C Lover

Some time back saw an article in Sunday TOI about the influence of C in indian people's psyche written by Shashi Tharoor.Starting from cricket,cinema ,caste where ever someone goes it is hard to miss the sight of words starting with letter c which has a profound effect on Indian public.
The article forced me to think about the profession I am into,where in I tried to find out if at all we do have some words like this which has some impact on us.

So many words I found but I filtered out three most prominent words according to my observations.

Communicate,Collabarate,Creativity

A person who has already spent a lot of time in this industry is well aware of the role good and effective communication.Wihtout this whereevr you are & whatever you do will not bear result.

The magic of good collaboration is well explained by the giants like APPLE & MICROSOFT.

Without creativity a software engineer is bound to be doomed because the devolopment in technology has made every one agood programmer with the use of high level of abstraction & IDE.So tools are created the only thing that will differentiate the people from each other is the amount of creativity people bring to the table.

Did I forget the Ctrl key ;). No looking at it's widespread use I have decided not to write on it as we generally don't comment on things which have become so common that it is offensive to write some thing about them.

A NATION OF ANALYSTS

We indians are very fond of analysing issues by sitting at the periphery.I sometime wonder if at all we have become a nation of by-standers who don't like to get into the thick of the actions,but would rather sit at the border & keep analysing about the people who are in the thick of the action & their performance.

The above observation was corroborated recently when India made an early exit out of the cricket world cup.It was no doubt an ignominious exit considering the fact that we have one of the best teams in the world.But what happened after that was more shocking.Only after a few days which were marked with deep anger,frustration,desperation, our people started analysing the other teams' players & their records.No one from Indian team was taken into task for such a dismal performance.No heads rolled.

Same is the case with football,We have so many people who knows more about MANU or CHELSEA clubs' players' performance than the player themselves might be knowing.what about our Indian team???? No one knows.

Ask any Indian to analyse a situation & give his or her fedback he or she will be more than willing to do that.But ask the same person to get into the action place, he or she will refuse or show some kind of hesitation for action .Why?? Because the practice of analysing rather than acting is already so deep in our psyche that some time we feel that action is not our cup of tea,only analysis is.

Though the above phenomena is very bad considering the fact that we have not been able to produce a world class sports person(Though Sachin Tendlukar can be looked upon as one,he is confined to the cricketing nations only which are very few in number),but we can use this national trait to our advantage.When the world is moving towards a global village where there is no bounadry & when we are clearly moving towards a service oriented business model where consultancy comes at the top,let us be a nation of consultants.Let us be a nation where only consulatancy firms prosper.Let us not loose the tempo.Let other people sweat it out in the middle of the ground.We will simply sit in the AC rooms with all our tools to analyse how bad or well they are performing.Then give the feedback.Who knows there may be a time in future when we will have a olympics in Consultancy & we will be in the top for some time.Till that time let us not loose hope.Let us build on our strengths.

GIFTING YOUR WAY TO SOMEONE'S HEART

The mail from my company Bulletin Board

Hi All,

I need suggestions for buying a good and different gift for my husband on our marriage anniversary. I am not able to understand what to buy as guys have very less things to be presented.

Pls suggest some good gifts to make him feel special.


Thanks & Regards,


I was wondering, looking at the mail,do we really need to express the quantity of our feelings towards our dear & near ones???And isn't it impossible to quantify sometghing like emotions,feelings.

Can't blame on people when we are growing up in a world where everything is quantified.And how do we tend to do that??? We tend to measure everything materialistically when it comes to quantifying.We tend to measure the intangibles with the help of tangibles.I am still confused how can we make someone special by gifting him or her once in a blue moon.

Anyway till I find out the answer let ARCHIES & all those people make merry & laugh their way to bank.

Aiming At The Future And Missing It

We are living in an exciting time.Technology has taken us to that height which was looking incomprehensible some time back.So magical & enticing is the devolopment that sometimes it makes us to lok at the devolopment & make so many predictions which may not come true completely.It is like though we know where we are heading to but the picture is still unclear.In our over enthuisiasm to see the trend & predict something new we tend to forget the fundamentals that shape the human beings,the society & the organization.

Let me site two trends which have caught the imagination of everyone, and reams of paper & loads of webpages have been written on them.

The first & the most glamorous of these is undoubtedly the e-commerce or doing business online.The basic premise on which this concept is that if you have a net connection,a desktop which can help you to go online, you can do commerce on line.You can buy & sell everything on the net even if you don't have the requisite infrastructure.

But sometimes it is amzing how simplified we have made the process of going to a mall & shopping there & comeback.Is buying & selling all about going to shop,see the product to buy,choose,pay???Does it happen so linearly or sequentially????Is it so automated ?? What about the intangible factors that contribute to this process like the ambience of a mall,the chatting of people all around,the feeling that someone gets when he or she tries out a new pair of clothes,the pampering of the cutomers by salespeople, so many to count about.

But that is not the case.Common sense tells us that shopping is not at all an automated process wherein everything is done sequentially.You may go to a shop but in place of buying clothes as the next action you may meet an old friend & then get into a long converstaion or you may go to a section which is not meant for you.

Take another example of a trend which was predicted to change the way we build organizations,change the way we work.It caught the imagination of the futurists so much that the doomsday for the huge organization was predicted to be very near & the future organizations, it was hoped will be built of people who will be mobile,who will work from home or any place they feel like working from.

But contrary to all the predictions, still we have huge organizations where people go to work daily.Still we don't find much people taking an intrest in this HOT DESKING concept wherein if you have a gadget to connect to your office network, you are no longer required to come to office.You can always work from home or any place for that matter.

What is it that is missing in the above cases????If online retail was & is the future, why do we have so many huge companies investing so much on opening big malls?Why a large crowd everyday throngs the mall.Why in the morning you find people waiting in the bus stop with laptops to catch their office buses.They could have very well worked from home.

A little bit of closer look & the most important thing that will be glaringly visible is that while predicting the future & understanding the trend of the devolopment of technology & it's impact on society we have missed out an important aspect of the way we human beings live which has to do with our social activeness.No one goes to a mall only to buy or sell.People go to malls to mingle with the crowd,to get a feeling that they are not alone on this earth.Same is the case with people going to work.No one works because of the work only,but because they get a recognition in society ,they get to mingle with people,they get to build a social network of their own.

The moot point here is that when ever we have a new technology coming up we tend to look the other way & ignore the social dimension of those activities for which the technology is meant to be used and indulge ourselves in predicting the trends.It is great to find out the trend & predict acordingly,but we have to be very careful accordingly,else we may take some fads to be the trends.

No one denies the place of technology in our growth story.But to be sure about our future let technology devolop taking into acount the social aspect of the activities.Let a hundred technological devolopment blossom,but let there be a part for social aspect also.Let both the social dimension & technological dimension compliment each other,then only we will have a clear trend which we can be confident to predict.

Salaam Mumbai

As soon as the flight takes off for Mumbai I always get an unknown pleasure which is sprinkled with little bit of anxiety.No, it is not for the reason that maximum of the time I go to a client's office for sorting out some technology related issues.Whether it is to a client site visit or some personal related works,journey to Mumbai is always something very unique.It always arouses within me a feeling that is beyond description.Always someone inside me gets anxious to get near her as soon as possible but does not want to stay with her for long.It is as if an adolescent venturing out to a mistress' place in night.

Yes, Mumbai to me looks like a mistress.with her buzzing crowds,hustle & bustle of fast paced life she entices me.I look at awe to the crowd in the local train, to the people who are always focused on a decent living & to people who makes the struggle to live look so easy.

With her busy life Mumbai won't give you a lazy time.She never sleeps.Even at 3 O clock in night one finds full traffic in suburbs.What to talk of the centre of the city.And what to talk of the dhabawallahs & vada Pav sellers in the city.Anytime they will give the MNCs of the world a run for their money.

But the only thing that I felt lacking is the intimacy of people towards each other(Notwithstanding the show of strength of Mumbaikars to help each other in recent cyclone & blasts). Everyone tries to save his/her own turf.No place for sympathy.If you are not able to catch up with the pace of leaving then you are bound to be run over.If you put your unquestionable faith on someone you are bound to be disheartened.When it comes to living, everyone is on his/her own.But why to talk of Mumbai does not it happen in every place???

But with all it's shortcomings Mumbai rocks.She is simply superb.She makes a man out of a kid.She makes people value the cost of life.She does not force you to love her.But you never know when you fall in love with her and would lopve to come back to her again and again

IT TAKES A LOT TO BE A MAVERICK

How do u rate an enterprise that is run by unconventional rules,Unconventional people who does not leave a single chance to go aginast the well laid down rules to run a business.A workplace that boasts of all the unusual ways in which the business is conducted.Unconventional methods they say, never yield results always and if you want to achieve that magic notion of being called as a successful organisation, obey all the rules,obey all those techniques those are created out of research but don't ever dare to go against them even if they go against the common sensees.But this stroy shows you how an organization going against all the rules has been so successful.

So much for the introduction.The book, starting from it's title (MAVERICK) is really an encyclopedia of unconventional rules & practices that amazes the reader from page one itself.This book tells the story of Semco( A brazillian Organization) which is run by Ricardo Semler who turned this family run business(Once upon a time being run by his father) into a profitable organization in a very short span of time.The story forces you to sit and take cognisance of the fact that a great business is about a little common sense being put into practice in a big way like being friendly to the important stakeholders(It's employees),democratizing the decision making at work place,empowering the employees to take the charge of their work & giving them the ownership of the bottomline.

Some of the gems worth collecting from the books are
1-Treat all the amployees like adults.
2-Show the employees the big picture and let them realise how the business is run
3-Practice democratization not on paper but in spirit also
4-Empower the employees to take their own decisions.

Though the book gives all the positive aspects of democratizing the workplace ,how feasible it is for a lrage organization to practice whatever the book is advocating.Take for example how feasible it is to find out what each employees like their places of work to be painted with.How feasible it is for the organizations to put the salary of the top people in front of their employees.A lot of aspects the author has advocated may sound very Utopian,but it is only Utopia where everyone likes to go.

Not withstanding the minor glitches this book stands apart in this crowded business-books' market as a distinguishable product with it's lucid style & concise chapters which does not bore a reader with all the minor details.

Thoroughly enjoyable & enlightening .Read this book & you will not be let down.

Sunday Supplementary BLUES

Why do I have to see these crap things again & again???
My roomie was grumbling looking at the TOI last Sunday. No he was not looking at any thing like a psycopath molesting & killing children or Iraq burning(These have become so common to warrant any respond from any one living on this planet).
What he was grumbling about,,,, was the way this paper which claims to be the number 1 Indian English Daily is setting dangerous trend.Rather than admitting that they don’t have any thing to give to reader, they start printing some craps which is not outright offensive but which crosses all levels of decency which a civilised society asks for.

Last Sunday it was about public display of affections by couples.According to the paper nowdays people are not scared to show their feelings in public, be it getting locked in lip kiss or be it hugging each other or for that matter fondling each other(Common should some one tell them that being Number one is a huge responsible task also,though the self claim of being number one sounds duboius).I don't know if at all it is the trend that has started(Still I see those loving & caring parents who are desparate to instill some ethics & values in their kids,still I find people wearing respecatble clothes who outnumber those about whom the paper shamelessly writes vaguely calling gthem trendsetter) or the paper was clueless how to grab eyeballs.

By the way which cities or places do these people survey????MG road in Bangalore(The crowdest place in Bangalore where one does not have space to turn one's head),Pubs & JUHU beach in Mumbai(Which is a safe haven for s*x,) or for that matter these clubs where the rich splurge themselves & where money talks, morality does not find any place.

No one discredits any one for doing this because we all human beings are emotional beings, we all have emotions which some time is vented our by each of us. But the way we display it, warrants debate at an intellectual and matured level which does not need soft pornographies.This paper rather than studying the major important aspects and publishing some mentally simulating debate, publishes pictures & arts which some time even crosses decency.

If this state of affairs continue & if we give patronage to this kind of yellow journalism,I Can imagine the day when there will be no difference between a stray dogs satisfying it's carnal desire in street in the open space & the human beings .

An Ode to Brand Experience

AT THE SHOP
I- How much is this shirt???
ShopKeeper- 2000 Rs. sir.This is a ***** shirt,,, sir.The pieces those are moving very fast.You will surely like it.You can confidently buy this sir.

IN MY ROOM

My RoomMate-Where from you bought this shirt????
Me- From that ******* showroom.
My RoomMate- Does not look that costly. It looks very cheap.I guess he took you for a ride.

ME ON THE BED

I should not have bought that shirt.It really looks bad.Price was very steep also.

AFTER 15 DAYS

Our Cook(Looking at the bundle of clothes placed on the floor)-Sir,why have you thrown these clothes???Can I check out if I can take some of them???
Me-Sure.

He picks up the shirt which was still new & left.

So much for getting inside a dazzling shop & getting something which we call brand experience :(

Resolution For No Resolution

So much to think about when some one asks you about what are your plans for the new year.Is it about the first day of the new year or the whole of new year, the the inquiring soul wants to know?? I generally get confused with the answer due to this confusion.

Let me start with the former one.What is it that I do on the 1st of Jan??Hmm let me recall..... Huh nothing much different except changing the day of my table clock if by mistake it had stopped,or for that matter changing the table canender's day.Except these changes absolutely nothing different than all other days.
Going out with friends,calling up home asking the whereabouts of father & mother,involving in those small gossips that go around in office premise about a new joinee or about a manager who does not know the T of technology or for that matter doing the mundane jobs those I do which I call my job or profession.
Sometimes I also wonder why people make so much fuss about the first day of every year.Except the increase in glossy advertisements those force you to spend your money & except a summary of the year that went by (which has become so common in all the media) nothing changes at all.I see the same news year after year.I get the same feeling that some people will prosper at the cost of others.I get the same false promises that life will be better all across the globe by people who are the prominent faces in the world politics.

But it is about the second option that I wonder sometime if I have an in depth analysis.For the whole year I do make a lot of plans which people generally say new year resolutions.Hmmmm, let me start thinking if I remember any one of them having been fullfilled.ten , three, ok leave it, may be one which I have fullfilled.
Scratching the back of my head I have got one which I have been able to fullfill & that is not making any plans & living life as it comes along.It is so easy to keep that I don't feel guilty enough at the end of each year that I did not kepp any new year resolutions.No headache of comparing the outcome with the intended one,no worry about the possibility of the occurrance of the event.Just enjoying the way life moves on.

They say you have to do what you do best & you have to make promises which you can keep.I feel I have got this one for me.Don't have any resolution for a new year. Just chill out & enjoy the sense of being alive.There is so much to see & hear & say.So why to narrow down to a small lane of resolutions those confine you to a small prison of plans,thoughts,actions while making you miss the vast canvas of life.

Coffee With A Twist

Folding the magazine that I bought from the small book stall in Mumbai airport in one hand & the hot coffee in another hand I sat down in one of the chairs in the last row of the waiting area.Since I had nothing to do in the hotel & beside there was an expectation that traffic on that day will be very huge in Mumbai, I started for the airport early. Had a lot of time to kill in the airport since except here & there there was no much traffic & the untimely rain had already forced the people not to commute. I reached airport 2 hrs before the plane bound for Bangalore was scheduled to arrive.The Mumbai weather was unusaually chilly.To kill some time went inside the book stall which though was small, had a nice collection. But could not comprehend the logic of the price being quoted in the dollars by the owner.Had to content myself with a weekly business magazine.

Since I am that kind of a guy who takes pleasure in nice quite moments,selected one of the vaccant chairs in the last row of the waiting area to savour the hot coffe. The TV at the front was showing NEWS about how Mumbai was getting ready to welcome lord Ganesh & differenet Puja Pandals & preparations for the festival was everywhere.As it had become a daliy routine & there was no newness about the NEWS those were being aired,preferred to go through the magazine which I bought in the bookstore.

She was looking in the direction in which I was sitting. Don't know from what time she had been looking at that direction.As soon as I raised my head I cought the glimpse of her.By any standard she was good looking & her modern outlook was oozing out of her dress.Suddenly the nervous kid inside me was awake.So had to again bring back my attention towards the book & the coffe I was having.But the male inside me was trying to derive the pleasure of those glances if at all they were for me.Though bit nervous,the male instinct in me could not resist the temptation of raising my head.Voila, she was again looking at me.Same way.Wow at least I can draw attention of a good girl,the macho man inside me was slowly & slowly climibing towards the cloud nine.

They were a family of four ,I guess. Father, mother, one sister & she. As soon as I looked at them, the glance shifted & she started conversing with the other girl. Are they talking about me? What is that they are talking about? The questionnaire from my head for me was getting longer & longer .Is it that I am looking bit unconventional?Is it that there is something that I have failed to notice in my dresses or appearenaces.My heart started beating faster."Chill out buddy,there is nothing wrong & you are who you are. So no need to give a damn to what any one says". I was trying to calm myself down.Then again those glances were towards my seat & this time there was not one but two two glances.The other girl sitting beside her's & her father's.

Suddenly she got up & started walking in the direction in which I was seating.The pleasure that my masculinity was deriving was at it's peak.I was already rehearsing the differenet answers those will be delivereed if any hi or questions came on my way. She was there just 1 feet away & still she was moving.The fragrance of the costly perfume wafted in the wind. I was about to get up. She came, crossed & walked away from my seat. My inside was screaming in desperation. "Hello. I am here. Where are you going"??????. With a sense of relieve & pain I turned my head in a way not to not disclose that I was looking at her path.There she was along with with 4 to 5 people in front of the TV which was hanging from the top with the details of the flight on the screen getting refreshed every minute,pointing something to her father & the other girl who by this time had already come in front of that TV.

The coffee in my hand had already become cold & the NEWS on the TV has already given way to the advertisement of the to be released movie "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna".
The announcer announced for the Delhi Bound passanger to go to the boarding area & they all started for the plane.I was staring at the magazine in my hand trying to register the face I had already seen.

Unpredictably Predictable

Just watched the two news popping out of the TV screens in the prime news channels. One was about the consecutive blasts that occured in Mumbai.The other one,Israel pounding upon Lebanon for releasing her soldier.what a great contrast???

One news was about a billion or so hapless & helpless people who do not have anything to do other than succumbing helplessly to the whims & vagaries of a rogue nation whose sole motive is to see that India bleeds to death.The other one was about a small group of people who know how to save a single life of their community, even if it amounts to being condemned by the international society of being a war monger.One was about the prime minister of a large nation who was pleading before the international community to chide his neighbour for being unfriendly & uncontrollable.The other was about the leadership which didn't have to plead anyone.Just actions which will prove that "Play with my peoples' lives at your own risk".One was about a strong leadership which knows how to answer the enemy in it's own terms.The other one was about a leadership which knows how to cry & beg in front of international community to save it from being harassed by other nations who even don't measure upto a quarter of it's size.

To add to the already traumatic moment came the disclosure from one of our ministry (whose sole duty is to be vigilant about the internal security of the nation) in public about the beforehand information of the blast,but sigting ignorance about the details. C'mon can we be so callous & careless about the lives of our people???Can we be so shameless to accept that we are helpless even when we have every means at our hands to tackle the terror????Can we be so spine less,so servile as to be looked upon as a nation which does not have even teeth to bite, leave apart the claws to tear when being attacked by a small group of people who even does not have the courage to come out openly decalring their antagonism towards us?? How many times will we have to face such an embarrassing situation??? How many more lives have to be sacrificed to let the wrong doers know that they are doing something inappropriate??? How many more years of celebrating ahimsa ??? How many???

No particular answers will be found for these questions.They will still persist for the time to come.The leagcy of Ahimsa which have been bestowed upon us by Mahatma will be carried forward even if it amounts to be nonsensical and directionless,even if it leads to thousands and thousands of deaths.The politicisation of peoples' death will be carried forward with vengeance by the so called ruling class.Celebrities will light candle in front of the media so that their so called fans will at least know that their god is still alive even if loads of people died.Media will carry the debates about whether we have become a soft target for terrorists for some time.People will discuss about this for sometime at coffe table & kitty party to show that at least they care about their so called society.NGOs will have a reason to show their existence.Monetary help will be declared which may not even see the light out of the so called Netas' bank balances.

Life will move on as it moved on after Kargil, after Kandahar,after Mumbai Bomb blast,after Gujurat train burning incident.But who will fill up the vaccancies those have been created for a mother,for a wife, for a son,for a daughter??? Who will bring back the lost pride of this nation which have been subjected to so much humiliation.Who will????

An Encounter With The Truth

she was standing there,with those little hands towards me,palms spread out,asking for some thing really cool so that she can feel victorious on her way to her mother who was waiting patiently some distance away,waiting to see how well her kid has mastered the art that had been taught to her by none other then she.

Sometime back both of their actions were the objects of curiousity for me,as I was the witness to the drama that was being played out near the Subway Sandwich shop wherein the mother was literally pushing the kid towards us and the kid was reluctant to follow her order to come to us for begging something.The duel between the mother and the kid was played out for some time after which unwillingly the daughter gave in to the mother( perhaps the charity of respecting the elders played it's role).

Slowly she came forward to the place where me and my friend Biswa were having our after meal conversations with the rustle and bustle of Hyderabad city forming the backdrop(I had been posted to the city for the first time on a temporary basis for one month). Not to embarrass her, I moved my attention to Biswa who was engrosssed in the pleasure of smoke and speaking out about our nostalgic school time.But knowingly or unknowingly my eyes often moved to that direction where she was on her way to her war field.Suddenly she was there.No words just those two hands came forward with palms spread out.

Since I presumed that I didn't have any coins,I was about to say "Change Nahin hai".But something deep inside me was laughing aloud on me."Hmm so you don't have change gentleman.You can afford to have a snadwich of 135 bucks & give tip of 10 Rs. to the waiter in a posh restaurant,But you can't give this child at least 1 rupee coin.Chhee Cheee,shame on you."
Suddenly those three words which I utter so clearly sometime was hard to come by.Should I or Shouldn't I???? "I remembered that I had some coins left out after I payed the bill for the sandwich.But who cares.She will go na.Why to break the flow of conversations.But isn't that bad??Perhaps my friend understood my confusion.Taking out his purse & without any attention he put a two rupee coin on the child's palm.Since I also didn't want to be left behind in this, my hands went straight to my back pocket & I also put a two rupee coin on those palms.

Holding the two coins she ran towards the judge, who by this time had come a bit closer,so that she can also ask for her share from us.The child handed her the coins.The mother looked at the coins.Took the girl in her hand.I don't know what thought came to her mind.Both started walking in the other direction from which we sat. I was hearing a voice deep inside me asking me "Is this the future of this kid??Doesn't she have the right to have a decent life??Doesn't she have the privilege to learn & understand the basic laws of science,the basic arithmatics??


Biswa's smoking was over.Throwing the cigarette on the ground,he wore his helmet on,Started the newly bought bike and we sped towards CLUB 8 where we were scheduled have a great Friday Night.

I felt as if those two innocent eyes were keeping a watchful eye on me & giving me a mysterious smile telling me "Common,don't look for the answers when you know what the answers are".The bike was speeding away.The vehicles were zooming past us and with them my mind was also having a tought time to remain cool.

An Ode to The Motherhood

They got down from the train.Three of them.Since last three hours I have been sitting in the station with a lot of anxiety to see my parents getting down safely on the station.It was their first time of coming out of my state.So I was worried a little bit.After little time there they were. Uncle, mother & father with his typical specs which had slid down a little bit to the tip of his nose.That radiant smile of mother was still there even if we both have come a long way since my early childhood time when I was in a boarding school. I clearly remember the same smile, same radiance that she displayed whenever she saw me.Not a single hardship of life had touched her smile till now,though the hairs on the head have become white symbolising the passage of time.As I reached for her feet to get those long awaited blessings she hugged me.That same warmth, same love,same secured feeling. The kid inside me was getting pampered.And my eyes were getting wet.

Boss's Day Out

Remember the early days when you were learning Maths.How your teacher used to say “Students, Math is all about 4 to 5 operations.Substraction, Addition, Multiplication, Division, & the parentheses. All other stuffs are just derivation of all these”. Remember how simple life looked when you found out these basics & how enjoyable the subject became.

If someone tells you the same thing about business how will you feel???If someone tells you that profitable business is all about mastering some basic fundamentals,,, won’t you look at him with a bit of surprise??? Won’t you treat the person with little bit snare when he or she says all business follows the same principles whether it is the business of a street vendor or the business of a huge MNC like WAl Mart or GE. To be very honest I felt quite the same when I saw the cover page & reviews of the book “WHAT THE CEO WANTS YOU TO KNOW” authored by Ram Charan who has done his DBA & MBA from Harvard University. Anyway since it was recommended by personalMBA list, bought it for the sake of self satisfaction that I have one of the books of the list. On a cool Monday morning while coming to office in the bus thought of giving it a try & to be frank enough I was not disappointed either. Have you seen Maradona playing in World cup 1986??? A small creature if you compare the average football player with him, but see him dribbling the ball & tearing apart the opposition’s defense & it is unbelievable how power packed his play is. They say small is beautiful & after reading this book I would wholeheartedly support that view. Just 135 pages of book can be so educative I didn’t know it earlier. Read it & you feel as if the intricacies of the business world are being cleared & you have a clear picture of how a business is run.


Starting from chapter 1 where the author gives you the fundamentals of every business which are 1- Cash Generation 2- Margin 3-Velocity 4- Return On assets 5- Growth 6- Customer, till the end where the author tries to put some basic questions for you to ask whenever you look at an organization or an industry as a whole, the book is thoroughly educative. To add to the readers’ delight the author has put some small cases in point like Wal Mart’s Sam Walton using these fundamentals. Michel Dell of Dell, Jack Welch of GE & some other high profile ceos also find mention in the list of high performing businessmen, who have honed the skill of mastering these basic fundamentals. Small comparisons here & there of the successful companies with the companies those could not succeed, helps to clear the intricate web of running a business for a layman to some extent. Not to miss the point which author mentions which being “To be a profitable business every manager or CEO should try to involve each & everyone who is involved in the business”

The book looks to be a kind of pocket book for the entrepreneurs who just want to get a refresher course in 3 hrs. Or so. So even if the subjects are not dealt exhaustively that should not be taken as a drawback. Pick up this book. Read it & go through it again & again till you master the vocabularies of business like Growth, productivity, efficiency, core competency, Consumer & customer. Read it & you will get the business Acumen that is required to run an enterprise & to get started of your own.

Uncle Sam with Stuffs Made In AMERICA

How do you feel when someone tells you that it does not take a Harvard degree or a over hyped IIM degree to start a venture of your own. What is required is a strong conviction in your dream & a persistent effort to pursue that dream whatever the world around might have to say about your dream.

I can feel that “C’mon we all know that” feeling already brewing inside your head. But believe me that is what is required when you want to get started of your own. You can ask how I know that. Well, It required just a 3 hrs daily 10 days session with the greatest merchant to have ever lived on this Earth Sam Walton to assure me of that. If the name sounds unfamiliar to you then it is better to stop thinking about business & start thinking about something you are good at. Because no one denies knowing the founder of the Number one company in Fortune 500 list.Hey I am talking about WAL-MART & the dreamer( I would love to use that word for the founder) Sam Walton behind this huge corporation.

Got to know about his life from the book “MADE IN AMERICA” which I just bought from the book store out of curiosity. But the book proved to be a gem of a thing. Narrated in a lucid way the book holds you in a superb grip of the story of a person who believed in providing the customer the best ever service they can get in retailing & held on to that belief throughout his life. In a candid way the founder who is also the coauthor of the book along with John Huey, has put down anything & everything that had something to do with WALMART & the process of making it as big as it is now.

The book is embedded with so many gems about how to go about a business, that you feel sometime it is more of a study book than a leisure book.
Customer is the king, Communication gap is the worst trouble you can imagine your organization to be in, treat your employees in a dignified way, give them responsibility & see them growing up, Believe in your dreams, be in the place where the real action is rather than inside a fancy office space,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,the list of gems in never ending.
Aren’t these stuffs they teach in Mgmt schools & how much do we pay to listen to all these things told over again & again?

I wonder why don’t people switch off their TV & get started with the reading habit because so many worthy books like this are floating around . Rather than making the book complicated with all the numbers & statistics, the authors have tried their best to keep it as simple as it can be to let everyone venture into the mystic that WAL MART has become for a lot of people.If you ever want to start a business then better go for this book rather than running here & there for tips & if you want to go into retailing then this is the only book you should pick.
Enjoyable reading & enlightenemnet guaranteed. No doubt it made to the best sellers list.

Mythology And Myths

Holding the fiction 'Yanjaseni' in my hand I was thinking why do we crib when the west points a finger towards us accusing us of hypocrisy.Aren't we all hypocrates.Even our mythology which we are so proud of also points blatantly to the only fact that, we don't do what we preach.

The book is a best seller in it's original language(Oriya) & the English translation was recommended by my friend.Since I was brought up with all those English fiction stuffs, didn't have an idea how mgically can a vernacular author spawn a story & bind you with it's magical spell till you finish the last page.Spellbinding I would rather say.

The writing though a fictional creation tries to address the trauma & dilemma that the character Draupadi had to undergo in her life in the great epic of Mahabharat,the name that has come to be ridiculed and has got associated with all vulgarity in today's society.The author tries to critically analyse the standing of the character vis-a-vis the incidents those have happened in the great epic of Mahabharat,which we all respect for it's portrayal of all human emotions & sentiments & for the creation of Geeta from the battlefield of Kurukhetra.

It was absolutely a page turner.While going through the book I saw the various shades of the Pandavas,their behaviour vis-a-vis Draupadi who by tragic or whatever you want to say became the wife of the five brothers who are known as Panadava.The story revolves round Draupadi starting from her birth till she takes her last breath while going on pilgriamge in Himalayas.Though the book comes under the ctaegory of Fiction,it has raised some valid question regarding the behavoiur of men towards women.Don't know if it was the thought of the author who is a woman herself. But the fact remains that the character which has been most humiliated & had been deprived of her due respect is, Draupadi of the Mahabharata.If the story is true & if any woman has to bear this kind of sacrifices for the betterment of the world & prevalance of Dharama then let no woman be subjected to this kind of sufferings.

Starting from her birth which was for the sole purpose of keeping Dharma & let the adharmas die,the character comes out magnificently victorious in in every type of trial & tribulations, whether it is in the married life with 5 men, or when she has been dragged to the the king's court by Dushasan for the most harried part of the epic which is so shameful that it gives me goosebumps when I think of describing that episode.Can men be like this???That question always crops up.Is it the way we have been brought up where male chauvinisism prevails, where no woman has a say even if the deciosion relates to her????

Why did the society allow kings to have more than one wife ??? Why can't a queen have more than one king????Why is it that everytime some sacrifices needs to be done it has to be done by the ladies of houses????Is it the way our society have been brought up which the author of Mahabahrat tried to paint which is nothing but a story that have been fabricated out of the way society was functioning during that period or it is only a fictional account????

If the way Krishna behaved whom we consider the lord of all the lords,then why do we call him god????I don't have any feeling towards him if he lets someone suffer so that he or she can be closer to him.......Don't we think he is fit to be a saddist who only enjoys giving pain to someone who loves him.In none of the religion on this world you will find the god giving pain to the devotee for the sole purpose of keeping him or her attached to the lord himself.Why is it that Draupadi had to undergo so much trauma only because she was a woman????Is it that a woman is considered to be the privileged one to have such a vast heart who is capable of undergoing all these hard things in life????

My mind was spinning around.Tried to think a little deeeper & voila another thought came to my mind.Why we have only five brothers called Pandavas,they could have been six or seven or say they could be ten also.Doesn't it say something abt ourselves. How many senses we have???
Five ..... Right???? & who is Draupadi??? Isn't she everyone of us???? Surrender to five senses. You will have all the troubles in the life.But surrender yourself to god,you will find peace & tranquility in life.You will find the real meaning of life.

Is it the later message that Mahabharat gives us??? or is it the former???

Still I am searching for the answer.If you have any answer you can always put them.

Unusually Usual

No one could have imagined my pleasure when after a long time(To be precise it was around 11 months and 10 days) when my manager nodded approvingly to my leave application.To add to that pleasure my roommate who hails from the same place also got his leave approved.So it was kind of a great happiness that we both started for Orissa via Chennai.But as the train slowly moved towards our station, a confusion was raised by my friend who asked me " Arey yaar what you are going to do in village for 14 days???" That was a question for which I didn't have a correct answer."What should I do??? Let me think..... I will visit my relatives. Then I will meet some of my city friends.Thats all". I said as a matter of factly. Then why are you staying for so long in the village."He asked me amusingly.I was confused totally.Where does my village come in to the scheme of things now.Is it that only my parents are staying there, that is why I am going there????

To be very frank I don't feel my village as my own after staying away from it since when I was ten years old only. Don't know how fast times leapt by & I became man of 28 years old from that shy kid of 10 years. I remember the day when father received the formal communication from Sainik School Bhubaneswar informing him that his son has qualified for the prestigious school.I don't know how he felt when he came to know that his son belongs to that elite group of 100 something students who have successfully able to clear the hurdle(which I feel was quite tough considering the fact that I was from an oriya medium school from a small and unknown village).

Ayway I still remember the joy in his voice when in that small room in our thatched house which we(Me and my sister) shared with our parents after dinner when he showed that communication to my mother.Though bou (We call our mother in that name in Oriya family generally) was not comfortable reading that letter she could make out from her knowledge of English that his son has got through the final exam.. You could see that sense of pride in both of their faces.I guess if human skin would have been able to generate power which is directly proportional to the happiness he or she gets then on that day our whole village would have got the supply from our house :).

Though I was unaware of it's importance to my parents, I was glad that I have cracked something & being a kid who deos not like to take failure in any venture especially in studies, I was more than satisfied with the attempt & the result.After that as far as I remember for 15 days there was no school for me as my transfer was in process.Father being the headmaster of the school, where I was having my primary education, there was no problem in getting a TC(Transfer Certificate).Then came the painful day of bidding farewell to my mother. I still remember her face on that day,though grief stricken she did not let me know that she was revolting in side to let her only son go to a boarding school about which he heard a lot(Like getting up early in the morning, doing physical exercises, harsh punishments etc. etc.. It came to such a point that someone told her that once she lets her son go to that school he is bound to join army).

But my father a great pillar of strength, confidence, optimism(even now also he has not lost any of these ) was very firm on that day.Since I was bit closure to my mother , she used to sometimes let me know how badly we are faring financially & what problems father had faced to arrange the money.The list of things to arrange for the admission was quite a lengthy one I would say.6 sando banyans(don't ask me what that means,even no one in our family including father had a clue what that means for which we had a good word from the hostel suptdt when we marched in to the hostel. Anyway I will later tell what happened in my hostel), 6 briefs( I still wonder was it necesary ????:-\ Father ironed my clothes(you can imagine the love I got), folded them properly & put it in a trunk. Though it was written, in the list of things to be brought while coming to join that, we have to take a black trunk, we didn't have time to paint the trunk.Then one big mattress was folded up nicely which father had specially ordered with extra cotton to make it bit more thick so that his dear son can have a nice sleep.We folded everything. For the first time in my life I wore a black pair shoes with full trousers.Had a small meal as I was not in a mood to eat anything as the pain of leaving my dear village was creating a sense of revulsion inside me.
One air bag which father used to carry his things was arranged for me.With all the things at their place, me and father started for the bus stop. Bou came till the stand to see me off. Her eyes were red out of crying. I could not hold my tears back.I was thinking can't I stop here. Can't father change his decision to send me & ask me to go back to home.

I still vivdly remember those few lines which father said at that moment."Life is very short, son.Now 7 years may seem to be a long period. But when you will pass out of the school with something to preserve and cherish for your life, those period will look very small in comparison to the memoery you will have.Today you may feel bad, but later you will feel that this was the most appropriate decision that we have taken."

I can't imagine anyone can be so true. My school helped me to eveolve as an individual, geve me the friendships those I even cherish nowdays,gave me so many beautiful incidents which I treasure close to my heart.The person I am today, the profession I profess today is due to the outlook I got from my school. But in turn what I have given back to my village, village friends,my parents???? I guess father missed out that on that day thinking that it would be upto me to decide how much I will give back to my dear village & my dear family.

Nowdays I feel it unusual for people to pee beside the roadside,unusual for people to shout at the top of their voices even if it a celebration time,people to crib when they feel injustice has been done to them by any elder..The sophiosticated way of living has installed in me a sense of looking at society from an unantural frame of reference.

Nowdays when I go to my village I want every one to have a disciplined way of life.Every one should obey the rules set by elders(Though I am opposed to it, but the seven years of strong discpline refuses to die) & everyone is bound to pay respect to the elders even when they say or do something wrong.My village friends no longer behave with me in antural way.No one now calls me to go to the village pala or nacha ( Folk dance) in night. No one asks me to join with them for a game of card play.Every one looks at me from that perspective in which Indian freedom fighters looked at the British rulers.Why such a schism??? Nowdays even my family feels as if I am cut off from their world.The unnatural way of treating me as someone special continues at every relative's place.Can't say what is it that I missed out while growing up or is it the natural way of treating someone who has lost his soul but to show off that he or she is still alive adorns beautiful clothes. Isn't it unusual or we have made it a habit of treating unusual in an usual way as if they have existed, they are existing & they will exist.

Brand Accessibility And Visibility

I really don't remember when I came to know about brands & the intricacies that comes along with them. Intricacies???? What does that mean???Does that mean brands are a cinfusing matter which should be left to the people who understands the world of brands.

Not necessarily I would say. Brands are there since time immemorial & even common people find it very difficult to live without brands even today. Tell me a person who does not swear by brands.Take a walk around your vicinity & you will find brands everywhere,on the face of the people(Did anyone notice the cream that drips sometime from peoples' faces),on the wrist of the people(saw that expensive jwellery watch??),on the body of the people(Hello, we are talking about Van Huesen,louis Phillip) and we swear by brands even when we want to have our food(Did u rememebr someone who didn't feel a sense of pride when he or she was talking about food in McDonalds or The Taj).
This is so much for brands. But what does a brand stand for?? Does it stand for an object or an emotion or something which is so abstarct that you can only feel it & can't describe it. I don't find any reason why we can't say a brand to be an emotion or a feeling that comes when you talk about an object associated with it.

It is as simple as telling that "all the mathematics of the world are confined to just four operations. Addition,subtraction,multiplication,division.All other stuffs really don't matter".I can hear some arguments abt this proposition. But to be very frank we don't need to look at a simple object like branding in a very complex way.When we say NR Narayana Murthy what comes to our mind? A person from a middle class background can achieve anything if he has that conviction & dedication& power of honesty.When we talk about Bill Gates what comes to our mind.It pays to be different.When we talk about Mallika Sherawat we picturise someone who is unconventional,gawky,& who swears not by the social rules but by going against them.
So we can see, these people endorse some philosophies & these philosophies are marketed by them.Try to picturise what comes to your mind when you talk about The Australian cricket Team.Assertiveness to the point of being known as arrogant,Tenacity,Never Say Die attitude,Teamspirit etc etc..So a brand endorses certain philosophy you can say.A philosophy which is not endorsed by any other.That becomes the USP of the brand. All brands have an aura built around them.If they become very common then, that aura is destroyed & people no longer find it mystical & no longer people are willing to go that extra mile to get that.Don't we remember in our childhood whenever our parents denied something to us we used to put twice of our effort to get those. And I beleive, still that child is lurking in every one of us even if we are old enough to be called as a kid.So to be very honest full accessibility of a brand is a myth.

Accessiblity & visibility should be addressed differently. Make the brand visible, but not accessible to all. Let there be some mystic attached to the brand wherein people can have a sense of achievement whenever they have got access to the barnd.If this is not the case then the prestige associated with the brand will diminish in a rapid pace & time will be there when your brand will become another face in the crowd.No longer they will be special brands.They will be commodities only & you know commodities don't give higher margin. A question may arise, if you decrease the accessibility,then how are you going to adderss the profitability of the brand,because at the end of the day it matters most, how much the brand brings home.There lies the hardest part.If you really want to make a killing out of the brand make it worth the difficulties that a person has to go through to access the barnd.Otherwise a bad experience of a customer with the brand after going through all the difficulties may be more harmful to your brand.And that means you have to really put that substance into the brand which will force user to come back to you again & again asking for the feelings which might not be easy to get anywhere.

Rationalising The Irrationality

“When men fail, they try to rationalize”. Is it so???? Is the rule solely applicable to only one gender of the population or it is applicable to all the people, whether he is a male or a female, or for that matter why not a kid??? Don’t we all try to put a feasible reason for being a failure or doing something wrong?

I was thinking with the book in my hand which I have just finished, where in the author wanted to put across a point with the above tagline. “C’mon you can’t say like that”,I said to myself , as if I was the representative of the whole species he wanted to denigrate(Is it a strong word ,please excuse me if it sound so).But I felt it was nothing less than what I was feeling. Why should only men be blamed for, when we know what the truth is. And the truth is that we do pass buck every time whenever there is a chance that we will be put to scrutiny.

Isn’t our society built on this so called innate attitude of buck passing, since time immoral???Who knows since when this trait might have been built into our psyche? And the trait is so strong that even now also we don’t feel like giving it up even when we have a chance to turn things around.

Now also the exam systems in our educational institutes believe that vomiting some hard core facts & theories, which a student might have gulped the night before the exams day is the best way to judge whether he or she is the best student. Now tell me how many of these theories the student use whenever he or she goes out of that campus life where in he or she is cocooned in the secured campuses building those huge castles of success in the wind?? And how many of those students who earn gold medals become successful in their lives. I don’t mean to denigrate those studious guys, but don’t we see that we have a problem here where we feel that coming first in an exams is the way to salvation(what else do you say, when you see students staying over night & cramming of those voluminous books in order to get a good mark in exams).

Take for example another instance & this is quite interesting than the first one. Who does not how a marriage ceremony looks like? You have a guy & a girl(I don’t think still it is comprehendible for maximum of us to think of a guy getting married to a guy or a girl getting married to a girl, though exceptions always exist),whose parents get the privilege to search for a life partner for each of them. Mind you here I am talking about the main protagonist of the marriage ceremony, not any other one, but he or she does not have a voice of his/her. All the things are choreographed or staged according to what the parents decide. The only thing that is left for the bride or groom is to enact as they are told to do so. You may oppose me in this regard saying that time has changed. But for whom???? Has it changed for the brides & grooms???I don’t find & you are most welcome to point any changes you find. At least the guy & girl should get to know each other very well when they are going to settle down together. Shouldn’t they be given a chance to voice their own concern? Though I am privileged not to be treated like that, I have seen a lot of instances wherein marriage is staged which they called as arranged by parents.

I know one of my colleagues who was unfortunate to go through this kind of treatment. It so happened that even though he was not interested to get married his parents put a tremendous pressure on him to settle down with a .Since he was having a very decent job, there was a deluge of proposals for him from different quarters, & he was having such a hard time to spend his weekend. I remember him going to his home on Saturday & coming back & joining office on Monday morning. Visiting bride’s place duration also included in this time. So you can well imagine what a hard life he might be having. Now it so happened that he was damn confident about the fact that no girl would like to get married to him. So, blandly he used to tell every girl he came across that he would get married to her if she is willing & to his delight all the girls would refuse him. But unfortunately a girl he came across liked him so much that she gave her consent for my friend & date was decided for their engagement. Now the real fun happened after engagement, when this guy wanted to have some time with the bride to know her better. But girl’s family, being a conservative one would not allow the girl to go out with that guy. But the girl being a smart one used to cook up stories to come out in the evening .That continued for 1 year before these couple settled down together for a lovely married life. Now what I was amused is why the two people who have already given their consent for marriage can’t go out together before getting involved in a serious relationship. Is it a sin???Anyway I am not trying to glorify those insane activities that young people get involved in. But those insanity part apart can’t we progress to a more flexible society, where no unreasonable rules are not allowed.

Why to look at society, looking at ourselves also we find a lot of time we rationalize what we know should not be rationalized. Don’t we know when we pay something for getting something done in a govt. office we are doing a wrong thing. But ask all & sundry, the answer will be like ”Arey karna padta hai yaar.” & people who take that money would say “Kamal hai yaar.kaam aapka karenge,,, upar se gali bhi sunenge.Is ke liye aap thoda de denge to kuchh problem hoga kya???” Hmmmmm points well noted down saar.We don’t mind paying you par kaam thoda aur jaldi kar denge to bahut meherbaani hogi.

Take for instance why do we have so many private schools run by private groups mushrooming everywhere???Can’t we make the govt. Schools far better than what they are right now? No we won’t do because the school is run by govt. & the teachers are accountable to an abstract entity called government about which they don’t care at all.

The other day I was going through newspapers and the main news was about guys getting a foreign posting & shamelessly the headlines screamed about the plum posting they were getting abroad, with the dollar salary . How short people’s memory can be I was thinking. It is this affection for everything foreign that put us under British rules for 200 years, & we have got freedom from the foreign power only for last 50 years. No one cares more for what happened to that spirit of Indianness.You ask these people & answer will be same everywhere.”Huuuh I am not getting that scope for doing research & technical advance study here, and our country does not give prestige to people who are involved in research work”. Where from then we had Vikram Sarabhai, C.V.Raman, APJ Abdul Kalam,our honorable president who was a great scientist &mind you I am talking abt those periods when these people didn’t have fraction of facility that current generation has.

Anyway I have already cribbed about a lot of things which I should not have done..But what to do???That cribbing is in built to the psyche of our people I guess. Ohhho, I have started rationalizing irrationality J now.By the way you also do the same otherwise no one will recognize that you belong to that category of species called Homo sapiens

Prisoners Of Paradigm

"I am not having good sleeps,nowdays.Feeling as if I am going the other way,when some of our friends are having a jolly ride on their choosen path."I was just looking with a kiddish twinkle in my eyes to the person who was sitting in front of me.

No he was not a stranger to me.If you calculate the duration of time , we both have been together then there is no way you can tell the person as a stranger to me.We both were in the school for 7 years.Being the alumni of a boarding school, I didn't have any doubt about the knowledge I had about my friend.Anyway coming to the situation wherein we both were participants,I was wondering what he was talking about??Is it that, he is unsatisfied about his job or is it that he is not having a grt time with his family.People who are unmarried are said to have a jolly time I know.Why, I also search for the answer sometime.Though I have heard a lot of answers I don't see them as the proper ones.But here I was having someone in front of me who was more unhappy than someone who would have been married for more than 15 years.

Just out of curiousity & somewhat out of my callings to help him, I asked "Tell me what is it that is bothering you so much???" You are quite good at your job,you have been promoted so early,uncle & aunty both are happy with you,as they were telling the other day when I called them,Why you look so unhappy???"

He just wanted to avoid my question,but I kept on pestering .He gave up to my tenacity & bluntly came the reply,"I feel so and so is doing well,is earning much more than what I earn,got a chance to go abroad,etc. etc.",which were according to me not his own problems,but the prosperity of the other person who he was talking about, was the cause of his unhappiness.

Could not understand what I would say to him.Even I was not convinced about my honesty in this matter also. I also loose sleep sometimes over other people's prosperity.So kept myself mum & finished my lunch.Time was for me to come to my place leaving him at his building.

Being a sunny day the sun was shining above me with all force & since I had a summer cut ,the sun rays were piercing like neddles into my head.But that did not stop me from thinking why do we always attach our happiness to the other person's achievements and failures??? Can't we think of happiness as an absolute feeling rather than treating it as a comarative one.Why do we dream of other people's dreams?Can't we treat our dreams as the sole motivator for us to achieve something big.Read somewhere that "If you think about other people's dreams where is the time for your own dream??".Thinking about other people may make us success for a short time,because that envy will propel us to achieve something higher,but then there will be always someone else with whose achievements we will attach our happiness.

Life does not give us chance to live twice.If one second is lost it is gone forever.I don't believe in people who say time is multidimensional.For time being let us be very practical & accept the fact that time is unidimensional.It always moves forward.So why not to make every second a second for ourselves.Why can't we live it for our own????

So many thoughts & so less time to find answers....."Hey Bibhu whats up man??? How is your job going buddy???Did you see your manager abt your colleague who joined with you getting higher salary than you????",one of my close colleagues was asking.I just looked at him & thought to myself, aren't we all still imprisoned in that paradigm where everything is measured comparatively,every other day someone falls ill due to the only reason that someone he or she knows is having a good health.Life moves on ,so the society also. Who am I to question??? Let us all compare ourselves to each other & feel happy even if we are not.