Happy New Year

Hey,

Wish u a very happy and prosperous new year 2008. ah i know it is already april but how does it matter. If it is your bday, whether someone wishes u at 000hrs or at 12:00 noon , it will be ur bday and u wud be accepting the wishes and gifts(sometimes even after the bday is gone).. then why not new year wishes... 2008 so far has been a mostly a bag of good newses for me except for couple of not so good moments .. and the irony is that those couple of moments are what impacting me and my thoughts at the time of writing this post. From the positive sides, I got a promotion for the first time in my professional life , Got my house renovated , got a new job abroad , Cashew is getting accepted well in the house , my niece and nephew are enjoying there childhood and are keeping everyone around engaged(much like what Adobe CEO wants its clients to be with Adobe products) ..
On the sad part, the feel of leaving home is not something that I rejoice with. I love my folks more than anything else in the world and the idea of leaving them fills me deeply with gloomy emotions . Imagining myself lonely in a new world wandering on the roads has been scaring me for couple of weeks . To make things worse, there have been not so favourable response from someone whom I started considering more than just a friend. I cant force my thoughts on anyone nor can I charm anyone to look for me. All I can do is to wish the person finds all the happiness that was ever dreamed. But lately, person in focus said something which totally shattered me. It marked a sign of distrust towards me which deeply hurt me. I do not know what prompted such a thing but from then on, I have stopped trusting anyone in my life except for my family and 4 of my childhood friends. But this thing turned out to be a blessing and I feel that I had escaped what could have been the most deadlies mistake of my life. One thing I still felt bad about is how can I be so incorrect in judging an individual and the personality.
As for me , i will find some way to keep myself occupied. I can atleast give it a try . If I go ahead and move out of India, I would hardly be having anytime to think about such matters as there would be so much of new things to learn anf get used to and more importantly start re-learning about judging humans...

That is it ..

I hope I am more regular in updating the blog and act more responsibly

Love u darling

There are times when you need to sacrifice your love for the sake of your love. This is what I had to do for my darling pet. She was named Tipsy and was a spitz. I had been in association with my dear tipsy for more than 17 years. In those 17 years, we grew up together, played together, fought with each other,shared the same blanket in winters, walked together and god knows what all. She even used to share my friends. If any of my friend would be visiting me, before they enquired about my whereabouts, they would invariably be ask about her good being. I remember when once my friend came from school to my place and was curious enough to put his hand right in front of her mouth. She as loyal and serene as always thought it to be some chewstick for her and chewed it without caring about the salt/spice proportion. The bite was probably the only one she would have given to anyone(apart from me. I was her ceterfresh for most part of her life except for two things... i didn't had that much liquid inside me and she never chew me completely to be certified totally useless).

She had one more habbit. She would bark on you until you enter the boundary of our house and then she wud be your best buddy. She will come close to you, smell you , wag her tail and then silently sit close to you. The idea being, you as a guest would be served something and she needs her share from you. But that was probably the only doggy habbit she had. Otherwise, her fundas towards job, duties and loyalties were as clear as the Junior Engineer sitting at some site office of DDA. Food to be serverd on time, properly laid bed and a stroll twice a day. She didnt got into botheration of monotonous things that other dogs foolishly delve into like bringin news papers in the morning, giving wake up calls etc. She would be the first person to go to bed in night. And before you sleep , it was our duty to check if the sheet is covering her properly or not.
Another reason for me not getting along with her was probably the clash in our ideologies. I used to assume that she was my pet and I think she also thought on similar lines for me. The result was the tussle between her and me in which ofcourse, I would be the winner(as soon as my parents intervened)

Last few days were bit cruel on her. Her age being the major reason for her illness. It was on 5th august that we decided to free her from her suffering and allowed her soul to reunite with the almighty. It was hard to let her go but seeing her suffering was by no means less painful. No matter how long I live, Tipsy will always have a portion of my heart reserved for her.

Love you Tips....may your soul rest in peace.

Traffic Jam

This post is not about the latka jhatakas of Govinda (aka chi chi : with his face showing the expression as if he has just eaten

crocodile eggs in the breakfast and that those little crocos have started coming out in his stomach trying to dance on the same tune) and

Samantha Fox dance number with the same title. The material that you are going to read is very much real like you and me and have all the

resemblance to people living and dead. As always, reading has to be at the risk of your room mate as by the time you would be able

co-relate this with your self, it would be too late and you may end up beating your roomie.
My office is about 37 Km from my place (which is very far by NDRDS - New delhi road driving standards) and if after reaching either side

of destinations, you are still able to calculate that 2+2=4, then you should be nominated for Nana Patekar award for mental sanity.

Driving on Delhi roads is nothing less than going for safari. People are manoevering there vehicles(that include

bicycle,bike,scooter,auto-rickshaw, car,tempo and Buses) to spots (between two vehicles)that they find are not occupied in a fashion

similar as people trying to spot a lion in safari in Gir forests and shoot it with camera. As soon as you find one, you have to reach

there before it vanishes. You will find amazing amount on adrenaline in people as soon as they hit the road. It is like shumacher ki

aatma taking over the control and zippppp they go.

Anyways,the story is , I started from my place at around 9:30 AM to go to office. I had planned to pool it with another colleague of mine

and he told he would be driving in his car. But that was the only good news that came to us for next 5 hours as we were stuck in traffic

jam . 4 hours to reach dhaula kuan from my place and 1 hour to reach office from dhaula kuan. Man it is was crazy. Vehicles all around

you, people coming out of there cars to check how long is the jam, cell phone network getting choked , no communication with the rest of

the world. It felt as if the life has come to a standstill for that time. I had watched Die Hard 4.0 just a day back and I felt for a

second that we are under attack from some hacker placed in underground bunkre in pakistan. But my intelligence soon regained conciousness

and I realised that I am still in India. The only good thing that happened rather didnt happened was that it didnt rained otherwise

people who were on two wheelers would have got dreanched while stuck in traffic jam. But Imagine your self being stuck in jam . What

would you do? How will you pass your time in the jam? How can you make your stay in traffic jam interesting? Here are a few tips:

There are so many things that you can do while stuck in traffic jam

1. Call up your boss and tell you would be late(I love this one.)
2. Listen to Radio(I personally dont like doing this in jam)
3. Look around and try to locate a pretty face
4. Try make a conversation with the person sitting in the car right next to you. If he gets familiar , you can play antakshari with

him/her.
5. Read official material that you would have otherwise read in office
6. Call some long forgotten friends and talk to them
7. Lock your car and take a walk in the Jam. Trust me this one of the most relaxing things you can do when stuck.
8. Blow your car horn non-stop until people around you start giving you the "pagal ho gaya hain kya?" looks. The advantage of this would

be once the jam is over and the moment traffic starts moving, people will try to let you go lest you start blowing your horn again.
9. Take out a camera(if you have ) and start clicking pictures. Pictures of trees, birds,flowers etc. What there is nothing like that,

then stat clicking people getting pissed off in there cars, click people making all kinds of faces . This sure would be one fun filled

activity.
10. Plan about your next date and what should you be wearing
11. If you are a over friendly type, try gather 5-8 people and start playing hide and seek. You can hide behind the cars which are upto 3

vehicles away. Beyond that, you are not permitted to proceed.
12. You are getting late for your gym session. No problemo, take out jack and lever from your car and replace one of the tyres with the

stepney. If you are the direct decendant of He-man, this would hardly be any workout for you. In that case, you can repeat this for all

the tyres in your car . Still not tired, you can continue with other cars standing.
13. If you are a Market researcher by profession, this would be the right time to get your survey done . Dont worry about the project,

the project detail can be known later. As of now, don't miss this chance and start interviewing people.
14. If you find that the person behind you is feeling sleepy in a jam(which is strictly against the laws of Jam), start your ignition , rotte your steering completely towards right,try to move frwd. Now rotate the steering completely towards left, put the reverse gear and move a little backwards. Your action will produce enough anxiety in the person that he will no longer be feeling sleepy.
15. If there is a good looking guy/girl driving behind your car and you want to utilise this time, open the bonnet of your car, check the engine,wave your head in disappointment, come and search for something in your car, go to the personality in focus and ask for a bottle of water to be put in carbeurator. From there on, you have to be on your own as I am not the love guru.

There are a lot of other things you can do but I am restricting myself to the above 15 items.

PS: Please do remember that when in Jam, do pull off your engine and it is only adding pressure to the environment and economy of your country

Pro-Globalist V/s Anti-Globalist

With the fall of USSR, it became clear that socialism was not a means of driving the world economy. Consequently, it gave way to the new era of capitalism which was spread across the geographies. Government across the world (including China)acknowledged the fact that they need to have a capitalistic perspective if they want there country to prosper. As a result, countries (especially in Asia and Africa) started to allow foreign companies to venture into there motherland. But still countries were cautious in there approach. The proof of this can be seen from the fact that most of the governments had some kind of regulation that forced the companies to either
1) To open a local subsidiary which would be registered in there country as an independent business entity or
2) Have a strategic alliance with an already existing native organisation.
As a result of this, companies started to expand there businesses and venture into new unchartered markets. Companies who did there homework in terms of getting the customer requirement and projecting there products closely intertwined in the local culture made a fortune in these markets. Sooner than others, they captured the market and were able to reap the benefit of market leader position.


Pros
1) The single most communicated reason in favor of globalisation is that it helps in the growth of native as well as the foreign country. Opening of economies of second and third world countries will help foreign investors to invest more freely and confidently in these markets and will make the local manufacturers competitive at the global level. They also advocate that globalisation will result in optimal utilisation of resources across the world. When the source will be located near the market, the cost of goods reaching the end-user will reduce many fold thereby making the commodity available at a cheaper rate. And with a smaller turn around time. Re-aligning the units at places with lower installation or raw material costs(including labor) will also help in reducing the cost of manufacturing and hence will be in the benefit of the customer. In the same amount, customer will be able to buy more things than what he has been buying in the past. Balanced utilisation of raw materials across the continents is also favored by the ecologists towards maintaining the ecosystem on earth.
2) For a very large corporation, globalisation helps the company to remove the bureaucracy and flap that it has acquired over the years . In the present day world, a company needs to be flexible and should have zero quotient of snobbishness.It has to be agile and impulsive to survive. Expanding company operations in a new market helps company to trim down the extra fat it has gained and re-instates the blood vessels in it. At the same time, it also saves company from the risk that may arise due to competition myopia. Companies see each and every competitor no matter how big or small closely and watch there moves. This saves company from any surprises & shocks in the future. It keeps the company young and avoids lethargy and complacency from entering into corporate culture
3) Another widely promoted reason of globalisation is that it has made the entire world borderless. Inventions happening in one country can be used in manufacturing goods in another country faster than ever before. Today, companies are launching there newer models across the world at the same time. Except for the lag due to timezone, there is hardly any human initiated delay in launches. With the advent of internet, you can order products being manufactured in different countries without stepping out of your bed. This is a remarkable progress we have made due to globalisation. Companies are now working on global delivery model. They have offices and warehouses at different geographic places which they have considered strategical. The idea is to reduce the time spent since the order being recorded till the time product being delivered. It is a case in history when a technological development in Europe or USA used to take decades before they would reach Asia or South America or Africa. Now, as soon as Nokia unveils its new phone at its HQ, the model is available in Asia/Africa for sales. In other words, the technology divide has been filled due to globalisation and the lag has been reduced tremendously.
4) Pro-globalist argue that globalisation will create new employment opportunities in various parts of the world. For each office being setup, companies will be requiring hundreds of people to work in them at different levels. Setting of offices in these countries will also mean that foreign exchange will be flowing into the there economy to cater to expenses owed by the office interms of construction cost, wages and other tasks. A higher inflow of foreign exchange will boost the economy as a whole and will raise the living standard of the individuals there. A higher standard of living means better living conditions , better health and civic amenities which implies a healthy nation. Promoters of Globalisation also argue that globalisation will bring in better education. MNCs will require skilled and more professional people to work for them thereby creating a demand for such professionals. Inorder to fulfill this demand, people would be trained both at school and college level so that they can be absorbed by the companies. Thus in long run, globalisation will cause the education system to become more job oriented and adhering to demands of jobs in international market.
5) With globalisation, just like corporates, people will also think at global level and hence we will see lot of movements of people from one country to another in pursuit of there career goals. This will result in cross cultural bonding being developed between various races of people interacting with each other. With open markets comes an increased mixing and clashing of different cultures and people is happening. This can also be a good thing because it creates increased interdependence, which, in theory, reduces conflict. For example, free-market capitalism increases the costs of war because warring countries lose markets and investors and then their economies plummet. Friedman has a theory that the crisis between India and Pakistan was diverted in part because the Indians were afraid of losing tech jobs from American companies like GE, Microsoft and American Express.

Anti-Globalist
==============

The anti-globalist zone is divided into two camps. Former belonging to the developed countries like USA and European nations. There argument is mainly based on the threat of job loss in these coutries due to globalisation and increase in un-employment of skilled people. The second camp is from developed and developing countries who are considering globalisation as a threat to there economy, cultural & social values and political independence. They believe that globalisation or rather neo-liberalisation will give access to there country's economy to few MNCs who will use it for there own benefit ignoring the overall growth of the country.

Anti-Globalist of Developed Countries.
1) They are reasoning that availability of cheap labour in Asia,Africa and South America will result in companies shutting down there operations in the host country. Which will result in people being laid off and forced into unemployment. They argue that companies have certain moral responsibility towards fellow citizens and should not be completely profit oriented. Actually, there argument can be justified . If we look last 5 years data, the number of people losing there jobs due to office closure has been increasing every year. If the trend continues, the number of people losing there job would have increased many folds. Such kind of mass unemployment can result in increased crime in these countries to the minimum and may even raise to the order of social backlash in worst case. Government of these countries is now seriously considering the potential of this problem and is trying to find out ways to curb it.
2) Anti-Globalist have another argument that the goods being manufactured in other parts are not upto the standard/quality when being manufactured locally. A recent news article had a report that paints being used for covering toy surfaces in China has high level of lead which is injurious to health of humans. Such case of negligence or consumption of poor quality raw material can be disastrous as companies are compromising on quality/safety to save cost. This can also be viewed in the light of ethical compromise by the companies and can result in them being pulled into a law suit. The company has to keep a check on quality of the products being manufactured at other places and has to ensure that they comply with the quality standards of the market where they would be sold.
3) Anti-Globalist in these countries having protesting against the concentration of wealth in the hands of few dozen people. This unequal distribution of wealth is voiced by anti-globalist as frieghtening and dangerous for the society.

Anti-Globalist in Developing Countries
1) The Anti-globalist in developing countries consider goods sold in the local market as something which had been obsoleted in the developed market and had no more buyers there. They consider that Large corporation will use the local markets as dumping grounds. Products which are no longer getting sold as hot cakes are being revitalised by introducing them to such new markets. As these markets are new, they usually welcome such products mainly due to the brand value they carry and the sales increases. It also happens that companies send products which have been termed as hazardous for human consumption to these markets as they are unaware of any such thing.
2) The Anti-Globalist argue that the large corporations will result in corruption of the true culture. They have a thought that big corporations don’t just sell physical but emotional products thereby changing and perverting there cultural landscape. As people are usually conservative about there cultural and social traditions, they feel offended when someone tries to influence there culture. Advent of these brands into local markets of developing countries are primarily targetted towards youth. Hence this further strenghtens there case against globalists.
3) Anti-Globalist argue that globalisation will result in concentration of the wealth in there country in the hands of few individuals where as the majority of population will still remain poor.At the same time, they also argue that globalisation will act as a drain to there natural resources and economy. The corporates will take out all the wealth from there nation and leave them when there would be nothing more to take. In other words, people are calling globalisation as a modern day colonialization of the world.
4) Human right activists are another cornerstone of the anti-globalization movement. Globalization takes the people from the fields (where farmers work 12 hours/day) and put them to factories (where workers also work 12 hrs/day). Does globalization make poors in developing countries better? I see that, workers at Nike's factories cannot afford air-shoes; and workers at Toyota factories never dream of a Camry. So, is that good for poors. The activists are especially opposed to what they view as "globalization abuse" and the international institutions that are perceived to promote neoliberalism without regard to ethical standards.
5) Linking of economies of the world has a drawback as well. The entire world is now linked to American Economic policy more directly than ever before. Take for example the fact that a mere speculation of bankruptcy of home loan in US resulted stock markets all over the world getting crashed. The dependence on a single economy can result in United States holding the entire world economy at ransom.
6) Premature globalisation of a country can result in the local industries succumbing to the pressure exerted by the global players there by causing them to die down.Again prolonged suppression and uneven platform for the local industry can result in social outburst against foreign companies which can be dangerous to the world harmony.

Long time no c++

It is again a long long time since I wrote the last entry. it seems I am losing the will to blog. Thing that started out of excitement is no longer thrilling for me. Actually, the reason is that I blog when I want to shelve out my frustration,joy,anxiety ,fear and feelings but it isn't that simple. I child pees when he/she wants to . You cant force him/her against there wish and make them pee. Just like that, I write when I feel the burden on my head has receded(which usually occurs on friday or saturday night as weekends are now off) But again, writing is subject to other factors like thoughts that can be posted on blog and that means I should have read atleast some quality during the week. While writing this blog, I remembered that it so happened that when in banglore, I used to willingly go to office on saturday night as I didn't felt like sleeping and would be browsing or writing blogs or watching some movie. Man, i surely miss that luxury of 15mins drive to office here in delhi. It once happened that me and my roommates went to his office at 1:30 am to play fussball .He was escorting us to his cabin and we were pretending in front of the security guard as if we were employee there. Banglore surely has a lasting impression on memory. Things like getting drenched in rain while coming back from office to my flat , riding bike in rain, going to temple on saturday or tuesday , eating out at andhra restraunts, having maggi/pop corns in the middle of nights , laughing on non-sense jokes , making fun of each other, fighting (i mean real fighting but without hurting) , having a walk post dinner , striking a bargain with auto waala for going home after mid night from movie theater, planning to night shows while having dinner and then immediately rushing for the theater, buying tickets in black , biking with room mates in pillion, cleaning my clothes every weekend, cleaning utensils whenever maid goes on sabbatical(the turn for cleaning up utensils was round robin with preparing food) ... wow that is quite a memory


A funny incident happened today. I was driving to office and had crossed Delhi Cantt flyover. There was a Jam and as a result the traffic was slow. Suddenly, a cop comes from the side and asks me where am I going? I showed my hand in straight direction meaning I will be going straight heading towards Dhaula Kuan. He in a very humble gesture from his side asked "Can you drop me till Dhaula Kuan?" and humbly opened my car door and sat beside me and bang !!(closed the door). He was running late and hence didn't had the time to wait for my response. I could have said no but he didn't cared about it. I was kind of stuck as giving lift to strangers even if he is in Police Uniform is not a safe thing to do in Delhi.I drove for some time till I hit Ring Road and found that there was heavy rush. So i decided to change my route and told him that I would be taking an alternate route since there will be office hour traffic on the ring road. The trick worked and he told me to drop him at the next signal so that he can get some bus. The funny part in this incident is that a cop comes and sits in your car for there personal reasons. The incidents highlight the attitude cops have developed towards general masses and kind of behaviour you should be expecting while interacting with any cop.

Read a blog by some news person on IBN regarding Sivaji(new rajnikant's movie) and found it interesting but deeply deflating . If you are not versed with the language of the movie, you should prepare yourself mentally for that. On the personal front, a good friend/ex-colleague of mine is getting engaged coming week . Wish him all the goodness of life for future. On the sad note, one of very close friend is not going through a very good time(health wise). He and some one from his family is ailing and wish him and his family a speedy recovery.Take care dude. Things keep changing .. just keep up the good spirits ...

To close, here is a nice song I found after searching the web for over 2 hours. I listened to this song while driving back home but totally forgot the song. I tried hard but just could not gather the lyrics of the song. Finally, i retired and as soon as I hit the bed, I recalled the song. rest is history. You can see a short video of this song from this URL

Take care

When you are helpless!!!

At times life acts funny. It places you in a situation where you know what is right , you know what path to take , you have a concious frame of mind which is active and is recognising the unfair. You are from heart and soul committed to the genuine act. But you are not able to perform that action. You want to take the first step towards your goal but you find your self helpless,unguarded and weak. People around you are surprised by your changed behaviour. They wonder what has gone wrong. But more importantly, you yourself wonder what has gone wrong. Why are you not able to follow your brain? You feel irritated and embarassed on your self. In short, you feel helpless.

This is not an extract from autobiography of the teacher who taught laloo ji Englisss .Nor is it a diary entry of Mr. Manmohan Singh ji. Everyone some day or the other passes through this stage in his/her life. To resolve situation like this or similar, walk into your mom's room , close your eyes and speak three times "Maa hajmola hain!!" ..
Caution: Do not open your eyes inbetween when you are saying this.

Blah blah blah .. i know what u are thinking.. I am totally vella and two day weekend has made my empty mind even more filthy . Watched a new hindi movie "Shootout at Lokhandwaala" movie was nice but what took the cake is the one single dialog of Amitabh Bachan towards the end of the movie. I won't disclose this but this movie is worth watching just for the sake of this line.
And if you want to punish someone, (remember your old school/college friend who ran away with your socks), make him see Raqueeb(i actually dont know its spelling and more importantly, I do not bother to correct it).. ask him to go and see in a Movie theater ... get him buy a balcony seat ... i promise, he will return your socks before the movie goes out of theatres...

enough of crap from me

take care

The devil wears Prada ... err... Nappy

The devil wears Prada ... err... Nappy

It has been widely praised in India .. "Kids are the reflection of God on earth". Kids are the purest form of human soul on earth. I was a staunch follower of this school of thought . I used to think of kids as cute pie and sho shweet . I considered kids as small petals of flower who know only to blossom and spread there fragrance. But all that got shattered today. Today, I was exposed to this fragrance from a real close distance. The occasion was My dear sis had to go to office and mom-dad had to visit some relatives. I being the only person at home, was assigned the task of my sweet cute neice who is just 4 months old a totally harmless creature. But wait, she is small but harmless. She can make you run the entire house in a matter of few seconds by just using her sound. Two hours that I spend with her were the most grilling experience of my life. Ma'am is crying , she wants someone to carry her on the shoulders, wants milk bottle, needs some one to keep talking to her , wants her tiny toys in her hand and ofcourse someone making non-sense sounds .. problem is she wants all this at the same time. And if you don't , then u r gone. She has an amazing ability to cry at the peak of her voice to make it sound real painful. When you try to make her drink milk, she will use all her limbs to push the bottle away from her mouth and move her mouth in a non-algorithmic way so that the mouth and the bottle never meet. You really wish you had an extra pair of hands to control her hands and head so that you can make her drink milk. The lady is also an expert in making noises from her mouth and is in most jovial of moods when you show her ,her feeding bottle.
This little devil made me walk for 2 hours with she in my hands jumping,crying , making strange noises and sometimes sleeping . But whenever I tried to place her on her bed, bang.. she is wide awake and the siren blows. And I would be again holding her in my hands wandering in my own house like a directionless ghost. The sweet little angel who seemed to me like a gentle creature is actually a devil in making. I am actually wondering how my sis would be taking care of her when alone at home.

But Jokes apart, I sincerely pray may god bless her. She has her share of problems already which are much more than what she deserves or any kid of her age should have

Disparity

Hey,


Check the image .. it actually represents the divide between the people living in the metroplis like delhi and a village in Orissa
From a optimistic view point .. it can be called best of both worlds

budgeted exams

Two things captured the limelight in delhi and kept the delhities on there toes. The General Budget for the year 2007-08 and the Board Exam fever. While the former was a disappointment in the financial corridors of most of the industries, the second was a sleep stealer for kids and there parents in there board exams.
Budget : for me the only thing good (which can be understood by my limited knowledge) is the 10k hike in the Standard deduction slab which means I will be saving 3k in taxes. Apart from that, there isn't much to cheer about in the budget. It has been not a popular budget with finance minister ending the tax holidays for IT and ITeS companies. Though there has been a good signal for Hotel owners. A tax holiday has been started for hoteliers to increase the public contribution in Hotels. This has been done keeping in mind the 2010 commonwealth games which will be seeing a major shortage in the availability of hotels and rooms. Another good thing in the budget was that there hass been some consideration for senior citizens and new scheme called reverse mortgage will be institutioanlized by the banks. Though the finer details were not given by the FM but broadly speaking this has been a good step to assist people who do not have any other source of income for survival.

Board Exams : THese two words still play a havoc on me. I start making mistkes while typing . But again this is part of life. There is no escape. Kids have to face it and they should actually to get the feel of the outside world. The Board provide a platform for the kids from different school to stand on a common platform. It is an oppurtunity to get the feel of the competition that they will be witnessing for the rest of there lives. But pressuring them to perform better or judging them by just there board exams score is not fair. What our school system teaches is hardly used in real life. How often do we sit and solve conical section problems in office or how often do we use the newton's law to write a piece code. Never. But we still tell them to study. Some points of exception are subjects like Biology where we come to know more about our bodies, accounts where we learn how to judge a company's performance or languages which are essential for all kind of activities. But again how we teach them defines what they will learn from it. If we teach the language just as a subject, they will by heart it and then forget it. But if the same subject is taught in relation to the industry so that the students can correlate it with them or there parents it will be easier for them to comprehend. Neways lot hs been said by more learned people before me and there is no point on putting it here. What lies now is for Board exams
1. Just be your selves. Imagine you are taking your school annual exams sitting somewhere else. That is it.
2. Relax 5 mins before the exam. I know some will like to see through some of the pages before entering the exam hall but that is primarily because you are excited. Try to calm your self down. Think of a comic scene that happened in your class and laugh your way out.
3. Have faith in you as your teachers,your parents and your God has the same in you. They trust in your capabilities and competencies.
4. Do not think how others are doing there exams. The need of the hour is to answer the questions to the best of your knowledge and concentrate on that. How they did you will come to know in sometime.

All the best for the exams and for our FM : "Get well soon Mamu"

Weekly Edition

Hey,

This is saturday and I am still in office. Work load has been ascending for last 2-3 weeks but it was kind of enjoyable. I was liking the work with all the little things I am learning here and there. It has been so far a pleasure experience(leaving aside couple of incidences). That is it from my side.

Sensex has been fluctuating though out this week and so was the mercury in my office. But coming week should be more comfortable and cooler. By the way it is a saving time again. If you haven't done your investments, you don't have much of time left .The same is true with me. I don't know but everytime everywhere I find myself in direct competition with time and deadlines. It must have been an art which I have developed over all these years. No matter how much time I have to spare, I will always go down to the last hour,last minute & last second to complete my task.

Happened to see one of the demo videos launched by Apple for its new iPhone. It is truly amazing how they can catch the nerve of what people will like and revolutionise the market. Though others follow, but being first has its own sweetness.

I happen to come across a survey conducted by some Govt org. in India. The survey was to find out how much secure(financially) people in India are. The timeline for financial security was set at 1 year. The survey asked people what if there current source of income stops. Will they be able to survive with there current lifestyle for one complete year? Have they planned there investments to handle such a situation? Are there pockets deep enough to fund them for one year? The results they produced were startling. The survey was conducted in Rural and Urban india simultaneously and it was found that almost 70% people(not sure abt the exactness of this number but was definetly in this range) were not equipped to deal with any such situation. They were going on in life with the core accountancy assumption of Going concern . But the truth is life is not fair and unpredictable. It is better to plan for such circumstances now rather than repent at a later stage. What it also means that you should invest in such a way that even if stock market dips, you have other sources of income which can help you survive. How , I am myself not aware of but I am indeed looking for the answers to it. But one thing is sure, the mantra for tomorrow is not investment but it is diversification rather divestment of risk.
Such an approach may not give you very high returns but if done smartly, you should be able to reap handsome returns and that too with low risk

chalo

Globalisation - A Thought

Every business has been instituted with the idea of earning profit. Once started , the business gets rolling, next objective is to earn more & more profit. But after sometime the business starts hitting saturation point and the Profit no longer grows. This is the time when company start looking for new products or new markets for there business to grow. The company decides to setup new its manufacturing plant in a foreign land and this is what sow the seeds of Globalization. Globalization is a phenomenon. It can be defined as the functioning of a business or any part of it in more than one environments which are different from each other either politically or economically or socially or geographically. In lay man terms it is existence of business or its part in a country which is not the native country of the business. Setting up business across the political boundaries of a country is also called globalization. When globalization began, it was more to do with trading items produced in the native country to other countries which didn’t had the resources to produce them or were not as skilled as others. Thus, the products started crossing boundaries and reaching people which were far far away from the place of there production. Trading rather Exporting of products got the boost with the progress in the transportation technique by human. Automobile Engines enhanced the speed of human traveling across land masses and thus increased the extent of globalization. Industrial Revolution helped in the mass production of high quality finished goods which were more durable than hand made goods and had a longer life too. This was a brief history of Globalization uptil 1960s and 1970s.
During the cold war era, the world got divided into two camps. The socialists and the capitalists. Each Camp was willing to give special economic and monetary benefits to the countries that were willing to join them. Things like import/export subsidies, economic sanctions, political & military support were the two tools which were employed by the two camps to attract neutral countries towards them.

Impact of Globalizations on Businesses :

Globalizations in today’s world has a slightly different meaning. Globalizations today means unifying the entire world(or at least where ever it is possible) and identifying it as a single economic zone where you can trade. Companies no longer think in terms of political boundaries. All they adhere to are economic boundaries and borders. Infact the economic borders across the world are getting permeable and corporate are trying to use political channels to make it legal. Globalizing the world economy is what Globalization means today. In a conservative terms, spreading the globalization beyond the continents and oceans so that companies can over sell there product. This definition may not appeal to those who are pro-globalization but it is true. In the core, it is a means of selling the same product to a new market which are so far untouched and have a huge potential for there growth. Globalization from a service sector perspective is primarily reasoned for the fact that localizing all your skills/assets to a single geographic/economic/political area is a huge risk that too when the same work can be done at another area and that too at a lower rate. This is analogous to the reason why outsourcing increased so rapidly in the West. But no matter anyone says, the rule of the thumb in today’s dynamics is “Globalize or extinct” . You can survive without globalization but not for long .

Positive Impact of Globalization on Business

The following are the advantages that globalization has given to business and business houses:

1) Virgin Markets: The most important advantage that globalization offered to businesses was it introduced them to new markets. Markets which were virgin . Markets which were not as mature as there native markets and thus provided them with ample amount of time and experience to establish them in these markets. As the market were not mature, there wasn’t the need to introduce the latest of there products here. For ex., when Indian economy opened, several car manufacturers came in to establish there plants in India. But they didn’t introduced there latest models at the same time. They first introduced there older models in the market to get the feel of the market and at the same time establish them here rather make the consumers accustomed to them.

2) Diversification of Risk: The companies found in globalization a blessing in disguise. They were able to open up new offices/installations/plants in area which had a strategic significance in terms of geographic location, availability of skilled labour , lower interest rates, socio-economic-politico condition prevailing, cost of establishment thereby spreading there risk. Now a labour disturbance in a plant can be capitalized by production in another plant in a different part of the world.

3) Exorbitant Growth: Globalization helped companies to launch same product in different markets simultaneously. What it means is that now companies can now expect to get higher returns in shorter span of time that it used to be earlier.

4)Temporary economic prosperity : For some sections of under developed and developing countries.

Negative Impact of globalization on business

There have a been a few negativities associated with the globalization as well.

1) Layoffs : Globalization exposed companies to cheaper markets and also to places where the same work can be done at quarter of the price or even less. This resulted in the people getting removed from there jobs and there jobs coming out there country. It also resulted in moving out of intellectual wealth of a country outside its political boundaries. There has also been an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor. Though globalization has helped middle class to fill up the gap between the rich and the poor, the disparity may result in social unrest in days to come. It will not be surprising if some of the developed nations witness a social backlash due to the economic conditions created due to outsourcing.

2) Corruption: Companies are trying to find the shortcuts to enter into new markets and are ready to bribe any official that can help them do so. The motive, reduce the lead time and get the early bird advantage for entering into a new market. Also, the divide between the Have’s and the Have Not’s is diminishing. Society is moving towards a lavish and luxurious lifestyle. People want to get more money so that it can be spend on these items and hence are looking for faster ways to getting rich.

3) Monopolizing the market: With the consolidation of markets, you can find same brand of products across the globe. Ex. Ariel washing detergent can be bought at any store from Europe to America to Asia to Australia to Africa. This results in monopoly being established by one or two players. With time, these players eat up smaller challenges and become the only source of product which is a dangerous situation to get into.

An amazing experience of Life

Today was one of the most enthralling experience in life. For some time I was not feeling anything. I was holding a piece of paper in my hand and reading it over and over to figure out head and tail of it. After 5 minutes of silence, I realised I am so unprepared for it. Those 5 minutes were when I realised always prepare as it is your last chance of life. I was reading that piece of paper as if it was my destiny and I was submitting myself to it. There was no choice. Everything written on it was appearing hebrew to me. I could not comprehend any word. What is it? This can't be true I said to myself. How can everything become so new and fresh? I thought for a min and decided I will not tolerate this. I made a move. But was not allowed to escape. I was told to face my destiny. That time I realized life had not left any alternative for me and I had to face it. I did . Gathered all my strength, my knowledge, my ego , my self respect and made it : "If destiny had written that I had to go down, I will but not without a fight". I divided the challenge into part, and started attacking each of them individually. Answered each part to the best of me that I was equipped for at that time and with sanity. I started my fight for my lost self respect. Esteemed is said that is something which can make even the deads come back and so came it out to be true. I didn't won but I can atleast claim that I fought dignified way.

That is it.

PS: this is not a fight or debate. I appeared for exams and this was a first hand experience

AIIMS

Hey,

I was unfortunate today to make a visit to AIIMS OPD dept. and that too without any references. I am writing what I witnessed and experienced there in 3 hours of my stay there.
To begin with AIIMS is the top research institute in India for Medicine and pampers the best brains that can be found in India to specialise them in advanced medicinal therapies.
The campus itself is built on a huge area and has speciality dept for various kinds of human treatments.The campus also has hostels/mess/lecture hall along with wards & admin blocks. To begin with, being a huge campus, vehicles are allowed inside the campus. But there are no proper indication as to where vehicles should be parked. Moreover, the gurads which are there on the duty do not give directions for parking of vehicle. On top of it,I frequently heard people honking inside the premises and even saw a case where a biker rashly entered wrong side, pressing the horn to its peek just to get past a walking old man.
After parking my car, once you get down, you will not find any direction map of AIIMS pasted or drawn on any road side. You are left on your own to locate where you want to go and reach there. This adds to the chaos and pain of people already suffering in some way.
Going further, OPD requires that you get a form filled and depsited which will result in creating a Medical card for the patient. This card needs to be submitted to the concerned doctor who would be attending the case(which means patient in layman's term). Again for all this, I was left to the goodself of the people/guards/staff to find various alternatives to get my card ready. Once with the card, the person is send this card to the doctor attending your case. Again it is a chance game. The doctor may or may not come on that day or he may be late. If it is your lucky day, he will be in but will be accompanied by 2-4 patients which came along with him when he came in the morning.(These may be known people of doctors/staff/minister/govt official . This has further added to the bureacracy of the institute and for places of new research like AIIMS, bureacracy is AIDS ..a silent killer -> sure death due to a very common disease and no cure ).
Once your card is inside on the doc's desk, you are at the mercy of doctor. Things like sequential number , order of submitting of card or seriousness of patient in observation are all trivial and ancient forms of organising. The brainy docs have there own algorithms to shortlist people before calling them for diagnosis and treatment. To me(being a computer prof) it can be described as random and probably to one who has been visiting these places more often, it may be termed as biased.

For me, i had submitted the form at around 8:25 AM and was probably 3-4 th person to submit the form and my name was not called till 10:20 AM (that too after people who submitted there cards after me were called and treated ). This was when I decided that I will not tolerating it any further and decided to move out. In retrospection, I feel that I should have rather talked to the great brain sitting inside ,trying to get some information as to how the thing works and what is the order on which the patients name are called.

I sincerely hope that no one need to go to places like these which are meant to be center of public services but are actually centered against serving public.

One thing I also witnessed here was
"Democracy is something where in everyone feels that he is the king without actually giving the throne to anyone"

this may be my last note in 2006
Wish you Happy and Prosperous New Year

Njoy maadi

Two weddings and a class re-union

This weeekend happened to be an eventful chapter of life. Two of my college class mates got knotted with there better halfs and today(saturday) was the day of there wedding reception. In morning , there was the first official ceremony of my bhanji in a gurudwara where in her Naming alphabet was pronounced. It is 'N' so if u have any suggestion for her name , do send it to me. She is definetly not an easy nut to crack. She kept herself sleeping for the major part of the ceremony and when we were nearing the time to return from the gurudwara, princess woke up and gave everyone the look they were waiting for. The kids are the king of there worlds and you simply can't force them your way.
The wedding reception turned out more like a venue for a college get together. It was nice sitting for so long with nothing running in the back of our minds.Ah i forgot to mention, both the guys who got married found there companions in there original loves which happened to be in there lives before this day finally arrived. Pray that both the couples have a happy and joyous life ahead.
tomorrow and the week ahead are kind of critical for me (more to do with office work) and I hope I am able to achieve what is expected from me

cio

McKinsey Way - A critique

Hey,

this is the first time I am writing a critique on any book .Infact I was asked to write this otherwise i would ne'er have written this

The author’s main emphasis in the book has been to showcase the techniques that are currently being used by McKinsey. The book does not give any insight into either the early days of McKinsey or the processes evolution used by McKinsey. As this book revolves around ‘The Firm’ , its experiences and practices , the critique sometimes touch the practices and approach of ‘The Firm’.


1) The author’s approach on most of the section has been of the type Touch and Go. The author has tried to cover the complete cycle of project starting from before the meetings with the client start to interviews with the client, understanding the problem and formulating and selling the solution to the client all packed in the small book. As a result, at more than one place, the reader is kept high and dry and is longing for more.For example, the book describes about the presentation with the clients but does not mentions as to how tp present or what should be kept in mid when presenting to client. Another ex. of this is “FIND THE KEY DRIVERS”. The section tells the user to look for the factors that affect business but do not hint on what can they be or how to identify them.

2) The Author contradicts itself at more than one place. For ex., at one place it asks users to “trust facts” and “not to hide/avoid facts”. At the same time, in some other section, the author is found preaching “Present a solution acceptable/implementable to the client” which indirectly means to overlook facts discovered and suggest something flexible to the client. This nullify the complete strategy chalked out by the McKinsey for approaching a problem. As per the author, McKinsey approach is Fact based ,Rigidly structured and Hypothesis Driven. But if the solution derived from this is not acceptable to the client then this approach , is of no good to the consultants.
Another citation of the contradictory view point are the sections “MAKE SURE YOUR SOLUTION FITS YOUR CLIENT” & “DON’T MAKE THE FACTS FIT YOUR SOLUTION” . Still another example would be sections “JUST SAY, “I DON’T KNOW”” & “DON’T ACCEPT “I HAVE NO IDEA”” . While the former section tells to accept the fact that you do not know things, the latter tells you to contradict this and live with the assumption “You know it”.

3) The book tells the reader to make there Boss Look good in front of the client. But this is not a good approach. This is fine as long as it dwells with the fact that you are executing your responsibilities as per or above the expectations. But if this means to use flattery to bring you in his good books, then it is a debatable topic. No firm will ever pronounce such things in its hierarchy let alone ‘The Firm’.

4) The book tells that the firm relies on its previous experiences for its current study but in this dynamic environment where each day is a new challenge,we should not be relying too much on such studies. Also, even though there are similarities in the different businesses no two businesses are identical(even if they are in the same domain) and hence using the research/study from another client for current project can be disastrous. The consultant has to be really careful in using the knowledge from the older projects and should not blindly rely on the facts gathered earlier. For ex., if the export of a company is $50 million and the company wants to double it and older studies tells to increase the marketing effort for the company. But there can be a govt. ruling that exports in a particular industry could not be more than $60 million to avoid shortage in the home country.

5) The idea of initial hypothesis (IH) seems to be a vague approach to me. Until you have atleast one meeting with the client, we should not set anything on our mind. The consultant should perform the first visit with an open mind and should record everything like a detective. He should be recording even the body movements and way of handling queries of all the people present in the meeting. I do agree that before we go for the first meeting, the consultant should get himself accustomed to the terminologies of that domain but making an initial impression of the problem may result in overlooking of some basic/obvious things which can lead to a wrong solution. Also incase IH is wrong, then the entire effort put in setting up the IH goes in vain and the only gain I can think of is that we know one option which is not correct.

6) There is another thing that I noticed in the course of reading this book. At more than one place, the author is referring to imaginary people as if they are females. The better way to refer to such people is to refer them as things or in case you want to save yourself from any controversy we can use both pronouns for both the genders(like he/she) to refer to them.

India : Topping towards Education and corruption

There is some bad news and not so good news for India. On one side, IIT have been ranked at 57 in the league of top varsities of the world (the sole entry from the Indian SubContinent). The list is topped by Harvard University followed by Cambridge and Oxford.This is a consolation for IITs as they have been longing to see there names in this league for a long time now and to my knowledge they actually deserve it. But it is a sad thing that in the list of top 200 universities, only IITs could find a place there. No other university got shortlisted.But atleast the signs are positive. It can be termed as start for the Indian Education Institutes recognition in global arena.
Complete Story

On the other side , India topped in the corruption ranking in the survey conducted by Transparency International on Global Payer Bribe Index. The survey takes into account the extent of bribing done abroad by the exporters. India with the BPI(bribery payers Index) of 4.62 was ranked 30 in a group of 30 countries.Even though Switzerland topped the 30 country group, its BPI was 7.81 which is far from perfect score of 10 and hence can be treated as half filled sheet in an otherwise full notepad.I do not have the entire list of participant countries but India's counterpart in this survey are China and Russia.
Complete Story

Pot pourri

arz kiya hain

khirki se dekha to sarak par koi nahin tha
khirki se dekha to sarak par koi nahin dekha
sarak par jakar dekha to khirki par koi nahin tha

khudi ko kar buland itna
khudi ko kar buland itna
ki khuda bande se pooche
bata kaunse gym jaata hain?

Simplicity is the one of the most complex things to understand nowadays

Guys with average intelligence,average looks, average education, average persona,average alertness & average sapience can still get rich
provided they marry the only daughter of a millionare.

when u put ur foot in someone's shoe, make sure that his feet is out of it.
In case u put both ur feet in someone's shoe, run as fast as u can before the person realises where are his shoes.



PS : this post will not make any sense to you .Reading it by you is purly coincidental and will have relation to me if I am found dead(read "killed by you")

Lagey Raho munna bhai

To say the least, movie with a string of social messages encapsulated in class jokes.(basically an object oriented movie)
The movie is a sequel of Munnabhai MBBS and as in the prequel begins with a hilarious kidnapping . The movie revolves around Munna bhai(sanjay dutt) who is a underworld kingpin of mumbai and is known for kidnapping/getting disputed properties cleared etc. and he is in love with a Radio Jockey(balan) .To meet her he cheats a competition and gets a chance to meet her live in her program. On enquiring about his profession, he lies that he is a professor and thus start the fun. In the typical mumbaiya ishtyle, he is tells about gandhiji's theories and ideas. He is invited to RJ's house to give a lecture to her dad and her dad's friends which he gladly agrees. He studies about gandhiji for about 3 days continuously and by fourth day he starts seeing gandhiji infront of him. He is able to talk to him,see him & seek his advice on various topics.The fun multiplies when he starts giving Gandhiji's advice to people who are in trouble.For ex, he tells a guy to smile at the person when he spits paan on his door and clean in front of him, he tells a retiered teacher to remove all his clothes in front of the officer who had been asking for bribe to hand him his pension and so on ... The movie has a hilarious character circuit(arshad warsi) who is simply amazing . The movie is full of jokes and situational comedy but it also has a message for each one of us. It makes us remember the true values of Gandhiji which are there only in texts . It sends a signal that Gandhiji's values and philosphy can still do wonders . The music is not very popular but is good to hear . The direction,script and screenplay are great and you don't think outside the movie even once while sitting in the theatre.

In all a must watch family movie

chal mamu bole to apun ab kalti marta hain

Hobby and retierment

Humans grow, go to school , then to college, the illiterate ones for still higher education and finally they land up at some place which is like a cage, which has 3 1/2 walls enclosed,has an opening to enter but no way to exit,which claims that it develops you in more than dimension and that the more you are inside, the higher you will go . Yeah, it is also called as office cubicle by some people. For next 25-35 years we spend our time in these enclosures until we are old enough to do any good to our company and this is the time we are tagged as retiered and we are signedoff. We will be given the tag of "Retiered" . This is the time in our life when we ourselves after all the years of working that " we are no good to anyone anymomre" Add to it the age factor and the reduced ability to risk/try out new ventures. This all compound and graduallys we will lose faith in ourselves our strengths , our USPs . The orotund performance of yester years will seem like a dream , something that ne'er happened.

The one of the challenge before republic of India is "How to utilise this vast pool of talented and experience People ?"
Right now the retiered people constitute some 7% of total population. But in another 10 years this figure is expected to touch 14%.This is huge number and also an business oppurtunity with vast potential. If we are able to tap this great source to contribute to the Indian GDP, we will be



1) using the prodigious experience of these learned people which they had gained after all the years of working.


2) able to develop products which will be more sophisticated and error tolerant using the dextrity of these guys.


3) instilling a feeling of importance & contribution in them.



But the obvious question that arises is "how can we use experience of these people which is so varied to everone's benefit?"
One filed I can think f right away where these experienced people be employed is Teaching . These can be used to provide case studies from there working lives to teach future professionals what all should be expected by them in working environment and how to tackle situations that may arise.
Infact, the more I think about this idea, the more facinated I become. The Knowledge bank that can be generated will be one of valuable possession for the entire mankind.

But for those who are not getting retiered so soon, it will be a better idea to develop a hobby. Working on something for not earning a livelihood but still being passionate is one of the toughest thing to do but it is worth doing it. For you need to know something to work upon once you retire . It could be teaching , gardening, socialising, working for some NGO / social cause . The list is endless but the message is " Cultivate something in you which you can reap after you retire." Even if you have a handsome amount of money and you need not work for rest of your life, you still need to keep yourself occupied to keep your body ,sould and mind healthy and smart. And this is one of the easiest way to be so.

tata

Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki

A better name for this book could have been " Money lessons for dummies"

I heard about this book from a colleague and I just happened to stumble upon this book on a roadside bookseller.But when I started I was like a child glued to cartoon network .
I just could not part from the book(until a felt asleep with the book in my hand and my eyes/mouth wide open) This book is author's story on how he and his friend learn ways to make money(legally) from friend's father. Robert's dad is a teacher by profession and like many of us considers going after money too cheap. As a result he ends up paying most of his salary to govt as taxes and levies. He is an educated man but a financial illiterate(refered to as Poor dad). Robert's friend Michael's dad is a business man . A school dropout but a person who has studied life and its rules(Rich Dad). He teaches both of these guys some of the basic rules which many of us know but ne'er bothered to understand them. A simple thing is when we get our first pay cheque, most of us will go to buy a new car/bigger house/clothes and in most of such cases we will end up getting this on loans from bank. This will thus become a permamnent means of cash outflow from our pay cheque.On top of it we will be paying taxes/maintainence charges which will make us even more poorer than we were before we had got this thing.The next time we get a hike, we sell our old car and get a bigger better car,ofcourse again on loan. This continues and he tags this condition as RAT RACE. People running in morning to there office because they are so much dependent on there sole source of income that they can't afford to lose it. They do not know how to pay for there credit card dues incase they do not get a month's salary. And frankly speaking I am one of these guys who would be spending every single peny without realising its worth before it become too late.
A quote I remembered " When money comes it comes along with the greed and stupidity. But when it goes it slaps you right on your face"

The author advices the readers to use the money to create money and then use the created money to get you worldly comforts.He mentions that you should now your profession in and out to identify an oppurtunity and get benefitted from it. But you need not rush to get rich. Understand the market(in whatever domain you are), analyse the condition , observe the movements and only when you feel confident start investing. And always start small. The author retiered from his full time employment at the age of 47. That does not mean he is not doing anything . But he is out of the RAT RACE for long and is pursuing what he wants to do.

On a whole a must to have book if you want to learn about practicality of life and do not want to die while paying taxes to government only. The book can be termed as bible of present times. Something you can refer to whenever you find yourself in a strange kind of situation.

Thanks to my friend who told me about this book

chalo