those generators attached to the four wheels, what I thought it was enough to power the car once in motion. Even more I thought of the wind power, if the electricity generation was not enough I thought of putting small fan blades with the small generator in multiple no’s to close the gap. An accelerator was going to be a simple knob they use for the fan and hence to be contended with 5 speeds that it could offer.

The first setback this project suffered was when I watched a electrician repairing one of the fans in the house. He could hold the fan blades easily while the power was flowing to the fan, and as soon as he left the fan it wormed to its top speed. It worried me that how it could take the starting load of the dream car if it’s so powerless. It was time to get a mentor and hence I confided it to the best help available, hence my mentor was “Deba Bhaiya” our car driver. He heard the project with great interest and then put a lot of technical jargons in front of me like, What about Clutch? And Gears? Etc. I became too much for me to handle and I realised that I would need some formal education to start this project hence the project was shelved and it still remains there. Well now I just keep watching “Reva” on road as if they have stolen my idea and implemented it in very unprofessional way. The nearest that I came to the prototype of this car was much later in form of a line diagram using GW Basic and a PC with say 4.7Mhz speed and two floppy drives, those days there were nothing called hard disk to my knowledge. This was the last of my effort towards this direction.

It was exciting to know that water is made of two molecules of Hydrogen and one molecule of Oxygen, but more than bonding of Hydrogen and Oxygen what interested more was there separation. Electrolysis was of great interest and thought that this experiment can be tried at home. Motivation was to collect the Oxygen do administer it to my friends who were sick, no matter what the ailment is Oxygen would be good to heal the person was the thought. Hence started the process, since we did not have access to test tube in home first an empty glass jar was organised. Then the in second part two pieces of wire were organised. An afternoon time elders used to have a nap and hence was a perfect time to do this test. Wire was put in the plug on the one end and dropped to the wire, what happened next we did not have a clue as it cut the power supply to the house. Hence the major setback to this project happened. I still remember the task of putting away everything away as if nothing has happened was the bigger challenge.

I knew for sure that it will work and hence decided to repeat this with much more saner way. The Big jar was replaced with a small empty bottle of Homeopathic medicine. Source of power was the battery from my grandfather’s torch. To my joy it worked. I could see very tiny bubbles from one of the wire. But it was a partial success as it was the unwanted Hydrogen to which I did not have any application whatsoever. So I did know that the negatively charged wire was emitting Hydrogen twice the capacity that of Oxygen. Hence this safe experiment remained an experiment and I could not go ahead my intention of administering oxygen to my ailing friends. I am sure if they know about it now they would be thanking their luck.

Science really interested me but it was one demon everywhere in science which made me move away from it, and that was Mathematics. We used to have our mathematics teacher who was a ambidextrous (Person who can write with both the hands), short and stout (people who know him and if they read this will think I just called him skinny). All he did was stand in the middle of the blackboard and start solving sums from one end of the board to the other end without even mincing a word. We students used to have gala time chatting at the back as if no one is there. Hence the interest in science was mostly fuelled by magazines like “Vigyan Pragati” a quite inexpensive one, if I remember correctly thirty rupees was the annual subscription and seventy five paisa was the per issue cost of this weekly publication. The most interesting thing it contained was do-it-yourself project it used to have. In one of this project there was one to make a radio station.

It really caught my fantasy and started day dreaming about having my own radio station. More application was that we can spy (not sure on whom) and communicate with friends (Fellow spies) on their portable transistors. Hence the Bill of material was neatly copied in a piece of paper to be taken to shop which vended electrical components. Once beating the crowd to the main counter at “Burma Radio Ghar” reached out to the sales men to see if he had all the components and it’s pricing (funding was another challenge). Finally once the sourcing and funding problems were solved the project was already delayed by two months.

Then came the time to put the things in place, did everything carefully to the book but the thing decided not to work for me. Then came the right time to find a mentor for this project one of my friends uncle came to rescue we used call him “Raja ka mama”, we actually never bothered for his actual nomenclature. He did the setup in just an hour and the thing started working. This was the last exciting thing in the project as the range was pathetically less which refused to go beyond few meters. Actually I was still not ready to give up and made the TV antenna work as the radio station antenna but there was only a marginal improvement in the range. So that was the end of the spy and his team there.

To be continued . . . . . . . .

Seed makes Jungle

There is nothing called good or bad, thinking makes it so. I think what this has done is put the responsibility on the people who analyze and comment and not on the doer. Good Taliban and Bad Taliban, Good business practice and bad business practice, Migration of Jobs to the developing economy to unemployment in the very recession stuck developed economy. There are different views on each side of the story making it good for one and bad for other. I will leave this debate for some other day. What is for sure all this mentioned above were once the seed before becoming a dense jungle of thoughts, processes, people, culture and practices.

Let’s see something from the story of now famous son of a school teacher, a part from his biography “He was the second son of a school teacher. When he was 16 years old, he moved to Aden, Yemen. Initially, he worked as a dispatch clerk with A. Besse & Co. Two years later A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell products and he was promoted to manage the company’s oil-filling station at the port of Aden...”. The biography continues “Yemini administration realized that their main unit of currency, the Rial, was disappearing fast. Upon launching an investigation, they realized that a lot of Rials were being routed to the Port City of Aden. It was found that a young man in his twenties was placing unlimited buy orders for Yemini Rials. During those days, the Yemini Rial was made of pure silver coins and was in much demand at the London Bullion Exchange. Young man bought the Rials, melted them into pure silver and sold it to the bullion traders in London. During the latter part of his life, while talking to reporters, it is believed that he said “The margins were small but it was money for jam. After three months, it was stopped. But I made a few lakhs. In short, I was a manipulator. A very good manipulator. But I don’t believe in not taking opportunities.”. His most famous quotes are “You do not require an invitation to make profits” and the one that I like the most is “Think fast, Think big, Think ahead, ideas are no one’s monopoly”. So what was the seed? Probably the appetite to do big and the fuel came from the silver in Rials. Today those seeds have graduated in jungles (divided into two and both are growing) I must say. There were tons of allegation on his business practices but so it be the seed kept on getting its fuel and it grew to a tree and then to a jungle.

Some love it, some envy, some get there daily bread and some are simply proud of it. I am talking of what “Bangalore” stands for today, it again started with a small seed. Mysore Maharaja wanted electricity for Kolar gold mines(KGF), he did set up a hydroelectricity plant, the wires were crossing Bangalore and they decided to replace the oil/gas street lights with the electric one with the surplus electric production. This made Bangalore to be the first city in the country to have electricity. This proved to be an important resource for fuelling scientific, academic, research and technology around Bangalore. Finally when the India’s time came in the flat wired world it was actually Bangalore which was ready to grab this opportunity. Surely the small seed planted by the Maharaja has grown into a full-fledged jungle.

There was another seed sown way back in 1947. The formation of Pakistan was on the non proved theory of its founders that Hindus and Muslims cannot stay together in peace. They thought that the religion they represent will be in danger. Sometime I see merit in the famous communist quote “religion is the opium of masses”. If there is tasks unachievable just add religious mix and there will be a lot of buyer for that. A famous columnist and writer comments in his Sunday column “The two strands within Pakistan's DNA began to slowly split its personality. The father of the nation, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, thought he had produced a child in his own image, but his secular prescription was soon suppressed. His ideas were buried at his funeral. His heirs began to concede space to mullahs like Maulana Maudoodi who asked, in essence, that if Pakistan had been created to defend Islam, then who would be its best guardians?” So thus started the religious bias which was further fuelled by the politicians and the dictators the country had from time to time. You should not ride a tiger as the tiger do not know how to help you in dismounting; all it knows is to have a morsel. Hence nobody in Pakistan dared to dismount it and they continue. I was hearing a famous Pakistani cricketer turned politician for his reason on “sariat” (Islamic laws) implemented in one of the province (Swat), he said that it was implemented because there was no remedy to the normal people for their legal woes and this is the most efficient way to provide them this facility, it was there long term demand and the Government just conceded. I some time pity the people appearing to defend Pakistan in the Indian television from the Pakistani side. It is left best to the readers to estimate where this country is heading. The columnist concluded his column with “I had a previously arranged speaking engagement at a university in Delhi before largely Muslim students. I began with the suggestion that every Indian Muslim should offer a special, public prayer of thanks to the Almighty Allah for His extraordinary benevolence - for the mercy He had shown by preventing us from ending up in Pakistan in 1947. The suggestion was received with startled amusement, instinctive applause and a palpable sense of sheer relief.” All I have to say is see the seed and its growing as a jungle .

Today, we all in our daily life sow a seed on quite a regular basis. It can be that of a thought in oneself, one that is in your work place, one in your home or your children, one in your community, state, country, world and so on and so forth. It is good to watch out these seeds, you never know which seed can survive and get enough fertilization to become a jungle. For seeds do not know good or bad they only know to grow and multiply albeit it gets its fertilization.

GDP again

Do numbers like 5.3 – 7 – 9 make any sense? To me it surely rings GDP. GDP growth 5.3 is the actual announced for the last quarter, 7% was promised, 9% was actually where we were. Recently going thru the news and there was a mention of India’s GDP growth for the third quarter coming down to 5.3% way below 7% promised by the Government as recently as in the last budget speech couple of weeks ago. I always had my own doubt on this GDP guy any ways as expressed in my earlier blogs and hence felt the responsibility to write on this issue when it made news headlines once again.

Well I have been going thru tons of information and hearing/reading as many analysts as I can. Finally I could find some solace in one announcing “Won’t get better soon, learn to live with slowdown”. I know you must be shouting “Solace?” I would still say “Yes” because he declared the truth and wanted us to accept the fact instead to keep us seeing Government’s false claims that we are not much affected. It’s time to start planning to handle the given situation now. Please change your mode from “Growth” to “Survival” if you survive you will eventually grow for sure. Bad news is rupee has taken the upward path again, new numbers to chew upon 50 – 52 – 54 - - - 60. We have started from Rs.50 for a dollar and already reached 52, near future we must see 54, that’s what the analyst have been saying, today morning in the GYM my CFO friend announced it will eventually go to 60. As soon as he was away few of the other friends who did not want to believe to this wild suggestion commented “How can one make this kind of statement, I simply do not believe””60, but when, he should answer that too” added another. Well at the end of the day we all were in the denial mood. Rupee flexing the muscle any way left me gloomy and I had no interest in flexing my muscle any more in the GYM.

Earlier to this my CFO friend also commented “All the major economy is in negative, that way our net growth compared to all those economy is still better”. I would say we never stop these feel good self solacing business. Worst part is agriculture is substantially down, Industry contributes mere 0.5% to the GDP. The sector which contributes the maximum is services and I have my own doubts on this sector as there will a lot of false elements contributing here.

Any ways guys still more bad news for people in IT and ITES as well as in job. Obama Government announced that the companies which have taken support package from the Government will not be allowed to outsource. That means millions of Indians will hit the shore from US soon and we will lose on the outsource business too. There are say about 6 million Indians abroad who remit some $30 billion a year. Labour migration has been the force behind globalisation which has gone is reverse gear for now. Recently I was chatting with a friend who is heading a US companies operation in India, on this he commented “Tell me, how they are going to implement that? How are they going to segregate? Example AIG has taken the financial package and they have a partnership in India, Do you mean to say the Indian arm will have Americans now?” I actually had no answer but for the sake of answering I said “You know, in US they plan everything to the minute details, I am sure the Obama administration would have done that”, he had no option but to accept that.

The positive side is Government announced few stimuli packages. I think the substantial one was on FDI which has surprisingly made quite less a headline. It is just like opening up the flood gates, I understand there is not much funds overseas but as soon as there is a flow it is bound to flow handsomely this direction. If things goes well we might see some Investments, may be from gulf region. Yesterday RBI announced the CRR cut of 0.5%, a third one in a row. If the banks finally decide to pass it off to their customers it should be good, they did not adhere to in last two anyways.

I conclude from the statement made by one of my friends in the armed forces. In the armed forces the proverb goes, "if rape is inevitable lie down and enjoy it". Civil society, it is perhaps, "God, give me the strength to change what can be changed and endure what cannot be changed, and to know the difference between the two" and” something is better than nothing" etc.

Philosophy has the last word.

We are like this only

It was early morning in Bangalore International airport I was on my way to Hyderabad with a colleague of mine. I had a severe urge of having a cup of coffee and he had the similar urge for the tea. We approached the cafe and waited for our turn to place the order. Once on the counter we ordered the beverages we were having severe urge of and two blueberry muffins. Once the order placed and cash exchanged lady from the back end asked “Sir, is it for parcel?”, I almost panicked as if she is just going to do something fishy and replied in a concerned tone “No, we did not mention that, Right?” with the concern written all over my face. To this she just gave a smile which I had to return any ways, but I ended feeling like an idiot for my heavy reaction on a trivial issue.

We went to the delivery counter, by this time I did recover and I could maintain my sense of humour. The guy at the counter welcomed me with a broad smile and greetings. By now I could realise they were trained in this fashion to handle their customers. I was quite impressed and felt good about this as this is what I could only see in my trip abroad. We settled to a seat near the delivery counter to enjoy our grab. Then came a man in is late fifty to the delivery counter, He handed his slip and all he was returned with was a water bottle, he fumed “Where is the Tea?” the guy at the counter carefully inspected the slip to find out if he missed it and said “Sir, you have not ordered one” to this it was even a bigger grunt “They do not ask the customer what all he requires, and I can say it is a worst kind of service”. The guy at the back of the counter must be quite irritated but maintained his calm and said politely “Sir, no problem you can order again”. The drama continued as the guy was quite irritated until the guy finally got settled with his cup of tea and a water bottle. Once nicely placed he had a majestic way to access every other table and their occupants as if a proud King does for his poor peasants. Probably he was enjoying his sadist pleasure of making everyone know that he is some kind of a personality. Almost immediately a European couple came to the delivery counter. While delivering the coffee the counter guy cautioned him that it is too hot and tried to give a extra paper cup so as to withstand the heat, the European lady smiled back and said “ My husband is strong guy and can handle that heat” to this there was laughter from all the side and the humour was simply great.

I would never forget learning from one of the Bollywood movie “Munna Bhai MBBS” on how to judge a person in shortest time. It is the way he or she treats people lower in strata to them. I might be criticising him now but honestly I had been reacting the similar way earlier and most of the people in India do. In western world they say “Customer is a King” in India “we believe as customer we are the Kings” that to a real tyrant one, one with lot of arrogance and attitude. Most of us keep on shuffling between either sides of this story but still when we become customers we really become a difficult one. Probably while facing a customer we face more of those difficult ones and hence we try to emulate them when we become customers. I think it should be the other way around and we should understand what those unreasonable demands our customer makes are and we should try not to make those kinds of demands when we become a customer.

Recently I faced a problem in the office internet, one that of unstable condition. When we called the customer care they said that “Sir, we have noted down your complain and someone will attend to you in next 72 hours” I surely fumed but trying to keep my cool I said “Do you mean that by the time the complain is addressed you will not be charging me for that period?” pat came the reply “Sir, how can that be?” that blew the lid out of the nicely shaken soda bottle. What happened next is only known to me and the poor operator at the other end. Well true to their promise the person called me in next 72 hrs time to buy further 24hrs to come and see the problem. What I am trying to say is the other side of the coin is we do not necessarily give good service many a time too.

Well this game continues and all I could say is “We are like this only”. I promise to came back some time writing “How to handle a difficult customer?” till then allow me to learn and note something on this.

Recession but no depression, Hopefully

I just got the wittiest answer to “What is recession and depression?” During my various reads on recession, recently I encountered a definition “When your friends and people around you lose jobs, it is recession, when you lose job it is depression.” Everybody must be having their own bouts of stories around recession, me too. Today, when I just go for a stroll in the neighbourhood, and when I see people talking on the phone, I surely hear the words “recession” or “Job”, at least 5 out of 10 times. The other day I was with my colleague in the car, going for a customer meeting, he is one of those chatty types; he got all the calls mentioning about the problem in job. Some have lost it or some have just got the reduction. After a bout of those doses he commented “Sir, recession has gone to its worst”. I maintained my silence and kept on pondering again on recession.

I have already spend a day in Satyam’s” city, two more to days to go. We just had a few sets of customer meetings already, could sense a mixed bag of response. In this recession we still are braving an I Idea to have office in Hydrabad, this was to the utter surprise of many and relief to few. The silver lining for us is getting new sales of service personal s not going to be a problem assured by everybody almost anonymously. I have an etching feeling to start with yet another venture for consultancy on ERP solutions to SMB. To this regard I was speaking to a friend, who works for the large software company also in ERP. I told him “Yaar, I want to still start this venture”, he said that “Situation is very gloomy, last Friday our company announced lay off, We had large crowd of people coming on Saturday to check if there access card still works”, I contested “I understand this, but don’t you think that it is the right time to take the plunge, opportunities also comes along with recession”. He was not able to digest it probably and kept silent, or he thought that I am foolishly optimistic. Hence I ended the discussions with “Think about it, we must not lose an opportunity”.

Well, Now I have little addition to make to what my CFO friend has to say, as mentioned in my last blog on recession. Situation is going to decline further then what reflects of all the misdoing that the perpetrators of the recession has envisaged on us. It is now probably going to have snow ball effect in the economy. Recently the economics pundits have started giving their analysis on the down turn which rather not so discouraging, just thought to put in some points:

1. US should rebound sooner than the EU block and Japan. Its heart warming to hear that they have already started seeing the revival of economy. I am just thinking, if it means that we are over with the bottom stuff, or the economist was one of those optimistic kinds.

2. India GDP growth at 7% might be still higher a target. They say agriculture should contribute about 1%, Industry about another 1% and services about 4%. Hence 6-6.5 % GDP growth should be in realistic term. Still better then the negative growth in GDP widespread.

3. I have saved this for the last but this has gladdened my heart the most .They say you need to survive till December 2009, the first quarter should start seeing the upward trend quite distinctively. Ah, if this is true, I think we almost worried uselessly. I do not even want to imagine the consequences of them being wrong.

Recently, Obama announced that all the companies benefitting from the mother of all bailout packages will not be allowed to outsource the jobs outside USA. I understand that this is short term setback to Indian companies, but this should be good in longer term. What he has tried to do is to try to get the maximum effect of the bailout package on the domestic economy. Once the US economy is on track, it is any way a good omen for the balance. Remember, when they failed the world suffered.

This is February and in Hyderabad it is already scorching hot during the day. Traffic is maddening; no body follows the traffic rules nor give any heed to the traffic policeman. The rule is simple just follow the car bumper to bumper and forget about everything, people who need to cut across just need to wait for the gap, once you give room to the other ,you and your side of traffic stops and now you need to find your gap. What a traffic rule? Probably our friend Raju got some of his ideas from here.

Taliban Media

Recently, I was seeing a program on a reputed English news channel, having a reputation in my mind one that subscribes to a particular ideology. As usual they had two imminent lawyers from the two leading parties, connected over the satellite. The moment the program started, I knew that they will try and come to a desired result which suits their ideology. This made the watch much more interesting. I could see the host tried to sound neutral occasionally giving advantage to one of the lawyers on the panel, with questions which were more of a hint to answer then a question itself. The other poor chap, I could just pity him was almost silenced once he had a valid point to make. Once in this kind of discussions, panellist any way are at mercy of the studio that can enable or disable there audio at their will. Finally the time was up and the host struck the final nail by giving the final comment at the end, giving no chance to anyone to contest. I had my wife beside me, and I thought to do my little survey there and then, I asked about her final view on the issue and she just sang the way host of the news channel made it so.

This was one of the recent ones in my mind and hence it found it place as an example here. We tend to follow these news on TV like never before and we tend to believe and have confidence on them also like never before. Today we need to introspect how much reliable this form of media is to us. Media has gone overboard to make the point that there cannot be a Taliban way to enforce thinking amongst people. They have stood strongly by that all in unison. If someone is the biggest culprit of “talibanisation” of thought it is media itself. Today’s media forces its views to the people. To me “talibanisation” is forcing ones views on others and any body does that is a Taliban. I agree there can be various ways of doing it some are more violent, like what media would like us to believe about the real Taliban ways, but the other softer way to forcing views that being practised by media are no different at the end of the day.

The news channels are agog with a new story. Some group feels that the “pub culture” can be abolished if they start attacking them violently. Even worst they have a new fad that if they find a couple on Valentine’s Day they will forcefully get them married in the registrar office. I agree this couldn’t get more bizarre then this. Imagine it is the right time to get married at zero cost and probably get a marriage video made free of cost. Even worst people (irrespective of gender) can now have a forceful marriage by just holding the hand of the partner in the group’s glare.

Media has a big contribution on this issue in two accounts. One being they are responsible to make this group popular from nowhere. They did not heed the advice of the state politicians saying that this is a small issue do not blow this out of proportion. Everybody then wanted the slice of this spicy lip smacking pizza as if there will not be a second chance to eat it out. I was amazed at the magnitude of coverage in all the TV channel and Newspapers that all the other important but not so glamorous news were almost lost. They succeeded in the “masala” ingredient they required to make their otherwise flat tasting news for now so many days. Secondly in this process they also pushed the group to the wall on its Ideology. The group had no other option but to enhance their stand from there. When the group offered apology the matter should have come to rest but then the spice would have been over too.

This is no secret that when the drastic act went under full media glare. In fact TV channels are taking pride in identifying the miscreants now. But this also means they had advance knowledge of this incident and they knowingly did not inform the police. I think this should be a criminal offence under the law and fail to understand why action is not being taken against them. Secondly if media is so morally shaken by this incident why didn’t they stopped taking photographs and stopped people from doing such things. I believe media needs to answer these questions both morally and legally.

I do not know how anyone can think of changing people’s mind forcefully in this democracy. If the group believes that the culture has to be restored to the people I guess that they should have taken the other way around, spoken to people reasoned them out etc. I would definitely like to examine and understand what they are trying to tell thou there way of saying things are simply not agreeable.

Other day the Union health minister said that more and more of youth are becoming alcoholic. Media thought that they have got another thread to ridicule the entire fact and they just went ahead ridiculing the health minister. I am not a great fan of politicians in general, and health minister in particular, but I would stand by and hear carefully what he is saying. He is a medical doctor himself, he is the health minister of the country, having all the facts and feature, and most certainly more then I have, and I guess what most of others would have. Above all he can not be ridiculed the way he was done. Media found humour and merit in another union minister who has declared “Pub Bharo” as an “andolan”. The person required to be less obsessed with the issue and also see the issue from all angles. It all required from the media was to give the other side of the story too.

Today Media is a big business, they are listed in stock exchanges, they have something called TRP to fight for, they have their ideological preferences, they do have their business and political compulsions and they have a product called “News”. We need to understand that media is made up of people like you and me. There is no one who could dare to do scrutiny on them, and they have the most powerful weapon of the modern times. The time has changed so much that I cannot even quote “pen is mightier than the sword”, both have become more of ornamental stuff now hence could be replaced with the word of your choice. Hence it is prudent to look every bit of information they provide under those lenses.

“Dogs do not eat Dogs” is a saying. I just read this phrase used in one of the biggest movie legend’s blog in context of media. This can be replaced to more palatable “Humans do not eat Humans” and the meaning won’t change a bit if you are not considering cannibals. Media as an industry they work on this principle for sure. They all do wrong, See others wrong but while reporting they never do, for or against their rivals. Still I could remember “vote for cash” issue in the Indian parliament. One of the TV channel did complete sting operation on the camera, but later on to the surprise of all including the opposing party in the parliament they never went ahead of the telecast. Media was suspiciously quieter on this issue. This casts a big question on the genuinely of the particular channel and media in general. I cannot even say that take all the news with a pinch of salt or spice it is much more then all of those.

Inflation, Recession and depression

I wanted to write on recession for long but also waiting to arm myself with some more information before actually going ahead to commit this act. The heading is from what I did hear this morning in the gym over a FM station they were playing in the club house. I thought to take this as a title for this blog.

As for others it really has stuck me out of the blue too. First I was gasping so as what went wrong in such a short time. The other day I thought to interview my CFO friend while we did a car pool to the office neither to beat recession nor to save fuel not even the green concept was there remotely in the mind. We do this sometime just to share information amongst our self; honestly I am no match in providing information but surely a beneficiary in getting a lot. Once we got settled I started with my questions. I probed “Have we reached the bottom? The economists say that we are yet to reach it and the bottom might be deeper. We are yet to see the worst and even if we have to take it with a pinch of salt we are sure to be in more trouble”. His reply was almost spontaneous “Everything was wiped off hence already reached the bottom, what economist are essentially telling is that we will be realising this fact slowly, we were sitting on a bubble and the bubble did what it is supposed to do”. It surely did leave me wanting for more “Do you mean to say that the bubble was many times larger than the base? If it was why people couldn’t recognise it early”. He replied “Yes it was many a time one could have imagined, it was looking so beautiful from the hilltop nobody wanted to believe that it was all a mirage. What can you expect from people who actually created it?”

Even now I am struggling with that question but some thought are getting crystallised and hence putting them down. We had seen the fall of extreme socialistic economy quite earlier in the decade. Probably we thought that capitalistic economy is the best and just relentlessly followed it to the other extreme. USA being the Mecca of capitalistic economy took this form of economy to the top most level. We just created the bubble and as my friend said that the bubble did meet its ultimate fate. See the irony we again trust those very high priests of capitalism the so called economist to bring us out of the mess created by them. I am convinced that neither Left nor Right but it is the centre form of thought is required, I am sure as leftist and rightist there must be centrist word too, which would have been coined by now somewhere as a solution to go forward.

Coming to India, we see news mentioning that we will continue to have GDP growth of 7% as opposed to 9% predicted earlier. We as Indians take a lot of pride, satisfaction and relief that probably we are not that worst hit. Somehow I am too uncomfortable with this GDP figures. I would like to go little deep inside it to know what are the major components of this GDP figures. I did read an analyst saying “Not every bit of GDP is necessarily ‘good’ GDP. Take the case of gambling. It is an industry and is counted in GDP. Someone needs to build the casinos, manufacture the cards, manufacture the tokens, manufacture the liquor that is consumed (another not so ‘good’ GDP), manufacture the cigarettes (yet another not so ‘good’ GDP), and then all the linkages that come from there - the cement to build everything and the trucks to transport everything. So a country that builds many casinos may be adding to GDP but, chances are, its society will not be that ‘happy’. If parents are busy gambling all day long, then who is with their children? Or if people smoke and drink a lot (which could happen in a casino environment) what happens to the health of the ‘healthy’ people and the cost inflicted to society over time? Looking after sick people in hospitals is not ‘good’ GDP - there is an economic activity that adds up to GDP but no one is really ‘happy’.” He adds “’useless’ GDP comes from the statistics of foreign buying in India. Over Rs 4,000 crores of buying and selling by foreign ‘investors’ occurs every day in the Indian stock markets. At the end of the day, they have actually bought or sold only Rs 150 crores of stocks “.So we this might be our own bubble. RBI has for sure deflated the bubble a bit so as to set some realistic expectations. I have no other way but to rely on them and pray that they are correct. If I see as a lay person, I am able to see it traces of recession everywhere in our economy.

From the day Goldman Sachs coined the word “BRIC” it has been chasing me everywhere. Whenever I meet a foreign company for selling their products in India, once they start with the word “BRIC” I know that I will have a tough time. I have not read the “BRIC” report but what they have done by including the letter “I” and country “India” is they have set the high expectations and also paired it with the other three. I sincerely feel that this misconception should have been cleared from peoples mind. I do agree that the great India story is there in terms of exception but I have serious objection to the pairing part. India could not be compared to China, Russia or Brazil for that matter. All these economies are having different characteristic. Indian story is just like “making an elephant dance”, it’s difficult to do so, and it is slow but once it dances there is going to be a great momentum. All this is quite reverse to the fastest developing economy in “BRIC” that is China. Worst to come is when they do paring they tend to compare with the best only. In China development means that the infrastructure will come first, the roads, airports etc will all come first and then people will move in followed by businesses. In India all the Industries will come in, people will move in and then they will start thinking about the requirement for the road to connect the place. I am actually OK with the Indian model, this actually means that we are utilising our resources quite efficiently but it is just opposite to what they do in China. Our Government does not do this as a strategy but this is how it only works here. Probably this is the way we Indians think. Hence reaching the expectations will take time but it will surely meet the expectations, more robustly then what could happen in China.

Inflation might be coming under control, today as soon as I came back from the GYM my mother announced me that there is drop in fuel prices again, twice in recent times. Probably we will be ok with the Inflation thing. Recession is surely catching up with us now and it can bring in the must unwanted depression. Being in IT field I just started to wonder what it has in store for us.

I think that we have to look in two ways one is short term and the other being a long term. For sure the short term is gloomy as most of the companies and people are still accessing the impact on their businesses, hence they have decided to cut their costs and remain passive for some time. Some of them are moving in for more harsh measures and some moderately, others are slow. So short term we need to just survive and prepare our self for the long haul. I am quite optimistic about the long term prospects provided we are ready to cash that opportunity. Once the dust get settled most of the people will find out that it is much more cheaper to get the goods and services from countries like India, but here we might need to prove them that we are ready to take that extra responsibility, we have to show our skills to take that work, once we are able to do so probably this could be a new IT wave which will sweep India. There is silver lining in even the darkest of cloud; probably this is our silver lining. My CFO friend had his own silver lining he said “CFO’s will be in great demand”, I quietly said “Amen”.

“Open Source” will be the only way forward?

As you read this blog on the web browser there is quite a possibility that this is being served by free software developed by people who might not have any links between them, except that of their contribution to this said software. Why they did it? There is no answer as a right answer to this. But what is perceived to be the best answer is only for a reward of honour. They do it as there are computer geeks and they love to show, enhance their knowledge. What I believe they have got the urge to see that there piece of code is being used and appreciated by people; probably it gives them the kick.

This initiative surely gives a big kick to the computer software world. Today most of the back ground jobs that software performs are quite stable and are almost a standard in IT world. Now this interestingly moves to the business applications side too. There are fairly stable CRM and ERP available in the open source world. There are questions being asked that this has got into a serious phase of computing now and without support and ownership this is not reliable to get into.

I being an open source enthusiast myself thought to test the water myself. So I got stated with a popular open source CRM. It was a breeze to do the installation, to understand the running of the software it took some amount of reading on the net and cool two days of mine to get going. During this phase I could test and find out how to get the support and to my astonishment all the questions I had some had almost read my mind and answers were available. I could also find freelancers offering support for a small price, to do the installation, train and customise the solution for me. What more support could I have asked for? I understand being in SMB segment myself all this is viable but for large enterprises it is going to be a bit difficult. I am convinced once these freelancers turn into companies providing expertise in these solutions these gaps would be bridged.

Few days ago a friend of mine who works in one of the MNC IT Company which has made the colour blue related to it in some way introduced one of his friend to me. This person’s company is just providing services for open source hospital management. A leading political party in India, which I could say is more IT savvy then any of its oppositions is all on open source software. They realise that today winning elections in India is all about data analysis and to act on the same, the system can be called PIS (Political Intelligence system) contrary to MIS what is being used by the businesses around the globe.

I hope people from the biggest software companies are not reading my blog, any ways I need not bother as even my wife is not reading this either. I was browsing thru the open source projects and I came to a project called Exact OS. It really excited me to note the contents of this project; these guys are now re building windows OS from scratch for the open source world. Going by my experience, work progresses at a lightning speed in open source world. What I am seeing in few years we might not pay any of these softwares. I am sure the software companies of today will find some other way to make their buck in coming flatter world.

This has been one of my most favourite topics and I would have gone on and on but for the time I have in my hand I need to truncate it. May be I will revisit this in some other fashion. I also wanted to drift a bit from the political blogs which I was getting into. If someone is reading this blog and wants to shed some view on this, or has completely contrary view is welcome, precisely for that reason I have put the question mark at the end of the heading.

Britisher Raj

Well some of our politicians will never improve. They will keep on playing the way Britishers tried and tested a policy long time ago that of “Divide and Rule”. Why to blame politicians, even we the people of this country do relate fast to these proven concepts of colonial times. Still thou little diluted anything made in a far flung foreign land seems attractive, we still speak to a westerner as if he or she is a “Gora Sahib” or “Gori Memsahib”, there could be many such examples. Fair enough, attributes like considering English as far superior to any of our own language has worked commercially in favour of us.

My anger is directed to a petty politician who has mastered the art of “divide and rule”, I would say better than the original Raj period. When the Mumbai fiasco happened this guy hid in the comforts of his home probably watching TV and having some popcorns in a comfortable couch. If he is so worried for his so called group and community that he represents and believes that it has got a raw deal, what made him not come out and go straight into Taj or Oberoi for that matter with some of his “nirman sena”. I am sure if he would have done that I would have respected him, for a man who stands by for what he believes. I am sure he stands exposed today and I just hope the people who supported him including the Sena would realise that he is just one of those power greedy politician. Somebody rightly said the NSG and Marine commandos who stormed out terrorist were not from any region , they were Indians, nor were all the people rescued or killed were from any region, they where all citizens of world.

As I mentioned he is the master of this art, and also as I said the way our DNA has imbibed some of the colonial thoughts, this person is again making attempts to do the same. Recently I did read a news paper saying “ I will not allow Maharashtra for the UP day , the soil of Maharastra can be used only for Maharastra Din”. Now since the issue died this guy still has the audacity to raise it in this way, I have not come across any news mentioning somebody has dared him to do UP day in Maharashtra. So this guy has found his own way to rake up this issue again.

It saddens me the most when I see this kind of ploy getting successful. To me they are bigger threat to India then the terrorist sitting down somewhere in Muridke, Pakistan. I hope we the people of India defeat any of this forces which can disintegrate us. The local issues of the people in any part should be heard and sorted out with priority. I can just pray and write this blog to see if people see any point in what I say. God Bless India.

Obama’s woes

There is an information overdrive on Obama, be it on the net, newspapers and magazines whatever. I too had my share of these informations. There was a “Qawalli” for Barack Hussein Obama II in New Delhi connecting him with his otherwise hidden middle name. A town “Obama” in Japan was celebrating the event as it shared the name with him. Hawaii Island is surely connected with him as he was born there. Indonesia was not too far in celebration. Kenya also has a reason to celebrate. African Americans in America have an emotional reason without taking out the fact that his mother was a White. The list goes on. Everybody today wants to get connected to Obama today.

Yesterday I could reach home early to watch the proceedings of the inauguration of his Presidency. The first clip I got was him going to White House to meet then President Bush wearing a red tie and President Bush welcoming him wearing a Blue tie, what made me wonder was the significance of these colours. I found out that I was not the one who have discovered this , almost reading my mind the media commentator standing in chilling Washington winter announced that it represented there respective party colours. Later when I saw Biden the vice president elect wearing a distinctive blue colour ties which missed the media scrutiny. Even my wife joined in today in my ritual to watch TV without complaining. I had to hide my hunger prangs to have it quenched after the president made his now can be called a famous speech.

He is called a very calm person but before he made his appearance in Capitol Hill I could sense the tension this person might be going thru. At least I was tensed trying to put myself in his shoes. All the events have made him today not only the statesman of America but that of entire World. All the countries, races and people look to him as a leader to end all their woes. I am sure he must be aware of these expectations. This could be very well confirmed from his speech. He spoke like a world leader, quite balanced, neither a word less nor more. I am sure everybody waits to see his solutions on political and economic turmoil in USA and rest of the world. These are surely the paradigm and normal thoughts. This could not make him one the greatest US president as expected.

I decide to put my bit of extra burden on this man. Recently when I was in US for a short visit could speak to some of the avid thinkers there. They said the major change he should and will bring is in energy security. He did mention this in his speech empathetically enough but could be easily missed by people at large. He Said “each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.” He added “We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories”. This is what I believe Obama is going to change, and this one change is what will make him one of the greatest presidents of United States. This one change is not limited to any particular geography or community; this change will be for the entire mankind. This will result in energy security which in turn is related to lot of social and political woes of the world. Renewable energy is at a stage what the IT industry was four decades ago or can be said as still at its nascent stage.

For now I surely pity the person who has been loaded with tons of expectations my best wishes are there with him.

Satyam or Mythyam

There is a new development in this story every day and hence I thought it’s time to write a little more on the issue. I got an email joke on the subject and thought to put the contents here.

Three world famous magicians were in the bar drinking and boasting about their achievements. The first one said," During my latest show, I made three women from the audience disappear, it was so convincing that their relatives started panicking, no one could find the trick." The second one said, " Hey, that is nothing, during one of my open air shows I made the Municipality building disappear and the entire town was searching for it." The third one sighed and said," Both of you are so local, I went to Paris and made the Eiffel Tower disappear for a full one hour, it was live on the TV, entire France was searching for the building & no one had a clue." Just then an Indian walked into the bar and the three magicians suddenly turned quiet, gave each other fugitive glances and started to slip towards the door. A Bartender watching this got curious and asked one of the magicians, "Hey what happened? Who is that guy?" One of the magicians whispered, " He is the World's greatest magician, he has done the biggest disappearing trick of all times, we are all mere amateurs compared to what he has done. His name is Ramalinga Raju. He has made USD 1.5 billion disappear from his company's balance sheet in front of everyone's eyes, and the entire world is still looking for it."

Well I seriously thing this is no more a joke. There are lot of serious thinking us as a general public need to do. If we go by the face value of Raju’s confession then of 3% margin is also a reality. Someone might argue that Satyam used to quote quite lower in the market to get the orders hence this could be the truth. If I go further with this logic what I believe all the top fortune 500 companies have been splitting there work between two or three top Indian companies. In this case there can be few outcomes a. All the top companies made the same kind of profits. This thought sends the shiver down my spine as that also means that all the other companies are in same position as Satyam. 2. The fortune 500 companies were bad negotiator to get a best deal out of Satyam. 3. Satyam had more costs to execute those orders. In this case again the doubt could be cast on other software companies too.
Now I am able to understand the reason for a strong statement made by other IT company’s captains about Satyam and Mr. Raju. The other day I was seeing a TV program discussing on the Satyam issue and one of the panellists said that till September Satyam had the money in the banks and for so the TDS certificates have been issued to them. For sure there is much more then what Raju mentions in his confession. The issue gets murkier day by day. See the irony Maytas is just the opposite of s-a-t-y-a-m and the opposite of Satyam in real term is "Mythyam" , what else. This morning my mother read out a local newspaper giving details of plates of rice, No. of idly and chapatti Raju has in a day, for sure this is to serve the appetite for the target audience of that publication but I am sure Raju had a great appetite for greed , that he did dig his own grave eventually. Raju would have got away with all this, if the real estate prices would have not fallen. The last trick is he is just trying to take all the blame to himself and safe guard everybody and everything that he horded. To my relief today’s newspapers announced that there has been transfer of funds from Satyam accounts by Raju. I also do pray that this remains as a big black aberration for Indian It story.

By the time I finished writing this I got another mail from one of my friends, this email story making rounds among Satyam employees. I did choose to publish it here as it’s truly inspiring for an employee or member of a company/community in adverse time. Please read it below.

I am deputed at a client location and came across a very interesting conversation in cafeteria yesterday. One of my co-worker, also deputed with the same client through some lesser known two room company, mustered guts to ask me sarcastically in front of entire team, So, Satyam is gone! What are you guys planning to do now? In normal circumstances, I have a habit to not to reply to lose talks, but in front of entire team.... I thought I need to fix this guy's thought process. I asked him, as my military training has imbibed in me the habit to fight till last breadth, Who says Satyam is gone when I am very much alive here and committed to create value on behalf of my company?. He shot back, Hello Mr., your chairman has resigned, you guys are facing financial turbulence and you still have a face to say that Satyam is not gone! At this juncture, I thought of replying to this guy in his own language. I asked him, Tell me, what will you do and where will you go if our country India was not there? He was not prepared for this level of thought and asked back, What a stupid question, How can India be gone, it is a country? I asked him back., Country! What makes a country? Land? Economy? Our Prime Minister? Our President? Our Geography? Or the PEOPLE? If our PM resigns, will you say India is gone? If our economy faces a slowdown, will you say India is gone?
But yes, if the people of a country are lost for any reason, we will say that country has no meaning. Who cares of vast land of Antarctica today which has just one permanent resident, Father Georgy? Which country does it belongs to? Why does not it has any government? Why does not it has any economy? Or, how many countries were there when humans used to hunt for food in pre-historic times? Countries, Wealth, Infrastructures and booming economies are nothing but creations of efforts of PEOPLE, and they do not have any existence on their own. And the final blow was, When one man can create Satyam as an organization of 53,000 people, why not 53,000 committed people can rebuild one SATYAM? By now, I saw my point was well placed and he stood up and shook hands with me and murmured, Yaar, when I used to hear from my roommate who work in Satyam that EVERY SATYAMITE IS A LEADER, I used to laugh it off. Now, I know why! "

Day out in Trivendrum

This blogs comes earlier then what I planned actually. I got some time again at the airport this time being the Trivendrum airport. Could not get inside as what I understand that I am so early that even the airline guys responsible for the baggage scanning not even reported.

Last night I arrived home at 11:00 PM from Singapore after a heavy schedule and this morning I had to fly to Trivendrum for a customer meeting. Sleepily I arrived to the airport and did sit in a small turboprop ATR. It was quite congested inside but somehow managed to fit in. For the first time in my life I regretted taking the aisle seat. Please do remember if you are flying to Kerala, do fly day time, In a low flying ATR and have a window seat. All this seems to be mandatory now after this experience. As we were approaching Kerala my colleague declared that we are flying over a big city as he was the one sitting on the window seat and having a gage outside all the time. By this time I only trying to get every word of my favourite newspaper digested which I could get my hands on after few days. I did have a look outside and then on the watch and then as if a great navigator I too declared it is Coimbatore. After some time we could watch a dam, by this time I was totally engrossed in what’s getting showcased to us. My colleague overwhelmed by the sight promised himself to search this place in google maps. Well ATR fly quite close to the earth to give a fantastic view outside. Soon the Pilot was announcing that we are going to reach our destination in 18 minutes flat. We could see coconut trees all around , I must say they are my favourite when I am in land for taking photographs and even as a child I used to draw a lot of them but now from top it seems little ugly as there were everywhere as a elegy would to the water. With best of my effort I could not find a single not green spot on the earth. Seat belt signs where grossly dis-obeyed as people were eager to take the photographs of the beaches, landscape whatever they were able to make out. I just forgot to add the camera in the list above; even if you are just going to set a single foot to Kerala do not forget to bring in this necessary accessory.

Finally we did land into the airport which looked more like a deserted bus stand. Got our cab driver a pot belied dhoti clad guy who speaks broken English, though enough for us to manage. We were to visit a customer a Govt. Educational body 20 kilometres away from airport. Kerala landscape is unique, you keep on playing hide and seek with the sea all the time. The houses are having slopes to beat the rainy days. You get the spurt of churches, temples and mosque indicating the population of that particular locality. We were worried about our food hence called the customer; they ensured us that hot vegetarian food would be waiting for us.

Customer was true to his promise; we headed straight to the mess meant especially for the professors. While serving me I wanted to be doubly sure about a food Item and the director from the back said that everything is vegetarian, it’s difficult to manage non-vegetarian food any ways he added. Food was simple and spicy.

While back had ample of time hence asked Murgesh (Our cab driver) and he took us to a boat club called “Veli Tourist place” . When we reached this place we could see a big crowd at the entrance. Without having a great opinion about the place I still pushed the cash to the counter for the entrance tickets. Well the place turned out to be good it had a backwater, sea shore and most importantly a floating restaurant. We were hungry by this time and had a quick grab at the sandwiches.

On the way back could not resist to drop in by a beach and spend some time in with the waves which were tirelessly hitting the shore. By the time I am writing this I am back on the plane onward to Bangalore. It is already dark out there and I do not repent my decision on aisle seat now. The air hostess were too fast in conducting security instructions as if in fast forward mode that they did finally ended up in eating few words altogether.

I had seen almost the entire length and breadth of Kerala earlier but this day out was somehow very different.

Satya(m) (Truth) shall prevail

And hopefully so, Just sitting in A sports lounge in BIAL international airport in Bangalore .I do have a liberty of watching news in two different screens in two different channel . It is past 9:30 and luckily I do not have my wife to worry about complaining. Among news the great Satyam news gets flashed almost alternatively in each screen, I am on my way to Singapore and I am sure to face a volley of question on this issue. Please be rest assured I am in no way going to give up on brand India. I am surely empowered by the news now to face this threadbare. I write again o Satyam as i did have a offline complaint that i did not touch enough on the subject in my earlier blog and rightfully so.

Today India’s top Banker, It Specialist and a regulator took over as Govt nominees to the board of Satyam. Prime minister had statement to make and most importantly this has resulted in 25 percentage point increase in the otherwise badly battered Satyam stock. Surely these guys mean business.

What went wrong? TO be fare to Raju who is branded Shree 420 what he did is what most business does. Probably he over did it. The single biggest reason is the lust and greed which surpassed Raju more than manageable propositions. Let me but a disclaimer that I am no economic analyst. But I am so confident that Mytas is all or mostly on Satyam money. Probably the gaps are almost the same amount siphoned into Mytas. He wanted to correct it by doing this post dated but by that time the share holders in a IT company were not interested to acquire a already sagging real estate business. I am sure there are a ton of other resources available everywhere doing this analysis on what went wrong. Well I am also sure that all the measure were undertaken to siphon the money including increasing the number count of employees, if the news Items are to be believed. Hence for sure he is in jail, falling from grace is just equivalent to the capital punishment or more but our dear Raju Bhai has surely secured his family which enough funds swashed. There has to be more then what the confession statement states.

To me personally the pain is neck is gone; well almost as I just tried to double check it. I am happy that I see a definitive steps being taken to revive the company, employees sticking to the company, former NASCOM chief who is in board now says that being hopeful to revive the company is a understatement and also happy that I did not invest ever in this company. More than anything it gives me enough points to defend Satyam (Sorry read India) abroad. I know some of you be saying that’s mean of me. For now just wish be good luck.

Better Friday

I was contemplating to title this as “End of Oil Terror” but towards later in the night there were more news to be added as a development to the story in my last two blogs made me change it.
I had given my car for repairs to the dealer and was promised that I will get back on Friday. I gave my car before this Oil terrorism happened hence was quite tensed as I knew it had its tanks empty. Luckily on my way back home the petrol bunk was open and I could get tank full of my share. That’s the time I knew that the terror standoff is over and I can now go to office on Saturday tense free and write this blog.

I have been hearing from child hood that one day oil going to get over and that would be kind of dooms day which any way I could sample now. When I was young could see lot of stories that there will be alternative to oil soon and could see Bio fuel, solar, Wind, Fuel cell, Hydro as believable alternatives. The most unbelievable ones were that people are developing a bacterium which can convert water into fuel and worst even they will convert the Co2 in the air into fuel, imagine the Co2 emission will be the raw material for these Oil companies probably of 2209 AD. As again going by the logic of the flat world all this is for sure possible.

I was also wondering if there was a larger conspiracy in these recent oil price fluctuations. Today the oil prices are almost one third of what it was few months ago. If you see it more closely just before distinctive recessionary trend did set oil prices were at its peak and once it the recession settled down in dropped. Once it peaked I could not satisfy myself with all my readings in web, newspapers & magazines the concrete reason of this raise except for that my childhood stories of oil doomsday approaching fast. Even now when it has dropped I face the same dilemma and I am not able to buy the logic that recession has lowered the demand hence the prices has fallen. I am no economist but some time feels that probably all the money has flown from one geographical location to another. I won’t be surprised if after few more years we come to know that it was masterminded by the terrorists.Well Finally when I reached home I defied my wife and risked myself to on the TV as aware the world could change in few hours. There was breaking news “Raju, Brother arrested”.

Strike the Strikes

Well I am convinced that India could be put to halt just by few hundred people without any terror strike, without weapons, without any aggression as we know what so ever. We need to redefine all these as in this age we have new form of aggression. Just a few officers of Oil Companies have gone on strike and the whole country is coming to its knees, literally. There is already an ongoing strike to compound the woes from the truckers.

In this new world the venerability of the countries have come to such small things that terror need not strike the way it did strike recently in Mumbai. Example all they need is bunch of politically activated people in oil companies to come with a strike and the whole country can be halted. This venerability could be virtually exploited my anti nationalists further which I even dread to mention it out here. I was reading a book recently on the first gulf war fought by Americans all they did was cut of the electricity in Iraq. This one event made all the equipments fail in Iraq and hence further exploitation of situation resulted in the most successful, fastest and with the minimum cost of money and live a win over Iraq. Use of Nuclear weapon is fools tool in this world all this world requires to develop a device which makes the entire electrical system to burn and the place could be put centuries behind something like the James bond movie “Golden Eye”. This still might be since fiction but as someone who talked about the flat world said that any Idea you can think of is surely being thought of by someone is being worked upon and will surely come in days to come. Unfortunately as it seems our country does not need to be ready to tackle these situations, we have a far easier thing which does not need scientific innovations like a mere political innovation is enough to put everything on stand still.

As a country we really need to do something almost immediately to ward of these threats. This has to be treated equivalent to terror and not more laws like ESMA could be sufficient and probably the newly formed terror law is more applicable. I also understand that the aggrieved people in these PSU need to have some readdress mechanism to fall back to. It’s my strong feeling that we need to strike the strike before it strikes us.

Satyam Jhutham Badsundaram (Truth,Untruth and the Ugly)

Somebody rode the tiger without knowing how to get down without been eaten up . Surely enough he knew that he is riding the tiger in the first place , secondly also knowing that the tiger does not allow you to get down without being a morsel to it, thirdly you try to make or rather you made the entire world fool while doing your good enough bid to dismount from the tiger taming it. The biggest Satya emerges is that you can make some people fool all the time, all the people some time but not all the people all the time. I am also reminded of a saying by one of the best invester in the world “When tides are low you know who is swimming naked”

I had a busy day yesterday. Office internet was down because of maintenance work and I reached home quite late to do the custom of viewing the news in the TV as I thought the world could not have changed in these few hours and off course I did not want to annoy my wife who was any way fast reaching the boiling point. Morning 6:00 I was bang in the GYM to straighten the calorie count which I had grossly abused the earlier day. My first encounter was with a friend and regular in the GYM who after customary exchanges asked me if he can keep the Satyam stock or sell it. I had no clue why he asked me this question but my reply was that I would not be in position to advice. Since empowered by the person’s confidence in me I started my gyan session to add to this fiasco just before coming to GYM I read two weeks old article on Satyam, so you could very well imagine what I would have been sounding as. After some time more friends came pouring in while I was trying to flex my triceps with the instructor putting his bit on the counts my friends broke the actual news. My reaction would have come later but the first thing happened was the shooting pain in the left neck. As I write this still the pain and stiffness prevails in my neck as if symbolic to the pain everybody around must be having.

I never invested in Satyam so apart from the literal pain in the neck I am fine personally. But today the Indian in me is a very sad person. Satyam being one of the top four IT Company in India could be compared to a pillar of IT revolution in India. Today one pillar has most surely fallen. I do not want to elaborate as it increases the stiffness in my neck and it still pains in the neck. For me this is the most Badsundaram (ugly) part of it.

When we would be plain simple Indians?

I really wonder when we will be called only as Indians. We are today a SC,ST, Dalit, Gujjar,Kurmi, Jat,Meena,Bhumiar,Bhramin,Kshatriya and what not but not Indians. We are Hindus, Muslims, Sikh, Christians, Parsis and what not but not Indians . Furthermore we are below poverty line, lower middle class, Middle middle class, upper middle class, upper class, creamy layer and all but still not an Indian. If this was not enough we are Biharis, Punjabis, Bengalis etc still not Indians. The list will go on.

It aches and aches a lot to see that we live by the segmentation done by our dear politicians who can get annoyed for not getting there share for the large birthday cakes they plan for their birthday bash so that they are justified to snuff off life of so called misbehaving person. I am not trying to isolate anyone but this was one of the bizarre case just could not get off my mind. So the biggest colonial legacy still remain in our times “Divide and rule”.

Who is to be blamed? For sure I do not hint to the politicians , it is we the common citizens are to be blamed to get carried away with this kind of ploy so that these people keep on ruling us and rightly consider us there foolish slaves. I am sure they must me having a heart full of laugh .

Things will only change and the actual development work will only happen if government start looking at entire chunk as Indians. Any policy for poor will be good enough for all the poor people all across the above segments. There will be less no of policy to concentrate on hence the effectiveness of the implementation of the policy which could also be monitored better. There are even lot of by-products of this approach too like peace and harmony comes almost free with this. India probably reached the ideal state what this world is now trying to reach that is “Peace and harmony everywhere”. What we know now is Indians are just like cake and the destiny of the cake are to be cut in pieces as small as possible so that it can be eaten at ease and for long. I guess the symbolic representation in the birthday bash with a large cake which our leaders like to show us, sorry mock at us.

Equal Opportunities

The world has evolved to provide equal opportunity to one and all. May it be an entrepreneur, Anti socials (can be taken as a mild term for terrorists), so for the policing, Governments, Students, teachers, developed nations, developing nations etc.

In today’s world I would say doing business is much easier than it used to be earlier. All you might need is some good idea or even without it you could manage and scale up cost effectively with ease the simplest Idea to do business. Earlier I used to read about Indian Industrialists going countries acquiring brick and mortar companies and turning them around by just simple cost cutting. This seemed to me like some kind of magic these people possessed until we started thing on the same line. Probably we Indians have always been bought up with a thought to start and keep on continuing doing things with the optimal utilisation of resources. Predominantly I thing this skill comes to us naturally as we were all born in scarcity. Scarcity truly makes you thing to use the resources more efficiently. Today an overseas branch for us is feasible to us as we can manage most of the functionality like financials, logistics and everything almost except the sales guys to be stationed in the overseas branch. I can go on and on this topic.

Today the criminals are exposed to the same technology as what police does. In fact Police must encourage the use of technology to these kinds of elements but at the same time must know how to regulate and control these technologies. There have been ample examples of how enforcement agencies could get rock solid proof for these crimes which have been difficult to proof or even would have been difficult to commit. Just yesterday India could satisfy a long time demand of Pakistan to give ample proof which can stand in court of law on the Mumbai violence. This was majorly on the ground of the footprints left by the terrorists on the sands of technology. Worst even Gujarat police could crack on the terrorist purely on basis of analyzing the cell phone call pattern and data. Surely the technology provided them to find there needle in the haystack.

Today Governments can control their revenue much better. They have all there check posts, customs, sales tax, income tax etc all computerised and now they are supposed to link them all. I am sure the day will come when Govt will calculate your tax and send a invoice to you just like your internet service provider or your cell phone company does for you.

In today’s world I take out any aspect and find that there is a level playing field for everyone. I am sure in days to come it will be more so.

I started this year with a resolution that not to have any further New Year resolutions. I had been patently witnessing the fail of these resolutions one by one making me feel guilty. Now I am feeling good that this year I am almost sure of getting away with the guilt or.......

There is a strong feeling still to make those resolutions that can make my life meaningful and all that as if it was not so. I do lead a meaningful life but I do not know why and how I got into this competition mode every year to see if I can improve it further. Well one thing I promised to myself (not a resolution) that I will be seen more here and will be writing more often here.

It is already JAN 5 and I am still fighting myself to make those disastrous resolutions.