Jack Welch and The GE Way!

Amazing book, to say the least..especially if you are from a business domain, any kinda business for that matter... people from the production and services sector would appreciate the ideas much better i guess.. i was captivated by his 'futuristic' thoughts and innovative ideas, that saw GE through the tougher times before becoming one of the biz super powers in the world.. the way in which he restructured GE business by downsizing is truly remarkable.. few other CEOs in the history has endured such hues and cries from his own people, before emerging victorious:-).. imagine a thunderous applause even after a 'fiery' speech.. it was just that...

personally, i loved the way he introduced the work-out sessions in the work place... it did not take a while for GE employees to embrace it..straight to their hearts:-) me trying out this in our office.. 'nough inspiration eh?

bibliophiles.. go check it out...

so long
roy

Consumer rights....

i was thinking about the plethora of fitness/wellness/beauty/increase your libido kinda ads proliferating the media, both visual and print, of late.. enhance your good looks to shedding/loosing weight to build/tone your muscles to enhance your sexual performance.. VLCC to viagra and cialis.. body lotions to massage therapies.. yoga to power body building.. see 'before' and 'after' ads... ads of every hue and color you could imagine..

the point is, how many of us really care about these run of the mill shams? i discussed the same with a city based pharma professional.. he vehemently denied the claims in most of these ads.. why should we, as consumers, not react to these bogus and misleading ads? copying the west is outta fashion but why not take a step further, like they do, to take these 'promoters' to court if you dont see the expected results as advertised?

the lacunae for the culprits in india lie in our age old legal system.. am sure the punitive measures generally do not go beyond a Rs.500 penalty.. ludicrous, to say the least.. consumer rights in peril.. let's gang up:-)

so long
roy

Freedom of expression, challenges in the new world..

i always thought we enjoyed a strongly rooted sense of, and respect for, freedom of expression, living in the world's largest democracy.. couple of incidences in the recent past makes me wonder.. are we acting like the pawns in an autocratic world..?

well, whatever.. the statement made by an actress about pre-marital sex, and the totally unwarranted incidences that followed, underscores the fact that there are always factions of media and society who have a natural inclination for moral policing... i would say, shamelessly bold...

everyone, including a nine year old lad knows the basic facts about AIDS.. that it is an STD.. it spreads through sexual intercourse... and that using condums would always help to prevent the spread of this monster of all diseases... such has been the reach of the awareness programess launched by media, various NGOs, hospitals, shools etc. over the past couple of decades... this being the reality, why would any one feel that their orthodox beliefs and morals are under threat when some one, a celebrity in this case, makes an innocuous comment in the same lines?

why didn't the same outfit react when a Miss Universe (World?) made the same comments in her public speech recently in one of the metros? she was also donning the role of an volunteer spreading awareness on AIDS... the only answer would be politics playing yet another dirty game.. it is hightime the media, the educated public, gave no ear to such baseless, idiotic reactions to a common man's well formed opinions on social events/evils..

so long
roy

The heritage....

i was taken aback, albeit on a positive note, by this news in a national daily.. a prominent US colonel who was in charge of military operations in Iraq takes initiatives and is the sole driving force behind a mission to retrieve Bagdad's ancient treasures looted from the world famous museum...

it all started when a bold british journalist charged at him saying that he should be bold enough and determined to bring back those invaluable pieces back to the museum rather than crushing innocent victims to pieces.. he took her word, and is now leading that mission to bring the history and culture back in place.. collecting antiques from anyone/everyone who owns it, whether they have looted or purchased from a wayside vendor.. from places as far as syberia to tokio to the rustic market places in old delhi.. and this indeed is an achievement... i salute you colonel...

so long
roy

Currently reading... The Clinton Book!

I myself am amazed at the pace of my reading, of late.. took the famous Bill Clinton Auto a couple weeks ago and am still struggling to get into my usual rhythm.. it really goes page by page.. literally crawls... most of the readings happen while waiting for my daughter's school bus in the afternoon... and the time in itself is not so conductive for reading... i would think it is more suitable for a nap after a fiesta.. LoL...

anyways, the book is marvellous... Mr. Clinton indeed is a good story teller.. i like the way his narration goes, especially his childhood days.. i have always been fascinated by the growing up of american kids.. especially their life styles.. their schooling, neighbourhoods, food habbits, cookies, wine, lambs, hams and lot more.... the book has met my expectations.. dunno when i would finish this though.. and vol2 (my presidential years) comes next...

so long
roy

The tagging game is back.. albeit in a different form..?

It would be interesting to introspect, dig deeper into one's self to uncover hitherto unknown facts..was doing this in a different dimension altogether.. what are the 20 great idiosyncracies about me? here ya go...

1. am simple, to the extent it calls for
2. am affable, to the extent it is demanded
3. am capable, to take up a task and complete it with a touch of mine
4. i love watching Nik Gowning in BBC World News... love his mannerisms
5. i am not a social animal.. am not a nerd either
6. i am a family man...
7. i love reading out stories to my kids at bed time, everyday witout fail..
8. i love talking to my wife, endlessly.. over a cup of coffeeee....
9. reading is my hobby...i nurture a compulsive obsession for books that captivate my imagination
10. i love driving... only if the kids and/or wife give me company
11. am a fitness maniac.. waking up at 4:30AM everyday looks more like my routine
12. i do love my friends.. but bad in maintaining relationships..
13. am good at public speaking.. but not getting a chance of late..
14. a management degree, from a top B school, is my dream....
15. writing a pulp fiction comes just behind..
16. i dont loose my temper easily...
17. i love to live my life till about 80 years, only if my wife gives me company...
18. i dont dance, i would love to learn
19. i believe in my abilities.. no matter what others perceive!
20. i dont give a damn about people who boast about their achievements in life..

so long...
roy

Media going crazy????

yesterday, i was watching leading news channels in TV at noon. all of them were prompt in reporting the sad demise of our ex. president Mr. K.R Narayanan, with articulated expressions, flashbacks from his early lives, interviews with his bereived family members, condolence messages from leading political persona etc... later in the evening, i was reading news about the ex. president still surviving on LSS, sinking, to say euphemistically... and it was at about 5:45PM that he took his last breath, well after 3hrs the media had reported the sham, hastily in an effort to grab a peice of that air time... all shams!! the veracity of facts reported are in peril... and the fact that the victim is a VIP does not make a difference.... Jeeez... do ya care to dig out the facts before going on air???

so long
roy

Keep blogging... Keep going...

was literally out of the world for the past few weeks.. maybe, more than a couple of months?? lost track of times.. LoL.. no blogging, no chats, no browsing:-) believe me, raising kids all alone is no fun! i standup and salute those brave men and women elsewhere who bring up their kids with the label of single parenting..

if u go by statistics, their numbers grow in an alarming rate.. but mine is situational, occupational and more.. how many times do i yell to the world that i miss my wife more than anything else..? how many times do i assure my kids that their mom is gonna be back after a week? my daughter keeps asking me the same and is forced believe that papa is a born lier!!! probably, i keep the trauma off the little one by constantly showering them with new stories from toyland... thanks to the lending library i frequent:-)

BTW, it was raining milk and eggs in toyland yesterday when Noddy's kite was dragged off high in the air, with a milk can and a bag of eggs tied to it:-)... it was fun and the kids loved the story..

and dont think papa is interested only in stories from Toy Land.. presently reading Bill Clinton's autobiography, Vol 1..... the book is interesting, all the more when the man on the center stage is one of America's most featured presidents.. i will be back with a detailed review of the book later..

till then tada..

roy

Books... Hurricanes and more!!

never been this late to jot a thing on my blog.. obviously, nothing was happening in my life.. my love is away and managing the kids and family eats up my time.. yoyo... and sunday was cool with time out for a trip to the library with the kids..they really enjoy being there... sans the reluctance to get out!! hardly a minute after entering the library, i saw their hands full.. the elder one had already packed her hands with whatever Enid Blyton she could lay her hands on.. the younger one was randomly 'ransacking' stuff.. embarrassing to stay the least! somehow, i cajoled them to part with some of them allowing to keep only a handful of Noddy series and a few 'pooh pooh' stuff. the younger one was angry...he wanted to hold every single noddy book on sight.. ahem.. somehow i managed to get outta there, holding my single piece of fiction..:-) a day well spent after waging a fierce battle with the kids, literally true....

elsewhere, in the US city of texas..soon after hurricane katrina eating out the entire neworleans, her sister rita has lashed out at huston and other cities in texas.. looks like they have learnt from the past.. this time, the evacuation did the trick, no casualties reported yet... well, i was not really surprised by the 160Km traffic jam in the process of getting outta the battle grounds.. when every single house hold has a car-that runs down a little further to every single member in every single family-it really is possible.. all u see would be an endless row of cars, cars of every size.. i think this is high time the officials thought about a well maintained and effective public transport system, where buses and trams would be the key carriers..

and the hurricane season is going to be over by november or so.. promising another year of peace, snow and rains... and of course those cute little tulips of every color imaginable!

so long
roy

Story time Kids...Enid Blyton All the Way!!

ever since my daughter joined KG, i have been frequenting the local lending library more often than i used to hang out there.. and i cant resist the company of my two little ones either.. every sunday, soon after lunch and a nap, three of us head to eloor lending library, hardly a km away from where we stay.. it would be post-lunch time there, employees amuse themselves savoring trivia at home and at the work place.. most of the shelves would sport a deserted look.. bibiliophiles usually visit the place after six or seven in the evening i guess...

well, we head straight to the kids' section.. of late, my daughter's favorite is enid blyton.. and papa himself has fallen in love with all the characters in the toy town of toy land.. Noddy, Big Ears, Tessy Bear, the mischevous Goblins, Dinah Doll, Martha Monkey etc...it is fun and suddenly i see that i re-live my childhood once again...true, a weirdly vicarious feeling..

post dinner time.. the kids take ther respective positions beside papa.. the elder one to the right and the litttle one to the left.. papa takes over to read stories from toy land.. the elder one listens with utmost curiosity that all i can hear would be her slow breaths.. the younger one would ask occassional trivia but would go back to the storyline after prompt answers from papa..noddy drives dinah doll to the market for shopping... and on the way, the goblins cast a spell on them... and soon noddy's car is down with a flat tyre.. and big ears comes, from no-where, for resue.. i enjoy each and every moment of reading stories to my kids.. it is fun and immensely rewarding, if you notice their beaming faces post story time.. and this occasion would, in all probability, be rare.. since they doze off in between, almost always!!!

if a day passes without a bed-time story, i terribly miss something.. needless to ask their opinion on this.. and soon, a time will come, when they pick and read books on their own... would i continue to read stories from enid blyton and disney land then..? you bet:-)

PS: papa keeps his habiit of reading serious fiction, as always.. currently reading Chick Soup for The Bride's Soul..

so long
roy

The magical power of prayers..

i've been reading chicken soup for the bride's soul for the past few days.. exciting (do i mean exotic?) ways of proposing to one's sweet heart, choosing wedding gowns, aisle dances to saying vows.. the book is an amazing compilation...

look at this piece for a vicarious reading experience...

couple of months to go for that all awaited moment for emily to join hands with her fiance... year long preparations for that once-in-a-life-time experience.. and the last two weeks were hectic indeed, looking out at Macey's, Fileney's and Mama Mia's for that perfect gown, which shouts in full throat.. emily.. you look like an angel in that... this is you.. she too was surprised at not being able to come across the piece that was really made for her, till she bumped onto this immaculate, wedding gown at mama mia's..

it was a creation... with beedings, laces and satins stitched to perfection.. emily sported a trial and the crowd shouted vowwwww...... the gown was done for her.. but the price tag didnt bring much cheer anyways.. $1200 was indeed outa her reach and she did not want to take credit from her parents on this proud occasion..the clerk at the counter said it would be put for sale the following week and the price would come down to $320... her heart sank... would she wait? and what if some one else steals her dream??

a life time disappointment.. she felt her heart sobb..okie.. but why not i take a risk at this moment?? IF THIS IS MY PIECE, it is worth the wait.. and the deicision was made.. pa and mom and her little sis.. they buried themselves in a strong embrace.... over the next few days, emily thought about ways to retain the gown at mama mia's till the sale day.. maybe, she would ask her friends to call up and book the dress for picking up the following day..keeping the reservation up and alive till the d-day??? each of those shaky ideas were dropped and the family decided to simply wait and pray... and the news spread out... soon, her college friends began to pray.. her high school mates sent her roses saying their prayers.. her pa's and ma's friends called over to say that they all stay with her... and it was like years that the twelve days passed.. emily called up mama mia's to check whether her gwon was still there..the girl at the counter was friendly and warm...she said no and wished her good luck.. emily called up the next day too, just before closing the shop... well, her dream was still there...

and on the D-Day morning, pa and ma were there at mama mia's at 7:00 in the morning.. they peeped through the window panes to spot their dear daughter's flawless gown that corner waiting for the proud owner..at 8:30, emiliy and her little sis arrived, excited, dancing with joy.. 9:00AM.. the shop opened.. emily ran to the corner and grabbed her peice.. tears rolling down her cheeks.. and on the faces of all who knew the story!!! she 'stood on trial' again and needless to say she looked georgeous!!!!

cheers
roy

Redefining travelogues..

i just re-wrote my impressions on travelogues, and travel diaries to be specific, after reading a piece from Maithreyi Nandakumar.. the author is with BBC's radio Bristol.. and the piece i like to talk about is her experiences of visitng the royal palace and meeting with the Queen and The Prince.. it is a rare, and once in a lifetime, opportunity to get invited for the Queen's luncheon gathering @the Buckingham Palace.. each and every sentence in the memoir was meticulously carved to tickle the reader's imagination and taking them to a virtual tour of the palace... the language is beautiful, lucid and crystal-clear.. and you wind up the column with a dejavu..... of enjoying the royal luncheon yourself... kudos to this lady.. i have added one more in my repertoir of must read colmnists.. here comes the elite...

Maithreyi Nandakumar,V. Gangadhar, Ramachandra Guha ,Sasi Tharoor and Sevanti Nainan...

check out a piece from Mrs. Nandakumar..

so long
roy

Uprootings and more...

it has been a while I blogged anything.. and this can't really be attributed to lack of topics of interest.... i would rather see it as a slackening phase, wherein a i feel an elongated lethargy to grab up enough creativity to punch in anything..

that apart, life has not been a roller coaster ride in the past weeks; cool, routine and eventless.. and it doesn’t really rock either, presumably because my wife is away and i feel all the more lonely and left alone, albeit being cuddled up by our two little ones.. while i miss her so much, i cherish the moments of joy spending time with the kids..

elsewhere, in the outside world... Israeli settlers are moving out reluctantly and a larger percentage of them are forcibly evicted from the Gaza strip... i was watching the scene in BBC yesterday night.. it is tough for people who have spent most of their lives, some more than 30 years, in Gaza to move out one fine morning.. these are the moments of agony, disbelief, parting, sorrow and misery.. some settlers, who could not come to terms with the reality yet, where shouting at the police, kicking and cursing them.. all out of unfathomable pain and endless days of suffering that might lie ahead.. it was indeed in the minds of all the Israelis in Gaza that they might want to leave either today or tomorrow.. when the reality struck they could not cope with the stress and pain, one of the basic human behavior indeed!! the police were so composed and cool and truly professional in handling the scene.. but then who doubts the efficiency of the police force of a nation that boasts about mosad and top defense technologies in the world..? way to go gentlemen...

the Palestinians are celebrating on the other end.. you win some and you loose some.. we talk about, and witness, destiny here.. nothing more and nothing less. period.

so long
roy

Dream career unleashed!!

at times i just sit back and wonder what a dream career means to me! is that something which is lucrative to the extent that you live in a hitherto unknown world of snobs?? is it so challenging that you jerk out the last of your nerve cells to tame it and move up the corporate ladder? is it so responsible that you stay up all night at workplace to meet the commitments and deadlines?? or is it all about utilizing your people skills in full where you cajole your team in aiming for the stars and not getting smuggish by reaching the sky??? questions galore.. and in gamuts... i still wonder and no clues yet..

again, one thing that strikes me repeatedly is.. listen to your soul and do something you are REALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT.... and the rewards will follow..

enough said i guess....

so, till then

bye
roy

Lance Amstrong.. one of the most popular sporting icons in history...

why am I so late in saying three cheers to Lance Amstrong, the winner of Le Tour De France, his seventh title in a row... he sure is one of the most famous icons in the history of sports.. could not help posting couple of his pics..:-)

Lance... a cool pic!

Lance... Seventh straight title @Tour De France!

Terrorism in the new world!!

i am amazed at the increasing no. of terrorist activities the world over, almost all culminating in casualties and endless sufferings, leaving behind a plethora of questions unanswered.. after 9/11, it was 7/7 and going by the irrational deeds of terrorist outfits, we would be left without any choice of euphemistic names for such incidence in the near future..

it doesn't really require an academician's clear cut thought process to see that bomb blasts, explosions, shootings, kidnappings for ransom and hostage dramas are no means for a just solution to the cause they are fighting for.. they merely help to add to the list of victims! and the surprising fact is that, most of the suicide bombers, or those who are carriers in any other way, do not really understand why they do it in the first place..

unless people the world over learn to love each other with compassion, empathy and a deep respect for human rights, it is yet another name calling..

so long
roy

Parting blues!!!!

i have started counting the days with a cant-express-in-words attitude.. come next saturday, my wife would have left trivandrum to join State Bank of India at Bangalore.. she is flying to Lucknow on the 2nd to attend the month long training at SBI Staff college.. back again to bangalore, this time with a definite locale for posting.. it feels really good when you think about the damn good career she has landed up on.. it is tough 9 years after college, with a family to care for.. you really need enormous amount of energy, patience and a never-say-die attitude to hit big at this stage.. it is painful when you leave your 2 year old in the visiting room and the elder one left alone in the bed room to complete that piece of find-the-way for mickey mouse game.. it hurts to part the little one when you leave for class at 9:00AM in the morning.. and you are not going to be back until after 4:00PM.. it took about a year to fulfil her career dreams...

looking at the brighter side of life, her getting employed is exciting.. it's a dream come true... papa is proud indeed..and so are the little ones:-)

on the not-so-brighter side, it's tough for papa and the kids to leave without their mom, albeit for a few moths (Hopefully..so..).. i know, i would miss her more than anything else in this world..i was always late from work.. missed the house-hold commitments quite often, of course due to occupational hazards... had to say not-at-the-moment to her numerous requests for dining out or for taking the kids out to the beach... and there was those small fights, and our share of arguments...:-).. but then, the mere feeling that she was there for me, everytime, was enough to get me going...

it was a powerful hand wielding the wheel..you just sit back and relax, taking everything else for granted.. never bothering about those background chores happening!! doing laundry, washing dishes, sending the elder one to school, without ever missing the school bus, reminding about dwindling stock of vegetables, fish and grocery... hope papa would survive the challenging tasks ahead!!

on a concluding note... life sure rocks.. after all, parting is such a sweet sorrow, especially when it is for a good cause...

so long
roy

Celebacy! Not out of choice.....

i was quite amazed at this news snippet in the morning newspaper.. china's ever increasing gender disparity is a grave concern for the people and for the policy makers alike.. increasing number of males looking for female partners!!! i have heard of people choosing a celebate's life out of choice.. but this is beyond my imagination.. you gonna choose a single's life style just because there are not enough girls... LoL...

this has been atributed to a penchant for the boy child... i would imagine, in any a patriarchal society, girl child is treated with disdain... unless people change their attitudes & beleives in the age old ethos, nothing is gonna change... all you see would be celebates ruling the state..?

BTW, what would you call such a government? any takers...?

so long
roy

Induction programmes and the like..

the week just passed has been hectic in more ways than one... we had a bunch of youngsters joined our team on the 11th of july... never did see such a 'huge' recruitment drive in the past.. the guys and gals are awesome though... i am amazed at their enthu to learn new stuff.. looks quite natural when you are just outa college and all excited to conquer the corporate world.. i could not help recollecting the days when me too was a novice in a totally new environment..fresh out of college... new people, new rules, and an altogether new agenda for life.. LoL... looking back, all i see is the beauty of those days, when i joined as a graduate engineer trainee with one of the leading govt. of india r&d organization in the city.. amazingly friendly people... amazing work culture.. and it was with a sense of pride and joy that i left the place five+ years later.. my first love.. it sure did rock!!

three cheers there!!

so long
roy

Random notes again..

it has been a while i blogged anything.. was literally out of touch with fellow bloggers.. i saw myself back in action this morning.. visited all the blogs in my roll.. simba, atta girl, dave, suhas, zarine, anil, future mba girl, the list is endless.. and am back to mine to give u an update as to whats happening with me..

i had posted elsewhere about deepthy's selection in State Bank of India as an Officer.. the posting order has come and i see that she has been assigned to Bangalore circle.. me, with my little ones, waiting for those four years of 'away from family all alone' period.. i would imagine her spending about 4 years in Bangalore itself before the slimmest chance of heading for a posting in the home turf.. it is painful to be away, especially for her.. i would be around with the kids, barring the times when i spend at office.. for her it would be tough.. tough office hours, hectic schedules, and to boot, all alone at a never-been-there city...

on the brighter side, getting into SBI as an officer is an achievement in itself, for her and for the family.. it adds a secure feeling to life per se...

looking ahead, i would see papa and kids heading to bangalore in every three days' off.. i need to get a crash course on managing two-to-four year olds in a train, all alone!!! tough times ahead.. am sure it brings in more joy and excitement than the parting.. in the end, it is the feeling of well being that counts..

so long
roy

MNCs-Sponsoring-Indian-Acads...

couple of days ago, i came across yet another MNCs-Sponsoring-Indian-Acads stuff... P&G is 'investing heavily' in the department of chemical engineering at IISc Bangalore.. dubbed corporate sponsorship, i would like to peel of the euphemism and address the facts.. thinking along the funding lines, this is something to brag about.. on the other side, it is saddening to see indian brains developing emerging tech for MNCs right inside Indian Institues of repute... and the MNCs sell out their products in the indian market itself, reaping huge profits..

what if our institutions of higher education and research do work with local industries, developing technologies and taking up research work for them? this calls for only a slight change in attitude at either ends, academia and industry... moi waiting to see something hapening on this lines...

so long
roy

Street kids show the way...

early this morning, i was on my way back from my regular work out session at palayam.. the steet was kinda deserted due to the hartal declared by a political party.. the pavements opposite the church was abuzz with activities.. grownups squatting on the naked floor, brushing aside the rigors of the bygone day... old men and women still dozing off under the comfort of those worn out rags.. kids dotting all over the place playing a game of push-n-pull...

i could not ignore a little boy of about 8 years crossing the road with a small vadai in one hand and a glass of piping hot tea in the other.. a litte girl, she should be around 4 i guess, was running frantically towards the boy, apparently to get a bite from the vadai.. the boy took a quick small bite and handed over the rest to the little girl.. she grabbed the peice and was about to run back to her mother.. a small piece of rock blocked her way and was thrown off-foot..her face hit the ground, her little hands were buried in a pool of dirt.. the boy threw away the glass of tea and ran to his litlle sister.. he grabbed her up in his arms and kissed her cheeks left and right.. the little girl was no more crying.. instead, i could see her smiles amid tears rolling down her cheeks, still holding the piece of vadai in one hand and her drooping skirt in the other...

it was an amazing and sweet scene of love and affection.. of caring and intimacy...the selfless brother sacrificed his morning meal, i am sure it was going to be his sole meal for the day, for his little sister.. a street smart example of love and caring unlimited....

back home i told this anecdote to my daughter.. and she just ran to her little brother and kissed his cheeks.. papa likes to cherish those ephemeral moments of joy for ever!!

tell this anecdote to all the kids you come across and am sure they will learn the value of love and caring.. and their world will definitely be a better place than ours!!

so long
roy

Life is beautiful..

more of a personal note, i have been thinking about writing a few lines about my wife's long standing desire, enthusiasm and assiduous struggle to get into State Bank of India (SBI), the largest public sector bank in India and the World's largest employer in the banking segment... i would cherish the news that she made it into the final list of candidates selected for the prestigious position of Probationary Officer.. she is all excited- and so are me and the little ones-and the euphoria still hangs in the air... all around our little kingdom..

couple of months would see her taking up a career in banking- am not sure where.. it doesnt really matter either.. what matters most is the culmination of all her efforts and hardwork into a dream career.. it was tough for a housewife, with two kids and a software pro husband, to prepare constantly for one of the toughest competitive examinations in india and emerge victorious.... all i see is her tenacity and never-say-die attitude in achieving what she wanted and what she had been dreaming of since graduation... and am sure the kids have played their own roles in sharing this victory... spending times with their toys while mom struggled with those basic high school maths... early to bed listening to papa's bed time stories while mom browsed through the day's newspaper, without missing a single news item...

yes, this indeed is a victory well deserved.. but not without the blessings of the omni-potent powers up the heavens...

blessed are the kids, excited is their papa...euphoric is their mom...

so long
roy

The tagging game..

came across this interesting game from fellow bloggers.. especially simba and attagirl..

the crux is to write about your recent reads, five or so, and then tag five of your fellow bloggers.. they are supposed to write about their recent reads and tag five others.. the game triggers a chain reaction..

i am interested because:

1. it gives you an idea as to what others are reading...
2. you kinda figure out what books you aughta read, from others' reviews..
3. again, you could avoid no nos outright...
4. and yes, it helps to keep your blog rolling..

nobody has tagged me as yet, so i would be writing as an untagged blogger... LoL..
of late, am trying to revive my once thriving reading habbit...i wouldn't reach the figure five, but you could excuse me for that..

currently, i am enjoying Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies.. an amazing collection of short stories.. i would definitely recommend this book, if you are the kinda reader looking for short stories with a difference..

and Catch 22 by Joseph Heller would make a wonderful reading am sure.. sujatha has already given an articulate review on her blog..let me go finish the book...

so long..
roy

Of driving and dreams.....

one of my fellow bloggers wrote about the increasing no. of road accidents these days...i don't want to delve into those statistical details... but would love to drive home
the point that it hurts.. and it leaves behind unfathomable pain and trauma to the loved ones..

a mother, who is under-educated, is all left to fend for her now orphaned family..kids who are forced to fend for themselves or dependent upon the unconcerned relatives..
and a father who stares into the darkness having lost his wife and children..i know, going by this, you would come across numerous such tragic facets of road accidents..

there is no point cursing the govt for the lack of well lit and 'pit free' roads... there is absolutely no point blaming the PWD or DoT for digging up the walk ways and leaving them as open as a bare sky.. if you are a driver, you are responsible for hundreds of lives on the roads.. you and your fellow roadies.. and there is no point cribbing about factors totally out of your control..

the moment you are behind the wheel, think about your famiy, and with equal importance, think about the families of your fellow drivers on the roads... and of those pedestrians on the walk ways.. your loved ones are looking forward to meeting you back home... your wife waiting to share the trivia happened at her work place that day.. your little ones anxiously waiting for a pack of chocolates... your mom waiting for that placebo which would cure all her ailments...

and keep your eyes wide open, you would see countless faces, sharing the same feelings, all around!!

if you are reading this, take care while driving.. obey the traffic rules...
you are dear to many...dont fail to see the beauty of their dreams..drive carefully; you should spend those joyous moments with your family all day, every day...

cheers...
roy

IIM B or XLRI??

well.. been thinking about this for a while.. i am on my way to an MBA from a leading B School in India, without quitting my job.. XLRI was a good option, considering its standing in the B School rankings, its strong alumni base, wonderful faculty and best of all, the campus component.. i was excited and was packing up my bags to chennai to attend their interview.. but the moment i noticed IIM B's announcement of their general Management Programme, there was no second thought.. B is going to be the place where I do my MBA... a dream degree from a dream school... phew!!! am not hiding myself from the academic rigor and grind... it would be tough to survive the B School game..

but.. dont you think it becomes a lot easier, when all you see ahead is the beauty of your dream and nothing else?? wouldn't it be a lot easier when you think about those wonderful days you gonna spend at B campus??? at the start of the programme and while summing up...??

wouldn't it be a lot easier when you think about the very strong alumni base of B and the wonderful fraternity you are going to be associated with?? affirmative indeed... so, it is gonna be B, unless destiny brings me something else..... and July would come with the final list of candidates selected for the programme.... till then, i keep counting the days, keep my fingers crossed....

wish me good luck pals...

so long
roy

Random notes..

at times, i just sit back and contemplate.. it is fascinating to visualize your short life in such short frames, which give it an animated fervour!

about my education, my career, my loved ones.. the last, sans everything else, make my life complete and sweet!

looking back, i wonder why would i ever want to pursue a techie's career?? and that too in the clique circle of the so called nerds?? why didn't i say a frank yes to a career with the print media, which seemed lucrative and promising?

may be because i was intimidated by the sheer load of responsibilities in the press? where everything you think, speak, and write go noticed the world over? and you get rated by what you write rather than your integrity and morals?

well, for an ardent student, who loved poetry, loved to read everything from PG Wodehouse to Sidney Sheldon to Neruda, a career with the print media should have been a natural choice.. but life is so unpredictable that you, at times, end up in the wrong street...and there you see the compromise between your passion and the bread winner... hehe..

beleive me, am not that cribbin' type you come across in everyday life...

yesterday, i was lying on my bed, looking up at the ceiling.. trying to spot the happiest moments in my life.. and within moments, i said voila....

it is the time when i read out those enid blyton bed time stories to my little bundles of joy, who keep clamouring for more until they are fast asleep...

it is the time when i sip a hot cup of cofee with my wife, discussing all those trivias in our life...

it is the time when i drive my daughter to school, listening to her non-stop conversations, about her friends at school, her class teacher who gifted a small red crayon to her, her new boy friend who said a cheery hello, her new found passion for free hand sketching, and all about those numerous cartoon characters that she watch on CN...

it is the time when i call my mom and say sorry for not being able to call her so often...

it is the time when i say my prayers to God, thanking him for His numerous blessings that make my life full!

so long
roy

Packers and Movers...

yup..u guessed it right...we just moved outta our old office.. it was kinda getting stagnant in terms of space, in terms of coziness and in terms of look n feel... the building was in a low profile residential area.. sans the silence and homely ambience, it was kinda lacking professionalism, failing to accommodate an increasing head count.. and that led us to this setup, a three storied building beside a main street.. i would not say i was thrown offback by the look of it.. but would vouch for the cool ambience, spacious work spaces, reception, office and cool cofee hangouts.. we occupy the first floor..while writing this, i am looking out to the thick coconut grooves,dancing to the tunes of evening breeze... all the way up.. all the way down... and thats the new office..

ye.. i missed it.. our parking lot rocks!!!

so long
roy

XLRI Interview..

my XLRI interview for PGCBM is just 15 days ahead.. looks like i gotta brush up from the ground up.. having spent 10 yrs in the IT industry, i am looking forward to an interview centered around my experiences so far, about the companies i worked for, my accomplishments in the work place, the challenges i faced etc... as mundane as it sound.. i also need to work on my eco. and fin basics.. stocks, shares and the functioning of stock markests.. have planned to browse through a few back issues of ET.. reading through the past six months' Yojana would be another idea..

and i have written something called a SoP, my Statement of Purpose, which explained in lucid terms why i would ever need a MBA at this point of my career..i dont think it was bombastic, rather i was being truthful to myself in putting my thoughts on paper.. !

am excited to be at Bangalore after a pretty long time, albeit to face an interview board consisting of eminent faculty from XLRI.. and taking an interview now is cool, bcos i have a job at hand.. if i get through, it is a dream happening.. i know i will do well in the course, however hard the grind is going to be.. it would be a helluva lotta opportunity to leverage on my strong organizational, inter-personal and excellent language (u read it right.. hehe) skills while working with my fellow students coming from diverse educational and professional backgrounds, and the faculty who are experts in their chosen areas..

okay, it is time to wish me good luck... i will write about my interview experiences soon after it happens.. till then, let me have random musings here..

so long
roy

The new pontiff..

and yes, in less than three weeks’ time, the new pontiff has sworn in… Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, from Germany has been elected the new pontiff.. the 78 yr old, a close associate of Pope John Paul II, is touted to be a very good administrator…

I was watching those exciting moments on BBC worldwide.. the white smoke emerging through the chimney signifying the success of the conclave of cardinals in electing the new pontiff.. the red curtains, parted in the middle.. thousands thronging St. Peters’ Basilica, waiting to get a first glimpse of the new pope.. his very first address in Italian… indeed, they were moments of great joy for the 1 billion Catholics the world over and to all those who see the papacy as something very special..

am really looking forward to see Pope Benedict XVI leading the Catholic Church and the world population into the new era.. an era of universal brotherhood, compassion and love…

The pack of those 50 elites...

the United Kingdom has just announced the top 5o international BSchools, whose students get that automatic edge over others, while applying for work permits/higher studies in UK. i am not at all surprised to see all the biggies in the list.. HBS, Stanford, Wharton, Cornell, INSEAD, Duke Fuqua, MIT Sloan, MBS UK, Said UK etc..never thought Boston University’s Management Programme to be that great to find a spot in this coveted list.. the thought that simply beats me to the ground is the fact that none of the premier indian Bschools find a place in this list.. not even IIM A!!!

it is time to sit down and brood over the whole bunch of criteria that define the rank of a Bschool.. it is highly subjective and might vary from one rating agency to another, though in a miniscule proportion…but that doesn’t mean a thing for the IIM A (or for that matter any of the Six), one of the best Bschools in the APC region…

so long
roy

Beauty marries professionalism??

i think am falling in love with the new look of my favourite newspaper.. indeed, i was a bit nostalgic on the very day when the revamped daily hit my verandah..maybe because i have been reading this daily for more than 10 years... maybe because the content management did suit well to my taste.. maybe because i loved the monday, friday specials and saturday's young world for their traditional attire, mild colors, orthodox type settings with the marketing eye taking a back seat...? well, i dun quite know.. one thing am sure about, i started liking the new look much earlier than i had thought.. nostalgia sinks in slowly.. paving way for creativity, professionalism and innovations...

thanks to mario garcia of garcia media.. the world's most popular newspaper architect..three cheers there!!

so long
roy

Tests, interviews and more...

oye.. it's time to write something about my wife's test and interview experiences for the past six, seven months... to cut the story short, she has been trying to get into a career in banking, especially with one of the public sector biggies in india..and so far, the future looks rosy, more tests, more expectations.. and yeah.. more travel for her..

if my memory doesn't decieve me (i am not good at keeping a tag on anything..) she is through with about 10 written tests for the posts of agricultural officers and the more glamarous probationary officers.. bank of baroda and oriental bank of commerce were the first of the bunch to come up with their short list for interviews.. and i could see the very first smile on her face, signifying a sense of relief, a sense of accomplishment.. all those burned mid-night candles were suddenly abuzz with lightings.. and i guess, her interviews went well with BoB and Oriental Bank.. she had a tough time with the BoB panel, especially with their psychologist..

well.. i was planning to talk about her experiences with State Bank of India, the largest bank employer in the world and the one which offers the most sought after banking career in india.. after a nerve wracking written test, she managed to barge into phase ii, a GD, wherein you get to lock horns with a bunch of studs and a personal interview, where you face the professors from IIM Lucknow..

her GD went well, she was in a cool group i guess... the topic on WTO carried them well over 15 mins of healthy debates, without ever getting into a fish market ambience.. and the interview went well too, though she had to convince the pros. of her career aspirations at this stage, when the husband is supposedly well placed and the kids are not yet through with their KGs.. i know, it is her dream career, ever since she started preparations for Bank Officers' exam.. for the moment, let the family, papa and the kids, keep their fingers crossed..

i want to see her successful..because i see the beauty of her dreams.. a career which offers her financial freedom, embracing the challenges that come with it..
and the kids would love to see the same too..

PS: she is not yet back after the GD and Interview at IIM Lucknow.. the train is running late and i will see her at about 10:00 pm tonight..

so long
roy

Grim statistics...

world health report 2005 is just out.. as usual, india retains its position in key categories.. child mortality rate, for children below the age of five, is stated to be around 10.6 million world wide, out of which 25% are in india.. again, if you drill down, deaths due to inadequate nutrition accounts for about 50% in india.. the report has shed light on lack of healthcare facilities for pregnant women and associated still birhts, infant mortality rates etc..

i have said this before and will continue to raise my voice on this over and again.. unless our govt. takes note and address the fundmental issues like poverty, lack of drinking water, lack of proper healthcare facilities, child labour, illiteracy etc., we would not make it anywhere..even with the never seen before growth rate in the IT and related sectors and technological breakthroughs happening elsewhere..

the progress you see is not for real unless you are a snob!!

imagine india with a growth rate of 8% with the disturbing statstics on child mortality rates and poverty related issues...
do i make sense??

so long
roy

Contrasting faces of development..

leading mobile handset manufacturer, the finnish giant Nokia, is setting up its production facility in sreeperumbudur in tamilnadu.. calling for an initial investment of $100m to $150m, this would offer about 1200 odd direct employment opportunities.. a boon to the local people indeed..

i have said this before.. any manufacturing facility would bring forth a noticeable change in the living conditions of people around, as a direct benefit of employment potential, triggering nation building and PCI..

and somewhere in the vicinity, kerala and andhra, touted to be the destinations of multinational IT and consultant biggies, which would be havens for white collar workers, with ever increasing income levels..

in metro mumbai, 3 lakhs slum dwellers have been ousted as part of developmental projects.. the govt. failed to provide proper rehab to those hapless souls....demonstrators protesting the ouster were badly beaten up by the police..

in another part of the world, in Combodia, primary school kids own their own lap tops, sponsored by MIT's project to narrow down the ever widening digital divide between third world countries and the super power houses..

back to kerala again.. project akshaya brings the ICT revolution to the masses, talking about wired villages and wireless hot spots.. info on your finger tips is the key..

in sharp contrast, our fellow beings in tribal settlements and tea estates meet with a dire state of affairs with the onset of the scorching summer, with no jobs, making their day to day ordeal a tough battle for survival... and deaths from starvation are no longer a news now.. we choose to close our eyes and ears to such stark realities of life, the endless human sufferings..

these are the progressive, rosy, grave, amusing, revolutionary and dire situations in a few parts of the world, cases in point..

where are we heading to? pause, take a nap and think about the so called digital divide? should we give an ear to this tech-induced jargon and miss out some sleep on that? or is it wise to address the grass root issues such as providing proper housing, means for a steady income, sanitations and potable water to those millions in the outskirts of India Inc.?

to improve the living conditions of all those millions desperately trying to eke out a living in the slums and pavements across India Inc.?

unless we are successful in addressing this core developmental issue, running after technology to narrow down the so called 'digital divide' would be ludicrous. lest it should be like show casing a beautiful bride with a stinking nose and a bad breath!!

enough has been said...

so long
roy

What kind of blogger are you??

LoL... someone gives me a cool rating to my blog... ROFL...

You Are a Pundit Blogger!

Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read. Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few

What kind of blogger are you?

End of a papacy..

Pope John Paul II succumbs to the gamut of health problems that have been plaguing him for long.. the funeral is going to be held on friday, in a function attended by dignitaries and political leaders from the world over... i know it sounds cliched, but would reiterate the fact that we have witnessed the end of an era, an era of powerful papacy, with a deep rooted belief, innate strength, confidence and a hitherto unseen respect for human rights..

am anxiously looking forward to see the next pontiff in the reigns.. hopefully, from asia, africa or latin america.. LA is home to 50% of the total roman catholic population (about 1 billion).. and am not surprised to see the new pontiff from any of these soccer loving nations.. india too has a fair chance in the papal game... well, but nothing would be predictable when the entire process of electing a pontiff is so complex, so meticulous...

so long
roy

Biz round up...

Forbes' official list of top companies in the world has just been released.. Citigroup wins the rest hands down.. Microsoft, after its chief software architect Bill Gates being crowned the richest person in the world, has been pushed down to the 47th place.. bad sales and net value of assets have been attributed for this down turn.. and the first 20 slots go to companies from the US.. cos from india failed to grab a place in the list...

while the dragon land china is heading to a massive growth in IT, it would be interesting to note a few statistics.

number of CMM Level 5 companies : 1
number of companies with a head count more than 200 : 1
net worth of companies : less than that of any IT biggie in india

on the flip side, as NASSCOM, vice presdient has rightly pointed out, india has nothing much to cheer about.. the net worth of indian IT cos is less than that of IBM... how zz that?

and here ends the wait, ex NCR CEO Mark Hurd is appointed the CEO of HP after the ouster of Carly Fiorina...

so long
roy

Stories that steal your hearts....

yesterday night, i was reading the Smelly Dog, a Guid Blyton story to my kids.. this has been my habbit for the past few weeks, ever since my daughter's school closed for summer vacation... it was about 11PM and i was almost on nerves to catch up with some sleep after a couple days' misses.. the elder one, my daughter, would never sleep until am through with at least one story from Guid Blyton.. she adores blyton i guess, especially the animated pics, with less yet articulate text, in neat large fonts... the pics are invariably big and colorful...

well, i was half way through the Smelly Dog.. my daughter was all ears and the younger one, my two year old son, was desperately trying to tear off the pages.. occasionally he would throw up random questions which are enough to throw my daughter off her nerves.. a fight starts and would never end unless one of them screams on full throat and runs back to the bed room....

sans the fights, the Smelly Dog was a good story... my daughter was all praise for Splash, the stray dog in the story and Betzy, the little girl who was rescued from drowning in the sea by Splash himself... sympathy, adventure, heroisome, feelings galore..

my daughter thoroughly enjoyed the story.. as usual, it was my turn to throw a few questions, as part of summing up...the younger one was dozing off, with his mouth wide open and shorts stripped half way down... my daughter kept on talking about Betzy and Splash for quite some time, until she too was lost in sleep, with her hands holding me around, her cheeks against my heart.. mama was already half way through.. love and togetherness unlimited:-)

am sure, my kids are gonna remember me for the rest of their lives for all those stories and the interesting characters who steal their hearts:-) papa's delight:-)

so long
roy

Updates from the biz world...

pepsico india cheif indira nooyi has unleashed her plans of big
investments for the subcontinent to give a fillip to the beverages
and snacks segment..

aptech leads the IT training instis in china for the third
successive year.. NIIT is trailing behind at number 3 slot.

cognizant sets up their 30 acre development center in coimbatore..

airlines operating in the indian skies fight it out for luring the
skilled manpower.. the industry faces an acute shortage for piolts
and technicians.. key contenders in the race Air Deccan, Jet,
Sahara India, Kingfisher and the state owned IA..

surprising info from ET.. skilled oil rig operators earn thrice the
salary in comparison with tier 1 bschool grads!!! the former's
typical salary comes to about 3lakhs p.m... am stumped!!! are you
not?

piece of info... the catchy 'ZEN' from the maruti stable means
Zero Engine Noise.. i own a Maruti Zen VX, but never knew this
three letter secret!! ignorance unlimited!!

so long
roy

Am all for euthanasia..

the topic, per se, is controversial, sensitive and much debated these days.. and past week's terri schiavo case is good enough to put everything in perspective.. all of us would appreciate the need for euthanasia well if we try to be a little more empathetic with the victims.. their pains, sufferings and the bland life ahead.. it is without a purpose that people live out a vegetative state! the last thing they want in life is a chance to see yet another daylight.. euthanasia is the only answer, however hard an antagonist tries to oppose the advocates..

again, it's always easy for us to ignore some one else's sufferings, we want them to survive, we pray for longer tenures for them... but the moment you are responsible for taking care of the victim, your perspective changes..you are fed up with those mundane, boring, nauseating, tiresome patient care! and you become an ardent advocate of euthanasia, albeit not being able to stress the need for it openly, which will invite the wrath of those self proclaimed human rights activists... LoL...

come what may, euthanasia is the only answer to those endless sufferings... are you with me on this?

so long

roy

Good evening.. me Nik Gowning...

the name that all hardcore BBC afficionados will recall even after a coma.. the anchor man who takes presenting news to newer dimensions.. the person noted for his remarkable intelligence, quick wits, and unmatched presentation skills.. watching the world news when Nik is in command is a pleasure in itself.. you are sure to be engrossed in that charismatic voice, mannerisms and superb, flawless langauge!!

i remember watching Nik during 9/11.. he was on air shortly after the tragedy, reaching out to people around the globe, which called for utmost care in choosing each and every word..and few would pass that test with laurels..the coverage won him the 2002 Hotbird Award.. am so passionate about watching Nik in action every night that i finish my shower and dinner well before 9:00 PM.. all set to see the handsome genteel face on screen...

tend to look at a brief profile of Nik?? chek this out...

so long
roy

UB Rules..

else where in the biz world, UB group, the vijay mallya owned liqour giant is all set to rule the kingdom with the recent acquision of SWC, known for its flagship bottle, Royal Challenge.

within six months, we would witness one of the biggest mergers in the liqour markets the world over. UB group is gonna consolidate and merge its acquisitions, SWC, Herbertsons (known for Bag Piper), McDowell's and Wilbey's, paving way for some key international acquisitions in the near future.. watch out!!

Oracle's Larry Ellison has finally subdued SAP in taking over Retek.. the battle was on for about a week..

and InteactiveCorp takes over Ask Jives, a key search engine on the net.

and to conclude with a ray of hope.. india is destined to be a key manufacturing base for MNC players in the IT related segments.. the strong economic growth put up by india is cited as the shot in the arm...me wondering when india qould be able to overtake china, the forerunner in the race, in the manufacturing segment? will it ever happen?

on an after thought, i am a wee bit concerned about the US criticism on india's bad recrod on curbing women and child trafficking.. if the situation gets worse and we slip ourselves into tier 3 (worst situation) category among countries that fail to curb human rights violations... unless we see through it and take a strong stand with legal bindings, the situation is sure to get worse.. and will adversely affect the prospects of doing business with the MNC giants, especially the ones from papa's own country.. another pain in the **s duh!!

so long
roy

Tough times..

life is a drama indeed.. and you tend to believe this strongly when coming to terms with harsh realities, when you are caught unawares by the sudden turn of events.. traumatic and painful.

i was passing through the same phase when my vehicle collided with another driven by a fledgling, old gentleman.. it took a while for me to accept the gruesome incident.. the bonnet of my car was almost crushed to pulp.. sans me, and my colleague in the passenger side.. looking at the brighter side of life, we got out safe and unhurt..

this would be the right time to reminisce the support and empathy shown by my dear colleagues, when i needed them most.. all of them stood by me, showing great deal of composure and equanimity... with an occasional pat at the back, holding my hands, or just murmuring, it's okay..we gotta get on with this..

THANKS a MILLION pals..

so long
roy

The Steel Magnate..

Lakshmi Nivas Mittal is the third richest man in the world, as per Forbes' latest survey..closely behind the IT supremos Bill Gates and Warren Buffet..

i was quite surprised by a few related facts..

LNM's steel empire spreads across four continents and fourteen countries..mittal steel's production capacity is well over 70mt..and not even a minute fraction of this is being produced in India.. the indian touch being limited to only the men at the helms, including his son aditya, a Wharton alumnus, who is heading the M&A division.. with the acquisition of america's international steel group,, mittal would be the no. 1 player in the world.. a rare feat indeed for some one from the hardcore manufacturing sector..

in terms of turn over, mittal surppasses the Ambanis' reliance by huge margins... and IT stalwarts Infy, Wipro, TCS and the like would look like mere shadows.. why did india miss out the chance of grooming up such a terrific entrepreneur? red tapism? beaurocracy's arrogant and obsolete technicalities? lacking infrastructure?

on the flip side, where does india's no. 1 tata steel, being in business for almost a century now, stand in comparison with Mittal who is crossing just the 30 year mark in business? talks volumes about doing a hardcore manufacturing biz in india?

tail ender..operating from UK, Mittal Steel's majority of employees the world over are indians... something to cheer about..?

so long
roy

Here you go, Hi Tec.....

Itinerant National Resdients (INRs), LoL... never heard of this before? me neither..INRs are those hapless high flyers in the corporate world who are on the wheels for about 250 days in an year.. the tremendous growth rate in the IT and ITeS sectors, the never befroe boom in the manufacturing sector and the newfound outsourcing mantra called BPO have all made travelling an occupational hazard for most of the top level execs..

we have the indian MNCs who created a niche for themselves, the oldies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS and the newbies such as CTS, iFlex etc., who deploy their execs all across the world.. a large chink are on work permits and a significant percentage keep doing the rounds.. a decade ago, a foreign visit was a dream for any employee in the private sector.. and it usually remained a dream! only the president or CEo used to travel and that too a couple times a year! and the same was totally unheard of in govt., except the trips undertaken by beaurocrats to attend conferences or to study specific schemes, draining the coffers..

today, if you look around in your neighbourhood, you see a software engineer working in US or UK or atleast in the middle east in every house who cared for their children's education.. a US VISA is no longer a dream.. working in your home town and moving around the world is all the more fun and exciting... we see a new found enthusiasm in the business secotr all over the world, which brings down geographical barriers, and hardcore nationalism.. it's all about expansions, mergers and acquisitions, all translating into massive ROIs..at the same time creating a new breed of millionaires.. you see lots of them these days..

being a part of the clique, am excited...but ever cared to look at the flip side?

essentially this transaltes into a much wider gap in income and living conditions between the haves and the have nots..and the gap continues to grow in leaps and bounds..the only solution to improve the living conditions of the ordinary mortals would be to strengthen our own manufacturing secotrs, which would bring forth a thousands of employments, not limited to those with the two letter degrees (read BE..).. and give more stress on our agriculture sector, it is heartening to see the allocations to priority sectors topping the bar in the recent budget... this would definitely bring forth employment and food security, the two pillars of progress!!

everytime you get excited about an infy or TCS setting up an office in your town or in any of the high-tec cities in india, think about this too..how would they transform the lives of ordinary people? no way..the respective local governments are snobbish enough to miss out the much more larger picture..

now, each time you hear about a factory being setup in your town or in any of the industrial estates, think about the employment potential it can generate for the less educated mortals..imagine those house wives with their robes wrapped tightly around their waists getting a full time employement, so that they can proudly send their children to school...marry off their over aged, under educated, daughters.. taking care of their ageing spuses.. is this all about shaping up a society at large??

yet, am clueless why our govts are running behind corporate biggies to setup shops in the states rather than encouraging local entrepreneurs and thus losing out the deal?? less investment, more returns, and a tremendous impact on the lives around.. will we ever care? this beats me to the ground!

PS: musings from a meeting we have had with the Directot of a Software Tech Park..

so long..
roy

BEQ '05

i was watching the fifth regional finals of Brand Equity Quiz on television, the biggest such event in India Inc., held at Hotel Hyatt Regency Calcutta.... conducted by ING Vyshya and managed by '360 degrees', BE every year has been a show in itself. this would be their fifth edition of BEQ, if my memory doesn't deceive me:-)

thirty nine teams vied for the top slot from calcutta this time.. and the fierce battle was won by 'the team invincible' Eveready, comprising Mrs. Jayashree Mohanka and Mr. Sreedhar... gosh! i was amazed by the wonderful show put up by the duo.. the lady is a real stud, a phenomenon to watch out for in the national finals.. quiz master Derek O’Brien had a whale of a time in his home ground... i shoud not miss the question which pushed the Eveready team ahead by a whisker and into the mega finals... they answered 'Tommy Hilfiger' when asked who holds the designation of Principal Designer with 'Tommy Hilfiger', the up-market apparel brand!! that saw them to the national finals to be held in April.. i am really looking forward to the show to see Mrs. Mohanka back in action..

for those who are uninitiated into the wonderful world of quizzing:

DEREK O’BRIEN began his career as a journalist but soon shifted to advertising. A decade ago, he quit his job as creative director at Ogilvy & Mather to launch his own company Big Ideas. He is the host of the country’s longest-running corporate quiz show, the Brand Equity Quiz, and the longest-running knowledge game show on Indian television, The Bournvita quiz Contest. Recently, he launched his dream project, KQ School Advantage. The CEO of Derek O’Brien & Associates, Derek O’Brien lives in Kolkata with his family.

Biz Jobs stuff your bags full!!

final placements in the BSchools across the country witnessed a phenomenal increase in the no. of job offers and also in terms of salaries.. no. of foreign offers were quite high in almost all the tier 1 Bschools, compared to last year's statistics..

for the sake of records, an IIM A lad bags up a $1,50,000 PA.. the offer was reportedly made by Booz Allen Hamilton, a consultant biggie.. though the figure itself is mindboggling, me wondering why the companies never disclose the Net THS.. that would be something revealing i guess. the CTCs can amaze you but can't give you a real picture.. well, am i trying to say, those grapes are sour??... anyways, kudos to the young future managers.. they deserve this indeed..

apart from that, why do I have a penchant to watch out for corporate ousters these days? the past evening, i was reading a peice on AIG (American International Group).. apparently, the CEO Maurice Green has been ousted citing over age and the need to transfer the reigns to the younger generation... AIG stands justified in their decision, but that doesnt deter us from saying HATS Off To Maurice for building the corporate powerhouse that AIG is today...

so long
roy

Random notes

Call it Quits…

the past week saw couple of sports’ ever admired personalities bidding adieu to the game. Garry Kasparov, who has been reigning on the top spot for almost two and a half decades, called it quits in Linares after a memorable meet with our Vishy, who was always trailing just behind.. end of an era and beginning of another!

Corporate ousters galore?

America inc. witnessed couple of embarrassing ousters in the recent past.. Ex HP CEO Carly Fiorina got sacked citing the failure of HP-Compaq merger.. the lady with an iron will failed to deliver the ‘much inflated’ expectations..

but what if she gets appointed president of the world bank? well, if things really work out in her favor, she would land up there soon.. stay on the race lady and hit the bull’s eye…

the case of Harry Stonecipher of Boeing is something ‘sexy’… he has had an affair with a lady executive and it was getting messy and the news reached every nook and corner of the aircraft biggie.. is that anything to be embarrassed about? quite an individual perspective.. I would say no.. but the morals of the CEO should be in place to lead from the front. this is my 2$ on the issue…

so long
roy

An inspiring diction from the Mindtree COO..

hey, here is an inspiring speech by the Mindtree Chief Operating Officer Subrato Bagchy.. i was captivated; am sure you would..

on a side real note, the speech transcends me to my own childhood, when my mother struggled to educate her lads, in the midst of financial crisis and the mental trauma brought about by my father’s demise.. she was deep in trouble, and I would imagine it was her nerves and never say die attitude saw us through…we received the best education available, bolstered by a very powerful and principled personal grooming…three cheers to my mother, who is my greatest idol ever in this world!!

Here it is for you...

"I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of Five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa.
It was and remains as back of Beyond as you canimagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled.

My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep - so the family moved from place to place and, without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father.
My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system which makes me what I am today and largely defines what success means to me today.

As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government - he reiterated to us that it was not 'his jeep' but the government's jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep -we could sit in it only when it was stationary.

That was our early childhood lesson in governance - a lesson that corporate Managers learn the hard way, some never do. The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father's office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix 'dada' whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed - I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, 'Raju Uncle' â€" very different from many of their friends who refer to their family drivers as 'my driver'. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe.

To me, the lesson was significant - you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.
Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother's chulha - an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was no gas, nor electrical stoves. The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman's 'muffosil' edition - delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading.
But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly.
Father taught us a simple lesson. He used to say, "You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it".

That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.

Being small children, we were always enamoured with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios - we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios - alluding to his five sons. We also did not have a house Of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply, "We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses". His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant. Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions.

Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed.
At that time, my father's transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, "I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited".
That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.

My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life, I saw electricity in Homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan. My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script.

So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper - end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe.
In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness.

Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term "Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan" and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University's water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination.

Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.
Over the next few years, my mother's eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, "Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair". I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date.

Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, "No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed". Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes.
To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light.

Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life's own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life's calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places - I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the, world.
In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi. I flewback to attend to him - he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroac infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst.

One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the tending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, "Why have you not gone home yet?" Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self.
There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what is the limit of inclusion you can create.

My father died the next day.
He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion. Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts - the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant's world.

My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions.

In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking. Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.
Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said, "Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world." Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity - was telling me to go and kiss the world!

Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.

Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and Godspeed. Go, kiss the world."
Subroto Bagchi, Chief Operating Officer, MindTree Consulting

Whats hot in the Biz world?

elsewhere in the corporate sector, the ERP giant SAP locks horns with the DB biggie Oracle to acquire the medium sized minnesota based Retek, an ERP solution provider to SMEs across the USA, mostly into the Retail business.. this would be termed as the lack of the biggies' capabilities to cater to the needs of those small and medium segments.. inorganic growths are here to stay for a strong foothold in the market.

Hindustan Lever is going to be rechristened to Unilever as part of the latter's strategy to position and project Unilever as one and the same corporate identity everywhere..

and back in the BSchool world, IIM B rocks the final placements this season with record number of foreign offers:-).. enough vicarious feelings!!

so long
roy

The HBS shows the way...

arguably, the world's best BSchool, the hallowed portals of HARVARD has drawn a new line of ethics for those would be managers!! one hundred and thirty nine of its applicants for the forthcoming academic year have been ousted from the list of applicants for hacking into a security flaw on the HBS website.. the students 'hacked' the site to look at the list of candidates shorlisted for the next round of admission process well before the list was officially out.. HBS spokesperson was very firm on making their new line of thought on corporate ethics pretty clear.. the news is all the more relevant when we have numerous corporate scams rocking america..

i was not surprised to hear the same act repeating at Stanford, Warton, Dartmouth, Duke and MIT Sloan... me wondering why all these BSchool sites got hacked during the admission times? and if a candidate 'happened to' bump on to the confidential info accidentally, why blame it on his ethics? if there was ever a deliberate 'hacking' in any of the said Websites, i am with the adcom for sure.. after all, for any individual, success in any career is marked by remarkable personal integrity and a clean sense of responsibility for his/her actions..

anyways, the BSchools are enjoying the last laugh, i guess... something to watch out for the Biz aspirants.... it would be interesting to see how the whole bunch of issues turn out to be in the days ahead...

so long
roy

BSchool Dreams Again..

well, else where in my blog, i wrote about the satellite based MBA programs from XLRI and IIMC.. the key attraction of these programs would be the fact that you don't need to quit the job to pursue your dream degree.. the classes are delivered at your nearest Direcway Center, and are held thrice a week.. the timings are quite convenient too.. starts at 6:00PM and would continue till 9:00PM.. and believe me, the course doesn't come cheap, you gotta shell out around 1.75lacs for XLRI and 1.65 for IIMC... anyways, i dont care about the fee at the moment, all i need is an XLRI brand name for an HRM management degree..the classes are handled by none other than the XLRI faculty.. and the campus component, a week at XLRI jamshedpur, would expose you to the rigors of the program right there.. you get the chance to interact with the professors and fellow students..

well, am looking forward to their Nov 2005 intake.. the admisson process would be stringent, based on your work experience and performance in the interview.. and 14 more months from then on, i would be an XLRI alumni... sounds goods, eh?

so long...
roy

I love ET..

well.. when I say, ET, it means The venerable Economic Times from the Times Group.. the pink paper that I love to immerse in... to read right from the title to the mundane news at the back page.. it has been a while since I fell in love with the pink daily.. two years, to be precise... the in-depth coverage and analysis of business issues is something that makes it very special.. pink dailies are noted for their abstruce handling of subject matter, which might appear greek and latin to the uninitiated... ET never intimidated me, rather it is a wholesome reading experience.. u get to understand the corporate biggies, from pharma to IT, from steel to hosiary, from cement to petrolium... if you have an interest in stocks, ET is something i would strongly recommend... if you are a BSchool Aspirant, like me :-), ET is a must read... most of the issues come with reports on news and events from tier 1 BSchools in india...going by that, i can speak volumes on typical ET contents... ET is here to stay... right on top of the biz dailies and magz in india... go, be an ET subscriber yourself...:-)

so long
roy

Sania Mirza, the Glamour, the Hype and the Glitz...

sania mirza is the new avatar on stage, the teenage icon, the symbol of youth, full of energy and passion! well, the girl next door is suddenly in the news, after falling in the top 100 bracket in women's tennis.

the media is full of sania saga, with her glamarouns, sexy blow-ups.... and the girl herself is living a far surreal life I guess.. well, what does this ranking, supposedly belonging to the elites in women's tennis, bring forth? am sure it is top class for any indian lady, taking the pros in the tournament till date.. and winning a WTA torunament in the home town adds to the already spinning euphoria....

dont you think, we- the media, the tennis fans, and the readers/viewers at large, miss the larger picture? the ranking that sania enjoys at the moment is mediocre when comapred to world standards.. you have the venus sisters with their powerful shots ruling the game, you have the talented, beautiful, russian teenage chics bringing a new wave of glamarous tennis to the living rooms.. you have other bunch of talented ladies, europian, american, emerging with a new found enthusiasm.. is the indian lady game enough for them? well, she would be.... she would make it, sans the media glits and glamour... sans the hype and fanfare that throws her into seventh heaven... that throws her inside a ring of tight lipped security forces... that puts her own right to privacy in peril...

let's be realistic and give a big hand to this lady with the nerves to bag a grand slam in the near future... let's not spoil her chances by being over enthusiastic and unreasonably liberal in adding to the euphoria that surrounds her...

cheers to you sania... miles to go before you sleep...

roy

People For Animals??

this would be an interesting anecdote.. couple weeks ago, i was on my way to my office.. it is fun to walk during the morning hours, the streets are kinda buzzling with activities.. the street vendors showing up in groups with their wares for the day.. the fisher woman with a bunch of fresh catch from the beaches.. the diary shop selling the freshly arrived packaged milk.. all these make my everyday walk eventful and memorable..

it was impossible to ignore the wayside scene.. two boys, with shabby outfits and unkempt hair, were beating a pair of bulls almost to death.. the poor souls were screaming,with tears rolling down their cheeks.. they were tired and finding it difficult to raise themselves on their legs... the boys continued to beat them with an iron rod.... i was shocked to see this barbaric act.. with my temper in check, i asked the boys to stop beating those poor creatures.. ignoring my warnings and threats of informing PFA, they continued their cruel rituals...

back at work, i called up the city office of People for Animals and explained the whole incident to their volunteer - a middle aged lady, i guess- on phone.. she asked for my contact details and gave me a detailed class on how I should proceed further to move the case and work for the cause of those poor animals.. well, i was supposed to go to the PFA office, register my complaint, get back to the scene with the concerned PFA Activist and charge the case.. it was demanding and required almost half of my day, something that required an afterthought... finally, I did decide to decline and keep my protest within... meanwhile, those rustic lads were in action, gettng the life outta those hapless souls... and they had the last laugh I beleive... wither PFA? is that the way it is supposed to act? am clueless...

BSchool Dreams...

well, it has been a while I blogged a piece.. i was supposedly busy all these days, but being truthful to myself, i was not. i was kinda lazy to grab myself up, to jot down something.. and this post, would probably, see me back in my spirits!! ahem... ahem!

going back to a bschool after a few years stint in the industry has always been my dream and now is the right time to do so.. mostly, because I am knida getting an inner urge to do an MBA, the work place demands a scientifc basis now, rather than sticking to the ad-hoc and time tested decision making approaches, I would like to apply my management and analytical skills to do that. and getting myself trained would be the only solution..

being a bit prudent, quitting my job to pursue my dream is somewhat outa question now.. i have a family to support, kids are growing up... their schooling is important to me.. well, everything points to the need for financial stability.. and i might as well think about the DirecWay option to pursue a satellite MBA from XLRI or IIMC.. the courses are pretty expensive though, I need to shell out around 2lacs for an XLRI programme spanning 14 months!!!! seriously thinking about applying for the next in take... wish me good luck!

so long
roy