Mental workout by Rajesh K

Health care costs alarm

2010-07-22T23:09:00.000+05:30

It’s good that TamilNadu government has given Rs. 1 Lac critical illness insurance to the people below certain income level, with the controversy that the people below certain income level is not accurately identifiable in the non salaried crowd. Best part is that the supposedly poor should be able to get treated well in case of above mentioned medical situations.

One of the ways to tackle the healthcare problem is the ‘state insurance cover’ meant for costless surgery in any hospital in the state, and the other way is to fund the government hospitals that are already operational in the state to serve the same purpose. Having the concept of government run hospitals in the state and also giving state insurance cover that can be used in any hospital negates the purpose of the state owned hospitals.

Image Source: http://www.injurylawyerhawaii.com/images/TortReformToon.gif

What are the pros and cons of the state insurance against the funding of state run hospitals for better health care? It’s obvious that the quality of state run hospitals are not so good in all the places starting from infrastructure to the staff quality. Infrastructure is an easily attackable problem by pumping more money. Quality of staff is the major concern, but it is obviously the same as the performance concern in other state owned companies. Incentives (punishments!) could be a potential solution for the performance problem!

In my opinion, most of the government staff is quality personal in terms of capability and knowledge, but the problem is with the performance. Less salary compared to private is not an acceptable reason, folks should resign the job and move on if the salary is less rather keeping the job, earning the salary and not doing what they are supposed to be doing. But if the state wants to improve the performance, it could always do it with more incentives for performance. Again, ‘incentive’ could also be positive or negative and punishment is one type of negative incentive. If the negative investment is strong enough, people would have some incentive to perform better.

Now coming back to the point, the pros of state run insurance is that the people can go to any private hospitals which they think is better. Now comes the hard part. Private hospitals are mostly motivated by profits and the folks there would obviously want to make use of the situation. From whatever I hear from people, looks like most people who get admitted under the state run insurance scheme in any private hospital will compulsorily get operated, irrespective of the necessity for operation. Even though I don’t have data to prove the increasing number of operations because of the state run insurance, this is a very plausible logical argument.

What happens because of that? One, people are being unnecessarily operated and second, this is indirectly pushing up the basic cost of health care slowly and steadily from moral damage standpoint. The proof for moral damage claim is the costs that are being billed for the insurance patients in comparison to the cash patients in any hospital. Since the percentage of insurance patients is going up steadily, boosted by state run insurance, moral damage factor would be proportionately increasing at the industry level leading to higher healthcare costs in the medium term and worst possible cost increases in the longer term.

Watch out, we are moving towards a dangerous health care cost explosion like in the United States because of these mismanaged vote bank oriented thought processes by our politicians. Now it’s only the TamilNadu government that is doing this, but I am sure this is going to spread to other state politics as well, as it did in the case of Rs.1/Kg rice scheme.

Not there yet

2010-07-21T22:29:00.003+05:30

Following joke came up in a discussion with my friend about the differences in the kind of jobs we do in software industry. We were just trying to compare ‘engineering’ with ‘mechanic’ job. The joke is just a small extract from the discussion between a doctor and a mechanic.

Image source: http://stacistringer.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/health.jpg?w=208&h=159

Mechanic: Doc, I believe we are doing similar job of fixing problems, but you seem to be earning more and also are being respected more? I just don’t get the reason behind.

Doctor: Buddy, what do you do when you have to repair a car engine?

Mechanic: Hmm, we just get the car to the garage, switch off the engine, dismantle all the required components and then repair the problem area.

Doctor: Nice, what else do you do. Is that as simple as that?

Mechanic: Well, it’s not just that. Sometimes we may need to replace the components, sometimes may have to live with the faulty components for various reasons; not replacing the components means that we have to get it fixed. That sometimes involves shipping the components to a different place and get it rectified or stuff like that.

Doctor: Great, now let me come to my business. When I have to fix issues, I just can’t switch of the engine like you. The machines I deal with can’t be switched off just like that, never sometimes. And I just can’t dismantle the components off the settings if they are blocking access to the problem area, I just can’t do that almost 99.9% of the times!

Mechanic: Interesting.

Doctor: The machines I deal with can cry, shout or even punish me if I am not handling it properly; a small scratch by mistake or things like that could damage the machines I deal with and spoil my reputation once for all. Are you getting the picture now and get the point why I am earning more and are being respected more?!!!!

Mechanic: Hmm, looks like I need to think more about this and then talk to you.

- Conversation ends –

I am writing this blog from my medical vacation after a very brief encounter with the reality. Well, one morning I got severe (intolerable) stomach pain that pushed me to a nearby multi specialty hospital. Happening then are as usual, you get into the emergency admission, then pain killers and diagnosis; no big deal about it. Once the diagnosis is over, then you are told that you may have to undergo a slightly complicated procedure to get rid of the problem.

Here comes the difference in thought or the realization of the reality, especially for engineers. Things that look so simple and obvious to solve from a technical/logical standpoint of an engineer are just impossible yet in the medical world. Confrontation with the reality!

For example, you are told that a foreign object of some size seems to be seen in a place where the size of the object is not acceptable leading to pain, but if it is broken apart then the body can heal itself on its own. Great, then why can’t just send a light or sound signal and just break apart that stuff to end the game. But the reality is not simple as we think. Technology hasn't advanced to that extent yet; first there still seem to be difficulties in finding out the location and size of the foreign objects in the human body, of course without any long term implications that is of a greater magnitude than the gains in the short run. Second, even if we know what that is and how it is, it is not easy to deal with it from outside without damaging the parts in and around the foreign body; in the short as well as long run.

Technologies we have right now are still more invasive even though it is of lesser magnitude than the past. The motivation behind this writing is a comment from one of my IT consultant friends who met me in the hospital and was wondering why can’t we apply the same technique as we would be doing like blowing external pressure from outside access points to free up blocks in water pipes and things like that. My friends, it’s not as easy as we think. So better start listening to folks who talk about long term damage & stuff and try to concentrate on your life style, have proper healthy food, proper sleep, exercise, so on and so forth to avoid surprises in the future. If you think we can fix anything and everything easily because of the advancements in the medical science, then this is a wakeup call.

False Claims

2010-07-21T08:05:00.001+05:30

Being home on a week’s vacation gave me the chance to watch TV programs including a long list of advertisements; ads for Mutual funds to matchboxes. The claims made in some of the ads seem to be totally ridiculous, especially the claims and promises made in soap, shampoo and educational institution advertisements are literally too much. They are just confusing and misleading even for a decently educated and experienced people like me.

Image source: http://www.toxel.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/ca9.jpg

I am not sure who will be influenced or attracted to these products based on the features being advertised. But whatever it is, the advertisers should be seeing some traction since they are repetitively making ads the way they are being shown right now. Certain claims made by the shampoo ads are obviously wrong based on the practical usage of certain brands in the past.

It is obvious that most of the features claiming advertisements are literally a cheating business by the manufacturers. Why are the advertisements of such kind being allowed then? Shouldn’t the government control the content of the advertisement by imposing strong regulations? I am not against the advertisements totally, but the ads should only be a brand building exercise that may be based on the real claims that are scientifically and practically provable. Pepsi or coke ads are pure brand building exercises based on dramatized advertisements, that is ok according to me, but the claims made by the educational institutions claiming placement tie-ups, shampoo advertisements claiming long hair, soaps or fairness cream advertisements claiming beauty within a month or so are all practically baseless.

In my opinion, there should be strong regulations on the content of advertisements to save people (not sure whom) from being wrongly manipulated and mislead towards the usage of certain products. Hope the government and the consumer associations in India wake up on this issue soon.

Simply amazing

2010-07-21T07:52:00.000+05:30

A small thought on the complexity of a marriage reveals amazing thoughts. Think of it, within one family itself there are various kind of thought processes, differing philosophies and so on to claim enough differences. It’s great that our society is still keeping the concept of family intact till date with all such differences. But that’s also OK, since family members are blood relations and mostly they have lived together and grew up as one lot over a longer period of time. So, people in a family know how to adjust and coexist as one single entity irrespective of the differences.

Image source: http://www.merinews.com/upload/thumbimage/1235550002440.jpg

Now think of the marriage scenario where two families come together. This particular event brings together a bunch of thought process and philosophical combinations in a shorter time period in addition to the differences between the girl and boy who are coming together for a relation. But somehow our people had learnt the art of adjusting to these combination explosions and the difference issues in the same. It’s actually not an easy deal if you think about it? I find it to be too complex and too amazing.

Caller-tune grievance

2010-07-21T07:42:00.001+05:30

Most cell phone service providers in India are offering the facility of choosing a caller tune on paying a premium on the rent/charges. It actually feels good to hear a nice song or a good music on calling somebody. But one thing that is annoying is the 15 to 20 seconds message being added by the service providers before the caller tune starts to play. Not sure if they are even allowed to do advertise their service as part of the service itself.

Image source: http://www.cellebrum.com/technologies/images/crbt1.jpg

Think about it, we pay for the caller tune and they just like that take 20 seconds of it to promote the caller tune facility itself to the other subscribers, which is totally ridiculous. It is acceptable to have two different caller tune plans, one which is cheaper and will have this promotional tone coming up in the beginning and the other which is of premium type that would start playing immediately without any interference by the service provider.

I don’t think any mobile service provider has such plans that explicitly state the right to play the promotional tone in the beginning of the caller tune, even though all the providers play this promotional tone without fail. This is a very small thing when seen from a single subscriber point of view, but think about the amount of advertising time that the service provider gains in aggregate! Hope consumer India soon gets the power to screw the cheating businesses and business norms.

Lost on phone

2010-06-04T20:07:00.005+05:30

I used to have an engineer in my team who was on the phone most of the time during work hours, for a considerable period of time. Concerned fellow is either talking on the mobile phone or the desk phone continuously. At that point in time we were running extremely tight on the project schedule and there was enough work to make the team sit in the office almost late every day.

This particular person, even though is on phone all the time, was regular in the deliverables for almost half the project period. But that fellow’s time log pointed to extended work hours every day. That had an effect on the project cost because of the late night cab usage and stuff. Project management had an eye on this, but we thought the person may be having some personal issues and were OK with spending few extra bucks for transportation.

Time passed by and we hit a point where the deliverables started slipping. Discussions related to that during project checkpoint meetings always lead to a conclusion that the current work is difficult and needs more time as pointed out and requested by our fellow. I used to be OK with that argument initially, but as time passed by, I (and most of the team members related to this work) started realizing that there is something wrong and that fellow’s productivity has gone down.

Image source: http://www.wackystock.com/details/4971-female-customer-service-representative-talking-on-phone-and-using-computer-clipart-by-dennis-cox-at-wackystock.jpg

My analysis of the situation was that the reason for the productivity loss is stress because of continuous extended work hours, that too sitting alone in the office. But then the root cause of the stress pointed to the productivity loss in the normal office hours because of the telephonic conversations. Obviously, whoever may be the engineer and how much ever strong they may be, a context switch will obviously lead to great productivity loss; especially in tasks like software programming.

I discussed about this with my manager and he also was sort of agreeing to the analysis. But we were wary of discussing this with that person, since it may lead the fellow to defensive reaction. Things were manageable, so we left it. Time passed by, multiple deadlines were affected adding more and more pressure on all the sides leading to increase in the already bad stress. Because of the delays in previous deliverables we were not a position to approve that fellow’s vacation as well.

Now we reached a point when things literally stopped moving front even though that fellow is trying to be in office for prolonged hours. I had to act, so one day I caught up with that fellow, discussed the situation and had to advice about the stress analysis and the root cause for that as per our thought process. That’s it, since the timing was already late and the mental stress is so much that the concerned fellow was totally upset about the advice, and about how an engineering lead can ‘tell’ an engineer not be on phone in office hours (WHAT!!!!). That fellow was not at all happy to hear my viewpoint, and started reacting in defense. But the performance only gone down day by day.

Finally we had to pull in some extra efforts from the other folks and get the project moving towards the end. When I think about that today, I feel that was a genuine analysis and a conscious advice. But that fellow was somehow not ready to accept that advice and limit the telephonic time, leading to a total failure. If only that fellow had given a little thought on the fact, rather getting too emotional about getting such an advice from the boss, things would have come back to normal and would have been good for everybody. From my end, I could have counseled this issue a little early. But anyways it was a conscious decision by me and my boss, not to react on that immediately.

The realization is in line with the theory, management is about making decisions, and there is nothing wrong or right about it. Some decisions turn out to be good, and some turn to be really bad. There is not silver bullet solution for this and this is what management life is. Some may think you are really good and some may think you are a real moron, may be that’s the reason why some people stay away from management roles.

Half day job

2010-06-01T21:21:00.001+05:30

One of our ODC firewall servers crashed today. None of our labs were accessible granting us half day off. It was really great to come home in the afternoon, go out with our group for a great lunch and then for bowling after that. I really enjoyed the day and the evening was equally productive in the personal front; could catch up a lot of study and so on. It almost felt like college days when we used to come home around 4 PM, roam around, lie in the room and listen to songs, or talk to friends.

I think a half a day job would make me more happy, healthy and knowledgeable. In the current job, I work till evening then catch up with the remote counterparts and then come home around 8 or 9 PM; sometimes at 11 PM or so :( So the whole day is gone, leaving no time and energy for some play and study. I wish I have a half a day job :)

Why World Classical Tamil Conference?

2010-05-22T20:39:00.006+05:30

Almost after 10 years, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamilnadu Dr. Kalaignar is organizing the World Classical Tamil Conference again, the big way in Coimbatore from 23rd to 27th June.

Does it really matter to organize conferences like these? Yes, of-course; for the same reason as to why Google conducts Google IO or Microsoft conducts TechEd.

Once in a while it is better to come out and conduct conference like this so as to uphold the community, to create publicity, interest, and passion; to demonstrate the greatness and to publically declare the not so commonly known facts. Technology to religion to language, anything that is of a community’s interest should do this, at least to keep the group informed.

Last week I was debating with one of my friends about the root of South Indian languages and we had a disagreement. Neither he nor I was in a position to strongly defend our argument because of the lack of complete knowledge, easily available references (ofcourse Wiki is there, but both of us were not ready to trust Wiki for information regarding a minority of global population). I hope conferences like these in a well connected Web 2.0 world would have much more impact than the previous eight Tamil conferences and would create easily referable information for us. Sorry San – you should wish for a Tulu conference :)

Just reading through one of the pages of the conference website itself was very informative and I am sure the conference would create a lot more public information and public awareness. In my view, social conferences like this should be encouraged and more widely conducted to preserve and uphold the culture and identity of communities. But one thing that needs to be kept in mind while doing all this is the mutual respect for the peer identities and day today public life.

World Classical Tamil Conference Theme Song

Back

2010-04-13T00:18:00.006+05:30

It's very long since I wrote something here, there was nothing beyond work for the last 6 months or so. Work, work and hell lot of work :)

Anyway, now I am out of the woods and should have time & mood to write regularly.

Last six months was a great learning journey in terms of people and engineering management, need to think through the experience and come up with some good writings.

Otherwise life is as usual. Watch out for more.

Fwd: What we do with our life ?

2009-10-30T01:19:00.005+05:30

Good one.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village.

A tourist complimented the local fishermen

on the quality of their fish and asked

how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long." they answered in unison.

"Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?"

The fishermen explained that their small catches were

sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families.

"But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children,

and take siestas with our wives.

In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends,

have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs.

We have a full life."

The tourist interrupted,

"I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you!

You should start by fishing longer every day.

You can then sell the extra fish you catch.

With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?"

"With the extra money the larger boat will bring,

you can buy a second one and a third one

and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers.

Instead of selling your fish to a middle man,

you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants

and maybe even open your own plant.

You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City ,

Los Angeles , or even New York City !

From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?"

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years." replied the tourist.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting, "

answered the tourist, laughing. "When your business gets really big,

you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the fishermen.

"After that you'll be able to retire,

live in a tiny village near the coast,

sleep late, play with your children,

catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife

and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."

"That's what I am doing now" Replied the fisherman!!!!

Know where you're going in life.... you may be there already!!

Public nuisance – we need 9-1-1 in India

2009-10-25T20:39:00.003+05:30

I just escaped a major accident in hairline gap, last Sunday, when I was driving back home from shopping, in Bangalore roads. I had to stop the bike for a minute before I could start driving again!

Yes, it was because of a ridiculous ass-hole (sorry, but I have to use a bad word here. I would represent him as AH hereafter) who was driving his car in a completely unacceptable manner. I am not sure whether he or she was drunk or was driving like that for fun? He also shocked other few bikers who were driving in front of me, some with their family in the bike. AH would have killed some of them if they had had made a mistake in shock. His driving was totally insane; in addition to being too fast, he was driving rashly in a jig jag manner on a busy road. But, I couldn't do anything but just cursing him.

I bet if this had happened in the US, people would have had an option to call 9-1-1 and just report AH’s car number. We probably need such a service in India too, considering the increase in the number of cars and the number of half baked drivers who straight away start driving the car without even having driven a cycle ever. Part of the problem is with the licensing authority who issues licenses based on under the table deals without even seeing the driver and the rest of the problem is with the attitude of the people.

image source: http://www.legaljuice.com/angry_man.png

By nature, we Indians now seem to be growing too selfish without concern for anybody else. It may be because most of us are ignorant or unaware of the pain our activities could cause or it is that everybody else is doing, so I will also do, as anyway nobody is going to question me irrespective of whatever I do. I guess we just started talking advantage of one of the best things our society had, forgiveness.

If somebody had stopped a vehicle in the middle of the road to answer his mobile, we just go around him without even telling him to move aside as he is creating a traffic nuisance. That gives him the encouragement to stop his damn vehicle wherever he wants and go to a shop or a temple without caring for the others. I guess we just should not allow this any more. There should be a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) which people could call and report any such nuisance to the public, ranging from peeing in public properties to irresponsible parking to stupid driving to smoking in a public place to whatever that can be considered a public nuisance.

It’s time to start thinking about this before the moral hazard of not punishing the violators spoil rest of us and the next generation. In a huge country like ours, we can’t just wait for the lawmakers and the police man to ensure this at all the places. Public should question the nuisance then and there, so that the fellow in question understand the seriousness of his or her action. In addition, every single person should thrive to be good man not hurting others knowingly or unknowingly to the smallest possible extent and that is when we become a disciplined and a peaceful society to live in. Just living in the glory of our ancestors’ culture doesn't help; if we keep doing whatever we are doing right now, we probably would be considered a crappy society in the world one or two generations down the line.

STOP SCREWING OTHERS HAPPINESS!

Good video in the same lines:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1161100909135&ref=nf

Fwd: Deepaavali - View of Thanthai Periyaar..

2009-10-19T20:24:00.006+05:30

Some good points to think about! No time to translate and post, so this is only for people who can read Tamil :)

image source : http://qualsys.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/278906462_f465b4d8b8.jpg

---------- Forwarded message ----------

தீபாவளிப் பண்டிகையைக் கொண்டாடுவது தமிழனுக்கு மானக்கேடும், முட்டாள்தனமுமான காரியம் என்று 50-ஆண்டுகளாக எழுதியும், பேசியும் வருகின்றேன். இதன் பயனாய் அநேக தமிழ் மக்கள் இப்பண்டிகையைக் கொண்டாடாமல் நிறுத்திவிட்டார்கள் என்றாலும், இன்னமும் பல தமிழ் மக்கள் தங்கள் இழிநிலையை மானவமானத்தை உணராமல் கொண்டாடி வருகிறார்கள். இக்கொண்டாட்டமானது தமிழ் மக்களுடைய, இழிவையும் முட்டாள்தனத்தையும் காட்டுவது மாத்திரமல்ல, தமிழர்கள் (திராவிடர்கள்) ஆரிய இனத்தானுக்கு அடிமை. அவனது தலைமைக்கு அடிமை, மீட்சிபெற விருப்பமில்லாத மானங்கெட்ட ஈனப்பிறவி என்பதைக்காட்டிக் கொள்ளப் போட்டி போடுகிறார்கள் என்பதையே காட்டுகிறது.

"மானமும் பகுத்தறிவும் உடையவனே மனிதன்; அஃதிலார் மனித உருவ முள்ள மிருகமே ஆவர்" என்ற அறிவுரைப்படி மானமில்லா மக்களே இப்போது தீபாவளி கொண்டாடுகிறார்கள் என்றுதான் சொல்லவேண்டி இருக்கிறது.

வெளிநாட்டிலிருந்து பிழைப்புக்கு வழி தேடிக்கொண்டு நம் நாட்டிற்குள் புகுந்த ஆரியர் அக்காலத்தில் அவர்கள் இருந்த காட்டுமிராண்டித் தன்மைக்கு ஏற்ப மடமையினால் கொண்ட கருத்துக்களை மதுக்குடி வெறியில் உளறி வைத்தத் தன்மைக்கு ஏற்பத் தொகுத்துக் களியாட்டம் ஆடிய ஆட்டங்களைத் தமிழ்மக்கள் என்ன சூழ்நிலையாலோ ஏற்று அவற்றுக்கு அடிமையாகி, பின்பற்றித் தாங்களும் அப்படியே களியாட்டம் ஆடி வருகிறார்கள்.

அதன் பயனாய், அம்மடமையும் அல்லது வெறி உளறலுமே இன்று தமிழ் மக்களுக்கு கடவுளர்களாக, மதமாக, நீதி நெறிகளாக, பண்டிகை, விரதம், நோன்பு, உற்சவங்களாக, நல்ல நாள், தீயநாளாக, அப்பாத்திரங்களே நல்லவர்களாக, தீயவர்களாக ஆக்கப்பட்டு இருந்து வருகின்றார்கள்.

இஸ்லாம், கிருஸ்துவம் முதலிய மார்க்கங்களாலும், வெள்ளையர் ஆட்சியாலும் உலக மக்களிடையில் ஒரு அளவுக்கு தலைகீழான மாறுதல் எற்படும்படியான கல்வி அனுபவமும் ஞானமும் ஏற்பட்டிருந்தும் கூட இந்த மடமை மிக்க ஆரிய வலையில் சிக்கிய தமிழ் மக்களிடையில் பெரிதும் சிறு அளவு ஞானமும், மாறுதலும் ஏற்படாமல் அம்மடமையிலேயே மூழ்கித்திளைத்து வருகிறார்கள்!

எவ்வளவு சொன்னாலும் அறிவும் அனுபவமும் இல்லாத சில இளைஞர்கள் (மைனர்கள்) பித்தலாட்டத்தாலும், வஞ்சகமும், துரோகம், மோசத்தாலும், வாழவேண்டிய தீய எண்ணத்தில் தேர்ச்சி பெற்ற பரத்தையரிடம் சிக்கி விட்டார்களேயானால் எப்படி யார் எவ்வளவு அறிவையும் நன்மையையும் போதித்தாலும் அதைக் காதில் வாங்கக்கூட செவிப்புலனை ஒதுக்காமல் தன் உள்ளம் முழுவதையும் பரத்தையிடமே ஒப்புவித்து அவளிடம் ஓடவே வழி தேடுவார்களோ அதே போல் நடந்து கொள்கிறார்கள்!

இப்படி நடப்பவர்கள் பாமர மக்கள் மாத்திரமல்லாமல் தமிழ்ப்

பண்டிதர்கள் அதுவும் டாக்டர் பட்டம் பெற்றவர்கள் உட்பட தமிழ்ப் பண்டிதர்கள் முதல் பெரும்புலவர்கள் மற்றும் இங்கிலீஷ் விஞ்ஞானத்தில் உடற்கூறு, பூகோளக்கூறு இவைகளில் நிபுணர்கள் உட்பட எல்லாத் தமிழர்களும் இந்தக் காட்டுமிராண்டி மடமைக்கு அடிமைப்பட்டு, சிந்தனையின்றி நடந்து கொள்வதென்றால் தீபாவளி கொண்டாடுவது என்பதில் உள்ள தமிழனின் இழிவுக்கும், மடமைக்கும், மானமுமற்ற தன்மைக்கும் இதைவிட வேறு எதை எடுத்துக்காட்டாகக் கூற முடியும்?

நம் பள்ளிகளும் கல்லூரிகளும் பல்கலைக்கழகங்களும் நம் மக்களுக்கு

இந்த இப்படிப்பட்ட மடமையை உணரும் அளவுக்குக் கூட அறிவைக் கொடுக்கவில்லையென்றால், இக்கல்விக் கூடங்கள் மடமையையும் மானமற்ற தன்மையையும் பயிர் செய்யும் வளமுள்ள விளைநிலம் என்பதைத் தவிர, வேறு என்னவென்று சொல்லமுடியும்? இதில் பயிலும் மாணவர்களுக்கு எந்த விதத்தில் தான் மானமும் அறிவும் விளையமுடியும்?

தீபாவளி என்றால் என்ன? (புராணம் கூறுவது)

1.ஒரு காலத்தில் ஒரு அசுரன் உலகத்தைப் பாயாகச் சுருட்டிக் கொண்டு போய் கடலுக்குள் ஒழிந்து கொண்டான்.

2.தேவர்களின் முறையீட்டின் மீது மகாவிஷ்ணு பன்றி அவதாரம் (உரு) எடுத்துக் கடலுக்குள் புகுந்து அவனைக் கொன்று உலகத்தை மீட்டு மீண்டும் வந்து விரித்தார்.

3.விரித்த உலகம் (பூமி) அப்பன்றியுடன் கலவி செய்ய ஆசைப்பட்டது.

4.ஆசைக்கு இணங்கி பன்றி (விஷ்ணு) பூமியுடன் கலவி செய்தது.

5.அதன் பயனாய் பூமி கர்ப்பமுற்று, நரகாசூரன் என்ற பிள்ளையைப் பெற்றது.

6.அந்தப்பிள்ளை தேவர்களை வருத்தினான்.

7.தேவர்களுக்காக விஷ்ணு, நரகாசூரனுடன் போர் துவங்கினார்.

8.விஷ்ணுவால் அவனை வெல்ல முடியவில்லை. விஷ்ணுவின் மனைவி
நரகாசூரனுடன் போர் தொடுத்து அவனைக் கொன்றான்.

9.இதனால் தேவர்கள் மகிழ்ச்சி அடைந்தார்கள்.

10.இந்த மகிழ்ச்சியை (நரகாசூரன் இறந்ததற்காக) நரகாசூரனின் இனத்தாரான
திராவிட மக்கள் கொண்டாட வேண்டும்.

இதுதானே தீபாவளிப் பண்டிகையின் தத்துவம்!

இந்த 10-விஷயங்கள்தான் தமிழனைத் தீபாவளி கொண்டாடும் படி செய்கிறதே அல்லாமல், வேறு என்ன என்று யாருக்குத் தெரியும்? யாராவது சொன்னார்களா? இதை ஆராய்வோம். இக்கதை எழுதிய ஆரியர்களுக்கு பூமி நூல் கூடத் தெரியவில்லை என்று தானே கருத வேண்டியிருக்கிறது?

*பூமி தட்டையா? உருண்டையா?

*தட்டையாகவே இருந்த போதிலும் ஒருவனால் அதைப் பாயாகச்
சுருட்ட முடியுமா?

*எங்கு நின்று கொண்டு சுருட்டுவது?

*சுருட்டினால் தூக்கிக் கட்கத்திலோ, தலைமீதோ எடுத்து ஏக முடியுமா?

*எங்கிருந்து தூக்குவது?

*கடலில் ஒளிந்து கொள்வதாயின் கடல் அப்போது எதன் மீது இருந்திருக்கும்?

*விஷ்ணு மலம் தின்னும் பன்றி உருவம் எடுக்க வேண்டிய அவசியம் என்ன?

*அரக்கனைக் கொன்று பூமியை விரித்ததால் பூமிக்குப் பன்றி மீது
காதல் ஏற்படுவானேன்?

*பூமி மனித உருவா? மிருக உருவமா?

*மனித உருவுக்கும் மிருக உருவுக்கும் கலவியில் மனிதப் பிள்ளை உண்டாகுமா?

*பிறகு சண்டை ஏன்? கொல்லுவது ஏன்?

*இதற்காக நாம் ஏன் மகிழ்ச்சி அடையவேண்டும்.

இவைகளைக் கொஞ்சமாவது கொண்டாடும் தமிழ்ப்புலவர்கள், அறிஞர்கள் சிந்திக்க வேண்டாமா?

நரகாசூரன் ஊர் மாகிஷ்மகி என்ற நகரம், இது நர்மதை ஆற்றின் கரையில் இருக்கிறது. மற்றொரு ஊர் பிரகத் ஜோதி ஷா என்று சொல்லப்படுகிறது.

இது வங்காளத்தில் அசாம் மாகாணத்துக்கு அருகில் இருக்கிறது. இதைத் திராவிட அரசர்களே ஆண்டு வந்திருக்கிறார்கள். வங்காளத்தில் தேவர்களும் அசுரர்களும் யாராக இருந்திருக்க முடியும்?

இவைகள் ஒன்றையும் யோசிக்காமல் பார்ப்பனன் எழுதி வைத்தான் என்பதற்காகவும் சொல்லுகிறான் என்பதற்காகவும் நடுஜாமத்தில் எழுந்து கொண்டு குளிப்பதும், புதுத் துணி உடுத்து வதும் பட்டாசு சுடுவதும், இந்த பார்ப்பனர்கள் வந்து பார்த்து "கங்கா ஸ்நானம் ஆயிற்றா" என்று கேட்பதும், நாம் ஆமாம் என்று சொல்லி கும்பிட்டு காசு கொடுப்பதும், அவன் காசை வாங்கி இடுப்பில் சொருகிக் கொண்டு போவதும் என்றால் இதை என்னவென்று சொல்லுவது?

மாணவர்களே! உங்கள் ஆசிரியர்களுக்கு மானம், புத்தி இல்லா விட்டாலும் நீங்களாவது சிந்தியுங்கள். எதற்காக இவ்வளவு சொல்லுகிறேன் என்றால், இக்கதை எழுதின காலத்தில் (ஆரியர்) பார்ப்பனர்கள் எவ்வளவு காட்டுமிராண்டிகளாக இருந்திருக்க வேண்டும்? அந்தக்காலத்தில் நாம் ஈன நிலை அடைந்தது ஏன்? என்பதைத் தமிழன் ஒவ்வொருவரும் நன்கு சிந்திக்க வேண்டும் என்பதற்கு ஆகவேயாகும்.
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Process oriented problem solving

2009-10-19T07:08:00.006+05:30

We often see managers in the knowledge based teams crib about the problem solving capabilities of the team, or the problem solving differences among the team members. Have you ever wondered what could be the reason for the differences which seem to exist? People are normally recruited based on the clearance of a particular criteria, but still there is difference in the performance between the two people who may have performed equally well in the selection procedure, why? What could be the reason for all these perceived differences? Why people perform differently in problem solving and why they win or lose in some scenarios or in some tasks?

Being a behavioral science hobbyist, I looked for an answer in the field of psychology & cognitive sciences and I did get hold of a relatively old research paper that answered exactly what I was looking for. The paper I read was based on the consideration of individual differences and personality traits to come up with a model or process for problem solving. Based on their studies and research findings, the authors of the paper suggest an organizational problem solving process with specific techniques recommended for individual problem solving styles.

Organizations traditionally have been using processes for controlling things that are either done repeatedly or for controlling things that are more procedural with multiple steps to achieve a goal. We haven’t yet come to a point where a process is (widely) used to optimize the problem solving or decision making tasks of individuals and teams and that’s why we have the problem of sub optimal solutions, designs, etc.

Even though some organizations suggest using problem solving processes, it is not made a mandate and more over the processes that being widely suggested like Six Thinking Hats, etc. are based on the rationality of the human mind. As per the findings of latest research in behavioral sciences, there seem to be more emphasis on the irrationality of the human mind as opposed to the classical belief that the human mind is more rational based. Most of the current business management theory is based on the classical belief though, and that is the reason why the managers are bound to think that the problem is with the individuals and not the system itself.

Mostly teams are formed based on skill sets or sometimes sadly based on just the availability of people, but such teams doesn’t seem to deliver to the fullest for unexplainable reasons even after so much of management and other processes that ensures the quality of outputs. It could also be that we have come to a point where the external systems and control procedures hit its limits in doing whatever it can.

Extract from the paper in quotes, as I just want to repeat the same thing here.

“When solving problems, individuals preferring introversion (I) will want to take time to think and clarify their ideas before they begin talking, while those preferring extraversion (E) will want to talk through their ideas in order to clarify them. In addition, Is will more likely be concerned with their own understanding of important concepts and ideas, while Es will continually seek feedback from the environment about the viability of their ideas.

Sensing individuals will be more likely to pay attention to facts, details, and reality. They will also tend to select standard solutions that have worked in the past. Persons with intuition preferences, on the other hand, will more likely attend to the meaningfulness of the facts, the relationships among the facts, and the possibilities of future events that can be imagined from these facts. They will exhibit a tendency to develop new, original solutions rather than to use what has worked previously.

image source: http://www.imindmap.com/articles/files/ProblemSolving.jpg

Individuals with a thinking preference will tend to use logic and analysis during problem solving. They are also likely to value objectivity and to be impersonal in drawing conclusions. They will want solutions to make sense in terms of the facts, models, and/or principles under consideration. By contrast, individuals with a feeling preference are more likely to consider values and feelings in the problem-solving process. They will tend to be subjective in their decision making and to consider how their decisions could affect other people.”

Since it is very difficult to put together a team that is psychologically fit for a task, it would be good to define a process that clearly states the pros and cons of specific personality types and the things individuals and teams need to look for to consciously avoid the side effects by putting a right plan or a review mechanism or system that mitigates the flaw. That may also need individual style profiling techniques to be defined.

Finally, behavioral sciences research in recent times is becoming more powerful with the advancement in technologies like functional MRI and the other means to understand how ‘exactly’ human brain works. In my opinion, it is sure to redefine the management practice shortly. Some companies are already doing their pilots to taking advantage of the behavioral sciences theory in the field of economics, finance and marketing.

It would good for the knowledge based organizations also to look at other fields for redefining their policies, processes, and training & performance management methodologies. In my opinion, companies that would look at the behavior oriented management techniques fast would capitalize the latest research early and would differentiate themselves from the other organizations in a big way.

I liked this

2009-10-09T21:44:00.002+05:30

Photo I liked from an email forward.....

Sacred food

2009-07-30T20:43:00.010+05:30

Most temples in Bangalore have the practice of serving at least a handful of tasty and quality food (considered to be sacred, as it is being served in the temple) for the devotees who visit the temple. I have the habit of visiting a particular temple every Saturday and I obviously get to taste the awesome food given there; I love it not because it is sacred but because of its quality and taste. There is another temple near my house where they serve an elaborate meal during some of the special worships; in good eco friendly disposable plates (I don’t visit that temple for some reasonJ).

But when I think about it, I am somehow not so comfortable with this concept. Most people who visit those temples, at least the ones which I visit and where awesome quality food in good quantity is being served as sacred food, are not in need of any food from others. So, why should these temples spend money to give food to people like me and you who are getting three meals a day? Doesn’t it make sense to cook a moderately rich/simple food and serve as many possible numbers of children and elderly who are incapable of earning their meal? Think about it and pass on this thought process to the temple trusts if you have influence on them.

Orthodox types might feel bad that they may not get to taste the ‘sacred, blessed food’, think again; helping the humanity is the best thing you could do rather than believing in the goodness of the sacred food.

FW: How markets work??

2009-07-10T14:11:00.005+05:30

- Good email forward.

It was autumn, and the Red Indians asked their New Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a Red Indian chief in a modern society, he couldn`t tell what the weather was going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his Tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared.

But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" "It looks like this winter is Going to be quite cold indeed," the meteorologist at the weather service Responded.

image source: http://revolutioninfiction.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/wall_street_bull1.jpg

So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more Wood. A week later, he called the National Weather Service again.

"Is it going to be a very cold winter?" "Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "It`s definitely going to be a very cold winter."

The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find. Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" "Absolutely," The Man replied. "It`s going to be one of the coldest winters ever." "How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked. The weatherman replied,

"The Red Indians are collecting wood like Crazy." This is how stock markets work!!!

Fwd: World Vision

2009-06-27T21:59:00.005+05:30

Please help if you can.

~ Post by email.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: World Vision <bwonlinead@abp.in>
Date: Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 8:11 PM
Subject: World Vision

click here to make a difference

Language of hospitals

2009-06-13T20:09:00.006+05:30

What is the language of hospitals (in south

India

at least)?

Malayalam
Malayalam
Malayalam
All the above

J Yes, it’s the option 4. This week I had to run around in one of the famous hospitals in Bangalore and that’s my finding. I have noticed that in the past as well and it’s just that I have my laptop in the hospital this time and I am putting that in words.

Cartoon courtesy: http://www.skyeauroradesigns.com/store/images/nurse%20stick%201.JPG

Most of the sisters, nurses and other people on medical duty (not applicable for doctors) are from Kerala or at least they speak Malayalam. Not sure of the reason why the % of mallus in the nursing career is more, especially girls. Do they come to this profession because of too much of service mentality? I don’t know and I can’t think of any reason.

But what so ever may be the reason for them to be in this profession, their service to humanity is appreciable. It’s is not an easy deal to be patient and take care of all the stuff that the patients do consciously or unconsciously. Few of the requests I made from the attendees seat of a patient are like the patient wants to drink water (patient is not supposed to drink water for a few hours, so the sister has to attend and give a few drops of water carefully), patient is having headache, drip doesn’t seem to flow, blanket seem to be dirty, this, that and what not……… and the nurses were patient & kind enough to help us out all the time.

We may think that it is their duty and they are being paid for that. Though the hospital is collecting a hefty fee as room charge and stuff, I guess the sisters & nurses aren’t paid anywhere close to the revenue the hospital makes per patient. And beyond everything, service especially the quality of medial and nursing services can’t be ‘bought’ for money. We know that even the blood relations aren’t ready to do nursing service for other family members in many cases.

I appreciate mallus for their contribution to the nursing career. J

Fear therapy for public servants

2009-06-07T09:55:00.006+05:30

I was watching one of the Kamal Hassan’s movies, INDIAN, during my trip to home this time. It reiterates the fact that the government employees are just public servants and they are supposed to be helping people by all means within the scope of their role and the law of land. But the irony is that the government employees (I would restrict to

India

) expect a king like respect from the general public and also expect a TIP to do their duty.

Cartoon courtesy: http://www.savagechickens.com/images/chickenstone.jpg

There are a few scenes in that movie which could be used to correct the government employees by inducing sympathy and fear in their minds. There is a scene in which a widowed wife of a cobbler gives curse to the treasury officer by throwing mud in the air, after being humiliated by a treasury officer for not giving bribe. I don’t think any Indian officer seeing such a scene again and again at regular intervals would like to continue his bribe game for doing his duty. Similarly the scene in which a bus accident kills 40+ kids because of a corrupt brake inspector might also make the officials realize the indirect side effects of their mistake, to the extent that it could ruin a number of families.

I guess a continuous exposure to those kind scenes could be used to modify the behavior of the corrupt officials and even the general public in creating awareness against bribe.

Rajapakse - 21st century Hitler?

2009-05-31T08:19:00.015+05:30

This write-up is an extract from a Tamil writing http://tamizachi.com/index.php?page=echoarticle&rubrique=01&article=1265.

To my best I have tried to concentrate & translate only the politically & ethically correct information from the above link. But the crux of the write-up (if true) is heart breaking L

Lankan government with the direct or indirect support of its neighboring countries has done a disastrous damage to the Tamil community in

Sri Lanka

in the name of war against LTTE. Looks like 50,000 people got killed in the last one week of war and almost 25,000 people became physically disabled. Orphaned children, sexual crime, killing of men in their youth, kidnapping of children are the scene in the Tamils area. Mass killing is going on even after the war is declared to be over, and bundles of dead bodies are being burnt (not buried) in order to erase the traces of mass killing of civilians.

Lankan government has massacred its own citizens (but of minority race) in the name of war against terror. The affected are not being given enough food, medical support, housing or any other basic facilities and feeling is as though the people there have nothing else to lose other than their lives.

This incident is worse than the killing of around 64,000 Jews in 5 weeks time, by Hitler’s racist army in 1941. It is sad that the international community including the ethnic relatives in TamilNadu just kept quite watching the sufferings of the Tamil civilians in Lanka. Massacre of Jews was not known to the world for almost 2 years after that event; Lankan government also is trying to do the same thing by preventing international press and the humanitarian organizations out of the war zone. Their rehabilitation camps are also no good than the war zone.

In the middle of the massacre of Jews, one German solider wrote a letter to his son saying, “Son, even though we are killing thousands and thousands of Jews, they seem to be coming back time and again. I think our respected president should create a special plan to ‘handle’ Jewish women, considering the welfare of our next generation.” See how far racism can corrupt human. There are even traces of such happenings in Lanka, commanded by their respected president .

One day when the war crimes are investigated properly or if any evidence of these happenings comes out, the whole world that was watching the massacre of a race, even in this 21st century, would feel ashamed. Especially the Tamils!

More evidences and related links in the international press:

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/05/27/sri-lanka-un-rights-council-fails-victims
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6375044.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6387782.ece

There is a reason for

China

Pakistan

to vote out the call for international investigation on the war crimes in Lanka. But I have no idea why the other 27 developing countries should vote against the investigation.

Government reforms and its short-term ill effects

2009-05-30T15:10:00.004+05:30

UPA government is back in power with full majority and it perceived to be a very good for India. Within few days of coming back to power, the government is talking about petrol price deregulation, labor law reform, PSU disinvestment, etc., Great! All these are good for the Indian economy & people in long term, but what about short term & how to tackle the short term issues gracefully? I don’t know, but that is a very important question to be answered by the reformists and others who support the reforms.

Petrol price deregulation would make the petrol prices fluctuate according to the international crude prices, but it is for sure not good for most of the middle class people. Labor law reform might put many people out of job and the same for PSU disinvestment as well. Considering all these, there is nothing wrong in a set of people strongly opposing these reforms either through unions or by voting leftists to power.

Some doesn’t seem to understand these facts and the short term ill effects to a considerable number of people, and they go on saying that the particular set of people who oppose governmental reforms are bad, for whatever reason. I would like to argue that people have a reason to block or oppose some reforms and it is the responsibility of the people in power to convince & compensate the victims before making any systemic change.

image source: http://www.mybangaloreproperty.com/photos/buying-selling-renting__made__easy/images/390847/640x480.aspx

One example: a highway is being expanded, a lot of people are happy and they welcome the move. But, the person who owns the land on which the road expansion is going to happen is for sure not happy, as the government is not going to compensate him properly by any means. The government gives Rs.2/Sq feet for a land with market price of Rs.200/Sq feet. In this case, though the land owner appreciates the long term benefits of road expansion, he is bound to get a stay order for touching his land or to oppose that move in all possible ways. Is he bad? absolutely not!

So, when we support the government reforms keeping the long term benefits in mind, we also need to support the moves of the victims of the reforms in all possible ways. Government (politicians) may not keep the common man in mind in the first four years of governance, so it’s we the people who need to support the others who are getting affected. Today me, and tomorrow it may be you, so watch out.

How the Budget is kept secret

2009-05-25T15:47:00.001+05:30

Interesting......... http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/feb/24spec.htm

Mom, Sweet Mom :)

2009-05-24T14:52:00.002+05:30

Nice email forward.......I loved it.

When I came home in the rain,

Brother asked why don't you take an umbrella.

Sister advised, Why didn't you wait till rain stopped.

Father angrily warned, only after getting cold, you will realize.

But Mother, while drying my hair, said, stupid rain! Couldn't it wait, till my child come home?

That's MOM.....

Mr.CEO, better watch out for these signals.

2009-05-18T23:33:00.008+05:30

I am a frequent traveler in the KPN travels bus service which operates between Bangalore and most places in TamilNadu. KPN's service used to be comparatively better that of the Govt transport and the buses were much better that the Govt owned ones. Though KPN charges more than 3 times when compared to that of the Govt service, I used to feel comfortable with KPN in terms of boarding points, ticket booking, etc. But KPN people always have monopolistic arrogance as there aren't any private alternatives to their bus service, at least to Salem, which is my destination.

In the recent days, I am not having a good experience with the KPN though there isn't a feeling any change in the attitude or behavior of their staff. Reason, I experience and hear problems like AC duct is not working, no audio/video, bus goes very slow, lot of noise, bus breakdown on the way, etc,. from my friends, relatives and other fellow travelers who are frequent users of this private bus service, in the last one or two months.

Whenever I am into such problems, I would want to give a strong feedback to KPN's management, but unfortunately I don't know the way to reach them and give my feedback. Their normal feedback channel isn't working. Bad, what else can I do, in India we consumers don't have that much legal say, or it is not easy to claim the right. The immediate staff doesn't have an answer, but we can't blame them for not having an answer. I think the time has come and it would just take one competitor to come to the field and screw KPN's business.

image source: http://darkstar.holtz.com/hct/ee/images/uploads/hk-ceo.jpg

In my last trip to native place, I happen to be on the first seat just behind the driver cabin. There is actually no such separation in the volvo buses, you might know. I heard two drivers talking to each other about the very same issues that screw my happiness while traveling home in the recent days. Drivers talk sort of boils down to the operational issues being created by the middle management to meet their targets or to over perform. Looks like the operational managers are over-clocking the buses and the drivers without proper service for the buses and rest for the drivers.

Though nothing serious has happened as of now, other than minor breakdowns and inconveniences, this sort of gives me a feel that it is not at all secure to travel in those buses paying ridiculously more money compared to the state run buses. Looks like over-clocking the drivers and buses might be a threat to passenger safety sometimes. One driver says that he feels like calling up the big boss and letting him know about this operational screw up, but he also adds that he don't want to take the risk of losing his job by doing this. He is afraid that the middle management can always plot him and throw him out as revenge if they come to know about the source of the complaint.

So, what is the point? I am a customer sitting in the bus without knowing how to pass on the feedback to the boss, who I feel would surely care for his long-term business. Driver, the base level employee, also doesn't have a proper channel to pass on the feedback without revealing his identity. Though the customer and the bottom level employee who meets the customer has a very important information that the boss needs to know, for some reason the boss hasn't left a channel open for such important signals to reach him. And for sure his long-term business prospects are getting hurt because the unavailability of such a channel. He might be feeling happy today seeing the number being shown by these operational middle managers, but that may not last long.

I wish the CEOs realize this fact and keep their eyes and ears open for feedback from the customers and the employees involved in business with the customer on a daily basis, in addition to the radars for the business climate changes, competitors, etc.

Good, Bad, Strong & Weak

2009-05-18T22:47:00.004+05:30

This is an extract from a chat with my close friend who doesn't want to be named in public for his views. The chat was about the personal view points and the about the thought process behind others viewpoints about the Srilankan war. Here I have tried to extract the essence of that discussion and put it as a more generalized theory.

The point I learnt/realized is this: There is nothing called good & bad in this world, in a real quantifiable sense. It's just the perception, based on a person's mental model. And the perceptions are always influenced by the stronger among the crowd (present & past as of today). The weaker would usually be the followers or would be termed "bad guys", if they refuse to follow the preaching of the stronger. I know you are thinking WTH; just hold on for sometime, be open minded and try to read on the examples, then think and see what you really feel about it.

How do people call the LTTE? Terrorists, freedom fighters and a lot more. But what exactly are they? We all know the answer differs widely. Vaiko (one political party leader in TamilNadu) says they are freedom fighters, Soniaji (and her congressmen) says LTTE are terrorists, Dr.Karunanidhi says nothing (as of now). So the point here is, people say lot of things based on the way they perceive the action of LTTE.

image source: http://s3.images.com/huge.0.3338.JPG

Similarly, a Brahmin might say eating meat is bad, whereas a person from the other meat eating castes/religion might say that's ok and sometimes even use it as a part of pooja to God. People say "Karuppanna Samy" in TamilNadu likes meat and drinks!

For that sake, a Western women may not feel bad if a man around suddenly walks up to her and appreciates her dressing or her beauty. Whereas, if a man walks up to a Indian lady in a shopping mall and appreciates her beauty, he might get beaten up or might get an angry look from that lady in most cases.

Hope these examples would ignite the thought process in you and make you realize the truth. So that next time when your mind says somebody/something is good or bad, you force it to think twice and as logically as possible rather being cheated by your mental models which sometimes might make you irrational.

To disable or not?

2009-05-08T09:30:00.005+05:30

Yesterday one of my friends lost his mobile and was telling us about that. One another friend came up with questions like did you disable the SIM, did you disable the mobile phone, etc? I was like, why do you want to disable the mobile!! and he says, "because you can disable it".

image source: http://blog.mobiles.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/nokia-5070.jpg

Well, I agree on his point that the SIM need to be disabled for many reasons. But why the mobile phone? Once something is lost, it's a sunk cost for the loser; there is nothing good to the loser in doing anything to the lost item using remote access, other than the efforts to get back the item.

Considering that, my take on disabling the mobile phone would be a clean "NO". You lost it, so forget it. At least let the other person who stole the mobile phone for some reason get some thing out of it. Why to disable the mobile phone and make it in an economic waste? Let it go.

Not so good April

2009-05-03T21:18:00.003+05:30

Ah, that was hell of a busy month. Too much work load both in personal and work front, plus a little bit of procrastination backed up by lack of discipline lead to 'zero post' April :( That's really bad. I was thinking of putting at least one post last month, but happen to miss it because of the crazy day and night work in the last week of April.

Anyways, nothing can be changed now. I hope to compensate the loss of blog count in April by adding a at least 8 blogs this month. Hope that happens :)

God-damn family politics!

2009-03-28T15:35:00.009+05:30

If Dr. Manmohan Singh is the only PM candidate in congress, then what are the other people doing in the above poster? What makes them eligible to show up with Singhji in that poster? To my knowledge, it's only their family background !!! If my knowledge is right, then GOD-DAMN family politics.

Shame on you congress veterans!!!! I am not saying Rahul is not fit to be a PM in the future, but right now I don't think he has any hands on experience running the government even at a very small ministry level. So, until he proves himself to be a worthy leader, why should he show up with the PM candidate standing equal to him.

Shameless Indian media conducts discussions comparing the strengths and weaknesses of Mr. Modi and Rahul , and try to analyze their chances in the next election (not the coming one). That sounds funny, ideally they should be heavily criticizing and questioning this hard reality, rather trying to compare a veteran with an amatuer.

Again I emphasize "GOD-DAMN FAMILY POLITICS".

Prosperous India

2009-03-27T19:39:00.027+05:30

For some time now I am thinking of starting a campaign to 'motivate people to work for a national economic cause'. Most people & corporate give back to the society by donating money towards food and shelter for the needful, kids’ education, and calamities relief fund, etc. Some even go to the level of volunteering for certain social welfare activities pledging their time. All those activities are good and people should be encouraged to do it, but, is that enough?

We educate a poor kid, but up to what level? Most students seem to stop their education in the midway. Similarly, we contribute for feeding the needful kids and the elderly, but what happens when those kids grow up? Many end up jobless, somehow making up their life. In a way, we are feeding the kids to see them as hungry adults. So it looks as though the job is only half done.

Simply put, we are just concentrating on temporary fixes not permanent solutions. Most of us would agree on the fact that the permanent solution for most of the problems of masses is - economic growth -. Economic growth leads the masses towards better and easy living, gives them food and shelter, gives them better health care, and gives them a better retirement life. So, at an individual level can we do something towards the economic growth of the nation, which would eventually solve the problems of the nation and promote much more growth? I think YES.

Though we measure economic growth in terms of overall GDP, it’s the GDP per person that really matters when we talk about growth and prosperity. Following is one of the equations that deal with Real GDP per person.

Real GDP per person = Average labor productivity x Share of population employed.

Self explanatory equation, isn’t it? Productivity here is not intensity; rather it is the efficiency, more optimal usage of the resources including the human capital.

By tuning the average labor productivity or the number of people employed, we can tune up the GDP per person, and that tune up is capable of feeding itself by a multiplication factor > 1. When many people start earning more, savings and consumption in the economy increases, leading to more employment opportunities. That’s why Government undertakes massive fiscal spending every year trying to generate employment; some money is spent on vocational trainings also increasing the labor productivity as well as employability.

Recently some corporate and NGOs have also started investing in programs targeting the GDP per capita as part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programs or even as a part of their core business strategy. Money is being spent on activities like organizing vocational trainings, microfinance, setting up IT infrastructure in the rural areas, etc. Two best known projects from Indian corporate are the HUL’s project ‘Shakti’ (http://www.hllshakti.com/) and ITC’s ‘e-Choupal’ (http://www.echoupal.com/). Both of these programs are done as a part of the core business strategy of the respective companies.

Why can’t we as individuals also contribute to the prosperity of the nation by working on improving the GDP per capita? Think of a situation where every single capable individual is contributing towards this goal by spending few hours of his free time with little or no contribution of money towards this goal. Won’t it be a self triggered massive movement towards a permanent economic change, pushing the nation towards prosperity?

People could ask, what is there in it for me? Why would I do it if I am not interested in giving back to the society or community service as people call it? Well, working towards prosperity is not only about giving back to the society, but also about filling your pocket too in the long run. Ref figure 1.

Figure 1

Savings, tax payment and consumption are some of the factors related to household that contribute to economic growth. If new people get added to the workforce or if the existing workforce earns more because of the increase in productivity, the capital accumulation per person will increase, and capital accumulation is the key towards growth in a developing country. More capital accumulation means more chances for a booming economy and a booming economy means more income to the households and you know the story. That is why you should contribute towards increasing the GDP per capita.

How individuals can contribute towards increasing the productivity of the existing workforce or increasing the employability of people?

Well, there are many ways we could do it. I shall just put forward a few Ideas which I had thought of and leave it for people to share their thoughts and ideas for personal contribution towards GDP per capita increase.

"If you are a professional, find people in colleges studying the same specialization as your profession, but lack the guidance or the exposure and guide them to be competitive in their field. Normally people in tier 2 colleges would fall in this category. If they are trained to be competitive, chances of them getting employment after studies are more."

At a very minimal level you could guide one student. Here also, in addition to the long run personal benefit, you could be benefited by the improvement in your technological and people know how during the process of this mentoring.
You could use the students to prototype your ideas without any investment on the wages. It will be mutually beneficial exercise.

"If you think a road side business could be tuned up to be more profitable by doing certain things in a different way, go and voluntarily talk to that business owner about your view point and work with him in implementing the required change (if he also feels that your point makes sense)."

"You may have some small business idea in mind, but you may not be able to do it yourself for some reason. Find somebody you know (may be from your village) and give him the idea + the seed investment to setup the business. If you can’t donate the seed investment by yourself, talk to the like minded and arrange for the fund."

For example, I always think about a hotel serving nutritious food for working bachelors, a food with more vegetables, fruits, etc. rather being the taste maker mix; I don’t want to implement this idea myself for various reasons. But, anybody could set this up as a clean and cheap road side establishment and earn quite well. The idea just goes untried without making any good if it is not being passed on to somebody who can do this and benefit from this.

"If you can’t contribute time, but can spare a few bucks per month, talk to the entrepreneur near by (may be a mechanic shop owner) and ask him to take somebody you refer (may be from your village or town) as an apprentice. You can pay the money needed for the livelihood of the apprentice. Once the apprentice person gets good in the work, he can go back home and start his own venture. His small venture could be funded by you or your friends group."

These are a few ideas I had thought about. I am sure lot of people will have different ideas that could help others to increase their income. I want to create a platform where people can share such ideas, join hands with the like minded and help others earn more.

To summarize, this manifesto aims to explain people about the positive long term change they can make by helping their fellow citizens to become employable or to earn m. Lot of people have a vague idea of things like this in their mind and what is needed is a trigger to push them into action, either by themselves or by collaborating with others who think in the same lines. This article is targeted to act as a trigger and not as a completion solution. It is up to the people to discuss the various possibilities and take it forward in what ever way they want.

Having said that this article is only a trigger, I am planning to set up a separate discussion board, blog and a mailing list to enable people to collaborate and work on this front.

So friends, please share your thoughts on this. I like to take inputs, fine tune this write up and name this campaign before I setup an independent mailing list and blog for the campaign.

I request you to spread this idea to your network as well.

P.S: Just send an email to rajesh.kathirvelu@gmail.com to be a part of the mailing list or the online group that is going to be setup soon.

I also like thank my friends Giri, Deepak, Ramasamy and Umang for me helping me out in getting this article published.

Whose problem is it?

2009-03-20T09:53:00.005+05:30

I found the following in one of my friends blog:

"Its another Saturday today. Half way through another boring weekend. It seems ironic when a software engineer terms a weekend as boring. Back in my place in kerala, people do have a wrong notion that it's all fine and superb in the Silicon Valley Of India. While writing this blog, I am trying to find a solution for a problem which i haven't been a able to solve for the past two days. When i was about to leave office yesterday, my manager gave me an encouraging pat on the back and told me, " Don't worry man, you have two more days." It took me sometime to realise that he was referring to the weekends. "Come on sir , gimme a break"

It has been going on like this for a while now. It has been just work and sleep."

The writing was quite interesting but the subject of the writing is quite alarming. The condition of just work and sleep is not a thing with this you software engineer alone, it's there for a while now for most of the software engineers! intensifying more and more in this recessionary business environment. Who is the reason for all this?

Is it that people in this industry start working in a very early age and during the initial days, they sit in the office for long hours just to get a grip of what is going on in the professional environment which was not there in the college days and then by the time they are feeling comfortable, all their old charm of meeting up with friends and stuff is gone and they start staying in the office for late hours just because they don't have anything else to do?

Or, Is it that this notion came from the business managers who started using this undocumented work (after business hours) as a competitive edge for winning the clients, which got the industry into an endless spiral and made people like George worry so much?

image source: http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/07ka11pbKzce3/610x.jpg

I guess it is the later which caused all these problems. Some thing which started as a competitive advantage some where has forced the whole IT services industry into this mess where the client by default expect an Indian engineer to write off his life for work!, and now we (engineers) don't know how to get out of this mess and still survive in this industry. I guess the bosses & investors are not worried about this problem and it is not possible for them to be worried about this, because that is the industry norm! If I start caring for my people working late hours my competitor snatches the client from me by offering more work for the same amount of money!

So, now what? Well, this is also one of the reasons where a software engineers employees union might help! Think of a situation when all the engineers stand up and say, we won't work beyond 8.5 hours or whatever as per the agreement and any additional work need be compensated accordingly. Then companies can't use this as a competitive advantage against one another and will be forced to go back to the customer and say, can't help it, and you gotta pay more for the extra!

Hope our fellow engineers understand why a union still makes sense in the knowledge industry like ours. I leave this note with a caution that, an employee union could also spoil the show by doing un-acceptable things more dragged towards core communism. We may need to define a solid framework to tackle that problem and serve as an example to the unions in other industries, as we do most of the time in other cases.

100%

2009-02-04T16:53:00.005+05:30

Nice email forward.....

A boy and a girl were playing together. The boy had a collection of marbles. The girl had some sweets with her. The boy told the girl that he will give her all his marbles in exchange for her sweets. The girl agreed.

The boy kept the biggest and the most beautiful marble aside and gave the rest to the girl. The girl gave him all her sweets as she had promised.

That night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn't sleep as he kept wondering if the girl had hidden some sweets from him the way he had hidden his best marble.

Moral of the story: If you don't give your hundred percent in a relationship, you'll always keep doubting if the other person has given his/her hundred percent. This is applicable for any relationship like love, friends, employer-employee relationship etc., Give your hundred percent to everything you do and sleep peacefully.

Responsibility!!

2009-01-30T21:33:00.010+05:30

“If you are a person who takes more responsibility,

You’ll be given much more responsibility, and if you are taking much more responsibility, you’ll really feel powerful”

In one of the recent meetings with my all volunteers (carefully selected capable people) team for a CSR program, I was appreciating few of my people for taking more responsibilities, in addition to what they agreed to do when they joined the program and was telling them why I like to give more and more responsibilities to them. Listening to my comments, one other fellow team member made fun of those people who I appreciated, saying, they are being fooled by sweet words; though he really didn’t mean it and said that only for fun, his comment might have sent a negative signal to the concerned people.

image source: http://www.bombaychamber.com/Microsites/Project%20Website/responsibility.jpg

I just wanted to make a point to people like me, or those who I appreciated for taking more responsibilities; it's very rare that managers, leaders try to fool around with you giving more responsibilities. The fact that they are giving more responsibilities to you itself means they are acknowledging your potential and credibility. Saying so, if for some reason any of your superiors don’t reward you or stop you from getting recognized for your work, don’t develop a bad impression about other managers generalizing the stupid act and change yourself, restricting from taking responsibilities.

Napoleon the Great says, “Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide"; and responsibility gives you a chance to decide. Taking more and more responsibilities would make you much stronger, capable, credible, and happy, and prepare you to be a great leader. What else do you need in life? So don’t bother about people who make fun of you, or cheat you by getting all the work done without proper recognition; keep going and growing! But at the same time, move away from those few who just try to exploit people.

How $ is shining when the Fed is printing lot of money?

2009-01-30T21:11:00.005+05:30

US Central Bank, these days popularly called Bernanke’s Fed is literally doing everything it could to avoid this recession turning into a deep and painful depression. In the last one year, Fed has printed trillions of dollars from no where, still managing to keep up the power of the dollar. It’s not magic; they also can’t print money just like that, and then what the hell is Ben doing to get this working?????

Ben takes collateral of any sort and lends money to the so called institutions, without caring about the willingness of the banking companies to lend money. In an environment where the counterparty trusts is completely broken, even a slight negligence from Fed to act fast and provide liquidity (some how) would lead to the total collapse of the financial institutions, industries and what not around the globe. Thanks to Globalization, a falling American bank would in the process surely pull down two to three European banks triggering a chain reaction of collapse.

image source: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_135/1175393776ezKR76.jpg

In the last one year alone the Fed had lent around 1.5 trillion dollars, without that getting reflected in the Federal deficit. Did you ever wonder how it is possible without the dollar getting devalued? Simple, the collateral which the Fed takes is considered as an asset and the money lent (printed as currency or bonds) is considered as liability in the balance sheet. Zero sum game, even though nobody knows the real value of the assets that Fed is taking as collateral!!! Whew, nothing happens to the dollar.

Though the greenback is the shining currency now, the Fed’s asset column being built using the toxic collateral, in exchange of the money being printed, would be a major concern for the value of dollar when the global economies revives, destroying the competitiveness of Asia leading to another potential Asian crisis if not mitigated properly.

How are you?

2009-01-23T07:44:00.005+05:30

Until yesterday evening I didn’t know the real reason why people ask “How are you?”, “How are things?” etc. I was in an impression that people need some standard stuff to start with a discussion rather starting with a simple “Hello”. But the incident that happened yesterday evening made me realize why those questions are being asked and what difference does it make.

I called up my sister, who is in college, for blasting her on not being very sincere in her project work and I went on shouting at her about what she should be doing, etc and gave a big lecture in rough tone for around 30 minutes. I never used to ask “How are you?” when I talk to my family members on phone, as I talk to them daily and if something is wrong they would tell me without asking. Yesterday’s conversation was also a similar one, but a blasting one. I cut the call without touching upon any other matter after advising her to be sincere on the project work.

image source: http://www.jucoolimages.com/images/howru/howru_13.gif

In the late evening I again had to call her for something else and that time she brought up the point that she isn’t feeling well and is suffering from severe tooth pain because of dental treatment. My God! I just realized the biggest mistake I had made in the evening by blasting her without knowing what she is up to at that point in time :-(

I really felt bad! What else can I do after hurting someone? As she is my sister, the damage is not that much, think of a situation if this had happened in a business context! Thank God, I didn’t get this learning after hurting somebody who isn’t close to me permanently spoiling the relationship (sometimes!). Now I realize why people always ask “How are you?” or “How are things?” when they start with a conversation and I guess from now on I would follow this with my family members also!! Nothing matters when the situation is good, otherwise even a small negative behavior could cause a great damage.

Epicenter of mass destruction

2008-12-13T18:26:00.004+05:30

Speech by president Zardari denying the blame on Pak for the Mumbai attacks, saying the attacks are masterminded by ‘non state forces’ reveals the real state (pathetic) of governance there. Terrorist attacks by the Pak militants known to be trained and supported by ISI are not new for India though.

But, after the latest Mumbai attacks, there seems to a global awakening about the Pak originated terrorism. Is that just because a few foreign nationalities are killed in the attack? I don’t think so. U.S Secretary of State, Rice was in India immediately after the tensions got over, for talks with India and Pakistan on the aftermath of the attacks.

Looks like there are major reasons behind the immediate US response, other than the targeted attack on foreign nationals. One reason could be the Pak announcement on moving their troops from the Afghan border to the Indian border which would make the life difficult for American soldiers in the Afghan and the next could be a fear of war between two nuclear states at a time when the global economy is going south.

Obvious reasons apart, it looks like the west has realized the potential threat for them seeing the power of the ‘non state factors’ operating in a nuclear state! Convincing fact that makes me think that way is again related to the economic and political situation prevailing in Pak at this point in time.

Pak economy has already gone broke and is asking for an IMF bailout, at a time when it is coming out of a considerably lengthy dictatorship. ISI is known to act independently, which at times plays ploy against its own state government. Pak had spent quite considerable amount of money on strengthening its army and intelligence on par (or more) with much bigger countries like India. Being an activist state the ISI surely is expected to have spent a lot of money on encouraging and building the non state forces in addition to the encouragement that comes from the international Jihad activists.

I would say Pak is becoming another Afghan, and there could be a time in the near future where the non state factors might take control with the help of the army. Economic conditions would force the Pak government to cut back on defence spending and the army wouldn't like it, that could be one of the reasons why the army would go with the activists whose first preference for spending would be on the arms and armed personal. And that is going to be a major threat to the entire world. Think of a nuclear state with US funded high-tech arms in the hands of Islamic activists! And the west is starting to realize this after the planned attack on the foreign nationals.

Given a chance to grow at the current phase, Pak will change into an epicenter of mass destruction capable of targeting any place in the world. In a way the current attacks are going to bring lot of long term goods to India; for sure India is going to strength its security forces & intelligence and US is going to force and closely follow up the closure of the activist camps in the Pak boundary. These two things would strength our nation’s security to dramatic levels where there won’t be any (many) bloodshed attacks on the innocent civilians.

What I expect from this recession?

2008-12-09T23:22:00.004+05:30

Major chunk of business people we have today are new comers in the last boom period and haven’t seen the other side of business cycle. All they know is to cash in on the boom where there is a huge demand for any thing and everything, right from land to fast food to housekeeping. Most businesses aren’t aware of what exactly good service means and what it takes to keep the customer happy.

Just think of how many times in the day to day life you feel bad about the service you avail. A medium type restaurant (I explicitly mention ‘medium’ because higher class restaurants doesn’t have that much demand from the moving population and thus they really care about their service; at least most of them) or a auto rickshaw driver or a civil engineer you hire for building your house, no body seem to understand what service and customer satisfaction really means.

Reason for all this behavior is the demand in the booming economy where people are ready to spend a lot and aren’t finding the right place at the right time. That’s the simple reason why many businesses are making profit today. On the other hand, when the recession sets in, people really care for their money and they don’t feel like spending as they used to be. Though, as per theoretical economics people take considerable amount of time before they change their spending habits. When people cut back spending, then the real challenge for the businesses comes and it would expose who all cared for the customers and who weren’t.

Indian recession is not going to be worse like the American, but even a 2% drop in GDP would cost more than a trillion rupees and that’s not a small amount in a country where the major % of GDP is dependent on a smaller percentage of population. What it means? A whole lot of people are going to lose their jobs directly or indirectly and more than double that amount of people are going to see a fall in their income with depreciating assets across the board, from stocks to real estate.

If by any chance this recession continues for more than a year from now, people are going to cut back on spending to unexpected levels. In a conservative culture like ours, the probability of this happening is very high, and once it happens then its going to take much more time for people to come back to the boom mentality. Our business men who were just riding the tide without caring for his customer would be the first to shut his doors and start praying for the good time to come back!

I am an investor, but I am an irritated customer too. As an investor and an employee of a service sector industry, though I pray for the economy to get better as soon as possible, as an irritated consumer I pray for this business cycle to teach the right lessons for our businesses and make them realize “Customer is God and without them they aren’t in business at all”.

Thumbs down to Congress!

2008-11-29T01:14:00.007+05:30

Regular followers of my writings would know that I am big fan of our PM. A well learned man, pure politician, good decision maker, etc. aren't just an exaggeration about him. But it looks like politics is not a right place that straightly rewards his capabilities.

All was well till last year, bad things that happened gone unnoticed behind the scenes of high economic growth prospects, full confidence among the business owners, good stock & real estate markets, credit growth and what not. Though a majority of the indian population doesn't care about GDP, in real sense its a very good thing for every one of us. Even the Delhi bomb blasts didn't make much of an impact in the mind of the people if you remember.

But the trend reversal started with the unprecedented surge in the oil prices to unmanageable levels pushing the fuel prices and in turn the inflation. Central bank went on tightening the belts just based on the inflation numbers without considering the global economic conditions and at one point we suddenly started feeling the ripple effect of the global financial crisis hitting us badly. And due to the natural lag in the real situation being reflected in official data, we were too late in realizing that our economy had already started taking a hit and its little late to push it forward immediately without having a feel of the downturn.

On theory such an economic downturn can be reversed quickly either by using monetary or fiscal policy and a combination would be best to have. Thanks to inflation, we still have a long way in terms of rate cuts and CRR. Its a good thing, but not the best thing until it is supported by fiscal measures.

Unfortunately our fiscal situation is not that great. Government wasn't really expecting a thing like this to happen in a very short period and it had spent a lot of money in the last budget on farm loan waiver, pay scale revision, etc. I am sure when those things were planned FM didn't even have a clue of the current situation. Everything turned upside down and we suddenly realized that a whole lot of money got spent just for election sake.

The money that had gone in the farm loan waiver and the pay scale revision could have been put in to properly planned productive fiscal expenditure to shore up the sinking confidence in the economy. But now we are really helpless in the fiscal front though we can't fully blame FM & PM for that as everything changed all of a sudden. May be FM was keeping the foreign reserves as the backup plan, but now that also is in a jittery situation because of the fluctuations in the currency, credit markets and the fuel prices.

Repercussions of this slowdown is worse compared to the goods we enjoyed when things were in the right direction. Though the economic growth was not giving a very good feel to a common Indian, the downturn would really create a lot of pain even to the people who didn't enjoy the growth. Thats not a good thing for the ruling party. Even a single point setback in the growth is painful and people are already feeling it.

In such a situation had come this compromise on the nation security. Our financial hub is in the hands of terrorists! I wouldn't blame the intelligence unit though. The major reason for all these serial security compromise is the political stance of the ruling party in combating terrorism. Its apparent that the congress has been trying to take advantage of the religious vote banks and because of that they have been soft on certain things including the national security related policies & laws. A guy who is sentenced to death for terror has applied to the President for Pardon and his application is still in pending file without an answer for the bloody political reasons, though on theory President is politically neutral.

Almost all major cities including the national capital has been under threat under this government. I am not sure what's up with the Home Minister. Our elected ministers including the PM should start making the governing decisions rather their party leaders and their coalition leaders making decisions on behalf of them.

PM with his economics skills could take India on a long term growth path, but he failed in many other important areas. Though he is not the sole decision maker on every thing that happens in his government, he has to take the responsibility for all this and he would be remembered for all this, unfortunately. I am sorry Mr. PM, you aren't that lucky.

As whole Congress failed badly and I wouldn't be willing to vote them to power at least in the next election.

All work, study and no play made me a dull boy

2008-10-19T23:13:00.011+05:30

Getting back to writing after a month now, somehow last month had been a hectic stressful month for various reasons.

I was trying to prepare for exams in the midst of few personal things, because of some psychological factor I wasn't feeling good during exam preparation and my exams also did go that well as it used to be till now. May be all work, study for a prolonged period for almost 2 quarters now made me a dull boy; I guess my brain just got drowsy though my subconscious wants me to excel.

Today my exams got over & I went to dinner with my closest work circle friends. Btw, the dinner was sponsored by my friend Staney for scoring (710,6) in his last to last week GMAT test. Congrats Staney, all the best for your admits.

This week I have decided to be fully out of books, so I may write daily to cover up monthly writing average target :)

Addendum, 9th Nov 08:

Hmm, I was out of books but still couldn't write much to keep up the monthly average! Anyways, I should be back in shape soon. Also, my exam results are out and I passed all the papers which is sort of a relief.

Thanks Ben!

2008-10-13T14:12:00.007+05:30

Latest declaration by G-7: "No more Lehman Brothers-like failures of major financial institutions will be allowed. All bank deposits will be guaranteed. The banking systems of the G-7 nations will be flooded with almost unlimited liquidity. And if all that fails, any other tool—regardless of how economically unorthodox—will be used if needed."

I attribute all these actions to Bernanke, an outstanding student of the Great Depression. Thanks Ben, I am glad that you are at the right place at the right time to 'save the world'.

'Save the world' - Do you think usage of this term in the last sentence is ridiculous? My dear reader, "you and even me can't even image the existing complexity in the global macro economic scenario, simply put it would be a more painful situation if central banks & governments sit back and watch what happens".

You may want to read this also: http://mentalworkout.blogspot.com/2008/08/beware-you-arent-decoupled-from-uncle.html

Contrarian view on chrome

2008-09-17T22:40:00.004+05:30

When chrome was released, we looked at the features that were highlighted by google like the new super fast java script engine, enhanced architecture of the browser, etc, etc which are not so innovative in the pure sense and were trying to map them to cloud computing, etc. Here is a guy who analyzes chrome from a different perspective.

He basically thinks, “hang on, why age old java script & HTML again??? when we have much faster and elegant solutions like Java, Silver Light & of course flash!” Is it just because google’s life becomes difficult and near to zero as of now when it comes to indexing the web content that are developed using these new technologies?

Take a look at this article for an elaborate discussion on the same:

http://www.osnews.com/story/20270/There_s_More_Than_a_Browser_War

This also is possible!

2008-09-13T10:00:00.008+05:30

See what stock market can do to you! Below is the one year price chart of 158 years old American investment bank 'Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEH)':

Chart courtesy: http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/

And now LEH is for sale without many takers!

Addendum:

Alright, Lehman is dead now; filed chapter 11 bankruptcy on 16th Sep 08.

My blog's first recommendation + I hit 50

2008-09-12T23:12:00.017+05:30

Hurrah....... today, my blog got its first recommendation!

Staney had recommended my blog to his readers in his latest writing on the theme "What comes around, goes around!" against the normal saying "What goes around comes around", which is a nice read.

Thanks a lot Staney :)

Incidentally, this happens to be my 50th writing, and I want to thank my pang (Ramasamy S) for encouraging me to start a blog.

Thanks a lot Pang :)

Bit of humor

2008-09-12T15:44:00.007+05:30

Bit of humor from email forward: Tamil actor Vijayakanth's dialogues in english, Mind blowing :)

You can study and get any certificate, but you cannot get your death certificate.
You may have AIRTEL or BSNL connection, but when you sneeze you will have to say HUTCH.
You can become an engineer if you study in engineering college, but you cannot become a PRESIDENT if you study in Presidency college.
You can expect a BUS in BUS stop, but you cannot expect a FULL from FULL stop.
A mechanical engineer can become a mechanic, but a software engineer cannot become a software.
You can find tea in teacup, but you cannot find world in world cup.
You can find keys in keyboard, but you cannot find mother in mother board.

I enjoyed it :)

Welcome to chrome computing, oops! it's cloud computing

2008-09-08T20:47:00.017+05:30

Everybody seems to talk about CHROME now! a geek or a novice, whether they understand or not, but everybody is talking about it for the very reason that it is from GOOGLE.

I haven't installed it yet, but my friends Rama & Genie did; they are geeks you know. I am a fan of safari as it does font smoothing and makes reading from webpages a different experience, compared to other browsers. Well it's not free though, safari hangs every now and then. If one tab hangs every other tab and window of safari would hang, pretty bad. This problem also exists in firefox. If you want to move on, you have to start everything afresh.

Recent versions of IE is slightly different in some sense compared to firefox & safari. IE runs every seperate window in a different process, though tabs are just threads. That way even if you have to loose the contents of tabs in a particular window because of its crash, other windows (processes) are still safe.

Having that experience with the other browsers and with whatever Win32 core programming knowledge I have, I was curious about the architecture of chrome and the difference it makes compared to the other browsers. My findings are:

Chrome is designed and developed from scratch! - obviously means they would have tried to get rid of the problems with other browsers as much as possible and also to add new features. More like Microsoft what tried to do with Windows Vista by writing it from scratch; I know you are saying, "But Vista has lot of bugs!". Well, even chrome, for that matter any software designed and developed from scratch would have lot of bugs. Everything evolves to perfection over a period of time, so you need not worry about that much.

Everything in chrome is a different process including the plugins. It means, end users would really be happy for the reason that a crash or hang in one window/tab or killing one window won't after other things leading to a fresh start. A process is a completely isolated sandbox which has nothing to do with the other processes of the same application or other applications running in the system.

Since everything is a process, they can be tuned and controlled explicitly and separately based on the functionalities exposed by the operating system. Another major advantage with separate process is the memory! now every tab in the browser is capable of holding data up to a theoretical limit of 2GB in 32 bit environment. Wow, my entire data in the cloud could be kept in memory then!

They also have written the java script engine from scratch which allows google to have lot of customization in terms of functionality, specifications, & standards. That essentially means, google webpages running in chrome can have some additional features that aren't available in the other browsers. And google which is trying to be a monopolist in the online apps, email, etc. (I guess they are trying for the end to end monopoly) would use those features in its web pages and force the user to run chrome for better functionality!

Considering these significant design changes in chrome compared to other browsers, I sort of sense that this is a milestone move in their cloud computing strategy.

When Microsoft introduced its windows 1.0 over DOS, it was just a windowing extension, but version by version they improved it and made sure users are making use of the new features by selling cool applications, and as a result of supply, demand & expectaion cycle we are now in windows Vista. DOS is gone altogether as the base operating system! but the windowing which started as a small beta prototype now rules the world. It took quite a while though to achieve perfection. After all, only recently Microsoft is catching up in the server universe where the command line based operating systems used to rule.

Google is trying the same thing with cloud. Now chrome is a customized sandbox from google with most of its major components given out as open source. Developers from every corner of the world is going to use those core components for their future browser projects, and they are also going to improve it.

What google would do then? Google will have a team dedicated for the core components development, with most of the developments related to standard functionalities coming from the open source developers. Google team would only concentrate on those features that they think are important for getting cloud computing applications a reality and invest more time and money in their cloud computing web applications & frameworks. I am sure google need not develop chrome for the other operating systems, they have given an architectural prototype which would encourage the open source guys to do the rest of the things and get the product out.

Ultimately, Google wants their engine sitting in the browsers & make cloud based applications run seamlessly. As a cycle this would one day make the cloud computing so realistic, user can't feel the difference between using Microsoft word & Google Doc! If I can image a situation where people choose games like FIFA in the cloud, pay few cents rent per hour and play it in the browser itself. Or may be free from the game sponsoring company.

Once we reach that stage, Microsoft Windows/Any desktop operating system would become obsolete; developers would be writing software that runs in the browser and once everything runs in the browser google might release a $100 laptop that boots up linux kernel and just starts the future chrome. Since everything is available in the cloud and those user interfaces & applications becomes the standard, who would care about the operating system, etc. I would say 99.99% of the normal users won't.

My bet: long-term strategy behind chrome is to make the future computers/laptops running the browser directly over the kernel and rest everything would come from the cloud; and Google becoming the monopolist in the cloud. But we can't say whether its a double edged knife or a sword for google, as of now!

Microsoft is a bigger giant than google, it might also turn their focus on cloud computing aggressively. It should be fairly easy if focussed properly with their competence in the day to day computing domain. Who knows they may come up with a hybrid business model that might kill google and still continue as a monopolist even in the cloud computing era. If it is Microsoft with Gates, I would say the probability of this happening would be 0.85, but with Balmer I take a safe bet of 0.5. After all, Microsoft had been a good follower but also a winner in the end, all these years.

Anyhow, we would see the new era of computing in next 4 to 8 years.

US Kongu Association

2008-09-08T01:49:00.003+05:30

http://kongu-usa.org/cms/ - For Kongu community friends in the US.

Kongu Vellala Gounder history

2008-09-08T01:42:00.003+05:30

Came across this nice piece of information: It's a good write-up about Kongu Vellala Gounders.

Kongu Vellala Gounder history

A must read for the community friends.

It's all about usability

2008-09-06T23:51:00.005+05:30

From a software engineer point of view, user interface is very trivial in terms of the complexity involved in developing it. I personally don’t like to work on the user interface part of the products as I feel it less challenging. When it comes to the end users, user interface is all that matters. They can’t see what happens in the background on the click of a button; all they care about is how easy is it to click that button.

The other day I was talking to my dad who works for a nationalized bank for more than 27 years now, about the software used in his bank. He says, in the early days of his career there were many challenges in the job with lot of number crunching, etc. but these days with the introduction of computers in banking, the major challenge for him is using the software and not the real job!

I guess they are using a retail banking software called Finacle from Infosys. When we write software for a general product specification that caters to different kind of users, we end up adding lot of features that may not be used in day to day activities or in normal scenarios by the majority. If I get it right, that’s what adds complexity to the software that my dad uses. He says, just for opening a saving account he has to go through multiple screens and that also not by clicking next, next, next rather by choosing things explicitly in the menu or by using a shortcut keys. That’s stupid!

I had worked for the consumer electronics industry and I know how much money is being spent on the usability part of the device. We used to strip down the interface to the maximum possible extent giving only the options that are mandate. Nothing extra, as that would complicate the interface and would lead too many clicks or button presses to use a particular functionality. The goal used to be minimum number of clicks or button presses!

Then why isn’t the same theory applied for the business solutions software? Why do people bloat up the software with too many features which makes the day to day functionalities not readily accessible? Why don’t they make the software customizable for a particular user by him? Being a software engineer I myself don’t use many websites and e-commerce facilities given by my bank or my mobile operator because of the difficulty in using it, you can imagine what a novice computer user would do.

Is that the fault of the software developers? Nope, I would say its the fault of the project sponsor for not insisting on the usability and also on the BA team which didn't state this as a explicit requirement and express the need for the specialized people for usability design in the team.

But I guess things are changing now, I see a lot of importance being given to usability, and people are considering it to be a great deal. That’s a welcome move, but still I am not sure how many businesses are interested in paying for usability consulting job as a part of the business solution development. Another concern to be noted is, not all software services companies has this competency on board who can help the software teams to come up with highly usable systems, that makes the end users life easy.

It’s time for software services companies’ to start investing in the usability domain in software development & educate their customers about the importance of usability. If not, rather improving the business, the IT spending they do now would kill their business in the long run. As more and more businesses are going online, usability of a website could be a competitive advantage for a business. Believe me,

A complex e-commerce website could drive away your potential customers.

Fully loaded software which automates a business process might reduce employee productivity.

Wake up & start investing in usability, because that's the only thing the end user feels!

India gets NSG waiver, Hurrah!

2008-09-06T23:27:00.005+05:30

http://www.mentalfloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/433_Fireworks.jpg

Today, NSG granted its crucial waiver that will enable us (India) to carry out nuclear commerce, ending 34 years of isolation enforced in the wake of the 1974 Pokharan nuclear tests. Now we are free to unfold our wings in the civilian nuclear programs arena.

If you hit, just RUN!

2008-09-05T00:27:00.002+05:30

I drive a Fiero F2 150 CC with TN registration in Bangalore. I rarely drive to work, and today happened to be once such day when I had to go by bike to the head office, walk for some distance and then catch a late shuttle.

I was driving in the usual route which is very busy in the office going hours. I normally drive a little faster in that particular road because of the frequency of usage. That road has multiple streets cutting left and right, and it is very difficult for people who want to cross that road.

My speedometer was showing 40+ in heavy traffic in the lane and I am driving in the opposite side driving lane so as to keep up the speed. One uncle in kinetic Honda suddenly appeared crossing the road in just 3 feet distance. Since there was full traffic in the lane, I just couldn’t foresee somebody coming in there; still it happened :(

I knew I can’t stop, so I just tried to slow down and control as much as possible and hit the crossing vehicle with less impact or the vehicle would cross without hitting. Unfortunately that bugger didn’t cross fast enough and I ended up hitting him with considerable impact. There was a stand still for a second and then the other vehicle flew off a bit and was lying on the driver in the middle of the road.

My bike stopped but because of the hitting impact I have to drop the bike and run off a bit so as to avoid me falling down. I picked up the other moped so as to help the other guy to come out. He came out and didn’t seem to have any major injury. I was happy and thought that’s it; said sorry to him, picked my bike, and was adjusting the mirror etc. in the side of the road.

Suddenly I realize uncle standing behind me and asking me to come and see the damage for his bike. I told it’s a mutual mistake, so no need to check the damage and all and we should better go off. He was adamant and not ready to leave it without a settlement for the damage. I went and saw the damage and its like one side of that stupid moped’s butt had gone in because of the perpendicular impact. That’s bad, but for me it appeared to be an easily rectifiable bend in the steel body.

Again I started saying the damage is very small and more over it’s a common mistake, so we should just go off. Uncle was having an upper hand saying we should go to the police station to settle the issue knowing that my bike is a TN registration one and I won’t take the risk of going to police station to buy in more pain; I had to listen to him.

I offered 100 bucks! He said that’s not reasonable and asked for a better amount as per Bangalore expense standards or asked me get the bike repaired.

I thought the bill won’t go beyond 250 bucks and suggested going to a nearby mechanic to find out the approximate cost. The biggest mistake which I can’t be repeating any time in the future! That moron mechanic came up with a huge number; 1200. He said taking the bend off wouldn’t be enough as it will spoil the paint, and also painting a particular region won’t be enough and the whole part has to be painted. He also adds, even after paining that whole part, it will still look different compared to the other parts. Screwed :(

I tried calling up one another mechanic who I know, but that guy wasn’t reachable for some reason. Then what? I had to convince the person saying the mechanic’s estimate is too much and it really won’t cost that much. I also suggested him to sticker the damaged portion if the paint goes off in correcting the bend. Finally, uncle sort of agreed that the estimate was little too much. Half an hour gone and I had already missed the bus for which I was rushing. We spoke for sometime and he was sort of convinced to take 500 bucks!

Wrote off 500 bucks :( and still late to office; fortunately there aren’t any injuries to me and my bike, that way I am happy.

Moral: If you hit somebody, don't wait to see what happens; JUST RUN :)

Try to get aligned with the organization’s business and culture, otherwise buzz off

2008-08-31T14:19:00.003+05:30

At least 50% of talks in the organizational grapevine are about Salary & Job satisfaction issues! I work for my current (& first too) employer for four years now; for the simple reason being the culture alignment. I am sure I could have made a jump in the first or second year of my career in for a 50+% hike, but I didn’t; I believe there are lot more things in life & career than money.

I also have colleagues who think the same way and also the other way too. I have friends in the company who had worked for 5 companies in 4 years; they are technically sound but for some reason they are psychologically restless in the company. All the time they talk one or the other negative things about the company; which in the business sense can’t be considered wrong at all.

One guy (X) has an argument saying he wasn’t explained about the details in the CTC letter when he joined as a 3 years experienced engineer. That’s funny; our CTC letter is highly descriptive & experienced people like him should be able to properly interpret it, though some terms are not in plain English. I am sure Google & wiki can clarify lot of things these days. He started realizing certain things mentioned in the CTC letter only after receiving his monthly pay slip which made him unhappy. [1] So he always thinks and says the company has cheated him, as though he is a rocket scientist and nothing can be done without recruiting him.

I also have to mention a disclaimer for my above argument ([1]), sometimes it happens that the recruitment team is given targets to meet in a time period; since all of us are just PEOPLE, sometimes we go one step ahead doing all non sense to meet our targets which might have been a reason for X being unhappy. That may be the reason why the HR who was involved in the recruitment didn’t explain the CTC letter voluntarily.

One other guy (Y) has another issue; all his friends work for the direct Indian operations of American product companies with pay in the range of almost 1.5 to 2 times than him. Because of that reason he is feeling inferior and he also expects his current employer which is a product realization services company to pay him that much. Obviously they can’t! But Y never realizes that, he says his company is cheating him by paying less.

People: when you find a job don’t just jump around just by seeing the CTC number, there is a lot more than the CTC number which may make the company unfit for you. Also, there isn’t a ready list of preferences which would help you make the decision as the preferences and priorities are different for different people. First write down all your priorities and expectations, do your research on the employer and his promises before you sign the offer and accept it.

By mistake if you happen to make a wrong decision which you realize after joining the new employer, try to get adjusted to their culture if you can, otherwise buzz off and find a new job. No point in continuing with the same company talking wrong about it all the time. If your concern is something which is not a business limitation, then try to fix it up! You are now a part of that system, so it’s your responsibility. If the management is not agreeing with you and they also can’t convince you then there is a clear cultural difference, so again buzz off; no point in being with the same company anymore.

Once kings now want to be considered MBC

2008-08-30T23:39:00.005+05:30

Kongu Gounders (Kongu Vellalars) once the rulers of Kongu region in TamilNadu are asking the government to add their community to the Most Backward Class section of the society. It’s a shame for the community that is respected a lot in the Kongu region, more than the Brahmins. Very unfortunate! :(

Even after 62 years of independence still we are having quotas & benefits based on caste system in our country! At least in the world that I have seen in my life, people’s (most) standard of living is not always according to the caste based classes that government follows. I have seen poor Brahmins without a job as well as richer people in the other classes with good job, assets, etc. I am sure you might also have!

What makes us still stick to the caste based quota system then? I think it’s the unavailability of other readily available documented classification in the society. The most appropriate classification we can have for the quotas, grants, etc is based on wealth! But the only documented (mostly) classification is caste as of now.

I can’t even imagine the classification of Indian population based on wealth; it needs programs of huge investments under visionary leadership. First thing we should look at now is to have a unique citizen id like the SSN and everything that is associated with a particular person should be recorded against the id. Once we have that, then things will start falling apart for implementing efficient policies as well as improving the efficiency of governance of the existing policies. Right from charging luxury tax to fuel rationing for luxury usage to everything can be implemented in a matter of weeks!

It’s high time government start formulating the plans for getting citizenship identification number before thinking of anything else. And then immediately plan for an economic classification of the society for better governance and usage of tax payers’ money. Believe me its not that easy, formulating and implementing such a system in a corrupt country like India is going to take years together to make it perfect. But still, change is a must and it has to be done at any cost.

My feel is, rather expecting the government to do everything our NGOs & universities should start investing in these kind of studies publishing good quality academic material which the government can make use of.

Otherwise my friend who is worth 10 billion INR will be easily snatching the opportunity of a poor person who is for no mistake of his is in the government documents as forward class. My community is now asking the government to add us to the MBC list seeing other communities doing it in different parts of the country. I am totally against it and am ashamed of it. But I wouldn’t put the entire blame on my community either; they are doing it because other communities are doing it and we end up being a loser otherwise.

Long live Kongu!

Addendum:

From a post writing discussion;

My Dad has an interesting idea that can be implemented immediately as a starting point for moving out of the caste based reservations, quotas, etc. He says, from now on if one person from a family who is more than 15 years of age avails a caste based reservation, then that family is not eligible for any more reservations. This could be fine tuned by grouping the reservations and creating policies generalizing this core idea. Sounds like a good idea to me too.

My uncle was there in the state level mass gathering of my community people that happened this saturday at my place (Namakkal). I was a really happy to hear a wise argument that was insisted in the gathering; they seem to have said "If we are abolishing the caste based reservation altogether, we are happy about it and we'll immediately withdraw the request for adding us to the MBC list; otherwise we would try to push this request strongly, after all we have more than 1.5 crores of Kongu people in this state". I appreciate this!

I oppose this change

2008-08-30T23:16:00.009+05:30

This is my latest observation of the so called modern girls! Not sure whether you observed this, look out now and you will see this happening everywhere.

Office to road to restaurant, these days we only see guys giving way turning side ways or by moving off to the side when girl(s) & guys happen to walk in opposite directions towards each other. That’s odd! I thought girls are supposed to be doing this so as to avoid a collision.

When a guy gets in to a my office bus, he mostly tries to avoid opting for a seat where the person next to him is a lady! I see this happening everyday with different guys; yesterday I happen to see the same behavior in a private travels by which I was travelling to my native place. It’s like, a guy gets into the bus, sees a free middle seat with a lady sitting in the next to it, he also sees an empty seat in the last row and he opts for the last seat without second thought.

Nothing special about it! But, given the same choices for a girl entering the bus with the near by person in the empty middle seat being a guy, this lady opts for the middle seat! and this seems to be special in some sense. Is that the ladies are getting bolder than men these days? Shame on us gentlemen! Comparing this with happenings in the hallway, where a guy gives way (always) for a lady walking in the opposite direction would make us think ladies are taking advantage of our respect for them? If later is the case then shame on you ladies! I believe the later is the reason.

Sometimes well educated women who work with high cultured men (bound by social/work place values at least) try to behave the same way with other men on the roadside path way too, but unfortunately they get hit almost all the time.

Beware madam; we respect you for what you are & how you are coming up these days (given a chance)! But don’t try to take advantage of the situation, men are more powerful and they deserve respect. Unfortunately all men aren’t bold enough to share this opinion; I know my friend Paddy would back me up in this case, but not my senior colleague who recently said ‘No comments’ in one such discussion saying he has three women in his house including his cute little daughter.

I never speak against or control what my sister does or against her growth, I may not mandate my wife also to be the way my mom used to be; but, it’s just that I feel bad inside for what is happening to men these days. If my mom read this, she would surely beat me up for being a male chauvinist; fortunately she doesn’t read my blog.

Change is the only constant, but most of the time change leads to entropy if not kept under check! – This is applicable for almost everything and for women too.

Beware; you aren’t decoupled from Uncle Sam’s balance sheet yet

2008-08-12T00:25:00.015+05:30

Who is Uncle Sam? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Sam

Just 8 months back (around Dec 07),

1. Everybody believed Asian economy is decoupled now & the US slowdown won't affect the Asian growth story

2. NASSCOM was predicting 30% YOY industry growth for the IT sector

3. I believed getting the H1B/L1 is the big deal and once it is through, every thing else is fixed

4. My friend (Sid) believed getting a seat in one of the US universities would fix up his career

But from two months back (around April 08) lot of things changed drastically,

1. Everybody is convinced that if Uncle Sam has a head ache then the rest of world should at least feel the body pain!

2. NASSCOM has cut down the IT sector growth projection for this year to just 14% YOY, Infy & TCS results are in line with the projections. IT major Infy says they are cautions in the medium term for another 4 to 5 quarters!

3. I being a student of the economics also realize that it’s not about getting the H1B/L1 approved but its all about Uncle Sam’s balance sheet (my project which was a cash cow in the recent past for the team as well as my company got closed down all of a sudden due to cost cutting)!

4. But Sid still wasn't agreeing with me till 10 days back when our project got closed down. I think he is sort of convinced now; he is still a baby you know!

Sid wasn't the only one in my circle who didn't realize that their fortune in the near future is based on Uncle Sam’s balance sheet. It’s really not a joke, now I realize (not only me, :):):) ) a slowdown in the US economy which contributes to 44% of the global GDP isn't something which can be taken for granted.

May be if it was a general cyclical business slowdown our old belief's like the Asia decoupling would be valid even today, but what people really didn't see was the washout of huge (HUGE) amount of money that the global investment banks (investors!) bet on the US sub-prime market ("GREED").

Normally when there is slowdown in one part of the world which usually happens over a considerable period of time, investors take their money and invest in some other part of the world. What happened this time is investors suddenly realized huge portion of their investment just got eroded within anytime! Resulting in panic pull back from all parts of the world where they had invested just to make sure they don't lose what remains! ("FEAR"), leading to a bad cash crunch in the global financial system. Believe me, a cash crunch can bring down/burn any big giant; but Bernanke (one of the smartest student of Great Depression, the current Federal Reserve Chairman) managed to save the global economic system.

Greed & fear didn't stop there; few guys who were still cash rich like sovereign wealth funds started investing into the commodities especially oil market which was already heating up due to economic growth in the BRIC. Result: Oil was up almost 100% in a year’s time.

So what??? Well, commodities are being major raw material for everything that happens in the world; rise in the price of commodities started showing up in almost everything we use waking up the inflation dragon in every corner of the world, even in Japan that was suffering from deflation for most of the last decade. You can imagine what it would then be for a major oil importing country like India.

People are saying Dr. Singh & Mr. FM are responsible for double digit inflation without realizing that Uncle Sam is the real culprit. As for as India is concerned; certain level of inflation is acceptable for a country that clocked 9% growth consecutively for the last three years from a theoretical stand point. Though it’s a killer for the major portion of our population which lives with less than a $ a day which is not acceptable from the political & humanity stand point. Also from the trade deficit stand point!

Finally we are in a state where the global economy is slowing down; inflation is up at unacceptable levels leading to a condition called stagflation (slow growth combined with rising inflation) which would take considerable amount of time to get fixed.

I am not sure how & why none of the models/risk models that the economists or stock market pandits around the world build didn't reveal this worst situation before it really reached this point. Probably that’s why people argue economics is not science & it’s more of an art! 90% of the time models goes wrong especially when there is fear around.

Coming back to the point; just be aware that nothing is decoupled from Uncle Sam’s balance sheet, if he has a problem you better be prepared unless you are (still) financially independent. Most of us, including my partners Mukesh & Anil (we lost 30% of one portion of our wealth in last 6 months) should be worried about Uncle Sam and should be praying for him to recover soon.

As of this writing oil is at $114.30, lowest since May 1st 08; if this happens to be a stable oil retreat then we can hope for things to start getting better in the local ground. India would surely be back on track to clock 8+% growth if oil starts stabilizing around $100. For us who are doing direct business with Uncle Sam; we also need the US housing market starting to stabilize before we plan any aggressive moves. Let’s hope for the best.

That's what management is, stupid

2008-07-30T00:41:00.003+05:30

I have seen lot of people saying that their manager is dumb! and the reason being their delegation of work. People think managers are not capable of doing the tasks which they delegate or managers are not interested in work at all and that’s why they delegate their responsibility. But what people don't understand is; one of the aspects of management is getting the work done by effective delegation! A good manager should (would) delegate all that his team can do and concentrate only on things that require his experience & expertise as per management theory. Next time when your manager comes to you and says, "please take care of this"; don't think he can't do that and that's why he is asking you. It just means that he is trying to be effective; if you can do a particular task, then why should he waste his time (which is costlier than yours) in that task. THINK :)

Banks are shifting their focus to SB ACs

2008-07-30T00:38:00.004+05:30

Till date banks were aggressively selling credit cards to boost their business as the interest for credit card debt is way higher than other type of loans. Cost of fixed deposits was almost constant in India for quite some time. Which means cost of money was stable and banks just had to find strategies to make more profit out of the stable base of inputs; simple! But now that the lending rate situation is volatile due to the RBI stance to curb inflation, cost of money for the banks is going up. It’s not good for banks to promote fixed deposits any more. The money that comes in now as FD is going to get locked in today’s high interest rates for years together, putting pressure in the bank balance sheet for the life of that deposit.

Now that the cost of money on the fixed deposits is going up, banks have to do device strategies to get access to the low cost funds and the answer is CASA (Current Account Savings Account), simply put savings accounts (SB). Interest rate paid on the SB accounts is almost 30-35% lesser than fixed deposits and there are no long term interest rate commitments. It’s not that easy to just beef up on SB accounts and device a deterministic cash flow because of the volatile cash flow nature of the SB. Still this is one of the important strategies that banks can use as a hedge against the short term cost fluctuations. Banks having good CASA base would do better than the others in today’s macro economic environment.

In normal times most banks don't take voluntary steps to boost the SB account growth, but now that the SBs come handy for accessing the low cost capital they are realizing the importance. I already got a call from Kotak Mahindra for opening a 0 balance, 0 charge SB account for the first time, I have never got a call for SB accounts from any bank till date.

One funny thing is; banks as such are not affected by the rise in inflation as there is no raw material involved in banking business! But when RBI makes a move to curb inflation by increasing the lending rate, banks badly suffer due to high cost capital coupled with a slowdown in the credit growth. Dr. Reddy (RBI Governor) decides the inflationary effect for the banks!

What I expect from a sales person?

2008-07-26T13:44:00.006+05:30

An ICICI Direct sales person was trying to convince me for buying an FMP from Birla Sun Life. I being a investment & finance savvy listened to his marketing funda with certain level of technical background. He was giving me a fair explanation of whatever was mentioned in the pamphlet. The things he forgot to keep in mind as a marketing person was the respect for my background on the fundamentals behind the product he was trying to sell and the trust he need to build with the customer.

First, he was trying to explain me some silly things without completely getting my question and my expectation; second, he didn't have clear explanation for certain things available in the pamphlet. I don't expect him to know everything about that product (though it will be pretty good if he does) as he sells multiple products from multiple companies; but the mistake was, he never told me that he would clarify on that, rather he was telling the same thing again and again even after many different questions on the same matter.

Moving on to the application after completely discussing the pamphlet; I was not seeing any of the numbers or promises which the fund managing company was making in the pamphlet on the application form! and the sales guy don't have an answer for that. He went to another level of irritation saying the pamphlet is enough, though it doesn't make sense for me in legal agreement terms.

In addition to all the marketing skills people talk about like good communication, body language, being soft, etc. I feel a marketing guy should first get his facts right on what ever he is selling and he should be ready to gather information and clarify on certain things which he is not aware of. I also want the person to be genuine! A marketing person may hide certain things due to business reasons and because of the nature of product he is selling; but he can't lie if the buyer asks a specific question on something. Lying is the worst thing that a seller can do to lose his credibility and the customer, not only on the current sale but 0n the future sales also.

If I were a seller, I would get my facts right, talk in simple terms, won't lie, respect the buyers knowledge and concentrate on the long term business relationship. I expect the same from the people I buy from, otherwise I just don't buy from him even if I choose to buy the product.

Congrats Mr.PM - You did it.

2008-07-22T20:32:00.017+05:30

Picture courtesy: ndtv.com

Congrats Manmohanji.

Hope your team fixes up the economic mess (inflation), rest of the pending bills which Lefts were blocking ASAP and face the next election with confidence.

Wish you all the best.

I vote for the N-Deal - just trying to be a responsible citizen :)

I am not a congress supporter as such, but I like the team of ministers; Dr.Singh, Mr.PC, Lalu, Mr.Maran (I want him back), etc. that UPA has(d) in power to lead INDIA and take it new heights.

Conclusion in this article http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080058242 is really touching.

---

On the day of historic trust vote 22nd July 2008, UPA won the trust vote by 275/256.

Wish I could be like 'Ram Shankar Nikumbh' :)

2008-07-13T00:02:00.007+05:30

I was watching 'Tare Zameen Par' five minutes back and was really impressed by Amir's character, its comparable to Big B's character in the movie 'Black' I guess.

Wish I also get a chance to be like Nikumbh.

I was supposed to read some 50+ pages for my next week exams before I go to bed, but for some reason I was watching movie and now I am going to bed without reading. Hope some Nikumbh helps me to pass my exams, kidding!

Am I a loser?

2008-07-04T21:19:00.009+05:30

I personally have a habit of helping people who come to me looking for help, whether it is monetary or whatever; if it is in my limits I would.

One example, you would have seen people asking for money in the bus terminals saying that they lost their wallet/belongings and they don’t have money to eat or continue their journey. I go with the crowd who gives money to such people.

Many times I had been in a situation when I have finished eating food or buying something and then realizing I wasn’t carrying wallet. In such times people had been graceful enough to excuse me and allow me to pay the amount when I come next time or in some cases I have to call up my roommate or a friend and ask them to bail me out. This is possible in my local place where people know me or somebody can come over and help me out.

I also wonder what I would do if this happens in some far off place where I don’t know anybody. Keeping that in mind I consider this situation to be natural and I choose to help people in such situation. Chances are there for 50% of such people coming to us in the bus terminals are liars. I don’t care because I don’t want the other 50% who are in real need to be out of help because of these 50% sluttish liars.

Now, I shall share something that happened last week. I was walking back home after dinner on a Wednesday night with medicines in hand. I was sick badly and my mind was also involved in making some very important decision for almost a week. Because of sickness and too much concentration on something else I was completely absent minded and I was so careless for the whole of that week.

That night also I was in the same condition, suddenly one person dressed in shirt and pant (decent) comes to me and says he lost his wallet with 3000 bucks in the BMTC and he needs money to travel to some place which is little far off. I guess he was saying Kolar. Also said, he is on a temporary deputation in Siemens, Bangalore so he doesn’t stay here.
He asked me for 135 bucks and said nobody was ready to believe this story and help him out.

Me being a person with almost 90% absent mind at that moment and with a nice policy of helping this kind of people; I took his mobile number and gave him the exact change. To my surprise I had the exact change of 135 bucks. He said he would call me at the lunch time the next day and return the money. I said I won’t be available in this area during lunch time, so he agreed to come and return the money at around the same time the next day.

I gave him the money, took his mobile number & gave mine. I also saw his id card; I guess he is some kind of contractor or something working for Siemens. He thanked me and buzzed off.

The next day, I was waiting for his call and I never got one. So I tried calling him; call got connected and the person in the other end says he is not the person I am looking for. I immediately thought that a$$hole was a liar & he cheated me. But still I thought not to conclude immediately and checked the number. I realized that I have typed 8 instead of 9 for the second digit. I thought I was wrong in coming to bad conclusion about that person. I correct the number and called again and now the operator says that’s a wrong number and it didn’t exist. Checked the number again and this time it is right.

I realized that person is really an a$$hole and I wasn’t wrong in my first conclusion. Now I don’t have an option other than to write of that amount and forget about it, I did so.

But I don’t feel sorry for that as getting cheated; because my policy is so clear that I don’t care for liars in such cases. I didn’t feel for that anymore, basically I think I am not a loser though I could have been little careful like checking the mobile number by giving a call to his number immediately etc. I wasn’t in a position to think about doing that, so I didn’t.

But I am not sure what will (& when) teach a lesson to people like that freaking a$$hole who purposefully acted and took money from me. I believe in God, so he would someday screw him for his act. Pity thing is, not everybody is like me, not to care about the liars and help thinking that the people in need shouldn’t be affected. As a result, most people choose to ignore helping cases like this.

This is not a question of life and death, so we need not talk about this so much. But things like this are common in almost many other situations. There used to be a time when people used to setup accident like situation in the Bangalore highways and rob people who come for help.

After 4 or 5 incidents like this, people literally avoided stopping the vehicle on the highways to help others who had met with an accident or asking for a lift. Here there is a question of life and death though. Even I don’t stop on the highways because here I can’t go and help with out caring for the robbers, because in most of these cases you not only loose money but also get physical injury in fighting.

I could never think of a better fix for this :(
I wish I could live in a rational world where there is not fear and greed.

P'war wheat - Rs.1300/quintal

2008-06-05T21:19:00.006+05:30

Doesn't sound like a famous brand right! Its central government’s brand distributed through PDC & is headed by P'war. Decipher this yourself; let me go to the point.

Central government has ordered to bury Rs.32,000 crore worth wheat on May 9^th at a time when the world is crying because of food price inflation and riots were going on for food in some countries. Yes, we are in India and we don’t have a riot for food situation yet, but still it’s unacceptable to destroy so much wheat without any solid reason. Why do you think government is ordering that then?

Towards the end of 2005, 7 million tons of wheat was imported and there was too much noise in the media about the quality of wheat. But as usual after some point, media didn’t care much. Reason behind noise was the quality of wheat and the commission deals involved in making a decision to import such bad quality grains.

Wheat was sent to Maharashtra for public distribution, but nobody was willing to buy that stuff because of the fear media had created by then. After some point it wasn’t feasible to keep the stock in the PDC, so it was ordered to be stocked in the government warehouses. Agri ministry went on research for the next action, time passed by in research as usual and one day they found the wheat is not usable any more. Forgot about the quality; It’s not usable any more.

Final decision was to separate the unusable wheat and the rest that can at least be used as animal feed. Out of the 7 million ton, huge portion of it (worth 32K crore) was declared to be obsolete and it had to be immediately destroyed. Rest of the stock would be sold for animal feed at the rate of Rs.670/quintal which is less than the amount government offered local farmers for procuring first quality wheat in 2005. Not sure what happened to the 670 wheat that was supposed to be sold for animal feed.

In 2006, government wanted to procure around 7.5 million ton wheat and was offering Rs.850/quintal to the farmers when the private players were offering Rs.1000 to 2400 based on the quality of the grains. Nobody was willing to sell to the government, and the only choice is to import again or to increase the procurement price.

Government decided to go ahead with import even after so much of opposition, giving around Rs.1300/quintal. Still no body is sure of the quality of wheat that is imported this time. But based on the govt action to destroy bad portion of the last import, it’s evident that the ministry has made hell lot of money in terms of commissions to knowingly import 3^rd grade seed. Otherwise they would have filed a case against the companies that supplied the wheat and would have tried to claim damage or return back the seeds, nothing happened!

Fixing the food production and the procurement process is one of the major problems to be solved soon to be self reliant in food. But our politicians doesn't seem to be interested in fixing that as it would affect their commission earnings.

God save India.

Mental models

2008-06-01T17:31:00.003+05:30

All our actions and reactions in day to day life are based on 'common sense' which the human mind builds over the years of our life. The essences of almost everything you hear, read, learn and experience are stored in the mind.

When I used to be kid my dad was never allowing me to watch ghost/horror movies. Once he told me the reason saying what you see in the movie stays in your mind! And your psycho may unconsciously get into fear mode when you are into such kind of situation. For example, passing by a graveyard at 12 in the night and by chance you happen to hear a dog barking or the sound of the wind or whatever and chances are that you will be afraid without no reason because of what imagination you are seeing in the movie today. Basically he was trying to tell me I would become a coward in such situations.

I never happened to read psychology books to verify what he said, so I just believed him. Today I was watching a video based on the book "power of impossible thinking" which gives a new term called "mental model" for what I believed to be common sense. Mental models constantly evolve everyday based on your new learning or observations. So, my dad was right!

I guess we need to be very selective in what we read, watch, hear or talk about; planned making of a perfect mind, try doing it.

Take care of your parents, they are precious

2008-05-27T15:56:00.001+05:30

Email forward: It's good, take a look.

This was narrated by an IAF pilot to IIT students during a Seminar on Human Relations:

Venkatesh Balasubramaniam (who works for IIT) describes how his gesture of booking an air ticket for his father, his maiden flight, brought forth a rush of emotions and made him (Venkatesh) realize that how much we all take for granted when it comes to our parents.

My parents left for our native place on Thursday and we went to the airport to see them off. In fact, my father had never traveled by air before, so I just took this opportunity to make him experience the same. In spite of being asked to book tickets by train, I got them tickets on Jet Airways. The moment I handed over the tickets to him, he was surprised to see that I had booked them by air.. The excitement was very apparent on his face, waiting for the time of travel. Just like a school boy, he was preparing himself on that day and we all went to the airport, right from using the trolley for his luggage, the baggage check-in and asking for a window seat and waiting restlessly for the security check-in to happen. He was thoroughly enjoying himself and I, too, was overcome with joy watching him experience all these things.

As they were about to go in for the security check-in, he walked up to me with tears in his eyes and thanked me. He became very emotional and it was not as if I had done something great but the fact that this meant a great deal to him. When he said thanks, I told him there was no need to thank me. But later, thinking about the entire incident, I looked back at my life. As a child, how many dreams our parents have made come true.

Without understanding the financial situation, we ask for cricket bats, dresses, toys, outings, etc. Irrespective of their affordability, they have catered to all our needs. Did we ever think about the sacrifices they had to make to accommodate many of our wishes? Did we ever say thanks for all that they have done for us? Same way, today when it comes to our children, we always think that we should put them in a good school. Regardless of the amount of donation, we will ensure that we will have to give the child the best, theme parks, toys, etc. But we tend to forget that our parents have sacrificed a lot for our sake to see us happy, so it is our responsibility to ensure that their dreams are realized and what they failed to see when they were young. It is our responsibility to ensure that they experience all those and their life is complete.

Many times, when my parents had asked me some questions, I have actually answered back without patience. When my daughter asks me something, I have been very polite in answering. Now I realize how they would have felt at those moments. Let us realize that old age is a second childhood and just as we take care of our children, the same attention and same care needs to be given to our parents and elders. Rather than my dad saying thank you to me, I would want to say sorry for making him wait so long for this small dream. I do realize how much he has sacrificed for my sake and I will do my best to give the best possible attention to all their wishes.

Just because they are old does not mean that they will have to give up everything and keep sacrificing for their grandchildren also. They have wishes, too..

Take care of your parents. THEY ARE PRECIOUS.

Rs. 3 dosa + Rs. 2 egg = Rs. 20 egg dosa, WTH?

2008-05-25T22:40:00.011+05:30

Its weekend & I went to an important meeting on Saturday morning which went on till 2 PM. I was very hungry and was driving back home, since it was sunny I had decided to have food some where near my home. I reached the hotel and suddenly remembered that I had only Rs. 45 (little more than a $); with that money I wasn't sure whether I would be able to have food in that "normal hotel" (as per my home town standards which is not a so costly place to live). SAD, I can't have lunch with 45 bucks in a normal hotel in Bangalore! Is it because of inflation? Or is it just the supply side power?

Being unhappy and helpless, I decided to go to ATM to draw money and have food in some other normal kind of restaurant. The restaurant which I had in mind after drawing money is an Andhra style one charges me Rs. 65 for a small plate of chicken biriyani with nothing great as value add neither in terms of service nor the ambiance or anything else. It’s just a small plate biriyani & its Rs. 65 :(

Again being unhappy & helpless, I had biriyani there and went home. Its dinner time! f**k, I have to find another place to eat where I can see some value for the money. Started driving and suddenly I remembered a road side shop which is below standards to name it a hotel. One my friend had sometime suggested this to me. He lives with his family in Bangalore & his standards for food are high, so I can't ignore his recommendation. I decided to try this road side place.

I am there. No chairs, no music, no uniforms, nothing; it’s just a kitchen room with a tarpaulin arrangement for people who want to stand there and have food. I opted for parceling one fish fry, half chicken kabob & a egg fried rice (later I was surprised to see that it is a whole plate full quantity). Billing time, he says 15+15+15 = Rs. 45. Wow man, thats it; all these food for ONLY 45 bucks. Now I understand how a large share of population makes its living with a $ for the whole day for the entire family in my great nation.

Then what's wrong why the heck are these sagars (normal kind of hotels) charging me so much for something which I consider to be junk or filler? It’s the supply side advantage they have that makes them to earn more than 100% margin. What is that by the way? Take the road side shop that targets the poor or the lower middle class, I guess they were having a decent 20% margin which is fair enough be in business with the middle class which otherwise wouldn't come there. Take the * hotels which targets the rich, fair enough they have invested huge capital for creating good ambiance & service; they target the rich who are ready to spend on the value add for a pleasant meal.

Then what are sagars? Why do they have so much pricing power? Its because they target the upper middle class who can't go to the road side shop just to make sure his peer wouldn't comment on him and can't afford to go to the *'s as they can't afford it. Sargars use these two facts and push their price to the maximum which people can pay though it’s not what they is sell is worth of. Its just artificial situation based pricing which allows them to make more than 100% margin. Look at me; a bachelor who doesn't have any other choice than to go to these freaking sagars for food! I pay so much daily for something not worth paying for, so I feel the pain. Households may not feel this pain, as they come to hotels rarely.

Its Sunday night, I again feel the pain of paying Rs. 18 for a Rs. 5 worth egg dosa & hence this article. God please give me power to start a chain of hotels by which I can address the pain of so many fellow citizens like me who pay for junk in hotel, daily.

P.S: Why did I put Rs. 20 in the title if my dosa was only Rs. 18. Rest is the tip! Though the suppliers in the sagar don’t do anything impressive or appreciable they expect people to tip them. So I paid a round off amount of Rs. 20. I know you are asking why I gave tip then; otherwise they will make me wait for more time in my next visit there. Supplier power! F**k.

Dressing style

2008-05-25T19:57:00.010+05:30

Nobody cares about how men dress, what they wear etc., around the world they almost wear similar kind of things, and also they don't have much choice. So we ignore men in the context of this discussion.

Dress: I feel this is something which was meant to protect the human body from weather, insects, etc., in the initial days of human evolution and in the later days when the cultures evolved, it became a reflection of culture.

Let’s talk about the classical dressing in Tamilnadu which I guess can be generalized to the rest of India at least to some level. Dressing is mostly inclined towards hiding the curves in the body especially for women; reason being men are sexually attracted by women's physical appearance (reverse is not true).

So what? Why shouldn't we allow then go get attracted? There is a reason, Tamil culture also insists on "family" concept, marrying and living with one for the life time. Random men getting attracted towards random women is not in line with "live for one" kind of life style. So they put in a preventive measure in terms of dress code or style that reduces the probability of "attraction", otherwise you never know :)

Lots of practices are tied together when we define a culture. Dressing to life style to something else, I guess all of us would agree on that.

Now let's talk about the western style of dressing which is more about exposing the curves and make women look beautiful & attractive! (Though, their climate allows them to do so only for half a year). We in recent days closely with them, live abroad for quite sometime etc., so we tend to adapt to their life style, not a problem being a roman in Rome.

Problem is when we try to live their life style in our place which is basically different in some of its values. Unfortunately for some reason, the western dressing style had caught up in many cities and it is becoming a normal dressing style. Result, lot of crimes related to sexual assault etc. It also is silently and slowly killing our family centered culture.

If we take a close look, western dressing makes sense in their culture which is not family centered and is more of living together as long as the relationship is pleasant. I like somebody & she like me, we can live together or do what ever we want as long as both of us agree to it. So a woman wears a exposing kind of dress there, also she is open to making relationships that are temporary and no body objects that as it is an accepted practice in their society.

Now if we try to copy one aspect of some other culture and try to fit it into another culture, we break the system creating chaos and unrest in the system. For example, a girl in Bangalore tries to wear a skin tight T & short and roam around, what happens to the men out there; scientifically they are in trouble even though their education and values stops them from taking further action which nature suggests. It really needs a strong psychological strength to be disciplined all the time. Though no disciplined men acts on the hormonal trigger, his mind acts on it on a temporary basis, thats the reason why all eyes going to one side, if an attractive girl walks by. Can't help it, it happens everywhere in the world.

It’s good if all men are disciplined and have a strong psychological strength to be so. But that's not the case, which results in lot of crime in restricted societies like ours. There is another possibility if not crime; secret post or pre-marital relationships. I am not kidding; take a look at some recent surveys by the popular magazines.

My point is; western dressing is not good for our culture, it just creates behind the scene dealings resulting in fake family life in some cases. If we are ready to take the western culture as a whole, then its good, everybody is socially free to do what they like and they is not question of secrecy. I would also appreciate that; otherwise better get back and start dressing properly, don't break the system and get into trouble. To be clear, proper dressing means something which hides the curves.

This article is just a break out of concentration diversion in the usual weekend temple visit :)

P.S: My friends like Staney wouldn't agree on these views! Though I feel his argument is not backed up by theory.

Hard time! Indian govt may panic & play around.

2008-05-23T22:13:00.006+05:30

US in recession, global inflation, commodities price surge, oil at its peak; and Indian government is in its election year! So what's going to happen in a nation where the central bank is not completely independent of the govt and lefts have a significant share in having the govt in power.

Top minds like Mr. PC & Manmohanji understand the criticality of the situation well, but are their actions going to be a true reflection of their own thought process. I certainly feel no. Even in normal situations when there is no election in the near future, the lefts opposition are going to strongly oppose any hike in the petrol prices, interest rates etc., just for the sake of putting pressure on the govt. Anyway a common Indian is not going to care about the long term economic strategies; all they care about is what the opposition is going to talk about. But ironically its going to be very short sighted.

In addition, this being election year there is going to be strong opposition from the congress party itself for a move that would all the pressure on the govt in terms of subsidies & waivers. Already I can feel the govt's panic to somehow get vote bank by increasing the farm loan waiver by 20% with the reason Rahul Gandhi was asking for a stimulus expansion from the time the plan was announced. BS! I hate to be an Indian for this reason :(

First of all the plan itself is very short sighted; focusing on the vote bank rather considering the long term implications. 60K crore now up to 72K crore, if invested properly on developing irrigation systems or infrastructure for villages or on some plan that would help farmers in increasing the production or the margins would be a long term solution for self sufficiency in food, inflation check for many years, etc. But can't help now; the populist move is already made and the money is wasted.

Bloody hell; in freaking democracy like India, tax payer don't have a say on how his money can be utilized. Once you vote you are gone; it’s the people in power who decide what you are going to eat. SAD!

Today there is a proposal from the petroleum ministry for increasing the petrol and diesel charges by almost 20% despite the bad name it is going to get for the ruling alliance. The situation is unavoidable, crude oil prices have more than doubled in a year’s time and the govt is keeping all the pain on its head for one reason - VOTE. Our state owned oil companies are going bankrupt facing problems even for operating capital. Wake up India, please wake up!

Holding back to the same price etc would undervalue rupee, because of the debt govt is falling into due to the subsidies. You can give subsidy for food, also diesel for commercial purposes especially for goods carriers and not for people who want to lead luxurious life; if possible otherwise everybody have to share the load. Not at this time at least. Govt should increase the price of petrol and diesel, though lefts and opposition are going to create a big scene out of this issue without caring for f..king future.

I am afraid! I don't want the PM & FM to be populist at this serious time listening to their party and coalition. I want them to be performing at their best to keep the country in the growth path; also taking measures to control inflation may be at the cost of growth at a short term.

Any move that is made just for sake is going to cause damage to our economy in a long term due to the seriousness, dynamics & sensitiveness of today’s local & global markets. So sir, please keep the inflation under check, raise the fuel prices for personal use that too for luxury segment (not sure how difficult is to implement this) so as to make people get used to the life style with less energy consumption, make long term strategic moves avoiding vote bank based moves like farm loan waiver, etc. and keep the investors & businesses happy, they would surely make India happy.

Don't compromise the fate of the huge Indian population just for the sake of keeping your party in power.

Contrarian view on high commodity prices

2008-05-21T10:05:00.009+05:30

Does it make sense to accept the threatening commodity price surge? Does it do any good at all? Or it just puts people around the world in trouble?

High prices, that too sudden surge would reduce the demand in principle. Commodities like metals, oil, etc being finite resources; anybody having a long-term perspective would appreciate something which favors decrease in demand. In a way the commodity price surge does it!

Recent price surge is partly due to demand forecast from the developing nations like China & India and weakening of the US economy and the greenback. Governments and most of the economists around the world are literally thrilled about this sudden surge in price.

One economist whose article I happened to read shares a contrarian view on this.

He says: For what so ever reason the commodities price has surged to an intolerable level; and this might slow down economies and force people to search for alternate ways to cut back costs. People finding alternate ways and cutting back consumption is a very good sign of reduction in demand.

The reduction in demand over a period would bring down the price of commodities, meanwhile for a year or two or even lesser people are going to use less & are going to get used to consume less. When considered in a long term perspective, reductions in demand for a certain period are very good for our earth and the future generations! It might buy us one or two years more time to find alternative to these finite resources before we run out of them completely.

You win or lose; never give a heck to the world!

2008-04-14T06:12:00.007+05:30

All of us know Alan Greenspan, X Fed chairman whom the Wall street used to celebrate 'ONCE' for all he had done for the massive economic growth in the last decade. But now, more than an year after he left Fed, he is being blamed by the same Wall street for 'his now called wrong policies' which lead the economy to its current state because of housing bubble, loose market regulations etc., frustrating the 82 year old Alan.

Poor fellow, he is morally forced to the level where he often appears in the media explaining it wasn't his mistake.

So whom to blame now, Alan or the Street? I pity Alan!

Can futures market help farmers?

2008-04-14T03:34:00.003+05:30

Says so Economist.com:

"The futures market provides farmers with a sneak preview of the prices they will face in the months ahead, which should allow them to make an informed decision about what to sow. In principle, futures contracts should also allow farmers to lock in a price for their crops, insulating them from the vagaries of the spot market. At the moment, farmers are too small to participate in the market directly. But Mr Rajan's report suggests that small banks could aggregate the demands of farmers up to a practical size."

Mr Rajan is a prof at Chicago Graduate School of Business, and formerly chief economist of the IMF. His idea seems to be good, isn't it! He is working on the financial sector reforms for India, so let’s hope for the best. So called the leader of India, please take a look at these kinds of reform reports with open mind.

Referral Commerce

2008-04-12T23:33:00.007+05:30

Is it so powerful than traditional commerce? Read on.

When companies introduce a new product, they go and advertise in the media which hopefully gets them enough customers. But I feel there is no commitment from the customer's side to stick to the product, if they see a better or a cheaper product in the market. According to their priorities they are going to switch over and try new or alternate products that comes on their way through ads from the competitors; and that is what drives heck of a competition in most businesses.

Best example is the consumer goods industry where there are 101 companies with 1001 products trying swim in the highly competitive market spending too much money on the advertisements, promotion, etc. which drives down the profitability a lot.

Recently I came across the term 'Referral commerce' which only a few companies in the world use fully to their maximum advantage. Few others use it but partially achieving only a part of the goods.

Let me give an example, there is a international calling card company called 'stanacard' that sells calling cards on-line. This company uses referral commerce just for promoting their product, by giving the referrer and the referral a bonus of the complete initial recharge amount done by the referral. Say if x refers y and y registers for the card with an initial amount of $10, then both x & y gets addition $10 each as a bonus.

In the stanacard's case, though they are trying to use referral commerce to cut their marketing and advertising costs, they aren't getting some very interesting called 'customer commitment' which is very unique to the referral commerce.

Few companies does that!. Take the example of network marketing companies (as they are popularly known) like Amway-India, Quixtar-USA, etc. they use this concept of referral commerce to the fullest; completely cutting the marketing and advertising costs from the company's balance sheet and also to build 'Customer Commitment' for the brand which is the best thing a business can have. But isn't it very tough to make the customer commit to your brand!

So, how do they do it? They have done the math properly calculating their best margins if they are going to use the standard way of selling, then they take the certain % of their 'would be' marketing and promotional charges, split it and share it with the customers for their referral marketing in such a way that the customer keeps getting bonuses until the end referrals are buying the brand products which is what we usually call the network marketing. Since every customer is getting bonus as long as the people who they referred are buying the products, they are very much willing to participate in this model of commerce sometimes even as a full time business.

Referral commerce properly fit with network marketing with so called the marketing educational support for the customers to get more referral and earn more, they psychologically make the customers addicted to the brand making their business more predictable compared to the classical businesses. So they make the customers work hard for them doing all the marketing and stuff that too in a much tailored way according to the region, the range of the customer, etc., the parent company need not worry about designing different kind of ads are promotions to cover different segment of people.

Strategically 'customer commitment' is the best thing companies can win to sustain business and 'referral commerce' is one of the best solutions for that. If you are running a business try adopting this strategy accordingly, you will remember me forever for introducing you to this concept.

Dr Singh is the MAN

2008-04-11T08:52:00.000+05:30

Situation: April 10, 08 when the inflation in India is running at 7+.

“It is my belief we cannot react to such a situation by returning to an era of blind controls and by depressing agriculture’s terms of trade. That will hurt the welfare of our farmers as well as the long term growth of the economy as a whole.” - Dr M Singh (our honorable PM) was speaking at Global Agro Industries Forum.

First person in my perspective who thought about what happens to 'farmers' and our giant agri sector on which almost 70 plus % of our population is dependent on, when we start piling up export ban and stuff like that on agri products with out even caring about the producers.

If the government (politicians :( ) are really concerned about people paying lot of money for food products why don't they put a check on the middle men and retailers who sell it to people at huge profits taking advantage of the rising demand; WHY the poor farmers who are already at loss.

THIS IS STUPIDITY...and I am happy that at least our PM understands this and expresses his thought frankly rather not being like our honorable FM who is acting smart to keep the fellow politicians happy though he clearly understands the consequences (Check his book, "View from the outside").

Agriculture as business

2008-04-02T09:39:00.000+05:30

Isn't agriculture like a business? Aren't farmers are business owners?

Then why the hell they couldn't fight the government and the rest of the businesses???

Yet to be completed...........

Update: Apr 10, 08. I am not going to continue here, but expect a detailed report soon with lot of analysis and suggestions on this subject.

Are you a NRI? What kind then?

2008-03-16T21:28:00.003+05:30

I am writing this post after being in US for more than 8 months now (not continuously though, I go there for 3 month business trips). In my trips, I get to stay with or interact with different NRIs working in the US.

As per my observation there are two kinds of NRIs ones who are proud & happy Indians (Type 1) and the other half the unsure and angry Indians (Type 2).

Personally I appreciate Type 1's. The LOYAL CITIZENS.

Type 2's I would say are cowards who aren't ready to accept "a country is represented by its people" and they are also a reason for whatever impression they have on the country. The same bloody Indian who was not stopping in the Indian road signal stop extra half a second in the US !!!! and he claims that the fault is with the country.

Politics is equally corrupt in the US, but its people aren't. Can the very same person who is angry about India claim that he is a "perfect citizen, at least to the level of a common American"?

Good tips for the current momemts of blood bath in the stock markets around the globe......

2008-03-08T06:42:00.000+05:30

Lost 50% of your portfolio in the current market crash !!!!!, hold on & think for a moment when you bought each and every stock in your portfolio did you check the fundamentals of the company, is it a growth company, are the companies financial stable, then RELAX.....

Stock market investment is risky and is bound to introduce you to all kinds of pains in the world and all kinds of joy in the world that comes and goes with money within matter of days.... BEWARE! if this fact is stunning for you...close your shop and looks for a better business that suits you...simply this is not for you.

If you closely observe, nothing is fundamentally changed in the Indian markets including in the banking sector where analysts misguiding people by just giving momentum based commentary, though I also agree that American economy is in deep trouble with people losing job and home. The condition is different for US and India, US economy is already grown so their growth rate now is very slow like 2+% or so where as ours is a rapidly growing economy with almost 60% of the population falling in the working age group.

As on date our stock market is beaten because of the compulsion FIIs have to secure their investment without allowing their financial to go below a certain limit when the credit rating agencies are in the watch out!, if they aren't doing it then they will lost their credit rating and hence their business.

But not all financial institutions are bankrupt, moreover US government and FED are working on some economy booster plan though they can't complete turn around the situation in a day. For us to see the effect of these economic booster when 'normal' people get confidence, it could take a quarter or may be an year. But money has to come to rapidly growing fundamentally strong economies like ours.

here are some of good tips that help you to breathe easy in these difficult times;

1. Stop listening to the analysts, most analysts that come in the free media are momentum commentators. They don't clearly explain you the technicals of their argument.
2. Stop staring at your portfolio every half hour, keep your eyes open for news on the stocks you own; just to make sure that the fundamentals are still intact for the stock.
3. Be patient, it takes 7+ years to get your money doubled if it is in bank FD, so you have time; don't worry.
4. If you feel like talking to people and share some opinions, talk to experienced investors who are there in the market for a longer period.
5. Stop following crazy tips that come in the web pages or in the media.
6. Understand market cycles.
7. Follow the path of big investment gurus like Warren.

8. DONT PANIC.

For brief explanation of the points, take a loot at the original article http://moneycontrol.com/india/news/mf-experts/seven-ways-to-survivestock-market-correction/06/30/329484

Here we go......

2008-03-01T10:44:00.000+05:30

India wants smart card for better project implementation - Planning commission has already started talking about implementation of a smart card based system for better implementation of government projects, in line with what we discussed in the last post.

Direct delvery of $ to the poor

2008-02-25T07:43:00.000+05:30

Based on panel discussion with FM on the efficiency and credibility of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in India, held in July 2007.

Out come of the discussion is the fact we all know, PDS in India is totally corrupt and screwed up. Not even 1/3 of what government spends for the poor actually reaches them, as per the calculations of the FM it takes Rs.3.65 to transfer the benefit of one rupee to the people through our PDS. WHAT THE HELL?!!!???!!!, thats really sad.

As an alternative solution, panel had raised a question to the PM asking why can't government directly transfer money to the poor rather going through lot of levels of hierarchy to deliver some or the other product to the poor through PDS. Say a $ a day to the account directly until we reach a point where we have job for every Indian.

FM agreed that it could be an efficient solution, but he also says it would involve clearing up lot of mess we have now (the current plans and policies in effect) to release the money required to implement such a system. He also had said, he is going to work on the math to see the possibilities.

I feel thats a pretty good idea if planned and executed properly. Lets see whether we are hearing anything about this in the near future. It also suggests a need for unique citizen identification system! Well, it could be a savings bank account number given by our largest PSU bank, the SBI.

P.S: I know our currency is Rupee & I have used $ in many places in this text. That's just for convenience of mentioning some decent amount of money :)

More information @ http://www.businessworld.in/content/view/3739/3842

Save energy

2008-02-19T07:08:00.001+05:30

China & India are growing, local demand is increasing leading to more production, new cars & bikes are released !! where does all these end, ENERGY. Oil prices are soaring like anything.....we have oil reserves only for few years, any political instability in the OPEC can greatly affect the growing economies like India.

One half of the crowd in worried about the energy for the future & its cost and the other half is worried about the ill effects of energy consumption like climate change, rise in sea level etc.

For sure by the time our current energy production raw materials vanish we would have found alternate ways of generating energy. But how do we handle part 2 of the story, on which we haven't got control yet !

Only thing that could be done is to save energy where ever and when ever possible. Every citizen of the globe has to realize this pain and try to save energy. Like small drops of rain makes ocean, small small savings by each and every individual would save lot of energy that would reduce the necessity to produce the same emitting green house gases thus screwing up the nature.

One other thing that could be done is to use public transport rather using your own car or bike thus saving petrol and reducing pollution.

I am writing this after my friend pointed out this to me yesterday seeing how I waste electricity just because it is free in my apartment. Now I realized, hope you too realize the same !

Nano

2008-01-12T17:29:00.000+05:30

Hey I am not going to talk about Apple's nano, this is about our own "Nano" from Tata Motors. Nano is a proof of our growth and competence in the engineering and manufacturing, and its a real big show to the world.

I have a feeling that Nano would surely change the way Indians commute in a short while, probably over a span of two years. It also could replace auto rickshaws, as a cheap rental transport.

Frankly speaking everyone including me would love to have a car for local commute. Cars are much more safer than a bike and also we get a chance to escape from the climatic conditions to an extent. Its raining !, its very cold !, its hot out there!....no such worries. Get into your car and you are good.

Coming back to Nano; its priced just at double the cost of a bike and that too with variety of finance options from the dealers this car is available to anybody who can buy a bike. I read somewhere that 20K down payment + 1000/month for five years would get you a Nano. In addition to this initial investment, it is also promised to give a decent milage of 20 Kms/litre.

In my opinion, six months down the line a lot of people would be driving Nano and the car also would be much more stabilized. Once that happens and version 2 comes out, there is going to be a tipping point where everybody including me buy a Nano and it is surely going to get the two wheeler sales down. Of course passionate bikers would still buy high end bikes for joy ride.

I am going to wait for the next version of Nano or at least six more months before I decide to buy this, just to make sure there is no practical problems with the car. I feel so as Nano is a downgraded configuration from the standard cars we had ever and its surely the first of its kind on the road, so there could be some unidentified issues.

We should also be watching out for the news from its competition? Might me maruthi or Huyndai also has something for us to check out soon.

Working on new year resolution, keep these thought starters in mind

2008-01-01T19:02:00.000+05:30

* Think….there must be a better way!
* Health is happiness
* Problems are only solutions in disguise
* Most problems are really the absence of ideas
* Do your "SWOT" analysis today
* Every stone can be a stepping stone
* Nothing dies faster than a new idea in a closed mind
* When you’re sure it’s good enough…improve it
* The human mind is like a parachute, it only works when it is open
* There is more to life than increasing its speed
* Admitting you’re wrong is a modest way of showing you’ve grown a little wiser
* Do not wait for the best idea. Implement the better idea, still better and the best will follow

Agriculture, population & GDP

2007-12-21T11:14:00.000+05:30

Its very sad to know that less than 30% of our GDP and greater then 70% of our population is dependent on agriculture.

Guys, we have to do something to reduce the dependency on agriculture and increase the contribution of agriculture to GDP.

First and foremost thing to layout plans to increase the GDP contribution of agriculture would be to first take control of the natural resources like cultivatable land (available in abundance), water for irrigation (its already very late to find a solution to solve water problem), flood (we can't control this, but we can make use of this to take control of the water problem), drought (if we can assure water even when there is no rain in some parts of the country, then there is no question of drought). What else?

So, to my knowledge the first and foremost problem to solve is "water problem". Simply saying at any point in time all parts of India should have water. It is achievable if some (actually its considerable) amount of money is invested. BJP govt was actually talking about unification of rivers to solve the problem when they were almost in their last days and now there is no talk about it.

Now there is abundant forex available in the country and FM is already confused about how to make use of that in a proper manner. May be he could think of investing a portion of it for the river unification program to make the future better, though it would really hurt a lof of people today in terms of land acquitition etc, but on the other hand would also give lot of employment.

Two Indias ! - Spelling is right, I really mean 'Indias'

2007-12-20T22:12:00.000+05:30

Was reading an article about carbon emission in business world and got really surprised to see the words "two Indias (rich & the poor)" while quoting the problems faced by the poor indian because of the life style choices of the rich indian.

Carbon emission problem apart, dude I am really not sure of a solution for the economic divide that is arising in the country. For decades we had rich, poor and the middle class in the society. But as part of economic growth, globalization, etc., a divide in the middle class is happening now; the upper and the lower middle class as the poor and rich still remains as they were.

As we know, the stronger always dominate; upper middle class dominate the lower (though not explicitly or willingly) by giving a better bargain to the businesses whereever possible right from house rent to real esatate to vegetable to what not !, seriously I don't bargain in the vegetable market, where as a common Indian (may be a govt employee) including my dad does bargain whereever possible.

This is creating great pains/pressure in the minds of the 'affected' forcing them to talk non-sense about the better half. Though they don't have any rights to do that 'logically' as the better half isn't the root cause of the problem, 'psychologically' it is unavoidable for the simple reason that the affected half can't compromise any of the things that they were doing once (when things were cheap and affordable) for the matter of social status.

The problem is real and is very deep, soon somebody has to think about a solution to avoid psychotic breakouts which might go to the level of increase in social threats like terrorism (why do you think naxal groups are formed?), etc. Beware, start thinking!

Cloud computing machine - The "CC"

2007-12-19T20:34:00.001+05:30

If you feel google's cloud computing model makes some sense then there should also be a feeling that the "THIN PCs' that are very light hardware to access the cloud would also have huge market oppurtunity.

On the other side (in the entertainment arena) few folks are already trying out digital media integration and visualization on a TV in addition to the digital tv technologies like buffered TV, digital video recorder, etc. by putting excellent software on STBs.

I feel there is surely a market for a huge market for a pc like ASUS Eee with additional features like advanced audio video, TV tuning capabilities with electronic guides, DVR with full hardware features enabling them to connect to a TV as well. If you can get such a solution which is really cheaper, dude you are sure to make hell lot of money.

On arrival of such a machine, TV also could become very thin; simply replaced by very good LCD screen & good audio system. Rest all will be handled by the portable 'THIN PC', fun is you could also watch youTube and other such videos on the Internet in the TV screen.

Lets see what happens. We may see some products addressing this idea in the CES 08 which is just a few days away, lets wait and watch. If nobody is demonstrating such a system in CES, start working on releasing such a product in the market ASAP to be 'On Time'.

gOs based product is already out, so you need to be more creative

2007-12-19T19:30:00.000+05:30

AsusTek Computer Inc had already come up with a cool cool laptop based on gOs.

Check it out @ http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=24&l2=0&l3=0&l4=0&model=1907&modelmenu=1 or just google 'Asus Eee'

Ah, now we need to be more and more creative than Eee guys to build a product that is cheap and is better in usability. We can also come up with a machine for different purpose altogether.

Let me think of an innovative machine, if you get any idea just share your thoughts.

gOs - Think of a product based on this new stuff soon

2007-12-19T19:11:00.000+05:30

The gOS distribution is based on the Ubuntu 7.10 distribution. It uses the Enlightenment 17 window manager instead of the usual GNOME or KDE desktops, allowing for lower memory and speed requirements. Therefore gOS starts to work reasonably well on systems as low end as a 1GHz Pentium III with 256MB RAM. Due to the fact it leans heavy on on-line applications built on Web 2.0 and AJAX technology it also does not use much hard disk space for applications, the whole system fits comfortably in less than 2 GB of hard disk space. Also many of the documents created with gOS, such as Google Docs documents, can be saved on Google servers instead of on the local hard disk, so gOS can work with very small hard disks. In this respect a gOS PC has many similarities with a Thin client.

Its really cool thin OS based on linux, if you think of any innovative low end PC based variant that is completly dependent on the network, you have a chance to succeed.

Money honey

2007-12-19T18:07:00.000+05:30

Lot of people think finance is not their cup of tea, without realizing that the money they earn can really work for them if they are ready to put some effort at some random intervals.

What all could be the reasons for such behavior

1. People are lazy
2. People are afraid of losing (risking)
3. People just don't realize that the cash just kept in a box for an year would have lost its value by 3 to 4% due to inflation.
4. People are so fond of having a good bank balance, I think that makes many people very very happy.
5. People don't understand the power of compounding.

6. What else? think and comment...........

Multicore Processors

2007-12-19T16:30:00.000+05:30

Today I got a chance to hear about Multicores from Saman P. Amarasinghe, Associate Prof, MIT. Man ! there is a lot of stuff out there that we need to catch up on/work on. Its exiting, he was talking about you know 1000 core processors in the future, new compilers (prog languages) that are implicitly parallel and allows you to code the parallel algorithms neatly and with lot of simplicity compared to the parallel programming we do now. The prog language he is working at MIT for implicit parallelism purpose is called 'Streamit' that mostly targets the DSP and other signal processing kind of stuff.

Idea - Foldable LCD Monitor

2007-12-19T12:21:00.001+05:30

How about a having a 17" foldable LCD monitor? Usability should be, unfold the LCD and you get a 17" dual monitor with a stand. Make sure the size of the folded monitor is <= the size of a 17" laptop.

I would buy one if somebody makes it, a lot of others also might. So think about it folks.

Who am I?

2007-12-19T12:01:00.000+05:30

I am Rajesh K, "King of all kings" too.

Rajesh, it originates form the word Raja, which means king and Eshwar or the un-challenged power.The complete word Rajesh means God Indra, King of Gods and also King of all Kings :)

Monitor size & productivity

2007-12-19T11:42:00.000+05:30

I see MNCs and research labs using dual monitors or big screen LCDs or a combination of both spending more money per desk, guys really they aren't doing it for fun.

I recently started started using a 21" LCD with the maximum possible resolution supported by my graphics card. Its very easy now, I keep three terminal windows open simultaneously and keep switching between them just on the click of a mouse, and I don't see minimize or maximize graphics effect anymore. This increases the concentration to a great extent, and my productivity is simply more compared to my old 15" shitty monitor.

But, still I want my notebook screen to be < 12" :)

Innovation

2007-12-19T08:51:00.003+05:30

Recently I got a chance to attend a session on 'Innovation' from some expert consultant; forgotten his name, never mind.

He says innovative idea is just a creative idea with intensity to become business/profit in the business. So what's creativity then? creativity is a kind of uncommon/new idea formed by putting together two or more already known facts/proven ideas.

Most of the times when we are brainstorming as a group; we tend to wind up the session once we get some bright ideas from people that everybody else understands and agrees.

But you know what, that really is not an effective brainstorming session. In any thought process, the idea that comes first is based on the previous experience in solving a similar problem or some relevant knowledge learnt some where. Since these ideas are based directly on the facts and past experience that is already proved to be working, people understand and accept them immediately. We really are missing something in such a case.

Research shows that the real creative ideas, so called & commented 'crazy or funny' ideas takes more time to show up and when taken and analyzed seriously that could be a potential candidate for innovation.

In my view; any idea that is very obvious to many people may not be innovative; the moment people feel the idea is crazy, then its worth taking a look at it.

Mental workout ?

2007-12-16T18:14:00.000+05:30

Need to lose some flab? Sit your big butt down with a math book—and feel the burn.

The human brain is a 24-hour workhorse. While you’re thinking, millions of neurons fire messages back and forth to each other and to the various tissues in the body. These neurons need fuel, consuming a full 75 percent of the blood sugar from the liver and 20 percent of the body’s total used oxygen. Here’s how your neurons feed: Astrocytes—the cells near the capillary walls in your brain—suck energy-rich glucose from the bloodstream and convert it into a form that the neurons can soak up. The neurons then use it to fuel the production of neurotransmitters and, eventually, conscious thought. “The more energy an area of the brain wants, the more glucose that part of the brain will break down,” explains neurologist Harry Chugani of the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. “So yes, if you’re thinking really hard and really struggling with your thoughts, the neurons in the frontal lobes of your brain will be burning a lot more glucose.”

Simply to survive, your brain requires a tenth of a calorie per minute. Compare this with a walk to the doughnut shop, when your body burns approximately four calories a minute. Kickboxing zaps 10 calories a minute. And when you’re hunched over a crossword puzzle? Your brain is blasting through a respectable 1.5 calories a minute.

Courtesy: http://www.popsci.com/

finally i am here to blog my thoughts....

2007-12-16T18:03:00.000+05:30

watch out for my opinion, thoughts, ideas & findings................ feel free to comment and share your views......