Mural Life

Kerala's reverse migration problems

2009-04-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.ndtv.com/news/diaspora/kerala_facing_reverse_migration.php

50,000 people have come back jobless from overseas and an additional 2 lakh people are expected in the next 2 months. Where will these people find productive employment? In Kerala? No way!

The article rightly points out that NRI Remittances contribute to 30% of SGDP. A sizable contraction in remittances is expected due to the global recession, and it shall be interesting to see how the state's budget will be affected by this, and how property prices are going to be affected by this. I was told that gulf money was responsible for a lot of property price appreciation in the recent past.

Anyway end result is that we have 2 lakh more people who are employed on top of the 40 lakh currently in Kerala. If these people don't find employment soon, in addition to being a burden on society, they may start causing harm by resorting to terrorist or goonda activities. Yeah, the cochin mafias are a serious problem now.

Shashi Tharoor in Trivandrum

2009-04-14T22:50:00.000-07:00

I have mixed opinions about Shashi Tharoor contesting from Trivandrum. On the one hand, I admire his credentials. On the other hand, I don't think he has much in common with the Kerala populace and is being an opportunist.

However, I do agree that should he win, that would be a landmark event in Kerala politics, and a potential game-changer, encouraging many other prominent NRKs to return to Kerala and contest for polls there.

2009-03-20T11:16:00.000-07:00

An article from Rediff reveals the sad state of affairs in Kerala!

180 Kerala youth ready to wage LeT's war

At least 180 persons trained by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba [Images] in Kerala [Images] are waiting to take up the cause of jihad.

Probes into serial blasts, which have a Kerala link, have found that since the past three years over 180 youth trained were extensively at Ernakulam in Kerala and readied for jihad.

Investigating officials told rediff.com that two Kashmiri terrorists, Sajjad and Fayaz Ahmed, revealed during their interrogation that most of the Kerala youth were selected and trained by the LeT.

They further revealed that while some of the members were asked to stay back in Kashmir and fight the war against India, the other members were sent back to Kerala.

The members, who were sent back, were directed to carry out subversive activities in India. Investigations have also revealed that apart from the 180 persons, who are jihad-ready at the moment, there are an equal number of youth being indoctrinated into LeT's camps.

These persons will be imparted training in two phases. The initial part of the training or the conditioning camp takes place in Kerala while the rest of the training is imparted in Kashmir.

In the conditioning camp these youth are taught about the war against India. More importantly, they are taught Urdu so that they can communicate at ease with their counterparts and bosses in Pakistan.

The second phase of the training includes arms training, which is imparted in Kashmir. Intelligence Bureau sources say that the Lashkar was able to break into parts of Kerala such as Ernakulam, as they were communally sensitive.

Abdul Sattar a resident of Malappuram in Kerala who was arrested by the Hyderabad police for alleged links with the Indian Mujahideen [Images], too had revealed that over a period of time, the Lashkar had made Kerala a recruitment hub and was readying several youth for jihad.

Apart from this, the Lashkar also set up the primary base of the Indian Mujahideen in Kerala in order to carry out terror activities in India. However, off late the Lashkar was giving more emphasis to Kashmir and since it was unable to transport its men into Kashmir easily, it was relying upon the Kerala module. The reason: LeT found the youth in this part of the country more dedicated.

Two French Companies right after the other ...

2009-03-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

My leg is injured. I can't walk properly. Maybe I should go to the doctor and get it checked. Anyway, because of that gym has been put on hold for the next few days! and fortunately because of that, I decided to attend two CEO presentations on campus today and took some important lessons from both.

First one was a Louis Vuitton presentation. The presentation was by the North American team led by the CEO Daniel Lalonde, a Canadian who moved to LVMH from Nestle. I was impressed by the company and what it had achieved but left with a feeling that many (explicitly not saying all or even most) people there were superficial. The company is a very different animal than what I thought it was. It is not a marketing machine like some of the consumer goods companies such as P&G and Unilever are. It is a fully-integrated luxury goods company - it is 100% vertically integrated designing and manufacturing all its products and owning its retail stores and it treats its supply chain as a competitive advantage. It also does a great job balancing its traditional and new fashion values in its communication message. If you have seen the new series of LVMH ads, you would understand this. The usual LVMH ads are all about fashion. However, the new ads featuring Sean Connery, Steffi Graff and a few others who have very seldom posed for ads recently call out traditional class. The organization is very decentralized and each brand is run independently and the entrepreneurial spirit is maintained. I couldn't sense the culture of the organization from the presentation, and here is where a little bias may come in. I thought many representatives from the company were superficial and the opposite of modest. Want to elaborate on this but unfortunately have to leave soon.

The next presentation was by the CEO of EADS/Airbus - Louis Gallois. He is considered by many to be one of the best CEOs in Europe having led the difficult turnaround of Aerospatiale (1992-1996) and SNCF (French Railway). He joined EADS in 2006 stepping down to CEO position from the board, and has led it successfully since. He was one of the most down-to-earth persons I have seen. He talked in length about the Aeronautics business, but his passion really came out when he talked about how he turned around the French Railway company. He spoke about how the workers of that company collectively can be difficult, but individually are one of the dearest. And the critical part was to understand that they were not asking for more money or bonuses but to help them make their company a leader, which is what they cared about. Louis Gallois seemed to be a person who can be very easily liked - down-to-earth, funny, smart, capable! He has worked with real businesses, and turned around real companies!

It is unfair comparing Daniel Lalonde and Louis Gallois because they operate in different industries which require different skillsets and attitudes. But seeing these people and understanding the environment in which they operate lets you decide what kind of a company you want to work for, as well who you want to be.

Written in a hurry!
Ciao!

Who do you derive your energy from?

2009-03-14T21:06:00.001-07:00

There are broadly four types of people at HBS, and I think even the people at large can be classified into four types, though the mix may differ significantly between HBS and the world at large.

There are the Extroverts. Extroverts purely because they derive all their energy from others surrounding them. They like to be in the midst of it all, and socialize and meet people all the time.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are the introverts who derive all their energy from within themselves. They find it stressful and unnerving to be with others all the time. They are comfortable with themselves and don't feel the urge to socialize and be with others.

In between the Extroverts and the Introverts are the Midtroverts. Yeah that just something I coined on the fly, I don't think it means anything. The Midtroverts are people who fall in between. I think they derive most of their energy from within themselves but are comfortable being with others as long as the contact with others does not occupy all their time. In the sense, they value the "alone time" a lot and would at least have as much as alone time as much as time with others. Sort of a 50-50 balanced approach to personality.

I don't think one can choose to be any of these. I think they are born into it, and maybe over several years may swing from one side to the other. The challenge however is when due to several reasons, including social pressure, a person in one bucket tries to be someone else he/she probably is not. And I think this happens much less with Extroverts and Introverts because they are the extremes. It is the ones in the middle who are likely to swing between periods of being extroverted followed by being introverted due to external pressure. This is different from being a Midtrovert who I think is constantly in balance.

I am definitely not an Extrovert though some people think of me that way. I think I am an Introvert though that may be a difficult to sell to some people who know me. Reason I thought about the people in between is because I think I am one of them. And I have learnt over time to have a balanced view to socializing and networking and not be someone I am not.

************************

Watched Wall Street today! The movie that was shot in 1985 and is about greedy investors such as Gekko who aims to make big bucks from buying and selling assets. I like Martin Sheen's comment in the movie .... "Get Real Son. Stop trying to make a quick buck out of buying and selling other people's hardwork. Create something!". I should tell that to myself! I haven't made up my mind on whose side I am - Gekko or the other side.

Children of Heaven ...

2009-03-10T19:58:00.001-07:00

Just saw an Iranian Movie called Children of Heaven .

Short at 1 hour and 25 minutes. The movie is about a brother and sister and their story revolving around a lost pair of shoes. It was shot in 1997 Tehran and has been shot in a very simple and realistic way.

Many of the scenes reminded me of my childhood days in Cochin - sitting on benches, standing in line during assemblies, playing cricket barefoot during lunch breaks, throwing stones at mango trees to fell mangoes, and then mixing it with salt and red chilli! That was 1990s Cochin. Though its only been a little over 10 years, when I go back and see the urbanization and development around the place I used to and still live, it just feels like 30/40 years ago.

On a separate note, did a case on Slovakian Flat Tax today in my IMAGE (Macroeconomics and Political Institutions) class. The main point in contention was whether the flat tax of 19% on Income Tax, Corporate Tax, and VAT instituted in Slovakia in 2004 was good overall for the country, and whether it was the flatness or the lowness of the tax structure that was good. Like many other cases, I didn't get out of the class with a clear answer. I guess one could argue both sides and there really isn't a correct answer.

Studied the Borders clicks and mortar strategy in Supply Chain class. There were many things interesting. But one of the things I learnt about Amazon which makes it impossible for a bricks and mortar player to compete against Amazon is how Amazon locates its distribution centers in rural states where it sells very little books because it can avoid a 12% sales tax that is prevalent in many other states. Amazon, by allocating its online sales to such states, automatically gets a 12% tax break! Anyway, kind of a random point. But felt it was interesting nevertheless....

Yesterday, went and got my Colombian Visa. Excited about trip to Colombia next-to-next weekend - both because it will be a cool vacation and also because Parvathi is flying down. Excited to see her!

Went skiing last weekend. Was relieved to have not forgotten how to ski since last year! In fact felt like I improved and I have graduated to the blue slopes now. Wondering whether to go skiing with Le and Sandra this weekend. Most likely won't because a bunch of things to get done before spring break next weekend. For example, beginning work on my field study which I have been postponing so far may be a good option!

Markets were up 5+% today. Don't know what to think of it.

Traveling ....

2009-02-10T23:25:00.000-08:00

Its 2:26 AM. I am half drunk, completely case unprepared, and my first case is at 8:30AM.

Just finished a bottle of nice Red Cabernet (Envero, Colchagua Valley, 2005) with Boney. I am not drunk, but in a state that feels like perfect bliss. It was great talking about life experiences and stuff like that. Must definitely do this again.

Liked my day today. Did classes till 1. Slept for an hour. Did a bunch of phone calls till 3. Went to the gym till 7. Had dinner and coffee till 9 or so. Got some reading done, and then wine and chatting.

I have always loved traveling. I always struggle in terms of what I want to focus on in life. Sometimes, I think life should be about traveling and work should be a means to the end, in the sense, get enough money to travel around the world. But obviously that means signficantly slowing down your professional advancement. On the other hand, there is always the pressure from all sides to do well professionally and otherwise. I think I am more leaning towards the first. And the best thing is I have someone to do that with! You know who you are! The challenge will be getting you to take leave!!!

Check out this website: http://www.wherethehellismatt.com. This guy is awesome. There are a lot of videos of him on youtube. For all travelophiles, its a must watch!

Random Ramblings. Apologies!

War Dance

2009-01-31T07:26:00.001-08:00

Watched a documentary called "War Dance" yesterday.

War Dance is the story of how a group of war-affected Acholi-tribe children from Patongo in Northern Uganda beat all odds and compete in a national-level music and dance competition in Kamapala and end up winning many awards. It was first shown at Sundance 2008 and was nominated for best documentary at the Academy Awards in 2008. The movie does a great job of portraying true emotions of the children and couple that with some amazing traditional ugandan background music.

A lot of exposure to Uganda in the last few days. My brother spent a week or two in Uganda last winter break (Dec 08) helping out some local farmers as part of his field study at Wharton. At HBS, I had a case on "Uganda and the Washington Consensus", and we had to analyze the economic development of Uganda after the country has been devastated by a series of wars and dictators. Remember "Last King of Scotland" and the character Amin .... Yup that was about Uganda too.

Movies like this just open a completely new perspective to life. One of the children, after all that has happened in his life (lost his parents, abducted by rebels, forced to kill 3 farmers, treated like shit by his foster parents etc) goes to compete with other better-equipped and more fortunate children and instead of feeling inferior and scared, tells to himself:

"You have to fearless ... Like a warrior"

Detaching oneself to see the big picture

2009-01-18T04:10:00.000-08:00

A very good article by an HBS professor on fortune.com ...

January 15, 2009, 12:29 pm
Guest Post: How to survive the storm

by Nancy Koehn, Professor, Harvard Business School

nfk-publicity-shot-3-06Are you in the center of the storm?

I teach business history and leadership at Harvard Business School and have been fascinated lately by the notion of powerful people getting a grip by stepping back and letting go.

The idea is counter-intuitive. But it works, particularly in today’s environment of great turmoil and uncertainty. Seeing the forest for the trees is critical. Consider these lessons in leadership present and past:

For many years, while Bill Gates was running Microsoft (MSFT), he took biannual “reading weeks.” He spent these periods alone in a cabin, reading, thinking and considering the larger landscape of technological and economic change. Gates believed that he and his company benefited from the boss’s time away. Now that he’s pulled away from Microsoft for good and is focusing on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he has time for reading and thinking baked into his new job.

Procter & Gamble’s (PG) A. G. Lafley, a CEO who is weathering the storm better than most, has talked about the value of meditation. In a 2006 Fortune interview, he told Pattie Sellers: “I’ve tried to teach myself to meditate. When I travel, which is 60 percent of the time, I find that meditating for five, ten, or 15 minutes in a hotel room at night can be as good as a workout. Generally, I think I know myself so much better than I used to. And that has helped me stay calm and cool under fire.”

Do you know how 82-year-old Joe Paterno coached Penn State to an 11-1 record and all the way to the Rose Bowl this past season? By leading the Nittany Lions from the press box high above the playing field. “I am not sure that’s not the best place for a head coach,” Paterno told the press, noting that the elevation gave him a superior view. More than that, leaders like Paterno who step away give their teams space to do their jobs. Micromanaging is practically impossible from a distance, and that can pay off.

And then there’s Abraham Lincoln. During the chaos of the Civil War, he sought space by reading history and turning to Shakespeare. He preferred tragedies like Macbeth and Hamlet. Lincoln devoted many evening and early morning hours to reading the Bard’s plays, often memorizing long passages. Reading and going to theater helped sustain his emotional balance. Said one of Lincoln’s assistants, William Stoddard, “The drama of drawing his mind into other channels of thought afforded him the most entire relief.”

The common thread: a conscious effort to detach oneself in order to see the big picture. Leaders need that perspective to see the larger context in order to chart a course for their people—and to give themselves a sense of purpose. Lincoln, for one, used his reading of U.S. history and Shakespeare’s tragedies to help him discern the war’s significance and his role on the larger stage. This, in turn, fed his courage and will to see the crisis through.

Stepping out of the chaos is difficult. Especially now as companies are imploding, entire sectors of the economy are dying, and demands for time and energy are intense. Blizzards of emails on our BlackBerries blind us even more. But it is precisely at these moments that seeing the larger landscape is key. Barack Obama, who is taking office with an enormous weight of issues and expectations on his shoulders, understands this. He’s been reading Lincoln. “There is a wisdom there and a humility about his approach to government, even before he was president, that I just find very helpful,” he said in an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes.

Obama is also hooked on his exercise regime. “He does it every day like clockwork,” Marty Nesbitt, one of his close friends from Chicago, told the press. Those 90 minutes in the gym each morning put the outside world on hold. If you don’t understand the essence of effective leadership, you might wonder how America’s new President can keep it up. I hope he does. Stepping away for an hour and a half each day could be his survival formula.

Nancy F. Koehn, an authority on business history, is the James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She is currently working on a book about the most important leadership lessons from Abraham Lincoln and another on social entrepreneurs.

Angami Zapu Phizo - who is he?

2009-01-16T11:29:00.000-08:00

Back to white Boston

2009-01-15T00:45:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to complete my post about Cuba, but now have to postpone that to some other time. I reached Boston day before and am just starting my last semester. I am both dreading the end of school as well as looking forward to it. On the one hand, I don't want this experience to get over. I am really enjoying school; all aspects of it - friends, academics, traveling etc. But on the other hand, I have realized that it is important for me to be close to Parvathi. So I am looking forward to getting done with school and being back in Singapore. Parvathi and I have decided (hopefully!) that we will no longer spent this much time apart.

Anyways, Boston is -11 degrees celsius now, and this weekend is supposed to be the coldest that Boston has experienced in many years. Temperatures are supposed to hit below -15 degrees celsius and the wind chill means the effective temperature is more like -20. My dorm room, located in one corner, has 6 windows - basically about 40% of my room walls are windows. While its excellent in summer, in Winter, it just becomes too cold. Lets see if i survive the weather.

Have been surprisingly busy and jet lagged since I came. I haven't had time to read my "India after Gandhi" book since I came. I am on Page 200, and 500 more to go. I know I am a slow reader, so it will probably take me a month or two to finish it. But I have enjoyed the book so much so far that I am sure I will soon start reading it again.

Lots of travel plans within the US this semester - Seattle, Las Vegas, Chicago, New York, Miami, and a Ski-Trip somewhere. Hopefully also travels to Costa Rica, Morocco, Argentina and Chile before I reach back to Singapore.

Exciting times! Looking forward.

La Habana, Cuba ... WOW ....

2009-01-04T19:29:00.000-08:00

Culture, History and Revolution, Communism, Music, Dance, Sex and Friendly people .... that is Havana for you ..

It was in the beginning of November that while I was exploring places to visit during my December break and my friend and classmate Ben suggested that we explore Cuba. I didn't know much about Cuba at that point of time apart from the fact that it was a communist state run by Fidel Castro. As I was intent on exploring Central and South America during my stay at Boston, it was an easy decision to indeed make that trip.

It took more than two weeks to book the tickets - partly due to our indecisiveness regarding dates, but mainly because it was not an easy thing to do from the U.S. The United States of America has an embargo against Cuba because of which Americans are prohibited from visiting Cuba unless they have been issued special licenses from the U.S government. These licenses are generally awarded either to Cuban Americans visiting Family or to students or journalists wishing to go to Cuba on educational tours. Though there are no restrictions on Foreigners residing in America traveling to Cuba, it is nevertheless difficult because there are no official travel agents who can book tickets, and there are no direct flights from US to Cuba. We google'd and found a one-person online organization based in San Francisco to help us book the tickets. We could fly through Canada, Bahamas, Mexico or Cayman Islands, and we chose Cancun, Mexico. And as Ben and Ehud's (Ben's friend who would accompany us on the trip) exams were ending a bit later than mine, the plan was for me to travel on December 17 and for them to join me on December 19 in Havana. I would fly from Boston to Cancun on December 13, spend a couple of days exploring the Mexican Carribean and then head off to Havana on December 17. As we could not receive the physical tickets to Cuba in the U.S, we had to collect it from the Click Mexicana counter at the Cancun Airport. The tickets were booked and the plan was set! This was going to be a good exciting trip!!

>>>>> Fast Forward to December 17 >>>>>

I arrived at the Cancun airport a couple of hours early so I could send a mail to Parvathi and Family and let them know that I am safe and sound and about to board the flight to Cuba. Once I reach Cuba, I knew it would be hard to communicate as my phone would not work and it will be difficult to access one of the 5 or 6 internet cafes in Havana. I spent an hour typing out a mail to Parvathi about my previous two days in Mexico while relishing the jumbo Banana Split from the Mera restaurant. I could either pay 60 Mexican Pesos for an hour of internet at the airport, or buy something from the restaurant and get unlimited free internet. Thanks to the finance and economics classes I took at business school, I knew what to do. I ordered a banana split and got the free internet .... Looking back, a Fruit Platter may have been a better choice given that it was healthier and more inline with my 2009 New Year Resolution to eat healthy and be fit. But I was on holiday and bound to gain a few holiday pounds, so I decided the New Year Resolutions would take effect at a later date.

While queuing up to check-in at the Click Mexicana counter, I was engaging in an internal debate whether to check-in both my bags and carry just my backpack, or whether to check-in only one bag and carry two bags with me. I always carry two bags with me in the cabin (my backpack with all the essential travel documents, and a bag with essential clothes) whenever I fly because I have never really trusted the operations management abilities of Airlines to 100% ensure that my baggage would arrive with the flight. I decided that the new and improved me of 2009 will be a nicer person whose first instinct would be to trust people and not be skeptical. So what do I do? I check in 2 bags and carry only backpack which has my computer, a couple of books and my travel documents. Congratulations Anuroop! Good decision! I am already feeling happy about the trip.

While waiting to board the flight, I was observing the people around me. There were 50 odd cubans taking the flight with me and they were chatting away to glory. At first I thought they were all part of one party because the way they were talking and laughing, I would never have guessed that the only thing common between them was that they were about to take a 50-minute flight together. That is one thing about Cubans that I would realize over the next one week. That they are very friendly by nature and are eager to engage in conversations with strangers. While it is true that they are very friendly, I also think it is because most Cubans have a lot of free time because they are not engaged in any productive activity and also because conversing with people is a real entertainment option because they have very few other options to keep themselves entertained.

Investing - Lessons from Steinhardt

2008-09-13T07:02:00.000-07:00

* Make all your mistakes early in life. The more tough lessons early on, the fewererrors you make later.
* Always make your living doing something you enjoy.
* Be intellectually competitive. The key to research is to assimilate as much data aspossible in order to be to the first to sense a major change.
* Make good decisions even with incomplete information. You will never have all the information you need. What matters is what you do with the information you have.
* Always trust your intuition, which resembles a hidden supercomputer in the mind. It can help you do the right thing at the right time if you give it a chance.
* Don't make small investments. If you're going to put money at risk, make sure the reward is high enough to justify the time and effort you put into the investment decision.

How do you sell Hope?

2007-07-20T00:19:00.001-07:00

I am sure many people think its worthless to buy a $2,000 Louis Vuitton hand bag, or pay $5,000 for an Ermenegildo Zegna suit. And I am sure they are right too. The reason often cited is obviously that why should I buy an item for that price when I can get a similar bag or suit for 1/20th the price.

I once spoke to a P&G marketeer, who told me that branding was all about selling hope to a customer. I dismissed it then, and in fact got irritated with the guy for selling me an idea that I thought was so faulty and pointless. This was about two years back.

I have changed my mind since then, and actually tend to agree with the idea. I do think that what marketeers do is add the 'hope' element to the product that salespersons sell. Let me explain. At least, let me try to.

....... (to be continued)

Banned...this time its organized retailing!!

2007-07-12T02:05:00.001-07:00

The Financial Times recently reported that Kerala was all set to ban all organized retailing .

Kerala is one of the four southern states of India. Its to the south of Bangalore, to the west of Madras/Chennai. Its population is about 30 million, and it is the most literate state in India. Many of its citizens have left to seek employment and education elsewhere .... primarily due to lack of opportunities within the state itself.

It just amazes me as to how no development really takes place in this state. Though the state's government is highly inefficient, it does one thing very well. It is first-class when it comes to banning things. Last year, it banned the sale of Coca-Cola. This year, its organized retailing. Most (97% to be precise) of all trade in India happens through mom-and-pop stores. It is widely accepted that the efficiencies brought about by organized retailing through streamlining supply chains and such is for real, and its contribution to GDP is significant. Large Indian companies like Reliance are opening up thousands of stores all over India, and had planned to open 5 in Kerala. Now I guess those will vanish into thin air. The communist government headed up the 86-year old chief minister, Saghav. Achuthanandan, somehow fails to realize the benefits to the masses of free-market principles.

It is sad, but inevitable given the current (and likely near future) state of politics in the state. Anyway, you may ask whats the relevance of this blog entry? The answer is that, I am one of its citizens who left the state 10 years ago, when i was 15. And my secret ambition is to one day go back and do something there!

Amazing News Bloopers on Youtube!

2007-07-09T18:19:00.000-07:00

Who is Mitt Romney?

2007-07-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

The latest and probably most competent Republican contender for the Presidential nomination is Mr. Mitt Romney, the current governor of Massachusetts. The Economist calls hims Mr Smooth of Massachusetts

What struck me about him is his educational and business background. He went to Harvard business school, joined the Boston Consulting Group as a management consultant, and then defected along with Mr. Bain to form Bain & Company. His entrepreneurial zeal did not stop there, as he went on to found the now hugely successful Bain Capital. In 2002 or so, he left the corporate world to turnaround the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, and then later on became the governor of MA. The fact that Mr Mitt was Mr Romney's son (the rich businessman and 1968 presidential contender) probably helped him a lot, but the person's rise along the corporate and government ladder is admirable nevertheless.

I would love to be this guy. If everything I hope for and wish in my wildest dreams come true, I would almost be like this guy. Just that Salt Lake City Olympics would be some big project in India, Massachusetts would be Kerala, and the US would be India.

Everything is indeed in the mind

2007-07-05T04:39:00.000-07:00

My first try at mobile blogging using my E61. Am at the spanish lounge called Tapas Tree and waiting for my dear wife (who like always refuses to be at the agreed location till after 30 minutes after the agreed meeting time). So since I had some time to kill i figured might as well blog .....

i did something awesome today. I have the very silly habit of making bets with myself to do silly things. For example, while i was waiting to hear .. Crap i cant see what ia am typing because my mobile phone's browser does not let me enter beyond a certain point ... R will write later

** Continued **

I stayed at home last night to watch the Wimbledon tennis Mens QF matches, and what struck me about two of those matches (Djokovic vs. Baghdaditis, and Roddick vs. Gasquet) was the extent to which determination and mental stamina counts when it comes to winning. Both were 5-setter matches, with the Djokovic match stretching to 5 hours!!

Early December last year, I was at the gym right next to my office. This was a period when I was waiting to hear for an interview from the one business school that I had applied to. Time was running out and many others had already received their invites. Anyway the point of going to the gym was just to burn some calories because of the excessive eating I usually subject myself to (I am reminded of the movie Fast Food Nation which I watched over a McDonald's extra value meal with plenty of mayonnaise sauce). I hadn't been on the treadmill for about 3 months, and the most I have ever ran was 5km during my high-school days. Anyway, I start off thinking I would do about 2.4km. But at some point of time between 1km and 2km, when I was already extremely tired, I told myself that I would get an interview to business school only if I ran 5km. My legs were already giving up on me, but not getting an interview was worse than any leg pain. So I tell my legs to bear with me and continue running....and running..and finally manage to reach close to 5km, when I made another bet with myself, that I would get into the school, only if I ran 10km. Immediately after I said that, I was thinking to myself ...what-da-f**k! I could almost feel the internal tension and swearing between my leg muscles and my brain!

The point is that I did run 10km, I did get the interview, and I did get into the school I wanted to. Cmon, I deserved it at least for the run of my life! I could hardly move my legs for a day after that run!

Nothing is impossible, as long as you think it is possible (corrected, previously impossible)!

Hillary and American Politics

2007-07-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

Is firefox really winning the browser war?

2007-07-01T08:38:00.000-07:00

Kimi is back !!

2007-07-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

Starting from 3rd position on the grid, Raikkonen was the first to rocket past the chequered flag today at Magny Cours France. It was an awesome race!

I didn't know much about F1 until March 2005 when I saw these cars in action at Sepang, Malaysia. I was just amazed to know that every racer loses about 4 KGs of body weight because of dehydration and all the G-forces pushing them to all corners of their cockpit. Since then, I have been following the sport very closely. For some reason, I am not so sure why, I am a big fan of Raikkonen. He was excellent in 2005 and should have in fact won the championship if not for McLaren's reliability problems. In 2006, McLaren's car was just not there. In 2007, so far, with Ferrari, he has been doing okay. He started off very well with a win in Australia, then a rough patch for 6 races, and now a win in the 8th race of the season.

The good thing is that I have successfully managed to convert Parvathi to an F1 fan as well. So no more fighting over the remote on Sunday evenings so she can watch some random show on MTV .. no wait ETV ... or was it FTV...ahh whatdahell, they are all the same anyway.

Iran, Afghanisthan, Myanmar, India ... what do they have in common?

2007-06-29T22:47:00.001-07:00

India's standard time is offset from GMT by x.30 hours. So are the times of Iran, Afghanisthan, and Myanmar. There aren't many other places in the world where the time is offset by 30 minutes. Until recently, I thought it was perfectly normal to have the time offset by 30 minutes, but apparently its not. I was trying to search on the internet why India shares this distinction with 3 other rather unfortunate countries. Not much information available.

Career Opportunities with Office 2007

2007-06-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

I am a heavy user of Microsoft Office. At work, I spend 1/3rd of my time in front of Excel and PowerPoint, another 1/3rd in front of clients, and another 1/3rd with myself planning my next vacation. I have Office XP on my old computer that I use to run multimedia on the TV, Office 2003 on my work computer and Office 2007 on my new computer. I have been using Office 2007 for a while now, mainly Outlook. But I decided to try Powerpoint 2007 and I am truly impressed. Charts that used to take me 20 minutes, takes 5 minutes now. That is 4x productivity!!

A chart I made up in 5 minutes about my career opportunities post MBA is below:

I am relatively clear about where I want to be 10-15 years down the road. I have multiple paths to get there, some easier than the others, some more rewarding than the others. I have been thinking of what to do next for quite a bit, and this chart summarizes my four options:
1) Stay put at a place that I like!
2) Go hunt for satisfaction (w/ a little less money)
3) Go hunt for money
4) Go hunt for more satisfaction (w/ less money)

Sadly no framework is going to help me decide unless and until I try out all these jobs, and that is the intention!

Nokia E61i

2007-06-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

I had to make another entry before I decide to give my brains a break for the day.

I have suddenly become a fan of photo blogging, and thats thanks to my new phone! I could no longer take the 4 hour battery life of my Motorola V3X and the amazing feature of an automatic shut down each time I close the clamshell. I decided to switch back to my first love, the ever reliable, usually absolutely-no-sense-of-style Nokia!

I got the Nokia E61i. Its an awesome phone. I like it a lot. The best thing is that it is Wi-Fi capable and so you can do VoIP calls and surf at broadband speeds when you have a Wi-Fi network! It has an awesome camera, as you can see from the pictures! and is relatively light, and thin! Nice!

Three weeks back, at the PC show, I had decided that I would refrain from making expensive technology purchases for at least 6 months. I got the phone for a little above 200, and so it was a really good deal! So I guess I can be at peace with myself for not having spent too much.

I got to be on top this week!

2007-06-21T10:19:00.001-07:00

Dined at the China Club today!

It is an exclusive communist-like chinese (duh!) restaurant on the 52nd floor of Capital tower, one of the tallest buildings in Singapore. It has excellent 360 degree views of Singapore, and table cloths and walls all have a red star on them. Apparently, you have to pay north of $2,000 annually to identify yourself with the club and the red star, be a member of the club that is. I got lucky and piggy backed with a partner at my firm who had the membership!

For those of you who read the title and imagined something perverse. Cmon guys! Cmon gals! I was just referring to how the picture on my previous blog entry was of the singapore skyline, and how I got to be on the other side this week.

Its 2 AM in the morning and I had 4 hours of sleep yesterday! I apologize on the sleep deprived soul's behalf for the lameness.

Fashion parades, Helicopters, and Sivaji

2007-06-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

I live right opposite Vivocity, the biggest lifestyle mall in Singapore, and therefore spend the better half of my weekends there. There were probably a few hundred thousand people packed in the mall yesterday, it was a big commotion! Traditional chinese music blasting away at one corner selling some mystic chinese healing medicine, and a huge fashion parade (picture below) at another corner with hot babes (and sunglassed dudes) walking the ramp.

My visits to Vivocity almost always turn out be embarassing experiences, and I have Murphy's law to thank for it. As I live right opposite, and have a 2-minute walk to reach there, I am almost always in my home wear (also shabby, un-ironed) at Vivocity. I meet at least two other people whom I know each time I am there, and they are always dressed smart. My efforts to hide from them hardly work, partly because of my hide-and-seek skills (i used to suck at that game) and partly because of my ocassional 'wat da hell' attitude. Murphy's law saves me from walking into well-dressed friends when I myself am well-dressed at Vivocity.

Speaking about well-dressed. I saw the mega- mega- mega- of all Indian movies yesterday - Sivaji. The lead actor - Rajni Kanth (who used to be a bus conductor in real life) - was paid in excess of Rs 40 crores (US$10 million) for the movie making him the 2nd highest paid actor in Asia, far exceeding the remuneration of the better known bollywood actors like Amitabh Bacchan and Shah Rukh Khan. Tickets in India were being sold at Rs 400 (compared to the normal Rs 40-100). Pre-booking queues were running kilometers long. Even in Singapore, the ticket was priced at $15-$25 and the pre-booking queue was almost a kilometer long. Video below:

This is Kollywood (The Tamil equivalent of Bollywood and Hollywood) where everything is done mega-size. The truth is I can't understand Tamil that well, but had to catch this movie in the first week just for the experience. I had to go to the theater 3 hours in advance to get the tickets, there were Singapore Armed Forces commandos guarding the theater, the 500+ seater theater was jam-packed and the loud whislting and holwing started 10 minutes before the movie started. And because it was free-seating and I managed to (re)reach the theater only 15 minutes before it started, I got the luxury of watching this movie from the third row (from the front)!

Phew. An experience it was. The Rajasthani actress was one of the hottest females I have ever seen in any Indian movie. She looked un-f**king-believably hot in Sarees and skimpy outfits alike! The 40-crore actor is 58-years old. Frankly, he looks old, and looks like shit. But he probably has a followership that not even Tom Cruise has. Fans are crazy about him. Me too actually! In his previous movie, he caught the bullet that was fired at him by his enemy with his very own hands, threw it back and killed his enemy. This movie was full of similar highlights. Here, he throws his gun like a boomerang around a tree, and the gun shoots the villain and comes back. Though that happened as part of a fantasy song sequence, you will see such stunts in very few other movies :-)

Official movie website

On my way to the movie, I was fortunate to see two Singapore army helicopters practicing stunts for the national day parade on August 9th. Two black copters on the Singapore skyline was quite a sight. I would not be surprised if they were on standby to rush to the theater in case of trouble.

Oops. That was a long post. Will keep next ones shorter!

Burmese fickleness

2007-06-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Burma is probably the only country where the cars are right hand-driven, yet are driven on the right side of the road? It is not very obvious, but it is a very difficult thing to do, especially when you are trying to overtake trucks in front of you on a one-way lane.

There are no standards in terms of driving in Burma. Most of the cars are smuggled or imported from neighboring countries and price is the main consideration, not whether its left hand drive or right hand drive. Anyway, most cars in Burma are right-hand driven, and once upon a time (a few years back that is), they used to be driven on the left side of the road until one day, the junta's astrologer told them that driving on the left spelt doom for Myanmar. So through a single command, overnight, Burma switched to driving on the right side.

Why am I mentioning this now? Don't really know. Thought would be something interesting to write about.

My tech purchases

2007-06-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I walked into the Singapore PC show thinking I would go just to look around and keep myself informed of the latest technology/prices. But an hour and half later, when I walked out of Suntec City, I was carrying three huge boxes with me.

Lenovo T61 Thinkpad (S$2,649): The T61 is the first wide-screen (I wanted mobility and hence went for the 14") T-series laptop. Its specs are: 2GHz processor with latest Santarosa chipset, 2GB RAM, 120GB hard-disk. It runs Windows Vista business and has some cool stuff like finger-print protection, and an awesome highly-durable black chassis! I have been playing with it the whole day and absolutely love the machine. I am still getting used to the CTRL key on the keyboard. The Lenovo has the CTRL key as the second-last button on the left corner, where as my HP work computer has it as the corner button. So I have wasted quite a bit of time figuring out why I am unable to cut-paste things :=). Anyway, the machine is awesome! I would have loved it even more if it had a webcam on the LCD, an NVidia GeForce card and a flash card reader.

Philips digital photoframe (S$499): Parvathi hates technology. She works for P&G and thinks technology is much inferior to Shampoo (yeah, she is a little crazy :-)). Anyway, I thought I should exercise my duties as a good husband and enlighten her about technology and that I did!! She loves looking at photos and I bought her the perfect present. This product from Philips is absolutely awesome! It is a 9" digital photo-frame with fabulous resolution, and a 1GB extendable memory. You can hang it on the wall, keep it on your desk, and it just flashes photo-after-photo (and you can even set the duration of each photo, transition effects). And the best part, it automatically detects whether it should exhibit the photo as landscape or portrait (depending on how you place the frame). It would have been delicious if it had wireless features too! It is still a little too expensive, but once the price point comes down to about 1/2 of current levels, I think this would sell like hotcakes! Parvathi has been at it the whole day. She has been mining her collection of over 3000 photos to pick the best 200 or so to put into the frame!

EverGlide Noise canceling headphones (S$80): The going rate for these headphones is $130, and I got a sweet deal! I don't know much about this company, but apparently they use the same noise canceling algorithm/drivers as Bose and is quite reputed. I am currently listening to the Indonesian Rock Song in the previous posting using these headphones. Parvathi is blasting MTV on the TV which is about 3 meters away from me, but I can't hear a thing that is playing on the TV. Again, amazing!

The funny thing is its been so so long since I made a tech purchase. Hmmm ..., actually no. I was thinking of my purchases and realized that I have been quite a freak. I bought my Canon EOS400D in January, my xBox 360 (w/ 8 game titles) in November, Samsung home theater system with wireless speakers in August! :-) But the last time I bought a computer was in 2002!! That was a Dell Inspiron which is still going strong!

Anyway, I am a happy man!

US Visa Interview

2007-05-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

I spent the better half of today morning at the US embassy in Singapore. Why? To apply for my F1 student visa so that I can get my a**zz across the atlantic (or pacific btw, i still haven't decided which route to take) to the university of my dreams.

I met a couple of interesting people while waiting for my interview. A South Korean Lawyer working in Singapore who has passed his BAR exams in US, UK, HK and Singapore. Wow! Also met a young singaporean dude who, like me, wanted an F-1 to do his undergrad there.

Anyway, the whole experience wasn't very pleasant, except when the lovely lady across the bullet-proof glass interviewing me told me to come and collect my visa on Monday. Why unpleasant? Almost all of the embassy staff was very very impolite bordering on being rude. They treated me (and many others) as though we were slaves. The whole process takes about 2 hours though the document verification and interviewing takes only about 10 minutes, the remainder being what I call mosquito-bashing time (but there are no mosquitoes in Singapore!). I won't go to the extent of saying that US should stop all this cross-verification and strip-searching in airport business. In fact, I do think they should it after all that has happened. However, I believe that they can go about doing it in a polite, un-intrusive way, much like the way Singapore does it. What do I mean? Take the Changi airport for example and compare it with JFK or O'Hare, the security is probably as tight, but everything is a breeze whether it is going past immigration, checking-in your bags or whatever.

Polite flow control. Very important. Maybe America can consider a TCP-like protocol to take care of this mess.

Indonesian Rock Rocks!

2007-05-30T01:27:00.000-07:00

I used to be a regular at many of the clubs in Jakarta in November and December last year. CJs was by far the most popular club, and though it is also known as the local pickup joint, I genuinely loved the live band that played there. One of the most interesting songs they sang was an Indonesian one. Video below courtesy Youtube.

Only recently when I saw this song being aired on Channel V did I learn that it is from a famous indonesian band called Nidji. The song is called Hapus Aku and it is from the album Breakthru. Indonesian Rock Rocks! Did you know that Indonesia (Jakarta especially) has a very lively culutral scene. Check out the Java Jazz festival

Movie rampage

2007-05-28T22:52:00.000-07:00

I have been watching plenty of movies. So I felt it would be useful to go about it in a structured way and hence created a list of the top 60-70 movies. I have used the Oscar Best Picture, IMDB and BBC lists as sources. The ones in blue are the ones I have already seen. I hope to finish up this list before I head to school.


No:	Year	Oscar Best Picture Movie	Seen?
1	1972	The Godfather	Yes
2	1974	The Godfather Part II	Yes
3	1975	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
4	1976	Rocky	Yes
5	1979	Kramer vs. Kramer
6	1982	Gandhi	Yes
7	1983	Terms of Endearment
8	1984	Amadeus
9	1985	Out of Africa
10	1986	Platoon	Yes
11	1987	The Last Emperor
12	1988	Rain Man	Yes
13	1989	Driving Miss Daisy
14	1990	Dances With Wolves
15	1991	Silence of the Lambs	Yes
16	1992	Unforgiven	Yes
17	1993	Schindler's List
18	1994	Forrest Gump	Yes
19	1995	Braveheart	Yes
20	1996	The English Patient
21	1997	Titanic	Yes
22	1998	Shakespeare in Love
23	1999	American Beauty	Yes
24	2000	Gladiator	Yes
25	2001	A Beautiful Mind	Yes
26	2002	Chicago
27	2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Yes
28	2004	Million Dollar Baby	Yes
29	2005	Crash	Yes
30	2006	Departed	Yes

No:	Year	IMDB Top 30	Seen?
1	1972	The Godfather	Yes
2	1994	The Shawshank Redemption
3	1974	The Godfather Part II	Yes
4	1966	Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, II
5	1994	Pulp Fiction	Yes
6	1942	Casablanca
7	1993	Schindler's List
8	1980	Star Wars: Episode V - The Empires Strike Back	Yes
9	2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Yes
10	1954	Shichinin no samurai
11	1975	One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
12	1977	Star Wars	Yes
13	1954	Rear Window
14	1957	12 Angry Men
15	2001	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Yes
16	1981	Raiders of the Lost Ark
17	2002	Cidade de Deus
18	1990	Goodfellas	Yes
19	1995	The Usual Suspects	Yes
20	1968	C'era una volta il West
21	1964	Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb
22	1960	Pyscho
23	1941	Citizen Kane
24	1959	North by Northwest
25	2002	The Lord of the Rings: The two towers	Yes
26	2000	Memento
27	1991	The Silence of the Lambs	Yes
28	1962	Lawrence of Arabia
29	1999	Fight Club	Yes
30	1950	Sunset Blvd.

No:	Year	BBC Top 10	Seen?
1	1979	Apocalypse Now	Yes
2	1980	Raging Bull
3	1982	Fanny and Alexander
4	1990	Goodfellas
5	1986	Blue Velvet
6	1989	Do the right thing
7	1982	Blade Runner
8	1994	Chungking Express
9	1988	Distant voices, Still lives
10	1983	Once upon a time in America
10	1999	Yi Yi (A one and a two)

The Mahabharatha

2007-05-28T21:39:00.001-07:00

I will only be slightly exaggerating if I told you that I can count with both hands the number of books I have read in the last 25 years. Lately, I have started reading more and more, and over the last few months I have been on a quest to better understand myself. I read an article today about Narayana Murthy's pre-commencement speech at the NYU Stern school of business where he says self-knowledge has helped him reach where he is today. His exact words:

"The fourth theme is a cornerstone of the Indian spiritual tradition: self-knowledge. Indeed, the highest form of knowledge, it is said, is self-knowledge. I believe this greater awareness and knowledge of oneself is what ultimately helps develop a more grounded belief in oneself, courage, determination, and, above all, humility, all qualities which enable one to wear one's success with dignity and grace."

So now that I have written the first two paragraphs, hopefully, you won't be surprised or shocked if I told you that I am reading "The Mahabharatha", the greatest Hindu epic which is even longer than Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. I am mid-way through reading it. And once I am done, I hope to go on to the Bhagavad Gita. Grand ambitions for the next 3 months.

The point is that I started reading this book out of curiosity and never expected to even go past 20 pages. But now, I seriously cannot not stop. It does help that the version I am reading is a modern rendering of the epic by a malayalee named Ramesh Menon and that his depictions of some of the interactions between man and woman and devas and devis border on being criticized as soft-porn; but that was only the first few hundred pages. Now I am on page 810 (near the end of Volume 1) and the story just gets better and better. And there are various conversations between Pandavas and the Gods, where they are taught lessons of life which I feel can be applied to every day living. I don't want to go on with too much of this on this blog .... but to tell you the truth, I am enjoying it!

I am still in the process of reading it... but here is a post by someone who has finished the whole book.

Rain Man (1988)

2007-05-22T21:37:00.001-07:00

Watched Rain Man today.

I saw Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman on the DVD cover and hence decided to rent the movie from Video Ezzy at Vivocity. I had no clue what the movie was about. After watching it, I like it so much that I looked it up on the web. It was only then did I realize that it had won 4 Oscars (Best Picture,Best Actor in a leading Role for Dustin Hoffman, Best Director for Barry Levinson, and Best Writing/Screenplay in 1988)

Its a story about a spoilt, full-of-himself guy (Charlie Babbitt as Tom Cruise) whose father leaves all his wealth to an Autistic Savant (Hoffman as Raymond). Charlie soons find out that Raymond is his brother, and kidnaps him so he can get 1/2 of the $3 million his father left him. Over time, he begins to like Raymond. There are a few very touching moments like the scene when Charlie teaches Raymond how to dance so that he can go for his fictional date, and when Charlie realises that the Rain-man song that he loves was actually sung to him by Raymond when he was a baby. Valerio Golino who is Tom Cruise's girlfriend in the movie is a beauty too!

For those of you have brothers and haven't watched the movie, go watch this one :-)

Tyler Durden ....

2007-05-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

This week has been awesome. What did I do? Watched movies, had many dinners, and wasted time. It just feels really good to be doing crap.

Wednesday - 28 weeks later
Thursday - Foresst Gump
Friday - NeXT
Saturday - Born into Brothels
Sunday - Spiderman, Fightclub

A bunch of waste movies actually, except for Born into Brothels and Fightclub.

Born into Brothels is an 80-minute documentary about 8 children who are born into the red light district in Calcutta. It is a very touching movie that just broadens your perspective and makes you realize how luck you are to have the things you have. And how there is so much left to be done in this world, and how each and every person can make a difference. In the documentary, a female American photographer begins to live with these children in the red light district, teaches the children photography and gradually manage to pull out 4 of the 8 children. Awesome stuff.

Fightclub. Tyler Durden's line: Self-improvement is masturbation sez it all about the movie. But again, Ed Norton's life as a travelling salesman probably represents the life of many a working professional.

Anyway tomorrow is another day, and I gotta start watching West Wing....
Ciao for now.

What do I do now?

2007-04-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

It feels good to be back home. I have now been in Singapore for 3 days, and thanks to all the movies I caught up on my 13-hour flight back here, I have a huge jetlag. And thanks to the jetlag, I have been spending a lot of late night time on the net catching up on good movies (I didn't know sites like alloftv.net existed!!!), cool sites, and news and blogs.

I came across this interesting video on my friend's blog, a panel discussion moderated by Guy Kawasaki. Basically founders of 6 interesting websites just talk about a lot of stuff. It is definitely quite inspirational at times, though I felt it would have been more realistic and value-adding to me if there were 6 other people in the panel who had started similar businesses at similar times and failed. But two interesting things for me were that: None of them started a business, in fact, their hobbies later on became businesses, and All of them seemed to be MBA-degree bashers.

I hate to leave things half-written ... but need to urgently leave ...

Welcome

2007-03-31T10:54:00.000-07:00

Many years from now, I will probably look back at Yesterday, and refer to it as a significant point in my life - when I finished a long journey, and began a new one. 30/3/2007 was my last day at work. The last two years at MK has been nothing short of fantastic. Its been a great learning experience through which I have met some of the smartest business minds!

As I look toward the next 30 months, I am sure it is going to be significantly different from the last 30. I will be spending the next 6 months doing various things: Getting Married, being a house husband, taking a Siberian train, starting a business among other things, before heading to the US to begin my business school.

This blog will chronicle, probably on a weekly basis, my activities over the next 6 months and beyond. Through this, I also hope to share some of my experiences in the consulting and business school world that may be useful to others.

I have started many blogs; I have discontinued all of them. But I am quite sure this will survive; After all, I am not working 12-16 hours a day anymore :-)