Anna - The Movement

Anna Hazare is the name on every Indian's lips today. As Anna Hazare's fast enters 100 hours, the "I am Anna" movement, can only be lauded. It is a movement, to initiate steps towards the eradication of corruption that has engulfed & crippled the Indian political system, which has caused more damage to our own countrymen; more than anything else.

For starters, there is no violence, the peaceful sincere unprecedented support from the entire nation is the best part of this movement. The civil manner in which the movement has come about personifies the leader - Anna. In the streets of every city, one can see rallies with zealous patriotic fervour, the waving of the national flag, and the chants of "I am Anna" "Vande Mataram" echoing in our ears as everyone joins to support wholeheartedly in the crusade against corruption.

While the rallies go on, it is important to note, that they are so peaceful ; they go on in a systematic way; without disrupting even the traffic alongside. This is the new India, the young, educated India; supporting their selfless, patriotic and idealistic leader; demonstrating defiant resilience; albeit through a peaceful movement. This is the new India, that believes in action, that knows the right means to send the message across, where youth are informed about what is going on in the world around them.; this young India knows what is right and what is not. A young India, wise enough to know that violence is no way to show strength.

The strength of this movement comes from the magnitude of support it has from the youth of this country, the strength of this movement comes from the strong attitude demonstrated by their leader in purity of thoughts, words and actions, the strength of this movement comes from it's strong goal - a goal that every Indian feels strongly about; a goal that every Indian wants to see in the future India - An India Free of Corruption.

Treasure!

The treasure at the Padmanabha Swamy Temple in South India evoked a debate on Arnab's show on Times now yesterday. Should it be used for the good of the poor in the country they asked. Should it be used to pay off loans that the state carries they debated. If the money in Swiss should be brought back and used for the nation, shouldn't this too be used similarly they questioned. Wouldn't service to man be the greatest service to the LORD - was one of the questions we heard.

One of the participants on the debate said, it's assets, it's not wealth. I fully subscribe to this viewpoint. This is a treasure, treat it like a treasure; treasure it! I would rather keep it in a museum to showcase the grandeur that was part of India's history. You will earn much more from the value it brings as a result of tourist interest, than the mere sale of this treasure! I know it will need tons of security measures; but why can't we provide that security for something we value and treasure, when we have the courage to spend tons of money to host someone who took so many of our countrymen's lives on one fateful day in the business capital of our country?

Yes, I know you would say, well, why do you only want to treasure history, look at the present situation, there is poverty everywhere in the country. My only question is, even in the smallest household, do we ever sell away souveniers passed over from generations in the household to make instant money? That's treated like treasure, it's not sold until you reach a dire state where you absolutely need to use it; to survive! In fact, the value of these things is higher until they are held; the value is lost the moment you sell! Has our country reached that state of dire need to sell this historic asset?

Take the scenario when you sell it - do you really think the money will be used for a worthy cause in our country of today? Our politicians will swallow it and you wouldn't even know where it disappeared. It will join all the money in Swiss we are trying so hard to recover! And the idol will join a museum outside India like the Kohinoor, perhaps! If this was how it worked then, the Kohinoor would not be in the museum in UK today, it would have been sold off to someone long ago. Not only that, all temples will have to give up all their golden assets in favour of the bigger cause of service to mankind. Not only temples, even individuals should not hold any assets for emotional or historic reasons. Let's do all this, and then think about selling such invaluable historic treasure!

I am sure historians will have a lot of interest to uncover history here; let's do that.
Let's do anything; but sell this. It's a treasure, let's treasure it!!!

Pain, Anguish, Anger !!

The recently released press communique
In a very sorry state of affairs, we have heard these words too often in the recent past, with little being done about it. Year after year, the Indian people have been resilient and united in strength trusting their government and expecting that the security & intelligence learnings from incidents like the one that happened on Wednesday will be taken forward to prevent such happenings in future. This trust just keeps getting betrayed, over and over again, year after year. If anything the frequency of these incidents is only going up with every instance.

It's hard to understand - Haven't we had enough practice to be able to pick up patterns & ways of operation of these groups? Either we are learning too little from these incidents Or we are too slow as compared to the ingenuity of the people creating these acts of terror, or worse still, these groups seem to know all the loopholes in our system, I fear perhaps even better than us?! to be able to consistantly achieve their goals without being caught! How can these groups garner the strength, funding, resources and skills to come back and create havoc without being noticed while they prepare & plan for these acts? Is it so easy to permeate the security & intelligence systems of the business capital of the world's biggest democracy? Is this like a natural calamity we cannot do anything about?

In a country which has over 645 million people below the Multi-dimensional poverty index; with all the evidence in the world, we still have the courage to spend crores of rupees (and counting) to provide high security to a terrorist who attacked this very city a couple of years ago; and the supreme luxury to re-initiate a diplomatic dialogue over a world cup cricket match with the representatives of the same people; whom we consider the source of these problems! What a mockery it is of our lawful processes. Justice delayed is justice denied. And here, certainly, justice delayed is justice denied raised to the power of four! First the families of the people who lost their lives are denied justice, second a criminal is given fantastic treatment at huge costs resulting in third, attackers to garner the courage to repeat their acts and four Do we really ever leverage any diplomatic mileage out of holding such a person alive?!

If there is anything we need to emulate from the west, it is the "attitude" towards the terror creation elements and the "attitude" toward their own people. Look at what happens in the US. The government upholds accountability to their own people in that nation. Their own people are their priority. The government there does not care if their enemy is in their soil or not, they do not care if a democratic case is tried in the court of law, and whether they have informed the world about what they will do and what they are doing! All they are concerned about is to find the root cause; go wherever the root cause exists and ensure that the root cause is eliminated; in the speediest manner.

It's time we stop taking pride in our resilience and ability to get back to work without stopping; and being satisfied with producing tons of documentation to prove someone guilty. It's time we stop being democratic to elements that subvert law and order. There is no good case for extending just and lawful hospitality to elements that do not practice lawful processes! It's time our leaders merely stop saying that they must be brought to justice quickly and be subject to the rule of law that they have sought to subvert. It's high time; to act tough and do what has been said all this while!

Gratitude

Sometimes for no reason we are showered by a lot of goodwill from others. For no reason at all other people go out of their way to help us out and extend kindness and noble selfless service towards us. These are situations where it's so difficult to respond in equal measure, with equal or more kindness; these actions need not be magananimous in their proportion, they may be just very simple day to day occurences as well; but still only life has to provide that opportunity to us to give back these noble expressiions. It's hard to describe the feeling - it's an immense sense of gratitude that overwhelms us at such times; and all we can think at such times is a heartfelt "Thank you"; to God and to the person who helped us.

It seems almost like we may not be able to give back to the same person who extended these good vibes & kind support to us; in times of need, maybe even if we get the opportunity to share the same good vibes with someone else in similar situations, we will feel gratified.

Just to narrate an instance last week - the drainage system at home was giving trouble and we weren't finding anyone who had the right skills and tools to come over and fix it. It was in a delicate state and needed to be fixed urgently. The gardener at home knew there was a problem, so when he found someone on his way back home who could fix the problem, he came back all the way with him and ensured the issue was fixed. There was truly no need for him to come back all the way, he could have just given that person the address of our house and called us up and informed us. But he did this extra bit, for no money, for no selfish reason.

All through the day whoever had been contacted had not turned up, but each and every one called back the next day to check if the problem was still there, and offered to come and fix it. Why would they need to call back to all the calls they missed? If I still needed them, wouldn't I be calling back anyway? But, that's commitment. Commitment can be seen sometimes in the service offered even though the service is not really offered. And at times when you are truly in need of the service, this commitment from others when you least expect it; is what I call divine intervention! Gratefulness is the only feeling that overwhelms us at such times. And deep, true satisfaction & happiness is the only feeling that overwhelms the giver.

Come to think of it, in today's utterly self-centred times too, we can find so many such good people around us, who selflessly go about their work with so much commitment, and so many small small instances when people quietly go beyond their preset boundaries to offer more than expected, without being asked, at needy moments. I just feel an immense sense of gratitude that such people still exist. May their tribe increase!

UID

2 weeks ago, my family began to enlighten me about the urgency to go and register ourselves at the UIDAI centre near my home. Interestingly, although I had heard about UIDAI a lot; I had not seen anything in the news hurrying people up to go and register. So I rushed to the UID website http://uidai.gov.in/ and found the enrollment form was available for download in the downloads section on the website.

Encouraged by this, I tried to find out where my closest enrollment centre was, was there a due date being targetted at each centre, a schedule & process to be followed, any appointment system to get registered etc; only to find lots of documents explaining MOUs, details the biometric devices being used, enrollment camps operational & training documents etc. All good things, but no easy link pointed me to my nearest enrollment centre! Even the FAQs section was not able to help me with my questions.

I will admit all my net-savvy-ness was embarassed to discover that people in my house who weren't net savvy at all, were aware where the UID centre of my locality was! The communication strategy; I realised was something I was impressed about. I had not seen any adverts on TV or in the news informing me about the nearest centre and the process in detail (today I can see the website is updated with photographs showing the process); but somehow housewives & people at home were better informed about the process even before it came on the website!! Was it all supposed to pass by word of mouth? Quite interesting.

I was told, that if I needed to get my enrollment done, I needed to go and be in the queue at the centre right from 6am; with the form filled up; so that when the office opened at 10am, I would be given a token. There are only about 250 tokens given per day; so if you are at the tail of the queue; you won't get a token and may have to go back on another day. I could not avoid the quick maths that triggered off in my head - more than 1000 person hours of time wasted per day per centre to get the token. At least the 1000 person hours were fruitful, they got the token, what about the rest who left the centre frustrated? What a national waste of time, I thought. Could there not be a better way around this? Could there be an appointment system where you call up a helpline number or go to the centre or visit the website, take an appointment and go there & get done in 30 mins?

I decided, I wasn't going to waste my time, I will carry a book and read and some music will help me stay in good humour while waiting in the queue for 4 hours ; I needed to be at the head of the queue to get done at 10.20am sharp. I had to go on a Saturday morning (the centre does not work Sundays); otherwise I had to take a holiday or go late to office - which I certainly did not fancy.

When I reached the centre at 6am on Saturday, I was genuinely delighted to find there were already 16 people queued up. A family of 8 from a very poor family, they seemed to be construction workers; and another family of 4 with little kids 4 & 5 year old, and an old couple. I became the 17th member in the queue. Within 30 minutes the queue had reached the end of the building - about 70 more people had joined us. It was not an orderly queue, but the people who came in were from modest backgrounds, and nobody argued with each other over their position in the queue. A little note mentioning no lists will be entertained was put up on the wall by the UIDAI. Apart from that, there was nothing explaining the process.

Around 7.30ish, one middle aged person who joined the queue started to note the names of people in the queue; and a small huddle around him ensured that the positions of people got mixed up; some people went a few positions ahead in the queue by virtue of their ability to influence this person to write their name in first in that list. This person on his own squeezed 2 names of his own into the list at positions 3 and 4. Seemingly he said, these people had come at 5.40am but had gone home for breakfast! The other people in the queue were'nt happy - they were waiting with little kids since 5.30 and why should these 2 unknown people be priviledged? Another young guy in the queue pointed the note of UIDAI saying no lists are entertained & the matter was settled.

Earlier, at home, I had heard stories of major squirmishes in the queue & fights etc, when neighbours had gone and stood to get enrolled. The crowd I had today with me was very very decent & civilized. I was lucky to have this company. 85% of the crowd was full of very poor people; and I was amazed that they maintained discipline & polite behaviour. They were well informed about the way this worked even though some of them could not read / write! It was interesting that many things I did not know of wrt. the UID process, was known and understood by these people. They all came in with their families in full strength and waited patiently upto 10am. I wondered, how they managed to wake thier little kids up at so early a time and get them ready for the 4 hour queue. They had brought breakfast and lunch along, since they knew they had a long day ahead of them before they could go home. I felt for the old people who were battling with their energy to stand & were patiently waiting in the queue. The queue today was disciplined, I wondered what would happen, if the crowd was not civil - surely people with kids and old people would be suffering the most in such situations! There was nobody managing the queue at the centre. Certainly, we need to give a thought to this queuing process - can it not be made easier for these people?

At 10am sharp,the UIDAI centre opened, and the representatives started handing over tokens. It was heartening to note the punctuality. But couldn't the office open at 9 instead of 10? Would it help?

Inside the centre, there are 4 to 5 stations; each with a row of chairs for people to sit and await their turn. I felt thankful for the chairs. The few families before me got the 1st seat at the 3 stations and I was the one to get the 1st seat at the last station! It takes 20 minutes per head to go through the 10 fingerprints, iris capture, the address-proof and identify proof scan capture process. I had heard stories while waiting in the queue of how if the computer goes down you may be called in on the next day. I wished this wouldn't happen. At the station, the terminal has a monitor which faces you, so you can see if the representative is making spelling mistakes while entering your details into the system and correct her / him. It was good to see that my terminal representative was diligent about entering the details correctly into the system; replete with correct spellings in English and corresponding devnagiri versions.

Finally the mission was accomplished, my UIDAI enrollment work got over as planned at 10.20 am. So much for the 4 hours of waiting.

Hats off to the biometric technology and the software being used to enrol people at the stations - no doubts about this. I am not sure how the back-up & security of this data that's captured on the laptop is being managed. I found a 4 liner on the website saying that the UID database has high security, I am just hoping that the security of the laptop & the data on there, if it's running in an offline mode has also been well thought out.


However, in the end, I just felt that -

a) The UIDAI website should have details of enrollment centers; should help people locate their nearest centre.

b) The queue should be dealt with better to avoid the 4 hours of queing time, it really is a national waste of time; it can be very troublesome for old people / senior citizens and people with young kids & office goers. India is at the forefront of software technology, can't we have some online appointment system? We talk of phone banking and sending votes for television shows via sms; can't the mobile be used effectively to help getting appointments for enrollments?

c) There should be an information counter at the centre - there was nobody designated in the centre to whom someone can approach and fire their flurry of questions and much is left to common sense. There was no board explaining the process to the people.

d) Why should the UIDAI registration centre be closed on Sundays? Isn't that the day when people have holiday and when they can come to get enrolled? In an era when 24 X 7 support is normal why can't we employ the same shift working model to make it convenient for our own people?

Lots of food for thought & action.




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Being Beautiful

Beauty is skin deep.
Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.
Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart

When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.
Mohandas Gandhi

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
Albert Einstein

All over the world, in all languages, infinitely rich poetry & literature is dedicated to this subject of "beauty"; praising the beauty of nature, beautiful women, the beauty of the soul.

True beauty to me, lies in carrying the innocence of childhood with us; even as we see life in its toughest forms. Being able to see the good in everything around us. It's about not hurting others, being true and honest to ourselves. About feeling touched by & embracing the world's worries as if they were our own. About forgetting ourselves for the cause at hand. About wearing your sweetest smile and brightening the day of people who look at you. About doing little things to see others smile. About being selfless and pure in our thoughts, about being happy with ourselves, no matter how we look, no matter how much trouble we are going through.

Being Beautiful is a way of life to me.
It's about consciously reminding ourselves day in and day out about our values & making the effort to live by them, come what may. It's really upto us, how beautiful we can be; there are no limits or boundaries. It's a path of continuous growth.

Bear no doubt, it's a difficult path to tread on and live by.
But then, what is life, if it's not beautiful ?!! :-)

Joy ride?

Today while going to a place called Bhakti-Shakti; on Mumbai Pune expressway, I found an elephant ride being offered to kids. The elephant looked majestic; and patiently walked from one end to another and then back; with the children enjoying their delightful ride.

A thought occured to me, about how much the elephant may be getting bored, walking from one end to another and back again right from 5 in the evening each day to around 8pm in the evening. Further, I wondered if the elephant was being fed well to maintain the energy levels required to do this task repeatedly with different children mounted atop on his back. Elephants need massive amounts of food - around 135 to 160 kgs and about 189 litres of water each day.

I wondered if the mahout was able to feed the elephant with this food each day? It seemed like the mahout's bread and butter was being earned by the elephant; but what about his own meals? It's is quite big in size and leaving it unfed could potentially be harmful for the mahout himself; so I concluded that he is doing something to keep his pet & bread-earner satisfied. However the curiosity remained.

Further, I wondered if we were right in taking joy-rides without knowing if the elephant was being well taken care of. It may be a joy-ride for our kids, but is it really a joy-ride for the elephant?

It's a small world !

Have you ever seen the PMPML website? I discovered it the other day, when I was quite fed up of the weird services of PMPML on the Hinjewadi - Nigdi route. It's called http://www.pmpml.org/ and there is actually a complaint registration form on this website.

And then I had stumbled upon this when I googled to satitate my curiosity
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-08-09/pune/28308123_1_pmpml-buses-complaint-redressal-commuters

A snippet from this news item is pasted here for ready reference:
"The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited has started a complaint redressal centre for commuters. A complainant can call 24503355, or SMS on mobile number 9881495589 between 6 am and 10 pm on all days, said a press release issued on Saturday."

I took note of these numbers; and whenever I found a delayed bus, I used to sms this mobile number explaining the issue with the bus number or bus time and route info in the sms. Invariably, I got a response back giving me a complaint number. And after a week's time someone from PMPML would call me back and give me reasons for the problem. So far so good.

Haven't really experienced this go beyond "Service Desk" & "Incident Management" in ITIL terminology. In the sense that "Problem Management" does not seem to have come into operation yet; in that, the frequency of buses in peak hours is still an issue; and buses on this route are still made to "wait" and "get delayed" because the conductor needs "to issue tickets to everyone" - can you believe that??!!

However, they did put in place a few measures like - at Nigdi, a bunch of 3/4 conductors would get into the bus, to complete issuing tickets in a jiffy; and get off, so that the waiting time was reduced. However, it is not a consistant practice; and the bus still needs to wait sometimes. The root cause is the frequency is too low to cater to the requirements of the peak hour and end users are bound to face poor response time and poor quality of service!

Further since there are no shuttle-like bus services between Nigdi and Chinchwad Gaon; people use the Hinjewadi bus to go to Chinchwad - Gaon; and since that stop arrives within 15 mins; the bus conductor needs to hurry up to issue tickets to all such people. A better solution would be to convert the Akurdi Railway Station - Nigdi shuttle into a Akurdi Railway Station - Dange Chowk shuttle. Those Akurdi Railway Station to Nigdi buses are empty half the time; and would run fuller since they have a higher frequency of one every 15 minutes! These shuttles never get cancelled; unlike the Nigdi - Hinjewadi bus.

Well, I am a capacity planner by profession you see; but the PMPML does not know that! ;-)

Nonetheless, during these trips by PMPML; whenever I came across a co-passenger who was grumbling about the lack of good service, I would share these details of telephone numbers so that they could sms and complain their heart out.

I had my initial euphoric moments, when I got a valid complaint number or when the PMPML rep called me up and made me feel like a VIP and explained the problem; or the first time when I saw those bunch of conductors flooding the bus from both doors of the bus to ensure tickets were issued fast; but those moments were not euphoric enough; because the problems I've complained about continue to remain.
The best and most euphoric and ecstatic moment for me was a couple of days ago - When a young co-passenger; she probably studied at the Management college in Wakad - I guess; came to me and told me with excitement, "Do you know there is a number where you can complain about poor service? I called them up and you know they even give a complaint number and then after a week a person from PMPML calls back to explain the reason why the bus was delayed". I said "Wow! That's great!"

It's truly a very small world :-)

Powering young & healthy minds!

When I was a little girl, my elder sister used to narrate to me the story of a little boy who was very poor and had to go walking across a lonely forest to reach his school. His mother was very poor and weak and could not afford to accompany him everyday to the school. The little boy used to get very scared walking alone in the woods and often told his mother about his fears. To instill strength in the young boy's mind, his mother told him that he should call out to Lord Krishna when he got scared; and said that the Lord will come to help him whenever he was scared. The very next day, when the little boy was going through the forest and he heard the roar of a lion, he called out to Krishna; and heard the Lord call out to him. It then became a regular theme each day; the Lord appeared and narrated stories to the little boy as he walked to and from his school.

One day, the teacher asked all the students to bring gifts and presents for each other. The little boy went back home and asked his mother for a present to take back to school. His mother was poor; and was struggling to meet both ends, the present was something she could not afford. She asked her son to ask Lord Krishna for the present. While going through the forest, the little boy called out to his friend (the Lord had by now become his friend) and asked for a present. Shri Krishna gave a little jug of milk to the boy. The little boy took it happily to school and gave it to his teacher when he was asked. Other students in the class had brought fancy presents; and this earthern jug full of milk looked very simple and humble among all the gifts.

Then the teacher poured the milk from the jug into a vessel, the jug refilled magically. the teacher tried to empty the jug again, and again the jug got refilled. They tried to do this a number of times, and no matter how many times they tried, the jug refilled with milk! The teacher and the other students were astonished; and they asked him with curiosity as to where he got the magical jug from - The little boy said with innocence that he got it from his Lord Krishna.

The teachers and students wanted to see the Lord; and asked the little boy to take them to show them their beloved Lord. The little boy took them along to the forest and called out - Shri Krishna, please come, my friends and teachers want to see you. There the Lord came; but the teachers and students could not see; it was only the little boy who could see his Lord. Such is the power of faith and belief, even God will appear and give you what you want; this is the moral of the story; my sister would say to me; and by the time my sister came to this moral of the story, I would either be fast asleep or be lost in dreams about finding Lord Krishna like the little boy one day on my way to school and asking him to give me a magical bowl of chocolates! :-)

I have always felt so blessed that the divine has gifted me with the basics I need - food, shelter, clothing and good schooling. Whenever I see a little kid at the traffic signal selling something; it's just heartwrenching; I just feel such a strong urge to do something about it; could I pull him/her from there and take them to school somehow? Could I do something to show them how much fun school is; how much it can make their life better? Then there is reality that kicks in and tells me; they need to feed their hunger first; knowledge and games cannot satitate hunger.

So, when I see a movement like "AkshayaPatra" http://www.akshayapatra.org/; empowering little minds to study and think in the right way; the story I narrated above flashes back to my mind; and a strong wish to support and be part of such a movement; overwhelmes me. Truly only in a healthy body can a thoughtful mind evolve; and it is so important for these young children to feel secure and to not have to worry about their daily food in their growing up years. We need many such movements to rid our nation of poverty & child labour.

Just like the poor mother who instilled in her son the faith that the Lord will help him out in his times of trouble; "AkshayaPatra" instills the faith that there is someone going beyond the thought of helping these kids; and actually doing something to try and make a difference. True to it's name; like the jug of milk that was always overflowing, may the very good work done here, attain the strength & magnitude to overflow beyond it's horizons, may this movement be able to supplant the hunger for food in every single child in our country; by the quest for knowledge & instill strength in them as they grow up, to use their learnings constructively to create a better life for themselves and live by true & honest values.

At this thought, my mind slips into a childlike imagination, if I could don the role of the little kid walking in the forest alone; then with the power of his innocent faith and belief; the Lord would appear and say "Tathastu!!" :-)

Does it need the Lord to appear, may be not, you and me can make this happen together; come join me; visit http://www.akshayapatra.org/ and be a part of this beautiful movement; powering these young and healthy minds!

A journey of three and a half hours!

This is a story describing a journey that lasted three and a half hours. It started at 6pm and ended at 9.30 pm; from a place called Hinjewadi and ended at a place called Nigdi, on the 21st of September 2010. I won't even attempt to write a blog that's going to take so long to read and no, I am not going to waste time getting you to guess, what was this journey all about!

It was expected to be a joyous bus ride back home after a long day in office, in anticipation of the holiday on account of Ananth Chaturdashi on the next day, but as you may have imagined by now, it turned out to be an arduous journey demanding three and a half hours of patience! Forget about the 3.5 hours, the first 2 hours of this trip were spent in the first lap; we had only managed to travel from Phase 3 to Mindtree by this time! And what was the reason? Yes, the colourful, excited crowds gathered at Hinjewadi chowk to bid farewell to 3 of their Ganesh idols that were installed 9 days ago on Ganesh Chaturthi, blissfully lost in their love for their deity and unconscious of the fact that they were crowding up at one of the major junctions at a time when so many workers were trying to get back home. Not their fault at all, they were merely celebrating their beloved Lord's immersion procession; and in an ideal world - if Ganesha had architected one for us - the traffic police should have come into play and controlled traffic at that junction and/or redirected people into routes where the procession was not headed. In fact, in a more ideal world, the government would have built an IT City with wide roads connecting the park, and not-so-narrow lanes that become bottlenecks into and out of the IT Park, on a regular basis, even on normal days, when there is no procession.

I witnessed around 10 to 12 such processions. What met the eye at each of the processions was the sight of people bursting crackers, scattering the pink and magenta coloured powder all over, dancing and cheering to deafening film music while the deity followed in a colourful chariot bedecked with orange, red and purple flowers and ornaments. Fun to watch, yes! But what also met the eye was the chaos alongside, two-wheelers and 4 wheelers all vying for space on the road, hardly any space to move, but still sneaking in, nonetheless, and adding to the noise with their loud horns! Not so much fun anymore! Wouldn't it be nicer if the dancing cheering troupes had organized themselves to allow space for vehicles to move alongside? Is this so difficult to think?

I wondered hard about the presence and absence of "common sense" and extrapolated it to the presence and absence of GOD overall. If common sense can go missing in GOD's own procession, which happens each year, year after year, and we almost have a lot of "practice" with the procession scenario, outside the bus, in other parts of the country, what was going on at being the first- time host to the CWG was no surprises!

The CWG was gaining a lot of screen space and air time, this week, and again, I wondered, as to why there is so much common sense going uncommon these days? Have we as a people become more dumb? OR Are our leaders becoming less responsible & accountable over time? When I say leaders, I mean anyone who has the authority and responsibility and accountability to take charge of a situation, see ahead of time and proactively deal with impending problems. Leaders are not people who "react", the ground staff "reacts" only in case of unforeseen situations. Leaders "proact" & are meant to spend their time "foreseeing the bigger picture". Everything cannot be an "unforeseen" situation! Isn't this something we all "KNOW" ?

Like the traffic police who always knows that the immersion processions will take place on this day and therefore could have published the modified route map to people in the IT City much before the festival! And like the leaders at the CWG, who would certainly have had the ability to foresee the mess things were getting into - they had a few years to figure this out and they had all the resources they needed to do that!

Why do we take pride in spending more time doing mindless things that bring no repute; and then "try" to fix problems only when they become bigger issues - with little time left for any mends at the last minute? We learn in school, a stitch in time saves nine, but do we really learn?

Come to think of it folks, truly, just think of anything around you for 3 and a half hours and you will uncover more and more deeper issues & problems. We as a nation need to change - for the better; and the sooner we realize; the better it will be. Not only realize, the need to act is stronger as well.

Rick in B'lore!

This blog is dedicated to all the auto-rickshaws in the city of Bangalore :-)

I was in this city recently and had the pleasure of enjoying long journeys in this three wheeled vehicle on several occasions during this visit.

It's amazing how each owner of these three wheels has the majestic pride worth that of a king! First only passengers destined to the places that interest the driver are allowed entry into the vehicle; then, the bill after 8pm is subject to the whims and fancies of the drivers! It can be anything between +20 rupees of what comes on the meter to 1.5 times that cost! Further, if the bill comes out to be 38.5 rupees, it is conveniently assumed that the rounding off to 40 is legitimate; and further the Rs. 20/- should be added making it Rs. 60. Even 1.5 times the 38.5 goes only to 57.75!

There is another interesting trait - never take the rickshaw from the rickshaw stand is a rule to be followed to perfection. The rickshaw owners in the stand apparently charge more than rickshaws that are passing by!! From a customer's viewpoint what is the use of a rickshaw stand then - the logic truly beats me!

Once in a rickshaw; never expect that the driver will follow the cheapest and shortest route. The shortest path algorithm seems to depend on a lot of factors like number of traffic signals on the way, duration of traffic signals on the way, how busy the road is and finally which time of day are you travelling! Sometimes, ongoing constructions and one-way traffic rules can become an additional factor too. But considering that most cities in India have some or the other flyover construction ongoing, and one-way traffic is a genuine way of streamlining traffic, these last 2 factors are being given a waive off in this blog! If we notice carefully, the length of the path, really does not figure as one of the factors!!!

Couple of other golden rules to follow - the temper of the rickshaw drivers in this city should never be meddled with! Never argue with the driver as a customer - the driver will not think twice before leaving you on the road with nobody to help! Never question the route he takes, although you know well that he is fooling you away to glory taking the longest path ever to the nearest destination!

In all my travels only 1% of all rickshaw drivers truly followed the shortest path algorithm and were honest about the fares they charged going strictly by the meter.

I don't know what the rules are; I haven't tried to find out what the legitimate policies are - but certainly there is ample room for improvement if service to customer is to be considered as a priority!

HR in IT setups

I read this article
http://www.itpeopleindia.com/20040426/management2.shtml and it triggered off this blog; since it strongly resonates much of what I feel about the HR in IT today. I could not agree more with this article.

Increasingly, I observe that as organizations grow larger in size, somehow the "human" resource is treated like a "inhuman machine" that has no emotions & feelings, not meant to be respected, no value for their individual goals or satisfaction quotient and that should slog endlessly without complaining, that has no right to feel that they need work-life balance, that is meant to work to please the manager; and what's more the managers are becoming inhuman too to such an extent that they have no parameters of "rational humane judgement" and all this is supposedly very fair! Even computers and non-human assets in an IT setup are given their due downtime, and capacity managed so that they don't get overloaded and handled with more care than humans!

The "human" resource needs to be treated like a "human"; and this idea needs to be driven by some group of people if organizational growth has to also mean that organization behaviour is retained or improved.

What is the use of calling the HRD an HRD; if they cannot uphold the "humanness quotient" of the organization? The HRD of today is merely an administrative team that would be better called the "HR Backoffice". This backoffice today is mechanical in nature and can almost be managed automatically with the right tools, if configured properly and used well. HRD is ideally meant to go beyond being the HR backoffice in an IT setup, does it not feel the need to address the vital needs of it's customers i.e. the employees that make the organization an organization; who are basically "humans"?

Honestly, the time has come for HR in IT setups to move beyond this BAU administrative role with no teeth; where they are doing "regular, repetitive & outsourcable business processes" like recruiting, personnel adminstration and appraisals, satisfaction surveys (which god knows who analyses and takes cognizance of and works on the output of!) to a team that thinks and acts to fill this void - of a team that has the right to promote and reward right organizational culture, ethics and values, even identifying cases where management-policing may be needed & acting upon those, and become a team that understands employees as humans, that is concerned about organizational behaviour and humane empowerment - do thoughtful things that brainless & heartless automated software cannot; this is the dying need of today's IT world!

Money = Life OR Death; True OR False!

I had heard a couplet long ago which went
"God made Man, Man made money, Money made man mad! "

Money on wikipedia is simply described as something that is accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts.

But it is amazing how money transcends this simple definition and occupies most men's mind and being for 80% of life! All that a person needs in life is 3 things - food, clothing and shelter. But this whole quest for more and better and best of these things makes people slog their way almost endlesslessly; foregoing every little bit of time they have in this quest, sometimes caring little for every relationship they ought to nurture and caress, even their truest hobbies, passions and happiness sometimes.

People today don't stop at earning money to support food, clothing and shelter for themselves, they want to make money enough for food, clothing and shelter for generations to come! Wonder what those generations to come will use their time and effort on! That's a debate for next time. But the fact is that unfortunately, LIFE takes a backseat and Money is the passion, the hobby and the only quest in life and it's the only wish to caress and nurture!

Actually, it's quite paradoxical that if man made money; then man could very well devise the total money to be sufficient for everyone to live comfortably. Yes, sounds a very weird and childlike thought perhaps. But what stops nations from taking this step and saying that my economy is total population multiplied by X where X is the amount of money required per annum for a person to live comfortably, without loans?

Anyway, leaving childlike thoughts aside, it is true that money has made most men mad, and the entire purpose of life is dominated by this device of man's creativity! Gone are the days when songs like "Sajan re jhooth mat bolo, khuda ke paas jaana hai, na gadi hai na ghoda hai, waha paidal hee jaana hai, Tumhare Mehel Chaubaare Yahin Reh Jayenge Saare Akad Kis Baat Ki Pyaare Yeh Sar Phir Bhi Jhukaana Hai Sajan Re Jhooth...Bhalaa Kije Bhalaa Hoga Buraa Kije Buraa Hoga Wahi Likh-Likh Ke Kya Hoga Yahin Sab Kuch Chukana Hai Sajan Re Jhooth...Ladakpan Khel Mein KhoyaJawaani Neend Bhar Soya Budhaapa Dekhkar RoyaWahi Kissa Purana Hai Sajan Re Jhooth..." were penned, which implored man to think deeper about their purpose and goals in life; provided a right path to take and inspired the youth.

Today even feelings like love take a backseat to this quest for money - and why not someone will ask, Don't songs like "if you want my pyaar, mera dildaar show me your credit card gimme lots of checks, suno sensex gimme your body guard money show me the money " inspire people to remain limited to this superficiality called money!? No wonder, the speed at which everyone wants more money just eliminates feelings like gratitude for what one already has! Humanity is sidelined from realizing the true worth of their lives!

It's funny how so many people make money their goal; and if only there were a day to dawn when they will realize that they've given way too much time to this goal and forgotten all other goals of their life, forgotten that money was meant to be merely a means to a small percentage of other goals and not the goal itself! That moment will probably be a moment of awakening and realization; but then the time will have passed and one will need a time machine to backtrack! Again a childlike imagination I guess!

Yes, money is needed to live, one does not live for money and it certainly does not make any sense after death! It's holding people from realizing the "true essence of life", by providing one a "false and temporary sense of achievement & glorification"!

When the village becomes the world!

As a child I heard stories about how every village was self-sufficient in itself and catered to its own basic needs of food, clothing and shelter. History books revealed stories of how the cobbler, potter, farmer, teacher, pujari, king co-existed in the eco-system of the village and lent it a sense of completeness and fulfillment.

As time passed, people went from one village to another and started trading items and improved quality of living. This paradigm went on expanding and today the world has emerged into a truly global village. Every country interacts with another for satisfying even basic needs let alone many things far beyond the basics. Food, garments, furnishing, vehicles, labour everything is now exchanged more than anytime before in the history of this world.

Globalization has made the world flatter and smaller. The world now operates like one mighty village where someone is working to meet the needs of someone else in the other corner of the world and where openness encourages cultural exchanges and ideas, best practices from distinct faraway traditions are assimilated to improve living and working conditions.

So long as these exchanges are not based on the "Money" factor, things look really good. The moment money becomes the sole reason for the exchange; things begin to become complicated from a "human" perspective; albeit, from a "business" angle things are still great perhaps. Just to illustrate this point consider the outsourcing story of today. So long as the outsourcing will genuinely improve quality and efficiency, everyone stands to benefit.

But, initially the decision to outsource is based on costs! The outsourcee gets paid slightly lesser than the current costs, thereby keeping both the outsourcer and the outsourcee happy. Over time, the need to optimize on costs still remains and more is sought out of the outsourcee. Before the outsourcing started, skills existed within the outsourcer's domain, but once the skill is outsourced the outsourcer seeks cost savings out of the outsourcee - giving rise to slogshops, where eventually to retain business the workforce at the outsourcee's end is made to work harder with tighter margins and constraints.

Although it looks like the outsourcer has gained - well, yes, the outsourcer gained monetarily in the short term, but in the longer term has lost the skills to do that job and be self-sufficient. The conventional method of inducting youngsters into the organization and training them to take on these roles would yield the same benefits from a pure cost angle. In fact, it would also help retain skills.

The outsourcee looks like they have gained - initally, since they started getting paid for the work they did, but in the long run, the outsourcee becomes a slogshop adding little value spending little effort in improving skills/offerings, increasing efficiency etc.

It seems like until avenues are new and processes are evolving outsourcers want to keep those jobs with them, and once things are evolved and task is business as usual, the process is outsourced later. This is the same situation that the world went through when machines were invented and people were replaced by machines. At that time, people gave up doing the mundane and tiresome tasks and instead started to make more machines! Similarly today, the outsourcer needs to ensure newer avenues are being harvested alongside to provide a means of future occupation for existing and upcoming resources.

Even if the outsourcer's population density showed a downward trend balance will not be maintained; because that would mean fewer people using the services of the outsourcer's business over time and a further stretch on costs! At the outsourcee's end, genuine talent may end up getting wasted in a slogshop, so long as avenues to use such talent are mined for alongside. If genuine talent ends up spending effort in a slogshop, then likely chances are that this talent will improve and invent new methods and ways of doing things thus leading to more people having no work!

Balance is not easy to achieve , there are many factors like reduced mortality, increased population that make this new world order a complex equation. Self-sufficiency today has expanded to mean being self-sufficient at the global level, leaving little margin for error. If one end of the chain collapses, it is a ripple effect across. This is true of many other phenomena that were limited to the village level earlier. Much thought needs to be invested to determine the focus of this changing world. An individual, organization or nation cannot think about growth and improvement from a localized perspective. Just as self-sufficiency has become global in perception, growth needs to be perceived in totality, from a global standpoint.

United we stand, divided we fall, could not be a more absolute truth than it is today!

Tough Thoughts!

Recently I have shifted to the Hinjewadi office. There is a cab service that the office operates for me to be able to work in UK timings. In the cab I have co-workers who work in the BPO segment. I have had the opportunity to make small-talk with guys travelling in my cab and it has been a very humbling experience to hear their stories.

So often I hear the same thing from them, they are over-awed by the fact that I belong to the IT segment, their eyes seem so much to wish that they should move into the IT segement as well, they are all aspiring to somehow or the other to make a switch into the IT segment. They need to put in more hours at work and are not happy about the mechanical nature of work they are doing. Most often they are people who have risen from humble financial backgrounds that could not afford them paid seats in engineering and hence ended doing diplomas; or had to stop at graduation instead of going on to complete their post-grads in an attempt to support their family. But still, they have this very strong urge to move into supposedly a more prosperous stream of work which would at least afford them "better work" if not anything else. They so curiously ask me how I landed into the line of work that I am in currently (not that I am doing anything great, but looking at it from their perspective this is like a dream job for them perhaps) and seek advice on how they should be going about it if they want to move to the position they so earnestly desire. They are guys who are young and so dearly want to be better placed and deserve to be better placed as well perhaps - and so often they want it just so that they can earn the heart of the girls they would like to live with! :-) The spirit of these people is inspiring.

These are people who have probably got the talent, but just missed out on the right exposure and opportunities purely because they did not have the background support either financially or an educated guide perhaps. Just these missing things led them to take the path that came their way and they had no choice. They had to take on responsibilities like running the house even though they had the urge to study more. It is so much dependent upon fate sometimes, is what you begin to wonder when you meet and interact more with people like these. I felt like I was so detached from the reality of life and the troubles that people have to go through to make a position in life.

Meeting people who freely express that they would love to be in a position like we are in, is an extremely humbling feeling. It is difficult to describe. It just makes you enter a philosophical mode where you start thinking that you've probably got so much in this world without half the trouble that people go through and yet you have your own qualms about what you don't have! Do we really have the right to grumble?

And this is what I felt when I met people who are not that impoverished or something. They are in a very decent position, but they would like to be better. I wonder what I will go through if I were to really meet and interact with poor people or those keeping sick etc. and see the ground realities and trouble they go through - I think I just cannot imagine! The infinite gratitude I will be overwhelmed with then for this beautiful life will probably make me a saint or something and stop me from doing or saying anything that hurts others to start with. I just realize more and more how important it is to be in touch with the world around you in its not-so-beautiful form to be able to appreciate and value the beauty that exists with you. Not only that, one begins to realize it is so important to share one's blessings too rather than have it all greedily.

Can our race to be better than what we are; be at the cost of losing touch with reality and don't we owe anything to the world around us?

Difficult thoughts to deal with, difficult questions to answer!

Living while travelling!

In the last few years, travelling has had a significant place in my life. Travelling and living alone has taught me a lot. Seeing varied people and cultures is fun. To me how you get there is as important as getting there. And then after getting there, feeling like you've come back home after work everyday is also equally important for me.


In my visits spanning Ipswich (UK), Antwerpen (Belgium), London (UK), Interlaken (Swiss) and Leeds (UK) I've lived in a mix of B&Bs, serviced apartments or hotels. The serviced apartments generally do justice and make life easy for a traveller like me who stays for a few months before moving on. If I were to categorize my stay, it would be very good places, good places and bad places.


The bad places are rooms I've found strange and creepy - these are rooms which are generally in the basement without windows! I often wonder why do people build such rooms in the first place! If you haven't had to live in one such room, you are very lucky. I've never stayed too long in such rooms; but the first time I lived in one such room alone, was the time I realized how being alone in such a room can feel. I felt as though I was put into a mini prison, felt suffocated and alone. The room felt dark even though the lights were on. The room felt scary even though the television was on. I vowed to myself I will double check each time that the room allocated to me is not in the basement and is one that has some windows :-) Well, the way to describe what i felt is probably - claustrophobia ! I discovered just while writing this article that that this is exactly what happens to me when I am in a confined and closed room in the basement.


The good places are where you cannot cook your food, but at least you don't feel creepy. The ambience is good enough to prevent eerie thoughts, there is sufficient light coming in from the windows during daytime, the view from the windows is ok at least and the temperature is not too cold, where the space is just enough and not an inch more (perhaps less but not more!) Where you need to find a place where your type of food is served during the first couple of days of stay and where the cost is not very high. To separate the good from the bad places on my scale, double checking the "basement factor" is sufficient :-)


The very good places are where you can cook and live and where you tend to get attached to the place and start feeling like it is your own. Where the loneliness of a new place and people does not trouble you - instead you are at ease with it, because the comfort that the place where you live temporarily during your stay makes you feel at home. Serviced apartments are really the best place to stay for short term travels. Yes, you need to spend some time in the housekeeping and management, but it is well worth the effort ! :-) One can automatically tell these places are very good from the first interaction with the land owner because the owners of such places are usually diligent and kind in their communication when you are finalizing your stay there.

When I travel, I don't have the luxury of visiting the place before finalizing to stay in there. The travels are usually sudden and you often need to just go in there at short notice and figure it out. I follow couple of golden rules, when I travel in order to feel and do my best at work while travelling
a) check the safety of the location b) double check the basement and windows aspect c) check the microwave and cooking aspect. d) check the distance from the place of work

What prompted me to write this article has been some of the best and worst places I have lived in my travels so far. I would like to dedicate this article to 2 homes away from home I have discovered during my travels - 1 in Ipswich and 1 in Leeds. These 2 apartments made me really feel comfortable with their ambience and they are the most recommended by me to everyone around me.

1) Villa Melagrano, 338 Felixstowe Road, Ipswich
2) Vista Serviced Apartments, Leeds

I will keep updating this list as I bump into nice staying places like these :-)

Diwali Wishes!

Here comes the great festival of lights once again, in all it's splendour, colour and taste. The time for the tongue to make merry, the eyes to feast and the ears to work overtime hearing all types of crackling noises! :-) The time for new clothes, new ornaments and celebration!

Even while everybody is enjoying this festive ocassion there is a thought that does not escape - There are still so many people out there waiting to live life in its true form. There is still so much poverty in this country. The number of accidents is going higher each year. Needless conflicts and rifts are damaging lives and property. The recent financial slowdown has imposed its own set of challenges that need to be dealt with. In the midst of all this, we wish our family and friends a Happy Diwali.

How ironic. Or is it?

Indeed this Diwali needs to bring happiness and help our world become a better place to live for everyone. Deepawali truly needs to enlighten us and help all of us to think right, act right, take the right decisions at the right time. Or else the time to act would pass. Truly, may this Diwali make everyone's life happier, easier and brighter.

Engineering truth into reality

The current trend on television is reality talent hunt shows; where the audience gets the right to vote for the winner. The trend is also to see knowledgable judges on the shows repeatedly advising audiences and explaining the virtue of voting for the right candidate and the right talent. To help audiences take the right decisions, knowledgable people on the shows express their opinions too. However we see some of the best talent getting eliminated earlier than expected and not being able to get their true due. Perhaps, if these shows were judged by "judges" and not by "voting audiences" we may have seen different people wearing the crown? Perhaps. That brings us to the question this article aims to meditate upon - How could one possibly engineer "correctness" into reality outcomes? Could there be a method that helps us to consistantly laud true talent even in reality shows that are based on votes from a large and varied audience?


To do this, let's try to identify why most shows today favor the "audience" vote based evaluation method from a "judge" based evaluation method.


First and foremost, there is no questioning the fact that the ROI in this business model is higher than the judge based evaluation method. The amount of background work that goes into hunting talent across cities and small towns is also possible only due to this added revenue. This ROI reflects clearly in the value of awards the winners receive. So, to start with everything is spot-on - viz. True talent is being identified irrespective of small town, big town, caste, class or creed , being given the opportunity to be showcased and nurtured during the show and being appreciated in the end with the right kind of reward; a reward that fosters the talent on its way to prosperity & iconicity.

It is ironic then, that when the fundametals of the audience-votes-based-reality-show-model are weighed in truth and values; yet, in the end we find truly deserving talent wanting to reach the pedestal, and having to take the harder path.

We lose the game when the ball falls in the hands of the audiences. Favorites emerge and eventually getting audiences to vote for the winner is expected to provide a "pilot-taste" of "audience loyalty" for the showcased talent. It would be interesting to study if the magnitude of audience loyalty for the winners demonstrated in the "pilot" carries itself and multiplies beyond the talent show in cases where the best talent is dropped before the pinnacle.

So is there a technique that could bring sanity into the outcomes of mass voting?
If the regions from where the contestants hail was not known to the audiences we could perhaps reduce regional bias from voting audiences. Further would we be better if the first few rounds of eliminations of purely musical talent shows took place via media like the radio - so that visual bias could be minimized in the first few rounds of elimination at least. Should the number of votes sent through a single device for a single contestant be limited to a predefined maximum - Yes this impacts straight on revenues :-) Perhaps a weighted average should be taken across all elimination rounds for each contestant to decide on the elimination? Perhaps we also need some weight to be associated with the judges views in the calculation for the ultimate winner. Should audiences be asked to "vote out" rather than "vote in" - This could impact revenues too :-) Perhaps there should be a combination of vote outs and vote ins allowed and the combination should be used to eliminate?

Indeed, there is quite a bit of maths, science and statistics that should go into engineering truth into outcomes of reality talent search. Today we have a multitude of voting based talent searches on reality tv; what will set a particular talent hunt apart and help its brand value will be a mechanism that is able to help the best talent forward; because Truly, we all want to laud real talent !