Shikari Shambu's Machan

Immigration to Absurdistan... a.k.a India or Bharat

2010-10-03T22:22:00.003-05:00

To the east of Pakistan lies the land of Absurdistan, where I come from. It is also known as India or Bharat in some circles. Immigration process to this wonderful place is painful.

I recently went to the Chicago consultate to collect the approved Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) papers of my daughter. Now, OCI for the uninitiated, is the screwed up version of dual citizenship that India offers. Basically, they decided that dual citizenship as offered by other nations was no good and created something unique and messy. Anyway, having successfully got three OCIs I felt that I was good at getting it right even though each of the consulates have their own set of instructions on how to apply and no two of them match (my favorite is the sample photo...photos should have light background goes the instructions and the sample photo has a dark red/maroon background).

It used to be that Chicago consulate never accepted applications in person, it had to be mailed in. And, when you mail in you have to mail them "mailing fees", probably, for them to mail it back. Only issue here is they never mailed it back. I had to go in person to collect it all three times. So, this time I sent in the forms, money (two money orders - one for $275 and other for $20), tracked the application process on the web (one of the better aspects of the process. Once it gets to India it can be tracked) and went to collect it when the website indicated that it was back at the Chicago consulate. The consulate has a great atmosphere - a combination of being at a funeral + Chennai railway station - loads of grumpy people ready to kill waiting in a passive aggressive mode. I got to the consulate and hurried to the OCI window. Once I got there I was told that I had to get a token ( First indication of change). So, I went looking for a token vending machine. I could not find one. So, I went back to the guy who said I need to get a token to find out where to get it. He said, I had to stand in line at the first counter to get a token from the person there. Yes,"...stand in line to get a token." I did. Then, when I got back to the waiting area I noticed that others (most of them) were waiting to submit the forms. So, I told the guy who told me to get a token that I was here to collect the approved forms. He said that might be at a different time, so I should check with the person who gave me the token. So, I got back in line. The lady there said both submission and collection are handled by the same window. When I pointed out that they had just managed to make an already painful process even more painful, she pointed out that they had a process and had "dedicated" one window for just OCI processing. Given that it takes about 3 minutes per person waiting to submit and less than 30 seconds per person waiting to collect, I realized that I would have to wait for over 90 minutes to drop the US passport and then return to collect it with the stamped visa about 3 hrs later effectively forcing me to be off work for the afternoon. So, I decided to enlist the help of my wife whose office is closer to the consulate. She tried doing it by herself the next week, got there at 5 minutes after the window opens (11am) on a Friday only to find that tokens are given any time after the consulate opens. So, she had about 40 people in front of her. After waiting for 90 minutes she gave up. The week after we decided to make a joint effort, she would get the token as soon as the consulate opens, then I would get the token from her around the time the window open and drop off the US passport. Then, she would go back about 3 hrs later to collect it. This time it worked. We were licking our OCI wounds in satisfaction when we heard another absurd story.

My wife's cousin, who was born in the UK and is a British citizen is getting married in India in Dec. His dad and sibilings were having a hard time to get visas to go to India. They were told it would take upto 3 months to get their visas approved. The reason, the dad was born in Karachi back when the Brits ruled undivided India. It did not matter that he had never lived in Pakistan, the fact that he was born in mordern day Pakistan made him eligible for the special treatment that India reserves for its favorite cousins. Of course, it is not the first trip to India. In fact, one of his children who is being subject to the same absurb procedure was in India last Dec. Hey, this is a new year so the process has to be applied with new rigor. I some times wonder if the folks in Govt. of India/ the embassies and consultates of GOI are plain dumb or just acting dumb.

Hypocrisy and Immigration go together

2010-05-16T11:04:00.005-05:00

First off, let me congratulate the Governor of Arizona for a bold immigration bill. More about that later. And, before I get into it let me tell you where I stand - I believe illegal immigrants are illegals and a nation has the right to manage who moves in.

Now, to the specifics. The Arizona law is bold but I am not sure it will solve the problem. It does polarize the populace and bring more visibility to the issue. Maybe, that is what the governor wanted. Or, maybe it was just signaling to the people who tend to support that party just like the Healthcare "reform" that the federal government passed. Contrary to what has been reported, I don't think the law is racist. In fact, the law does not talk anything about race or color. But, as a recent Newsweek report said "Your baby is racist", we are all racist. So, the folks who are going to implement the law are going to do so with their own prejudices. So, its implementation might be. I wonder how many white people will be stopped. I wish they would stop the white illegal immigrants. Interestingly, the illegal immigrants that I have come across in Chicago have all been whites.

I wonder what those who feel that stopping people and asking them for ID is an infringement on this liberties and is racist feel about people asked to provide ID, present themselves for "random" security checks to board a flight. Ah, you are ok with that because your life depends on that. I have been subject to these random checks - about 6 out of 8 times I flew out of Detroit back in 2002. This is when my boarding pass had "CORPORATE" stamped on it. You want security; you have to give up some of the "liberties." This is an imperfect world.

For the folks from the Church and other religious institutions that have taken the case of illegal immigrants I wonder what your stance would be if Mexico had been an Islamic state and the guys crossing over are the ones with beards. I think I know the answer.

And, finally for the folks who repeatedly point out that the nation was built on immigrants, so illegal immigrants are ok why keep quotes on legal immigration then? Let’s do away with the border security, INS etc... we will save lot of money. The US has changed a lot and so has the world. The US now feels the need to manage the immigration process that means both legal and illegal.

I love to watch how the seats on the CTA "L" fillip. You see people's preferences for color. The seats next to African American males generally tend to go last. Over the last few years I have seen a better uptake on the seats next to Indians - coincides with India's emerging economic muscle. I think there is a statistically significant bias/preference to certain type of seat partners. I bet none of the people on the train will identify themselves as racist just like my former colleagues who quite often confused me for the other brown guy in the office (we were an office of 30 people with 2 brown guys).

I feel sorry for the illegal immigrants - their economic plight forces them to take risks. I wish any immigration reform treats companies and people who employ (and, exploit) illegal immigrants with strict fines. And, I think "Winner takes all" economic treaties do not work. There needs to be economic incentives that make sure that they have a reason to remain in their nation.

Trust the subcontinent folks - we are not to blame... LOL

2010-05-06T22:20:00.000-05:00

BBC News - Pakistan minister speaks out on Times Square plot

IPL...International Productivity Loss

2010-04-25T17:20:00.003-05:00

Just wrapped up watching my former home town's team Chennai Super Kings win their first IPL with a rather comfortable victory over Mumbai Indians on YouTube. This was YouTube's first foray into live streaming and I believe they comfortably beat their viewership estimates of about 10million by 5 times. People from about 200 countries watched the game. Now, that is the power of the Internet, not cricket.

I came to know of IPL on YouTube when an American friend of mine IM'ed me at work saying he was watching IPL on YouTube. He had no clue what IPL was, no interest in cricket. He had been on the Internet (Youtube, possibly) and saw an advertisment for IPL. So, there he was ...at work watching IPL, its cheerleaders, the "strategic timeout" and as he put it "a full six."

According to Google the number one viewership was from India and the US came second. I wondered who in India would watch IPL on YouTube rather than on TV. Of course, the folks in the call centers, BPO, KPO and in general folks who then to be at work late into the night, have access to a good internet connection and computer. As for the US, it has to be folks at work or school since the games are played during US work hours.

Imagine a conversation between a customer in the US and the support center person in India, both watching IPL

Customer: So, when can I get the refund for the order

Suport person: As soon as the IPL controversy surrounding Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor has been sorted out.

Two scarifices... one "progressive", other ancient

2010-04-18T13:22:00.002-05:00

This weekend there were two stories about India that I ran into... both related to sacrifices.

The first one was the story of a alleged human sacrifice in a temple in West Bengal (Kingdom of Kalii, I can almost hear a Hollywood movie or Game with that name). I read about it first on the BBC and in the coming days was picked up by all and sundry in the Western world. Now, for the "progressive" sacrifice.

The other one was the Indian Premier League (IPL. Think NFL for Cricket) ownership controversy that involved Shashi Tharoor, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs. Tharoor has been one of the well known indian faces in the West - as part of the Indian UN mission, as deputy to Kofi Annan, and a reasonably successful author. Tharoor started this one off by saying something to the effect that the powers to be wanted the new IPL franchise to go to some other city, not Cochin. Now, this was not the first time that he had suffered from "tweet in mouth" disease. Somehow, this might be his last. Turns out that the Congress party, his party, feels he is an embarrasment by his actions and the fact that he does not deny his association with part owner of the Cochin franchise. So, they want him to "resign voluntarily." Now, for Congress party to feel embarrased must be a great deal for this is the party that did not feel any embarrasement about the Shah Bano case, or the Bofors arms scandal or its ministers involvement in the riots and killing that followed the assasination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Cricket, I guess is more important than all of that.

I have no sympathy for Tharoor's state (or, the state that he represents in the Parliament). Tharoor turned out be a bureacrat turned politician with great education but very little street smartness - an embarrasment to the Great Indian Political Establishment. Tharoor can go back to writing. That might be a better way to serve India. BTW, Indian foreign service establishment (not specifically, IFS) seems to be better at producing authors than statesman. I know of three decent ones - Shashi Tharoor, Pavan Varma and Vikas Swarup. As for Tharoor, I hope I get a chance to run into him in the state that I call "God's own hell's hole."

Indian 'KKK' cartoon - case of pot calling kettle black

2010-01-08T09:33:00.002-06:00

BBC News - Indian 'racist police' cartoon angers Australia

Apparently "Mail Today" (is that a newspaper or one of those national enquirer type ones) ran a cartoon depicting Aussie police as KKK folks because of the string of attacks on Indians in Australia and Aussie police/ government's inept response.

Truth be told both Aussies and Indians are racist. I am not sure who is more racist of the two or how it can be determined. But, in general I have a little more faith in the Aussie judicial system and hope they will bring the prepetrators of these crimes to justice.

Indians should not talk about racism (those who live in glass houses...). For all north indians, south indians are "saala, madrasis" (btw, where is the zero point on the north/south line). That is just the tip of the iceberg. How many race/ caste related issues do we have in India. I wonder if "Mail Today" ran any cartoon related to these. I find it interesting that they choose to use KKK image, something not many in India would know (other than, of course, the "liberal" educated elite who like to preach to rest of the world) but it was certainly bound to elicit an international response.

Taking our tax dollars for a ride with Santa

2009-12-18T22:42:00.010-06:00

On paper there is separation of state and religion in the US. In reality the state policies are strongly influenced by the views of the major religion (example, abortion and gay rights). Come November/ December evidence of state support for religion emerges as different local governments spend tax dollars in putting up Christmas wreaths, decorations and lights.

Today, after being in Chicago for 11 years I chanced upon an interesting way to take our tax dollars for a ride... with Santa. Yes, I am talking about the Chicago Transit Authority's annual Santa trains. I had seen posters for the same previous years but never did I imagine that it would be such a big affair. The entire train was decked with lights - inside and out. Gone are the usual advertisements, replaced by corny jokes about Christmas. Even the seat covers were different - not the usual blue but the Christmas green and red with Santa/ trees and elves. The driver mentioned that it was the 18th year that the CTA was doing this and no other metropolitan transport authority does anything like this. Now, that is a dead give away on the merits of this promotion. If the idea has not caught on in 18 years it is a really bad idea. I am sure CTA authorities will spin this as a service that brings immeasurable joy to its riders. I am sure its riders (including me) will agree that we will be more joyful if the transport authority was in green, fares are not increased every year (how do they manage to remain in red even after increasing fares every year? they are not the only ones... usps is in the same position) the cars were clean, tracks were upgraded and the trains ran on time. It should not take 40 minutes to travel about 6 miles during rush hour. The suburban rail service, Metra, does 36 miles in that time.

Enjoy the photos of our tax dollars going on a ride with Santa.

BTW, my wife who took the regular train coming behind the holiday service somehow ended up ahead of me.

If Jugaad is the new management mantra, can Chalta Hai be far behind

2009-12-13T22:07:00.000-06:00

India's Next Global Export: Innovation - BusinessWeek

Turns out desis have done something that until recently was exculsuive to Americans - sold a management jargon. Apparently, jugaad is "innovation" ... desi estyle. Apparently, jugaad was at work when Tata's introduced nano or swach. Yeah, right. The first time I heard jugaad mentioned as a management concept I was at Kellogg, my alma mater, listening to Prof. Mohanbir Swahney speak. I must have guessed that jugaad's stars are on the rise for Prof. Swahney made a killing during the dot.com fad. He even used to (not sure if he still has) have a vanity plate that read "Net Prof."

As far as I know the closest meaning of Jugaad is "make it work" (as Tim Gunn says in "Project Runway"). Of course, if the things that happen in the name of jugaad happen on "Project Runway", Tim would personally kick you out. Jugaad is the cause of a fair amount of issues with India. It is about short-term without any thought for the long-term. It is about self without any thought for the society. And, what years of jugaad has got India is "Chalta hai" - positive translation would be "its fine. nothing to write home about." Soon, "chalta hai" will become the next management fad.

Law and Order in India ... crisis of credibility

2009-08-30T08:44:00.001-05:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Indian judiciary's crisis of credibility

Need I say anymore?

Chicago is on BBC... way to go

2009-08-17T19:33:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | Americas | Chicago shuts down to save money

My home city loves to take the spotlight for the wrong reasons (to be fair, there are some right reasons). Anyway, I believe the city is shutting down "non-essential" services to bridge the budget deficit. Wonder whether "non essential" services includes the entire "Lets blow everything on the Olympics," too.

Misplaced priorities?

2009-08-16T10:43:00.004-05:00

Last December while I was visiting India I was bombarded with with opinions from well heeled Indians on how the US could elect a "dimwit" like GWB twice, how wonderful Obama is/ how well he speaks, how important it is to rein in the run away health care costs and have universal health care in America. I listened to these in amusement and growing anger. Pretty much everything they brought up was applicable to India where they had a right to volunteer, vote and make a difference. So, what had they done - not voted most of the time and used that to wash their hands off the wonderful leaders' performance. While they enjoy watching US election and policy debates they don't demand or care for debates on policies that their government creates.

While I am not sure if GWB was smarter and more articulate than most Indian leaders, I am pretty sure that most these people would not know what their leaders were saying even if they were saying something sensible because of the language issue. Hindi (or, any local language) is not in fashion, "Hinglish" is. And, all said and done US electorate voted for GWB, how many of the Indian leaders were elected by the Indian electorate. Dr. Manmohan Singh was a compromise choice who never figured as a potential choice the first time around. And, let us not talk about health insurance or universal health care in India - it has never featured as an issue both with the politicians or the general public. I guess, that would not be an issue for my conversation partners. They can afford it in India. They are more concerned about their 3-6 month trips to the US visiting their children.

More recently, I brought up the topic of Universal Identity card - an ambitious project that government of India decided to launch without any discussion or policy on national identity. And, as if that was not enough they decided to install Nandan Nilekani, the former CEO of Indian IT giant Infosys, to head the initiative on the sly. And, of course, the current Infosys CEO does not feel any conflict of interest if his firm was to be chosen as the implementor. When I suggested that the hallmark of a good democracy is transparency and involvement of the citizens in developing policies that affect them the response I got was - "Do you think Dr. Manmohan Singh and Nandan Nilekani are not smart? They know what they are doing." It is not about whether they know what they are doing or whether they are smart, it is about transparency in actions and citizens involvement. Can the Government of India tell its people why Universal ID is a pressing issue, whether the existing illegal immigrants will get IDs and the estimated cost and schedule of its implementation. They have installed an implementor to head the initiative without defining the policies.

Then, there is the pesky issue of child malnutrition ( Indian malnutrition stats are worse than that of Sub Saharan Africa). Hell, that is not an issue. Instead, we take pride in the fact that we have not had any famine since we got independence while we had a few under British rule. True, that is an achievement (of sorts) but what is the point if these children are just alive but nothing else. My conversation partners where more concerned about children in Africa.

The most amusing topic was the discussion on food prices. Guess what my conversation partner used for comparison of food prices in India to that in the US to drive home the point that "food prices in India are way out of control and the poor cannot afford it" - Apple pie. Yes, I am not making it up. All that I could tell this person was - there is a reason why they say - "As American as motherhood and apple pie."

China gets a taste of India

2009-07-16T07:49:00.001-05:00

NYT: ‘Vicious’ brawl lit fuse for China riots - The New York Times- msnbc.com

For someone who grew up in India, this thing is very familiar. Now, if China was democracy like India, there will be "leaders" who will "fight to address the injustices" and make this a regular happening. And, maybe Raj Thackeray and his buddies will be able to export their brand of "leadership" to China.

NOIMBY...No Olympics In My Backyard

2009-06-17T20:27:00.002-05:00

I hope and pray that Chicago does not win the 2016 bid. The city should spend its money and resources on making it better and balancing the budget rather than creating a legacy for its mayor and line the pockets of officials and businessmen of the city and crook county.

I wish there were more like Tinish

2009-05-16T22:55:00.002-05:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Lone Indian voter defies mob

I happened to ask a friend of mine who lives in India whether he had voted. His response was - too much of a hassle, no candidate worth voting and effort not worth it. He, of course, is not the only one - my in-laws have only started voting after their retirement. Their story was - work required posting in different places, could not handle the hassle of making sure they were on the local electoral list etc... Of course, all of them complain about the quality of the leadership, corruption and what not...

Jai Ho...India is shining

2009-05-16T22:32:00.004-05:00

Once more everyone has been confounded by the verdict delivered by the world's largest democracy. Lucky for me, I am no expert on elections or Indian politics. I only got two posts wrong (that is about 66% of all posts on elections that I made). I did not think Dr. Shashi Tharoor would win and I did wonder aloud if "Jai Ho" would be a disaster like "India Shining". Dr. Tharoor won handsomely and "Jai Ho" continued its winning ways...this time for Congress(I) in the Indian elections.

Overall, I am glad with the outcome of the elections. I may not agree with the results but I do think it is better to have continuity for some time rather than changing governments like a heroine changing outfits during a song sequence in a Bollywood movie, it is better to have a strong mandate for a single party rather than a coalition of power hungry parties, the left parties have been left out and that Mayawati's vulgar ambitions have been trampled. So, is there anything to feel bad? Sure. I feel bad that Mumbai, my favorite city, decided that elections did not matter. 43% turnout is pretty pathetic. I thought Mumbiakars knew better - it is showing up for elections, not for candle light vigils that matter. As they say "Bad politicians are elected by good citizens who fail to vote" and "you only get what you deserve."

Shashi Tharoor wins in Kerala... Has hell frozen over?

2009-05-16T22:06:00.003-05:00

It is official. Shashi Tharoor has won the Indian elections from Thiruvanthapuram. Congratulations to him. I never expected this to happen. Now that it has happened, am I glad that it has happened? I don't know. A few days back an anonymous commenter to my earlier post "Is Shashi Tharoor eligible for ST quota?" had asked me whether I would change my views if he wins. The answer is "No." And, why should I?

I have reasonably high regard for Dr. Tharoor as a writer and a diplomat. I don't think there is enough in his resume to judge him as a leader of Indian people or a politician. He is going to have to do that, now. As Tom Hanks' character in "Saving Private Ryan" says to Private Ryan, "Now, earn it.", Dr. Tharoor has been given a mandate and now he has to earn it.

I am not sure what the voters were thinking. Is this hope triumphing over reason? Or, is it cynicism triumphing over reason? Or, is it sense and reason in action? And, have the folks in Kerala gotten over the parochial narrowness that they are known for. I, like, Dr. Tharoor am a non-resident malayalee - NRM. Unlike him I was born there and have lived there for a few years. I even did my undergraduate degree in Kerala and was referred to, at various times, as "Pandi" (since I did my schooling in Tamilnadu), "Britisher" (because, I preferred talking in English) and "Dollar" (when I started applying for masters programs in the US). Or, did Kerala fall for the "glamour" factor? Neighboring Tamilnadu always had a weakness for its movie stars. Maybe, Kerala has a weakness for its diplomats. Anyway, I do hope that what happened to Rajiv Gandhi does not happen to Dr. Tharoor. Someone once described Rajiv Gandhi's years as - "He tried to change the system. But, the system changed him."

Needed... someone with Photoshop skills @ White House

2009-05-09T19:33:00.000-05:00

White House aide resigns over NYC flyover - White House- msnbc.com

The Obama administration might have a CIO and a CTO but they seem to lack folks with Photoshop skills. I bet if they had someone with decent photoshop skills they could have avoided the NYC flyover incident and the associated ruckus. Maybe the aide who resigned might consider taking some photoshop lessons.

Is Shashi Tharoor eligible for ST quota?

2009-05-01T21:30:00.003-05:00

Ok, the title is rather provocative and figment of my imagination*. I have lot of respect for Shashi Tharoor. So, it was with some amusement, concern and disgust that I greeted the news of him standing for the Indian parliamentary elections from the south indian city of Thiruvanthapuram. He has snowball's chance in hell in making a mark, leave alone winning the constituency.

Almost all well meaning Indians of reasonable charisma and fame sooner or later decide that the way to "serve" the country is by becoming an elected representative. I thought Dr. Tharoor was smarter to fall for that (Maybe, he went off the rockers when he did not become the UN Secretary General. Or, maybe, the keralite in him caused him to reconnect with Kerala on retirement, just like a lot of Non-resident malayalis (NRM) do). For a man who has lived almost all of his entire adult life outside the country (leave alone Thiruvanthapuram) to think he can connect with the people and can fulfill the role of their representative smacks of naiveté. Dr. Tharoor does a great job of presenting India to Indians and the world from his vantage position of a native looking in from the outside. However, elected representatives need to be insiders looking out. And, no, I don't think they need to be natives.

PS: I don't think just because his initials are ST (scheduled tribe) gives his any advantage. And, the constituency where he is contesting is not a reserved constituency.

Imagine Jaswant Singh as a Gurkha....hahaha...

2009-04-25T20:02:00.003-05:00

Elections in India is always an interesting affair. It is a theatre of the absurd. So, chalk this one under that.

I believe Jaswant Singh, the former external affairs minister, who accompanied terrorists to Kandahar to release them in exchange for the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in Dec 1999, is standing for elections from the heart of Gorkhaland - Darjeeling. Yes, you got it right - a federal ministry from the largest democracy accompanied the terrorists and released them to put an end to the hijacking. That must constitute bravery. I bet the brave Gurkhas need someone as brave as Jawant Singh amidst them. Ahem...Or, maybe the BJP thinks Jaswant can develop some nerves of steel if he is amidst the Gurkhas.

Which way?

2009-03-20T14:59:00.001-05:00

The two big buys that Tata motors did seem to be on two ends of the quality/ reliability spectrum. Wonder which way they will move under the Tatas.

Got a raise... while unemployed

2009-03-12T09:30:00.003-05:00

I finally got a raise... my first raise in 2+ years. It came through the unemployment insurance check courtesy the Federal Additional Compensation Program. There in lies the irony. Ever since I started working for a startup in the fall of 2006 I had not gotten a raise. In fall of 2007 I was told that they were putting a formal evaluation and pay cycle scheduled to go into effect in Feb 2008 and all adjustments would happen then. Come Feb 2008 I was told that the company has not met its goals so while they would like to give me a raise they can't. There was no official communication. My manager kept the discussion about it alive till June of 2008. Then, I realized that this was never going to happen.

Is "Jai Ho" the new "India Shining"?

2009-03-06T11:36:00.001-06:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Jai Ho 'cost Congress $200,000'

They say nothing succeeds like success. I bet that is what Congress-I (Do we have variants with all 26 letters? Not yet.) is hoping. I guess they are hoping that the feel good factor of "Jai Ho" will translate into electoral victory. However, it is quite possible that this might be the new "India Shining."

During the last elections the rival BJP launched a polished, feel good, rah-rah campaign highlighting how things have changed for the better. Little did they expect that the campaign title would boomerang. The english only title was considered a great example of the issues with the developments that had happened - only the educated elite were getting the benefits. I am not sure how well this stuck with the public the end result was BJP did not win enough to form the next government.

So, will "Jai Ho" be the sound of "selling out to the west" or "poverty porn" or just a "fantasy that only happens in Bollywood movies." BTW, does Slumdog qualify as Bollywood movie? I think so. The theme is even though the guys made it are not.

Aiyo rama it is not Valentine's day but Pink Chaddi day

2009-02-12T10:26:00.004-06:00

I love this one - very creative. I hate the morality ~~police~~ goons. Sri Ram Sena is nothing but a bunch of thughs who have banded together and branded themselves.

It is interesting that all issues in India seem to have Ram as the common thread – Ram janmabhoomi, Ram sethu and Sri Ram sena. I always though Ram as the national mythological hero was a bad choice. They say he is the “Adarsh Purush” (ideal man). Is he really? First, he blindly follows his parents order. Then, he kills Vali by deceit for Sugreeva. And, finally, decides to go with the masses and doubt his wife’s chastity. So, what is so “ideal” about these actions?

I wish it was Krishna who was the national mythological hero. In him you have a “rock star” – favorite of women (note: I did not say he was a womanizer), good with the flute (did Ram have any talent. He sounds like a whiner to me), inspiring leader (he got Arjuna to drink his “kool-aid” ) and shrewd tactician (how many times did he pull tricks to win the game?). I bet he would have seen the humor in the “Pink Chaddi” campaign. Hell, he probably would have had a collection of pink chaddis:).

Separated

2009-02-03T16:30:00.001-06:00

The New Year got off to a rough start for me. I returned from a month long vacation (half of it was unpaid and the rest was all the vacation days that I had shored up for this trip to India) to work to find that I have no work. My boss (the CTO) of the company told me that due to financial difficulties the company was going through another round of layoffs. Since they had decided to stop all IT initiatives they did not need someone to define and manage IT initiatives.

So, here I am looking for a new job. A recruiter that I talked to mentioned that I should not use "eliminated" or "layoff" as they have negative connotations. Instead, he suggested, I should use "separated." Well, "separated" it is even though it does not change the reality. Someone else told me that averaging 2 yrs at a job does not sit well. True. I would not hire someone who changes jobs every two years. And, in the first 8 years of my work I was a sucker for the newest technology. I changed jobs every two years to work on the latest thing. In the last 10 years it has been the economy and the companies who have been prompting my job changes. One company that I worked for kept laying off people every 3 months that I finally quit after being there for 6 rounds of layoffs; the other decided consulting was not for them; the next two failed (one of them managed to sell themselves before it went under)

Someone once asked me - "How long can a 'start-up' call itself a 'start-up'?" I had no answer for that one. My former employer has been in business for 3 years and is down by $35MM. In B-school they said investors look for 3x3 or 5x5 returns (i.e. 3x returns in 3 years etc...) I bet this is not what they had in mind. Anyway, what do you call a 'start-up' that is in this state? Wind-down.

Back to the job hunt.

Bangalored is so passe... Why not get Bengalured?

2009-01-29T14:54:00.003-06:00

I am not sure when the word (can you even call it a word) "Bangalored" first made appearance (according to Wiktionary it was in 2003). It is at least about five years old. Now, I have no issues with the word. But, I realize that we need a new word for all the Indians and non-Indians who have decided to give Indian sub-continent a try. How about "Bengalured"? It even has the new name for Bangalore in it.

Bengalured (verb)
Simple past tense and past participle of Bengaluru.
Relocated to Bengaluru, or India (or, any improbable location) in search of new opportunities.

James Matthew is onto something

2008-11-18T21:10:00.005-06:00

James Matthew runs a heating and cooling company in the Chicagoland. No big deal. There are a number of desis running their own business. Every year around September I get a mailer from his company about the Fall specials he has for furnace/humidifier cleaning. The mailer is thing of beauty. It has the colors of the Indian flag on it including the chakra. I am not sure how James got my name and address (maybe there is a desi mailing list). Anyway, smart move. So, after about four years of getting this mailer and not trying out the service, I decided to give it a try. I called James and he came (a bit late but a lot better than the three hour window that you have to live with Comcast or ComEd. Maybe, he was just trying to keep this Indian theme going). Turns out James is of Indian origin but was not born in India, nor did he grow up in India. And, he has only been to kerala twice.

I want to believe that James has different mailer for different nationalities he targets. And, even if he does not he has managed to do something that the Indian government has failed to do - promote brand India.

High Rate of H-1B Visa Fraud says BusinessWeek

2008-10-13T15:17:00.004-05:00

High Rate of H-1B Visa Fraud - BusinessWeek

So, where is the news? What is new? The article is written in such a way that it makes you think that the companies using the H1-B program the most (i.e. Indian companies) are the ones most responsible for fraud without making explicit claims or citing evidence.

The story for H1-B folks being paid less than market rate is often quoted but hard to substantiate. The market rate is not a single figure but a range and I bet every one of these H1-B folks fall within the range. The companies that employ H1-B folks benefit financially without having to resort to lower wages. Most H1-B folks tend to amass their vacation for one large vacation trip. That makes it easy for companies to plan for their absence. Quite often these vacations happen between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when majority of the companies do not have any major initiatives happening. Then, there is the wait for "green card" which makes these folks bonded laborers to these firms without having to sign such an employement contract. And, finally, there is the Social Security taxes that these folks contribute but may not see unless they become a citizen and Social Security program is still solvent.

So, who is being had, by whom?

Smoking ban will paint the town(s) red...literally

2008-10-02T09:38:00.001-05:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Indian ban on smoking in public

This is a great idea for the cops to make some extra money on the side (not that they did not have options to do it). I also think this will make people switch to domestic alternatives like chewing tobacco with betel leaves. Hey, smokeless tobacco is big business worldwide. Altria (i.e. Philip Morris in its new avatar) recently bought UST Inc. (US Tobacco).

Yet another bomb blast...what is the big deal?

2008-09-14T08:53:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, it was Delhi's turn. Not that it never had its chance before. And, nor did it have to wait for too long. Every time a bomb goes off (these days it seems to be a few at the same time. Can we call that "progress?”) the reactions are pretty much the same.

The leaders of the government wag their fingers say something like "... this cannot break our resolve... we are committed to being secular...we will catch the perpetrators." They used to blame the "foreign hand" and ISI. That has reduced a bit these days since we no longer need to "import" this expertise but have managed to develop a large pool of well-trained resources with local and foreign expertise.

The leaders of the various political parties point fingers at each other, blame it on "minority" / or, "majority" appeasement, failure to implement anti-terror laws like POTA/TADA or, the implementation of it as the cause.

The leaders of the police claim almost immediately that they have strong/ vital leads. Now, don't ask how they who were totally clueless about the blasts suddenly have strong leads to solve it.

The media expresses outrage, sheds crocodile tears, and waits for the next big thing to increase their circulation or rating. And, the people carry about their daily lives as if this is something they expect in regular intervals.

Why is it that there is no sustained effort at all levels (from individual citizens to the leaders of the government) to tackle the problem head-on? Or, have we succumbed to the "karma" concept and think that we "deserve" this? Unless people of all walks of lives and political colors take to the streets and make an issue of this and keep it sustained there will be no political will. The politicians are so wrapped in figuring out how to complete the current term and possibly win the next term that they do not care a bit about the country or its citizens. The law and order establishment does things to the bidding of their political masters. So, little wonder that those "strong leads" do not resolve the case in the next five years. And, if they manage to "solve" then the judgment is still reserved. As for the media, they will only focus on stuff that bring them revenue/ ratings - things that keep the interest of the public for long time. Little wonder why cricket is discussed and shown a lot more than anything of importance to the society and the nation.

Our Internet site will be available... intermittently

2008-08-27T12:43:00.001-05:00

I have been trying to access the website of FirstandSecond.com, which bills itself as India's biggest bookstore over the last 24 hours. The darn site has been down for "Technical Upgradation." I have never seen a technical upgrade take an online business offline for a whole day. And, they have the chutzpah to suggest "...use this opportunity to take a break from net surfing..." I guess someone forgot to tell them that the reason they want people coming to their site is to buy (and, not just surf) and while their site may be down the rest of the Internet is available (and, that includes that of their competitor(s) like Landmarkonthenet). Imagine Amazon being down for 24hours back in 1995 or 1996. I bet it was unacceptable even then. I guess, even the Internet moves at the slow pace of Indian Stretchable Time.

I am no user experience expert but the quality of the user interface and content on most Indian sites is lamentable. It is as if their "must have" list consists of - scrolling text and flashing images. And, the "nice to haves" are fly-out images and pop-ups/pop-unders. Compare rediff.com with yahoo or msn, it is as if rediff is stuck in 1996. Someone once remarked "...India is an assault on your senses... all senses... all the time." The Indian websites seem to be an assault on your sensibilities when they are up.

Corporate websites of IT services providers seem to be the best of the lot. And, even here, there seems to be a correlation between the quality of the site and the amount of revenues earned from abroad. I am not saying that the site quality is allowing them to generate more revenues. The greater the interactions with firms and people in other geographies the greater the incentive to put something better out.

It is participation that counts... yeah right!

2008-08-24T11:37:00.004-05:00

About four years back, when I was in B-school, a classmate of mine did a class paper on relationship between populations, economic factors to Olympic medals. The outlier in his analysis was India, which has a large population, and decent PPP GDP. This analysis pretty much confirms it.

There is certainly a lot to cheer about India's performance. For the first time an Indian won an Olympic gold in an individual event. And, Indian performance in the 2008 Beijing Olympics bettered its performance in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. 56 years is an awful long time. The lessons from Beijing are clear - In India, it is better to get the government out of the way to make progress. Unlike China, Indian government has an impeccable record of screwing up things. Take the case of field hockey. The team did not even make it to the Olympics. Of course, that did not stop them from sending four coaches to Beijing to "observe."

Let us hope that good sense prevail, the Government gets out of the way, the corporations and media step in to create a better talent pool and Abhinav Bindra remains a player in shooting and not a player in politics as a member of Rajya Sabha. Being nominated to Rajya Sabha is no honor for someone like Bindra. It will do good for everyone to remember that... "We are all fools, in different subjects."

Race and religion...comparing India to the US

2008-08-17T09:47:00.002-05:00

It is often said that the United States has a very clear separation between state and religion, and it has made great strides in overcoming racial inequality. And, often the comment about India is that it is mired by caste and religion. But, what does this mean to an average person in both places.

Take for example the US election of 2008. It has been said by more than a few that having an African American candidate shows the strides US has made in overcoming racial inequality. Some have even gone on to say that having an African American as the president would mean racial inequality is a thing of the past. But, is it truly so. Every day I take the public transport (the "El") to work. I often observe how the seats get filled on the "El." It is a study of people's prejudices. Invariably, seats next to African Americans are the last to be taken. I bet statistical analysis of the sample will show that this is not a random phenomenon.

In India, we have had at least one "untouchable" President but even I would not say that everyone in India is treated equal. However, I do know that rarely will people avoid certain seats on the public transport because of the caste of the other person. This is because often there is no way to determine the caste of the other person from their physical attributes.

So, you have a group of people in the US who on a day to-day basis see and feel some form of prejudice against them even when they are not directly interacting with the other party (and, see less or no prejudice when they are interacting directly with the other party). And, in India, you have groups of people who may not see any prejudice until they are directly interacting with the other party.

Now, you may argue that I am mixing race and caste. I think that is just arguing over the use of right words. I guess what I am trying to say is people everywhere feel at ease with people who look and act like them.

When it comes to religion, both India and the US are secular states. Yet, their approach to secularism is quite different and the results have been quite different (Just compare the number of religion related clashes/ incidents). Are the results different because of the approach? I don't know. I would argue that the people in the US practice a good number of religions/ beliefs. It may not be the same as in India but in terms of percentages they might be in the same league.

For a nation, that professes separation of state and religion US is obsessed with religion. The candidate's religion/ beliefs are a key part of their candidature. Barrack Obama has gone to great lengths to prove that he is a Christian (and hide his middle name - Hussein). The only religious holiday in the country is Christmas and you will see the state spending lot of money to decorate the city and buildings for this holiday. Compare this with India where there have been Muslim presidents, Christian Chief Ministers (Governors), the state has holidays for pretty much every possible religion (I call India - Bumper Holiday Nation) and the state does not spend money decorating buildings for any religious holiday.

So, what makes Africans still move to the US in search of opportunities even when African Americans make noise about the inequality and US has a lot less race/caste and religion related incidents than India? I think the law, the rules and their implementation is a clear and consistent in the US. So, while not everyone agrees with it, it has enough "buy-in." As for religion, in the US, for the most part, the state does not involve itself with religion even if its subjects feel strongly about their beliefs. In India, the state is involved in religion trying to "balance" the differences in numbers. And, when there is not enough to go around for everyone, state's effort to "balance" based on race/caste and/or religion results in everyone feeling that they have been cheated out of fair deal.

Economics of Conversions

2008-07-31T11:26:00.002-05:00

Religious conversions | The moment of truth | Economist.com

It is alternately amusing and alarming to read the simplistic views magazines like The Economist put out regarding conversions and castes. Or, the simplistic approach pushes their viewpoint. At least, when it comes to India and conversions there are a lot more. Simply put when there is not enough to go around for all giving benefits to a few based on their religion or caste is going to cause issues.

I do not understand why religious conversions where prosthelization is involved is not considered as dangerous as racism. After all, it comes from the belief that "my religion/ faith is better than yours. And, you are damned unless you convert to mine."

As for India, the government's effort at "secularism" has caused polarization of religions/ faiths. How you may ask. There is religion based voting districts, economic reservations. In all these, the people who practice the majority religion and the small minority religions that do not feel the need to market themselves or assert their superiority are given a raw deal. And, to add insult to injury the government controls/ appoints people to religious institutions of majority religion when they do not even monitor the source of funds for others.

Ultimately, one cannot deny the "economics of conversion." The folks who are converting (at least the majority of them) are not converting because they had the same epiphany that Marc Schleifer, mentioned in the article, had. They are trying to find their way out of oppressing economic circumstances they are in due to social (caste) or economic (access to opportunities) or both. Unfortunately, they realize a little later that the social (caste) issues cut across religion. In India, you have separate Dalit (what you generally classify as "untouchable") Christian churches in a class/ caste less religion. Christians in Kerala and Mangalore take pride it telling everyone that they were high caste Hindus before conversion. The reason most of these high caste Hindus converted was again social oppression.

I remember reading an article by Germaine Greer who questioned Mother Theresa's charity. If the poor need to give up their faith to be saved what is so magnanimous about it. That was her question. I think the answer is we are all animals - our sense of self-preservation is better defined than our sense of belief/ faith/ religion etc...

All this for a dick?

2008-07-06T07:37:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Woman in India 'has twins at 70'

This story shows the irony that characterises most of India's achievements. Do I congratulate the doctors for this medical miracle? Do I ridicule the couple and the efforts they went to have a male child. I will go with the later because there are more like them in India.

Sometime back a friend emailed me an article about Sardar Bhagat Singh College of Technology and Management's decision to name the monkey god Hanuman as the chariman of the school. Now, that takes a leap of faith (Hanuman/ monkey...leap...you get it?). I bet desis will be quick to point out that US presidential hopeful Senator Obama is reputed to carry around Hanuman charm for luck. Now I know that when Obama remarked about people clinging to "guns and religion" he was in some sense talking about himself.

Democractically elected meglomaniacs

2008-06-02T15:15:00.001-05:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | New statue of India's Dalit icon

I wonder why I never got one of the chain emails on how India is better than US of A since it has had numerous female leaders. That set me thinking about the kind of female leaders that India has had. Some names that come to mind are Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Jayalalitha and Mayawati. Pretty much everyone of them is an ego-maniac and some are meglomaniacs.

A recent Wall Street Journal survey showed that Americans are more willing to elect African American males or Baptist males as their leaders than having women as their leaders. Given that average American women enjoys better socio-economic freedom than their counterparts in India this survey made me wonder why is it that desis have elected women leaders. It is not the dynasty factor - that can only apply to Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. The only thread that seems to connect the four leaders are their ego and lust for power.

Durbin's "windfall profit tax" is a lot of hot air

2008-05-04T19:12:00.003-05:00

Senior Senator Dick Durbin of IL has proposed something called a "windfall profit tax" to cap the profits of oil companies and help ease the burden on the public reeling under the pressure of high gas prices. Now, what constitutes as "windfall profit"? Who will define that? And, why restrict it to just oil companies? Why not apply this to all companies? It would be interesting to see how this will apply to software companies after all the incremental cost of a software product is close to zero.

Why can't the good senator and his likes think of things that make sense and are within their control like improving the public transportation infrastructure (rather than giving free rides to senior citizens and the homeless) or increasing the fuel efficiency requirements on vehicles. Heck, all those require time, effort and will not have the same effect on the public as "windfall profit tax". We all need someone to be the "bad guy" and it is easy to paint the oil companies (and, in other occasions, the Chinese companies) as the "bad guys."

I guess it is guys like Senator Durbin who make sure that Chicago's legacy as "the windy city" lives on. Got to love him for that.

White lies or half truths?

2008-05-04T18:49:00.003-05:00

The photo on the side is from BBC on an article on reservations. I like how BBC chooses its words to make this look as if Indians are against poor people having opportunities. I guess they feel that the so called "backward" classes are economically poor.

BBC does its best to keep the spirit of the Raj alive. To them the Kashmir terrorists are always "militants" (within the quotes). The government reservation is to help the "untouchables" and now, the "poor." I guess they do not know that yadavas are considered "backward" yet Krishna, a yadava, is one of the more popular gods. And, some of the rich Indians are still beneficiaries of the government reservation program(s).

Reservation in India in the form it is implemented is not about social equality or opportunities for the poor but creation of vote banks. As a famous Brit (that would be Maggie Thatcher) once said - the job of the government is to create opportunities, not provide handouts. I bet majority in India will agree with that sentiment.

'Free Tibet' flags made in China... I told you so

2008-04-28T10:01:00.002-05:00

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | 'Free Tibet' flags made in China

I had a chuckle reading this one. I had remarked about similar stuff in my earlier post on Olympics

Mugabe rival 'clear' winner but who won Florida in 2000 is unclear - US

2008-04-24T11:13:00.004-05:00

BBC NEWS | Africa | Mugabe rival 'clear' winner - US

Jendayi Frazer must be some kind of super human to know how Zimbabwe voted. Independent Zimbabwean monitors who were on the ground say Mr Tsvangirai gained 49% of the vote - just short of the threshold for outright victory - but more than President Mugabe. My guess is Zimbabweans know better. It is amazing the level of meddling US and UK do in the affairs of other nations.

I was heartened to see the Indian external affairs ministry give the US a fitting reply when they tried to advise India on topics for discussion during the upcoming visit of President Ahmadinejad of Iran.

Hypocrisy on Olympic scale

2008-04-07T22:00:00.003-05:00

Suddenly the whole world seems to have woken up and is angry about China's human rights record. They are now hell bent on making noises before the Olympics. The last time I checked, the site of the 2008 Olympics was decided way back in 2001. So, where were all these people, government and agencies back then? It is not like China has changed. If anything China has stood its ground. In the last six years the western firms have made good money putting up the infrastructure for the Olympics. So, why now? Couldn't their conscience lie dormant for a little more?

US speaker Nancy Pelosi decided to complain about Chinese actions in Tibet while on a visit to India even though the Indian government which hosts the Tibetan government in exile decided not to make noise. I wonder how the US would react if a visiting Indian head of state decides to praise Cuban healthcare system?

If the world was really upset about Chinese occupation of Tibet or the lack of democracy then China should not have been offered the 2008 Olympics. We all want the cheap stuff from Chinese sweat shops. Why worry about someone else's freedom and liberty? BTW, are the "Free Tibet" t-shirts and stickers made in China?

Earth Hour in India ?

2008-03-29T12:22:00.003-05:00

Today at 8pm Central Chicago is supposed to go dark for about an hour. The whole "Earth Hour" concept is gimmicky but gimmicks catch attention and something is better than nothing. I checked the Earth Hour website to see if any of our desi cities were participating in it - None. Then, I realized that they are the pioneers in the concept but they never branded it - they just called it load shedding/ maintenance outage ;) Someday they too will call it "earth hour(s)" or "earth day(s)".

Getting everyone to reduce their energy consumption on a daily basis is hard esp. when we cannot let go of our laptops, broadband connections, flat screen tvs, cellphones and iPods. I left the cars and SUVs here because while they get the rap for global warming the biggest culprit is electricity (See Vinod Kholsa's presentation). Would you unplug your flat screen tv because it contributes to global warming or would you rather watch planet earth on it in high-def?

Tata Ambassador... now Tata is the Ambassador

2008-03-28T14:03:00.001-05:00

Tata Motors have bought the Jag and Land Rover brands from Ford. And, folks in India called it "Empire Strikes Back!”. Folks here called it a case of former colonies being obsessed with sticking it to their former masters. Well, it is not what you got that matters but it is what you do with what you got that matters. So, let us see what Tatas do with these two brands - yes, they are just brands. If they were making good vehicles then people would be buying them. Building a brand is hard.

If you are wondering, what the Ambassador had to do with the rest of the article. Nothing. I just liked puns- good/ bad and everything in between. I guess it is time to say "tata" (who says bye-bye in India) to Ambassador and welcome Tata as the ambassador - the ambassador of brand India.

Bear Stearns ...why can't "market" bear and grin?

2008-03-26T21:43:00.003-05:00

I am a bit (actually, more than a bit) amused by the Bearns Stearns issue and bailout. Here is the deal - if Bears Stearns is a failed company then so be it. Why should the tax payers bear the risk and JP Morgan walkaway with a great steal all in the name of national interests. Did Bear Stearns or other firms ask for government or tax payer permission before they gave away the nice bonuses? To be fair I don't think they even requested to be saved. JP Morgan and Wall Street suit types are funny - Bear Stearns deal was "fair" at $2 and then a few days later it was "fair" at $10. What is fair is to let Bear be - see if it can survive. If it dies, it was meant to be - greed did it in.

So, why does the government care now. And, is n't this and every other solution for the current crisis tackling the symptoms without addressing the root cause. I have seen a lot of this in India - usually for public sector (government owned) companies. There the reason was very clear - politicians need to win elections, to do so they need votes and these public sector undertaking represented nice large vote banks. While they may have also justified their actions as "protecting national interests" they never preached capitalism.

Right and Wrong about Wright and Rezko

2008-03-19T19:40:00.002-05:00

Last Friday as I was returning from the airport I heard on the news that Presidential candidate Obama had condemned the comments made by Rev. Wright and apologized for errors in judgment in his dealings with Tony Rezko.

The funny thing is I never heard the Tony Rezko issue mentioned again in the media. Here is a case where the candidate who says, "Being right is more important than being prepared" (Is a "right" liberal any better than a "right" conservative? We have one claiming victory in Iraq) saying his real estate dealings with Rezko was not straight and that his campaign had got a lot more money through Rezko than originally claimed. I guess nobody cares about such trivial matters.

Instead, everyone jumped on speeches made by Rev. Wright about 5 to 7 years back. And, gave the Illinois senator a nice photo op and speaking engagement that left lot of the media pundits teary eyed. What is the big deal about what Rev. Wright said? He was expressing his opinion. And, everyone is entitled to one. He was not instigating violence or other subversive methods. He is entitled to his view on 9/11 (and, he was not blaming the victims as Chris Matthews said. He was blaming the government). He is right about Hillary not knowing what it is to be black (he used the N word) in America. Similarly, Obama has no clue what it is to be a woman in America. Both of them have no clue what it is to be a brown skin in America. If you believe in "God Bless... <>" why not "God damn ...<>"

Senator Obama has no control over what someone else says. But, he has control over his actions and dealings with folks like Rezko. Obama may not represent "same old Washington politics" but why do I get this feeling that he represents "same old Chicago politics." I am not sure which one is worse.

P.S: Geraldine Ferraro is a brave woman for not backing down. And, she may have a point here. Reminds me of the Oscars a few years back when Denzel Washington and Halle Berry won. Do not get me wrong, both are great actors but the way the media created the buzz and called it made me wonder if they were getting the prize for their effort or if someone had decided that this is the year.

In support of ICL and IPL

2008-03-08T12:58:00.001-06:00

Finally, market forces are emerging in Indian sports and it bodes well for sports in India. Of late, a lot has been written and said about Indian Cricket League (ICL) and Indian Premier League (IPL). A good number of them have expressed their opposition to the "auction of humans" and the "high price".

In B-school there is question that is asked often - "What is the value of a company?” The only right answers to it other than "it depends" is "what ever the market is willing to bear. If SRK spent $80 million on his team, it is because he is hoping to make more than that. If he and other investors do not make good on their investments because of either team performance or drop in advertising revenue they are going to act on it. I am sure soon they will have NFL like trading, salary caps and scouting.

I like the idea of ICL and IPL because for -

1. It takes cricket into realm beyond national teams. Of course, there is nothing new about that. The English cricket league already does that. However, now you have this happening where it matters. This is to cricket what the European soccer leagues are to soccer.

2. It makes compensation visible. It is to some extent "pay for performance". These people are not only paid for their skill but also their ability to bring in money. They are part salesmen, part gladiators.

The fact that the hard numbers are in the open makes it easy for everyone to compare. It is bit like "lobbying" vs. "bribe" - both may be undesirable but first one is better because information on what was paid and what was received is out in the open and is taxable. I think the numbers may come down as the talent pipeline (Point 3) increases unless ICL and IPL have a truly global following.

3. It generates new talent pipelines. We now have two new international leagues in addition to the national cricket team. And, each league has a number of teams. To fill these teams you will need talent. It gives opportunities for talented Ranji and college players to move up. And, hopefully this will improve the pool and the access to opportunities.

4. You finally have some cool names. Other than the New Zealanders who were referred to as "kiwis" (thanks to a flight less bird), none of the national teams had a cool name. Now, we have a chance for some interesting names (though, I must say I have been disappointed with the current set). My award for the best name for any sports team that I have come across goes to Mambalam Mosquitoes. I have never seen them play but growing up in Madras I had heard a lot about them. But, talk about making lemonades of lemons. So, why not Chennai Chimps? I have some nice headlines ready - "Chennai Chimps are the Champs" or "Chennai Chimps Chomp the Competition".

What can "brown" do for you?

2008-03-01T09:40:00.003-06:00

I work for a small two year old company - about 60-70 people. When I joined there were fewer than 20 people and I was the first hire of desi origin. Last year I hired another guy of desi origin (a Pakistani guy). Together we are the IT department for the company.

It is amazing how often folks refer to us or call us by the other person's name. And, it is not like our names sound similar, start with the same alphabet or that we look similar. There are a few repeat offenders. It has gotten to a point where we use the UPS line on them - "What can brown do for you?." I guess to them we are two brown guys for the most part.

Rooting for normalcy

2008-02-27T20:19:00.002-06:00

I like many others was dead against US military action against Iraq. It just was not right whether the reason was WMD or bringing democracy to the region. There was very little evidence supporting the first reason. As for democracy, I believe it may not work in some places and when people are ready for it they will clamor for it. Implementing democracy by military action is quite stupid.

After the military action there was a time when I kept tally of civilians (or, should I call it what Madeleine Albright called - collateral damage) and military personnel killed. After a while, I started feeling sorry for both. The military because I bet they never expected to be fighting this war. The civilians because back in Saddam’s days, they may not have had democracy but they knew who the enemy were. As long as they kept their mouth shut and a low profile, they had a job and life. Give me liberty or give me death sounds great but life triumphs liberty. As long as there is life, there is hope.

Now, when most of the original groups against war want the US troops to come back I feel the other way. US presence gives Iraq and the region a better chance for normalcy. There was an article in the Newsweek about how Americans are taught very early in life about cleaning up their mess - Iraq is our mess. I wonder if the folks who want the troops back now would feel the same way if things were going great in the US (economically) and /or in Iraq (politically). Going into Iraq in 2003 was wrong and leaving Iraq anytime soon will also be wrong.

A few weeks back I happened to listen to Parag Khanna, author of "The Second World" talk on Foreign Exchange (BTW, what is with desis/BBCDs/ABCDs and foreign affairs - Farred Zakaria followed by Daljit Dhaliwal?). He claims to be advising Barack Obama on foreign policy. According to him, splitting of Iraq is "inevitable." He said it with such nonchalance that it made me wonder how he would feel if his home country was attacked and broken into pieces. Of course, he like many others know that it is unlikely to happen. Afterall, there is a large ocean separating it from the rest of the land mass where the problems are. I am no expert in geopolitical stuff but if Iraq splits it is likely to involve at least Turkey and Iran in the mess. Afghanistan and Pakistan is already a mess. So, we will have instability in all countries between Israel and India. These two countries will probably see more terrorist incidents after all they do not have any buffer zone.

I had a few friends tell me - "Why bother about Iraq? After all, we did not give a damn about Rwanda. And, see Vietnam did well without us." Rwanda was not a mess that the US created. As for Vietnam war, it was a war of political ideology. Both, Vietnam and its backers were keen to prove that their way is better. So, there was a will to win even if it was to be an empty victory.

This TEA can now vote ;)

2008-02-26T21:53:00.002-06:00

Yes, this "Third World Economic Adventurer" (TEA. I think I should copyright this) earned the right to vote in this first world country today. And, I believe that bad politicians are elected by good folks who don't vote.

The oath ceremony was short and well run - 141 people from 32 countries. The clerks at the ceremony were very warm and professional but most immigrants were either too grumpy or occupied by the weight of the occasion that they failed to respond to the normal niceties. The judge made a nice short speech on naturalization comparing it to blood transfusion. I guess that might explain some people's opposition to it. I have to fully agree with the judge that there is probably no other country where you have people from so many nations.

Morocco... where desis are welcome

2008-02-26T20:31:00.002-06:00

During the December holidays, I went to Morocco - my first trip to Africa (if you do not count the transit through Cairo). I travelled to four cities in Morocco - part of a tour group. The country is beautiful, people are quite friendly and they love desis (more specifically desi movies). Parts of the country, the medina in Fez ... all reminded me of India.

Occassionaly, I did get mistaken for a local (possibly beacuse of my J2M172 connection). Often they would call out - "India?" and when I acknowledged they would greet - "Namaste." Most americans in the tour group were surprised by the reception I got. In one shop in Fez a staff member came to me and started listing out his favorite Hindi movies and actors. He probably has seen more hindi movies than me in the last ten years. He then said his favorite is the music guy - Anu Malik. Anu Malik - who knew? Once I went into a post office in Marakesh to get directions and the guys behind the counter took the opportunity to tell me that they loved Amitabh Bachchan. In the hotel in Warzazat there was no english channel on TV but there was one showing a hindi movie with arabic subtitles. And, when I was on my way back at the Marakesh airport an immigration official came running after me. I stopped for him. He asked me where I was from and when he saw my Indian passport patted me on my back and said - "Welcome." I must tell you I have never been welcomed so warmly in any other country for my Indian passport.

The folks running the food stalls at Djemaa el Fna blew me away with their command of Hindi - inviting me to their stalls in Hindi - all learned by watching Hindi movies.

So, who would you choose?

2008-02-07T11:18:00.001-06:00

Let us assume that you are in the hospital for a life saving procedure. Yes, a life saving procedure for you.

The hospital tells you that you have a choice of three surgeons and two surgical teams. Surgeon A is young, charming, intelligent - when to the best schools and graduated with distinction, skilled - all his colleagues say he is good. In short, he is a hot shot. But, he just finished his residency about two years back and has limited to no experience in the procedure. Surgeon B is experienced, has a decent record - some misses and some success. Surgeon C is the silver haired veteran with lot of experience and again some misses and some success. Surgeon A can tap into members of both surgical teams. So, can Surgeon C - to a limited extent. Surgeon B can only work with one team.

You meet with the surgeons - Surgeon A is recommending a new technique that has shown lot of promise but has never been tried. Surgeons B and C are considering using things that they have been doing all these years.

Think about it...

Now, what if Surgeon A was Barack Obama, B was Hillary Clinton and C was John McCain?

O' bam 'er (Oh! Bummer)

2008-01-08T21:37:00.000-06:00

I find the whole Obama phenomenon funny. He may be smart and charismatic but if you think his lack of experience is not scary then think again.

For me the decision was made long back - afterall, I lived in India under Rajiv Gandhi - the same old change/ hope story that went sour. I remember an article describing Rajiv Gandhi's time - "He tried to change the system but the system changed him."

As for Obama, first came the story that the guy had not paid a few Harvard parking tickets till he announced his candidacy. I am sure he knew about the tickets and I bet his wife's promotion/ pay raise would have covered it. But, I guess he could get away without paying till the candidacy and he did. Then came his support for Todd Stoger whose only qualification was his last name. So much for change. It just showed how this "vote for change" will go. Then, the man who proudly proclaims his opposition to the Iraq war promised to bomb Pakistan if they would not go after the terrorists. Yeah, right.

Hope springs eternal but looking through rosy glasses does not change reality.

Secularism, Separation of State and Religion

2007-12-15T10:15:00.000-06:00

I have always wondered what "secularism", "separation of state and religion" means. Personally, I believe "secularism" means the state has no business in anybody's beliefs (note I did not use the word religion on purpose) and the state treats everyone the same way irrespective of their beliefs.

However, in India the official government approach is every one should get a special deal and if you are not the majority you need to get special privileges. Of course, that does not work well when there is not enough to go around. And, I am not sure if it a great way to promote unity - by promoting differences and offering different deals.

Then, there is the US which pretty much everyone says does a great job of "secularism" and "separation of state and religion." But, does having an offical holiday for Christmas or using public money to deck up the streets and buildings for Christmas go against the separation of state and religion? I remember asking a Jewish colleague whether Hannukah is a holiday. The response was immediate - "No. This is a Christian nation." Yes, the majority of the folks are Christians. And, no wonder that every now and then (and, esp. during election time) there is a need for the leaders to prove their Christian credentials.

I would love to see the state offer a set number of holidays in a year which people can take whenever they want and no state money spent on decorating buildings and streets for the holidays.

You can take Indian out of India but ...

2007-12-03T21:21:00.000-06:00

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Indian women 'aborting girls'

You cannot take India out of an Indian. Here is a not so great example of it. I was amazed at the lengths these people went (literally) to abort female foetus. But, why should I be surprised? Folks who have left the shores long back "for better opportunities" cling on to their beliefs and outlook for as long as they can. And, it results in Hindutva supporters in US and UK funding to "save Hinduism", muslims abroad funding similar causes back home, jews in brooklyn funding right wing settlers in Israel.

Only in India

2007-11-28T17:57:00.000-06:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | India promises to protect writer

As if we do not have enough troubles of our own and from others who are hell bent on causing trouble (read our negihbourhood terrorist organizations and states) we go around inviting trouble.

Why on earth should India host a non Indian whose presence is causing trouble. Let us not say that it is for freedom/ rights and similar blah... blah. Why is the Indian tax payer paying for a foreigner's stay in the country when there are enough and more indians who would like their government provide them enough to live? And, what is the total economic cost of this person's stay?

Maybe, the government views it this way - "We have a whole lot of Bangladeshis living here illegaly, so one more does not change the statistics much." I think even one is one too many.

The Kleptocract and the "democractic" dictator

2007-11-23T11:33:00.000-06:00

No this is not a bad musical or the name of a Lollywood movie (but, I guess it could be either one), it is a nice way to reference the happenings in Pakistan.

I think Jemima Goldsmith's (former wife of former cricketer Imran Khan) reference to Benazir Bhutto is the most apt one I have heard. She called her "kleptocract with hermes scarf". It is interesting to see how low the doyens of democracy (US and UK) will swoop to keep their interests. Anyone who thinks Benazir Bhutto will transition Pakistan to a liberal democracy is smoking the stuff that democracy brought to Afghanistan. Just because someone talks in English, got educated in the West and wears western clothes do not make them democratic. And, while US made all the right noises about imposition of emergency in Pakistan it was clear who had whose balls. Soon, the cat was out of the bag - Mush had told Bush about his plans to impose emergency.

How can you have democracy in a country where all democratic institutions have been suspended? And, how can a country be liberal when majority want it to be aligned to a particular religion (if not, a religious state). How can you have a democratic government when at least one legitimate (or, equally legitimate) leader sits in exile in Saudi Arabia? And, can a nation that was formed "because people of a certain religion need a separate state that encompasses their religious majority areas" ever be secural?

I think the Pakistani ambassador was onto something when he said "different nations have different paths to democracy." I guess what he failed to add was "and, some nations do not want to be on the path to democracy." A quick scan of the newgroups and message boards is enough to realize that people in Pakistan are bit cynical about democracy and Mush is more popular than Bush (in their respective countries). You can't blame the people - when democratically elected leaders use the state treasury as their private privy purse (which is the bane of all of south asia) people turn to less corrupt authoritarian heads. In Pakistan it seems the folks who are in the minds of the people are Mush, Mullahs and the madam (probably in that order).

Here is my personal test for "secular" democracies - which are the nations where the religious minorities have increased their population compared to the religious majority since the nation's independence? I think I know the answer for this one in South Asia.

Oh... good lord here we go again

2007-11-08T15:33:00.000-06:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | For and against Lord Ram's bridge

In the last few weeks I have come across a number of articles about religion in India. The Economist had a special feature about religion in which they referred to India as the most religious nation. I am not sure if that is good or bad but I guess the reference was meant to paint India in a bad light. Sometimes I feel that people who grew up with a religion of the book find it hard to understand the millions of gods and customs in India. They keep looking for the most "authoritative" religious book.

Around the same time when this BBC article on Sethu Samudram Shipping Canal Project was published I came across an interview with a Captain (retired) H Balakrishnan of the Indian Navy about the project. In the interview he presents a number of reasons why the project does not make sense. Now, since this guy spent his life on ships I guess he know what he is talking about when he talks about the distances and costs.

I wish BBC and Economist will try to present a balanced and informed view of matters. Instead, often it looks like they have formed an opinion and select people, facts and events that support their opinion. Maybe, they did not plan it that way but sensationalizing the event will sell. More people are likely to read an article about a "development project" that got cancelled due to "a bridge made by monkeys for a god" than an interview with a former captain of the Indian Navy.

Why IT is not Customer Service ... and it should not be

2007-11-04T20:45:00.000-06:00

After a number of years in consulting (the IT kind), I decided to try corporate IT in 2004. The immediate reason for my decision was the fact that I was going to school for a part time degree and did not want to miss classes due to travel. I had also become quite cyncial about consulting and the para dropping con-sultan-ts. I had started refering to me and my likes as con-sultan-t (sultan of con. the last t is silent).

In the last three plus years in corporate IT I have come to realize that corporate America deserves the con-sultan-ts. In my current role as the head of an IT organization in a startup I see the same behavior that I have seen in Fortune 500 companies (Sometimes I feel the list should be called Fortunate 500. Some of them are there in spite of themselves).

So, coming to the topic at hand. I have often heard executive in corporations including CIOs say IT is in customer service business. I say it is not. IT is in service business but to call it customer service is doing it a disservice. When you consider and treat IT as customer service you make IT act at the beck & call, whims of the rest of the organization. The customer is right/ keep customer happy attitude may win brownie points, it reduces the effectiveness of IT. The purpose of IT is total transformation of business (Ok, I borrowed that. The original went like this - "The purpose of religion is total transformation of man."). And, for it to do that IT must be ready to educate the rest of the organization on its work, question rest of the organization on their requirements, assumptions and challenge them to define financial metrics to measure success.

India Comes Crawling Back to OLPC.. and we are not alone

2007-10-25T09:38:00.000-05:00

Olpc: India Comes Crawling Back to OLPC

This article caught my attention. Desis are well known for lot of chest thumping but when it comes to deliver less said is better. We had our dear simputer (meant for "Simple" + "Computer") which transformed into a $400 handheld that nobody wanted. But, we are not the only one - first, we had Intel eat its words and join the program and today I came across another one, Microsoft

There are a number of valid arguments against Olpc and XO - it is not what the kids in developing nations really need, how did a $100 laptop cost $200, it is not powerful enough, Negroponte talks more than he delivers etc...But, it is an incredibly bold idea and the little green-and-white machines have got me. Now, if only I can convince my wife that buy one, gift one is a great idea...

Oh.. what a bore... its Gore, yet again

2007-10-14T18:37:00.000-05:00

For a guy who was cheated of election victory in 2000 and was incognito for a while (remember the beard) Al Gore is certainly making up. First it was the movie, then the oscars, then the Emmys and now the Nobel Peace prize... Oh, Please. The world need not feel sorry for him. He is the lucky one.

Imagine if he had been declared the winner in the 2000 elections. There would be a good number of people in the world who will hate him for no reason but for the fact that he is the President of United States. I don't think that he being the President would have stopped 9/11. His reaction to 9/11 might have been slightly different but I bet he would have bombed a few places, too. And, that would have pissed a few more people. He now has the eternal "what if..." that makes him look a lot better than he would have been (like JFK).

I think "An Inconvenient truth" is a good movie (not a great one) that should have done well without Al Gore (to me he was a distraction). I don't need Al Gore to tell me that earth is worth saving. And, while he might have elevated the interest and concern about global warming did it really merit the Nobel Peace prize? If yes, here is a list of a few other potential Nobel peace prize winners in the coming years
- George Cooney for Darfur
- Angela Jolie for numerous causes
- Madonna

This is the new India!!!

2007-10-08T21:08:00.000-05:00

Leveraging India As India Stands Up

Incredible stuff - BOP business models and grassroots innovation. And, the speaker makes no excuses.

The new india?

2007-10-03T16:29:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Sreesanth: The perils of aggression

From "Lucky and modest" in 1983 to "Lucky and immodest" in 2007. I guess that would sum up Indian cricket (and, India to a great extent) between 1983 and 2007.

Let us talk about Indian cricket, first. There was a time when these guys would go out in whites, play for 5 days and a lot of us wished they had some fighting spirit like... the Aussies or even the Pakistanis. But, we were all glad that they never indulged in dirty tricks like sledging which the Aussies did. "So, what if we lacked some fighting spirit we were not mean," went the general thinking. Now, to give Aussies the upper hand in on field behavior, now that is something unheard of.

Let us now talk of India in general. Let us see how we got to be one of the talked about stories, one of the BRIC nations. Narasimha Rao and Dr. Manmohan Singh probably would not have opened the economy if their hands had not been forced due to the foreign exchange reserves crunch. And, Narasimha Rao may not have been the Prime Minister hadn't Rajiv Gandhi been assasinated (And, had Rajiv Gandhi survived the campaign he would have lost the election).

The storied software services industry was chugging along for a good fifteen odd years (how many working in today's software services industry in India have heard of F. C. Kohli) until internet and VoIP (neither of which was developed in India or by Indians) came and reduced distances. Now, we have twenty somethings walking with a swagger and talking with an attitude. But, fundamentally nothing has changed - the cooking of resumes still happens. As a fellow indian remarked, "it used to be that we were unsure and unprofessional. now, we are sure and unprofessional."

Recently, a friend of mine wrote a book and sent press coverage of the launch. It was quite amusing to listen to the interviewer. She is doing an interview of the authors and makes no bones of the fact that she has not read the book beyond the back cover and nor does she care ("if you are into something intellectual, this is for you."). Clueless but confident... we are there America.

Twenty/20... Clear and Present

2007-09-26T10:16:00.000-05:00

If It’s Hip, Fast and Furious, Is It Cricket? - New York Times

I guess NYT (and, Somini Sengupta) should stick to reporting on things that they know about. This is NYT equivalent of Sports Illustrated reporting on the 2000 elections. Maybe, NYT thought Ms. Sengupta is competent to report on Cricket since she is south asian. And, maybe Ms. Sengupta thought she knew cricket because she was born in India. Or, maybe India was not getting enough coverage in this "flat(ulent) world" But, tell me, when did Sree Sreesanth become a batsman.

Anyway, I wonder how many of the NYT readers cared to treat this a little more than one of those travelogue/ exotic sports articles. I remember an American friend of mine (a good midwestern boy) ask me - "Why do you think Cricket is not popular in the US?" with the look which said - "I don't care about your answer." And, I told him - "It is a gentleman's sport."

I had fun reading this open letter to Flintoff

And, I had a good laugh when a friend of mine sent me this.

MISBAH THOUGHT HE WAS SENDING THE BALL TO A PLACE WHERE THERE WAS NO ONE.
HE DID NOT KNOW THAT THERE IS A MALAYALI IN EVERY CORNER OF THE WORLD!!!

I am not sure if I like the Twenty/20 format - with just 20 overs and 11 players it is easy for everyone to get lucky. But, it sure does make for entertaining cricket

It is almost winter...

2007-09-26T09:24:00.000-05:00

FOX Sports on MSN - NFL - Desperate Bears turn to Griese

My favorite Bears joke goes this way - "Bears are the only Chicago sports team who live up to their name. Come winter, they go into hibernation."

No wonder then, last year's performance had me worried. I thought all those talk about global warming is really true. Boy, am I glad that they are back in "form".

Here are a few other Bears jokes.

"What do you call a Bears match? Unbearable!"

"Who is the Bears Quarter Back?" Wrecks Grossman or Rex (that was) gross man

With Rex gone we need Brain Griese's help for a few more jokes. Griese hands... anyone?

Freedom of speech or freedom to preach?

2007-09-25T20:49:00.000-05:00

Why Ahmadinejad Loves New York - TIME

According to the author of this article, the Cheshire Cat smile worn by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is because he converted a not so interesting visit to an University to an international media event (Let us not fool ourselves, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to a farmhouse in Iowa is bound to be an international event). I think, the Cheshire Cat grin is possibly because he has exposed the truth about the professed supporters of "freedom of speech" to be nothing more than freedom to preach.

In the days leading up to the event Columbia tried to justify the invitation as "freedom of speech", "need to hear from the man himself". But, when the host opens the meeting with his judgements and opinions, you know that this is a deaf audience.

"Freedom of speech" alone does nothing without active listening to complement it. And, to listen well it is required that you do not judge until you have heard the other person and had a chance to give it a thought.

Adam's bridge and monkey business

2007-09-15T15:46:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Offer to quit in India gods row

One more of the comical episodes that color many development projects in India. I bet the guys protesting the creation of the canal are not from south tamilnadu. I bet most of them have not been to south tamilnadu and good number of them have not heard of ramesvaram. Of course, you do not need to know all these to protest on "matters of religious bearing". And, then the government (like all "secular" indian governments) tables a report questioning the existence of "Ram" (wonder if they would do similar reports questioning if "jesus" and "muhammed" ever lived). And, of course, the report has no bearing on the project. The project has to be assessed and communicated to people on its merits not on the existence of "Ram". Amidst, all this minister Ambika Soni offers to resign - great! Does that change anything related to the project?

So, why not try to communicate the details of the project - its merits and costs to people close to the site and affect by the project in simple terms. Now, that is not as difficult as proving the existence or non-existence of "Ram".

Is this what the "secular" majority thinks?

2007-08-05T19:39:00.000-05:00

I recently entertained a few people from India who I believe would prefer to call themselves "secular" and "progressive". And, every time I started talking to them about economics, economic policies and politics (I tend to follow that order - start with economics and end up at politics) I ran into some interesting observations that I do not agree. The list is not really in the order it was discussed

1) We need a "benevolent capitalism"
According to this, the poor in India are not receiving the benefit of the economic boom. So, the government needs to do something to improve their plight.

Why do I have a beef with this? I have beef with anything where someone else is making decisions for you and giving handouts. The poor of india, I don't think, need handouts and subsidies. What they need is equal opportunity and access to products and services. And, it would help it the ones who are benefitting from the economic boom are doing their bit - paying their taxes, being involved in the community and strengthening the institutions. It does not help when you evade taxes or pay bribe (now, you can afford to bribe more)

2) Some groups like the "brahmins" are "smarter".
I think the person actually used the word "gene pool". Bloody hell, sounds racist. I think the person was trying to say that some groups have a predisposition for learning and intellectual pursuits. I guess it did not occur to this person this may be because these groups have had better economic standing or access to education. And, it is natural that if everyone you know is going to college and you can afford it that you too end up there. I bet that brahmins or any other caste in india belong to one distinct gene pool. We are mongrels - every one of us

3) The communists in india have "values" and stand for what they believe.
This, coming from a person who has never been associated with the communist party and has never been a communist ruled state or come close to communists or their policies, is probably the most dangerous. And, I guess a lot subscribe to this as evident from their strong showing last elections.

Yes, there was a time I beleived in this, too. That was before I finished college. For about five years I lived in close proximity to wannabe communists, up and coming communists and cop out communists ( the guys who joined them to have fun). It was when I was in college in Kerala I realized that the difference between Communists and others is the difference between Nazi thugs and street thugs. Which one is better? My disillusionment with Indian communists was complete when Rajiv Gandhi was assasinated. If you remember, he was killed by a suicide bomber during an election campaign. Overnight the local chapter of communists in the sleepy village in kerala, close to my college, decided to remove or X out posters of Rajiv Gandhi/ Congress and make it look like the right wing BJP had done it. Knowing the discipline of the organization I don;t believe it was an act perpetrated by individauls without the knowledge of the organization. Finally, if you apply some logic you will realise that the purpose of the organization is to improve the standing of the working class it is imperative that for the organization to remain meaningful the working class has to be kept opressed. So, they have no incentive to really improve the conditions of the working class.

Ah! the unmistakeable sign of a super power in making

2007-07-14T11:35:00.000-05:00

Never mind that that the Presidential election has become a nomination. But, this one has been been reduced to a "tamasha". Hey, look at the bright side - we will have a woman president (even before US of A will have one). And, what more
- she was a one time beauty queen
- she can communicate with the dead ("dead guru had given her a premonition that she was destined to become India's first citizen)
- she can rewrite history ("the veil was introduced to protect their women from Mughal invaders")
- she can bankrupt a bank

The last two have become requirements for elected politicians in India.

Indians are proud of their leaders. Afterall, we have a top class scientist as President and a world class economist as the Prime minister. They always point that out and ask how can the mighty US have such an "idiot" for President. I always point out that Kalam became President because of political adjustments that centered around his religion rather than his credentials and Singh became the Prime Minister due to some wonderful political intrigue. Otherwise, a one time waitress who had limited political experience, could not speak a local language until recently and was not a citizen until two decades back could have become the Prime minister. Scary thought! At least George W was elected directly (second term) by the citizens of the country.

#46 on the IT competitiveness scale. Well, at least we are better than our neighbours. Of course, that is very little to be proud of.

I found this funny - a posting under magic with comment by jesus

2007-07-14T11:29:00.001-05:00

Woot is a Hoot...

2007-06-24T22:31:00.000-05:00

..to the boot and the bag of crap is a loot. I wish all websites were so simple and interesting as woot

Say tata to clean air and easy commute... why the new Tata car is wrong

2007-06-11T21:52:00.000-05:00

India readies world's cheapest car - MSN Money

Usually, the guys at Tatas are smart. But, this is the kind of "leadership" that we do not need. Creating an el cheapo car that is nothing more than a four wheeled moped is the last thing we need. Why can't Tatas improved the trucks and buses it makes, help improve the public transportation.

The last thing we need in a land that has absolutely no infrastructure is more cars on the road. But, I think there are some silver linings here - the increase in pollution may be able reduce the population growth rate (add a few more road accidents to it) and reduce productivity as people will be stuck in traffic.

Maybe I am jumping the gun here - this one may make Yugo look like a luxury vehicle and be truly a nova - goes nowhere. One can only hope :)

Do mo' evil!

2007-06-11T09:06:00.000-05:00

Report: Google wins 'race to bottom' on privacy | CNET News.com

I guess "Do no evil" was a typo. Afterall, "m" and "n" are close by on the keyboard. Congratulations to Google for this wonderful honor.

What would "God" do?

2007-06-10T11:25:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Hindu sites 'only for Hinduism'

In the last two weeks there have been a few interesting controversies on Hinduism and its practices. First it was Vayalar Ravi's (a politician from Kerala) turn make huge noise about practices at the Guruvayoor temple. Then, came this ordinance from the Andhra governor.

Let us take Ravi's drama first - He went to Guruvayoor for a ceremony for his new grandchild and the priest asked them to do cleanising rites since Ravi is married to a Christian and hence his son (father of the child) is not "100% certified Hindu" (or shuudh Hindu). Ravi made a huge noise about this claiming he has been demeaned etc... Keep in mind this bloke was asked to do the same thing a few years back when he had been to the temple for something. At least he should appreciate that the temple and its priests are consistent in their policies and its implementation than the politicians.

Now, the people in power in Kerala - the commies (that is the Communists of India - the scum of the earth) smelling blood decided it is time to do away with the prehistoric/ barbaric/blah...blah practices of Hinduism. And, that brought the self proclaimed keepers of Hinduism out screaming bloody murder. They did have a valid point though - "Why only Hinduism?."

I have to agree with them. Why not take on the Muslim marriage and alimony - the Shah Bano case? Or, government subsidy for Haj (which, I believe goes against the Islamic norms of making a "valid" Haj). Or, the Christian marketing? The commies find it interesting to needle the majority from outside but they have no solution for anything - either economic, social or political.

I think the tantri (head priest) at Guruvayoor made some interesting comments and observations during an interview he gave on rediff.com. He is obligated to follow both the religious rules and legal rules so why not change it if it is draconian. And, if non-Hindus want to visit temples in Kerala they can convert to Hinduism. I guess that is no different from the fact that you need to be a Catholic for communion.

Then, came this piece from Andhra (see the first link). I tend to agree that marketing a religion (prosthelitizing) cannot be considered as an expression of religious freedom in a secular nation. In a secular nation where all religions are equal how can a practice that is aimed at promoting a religion as a better alternative (New! Improved formula. Beats the heck out of the competition) and the related conversions (On Sale! Buy one, get three. No interest, No payments) be considered an act of religious expression?

Finally, I think government and the politicians should get out of religion. Secularism should be based on separation of religion and state and not creating new rules for every single religion and related sects. That would mean a single civil code, equal opportunities to all, and we can extend that to mean equal access to all religious places. I wonder if we created God in our image not the other way around.

Who is a "legal" H1B candidate?

2007-05-15T10:33:00.000-05:00

Crackdown on Indian Outsourcing Firms

I guess it would be hard to prove that outsourcers broke the law. I don't know if they did but I am certain that they broke the spirit of the law. But, then who gives a damn about the spirit of the law? What about the American companies who hire foreign students on F1 and then H1B? They know that these folks are pretty much stuck with them for the next five years - until their permanent residency application is approved.

The whole H1B program is about augumenting the workforce when there is a shortage of skills. However, it never makes mention of economic concepts - money and time value of money. There may be a shortage of resources at USD X/annum but not at USD 2X/annum. The law does not make any difference but businesses do. And, they need to.

The people who complain about H1B abuse often refer to "prevailing wages". What are the prevailing wages? In retail, is the prevailing wage what Wal-mart pays its workers or what Costco pays its workers? "Prevailing wages" is a scale with a huge range.

Living in Lala land

2007-05-11T09:49:00.000-05:00

Pipe Dreams: Researchers in India Say They Can Build a Laptop for $10 - Gizmodo

I love this article especially the category title - Pipe Dreams. So, my dear desis are at it again. They are going to build $10 laptop. Hell, have they built a decent $1000 laptop. With virtually no semiconductor manufacturing industry to speak of (SCI does not have a decent manufacturing facility and we did turn dowm the Intel facility because Intel asked for a whole lot of sops). Remember Simputer or Amida simputer - wonder how many of it got sold - 100? ... 1000?

For a while the mantra was "appropriate technology" - I guess that would mean abacus - environmently friendly, can be produced by folks in villages and can handle simple arithmetic. I am glad that we are off that bandwagon atleast.

I don't understand our eagerness to grab at the imaginary silver bullet whether it is Ramar Pillai's magical fuel (fake), or the Anup hair rejuvenator. Last time I was in India my mom trust into my hands a newspaper article about a kid that won some prize for a technology concept about an engine that runs on water. My mom was like ..."see ...this will solve all our issues." It did not seem to matter that it was just a concept. And, between clean water and fuel which is more scarce. In meantime we got 1950s design cars, trucks and autos running with a mix of petrol and kerosene spewing deadly fumes.

Illegal first... Immigrants next...

2007-05-02T19:55:00.000-05:00

I guess May 1st which is celebrated as the International Workers' Day will soon become Illegal Immigrants Day in the US. Yesterday, like last year there was a huge rally in Chicago. The illegal immigrants claim that they are hardworking (which they are) and have right to the American dream (questionable). I heard reports that the law enforcement raid on a shopping mall in the Little village neighbourhood had mobilized the masses. So, why was there a raid? The law enforcement agencies wanted to shut down a fake id card operation that was also suspected to be involved in a few murders.

I guess what is lost on the people marching is the fact that they are illegal, have broken the law - the moment they crossed the border or overstayed the visa. The American dream is not just about building a better life but building it legally.

I don't think deporting illegal immigrants will solve the problem. They are here because they are able to find work - there are people to employ them. It is to some extent classic supply demand. It is these people who employ them who should be tragetted. They should pay for violating the law and exploiting people. If this does not happen no amount of deportation will help. There will be people back here illegally in no time. And, they will continue to be exploited by their employers.

And, those who play the race card are hitting below the belt. This is a law and order issue not a race issue. Same is true for the illegal immigrants in India from Bangladesh.

Wii-nner

2007-04-29T13:18:00.000-05:00

I finally got a Nintendo Wii this Wii-kend from the local Target. I have been eyeing one since its launch but I must tell you back then it was not my first choice. I was more interested in XBox 360 which I think is a more complete media system. But, Wii won me over (like it did a lot of others) with its elegant simplicity. Last week I finally convinced my wife that we need a Wii. I first tried Wii as as a fitness gadget but that did not do the trick. But, the Freakonomic blog entry on Wii titled Wii? Whee... did it - she Wii-kened and gave in.

So, on Friday I went searching on the web and found some website that said Gamestops may have a few this Sunday. So, I made a list of Gamestops near my place and started calling them one by one. The first guy told me they don't have any but the local Target may have some on Sunday. I called the second Gamestop they too said they don't have any. I then called Target. The guy confirmed the information provided by the first Gamestop and suggested I be there by 7.30am for the tickets.

I woke up at 5.30, got to Target at about 6.15. I was #3 in the line for Wii. There was one other group for XBox 360 Elite. The last time I had lined up to buy something before the store opened was possibly at a Public Distribution Shop (ration shop) in Chennai for palm oil which like Wii was perpetually out of stock.

The average age of the folks waiting for Wii seem to be a lot more than the ones waiting for XBox. That was even before a retiree came to buy a Wii for her grandson. Most of us seem to be first time game console buyers. At least a few of us took pride in saying we are not what you consider the typical addicted on electronic games type. At 7 am I got the ticket - #3. I was out of the place at 8.15 with my Wii.

I tried the Wii sports - loved it esp. the Wii-mote. It is what my friend would call "devilishly clever" (I call it "Wii-kedly clever"). Mind you my previous experience with games have been Prince of Persia on monochrome monitors with computers running DOS (I am dating myslef), Gorilla and a few really bad attempts at Unreal. I just noticed they have a new PoP for Wii. I might get it one of these days. For now... back to Wii sports.

More Irony...Independence & Partition

2007-04-26T21:43:00.000-05:00

BBC Pictures on India's Partition

"Ours was a non-violent freedom struggle. We won independence without firing a shot" - I have heard this a million times. But, I never realized the scope and magnitude of the bloody acts committed by its citizens. You see the mass migration and the killings that followed is not covered in school text books. We go from "Freedom Struggle" to "Tryst with Destiny" to "Five Year Plans".

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.," said George Santayana. Little wonder why we keep killing each other.

Irony that is India

2007-04-26T21:26:00.000-05:00

Richard Gere is in big trouble... real big trouble for kissing Shilpa Shetty in public. While Shilpa Shetty did not complain the morality police did and a judge ruled it as an obscenity. I must say I have never seen the Indian legal system move so fast.

Hey, how about similar speed when it is a rape case. Or, does the fact that the victim complained reduce the gravity of the matter. And, where is the morality police in these situations. How is that they are alarmed/ upset by these?

It is interesting to see this Gere-Shetty non-incident getting a whole lot of coverage in the US - main stream new channels and folks like VH1 (which had Vishnu shaking his multiple hands. I bet the Hindu brigade is going to go after VH1).

Why can't we focus on some real issues like the slowness of our legal system or the crimes against women (even before they are born)

P.S: Wonder how many in the morality police wished they were the one instead of Gere. And, what do they think of Shilpa Shetty in Big Brother?

Bangladesh, Bermuda and Bye-Bye

2007-04-15T18:55:00.000-05:00

I guess that would sum up the Indian campaign at the current cricket world cup in the Caribbean. We first lost to the Tigers and the thrashed the cricketing power house - Bermuda, only to lose to another nation fighting a different set of Tigers.

When we lost to Bangladesh my friends were of the opinion that it may be a case of match fixing. I don't know what imaginative explanation to explain the early exit.

But, look at the small mercies - Pakistan exited the event before us. Wait, Ireland who eliminated Pakistan beat Bangladesh (who in effect eliminated India). That should make Pakistan a better cricketing team using one of those mathematical properties.

I am glad that our outing was short. It certainly reduced the productivity loss.

BTW, Bob Woolmer's death prompted a lot of articles about match fixing - about how match fixing is difficult but spot fixing is easy and "unavoidable". Apparently, "match fixing" is where the whole team takes money or equivalent for throwing away the game. It is "difficult" because the whole team has to agree to it. "Spot fixing" is where player(s) may take money for things like bowling a few wides or no balls. Or, miss an easy fielding chance or something "innocuous". But, is it really "innocuous". Imagine a team of 11 where three or more make such "innocuous" actions. Since each is not aware of the fact that the other has been bought this has a greater potential of damage.

Cricket, G.B. Shaw said, was a game that 11 fools played and 11000 fools watched. For India it is a game where 11 play and make a fool of 1100 million are made fool of.

Project Implicit and me

2007-04-15T18:45:00.000-05:00

The Imus controversy and the Dateline NBC show prompted me to take the test they showed on the program - Project Implicit.

No big surprises in my case. The result page says it all. I come from a culture where the gods are made blue (though the original reference is - color of monsoon clouds) because calling them black would be bad, I guess. I still have not seen a blue monsoon cloud.

Embarrassed by an anthem? There are other reasons to be embarrassed

2007-04-10T11:38:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Infosys boss makes anthem apology

NRN (a.k.a BillG of Bangalore) feels that singing the national anthem would "embarass foreigners". I guess, he would know. If he is embarassed he should say so. It is interesting how some people can't get over the colonial bueracrat mentality. And, they are talking of making him the President. Contrast this with Jindal who fought to get private companies right to fly Indian flag.

Now, there are a lot of other reasons to be rightly embarassed of. For example, Infosys and other Indian software firms still seek tax advantages from the government. Or, how Infosys in particular gets the government to allocate land at lot less than market prices so that its employees can work in fancy campuses.

The Indian National anthem would have served as a good geography lesson for the foreigner. Afterall, it was created for a foreigner (George V coronation).

P.S: I think the new Indian government rules requiring women civil servants to provide details of their menstrual cycles must have been written by a dick head. Equality demands that men provide details of when they shagged.

Vista upgrade leaves me kind of pissed off

2007-04-08T19:04:00.000-05:00

I got a free copy of Microaoft Vista Business Edition through the Power Together promotion. I had always expected running Vista in 2007 - the64bit media center edition. So, last year I bought a dual core 64bit pc, upgraded the 1GB RAM to 2GB and ran all the Vista upgrade tests to make sure that I can upgrade it to Vista. I called HP support to make sure I can run 64bit. The person on the other end said I could but politely warned me against running 64bit Vista which according to her was the only thing worse than running Vista. I am glad Microsoft has partners like these.

I upgraded my free Vista Business to Ultimate. Now, I believe Vista Business media by default ships the 32bit version. So, I had to pay some7 bucks to get the 64bit media shipped to me.

-1 for Vista

I then got the license upgraded through Windows Anytime upgrade. That works pretty flawlessly

+1 for Vista

The license file will only work if the copy of Vista has been upgraded. I did run into issues related to this. Chalk this down to ID10T issues. But, I figured it out and everything went well.

Contrary to the warnings by the HP support person I found most of my devices functioning except for the sound card. A few hours on PlanetAMd64.com and I had my realtek drivers for audio. It even sounds better than before. That was the best part. FRom there on everything has been downhill.

The user access scheme where even accounts with administrator privileges run as normal user is a pain.

-1 for Vista

Vista kind of hides the folder structure on disk from the user. And, when I tried to move the Users folder (the XP equivalent of Documents & Settings) to the non-OS partition I ran into big problems. I can't understand why Microsoft can't make it easy for users to configure their system. I do unserstand that there are lot of folks with limited knowledge of computers using Windows but hiding the complexity does not help. Either make it simple or educate the user about the complexity.

I still have not been able to create additional accounts on my Vista. The user creation process itself goes off smoothly but when I try to login it throws an error - "User Profile Service service faled logon." (yes, there is "service" twice in that darn error message.) I searched on the web to find more frustrated users facing the same problem.

Godless Reservationists

2007-04-06T17:28:00.000-05:00

so, the DMK government in Tamilnadu has said it is ready to implement separate reservations for the Muslim and Christian communities. The irony is not lost on me.

The government cites a GO (Government Order?) dating back to 1920s to justify its actions. Hey, weren't the Brits ruling India at that time? Didn't they "divide and rule" India? And, the DMK which gets its roots from DK with its atheist leanings is the one to implement religion based reservation. Finally, back when India got independence a few religious communities explicitly stated they do not want any reservations. This included the Parsis and the Christians. Looks like in the years after independence the society in general (and, Chrisitians in India in particular) has regressed and now Christians being given reservations.

Wonder if reservation for Christians have to do with the increase in number of Dalit Christians - who might have changed their religion to escape the effects of the Hindu caste system but now are part of the Christian caste system and still need props.

It was funny reading the user posts to the original article. One guy said the government should offer reservation to all non Tamilians since they are a minority in Tamilnadu. Now, I think that merits a debate since the states in India are setup based on linguistic majority. I would have qualified for reservation in this scenario. I can tell you of the instances when I was made fun of/ ridiculed for my accent, food habits and stereotyped. Most of the time I chose to deal it with the international sign of "up yours" - the middle finger sticking out.

The "M" in DMK stands for "Munetram" (progress). I guess they should see a lot of progress in their vote bank and their bank accounts but for the general masses it is incompetence triumphing in name of social justice.

Why are these people not buying the India story?

2007-04-05T09:45:00.000-05:00

Lies, grief and a ticket home for illegal Indian migrants - International Herald Tribune

Punjab is considered to be one of the richer states in India, yet most of the Indians who illegally immigrate to Europe seem to be from this state. And, Punjab also has the worst sex ratio indicating higher PBEF (pre birth elimination of females). It makes me wonder what ails the society.

Innovation in Terrorism

2007-03-26T19:33:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Tamil Tigers unveil latest tactic

"Whatever you may think of their goals and methods, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers have always been innovative."

The above quote is by a BBC writer called Roland Buerk. Wonder Buerk will call the 9/11 bombers "innovative" - after all no one had flown hijacked commercial jets into buildings until then. And, what about Al-Qaeda operations which usually have multiple synchronized attacks? Maybe, we should call the London subway bombers pioneers - afterall, they were the first to bomb the venerable tube.

Fat chance that the service will improve

2007-03-23T09:39:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | Business | Victory for 'fat' air hostesses

Congratulations to the air hostesses. Indian Airlines could have handled this issue in a different way and still achieved its goal. Instead of using a height and weight measure they should test the air hostesses and the flight crew on their efficiency in evacuating the plane in an emergency. I bet this would eliminate the fat ones that can't move and the lazy ones. And, it may in the process improve the on-board service.

Chicago's olympic folly?!

2007-03-15T12:22:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Olympics budget rises to £9.3bn

Yes, the mayor wants it - really badly. The politicians want it. So, do the business. Most people think it would be "cool". But, is it worth it? I don't think so. I am pretty certain that if Chicago gets it the people can expect their taxes to go up, construction to be pain for years, the temporary stadium to become permanent and the city to be in deep red for years.

So, why do these people who want the Olympics in Chicago want it? I think for the mayor it is to satisfy his ego afterall he runs Chicago pretty much the way Jayalalitha a.k.a "amma" (mother) or "puratchi thalaivi" (revolutionary leader) used to run Tamilnadu. For the politicians it is way to win elections - olympics will create construction and jobs related to that. For the business, construction is a great way to make money off the city and its people.

None of the recent Olympics effort have been anywhere close to the original budget. London is running at about 3 times its initial, Beijing is even higher (but they are closer to end line). So, if the city is expected to have $500million reserve on the original budget how much will it have to shell out if it actually lands it.

As far as I know none of the cities that have hosted the Olympics in recent times have made any money off it. Montreal recently paid off the last installment on the amount borrowed. Chicago is expected to make about $5billion, roughly 5 days worth of local economy if the budgetted numbers are going to be right.

I love Chicago and I hope the city does not get to host the Olympics.

Remember when a "great tree fell"?

2007-03-05T13:04:00.000-06:00

'84 anti-Sikh riots: Sajjan, six others get bail

The title says it all - over 20 years later the case is nowhere near an end. For those who are too young to remember or were not born, these riots were in 1984 when people (possibly Congress mobs) went killing Sikhs as revenge for killing Mrs. Indira Gandhi. And, her son Rajiv (the great Indian hope that fizzled) said something like ..." the ground will shake when a great tree falls."

Anyway, the reason I bring the issue up is to remind the people and media who are eager to get justice to the Gujarat riots that there are others who have been waiting for a long time. I have always wondered why the "secular" press, people and politicans don't talk about the riots of 1984. Is it because some of the "secular" parties were involved in the riots? Or, is it that the Sikhs don't merit justice? Or, is it that Congress-Sikh riots don't have the same ring to it as Hindu-Muslim riots? But, look at the similarities between the Gujarat riots and the Sikh riots. If riots of '84 were in "response" to the killing of Mrs. Gandhi, the Gujarat riots were in "response" to the Godhra incident. In both cases the government machinery remained a passive observer (or, even active supporter). But, both are examples of total failure of law and order. And, failure to bring the criminals to justice is a continuing failure of the judicial system.

Cell-iberate the liberation

2007-02-28T16:17:00.000-06:00

MercuryNews.com | 02/26/2007 | India's great leveler: cell phones

I, like Mr. Tharoor, have a favorite story on cellphone use in India. During my 2003 holiday I hired a cab (taxi) to take me from Madikeri to Mangalore. The driver had a cellphone with the ringtone set to the tune of the famous prayer - Venkatesha Suprabhatam. I thought that was bloody neat - to be remind of the Lord when someone called and to get your prayers done before you yak. During that whole trip I never was without a phone. Whenever I needed one I would use the nearest pay phone or borrow the driver's phone. In 2005 I went one better I bought myself a "lifetime prepaid" SIM card.

I still remember the day when my brother implored me to tell our dad that we do need to put the deposit for OYT (Own your telephone) and get the phone. This was probably in the late 80s. It feels like a long time. Today, there has been a leapfrog effect - people are skipping the landline or POTS completely and jumping on to mobile. And, I suspect something similar will happen in the Internet access area. I think there is a good chance that majority of the population will skip wired access and go straight to wireless.

It is not lost on me that the telecom revolution is in India is essentially a mobile phone revolution that had very little to do with the government. Yes, the government did not put spanner in the works but that is about it. It is likely the government's hands were tied due to the economic situation. I only hope the government continues to play the role of passive observer.

Media Madness

2007-02-25T11:35:00.000-06:00

Media, these days, can be broadly categorized into two groups - the ones that give inordinate time and coverage of the antics of LiLo, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and the death of Anna Nicole Smith, and then the ones that are more serious like NBC, Newsweek, BBC etc...

What is the difference between these two? - very little, I think. The first group reports the "celeb" happenings in real time while the other reports a little later and has usually two psychs / sociologists to analyze why we and the media spend time following these "celebs". The difference, if any, is the difference between "headline news" and "newsline". The reality is both spent time on the same "celeb" antics. One was brazen about it and other couched it in pseudo-sophistication. NBC, Newsweek and Beebs have spent time on the same topic.

The fact is these "celebs" and their followers will take any publicity/ reporting. And, media will take anything to make their numbers.

What is the value of the "Made for iPod" program

2007-02-17T18:38:00.001-06:00

SI.com - 2007 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Photo Gallery - Marisa Miller

Well, I could not stop taking a dig at this photo. Looks like the iPod is off the dock/ cradle. And, I guess it is because the dock is not part of the "Made for iPod" program.

Rama...Rama.. this culture business...

2007-02-11T16:18:00.000-06:00

Ok, this one is from the BBC website. They are running a series on India and its rise. And, see what they used as an image leadin to an article on Indian president's vision - Ravana, the demon king from Ramayana. I am not sure if they are trying to tell us that the Indian President is a demon or if he is smart enough to match the wits of ten people. BTW, Ravana is not even Indian. He was from Sri Lanka accroding to the myth.

This is not a pre-nup. it is a tree-ty

2007-02-11T09:10:00.000-06:00

PIL against Aishwarya's marriage with tree:NewKerala.Com

A friend of mine sent me this article in an email with the following thoughts -
....a country that has nukes, a space program and is the largest exporter of software also has one of its premier citizens marrying a tree in order to guarantee marital bliss.....incredible!!!

Now there are some factually incorrect and subjective assertions in that paragraph - largest exporter of software (factually incorrect), "premier citizen" (subjecitve assertion) but that aside i found both the article and my friend's reaction funny.

What Aishwarya Rai or any other citizen in the country does is their business as long as it is not illegal and does not harm fellow citizens. As another friend pointed out marrying a tree is "vegiality" not "beastiality". But, we have this need to make sure that everyone thinks, acts and subscribes to same belief as we do that anything else is appaling.

Now, when did Aishwarya Rai marrying a tree become a matter of public interest and public interest litigation? Boy, that lawyer must be jobless or seeking attention or both. We have folks like LiLo, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears walking around without undies in public here in the US. Apparently, these women are the role models for today's teens. I don't see anyone filling public interest litigation against them in this litigious society.

Dell Hell

2007-02-01T09:23:00.000-06:00

Where Dell went wrong | Perspectives | CNET News.com

Interesting article. Pretty much on the spot but for the consulting firm. At least in my experience a good number of folks at Dell were from the pain called Bain. Rollins was full of it (of course, I have only one data point - the one time I was in the same room as him, listening him talk to the Dell sales team). I remember him ranting "what has innovation got hp?" Of course, this was during the Carly days and everyone was having a go at hp. But, to be fair to him everyone was singing his praises when the numbers came in well. Things don't go bad overnight. Whatever actions brought in the numbers also resulted in the current mess. You have to innovate to succeed even if you innovate is new lies. You can't live with the same old lie - "low cost, great support" when the reality tells a different story.

Two books...and some random thoughts

2007-01-26T21:17:00.000-06:00

This Christmas I got Rory Stewart's "Places in Between". It has been a really long time since I have come across a book like this. Reminded me of Pico Iyer. The author does a great job of covering the society, politics in a story about his travel in Afghanistan. Sensitive but honest he calls a spade a spade.

Then, there was Amartya Sen's "Argumentative Indian". It is a lot of chest thumping, nehruvian bs. And, he goes to great lengths to prove india's "secular" credentials. Of course, since he was born in modern day Bangladesh he even refers to Bangladesh as being secular. Yeah, right. And, for some reason this guy has an axe to grind with the right wing BJP. He says they tried to make the Indo-European Sanskrit as an indigenous language even though best known Sanskrit grammarian Panini was from Afghanistan. Hey, back then Afghanistan was part of the indian geo-cultural entity. And, hard core right wing folks will call it a part of Akhand Bharat. And, why is it that people invoke the name of Akhbar to prove the secular credentials of muslims rulers of India. Akhbar certainly was secular and a man centuries ahead of his time. But, he reigned for a mere 50 years in the 700 years of Muslim rule of India.

P.S: The Shilpa Shetty Big Brother controversy is funny at many levels. First we have an out of work/ down on luck Bollywood actress going on a reality program seeking attention. Then, we have the desis (the biggest racist bunch I know of) waving their fingers, placards and calling the Brits names. Of course, we have the Brits desperately trying to prove that they are not racist. Yeah, right. Just about everyone of us is racist. To what level and how we choose to express our prejudices differ.

Of Borat and other rats

2007-01-20T11:58:00.000-06:00

Sometime last month I saw Borat after everyone I know said wonderful things about it. So, I decided to skip waiting for it on Netflix and head to the nearest theater.
Boy, did I hate it.

I thought it was crass. The sensational comments could very well have been made sensational by some creative editing - bait the person for a few hours and then get a 10 second sound bite. And, the whole episode of Jewish couple at the B&B compared to cockroaches was sad. I guess Borat (or, Sacha Cohen) got away with it because he himself is a jew. Wonder what the reaction would have been had Mel Gibson done that peice. That begs the question is it ok for Mr.Cohen make racist comments on Jew and Chris Rock to call African Americans by the N word while it is a crime when Mel Gibson or Michael Richards does it. I am not supporting what Mel Gibson or did Michael Richards did but I do think Cohen and Rock deserve condemned.

Reminds me of a saying - "The problem with white lies is that you soon go color blind."

Tipping the scale - How Google tips things its favor

2007-01-06T19:46:00.000-06:00

You might have heard about the controversy surrounding "tips" from google. Simply put they were promoting their own products. And, while they may have removed the "tips" feature because of the heat it generated, they still manage to do it in other ways.

Try searching for a stock quote (any company) on Google. And, see what is the first link under the stock price - Google Finance. Now, if Google was unbiased it should have the website with most views first. And, I can bet that both Yahoo Finance and MSN Money probably have more hits than Google finance.

Playing Tech Support Santa

2007-01-06T14:39:00.000-06:00

I spent my customary Christmas to New Year vacation in London reluctantly playing the role of tech support guy. Friends and family just assume that just because I work in the IT industry I am good enough to be their tech support guy. After all, I don't cost them a penny.

So, as soon as I landed in London I was asked by our host(my wife's uncle)- "When do you leave?." He then continued, "Don't get me wrong. I want you to fix my two computers." So, one of those days when I was feeling tired of all the relatives and human interaction I decided to take a look at the computers.

The computers had been purchased through a friendly local chap called Bobby ( a Punjabi dude. That is second punjabi Bobby I have come across). Bobby got these computers from businesses that were going out of business, loaded them with XP. And, as it turns out the XP licenses were from a compromised Volume License Key (VLK). So, Microsoft was not letting my host get updates like IE 7, Windows Defender etc...

I found that the computers had an OEM Certificate of Authenticity (COA) on them. So, I tried changing the license key to the OEM key but that failed. So, I called Microsoft product activiation line who immediately bounced me to the tech support side. The tech support asked quite a few questions - stuff that could put a typical consumer wary. And, then asked me for the product id on the CD that came with the computer. I told them that Bobby had just burnt it on a CD. They asked me to call Dell and get the CD.

Then, I called Dell. But, before I called them I ran the Dell support tools which told me that the computer had a "next day business support" contract valid until mid 2007. The Dell support dude refused to help me unless I told him the name of the business that originally owned the computer. Well, Bobby never told us. And, I doubt if Bobby even knows. But, how does it matter to Dell. I have the computer right in front of me. It was pruchased legally (as far as I know). Anyway, no luck with that.

So, I went to work on Microsoft tech support again. This time I told them that I had updated the BIOS (which I had done) and now it was asking me to reactivate the product (totally untrue). The guy asked me for the license key, I gave him the one on the COA. He generated a new activation key and it worked.

Here I was trying to help someone leaglize their software. And, both Microsoft and Dell were making it difficult. No wonder why piracy is rampant. When it is "easier" to buy illegal and remain illegal people will do just that.

Falling off the offshore bandwagon

2006-12-18T21:35:00.000-06:00

I head the IT function at an early stage media/ advertising startup. One of the reasons I got hired,I presume, was the fact that I had worked on both sides of the offshore equation and was an Indian.

I am a firm believer in specialization and core competencies. So, I was not looking to build a large IT department. I am happy to outsource. And, offshoring certainly figured in my and our management's plan. But, my experience in the last three months have been really bad.

Our first round of vendor selection removed the most obviously incapable guys. We narrowed our list to about three vendors (all CMM Level 5 etc...)- the range of costs were between 200k to 800K. It made us wonder if our requests were too vague or if vendors were signaling what they wanted the project to be. Mind you the hourly rate of these vendors were almost the same - +/- 2 bucks/hr.

And, as if this variance was not enough there were lot of humorous errors in the proposals. One vendor offered to staff culturally sensitive french speaking resources on our project here in Midwest US. And, other, in response to a question about their employee turnover rate, indicated that their retention rate was one of the lowest in the industry.

At this point we started looking at a software package with the help of a local software reseller. And, at the same time we decided to define the scope of the implementation better in an effort to reduce the variance. The reseller's quote for the implementation was about 1000 hrs. We then proceeded to seek a revised quote for the project (which now was a product implementation). One of the three offshore vendors decided to drop off because they did not have any experience in the product. Another said they will partner with another firm since they did not have any experience but wanted to build expertise in that area. We said that was not ideal but we were willing to hear.

The one guy who had experience and expertise was the guy who had quoted 800k earlier. They are a 30000 person / $1 b company. This time they said 235k. At that price the cost was higher than the local provider. And, the number came with no information on the effort estimate or resource allocation. When we pushed them hard they gave an effort estimate of 6250 hrs - over six times that of the local vendor.

Meanwhile, the other guy who was going to get a partner got one but did not know the partner's name. Yes, that is right. They got the partner's name wrong during the conference call. And, instead of trying to build our confidence in them the vendor did the exact opposite. They would not return our calls, turn in the proposals on time. We decided to give up on these guys and seek a proposal from another small vendor with offices in US and India.

We tried to get an understanding of the other quote. We asked them if they had accounted for our resources participating in the effort. Initially, they said they had. Then when we told them their effort estimate was six times that of the local vendor they said they had not accounted for our resources. So, they reduced the effort by about 1250 and offered us a new price of 185k. In the meanwhile, I opened Excel and tried use the numbers, rates and the onshore/offshore effort ratio they had provided to make sense of the numbers. And, what I found was that the numbers they quoted were mathematically impossible for the rates, effort and onshore/offshore effort ratio they had indicated.

Maybe, the local provider was being aggressive and had some of the effort padded in their hourly rate. The offshore guys lead with their low hourly rates and pad in the effort estimate. I am guessing the guys in the big corporations just look at the hourly rates and claim savings. But, do cost savings exist? In our case they did not. Not only that, none of these vendors provided cost, effort and resource estimate. It looks like these vendors have grown complacent and don't bother to check the proposal for cut and paste error or if the numbers add up. And, the numbers did not add up.

A name from the past reappears

2006-12-02T09:35:00.000-06:00

I was in for a surprise when I leafed through the latest issue of Fortune magazine. In fact, a double surprise. In an article on technologies for the real world was the incredible Lifestraw. Of course, that was no surprise.

Also, on the list was the equally incredible the Tata project (http://www.tataliteracy.org) to combat illiteracy. The write up mentioned that the man behind the project was the 82 year old Fakhir Chand Kohli. Now, that was a name that I have not seen mentioned for a while. For the new generation of desis who have been brought up Infosys, NRN, World is Flat etc... FC Kohli may not mean anything. In fact, I would not be surprised if folks in the Indian software companies don't know him. But, FC Kholi is the man who started it all. Widely acknowledged as the father of the Indian software industry, he started this revolution about 25+ years before the world became "flat". I am glad to see he is still blazing new trails.

Attention in the literacy area is long overdue. According to the website we have over 350 million illiterate people (about 30% of the population). And, the government and politicians has consistently promoted secondary education at the expense of primary education. I guess it helps them to keep a large section of the population illiterate and easily convinced by their gimmicks and giveaways.