First few days at IIM-Calcutta

If I have to summarize my initial brush with IIM-C, in a nutshell it would be a simple one liner - Astounding. I was always fascinated and taken by the fact that I would have to spend an entire one year with phenomenal candidates from diverse backgrounds. And the fascination took shape with all its whims and chimeras perfectly grounded in real world.


Diversity is an understatement when we talk about the kind of people we have in our batch. From Entrepreneurs to PSU stalwarts, from manufacturing sector to financial number crunchers, from Indian Army to devout programmers - we have it all. And the various viewpoints contributed by all in a simple discussion invariably take the form of an intense debate. Tonight while taking a stroll at IIMC and licking the molten drops of chocobars(humidity at this place abets the liquification process) few of my batch mates vigorously debated on various contemporary issues. It reminded me of my IIT days when we would spend hours debating on inconsequential and trivial matters.

The "various viewpoints" all of us brought-out is an apt reminder of(or should I say precursor to...)an intellectually stimulating year ahead. The sojourn has just started and I am all positively charged-up to suck up every ounce of information floating around.

Signing of for now.!!

Bookworm : Ain't a parasite

As I had so much free time last month, I indulged myself in reading - an avocation which I heavily inculcated during my Roorkee days. Typically, I would try to read a wide range of books in order to gain information on disparate industries and ideologies. Here are the books that I read last month.


Sam Wyly : 1000 dollars and an Idea

Samuel Wyly is an American entrepreneur, businessman and philanthropist. He is one of the lesser known entrepreneurs who dabbled with disparate ideas and made it big. Though this book is not his autobiography, however, it reflects his sharp business acumen, tenacity and perseverance. The way he astutely shaped businesses - from Bonanza Steakhouse to Michaels - is a testament of his indomitable spirit and passion in building something new. All by himself he waged an anti-monopoly battle against AT&T and eventually won it and in the process provided some refreshing insights of the innards of the powerhouse. This man is not Bill Gates or Sam Walton, but an archetype entrepreneur who can sense profit even in the bleakest of times.

Shashank Mani: India - A Journey through a Healing Civilization

This masterpiece from a fellow IITian reinforces the fact that engineers can write, and that too for a cause.This book vividly captures a very unique train journey across India organized by the author in the year 1997. The purpose of the journey was to get a sense of the changes that had engulfed India in the past fifty years of independence, and what needed to be accomplished in order to stamp its authority in the world. 200 Indians from different walks of life traveled together, discussed among themselves the issues that bothered them as citizens, possible solutions to fight corruption and kindle a new spirit of entrepreneurship. Read this book to understand the infinite potential of our generation.

Charles Fishman : The Walmart effect

If you have an MBA you must have read about the commonplace management terms such as changing landscapes, competitive landscape and producer-retailer relationships. Brace yourself up, as Charles Fishman takes you through a whirlwind tour of a company named Walmart, whose effect in the economy is so pronounced that those management terms make no sense any more. This book was essentially an eye opener for me as it turns upside down the concepts of distribution channel, supply chain and retail in general. Before reading this book, I could never have thought that an economy as robust and flexible as US's would be so vulnerable to the changing trends of Walmart.

Malcolm Gladwell: Tipping point

A very intriguing book by this journalist who demonstrated with numerous examples the sociological term Tipping point - the level at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable - and made a real case out of it. I mean, the way he used the term in such disparate social and political settings is itself noteworthy and makes his case even more credible and potent.

Jyoti Sanyal : Indlish, the book for every English speaking Indian

This veteran "Statesman" editor wages an all-out war against circumlocutions and pompous style of English writing. He coined the term Indlish: The Indian way of writing English. According to Sanyal, Indlish is something that got passed on from the Victorian age and is used unremittingly by journalists, officials and the educated class. Such archaic this style is that it clouds the actual meaning of a sentence or a paragraph thereby creating a false sense of intellectual superiority. Sanyal is a huge proponent of Clear English Writing and his book is such an enjoyable read.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr : Who says elephants can't dance?

This book is an account of IBM's historic turnaround as told by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., the chairman and CEO of IBM from April 1993 until March 2002. I am still reading this book hence would provide my after-thoughts later.

Travails of Travel

Ever since we first migrated to the US in the year 2005, we are always on the move; moving 4 times in equal number of years. And, each time the move has been increasingly painful and energy sapping. In our last move from San Francisco to Delhi, which incidentally happened just a couple of days back, we experienced the various "well-planned-turned-awry" ordeals of travel.Little did we know, that we would be the protagonists of the stories which we used to savor and enjoy at the expense of someone else's sufferings.

Our travails started when we checked in at the SFO airport. Most of our luggages were overweight(though a few pounds) and one carry-on bag exceeded the eligibility-dimension allowed by Cathay Pacific. And, understandably the airline representative would not budge. Even after repeated solicitations we had to finally resort to re-distributing the items in order to meet the prescribed weight limits. Six bags, flung open in public on the airport concourse provided a gateway to the innards of the kuila family. And, travelers, who were waiting in the line for their turn to check-in, enjoyed(I could hear their intermittent chuckles and feel their riveting eyes) the incident with utmost pleasure.Eventually, we managed to re-package all the excess luggage, but had to get rid of a carry-on bag. It was the same bag which the representative speculated would not fit in the overhead-bins;Surprisingly, when I boarded the flight, I saw numerous carry-ons much larger than mine. Come to think of it, I guess it was the most grueling hour and half of my life.However, the first leg of our travel(SFO-Delhi) was a very comfortable one. Cathay Pacific has generously upgraded its long-haul flights. The seats were much more ergonomic and chic, the personal TV system was bigger and better(high resolution thus providing a striking clarity) and the entertainment system was loaded with an array of games,songs,documentaries and movies. The movies section indeed had a wide variety of collection, ranging from old Hollywood classics such as Citizen Kane, Casablanca and Taxi Driver to the new releases such as Appaloosa, Eagle eye and Lakeview Terrace. The TV infotainment section also featured Nat Geo and Discovery documentaries, popular sitcoms including Larry David's "Curb your enthusiasm", Friends, Seth MacFarlane's adult comic strip "The Family Guy" and much viewed travel programmes such as The Lonely Planet and Antarctic Expeditions. I was impressed by the offerings.

The next phase of our agonies came in the form of Indian customs. Apparently, the six bags we were lugging around raised the antennae of the custom inspectors at the Delhi airport. As a consequence,we were detained for some time as they(Indian Customs) fancied that I was smuggling a stuffed eagle. Turned out it was a decorative metal piece of bald-eagle I purchased in Alaska. While I was taking out the required suitcase from the stroller for inspection, the wobbly cart buckled under weight resulting in a collapse of all the suitcases which were perched comfortably on it. The tumbling down hard-top suitcases nearly crushed my toe but I managed to wrench it out in the nick of time.Even though the wait was relatively painless, but for a weary and jaded traveler who just experienced a never-ending 24 hour journey,the wait was enough to throw one in a complete disarray.

This write-up would not be complete if I do not dedicate a few lines to the tacit and unwieldy travel companions - Luggages. Maneuvering those heavy luggages(Bringing them down from our 1st floor apartment in Fremont and then dragging them back to our first floor house in Delhi)provided me with some endurance tests. For a person who always considered himself as a fit and a powerful man, the pulling and pushing of these luggages offered a serious reality check. Though I managed to drive those bags around, the lingering memories of the travel are still afresh(in the form of back and body aches),reminding me of the ordeal I had to undergo.

Though it was a journey braided with joys and sufferings, this travel made me understand one fundamental fact, which hitherto used to be my wife's constant complain every time we moved(I could never relate to her as I hardly helped her in the packing during all our moves). A move of any sort, be it inter-state or inter-continental, aint fun.

Understanding Indian Psyche

Melting Pot of Civilizations, Salad Bowl of the Orient, Emerging Superpower : These are phrases which are hardly unknown to anyone. Even if you are an ignorant bozo, you might have definitely come across these collection of words. To cut to the chase, these are new bynames with which India is referred to these days. Under this global recognition and megalomaniac veneer(which the services industry has created thereby catapulting India to the global platform)exists a different India : An India where citizens of one state are reluctant to mix with natives of other states; An India where the palpable chasm between the northern and southern states are rapidly widening(with politicians adding fuel to the fire); An India where politicians foment anger in the name of religion; An India whose citizens do not respect the National Flag - So much so that I was ridiculed once(in US) by fellow so-called educated Indians, when I stood up while the Indian national anthem was being played; An India where corruption is rampant; An India where the young generation refuses to understand the essence and value of freedom; An India where the word "patriotism" has lost its meaning in the darkest corners of a labyrinth;An India where the
guardians of our state intend to control the flow of human traffic by erecting virtual porous sieves - to separate "Marathi Manoos" from the "Bihari Bhaiyyas"; An India where the country unites only when it wins a inconsequential cricket match or when a oblique reference to Pakistan has been made.

In this write-up, I do not intend to hurl my pent-up anger towards my fellow countrymen. But, I do intend to bring to light some behaviors of us which are beyond my comprehension.

Case in Point: The same person who does not even think twice before spitting out a mouthful of red betel leaf(paan) on roads and heritage monuments in India would never indulge himself/herself in the same act in US. And, I have seen highly educated people in India conscientiously litter monuments despite standing next to a trash can.

Case in Point: In BayArea Diwali mela, I have witnessed my impassive and frivolous countrymen savoring "chole bhature and dahi-papdi" without paying any heed to the Indian National Anthem that was being played at that moment. And I am not talking about a few ignominious souls but a good size of the attendees. These same individuals would be the first one to stand, in order to pay respect to the "Star Spangled Banner(US National Anthem)" as if by doing so, Uncle Sam would expedite their Green-Card processing.

To me, disrespecting National Anthem is tantamount to criminal offense and if I were given the power, I would scrupulously prosecute each and every one of the culprits to the fullest extent of law. What is even more disgraceful is that these are well-educated technocrats who are the torch-bearers of progressive India. On the contrary these are the same people who do not have the slightest regard for their National Anthem. If that is the fallout of a world class education I would prefer to remain a hobo.

It really makes me wonder what prompts this paradigm shift in behavior when we start living in a foreign country. Does it mean, in India, we deliberately indulge in these kind of activities without the slightest fear of retribution or does it mean that we are scared of the stringent regulations, strict martinets in the form of cops and the specter of deportation in the alien lands? My guess would be the later.

Fascination with Monikers

Flaunting has always been in the genes of all Indians. Crass display of opulence and wealth has so far been a symbol of one's status and power. Be it a wedding or materialistic toys such as cars and gadgets and even holidays abroad,Indians have left no stone unturned to make their monetary arrogance more pronounced.

Lately the same attitude is becoming ostentations in the professional field as well. Fascination with Professional Monikers is the "in-thing" and fad these days. What social networking sites have done(in aiding to that monetary insolence - Many have used orkut as a tool to show the world certain aspects of life which I feel should be personal: On proud display these days are pictures of newly bought houses, swanky cars and pictures of couple cozy-up on the hills of Swiss Alps) at the personal front, Linked-In has done the same in the professional. Everyone these days is a director, a vice-president, a technical architect or a founder. Come on guys give me a break!!! These are very venerated roles in the Industry and I have witnessed new kids in the block with 3-4 years of professional experience assuming these positions. Not so much for their caliber but for their sole desire to flash these gaudy sobriquets. As if we don't know how many years it takes to assume those revered positions.Some had made a mockery of these roles and some used these designations solely to hobnob and distribute visiting cards among the so-called successful business man,in the name of networking.

Beholding so many morons assuming these positions makes me wonder the ominous metamorphosis the IT industry has undergone and how loosely these appellations are thrown around these days with impunity.

Leave Me Alone!!!

The excessive attention of the media, authors and film directors towards India has produced a plethora of works which people in the West, including the so-called intellectuals just lap up in a moment's notice. The opportunistic media has metamorphosed from days of yore - India was then the archetype third world country, a land of snake-charmers - to a rising superpower(pun intended) needed to be tamed to maintain the balance of power in South Asia. It hardly bothers me that journos and authors of Western capitalist countries fill their coffers by projecting filth, squalor,inhumane living conditions,violation of human rights and chinks in the democratic armor of the largest democracy of the world. It also hardly bothers me that books on Asian contexts are sold primarily in the West - the rich countries thereby enjoy a vicarious pleasure and gloat over the deplorable state of affairs in the developing countries. What bothers me is that each one of them state the obvious facts(As if, we are not cognizant of our own sufferings) and do not propose a solution. NY Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman, in his book "World is flat" talks about everything else but the steps South Asian countries should take in order to keep the world flatter,thereafter. Even renowned HBS professor Tarun Khanna in his book "Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours" glosses over the most important aspects of the 21st century and stresses on aspects which only make headlines in the academic case studies.

A simple perusal of the library racks would provide you with enough testament that every Tom, Dick and Harry notwithstanding their journalistic prowess, flair of writing and depth of subject-knowledge have written books on India and China; And they keep on procreating(read producing) the same shit over and over again. Plagiarism is an understatement. In our lifetime we have/will witnessed/witness a glut of movies based on the life of the destitutes and slum dwellers of Mumbai - the latest being "SlumDog Millionaire". Though its a cinematic marvel,it is overtly palpable that this movie was made keeping in mind the "Golden Globes" and the "Oscars". Otherwise, how would you explain an uneducated slum native speaking in suave English accent? Simple, the movie was meant for western audience(eye-candies for the jury).If you believe in the-matter-of-fact data, tell me "How many full-length western movies(I am not talking about You-tube uploads) have you seen which portray the aesthetic and powerful vignettes of India"?

Here, worthy of mention is selfless westerner John Wood(http://www.leavingmicrosoftbook.com/author.html) who quit his position as Microsoft's Director of Business Development for the Greater China Region in order to found Room to Read. I offer my sincere respect to self-denying individuals such as John and not authors, commentators or journalists who write about poverty from their cushy Manhattan apartments.

Leave me alone is the cry of my motherland.

Jack..I swear

For those, who have intense dislike and distaste for queer or socially unacceptable movies made on the themes of gay and lesbianism, Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain is a must watch. This movie making genius has taken an unconventional concept(Remember the story took place in the year 1963) and made it into a mainstream movie - so much so that for a person like me, who can never understand a love-bond between two men, still empathized with the relationship Jack Twist and Ennie Del Mar shared. An individual growing up in Wyoming would undoubtedly have a desolate childhood and finding love and solace in another man, for someone who had limited brush with humanity is a very natural association in my opinion. This provides an immense credibility and a touch of realism to the story.

Love is nondiscriminatory. Heart makes no such differentiation when it comes to the all important question - "For whom should I beat and for whom should I beat faster?". And, Ang Lee very adeptly portrayed this vulnerability of a human heart in this movie - Brokeback Mountain.

This reminds me of another movie on the same subject - Gus Van Sant's Milk. Harvey Milk(Played by Sean Penn, who won this year's Critics Award for his role in Milk) was the first elected gay official and he orchestrated a state encompassing gay and lesbian revolution in San Francisco urging the members of this gay-community to stand for their rights.

Oh, by the way this poignant and heart breaking movie ends with the intriguing words Ennie Del Mar remorsefully muttered under his breath - 'Jack, I swear.......'

PS: Edna Annie Proulx - the writer of the short story, Brokeback Mountain certainly deserves accolades for penning a book on a subject which was considered anti-biblical and heretical in the year 1963.

The Whims Of An Indian Mind

This is a post I wrote a few years back and was published by Sulekha.com.

A vacillating pendulum…
An incongruous mélange of distinct and disparate ideas…
A cauldron full of vigorously stirred gravy…

All these similes are different ways to address the Indian minds of the Pepsi-Generation -- Each a wavering mind with googols of unwavering ideas… So tortured, abused and confused the Indian minds are, it's like standing on a crossroad, bewildered as to which road to take -- some roads less traveled, some so frequently trudged by the peripatetic Indian middle-class that it seems a hackneyed theme of Bollywood movies. It's like a baby in a topless bar amazed by the meretricious melodrama and the histrionics of the role players. Sucked in the vortex of the “Chutney Culture”, Indian minds are baffled as to which culture to ape, what decisions to make and what goals to fulfill. The offshoots of this generation find it very difficult to balance their life on an even keel, when the juggernaut of the western culture is running over them, the goblin of parental and peer pressure haunts them, and the constant urge to deny the run-of-the-mill careers prods them.

This is the generation I belong to, and I proudly proclaim that I am an integral part of this culture which has forcibly reposed on us a generation whose mere existence and integrity is questionable.

When I was an infant just becoming familiar with the rudiments of day-to-day life, I was attracted to the game of football. It was a very conventional dream as I was born in the Mecca of Indian football -- Kolkata. I consider myself an offshoot of a typical passionate Bengali mindset which sleeps, eats and thinks football (though there might be a slight digression now due to the advent of Saurav Ganguly). Then came the 1983 World Cup triumph of the Indian team -- the best ever gift the Indian team has so far given to the cricket fanatics and aficionados. We witnessed the peroxide debut of Demigod Sachin in the realms of Indian Cricket, a valid raison d'etre for the Indian enthusiasts to get back to the usual business of showing more inclination towards cricket. And the sub-continental inclination of the junta towards cricket also ensnared me… There was a major focus shift… from football to cricket… The person remains the same. Aspirations changed. Still I was an Iconoclast.

So a new chapter of my life was unveiled. A new beginning. A new epoch. An invasion in the world of cricket. At that time, my mind was always occupied with different facets of the game. The “straight drive” of Sachin, the “square cut” of Dravid, the “off drive” of the Prince of Kolkata, and the wristy “flicks” of Azhar: These were the shots which I used to rehearse in my dreams, mustering and earning hearty accolades from the spectators.

When I used to wake up, I would again be absorbed in the humdrum existence of my life. The same boring school, the same monotonous lectures. Gradually I was being sucked more and more into a mechanical life -- a prosaic life that my parents etched for me. The dream was still a dream -- unfulfilled and unrealized. The relentless desire continued sans sense of implementation.

The failure to cling to my goal drove me crazy. I was frequently haunted by nightmares. I lost confidence not because I was not able to make it, but because of surmounted pressures from many directions that prevented me from taking the plunge. But I was high on self-confidence. I used to boast on the apothegm that: “Had I been given a chance I would have made it.” A malicious satisfaction and gratification I enjoyed.

During my IIT days, a sudden brush with a literary genius, the king of satire and subtle humor changed my outlook. A consummate metamorphosis. I realized the depth, passion, sensation, emotion and the sapidity of Literature. The genius was none other than P. G. Wodehouse. How vapid can one's life be without the nuances and sumptuousness of literature!

I was very much into literature, but definitely not at the cost of my engineering studies. It was a nice blend of fiction and non-fiction, naturalism and surrealism. I wanted to be a writer. But who knew what destiny had coined for me. History repeated itself. I again succumbed under parental pressure. Again back to engineering studies. The voluminous Mass Transfer equations and the complex Iron Carbon diagrams slowly annihilated the creative genius. A desire was nipped at the bud .A gleam of hope cauterized.

This is what an Indian mind of the “Information Overload” generation is. A mind so completely unorganized and chaotic.

On the contrary, the mind is potent; hardly wilts under pressure and has the necessary forte to adhere to one's aspirations.

Parental and peer pressure bulldozes and influences one's decision to choose a career of his/her choice.

Is this the reason why an Indian mind is so turbulent?
Is this the reason why an Indian mind is so vulnerable?
Is this the reason why an Indian mind is so precarious?

No, certainly not.

Is it justified to single out a reason for the fluidity of an Indian mind?
Is it justified to ghettoize and incriminate the parent community?

It's their peer pressure and social status which eventually translates into parental pressure. It's their unrealized dreams that they want to realize. Who else can realize that better than their own progenies? A realization which yields vicarious pleasure.

So what can be the reason of such Instability?

Reasons are manifold. Some tangible, some intangible. Some self-created and some reposed by a generation.

But there is no point seeking the answer for an unanswerable and subjective question.

What is answerable is: “How to subjugate the state of instability lurking in the minds?”

The answer is simple and succinct. Stick to the dreams. Dreams are unlimited. What matters is the audacity to fulfill those.

Woes Of An Office Going Bachelor!

This is a post I wrote a few years back and was published by Sulekha.com.

My halcyon night is over. Nightmare is about to begin. The incubus of the “snarling traffic” looms large on me. The horror distinctly writ large on my face. The painful morning ablutions and the harrowing experience of attending the “Nature's Call” (bearing the impressionist view of my inside, with regards to the oily stuffed Paratha, Dal Tadka and a pint of Hayward's 5000 I had at Medchal road Dhaba last evening) makes my life a more constipated one. The prologue is over, stretching the next histrionics of searching an ironed pair of cloth. “Gosh!” there is none. “How can I be so stupid?” I strongly detest my perennial amnesia and negligence bordering on remiss. How long did I try to desquamate this Bohemian outlook?

My first jaunt of the day starts with the search for a dhobi. Steady on the motorbike, electrified hair standing out as if I had a small stint under the Van de graph generator, wrapped around with unironed clothes, one pair of trousers hanging from my neck ducking fleeting glances and furrowed stares of the passersby. After combing the neighbourhood, I finally met a dhobi and got my work done. Hurried back to my nest and scampered into the bathroom for a French bath. Buddy even French bath needs water! It's 9 'o clock and according to the society rules the end of morning water supply. Scurried down to the ground floor for another hunt. This time the hapless person is the chowkidar. After lots of pleading and soliciting, I finally managed to woo him and turn on the water supply for a few more minutes, but that made me poorer by 10 bucks.

Eventually a baton-holder of the so-called glamorous yet unexciting IT industry, a software engineer is ready to make a move to his office which happens to be in a different “District” (Rangareddy) altogether. Till now I was disillusioned by the internal speed breakers which bear the direct repercussions of my own nonperformance. A still larger and an external impediment waits to waylay me. It's the glut of traffic that's heading towards Begumpet. The flow of traffic resembles the gushing out of river Ganga from the Gangotri glacier. Relentless and unstoppable. It's my turn now to be a part of the rocky and bouldery journey parrying the rapids and circumambulating the rugged countenance of the slithery traffic.

So my imminent journey starts. This journey has its own enigma. A charm dangerously inviting. To add to the woes, the inhabitants of Hyderabad have very insignificant traffic sense. The slithery traffic, ceaseless honking of autorickshwas, purring of the state transport buses emitting loads and loads of obnoxious gases asphyxiating the already polluted atmosphere. The array of noises emanating from the rickshaws in Hyderabad ranges from a tinge of mellifluousness to the Caw-Cawing of an ugly raven (ones which are fitted with those black ravenous hooters). You can feel the gust of wind when a zooming Fiero or CBZ passes by, making you a bit jittery and for a fleeting second forces you to wonder whether you are traveling on a normal tarmac or an airport runway. The propensity of the youth in Hyderabad is to touch the higher echelons (Speed 80-100) of the speedometer leaving the dregs to the mercy of the middle-aged. A harmless 40 in the speedometer is the most harmful one never know who whacks you from behind. Jumping the gun (here the gun is the ubiquitous Red Light which stands as a sovereign and silent witness to the collapse of the traffic-rules by the “Gung-Ho” unruly mob), two-wheelers in full throttle, altercation of pedestrians, gasping of the puny Luna and Moped sandwiched between the gigantic Hyderabad State Transport buses, cacophony of sounds, paunch-studded policemen embezzling money from two gentlemen (their demeanor astutely suggests that they can hardly commit any trivial crime, leave aside breaking traffic rules) whereas the raunchy drivers go scot-free -- all these are the salient features of the Nawabi roads of my dearest city.

Guys strutting their stuff snugly placed on their two-wheelers trying to vicariously molest the office-going babes. The ogles had such intensity that they can even strip a heavily adorned torso. These “stripping stares” hardly differentiates an emaciated figure with a lascivious lissome form as long as it's the opposite sex. The “reciprocate stares” were always a blend of scorn and indignation. You can witness all these cameos during the sojourn from home to office, which makes the otherwise hackneyed journey a defining one.

The “capability of procreation” is phenomenal for the Hyderabad roads. Every morning I wake up to wage a war with the increasing number of vehicles on the tarmac, and as a result the time taken to cross the stretch from Begumpet to Panjagutta increases in geometric progression. The incessant honking of the omni-present autorickshwas and the careless drivers of the two and four-wheelers makes me sweat profusely under the helmet.

The scalding heat and the snail-paced traffic adds to the woes of a well-dressed software engineer. Slowly and steadily, a narrow slimy tract of sweat started to adorn the back of my shirt leaving behind big patches of stained blobs. Somehow huffing puffing I reached the Lifestyle flyover where the traffic was blocked by a fracas erupted between two elderly people. Unmindful of the waiting traffic, they tried to manhandle each other wasting precious time of the office-goers. And to my befuddlement, people perched on their vehicles happily witnessing the two street-smart senior citizens fighting for their democracy in the most undemocratic manner. The situation came under control when a policeman intervened and pocketed a handsome tip from both the contenders. When I made a cursory glance at my watch, I realized that I traveled the stretch between Shoppers' Stop to Lifestyle in one hour. Luckily, there were no further hiccups before I reached my office. By the time I reached office, the fragrance of my deodorant had given way to a putrid smell… and a nauseating sojourn to office had given way to an even more fiery reception from my boss… I was late…

Hells Angel - Mother Teresa

Some Interesting documentaries on Mother Teresa. Christopher Hitchens in his documentary has portrayed Mother Teresa as a guardian of Christianity who never had any motive to alleviate poverty or raise the dispossessed from the clutches of deprivation. Atanu Dey, in his blog has vented out his exasperation on the subject here.







By the way, on a side note :Hells Angels(HAMC) is a notorious and outlawed motorcycle gang which demands - by virtue of its widespread terror - a rightful and credible mention in the US gangwar folklore.

Historic Overkill

United States has always been at the forefront of capitalism and a quintessential example of a Capitalist country. It has gone so overboard with the concept of free market economy that in order to promote tourism(read to make money),it has termed every road, scenic route, river, building, lane and even patio as HISTORIC. Any passing reference to any object more than X years old has been deftly converted to an object of attraction. To me, this country has made a fun of the word "Historic" by attributing this term to any inanimate object possible. Some can argue that being a capitalist country,US only understands the meaning of the word 'capital' and the disparate ways and means to generate it. And, I don't disagree. US, as a country has taken the concept of "selling" to a whole new level - It can even sell a "condom to a bobbitized man". Now thats food for thought!!!

US hasn't even spared the dead. Lizzie Andrew Borden was a New England spinster who was the central figure in the hatchet murders of her father and stepmother in Massachusetts. Today, anyone can rent the haunted house for a night, sleep on the same bed where her mother was slaughtered and relax on the same couch where her father was bludgeoned to death.

But, what seems strange to me is the fact that people shell out boatloads of money in spite of being aware that they are being duped. Now thats what I call as subliminal advertising. Any country who wants to learn about pure-play Capitalism should take a leaf out of US's book and for people like me who detests the overuse of any word - to the extent where it looses its own meaning - better start looking somewhere else.

Who are those guys?

On the outset,let me put it straight - I am a movie buff. Lately I have tried to mix and match my movie picks. Yesterday watched the 1969 classic "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Robert Redford shot to limelight with this movie after an average run to success. Paul Newman - though by that time an acclaimed actor - I would consider this flick of his as the pin-up movie of the era. His style, naive naughtiness bordering affection, frivolous nature made him a perfect partner of the more serious Redford. Boy, isn't he handsome. On the other hand, Robert Redford was a archetype gang leader, wading through the vicissitudes of life by robbing, swindling and plundering. They complemented each other pretty well injecting some funny moments in the heists they carried out.

Apart from being a western classic there is nothing extraordinary about the movie, but do watch it for the escapades of Paul Newman and Robert Redford and the all pervasive quote " Who are those guys?"

Later, I would put down my thoughts on movies based on Tennessee Williams plays "Cat on a hot tin roof" and the "The Glass Menagerie". Till then adios!!!

Why am I moving?

I have been pondering over this question a year long. It was not to justify my actions but to take a sane, well thought-out decision.


1. I have already stayed in this country for 5 years and have 1 year left on my H1B Visa(For the first tenure of 6 years). In US, immigration rule proffers that an individual has to move out of US mainland before a company files for another stint of 6 years. Now, thats a big problem as I would be at the mercy of some company to file for a H1B. Think about the situation. I leave US after my graduation with a humongous loan of 150,000$ working in India and waiting for some company to file a US Visa for me, so that I get an overseas placement and replay my loan quicker. Any untoward incident at this point would trample and jeopardize my financial situation. A big risk. I want to play it safe as I am already 32.

2. Typically, International candidates owing to their Visa status lands up in Management Consulting or Investment Banking domain. There are very few strategy companies which open up for International applicants(This is true for all the B Schools including HBS/Stanford/Wharton/MIT). Now, Management Consulting never interested me as the travel takes a toll on my health and moreover companies such as Mckinsey, Booz-Allen, AT Kearney are always in lookout for younger candidates. I ain't one.
With, very few banks left in Wall Street IB(Investment Banking) is also not an option. Hence, my post-MBA job focus would be extremely rarified and narrow.

3. My focus has always been Entrepreneurship and no economies offer better opportunities than the Emerging Economies. I personally feel that there are huge opportunities in India at this point and its the right time to jump in. US economy is slacking and would move at a "tortoise's pace" unlike the emerging economies which will continue surging ahead with a 8% GDP despite this economic turmoil. And even more so, lately India is moving from the blotched reputation of being the "Backoffice of the West" to a revolution which I call "CenterTable of the US".

4. I am getting a world class education at an Indian price. US education is expensive and if one does not intend to stay or work in the US for a long time(post graduation) then it does not make any sense to get an education from US. For me, I have stayed here for 5 years; I pretty much understand the industry here and I, by no means, intend to stay the rest of my life here. B School is all about networking and its pragmatic to network in the country where u intend to work after u graduate. Remember it takes 4-5 years for a single person to repay the loan and 6-7 years for a married person to repay. I cannot commit myself working in US for so long. Then I will miss the boat.

Its been along post. Time to rest in peace.

Introspection in Retrospect

Well, finally I was able to gear myself up to start blogging after a hiatus of more than a year. There have been profound and thematic changes in my life since my thoughts last touched this page.

They say the "fruits of the labor" are always sweet. Well in my case it couldn't have been more sweeter. I decided to pursue an MBA and since then laboured hard for a prestigious seat in the IIMs and few US B Schools. As I stand today, I have offers from IIMC, IIMB and interview invites from Ross(University of Michigan), Tuck School of Business - Dartmouth College, Yale School of Management and Tepper School of Business(Carnegie Mellon University). Well, couldn't have expected more.

However, after 5 years of residing in US, I have decided to move back to India and join IIMC-PGPEX. The reasons of the move lay their provenance in the disastrous economic situation and in some personal Visa problems(Would write a new article on that). Now, whether the decision is a prudent one - only time will tell; thats why I call this article as "Advantage of Hindsight".

codearmory

Back after a long time.Was busy with my new company called codearmory.com. Its a non profit organization to help the developers around the world by providing then with code snippets, troubleshooting etc etc. Check out the site www.codearmory.com and contribute, post and answer.

Proxy War

Finally managed to squeeze in some time to pen down my thoughts after 2 months. My sincere apologies to all of them who follow my blog meticulously and had been soliciting me for my next article. In the last couple of months myriad of things happened- ranging from my long waited India trip to India’s “phoenix” win in the 1^st cricket test. But I would focus today’s article on a very intriguing and interesting article I read in ‘The Economist” Dec 2006 edition. The article talks about Chinese government and their relentless fight against deluge of information, creeping into the country. China being a communist country obviates the public from free-flow access to sensitive (pun intended) information which the government thinks might compromise communist manifestos and act as a catalyst to social dissent. China is running the biggest censorship program known as the ‘Great firewall of China’ or ‘Golden Shield’ to hunt down proxies and block them from broadcasting data into the mainland. Sites like Anonymouse.org redirects data from the censored sites and enable people living under repressive regimes to get a hindrance free access to Information. Anonymouse.org is not the solitary reaper. It’s a part of large and growing constellation of computer servers known as proxies, deployed at diverse places to outmaneuver the censors working to protect un-democratic regimes. There is a whole group of community called ‘Anti-Censorship Community’ fraternizing the ‘Information is everybody’s birthright’ cause. Whenever the Censors detect new proxy they block it and the ‘Anti-Censorship Community’ creates another one. This process can best be described as ‘Cat and Mouse game on the web’. An American NGO called ‘Tor’ and lot of outspoken human-rights activists in China are vehemently opposing this policy of the un-democratic regimes. I sincerely wonder “What is the rationale and thought process of preventing someone from accessing the cornucopia of information lying in the World Wide Web...Isn't it an amorphous form of incarceration”…Can someone answer??

Josh(ling) in Java

Yesterday I completed the book ‘Java Puzzlers’ by Joshua Bloch and Neal Gafter. Josh is a principal engineer at google and was a distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems. Josh is a very well known name in the Java community and considered to be a capable protégé of James Gosling. I myself have been working in Java for the last 5+ years but still this book has a lot to offer. Though personally I feel that, a lot of puzzles mentioned in this book are seldom used while we code but it’s definitely good to be abreast of all the quirks of Java Programming language. Some chapters are absolutely essential like Expression Puzzlers. Java’s Integral calculations and floating point arithmetic is a ‘Pandora’s Box’. You open this box and you open a lot of surprises, facts and can of worms but every developer need to know these boundary-point conditions to write bug-free code. In this book Josh also points out design issues with Java and vehemently voice his opinions on an inadequate Java API documentation. All in all I was impressed. His fluid way of presenting problems and solutions propelled me to read his Jolt award winning bestseller ‘Effective Java’.

Water Water Everywhere!!!!

On the 10th day of October, 2006 I watched Roger Waters “Dark side of the moon” concert at Shoreline, Montainview. It had the largest congregation of people Bay Area had ever seen in a decade. Absolute maddening crowd. I was half an hour late when I entered the amphitheatre, thanks to the traffic (I was stuck at Rengstroff for more than an hour). He sang popular numbers from his various albums/CDs like ‘The Wall’, ‘Wish you were here’, ‘The Final Cut’ etc. The second half of the show was an absolute stunner. He played the entire ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ and the crowd was hysteric (You can visualize how a place would reverberate with screams emanating from 100,00 people…No kiddin..) I was really feeling sorry for Pratik who could not make it to the concert as he was stuck at 101 for more than 3 hours. Dejected and exasperated he went back. I was all the more feeling sorry because he went home to get his camera and the security was not allowing any kind of camera or handy-cam inside. All in all this was my best concert and my dream to see Roger Waters came true. I started listening to this psychedelic rock band when I was in IIT and since then I was hooked.

The numbers he played:

FIRST HALF:

In the Flesh - The WallMother - The Wall
Set The Controls For the Heart Of The Sun - A Saucerful of Secrets
Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Wish You Were Here Have
A Cigar - Wish You Were Here
Wish You Were Here - Wish You Were Here
Southampton Dock - The Final Cut
The Fletcher Memorial Home - The Final Cut
Perfect Sense parts 1 and 2 - Amused to Death
Leaving Beirut
Sheep Animals
Pig who escaped

SECOND HALF:

Dark Side of the Moon

ENCORE:

The Happiest Days Of Our Lives - The Wall
Another Brick In The Wall (Pt 2) - The Wall
Vera - The WallBring the Boys back Home - The Wall
Comfortably Numb - The Wall

Leveraging India as India stands up

Today I saw Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala's techtalk on "Leveraging India as India stands up" at GooglePlex, Mountainvew. It was a very inspiring and an eye-opening dissertation. I guess I was under the wrong impression that the young generation can only bring some conceivable changes in the Indian society. But with prominent figures like him the messiah's are not only confined to the young generations. This talk was particularly interesting for budding entrepreneurs and for those who has some passion to 'give back to the motherland'. The business model embraced by India in the recent past is a very unique one with a bohemian outlook. If you listen to his talk you will understand why. I sincerely urge every Indian who are based out of US to listen to his talk and seriously think about doing something if we envision India to be a country recognized not as a haven of snake-charmers( overly exaggerated portrayal in The Temples of Doom) but as a power to reckon with.

Scuffle between Veterans and Avante-Gardes

Yesterday I was reading an article in WIRED which encompasses a wide range of topics ranging from the induction of Ray Ozzie in Microsoft (supplanting Bill G Reviews) to the ongoing battle of grabbing acres and acres of lands around Columbia River in Oregon/Washington. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google has prophesized that those companies would rule the Internet who would master the growth and realization of Data Centers. The world is slowly moving from Desktop based application and packaged software to the cloudspace concept. With innovations juggernauting regularly from companies like Google, Apple industry behemoths like Microsoft is really cornered. So to take the next battle forward all these contenders including search engine companies like Ask.com are purchasing lands near to a place where electricity costs are low. Google has just bought 30 acres of land in Dalles, WA for their data center and plan to install 450,000( no I am not kidding) parallel processing units. Off course they need these astronomical number of servers to cater to 100 Million queries per day. Microsoft has already started acquiring land near Columbia River gorge because hydroelectricity is cheap and the land is strategically located near Bonneville dam. The war of storage capacity has already begun and I sincerely hope we the consumers would be immensely benefited by the ongoing technology scuffle.

Adieu to Pacific North West

I moved from the pacific northwest to the warm cauldron of Silicon Valley. Moved for better pastures, that time will tell. Joined a consulting company called eTouch Systems. I was working as a Java Architect in a product's company based out of Vancouver,WA called CIBER corporation. Last 1 year in Ciber was a very fruitful year to me as i learnt tons and tons. I struggled and learnt and succeded. Nothing gives u an essense of 'kick-ass' feeling when u achieve something. Pacific NorthWest is beautiful and lush green, unlike the charred expanse of California and Nevada. I guess the dark green is because the amount of precipitation it receives. It rains 9 months a year which is one of the reasons i moved. Sometimes the dull and gloomy weather gets very depressing. Lets see what California has in store for us. So far so good.

Happily Married

After courting my girlfriend for more than a decade we finally got married on 28th November, 2004. I was really fortunate to marry my childhood sweetheart and always thank God for not being unfair with me.

Salute to the OpenSource Community

OpenSource buzzword is a phenomenon of the yesteryears, has been in existence since the early ages of software development till 1965 when IBM ceased bundling their source code with the operating system of their computers. In 1969 Ken Thompson wrote the first version of Unix and distributed the source code freely throughout the 70's. The extra-ordinary effort of a young student at the University of Helsinki:Linus Torvalds along with lot of other computer engineers and mathematicians paved the way to a great operating system "Linux".Engineers all around the world(aka "The opensource community")created their own flavours of Linux as the source code was freely available.That created versions like Susie,RedHat( a renowned company),Debian etc. University of California, Berkley started a project which gave rise to a BSD( Berkeley Software Distribution) Kernel used by Macintosh operating system.

Source Code is no longer a proprietory concept.The developer community all across the globe contributes and uses the source code, subsequently tweaking the code according to their needs thereby giving rise to a new version or flavour.The cycle goes on forever. This can only happen as the source code is freely downloadable.

The concept of freely distributable source code has been a bane and an idea of consternation to monopolist behemoths like Microsoft. The opensource community is infact bigger than anything even Microsoft could afford and the software development model behind it is more effective than the conventional closed-source proprietory model.Today the strongest competitor to Microsoft is Linux and the challenge posed by Linux pre-empted Microsoft to postpone the shipping of their latest OS "LongHorn"..Horns are getting shorter....

With projects like Apache and sourceforge its been a juggernaut for the OpenSource Community. We are on a constant roll. I have always been an ardent exponent of freewares and opensource and it gives me great satisfaction to proclaim that I can develop a fully functional web-application without purchasing any proprietary softwares. Speaking from a java world with free web-frameworks like Struts,Tapestry,Hivemind,JSF,Spring: Application Servers like JBoss: Web Containers like Tomcat:Data Access Frameworks like OJB and Hibernate:Databases like MySQL and PostGRE SQL one can do wonders.

I thereby solicit all the developers in the planet WORLD to contribute more towards OpenSource and reduce the monopoly of companies like Microsoft and strengthen the OpenSource brotherhood.