Paradox Inc.

Soulful Rediscovery

2011-12-09T05:40:00.001-08:00

Long time. Been almost a year since I blogged.

Life has changed, surely. I got hitched. And, I feel the itch to write. Rather, to rediscover. And, I'll write down to do that. In general, I'm content for now. But, I know its not good. Let me just go through the motions and identify the path traversed.

The run up to the D-day was too long. Seven years and putting an enormous amount of energy into it is not easy. It had become my goal for the past 3 years, atleast. You know, the GOAL. Perhaps, I should not have kept it as the goal. For I now realize, having tied the knot, I am content with my existence. I need to do something. But, perhaps, given the depth of crap I had to go through in the run-up, perhaps I had to set it up as THE goal to keep myself going. To achieve it. To prove it. To break the caste-barrier. I had to do it. So, then, in hindsight, the fight was good. Let me rather put it as, moving on to the next fight. The only problem is, I need to find a cause to fight. It could be my demons, something I want to achieve. I think its going to be intensely personal.

Sometime ago, for about 4 years, I had a motivation to achieve in the community space. I took to writing. But, I figured that a lot of folks in the social enterprise space are frauds- to some extent or the other. And, the group for which I was writing for. I really don't know what has happened to them. Hubris? What matters is passion. Not, fancy degrees from colleges of journalism. Not, eloquent English with flawless grammar (sic). Passion, clarity of thought & persuasion. I think that defines good writing. You write to persuade someone to do something. You write to explain stuff which is not clear. You write to incite passion. You write for fun. I'm talking about serious reality writing in the context of social change. Not about comedy/fiction/business writing - which is different. So, do I still have the passion for that. Yes, I do. But, I do not feel like proving myself all over again. I dont feel a need to it. I'm finding other ways to contribute to social change. I have taken to marathon running for a cause. Mentoring and in general, being socially good to the underpreviliged in daily life. India offers enough opportunities for that.

Now, I need to re-ignite the fire. And, it has to last long. In the recent past, while my energies were directed to the nuptial activities, I'd set short term goals.

Identifying the music I can relate to and enjoy.
Identifying the movies I can relate to and enjoy.
Identify the alcohol I enjoy. Ale beer. There's nothing like it.
Training for a marathon and completing it.
Getting certified in scuba diving
Reading a lot of varied topics & identifying the authors I love. Identifying the genres I like to continue reading
Tastefully setup a house.
Be a smart investor. Take clever bets.
Continuously develop my knowledge of economics. I find it intriguing for it seems to be the binding thread that defines human actions.
Lead a peaceful family life with reduced scope for conflicts.

The driving factor behind the last reason is that it can otherwise consume the energies you'd rather spend on things of your interest. I think the above activities tend to define a persona. And, perhaps, that's what I am trying to do. To define myself for the future - at a personal level.

Now, I've kind of broken free. Some kind of a trance I am in now. Surrealistically ethereal. There is peace. But, I need to destroy the peace to jump. I need to do something new. I need to calculate the risks I can take. The larger goal I need to achieve. Digging my past, one thing was clear. I wanted to be a ceo. And, build an organization. And, grow it. To do that, you need to lead people. And, sell something to someone. Create value. When, How, where, what.....???

Ok, I need to work within the constraints of this world. I need to convince people of my next move. I wish I could do without some convincing. But, it actually helps in tempering the ideas. Now, I need to leverage my past and make the next small move. A move, which over time will prepare me for the bigger leap. May be, after I leap, it may not seem so fulfilling. But, still the leap can thrill me to no end. I need to experience it. All over again. It happened when I did well academically. It happened when I led the placement team to 100% in 2 years. It happened during the nuptial knot. All of this in the past 11 years. I need to feel it again. Its my drug. But, I have a subconscious feeling that the next shot will be when I'm 42. That is 13 years from now. I hope this blog lasts that long :P.

Ok, this has been a session of confession. As is the usual, it was not intended at an audience. So, if you read till here, thanks! Else, thanks.

The art of selecting/buying diamonds

2011-04-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

This is just for my own reference. In case it helps someone, great. So far, the process of buying diamonds has been rather opaque, leading to ignorant buying @ incorrect pricing. I hope to improve on that. Hence, this effort.

The four important characteristics of diamonds are called the 4C's - colour, carat, cut, clarity - in order of importance.

Colour of a diamond
A diamond's colour is determined on a relative basis, by comparing it with a panel of naturally coloured diamonds. All diamonds have some colour, ranging from very pale yellow to the slightly yellow. Pure colorless diamonds are as rare as are coloured diamonds such as pink diamonds. Lesser the yellowness, higher the price is a thumb rule. Also, beware of coloured diamonds such as pink - be sure that they are diamonds in the first place!

Carat of a diamond
The simplest to measure and quantify, carat is equivalent to one fifth of a gram. Diamonds are priced on a geometric progression, if carat is the criterion i.e, if a diamond weighs three carats, it will be doubly priced as a diamond weighing two carats.

Cut of a diamond
The most crucial aspect, which gives diamonds their beauty. Diamonds can be well cut, deep cut, uncut, and hopelessly cut. You know which one of these is my contraption. A well cut diamond allows light to pass through from one face to the other, and be perfectly reflected back. This is the sparkle you see in diamonds.
If not well cut, the light will be reflected elsewhere and won't sparkle in the eyes of the looker. That sucks. Diamond cutting is an art and cannot be automated. It takes years of experience for a person to produce well cut diamonds. The ability to develop well cut diamonds also depends on the nature of the rough diamond, its shape, its size etc.

Clarity of a diamond
Diamonds are formed deep inside the crust of the earth over several hundreds of years. During
this process, they develop feathers and inclusion. These stuff are determined using 10X magnification. They can make the diamond look blurred or diminish its ability to produce perfectly reflected light.
Hence, lesser sparkle. The scale, from worst to best is - s , i , vs, vvs, and perfect - depending on the number of inclusion. Very easy to cheat a customer on this parameter.

Ideally diamonds are to be worn on platinum jewellery, so that white light is reflected and you can admire the beauty.

The worst part, inspite of the above guidelines, is that most jewellers do not provide the 4C specification for each jewellery. It is provided as a blanket guidance for the entire range of jewellery. Thus, asking you to trust them. Still, it provides some scale of comparison across jewellers, and transparency to the buying process.

RCB. Duh.

2011-04-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

After the first few matches of IPL 4, it makes easy number crunching to prove why RCB is like a child who struggles due to parental issues.

IPL 1, VJM allowed Dravid to select the ultimate test team. Next, he made KP the captain. The other extreme. Flamboyance in life dictates all business decisions. We know it happens to us, any mortal. Finally, there was no body else. So, he turned to Kumble who did a great job, ably helped by Ross, Robin & Vinay.

Cometh the auction, all those who helped RCB do the best in IPL 2,3 were bid with adolescent intentions. You know who was at the table taking the decisions. Kumble was restrained to the dug-out through a deal - he was elected the KSCA president. And, then they picked Vettori to lead- who has led the NZ team to glory (I mean, except during the world cup).

AB & Dilshan, great players in their own right, had led DD to glory in IPL 2,3. Yes, you got it. They cant turn it around just by themselves. You need some local boys to perform. But, then you pick Tiwary & Pujara and ask them to bat at 5,6. Funky thought process.

I think Ravi Shastri gulped a few KFs and suggested to the Richie Rich Sid that Pathans have it in their genes - immense cricketing potential. He would have also mentioned that they are like most MBAs. Their mentors always claim high potential which remains to be discovered till the potents hit the grave. That makes excellent case for Asad Pathan in RCB.

And, then there's the latest senstation - Mayank Agarwal. Only problem is his senses are not fully in place yet, for he hasnt played a Ranji match yet. He smacked some big runs in gully cricket and flashed his pan in Australia.

Mithun picked up wickets in his first Ranji season and then figured that he's the next best express fast bowler in India. Oh my god! That sits lightly on his shoulders. And, then he stopped performing in the next Ranji, never mind the IPL. He adjusted himself to the average Indian pace bowlers' benchmark which is non performance.

So, that calls for the final nail in the RCB coffin. Hardcore Bengaluru fan I am. But, RCB - I need to shift camps.

For now, I'm with Pune which is winning due to great performances from all players and nothing exceptional from the captain. Sahara, being the Indian team sponsor for a long time, perhaps knows how to manage cricket teams - i.e., not to over do it. Keep it simple stupid.

Taekwondo

2011-02-01T08:08:00.000-08:00

This blog is just for my reference. The article here seems like calm determination.

http://www.socatkda.com/documents/Beginning%20TaeKwonDo%20Training.pdf

So, I've to remind myself. Practice.

Why did recession happen?

2011-01-30T00:30:00.000-08:00

Till now, I have not read a more convincing article on the reasons behind recession. This article paints the complete picture.

http://www.nber.org/papers/w15404.pdf

Beautifully articulated with specific data points and no global gas. And, if you have a nominal knowledge of macro-economics, you can afford to swagger about your knowledge of recession with this article.

In summary its this: (China refers to BRIC)

1. Chinese save like crazy : Why ? Govt policies & cultural matters. 12.5% of all loans in China are consumer loans. Of these, 80% are home loans. Automobile purchases are low on credit. House purchases have 30% downpayment. Retiral savings are very important.

2. Sudden rise in supply of Labour : Results in transfer of income from the inefficient in the US to the labour power in China (efficient or not).

All the labour save up their money in the banks. Savings need to be invested. So, the large banks which accumulate these savings buy safe assets in the US. Safe assets are US corporate debt, treasury bonds, sovereign wealth funds. No investment into US companies. The chinese, dubai did try acquiring ports in the US, oil firms (Dubai Ports, Unocal). But, political pressures killed em. The stock market crash of 2000 in the US also affected.

Quoting from the report : During this period China quickly emerged as the US’s fastest growing creditor, second only to Japan in size: In 1994 China held $18Bn in US assets (almost exclusively Treasuries) which grew to $92Bn in 2000 (roughly $72Bn Treasury debt and $20Bn Agency debt) and $922Bn in 2007 (roughly $466Bn in Treasuries and $376 in agencies with the balance in corporate debt and equity), almost 25% of China’s GDP.

This huge trade imbalance would've appreicated the Chinese currency. But, the Chinkis bought dollars in troves and neutralized the Yuan's rise. Thus, Chinese now have a huge dollar reserve. And, Yuan is not expensive.

Corporate & Agency debt. What the heck is that. The chinese basically pumped money into US mortgage markets, Fannie Mae et al who got money at cheap rates. Thus, the got into big time lending. Leading to big time real estate buying between 2000 & 2007. Leading to the housing bubble. Thus, the US households believed that they were actually rich. So, the average American lost job or got lesser salary but bought real estate which was cheap. And, then couldnt pay EMI's. And, got effed.

I think the situation in India is freakingly similar. Rising govt debt and rising real estate prices. Oh my god, is it going to come crashing down!

Quoting the article :

It is important to note, however, that the behavior of US households during 2000-
2007 can be rationalized if households ﬁrmly believed that past rates of house price
appreciation were sustainable, and did not realize that they (or their children) would be
liable for paying down the US government external debt eventually. Understanding the
fundamental forces driving housing prices is not easy and it is reasonable to assume that US
households took home price increases to be permanent.

Am still reading the article, more in the next posting! Quite a heavy article but intelligent it is.

Lanka Diary - Sigiriya et al

2010-12-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

After the thrilling Scuba diving expedition, we were off to more mundane tourist matters. Travelling into the island, we set off for Ravana Ella.

On the way, we wanted to visit Hambanthota to take a look at the new chinese port. Pretty obvious, we werent allowed to take a glance of the monstrous port that is coming up there. Hambanthota is Rajapaksa's constituency/home town. And, it was a poor noman's land till recently. Now, it seems to be the next Colombo down south. The port is giving chills to Singapore's trade. The second international airport in Sri Lanka is coming up here. There's a cricket stadium being built. And, we could see a lot of export industries being encouraged too. That's some development, Chinese style scale. Rajapaksa, hats off for being a game changer. Ended the war & onto development. (There are brickbats always, anyways.)

After Hambanthota, the rain gods suddenly lost patience with us. In about 30 minutes, it was raining crazy and the roads were flooded. It was pitch dark and eerily scary to drive any further. We decided to halt at the nearest visible hotel for the night - whatever be the quality. Accidentally, I spotted a board in the dark and suggested that we may want to try. But, there seemed to be no roads & no light in the near horizon. So, Scooby instilled some guts into Prabhat (on the wheels), to take the road less travelled. Thankfully, within 100 metres, we could spot some light and there was a hotel indeed. We discovered the name of the place - it was Wellawaya, at the foothills of Ella.

Hospitality was at its best and the rooms were great. We found an Indian (Tamilian) staying there and he soothed our nerves. He was a regular at the hotel and assured us that this was a safe, great place to live the night. The accidental detour was a surprise! We were served the best Sri Lankan food in our entire journey and had a sound sleep that night.

We started off early next day at 5:30 am to Ella. It was a good decision not to travel at night, as the road uphill was strewn with rocks & land slides.

The latter part of our journey was spent criss crossing Lanka on roads and enjoying the incessant rains. And nothing much to speak about, other than Sigiriya. Must place to visit as there arent too many similar structures else where in the world.

A rock structure amidst complete greenery at 200m high is admirable as are the gardens and other rock formations. The frescoes have pretty much been destroyed and just a few remain. Just for reference, the Eiffel Tower is 300m high amidst a bustling city.

Nuwara Eliya-Kandy was a serious let down, and pales in comparison to Munnar. It might be a good idea for honeymoon couples to enjoy the only developed hill station at Lanka. Nothing much for others.

Colombo is just like any other city brimming with the mercenary nature of the mortal mankind. Mt Lavinia was like an Indian beach, filled with filth and crowd.

So, the verdict is out - if you have 4 days to spare and you dont exactly enjoy Goa due to the crowds, Unawatuna is a great deal. And, it can be very cost effective too. If you have 10-15k INR to blow, enjoy a world class beach at Unawatuna rather than booze it over at Goa.

Chennai - Colombo return flight - 4 to 5k INR
Katunayake - Unawatuna - 6k INR taxi fare. If bus, then even cheaper.
Unawatuna acco for 4 days - 5k INR or even cheaper (mind you, not shacks - good acco)

Lanka Diary - Day 4 : Scuba Diving!!

2010-12-07T09:40:00.001-08:00

The best part of the entire holiday. It was time for Scuba diving! After having negotiated a good deal with Rohanna from Sea Horse, it was just too exciting. We were advised to have a light breakfast and given a fairly long de-briefing session by Rohanna.

And, we set off into the ocean amidst a steady drizzle. The sea was rough thanks to heavy rains the previous night. Our motor boat was riding the sea waters akin to a horse ride with the bumps providing the thrill. Dude, it was slightly scary for a first timer. But, the jat strongman booed away my calls for caution. Hold on, Scooby Doo had just started to unfold! Gee hee!

We had to dive into the sea water on our backs. I saw a few others do it and then before my brain could react and tell me it was dangerous, I just jumped ! I mean it was a conscious attempt to beat the fear. Thankfully, the experts were waiting to set me straight in the sea and it was all fine. I started my descent down into the water guided by one of the divers. I knew there were three divers with us. Underwater, all three of them came to me, one by one, and asked if I was doing ok. I didn’t understand this routine and thought this must be part of their sortee or something. I was too engrossed at my first sighting of the underwater beauty & the life beneath there. It was just out of the world! Such colourful fishes, a star fish, corals, rocks. Oh my god! I couldn’t believe myself. It was too good. As I was guided deeper, we saw a 20 year old ship wreck, a lobster & more corals.

There were also some disgusting maggi covers, polythene wrappers there. Screw the dirty homo sapiens. It was like a beautiful painting of Monalisa smeared with black tar.

Now, I finally sighted Vivek and thought may be they were showing him something which I hadnt seen. Cursing my own fate at being unlucky, I tried desperately to absorb all that was in my eye sight - turning to all directions as if asking my brain to record this!

We'd gone down to about 10 metres and then came up to breathe fresh air. It was a great experience for 45 minutes! And, while on the boat - on the way back, I got the whole picture. Fear had overcome the strongman and had to be coaxed, relaxed by two divers - before he got into the act. So, what happened was, I was guided by one diver while Scooby Doo had two. VJ, now baptised as Scooby Doo! I was mocked at by the divers for not flapping my fins and giving him a tough time to navigate underwater!

Nevertheless, Scooby has vowed to become a certified scuba diving professional & I don’t see any reason he wouldn’t do it. It was a great experience! And, I'm going to get back to Unawatuna to do more Scuba diving.

All is well that ends well. And, it was quite an event - Sagar getting into Sagar!

The previous day, we'd cycled from Unawatuna towards Matara, the land of the Marauding Jayasurya. We travelled quite a distance on the Galle road, which runs through the length of the coast from Colombo till Hambanthota. The road is very good for cycling and the climate was brilliant too - what with a occasional pleasant drizzle to cool us down. Cycled upto Ahangama Model school and relaxed on the beach behind the school before cycling back.

On the way back, we had a boat ride on the Koggala lake. We were taken to the cinnamon island there. 90% of the world's cinnamon is produced in Sri Lanka. We saw how it was made from a raw branch to the finished product. It was all man-made! On the boat, a guide came along and he was a big fan of Salman Khan! He was waiting to watch Dabang on the pirated CD network which throngs Lanka big time.
There were mangroves all along the lake, which was also said to have many crocodiles. Eeks!

Lanka Diary : Day 2 & 3 : Unawatuna Explored

2010-12-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

Here's what Arthur D Clarke had to say about Unawatuna, in a famous quote from the Sea of Sinbad,"Ten thousand kilometers from the place where I was born, I had come home"

Given the rather tiring day & an alcoholic stomach, I woke up early in the morning to catch up on the lost time. And, it was a sight ! We'd definitely made the best choice at Lanka, thanks to Ranga. As Vivek put it "BOSS! This is similar to the French Riviera which I visited in 2007".

The various hues of blue and an arc shaped beach made it seem like living a dream. As we got down to the beach, our analysis on the reasons behind the colour of the beach began. Just like many other random akar bakar analysis, the white sand & depth were the key reasons we narrowed down to. Nevertheless, the beauty of the beach was so enticing that we wanted to absorb it in its entirety. Jogging to the full length of the beach - on the fresh morning sea water, sand - we possibly inspired a few other folks to run as well.

Most tourists at the beach were Europeans and there were no other Indians around. Perhaps a pointer to the cleanliness of the beach! Even, the Lankans were not to be seen as it was a Monday.

Breakfast time. Sometimes the menu cooking gets awry and eggs are my best friend. You just cant screw up a boiled egg. Add some cheese, olives, bread & jam - your meal is ready. This was a repeated recourse I'd resort to, at times of culinary distress on this tour.

We hired two funky cycles from Ajith, Surf City. Vivek's cycle was an interesting one - with a curiously shaped seat & no brakes. Being the daredevil yes man, he had forgotten the art of saying no. And, stood up to the task by not using the seat ! Can you imagine cycling about 25 kms a day without a real seat?

We also met two dutch pals - Leon & Aries - who were on the last leg of their asian holiday. It was disheartening to note about their hassled Indian holiday. India is well respected as a prosperous neighbour by most Lankans. However, there is a basic fact we seem to have lost as hosts. Athithi devo bhava. Folks in most lankan towns ( other than Colombo) have imbibed this fairly well. Infact, it makes very good business sense for them. For eg, if you are a 'white' (pardon me for the racist overtone, but that’s a reality in Lanka & India ) westerner touring India, the brain imaging of most shopkeepers, guides & hawkers in a tourist city would clearly display "WALKING ATM". And, it doesn’t end there. They try to over sell, create a nuisance by following you relentlessly though you are at your wits end. The Dutch folks definitely were at home in Lanka vis-a-vis India. I tend to agree with them than argue on a non-sensical basis of patriotism. If there's a mistake, we need to accept it & fix it. I experienced it too.

We figured that the hotel we were currently put up was charging us a bomb - Hotel Peacock. It was on the beach but they charged us double the amount they charged our neighbours who were westerners. True to our blood, we set off on our cycles and discovered the market and its pricing parameters. Fairly simple - 500 bucks more for every 200 meters closer to the beach. And of course, everyone tries to skim the market. We'd to bargain our way to find out a very good location - Shangrila. Run by a South African immigrant to Lanka, it has some beautiful cottages at a great price. Service at the place leaves a lot to be desired but the cottages are spot lessly clean, surroundings are lush green. Was like staying in Kerala ! And, it was about 300 m to the beach. We had cycles and distance was not a botheration.

So, now we'd figured out the optimum pricing for most stuff in Lanka and could avoid the market skimmers with ease. General thumb rule - hotels : bargain to half the price. Souvenirs or handicrafts - bargain to 1/6th or 1/5th the price. Trust me, you'll get it. Just persevere and complete surveying the local market.

We also got a very good place for our breakfast/lunch/dinner for the next 3 days. Nautilus - run by Anoushka, a roman catholic resident of Unawatuna for 25 years, since his birth. All elements of a good hotel came together - great music, great service, excellent food and Anoushka who seemed to evoke trust naturally. He was our tourist checkpoint - on places to visit, where to buy what, pricing etc.

The hotel is just down the road from Shangrila and is on the road which runs parallel to the beach. It was a hotel which hardly had any advertising or qualms about it like many others did. But, just too good!

The cycles (without locks!) helped us explore many parts of Unawatuna untouched by regular tourists. We hit upon a german family which had settled down here. They were conducting reiki & tarot reading classes in a bylane, fairly away from the tourist spots. We went further and encountered huge boulders of rocks, forming a rock hill of sorts. Leaving the cycles behind, the adventurers in us scaled the slippery rocks and lo! Sight to behold, it was. The wild Indian ocean in all its fury running to miles, the 'horizon' view. And, no human soul in the near vicinity. All we could spot was a boat in the horizon. It almost seemed like the rocks were put in place to protect the beauty of a peaceful Unawatuna beach. They did their job very well. This was also a sunset point, we noticed.

On the way back, we met Bob Marley aka Leela - he was dispensing King Coconut (tender coconut). In addition, we also got to know the mythological significance of Unawatuna. It goes like this - Lord Hanuman, while power lifting the hill containing sanjeevini herbs, passed over this place. And, happened to drop a piece of the mountain. It seems, he uttered "Oops, I just dropped it" and Unawatuna is the sinhalese version of the same. A part of the forest is delimited for research purposes on ayurvedic herbs and the likes even today. Leela also told us about the significance of Ella and strongly prodded us to visit the same. Our course was always charted on the run and this seemed like a necessary diversion.

While, we enjoyed Unawatuna in its merry, it was devastated in the Tsunami. Here's are some heart-rending narrations:
http://alexanderdixon.com/2005/01/08/the_tsunami_story_unawatuna/
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mullos/london-sydney04/1104653280/tpod.html

The hotel we stayed -

and the Unawatuna Arc.

Lanka Diary - Day 1 & 2

2010-12-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

The Sri Lankan holiday was a much awaited one - it'd been over an year since I travelled even a few kilometers for vacation. And, a real vacation was something I'd forgotten. In that sense, this was refreshing & an eagerly anticipated break.

Planned two months in advance, it was a pain to pass through the penultimate week at work. After putting in place a few contingency plans for the next week, it was Saturday afternoon - FINALLY! The excitement was palpable and a stranger who saw me from a mile would attest.

A travel journey/holiday is often marked by incidents which you tend to carry along as a story. At the Shantinagar bus stand, was waiting for the Chennai Volvo at 2:30 pm. A decently well dressed bloke was seated next to me at the bus stop. We picked up a conversation and it seemed like he was another Techie ( In Bangalore, you take a second step and bump into a techie !) . He claimed to be joining 'iSoft' in Whitefield and had over 4-5 years of experience in Networking ( Cisco stuff etc). He claimed that his dad was with the Air Force. He claimed to be a mallu but could not speak a word. And, finally pleaded for some money. Well. Hmm.

A pleasant surprise by KSRTC was in the offing, for the volvo deployed on the route was a brand new multi-axle bus service launched on the very day. Reached Chennai in 5 hours. They distributed chocolates in a KSRTC bus! Service, you've got a new friend at KSRTC.

Another surprise was to meet Vivek at the Chennai airport. I'd expected him to join me at the Colombo airport. Merry making gods were on our side in this trip.

After landing at the Bandaranayike Intl airport at Katunayake (45km off Colombo), we waited 3 hours for our man Friday, Ranga. With no sleep on Sat nite, we crashed on a table at the nescafe outlet while muching some chocolate wafers. Ranga landed up at the promised time and we were off to begin our holiday in a neat Nissan sedan.

We'd set our goals clear a month ago - Beaches & adventure. First halt was at Bentota, which was a very peaceful beach. Gulped a couple of beers and tried jogging on the beach. But, Lion strong beer in Lanka lives upto its name! It'd affected my feet-soul coordination. Soul wanted to run. Feet refused. So, I fell flat on the sand. And, then someone flicked my new floaters.

The rest of the day passed in haze as I was driven to Hikkaduwa, Galle & Unawatuna. Great roads, smooth driver, lion strong & I didn’t know what passed by. For a moment, it was like Dev D.

Religion & Power

2010-08-07T23:17:00.000-07:00

Always felt that religion had a sinister motive. The theory grew stronger today.

Read an article in the Hindu on the plight of Muslims in China. Later, on researching figured that Uighur Muslims are a disturbed lot, historically.

We also know that most of the Islamic political world is up in arms against the West. And, the Chinese find a strategic fit in aligning with the Islamic political world.

The drift is straight forward.

At an individual level, faith - irrespective of the religion you follow - is necessary. Especially, given the sine-wave nature of a mortal's life. And most of the human populace has faith in the concept called 'God'. Faith could be in yourself, your friends or family etc. ( A good amount of the rock literature is infact dedicated to - how having faith in yourself is the most important thing. How God has failed etc). Anyways, that is a tangential discussion.

Getting back to focus - Faith is a necessary & sufficient condition for an individual. In 80% of the cases, faith takes the form of god. Stories & paeans in praise of God form literature. Religion is based on this literature. That is the structural breakdown of religion.

The next logical step is most interesting. Freud said man is inspired fundamentally by - power or sex.

Religion provides a common fabric to gather large masses of people. Ab initio, there must have been some religious leader(s) who sniffed power. Once (s)elected, leaders can manipulate people in various ways - to provide mutual benefit, to an extent. And, hence, we see countries based on religion. Groups of countries based on religion. (Lets not get into sects - thats a fall out of power struggle).

Now, I have a logical basis for the formation of the Islamic world - around west asia. The western world wanted oil. So, it implanted Israel and befriended Saudi with military support.

Now, the Chinese want oil too. They also want to strategically position themselves against the west. Russia is pretty much a spent force. So, there was a space to be filled.

So, we know why they're supporting the Islamic world. Their perceived strength is so overwhelming that, the Islamic political thinktank is blinking the oppression on their brothers in Uighurs etc.

Not very difficult isnt it? You see politics, game of power - every day in your office, your locality, your family, your state, country and the world. So, what the Chinese & the US do are very natural stuff - for a rational perspective.

Not for an idealistic perspective. But, the religious literature which provided the basis for the concept of faith - stresses increasingly on the idealistic perspective. The contortion happened in between - by man, driven by power. Faith distorted by power. Hence, the necessity to have the greatest faith in yourself. Unless, you cheat yourself.

Hunches, Beliefs & Dreams

2010-07-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

There was a time in my life, when I was extremely bored about the way it had evolved. And, then I would dream longingly about some trivial matters. Many of these matters would have subconscious beginnings, lacking a powerful logic which would have rendered it a mass appeal.

To think of it, on reflection, a doubt which lingers is - is it a question of dreaming about the obvious-impending event and hence.. achieve a sense of gratification when it does happen.. OR, is it really positively biasing my actions/directions which cause the 'event/experience' to happen.

Or is the 'energy' concept really working. In the sense, that I long for something subconsciously... my actions are inadvertently being directed .. and the 'energy' seems to conspire over an elongated time frame to make 'it' happen. Of course, the 'energy' is kind enough to expose me to the vacillations of every day life.. that I would have obviously given up on 'it'..and then surprise..an iota of an oppurtunity is thrown at me ..in the direction of 'it'.. How I take it ahead is my fate.. under my control.

I know this blog would be teteering on the edge of a self help book which speaks about - Why you should dream and a theory on how dreams come true! Cant help it. But, I detest self help books and would kick the poop out of it, day in and day out.

Let me throw some examples to clear the air -
a. While in my engineering, I hated the schoolish nature of PESIT (damn it- hope this figures in the future google searches on PESIT). Paved the way for some excellent rebellion material. Same logic as China or the oppressed India/Newton's law - Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. More you suppress, more the potential for uprising. While, I understand it would be a normal distribution, by Newtons theory, uprising would be the mean.

And, wished that I should have taken KREC - which was available on a platter. Not so much for the brand, but for the hostel life in a rather secluded sleepy town. Few years later, Jamshedpur happened.

b. Maths was interesting to me. And, seemed at an arms length. Took a brief myopic sojourn under an attempted hypothesis, that, maths really didnt make economic sense. Now, am at analytics and relishing it. Not, tat I'm a stud. But, catching up for the lost time. Modesty, by yours truly.

c. Wanted to be on par with dad on some key non-sensical metrics - Buying a house at 27. The project to buy one started and ended in a sudden flash of adrenalin over 2 months.

While there are many more I can quote, it is fairly interesting to make a note of some more and check if they came true later. But, till now, it was all subconscious. I'm trying to churn it out and note it here.

Ride a harley in India for 15+ years. Head a firm in India for a considerable length of time. Retire by 52.5. Try various random stuff before retiring.. in terms of roles/industries/concepts. Push my ability to the hilt coupled with sojourns of infinitely boring stints. Travel all around the world with loads of cash. Spend a year or more in a remote country's rural hinterlands with my spouse. Become a minister in state/central govt (:D). Run a hotel or a bar or a school after retirement. Drive a space-ship kinda air-car, which travels at the speed of light years, after which there wouldnt be any concept of boundaries. Just imagine, it wouldnt really make any difference if you stayed in US or India, if that happened. What a change that would be.

And...expire by 67, mostly in a heart attack - plain simple. No prolonged stints in hospital, beat around the bush etc. Push the bucket, gently and say bye!, amidst pin drop silence. Drop the pin!

I think luck strikes me like a thunderbolt.. when it has finished granting the largesse of bounty to everyone around. And, it would strike me as if to say, you know what " I've not been fair to you. So, here's my share. But, dont be too happy. Its just only a very little bit. To ensure, that you will keep aspiring for more luck, which I will ration from time to time. I know you are a BPL candidate - below public levels of luck".

So, here is the outlier's journey. And, about re-birth - I hope I get employed in heaven - playing the lair or something at the gates - to every passersby and earn food, love out of story telling. I eat a lot, btw.

Evolution of Music - Creative Bursts Vs Creative Process

2010-06-28T08:55:00.000-07:00

The quest begins to collect the 100 greatest songs ever. And, got some link to it. Not sure about the veracity of this. But, sounds like ...the guy has got some taste. And, I'm broadly in agreement with him except for an occasional blip in the radar - which is OK.

http://www.squidoo.com/100songs

But, what is surprising is. Most of the good music has come before 1991. And a good number of them are concentrated in the 1969-1980 time period. And, fairly true. I dont seem to like the new pinkfunkyo music from Akon, Beyonce etc. Sometimes, the new music is on the verge of gayness. And somehow, most Indian gyms want to appear trendy by playing up these new numbers. Some misplaced appreciation of music. Or should I appreciate diversity ! So, I'd classify the western music scene as being 'Creative Bursts' and boy, those bursts linger for a life time..rather immortal.

Lets take a look at the Indian music scene. I admit that my knowledge of western music is limited to the last half of the century ( 1950+). But, it does seem that the Indian music arena is much deeper. Possibly due to strong fundamentals.

What I'm saying is ... Indian music was encouraged by rulers from time immemorial. Thyagaraja kritis, etc. So, though my knowledge of classical Indian music is limited, it does seem to fit this theory - Indian Music has been a creative Process. It has evolved beautifully over centuries. And, I dont think Indian music is showing any sign of drying up. Though 'process' per se is associated with a lack of creativity, I'd say that the Indian Music scene is different.

Now, hold on. I'm not endorsing the clatter produced every other day by Indian Music Directors. But, atleast, we are able to produce some memorable numbers every year atleast. And, some of them could well last the whole long mile. To substantiate, look at the parallel threads - We have had some timeless classics in the RD Burman era, Ilayaraja Era, AR Rehman era...ofcourse, preceding them were many more.

India, continues to surprise. What a system we have dood! We seem to produce entreprenuers, creative folks, leaders and what not. Really love my country and the system. It is surprising! whoa!

Language : An option

2010-06-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Following up from where I left in the just previous blog, let me continue my rant against compulsive roting of languages in Indian schools. Freaking piece of poop, I wonder whom did it help.

Other than editors, who seem to be aplenty, I dont see a reason - why is grammatical correctness so important in schools. Even if my grammar score wasnt top notch in school, somewhere through the Indian system - where English is more often the conversational educational language.. I think I would have improved my grammar. And, I think thats what has really happened.

For nuts sake, I dont remember what is a proposition. And, some shit on article, subject, predicate. Well, really,nuts' sake. It hasnt helped me a bit. I would have been way happier had I spent the same time reading stuff which I loved to read. And, if these reading matter were composed by the folks whose grammar was in place. Automatically, my grammar wiring in the brain would've got fixed.

Lets not even talk about Hindi or any other vernacular language. I'm absolutely secular in this regard. I hated learning Sanskrit Grammar too. And, thankfully, CBSE provided me a respite - and saved the day - I didnt have to learn Kannada grammar. Learnt it for fun, because it was an extra hour at school for a subject which was not graded! So, you get a frivolous teacher. And a noisy classroom! And, for sure, it helps me in carrying out my daily life - bus etc etc. ( oops, when did i last travel in a bus in bangalore!)

But anyway, to hell with the emphasis on 'propaah' language in schools. Thats not the way.

....no dark sarcasm in the classroom....Teacher! Leave the kids alone!!

Speaking Written Language & Writing Spoken Language

2010-06-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

If you've observed different people - the way they speak & write, there seems to be a pattern. Some people speak written English.. others try to write spoken English.

The latter is very common in official mails. Infact, I've almost come to the conclusion that emails and grammar dont go hand in hand. Lets not even get into email & the emotional interpretation. Egos enraged, wars have been waged for sure..for nuts.

But, lets take a minute and think about the former. Which is.. speaking a language the way you write it or read it - eg. in a textbook. ( not Times of India!jeez - thats spoken english being written. So you'll end up speaking well if you are of my type. But, I hate TOI and love the Hindu). And, I hope this is common,.. pray god, that its not some creepy syndrome which I realized at the tick of 27...lest I veer to the conclusion - I'm of this type. Paranoids survive. And I will ;).

While this may not be too stark when I converse in English, its kind of on my face ..when I switch to Hindi. 10 years of the budding brain was roting the MBD guide non-sense & vyaakaran..in pursuit of the rankings..seems to have taken some toll. Or rather, hard wired some Hindi connections, which are refusing to turn colloquial...in my conversation. So much so, that I prefer to speak in English, in a gang of Hindi speakers. Now, that is 'thoda' embarassing, to say the least.

Have any one of you felt so?

Such is.

2010-06-04T14:15:00.000-07:00

Viewing siri siri on SunTV often sends me on a nostalgic overdrive and I seem to enjoy it, more than the comedy itself. The impact is profound especially when the clip is older.
Alrite, so Siri Siri is a collection of comedy clips aired everyday in random tam channels at 10 pm.
Helps me switch off completely everyday. Except on those days, when the rain gods dont seem to have any mercy and bless my house with dirty rain water trickling down the walls, seeping into my rooms through the windows. Being a borderline athiest, would rather blame the open army landscape opposite my house. But, then, the breeze is smokpot.
Read this facebook update by one miss maami about how bosses can impact moods worser than loved ones. And, in my usual callous defiance of being immune to such mortal tendencies, dismissed it summarily.
And lo, another one to bite the dust. Perhaps, it is driven by a timeless quest for the cheap (or maybe the costly yearend ) appreciation. Or, a misplaced expectation that the human mind is a rational system processing analog signals to produce digital outputs. Though, it is fairly well accepted in sutta/chai-discussions that the outputs are almost always analog too, there is an expectation of the output to be a positively biased digital signal. And, perhaps there lies the problem.

Guess the trick lies in enjoying the work, apathetic about the employer, be fairly materialistic about the outcomes - short term/long term. While the decision tree never seems to end, abounding with fresh complexities in decision making at every turn, it would make a lot of sense & a simpler life had I been my own boss. Such is.

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way. The time is gone. The song is over. Thought I'd something more to say... You missed the starting gun.

Meanings

2010-06-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

Talking about meanings, why ..the phrase angry young man? Coz, men dont remain angry when they're old. Or, may be its the right sexist assessment. Women, old/young are always angry :P

And, more importantly would someone be able to suggest a 'meaning of lyrics' repository or a way to figure out the meaning of some classic songs - astronomy, die my darling?

Revisiting Paradox

2010-05-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

Its been 3-4 years since I started blogging. Finally, it seems that the clarity is no longer muddled. And, the paradoxes have stopped being so stark, as it seemed then.
Perhaps, the innate rebellious streak has sobered down leading to a more 'systemic/endemic' thinking.

Reading my blogs in 2007, when I was trying to figure out my way in Mumbai.. it seems that I believed in a structured approach to life. Though I claimed to realize chaos, it was perhaps naive to imagine that I would ever sort out all the chaos in my life. Infact, there were times, when I feared having a split personality disorder or the likes - one part of the mind would want to accept whatever was happening. The other would love to revolt. And, revolting was always inspring.. as it would help trigger new thoughts, apply frameworks and solve apparently common problems in innovative ways...everyday life i'm talking about. Yes, thats how I would think. Now, I realize that it was fairly complicated. Or deep as they say.

But, what's the pay off of being deep. I dont think there's any. If I'd perhaps converted those deep thoughts into some brilliant lyrics, I'd have expressed myself. But I figured that PinkFloyd's Wall is a sexpot collection of lyrics for me to relate to. So, I'd rather piggy back.

But, why the hell cant i ever memorize or remember any of the lyrics..beyond a single line! How the damn did I pass the school days memorizing those stupid hindi poems! Damn it. Now, I cant remember songs which I like to. Somethings wrong with the way my brain was trained over the years.

Twitter

2010-01-22T04:31:00.001-08:00

Twitter seems to be a more comprehensive media for sharing thoughts on an eclectic range of topics. @sagarbalan is the id and with that... blog life is moving into.. twilight.

XLRI's contribution to Jamshedpur

2010-01-08T04:36:00.000-08:00

Using web presence as a leading indicator .. to indicate the contribution of XLRI to Jamshedpur's popularity on the net...

Terse..

2009-11-27T11:10:00.001-08:00

Just keeping this collection for my own use. Some maxims. The depth of the meaning of these have struck me, in my face..

...the wheel of life titillates at a fleeting moment of vindication..

...There is a superficial subconsciouness which resorts to eternal denial, submitting our free spirit to the will of the society...rise up..o men..

..Death is cruel to the body which lapses. But self-indulgence/infliction is not cruel to the same. An individualistic perspective hence concludes that death, sometimes is not cruel...

..being a mercenary maniac with a superficial regard for values, is a well-understood, sublime and subconscious concept deeply ingrained in our social fabric...rise up, o..men.

.. being a wolf in sheep's clothing to achieve your goals is not held high by the society.. neither is being a wolf or a sheep.. but, society is what it is..goals are what they are..and wolves will be, sheep will be..

Prevarication can be defended by the conscience as a matter of contorted truth. Feeble attempts by puritanical souls will lead to the elevation of morality to oblivion and expedite the law of averages to catch up. There's never been a liar whose spoken no truth ..and..

The slick suffocates..dreams of green fields and fresh springs vanish, waking upto realize there was no reason to..pain...illusion..sorrow.. faltered.

To be able to express ..is an art.. but if the comprehension of that expression were to require an elusive talent.. then, there is a rare appreciation of the art..and the expression..and hence, dissonance reverberates and languishes in white noise. Waiting to be understood.aham.

Statistical Analysis of Names based on social network data

2009-08-17T09:41:00.001-07:00

Wanting to figure out the existence of a distant "being" with a mysterious gene pool connect, I set out to explore linkedin search.

There are 1470+ "Balan"'s in "my" world. And, interestingly, a good number of these are firangs with the maximum non-Indian concentration being Romanians!

Next, I set out to analyse how my first name figures in the scheme of things.

Rajesh - 22,000
Rahul - 19,000
Krishna - 19,000
Ram - 26851
Rakesh - 11000
Tanya - 17995
Venkat - 7000
Vishal - 12000
Sandeep - 18000
Chandra - 12000
Guru - 35000
Prasad - 19000
Mohammed, Khan - 1,00,000
Michael - 7,68,567
Kumar - 1,20,000
David, John - 700000
Sagar - 7000 :D

Ofcourse there are more rare names. But, just look at the vast gap between the Michaels, Davids, Mohammeds,Khans and Krishna!

Hypothesis : Linkedin is a leading indicator of internet penetration.

I hope to be better than TOI in analysis. Simplistic expectations !!

Analysis :
15% of world population is Indian.
80% of India's population is Hindu.
Even under the safe assumption that India is a diverse country with names being very diverse in spelling and sheer number, the above statistic shows a clear skew with the following conclusion:
a. Rate of growth of internet adoption in India might be healthy. But, there's a whole lot of folks out there still waiting.
b. So, whoever wants to bet on an Indian e commerce venture, stay put in it as a portfolio investment. Shift between firms depending on competitive instincts.
c. This also corroborates with the statistics obtained from internetworld.

Hence proved, Linkedin is a leading indicator of Internet penetration.

Extending the above name analysis to Facebook.. found that face book and linkedin have low correlation.

A Logical - Mythological perspective to Animal Freedom

2009-08-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

Here's looking at animal freedom from the perspective of philosophy - combining logic & mythology.

Let me begin from the root cause to justify the reason for this topic. In the context of human beings, freedom is often a debatable topic whose thin line is infringed under several pretexts. And one of the fundamental violations of this concept is to infringe upon another entity’s freedom. This could possibly trace to a difference in self interest between the affected parties resulting in subjugation of the oppressed by the powerful, in ways more than one. The Indian independence movement is a relevant case in point.

We must learn to accept the fact that animals are fellow beings in this world, which serve a variety of purposes – work, meat, experimentation, pets etc. Irrespective of their utility, we must be sensitive to the fact that they are an “entity” in this world. And infringing upon their freedom is a violation.

We could also bring in a touch of mythology, to bring in some self-consciousness in the minds of The believers. According to the Hindu mythology, the human body is a fleeting entity. The soul is a permanent one. And, our homo sapient existence is one of the several forms of life undertaken by the soul. The concept of re-birth hypothesizes that the soul would take shape in the form of several other beings such as animals, plants etc and thus continue the cycle of life. There are several principles of life to be followed for moksha to be attained.
Let me now leverage mythology and bring in a touch of reality. Consider these two philosophical maxims –
• Life is a wheel.
• Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Apply this to the statement “Cruelty to animals” and you know where I am trying to lead your conscience. Given the audience here, I suppose that we may not be directly cruel to animals. But, often, we are an accomplice to this crime.
Instead of approaching religion and mythology with the fear of god, it would do a world of good if we consider them as a million years of learning captured by the ancestors. Thus, helping us avoid re-inventing the wheel. However, this is hardly the case in our country, where blind animal worship and sacrifice tend to blossom with equal force. And, the motivation to both these acts is human self interest. Most often, it is not a genuine interest to cater to the animals’ well being.

2009-06-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

Here is an app www.wordle.net i ran on my blog. Interesting, capturing the thought process over 2 years.

Adding to the noise

2009-05-16T05:56:00.000-07:00

As the periodic bonanza at boosting the economy comes to an end, here's my take on the numbers.
While, the leaders may boast/rue about their respective fate on the grounds of mandate of the nation, progressive policies, communal/secular, some deeper insight into whose winning and who doesnt gives us some idea on how to make the numbers. Some points,.. after which I will state my hypothesis.
a. Bangarappa, a party hopper who generally wins LS elections with much aplomb had to bite the dust against a political novice. Well, yeah, the novice's dad is K'taka's CM. And, his wealth/power is not in question.
b. Mine town Bellary is a ST reserved constituency. Mine owners are ministers in BJP K'taka state govt and are a rich, powerful lobby. A woman candidate fielded by BJP wins.
c. HD Gowda and his son romp home in royal style. Their wealth/power is unquestionnable having been the PM and CM for quite a few years.
d. A good number of urban Indian voters in my friend circle didnt vote because

They were displaced from their hometown and jaagore didnt work, somehow for them.
It was a holiday and well, it was time for keeping the spirits high. Nevermind, dry day conditions imposed by the EC.
It was a holiday, but globalization doesnt help stopping the rest of the world when your town is in election mode. So, gotta work boy.
It was a holiday, and time to hit the beauty parlour! Gosh, leave alone election.
Rite, so the voting percentages varied between 40 to 60%.

e. Shankar Singh Vaghela, bete noire of Modi loses; Leg-flick punk wins in Moradabad; Sidhu wins!; Sonia, Rahul, Maneka, Varun win. Priya Dutt wins; Left blips on the radar once in a while.

While there will be exceptions to which the hypothesis doesnt fit in, in 60% of the constituencies, what matters is money and power - and they are used. Well, and the utility is almost business like. Give and take. So, during election times, the wealthy of the town are approached. And, it's common funda that power is one of the fundamental parameters of successful networking. While I might appear to be discounting ideological platforms on which people network, elections are pretty much straight forward business. You help someone who can help you achieve your goals. And, people with power can do that. The goals in most cases are monetary with a thin coat of finely calibrated ideology to get the masses behind you.

So, my hypothesis - power breeds power as long as give and take works. If the folks in power dont help the lobbies, then lobbies switch. Like how it happens in TN - the swings between AIADMK, DMK etc.

And, some conclusions:

So, what does this say about the civil servants/bureaucrats : Well, they have to be nimble footed on their loyalties. They need to fill their booty, need the oversight of the rulers. And, the rulers need to help the folks who funded their elections. So, pretty obvious that the civil servants need to be smart in adjusting their alignments. Well, none has the benefit of hindsight. And, hence some alignments are going to be wrong. And, so the jobs of these folks are slightly screwed up. But, I guess in a private concern ( limited companies ) where power rules over process, its the same, isnt it? You align with people who progress in order to get your promotions and visibility.

But, this also explains disasters such as Godhra, a diverted disaster in Mangalore, the anti-Sikh riots. Next time, I will not put up a question on how state actors can sponsor communalism. Well, that's also a reflection of what is happening in Pakistan. If the establishment at the top is turning a blind eye to Taliban, then there's not much the grass root powers will do to change it. Unless, there's a smart chap who can work around the system after accepting it.

2. What about intellectual independents who try to contest elections, inspiring some of the masses about change. Well, we really need to appreciate these folks for standing up. Even if they just contested, its phenomenal leadership. Hats off. But, in an organization where there are a zillion factors at work, can change occur overnight? Change management gurus say no. Change is a difficult and gradual process. And to change a complex democratic system, I think you need to understand the system first. Get a hang of how power and money make it tick there. And, even then, if you want people to support you, you gotta give them back something. So, muddle your hands for a few years before contesting the elections. Show that you can make it work and inspire confidence. Yes, this is not as easy as it sounds. But, its about ROI. Put in the efforts, and you reap the rewards.

Time to print money

2009-03-12T00:02:00.001-07:00

As the credit crunch started to creep into the consciousness of mortals, one of the first satirical questions to the financial world was - "Dude, Why cant the bank just print money!".
Till today, I thought this was a silly question which had to be summarily dismissed.
Today, Bank of England has started to do just that. Oh yeah, print notes. Not sure what are the implications of this which has made it a last resort.
http://profit.ndtv.com/2009/03/11194708/Bank-of-England-begins-creatin.html
And, why is Obama struggling with all his bailouts if its as simple as printing more greenbacks:D!
Hmm, with elections round the corner in India, it'll atleast it'll help our ballot chasers (a lot - they're not getting funds anywhere !) if printing gandhibacks is legalized!

Tectonic Shifts

2009-02-14T07:32:00.000-08:00

On Feb 15, 1987 , the last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan after a decade long complicated war. The Soviet govt. collapsed in Dec 1991. Reasons were overstretched govt, huge defence spending, increasing debt, failure of the welfare state amongst many other geo-political reasons.
Its been close to 6 years since the Afghan war by USA started. And, now, this economic depression. Huge debt levels in the US. US spends almost 6 times on defence as the rest of the top 8 countries put together. And, today, Mr. President announces that it'll take years for revival of the American economy. Though there are several data points which I've knowingly/unknowingly left out of the above reasoning, it's fair comparison. The USA cannot probably collapse as it is a free-market, democracy etc. But, seems like the world order is tilting.

Currently reading the book - Osama.
It says that Jihad was not taken up for almost 7 centuries till it was widely propagandized during the Afghan war. The history of Islam seemingly has so many internal factions and there's constant in-fighting going around on : oil, ideology, power, turf, individual agenda of leaders etc. The author has attempted to cogently put together the myriad twists in the history of this religion. It sure has opened my eyes about Islam. But, some recent vengeful acts of the west have quietened the in-fights while bringing to the fore ( headlines + cover page) a galvanized diffused leadership against the west. (Use of the word leadership is debatable.)
In the end, its personal agenda of various leaders/lobbyists which are causing several under-currents to gain momentum. The terrorists are apparently using a puritanical version of the religion (it says only the first three centuries of Islam are pure), to draw several aimless youth into the global psuedo war. And, the impure distractions of the west world are a cause to motivate the fighters against. Well, its not just ideology which motivates the fighters. Several decades of avaricious manipulation of middle east countries by the west for their oil, is causing resentment. Add to it the Israel-Palestine power balance ( US-Arab-China-Iran etc). Add the recent excesses by the west in Afghanistan, Iraq and the CIA's actions in Syria, Jordan. Revenge begets revenge. Or perhaps, oil begets revenge.
So, in conclusion, its a heady mix of puritanical ideology + oil + revenge which is propelling the terrorist/jihad movement. ( In the light of this analysis, the diplomatic response to the terrorist attack in Mumbai from India needs to be appreciated. Revenge surely aint helping, historically).
So, the aggrandization efforts of the western world of Osama/Al-Qaeda are only helping them out in publicity/ad spends!
This heady cocktail is also an under-current which is surely impacting global lobbying, economy( defence spending).

The above two threads running in parallel [ US Economy + Terrorist Activity ] definitely poses significant unease to the way the world's going to be in the next decade or following it. At this point in time, these are the top two drivers for sure. Which direction, I'm not sure. But, I'm uneasy for sure.
If at all we've to learn from all of this for wats happening around us, the hue & cry of Rama Sene, the Hindu terrorist outfits are to be brushed aside without providing undue publicity and political might. Anyways, that is probably not going to happen. Here is an academic perspective and may be some of you can be on this side of the argument in a class.

Hints for changing the world

2009-02-10T04:10:00.000-08:00

Tired of reading multiple articles on recession. So, let me add one more to it. Well, the BFSI recession hit us all in the Oct-Nov-Dec quarter, the manufacturing sector is sitting on piles of inventory and have started to impact the macro-economic numbers. Bad news will maintain momentum till next quarter atleast. Then, bad news will hopefully decelerate when the bail out packages kickin. But somewhere again, they say that it all seems to be a realignment of the burden. Meaning, previously the big banks of Amerika alone were shouldering the debt. Now, a good amount from the other parts of the world have given their monies to mistre obama. While I couldnt really figure how this works, if its true, its nuts.
So, instead of all these bail outs and save the ass stuff, is there a way we can press reset? Destroy the free market economy. Let everything be govt. controlled for a while. Basically, everything is a principle of demand - supply. Socialism aint a bad solution temporarily. I'm no fan of Fidel Kastro but it'll be worthwhile pressing reset. So, let me think a little more.
Surely, the entreprenuers wont be a happy lot in a socialist setup. But, entreprenuers make a good lot of non-entreprenuers rich. And so,we have the shareholders and the management. But, that still is the top of the pyramid.
So, we need entreprenuers. So, we need a free market. No stopping capitalism.
Its the mid & bottom - the working class which is not getting the money and which are probably the first to get hit when a company shuts door. So, instead of preaching socialism/capitalism, the objective of bail outs should be kick in increased consumer spending at the mid & bottom of the pyramid.
But, there's a gap between thought and execution. And I shall only think. And yeah, comfortably from an armchair.

Mumbai & Barkha's Buckwaas

2008-11-29T05:34:00.000-08:00

While I join sanity around the world in condeming what has happened in Mumbai, there is a need for a relook at the media's role. I'm just wondering if being a journo is pretty easy, may be I should take it up if jugaad is the way of life.
While we all accept the hype of Indian media, at times I could only laugh at NDTV's coverage. 40% news, 60% histrionics. Barkha's bakwaas! Jesus!
I have respected the rise of Barkha Dutt as one of India's top journos and being a woman, her courage and street smartness is outstanding. Be it J&K, Afghanistan or Mumbai, she's NDTV's trump card after Sardesai went to IBN.
But, the way TV is shaping the careers of many, it seems like a pathway to Bollywood. Surely, someone can do better than Ms. Drona.
The aftermath of the attack on Taj was being covered after all the morons had been finished. And, buckwaas unfolded... " look look look at this..look at that..look at the glass..look at the devastation" ...agreed, media loves sensational news and this was a low lying fruit. And then comedy starts... when a policeman pushes her away.. buckwas tells the nation, unedited... "look..look .. look at this policeman.. he's telling me to go away ". More mockery starts in the evening.. when she gathers 10 people with candles.. And loud goes the announcement... "here's the anger of Mumbai. Enough is Enough".
While I understand that media plays a big role in shaping opinions in such situations of distress, its a mockery of sorts to doctor opinion. I get the gravity of the situation, boss. But, please dont doctor the message of your channel through some miniscule of a sample. WTFBC!

Todays Terrorists : On Wall St & Off it.

2008-09-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, real estate developers in the US sold assets to sub-prime consumers at inflated prices. And, the financial big-wigs nurtured the frankensteinian sub-prime by aggregating & converting ( securitizing ) these fundamentally bad assets for a world wide market.
However, as the US economy weakened/slowed down due to various fiscal reasons,oil etc, the frankenstein was unable to pay back the loans. So, the mortgages and banks seized the real estate assets. For a bank, siezing is a good idea if you can make money by selling it at a better price than what you financed it. However, when the number of such assets are high, simple demand-supply theory will make the price of these assets go down. So, the banks were left with assets which were financed at a high price by them.. then siezed ... and then the value of these assets keep going down in the books of the bank.
End result -> Such a bank will find it difficult to raise money to lend it to its depositors. So, their net margins are affected. And,as the situation keeps getting bad, finally they lose so much money that they've to go bankrupt.
Alrite, fine. So, what ? Is my daily life affected? Hmm, unfortunately yes. What are you talking about? how?
Contribution of exports (including software) to India's GDP is 17%. Which is why, most of Indian consumers dont feel the pinch directly of a slowdown in the world outside. Still, Mr Nayar says the slowdown is for real even in desi markets. Why would it be so?
Lets not talk about the foreign markets. Its pretty obvious. A recent ET report analysed the contradictions between 'Capex investments' by companies and 'Capex Investment decisions' by companies in India. [ Capex = Capital Expenditure or in simple terms, big ticket expenditure by companies ]Cos in India try to talk a lot about the decisions they've taken on capex. [ Why? To boost share market prices on insane fundamentals so that market corrections take place later. ] But, over the past 6-9 months the rate at which these decisions are executed/realized is slowing down a great deal. Though this research is more indicative of the manufacturing sector which is about 20% of the Indian GDP, it holds good fairly well for the services sector (60% of GDP). Telecom, health care, bfsi, IT all need capex to expand and grow.
Why? coz, many of the big ticket expenditures are financed by debts. [ Why? Well, how many of you buy a house with your own money? You borrow rite. Coz, you can leverage other investment options to make your money work better] And, due to the frankenstein, lending rates among banks are getting higher by the day coz they dont know if they'll get the money back! Banks lend among each other when they face shortage. That's how the money supply chain starts. So, when money is difficult to come by, companies tend to put their investment decisions off or delay it. And, that means, growth of the economy is delayed coz investments are postponed. So, your next salary hike is going to be lesser assuming you hold on to the job. And, fresher hiring is definitely not a rosy picture. So, the consumer slowly cuts on his expenditure. I heard the P&Gs, Cadburys talking about slowing growth of Ariel and Dairy Milk. Citifinancial & Prime Financial have cut their retail loan lending operations by 50% in India.
So, what are the oppurtunities in a high interest, low capex scenario?
1. Valuations run low across the board. Some small to mid sized companies who wouldnt want to be acquired are trying this -> They are acquiring other companies on debt. The target companies obviously need to be of a high strategic fit to the acquirer -> meaning, definite industry growth beater, good market fundamentals and competitive positioning. Two fold objectives for the acquirer : By taking on debt, they are staving off potential acquirers for themselves by having an undesirable load to finance. Secondly, growth. Thirdly, encourage competitors to bid for their targets, which could create value erosion for the competition and well, some fencing. But, the third reason is definitely not a decision clincher. Its a desirable consequence I'd say. Assume the sector I'm thinking is IT, India and the above picture might make more sense if you've tracking the latest acquisition scene here.
2. They say that the economy would be chugging back by late 09. So, for a risk taker in a fundamental sector like mining, metals - it might make sense to stay put with your investments if they are half way through. Though Detroit is poised to see some shakeups, infrastructure spending could show some continuing demand for the next 2-3 years. We'll have to watch China, India & other dvping nations to see where's the demand going.
3. Retailers in India are going to have a tough time. Most of them havent sorted out their back end operations yet. There's hell a lot of loss going on through shrinkage and other supply chain issues. Bharti is doing it the right way perhaps focussing on long term -by launching few front end shops and focussing on the supply chain first. By this, they are also leveraging the learning cycle of their competitors who are running upfront to put up several retail formats.
Take the example of a shopping chain called Lifestyle - After focussing on relatively higher end apparel, home retailing for about 2-3 yrs or more, they're slowly learning from Big Bazaar on the volumes market. So, they open Max - Fashion below Rs 599 in an apparent JV with a Gelf company. Indian retailing, as predicted by soothsayers a couple of years earlier, is a sureshot learning curve. And, seems that, big brother Bharti is watching n learning. After all, once your back end operations is taut, front end launching should be an easier task, especially if its worth the wait.
4. The new sunrise industry- The terrorists :). Well, these guys seem to have solid funding backgrounds. And given the rate at which bombings are taking place, I'd place safe bets on the chemical-based industry. But, given the murky nature of the industry, it'll be worthwhile for the McKinsey's n KPMG's do some supply chain study and reveal possible business oppurtunities. Well, lets get to accept that they are pretty much a part of our life and are funded by shady ones among us. So, lets get them to mainstream. However, since the nature of this industry is anti-establishment, surely free markets and globalization is a well-entrenched thought process here.
Guess, this is what Osama wanted to tell in 2001.. that he too wanted to be a part of Wall St.

Hmm, so lets stop talking.

Structure of the Newspaper industry

2008-09-08T21:59:00.000-07:00

Found a compelling read, articulating the onslaught of web on the newspaper industry. While, its about the american context, it surely beats most articles in the Indian pink-print on ..intelligent structural analysis of an industry.

here you go..

The paroxysmal changes rattling the beleaguered newspaper industry have coincided

with unprecedented declines in publishing companies' stock prices. The decimation has

affected newspaper publishers regardless of size, geography, or prestige of their

mastheads. Driving this decline is a structural shift of epochal dimensions that is

fundamentally changing the way we generate, compile, disseminate, and consume news

and information, manifested largely by the rise of the Internet and the proliferation of

alternative digital media choices.

Newspaper Industry Revenue

YOY % Change 2004 2005 2006 1Q 2007 1H 2007 3Q 2007 4Q 2007 1Q 2008 1H 2008

Print Only 3.9% 1.5% -1.7% -6.4% -8.3% -9.0% -11.6% -14.4% -15.3%

Online Only 26.7% 31.5% 31.4% 22.3% 20.7% 21.1% 13.6% 7.2% 2.3%

Print & Online 4.5% 2.5% -0.3% -4.8% -6.7% -7.4% -10.3% -12.8% -14.0%

[ Industry figures from Newspaper Association of America (NAA) ]

The effects of this shift are chipping away at the very business model by which

newspapers have operated for decades. A cyclical downturn in business ad spending--

driven by a credit crunch and subsequent consumer retrenchment--has accelerated the

revenue declines at newspapers. The suffering this confluence of factors creates for

newspapers is magnified by the suffocating effects of many publishers' debt-laden

balance sheets, which leave them with diminished financial flexibility to navigate the

treacherous industry environment and little margin for error should these companies hit a

rough patch.

To date, newspapers have responded to declining revenue by implementing substantial

cost cuts. With newspaper stocks having fallen so far, and costs being cut so

aggressively, can these stocks go much lower? We think they can, and eventually will.

We think the combination of their high fixed costs, substantial debt burdens, and poor

growth prospects will continue to diminish newspaper publishers' profitability.

In an environment of declining ad sales, newspapers' high fixed costs amount to a

financial Achilles' heel. This combination makes it difficult for newspaper publishers to

keep expenses in line with diminishing revenue. Besides owning and maintaining

expensive printing plants and equipment, they must regularly buy commodities such as

newsprint and ink, whose costs tend to fluctuate beyond publishers' control. Distribution

expenses have also increased, as rising fuel prices add to the cost of running fleets of

delivery trucks. Union contracts limit their ability to reduce labor costs, a reflection of

newspapers' labor-intensive nature. Taken together, their limited ability to cut costs

means that when newspaper revenue declines, profits decline even faster.

The resulting dynamic is a value-destroying feedback loop: Declining ad revenue and

readership necessitates cost-cutting. Cost-cutting inevitably affects content. Diminished

content, whether real or perceived, alienates readers, who become more likely to cancel

their subscriptions and seek out alternative news sources. This accelerates the migration

of readers to online sources and the decline in ad revenue, which will necessitate even

more cost-cutting. We think the cycle will feed on itself.

Newspaper CEOs expound on their efforts to build their publications' presence online.

However, alluding to exponentially rising page views and double-digit growth rates in

online ad revenue tend to mask a starker economic reality. Online advertisers refuse to

pay up for Web site banner ads as they have for traditional print ads. This is because

online readers are perceived as having truncated attention spans and being less

engaged with the information. In contrast, paid subscribers' investment of time and

money in the print product makes it more likely that ads will resonate with them than

with online readers, thereby increasing their value to advertisers. Online ad revenues

simply aren't substantial enough or growing quickly enough to stave off the breathtaking

erosion in print ad revenue. Industrywide, for every $1 that newspapers lost in print ad

revenue during 2007, online ads recaptured just $0.12. For most newspaper publishers,

online ads still amount to less than 10% of total revenue. By shifting their operations

online, newspapers are literally trading dollars for pennies.

This is exacerbated by the deleterious effects of suffocating debt burdens. Several

prominent newspaper publishers took on billions of dollars in debt in recent years to

finance ill-timed acquisition binges that have only magnified the effects of declining

revenues. McClatchy (MNI), Gatehouse (GHS), and Lee Enterprises (LEE) have balance

sheets saddled with more than a billion dollars in debt each from dubious acquisitions. As

declining revenue erodes profit margins, high fixed costs and debt service obligations

siphon away diminishing cash flow, leaving little left for capital investment and

innovation.

As revenue continues to decline, some heavily leveraged publishers may find themselves

straining harder to find the necessary cash to service their debt, forcing them to possibly

liquidate assets at fire-sale prices. Others may be forced to reduce or eliminate their

dividends. GateHouse recently eliminated its own rich dividend, and we think McClatchy

CEO Gary Pruitt is preparing shareholders for a likely dividend cut by the end of the year.

Newspapers' valuations may have cratered from the lofty levels of better times.

However, cutting costs in the face of declining revenue is a survival tactic, not a buy

signal. In the long run, the newspaper as we know it is unlikely to vanish completely.

However, we think the publishing entities that survive the current tumult will be those

that successfully morph into smaller, more nimble "multimedia information centers."

Besides having lower cost structures and more modest cash flows, we think some of

these entities will eventually be managed to satisfy bondholders at the expense of

equity holders.

Independence

2008-08-15T03:23:00.000-07:00

Wading my way through the world ( well .. it rains heavily in Bangalore), I was wondering about the meaning of independence. Shilpa opined that chauvinism/nationalism should be carefully sidestepped during the celebrations.
Hmm, to think of it, one of the good purpose served by borders (and hence nations) is the ease of administration. Military, welfare schemes, law and order are, perhaps, easier to manage and administer in a federal set up. And, nationality defines your cultural mindset. Gives you a sense of belonging. Networking oppurtunities. Marketing oppurtunities. Can be used as an instrument to help the growth of industry. All in all, human welfare. End of the day.
Now, somewhere during the administration of all this, comes the possessive nature of man. All aspects/objects of the world which are scarce shall be competed for. Fair enough. Survival of the fittest/best lobbyist. Slight mutation in the saying... change with the time. I'm no saint. Struggle is needed.
But, perhaps, violence is deemed necessary by the lesser mortals to settle scores. Brute force is any day easier than brawn. And when patience runs low, homo sapiens are forced to go back to their animal instincts. And, technology aids them in this noble mission. Well, literacy is perhaps the saviour to help man realize the cultured ways of problem solving. Atleast, it'll help instill a small resistance by means of a stronger conscience.
Celebrate Independence Day while majority are still fettered by illiteracy.

Business Politics Religion

2008-08-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

Chanakya, the chief strategist of the era 350 BC - 275 BC, said that Biz politics and religion are intertwined. Just to enlighten, he fits the eternal definition of a shrewd politician, strategist and an authority on administration. Rather, he defined it.
Legend goes that, he vowed to overthrow the Nand Dynasty .. single handedly he achieved that. Next, he picked up Chandragupta Maurya as a village kid and crowned him as the King of India. [ The Mauryan dynasty was huge - encompassing almost the whole of India and more.. towards the middle east]
Story says... that he struck a deal with the plundering Alexander. He got Chandragupta Maurya married to Alexander's right hand man's sister. Similar were his strategies to ensure that several disparate minutae kingdoms across India remain loyal to the Mauryan dynasty. What better than blood relations to ensure stronger command and control.
Well, among other stuff in Chanakya Niti, the above perhaps is some food for thought .. considering current imbroglios all over the world. And, in J&K. Well, perhaps, atleast Sunny Deol & DharamPaaji can produce a movie inspired by some hollywood classics ..and adding a punjabi pinch to it..oh yeah, we dont exaggerate emotions.
Brings the next topic. Have been subjected to an overdose of hollywood classics over the past few days. And, somehow I'm not able comprehend why we - Indians - over react. If its a joyous occasion, then it has to be showcased by a skimpy song. If its sorrow, we've to create floods.
Is it just an excuse to break free from the monotony of life ? So, why isnt it so for the westerners.
Not that, over reacting is bad. Well, its a way of life. Everyone has choice etc. But, this is kind of ..institutionalized in India.
Perhaps, this is curbing Indian talent's ability to produce classic movie stuff. Otherwise, I'm sure Aamir Khan, Kamal Hassan et al would be able to produce a la dark comedy like The Royal Tenenbaums ... or a motivational depressant like Million $ Baby .. or a inspirational reality biting Good Night & Good Luck.
Business sense in India is apparently made only when emotions are over reacted. Mass movies with class which will sustain? Well, we'll take more time to go there. Perhaps, we need to increase literacy levels for that. Not because there'd be more intellectuals or the likes. But, because of our inherent style of knowledge absorption.
It is said that Indians are more visual-auditory in nature. We are not used to reading stuff. We'd rather prefer it to be read to us ... or pictorially described. Because, historically, many swathes of India was not literate enough to read perhaps.
Hmm, one question leads to the other.... well, some day I'll do some Anthropological study on India.

Sometimes... Paranoid.

2008-07-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes its interesting to be paranoid. Atleast, I find it so.
Sometimes its fun to gather some spunk in life.
Sometimes its fun to pull off a stunt with that spunk.
Sometimes that fun can hover on the borderline of benign-malignancy.
Sometimes its fun not to take life seriously.
Sometimes its fun to be random. Coz, the world aint systematic anyway. And, its only one life. So, alter the systems towards greater happiness of mankind.. well, yourself & companion(s).
But, these bombs. All the reverence for fun does take some backseat. Well, I somehow am resigned to the fact that its triggered by election politics.
You need a platform to build anti-incumbency factor. Well, a day should come when its all transparent. Accept that life aint fair. Accept that more or less, people in the world make their decisions on personal good rather than the larger good.
Well, if the world is brain washed of the idealism which is often preached at a young age.
Well, it would be interesting if ice age struck again... sinking all memory of civilization, culture and any form of religion.
And then, the superior consciousness or god as some say.. or the last form of life which managed to escape it all shall create the ecosystem all over again. And then it shall be mandated that, the religious books, the traditional systems, and all the bull which builds the pillars of life for all the homo sapiens in the world shall obey the process of continuous improvement.
Centuries shall pass. Realistic constitution, realistic law and order, realistic equality and all kinds of realistic things begin to happen in life. And the group of administrators of the Future India shall continue to do their work. Yeah, the politicians.
And, then they shall accept it in reality. Sigmund freud's theory of motivation shall be universally accepted. Power shall be unabashedly accepted as a motivator. And, there'll be competition to power. So, how to garner those votes. Some platform to garner the emotions towards yourself. Well, if life were to be so open, perhaps, it may not be needed to blast those bombs and then accuse the state administration of a lacklustre response to terrorism. Well, me and you would vote for the soul desiring power based on our selfish interests. And then, politicos shuold invest all those swindled money in private institutions maximising their investment. Well, someone do something radical. Be paranoid, it helps sometimes.

Purpose of Life

2008-07-15T00:14:00.000-07:00

BumChum ( BC, you know xlers) vamsi posts a deeply thought out blog. Since my comment ran onto a good length, posting it as a blog entry.
BC Vamsi is trying to find out the purpose of life. Here's a perspective.
Look around to find those key people who matter in your life. I think, the purpose of life could be to keep those souls happy. In Hindu literature, they say, Lord Brahma created souls. This soul has to pass through 84000 life forms before attaining nirvana. So, what ever happens in life is a consequence of the path chosen by that soul. Homo sapien is a form of life. Plants, pests, cockroaches are others.
So, in the end, as many feel... money, desire etc are mortal. But, if you help those key souls to be happy,... the human form of your soul is doing atleast something significant. And, that could be a purpose for your life.

Much ado about nothing

2008-07-10T02:55:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, CNN IBN came up with a revelation about Amar Singh's stake in a shady company Energy Development Corporation. My fellow blogger, oh yeah, our Big B also has 3% stake in it.
Johnny Sardesai, give me a break. Yeah, you said it - commercial break.
Alrite, I shall not repeat that cliche - news reporting today is based on simple pillars of crapdom. Search all around for crap. Coz there's too much of crap anyway, irrespective of the hajaar news channels coming up, there's always a piece of crap which you can make headlines out of.
Well, so what if he had a stake in a shady company.
Perhaps, he found a better way to earn returns on his stashed up greenbacks. Boy, aint it better to get those big numbers reported in India than in Swissland. And, lets say, our politicians do realize that Bill Gates' stated wealth is pittance compared to what they've already accumulated, it might just motivate them to start investing in their own names. And, soon, we can have Forbes' richest ranking clearly placing India's second estate among the top ones.
Politicos might be thinking ... "So, what if we didnt have oil, steel, software or Buffet to make us wealthy, we had India boss. I mean, the whole of India... to develop.. or i'll tell you a secret... all those 5 year plan funds, many more avenues you know. You sure know it!"
The BJP govt in Karnataka, within days of swearing in, declared developmental projects running into ten thousands of crores. Oh yeah, we are talking development. Oh boy, I believe you. Damn it. We've got a new set of bureaucrats out there and we need to oil the system well. Else, it'll start creaking right.
Oh yeah, the secrecy continues. Its an open secret.

RIP: Pepsi's Tendulkar

2008-07-10T00:58:00.001-07:00

Tandanakka has been dislodged from his supreme position by Dhoni. Well, instead of cribbing about our own Sachin losing the pedestal, it seems better to appreciate reality.
Youth currently in the age group 20+ have definitely seen the prime days of the Master Blaster ... Well, Shane Warne & Kasprowicz being carted all over the ground, highest run getter in the 96 world cup and many such feats.. would still make this group give it all for their real life hero. Oh, I'm leaving the Mumbaikars alone here. I'm not considering them in the demographic classification here. They're a different breed altogther. He ain't a hero for them. Any comparison would be put to shame.
But, for someone in the 13-20 category, it is quite possible that they've not seen our Little Master in his prime. When Sachin made those elegant runs in the 96 world cup, Dravid made his glorious debut at Lords in 96, these kids were sucking their thumbs perhaps.
Glory for this crowd was twenty-twenty cup perhaps. And, so, Dhoni & Co. Some shitty reasoning it is. But, I guess its pretty much on track.
Another interesting comment was found in ET to justify Sachin's unceremonious exit from the high pedestal of the ad world. Our man's a real life hero. He didnt become a hero by running around trees and singing duets. He willowed the cherry into the woods. His heroism has started to reach its twilight.
He cant do a Sixpack-e-disco on the pitch. Yeah, SRK can do that and show off his botox injected dimples and.. well, go on. Big B can do a lord of the rings in Hindi. He'll still be a hero.
Its time for Sachin to associate himself with iconic stuff perhaps. He's an icon for my generation and will remain so for the rest of my life. I didnt get to see Bradman. But I know how Sachin played. As the current bandwagon of 20-25's find their feet in life, their focus moves beyond making a decision on Pepsi Vs Coke. I guess, they're fixed by that age. So, what are my choices at this age. Well, in a few years, I shall hope to aspire for class in life. And, who better than Sir Sachin to show me the way. Commentary is always there. Sachin could perhaps elevate himself to the big lifestyle brands and stay aloof from biscuits, bikes and shit like that.
Recently,in the Hindu, I found a pic of VJMallya cozying upto the little master. Pretty much, that's the way to go. Sachin should live like a king. And, I pray that he shall always be the aspirational elegance in life.
Good gas rite. Yeah, if u can contribute below too, it'll help this blog float like a hot air baloon.

World around me: An arbit blog

2008-07-05T09:30:00.001-07:00

Arbit stuff... saturday nite, life is peaceful. So, lets crap.

Sometimes, happiness is at an arms length. At times, it seemed that you were a Fantastic four.. that arm keeps extending aint it, and many times involuntarily.

The world around me keeps changing color. Considering the number of forces playing around in my life, it does seem to be getting complex. And, the root cause of all of it seems to be money. Well, sometimes it fails to provide any kind of meaning. Earn, save, spend. Life needs to have some more meaning.

Of late, perhaps in the last six months or so, I'm increasingly realizing my contribution to this globalization shit. If inflation is at an all time high, I'm definitely responsible for it:

Car petrol
Car loan
Retail highstreet - The major malls in Bangalore are definitely happy
Credit cards are laughing their way to the er... bank.
MBA - More security. More exposure. More greed. As long term cash flows tend to be more secure, the pyramid of needs seem to be growing smaller. Well, Louis Vutton, here I come :P.

Rite, its getting uncomfortably let me change topic. this channel - world movies from the UTV stable seems to be a good one. At times, they play these sobering classics from all over the world. Gabbeh - a romantic persian movie - capturing the colorful lives of nomads is being screened now. Interesting segmentation by UTV, I must say.
And, they seem to be selling it well. Coz, the ads are on. Almost sure tis is not great TRP stuff, bundling of ads seems to be a solution.

These days, the trend across media houses seems to spread across every possible communication medium. Network 18 started it off, spreading tentacles across the spectrum. So says wiki - " Network18 is one of India's leading full play media conglomerates with interests in television, print, internet, filmed entertainment, mobile content and allied businesses."

UTV seems to be going somewhere similar. Hmm, ok let me crash.

Making a case for R&D in Energy Sources: A Fictional Story Approach

2008-06-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

Well, the pink papers dont seem to be in any mood to talk good about the economy. Such are times, I must say.
An editorial by the Chief Economic Adviser of ICRA in ET today summed up, precisely the problem. The mandate for the Buffets, Mehtas, Iyers, Agarwals, Icahns, Gates is to take serious initiatives in energy security. And, perhaps the Chidambarams and the Yediyurappas too need to take note of this.
Taking your eyes off the conventional analysis of how oil is all pervading, impacting commodities etc etc and your movie tickets etc etc , take a look at this situation:
Weekday, 4pm. The traders on the Indian indexes are waiting for global counters to open for the next days' cues.
" PTI reports say -> Godsendinventors Inc. unleash a new renewable source of energy in New York. Well, to put it in simple terms, here's how it goes ->Texan Bush is speculating opening up all those hugely untapped oil reserves in his backyard. Afterall, his bounty seems to be all set to vanish, unless he makes the most of the speculative oil boom at $140! And, all of you commoners like me can hang on for your purchases for a little while. For soon, we shall expect deflation of sorts as Mr Bernanke is over the moon! The technology has been developed in Harvard and boy, jolly well, the dollars are going to come back to the US. Atlast, the long lasted belief that R&D is King and cheap labour shall remain - just that - is proven. Atlast, Bernanke can remove his hand from that old lever on the interest rate. It's been boring, aint it! Fed cuts rate and the world jumps up. Ah, now the trading world has a different parameter to factor in!"

If you do find the above lines fairly interesting, I request you to hang on patiently and offer your valuable critique on my economic analysis below. Its a fictional situation, but my analysis is not fictional. I'm trying to be as rational as I can in the analysis. Purely, from the perspective of the American economy. And, I'm not using any theory in economics. I'm trying to use my common sense and logic. Hence, I could be wrong theoretically/fundamentally. The stronger ones in economic theory, kindly guide me.
1. A new renewable source of energy has been discovered. Patented, released to public. The technology is so robust that Texan Bush ( yeah, Uncle Sam on this very day), is trying to open up all those oil fields in the amerigas which have been stashed up for a goddamn reason.
2. Now, oil prices are set to fall becoz:

No-brainer - demand for crude is set to fall.
Our story assumes the technology to be developed in Harvard and Godsendinventors Inc. to be an American company. So, expect patents in the US. Royalty dollars are expected to come in to America. China can no longer gnaw away Uncle Sam's economy as his current account deficit position is bound to improve. Dollar gets stronger. Oil trades lower.

3. As the dollar gets stronger, cost of imports can fall. Exports can become costlier. Manufacturing can take a hit. Employment problems can start creeping. As oil prices are dropping, inflation will take a bow. Worst case, deflation can set in.

4. But, since the above predictions are long term and short-term knee jerk reactions of the market cannot force Bernanke to change interest rates, we'll have to wait and watch.

5. So, as Bernanke waits along with us, we see the world rejoicing. Commending the american theory of investing in top notch R&D, the economy is in a healthy mood.

6. Still perhaps, the good ol levers of CRR & repo will have to be intelligently manipulated to get employment back on track while keeping deflation away. My salutations to you, Greenspan, Bernanke, YV Reddy et al.

Beautiful, I think.

The case I'm trying to make in the above hypothetical story is -> We need to invest in R&D to tilt the global power scale. And, we cant expect the GMRs, TATA Powers of India to do it all by themselves. That brings me back to the first few lines of this blog entry. It takes both the Buffets & the Chidambarams of India to get it going. We need, govt. money & private intellect, ideally, to move ahead in this front. PPP could be a way, I say.

From 1950-1991, we created systemic in-efficiencies in our economy. Post 1991, India has been growing by removing in-efficiencies in its economy. This can continue for years to come. No doubt. But, to sustain & leap, we need to invest in R&D. And, boy, tat aint going to come by setting more IITs in Shillong and increasing the quotas. Jesus! Damn the politicians. But, they do sit on the Carlyles of the world, aint they? Yeah, they swallow in one route.. create in-efficiencies through the levers of corruption. And, then as private equity raiders, they try to eliminate in-efficiencies. Hmm, interesting.

The world is small, I must say. Mr Friedman, I think its time for you to write a new book. I'm waiting.

And, monseiur, your comments, please!

Play the role of Fed Chairman

2008-06-26T11:39:00.000-07:00

Nice little game. Check it out. Thanks to UD's group, studionet.
http://www.frbsf.org/education/activities/chairman/
It's a good demo giving you a glimpse of what it takes to be in the hot seat = the Chariman of the Fed Reserve. Though, the underlying logic of the game can perhaps be found out through some rigorous trials ( On six trials, I got four Fed Chair dismissed and two Fed Guru Re-appointed!) , the game needs to be appreciated for its purpose. Whoever came up with the idea, pat on the back.

Persepolis : A must read

2008-06-19T09:03:00.000-07:00

Came across this book - Persepolis . Thanks, Shilpa.
As an Indian who's grown up for a good measure in the globalized economy, I'll probably never know what it is like to live in a state of such political oppression as the one narrated in the book. It could be categorized as a comic. But, its a beautiful narration through illustrations. Vivid, really. It is an extremely hard thing to even imagine what people go through during such political struggles.
The author- Marjane Satrapi - narrates her growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution ( 1979 ). She was 10 years old when the revolution started. She's really captured the innocence of her childhood and still managed to bring in global perspectives which have come to shape the world today.
Subtle hints at the US/UK supporting Iran for its oil.. installing a dummy emperor to gain control over oil F14s in the Iranian air force. MIG's in the Iraqi air force. Things fundamentalists resort to, when they are faced with saving their regime. Family ties, childhood friends, teenage escapades. All weaved together vividly to bring a wonderful novel.
Google tells me that Persepolis has been made into a movie. Listed on imdb, I'll try to get my hands on it.
Books such as these, help me simplify this world :). Where there's money (oil), rules will be framed to tap it. And, nurturing the devil has not been a bad idea to do that. Well, well, well. Oppression. Greed. Where is the place for objectivity?
Such is life.
A must read for anyone who wants to get a hang about Iran's recent history... in a simple, concise, 200 page odd comic. Simply brilliant, you'd say.

Why one should & shouldnt buy RIL's stock

2008-06-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

As crude prices hit $135 and are poised to breach new frontiers, petrochemical products are bound to become costlier. They include plastics, the re-fillers in your bean bag etc.
In India, the above mentioned raw materials are typically used by small scale industries to produce plastic goods. The suppliers of these raw materials in India till a few years ago were IPCL, Gail, Haldia, Reliance.
After the acquisition of IPCL by Reliance, the market dynamics have changed. Predictably, you may say.
Our Guru's company is maverick no doubt. And, according to reports in The Hindu, has established significant control to control plastic prices.... to an extent that, Haldia & Gail follow the prices set by Guru.
Well, so as the crude prices fluctuate, RIL increases the prices. If the SSI's try importing, Guru's works apparently ensure that the import brainwave remains a bad management tactic. I dont understand how exactly that works. But, I'd rather believe it.
Alrite, so now, you got the picture. SSI's get hurt quite a bit.
So, if you are looking at investing at RIL's stock, a reason to stay put long-term is control over a significant part of the value chain.
A reason to stay away would be your moral conscience - enjoying while screwing somebody else.
Some say, I'll live a fair life. Others dont.
Perhaps, this is also an oppurtunity for the Bankers of the country to think about. Well, why not provide some cushion to the SSI's by creating a buffer sum ( by the SSI's contribution) and buying RIL's stock? An informal JV it shall be. Hedge.. hope someone is thinking on these lines.

My mind is flooded with thoughts. So, here's junking it.

2008-06-13T01:50:00.000-07:00

My opinion : Most of this world is a solution to the problem created by Adam & Eve. Continue solving, not creating :). I'm sure you know I'm talking about solutions. But mankind is eternally occupied with the problem bit. I mentioned mankind.

Someday, I shall be Greenspan_Bernanke. I shall be expected to display clairvoyance. A day shall come.

Was wondering about IAS. Why should an age limit exist for IAS pre-lims. I'm someone who was inspired by IAS in my mid-twenties. Recognizing their (ever)latent potential to create a difference to the chaos in India. But, by the time I realized and gained confidence that I'd give it a serious thought... looks like it's pretty late! 27 is the age limit, I hear.

If anyone knew, why such an age limit exists, do drop in your comment. I cant figure it out.

Cricket in San Francisco Bay - That's CricBay

2008-06-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

http://www.cricbay.com/
We know that our Indian IT boyz have made it big in the silicon valley. Yeah, we are talking tech.
I have heard that cricket is a religion in the subcontinent. I realized what it meant when my friend, Venkatesh Satrawada, told me about this site. woah! Boy! You could search for his statistics on the search window in the site. Well, Capt. Venki, your family is contributing a great deal of talent towards cricket!
As Indians, we'd like to have a temple (hindus) around. We'd like to have bollywood/regional movies doing the rounds. But, check this website. Its mindboggling. It helps the teams come up with analysis on their players.
And, apparently, there are several such leagues in the US.
This Cricbay is like a city-based league tournament where 64 teams have registered. Indians, Pakis & Srilankans - Yes, its a religion only in the sub-continent. There's a stray american of chinese lineage whose gotten interested in the game too. China is our neighbour, after all. We are very good friends, arent we!
Recently, after the infamous debacle faced by our hockey team, there was a quote I read somewhere ... It said .. In the 1960-70's, Indians olympic hockey champs went down under to Auzzie land to teach them. In 2008, Ray Charlesworth, an aussie returns to give it back - in kind.
Doomsday..doomsday... perhaps, we could see a similar story in cricket someday. Hopefully, some process thinking goes into the Indian system and we get to consistently produce top notch talent. Not that, we are short of it now. But, sometimes a systematic approach can help us heave a sigh of relief that the next Sachin is being cloned.

Why is the dragon scarier than the snake to Uncle Sam?

2008-06-11T02:18:00.001-07:00

Well, finally today.. it dawned upon me ... why will the Indian Snake Charmer be a lesser threat to U(ncle) S(am) than the Chinese Dragon.

Take a look at the composition of the Dow Jones ( above ).

Software contributes to just under 2% of the Dow. Industrials ( eg. Boeing, Caterpillar) form 27%

of Dow. Yeah, hardware, financial services & energy are next.

And hence outsourcing in manufacturing is definitely more worrisome than pennywise software. And, that also gives a fair idea into the trade sanctions & bills that will be passed by the Senate.

It must be plain ol simple fact for you fin whiz baaps there. For me, Eureka!

Innovation & Investors

2008-06-05T02:23:00.000-07:00

Posting after a fairly long hiatus.

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080602/1826241295.shtml?threaded=true

This article forms the context for tis entry. Titled, "How Wall Street's Short Term Expectations can kill Tech Businesses". Lets attack this situation from multiple angles:

1. Investor 2. Technologist 3. Decision Makers in Tech. Cos.
Let's cross reference the above players against Hot Buttons, Motivators & Issues - resulting in a 3 X 3 matrix capturing the pyschology/decision making framework of all the perspectives.

So, technologist. This breed of the human race has contributed immensely to the emancipation of the self. Making life easier etc. Now, from its perspective, solving tougher/newer technical problems gives significant satisfaction. Financial prudence shall be a guiding light (if at all) to this breed. No point faulting anyone. They just do their job. Linus Torvalds, perhaps.

Technology leadership cadre strives to strike a balance between their core asset - the technologist, customer/business need and investor demand. For all practical purposes, they are the ones who need to be credited for displaying guts and creativity in managing expectations and delivering on them, amidst several failures. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates. I dont mind putting these two on the same platform in the current debate, though Mr Jobs is my all time favorite innovator and Mr Gates is the all time favorite tech. businessman.

Investors - This breed shakes the world. Different classes. Varying risk apetite. Placing their bets on several options, their search for return on investment most often ends in affecting the lives of several other innocent ones. Yeah, that's the way the globalized world works. "Get me higher ROI, for I need to beat the markets, competitors, beat inflation, build power networks, help my spouse live a good life coz I cant ... go on." Maslow would've built egyptian pyramids to engrave all their needs.

So, one of the value-chains would be from the Technologist -> Technology Leadership -> Investor.... in that order ..when funds need to be sanctioned.

Now, lets try to address the question. Do Investors kill innovation?

Answer. Mostly no. I think its the technology leadership which kills innovation. Because, that's where the decision making happens. They need to handle pressures from both sides. But, they're the ones who can both nurture and kill innovation. Kill innovation by not picking and selling the right technology. Several reasons can be attributed. Yeah ,the world is not perfect and none can make perfect decisions all the time. But, the bouquets & the brickbats shall be theirs.

Some clarity in a muddled situation.
Tis my judgement. Yours, monsieur?

Leadership: Turkey's tryst with Shariat

2008-02-28T17:14:00.000-08:00

Been a long time since I blogged. Plain lazy.

As my life takes on yet another boring day with hardly any action, the intellect in the land of the Ottomans - Turkey - are well on their way to create a revolution of sorts. Led by their prime minister, Mr. Erdogan, Turkey is making moves to rewrite the basis of the Shariat Law - The Hadith. They are making it more adaptable to the current day realities by taking a hard relook at

The inherent bias against women
Brutal penalties associated with Islamic Law e.g. Stoning, Amputation and many more.

It seems to be an ambitious project, considering the magnitude of opposition which they will encounter. Given the social, economic and political impact this move can have on the existing world order, it is definitely a news item one can sit up, take notice and track. For the money minded, it surely will impact growth figures of several companies, in the future. Yeah, you get the drift...

Definitely, the intellect in Turkey needs a pat on the back for their thought leadership. The ability to think ahead of time, while attempting to take on the establishment and making suitable compromises to maintain the ethnicity of a vibrant religion - That is some leadership. Hats off, even if it doesnt see the light of the day, finally. If merely embracing change is not for the faint hearted, being a catalyst in effecting change is, well..no comments.

Because of its strategic location astride two continents, Turkey has a unique blend of eastern and western tradition. Hope, everything goes well and perhaps there can be a new world order.

Pakistani Gun Market

2007-12-27T08:35:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting video on youtube.com. Though it has no relevance to my blog, I found it pertinent to publicize the link for junta viewing.

Mr President was wondering where his funds are being diverted to. Hmm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY1aCFoY_d4

After viewing this video, it feels pointless to sign those MoU's. When little is being done to stop such lunatics... Well, literacy.. civilization.. all go bonkers! holy damn is all i can say!

Leadership selection framework

2007-12-10T13:35:00.000-08:00

This framework was displayed in our library! ( exclamation coz, library and me... a rare combo!). Used to groom leaders...so it says..

The framework can be critiqued given that energy and expertise can be subjective judgements. But then, any tool will be effective - iff it is used by the right person with the right intent. So, I'll not critique it further. An interesting framework anyways.

The root decision lies in integrity....interesting.

For the Discerning Listeners ;)

2007-12-09T01:47:00.000-08:00

Hey, just found this link.. Its a band called Swarathma, based out of Bangalore. Refreshing site and music. The streaming music is real quick and it has one for the Kandus too!

Matter of pride..one of the band members is an XLer.. Bodhi Tree fame. Great Stuff!

So, here's the link.

http://www.swarathma.com/ganas.html

Hope the link stays alive for a long time, atleast till the 6th term ends ..so that the fraxest of terms can pass blissfully with some refreshing music.

On Success...Seychelles..Beer..and Retailing!

2007-12-08T23:16:00.000-08:00

I've been here to do my Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management, specializing in Marketing and Finance! Sounds interesting.

A couple of days ago, a concept was being vehemently debated in one of the group project meetings. The concept being debated was - " Why should we invite CEO's only to share their experiences with MBA students?"

My argument was that CEO is not the only measurement of success in life. Yes, the primary assumption to this argument is that everyone wishes to learn from the successful homo sapiens in an attempt to prevent the wheel from being re-invented. [ Psst...let's keep the debate on why the wheel, neverthless, gets re-invented aside for now. We shall ponder over it under a sunny canopy in one of those beaches in Seychelles! hmmm.... ! http://www.marinecatsey.com/base_uk.html I'm coming soon!]

So, while I drudge my mind back to my cozy room [:((] in Jampot,I get back to arguing that CEOs or entreprenuers are not the only successful homo sapiens in the world. Though this is probably an accepted fact, I choose to hit upon this problem again. To remind a few administrators and decision makers that success is often in the eyes of the beholder. Lets call the beholder as Mr. B.

Whom would Mr. B love to interact on a beautiful Sunday afternoon after a lovely South Indian Meal and a couple of mugs of beer..is the question.

For starters, without too much of stakeholder analysis, its quite simply someone who Mr. B considers a hero..

If Mr.B were to be an average Indian, he would be glad to listen to Sachin or Kapil, on how they conquered many a challenge, many of them mental coz they were remarkably skilled. Now, an average B-school 5 pointer is also an average Indian. Mithunda, Rajnikanth, Shahrukh Khan are heroes in their own stride.

Dabbawaalas are heroes for the discerning supply chain management student.

As I was interacting with the X-gen Dadus on campus, I got to see a real good application of merchandising. As I saw some of those yummy chocos and chips stacked up somewhere in the corner of the store.. my thoughts went off saying ..hey this guy doesnt give the customer what he needs and the crap.

Then, I realized a concept called "Unselling your product", which I happened to learn only in the fifth term of my management degree. Where the money lies, there goes the retailer. His margins lie in the hot samosas which he makes. He's in control of the entire value chain - production to distribution. And, hence he's able to leverage his way to greater margins. Neat example. ( And this lesson didnt strike me by myself. It was highlighted to me by the X gen retailer himself. Hats off, Sir!) And, this retailing concept has been in vogue since 1970s in one of the leading lights of management education in India. Now, I realize why even a Bharti Walmart would love to learn a trick or two from the kirana guys.

Further rambling around... recently the HR head of an upcoming premium retail chain had made some relevant remarks about attrition in the Indian retail industry, right from the lowest levels. So, when we are running short of store managers and attendants due to increasing competition, why not hire these kirana guys... excellent insight they have... heheh... Now, if you were to map their competencies in terms of change management, MIS adherence, process adherence, ability to align to the brand, ability to offer uniform quality of service to the customer, day on day, hour on hour. Yes, I get the drift. But, may be some kind of innovation! hahaha!

Chocolates.....please!

Problems Aplenty

2007-12-06T11:01:00.000-08:00

Till recently, I would wonder on topics for my blog. As I was writing my last blog, I realized that this is quite a bad excuse.

Given that I'm grooming to be a manager, one of whose desirable characteristics is good problem solving, it is indeed a sad excuse.

On an average, a man makes trivial decisions a couple of times every day. Infact, to say that he is not deciding when he is asleep is wrong. Because, there are occasions when no action is also action. Similarly, if a person's decision is to postpone or not act, its a decision too. He can sleep over it. And every decision branches out a course of action into two paths. It could be his life or his decision could affect another person's life. And some of these decisions make it to the press. So, in general, if I read the paper every day, every press item is present because of a decision which was made at some point in time. Else, it could be a contemplation of the decision which would be taken in the near future.

And it is quite possible that every branch creates a positive and negative impact. And, who knows today's positive impact could be tomorrow's negative impact and so on. Or, it could be from different stakeholder's perspective. So, all in all, it is possible to have problems (negative impact) from any goddamn shit that happens in life!!

Guess, that takes me back to some of my old blog entry about the difficulties of a CEO. A CEO typically has a zillion problems to solve. However, the future of his organization ( & himself :P), depends on those crucial 20% ( 80-20 blah blah) problems which he decides to solve. But that also means that he/she would not be admired by the stakeholders of those 80 problems which he didnt bother to solve. Ah, a decent explanation for the reason why every leader/CEO will have his own set of admirers and :).

Now, that essentially makes the case that my future is dependent to a small extent on the problems which I choose to address in this blog. Hmm... philosophy!

Anyways, too many abstruse thoughts. Time to have some fun! Beer someone...ah I love that Hariyali Kabab too!

Collective Madness

2007-12-03T21:55:00.001-08:00

It has been quite unsettling to note the increasing number of mob fury incidents in the press these days. Slightly concerned at being an arm chair critic, my thoughts shot off at possible solutions.

Nirvana would be my prescription to the ideal state of life. I'm starting off this blog aspiring to approximate towards the absolute, though, contrasting stakeholder motivations will keep me in check.

So, lets analyse ... What motivates a group of individuals to vent their anger in public..
My hypothesis is it has to be a result of ill-treatment. Two possible cases:
1. Real feeling of ill-treatment
2. Induced feeling of ill-treatment

The logic being that if its not real or induced, then there is no feeling of ill-treatment.

Real Feeling of Ill-Treatment -> Lets take a few situations. In an university, when injustice has been meted out to an individual, there is a good chance that his well wishers have a real feeling of ill-treatment. If this size of well-wishers is sufficient enough to reach a critical mass, then we have the ball rolling.

Now, you have two possibilities ( generalizing away from the University example). The parties in support of the movement could adopt legal means or otherwise. Assuming rationality and a past history of the law of the land upholding truth and justice ( however ideal it may sound), the congregation of hurt souls will choose to convince the rest of the fence-sitters about their reasoning. At this point of time, a lot of stakeholder interests can clash. I'm risking classifying all the stakeholders into two mutually exclusive categories, subjective and objective. But, then for the sake of my blog, I'm fine with it. A subjective fence-sitter may choose to align with the hurt soul, if it finds the movement an appropriate channel to achieve its ulterior goal. An objective fence-sitter might choose to align on sheer logic. However, I'd like to discount the number of objective fence-sitters in the real world with the following proof. Out of the many corporates in India, how many of them command the reputation of a TATA (Assuming the TATA group as a fence-sitter whose conscience is objective)?

In anycase, now, the size of the congregation has potentially increased, considering the talent of many leaders (and key influencers) to whip up passions. Given this collective behaviour, the ego of the group can move towards a nascent state of superficial power. However, if the reasoning is not sufficient and the leadership is not strong to take a bold move, it can die without a whimper. In the former situation, the leadership has its arsenal lined up for the negotiation round.

Now, the judges in the situation (assuming it is clearly defined), have the responsibility to manage the situation. (Getting slightly complicated huh!) If egos run high on either side and the ability to listen is stunted on either side, then there is a significant possibility of triggering the passions of a sizeable chunk of the congregation. If the reaction is violent, it simply wants the leadership to lay its ego down. However, the desired result may or may not be acheieved. But, if the situation has been violent, then it definitely puts the trust in law and order in question. Hence, a similar situation in the future, would in most chances deviate from the above analysis at the root of the tree, which is distrust in law & order.

Considering India's past tradition of political recklessness in its interfering ways with the law, the above sequence of events is one of the possibilities. So, how do you solve it..

One cannot possibly go back in time and rescript the future of many a life.. fancy thoughts. Now, the solution. Let me keep that for the next blog. Too much for a single blog! I've to talk about induced feelings as well....

11 Secrets of Leadership

2007-11-23T14:45:00.000-08:00

In one of the most unlikely of places, a dull n drab course book, I found an interesting piece on leadership. I've captured its essence here, for posterity! It articulates some of the nuances of leadership, beautifully.

The article is titled " 11 Secrets of Leadership ", applying specifically to Leadership in Selling:

1. "Unwavering Courage": Selling successfully requires courage; taking a risk where the odds may seem stacked against you; ....courage is "based upon knowledge of self and one?s occupation.

2. "Self-Control": The ability to set a course for yourself and take disciplined action each day.

3. "A keen sense of justice": Knowing right from wrong - understanding what is fair and just - allows you to make, wise informed decisions.

4. "Definiteness of decision": Deciding on what you want to achieve, and then doing whatever it takes to get there, even in the face of obstacles and setbacks, is crucial to your success. For those who don?t quite make it, failure can usually be traced back to a lack of decisiveness about what they really want.

5. "Definiteness of plans": In Hill?s words, "the successful leader must plan his work, and work his plan.

6. The habit of doing more than paid for": Want to sell more? Go the extra mile for your clients - 'Internal' & External. Internal - the people you need to rely on to implement or help you close sales.

7. A pleasing personality": Is selling a popularity contest? No, but would you buy something from someone who was nasty and rude?

8. "Sympathy and understanding:" Selling is about understanding what people DO, and then helping them do it better. Plain and simple.

9. Mastery of detail": Ah, yes? The devil, as they say, is in the details. What may seem like a small detail to you can be a crucial one, maybe even a deal-breaker, to your prospect, customer, or client.

10. "Willingness to assume full responsibility": No matter how much customer support your company provides, you are the prime representative of your organization. If you try to pass the buck to someone else, you lose respect and credibility.

11. "Cooperation": You can?t do it alone. Sales is a collaborative effort. Your prospects need to collaborate with you; you need the cooperation and assistance of others both inside and outside your organization to make things happen. The best salespeople are those who can work well with others, and with whom other people want to work.

A world without money

2007-11-10T22:13:00.000-08:00

As I was walking back from the hotel last nite, unable to find autos,my thoughts wandered....

There were a couple of cars parked by... locked. But, imagine this concept of no barriers..no money... money is the biggest barrier in the world.

Somewhere down the ages, there was the barter system. I'm not keen to agree with that either. Coz, what am I to barter with a taxi driver who drops me back home! ( if money were not to exist).

Going by economics, money is a reflection of the scarcity in the world. For a law abiding world, money is the control which positions individuals in this world. Ofcourse, its not the only positioning tool. But, its an important core-competence. It makes sense for the rich to do some philanthropy coz they can shake a few chairs here and there and get things done. It comes with money. But, did someone talk about chanakya...

Yes, some of the most common sensical brains in the world can work their way to power. But, in the road to power, will money be left behind.... Can you find me an ascetic who really has worked his way to power... be it the power of knowledge...power of networking... power of the Self?

Money is such a lucrative tool. As HR professionals find their way to compensate employees through means other than money.... isnt it a definitive end... In the end, its money!

Now, comes the conflict of Karma yoga Vs Linkin Park !!

Focus on the means and let the end shape itself.... Vis-a-vis...In the end, It doesnt even matter!!

So, combining the two, one can comment -> Focus on your deeds, and do good to the world. Money will come automatically and in any case, it doesnt matter. Coz, its just about 6 feet of land that you will take away from this world. Create happiness for people around you. That will percolate and flow for a long time. Money is short lived.. be it in your hands or in the hands of the Hedge funds!! hahaha! yeah, I got some hedge funds in here ... hope u get the drift...

Woah! My mind is beautifully confused.

2007-11-09T05:20:00.000-08:00

Ah...tis a great feeling. To perform 100% YOY is indeed a delighting experience.

SIP 2008.... CRP 2007.... Yuppee! I'm done with this!

http://xlri.blogspot.com/2007/11/summer-placements-blaze-at-xlri.html

ARBIT. It's really creates value!

2007-10-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

Yep, its the famous approach - What if!

What if my life was as follows..

I'm not rich but I'm not constrained to do anything ... I'm free to buy/do anything.
I have a beautiful ranch in Switzerland.. With my Indian Wife... All my Indian friends and family also move along. There's a temple..etc.. the entire eco-system is re-created.

Next, I dont have to work for someone. I'm free to work on watever i like. One day, I might just choose to take care of my kids.. next day, i'll work my ass out on a pet project...

I have a loyal dog.. may be a nice labrador.. I own a Harley Davidson.. Chivas Regal is in plenty.. Chicken is in plenty..

I have all the cars i like...and Rolls Royce sends every new car of theirs to me for a test drive..

I have this kind of a machine which can fly from any where in the world to anywhere.. No visas,no security checks.. and bloody hell, it flies really fast.. So, one fine day, if I feel like meeting my bro in the US, i should be able to do that in the next hour or so.

I have this ability to communicate with anyone at anypoint in time without this nagging device called the mobile phone.. Oh jesus! It'll be really cool.

I wish, Brahma - the creator - reads this blog. May be human life cycle requires a 360 degree feedback loop as well. And further, if God is the CEO of this company called life, then he should actually satisfy all his employees, at least to an extent. Well, I'm sure there would be none in this world who wouldnt want a life like the above. So, I think this should be implemented at the earliest. It'll create a lot of value. Perhaps, before I'm re-born.

DISCLAIMER

2007-10-22T01:04:00.000-07:00

Since all of my blogs have been abstract, the need for this disclaimer.

This blog is not meant for mass audience. Infact, it ain't meant for any audience at all!! heheh!
Just a place to note down those relevant and intriguing thoughts that cross my mind periodically. Someday, I'll look back and laugh at myself .... at my growth pangs and perhaps, some intellect as well.

This blog is necessitated coz i've got rave comments on how my blog is so boring ! Yes, it could be boring.

But, actually it doesnt matter. There are so many other interesting blogs. You could read mine if it touches a chord somewhere... may be we think similar... leave ur trail behind and i shall read yours. Niche audience ( if at all it exists ).

666. A Humble Beast. Paradox Inc.

Relaxation: The Stakeholder Approach

2007-10-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

Third post of the day. And I dont seem to be in any mood to sleep. Not in a mood to press the backspace yet.

It's a nice way to reflect. Pressing the back space itself is an act of reflection. But, that's at the micro level. I'm reflecting at the macro level.

The difference between reflecting at the macro and micro is that your thoughts are genuine, natural and not tempered. So, tis a close a peek you can get into my brain and thought process. Duh! Now, its a different question if you really wanna do that. Perhaps, someone would.

As I ponder over the meaning of my life and What I should look forward to achieve, it gets murkier as I dig deep. I'm starting off from the fundamental concepts of happiness, satisfaction and acheievement.

These three concepts need to be looked at from the point of view of multiple stakeholders in the system. Family, Self, Organizational, Society, Friends, God. Now, lets assume that life was a company.

From this angle, your life is like a company and you are the CEO. The decisions of the CEO determine the success/average performance/failure of the company. But, tell me one thing. Why is the CEO's life so difficult? Why should he always have something to satisfy each of his shareholder? Life's quite unfair to him!

Point I'm trying to make is, as life moves on in pursuit of the three fundamental concepts, which are often elusive!, the trade off's between different stakeholders is quite difficult to manage. The creation of enemies or bad blood is the result of the trade offs one has to deal with while executing decisions.

So, that means all of us would definitely be happy to meet someone who is not under these constraints of multiple stakeholders. That is probably the fundamental reason behind the human perception of God. God is perceived as an entity who is beyond the normal. He's barely affected by operational issues such as in our life. He's the larger than life image who can do anything. Probably the reason, why Rajni Kanth and Mithun Da have struck big money in India. Probably the reason, why we seek vicarious pleasure in their movies. Or is this a perspective of the dreamer in me? What would the realist say?

That brings us to what is relaxation. Relaxation is that state of human mind where there is no demand or burden from any of the stakeholder on it. Is this why sleep is relaxing? Perhaps. Is this why my grand ma advised me to sleep every day, leaving the rest to god "Narayana Hare". Perhaps, this is what she meant when I was a kid. I would wonder at that point of time... why should I pray god when I'm going to sleep! Jesus Christ! Now, perhaps I appreciate her wisdom.

Alcohol as a relaxant. Die hard alcoholics are blamed for being escapists. Yes, quite true. Under the influence of alcohol, they are rarely able to satisfy the demands of their stakeholders. Hence, it is quite relaxing. But, this form of relaxing is bad as it destroys stakeholder value.

But, if relaxing is the only thing in life, is it ok? No. It will not lead to personal development. Trade offs shape decision making. Hone decision making. Thus, there is a need for balance between relaxation and work. There comes work-life balance. Nice, it is so pleasing to build logically connecting arguments to present a coherent thought.

Hope it made sense. 666. Does the beast relax?

Structured Chaos

2007-10-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

A sect of people in the industry appreciate Structured thought process. I've started to appreciate this. But it's quite funny! Infact, when a 22 year old kid told this to me in an interview, I tore him apart! Bloody hell, structured! But, I've seen seasoned practitioners of the trade present their thoughts cogently with this approach. Hence, I appreciate it. It might result in the same end product, but the means is so much more thorough.

Recently, I established contact and made good friends with a Prof. Quite unlikely as it might seem, we rubbed off well on each other and I started addressing him by first name after 6/7 hours of non-stop ackur-bucker! Yeah, arbit chat.

True to his profession, he ended up teaching me a very simple but profound framework of human interaction during our train cum flight journey. Replete with practical examples and in your face situations, it was a once in a life time experience. And I've come to cherish each moment I live in this world. I'm not sure if my life has been exceptionally good that I am able to cherish each moment. I dont think so. But, it's true that I'm quite happy with the overall quality of my ego state and the things I do. So, lesser conflicts of aspirations vis-a-vis reality. Hence, this learning experience was an interesting one.

Now to the theory. Every human interaction can be classified into three states:
1. Parent - Child
2. Parent- Adult
2. Adult - Adult

I'll just give you some leads on each role. You can apply it readily and figure it out for yourself. Further, note that everyone plays one of the roles at different points in time, based on the context.

In an interaction, a parent adopts the moral high ground of "Been There. Done that. Oh come on yaar, dont be a bacchuu!You better listen to me!"

A Child can be of two kinds. Playful Child and a Fixated Child. A Fixated Child remains stuck to his point and doesnt move an inch. Myopic and stupid, ego, mean minded ness rules the roost.

An adult interacts based on sheer logic and rationale. With a clear understanding of the situation and stakeholders, he brings logic to the table. A playful child is one who swithches between Adult and Child states.

I'm blogging this down, so that it helps someone somewhere and also reminds me of some lessons which I learn as the journey of life progresses. Sometime, I'll look back at this webpage and be glad about it.

666. Mark of the beast. It's an adult logical state.

Need for Chaos

2007-10-19T12:08:00.000-07:00

Now, I'm trying to write this blog without pressing the backspace/delete button even once. So, its a perfect flow of thought. And hence, it could be divergent! Yes, I love dealing with Chaos. Coz, its such an interesting challenge where decisions are to be made without knowing too much information. Life's like that and I like it.

As days pass by and one becomes old, the situations you face in your life are increasingly similar to one's in the past. It probably works the 80-20 way. But, there is also a contrarian theory which states that your success is determined by the decisions you take. So, in case you have not been successful in your life so far or have been moderately successful in your life so far, it makes sense to re-look at each of those repeated deja-vu situations with a fresh eye. With a motive to succeed. With a motive to beat your past. With a motive to become a better human being.

As our ethics prof. would say, The Golden Rule states "Dont do unto others, what you dont expect them to do to you". Beautiful concept it is. I wish I knew it long ago. I've struggled to come to terms with this concept to find out the ethical way to make decisions without alienating as many stake holders as possible. Why hurt anyone? Hurt anyone if you would like to be hurt. Never right? So, why hurt them? But, at the same time I'm glad that as a principle, this existed in my brain for sometime. And, it was named as the Golden Rule by my prof. Thanks to him, I wont forget it forever, or well, atleast i'll be realistic.... for sometime :).

So, going back to looking at new situations and trying out better decisions based on the learning from the past moves. Yeah, very much a neural network. But, it sounds so nice on paper. It doesn't work too well in practice, especially when the player in the system is human in nature.

Karmayoga is nice to follow. Focus on the means and leave the end to Him. I'm not sure if it really says that, but that's my karmayoga... Sagar's Karma! But, sometimes when u are not in control of your senses or are shaken off your composed self due to turbulent times, Karma, Golden Rule etc everything goes for a toss. And it is probably these 20 of 100 instances which come back to haunt you, according to some theory (god knows which.. but i read it somewhere.. they say, its also Karma!). Meaning to say, is it fair ? Yes, it is ... you reap only for wat you sow.

So, then assuming that the ideal self doesnt exist in the world, is it ok to move onto the future discounting the earlier mistakes on the basis that "Everyone makes mistakes. I did. But I learnt." Some mistakes are irreparable, arent they? What do you do! How can you re-look at them. Especially, if it has turned the decision tree of any stakeholder on its head.

But then, the point is should the 80 good instances be weighed against the 20 bad instances ... to provide benefit of doubt and the reward for doing 80 good things in 100 oppurtunities.

Alright, if I were to be the Lord of Peace and Love, I would have looked at the positives. But, then as thalaivar says, there's always an element of negativity in any role .. without which the role will not be famous. God is famous. So, there has to be an element of negativity in him too. So, while you plead in front of god for mercy, remember that while you need to be rewarded for your sane mind which has decided to beg for pardon, you also need to be punished so that repetition doesnt happen.

Since the blog is going long, I shall stop this here and post another one.

Think. Plan. Execute.666. Mark of the beast.

An open diary.

2007-05-13T04:33:00.000-07:00

I'd like to maintain this blog as a whiteboard for generating ideas [ er....some call it crap]

To start off - religion. This has been one of the key concepts of human life which every kid is exposed to. Of late, I've been administering sermons to a close pal of mine to modify his views on this.

Backgrounder - an Iyer by birth. Proud of it. As life took me through unknown lanes and bright gullys, it dawned upon me that religion or god is a concept of the mind.

[Out here, one of my fav pics. The hill is in the form of a Shiv Ling. My soul and fingers indicate 666. It was a pleasant feeling out there, in sync, with the Shivalik range. ]

Yes, starting off as a kid and exposed to the vagaries of culture and tradition, its been a learning process. Originating from innocous prayers to god ...for the bus to come early, to ensure that the electricity supply doesnt get cut off during my 3rd standard exams.... Jeez! So, when a kid is about 15 years old, in India, religion and caste make significant inroads into his mind and soul.

Somewhere, in one of those dark passages, comes the inspiration to revolt. Guided by the euphemistic expletives of college lingo, anger spills on the street. A fresh re-look at the self-concepts built in, reveals a hollow structure. Where am i getting to...

These days, the media gloats the new young and vibrant India. Yep, i'm a part of that. We form the most significant segment for many a marketer. The cool factor. hmmm...

But hidden in the glorified independent youth, is the strong bond to the hollow structure. Where did the rational thought disappear. What am i referring to...

Allwrito!, this is indeed the muddled concept - religion/caste. Blown out of proportion. Many times, its a paradox. Its cool. This paradox will never attract punitive action. But, its a corrupt weed. Perhaps, I'm still a part of it.

Yep, my blog is muddled. This is how it feels to be muddled.

Now, lets attempt clarity. Firstly an example. Lets say there are two living beings A & B. They share a resonant frequency. Synchronous minds start their pursuit to attain Nirvana. Everything is fine. So?
Consider the different forms of A & B. A=lion,B=lioness belonging to a different herd. Does it pose a problem? Not to me or you.
Juxtapose A for Arabic and B for Brahminic. Human Beings. Well, battle lines are drawn. Rationality has attempted to take on this - attitudes, practices, lifestyles, ethics. They differ.
But , think a little ...frankly. Should A & B gaze at the crystal ball or should it be the society...

Whos the best person to run a start up company? Ofcourse, its founder(s).

Clarity arrives. Let the alphabets decide.

Power of the mind -> 666. Mark of the Beast. But I'm a believer in God. Paradox Inc. Clarity Delivered.