The bicycle diaries

Lists Work

2012-01-20T04:58:00.000-08:00

Afterall, lists do work.

Anti-Corruption Resources

2012-01-13T08:13:00.000-08:00

Some consider Anna Hazare's struggle against corruption as India's second struggle for independence. I am one of those who agree with the sentiment.
Among other things,I believe that corruption is eating away at the competitiveness of India internally and on a global platform.

Here are a few anti-corruption resources that I found online. Videos and useful links.

MyNeta is a useful site which attempts to provide useful information about politicans about their education levels, net worth, number of criminal charges against them etc... While I feel that this is a work in progress and would develop as we go, I believe that we could use this effectively to drive democracy.
Here is the link to the site.

This video featuring Aamir Khan and directed by Rakesh Om Prakash Mehra is a fantastic yet simple message. It shows how cagey and careful we tend to be in trivial things such as selecting our vegetables yet we don't seem to spend nearly enough time in choosing our representatives.

Here you will find a simple yet powerful video on the power of saying no to corruption. Well made by UNODC.I like the message " Your No counts".

Random Musings

2011-12-25T17:13:00.000-08:00

I wonder how many posts/blogs which have title which are similar to the title of this post. I think there is some clutter in eveyone's mind which one can't refer to as anything but 'random musings'.
The other day, I was at this bookstore in Bangalore called Blossoms. This is a book store which I have buying books from since my 'quizzing days' which was a long time ago.

There has been a lot off change in the 'book reading industry' since. There is Flipkart. There is Infibeam. The online retailer who offer you ~15-20% discount consistently. I thought this was the detah of the brink and mortar bookstore. Given that the average Indian reader reads little more than his annual dose of Chetan Bhagat, I surely thought the coming of Flipkart (who offers fantastic service and costs benefits btw) would kill them all.

But I like the was Blossoms has morphed itself. Infact it has grown stronger.
First of all, Blossoms was always a discount shop. He never sold books at MRP. Whenever he could give a discount, he did. So even today, his discounts are on par if not better than Flipkart's discounts.

He also sells good quality second hand books which Flipkart does not do. A good quality first hand book costing 100 may be sold for Rs. 80/- on Flipkart. But Blossoms can give you a second-hand version of the same book for say, Rs. 55/-

Also, one can shop online for books if he know if he knows what he is looking for. But generally people hardly do casual browsing for books. Although there is huge amounts of time spent on Facebook etc....people do not spend too much time on surfing for books. At Blossoms, in my experience, you tend to wander off into some corner of the store and start skimming through random titles and which trigger purchase. This has rarely happened to me online. I bought this book titled ' The Best of Lewis Grizzard'.

The problem with shopping online is that you are 'programmed for price'. You hardly focus on anything but getting the cheapest deal on anything and everything. The internet commoditizes everything for you.

It is very interesting the way Blossoms, subtly 'deprograms' you for price and makes you looks for interesting stuff and then gives you a good deal anyway.

If I had any doubt on the impact of these online retailers on people like Blossoms, I came home satisfied with the quality of response.

On a more global level, I had questions on whether the physical book - the paperbound and hardcover types - will survive or will they fall prey to the e-readers and tablets of the world. I think they will survive.
For a specific kind of reading and reader, I think the physical book will always make sense. A detailed treatise on this shortly.

Buying and Selling

2011-12-21T11:50:00.000-08:00

I am a big fan of online classifieds. I think sites like Criagslist, OLX, Quikr etc...are a fantastic concept.\
I possess a lot of stuff which I don't have a current need for. Lots of books, equipments which I have overgrown.

While this gives me a good opportunity to sell stuff off, clear space and make money, it also gives me the confidence that I am not selling it off as scrap and someone who bought it will obviously value it since he paid for it.

Also, generally it reduces inefficiencies in the system. A book that I read and sold prevents a tree or a part of tree from being felled. It's a cleaner and greener way of doing things.

In dire need of small operational improvements

2011-12-21T10:55:00.000-08:00

Being an 'operations guy' - that's what I like to think of myself as - I see a plethora of opportunity to make change in the way things happen all around. Especially in India, now that I am visiting India.

With the privilege of having studied operations, lead operations in a factory and also having lived in an operationally efficient country like the US, I feel I have some value to add in terms of making things better in the way we do things around here. Regarding the point about US, I do feel that although US is thought of the land of Hollywood, Apple, Steve Jobs and where the world's Dream Machine exists, I do think that it is also a very operationally efficient country as well. Although that aspect is not overplayed.

I landed in Bangalore after a 40 hours of flying + waiting during stopovers. At the end of it, I was glad I was home. But I lost my cool when it took me a whole 45 mins to get my luggage. So many things about the luggage claim were wrong. I could notice a few fundamental issues.

To begin with, the size of the luggage carousel (the conveyor) was very small. Any domestic flight has about 180 seats (30 rows X 6 per row) so assuming that the average passenger carries 2 pieces of luggage (say suitcases), the conveyor should be able to hold 360 pieces of luggage without a problem.

The motor powering the conveyor also should be capable of moving 360 peices of luggage weighing about 25 kg each. This is because economy airlines like Indigo, GoAir etc... allow baggage of 20 kg/person. But you also need to build in a factor of safety. What if someone is willing to pay for extra luggage? So, the motor should be able to carry 360 X 25 kg easily.

There should sufficient space for 180 ppl to stand around the conveyor! Again goes back to the earlier point. The conveyor should be long enough.

It seems that the contract was given to the guy who gave the chepest quote or the highest bribe to the IAAA official.

It was pathetic. I would see that the conveyor was not able to hold more than 60 pieces of luggage. Even with such a light load, the motor kept on tripping due to overload. Worse still, no one was picking up the luggage because the people whose luggage was going round and round somehow were not around the conveyor. And the people who were standing around the conveyor were waiting for their luggage to come which was impossible since the people who had to pick up the luggage could not see theirs.

I don't know how such basic things contribute to such frustration and spoil the entire experience.
This is where we need good engineers, thinkers and consultants.

Although we churn out a whole flock of engineers from Tom, Dick and Harry colleges, this is where lack of perception , lack of thoughtfulness,lack of imagination hits the progress of this country.

I did leave a scathing complaint/feedback to the staff of IndiGo through formal and informal means - that's what I can do a a law abiding citizen who cares.

We hear a lot about India and China becoming the superpower of tomorrow etc...I don't know enough about China, but India in its current shape is certainly not ready to become one. We have such basic infrastructural issues and that's not even the biggest issue. Work ethic and an improvement mindset is the biggest worry.

Creating time out of thin air

2011-12-06T18:45:00.001-08:00

I just need more time in life to do all the things that I am expected to do and all things that I want to do.
Since, there are only 24 hours in a day, I would like to do more of the following

Wake up early. Sleep about 5 h daily as opposed to my current average of 6.5 h everyday. So that gives me about 1 h extra everyday.
Limit Facebook and Youtube usage - Although my usage of FB and youtube has fallen drastically in the last month or so...I still lose about 45 mins everyday in watching videos/looking for updates on FB etc. I want to move to a more effective usage of these resources.
Co-operate - Build on the work of others and not to everything from scratch. Eg. If someone has prepared review slides for some subject, use them rather than create your own deck. Similarly help others save time as well.
Work in spurts - I am inevitably left with chunks of 10 mins/15 mins when I am waiting for a session to begin or between 2 classes etc...So have an inventory of tasks which can be done in 5-10 mins (like writing a thank you note to someone) so that these small tasks don't eat into your large chunks of time.
Use the Calender - Very meticulously
Track and journalize - Track how I spent the day and compare it with the plan I had made for myself at the beginning of the day and see where I am losing time and make amends.

2011-12-02T21:07:00.001-08:00

Music at full blast is just not the same.

Useful Resources

2011-11-23T09:50:00.001-08:00

Here's a few wonderful resources that I found on my new found passion for fitness.
Aggregating the best,the distillate here here for easy access and pro bono publico

Preparing a protein shake - Here
Ab wheel workout - Here

Working on an idea

2011-11-13T14:52:00.001-08:00

A couple of friends and me are working on this idea for some time now. While we had earlier worked on a similar idea, we had failed pretty badly even though the idea itself was very good. I realized as we were going over the lessons learned that we focused excessively on execution and we were not exactly equipped well to execute.

This time around, we are investing a lot of time and energy upfront in ideating and thinking out our strategy.

We have 2 MBAs (Including myself) out of the 3 and this venture is giving us the opportunity to - (to paint a picture - put to use in the evening what we learn in the morning.

It's amazing how energizing it is to work on something you believe in!

May luck be with us and we hope to do well to ourselves and the society.

2011-11-08T19:33:00.000-08:00

"It is not the critic whocounts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where thedoer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who isactually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, whostrives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because thereis no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms,the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best,knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, ifhe fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall neverbe with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

Can leadership be learned?

2011-11-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

The question has been around for so long that it's almost a cliche. Can leadership be learned? Or are leaders just born and you wither have it or not have it?

Talking from personal experience, growing up I never saw myself as a leader. I was the quintessential quiet, studious, diligent South Indian boy (atleast that's what the public perception was!). But I do think that I did a lot of reading especially in my 2nd and 3rd years of graduation and built my own theories around life, career, teams, leaders etc...The more these thoughts for cemented in me, the more I began to have opinions on things.

Slowly, I started expressing myself. Later, people started listening to my theories. I did start to take initiative where I was not necessarily required to. Then HUL happened. I was thrust into a leadership role - this was a sudden push into leadership and felt uncomfortable for me even when I had started incremental steps towards leading.

I goofed up sometimes. I think a lot initially. But then I guess I learnt my lessons.

But now it is a completely different context but I do think I have the right kind of fundamentals to build on.
Excited at the possibilities and excited at trying my theories and honing them.

2011-11-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

If he loved a shirt, he’d order 10 or 100 of them.

He was willing to be misunderstood.

He was like a girl in the amount of time he spent talking about love. Love was his supreme virtue, his god of gods. He tracked and worried about the romantic lives of the people working with him.

...Lots of that one vegetable. But one. Broccoli. In season. Simply prepared. With just the right, recently snipped, herb.

He spoke reverently about colleges and loved walking around the Stanford campus.

He tried. He always, always tried, and always with love at the core of that effort. He was an intensely emotional man.

...generally disliked cutting in line

Calibrating expectations

2011-11-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

A lot of times your expectations from any venture are set by what you hear from other people around you or just the 'popular' opinion.The subject of this post is my MBA program. I have come to the conclusion that my expectations from a Harvard MBA are now drastically different (after close to 10 weeks) from what I came in with. The expectations I came in with were shaped a lot by what I heard about the program or what people around me said their expectations were.

However, I have realized it is different in the following ways: I just realized over the last 10 weeks from my interactions that most of my classmates are candidates sponsored by their employers i.e in the worst possible case, they are assured of a job with their employer and what's more they get elevated from their pre-MBA jobs to MBA jobs. Ex: An analyst at a consulting firm will join back as an associate.

So there is lesser academic pressure and most of them are doing an MBA to unskill and have a gala time.

I also realized that these guys were getting paid pretty decently compared my Indian salary (Ofcourse on a PPP basis I was doing pretty well back in India) so they have lots of disposable income. So, I should always be mindful of the student budget that I'm dining, shopping, partying, commuting etc....

So, it would never serve me well to blindly try to 'be like everyone else and do what everyone's doing'.

So, I've toned down the expectations a little bit and working on the areas which are my strengths and knowing where I couldn't possible compete/conform.

Flow

2011-10-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

I first heard of the concept of 'Flow' while reading Drive by Daniel H. Pink. It is a fabulous book and gives wonderful insights on what motivates human beings to do what they do.

I was watching this video of Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi on TED.com and came across this fantastic definition of Flow (here in the context of the sport of figure skating)

" It was just one of those programs that clicked.I mean everything felt right,everything felt good...it's just such a rush,like you feel it could go on and on and on,like you don't want it to stop because it's going so well.It's almost although you don't have to think,it's like everything goes on automatically without thinking...it's like you are on automatic pilot,so you don't have any thoughts.You hear the music but you are not aware that you're hearing it,because it's part of it all"

The time lag between thinking and doing

2011-10-11T15:50:00.001-07:00

This again maybe a sign that I'm becoming more risk-averse with age and experience. The time between when I think I should do something and the time I actually get down to doing it has increased drastically over the years.

If I were put it politically correctly and for a more formal audience, I would say that 'I spend a lot more time planning' or 'I have become less intuitive and more detail-oriented'. But the fact of the matter maybe that I've grown just plain lazy!

I am consciously working on kicking this inertia out of my work life (well, technically acad life now).

When did I become to tech-unsavvy?

2011-10-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

I have never have had to catch up on technology till about 3 years ago.

I don't have an account on Twitter. I don't own a smartphone.I don't have a tablet PC. I hadn't heard of Groupon, FourSquare, Living Social.

Infact, I didn't own an iPod till 2 weeks ago.

All things which were pretty accessible/not-too-expensive when I was earning.

The most exciting thing that I did was when I bought a Kindle about a year ago.

However, I give myself credit for being an early adapter on Flipkart which is India's equivalent of Amazon.

However, these are small and negligible wins.

When exactly did I become such a technophobe?

Maybe it was during my Pondicherry days. Days when I was a 23-year-old trapped in the job of a 46-year-old,I lost touch with technology.

But the Big Catch Up is happening at a scorching pace!

Recently bought an iPod. Saving up to buy a tab. Similarly I have almost zeroed in on a smartphone. I shop for most stuff online and have a Prime account with Amazon. I am getting to know the apps/tools and lapping em up with a religious fervour!

Asking the right questions

2011-10-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

I always believed that asking the right questions is a skill which can earn you a living. A Prof at HBS confessed in class that he gets paid the big bucks for asking the right questions at the right time.

While I was working my arse off a couple of years ago, I had curtailed this natural instinct of mine of asking the right questions. I was more of a -let's-get-this-thing-done kind of a guy.

Now, I'm back in an environment where I feel at home asking questions of me and, when permitted, of my peers.

Here is a list of questions. Pretty useful ones. Need not necessarily be answered immediately. Some need not be answered for some time. Infact, some need not be answered at all and the best use of them is only to think about them in the back of one's mind.

Have you found what you love?
Are you at peace?
What activity would you immediately do if there was no constraint of money?
What would you immediately do if you had a real constraint of time?
What is your biggest mistake and why?
What do you value the most?
Who do you idolize and why?
Do you have productive hobbies?
Who are you jealous of? What is the one thing that you would do to remove this jealousy?
What is the one thing that you would change about yourself?

The best sedative

2011-10-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

This has worked for me for the last 4 years. Whenever I try to read something of importance, say a case study, when I'm lying in my bed, it is bound to get me to sleep before I read the first 2 pages.

I see a lot of peers and friends who read effectively while lying on their beds. Infact for some, it is their default reading configuration. But is has never worked for me.

On the contrary, whenever I feel sleepless I get hold of piece of literature and try reading it and it works like magic.

Abdul Kalam's lecture

2011-09-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

I just came back from attending a talk by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam at Harvard University.

The talk was titled 'Empowering 3 billion' and it was about initiatives such as PURA, Creative leadership etc...

To be really honest, the talk itself was just okay - Maybe I went in with a lot of expectations.

But the best part of the program which was the Q&A when Dr. Kalam took questions from the audience. Dr. Kalam's answers were witty, practical and had an earthy feel about it.

Goes on to show that it's extremely important to keep life (and answers) simple to be effective and to be able communicate to the masses.

I was pleasantly surprised by the octagenarian's sense of humor, which in a few cases, was at the expense of somebody in the audience (!).

The overall experience was extremely invigorating and I came out energized and little bit pleasantly surprised.

Regular habits

2011-09-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

Now,in Boston, I am getting into a pattern of regular habits on some fronts and have gone seriously out of rhythm on a few others.

The aspects on which I seem to have some ( I hope I ain't speaking to soon) are

Reading
Sports/running

While at BHU, I did one type of physical activity or the othe almost everyday. Either I used to go for a jog in the Gymkhana grounds or play a game of badminton in the university stadium or play lawn tennis.

However, I lost these habits during my time at HUL (more precisely the factory) and am now dealing with a potbelly and weight issues.

Starting yesterday, I have been able to do something or the other. I ran 3 miles (4.8 km) yesterday. This is the longest that I have run after the Bangalore 10K run.

Today I played a game of baddy after BHU, which is easily more than 4 years ago.

I hope to continue the same trend here.

Also, I used to roughly read 2-3 books in a month at BHU. This I haven't yet started at HBS but I can sense there would be ample time for this on weekends.

So hope to get that into the scheme of things as well.

One major habits that I have lost the rhythm is eating. I don't know where my next meal comes from. Hope to set that right as well.

A new beginning

2011-08-30T11:00:00.001-07:00

I have entered and am raring to go.

But there's constant self-doubt, loneliness, expectation,insecurity,anxiety about love,life,career and everything that lie in between.

a face of indeterminate ethnicity

2011-08-08T08:39:00.001-07:00

I would eventually like to be known as a global citizen. A karmayogi whose bias if any was only towards merit and hardwork.

Why India can't stay No. 1 for long

2011-08-02T12:29:00.001-07:00

We are a nation of hero worshippers. We believe and at some level want to believe in fairy tales and grand stories of heroism. We believe that a hero is a guy who should be god-gifted and does not need preparation, practice etc.

The present debacle in Tests (I believe that the worst humiliation is yet to come) is a reflection of our poor mindset of professionalism and our lack of a preparation mindset.

During the match there were a few things which Nasser Hussain shared which showed the depth and seriousness of England's preparation. Nasser explained how big the English support staff team was, how each ball bowled by the bowlers at the nets was documented and analyzed, how players who are not the squad are given a fitness regimen which they have to follow and report, how they monitor the weights and work out schedules of the players during off-season, how they ensure players are injury-free even when not playing etc.

I doubt if we have such level of professionalism in the Indian Cricket team where each player is a demigod in himself.

We are a nation where the rewards are heavily concentrated at the top. The mid and low rungs of any order are starved of rewards. While the star batsman who piles centuries hogs all the booty and attention, we do not bother for the coach, the physio, the data analyst, the sports psychologist in this nation. As a result, we do not have good coaches, physio, psychologists who remain. This in turn affects us a team and we perform like we are doing in England.

While we may have the world's richest cricket board, I do not recall any major innovation or technology emerging in India in Cricket. Think of all the major technologies or innovation viz. Duckworth-Lewis system, Hawkeye, Snickometer,Hotspot, Mongoose Bat are all innovations which have originated in England.

Maybe we should take a leaf out of England's book and start spending on research, innovation and investing in the support staff - guys whom we tend to bully off as a 'geeks' in this nation.

If we have to survive and not go the Indian hockey way, we should wake up and think about innovation in sports.

Bon Homie

2011-07-22T20:51:00.001-07:00

The current series has started off on a good note. The picture symbolizes the bon homie and the good spirits in which the teams are playing it out. India will show the world (Especially the Aussies) that is possible to be World Champions and still be nice.

The picture above is of Praveen Kumar and Kevin Pietersen congratulating each other on their achievements. Praveen got a 5-wicket haul and Pietersen scored an unbeaten double century on the 2nd day of the first test at Lord's.

stikK.com

2011-07-19T01:33:00.000-07:00

I recently came across this fantastic service called www.stickK.com . It is a site started by a few professors and students at the Yale University. This site basically helps to make goals and achieve them. They make to sign something called a 'commitment contract' and you have to commit some money to some charity/friend or even an 'anti-charity'.

Anti-charity is basically some individual/insititution that you hate. The logic being that that fact that your money will go to an anti-charity will motivate you to achieve your goal and prevent that from happening.

The site is well-designed and easy-to-use.

I recommend a visit.

The Bangalore that I missed

2011-07-19T01:24:00.000-07:00

I started staying away from Bangalore since 2003 which is 8 years ago and when I was 18 years old. Prior to that I was a studious kid preparing for the IIT-JEE and rarely ventured out beyond the primary interests of study, study and more study. And the occasional household chore.

Rarely did I get to sit back and enjoy the simple pleasures of being a Bangalorean, as an adult.
I spent more time in Varanasi, Mumbai and Pondicherry as an adult.

Of them, I grew to love Varanasi and Mumbai.

During these 8 years, I came to Bangalore on short visits and didn't have a 'social anchor' in this place. All my Bangalorean friends had moved to the US (predominantly) or were working in other cities in India. Rarely did I get a chance to hang out in the what the Bangalore neophytes think are the 'cool' places of Bangalore. (To the neophytes: Koramangala and Madiwala are not real Bangalore! And you clowns, HSR Layout is not the 'heart of the town'!).

I am doing a lot of that appreciation now. I have a month to go now and hope I will be able to make the most of my stay here.

Classes

2011-07-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

I have always joined classes to learn some skill or some art.Just to get a sense of what all I have done so far, and mostly because I like making lists, I'm jotting them down.

Swimming classes Part 1 - 4th grade i guess

Swimming classes Part 2 - 5th grade i guess

Karate classes Part 1 - Shito Ryu

Karate classes Part 2 - Indian Karate

Flute classes - This is by far the most sustained learning effort and I learnt for 8 years.

Gym Part 1 - Mangalore

Gym Part 2 - Mangalore

Gym Part 3 - Mumbai

Guitar lessons - Mumbai

French classes - Pondicherry

Guitar lessons Part 2 - Pondicherry

PLC Programming - Pondicherry

Dance classes - Pondicherry

Driving Classes - Bangalore

While most of the attempts, save a couple of them, were not sustained, I still feel that I got something out of each experience. I may not have become a master of all trades but it has built in some appreciation and sensitivity for the arts.

Deccan Herald

2011-07-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

I basically grew up reading Deccan Herald. For me, Deccan Herald remained the definition of a newspaper till a long time.

The subscription in my house has always been to Deccan Herald and sometimes to my disappointment ( A few years ago, I wanted to change to TOI ).

A couple of days ago I was reading DH after a long time and I was wondering about how the paper has transformed over the years with the times. The styling, the formatting, the presentations have changed, however the basic tenets of austerity and responsible journalism have remained unchanged.

These are times of sensationalism and populism. These are times when newspapers are sold by putting semi-nude pictures of Bollywood starlets in the supplements. Neither does DH own or promote any IPL team nor does it put loud-mouthed, publicity-hungry females journalists in the warzone to get viewership.

I always felt DH took a hit on market share and revenues by not stooping down to the competition.

In a manner of speaking, DH has always been the classy yet poor cousin of The Hindu. Much in the same mould and class.

If Rahul Dravid were to be a newspaper, he’d be something like Deccan Herald. Substance, focus, responsibility with minimal or nil jingoism and flashiness.

I have a lot of respect for the promoters of DH for taking the decisions that they’ve taken and keeping DH the way it is today.

Proud to be a reader of Deccan Herald.

Link to the DH website: http://www.deccanherald.com/

Trying to be a good listener

2011-07-14T04:13:00.000-07:00

While on the job, one constant feedback people around me gave me was that I wasn't a very good listener. I would either drift away into some thoughts or cut a person short and not allow him to make his point or I would bring up something which was 'bigger/better/more exciting' and take away the momentum from that person.

With friends, it was more of drifting away. And the little spells of time I used to spend at home, I was again accused not paying attention and thinking about something far away.

I do realize it is a bad habit and does not respect the time and efforts being put in by the speaker who is obviously spending both time and energy to explain something to you; fiction or otherwise.

I'm not trying to defend it, but I had a lot of 'touch points' or 'stimuli' in a typical day at office. I would speak to atleast 50-60 different people, get about 50 phonecalls and about 120 e-mails everyday ( Well, out of these 120, roughly about one third needed some action or intervention from me). That's a lot of stimuli and to deal with it, I developed a habit of 'switching off' from these stimuli.

I switched off from the stimuli in 2 different ways:

1. I would either avoid meeting a person or not answering a call or not replying to an e-mail.
2. Drift away or think about something else which I considered important while the other person spoke ( in person or over the phone).

So, I was also accused by most colleagues (from Head office mostly) that I would not reply to mails or return calls. I believe in this thing called 'flow'. If I am discussing something of importance with person A, I am fully in the dicussion about how the project has to be exewcuted, which orders have to be released, who has to be kept informed, what are the risks etc...then if a phone rang in the middle of this discussion, it would 'break the flow'. Assuming that a typical phonecall takes 3 mins, it would take me 5 more minuted to get back into the 'flow' : So, a quick phonecall would disturb me for anywhere between 8-10 minutes. Likewise for a mail. Getting the data right, composing the mail and sending it would take away 8-10 minutes. So, I stopped taking calls/replying to mails if I were in the middle of something important (which was often the case during the day, or atleast I felt it was important).

So, in cases where I could not avoid taking the call or meeting the person, I would simply switch off mentally.

While there was justification enough for this two-fold approach while on the job that I was in, I realize this should not be nipped.

I have decided to make amends to this peccadillo consciously. I have been spending time with my cousins,friends and trying to listen with all genuineness.

I remember being an enthusiatic trainee myself a few years ago and how honoured I/we(fellow trainees) would feel speaking to top managers in the company. I am still amazed at how some of them used to make time for us and in many ways used to 'tune down' to our frequency and make fabulous conversations. Those were the moments which charged us up and made us go hard at our jobs. Those moments are what I value even today in my recollection of memories from working at HUL.

Spending time with people and genuinly listening to them and making good, productive, inspirational conversation is not easy as I thought it was. It's a leadership challenge.

I am sincerely trying to become good at it.

Let's put an end to this thing

2011-07-14T02:24:00.000-07:00

Yet another terrorist attack on innocent civilians. I can count the number of such attacks in the recent past.

1993 Bombay serial blasts
Attack on the Parliament
Bomb blasts in the local train in Mumbai in 2006
Akshardham Temple seige
26/11 Terror strikes on Mumbai
Blasts in Pune

Is there no will in this country to hold the problem by its collar and thrash it out? I mean each of these attackes should have led to systemic changes, recruitment of good talent, upgradation of security infrasturture, implementation of laws to penalize the terrorists, diplomacy with allies, taking a diplomatic tough stand with countries which harbour terrorism - A problem is solved on several fronts: Political, Military, Strategic, Legal, Diplomatic, Operational, Rhetorical.

There is no quick fix for a cancerous problem like terrorism which has been plaguing India since the Indo-Pak war of 1971. While, we should wait for the results to fructify, we should start doing fundamentally the right things starting now.

I find the administration of Manmohan Singh spineless,insipid and lacking teeth. We have given him enough benefit of doubt on account of his innocent looking face. Being the Prime Minister of a country like India, he should show some spine.

On one end, there are endless domestic issues like 2G Spectrum scam, CWG Games, Black Money in Swiss banks etc... there hasn't been anything of note on the international relations front or policy front either.

It has been very mediocre governance.

The quality of response is essentially the difference between mediocre leadership and great leadership and unfortunately we're presently stuck with the latter.

Cheap Attempts at Gandhism

2011-07-11T05:05:00.000-07:00

Fasting has become the latest fad. Every buffoon is having a shot at it.

HD Kumaraswamy ended his 'indefinte' fast just 28 hours after he started it. He says he withdrew it due to pressure from framily members and party workers? I mean wasn't that a given? No family would not tell a guy to stop his fast but where is the conviction of the Satyagrahi? Where is the belief in the cause?

The problem is that every Tom,Dick and Harry thinks he can become a Gandhian these days.
Being a Gandhian is a lifelong penance. Jokers on the street like Ramdev or Kumaraswamy can't attempt that.

One has to read Gandhiji's autobiography 'The Story of My Experiments with Truth' to get a faint idea of the sacrifices, ideals and lifestyle of a Gandhian.
Being a student of National College, I had the previlege of seeing and interacting with Dr. HN who was a true Gandhian.

Having seen living saints like Dr. HN, my heart goes out for the true ideals of Gandhism which will get irrepairably damaged by all this abuse and ill-use by sundry scoundrels who use to meet their own personal ends.

How great work happens

2011-06-27T03:21:00.000-07:00

How does great work happen? How does one come up with his Magnum Opus,the best book, the great spell of bowling?

My assessment is that any great work (very much like bad work) happens in fits and spells. No body of work, be it an innings by a batsman, spell by a bowler or a career of a film director, is good or bad from start to finish. It is about whether there were moments of inspiration generously spread over the entire stretch.

A bolwer typically bowls 60 deliveries in a ODI game. In what migght be considered a typical 'good performance' , a bowler might get hit for a fews 4's,a few 6's but there would be a spell of 3-4 overs where he would have bowled to tight line and length, coerced the batsman into playing faulty shots and taken a couple wickets. The bowler would have been in what sports journalists refer to as 'the zone'.

The layman looks at any body of work from an 'average' mindset. Whether Sachin played well (on an average) today? Whether the movie was good (on an average)? Whether the concert was good (on an average)?

But the seekers of true mastery should look out for spells of high performance even in the midst of what migt be seen as a 'below average' performance by a layman and find ways of how to replicate the same in any given situation. It is about breaking down what is good performance into its elements and developing the werewithal to replicate the same in a wider range of scenarios.
True dedication and mastery comes into picture in the subject's attempt to develop the capability to replicate it in a wider range of scenarios rather than under a narrow band of conditions which one would have to be lucky to be in.

Simply put, how does one develop the ability to be 'in the zone' under a set of conditions which extends beyond one's natural comfort zone.

2011-06-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

If one looked closely, one could feel an unresolved tension underneath that well-practiced calm in his demeanour; Like there were vectors going off in different directions within himself and he struggled to keep their summation under control;From taking him away from his anchor of stability.

Super 30

2011-06-21T23:52:00.000-07:00

Super 30 is an initiative by Anand Kumar a mathematics teacher in Patna. Every year he selects 30 students from an entrance test and then coaches these 30 people for the IIT-JEE free of cost.
The students in turn have to show their dedication by working hard.
Super 30 has a brilliant success rate i.e approx every year 25-26 students crack the JEE out of the batch of 30 students.

I had heard about this from classmates in college at IT-BHU and some of whom were from Super 30 themselves. I'm glad to note the publicity that Anand is getting from the media in India and abroad. Very rarely do we find such individuals who hitch their life to a cause bigger than themselves. It is even rarer that the Indian public acknowledges these special individuals.

It is these small initiaties that sum up to making India the superpower that we want it to be.
We have heard of stories of in China how students are made to dedicate themselves to a life of mathematics, gymnastics or archery...this initiative trumps the Chinese establishment on inspiration and drive while matching the other attributes such as hardwork, dedication etc...

Bihar has another example in Dr. HC Verma too. (Which student who has prepared for JEE does not know HC Verma!).

With the return of progressive governance in Bihar, I think Bihar will lead us in the march to becoming a developed nation/superpower.

Weekends

2011-06-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

Activity levels on weekends have gone up. I guess all the good things happen when you know you're not going to be around here much longer. Found awesome like-minded company.

Had been to an A R Rehman concert in Bangalore towards the end of May. A friend drove us down to Bangalore and back.

Ran the Bangalore World 10 K the weekend after. With the lifstyle that I have, I ran a dream run and was quite proud of my achievement.

Just yesterday, the aforementioned friend drove us down to Chennai and we caught a movie in Chennai. Everybody watches movies. But nobody drives down from Pondy to Chennai just to watch a movie and then comes back. That's like 8 hours of highway travel for 2 hrs of a movie. But it never was about just the movie, was it?

And ever heard of Fisherman's Cove? Tick that off on the list as well.

2011-06-18T00:02:00.000-07:00

Time just flies past. It was a couple of months after I turned 23 that I came to Pondicherry and almost after a month I'd have turned 26, I'd be leaving the city.

As regards turning older, I've heard stories of girls weeping on their 25th birthday. Though not as traumatic for me, the 26th birthday did come with a sense of enhanced responsibility.

There are jobs to do, marriage to be done with, kids to be had and raised...And I ain't exactly getting any younger.

Yesterday as a day was good fun. I got all the consessions for being the Birthday boy. Actions/utterances which typically would have landed me into an argument/trouble were let off easily.

High points of the day were cutting 2 cakes - one organized by my team as a surprise and one in the evening with a few like-minded friends from work. I had loads of beer after a long time.

Enjoyed the gentle buzz and showed up a couple of hours late to office today.

Would she like it?

2011-06-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

If I were to tell a girl that she had beautiful hands and that she could infact be a hand model, would she take it as a compliment or would she be offended by it?
The last time I was in that situation, I couldn't guess so I kept my mouth shut.

Operation Backlog Clearance

2011-06-09T02:40:00.000-07:00

Over the last 7-10 days, I had a lot of items on my To Do list which were not getting knocked off.
The pending list kept growing and for some reason or the other, I wasn't able to go after it. It was a cause of great irritation.
Today I said 'enough is enough' and put up an Out of Office message on my Outlook, switched off my phone, told my team members that I'd not be reachable for the rest of the day and went into a secluded corner of the factory and got down to work.
At mid day, I've knocked down 60% of the list.
I guess it's a good technique to get work done.

Why am I giving it 100%?

2011-06-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

This is my last month on my job. Conventional wisdom says I should basically 'chill' and plan my exit. However, offlate I have been 'hyper' - driving things, shouting at people, demanding execution etc....
Maybe this will all leave a bad taste in the end and not-so-fond memories of me to my team/peers. But I'm doing stuff which I always believed in and not to drop the ball in the interim. The approach I have taken is ' I will do what is good for the place. Damned be my reputation'.

Why am I doing this? I'm not very sure. I just feel it's a good thing to be your 100% till the last day...

By the same token

2011-06-02T01:42:00.000-07:00

I read a message somewhere which went something like ' Remember that if the start up fails, it is your idea that failed,not you.'

By the same token, would the person who made this statement say ' Remember that if your start up suceeds, it is your idea that suceeded, not you.' ?

This statement encourages you to run away from your failures and take credit only for the successes.
I find such statements highly hypocritical and hardly inspiring.

Reading in 2011

2011-05-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

Reading is off to a good start in 2011.

Have read the following so far....

Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gawande ( Read this in Oct 2010 first and again several times in parts.)

Maverick - Ricardo Semlar

Decision Points - Geroge W. Bush

The Stranger - Albert Camus

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish - Rashmi Bansal

Drive - Daniel H. Pink - Currently Reading this.

I would like to move from this average of 1 book/month to 1 book/weekend.

Books as gifts

2011-05-26T20:51:00.000-07:00

I was reading this book titled Stay Hungry Stay Foolisn by Rashmi Bansal. It's about 25 entrepreneurs from IIM A and how they built their business etc....
In one of the success stories, the entrepreneur mentioned something about he coming from a very academic family and he always got books as gifts. And he went on to mention that he never remembered getting anything apart from books as gifts.And that helped him etc...etc...

Reflecting upon this thought, I recalled that I myself have gifted several books to people. Infact, I have gifted very few 'other stuff'. Now with Flipkart and the like, it is even easier.
I have gifted 3 books to friends in 2011 itself.

I think it is a good thing.

What makes rich girls attractive?

2011-05-22T03:16:00.000-07:00

This thought has always been on the bak of my mind but I never really gave much thought to it.
However, a friend of mine was genuinely concerned and shared his concern with me over dinner a few days back.
Infact, when I gave it sufficient thought and broke it into the manageable parts, the phenomenon is quite simple actually.

Here is my analysis:

A rich girl spends a great deal of her dad's money and her own time and energies on the following.

Skincare - Products and treatments

Haircare - Products and treatments

Fitness - Gym, Yoga, Aerobics etc...

Cosmetic Surgery - In extreme cases in pursuit of that symmetry and proportion

Dressing - Exotic dresses, designer dresses, abundance of dresses

Education - No matter what her board exam % is, a rich girl can always pay a hefty donation and join the best school or college. Under the influence of good eduction and peer group, her sense of style, communication, interests etc...would naturally evolve.

There are some things which money can't buy.....but none of the above mentioned items belong to that category and therefore can very well be bought out with a Mastercard.

So, is it so puzzling after all that rich girls would be more attractive?

Q.E.D

TN Election Results

2011-05-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

The TN election results makes me happy on 2 counts.

Another term for Karunanidhi and family would have thrown democracy out of the window in the state. It is healthy for democracy in the state and the country that Jayalalitha won.

The development agendas at Bihar, Gujarat and now Tamil Nadu have won. It always is better for any democracy when any party wins on a development agenda and not on any narrow casteist/religious/political platform.

On a slightly different note, I feel Jayalalitha is a much better administrator and a manager than Karunanidhi and his family. She exudes a clear sense of purpose and has proven in the past that she can take tough calls.

Kudos to the people of Tamil Nadu on this landmark mandate.

2011-05-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

An epiphany. A satori.
Things are not the way you think they are.

The Beatles

2011-05-07T23:17:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recently gifted me the complete collection of The Beatles. This contains ALL albums, all singles and a few documentaries. Basically, the entire collection.

There were a few songs which are very popular and everyone knows those. But I discovered a few lesser-known songs which are quite appealing. One which I have been playing since today morning is This Boy.

That boy isn't good for you

Though he may want you too

This boy wants you back again

Oh, and this boy would be happy

Just to see you, but oh my

That boy won't be happy

Till he's seen you cry

I never thought you could put such a feeling so clearly and succintly and make a song out of it. There's no needless reference to the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars or beating around the bush.

Plain, direct, raw and innocent. Awesome.

Every possible emotion associated with boy-girl love, The Beatles have sung about it.

2011-05-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

All the people I have met in my professional career thus far can be slotted into 4 distinct types.viz.

People who I admired from the very beginning and continue to do so

People who I didn't like much and never changed the opinion later

People who I was initially very impressed with but later realized they weren't all that admirable after all

People who I did not take an instant liking to but later grew to admire them.

While the first 2 types are straight cases and need no explanation, types 3 and 4 are interesting.

Type 4:

I have also noted that people of Type 4 are typically 'operational' people. People who are at the forefront. Say a factory or a front-end sales team etc... These people would have had less time to get the 'polish' or 'finesse'. They'd have achieved brilliant feats at work and would be very helpful by nature. Their lack of presentation skills or lack of diplomacy in communication would make them sound uninteresting in the beginning but as you get to know them and their achievements over time, you begin to admire them and respect them. My personal experience with people of this type is that they are very helpful.

Type 3:

I have noticed that people of this type are typically the 'global' types. Suave, masters at making presentations and excel sheets, their practical experience or connection to the real world would be minimal. They'd be very impressive over a cup of coffee or a 15 minute presentation. But if you interact with them long enough, you'd realize that there's not much in there.

If I were to classify myself, I'd probably slot myself under Type 1 or in the worst case under Type 4.

Human reactions

2011-04-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

I have made it to HBS for the MBA program (!) and am mighty thrilled about it. There were several friends and relatives who called and congratulated me. Some I was thrilled to share the news with. Several in my extended family were jubilant that one of their own is going to an Ivy League school. I was proud to have been the recipient of so many good wishes and brought cheer to my family and friends.

So when India won the world cup on April 2nd, I was celebrating on 2 counts.

However, there have been a few moments in the midst of these celebrations and wishes which surprised me a little bit.

A couple of friends, after I shared the news with them, congratulated me. But I could sense a feeling of competition in their voices. There is a famous scene in the movie 3 idiots where Madhavan's charecter shares a basic rule of human psychology after Aamir's charecter tops the class viz. When a friend fails in a exam, you feel bad but when he tops the class, you feel even worse.
So that feeling isn't entirely outside of expected patterns of human behaviour.

However, there were a couple of people who spoke of my achievement as some sort of a compensation against some deficiencies/insecurities that they thought I had. Now this was pushing it too far and I took serious offense to it. I made it abundantly clear to the parties involved that I didn't like like what was said. I didn't appreciate the humor if by chance that's how it was intended.

If I have things to figure out, I'll still have to figure them out and I'll continue to handle them in the best way that I know.

The immediate feeling that I had was that HBS was too big an achievement to be a compensation for something else. It's a good standalone achievement and one that I would rate as the biggest in my academic/professional career so far.

Key lessons learned:

Share your good news with people who are going to be happy for you.
Be a little discreet. Don't take the others too seriously.

Excerpts from a book

2011-04-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

"Each president decorates the Oval Office in his own style."

"The centrepeice of the Oval Office was the Resolute Desk.I had chosen the desk because of its historical significance.Its story began in 1852,when Queen Victoria dispatched the HMS Resolute to search for the British explorer John Franklin,who has been lost looking for the Northwest Passage.The Resolute was trapped in ice near the Arctic and abandoned by its crew.In 1855 it was discovered by an American whaling ship,which sailed the Resolute back to Connecticut.The vessel was purchased by the US government,refitted,and returned to England as a goodwill gift to the queen.When the Resolute was decommissioned two decades later,Her Majesty had several ornate desks made out of its timbers, one of which she gave to President Rutherford B. Hayes.

Timeliness is important to make sure an organization doe not get sloppy.

I learn best by asking questions.

Castel Gandalfo

Camp David

"I read a lot of history, and I was struck by how many presidents had endured harsh criticism.The measure of their charecter, and often their success, was how they responded."

PDB -- Presidential Daily Briefing

After the 2001 WTC attacks, "My blood was boiling.We were going to find out who did this,and kick their ass."

"Hijacked planes were weapons of war.Despite the agonizing costs,taking one out could save countless lives on the ground.I had made my first decision as a wartime commander in chief"

Quitting my job and the feeling afterwards

2011-04-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

I quit my job roughly 10 days ago. It is not as glamorous as it sounds and like all other things, now that you know it's going to go away, you value it even more. My last 3 on this particular job taught me several things...I will not go into the specifics which I have mentioned in detail in my B-school app and in the exit interview. But there are a few details about the whole episode which I would like to note here

I quit about 10 days ago and the company announced my successor about 5 days ago. It's like they found a successor for me in 5 days! This could have been due to 2 possible reasons viz. they knew that something was cooking and lined up a back-up or they were planning to move me in any case some other role and had a back up ready and then I quit.

There was a telephonic interview with my skip level boss and I liked the general tone of the conversation and I was candid about why I thought about it, which is a better proposition etc...And I felt he also came to the conversation with an open mind and was candid in discussion. What was a little disappointing is that the 'other bosses' -- the people who demand work from you on a regular basis, who claimed to be your coaches/mentors never even called to check and I know for a fact that they were on the panel which found my replacement. It seems that lately even leadership, like beauty, is only skin deep.

I now know an end date by when I will leave so I plan to do all the good things now. Uncontrained by expectations, unconstrained by what everyone else percieves as priorities...I can do good things for the place. Atleast to the best of my abilities.

Places to Visit

2011-04-10T11:17:00.000-07:00

Colombo, Sri Lanka ( Inspirations: Neighbour, Scenery, The co-operation in the World Cup finals and Jacqeline Fernandes)

(Auckland and the rest of New Zealand. Inspiration: Somebody's blog post which went something like " ...driving at 180 mph from Auckland to Wellington in a convertible, with the wind in your hair, one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding the hand of the woman you love...". )

Pacific Coast Highway - Malibu (Inspiration: Two and a Half men)

Copacabana beach (Inspiration: The very contextual mentions of it in 'Johnny Gone Down')

New Year Resolution

2011-04-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Ugadi. It is the Hindu new year as it is celebrated in Karnataka, Andhra and Maharashtra (though called by a different name in Maharashtra). I made one new year resolution which I hope stick to. I will never ever take a polythene bag from any grocery shop for remainder of my stay in Pondicherry. I will carry my own backpack or some rugged paper bag (The kind they give when you buy Levi's jeans etc...) and do all my grocery shopping with those. I know it is a small step but it is a step in the right direction. It does not matter how you contribute to nature or how much you contribute but what matters is that you do.

2011-03-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a post which is very interesting.

Half the guys out there are going to lose and half the guys are going to win. To which half I shall belong after tomorrow?

I shall come back with the answer.

A Few Changes in my Leadership Style

2011-03-08T14:15:00.000-08:00

They always say that when the going gets tough the tough get going but do the tough get going in style or do they get hysterical and start yelling at their team and get demorealized themselves?
Under unprecedented pressure, I've begun to lose my composure and have become a sort of a hated dictator within my team. So I'm putting down a few basics for my own understanding and to compose my own thoughts

When there is stress at work, a leader ought to take that whole stress himself first. That is the price he pays for being a leader.
But he needs to what components of the pressure are real and what are self created.
The real reasons leading to the stress should be repackaged and passed on to the members of the team who need to act on them.
And in getting this done, the leader has to follow a differentiated approach for different members of his team based on their competence and attitude. The one-size-fits-all approach never works and the classical Saama-Daana-Danda-Beda approach which is found in the ancient scriptures is the best strategy till date.
The leader also needs to appreciate good performances and also mildly disapprove ( Read Whale-Done) poor performances without harping too much on it
Even when a leader is administering the 3rd or the 4th legs of the SDDB cycle on one of his sub ordinates he should never lose composure but the message which goes out should be clear.
In times trouble, long hours, though not the panacea to all problems, help.
An overall positive attitude always help. It always helps to give a picture of a good future to yourself and the people around you.

I have decided to recognize one good action everyday and appreciate a person.

I have also decided to spend more time getting to know people and asking learning about what excites them, what do they love doing and what do they dislike doing.

The Crucible and Shooting Stars.

2011-02-26T06:54:00.000-08:00

The last 2.5 years in the factory have been what Bill George calls 'The Crucible'.
Experiences which have tested me to the limits. Things I took for granted or things I thought I would do fine but when I actually got down to doing, I was moved to the point of frustration.
The questions I keep asking myself are
'Have I contributed well?'
'Have I left the place better than what it was when I inherited it?'
'Are people better off on account of my presence or would they have been better off without me?'.

Questions I need to find answers for.

In a different place in the book he refers to people whom he calls 'Shooting Stars' and 'Golden Boys'. For now till I find the answers, there is one thing I'm absolutely sure of. I am not one of them.

Some rising leaders avoid challenging experiences that really test them. I refer to them as Shooting Stars and Golden Boys. The Shooting Stars move up so rapidly they never take time to learn from their mistakes or look at themselves in the mirror. A year or two into any job, they are ready to move on, long before they have to pass the test of living with their decisions. When they see an experience like the crucible coming, their anxiety rises and so does the urgency to move on. If their employer doesn't move them upward, they are off to the next company. Then some day they find themselves at the top, confronted with
an overwhelming set of problems. Without the wisdom of the crucible, they cannot cope and are prone to do bizarre things on their way to self-destruction.

Golden Boys (and Girls) follow a similar path to success, using charm, style, and good looks to get ahead. They always set the bar of performance low enough to ensure that they can exceed it. To outsiders and board members, they always appear in control. Insiders observe that a Golden Boy never gets his hands dirty wrestling with problems. When he reaches the top, he is unprepared for the real-world challenges he will encounter. When faced with them, he is vulnerable to making major mistakes and putting his company at risk.

If everybody did all the fancy stuff, who would do the real stuff?

2011-02-14T10:45:00.000-08:00

These days I've been thinking a lot about jobs/careers.
What is good for me? What suits me? What gives me the kicks etc....

One thing I have come to realize is that everyone wants to do 'strategic' stuff. The glamorous stuff. The sexy stuff. Everyone wants to be in consulting, i-banking, PE, VC so on and so forth. Not many want to get their hands dirty and do stuff in agriculture, manufacturing, energy etc....

Everyone wants to be in Manhattan or Nariman Point and punch away on their laptops and make Excel sheets. Our society too rewards this herd mentality. The paychecks are fat, the work is sexy, the holidays are exotic, the offices are plush etc..etc.... Yeah, the pressure is there but then which job is it that does not come with pressure?

If everyone were to be a venture capitalist, who the hell would do the venture?
If everyone did strategy, who would grow the food for you to eat?
Closer to my heart, if everyone only invested, who would make the shampoo to clean your hair?

I feel the corporate world is divided in 2 sets of people, the guys who make stuff and the guys who sell it. Everyone else. I repeat, everyone else lives off these 2 kinds of people. The guy who make the ads, the gal who makes the global marketing strategy, the guy who invests in stocks, the guy who does strategy consulting etc....these are all parasites who thrive on the guys who make and sell stuff.

Strategy never filled anyone's stomach.

2.5 years in Pondicherry

2011-02-14T09:31:00.000-08:00

After having stayed close to two and half years in Pondicherry I'm mostly done with it. I am willing to move out at the earliest given opportunity to any metro after a gruelling stay in this Tier 3 town.

Contrary to popular belief, Pondicherry is just like any other mediocre, bad and dusty Indian Tier 3 city with reckless driving, lots of politicians, autodrivers who are out to fleece you and unkempt streets.

Except for the 4 parallel roads which line the bach front, there is nothing much to write home about.
The foreigners here are mostly disillusioned hippies who would in any case be 3rd rate citizens in their own land too.
The temperature in peak summer touches 40 and this is not even the worst part. Humidity and the stickiness makes you go 'yuck'.

So all in all, it is not as snazzy as it is made out to be.

Infact, if I had the time, I would start an 'Incredibly bad Pondichery' campaign to counter the falsehood propogated by the 'Incredible India' campaign.

However, if you are here for only a day or 2 and confine yourselves to the 'French quarters' - basically the 4 parallel roads that I've mentioned above, it might be mildly pleasant even.
The eating places in the French quarters are good.

This is the reason I've had so many visitors, the only possible upside to my otherwise boring stay here...

Just to make a small list here. The following people have visited Pondy (hence, me) over the last 2 years or so

1. My parents, aunt, cousin
2. Gautham
3. Karthik
4. A Shankar
5. Manoj
6. S Poddar (On several occasions for official reasons. However, despite my best attempts at hospitality it has been recorded that the best times were spent with Ketan and Nidhi)
7. D Vasan
8. Shreyas and Shruti
9. Anubhab and Senjuti

The last visitors on the list having visited as recently as yesterday.

I welcome my friends to visit the 4 parallel roads and experience the only good parts of Pondicherry on a trip strictly not more than 48 hours before I say 'Good Riddance' to this town.

The State of the Union

2011-01-27T09:28:00.000-08:00

For a self-proclamed quizzer, I'm pretty ignorant I must say. Only yesterday did I hear about the State of the Union speech which the Presidents of USA have been delivering since the time of George Washington. From what I gathered, it is much like anyAnnual General Body Meeting - Only this discusses, how the nation has performed in the last one year and what are the key priorities in the coming year. In summary, it's an annual status update of the nation. Details here.

I liked this year's address because of 2 reasons
1. I have always admired Barak Obama's oratory skills. He is a real role model for someone who dreams of making speeches which 'change the world'.
2. This year's speeches was very 'human' and was very motivational when seen from the perspective of an Americal citizen.

The speech also did have a mention of India once ( and China several times) as a respected rival.
The entire transcript is here.

For me, the favorite part of the speech was

" Meanwhile, the nations like China and India realized with changes of their own, they could comepete in this new world. Also they started educating their children earlier and longer, with greater emphasis on math and science. They're investing in research and new technologies".

The last week in Mumbai

2011-01-22T23:05:00.000-08:00

Often I have realised, I end up not writing anything on my blog because I feel it is 'not good enough' or because there is nothing which the 'public' would be interested in reading. But let's face it, there are not many who read it anyway and the blog is a good tool for documentation. I started blogging in mid-2005 and have been blogging for close to 6 years now.Unbelievable.

Also, your personal blog is the third best type of porn that you can ever read; the second best type being your personal diary.

So here it goes: The document. The porn. 187th in the series...

I spent the whole of last week in Mumbai attending a training course. Course was fun and a lot of lessons were learnt -- Lessons in teamwork which I had traditionally understimated. How simple things become very complex when you involve a lot of people and their emotions in it. Thr training program needed a lot of teamwork and I'm happy to have been a 'leading' member of the winning team (among 4 good teams). I always thought of myself as being a resonably good 'people person'. I mean I may have the charisma of Napolean or may not have the oratory skills of Winston Churchill but I never had issues in getting along with people. I was always as close to the 'top rankers' as I was to the 'last benchers' while in school.

I got along well with my classmates/hostelmates in the heartlands of UP for 4 full years. Well, I was never the argumentative to type to begin with... I never anticipated that I would be struggling in reconciling points of view, opnions, emotions. I thought I was good at it, even though I might be the best guy in the world for it.

But what I have realized in the last 3-4 years on my job is that: You've got to have opinions when you are a vital member of a team. You've got to be able to put your foot down and stand your ground even when become unpopular. This is more important if you are not just a part of a team but you are leading it. You've got to have a thick skin and stick to your guns. Genuinely try to help people as long as they are willing to take it. And, team work is not easy as it is made out to be. It is tough. So, "Team work is tough, never underestimate it", that is one of the biggest take aways from the training apart from a small percentage of the actual stuff which was taught to us.

The evenings in Mumbai were the best part. After the day's training, we were a bunch of 3-4 old mates, who did a lot of things. We visited friends, went to the famed malls of Mumbai and shopped a lot, watched a play, sat on the sea front and ruminated about what the future held for us, ate corn and to top it all watched a movie which glorifies the puzzle that is Mumbai. While not many people liked the movie, I totally enjoyed it and could easily relate to the movie. I liked the narration and it took a Bangalorean to do tell the story.

I can conclusively say that Mumbai has a soul like any other city I have been to so far. Mumbai is the financial capital of India. No doubt. But it hasn't lost the bits which cities tend to lose with prosperity.

China's will and our lack of it.

2010-11-27T08:44:00.000-08:00

Today I was watching the closing ceremony of the Asian Games held at Guangzhou and it was a humbling experience. The opening and closing ceremonies were fitting showpeices of China's might and majesty as a superpower.

This is in sharp contrast to all the hullaballoo that took place before and during the CWG games.
We did not hear a single whisper related to admin issues, playing conditions at the Asian Games.

While Kalmadi and his chums were busy looting the nation's money, China had already finished the construction of all the stadiums, games villages and handed over to the organizers.

I have also been following the events in the Games very closely as I'm home on leave for the past 1 week. 199 Gold medals speaks for itself. China also topped the medals tally at the Beijing Olympics with 51 Golds and the hitherto unbeatable US was distant second with only 36 gold medals.
What also amazes me about China is that the excellence is not uni-dimensional. China is onlt only doing well at the Asiads and the Olympiads in sports. China is doing well in scientific research, space programs, defence capabilities, manufacturing, IT....basically everywhere.
It seems like the nation is playing in an perfectly harmonious orchestra. All the efforts seem so well-co-ordinated and adding upto making China the greatest nation. There is a certain ruthlessness to their execution.

And talking of execution, it's hardly imaginable that a nation like China would have left a guy like Kasab alive 2 years after he was caught on camera chasing and shooting innocents citizens of its country. I think a country like China would have closed the investigation within a week of the incident, made the report public and put the guy to the chair in full public view and made an example of him. Why? Was Saddam not excuted? Can't we execute a third-rate terrorist like Kasab??

A fantastic example of the will to act is this. When 40 odd Chechen rebels held some 850 people hostage victim in a crowded Moscow theatre, the Russian Leadership did not act like a self-pitying victim. Russia put on the job its Spetznaz who pumped a mysterious gas (some say valium) into the theater's ventilation system, incapacitated the terrorists and flushed the theatre of the criminals. Such political will is what is missing in India.
Crooks like Kalmadi and terrorists like Kasab have to be brought to book . Brutally. Within 48 hours of them committing the crime. Never again should any crook in the next 100 years think of doing a Kalmadi or Kasab again.
Do it India. Then only our 14 golds will become 140 golds someday.
Right now let's quickly figure out ways of holding a torch to China's achievements.

Interesting Link:
Why are Chinese so hardworking?

My Bangalore Routine

2010-11-24T07:08:00.000-08:00

For the last two and a half years, I've been staying in Pondicherry which is closer to Bangalore than the other places I have lived in the last 7 years. So, my frequency of coming home to Bangalore is much more than it used be say when I was in Varanasi.
However, I'm not sure if I'm the only one feeling it but there is a feeling of vacuum outside of work. In Pondy, I'm literally swamped with work and I'm either yelling at someone or someone else is yelling at me for the most part and the quietude of home is quite confusing.
Beyond the first 24 hours at home, I'm looking hord for things to do, people to meet, places to go to etc... Simply put, I get bored.
Add to this the fact that most of my childhood buddies are outside of Bangalore. Most of them are in the US pursuing MS/PhD, some are working outside Bangalore and some are in B-schools in India but outside Bangalore.
So I thought to make my stay more enjoyable, let me make a list of things which I'm doing already and also things which I can do whenever I come to Bangalore.
A checklist of sorts. More on this later...

You don't get my seat.

2010-11-04T05:09:00.000-07:00

I have been a regular passenger on the bus from Pondicherry to Bangalore and vice versa for the couplr of years or so.
In an air conditioned sleeper bus, the lower berth is distinctively more comfortable than the upper berth. The AC outlet vent is at the top and the upper berth is much colder than the average temp of the bus, the space is crammed and you have to climb up.
So whenever I get my ticket booked, I clearly mention to my travel agent to book a lower berth in the middle of the bus (Preferably L12/L13 types). I do my planning well and deserve to travel comfortably while going home after every couple of months of toil.
But almost every time some old,fat lady comes up to me and asks me that I should let her take the lower berth and I should her upper berth and that she's too old or too fat or some such...

I know this is not a very popular point of view, but for a guy who plannned his preference without harming anybody and got the tickets in advance, it's mighty unfair. Let me stick my neck out and say it to the old, fat woman, " If you really are so fat or so old that you can't take the upper berth, whay the hell don't you plan in advance?"

For the full 8 hours yesterday I had cold air blowing over my face and I'm yet to recover fully. Add to this my breathing problems, I'm a mess on the eve of Diwali and a very angry,unfit young man.

Have decided that from this return journey onwards, I ain't gonna give up my seat for anyone. I have my problems and hence, I plan well. If you can't , you don't get my seat.

There is a need for change

2010-09-26T06:58:00.000-07:00

Its high time there was some change.
Same old stuff not good enough anymore.
Need to change the world.
Need to change the diet.
Need to change the game.
Need to change the daily routine.

Dust

2010-06-24T09:58:00.000-07:00

My sense of cleanliness has been heightened by a few quality issues which dust has caused in the products which we make in my factory.

Wherever I go, I now see dust. My mind now works on how to eliminate dust, what should be the cleaning schedule, what types of de-dusting mechanism should be used, what should be done to prevent dust from entering any enclosure etc...

I was also surprised to see that dust prevention is a huge industry in itself.

Terminology like "Cleanroom", "Class 1000", "Class 10000", "ULPA filters", " HEPA filters" fill my daily conversation these days.

So I was cleaning my house after a long gap today. Was shocked at the amount of dust which had been collected in the filter bag of my vacuum cleaner. Tha picture above is the amount of dust which was accumulated in it.

The general state of boredom

2010-04-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

The last few days there has been a general state of boredom, inaction, the feeling of repeatedly doing the same things and not even excelling at it.
May be it's too much 1.5 years after doing the same thing over and over again.
Is it finally a sign of a real need for change?
When there is mindless pressure at work and when you know the guy who is causing all this pressuer for you is chilling in an AC room in a swanky office in Mumbai, you feel how unfair is life!
You bloody slog for 6 whole days and are mentally occupied similarly for most part of the 7th as well. Then this gigolo comes to office on Monday and makes phone calls to you to get quick updates!
Generally frustrated :(

Clarity of Purpose

2010-04-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

Don't wanna mess it up for self.

Don't wanna add to others' confusion.

Back to the basics.

Back to the joy of mechanical engg, management, production...in Pondicherry.

Jai Ho.

Inquilab Zindabad

2010-03-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Are we an Operations nation?

2010-02-27T23:07:00.000-08:00

It's well known that we are an IT superpower. Our entrepreneural acumen is personified in the numerous Indian companies which figure year-on-year on the Fortune 500 list of companies and the growing list of Indians in the World's richest people lists by Forbes etc...
By the look of it, we are also a good marketing country -- Brand India sells outside. No doubt in that. Having spent time Varanasi and Pondicherry -- I know how successful we have been in marketing out culture abroad.
But are we a good operations country?
Do we know how to run our airports, railyway stations, railway networks, electricity boards, nationalized banks etc... well?
Do we believe in building systems that work?
Do we beleieve in the discipline of frequent reviews, good operational leadership?
Do we emphasize enough on scientific research?
Do we excel at mechanical engineering?
Do we build good highways or city roads for that matter?
Do we believe in discipline of regular equipment maintenance?
Does the average upper middle class Indian maintain his window AC once is a year to ensure that his compressor does not conk off?
Do we maintain our motorcycles well?
Do we maintain data systems which enable quick, effective decision making?
Do we play sports by the rules when we do at all?

Heads Up

2010-01-31T08:30:00.000-08:00

Have been doing quite a few things for the first time lately:
Bought a bike about a couple of months back which makes mobility real easy within the city. Need to go pick up groceries or need to go have dinner you don't feel lazy anymore to walk or hail an auto. Offlate on holidays I just go to the French part of the town and just get into ultraslow cruise mode....speedo reads 12 kmph.

Also I just ran a half marathon in Jan 2010 and planning to run the Sunfeast 10 k run this time in my home town in May 2010.

Been sitting through a a wage settlement for the last 4 months. It has been a real rollercoaster ride and sitting through and contributing to a wage negotiation process is an amazing experience.
My HR business partner is one guy who you'd to have on your team like the Aussies would want to have Sachin on their team. It's an amazing introduction to the Art of Negotiation. For the first time I realised negotiation is so much about strategy and not too much about being able to haggle too well.

Reading has taken a back seat but I really should get back to it now. In my peak, in my 2nd and 3rd years in college I used to be one of the one book per weekend guys. Gone are those good old days.
Work is awesome and whenever I hear about my illustrious predecessors I get inspired to do more and leave a mark behind. I need to have more energies to do that. I really need to start having breakfast regularly and I really should start drinking more milk. I am a firm believer in milk drinking and my beliefs are sumarized here.

The first post of 2010

2010-01-17T21:37:00.000-08:00

I just realized that this is my first post in 2010. For a veteran of 176 posts since 2005 and ~ 100 reader comments, this surely is a lean patch.

Let me begin with something I had been looking forward to since 2007 and could happen only happen yesterday : I ran my first marathon (half-marathon) and finished it on my first attempt.

21 km in 3 h and 8 mins is not the best timing by any measure but given that I hadn't trained for this at all, given that on the previous night I was at a bar till 1 AM, given that I had only 3 hrs of sleep, given that I have given up the habit of having breakfast for the last 15 months, given that I am having a slight breating issue which needs a surgical intervention --- Given so many things, I am proud and it makes me enjoy the pain.

Feet are burning. Hands, legs, joints infact the whole body is aching and I need to catch a flight in 2 hrs.

I am leaving Mumbai a proud man having achieved what I came for.

It would not be out of place to thank my friend who was a great source of sound advice and vital carbohydrates during my stay. Without him I would never have finished my first marathon.

Vishnuvardhan (1950-2009)

2009-12-30T08:57:00.000-08:00

It was long ago that the umblical cord of Kannada culture was abruptly cut off from me.

When I crossed the Vindhyas in pursuit of higher studies and a decent career leaving behind a culture so rich, and yet for its richness so underrated; I was one of the millions of Kannadigas who have a historic weakness: We realise the value of our treasure after it is lost. Some of us never realise it, ever.

Since the inception of the Jnanpeeth Award in 1965, Kannada writers have been the conferred the award 7 times (I personally feel that the 8th Jnanpeeth award missed DVG rather than the other way round) is the highest for any language. Hindi writers have 6. Our much-decorated Bengali brothers have bagged it 5 times.

Long long ago, when I was an impressionable young chit of a boy, in those days when a cable connection was a luxury, I used to look forward to the Sunday evening 5:30 PM weekly movie on Doordarshan. Ofcourse, this was long before we got we got a cable connection and I got a laptop. Long before I started watching how someone met someone else's mother and all that.

Those were the happy days. Those were the days when Rajkumar had just about moved to the 'vintage' category and Vishnuvardhan was 'The Contemporary'.

Vishnuvardhan was my first hero. Eventually I went on to study in the same college he attended.

My dad and he were batchmates in National college and went to NCC together.

It was after watching Muttina Haara that I had resolved to join the army.

Today as Vishnuvardhan has left us, I am groping for words to write a tribute worthy of the man.

If I were a more gifted man,I would have written something like this for my first hero.

Indecision - The root cause of most of the misery

2009-12-28T08:06:00.000-08:00

It has been discovered in the last few months that there are very few greater enemies to the manegerial mind than indecision. One way or the other, good decision or bad a responsible guy has to decide. That is what is appreciated by all around us. Superiors, sub-ordinates, peers, customers, vendors ...all of them.
People like the quiet and the meticulous. Who avert all damages. Who foresee problems and sidestep them. Who make things look easy. Who are calm and composed. Who have things under control.
Control comes from knowing. Control comes from the confidence that nothing can go wrong when I am in charge. Control comes from planning -- Incisive, ice-cold planning.
Planning to last detail.

A Dream Fulfilled

2009-12-25T05:53:00.001-08:00

Bahut din se bas itna khwaab hai ki office mein baithke ek blog post likhoon.

2009-11-15T09:01:00.001-08:00

Why I am so domesticated?

Why don't I do crazy hours these days?

Why do I work so hard at work and come home all spent out?

Dunbar's number

2009-11-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

Heard about this for the first time on Seth Godin's blog.
Basically, do we believe that the maximum number of stable social relaitionhips that a person can have is 150 (on an average).

My thinking: Agree mostly but depends on how overworked the person in question is. My Dunbar's number would be less than 150 and dwindling. Blame my job and the flux of change in it.

Teamwork

2009-11-08T09:33:00.000-08:00

Last few months I've been working this global project,in which I am at the fag end of the execution chain. It has been a great lesson on understanding dynamics of teams spanning across nationalities,mindsets, differential levels of rigour.
Also, the 'local' execution also involves keeping a small set of 4 people completely aware, motivated and focussed on details.

Have spent quite a bit of time thinking about the 'concept' of team and why some are better than the others.
Am I doing the right things in my own team to encourage the spirit of 'never drop the ball' or am I encouraging the beginning of an endless 'blamegame'?
Am I doing enough 'team' things apart from writing substance-less 'team' emails?
Building great teams is an art that needs to be perfected over years and great teams are like seed which will spread across the organisation.

Pondicherry Promenade

2009-11-01T06:24:00.000-08:00

The Pondy beach front on a Sunday morning is awesome. Without any care in thw world, you've got to go there to soak in the ambience. It is comforting to know, that 10 km away from you in the sea, there is a place , from where all your pressures and worries seem frivolous.
An Ice Cream at the Arun Ice cream bar is the final clincher.

Reading in general

2009-09-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

A oft-levelled charge against me is that I buy a lot of books and hardly read them. That I like to populate my bookshelf with lots of books and I don't read more that half of them.

Well during this weeklong stay at home I dispelled a few of those criticisms by reading a book which was long pending to be read.

This particular book in question is titled 'I dare' and is the biography of Kiran Bedi. As the pic above illustrates, I bought this book on 25th June 2006 (More than 3 years ago) while I was staying in the Kalyaninagar area of Pune as a summer intern.

Take-aways:

Wonderful lessons in leadership.
How to work in the midst of stifling systems.
A confidence and a sense of having 'finished' something which I started a long time back.
Maybe it's the first is a series of good 'finishings' that I am going to accomplish and become a good 'finisher'.

2009-09-22T11:22:00.001-07:00

If you're good at something, never do it for free.

2009-08-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

I am generally a guy who feels things -- Like Zinedine Zidane, Steve Jobs feel things.
I mean I feel pain and happiness, dreams and nightmares etc...
But there are sometimes, when the mind is super-clear and calm. Generally late in the night, after about 11:30 when I dont want to listen to any music or anything. You know exactly how much to work, how much worry and how much pain to feel.

2009-08-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is an open letter to the complex,jumbled up forces which were holding me back till sometime ago. It is now time to clear all delusions, presumptions and the fog that clouds the mind, yours and till sometime ago, mine.
There are a few things, call them my quirks, which I have realised recently that I very little tolerance for. Somewhere in the top 3 would be the below mentioned two behavoirs. It cuts me up when

I don't get a response when I try to communicate with all good intention.
I get a response based on a few obsolete, invalid presumptions.

And you, have time and again oscillated between the above two unacceptables. Needless to say, I am not pleased.

Don't get me wrong, I am not infallible. I may be wrong, but for some strange reason, I don't hope I am wrong.

It's high time that I officially declared all my good intentions towards you, withdrawn.

The Mumbai Marathon is here!

2009-07-26T11:43:00.001-07:00

Yeah so finally the registration for Mumbai marathon were open till sometime ago.
I've registered for the event and I'm damn thrilled about it. It is the greatest test of human endurance that is available to the common man (Discounting things like scaling the Everest which I rule out being not available to the common man.)

The name marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippedes, a messenger. The legend states that he was sent from the town of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Greeks had won in the battle of Marathon. It is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming 'We have won' before collapsing and dying.

As a tribute to the legend, here I come...

2009-06-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

Michael Joseph Jackson

1958 - 2009

" If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with. "

2009-06-28T00:58:00.000-07:00

The recession has taken an emotional toll on all of us. Watch out for these signs of stress: Working too hard. When times are tough, we tend to double our efforts. Putting in 10-hour days will not save your company from the recession — it will tire you out and render you ineffective.
Loss of self. Stress can cause us to withdraw or do things out of character. If you're losing your personality or skipping things that used to be important to you, step back and evaluate your stress level.
Delusions of grandeur. We all like to think we're important. However, it is unlikely that your job directly affects the fate of your entire company. Keep your role in perspective — taking a break won't break the company.

2009-05-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

A man more often dies a mediocre because the people around him never give him a chance to become a hero.

It's a wonderful life

2009-05-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

Today watched 'It's a wonderful life' . It's been a long cherished dream of mine to finish watching all movies on the IMDB top 250. Given the limited availability of quality movies in Pondicherry, the dynamic nature of the list itself (new movies being added every month) and the demands of my profession make it well nigh impossible to achieve the dream.

However, watching the movie today was a great step in the right direction. It's a wonderful life is at # 30 on the IMDb list (as on 3/5/2009) and I am damn happy after watching it.

It's about this guy, James Stewart, who is very ambitious --wants to go around the world,have a carefree life etc...But he ends up taking over the family business because of his father's untimely demise. Thereafter he does a lot of good things but grows increasingly frustrated with the minutiae of the businessman's life. When he's faced an allegation of misappropriation of funds, he decides to commit suicide, he's saved by a guardian angel, Clarence.

The angel shows him what good impact his life had had on the lives of others close to him. The angel shows him how different(and uniformly miserable) all their lives would have been had he not been born at all.

Although slightly fairytale-ish, the movie leaves you with a lot of good cheer. The concept itself is novel. James Stewart and Donna Reed are brilliant in their roles. I liked the guy who played the guardian angel.

"Everytime a bell rings an angel gets his wings"

Loved it!

Cricketing Analogies

2009-04-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

These days I've been using a lot of cricketing analogies to convey a lot ideas.

I've always felt this is a very effective of connecting to an Indian audience at a conceptual level. The best thing is that this assumes that this cuts across all cross-sections of age, educational qualifications etc...

If you want someone to join a team and make him do all the dirty work and not make him feel bad you can just say " All captains started off their careers as the team's 12th man. You've got to move up the ladder" .

If you want someone to go all out on the project delivery just before the deadline you can just tell him how a team should try to maximize it's score in the slog overs.

More on this post later...

Change of heart

2009-04-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

I came back home pissed. I though I'll blow him off the face of this earth first thing in the morning tomorrow. He had circumvented every norm of good societal behaviour.
What the hell did he think he was doing?
I banished from my sight that peice of literature which I had clearly urged him not to put up for the kind of scrutiny that he had just subjected it to.
I closed all communication. I was absolutely sure, I'd give it to him for one last time and close it logically.

I played 'Dreams of fire' -- Slumdog soundtrack . It has a calming, soothing effect.
I read it all over again, this time calmly. Clearly it was all that I had advised against.
But haven't I had worse deals before? Haven't I been a target -- Not a victim -- of greater treachery? I mean I can withstand this and more. Also, haven't I done this a couple of times before?
To take a cricketing analogy, I have just taken a blinder at third slip. I know I've got him. But he doesn't move! Bastard! What can you do?
In the 2nd match of the series, I go for a glorious cover drive. I miss it by a whisker and I know in the heart of my hearts that it was a knick. The bowling team goes up in unison. The edge is so faint that its almost a joke. It was so slight,I feel entitled to stay. This time I am that guy who gets called names.
By the 5th match of the series I'm wise enough to know we are all the same and moreover it all evens out over a period of time. The important thing is to enjoy your game, no matter what.

Anand Kashyap's blog.

2009-03-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a graph of my blog posts over the years. If the number of posts is any indication, then my blogging has flourished. But let's be warned by the wise man who once said, "Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital."

I've always believed if you really look hard enough, you do catch a glimpse of the vital ;)

Catching up on reading

2009-03-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

The last fifteen days were wonderful in terms of me being able to read a lot of stuff.
Finished this small piece titled 'Countdown' by Amitav Ghosh on the possiblity of a nuclear confrontation between India and Pak. This piece was brilliant for the balance it created between the Indian and the Pakistani views. A very, honest impartial assessment of the situation. Was an enrishing experience reading it.

Also, happened to read 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' by Mohsin Hamid and found myself relating to the hero at times during the course of the last fifteen days when I felt really frustrated and wanted to just throw my hands and give up when pressure mounted at work. Again, very honest and never lets the reader wander away. Essentially, this book is about one guy, speaking about himself and I'd never have imagined such a strategy could be executed this well.

I also finished off reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. This was a regulation read. Like all of Gladwell's other works, very intriguing. Essentialy finished off this in 3 sittings and have been spreading gyaan ever since. I have a sneaky suspicion Gladwell hides data which does not conform to his theories. Not too much. But a push here and a gentle pull there and the data looks baffling. But can't take anything away from Gladwell.

By the look of it, the next fifteen days seem like I need to work like a dog - so no reading.

2009-02-14T05:31:00.000-08:00

I read this about Europeans somewhere , "It's like their passions are more intense and present because they are inundated with less stimulus so they have more to give."
Be it a walk on the beach, a toast at a cafe, a picnic on a river, an evening at the opera, a visit to the art gallery, the Europeans seem to have it in them. Seems like they were born with an appreciation for things refined and culturally rich.

How do we Indians rate on this cultural scale?
Yes. We too have a strong sense of culture but often cultural seems to get tinged with religious sentiments. Very rarely do we use the term 'culture' without intending religious or casteist connotations. In an Indian context, I would guess that the term gets most used at the time of fixing up a marriage when people usually perform a spot check of whether the bride or the groom is from a 'cultured' family or not.

The question that comes to mind is that we Indians, the constituents of what was once the most culturally rich among all civilizations and who are now the citizens of a nation reeling under the stress of overpopulation and the like, afford to be culturally rich in the midst of all the day-to-day niggles and which we face in the course of going through the motions everyday.

Simply put, I can be culturally rich. But does it make sense if I am struggling to earn a living?

While in Europe, culture seems to dictate the way a man would live his life...simple things like the way Ferrari builds it cars. It's a culturally inspired decision of Ferrari to manually craft all leather upholstery for every single one of it's machines which are otherwise the epitome of technical superiority. We'll make a monster of a machine but we will paint it red and manually stitch its seats.

In contrast, in India culture seems to be something we would do as a bonus. After all that I'm supposed to do has been done, if I have the time and inclination, I will give a thought about culture. And never will I make it dictate the way I live life. Some would say that's our culture. I wouldn't call it that. Yeah, it's a conscious, economically sound decision but that's hardly a culture.

Two and a half men

2009-01-24T01:33:00.000-08:00

Brilliant write-up on the sitcom i found on the facebook group for this:

Emmy Award-nominated TWO AND A HALF MEN has been the #1 comedy on television for the past two seasons. It’s a comedy about men, women, sex, dating, divorce, mothers, single parenthood, sibling relations, surrogate families, money and, most importantly, love. More specifically, it's about the lives of two brothers, one brother's son and the many women who surround them. Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen) is a well-to-do bachelor with a house at the beach, a Mercedes in the garage and an easy way with women.

His casual Malibu lifestyle is interrupted when his tightly wound brother, Alan (Jon Cryer), and Alan's son, Jake (Angus T. Jones), come to stay with him. Complicating matters further are Charlie and Alan's narcissistic, emotionally toxic mother, Evelyn (Holland Taylor); Alan's deeply neurotic ex-wife, Judith (Marin Hinkle) and Charlie's domineering, unapologetically blue-collar housekeeper, Berta (Conchata Ferrell). Despite the complexities of their lives and their own strained relationship, Charlie and Alan have one thing in common--they both love Jake and want what's best for him. As a result, they manage to create a little family unit that promises to make each of them a better man.

Nation going to dogs?

2009-01-14T22:15:00.000-08:00

After Satyendra Dubey, S Manjunath ,now it is the tragic case of Manoj Gupta.

Manoj Kumar Gupta, UP PWD engineer was brutally murdered by the local MLA in Auraiya on Dec 24, 2008, just for being honest and not giving in to his demands for illegal
donations to celebrate the upcoming birthday of his party chief in Lucknow. This is especially close to my heart because Manoj was an alumnus of IT-BHU (Batch of 1979) and was a senior from college for me.

I find Abdul Kalam's vision 2020 and all that jazz deeply inspiring at times. But if we really do a reality check of where we are today, it's deeply demotivating and leaves very little hope.

Infact, the Satyendra Dubey case hasn't been solved yet. What sort of an example are we setting to our youngsters here?

Reservations, donations, bribery.Guess only a world war can wipe the slate clean for us to start afresh.

I just wonder...in a different nation other than India,say the US would these questions have ever have gone unanswered like this?
Would an engineer be killed in broad daylight and go scotfree? I really feel awed at imagining the speed and deftness with which the guy would have put strapped to the chair.
Not for nothing is it's the most powerful nation in the world.

If we ever are to become a superpower, we have to address all these issues on the way. The dirty underbully should the first of our problems that we should address.

And the educated population to write, complain, campaign and first of all, vote.

I want to be omniscient

2008-12-28T20:28:00.000-08:00

I want to know everything that there is to know.
Some of my friends draw solace from the fact that what we do is not too technical any way. A wants to do an MBA , B is already a consultant with Booz Allen although by qualification he is a chemical engineer, C wants to make a career of rock music...So if he knows crap about AC induction motors. How does it matter? There is enough food in the world for him to be fed and enough technically sound people in this world to carry him on their shoulders.

Me? I pride myself in knowing the encoder resolution of the 2nd servo on the labelling machine on line 3 in my plant. Somehow no matter how convincingly I argue with myself that I can pass off reasonably well even without getting into to the hair-splitting details, the engineer in me (I realized there is this guy in me only lately) feels very inadequate when faced with technical abstractions.
I need to know. Period.

May be I'll be doing demand forecasting or wildlife film-making 10 years down the line. But I'll sleep with greater peace knowing the operation of my window AC.

Besides, I want to listen to every song that's been sung.
I want to read every effing book that's been written, ever.
I want to run the marathon and know if indeed the human spirit is, as Sir Roger Bannister said, indomitable.

When a kid fresh out of college asks me what the difference between annealing and normalising is, I need to know. Else you'll find me downloading Callister from esnips.com and I'll pore over the fucking e-book for the night and know.
It's a bit frustrating at times when I forget the fundamentals.

I want to know how secondary taxation works,how CENVAT credit is availed, why is TDS not applicable to equipment supply but applicable only to technical services.

I want to read 'How an actor prepares' by Konstantin Stanislavsky just to know what the fuck is Method Acting all about. I don't want to be an actor but I need to know.

I want to know what Article 23 of the Constitution all about. When I have the time, I'll go through the tome.

Knowing is so empowering.

2008-12-24T20:43:00.000-08:00

This message has been blocked because of privacy reasons. Also it was a little too soppy.

Ok Let's Plan this out quickly

2008-12-22T05:51:00.000-08:00

535 days to go before the biggest football event on this planet kicks off.
I've built a lot of contacts in Zululand on my international stint a few months ago. The time is ripe to leverage the contacts now.
I've agreed with a friend to provide us with free food and boarding for myself and three of my friends.
Plans are the land up in Durban for June 28th and July 7th matches. Durban matches are for sure.
Other can be planned out based on the 2009 performance bonuses.

Calling all my friends to make use of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Remember.....you may never attend a football world cup ever again ;)

This one was written when I was a little disillusioned

2008-12-18T10:59:00.000-08:00

The deal is that I am in Mumbai after a long long time. Flying in and out of Mumbai used to be a monthly affair. Settling into my life at Pondicherry has its own sweet flavour. The width of experience is huge. The challenges are immense. The pressure is there in the job.

But this visit to Mumbai reminded me of the carefree days of the last one and a half years which have been a memorable journey. Peering out of the window from my mate's room seeing the Wadala bridge gives me a sense of the reality that has changed around me.
I mean I used to have this window view of the Wadala bridge for my viewing all the time - back then there was a sense of inertia- the feeling that the view was not intersting enough. I yearned for the possibilities that the future held.

I know precisely what has happened to me. I have grown used to a rapidity around me. The rapidity with which the environment around me changes. Now that rapidity has slowly evaporated. Everyday is a new challenge I agree but that change , the techtonic shift has vanished. I am maybe a little bored looking at the same images day in and day out.

Also adding a bit to the gloomy feeling, is the feeling that I am being missed functionally at my place. Truth be told, I work pretty hard at my job. There is a will to make a difference that drives all my actions. This small visit to Mumbai is an attempt to recapture the old times - the careless times.

The Olympian Creed

2008-12-11T02:38:00.001-08:00

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well"

I'm that guy who speaks the truth and gets humped

2008-12-03T06:03:00.001-08:00

Basically, I've always believed in the philosophy which one of the articulate guys I know put as 'Lay it on without the Jelly'. Speak the uncomfortable truth, come what may.
It's only in the last few weeks on the job did I realize the importance of holding your tongue back, pausing for impact while speaking, strategically withholding information for power etc...

It's only after I spoke some infallible truth which my boss didn't relish hearing did I realize that I'd got a little too comfortable in my job and had slipped back to my old habits.

I basically Laid it on to my boss without the jelly.
Needless to say, I've been rewarded in kind.

As a countermeasure, I've decided to shut-up for the next 15 days.

A little crude but good one.

2008-11-28T22:29:00.001-08:00

I worked by day and toiled by night; I gave up play and some delight; Dry books i read,new things to learn; And forged ahead success to earn; I plodded on with Faith and pluck; And when i won people called it LUCK.!!!!!!!