What happened to independence?

Mood: Sad

I have always believed strongly in independence. I strongly believe in democracy. I think both of these are my greatest gifts. In the past few weeks, I have tried to refrain to comment against the establishment, because I believe that democracy will win, and the country will unearth its rights.

However, I have been getting sadder every morning. This morning was the last straw. I woke up, to see that a lady was raped in the trial room of palika bazaar by two young men. I was in palika bazaar two weeks ago. In walking around Connaught place, I could feel the freedom in the country. The place had a large number of foreigners, and the poor and the rich shopped together, and everyone ate and walked the shops of Janpath together. I felt pride as I walked down those streets. Now, that place has been defiled. Palika bazaar will never be safe again. Women will never walk down the underground bazaar looking for the best deals.

In the past few days, the government has been trying to get hold the IIM's to ransom, to bring them to their side on the fee issue, the OBC issue, and so on. Now, the government wants a "Institutes of Management" act to keep them under check. Those IIM's, that globally reputed bastion of managerial brilliance, those breeding grounds of tomorrow's managers, are now going to be controlled by an "Institutes of Management" act.

If the mahatma knew that this is what would happen to his country, would he still have fought for it? Was it all worth it? Does a country like India deserve its democracy?

Lessons from the maverick

A few weeks ago, I was following the convocation of IIM Lucknow. In this edition, Kishore Biyani was invited to give the convocation address. In this speech, he spoke about the creative economy. He spoke about how the key differentiator in the coming years was going to be ideas and creativity. I was intrigued, as I expected a hard sell about entrepreneurship and about hard work being the key to success. I instantly recognized there was more to this man that the media projected.

Last weekend, Rupa publications released "It happened in India", the autobiography of Kishore Biyani, the maverick king of retail in India. The first aspect that struck me about "It happened in India" was its price: Rs. 99. Only a person who came up with the concept of "Big bazaar" could have come up with an autobiography priced at Rs. 99. When the businessmen of the world are making their millions from their autobiography, KB decides to give it away cheap. Why, I wonder.

Kishore Biyani has long been hated by the stock market, primarily because his company has always been too leveraged, the growth plans have been too aggressive, and the rate of growth often seemed too aggressive. In this scenario, I expected to read the book of a hardcore bania businessman who was out to make money while the sun was shining on the retail sector. I expected to read about a highly exagerated version of a life by a businessman who had seen success after many failures in his life.

I was pleasantly surprised to note that I was mistaken. What came across in the book was the story of an extraordinarily mature success, who had a deep understanding of his business, his market, and had his finger on the pulse of the country. KB comes across as a man who understands the very core of the retail business: the brand. A retail business comes dangerously close to touching the customer. It needs to do the right things, because one bad experience could put off a customer. KB understands this. The book spans his life from the family of a moderately successful textile trader, to the founder of the iconic brand Big bazaar. Through many successes like Pantaloons, Central and Big Bazaar, he also saw the lows of his first customer psyche mistake: selling a lakh white shirts at Rs. 149 at big bazaar, hoping that it would sell. He learns from his mistakes, and understands that the retail business is more about the front end than it is about the back end. This, at a time when reliance is spending billions of dollars to strengthen their supply chain. KB understands that if the front end is wrong, the business is wrong. It is an important insight.

I was fascinated to learn about his obsession with design. I would not imagine that a textile trader would have such a passion for design, brands, their longevity and their success. For this reason alone, he helps NID graduates found a company called Idiom. He hopes for the company to achieve success like the Jesus Christ of design, Ideo. He talks about the future of retail, and comes across as a person who fully understands that he is standing on the threshold of history. Retail could redefine India's future, and he knows that he has the power to take advantage of it. He also understands fully well that he could not afford to spend time looking for the best deals on real estate, because he could better utilize that time in expanding the business. He lives on relationships; with vendors, partners and suppliers. He knows that it would be physically impossible to survive an atmosphere where his suppliers are unhappy with him. He knows that the he needs to empower every employee to think like himself: aggressive, reckless at times, but brutally big. A great read. I would strongly recommend it.

Creating the future

The great part of working in the top echelons of IBM is that every morning, you wake up to change the world. This is what has been happening in the last few days:

1. Mouse brain simulated on computer. If the human mind can live on the internet, does this mean we are immortal?

2. IBM to make computers to power online gaming, millions at once.

3. IBM figuring out a way to make semiconductors create themselves!

4. IBM researchers have demonstrated MRI techniques to visualize nanoscale objects.

5. IBM is the first organization to conduct business meetings, sales and conferences on second life. To the belief that second life will indeed be mankind's second life.

Some of these are related to what we would define as Information Technology (IT). Some of them are just based on the strong conviction that there is a long way for technology to grow, and someone has to pump in money into basic research to help drive tomorrow. Cheers. To IBM. To changing the future of mankind.

The future of the internet: Introduction

Since time unknown, Humans have ruled this planet. As time passed, people began to be defined on the basis of certain properties: Their height, their weight, complexion, race, and so on. In recent times, more important criterion are their wealth, family lineage, voice, strength, and other such complex attributes.

Recently, in a tragic incident, Minal died in the virginia tech killings. Her orkut profile is an eerie experience: they still have scraps from her life, her experiences, her friends saying hi, and after her death, condolences. It was... like she was still alive. A human being was now defined, on her internet profile. And this is evolving. The world is moving to a generation where it can define itself on the internet. Every person can be defined by their orkut, facebook, myspace, twitter profiles. Their blogs tell their life story. Their blogs speak their mind, their thoughts, their insecurities and their joys and sorrows. Web 2.0 has confirmed that we can make an identity for ourselves on the internet. And that oracle, "google", can now define each person distinctly on their publicly available information.

Do you what this could mean? A virtual life, a second life, time travel even. Immortality. The line between man and god blurs. More in later parts of this series.

A new PC, Infected with Windows?

A couple of days ago, a friend asked me if she should go in for a new laptop on Vista. Unfortunately, I didn't know this paper was out.

Shocking revelations about Windows Vista. It is peppered with statements like: "In fact so far no-one has been able to identify any Windows system that will actually play HD content in HD quality, in all cases any attempt to do this produced either no output or a message that it was blocked by content protection.". Elimination of open-source hardware support, elimination of unified drivers, decreased system reliability, increased hardware costs: These are some of the issues the paper raises. The hardware issues are quite openly known.

Of course, the article is exceedingly biased, but some of the material is very well researched. Considering the viral nature of the internet, there is already a response by Microsoft to some his concerns.

Maybe in a few days I will have a friend who can give me more first hand information. :D For now, I am subjected to a new Microsoft torture, which it introduces as Office 2007. All the Word documents are in Docx format, and 90% of the PC's in the world don't understand this format. Only office 2007 follows this format. Of course, it is for the good of humanity and all that, since docx is an xml based format, but for now, trying to decipher between IBM which follows office 2003, and a client which follows office 2007, is a nightmare enough.

How to look corporate? Lesson no. 1

Use words like "Significant", and "challenges".

When you're in school and you need to describe how the previous evening was with your girlfriend, you use words like "awesome", "brilliant", "mind-blowing" or "scintillating". When you join the corporate world, it was just "significant". I don't know if people just get boring when they join the corporate world. But they often have no choice but to use these words, because everyone else is. If Narayanmurthy were to say that he has a "mind-numbing" last quarter, and that Nandan Nilekani was stepping down after a "sexy" tenure as the MD of Infosys, CNBC would think he was crazy. So he just describes everything as significant.

Let me now get started on "challenge". When you got bullied in high-school, you realised that the tag of being a nerd was just a pain in the arse. In the corporate world, however, you would describe it as a "challenge". You would ensure that your team does not look at the scenario negatively, because HR taught you last week that problems are actually opportunities in disguise. That's what even HBR said last week. So you decide that if your client decides that SAP is trash after implementing three modules of it, you term it a "challenge". You really don't have a choice. If the whole world thinks its a challenge, you must think so too.

More later...

Most relationships...

...and marriages seem to succeed more in India. And we seem very proud of it.

Most relationships and marriages seem to succeed in India because most people believe that they cannot get any better, or because the society would think poorly of them if they got into multiple relationships, or because they are too scared to lose what they have.

Is this truly better than a series of relationships where you are chasing that perfect person?

Why?

Why must exams be 3 hours?

Why not two?

Why not four?

Is it medically proven that the person's best abilities can be revealed in three hours? Or is it that after three hours everyone's abilities come close to each other, and make the entire contest much closer? Or is it that three hours gives everyone enough time to make an impact? Or is it that three hours are just convenient to manage logistics? (much like why tv programs are half an hour, purely for programming convenience)

Interesting facts

Yesterday, internet usage statistics in the united states showed some interesting numbers:

1. The women now are the majority of internet users. About 100 million internet users in America are women. That translates to a lot of internet users.
2. The Mckinsey Quarterly starts with

The rising popularity of user-driven online services, including MySpace, Wikipedia, and YouTube, has drawn attention to a group of technological developments known as Web 2.0.

If the premier management consulting firm on the planet can define Web 2.0 before starting an article, it speaks rather poorly about their expected knowledge of their target users, which are the premier users on the planet. Furthermore, this article has a series of quite shocking facts. first of all, the only purpose of this survey by McKinsey has been to go to CIO's with questionnaires. Musn't the Big Mac be doing more evaluation than reporting?

What is Web 2.0? Web 2.0 is the intrinsic power of the community. Interestingly, organizations in the Mckinsey survey, 42% of them, felt that they should have invested more in the company's internal capabilities. That internal capability is as web 2.0. Exhibit 4 is a particular blinder: "Interest is high in India", because 80% more investment would be found in this country, than the others in the list. The sad part is, every company seems to think that the internet is about web services. When the internet now is really about: you. And that's what Web 3.0, 4.0 and so on will be. Because the internet only mirrors mankind. And mankind is stepping towards that gigantic force: you.

Every human heartbeat...

...is a universe of possibilities.



This is Haji Ali. The mosque of Bombay. The place where millions of devotees appear every year, looking for wisdom, for a place where they can close their eyes and feel one with the universe. Haji Ali depicts everything that Mumbai stands for: Peace, passion, poverty, power, poise and grandeur. Much like Shantaram.

Shantaram is the story of Gregory David Roberts, a remarkable person with a remarkable life. He goes from marriage to prison to a prison-break to India, where he comes to understand how India was the answer to all the questions he ever had about life. On the run from prison and in the search for freedom, he comes to realise that the real freedom is the freedom to forgive. He stays in slums, meets Indians, and confronts truth for the first time in life. Truth, as Karla said, was the bully that we all pretend to like.

He travels, meets some of the most profound thinkers in the country who are incidentally in the guise of the underworld of Mumbai. He is touched by Islam, and muslim philosophy. He understands the futility of war, and that the real soldier is not one who attacks, but one who has the most power to endure. He touches the lives of thousands in slums, lives with them, and battles on, in a country where two hours of water in the tap was considered a luxury. He lives India, and loves India. And in his conflicts with the most powerful experiences of his life, from the underworld to the war in afghanistan to months of heroin addiction, he comes to realise that there is no power that is quite so powerful as that of love. And in the end, as the stars appeared in the endlessness of the sky, he realises that very often, love came with no choice, and to forgive a lover was the only way to move on. When he holds his father's dead and frozen face in his hands, he realises that hate was yet a manifestation of love.

He looks at blood in the eye, as he watches while his friends are bleeding to death from the aftermath of a mortar attack. In all the evil of the war, he understands the difference between honor and virtue. In this journey, he differentiates between the sin and the crime. He learns good and evil, and understands that while he thought he was doing good, he was still doing evil for the right reasons. When he meets the one person in the world he always wanted to kill, he is astonished with the feeling of shame, rather than with that of revenge. He realises that in his weak enemy, he was looking at his own destiny, if he couldn't rid his heart of its vindictiveness. In all the tragedies of life, when everyone moves on, it is often hope that can keep life going. It is that hope which can push or brave hearts into the promise of a new day.

As you read Shantaram, you realise that if you had the wonderful talent of the author to weave emotions in words, this is precisely how you would describe your love. This is exactly how you would lament your failures. This is how you would share your triumphs, and this is how you would cry for your loved ones.

I hope you enjoy Shantaram as much as I did.

Machaan

Every once in a while, you realize that there are places in every city that are a piece of its culture. They are so deeply engrained in the city’s daily life that everyone knows and loves the place. Machaan is to Gurgaon what the hard rock café is to London, Casinos are to Las Vegas, and “Paradise” Biryani is to Hyderabad.

Machaan is a part of every call-center Gurgaon employee as much as his headset, his computer, and his late night life are. Legend goes that there is no form of food or drink or intoxication that cannot be arranged at Machaan. Nobody really knows when Machaan fully closes, and nobody really cares. The policemen look the other way, because they know that Gurgaon without Machaan would not be worth living anymore.

Machaan is nestled in the heart of Gurgaon, surrounded by huge buildings and call centers. The number of Qualis’ and other BPO cars are so overwhelming that you often cannot find a place to park for miles. When you walk in, the first thing that strikes you is the sheer diversity of people sitting with each other, in complete harmony, as one with the road beside which Machaan stands. The lady in hot pants, the executives in blazers, and the middle aged family with children: They all are equally a part of the Machaan culture. In the dark of the night, no-one cares any longer. Everyone is on their best behavior, largely because no-one bothers to look at anyone. Most people can also climb a ladder, to the roof of Machaan, to enjoy an evening in the sky, with a view of India, as it stands, 57 years after independence. It’s the middle of the night, and Gurgaon makes everyone stay up all night. The new city is expensive, racy and keeps everyone on their toes. Everyone sits in the open, on simple plastic chairs, non-air-conditioned in the sultry summer night, listening to the wonderful ghazals playing in the background. At this moment, everyone is reminded that it takes very little to keep life happy. The buildings, the fast life, the expense: it all seems like a waste of time at Machaan.

No one really understands Machaan’s business model. Most people believe it wasn’t even built to make any money. It is located on prime property in Gurgaon, but a group of eight-ten people can still finish a great evening under thousand rupees. They sit all evening, enjoying the simple pleasures of life. When they decide to leave, when they decide its time to get back to the tensions of a new city, they leave. And Machaan watches, as they step out into the dusty road, into the jungle of sparkling buildings, back to a night of work. And Machaan breathes on, and a new set of ambitious youngsters step in.

Incredible marketing

One of the biggest problems tourists to India face, is that they often get cheated by touts and guides. They often never experience the true hospitality of an Indian, and many foreign tourists leave the country without ever met an Indian. An Indian, I can assure you, can be a truly memorable experience. Also, with real estate prices rising, the cost of hotels is extremely expensive, and this could discourage a lot of tourists from coming to India.

In an extremely intelligent marketing concept, the Incredible India campaign has come up with a Bed and Breakfast scheme, where Indian families can play host to foreign families, with a bed and breakfast scheme. They can play host to foreign families, and give them a taste of Indian hospitality. These facilities would be classified as Gold and Silver accomodations. These establishments, which could be your house or mine, would soon be publicised along with the other establishments, and the tourists would pay and stay at these places. Efforts would also be made to train them on hospitality. However, I would reckon that no hotel management Institute can teach the hospitality that every Indian is born with.

Very fascinating, what a government department can do with a bit of imagination. And what a concept to take India to the commonwealth games 2010. Does this happen in other countries as well?

Reactions

In a classic media knee-jerk reaction to the new BCCI rule that Indian players should only endorse two products at any given point in time, they display a clear lack of understanding of player valuations and some basic economics. Most people are saying that players should not be disallowed to have contracts, because this is the only time they can earn money in their life.

There is a certain screen exposure that the audience would accept. If the player agrees to as many contracts as possible, he would charge a certain amount per contract. If he is allowed only 3 contracts, then his price per contract would shoot up. The player would not stand to lose any money at any rate. Precisely the same reason why the prices of oil keep rising, while the supply remains controlled. And if they can negotiate well enough, maybe they can now earn even more than before.

Now can we get on with our next mighty and insurmountable challenge, the India tour of Bangladesh?

The social cost of cars

This has been in the news lately, CNN-IBN did a feature, CSE has done their research, and Swaminathan Ankleswar Aiyer decided to lend it authenticity by writing a Swaminomics article about it: What is the social cost of cars in the country? Is it adequate that the owners of cars pay the cost of the car, and a one time road tax? Must they not be taxed further, and this amount to compensate for the social costs of a car?

In India, real estate is more in premium than anywhere in the world. This is due to the sheer size of the population. Despite this, Delhi's parking rates are about 5% of the average in a comparable place like New York City. Residential areas in Delhi are expensive. 20% of the real estate in delhi is occupied by roads, and 11% of real estate in Delhi is occupied by parked cars. Respiratory and other polluation related diseases are the number one cause of death in India. The time lost by traffic and the late landing of aircrafts in delhi airport are huge. The social costs of cars are staggering, but are they being addressed appropriately?

In not imposing this social cost on cars, we are having the following negative effects. For one, We do not make a legitimate income from parking which could be used in improving roads and traffic conditions. Secondly, We do not discourage users from car pooling and reducing their parking space. Thirdly, we are allowing the number of cars to increase indiscriminately on the roads. Look at the numbers: The sales of car s have risen by 20% in 2006. The percentage devoted to roads is not increasing in our big cities. Residential and commercial rates are increasing, but parking rates are not increasing at the same rate.

And most of all, the biggest ecological disaster of them all, the Tata one lakh car. Once this is in the market, would the number of cars double? Would India be able to take the social impact? As a country, would we survive it?

Why not alone?

Everytime I tell a friend that I watched a movie the previous day in one of the 21,000 malls beside my house in Gurgaon, the first question eventually is, "with whom?" If I manage to utter the unmentionable, that I watched it by myself, he looks at me like I watched the a rakhi sawant anchored "great indian laugher show" in loop six times.

I have always failed to understand our obsession with the society. The society must approve. The society must accompany. The society must not think you are crazy. I think this spirit has made us miss one of the greatest joys of the 21st century: watching a movie by yourself. Lets evaluate it closely.

Option 1:
You want to watch a movie. You know its playing near your house. But what do you do? You try calling up every friend of yours, wondering if they would want to join you. Finally, one does. For starters, you meet in a common place. You get some lunch. Then you loiter around the mall. 2 hours wasted.

Option 1.1: Finally, its the ticket counter, where you realise that the show is almost full, and two tickets are not next to each other. Or both tickets are not available. Rather than break the solemn oath of friendship, both of you decide not to watch the movie. After this thoroughly disgusting experience, you console yourself and make a plan for another day. You get back home, wishing you had watched the movie, because it was work the next day and you wouldn't get the time to watch it again for weeks.
Option 1.2: You go to the ticket counter, and the tickets are available. Your friend, however, always eats popcorn with his movie. You didn't know that? You wait with him in the counter to buy popcorn. Nahee nahee yaar, its ok. Movies here always start late By the time you get back, Amitabh Bachchan's tragic childhood, the fulcrum of the story for the next two hours, is finished. But the friend doesn't quite catch that. He starts bothering you every ten minutes with details of why Vijay wants to prove to his mother that he can make money. Once in a while, he lets out a an embarrassing bellow of laughter and slaps his thighs. You look around, and sink lower in your seat, lest you are recognized.

Option 2:
You want to watch a movie. You walk down to the nearest mall. You catch the movie. You appreciate it thoroughly, because the movie is now an experience between you and the movie-maker. You can connect with the soul of the movie, without popcorn or coke to ruin the experience. You finish in time for dinner. You get back home, eat and sleep peacefully. Its work the next day. 3 hours. Thats all it took.

You must try it sometime: A lot of fun.

Mature Decision-making

In recent times, no issue has raised a further havoc in Indian politics, as that of the Special Economic Zones. These are tax free incentivised zones where private organizations would set up "pockets of economic brilliance". It would enable business to foster in an environment of good infrastructure, reduced taxation, and minimal red tape. This concept was lifted from China, and was ambitiously set up in the country.

However, with the Nandhigram SEZ proving a disaster, and the Singur tata plant causing a furore, the government was faced with a decision to make certain reforms in their process of allotting SEZ's. As this policy went to an empowered committee, in line with the usual knee-jerk reactions of the government, one could expect the worst. However, what emerged was surprisingly intelligent.

1. The size for an SEZ is reduced to a cap of 5000 hectares (about 12500 acres)
2. The Government shall not involve itself in land acquisition (which it never should have)
3. This enables the smaller developers to get their show on the road. Immediately, about 80 developers would get their approval and can get their show on the road
4. The minimum processing area goes up from 35% to 50%

First of all, it sounds like all the rules are quite favorable to the entrepreneur, as it would be to the economy. The only catch is, if the enterprise has to buy land from the market, then why is there a cap on the 5000 hectares? The way I see it, that one was for the communists. To this, the private businesses would be looking for workarounds, by building two SEZ's close to one another, 5000 hectares each. Maybe more. But the great aspect of this policy is, that things are beginning to move. The clearances are coming, because the government is involving itself minimally. The opposition cannot make it a political game. These are exciting times...

Must ITC-ians smoke?

The biggest campus stories these days are about those ITC recruits from IIM campuses who have either started smoking after joining ITC, or increased their intake of cigarettes. I also came to know about some people who have been smoking for over two decades now at ITC.

For one, I find those figures shocking. This brings me to the important question. Second, I was further appalled to note that the company policy was that it was left to every individual's choice. If they felt it was the right thing to do, ITC would not object.

If it is indeed true that the employees of ITc significantly increase their intake of tobacco after joining the company, then is the company failing in its duty to its employees, by letting them smoke? Must the company not warn its employees that they must not consume nicotine beyond certain levels, because it is provenly carcinogenic?

However, if they did, would they be acknowledging the fact that cigarette smoking can be addictive, and they are causing harm to the society by selling the cigarette? I think this could actually be a moral dilemma that might be unique to the company. ITC holds almost a monopoly in the cigarette business. In fact, it has over 90% in some states like Kerala. Would it want to throw it all away, in a simple email to its employees to take care? And if it does not, is it failing in its duty to care?

What is the right path?