Nobody's Perfect, I'm Nobody

It was late evening and my cell buzzed….I reluctantly picked up not even noticing that it was call from Bangalore. The message was..”Hi Anil, We are pleased to confirm that you have been offered an admission to EPGP, the 1 year full time residential MBA program from IIMB. Can you confirm ……..<my brain stopped processing the rest of the message….>”. I sure did hear it correctly and slowly recovering from the pleasant shock, I managed a “YES!!!” and started dreaming :). I realized that it really meant a lot and my confidence gene just got energized by 5X times. After sharing the pleasantries with the family, near & dear, the reality sunk in. It means staying away from getting paid for an year and venturing into something from a very safe and comfort zone. But Still….

I’m going to IIM.

Frankly, I am confused on what I should expect out of this and trying not be over optimistic, the feeling that I’ll walk the corridors of this Mecca of management is quite exciting.

Apart from the regular congratulatory messages that flowed, there were few critics on why MBA? why NOW? Those thoughts of course crossed my mind when I started the hunt. My personal opinion and the one I would like to stand by is that one needs to be close to the various functions of the organization before any learning can do good. I don’t claim that I have enough experience to gain the most of MBA but it will be fulfilling to read some of the case studies that I could relate to. This 1 year of networking and the rigor will surely help to develop lateral thinking to analyze problems for solutions that I could otherwise have not attempted. More importantly, a break for an year from the regular work grind will hopefully give me sometime to rethink, re-strategize if I want to be in this game of rat race of can I do anything different? Needless to say, all of this comes at a huge risk, financially and otherwise, but I would be disappointed if I hadn’t taken this calculated risk.

What excites me apart from my MBA is that I will share the class with 74 other minds who are probably better than what I do in most of the regular work. The competition will be unleashed and I have no doubts that these knowledge hungry class would fight out in a collaborative manner not only for the best grades but for the opportunities to win arguments and put respective thoughts forward.

Looking forward to interesting conversations, late nights, lots of caffeine, case study presentations & most importantly to rediscover myself…

Frankly, it is very amusing to find the biggies of Indian politics trying to save few rupees of the Indian tax payer money. Well, I don’t complain for saving the money, but I do for gaining political mileage of it. It is more inconvenient for aam-aadmi to have the Gandhi’s travel in the same train or seated next to you in the “cattle class” as referenced by Mr. Tharoor :). In fact, I don’t find fault with him for calling so as it is how it is mostly referred – not because people are referred as cattle – but because airlines try and pack as many as possible in limited space available.

Austerity is not just having politicians travel by train or economy class, that is just scratching the surface. Think big and run a campaign on “How to save costs without reducing the efficiency or productivity”. Reward the politicians who truly show accountability for every single tax payer rupee that they spend. Netas should look at more than travel and five star stay to reduce costs. Here are some tips :), Cut security costs if not required, don’t carry your entire office for your travel, digitize the work and bring efficiency in storage and processing, check if your building / furniture /  office supplies are on rentals and negotiate better rates in these tough times. Come up with measurable results and mimic the corporate world in terms of appraising the various functionaries either to reward or punish. Indian politics can be more glamorous than a lot of us see, not in terms of recruiting bollywood clan but in terms of highlighting the impact one could make with the available power. Travel costs are probably not even 1% of the overall government spend and we should make a conscious effort to measure the savings on every such scheme and take up activities that have a larger impact. Unfortunately, our defense expenditure is one of the highest in the region (showing poor results when one talks about internal security) and a lot can be done if we run this country as a profit making corporation rather than just a black hole guzzling billions of tax payers rupees.

Politics is meant for policy making to ensure equality and for providing opportunities to make the country a better place to live. I care a damn if our netas are travelling business or economy as long as they deliver on what they are supposed to.

Jaswant Singh got sacked because he utilized his right to speech. The very purpose of democracy is defeated if we judge people by what they speak without completely understanding the big picture. I doubt how many of the BJP leadership team has taken the pain to read the complete book before making a decision as drastic as expelling a man of this cadre. Reflects hypocrisy  for gifting the opposition leader position to Advani and firing Jaswant when each took a stand. The context is completely misunderstood and Jaswant got into the firing range and became a victim of unnecessary fiefdom of BJP/RSS alliance.

The history should be understood in the context it happened. Do these leaders also consider Subhash Chandra Bose & Bhagat Singh irrelevant because they did not align to Gandhian & Nehurian ways? I am stunned that even politicians like Arun Jaitely in BJP is riding the wave along with the rest of the BJP leadership. I hope some sense would prevail in the long run and Indian Politician understands that not everything can be in black & white.

Indians pay an hefty price for something that has happened 63 years ago and this incident shows how sensitive it can get. Nehru is a hero for India and so is Jinnah for Pakistan. The leaders in both these countries have to understand that the scars are permanent and despite enough crisis management, the divide is growing bigger by day. It is time, the parties realize this harsh reality and move on to work on other important things like education, health and social security.

It is not the flue but the panic that is driving me crazy. Suddenly everyone is applying their half-baked knowledge on how not to get contaminated by the virus and some of the smart guys are making a quick buck. Despite the fact that surgical masks are not very protective and probably not that virus resistant, the price of it has gone by 10 folds. The real masks N95 those that actually prevent the microbes from being inhaled are now sold at double and three times the MRP. Panic stricken public are rushing to the hospital even if it is an odd sneeze. Pharmaceutical sector is doing a bull run in the anticipation that they will have bulk orders to manufacture the “TamiFlu” like drugs.

H1N1 virus was detected in 1987 and is not a new strain. The human race has survived many deadly diseases and with medical advancement the life expectancy has really gone up. Avian Flu, SARS, Malaria, Hepatitis, Dengue, AIDS and other communicable diseases were probably more devastating than Swine Flu. I am surprised why is this sudden panic all over? US has reported more than 400 deaths and I don’t see any headlines on CNN but Indian media is bent on covering every death and sensationalizing the story and making a quick buck as well.  Human body takes a while to develop the anti-bodies to fight the virus and it is just a matter of time that we will grow our immunity against it.

Shutting down businesses, malls, cinemas, schools is only going to create more panic among the uninformed and will lead to chaos. Instead, the city governance bodies should setup educational booths and create awareness of the virus and how to stay healthy. Media has a social responsibility and instead of fighting for TRP ratings, they should help the government in communicating the message succinctly.

Government should quickly take measures to rope in private hospitals to decrease the workload on the government hospitals. The ministry of health of should fund research for inventing vaccinations that can be affordable. Quarantining cities is not the solution especially when you are a 1.2 billion populous country

Walk around the cafeteria @ MS and you will hear folks saying…..”Dal (pulses) costs more than 90 rupees, Rains are effecting the economy, Sensex is behaving erratically, Now is the time to trade commodities…..”. The real reason is we haven’t done jack $hit about solving this crisis despite hard surviving it. Every time, the monsoon fails us, the media shows the tired farmer looking at the scorching sun squatting on his barren land.

India is one of the most cultivable lands in the world and I am peeved by the fact that we still depend heavily on blessings of the rain gods. Agriculture revenue is vital for our economy and it is time we solve the farmer’s yearly misery. Rain water harvesting & not letting all river water drain into ocean are some basic steps that any sensible person in-charge should have taken seriously. The return on investment to solve this business problem is probably much more than fighting out who gets gas from KG basin at what rate. Even if 161 districts are declared drought regions because of monsoons or rather lack of it, the government should own the responsibility to solve this business problem.

While better weather forecasting, subsidized raw material & credit availability to farmers are important, we have to invest in projects that can preserve water, invent genetically modified seeds that can sustain and grow in uncertain conditions etc... When we can dream of sending a man to the moon, I strongly believe we can resolve this drought problem if we get our priorities right. Farmer is the basic tenet of our economy and deserves more attention towards solving his eternal water problems at the very least.

……Time would tell if the new Chrome OS slated to hit the market by 2010 is a game changer or yet another Linux based OS that will fade away in the oblivion? It is worth reading fake Steve Jobs blog and you might probably end up getting a different side of the story. The line I liked the most from his blog is “But on the anti-Microsoft angle, take it from someone who has spent the past 10 years selling a superior operating system and getting only 4 percent market share -- as obsessions go, battling the Borg is waaay overrated”. Not to underestimate the power of internet giant Google, but the sheer anti-MS sentiment in the tech circles is driving the media report as though Google is going to solve all the problems that anyone has ever faced about operating systems.

Ignoring all the inhibitions about Microsoft, why would the world need a new OS? Chrome as I can interpret will be the OS on the cloud that gives you instant access to the applications and data , the catch however is that to reap the most, you can never be disconnected (hardly true for majority of the population living in Africa and Asia). Everything is moving to the cloud and I have a feeling that Google’s big plan is to own the Internet :), in a way much more monopolistic dream where everyone comes to a single place to search for applications and data and Google engineers can mine all that information to define new and better ways of information accessibility. It is good, but I am not sure if they sound friendly or not. Hardware/OEM folks are more than happy to sing along with Google to get that price point down on net-books with choice of having a open source OS (is it?!?) and the “evil” Windows 7. Competition is great and a lot of us admire the innovation that Google has brought into Search and Internet Ad. revenue generation. Microsoft has its own strategy and bigger plans for its browser. I believe Microsoft has learnt the hard way that competition should be healthy with all the legal mess it got itself into with EU , Sun etc…There is a lot more understanding about users and developers preferences and it is baked into most of the products (including Azure) it is shipping this year and next. I have observed the way MS has matured about handling competition i.e. likes of Google, Oracle, Apple, IBM etc… respectfully and not by biased opinions.

I wonder why Google would called its new OS as Chrome and not something around Android especially when Chrome is targeted for net-books (read personal computers) which are big brothers of smart phones. :).  At least, we hope it won’t be tagged as beta for 5 years like they did with GMail. Good Luck Google and we look forward for that X-factor when Chrome (beta) is available

Life in general is lot about contradictions. Be it work, career, personal or simple as running regular errands, the what-if scenarios wait at every juncture making the task at hand that much more difficult. Ever wondered why ? If not, probably you are an exception because the rule is to always consider what-if as an after thought

What is even more bewildering is that people in general resort to more unhappy means instead of being accommodative post a what-if analysis. It is predominantly evident that most of us always want to go back and change some sequences. Now, hypothetically, imagine even if you are blessed with a wish to do that and you travel back in time and change the course of an event in your life, there is no guarantee that you end up being happy or not doing more what-if’s. The point I am trying to make is simple.  You always have a choice at any point of time. A lot of people complain about the decisions they had taken, the circumstances, their bosses, family, neighbors but what they fail to understand is that they are empowered with a brilliant brain to dispel the wrong doings at any point of time. However, every change costs.  Costs in terms of behavioral, situational and emotional adjustments. Happiness lies in how much do you want adjust to bring that change. You can be super principled , rigid and static but that could be detrimental to the change you wish to foresee and vice versa, you can be extra flexible and accommodative that there is no identity of yours and be a jelly that takes the shape of the container.

Easier said that done is to find that balance where one would wonder less time on what-ifs and spend more quality time on making that right decision at that moment. Next time, you hate yourself for being in a situation that you don’t like, do some rational thinking about NOW than BEFORE.

Pakistan has now categorically said that "India: Your Evidence Sucks". If we strongly believe in Pakistan's involvement, then all the begging, pleading we were doing to gather international support to put pressure on Pakistan will remain futile till we have the guts to snap all the diplomatic relations with Pakistan. No amount of shouting loud will help India. Isn't it simple to understand? Once bitten, Twice Shy! It zaps me that we always fail to do the right things (or) just that I am incompetent enough to understand the complex gray matter of our aging politicians. I think we will end up writing the same material , debating the same topics in talk shows, singing the same tune and yet not move an inch towards resolution till we get our story right.

With little options left, war is definitely not one among them. What is the exit path if go on War? Whom do we fight with? Are we really capable of precision attacks on terror camps? How many billions of rupees would go waste and put further pressure on already strained economy?

It pains so much that our tolerance is taken for granted. If and Only If, the evidence is ultra clear (and I hope it is), then India should snap all the diplomatic relations with Pakistan. (Send back the Pakistan ambassador, do not negotiate on Kashmir, be extra vigilant and stop further intrusions, stop all trade, cut off cultural and sports relations, no more trains & buses across the borders, no more granting Indian Visas to Pakistanis). Why do we go begging for international support when there is so much work that we could do. America, China & Arab have vested interests in managing a healthy relation with Pakistan. We need to step out of the emotional barriers and act in a pragmatic manner. You don't need to be an external affairs minister or secretary to foresee the reaction from Pakistan on the submitted dossier. It would probably have best been used as a toilet paper in Islamabad.

In this new year and just like every other year, nothing much has changed. We continue to deal with unknowns and live in hope that truth will prevail.

Wishing everyone a safe, terror-free new year. Stay safe and don't let that bloody bomb blow you to pieces.

4 weeks past the brutal murder of innocent people by worthless terrorists in Mumbai, it is sad to say the situation still remains gloomy. The old attitude of "Moving On" is coming back slowly and it might take another couple of months to fade away significantly only to raise again after another attack. New laws have been formed, India trying to act like Big Brother by warning Pakistan and begging international community to exert even more pressure on its rival, Politicians like Antulay, whom I never knew existed, gained popularity by making some growse comments, Congress proving its majority in state assembly elections much to the surprise of BJP's terror card campaign, Media making fuss of WAR options and more than anything else Pakistan continuing to be blind, be in denial mode and not ready to introspect.

Where does this leave us? Simply "No Where". War is not an option, Peace is not an option, we continue to fail to make Pakistan respond, Pak gives a damn about the international pressure and does just surface level adjustments without getting to the bottom of the dirt it has been accumulating for decades and last but not the least Indian Politicians remain incompetent and are more concerned about the elections which are round the corner than securing the country's borders and removing the unwanted weed from the society.

The least India can do it is to get serious about stopping the attacks rather than chasing to eliminate the root which in this current situation is not possible. Secure the borders, More Policing & Better rewards for them so they don't get sold out, better governance of the new reforms, Information sharing between all the agencies across state and centre to thwart any future attempts, Investing in technology that helps more surveillance and security are some nobrainers. It is easier said than done and accuse that the entire system is wrong, but we can follow the model of crawl, walk and run to make ourselves more secure.

I hope in the new year, there will be lesser violence and more happiness in the world around. Be Safe & Do Good!!!

Guess what?!? Just in year 2008, It takes series of blasts in Jaipur, in Bangalore, in Ahmedabad, Potential strikes in Surat, in Delhi and then a carnage in Mumbai for the government to react by rolling of already non-functioning , high maintenance ministers. Shame on this government and Shame on all of us who elected this incompetent leaders who just can't deliver on basics. There will hardly be any tears shed because the Patil(s) & Deskhmukh(s) have resigned and there is more anger because they just got away with it. Congress in another sheepish move to say that "We are reacting" by asking their ministers to resign would hardly help improve the situation.  No matter who rules us there are some minimal steps they can take to ensure safety and bring the faith and confidence back in the people of this country. This time, looking at the media coverage and the public outrage, there is a common thread about bashing politicians and that there should be zero tolerance to terrorism.

1) Empower Civil Societies, Medical & Police services with right tools to combat terror in the need of hour. We cannot make a radaical shift from being reactive to being proactive. There is danger lurking around and we need to react more swiftly and efficiently when struck.

2) Fight Corruption on an urgent basis on the sectors related to Internal Security & Train the staff on the ground on how important they are for the security of the country. Reward them well for the good job done.

3) Adopt technology in a manner that can give us fool proof solution of monitoring the borders in a more automated way at least in possible areas so that the rough & impossible terrain can be manned with more security folks.

4) Isolate the to-be created federal agency from Politics and ensure that it is well connected to intelligence agencies across the world so that the information is shared in the right time. Crisis Management should be a proactive training. The federal agency should be a virtual group reporting to the President (thereby giving more powers to this nominal post) and should include Police, Intelligence, CBI, Armed forces, RAW and other security related agencies.

5) Deliver Justice on Time. Trials in court related to terror acts should be expedited on an urgent basis & for all those found guilty and waiting to be awarded sentences, escalate and deliver the punishment. This will send out a message that we are not soft on terror.

6) There is a lot of rage and uncontrolled anger among every citizen. Instead of letting the politicians and bureaucrats go scot-free just by letting them resign, hold them accountable and possibly punish those responsible for the intelligence lapses in the court of law to bring the faith back to the citizens of India.

7) Ensure there are objectives set for politicians & bureaucrats every year and the supreme court appointed jury rate them against their performance. Everybody in the government needs to be responsible/accountable for the work they are supposed to do and if under-achieved, the person should be punished and punished severely. Again, reward them well for the job that is done well. This ensures that the job is awarded to the right person (preferably young and experienced) who can be more proactive and prevent attacks & will also bring more transparency

8) Convince leaders like Kiran Bedi, Abdul Kalam, Ratan Tata, Narayana Murthy, Shiv Nadar, Amartya Sen, and other important academicians, technologists, scientists, ex-Army generals that they have a bigger role to play by joining active politics so that they get the chance to make a direct impact by framing those much needed rules and making those reforms as necessary 

If there is a political will to better the situation, it is not rocket science to fix this menace. Please for once, It is time that our dear netas get their act right.