Today, out of the blue, a class mate of mine pinged me on Google Chat. As the normal chatters, we started with the mundane stuff of 'howz wrk' and so on. Conversation then moved to stuff about 'how is your wife' and then, suddenly we realized it was all so strange...
Here we were - class mates about 12-13 years back and discussing about wife and work while the last time, we were quibbling about marks and exams! It was rather comical. And it set me off on thinking..
Life had been so fast and confusing. Here I was studying in Pune - a shy boy with an awkward Hindi and now here I am - a 'consultant' working in Bangalore after having been a team lead in Hyderabad and London. Who on earth could have said that this is the path that I'd have taken?
When in Pune, I wanted to get back to Bangalore. Now when I am in Bangalore, I want to meet friends and be in Pune. It is a very strange paradox. Just when you feel you've achieved what you'd wished for, you wish you had the old thing back. The old job (which you weren't happy about), the old college (whose lecturers made life a living night mare), the old school (where you had to work so hard on some really boring subjects) and the list goes on. It's almost like you are moving ahead in time while mentally, you want life to go back something akin to 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'.
The other thing that sometimes feel so different is the concept of online friends. Its almost like I've won tens of hundreds of 'friends' on Orkut and Facebook sacrificing the few handful of friends that I really had. The job, the internet and bottomless race to get most 'links' on LinkedIn seems to have driven me to maintain the simple human bond of calling up an old friend and just chatting away about everything and nothing. Its almost like talking to friends has become so much context-specific like targeted ads on Google. You call, you ask what you want and you disconnect.
And then, there is marriage. With so much work, online personas and avtars to take care of, marriage takes a back seat during a work-week. So, you focus on wife and try to spend some time. Or as the Americans call, 'quality time' (I can almost feel a dashboard of reports ticking away, measuring each second). Before you can connect to what your spouse is really trying to say, the weekend is up and you are back to work and the Internet. Friends take a back seat.
I don't know if I wanted to crib or protest at the way the Web has taken over the world. But, today I got very irritated removed 'Buzz' from my Gmail. My email is for me to talk to my friends or friend or any one person that I want to talk to. I don't want someone to 'like' what I read or write. I don't want someone to 'share' it with others. My conversations are for me and the people I intend. I just want them to stay in touch. And delete it whenever we want. I don't want it to be etched on the 'Buzz' dashboard for all my followers and followers of followers' for that ephemeral period of time.
And of course, I want to make a resolution to spend more time connection with real people that I know rather than chasing the unseen and unheard of 'links' on LinkedIn!
But then of course, since I've written all this, I don't want it to be obscure. So I shall Blog !!!! :-)
Monday, March 01, 2010
Quotes: Free - The Future of Radical Price by Chris Anderson
Some of the best quotes from the book. Use the follow below for Harvard style reference.
Anderson, C. (2009) Free – The Future of Radical Price. London: Random House
-Akshay Ranganath
Specialty of free
What Woodward understood was that “free” is a word with an extraordinary ability to reset consumer psychology, create new markets, break old ones and make almost any product more attractive. He also figured that “free” didn't mean profitless. It just meant that the route from product to revenue was indirect, something that would become enshrined in the retian playbook as the concept of “loss leader”. (p10)
(Woodward – introducer of Jell-O)
It is unique quality of the digital age that once something becomes software, it inevitably becomes free – in cost, certainl, and often in price.... The atoms economy is inflationary, while the bits economy is deflationary. (p12)
Humans are wired to understand scarcity better than abundance. Just as we've evolved to ocerreact to threats and danger, one of our survival tacticvs is to focus on the risk that supplies are going to run out. Abundance, from an evolutionary perspective, resolves itself, while scarcity neds to be fought over. (p50)
Just as water will flow downhill, economies flow toward abundance. Products that can become commoditized and cheap tend to do so, and companies seeking profits move upstream in search of scarcities. (p52)
Today's knowledge workers are yesterday's factory workers (and the day before's farmers) moving upstream in search of scarcity. (p54)
Characteristics of Free!
Why do people think “free” means diminished quality in one instance, and not in another? It turns out that our feelings about “free” are relative, not absolute. If something used to cost money and now doesn't we tend to corelate that wil a decline in quality. But if something never cost money, we don't feel the same way. (p56)
So, charging a price, any price, creates a ,emtal barrier that most people won't bother crossing. Free, in contrast, speeds right past that decision, increasing the numner of people who will try something. What Free grants, in exchange for forsaking direct revenues, is the potential of mass sampling. (p61)
As Wharton professor Karthik Hosanagar says, “The demand you get at the price of zero is many times higher than the demand you get at a very low price. Suddenly the demand shoots up in a non-linear fashion. (p62)
Most transactions have an upside and a downside, but when something is FREE! We forget the downside. FREE! Gives us such an emotional charge that we perceive what is being offered as immensely more valuble than it really is. Why? I think it's because humans are instrinsically afraid of loss. The real allure of FREE! Is tied to this fear. There's no visible possibility of loss when we choose the item that's not free. Uh-oh, now there's a risk of having made a poor decision – the possibility of loss. And so, given the choice, we go for what is free. (p64)
People often don't care as much about things they don't pay for, and as a result they don't think as much about how they consume them. Free can encourage gluttony, hoarding, thoughtless cnsumption, waste, guilt, and greed. We take stuff because it's there, not necessarily because we want it. Charging a price, even a low price, can encourage much more responsible behavior. (p67)
How does Free work?
Free is the best way to maximize the reach of some product or service, but if that's not what you're ultimately trying to do (Google is not trying to maximize snack food consumption), it can have counterproductive effects. Like every powerful tool, Free must be used carefully lest it cause more harm than good. (p67)
Here's how it works:
1.Build a community around free information and advice on a particlar topic.
2.With that comminity's help, design some products that people want, and return the favor by making the products free in raw form.
3.Let those with more money than time/skill/risk-tolerance buy the polished version of those products. (That may turn out to be almost everyone.)
4.Do it again and again, building a 40 percent profit margin into the products to pay the bills. (p69)
Why does Free happen?
The “triple play” of faster, better, cheaper technologies – processing, storage and badnwidth – all come together online, which is why today you can have free services like YouTube – essentially unlimited amounts of video that you can watch without delay and with increasingly high resotion – that would have been ruinously expensive just a few years ago. (p78)
Definition of 'learning curve': The principle states that the more times a task has been performed, the less time will be required for each subsequent iteration. (p82)
What Kay realized was that a technologist's job is not to figure out what technology is good for. Instead it is to make technology so cheap and easy to use, and ubiquitous that anybody can use it, so that it propagates around the world and into every niche. We, the users, will figure out a what to do with it, because each of us is different; different needs, different ideas, different knowledge, and different ways of interpreting the world. (p88)
Alan Kay: inventor of Mouse
..But the long-term pricing trends are determined by the technology itself – the more there is of a commodity, the cheaper it will be. Say's Law (named after the early-nineteenth century French economist Jean-Baptiste Say) states that “supply creates its own demand,” which is another way of saying that if you make a million times as many transistors, the world will find a use for them. (p93)
Paradoxes drive the things we care about. Marriage is a paradox: I can't live with her, and I can't live without her. Both statements are true. And the dynamics between the two statements is what keeps marriage interesting, among other things.... Paradoxes are opposite of contradictions. Contradictions shut themselves down, but paradoxes keep themselves going, because every time you acknowledge the truth of one side you're going to get caught from behind by the truth on the other side. (p99)
Classic problem of free: It's easier for the newcomers that for incumbents. That's not just because the incumbents have a revenue stream that they're in danger of cannibalizing. It's also that they have a lot more users, and the costs of serving millions of customers can be astronomical. (p115)
Advantage of free economy
..companies can start small and aim high without taking huge financial risks or knowing exactly how they will make money. (p120)
(Google's max strategy) “Take whatever it is you are doing and do it at the max in terms of distribution. The other way of saying that is since marginal cost of distribution is free, you might as well put things everywhere.” (p123)
-Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google
The interesting thing about the consumption of complementary products is that they tend to rise in tandem. The more people use the Internet, the better it is for Google's core business. So if Google can use Free to encourage people to spend more time online, it will make more money in the end. (p125)
“Liquidity” is usually thought of as just a financial term, but in truth it applies in any system of connected parties. In technology, it's called “scale”... the Internet, by giving everybody free access to a market of hundreds of millions of people globally, is a liquidity machine. Because it reaches so many people, it can work at participation rates that would be a disaster in the traditional world of non-zero marginal costs. (p129)
Free is disruptive, to be sure, but it tends to leave more efficient markets in its wake. The trick is to ensure you've bet on the winning side. (p131)
Our assumption on Google ads: Magazines are put together by people, and people can be corrupted by money. But Web advertising is placed by software algorithms, and somehow that makes it pure. (p139)
(Question on how companies make money in Free economy) Then how do they make their billions? Scale. Not quite the old joke about losing money with each sale but making it up with volume, but instead losing money with a lot of people and making it back with a relative few. Because these companies pursue the max strategy, that relative few can still amount to thousands of millions of people. (p176)
Motivation for Free
In 1971, at the dawn of the Information Age, the social scientist Herbert Simon wrote:
“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. “ (p180)
(Comparison of our information requirements to Maslow Hierarchy of Needs)
The same sort of pyramid can be applied to information. Once our hunger for basic knowledge and entertainment is satisfied, we become more discriminating about exactly what knowledge and entertainment we want, and in the process learn more about ourselves and what drives us. This ultimately turns many of us from passive consumers to active producers, motivated by the psychic rewards of creating. (p181)
Facebook and MySpace have “friends”. EBay has seller and buyer ratings. Twitter has “followers”, Slashdot has “karma” and so on. In each case, people can build reputational capital and turn it into attention. It is up to each to figure out how to convert that to money, if that's what he or she wants (most don't), but the quantification of attention and reputation is now a global endeavor. It is a market we all now play in, whether we know it or not. Reputation that was once intangible is now increasingly becoming concrete. (p184)
Why do we participate in Free economy?
In short, doing things we like without pay often makes us happier that the work we do for a salary. You will have eat, but as Maslow showed, there is more to life than that. The opportunity to contribute in a way that is both creative and appreciated is exactly the sort of fulfillment that Maslow privileged above all other aspirations, and what many jobs so seldom provide. (p189)
(Difference of piracy in online and offline world)
Pirated digital products are as good as the originals. But pirated physical products usually aren't. (p204)
Why piracy happens?
Piracy happens when the marketplace realizes that the marginal cost of reproduction and distribution of a product is significantly lower than the price asked. In other words, the only thing propping up the price is the law protecting intellectual property. If you break the law, the price can fall, sometimes all the way to zero. (p228)
Buy Book: Within India
Anderson, C. (2009) Free – The Future of Radical Price. London: Random House
-Akshay Ranganath
Specialty of free
What Woodward understood was that “free” is a word with an extraordinary ability to reset consumer psychology, create new markets, break old ones and make almost any product more attractive. He also figured that “free” didn't mean profitless. It just meant that the route from product to revenue was indirect, something that would become enshrined in the retian playbook as the concept of “loss leader”. (p10)
(Woodward – introducer of Jell-O)
It is unique quality of the digital age that once something becomes software, it inevitably becomes free – in cost, certainl, and often in price.... The atoms economy is inflationary, while the bits economy is deflationary. (p12)
Humans are wired to understand scarcity better than abundance. Just as we've evolved to ocerreact to threats and danger, one of our survival tacticvs is to focus on the risk that supplies are going to run out. Abundance, from an evolutionary perspective, resolves itself, while scarcity neds to be fought over. (p50)
Just as water will flow downhill, economies flow toward abundance. Products that can become commoditized and cheap tend to do so, and companies seeking profits move upstream in search of scarcities. (p52)
Today's knowledge workers are yesterday's factory workers (and the day before's farmers) moving upstream in search of scarcity. (p54)
Characteristics of Free!
Why do people think “free” means diminished quality in one instance, and not in another? It turns out that our feelings about “free” are relative, not absolute. If something used to cost money and now doesn't we tend to corelate that wil a decline in quality. But if something never cost money, we don't feel the same way. (p56)
So, charging a price, any price, creates a ,emtal barrier that most people won't bother crossing. Free, in contrast, speeds right past that decision, increasing the numner of people who will try something. What Free grants, in exchange for forsaking direct revenues, is the potential of mass sampling. (p61)
As Wharton professor Karthik Hosanagar says, “The demand you get at the price of zero is many times higher than the demand you get at a very low price. Suddenly the demand shoots up in a non-linear fashion. (p62)
Most transactions have an upside and a downside, but when something is FREE! We forget the downside. FREE! Gives us such an emotional charge that we perceive what is being offered as immensely more valuble than it really is. Why? I think it's because humans are instrinsically afraid of loss. The real allure of FREE! Is tied to this fear. There's no visible possibility of loss when we choose the item that's not free. Uh-oh, now there's a risk of having made a poor decision – the possibility of loss. And so, given the choice, we go for what is free. (p64)
People often don't care as much about things they don't pay for, and as a result they don't think as much about how they consume them. Free can encourage gluttony, hoarding, thoughtless cnsumption, waste, guilt, and greed. We take stuff because it's there, not necessarily because we want it. Charging a price, even a low price, can encourage much more responsible behavior. (p67)
How does Free work?
Free is the best way to maximize the reach of some product or service, but if that's not what you're ultimately trying to do (Google is not trying to maximize snack food consumption), it can have counterproductive effects. Like every powerful tool, Free must be used carefully lest it cause more harm than good. (p67)
Here's how it works:
1.Build a community around free information and advice on a particlar topic.
2.With that comminity's help, design some products that people want, and return the favor by making the products free in raw form.
3.Let those with more money than time/skill/risk-tolerance buy the polished version of those products. (That may turn out to be almost everyone.)
4.Do it again and again, building a 40 percent profit margin into the products to pay the bills. (p69)
Why does Free happen?
The “triple play” of faster, better, cheaper technologies – processing, storage and badnwidth – all come together online, which is why today you can have free services like YouTube – essentially unlimited amounts of video that you can watch without delay and with increasingly high resotion – that would have been ruinously expensive just a few years ago. (p78)
Definition of 'learning curve': The principle states that the more times a task has been performed, the less time will be required for each subsequent iteration. (p82)
What Kay realized was that a technologist's job is not to figure out what technology is good for. Instead it is to make technology so cheap and easy to use, and ubiquitous that anybody can use it, so that it propagates around the world and into every niche. We, the users, will figure out a what to do with it, because each of us is different; different needs, different ideas, different knowledge, and different ways of interpreting the world. (p88)
Alan Kay: inventor of Mouse
..But the long-term pricing trends are determined by the technology itself – the more there is of a commodity, the cheaper it will be. Say's Law (named after the early-nineteenth century French economist Jean-Baptiste Say) states that “supply creates its own demand,” which is another way of saying that if you make a million times as many transistors, the world will find a use for them. (p93)
Paradoxes drive the things we care about. Marriage is a paradox: I can't live with her, and I can't live without her. Both statements are true. And the dynamics between the two statements is what keeps marriage interesting, among other things.... Paradoxes are opposite of contradictions. Contradictions shut themselves down, but paradoxes keep themselves going, because every time you acknowledge the truth of one side you're going to get caught from behind by the truth on the other side. (p99)
Classic problem of free: It's easier for the newcomers that for incumbents. That's not just because the incumbents have a revenue stream that they're in danger of cannibalizing. It's also that they have a lot more users, and the costs of serving millions of customers can be astronomical. (p115)
Advantage of free economy
..companies can start small and aim high without taking huge financial risks or knowing exactly how they will make money. (p120)
(Google's max strategy) “Take whatever it is you are doing and do it at the max in terms of distribution. The other way of saying that is since marginal cost of distribution is free, you might as well put things everywhere.” (p123)
-Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google
The interesting thing about the consumption of complementary products is that they tend to rise in tandem. The more people use the Internet, the better it is for Google's core business. So if Google can use Free to encourage people to spend more time online, it will make more money in the end. (p125)
“Liquidity” is usually thought of as just a financial term, but in truth it applies in any system of connected parties. In technology, it's called “scale”... the Internet, by giving everybody free access to a market of hundreds of millions of people globally, is a liquidity machine. Because it reaches so many people, it can work at participation rates that would be a disaster in the traditional world of non-zero marginal costs. (p129)
Free is disruptive, to be sure, but it tends to leave more efficient markets in its wake. The trick is to ensure you've bet on the winning side. (p131)
Our assumption on Google ads: Magazines are put together by people, and people can be corrupted by money. But Web advertising is placed by software algorithms, and somehow that makes it pure. (p139)
(Question on how companies make money in Free economy) Then how do they make their billions? Scale. Not quite the old joke about losing money with each sale but making it up with volume, but instead losing money with a lot of people and making it back with a relative few. Because these companies pursue the max strategy, that relative few can still amount to thousands of millions of people. (p176)
Motivation for Free
In 1971, at the dawn of the Information Age, the social scientist Herbert Simon wrote:
“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. “ (p180)
(Comparison of our information requirements to Maslow Hierarchy of Needs)
The same sort of pyramid can be applied to information. Once our hunger for basic knowledge and entertainment is satisfied, we become more discriminating about exactly what knowledge and entertainment we want, and in the process learn more about ourselves and what drives us. This ultimately turns many of us from passive consumers to active producers, motivated by the psychic rewards of creating. (p181)
Facebook and MySpace have “friends”. EBay has seller and buyer ratings. Twitter has “followers”, Slashdot has “karma” and so on. In each case, people can build reputational capital and turn it into attention. It is up to each to figure out how to convert that to money, if that's what he or she wants (most don't), but the quantification of attention and reputation is now a global endeavor. It is a market we all now play in, whether we know it or not. Reputation that was once intangible is now increasingly becoming concrete. (p184)
Why do we participate in Free economy?
In short, doing things we like without pay often makes us happier that the work we do for a salary. You will have eat, but as Maslow showed, there is more to life than that. The opportunity to contribute in a way that is both creative and appreciated is exactly the sort of fulfillment that Maslow privileged above all other aspirations, and what many jobs so seldom provide. (p189)
(Difference of piracy in online and offline world)
Pirated digital products are as good as the originals. But pirated physical products usually aren't. (p204)
Why piracy happens?
Piracy happens when the marketplace realizes that the marginal cost of reproduction and distribution of a product is significantly lower than the price asked. In other words, the only thing propping up the price is the law protecting intellectual property. If you break the law, the price can fall, sometimes all the way to zero. (p228)
Buy Book: Within India
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Visit to Singapore
Day 1 - Jan 9th, 2010
We visited the Sentosa. We started from the train ride across the sea via a train ride from the Vivo City rail.
First we visited the Merlion. Merlion is the symbol of Singapore combining the regality of a lion and the wonders of sea. It has the head of a lion and the rail of a mermain – hence named Marlion. There is a manufactured myth woven around it. So the place we visited is a huge Merlion statue. We reach its mouth and the head to get a view of the whole city.
Next we took the luge and sky rides. Luge ride is a small cart like vehicle that just has brakes. We go across a lot of criss crossing track – and it feels more like go-carting, except this vehicle has no fuel or engine needs. Sky ride is a rope-ay trip across the island. It is fun. For (newly?) married couple it is a nice time to get close to each other and take a few snaps.
We then took the Tiger Sky ride. This is a huge 50 m tower with a circular glass-covered lift. The lift takes you to the top and rotates slowly during the ascent and descent to give a panoramic view of the whole place. Quite a nice ride that sort of show-cases how beautiful the Sentosa Island looks and the greenary of the island.
We then had pizza and onion rings for lunch.
Next stop was some stunning 4-D movies. Although we had to wait a lot, these movies were worth the wait. The first movie was a spoof of the Pirates of the Carribean. In this 4-D movie bees attack you, bats spit at you and water keeps splashing at you in 3-D as part of plot; and in 4-D your seats tilt, get bumped and spray water at you. So whenever someone falls in water, you get sprayed! Feels like you're the one who really shot the whole move.
The next 4-D movie was the 'Extreme Log Ride'. You undertake a journey of a log, as it is cut down and transported to a mill. However, it is not as lame as it sounds. This particular log goes through a contraption of water ducts and pathways that would be put the best roller-coaster to shame! We were left with a hoarse throat after all the 'whoooos' that we'd been shouting.
The final stop was towards the Siloso Point. There was supposed to be a dolphin show but we just missed it by a whisker. The last show was at 5:30 pm. Due to map confusing us, we reached and 5:37 pm. And we were locked out :-( However, we proceeded towards the Sentosa point.Sentosa point itself is a very small islet – about the size of a two or three stadiums. This islet is connected to Sentosa island by a ropeway. Significantly, this is the southermost point on the continental Asia. At this place, the scenary is stunning – the vista of the setting sun, the tinkling of the harbored ships and the sensuos curves of coconut trees jutting out into the ocean made it a refreshing sight and a photographers' paradise. After shooting lots of photos, we made it back the Sentosa park.
The final destination was the “Songs of the Sea” show. Its a story. Its a story of how a boy sings his song and wakes up the power in fire, the spark in light, the liveliness of water and ends up waking a cursed pricness from her sleep. The only twist is that this story is told as a musical combined with water fountain and laser show on the water fountain and controlled fires and fire-crackers. To say that it was an incredible sight itself is an understatement. I must say that Singapore should have a law that says that any visitor who has not visited the Songs of the Sea should be rejected his immigration check and made to return back!
And then, we return home. So that was our first day in Singapore.
Day 2 - Jan 10th, 2010
On Day 2, the number of individual places we visited was less, just 2 in fact. We visited the Jurong Bird Park and the Night Safari.
From home, we first went to the Jurong Bird Park. This is a collection of thousands of birds spanning multiple geographies and temperature zones. Birds ranging from equitorial zones to the arctic zone are protected, bred and displayed in this park.
First thing in the park was our mandatory 'hello' to the penguins. There was a whole bunch of king penguins and the Robbin Williams type (from Happy Feet) penguins ambling about in the enclosure. Being specially protected, the enclosure for penguins is closed and sealed. Temperature must be sub-zero as we saw snow on the ground and the penguins seemed to be having a good time.
Next was the photo-op. Right near the entrance is a bunch of some amazingly colorful parrots, parakeets and cokatoos. You stand in-front of them, hold a pair of birds in one hand, you spouse in the other and then smile for the cameras :-) The park itself has photographers who take a snap and instantaneously, the photo gets downloaded onto a PC nearby. The operator there using Kodak Editing software corrects the photo and presents you 3 options. You pick one and the format of photo – whether it is a photo for a frame – or a photo for glass ball filled with shiny stuff. So, we picked the shiny globe as our momemto and the visit to the park is preserved as a wonderful show-piece for us.
Falmingos were the next birds on our route. The Bird Park guys call the flamingos as the super-model of birds. They could easily give a run to any of our top super-models for their long slender legs and graceful walk!
Then came the pelicans. We were hammered with the info that 'the beak of pelicans is so large that it can hold upto 13 litres of water'. There are 8 different varieties of pelicans, and one – the Chilean pelican is the only one not in the park. We saw the pelicans being fed – and man they gobble up fish like crazy.
From the pelicans it was time to watch the bird feeding show. Here the park guys feed the birds and while they are eating, show you the different types of birds and explain their characteristics. It is a wonderful mode of teaching for children – they get to see the actual birds in their fully radiant colors while learning about them. You even get to feed the birds for only S$ 3!
Then it was time to see the 'Birds and Buddies' show. Here, the birds proved that they weren't just bird brains. They showed that they have a lot of intelligence and can do some cool stuff! There was a basketball match between two parrots (our team parrot won!); flew threw the hoops; collected money from audience and then returned it and finally a parrot sang 'Happy Birthday to you!'. Simply amazing.
Then it was time to go back to the penguins to watch them being fed. These guys are more crazy for fish than pelicans. When the person in charge carried a bucket of fish, the penguins would walk like kids behind an adult who is distributing chocolates – tugging at him, crowding around him, beseeching him and finally stealing from him :-) When the fish deluded them and landed in the water, penguins seemed to take the plunge and swim like it was an F1 race. And they are fast!
The final show in the park was the Birds of Prey show. It was time to see the action of some of the fastest and sharpest birds – the eagles, vultures and the kites. One of the task for kites was to catch pieces of meat that were shot from a catalpult and these kites would just grab it off! The other task was to steal meat from the presenter's plate while he tried to not allow the birds to take away his meat. No matter how hard the presenter tried, within three passes one of kite would steal away the meat. They're simply too swift.
And then we bid aidue to the bird park.
Next destination was the Night Safari.
At Night Safari, a whole artifical forest cover has been created. It is a reserve to house some of the most endangered species as well as to provide an opportunity for people to see this animals in as natural environment as possible. The park opens only at 7pm. So, no point in going here before 6:30.
At 7 pm, there is a tribal dance show. These guys are amazing – they throw flames, shoot darts and fool audience to their heart's desire. And the audience just love them for it. In our show, they made fooled a lady to believe she could shoot darts (when she hadn't shot any dart at all) and fooled a guy to believe he could swallow flame. We then took a huge walk around the park. Its called a tiger trail and goes around the enclosure for various animals. There's a lot of animals to see as well – the hyneas, foxes, wolves, etc. The highlight though was the flying squirrel. It can shame any trapeeze artist by miles. We saw a squirrel jump off from a height of about 20 m to a tree of about 4 m and a distance of about 5 m. And it executed this jump in the blink of the eye. Its eyesight must have been fantabulous to first spot the right spot for landing and jumping with precise speed and thrust to exactly land on this spot. An awesome sight indeed.
After the trail walk, we went to see the night show. It is a show where some small animals do stunts – like otters showing you how to recycle (throw cans and bottles in appropriate bins) etc. Wouldn't say that it is the greatest show but worth a watch. The only issue I had – the presenter screams and that's quite painful to listen after such a weary day.
Finally, we took the tram ride. The electric tram goes round the safari and once more you a lot more animals. After about 40 minutes you're back and ready to hog a lot of dinner. There's an Indian tandoor place serving a nice buffet or biryani. We had biryani and naan. Then we came back home and crashed into bed. Thus ended our day two at Singapore.
Day 3 – Jan 11th 2009
The third day in Singapore was a bit more relaxed. We took time to eat and get ready, starting on trip by only at 2 pm.
We took the MRT/LRT trains and reached Clarke Quay. This place, for those who have visited UK is very similar to the City of Westminster and the walk along Thames. Clarke Quay is beside the river Singapore. The river, the wide bridges, the amphitheatre and the parliament house that looks like St. Paul’s’ Cathedral is very reminiscent of the land of the queen.
Going further is the Asia Civilization Museum (ACM). Since we didn’t know much about it, we decided to take a chance and visit it. It was a bit of mistake! The museum is well organized and maintained. But, it is not a place to be, if you are planning to walk a lot. The multiple galleries depicting the history of China, India, South-East Asia, Singapore and tribal arts is quite taxing on the legs. By the time we completed the museum, it took us about an hour and tired out my wife completely. At S$ 15 the tickets too aren’t that cheap. So, unless you’re interested in history and culture, my suggestion is – give it a skip. Take pictures of the building from outside but, don’t go in.
We then walked across the bridge to see the Merlion. This Merlion is different from the one we visited on day 1 at Sentosa. The Merlion here is smaller. It has a fountain in its mouth and the water drains into the River Singapore. Located just beside some really tall buildings and the 5 star hotel, it looks quite photogenic and tourists throng here for the exact same reason.
We then had a coffee at the under-the-bridge Starbucks and passed through the food joints. You get lots and lots of varieties of cuisines ranging from Malaysian, Singaporean to Indian, Chinese, and even Lebenese. Unfortunately we weren’t hungry at all – and had to forgo the food. Warning: For veggies who are queasy around non-veg, this place may look a bit gross. You can see live fresh-water crabs and lobsters in tanks and grilled duck with the recognizable beaks and bodies. So, be careful!
There is a boat ride around the river just like London. However, I did not find it as interesting. There is not much of history around the river and the guide is actually a recorded voice. In London, it is a live guide who makes the experience so very lively by his jokes and pranks. And there is enough history, treachery, blood, art and architecture to explain on an hour long trip. Here, the ride lasts about 30 minutes, most of which is spent in-between the guide’s pauses. My suggestion: If you are on a short budget, give the boat ride too a miss. Instead, just walk around and you can cover the whole path in just about an hour.
The tall buildings are quite majestic and sight and look quite amazing when lit. Unfortunately by the end of boat ride, we were all way too tired to stand and had to return back before the lights went on. So, we’re planning a trip again tomorrow.. so watch out for more…
On our way back home, we visited a small shopping mall at Fajah. Here we had a traditional Singaporean snack – the Kaaya. It tastes like toasted bread and butter. It has this traditional spread that is a bit sweet and salty applied on break – and it tasted quite good.
Day 4 - Jan 12th
Day 4 was a bit more relaxed. We had a lazy breakfast, an early lunch and a small cat-nap before starting on our tour. I also had a lot of stuff to study for the sake of my MBA seminar and this time-off came in handy.
First we visited the China Town. This is the area in Singapore where early Chinese, mainly the workers at the docks used to stay. The area used to be teeming with Chinese labourers, coupled with authentic food joints, shops – in effect making it replica of China itself. Even though the residents are now more integrated into the society, the area still retains its authentic Chinese charm. The shops are all very colourful, selling wares ranging from small miniature statues to T-Shirts, electronic items and a lot of knick-knacks for the upcoming Chinese New Year. Within the Little China is a Mariamman temple. Its gopuram was confused for a pagoda and thus, a lane called Pagoda Street exists but, no real Pagoda is present at all.
The next place we visited is the Suntec City / Citilink Mall. This is a massive underground mall, housing thousands of shops as well as a huge fountain that was once considered the biggest fountain on earth. Called the Fountain of Wealth, this fountain is designed based on Hindu tradition. There is an enclosure which is supposed to be in the form of a mandala. Within it, the fountain operates. Within the mandala, there is a small fountain. Belief has it that if you wish for something while going-round the fountain twice, the wish comes true. So, we too took a shot, made a wish and did our three pradakshina. At 7 pm in the evening, this fountain turns really colourful and interesting. There is a laser show on the fountain. Starting with some color display, it progresses to laser pattern show and concludes with people’s message appearing on the fountain. It is nice to see but, no as great as the ‘Songs of the Sea’ show that I described in Day 1.
Lastly, we went into the City Link Mall and had a nice sumptuous Indian dinner at Pangot, located on the top floor of the underground mall. The food was truly Indian in taste and after the dinner, we came back home.
Within the mall, there are a lot of places to eat – if you are a non-vegetarian and crave sea-food. For veggies like us though it is a bit tough. At most places, there is the distinct smell of sea-food that sort of makes you uneasy and lose out on any appetite for eating. And so, finally you are left with at eating in an Indian joint!
Day 5 - Jan 13th
This is the last my last full day in Singapore. So, it felt like we had to complete visiting all palces on this one day!
So, we started late :-) We started at around 2 pm and reached Marina Bay station. We were planning to visit the Marina Barrage. This is a fresh water reservoir, completed as recently as the year 2007. It is one of the first water reservoir right in the heart of any city. And it is an engineering marvel. This barrage, at a size of 1/6th of whole of Singaopore has been planned to store water for fulfilling the requirements till about 2030. It was built across the sea and water was gradually drained out so that the saltiness was removed.
The barrage operates to keep the water level constant despite the high and low tides. During a low tide, the 8-10 gates are closed so that water does not flow out to the sea when the sea water level is lower than the water level in the barrage. During a high tide, when the water level in the sea is higher than the water in the barrage, the same gates keep the salt water out. In case of heavy rains during the tides, different mechanisms are in place to ensure the water level stays constant and no flooding occurs.
Until a year or two, this place was barred for tourists and general visitors. Later on, the minister of environment decided that the best way to educate and encourage people to be more 'green' opened up the barrage for public and for water sports. There is an exhibition of sustainable energy, the history of the Singapore river, the construction of the barrage and finally a model that explains the working of the barrage.
Oh yes, we walked like stupid people all the way from the Marina Bay station to Marina Barrage. This distance is easily about 3-5 kms. So, please take a bus right outside station – or take a cab, if you can find one. But, don't ever plan to walk. It is not worth it. Luckily for us, there were no rains during our walk. However, the moment we entered the barrage, it started to rain!
Next, we took a train ride to – surprise surpise.. Little India :-) Of course, we weren't missing India so much. However, we just wanted to buy a few electronic items and the best shop around is the Mustfa Centre. So, we reached Little India. As per the name, this place is like India – chaotic, noisy and festive – with decoration for Pongal on all the roads.
After all the walk on Marina Barrage, we were hngry. So, we had to make a mandatory visit to Saravanaa Bavan. Yes, there is one in Singapore too. These guys should have some sort of loyalty programme. People who have eaten in more than one country at Saravanaa Bavan get 10% off :-) And I'd qualify (India, UK and Singapore hehehehe).
We then entered the 'Alice in Wonderland' type of a hole of Mustafa. It is a 7 storey complex with a building that spans across three cross-roads and could fill up a cricket ground or more. So it is BIG. And the best part is people inside actually know their way around and the place where products are displayed. We were thoroughly confused on where to get mobiles – and a lady selling herbal medicine on basement 2 told us that it would be available at floor 1, front, right side. Amazing!
We bought a Nokia 6630 for Vinaya and a Nokia 5130 XpressMusci for Vinaya's brother. And then, a neat little 1 TB external USB drive for myself :-) And I was 30 K lesser on my bank account. This place is injurious to health. The products displayed are so enticing that you'd don't really think about it and when the final bill arrives, it is a shocker.
We then ate at a neary Ananda Bhavan returant. I had a 'Plain Masala Thosai'. I was not in a mood to eat 'Medu Vadai'. And then, we had butter-milk and started back for home. My last long trip in Singapore came to an end. Tomorrow, I am off to Malaysia.
Day 6 – Singapore to Malaysia
So my trip to Singapore is done. And for the first time in my life, I have to leave my wife behind and travel alone to a new country. Its not for long – just for two days. I know. But, still there is that strange feeling of holloness in stomach that I can't get rid off.
On the last day in Singapore, we've not planned any trips. I am just at home, coping the images and figuring out a method to use the new external hard drive. Time just does not seem to move. I've done the copy, the recopy, packing, weighing and re-packing. Finally, I get bored have lunch and head out to the airport. I'm left my wife behind. I was planning to take a walk with her to catch the taxi. But fate had other plans. I get a taxi right after we get out of the elevator! The drive takes is astonishingly fast and I am in airport in just 25 minutes. As everything in Singapore, the budget terminal is very clean. With nothing to do, I take out the Micheal Crichton book, “Pirate Latitudes” and finish more than half the book before the boarding call is announced.
The flight takes off. I turn a page or two. I start filling out the immigration form for Malaysia and the pilot announces that the plane is ready for landing! The flight journey from Singapore to Malaysia is hardly 30 minutes. The taxiing on the runways, the pre-flight checks and the post-landing delays all add up to an hour. It must be the shortest flight that I've ever made!
Within the airport, there are taxi counters. I just took them. The taxi driver does not know English or Tamil. And I don't know Malay. So, I tell him the address. He tells me his understanding of the address. We go. He takes me straight to a University. I feel happy. At least someone still thinks I am quite young :-)
Rest of the story of Malaysia in the next blog :-)
We visited the Sentosa. We started from the train ride across the sea via a train ride from the Vivo City rail.
First we visited the Merlion. Merlion is the symbol of Singapore combining the regality of a lion and the wonders of sea. It has the head of a lion and the rail of a mermain – hence named Marlion. There is a manufactured myth woven around it. So the place we visited is a huge Merlion statue. We reach its mouth and the head to get a view of the whole city.
Next we took the luge and sky rides. Luge ride is a small cart like vehicle that just has brakes. We go across a lot of criss crossing track – and it feels more like go-carting, except this vehicle has no fuel or engine needs. Sky ride is a rope-ay trip across the island. It is fun. For (newly?) married couple it is a nice time to get close to each other and take a few snaps.
We then took the Tiger Sky ride. This is a huge 50 m tower with a circular glass-covered lift. The lift takes you to the top and rotates slowly during the ascent and descent to give a panoramic view of the whole place. Quite a nice ride that sort of show-cases how beautiful the Sentosa Island looks and the greenary of the island.
We then had pizza and onion rings for lunch.
Next stop was some stunning 4-D movies. Although we had to wait a lot, these movies were worth the wait. The first movie was a spoof of the Pirates of the Carribean. In this 4-D movie bees attack you, bats spit at you and water keeps splashing at you in 3-D as part of plot; and in 4-D your seats tilt, get bumped and spray water at you. So whenever someone falls in water, you get sprayed! Feels like you're the one who really shot the whole move.
The next 4-D movie was the 'Extreme Log Ride'. You undertake a journey of a log, as it is cut down and transported to a mill. However, it is not as lame as it sounds. This particular log goes through a contraption of water ducts and pathways that would be put the best roller-coaster to shame! We were left with a hoarse throat after all the 'whoooos' that we'd been shouting.
The final stop was towards the Siloso Point. There was supposed to be a dolphin show but we just missed it by a whisker. The last show was at 5:30 pm. Due to map confusing us, we reached and 5:37 pm. And we were locked out :-( However, we proceeded towards the Sentosa point.Sentosa point itself is a very small islet – about the size of a two or three stadiums. This islet is connected to Sentosa island by a ropeway. Significantly, this is the southermost point on the continental Asia. At this place, the scenary is stunning – the vista of the setting sun, the tinkling of the harbored ships and the sensuos curves of coconut trees jutting out into the ocean made it a refreshing sight and a photographers' paradise. After shooting lots of photos, we made it back the Sentosa park.
The final destination was the “Songs of the Sea” show. Its a story. Its a story of how a boy sings his song and wakes up the power in fire, the spark in light, the liveliness of water and ends up waking a cursed pricness from her sleep. The only twist is that this story is told as a musical combined with water fountain and laser show on the water fountain and controlled fires and fire-crackers. To say that it was an incredible sight itself is an understatement. I must say that Singapore should have a law that says that any visitor who has not visited the Songs of the Sea should be rejected his immigration check and made to return back!
And then, we return home. So that was our first day in Singapore.
Day 2 - Jan 10th, 2010
On Day 2, the number of individual places we visited was less, just 2 in fact. We visited the Jurong Bird Park and the Night Safari.
From home, we first went to the Jurong Bird Park. This is a collection of thousands of birds spanning multiple geographies and temperature zones. Birds ranging from equitorial zones to the arctic zone are protected, bred and displayed in this park.
First thing in the park was our mandatory 'hello' to the penguins. There was a whole bunch of king penguins and the Robbin Williams type (from Happy Feet) penguins ambling about in the enclosure. Being specially protected, the enclosure for penguins is closed and sealed. Temperature must be sub-zero as we saw snow on the ground and the penguins seemed to be having a good time.
Next was the photo-op. Right near the entrance is a bunch of some amazingly colorful parrots, parakeets and cokatoos. You stand in-front of them, hold a pair of birds in one hand, you spouse in the other and then smile for the cameras :-) The park itself has photographers who take a snap and instantaneously, the photo gets downloaded onto a PC nearby. The operator there using Kodak Editing software corrects the photo and presents you 3 options. You pick one and the format of photo – whether it is a photo for a frame – or a photo for glass ball filled with shiny stuff. So, we picked the shiny globe as our momemto and the visit to the park is preserved as a wonderful show-piece for us.
Falmingos were the next birds on our route. The Bird Park guys call the flamingos as the super-model of birds. They could easily give a run to any of our top super-models for their long slender legs and graceful walk!
Then came the pelicans. We were hammered with the info that 'the beak of pelicans is so large that it can hold upto 13 litres of water'. There are 8 different varieties of pelicans, and one – the Chilean pelican is the only one not in the park. We saw the pelicans being fed – and man they gobble up fish like crazy.
From the pelicans it was time to watch the bird feeding show. Here the park guys feed the birds and while they are eating, show you the different types of birds and explain their characteristics. It is a wonderful mode of teaching for children – they get to see the actual birds in their fully radiant colors while learning about them. You even get to feed the birds for only S$ 3!
Then it was time to see the 'Birds and Buddies' show. Here, the birds proved that they weren't just bird brains. They showed that they have a lot of intelligence and can do some cool stuff! There was a basketball match between two parrots (our team parrot won!); flew threw the hoops; collected money from audience and then returned it and finally a parrot sang 'Happy Birthday to you!'. Simply amazing.
Then it was time to go back to the penguins to watch them being fed. These guys are more crazy for fish than pelicans. When the person in charge carried a bucket of fish, the penguins would walk like kids behind an adult who is distributing chocolates – tugging at him, crowding around him, beseeching him and finally stealing from him :-) When the fish deluded them and landed in the water, penguins seemed to take the plunge and swim like it was an F1 race. And they are fast!
The final show in the park was the Birds of Prey show. It was time to see the action of some of the fastest and sharpest birds – the eagles, vultures and the kites. One of the task for kites was to catch pieces of meat that were shot from a catalpult and these kites would just grab it off! The other task was to steal meat from the presenter's plate while he tried to not allow the birds to take away his meat. No matter how hard the presenter tried, within three passes one of kite would steal away the meat. They're simply too swift.
And then we bid aidue to the bird park.
Next destination was the Night Safari.
At Night Safari, a whole artifical forest cover has been created. It is a reserve to house some of the most endangered species as well as to provide an opportunity for people to see this animals in as natural environment as possible. The park opens only at 7pm. So, no point in going here before 6:30.
At 7 pm, there is a tribal dance show. These guys are amazing – they throw flames, shoot darts and fool audience to their heart's desire. And the audience just love them for it. In our show, they made fooled a lady to believe she could shoot darts (when she hadn't shot any dart at all) and fooled a guy to believe he could swallow flame. We then took a huge walk around the park. Its called a tiger trail and goes around the enclosure for various animals. There's a lot of animals to see as well – the hyneas, foxes, wolves, etc. The highlight though was the flying squirrel. It can shame any trapeeze artist by miles. We saw a squirrel jump off from a height of about 20 m to a tree of about 4 m and a distance of about 5 m. And it executed this jump in the blink of the eye. Its eyesight must have been fantabulous to first spot the right spot for landing and jumping with precise speed and thrust to exactly land on this spot. An awesome sight indeed.
After the trail walk, we went to see the night show. It is a show where some small animals do stunts – like otters showing you how to recycle (throw cans and bottles in appropriate bins) etc. Wouldn't say that it is the greatest show but worth a watch. The only issue I had – the presenter screams and that's quite painful to listen after such a weary day.
Finally, we took the tram ride. The electric tram goes round the safari and once more you a lot more animals. After about 40 minutes you're back and ready to hog a lot of dinner. There's an Indian tandoor place serving a nice buffet or biryani. We had biryani and naan. Then we came back home and crashed into bed. Thus ended our day two at Singapore.
Day 3 – Jan 11th 2009
The third day in Singapore was a bit more relaxed. We took time to eat and get ready, starting on trip by only at 2 pm.
We took the MRT/LRT trains and reached Clarke Quay. This place, for those who have visited UK is very similar to the City of Westminster and the walk along Thames. Clarke Quay is beside the river Singapore. The river, the wide bridges, the amphitheatre and the parliament house that looks like St. Paul’s’ Cathedral is very reminiscent of the land of the queen.
Going further is the Asia Civilization Museum (ACM). Since we didn’t know much about it, we decided to take a chance and visit it. It was a bit of mistake! The museum is well organized and maintained. But, it is not a place to be, if you are planning to walk a lot. The multiple galleries depicting the history of China, India, South-East Asia, Singapore and tribal arts is quite taxing on the legs. By the time we completed the museum, it took us about an hour and tired out my wife completely. At S$ 15 the tickets too aren’t that cheap. So, unless you’re interested in history and culture, my suggestion is – give it a skip. Take pictures of the building from outside but, don’t go in.
We then walked across the bridge to see the Merlion. This Merlion is different from the one we visited on day 1 at Sentosa. The Merlion here is smaller. It has a fountain in its mouth and the water drains into the River Singapore. Located just beside some really tall buildings and the 5 star hotel, it looks quite photogenic and tourists throng here for the exact same reason.
We then had a coffee at the under-the-bridge Starbucks and passed through the food joints. You get lots and lots of varieties of cuisines ranging from Malaysian, Singaporean to Indian, Chinese, and even Lebenese. Unfortunately we weren’t hungry at all – and had to forgo the food. Warning: For veggies who are queasy around non-veg, this place may look a bit gross. You can see live fresh-water crabs and lobsters in tanks and grilled duck with the recognizable beaks and bodies. So, be careful!
There is a boat ride around the river just like London. However, I did not find it as interesting. There is not much of history around the river and the guide is actually a recorded voice. In London, it is a live guide who makes the experience so very lively by his jokes and pranks. And there is enough history, treachery, blood, art and architecture to explain on an hour long trip. Here, the ride lasts about 30 minutes, most of which is spent in-between the guide’s pauses. My suggestion: If you are on a short budget, give the boat ride too a miss. Instead, just walk around and you can cover the whole path in just about an hour.
The tall buildings are quite majestic and sight and look quite amazing when lit. Unfortunately by the end of boat ride, we were all way too tired to stand and had to return back before the lights went on. So, we’re planning a trip again tomorrow.. so watch out for more…
On our way back home, we visited a small shopping mall at Fajah. Here we had a traditional Singaporean snack – the Kaaya. It tastes like toasted bread and butter. It has this traditional spread that is a bit sweet and salty applied on break – and it tasted quite good.
Day 4 - Jan 12th
Day 4 was a bit more relaxed. We had a lazy breakfast, an early lunch and a small cat-nap before starting on our tour. I also had a lot of stuff to study for the sake of my MBA seminar and this time-off came in handy.
First we visited the China Town. This is the area in Singapore where early Chinese, mainly the workers at the docks used to stay. The area used to be teeming with Chinese labourers, coupled with authentic food joints, shops – in effect making it replica of China itself. Even though the residents are now more integrated into the society, the area still retains its authentic Chinese charm. The shops are all very colourful, selling wares ranging from small miniature statues to T-Shirts, electronic items and a lot of knick-knacks for the upcoming Chinese New Year. Within the Little China is a Mariamman temple. Its gopuram was confused for a pagoda and thus, a lane called Pagoda Street exists but, no real Pagoda is present at all.
The next place we visited is the Suntec City / Citilink Mall. This is a massive underground mall, housing thousands of shops as well as a huge fountain that was once considered the biggest fountain on earth. Called the Fountain of Wealth, this fountain is designed based on Hindu tradition. There is an enclosure which is supposed to be in the form of a mandala. Within it, the fountain operates. Within the mandala, there is a small fountain. Belief has it that if you wish for something while going-round the fountain twice, the wish comes true. So, we too took a shot, made a wish and did our three pradakshina. At 7 pm in the evening, this fountain turns really colourful and interesting. There is a laser show on the fountain. Starting with some color display, it progresses to laser pattern show and concludes with people’s message appearing on the fountain. It is nice to see but, no as great as the ‘Songs of the Sea’ show that I described in Day 1.
Lastly, we went into the City Link Mall and had a nice sumptuous Indian dinner at Pangot, located on the top floor of the underground mall. The food was truly Indian in taste and after the dinner, we came back home.
Within the mall, there are a lot of places to eat – if you are a non-vegetarian and crave sea-food. For veggies like us though it is a bit tough. At most places, there is the distinct smell of sea-food that sort of makes you uneasy and lose out on any appetite for eating. And so, finally you are left with at eating in an Indian joint!
Day 5 - Jan 13th
This is the last my last full day in Singapore. So, it felt like we had to complete visiting all palces on this one day!
So, we started late :-) We started at around 2 pm and reached Marina Bay station. We were planning to visit the Marina Barrage. This is a fresh water reservoir, completed as recently as the year 2007. It is one of the first water reservoir right in the heart of any city. And it is an engineering marvel. This barrage, at a size of 1/6th of whole of Singaopore has been planned to store water for fulfilling the requirements till about 2030. It was built across the sea and water was gradually drained out so that the saltiness was removed.
The barrage operates to keep the water level constant despite the high and low tides. During a low tide, the 8-10 gates are closed so that water does not flow out to the sea when the sea water level is lower than the water level in the barrage. During a high tide, when the water level in the sea is higher than the water in the barrage, the same gates keep the salt water out. In case of heavy rains during the tides, different mechanisms are in place to ensure the water level stays constant and no flooding occurs.
Until a year or two, this place was barred for tourists and general visitors. Later on, the minister of environment decided that the best way to educate and encourage people to be more 'green' opened up the barrage for public and for water sports. There is an exhibition of sustainable energy, the history of the Singapore river, the construction of the barrage and finally a model that explains the working of the barrage.
Oh yes, we walked like stupid people all the way from the Marina Bay station to Marina Barrage. This distance is easily about 3-5 kms. So, please take a bus right outside station – or take a cab, if you can find one. But, don't ever plan to walk. It is not worth it. Luckily for us, there were no rains during our walk. However, the moment we entered the barrage, it started to rain!
Next, we took a train ride to – surprise surpise.. Little India :-) Of course, we weren't missing India so much. However, we just wanted to buy a few electronic items and the best shop around is the Mustfa Centre. So, we reached Little India. As per the name, this place is like India – chaotic, noisy and festive – with decoration for Pongal on all the roads.
After all the walk on Marina Barrage, we were hngry. So, we had to make a mandatory visit to Saravanaa Bavan. Yes, there is one in Singapore too. These guys should have some sort of loyalty programme. People who have eaten in more than one country at Saravanaa Bavan get 10% off :-) And I'd qualify (India, UK and Singapore hehehehe).
We then entered the 'Alice in Wonderland' type of a hole of Mustafa. It is a 7 storey complex with a building that spans across three cross-roads and could fill up a cricket ground or more. So it is BIG. And the best part is people inside actually know their way around and the place where products are displayed. We were thoroughly confused on where to get mobiles – and a lady selling herbal medicine on basement 2 told us that it would be available at floor 1, front, right side. Amazing!
We bought a Nokia 6630 for Vinaya and a Nokia 5130 XpressMusci for Vinaya's brother. And then, a neat little 1 TB external USB drive for myself :-) And I was 30 K lesser on my bank account. This place is injurious to health. The products displayed are so enticing that you'd don't really think about it and when the final bill arrives, it is a shocker.
We then ate at a neary Ananda Bhavan returant. I had a 'Plain Masala Thosai'. I was not in a mood to eat 'Medu Vadai'. And then, we had butter-milk and started back for home. My last long trip in Singapore came to an end. Tomorrow, I am off to Malaysia.
Day 6 – Singapore to Malaysia
So my trip to Singapore is done. And for the first time in my life, I have to leave my wife behind and travel alone to a new country. Its not for long – just for two days. I know. But, still there is that strange feeling of holloness in stomach that I can't get rid off.
On the last day in Singapore, we've not planned any trips. I am just at home, coping the images and figuring out a method to use the new external hard drive. Time just does not seem to move. I've done the copy, the recopy, packing, weighing and re-packing. Finally, I get bored have lunch and head out to the airport. I'm left my wife behind. I was planning to take a walk with her to catch the taxi. But fate had other plans. I get a taxi right after we get out of the elevator! The drive takes is astonishingly fast and I am in airport in just 25 minutes. As everything in Singapore, the budget terminal is very clean. With nothing to do, I take out the Micheal Crichton book, “Pirate Latitudes” and finish more than half the book before the boarding call is announced.
The flight takes off. I turn a page or two. I start filling out the immigration form for Malaysia and the pilot announces that the plane is ready for landing! The flight journey from Singapore to Malaysia is hardly 30 minutes. The taxiing on the runways, the pre-flight checks and the post-landing delays all add up to an hour. It must be the shortest flight that I've ever made!
Within the airport, there are taxi counters. I just took them. The taxi driver does not know English or Tamil. And I don't know Malay. So, I tell him the address. He tells me his understanding of the address. We go. He takes me straight to a University. I feel happy. At least someone still thinks I am quite young :-)
Rest of the story of Malaysia in the next blog :-)
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Informed on IT
-Akshay Ranganath
The other day, we (wife and myself) were travelling from Bangalore to Mysore by train. It was a typical weekend morning journey - train overflowing, children bawling and grown-ups yawning. However, there was this one uncle who was way too excited to do any of the above. And so he was chatting away with a (poor??) co-passenger.
So, this uncle's son was in training at Infosys, Mysore. He had got placed at Infy and been called for training at the 'five-star' office at Mysore. He'd invited his parents to visit him since his training was about to end.
However, the funny thing was the way uncle was discussing about IT. The co-passenger (CP), it turned out was a non-IT types and so, the conversation was quite interesting...
Uncle: These IT people no - they have no sense of time. My son was telling me that once training is over, he will be working any time.
CP: uh-oh
Uncle: My son is in some project it seems. All to do with retailers.
CP: I don't understand. What do IT people do with kirana stores?
Uncle: No. no. Not Indian kirana stores - it is the big foreign shops.
...
I could hardly suppress a laugh.
But, it was quite a touching scene. Regardless of the inaccuracy of project description in the IT services industry, what stood in my mind is the image of a proud father getting down with a small worn-out suitcase to meet his successful son who would earn more salary in a month at start than the father during his retirement.
Truly IT has changed us all.
The other day, we (wife and myself) were travelling from Bangalore to Mysore by train. It was a typical weekend morning journey - train overflowing, children bawling and grown-ups yawning. However, there was this one uncle who was way too excited to do any of the above. And so he was chatting away with a (poor??) co-passenger.
So, this uncle's son was in training at Infosys, Mysore. He had got placed at Infy and been called for training at the 'five-star' office at Mysore. He'd invited his parents to visit him since his training was about to end.
However, the funny thing was the way uncle was discussing about IT. The co-passenger (CP), it turned out was a non-IT types and so, the conversation was quite interesting...
Uncle: These IT people no - they have no sense of time. My son was telling me that once training is over, he will be working any time.
CP: uh-oh
Uncle: My son is in some project it seems. All to do with retailers.
CP: I don't understand. What do IT people do with kirana stores?
Uncle: No. no. Not Indian kirana stores - it is the big foreign shops.
...
I could hardly suppress a laugh.
But, it was quite a touching scene. Regardless of the inaccuracy of project description in the IT services industry, what stood in my mind is the image of a proud father getting down with a small worn-out suitcase to meet his successful son who would earn more salary in a month at start than the father during his retirement.
Truly IT has changed us all.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Arranging Groom - How much is enough?
-Akshay Ranganath
So this is the story of greed. Or rather the limitless liking for money - and how indignified a person can get in his bottomless search for financial gratification.
A family friend of ours has a daughter for whom is looking for a match. The girl is a qualified doctor. The groom's family they'd gone to meet too were a family of doctors. Father - Head of Urology, Mother (late) - Gynecologist, daughter and son-in-law - doctors based in Australia. And the groom too had just completed his MD.
So when uncle met the groom's father things were went on very well. The son is quite intelligent, the home looks nice, parent looks quite civilized. Then started the marriage talks. The groom's father had over 100 acres of land in Belgam - and about 1 house each in 3 different cities of Karnataka. So, he'd accumulated enough money and property to last well past his lifetime, and mostly his son's lifetime as well. Or thereabouts, my uncle thought.
Then came the biggest shock. The HoD of college, practicing urologist asked uncle, "We'd like to buy a flat in Bangalore. Will you pay 50%?". My uncle was left 'flat' at this request and terminated the alliance. Looking at the background of the family, it is just incredible that the father even demanded a dowry.
What left me stumped is that all the education and the changes in India has still not made any mark on the mindset of people. Girls are still commodities. Dowry has to be taken since it is 'tradition'. No introspection is ever done on whether the request makes sense or sounds reasonable. Quite despicable indeed.
So this is the story of greed. Or rather the limitless liking for money - and how indignified a person can get in his bottomless search for financial gratification.
A family friend of ours has a daughter for whom is looking for a match. The girl is a qualified doctor. The groom's family they'd gone to meet too were a family of doctors. Father - Head of Urology, Mother (late) - Gynecologist, daughter and son-in-law - doctors based in Australia. And the groom too had just completed his MD.
So when uncle met the groom's father things were went on very well. The son is quite intelligent, the home looks nice, parent looks quite civilized. Then started the marriage talks. The groom's father had over 100 acres of land in Belgam - and about 1 house each in 3 different cities of Karnataka. So, he'd accumulated enough money and property to last well past his lifetime, and mostly his son's lifetime as well. Or thereabouts, my uncle thought.
Then came the biggest shock. The HoD of college, practicing urologist asked uncle, "We'd like to buy a flat in Bangalore. Will you pay 50%?". My uncle was left 'flat' at this request and terminated the alliance. Looking at the background of the family, it is just incredible that the father even demanded a dowry.
What left me stumped is that all the education and the changes in India has still not made any mark on the mindset of people. Girls are still commodities. Dowry has to be taken since it is 'tradition'. No introspection is ever done on whether the request makes sense or sounds reasonable. Quite despicable indeed.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Book Review: Two States by Chetan Bhagat
-Akshay Ranganath
Last week, I ordered the book "Two States" from Rediff Books. Amazingly swift, they delivered it to me in two days. And I managed to finish the book in about the same time :-)
This book, although a work of fiction is supposed to be partially true. The book explores the hypocrite behavior of Indians - our banal talk of "National Integration" and a racist attitude towards each other. All such serious matter explored and explained in a very humorous manner - in a love story. That in a nutshell is what this book is about.
From my perspective, it is a typical Chetan Bhaghat novel. It has the humor, the standard depressed soul who plans/is planning to commit suicide, lots of thought on sex and finally, a dig at the Indian culture and society. However, what I like in this book is the cultural aspect, especially, the North-South divide is so well written that it you can almost feel the characters come alive. For most part, you can visualize every one of the character as someone you know in your family.
The book quite very well raises interesting questions on the mindless belief in 'fair girls', 'purity before marriage', dowry, mutual distrust between cultures and the insensitive nature of our communication. For example, considering that all South Indians as dark and being in awe over a fair colored 'madrasi'.
Despite raising all such socially relevant questions, the book stays clear of becoming a book preaching anything and sticks to the narrative of how you manipulate around these prejudices to get what you want - to marry the one whom you truly like, and overcome the barriers imposed by the traditions and culture.
Its a very readable book - at just under 200 pages and costing just Rs 95, it is definitely worth a read.
Buy Book: India Only
Last week, I ordered the book "Two States" from Rediff Books. Amazingly swift, they delivered it to me in two days. And I managed to finish the book in about the same time :-)
This book, although a work of fiction is supposed to be partially true. The book explores the hypocrite behavior of Indians - our banal talk of "National Integration" and a racist attitude towards each other. All such serious matter explored and explained in a very humorous manner - in a love story. That in a nutshell is what this book is about.
From my perspective, it is a typical Chetan Bhaghat novel. It has the humor, the standard depressed soul who plans/is planning to commit suicide, lots of thought on sex and finally, a dig at the Indian culture and society. However, what I like in this book is the cultural aspect, especially, the North-South divide is so well written that it you can almost feel the characters come alive. For most part, you can visualize every one of the character as someone you know in your family.
The book quite very well raises interesting questions on the mindless belief in 'fair girls', 'purity before marriage', dowry, mutual distrust between cultures and the insensitive nature of our communication. For example, considering that all South Indians as dark and being in awe over a fair colored 'madrasi'.
Despite raising all such socially relevant questions, the book stays clear of becoming a book preaching anything and sticks to the narrative of how you manipulate around these prejudices to get what you want - to marry the one whom you truly like, and overcome the barriers imposed by the traditions and culture.
Its a very readable book - at just under 200 pages and costing just Rs 95, it is definitely worth a read.
Buy Book: India Only
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Quotes: A better India, A better Wolrd - N. R. Narayana Murthy
Some of the best quotes from N.R. Narayana Murthy's book, 'A better India, a better World':
Buy the book, India Only
I believe that the only unchanging attributes of a successful corporation will be openness to new ideas, meritocracy, speed, innovation and excellence in execution. (p19)
Self-esteem flourishes when discussions can be held in an environment of civility and courtesy to everybody. That is why we at Infosys believe in the adage, ‘You can disagree with me as long as you are not disagreeable’. (p20)
Meritocracy is not letting personal preferences or prejudices affect our evaluation of an individual’s performance. (p52).
Successful leadership today is about dealing with the contemporary and the future issues of development. It is not about fighting for relics, icons and ideas of the past. A nation is judged by its contemporary status and not by its past. A confident leader looking at what he/she can do in the future to better the lives of people rather in digging up the past. (p75)
A leader is first and last, a change agent. Progress is his agenda. His responsibility is to raise the aspirations of his people to make them more confident, energetic, enthusiastic, hopeful and determined to seek a glorious future for the community and for themselves. (p158)
As long as you constantly ask the questions, ‘Can we do things faster today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?’, ‘Can we bring better ideas to the table today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?’, ‘Can we execute those ideas with a better level of excellence and quality today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?’, I believe you will create a learning organization and will succeed on a sustainable basis. I strongly believe that these attributes are extremely important for the enduring success of a corporation. (p164)
If the wealth of the world is equally divided among people throughout the world, there will, of course, be no rich people any more. But everybody will still be poor. You cannot distribute poverty. Socialists often forget that we have to first create wealth in order to distribute it. (p212)
Our success at Infosys depends on our ability to recognize, learn and assimilate changes quickly, and in bringing business value to our customers by leveraging the assimilated knowledge. Learnability is critical for us. We define learnability as the ability to extract generic inferences from specific instances and to use them in new, unstructured situations. (p233)
The biggest challenge for a knowledge creating company like Infosys is to recruit, enable, empower and retain the best and the brightest talent. We realized long ago that we had to make a compelling value proposition to our employees, much the same way as we did for our customers. (p253)
We have realized over the years that solution to most of our problems lie within ourselves. Rationalizing failure is simply a sign of weakness. The easiest way to escape from accountability is to blame reality. (p234)
The best form of leadership is leadership by example. In a knowledge company whose core competencies include human intellect and learning through a process of observation, data collection, analysis and conclusion, leaders will have to walk the talk. Any dissonance between rhetoric and action by leaders will hasten the loss of credibility. Leaders will do well to heed the words of Mahatma Gandhi who said, ‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world.’ (p234)
In a typical globalized corporation, product development takes place where human talent and innovation are best; production takes place in factories situated in countries where it is most cost-effective to produce; and sales take place in countries with high disposable incomes. (p248)
Buy the book, India Only
I believe that the only unchanging attributes of a successful corporation will be openness to new ideas, meritocracy, speed, innovation and excellence in execution. (p19)
Self-esteem flourishes when discussions can be held in an environment of civility and courtesy to everybody. That is why we at Infosys believe in the adage, ‘You can disagree with me as long as you are not disagreeable’. (p20)
Meritocracy is not letting personal preferences or prejudices affect our evaluation of an individual’s performance. (p52).
Successful leadership today is about dealing with the contemporary and the future issues of development. It is not about fighting for relics, icons and ideas of the past. A nation is judged by its contemporary status and not by its past. A confident leader looking at what he/she can do in the future to better the lives of people rather in digging up the past. (p75)
A leader is first and last, a change agent. Progress is his agenda. His responsibility is to raise the aspirations of his people to make them more confident, energetic, enthusiastic, hopeful and determined to seek a glorious future for the community and for themselves. (p158)
As long as you constantly ask the questions, ‘Can we do things faster today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?’, ‘Can we bring better ideas to the table today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?’, ‘Can we execute those ideas with a better level of excellence and quality today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?’, I believe you will create a learning organization and will succeed on a sustainable basis. I strongly believe that these attributes are extremely important for the enduring success of a corporation. (p164)
If the wealth of the world is equally divided among people throughout the world, there will, of course, be no rich people any more. But everybody will still be poor. You cannot distribute poverty. Socialists often forget that we have to first create wealth in order to distribute it. (p212)
Our success at Infosys depends on our ability to recognize, learn and assimilate changes quickly, and in bringing business value to our customers by leveraging the assimilated knowledge. Learnability is critical for us. We define learnability as the ability to extract generic inferences from specific instances and to use them in new, unstructured situations. (p233)
The biggest challenge for a knowledge creating company like Infosys is to recruit, enable, empower and retain the best and the brightest talent. We realized long ago that we had to make a compelling value proposition to our employees, much the same way as we did for our customers. (p253)
We have realized over the years that solution to most of our problems lie within ourselves. Rationalizing failure is simply a sign of weakness. The easiest way to escape from accountability is to blame reality. (p234)
The best form of leadership is leadership by example. In a knowledge company whose core competencies include human intellect and learning through a process of observation, data collection, analysis and conclusion, leaders will have to walk the talk. Any dissonance between rhetoric and action by leaders will hasten the loss of credibility. Leaders will do well to heed the words of Mahatma Gandhi who said, ‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world.’ (p234)
In a typical globalized corporation, product development takes place where human talent and innovation are best; production takes place in factories situated in countries where it is most cost-effective to produce; and sales take place in countries with high disposable incomes. (p248)
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Quotes: A Better India, A Better World - NR Narayana Murthy
- Akshay Ranganath
General Quotes
Valuable advice can sometimes crom from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors (p4)
'You cannot build reputation on what you are going to do', Henry Ford (p 32)
'science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind' Einstein (p 42)
'It is very easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.' (p51)
'Some people have so much respect for their superiors that they have none left for themselves.' George Bernard Shah (p266)
We have realized over the years that solutions to most of our problems lie within ourselves. Rationalizing failure is simply a sign of weakness. The easiest way to escape from accountability is to blame reality. (p234)
If the wealth of the world is equally divided among people throughout the world, there will, of course, be no rich people any more. But everybody will still be poor. You cannot distribute poverty. Socialists often forget that we have to first create wealth in order to distribute it. (p212)
Issues with India
In France, everybody acted as if it was their job to discuss, debate and quickly act on improving public facilities. In India, we discuss, debate and behave as if the improvement of any public facility is not our task, and consequently, do not act at all. (p10)
Another bane of our thousant-year-long enslavement is apathy. The main reason why India is still very backward is our unwillingness to take proactive action even when the solution is staring at our face. We escape from the responsibility to solve our problems by blaming destiny. (p14)
Regarding constituents for success
Learning from experience .. can be complicated. It can be much more difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail, we think carefully about the precise cause. Success can indiscriminately reinforce all our proior actions. (p6)
..we need high aspirations. Aspirations energize us to overcome limitations posed by the context we are in. They engender and sustain hope, the main fuel for progress. (p12)
Objectivity & Discipline
Being professional and efective in our work helps us optimally utilize resources – human talent, raw materilas, domestic and foreign investment and infrastructure.. This is because a professional individual owes allegiance to his profession and not to any organization or person. Accordingly, he does not let personal relations interfere with his profesional dealings. He is fair and unbiased and starts every transaction on a zero base, without bringing in any baggage from prior transactions.. (p15)
..important aspect of professionalism is implementing meritocracy. Meritocracy is not letting personal influences or prejudices affect our evaluation of an individual's performance. (p52)
Discipline in thought & action: Discipline in thought is about objectivity, about using data and facts for arguments, and about supporting an idea purely based on merits. Discipline in action is about doing the right thing without being influenced by money, power or any form of self-interest. (p58)
I believe that the only unchaning attributes of a successful corporation will be openness to new ideas, meritocracy, speed, innovation and excellence in execution. (p19)
..'In God we trust, everone else must bring data to table'.. (p 15)
The most important attribute of a progressive society is respect for others who have accomplished more than they themselves have, and the willingness to learn from them. (p51)
Leadership
A leader is first and last a change agent. Progress is his agenda. His responsibility is to raise the aspirations of his people, to make them more confident, energetic, enthusiastic, hopeful and determined to seek a glorious future for the community and for themselves. (p158)
Demonstrate leadership by example. Most EE [Emerging Economies] have hierarchial culture. The best way to obtain compliance in such a context is through leadership by example. Demonstrate this through committment, hard work, simplicity and a focus on excellence. (p277)
Learning Organization
As long as you constantly ask the questions, 'Can we do things faster today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?', 'Can we being better ideas to the table today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?', and 'Can we execute those ideas with a better level of excellence and quality today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?', I believe you will create a string learning organization and will succeed on a sustainable basis. I strongly believe those attributes are extremely important for enduring success of a corporation. (p164)
..Our success at Infosys depends on our ability to recognize, learn and assimilate .. changes quickly, and in bringing business value to our customers by leveraging the assimilated knowledge. Learnability is critical for us. We define learnability as the ability to extract generic inferences from specific instances and to use them in new, unstructured situations. (p233)
The biggest challenge for a knowledge company like Infosys is to recruit, enable, empower and retain the best and the brightest talent. We realized long ago that we had to make a compelling value proposition to our employees much the same way as we did to our customers. (p233)
In a knowledge company whose core competencies include human intellect and learning through a process of observation, data collection, analysis and conclusion, leaders have to walk the talk. Any dissonance between rhetoric and action by leaders will hasten the loss of credibility. (p234)
General Quotes
Valuable advice can sometimes crom from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors (p4)
'You cannot build reputation on what you are going to do', Henry Ford (p 32)
'science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind' Einstein (p 42)
'It is very easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.' (p51)
'Some people have so much respect for their superiors that they have none left for themselves.' George Bernard Shah (p266)
We have realized over the years that solutions to most of our problems lie within ourselves. Rationalizing failure is simply a sign of weakness. The easiest way to escape from accountability is to blame reality. (p234)
If the wealth of the world is equally divided among people throughout the world, there will, of course, be no rich people any more. But everybody will still be poor. You cannot distribute poverty. Socialists often forget that we have to first create wealth in order to distribute it. (p212)
Issues with India
In France, everybody acted as if it was their job to discuss, debate and quickly act on improving public facilities. In India, we discuss, debate and behave as if the improvement of any public facility is not our task, and consequently, do not act at all. (p10)
Another bane of our thousant-year-long enslavement is apathy. The main reason why India is still very backward is our unwillingness to take proactive action even when the solution is staring at our face. We escape from the responsibility to solve our problems by blaming destiny. (p14)
Regarding constituents for success
Learning from experience .. can be complicated. It can be much more difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail, we think carefully about the precise cause. Success can indiscriminately reinforce all our proior actions. (p6)
..we need high aspirations. Aspirations energize us to overcome limitations posed by the context we are in. They engender and sustain hope, the main fuel for progress. (p12)
Objectivity & Discipline
Being professional and efective in our work helps us optimally utilize resources – human talent, raw materilas, domestic and foreign investment and infrastructure.. This is because a professional individual owes allegiance to his profession and not to any organization or person. Accordingly, he does not let personal relations interfere with his profesional dealings. He is fair and unbiased and starts every transaction on a zero base, without bringing in any baggage from prior transactions.. (p15)
..important aspect of professionalism is implementing meritocracy. Meritocracy is not letting personal influences or prejudices affect our evaluation of an individual's performance. (p52)
Discipline in thought & action: Discipline in thought is about objectivity, about using data and facts for arguments, and about supporting an idea purely based on merits. Discipline in action is about doing the right thing without being influenced by money, power or any form of self-interest. (p58)
I believe that the only unchaning attributes of a successful corporation will be openness to new ideas, meritocracy, speed, innovation and excellence in execution. (p19)
..'In God we trust, everone else must bring data to table'.. (p 15)
The most important attribute of a progressive society is respect for others who have accomplished more than they themselves have, and the willingness to learn from them. (p51)
Leadership
A leader is first and last a change agent. Progress is his agenda. His responsibility is to raise the aspirations of his people, to make them more confident, energetic, enthusiastic, hopeful and determined to seek a glorious future for the community and for themselves. (p158)
Demonstrate leadership by example. Most EE [Emerging Economies] have hierarchial culture. The best way to obtain compliance in such a context is through leadership by example. Demonstrate this through committment, hard work, simplicity and a focus on excellence. (p277)
Learning Organization
As long as you constantly ask the questions, 'Can we do things faster today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?', 'Can we being better ideas to the table today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?', and 'Can we execute those ideas with a better level of excellence and quality today than yesterday, last month, last quarter and last year?', I believe you will create a string learning organization and will succeed on a sustainable basis. I strongly believe those attributes are extremely important for enduring success of a corporation. (p164)
..Our success at Infosys depends on our ability to recognize, learn and assimilate .. changes quickly, and in bringing business value to our customers by leveraging the assimilated knowledge. Learnability is critical for us. We define learnability as the ability to extract generic inferences from specific instances and to use them in new, unstructured situations. (p233)
The biggest challenge for a knowledge company like Infosys is to recruit, enable, empower and retain the best and the brightest talent. We realized long ago that we had to make a compelling value proposition to our employees much the same way as we did to our customers. (p233)
In a knowledge company whose core competencies include human intellect and learning through a process of observation, data collection, analysis and conclusion, leaders have to walk the talk. Any dissonance between rhetoric and action by leaders will hasten the loss of credibility. (p234)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Mahatma, Freedom of Speech and India Chauvinism
On the 10th of Aug, the Supreme Court of India rejected a public interest litigation that argued that every Indian must respect the Mahatma. (See Article) It was heartening to note the court took the spirit of freedom of speech in mind while announcing this ruling.
In recent times, India seems to be getting more and more zealous. The litigation asked the court to enforce a rule to make people respect Gandi's contributions. But, isn't democracy all about discussing and finding a better way? Ganghi, no doubt was a great man. We've read about it enough times in our history books and movies. However, we Indians seem to believe in adulation over all our leaders. Anything said against a set of leaders is met with violence, irrational anger and senseless opposition.
Democracy is about freedom to express and debate. The litigation seemed to forget this. Gandhiji for all his greatness still was a human and the associated weaknesses. His concept of a self-sufficient village is jut not practical in the modern 'flat world'. If you were to follow this models, cities would be more like a dark spot on the Indian landscape and villages would be shrines of economic activity. However, the world over, it is the exact reverse that is true.
In this fit of adulation, we have crores spent of Mayawati's statues, lacs lost over violence just because some sentiment was hurt in a movie made for entertainment and cities shut down because of language affiliations!
The best part is - despite all these internal issues, we're fighting the Autrailians in the name of racism :-)
In recent times, India seems to be getting more and more zealous. The litigation asked the court to enforce a rule to make people respect Gandi's contributions. But, isn't democracy all about discussing and finding a better way? Ganghi, no doubt was a great man. We've read about it enough times in our history books and movies. However, we Indians seem to believe in adulation over all our leaders. Anything said against a set of leaders is met with violence, irrational anger and senseless opposition.
Democracy is about freedom to express and debate. The litigation seemed to forget this. Gandhiji for all his greatness still was a human and the associated weaknesses. His concept of a self-sufficient village is jut not practical in the modern 'flat world'. If you were to follow this models, cities would be more like a dark spot on the Indian landscape and villages would be shrines of economic activity. However, the world over, it is the exact reverse that is true.
In this fit of adulation, we have crores spent of Mayawati's statues, lacs lost over violence just because some sentiment was hurt in a movie made for entertainment and cities shut down because of language affiliations!
The best part is - despite all these internal issues, we're fighting the Autrailians in the name of racism :-)
Monday, July 06, 2009
Know you have a spouse!
Arranged Marriage Blues – Part 6
-Akshay Ranganath
Well, this sounds clichéd. Yet, I never realized how important this quality is for a better married life. Unfortunately, this is a topic that will have to be a bit serious – I can’t think of bringing in humor – at least not at a first shot.
I am the single child of my parents. For me, life had always revolved around my dad, mom and myself. The demands from parents were quite straight-forward: study hard, keep fit, and learn to find your path. It was a simple target with enough lee-way for me to grow by myself. Being an open family, we had discussions and talk before taking any decision. It was always a democratic process.
However, I was never exposed to a world where things are left unsaid, where meaning is inferred from relatively innocuous actions, a thoughtless word or a stupid reaction. These I am learning now.
Challenging career situation
The path to my enlightenment started with challenging career situation. I had been with Cognizant for 5.5 years. Things had been really great for almost 4.5 years. Later on, due to some of my decisions, the teams I got into and other factors, the career was in doldrums. I was placed in a situation where I was not enthused to work in.
If you notice, I only thought of myself in the whole story. My wife did not enter the picture. Somehow, my career was only mine. It was not shared – not yet. Being the loner I am, I kept withdrawing into myself. I started to get self-doubts on whether I was capable or if I had hit a career plateau. I never shared or spoke to my wife.
Then, out of blue I got an offer and I was over joyed. I managed to do well in interviews and the selection process. I went to my wife and told her, “I am so happy for us! Now, I have a better job. I can be happy at work which means I’ll be happy at home!” She was happy for me. But, not all that enthused. I was confused.
I told her that I was sorry for being withdrawn, for being moody at times and unavailable for her emotionally. I told her it was all because of the strange situation that I’d got stuck in. She simply asked, “And why was there all along? Why did you not talk to me?”
Dawn of common sense
Ouch! That was right. I had got so involved in my own issues that somehow it had never occurred to me that from now on I had another person with whom I could share my fears, worries and concerns.
She went on, “You thought that your career hurt only you? Did you ever think of me? Did you notice that I was here waiting for you to open up? To tell me what you feared? Or what would make you happy? Did you notice that I too have made adjustments to be with you for more time?” Frankly, I hadn’t.
I guess every book, every elder and counselor says, “Understand your partner”. I believe it is all correct. Yet, from my thoughts, the first step is to realize that you have a spouse too. Although it is so silly to ignore, I guess it is the first step in going down the long drawn process of actually understanding your spouse.
What do you feel? Do let me know your thoughts and feelings.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Book Review: The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini
-Akshay Ranganath
Last week, I'd been to Jayanagar and there was some sort of a basement book exhibition. In there I saw this book, "The Kite Runner". For some reason, I had this vague feeling that I'd heard about it before and picked it up... and it turned out to be one of the best books that I've read.
The Kite Runner is more like an episodic story - it shows the childhood of an innocent boy, the brutal face of reality in a war torn religiously oppressive regime while contrasting it with the daily life of some real people eking out a living.. and miraculously still praying and having faith in God.
The book is a depiction of how the geo-political realities of the world shatter the simple life of people who simply are on the wrong place at the wrong time. It is a testimony to the fact that cold war may not have been a real war between the giants of USA and USSR but, it did take the sacrifice of powerless countries who just happened to be at a strategic point.
Starting with the innocent life of a boy born in a well-to-do family, the book chronicles the story of the boy turning into a youth and an adult while fleeing from war-ravaged Afghanistan to returning back to a hate-filled, depraved and violent place ruled by religious fanatics. It also talks about tender emotions like inexplicable relationship between the boy and his servant's son - a relationship that's not exactly friendship, nor is it of a master and slave. Yet, this is the relationship that forms the bedrock of the entire book, and of the author's confusion and his journey from Afghanistan to USA and back.
It is a beautifully written book with many harsh realities sprinkled in. There is unbelievable violence coupled with such tender love that it makes you cry. The book is also about relationships, defined within the strict masculine culture of Afghanistan - a culture where emotions are not shown and yet, the author makes you feel every bit of it all along. This book is not for the faint-hearted. It has violence, it has rape and cruelty. At the same time, it has hope and a message that somehow with a firm belief good always wins.
Best line from the book - '..lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of certainty'. I can't write the context - or I'll break the plot! :-)
Hope you too enjoy the book…
Last week, I'd been to Jayanagar and there was some sort of a basement book exhibition. In there I saw this book, "The Kite Runner". For some reason, I had this vague feeling that I'd heard about it before and picked it up... and it turned out to be one of the best books that I've read.
The Kite Runner is more like an episodic story - it shows the childhood of an innocent boy, the brutal face of reality in a war torn religiously oppressive regime while contrasting it with the daily life of some real people eking out a living.. and miraculously still praying and having faith in God.
The book is a depiction of how the geo-political realities of the world shatter the simple life of people who simply are on the wrong place at the wrong time. It is a testimony to the fact that cold war may not have been a real war between the giants of USA and USSR but, it did take the sacrifice of powerless countries who just happened to be at a strategic point.
Starting with the innocent life of a boy born in a well-to-do family, the book chronicles the story of the boy turning into a youth and an adult while fleeing from war-ravaged Afghanistan to returning back to a hate-filled, depraved and violent place ruled by religious fanatics. It also talks about tender emotions like inexplicable relationship between the boy and his servant's son - a relationship that's not exactly friendship, nor is it of a master and slave. Yet, this is the relationship that forms the bedrock of the entire book, and of the author's confusion and his journey from Afghanistan to USA and back.
It is a beautifully written book with many harsh realities sprinkled in. There is unbelievable violence coupled with such tender love that it makes you cry. The book is also about relationships, defined within the strict masculine culture of Afghanistan - a culture where emotions are not shown and yet, the author makes you feel every bit of it all along. This book is not for the faint-hearted. It has violence, it has rape and cruelty. At the same time, it has hope and a message that somehow with a firm belief good always wins.
Best line from the book - '..lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of certainty'. I can't write the context - or I'll break the plot! :-)
Hope you too enjoy the book…
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Tales from Travel
Sorry folks – been a really long time since I wrote anything. Call it laziness, or call it the effects of marriage.. But, now, I hope to get back to my business and update regularly..
After I joined my new organization, I’ve started to take a cab drop home. It is one of those moments when you get to hear some real tit-bits of unexpected human emotions and occasionally a few juicy gossip. But, I never imagined that a cab driver would open my eyes in terms of what it means to be ALIVE and wonderful it is to be kind. Here’s the story..
Mumbai Mess
I generally used to get a regular cab driver. That day, he was a different person. He looked quite nervous and out of place. I told him about my address and he seemed a bit confused. I sat down and he mumbled in hindi. I asked him if he knew Kannada. He barely knew it. He told me he was from Bijapur and knew Marathi well, comfortable in Hindi and barely manageable Kannada. When I told him that I had lived in Pune and could understand Marathi, his face split into a big smile. For three days, he told me, he was struggling in Bangalore since he could hardly talk. And he talked all the way home.
“I used to work in Mumbai, “ he started. “I used to be driver for this business man’s taxi. He owned a Skoda and I was the driver. One day, these goons in an auto stopped my car and tried to kidnap the child in my car. His father was some inspector, I learnt later. I tried to stop them and got stabbed. They stabbed me twice – once on my hand and once on my back.”
He was lost in silence for a moment.
“I don’t know how I survived sir. It was night and I was left on the road. But, somehow I am alive.”
“Mumbai is a bad place sir. There are areas where you don’t go. And at others, there are people whom you don’t want to make angry. I had done just that. The goondas had seen me. They knew my cab. They started to follow me sir. If they caught me alone, they would finish what they’d started. They wanted no witnesses. I had no choice and so I left the town, sir.”
Then he looked around the road and the people and said, “People here are so nice, sir. Bangalore is so safe. It is a very nice city, sir”
And then, we reached home. I kept wondering, “And we here in Bangalore crib about the traffic jams!”
Slumdogs
Today again, the same driver dropped me. He was chattery and chirpy. “My marriage is fixed, sir!” he quipped. After the congratulations, we started about how costly the whole marriage business. Then he said about his home-town – Bijapur.
“It is so nice in Bangalore. It rains and there is water. In Bijapur, there are no rains. Sir, we have 300 acres of land and nothing to do. We own 3 tractors and a jeep. My father says, I just drive the jeep and earn money. But, after seeing life in Mumbai and Bijapur, I don’t want to go back..”
Suddenly, he changed the whole topic. “Mumbai is so full of beggars,” he said. “There were two boys near my house. One was just 5 and the other was 7 year old. I could not see them struggle, sir. So, I gave them Rs 10 and asked them to get soap. I let them in and let them take a bath.”
“It was nearing the rainy season, sir. In Mumbai, it pours. It rains from May till Ganapati festival. I didn’t know where these two boys would live.”
“I asked them if they would come with me to Bijapur. I told them they would have to work on the farm and live in our house. They agreed.”
“My brother, when he saw them asked, ‘And who will pay for them?’ So, I send money every month, sir. My family gives them food. For clothes and their living, I send them money at the first of every month”
And we reached home.
I was amazed. Here we are – all IT types. Ensconced in warm, cozy 2 BHK flats with 24-hour backup generators, we never give a thought about how great it is to have a shelter. And despite the 50K, 60K or whatever salary, we can’t find money to fund any charity. And here is this stab-wound survivor, driving a cab, saving for his wife and yet sending money that supports two boys. It simply is incredible. The last thing the driver said before I got down seemed so true.
“Sir, I just do whatever I can to be kind. And God always sees this. I am alive today because I saved those two boys. God saw me that day and let me live..”
After I joined my new organization, I’ve started to take a cab drop home. It is one of those moments when you get to hear some real tit-bits of unexpected human emotions and occasionally a few juicy gossip. But, I never imagined that a cab driver would open my eyes in terms of what it means to be ALIVE and wonderful it is to be kind. Here’s the story..
Mumbai Mess
I generally used to get a regular cab driver. That day, he was a different person. He looked quite nervous and out of place. I told him about my address and he seemed a bit confused. I sat down and he mumbled in hindi. I asked him if he knew Kannada. He barely knew it. He told me he was from Bijapur and knew Marathi well, comfortable in Hindi and barely manageable Kannada. When I told him that I had lived in Pune and could understand Marathi, his face split into a big smile. For three days, he told me, he was struggling in Bangalore since he could hardly talk. And he talked all the way home.
“I used to work in Mumbai, “ he started. “I used to be driver for this business man’s taxi. He owned a Skoda and I was the driver. One day, these goons in an auto stopped my car and tried to kidnap the child in my car. His father was some inspector, I learnt later. I tried to stop them and got stabbed. They stabbed me twice – once on my hand and once on my back.”
He was lost in silence for a moment.
“I don’t know how I survived sir. It was night and I was left on the road. But, somehow I am alive.”
“Mumbai is a bad place sir. There are areas where you don’t go. And at others, there are people whom you don’t want to make angry. I had done just that. The goondas had seen me. They knew my cab. They started to follow me sir. If they caught me alone, they would finish what they’d started. They wanted no witnesses. I had no choice and so I left the town, sir.”
Then he looked around the road and the people and said, “People here are so nice, sir. Bangalore is so safe. It is a very nice city, sir”
And then, we reached home. I kept wondering, “And we here in Bangalore crib about the traffic jams!”
Slumdogs
Today again, the same driver dropped me. He was chattery and chirpy. “My marriage is fixed, sir!” he quipped. After the congratulations, we started about how costly the whole marriage business. Then he said about his home-town – Bijapur.
“It is so nice in Bangalore. It rains and there is water. In Bijapur, there are no rains. Sir, we have 300 acres of land and nothing to do. We own 3 tractors and a jeep. My father says, I just drive the jeep and earn money. But, after seeing life in Mumbai and Bijapur, I don’t want to go back..”
Suddenly, he changed the whole topic. “Mumbai is so full of beggars,” he said. “There were two boys near my house. One was just 5 and the other was 7 year old. I could not see them struggle, sir. So, I gave them Rs 10 and asked them to get soap. I let them in and let them take a bath.”
“It was nearing the rainy season, sir. In Mumbai, it pours. It rains from May till Ganapati festival. I didn’t know where these two boys would live.”
“I asked them if they would come with me to Bijapur. I told them they would have to work on the farm and live in our house. They agreed.”
“My brother, when he saw them asked, ‘And who will pay for them?’ So, I send money every month, sir. My family gives them food. For clothes and their living, I send them money at the first of every month”
And we reached home.
I was amazed. Here we are – all IT types. Ensconced in warm, cozy 2 BHK flats with 24-hour backup generators, we never give a thought about how great it is to have a shelter. And despite the 50K, 60K or whatever salary, we can’t find money to fund any charity. And here is this stab-wound survivor, driving a cab, saving for his wife and yet sending money that supports two boys. It simply is incredible. The last thing the driver said before I got down seemed so true.
“Sir, I just do whatever I can to be kind. And God always sees this. I am alive today because I saved those two boys. God saw me that day and let me live..”
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Book Review: Mike Wilson – The Difference between God and Larry Ellison
Inside Oracle Corporation
-Akshay Ranganath
The title of the book “The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison*” piqued my interest. The asterisk at the end which was explained as “*God doesn't think he's Larry” sort of convinced me to buy the book. Yes, it explains why God doesn't think he's Larry. But, what it doesn't tell very well is – what does Larry think, apart from the fact that he's God?
Frankly, I was trying to get a book on what is Oracle and how it came about as one of the largest software companies in the world. This book explains the history and the beginning of Oracle but, from a perspective of how Larry went about doing it – his personal life style, his girlfriends and so on. The place where I felt a bit let down was that the book delves more on the personal aspects of Larry's life, rather than on how he built Oracle. The author feels that Larry is not a great business leader – rather he's a very good opportunistic person who happened to come across the IBM's papers on SQL standards and converted into a product. What the author never really explains is how did Larry think that this could be a big product. It does not say anything about how the engineers at Oracle do their research, how they develop the product and how they test it. It devotes a lot of pages on the salesmen, the sales debacles and the revenue dressing up but, never explains anything on the product development cycle at Oracle.
A big aspect that has been over looked is the mergers and acquisitions done by Oracle. Assuming Larry is just a plain opportunist. He still needs some acumen to spot the ripe companies to buy. Considering that Oracle kept buying others by a dozen until a year back, the book is woefully unclear on this aspect. It has a passing description of the Oracle Financials business but makes no mention of how important it went to become for Oracle – nor does it mention Larry's war on Peoplesoft. However, it devotes a full chapter and half on lawsuit filed by a spurned girl friend of Larry.
The place where I was disappointed was that this book reads more like a page 3 article. The book seems to present Larry as a hopeless womanizer, an unprincipled opportunist, a ruthless owner and a reckless rich-man. What it totally fails to bring out is the finer aspects of Larry that made him one of the richest men on earth.
I'd suggest that the book is a good read – more like a novel, rather than a business book. If you are looking for sleaze in Larry's life, go for this book. If however, you are looking to gain insights on Oracle Corp. then this book is not for you.
What do you feel? Please do tell me.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Travelling insights: The Dharwad Saga (aka Old Uncle & Interrogation)
Someone has said that, “The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.” Being a traveller by heart, I had nothing specific planned to see. And so, I let myself be swept in by the very journey itself.
And so last Friday, my better half and I set out on an adventure to Dharwad. All adventures in India happen in the second class coaches of the largest employer in the world, The (great) Indian Railways. The sheer sight of train, a station that is clean or a train that arrives on time (ie within an hour of its scheduled time) are things that brings joy and an occasional tear of happiness to the eyes. But, what is most exciting is the people you meet and the moments of life that is shared together – somehow people connect so well that a few hours spent becomes a part of a lifetime.
Ok – enough of philosophy. That was to make you guys a bit sleepy :-) Nothing of this sort happened on this travel though. What did happen was something quite amusing.
My wife and I reached the station early (must say, the train had been there parked for us even before we'd reached..) We got into our bogie and settled down on seats that were vacant. Reservation of seats is a concept that is for popus idiots. In India, you book seats and only while sleeping it has any relevance.
The moment we sat down, the old uncle in front of us suddenly came to life. The fact that he could manage to doze despite the noise of the (tail-less) grand children – that was an amazing feat of concentration. Anyways, there we are surrounded by 10,000 Watts of screaming and screeching with the old uncle who is barely beyond totally deaf interrogating us..
Uncle: Hmm.. So where are you going?
Us: Dharwad, uncle
Uncle: What?
Us: Dharwad
Uncle: WHAT?
Uncle's daughter: Dharwad (in a 10,500 Watts tone)
Uncle: Oh.. That's good. Nice place.
Us Silly grin
Uncle: So where do you work?
Me: Cognizant.
Uncle: What?
Me: (loudly) Cognizant, CTS.. (actually I’d just resigned from CTS.. but there was no way I could explain all of this)
Uncle: What?
Uncle’s daughter: IT.. IT
Uncle: Oh, ok. My daughter too – not this one, the second one is in IT. She works in Wipro. Had been to US, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore. You been to US?
Me: Hmm.. No uncle..
Uncle: We live in …. What about you?
Me: We live near …
Uncle: Our area – it is a good area. So you both are brothers and sisters?
Us: (totally shocked and unable to respond.)
Uncle’s daughter: (thoroughly red in face) Appa, they are husband and wife. (Turning to us) Appa wants to know everything!
And so, the journey went on. Uncle managed to extract all information from us – where each of us studied, worked, where our parents worked and live. I guess any marketing agent would kill to have field surveys done like this. After all, we just trust old uncles so much that we never even hesitate to tell them all the personal details that we’d not even tell our colleagues!
One thing though.. No matter where my wife and I go, people seem to mistake us for some sort of relatives or brother and sister. And this is a big pain in the backside!
And so last Friday, my better half and I set out on an adventure to Dharwad. All adventures in India happen in the second class coaches of the largest employer in the world, The (great) Indian Railways. The sheer sight of train, a station that is clean or a train that arrives on time (ie within an hour of its scheduled time) are things that brings joy and an occasional tear of happiness to the eyes. But, what is most exciting is the people you meet and the moments of life that is shared together – somehow people connect so well that a few hours spent becomes a part of a lifetime.
Ok – enough of philosophy. That was to make you guys a bit sleepy :-) Nothing of this sort happened on this travel though. What did happen was something quite amusing.
My wife and I reached the station early (must say, the train had been there parked for us even before we'd reached..) We got into our bogie and settled down on seats that were vacant. Reservation of seats is a concept that is for popus idiots. In India, you book seats and only while sleeping it has any relevance.
The moment we sat down, the old uncle in front of us suddenly came to life. The fact that he could manage to doze despite the noise of the (tail-less) grand children – that was an amazing feat of concentration. Anyways, there we are surrounded by 10,000 Watts of screaming and screeching with the old uncle who is barely beyond totally deaf interrogating us..
Uncle: Hmm.. So where are you going?
Us: Dharwad, uncle
Uncle: What?
Us: Dharwad
Uncle: WHAT?
Uncle's daughter: Dharwad (in a 10,500 Watts tone)
Uncle: Oh.. That's good. Nice place.
Us Silly grin
Uncle: So where do you work?
Me: Cognizant.
Uncle: What?
Me: (loudly) Cognizant, CTS.. (actually I’d just resigned from CTS.. but there was no way I could explain all of this)
Uncle: What?
Uncle’s daughter: IT.. IT
Uncle: Oh, ok. My daughter too – not this one, the second one is in IT. She works in Wipro. Had been to US, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore. You been to US?
Me: Hmm.. No uncle..
Uncle: We live in …. What about you?
Me: We live near …
Uncle: Our area – it is a good area. So you both are brothers and sisters?
Us: (totally shocked and unable to respond.)
Uncle’s daughter: (thoroughly red in face) Appa, they are husband and wife. (Turning to us) Appa wants to know everything!
And so, the journey went on. Uncle managed to extract all information from us – where each of us studied, worked, where our parents worked and live. I guess any marketing agent would kill to have field surveys done like this. After all, we just trust old uncles so much that we never even hesitate to tell them all the personal details that we’d not even tell our colleagues!
One thing though.. No matter where my wife and I go, people seem to mistake us for some sort of relatives or brother and sister. And this is a big pain in the backside!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Quotes: The 12 Habits that hold Good People Back
Some of the best quotes from the book, "The 12 Bad Habits that hold Good People Back"...
Anger and its resolution are an essential part of human experience. Peacekeepers can't accept that reality and thereby learn and master the process. The search for a career vision is an ongoing one, cycling unpredictably through the experiences of renewed vision, alienation and finding our way back. The steely career focus that seems to characterize successful business professionals does not come once and for all. Genuine career change and progress begins not with a flash of insight or with a great idea; it begins with a sense of alienation and discomfort, and a period of frustration and uncertainty, with no guarantees as to the outcome. But it also provides an opportunity for learning, if we can give it attention and let it speak to us. It can tell us of the hidden potential in us that has been shut out because there is no way for it to act in our current world of work. We may get frightened, because there is no obvious path in sight and we are afraid of losing ground and esteem in the eyes of others. We have trouble recognizing and connecting with what our heart of hearts says about our life and out work at that moment. But rescue can come only from determined attention to our unique circumstances and with the bit of courage necessary to act.
Everyone is afraid at times of a particular assignment, a new responsibility, a new environment. The key is not to allow that fear to leak out, in unintentional ways, into your performance or behaviour.
Think of people who are full of confidence. They do things slowly.
Meritocrats have a naïve reliance upon a certain king of authority, the authority of objective, measurable facts.
In the real world, you need patience, the ability to compromise, and the willingness to accept an occasional defeat.
Remember, life is a long campaign, and if you risk death in every battle your chances of fighting on and winning the war are pretty slim.
One of the hallmarks of a successful marriage is the ability of both partners to face up to the conflicts they have with each other and resolve them. The same is true with any kind of relationship, whether with siblings, parents, children, or close friends. If you recognize that you instinctively avoid conflict in relationships, think about the effect it has on you and those close to you. Do you genuinely stay closer together because of your ability to avoid conflict? Or does it, as we suspect, in the long term prove to be a wedge that drives you apart?
..people who know much less about a particular topic can offer wonderful suggestions and ask important questions, precisely because they stand further away from the issue.
The old paradigm “If it ain't broke, don't fix it” has gone by the boards. The new paradigm seems to be “If it ain't broke, break it before somebody else does, and see what else we can make of it”.
(Helping naysayers and helping in decision making)
Make a regular practice of considering the positive aspect of the change – the opportunities it presents – as well as negative, whether in your career, your job, a a project, or a strategic direction. Instead of a single list with the negatives of a new idea, draw lists of both the “positives” and the “negatives” as well as the merits and dangers of instituting “change” and “doing nothing”.
Jobs are like sailbots: unless we are actively trimming the sails and making course adjustments, they tend to drift. Our job can slowly migrate into something that is less attractive. Moreover, at the some point we all want to take our skills and interests to a new level by learning more and doing different things. It is important to remember, however, that our capacity to act to change our circumstances rests with ourselves.
Our potential is not the potential of anyone else. Our path can be traveled by no one other than ourselves. Yet we spend a great deal of time envying the position, talents, and accomplishments of others. We see our career from their perspectives and imagine how they would judge us. None of this will bring us closer to knowing our unique potential for contribution or our particular genius. Imitation is an important part of learning, but it is an early form of learning that must be internalized and made our own. Early on, we may need heroes, but later on heroes can get in our way.
To reduce a career decision solely to a process of maximizing compensation, and to design adaily schedule accordingly, is an invitation to alienation and dissatisfaction. On the other hand, not being honest with yourself about the importance of money can also lead you astray.
Primary causal elements for 12 habits:
- having a negatively distorted self-image
- not being able to understand the world from other people’s perspectives
- not having come to terms with authority
- having an inability to use power comfortably, skillfully, and effectively
Successful people in business know that there is no such thing as an autonomous career. People can achieve maximum success in their careers only by working effectively with other individuals, individuals who have their own needs goals, and agendas. They learn that they must achieve goals within organizations that, similarly, have their own objectives.
Empathy.. not only leads to insight and greater appreciation for others, but is a competitive advantage as well.
Understanding others’ point of view can help you use whatever power you have with greater reserve, precision and finesse. The ability to restrain yourself is just as important as taking action directly and strongly.
You are the one ultimately responsible for your career. People with a positive, engaged attitude toward authority are more likely to see their managers as wise and powerful because they want to see them that way. We see this eve in very mature individuals. This is always accompanied by a subtle abrogation of responsibility for personal choice and career and direction, which is then left in the hands of the person with authority. Mentors can be helpful in the development of career, but you cannot rely on them to know what you should do. For one thing, your best next career move might well be outside your current business unit or organization and thus in conflict with the interests of your manager. Even when this isn’t the case, no one can know the path that will bring you the greatest career satisfaction.
In order to maximize your success in your career and to be as effective as possible in whatever role you have, you must be – or become – comfortable having and using power. You have to learn to be comfortable enough, just as you need to be a good enough swimmer to be safe in water or a good enough driver to be trusted on the road.
Resources flow naturally to people who demonstrate good sense and good use of the power they are given. Empires are expensive to build and maintain, so build one only if you need it.
Each time you hold yourself back from doing something, each time you go home saying, “I wish I had..” or “Why didn’t I just ..?” your self-image tends to worsen even further.
In the end, the process of healing negative self-images is a process of acceptance: accepting our own particular history, accepting our poor judgments and others errors that have caused pain to ourselves and to others.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Arranged Marriage Blues 5 – Arranging Gifts!
Disclaimer: This post is sarcastic, not about the relatives per se but about the hypocritical processes in the arranged marriage system that mandates some things that is so irrational and utterly useless. Yet, these are something that is religiously followed by everyone, lest it brings a bad name to the family! Just venting out my irritation..
Yes folks. Now we are into the eighteen thousand three hundred seventy six step process of arranging all the things for the big day. And one of the most important thing is buying gifts for the relatives. Let me explain.
Inviting the relatives
Unlike friends, relatives are a different species. You (I mean the bride/bridegroom's parents) need to invite them. When I say invite, you don't give the card. You go about it in a special manner. First you write them all down. Then arrange them in descending order of age. Then, you go to each individual's house, give the card and fall at feet and then again invite them. Only then, is the invitation considered to be a properly invited one. If not, relatives have not been properly invited and they will boycott the wedding. So better be aware of this.
Due to the strange way relatives get sorted out, the path to invite them does get tediuos. So for example, if relative aged 79.5 years is staying at Rajajinagar and relative aged 79 is in Marathalli while a third relative aged 78.5 is at Malleshwaram, you still can't take short cuts and call relative 1 then relative 3 and ending by relative 2. This is a strict No-No. You need to keep aside all logic of Shortest Paths aside. They are only for Computer Scince geeks!
For friends, a phone call will do. Invitation is optional. Food is the only thing that makes them attend the function. For all the bachelor type guys it is the food and the feast for eyes. Life's simple.
Gift Hunting
Anyway, for all the effort taken to invite the relatives, you need to again incentivize them for attending the wedding. For this purpose, you (meaning the groom or bride's parents) need to gift them. Generally, these gifts are in the shape of something absolutely useless or, something so useful that most people will have them anyway. However, not giving something so redundant is considered as an extremely disgraceful thing. So, we set out on an expedition to Jayanagar for buying gifts. After a whole half day's of hunt, we decided on “one-two”.
“One-Two”. “What's that?” you ask? Well, let me explain. It is basically this air-tight, cool blue colored plastic glasses of two sizes “one and two”, size one is a bit bigger then the size two one. Considering that most people will have containers to contain most things, these two new containers would probably be not really used to contain anything. But then, to sustain the sacrosant tradition of the south indian arranged marriage system, we contained our irritation, frustration etc and bought “one-two”.
Buying it was the easy part. Transporting it was the nightmare. Sitting on my cousin's L-Board bike, holding onto to so many “one-two” bags, I prayed with sincere devotion that evening. Its just in times like one day before the exam which you believe you are bound to fail that you really give in to the hands of God. This was one such day :-) God heard my prayer and we reached the place safe and deposited the “one-two” to be distributed to our really grateful relatives!
Yes folks. Now we are into the eighteen thousand three hundred seventy six step process of arranging all the things for the big day. And one of the most important thing is buying gifts for the relatives. Let me explain.
Inviting the relatives
Unlike friends, relatives are a different species. You (I mean the bride/bridegroom's parents) need to invite them. When I say invite, you don't give the card. You go about it in a special manner. First you write them all down. Then arrange them in descending order of age. Then, you go to each individual's house, give the card and fall at feet and then again invite them. Only then, is the invitation considered to be a properly invited one. If not, relatives have not been properly invited and they will boycott the wedding. So better be aware of this.
Due to the strange way relatives get sorted out, the path to invite them does get tediuos. So for example, if relative aged 79.5 years is staying at Rajajinagar and relative aged 79 is in Marathalli while a third relative aged 78.5 is at Malleshwaram, you still can't take short cuts and call relative 1 then relative 3 and ending by relative 2. This is a strict No-No. You need to keep aside all logic of Shortest Paths aside. They are only for Computer Scince geeks!
For friends, a phone call will do. Invitation is optional. Food is the only thing that makes them attend the function. For all the bachelor type guys it is the food and the feast for eyes. Life's simple.
Gift Hunting
Anyway, for all the effort taken to invite the relatives, you need to again incentivize them for attending the wedding. For this purpose, you (meaning the groom or bride's parents) need to gift them. Generally, these gifts are in the shape of something absolutely useless or, something so useful that most people will have them anyway. However, not giving something so redundant is considered as an extremely disgraceful thing. So, we set out on an expedition to Jayanagar for buying gifts. After a whole half day's of hunt, we decided on “one-two”.
“One-Two”. “What's that?” you ask? Well, let me explain. It is basically this air-tight, cool blue colored plastic glasses of two sizes “one and two”, size one is a bit bigger then the size two one. Considering that most people will have containers to contain most things, these two new containers would probably be not really used to contain anything. But then, to sustain the sacrosant tradition of the south indian arranged marriage system, we contained our irritation, frustration etc and bought “one-two”.
Buying it was the easy part. Transporting it was the nightmare. Sitting on my cousin's L-Board bike, holding onto to so many “one-two” bags, I prayed with sincere devotion that evening. Its just in times like one day before the exam which you believe you are bound to fail that you really give in to the hands of God. This was one such day :-) God heard my prayer and we reached the place safe and deposited the “one-two” to be distributed to our really grateful relatives!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Arranged Marriage Blues 4 - Arranged Travel
-Akshay Ranganath
There comes a time in your pre-marriage, post-engagement time when you need to travel to some place for some family reason and you are supposed to take your fiance with you. Its one of those travels which you, as an engaged guy dreams of – so that you can spend a lot of time with your 'would be' and which all the parents conspire to make it as uninteresting as possible.
So what happens is this: There will be a family occasion for which you all need to go together, be it a visit to the 'family-God' or some such occasion. For this you and your fiance talk and plan – concoct on plans, hatch plots and develop a blueprint of the ultimate travel. General this journey would be early in the morning and would last about 2 to 3 hours in a (generally) public transport.
Parents will always get a whiff of such plots and come up with a sinister plan of inviting lots of the aunts, cousins and other pesky creatures whose sole purpose of existence is to ensure that you and your fiancé don't get to be together. So you undertake a travel in a mini-Universe called the public transport with the whole mass being split between the romantic-”Us” versus the unromantic “them”.
One simple way to escape the pesky creatures of intrusion is to do this. You be courteous and let the elders and the younger ones all climb in and settle down. Assuming they're not way too much in number, they'll all sediment to the initial part of the bus, leaving the back seats vacant. So, you take the back seat. If the pesky creatures are intelligent (and generally they are!) they'll spread themselves around leaving no place that is private for you. In which case, you are better off sitting on the roof of the bus! And God alone can save you.
Anyway, returning back to the trip, what you do is to let the relatives get in. Then, you go in with your fianc̩. Here, you need to be extra careful. The wily relatives will offer seats. They'll say they've caught this nice cosy seat for you Рit will generally be a three seater with the most nosiest aunt in the middle. I'd leave it to your intelligence on what you do next.
The ideal seat to choose, if available is the one before the last one. This way you are far enough from everyone as possible with as much comfort as possible. It also means that the bus will jump a lot more – and if God hath mercy, your fiance will bump into you once in a while. And that would be like heaven.
You can pray for a maniacal driver. In this case, he'd drive round the turns like he was some F1 driver and that would mean some more controlling touches Рand maybe you can even hold your fianc̩'s hand! But, don't overdo it. It all needs to be romantic, despite the relatives passing you all the chips, bananas, jack fruit, gvuavas and the college crown on back seat. Oh yeah, also the distraction from the latest David Dhavan flick that would most proabably balring from the TV.
In the intermediate time between clinging to seat for life and the eating, you open up your heart and enjoy the ride of your life. This my friends is the concept of the “Arranged Travel”. Happy journey!
There comes a time in your pre-marriage, post-engagement time when you need to travel to some place for some family reason and you are supposed to take your fiance with you. Its one of those travels which you, as an engaged guy dreams of – so that you can spend a lot of time with your 'would be' and which all the parents conspire to make it as uninteresting as possible.
So what happens is this: There will be a family occasion for which you all need to go together, be it a visit to the 'family-God' or some such occasion. For this you and your fiance talk and plan – concoct on plans, hatch plots and develop a blueprint of the ultimate travel. General this journey would be early in the morning and would last about 2 to 3 hours in a (generally) public transport.
Parents will always get a whiff of such plots and come up with a sinister plan of inviting lots of the aunts, cousins and other pesky creatures whose sole purpose of existence is to ensure that you and your fiancé don't get to be together. So you undertake a travel in a mini-Universe called the public transport with the whole mass being split between the romantic-”Us” versus the unromantic “them”.
One simple way to escape the pesky creatures of intrusion is to do this. You be courteous and let the elders and the younger ones all climb in and settle down. Assuming they're not way too much in number, they'll all sediment to the initial part of the bus, leaving the back seats vacant. So, you take the back seat. If the pesky creatures are intelligent (and generally they are!) they'll spread themselves around leaving no place that is private for you. In which case, you are better off sitting on the roof of the bus! And God alone can save you.
Anyway, returning back to the trip, what you do is to let the relatives get in. Then, you go in with your fianc̩. Here, you need to be extra careful. The wily relatives will offer seats. They'll say they've caught this nice cosy seat for you Рit will generally be a three seater with the most nosiest aunt in the middle. I'd leave it to your intelligence on what you do next.
The ideal seat to choose, if available is the one before the last one. This way you are far enough from everyone as possible with as much comfort as possible. It also means that the bus will jump a lot more – and if God hath mercy, your fiance will bump into you once in a while. And that would be like heaven.
You can pray for a maniacal driver. In this case, he'd drive round the turns like he was some F1 driver and that would mean some more controlling touches Рand maybe you can even hold your fianc̩'s hand! But, don't overdo it. It all needs to be romantic, despite the relatives passing you all the chips, bananas, jack fruit, gvuavas and the college crown on back seat. Oh yeah, also the distraction from the latest David Dhavan flick that would most proabably balring from the TV.
In the intermediate time between clinging to seat for life and the eating, you open up your heart and enjoy the ride of your life. This my friends is the concept of the “Arranged Travel”. Happy journey!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Arranged Marriage – Preparing for the first meeting
-Akshay Ranganath
Looking at the trend of visits to my blog, I thought a more serious blog about 'how to prepare for the all important first meeting' would be a useful post to you, my dear readers. And so here is what I learnt based on my experience.
Please note that since I am a guy, this is from a male perspective. I guess most would apply even to girls, so do read on.
Preparing for the meeting
Arranged marriage has its set of excitement and none is more exciting than the first time you get to meet your 'would-be' in a face to face mode. Just the very thought is enough to raise a few goose pimples and start a sense of thrill, of confusion, of worries and lots of butterflies in stomach. After all, what are you supposed to talk to her in the one hour by which you can decide if she is the one with whom to spend the rest of life!
Yes, it is an important meeting and like for any formal meeting, it needs effort on 3 fronts:
You are meeting someone who could potentially be your life partner and you need to know if she is the 'right-fit' for what you are looking for. Unfortunately, most of us don't even know what we are looking for in the life partner – at least I could never articulate what I was looking for.
As a preparation, you need to do a lot of soul searching – a sort of long term planning. Like the typical interview question, 'Where do you see yourself' types, you need to make a note of the following questions – and its answers:
During the meeting, you need to extract similar set of information from her so that you can make a judgement about what she wants in life and if you want to and can afford it. If not, its better to take a call right after the meeting rather than letting a life get messed up by wrong expectations.
Meeting
After all the preparation comes the actual meeting – the thing that is most important. For this, first choose on an appropriate location. Regardless of what movies and serials show, girls are shy for the first date, at least in the initial few minutes. So, the most important thing is to ensure that the location makes her comfortable.
My suggestion is to choose something that is close to her place. That way she knows the area around and knows things in general. Cafe Coffee Day outlets in cities like Bangalore are the best places to meet – more so if they have an outdoor chair. This way, you are sort of in free fresh air and she need not feel suffocated.
Starting the meeting
As with any planned meeting, set the agenda. After the initial meeting and greetings, tell her clearly that the meeting is for generally discussing about what you are generally planning in life and would like to know about her plans, interests, desires and concerns (if any).
During the initial few minutes, the girl will (most probably) be shy. So take time and explain about yourself. Don't say the mundane stuff like which college, 12th marks and so on. It doesn't matter. What does matter is the type of life you've had – if you stayed in multiple places, how you enjoyed the rains in Pune, the beach in Chennai, the dejection when you couldn't get into that college you wanted – you get the picture. Something to make her feel that you are a human.
Ask her about herself, what she does and generally how she spends time. This will give her an opening to talk. Don't ask too many personal questions at beginning and don't probe. You are not in an interrogation.
Don't order by yourself. Let her take a look at menu, ask for her preference. If she's confused, help her. The break will give her some time to get her thoughts in order and same goes for you too.
Progressing with the meeting
After the initial 10-15 minutes of startup, get into a bit more specific details. Explain about your career, what you've done so far and what you want to do. Tell her if you have plans for settling abroad or you are just not interested. Keep interspersing your points by her details. Try to ensure that the conversation remains two way. Keep watching her and check if she's not getting bored or pressurized.
Here is where you basically talk all that you'd prepared. Ensure that you ask questions so that you too can form an opinion of her. You basically would be interested in her plans for:
Concluding the meeting
By the time the coffee gets over, its time to end the meeting. At this point, tell her something about your friends and what you do for hobby. Something to tell her what is your likes in food, movies music, etc. Ask her about her favorites. Comment over it since it gives her a feeling that you really care for the preferences. Put in a few funny things that had happened in some trip or movie – it should be funny but not gross!
Post meeting
This is the time when you drop her from the meeting venue to her home (or till her vehicle or bus). By now, you would actually know the outcome of meeting. It won't be tough believe me. If you two can talk like you've known for ages by now, you know she's the one.
So look for signs from her – if she laughs happily and her eyes sparkle, then you know its a win! If not, try and explain any points that could mean you are not made for each other. Whatever the outcome, it should end cordially. And if the result is a 'yes', then take a small risk and insert something romantic in your speech. I didn't realize it but, I gave her my card with my mobile number on it. And my fiance says the moment she got the card, she realized that I would say yes.
Finally
So, finally, the first meeting is all about setting the right expectation for both parties – you as a guy on what you can offer in terms of life and life style and for her to tell what she expects. Remember, it is the girl who makes the bigger sacrifice of leaving her family and taking up a new home, life and literally a new role. So, she needs to know what she is getting into – make this as easy for as you can.
My dad helped me with a half a day session on this – and now I'm passsing it on. Happy meeting and hope what I wrote helps you.
Looking at the trend of visits to my blog, I thought a more serious blog about 'how to prepare for the all important first meeting' would be a useful post to you, my dear readers. And so here is what I learnt based on my experience.
Please note that since I am a guy, this is from a male perspective. I guess most would apply even to girls, so do read on.
Preparing for the meeting
Arranged marriage has its set of excitement and none is more exciting than the first time you get to meet your 'would-be' in a face to face mode. Just the very thought is enough to raise a few goose pimples and start a sense of thrill, of confusion, of worries and lots of butterflies in stomach. After all, what are you supposed to talk to her in the one hour by which you can decide if she is the one with whom to spend the rest of life!
Yes, it is an important meeting and like for any formal meeting, it needs effort on 3 fronts:
- pre meeting – what you need to talk and ask during the meeting and deciding where to meet
- meeting – what you actually say and how to say or ask, making her comfortable enough so that she can open up and say what she has in mind
- post meeting – the duration when the serious stuff is done and you can show the softer side of yourself, just long enough to tease her to get interested in you.
You are meeting someone who could potentially be your life partner and you need to know if she is the 'right-fit' for what you are looking for. Unfortunately, most of us don't even know what we are looking for in the life partner – at least I could never articulate what I was looking for.
As a preparation, you need to do a lot of soul searching – a sort of long term planning. Like the typical interview question, 'Where do you see yourself' types, you need to make a note of the following questions – and its answers:
- What type of a person are you? A completely happy go lucky, a guy who likes a detailed and well planned life?
- Based on your background, what type of a lifestyle did you have? A very rich and happy one, a typical middle class life – equally comfortable with bus or a car
- Your social status and quality of life – again, typical middle class – occasional movies, summer holiday trip to grandma's place or international visits, bowling alleys, etc.
- What type of a job you are doing and what are you aiming for, at least a rough idea: A well paying but not necessary being the CEO, a high flier with life filled with constant excitement with fast career, a nomadic world roaming life
- Your friends and how you all get along
- Your hobbies – what you do in free time, what makes you passionate in life
- Any family responsibilities and financial position - only son so need to take care of parents, etc., and salary
During the meeting, you need to extract similar set of information from her so that you can make a judgement about what she wants in life and if you want to and can afford it. If not, its better to take a call right after the meeting rather than letting a life get messed up by wrong expectations.
Meeting
After all the preparation comes the actual meeting – the thing that is most important. For this, first choose on an appropriate location. Regardless of what movies and serials show, girls are shy for the first date, at least in the initial few minutes. So, the most important thing is to ensure that the location makes her comfortable.
My suggestion is to choose something that is close to her place. That way she knows the area around and knows things in general. Cafe Coffee Day outlets in cities like Bangalore are the best places to meet – more so if they have an outdoor chair. This way, you are sort of in free fresh air and she need not feel suffocated.
Starting the meeting
As with any planned meeting, set the agenda. After the initial meeting and greetings, tell her clearly that the meeting is for generally discussing about what you are generally planning in life and would like to know about her plans, interests, desires and concerns (if any).
During the initial few minutes, the girl will (most probably) be shy. So take time and explain about yourself. Don't say the mundane stuff like which college, 12th marks and so on. It doesn't matter. What does matter is the type of life you've had – if you stayed in multiple places, how you enjoyed the rains in Pune, the beach in Chennai, the dejection when you couldn't get into that college you wanted – you get the picture. Something to make her feel that you are a human.
Ask her about herself, what she does and generally how she spends time. This will give her an opening to talk. Don't ask too many personal questions at beginning and don't probe. You are not in an interrogation.
Don't order by yourself. Let her take a look at menu, ask for her preference. If she's confused, help her. The break will give her some time to get her thoughts in order and same goes for you too.
Progressing with the meeting
After the initial 10-15 minutes of startup, get into a bit more specific details. Explain about your career, what you've done so far and what you want to do. Tell her if you have plans for settling abroad or you are just not interested. Keep interspersing your points by her details. Try to ensure that the conversation remains two way. Keep watching her and check if she's not getting bored or pressurized.
Here is where you basically talk all that you'd prepared. Ensure that you ask questions so that you too can form an opinion of her. You basically would be interested in her plans for:
- career
- life style
- location preference
- open to stay with in laws or not, etc
Concluding the meeting
By the time the coffee gets over, its time to end the meeting. At this point, tell her something about your friends and what you do for hobby. Something to tell her what is your likes in food, movies music, etc. Ask her about her favorites. Comment over it since it gives her a feeling that you really care for the preferences. Put in a few funny things that had happened in some trip or movie – it should be funny but not gross!
Post meeting
This is the time when you drop her from the meeting venue to her home (or till her vehicle or bus). By now, you would actually know the outcome of meeting. It won't be tough believe me. If you two can talk like you've known for ages by now, you know she's the one.
So look for signs from her – if she laughs happily and her eyes sparkle, then you know its a win! If not, try and explain any points that could mean you are not made for each other. Whatever the outcome, it should end cordially. And if the result is a 'yes', then take a small risk and insert something romantic in your speech. I didn't realize it but, I gave her my card with my mobile number on it. And my fiance says the moment she got the card, she realized that I would say yes.
Finally
So, finally, the first meeting is all about setting the right expectation for both parties – you as a guy on what you can offer in terms of life and life style and for her to tell what she expects. Remember, it is the girl who makes the bigger sacrifice of leaving her family and taking up a new home, life and literally a new role. So, she needs to know what she is getting into – make this as easy for as you can.
My dad helped me with a half a day session on this – and now I'm passsing it on. Happy meeting and hope what I wrote helps you.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Movie Review: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na..
-Akshay Ranganath
Today, I went to watch the much-hyped movie, Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na.. There two reasons for watching the movie:
The movie's about love – or rather when do you know that you are in love as against being “just friends”. It delivers on the promise of being a college romance flick with not much serious overtones. However, if somehow fails to evoke any empathy for the actors. Somehow, you don't feel the passion of the love, nor the pain of seperation that the confused souls face when you are in that situation where you don't know if you are in love or not..
The movie has its positives. Imran comes across as a nice college teen flick actor. So does his gang of friends. Mr and Mrs Naseruddin Shah are as at their best. However the main heroine, Genelia comes across as someone who just fails to talk in Hindi. Her dialogue delivery is to be fair is like someone taking a Hindi orals in a South Indian school. It better when she doesn't talk.
The best part about the move were the hilarious moments when Mr & Mrs Naseruddin Shah speak to each other. As against melodrama of a widow who's lost her husband, in this movie, there is no sympathy asked nor needed towards the widowed mother of the hero. Instead, the father is always shown to be present as a living potrait – and someone who does not just give fatherly advise but dances and jumps around with joy about his son.
Paresh Rawal as his typical Marathi speaking police officer is quite nice. You sort of expect his Hindi to be Marthi mixed so not too much of a surprise there.
One place where the movie seems a bit far fetched is its portrayal of friendship. Somehow, it seems like the movie is not based in India at all. Guys and girls are shown as friends with guys hanging in their girl student friends' homes even after 12 at night. After being engaged I'm not allowed to meet my fiance beyond the time when sun goes down. In a society with these rules, the behaviour in the movie seems to be a bit too over the top.
The sad part of the movie is the heart of what it should have been about – the quandry of “''Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na..” ''That is when in a deep relationship how do you know that you are in love. Here's where I was expecting the “Aakash” style of confusion from Dil Chahta Hai. The pain, confusion, anguish that Aamir Khan portrays in that movie evokes a sense of deep empathy in you in that movie. However in this movie, Imraan is shown hanging around with his own girlfriend Meghna while Gnelia is shown hanging around with another guy. Sure there are some sparks but, you just don't feel that sense of confusion at all. Even the break up scene of Imran where his current girl friend just comes to him one fine morning and with no tears or confusion breaks up – that is a bit too unrealistic to believe, if they were in as deep a relationship that they are shown to be in. The only redeeming thing is the beautiful songs by AR Rehman. "Kabhi kabhi" sort of haunts you all along.. Again, the nice music is wasted on untimely songs and at times bad picturization. Somehow the songs don't seem to fit in.. The nice lyrics of "Kabhi kabhi Aditi.." is for cheering Aditi over a dead cat. Somehow that doesn't gell well!
Overall, the movie is worth a watch for the humour content. It does make you laugh and the comedu is decent. But, if you are expecting a movie that makes your heart cry out for the tender love of the two people on screen, be prepared to be let down. Its a nice fun movie with no message and nothing that evokes any sympathy but a nice bit of laughter, especially if you've gone to the theatre with your own sweet heart around.
Today, I went to watch the much-hyped movie, Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na.. There two reasons for watching the movie:
- It was a movie that had Aamir Khan's name associated with it AND
- I'd got engaged and needed a nice romatic movie to take my fiance to..
The movie's about love – or rather when do you know that you are in love as against being “just friends”. It delivers on the promise of being a college romance flick with not much serious overtones. However, if somehow fails to evoke any empathy for the actors. Somehow, you don't feel the passion of the love, nor the pain of seperation that the confused souls face when you are in that situation where you don't know if you are in love or not..
The movie has its positives. Imran comes across as a nice college teen flick actor. So does his gang of friends. Mr and Mrs Naseruddin Shah are as at their best. However the main heroine, Genelia comes across as someone who just fails to talk in Hindi. Her dialogue delivery is to be fair is like someone taking a Hindi orals in a South Indian school. It better when she doesn't talk.
The best part about the move were the hilarious moments when Mr & Mrs Naseruddin Shah speak to each other. As against melodrama of a widow who's lost her husband, in this movie, there is no sympathy asked nor needed towards the widowed mother of the hero. Instead, the father is always shown to be present as a living potrait – and someone who does not just give fatherly advise but dances and jumps around with joy about his son.
Paresh Rawal as his typical Marathi speaking police officer is quite nice. You sort of expect his Hindi to be Marthi mixed so not too much of a surprise there.
One place where the movie seems a bit far fetched is its portrayal of friendship. Somehow, it seems like the movie is not based in India at all. Guys and girls are shown as friends with guys hanging in their girl student friends' homes even after 12 at night. After being engaged I'm not allowed to meet my fiance beyond the time when sun goes down. In a society with these rules, the behaviour in the movie seems to be a bit too over the top.
The sad part of the movie is the heart of what it should have been about – the quandry of “''Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na..” ''That is when in a deep relationship how do you know that you are in love. Here's where I was expecting the “Aakash” style of confusion from Dil Chahta Hai. The pain, confusion, anguish that Aamir Khan portrays in that movie evokes a sense of deep empathy in you in that movie. However in this movie, Imraan is shown hanging around with his own girlfriend Meghna while Gnelia is shown hanging around with another guy. Sure there are some sparks but, you just don't feel that sense of confusion at all. Even the break up scene of Imran where his current girl friend just comes to him one fine morning and with no tears or confusion breaks up – that is a bit too unrealistic to believe, if they were in as deep a relationship that they are shown to be in. The only redeeming thing is the beautiful songs by AR Rehman. "Kabhi kabhi" sort of haunts you all along.. Again, the nice music is wasted on untimely songs and at times bad picturization. Somehow the songs don't seem to fit in.. The nice lyrics of "Kabhi kabhi Aditi.." is for cheering Aditi over a dead cat. Somehow that doesn't gell well!
Overall, the movie is worth a watch for the humour content. It does make you laugh and the comedu is decent. But, if you are expecting a movie that makes your heart cry out for the tender love of the two people on screen, be prepared to be let down. Its a nice fun movie with no message and nothing that evokes any sympathy but a nice bit of laughter, especially if you've gone to the theatre with your own sweet heart around.
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