Who? Me??

Just read this in the paper –

In a shocking case of parental negligence, a 3-month-old baby was starved to death after her parents forget to feed her as they were busy honing their parental skills in raising a virtual child.

Gaming is a technology that can be used to learn new skills (parenting being one of them), but before the game takes over the real purpose of picking up that skill, the player needs to quit.

*** Disclaimer: I am not a Shiv Sainik, or a Congress fan. I just do not like the end outcome. ***

In the recent news, we saw how multiplexes refused to air MNIK, and how central government arm-twisted them into airing the shows, much to the chagrin of MNS. With threats of violence, people of the city still braved to see a hindi movie.

All in all, it’s interesting to see not the event, but the actual outcome … who has “won” and who has “lost”

Shiv Sena: Once again written off by everyone as a wannabe. Once again people thinking that the party is unnecessarily resorting to violence. Fighting for the right cause, but for the wrong issue and in the wrong fashion.

MNS: A missed opportunity to come together with the original party. Raj Thackeray could have shown to the people of Mumbai that he stands for the marathi manus and supports the cause. He is clearly fighting for the wrong cause.

Central Government: Having over-ridden the local parties in local matters, now Congress has higher say over MNS and Shiv Sena combined. What should not have been their jurisdiction has been given over to them on a silver platter.

SRK & Karan Johar: They were but a tool for grabbing this opportunity of who really controls the city. I hope they realize that they are not adding any value to the city of Mumbai, and that is what Shiv Sena is against. If you are living in this city, if you are feeding off this city, then please invest in it. Obviously, all this publicity is always good for their ilk.

Multiplexes: With ticket prices touching Rs. 250 onwards, profits soon rise. This almost seems like a win-win situation.

But what about us, the people, the marathi manus?

Marathi Manus: By far the clear loser in this entire muck-up. The one party who stood a chance to represent them has now been effectively silenced – silenced by the people who can afford those tickets. What about the people living in Mumbai who do not have that much expendable income? What about the people who see their homes being taken away from them simply because all the commodities are becoming expensive day by day? The backbone of these people has been broken. Broken by a trivial issue.

I was unaware of the fact that JK Rowling (the author of the very popular Harry Potter series) holds an honorary degree from the Harvard Business School. So it came as a surprise when I chanced upon her Commencement speech at the HBS Alumni meet.

An excerpt -

But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.

JK Rowling talks about how she looked at her failures to give her strength. To give her the courage to follow the road less trodden. Failure takes away all the unnecessary things, giving the individual focus and clarity. No wonder they say that failures are the pillars of success.

A parting note (quoting JK Rowling who was quoting Seneca)  -

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

I think everyone who is aspiring to make it big should go through that speech. Success is not something that happens overnight, and without a certain clarity of purpose, it is very hard to succeed.

Why does the media corrupt? With the media being corrupt, I mean that instead of performing it’s duty of reporting news that matters to the society, what it ends up doing is look for sensational news – which are actually not sensational at all. I do not care about Amitabh Bachhan catching a cold … no I dont give a farthing about that. What I do care is a sugar scam happening right under our noses and we being oblivious to it all. Here’s how this sugar scam works -

Politician A (we all know who is the agricultural minister!!) gets into the power, then he sets up a shell company outside the country. Slowly this company acquires great hordes of sugar in its stocks. Then Politician A says that there is a sugar deficit in the country and the country might have to import sugar from outside. An artificial supply deficit causes prices to rise – simple enough?? Now, the shell company comes to the rescue! Supplies the country with the much needed sugar (of course at a higher price).

I was unaware of this till yesterday. The minute I came to know about it – one question that kept ringing in my mind was – why does not the media report events like these? If the media does not do its work, then who will?? Can Social Media take over the role of media in society??

Some would say no – since proponents of this theory say that social media is currently being used to report vain and idiotic things – like speak like a Pirate day … a’rrrr. How can you take the same seriously then? Another thought is that there is no reliability – a counter to this would be – as if currently the media is reliable

I would say yes – social media is the exact kind of distributed model which needs to get its act together and let the people act for the people. Kind of like democracy, huh? More so, members of the society who are aware about the current events (and those which are under currents as well) are citizens, and citizens who act out for the benefit of other citizens are enlightened citizens. We need more of these!!!

What do you think?

Remember I was ranting about Co-ordinate geometry and changing communities? Well, in case you have’nt, here is the link. Well here’s a nice example that is changing the society. And it is being done bit by bit, vector by vector

Today we had gone to my Maami’s place. She gave us this cute little bag which comes nicely packed in a small pouch. The pouch can be attached to a purse or your belt through a metal hook. Pretty nifty, huh!?! The cost, Rs. 100. Nice product, good value as well. The idea of this bag is that it folds out to become a very big shopping bag, eliminating the need for those pesky plastic bags. Its so small that you dont even realize that you are carrying one!! Imagine, slowly but steadily eliminating those plastic bags that vendors give to you to carry subzi. Its a fresh idea, and economical at that. Plus a nice idea for gifts as well!!

And the best part is that these bags are made by women who live in tsunami afflicted regions! The bags come with those cute Tsunamika dolls.

Imagine – the word about these spreading around slowly but surely. Sounds realistic no? Slowly because of a few determined souls, the social norm of using plastic bags has changed to not using them. Thats social transformation through the power of an idea

They are only going to make 10 million of these bags, get yours today!!

Mumbaikars, dont go astray
Keep your fears at bay
Life is going to continue the same way
Keep the faith and pray

Be it bombs be it grenade
For an aam aadmi these are all a charade
We wont treat it as a tirade
In the walk of life we parade

We toil and we fawn
From the dusk till dawn
Come what may
Life will still go on

I would like to take a view au contraire to the recent global meltdown. With most of the companies looking at slicing off their costs by targeting their cost centers … they are doing a big mistake. What they should focus on, is how to monetize their cost centers … how to turn their cost centers into revenue centers. Instead, what do we see … job slashing … 1000 sacked! … 50000 sacked!! How is that going to help you? Yes, in the short run, your Quarterly statements might be able to absorb the hit the financial crisis has had on your revenues, but in the longer run, you have just sunk deeper into sinkhole that you are trying to rise from(pardon my french).

The entire reason why companies are seeing the financial crisis is because the finance giants were not cautious enough in making the investments on which they bet their proverbial asses, and are now reeling with the losses. So you screwed up … big time. It takes a great man to admit his mistakes, it takes an even stronger man to move on. In Hindi there is a phrase … agar yeh nahi to wohi sahi.

Organizations are there to do business, and there is business to be done. If the world says that the total amount of business has gone down … well they have to be wrong … or they are not just looking in the right places. So what if Lehmann Brothers closed up … what if AIG has gone for a second round of rescue … there are other firms who will step in the shoes of the fallen ones. Global business … the show … must go on. Where to look at business opportunities one might ask – see a problem, fix it … can it be simpler than that?

So lets see the world back on its feet and totter to the trot that we were used to seeing.

With the changes in the US economy, India is feeling the ripple effects pretty early on. Even before the financial giants announced to the world that they are either wrapping up or being taken over, the Indian IT sector knew that times were going to be hard. Layoffs are bound to follow. The dotcom bust 2.0 is here . I had earlier written about this on my previous blog. A senior management professional at TechMahindra had predicted this as early as August 2006.

If you see the graph above, the dependence of the Indian economy lies largely with the Service sector, and that dependence has been growing constantly over the past years. We had the green revolution to bolster our agricultural sector, over the past decade, we have seen the IT revolution, that has significantly bolstered our services contribution to the GDP. I know this is obvious to most of you … but did we all see it coming? And if we did see it coming, then how come none of us sat up and took action.

Would we now try to start a belated industrial revolution, giving more priority for a product-based economy instead of a service-based economy? Can we see the contribution of Indian industry to our nation’s GDP increase? Or will our aam aadmi continue giving service to the firangs, depending on derived demand to earn his daily bread.

I am generally a tolerant person, but I have decided to step up my protest against smoking. Quite a few of my friends smoke (you know who you are!!). Is it not unfair, to smoke it every day, it’s almost criminal. You are not only killing yourself (which is OK with me), but you are also polluting the air for your peers. Thankfully most of the people I know are considerate enough to remove themselves off the premises and go for a smoke. Out in the office corridors, or just outside the restaurant, et al. Have I got some news for them!?!

From Oct. 2, 2008, the Government of India will put a ban on smoking on private AND public premises. Punishable with a fine of Rs. 200/- (to be hiked to Rs. 1200/- soon). These fines can not only be exercised by policemen, but also by school-teachers, bus drivers, motor-men, social workers, etc. Restaurants who have a smoking section will have to keep that in a separate enclosure with a separate ventilation. Employers will be fined a heft Rs. 5000/- per employee. Whoooweee!!! I hope they increase the tax on cigarettes as well.

Let the smokers burn in their own heaven!! Sing the song with me fellows – Bh3nch0d Sutta, Sutta na mila …

Are we gambling too much on the Knowledge Industry? Manmohan Singh recently announced that the eleventh five year plan would be centered around increasing the infrastructure (read institutes) for a knowledge based industry. That translates into more IITs and more IIMs with the generic mix of IISCs and IIITs thrown in as well. Effectively graduation and post graduation are been given more focus here, aimed at churning out more skilled labour and management students for corporates to come to the nation and setup bases; cost effective and efficient.

But, is this not increasing our dependence on the IT sector? Whenever the INR rises against the USD, the Indian IT sector plummets by a few percent … its obvious, direct PAT is taking a hit here, for the entire industry. Stocks of all the big IT companies see a dip. When the Rupee saw a 17-month low, the IT sector saw a cumulative 0.86% rise, the big firms’ stock rose by as high as 2%. So whenever I want my INR goes down, my IT sector does well … meaning more business … meaning more exports … meaning more employment … meaning higher cumulative disposable incomes … meaning higher GDP … meaning economic development … meaning more imports (assumption here, but generally higher disposable incomes lead to higher imports – correct me if I am wrong) … meaning INR rises back. Would it be not great if the finance minister could use other industries for balancing the economy?