chintan

Sorry Doesn't Help

2011-07-19T00:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry doesn't help,
I did not make you feel happy
but I never wanted to be the reason for your sorrows

Sorry doesn't help,
I know it wont cheer you up
but it was never my intention to let you down

Sorry doesn't help,
I couldn't live up to our promises
but dont make your dreams any smaller

Sorry doestn't help,
I may have broken your trust
but dont let it shake your confidence

Sorry doesn't help,
I failed to take you forward
but dont you shy away from starting afresh

Sorry doesn't help
I know this wont do any good now
but it is the only way to tell, I still care

Fastrack of the Chennai

2011-04-10T06:26:00.000-07:00

That is one of the radio call taxi operator in chennai, in case you do not know. So, of all the things in Chennai, you will wonder why am I writing on Fastrack. Simple answer, customer experience, it can not be bad than that. If it were not the 'ever-demanding' autorickshaw wala of chennai, these radio cabs would have shut their shops long back. Imagine paying the same (sometimes higher) amount for a ride by autorickshaw than that by a AC cab. The other factor is ofcourse the preference of language used on city buses, so all buses start from and travel to the same stop for me.

Besides the wonderful ecosystem that is fueling the radio cabs business in chennai, you also get a totaly unfriendly tele sales staff who takes your calls. Yes the tele sales staff just hangs up the phone is he/she is not able to understand where you want your cab. And if you are expecting that you will get a call back cause that tele-sales executive has to get business for his company, forget it, because that executive will definitely forget you. If you call them again, dont start by saying that your call was dropped and dont even hope that you can save some time by not providing the details that you have already provided because doing that would only ensure that this call will also get dropped.

More amazing is their CRM system, I am sure the Mckinseys of the world would have advised them to install one, but they fail to mention that train your staff on it. Being a business traveller, I stay at hotels, so the hotels and room numbers keep changing, but instead of repeated request, my address in their record is still room number 106, hotel vestin park. Try and explain them that it is a hotel room number and not my PAN card number, you know what will happen next? The executive will hung up the phone. Now comes the next and most important part, providing the service to the customer, in short Mr. Driver comes into the picture. So, the driver will get the details about where and when you want the cab, he will ask you for any landmark near your place and then you expect him to reach on time. The story has a bollywood climax with a tollywood villian. If you are lucky he will be on time, if you are not then you have to call the driver back to check where he has reached. He will politely tell you that he was not able to locate the house and he has parked his car at some random place and is waiting for your call. You relax your arms, take a deep breath and guide him to your place again, yes you dont have a choice. Now the cab will surely reach you, and there is nothing that can go wrong, you will get into the cab and reach your destination. Wait, don't doubt on the creativity of your old friend, the tele-sales executive. 1 out of 5 times you would realise that the cab isn't the type you had asked for. You may have asked for a Indigo but you see a nice old indica whose bonut is smiling at your misery.

What do you do next, you call the tele-sales executive just to check why is this so and no point in guessing what happens next. He hungs up the phone. Good Bye !

To the street lights

2011-02-25T22:23:00.000-08:00

Looking at those yellow lights on street, i ponder
Its been long since i stayed in office any longer
The streets are asking me where have i been
That i did not meet them so often, missing the sheen

Will meet those street lights everyday, scared i was in dreams
That i belong to a rare specie that the media call creme de la creme
Days have passed while i work and leave in the familiar daylight
And the arrival of stars in my sky is like the trees turning green

Of all the hopes and ambitions that you water like seeds
Just to end up in a populist job doing those regular deeds
And the ever siftling of endless jobs and careers you always do
Of this and that from every tin and can, trying to make ends meet

I wonder if you also play the same role like we always pretend
Or am I the only one juggling these goals, making amends
Not looking for an answer, not so early in life
As there are more surprises waiting for me, to comprehend.

CWG Scam - the untold story

2010-09-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

The real reasons of CWG mess aren't the ones you read on newspaper, actually they are the following:

Post elections, the Indian economy needed another fiscal stimulus, but because of international pressure the Indian government could not give it officially and therefore decided to allow CWG committee members as much leeway as needed to spend handsome amount of money for the benefit of the economy. The government is successful as Indian Capital Markets have outperformed all other indices worldwide.

The CWG contracts weren't given to big and reputed companies under the pressure of MINGCCO (minorities group of construction companies) following Indian secular model extended to the corporate world to minimise the gap between the haves and have-nots of the Indian Industry.

Applying the rule of equitable distribution of resources, the organising committee asked the elite group of hotels for personal benefits stating that the CWG organised by them will benefits these hotels in a big way and hence they need to give it back in some way or the other. However, The elite group of hotels together decided that they will not mend to the ways of CWG committee members and hence to teach them a lesson organising committee ensured that no-one actually comes for the game.

The CWG committee had hired world renowned consultants to advice them on how best to improve India's chances of getting more medals. The consultants applied their IPR protected model 'ATRC' (Attack the root cause) and after extensive primary research and in-depth expert interviews, the consultants came to a conclusion the root cause if better skills of foreign athletes. Therefore it was decided to somehow make them not come to the venue. The consultants did not charged for their services.

Organising the CWG is the most expensive marketing campaign taken up by the government of India in association with Election commission of India to create a buzz, big enough to reach the farthest of the corners and make people realise the repercussions of not voting during the time of elections and to prevent the repeat of something similar to CWG people would be forced to vote.

After RBI failed to control the inflation in the economy, the CWG was the last resort left in front of the government to siphon-off big chunks of money to SWISS banks accouts so that it can not return to further heat up the economy. CWG was the only way to make the money disappear without creating any real assets in the economy and therefore the effiency achieved is one of the best.

With the consistent failure of Intelligence Bureau to prevent terrorist strikes in the country, the threat of terrorist strike on CWG was real lest the games itself become so uncertain that the terrorist organizations do not even make plans for it, thereby the satisfying the DOE (Damage on Explosives) expectations of the shareholders of these terrorist organizations. The CWG OC should be credited for perfectly planning this 'unplanned' picture of the games.

The honourable MLAs of Indian democratic system had all joined hands for the first time for one aim, to ensure CWG becomes the monster of all issues, just to divert attention from their failure with regards to Ayodhya Issue, Bhopal Gas, Inflation, IPL Controversies, Rotting of Food Grain, Suicide of Farmers et.al. Mr Suresh is just being made scapegoat and therefore, is paid handsomely.

O my heart !

2010-08-25T03:37:00.000-07:00

O my Heart! Listen
I know you like to Dream, It’s your way to zoom past all the inhibitions
When you see a friend proudly exhibiting his sport car

I know you want to jump in the sky, want to achieve new heights
When you see a friend enjoying a roller coaster ride

You want to lend a helping hand, give meaning to my achievements
When you see a friend involved with a NGO

To express those emotions that does not want to be confined by words
When you see a wonderful portrait made by a friend

And you want to stretch the boundaries, reasserting your belief in me
When you see a friend receiving new laurels

O my Heart, Listen You may keep dreaming, aspiring
But remember you are not alone, get along my mind, my soul

Still, keep dreaming, keep asking for more, keep pushing
Confront my intellect, don’t let it settle for less

Imagine what my eyes fail to see, hear what my ears ignore
Don’t you know, you still rule my world

All about CWG

2010-08-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

I am modifying this post to include this another link shared by a friend - http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/the-times-of-india-and-commonwealth-games/

The CWG story is getting interesting every day. If you have not followed it up so far, you may read this collection of news as it appeared in print media for you and I will keep updating this. Full marks to Mr. Iyer who started the controversy by wishing failure to CWG but it made people to question and probe further. Let’s see how far the story goes.

July 17 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/70-days-to-go-pack-up-for-Commonwealth-Games-caterers/articleshow/6178342.cms

July 18 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Slave-labour-in-svelte-Delhi/articleshow/6182947.cms

July 23 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Contractors-abandon-Commonwealth-Games-flats-in-VK/articleshow/6202887.cms

July 25 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/53-days-to-go-CWG-catering-not-in-place/articleshow/6212366.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/100-day-countdown-to-Commonwealth-Games-begins/articleshow/6091092.cms

July 27 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Will-be-happy-if-Commonwealth-Games-are-spoilt-Aiyar/articleshow/6222583.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Kalmadi-calls-Aiyars-remark-against-Games-anti-national/articleshow/6223703.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/CWG-related-contracts-construction-work-under-CVC-scanner/articleshow/6222242.cms

July 28 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Commonwealth-Games-Now-DD-paints-hazy-picture-on-telecast/articleshow/6224749.cms

July 29 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/14-Commonwealth-Games-projects-under-CBI-CVC-scanner/articleshow/6229348.cms

July 30 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Commonwealth-Games-Bids-rigged-costs-hiked-and-quality-sacrificed/articleshow/6234730.cms

July 31 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Indian-High-Commission-refutes-Kalmadis-claim/articleshow/6241868.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/BCCI-refuses-to-give-100-crore-donation-to-CWG/articleshow/6240770.cms

Aug 1 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Suresh-Kalmadi-refutes-Indian-High-Commissions-denial/articleshow/6243818.cms

Aug 2 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/CWG-corruption-gets-murkier-treadmill-hired-for-Rs-10-lakh/articleshow/6247519.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Politics-behind-Delhi-Games-corruption-claims-Aussie-chief/articleshow/6246539.cms

Aug 3 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Sports-Ministry-asks-Kalmadi-to-sack-two-OC-aides/articleshow/6251295.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Under-pressure-OC-forms-panel-to-investigate-UK-money-trail/articleshow/6251793.cms

Aug 4 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Under-pressure-Kalmadi-says-ready-for-CAG-or-judicial-probe/articleshow/6255516.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Railways-threatens-to-pull-out-as-sponsor/articleshow/6254006.cms

Aug 5 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/OC-says-no-hiring-will-buy-treadmills/articleshow/6258751.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Kalmadi-may-sack-key-CWG-aide-Darbari/articleshow/6260493.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/OC-treasurers-son-heads-firm-laying-Games-tennis-turf/articleshow/6258714.cms

Aug 6 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Lack-of-coordination-again-leads-to-wastage-of-CWG-funds/articleshow/6263409.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Wont-quit-making-Games-a-success-my-first-priority-Kalmadi/articleshow/6265814.cms

Aug 8 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Commonwealth-Games-Delhi-to-miss-deadline-again/articleshow/6274784.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Im-ready-for-judicial-probe-now-Suresh-Kalmadi/articleshow/6273037.cms

Aug 9 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Kalmadi-cleared-payment-for-AM-deal-which-hed-never-heard-of/articleshow/6277590.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/CWG-Organising-Committee-terminates-Darbaris-services/articleshow/6280296.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Rs-28054-crore-spent-on-Commonwealth-Games-Reddy/articleshow/6282261.cms

Aug 10 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Mani-Shankar-Aiyar-hints-at-Kalmadis-removal/articleshow/6287281.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Kalmadi-writes-to-Congress-MPs-defends-himself/articleshow/6287970.cms

Aug 11 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/SMAM-slams-OC-for-wrongfully-terminating-contract/articleshow/6293535.cms

Aug 12 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/CWG-scam-Expose-leads-ED-to-Kalmadis-door/articleshow/6297970.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Key-investors-in-top-CWG-supplier-have-fictitious-village-addresses/articleshow/6295892.cms

Aug 13 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Baton-relay-rights-went-to-highest-bidder-CAG-report/articleshow/6302211.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/CWG-scam-Kalmadi-Fennell-under-ED-scanner/articleshow/6302176.cms

Aug 14 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Kalmadi-sidelined-secretaries-panel-to-supervise-CWG/articleshow/6311630.cms

Aug 16 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Make-penalties-on-CWG-contractors-public-CIC/articleshow/6320306.cms

Aug 17 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Now-CGF-comes-under-scanner/articleshow/6326517.cms

Aug 18 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/CWG-original-bid-documents-were-tampered-with-Reports/articleshow/6332764.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Latest-CWG-goof-up-costs-Rs-13cr/articleshow/6328463.cms

Aug 19 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/CWG-corruption-Guilty-wont-be-spared-says-Sonia/articleshow/6335680.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Delayed-DDA-projects-may-again-miss-CWG-deadlines/articleshow/6333858.cms

Aug 20 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Kalmadi-on-defensive-as-10-top-babus-come-in-to-salvage-Games/articleshow/6341765.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Private-companies-keen-to-sponsor-CWG-as-PSUs-pull-out/articleshow/6357193.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/CWG-Vilasrao-stops-300cr-PSE-funding/articleshow/6351779.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Caterers-finalized-for-CWG-venues/articleshow/6345743.cms

Aug 21 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/CWG-Fennell-Hooper-pushed-through-dodgy-SMAM-deal/articleshow/6384149.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/PIL-in-SC-seeks-CBI-probe-into-CWG-scams/articleshow/6383469.cms

Aug 22 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Mystery-behind-Kalmadis-appointment-as-OC-chief/articleshow/6389693.cms

Aug 23 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/UK-firm-charged-over-six-times-for-CWG-overlays/articleshow/6402168.cms

Aug 24 –

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Now-all-Kalmadi-events-under-lens/articleshow/6423686.cms

Teaser Campaign - Peepli Live !

2010-08-11T22:03:00.000-07:00

Aamir Khan is at it again, the buzz that he is able to create before a movie release is always the best. When I saw the teaser campaign for the first time, I thought those campaigns are just a hoax, and that the movie is on a different topic altogether. I thought people will get a big surprise when they go and watch the movie on the first day and then it will generate another round of buzz which will spread by word-of-mouth. The idea is to completely catch people off-guard and push the un-decided ones to buy the tickets. Clearly, it is unheard of, in bollywood. I do not have sufficient knowledge about Hollywood, so am unable to comment.

Now, I feel that Peepli Live teaser campaigns were not a deception but were actually a snapshot of what the movie is all about. Okay, let us just leave it to the fact that consumers in india may not be ready for such teaser campaigns. You may have already heard of the ambush marketing by HUL for its Dove brand that completely over scored on the buzz built by P&G. So, may be Aamir Khan has learnt a lesson and he did not wanted to create an opportunity for someone else to score.

But there are still many things that differentiate peepli live from other bollywood releases, the theme of the movie, the relevance of it to rural india, the use of unpopular small-time actors, the use of village music group for one of the songs. Clearly it is a big name, backing a small budget film which can become profitable in the very first day of its release. Releasing just one movie per year is another trick that pulls the crowd to the theatre, exclusivity demands a premium, isin’t. At least the property rates of peeli village are going up due to this movie, some benefit for the villagers, hope you read the news regularly. :)

However, I am still waiting to see who will be the first production house that will experiment with a hoax teaser campaign to generate buzz for a movie release, the question is are we ready yet? The answer is difficult to put unless someone tries the same.

Inverted Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

2010-08-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

You all know about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Well I have come up with the inverted one. This describes the different stages that an employee with no work at office, goes through. (Click on the image to enlarge)

P.S.1: Of course "pun intended" and no offense to anyone including Mr. Maslow

P.S.2: (C) @ me

P.S.3: Suggest an apt name for this new theory :)

P.S.4: I thought 'Despo's Lethargy of Deeds' but my dear friend did not gave a good response to that name :(

P.S.5: I have not written so many P.S. ever.

Inflation, Common Wealth Games, Double Dip and Realty Bubble?

2010-07-28T22:30:00.001-07:00

Real Estate prices in Mumbai have risen well beyond the peak of 2008, some people who were intelligent enough to buy flats 12-15 months back are sitting on sweet gains. I was talking to my friend, who is an investment banker, and we were discussing whether without the sustained economic growth at fundamental level, Mumbai will be able to maintain the current price levels? Is there be a realty bubble waiting to explode in India, Mumbai? Imagine a flat quoting about 70Lacs just before the crisis in 2008, is now priced at over 1 Cr.

We discussed two points. First, that even at the peak of the crises, the builders were able to manage with minimal sales, though their valuations took a nosedive, but they didn’t went bankrupt, somehow they had the working capital or they managed to get it. So, effectively the supply demand equation does not hold when there is a oversupply. Second, most of the people in India are still buying their first ‘HOME’ and that is not an Investment, it is a basic necessity and they will buy flats as and when prices start falling, even if just by 10%. At least I know 4-5 of my friends who are just waiting for prices to cool a little bit. Contrast this with the develop world where people were living in their home and had 2-3 homes as an investment, they may sell it if they require money or they may not buy another if they don’t have the money, but is it possible in India?

On another note, I don’t understand how government is going to control the food inflation by increasing interest rate. If not, then why the hell they promised 6 months back that inflation is going to come down. Now you see news articles that government has failed on their promise, I say it was never a promise. To control the inflation we need a good agri. production, not just good we need a bumper production. With millions of tonnes of food-grain rotting outside the FCI warehouses, while our agri. minister is juggling between IPL/ICC and asking the prime minister to reduce the burden; only time will tell whether our system can even handle the bumper harvest, if we have it at the first place. Even I think that what Mr. Iyer said about spending 35,000 Cr. for CWG is a waste, not because I second his other opinion of using that money for promoting games in india, but because I think that money should have been spent on setting up new FCI warehouses/upgrading the older ones. Seriously, I don’t mind people bureaucrats gobbling up the same 100 crores while setting up some more warehouses than doing the same while setting up lavish sports complexes. But nothing will happen as the root of the problem remain the same people. The people who still elects these minister; the people who wear branded ties, drives mercedes but still jumps the traffic signal; the people who still do not pay the taxes; the people who still do not cast their vote (but vote their Caste); the people who still spit on the roads; the people who are willing to pay bribe to by-pass the system but not get into the system and clean it; the people who still kills for religion, the people who are we.

The blog has already become so long and I didn’t even start on Double-dip. But let’s just leave it at this.

Err, you looking for a bachelor accommodation?

2010-07-27T23:22:00.000-07:00

“yaar yeh bagal wali building mein koi flat nahi hai kya”

“sir woh bachelors ko nahi dete”

In short that means being a bachelor, you are not eligible to rent a house in half of the good societies. Those societies which allow bachelor accommodation demand higher maintenance charges from the landlord as if they are the only ones who understand the concept of high risk-high return. When you meet the landlord, he will start with the normal lecture of ‘no parties, no friends at home’, like you will strictly go by what he wants. If you delay the payment of the rent by even 1 day, he will worry of credit default even more than the Investment Bankers did at the peak of subprime. He will open the internet banking account and re-check whether the last month’s rent was indeed paid or it was just his dream, bloody INCEPTION!!!

Whenever you shop for grocery and bring back the polythene bags, everyone, from the security guard to the distant neighbors will look at the bags as if you are carrying detonators. Any bottle like structure will bring an instant smile on the guard’s face, the smile a "close-up" advertising executive would die for. And if at all he knew telepathy, he will signal that you will be called in the next society meeting unless you give me 1 'CAN' of beer. The house maid is no less than a shrewd economist that she uses the utility function, opportunity cost, and factor cost principle all in one go while quoting the monthly salary. The ‘bai’ is entitled for a 20 days CL and 10 days PL in a month, If there any slightest of chance that she cannot visit a house, it will be the bachelor’s one. Now I understand why my professor always insisted on having a Contingency Plan or Plan-B.

You cannot have relatives/cousins if you are a bachelor. One of my friends couldn’t make the club card for his cousin because the cousin’s name was not on the house lease. When asked whether people having families put each of their family member names on the lease, the society politely replied that only the families can ask for club card for their relatives and bachelors cannot. Even the faintest of the noise coming from the bachelors’ house will find its way to the ear drums of the neighbors and the after effect are heard at the landlord’s house. Forensic experts are no match to the neighbors’ skills as they trace the source of all the “stray” garbage to the Bachelor’s flat, I bet these people should train the Archeologists!

If one is able to manage these stakeholders for 11 months, the last lessons are learnt in accounting. As my accounting professor said “Management Accounting is an art” and there you see, how beautifully the landlord calculate the depreciation of the flat, having an eye on your security deposit. After all this, I know where you will go to, your old friend, the house agent who has mastered the art of "key account management".

10 Things You Must Know

2010-07-26T03:19:00.000-07:00

There is only one absolute truth and that is when kareena sings “jaisa filmo mein hota hai, ho raha hai hu-ba-hu” in a song in the movie ‘3 idiots’
There is nothing called free lunch but Gyaan is always free, and you’re not even asked if you need it, it is pounced upon you
Only those who have already earned Crores, tell others not to worry about salary but work profile
Just because the owners aren’t running the company doesn’t mean that the company is professionally run
ESOP component of your pay is even more variable than the Variable Pay component (or Performance Linked bonus, if you say so)
The most difficult thing to do in Mumbai is search for a good apartment; given that you are a bachelor (will write on this one in detail)
The electronic swipe machine at office will always register your swipe if you are coming late or leaving a little early, but it is likely to fail to register the swipe otherwise
You will always run out of (sufficient) change to pay the autowallas, especially on weekends
You can run, you can hide but you can’t escape the telemarketers calls, they will reach you somehow
My blog is becoming more random day by day and I am the one responsible for it, sigh!

P.S. - now please don’t comment that it was the singer and not kareena who was actually singing the song in ‘3 idiots’

Daddu - the Rabbit !

2010-07-24T04:47:00.000-07:00

Let me introduce you to my companion at office, Mr. Daddu (video attached.). The following notes explain why Mr. Daddu became popular in the entire office within 2 days of his arrival.

Please note that each one of the points listed below holds independently.

1. Mr. Daddu looks extremely stupid and you can always laugh at him

2. Mr. Daddu can do the same thing every day without getting bored i.e. nod his head whenever you touch him, move him or wake him from his sleep

3. Mr. Daddu greets everyone with the same smile whether it’s the office boy or the big boss of the floor

4. Mr. Daddu is a proof that there is at least someone more stupid than you are

5. Mr. Daddu can stay at the same place doing nothing and he never complains about it

6. All Mr. Daddu can do, is that he nods his head up-down like saying “yes” to whatever you do

7. Mr. Daddu continues to believe that he is a Rabbit, unperturbed by what others have to say about it

8. Mr. Daddu allow his colleagues to poke his nose whenever they want to vent out ‘their’ frustration, he still nods his head

9. Mr. Daddu has applied for a employee number as he thinks he is doing nothing less (if not more) than any other employee on an average day

(P.S: Daddu's is Sanket Bhale Property, he writes at lotofshit.blogspot.com)

Reforms - American or Indian ?

2010-06-30T21:29:00.000-07:00

We know that in India we drive left, in US people drive on the right. Our electrical switches on downwards, theirs' upwards etc. etc.

But what about reforms, our reforms means deregulations, less governmental intervention and market pricing. The reforms that US is now talking of these days are different, US House passes landmark financial reform bill which actually means "The bill would impose tighter regulations on financial firms and reduce their profits. It would boost consumer protections, force banks to reduce risky trading and investing activities and set up a new government process for liquidating troubled financial firms." (taken on 1July2010 from - http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65L4A920100701)

So we are moving their way and they are moving on ours'; Only time will tell which is a more robust model?

Information (De)value Chain

2010-06-30T04:06:00.000-07:00

Please enlarge the image, Take it with a tablespoon of salt and yes, pun intended !!

What do you do?

2010-06-24T04:13:00.000-07:00

I was trying to find possible ways of venting out frustration (peaceful ways) while seating in my seat in the office, and the idea of putting it down into a blog post is inspired by some recent blog posts by Sanket Bhale (http://lotofshit.blogspot.com/2010/06/to-all-corporate-bitches_17.html and http://lotofshit.blogspot.com/2010/06/why-am-i-pissed.html ).

Well here is my list:

Search on Internet about recent earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, floods etc. > Convince yourself that 2012 will happen and you have nothing to gain in two years, so no point in crying for getting less
Try to justify your current sorrows on your past sins, if you haven’t done any then try to find some flies/mosquito hiding in the desk, kill them so that you commit sin and then justify your current sorrows
Go to the coffee vending machine take a cup of coffee, pour it down in the dustbin, do it iteratively until one of the ingredients (water, coffee or milk) is finished, then when the next cup of coffee is not available blame it on your bad luck and think that the current sorrows is also because of your bad luck
Get some ink (remember ink pen), spray it on a A4 paper and then fold it twice, open the paper, observe the imprints of the ink, keep on doing that until the imprint resembles any awful creature, assume you were just that in your previous birth and that you deserve what is happening to you right now
Open 100 internet explorer on your desktop, 100 MS office, 100 MS excel, 100 PowerPoint, Run some heavy code if you can and then when the computer stops functioning think that nothing is moving in your life and that you can’t do anything about it, it’s out of your reach
Try to remember some scenes from Final Destination movie series and imagine that even worse could have happen so your current misery is no big
Write a blog and tell you friends that you are frustrated, let them pray for you and hope that if God do not hear your prayers, the prayers of your friends will be heard and things will improve very soon

When it rains !

2010-06-16T02:14:00.000-07:00

When it rains, Go walking
The Auto wont take you, not anymore
When it rains, Go Dieting
Cause you need to fit in the crowded bus

When it rains, Start early
The traffic will stand still always
When it rains, Go packing
Cause you’ll need another dress in office

When it rains, get short
So other’s umbrella don’t come in yours
When it rains, go gymming
So you can hold your umbrella in the winds

When it rains, meditate
So you can keep clam while the speeding cars splash water
When it rains, be blatant
So you can fight with others on road

When it rains, wear bright
So people can notice you if you drown in rainwater
When it rains, wear old
So you can throw the clothes away

When it rains, I am telling you
Do nothing, Actually you can’t do anything
So when it rain, Don’t complain
Cause we need it, yes very much!

Gotcha ... !!

2010-06-08T23:36:00.001-07:00

How do you make the most boring post readable? Have an interesting title, Start with a question, human mind is inquisitive, the question will prompt the reader to read further, at least next couple of lines.

Write in short sentences, use small paragraphs.

Provide something similar to status bar e.g. you have read 50% of the post. It will finish in next couple of paragraph.

The reader will be more happy and satisfied if the post finishes even earlier than his/her expectations, like this one. You have read it completely, thank you for reading.

Meerkat In Cubicle

2010-06-02T04:29:00.001-07:00

Have you seen the meerkat manor series on Animal Planet? Well I have recently observed similar behavior with a “more developed” and “self obsessed” creature on earth.

Let me first define what I mean by Meerkat behavior. It is the phenomenon when the creature in question raise their heads from their hidings and turn it left and right to look out for any activity happening in the surroundings.

Do you think meerkat behavior happens in the office, well I do. There is one pre-requisite for meerkat behavior to happen in office and that is - new joinees seating in cubicles in a big corporate where they are yet to be assigned a project.

Let me discuss the specific events that promote or lead to the meerkat behavior. Now these could be many, but I will write the key one’s for you. Presence of noisy flooring that creates high sound whenever it comes into contact with high heels. Presence of employees who wear those high heels on a regular basis. So whenever those ‘people’ walk around in the office they create a sound that is ‘music’ to the ears of our meerkat in the office. It gives our meerkat some hope that for the next few seconds ‘it’ will not be looking at the dead screen of ‘its’ laptop but at something/someone else. Then the meerkat raises his head and then happens the meerkat behavior. The source of the noise may or may not look at our meerkat but if they happen to look in each other’s eye all our Meerkat wants to say is “Please don’t look at me this way, I know I am a new joinee, I know I don’t have work right now, Please help me get some work, Please don’t think that I don’t want to work etc.” and ofcourse “it” wants to say “Don’t think that since I do not have work and I am just looking at everyone who is passing by, I am looking at you because you are making noise while you are walking” and yes the last thing that our meerkat says is to the God and that is “Please give me some work here or make these ‘people’ come wearing high heels that make noise everyday”.

Presence of any wannabe meerkat that has come for an interview also results into meerkat behavior.

So are you playing a meerkat today?

24 Hrs TV News Anchor Skillset

2010-06-01T23:35:00.000-07:00

We Indian are known for our reverse engineering skills, well I tried my hand at the same. I tried to put down the skill-set required for a 24 Hrs Hindi TV News Anchor by reverse engineering from what I heard on those channels 24 hrs a day. Here was the outcome, don’t blame me for this!

Should be able to repeat the same statement or piece of news continuously for hours without showing any signs of boredom.
Should be able to show expressions of grief, dismay, shock, disappointment, panic at the drop of the hat.
Should be insensitive to human emotions to be able to speak and ask ridiculous questions to people in grief or those who are deeply affected .
Should be dumb enough to ask any damn question to the guests in panel discussion with complete disregard to their social/political status.
Should not hesitate to backtrack his/her own words again at the drop of the hat.
Should be presumptuous to be able to create stories by relating two or more incidents no matter how remote they may sound.
Should strictly do not think before he/she speaks.
Should have excellent voice modulation skills required to make any ordinary story sensational.
To be able to qualify for specific TV shows the natural tone of the candidate should be sarcastic, extremely sadistic or foolishly funny.
Should be able to sensationalise news by using words like ‘bhayanak’, ‘atyachaar’, ‘saheb-jyadey’, ‘be-raham’, ‘laachaar’, ‘be-kaboo’ very frequently.
Should be comfortable to using idioms/phrases like “kaan par zoo tak nahi raengti”, “ser ko sava ser”, “rahem ki bheekh” etc.
People who are convicted or made co-accused in defamation suits will be given preference.

Tweets and Tweet-Nots

2010-04-28T03:24:00.000-07:00

I am trying to sound like Haves and Have-Nots. Yes, the “tweets” in the recent pasts have created a lot of trouble for the well known. Everyone seems to riding on the tweeting wave and those who do not are wondering if they are the laggards in the ‘high-tech’ generation of current India. From emails to blogs to social networking to tweet, the world of internet communication is changing a lot and at an alarming rate.

Tweet is short and convenient messaging that offer huge value for the internet savvy individuals who are hard pressed for their time but at the same time want to remain connected with their friends. However, this is just not it, if one asks oneself; tweet is becoming the platform for individuals to speak out to the world, the unknown world. Everyone has a point or opinion and people are finding a platform to express the same. The real advantage that it offers is that it can facilitate a dialogue between the who’s who of the society and any normal individual. One can tweet and ask a question to anyone and people are increasingly replying to these tweets. Those reply acts as an incentive for people to continue tweeting as the dialogue that died in its interpersonal form has evolved into the online platform in the form of tweets. Clearly this characteristic is difficult to reproduce on any other form of online communication (blogs, email etc.) However with newer platforms coming into being it is getting more and more difficult to maintain a healthy presence on all these distinct platforms and increasing people are looking for an integrated tool, not very surprisingly you find many social networking sites providing a feed for your tweet updates.

With 3G mobiles in hand, the tweeting could become increasingly happening phenomenon where the dependency on laptop/computer and an internet connection will go away. One can tweet at any time, from any place and on anything. The world of social networking is evolving rapidly and the form of communication is changing from private to public and from sporadic to real-time. The billion dollar question is where are we heading to, to which next form will this sort of communication evolve into?

How long would it be before all the “enquiry” windows at all the government offices, train stations, depots etc. opens a tweet account and you do not have to stand in a queue just to ask which queue should you stand in next?

The basic ingredient ‘high speed connectivity’ is not too far, the benefit of convenience and the mobile as the device, you have everything at your disposal. Now think this, I take your internet connection and how would it affect you, or I take your mobile and how would it affect you, but but but think this, I take your mobile and internet connection and how would it affect you.

Match the following

2010-04-16T01:53:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about writing some small stuff or incidents as you may say but then i realised that it may well be very short but then i don't have twitter account... so thought of putting things differently. Well one do not have time to read long posts and people love to see some variety, so folloing the two rules.. here you go.

We used to have "Match the following" type question in school, so i thought of putting one for you, of course i have my answers, you may have yours :)

Parcel a Meal

2010-04-16T01:35:00.000-07:00

I was having lunch with my old friend and his fiancée. We ordered calculated amount of lunch but a small proportion was still left after we were over. I was indifferent to the leftover stuff and as usual busy in chatting with my friend, however the wise lady asked the waiter to parcel the leftover food. Then we had the discussion about the policy of “no food wastage” followed by some righteous people. This ofcourse reminded me of my another friend who never wasted food once taken in his plate and always used to remind me whenever I did left something.

Well, we did parcel the leftover food and gave it to someone sitting on the footpath in the afternoon under the bright sun. I was sitting in the cab while my friend went out to give that parcel to the needy. Little did I realise what that parcel meant for a person living roadside and worrying just how his next meal is going to come. But when I saw the expressions on the face of that needy person I found all that effort was really worth it.

Lets us talk about a normal person, busy with his work and enjoying his weekends with his friends, he seldom find time to contribute something for the society. What does it takes to parcel the leftover food from a restaurant, just asking the waiter to do it for you. No additional effort is required except that you may have to get down from your cab to give it to someone in need but everything is worth it when you notice the true value of your leftover food for someone who may not even have his/her meal for that day.

Certainly, I will parcel a meal again, will you?

Abhivyakti

2010-03-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

I was never a poet, you gave me the words to write
I wasn’t an artist either, you made me find my creativity
I was not the leader, you gave me the strength to believe
Neither was I a confident man, But now I can take on this world

I had the wings, you taught me how to fly
I feared big ambitions, you told me not to shy
I had my share of setbacks, you said not to cry
Nothing seems impossible, you always inspired me to try

It was your energy that made me cheer
With your direction I steer
I do not know what more to say
You made me what I am, dear!

I don’t know how I would get along
My feelings for you are, all strong
Wish you along with your dreams, flourish
As it is your friendship that I cherish

[this is my first attempt at writing a poem, i did this on the last but one day of my stay at IIMK; and I wish all my graduating friends all the very best for their future]

The Laundry war gets dirty – P&G vs. HUL

2010-03-02T00:25:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the latest Rin ad by HUL, they have claimed that Rin is better than Tide Naturals in the sense that it fights dirt better.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Advertising/Rin-washes-rivalry-linen-with-Tide-in-public-through-new-TV-ad/articleshow/5629626.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/biz/india-business/Ad-part-of-battle-over-market-share/articleshow/5631730.cms

They have taken an aggressive stance by explicitly taking the name of Tide Naturals in the Ad (and showing Tide Natural Rs20 pack), it is a brave move and could prove to be risky if P&G decides to fight it out in court. Some things are noteworthy in this campaign

· The campaign is run very frequently as you notice this Ad every next minute, it is obvious as HUL is not sure how soon they would be forced to stop airing the Ad if P&G moves to the court, so if damage has to be done, it has to be done quickly
· The Ad launch was timed perfectly with a long weekend coupled with Holi, when people are searching in the cupboard for clothes that they can wear on Holi and are worried that their new clothes should not get dirty anyhow in holi celebrations
· The long weekend also ensures that the Ad gets a breathing time as it will make it difficult for P&G to respond in a quick manner, the decision taking will take more time
· The product compared is Tide Naturals and not normal Tide and a third party Laboratory validation is quoted with an * mark
· The Ad capitalise on “Chauk Gaye” phrase which is synonymous with Tide campaigns and ends with “Aunty chauk kyon gayee”

Surprisingly but cleverly HUL has moved to the court and challenged the use of ‘Naturals’ word by Tide, clearly with a two pronged attack on Tide. Well if you have little idea about the detergent market, HUL has been losing its market share to Tide for a long time and I think it has tried too hard to sustain its market share but whether this new all offensive attack on Tide Naturals will help HUL get back its market share? Time will only tell, but lets see what is P&G options now, how should it counter this attack

1. Move to the court, get a stay on the Ad asap, as it is hitting the brand equity of Tide
2. Launch a counter offensive by doing the laboratory test again and disproving the results otherwise
3. Reinforce the Tide brand by some sales promotions or point of sales events, PR, emphasising the cleaning action of Tide
4. Take the war to a whole new level and include Ariel and Surf Excel, attack stronghold of HUL’s other brands and get even

However, a smarter way would be to tell the consumers that by launching this Ad HUL has inadvertently accepted that Tide is the leader in the category and therefore they are forced to compare their product with Tide and not any other brand, so the customers should realise that Tide is already no1 and every other brand is just comparing itself to Tide and looking to match the brand promise this way or the other. Whatever, P&G’s response will be, I am looking forward to watch the detergent war getting dirtier, lets us see how the brand managers of two prestigious FMCG companies fight it out.

7, 12, 17 …

2010-03-02T00:19:00.000-08:00

So what should come next?

Well, I asked this to a Consultant and he told me ‘It depends’, a Financial Analyst told me that it can be no simpler, it is 22 for sure, Mr. Marketer told me that if you do not do anything it will be 22 but if you let me handle that I can increase it, Mr. Accountant told me that he can make the next number anything I want, Mr. Operations told me that whatever it will be he can only handle it if it is within 3σ, Mr HR advised me not to be too inclined to numbers and use some qualitative matrix as well. Now, before you lose interest let me tell you that it is a time series data, does that help you?
Well, I am not sure of the next number in the series. It will depend upon the following

• Number of events happening at local, national or international level that arouse my interest
• Number of people who praises my writing :) or come and comment on my blogs
• The time that I am able to devote to my blog

Yes you get it right, it is the number of blog posts that I have written for the last three years and the next in series will be the total posts that I will write in year 2010 . So what will it be?

2*06 – The one with all the Thumping

2010-02-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

Guess where did the name come, well after lot of pushing, I started watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S so the inspiration came from that. But wait the entire story is not about that so those of you who are not really a big FAN of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, can also read on.

I was sitting in my “the very last” lecture at iimk and project presentations were going on, one after the other. Usually these sessions are difficult to sit in, I mean project presentations! People are least interested in the project that their own group did, forget listening to ppt of other groups. So what do you, some people sleep like they don’t care, some people keep on moving in and out of the class and try not to care, some people respect the sanctity of the classroom and sit patiently there, a few try to listen to what is being said by the presenters just because they anyway had to remain in the classroom and have nothing else that can do in a classroom, but everyone is looking at the clock, with every tick of the second you are marginally happy and the diminishing rate of return does not apply here, it’s a increasing rate of utility curve where the utility continue to increase, the more closer you are to the end of the session the higher is the utility of that last of the seconds. Well not anymore!

I wished for the first time in my last ever lecture at iimk that may be the last group had a few more words to say to the class before they say “thank you”, may be some of my ‘kind’ friends who were listening to the presentation had 1-2 questions to ask, may be the professor had something to say to the class before he winds up the session, may be everyone in the class was feeling like I do and may be something was happening for the first time ever that did not happen before, each of us in the class wanted that lecture to go on for a few more seconds, may be minutes and each of us for the first time did not mind if the class overshoots by a couple of minutes. As when the last presentation finished, my eyes did not believed what they saw, my ears wanted to ignore what they were hearing, my mind was trying hard not to waste time in thinking about what is happening, and my heart was beating slowly as if it was saying something to the clock, my goose pimples were trying to hide from being noticed - they did not wanted to appear. I wanted the time to stop, I wanted to be a poet, I wanted to be a photographer, I wanted to be a writer, I wanted to be an artist, because these MBA programs can teach you how to run a 100 crore business but they fail to teach you how to capture moments that matter.

While I was feeling all that, suddenly a cold current ran through my nerves, the heart beat that was going slow jerked up, the mind was puzzled, the two ears were confirming with each other if what they heard was right, the goose pimples couldn't wait any longer...engulfing --almost uplifting-- my body with a feeling that can only be experienced, not described, my whole 2 years flashed in front of my eyes as the last group said “thank you”. That was a dead silence in the classroom, everyone was trying not to look at others, they were looking at the ceiling, the fan, the projector, the board, and then they started thumping the desk. The thumping that did not stop, probably no one wanted this thumping to stop, the thumping was the last hope of each one of us to continue sitting in the class somehow and not leave, the thumping was the only common way out for the emotions that each one of us had, the thumping was the only way to cheer up all those who were feeling bad about the end of the PGP program, the thumping that never looked like it would stop. I did not care if the table break but I desperately did not wanted that thumping to stop.

A Walk to Remember !

2009-12-14T19:08:00.000-08:00

One fine afternoon, I and my friend started our journey to the classroom for the first lecture of corporate governance course here in the last term. We started our usual discussion on how we want the course to be (given that it is the last term), how the prof. would be, how much the workload be, given that she will be teaching us for the first time and no one has any idea how she teaches as she has recently joined the institute.

On our way to classroom, walking down the corridor (devoid of any 2nd year student and full of the anxiety of final placements of the batch); my friend notices that the new professor is behind us, possibly towards the same classroom to take the first lecture of her course. He hinted the same towards me, and we came to an instant agreement (rarely arrived at between two MBA grads on any damn topic and that too at a lightening speed!) that we should mark our words and discuss limited stuff in the remaining part of our journey to the classroom. At once I thought why not discuss something really good on Corporate governance and act smart and then I realised that I was suffering from ‘Bounded Rationality’.

Gradually we realised that the distance between the prof. and us was slowly reducing and my friend was continuously keeping a watch on the developments like a manager trying to foresee what will happen in the immediate future. And then we started “moderating” our behaviour to look like ‘normal’, of course we are going to be managers soon and hopefully we have learnt that art by now (we hoped!). But again the reality was far different than what we wished it to be, possibly in our last term we did not have energy or enthusiasm and we were crawling to the classroom (a part of the brain trying to justify the remaining part that we need to attend lectures) so the distance was reducing. At the same time the professor is looking forward to meet the budding managers of tomorrow in the first ever interaction that she would be having with the 2nd year students, so she was walking a little fast, maybe she did not wanted to be late for the first ever opportunity to talk to 2nd year students.

Whatever! The distance was decreasing and again the two of us came to another agreement that we needed to speed up, the classroom doors are now visible and we should be able to reach them well before we have to greet the professor. My friend glances backwards a bit trying to hide the fact that he is continuously checking on where the professor is at any point of time. Front and then Back, front and then back, it is like we are almost there, (it is like I made 5 strong points in the GD and I should be just in the next round of the process), like we are sure our speed was just right to be able to get into the classroom before encountering the professor. We were almost confident that even if we cannot make sound arguments in the case discussions this was too basic for us to fail and that even if we do not know how to calculate the financial ratios we were very sure that we calculated our speed quite accurately. We were mechanically doing the same repetitive job, look front and then back, front and then back, front and then back; sounds something like the routine job at work everyday.

Suddenly we realised that the professor was right there behind us and we could very well wish her a good afternoon just by turning back. At the same time we were puzzled as to how this could have happened and we didn’t even realised, that we did not do the same repetitive task well. We did picked up some speed or at least we thought we did or is it the complacency that has occupied our mind before we even started our managerial carrier. How can the distance reduce to such an extent despite my friend keeping a close tab on the “developments”, the shock and surprise can well be described similar to what the financial world had got when they were hit by the sub-prime completely unaware. Well the ‘right sense’ came to our mind like a ‘bail-out’ package and we turned back and greeted the professor. She smiled and said “Don’t worry guys I am not following you”.

Well she noticed that my friend was continuously keeping a tab on the “developments” and it was rather obvious that we were trying to run away. Anyway we got another ‘bail-out’ and we realised that she was carrying a lot of course handbooks for the class and that we should offer some help on the same. Like our financial industry (after the bail-out), my friend too got new boost of energy and rushed towards the classroom door and kept it open for Mad’m to enter and I decided that very moment that I am going to pen it down...... errr "pen it down" or should i say "type it up"..... whatever !!!

Rating Agencies and Accounting Firms – fixing the responsibility?

2009-12-14T04:22:00.000-08:00

The first session of corporate governance course started on a good note, why am I terming it as ‘good’, well was some good participation from each corner of the class. During the discussions the prof. made a point that accounting frauds and false rating by rating agencies are some of the important challenges while addressing the concerns of corporate world. Well, people sounded that it is difficult to penalise monetarily the accounting and rating agencies and usual norm is to rotate the accounting firm periodically (the regulation that came in after Satyam) and refer to credit rating of a firm by multiple rating agencies.

Yes, it is difficult to quantify the penalty that should be applied to accounting or rating agencies because they are not running the business, they are dependent on the managers to provide them with the necessary documents (that too only when asked), and that the size of the client company can be even 100 times the revenue of these accounting firms and rating agencies. We cannot ask these to compensate for the fraud in these big firms, the accounting and rating agencies will go bankrupt in just 1 fraud incidence. But does that means there is no way to make them liable, financially responsible for the fraud that could have been averted by ‘due’ due diligence by these firms.

I am not sure if there are already some experimentation done in this regard in some corner of the world but surely one can come up with some logical and acceptable solution.

You can make these firm pay for the proportionate amount of their own worth in terms of damages if there happen to be a fraud e.g. an accounting company with Rs 100 crore in revenue, acting as a accountant for a Rs 10,000 Cr company. Take a case that the client has done some fraud amounting to Rs 5,000 Cr, then the accounting firm should be made liable for 50% of its own worth i.e. it should be asked to pay Rs 50 Cr in terms of damages to the affected stakeholders.

Now the above argument can be contested on the ground that the accounting firm can have 10 different clients and out of which only 1 did a fraud so it is wrong to penalise the firm solely taking into account the fraudulent firm. OK lets modify the above statement a little bit, lets the total worth of all the clients of the accounting firm is Rs 1,00,000 Crore and 1 firm did a fraud of Rs 5,000 Cr in that case the accounting firm can be asked to pay Rs 5 Cr in damages. Well this can be very well too small for a accounting firm and may not make a significant threat!!!

Let us look at it differently, say that the same accounting firm has earned a total of Rs 50 Cr (present value) in term of fee towards its accounting services for the fraudulent firm. One can straight away ask the accounting firm to pay the same in damages.

Similar ideas can be put down for rating agencies as well and the final solutions (just and acceptable) can very well be a combination of the above three points or may be altogether a better option. But fixing the liability in financial terms is quite possible and can be done. May be there exists some sort of formulae that even I am not aware of; and the whole effort that I have put in while writing this is useless!

The World is Flat or it isn’t

2009-10-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

Room 67: Let us go to Canteen and have some quick snacks?
Room 68: Oh, I just went and come back. BTW you planning to go out for dinner, today mess food is bad :(
Room 67: Let me chk and I will confirm in about an hour.

Thomas L. Friedman has written “the world is flat” where he has mentioned how beautifully the emergence of internet as a means of communication and information exchange has facilitated the birth of Indian IT industry where the projects are executed offshore without jeopardising on the quality but with reducing the costs. I was having this discussion with my friend yesterday about the evolution of Web 2.0 and user forums like mouthshut.com etc. The common starting point is that internet is so easily available that it is the first choice if you want to communicate to your friends, peers forget the unknown people.

The starting of the post is common form of communication between two rooms physically 5 ft away. I was wondering that whether the internet has increased or decreased the distances between individuals. If at one side it has made possible the interaction between two unknown individuals in different continents but at the other side it is replacing the personal communication between other two individuals would have met in person had internet not been in the existence. How do you evaluate the impact of this on human behaviour?

Man is a social animal, a lot is happening on the basis of personal rapport and relations that an individual develops over time, the relationship builds on trust and confidence when you physically meet and talk to someone. Verbal communication is just 1 criteria, you judge an individual by his body language, facial expressions, appearance and related physical surroundings etc. What implications will the internet have on the personal communications with the ‘known’ and ‘near’ people?

Let’s say 5 years down the line I want to watch a movie with my friend and he lives nearby but we do not want to take the trouble of physically going to a cinema hall and stand in a queue, take tickets and then watch the movie with 100 other people. Instead both of us log on to a movie streaming site on internet, enter into the same screen room, connect to the some personal instant message (or voice) window and start seeing the same film at real time and discuss it over the chat/voice window. But what do we do at intermission, I can't tell him that lets go and try some ‘crisy corn sandwich’? Or can I? Well I am talking 5 years down the line and surely we dial the same fast food chain, order what we want to order and it will be delivered over to our doorstep. “Hey do you think that guy has put a little extra cheese in the sandwich today?”

Room 68: Arey, wake me up for 3 pm wala class?
Room 67: Abe kya…. Put an alarm instead na?
Room 68: No bhai, I never know when I will put it off and sleep again, look you don’t have to take any additional trouble, I am leaving my chat window open and speaker on full volume, just ping me until I ping you back saying “yes, I am awake and ALIVE” !!!!

Wait a sec, did you say alive? I mean ALIVE !!

Politics and MR

2009-10-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

Three of the Indian states have just gone through the assembly elections and I was reading an article which was discussing how the perception of voters is about the different political parties in that states. The article talked about what people expect from the political parties when they are in power, which issue favours which political parties etc. Wait a sec; did I just say perception of political parties amongst voters!

So here comes the question; is there an opportunity to apply the concepts learn in MR to position 1 political party amongst each other on the perceptual space of the voters? Well there is but whether it can be applied in Indian scenario I am not sure. We have national brands and regional brands here (read national parties and regional parties).

The need satisfied is favourable economic environment, job opportunities, social security and availability of products and services at affordable rates. The need manifest into wants and here comes the problem, our votes want the candidate of their caste/religion. I do not think there is any confusion over the needs, they are universal but whereas those needs manifest into a want of suitable, educated, and eligible candidate in a developed world, in India those needs manifest into a want of candidate of own caste/religion irrespective of his professional and personal records at the nearest police station.

If I talk about getting a survey done to identify the current positioning gap in the voters perceptual space and then positioning a political party appropriately depending on which social or political issue is most able differentiate amongst all the parties. However, the question that should be answered first is whether there is a need to differentiate the political parties by using perceptual maps. In India the political parties are not competing on functional aspects but on trivial issues. The consumers (voters) are not evolved enough to evaluate the promise offered by these parties rationally and take a sound decision. Rather the political parties have made sure that the voters who vote remain in the lowest level of their maslows hierarchy of needs and do not look beyond the religion and poverty.

I feel that these politicos understand the management more than us, i.e. we always talk of moving the customers up the value ladder but the politico has rightly identified that the best way for their survival is customer remain in the most basic level of their needs and only look for the core product offering. So I think MR has its application in Politics but we do not require it in Indian scenario.

Social Loafing and Diminishing rate of return

2009-10-13T20:57:00.001-07:00

A very strange title, it may not make someone read the whole post; or will it? Well, to make people read it, I am keeping it short. Without referring to anything specific I want to tell you that I encountered the two concepts recently. Let’s say you are required to do a job for a social cause and you want to do it (so you had committed yourself to it) but then you know there are many who are volunteering to do the same job, your effectiveness decreases. OB guys will say social loafing and economist will say the marginal production (incremental job done) curve follows a diminishing rate of return. Do you know Tragedy of the Commons?

Take another example, Mr K usually gets numerous opportunities to attend conferences and he may substitute the next opportunity of attending a conference with a weekend retreat. Mr Y who usually does not get a chance to attend any conferences may compromise on his regular business and even willing to travel moderate distance to attend the same conferences. The utilities of both the events are different to both the individuals. Sometimes I feel (privileged) people have a tendency of discounting the true value of the most basic things in our life. Or continued success may give someone a false impression that one is fully equipped to overcome any sudden changes in the environment. No wonder strategist’s have modified five forces of Porter to include ‘Complacency’.

Songs – melody or contextual melody

2009-09-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

Which one has more effect on you, the melodious songs or the songs with a context that you are familiar with? Which songs do you frequently listen, songs with some history (about the singer, band, or movie) or song that you just like listening? Is it only the song OR the associated video that makes it more interesting (Yes, i do not like the second half of chiggi-wiggi)? Sometimes you like a song from a unknown language so context is out of the question (remember las ketchup or Alizee); or is it not? You may be influenced by what others have said about that song, the stories that you hear about that band, that singer (the whole fuzz about Attaullah Khan, created by T-Series), does it not affect you? Sorry, for asking too many question but this is what I have been thinking for a while.

So let me give you a clearer picture. This is about my liking for songs, I feel that I am more likely to like a song if I see the corresponding movie (ehh may be applicable to bollywood movie). Though I am not sure if the vice versa holds. To give you an example, when I first heard ‘Love Aaj Kal’ songs I didn’t like them, but then after I have seen the movie, I started liking the songs. So there comes the question of context? Is it that after I know the context in which the song is being played in the movie, I start to move in the FLOW of the song.

Again is it only the context or just because I have heard the songs so many times now, I have developed an affinity to them, and I started liking them. I say this because I liked so many English songs after hearing them for over 100 times! This happened during my graduation, as it was the time when I heard English songs for the first time in my life. There are songs which I did not like in the beginning and then as I heard them every day (Thanks to my neighbours) I developed a taste for them. Most of my English songs collection has the same story. The context is not there, but there is a ‘late’ melody. I mean I did not found the songs melodious in the first 10-15 hearing.

And then the context can also have two meanings, the context of the movie and the contextual situation when you heard the songs for the first time. The songs may pop up good old memories in you whenever it is being played. For e.g. Asoka and DCH songs remind me of my first semester at IIT and Fashion songs remind me of my Summer Internship when I was on my way to Pune from Mumbai (I watched that movie in the bus). Why am I writing this????

Well I am not really sure what made me like the ‘Love Aaj Kal’ songs when I first disliked them and I kept thinking, unable to reach conclusion, I thought why not confuse others :) Do you really know why you like a particular song?

Ulta-Pulta

2009-09-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

Wonder which one is the correct news.....!!! and yes, the shortest post ever by me. Date is 16th September 2009.

Generation GAP and Cinema

2009-09-05T06:26:00.000-07:00

I had a course on Consumer Behavior (CB) this term and in the end-term examination of that course there was one question “Write and explain 5 values of Indian youth and what implications do they have on product consumption?” I remember in the course there were several chapters on how the consumer attitudes are changing with time and all sorts of terminologies have come up over time, ‘Baby Boomers’, Generation Y and Generation X etc. Though these terms are used for US population in general but the notion of changing customer attitude towards cannot be denied in Indian scenario and its implications are quite visible.

I was listening to Hindi songs after the CB exam and I generally keep my winamp on random mode with the entire hind songs collection put in the list. The songs that was played was ‘papa kahate hai’ from QSQT. The next song that the winamp played was ‘Koi kahe Kahata Rahe’ from DCH. ‘papa kahate hai’ start with “……Doston…. Shukriya…..party…..humare liye college ka yeh aakhri din hai aur mein jaanta hoon ki aane wali zindagi ke liye sabne kuch na kuch soch rakha hai……’ and then the songs starts with ‘papa kahate hai’ which says that ‘koi engineer ka kaam karega, koi business mein apna naam karega’. Now recollect the starting of ‘koi kahe kahata rahe’ from DCH, it starts with “….. who the hell cares where the hell we land up……”. Recollect that just before these lines the hero starts by saying that college passouts will go for higher studies and some will join their family business, some with start their own ventures and the response that the hero gets the crowd is a BIG BOOOOOOOO, he suddenly change the track and says “….who cares where the hell we land up…. Lets party……..”

Now let me talk about the commonalities in the context of these two songs, both the songs have a background of college graduates in their final graduation party and partying ways from their friends. Apart from diametrically apart attitudes of these two generations there is another thing common to these two songs which rather struck me a little late, and I want you to think of it till I finish my main story. So the main story is how cinema is sometimes a true reflection of a society or as the CB book put it cinema forms a part of cultural gatekeepers who screen the fashion and decide which trend gets a representation in the wider communication to public. The attitude towards life is definitely changed over the period of time. From ‘papa kahate hai’ to ‘koi kahe kahata rahe’ Indian youth has become more adventurous and risk taking, do not want to really lose their freedom so early by committing to job and increased responsibility. You can find out several contrasting themes from early 90s to early 2000s in Indian cinema and figure out yourself how the contemporary Indian youth is very different from its previous counterpart. These differences results in changed preferences towards many products, need for new products and services which the marketers constantly look for. Now that was a part of my answer that I wrote in the end-term examinations and I surely do not want to pen it down here.

Well, before I end the post, I hope you figured out the other similarity between the two songs I mentioned in the beginning of this post. Yes, both songs feature Aamir Khan!

The abused Advertisement

2009-07-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

Consumers are bombarded with a lot of advertisement involving every possible media - The billboards, radio, TV, newspapers, mobiles, movie screens and web. We don’t care whether the ad was for detergent or chocolate. I remember seeing a new ad by Act II popcorn, some quick-cook popcorn product available in the market these days. The ad was without any background music, without any famous personality, forget famous it was without any human, It was only 4 messages one after another. What was the message then, well the message was ‘why do companies make ads’ ‘it is to help you take a break from watching tv’ ‘and go and make a Act II popcorn in two minutes’ ‘come back and enjoy the tv with Act II popcorn’.

Let me ask you 1 question, are we the consumers of advertisement. Do we consume advertisement, yes please refer the book for the definition of consumption.

Imagine a world devoid of any advertisements, also assume that people are completely aware of the brands available in the market so that I do not need to give the trivial answer that advertisements are to teach the consumers and make them aware of the brand or product. How will you feel, nothing to distract you. Moreover you are not required to pay a premium on products as whatever companies are spending on Ads is in-turn collected by consumers by marking up the price.

Nothing will disturb you when you are watching your favourite program on TV but what if you want to take a comfort break, you do not want to miss a part of the program on TV? What if you want to see whether other channels are airing more interesting program at this time? What if you pay Rs 40 for your daily newspaper instead of Rs 4 and Rs 2,000 to your cable operator instead of Rs 300. Shocked! well you shouldn’t be.

Advertisements do more than just subsidising the newspapers and TV costs, in general cost associated with entertainment and communications media. Let me try to put down some (not so thought) utility of advertisements.

They make you feel important, you know there are companies wooing you everytime, and you easily tell your friends “these marketers do not know how to advertisement, they make such a terrible ads, they do not have any brains”.
Not only they make you feel important, they provide you a constant source of ‘abuse object’ that you can abuse whenever you want to or whenever you do not have anything to discuss with your friends.
While you are travelling the billboards alongside the road gives you a hint that a city is nearby, the size and shine will also tell how developed the city will be. Just imagine you are in a complete new city, unknown people and then you see a lot of billboards of known brands (Titan, Nokia, Coke, Adidas etc.), suddenly you feel connected (did you read my previous post on 'shades of journey').
They decorate your roads, make it interesting, they are a proof that when you are in a city centre, it is indeed a city centre.
They provide parents with options to show their small child different objects that are used in the advertisements like dog (hutch), leopard (Mountain Dew), jungle (Cadbury perk), stars (Airtel Ad); the child is ofcourse not able to see these things frequently in concrete jungle (yes our housing societies).
Sometimes they provide you with new ideas, funny moments where you do not have to scratch your head to understand every bit of it. They are some of the simple things you watch on tv.
Billboards also decorate the big walls of Malls, Cinema Halls and they appeal to your eyes. The actresses/models in those big posters beautify the surroundings.

In all these sorts of exposures, I am not consuming the product but consuming the Ad. And I am paying for this consumption, by purchasing those marked-up products of the companies that use these ads. Tell me, do you consume advertisements?

Popularity of your blog

2009-07-11T23:40:00.000-07:00

How do you increase the popularity of your blog? Well I am not probably the right person to ask to, but I am the right person to ask you.

It’s been almost a year and a half since I started blogging and barring a couple of unknown visitors (of course who have commented) all were my friends. Well, your blog can act as one of the means to add to your popularity among the acquaintances but also gives you a chance to remain connected with your dear friends. So how do you increase the traffic to your blog. Certainly I am not able to do a good job, not yet.

But before I try to find the solution(s) to the problem I need to first define the problem itself. No, don’t get me wrong, it’s not a consultant’s approach; it’s the only approach I can think of. I seriously need to find what kind of people I want to visit my blog. Whether I want the marketers, philosophers, technical, freelancers, leisure readers or just my friends to come and read my blogs.

Well, one can write a professional blog, let’s say a opinion blog, travel diary, feedback blog on mobile technologies or a critic on films and blah blah blah. Even if I try to write it will be of no use as I have a little idea about these things. So far my blog entries are limited to random thoughts that I have pertaining to certain events that appear in our social or economic life. So the readers’ profile (please let me take the privilege of trying to profile the typical readers who come to my blog, I know the numbers are not in support of this analysis) is very generic with my friends who are pursuing their post graduate studies in technical field to management, some of the my other friends and few (highly valuable) people who have reached to my blog by “Google Search”, isn’t it amazing.

But still there are no clear indications as to what type of people are interested in my posts (yes if someone unknown comments on my blog posts I do go and check out his blogs). Could this be one of the ways to increase the traffic on my blog site, I should also go and comment on peoples’ posts and this would prompt them to come and see my blog. But this would not ensure the return visits………. he he the marketer in me has started speaking….. sounds like return purchase.

So how do you actually improve the popularity of you blog. Say use those terms in your posts that are frequently searched on internet and keep posting using the generally prevalent terms. So if you were to ask me what these terms would be as of today, I will say that IPL, Twenty20, UPA, Obama, LTTE, the terms that you encounter on your daily newspaper. So should one keep writing about the current affairs on a regular basis. Still, this will not solve the problem, this will attract the leisure reader, which unlike in the months of May and June you will not find (find the reason for May and June and you will be surprised).

One other option that seems a little feasible is linking your blog to other bloggers in and around you. Develop a blog network where the bloggers are following your blog and you in turn are doing the same. Google has recently made available such functionality in blogspot where you know who are the people following your blog. Once that list is builds up, you know the people who are interested in your writing and then you can write on interesting topics to suit the audience.

If you really want that only your friends should come and visit your blog the task becomes easy, just write on your personal experiences that you friends can easily associate with.

Shades of Journey

2009-05-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

I find every journey (leisure trips not included) that I take bothersome, particularly to new destinations. The unease of leaving the current state of life, change in daily routine, disappearance of familiar faces, appearance of unknown faces, insertion of new surroundings put you a state of transition from a steady state (pardon me for the use of technical words).

So the anxiety of transition state makes me uncomfortable. Somehow I feel that I find a steady state inside this transition state. So the ever changing surroundings, faces, are all put together steady. It’s like inertia, if you are in state of transition you want to be in the same state. We attach ourselves to the objects in your personal space.

So if I have got a seat in a train, or bus, I want to sit in my seat. If I find someone occupying my seat I will ask him to vacate the seat for me. If the bus stops at a mid-way, you get down and have some snacks but when you come back you are again happy and relax once you are seated in your seat. You find the same window, same front seat (actually the back of the front seat) and the same side seat and the same faces. You find the same view of the bus from your seat and thus familiar surroundings. You will feel uncomfortable if after every stoppage your seat gets changed.

Let’s come to the hotel where you have done your booking. Day before today, you are not at all concerned about the room that are going to stay, but once you are in that room, the surroundings, ceilings, window, furniture, curtains find a place in your ‘comfort space’ (just coined this term, not sure if this exists). After having done a sizeable field visits to rural markets when I come back to my hotel room, I get some respite. You will not find that kind of relief anywhere else in that new city but your hotel room. Once again it’s the same surroundings, ceiling, window, curtains, furniture etc.

At once I thought that it is not the ‘comfort space’ but the privacy that you find in your hotel room. But thinking deeper you realise that it is not the privacy at all. Let take a train seat for example, you have other people in the compartment but you are confined in your seat and you do not complain, you are happy that the seat meant for you is all yours. Let say that you do not occupy the whole seat and someone comes and sit on the remaining part of the seat, suddenly you say ‘hey that’s my seat’; why? There is no privacy but the steady state in the transition state that I talked about is broken. Forget someone coming and seating, just imagine that someone put his/her bag there, still you do not feel the same. You want it to be removed immediately. This is the reason I call it a ‘comfort space’ which is little different from privacy.

And once again when you start your return journey, you again deal with the same experience. The changing definition of ‘comfort space’ and external space again keeps you guessing about the next station or the next steady state of your journey. And as I write this blog waiting for my return flight to Mumbai from lucknow, I am in my ‘comfort space’ of waiting lounge. Well this blog is going too long, and I do not like reading long blogs, so let me just stop here.

Innovative Premier League

2009-05-10T22:02:00.000-07:00

I was surprised when I first noticed that Google is making money by selling English words. In Google Adwords one can buy a set of words/phrase and then whenever anyone searched for the term the buyer’s link will appear in the sponsored category.

IPL has gone the same path this summer in order to generate more revenues. I agree they are incurring more costs as they have shifted to South Africa but then the traditional means of getting the sponsorship has been given a new face.

One had never heard before a DLF maxima or Citi Moment of Success and you will never hear it’s a SIX or a WICKET. So in the already innovated version of the game has become more innovative.

This coupled with strategic break where you get ample time to advertise in between the match apart from the break between the overs. The thinktank behind all this has done a commendable job.

Another challenge while moving to South Africa was how do you get the local crowd to see the matches and I mean 59 matches. They have linked the IPL with a social cause by donating 100,000 Rand to a local school. At the same time you have Miss Bollywood South Africa contest going on.The TRP have improved a bit but still a long way to meet the expectations. I wonder if there are other things on store to excite the viewer.

Awareness campaigns gone wrong?

2009-05-06T02:10:00.000-07:00

The first phase was very successful with round 60% turnout in many of the cities but comes the second phase and it’s all the same again. A meagre 45% turnout in Mumbai. Mumbai people are considered to be among the most concerned ones as it has business class at one end and emerging middle class on the other end. Still we failed.

The people who conceptualized the campaigns, who participated the campaigns and who endorsed the campaigns are popular Mumbai people but nothing worked. You discuss it with people and they say that it should not have been on the long weekend. It happens in 5 years and we value a long weekend like we get a long weekend once in 5 years. What is it that prevented the intellects to come out for voting. Are we elite enough not to vote for ourselves and intelligent enough to blame the elected representatives for non competence. I think we have lost the conscience of our duties towards our society, we are becoming more individualistic. The people who will surely benefit by our insensitivity towards these important rights are the ones who play around with the sentiments of masses by repeating trivial issues like Ayodhya, telangana, marathwara etc. No surprise why the vote bank of Lalu still remains the poor and why it is in his personal interest that they remain poor. Why the situation in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh hasn’t changed for the past 20 years. Why the issues 20 years back are still the issues today and they will be the same 20 years hence.

A recent news article said that the maximum increase in net worth of MLAs are observed for BSP MLAs, but this info do not ring bell in the ears of their vote bank, we pity them to have continuously vote for the same guy year after year on the same issue eradicating the poverty.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Lucknow/BSP-tops-list-in-fielding-candidates-with-criminal-background/articleshow/4315363.cms

Why do we always find happiness in pointing out what others are doing wrong and think that our duty as a learned class has ended by pointing out others’ mistakes. Why do we never change ourselves and just STOP. Why not just change ourselves and be happy about it.
Or am I completely wrong. People may have not voted because they wanted to protest the lack of proper governance for the past 5 years. I have read few stories in Mumbai mirror about a couple of people who wanted to cast a protest vote but they were not allowed to do so.

Would having an AC waiting room for the voters instead of long queue in the sun have helped in pulling the “learned class” out of their comfort zones?

While I was writing this one of my friend showed me this link -
http://election.rediff.com/report/2009/may/05/loksabhapoll-joke-ten-reasons-why-south-mumbai-did-not-vote.htm

Elections 09 – Politics ka baap

2009-04-13T02:12:00.000-07:00

The elections are always the same from political parties’ point of view but it is different this time from the voters’ point of view. Political parties always look for third front or fourth front before the elections which never sees the sunlight. Some leaders are claiming that INC is a 125 year old party ignoring the fact that their own party is still reciting the same OLD Ayodhya aka Ram Temple ode. Others have promised in their manifesto that they will abolish English use in and schools and ban the computers and stock market. I wonder whether the respective leader of concerned political party is even able to understand any of those.

However, we have not seen the kind of awareness campaigns on TV ever before. At one side you have Amir Khan or Lead India or Jaagore.com, which are trying to educate the voters to vote judiciously; on the other side you have BJP’s campaign that lacks the charm. Mumbai is seeing independent candidates coming from leading corporate; villagers in Bihar have beaten one of the MLAs for no development in the constituency. The signs are good for the beginning but the end is as uncertain as it has always been.

The Supreme Court has restricted Sanjay Dutt and Pappu Yadav to contest the elections, Tytler and Sajjan’s ticket are cancelled, and things seem to be moving in the right direction. Though these are just a few instances but they are giving some hope to the true citizen of India. But as long as the ruling party is decided by minor (read regional) parties having 20-25 seats and acting ‘king maker’ some of the hard decisions will never be taken. This will ensure that the Indian economy will continue to crawl at the same slow speed. People hoping to see some great reform that can push the country as the next super power will have to come out and vote and make it count!

A clear majority for any party is not visible in the horizons and a really impossible event that I am hoping for (of course not in this election) is Congress and BJP coming together and forming a government together.

Recession - Counting on Traditional Jobs

2009-03-05T07:59:00.000-08:00

What is in store for India in the recessionary scenario? Is cap on H1-B Visa really going to impact the Indian services industry or the Indian employers were already planning to cut down on the onsite staff to reduce the costs. Is the condition that each company getting the bailout money cannot outsource the work to developing nations and has to hire Americans, affect the outsourcing.

Never before students in IITs and IIMs faced difficulty in getting a job? (A job !!! they had plenty to choose from). Young fresh graduates are seeing 15-20% drop in the salaries being offered as compared to that of last year. Is there anyopportunity here for the true Indian employers. With the soaring pay packages offered at these campus till last year, manufacturing and engineering giants in India could not get the quality engineers/managers. I remember that a CEO of one of the leading engineering and construction firm had stated in an interview that India do not have sufficient engineers for engineering jobs and people are running behind KPOs and MNCs.

This time we are seeing PSUs are the most valuable recruiters at the campuses. Simple reasons, their ability to pay on a continuous basis and guarantee of business. Is it a good time for Indian employers or it’s just a temporary phase? Will India Inc. be able to retain the talent that is coming its way because it cannot go elsewhere? Will the revival in global economy (really do not know when this will happen) lead to people going back to the glamorous jobs?

Many people do not change job frequently. Fresh graduates are sometime not sure what they want to do, they take up the first job that comes their way. There might be some people who may not have joined the conventional job roles in manufacturing/engineering firms if the economy was good, but they have joined now. May be some of the people will find the job interesting enough to stay on. May be some of the people will get fast track promotion to reach at the designation where they feel they have all the challenges and satisfaction to justify their continuance with the company.

Is it a right time for industries to redesign some of the entry level jobs, making it more interesting and more challenging and hence a better learning experience that can result fresh recruits sticking with the organization. Can the competitiveness of Indian industry improve because of the easy availability of rich talent in the country to an extent that the traditional businesses are able to survive the bad times?

Or is it a farfetched conclusion by someone who is too optimistic about the future scenario and believes that India has seen it's bottom?

The case of ‘Case based teaching’

2009-02-13T23:00:00.000-08:00

Almost all of the course outline out here proudly display ‘case based learning’ as a part of pedagogy. It was a feel good factor in the beginning but not now. No doubt, it plays a critical task, i.e. to instil real life problem solving aptitude in students. The complexity involved in real business problems, the uncertainty involved with every decision and the trade-offs. Professors expect students to sit in groups and discuss the case in detail, brainstorm, come up with alternatives and evaluate each alternative against short-term vs. long-term impact on the decision problem and business. But is it really happening?

All that I wrote is too good to be true. There are many reasons for that, some systematic and some random. I can’t discuss about random reasons out here, but what I want to discuss is the systematic ones. The IIMs are known for their hectic study schedules and numerous courses compressed into 2 years. I think they have just managed to compress it in two years, I say this on the basis of experience that people have had while student exchange. All the students who have gone for student exchange have one thing to say, the study there is balanced, i.e. you get sufficient time to study on your own, any topic of your interest. And if not, you at least get time to discuss the cases in detail.

The scenario is different here, if you have 2-3 cases on an average to solve every day, coupled with the regular lectures, projects and quizzes, what justice one can do with the case analysis. If you are fortunate enough to have good team members, willing to work, the maximum you can do (showing your management skills) is distribute the case amongst group members and somehow able to finish each of the case in time. No wonder professors here say “Students do individual assignments in groups and Group assignments individually”. On the contrary if you have an unfortunate group, well I need not write the usual method people adopt to do cases and assignments.

The idea is not to remove the case analysis completely, but the idea is to give students sufficient time to prepare each of the cases. I think we have adopted all of the ‘good practices’ from other B-Schools altogether, without even thinking that the time available is limited. Like you say in operations, if all the machines are individually efficient it doesn’t mean the process as a whole is efficient. The problem is amplified by the fact that groups formed here work as more of groups and not as a team (I hope you know the difference). So at the end of the day the objective of case analysis is not achieved.

I think I should end this on the same note as other cases end, the problem is out there, the situational analysis is almost done but like all other cases the ‘case of case based teaching’ is still there. The good part (or bad?) is that there are no exhibits in this case.

Scratch Pad – Store the ‘Waste’ Energy

2009-01-05T21:27:00.001-08:00

I have written earlier about wind energy, the usefulness and the disadvantages. But one thought has troubled me for long, isn’t that the energy that we derive from wind is a cost to the ecology. Whatever efficiency we consider for wind turbines, still we are absorbing the energy from the winds and reducing their power. This wind power should definitely have some role to play in the ecology for e.g. monsoons in India is a result of Wind. I am not saying that if we build a lot of wind power stations then monsoons will stop but definitely we are reducing the power of winds that has some role to play in the ecology. The point I am trying to make is that we should be proactive and should start thinking of possibilities of storing the energy that gets dissipated in our daily course of actions.

During one of my recent air journey I realised that when the airplane touch down on airstrip and apply brake to stop, it surely dissipates a lot of energy. With a touchdown speed of 250km/hr and weight in the range of tonnes, the brake surely dissipates a lot of energy to decelerate the airplane. Instead of just exhausting it by applying brakes can we devise some method to store that energy?

If you have seen the way a fighter jet takes off from an aircraft carrier, there is a hydraulic piston that provides the much required speed for takeoff in minimum distance. Same is seen when a fighter jet lands on a aircraft carrier, a rope is used to quickly slow it down. Can we replicate this phenomenon? I want to say that when an airplane touchdown it should store its energy in some high tension spring/coil that can be stored. Remember the toy cars that we have used during childhood days, when we push it back and release it, it speedily moves ahead, while pushing it back we store a lot of energy in a metal coil placed inside the car. I am hoping of similar technique here. Yes, all of it does have a aspect of safety as the touchdown is itself risky but then if fighter jet can do it, the same may be possible with civilian aircrafts with required modification.It’s not just aircraft, think of driving your car, think of the same toy car here, and when you apply brake let the energy get stored in some metal coil inside the car. The same energy can be released by some push button whenever required; it will surely save some fuel. One can think of all other forms of energy that we knowingly or unknowingly dissipate and if something can be done to store/conserve that energy then I call this being truly proactive.

Corollary

2008-11-07T00:19:00.000-08:00

Corollary, a word that one encounters many times in the engineering studies. Like the Fick’s Law for Diffusion, Newton Law for Momentum Transfer or Fourier Law for Heat Transfer.
Do not worry if you do not know these laws, I have no intention to talk about these laws. The point I am trying to make is that there exists some basic fundamentals in all streams upon which the rules are built. We can easily visualize one concept in terms of another one that we have already studied earlier and it becomes easier to digest.

After such a long time, I recently found another corollary in management discipline and though not extremely helpful, I felt good in founding the analogy. Let me start with Operations Management and the concepts of inventory management. The key aspect is that the inventory should be minimal possible because it is a capital blocked with no returns. But it is required to tackle the uncertainty in the operations arising due to market or processes. If there is a sudden increase in demand you can push more products into the market by utilising the inventory of finished goods and at the same time you can increase the throughput utilizing your raw materials inventory. So you keep inventory at various levels. If everything is predictable, one does not require the inventory. Do not worry I am not going into more detail!

Now comes the Macroeconomics. You have deposits with the bank and then you have deposits (reserves) with the central bank. The more reserves in central bank, more capital is blocked with no returns. The more deposits available with the bank, more money it can lend to the market forces for investments/operations/production. Reserves with Central Bank are like buffer kept for unforeseen demand/supply. So if everything is stable in the market, the reserves maintained by the central bank are of no use. To meet the daily transaction requirement with customers banks also keep cash with them in their vaults which again yield no return as such.

So you see corollary here. The Reserves with Central bank are nothing but an Inventory of money to provide for uncertainties in the money market. I wonder if Dimensional Analysis can be applied to the management science discipline.

Marketing 'Marketing'

2008-10-27T06:36:00.000-07:00

Well, the first word represents the verb and the second word represents the subject. What else do you expect? If marketing is not able to sell marketing then it will defy its name. You will recollect what you might have already heard many times that Marketing is an Art. Now do you think there is any way to teach something which is an art, perhaps Not. Still, marketing is a subject well written and taught in B-schools.

Just to give you some background, I had one of the courses in the first term on basics of marketing. It was nothing but a collection of approaches that marketers take in different situation. There are no laws, theories no rules. This is because marketing deals with human mind, human behaviours and catering to human desires. If it were to me marketing is best taught by field work and the approaches one should take to market product will automatically evolve over a period of time.

For e.g. when one realizes that there are competing products in the market he will automatically highlight the attributes that differentiate his product from the other competing products, marketers call this POD (point of differentiation). Many times he will select a few individual who he thinks are more likely to purchase his product, they have glorified it by giving it a term ‘targeting’. If the customers seem a little reluctant to purchase the product at a given price, he may offer them some free gifts/discounts/rebate coupons, they call it ‘promotion’. He decides upon whether to sell the product by a retail outlet or directly sell the product or sell over the internet, they call it ‘Marketing Channels’.

These points as I have discussed above still is not loaded so as to compete with other disciplines in MBA. So, they have packaged these terms into different terms and called them Mix. So there we see all the Mix of Mix. Marketing Mix, Promotion Mix, Brand Mix etc. and 4Ps, 4Cs etc. There is a book written about these CONCEPTS and it is termed as the Bible of marketing. But at the end of the course I realized that all that 400 pages (or 500, I do not know the exact number of pages) can be summarized into 40-50 pages and the book will lose identity. The book itself is a well packaged product. It includes graphics, visuals and real life examples from the industry. The colour combination and paper quality is good. Finally, marketing as a management discipline and the book, both are selling successfully in the market.Now this is what we call marketing isn’t.

Scratch Pad - Science and Society

2008-08-25T20:06:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of earth formation, we know all the continents were joined together, they separated. Then the continents got divided into nations, nations into states and states are fighting with each other and within themselves we have more states, practically.

Almost all the nations are troubled with internal conflicts within the state, some states demanding separations from the nations. Within those states there are communities/tribes demanding separate states. Take an example in India, Pakistan, Russia, Afghanistan etc.
The human generation got divided into races, races into religions, religions into caste and caste into sub-caste.

Let us go back to our solar system. The distances between every two heavenly bodies are increasing, i.e. the universe is expanding. Why is it expanding rather than shrinking owing to the gravitational forces of the other heavenly bodies? Is it because of diffusion, i.e. the heavenly bodies are very much concentrated in the Milky Way and they are diffusing outside where the density (if I can use the term here) of heavenly bodies is less.

How do we see all these things put together?
I recall a Law that I studied in my engineering course, Law of entropy, which states that every mass of body/molecule behave in such a manner to increase the entropy of the system. Entropy means the degree of randomness in the system.Does it apply here? Can we say that the law of entropy holds here?

Let us say that it may hold in the solar system but what about human civilization, the continents, countries, states, culture, religion, does it apply here as well. Can I take it further and say that if it follows these laws, the it may follow equilibrium lar as well. How we can fit the equilibrium into this? What will be the equilibrium state of division of human civilization into religion, cast and sub-caste.

Say, the religion continue division into caste, caste into sub-caste etc. At one point, people will realize that they are very few left, so they will again dilute the last criteria of division. So there is a threshold size of a group (political or social) that seems to be sufficient for self sustainence. Any less than that people are afraid of sidelined by the other groups, so either they will merge their group with other group or they will break other bigger group and import some group member into their group. This is what happens in the society, small religious groups regroup with others and bigger groups split into smaller one. Some groups are dissolved completely and at the same time new groups are evolved.

Can someone fit a equation on this phenomenon and find the equilibrium state, with groups as molecules and individuals as atoms, so at equilibrium atoms are changing their association with molecules but at a larger level the composition remains same. It will be a nice world then!

All for a brand IIT, Contd....

2008-08-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/Careers/Second_list_IITs_break_tradition/articleshow/3342429.cms
This is what I was afraid of, and have written in the previous post.
This is just the begining, now after 3-4 years there will be demand to reduce the academic rigour and that will be the last nail in the coffin.

Advantages of Democracy...........

All this for a Brand IIT

2008-08-01T23:10:00.001-07:00

All for a Brand IIT

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/IIT_physics_cut-off_down_to_zero_as_seats_increase/articleshow/3316557.cms

I had no plan to write blog today, but the article made me write.

It hurts! You increase the seats, You pull the OBC up, You pull the poorer people up, You do anything that you want to do but not at the cost of the quality.

The brand IIT is only because of the quality and quality is what people value. It has taken at least 40 years to build the brand IIT, if not more. One wrong decision can undo all this. I feel very sad if all this happens for votes and politics.

I am not against increasing the seat, giving ‘allowances’ to some, but do the politicians care about people not making it in the IITs. They can push people in, but believe me it’s not easy to get out. I have seen people spoiling their 4-7 years and not making it out. Those who are getting the all sympathy for increasing the seat will be responsible for spoiling the lives of the same people who they think they care. Media only covers when politician (decision makers !) announce ‘increase in seats’ for the benefit for ‘Aam Aadmi’, media fails to cover how these students are performing in IIT, I think they should start presenting that picture to the public. It’s only us, the insider who know the truth.

This will only increase the pressure on the ‘not so elite’ students once they are in the IITs and competing among the other ‘competitive’ ones.

Just by pushing them in does not mean the job is done. This will increase the drop out rates in IITs, another intelligent politician will then order IITs to relax on the academic rigour to help people get out of IIT!

They will sight reasons for increased pressure amongst students, increase in number of suicides (believe me I won’t be surprised), and I am sure they will succeed in lighten the academic rigour.
There are very few things that world values for India, preserve it, I want to preserve it and am sure every alumni do as well.

Scratch Pad - Genius, Then and Now

2008-07-26T02:06:00.000-07:00

We have read many theories that are universally accepted, many theorists who proposed such theories are admired in their respective fields. Sometimes they are referred to have being contributed in other fields as well. While I was going through the many theories of motivation suggested by many ‘Researchers’, every theory different from the previous one in some aspect still there is a consistent need for new theory because group behaviour is such a complex process that you can not really put it in the framework of theories.

No, do not get afraid, I am not proposing a new theory for motivation. What I am thinking is that whenever I come across any big researcher, inventors, scientists etc. all those theories existed for a long time. Take an example, Newton Laws of motion, Ohm Law, Fick's law of diffusion, Bernoulli's principle etc. Pardon me for my engineering background, is that the reason! There are no new theory coming up, I am not saying that the research is not happening these days, the research is definitely happening and even at a faster rates but there are not breakthrough theories coming up, that are widely accepted and universally recognized. Well, you may disagree with me here because my knowledge may be very limited.

Still I am puzzled, is it that all the research that could have been done is already been done in all the fields at macro level and whatever research is currently being done is all at micro level for e.g. particle dynamics, nanotechnologies etc. So there are no theories of say solid mechanics or fluid mechanics or thermodynamics, conduction, convection, mass transfer etc. (Again pardon me for sounding a bit technical).

There is a huge scope of research if we go deeper and I believe that we are yet to find any universal principle at this micro/nano level that can be accepted as universal law. Every hypothesis gets refined every five year or so to improve on its applicability and accuracy. Is it what it should be or our research is actually not able to converge to one direction? Is it that while researching on these micro/nano aspects we ourselves are doing Brownian research (getting some inspiration from Brownian motion), and therefore it being happening in every direction and actually difficult to converge.

Or is it that the earlier scientist/theorists were well capable to take their research in one discrete direction and finally result in a universally acceptable law. Or is it that there were lack of scientist community to actually counter a theory proposed by someone. Or is it that there are no more theory left at the macro level that hasn’t been proposed yet and therefore we have successfully explained all macro level phenomenon.

I am sure that there are a lot more number of researchers/scientist today, with a lot more knowledge at their disposal, working on a lot more complex and efficient equipment and driven by a lot more funds and motivation. I am also sure there are a lot more technical papers published in international journals and this trend is going to be the same in the years to come.

Still, isn’t there is one macro level phenomenon that is not yet been discovered or observed and hence there is a scope of at least one new law that will be quickly accepted universally. I am definitely not the person who can comment on this question.

Next Scarce Resource

2008-07-06T00:21:00.000-07:00

I was contemplating to write on this for long. Recently when the UPA govt. increased the petrol/diesel prices, our PM addressed the whole nation trying to educate people that the government had no option left but to increase the prices. Trying to educate the people that there is little that govt. can do as these are global factors affecting all the countries and India in one of them. He also shared with the citizens what were the possible alternatives that the govt. could have tried and their limitation and finally they increased the prices. Some people may disagree with this saying that government has levied so many duties and taxes on petrol/diesel at the first place and they should first give concessions on that front. Well I am not writing this to detail out the proportion of taxes, their objective, their requirement and etc. So pardon me for this.

What I want to discuss is the vision that Mr. PM has, one should listen to that message he delivered to the citizens on that day. He is truly an economist because economics is all about efficient and effective use of scarce resources. He is also a true leader because he made a point to make people aware about another daily resource which is not scarce at this point of time, but the early indication are visible on the horizon. Please forgive me if you feel/perceive that I am praising Mr. PM too much. Believe me, I do not have any vested interest in politics and I am not planning to join the concerned political party (because in that case I should be praising someone else!).

What I want to highlight is that he is planning for the future, crude is the present, he is taking necessary steps, but at the same time he is warning people to be aware that such situation might arise again in future and we should start planning for that right from today. I am not that skilled yet to sense if this ‘future problem’ provide any opportunity for business idea, but I am sure key people in the industry must be having some plans to address the situation in the future for the benefit of the people, of course if they take in the philanthropist context. You can relate few M&A in this space by one of the big Indian houses, though the scale of operation as of now is very small. It may take may be 10-15 years before people do realize and accept this as a major challenge but it is always good to start planning now, especially in India where the execution take so long, may be this is the reason Mr. PM mentioned this right away without waiting.

I do not think I mentioned earlier in this post that he said ‘Water’. Thanks Mr. PM for hoping against all odds.

India Growth Story?

2008-05-23T04:35:00.001-07:00

The recent IIP numbers are in the downward trend. Analyst are citing these are temporary set backs, comparison to high base numbers (IIP data) from last year, and global slow down.

Crude has touched $135 and Indian basket is around $122. With OIL marketing companies making a loss of Rs16/- and Rs27/- per liter of petrol and diesel and Rs320/- (approx) per LPG cylinder, I wonder if there is any more stem left! BPCL and HPCL are talking of quota set of each individual oil distributor based on the sales last year.

There was a BRIC report sometime back, now people are talking about report by a Goldman Sachs analyst who predicted that crude will touch $200.

Government is doing well by artificially controlling the prices but this is not a permanent measure, they should be doing (I hope) more than this. They should explore various methods of transferring the crude burden partly to consumers who can afford it and at the same time not impacting the inflation. They have to selectively subsidize the core functions of economy from the crude burden but leave the affluent class (and the emerging middle class) to pay for their petrol bill. By core functions I mean transportation of industrial goods, power generations etc.

Rupee surged to all time high of around 39.5 w.r.t $ and it is back to 43.5, thanks to high crude import bill.

Indian agriculture growth statistics are not exciting, this coupled with shrinking land under irrigation, dismal condition of Indian farmers and unpredictable nature of monsoon only indicate that situation is going to get worse.

Though it is projected that the wheat production is set to increase but I am not really sure it would be able to satisfy the ever increasing need of growing economy. And what about wheat production for coming years! Do we have plan for that in the pipeline or we are just relying on the monsoons of those respective years.

Not only agriculture, other building blocks of economy, capital goods, power sector, inland transport and ports & harbor infrastructure, all of these need significant investments, I wonder how government will fund these requirements.

Recently there was a news that Thailand was planning a cartel of ‘Rice Exporting Nations’ and there was a huge cry among the international community. I feel the way OPEC is able to monopolize the Crude market; the day is not far where the other commodity producing nation will form the other sorts of cartel and the world will again move back to the barter system.

P.P.

2008-05-13T03:07:00.000-07:00

Remember the term!!! What comes to your mind when you read this title?

This was very prevalent term in my childhood days. I have sympathy to this term that has lost its existence in the rapidly growing Indian economy. The changes in Indian lifestyle may not have been really significant but when it comes to this technology, it has been drastic. I am trying to steal some time before I start discussing about the term, just trying to give you sometime to start thinking in back of your mind about this term. If you are able to recollect, it’s great and if not, then this will provide more impact to the next paragraph where I have given some sort of tribute to this ‘not so frequently’ used term nowadays, and I have complete sympathy for it.

It used to be an acronym for non-personal phone number. The local language full-form used to be “Padosi Phone”. Now you realize how abandoned this term has become. With the increasing number of mobile phone connections day-by-day, still reducing tariffs and increasing competition in the market, everyone has a mobile, India is set to takeover US in terms of mobile phone subscribers. Needless to say there is no need for this term anymore in Indian scenario. May be the term is still in use in distant places/village but with the rapid “celluraization” of Indian villages, I really do not think it will be able to sustain itself in the running language. It is one of the endangered non living species that is set to extinct as one of side effects of human technological growth.

Earth Day

2008-04-21T23:59:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the autorickshaw strike, I took my vehicle to the office. Later I realized that today is earth day (thanks to google), and I thought I should have used public transport instead. It’s a separate story that all the public transport buses are overcrowded today, again because of auto-rickshaw strike.

I also started thinking am I doing something from my side to reduce my carbon footprint. ‘Carbon footprint’ a nice term coined by some nice people who care for the planet. But how many of us are actually aware of this. Rather how many of us actually bother about the same. I believe the time has come for all of us to move upwards, those who are aware should start bothering and those who are not aware should develop awareness.

I am not a environmentalist, but I can certainly recollect few of the past events that was lucky enough to have given coverage by media.

· There were non seasonal rain in some part of Delhi, TN (or Andra).
· India is facing huge shortage of food grains, should be worldwide problem
· There was a recent fight between two Indian states regarding setting of one water project
· Drought in Australia….. I mean Rice production (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/business/worldbusiness/17warm.html)
· And everyone know about melting of glaciers
· And many others that I am not probably aware of….

If you pull out some of your precious time and think about all these events together they indicate one and one thing – a global imbalance.

Once I was watching discovery and I remember the episode focused on new buildings that are ecofriendly – they require less lights inside and are well lit by sunlight during the day, they recirculate the water used etc.

You already must be aware Honda is testing hydrogen powered car somewhere, tata has launched green batteries, two days back there was news that India’s largest private sector company was probably in talks with world largest fuel cell manufacturer to set up a plant in India….. so that means people are doing some stuff around cutting down emissions, partly because it gives huge publicity, partly it readies you for what can become a necessity in future and partly (I hope) morally as they have the right resources with them (capital, manpower, technology etc.)

At the same time I also believe time has come that we ourselves change our daily activities to an extent that we are able to reduce our own carbon footprint. How do we do that, I leave it to individuals.

Cricket League

2008-04-09T02:28:00.000-07:00

ICL has already completed few matches, IPL matches are schedule to start very shortly and I was once thinking that it can very easy for any influential person to do Match-Fixing in these kind of scenario.

Given the different stakeholder in international matches, different authorities, different cultures, different languages and different sentiments, even then if people are able to do match-fixing for international matches……… in national league its anyone’s game.

Anyway, I am not convinced that cricket league in India is focused on nurturing new talent…. I think it is a factory to generate cash.
Government should levy a tax on BCCI, and the amount should be used for development of other cash-deprived sports in India.

A "Star-full" Sky

2008-03-24T05:16:00.000-07:00

This is about my recent visit to my hometown in Rajasthan. With my limited vocabulary I am not able to find the right set of words to describe my feeling. I was not only visiting my hometown after eight long years, but also I was about to visit rather stay in the house that we built eight years ago and did not get a chance to really stay there. I was surprised to see a lot more of open spaces replaced by houses (Bungalows), many branded stores but the same cramped roads, thanks to a lot more of traffic.

Cutting the long story short, what I want to discuss here is the feeling when I looked at the sky in the night. To my surprise it was full of stars, can you believe it? May be, you can but I couldn’t. I am not very sure if it was very stupid of me, feeling extremely happy after looking at the “Star-full Sky” (A sky full of stars!).

There may be multiple reasons for that. May be people in Bombay do not get the sufficient share of their sky-window to look at the stars. Or they do not just get the time to stare at the sky. OR they can not just find stars in the sky because of the pollution that Mumbai has and by the evening the atmosphere is covered under a thick layer of pollution that even if you want, you can not find a star. You can only see the moon because that is too bright as compared to the stars. The reason can be any or all of them.

After recuperating from the sudden feeling of joy, I realized that even the sky at that time was not really the sky I had seen eight years back at the same place. So may be the pollution factor is still there in this small city which in fact is one of the emerging industrial cities in Rajasthan.

Does that mean after that the visible number of stars are going to reduce with the time and only the more bright ones will be able to sustain the attack of pollution? Is goes by saying – it’s a cut-throat competition only the bright candidates will be able to manage it in the long run. If you are not bright, you can not be sight(ed).

Does it further mean that the stars in the sky will one day become countable? No longer will it be used as an example of countless by a poet, no longer it can puzzle a child trying to count the stars…… Just No Longer!

I desperately wanted to act like poet not because I love to, but because it is always the poet who pen down the unimaginable and in case this happen I wanted to capture the same.

Who knows that in the years to come “star-full” will become a frequently used metaphor.

Twenty20

2007-09-24T04:28:00.000-07:00

One day I was chatting with my friends and someone pointed out that we (India) stand nowhere in soccer. Someone else made a point that cricket is not as famous as soccer, for e.g. there are around 200 countries having soccer teams but only around 20 countries playing cricket. Someone also said that cricket was once included in Asian games but again dropped after that. What can be the reasons of cricket not making it to the masses?

I will not be presenting any facts in this blog to support the reasons I have thought of. So before you comment that the blog is not factually supported , I want to tell you that I do not (generally can not) remember the important historical events/facts that will help the cause called ‘cricket’.

Well I know cricket was invented in England (I hope I am correct here). The other big nations playing cricket is India, Pakistan, Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand Bangladesh etc. All these nations were once the colonies of British Empire, so you can sense the origin of this game in these countries. But then why it did not spread like soccer?

I can think of the reason as the game time rather ‘play time’. It takes a complete day to end a single match of cricket as compared to soccer that takes max 2 hours. We know it was only the test match format with which cricket came into existence. Over the period of years people saw ODI coming into play. The ODIs also started with 60 over per innings, gradually it decreased to 50. Now we are seeing the Twenty20 format reducing the complete play time to 3 hours. So the format of the game is gradually shifting towards what people want rather what people can afford. ‘Afford’ here I mean, not in terms of money but in terms of time. Do we have enough of time to watch a game of cricket a complete day, probably we (the cricket playing nations) have but can we think that people in a country (which do not play cricket) will push for a game that takes a complete day to end. I think no!.

The point I am trying to make here is Twenty20 is here to stay and as it stays it will make the cricket a new fever not only in the cricket playing nations but also in other countries as well in the time to come. I guess this year Asian games have already included this format in their games list. Let us see how long this 20-20 fever takes to become a full endemic disease.

Fun but flawed

2007-07-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is regarding a TV ad, so if you don’t get time to watch TV then this blog will not be interesting to you. Fevicol, has been very innovative in bringing up TV Ads and I find those Ads very funny, anyway the Ads are able to get the viewer’s attention.

The specific Ad I am talking about is the one where two aliens, standing on their spaceship, land over a village. They then announce that they will make everything fly in the air. Some four hose arms then come out of the spaceship and dig into the ground. Slowly everything seems to be flying like there was no gravity at all. And this everything involves cow, men, household equipment, radio etc. Then one of the flying man grabs a flying Fevicol can and pour the fevicol into a well. Suddenly, everything that was flying comes down to earth; finally gravity takes over the alien force. Well, that is the complete Ad and a very good one, I will say.

There is one more thing to laugh in the Ad, logically; you see a flaw in the Ad. Let us assume that the aliens can make everything fly and let us assume that the Fevicol is a excellent Glue that can even undermine the alien forces. However, if everything is flying up in the sky, how can someone pour “DOWN” the glue into a well, what made the glue come down towards earth.

The next time you see this Ad, smile for a different reason!!!

Scratch Pad – Theory of Default

2007-06-22T01:03:00.000-07:00

Why some things are the way they are! I call it Theory of Default. This theory is not limited to any particular field of study. It is a general notion of acceptance of all the events that happen in our daily life as they happen.

I do not want to counter the belief of questioning “why” because if we do not question we will not “learn” and consequently we will not “improve”.

I was recently reading a news that scientist have discovered a planet far distant to our galaxy but it is found to be rotating a star. Then there was another statement stating that scientist believes its atmosphere has gas. The important question that remains to be answered is whether the planet has life, and if it has what kind of life, single cell microbes (the most basic of life form), or more complex ones. Now there seems to be billions of possibilities of the life-form on that planet. So how do we get to trickle down on may be thousands of possibilities as compared to billions. Let me share some understanding of our solar system. The temperature on the sun’s surface is around 6000C (refererence 1). The earth is at the right distance from the sun to sustain life. Any closer or farther, I wouldn’t have been here to write all this (there would be no life on earth). Every day there are some 4 billion meteors striking earth(reference 2). But it has the gaseous atmosphere to completely burn away almost all of them before they could reach the surface. Also it had the right composition of the gases in the atmosphere to sustain life. I have just listed few, there could be many more threats to life on earth. But all I want to say is if after all there numerous odds life exists on earth, then should be the only way life could exists any where. Hence, only in this form, the life (on earth) was able to counter every threat from outside universe. So here comes the theory of default, that if there the life should exists in the complete universe it should be exactly the same as it is on earth, the only difference we could observe is that it would either be less developed or more developed than us. So in other words it would be either the past or the future of our own existence.

I can see it in day-to-day life also. For e.g. a very small company (organization) seems to be working with best efficiency (I am talking of the internal functions executed by the HR and Administration dept.). But as they grow in size, the same employee star complaining about the bureaucratic nature of the same internal functions. We fail to consider the fact that this way of working may not be the most efficient but still the big companies across the globe follow the same structure. If there would have been something fundamentally wrong in this structure then this kind of structure could have been outdated till now. Though the processes and structure keep changing day by day, and time will show us whether this bureaucratic structure is the best, but for the time being I will just end the draft by assuming that this is what a big organization was supposed to function by default!

The only way we could improve upon the things(as they are currently) is by adapting in the right manner towards them. Now this “adapting” and “right” are again very subjective so I leave it to you :).

Life in Mumbai

2007-06-10T22:31:00.000-07:00

“Life in Mumbai is on a fast track”. Everyone listen/tell this to their friends. I say it differently. To me, it’s on fast track because Mumbai's traffic moves slow. If you are affluent enough to have your house near your office or you are lucky to have your office near your house (both are different!), it is a luxury.

I used to travel 1.5 hours to my office and then 1.5 back to home, that makes 3 hours of traveling time a day. Coupled with your working time and then you are left with near sufficient time for sleep. Hence, you find your life is on a fast track. Still people wonder that no one in Mumbai has time to meet friends!

Once I was discussing on the same with one of my colleagues. He said the traveling time doesn’t seem too much to him. BTW, he was working in Mumbai for the last 12 years. I just told him that taking an average of 3 hours of traveling each day; he has spent 1.5 years in just commuting to office back and forth. One would have loved to see the expressions on his face then. To an extent, one can understand the reason that people cite infrastructure problems as one of the roadblocks for big MNCs opening offices in India (Mumbai). Probably they do not want their workforce to spend (waste) a third of their working time in traveling and then have an adverse impact on the productivity.

Infrastructure is changing in Mumbai but it is not paced enough to cope up with the influx (of people) Mumbai has. I do not understand whether our planning is wrong or execution is wrong. It seems we plan for future, the execution takes too long to finish that the future become present and then when the plan finishes, the complete project seems to be outdated. Now as an outsider, I and you do not know what is going wrong. One thing is for sure, the first thing that comes up with an unauthorized building (or slum) is temple/mosque. Doesn’t this seems obvious to you now, I do not need to give any reason for this, do I?

Wind Power in India

2007-06-04T22:43:00.000-07:00

I was reading that India is ranked fifth in producing wind power and I was overwhelmed with the ranking. Then I did some googling (thanks to google) and found that the countries with the highest total installed wind power capacity are Germany (16,629 MW), Spain (8,263 MW), the United States (6,740 MW), Denmark (3,117 MW) and India (3,000 MW). Another link posted below claims India's current capacity to be around 6000MW and that India is fourth largest producer of wind power in the world (refer source 4 listed below). Yet, India has a mere 6% share in global wind energy generation as compared to Germany leading with around 35% of global share. The total wind energy potential estimated in India is staggering 65000MW (I hope that the calculations are done correctly). So that leaves a good pool of wind energy still to be tapped.

Sometimes I wonder the challenges that are faced while coming up with a wind power project. In terms of incentives there are great incentives by the Indian government. The fiscal incentives extended by the Indian government to the wind energy sector include

Direct taxes – 80 % depreciation in the first year of installation of a project.
Tax holiday for 10 years.
No income tax to be paid on power sales to utilities.

The government’s share in India’s wind power generation is still 3%, a figure again I hope that it is calculated correctly, refer the link 4 below. I think that the Indian government should have taken the lead in wind power than the private industry. I know that many of Indian villages still do not get the minimum share of total electric power generated in the country. Many farmers do not have electricity to irrigate their field, many hospitals (of course the rural ones) do not have electricity supply to carry out the operations, so do many of the school and houses. I do not see that acquiring land is the challenge faced in India. Clearly, it will not be difficult to convince a farmer to lease his 1 acre of land for installing a wind turbine, in return of some rent, power for his field and house. Then where are the roadblocks?

Well I did some more googling and couldn’t find any so I will keep wondering the meager state of wind power generation in India. It may not be meager as compared to world but I will call it meager when it comes to Indian needs and the current Indian scenario, only because there is a lot more potential available in India.

While writing this complete draft I was thinking in other direction also, is wind power absolutely free? May I will write something in my next blog.

World Environment Day!

2007-06-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

I was browsing through the newspapers today morning; the day celebrated as ‘World Environment Day1’ and was happy to see full 4 page coverage on environmental degradation. Knowingly or knowingly we cause damage to our local ecology in various ways.

It was though, not very surprising to know that people here are not even fully aware of the current situation. May be, people think that it is not there responsibility to take care of the environment and that government is solely responsible for that. This might be associated with the fact that nobody is able to see the direct effect of environmental degradation. People only blame the local governing body for not clearing the drains/sewage pipes before the monsoon, that too only when the rain water accumulates in their compound or cause disruption in traffic. They never realize that the waste they produce everyday result in all this havoc. I am not denying the fact that local governing body is also responsible for this. I remember ‘one fine day’ I was walking down the marine drive with my friend and we had a mineral water bottle that I was looking to dump in the dustbin. I could not locate a single dustbin in the 1 km stretch of marine drive. Nevertheless, I carried the bottle with me and dumped it in the lucky ‘dustbin’ kept at Churchgate station. But will everyone do the same, clearly no.

The point is not the presence of dustbin; the point is the awareness that has to be created among my fellow countrymen. Now, ‘creating the awareness’ seems to the buzzword these days. Everyone leaves their discussing by concluding that we need to create the awareness among people and this is for everything under the sun. In India specifically we need to create the awareness for Primary Education, Health, Women upliftment, AIDS and many more. If for the last 60 years of our independence and we are still not able to create the so called ‘awareness’ among people, that too on the issues that directly affect one’s life. So, we can now set our expectations regarding the “awareness” on environmental degradation.
1. http://www.unep.org/wed/2007/english/Information_Material/index.asp

Why Blog ?

2007-06-04T03:01:00.000-07:00

I used to question myself, why do people blog and now I am writing this “blog” to answer the same. I can organize my thoughts around four dimensions. When (why), who, what and for whom do people blog.

I was almost confident that I will never get time to blog, but then I deleted some of the computer games on my PC, I realized that I wasn’t that busy at all. So, does that mean people who blog have plenty of time, the answer may be “yes”. However, the corollary is not true; people who have plenty of time do not necessarily blog. (Assumption: The term ‘people’ as used here consist of those individuals that have easy access to internet) That means the underlying reason is not the availability of ‘time’. To get to the right answer I asked myself the same question differently “What made me write all this”, the answer is “I wanted people to know that I have given sufficient thoughts to explain the origin of a global phenomenon called ‘blogging’ ”. Now that’s the answer to my question “people blog because they want to tell/share their views/opinions on variety of subjects/events that happen in their personal/social/corporate life”.

Now does this answers my next question “who”. Of course, people who want to tell/share their individual views to/with others. Does that mean that all those people who are not blogging doesn’t have any opinions/views about anything? Also, Is blogging the only way(channel) to share your views/opinions with others, wasn’t this happening before? Actually, whenever people chat they do the same, they share their views/opinions with others. This question leads me to find another more appropriate answer to “Who” question. The answer more appropriately can be written as “People who want to share their views/opinions/thoughts with the audience that is far away from them, blog”. Still something is missing in the answer? One can still email/call/chat online to do all that? So I will have to refine my answer a little bit. “People who want to share their views/opinions/thoughts with the audience that is far away from them but with the convenience, blog.” No, the answer is not 100% correct, email is still the viable option. Now I have to give my answer a finishing touch. It could be stated as “People who want to share their views/opinions/thoughts with the audience that is either known (but is far away from them) or unknown (so they have to publish their thoughts somewhere, no one would like to make their inbox public!) and with all the convenience to everyone, blog.”

Though partly, I have defined the remaining two dimensions ‘what’ and ‘whom’. But these two cannot be answered separately as they link with each other. Clearly because one never writes on the things happening on one’s personal front for the unknown audience. So, when one write something related to your life (what) like daily activities etc. one writes it for ones friends (Whom). And when one write on any other topic/subject that is a social/cultural/political (simply global) phenomenon that one writes it for everybody. So this answers my fundamental questions about “blogging” and I can just tell you that I no longer consider “blogging” as non-productive investment of time. However, I am yet to write on the commercial aspects of blogging and another sequel of this blog may release soon.

I do not wanted my first blog to be very lengthy because I too do not like reading lengthy blogs, after all no one has that much of time anyway.