Raise our walls

In the backdrop of cowards once again exposing our nation's security chinks there are two famous Khan's leading a campaign each. While the "Incredible India" campaign wants us all to look inwards and display pride in being an Indian, there is the other campaign asking for more co-operation & collaboration with a rouge neighbor. I want to see India grow in strength and very strongly feel that this is not the time to think about friendship with such neighbors. It is high time we look inwards and introspect much more than we have ever done before. It is time to think what will make each one of us proud of ourselves. Have we thought what our generation's contribution to the country is?

And so this is the time to raise our walls as high as it can be so that we need not worry about these neighbors bothering us. Let us shut out all access and bilateral trade with this neighbor. Of course we will need to take care of the ones dependent on trade around the borders but unless we close ourselves to this neighbor we can never hope to focus on our internal problems.

The union budget is due within a couple of weeks and it is time for Dr. Singh & Mr. Mukherjee to take the cue and allocate more resources to seal every plug around us. At the same time we individuals should look a little more inwards and act with greater self respect. Lets live with pride, let us live in peace.

The new crop of parents

Oh well...This may not be just my observation but this is something I have been wanting to write about for a while now. Initially I thought this was a phenomenon I was seeing happen in my extended family. I thought while most of my generation is trying to improve in this competency (I know I'm getting good at it) they want to provide an early start to their kids. But these days this thing is just getting rampant; so much that I'm just irritated with almost an entire generation of parents barring a few exceptions here and there.

Oops I didn't yet tell what I'm getting irritated about. These days I get a helluva irritated with this legion of parents who can only talk to their kids in goddamn English. Before I rant further, I want to excuse people who want to argue that this blog itself is in English and those who want to say that who I'm today is in part due to my English skills. By no means am I against English. I (coming from the South) will be the first to accept that English is what is binding India together to a certain degree and I also strongly feel that this skill gave us the first mover advantage vis-à-vis the low cost global delivery model (GDM).

But why are things thus. May be because a lot of us go to an office where every communication with your boss, the client and the janitor happens in English. In fact a friend of mine told me some years back that his English improved a lot after he started thinking in English (!!!). But what we probably don't realize is the fact our success to a great degree in business or elsewhere has got to do with the empathy that we have for other people, cultures and languages. The learning of our native languages fosters unique ways of structuring communication and creates indigenous thought patterns that is found no where else on earth. When Google wants to move the Indic way why do we need to go the English way and let our native tongues wane out.

My two paisa: Wake up parents - I know you want your kid to be successful in life. And for that speaking/knowing good English alone is just not enough. Teach your kid 2-3 languages. Develop empathy and language neutrality in them and see them grow into responsible individuals.

Accountability travails

Over the last year the world has been debating a lot about the Obamanomics of bail out plans, the failure of economists in predicting the recession and the way i-bankers self serve to get fatter bonuses. We are certainly going to see many more business cycles and many more versions of bashing and counter bashing. In my opinion, the recession that we may just be leaving behind was here because no one wanted to accountable. The key lesson learnt is that it is not always possible to leverage and securitize.

The markets seem to be picking and sometime soon the sentiment will become a wave. Let us all make use of the good times to progress but let us remember one thing. Every one of us needs to get accountable. Wherever we invest ourselves (in our professions or in the markets) let us take a conscious effort to measure how accountability is being ensured. Speculate but also moderate and finally don't let greed overtake the desire to be right.

Going Green

A friend bitten really hard by the 'Going Green' bug had a big confusion. Is the usage of electric powered hand-drier a greener alternative to using a paper napkin?

But I had a different viewpoint. He better carry his own handkerchief or better still why to wash hands every time :-)

Oh BTW, this happens to be my 100th blog post.

Digipsyche

Personality types have always intrigued me, well my own self and the ones around me. In my search to understand the way people behave and react to situations I have devoured a number of books ranging from the usual Linda Goodman to some obscure Fourth way system literature. I will accept that I have not been exceptionally successful. But over the last few years I have been noticing a new dimension of human personality, something that never existed till this decade.

I have to credit one of my friends for generating this curiosity in me. He is one person I have known for quite sometime and ask anybody you will come to understand that he is a man of few words. But all this was only till he added me as a friend in his Orkut list. His profile indeed came across as a whiff of fresh air and he started to come across as a stylish and expressive young man. I never thought that this guy had such a sassy side to himself. His status messages were witty, his pictures dapper and to top it all he had women throng up the scraps.

I did met him sometime later. He was still the same guy, nice and quiet. I could not manage to ask him what made him play Remo in cyberspace, and never will I.

And this is not one random observation. I have now started noticing scores of people demonstrating sides of themselves I never knew, albeit only on cyberspace. Well, we all have read about chat forums making people more expressive when incognito but this I believe is new phenomena. My conjecture is that social profiles are helping people be what they want to be and may be at times gives them more time to react, than when in real life situations. And for God's sake this is not MPD. I don't know if this is already a subject of research in universities. If not, may I request the world of well qualified psychologists to please start taking note.

And before I sign off this post, let me muster up some conviction and do a first ever coining a term thingy - a person's digital personality shall henceforth be known as 'digipsyche' :-)

Rebrand Terrorism

So Mumbai happened !!! It pains me so much that these morbid infiltrators could sneak into my country. Television channels are rife debating over what needs to be done to combat terrorism. There is a lot of talk about heads that need to roll and how the security apparatus should change etc. I agree to all of these. At the same time I think we should attack this at a more fundamental level. When I say fundamental I'm talking about the general psyche of the common man and these terrorists themselves.

My two cents is that we should stop calling these heartless insane acts as 'Terrorism' and stop calling these guys as 'Terrorists'. The word 'Terrorist' is a very powerful word that evokes sense of fear in the minds of anyone who hears it. It is only natural that the common man feels weakened and let down when he hears about terrorist attacks. At the same time this word really boosts the morale of these insidious elements. They are proud of the fact that they are perpetrators of terror and this is a vicious cycle.

I wish the governments, media houses, PR agencies etc. from around the world come together and decide that it is time for a re-branding. Let us decide to call these terrorists as 'cowards' or 'spineless bastards' or something to that effect. I believe that when we start hearing this from the media over and over again it will definitely debilitate the morale of the terrorists. And not to mention it will surely have a positive effect on the psyche of the common man. Is someone listening?

Quote

If there is one quote I wanna live up to it is this one.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - Robert Heinlein

Sister Stella

Early this morning granpa complained of wheezing and I made my first hospital visit in Pune. I was expecting to see some things different in Pune hospitals, based on the kind of customer service I have received so far, across the board. But guess what, the experience was exactly similar to what I have seen in Chennai all the time. The first person to greet us in the hospital was a Malayali nurse and true to my expectations she did everything right all through the day. It is always great for us mallus in Chennai because we see hordes of mallu nurses in any hospital we go. I was not really expecting that to happen in Pune. But from today's experience I think I can safely conclude that mallu women have made nursing their bastion everywhere.

Then I pondered why on earth mallu women do so well in nursing. Is it because they are more service-minded than women from other communities. That didn't sound right. No one can question the motherly qualities that women of every race hold. Does the literacy level of women in Kerala help make nursing easier to learn? May be not. More thought let me to conclude that the matriarchal system is what is responsible for this. The matriarchal system in Kerala is the reason for the empowerment of women in Kerala (we all know that Kerala has 1000+ women for every 1000 men). I know not all women empowerment experts would agree that women in Kerala are fully empowered. Nevertheless, nursing is a demanding profession and more than just service-mindedness the women need to be courageous. There is so much pressure, so much responsibility and very often you need to work really odd hours. All these require a level of maturity and boldness and I seriously believe it is here that mallu women score better. Comments?

Anyways for all non-mallus apart from the great service there is assured fun when they start talking in english. Listen to this audio-clip if you have not had any first hand experience so far.

New York New York

Well I'm back to blogging and back from a short trip to US. The first one week of training at Chicago was an incredible networking opportunity. MBA consultants from US, European schools and ISB came together for the one week orientation. Impressive pedigrees once again (Kellogg, Duke, UCLA, Rotman etc.) and I got a pretty good picture of what the firm's true strengths are. An added incentive was the opportunity to attend the firm's 25th year celebrations at the Field Museum, Chicago. That weekend I rented a car and drove to Champaign, IL to be with my aunt and cousins. Good fun overall.




And then I reached New York. I was put up in a nice swanky apartment one block away from the Lehmann Brothers office (Anyways the signboard just changed to read Barclays Capital) and a three blocks from Times Square. Living in the financial district and walking to work early in the morning is quite refreshing and inspiring, if you understand what I mean. Meeting my clients was the primary agenda and all the planned meetings went very well. Now they will know who they are talking to. My counterparts in the NY office are a nice bunch of people although there is a bit of crib from everyone about running ongoing sales operations.

New York is really vibrant. Times square is incredibly lit up and is buzzing with activity even on a regular weekday midnight. It is a pity that I could not go and attend any broadway show. Hopefully I'll go again soon enough and get to watch one of them. That week the New York office celebrated the 25th year celebrations (I'm being branded as a party animal for making it to celebrations in three offices) and the venue was the Plaza Hotel. Now that is an amazing venue, the place where Michael Douglas married to Catherine Zeta Jones and one hotel that is featured in lotsa Hollywood movies. One more slice of luck :). Champagne flowed freely once again but I somehow find Gourmet food rather plain, need to develop a taste for it !!! Walking across the Rockefeller center and Waldorf-Astoria etc made my day everyday.

The weekend was dedicated to visit the patel points like Wall Street, Statue of Liberty etc with my friend from Infy. The Statue of liberty is definitely one of the best sights in the world. I stood spell bound at the base for a full 15 minutes. The statue is at once enigmatic and grand plus the copper blue hue gives it a sublime bliss. I could not help but compare it to the "Veiled Rebecca" in the Hyderabad Museum for the amount of detail that has gone into its making. A lunch at Saravana Bhavan also happened and I just can't forget the badam halwa. Overall a fruitful trip.

After a while

It has been sometime since I posted. It is just over a month since I moved to Pune. I'm slowly getting into the groove with my job. Figured out that the work here is very niche and the company's strength lies in its expertise and culture. The pedigrees are very impressive but the process capabilities don't really impress me. Let me see how much of a change I can bring about. I have to travel to USA for 2-3 weeks in September and hopefully I'll visit NY (The one important place I missed in my 3 year stay in US last time). On a side thought I also think consulting is a little hyped up. A medley of feelings crop up in the first month itself. Anyways lets see how my opinion shapes up with time.

A few botheration's outside work have cropped up, things that I would rather not blog about. Hopefully everything will become alright soon.

I hear a lot of people crib about recognition this and that. I have also done that a lot in the past. My suggestion is we should first think how many times have we have appreciated and recognized God, his creations and his great grand scheme. Well if that's what God gets from mankind we ought to set more realistic expectations. Adieu!

Chill time

So it has been a while since I posted anything on blogosphere. Well a lot of things have happened before I finally decided to wear my introspective cap again. First things first I have successfully graduated. A waning interest in acads started showing up a way bit too much during the electives. My philosophy of taking up courses where I would struggle can be blamed but anyways an ISB invitation to be part of the next-batch’s orientation did come as a nice dollop. With mom away, going back to ISB meant a further respite from cooking (and the rather frequent restaurant trips) and the horrible state of infrastructure near my home. Underground drainage construction cannot wreck any place more than it has done to Old Pallavaram!!

The bind-unwind training at Greenfields, Hyderabad (Ms. Zenobia’s farmhouse) was at once fun and exasperating. We came back with a vengeance on our juniors. Well they finally won when we were finally dunked by our group of kids. The juniors are also really well accomplished and it will come as no surprise to me if they raise the ISB bar higher. Coming out of orientation was much more fulfilling than the eviction that happened on April 6th. Boy, should I mention our last batch party that ended at 7:22 AM on that day. Grandpa kept knocking my door thinking I was sleeping inside and lo behold, I show up from behind :). And he was grinning ‘coz he had finished half a bottle of red wine the previous night (he did enjoy his grandson’s achievement, I should say).

The last two weeks have been spent planning my SE Asian trip with two other school friends (L and K). We have all the tickets, hotel bookings ready now. The Malaysian and Thai visas are also ready. The Cambodian e-Visa should show up anytime. So basically, we are all set to leave on Friday night. We land in KL first, four days of Malaysia, followed by 2 in Cambodia and a wrap up 5 days in Thai. I just can’t wait anymore. K is a little scared of the situation in Cambodia. But as a world traveler you just gotta go.
My new possessions: Blue Curacao, cocktail shaker and essentials ;) !!!

Internet advertising

Reason why internet advertising has still got a very very long way to go.

Google and Yahoo

So Google and Yahoo have come out with their results. While Yahoo has really disappointed the market and has announced 1000 job cuts, Google just missed analyst forecasts by a whisker (one penny to be precise). I think it is time for Yahoo to stop trying the turnaround story by itself and accept Microsoft's bid. With the portfolio of websites they have got I think an MS managed Yahoo can compete with Google better.


BTW I think this is the first time Google has missed forecasts since they went public. And one aspect that caught my attention was Google CFO's remark that ads from social networking websites have not monetized as well as well they had expected it to. I think there are two reasons why this is happening. One, Orkut is less popular in US when compared to Brazil or India where internet ad spends and click potentials are lesser. Two, while ads in orkut are still being experimented and debated in India/Brazil, I think the risk of appearing in wrong forums would make advertisers shy away from this medium. Some more rejigs are necessary before this channle can really bring in the money.


The more interesting thing for me however is to see whether the projected recession will make advertisers seek to invest more in clearly accountable Internet advertising. Can this be the some kinda goldmine during tougher times?

The week that was

It was a totally sinusoidal week. Some lows compensated with some big highs. Lows first

• Tel Aviv University canceled this years exchange program leaving me shattered. All my Israeli, Egyptian and Turkish tour plans lay derailed now :'(
• Languishing in Chennai I forgot that I had to revise core terms. Now wondering how I'll catch up

Now for the highs

• Received the keys for my new apartment in Chennai. News is that DLF is entering Chennai with a complex right opposite my apartment. My mom is a visionary :)
• Got my first consulting shortlist. It was a company I was hoping will shortlist me for my domain knowledge and they didn't let me down.
• Won the ISB Torchbearer award. My friends say it was expected but nevertheless it is very sweet.

It is placement prep season from now on. Just three subjects next term should help me prepare better, provided I keep away from timepass activities. God bless the week that went by.

I miss you

As I trudge along and squeeze in this post in the midst of the 100000 things I'm into, I seriously miss one person. The one person who never knew how bad the world around was. The one person who did not think any one competes against anybody else. The one person who did not know what jealousy was. The one person who did not read between lines. The one person who had no ego. The one person who did not try to work through personalities and ego's. The one person to whom life was nothing more than waking up and going to sleep and being nice to everyone in between. The one person who was never bothered about the next hour, leave alone tomorrow. The one person who had friends swarming around all the time. The one person who was the darling of everybody. The one person who was happy all the time. I seriously miss you 'My innocent self'. I really do.

Tact

One conversation lead to another and finally led to a discussion about one brilliant guy. I think it is only a small token of appreciation to have a post on this amazing guy(although volumes have been written about him already)

Brief Profile (ISB folks... notice the spikes in the profile!!!)
RAJU NARAYANASWAMY IAS
First Rank in Secondary School Examination
First Rank in Higher Secondary
10th Rank in IIT Entrance Examination
First Rank in IIT B.Tech Computer Science
First Rank in IAS Entrance Examination
First Rank in IAS Training Institute

After 10 years of commendable service in IAS, he was forced to leave the profession and take up a position in UN. Later he came back to service and latest news is that late September he was shunted from Idukki after unearthing a Rs.19 crore scandal. So what exactly is happening here? A man of such unearthly intelligence does not know how to work through the system and tactfully do good? I may be passing value judgements here but is it true that with such extra-ordinary brilliance comes a certain kind of restlessness that will prevent a person from having any tact?

OpenSocial

It is a tooth and nail battle out there. A little over a week ago Microsoft paid $240 million for a 1.5% stake in facebook.com, the no.1 social networking site in the world. After this news I created a facebook account, to add to my Orkut and Myspace accounts, as if the whole world wants to network with me and read my useless profile PJs. But is it really worth so much. What are these guys fighting over? Are these social networks just mines of demograhic data? Are they answers to unmet customer needs? Or are they just high potential advertisement channels?

Making this fight further interesting, Google chose halloween day to announce to the world its new social networks developer platform called OpenSocial. And not just that, Google already has signed up MySpace, LinkedIn and Friendster into this platform. And news has it that some of facebook developers have also signed up. This battle is getting interesting by the day.

As a hapless user, I just want one social networking profile, totally integrated with all my desktop software and my mobile phone. Google/Microsoft - Are you listening?

Love in the times of Telepathy

It was a Wednesday morning, early march, and was raining heavily. Radha just hung up on a phone call from office and looked at her phone. She just hoped that Shakti would call her and check how she was. She had been waiting for his call since last evening but in vain. She rested herself against the wall clenching the phone and looked up at the ceiling. It was almost a year since she joined this company. Shakthi had joined her project around six months ago but was working on a different module in the same floor. For a long time they never knew each other and Radha being the traditional Indian girl never even exchanged smiles with strangers. One Saturday, late last September, she was waiting for her office cab to drop her home at 1100 PM. Just then Shakthi came by and said “Hi”. She just turned around and did not even acknowledge his smile. As luck would have it the cab broke down mid-way. After more than an hour they finally managed to get a taxi. When she got down Radha said “Thank you” and looked at Shakthi’s eyes for the very first time.

Shakthi was a very charming man, the youngest Senior Manager in the company and unmarried. After that night they started bumping into each other more and before they realized they were spending a lot of time together. Radha was not in the same league and came from a middle-class background. Her father retired last year and was keen on getting Radha and her younger sister married. Radha and Shakthi were getting closer and their philosophical discussions and sweet nothings kept them enamored all the time. It became customary for her to give Shakthi wake up calls every day and last month he took her to his house. She met everyone in his family and they were all really nice. Everything was on a roll.

Yesterday, she came back from work quite early and to her surprise her uncle, Parthasarathy mama, and her aunty were at home. They were her closest relatives and have been by their side through thick and thin. Mama said “Radha, take a day off tomorrow. My best friend Rangachari is coming with his son to see you. His son is a Senior Design Engineer in Motorola, Hyderabad”. A shiver ran through her spine. She knew that her father was trying to find a match for her but this was a total shocker. She immediately called up Shakthi and told him about the new development. Shakthi responded with utter silence. He said no words of reassurance, not even a “It will all be ok”. Radha finally hung up. The Rangachari’s came to see her and immediately wanted the engagement within two days. She could not understand what was going on with her life. Nobody really seemed to care what she thought about the whole thing. She kept calling Shakthi and sent him several messages but of no vain. Tomorrow it was her engagement and she wanted to know what really went through Shakthi’s mind. Did he really like her? Why did he get into a sudden silence? Why is he not responding to her calls and messages? She wondered why she was not living in the era where “Love happened through Telepathy”.
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My first attempt at a small story. My dear friend AS gave me the title and asked me to write whatever I can think about it.

Why?

Recently, I came through a news article that said that private hospitals all over India have started doing a basic test to check for HIV virus in every patient's blood and immediately several groups have started protesting against this saying that the hospitals are violating the fundamental right 'to consent' to be a subject of the test. What crap? I mean, in my opinion, these hospitals have taken an incredible step. When the HIV demon is proliferating at such a rate in India and can stand as one of the country's biggest challenges in the years to come, this kind of screening of blood is of paramount importance. When social groups should start appreciating this move and make the government make this mandatory everywhere, they are actually protesting against this !! I donno what kind of bloody motivation is there behind these protests.

On the other hand, the Ram setu controversy is reaching its crescendo. Haven't we already done enough damage to our country by playing with the religion card. I'm sure we can use scientific evidence to prove all mythology wrong. But here we are talking about emotions and sentiments. When we can be sentimental about a pen or a piece of jewellery, why not appreciate the fact that some people are sentimental about the Adam's bridge. I really can't understand "Why?" !!!

I don't know

I don't know why we still know each other only by name, although you strangely knew mine before I got yours. I don't know why I never try to barge in, although you hang around with guys I know very well. I don't know why I can't try and find out if you are already committed. I don't know why I didn't get into the habit of saying "hi" to you. I don't know why my heart skips one beat every time I see you. I don't know why my tongue almost went into a double knot, the one or two times I talked to you. I don't know why I hesitate to add you on to my Orkut friend's list. I don't know why I haven't gotten over some of my bitter past. I don't know why I still get nervous. I don't know why I like you, although you are quite short for me. I don't know how I will feel when you leave for your exchange program. I don't know if I will come up and tell "you look brighter" after your next facial. I don't know if it is really sensible to pursue you. I don't know why I'm blogging about you. I don't know if you will ever read this and post a comment. I don't know if I will ever get any further.
-Prequel to the formation of the Flippant hearts club@ISB