I am currently quite enchnated by Art of War and it's application to the modern management.
What follows is a short analysis of my understanding of the ancient text with my application to the modern management.
Part 1 Laying Plans
As per Tsun Zu, the following five things must be kept in mind when planning for a war:
1. The moral law – causes people to follow the leader in complete accord, undismayed by danger
2. Heaven – night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons
3. Earth – distances, great and small, danger and security, open ground narrow passes; the chances of life and death
4. Commander stands for virtues of –
1. wisdom
2. sincerity
3. benevolence
4. courage
5. strictness
5. Discipline – divisions , budgeting and maintenance of roads for supply lines
And as a note of warning:
As circumstances are favourable, one should modify one’s plans.
Modern management
If you apply the above principles to modern management, the following things become clear:
The first point talks about the importance of the Principles and the Processes in an organization. The work done should not be dependent on any individuals. People should be trained in such a way so that they know the right from the wrong in the business. Constant monitoring is not possible.
The next two points seems to tell that in a business, you have cycles. Learn it and try to leverage it. For example, there is a product life cycle, starting with the initial introduction, followed by growth phase, the stabilizing mature phase and the decline phase. Or there is also the Hype cycle for technology where something new becomes a buzzword, then falls as a passing fad by when people start to realize the new concept/product’s real importance followed by a plateau of productivity.
The 4th point describes the qualities of a leader of the organization. As a leader, the person should have the perspective to understand, analyze and solve the issues, take the courage and enter new territories, if necessary. There will always be tough challenges with people becoming trying to follow their own agenda. Here’s the strictness that’s necessary while benevolence is the need for the leader to share the success and attribute to the team rather than hog the entire limelight for himself / herself.
The next point stresses the importance of maintaining a systematic approach to running the organization with the concentrating on the important aspects and ensuring that in the quest for seeking new land or markets, the one that supplies the daily bread and butter is not lost. The need to plan and budget for the future would ensure that there is a clear focus and with the discipline, there would be a constant metric on the progress to decide if the correct path is being followed.
Part 2 Attack by Strategem
As per Tsun Zu,
Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:
(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
(5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.
Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
Management lesson
This simple chapter explains nothing but the modern SWOT analysis. Look carefully and what Sun Tzu seems to be saying is the first do a clear SWOT analysis of your position, analyze the forces that are operating on the market (Porter's 5 forces model) and identify the your position (PESTEL factors). Once these analysis are done, you'll get a clear picture of what your business is, where it is heading, what it is doing and what it should be doing, who are the competitors and how well are they doing and where to attack them in terms of competition.
The last quote is so beautiful that essentially says that unless you know the what, why, how and when of your own operations and strategy, analyzing the competition is simply a lost game.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Friday, August 04, 2006
What's Friendship?
August 6th is Friendship Day. I did not know about it until I got a forward from Nisha.
Friendship days used to come and go. It never meant much to me. I had too many friends around me to start thinking of them on any one day. But, here, staying away from all the people who mean so much to me, the importance of the day hit me like a brick.
What is it that makes friends so special? Is it because they share your experiences? You share that with parents and siblings. Is it because they share your ups and downs? This is shared with the colleagues at work or class mates in the college. Then, what is it that makes them so different? Maybe it’s because as friends, we share a lot more than some moments of time. We probably share a part of life, a few ticks of clock that not just becomes a part of your personal history but a part of you!
Come to think of it. When you are staying so far away, the only people who make an effort and try to talk to you and know what you want are the friends you left behind. Sure, there’ll be new acquaintances. But, is it the same thing?
You go to office. There are people around. You smile at them, make small talk and ask them what they did over the weekend. But, do we really care? Does the answer they give really matter? You could as well be talking to the chair and furniture and it’d make no difference. But, when you ask the friends, after a few moments, you get to know something that they never even told! Isn’t that a miracle by itself? What is that gave away you true feelings or thoughts? Is it that these special people in your life get to see a glimpse of your soul?
Not a day goes by when I don’t think of these *old days*. Those days filled with no responsibility, days filled with a lot of laughter, banter and fun. Invariably, the heart comes up with the question, “Can those days ever come back again?” And the mind answers, “Sorry”. With a loud sigh and heavy heart, I look around shake the head and move on. Yes, it is hard to be away from the people who really care for you. But, that is life. Everyone moves on in this journey called life.
Maybe it is because people move on that we finally start to understand the meaning of a true companionship. Maybe if things were to like a fairy tale, we’d never be able to appreciate the good things in life….
But, one thing is for certain. Once the paths of life have met and an exchange has taken place, there is no need to renew it. Unlike others, with friends life continues at any point in time. You may be engrossed in a big business, a major crisis and yet when a mail, call or a forward arrives, you are transported back to the days and moments you’d spent with this person called friend. And that is enough to go on in this world of aliens.
Happy Friendship day to all of you and thank you for being my friend.
Friendship days used to come and go. It never meant much to me. I had too many friends around me to start thinking of them on any one day. But, here, staying away from all the people who mean so much to me, the importance of the day hit me like a brick.
What is it that makes friends so special? Is it because they share your experiences? You share that with parents and siblings. Is it because they share your ups and downs? This is shared with the colleagues at work or class mates in the college. Then, what is it that makes them so different? Maybe it’s because as friends, we share a lot more than some moments of time. We probably share a part of life, a few ticks of clock that not just becomes a part of your personal history but a part of you!
Come to think of it. When you are staying so far away, the only people who make an effort and try to talk to you and know what you want are the friends you left behind. Sure, there’ll be new acquaintances. But, is it the same thing?
You go to office. There are people around. You smile at them, make small talk and ask them what they did over the weekend. But, do we really care? Does the answer they give really matter? You could as well be talking to the chair and furniture and it’d make no difference. But, when you ask the friends, after a few moments, you get to know something that they never even told! Isn’t that a miracle by itself? What is that gave away you true feelings or thoughts? Is it that these special people in your life get to see a glimpse of your soul?
Not a day goes by when I don’t think of these *old days*. Those days filled with no responsibility, days filled with a lot of laughter, banter and fun. Invariably, the heart comes up with the question, “Can those days ever come back again?” And the mind answers, “Sorry”. With a loud sigh and heavy heart, I look around shake the head and move on. Yes, it is hard to be away from the people who really care for you. But, that is life. Everyone moves on in this journey called life.
Maybe it is because people move on that we finally start to understand the meaning of a true companionship. Maybe if things were to like a fairy tale, we’d never be able to appreciate the good things in life….
But, one thing is for certain. Once the paths of life have met and an exchange has taken place, there is no need to renew it. Unlike others, with friends life continues at any point in time. You may be engrossed in a big business, a major crisis and yet when a mail, call or a forward arrives, you are transported back to the days and moments you’d spent with this person called friend. And that is enough to go on in this world of aliens.
Happy Friendship day to all of you and thank you for being my friend.
Friday, July 21, 2006
The Miracle of Life
For the past few days, there have been one natural disaster after the other marred by some human manufactured conflagrations. There was the tsunami in Indonesia (again) interspersed with the bombings in Mumbai followed by the sudden drying up of the Amazon basin with the West Asian flare up.
I was reading a book called “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson. Amongst many other things, it traces the birth of life, the now incredible to imaging volcanic eruptions, the meteorite crashes that would make nuclear weapons look like kid’s toys and the deep freeze of the Ice Age. To top it all, the BBC was having a program about the massive glass deposits in Sahara which could have been caused by “Air bursts” – a meteorite exploding as a ball of fire just before it crashed into earth which not just created heat, but, melted the sand to form among other things, glass and diamond!
All of this got me thinking – life is so fragile. A simple earth-quake and millions are devastated. A tsunami hits the land and a country is brought down to its knees. The homo sapiens, a thinking man has is left absolutely powerless in this sudden display of raw power from the nature.
Why is it that we who could build such complex things as super computers, electron microscopes, airplanes and rockets be left so helpless against the nature’s fury? Explaining the complexity in measuring or monitoring the earth’s activities, Bryson has made a comment that is quite intriguing. Before saying that here’s the context:
• To predict earth quakes, we need to understand the working of the earth’s interior. Currently, all our knowledge of earth’s core is more of a conjecture. We have barely scratched the surface. Ditto with volcanoes.
• To say anything about draught and rain, we need to predict weather accurately. Our most computers have a problem in telling this simple thing: If you blow smoke in a room, how will it travel? If this can’t be predicted, then how can we predict the movement of water vapor and clouds in a very open environment with the earth spinning at thousands of kilometers on its axis and running ahead along its orbit?
• Even the latest satellites and telescopes can only see at barely the outer reaches of most galaxies and stars. We have barely understood our solar system. We simply don’t know how many comets and meteors are there. They could be simply like any pedestrian who suddenly comes on the path of earth’s orbit on a very dark night. Before we even know it, BANG!
Complaining about all this, Bryson says:
And yet, we survive and evolve and look and the sky and say, “How did it all begin?”
Isn’t it marvelous and truly incredible that in such a hostile environment we could all come to life and enjoy the bounties of life. Yet, instead of enjoying it, we are so involved in drawing lines on ground that can’t be seen just a few meters from the ground - we shed so much blood and cause strife. What if tomorrow a meteorite would hurl down and hit the war torn region of West Asia? The land there will simply vanish and so will the life. What will the freedom fighters fight over (assuming some are still alive)? A cindered earth which is poisonous and can neither be used for growing food nor for living?
Don’t you sometimes feel that we quibble over things that should not even be considered important? Somehow, we build grand museums and teach history and yet, we never seem to learn anything from it.. The same old quarrels, the same old greed and lust for power and finally, the same old winners oppressing the losers. Sure, the nature follows the rule of Survival of the Fittest. And yet, after all the blood-letting, if you discover there is nothing much to celebrate and nobody to even share the happiness with, is the whole struggle worth fighting?
{I know the thoughts are very jumbled – but, I just jotted down whatever kept coming into the mind..}
I was reading a book called “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson. Amongst many other things, it traces the birth of life, the now incredible to imaging volcanic eruptions, the meteorite crashes that would make nuclear weapons look like kid’s toys and the deep freeze of the Ice Age. To top it all, the BBC was having a program about the massive glass deposits in Sahara which could have been caused by “Air bursts” – a meteorite exploding as a ball of fire just before it crashed into earth which not just created heat, but, melted the sand to form among other things, glass and diamond!
All of this got me thinking – life is so fragile. A simple earth-quake and millions are devastated. A tsunami hits the land and a country is brought down to its knees. The homo sapiens, a thinking man has is left absolutely powerless in this sudden display of raw power from the nature.
Why is it that we who could build such complex things as super computers, electron microscopes, airplanes and rockets be left so helpless against the nature’s fury? Explaining the complexity in measuring or monitoring the earth’s activities, Bryson has made a comment that is quite intriguing. Before saying that here’s the context:
• To predict earth quakes, we need to understand the working of the earth’s interior. Currently, all our knowledge of earth’s core is more of a conjecture. We have barely scratched the surface. Ditto with volcanoes.
• To say anything about draught and rain, we need to predict weather accurately. Our most computers have a problem in telling this simple thing: If you blow smoke in a room, how will it travel? If this can’t be predicted, then how can we predict the movement of water vapor and clouds in a very open environment with the earth spinning at thousands of kilometers on its axis and running ahead along its orbit?
• Even the latest satellites and telescopes can only see at barely the outer reaches of most galaxies and stars. We have barely understood our solar system. We simply don’t know how many comets and meteors are there. They could be simply like any pedestrian who suddenly comes on the path of earth’s orbit on a very dark night. Before we even know it, BANG!
Complaining about all this, Bryson says:
..we live in a universe whose age we can’t quite compute, surrounded by stars whose distance from us and each other we don’t altogether know, filled with matter we can’t identify, operating in conformance with physical laws whose properties we don’t truly understand.
And yet, we survive and evolve and look and the sky and say, “How did it all begin?”
Isn’t it marvelous and truly incredible that in such a hostile environment we could all come to life and enjoy the bounties of life. Yet, instead of enjoying it, we are so involved in drawing lines on ground that can’t be seen just a few meters from the ground - we shed so much blood and cause strife. What if tomorrow a meteorite would hurl down and hit the war torn region of West Asia? The land there will simply vanish and so will the life. What will the freedom fighters fight over (assuming some are still alive)? A cindered earth which is poisonous and can neither be used for growing food nor for living?
Don’t you sometimes feel that we quibble over things that should not even be considered important? Somehow, we build grand museums and teach history and yet, we never seem to learn anything from it.. The same old quarrels, the same old greed and lust for power and finally, the same old winners oppressing the losers. Sure, the nature follows the rule of Survival of the Fittest. And yet, after all the blood-letting, if you discover there is nothing much to celebrate and nobody to even share the happiness with, is the whole struggle worth fighting?
{I know the thoughts are very jumbled – but, I just jotted down whatever kept coming into the mind..}
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Bend it like Beckham and mend it like Football!
This was an article that had appeared in Times of India on 8th July, 2006. Amazing philosophy! Hope you'll like it..
Spirituality seldom dribbled with soccer, until the ‘Hand of God’ came into play during the quarter-final match of the 1986 World Cup football between Argentina and England. Diego Maradona claimed that divine intervention had helped him score the controversial goal.
A short film made in 2003 by Mike Walker — Does God Play Football? — explored the relationship between God and Tommy, a seven-year-old football fan. Tommy’s only desire is to have a father of his own to play football with. In the absence of a real Dad, he adopts God as his father with the help of a local priest — very like how the human soul longs for communion with the Universal spirit.
An individual remains unfit for spiritual journey without the requisite physical and mental strength. Vivekananda said: “You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of the Bhagavad Gita”. A player’s patience and perseverance is tested on the football field at every moment; the ability to wriggle out of tough situations and hold on to one’s nerves in tight situations. A seeker, too, has to undergo such trials during the inward game of realisation.
Look at football as a metaphor for life. The ball is the individual’s ego. Team members are family and friends; trust in teammates is the foundation of a good relationship and helps the player win the match of happiness. The opposition players are obstacles like anger, pride, hatred, that must be overcome to reach the goalpost. The goalpost is the universal consciousness to which a person must ultimately submit the ego, to achieve true bliss. The coach is the guru who teaches the way and the player learns from his mistakes on the field. The referee is the law of karma that reinforces the correct rules for playing. The audience is society that reacts to performance on the field. As in life, a game that has started must end. As long as the person is in the game, one gets the illusion of limited time and space. Only when the game gets over, does one realise the limitlessness of time and space.
Every player is assigned a particular role on the field according to his skills — forward, midfielder, defender, or goalkeeper. Similarly, in life we have designated roles. Our capabilities and choices determine the contribution we make to the world through our work. Like a player who can manoeuvre the ball on the field, a person has the free will to choose his thoughts, words and actions. Football is meditation ‘on the run’. A player is always ‘in the moment’ for the entire duration of play. The player has no thought of past and no use for future, as all the scoring opportunities are created in the ‘now’.
Football teaches one to be a good spectator, one who watches the game with passionate detachment. For him, an exciting football match is only that — a game. Wins or losses, even for his favourite team, do not bother him. A good spectator is like a joyful observer of life; he witnesses events around him as they come and go, and remains detached as he is always centred in truth.
Today, football is a faith binding a legion of followers across the world. People, irrespective of their religions, nationalities and cultures, are tuning in simultaneously to watch live football. If this is not universal brotherhood, what else is?
Spirituality seldom dribbled with soccer, until the ‘Hand of God’ came into play during the quarter-final match of the 1986 World Cup football between Argentina and England. Diego Maradona claimed that divine intervention had helped him score the controversial goal.
A short film made in 2003 by Mike Walker — Does God Play Football? — explored the relationship between God and Tommy, a seven-year-old football fan. Tommy’s only desire is to have a father of his own to play football with. In the absence of a real Dad, he adopts God as his father with the help of a local priest — very like how the human soul longs for communion with the Universal spirit.
An individual remains unfit for spiritual journey without the requisite physical and mental strength. Vivekananda said: “You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of the Bhagavad Gita”. A player’s patience and perseverance is tested on the football field at every moment; the ability to wriggle out of tough situations and hold on to one’s nerves in tight situations. A seeker, too, has to undergo such trials during the inward game of realisation.
Look at football as a metaphor for life. The ball is the individual’s ego. Team members are family and friends; trust in teammates is the foundation of a good relationship and helps the player win the match of happiness. The opposition players are obstacles like anger, pride, hatred, that must be overcome to reach the goalpost. The goalpost is the universal consciousness to which a person must ultimately submit the ego, to achieve true bliss. The coach is the guru who teaches the way and the player learns from his mistakes on the field. The referee is the law of karma that reinforces the correct rules for playing. The audience is society that reacts to performance on the field. As in life, a game that has started must end. As long as the person is in the game, one gets the illusion of limited time and space. Only when the game gets over, does one realise the limitlessness of time and space.
Every player is assigned a particular role on the field according to his skills — forward, midfielder, defender, or goalkeeper. Similarly, in life we have designated roles. Our capabilities and choices determine the contribution we make to the world through our work. Like a player who can manoeuvre the ball on the field, a person has the free will to choose his thoughts, words and actions. Football is meditation ‘on the run’. A player is always ‘in the moment’ for the entire duration of play. The player has no thought of past and no use for future, as all the scoring opportunities are created in the ‘now’.
Football teaches one to be a good spectator, one who watches the game with passionate detachment. For him, an exciting football match is only that — a game. Wins or losses, even for his favourite team, do not bother him. A good spectator is like a joyful observer of life; he witnesses events around him as they come and go, and remains detached as he is always centred in truth.
Today, football is a faith binding a legion of followers across the world. People, irrespective of their religions, nationalities and cultures, are tuning in simultaneously to watch live football. If this is not universal brotherhood, what else is?
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
The Man who Sued God
Has it ever happened to you that something bad happens and finding nobody else responsible, you simply bow down to fate and say, “Whatever happens, God destined it to be that way!” Well, think about it. If God planned something to happen in a particular way, is he responsible for it? If so, is he liable for the damages caused by his plans? Quite intriguing isn’t it?
Well, the movie, “The man who sues God” takes this thought to a near reality. Based on a true case in Australia
The movie starts out being a vindictive action by a man who has lost his only possession – his boat. Yet, when the case begins to develop, it really gets interesting. The first point he makes is, if the Church and other religious institutes call themselves as the representatives of God on earth, are they responsible for such calamities? If a flood occurs and it is called as an “act of God”, will the church bear the expenses of re habilitating the people who have suffered the losses?
The next point that he makes is that if we as humans knew what was going to happen, then, why would we even insure? If an insurance company can’t insure against a potential risk, saying it is an “act of God”, then, why have insurance?
The other point that he raises is, who are the people representing god on earth? Is is the Church or the insurance companies? If the insurance companies can come up with a clause of “act of God”, do they have experts in the areas of working of God?All this leaves the Church and the Insurance companies fuming. The conundrum for the church is this: If they call themselves the representatives of God, then, they must be liable for the damages caused by “acts of God”. To get away from this liability, they’ll have to prove that God does not exist. If this is the case, the, the Church would be the biggest and most fraudulent organization in the world. All the money collected in the name of God and charities would all be in the name of an entity which they can’t prove exists!
The end in the movie is a bit of anti-climax. The church and the insurance companies agree to split some expense and close the case. Since the hero has no money to continue the litigation, he accepts the money and manages to get some extra so that he can settle the amounts that many of people with similar problems.
The amazing thing about the movie was the way it was presented. What turned out to be an absolutely dumb thing became a real legal challenge. I mean, the Church having to prove that God does not exist to win the case seemed to be truly incredible. A poor guy, with no money and not even his boat manages to hold the Insurance and the Church for ransom!
Friday, April 07, 2006
Chennai in London!
Last weekend, we had been to East Ham to see some houses for rent. Our office is shifting again (!!!).
East Ham is an area that is about 40 minutes from the Waterloo Station. Yet, in those 40 minutes, it felt like we had traveled from London, UK to Chennai, India!
The place is amazing! The first site after getting down out of the station is a South Indian Dosa restaurant. Beside it, there is a video shop, selling (believe it or not!) only Tamil movie DVDs and VCDs. Just to check out the shop, we went in. The shop keeper was like any typical Tamil shop keeper. We asked him, “Do you have any Hindi movies?” He just took one bunch and gave it to us. I said, “Do you have Jaane bhi do Yarron?” He said, “See, I don’t understand Hindi. There are the Hindi CDs I have. Please select from his bunch!” Well, at least it made sense. Learning Hindi in UK is not really very useful, unless of course, you are staying in Southall! (Punjabi would be more useful)
After getting over the initial shock, we went to the real estate agent to show us the house. The guy, it turned out was called Ray (he called himself Ray of Sunshine). This guy looked at us and said, “Where are you from?” So, we went into giving the typical biography, “Hello! Myil from Chennai, Sriram from Pune and me from Pune” So he said, “Ok. Don’t you want to ask where I am from?” So, I said, “Where are you from?” He said, “I am a half Indian, half Pakistani, a half-Muslim and a half-Hindu!” Oh yeah, one of his parents is from Gujarat and the other from the area that is opposite to Gujarat on the other side of the border. Talk about a world without borders!
The houses though are not worth mentioning. They were so-so. So, we were roaming around the place. We found a eating joint called “Chennai Dosas”. It looked really inviting, given the fact that it was 3 pm in the afternoon and we had not eaten since 9 am. On entrance, the fresh aroma of filter coffee mixed with the enchanting smell of hot sambar wafted around. This moment was sheer magic. It was like a moment in heaven! After weeks and weeks of curd rice (with no pickle) and one day of Sandwich (minus cheese, salad, butter, salt and pepper), the very aroma was titillating.
Savoring this captivating moment, we sat down. I had starter as Dahi Vada and then, as a main course, Rava Masala Onion Dosa. The climax of this gustatory miracle was a Filter Kapee. Anyone who is an connoisseur of coffee in India would have been happy here. More so, if for 4 months, all you have been drinking is water+coffee powder – sugar – milk!
Well, I thought the surprises would end here, but, there was one last miracle. As it was not yet time to return, we were perambulating near the shopping center. We discovered a Temple -a Balaji Temple. Paying heeds to the God in UK, we came out and behold! There was a shop selling chakkali/murukku and mixture and all the condiments that moms make during all the festivals. We barged into the shop and literally ransacked the place of these condiments and 5 bottles of pickles (for the curd rice that we would be having over the future) we left for home. Thus ended the amazing trip to Chennai of UK.
East Ham is an area that is about 40 minutes from the Waterloo Station. Yet, in those 40 minutes, it felt like we had traveled from London, UK to Chennai, India!
The place is amazing! The first site after getting down out of the station is a South Indian Dosa restaurant. Beside it, there is a video shop, selling (believe it or not!) only Tamil movie DVDs and VCDs. Just to check out the shop, we went in. The shop keeper was like any typical Tamil shop keeper. We asked him, “Do you have any Hindi movies?” He just took one bunch and gave it to us. I said, “Do you have Jaane bhi do Yarron?” He said, “See, I don’t understand Hindi. There are the Hindi CDs I have. Please select from his bunch!” Well, at least it made sense. Learning Hindi in UK is not really very useful, unless of course, you are staying in Southall! (Punjabi would be more useful)
After getting over the initial shock, we went to the real estate agent to show us the house. The guy, it turned out was called Ray (he called himself Ray of Sunshine). This guy looked at us and said, “Where are you from?” So, we went into giving the typical biography, “Hello! Myil from Chennai, Sriram from Pune and me from Pune” So he said, “Ok. Don’t you want to ask where I am from?” So, I said, “Where are you from?” He said, “I am a half Indian, half Pakistani, a half-Muslim and a half-Hindu!” Oh yeah, one of his parents is from Gujarat and the other from the area that is opposite to Gujarat on the other side of the border. Talk about a world without borders!
The houses though are not worth mentioning. They were so-so. So, we were roaming around the place. We found a eating joint called “Chennai Dosas”. It looked really inviting, given the fact that it was 3 pm in the afternoon and we had not eaten since 9 am. On entrance, the fresh aroma of filter coffee mixed with the enchanting smell of hot sambar wafted around. This moment was sheer magic. It was like a moment in heaven! After weeks and weeks of curd rice (with no pickle) and one day of Sandwich (minus cheese, salad, butter, salt and pepper), the very aroma was titillating.
Savoring this captivating moment, we sat down. I had starter as Dahi Vada and then, as a main course, Rava Masala Onion Dosa. The climax of this gustatory miracle was a Filter Kapee. Anyone who is an connoisseur of coffee in India would have been happy here. More so, if for 4 months, all you have been drinking is water+coffee powder – sugar – milk!
Well, I thought the surprises would end here, but, there was one last miracle. As it was not yet time to return, we were perambulating near the shopping center. We discovered a Temple -a Balaji Temple. Paying heeds to the God in UK, we came out and behold! There was a shop selling chakkali/murukku and mixture and all the condiments that moms make during all the festivals. We barged into the shop and literally ransacked the place of these condiments and 5 bottles of pickles (for the curd rice that we would be having over the future) we left for home. Thus ended the amazing trip to Chennai of UK.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Brain Drain - Chankya explains why..
I am reading a book called Chanakya Neeti. It is a collection of the couplets by one of the greatest thinkers in India, Chanakya. In this simple 2 line stanza, he's explained the causal effect of brain drain. Wonder why we were beating our breasts for so many years, instead of reading this simple thing and starting to work on the ares of improvement!
Do not live in a country that does not allow you: self-respect, honour, means of living, a family, kith and kin, friends, well wishers, ways of education and self-development. Quit such a country. It is not fit for living.
Just think about it: A person wants to earn a living, have a happy life. If for each step of the life, a stifling bureaucracy digs its nose and robs the person and makes the person stoop low and loose his dignity, then, why will the person ever want to stay in such a place? Even after having earned the money by hard-work, if a socialistic government accuses the person of being an exploiter and taxes the harshest, then, why should this person even want to contribute his wealth for nation building in terms of taxes? No wonder we had huge hordes of black money! Education was all based on who knew whom. Merit was of no use. Of course, there were lots of friends and family members. Yet, all the other factors mentioned above were missing.
Compare it with the India now. The heroes now are Narayana Murthy, Abdul Kalam, et al: people who ooze dignity. And people who are also very rich. India now offers variety of opportunities for making a living; making money is not a bad thing anymore, things happen without one having to lose the self-respect. Education is still a bit tough, yet, meritocracy has taken firm roots. Family and friends are always there to guide us all. No wonder now people from abroad are now flocking back to the nation.
Do not live in a country that does not allow you: self-respect, honour, means of living, a family, kith and kin, friends, well wishers, ways of education and self-development. Quit such a country. It is not fit for living.
Just think about it: A person wants to earn a living, have a happy life. If for each step of the life, a stifling bureaucracy digs its nose and robs the person and makes the person stoop low and loose his dignity, then, why will the person ever want to stay in such a place? Even after having earned the money by hard-work, if a socialistic government accuses the person of being an exploiter and taxes the harshest, then, why should this person even want to contribute his wealth for nation building in terms of taxes? No wonder we had huge hordes of black money! Education was all based on who knew whom. Merit was of no use. Of course, there were lots of friends and family members. Yet, all the other factors mentioned above were missing.
Compare it with the India now. The heroes now are Narayana Murthy, Abdul Kalam, et al: people who ooze dignity. And people who are also very rich. India now offers variety of opportunities for making a living; making money is not a bad thing anymore, things happen without one having to lose the self-respect. Education is still a bit tough, yet, meritocracy has taken firm roots. Family and friends are always there to guide us all. No wonder now people from abroad are now flocking back to the nation.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Movie Review: Rang de Basanti
On Sunday, I watched the movie, Rang de Basanti in Southall, London. My first bollywood movie in UK.
It is a story of a group of friends, who representt the present generation: a generation who seem to have nothing to worry and nothing to motivate and live life for. Suddenly, a lady from Britain arrives. She’s the granddaughter of a jailor of the prison where Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries were hanged.
Till the first half, it is all about fun and jokes where people kid each other about the freedom movement and all. The real fun is the guy who is so crazy about rap music that he converts the national anthem, vande mataram and other songs to a rap.. All he says is two words from everything and then moves on to some meaningless gibberish in English.
In the second half, the story turns serious. One of the friends, a pilot in the Air Force is killed as he crash-lands his Mig 21. The defence minister instead of initiating an enquiry accuses the pilot of being reckless. This suddenly ignites the passion to fight in them all and the friends take up a protest march. When there is a lathi(police stick/baton) charge and some of the friends are hurt and the pilot’s mother is beaten badly, the friends suddenly turn into revolutionaries. They kill the defence minister and take over a radio station to convey their justifications and are ultimately killed by the security forces.
Somehow, the analogy in the movie did not seem to be right. The revolution that started after the lathi charging and firing in Jallianwala bagh is definitely not comparable to the lathi-charge against the protesters in the present. And the sudden change from being reckless youths to passionate revolutionaries is sort of abrupt. The sudden decision to kill the defence minister and then killing one of the defence related bureaucrat who happens to a hero’s father is quite a overkill. (No pun intended!)
The cynicism that is prevalent in India, where the attitude is “Chalta hai” has been captured very nicely. The lack of any motivation for the Gen X/Y/Z (whatever we are called now) is also portrayed nicely. Yet, to say that killing is the correct means to achieve a goal seemed to be wrong. I guess the real moral of the story was somehow lost in the revolutionary zeal.
The director, I guess wanted to say what the pilot (played by Madhavan) says. This is repeated by Siddharth in the radio station too. The message is: “Stop complaining. If you want things to happen, you must be the initiator.” He says, if you want to change something, why don’t you become a defenceman, an IAS officer who can administer and weed out corruption, a minister who can reinvigorate a sense of serving? Instead, we all sit in Café’s sipping Hot Chocolate (or whatever) watching NDTV and then saying, India is going to the dogs! I guess the only way to improve our country is to first improve ourselves, our thinking.. I guess, Kennedy’s saying still holds, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”.
The movie has made scathing attacks against the power hungry politicians yet, leaves away the bureaucrats with a bare scratch. After these are the guys who run the country. Policitans come and politicians fade away. What remains is the endless, tireless machinery of the babus. Against the strength of this babudom even the politicians may see themselves helpless. This was happened time and again when the whole IAS cadre raised against any move to classify them as public servants. The reason is, if they become public servants, then, they will have to serve the people, not harass, exploit and rule them. This strange phenomenon of a stone walling bureaucracy is very well brought out in the book, “India in slow motion” by Mark Tully.
Guess I was digressing a bit. Despite all the problems portrayed in the movie, I guess the youth in India are still much better off. At least there is a peer pressure and family expectation to study hard and be someone in life. In the west, even such a motivation does not exist and without the parents support, their life gets truly directionless.
Anyway, the movie on the whole was really well-made and the cinematography was class apart! The sepia colored flash-backs and the beautiful yellow sun-flowers in the end symbolizing sacrifice was a real nice touch. Three things just stood out in terms of picturization: The friends running towards a Mig 21 taking off with waving the shirts above their heads: Amir Khan breaking down after the pilot’ death and Amir’s absolutely surprise when he realizes the Brisher knows Hindi. “Yeh kudi to Hindi samjthi hai yaar!” Too good.
It is a story of a group of friends, who representt the present generation: a generation who seem to have nothing to worry and nothing to motivate and live life for. Suddenly, a lady from Britain arrives. She’s the granddaughter of a jailor of the prison where Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries were hanged.
Till the first half, it is all about fun and jokes where people kid each other about the freedom movement and all. The real fun is the guy who is so crazy about rap music that he converts the national anthem, vande mataram and other songs to a rap.. All he says is two words from everything and then moves on to some meaningless gibberish in English.
In the second half, the story turns serious. One of the friends, a pilot in the Air Force is killed as he crash-lands his Mig 21. The defence minister instead of initiating an enquiry accuses the pilot of being reckless. This suddenly ignites the passion to fight in them all and the friends take up a protest march. When there is a lathi(police stick/baton) charge and some of the friends are hurt and the pilot’s mother is beaten badly, the friends suddenly turn into revolutionaries. They kill the defence minister and take over a radio station to convey their justifications and are ultimately killed by the security forces.
Somehow, the analogy in the movie did not seem to be right. The revolution that started after the lathi charging and firing in Jallianwala bagh is definitely not comparable to the lathi-charge against the protesters in the present. And the sudden change from being reckless youths to passionate revolutionaries is sort of abrupt. The sudden decision to kill the defence minister and then killing one of the defence related bureaucrat who happens to a hero’s father is quite a overkill. (No pun intended!)
The cynicism that is prevalent in India, where the attitude is “Chalta hai” has been captured very nicely. The lack of any motivation for the Gen X/Y/Z (whatever we are called now) is also portrayed nicely. Yet, to say that killing is the correct means to achieve a goal seemed to be wrong. I guess the real moral of the story was somehow lost in the revolutionary zeal.
The director, I guess wanted to say what the pilot (played by Madhavan) says. This is repeated by Siddharth in the radio station too. The message is: “Stop complaining. If you want things to happen, you must be the initiator.” He says, if you want to change something, why don’t you become a defenceman, an IAS officer who can administer and weed out corruption, a minister who can reinvigorate a sense of serving? Instead, we all sit in Café’s sipping Hot Chocolate (or whatever) watching NDTV and then saying, India is going to the dogs! I guess the only way to improve our country is to first improve ourselves, our thinking.. I guess, Kennedy’s saying still holds, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”.
The movie has made scathing attacks against the power hungry politicians yet, leaves away the bureaucrats with a bare scratch. After these are the guys who run the country. Policitans come and politicians fade away. What remains is the endless, tireless machinery of the babus. Against the strength of this babudom even the politicians may see themselves helpless. This was happened time and again when the whole IAS cadre raised against any move to classify them as public servants. The reason is, if they become public servants, then, they will have to serve the people, not harass, exploit and rule them. This strange phenomenon of a stone walling bureaucracy is very well brought out in the book, “India in slow motion” by Mark Tully.
Guess I was digressing a bit. Despite all the problems portrayed in the movie, I guess the youth in India are still much better off. At least there is a peer pressure and family expectation to study hard and be someone in life. In the west, even such a motivation does not exist and without the parents support, their life gets truly directionless.
Anyway, the movie on the whole was really well-made and the cinematography was class apart! The sepia colored flash-backs and the beautiful yellow sun-flowers in the end symbolizing sacrifice was a real nice touch. Three things just stood out in terms of picturization: The friends running towards a Mig 21 taking off with waving the shirts above their heads: Amir Khan breaking down after the pilot’ death and Amir’s absolutely surprise when he realizes the Brisher knows Hindi. “Yeh kudi to Hindi samjthi hai yaar!” Too good.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Just another day at onsite..
Today, I thought would be just another normal day working at onsite. It’s been almost 4 months since I came to UK. At the end of the day, I really keep thinking, “How wrong could I have been?”
The day started with a call from my PM saying there was an issue with the deployment we had done yesterday. This was at 5:55 am in the morning. Life seemed to be all a turmoil from then on.
It seemed that some of the sites were down and we were being held responsible for it. There are sometimes when the meaning of self-confidence seems to make no sense. Here were client mails, client operations guys and our own company folks questioning if I had done something wrong. Ultimately, I was sitting and wondering, “Did I really screw-up this time? Is the tiny voice that seems to be making a last ditch effort all wrong? Should I just strangle and stifle that voice so that it shall stop tormenting me? Should I accept that I am one big mess?” All this and some more thoughts passed through my mind. I felt like the lousiest being on earth.
There were calls from here to India, India to US, US to UK and all around again. Somehow, I was not supposed to attend it. It seemed like a discussion by a jury, before it came out, looked at the pathetic soul which they now ruled and pronounced, “Guilty!” “Am I?” Somewhere a flickering doubt remained and kept pestering me.
By evening, the problem seemed to have evaporated. People were all friendly and “Happy Weekend to you” wishes were flying around. After day when my very being was put to test, these folks carried on like nothing happened at all. My manager simply said, “Welcome to the client-facing role”. That statement was made after handling many clients and multiple such issues. I wondered, what will it be like at his position? For after one day of this tribulation, I felt like a loser. For a person to answer these things, day-in and day-out, what must it be like? I could not imagine. My manager simply said, “These things happen. Concentrate on your daily work and things will work out fine.”
Yes, things will work out fine. But, the unsullied soul of mine is now ragged and stained. Will it ever get repaired? Probably not. Yes, I’ll become harder. The virginal innocence seems to have been raped at the hard-doors of reality. But yes, I’ll survive. Maybe, over a period of time, I’ll not even look back on such things. But, today, it was a day of absolute dismay, a day when everything I do was questioned.
Well, if you have read till here, and still willing to come onsite, please do. Just remember, on one day, you too shall face such a situation and maybe, I’ll be around and tell you, “Don’t worry. These things happen.”
The day started with a call from my PM saying there was an issue with the deployment we had done yesterday. This was at 5:55 am in the morning. Life seemed to be all a turmoil from then on.
It seemed that some of the sites were down and we were being held responsible for it. There are sometimes when the meaning of self-confidence seems to make no sense. Here were client mails, client operations guys and our own company folks questioning if I had done something wrong. Ultimately, I was sitting and wondering, “Did I really screw-up this time? Is the tiny voice that seems to be making a last ditch effort all wrong? Should I just strangle and stifle that voice so that it shall stop tormenting me? Should I accept that I am one big mess?” All this and some more thoughts passed through my mind. I felt like the lousiest being on earth.
There were calls from here to India, India to US, US to UK and all around again. Somehow, I was not supposed to attend it. It seemed like a discussion by a jury, before it came out, looked at the pathetic soul which they now ruled and pronounced, “Guilty!” “Am I?” Somewhere a flickering doubt remained and kept pestering me.
By evening, the problem seemed to have evaporated. People were all friendly and “Happy Weekend to you” wishes were flying around. After day when my very being was put to test, these folks carried on like nothing happened at all. My manager simply said, “Welcome to the client-facing role”. That statement was made after handling many clients and multiple such issues. I wondered, what will it be like at his position? For after one day of this tribulation, I felt like a loser. For a person to answer these things, day-in and day-out, what must it be like? I could not imagine. My manager simply said, “These things happen. Concentrate on your daily work and things will work out fine.”
Yes, things will work out fine. But, the unsullied soul of mine is now ragged and stained. Will it ever get repaired? Probably not. Yes, I’ll become harder. The virginal innocence seems to have been raped at the hard-doors of reality. But yes, I’ll survive. Maybe, over a period of time, I’ll not even look back on such things. But, today, it was a day of absolute dismay, a day when everything I do was questioned.
Well, if you have read till here, and still willing to come onsite, please do. Just remember, on one day, you too shall face such a situation and maybe, I’ll be around and tell you, “Don’t worry. These things happen.”
Monday, January 09, 2006
My color is Blue!
Took a quiz on this site.
And this was the result:
You're the color blue. You have the three c's in
life--you're cool, caring and confident.
Trustworthy and honest, people are naturally
attracted to you. You're unusually optimistic,
but that makes life all the better. You're an
imaginative person who loves sleeping and
dreaming. Hard-working and determined, you
excell in school. You're everybody's favorite,
and this is because you have this undefined
richness in your personality and attitude.
Mild-tempered and stable. Not to mention very
intelligent. Along with the fact that you're
conservative, you're worried about the
environment. So basically, you're a generous,
dependable and devoted--just the kind of person
everybody needs. Wouldn't it be great if
everybody in the world were like you?
What color are you? (Amazingly detailed & accurate--with pics!)
brought to you by Quizilla
And this was the result:
You're the color blue. You have the three c's in
life--you're cool, caring and confident.
Trustworthy and honest, people are naturally
attracted to you. You're unusually optimistic,
but that makes life all the better. You're an
imaginative person who loves sleeping and
dreaming. Hard-working and determined, you
excell in school. You're everybody's favorite,
and this is because you have this undefined
richness in your personality and attitude.
Mild-tempered and stable. Not to mention very
intelligent. Along with the fact that you're
conservative, you're worried about the
environment. So basically, you're a generous,
dependable and devoted--just the kind of person
everybody needs. Wouldn't it be great if
everybody in the world were like you?
What color are you? (Amazingly detailed & accurate--with pics!)
brought to you by Quizilla
Saturday, January 07, 2006
World is Flat - My thoughts
Last week, I read a book titled, World is Flat. It was a very good work by Thomas L Friedman, trying to explain the globalization that we are living in. He has attributed most of the knowledge to Nandan Nilekhani and Vivek Paul. Infosys and Wipro seem to be present in every other page and Bangalore seems to be there all around. It was quite a change to read about India, as such an attractive place, rather than the usual stuff about corruption, poverty and communalism.
Some things in the book were really worth mentioning. First thing is, where the author describes the method to identify if a country is going to prosper or not. He says, before investing, you need to ask this: “Are the people living in this country dreaming about a future or are they recollecting its past greatness?” When it is the latter, he says, the heydays of the country have ended and it is time that the people living their dreams take over. Think about it. For people like me, growing up in India from the time markets opened up in 1990, the nation has looks like an entirely different one. Politics aside, the India Shining campaign was a huge success. Why? Instead of telling about Gandhi, Nehru and all, it said, what we can do and what we are doing. It did not try to tell us about the greatness of freedom fighters and the sacrifices they made.
Come to think of it: Did Gandhi, Nehru, et. all sacrifice so much to see a country that would honor them for 50 years, or did they do it so that they could drive the nation to the league of developed ones? Somehow, this point seemed to have lost out for half a century and we were living in the larger than life shadows of figures from history rather than honoring those who were continuously propelling India to her destiny of greatness.
Another point that was worth nothing was on the issue of openness: Friedman tells this small tale: There is this person whose family was split during the partition and his part of family ended up in Pakistan while another severed part ended in Mumbai, India. Friendman questioned him about the fact that India seemed to be developing into an IT giant, while Pakistan seemed to be getting world coverage for all the wrong reasons. So, this person replied, something like this: In India, when my relative sees a rich business man sitting in a plush home in Mumbai, he’ll turn to his dad and say, “Someday, I’ll be like him.” In Pakistan, the small kid, seeing a rich businessman will say, “Someday, I’ll kill him!”
Come to thing of it: Despite the rampart corruption, stifling reservation and anachronistic legislation, India is powered by a stifling competition. More importantly, there is a free press and the fundamental right of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Thought is not censured.
In the same week that I read the book, something else strange happened: I was sitting at the client location in UK and the client PM was talking about his trip to India. He was definitely pleased. In fact, he is handling two projects: One from our company, an Indian IT service provider and another one being handled by the client’s own IT department. It seems the second project was over-running the budget and the deadlines seemed like a joke. At one point he said something like this: Maybe we should have given this to you guys itself.
That statement summarized the change in perception: India is not a cheap destination. India and Indians are now seen as an epitome of quality and delivery capabilities. What we promise, we deliver. And this perception is for delivering extremely complicated 24/7/365 enterprise solutions and web solutions being accessed by millions of people, generating billions of dollars in revenue. Howz that metamorphosis for a country that was known for only its elephants, snake charmers and />
Still, like the debate over India Shining campaign, there are problems that we need to address. The rampart corruption, the illiteracy, the caste system and all are going to be issues that the government and the people of the country have to solve. I guess it is time now that the quality of life issues is addresses like a typical business problem for an IT organization. With detailed plans, timelines and budget, I am quite sure that a country that handles the sites like eBay and Yahoo can definitely solve the so called Third World Problems.
But one thing is clear: Behold, India is now awakening and staking her claim to greatness that she always deserved!
Some things in the book were really worth mentioning. First thing is, where the author describes the method to identify if a country is going to prosper or not. He says, before investing, you need to ask this: “Are the people living in this country dreaming about a future or are they recollecting its past greatness?” When it is the latter, he says, the heydays of the country have ended and it is time that the people living their dreams take over. Think about it. For people like me, growing up in India from the time markets opened up in 1990, the nation has looks like an entirely different one. Politics aside, the India Shining campaign was a huge success. Why? Instead of telling about Gandhi, Nehru and all, it said, what we can do and what we are doing. It did not try to tell us about the greatness of freedom fighters and the sacrifices they made.
Come to think of it: Did Gandhi, Nehru, et. all sacrifice so much to see a country that would honor them for 50 years, or did they do it so that they could drive the nation to the league of developed ones? Somehow, this point seemed to have lost out for half a century and we were living in the larger than life shadows of figures from history rather than honoring those who were continuously propelling India to her destiny of greatness.
Another point that was worth nothing was on the issue of openness: Friedman tells this small tale: There is this person whose family was split during the partition and his part of family ended up in Pakistan while another severed part ended in Mumbai, India. Friendman questioned him about the fact that India seemed to be developing into an IT giant, while Pakistan seemed to be getting world coverage for all the wrong reasons. So, this person replied, something like this: In India, when my relative sees a rich business man sitting in a plush home in Mumbai, he’ll turn to his dad and say, “Someday, I’ll be like him.” In Pakistan, the small kid, seeing a rich businessman will say, “Someday, I’ll kill him!”
Come to thing of it: Despite the rampart corruption, stifling reservation and anachronistic legislation, India is powered by a stifling competition. More importantly, there is a free press and the fundamental right of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Thought is not censured.
In the same week that I read the book, something else strange happened: I was sitting at the client location in UK and the client PM was talking about his trip to India. He was definitely pleased. In fact, he is handling two projects: One from our company, an Indian IT service provider and another one being handled by the client’s own IT department. It seems the second project was over-running the budget and the deadlines seemed like a joke. At one point he said something like this: Maybe we should have given this to you guys itself.
That statement summarized the change in perception: India is not a cheap destination. India and Indians are now seen as an epitome of quality and delivery capabilities. What we promise, we deliver. And this perception is for delivering extremely complicated 24/7/365 enterprise solutions and web solutions being accessed by millions of people, generating billions of dollars in revenue. Howz that metamorphosis for a country that was known for only its elephants, snake charmers and />
Still, like the debate over India Shining campaign, there are problems that we need to address. The rampart corruption, the illiteracy, the caste system and all are going to be issues that the government and the people of the country have to solve. I guess it is time now that the quality of life issues is addresses like a typical business problem for an IT organization. With detailed plans, timelines and budget, I am quite sure that a country that handles the sites like eBay and Yahoo can definitely solve the so called Third World Problems.
But one thing is clear: Behold, India is now awakening and staking her claim to greatness that she always deserved!
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