That nostalgic feeling...Old friends and old memories

It's always such a fantastic feeling to catch up with that school or college buddy whom you had not met or spoken to for years.

I suddenly saw an email in my mail box from one such person and was so excited that my colleague who was sitting on my desk asked me "What happened?"

I was in some embarrassment explaining him the reason for that wide smile on my face because as soon as i saw the mail, some of those funny moments that we associate with each of the persons around us just flashed in front of me.

There are quite a good no of fun moments associated with this person too...

It's not getting any cheaper is it?

The economy is growing, there is a sense of good in every sector and the general mood seems great.

BUT, inflation is taking its toll, well inflation has always troubled some government or the other at different times since the last 15-20 years or even longer.

What's different this time around?

Well, its for the first time perhaps in my life time that food prices across the board have seen a sharp increase. One does not need to be an economist to tell you that when food prices go up and they affect the common people beyond their earning cycles, they vote against the government.

Bye Bye UPA government at the center.

PS:- My understanding of the Indian economy is as good as Sachin Tendulkar's(Master's) understanding of Chemistry in class XII.

Thailand - Phuket - Good place, better people....

I write this from a seat overlooking Concourse C on the swanky new Swarnabhumi International Airport @ Bangkok. I was in Phuket for a few days and what I saw of Thailand, the people there, their attitude to customer service and work in general has impressed me a great deal.

The places I went to were clean, you would hardly find people loitering around without work, everyone seems to be busy with some task or the other. I found people were happy and content – at least their facial expressions showed that they were happy and the limited conversations I had with some of the locals did tell me that they are quite happy and proud of their country, culture and the king!!!

The land rates in Phuket - one of the most popular tourist destinations were a mere 10-15lac Bht/acre i.e. 12-18lac INR/acre. Wow, that’s a lot cheaper than any of the places in India isn’t it?

The temple that I visited was hardly crowded and the roads are great, people seemed to follow the traffic rules pretty well, I think Thailand and the people impressed me a lot.

Over and above all this what impressed me was the attitude of the people, I found it very positive. People have a tremendous sense of service, they are polite and savvy when it comes to serving their guests.

At 930pm in my hotel the person who was looking after us went all the way to find out some small bit of information that I asked her to look for and spent almost ½ hour to get the right person, for me to talk to.

I am actually planning to come back, preferably within the next one year, spend some more time in this beautiful place and with these great people. Well, actually spend some money here as well,

It’s well spent, believe me!!!

The Great Indian Blame Game!!!!!

I often wonder and at times discuss this with close friends, why do we always end up finding a scapegoat - real or otherwise, to blame for our failures?

The failures could be as trivial as reaching late for a movie show or a meeting, it could sometimes be as serious as breaking down a relationship and you can count anything in between these extremes. We end up finding a scapegoat (mostly anyone other than ourselves) who can be blamed for the failure.

A little bit of introspection and soul searching most times does point the finger back to ourselves, but where egos are mighty and heads heavy, wiser sense rarely prevails. A scape goat is quickly found and publicised to the wide world. Soon messages are floated around to near and dear ones explaining how because of someone else i got sidelined from a certain promotion or i missed my flight or my wife ran away etc.

A blame game indeed!!!!!!

Power of Trust...

I have read somewhere that Trust can get you a lot of desirable affects and I am probably the great benefactor of being able to trust people.

I have always had tough situations looking me in the eye and there have been months at a stretch when I would be so hard pressed and under intense pressure. In crude Hindi a friend and me would always joke about it saying it happens so often that instead of god, there was a Jack Ass writing down my destiny while God took a break.

Now when I look back, it all seems so easy and straight forward, very seldom, I even felt like conning myself into believing that I did it, I did it on my own. Of course when the drink was over and sanity prevailed, I knew I was just part of it all and a lot of it got done because of the kind of people I had around me, especially those on my team.

Trust is a function of Competency and Character and once the trust is built, things just move so smoothly, communication lines are clear as a whistle, people feel a lot of freedom and the overall achievements go up significantly. I have cases where we have achieved so much more with a trust based approach that I would personally want it to be deployed everywhere.

The challenge for me has always been in promising more delivering even more with lesser resources. I believe a good way to start of is to inculcate a feeling of trust in the team that you have and then watch the magic work.

And yes someday I would learn to turn it around where people also start trusting me a lot more than some of them do today, especially on the personal front :)

Woman's Day - 2 close friends

On the eve of this woman’s day (08 March 2008), as I sent a message to my team and few other colleagues, my mind could not help but ponder over the past one year and think about 2 specific friends.

Person A is a young, energetic girl all of 24 who started her career on my team. A brave girl who stood up to her convictions amidst lot of opposition and trial from parents, relatives and all else.

Person B is a competent professional, thinks she is smart and has all the things figured out. A mature woman of 27-28 who could not stand up to her own convictions, flip flopped on decisions to land many people close to her in agony. Today she is little else than a wreck living under constant vigil, supervision and threat to family and close ones including few friends.

When we talk about women’s liberalization and coming of age, How big a role does education, job security, money and power play? Well in all this, Person A is less educated, relatively younger and therefore probably a little less mature(?), earns a whole lot lesser than Person B in pure money terms.

I felt it was the clarity of thought and conviction, the power to stand up to yourself and for yourself, the ability to resist what was wrong without bothering to think who it was coming from is what sets Person A apart.

Person A and Person B are my close friends and will remain so for ever, Person A is like my little sister and was a personal favorite too (I never told her this while she worked for me, also I believe that Great/Good Managers too can have personal favorites!!!).

I am proud of both of them as friends but I feel a lot better when I see, meet and hear about Person A. I wish Person B could one day build up the courage and conviction to stand up and be counted for the sake of all those women who are waiting to fight for themselves.

Those half read books

I have been trying to read Stephen Hawking's A brief history of time since September, but haven't yet moved beyond 40%. Come to think of it, this is not the first time i picked up a book and did not complete it. I also see this happening more often since the last 1 year.

Is it the author or the reader that is at fault? Stupid question, its the reader who paid for the book in the first place and is now unable to read through the complete passage.

Need to think of better reasons and also try and complete the remaining 60% of the book sooner!

A new wave, but....

I see a lot of young professionals coming in to the organizations both big and small. Yes there seems to be a lot of confidence there. I see a very "laid back, things will come to us on their own" kind of attitude from many of the younger colleagues. This worries me a lot, if this continues, would we one day see a reversal of growth and fortunes, will the India story that is so much in the hands of the younger generation fade away?

Questions and more questions, i wish not and i am sure the ethos of hard work, laced with smart thinking and longer term views rather than short term biases will see a change and corporate leaders and managers would need to bring in these changes rapidly too at least with in their environments.

Rise and fall of Jagmohan Dalmiya

What Jagmohan Dalmiya did for Indian cricket (perhaps World Cricket too!) cannot be forgotten. He along with few others brought in loads of money into the game through intelligent marketing and promotion of the game especially in the subcontinent.

Today the new regime in the BCCI is hell bent on ensuring that Dalmiya never returns back to the helm. I am sure like any other human Dalmiya would have to account for his share of mistakes, but are these so big that he be treated the way he is being treated today?

Time will tell,let's wait and watch!

Impact of movies...

Can movies really move the people and society at large to transform itself into an agile formation that can see its right and wrong in clear light? I keep wondering about this question and just when I convince myself that movies at best can be of entertainment value, there are a few noises here and there that make me think other wise.

The involvement of the Rang De Basanti cast and crew in the Narmada andolan, the host of anti reservation protests that are happening across the country - some say inspired again by a recent bollywood movie are more recent examples.

The larger question is will it last or is this the hype of something that recent and active in people's memories. Is this the new age educated middle class that unlike our parents time is more assertive, knows what's good for them, their society and expects the politico's to deliver on the promises.

Well I guess, we need to wait and watch - a year or two down the line things would become clearer.

UPA government goofs up on Kashmir and Pak

It's been over 2 years now and it's becoming increasingly clear to me that this government at the center has goofed up big time on some of the few good initiatives of the previous NDA government.

the policy towards the subcontinental neighbor's is flawed at best and I don't blame ManMohan Singh for that but the "hawkish"(probably also corrupt) Natwar Singh for that. The more one looks into the details of all the stupid things we did in the last 2 years one really feels obliged to believe the heading of a news report on one of the popular channels here - "Global Giant, Local Dwarf".

India can only gain respect when all its neighbor's respect it, when all of the subcontinent has a consistency in behavior - economic, social as well as on the defense front. I wish ManMohan Singh at least takes a cue from the current terrorist attacks in Kashmir and looks at it in new light.

Forgotten Heroes!

We have a tendency to forget our heroes, be it in cricket, entertainment or any other field. People ordinary and otherwise are forgotten soon after they are past their prime, though they might have contributed a lot to the respective field.

One is especially pained at the treatment being meted out to Sourav Ganguly, ex Indian cricket captain. But one very crucial thing that really does not go away from my mind is the fact that we are even faster in forgetting ordinary people who rose to the occasion and did some extraordinary things, at times sacrificing their own lives. People who fought for our safety in Kargil and numerous other wars, people who gave their lives to save others in difficult times - earthquakes, Tsunami's, fires, bomb blasts, other accidents.

I guess people just like to move on with out bothering about these heroes. Forget them and may be write a line or two about them once in a while. Will it change – how and why?

Bull run - Will it last?

Its taken merely days for the sensex to move from 10K to 11K and now from 11K to 12K. What does this mean for the small investor? Well the pundits claim its just a regular run and the market, companies etc. are unlocking their value.

There are also other alternate thoughts that claim the run is about to get over as FII investments are going down and would further slide as we move into 2006.

I remember the days of Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh and also remember the same pundits giving similar reasoning for the bull run then. Those days should not be forgotten when the deeds of these two gentlemen(?) led thousands of small investors to near bankruptcy.

Hope SEBI, Mr.Chidambaram and team are watching this carefully. The important question is how long will the bull run last?

Rising Salary costs in S/W and Services...

One of the biggest advantage India has on the software and services front is the cost factor. Gradually due to pressure on companies to hire, retain talent the cost advantage is taking a major hit.

Productivity levels in most organizations are either stagnant or have improved only marginally. One of the main reasons for stagnant productivity levels is the failure of most of the organizations in harnessing the energy of the new hires. New hires are either absolutely unproductive in the first 6-8 months or contribute very little. A lot of time goes in ensuring that this ramp up happens quickly and also to the levels of satisfaction that meet needs of all the stake holders involved. Since software and services are predominantly team driven, a weak link can disturb the whole equation and create chaos. One also see's a lot of complacency in people coming out of colleges - this could purely be due to the varied and many options that are available today to youngsters. ESOPs and other similar wealth creation schemes are not as attractive as they were some years ago. Also they are no longer practical for people at the bottom of the pyramid, the management would lose a lot of money in that.

All of these are pushing salary levels upward with an aim of attracting and retaining talent. If organizations are unable to work on these challenges and control the rising employee costs, the country would lose its biggest advantage - the cost advantage and would become as expensive as a Singapore (for example). Where does that leave India and thousands of Indians who are dependent on the services sector?

My birthday celebrations!

Why do we celebrate our birthdays? Ever wondered why people ask us to treat them with food and drinks on our birthdays?

I never celebrated my birthday till the time I went to college (10+2). Earlier it used to be a small, homely affair with my family and I used to look out for the nice things mom would cook for dinner. The celebration began with may be a small prayer (till the time I was old enough to resist and have it my way) and ended with a nice sumptuous dinner – mostly non vegetarian. Not sure how we became non vegetarian when our ancestors were all vegetarian – well nice subject for another article!

The birthday celebration in college was more to emulate others than anything else, well ok it was also to impress that beautiful girl whom I (and 25 others) liked. On one of those birthdays I invited her and a few other friends. She never came there; we waited for almost an hour and towards the end had to gulp the cold drinks and the cake ourselves.

After that I don’t remember celebrating my birthday and its been many years since that incident. Now the celebration starts with ……hmm….hmm…well nothing, it ends with a drunken stupor. The next day you pick up your stuff and get going – work, home wherever.

The essential element of life now is - Just keep walking (sometimes running too!)

Reservations isn't as bad....

Reservations and the whole Mandal issue may seem a bit more than just another political conundrum. But there is a definite merit in reservations being made available to the deserving. For one, I know a few friends of mine whose lives (and that of their families) are much better primarily because they were able to educate themselves well inspite of coming from an underprivileged section of the society. The sacrifices made by their parents and family members become much more worth while when they see their loved one getting a good job on the basis of his/her education.

A thing to watch out for when implementing reservations is that the principle of “creamy layer” be applied judiciously and in a more pragmatic manner. Only one generation of the under privileged should be able to reap the benefits of reservations. The rest should draw them into the main stream and if the “creamy layer” concept is understood and applied on the ground reservations would really be meaningful.

I wish the establishment was serious in a true manner on this one and not just view reservation as another vote winning rhetoric.

The North Indian flight

I have been visiting Matheran, a quite hill station near Mumbai, every year almost as a ritual. Many of our friends in fact say that we go there to fuel its economy by paying 3000/- for a night and a couple of drinks, which would cost you not more than a few hundred back home.

I have seen Matheran change a lot, it’s an hours drive from where I stay in the suburbs and was one of our favorite holiday destinations years back – both cheap at the same time classy. Change in the early and mid 90’s came when few Gujarati traders & businessmen started buying property on the hills and new (so called luxury!) hotels cropped up to get their share of the pie. This was expected and was not something the people of Matheran and Neral (the village on the foothills) would have despised. A very big and easily noticeable change that has people in Matheran/Neral worried is the gradual rise of the North Indian population. They have taken up jobs in the shops, hotels, as cab drivers etc that were earlier filled up by the local population. This was my first visit to Matheran after I came back from the US. The feeble protests from some of the locals I spoke to sounded like folks on the Lou Dobbs show protesting against outsourcing to India and other countries.It took my thoughts to the truth that Thomas Friedman recorded so well in his recent book about the world being flat. The outsourcing story, the demand and supply equations have all been playing up to the gallery in every single village, town and city for a much longer time that we all have noticed. It just becomes alarming when the local population begins to suffer out of not being competitive enough to still garner jobs and wages at their older and higher rates.

PS: - I am seen here with Vicky a smart young man who came to Matheran from UP 6 years back and now runs this shop for the owner.

Ganguly vs Chappel - Another ego problem!

Was not at all surprised on what's going on in Zimbabwe, the Indian cricket captain has an ego bigger than any one else's and unfortunately he is putting it in full view at an absolutely wrong time.

The whole episode stands out as childish & immature that no sensible person would like to relate to. It was stupid for the captain to go to the media and cry in front of the world that he was asked to step down by the coach due to his bad form. In fact, instead of garnering any sympathy, the captain actually showed the world his childish behavior. I think Chappel has shown excellent statesmanship and maturity in the whole episode and has come out a winner.

The advice that chappel has given Ganguly must be implemented, if not by Ganguly himself then by the selectors. It's time for Ganguly to go - whether he likes it or not.

Indian left front...is left back

Some time back, i read an article that put the blame for slow economic progress in India on the people who elected about 40 leftist members of parliament from 2-3 different states.

The prime minister is frustrated that he has to work with a bunch of idiots from the left front that seem to still live in the era of the soviet union. These leaders neither have a vision nor a strategy to take India to the next orbit of economic growth. Their job, it seems is to oppose every attempt at reform in the name of the welfare of the poor. Left front is mentally and intellectually still living in the past and is unwilling to understand the dynamics of the 21st century. They even refuse to learn from the mistakes they themselves have done in the states they ruled for years. The state of affairs in Kolkata and West Bengal are for all to see.

It's infact very refreshing to see the chief Minister of Bengal talk about reform and i am all praise for the recent quote "Reform or Perish" by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. If the left front leaders take a cue from their colleague in Bengal and help the country get on the high orbit of economic growth, they would have done India a world of good.

Katrina's effect on New Orleans

It was shocking to see images of New Orleans after the city was torn apart by Katrina, the hurricane. Just about a month back, all of us in India were busy blaming the government, the local administration, the politicians, builders et al. for the event that brought the financial capital of the country, Mumbai to a stand still. Most of us were probably right in the criticism and i personally felt it wasn't misplaced at all. I have spent a considerable part of my youth in and around Mumbai and know the place and the people well. It takes a lot to bring this place (Mumbai) to a stand still and only a natural disaster as big as the one we saw could achieve that.

The story of Mumbai and New Orleans suddenly did not look too different to me, the only difference was that Mumbai (and the whole of India) is ruled by corrupt (& criminal) politicians & run by corrupt bureaucrats. The fate of the people in the two cities was almost the same, no relief could reach them, people were stranded for days, large scale contamination of water could spread diseases causing epidemic.

At the end of the day i thought the administration in New Orleans, USA should have fared better, done more and also much quicker to help us Indians put pressure on the corrupt bureaucrats and politicians in Mumbai.

May be our grand mothers would be right on this one, when god wishes to intervene, a Bush or a Deshmukh really do not matter....