The Muse

Are you busy?

2007-05-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was talking with a friend of mine after a while and she was asking me what I was upto. While talking with her, I realized how much of a slob I had become. I realized how important it us for all of us to keep ourselves occupied and be motivated all the time to keep striving for that something extra.

My psychology classes (yes, I took a couple), taught me that basically, motivation for an individual exists in two forms - intrinsic and extrinsic. As you probably guessed, intrinsic motivation involves striving to achieve something because you want to - the work is in itself the reward. Extrinsic refers to doing something for what you get in return - but externally (your paycheck, recognition, promotion etc)

When people say "I get paid to do what I love", they are referring to the fact that they have a win-win situation, they are both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated to achieve the same goal. When I think back to about a year or so back, I was enrolled in 12 credit hours of PhD coursework, I was doing research, I was writing a journal article, I was working a consulting job and I also used to go work out 3 times a week at the gym. In addition, I would take Sunday off and just not do anything except read something, watch football and/or sleep late. Its obvious to me that I was internally motivated to a really high level as there were almost negligible external rewards - no pay, no promotion, no recognition, nothing. I enjoyed doing whatever I did and I made the time to do all those things.

Now, anyone who tells me that doing all of that is equivalent to a day in the office better be joking. I think the two most overrated words in business today are "time management" and "multi-tasking". They are important, no doubt, but a lot of people abuse those terms and end up being less productive and becoming lazy jackasses. Nowadays, I work and do my PhD work and that's it. The difference now is that I get rewarded more for doing much less. Because my external rewards are so good, I find myself not being as motivated as I was to do a lot of things.

A lot of people express the opinion that they worked their butt off in school, and that they are now enjoying the fruits of that hard work. That's fine, it that's what you want. But I don't think everyone wants to chill out and relax, and take it easy as they start their career and think about family and all of that good stuff. I think that's when a lot of us want to keep ourselves occupied, keep ourselves active and keep ourselves motivated.

Anyway, my intent in this post is to just get you to think - are you really that busy? Can you not take that one hour to go walk the beach? Or go have lunch with that friend who you haven't met in ages? Or take up that one course you always wanted to? Or are you, like me, just too lazy to admit it? Go do something, screw being busy :)

Back from exile...

2007-03-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

I've been on a self imposed exile for over 5 months now. Its one of those things where you actually have no excuse...just needed a break, needed to take care of some commitments and just unwind. Everyone is busy, and I am not lame enough to use that as an excuse. I've had my share of free time, just been using it to read, listen to music, travel.

Anyways, just wanted to appease those screaming, frustrated fans (all 2 of you). Me back.

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Virginia Tech.

What a horrible horrible tragedy. I was a little early into my office and was drinking some coffee and perusing CNN when I saw the breaking news. I tried to dig up some additional information, but everything was sketchy at best. I left for a couple of meetings, then came back and was totally shocked to see the count at 32.

The last few days have seen the news channels here cover the event from every possible angle. What has stayed with me, and what will stay with me for a long time, is the spirit with which students from VT and others around the country have rallied around the families of the victims. I think the problem with occurences such as this is that you have no outlet for your anger. Who do you vent on? The killer - Cho Seung Hui - is dead, and had been diagnosed as mentally ill. His family is suffering as much, if not more, than the families of the victims. Some people in the media were wondering about the grieving that is happening for these 32 victims, and asking why that is not happening for the soldiers and civilians dying in Iraq everyday. I guess the only explanation I have is that a school campus is a sanctuary, not a battlefield like Iraq is today. Its just not right to hear about shootings and killings on a campus, where young minds go seeking knowledge.

The students and professors gunned down were at VT hoping to make an impact in the world in some way. We can all think about them, include their families in our prayers, and hope that their short life is turned into a testament of something beautiful and meaningful in some way.

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On a personal note, I've moved into a beautiful - and small - house by the beach in sunny San Diego. I still need to get the house set up, but I'm getting there slowly. My parents are frustrated that I'm living alone and keep advising me to get some roomate till they find me another kind of mate :). Their argument is that having someone else ensures that one way or the other I get to eat and do not sit at home hungry. All you guys living in the US, you know how that works. Other than the obvious advantage of being able to run around the house naked, being alone is kinda nice. Have my space, can set it up anyway I please and have total control of everything. Also helps to have a place on your own if friends or family visit - which I expect to happen pretty regularly.

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I've been travelling a bit. Other than being in India in Novemeber to attend my sister's (cousin) wedding, I was again in India over the last 3 weeks on business. Had a great trip, work was good, and also got to spend some time with my folks in Mumbai. My grandpa was visiting, so we had three generations of Vadivelu's in the house. My parents live in a gated community at Grant Road in Mumbai. The place is really nice, and my grandpa goes for regular walks in the garden we have inside. In the morning, he goes to a small but really nice temple within the complex and the 5 days I was there, I accompanied him. Also, after dinner, he is outside for around 30-45 minutes and it was really enjoyable walking with him, talking, getting advice, hearing about his thoughts on so many issues and just basically enjoying being around him. You rock grandpa! Also visiting were my brothers from Chennai. We had our usual arguments every now and then, but I miss them a lot and was happy to be with them. Love you Guru and Amu! Obviously my mom was going all out to ensure that her poor, starving son living alone in the barren US was well fed. I played it up for all it was worth, believe me!

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On a sidebar, I've bought a new car - Corolla S. I've named her Sneha (don't ask).

All right people, I'll sign off and will try to be back to my regular self. Hope all of you are doing good at home and at work. Keep the faith.

PS. Special thanks to Srijith, Ponnarasi, Hastobeme and all of you who touched base with me when I dropped off the face of the earth. Very impolite of me, I apologize guys. Life's good with you guys around!

Where am I?

2006-11-14T23:54:00.000-07:00

In India right now, #9 8 1 9 4 0 2 2 8 9

Tag Six

2006-10-28T00:02:00.000-07:00

Tagged by Srijith - six weird facts or habits about yourself
(Ok, where do I start? Just six? I need to prioritize then :) )

Stubbornness
I am very open in a lot of ways, but in certain things I have strong opinions. And people have said it is very very hard for me to change my views, and I agree. I do not change opinions unless there is hard enough data or information to back it up.

Books
I love books. I think they build character, provide you with the ultimate escapism and are one of the greatest pleasures in life. However, I do not read a book to pass time or to help me fall asleep. When I get my hands on a book I like, I do not put it down till I finish with it. I have lost count of the number of times I have got into bed with a book and completed the book at the expense of my sleep. Sometimes, when I'm in the middle of exams or when I am doing some other work, I take some time off by reading books...obsessive I guess.

Eating Decorum
I simply cannot sit down and eat without being involved in any other activity. I can't just sit quietly somewhere and enjoy the food, concentrate on its flavor and all that stuff. My family keeps scolding me, and rightly so, as it appears rude to be not paying attention to the food or the great care with which it was prepared and so on.
Frequently, I will be doing one of the following while eating any meal:
a) Reading a book
b) Watching TV
c) Having a serious conversation with someone face-face or over the phone.

Freezing People Out
I have this weird, annoying and sometime cruel habit of freezing people out for obscene amounts of time at a stretch. Its not that I don't like them or something, its just that I don't have the tendency of just dropping in one of those obligatory how are you calls or emails. I form friends easily, but I form close friends very slowly. And if I am close with someone, then I tend to think that they are also like me - you don't need to just call up every two weeks to stay in touch etc. If you need to, you should be able to call friends after being out of touch for months and be able to start talking as if you just called up the day before. This annoys a lot of people no end, but that's how I am...

Eating while traveling
I have this insane craving for food whenever I am traveling. It doesn't matter if I've just eaten before getting on a plane or train or if it is 1:00 AM in the morning. Something about being on the move makes my stomach rumble. My absolute favorite thing is to travel on a comfortable clean train with plenty of food, books and music available. I loved traveling on the train when I was younger (traveled often to Varanasi, Kanpur and New Delhi), and I made sure that I got something to eat at every major station along the way.

Open Face
People can see when I am angry, when I am upset or when I disagree by looking at my face. I am simply unable to hide whatever I feel. If I am meeting someone and I disagree with something they say or talk about, it shows up plain and simple on my face. People who are arrogant, people who exhibit a sense of entitlement etc make me angry. Leads to a lot of awkward situations.

Various ~ TP

2006-10-17T17:37:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I posted, and my apologies to h2bm and Ponnarasi for not getting back to them earlier. I'm working on Srijith's tag - nice one, made me delve a little deep...My sincere apologies [a public one] to Sattvic, for not making it to Lansing. Some plans fell through, and with the time we had, it was a big problem :(...

I started writing this post as I was sitting at Dallas Fort Worth, waiting for my ride to San Diego. At the risk of sounding condescending, I must say that this waiting at the airport has become a familiar feeling these past few weeks. In the past three weeks I have traveled to Pittsburgh, to San Diego, to Chicago, to Milwaukee, to Phoenix, to Dallas and then back to San Diego. My Dad was here for a week to meet some bankers in New York, and if it wasn't for a scheduling conflict, I would have traveled there too! I've had to travel for various reasons ~ meeting friends, conferences, work etc, but its been all fun. Especially since I rarely force myself to travel and visit new places, seeing 4-5 cities in the space of 3 weeks has been a unique experience to say the least.

In the middle of all this travel, I have also recently transitioned into full-time employment with this company. I'm part of their Learning & Organizational Development group, working on a varied range of initiatives and projects [could tell ya, but would have to kill ya]. The challenge now is of course to transition from a full-time to a part-time student. I have to work on my dissertation proposal etc from San Diego moving forward. God willing, I'll be able to meet this challenge and keep working towards my degree.

Anyways, I went to Chicago to meet my undergrad buddy Veera. We were joined by Pras, and the three of us spent a couple of days driving around downtown, going to Milwaukee and generally taking in the sights and sounds of the two cities. Pras is an avid photographer, and he took a ton of pics with his big badass Cannon Rebel. Veera and I were generally serving as male studs/models on whom Pras was able to practice his skills. Pras has them on his amazing Flick account here [page 2 onwards...damn I look good...too bad no one can recognize its me :)]

Veera is off to India pretty soon to tie the knot. Best wishes to him and fiance' may your lives change in many ways, but still remain the same in many other ways!

I was in Dallas, TX to present part of my research for a conference. Once that was over on Fri, I spent a couple of fantastic days with my school buddy and partner in crime Sanj and his wife Priya. I'm meeting Priya for the first time, but I guess we have known about each other for a long while. I was truly happy to see them together, and it is always sweet to see the love people have developing, transitioning, working out and blossoming after marriage. Touchwood.

Priya is an awesome and unassuming cook. I have rarely eaten such good food during my stay here. I think I did Joey's imitation quite well, and warmed up with idli's and dosas before moving on to chappatis and puris and to rice. Priya would always grumble about me and Sanj eating nothing/less [sample, only 17 idlis], and I would give the standard chinta kai ko? main hoon na! I even got some rotis to-go!

I also met up with my school buddy Anusha and her husband Ananth. Super smart people these. I guess their children will have a lot of things to live upto :0 [both of them are going for their PhD's]. It was nice to spend some quality time, going through photos, laughing at familiar yet forgotten faces and memories. In between all this, they found time to drill me on all "gossips", which invariably always tended to be directed on me. Hearing them talk, you would think that I dated every single girl in school.

Well, lots of things happening. Lots of changes to come, so will keep you guys posted.

Be good! Be beautiful!

Ram

Holy Pope!

2006-09-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

You have undoubtedly heard of the recent furious reaction and threats against His Eminence Pope Benedict XVI. I wanted to take a snapshot of what is happening today and hence this post.

Some Turks have suggested that the Pope be arrested. Others want the Pope to convert to Islam. The Vatican has been scrambling like a deer caught in the headlights, and it is sending its envoys to Muslim states to explain the Pope's remarks. Of course, al-Qaeda has said it will take over and destroy Rome, while Iraqi's burnt effigies of His Highness. To make matters worse, it seems that we are nearing the anniversary of the infamous Danish cartoons that were published to a furious Islamic reaction.

While the Pope has apologized (somewhat), people are saying its still not sufficient. Perhaps the worst thing among all these is that the Pope has been lectured on the differences between Islam and radical Islamism by, of all people, Jacques Chirac.

I was trying to find out what exactly he said, and here is an extract of the speech he gave at the University of Regensburg on Tuesday, 12 September 2006. You are free to reach your own conclusions on whether or not his remarks have been taken out of context :

...In the seventh conversation edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion". According to the experts, this is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur'an, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels", he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness, a brusqueness which leaves us astounded, on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached". The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God", he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death..".

The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazm went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practise idolatry...

In case you are wondering, India also had protests. In apna Srinagar, well, all business establishments, government offices, school and colleges remained closed...public transport too remained off the roads.

Please note that I am not being funny here, and no offense is intended. As with all sensitive issues and religion, this has already taken an ugly turn as there are reports that a Somalian nun has been shot down, and the intensity of violence is truly sad and frightening. On a brighter side, Iran seems to be taking the lead in quelling the outcry, and the anger seems to be cooling down.

My only thought on this is simple: If I am secure in my faith, why the hell should I care about what anyone else is saying as long as there is no direct insult or injury to my religion? It is obvious that the Pope was trying to be an academic, and using obscure quotes that historians love. Why bother then? No matter which religion you are from, I am sure that everyone would have been blessed by their God if the protestors had used all this energy and time to help a few poor kids, or provide a few meals to the hungry. To each his own...

Update: On a related note, Idomeneo - a Mozart opera - has been cancelled due to security risks in Berlin, as the show reportedly depicts the severed head of Prophet Mohammed. There has been a lot of discussion on this cancellation and the line between disrespect and free speech. Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel has already said that she thinks the cancellation is a mistake. Is the opera coming back? Let's wait and see.

You should note that this opera also shows severed heads of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha [don't ask me, my only experience with operas involves catching a glimpse on PBS while switching channels]

Educating our Future

2006-09-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

It is a fact that education is the key to solving tomorrow's problems, and it is the key to breaking the vicious "cycle of poverty" that is confronting millions across the world today.

Some sobering facts:

An estimated 110 million children -- 60 percent of them girls -- between the ages of six and 11 will not see the inside of a classroom this year. Another 150 million are likely to drop out before completing primary school.
Two 1999 World Bank studies found that closing the education gender gap in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa would have led to faster economic growth between 1960 and 1992.
Another 63-country study attributed 43 percent of the decline in malnutrition achieved between 1970 and 1995 to more productive farming as a result of increased female education.
An extra year of female education can reduce infant mortality by 5 percent to 10 percent.
In Africa, children of mothers who receive five years of primary education are 40 percent less likely to die before age five than are children of uneducated mothers

These observations are from a stunning piece on PBS - Back to School - that I caught recently. The show tracks seven children in seven different countries as they go to school. The programme reports that the cost for providing universal education has been estimated at perhaps $7.5 billion to $10 billion per year.

I'll leave you to check out the report yourself, but do look at this map that shows the current status of global literacy in the world. 36% of the world's out of school children are reported to live in South and West Asia.

People better than me are doing what they can to help spread education, and here are two instances that caught my attention recently:

The Ramanujam School of Mathematics is run free of charge by Anand Kumar, 33, a local mathematician, and Abhayanand, 52, a deputy director general of police. This school provides housing, coaching and free lessons to 30 underprivileged children from the state of Bihar. Over the past two years, 16 and 22 students, respectively, out of the 30 have graduated from this school and made it to the IIT's. They expect all 30 to get in this time [full article through Rediff here.]
At a cost of over $40 million [and counting] Oprah Winfrey, opened the doors to The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. She interviewed more than 3000 applicants herself and decided on her first batch of 150 students. The academy will offer training in leadership skills as well as traditional academic subjects, and will prepare its students to attend the "best universities in the world". [Report on CNN. I know everyone is busy, but do watch this video on Youtube, and go to 2:30 if you want to skip the early parts. I'll tell you, I was jumping with those girls at the end!]

The Art of Delegation

2006-08-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

I am just back after wrapping up my summer work in San Diego, and boy, has it been an experience and a half. I will take away many things from my stint there - great work experience, a lot of on the job training, a few good friends and above all, insight into how one of the most successful companies in the US operates.

I attended a summer party at my Director's office, and it was at her house in a beautiful locale called Rancho Santo Fe. I would love to describe the scenery, the place and how it was, but then I would need a separate post for that. Needles to say, this is a high-end place in an already high-end San Diego. Forbes ranked it the second most expensive zip code in the US in 2006. You step out to the backyard, and well, you then realize the house is almost on the edge of a canyon. Some of my colleagues had a lemon throwing contest to see who could throw the lemons the farthest from the yard. I saw a flag way off at the bottom of a canyon, and I was told that someone practices teeing off golf balls from the backyard! Talk about enjoying nature and talk about having a big yard. And I found out that a lot of the neighbors usually take a ride on their very own hot air balloons in the evenings. I kid you not, I saw five-six passing by...When I say that Phil Mickelson is a neighbor, you pretty much get the idea right?

The party itself was awesome. We had a white elephant gift exchange, and I was a little nervous about what to take and how low to go...I don't want to get into how dirty some of my prior experiences have been. So, there I go, taking a bunch of plain ol" magnets, that have status updates like "Wingman", "Lover". "On the market" etc...pretty boring and dull huh? Well, guess what I got? A "Pimp my Cubicle" set and "Wee-wee Boy". The Pimp set was complete with leopard print skin, some serious bling bling, gold thumb tacks and a lot of other accessories. Now, with wee-wee boy, you pull down his shorts and he "wee-wee's"!! That's right, he wee-wee's water! I love these people!! I must tell you that poor wee-wee boy has had an accident since then. I was playing with his shorts a little too often, so he is standing there with his shorts around his legs, shameless in front of the world.

To get to the point, I was sitting there with all these senior management folks, laughing and having a great time, and I realized this is what team building is. This is how you gel with your office workers. This is how you identify what each person is made of. You hang out in an informal atmosphere, act a little crazy, laugh a lot, and along the way shed some inhibitions and get to know your team a little better. You can hire all the smart people in the world, but unless these people realize the importance of a team, you cannot achieve squat. And its in situations like these where you can accurately gauge how comfortable a person will be in an environment that requires effective communication and team work.

Its not about forming friendships, its more about trying to see what an individual is like underneath and trying to develop the ability to trust others with regards to work. Especially with us engineers, I've found that one of the hardest things while working on any task is developing the ability to delegate work. There is this strong mentality where you tend to want to do everything yourself as you do not trust the other person as much as you do yourself. This skill is especially critical when you are running your own business, or working in a management area, as I have experienced first hand. Perhaps its this inability to delegate tasks to others that accounts for why most of us are comfortable sitting in front of a computer and writing lines of code, but are at a loss when we have to stand up and lead a team. Something to think about I guess...

Be good!

Movies and Priorities...

2006-07-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

I caught the brilliant "A River Runs Through It" - again - on cable the other day. This is a true work of art, and the movie follows the life of two sons of a minister in a rural town. The sons are obviously different, but all share a common love of fly-fishing. The setting of the film is lovely - serene locals of Montana, the plot is simple and the acting is brilliant. As is the case with me (and probably many of you), I tend to remember certain scenes and certain dialogues. Here are a few that stood out:

"My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things - trout as well as eternal salvation - came by grace; and grace comes by art; and art does not come easy."

"Dear Jesse, as the moon lingers a moment over the bitterroots, before its descent into the invisible, my mind is filled with song. I find I am humming softly; not to the music, but something else; some place else; a place remembered; a field of grass where no one seemed to have been; except a deer; and the memory is strengthened by the feeling of you, dancing in my awkward arms. "

"Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise. Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters."

A good movie makes you smile, a great movie makes you think. I was thinking about how I have grown up (well, I have grown up in some ways :)), and its almost funny to see how my priorities have shifted with time. Everyone says that schools days were the best, and that is probably because life was simple. I think that a richer and more fulfilling life is achieved not when life is simple, but when we try and succeed in not making our life more complex as we grow up. As we become older, as we become more capable and develop the abilities and the strength to aspire for bigger and better things, we run the risk of getting entangled with issues that are not really aligned with our priorities, and before we know it, life passes us buy.

I also think that the our lives are characterized by the decisions we take and the people we meet when we are confronted with situations that relate to our priorities. Do we stick with our priorities and align our decisions with them, or do we end up changing our priorities? When I was in undergrad, we had a group of people who were all into GRE/TOEFL. The other group, of which I was a part of - was into CAT and the whole MBA thing. Now, obviously my interest was to get into Management. But I ended up thinking that this interest was in some way linked to the whole India/US thing, and one of my priorities was to not go to the US for studying! When I did not get into a good MBA school I ended up taking a software job with the idea that I would try for the CAT again. But joining work, I was able to realize that being here or there had nothing to do with my goals, so here I am...doing what I've always wanted to do. Did my priorities change? Not really, they just became a little clearer. Without meeting the right kind of people and getting the right kind of advice, I could easily have ended up confusing and convincing myself that I did not want to study in the US when that was really not the case...

In any case, I think I've been thinking too much. I forgot to mention that I also watched the brilliant "Pokiri". Now this is a Telugu film, and as I hardly understand a single word, you would think that I would have a hard time following it. Not really...Mahesh Babu is a rowdy, who kills all these baddies, and ...SPOILER ALERT...gasp...he is actually an undercover cop! Seriously, I really like these kinda movies too. Sometimes, movies are all about escapism too...and you can hardly beat Pokiri or a Rajini movie or a Vijaykanth movie for sheer entertainment value. I think its awesome that they stick to their "core competency". Whatever works right?

Just browsing...

2006-07-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned earlier, I'm in California for the summer under the guise of doing some work. In reality, its more of a forced, high paid break as I'm just chilling out. I was out to this great place called Fashion Valley with my friends here, over the weekend, and while roaming the shops I realized something profound - I love shopping! There, I said it...I know it sounds very un-macho [what is being macho anyway?!], but I really do.

I like getting good clothes, I really like visiting bookstores and coffee shops, and if a shop sells books and has a cafeteria, well, bye bye then. I could spend hours inside a Borders or a Barnes & Noble. Something about coffee and books...works all the time.

I also enjoy tracking the high end stuff. I'm still not personally comfortable buying stuff for myself at the real high end places, but I do enjoy visiting them. I browsed a lot of great stores and looked at some really cool stuff - Coach briefcases [damn], Mont Blanc pens, apparel at Armani stores, suits at Brooks Brothers, went in to a Godiva showroom too! Ah, the good stuff...of course, there were the smaller, lesser known, but more exclusive boutiques. Surprisingly enough, I've found that I am not really that big on cars or on electronics. I could care less about engines and horsepower and all that, and I care even less about GB, GHz and other configurations.

Whenever I go to such places, I used to be overwhelmed at the prices, and my mind would be contemplating the irony of it all. This much money on shoes, when people don't have anything to eat? What is wrong with this world? But with age has come the maturity to deal with it. And there is no logic in such thoughts is there? If I wear $20 shirts instead of $50, what am I achieving? I would rather spend the $50, and spend another $50 helping others too. One does not have to be mutually exclusive of the other. That's what most people don't do. We hesitate to spend a lot on us, thinking of others. We spend less on us, end up spending nothing on others. Everyone loses huh? Besides, there is a line when one transitions from being a good spender to a snotty jackass. As long as we keep track of where we are, its all good.

Its not about buying stuff, its more about just checking out the shops, the ambiance - I'm sure you girls know what that's all about. And of course, the food. My friends were amazed at my tendency to unerringly go from one food court to another, and put away substantial amounts of food. Even though my stomach is not in the shape of its life [I am recovering from a bout of food poisoning, so I'm very sensitive to undercooked stuff], my genes enable me to eat without putting on anything appreciable [so far]...who wants to be Superman...I'm all about being Jughead.

The sad thing is that I know jack about shopping for or with girls. I would be totally lost at stores that sell shoes or candles. But I'm always willing to learn...any takers? :)

Mumbai 07/11

2006-07-11T21:06:00.000-07:00

I don't even know what I am writing...I woke up early today, as I had a busy day at work. Early appointments and some work to take care of before going for a five hour dry run of a new process we are implementing. I was brushing my teeth when I got a SMS from my friend at NDTV in Delhi, something about serial blasts in Mumbai. I switched on to see Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN World and was horrified to see the images that I am sure you have all seen with agony by now...

My mom was out of town, but my Dad was there and so were my uncle and aunt. Thankfully, everyone is safe, but I was horrified to hear that my uncle was in the 5:30 train, while the explosions started at around 5:45...Seems there are still some neighbors and friends unaccounted for. God willing...

At work it was all India this and India that, we received an email that accounted for all of our employees there and it was kind of gratifying to receive emails from people higher up, asking me and people like me who have a base in Mumbai, if they could do anything to help.

All day I'm sure many of you have the same feelings I have had. Anger, a feeling of being insignificant, a constant musing of what the hell am I doing here? Above all its pure anger for me. Say what you will, but I will never understand how anyone can justify or even try to justify deliberate harm to innocent commuters who are just trying to get home after a hard day's work. I mean the blasts were in the peak of the rush hour for crying out aloud! I guess its times like these where we need to keep focused and calm, but it will be hard if people start hearing about how Lashkar-e-Taiba [they have denied it according to the Hindu] or some other group of jackasses is claiming responsibility...

With all the attention India has been getting, I'm sure the next few weeks will be filled with cross comparisons to Madrid, London and the inevitable Hindu-Muslim tensions. I can already start to hear the terrorism experts start giving their opinions on how terrorism has roots in the subcontinent and all that yada yada yada...CNN/IBN was almost tooting the fact that their images were being spread all over the world live.

I have seen India's growth into a rising star, I have watched feel good videos about India's rising, I have choked up at hearing Lata Mangeshkar sing Vande Mataram, I have celebrated countless Indian cricket victories, I have laughed at our politicians various antics, when living there I have complained long and hard about everything from the traffic to the water to the weather...but I have never felt more Indian than I do today...and that I guess is no accident...

Sunny California!

2006-06-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

I'm over here in San Diego for the summer, and I've been settling into work and getting to know my surroundings and of course, finding a place to live for three months. I've just passed through this city before, and undoubtably, this is one of the most beautiful places I've been to. The weather is probably what makes it so, plus the beaches. I was roaming around with my friends over the weekend, and as you can see it was a sight for sore eyes...especially for someone from Phoenix!

We went to a place called Temecula where there are vineyards. Unfortunately we could not taste anything as we reached a bit late. We did taste some coffee though!

Work is good here. Most of the time I'm in meetings and trying to catch up on the groundwork that has already been done for a lot of projects. More later guys, just touching base.

Videos to waste your time

2006-05-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

With the proliferation of YouTube and Google Video, I've been watching a lot of videos lately. I just thought it would be neat to link some videos that have caught my attention. Of course, I'm not going to link Koffee with Karan episodes [though I do watch them :)].

World on Fire
Music video by Sarah McLachlan ~ 4:23 mins
A crash course on global inequalities. I would weep if I could.

One.org Ad
Advertisement for one.org ~ 1:00 min
Make poverty history advertisement from Live 8 for one.org.

Rx for Survival
A preview video of the Rx for Survival Series on PBS ~ 7 :01 min
A stunning and powerful series on our medical heroes. More details on the homepage here.

Introducing String Theory
A series of videos on NOVA ~ each video is around 6-7 min
The host is Brian Greene, a physicist from Columbia. You will see interviews with some of the most significant brains of our times along the way [mostly from the US]. String theory is trying to explain how the universe works...pretty straightforward :)

Population Issues and India

2006-05-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

When I was in school at Delhi, I remember reading in Civics or Geography about India's challenges for the millennium. It was drilled into my head, and probably yours too, that one of the most important issues facing us was our population. I don't know about you, but the perception I got was as if the poor Indian's were uninformed, uneducated folk who used no contraception, hence procreated like rabbits to result in such a huge unplanned population explosion. What a shame! We all had to spread "awareness" and control our growth rate else we were surely headed for doom. All I heard was that China had put forth its "one-child" plan, and we needed to do something similar, albeit less drastic. The fact that India would overtake China's population was often a sense of great mirth among my friends and myself. No foresight, no analysis, no discussion - population growth was bad. End of issue.

Well, its been 10 years since I finished schooling, and the world order is undergoing a paradigm shift. What is China trying to do today? Increase its population. What is the number one problem faced by Japan? Lack of people. What is happening in much of Europe? Lack of people. People are being asked to procreate. Immigration reforms are the top priority. What did Vladimir Putin announce in his State of the Union Address? That the demographic shift of Russia would be their number one problem, and that mothers would get $110 for their second child. And what is India saying? That even though China is way ahead in terms of its growth, foreign investment and infrastructure growth, India will overtake China purely because of its one crucial advantage - its population.

That's right, India's strength is its population. Our middle class alone is more than the population of the entire United States. Organizations that were thinking of India in terms of cost benefits are now drooling about India as a pure market. Take the example of the telecom industry. India's rate of mobile subscribers grew by 47% in 2005, we have somewhere around 75 million mobile subscribers and this is expected to increase to 280 million in 2010. That means around a quarter of India will be linked through mobile phones. More importantly, 3/4 of India will still remain untapped. Can you imagine the opportunities for telecommunication companies?

Further, the demographic shift is such that India is set to have the most number of young people as compared to any other country in the world for the near future. This directly translates into India having a more eligible workforce [although whether they will be qualified is another issue altogether]. Simultaneously, population is decreasing in China, and in most of the developed countries. The UN estimates that the population of the developed countries will decrease by 10 million by 2050. So much so, that China will have the exact opposite problem - dealing with the world's oldest population.

Now, its obvious that sheer numbers are not enough. We need to improve the quality of life for the 800 million poor, not just focus on the gains of the 350 million middle class. Around 25% of our population is estimated to be mired in really really bad living conditions. There is another issue of religion that we need to address too. India has the highest number of Muslims after Indonesia. While that is something to be proud of, the fact that 40% of those Muslims are in poverty as compared to the 22% Hindus is definitely not something to brag about. Numbers cannot lie, so obviously there are some issues that we need to address here. As the country grows, one sign that we are in the right track is when the middle class keeps swelling.

It has been forecast that China will overtake the US economy somewhere around 2035, with India taking over China around 2050. So while China faces issues due to ageing, India faces issues relating to the quality of our workforce. Just because we have a million college graduates does not mean that they will all be productive. But the good news is that increasing quality is an achievable, although an admittedly difficult, task. I'm sure everyone realizes that its better to have a workforce and try to fix it, rather than not having one at all. The efforts need to stem from the education system, it needs to start from our schools and colleges, where students are taught to think critically and logically...can you imagine being taught that India's population needs to be reduced if we ever need to become developed or something silly like that....oh wait....

Update: 05/13

Not really related to the context of this post, but I came across another video from BharatBala that depicts how India is overcoming the rest of the world (remember the Vande Mataram video with Rehman?). Does the video depict the true India? Probably not. Does it make you feel kinda happy? Hell yeah!.

I am India on Google Video.

Premji and Aron - II

2006-05-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

In one of my previous posts, I had talked about an interview between Premji and Ravi Aron of Wharton. This is the concluding part of that session. I must say that it is no wonder that Wipro is one of India's most successful brands. He is extremelely knowledgeable and current, and his replies are incisive, thoughtful and very cogent.

I had remarked earlier that one of India's challenges would be to transition from a service oriented model to a product oriented one. Premji and Aron discuss the very same issue in this concluding session.

Excerpts:

"...one reason why India has focused on services is that products require an intimate, ongoing understanding of the customer. This requires a strong localized presence in countries where these products are going to be used, which has not been India's global delivery model. Second, most product companies have to invest a lot of resources in brand-building and marketing and you need to have the scale to do this. Many Indian companies could not afford to do this. Third, the service business has provided clear-cut, strong positioning, good profitability and tremendous growth for Indian companies. So these companies chose a path where it was easier to succeed rather than one that was more difficult."

"...let us look at the way our business is distributed. About 75% of our people work in India or India-equivalents, by which I mean low-cost centers. In contrast, if IBM has 50,000 or even 80,000 people in Asia, that is just about 20% to 25% of its total employee base. This is a distinct cost advantage that we will continue to enjoy. Even if companies like IBM move to global delivery models, it is unlikely that their employee base in low-cost regions will go beyond 30% to 35% of their total headcount. This is because their execution model -- which is primarily based on consulting -- does not permit them to do that. The kind of work they do requires a much deeper onsite presence..."

Aron is, of course, not the everyday interviewer. His questions are on the money...

"...the proposition they (consulting companies) make to the customer goes as follows: "We will come in and diagnose the problem," which is management consulting. "We will find a solution," which is management and process consulting. "We will design, develop and maintain the solution," which is technology. And finally, "We will operate the solution," which is BPO. So the promise to the customer runs the gamut from diagnostics through formulation, design, development, maintenance and operation..."

"...consultants earn about six to eight times what the technology delivery people do. As a result, they (a company Aron consults with) are trying not to have a two-caste system form within the company, where higher-earning, suit-wearing, laptop-toting, airport-hopping consultants lord it over the geeks who write code in C-plus-plus and Java. This is proving to be a much bigger challenge than expected... "

Get the whole interview at K@W here

Of Tags and Tagees

2006-04-23T23:24:00.000-07:00

This has been tag week or tag fortnight. So I'm just linking stuff for those want to read my responses. Basically, I think tags help people get to know people they would like to get to know a little better [as if I've done 68 tags, but still].

I did Maya's (because I'm scared of Doctors) here.
MC's is here (hey, even if it was typo, he called me a great writer so of course I'm going to do it.)
Ponnarasi writes stuff I relate to very easily, and here is her tag on ma three superpowers.
Raz, simple and very straightforward, caught me with a tag on life's 10 pleasures here.

So far, Sattvic has been my lone tagee.

A Profound Thought...

2006-04-11T11:41:00.000-07:00

Had to share this with you:

"We must do what we conceive to be the right thing and not bother our heads or burden our souls with whether we will be successful. Because if we don’t do the right thing, we will be doing the wrong thing and we will just be a part of the disease and not a part of the cure"

E.F. Schumacher (1911 - 1977)

More on Schumacher here and the E.F. Schumacher Society here

Credits: Obtained via Atanu via Myke

Premji on Wipro's Future

2006-04-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

As the Indian economy grows, one of the key challenges will be how our companies manage to transition from the current service oriented model towards the product or developmental model. Basically, we don't just manage testing, maintenance and low-level development, but take the lead in innovation and the design of next generation services and products.

Azim Premji [fact: Premji quit during his final semester at Stanford to take over Wipro at age 21, sometime during the 1960's. He came back after 35 years, presented his dissertation and got his degree in the late 90's] and Ravi Aron [Assistant Professor of Operations and Information Management at Wharton, UPenn] are having a fascinating conversation, where Premji reveals some of the key strategic goals of Wipro and what his thoughts are on the future. His take is important and illustrative, as many of the challenges Wipro faces are equally applicable to Infosys, TCS, CTS and the others.

Some excerpts:

"...Moreover, the business we do now is evolving to models where we take turnkey responsibility for deliverables such as the design of end products -- next generation products. We don't just make subsystems for customers or work as part of a project team. We are also trying to build similar skills in some of our other businesses. We use the competencies developed in practices like technology infrastructure as well as in enterprise platform implementation to differentiate ourselves from others.

...Turnkey projects allow us to set Wipro apart because very few companies have the depth of knowledge to be able to tackle such work, whereas in projects such as billing software, we are exposed to much wider competition. Another thing that makes us unique is that we started our company designing hardware for the Indian market after imports were banned in 1980. That is how we built the competency platform which we transitioned into serving the global customer.

...You don't demolish a cash-cow business. You just simultaneously try to build the business of tomorrow, which really differentiates you.

...The mundane business is also extremely profitable. It has a tremendous annuity value, and you don't ignore businesses like that. For example, maintenance of software and hardware are tremendous annuity businesses. If you build strong efficiencies into execution, they make very good margins. It is like a yin-and-yang situation: How do you build these strong annuity businesses and at the same time build other businesses that will establish certain differentiators in the marketplace, so that your image as a partner takes on a different dimension? That is the question..."

You can directly link to the whole interview here. This is through Knowledge@Wharton, the Wharton school's online and free business journal.

What do you think of this interview? More to follow.

She is smiling

2006-04-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

Will you smile?

The night is dark, the wind is howling
The curtains blow, the rain starts drizzling
What should I do? Should I believe?
Is this life? Is this love?

I sit in a corner, I am waiting
My heart is restless, I am searching
I think of days past, I hear your laughter
I think of tomorrow, Its just tears and rain

Memories come flooding
With pain my heart’s searing
Why did you leave? What did I do?
I have everything, I have nothing

The rain stops, my heart pauses
Time stops, and the wait is haunting
The tears start to flow
My heart is letting go

I look up, I see you looking down
I see you, I feel your touch
I know you’re near
Are you smiling?

The Joy of Words

2006-03-31T23:27:00.000-07:00

Do me a favor, and read the following lines from Emily Dickinson....

The heart asks pleasure first,
And then, excuse from pain;
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering, And then, to go to sleep;
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The liberty to die.

What do these lines tell you? Don't just read them, read them, feel them.

Now tell me how your thought processes differed from the the interpretation of Lilia Melani, a professor of English Literature at Brooklyn College, CUNY here. This is the beauty of the arts. This is how we develop the ability to think beyond our limits, how we stretch our imagination and how we learn to innovate.

Labor Issues and India

2006-03-30T23:04:00.000-07:00

In keeping with my recent thoughts on India, here's another one on a critical issue we are likely to face in the near future - labor.

India is supposed to the labor capital of the world. Indeed, much of the brouhaha about India has revolved around its seemingly unlimited supply of human capital - its high tech engineering graduates, who are proficient in english language skills. Well, I'm here to tell you that while we might have a lot of people, we're reaching a plateau and things are going to level off pretty quickly. The balances and checks of supply-demand processes will ensure that there is some level of stability in terms of hiring needs and graduates available, but India is floundering in terms of the classic quality vs. quantity paradigm.

McKinsey did an analysis of the Indian labor pool and came up with the amazing statistic that India will face a labor shortage as early as 2007 in some areas [previous post here].

A quote from the McKinsey article: [free subscription required]

"Yet rather surprisingly for a country with one of the world's largest labor pools, they (Indian managers) see the high cost and low availability of talent as the single greatest constraint on their companies—a problem that worries them much more than it does their counterparts around the world..."

Another quote from Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies [NASSCOM]:

"The root cause is certainly the adequate number of people with the right skill sets. In my estimate, only a third of the pool has the right skills to be absorbed into the industry right away."

There have been all sorts of studies on this issue, some interesting ones from the NY Times here and from BusinessWeek here.

This argument seems to appear a bit ridiculous when you think back to your engineering days [hyper-competitive colleges, populated classrooms, mile long queues in admission offices]. There are also a huge number of colleges that are opening shop - seemingly by the hour. India produces 2.5 million college graduates and 350,000 engineers a year! It almost seems as if every Indian who passes high school has the option of becoming a professional if he/she wishes. How can we possibly have labor shortages with these kinds of demand for technology and professional colleges? Even our society has a tendency to push us towards these occupations and careers.

While all this appears to be a good thing in terms of equality of opportunity and all that, think a little deeper and you will see the problem. Half these colleges don't have quality instructors. Most of the time students who graduate come back to teach because they couldn't find a better job. Seriously, I can't imagine someone graduating from - oh I don't know, let's say a college near Madurai - with the ambition in life to actually teach there.

Besides the quality of teaching, we are not using accurate methods to gauge the suitability of students who we admit in colleges [entrance exams are a joke]. Once the right people are in place, we need to determine the necessary aptitude and attitude skills that are being demanded by corporate India and provide education that is aligned with these requirements.

NASSCOM is calling for a deregulation of India's education industry. This kind of makes sense, as our education system needs to become leaner and meaner if we are to be able to provide talent in accordance with the demand. This could be reflected in several different ways, not the least of which would be bringing in much needed multidisciplinary facets to engineering as it exists today. There is scope to bring in research based activities, much like educational models in the US. Faculty members need to be provided with policies [and facilities] that will allow them to work closely with the industry [consulting, training and so on].

Another offshoot of this has been the efforts being undertaken by the industry itself. In yet another illustrative example of India overcoming issues despite the government, companies are starting to fill the skills gap by starting training initiatives on their own. There has been a spurt in training and certification trends, HR processes are getting increasing attention, and performance improvement is now a buzz word. Perhaps those of you reading this in India are even recognizing these trends in your workplace. I predict that the next few years will see a huge push towards trends like corporate learning/training, instructional design and eLearning, all of which will help companies put raw engineers through focussed and intensive training sessions that will fill performance and skills gaps.

If you are one of those people with skills that are readily applicable in certain areas, India is the place to be. Wages are skyrocketing, and with this labor shortage there is a huge demand for true talent. Have you read about the market for pilots? I would be hardpressed to name an industry where salaries or headcount have actually gone down.

Ultimately, all we have are people, technologies are just tools. India needs to focus on leveraging this human capital by providing its technology workers of tomorrow with the necessary knowledge today. I would be interested in hearing how you think we can improve our professional colleges - what features would have made your education more relevant and effective in terms of the work you are doing today?

Tag Four

2006-03-28T23:52:00.000-07:00

Tagger: Raz

Name 10 of life's simple pleasures that you like the most and then pick 10 people to do the same (optional). Try to be original and creative and no to use the things someone else has already used.

Well, I've already talked about family, books and music in previous tags, so I'll try to answer this one a little differently. The following might not all be simple in the literal sense of the word, but they are simple pleasures in a lot of other ways. So, here goes...

10. The feeling I get when I enter a restroom after holding back the need to pee for over twenty minutes.

9. Serendipitously finding songs I can relate to.
[Aside from a few favorites, I don't remember or follow bands, artists or music directors. So its awesome when I suddenly hear a song then go searching for its artists and finally get it.]

8. Discussions on the global economy, business trends and other big-picture issues with knowledgeable people.
[I just go huh...ah....ok....yeah...ah-huh...right....and feel smart :)]

7. Going shopping with someone [ok, anyone] and getting done sooner that I expected.

6. Getting to understand statistics, or just finally understand some convoluted concept.
[Really, not to sound too geeky, but I'm fascinated when my bulb goes on]

5. Seeing a girl walking down the road, and getting a smile and a nod.
[You can get a smile, or a nod, but its damn hard to get both :)]

4. Eating in a pricey hotel or a coffee shop with people I know pretty well.
[Bit snobby I guess, and the food usually sucks or is too little. But I like the ambience in such places]

3. Eating in a roadside dhabha or kaiyendhi bhavan with people I know really well.
[You can only go to such places with people who you are in sync with, and you can be totally messy with how you eat, and the food is awesome!]

2. Go to places where nature is at its most powerful, and be spellbound.
[Yosemite, certain villages, some areas near my hometown and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to name a few places where I have experienced this recently.]

1. The feeling I get when I am about to step out of the arrival lounge at an airport, and have my parents, brothers and family waiting on the other side.
[Yes, this is not a simple pleasure...but for people away from home, it just cannot be valued. Just seeing them lights me up.]

Tag Two

2006-03-28T23:34:00.000-07:00

Tagger: Mindcurry

Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4.
"Both of you make me sick". She started to wrap her terribly de la Renta scarflike thing about her, preparatory to rising. The Deer Leap by Martha Grimes.

Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.
I hit the half open door that opens into this room.

What is the last thing you watched on TV?
The final scene of a movie called "Cellular". Had some great sounding background music, that's why I ran over to see it.

Without looking, guess what time it is?
23:44.

Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
Wooho, its 23:54. How clever am I huh?

With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
Random dialogues from the movie "Crash" (Yeah its movie night at my place). Also listening to random music, with my iTunes on shuffle mode. Currently playing Kaisa Lagta Hai from Baaghi.

When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
Earlier in the day. Took out the trash.

Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
Some cartoons on India forwarded by my friend Jack.

What are you wearing?
Black Side Striped Old Navy Track Pants and a black T-shirt from a company called Crazy Horse (I'm getting dizzy trying to peer at the back of my neck to read the tag).

Did you dream last night?
Nope. Slept like a log.

When did you last laugh?
A few minutes ago when I read an email from my friend. He was congratulating another friend who is on his way to becoming a Daddy with this quote "Advance wishes for your son to come and p** in your mouth". Yes, we guys have very eclectic ways of saying "Congratulations! I am sooo happy for you and your definitely better half".

What is on the walls of the room you are in?
My roomate's upside down Tennis racquet (its been untouched by human hand for the past 14 months), some wires running to who knows where.

Seen anything weird lately?
My Apple powerbook crashed. How's that for weird huh?

What do you think of this quiz?
Its getting popular. Is there some way people can make money off this tagging business?

What is the last film you saw?
Random sequences from Dum Dum Dum, Alaipayuthe and Kaakha Kaakha. Also portions of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Red Eye.

If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
Naah, the very possibility of being able to buy basically anything I want would keep me happy and content.

Tell me something about you that I dunno.
I finished my 12 years of schooling in 8 different schools.

If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Remove all this visa business. Dude, its all one world. Let people come and go as they please.

Do you like to dance?
Like? Hell yeah! Can I? Hell no! I can move either the top half of my body or the bottom half. Both do not move well together.

George Bush.
Who dat? Oh...you mean Dubya? Hmm...
"Mr. President, what is your take on Roe vs. Wade?"
(Wide stare. Smirk. Frantic search for Karl Rove. Slow head nodding. Then..."heh heh heh, well I don't care what people do, but as long as they get out of New Orleans and the evil water, I am fine.")

Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Three way tie between between Meghna, Krithika or Nisha.

Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?

Bhujaprasad Alexis Kamal. Mera bharat mahaan, and what better way to show it? And we can call him BAK Baby too! [PS. Girls always have the sweet sounding sexy names. We guys are done for, so why bother?]

Would you ever consider living abroad?
Standard response would be: Whaaat? No, never.

But since I'm honest, sure. Why not? Doesn't matter where I live, I'm home all the time. Besides, everything is just a plane ride away anyway.

What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
Well! You took your time allright.

Tag Three

2006-03-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

Tagger: Ponnarasi

What kinda power(s) would you choose, if you could undergo bad-ass mutations? You can mention a maximum of 3 powers you'd like. And try to be imaginative....

Ok, this is a weird tag, but makes me think a little. So here goes...

Be able to see five minutes into the future. Too much information would be too much to handle. A little insight might be fun.
Run like The Flash. Super fast. Always wanted to do that, no one can come near me, its as good as flying and I can run away from anything.
Telekinesis

The Knack...

2006-03-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

A forward from one of my non-engineer friends [opens an audio file, everything's clean]

Little Dilbert

This is all Maya

2006-03-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

5 people who top your shit list..... and why:

1. Anyone who wishes any sort of harm to a child. [Please follow instructions under 5 preferable modes of suicide below]
2. Any guy who resorts to violence against women. Be a man.
3. People who keep saying how hard they work and how busy they are. Everyone is busy. Shut up.
4. People who feel a need to keep giving unwanted advice. Did someone ask you?
5. People who didn't work for anything but still flaunt their "inherited" money. You don't deserve it if you did not earn it.

Close brushes with death/danger:

1. I was playing frisbee in the river down south while on vacation with my two cousins in 1994. One guy got pulled into a tricky whorl, I gave him my hand and off we went. Both of us were almost out of it when we were pulled out and were lying on the riverbank when the rumor spread that we were goners. I can only imagine what went through my folks and family's minds. The next time I opened my eyes I was surrounded by everyone I've known in my life! Saved by a kind soul who I still haven't met...my family has banned anyone from visiting the river since that day.
2. My family on my Amma's side has this tradition of serving food to an old age home in Chennai every year to mark my uncle's death anniversary. I was in Varanasi that year (early 90's I think) and since we couldn't go to Chennai, my parents and I went to pray at a famous temple in Mirzapur. On the way back, I was in the front seat of our jeep when the tire below me came off and rolled merrily away in front of us. The jeep dragged on its axle for quite a distance before stopping, and we did not topple over. Guess someone was looking over us...
3. Other than those two, I'm not too fond of flying so that's a close brush everytime for me. I also spent two years in Delhi getting on and off the now defunct Red Line buses. Guess I'm living on the edge allright!

5 Preferable modes of suicide, in descending order:

Naah, I think suicide is a cop out. Unless its spurned by some sort of physiological imbalance, [or if you're from my shit list above] I cannot empathize with anyone wanting to kill themselves. You suicide bombers can kiss my ass.

However, if I were giving someone any suggestions, then here goes:

1. Donate your kidneys, eyes, lungs, heart, brain, balls (if possible), and anything that can be transplanted including your face and hair. Death will embrace you.
2. Participate in some high-risk mega important medical research, make sure you sign off your power of attorney to me before though.
3. Become a hitman and take out some well known and universally acclaimed jackasses. Use a headshot always. If people get close to you, shoot yourself. Remember to use a headshot
4. Take a huge bank loan, donate it all to charity and then take your pick of the three choices above.
5. See option 4.

5 Guilty pleasures:

1. Reading police procedurals or psychological thrillers. I cannot stop till I finish a book, no matter what I have to do tomorrow.
2. Listening to Enya or Enigma with the lights out at night (recent one)
3. Sleeping. Anytime, anywhere, anyplace....Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
4. Yaaawn!...whaa?..oh..yeah...hmmm...Freezing people out for long periods of time. Its mean, but I do this a lot even when I know its wrong.
5. Clothes. No, no, not like that. I’m so attached that I can never throw anything away. Everytime I go to India I get shouted at for wearing jeans that are torn or shirts that are old.

5 things you never want to forget:

1. When I saw my twin brothers for the first time.
2. A deepest, darkest day last year when I lost my uncle. I was there, and I never want to forget how my family rose and came together.
3. The day I got my first job during my final year of college. I called up my Dad and said Hey Dad, congratulations. Your son just got a job. That’s become a tradition ever since.
4. Annual vacations at my hometown with all my aunts and uncles. Everyone is complaining about something, the sound is tremendous, and people are running all over the place. Yet there is peace and happiness. Everytime.
5. My friends.

5 things you wish to forget:

1. The fact that I could not be with my Aachi when she passed away.
2. The way I broke off with my first girlfriend.
3. My confidence when I got two job offers and an admit into a business school in Chennai as I was graduating with my undergrad. I thought I was invincible. Now I know...
4. The fact that my collegemates are starting to pop out kids...[why God whyyyyyyyyyy?]
5. My favorite fiction books. Then I can read them all over again.

5 really exotic dishes you have tried:

I’m not really much of a sampler. I’m comfortable with Italian stuff, but thats’ it. Here goes anyway

1. I had a babaghanoush peeta with Tzatziki sauce the other day. Still don’t know what was in it.
2. Some weird looking beans thingy at an Asian restaurant. The person with me loved it, she even ordered it twice. I thought it tasted like uncooked potato.
3. A creamy brussel sprouts dish at the Bangalore Oberoi. My manager told me it was exotic for India, so there you go.
4. Kerala meals while on tour in Hyderabad. That’s right, in Hyderabad. I choked on the rice, so stopped right there and had a malai chai.
5. Coconut «burphees» made from some special ghee and milk artifact. My Chitti owns a couple of shops in TN, so she had this made for me when I was there a few months back. One of the few sweets I like.

5 crushes/loves in your life... in chronological order (even initials or nicknames wud do. Oh, no ID attempts or requests pleez):

Honestly, I haven’t had serious crushes. I’ve «sighted» people, and like some a lot, but no crushes in the sense of the word.

1. My benchmate from standard 2 till 4 when I was in London. We fought when I went to the 5th standard.
2. My classmate in Kanpur, class 8. She was a terrific singer and very unassuming.
3. My first girlfriend. No comments.
4. My second girlfriend. Still no comments.
5. My second girlfriend’s sworn enemy (yup, that was fun)

Strangest dream you ever had:

I’m standing up, and falling into a dark well. I never reach the bottom. Strangely enough, its a feel happy kinda dream. Weird, huh?

5 most valued personal possessions:

1. The greatest gift I ever got from my parents – my twin brothers.
2. My grandma’s pic, and the letters I get from my grandpa.
3. My family. Guess I’m pretty much the odd man out to actually love his family. Nothing but love till now.
4. My Swatch Watch.
5. A cross I have that was blessed by the Pope - got it when my Dad was working in London, and we were touring the Vatican in late 1988.

5 favorite superheroes..... and why:

1. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Oh brother. Was I a fan or what. I have tapes somewhere of all the cartoons. Even practiced the transition words «By the poooower of Grayskull...» and the intro words « I am Adam, Prince of Eternia...». I was totally fascinated by the hero’s double life, his friends (Oracle, Man-at-Arms, Sorceress) and by his nemesis Skeletor, with Evil Lynn, Beastman etc. Ok, I’m going out and trying to rent it from somewhere!
2. Spidey bhaai. Love the way he is continuously tortured by his relationship with MJ.
3. Cyclops of the X-Men. Although Wolverine gets all the attention, I’m struck by how cool Cyclops appears (in the comics, not the movie).
4. All Indians who are suffering from poverty but still find a way to send their kids to school. Lead the way!
5. He is known as Captain, Puratchi Kazhaigar and as Gaabtun. Yes, ladies and gentleman, who else than our very own action man Vijayakanth. What's not to like? Some sample videos here and here.

-----------
If you're wondering at the title, please don't. Everything here is the truth. I was referring to the fact that I was tagged by Maya. Ok, one tag down one to go.

Innovation and India

2006-03-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

Its almost an accepted fact that socio-cultural pressures in India force us to tend towards professions like engineering and management as a career option. Our position in the world economy, our unique problems, our politics and our people all contribute to this trend, and it is no wonder then, that India is the preferred outsourcing destination of the world with its abundant supply of engineers and management professionals.

I feel that we engineers tend to grow up with this inherent attitude that makes us believe we are more significant than those from another profession [exception: doctors, MBA's and lawyers]. Our society, family and friends do little to rid us of this fallacy - everyone is busy proclaiming the achievements of his or her son/daughter in terms of college admissions, campus interviews and salaries. This extends right through to marriage proposals and beyond. Engineers look for engineers, doctors look for doctors and pity the person who does not have one of these high profile degrees.

Recently, I've kind of become really interested in the Arts. Besides my pathetic attempts at poetry, I've started to read about English literature and the work of some prominent poets. I've also started perusing some resources that deal with such issues. I even spent a pleasant two hours analyzing essays from students to a verse written by Emily Dickinson! I also read with fascination about how Lawrence Summers, the Harvard president, resigned due to power conflicts with the Arts faculty in Harvard. My exact thoughts were "...woah...wait a minute...he resigned due to pressure from the Arts guys...? " I went back to school and college and tried to think of the weight that arts faculties carried when compared to the math and science folks. I think in most of the cases, we science students had more say then them!

Why am I talking about all this? If you're an engineer you're probably ready to close the window by now....and that's exactly my point. What do we actually know about the Arts? Critical thinking, presentation, persistence, creativity and discipline are some of the many qualities that the Arts teach us. And India is hardly paying any attention. How many innovations have come out of India? Compare those with the number of clients whose back-end processes we manage. We are too concerned with managing others work, and need to start thinking about creating our own work. With the world becoming flatter, the onus is on humans to do the one thing that is still unique to humans - innovate. And this is integrally tied in to the Arts and Humanities.

Thomas Friedman had an excellent article on this in Friday's Times. Read it if you can. Some people he quoted from a recent Nasscom conference in Mumbai:

"..we need to encourage more incubation of ideas...make innovation a national initiative..."
- Azim Premji, Wipro

"..we have a creative problem in this country..."
-Nirmala Sankaran, HeyMath

"..more people will get PhD's in Sanskrit in the US than in India...and Sanskrit is the root of our culture..."
-Jerry Rao, MphasiS

Its not a lost cause yet, we engineers can also innovate, but only when we do not take the Arts for granted. We need to open our minds, educate ourselves and look at how and where we can learn from them. We're so used to certain mental models of thinking that we cannot break the mould...and that is the key to innovation. The next killer application, the next product, the next technology, the next invention - they will all arrive and transform how we live. Who creates it, and how quickly it gets created are two questions that are key, and these issues will decide the order of the world economy for generations to come. Creating, sustaining and supporting initiatives for the Arts and Humanities is a critical step that India, and Indians, need to take to have a realistic chance of overcoming this challenge.

What do you say?

You're Beautiful

2006-03-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

Music is one of the true pleasures in life. I was pretty busy today even though it was a Saturday. In between some work, I stepped out for some coffee and went to a nearby Borders. With the sun streaming down, I was walking down this quiet road, and I had one of those damn...life's good moments when this song came on my iPod - you know what I'm talking about right? Things just fit.

My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Flying high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.

Ah...Love

2006-03-19T23:47:00.000-07:00

I was reading a book the other day and cross referenced into some verses by Emily Dickinson, the poet. That got me reading a whole bunch of stuff on love, fear, death, pain and so on. God, those guys were in deep [more on some favorites later]. So, in the same vein - as an idealist, and someone who is still unattached and free of the encumbrances of practicality - here are my thoughts on what perfect love should be like [I hope to show this to her someday and say something romantic or fall down laughing or maybe show this to a friend and get a sympathetic pat on the back]

I want to respect you first, and love you second. I want to talk with you about everything. I want you to tell me when I go wrong. I want to look forward to seeing you every night. I want to worry when you go out and are late coming back. I want to share your interests and support you in your pursuits. I want you to come home and tell me how your day went. I want to laugh about the silly things that you encountered. I want to help you overcome problems that you face. I want to see your face light up when I say that I love you. I want to feel afraid as to whether I will be able to keep your face lit up like that for the rest of my life. I want to be with you when something happens that makes you shed tears. I want to watch a movie with you and laugh. I want to go through old photo albums and recall those memories with you. I want you to wake me up in the middle of the night and tell me that you love me. I want to talk with a girl in front of you and see you get jealous. I want to see you talk with a guy and feel like kicking his ass. I want to get scolded when I do something stupid and insensitive. I want to have fights with you. I want to make up each of those fights. I want to keep interrupting you when you are doing something and get scolded at for it. I want to be able to surprise you and make your eyes sparkle. I want to feel an ache in my heart when you are not with me. I want to hold hands with you and take a walk in the evening. I want to have breakfast with you every morning before we both go out and face the day. I want us to live a life that will help someone less fortunate than us. I want you to hold my hand all through. I want to be alone, think of you, and smile. I want to wake up next to you, and watch you sleep.

J-Mac in da house!

2006-03-17T02:31:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of things to dislike about the US. Current politics, arrogance, George W, Iraq, immigration, George W, oil, Dick Cheney, George W (you get the idea). But there are some things that are still unique to this country, and when such things happen, its all good.

Last week there has been an uproar over the actions of Jason McElwain. He is a high school student from Greece Athena High School. He was such a fan of basketball, that even though he was not on the team, he attended every single practice and every single game of his school's team. He would be the water boy, do errands and basically just shout and encourage his team mates at each and every game.

So, he was given an opportunity to suit up for the final regular season game. I think there were around five minutes left or something like that. In the next 240 seconds, he shot 6 consecutive 3 pointers and tied a school record. By the time the clock wound down, there was mayhem everywhere and his team mates, fans, staff, opposing teammates, everyone ran into the court and hoisted him on their shoulders.Just seeing the video gives you goosebumps.That's when Jason McElwain became J-Mac.

You see, J-Mac, is autistic. He started speaking only when he was 5 years old. And the grainy 2 minute video clip that was shot by a schoolmate Marcus Luciano became the clip that held the nation enthralled. Any and all newspapers, internet news magazines and TV networks have aired the clip. ESPN picked up the story and CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, Fox, MTV - you name it, they have aired it. J-Mac met George W, he has appeared on Good Morning America and his folks said that they have received calls from studios ranging from the Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. to independent documentary filmmakers. Magic Johnson called to congratulate him and he is scheduled to appear on Oprah and Ellen.

As someone who has friends with this disorder, I cannot be happier. J-Mac has single handedly created so much awareness for autism and its social impact. J-Mac, his coach Jim Johnson, and his teammates are celebrities and heroes now, and this too shall pass. But there is no doubt that his feat will linger in memory for some time to come.

J-Mac says "I'm not really that different. I don't really care about this autistic situation, really. It's just the way I am. The advice I'd give to autistic people is just keep working, just keep dreaming, you'll get your chance and you'll do it."

And folks, this excitement, this spontaneity, this kind of fame and feel good media frenzy, it is something that still happens only in the United States. Rock on!

The Art of Communication

2006-03-14T17:32:00.000-07:00

Of all the skills that professionals must posses, I've come to realize that a key attribute is communication. It does not matter how smart or how strong your technical skills are, they are no match for being able to communicate at the highest level. Indeed, with globalization and the rapid rise of Asia in world politics, communication is more important than ever. Yet engineers are really not taught anything about this. I'm sure everyone of you might be able to think of a few people you have met along the way who are simply brilliant in having the ability to talk. And you must have also met a few really intelligent people who were the darling of your teachers, but did not achieve the level of success you might expect them to.

By communication, I do not mean the ability to speak in English. Its the ability to think fast, think logically and convey those thoughts in effective terminologies. Its about creating impressions and having the confidence to talk what you think. As someone who has been involved with management for the better part of the last two years, I have already had so many experiences that reinforce this issue. I have met with so many managers who have stressed the need to be articulate and confident. The really successfully ones have the ability to communicate in different levels - talk a certain way to the management, a different way to the workers, a different way to peers, a different way to clients and so on.

Hand in hand with communication, is the ability to market yourself. When you meet someone [a manager, a supervisor, a client, an interviewer] you need to be able to sell yourself to them. This is not bullshitting them, this is being able to differentiate yourself through how you speak. Whatever your profession is, you can bet that there are thousands of others with the exact qualifications that you have. So how do you increase your value? Simple - increase the value of you as a person by increasing intangible issues like communication and marketing skills. Most of the time, senior management does not want to hear theories and tech jargon in meetings. You need to develop the art of hiding the science and providing the implications. It is not a mistake that some of the most successfully people in business are excellent communicators and marketing gurus. Every success story involves a person who is an excellent communicator who also happens to be an engineer, physicist, management expert etc.

Indeed, the way you communicate and frame thoughts and questions has the ability to change people's perceptions. One of the most cited papers in Economics is "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk," by Daniel Kahneman, of Princeton and Amos Tversky of Stanford.

"The authors argued that the ways in which alternatives are framed, not simply their relative value, heavily influence the decisions people make. This was a seminal paper in behavioral economics; its rigorous equations pierced a core assumption of the standard model that the actual value of alternatives was all that mattered, not the mode of their presentation."

More in this fascinating piece in Harvard Magazine.

One of the most effective ways to build communication skills is to travel. When you meet new people, and interact with new cultures, it opens up a whole new way of thinking and talking within you. So, when you plan your next career goal, be sure to include provisions that will require you to improve your communication and marketing skills. It will be worth it.

Random thoughts...

2006-03-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am. Back from a self induced haitus.This one kind of branched out from a trip to India, sustained itself on the return to madness here and then kept rolling due to the most potent of all vices - sheer laziness.

So, India is now a player huh? One of the big boys. Well, while I am sure it feels good to the 300 million middle class, and even better to the 2 million Indians in the US, I'm not so sure how the 800 million poor feel. Admitted that India is rising, but we need to sustain this growth. And growth is not just in terms of urban malls, cars and six lane highways, but growth in terms of improving the standard of living of the poor and increasing the quality of life for the millions who are still in need of the basic necessities of life. As long as we don't get swept off our feet by all this attention, things do look good.

What can WE do to help the real Indian, who is still not sure where his next meal is coming from. What can one do to help the child, who doesn't know if he will ever go to school? What can we do to help the woman who has to travel kilometers under the hot sun to gather dirty water for her family?

For starters, we can all talk about it. Really, who the (bleep) cares what film Trisha is acting in next? Where are our priorities? How many of us run to movie portals as soon as we hook up to the internet? Let's find and visit websites and resources that discuss issues such as rural poverty, child education, columns on India's problems and so on. I agree it is not realistic to think in terms of huge goals like the eradication of poverty or the achievement of full fledged literacy. Those are issues that need attention and focus on a larger scale. But what we tend to conveniently forget is that the beginnings of all great things are small occurences, that are started by people like you and me. Find a charity or an organization that resonates with your beliefs and thoughts. Follow them, understand them, study what they do. Spread the word about them to your friends. And finally, when you feel strong enough, go volunteer with them. Trust me, if you help feed a kid for one day, you will have made a difference.

Moving on to lighter issues - while I was in India, I had a great time catching up with most of the gang in Bangalore. We safely saw off 2005, and also made sure that everyone reached home safely from Club Cabana, but that's another post. Seriously, this club scene in Bangalore is something else. Somehow frenching seems out of place in Bangalore - maybe its just me. I'll have pics up soon.

I also had some fascinating discussions with some industry people in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi. I met with them to discuss my thesis, and ended up having some real illuminating discussions regarding attitudes of technology professionals in the West and in South Asia. More on that later.

Just touching base folks, I'll be around.

Ram

In memoriam...

2005-11-24T22:36:00.000-07:00

We may not know these people, but we must remember them. Let's contribute to their efforts and honor their life in whatever small way we can. God bless, people.

Manjunathan Shanmugam

Satyendra Dubey

Mahesh Kant/Sarita Singh
[My previous post here]

I hope I don't have to update this post again.

Music and the Muse

2005-11-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

I was off jogging the other day, and for some inexplicable reason, switched to the songs of Saajan. Now, Dekha Hai Pehli Baar is hardly the song you want to hear when you are building up a sweat, but all the same, it got me thinking about what that song meant to me...

Haven't you been amazed when a certain song suddently evokes strong memories of something in you? There is a reason for it, and it comes from cognitive science. Our memory has two major components - the short term memory [STM] and the long term memory [LTM]. Everything available in your STM is available for instant recall - your phone number, your house number, content for tomorrow's exam, stuff that is either temporary or things that you use a lot. Stuff in the LTM is comprised of more complicated thought patterns. But everything here is cataloged and tagged, but is available only when certain cues or triggers occur. Think of it like a library catalog, your memories are evoked when the correct card number is pulled. Music is a strong cue, and when you hear a certain song or listen to a specific piece of music, that tag is pulled. Mind you, all this is done automatically and you probably have little control over the process, and there is a lot of scientific debate going on about it.

I just thought it would be fun writing about what a few songs mean to me, and what thoughts they trigger.

[Jeeyein to Jeeyein Kaise - Saajan]: I was in Unnao, a city near Kanpur and one of my class mates sung this in our music class in the VII grade. I was amazed when I heard her sing, and it kind of changed my whole perception of her, her voice was so beautiful. We became very good friends. Somehow hearing that song always takes me back to that school, those friends and that specific period in my life.

[Chura Ke Dil Mera - Main Khiladi Tu Anari]: That's right - Superhit Muqabla on DD Metro in Delhi! Man, I went crazy seeing Akshay jump from outside the screen and land near Shilpa's feet. Reminds me of days without cable TV, when DD was all we had. This was when it was cool to be fans of heroes rather than heroines...and Akshay was the man. My cousin was a big Sunil Shetty fan, and we used to rib her whenever Akshay came on the telly. [you reading this Manj? :)]

[Maye Ni Maye - Hum Aapke Hain Kaun]: Our gang in Delhi had gone to this movie together, and we were all unofficially "paired up", but as soon as Madhuri came on the screen, well, that was that. I don't think any of the guys took their eyes off the screen the whole time. What should have been a fun, noisy outing with friends turned into an intense and serious three hour appreciation of Madhuri. I guess the girls were very pissed, but hey, it was Madhuri!

[Ankhiyaan Milaye - Raja]: Oh, there was Madhuri rocking and making all those awesome moves, and poor Sanjay Kapoor looked shell shocked, and was making all these google-eyed faces. This was sometime near the end of my X grade. I was with my two cousins in Delhi and this song was a regular on the morning radio - Times FM. All three of us had enrolled for 6:00 AM typewriting classes [typewriting?], so this song immediately reminds me of early mornings and those classes.

[Musthafa Musthafa - Kaadhal Dhesam]: This song reminds me of my first year hostel room. The songs were just released and we got the tapes through one of the day scholars. A lot of people congregated near my room, and the song was on full blast, and people started dancing and stuff. My first real memory of "fun" in the first year.

[Akila Akila - Nerukku Ner ]: I saw this movie, and the song, during our II year tour. I think the whole class went for the movie. It was such a torture that the only time we got interested was when they showed Stefi Graf [or some female] playing tennis in the movie! But the tour was fun, and whenever I hear this song all those memories come flooding back.

[Azhagiye Theeye - Minnale]: I used to travel almost every weekend to Chennai from Bangalore when I was working there. It was always a late night KSRTC bus, and this song used to be on my walkman a lot. I'm always taken back to those five hour trips to Chennai, reaching home at 4:30 in the morning, then leaving Sunday night back for Bangalore.

Life was pretty simple back then.

Travel Diary: Mt.Lemmon

2005-11-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

Seems like I'm all over the place these days. Another weekend and another trip, this time to Mt. Lemmon in the Coronado National Forest in nearby Tucson, AZ. Less than 200 miles from where I live.

This area was devastated by the Aspen Fire in 2003. So even though we had some breathtaking scenery, there were still plenty of reminders of the havoc that was caused a couple of years back.

The road to the park itself was worth the trip. Full of breathtaking scenery and great views.

What do we do on weekends? Go shopping or sit on the sofa and watch TV. See what this guy was doing.

Anyways, we reached there and boy was it beautiful!

Of course, we had to eat next. So we went to this open roof restaurant and spent an hour waiting for food, then got the wrong order and finally ended up with the wrong bill. Quite the service, I tell you.

To reach the peak, we had to take a "skyride" up. The elevation was around 9000 feet above sea level. Here's a co-passenger who was coming down when we were going up.

At the top, it was simply stunning. I can only imagine how pristine things would look once it started snowing. The contrast between the burned areas and the untouched ones was really something. Nature can be so creative one moment and absolutely destructive the next...

A good way to spend Saturday guys, I can tell you that. There's something revitalizing about going out and seeing nature and breathing fresh air. Or maybe I'm just getting old...

Follow-up

2005-11-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

I've received a lot of comments on my post re: "arranged love". As Boss explained to me, some people do not feel very comfortable leaving comments, so write to me directly. Interesting that...

Well, to acknowledge a few public and private comments...Prosaicblabber thinks I'm being too starry eyed and wants me to come and live with other people on the earth, where filmi things rarely happen. Pi says, essentially, that it is better to be in some notion of love than not be in love at all. Good comment that [I've left it in the guestbook for you]. SR wrote back saying it was bang on, and really aligned with her thoughts. F told me that is what is happening with her friends right now.....

Basically, I get the message - our society is not structured to have guys and girls get to know each other in an informal setting. The "bar scene" that is so popular in the west is almost non-existent back home. I don't mean that there are no bars, I mean that there is no culture of going out, meeting people, having a good time and so on...The only way you can actually meet people is either at school or at work, so the chances of falling in "love" are not that good, so why not do this "thing in between"? Point taken.

My only opinion was that this "in between" thing has a very shaky foundation. So ask yourself whether you are getting married because you are in love or because you are afraid of not falling in love. Arranged marriage "phobia" is overrated in my belief. Sure it sounds very frightening, but as compared to the west, Indian culture has an inherent aversion to divorces and and all that. So the motivation for maintaining a successful marriage is very high. The more the effort, the better the chances are that it will succeed. Similar views expressed here [see, I mentioned you twice Prosaicblabber, you're so famous now]. Stay tuned.

Now and Then

2005-11-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

One of my friends suggested that I think about what I would do different and what I would do the same, if I was back in college - sort of a loose "learn from your mistakes" thing .So here goes...[For those of you who don't know our college, bear with me here!]

10. CHANGE - Go to the gym or do something to take care of my body. I hardly ate breakfast, never got up before 8:00 and my only past time was reading books. I really wish I would have gotten into some of the "working out" stuff. I do that fairly regularly now. The only physical workout I got was when I had to run to catch my bus every weekend [although I have to admit that the TN public bus service did require some awesome aerobics to board].

9. CHANGE - Made an effort to get to know more people. This is especially true for my college. I knew people, but never got to know some people very well. In fact, I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we have gotten to know some folks better when we have gotten out of college as compared to the four years we were actually in class with them! Now part of this is because of the hot and happening place our college was, but a lot of it was due to all these damn in-class politics, and I know that personally I could have taken the effort to get acquainted with some others. My loss I guess...

8. NO CHANGE - Hostel life was awesome man. I'm not talking about the food or the facilities, but the very experience of living with a bunch of horny undergrads was worth every second. I learned a lot about what it takes to adjust and adapt to a different way of living. I'm sure I'll carry those lessons throughout my life.

7. NO CHANGE - My department. This was back in the good ol' days when we picked departments based on how much "fun" they were. Whatever the reason, I'm glad that I joined the ECE department. The faculty, the labs and the general atmosphere left not too much to complain about.

6. CHANGE - Acquire some knowledge. I do agree that our syllabus and stuff was good, but we hardly learned anything of worth. All these 20 marks questions got us great percentages, but at the end of the day, zero knowledge gain. I really wish I could have done some more, maybe gone to some paper presentations or whatever, to at least grasp the significance of what we were studying.Maybe done a better project or done some internships somewhere.

5. NO CHANGE - Tours. Did we have fun or what? I think we went on four or five of these, and it was like a small capsule of life each time. We let loose and had the best time ever. It was even more fun to plan and plot each tour and guise it as a industrial visit. To give you an idea of how much "industrial" it was, I recall that we went to see this TV Station at Kodaikanal. Only fifteen of the fifty or so people actually went in, and some facility staff dude was showing us all the equipment. One of our guys [perhaps slightly drunk], goes up to him and asks this question: "Do you have Surya TV?"

4. CHANGE - A steady girlfriend. Contrary to what many of you who know me think, I did not have a girlfriend in college. I was close, but never quite there :-). A classic case of right things happening at the wrong time, or wrong things occuring at the right time! I know that there is someone for me out there, but man I wish I would have recognized her some time back. Life would have been more exciting...

3. NO CHANGE - Weekly bus trips to all corners of TN. I know that whenever I get on a bus in TN, I'm going to think back of those trips. It was a great gang, and those three hours seemed to fly. Of course, it was the place to be if you wanted to chat up girls. But more than that, it was great fun to travel as a group of ten or twenty people and just enjoy everyone's company.

2. CHANGE - Misunderstandings, fights and some unfinished business. I had a lot of these, especially one, that I still would like to clear up. To everyone of you who has been exposed to my anger, wave when you see me next! Life goes on.

1. NO CHANGE - My friends.Thank you for finding me!

An Evening in Vegas

2005-11-05T00:06:00.000-07:00

I was in Las Vegas last weekend, and had the opportunity to meet three of my close friends from my undergrad. We had a mini get-together as Veera flew in from Chicago, Pras flew in from San Jose and Boss came in from San Diego. I was there of course, from Phoenix. Quite different kinds of arrival schemes compared to the meetings we had in college, wouldn't you say?! Instead of riding the bus, that too standing, from Virudhunagar or Tirunelveli, we flew in from all these cities to the mother of all party places - Las Vegas. Add to the fact that it was Halloween, so the crazy crowd was a tad more drunk than usual. We had booked rooms at a hotel near the Strip, so we figured we could go directly to the hotel, get some dinner and just catch up.

Well, we did do that, but we initially spent one hour travelling to the hotel which was fifteen minutes walking distance from the Airport. That kind of set the tone for the rest of the trip - Pras would tell us to calm down and relax, and enjoy the wild ride he was giving us, while Veera would hang on for dear life at the back. Boss was the navigator in front and I was just watching all three of them and having fun! From my perspective, Boss and Veera remain the same in the four years that I have seen them, while Pras has changed a bit. However, we all quickly got into our comfort level and had a total blast there. I just miss the fact that more people were not with us.

Anyway, we went to Lake Mead and saw the Hoover dam. Boss and Prass turned out to be photography buffs, so they toted around these SLR cameras and started looking for angles and all that stuff. Veera and I helped them in their vocations by posing as hunky models - that's why you will see me or him in all the photos we took! :-). Boss was suitably impressed by the dam and it was indeed a remarkable feat of human spirit, especially during those days. As you can see, we had some stunning views and spent a pleasant hour roaming around the place.

We also spent the night at the Strip, which hosts all the major casinos and hotels. Its a hot and happening place, where you see stretch humvee limousines and dirty rickshaws all at the same time. Guess that's the Vegas atmosphere for you.

I think everyone was enthralled by the musical fountains at the Bellagio. We liked it so much, that we stayed for three shows consecutively. The ambience of the fountain and the music kind of made me feel bad that I was there with three guys!

Then we went to the Stratosphere where Prass and Boss went on some crazy rides. This building is so high, we could pretty much cover the whole view of Vegas with one shot. Let me tell you something about the rides they have here - don't go on them!. I mean, one is called Insanity and the other is called Big Shot or something and they just throw you out of the top of the building! Just seeing the ride made me want to puke. Crazy! But Boss loved it all the same, and went on it twice.

In addition to the sights of Vegas, all of us had real fun in that we just relaxed and spent a lot of time eating, drinking and chatting. This is what I like about going out with good friends. You shouldn't worry too much about which place to see next, or where to eat and all that stuff. Just go out, see a few places then just kick back and chill. I think we guys ate and drank [coffee, that is] more than anything in the two days we were there. Even at the airport, we had to go and get stuff to eat! And while we did talk about marriage and girls, we spent a lot of time on topics ranging from politics, education and technology to Vijaykanth, ex-principal Shanmugam and one sub warden in college who was after a third year student [I forget the name].I think I can safely say that Pras learned more about our class and college in the two days he was with us, than with the four years he was there as a student.

And guys - wish you were with us!

Hold my hand, hold my heart

2005-10-26T23:35:00.000-07:00

Its been a tiring week. Lots of work, and a lot of news that has forced me to think and introspect, and thinking is tiring. I'm planning a trip to Vegas this weekend - now that will be relaxing !!.

Well, anyways, I was talking and reading a lot about the marriage process and how it has evolved over the years. Guys and girls have a lot more expectations and higher standards from their prospective partners nowadays. Part of this can be attributed to the increase in exposure that people are getting - lots of travel, lot of opportunities to meet people, lots of friends [of both sexes]. Part of this is also because our movies are getting slightly more intelligent [the guy does not attempt suicide every time the girl says no].Part of this is because we are learning from our mistakes, and are refining the process as we go along [all these wahooo websites, matrimonials and all that are trying to match people in ways you would never think of]

Among these things, there has been a really strong, silent movement where a lot of people are starting to "arrange their own marriages". How many of you can relate to this experience? Let's look at this - so the guy is working in a company, and he is friends with our girl in the next cubicle or neighboring company or whatever [just friends people]. After a couple of years or so, he has got his first Yamaha and all that cool stuff, and is now thinking about "settling" down [or his relatives have decided that its time they had a get together or a good lunch, so a wedding is needed]. Cut to the girl, almost exactly the same circumstances [you can substitute a Kinetic Honda for the Yamaha maybe] and voila! Marriage! The next thing you know, the guy and girl are in love, they sell their two two-wheelers to get one four wheeler and then arrange their marriages through their parents.

Now, if this happens once in a while I can maybe understand how love might have blossomed. It is too much of a stretch to accept this when it keeps happening every Tuesday. My take on this is that people are choosing this as an alternative to the traditional arranged or love marriage option. Everyone is shitting their pants when you talk about arranged marriage, as you think of all the possible scenarios [what if the girl is actually a guy? or what if the guy has uneven feet? or what if the guy has a tail? and so on]. On the other hand, people don't find love that easily either, as we don't really have that much of an open society in schools [except maybe where my brothers go] and colleges [except Mepco Schlenk], despite what everyone says. It is open, but only to the adventurous [like me!]. It becomes really open when you start working but that is a bit too late for love to find you, unless you are lucky [like me!]. But even then, you have to work hard or you will mess it up [like me!].

So now, what is happening is that, people are getting married out of sheer convenience and labeling it love, as it somehow makes it sound better. In addition to convincing themselves that they are in love, the participants also convince themselves that they have cleverly avoided the pitfalls of an arranged or love marriage scenario.

I can see where this is an intelligent decision for some, but I am totally against this. And my reason for this [other than the fact that this is my blog] is that it kind of takes the approach of saying, "I like this girl/guy, who knows who I will get if I wait, let me play it safe and take what I have right now".

When I get married, I am sure that I will fight, I will be obstinate, I will be stupid, I will be angry, I will be sad, I will be inconsiderate, I will be dumb, but I will also be able to make up, be understanding, have intelligent conversations, be forgiving, be happy, be kind and be caring. I am going to see her smile each morning and look into her eyes each night [1], for the rest of my life. And I should and can be all of these only with someone whom I truly,totally and absolutely love.

I guess what I'm saying is - don't give up on love guys! I can see your arguments saying that well, "why can't I fall in love with this girl whom I know and like, after I get married?" And my answer is simple - not likely to happen. Think...if you see, and talk and hang out with this girl or guy for three years and nothing happens, but you suddenly fall in love only when people are forcing you to get married, then the chances are that it is really not the kind of love I am talking about. On the other hand, if you get hitched to someone through the arranged marriage paradigm, then that person is someone unique, someone who the family thinks will make you happy and so that is a different kind of love, a kind of love that is inherent due to our culture and so on, and it can evolve,develop and blossom [or go kaput], but it atleast gives you a shot at getting the kind of life that makes living worthwhile.

You can like people, and hold hands with a lot of them, but like Michelle Branch croons, its only with certain people that its true that "when you hold my hand, you hold my heart"[2]. You get the opportunity, and the privilege, to love only a few. So make it count.

A Little Perspective

2005-10-25T00:14:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since my last post. In fact, its been such a long time[or short, depending on where you live!], that after hurricane Katrina, the entire hurricane alphabet has been used up and we are now in the "second round", as hurricane Alpha arrived a couple of days back.

I really don't want to talk about Bush, its almost too easy. There are now Bush greeting cards with "Bushisms" on them. Shows you the state of affairs right? My professor bought one to class the other day. Shows Bush holding up three fingers and saying "I have three words for you". Inside it says "thank you"

It just seems like its one straight tragedy after another. Absolutely devastating earthquake, and it is somehow made worse when I get a western spin on the event. Other than the death toll, the news [or what people refer to as news] has been semi lamenting the fact that India and Pakistan did not make use of the opportunity of this tragedy to kickstart a Kashmir "peace process". The remaining news has been focused on how India is handling the event. The NY Times had a report that questioned India's claims of not needing any assistance. They went to great pains to point out that India had refused aid during the Tsunami and was doing the same with the earthquake, and also pointed out that this was India's attempt to be seen as a "giver", rather than a "taker". Sort of like saying, "you are not ready to play with the big guys yet fella". Well, we will see. Although I agree that politics should take a backseat when it comes to saving lives, there comes a time when you do what you got to do.

I saw this big picture of an old lady standing amid her ruins, with tears in her eyes and that really, truly shook me. We see so many deaths and disasters that I think we have unconsciously blocked out their significance so that we can live a normal life. This barrier is overcome only when the loss is close to home, and perhaps because I am so far away from home that it hit me so hard.

Thinking about all this leads me to a discussion I had with one of my friends the other day. Among other things, we found that we shared a common belief that it is essential to have a little perspective when we encounter problems in life. I mean, getting a job or traveling abroad is really important, but what is that when compared to seeing the earth heave up and waiting for someone, anyone, to tell you what happened to your daughter? Before we realize it, we become entangled in this vicious but trivial circle of salaries and job profiles. We need to make a concentrated effort to stop, take a step back and look at who we are, and what we are doing here. Lately, I have heard a lot of my friends here complain about a serious backlog in green card issuances and so on, and my response is - perspective people, perspective!

Well, a lot of heavy thinking there guys. Let's cool down. My friend keeps ribbing me that I don't drink anything other than a "tall,regular" at Starbucks, so I decided to expand my horizons. So, I go in and read, and read......geez [all these "iatos"], I finally ask the hot chick at the counter for a tea with milk, and find out its called Chai Tea Latte. Now, let's translate that. Chai in Hindi is Tea with milk, Tea is tea and Latte is "with milk". So when someone orders a Chai Tea Latte, he is requesting a Tea with milk tea with milk - how dumb is that? I'm sticking to my tall, regular - maybe some room for cream.

Problems for Indian Managers...

2005-09-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

I read that Bush bhai is going to address the nation tomorrow, maybe even apologize for the poor response to Katrina. I hope his speechwriters did a spell check, and that he practices pronouncing, else I will have to mention that in my next post.

The FEMA/Horse dude, I mean director, officially resigned yesterday. Good for him, and us. The media is just getting started on whooping some politician ass. I just saw the tail end of a piece on ABC that showed how some Louisiana Senator caused two helicopters and eight army men to wait for 45 minutes while he went into his house and collected his belongings, including a laptop. And if that was not enough, they reported that he got pissed that someone broke his house window. And so it keeps going...

And speaking of the media, I've noticed a spurt in the number of Indians [as in desi's] in US TV. I don't mean to be a racist, but I cannot help observing this. I saw an ad for a cereal in which there is a desi "intern", then there was some show on NBC where there is an Indian "doctor", then I saw an "engineer" on CSI. Then there was a t-mobile ad, in which the background music was our very own "didi tera devar diwana". I also remember some people in ads for a Volkswagen commercial...Guess people have started to acknowledge the number of people here. Which might be good or bad, but its happening all the same.

Onto some reports I just finished reading from my various subscriptions [decent ones]. Guess what business executives in India think is the number one constraint in their organizations growth? According to this article by McKinsey Quarterly, its the lack of qualified labor. That does sound surprising when all you keep hearing about is India's seemingly vast labor pool. But, for those of us from India it does make sense. We have so many colleges that almost everyone who applies is guaranteed admission into some engineering or technical school or the other. The lack of quality is inevitable with this vast increase in quantity.

We might end up falling over ourselves if we continue to churn out so much supply. The study estimates, for example that in Hyderabad by 2008, demand for qualified engineers will hit 138 percent of supply. A direct quote - "Graduates of the top schools, such as the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), are world class, but elsewhere the level of quality declines steeply." [They forgot Mepco Schlenk, my alma mater, but that's ok].

The other factor I think, is the increasing salaries of professionals. Project Managers salaries have risen by around 20% and Programmers by 13% in the past four years. The primary motivation for companies to move into India is the cost benefit. Increasing salaries will definitely hit operating costs, as is explained in another study.

Another issue is the lack of communication skills or just the ability to speak English. Here, I think the Southern part of India really takes a hit. If people speak English in colleges here, its called showing "Peter", an euphemism for saying to shut it and shove it and not show off. Its another matter that these very people must speak English when they go job hunting. Sad, but true state of affairs.

I think the one sure way to increase quality of our future engineers is for schools to start associating with the private sector. Look at the US, research and outside projects are an integral part of the curriculum [never mind that you don't actually do research]. This brings in money, and with it accountability. If the school and students don't perform, they company will just go elsewhere. The other thing would be to start getting creative. Technical skills are important, but there is so much more that an engineer can learn. Schools should start giving some useful electives than the usual crappy ones that no one cares about. We seem to have somehow got into the rut of thinking that the terms Engineering and Software Development are synonyms.

And don't forget that most of the good ones end up in the US, writing blogs and giving opinions on what the problems in India are. Hey somebody's got to do it, right?!

Loss of life, property....and pride.

2005-09-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

The whole word has watched with shock at the images from New Orleans. I was simply stunned to see what was unfolding in front of my eyes. As was the case with almost everyone, my first reaction was not one of sorrow or anger or frustration - it was just surprise...was this America?

Since last week, newspapers and TV have told a tale of incompetence and ineptitude that is unparalleled in the history of this country. [Even while making these comments, some Americans take a swipe at other countries, "this is not Indonesia", "this is not Bangaldesh"...but that is another issue]. While 9/11 was also a tragedy, New Orleans was a failure on all fronts.

There is plenty of blame to go around. The Mayor, for having no plans to evacuate people at all. All he did was go on TV and Radio and start shouting at everyone to do something. While it was good to hear him cuss politicians, he simply did not do his job. The Governor also was totally unprepared. Now she is angry at the President, cries during conferences and visits shelters, but she flunked her duties miserably.

Then, of course, we have the White House. Seriously, I have great respect for some of the people there, but the last few days have shown how much of arrogance there is among them for the public opinion. I mean,come on - here was Katrina - Category 5 hurricane arriving in Louisiana, cities were being evacuated, and offices and schools were being shut down, and Rice was shopping, Cheney was buying a house, Bush was vacationing...that sucks. How far removed from the people are these guys?

The comparisons between Mumbai and New Orleans is inevitable. With all its infrastructure issues and poverty, the Army was there in Mumbai within a day and no one could complain about the law and order scene. That's one thing about India, politicians are well, politicians...but no one can question the efficiency, organization or effectiveness of the Army.

Then, when Katrina hit, the FEMA directors and Homeland Security people were lost on what to do. FEMA, - Jay Leno called it Fix Emergency? - My Ass! - is led by a Director whose previous job was some post at something called the Arabian Horses Association. This shows how much importance was given to disaster management. He is referred to these days as a horse's ass. The Homeland Security director does and did nothing except stand behind the President and talk to the press about how good a job they were doing. Lot of people felt like punching him in the face.

Bush had tremendous support after 9/11, people supported him in his actions, he was give a blank check to cash in, he went to Afghanistan, Iraq, did whatever he wanted, and won an election despite the ongoing mess in Irag. As NY Times columnist David Brooks says, this is the anti 9/11. NO ONE will forget these few days. Other than the human and monetary loss, America lost something it values above all - its pride. And here's where Bush and his cohorts hopefully lose theirs, and start doing something worthwhile for the country.

Various and sundry

2005-08-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some facts and quotes that you might find interesting:

Apple iPods' main component is the memory chip, manufactured by a company called PortalPlayer. Apple ships components to a Chinese company called Inventec and PortalPlayer ships their designs to Taiwan for fabrication. PortalPlayer probably pays around $3 to the Taiwanese company for fabrication per chip and they charge Apple $12 for the chip [$9 profit for them]. Apple pays Inventec in China around $200 per player [includes cost of chip] to assemble and ship back the players. Inventec makes an estimated profit of less than $10 per player, even though labour is cheap. iPods retail sale price in the US is $265, so Apple ends up making $65 as profit. Now , is it any wonder that Apple shares trade at above $60 today, compared to $20 last year?.

Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE, responding to a question that "outsourcing is killing America": "I think it's a ruse, a complete and total ruse by people who don't want to face what the real problems are. The real problem is that 30% of the people getting a college degree in China and India are getting an engineering degree. That number in the United States is 4%. The fact is, we don't value engineering, and that is how manufacturing jobs get created."

All you iFlex dudes, welcome to Oracle! Oracle is buying iFlex at six times its closing price of Rs.829 per share. Oracle bought PeopleSoft and Retek, for only twice their existing revenue price.

In 1999, IT services accounted for 1.3% of India's GDP. Last year, IT accounted for 3% of the GDP. In the US, IT accounts for 40% of the GDP. India's literacy rate is increasing at 1.3% per year, meaning that it will take another 20 years for India to reach 95% literacy. India's automobile industry is showing a growth of 20% per year.

NIIT is among the Top 20 Companies in the world, and the only one from India, for outsourcing training capabilities, according to TrainingOutsourcing.com. This is significant, especially as eLearning, a $26 billion dollar industry today, is set to take off. Analysts predict India has a good chance of becoming the eLearning hub of the world by 2008, with business expected to be around $28 billion.

Musings of the Muse

2005-08-06T14:31:00.000-07:00

Its been more than a year since I started this blog, so I was just thinking about some things...

When I look at some of the blogs out there, a predominant theme involves allowing people a glimpse into the personal lives of individuals. Nothing wrong with that, but as my friends will tell you, I'm very introverted,"shy-type" and hardly talk at all. Living vicariously might be cool for some, but not for me. So, while I started this blog with no clear intentions, I'm pretty clear where I want to go with this - be in touch, and encourage some minimal debate and discussion.

The worst part of being away from friends is that you don't get to talk with them about your opinions. Sometimes a phone call works, but not all the time. Perhaps seeing my blog once a while helps you sort of keep in touch with me? Instead of chain mailing all of you with the usual phrases, like "what's up" and "long time no see", I'm assuming that we are all in touch, and talking about things that I find interesting.

Ideally it would be great if we had other people involved, and if we had more participation in a common forum. But writing is something that takes some effort and dedication, and it might be easier for some to just read, think, maybe smile and close down. Whatever works...See, when I read about something or come across some forwarded email, I tend to immediately think of certain people who I know will enjoy it. If I spent time individually forwarding mails to all those people, then I would not have any time left at all.

But how much better it is to find a forum to talk with everyone at the same time?

I know that almost everyone of you does this, but in different ways. I receive emails from friends who have me on their addressbook, and there is a list of emails that I get everyday. Do I read all of them?... probably not. Do I reply to every mail?... probably not. But I do appreciate the thought behind the emails. That is the way my friends try to keep in touch with me. They see something they enjoy and want to share it, hence the mass forwards.

My way is to choose this website/blog. And by putting it on a blog, I'm leaving it to your discretion - read, when you find time and if you want to. More importantly, this is my way of storing information. My thoughts, opinions and links are all stored and ordered chronologically.

Anyways, keep me informed on your thoughts and opinions - email me: v a d i v e l u @gmail.com, or just sign the guestbook on the blog.

Be good and be safe!

Ram

Outsourcing Training - 1

2005-08-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been noticing a rapid build up in the news about training, specifically Corporate Training, and how it is has been clearly and squarely marked as the next thing to be outsourced. That interests me a lot.

See, how much money do you think we are talking about here? In the US, Corporate Training alone accounts for 65 billion dollars annually. Ho ho, $65 BILLION! The thing that piques my interest is that unlike the case of Engineering and IT services, India is not abundant in this kind of talent...and it will be intriguing to see how we cope with the demand.

Traditionally, Training is not something that is thought of as a Career option in India.Indeed, people familiar with terms like Instructional Design, Educational Technology, Learning Theory or Cognitive Load are a definite minority when compared to those who throng the Engineering and Science colleges.

To test the waters, I looked at some job requirements for Training Professionals in India. A common theme is that due to a lack of college degrees in training related fields, companies are focusing on recruiting people who have some form of certification in Instructional Design, Learning Theories etc. I think good ol' NIIT offers something in this regard.

A lot of companies who are already in the BPO arena have already outsourced their own training to their own offshore ventures. They are now ready to handle the training needs of others. A case in point is IBM Corp. After shutting down their computer business, IBM is now fully and totally into Business Consulting. Their interest in the Corporate Training area is clearly visible in their acquisition of Daksh eServices last year.

Also, Corporate Training in India is recognized in certain specific forms. Initially, when one thinks of Training, the first thing that comes to mind is the tiring month or two month stint that one has to go through as an entry level Software Engineer in any of the million companies. I know that in my first job, fresh out of college as an undergrad, I had to go through two months of software training. While those times were great [all pay and no work],and the food was ok, the learning was definitely poor. I don't think any of us took anything worthwhile from the whole experience. And it was pretty expensive for the Company too.

Another form of "Training" is training in a particular tool or standard. Engineers dealing with certain portions of a project are frequently called upon to get "trained" in some new form of software or compliance initiative etc.

A third form of Corporate Training would deal with issues in the workplace - intangibles like Leadership, Team building etc.

The outsourced training related work that India gets is not likely to fall into such distinct categories. Anytime any company policy gets updated, there is a training need and work to be done. We need to develop skills and knowledge to design and develop different kinds of learning solutions. And the great thing about this is that the industry servicing the demand is not just IT. Every company needs training, and therefore the potential is huge.

A point to note is that till date, almost all types of training solutions in India have been Instructor Led or ILT. The West is more oriented towards eLearning and Blended Learning, as it is cheaper compared to hiring instructors and having trainees all centralize at a location to learn.

India is definitely starting to adapt to this demand. I've seen numerous companies that are starting to separate themselves and advertise their expertise in Corporate Training. Companies like Aptech have started acting as vendors for Training Development. But designing Training is not an easy job. It is a science, and there are certain specific skills that one needs. In fact, Instructional Design is a multidisciplinary field that brings together a lot of diverse skill sets. So, we need to be careful in the quality of the output. Some interesting points regarding this are made here.

I'm excited at the opportunities out there eager to see how India addresses this issue. The beautiful thing is that this field fits on top of any existing skill set you might have, while allowing you to learn something new all the time. And for people who are thinking that the only way to go is Engineering and Medicine - think again!

India and Iraq...

2005-07-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

The one thing that I keep feeling since the London bombings (or 07/07 as they are being referred to), is frustration. It was shock during 09/11, then sorrow, then anxiety (during Afghanistan), then anger (when the War on Terror started), then disgust (with the ensuing mess).....

But 07/07 has me feeling frustrated. I do not pretend to be a genius or a savant, but I know that I am not that dumb either. So it makes me feel inadequate when I simply cannot see the logic and the motivation of these suicide bombers. I am not talking about empathizing with them, just trying to understand them.

Their whole argument is based on the alleged Western degradation of holy Muslim cities and the Western pursuit of greed and avarice that tend to oppose the sayings of Prophet Mohammed. Ok,so these SB's [Suicide Bombers not SoB's] want to strike back at these Western cultures and retaliate against the hundred years of oppression and perform a moral cleansing. I can understand this far.

What I cannot understand is how they think giving up their life is the supreme sacrifice, worthy of their Prophet and his teachings. By strapping a bomb across their waist and going to the middle of a crowd and pushing a button, these SB's have taken the easy way out and died. It takes guts to live and fight for one's cause - there is no glory in blowing oneself up. The message that one gets from such an act is simple, loud and clear - "I hate you, I want you to leave us to our ways, I do not care for your ideas, But since I am too weak to do anything about it, I am going to kill women, children and anyone else I can, make you mad and leave my family and fellow Muslims to face your anger."

I, for one, do not think that withdrawing from Iraq is going to stop these acts. Sure, Iraq was, and is, a mess. But let's say the US retreats, next time something happens in the Middle East, there will be the SB again. If it works once, they will keep doing it again and again - its sort of like acquiescing to blackmail.

What will the wife of the SB do? See, she has already lost her individuality - she is now the wife of the 07/07 SB - so is the son...It is not too far a stretch to think that the son will grow up like all son's do - thinking that his father is a hero. And what child's mind is not influenced by the thought of emulating something that one's parent did? The ripple effects are as sickening and ineffective as the source.

There are too many differences between the history of India and the history of Iraq to draw any parallels - but I'm a blogger, so I will take the liberty to use facts to selectively suit my interests! History tells us that the British brutally occupied the Indian peninsula. While they did not have sophisticated MiG's and nukes, they were also a superpower, who used the lure of money and greed to take over our country for decades. India had gold and minerals and was rich. Iraq has oil and is rich. There was a violent resistance to the colonial rule, just as there is now to the presence of US in Iraq. We also had our own version of SB's. But these SB's, ladies and gentleman, were the real deal.

These fighters went on demonstrations and used the strength of their faith to protest against the British occupation of India. They did this in blatant violation of British rules, knowing full well that they would face death by hanging, or be shot at. That, to me, takes guts. That is the supreme sacrifice.

So many died there too. So many families were destroyed as well. But unlike in Iraq, so many widows built an identity that allowed them to live in pride for the rest of their lives. So many sons grew up on the truly heroic acts of their fathers. And, well... India struggled, but grew and has now arrived. Our history does indeed makes us who we are, doesn't it?

The key thing that strikes me here, is that Indian revolutionaries never used religion as their motivator. This enabled everyone, regardless of cast or creed, to be accountable for one's actions. Hindus and Muslims joined hands and fought for their country.

The London SB's are using religion, or misusing it rather, which dooms their efforts. Once they say that they are doing this for their religion, they lose the united will of the majority of Muslims who totally and rightly, denounce these acts. They are then reduced to being a bunch of damn terrorists. Till they develop the strength to stand up and fight,they will never achieve anything, and they are, simply and unequivocally,losers. Period.

Just plain lucky...

2005-06-26T01:06:00.000-07:00

Since my last post, I have been busy with my new internship. I don't want to say how "challenging" and "hard" and "ultimately rewarding" it is - we've all heard that, read that and said that! Let's just leave it at me being fortunate and lucky and happy and having a lot of fun.

I also went to Las Vegas for a weekend trip with my friends. I'm not really a Vegas kinda guy, and all the crowd and lights and general flash didn't do much to change my tastes regarding travel. I'll take a quiet hike in Yosemite any day. We did drop in on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on the way, and that was a pleasant experience.

I was catching up on Thomas Friedman's columns in NY Times. He takes a keen interest in the state of Indian affairs and comments frequently on outsourcing and other business related issues. I had to laugh when I read about his description of how some tech companies [I'm guessing IBM, read this] were having doubts about setting up shop in Communist Bengal. They approached the state with qualms about worker strikes and all that, and what happens? Information Technology is ruled an "essential service", thereby workers cannot strike!

"India has the oldest civilization,the largest democracy and the youngest population" is a quote attributed to Shekhar Gupta of the Indian Express. All this does make one feel happy and proud, but the fact is we are all simply damn lucky. We might be the youth who actually witness - and get the credit - for helping the transition of a country from a poor, unnoticed and neglected state, to one assuming a central and pivotal role in shaping the course of the world in the next century. What an awesome experience it will be! [Do you remember the jokes that satired on students coming to the US by talking about how people will have to get visa's and work permits to work and study in India - well, its not that funny anymore!]

While we generally get praise for being smart and intelligent and hard working, Indians are really not considered to be adept at a lot of other areas, like marketing or in strategic development and so on. We got a name in the fields of technology and that is now the staple diet on which our whole economy and future is seemed to hinge on. You hear about some jackass selling private financial account information to some newspaper, that would probably report the color of celebrity's footwear as big news, and people start shouting about how this event is going to cost India dearly in terms of FDI and all that. Last week, there was a breach at CardSystems, a Credit Card Processing company here and 40 million [that's right, forty million] account information were compromised. So, what are we going to do? Crap is what I say...

So, my point to all the millions of professionals [read four] who are surely reading this blog, is to not stick with doing what they know and have done for years at work. Our juniors will take care of that, and its upto us guys to think about diversifying our talent and pave the way for the nature of tomorrow's workforce. We have the world's biggest corporations at our doorstep and we focus on doing just their IT work. Let's move to their management, their operations, their marketing, their advertising. Being good in one thing does not mean we just stop trying to learn things. We are surely not restricted in doing only certain kinds of jobs. I hear this talk about "settling" down and being afraid to start afresh. What the hell is that anyway? Upgrade a two wheeler to a four wheeler, buy a house and get a spouse?

Its important to keep learning and keep leading the way. If India is among the countries with the youngest workforce, and if India is moving forward because of it, the work you do is contributing to that change, and we all have a responsibility to use our intelligence and talent to the fullest. Look around you - how many people do you see who come in and do the same thing again and again...not because they love it, but that's who they have become and cannot let go.

Its great to be praised, and we might all have the feeling that we are doing something worthwhile already...but we might also get complacent and not use the momentum that we have.Let's take advantage of who we are, where we are and the times we are lucky to be born in.

Various

2005-05-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

Check out Garageband, which is a "new type of music company that discovers, promotes, and distributes the bands identified by the will of music lovers like you. So when you review music at GarageBand.com, you help decide the fate of tens of thousands of new bands". Amazing talent out there!

Came across this old link from Forbes asking readers to rate the best blogs. If you are an avid blogger [or if your eyes are glazing over looking at code], go through the various links, provided by category.

Ok, now this is creepy.If you enter the eye colors of your parents and your partner's parents, then this calculator from the The Tech Museum of Innovation will give you the probability of various eye colors for your child. Of course, this is something everyone must take into consideration before even thinking of having a child.

Sothebys', the premier auction house did decent business on Tuesday, estimated sales of $68 million. $12.6 million was paid for a square portrait in acrylic and silkscreen ink of Elizabeth Taylor by Andy Warhol, titled "Liz."

The Holocaust Memorial was opened in Germany - a nation facing up to its dark past, as reported by the International Herald Tribune. The BBC has some quotes from the opening ceremony.

I strongly recommend watching this episode of Strange Days on Planet Earth on PBS. This one dealt with the erosion of the Lamar river and the disappearance of aspen trees from the Yellowstone Park. It was fascinating to observe how two such disparate occurences and separate research teams worked towards a common cause hypothesis, which of all things, turned out to be an absence of wolves!

Don't forget to update Firefox - Mozilla reports that the updates are "extremely" critical.

And check out the very funny Fark blog.

Later people! And that's me in the photo with my cousin bro' when I was in India earlier in the year.

Death is nothing!

2005-05-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

Beautiful and strong lines:

Death is nothing at all

I have only slipped away into the next room

I am I and you are you

Whatever we were to each other

That we are still

Call me by my old familiar name

Speak to me in the easy way you always used

Put no difference into your tone

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow

Laugh as we always laughed

At the little jokes we always enjoyed together

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was

Let it be spoken without effect

Without the ghost of a shadow in it

Life means all that it ever meant

It is the same as it ever was

There is absolute unbroken continuity

What is death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind

Because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you for an interval

Somewhere very near

Just around the corner

All is well.

Nothing is past; nothing is lost

One brief moment and all will be as it was before

How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

-Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul's Cathedral

EU and the next great Muslim state

2005-03-21T15:34:00.000-07:00

I've been following the development of the European Union with great interest. Ideally, the concept makes a lot of sense. The establishment of the EU is possibly the only feasible alternative to balance the power of the United States in the global arena. And it is almost logical, given the geography and dependence of the major European countries. Admittedly, there are a few sticky issues, but on the whole there is a strong case for the formation of the EU. So why is the UK so hesitant to jump in, and what are some of the primary issues that are hindering the formation of the EU? I posed this question to a professor of mine over lunch and we had a truly fascinating discussion - some excerpts follow:

The British historically detest the French [true!]. And the creation of a EU is contingent on the fact that France and Germany dominate in terms of policies, constitution and foreign policy.

Germany, Europe's largest economy, is almost choking. The economy is lagging, unemployment is rampant. Due to ageing,the size of Germany's working-age population has shrunk somewhat faster than in other European countries. Lower employment rates and reduced working hours per employee have impacted growth too. Further, there is outsourcing. Siemens showed record profits after moving 30% of its workforce overseas. Bloomberg reports: "Germany's $2 trillion economy unexpectedly shrank in the October-December quarter, and an increase in unemployment in February to the highest since World War II hurt the outlook for domestic spending. The Kiel Institute for World Economics cut its growth forecast to 0.6 percent, the lowest of the six state-funded economic research institutes, from 0.8 percent." It is no wonder then, that the UK, which has a growth of around 3-3.5% expected, is not too excited about merging itself.

Then there is the question of Turkey. France has 5 million Muslims and is having serious issues with integrating them into its society. Turkey has 70 million, one can just imagine the issues and fear involved. Dominique Moisi, the deputy director of the French Foreign Affairs Institute says "What is at the heart of French concerns is size and it is Islam. We have 5 million Muslims in France and we see Turkey and we spontaneously think of the difficulties in French society. It is [about] fear, stereotypes, prejudice. We have failed to integrate 5 million Muslims; how can Europe succeed in integrating 70 million?"

And related to this, is the dynamic of the the whole EU state. Unlike America, current European countries are not Christian majorities. In fact, the major religion in Europe now is atheism. When Turkey joins in, the EU will have Islam as its primary religion. A quote from a senior conservative Germany aid "If Turkey comes into the EU in 2015, they might have more inhabitants than Germany. It might be 80 million or more, it might well become the biggest member, with mostly Muslims. This is not a question that we don't want Muslims here and so on, but it is another culture." Throw in the fact that Turkey's majority party now is the very conservative Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), and it is no wonder that serious issues are arising

One must also consider the openly xenphobic reaction, as the IHT reports " ...for the fourth year in a row the most popular name for newborn boys in Brussels is Muhammed".. and thus, will the EU be the next Muslim state?

Various

2005-03-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

I don't really know if this is surprising, but guess who is the world's third richest man...? Lakshmi Mittal, the steel tycoon who became a famous [read notorious] figure after arranging a
$40 million dollar wedding for his daughter that had people grumbling. The International Herald Tribune [IHT] reports he made around $36,000 a second last year. Well,that's not too bad is it?

Bloomberg has an interesting comment on this and they list some interesting statistics that show India to be surprisingly ahead of China in the list of billionaires. The Asian country leading the pack is Japan, followed by India,Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. China has two billionaires.

While on the IHT, I read this piece that reports on the creation of a well being index that will attempt to quantify how much happiness has been bought to the people. Seems the crazy brits are going to measure happiness, so they can get their ass whooped by making statements like "...in the last four months, the happiness index has shown an increase of 4%, hence we rock and our policies work". I can just imagine poor Tony Blair getting shredded in the House of Commons.

``The willingness to invest in new projects is quite high -- not what it was in the late '90s, but we may never see that again in our lifetime.'' - Bill Gates in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

In a potentially landmark verdict, the US Santa Clara Superior Court ruled that Apple was free to pursue leads and force three bloggers to divulge sources who leaked trade secrets in their blogsites. This case has been getting a lot of attention because bloggers are waiting to see if they are also governed by rights that protect journalists. However, as reported here in BBC, "Judge Kleinberg said the question of whether the bloggers were journalists or not did not apply because laws governing the right to keep trade secrets confidential covered journalists, too".

You must have seen the news about Syria, elections in Baghdad and all that optimism about democracy and peace in the middle east. I read this article in the NY Times [you can get it here if you don't have a registration entry] where the view is that there will not be any democracy till there is an active middle class. And that can be accomplished only with an open economy, free press and export driven trade.

And to give you something useful, here is bugmenot , just type in the name of the website and you will get an user name and password that you can use. It works only for free websites [like the NY Times] that ask you to register before allowing you to read anything. Saves time...

More later, be good!

Know thy brain

2005-02-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

A fascinating article on how our brain works and how it is affecting what is happening in the current economy. Read it for some interesting insights here.

Of browsers and developers

2005-01-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

This year has not been a good one - personal losses that are too painful to put down. But life goes on, so let me go to some straight news on Firefox.

Those of you into browsing will surely know about the problems of Internet Explorer, the world's most popular internet browser. Microsoft simply did not pay enough attention to its importance and did not come through with enough updates in time. The result - in a world that is being increasingly paranoid - the Dept of Homeland Secucrity in the US advocated the use of Firefox as its browser to its people.

The result has been astonishing! Till last year, IE had around 90-95% of the browser market. Firefox is now expected to garner a whopping 20% of the market by the end of 2005! Talk about improvement in sales. Now, Firefox is an offshoot of the open source Mozilla Foundation, so there is no new Bill Gates in the making.

But who is behind Firefox? Two main dudes - Ben Goodger and Darin Fisher. Goodger is 24 and somewhat of a cult figure now. Fisher is on his way. Now something I must let you know about is that these two just got a job offer and are now employed by - yes - Google, Inc! So does that mean Google is going to come out with its own browser? Who knows? But, Goodger and Darin continue to be associated with Firefox and will also get a paycheck from Google,Inc. Check out Goodger's blog here.

Also, check out the Oakley Thump here. Its the world's first musical eye ware [yes, that's right no typo]. Its got the state of the art wireless audio stuff attached to their state of the art sunglass, so you end up with a state of the art, super expensive product. Personally, that means everytime I want to listen to music, I need to put my glasses on....

Later!

Shaving

2004-11-17T02:18:00.000-07:00

Humor Columnist Dave Barry's take on shaving.

This thing called marriage...

2004-11-17T00:26:00.000-07:00

Well, after reading my first thoughts about school and college, now we are almost at final thoughts! My apologies to all those fans [all four of you] from around the world for taking my blog offline these past three months. Actually, I have been busy blogging elsewhere for my class. Also, just found out that my college buddies initiated their own foray into the blogging world. Good work Ramkumar - you the man!

In these three months, nothing major has changed. Bush bhai won, killing in Iraq is ongoing,economy is recovering and more importantly, I am still single [I think...]. While I don't really want to write about the elections [you all have read so much from people much more informed], I would like to mention one opinion that I credit to Chris Matthews [hosts MSNBCs' Hardball] who had come over to our school along with top reporters from CNN,NBC,Reuters to cover the third presidential debate held in our school auditorium [no, there was no coverage for DD]. The economy was down, unemployment was way high, deficit was at a record high, there was war, children and civilians were dying, Bush could not speak English continuously,Kerry was intellectual and smart - with all of this, Bush was still at 50% in the polls. How could he lose?

Anyways,I was speaking with one of my best pals [Veera] just now and we were talking about girls, politics, girls, sports, girls, friends, girls, marriage - have I mentioned girls yet :-)? This got me thinking about this impending event in my life called marriage. Sure, we have all been expecting it but when it hits you, it will take some getting used to. I'm sure all the newly hitched people have their own take on it, but objectively viewing it, what is the main attribute that differentiates a 'normal' marriage and makes it into something unique and special?

All these mushy poems and love saga's talk about the emotion of love and how it conquers everything.Sure, whatever. While I agree that love is important, how many of us are fortunate enough to identify,stimulate,sustain and nurture love into a lifelong bond? And surely, being in love does not mean that life is going to be one sweet ride....that would be much too simple. After mulling this over for a huge amount of time [12 minutes] and talking and surveying a wide audience [two friends - one half drunk], I have come to the amazing conclusion that the single most important criteria that dictates the success of married life is.....SACRIFICE.

No, seriously, it kind of makes sense in certain contexts. And I'm not referring to sacrifices in a macho chauvinistic sense. When you think about it, happiness is very special when you give up something important to you because it makes someone else happy. And that is what life is about. My Dad always tells me that love or marriage is never, ever a 50-50 deal. Its always 60-40 or 30-70. You give up something, you overlap your needs with those of others and you find happiness in that. Once you accept that, everything falls into place. I seriously doubt if it is possible to have a perfect harmony or balance.Besides, where is the fun in that, huh?

I am back, more to follow.

First thoughts

2004-08-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

Well, its just been one of those couple of weeks. School started so its been meetings, orientations,classes and what nots. Just could not get myself to sit down and write...

Its been a very humbling experience so far. Most of the students in my class are all accomplished individuals, and I'm not just saying that. The profile includes doctors, professors, math teachers, junior high teachers,psychologists and economics majors. Just goes to show how people are starting to pay attention to Educational Technology and its need. Its kinda shaping up as something that you learn to put on top of your skill set, you mould the areas into something that you find useful and apply it.Definitely exciting.

Also makes me realize how much we/I have left to learn. Let's face it, back home you get a degree, get a job at one of the hot software companies and go abroad once a while - that's it. You're THE man...and here in my class, there is a doctor who spent the summer operating in Africa, there's a professor who teaches Mathematics at the university level - all of them are always updating themselves, learning, constantly evolving...Sure, the environment here is geared to be conducive to such developments, but do we have the will? Something to think about...

I also got into my own teaching stint - I'm handling around 50 students. Great fun.

Our whole gang has been talking about my best bud Sanj's upcoming marriage. At least that guy now has some stories to tell his kids! He goes to India for his brothers marriage, and within one week of that, HE gets married!! Nice!

Of course, been watching the Olympics. I personally think that instead of criticizing the members of the US "nightmare" team that came in third, the media and the fans should kick the asses of the players who did not go- its not like they don't have the money, is it?

I was speaking with my Dad the other day, seems one of my bro's asked him what an "A" joke was. Dad , after a pause, tried to put it in the politically correct terms. And then my brother goes " Oh, like that...hmm...I know one like that, can I tell you?" Life in apna Mumbai...

What if?

2004-08-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

I was having lunch with one of my professors yesterday - he retired last year and used to teach German History. As is the case with a lot of talented historians, he is very informed about world issues so we tend to have a lot of interesting talks.

This time, he asked me what I thought about the concept of a unified India-Pakistan. This is called conceptual history or, what-if history. Its a lot of fun, and its very instructive to trace back and see how our actions then might have affected our lives now. My take on this theory of a unified India-Pakistan was surprising, most of all to me - I simply could not imagine it!! Think of all the country borders we would be sharing today. As if we don't have enough problems with Bangladesh and China! And what about population? And what about our Cricket teams?

I still remember one of my school teachers who talked, very passionately, about how India-Pakistan had the capacity to become a world player . He also hinted that as the West did not want any other major powers, they played this cat and mouse game with curbing Pakistan's role. All this left a deep impression on me, as I used to believe all that and see the logic behind such views.

But talking yesterday, I realized that for me, and for a lot minded people like me, the concept of India and Pakistan as an entity itself does not work. Sometimes, right decisions are made for the wrong reasons. Its all very fashionable nowadays to question the purpose of our leaders when they agreed to let Pakistan be formed, but even though we are neighbors and brothers and all that - in such a short span of 50 years, we have grown poles apart. Of course, most of it is based on religion [and I somehow feel that India will always remain a "Hindu Secularist" state!]

I watched Govind Nihlani's Dev the other day, it was a bollywood film - so a lot of it was fiction, but as usual he raised so many questions. If you look into yourself and ask - how much to do you really know about other religions? Sure, we are not extremists [only non-believers use their religion to force themselves on others!] and everyone respects other religions, but how much do you KNOW about it? That is what being a secular country is essentially about - its definitely not just tolerating hundreds of different views, but learning to respect and understand all the differences. If this was a bad Bollywood movie, everyone would exchange gifts on festivals and that's it - we are all bhai bhai!!

So all this brings me to think that the reason we are all so uncomfortable talking about Pakistan is that somewhere we still think of it as a part of India that got away. I think that's the wrong way to go about it. Its like a painful exorcism, it hurts everyone and changes you when its removed, but its gone and its better to deal with it. Maybe accepting that, and looking at them as people from another country would be the way to start the beginning of the end of this needless bloodshed...

Circle of Friendship

2004-07-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

Well, friendship day [or friendship week or friendship month] is around the corner...and we have all started receiving the forwards and poems and senti stuff [like this], so I thought I would give in my two cents worth- talk about what my friends mean to me and how I look at them.

The true test of a friendship is definitely not in the frequency of emails, calls or visits that you share with one another. For me, its the simple confidence that you have to call someone up after six months of no contact and carry on as if you were never out of touch. That's all there is to it. It very rarely happens, but once you have it - its magic. And when you try and look back, you will never be able to pinpoint when those people became so important to you. It just happens.

From my experience, you actually start to form lasting friendships only when you are in high school - say the IX or X th grade onwards. Till then, having a friend is primarily having somebody to eat lunch with and sit next to. Its from this stage onwards that you really connect to people in a much more serious way. Once you finish school of course, distance plays a vital part in how much you are able to sustain it. And when you move into college, you tend to meet and relate with another separate circle of people. The friendships formed here, especially in this age of emails and accessibility, are likely to last a lifetime.

Then you move on to your workplace, but then you find that you can't make friends like you did earlier! What happened? Its almost like you have seven or eight years to sort out yourself and that's it. After that stage, you will like, and probably keep in touch, with a lot of people - but you cannot actually classify them as friends, can you?

It has been my experience that although I have been blessed to have so many friends [of both sexes], I have many circles of friends. It's like a set of concentric circles, and the size of people that are close to my center, progressively decrease - and I have a small coterie with whom I am perfectly in sync with. They know it, I know it and I would bet that this is the case with many of us. Surprisingly enough, people whom I have studied with but just about managed to say hello/bye to, have suddenly become good friends after school and college - sometimes, distance is a significant factor is bringing people together.

And all this talk about friends always being behind you is nonsense. Sure, you need a degree of trust but you should also have the strength to give and accept criticism. People who are always ya yaying what you say are not exactly friends - there are other numerous terms that refer to such people! I have known people who did not have the will to say a simple sorry, and hence have lost opportunities to make many a beautiful relationship. I'm sure that we all have regrets too.

One of the most important things about friends is that they are your confidant's. Sure we will have our parents, husbands,wives, some of you might even have girl/boy/friends - but talking to a close friend is something else entirely. There is almost something religious in the way you can open your mind and yourself to him/her, and be secure in the knowledge that you will have their support.

The most precious gift you can give someone is your time. As regards celebrating friendship day/week/month - its a wonderful idea to actually take the time to appreciate the people whom you count on for so much in your life. But sending out mass mailings to everyone in my addressbook is not going to make one feel warm and fuzzy, right? Where's the effort in that? So I thought I would send out a personal mail to everyone [like those mass cover letters we used to send out to companies!].

Then I read this quote:

Silence makes the real conversation between friends.
Not the saying, but the never needing to say it, is what counts.

So I am going to shut up and be quiet...

Vanished friend

2004-07-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

[Sent by Dheeraj]

Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end,
Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,

And before I know it, a year is gone.
And I never see my old friends face,
For life is a swift and terrible race,

He knows I like him just as well,
As in the days when I rang his bell.
And he rang mine if, we were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men.

Tired of playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying to make a name.

"Tomorrow" I say! "I will call on Jim"
"Just to show that I'm thinking of him."
But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And distance between us grows and grows.

Around the corner! yet miles away,
"Here's a telegram sir" "Jim died today."
And that's what we get and deserve in the end.

Around the corner, a vanished friend.

Raksha Bandhan

2004-07-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

Guys, are you prepared for next month? One of the most important and landmark festivals of India is around the corner. What----no, no not Independence Day, and no I'm not talking about Janmashtami or Nag Panchami or Ganesh Chaturthi -

I'm referring to the day when we celebrate the joy of having sisters - when we hail the "pavitra" bandhan of Raksha Bandhan.

There are numerous references to this festival and a lot of stories that trace the origin of this festival.

As we are starting to celebrate Lovers Day, Friendship Day, Girlfriend Day, Ex-girlfriend Day, Neighbors Day, Animals Day, Hand Day, Hair Day, Bad Hair Day etc, we have slowly started to let these phirang foreign customs affect our traditional festivals too.So let us talk about the modern version of Raksha Bandhan that is celebrated in schools, colleges, among neighbors, friends etc.

All over the country, girls who are being "sighted" by guys who they don't like at all wait with bated breath. Boys who are "patoed" by girls who they don't like also wait anxiously [well, that doesn't happen that much, but anyways].

Finally, when the day arrives - it is mayhem, almost akin to the situation when one of Vijaykanths movies release all over the world. The girls chase the boys and the boys chase the girls. And you cannot be absent - that is a sign of weakness. The true stud is one who goes to school or college and returns without a rakhi.

Raksha Bandhan is perhaps the only day when you will be able to see beautiful girls chasing ordinary guys [like you] all around school and college campuses...sometimes they might twirl rakhi's and charge after you like a farmer after his buffalo.

And what is more, you are supposed to give money. I remember, one year, my friend could not lift his hand as it was full of rakhi's from his middle finger right to his collar bone. And he has to cash two hundred rupees into ten's to provide for all his sisters.

Where is the justice I ask you?

Seriously, I detest such behavior. Having a sister is one of the most beautiful things in life, and to just go tie rakhi's left, right and center is disgusting. I strongly suggest that the government declare a national holiday or people use one of the remaining 24 unused days of the year, and create a I-don't-like-you-get-off-my-back day.

And the person tying it should give the money - makes more sense.

I D Scam

2004-07-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

I was taking the bus to work the other day, and was just thinking about how I used to take the bus to school when I was in Delhi. School bus was for girls, or if you had a girlfriend who took the school bus(*wink*).

In those days, we had the Green Line[DTC], Blue Line[BL] and Red Line[RL].

A DTC monthly pass used to cost around INR 30, which we never bought. The system was that college students get to go for free,you needed to show some college id and that was it. Since we were in X, and that meant we were pretty much going to go to college, we figured we should get the same benefits.So we used our library card,school card, greeting card etc, basically anything with a photograph.

Besides, DTC was not our preferred method of travel, as they were very infrequent and slow. Our vehicle of choice was the RL. The trick was, you needed practice to get on to the bus. The driver had been specially trained to never completely stop at Bus stops. It would come in slowly, moving all the time, and would quickly accelerate away, so you had to have razor sharp instincts to jump on and jump off. If you jumped a second late or early, you would more often than not land on your ass.Those were the days...

We had a Khalsa college on my street, so there was never a dull moment. I remember once, when a rookie RL conductor asked a "continuing student" to buy a ticket. Jai Khalsa !! Of course, the driver had to run away, leaving the bus at the street corner and the conductor escaped with minor injuries.

During month ends our local traffic wallahs would suddenly get a conscience and try to make the road safer. This would occur with amazing frequency on the 28th of every month [except in February] and end on the 4th. If they saw anyone hanging from the footsteps, they would stop the bus and fine the driver.Fine justice that.

My friend Sanjay, Ramalingam and I had mixed luck with the id scam. As we were only getting started in developing the finely toned body and muscles that are our characteristics today, we could not convince the conductors always. We tried flashing the id FBI ishtyle, and had limited success till the smart conductors figured it out. Then we thought we would try to look menacing like the Khalsa guys, but could not as we did not have the beards or the swords. However, we always had success when accompanied by Vinod Dhawal. Maybe it helped that he was around 6 feet and two hundred pounds of muscle.

And a final note regarding time of travel, a seven minute journey from my home to school took less than five. Talk about service! If you were late for school or work, just tell your friendly neighborhood driver and he would take care of it.

Heroes of a different kind

2004-07-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

In these days, where corporate CEO's and movie stars are being seen as "role models", here are some people who are every bit, if not more, deserving.
Source: www.rainwaterharvesting.org

Mahesh Kant and Sarita of the Institute of Research and Action (IRA), a Patna based NGO, have changed the way of life in Shabdo village in Fatehpur block in Gaya district of Bihar. They revived an age-old water harvesting system – ahar and pyne.

To unite the villagers from different castes and community, in this naxalite dominated region and then imparting the lessons on water conservation was never an easy task for Mahesh and Sarita. Few months back, Mahesh shared his experiences, “In the beginning we were considered as state government’s spy and were not readily accepted by villagers”. But they did not give up.

They educated the villagers on the relevance of ahar and pyne in the socio-economic well being of the local community. This traditional water harvesting technique comprised of a channel (locally named as pyne) diverts water from rivers to a tank (ahar) from where it is distributed to the fields. The system went into disuse because of siltation as well as encroachment by the influential lot, adversely affecting the livelihood security of the local population.

Persistent efforts started yielding its results after almost three years. 30,000 villagers from forty villages (including Shabdo) came together forgetting the caste differences to revive Hadadwa pyne—45 kilometre long water harvesting system. There was very little external assistance for this initiative—most of the work came in as shramdaan (voluntary labour). The villagers have also devised a management system in the form of sinchai samiti --the irrigation committees --who operate and maintain the ahar and pyne. The impacts are visible—two crops in a year (quite unusual few years back) resulting in additional revenue. Most of the tubewells have water today, thanks to the groundwater recharge facilitated by the ahar.

Another outstanding initiative was the introduction of community farming in Shabdo—first of its kind in the region. Today, management of 175 acres of agricultural land belonging to forty families (individual share being 2-3 acres) is looked after by the Sinchai Samiti. Daily meetings are organized to finalise the day’s plan of action. Instead of every one working in the field, the work is delegated to individual farmers (as decided in the meeting) in rotation. The benefits are also shared in accordance to the landholdings.

IRA has also promoted diversification in income generation activities as well. For the first time in 2003, fishing was done in the ahar spending Rs 8, 000. The return was three folds. Interestingly the return is again channelized back into this activity.

For their efforts, Mahesh and Sarita, the young activists will be always remembered forever for their contribution to the society.

At the same time it is a challenge for the villagers to keep the momentum going…why? The region’s land mafia consistently opposed IRA’s work in the region. On January 24, 2004, Mahesh Kant and Sarita were shot dead...

Related links:
PBS - Rainwaterharvesting
India - Rainwaterharvesting

Gajendra vs. Spiderman

2004-07-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

Spider-Man 2 just made around $250 million at the box office...in two weeks. TWO WEEKS? Don't people here have to go to work or something? Anyways,then I read somewhere that with the success of Van Helsing [Kallarai Manithan] and Hellboy [Naraga Manithan], bollywood honchos were thinking on who would be a better Superman [Gujals Manithan?], Shah Rukh or Hrithik.

Hmm, so I got to wondering about down south, why are those powerhouse cinema states not keen on making superhero fiction?. Surely,they have the money and also the market.Then I got it - we already have superheroes.Its just that they don't wear crazy colored costumes.

The latest and most popular superhero is, without a doubt, puratchi thalaivar Vijaykanth. There is no question about it. I saw the trailers being aired on Sun TV and I am positive that his latest and highly aniticipated release - GAJENDRA - is the only serious global contender to Spiderman-2.

Gajendra has everything going for it - superb special effects, fights, stunts, mean villains,fights, two heroines,fights,unique music, fights, punchlines, lots of punches....

Also, did I mention the action? - Puratchi Thalaivar has done an action sequence hanging upside down [I'm sure our script writers have come up with a perfectly logical reason for having everyone hanging upside down in the first place]. Seems they shot for eight days [not continuously, even Gajendra has his limitations], and all the time he had to be on a liquid diet. Talk about commitment!!! The loss in weight shows in the few clips I have seen, he looks like a lean, mean fighting machine. And the realism is much more obvious. I mean, come on, can you really relate to a guy wearing red and blue with sticky stuff coming out of his hands, flying through New York? Now, Gajendra is different. You can imagine and definitely relate to Vijaykanth hanging upside down, kicking three people with his two legs, and taking care of another two with his one hand.Also, you hardly imagine Spiderman dealing with more than two people at the same time..but Gajendra - well, he has an assortment of weapons, all retooled on the lines of instruments of ancient warfare. And let me tell you something mister, if you see somebody who looks like Vijaykanth, carrying something like this -
YOU HAD BETTER HAVE WEBSLINGS TO RUN AWAY LIKE SPIDERMAN.

I'm confident that when this film when hits the theatres, it will reaffirm superhero status to Thalaivar. If you follow Vijaykanth's recent films closely [like I do], you can see that this was his long time strategy. He has dropped hints at various films - we still talk with awe and reverence about his movie called Vanjinathan, where he fights in a supermarket, he slides on a trolley - one legged - superb act of olympian quality gymnastics - and kicks ass.Oooh, I feel an adrenaline rush when I just think of it...

Looking back...

2004-07-10T00:26:00.000-07:00

The polarization of the world as we see it now, is indeed unfortunate. There are no neutral countries. You are either with the West, in their War on Terror or you are against it. The belief of the leadership in the world's most powerful country [ I know, I know - with people like you and me, India is all set to pose a threat to this status] is that the only way to fight terrorism is to eliminate its roots from the troubled Middle Eastern regions. And the chosen way to do it, is to sow and cultivate the seeds of democracy, hoping that with some careful and watchful nurture we see the fruits of world peace [I know that too - I sound like a gardner]

However, is this state of affairs the result of the attack on the World Trade Towers on September 11? Is that the day the "world changed"? As with many things, once you move out of the circle and get rid of some stubborn perceptions, a different perspective is very possible.

Let's look at a different opinion. The Center for Strategic and International Studies recently published a report. I've taken some information from the report that is relevant here:

1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
1989-1991: Fall of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe
1990: Victory of the US led coalition in reversing Iraq's annexation of Kuwait
1991: Fall of the Soviet Union
1993: Israeli - Palestinian Peace Pact

These five major events were all in the interests of peace. The fall of Communism and the end of the Cold War meant a victory for Democracy. We could expect bigger and better things....

What unfolded is something as expected as the Indian Elections.

The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in a vacuum that resulted in wars in Bosnia, Kosovo and Chechenya.
There were wars in Asia [the Tajik Civil War] and territorial disputes between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Afghanistan went through a bloody civil war, and saw the Taliban take control [Osama bhai was in place].
The Prime Minister of Isreal - Yitzhak Rabin - was assasinated in 1994 and there was a renewal of tension between Arabs and Israeli's.

Notice the common thread from the above? All the above conflicts involved Muslim states. Maybe a unfortunate coincidence, but whatever the reason, the action or rather the inaction of the world's sole superpower and the international community in dealing with these situations resulted in deep resentment, and these places served as breeding grounds for terrorists, and radicals.

And so came September 11,2001...

For the full report: www.csis.org

Fact and Fiction

2004-07-07T00:08:00.000-07:00

In one of Frederick Forsyth's novels - The Negotiator - there is a plot where US Oil Executives hatch a plan to overtake a middle eastern country as they are sure that world order can only be maintained if they control the oil prices, and thus they take on the burden of saving mankind. They use a premise to enter and take over Saudi Arabia. Good fiction, but these days reality is much more weird.

See this post for a study by Campbell - a renowned scientist and exploration geologist. In 1996 he states factors that will affect the global oil crisis. At the top of his list is "the pivotal role of Iraq". To quote " The net consequence, however [of the Gulf War] , has been the removal of 2- 3 Mb/d from the market under the embargo, which OPEC failed to achieve by its quota system. This has been sufficient to maintain oil prices at a moderate level, which in turn has contributed to the survival of the Saudi, Iranian and a few other regimes that depend heavily on oil revenues."

But these days, there is talk that the whole oil crisis is itself a work of fiction. There are studies that show that enough reserves exist for the near future, that technology and innovation will prolong the availability. We might not need oil that much after all...

Hmm...we can only watch and see.

Here come the Patent Busters!

2004-07-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

One of the many offshoots of the arrival of the internet has been the enormous clientele that has become available to small businesses and self sustained ventures. Patents are now playing a significant role in curbing this growth. If everytime somebody uses your website to buy something, a part of it goes to these "creative geniuses", more often than not you will be left twiddling your thumbs. Of course, some really complex and smartass applications deserve to be patented. But, a patent for the hyperlink? For a pop-up? Seriously, the US has granted patents for these. The Electronic Frontier Foundation [EFF] has recently launched a project to confront these issues with the Federal Trade Commission and like minded organizations. Check it out here

Ever say thank you?

2004-07-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my buddy Prakash [we go back all the way to school in DTEA, New Delhi] and he was asking me about the US, how opportunities are better here. The usual talk you know, people here want to go back, people there want to come here, if you are working you want to study, if you are studying you want to work - nothing makes you content.

But anyway, something I feel strongly about is acknowledging the benefits here. Whenever people here get together, there is some form of bashing going on - of course,these days its mainly about Bush bhai and his preoccupation, as Jay Leno remarked, with OIL ["Operation Iraqi Liberation"].

When was the last time you heard someone praise this place? Or even be remotely thankful?

But really, we owe this country some form of gratitude. Not that many areas in the world allow people to come and settle down, give them a decent shot at getting a better life and try to induct them into their society.

I look at all these Mexicans, somehow getting into this country, willingly and proudly doing menial jobs and being the butt of many jokes and ridicule - still they come here for a better life, so do we. Thats what its about, eventually. They are more mature then we are in some ways.Just because we fly into this country instead of swimming across, and just because we have better education - we rarely show gratitude.

We are better educated and speak English primarily because the British occupied our country and forced English into our schools. We should not mistake an accident as destiny. Sure, we Indians are rapidly moving towards center stage in world affairs and much of it is due to hard work and sacrifices, but it would be a mistake to just look ahead and ignore whatever is behind you.

Of course,there are, and will be problems.As I mentioned to Prakash, I don't feel completely comfortable here. Probably because this is not MY home. I might be rich and happy but never comfortable. You get used to a certain environment and can rarely feel at ease elsewhere - with all its diversity, India has a rhythm throughout, you can sense it. Even though you have access to cuisines from all corners of the world, you can never live without eating rice, or as some people refer to it - thayir saatham - can you? Maybe if you were born and lived here all your life, it would feel different. Its like listening to a Rehman song you know, you always treasure it in the language you hear it first.
_______________

Just wanted to mention something about the feedback...you guys have all been terrific, so many hits [of course, half of it was me checking and rechecking, but still :-)]

Thinking out of the box

2004-07-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

We all have heard this advice to "think out of the box"...people are always telling you to think radically,creatively and be inspired.But is it that easy? All our lives we have been conditioned to act and react in certain ways, and this inherent tendency spills off into everything we do. I was reading this article from those Wharton guys, and here are some excerpts from their study:

The recent 9/11 report shows that passengers on the planes that hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon appeared to act based the experience of past hijackings. Passengers and crew knew from this experience that cooperating with the hijackers presented the best chances of survival. They viewed what was happening through the filter of this model.During the 9/11 attacks, the hijackers made announcements that reinforced this impression. But once the passengers of Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, received additional information via cell phones from friends and family watching news reports, they were quickly able to shift their thinking. They recognized these hijackers were operating from a different model. They were using the planes as missiles against targets. With this shift in thinking, a group of passengers on Flight 93 was apparently able to take heroic actions to stop these plans, and the plane crashed without reaching its target. Changing our thinking creates powerful opportunities for action. But to take those actions, the passengers first needed to change their hypothesis about what was going on.

Take the four-minute mile. Before 1954, it seemed to be a physical barrier that humans could not cross. It was impossible. Then Roger Bannister broke this barrier on a British track. Within three years, 16 other runners had also cracked the four-minute mile. Was there some breakthrough in human evolution? No. What had changed was their thinking. Bannister showed it was possible. We think the barriers are in the world, but often they are in our own minds.

It is amazing how malleable memory and perception can be – much more than we think. For example, in one research study subjects were standing at an airport ticket counter. The ticket agent pretended to drop something, ducked behind the counter and a different person finished the transaction. Many of the subjects didn’t even recognize the change had been made. We tune out big chunks of the environment.

In another study, subjects were asked to count the number of times players with white shirts passed a basketball in a video. Most of the subjects achieved a fairly accurate account of the passes, but only 42% saw something more important. A person in a black gorilla costume walks right into the center of the action, beats his chest and moves off. More than half the subjects were so engrossed in the task at hand that they couldn’t see the gorilla. An entire gorilla, right in front of their eyes! It is very sobering to think about. Our models and attention create blinders that limit what we see. What gorillas are moving through your field of vision right now that you fail to see?

Interested? http://www.impossiblethinking.com

Read the whole article here

Get married? Why?

2004-06-30T22:22:00.000-07:00

I was reading this book the other day,and a friend of the main character asks " So, you married?". Our hero replies, " Yeah, I have a girl and my fiancee and I got one in the oven"...so this guy replies " Gotta have kids man, else what's the point?"

Ok, so you realize that my taste in books is not that good but you get the idea...somehow this line stayed with me and I got to thinking...is that really what its about? Having kids...proving to the people and to the society that I have contributed, done my share? As we approach this juncture in our lives, we all have our own reasons...love, family pressure, sex, society, age etc. for either going for it or against it. Is having kids the real reason behind this concept of marriage?

Ok, you love someone, get hitched and have a great life. Every single day is a joy. Fine. But isn't that the ultimate selfishness? You shy away from responsibility and risks. Seventy years down the line, you look back and what do you have? Nada,zilch.

On the other hand, you get married to the wrong person and well,thats the end of that. If by any chance you get to seventy years, and you look back...nothing to be proud of!!

Guess we will find out within the next ten years.

Update: 07/01

Maybe I was not clear, but what I wanted to stress on was not on the reasons FOR marriage, but on the CAUSE for it. A subtle, but I feel significant, factor. When it comes to contributing to society, what do you do? Spending money is easy, but leaving something more worthwhile is difficult - what could be more powerful than leaving a legacy? In my experience, whenever a child succeeds in some way - good marks,awards, whatever - the praise goes to him/her, but one alwyas knows that its the parent who has made it possible. They realize their aims through the child...maybe later on, we will be fortunate enough to experience this. Right now, we can only hope.

A Paris Affair

2004-06-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

All of us have been hearing about the 250 crore wedding that was organized by one of the richest Indians in the world - Lakshmi Mittal. The headlines have been about how people looked in "awe" and "gaped" as he rented the Palace in Versailles, dressed his daughter in gold and how Javed Akhtar scripted to Farah Khans' choreography and Shah Rukh's dance blah!blah!blah!....I think its disgraceful that he spent so much money. Of course, its his money and its for his daughter, but jeez...$60 million is just way too much. And I am sure that a lot of the poor and starving farmers and miners will have a lot more than mere blessings to give to him. Why expose his daughter to this wrath, especially on such an occasion....And what business sense does it make? He needs a PR person...fast. Last time when Jaya Amma spent around half that amount in India, her government turned belly-up. And that was for Jaya, Mittal is a mere mortal !!.

The Times of India says, " Though many guests received prime pieces of jewellery, including jade necklaces, along with their 20-page, gold-edged invitation books, some guests complained that they didn't get any such pieces. Apparently, a caste system was at work even when it came to the A-list."...YUCK.

Here's one more like minded person here.

And my friend remarked that with Mittal and Bharat Shah spending money like this, Indians are 1 and 2 in this particular area. No.3? That's the wedding of the King of Spain!!

Maria Mania

2004-06-28T23:07:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard of Maria Sharapova yet,then you must be deaf. She is the hottest thing to hit tennis since Kournikova, who came with a bang and left with a whimper.Sharapova seems to have her head straight, and she is progressing rapidly in Wimbeldon.

Here are some notes from The Herald:

Sharapova entered the tennis consciousness last summer, when as an 86th-ranked wild card she reached the fourth round of Wimbledon, best performance ever by a wild card. During the next 12 months, she won three tournaments, reached the third round at the Australian Open, the quarterfinals of the French Open and soared in the rankings to No. 15.

Sharapova's success is the byproduct of talent, hard work and a decade of sacrifices by her family.

She was born near an oil refinery in Siberia, and her family moved to the Black Sea resort town of Sochi when she was 2 years old to escape the Chernobyl fallout. At 5, she hit some balls as part of an exhibition in Moscow and was spotted by Martina Navratilova, who told Sharapova's parents, Yuri and Yelena, their daughter had a special gift and could benefit from lessons.

In 1994, with $700 in his pocket, Yuri arrived at Miami International Airport with Maria, and they boarded a bus to Bradenton, where Maria would enroll at Nick Bollettieri's academy. They left behind Yelena, who could not secure a visa. Maria didn't see her mother for two years.

What's up with Autograph?

2004-06-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

This Tamil movie has been the craze you know, I can't remember when the last time a movie was discussed like this by us...I guess the film scores on its acceptance that the only important thing that you should remember from school, college etc is your girlfriend!! No really, the film does have some memories about teachers and places but when you actually distill the story, its about the three women in his life and his commitment to the fourth.

Cheran's cleverness is not in the screenplay, acting or the casting - its in the story. Everyone of us [almost] will relate to atleast one of the girls. If we take the first, all of us have had some sort of crush on the school figure...so you tend to identify with the awkwardness and shyness...all the innocence and naive thoughts. And then there is the college girl - where boys become men, or atleast think they have. Fight for a girl, get thrashed, lose her - whatever. The third girl represents today's trend - all this funda of friendship and platonic relationships.Its an unfortunate being [or is he fortunate?] who has not faced atleast one of these in his life.

This leads me to one of my strong beliefs about the success of a movie.Its a sure thing if you can somehow relate to it. I don't mean to say that it should just be about girls or about superheroes or events exactly mirroring your life or things like that. My point is that if you can see yourself behaving in the way the events unfold onscreen ,then the movie is a good one. Try this, it will work.

Of course, it helps if you have crap like Boys hit the theatres before your movie releases. Anything is better than that kind of nonsense. My current favorite is Gilli, and if you apply my test, I like the movie because in college one of my names was Delli [a subtle reference from my friends to the fact that I did my schooling in Delhi]. So whenever I hear Gilli, Gilli.... I think "Delli, Delli" Yeah!

Initiation

2004-06-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,

Well, here I am finally with my blog...been threatening everyone for a long time...remember the date June 25th 2004!!!!

-Ram