Silly Ideas & a Silly world

Post Quota Regime - India in 2017 - A Creative Insight !

2006-06-06T23:00:00.000+05:30

How would india be in 2017 ? Tha is in the Post-Quota Regime ? Lets have a Look.
But, Before that a disclaimer : Its purely imagination & there is absolutley no intention to hurt the feelings of anyone. This blogspace is just for entertainment & not for serious feelings!

Scene-1

Interviewer : So Neeta tell me who’s the new education minister in Kerala ?

Neeta : Dhae…Dhaeee…Dhaeeee…B..DhaeeBee (she says Devi)

Interviewer : Neeta, who won the world cup cricket in 2002 ?

Neeta : Auj..aauj..traa…Lee…aaa Auj-trea-lia (sounding Australia)

Interviewer : Neeta, what is Sodium Chloride ?

Neeta : Chaa..chaa..chaaltu..chaaltu (sounding Salt)

Interviewer: Ok. Neeta can proceed to appear for a psychometric test in Room # 21 and after that attend a stress Interview with Prof Bhushan Yang at 10.00 am in Rool # 23.

Who is Neeta ? Yes, You wrongly guessed it !!

Neeta is a 2 year old kid (from General Category) who is seeking admission in Lower KG for the academic year 2018-19. And interviewer is a principal of a Reputed school. All Neeta has to do to get a seat is to be updated on all possible GK in the world, be updated on who's who of the world and the latest status of Arcelor-Mittal race. And it all that ends well, pay 3 lakhs Rupees donation too.

So simple for a 2 yr old, isn't it ? And in 2034, she might even take an entrance test. Who knows ?

Scene-2

CAT admissions for IIMs A,B,C A-1,A-2,B-2,C-2,L,I,K,…P,Q,R,S,T,W,Z

(Just 55 more new IIMs to be expected by then - One in every India city)

Professor : Arun whats ur CAT percentile ?

Arun (General Category) : 99.999999999999999

Professor : How many nines after ninety-nine in your percentile ?

Arun : 15 sir !!

Professor : 15 ? Good. Ok. You are waiting list # 23. All the best !!

Professor : Pallavi, whats your CAT percentile ?

Pallavi : 99.999999999999998

Professor : How many nines after 99 ?

Pallavi : 14 nines and one eight sir.

Professor : Hmm..difficult..waiting list # 2056. good luck. prepare better next year. We want only top performing students in our institutes..

Now cracking CAT is not the objective for students of 2017. They need to focus on getting maximum number of Nines after 99 in their percentile. If you score 98 or 97, you can forget MBA. Or instead apply for a licence for starting a new IIM in mount road Chennai or MG Road Trissur and become its director. That may be easier.

Scene-3

Mckinsey doing Campus Interview in one of the 55 IIMs

Mckinsey : So Kumar, tell me whats 7*3, I repeat, Seven multiplied by three.

Kumar : 7*3 ? I mean..err..eerr…mm…mmm…is it 19 ?

Mckinsey (among themselves whispers) : I thinks its quota person

Mckinsey : Next person please !!

Mckinsey : Yes, Vivek, whats your full name ?

Vivek : Vivek Iyer

Mckinsey : Iyer ??? SELECTED !! Obvious because Vivek would have had atleast 23 nines after 99 in his CAT percentile.

It takes hardly 20 seconds for an intelligent recruiter to select candidates. So imagine how much they can save in terms of Time.

Scene-4

A new proposal by the then HRD Minister, Yudhistir Singh

Yudhistir:

“We, here by propose to introduce a new reservation Bill in the parliament for seeking 7.23 % reservation in every educational institution in India for General Candidates. General candidates, as per the recent statistics are deprived of higher education these days General Category constitute of 43.44 % of youth and it is really important that for India to be a super power, It should be more socially responsible and pay more attention to the upliftment of these deprived categories. “

And the then Finance minister Q.D says : “Reservation based on caste creates imbalance and causes income inequality. And all reservations should be based on Social & Economical parameters. "

Ps- And in 2017, General Category would be the deprived minority..right ?

Scene-5

A film shooting set in 2017 for the remake of Yes-Boss part-2

Director to the then Super star : Please do it again
Super star fails to act properly...

Director : RE TAKEEE....
Superstar again fails to act properly

Director : REETAAAKE....
superstar again fails to act properly

Why is our hero not performing well ? what could be the Reason ? Govt Introduced quota Bill in Film Indsutry also. While making a film, Every General Category Film Director has to Reserve the hero's role for reservation category people and Vice-versa.

Similarly in music - The music director or the lead singer has to be from the reservation category.

Scene-6

The new clause 49 of SEBI in 2017 reads:

Independent Directors should constitute 75% of the Board of Directors. And 66.67 % of Independent directors should be from reserved category.

If Chairman is a general category, then atleast 80% of directors should be from reservation category.

If chairman is from reservation category, a maximum of 30% of directors could be from general category.

Scene-7

A few more ideas from this humble MBA to the current ministers :

1) Introduce Quota in Railway resevation for reserved category. (For e.g. 80% second class sleeper berths reserved for them, 10 % for ministers, 5% for railway employees, 3% emergency quota and remaining 2% for first come first serve)

2) Introduce Quota in Public Toilets (either put a cap on the number of usages by a general category - like 2 times a day maximum usuage for general category or allow them to use only a selected few toilets in the outer city limits)

3) Introduce Quota in giving phone connection, driving licence and ration cards (For e.g General category can only have one of these - either an MTNL phone or a driving licence or a ration card)

4) Introduce Quota in Film industry for Actors, Actresses, Musicians

5) Introduce Quota in City roads. Define which all roads for which all category

6) Reseve 66.67% of bedrooms in every new flat/apartment for reserved category families. If its a 1 BHK, then the family buying the flat has an option of either leaving the kitchen or the bathroom for reserved category.

Now the Mega one :

7) Introduce Quota in Reproductive rights. Every 1 birth allowed for general category parents for every five births in reservation category. If both parents are from general category, a maximum of one baby is allowed or a maximum of 7 unprotected sexual encounters for the couple allowed, which ever lapses earlier.

silver lining : If you wanna have more babies, atleast one parent has to be from reservation category !!

Scene-7

The new president of BCCI at 2017 too introduced a new Bill

"For Indian Cricket Team playing outside india, atleast 9 of the 14 players have to be from reserved category. If Tendulkar or Dhoni is included, all other players have to be from reserved category. "

"While Playing in India, If they plan in Non-metroes, all players have to be from reserved category..If they play in metroes, the Umpires too have to be from the reserved category"

etc..etc..etc.................

Now my creative juices have exhausted. So, whats your take ? Good day ! Please share your comments.

Happy Vishu, Tamil New Year, folks !!

2006-04-13T22:33:00.001+05:30

Wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous vishu, & Tamil New year.

have a good day.

MBA blues, Common-sense versus Concepts..

2006-04-08T10:16:00.000+05:30

Quite often, there are times when the best of brains fail miserably. An act of common-sense when required, would not occur. Where we need concepts, we use common-sense and where we need common-sense, we use concepts. It is quite interesting to see this happening most in B-schools :-) Its where we make most mistakes and learn from them.

Arun

Act 1 : Human Relations & Blues

“….. so that’s about the fall of automobile giant Daimler-Chrysler.. How to Turn them around is what is expected out of you” The professor asked the class.

A minute of silence among the MBA students. Everyone looked at one another. What the big CEO and Presidents of DCX failed to do is going to be pointed one by one by the students. But before even others could start, there was one hand which rose. ”Sir Can I ?”. It was Venkat Raman, the smarty-brainy of the class.

He continued, “The co-ordination time between the Top and Middle management was bad in DCX. Whilst the local managers believed in more independence, the global managers wanted the Local presidents to adopt the global strategies and be less National in nature. The lady Head of France, for example was in-particular stubborn about the international change management. Altogether a weak Human Resource and Relationship aspect caused DCX to fail. Human relations need careful attention is a company of that size..”

“Excellent Venkat. Fantastic. Venkat has the potential to be a good HR Manager..His way of analysing Human Relationships are good” said the professor.

“He has said it all – to the point. Class dismissed now”

Now After lunch, Venkat is found worried. He takes his mobile phone, dials a number. Cuts it. Dials again. Again Cut. He approached his friend Pritesth and asked a question for which he could never find an answer.

He asked, “Pritesh, I Have a doubt..”
Pritesh : Yes go ahead
Venkat : I mean..err….should I take Sunaina out or not today ?
Pritesh : take her out man. What a question ? Call her now itself
Venkat : what if she says No.

Pritesh : It’s a part of the game..why should she say no ?

Venkat : the other day at 2.30 pm I called her for movie at 6.00. she said she’s busy and asked me if we could go for a 3.15 show…I couldn’t go as I was not prepared for such a short notice. Now I do not know if she’ll come or not. I am not able to understand her “

Pritesh : why were you not prepared ? you had some work ?
Venkat : No..I need 2 hrs of time before meeting her. Otherwise I’ll not be able to speak to her. I feel lost in front of her.

Act 2 : South-East and North-west Union & blues”

Another lecture the next day. Here Venkat analyses the Singapore Monetary Authority case and comes up with strategy for Containing Inflation, improving Real Exchange Rates. He gave the remedies for south-east asian crisis fall out and cited the examples of north-west American economy’s and middle-east’s efficient policy management.

Professor commented, "Venkat can be a good global manager. His sense of economics and regional blocs are excellent"

And evening he’s found worried again. (as usual)

He asks Pritesh, “How to reach Chakkala Cigarrette factory”.
Pritesh : Catch a 225, get down at Delight hotel stop, walk Eastwards to the Church, turn right & walk straight.
Venkat : Chakkala is in west or east ?
Pritesh : Its in Andheri east. And we are in Parla west.
Venkat : But how do I know I’ve reached andheri east or not ?

Pritesh : The Delight bus stop is in east only.
Venkat : But we are in west na ?
Pritesh : yeah. We are in west and chakkala is in east. 225 will go from west-to-east.

Venkat : Then why do you say I have to walk east-wards ?
Pritesh : The church is in east. So you have to walk east wards
Venkat : But you said bus will go to east. So why should I walk east-wards ?
Pritesh : East words from the delight stop ? get it ?

Venkat : Even after 2 years in Bombay, I find east-west funda confusing. I’ll take a taxi only. Bombay drives me craaaazy.

Act 3 : Finance and Valuation Blues

Another lecture the next day. Here Venkat prepared valuation strategy for an IT firm based on its earnings, potential cash flows, dividend strategy and market performance. Finally he arrived at a figure of 13.4 $ billion which was the most close to his professor's valuation estimate of 14.2 $ billion. Professor proud of him and fellow students tired of him.

But in the evening there was something interesting again

Mom : Venkat, get me 2 kg of Tomatoes and 1 kg potatoes.
Venkat : Yes amma

(Venky back after a good 20-25 mintes)

Mom : why venkat, why so late ?? that too just go downstairs and come ??
Venkat : Amma, that vendor is a cheat..

Mom : why what happened ?
Venkat : He asked 40 rupees for a Kg of potato. I had to bargain with him for 10 minutes to reduce the price to 35 rupees. I said 30 and finally we both agreed on 35.

Mom : WHAAAT… 35 rupees for a kilo of potatoes ????

(Mom gets the shock of the day)

(Mom, though sad, opens the bag of Rs. 35 kg

potato only to find them all rotten too)

(Mom faints)

Act 4 : Information Technology Blues

Another happening day at College. Here Venkat spoke about the ERP implementation at HP. He talks about the Oracle Financial module, how it supported GAAP, Sarbanes-oxley and other things à taxation intricacies, book of accounts, ledgers etc. ERP professor impressed by venkat and class mates, as usual, wonder stuck at his performance.

Evening Time. Again interesting.

Dad : Venkat, I need your help
Venkat : Yes pappa.
Dad : Son, I’ll give you my salary details, investment details of the year..

Venkat : (wondering) : why pappa ?
Dad : “Can you, using your laptop & excel sheet, quickly calculate how much my tax outgo works out to be ?”

Venkat : Oh sure pappa.
Dad : Dad gives him all the details (just 3 or 4 figures he gives altogether– income, expenditure, investment and savings)

Venkat takes a Big book titled “Income Tax in India” and opens his laptop. Time flies. 2 hours, 3 hours .4 hours. Does macros in excel, does cell formulas, graphs...Dad wonders what is going on. Finally after 5 hours and 35 minutes Venkat says, “Dad you Income tax will come to 1.83452 Lakh rupees.”

And dad says “Venkat, my gross salary is only 2 lakh rupees. Good night.”

Knowledge of When to use Common-sense and when to use Concepts makes a good manager.

ps- It is just a hypothetical case i've made here. No offense to anyone. Its just purely a work of imagination. Have a good day.

How is this photo, son ? She's beautiful Right ??

2006-03-29T09:03:00.000+05:30

"How is this photo my beta. She is beautiful right ?"

Mom asks her beta while showing a girl's color-photo picked out from her diary. This is one of the first questions a concerend mom would ask her "available" beta when she feels her nanna-munna-beta has finally "come-of-age" for marriage purposes. She, even before asking her beta's opinion, would first advertise his profile in one of those communitiy matrimonial circle manazines and collect profiles & photos of available girls around. Then, Based on her perceptionsof the prospective Bahu traits, looks and screening she'd hand-pick a few of these profiles. Once this homework is done she'd introduce the Topic of marriage to his son with one of these photos.

Typically, she thinks her "innocent-beta" would not allow her proceed with the pre-marriage tasks as she feels he'd be "very-happy" being single and would even want to concentrate more on his "career" before thinking about settling down. So this innocent mom would first get the photos and then try to "entice" her betaa with these photos and a quick 2 minute summary of these girls - "five-six tall aakkum !! very fair, Nice character..works as manager in Citibank. Music lover aakkummam"

While our mom is busy with these pre-marriage tasks, seldom she knows about the latent thoughts running on in her "naive-beta's-gullible-mind". As we know, He would typically be obsessed with "Post-marriage" tasks. And a typicalmetro born "naive-beta" would have just had about 13 proposals, 3-5 acceptances, 37 dates and 5-6 broken-heart experiences until now.And his mom knows none of these stories. Finally when none of these "extra-curriculars" works out, the beta would wait for his mom to start "co-curricular" activities.

He'd have cursed his mother silently for atleast 2 years for not starting looking for him. But after the long long wait when his mom pokes a photograph of a pretty looking lady on to his face and asks the question, he'd play a TOM-CAT, would blush, look down, draw semi-circles with his toes and say "Mamma..i dont want to marry now"...

A typical beta would never admit that he wants to marry. Rather he creates a scenario where he gives out the message that he is agreeing to the marriage only under the immense PRESSURE put on him by his parents. Here is how it goes :

Let the time now be 8.15 am. Our beta is getting ready to leave for work. That is the time our mamma shows a photo to him. The girl looked bad,and had a below-expectation type profile. So our beta shouts at his MOM :

"HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE TOLD NOT TO LOOK FOR ME NOW ?"..YOU DONT UNDERSTAND...I HAVE TO PLAN A CAREER..A LIFE..I NEED TIME..2 YEARS TIME.."

At 8.30 AM when our beta is just done with the breakfast and when mom feels he's cooled down, she shows another photo --> This time an above-average profile. And a better looking girl. Our Betaa smiles this time, blushes and says softly:

"Oh..amma..i need just some more time before marriage..just..u see..I am working..i need to be focussed..wait for 2-3 months..".

And when at 8.45 am, mom shows a sweet girl's picture (resembling Mallika Sherawat), the guy yields to "pressure" --> First smiles, then controlls smile and then blushes. He'd pretend not to have seen that photo at all (He's definitely noticed the mallika like part though) and say politely :

"If you all want me to marry, then..then..I needed somemore time...but. i'll agree..go ahead..whatelse can i do?..."

Then comes the "formally-seeing-the-girl" part. Son, accompanied by his dad & mom, eldest brother of dad, elder sister of mom and Broker goes tothe girl's house. On the way in the car our betaa would have, by now, gauged the best of features of the girl like a super-intelligent computer.Based on that single photograph of the girl he has seen, our son would have fantasized the girl in atleast three different dresses, hair-styles and fashions. And finally when the girl's dad calls his daughter out to the living room to meet everyone, Betaa realises that the photo he's seen was atleast 2 years old ! And like the India's GDP calculation, the projected estimate (36-28-34) is no where near the actual figure (34-32-36).

By the time he could re-estimate his calculations, imaginations and have another round of self-satisfaction-survey (typically a profile matching execrcise where he'd see if the earlier projected estimate could bere-estimated to fit with actual figure) , his dad & her dad have realised that they have a common close friend. His Mom & her mom have just realised that MoM #1's 2nd cousin's husband's sister was married to Mom #2's sister-in-law's brother-in-law. Also the Girl's naani was the first to recollect the family name of our Betaa's Naana. Now its a real dead-lock --> Even if Betaa wants to get off this marriage, he cannot.And he has to again "yield" to pressure - This time literally.

After consulting with all his friends, our son finally assures himself that 34-32-36 with a Job in ICICI is finally manageable. They (friends) tell him aboutthe intangible aspects of a woman like personality, Behavior etc (Though its a fact that the friends have themselves gone by "numbers" eventually). Finally, they both start sending emails and decide to start dating. And he accepts the fact that Not everyone can be mallika sherawat. There areother heroines too in India.

After-all, according to his imaginations, except for the VitalStatistix, everything else about her (personality, Body Lang, pomp, attitude) is just perfect. Its again similar to how Govt concludes on how "India Is shining" despite poor numbers like fiscal deficit, suicidal rates, Below-poverty-line-% etc). And corporate India goes only by "Numbers". No wonder why the latter is more successful.

During his first date He realises that her english is accented & Body Language

is bad (personality test failed). And she realises that he doesnt take bath.

During the second date he realises that she wears only sarees or salwar-kameez. (fashionability test failed). And she realises that he doesn't know to drive a bike.

During the third date he realises that she eats only vegetarian & would never visit a Pub or Bar. And she realises that he's not a first-timer in Dating.

During the fourth date he realises that she can never miss a friday fast or a monday temple visit. And she realises that He can never miss a friday mumbai-disc or sunday pune-disc.

During the fifth date he realises that she wants him to quit smoking and drinking. And she realises he wants her to start doing both.

During the sixth date he realises that her family is Keen to get married to him immediately. And she realises his family has already fixed up the date of marriage.

---------------- Marriage Takes Place ------------------------

--------- Thats a typical Iyer marriage shown above ------

After 1 week into marriage he realises she's not even Mamta kulkarni - forget Mallika sherawat. And she realises that he's salman khan without fitness. (In classical mathematical way, Salman - Fitness approximately (or tends to) is equal to ZERO)

Yet...Yet...After 1 month he & she realises she's carrying :-). But how ? :-) :-)

After 1 year, they realise they are three - Not two anymore.

Yet...They complete silver, golden Jubiless together as a happily married & settled couple.

Yet..people around call it the perfect marriage and term them "made-for-each-other"

Ofcourse there's another story on what the Girl realises about Guy at different stages. But that could be more Nasty to write here! So in this successful relationship, Neither the "numbers" worked well. Nor the Intangibles. "Marriage is all about compromises" --> People say !! But when everything is against expectations, can we call it a "compromise" ?

Good day to you & If single, good wishes too !

Movies & Me : A Retrospective Introspection !

2006-03-05T00:38:00.000+05:30

As a part of Euphoria contest :

7.00 am ! I take my shaving razor, smear foam on my all over face, take my scissors, switch on the wash basin light, look at the mirror...And then do what next immediately ? If your answer is "you shave", then you are wrong. The next step is the most importantstep to me ! I start "thinking". But what ? Now I take strategic decisions to choose among the various options I have - whether to have Amir khan's Dil Chahta hain goatee,or go for charlie cahplins shortie, ajay devgan's frenchie and Hariharan's Longee. Influence of movie isn't it ? Partly yes. And partly thanks to the "all adopting" flexible audience (my dearest class mates) who tolerate all my styles. That's at 7.00 am inthe morning.

Then at 7.30am when I am out of the bathroom, I take TOI. But which page ? From that one kilogram bunch the paper walla leaves at my door, My hands know where to look for "Bombay Times". I read the bollywood masala first before attempting to see what Bush has done to India during his visit. Then Inspired by one of the Partying film star and based on the availability of suitable matches in my wardrobe, I decide upon what dress to wear to college. Influence of Movies ? Partly yes ! And partly because I havea semi-flexible body ( U know ? My body is superb except for a pretty-dark complexion and a less-than-noticable tummy. Now even if other people notice my tummy, I assure you that I never notice it) which goes with any kind of dress unless it is tight to reveal the curves of my body. And yes, I have full faith in the new "Fair & Handsome"..Thanks to Emami to understand the latent needs of people like me !

Then what next ? Travelling to college. How ? By train. With ? With 98.3 Red FM and RadioCity !! Here is when I listen to whats happening around @ the Bollywood music.Here I easily step into the shoes of Sonu Nigam. My friends have said that If for a minute you play the song loudly (say "Tanhayee Tanhayee" from Dil chahta hain) in a Bose System & see the expressions of my face,You'd actually think that I have acted in the movie & have sung the song. But Now if you switch off the "Bose" without my knowledge, You'd hear a loud,Rough voice with the same lyrics - but just that it almost resembles a speaking tone. But they'd Caution you : Never stop the "Bose" when a "high-pitch" part is going on in the song ! And many a times my fellow passengers have requested me never to board their compartment with my FM 98.3 on. I sincerely donno why. I do sing well yaar ! Where ever I have sung, people start clapping continuously even before I start the 2nd line of the song. Isn't that appreciation ?

Now a bit serious talk:

"An MBA student, from a premier institute".For most of us this one lineof introduction is self-contained. Our intelligence, our smartness,our personality and our learnability is all reflected in this single line. It makes others take certain thinks granted about us. About our life.

People say MBA changes a person. Yes !! B-school does influence you. For 2 years. But Take this example - If you stay in U.S.A for a year, their culture would definitely influence you. But your own culture- the culture of your society, in which you've been living for decades, forms a part of your DNA itself !! And it is embedded deep in your sub-conscious mind. MBA just plays a "packaging" role on you. Deep with in, you arethe same old you.

I repeat : It no longer influences you -> But rather it is in your DNA. It helps you adopt other cultures. It's like this - while U.S.A culture affects you conscioulsy, Your indian culture affects you sub-consciously - which your logicalmind is never aware of !!!

And now when I do MBA and people see me through that lens. But what the seemingly ignore is my DNA - For they do not know that i've been watching atleast 3-4 movies every week for last 20 years. Now you can guess which would have influenced me more ? Movies or MBA ? Thats an introspection detailed in this B-log.

For Shah-Rukh-Khan, it was an act of mad-in-love for "Paro" in "Devdas" - Drinking hard and Dying. He was paid crores of rupees for doing that. But for me "Devdas" was something much more - The emotion of losing my love, the emotion of our separation. Hasn't that movie influenced me ? Yes.

For Lata Mangeshkar, "Solaa baraaz ki baali umar ko salaam" , a song from "Ik duje keliye", was an award winning experince. But does she know that I have watch it even now 2 times a month ? Even today when i see it, It reminds me of my long lost love when i was 16, the gali where we spent time, the Road leading to library, the temple were we met and a host of other things. Has not this movie influenced me ? Yes! a lot !

When Amir Khan Tried to protest against the Government and its mis-deeds, it reminded me ofthe day when one of my close friends was denied justice and was imprisoned for the misdeeds of a local politician. My friend blew the whistle, But he became the victim too. You find it Similar to Satyendra Dubey Case ? Who knows what would happen to the journalist who have come out in public siting Amar singh and Bipasha. Doesn't all these things affect us daily ? Yes! Yes. Yes.

Have not Kaala Pani, Ambedkar, Mangal Pandey taught me more history than even my Historyteacher did in my high school ? Didn't they teach me about the invaluable sacrificesthat our freedom fighter made ? Yes. Did Not "Bombay" teach me more about Ayodhyarelated riots and did not Roja & Dil se teach me what terrorism is all about ?Did not "Border" make me realise that I am alive today because some-one died for meat Kargil ? Yes, ofcourse !!

When after a tight day's work, when i sit on my couch in a pensive mood, wouldn't Jim Carry or Charlie chaplin make me laugh like hell and relive my stress out ?Yes. yes. Did not Baghban show us how our parents could suffer because of a changein life-style in our generation ?

Didn't Swades teach me more about Rural Life, consumers & Markets ? And did notsalaam namste teach me how India would be in another 20 years ? Did not Jurassicpark teach me about the God's own creatures of 1000 BC ? Did not lagaan teach methe importance of being deadly-passionate ? Did not Titanic tell me that Love has no barriers ? Did not the movies teach us about under-world ? About Red-street where poor mothers sell every inch of theirbodies for feeding their babies ? About Aids ? About Earth-Quakes & the victims who losteverything ? about volcanoes ? About Social Responsibilities ?

Does not movies create an urge with in Us to achieve something ? Do not they provoke us to stand-up for the right thing ? Do not they teach us about values, ethics ? Every movie has something great to learn from within it.

To conlclude, Movies to play an important role in designing our attitude, our behaviorand our perceptions. But It all depends on the breadth and depth of movies we watch. One must stick on to the better movies around and should have an open mind to learnthe good things one could from all these movies. A wrong choice of movies would onlylead to negative traits inculcated and wastage of Money !

Valentine's day Memoirs 1970's : Unexpressed, Yet Sincere

2006-02-16T22:40:00.000+05:30

As usual I rushed to Borivali bus-stop, took a share auto and reached Borivali station at 7:55am. I waited there to board 8:03 am ChurchGate slow. The second class compartment was fairly crowed that day. As usual, I took out my DNA Money and started going through the latest news. Thats when I noticed a specially excited speaking tones of a few regulars who take the 8:03 slow. All of them board the same train regularly and are in their late 40's or early 50's.

Generally the start off with some political or economical news. Then they would end-up blaming up one of the ministers or political parties. Similarly on other days, they would start off with the new Honda Activa one of them bought and slowly discuss the fuel efficiency of vehicles, cost , tax and so on.

But this day they seemed pretty excited. Their speaking tones were a little energy-filled & a bit thrilled. The discussion started with the Red-Tinted shirts two of them had worn of that day. Then they started teasing those two gentlemen about the "Red-Means-I am-Available" sign in their dressing. "Gosh!!". Only then it occured to me that It was the Valentine's day. I listened to them more carefully. "My Bank Colleagues have decided to come in Red or Pink shirts to office today to celebrate V-day" One of them said. Immediately shot back the other man seemingly in his 50's : "Its not that bank colleagues have asked. But one particular colleague of him should have asked...who's she Kumar sahab ??". And all other burst into laughter.

Then they went back to 1970's, 1977's, 1981's when each of them were at their prime youths. Mr. Kumar (all names changed) spoke about how he used to follow a particular lady daily on his 8.15 am bus from Vile Parle to Mahim. He used to daily wait for that bus to see this particular lady. "I liked her very much" recalled Mr.Kumar. After a minute of silence & with a
relatively sincere agony expression on his face, he continued, "But from one day in september 1977 I never saw her. I tried many buses of different timing the next few days, But never saw her later.." All of them were silent for a minute.

"Tab to e-mail hee nahin hota !! " Exclaimed Mr. Verma. He recalled how he used to write a letter daily to his would-be wife after they got engaged. He recalled that one post-card costing 15 paise daily was his investment on love. "Aaj ke bache-bachi tho SMS aur e-mail karte hain. Ik hi minute main pahunch jaate hain. when i wrote post-cards, it took 4 days to reach my native place in Karnataka."

I was wondering how sincere and committed they were in their relationship. I could see honesty all over in their love-affairs. They never had or have the luxury of Candle lit dinner or diamond rings to express their loves. For them silence was key mode of expression. And love was sincere - though short. In those days (including my dad), they had to struggle hard to get a permanent job in a bank or a govt office. And half of their salary they had to send back home to support their families. Yet they were young and they too had feelings. But stomach & hunger ruled
their living. And they were immensively god and dad fearing. Today, youngsters including me, fall back upon their earnings to buy diamond rings to our valentines and celebrate the V-day on Feb-14. And our fathers, with a melancholic or pensive mood, enjoy their bit of nostalgic past in 8:15 churchgate slow wearing a Red-shaded shirt.

Good de. enjoy !!

eMBArkment of an MBA : Placement Blues.

2006-01-23T20:23:00.000+05:30

Mr. Anand Nair, A Typical final year student of a Typical A rated B-school in the country. Like Every MBA entrant does in first year, Anand too was confused in the first year in regards to what specialization to go for and what electives to take.

He was damn sure about only one thing - Never return to IT industry - for anand has worked in a top-notch IT Firm for a good 3.5 years. And his MBA plan was all about decoding from his Coding life. And to try his "hands" on another field.

While he could use only his "fingers" while with the IT firm - for Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V (copy & paste), He now wanted to upgrade himself from "fingering" to "hands on".

While freshers admired him for his "rich" work-ex, professors liked his analysis. In short, a "heavy-weight" in campus. As written in One of my earlier blogs, Throughout the first year, Anand fickled between choosing Marketing, Finance, Operations & HR for his specialization.
Finally after a lot of contemplation, he zeroed in on taking FINANCE in the second year.

Thanks to IIMs making news all over - He decided to target the "Investment Banking"(IB) sector for his future career after MBA. He thought only IB could do justice to his "most-sought-after" CV in the campus. While he hated IT, he rebuked selling. When he described marketing as mere "common sense", he described Operations as monotonous. while HR was what everyone did on a day-to-day basis, Investment Banking, according to him, was challenging, happening and what not ?

From then, he walked like Lehman, Talked like Goldman, ate Barclays, wore SBI Caps and talked Duetsche. 3 mnths passed by and he got himself used to the Fundamentals of IB. Thus, A person "per-se" well qualified for becoming a CIO (information) now poised himself for becoming a CIO(Investments).

Placement week came. CGPA 3.12. 41.2 months work-ex in IT firm. Summers in International Trade. Good CV. Good Photo.

Now our man applied to all the IB firms mentioned above. While Goldman looked for a "golden" (read relevant) work-ex, Lehman looked for a "layman" (read fresher). While Barclays wanted a CA , Duetsche a wanted a good CA with GP in it. (read CGPA). Just 4 copies of his "sought-after" resume went to Bins (dust-bin) at 4 different geographical regions.

That left him with only SBI Caps. He applied. His CV was shortlisted. He went for PPT. They discussed the salary figure. His face turned red..."whhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaat ???. Just 'X.5' lakhs ????. ITC, for a fresher, gave Y.34 Lakhs. then why me getting just X.5 ????. Only a 10+ figure could ever do justice to me."

Then and there, on the spot, he decided to step-back. The result of it --> 3 or 4 of his friends
got through in SBI Caps. And Investment Banking placements closed. Day 0 Placements over.

Day 1 starts the next day with a few consulting companies and Banks. That night, he changed his startegy too. He, in less than 10 minutes, scrapped all his IB plans and re-invigorated the "consultant" in him. And he borrowed and read about "All about consulting in 6 hours" for next 4 hrs.

BCG shortlisted him the next say and he sat in the cabin for interview.

BCG : Why Consulting ?
Anand : IT experience. IB knowledge. IM (International-Marketing) electives. IT (International-Trade) Summer project. So i am comfortable with all functions. hence consulting.

BCG : which area you want to be in consulting ?

(saying thanks to the library book, anand continues)
Anand : M&A, "Entry" Strategy (??), Strategic based Risk Management, Due-diligence studies.

BCG : Why BCG ?
Anand : BCG is the biggest conultancy in the area of Market Based strategies. It is the dream of every MBA all over the world. They have branches in 17 locations. Yesterday they acquired Artesz-Deita Consulting. This would make them biggest in CRM consulting.

(Interviewers were surprised - this guy knows more than we do about ourselves..)

BCG : Wow ! great anand.
BCG : How do you know so much about BCG ?

Anand : last 2 years I slogged only for getting into BCG. Its my fist love. Its my passion. Its my..my...everything.

BCG : (impressed) Lets move to questions.

BCG : Why did you think Jet acquired Sahara ?
Anand : To expand air-network...and use the brand sahara ?

BCG : To expand market share ?? to use "sahara"...are you sure ???
Anand : (ASSertive face) err..i mean...to add value....to unlock potential..to widen customer base..

BCG : What value ??
Anand: (avoiding face) err...(coughs)..i mean...to create synergy..

BCG : What synergy ?
Anand : err...umm...to move from 1st quandrat to 4th in BCG Matrix

BCG : What quAdrant ?
Anand : (thinks)...yeah...cow to dog..and from to rabbit to..err..the moon.

BCG : The Stars or the moon ?
Anand : Moon. Its Moon.

BCG : All the best Anand. Take Care. Next Candidate pleaaaase !!!
Anand : Thanks.

Now DTT came. They were looking at Tech Consultants. They liked his Resume and he liked their profile. After all "consultant" you see.

DTT : Tell me anand. What projects you did while at RCS ?
Anand : Database migration. From DB2 to Oracle.

DTT : whats the latest version of oracle ?
Anand : 7i is the latest version.

DTT : Now its 12i. In between there were 8i, 9i and 11i.
Anand : But while at RCS, imean, as on 1/1/04, it was 7i.

DTT : What is E-R diagram ?
Anand : Entity..err..err..entity...R..R....ruling diagram.

DTT : Ruling or Relationship ?
Anand : Am sorry..its relationship...correct..correct !

DTT : What is EI ?
Anand : I knew..I forgot..1 minute...Enterprise Interface ?

DTT : No ! Its enterprise Integration
Anand : Yeah..I knew it as on 1/1/04. Now after 2 years, lost touch.

DTT : Whats DTT ?
Anand : DDT is a ferlilizer cum pesticide.

DTT : What is DTT..not DDT.
Anand : Deloitte...TT..err..err.. I knew it when i was with RCS. but from 1/1/04, lost touch.

DTT : Whats the date today ?
Anand : 1/1/06

DTT : As on 1/1/04, i would have hired you. sorry anand. 1/1/06 is different.good bye.

Day 1 over. Consulting done. Now Day 2 sales & marketing Cos.

While he stepped into the shoes of a "children mind specialist" for perfetti interview, He capitalised on his dad's surgeon(MBBS, MD) degree for Novartis and GSK. While he explained the "Positioning" of stayfree to HLL in an interview, he answered the "BRAnding strategy" behind Kingfisher swim-suit calendars. While he explained the "ZERO" frill structure of Indian Airlines hostesses, he eagerly explained about the "value-added" "FULL" concept of Jet beauties. Sadly, all of them found anand too good for them to hire. Result --> Day 3 placements also closed.

Finally, in Day-4, he got a JOB in sales - to sell insurance products to people. While he was hoping to "travel" all over the state and sell insurance to "corporate HRs", he was finally assigned to sell "pension ++ stree saukyam" to ladies in the age group 50-55. From IT to IB to Insurance. At a package of X.5 - 0.35 = X.15

A journey of an MBA & Good day to you. Its just a hypothetical-next-to-door Student that i depicetd here. Let me get placed next year same time (1/1/07) to see there is any correlation

:-)

Capital Markets v/s Women : A comparison

2005-10-29T10:18:00.000+05:30

As a common man, I invest, whenever possible, in Capital Markets. And as a bachelor, I invest, whenever possible, on pretty women. I invest in a phased manner in the C-markets. And I invest in a phased manner on women too. So as an analyst, here are my findings:

C-markets, as we know is very unpredictable. Experts all around the world anaylse and research a lot. They then finalize about a "buy" or "sell" on the stock. And mostly, 99% of times, they'll be wrong. Similarly, people try to track the past behavior of a lady, factor in the current situation, give space for adjustments and finally try to predict (or extrapolate) her future behavior. And 99% of the times, they go wrong.

We can do either a fundamental analysis or a Technical analysis on a stock. Fundamental analysis concentrates on the background, industry growth, balance sheet analysis, capability of management and so on. Technical deals with Volatility, Volume and past trends. Similarly, we
can do the same for women also!! Here, In women, The Fundamental analysis deals with :

Quality of her manager - i.e. whats her husband, whats his character, how much he drinks, what's his job etc.
Balance sheet of house : How much is the combined income, what kind of car they have.
Her Background : How was she brought-up, what's her pyshcological past.

Technical analysis deals with her state-of-mind interploations, mood swing graphs, and mean/median of intensity of her emotions. Needless to say - just like the capital markets, a fundamentally strong lady may be technically weak and vice-versa - Thus leaving the investors in a confused or perplexed state.

Capital Markets are seasonal - Maximum volatility is seen around quarterly results period and festivals like diwali, X-mas. This is when lot of investors hang around the markets and speculate. Similarly, a lady is volatile around a few dates - the valentine's day when we do not praise them, Her birthday when we forget to wish her, and a fewmore other days like - Wedding anniversary, First meeting day - when they met first, First kissing anniversary - when they kissed , First proposing day etc etc. Lot of volatility is seen on a lady on these days depending on what positions the share-holders (husbands, BoyFriends) take.

The more money investors spend on the C-Markets, the more it Booms making the investors happy. But the moment you start pulling out your money, You had it - A big recession follows. Any different with a lady ??

Risk Management is of utmost importance in C-markets where you need to timely hedge against your open positions.This means - if you forget to sell Infosys shares on time - atleast have sell enabled in the futures market or a Put "Option" enabled. Similary, with a lady too, you got to have back-up plans, alternate options to mitigate the risk and keep her emotions steady.

This means that if you forget to wish her on her birthday in the morning, atleast buy her a gift immediately when she reminds you or gives hints about her birthday. Or If you forget to reach on time for a movie, do meet her only after atleast booking a table for a dinner in a nearby restaurant. Alternate "options" are a must in both these markets. You had it otherwise.

When market crashes, do not panic. Panicking makes you do unjudicious decisions which could further deteriorate the matter. Similarly, when a lady is volatile - dont panic. Just relax. Take your time and act prudently. Be it C-market or A lady, when the markets plummets, the best option available for the investor is to wait for sometime - Market will correct by itself. And lady by herself. But if we become impatient and do something - then a huge "LOSS" awaits you.

Though the Capital Markets are unpredicable by nature, its a must that you track them on a daily basis. Getting out of touch with the markets is the last thing one should be doing. Similarly, whether she's doing good or bad, watch her - Track her movements and observe her closely. One you are out of touch for a few days, you will never be able to make a wise move.

If you want to make quick-buck, go for a penny stock - a stock which is not surrounded by high volumes and speculations. If you buy ONGC shares, you have a lot of investors speculating around and your money will be vulnerable to decisions by FIIs and domestic mutual funds. But if you go for a penny stock at a modest price-earning ratio, you have less competition and are less vulnerable to bigger player's decision. While choosing a lady also, choose someone with lesser "players" around - the baber the babe you choose, the smarter the dudes around her - and these dudes, with their huge money supluses (like FIIs), would just get you out of the game overnight.

Finally, its your luck that matters - be it a C-Market or women. The luckeir your stars are, the happier you get. Analysing a lot in both these markets are not just worth the time. Tracking them constantly makes more sense and gives you better returns and opportunities. But on any given day I would assert that Capital Markets are less harmful compared to the lady market - and compared to a lady, they are less volatile too.

Now I have a question - Despite so much of similarities, Ladies dont understand Capital Markets and Capital Markets dont understand ladies. why is it so ? And we, the poor men, do not understand both. Have a nice day folks. keep smiling.

(images used are just for the purpose of representation.)

Warm Onam Wishes.

2005-09-14T08:49:00.000+05:30

Hello My dear Readers.

Have a warm and wonderful Onam. Onashamsakal !!

Onam denots the end of Monsoon and Beginning of another cultivation cycle in Kerala. Its falls in the month of "chingam" - the first month as per malayalam calendar. Onam is of historical significance too - The whole of kerala, under the Reign of the Asura (monster) king Mahabali, reached the pinnacle of prosperity, peace and love - Everyone had good money, good food and good clothing. It was when people stopped worshipping the gods and started following Mahabali Instead.

Jealous and Upset about the "paradigm shift" in people's mind, Vishnu - the supreme god, incarnated as Vamana - a 10 year old brahmin boy and approached mahabali. Upon seeing the little boy, the big-hearted Mahabali offered him a wish. The Boy begged for 3 foot of land. Mahabali yielded to that wish immediately. But then the boy grew so big !! So big that with One step of his, he covered the entire earth. With his second step he covered the heaven and the hell. And he asked mahabali where he could place his 3rd step.

Upon realizing that Vamana was none other than the lord, Mahabali bowed down his head and requested the lord to place his 3rd step on his head. Lord did that and Mahabali descended on to the hell aka pathala. Mahabali requested the lord to allow him visit his people (kerala-ites) once in a year and lord granted that wish.

And these 10 days of Onam denote that period of the year when Mahabali visits kerala. And people, to keep him happy, show signs of prosperity and peace which mahabali had established in kerala- People welcome him with floral carpets on their doors, wear new clothes, eat sumptous food and keep smiling.

Onam is a chance for Non resident Keralaites to come home and spend time with the near and dear ones - As usual, all trains, buses and flights to kerala are completely booked this time also.

These days its highly commercialised - With Cine star interviews etc on the TV, Mega hit movies and so on. I always wonder why one should listen to the silly stories/talks of film stars on divine days like Diwali or christmas or Onam. It glues the people on to the TV and Onam would then happen inside that stupid box.

Am stopping now. Wish you all a happy Onam. Have a good time.

From customers to Working Capital to JIT to IT. Managers we are !!

2005-08-27T22:08:00.000+05:30

"The sales are declining. The company is losing market-share. Competitors are
advertsing more. What should a responsible CEO of XYZ do ? " professor asked.

The whole class shouted in one voice : "A Responsible CEO should quit".
This is when the professors generally know that they should give us a break. Literally.

After the break, the class continued. Marketing professor continued, "You know guys. The Marketing is the 'most valuable' function of any organisation. Its the marketing department that knows the customer, his needs and his wants. Marketing department conveys the customer needs to the production dept which makes or re-designs the product as per customer needs. Marketing makes or breaks an organisation. Today lets talk about consumer behavior..".

We where overwhelmed with the newly acquired knowledge. We rolled up our sleeves and did our marketing assignments really well. We prepared strategies for HLL and P&G. Identified customer needs and analysed them sensitively.

:-)

Next day Finance professor came. "You know friends. Finance is the 'heart' of any organisation. An efficient Finance manager can analyse Cash flow, manage working capital and take proper resource and investment decision. Working Capital mgmt, Credit policies and Cash flow decides the profitability of an organisation. Tandon committee states that...."

One curious friend raised his question, " Sir. Marketing is the most important function, right ?"
Finance professor stopped. a minute of silence.

Professor : "what does marketing do ?"
Friend : "Understands customer.....needs...blah blah..."
Professor : "then why do companies fail ? why did XYZ fail, why did Matiz fail ? or Cielo ?"
Friend : "B'cos markets reacted differently"

professor : "So what did they study about customers ?"

friend : "Nothing !"
Professor : "Then what were their marketing departments doing ?"
Friend : "Nothing !"

Professor : "Thats what I also say. They do nothing!!!....Anything more ?"

friend : "Nothing !"
Prof contined, "lets continue..As per tandon committee..."

11.45 am. Class dismissed. We, ethused with the new concept, researched on RBI appointed Narasimham committe and its prudential norms for our assignment. like prudent students. with pride.
;-)

Next day the Operations professor came.

He started, "Operations, as you all know is the Core activity of any organization. It manufactures and delivers. Others - Finance, marketing and finance are all support functions...as per JIT philosophy...."

Our friend, " Sir. Isn't finance the most important aspect ? They analyse cash flow, prepare investment strategies and arrange for Working Capital financing ?"
Operations professor took a break from JIT. He smiled.

He continued, " Son ! what is Working Capital ?"
Our friend : "Current Assets - Current Liabilities"
Professor : "what is current asset ? can you break it up ?"
friend, " sir..inventory..i mean...Raw materials, WIP, Finished Goods(FG)..cash balance..err...debtors ?"

Professor, "Who manages Raw materials, WIP, FG ?"
friend, "Operations manager"
Professor : "what is current liability ?"
friend : "Mainly creditors..who give us Raw materials.."
professor : "who manages Raw materials ?"
friend : "Operations manager."
professor : " so who is more important ?"
friend : "Operations manager."

professor: "Still confused ?"

friend : "No Sir !"

professor : "Any more doubts ?"

friend : "No sir"

professor : "shall i continue ?"

friend : "No Sir!!...i mean..yes sir."
professor (smiling): "Ok guys. Lets continue. JIT states that....."

11.45 am. Class dismissed. :-) . we worked on Intricacies of JIT,TCM,TCQ,TIE,$%^,@#$ , and what not ?

Next day IT professor came. quite young as he is, He started, " Students. In todays generations, IT plays the most critical role in any organisation. E-com, ERP, E-solutions, E-CRM, EDI...Information is the most strategic and crucial thing in todays world..."

Our friend, "Sir. Isn't the operations most important aspect ?"
Professor (surprised) : "WhaaaaT ??"
friend : "Operations manager decides how much to buy, how much to produce, what inventory to maintain etc etc...so isn't operations the most important aspect ?"

professor : "What did i talk in last class ? what does ERP inventory module do ?"
friend : "It monitors the inventory level and makes automatic Purchase / production decisions"
professor : "Good. So who is taking decisions ?"
student :"ERP....i mean Information Technology..IT"

professor : "So isnt IT a better deal ?"

friend : "Yes sir !"

professor : "wouldn't you specialise in IT systems ?"

student : "Yes sir !"
professor : "Ok friends..so lets continue our ERP session...the module says.."

11.45 am. class ended. And the week ended too. Its not a real life experience which i mentioned here. But all these happens to us over a period of time where we evaluate different options in life and suddenly a new thing comes and rubs off everything we had in mind. :-)

Now what is your opinion ? Have a nice day ! keep smiiling !!

Old wine for new Bottles..

2005-08-05T17:59:00.000+05:30

Hi all,

It has been a week and I've not posted anything new.
For the new guys, Here are the links for some archived articles of mine:

Third generation Men : The Infertile Barren land
Please Carefree, stayfree and do not whisper
Bambaai Babu, Desi main
Vaidyanathan Iyer, B.Tech (4 years), U.S.A (5 years)
Is it science ? or just co-incidence ?

In addition to these, you can just look at the right side to see archived list and previous posts.
Shall write something soon for sure.

Arun

India's Soul cut-off from its Body.

2005-07-27T11:48:00.000+05:30

AirTel was the first one to switch it's networks off and to send a sweet SMS to all of its Mumbai Customers requesting them to "excuse Airtel" for the "sporadic interruptions" in their services. But then there were no "interruptions" as their networks were totally down all time. Hutch followed AirTel. MTNL landlines died silently without even an SMS. When Bharti, Hutch, BPL and MTNL struggled to maintain alteast part of their coverages, there was this Network who gave full, perfect and easy coverage to the whole of mumbai - The Rain Network.

It was raining heavily out side. NMiMS students, at vile parle, were as usual busy preparing for our next sets of assignments and presentations when the announcement of classes for the day being cancelled was made. To Take a break, we stepped out of our studies to watch the rains. It was a relaxed mood all around. Some of the smart ones immediately walked upto the quadrangle and started rain dancing. It was so enticing that more people joined them. Finally a good 50 of us were dancing in the rains. I, who just recovered from a fever had to watch all these from inside. However, being one of the few people who did not dance, I had the "privilege" to carry Khyati's hairband, Daksh's bag, Nithya's cell phone, Vidhi's purse, Rohan's TextBook, Suvrat's Project report and Arjun's digicam. :-) It was a trap of no escape.

While we observed dance steps and captured photos, we forgot to notice that the college staff were hurrying up and were busy leaving for the day. Nor did we observe the level of water on the "dance floor" which had reached almost-half-a-foot. Even Electricity had gone. AirTel/Hutch had already sent their SMS'. Dances went on and on, more people were pulled in to the dance and finally it was 6.00 Pm when we realised that it was flooded all around our college premises. Then We decided to go upstairs, do some singing or anthakshari and wait for water-levels to subside. It went on for another 1 hr or so. We came back downstairs only to see a lots of buses, Taxis, Ricks and Cars/SUVs abandoned on the roads as they were - Water levels had reached a stunning 3.5-4 feet and rains were still lashing. Our premises too was flooded.

But it was when we noticed that 3 school buses with school kids (nursery to 7th standard) from one Jamnabal school were stranded in the rains. So many of us, who where there, rushed to the spot to get them to our college class rooms. Many of the little ones where crying. When some of them were missing their moms, others where hungry and a few others were feeling cold. We brought roughly around 100 chidren to 2-3 class rooms of ours. While some of us took the responsibilty of consoling the kids and making them feel comfortable, some others where busy planning logistics , informing the parents and preparing name charts, collecting contact numbers etc.

Electricity had gone and we had a tough time consoling the kids who couldnt even see our faces. Many of the kids were requesting us to use our mobiles only to be disappointed - Thanks to the "full" coverage by the leading Service providers. We played games with them, fed them with biscuits and made them sing rhymes to pass the time. Our VC - Dr. Kondap, Our Dean - Dr. Anitha and a few professors and senior staff were supervising the entire scenario making themselves readily available for any advices or help. Soon, the parents started arriving in bulk - there were 150 of them concerend about their 100+ kids. Though we had children of only 3 buses in our rooms, other parents , who had lost contact with their children travelling in some other buses, too rushed to our college for information. When some of them were really happy finding their chidren safe, some other broke down when they couldnt find their little ones there. Some of them volunteered to take children of their near by areas which was of great help to us.

Our students council ensured uninterrupted supply of Candles, Drinking water and Biscuits to all the kids and parents who assembled. Some Parents from relatively far off areas , upon realising that they were stuck, decided to stay back in our college. We had anyway decided to stay back and do the maximum we could do. When some of us took a break to have a bite and a nap, some others took care of things. some Parents/Guardians were arriving even as late as mid-night.

By around 1:30 in the morning, we too were releieved of our duties when everyone went to sleep. We sat together in a room, sang a few songs and then slept slowly to the beat of pouring rains. We too were tired and done. It was a sound sleep for most of us despite the fact that there were mosquitoes and no fans were running. We woke up today morning to see the rains stills pouring, but with a much lesser vigour. In the morning light it was very clear - Our beautiful class rooms and halls looked like a refugee camp with mud and waste thrown on floor. When some of us slept on writing desks, some of us slept on our seats - with legs on the desk. On a lighter note - when he woke up today morning, One of My friends had his pants in a un-buttoned state and zippers were half open. Given the mesy sorroundings and things like that, He had a doubt whether something happened to his long preserved"virginity".

On my way back to home, ofcourse, through the water, I saw all the vehicles - from Premier padmini to Land Cruiser - in an abandoned state - It seemed as though all the vehicles were left by the owners in the midst of a huge traffic jam - The only difference being that here we had water upto our waists.

90% of mumbai's travelling population stayed back at their colleges, offices or shops yesterday night. Today morning they were all returing back to their homes. But with vehicles not plying and trains suspended, most of them were walking long distances like 20-25 kms. Many of them walked the whole of last night. With employees and staff not around, all offices --> Including airport, sea Port, newspapers, banks and 5 star hotels - and shops are closed in the city for today. No plane has taken-off from mumbai in last 30 hours. Very little banking transaction took place at the financial capital of india. Life has/had come to a stand still. It again proves that nature is anyday nature and men are anyday mortals.

As per TOI report :

"On Tuesday, the city received the heaviest rainfall within a 12-hour span in the last 31 years. The weather bureau recorded 668 mm in Santa Cruz from 8.30 am to 8.30 pm. "Rainfall of this volume was last recorded on July 5, 1974 when Santa Cruz received 375.2 mm rainfall in 24 hours," said Thakur Prasad, director of the regional meteorological centre at Colaba."

A few other links for your read:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1183348.cms

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1443068,0008.htm

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/611_0,001301120000.htm

Finally, as i said, management education is all about Managing unforeseen events, stress management and being socially responsible. And we, students of NMiMS, had a great deal of learning yesterday.

Good de,
Arun

Pheroduloxetine or HeadAche ++ ?

2005-07-17T09:59:00.000+05:30

After a long-time, I fell sick. Quite Obviously, I went to the doctor next-door. She checked my downbeat-pulse, Investigated the inner depths of my infected-throat, Wide-opened my burning-eyes and Inspected my inflammated-nose too.

After pausing for a minute or so, she pulled out a sheet of paper from her prescription pad and wrote the medication. I took it to the near-by medical shop who, after seeing the medication, with a smile, asked me : " Viral Fever ? Pain in your throat ? Burning eyes ?"

I said, "Yes ! Yes ! Yes !". I got the medicines after paying Rs 250 to them. That too For just 12 tablets and a nasal drop bottle. Add to it Rs.100 which is the doctor's consultation fee. 100 Rupees for 5 minutes roughly. The Doctor gets money from both the patients and the Medical companies for prescribing their brands. And still McKinsey thinks they are the premium consultancy providers.

I quickly ran through the medication list. The Product-Names were like this :

1) Chloromycetin
2) Coscopin Linctus
3) Ranitinoxodinane

Add to it the most reprehensible hand-writing of the doctor. Altogether (names & handwriting) it was like an Indian Reading a German/Latin book from inside a poorly lit room. Or Like browsing an extremely busy and Slow web-site using a pre-celeron processor waala computer. But then Why do doctors always have a bad handwriting ? May be because the doctors do not want their patients to Mug-up the list and avoid coming to them the next time. But even if their writings were good, do you think one can ever mug-up and remember names like - methylphenidate or tranylcypromine ? Mind it - Chloromycetin is just a brand name. It has scientific name which is much more trouble-some.

And if at all we take the pains and mug-up the name Methylphenidate, and while telling shop keeper, by mistake , we say methylphendiate, We are gone. The former may be for curing infertility and later may be for aborting the hard-earned embryo. So a small mis-pronounciation or mis-spell can turn the world upside down.

If at all we had names like Lux, Ponds or Babool for our medicines, Life would have been much simpler - My mom would have asked me to get 8 lux tablets whenever she was sick. Or my dad would have asked me to get a tube of Ponds for his knee pain. Or I'd have myself bought myself a Liril whenever i got a viral fever. Even if I say Luxe or Luxi, The product could still be uniquely identified. Unlike the Methylphenidate story.

I understand the need for scientific names. I do not know what is Azadirachta indica. But if you say a four letter word called "N-E-E-M", I'll understand what it is. Scientists can use Azadirachta indica (neem) or Rosa centifolia parvifolia (Rose) or Erianthus ravennae (Grass) to raise their self-esteem and differentiating them from the mere mortals. But why is a common man like Arun or sidin or neha or Salman Khan or Farah Tasneem be made to suffer because of these stupid medicines whose scientific names as well as the Brand names are equally absurd ? We'd like to have more of Nirmas or Wheels or Surfs or Moods or Close-ups for that matter.

Why is Arun Called Arun ? He could have been called "Torjiyosudo Bapvilmancidex". But the purpose was to easily address him and remember his name , right ? Then this rule should apply to medicines also.

Now a word of praise for we engineers. We make it a point to name things simple keeping in mind the common man. We have antennas, Fan regulators or Motors or Processors which even a doctor can understand. We have CD, DVD, iPOD or LAN which are all simple. We could have named the Fan regulators as "Silicon doped Motor speed inductors" which we did not do.

Now its your turn for comments. Have a great day folks.
I got my Mobile# enabled in Bombay. Please send in a mail to take my number.

Kellogs or Ahmedabad ? Or Mumbai ?- A Case-Study.

2005-07-03T13:09:00.000+05:30

Last two weeks has been really tight, as I said, with Balance sheets, Management Concepts, Case studies and So on. The travelling Part has too been a bit tough - For I have to travel from Borivali to Parla daily and back. It is pretty ok while travelling in the morning. But Its tedious while returning - quite often I have had to miss 3-4 trains before boarding a Train with great difficulty.

People (friends) ask me not to waste time travelling daily. I agree that 1+1 = 2 hrs is spent in Travelling on a daily basis. Add to this another 30-45 mins spent on waiting, Having wada-pav etc. But Management is finally about Managing Time, Stress and Pressure Right ? These are best learnt in Mumbai City than Through Case-studies or quizzes.

Mumbai, knowingly or Unknowingly, Inculcates this habit of keeping Time-Precision in our lives. It tells us what amount of Time-Management or flexibility we can have in our lives based on our routines and tasks.

Mumbai, Helps us understand people - Mere observation can help us analyse the richest of the lot and the poorest of the lot. We can understand their preferences, attitude and mind-set. We will know who can or cannot be our customers when we introduce a beer with cardamom flavour or a condom with Banana flavour. We will know who will buy a used J-Lo underwear and who will not buy an Un-used Allen solly shirt.

Mumbai helps us accept situations and people - as they are. Here we learn that a manager or a leader can never change anything at times - But instead, they will have to accept the situation as it is and then act accordingly.

Mumbai makes us socially sensitive - sitting in an A/C Merc and offering a pay cheque of a few lakhs to a near by old-age home doesn't tell us much about the problems an old-couple might face. But if we walk around Dadar station for 10 minutes, we become socially conscious and active.

Mumbai makes you feel humble - However talented you are, you can still find a few thousand more talented people around you in Mumbai. Which makes us modest. I have seen a couple of Merc-Benz cars stopping by my college to have the famous "cutting-Chai" & "grilled sandwich" from the near by street-shop. People are so down-to-earth.

Mumbai helps us manage stress in the perfect way. Imagine this : "A rainy day. Suburbans are flooded. There is water upto our knee heights. This water - almost black in color, has all possible germs in the world, all the wastes of street-shops, and drainage too. We are walking through this. We are not alone - The area, though water clogged, is more crowded than St.peters square in Vatican. Add to this many auto-rickshaws and a few buses. We have umbrellas on the right hands and laptop bags on the other.

With great difficulty, we reach the platform. That is when We happen to know that three trains - 8.11, 8.16 and 8.22 are cancelled owing to rains. There is no place to even stand on the platform. Everyone is drenched and it is the worst of feeling we have. The Train comes fully packed. The way people jump into the running-train, cling on to the entrance support bars or climb onto the train's top is really horrendous. Its a life-death game. And we have to enter the train at any cost. What more stress will we ever face in our lives ?"

Mumbai - Its a business hub where one can learn anything under the sun if one has the drive and passion. We need not go to Harvard or Kellogs to understand Indian markets. Our Indian Cities have many more concepts, Case studies and examples to offer. Mumbai's range is very enormous - We have entities ranging from Common salt to Costly Diamonds, From bicycles to BMW, From Cutting Chai to Coffee-day, From Rs. 3 wada pav to high-end McDonalds Burgers, From Rs.50 a night courtyard dancers to Expensive Escorts, from slums to Bungalows, From Arun Anand (AA) To AB (Amitab), From a Corporation employee to Rakesh JhunJhunwala, From Air-Deccan To Lufthansa, and so on.

So Management Students in Mumbai - This is the best of our opportunities to learn Life, Management and Time - Together. Lets not Miss-it-out. We might not get a tangible Rs. 15 lakh job. But We get something much more. Though intangible.

Best Regards,

Arun

Ps. Time for your valued comments now. Also - Watched Tamil Movie "Anniyan". Its a best-in-class movie in terms of graphics, story-line and Direction. Another National Award sure for Vikram. Visit www.Anniyan.com

Good day ! Keep smiling !

B.com Pass or Engg Honours ? Balance sheet or Euler-Lagrange equation ?

2005-06-19T15:29:00.000+05:30

"Loose Tools goes to Current Assets sir. So does Patents and Copy rights" Shouted Ms. Astha of my Class when Prof. Kulkarni was teaching Accounting basics.

Creditors, Debtors, Cash Book, Ledger, Trial Balance and Balance sheets were the topic of discussion - Basics of Accounting. Its when all the engineers in our class - who have learnt Hi-Tech stuff ranging from Stress on a Beam to Compiler Design to Hi-freqency wave transmission - realised the Blunders we have committed in Life by NOT taking commerce while graduating.

For a minute, I went back to my 10+2 days. We, in 12th , learnt about Classical Mechanics. Did 500+ sums in Integration and Differentiation. We learnt what is Gravity and what satellites are. We knew how to make Phenol from Benzene. We knew that Voltage = Current * Resistance. We knew what the yellow product was when a Red Metal was treated with Hydrochloric acid. We cracked most questions of IIT-JEE too.

I was interuppted when Professor was asking a Question to us, "What is PL" ?

Having worked in IT industry for nearly 4 years, all I could think of was "Project Leader". Before I could say that (:-) , My class mate, another Engineer, shouted : "Personal Loans".

A bunch of guys, Probably the B.COM grads, Burst into Laughter. Once of them smartly raised his ass off the seat, adjusted his spectacles in a "smartie" way and said : "Sir, Its profit and Loss Account". And he looked at we engineers with a "meaningful" smile.

Finance Lecture got over. Lunch Break. Then came the Mathematics Prof. He said he'll be doing some Integration and Differentiation concepts. We, the Engineers, looked at our commerce colleagues with Contempt and affixed a Sarcastic smile on our faces which read : "Now the game starts buddy !! Count your days..."

But to our surprise and worries, the professor started his lecture with a problem :

"The demand function is given by the expression D = 2Q + 1/5Q*Q , the supply function is...Calculate Marginal Cost, Marginal Revenue...Equilibrium cost...Economic Order Quantity..blah..blah..."

Cool !! Wonderul ! Excellent ! All Greek and Latin. We knew to differentiate. But we did not know what the Marginal Revenue was all about. We Engineers were in the same dilemma as how a North Indian would feel when he is asked to differentiate between Malayalam and Tamil. Our sarcastic smiles became humble apologies. And Our Engg Honours looked much Humbler that a B.com pass.

We Engineers requested the Prof to give us a problem in Speed-Acceleration or Current-Charge to prove our "mettle". But professor replied "You are here to learn Business. Not Science."

They, B.coms, never had the pressure of entrance exams, Didnt have to shell out money in-terms of education. But had 3 full years of full fun at Places like LSR, delhi and St Xaviers-Mumbai, going to pub on every weekend and taking their GirlFriends to movies on every fridays.

They did "crediTing" and "DebiTing" - which has nothing more than Simple addition and subtraction.

We, on the other hand, slogged the entire 2 years of our 10+2 days, suffered a lot of "drought" in Engg colleges where female-male ratio is lesser than Tiger-Man ratio in India and spent lots of thousands on books, fees, In-Plant trainings and Projects. We did problems that involved Numerical methods, Binomial Theorem, probability, partial Integration and so on.

Now, after all that, we look upto B.COM grads, the same way a male-passenger waiting at Andheri station would tell himself when he sees a loosely packed first-class ladies Coach of 7.45PM Virar fast: "I should been have born in bombay as a woman !!"

Friends, Its not a real-life scene that I have depicted here. Lots of Masala is there- But I hope I have conveyed the underlying concept. Now time for your valued comments.

Yo ! Guys !

2005-06-17T22:04:00.000+05:30

So here am I writing - as an official parla-ite. My schedule goes something like this

- 7.15 am start from home
- 7.30 fast to Andheri
- 7.52 fast to Parla from Andheri
- College till 10.00 pm
- Catch 10.15 fast
- Home at 11.00 pm

Shall write something soon. But believe me, NMiMS is fun ! Fun ! Fun !!

- arun

When We Three Meet - We conquer the world !

2005-06-11T11:40:00.000+05:30

Quite often, The Otherwise Reticent entities become talkative. The Always Introverts become at-time extroverts. The So-Called Submissive turns Authoritative. The humble appeals become stern assertions. The fledglings become connoisseurs. Insane Smatterings become Expert opinions. A chotti Sania becomes badee Martina. Chota Bollywood critic criticises Mozart's music. A bahu becomes a Saas. But when, where ?

All this happens when one has the right Mix of 'medicines' and the right company. Yes friends!! Its fun when we three meet - Me, You and Bagpiper. (Or Kingfisher or JW Black Label or Vodka.). Not Convinced yet ? Read the real-life story below.

"SHUCKS !!!! Tendulkar should have moved two steps backwards, squatted and swept the ball off to the mid-on" Started my Elderly cousin (in his early 40's) on a fine summer holiday when we were watching an India-Pak cricket match. Deeply submerged in thoughts, he took another sip of the smirn-off from his glass. Tendulkar was 81 not out and My cousin was a cool 120 (ml) not out. (60 ml makes a large.)

"But Ramesh, the ball was very fast right ?" I asked.

"Whether the ball is fast or not, all you need is common-sense to hit that ball. And.. Tendulkar played so foolishly.." My cousin replied back with a sachin-u-let-me-down face.

After 10 seconds of silence and a Batting-like-gesture, He continued, "hmm..When the ball turns, its very-easy to pull it on to the mid-off with very less effort.."

"Have you played cricket ?" I asked.

"Ya. I used to play serious cricket till 6th standard. Then left it b'cos of knee problems." My cousin said.

While I and My cousin were having vodka and seriously analysing cricket, there was this silent spectator around. Lets call him 'Ashok Bhai' - A south Indian Brahmin like us but Tee-Totaller unlike us. He was wonder-struck by the way my cousin analysed each and every ball Tendulkar had hit that day.

Thats the Influence you will have once you hit a 120 ml not-out. Power of Alcohol. It can make you, who cannot pronounce c-r-i-c-k-e-t, judge the batting performance of master-blaster Tendulkar playing in a Hot sharjah ground from inside an A/C room in Cochin.

The Discussion Continued. When Tendulkar hit a century, his wife was shown sitting at the gallary, quite unexcited and without reactions. That turned me into an Inquisitive, studious student.

"Ramesh. she looks passive. Even after sachin hit a 100", I said.

"Ha Ha ha !! Son. First she is a Doctor. Then Do you know that she is 5 years elder to sachin ?" Cousin said.

"Yes. But then she's his wife right ? She should be excited" I replied.

Taking another sip from his glass my cousin continued with an excited-face :

"You are too young, boy. Understanding women is really important In one's life. Have you read 'Men are from Mars..' ? It says that women, in their younger ages at 14-19 become really excited for even small things. But as they grow older, they become more passive and anxious. Especially after bearing children. Also, Prof Kristen, a woman's mind expert, once said that it is a pyschological paradigm shift that transits women from being fussy-finicky to a matured mental platform, where they are calm, fine-tuned and stabilized. Its an effect of increase in pyscholinondrone hormones in womans blood after an age."

Ashok Bhai was quite impressed with these comments. He started listening to My cousin more seriously. By then, cricket tea-break was on and it was an array of advertisements on the TV. We watched the Indica-V2 ad. Truly More Car per Car.

Ashok Bhai asked, "Ramesh, Have you driven an Indica ?"

My cousin continued, "Petrol or diesel version ?"

Ashok bhai said, "Diesel ?"

My cousin continued like a Mechanical Engg prof :

"Ashok. Its..Its..a decent car. It has 4 inline cylinders... Engine capacity 1400cc. works on water cooled indirect Injection. It has a compression Ratio of 22:1 and a torque in the range of 75-80 Newton-Metres. (pauses...thinks..and sips vodka..). But its front suspension - Wish-born type with McPherson strutum is not that great as Compared to the Mercedes four-link suspension. But rear-suspension - Semi Trailing arm is excellent. The safety add-ons are nothing compared to that of a luxury sedan or Merc."

Ashok totally-impressed and surprised again. He started admiring my Cousin.
with Excited looks, Ashok bhai said, "Ramesh, which car do you use..?"

Cousin took another sip (now 180 ml not out) and continued with a troubled-face :

"Ashok, in Delhi you know..err..the city is over populated these days...No parking space and cramped roads. Maintaining a car is another head-ache. umm..but..yes..I used a maruti-800 for sometime...hmm..But sold it off 3 years back. Its better to use a two-wheeler in Delhi...and for my grocery purchases etc, I use my son's bicycle..!! "

The discussion was interrupted when I changed the channel and we hit upon a channel "sanskar" where Sri Sri RavishankarJi was talking.

Sri Sriji on TV : "Meditation is the key to spirituality. We are all energy spheres. God is we. He's inside us. Sincere Meditation along with a disciplined life can help us explore the universe and Time."

My cousin snatched the remote from me and pressed "mute". He remained silent for a minute. Poured another large, soda and stirred for a minute while looking inside the glass and in deep thoughts . Ashok bhai and I eagerly waited for the words of wisdom from Cousin :

"There are 9 dimensions totally. Einstien, his relativity theory could prove the existance of 5 of them... one is Time.... We, humans can perceive 3 dimensions. But an object needs totally 9 dimensons to correctly locate it. 'theory of simultaneity'....classical mechanics... Euclidean Continnum...Time dimension. With deep meditation, you can control your cell-vibrations.....and free your mind and soul off your body. Gurus like Adi Sankaracharya and Paramahamsa could do soul-to-soul communication. Basically.... we are energy spheres and vibration holds the key. Art-of-Living regulates bodily vibrations through breath control. Yoga regulates vibrations through bodily movements. Its all the same finally. Have you been to Osho Ashram in pune...? ....feng shui,..Tsu Huen..Buddha...Nepal's Rimpoche, Lama... "

Ashok : "you did Physics while Graduating ?"

Cousin : "No. Zoology major and Botany minor."

By now Ashok had become my cousin's fan by all means. Discussions continued.

When he was 240 ml Not-out, My Cousin spoke about Nuances of Indian Economy, discrepancies in five-year plans and in-efficiencies of P Chidambaram and his budget.

The Bush, Rice, Saddam Hussien, Motives of Iraq war, Implications of Oil Trading & Economy post-iraq war were discussed when Cousin was 300 ml Not out.

300ml to 360 ml saw us covering incompetencies of Indian CEOs, Strategic flaws of Infosys, Marketing Flaws of Unilever and implementation difficulties of VAT. 360ml to 420 ml drew us back to spiritality, Purpose of Life, Philosophy, Post-death and re-Birth...

Ashok bhai sat silent all the way, curiously listening. I, once I crossed 240 ml, contributed add-ons to my cousin's theories where ever possible. I contributed some good points while dicussing 'flaws' of Infosys , 'Mistakes' done by Narayana Murthy and Re-strategising of Outsourcing. All we (cousin and me) needed then was the full control of the world. We could turn it around.

We knew the intricacies of everything in this world from Hollywood to Harry-potter to Kashmir to UN Security council membership to sexual orientation of Deep-sea Blue crabs. And had the confidence too to rule the world. Ashok, who seldom spoke, started getting a slight inferiority complex after this session with two "high" flying guys.

Now, breaking the suspense - for the reader's sake - My Cousin is a poor Govt Servant at a Delhi Ministry. I am a young, poor MBA student with limited exposure. Ashok, my another uncle, is the CEO is a medium-sized MNC who has travelled all around the world and has maximum knowlege and experience among all three of us.

Now - our vodka session - Was that the short-lived power of Alcohol ? or Ashok's modesty ?? or the most-evident difference between talkers and doers ? Barking dogs seldom bite. Biting dogs dont bark. Or is it that the Empty vessels makes more noise when you add alcohol to it in multiples of 60 ml ?

Good day to you folks. So when shall we three meet ? Me, you and Bagpiper ?

Ganesha Flies 'No-Frills' : SimplyFly !

2005-06-03T10:57:00.000+05:30

After those hectic days in South India, Ganesha’s North India Visit was due. He was looking for a Bombay ticket when he saw this particular ad “Fly to Bombay in Re.1. ”. He called up the office only to find that Re.1 Ticket is available only from October 2nd, 2007. He checked out for Rs. 500, 700, 1100, 1500 tickets. All of them sold out. Finally he settled for Rs. 1881 + 221 (Tax) ticket to Bombay.

With a lot of satisfaction, a huge smile and with food packs weighing tonnes, Ganesha reached the check-in Counter of Air-Feccan at Bangalore Airport. A cool Babe was sitting there.

Ganesha : ( lifting this trunk) Hi babe !
Babe : (smiles) Can I see your ticket sir ?
Ganehsa : Ya please. (shows the ticket)
Babe : Please proceed to Terminal 4C sir.
(she writes the seat number on a plain paper piece and seals on it)

Ganesha : whats that for ?
Babe : Cost cutting sir. Its our Boarding pass. No frills you see :-)

Ganesha waited at 4C. An announcement was made asking people to board the air-plane. Ganesha got up slowly, took his luggage and looked out for Co-passengers. Alas ! Then he saw a mad-rush of passengers fleeing towards the Tarmac. With all those Luggage and hand-baggage, they resembled Tipu Sultan’s mighty Army. Ladies adjusted their sari-pleats and pinned up the sari-tails to their hips. Gents folded up their dhotis. CEOs, while running, admonished the locals in ‘presentable’ English. Locals reviled them in their own “presentable” native versions. Grand-Fathers accelerated their wheel chairs and caught up with the rest. Many of them were first-timers.

One by One, they started Boarding the jet. It was time for another round of fights – There were two passengers for seats 12A, 15C and 21D. There were 3 owners for two other seats. Captain Kopi (CEO) himself came in and sorted out a few issues. Ganesha Inspected his own seat #. It was S22. He walked up and down the air-craft twice and still could not locate his seat. So He went to Captain kopi and asked why his seat # looked like S-22 while others had 12-D, 15-C etc.

Kopi : Yes Mr. Ganesh. How can we help you ?
Ganesh : My seat…err…seat no is S-22. But others have digits first and alphabets later.
Kopi : (Inspects the ticket)…oh.…are you flying with us for the first time ?
Ganesh : (Lifts his trunk smiling) ..ya..
Kopi : Well.. err.. you see…Mr. Ganesh,..as you know,.. we…are..a..no frills air-line..and so the ticket you have is….hope you don’t mind....

Ganesh : (surprised)..what happened to my ticket ?
Kopi : Nothing wrong ! Its S-22. It means you are standing passenger No-22. This is the place where you need to stand. Your Hip will be belted to the near by support bar. You’ll be safe.

Ganesha : (angry ) WHAAT ???????????

Before he could complete, An Air hostess came. She made Ganesha stand at the right place, Clamped his hip and his legs to a support Bar.

Soon S-21, S-23 passengers come and they too stood clamped happily which made Ganesha feel more comfortable. Some of the other passengers were busy Cleaning the seats with their hankies, while some of them were trying to open the window pane. A south Indian family, happily took it for a train and opened their Idli sambar packs.

Till the Flight took off, In a typical Government Bus service style, a Boy at the door was shouting “Mumbai Non-stop….Mumbai Non-stop”…. And after sometime, he closed the doors and whistled twice – Indicating the Pilot to start take off. With a few jitters, the plane took off.

By the Time, Ganesha Had a chance to look into the interior of the aircraft. It looked similar to one of the Air-France or Boeing ones used in 1970’s. It looked pretty old and the engine was making a lot of noise too. He asked the Air-hostess. She cheerfully repeated the words “No frills” and “Cost Cutting”.

Then they had the safety demonstration on the TV, all recorded ones, while Taxying. Ganesha was surprised, he called one of the only 2 air-hostesses around .

Ganesha : Look lady. Why this demo in TV ?
A.H : (looks sorry) Sir. No crew Available.
Ganesha : (laughs) Cost-cutting ? or is it No-frills ?
A.H : No sir. Kingfisher recruited most of our pilots and Cabin-crew.
Ganesha : (surprised ) why should that Daaru waala recruit them ?
A.H : Sir – Now they are into big time Airlines.
A.H. : The Manikchand Group is also starting one airlines.
Ganesha : (very-surpirsed) That Beeda waala ?

A.H : yes. Not just them, even Biggies Like Vipro, Tee-Cee-yes , Indian Railways , Bideocon, Vonida, and Shipping Corporation are planning to start no-frills Airlines very soon.

Ganesha : (surprised) So this should be a booming sector. So then, How are A-I and IA doing ?
A.H : (again sad) They are in Loss sir.

Ganesha : (smiles) so the Daaru waalas and beeda waalas run things better than Govt. By the way What are you doing for your share of pilots and staff ?

A.H : (smiles) We recruit people immediately after they get their 3 months training with Jet Or Sahara. That’s the way it goes.

Ganesha : So what do they do ?
A.H : They recruit people from Foreign Airlines J

After 20 minutes into flight, he saw a boy shouting “Garma Garam” “Wada pav” “Samosee” “Paanch Rupaaya ik piece”…”wadaa paav” “garmaaa garam”. No frills, Cost Cutting, Ganesha guessed it himself this time.

After having a double wada-pav, Ganesha asked the Crew member for a Hand Napkin. She said “3 rupees per napkin + 10% service tax + 0.2% educational cess.” He also had to pay another Rs.20 to use the wash room too.

Ganesha and Other passengers, by the time, started feeling the change in Cabin Temperature and pressure which were not regulated properly. But then the captain’s routine announcement happened “ Capt.. so’n’ so speaking….outside temperature is -11, inside temp is +24. Outside pressure is…inside is…you are at a height of….”

“ But,,,But…we are shivering here and these buggers say + 24” all of the passengers murmered.

They immediately complained this to a crew-member who with a cinema-scope smile and a madrasi accent said “ Shir (sir)….eee…that was a Recorded massage…No frills…sir…eeee…cost cutting..hope u understand…”

After nearly 1.5 hours into flight, captain announced again. (This time not recorded) “We are trying our very best to land safely at Bombay air-port. Thank you for flying Air-Feccan”

Ganesha Fainted.

Hope you liked this. But frankly speaking, its because of them that we are all able to fly these days. They are doing a good job too in security and Other thing. My Blog is just another free flow of imagination. :-) Thanks a lot to No-Frills and Cost-Cutting. Good wishes to SpiceJet, KingFisher and AIR-Deccan. Good day to you too. Please write your experiences.

Arun.

Lord Ganesha and India Inc, Part - I

2005-05-25T12:45:00.000+05:30

Lord Ganesha has this great desire to Visit India and see if all Indians are doing good and Living in Harmony. So he takes the permission of Lord Shiva and Lands in India. He first decided to land in South India and then move Northwards.

It was a usual Bandh day in kerala - protesting against Dissolution of Assembly in Bihar by the Bihar Governor. Ganesha walked into the Trivandrum secretariat. In the entrance, as usual, he could see two or three groups of people conducting Indefinite Hunger strike and Shouting Slogans. Then he slowly walked into Chief Minister, OC’s cabin. OC apprised him of the Groupisms and Left’s stubbornness in the Gods own country.

Ganesha : Hello OC. How is Congress party doing in Kerala ?

OC said : Lord, Its 2005. 3G. And (with a wicked smile) these days, we have A,A1,A2,B,K,I,N groups within Congress itself. Then we have CPI and CPI(M). Then we have Muslim Leauge. Its difficult to manage all their wish lists.

Ganesha was wonderstuck. He, however, to help his people out, spoke to different leaders, did a night out and came to OC the next day with an amicable solution. OC read it carefully.

OC said : But Lord. Y’day night, something weird happened - The 'K' group in Congress is split into two and Now we have 'K1' and 'K2'. CPI (M) might support 'K2' and 'B' group might stand with 'K1'.

Ganesha, Like a CAT aspirant, noted down the new changes and Met OC again the next day with his new proposals and Logical ability based solutions.

OC said : Oh ganesha !! Y’day night too something more happened. 3 MLAs from 'A1' and 4 MLAs from 'K2' joined And made a new party called Congress-S (sonia) and they might get support from 'A' group of Congress.

Ganesha did another night Out and found out another solution. But then OC reacted this way.

OC said : Congress A leader Mr A.K. Antony resigned as an MLA and has given his nomination papers for Rajya Sabha seat. So 'A' group is going to be merged with 'I' group and 2 MLAs from A1 are joining K2.

With this, Ganesha was very happy. He could see Kerala in its very very normal state. So with extreme happiness he left for Bangalore to inspect Karnataka. If at all anything is smooth in kerala, its just the parts splits, M&A's and Bandhs.

In Bangalore, Ganesha found CM Dharam Singh (DS) confused with Bangalore Infrastructure plans, Cauvery Issues and Software Export expansion plans. However DS apprised Ganesha about everything. Then Ganesha was taken to INFOSYS to address the Software Engineers. He planted a Tree in Infy campus and spoke to various IT Co heads and powered their intellects. They talked him about Billing Pressure, Margin problems, Anti-Outsourcing measures, VISA problems, Technology Change Management and Six Sigma challenges.

Ganesha Took almost a week and found out an approximate solution for all these issues. So the next week, they all met at WIPRO and applied thoughts. But here AZIM premji put a Bombshell.

Premji : Oh lord Ganesha!! Last week something new happened. Six Sigma’s new variation 6.3A SigmaX was launched and 17 of our clients wanted their Core Business software to meet the new standards which requires a big revamp from ourside. Our horizontal Integration with the Vertical Differentiation would lead to new structuring of our organisations to Comply with TCM , TQM and PCMM issues and Optimally Redesign our Global Delivery Models.

Ganesh : But last month only you did a Vertical Integration from your then existing Geographical structure.

Premji : Ya, that restructuring gave us an edge in the Domain Skill Competency and Functional Expertise in developing Core Business Solutions and Consultancy. Now we are Technologically Differentiating the Vertically Integrated Business Units w.r.t client requirements and complexity of their varied and Distributed IT platforms. Combined with this the new Knowledge Management System is devised to Minimize our Through Put and Cycle time and position ourselves to benefitting our stake holders.

Ofcourse, Everything went over head for Ganesh also. So to experience the real change, he went to the core developers' area. Things were as usual there also - With Developers, who almost resemble Ganesha except for his trunk, cutting and Pasting from a previously developed program. Just the Names and Jargons used by CEOs change. They (CEOs) Integrate on sundays , Differentiate on Mondays, Redesign on Tuesdays, Deliver on Wednesdays and Quit on Thursdays with heavy pockets. Developer's don't Care.

Ganesha was very happy. Things are their at their very normal state in Bangalore also. So he moved to Chennai to meet the Makkal there. He, there, Talked to Dr. JJ about cauvery issues, post-veerappan situations, Sankaracharya, Software, DPA, DMK, AIADMK,PMK and TMC.

He walked around Chennai - Every road was neat there. Every Port was clean there and every one had cell phones. Upon enquiry, he realized that all the Money allotted to the entire country for telecom, Golden Quadrilateral and Shipping came to Tamil Nadu somehow. On further Investigation he found three central Ministers – of Finance, Shipping Highways and Telecom were from Tamil Nadu. People had Cellphones, Money, Airports, Trains, Buses, Employment, Education, Movies and lot of staple food. They lacked just one thing – Water. Every drop came at a premium. Thanks to Cauvery Deadlock on which the political parties are slinging mud at one-another.

That day DPA head MK had processions all over Chennai against Dr.JJ on her mis-handling cauvery issues. Next day JJ make big procession on Central Finace Minister PC not allotting the money for De-salination plant and Charged him and DPA on mis-appropriating funds to the state. The third day, Rajani kant’s Chandramukhi was released and nobody (not even party people) was found on the streets.. All shops were closed and no vehicles plying. A totally Happy Lord Ganesha, Having felt perfect Normalcy in T.Nadu proceeded to the next state, ofcourse after watching Chandramukhi..

So what could have happened in north India ? Bye for now pals ! The North-Indian Episode will be Publised as part -2 and Until then Arun signing off. Have a good de. Write your valued comments.

Letter of Love.

2005-05-18T12:55:00.000+05:30

A Nice summer Morning in Cochin. The MG Road looks pleasant with Minimal Traffic. She is slightly damp with the heavy rains that poured in Last evening. Shops and Offices are yet to Open. The Office Rush has not yet started. The Maharaja’s College ground is, as usual, filled with scores of Senior Citizens and Children who come there for Morning exercises and their share of Cricket practices. The Chirping of Birds and Crows from the ground is well heard here. Yesudas’ mellifluous Voice is feebly heard from the nearby Shiva Temple. Its adds a Divine Feel to the ambience.

I lazed around on the Terrace of our Building in PT Usha Road. The Terrace too is wet enough – So happily I skipped my exercises too and came down for Coffee. After going through all the latest Business news , I settled down for Breakfast. Then another Round of news from NDTV. By now the Time is 8.30am. Shutters of Shops are seen opening. The Buses have started plying. The array of Vehicles have started Harassing the MG Road. She, like a nice mother, is calmly enduring the merciless plights of vehicles without getting perturbed. Another day of business is on in the Commercial capital of Kerala – Cochin - The probable Hub of India’s Business future.

Its 10:30 am now. The Postman slowly walked on the my flat and Rang the calling bell. I kept the newspaper aside and I opened the Door. He, with his usual smile and hello, Handed over the Envelope to me. I received it and Looked at the back side. Its her – My best Friend again with another letter. In this world of E-mails, E-chats, E-foods, E-MBAs and E-news, she sends me a postal letter every month. Probably the only postal letter I receive these days.

My thoughts flew back to 2001 september. That’s when our relationship began. She has been a nice friend all along. Since Then I have been in Pune, Mangalore, Chennai and now in Cochin. But wherever I am, she makes it a point to write to me every month despite the fact that both she and I use internet and E-mails regularly. Is this just a friendship or something more ? Unlike with my other friends, she and I have never had a serious fight. If at all we have had slight problems, It just took us a phone call to sort it out. She has helped me at numerous occasions and Places. And yes – As a normal human being - I have preserved all her letters till now.

With all these thoughts In my mind, I opened the envelope with a Smile. I went through the contents and then took a deep sigh of satisfaction and closed the letter. I then opened my cupboard and stacked this letter also along with her other letters. I then walked up to my Bedroom, took my cheque book and Wrote “To Citibank Card no 1672 2456 3456 2987” “Three thousand Two Hundred and Eight Rupees Only”. Now I am eagerly waiting for her next letter. An ever lasting relationship.

Bye friends. Do you too have a Love ? Write your comments.
Watch out for the next blog – About Cochin - Smart City, Fashion City, Gold Souk, Vallar Padam Port and More.

Of Marriages - Dowry, Ladoos and Tam Brams.

2005-05-08T10:08:00.000+05:30

Recently one of my friends got married. He has been in love with her since his high school days. The sincerity, Honesty and the Long-Term nature (as Business men put it) of their amour finally paid off – Ahoy! Touch wood !! He was “gifted” a Brand new Hyundai Terracan + a spiffily furnished flat for them + 5 kgs of gold. This is a typical high class marriage scenario in kerala.

But any Common marriage that happens in Gulty land (AP) goes this way : The moment a girl child is born, her father starts slogging. He’d cut cost where ever possible and see to it that he has a decent fortune by the time his girl is marriageable. Typically he’d shell out (hand over) two crore rupees (or equivalent property documents) a day before marriage to the groom’s dad which is the ‘down payment’. Then after a week into the marriage, dad and his wife are supposed to go to the groom’s house with truck loads of sweets and other house hold durables including double bed, cooking utensils, TV , A/C etc etc.

It doesn’t stop there. Six months from the time she conceives, the dad is supposed to come with sweets and stuff and take her home. They’d then shoulder the responsibility of expenses and delivery and then return the girl and the baby to the groom after three months of delivery – again with sweets, Cash and things.

In a nut shell it happens like this : The girl’s dad finds a suitable Engg/CA or MBA. He’d then hand over his entire hard-earned fortune and his daughter to the groom. He provides the groom with all the supporting facilities, durables too. The groom would then perform his “Duty” religiously. The girl’s dad would then take care of her delivery and hand over her back ‘afresh’ to him with the baby. The Groom would do his “duty” again and so on. With a fortune like 2 crores in hand, all the groom has to do is to just sit at home and ‘discharge’ his duties on a timely manner.

Interestingly, It would not be complete if I do not mention how the marriages happen in my community: Tam Bram (Tamil Brahmin - Palakkad). Lets take the example of a young Tam Bram – Anand Iyer. The Moment Anand gets a monthly income job he gets ‘Listed’ in the market place. Whether his salary is 2000 or 25000 is not a concern – As long as its “fixed” and is “safe”, he is a good investment in the marriage market.

Thus this Listed entity would find buyers when Anand or His mom/dad attends any close-by marriage ceremonies held. Senior Tam Bram ladies, during their gossip breaks, would start discussing about Anand and his education, Job, salary etc in their coteries. They’d then try and get the “Horoscope” (Jaatakam) of Anand from his relatives. These Tam Bram matriarchs (Alias Maamis) could easily beat the latest Oracle DataBase in their storage capacity and retrieving speed. On a given fine day, they can store as many as 50 eligible Profiles in their brain. Not just the profiles, but they could easily remember the subject’s birth-star, family background, education and other protruding aspects. And when 10 such maami’s meet, it’s a marriage broking firm with 500 profiles. Trading is ON with huge volumes.

The girls family would see if the horoscopes match. It’s the very first elimination round and could be compared to something like Resume short listing. It’s a very complicated task too with different astrologers giving different opinions. Once this task is over, the girl’s dad is half relieved with a Dozen cases in his hand. The dad would then enquire about the groom’s habits. Smoking and Drinking is a strict No-No. Even if the boy has had a small infatuation in his early teen days, he’s rejected out right. A government Job is a BIG plus and a Bigger Plus the groom works in ‘reputed’ organizations like LIC, SBI, SBT, AGS office (Trivandrum), Income Tax office, BSNL etc. If you say you are from McKinsey or PWC or KPMG, then they would step back – inspect you from bottom to top, leave a totally dissatisfied look and walk away. Software companies like Infosys and TCS (as they call it - TATA) are becoming more acceptable these days (Probably b’cos of the Tam Bram Nature of Narayana Murthy and Ramadorai). Its a Big Big Minus if the groom is into his own business irrespective of whether he’s making money or not.

Other than these, He should behave well, talk a lot and know carnatic music. If he has respect for elders, then Nothing like it. God fearing nature is a must.The second round ends here.

After the second round, the Girl’s dad would have typically 3-4 cases and they would proceed to “Ponnu Paakkal”. This is where the groom’s family gets to select or reject a girl. For the groom’s family, this is the biggest elimination round. The girl is made to serve coffee and Snacks to the groom’s family. The groom and his family would then inspect how good-looking she is, how long her hair is, how homely she looks and how good her tooth, eyes, legs are. She’s made to walk a bit and made to sing a Classical song too. Once the girl passes these tests, the Family heads would talk about the marriage deals. If she has MSc in Maths or Chemistry, its given a preference. Psychology, Fashion, Zoology and Social/ Behavioral Science qualifications are slightly negatives.

A Typical Iyer marriage deal is like this - The girl’s side is responsible for bearing the marriage related expenses. And if they make her wear 51 Sovereigns (400 grams of gold), the groom’s family is extremely happy. 11 Sovereign is the minimum requirement. And coming to the dowry part - its as given below :

If the groom is a Graduate - then 25 ladoos, 25 murukks and 5 kutties.
If the groom is a Engineer – then 51 ladoos, 51 murukks and 9 kutties.
If the groom is an MBA - then 75 ladoos, 75 murukks and 11 kutties.
If the groom is an Engg + MBA – then 101 ladoos, 101 murukks and 15 kutties.
If the groom is a Collector (IAS) – 201 ladoos, 201 murukks and 21 kutties.

(IITs and IIMs will be given slight considerations similar to Government Jobs. But there is nothing selling like a collectors job)

And for the readers information, Ladoos, Murukks and Kutties and NOT made of gold silver or platinum. They are just the normal south Indian eatables and this is the ONLY dowry system prevalent among Tam Brams. For the uninitiated – Murukku is just a snack made of Rice powder. Kutties are nothing but ladoo material (Boondhi) arranged in a small-cone like figure. You can contact your Tam Bram friend for more explanation. Or you can mail bvenkat_raman@yahoo.com too.

Then the marriage – a 3 day ceremony with ‘Pondukalkidal’ – an all ladies function where married ladies do a sumangalya prayer before the marriage – on the first day. We have ‘mappilai azhaippu’ on the second day where the “groom” is received by the bride’s family with pomp and splendor (no – not the bike). Then the next day we have the marriage rituals where the groom:

- First plans to go to Kashi (varanasi) in suitable costumes for practicing celibacy and is stopped by the girl’s dad who promises his daughter to him (Kanya danam) and request him to be a family man and not to be a saint.

- Then he’d present the bride a Pudavai (a 10 metre cloth which only Tam Bram matriarchs or maamis know how to wear) and a Toe-ring (Metti)

- Then the Agni-Sakshi round takes place where the marriage is solemnized in the presence and blessings of Fire, Priests and elders.

- Tali kettu – Where the divine Thread – Mangalya sootra – is tied across the brides’ neck

- Ashirwadam – Blessings by elders throw akshathai (blessed rice) on the couple.

- Sadya – The divine feast for which bachelors like me sit through the whole process J

To sum it up, it’s a great occasion where Maamis can Display their Silk sarees and Ornaments. For Maamas (Typically seen in a white dhoti in south Indian temples. They have divine ashes applied all across their temples, chests and elbows. They never wear a shirt and their trade mark is Lord ganesh like pot bellies). For Them, It’s an opportunity to meet old friends and relatives and to have 3 full meals for 3 full days. They’d typically have sumptuous meals on all the 3 days – they’d suck their fingers dry after taking payasam (kheer). Then they’d eat all curries to their fullest satisfaction. But at the end of the marriage, they’d get into their business – criticism - they’d sit in a circle and discuss how salty the curry was, how damp the pappad was and how bad the payasam was cooked etc.

For Kids, it’s a chance to play and remain away from their parents. Some kids also keep following the Video Camera man and make themselves present in every frame like Rajani Kant does. For people like us, it’s a chance to look out for beautiful girls without “toe rings”. And last but not the least, when a marriage gets over after three full days of ceremonies, the Maamis would be very close to finalizing a few other marriage deals. And the process continues.

Have a great day, Pals. Also Please express your views.

Give me a break..

2005-05-03T14:29:00.000+05:30

Saw Chandramukhi and Mumbai Express.

Chandramukhi's Director P VASU tried (just tried) to rejuvenate Rajani's mega star image by all means. But failed Miserably. They tried combining scenes from 3 mega hit mohanlal movies only to fail miserably. People who have seen "Manichitrathazhu" and "Aaram Tampuran" can watch Chandramukhi to learn 100 ways of how NOT to make a film.

Mumbai express had kamal hassan fooling around to "confuse" us with his "timing" numbers. But I guess now he'll be more confused than we are - with the results. Just a blend of Technology and unnecessary confusions. You cannot have a "matrix" and a "pusphak" with the same stone Mr.Kamal Hassan. Pancha Tanthiram was a better movie in that regard.

Yesterday I saw an Interview with Mohanlal. He looked very happy. A very satisfied face indeed. Last week, I had seen another TV interview with Fazil. He said he too was happy to have directed a few but good movies like “Manichitrathazhu” and “Aniyathipraavu”. But then other film makers in Malayalam were not so happy as Fazil and Mohan Lal were. I kept wondering what made these two people happy these days. That was when I saw the latest tamil sensation “Chandramukhi”. Surprisingly, I too became very happy overnight !!

;-)

Is it a Science ? or just Co-incidence ?

2005-04-17T20:18:00.000+05:30

Of late, I’ve been reading a lot of business journals. For good or bad ? I do not know. Basically I have lots of Time these days as I am just waiting to Join NMiMS, Juhu for my
Yem-Be-Yea. And because of these heavy-reading sessions, I , for once, got obsessed with terms like Productivity, Efficiency, Cost, ROI, ROCE, Business-Ethics, Values and of course rankings of Engineering Colleges and B-schools.

Now I shall explain to you, my real life interpretation of these concepts. But Before that I’ll tell you something more –> My Mother has 1 sister and 2 brothers. So in total they are four. Similarly, In my father’s case, they are 12 (yeah a complete dozen). But before you start laughing, I shall remind you of its advantages – I have around 35 cousins in all. They are from diverse backgrounds and all of them have a set of close friends. So any help any of us require at any point of time – They’ll get someone with the required expertise. So it’s an efficient network. Its also a network good enough for AC Neilson or TAMS to do a thorough market research.

Now, I wanted to study how efficient, productive, result-oriented each of them is – and I wanted to learn that with respect to their background and the industry they are in. So let us take it case-by-case.

One of my cousins is a CA. He had made quite a few attempts before he could actually clear all his CA papers. It took him nearly 3 years to clear them. Immediately after clearing CA, he got married too. Now, Three solid years after his marriage and several continuous, rigorous attempts, he showed the end result –> A smart baby boy -> healthy and handsome. Its Just the CA way of doing things – Very Difficult to achieve. But once achieved, Its a best-in-class indeed.

Then I have a cousin who is B.Tech from IIT-B and MBA from IIM-B. After his 12th, he cleared JEE in the very first attempt and joined IIT-B. And soon after his BTech, he cleared CAT in his very first attempt. And as expected of him --> After his marriage, it took him just under 10 months to deliver the 'result' :-) A perfect product (baby) was born. Hats- off to the IIT-IIM efficiency, ethics and productivity concepts. Exemplary indeed.

(Readers may note that 10 months is the bare minimum time required to deliver a completely ethical product and this business man did it.)

Where as another cousin of Mine (BTech from REC, Nagpur and MBA from Symbiosis), For the same task and same end result, He took 2.1 solid years after his marriage. (to achieve what IIT/IIM guy did in just 10 months) - clearly indicating that IITs and IIMs are way ahead of RECs and Symbis’ respectively. Now I can understand why B-school ranking is followed religiously by aspirants. But then, I have a genuine doubt – Why is IIMA rated above IIM B & C ?.

I have another cousin, who is a fashion Designer. She married a trendy and a fashionable young man. It took a Looong time for them to “PLAN” , “DESIGN”, “CONCIEVE” and “DELIVER” the product ( about 4+ years) – But the result was truly admirable. Baby had brilliant complexion, straight hair and three beauty spots on his body. A work of Art indeed.

Another friend of Mine is a Lobby Manager at Oberoi. He was also into catering for a few years. He delivered his baby recently in a reasonable time frame after marriage – But more than the time frame, it’s the hospitality that is to be measured here - His baby never cries!!! What ever you do to it (unless something harsh), she keeps smiling gracefully. She never creates problems while feeding her – she consumes her cerlac and milk happily without any hassles. Coincidence or gene-play ?

Now, the software Industry – She delivered a baby while in the US. And the baby resembled her so sharply. We compared the baby with my cousin’s photo when she was a baby herself. Ditto. Both were identical. I was wondering how she cut–pasted the same Java class and proved the Inheritance characteristics of Object-Oriented concepts so clearly.

This particular baby took a lot of time for doing things. If you ask him to eat, he’ll start eating an hour later. Once started, he’ll then take another one hour to finish his eating. Then slowly and lazily he would walk here and there. He speaks slowly. If you ask a question, he’ll answer it after 2 minutes. So much of time he takes for everything. Guess who he is – the son of my friend working in a Ministry at Delhi - as An additional Secretary (no offence meant).

A friend of my cousin works for Maruti. He is a senior engineer responsible for manufacturing units of Maruti-Esteem. He “delivered” his first 'unit' 2 years after his marriage. He delivered his second unit exactly 2 years after that. A third unit was yet again born exactly after another 2 years. This somehow reminds me of Just-In-Time production and MPS.

Now the most interesting story – A family friend works for LIC. She has been with LIC for 10 years now. She, just before her maternity, worked out various insurance plans for her baby. But then, the wonder happened !! She delivered two babies –Twins !! – Indeed a Millennium Bonus from the Insurance giant.

Another Baby was “Conceived” in May 2003 (from my calculations as they did not tell me ) and Delivered on April 2004. His dad is a stock broker. So I Just curiously analysed the Sensex movements in this period of 10 months. May 2003 saw sensex at 3400 and April 2004 saw sensex above 5000. So he knew exactly when to Invest and when to book profits or harvest gains :-)

Now I am worried. About myself – Its so many things at a time for me – Engineering, Now MBA, Singing, Music composing, Blogging, Stock Markets, Retailing etc. So I am just apprehensive about the kind of baby I’ll have. Can anyone help me in predicting that ? Pleeeeeaaaaaassssseee !!!

A token of Love. Of Loyalty and Thanks.

2005-04-12T12:31:00.000+05:30

There was Mr.RaghuRam Pathak, 61, a retired school teacher. He Joined service when he was 21. He was born in 1944 in a remote Madhya Pradesh village. He scored a first class in his Higher school and under went TTC (Teachers Training Course) at Udaipur. Before joining the Govt. S.R.V High school as a third standard school teacher, he worked in a district Magistrate court as a bench clerk on a temporary vacancy. After that it had been a long 40 years of 3rd standard teaching. Some multiplication-Division, HCF-LCM on the maths side, Some Social Studies and Science were his other subjects.

His wife was no more. He had three daughters. Two of them were married off. The Younger one, Meera, had just completed her studies. Pathak was desperately looking for suitable alliances for Meera. One day it suddenly occured to him that he should speed-up Meera’s marriage process. From then, He started doing things more aggressively. He found a young Vijaya Bank clerk, Animesh, for his daughter. The next 3-4 weeks found him really busy – withdrawing his Pension funds, PPF, Tracking his FDs and so on. He was making arrangements – Booking a hall, printing cards, Inviting people, Buying ornaments – all alone. The marriage, a relatively simple one, went off very smoothly. Meera started living with Animesh and Pathak was a happy father.

In the next 3 weeks Pathak was busy settling accounts and Post-Marriage responsibilities. He was alone at his house. He was slowly getting used to the lonliness of retired life. But One fine morning (4th week after marriage), the neighbours found him dead at his house. He died of a Massive Heart attack. Quite un-expected for his relatively younger age (61). But then that was fate.

In another similar story – there was Greeshma who was in Love with Rashid. As you could guess – they were from different religions. Greeshma was from a very orthodox Hindu family and she knew that she could never marry Rashid. Rashid, a yound muslim man, wanted to marry Greeshma very much. But Greeshma knew that her marriage would only result in her father's death – for he had already had two strokes and a third one would definitely be a final one.

Their love for each other was a divine one. They seldom talked. Whenever they met, for short whiles, they both would sit silent. What ever their eyes couldn’t convey, their hearts conveyed. And what ever their hearts too couldn’t, they used words. A true love in all sense.

One day Greeshma came to Rashid’s house. She asked him to go along with her. They walked along the green pastures of the village, crossed a small stream and finally reached a deserted place. There Greeshma said, “Make love to me, Rashid. I love you”. Rashid was surprised and worried at the same time. He had never loved Greeshma for their physical intimacy. She looked absolutely beautiful. But for Rashid – she was a tender rose – the one we would even hesitate to touch for its tenderness and Pristinus.

But Greeshma forced him to make love. She behaved strangely and differently. First Rashid hesitated but finally Rashid yielded to it. There, in the serenity and silence of the meadows, they united. They became one in the true sense. Their divine love saw the consummation. The trees, Birds and the mighty Sun witnessed their love.

The very next day, on her way to college, a rashly driven lorry knocked down greeshma and ran over her. Her gorgeous body was ripped apart. It soaked in her blood. An on the spot death. Again fate. Her lover, Rashid, cried cried and cried for the rest of his life. He would sit silent in his room, often cry and led a very lonely life.

Now to the reasoning part. There is this insight which occurs to people when they near their deaths. In Pathak’s case, he felt the urgent need for marrying off his daughter. Soon after he fulfilled his responsibility, he had to surrender to the almighty. The fate is pre-decided. It cannot be evaded. Greeshma’s earthly life was getting over. But before she could depart, she had the intuition to give her most valuable possession to Rashid - As a token of love - As a token of loyalty - As a token of Thanks. And this gift was nothing but herself. Absolutely nothing wrong about her strange behavior at that point.

We all have certain things to done in this life. Irrespective of whatever we do, wherever we are, the moment we are relieved of our responsibilities on earth, we are going to go back - To another world, with another set of things to be done. And In this process, we feel the need to complete important things and set aside our valuables to our loved ones as a token of love, loyalty and thanks.

Death is all prevalent. It is the most common thing that happens on the earth. In this short span, let us love everyone around. Help them with what ever we can. And serve them. It counts. It is all about Love, Loyalty and Thankfulness. Our life is made.

"Kyu hamien maut ki paigaam diye jaaye,

Ye sazaa kam to nahi hai ki jiye jaaye ?"

- Why giving me messages about death - Isn't living itself a punishment ? Please post your valued comments.

Its a Carefree life !

2005-03-30T21:49:00.000+05:30

It is a lonely night. My parents are away at Pune to attend a family wedding. It is Raining heavily outside. It is fairly cold also. I just wrapped myself with a blanket and switched on The TV. I flipped through a few channels. I ended up in a Horror Movie where the Hero is in pretty much same state as I am. He’s also lonely. It’s a mid-night there also. The hero is browsing through the TV Channels too. Suddenly the power goes off in his house. Its Totally dark. All he can hear is the sound of that heavy down pour. Candles are out of reach.

The loneliness combined with the Darkness and a heavy downpour combined with the mid-night factor made me a bit alert. I am slowly getting scared. The Movie is adding to it. The Hero slowly gets out of his bed to reach out for his Torch. He gets it. Suddenly he hears foot-steps upstairs. There is somebody in the house !!! Slowly & Carefully he takes his stride up the staircase. He & I are getting nervous. The camera frame shows him making entry into that dark room in the corner. He opens the door carefully. A.L.A.S !!!! HE SEES THE GHOST. HE SHOOOOOOUTS!!! The background music score reaches its peak.

The screen blacks out. The Next frame is bright – It shows a Test Tube filled with a blue color solution. A white linen nearby. A new twist in the movie – I thought .Immediately a husky female voice says from background. “Now Introducing to you the new Whisper Wings. It has the new S-T-R-E-T-C-H-A-B-L-E wings (demonstrates) that keeps it buckled and hence protects your clothes from staining. It has double absorption power too.” She pours the test-tube solution into that napkin piece. Then smiles.

Its me – who is the JACKASS now. A nice way of watching a Horror movie Right ? with all these ads in-between. The movie continued after this advertisement and again after ten full minutes I reach a fearful moment. Some one attacks our hero from his back. He turns back. He is shocked and terrified !! He flees towards the door. I keep my fingers crossed. He Opens the door & enters a bright room with some furniture. The Next frame shows a lady sitting on a sofa. I thought it was his wife. That lady starts saying - “Horse Riding…stunt and dance sequences in Jaipur. All this on the second-day of my periods. Out door location. Not even a Bathroom !! So Now presenting to you the Kotex sanitary napkin - Never hold your dreams to yourself. Achieve them!”

I am fooled again. With this, I started thinking more analytically – The evolution of Sanitary Napkins in India. It started with “Dhona, Bhanana, Sukhana – Ab gaya who zamana”. And the young girl shouts – “Deedeee”. It was a quite famous ad at that time -
- An ad which Influenced a lot of middle class women/girls in terms of personal hygiene, Opening up instead of shying off etc. Yes it appealed to several youngsters like me also. I remember how curiously I watched that ad – More curiously than I ever did in my math class.

The next ad in the block was that of Carefree’s – It showed a girl cycling & a song which meant – “The times change and along with it she too”.
Then Immediately forayed the rival Stayfree with their own ad. A Royal war - Like HLL/ P&G clash. Like Mammootty & Mohanlal. Like Rajani & Kamal Hassan. Like shimla & Darjeeling. Like Wipro & Infosys. Like IIML & XLRI.

Carefree offered 5 napkins in pack. Stayfree shot back by offering “buy 5 and get 1 free” in a 6 pack napkin. Carefree increased absorption capacity – In the ads they poured a couple of drops of a liquid from a burette into the napkin. Stayfree attacked them back by pouring a test-tube full of blue solution. Carefree poured two test tubes full in their next ad.

Carefree offered “double-protection” pack. Stayfree cut the prices. Carefree showed a care-free girl in their ad. Stayfree shot back with a Concerned Mom worried about her fast growing daughter. When these two rivals fought, their came a third party to grab the market share – The whisper! The name itself was elegant – considering the way loud talkative women turn to whispering on “those” days. It was a big success.

Carefree showed a girl becoming basket ball team captain with “confidence”. Stayfree showed a girl “jumping” across the the seat-rows in a cinema hall. The silent-Tom Whisper took a different track by introducing “wings”. Kotex, it just brought in a model to add glamour.

When young, I remember having spent night-outs thinking what was this carefree or stayfree when they were introduced. I and my friends Knew that it was something “not-very-straight”. So we friends kept speculating about it in lower classes at school. Some friends said it was a “medicine”. I confronted “how can a medicine pack be so big ?”. Then some one said “It was for grown up people who have the habit of wetting the bed.” Again we confronted “then why not men ?”. Any way, those days were fun days where everything was viewed with a skeptical eye.

But remember – It is At times, dangerous too. It can sow the seeds for a fight too. Take this – My friend (a she) would often tell me – “Today I’ve buy some books”. “Today I need to buy some dress” etc.

But one day she said – I need to buy “some-things”.
Thinking of books, dress etc I asked “what do you want to buy ?”.
She : “some things”
Me : “ya ya..whats that”
She (gets irritated & angrily ) : “W-H-Y SHOULD I TELL YOU EVERY-THING ??”
Me (gets the point, smiles) : Ok Ok. Don’t tell me.
She (walks away) : Shut-up!!!
It took me some praising words and a long mail to sort it out.

Jokes apart. It is a fact that these ads – stayfree, carefree and whisper have inculcated a new phase of personal hygiene in Indian Middleclass women. They, through their continuous efforts have induced the mothers, the girls and the women to open up instead of keeping things to themselves and suffering. Ads can influence people for sure. But on the flip side – Although their target segment was women , Ofcourse some lads like me too caught their unsolicited attention. Now on the future of sanitary napkins – Any new ideas in your mind like the ones of “stretchable wings” .

Before closing the window – Request you to write your much valued comments.
Bye Bye !!

Bambaai Babu - Desi main.

2005-03-21T12:55:00.000+05:30

I am a person who'd been in chennai/Mangalore/Cochin/Trivandrum for quite some time. But none of these cities affected me like Mumbai did. I also had chances to visit Mumbai quite often - Thanks to Infy pune training in 2001,SP Jain in Feb 2002, My cousin's wedding in April 2002, My father's transfer to Mumbai in 2003 etc.

The impression this city left on me was that of unique. Its the Pulse of India – The Business Hub, Movie Hud, Mafia Hub and the trading Hub of India. It became my biggest fascination after Dubai - which i have never visited. But yes, as i mentioned, I never had a chance to "live" in this city. All I did was to spend 3-4 days here and return to chennai after my leaves get over.

Every time I return to Chennai after my mumbai visit - I'd hold my head high. Like NRN of infy. Like LN Mittal. Like Sachin.So proud. Also Often Like sakthi kapoor –So Snobbish. Often Like Bal Thakrey - Megalomaniac looks!!

My looks bore a tag - of The Brand Mumbai,
and a Pricky message " I am from Mumbai, U are from ?"

If you are not able to visualize that part - Just recall how your uncle behaved when he came to Visit you from Saudi for the first time.

Then as usual, the next weekend I'd go to Spencer plaza (biggest shopping mall in chennai) with Prakash Gopan - PG. Prakash has never been to Mumbai before. The Mumbaikar and the Non-Mumbaikar duo start shopping.

Act - 1. scene : Mount road.
------------------------------------

PG : Its indeed very big right ?.
Me : what-an-asshole-u-r-look : WHAT ? BIG ?? Spencer Plaza in chennai ?
PG : Ya. What a good crowd here.
Me : (Antagonised) Ever Heard of M-U-M-B-A-I ?? Seen the BABES there ?
(In the same tone in which my Proj Manager asks me : "EVVEER heard of Coding Standards ?")

PG : sorry-face : Are the malls big there ?
Me : like-a-proud-grandfather : Ya ya. U should see them Boy..

Then we'd watch a movie in Satyam Multiplex.

PG : See how comfortable the seats are! cool movie hall this is.
Me : Country-you-look : Ever Heard of I.N.O.X ? or ADLABS atleast ??
PG : No. what are those ?
Me : oh-god-kill-me-expression : NOTHING!!!! One day u'll come to know ! ERRR..
PG (again with a sorry face he faltered) Umm..ok…

After Movie, We'd come wait at the Rly station for a local to Guindy.

PG : Next train is at 5.30 pm. The 5.00 pm train just left.
me : angry-face : THIRTY MINUTES ??? Three-zero ?? WHAT the...
PG : Thirty minutes is a decent frequency right ?
Me : FED-up-look : Ever been to DADAR ? Heard of 5:12,5:14,5:17 FASTS ?
PG : (main-har-gaya-face): Yes man. Bombay is too good. I wish i'd been there sometime.

The train comes. Stops at the station for solid 2 minutes. 5-6 people got down. 2-3 got in.

Act 2: At Adyar bus stand, around 7.00 pm. (another weekend)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I and prakash and Manova (nother friend) are walking.We decide to go to the beach. Besant Nagar beach.Beach is, as usual, full. Daadas, Naanis, Paattees, Thaathaas, Chittappas..periyappas..jeejas, joojees, athais, attimbars, bahus, deedees, akkaas, Tangachees have occupied 98% of the beach. Rest 2% is occupied by balloon walas & bhelpuri walas. We decide to walk towards a slightly deserted area. We settle down there.

Prakash first taps on my thigh and gestures me to look behind. I look there. Nothing seen.He again tells me to look there. I see nothing.

PG : (Soft murmer) Look at that side- a girl and a guy.
Me : Where ?
PG : Behind us.
Manova : WHAT ? WHERE ? WHEN ? enge ? enge ? (eager-look)

Me looking. Saw a girl who has slightly rested her head on a guy's shoulders.

Me : whats there ?
PG (with-a-journalists-excitement) : They are in love it seems.

Me (lost-control) EERRRR...GRRRRRR..heard of BANDRA ? BAND STAND ??
Me : ever in your life heard of JUHU ? IN ANDHERI ??
Me : ever in your life dreamt of NARIMAN point ??????

Manova & Prakash get excited and say in one voice : "pleaase explain"..

I, with all the my philosophical Ingenuity, start explaining.
"Son, Band stand is famous for 2 things - Lovers and Love making. Smooching happens 24*7. Evening 6.30 is the best of the lot. Lovers do all sorts of things. Goings get worse after 8.00 pm"

Manova quickly gets me a plate of Bhajji-chutney to eat. They come and sit in a circle around me.Both in one Voice "THENN ???.."

I continue "If the traffic noise ever comes to zero on an evening in Marine Drive.."

prakash & Manove "If..then...What..What ??? continue.."

I say "err..All..All you can hear is the sound of Bra straps. Same is the case in Nariman point,G-Road,Matunga, Vikhroli, SP Jain, NMIMS, NITIE, Bhawans college". I tried recalling all the station names I could & all the college names i knew.

Manova & Prakash "Arun, do you have a girl friend in Mumbai"

I adjusted my spectacles in a stylish manner and Snootily smattered. "Guys. Its M.U.M.B.A.I. To have a neighboring girl go down on you, ALL it takes is minutes. I repeat M.I.N.U.T.E.S.
Many Girls above 20 there are sluts. They are very comfortable with One-Night-Stands !! Thats just another facet." Epistemologically (philosophically) I said.

That Night, I went philosophical - Explained them the purpose of life, the pulse of Mumbai - About The Dream land. The place to be ON EARTH. I explored various nuances - Of Mafias, Pubs, Lady Beer Bars, Male prostitution & the Red Street.

I made them feel so guilty that they've never visited Bombay. They started feeling the punch of the blunder they've committed in life by not visiting Bombay. And I explain them more stories. They buy me beer and Dinner. An happy evening. We go back to our houses.

Days passed. Weeks passed. Months passed. I shift my base to Bombay. With all the flurry'n' excitement. Afterall, atleast after 24 years in my life, I am at the Right Place.

ACT-3. DADAR station. 7.10 pm.
--------------------------------------------

7.12 Borivali local comes. An exodus indeed.I give the chance to others and wait for 7.15 local.
7.15 local came. The crowd is again big and I wait for 7.18 local.
7.18 local arrives. I too crowd around near the door. Gets stamped royally. As expected - I wait for 7.21. with a Slightly engorged feet.
An utter Mayhem is felt.

7.21 Local came. I rush in to the door only to survive a few "elbow tricks" by the regulars. With some pain on my chest and stomach, i wait for 7.25.

7.25 local came and went. Me still helpless. Unable to enter.
7.27 local came and went.
7.29 local – Dito.
so did 7.30,7.33, 37, 40,42,46,50,53,54,57,8.01...so on till 8.15.

Then I rushed to the Ticket counter - Exchanged my 2nd class with a 1st class one.

8.15, 8.18, 8:22...First class is no different from second class. Then waited till 8.45 pm.

I managed to get inside 8.45 Virar fast. The Sweaty hands, oily heads, smelly tiffin-boxes, dirty turbans all found a new companion for their encounter - my newly bought white Arrow shirt.

Also My Infy watch, which I preserved for a year while in chennai, got 4 scratches along with a freebie : A stinky smell.

My Park-Avenue pants bore the stamp marks of several marathi chappals. My NIKE shoes died of suffocation. That journey was worth a ten steam baths, twenty Ayurvedic massages, and a thrity dubai feet massages combined. Who said only in economy-class flight u'll get ur legs locked ? I practically experienced the physics concepts of 12th standard : Of momemtum, Of Newtons third law, Of Friction, Of Inertia, Of Entrophy etc.

All this i did, only to find that I could no way get down at Borivali in a Virar Train. I tried getting down and was bluntly prohibited from doing so by a array of Invectives. A Borivali Passenger boarding a Virar local & a Thane passenger boarding a Kalyan local is a bigger crime than 25 rapes, 35 murders 45 Michael Jackson's combined. Quietly I travelled till Virar - a good 25 Km from borivali, did a return in the same train and got down at Borivali finally.

I, Only then, Regretted my contempt for chennai Local.

ACT-4. INOX theatre. Andheri (w).
----------------------------------------------

To beat the heat, i decide to watch a movie and walked into INOX. I walk to the ticket counter. A happy-go-Breasty female is there.

Me : Which all movies here ?
she : Black, JURM,KARAM, BEWAFA all sold out.
Me : How come ? I have come well in time.
She : Internet/Phone/Mobile/Telegraph/Radio bookings.
Me : what ticket is there ?
She : "Fun". (with a got-your-intention smile)

I knew its the movie i'd least like to watch. But then I have come here all the way. so i decide to go ahead.

I hand over a 50 rupee note to her.
She : Minimum is 80 bucks.
With a Kilukkam-Mohanlal-smile ,I hand over a 100 rupee note.

She : Today is sunday. so charge is 150.
Me : (in my mind) "WHAAAAAAAAAAT ??? ".
Me : (to her) : Oh..No probs at all. Just 150 ?

With a smiling face and a ton kilo heavy heart, I buy the ticket. And I waste 3 hrs of my life watching that husband-swapping good-for-nothing movie. Poeple come for movies in Mumbai to have "Fun" and not necessarily to watch "Fun".

I, then, felt guilty about having blamed my beloved "Chennai Satyam Multiplex". Mea Culpa. No more. No less.

There, In chennai, for any Non RajniKant (RK) movie, go 30 minutes before, spend 50 Rs and watch the movie. For RK Movies, book 2 months in advance. So simple isn’t it ?

ACT-5. BIG BAZAAR Mall , GoreGaon(W).
---------------------------------------------------------

Me Very well dressed. Nice spectacles. I eagerly go into the mall. An array of Babes there. The atmosphere is filled with that of an exotic-mix-of sweet ladies perfumes. I visit different stores inside the mall.

No Item below 1000 bucks in WestSide.
No Book less than 750 bucks at cross-roads.
No pen less than 300 in the Parker room.
No shoes less than 2000 in Adidas.
No ice-cream less that Rs.85 in Baskin.

Altogether a humbled feeling. Still I bought an ice-cream for having gone there all the way.

Now the saddest part -

No sales girl attended to me at the Westside.
No host wished me at the Parkers.
No lady host at Adidas said "How can i help you sir ?"
No girl, or lady ,or woman , or even elderly woman ever looked at me.
I showed "Taata" to a female kid there. It too turned its face.

A south Indian man with Average looks and slightly-Above-Average salary Should never visit a Mall in Mumbai. Its for high flying business men's pretty-looking Wives, pokey-breasty-mistresses and dumbo-smiley-Daughters.

I,Only then, regretted my comments for Spencer Plaza. Sure - I have wooed prakash & manova so much that Unka nazar lag gaya mujh par.

Love You chennai. If Bombay is my dream, then chennai is the reality.

The Middle Class Marathon - The Scalable SoftWare !

2005-02-25T13:02:00.000+05:30

With 2005 budget to be announced in a day, the headlines in most of the Indian Dailies are pretty predictable :

"LPG excise cut on the cards " - cooking gas to be cheaper.

"AC fares hike imminent" - 2nd sleeper untouched.

"Cars could be more affordable" - Excise duty cut.

"FDI in retail likely" - Stocks flare up.

The Bureaucrats are giving their level best to see that the largest chunk of Indian population,the middle class, is benefited to a nice extent. What NDA failed to do is UPA's USP. The Trio including PC, MM singh & Ahluwalia are doing wonders to Indian Economy with all the three experts in Macro Economics.

The US MNCs that include that Foreign Mutual Funds, Banks,Telecom majors and Auto Giants are all competing these days to Invest in India and acquire potential companies. They recruit the best in class B-school students. They train the best of brains and depute them to India. Why ? To tap theMiddle Class market in India including you and me. In short - To serve us and keep us delighted.

With that my thougts strayed to the story of middle class- what our aspirations were in 1950's,what are our aspirations now. How'll it be in future ? Once the MNC's help us realise our dreams -their quaterly margin and profit targets will automatically be met.

My dad has told his stories several Times to me. They are real eye openers. Born to a relatively poor background, my father and his brothers had to struggle a lot to come up in life. In Those days the middle class younger generation had a tough target to achieve - To Score 100 in maths at 10th. Score 90+ in English & then find ones name in the Public Sector Bank recruits list. Salary 150 bucks. Good Status. Proud parents. Eligible for marriage. My Uncle, who got 100 in maths - saw Federal Bank manager come to his house and offering him a Job at perumbavoor branch in 1955. The Aspiration then was a decent salary to live with. And a doubly safe Job. And an "obedient" wife.

By 1965-70, the aspirations had changed a bit. Now the basic qualification was 12th. Complete your pre-Degree, Take the Type-Writing & Short Hand test. Pass the Higher exams in both, go to Mumbai. My father had taken this path. He got a job in Bombay (450 bucks pay), then attended his part time classes in B.A and then later passed LLB too. Now he's a senior officer in Canara Bank. His contemporaries hold senior positions in various banks, Air-India, Asian-Paints etc. Aspiration then was to have a safe Job and own a Two wheeler + an "educated" wife . Preferred Middle class destination : Bombay/ Chennai/ Calcutta. Preferred Holiday : Back home.

But the worst affected generation was those who graduated between 80-85. By then the Bombay factor was a bit less fascinating with less openings and surplus of steno's and Clerk's. By then one had to appear to PSC Competitive exams, then find herself in Govt- Positions or Bank pay rolls. Some of the smart and relatively rich people managed to do Engineering or IAS/IFS. Good number of people could found them settled in Saudi or Muscat or Kuwait as accountants, PA's etc. (Indian salary in 3000 range and middle-east salary in 1000 dirhams). Aspiration then was to Own a House, some jewellery + a "well to do" wife and car (premier padmini or Ambi). Preferred destination : Hyderabad, Cochin,Ahmedabad, Coimbatore. Preferred holiday : Ootty. Shimla. Kodai.

90-95 saw the IITs/RECs coming out as the preferred destination among the smart ones'. Ordinary Engg colleges lost their charms and some very fortunate ones managed to ride the IT wave & emerge out as the richer of the lot. Brilliant Tutorials/Agarwals cashed in on the emerging boom. People were more aware. SL Gupta's IIT physics and IE Irodovs were hot selling. Competition Success and Magazines like that saw a huge growth. Management education was still not considered among the middle class. Campus Placement was rather preferred to higher studies. Aspiration then was a 5 figure salary + a flat + Maruti + a beautiful wife.

95-99 saw more IT jobs and the Middle class were upgraded to upper middle class.They could cash in onEsops, frequent US trips. Top 20% of middle class studs managed to do Engg from somewhere. There was also a surge in Fashion Corses/ Journalism & Management. IIMs started to a preferred destination- Though not inevitable! 95-99 saw starting pay packages in the range of 9k-10 k for engineers & 20-25K for fresh managers. Govt Jobs were out of the scenario for upper middle class. Lower middle class, of course wrote Bank tests and Govt service jobs. But the Charm for the Govt Jobs was no longer prevalent. "Gulf"opportunities also plummeted. Aspiration was to own a flat, nice interiors, AC rooms and a "good" car + a "blonde" wife with a Job.

By 2001-2002, engineering was seen as a basic degree- On par with BA,Bsc, BCom. And IT saw a recessionwith salaries coming down. Some lucky ones who did management emerged as clear winners. Others tookthe normal US path to make advancement in Career. Aspiration was a high paying Job + decent amount of travelling abroad + "Verree beautiful wife with a job who should be smart, broad-minded with common interests" . Car and Flat had no premium. Preferred Destination : Bangalore, Noida. Preferred Holiday : a massage in cochin + backwaters of aleppy. or a short visit to Andaman.

2004 saw the IT hit the markets back. The huge demand and a equally huge supply of engineers provided Jobs to many. Engineers who could spell their Dad's names found Jobs with IT Majors in India. The market valueof engineers plummeted like anything. RECs/IITs found themselves in the same Job as Rajeshwari and Jayaram colleges. The result : Management education in high demand. A,B & C's found themselves selling themselves to the maximum. TIME/IMS/CFLOGIC all rid the wave that Brilliant's and Agarwal's rid in 1995. The number of Nine's in 99."999" became the USP. 99.99 was above 99.9. 99.8 and below were out Of the scene. Aspiration "is" a consultancy Job, 6 figure salary (if possible) , Laptop, Home Theatre and Ford Ikon. Preferred Destination : California, London, New jersy.preferred holiday : LasVegas, Mauritius,Dubai SF, Singy or bangkoky. Again aspiration changed to an "obedient wife, preferably without job". But the wives, riding the same boom "couldn't compromise on their careers". Result : Late marriages & boom in Marriage broking business' and dot coms.

Thus, human beings are gradually moving on to the philosophy of animals - Survival of the fittest. Most of them, in this process forget to Live a life - A lazy evening at a park. A birthday with our old parents. A drop to our moms to a nearby temple. A shopping with your wife. A Newyear Hariharan concert. A visit to an uncle in a villege. All this is forgotten. People are all running. A marathon of life. They are in an urge to emerge out as a winner among their friends. Their aim is not to serve a society. All that they need is to have their friends and peers look upto them with envy.

Lets stop. Lets take out some time from M&As or Margins or NPAs and invest them in music, painting, animals, trees, poems and nature. After all we all are going to die one day & nothing is permanent. Whether its the god of Brands "Beckham" or a poor woman in mettukudi, its all the same. Live today and die tomorrow. Love One another. Love our Kids, Nature & Pets - our life is made !!

My world is full of wonders..!

2005-02-18T12:11:00.000+05:30

Quite often, like Wordsworth, I too would rest upon my couch in a pensive mood.But unlike wordsworth who dreamt about daffodils, I do get capitulated by a variety of thoughts/happenings in the small world around me.

Recently,I met my friend Aby who did his MBA from REC. He's been with Infosys ever since & had been to US for quite sometime. So when I went to see him after 2 years, I expected a measurable change in him, as you tooperhaps would. I was half right - and a half wrong. There stood him - very well dressed. Neatly Ironed shirt and pants. Well groomed hair and nails. Nice spectacles. Cleanly shaven. Cool Cologne and a cosy laptop.

Perfect. Hundred marks for that. Then where did i go wrong ? I met his at near a bus-stop from where he was to board a bus to Trivandrum. The Trivandrum Fast, with a painful harp, rushed into the depot like a 6.30 Borivali fast. The Bus was unjustfully packed. Aged Moms, Dominant dads, voluptuous sisters,Insolent brothers, Pan-Chewing uncles, Jeejas, Naanas,naanis, a group of nuns - all were there in the bus. Gossips, political parleys,marriage stories, Rubber prices,Temple festival events Were all the hot topics inside.

A twenty-five more, including our US return, crowded the door from outside. Our Man, quickly folded his sleeves, handed over his laptop to an uncle at the window and travelled on the footboard clinging to a window bar. The moment the bus arrived, Our global man turned stunningly local. And me, a person who has not seen the US- not even on a map, always travelled by a volvo A/C bus. Quite confused, I left.

Now another story from Chennai. It was scorchingly hot and I was walking home after a wild shopping. A chic was approaching me from the other side. I quickly took my hand towel out and wiped my face clean. Then walked pompously. Suddenly a man came from no where, found his place near this electric post. The decently dressed man, happily opened his zipper, took his tool out and HAPPILY attended to the nature's call - with the chic on one side and me on the other!! He was as comfortable and proud as talking on a cell phone - attending a freind's call. Embarrassed to the core, i crossed the road. The chic, So comfortably walked as though nothing happened. Quite confused, i left. India shining ?

Now the end-to-end solutions syndrome. Oracle/SAP/Infosys/IBM all do it. Now its Viagra, the new kid in this market.Today in rediff i saw a news article - "Viagra good for brains too.Doctors at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, are studying to find if the drug Viagra can help patients recover from a stroke." So at first, it made one end strong & stable. Now its helping the other end to stabilize. Thus even the Viagra manufactures are providing strong solutions in the entire Human-body Chain Management (call it HCM) .Quite confused , i am stuck.

Yet another one - My friend and I are quite interested in doing a masters in Communication Management. We have been trying hard for that.One fine morning we both opened google and started searching -> For courses in Sports Management. Oh yes. Both of us have been reading together the acheivements of Sania Mirza in last 2 weeks. Our wavelengths are same and so all over a sudden our interests too changed. Sania might be looking for a good manager, wouldnt she be ?And I am eligible too. (forget my friend in this realm). Again confused am I.

Its true that great creative minds think and work alike. Take the example of Indian Banks.

Union Bank says they are "good people to bank with"

Vijaya Bank says they are "A friend you can bank upon"

PNB says they are "a good name to bank with"

In another example - of a PAN Masala. The CEO of a company stops his car and points to East India company. Then Says to his beautiful secy "They tortured us for 200 years. Ab hamari baari hain". I got absolutely no clue of how it related to PAN Masala as such. Rajanigandha..

Again confused am I. where's the indian communication industry heading to ??

In an exclusive Interview Tamil sensation Trisha Krishnan says "I wouldn't do anything for money.If the role is great and script is good, then i'd consider working depending upon the director and other crew working in the movie".Greatly moved by this confidence, I Watched"thirupatchi" - the Vijay/Trisha starrer. Trisha is there only for couple of item songs & scenes - for the name sake heroine role. Not to mention the recently hot trisha clipping- the one for which she never charged a single pie and with which the producers made crores. The most searched one in google from India after Janet Jackson episode.

Again am confused.

Dreams Unlimited !

2004-12-20T16:01:00.000+05:30

What we want to do in Life is an important decision which everyone has to make in his life. In my case, I had different aspirations - Sadly, Most of them unachieved till date. Let me take you through it.

As a kid, my Ambition was to become a Bus Driver. The Impeccable style with whicha bus driver drives, Changes Gears & Overtakes other vehicles, all captured my little heart.Engine Driver too fascinated me to a good extent & often i drew stations on my house wallsand Tracks on my house floor.

Then as I grew further, at around 6, My ambition was to become a Police Inspector. Inspired by a Joshi movie in which Mammootty played an Inspector Role, I yelled,Cried & pleaded with my dad to get me a police uniform. Then weeks passed where i'd dress up as police in front of all the visiting guests at home & render the harsh Mammootty dialogues. Gosh !! Cant imagine how embarrassed my parents would have been.

Then when I was around 10, I used to play shuttle with two medical college students staying in a flat next to ours in Trivandrum. They had hung a skeleton at their house. Inspired by their language, Books & stethoscope, I made up my mind to become a doctor. And started scoring well in Biology in my 6th & 7th standards. Digestive system & Brain was portrayed as it is in textbook on examination papers.

By 8th standard, when I started reading terms like "GastROEnterology" "EnDOCrinology" &"Herpes Zoster Oticus", I felt the heat. I understood that reproduction was not as simple as pollen grains falling into a flower and that it involved a "complicated" process. And I learnt Eye sight is not as simple as reflected rays entering our eye.

Now, 14, I am inspired by my cousin Karthik who got "Campus selection" from IIT-Bombay. My Dad,Mom, Uncles & aunts started advising me - "Arun, you should also get into IIT like Karthik & do our family proud !"

The idea of "Campus placement" which i had in mind was like this -> Companies and Corporates would come to our campus. They'd form a procession - walk along hostel corridors & Mess - alluring, requesting and imploring with the students to join their company -

We'd then proudly ask "whats the salary ?"
They say "Rs. 8000".
We say, "No ! we need 10000".
They say hesitantly, "Ok. done" && the deal is cut.

Then another company would come - They say "We need Arun at any cost."
The first company which selected me wouldn't agree. The two companies fight for me & I prouldy watch the HRs fight.

Very much Inspired by "Campus Selection",the keyword my dad used to tantalise me with,I started preparing for IIT, Roorkee, MNREC, BITS Pilani & Lost 3-4 valuable yearsin My life reading proofs, Derivatives, I.E IRodov,"Resnick & Haliday", "Krishna's IIT Chemistry",
SL Loney's "Trigonometry" and SL Gupta's "IIT Physics".

Then 4 years in REC Trichy - In the first year my ambition was to become a Senior & Rag the juniors left and Right. My seniors made me run around their hostel in an underwear & made me buy sanitary napkin pack from the college medical shop - all of Which i wanted to pass onto my juniors too - Just like the textbooks. The way Seniors used to talk about "Micro-processor"& "Digital Technologies" really made me look upto them. The final years Already had job offersby the time I joined the college and I, the wonderstuck kid, could compare them only with gods.

In Second & Third years of my college life, As a result of heavy interactions with My professor, I saw myself as a Power electronics expert - Using Field Programmable Gate Arrays to Trigger a Combination of SCRs at Firing angle alpha = 36 degrees & eliminate the 4th & 5th Harmonics ofVoltage sinusoidal Fluctuation. I made it a point to walk pompously like my professor with a heavy book on my hand.

In the Final Year, Ever since i got a job in Infosys, My aspirations too changed. I wanted to be a Technical Whizkid. Soon My bookshelves found additions like "C/C++" By yashwantkanitkar, Java Complete reference 5.0, Fortran 77, VB,VB++,VC++,VJ, RJ, DJ & the likes.Hacking others passwords & Bringing a server down was considered royal & kingly by my fellow dudes.

The college life ended there. After Joining Infosys,I wanted to a Insurance Domain Expert.The way our Senior PM analysed "This policy will have a single premium which will be invested in debts & can claim Tax rebates" on Term Policies & Whole Life Actuarial Routines bowled me.

And now, after 3+ years of experience in Software, when some of you said my last blog wasreally good, I again aspired "I am gonna blog it out"."Communication" is gonna take me places.

What friends ? Do you too keep aspiring like this ??

Third Generation Man ? A Gone Case !

2004-12-13T15:07:00.000+05:30

As a Man, I am also interested in everything concerning with Masculinity & Masochism. So this particular Column from Business Line caught My attention.

"Now, Laptops Threaten fertility"

I Read through the article and My mind travelled to my past & then to my future.First the story about the past.

Remember this particular ad ? A Blonde Drives a Merc on a highway where she sees a dude helplessly stranded there. The Dude asks her for a drop & she doesnt stop. But in the Rear view Mirror, She sees the guy lighting up a cigarette out of frustration.The Blonde stops the car, reverses it & picks up the Guy.

The Caption of the AD was "Cigarette smoking Guys are safe". In otherwords, the Director of the ad conveys to us this particular message "Stop smoking & get into action. Life is short !"

I was very happy - This friend of my mine, Whom the babes vie for, smokes a lot !So his good times are going to end soon. Where as I, the ok looking lesser stud, have not touched a cigarette till date. So my time is yet to come & I thanked my stars, parents & my brahmin family background for this.

But immediately something else came to my mind. Another artcle in "Outlook" published weeks back.As per that Beer has female hormone stimulating chemicals & prolonged consumption of Beer can bring female traits in you. In other words, It would make you "incompetent" in this highly competitive world. "OH God !!" I exclaimed. It also says that Vodka too causes this. Ofcourse, Readers please note that I do drink often - That too Only beer & vodka only !!

Defining "Often" is upto you guys. ;-(

My thoughts flew back to this friend who smokes. Why the hell I do not know - He is a teetotaller!!! His religion Has banned drinks & so he doesn't drink. Now I am confused. Who is in the better position ?? In whole of my college life I have not bothered to compare any of our traits including marks. But Now..this is the real battle to prove ourselves - our virility..isn't it ?

Now another news item rushed into my mind. Prolonged Driving Can "Increase the Scrotal Temperature"& thereby cause "Irreversible or Partially Reversible changes in Male reproductive Function". I grinned. My friend with whom i am competing, owns a Corolla in the US & keeps driving from Texas to NYC ,NYC to Miami, Miami To SFO etc etc. I called him up immediately and wished him a happy life. I told him "to go ahead & visit as many states as possible while in US".

I Took a deep breath ! A relaxed one indeed ! I have never driven a car in my life.

Now Came one more news item which my left cerebrum digged out for me from a distant past -"Carrying GSM Mobile phones in one's pocket might damage one's sperm count". "ALAS !!". Evenwhile sleeping, I sometimes do carry Nokia G.S.M mobile in my pocket. I lost all hope.

Myfriend, that Bugger, carries a CDMA phone only. Again i've lost my relative advantage.

Now I'll have to convince him to use GSM instead. Again, as you all guessed, This is how developed countries try to Obliterate the population in the developing countries and wipe us out from this globe - They dump their NOKIA, MOTOROLA, ERICSSON.etc into our markets. Only Ambanis know the real fact and hence they are promoting CDMA phones. Guys, BTW, where is the nearest Reliance web world ?

And Now,On the top of all these - Laptops also !! Combination of Heat generated by laptop & the position of thighs while using it increases the scrotal temporature again. Already I am in Chennai where the temperature is sky rocketing year after year. Laptop is gonna increase it further.

I Called up my Mom and immediately asked her "If i dont marry, will you be upset ?"

I called up my Doctor immediately asked him "when can we do a check up ?"

I called up a friend in NASA and asked her "Any A/C underwears invented ?"

I called up my girlfriend and asked her "do you read news papers/magazines ?"

Fortunately my girlfriend doesnt read all these newspapers & stuff. Its good for me.

But I have a question in Mind. "What ever a man does - whether he sits, smokes, drinks,uses mobile phones or drives - it can cause infertility. Now the only option is to go back and do farming. IIMA is having some course in Agri MBA. Lets try it out."

Again a question "Why is there not a mention about women's fertility in any of these books ?"

With a bleak future ahead, I'll have to really do something. Btw, I think i have been typing this article for quite sometime now & i feel a small rise in temperature. Ok guys. Let me cool it out.
As my friend Garima reminded me - We should go back to our lungi days. Bye bye!

Vaidyanathan L.S., B.E (4 years), U.S. (5 years)

2004-12-06T15:41:00.000+05:30

Lets take this 1$ Dollar entity who will be referred to as sakthiman henceforth. He, the, Sakthiman was born as a result of integration of several independant state currencies. Initially he took shape of a coin. Then he was given the paper form by the British colonies & named continentals.In the Aftermath of American war of revolution, where he played a major part, He took the present shape. In 1792, he got 100 siblings - The cents.

Ever since, this patriarch saw various ups & downs in his life - The world wars, Revolutions in other regions, New export markets, the era of old economy etc. Now he has reached a position where he has a command over the world's economy. But As far as India is concerned, its not just the economy he's controlling. Here he has ardent fans - aficionados! Here, there are people for whom, Sakthiman is more important than their lifes & wifes. Lets see how SakthiMan has influenced IndianSoftware Professionals who form the major chunk of his fans.

When ever SakthiMan performs well & delivers, his fans are all cheers. But if he's doing bad, his fans are heartbroken.They keep track of his Performances daily - in Money Markets - Their lives have a big dependency on his performances. Given a choice between buying a soap/Shampoo and keeping those 2 Sakthi-Men in bank,all his Indian fans would do the later. Its only out of their love for him. They always want to see him in their bank accounts, alive and kicking.Thus SakthiMan has taught his fans this art - ART OF LOVING.

Now we'll see how SakthiMan can contribute to society ethics & morals - I know this friend of mine - who used to smoke atleast 9 cigars a day when in India. When he went to US, he quit smoking. Another friend of mine, who used to party daily while in India - Started cooking "Thair Sadam" (curd rice) & plain rotis while in US. He seldom visits restaurants now. He quit drinking too - I am sure he'd quit bathing too. Thus SakthiMan has taught his fans this art - ART OF MORALS & ETHICS.

Now I'll tell you how good SakthiMan is as a Math teacher. This lady friend of mine was not so goodat Math while at college. She used calculator for everything. Maths is not important for S/W Companies these days because of the huge prevailing demand. So, as usual, she was asked to spell her dad's name correctly and she got the job. OfCourse, she too was sent to US soon. After her returning, we had a conversation. Somehow the conversation strayed off and we ended up in multiplying "346 * 45" for some reason. Assuming, she's not good at math, I started calculating mentally. Before even I started, she yelled out the answer "Roughly around 155 Hundreds". Man!!! I was surprised to the core. She, Now, Can do the multiplication of any number with 43,44,45,46 & 47 and give you accurate answers in 2-3 seconds.Thus sakthiman has taught his fans this art - ART OF MULTIPLICATION. (But dont ask her to multiply anything with numbers other than 43-47. she'll flop miserably !)

One more story - yet another friend of mine was sent back to India after 1 year when his assignment got over. He could hardly spend a month here in India. His brains did not work. His hands did not move.His Toes shivered. He was missing his hero (sakthiman) very much. He started behaving queerly. He went to his managers chamber daily - begged, pleaded,fainted & flew to US back again for his next assignment. Thus sakthiman taught my friend - THE ART OF LOYALTY. Sadly, this friend of mine had ditched 3 of his girl friends in his dark past.

The people who used to curse the Auto Drivers of Mylapore for charging 30 Rupees for minimum distance started blessing them after their US return. Before going to US, they utterd "30 bucks ???". After their return, they whispered "Just 30 bucks ???". SakthiMan changed their outlook & made them gregarious from being egregious. Another ART being mastered - ART OF POLITENESS.

Thus I again reiterate that Sakthiman can change your lives. He can make you loyal, teach you morals,make you good at maths & teach you how to love. Probably in another decade, (s)he can be your life partner too. So thats the conclusion I can make now. Am just adding with this article, another 3 lines which i saw recently in Brahmin Matrimonial Weekly "srutivani" subscribed at my house.

"Alliance Invited for a Tamil Brahmin Boy aged 27 years - with Own flat, Own Car, Own Undie, clean habits, US return engineer working with a software MNC for last 6 years. Girl should be an engineer with good academics, sing carnatic and should be willing to travel abroad in short notice"

And SakthiMan, with all his powers stands proudly at 45.38 against Indian Rupees today 06,Dec,2004 at 3.25 pm.

My Brother,Current Affairs & I - a Dec 1st

2004-12-02T12:56:00.000+05:30

"General Knowledge" is a very important aspect of life. I was advising my 1984 born younger brother. Being in Engineering college, he does'nt know about the mystic outside world. Just like me, he does not know the inside (engg) world as well. To please me, He started going through all the prominent dailies of India.He started flipping through the pages. Having convinced him about the importance of GK, I, with all the conceit of an elder brother got back to my business.

Couple of Hours later, he had a big Question Mark on his face. Tired, Drained & a blank look. I felt that he has grasped a good amount of Current affairs. He generally keeps track of Movies, Books, Song albums & his girl friends. And I kept track of Politics, Business etc.

Now its my turn. I asked him, "Tell me what all could you grasp. Am sure you'd have found it interesting". With all the gestures of a martinet, I smiled at him. That smile carried a raw message to him that all that he reads is bullshit & what I read is "the" stuff.

Now he started elaborating what he read - The Ambani's tussle. Mukesh owns Petro, IPCL &Infocomm. Anil has R-Energy & R-Capital. Dhirubai did not divide it equally & hence they are in fight now. Anil is closer to Big B & Big A (Amar singh) & hence he'll have more power. Now the mother - Kokilaben along with Rahul Bajaj , is trying to unite them . Mukesh mailed the employees "I am the CMD". Anil replied "I proposed his name for CMD post". Anil prayed for the "entire" family at tirupathi..blah..blah..and a black sheep..

Yes ! - You and I were reading all this these days - But doesn't this resemble yet another Bollywood thread ? In short, 2 brothers fighting for an ancestral property & 1 billion people are looking on. Tina Munim adds glamour here.

Ok.."lets move on. What else did you read ?". He continued. "Sankaracharya arrested".Acharya of Kanchi was the MasterMind of the plot whick killed Shankar Raman. The plot was contrived as a result of Sankar Raman's exposing Acharya's shoddy face. There are also rumours that, its the T.N CM who incited this arrest as acharya had rebuffed amma once & that oppositon leader MK took varied stances in this issue. North Indians & the RSS Coterie, who know little about sankaracharya are enraged. South Indians, who are more used to acharya mutts, are relatively apathetic. The Arrest,which happend in Chennai, Invoked Bandh in Kerala which is 500km away..and so on.

A pause there. ok. No different from a movie in which Amrish Puri is the Villian Cheif minister.With a slightly debased face, I asked him. "What else ?".

He continued. Kerala Minister KK in Ice cream sex scandal. KK, weeks back, _____ !!!! Along with KK are several others - filmstars & politicians who also share the podium.

Now with a red face i asked him to move on to the next topic.

He said "Dec 1 is the world AIDS day." I regained my pride. Atlast he has something good. He continued. "AS per WHO statistics, 78% of US boys, 43.4% of US girls engage in premarital sex. In India, Reputed public schools of Delhi & Bangalore have cases of girls under 16 visiting hospitals for abortion. Children in India are exposed to Pornography at an earlier age with the advent of Internet & they have tendency to have Unprotected sex. Condoms, despite being available at every nook & corner, are not able to reduce the alarming increase in Number of HIV cases. AIDS could be transmitted from Sex workers or Bisexuals..& through various combos : women-man...man & man, man & child, child & child...facial or oral, he-mans & she-males...homosapien & 4 legged etc etc...Feminists want new reproductive right & men to be less dominant etc etc....."

"STOOOOOOOOOOOP" I shouted. Embarrassed to the Core, I exhaled slowly & said quietly."Ashwin..Sorry for insisting you to read newspapers. Now only I realise the Importance of not wasting an hour a day on these craps. Which is the movie running at Shenoy's ?"He smiled.

His Highness - The Man or Her Highness - The Nature

2004-12-01T16:03:00.000+05:30

Globalisation and Industrialisation are fast taking over this world. On One side Man is conquering nature - allegedly belittling its powers. Before moving to the otherside, Lets peep into the past - Man conquered land first. Then he forayed the waters. A little Hiatus here. Then he conquered the air & apparently the time too. He could beat the boundaries, he had telegraph ,which now takes the form of cell phones, she had trains, which now is synonymous with private jets, he had the radio, which now takes the shape of a rectangular flat box with 2^99 channels with latest updates.

Shells & Reliances are busy searching the blood of our forefathers. Our ancestors, out of their love, donated everything they had, to their successors. Apparently, their Body & their blood were their most valuable donations. Over decades, their gifts transformed into fossil fuels which the Oil giants are exploring and selling to us at a huge premium. The next time you read a business article with crude oil prices hovering around 55$, please remember that the thing which is making headlines is our progenitors blood.

Thy highness, the Man is conquering nature from One side. But on the other side, the nature is laughing at all this. A small earthquake or even a smallest of asteroid is more than enough for the nature to wipe the existence of man who lives in her own world of top lines & bottomlines unaware of the highlevel view of how the nature works. And as a small reaction to man's encroachment, the nature has gifted him this syndrome - HIV.

Software, Auto, steel, energy- we have all that. But the Industry which has been topping the charts in terms of Customers, Topline, Bottom Line & O-margin is the Sex Industry. Here the Supply controls demand too to some extent. True that, this is what makes a Bangkok or a Miami happening. This is what makes Goa an international spot. But did we ever remember that it's the blood thats again in demand ? The streets of Kodambakkam in chennai & Grand Road in Mumbai are crowded with Middlewomen, clients & brokers. The women, who are into fleshtrade, never started this business with a plan, summary & breakeven analysis. The wanted to first feed their hungry babies & the only way they had was to sell every drop of their blood. Young Villege girls who were allured jobs in cities by the judas, were helpless in midst of the powerful flesh cartel.

And with this industry, grows the HIV also. So lets not look down with contempt on these HIV cases. Like us, they are also the products of love. Situations made us different from others. In the short span of our lives, we cannot wipe out all the stigmas. But the next time we see the blood in demand, we can bow our head in respect to the suprenatural power of nature & Lets do what we can, in the humblest of ways, to prevent this disease & create awareness.