Fishing for Change

Time to Change

2009-03-07T16:16:00.001+05:30

This is the time; yeah this is the time to change where you are till now. There is no meaning in leaving in a fear everyday that when that pink morning can come. Most of you may not agree to this but don’t you think when tide is against you it’s better to change your way than keep fighting with this till you are blown away.
What I mean by change here has different meanings. First it means, change your job, it may not apply to some of the people and most of the people will not get positive results if they try. But if you get it somewhere, be sure that you are one of the safest guy in the organisation. Do I sound crazy, I might me to some but let’s talk about it why I am saying so.
Lets discuss first, Why people are thrown out, there could be multiple reasons; first, they hired you to increase their bench strength in the anticipation that they will get projects in process. But what happened, most of the projects either delayed or postponed indefinitely, then there is no meaning in keeping you on bench and paying when they are not clear when they will have work for you. Next, you may be hired for some ongoing projects and project is shelved or stopped in between and no hope of getting new projects, you are out. Third, you are working on a project but your productivity is really low and you may not be capable to increase it in near future, you are again under the scanner. Fourth, formula of 10 less utilized guys than 5 more than possible utilized guys, didn’t you hear companies are asking for around 50 hours per week. I have no clue what Indian labour laws talks about this.
You all will agree that most of the companies have stopped hiring, right? Ok , apart from this they are also giving pink slips to less performing , guys on bench and people who is not business critical. Now in this scenario, if someone hires you, why will he? There could be only one reason, and this is not because you are too good in your work. But it could be because you are critical to their business which falls in their budget. Someone might be too good in his or her work but he may not get through, only reason is priority of budget has gone up, of course budgets have gone down.
Now some are also scared that, this is the not the right time to change because if you join any new company now, you will be the first one thrown out. My dear friend, you are completely wrong, why did they hire in such dire circumstances, just to throw out. Huh, give me a break, they have hired you because there you are critical and their plans are not on track and they need someone who can bring it on and not to increase their bench strength to get the projects. Time is gone, for a time being at least, when companies used to have huge bench strength in the anticipation of projects. Now very few can afford this.
Of course, if you don’t perform as per their expectation then you may be one of them who can be thrown out, but in any case just forget it that you will be the first one.

Plastic Money - It Hurts

2009-02-06T20:09:00.002+05:30

Today, more teens are failing to differentiate between need and want, thanks to all the marketing tactics which leading them to impulsive buying and they are blowing their cash on things which they don’t know if they really need. What really this new generation wants to buy today is astronomically process clothes and high-end gadgets and they really need to keep it up to date with latest fashion trend. Companies are in fact devising strategies to target them as the numbers of these consumers are increasing day by day.
We parents got a job in hand to give few lessons to our kids on responsible consumerism and investing their money on what really they need and not on everything they may want. We will introduce you to few ways on how to let your kids know the importance of their hard earned money.
Get your kids know the importance of money and how one earns it. When we get something easily we never give importance to it, so let them know how difficult it is to earn some themself. Start involving them in money management through some kind of work which they can do, it can be even starting a neighborhood grocery shop or anything in which they may be interested. It will be lesson for them how much we need to sweat to earn few cash.

Next thing you may need to focus is the credit history. This would be the main thing for you to focus as you would have credit accounts in neighborhood department store accounts, a bunch of credit cards, bank accounts and other financial institution loans. Other than this you would probably had mortgages, car loans, home equity loans and other transactions involving credit. Bureau calls these accounts sometimes as trade lines; it is not surprising because these accounts are still owned by you.History of these accounts usually start with when you opened the account then tell the type or kind of credit (installment, car loan, personal loan, etc.) and whether it is owned by individual or there are joint account holders for the same. The total amount of the loan with your high credit limit or if it is a credit card, your highest balance follows. Then follows the status of these loans, how much you have paid and how regular you are in your payments are payments are like fixed or minimum monthly payments.
Importance of savings is next thing they should be taught and also how do they go about this. You need to be an example on this front show them how you did you go about this and how your money grew over a period of time as a result of your habit of saving. They will be really show interest if you show them the regular interest piling up in your account and how the risk factor works here in comparison to investing money in stock market. If your kid in college, this is the right time for you to inbuilt this habit in them. You can encourage them to open a recurring account with the college fund. Amount can be as minimum as possible, earliest we do this the less damage it may do to their life.
Let them know how to manage their cash flow and how it can help them to give the visibility on their spending and earnings. This will help them to make a budget for themselves and this is the best thing to do to keep track of the current and future expenses. We have never seen the future and we never know what may happen, so it is best to be ready for it.
This will teach them not only how to be a responsible adult and a wise consumer but also it will save you from the mental frustration coming out of huge debts. If you are successful in achieving this you only gain from this and lose nothing.

Mockery of Diplomacy

2008-12-03T17:31:00.005+05:30

First Indian Citizens have paid heavy price of scrapping of POTA and a softer lazy Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. Now, it is time for paying even more heavier price, because of lack of diplomatic and effective communication skills of Manmohan Singh Government.

If we look back, time and again, the Congress Leadership, while in power had lost many opportunities to gain upper hand in National Security and International diplomacy. During Simla Agreement in year 1972, it had 93,000 Pakistani POWs and yet decided not to reclaim any portion from PoK.

In 1972 - India was agreed for LoC, in spite of upper hand with 90000 PoWs.; On 22 February 1994 ,an unanimous resolution of the Indian Parliament reclaimed PoK (on paper) & demanded Pakistan to vacate PoK, as if Pakistan was an Indian state (J&K) & they can impose President's/Governor's Rule. Such resolutions don't mean anything to international community or Indians, without inclusion of the method to reclaim it. It was just a stunt.

It has been a week since the terror attacks in Mumbai. Pakistani PM and President have been reiterating in international media that "India has not yet provided any specific evidence".Today, when the world is keenly looking at India for evidence , there are no specifcs. The Manmohan Singh Government failed to nullify the Pakistan Presidents international media statement ' Mumbai Terror attack perpetrators were stateless actors";in CNN's Larry King Live, the Pakistani President was replying in a very diplomatic way. Very cleverly he has equated the ongoing Pakistan's internal terror with that of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba , a Pakistan-based terror group allied with al Qaeda, which is exclusively involved in anti-India terror.

Let us see - What kind of blunder - Manmohan Singh Administration did so far ?

Pakistan's reaction to India's top 20 most wanted was well known; this demand was made before and we had seen the actions. It was well known and Pakistan will make a similar statement - seeking evidence. Why it can't share the evidence with CNN (any International media) so that Larry King would have grilled the President of Pakistan ?

Latest is Pakistan has virtually rejected India's demand to hand over 20 most-wanted terrorists, including Dawood Ibrahim, Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar. Even if evidence is provided against the 20 fugitives, President Zardari said -"If we had the proof, we would try them in our courts, we would try them in our land and we would sentence them".

Note: By the way, Pakistani President has the rights to ask Manmohan Singh -"How you will punish these 20 fugitives ? We don't trust you because so far you have not yet punished Afzal Guru. Your law of the land to deal with terrorists are weak and so please let the law of Pakistan take care of Dawood and the 19 others. If Supreme court orderes the hanging of Dawood, you might pardon him also, because of your habit of minority appeasement.

In television, the lone captured terrorist's photo was shown thousand times. His name/place was disclosed as Azam Amir Kasav or Alam (not sure) and media was informed that he is a Pakistani citizen;his home village was in Faridkot, near the city of Multan in the southern part of Pakistan's Punjab province. But is that enough to trace person whose name is also not clear to media?. Apparently, as reported in Pakistani media, their intelligence agents have been trying to trace his roots in the same village. They found multiple persons with same or similar name but non of his relatives or family members are traceable. So wouldn't the father's / uncle's name have given additional credibility to the evidence ? Who will explain that to our 'Sardarji' ?

Can't we share more details in addition to just the name and village (if he is really)? Since nothing else was provided, in CNN interview President Zardari said "We have not been given any tangible proof to say that he is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt ... that he's a Pakistani,".
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said India has not yet provided proof of the LeT's involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks.

Influential US Senator John McCain on Tuesday opposed India launching military strikes against Pakistan in the wake of Mumbai attacks saying there was "no hard evidence yet" for such action and he would tell Islamabad to cooperate in the probe.

In today's Dallas Morning News, there are 5 such India news items, including an editorial. All are waiting to see the evidence.
External affairs minister Pranab Mukharjee, threatens of 'serious consequences' based on what ? If they couldn't convince Sen John McCain's team, how they will convince Ms. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State.

Moreover, while Pakistani PM and President have been engaged themshelves in series of in depth interview to CNN,NDTV - all our Indian ministers are doing is- "issue 1 or 2 line non-sense statement without sharing any hard evidence with media". Where are they sleeping or avoiding the security lapse questions ? How long the media will in speculation mode ?With this kind of poor media management, how they can mobilise international opinion and pressurize Pakistan to 'do' instead of 'talk'.

The world acknowledges that Pakistan has serious problems within. It's President have no total control over ISI and Army. There are rogue elements within ISI, who breed these anti-India terrorists and provide them resources. Pakistan's PM doesn't have control over the tribal regions. Even if Osama Bin Laden is hiding there, Pak President said that - "Let the NATO people find that out using better technology & hunt them". They lack technology (or will ?) to do that.Osama Bin laden Al-Quida is operating like McDonald franchise. Any home grown terrorist group can seek Al-Quida terrorist training & operate locally.

Above all, if ISI's blessing is solicited for anti-India terror, it is available 24x7. In spite of all these, if India can't seek approval for its 'right to attack the terrorist camps' with in Pakistan, why would Pakistan care about its mocking evidences ?The only way Pakistan will cooperate with India and handover the fugitives, when India's right to strike the terrorist camps in Pakistan is legitimized by international community. This is much better than the 'Operation Parakram' launched by Vajpayee Government after the Parliament attack.

Please find out, how Manmohan-Sonia combine is going to screw up the unique opportunity to strike against the terrorist camps with in Pakistan.

So far the following has been said to media - 10 attackers hijacked a trawler in the Pakistani port city of Karachi -- about 575 miles (925 km) north of Mumbai -- and came ashore at Mumbai in dinghies. A global-positioning system, found with the attackers showed they had come from Pakistan. The captain of the trawler was found dead, lying face down with his hands bound behind his back. Four crew members who had been on board were missing.

But is it sufficient to convince the international community !! At least Sen John McCain was not convinced..in addition to the Pakistani President and PM.

Any furthur delay in providing the evidences will obviously give an opportunity to pakistan to publicise other stories to link this with Malegaon blast , Col. Purohit and ATS chief Murder.

Now Ball is in indian government's court , Lets see how they play (if they!)

Weird Bihari sub-nationalism

2008-11-24T15:20:00.004+05:30

Several experts attribute the backwardness of Bihar to the absence of the Bihari sub-nationalism. Whether they are right or wrong is not the issue here as there are many geo-sociological causes of the backwardness of the state. What they argue is that West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu etc are more developed because there is sub-nationalistic zeal among the people of these states.

There is no doubt that Biharis are derided, ridiculed and even humiliated not only in Maharashtra, but also in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, Delhi etc. Very often they are collectively dubbed as uncivilized and ignorant bunch of people, who lack manner and etiquette. This notwithstanding the fact that an overwhelming number of both skilled and unskilled workers from Bihar are contributing to the development of these states.

Rahul Raj, who died at the hands of the Mumbai Police on October 27, may go down in the history as the first person in the recent memory to consciously lay down his life in the name of Bihari sub-nationalism. His action can never be justified or condoned but there is no dearth of people who may declare him as the first martyr for the cause of the state. However, it is also true that he may be forgotten by the people in the way nobody now remembers those who self-immolated themselves during the anti-Mandal agitation of early 1990s.

Rahul's is a typical urban middle class story. He is the son of Kundan Prasad Singh, a teacher at Arvind Mahila College in Patna. He was reportedly in search of job in Mumbai and was very much agitated over the anti-Bihari feeling frequently whipped by Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leaders Bal Thackeray and Raj Thackeray.

Youths like Rahul Raj take up arms when they feel that the community to which they belong is being ignored and neglected. They feel let down, humiliated and cornered. It needs to be understood that Rahul resorted to the tactic of 'hijacking' a bus in Mumbai just at the height of the anti-Thackerays movement in Bihar.

Unlike the unemployed youths of Maharasthra there is nobody to take up their cause. The mainstream political leaders of the state be it Lalu, Nitish or Ram Vilas can certainly not behave like the Thackerays and whip up anti-Maharashtra sentiment in their own state.

However, people like Thackerays––Bal, Raj and Udhav––have by their action made saner and democratic leadership irrelevant in Bihar. Even if a minuscule proportion of the state youth think that gun is the solution than they are wrong. Sub-nationalism or even nationalism can not be put on display with the help of revolver, especially in the land from where Gandhi launched the first non-violent movement.

One fine Morning

2008-07-31T18:33:00.003+05:30

I was sleeping and dreaming about something which I don’t remember. Normally it happens that I remember always my bad dreams but when I dream about something good I completely go blank. I kept trying for a while to get a glimpse of it that was ruling my mind a while before but all my attempts to find was giving an answer “No results found”.
My phone alarm started ringing at sharp 6 AM, time to wake up and exercise. I switched off the alarm and then phone asked me “Do you want to switch on the phone”. Bloody hell, does it ring even when it is switched off. I did not know that, it was kind of early morning enlightening for me. Anyway, I switched it on and kept on the side table and slept again, but could not as one word kept haunting my head “Exercise”. I had gained a lot of weight in last few years and really I needed to shed few.
Finally I got up at around 6:30 AM, had some water, I tried to wake up my wife but no response. Every night she will tell that I will come tomorrow but she will never wake up. I put on my jogging shoes and tried to wake up my wife again, no response. I just looked at her face, she was sleeping like sweety pie, didn’t feel like waking her up.
Me & my wife, I don’t think I have a world beyond this. I do get along with my family but not without her. She is just like my charger which will be always required for me to run.
I locked the door and went down for jogging, did not use the lift rather I went by stairs , one of our very close friend had said once , you guys are staying at 5th floor if you just start using stairs you will lose weight. Fine nothing wrong in it, so let’s so it. But I was in a little hurry to lose weight so the jogging. After 7-8 rounds of the jogging on the track laid all around our apartment building, I felt little tired , went to Gym, few pushups & cycling. That’s it done; I can’t live more than this away from my wife early morning.
She is still sleeping, kept tea on the gas and shouted from the kitchen to come out of bed, she answered, “coming”. Started browsing through the news paper, same old news “18 bombs were diffused in Surat” nobody knows how they are finding these bombs and why it did not blast. May be it was placed there to be just detected and diffused not for blast.
Finally she woke and we had tea, I was reading newspaper and just thinking, watchman did not come this month to collect electricity card. These electricity board guys are also so very unique, they will come once in a month for the reading if your card is there they will give you amount to be paid else they will note the reading, calculate the bill and keep with them and expect that you will dream about your bill and pay. If you don’t pay on time, finally go sleep in a blast furnace. I still don’t forget when few years back we missed to pay as we never had a dream of our electricity bill, sometime June of 2007. Somehow we managed to sleep till 3-4 in the morning but finally we gave up as it was very humid and mosquitoes we could not control. My wife had very unique & crazy idea and we took our car, it was raining heavily, went a km from flat and parked our car in one corner of the road, kept engine and AC running and slept.
We slept there for an hour or two and finally got up, started back to home, thinking that it was a beautiful crazy idea. Sleeping in a AC car in a corner of the road , under a big tree and rain is pouring at the full force, really never had such a beautiful experience , thanks to my wife and thanks to that electricity board guy for disconnecting power.
Working day started, got ready and zoomed to the office, stalled by the traffic near velachery check post. Switched on the music, Rabbi shergil’s new album was playing a song “Jinhe naaj hain hind par kahan hain… Mera naam Satyendra Dubey jo kahna tha who kah gaye”. This song reminded me of the story of Satyendra Dubey, an IIT graduate working in Golden quadrilateral project. He wrote a letter to prime minister of India about the corruptions in the project, that was very confidential and he was murdered after the letter was leaked from PMO.
I was stuck in the middle of the traffic, traffic has come to a standstill, I don’t know why. After a while I saw a huge cutout of a political leader wearing his landmark black sunglass has fallen on the road. I saw there we many such cutouts and posters plastered, hanged all through the roads, pavements and dividers. Why do they do this? “Singh is king” song was playing now.
I somehow crawled and reached office, Kept cribbing all through about Chennai traffic and about people’s traffic sense and still thinking why these politicians put huge cutouts, flags and posters in the middle of the road.

Jodha- Akbar & United States

2008-02-25T15:40:00.005+05:30

The period film Jodha-Akbar has been much criticized for its historical incorrectness. Historians have correctly pointed out that there is little (if any) accuracy in the way the relationship between Akbar (real) and Jodha (maybe ficticious) has been portrayed. The fact is that Akbar had many wives and many love interests. Therefore, for historians and intellectuals alike there is not much to take away. To be fair, Ashutosh Gowariker has also been honest with the audience as he has claimed that his movie is 30% history and 70% imagination.
At this point, would you laugh at me if I were to say that the movie has much more to offer to the politicians and the bureaucrats of US than to the average movie goers?
The movie claims that it was under the leadership of Akbar that for the first time Hindustan was viewed as a secular country. (Do not know the historical correctness of the same-would like to believe it) Also, Akbar’s stand on granting equal status to Hindus was a political stand, something that was necessitated by the fact that his predecessor had failed to rule Hindustan. A lesson in management perhaps that a true leader has to often take a populist decision and yet always do the right things and communicate the importance of his/her action. Perhaps the US needs to take a few lessons from this movie for it has been their mismanagement that has resulted in all the political and economic chaos in Iraq. The US has always tried to assert itself as the superpower that has won the cold war and believes that the rest of the world needs to fall in line with its definition of right/wrong. The US missions, whether it was Vietnam or Iraq, has always been the same as that of the Afghans and the Uzbeks that Akbar mentions in this movie; conquer, loot, and run! Akbar was magnanimous to let off the head of the state that was conquered irrespective of whether it was a political/humane decision. The US was barbaric to have hanged Saddam Hussain after they captured him and therefore has earned the wrath of the Islamic world.

History repeats itself! I wonder how the historians would depict US; like the Akbar’s Mughals or the Afghans and the Uzbeks?

I am not anti-US! My endeavor is to highlight the few political blunders that the US has made that has scarred the rest of the world. (Islamic and non-Islamic) The wounds inflicted may take ages to heal. The US needs to do a re-think and atone for its past misadventures in its best interest and in the best interest of World Peace.

A Bridge Too Far

2007-09-27T12:02:00.000+05:30

The Lord surveyed the Ram Setu and said "Hanuman, how diligently and strenuously you and your vanara sena had built this bridge several centuries back. It is remarkable that it has withstood the ravages of the climatic and geographical changes over centuries. It is indeed an amazing feat especially considering the fact that a bridge at Hyderabad built by Gammon using latest technology collapsed the other day even before they could stick the posters on its pillars."
Hanuman with all humility spoke "Jai Sri Ram, it is all because of your grace. We just scribbled your name on the bricks and threw them in the sea and they held. No steel from TISCO or cement from Ambuja or ACC was ever used. But Lord, why rake up the old issue now."
Ram spoke "Well, Hanuman some people down there want to demolish the bridge and construct a canal. The contract involves lot of money and lot of money will be made. They will make money on demolition and make more money on construction. "
Hanuman humbly bowed down and said "Why not we go down and present our case"
Ram said "Times have changed since we were down there. They will ask us to submit age proof and we don't have either a birth certificate or school leaving certificate. We traveled mainly on foot and some times in bullock carts and so we don't have a driving license either. As far as the address proof is concerned the fact that I was born at Ayodhya is itself under litigation for over half a century, If I go in a traditional attire with bow and arrow, the ordinary folks may recognize me but Arjun Singh may take me to be some tribal and, at the most, offer a seat at IIT under the reserved category. Also, a God cannot walk in dressed in a three-piece suit and announce his arrival. It would make even the devotees suspicious. So it is dilemma so to say."
"I can vouch for you by saying that I personally built the bridge."
"My dear, Anjani putra, it will not work. They will ask you to produce the lay-out plan, the project details, including financial outlay and how the project cost was met and the completion certificate. Nothing is accepted without documentary evidence in India. You may cough but unless a doctor certifies it, you have no cough. A pensioner may present himself personally but the authorities do not take it as proof. He has to produce a life-certificate to prove that he is alive. It is that complicated."
"Lord can't understand these historians. Over the years you have given darshan once every hundred years to saints like Surdas, Tulsidas, Saint Thyagaraja, Jayadeva, Bhadrachala Ramdas and even Sant Tukaram and still they disbelieve your existence and say Ramayana is a myth. The only option, I see, is to re-enact Ramayana on earth and set the government records straight once for all."
Lord smiled "It isn't that easy today. Ravan is apprehensive that he may look like a saint in front of Karunanidhi. I also spoke to his mama Mareecha, who appeared as a golden deer to tempt Sita maiyya when I was in the forest and he said that he won't take a chance of stepping on earth as long as Salman Khan is around."

Asia cup Hockey Chennai 2007 Schedule

2007-09-04T13:08:00.000+05:30

Groups:

Group A: Pakistan, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore.

Group B: South Korea, India, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand.

Schedule:
Aug. 31:
Malaysia v Singapore, Bangladesh v Thailand, South Korea v Sri Lanka, Pakistan v Hong Kong, India v China
Sept 1:
South Korea v Thailand, Malaysia v Hong Kong, Japan v Pakistan, China v Bangladesh, India v Sri Lanka
Sept 2:
Rest day
Sept 3:
Sri Lanka v Bangladesh, China v Thailand, Japan v Hong Kong, Pakistan v Singapore, India v South KoreaSept 4: Hong Kong v Singapore, Bangladesh v India, Japan v Malaysia
Sept 5:
Thailand v Sri Lanka, South Korea v China, Pakistan v Malaysia
Sept 6: Japan v Singapore, China v Sri Lanka, South Korea v Bangladesh, South Korea v Thailand
Sept 7: Rest day

Sept.8:
Semi-finals: A1 v B2, B-1 v A-2
Sept 9: Final.

Chennai- The most unfit city. It is proved now.

2007-01-22T16:40:00.000+05:30

Few days back there was an article on CNN – IBN website “Most unfit city in India- Chennai”. I even saw a cyber war going on among the net savvy people from all over India. Of course I did not comment at that time but I was doing an analysis how someone can conclude this statement?

In last few years I have stayed in Hyderabad, Bangalore, been to Delhi several times and currently staying in Chennai for almost 3 years. This experience gives me a feeling that it is quite easy to say that “Chennai is the most unfit city”. There are so many logics I have, to prove the same.

1. Number of parks in the city we can count on our fingers
2. Road conditions are really bad
3. bus routes passes through narrow residential streets

Now I will explain them one by one how it affects the health of people in the city. First there are numbered parks in the city; everyone can not go there for morning walks. That forced people to take membership in clubs or college campuses like IIT etc. for morning walks. But selected few can have these facilities, all can not afford or these clubs or campuses can not afford to give more than a limited number.

Next choice of the people will be to take their morning or evening walk in the colony streets. But here again very few people can do that, reason being either roads are bad or buses will start plying from early morning from these residential streets. Nobody would like to get into the dust when they are working out for good health.

I have no clue why these bus routes are defined like this when it has to pass through these narrow (10-15 feet) roads. Because of these buses, morning walkers or evening walkers can not come out of their houses. This also affects the health of the indirectly as they can board into the buses right in front of their houses whereas they could have walked for half or 1 km at least to catch their buses.

Same is not the case with other cities; I have stayed in Hyderabad for 4 yrs and I think bus routes are sketched strategically as it should not get into the dense residential colonies and disturb the peace and calmness. Of course they have more number of parks and road qualities in residential colonies are comparatively very good. Same is the case Delhi and Bangalore. I think Chennai should take this in right spirits and work towards improving the surrounding environment and not shout at those people who are showing the demerits.

KBC 3 New Promo Feat. Shahrukh Khan - SRK [DesiApeX]

2007-01-04T14:37:00.000+05:30


KBC is ready to be kicked off with new host Shahrukh Khan AKA SRK who replaced Amitabh Bachchan. Kaun Banega Crorepati is Back with new host. This is the latest promo starring SRK - the King Khan.

Scar on Chennai

2006-08-28T10:37:00.000+05:30

An outsiders,having no knowledge of the local language expresses its feeling of Chennai's notorious auto drivers.

"The Chennai auto driver is unique: he identifies your weakness, and then lunges for your throat, cuts off all links to reality, chokes every last penny out of your pocket, and leaves you shaken and rattled at your destination (hopefully). Exorbitant fare demands, an unwillingness to help you out with conversations in an unfamiliar language, and through roaring city traffic, a ride that can be rougher and tumbler than the most rough and tumble roller coaster anywhere in the world! "

"The Chennai auto driver has truly mastered the art of being the one scar in an otherwise a brilliant city's side."

On the other side one fine morning i was reading a statement from police commissioner of Chennai in newspapers , “Auto rickshaw fares will be revised soon”. The first reaction on my face was, "What the HELL". I don't know what fare she was talking about, is she so unaware about the city's life.I did not realise that through the black glasses they are not able to even see anything. I do not see any auto rickshaw fare policy in Chennai as in other metropolitans. Fare meter installed in auto rickshaw are just a show piece. I was reallly surprised how we are going to know that fare has been increased, it means that now they are going to rig more, they will legally given authority to rig. You may never know in the next election there will be a promise from the government for that,land of freebies afterall.

Look how they operate the rigging at Chennai central , Pre-Paid taxi counter .I have traveled four times by a prepaid taxi and every time I got a new fare from them, that too in a span of two months before petrol price increase. Lets see how do they estimate the fare in prepaid counter. One traffic policeman will be sitting inside the counter and one person will be standing outside. Once you go to the counter the person standing outside will tell the figures and person sitting inside will write and give you the coupon. But do not feel lucky if you get a coupon , you may not get a auto or you may be required to wait for an hour to get an auto because all drivers are busy bargaining with customers who will pay them double the money you are going to pay. I think hardly anyone is going to wait for an hour to get an auto and end up paying double the amount entered on their coupon to get an auto without wasting their time.

Chennai is a metro on papers, chennnaites should open their eyes , remove their black glasses and see it as it is and accept the reality that it is far behind.

If someone reads it and feels bad then please don't shout back at me, shout with me to make chennai a friendly place for everyone to live a peaceful life.

Banning the Cola War

2006-08-09T18:07:00.000+05:30

Colas are on a tightrope , dealing with a different kind of enemy which is haunting them for a long time in india.
Is it justified to make a hue and cry to ban colas? i don't know and i am not authorized to pass the judgement too. Let the indian court of law take care of this.
But one thing that is haunting me for a long time, why colas always dragged into such kind of controversy in India. Are they supplying inferior quality of products in india? Why pesticides level in colas in india is more than other western countries ?
Reason can be many, may be they are not bothered about the indian public, may be they think that indians are less educated.
This is where they are defeated, indians are less educated. We go by others' words, we do not have our own opinion,we normally hijack the opinions.
How does indian colas have more pesticides westerners ?They are not producing pesticides or adding one as an ingredient.Obviously it comes with the other ingredients and in this case 'WATER' is the culprit.
Indian potable water is highly polluted and it carries a hell amount of pesticides with it, that goes in everything wherever you use this water, including colas.
I am not trying to prove here that cola companies are innocent , ofcourse they are not. They were not bothered about so many quality checks before putting a bottling plant. One of them to check the standard of potable water at that place , and now they got to suffer.
What is the solution for this? Do you think that by banning colas we will not have pesticides in our life ? Wrong, A BIG WRONG, these politicians are on votebank buying spree. You will never have such a condition.
You need to do something else for that. You need to improve the water quality that will come by discouraging the use of pesticides for harvesing, improving the waste management, encouraging the organic farming.

Until then we need to enjoy the pesticides laden fruits, vegetables, water and ofcourse Colas. Amin !

Have a look on some of the case studies written by me.

2006-08-08T12:45:00.000+05:30

Published at www.ecch.com

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT TATA STEEL

Abstract:
In the late 1990s, Tata Steel began to introduce knowledge management (KM) initiatives in the company. It started with a small group of people from within the organisation. The group formed a 'knowledge repository', where all the employees shared their experiences and knowledge. One year after the knowledge repository was formed, the company formed 'knowledge communities', which was a platform for like-minded people to meet and share their experiences. In 2001, Tata Steel developed a 'KM index' to evaluate the performance of individual employee in the KM initiative. Later, it linked performance evaluation to KM and used a balanced scorecard to monitor the performance of individual employees, divisions, as well as the organisation as a whole, in KM. All these initiatives of Tata Steel seem to have paid off; in early 2003, Tata Steel was recognised as one of Asia's Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE). It was the only steel company in the world to have received the MAKE award. The teaching objectives of the case are: (1) to study how the knowledge present within a system can be harnessed to yield major benefits to the organisation as well as to the people within it; (2) to understand the importance of matching new initiatives with the behavioural and working motivations of people in order to obtain better acceptance of these initiatives and greater benefits; (3) to analyse the role played by communities and communication processes in an organisation, and how the development of social capital can help attain the larger goals of the organisation; (4) to examine the importance of recognition as reward and how it can motivate people to perform better; and (5) to understand the barriers in the sharing of knowledge and to see how these barriers can be overcome. The case is meant for MBA/PGDBM students and is intended to be part of the knowledge, information and communication systems management curriculum.

Link:http://www.ecch.com/casesearch/product_details.cfm?id=20628&adv_search=1

MAHINDRA AND MAHINDRA'S E-BUSINESS INITIATIVES

Abstract:
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) started its e-business initiatives in 1995. e-Business started with the launch of a dedicated network across 8 manufacturing locations, 33 area offices and 4 branch offices. In June 1996, M&M launched its website mahindraworld.com, which was one of the first corporate websites. In 1997, it decided to implement ERP (enterprise resource planning) and selected SAP R/3 as its vendor. By 1999 it had become the world's largest SAP site implemented on Windows platform. In 1997, M&M also started its Intranet initiative 'Mahindra connect'. It has been used as a knowledge management tool for disseminating information among employees and shop floor workers. In 2000, M&M extended the Intranet to three websites dedicated to suppliers and dealers of the automotive and farm equipment sectors. In the same year, it started CRM (customer relationship management) and SCM (supply chain management) initiatives, which helped in analysing customer buying behaviour and product development with the help of data mining tools. In 2001, M&M entered the used car and real estate business through the launch of websites like automartindia.com, propertymartindia.com and officemartindia.com. All these initiatives seemed to have paid off and in 2003 M&M's farm equipment sector won Japan's prestigious Deming award. It was the seventh company outside Japan and the first tractor company in the world to receive this award. The teaching objectives of the case are: (1) to study how e-business can be formally initiated in an organisation and how it can yield major benefits to the organisation as well as to the people within it; (2) to understand the implementation of ERP and its benefits to an organisation; (3) to analyse the role played by websites in disseminating information and how they help in communicating with stakeholders; (4) to understand the importance of information transfer and how it helps in changing the business process of an organisation; and (5) to understand the importance of e-business in product innovations and customer satisfaction. The case is meant for MBA/PGDBM students and is intended to be part of the information and communications systems management curricula.

Link:http://www.ecch.com/casesearch/product_details.cfm?id=20636

These case studies can be previewed at the links given and can be purchased online.