"The World is Flat " - Thomas Friedman's article.

Since I first read Thomas Friedman's book on globalization , "The Lexus and the Olive tree" , I have been a devout fan of this Pulitzer prize winning New York Times Op Ed columnsit. I had intially that his writings had veered on the American view, the American mindset of what and how globalization as a process is shaping up over the years, but I think for most of his columns, the adventures, the examples, the situations he brings forth is simply amazing..

Here is a man who has travelled most of the world. and knows more than perhaps any other of his peer on what are the pushes and pulls of any economy.. be it in the middle east, the european, the poor African , South American or even the Chinese and the Indian contexts.

The following is an article based on the excerpts of this recent book "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st century."

I love this article to bits.. Its very long, but I urge the reader to go through it once still.. Have a look at his examples, his quotes his data, his analysis and his conclusions. And also his humor.



' It's a Flat World, After All '
- By Thomas L. Friedman - April 3, 2005

"
In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail for India, going west. He had the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. He never did find India, but he called the people he met ''Indians'' and came home and reported to his king andqueen: ''The world is round.'' I set off for India 512 years later. I knew just which direction I was going. I went east. I had Lufthansa business class, and I came home and reported only to my wife and only in a whisper:''The world is flat.''

And therein lies a tale of technology and geo-economics that is fundamentally reshaping our lives -- much, much more quickly than many people realize. It all happened while we were sleeping, or rather while we were focused on 9/11, the dot-com bust and Enron -- which even prompted some to wonder whether globalization was over. Actually, just the opposite was true, whichis why it's time to wake up and prepare ourselves for this flat world,because others already are, and there is no time to waste.

I wish I could say I saw it all coming. Alas, I encountered the flattening of the world quite by accident. It was in late February of last year, and I was visiting the Indian high-tech capital, Bangalore, Working on a documentary for the Discovery Times channel about outsourcing.In short order, I interviewed Indian entrepreneurs who wanted to prepare my taxes from Bangalore, read my X-rays from Bangalore, trace my lost luggage from Bangalore and write my new software from Bangalore. The longer I was there, the more upset I became -- upset at the realization that while I had been off covering the 9/11 wars, globalization had entered a whole new phase, and I had missed it. I guess the eureka moment came on a visit to thecampus of Infosys Technologies, one of the crown jewels of the Indian outsourcing and software industry. Nandan Nilekani, the Infosys C.E.O., was showing me his global video-conference room, pointing with pride to a wall-size flat-screen TV, which he said was the biggest in Asia. Infosys, he explained, could hold a virtual meeting of the key players from its entire global supply chain for any project at any time on that supersize screen. So its American designers could be on the screen speaking with their Indian software writers and their Asian manufacturers all at once. That's what globalization is all about today, Nilekani said. Above the screen there were eight clocks that pretty well summed up the Infosys workday: 24/7/365. Theclocks were labeled U.S. West, U.S. East, G.M.T., India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia.

''Outsourcing is just one dimension of a much more fundamental thing happening today in the world,'' Nilekani explained.
''What happened over the last years is that there was a massive investment in technology, especially in the bubble era, when hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in putting broadband connectivity around the world, undersea cables, all thosethings.'' At the same time, he added, computers became cheaper and dispersed all over the world, and there was an explosion of e-mail software, search engines like Google and proprietary software that can chop up any piece of work and send one part to Boston, one part to Bangalore and one part to Beijing, making it easy for anyone to do remote development. When all ofthese things suddenly came together around 2000, Nilekani said, they ''created a platform where intellectual work, intellectual capital, could be delivered from anywhere. It could be disaggregated, delivered, distributed,produced and put back together again -- and this gave a whole new degree of freedom to the way we do work, especially work of an intellectual nature. And what you are seeing in Bangalore today is really the culmination of all these things coming together.''

At one point, summing up the implications of all this, Nilekani uttered a phrase that rang in my ear. He said to me, ''Tom, the playing field is being leveled.'' He meant that countries like India were now able to compete equally for global knowledge work as never before -- and that America had better get ready for this. As I left the Infosys campus that evening and bounced along the potholed road back to Bangalore, I kept chewing on that phrase: ''The playing field is being leveled.''
''What Nandan is saying,'' I thought, ''is that the playing field is being flattened. Flattened? Flattened? My God, he's telling me the world is flat!''

Here I was in Bangalore -- more than 500 years after Columbus sailed over the horizon, looking for a shorter route to India using the rudimentary navigational technologies of his day, and returned safely to prove definitively that the world was round -- and one of India's smartest engineers, trained at his country's top technical institute and backed by the most modern technologies of his day, was telling me that the world was flat, as flat as that screen on which he can host a meeting of his whole global supply chain. Even more interesting, he was citing this development as a new milestone in human progress and a great opportunity for India and the world -- the fact that we had made our world flat!


This has been building for a long time. Globalization 1.0 (1492 to 1800) shrank the world from a size large to a size medium, and the dynamic force in that era was countries globalizing for resources and imperial conquest. Globalization 2.0 (1800 to 2000) shrank the world from a size medium to a size small, and it was spearheaded by companies globalizing for markets andlabor. Globalization 3.0 (which started around 2000) is shrinking the world from a size small to a size tiny and flattening the playing field at the same time. And while the dynamic force in Globalization 1.0 was countries globalizing and the dynamic force in Globalization 2.0 was companies globalizing, the dynamic force in Globalization 3.0 -- the thing that givesit its unique character -- is individuals and small groups globalizing. Individuals must, and can, now ask: where do I fit into the global competition and opportunities of the day, and how can I, on my own, collaborate with others globally? But Globalization 3.0 not only differs from the previous eras in how it is shrinking and flattening the world andin how it is empowering individuals. It is also different in that Globalization 1.0 and 2.0 were driven primarily by European and American companies and countries. But going forward, this will be less and less true.

Globalization 3.0 is not only going to be driven more by individuals but also by a much more diverse -- non-Western, nonwhite -- group of individuals. In Globalization 3.0, you are going to see every color of the human rainbow take part. ''Today, the most profound thing to me is the fact that a 14-year-old in Romania or Bangalore or the Soviet Union or Vietnam has all the information, all the tools, all the software easily available to apply knowledge however they want,'' said Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of Netscape and creator of the first commercial Internet browser. ''That is why I am sure the next Napster is going to come out of left field. As bioscience becomes more computational and less about wet labs and as all the genomic data becomes easily available on the Internet, at some point you will be able to design vaccines on your laptop.''


Andreessen is touching on the most exciting part of Globalization 3.0 and the flattening of the world: the fact that we are now in the process of connecting all the knowledge pools in the world together. We've tasted some of the downsides of that in the way that Osama bin Laden has connected terrorist knowledge pools together through his Qaeda network, not to mentionthe work of teenage hackers spinning off more and more lethal computer viruses that affect us all. But the upside is that by connecting all these knowledge pools we are on the cusp of an incredible new era of innovation, an era that will be driven from left field and right field, from West and East and from North and South. Only 30 years ago, if you had a choice of being born a B student in Boston or a genius in Bangalore or Beijing, you probably would have chosen Boston, because a genius in Beijing or Bangalore could not really take advantage of his or her talent. They could not plug and play globally. Not anymore. Not when the world is flat, and anyone with smarts, access to Google and a cheap wireless laptop can join the innovation fray.
When the world is flat, you can innovate without having to emigrate. This is going to get interesting. We are about to see creative destruction on steroids.
How did the world get flattened, and how did it happen so fast?
It was a result of 10 events and forces that all came together during the 1990's and converged right around the year 2000. Let me go through them briefly. The first event was 11/9. That's right -- not 9/11, but 11/9. Nov. 9, 1989, is the day the Berlin Wall came down, which was critically important because it allowed us to think of the world as a single space.''The Berlin Wall was not only a symbol of keeping people inside Germany; it was a way of preventing a kind of global view of our future,'' the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen said. And the wall went down just as the windows went up -- the breakthrough Microsoft Windows 3.0 operating system, which helped to flatten the playing field even more by creating a globalcomputer interface, shipped six months after the wall fell.


The second key date was 8/9. Aug. 9, 1995, is the day Netscape went public, which did two important things. First, it brought the Internet alive by giving us the browser to display images and data stored on Web sites. Second, the Netscape stock offering triggered the dot-com boom, which triggered the dot-com bubble, which triggered the massive overinvestment of billions of dollars in fiber-optic telecommunications cable. That overinvestment, by companies like Global Crossing, resulted in the willy-nilly creation of a global undersea-underground fiber network, which in turn drove down the cost of transmitting voices, data and images to practically zero, which in turn accidentally made Boston, Bangalore and Beijing next-door neighbors overnight. In sum, what the Netscape revolution did was bring people-to-people connectivity to a whole new level. Suddenly more people could connect with more other people from more different places in more different ways than ever before.


No country accidentally benefited more from the Netscape moment than India. ''India had no resources and no infrastructure,'' said Dinakar Singh, one of the most respected hedge-fund managers on Wall Street, whose parents earned doctoral degrees in biochemistry from the University of Delhi before emigrating to America. ''It produced people with quality and by quantity.But many of them rotted on the docks of India like vegetables. Only a relative few could get on ships and get out. Not anymore, because we built this ocean crosser, called fiber-optic cable. For decades you had to leave India to be a professional. Now you can plug into the world from India. You don't have to go to Yale and go to work for Goldman Sachs.'' India could never have afforded to pay for the bandwidth to connect brainy India with high-tech America, so American shareholders paid for it. Yes, crazy overinvestment can be good. The overinvestment in railroads turned out to bea great boon for the American economy. ''But the railroad overinvestment was confined to your own country and so, too, were the benefits,'' Singh said. In the case of the digital railroads, ''it was the foreigners who benefited.'' India got a free ride.


The first time this became apparent was when thousands of Indian engineers were enlisted to fix the Y2K -- the year 2000 -- computer bugs for companies from all over the world. (Y2K should be a national holiday in India. Call it ''Indian Interdependence Day,'' says Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign-policy analyst at Johns Hopkins.) The fact that the Y2K work could be outsourced to Indians was made possible by the first two flatteners, along with a third, which I call ''workflow.'' Workflow is shorthand for all the software applications, standards and electronic transmission pipes, like middleware,that connected all those computers and fiber-optic cable. To put it another way, if the Netscape moment connected people to people like never before, what the workflow revolution did was connect applications to applications so that people all over the world could work together in manipulating and shaping words, data and images on computers like never before.


Indeed, this breakthrough in people-to-people and application-to-application connectivity produced, in short order, six more flatteners -- six new ways in which individuals and companies could collaborate on work and share knowledge. One was ''outsourcing.'' When my software applications could connect seamlessly with all of your applications, it meant that all kinds of work -- from accounting to software-writing -- could be digitized, disaggregated and shifted to any place in the world where it could be done better and cheaper. The second was ''offshoring.'' I send my whole factory from Canton, Ohio, to Canton, China. The third was ''open-sourcing.'' I write the next operating system, Linux, using engineers collaboratingtogether online and working for free. The fourth was ''insourcing.'' I let a company like UPS come inside my company and take over my whole logistics operation -- everything from filling my orders online to delivering my goods to repairing them for customers when they break. (People have no idea what UPS really does today. You'd be amazed!). The fifth was ''supply-chaining.''


This is Wal-Mart's specialty. I create a global supply chain down to the last atom of efficiency so that if I sell an item in Arkansas, another is immediately made in China. (If Wal-Mart were a country, it would be China's eighth-largest trading partner.) The last new form of collaboration I call ''informing'' -- this is Google, Yahoo and MSN Search, which now allowanyone to collaborate with, and mine, unlimited data all by themselves. So the first three flatteners created the new platform for collaboration, and the next six are the new forms of collaboration that flattened the world even more. The 10th flattener I call ''the steroids,'' and these are wireless access and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). What the steroidsdo is turbocharge all these new forms of collaboration, so you can now do any one of them, from anywhere, with any device.

The world got flat when all 10 of these flatteners converged around the year 2000. This created a global, Web-enabled playing field that allows for multiple forms of collaboration on research and work in real time, without regard to geography, distance or, in the near future, even language. ''It is the creation of this platform, with these unique attributes, that is the truly important sustainable breakthrough that made what you call the flattening of the world possible,'' said Craig Mundie, the chief technical officer of Microsoft.


No, not everyone has access yet to this platform, but it is open now to more people in more places on more days in more ways than anything like it in history. Wherever you look today -- whether it is the world of journalism, with bloggers bringing down Dan Rather; the world of software, with the Linux code writers working in online forums for free to challenge Microsoft; or the world of business, where Indian and Chinese innovators are competing against and working with some of the most advanced Western multinationals -- hierarchies are being flattened and value is being created less and less within vertical silos and more and more through horizontal collaboration within companies, between companies and among individuals.

Do you recall ''the IT revolution'' that the business press has been pushing for the last 20 years? Sorry to tell you this, but that was just the prologue. The last 20 years were about forging, sharpening and distributing all the new tools to collaborate and connect. Now the real information revolution is about to begin as all the complementarities among thesecollaborative tools start to converge. One of those who first called this moment by its real name was Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard C.E.O., who in 2004 began to declare in her public speeches that the dot-com boom and bust were just ''the end of the beginning.'' The last 25 years in technology, Fiorina said, have just been ''the warm-up act.'' Now we aregoing into the main event, she said, ''and by the main event, I mean an era in which technology will truly transform every aspect of business, of government, of society, of life.''

As if this flattening wasn't enough, another convergence coincidentally occurred during the 1990's that was equally important. Some three billion people who were out of the game walked, and often ran, onto the playing field. I am talking about the people of China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Central Asia. Their economies and politicalsystems all opened up during the course of the 1990's so that their people were increasingly free to join the free market. And when did these three billion people converge with the new playing field and the new business processes? Right when it was being flattened, right when millions of them could compete and collaborate more equally, more horizontally and withcheaper and more readily available tools. Indeed, thanks to the flattening of the world, many of these new entrants didn't even have to leave home to participate. Thanks to the 10 flatteners, the playing field came to them!

It is this convergence -- of new players, on a new playing field, developing new processes for horizontal collaboration -- that I believe is the most important force shaping global economics and politics in the early 21st century. Sure, not all three billion can collaborate and compete. In fact, for most people the world is not yet flat at all. But even if we're talking about only 10 percent, that's 300 million people -- about twice the size of the American work force. And be advised: the Indians and Chinese are not racing us to the bottom. They are racing us to the top. What China's leaders really want is that the next generation of underwear and airplane wings not just be ''made in China'' but also be ''designed in China.'' And that is where things are heading. So in 30 years we will have gone from ''sold in China'' to ''made in China'' to ''designed in China'' to ''dreamed up in China'' -- or from China as collaborator with the worldwide manufacturers on nothing to China as a low-cost, high-quality, hyperefficient collaborator with worldwide manufacturers on everything. Ditto India. Said Craig Barrett, the C.E.O. of Intel, ''You don't bring three billion people into the world economy overnight without huge consequences, especially from three societies'' -- like India, China and Russia -- ''with rich educational heritages.''

That is why there is nothing that guarantees that Americans or Western Europeans will continue leading the way. These new players are stepping onto the playing field legacy free, meaning that many of them were so far behind that they can leap right into the new technologies without having to worry about all the sunken costs of old systems. It means that they can move very fast to adopt new, state-of-the-art technologies, which is why there are already more cellphones in use in China today than there are people in America.
If you want to appreciate the sort of challenge we are facing, let me share with you two conversations. One was with some of the Microsoft officials who were involved in setting up Microsoft's research center in Beijing, Microsoft Research Asia, which opened in 1998 -- after Microsoft sent teams to Chinese universities to administer I.Q. tests in order to recruit the best brains from China's 1.3 billion people. Out of the 2,000 top Chinese engineering and science students tested, Microsoft hired 20. They have a saying at Microsoft about their Asia center, which captures the intensity of competition it takes to win a job there and explains why it is already the most productive research team at Microsoft: ''Remember, in China, when youare one in a million, there are 1,300 other people just like you.''

The other is a conversation I had with Rajesh Rao, a young Indian entrepreneur who started an electronic-game company from Bangalore, which today owns the rights to Charlie Chaplin's image for mobile computer games. ''We can't relax,'' Rao said. ''I think in the case of the United States that is what happened a bit. Please look at me: I am from India. We have been at a very different level before in terms of technology and business. But once we saw we had an infrastructure that made the world a small place, we promptly tried to make the best use of it. We saw there were so many things we could do. We went ahead, and today what we are seeing is a result of that. There is no time to rest. That is gone. There are dozens of people who are doing the same thing you are doing, and they are trying to do it better. It is like water in a tray: you shake it, and it will find the path of least resistance. That is what is going to happen to so many jobs -- they will go to that corner of the world where there is the least resistance and the most opportunity. If there is a skilled person in Timbuktu, he will getwork if he knows how to access the rest of the world, which is quite easy today. You can make a Web site and have an e-mail address and you are up and running. And if you are able to demonstrate your work, using the same infrastructure, and if people are comfortable giving work to you and if you are diligent and clean in your transactions, then you are in business.''

Instead of complaining about outsourcing, Rao said, Americans and Western Europeans would ''be better off thinking about how you can raise your bar and raise yourselves into doing something better. Americans have consistently led in innovation over the last century. Americans whining -- we have never seen that before.''
Rao is right. And it is time we got focused. As a person who grew up during the cold war, I'll always remember driving down the highway and listening to the radio, when suddenly the music would stop and a grim-voiced announcer would come on the air and say: ''This is a test. This station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.'' And then there would be a20-second high-pitched siren sound. Fortunately, we never had to live through a moment in the cold war when the announcer came on and said, ''This is a not a test.''
That, however, is exactly what I want to say here: ''This is not a test.''

The long-term opportunities and challenges that the flattening of the world puts before the United States are profound. Therefore, our ability to get by doing things the way we've been doing them -- which is to say not always enriching our secret sauce -- will not suffice any more. ''For a country as wealthy we are, it is amazing how little we are doing to enhance our natural competitiveness,'' says Dinakar Singh, the Indian-American hedge-fund manager. ''We are in a world that has a system that now allows convergence among many billions of people, and we had better step back and figure out what it means. It would be a nice coincidence if all the things that were true before were still true now, but there are quite a few things you actually need to do differently. You need to have a much more thoughtful national discussion.''

If this moment has any parallel in recent American history, it is the height of the cold war, around 1957, when the Soviet Union leapt ahead of America in the space race by putting up the Sputnik satellite. The main challenge then came from those who wanted to put up walls; the main challenge to America today comes from the fact that all the walls are being taken downand many other people can now compete and collaborate with us much more directly. The main challenge in that world was from those practicing extreme Communism, namely Russia, China and North Korea. The main challenge to America today is from those practicing extreme capitalism, namely China, India and South Korea. The main objective in that era was building a strongstate, and the main objective in this era is building strong individuals.

Meeting the challenges of flatism requires as comprehensive, energetic and focused a response as did meeting the challenge of Communism. It requires a president who can summon the nation to work harder, get smarter, attract more young women and men to science and engineering and build the broadband infrastructure, portable pensions and health care that will help everyAmerican become more employable in an age in which no one can guarantee you lifetime employment.

We have been slow to rise to the challenge of flatism, in contrast to Communism, maybe because flatism doesn't involve ICBM missiles aimed at our cities. Indeed, the hot line, which used to connect the Kremlin with the White House, has been replaced by the help line, which connects everyone in America to call centers in Bangalore. While the other end of the hot linemight have had Leonid Brezhnev threatening nuclear war, the other end of the help line just has a soft voice eager to help you sort out your AOL bill or collaborate with you on a new piece of software. No, that voice has none of the menace of Nikita Khrushchev pounding a shoe on the table at the United Nations, and it has none of the sinister snarl of the bad guys in ''From Russia With Love.'' No, that voice on the help line just has a friendly Indian lilt that masks any sense of threat or challenge. It simply says: ''Hello, my name is Rajiv. Can I help you?''

No, Rajiv, actually you can't.

When it comes to responding to the challenges of the flat world, there is no help line we can call. We have to dig into ourselves. We in America have all the basic economic and educational tools to do that. But we have not been improving those tools as much as we should. That is why we are in what Shirley Ann Jackson, the 2004 president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, calls a ''quiet crisis'' -- one that is slowly eating away at America's scientific and engineering base.

''If left unchecked,'' said Jackson, the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in physics from M.I.T., ''this could challenge our pre-eminence and capacity to innovate.'' And it is our ability to constantly innovate new products, services and companies that has been the source of America's horn of plenty and steadily widening middle class for the last two centuries. This quiet crisis is a product of three gaps now plaguing American society. The first is an ''ambition gap.'' Compared with the young, energetic Indians and Chinese, too many Americans have gotten too lazy. As David Rothkopf, a former official in the Clinton Commerce Department, puts it, ''The real entitlement we need to get rid of is our sense of entitlement.'' Second, we have a serious numbers gap building. We are not producing enough engineers and scientists. We used to make up for that by importing them from India and China, but in a flat world, where people can now stay home and compete with us, and in a post-9/11 world, where we are insanely keeping out many of the first-round intellectual draft choices in the world for exaggerated security reasons, we can no longer cover the gap. That's a key reason companies are looking abroad. The numbers are not here. And finally we are developing an education gap. Here is the dirty little secret that no C.E.O. wants to tell you: they are not just outsourcing to save on salary. They are doing it because they can often get better-skilled and more productive people than their American workers.

These are some of the reasons that Bill Gates, the Microsoft chairman, warned the governors' conference in a Feb. 26 speech that American high-school education is ''obsolete.'' As Gates put it: ''When I compare our high schools to what I see when I'm traveling abroad, I am terrified for our work force of tomorrow. In math and science, our fourth graders are amongthe top students in the world. By eighth grade, they're in the middle of the pack. By 12th grade, U.S. students are scoring near the bottom of all industrialized nations. . . . The percentage of a population with a college degree is important, but so are sheer numbers. In 2001, India graduated almost a million more students from college than the United States did.China graduates twice as many students with bachelor's degrees as the U.S., and they have six times as many graduates majoring in engineering. In the international competition to have the biggest and best supply of knowledge workers, America is falling behind.''

We need to get going immediately. It takes 15 years to train a good engineer, because, ladies and gentlemen, this really is rocket science. So parents, throw away the Game Boy, turn off the television and get your kids to work. There is no sugar-coating this: in a flat world, every individual is going to have to run a little faster if he or she wants to advance his or her standard of living. When I was growing up, my parents used to say to me, ''Tom, finish your dinner -- people in China are starving.'' But after sailing to the edges of the flat world for a year, I am now telling my own daughters, ''Girls, finish your homework -- people in China and India are starving for your jobs.''
I repeat, this is not a test. This is the beginning of a crisis that won't remain quiet for long. And as the Stanford economist Paul Romer so rightly says, ''A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.''

"

More on Globalization

The Sound of Silence .. Absolutely love this song..

Absolutely love this song to bits..

''
Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night And touched the sound of silence.


And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare Disturb the sound of silence.


"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed In the wells of silence


And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written
on the subway walls And tenement halls."
And whisper'd in the sounds of silence.

"


- Paul Simon, 1964,
Paul Simon , Art Garfunkel ( Simon and Garfunkel)

Whaddyathink? :)

Me with my Opel Astra International !!

:)



Ain't me sleek?

Back To Bangalore...... And God Bless the Alphonsos!

I am Back from Ireland :) !

Am back at my good ol' seat, back to the after lunch office campus rounds and the 8-9 am occasional before office swimming sessions at the community pool close by ..

Back to the late evening fruit platter at office, and the afternoon lemon squash, back to colgate smiles for the foreign head of office (read dignitary) visits, to the constant chirrup of payscales, who's left, who hasn't, who will and who wont, also back to the calculations of increments, taxation, to ICICI Direct and the can-I-speak-to-you-for-a-second calls for lifetime credit cards, pension and jobs :)

I reached Bangalore just past midnight into Sunday. The travel experience was good for a change and if you ask me, Lufthansa services are far better than the NorthWest or Alitalia ones that I have had a chance to fly before; and tho it might be because they have far lesser flights, but one would be impressed at care for small details that they seem to have taken. Services were far better, flight timings were on the tick, the hostesses served with a smile and there wasnt a single crack or tampering of my luggage. Pranay, my friend picked me up, and I was more than thankful to him, cos the drizzle when the flight had landed had developed into steady rain by the time I passed the airport gates. Also got a chance to talk to him about a lot of things and update myself with the current affairs of the city.


Back here the TOI still has Sania and Tendulkar hogging the limelight, The papers are still rue-ing the lack of infrastructure in Bangalore, the increase of crimes, the crippling of the city whenever the rains come and the trees fall, and the papers also have a fair share of state and country wide politics. A train has derailed, Advani has resigned after a not so good comment about Jinnah being secular, something that could have broken the basic political strategies of his own party and also that of their Pakistani counterparts.

It feels good to be back in Bangalore and back to homeland. As always.I am catching up with friends and relatives, I have a trip to Calcutta the next week, where I get to meet most of my relatives, since they are also sposed to assemble during this time. So , am looking forward for a good 5-6 days ahead of me, without any project workload, with proper Bengali cuisine I have been deprived through most of the last 4-5 years,with lovely places to visit, weddings to attend, basically to revisit yet another city that I love with all its beauties, its absurdities and with all its idiosyncracies.

I got the chance to see the histrionics of Bunty and Babli ( a humorous take-off to Bonnie and Clyde) at the Innovative, Marthahalli, and it was a nice change from the constant Clint Eastwood, Humphrey Bogart movies, that Irish televisions used to dole out all the time. Abhishek is refreshing, he is outrightly funny, with all those costumes and the UP accent, he looks pretty skilled at witty humour. Rani on her part is funny, surprisingly doesnt have much problem with whatever Punjabi she has to speak and is tremenduously attractive at the same time, she is anyways poles different from the ravishing yet steely cold Faye Dunaway.. in Bonnie and Clyde. I wasnt impressed with Amitabh though, I felt he was underutilized. You could see him literally panting in the Kajra Re song, to keep pace with his son and aishwarya. Though maybe almost all will disagree, I think Kajra Re , as a song deserved a better picturization. The song is too good, but the filming, yes with Aishwarya and all , not quite.


For the summary of what all I could do in Ireland

Visited Dublin, the city and its shops and its car parks, the National art Museum, the Natural History museum, the major parks, roads, Wax museum, the Banks of River Liffey. Missed out on the James Joyce memorial since it was out of the city. I loved the city, especially the street bands, who would play song after song with huge enthusiasm with passers by cheering them on, requesting songs, clicking photos, dropping in a couple of coins and hearing them for hours..

Visited Glendalough, a charming valley with a heaven like beauty. Dark blue lakes, lush green hills, small curvy trails, and low lying clouds, Also Wicklow, a small town in West Ireland. It too had some lovely cliffs and a green carpety golf course beside the sea, Visited Carlingford a historical town on the Ireland Northern Ireland border, with its small and dirty ships standing listless beside the pier and an old but majestic fort.
Dundalk the place where I stayed, worked for my company for these 2 months is a small town. There were many places you could walk and visit, though to me the biggest structures apart from a 19th century church was the main TESCO shopping campus and the university buildings. My colleague crashed our rental car in the parking lot, which gave us some problems in commuting for a couple of days, but then the rest of the days went by just the same.
The Irish, from what i have seen, are a boisterous yet cheerful lot, love their potatoes, wine and beer. The countryside is fresh light green, and you can stop your car anywhere in this "emerald isle" and always catch something remarkably picturesque.



I am finishing this post from my Office cube,. and it will be time to go home in a couple of hours.. so am already taking it easy :) It rains pretty frequently nowadays, the weather is pleasant. People say I have escaped a notably hot summer and that I think is a relief. But what I also realize I have missed out on is a whole half season of ripe juicy , mouth watering mangoes with a lung filling smell that can attract humans and flies alike from 50 meters away :) . The first day, I reached here , I was treated to a bunch of awesome mangoes by my house landlord. He gave me 3-4 options, and offcourse I took Alphonsos. This might be "exotic fruit" for one of my Irish colleagues, but its one of the many small things, that once of have an experience of, make you yearn to be in India and stay here for as long as you can.


Currently On the Jukebox
"Cats in the Cradle" - Ugly Kid Joe.

Not far from what I thought about myself .. :))

Your Birthdate: March 3

Being born on the 3rd day of the month is likely to add a good bit of vitality to your life. The energy of 3 allows you bounce back rapidly from setbacks, physical or mental. There is a restlessness in your nature, but you seem to be able to portray an easygoing, "couldn't care less" attitude. You have a natural ability to express yourself in public, and you always make a very good impression. Good with words, you excel in writing, speaking, and possibly singing. You are energetic and always a good conversationalist. You have a keen imagination, but you tend to scatter your energies and become involved with too may superficial matters. You are affectionate and loving, but sometimes too sensitive. You are subject to rapid ups and downs.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

A year gone by..

How do you feel when you Prime minister is an Oxford and Cambridge Economics graduate, When your Finance Minister is an Harvard alumni , when your Finance Secretary is a oxford economics and your president himself is amongst the top notch nuclear scientists of the world?


Rest assured.

Between Singh and Chidambaram we have what is hailed as the biggest economic reformist (1991) and the presenter of the Dream Budget (1997) We have all the required technical , political , economical social expertise in our hands. For once it really seems that the hands who giude the future of our country are not just the pot bellied acidically corrupt Gandhi-cappers ..
but are really highly knowdlegable, hugely sucessful people whom you can trust.. whose visions have spurred revolutions and whose thoughts have inspired huge successes.

But as its one year since they have assumed office. The first semester results are out. Can we the people take out the report cards from their bags ? and see the As and the Ds? Has the Government really done well ? Have we zoomed to our progress path the way we should have?


I guess not.

After a year back in power, Congress is still working out how to use it. Our reformist prime minister has done remarkably little reforming.


Remember?
A year ago, it was the biggest surprise reversal of the political world. The "feel good" campaign had backfired. The Congress though having failed to secure a majority at the general election, had managed to string up a 17 member strong rag bag of a coalition it now heads. Inspite of all the horse trading and ultimately still being in the minority, the CPM-CPI the party with the third highest seats but a totally opposite portfolio was mollycoddled for support from outside the corridors of power. A huge stock market crash occurred immediately showing the investors lack of confidence, but the govt handled it unbelieveably well.

It was always clear that Manmohan Singh would face an uphill battle. There were basically two big questions. The first, the not-that serious one was whether the Congress could manage an amicable division of powers between its leader Sonia Italian Gandhi, and the unelected technocrat Sardar in whose favour she renounced the top job. He was immediately in the charge of all policy, and in theory the government. She still was the unanimous leader the coalition, the United Progressive Alliance, and was to handle their politics.

This did not face any problem, as you wont expect Dr. Singh to have glitzy political intentions. even his mentor in Oxford (search google) called him somewhat an introvert and was pretty surprised to see him in a prime ministerial hot seat. In fact Singh was the perfect foil to Sonia and the relation was that of perfect bonhomie.

The second the more important question was whether, in managing this unweildy and disparate coalition, it could get much done. The coalition includes many who remain at best suspicious of reform. So inspite of being as finance minister in 1991, the architect of the liberalization and the deregulation of the economy, the policy which Manmohan is in charge of has been tailored to the need to find the consensus between the reformists and their opponents, people who are highly suspicious of any reform.

The result? Both are extremes and both feel let down. Reform is piecemeal and half hearted. You can neither remove caps and privatise, relax labour laws, nor can you fully promote of the grand public spending schemes pushed by the left.



The big disappointments

1. First and foremost to me the government has failed to produce the changes so badly needed if India is to catch up with China - Which was, is and looks set to become the favourite destination of foreign investors. China plans to build 25 mega cities by the decade, do you think we can even match anything of their economy if we dont start off now?

2. The little disappointments to me are just a number of modest improvements to the system of caps on investment which , ludicrous though this might seem for a country of India's position, prevent foreigners of commiting the heinous crime of putting as much money and know-how as they would like into our existing antiquated services and industries. Ha ha. Period.

3. Failure to garner support for the UNSC Permanent Seat. Thats a huge under effort on the part of the government. Rice came, was tomfoolered around, and she went, giving lumpsome F16s to the Pakistanis. The US is the only country mum on out UNSC prospects inspite of huge measures taken by them for trade, defence and strategic interests.


The power of the Reds !
Many ppl still think of the Communists to be a passive supporter just organising bandhs and protests and if you are not from WB or Kerala, you really dont need to see their faces.. Here is how they affect us..
1. This government will never be able to attack the huge subsidies paid out by the government to any number of interest groups.
2. It will never be able to tap labour market reform.
3. Here is an interesting scenario I read from the Economist , Ireland.

"India was horribly slow in cashing in on the ending of this years restrictions on the trade in textiles. Because any Indian company employing more than 100 people requires the permission of the state authorities to sack workers, few companies have dared expand to take advantage of the increased demand. More flexible China with a textiles tradition less glorious than India's has cleaned up at its expense."

4. They have hobbled Manmohan from the start by insisting on The "Common Minimum Program" for which ,I read "lowest common denominator". As a consequences the govt. has effectively excluded in advance most of the main reforms.


Here is what the Commies have recently done --

1. They have resisted most moves to privatise state enterprises or ease curbs on foreign investment.
E.g just some time back the CPM demanded the amendment of a law that will establish "special economic zones" SEZs modelled on those that helped China kickstart its modernisation 25 years ago. They forced the removal of a provision that would have given the state governments the right to exempt these zones from India's Restricitve labour laws.

2. Any liberalization reform generally can be done only through govt.. executive action, e.g such as raising the cap on foreign investment in telecommunications that was done. But the problem is that these are therefore measures that would require legislation, for other industries eg. insurance is simply impossible,



I feel to some extent in these issues our PM is to blame partly. Cos, he has failed to use the power of his office to fight for the reforms he believes in, and has been altogether too meek in twisting his allies' arms.


But, having said that its not all bad things for the Left. They also can harbor equal disgruntlement on non commitment to their good policies. If we remember, the Congress had marked its election campain with the common man. It showed that against the backdrop of a buoyant economy and booming IT industry, there was a huge cry of pain from the neglected country side where 70% of our people live, many of them in dire poverty. They had promised free electricity to farmers, and job security in the mills their ads.

Therefore also, much of the common minimum program the UPA adopted was a promise to tackle their plight. Now lets take a related example. There was a sure commitment in the CMP to the immediate enactment of the nation wide "Employee - guarantee" scheme which would offer casual labout to anybody willing to do it at the minimum wage.

Its supporters then had argued that this would make a huge onslaught on poverty, reduce migration to the towns, help improve the woeful infrastructure and foster a fairer social order. Its critics, who now include the members of the government, believe it would be a gigantic waste of public funds which would be siphoned off by corrupt officials paying ghost workers to build phantom projects. They know themselves too well dont they? :) But, Rather than scrap the scheme, or event try and implement it, the government has diluted it to the point of uselessness. Nothing has come out of it.



The Hoorays..
Well, Economic / Labour reform is not everything. And most of what foreign pundits prescribe to India is to my belief, just to suit their cause. For example, you may have one economist harping about all the goodies of globalization.. but they simply ignore the fact that not everything is conducive at all environment, the concept cant be plug and plays, cant be places to
suit the whims and fancies of the developed world, and might not always be the BEST way of doing things.


Some highlights I saw ---

1. Our private sector continues to perform well despite the many obstacles imposed on it by the government. Hooray for our IT sector.

2. A good image abroad. Manmohan is regarded as dignified, decent and incorruptible. Those qualities have paid dividends outside India , too. Mr. Singh's moderate style ( a great relief after the somewhat national hysterics of the Bharatiya Janta Party) has been of tremendous importance. Maybe esp. in repairing relations with Pakistan, there is some thing tangible coming out of the Kashmir issue. I think the mingling of the common man in J and K and POK was a very good thing. . Allowing the hurriyat to venture out and speak anything.. umm maybe yes

3. Tax reform. Yes. Gooood. Finally, India's first value added tax, which should widen the tax base and help improve the country's dismal finances. Hopefully its not the 5% service ppl that pay 90% of the tax anymore

4. Some small progress on investment caps, good for privatisation

But then all this Very less.. and small contributions from the government at that.. Merely serving to highlight how much else the government has failed to do in its first year



Okay so much for the report card... But then, what did it inherit?
a. A BOOMING ECONOMY , still growing at more than 6% a year.

b. A wave of goodwill thats followed Sonia Gandhi's act of "renunciation" and the appointment of Mr Singh a man of unquestioned integrity, decency and economic expertise.

c. A tattered opposition. In shambles. The BJP, was as shocked by its electoral defeat as congress was by its victory. But it has taken longer to recover. It has allowed itself to become pre occupied with internal bickering , and has resolved to boycotting parliament, which also led all seeing the first cracks in the esteemed BJP - TDP combine..



Here are some more Good decisions and good initiatives happenning I thought. :)
1. The "right to information" act passed . This shows our laws are maturing.
2. Investing in primary education and rural infrastructure.
3. Stemming the epedemic of AIDS, that outsiders believe is still out of control.
4. Handling the tsunami relief measures, handling the tragedy as a self sufficient, swift decision making and proud government.



Whats in the future? From the forebearer
The First 15 overs have been good steady beginning. Not the sehwag way, but maybe the wall is at the crease.. A solid platform has been built for the years to come. The government has identified the right priorities.

Yeah so it was kinda good.. but will it last?

? Are we brave? will it be the same econo-political environment the government has to face? If yes forget difficult radical decisions
? Blues from the Red lands.. If I remember the Aaj Tak lady some months back speaking about this issue, next year sees Assembly elections in West Bengal and Kerala, which will pit the Congress locally againsts the Commies it relies on so much at the center. That will make contentious desicions even harder.
? The "I want the next apple too" syndrome.. By 2007, the fat-pot-bellied congressite it will already have its eyes on the re-election which am sure will make the energies (read monies) channelized somewhere else.. and in general make the government timid.


The Congress officials anyways can boast of the skill with which they have handled coalition politics. Look at the way they have treated governors and governments in states like Goa and now Bihar. Just to suit their needs. Nothing but a sham. But atleast they have avoided doing anything very silly and kind of have established a reputation of competence. But far more is needed . A lots is at stake.


Nearly half of our children are malnourished

More than 6 million people are HIV positive.

We have covered just the initial ground for basic infrastructure , good health amenities.. better education. the list is endess..


So all the best , Manmohan , Chidambaram, Sonia .. Happy First Birthday to your CMP government. The next critical 4 years of a billion lives depend on you.

Where the mind is without fear...

"These lyrics... display in their thought a world I have dreamed all my life. Work of a supreme culture...." - W. B. Yeats



Where the mind is without fear, and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action


Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake .

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore - Gitanjali ( An offering of songs) - 1913

More travel scribbles

Am writing this from Frankfurt airport waiting for my flight to Dublin. My destination is a further 45 minutes from there, a place called Dundalk. Its 3 pm right now and I guess it will be well into the evening before I reach there.

I have spent last few days in Delhi with my parents. Actually I was supposed to leave Delhi by Sunday, but my office travel desk mucked up my flight reservations from Frankfurt to Dublin and the next confirmed flight I got was 3 days later, i.e. today, Wednesday. I was disappointed, but haven’t complained much since that gave me a chance to stay home and be with my parents more. And everything about home is better than everything else in the world.

Delhi is still the same, and yet it has changed a lot. The city’s the same cos, the things that I associate with Delhi, and those that separate it from everywhere else are still there.

Many known people, loads of places that evoke nostalgic memories, and things that you know will stay there waiting for you even you return back after 20 years. I have spent the whole of my formative years here, and I believe there is nothing in the coming 30-40 years or as much time as I live, that is going to change the way I feel about the city. No other city could take its place, no other ever will.

What has changed or is changing and at good pace I think is lifestyles, infrastructure, and mindsets. The same way as the other metropolises of our country, but in some areas at a more impressive pace. In the next 3-4 years, the common Delhi-ite can reduce atleast 1-2 thought lines from his forehead I am sure. The Metro looks good, pollution has been effectively dealt as of now, the common man has had far lesser power outages ever since the mid size industries were shoved out of the city, the roads are cleaner, the satellite towns are getting more impressive by the day, salaries are increasing, so is buying power of the general consumer. Graduate students are getting far more options now in the city and fortunately I think people seem to be getting calmer, more organized and less aggressive in behavior.

I drove to my college, during one of these days in Delhi. I spoke with the teachers, went to the labs, walked the campus grounds, the stairs, the library, all my four year class rooms, my conference rooms and even the car park. It was just the same as how I had left it. Seemed as if I had just left it 3 months back. But the students looked a different kind than we were. Dressing styles seem to have changed a bit , yes.. Couldn’t find any chess players or cricket matches. Just students hustling past each other I strained my ears to hear the across railing student banter. Their perceptions of the outside world already look different. Thinkpads, IPods, BioCon, and Intel are the buzz words instead of the Infy, Wipro, TCS that we used to have. Not that I heard these words, it was just a small talk about a presentation to be organized somewhere in the city but their very talk seemed far more focused than what we generally were , or so I think.

2 new huge malls have sprouted up within a couple of kms from my place. Huge ones. I saw 2 and literally 2 Police Control Room vans at each road from the airport to my place. It feels like the city will soon start to reap the benefits of the massive infrastructure and amenity based ramp ups, it had started on a war footing 3-4 years back. People are gung ho about the highest building of the world that’s supposed to be built here, or the new tech parks in Gurgaon, but I am more happy to see that the Yamuna doesn’t look as black as a sewerage drain anymore and that barricades have effectively stopped the littering of the river. I am more happy to see less people honking mercilessly at the red lights for no reason whatsoever, to vent out their end of the frustration or something like that. I am more happy to see, efficient government offices and tolerant officers at atleast a couple of places.

“Rough Speaking People”, “Swindler Cab Drivers” , “Punjabi Show off culture” , “Endless bureaucracy” , “Bribe Takers”, “Fearless Power Rich people” , “Unhelpful common man” , “Lack of culture”

These are the various concerns and perceptions outsiders hold or like to hold about the city. Most of them still hold true, but definitely now to a far lesser extent than in the 80s. It helps when you have lived in the city to learn what you tend to lose when out of it. But still being as unbiased as I can get myself to be, and taking the most professional view I am capable of, Delhi still seems to me the best in India that you can live in, having the best comforts and the best growth for almost every sector anyways. I feel that the most important areas where the city lags, and some of which lead to the above perceptions are already starting to diminish. But it’s a long way still. More importantly, along with all this progress, the society and the inhabiting people should mature, in their mindsets and their cultural disposition alongside the facilities or the other betterments. For good.

Resume ----- Dundalk, Ireland , 1500 hours

Have reached my apartments in Dundalk. I will share it with an American colleague for a fortnight. Am already starting to experience the Irish – English weather, fierce winds, stinging rain, but then the country side is beautiful. :) Lovely grasslands, with cows grazing silently, a green lush horizon, clouds sweeping over hills, high cliffs bordering the sea, castles, farmhouses, it looks lovely. I have never seen such a deep green color the Irish sea here has in my life, the whole island looks green. Hope to be in Dublin this weekend, for the city fun part ;)

More later. Its meeting time .

Ke Ghar kab aaoge ..

Reached the warm comforts of my room in Bangalore yesterday... Almost every person in office I meet, coo-s

"Hi Archan, welcome back ..How have you been? how was your trip? Was the flight back okay? "

and I stutter everytime in giving a realistic reply. Well, its difficult for me to establish the feeling here at my blogpad as well.. but I will try..

Cos.. this has to be on record.

It was one of the weirdest, toughest, most frustrating, angering and awkward journeys I have had. It was also one of the most interesting, unexpected, full of surpises travels I have been subjected to..

Lets start with some math.. should be a pretty easy one for the people who like me swear by it as their favorite subjects..

a) Granny Dearest: "How many hours is East Coast Time behind Indian Standard time, on winters, if 8 am at the Atlantic shore is evening 6:30 pm at Jhumri's Talaiya ?"
Alec Smart : "Duh, thats 10:30 hours , Gram'ma"

b) Granny D: "So if Archan starts from his rented apartment in the US of A at 1100 hours on a Sunday morn and reaches his Bangalore base at 2230 hours on WEDNESDAY NIGHT !!! what has he been doing?"

Alec Smart : "That would be 24 + 24 + 24 + 11:30 - 10:30 = 73 hours Granny.. Me got it first ... Yaay !! "

Lucky Eddie: " Wrong Aaaaaaaaaanswer !!! You missed the cache Alec! The correct answer is "Archan has been TRAVELLING !!! "

DUH .

Me feels like two sides of the coin, two split personalities right now.. Bitter and Sweet, Angry and Ecstatic, Good and Evil, Alec Smart and Lucky Eddie. My feeling about this return trip back home is just the same...



"Yeah thanks AND I Had a most oustanding
(ly screwed up and the weirdest)
flight back home..
(And I really dont care)
How have you been "

See? All can be rosy if you fail to read between my lines..


Anyways, all thats written above is true. Thats exactly the time it took me to reach my home bed. It seemed endless, and it was a crazy experience. Since morning on sunday, the Alec Smart in Me (dont know which brain hemisphere) spent answering calls and chatting on Yahoo till I realized that I had half an hour to pack up, have a bath and get ready till John picks me up.

I am generally meticulous about ma planning.. but Alec Smart had been attending dinner meets and other outside of the city excursions, examples sake a BIIG 50 factory outlets shopping area and restaurant luncheons. The outlet shopping spree yeilded me nothing , and I swear by the underworld maxim ... It "pays" not being a woman..

And for the whole part of that weekend.. Alec Smart had been bragging about to the Americans and the Europeans was, look how easy its for you guys. we have to do 32 hours of travelling just to reach back to India ..( gasps and sighs) .. and I cant sleep much due to all the screeching kids around (more gasps and sighs) .. and mentally telling myself.. ( Heh - Heh !!.. piece of cake.. i will watch all 6 movies and sleep the remainder of the time. And the idiot Kids on the deck?? ( Devil laugh) They can be put to rest by sneak - forcing just a gulp of the readily available Scotch on the Rocks down their throat!! FOR THE WHOLE FLIGHT!! Been there . Done that.)

So, cut to action..The army packing drill ensued. clothes, washed/unwashed were folded rolled and stuffed in a jiffy. A ke chocolates, B ke gift , C ka package jo Bangalore mein deliver karaana hai, files, CDs .. and ohh yes.. my most important thing.. swept my hand across the basin rack of both the baths.. Saare sample shampooos, moisturizers, scented soaps, fell into the suitcase.. :) I love these samples :)

Then the final act... A big heavy squat on top of the suitcase - on top of the bed.. and with the sleight twist of the hands.. close in the suitcase.. It had worked again. I hadnt lost the touch :) .. So far so good..

John picked me up.. on time.. at 10:30.. and I was all wet (NO PUN INTENDED, YOU SICKOS) ... The unsure part however was, was it the bath water cos i hadnt had the time to properly towel myself dry? or was it my sweat showing my last 30 minutes struggle.... Was thanking the Lucky Eddie in me now for taking over and pulling it off yet again.. Anyways.. went to the club and dropped in the keys.. now for the last moment things.. to do.. My office colleague manoj's 1GB flash Drive and my friend Pranay's 30 GB Photo IPOD..

Raced away to Best Buy .. and NONE of them were there.. the IPOD corner hadnt opend.. since best buy opens only at 11 am on sundays. ... Embarrasment Embarrasment.. I had 3 weeks.. But I couldnt get these two things i had promised.. ab sabko bolna padega.. car nahi thaa is baar.. couldnt venture out much.. and blah and blah..

Lucky Eddie was beating a hasty retreat.. from the Electronic Shop.. After all the flight departed in 90 more minutes.. when thunder struck right at the exit door. and Smart Alec took over.. 15 minutes passed as Smarty Alec salviated over all the latest Canon, sony, JVC , Kodak, Nikon cameras and camcorders ..

John, gave me the resigned look which looked like "Son if you dont leave NOW .. you can come shopping for all pods and flashes the next day".

Well , finally Smart Alec did come back to the car .. Only lighter by 400 #($*ing dollars from his wallet ! and a quarter kilo heavier from the LATEST SONY 5.1 MPIX Carl Zeiss lensed Digi Camera !! hanging by his armside.. Remember the TOm and Jerry Cartoons? The Red Devil Laughs and sits over Tom's head.. and the White angel slowly shakes his head and walks away.. helped with a poke in arse from the Devils trishul ofcourse..

The Unexpecteds had already started to Happen...

What was ofcourse still expected, was the US Security tomfoolery... As usual, and In sync with all my travails to States-land before.. The idiot NW checkin guy gave me the SSSS tag.. Now, i can see that immediately when I get the boarding pass.. (bottom right corner of the boarding pass) What it means is the i will be stripped and searched and stripped and searched and stripped and searched through each and every gate henceforth in the US.. and its will be pain and embarrasment all the way till I board the flight and they finally have had enough of me..

And so it was..
At every gate.. They read me my rights.. excluded me from the line.. searched me.. ransacked my baggage ruthlessly and talked through this molestation all the way..
"Sir, I am going to run though your trousers " ("Sir , now I am going to feel your thighs")
" Can you please put your feet on these separated signs?" ("Please spread your legs")
"Please lift your feet... okay" ("Is that some metal there though the opened belt? ")
"Thank you, youre all set" ("Sigh. I am all done..")

And since I had to meet my friend @ Minneapolis airport.. I had to go outside the security gate cordon ( His cell also had to be transported to India) . 2 more strip searches were added to the itenirary..

The first question they ask after reading the rights is

"Sir, Have you ever been through this before"
And i think of starting off

" Lets see now, so you know back in the december of 2004 when I was here for a fortnight? hmm? well thats one... and UMMM , if i remember correctly... again On my way back in October? "
"Annd OHHHHHH YES !!! :)) in fact just 4 (*&$ing hours back !! ..This search thingy rocks no? You Americans are So kewl :) Do it again on me please, would you? THE next time I will have rosemary scented socks for you to smell"

Bloody *#@$)(*&#$(#&$#@(*&$#@*$)&#(*$&#@(*)&$#@*$&#@$(*#$)(*


Nothing else worthwhile happenned between The last search and the plane Gate. I just flipped my stay visa at the boarding counter and was thinking about some needed rest on the plane seat.. but Alec Smart was in time for it again..

I had realized that I was boarding my flight among the last passengers... and just before I enterd. they stopped me..

"You have to check in this luggage.. there is not any cabin space left now"

What else could I have expected.. it was a DC - 10.. Generally used for the Indian sectors.. jahaan bhed-bakriyon ki tarah all worldwide airlines Indians ko Laad dete hain.. they dont care a damn about the customers needs.. and everything. . Every airline that I have travelled is rude to indian passengers.. and Indians always take it sportingly.. well some definitely deserve it.. and such namune are always there in these aircrafts to spoil our image..

Alec Smart did nothing.. He Said.. Why of course.? Maine yeh hand bag tumhein baad mein check in karwaane ke liye hi to rakha thaa.. tum apne komal haathon se checkin karogi to mera bhag dhanya ho jaayega aur meri yatra safal ho jaayegei. Kahaan hai? Kahaan hai Checkin slip?

A small tattered check in slip was usherd into my hand.. All i had now was my laptop.. and my passport and ticks.

So Alec Smart boarded his flight.. and fluffed up the pillow and spread out the Shawl and fastened the seat belt.. And he waited
And waited.. and Waited.

"This is the Captain speaking.. We have a minor glitch.. the hydraulic liquid in the left tyres is a bit low" ( we didnt care for the basic checks even though the plane was 5-6 hours in the airport before everyone boarded)"
The mechanics are filling in the replacement.. we will be on our way in 10 minutes"

10 minutes it was... 5 of them..

After 50 minutes and a full episode of 4 fat black women chatting their blues away and after a good 1:10 minutes behind schedule the Minneapolis to Amsterdam KLM North west Bugger of an airplane.. taxied to the runway...

I was happy to get out of the ordeal. and thankfully Lucky Eddie took over..
I slept the whole flight and luckily was awake just in time of the lunches.. there were no kids to scotch off and the next seat was empty.

The plane landed sharp at 10:05 am in Amsterdam..it had covered half an hour.. maybe I could Make it to the 10:25 Mumbai flight after all.. So the plane landed.. and then it stopped.. right there on the tarmac. Had I switched back to Dear ol' Alec in my sleep?

and it stayed there for another 20 minutes.. Good boy Captain Courageous had the guts to tell everyone that there was some other small plane standing on the gate we had been assigned..

WoW.

1/2 an hour later.. as i trudged out of the Gate E8.. I could still see the Mumbai flight parked in the next gate E9.. but I knew they had cancelled my rservation a long before..
I did the requesting at the Gate formality..

and then trudged back a few steps and looked back at the plane.. still connected to the boarding tunnel.. thinking of my had been neighbor stretching his leg on my empty seat.. . I knew I had a long day ahead of me..
It was a very weird feeling .. a feeling of anger frustation agony and helplessness all at the same time..
They were not allowing me to go home.. whereas my flight was just a few steps ahead.. and I couldnt not go inside even with my boarding tick in my hand

The Bashi-Bazouks.

Then came a list of counter waiting.. 1/2 hour for the travel desk counter.. which said it couldnt do anything and I had to go to ticketing to rebook my flights. I met two americans going to Pune.. who had also missed the flight.. and we 3 headed for the ticketing.. atleast some company..

After 1 hour of line waiting.. The Goras we immediately given a flight to Heathrow.. and then a connecting to Mumbai. .They would lose 6-7 hours..

My turn came.. THe Counter lady in blue blurted
"I have booked your flight for tomorrow.. Be here @ 8 am tomorrow.. "
I asked back. .how did the previous ppl get a connection?

The reply was sum Dutch Mumbo Jumbo.. and then something about check ins.. which implied that look you are a lowly asian.. this world class airline functions perfectly just because.. it has learnt to segregate between who it cares for and who it doesnt.. read those who can sue up and who cant.. so just buzz off and accept my reservations.

As if i had a choice..
40 minutes later.. I got my transit visa.. a Temporary stay order for 1 day.. I prayed for Smart Alec to go back to his shell or hemisphere.. and maybe he did..

Hotel bookings were assigned.. I was given a 3 minute calling card to inform my near / dear.. as if bachhe ko 3 rupe pakda do.. aur kaho.. beta , car-war toy-shoy bhuul jaao.. yeh lo 3 rupe aur churan, lollipop khaakar khush ho jaao..

Met two Indians at the passport desk.. a lady and a gentleman.. the lady had come from the Detroit connecting flight and had a similar North West "histoire efficace" to narrate..

As we stepped out of the airport and into the shuttle bus. .Lucky eddie realized, watching the thousands of cars on the freeway ... maybe this is not that bad after all.. I have a visa.. and dont I have one of the worlds most beautiful cities ahead of me? They were typical small cars.. looked like busy ants.. buzzing around from one hub to the other..
Amsterdam to Rotterdam to Eindhoven or anywhere..

The country side looked beautiful and the first time after the conversation with someone I had had on yahoo.. the previous day....

I smiled.

:)

The hotel was good, :) lovely artistically designed bath tub.. the emergency travel kit provided by the North West - KLM Staff was good too.. Atleast i could brush and shave.. and wear a new vest underneath...
I had a quick bath.. and a good lunch just in time with the other two people .. a refreshing conversation..

We three people then took the Shuttle back to Schipol Airport. for our city tour.. the guy who had been to this city before was the guide...
Converted some dollars to euro for an outstanding charge.. dont even ask.. (the money returned was almost half) ..

ANd from Schipol Airport to Amsterdam Centraal (with the double a)..we took the city rail .. Our conversations, the double decker train, the cushiony seats, a beautiful view, the dressed up ticket checker and the small old style houses changed our mood completely The area outside Amsterdam Centraal was lovely.. unless you are in a very big city.. you wont find any ppl outside their houses and walking.. in America.. they all like to stay inside.. and run their car to someplace just 300 metres away from where they are.. Thats Americans for you.. Walking is meant for something to be done on forest trails or treadmills.. and walking to someplace is definitely not chic. .First of all you will never find complete side walk pavements and secondly.. everybody from their respective cars will glare at you..

But here I was.. In the busy station.. with Loads of ppl !! Looked like Bombay VT with a Fashion makeover ! middle size fur coats.. a scarf , a short skirts , black stockings and knee high pointed leather boots for the girls.. and A scarf or hat.. with black over coat or jacket and trousers and boots for the gentlemen.. and everyone running about here and there..

The city center was beautiful.. it has a river flowing across.. and round it semi - circled concentric water channels leave and reenter the river.. there are boats and swans on all these channels.. through which you can travel to other parts of the town.. and small lovely bridges on each road.. and cobblestone pavements all along the way.. ! and cars and bikes yes.. but thousands on people on foot and hundreds on small bikes :) bicycles.. :) just paddling about busily along side a fine micro drizzle.. it was a lovely sight..

Also were hundreds of restaurants.. with glass enclosures.. that would place you right beside any water channel. and watch the waterway as you dine over the candle.. Small houses.. flat buildings having the old central european style architechture.. but hosting some of the most expensive fashion or business houses of the world.. Blue trams scurrying past each other.. Small alleys.. and countless shops.. The Indian Shop beside a Madame Tussauds.. A multiplex on one side of the road and a sex musuem on the other..
People walking , talking, enjoying boat rides.. and doing business. all of it. on a pristine 1900 european setting..

It was lovely..

We came back late in the night.. thoroughly satisfied with the visit.. and with tired legs but happy minds.. Maybe it wasnt that bad after all.. The lady had to visit her ailing father in law at the hospital immediately.. the guy had more things on his mind.. but these 7-8 hours.. made us forget the sad part of it all.. just 3 perfect strangers joined together by fate.. as stranded passengers.. who have missed an appointment.. , lost on business, forced to abandon commitments.. and felt helpless and violated.. yet.. maybe felt happy for some time just talking about old things, of places visited. about their loved ones..



I was able to catch the next flight to Mumbai , the next morning.. No more strip searches were required this time. Thought everything will be just perfect as the last afternoon had progressed.. but then Alec was required back to balance things around..

A group of crazy Indians accompanied the neighboring seats.. They kept ordering white wine , red wine. even once a "Janny Boker" ( Johny Walker) !! And loads of other whisky, rum etc.. the more they got drunk.. the more boisterous they became.. and it was a mess for the hostesses

Just one movie was shown .. Wimbledon (Kirsten Dunst) which I would have enjoyed except for the faulty audio system .. but it was the sock stenches and the drunk talk that was unbearable..


Reaching Mumbai made me as happy as ever.. !! What now I thought.. and just before I landed .. I was handed the mother of all turnarounds..

They had not uploaded my baggage at amsterdam ..

The Red Devil had triumphed again.
Alec Smart was back in business.
And I was back to my sour self..


What complicated matters was that one of the drunkards had collapsed right at the indian immigration desk and every Northwest and Airport official was rushing to provide assistance. So the baggage counter had an half empty look.. minutes later a lady came in..
Lucky Eddie came to the rescue . .when I gave her a wisecrack..
"You know what . its 12:00 am in the midnight.. and I have a lady waiting for me outside.. Do you think its safe in this city?"

That kind of sped up matters.. my passport was photocopied faster than the others.. (15 mintues) .. I was taken to the Customs official.. and given the no objection card. But not before surrendering all my keys to the baggage. typing lists of whats inside them and whats not.. and repeatedly declaring.. no I dont have any new camera or mobile or electronic gadget.


My friend was there to pick me up at the airport.. .. since my Bangalore flight was scheduled on the next day evening.. Spent the day roaming around Mumbai. .Marine drive et al.. i love the city.. its trains. .everything.. had good food. at the pizza hut.. took some snaps.. met loads of good people.


I landed in Bangalore on Wednesday night. Lucky hadnt left me since after the form signing at the KLM counter..

As the pre paid taxi left the arrivals section of Bangalore Antarrashtriya terminal.. the first song good ol Mirchi put up for me was..


" Ke Ghar kab aaoge.. Likho Kab aaoge..
Ke tum bin yeh ghar suuna suuna hai.. "

Was talking about the power of telepathy to my good friend SAm in the US just two days back.. he was wondering out how the moment you think of a song.. sometimes you find it the next on your jukebox..

And we had been talking about him wanting to hear this song from Border.. Alongside..

I felt i could smile. I sang aloud suddenly ..
"Ae guzarne waali hawaa bataa ... mera itna kaam karegi kya" to the startled and petrified Kannada cab driver.. :) Maybe the suddenly high pitch of the couplet.. would have almost caused him to screech his Maruti Van to a halt . .but I simply wouldnt have cared :)



Bangalore is not exactly ghar for me.. Thats still my cozy little room thats been kept then same, unchanged. back in delhi by my parents when I left it 4 years back..

But after this long journey back home.. i felt my wait was over.. I could now just sit back and relax.

























AND look How wrong I was.. These KLM buggers dont pick up the bangalore fone number at all.. And I am STILL waiting for my luggage..

Bashi Bazouks.. Blistering Barnacles.. Thousands of Thundering typhoons..



Well, God bless me.. And the Americans..and whomsoever who wants to be blessed..

The fact that I have realized . .that there will not always be Lucky Eddie in my life. I would be a fool to wish for it.. THe truth is that it will always be the Alec Smart inside of me that will help me be stronger ... and I can hope to have Lucky Eddie by my side.. atleast sometimes for some unforeseen pleasure.. some unfinished dream.. some good surprises.. to help reaffirm the belief in myself..

and ofcourse a bit of fun :)

An Update from the other side...

Reached Raleigh, North Carolina yesterday.. Arrived at the airport with a 1.5 hour delay.. we'll it didnt matter to me much, but then it was my colleague John who was waiting @ the airport from 10 pm. and we reached my place by midnight.

These flights from India to anywhere in the US.. are always a test of your endurance.. especially when you know you have the all important meeting just the next day.. and youre not sure whether you will be able to raise your 10 ton eyelids during those afternoon discussions.. what to talk about being the presenter yourself in most of the cases... its always 35 hours.. and cramped seats.. and cabin baggage fights.. and squeaking children.. and lost Asian Vegetarian meals.. By the end of the flight.. you wish you were back home already.. and wish you wouldnt have to face the return flight back home..

Completed re-reading the book The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman during this time... I have got one more book.. The Memoirs of a Geisha .. to finish on my way back.. but then thats about 15-20 days from now.. This was a big book to get completed in one go.. but anyways.. one generally doesnt have much to do.. apart from waiting in airport lounges.. for 3-4 hours.. and braving the glare of the transit immigration official or the security guard .. It also amazes me.. how even though I always have just my clothes.. and maybe a 6 pack of Maggi for emergency sakes.. its always the case that I always find the white slip inside my luggage ... at the end of the journey. which says.. "Your luggage was selected for random checking .. and blah and blah of US Immigration rules.. ". In my next life.. I am going to be an Indian immigration official.. and anyways.. as one is already starting to see the reversal of the exodus.. so who knows.. I might settle scores with this disparity of probablity... by doling some 10-12 Indian law white slips myself for the American endeavorer to ponder about beside his suitcase..

As the dialogue goes in "Jhankar Beats"
"Duniya gol hai , aur har paap ka ek double role hai... "

Anyways.. I really like all the people here.. my team members I mean... both Americans and the ppl from other nationalities.. they are all very warm and cordial .. and always go the extra step in helping you out.. and caring for you... maybe because.. I am even younger then their youngest children.. John got my stay reservations done.. close to his apartments.. This means.. I dont have to hire a cab everytime.. since i dont have a car this time.. even groceries and other things.. will be comfortably acquired..

The flat I have got is a riot... It makes me feel like a king.. Its a 3 bedroom , 2 bathroom 1400 sq ft mansion.. !! and I took 10-12 minutes yesterday to chart out on which days I would use Bedroom 1 , BedRoom2 and on which Bedroom 3.. ... the Baths are alternate obviously... But just in case you get me wrong.. the loo and the tub of any bath room are not to be used on the same day..
Clear bowels in one.. and lather yourself in the other.. :) so there.

Waise, Kabhie kabhie hi to khuda chappad phaad kar deta hai.. never had my hand on the controls of such a huge plasma screen.. sleek furnishings.. not a speck of dust.. .even the motor drive is huge... Well .. there can be a more detailed planning .. like iron my pants in one room , and the shirt in the other.. keep my formals in one closet and the casuals in the other.. (for the third one therez always the undergarbs.. and the night wears... ) but then I sound more like acting akin to the every canine having his day proverb..

Naah people... I am not the VP .. of my company.. and no my dad is not the CEO... its just that providence wills some unforeseen luxuries on you some times.. ones that both amaze you and make you realize the irony of it all at the same time.. and you think.. I can play cricket in this place.. on the third floor.. for free... and I have just a room and my bed in Bangalore... for 5K.. Aint fair...

Raleigh is as pleasant as it is when i left it. .The roads and lakes have the same stunning beauty as when I last saw it.. the climate is a bit damp tho.. but atleast far better then the - 4 at Minneapolis that I sat through for 6 hours.

Rest is fine.. Its war time at the work front.. Some critical decisions are to be taken .. I hope they go my way.. Have had 2 months of back breaking work, I hope this culminates in sucess..

Touch wood.. so they say..

The 90/10 Principle

Wish everyone a Very Happy Valentine's Day.


Here is a lovely article By Steven Covey ...


"Have you read this before? Discover the 90/10 Principle. It will change your life (at least the way you react to situations). What is this principle? 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react. What does this mean? We really have no control over 10% of what happens to us. We cannot stop the car from breaking down. The plane will be late arriving, which throws our whole schedule off. A driver may cut us off in traffic. We have no control over this 10%. The other 90% is different. You determine the other 90%.

How? By your reaction. You cannot control a red light., but you can control your reaction. Don't let people fool you; YOU can control how you react.


Let's use an example. You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt. You haveno control over what just what happened. What happens when the next will be determined by how you react. You curse. You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over. She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school. She misses the bus. Your spouse must leave immediately for work. You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school. Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed limit. After a 15-minute delay and throwing $60 traffic fine away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye. After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. Your day has started terrible. As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse. You look forward to coming home, When you arrive home, you find small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter.

Why? Because of how you reacted in the morning. Why did you have a bad day?
A) Did the coffee cause it?
B) Did your daughter cause it?
C) Did the policeman cause it?
D) Did you cause it?

The answer is D. You had no control over what happened with the coffee. How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day. Here is what could have and should have happened. Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say, "It's ok honey, you just need,to be more careful next time". Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs. After grabbing a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to look through the window and see your child getting on the bus. She turns and waves.You arrive 5 minutes early and cheerfully greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good the day you are having.

Notice the difference? Two different scenarios. Both started the same. Both ended different. Why? Because of how you REACTED. You really do not have any control over 10% of what happens. The other 90% was determined by your reaction.

Here are some ways to apply the 90/10 principle.

If someone says something negative about you, don't be a sponge. Let the attack roll off like water on glass. You don't have to let the negative comment affect you! React properly and it will not ruin your day. A wrong reaction could result in losing a friend, being fired, getting stressed out etc.

How do you react if someone cuts you off in traffic? Do you lose your temper? Pound on the steering wheel? A friend of mine had the steering wheel fall off) Do you curse? Does your blood pressure skyrocket? Do you try and bump them? WHO CARES if you arrive ten seconds later at work? Why let the cars ruin your drive? Remember the 90/10 principle, nd do not worry about it.

You are told you lost your job. Why lose sleep and get irritated? It will work out. Use your worrying energy and time into finding another job.

The plane is late; it is going to mangle your schedule for the day. Why take out your frustration on the flight attendant? She has no control over what is going on. Use your time to study, get to know the other passenger. Why get stressed out? It will just make things worse. Now you know the 90-10 principle. Apply it and you will be amazed at the results. You will lose nothing if you try it.

The 90-10 principle is incredible. Very few know and apply this principle. The result? Millions of people are suffering from undeserved stress, trials, problems and heartache. There never seem to be a success in life. Bad days follow bad days. Terrible things seem to be constantly happening. There is constant stress, lack of joy, and broken relationships. Worry consumes time. Anger breaks friendships and life seems dreary and is not enjoyed to the fullest. Friends are lost. Life is a bore and often seems cruel. Does this describe you? If so, do not be discouraged

You can be different! Understand and apply the 90/10 principle. It will change your life."

Bangalore is Rocking this fortnight

Sorry people.. for this long break !! am back now..

Okay.. Help me choose among these...

a) Unity : The Strings and Indian Ocean concert
b) Standoff : The Parikrama and Moksha Concert
c) The Sting Concert on 4th Feb


:)

I have missed out on Frank Mobus's Jazz concert, A full Jagjit Singh night,the Shakti Fusion concert featuring John MacLaughlin, Shankar Mahadevan and Zakir Husain, and the awesome Naseerudin Shah in his Katha Collage @ since the last week. December - January used to be fun time in Delhi as well..There are festivals, exhibitions, shows, concerts and everything else . I missed the annual free Sukhoi-32 flypast that I used to distinctly see from my terrace @ Delhi on Republic Day.. I have been missing it for 3-4 years now. I have been missing the Great Indian Rock (GIR) Show @ Pragati Maidan grounds (tho I had attended just 2, but had planned for more ) . I have missed the IIT Rendezvous.. and other college fests.. and maybe countless concerts...


So , Its time to make amends... If I cant attend the first two concerts ( a part of IIM Bangalore's Unmaad fest) I would definitely attend the Sting one... What the heck.. I think should have attended the Benny Hinn sound and light show had i got a chance ! that would have been entertainment as well... :)

During this time I have read up one of the best books I have found in my lifetime.. Thomas L. Friedman's "The Lexus and The Olive Tree". Friedman is a two time Pulitzer Award winner and a celebrated New York times columnist.

This book is on what he thinks of globalization, how to understand it, how has it been shaped over the last couple of decades, how does it affect everybody and about how , the richest guy in the most developed country in the world is dependant on equal terms on the peasant earling his daily bread in some remote village of a poor country. Some of the viewpoints show his American spirit, cater to that section of readers, but thats just maybe 5% of the book. The rest is filled with superb anecdotes, first hand transcripts of his interviews with the most powerful (socially, economically and politically) and the street dweller and the middle class on the other hand as well . The best part is how easily he equates the concerns of any company, or association with similar concerns of many nations and presents both scenarios, with their progress, conflicts, victories and defeats on the same platform. The examples and the statistics are mind boggling. A truly great book.

I have bought another one yesterday.. Alan Hollinghurst's "Line of Beauty", the 2004 Booker winner.. the story is sposed to be weird.. and though I cant credit myself with much of a liking for an even moderately cursive fiction.. A Booker prize winner should be a booker prize winner should be a booker prize winner.

Yesterday, our country celebrated 56 years of being a Republic. Its the same feeling, for all these years, Saw the parade on the TV ... saw the T-90 tanks, the Defence shields, the ICBMs, the GS satellites, the new combat aircraft, the oldest cavalry regiment of the world, the smartest battalions marching in salute to the president of the nation.. Enjoyed the various cultural tableaus as well.. and sang the anthem whole heartedly.. Yes.. the GDP and the forex 's booming, inflation's going down, Corporates registering 55% growth in profits each quarter.. We are on a roll. INDIA INC... way to go !!... But isnt it also the same feeling when at each republic day, on your way to the felicitation nights, or to the restaurants for your dinner.. you invariably find the beggar with a child resting on her hip.. and with enough clothes just to cover her dignity, but nevertheless showing you that soon, she would have one more to care for, to fear for... and to fight for.... Where has the republic progressed for them in all these 56 years.. or the 59 years of "Independence" ?

I might agree that 150 years of foreign rule have reduced the mightiest civilization of 4 millenia into almost rubble.. But do I have to really agree that for us as the republic, the unified force, the progeny of the those who once built the glorified India, socially, technolgically and economically, 56 years is still not enough time for us to help the country's millions out of poverty.. of suffering, disease and exploitation.. Anyways, my job is to do my work for my company, reap the benefits, and enjoy a good satisfactory life for me and my family. I pay my taxes, and I toss the occaisional 1 rupee coin to the needy palm.. What else? I am not the politician.. or the billionaire philanthropist.. .. and besides what do i know?

But I think there are people who know.. Suketu Mehta (read Maximum City) , U Minn Professor C.K. Prahalad (The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits), Our President Dr. APJ Abdul kalam (India 2020: A Vision for the new millenium) , Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen (India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity) and Pulitzer Winner Tom Friedman (The Lexus and the Olive tree) .. have all written extensively about how the poor and the downtrodden can be harnessed and HAVE to be harnessed for the best development in any society in the future, Atleast from whatever i have read about their reviews.. and/or heard from friends.. who have read up these books have to say, these books are what I would really like to read about in the coming months.. And these are all best sellers.. so I have always found them at the Top 10 Non Fiction sections of any book store.. Whats more .. PRanay has half of them :) ..

Meanwhile, my project work beckons.. SO am off to the team meet in some time..

Currently on my earphones :

"I get knocked down, But I get up again..
Youre'never gonna let me down "
(-Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping")

He's coming :)

The Montoya - Raikonnen Pair for the silver cars :) I cant wait for March !!!

:)

A Late Night Post..

"...
Trust I seek and I find in you, every day for us something new
open mind for a different view,
And Nothing Else Matters

Never cared for what they do, never cared for what they know
But I know ....

So close no matter how far, couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are

and Nothing else matters ..."

"Nothing Else Matters "- "Metallica - The Black Album" 1991

Am hearing Metallica after a long long time ....

Every time I hear this song...so beautifully presented by Hetfield's deep voice.. ... it seems to bare his inner thoughts .. it seems to be telling everyone, whatever you do in life, whatever places you roam, how high heights you ascend to, you as a person are always known through your loved ones... your close ones... its a perfect rendition of being away from the ones you love most.. but still being close to their heart...

I think too, in these 3-4 years.. of being away from my parents.. , loved ones... i have met so many new persons, roamed places, made new friends, had good or bad experiences... but , its them who have always been there for me.. always, stood beside..

you can as well sometimes find yourself talking to them personally in your mind... asking them as if through telepathy.. what to do in this condition, if I did the right thing there, and almost half expect them to respond the same way inside your thoughts as they would do if they were present next to you in person..

So sometimes I feel is it really worth it? to live a life so far away from these very people.. It seems as if the very place from where you started your journey is itself actually the final destination... No matter how many miles you tread.. its as if there is this someone else.. functioning inside of you.. trying to establish an identity, craning your neck, fighting with millions of other similar people for fame, power, wealth and other hundreds of comforts.. when the real solace is actually besides your loved ones, and the place where you actually began your travails from but had left your heart back in the first place... .. No wonder they say James Hetfield penned this song when he was on the road, on the move , away from his roots...
A really beautiful set of lyrics....

One of my team members.. has just left the organisation... January is a critical juncture in the project progress path. .. and I am looking at a loss of around 10-12 man-days.. but I guess we will get over it soon..

The new year night was pretty good.. . enjoyed with my friends, one of them came from outside the city.. ... had good food ... went to the temple.. played tennis and had had a half hour romp at the pool... We were planning to spend the night and the new year day at a resort.. but decided against it at the last moment..

Many of my friends are themselves job hopping nowadays.. and it seems that the IT corporate circles are buzzing with who went where and what was the pay package.. etcetra... I hear how one can join a company .. stay with it for 3 months.. and then just join yet another company.. and double your package in 3 months in the process... Everyone seems to have begun thinking of himself / herself as more a commodity...

Its 9:45 pm here @ my office.. and I am drained of all energy and the will to continue working.. The off white Company T-Shirt I so proudly ironed in the morn.. is showing the wrinkles and stains.. of the day long fight it itself would have endured throughout the day. Will leave for home now..

Just felt like adding something to the blog. havent quite posted for a long time.... Its a costly indulgement at this late hour to begin scribbling when you ought to be home by now.. but its also the time when rather than the ear paining head phones... you can allow the music to blare from the speakers of this thinkpad and flow across all the small and smaller cubicle boundaries.. that flood this office floor.. and this is the only time you can have a private moment in this otherwise cacophonic and noisy setting.. .. and maybe stretch your legs.. have a cup of coffee and relax your tired mind with a loved song... Yeah... Metallica is not so good for tired minds, ... but I am sure... when you begin hearing this song...

Nothing else matters..

Blog Tales.. from the year that was

Savour This ... :)

EWeek's Article


Keep up the Good Work Folks !!

Archan