The Good, bad and the ugly - 08-Dec-2012

The good

Air India......

I am a Saggittarius. Linda Goodman in her book 'Sun Signs' says that Sags (we call ourselves thus) do not hold grudges and like the fire sign that we are, we are quick to get angry and quick to forgive. 

I am a pure Sag. I am a sucker for quality and I forgive far too easily.

There was a time, not so long ago, I used to dislike Air India. Given an option, I used to give that airline a wide berth and opt for its (sometimes more expensive) competitors. The reason was that, just like any normal traveller, whose sole concern is to travel from A to B, and the airline, notorious for its internal problems, was almost always mired in controversies and flight cancellations. I did not have time to glorify the incompetence of this airline by bestowing my patronage to this airline. Daily news about strikes, cancellation and pathetic experience of the people who travelled by this airline, did little to change my low opinion of this airline. 

All these changed recently. 

Ever since Praful Patel was taken out of the aviation ministry, the airline has turned around. Gone are the days where the daily papers are filled with news of airline cancellation and the evening TV news is filled with interviews with agitated passengers, littering all over the airport.

I got a chance opportunity to fly the national carrier recently. Without asking me, my company had booked me by Air India. I remember that I was a bit sceptical about the airline as I left for the airport that early morning. 

My experience at the airport belied all my negative expectations. The staff was courteous (Previously, they were not), the check-in process was very efficient and the staff even guided me to the security check in. 

If I was expecting a casually maintained airline interior, I was delightfully wrong. The airline interior was very neat and inviting. The seats were of sober mix of Beige and Orange colour and added a glow to the aircraft. The staff was very courteous. The beautiful ladies in their red and black sarees  adorning their brilliant white pearl necklace exuded comfort and confidence that a nuevo young air hostess in a low cost airline could never hope to achieve.

Plus....

This is one of those airlines which still believes in the concept of Indian hosipitality. They still serve you food and beverages every time you travel by the airline.

And...

Yesterday I checked out the Air India Magazine. The cover was awesome. I felt proud about our National Airline.

I love you Air India....

In fact I have taken a frequent flier membership with the airline. 

I am not the only one that share this view. Check out this news item in today's news paper..

The bad...

Of course, it is the Indian sports. We are almost on the verge of losing the Kolkata Test to England.  Almost all the sports associations are being de-recognized or disqualified by knowledgeable international organizations, our athletes are feeling let down, Tendulkar is no longer scoring centruries, Indian Hockey team lost the semi finals of Champions trophy (for those enthusiastic supporters out there who feel that reaching the semis is a big deal for Indian Hockey, I want to point out that we lost to both Germany and Australia, the teams to beat). Until something is done soon, I will be forced to move Indian sports to the Ugly category.

Hope it doesn't come to that. 

And the Ugly....

Definitely the death of Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse involved in the Kate Middleton hoax call...

By now all of us know the story. Two RJs from the Australian radio station 2Day FM, Mel Greig and Michel Christian, made a hoax call to the on duty nurse at St.Edward VII hospital in London. The callers posed as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles and wanted to know the latest update about the condition of 'Her Grand Daughter Kate'. The unsuspecting nurse, Jacintha, transferred the call to the duty nurse who gave a complete update about Kate's status.

Upon coming to know that she was taken for a ride, Jacintha, a 46 year old mother of two, died, supposedly a suicide.

The whole world is shattered along with the RJs who perpetrated this hoax. The radio station quickly suspended the show and took the RJs off the air.

Why did Jacintha commit suicide? What was the motive? Was it pressure, was is shame or was it the expected recriminations from the hospital that she worked for.

There are two points that I wish to make here.

First is that, as the hospital spokesman mentioned, the hospital did not have a documented process to handle telephone calls. It is not easy to take a call from someone who claims to be the Queen of England.  As someone told in a TV Panel discussion, it is not possible to ask the Id of Queen when you think that that is who is on line. How did the hospital handle this episode when it broke out? Did they support Jacintha? Did she have any friends in the hospital to confide in?

From the fact that she committed suicide, one can safely presume that this support did not materialize. Proof is in the pudding.

Second point is about the suicide itself. It seems that this lady was staying alone in London and would visit her family at Bristol over the weekend. I presume that the lonely lady was so stressed out of the whole affair, and with no one to console or confide in, would have given in to the pressure and taken her life. Would the results have been different had her family been staying with her?

I don't have any answers. I only know that I don't like this at all.

May god give the family strength to cope with their loss.

The good, bad and the ugly...05-Dec-12

The Good

This is an article from today's Hindu Business Line that made me proud of being an Indian.

A new global role awaits India

The author is Ashley J Tellis, who was a member of George Bush's negotiating team, who negotiated the Indo US Nuclear Treaty, in UPA 1 (that was so long ago). If you remember, that treaty gave India so much benefits in exchange of so little to be provided in return. That was vintage Manmohan Singh and that was the treaty that brought about the victory for UPA in the 2009 elections. Mr.Tellis is obviously a great fan of India and its people. He talks about how India, a multi racial, multi ethnic, multi lingual, multi cultural and a diverse country has defied so much of negative perceptions and has gone on to create one of the 20th Centuries greatest integration achievement. He paints a very bright future for our country. 

Then the bad.

This story  again in the same newspaper made a sad reading.

Indian ambience stifles talent 

This article is written by Mr.B S Raghavan, who is a well known, regular contributor, who writes the 'Offhand' Column for HBL, give different examples of how India is poor in identifying and nurturing talent. He gives examples of Srinivas Ramanujan, a low paid clerk in Tamil Nadu, how was identified and nurtured by Professor Hardy, and who thrived in the beneficial environs of England, to become one of the foremost mathematicians of his time. Mr.Raghavan rues the fact that while it is India the country that gave west the concept of' Jugaad (low cost innovation), it is very poor when it comes to harnessing that potential and convert it into a movement that can significantly change the direction of the country. Mr.Raghavan, illustrates the point by citing the  article on 'Hole In the Wall', written by Sekhar Kapur, where he talks of a small mobile repair place in the bylanes of Delhi, who repaired his Blackberry in 6 minutes flat !. In other countries, such innovation would have been identified, publicised and even converted to some kind of startup with lines of VCs available for financing. But not in India...

I agree with Mr.Raghavan that while we have abundance of talent, we as Indians do a poor job of harnessing that talent in a systematic manner.

What a waste....

And the ugly....

And finally, this story made me depressed

Indian Olympic Association banned by IOC

This article is written by KAROLOS GROHMANN for the Stuff, New Zealand. I choose this site for the simple reason to see how foreign media views this news. As per the article, The IOA has been directed by a Delhi court to hold the elections adhering to the government's sports code, while the IOC wants the governing body to abide by the Olympic charter.'.

The IOC has been angered by government interference in the elections and had warned the IOA in a letter of a possible suspension.

Kuwait which was also facing a ban, escaped the same by amending the Country's law.

What is the impact of this ban?

The ban means an effective end to funding from the IOC to the national Olympic committee (IOA), no Indian officials attending Olympic meetings and Indian athletes banned from competing at the Olympics under their country's flag.

I did not realize the full significance of this development, until I heard Vijender Singh on the TV today. 

According to him, this ban means that "I will not be able to stand on Olympic Podium carrying Tricolour". 

This is the dream of every sports person and for which he devotes an entire lifetime. And this has been denied by a set of corrupt politicians and their cronies. I can't even begin to imagine the magnitude of the effects of this ban on the Indian Sports persons.

While all the other countries are trying their best to invest in their Sports infrastrucure and win medals in International competitions, here is a ridiculous situation where we can't even do the the basic things right. In other countries, the Sports administrators works for the betterment of Sports and Sports persons, in this country, the Sports persons work for the betterment of Sports administrators. 

A classic case of putting a cart before the horse. 

I am proud of our sports persons in our country. Here, the dedicated sports persons and coaches, almost work entirely on their own, with their hands tied behind their back, go and win medals in international events. Imagine the kind of stuff they can achieve if the administrative apparatus is there to support them wholeheartedly.

A sad state of affair. 

Politicians, get out of my Sports

Countdown to new year....

I got this cool 'New Year Countdown' widget. You can download the same at 'Mycountdown' site. They have some cool widgets there.

How do  you get these widgets on your blog? Follow these simple steps, if your blog is on blogger.

1. Go to the above site and select the Widget you liked.

2. Copy the HTML code below the selected widget.

3. Open your blog and click on 'Layout' or 'Design'.

4. Click on Add a new Gadget. A popup window will open where you can select the gadget.

5. Scroll down and select 'HTML / Java Script'

6. Give the title. You can give any title of your choice

7. Paste the code that you copied earlier.

8. Save

Voila!!, the widget is now available on your blog. 

You are now in the 'Cool Person' territory.

Quick retributions....

They say that while the god sees every bad thing that happens around, but when it comes to delivering quick punishments, he is somewhat slipshod.

Examples abound.

You see corrupt people become richer with corruption. You see people taking advantage of the poor, without getting even as much as a minimalistic punishment in return. You see bad things happen all around, but do the perpetrators get any punishment, let alone quick?

No way. In fact corrupt become richer and leading luxurious lifestyles.

One is justified in asking, where is god? Where are the justifiable retributions that these guys so richly deserve?

When it comes to these people, god is notoriously lenient and laid-back.

However, when it comes to minor misdemeanor on my part, the almighty is always quick with his retributions. It is almost as if he is like my wife / boss, ready to pounce on my smallest of mistakes.

Else, how can you explain the following cases?

The other day, I was taking my son to an exam that he had to write. He had kept water bottle in his bag and at the gate, he opened the bag to take out his hall ticket for the exam and the water bottle tumbled out.

I got irritated. "Be careful when you open the bag. Ensure that nothing tumbles out", I scolded him. 

(Boy, ain't I glad I am not in Norway. In that good old country, people have been jailed for crimes minor.)

He didn't say a word. In fact, I am sure he did not even bother to listen to my admonitions.

But, there was someone else up there who was listening. 

After about 5 minutes, I opened my laptop bag to take out a book to read, lo and behold, my laptop fell down from the bag on to the concrete road below.

Did you see that? It was as quick a retribution as you can get for a very minor transgression.

Or take another case.

I was in Bangalore airport, early morning on a Monday, waiting to board my 7.30 (AM, mind you) flight to Mumbai. Having got up very early, (Bangalore airport being quite a good distance from my house), and it being a Monday morning, needless to say, I was not in one of those dandy, pleasant and affable moods of mine.

One of the great things about Bangalore airport is the spread of breakfast options that is available. You have everything from Continental, to North Indian, and South Indian cuisines available. One of the greatest food options available is 'Grab and Fly' where, by paying about 70 rupees (about 1.5 Dollars), you can get  a sumptuous breakfast of 'Mini Idly and Sambar (Smallish rise dumplings in Spiced Lentil)' or 'Upma (Coarse Wheat / Corn flour boiled in Onions and Chilli [Boy, I am good at this])'. Both options are delicious. 

Especially the Upma.

I stood in the 'Grab and Fly' line. At the counter, I asked and got the Upma.

While my order was getting ready, the guy behind me in the line also asked for Upma.

"Sorry sir Upma is over. You can take the Idly", said the genial guy at the counter (I am joking. No one can be genial early morning on a Monday. Grumpy is more like it).

I was proud that I got Upma and the next guy didn't. I felt as if I have won the competition. I gave him a sympathetic look, like I was Obama and he was Romney.

"Do you want Ghee?" asked the waiter to me.

What the heck. Even though I was on a diet and was exercising and never add Ghee to Upma, I thought it is worth giving a shot.

He added the ghee. The Upma was smelling delicious. I thought that the smell of the Ghee in the Upma will make the loser even more disappointed.

That thought made me happier.

With elaborate ritual (adding some sugar, carefully picking the spoon and fork). I brought the Upma to my seat. Preliminary to eating, I added sugar and made a show of deliberately and casually mixing the sugar in Ghee laden Upma. All the time casually looking around the airport for any acquaintances.

Cool guy preparing to have his breakfast, if you see what I mean.

Just as I was about to take in my first morsel into my saliva filled mouth.....

My hand hit the side of the plate and spilled the Upma all over. The ground, chair, the newspaper... There was Upma everywhere.

To add insult to injury, the white coconut chutney fell all over my black trousers.

What a mess.

A few moments ago, I was guilty of being filled with hubris. The guy above saw it, didn't like it, and gave me a quick retribution.

Why is it that when it comes to me, the retributions are swift, while when it comes to many others (Kalmadi, Bhanot etc for instance), the punishments are slow and never arriving?

Where is the justice, my good god? 

Ice cream sandwich and more.....

You can't judge me for what happened !!

I mean, look at the situation. Look at the context. Look at the circumstances....

I mean....

I was driving with my son in the car to somewhere in Jayanagar. I forget where I was going. I remember that I was driving. And my son was in the seat next to me.

These are times when I get my son as a captive audience. I am always on the lookout for giving "parental advices and guidance' to him when he is in the car. Most of the time the opportunity presents itself when my son asks me a question or make an observation.

I have this rare ability of identifying potential advices even out of on Non-Sequitars. Simple innocent observations... and I latch on to them and expound on them. Like some bubblegum or something.

My son has learned his lessons. He has learned to keep his trap shut when we are together in the car. But that doesn't stop me. An ad here, a road sign there, a tree somewhere....all these are 'advice catalysts' and advices pour forth out of me, non-stop, like Niagara falls...

It so happened that we were driving in front of 'Baskin Robbins'. You know, the Calorie and Cholestrol vendor...(I am joking. They have delicious, low cal ice creams) 

"I want to get 'Ice Cream Sandwich'" announced my taciturn son generally to the universe.

My parental antennae were up. This was the kind of observation that called for a detailed parental advising effort.

"Son, I want to tell you three things", commenced I.

Son made a face. Father ignored it and continued.

"One, someone has said that 'you should be careful what you wish for because you will get it'.  So think before you wish for anything. You know that I will buy you Ice Cream Sandwich if you want one. I don't want  to say no to you when you ask me for something to eat. But remember that Ice cream contains lot of calories and fat and is the number one cause of childhood obesity in the United States. While I will buy you Ice Cream Sandwich, you have to ensure that you do a lot of physical exercise. Only physical exercise will help you build your stamina..."

I was about to go on a narrative spree about the benefits of building physical stamina and endurance, but kept it aside for a later day.

"Two, you know that you are susceptible to cough and cold especially if you eat ice creams in winter season.  And now is winter season and you are old enough to understand the physical hazards of eating ice cream in this season. You have to be responsible to yourself and never let your cravings of junk food overcome your judgement (boy, am I good at making advices out of nothing?). If you want, I will buy you ice cream, but I wish that you will yourself say that you don't want it now"

I was on a roll....

"And three, let us analyse what is an ice cream made of. It is essentially some cream mixed with lots of sugar and some vanilla. Would you have eaten them, if given separately (well, may be sugar)? So why do you crave for a silly combination of things which you would not have eaten separately? Come on son, you are bigger than an Ice Cream Sandwich from Baskin Robbins....."

I stopped. Victorious, if you see what I mean.

To his credit, my son was absolutely silent during this monologue of mine. Expressionless, you know. Like a Tibetan monk or something....

Finally, he spoke.

"Appa", sez he, " ' Ice Cream Sandwich' is the name of the latest version of Android OS. I was talking about upgrading my Samsung mobile to the latest 'Ice cream Sandwich' OS Version".

The sound you just heard? The crumbling of my Parental Authority...

The IT Impact.....

The other day I was interviewing a candidate for the post of Manager in our company. The role called for a knowledge of Finance processes and knowledge of IT.

The candidate was referred to me through a placement agency. 

After working for almost 25 years in a previous company he was wanting to move out. He had a basic graduation and had joined the company as a low ranking employee and had grown through the ranks to his current position as Manager-Finance in his current company. After almost 25 years, now he wanted to move out and explore the options.

He had some sort of relevant experience that I was looking for. The interview was held telephonically as the candidate was located in a different city. 

The interview went reasonably well. The candidate had enough practical experience to answer some of my questions, but was a little lost when I probed a bit deeper. Still, he demonstrated enough knowledge to sate my interest. 

At the end of the interview I asked him the standard relocation question. 

"Currently you are in Ahmedabad. Do you have any problem with relocating to Mumbai?" I queried

"No sir, my son is in Mumbai. He works for TCS", this gentleman replied.

I was shocked. Here was a person who had spent all his life in the same company, with a son old enough to be working, now wanting to change. If I make a safe assumption that his son is about 24 and he got married at the age of 24, he should be around 50 years by now. At a time when people of his age are planning to settle down, he is sharing his CV with the placement agents.  He does not mind relocating to a different city. More importantly, this placement consultant thinks that it is ok to send this CV to his customers.

How far we have come....

I remembered the time, about 10 - 12 years ago, I had started applying for jobs in IT companies. Countless placement consultants send me back my CV saying that 'your profile do not meet out requirements', which is a Placement Consultantese for 'You are too old for this job. Don't waste my time with your CV'. I had to put in a lot of effort to land my first job in the IT companies. 

Mark you, with BTech, MBA and about 10 years of domain experience, I was well qualified for the kind of jobs that I had applied for. 

I still remember, I had applied for TCS in 2003 and they told me that 'my profile do not meet requirements (you are too old!!)'. By 2004, I had become one year younger and TCS recruited me. 

As I mentioned in MY ANOTHER POST ON ATTRIBUTION EFFECT, the people of my father's generation spent their whole life working for one company. They did not have opportunity to change, even when they wanted to. 

And the current generation, like the 50'ish person whom I interviewed above, has lots of opportunities available if they have the right credentials. This is all due to the impact of IT revolution. This has made it possible for people, irrespective of their ages, to seriously consider job changes and have a reasonable assurance that they may land a new job.

Every time we talk of IT revolution, we glamorise it by talking about the modern young generation. To me, it is these 50 year old people, with basic educational qualifications and dreams in their eyes, who feel confident enough to apply for jobs in the area of Information Technology  (and are taken seriously by employers), who are the symbols of miraculous success of the IT revolution in India.

Let us salute them...

Modern Day Ramayana.....

Mom asked her elder son to narrate the story of Diwali to his younger bro.

He started.

"So luk, this dude Ram had, like, a big kingdom & people liked him and stuff like'at, bt, his stepmom or sumthin. was kinda bitch and she forcd her hubby to send this Ram to sum jungle or sumthin...

Coz he was going for 14 yrs, So his wife n bro got along...(U knw just 2 Chill)...

But dude, forest was real scary shit. Was full of devils and shit like dat,

bt this dude and his bro killed thm, wid arrows (Dude !! Guns were not invented. What a dumbo !!)...

Bt den sum bad gangsta -  Ravan, picked up his babe sita....

Dis dude and his bro got real pissed off...

So they got an army of monkeys...

dnt ask hw....

Atttackd dem, and got d babe n returned home....

People thot atleast they deserve sumthn...

They had no bars or clubs or smoke stuff to party....

So they lit lamps....

N this is hw it all started...

Strictness Dilemma....

How strict a parent should be? When should a parent start to move away from active involvement in the child's day to day activities, from being the 'strict' parent, to guidance and oversight?

We in India lay a lot of emphasis on sons taking care of their old parents. The logic is that the parents took care of them when they were weak and needed support, hence the children should reciprocate when they grow older. Our mythology and history is littered with stories of the devoted son and his wife who take care of old and infirm parents. Right from our childhood, we are exposed to a series of such stories.

That is why when I read cases of sons ignoring their old and helpless parents, I feel very unhappy and sad. I feel as if my deeply held beliefs are violated.

Surprisingly for me, reasonably intelligent and knowledgeable as I am, I, till now, never thought that there could be another reasonable (I may not agree with it though) explanation to sons ignoring their old parents.

In simple words, this can be explained as 'What goes around comes around'.

You know, while the children are young and dependent, the parents need to behave with affection and respect to their children. Only if you give respect, you get respect, so goes the saying. If you analyse the childhood of the sons who abuse / ignore their parents, you may find that they were physically assaulted or worse, they were emotionally wounded or psychologically abused.

And when these kids grow up, the shoe is on the other foot.

I was reminded of this when I.....

Well, you decide for yourself.

A friend of mine had recently gone to his son's school to attend a PTA meeting. A few of the parents were sitting around chatting with the PE (Physical Education) instructor.

"Nowadays parents are not strict with their children", expounded the knowledgeable PEI, "they given in very easily to the demands from the children. When were growing up (oh, there you go again), our parents used to be very strict. It was not like what is happening these days".

Generic comment. Meaningless platitude.

All the parents sat there with silly smiles on their faces. Most them had been through this lots. They have been told by irrelevant people out there on how to bring up THEIR children. Many of them have had many intellectual debates with their children and have been routed in most of them. Most of their kids might be teaching their parents about the new computers and languages. 

One would have thought that the best response to such a comment is just to ignore it. Not this lady. She had to blow her trumpet.

She was attending the session with her daughter who was studying in the school. 

"I don't allow my children to get out off the line. I am a very strict parent. I ensure that my children are scared of me. For example, now my son is in Engineering College. When he was in class 12, he once complained to me about the pressure that I was putting on him to study. He threatened that he can't take this pressure and that he will 'Commit Suicide'. You know what I did? I took him to the terrace of our 19th floor apartment and told him that I will watch while he jumps off the terrace. I told him to 'Jump off if he had the guts'. He came back, shamefaced and scared. After that incident, he hasn't had the guts to raise his voice against me." She said triumphantly.

None of those sitting there said anything. Her unfortunate daughter sat there, all shamed, covering her face.

This blind woman could not see what she was doing to her children. She couldn't see that she was 'competing' against them. And she was under this ridiculous impression that she was 'Winning' the competition. 

Her son may never overcome the kind of insult that he was subjected to when he was almost an adult. This lady will become old and infirm someday and I don't think that any of her children will be there to support her. 

Why did not any other parent point this out to her? Would I have sat there silently when this lady was touting this utter nonsense?? I don't think that I would have sat there silently. I would have pointed out to this lady that she was 'Competing' against her kids. I would have told her that sooner or later she is going to be in need of support and she need to strengthen her children rather than weaken them. I would probably have asked her to look at her daughter who was so ashamed of her mother.

I would have told her that no matter who wins the 'competition' between Parents and Children, the family would end up losing. 

PS: I hope that her children overcome this 'Psychological Trauma' and turn out fulfilling their potential.

Do We Deserve?.... Part 3:The Stench City...

First it was called 'Garden City' and 'Pensioner's Paradise'.

Then they called it 'IT City' and 'Silicon Valley of India' for the plethora of IT Multinationals that started up from here. All the big names in IT including Oracle, Infosys, Wipro...you name them, they have office here in this city. 

Yes boss, we are talking about Bangalore, capital of the great state of Karnataka.

Of late this city is becoming famous for something else. Something not very good. Something that make Bangaloreans curse the city officials.

Bangalore is stinking..

Yes, they are having big problem finding landfills to fill the Garbage of Bangalore. The one landfill available was on the outskirts of the city. The villagers near the landfill has protested and so the city council has stopped dumping garbage in the landfill. 

It stands to reason that the council should have foreseen this eventuality and had taken the necessary precaution and planned earlier. After all they charge taxes thru the nose. This is one of the richest city corporation in the country.

There is property tax, there is road tax, there is fuel tax, there is tax on tax...

But it seems there is no money to buy sufficient incinerators. 

There is no place to dump the garbage. So it piles up. And stinks.

The other day, I went via the Banasankari Market at Sarakki gate. It was fascinating to watch respectable and polite Bangalore ladies walking by covering their noses with their Sarees and gentlemen with their handkerchiefs.

This brings us to the question. Why did this happen? 

All the great cities in the world have efficient waste disposal and solid waste management systems. Why can't we follow their footsteps. Landfills have become passe. The trend is towards the use of technology in Solid Waste management.

And this city council has let the issue rot (literally)

It is not that nothing is being done. In our apartment complex, for example, we are segregating the garbage into three categories, dry waste, west waste and recyclables. We segregate the garbage into three separate groups and the collection mechanism is different for each. We are also planning to install waste recycling mechanism and the target is to have 'Zero Waste' by the end of next year.

Indian Civilization was the first to have scientific waste disposal system in the form of sewers and drains found in the ruins of Harappa and Mohanjo Daro. That was about 5000 years ago. The question to ask is, why, we the pioneers of waste management from time immemorial, are struggling with Waste Management in the 21st Century? 

And stink our city.

Why?

Sunder's evolution...

Sunder is my colleague in the workplace. I mean, we are co-workers.

We both share a passion for Stock Market investing. We like to talk about our stock market mistakes and experiences (of losing money, of course). Rather, I talk about losing money.

The other day, Sunder was telling me about his experience.

"I started investing in Stock Market in 2006," said Sunder, "at that time market was on a major bull run. I was always running after news and momentum. As soon as I hear that a stock is expected to go up, I will go and buy it. And immediately afterwards sell it. Since it was bull run almost everything that I bought went up."

"There was no method that I was following. In the morning train, I hear people discussing about a particular stock and I will go and buy it immediately. Most of the time, I had no idea about the companies. I had no clue about their business, no idea about their future potential and almost no information about their current performance. Graham will turn in his grave if he knew the way I was buying stocks"

"If people were talking about it in the train, I will buy it", said Sunder thoughtfully.

"Funny thing is that I was making money on the momentum. And BECAUSE I was making money, I thought I was a superior investor. The more money I made, the more I felt confident about my 'investment methodology', and more I followed the same method."

"Then the great correction started" said Sunder

"It took me some time to realize that I was losing money regularly. More stocks that I bought, more money I started losing. Having got into the habit of buying into news and 'train information', I found it difficult to give up the habit. The funny thing about following news is that you tend to be selective in the choice of news that you read. You somehow avoid news that goes against your beliefs."

"I ignored bad news, stayed longish in the market and lost some money."

"That is when I realized that I was not a 'super investor' after all." said Sunder.

"I realized that if you want to make money, and that too 'Serious Money' in the market, it is very important to identify the stocks that you buy, do your research on them and stay invested. It is also very important to have a clear target and sell when you meet your target. Just as a buying decision is important, a decision to sell is equally important."

"From a person who used to buy on every news, now I have become an investor who takes less risk, do my homework and follow clear rules to buy and sell. Of course I do punting a bit here and there. But most importantly, I have evolved to a more serious investor." concluded Sunder.

My experiments with identifying 6 Habits that a young man should develop....

In 1933, Robert Littell wrote an article in Harper's Magazine titled 'What Every Young Man Should Know'. This article talks about various habits that a young man should develop and lessons that a young man should know. Mr.Littell talks about the habits considered important in the US during that period. The Littell list include habits like 'Learning to fire a gun' which I personally find abhorrent.

So I thought about it. Why not I write about the 6 habits that in my opinion every young man should develop.   It should be simple, I thought to myself. If Littell can, so can I, decided me.

So I set to work. Identifying six habits may be a bit difficult, but worth a try, I felt.

If you start identifying the 6 habits, you might as well start with a title. What is an article or a blog post without a title? A title is like a foundation. Every article need one.

Stands to reason.

So I started off the article with the title '6 Habits that every young man should develop'. Having got that one behind me (I meant, deciding on the title) I felt charged up.

I started off with Goal Setting, Perseverance, Hardwork, Integrity, Sense of Humour and Chivalry. In about a minute and a half, I had made it to 6. I was done.

That was easy.

I felt a little disappointed. That was not much of a challenge. I expected a bit more of a struggle.

Wait a minute..What about Patience? 

Ok. I will add this one. I added patience and I changed the title of the article to '7 Habits every young man should develop'. I had got it done, I thought.

I looked at the title. Why not make it '7 Habits of highly effective teenagers'? After all, today's teenagers are tomorrows young men. Also, more teenagers will like it if you call them young men. '

Catching them young, if you see what I mean. Just to be sure that it is an original title, I googled it in Bing.

I found that Sean Covey, son of Stephen Covey had already usurped that title.

Damn you Covey.

I was stuck with my old title. I didn't want any copyright war with Covey.

Now came Gratitude. What about me, it asked. Surely I have to be in that list. Of course, it had to be. I added Gratitude to my list

And my title changed to '8 Habits......'

Whatever be the goals that you set for yourself, you cannot attain it unless you start it. Only if you take the first action and start off will other habits like perseverance gets any meaning. Without action, perseverance is like a stool without any legs. What it will will persevere with? So 'Taking Action' got itself added as the 9th habit.

And changed the title of my article to '9 Habits....'. Of course.

I was fast losing control of my article.

By now I was becoming desperate. This task of identifying the habits seemed to have no end. There are so many of them out there. There was no way I was going to end this article. 

Then I remembered that a young man should not get desperate. You have to maintain calm among pressure. I remembered the old saying, 'Be like a duck. Appear calm above, but paddle like crazy beneath'. So I added 'Maintaining Calm' as my 10th habit.

And changed my title to '10 Habits.....'

That is it I am done. So I thought. Nice round number of habits. I had finished. Finito. The end.

I heaved a sigh of relief. It was scary. What if I was not able to end this article. The article would remain incomplete. I would feel incomplete. An unfinished task will forever remain etched in my conscience.

Being able to stop is as important as being able to start. I remembered all those silly coves who invest in stock market, reach their target, and without selling, remain invested and lose all their gains.

I should know. I had been there. I still am.

So got the habit 11 added to my ever expanding list. 'Learn to stop'. Eleven is not a very round number. So I added 'Teamwork' as the 12th habit to make it to a nice little dozen.

Changed the title of my article of course...

By now my list of habits was expanding uncontrolled like the universe. Or like US Fiscal Deficit.

Other habits came in torrents. What about us, asked 'Reading and Writing', put us under 'Communication Skills' said they. Without me, the young man will not be able to face any tough situations in life, warned 'Optimism'. 'Setting the goal is fine, but what about identifying the right goal to set', warned the habit that I will call 'Focus on the important' (also known as, 'Don't sweat the small stuff').

By now I had fifteen of them and counting. I can immediately see 'Keep Faith on God and Yourself' making a grand entry as the 16th in the list. 

Yesterday, while doing my exercises in Gym, I remembered that nowadays most young men only sit in front of their computers, uploading photos in Facebook or writing blog posts. A young man has to spend most of his life outside, managing people and ethically manipulating the world to ensure that he get what he deserves. To do this, he has to be 'Out there'. That got into my list as Habit 17.

My title got modified, of course.

They say old habits die hard. It stands to reason that my young man should be able to Stop Bad Habits and Start New Good Habits. My young man should 'Learn to Learn', whatever that means. That was  habit number 18.

The other day I was reading an HBR article on the key trait of leaders as 'Resilience'. Successful leaders are always resilient. That mean that my young man has to learn this habit. So there is my 19th Habit for the young man.,

I listed my selection of habits as below.

1. Persistence and Hardwork

2. Hardwork

3 Intellectual Integrity / Assertiveness

4 Sense of humor

5 Chivalry

6 Taking that first step / Taking action.

7 Patience

9 Gratitude

10 Reading and Writing

11 Team work

12 Goal setting

13 Ability to handle criticism positively

14 Don't sweat the small stuff / Identify what is important

15 Optimism and Positivity

16. Keep faith in God and Yourself
17. Be out there
18. Learn to Learn / Stop old habit and Start new habit
19. Be resilient. Don't let bad experiences get you down.

These are my 19 habits you Mr.Young Man.

Looking at my list, the 'Littell List' look more of a 'Little List'. Mine is more of an essay.

To make matters worse, I have a vague suspicion that I am not done. There are more habits waiting to be discovered.

And that gives me heebie-jeebies.

Do We Deserve?....Part II: Dirty Gateway

Previously I had written a post on the bad traffic discipline in India in the Part I of this series. In this Part II I want to talk about my experiences in Gateway of India and Flora Fountain, in Mumbai.

Yesterday evening, I visited both these places. Both these are majestic monuments and form the pride of place in South Mumbai.

First, my impressions on Flora Fountain.

The lady looks majestic but Jaded. The statue and the pillar are covered with moss and fungi and there is no sheen on the statue. Brilliant light falls on the statue but in the moss covered structure the light gets absorbed instead of reflecting the same. The structure needs a bit of cleaning and repainting and will look as good as new. 

Why are we not able to do that?

If you travel in Paris, you will see a lot of such statues on various streets. Each of them is made of marble and is brilliantly maintained. It is a pleasure to walk near them and when you stand in front of then, the camera will beg you to take photographs of the structure. 

And here we have the lady Flora. We cover the old girl with moss and algae and litter the area with soda bottles, cans, paper packets, wrappers, paper glasses straws, cigeratte packets.....

Why? 

Similar experience in Gateway of India. There are signs of the administration having lost control everywhere. There are hawkers all over the place. You can't move a step without them blocking you with some stuff that they want to thrust upon you. If it is not hawkers, it is the beggars. They are sitting there, right in the middle of the area, and begging all over the place. 

Then there is litter...

The place is littered with paper and plastic. The whole of the area is one huge litter bin. No civic sense, not dustbins at proper places and there are a lot of vendors who sell a lot of stuff in plastic bottles and paper cups. 

I tell my son that we should treat the earth as our home and just as we do not litter our home, we should not litter the environment. People carelessly littering the place make me stuff those litter in their.....

Don't make me say what I think...

Just like the fountain, this structure is also covered with moss and fungus. You stand in front of the  moss covered Gateway and look at the glistening Taj Hotel and the contrast is stark and obvious. 

Again, if you stand in front of Arc de Triomphe in Paris, you won't feel like leaving. The majesty of the monument and the history associated with the same make you want to spent time. And you enjoy spending time there because the whole of the area is spic and span and well maintained. Despite similar history associated with the Gateway of India, Spicness and Spanness are not the terms that you associate with this structure. 

As you know, Gateway is on the sea front. The place is dotted with all those dilapidated boats. That they are waterworthy itself is a miracle. All of them looks old and ill-maintained. There are small canoes of different sizes and shapes. Each of the it is run by shabby and unkempt people. 

While litter is a cultural issue, everything else including uncontrolled hawkers, dilapidated boats, shabby boatmen, scary looking canoes....

All point to an administration that has forgotten to administer. Or has simply lost the will to administer.

If we want, we can repaint Gateway, have beautiful lights fitted, can have knowledgeable and experienced guides, can have world class boats and yachts and canoes and make this place a major tourist attraction.

What do we do instead?

We litter the place, fill the area with poverty, stink, hawkers, dirty dingies with shabby boatsmen...

India is blessed with a large population. Why not put a few of them into taking care of our monuments and structures? Give them good uniforms, teach them about our history, make them proud of our heritage and let them 'own' our monuments. They will keep them spic and span. They will impress the visitors with their knowledge of  the history of the country. They will act as our voice to the world.

India has over 5000 years of uninterrupted history. Imagine how impressive it will be if we are able to link the past to the present and hence to the future? This is what an educated guide with a knowledge of history and intersperse it with the present to paint a picture of the brilliant future. We can bring tourists in droves to our country.

Why not leverage the 'Demographic Dividend'?

If we aim to become a world class country, if we want to enter into the big league of developed nation, we have to make it county 'developed' worthy. Part of it involves having a competent administration, a proud culture and the will to embrace modernity and the responsibilities that come with it. By maintaining our heritage structures in this casual manner, we will never deserve to be a part of developed country. Till we reach that level, we will remain a country where foreigners come to see the 'Poverty' and feel good by paying good money to charities.

Is it what we want? Is it what we deserve?

Do We Deserve?....Part 1: The Violators

Every morning when I travel to the office in Mumbai, I regularly see driver violating traffic signs with impunity. In almost all the countries that I have travelled to, people religiously follow the traffic signs. They implicitly seem to understand that following traffic rules make your travel less stressful and paradoxically faster. 

But not us in India. We are proud of some pet themes like 'Life never stops in Mumbai' or 'People are always on the move' etc. We seem to have taken these themes literally and are 'always on the move' even when the traffic signs turn red, or are red..

In Bangalore, they wanted to have Video Cameras installed in all the major junctions. They wanted to track the traffic movement across the city from a central control room. They still have these installed in some key junctions and they work fine. In all the movie halls, they show scenes of traffic violations and accidents caused by drivers (especially bikers and truck drivers). Coming before the movie is screened, these are more exciting than the real movie. 

While this is working reasonably well most of the time, there have been cases of people stealing the cameras installed in some of the junctions, especially in the suburbs where the oversight is thinner. 

These cameras help police to identify traffic violators, levy fines on them, and most importantly, bring help quickly to the sight of accidents. Sometimes the innocent drivers get levied fines (Yours truly was one of the unsuspecting fine payer for a violation that I didn't cause). Despite the small issues, I still feel that such initiatives will bring in better traffic control in our cities. 

The key question that I am asking is, why do we violate traffic rules?

Is it cultural? do some cultures violate traffic rules more impuedently than others? Are we born  traffic violators?

Is it behavioural? Most of the people who come to the city are migrants from villages. In villages, there is lot of spaces and there is hardly any traffic rules. When you come from the vast expanses of the villages to the highly dense cities, some of the areas where the 'basic instinct' works is in violation of traffic rules. 

Is it just an excuse? Is it that world is not going to fall if you spend  seconds in the traffic lights. People are just habituated to violate traffic more so because there is not negative consequences to violating traffic rules? If there a way of promptly identifying traffic violations and firmly handling the same, people would just fall in line?

You often see that if traffic policemen are present, then everyone follows the traffic rules. Do we always need policemen? Can't we police ourselves?

Is the traffic violation is a symptom of something bigger? Perhaps governance failure. There are enough rules to ensure proper traffic in cities. However, with the politicians focussed on tasks other than governance, there is a general laxity in all areas of administration and this is reflected in traffic violations? 

Of late there is a lot of talk about India moving to become one of the leading economies in the world. With rampant disregard for public rules, do we have a chance of reaching there? More importantly, do we even deserve to be called a 'developed' country?

What say?

PS: Having said the above, I think Mumbai has much more traffic sense than some of the other cities in India. People stand in line to board the bus. Lane discipline is by and large followed. But still there is scope for improvement.

Power of three ......

Note: Oracle uses TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) extensively in their internal communications. This article was written when I was working with Oracle.

Friends, I have a theory. In our company we have a special affinity for the number three. Where ever you look, you see the three letter words ..…

The effect of number three in our organization starts innocuously with the name of the organization itself.  Once it starts there, there is no end to the impact of this number in this organization.

Who is our new Boss? NAG

What is he?  He is the LOB head

We have the SCM Competency

We have the CRM Competency

We have the HCM Competency

As if this was not enough, we combine them to an SCH Pillar.

Talking of pillars, we also have the FIN Pillar….

We make money selling our consulting services. Have you ever noticed the kind of services that we sell?

We sell the EBS Service, the JDE Service, AMS service, XPS service and the E2O service.

To deliver these services we have the DBA team, the AIA team, the ODI team, the SOA team, the EAI team and the PIP Team, in addition to the SCM, the HCM and CRM teams.

Our CEMs sell our solutions and services to customers in LAD, WCE and MEA. We have the SDMs to manage the service delivery.

To provide us internal support, we have the PMO team, the SQA team and OPS team

Previously we had the RPMs, RDMs and an E2E service. But thankfully after the reorg, that is three three letter words less to remember.

By the way, talking of E2E (End to End Services) doesn’t the name remind us of the movie ‘Quayamat se Quayamat tak’

Nowhere our love for ‘Three letter words’ is demonstrated more than in the way we manage our internal applications.  We have the OSO and the OFO where we track the Proposals and the order bookings. We track the delivery in DTS and resource allocations in EPM. We use GPA to book time and expenses.

Have trouble booking time? Raise a support request with GIT.

Need access to mailing-list? Raise a request in APS.

When it comes to projects delivery, the PM is neck deep  in 3 letter words. The Bid gets transitioned to him in BTM after which he has to prepare an MOM and circulate it to stakeholders. After the BTM, the PM prepares a PEP and RAW and present it in the KOM after which he has to circulate the MOM.

We have the PMO and the SQA to keep the PM on his toes. Every month, the PM has one PPR session with the PMO and SQA to update them on the project status.

Got deliverables to release in your project? Get a peer review done and complete the RCL

Got an issue in the project? Did you do CAR? How many CARs did you do in your project?

Need to charge the customer? Get the POC from OPS team and send it to customer.

This is an organization where a failure to update ETC or EAC will get you a RAG update in DTS from PMO. And as if that is not enough, you will get an NCR from QA team during the audit.

Project is over. Mr.Project Manager, Have you completed the AAR?

How do the organization track your performance? By checking if you are adhering to WIGs.

We develop managers thru MDP and leaders thru LDP…

Even in our physical layout we can see the impact of three. We are spread across three floors in PTP (Another three…)

Our culture manager’s name, UMA, has three letters. She has the right name for the right organization.

And how many pledges that the team has asked us to take? Any guesses? That’s right… Three pledges.

And finally, even external agencies recognize out affinity for three. That is why they have given our organization  CMM level 3 (there three again….) certification.

May be we need to use more four letter words ( I was thinking of  OPAS. What were you thinking?) to move to the next level…

Friends, I rest my case….

At the VT Station in Mumbai.....

Yesterday I posted a blog post on my train journey experiences during the twelve years that I was working in Durgapur. You can read the post here.

I wrote that post after visiting the VT station in Mumbai. I went to pick my wife, son and my in-laws who were coming to Mumbai from Bangalore. 

It has been almost 14 years since the time that I regularly travelled in Train. Even when I travelled by train during this period, the tickets were booked by my Company and I invariably ended up travelling by Upper Classes. 

Or by overnight train...

Whether you are travelling by Upper classes or by overnight train, you lose touch with the people on the ground. In overnight train because it is dark outside. In upper class because the windows are tinted.  You are segregated from the public and you are in a matrix of your own. Whereas if you are travelling by the sleeper class, you are in touch with the 'Real India' warts and all.

Especially in an upper class, you are like the proverbial Airline pilot who dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Up there, you do not see real people, people like you. From up there, you only see small creatures walking around or driving around in match boxes. 

When you travel in Sleeper Class, you have a physical and emotional connection with the people with whom you are travelling, as well as people on the ground. This is not there when you are travelling upper class. 

Why am I mentioning this?

14 years of no-train-travel can do stuff to you. You are changed, the railways is changed, the people are changed. 

Three incidents happened in the one hour that I was in the station, that made a lasting impression on me. 

I was all excited when I went to the station. I wanted to write this blog and upload a few photos. Hence I went to the station armed with a camera. I was clicking photos of various trains and the railway station with gay abandon. 

Suddenly a police man called me.

"You there", he pointed at me, "come here". 

I looked around to ensure that he was calling me.No one was there.  "Who me?" I asked to confirm.

"Yes you", he responded testily, "who else do you see there?"

I went to him. "I see that you are clicking the photos of many trains. What is the matter?"

I was suddenly proud of our police force. Highly observant, if you see what I mean.

"I have not been to the railway station in a long time. It was about 12 years since I travelled in train. I see that the trains have become very colourful. I liked the new trains. So I was taking the photos" I informed.

He became friendly. "If you want to see colourful trains, you should see 'Deccan Odyssey' he told me. "That is a very colourful train"

With that advice, I left him. 

I was a little rattled by this experience. It is not everyday that  a Policeman is asking you to explain your innocent photographs.

I moved on to see the other parts of the station. 

While walking towards the other platform, a very flustered lady approached me. "Sir, can you tell me where I can find a police man?" she asked almost sobbing. 

I wanted to tell her that if she is looking for poilcemen, she had reached the right place. If there was any one passenger in that station who can give direction to the policeman, it was me. After all I had just been questioned by one. I directed her to the nearest policeman.

I was rattled by this sobbing woman who wanted to meet a policeman. What could have happened, I wondered? Did somebody steal something? Did she miss her train? How will it get resolved? 

And the worst, could I have done something to help her rather than just directing her to the nearest policeman? Should I have got involved.?

Whatever be the answer to that question, I knew I was not going to like it.

I went out for a tea outside. On the way back into the station, I saw a number of beggars sitting and begging in the middle of the road. I espied this one girl, very small, around 10 years probably, who was sitting in the middle of the road with a cloth laid out in front of her. By now I was inured to the poverty and suffering around me and I watched this girl casually. Just as I was looking, she took out a dirty cloth and wiped the sweat off her face. 

It was a simple gesture of a tired person. But to me it was so heart wrenching. There was no complaint in her eyes. It was hot and sultry and she was wiping the sweat from her face. That there was no complaint in her eyes hurt me. It pained me. Here was a 10 year old girl, begging in the streets, reconciled to her fate and not having any expectations from the society, having given up on the society. "Your sympathies do not matter to me", she seemed to be saying, "By now I know that you will not be doing anything to help me. I am resigned to my fate (eventhough I am only a small girl). If you have something to give me, drop it on the cloth. Otherwise please move on"

14 years ago, I would have seen this girl, and would have moved on without so much as a cursory glance at that girl. Now, 14 years later, the look of resignation and acceptance on that young face is not leaving me.

The train journey....

After a gap of almost 6-7 years, I went to a railway station yesterday. 

Brought back a lot of good old memories.

Before 1998, I used to travel long distances only by train. I was working in Durgapur then and my native place was Kerala. I used to travel from Durgapur to Kerala regularly before my marriage. After marriage, since my wife was from Chennai, I used to travel from Durgapur to Chennai. I used to travel a lot, at least about 4 to 5 times in a year.

Since flight cost was prohibitively expensive and upper classes in trains were also very costly, I used to travel mostly by sleeper class. Travelling from Durgapur back to South was fun. The anticipation of spending time with the family was motivation enough. The return trip was equally melancholic. On the one hand I was leaving the family and on the other hand, I was going towards a place and work that I detested.

I used to travel in all the seasons. In winter, in summer, in spring, in autumn and seasons in between. There were two or three regular trains that I used to travel in. There was Coromandal Express, the queen of the trains running between Chennai and Kolkata. Then there were East Coast Express, Kamrup Express and other trains.

The trains used to take an average of 24 to 30 hours to travel between Chennai and Kolkata, a distance of about 1350 Kilometers. The key stations in the route used to be Chennai, Vijayawada, Rajamundry, Visakhapatanam, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Kharagpur.

The whole of India, especially the east coast used to be very hot during Summer months. Some of the cities like Rajamundry used to touch about 48 degree Celsius in that season. In Andhra Pradesh, they dry the red chillies in that season. As the train chugs along through the state, the hot air laden with Spice of the Chilly will blow all over and for some time your eyes brn like crazy as the hot spicy air touches them.

Then there was that Hindi actress Jayaprada who was from Rajamundry. As the train touches the station, through the tear filled and sore eyes, you are wistfully looking all around the platform

For an off chance that Jayaprada will be present there.

Writing about my train journeys bring back a lot of memories. During one of my trips from Durgapur to Chennai, my co-passenger was a Bengali Gentleman working in Tata Steel in Jamshedpur. This man was travelling with his daughter with the objective of admitting her in a management institute in Manipal. He was carrying some money to manage the expenses in South India.  The train reached Cuttack in the early morning and every one was in a sleepy mood. In that twilight, one thief got into the train and walked away with his cash. He was distraught and stressed out. Being a proud Bengali, he was hesitant to ask for money. In one of the rare moments where I showed some sensitivity, I asked him how much money he wanted and gave him the money without asking for any collateral.

He took down my address and after a few days send me the money with a letter which said that 'very rarely will you will find a person like you (he was mentioning me) who is ready to help another person in trouble without asking any questions.' Needless to say, I was pleased as a punch at that letter.

I also remember a journey when I fell extremely sick and had to be carried out of the train at Visakhapatanam station and had to be admitted in the Railway hospital for three days due to acute attack of Bronchial Asthma.

Then there was a two day trip from Kerala to Durgapur where I had a group of pretty Malayali nurses for company for two days. Boy, wasn't that a pleasant journey !!

Kharagpur was the first major station in West Bengal. As the train entered Kharagpur, I will suddenly become sad. I was reminded that I still was working in Durgapur and that I hated it. Durgapur was like a jail and going back to Durgapur was like going back to jail after a pleasant few days of Parole. Sometimes I used to feel so hopeless and used to wonder if I will ever be able to escape the 'Chakravyuha' that I found myself in.

Those were desperate days. I still have nightmares that I have gone back to work in Durgapur Steel Plant.

Those were the 'Non-internet' days. You have to go to the railway station and stand in line to reserve your tickets. The reservations used to open about 60 days in advance and one used to mark one's calendar the dates when one has to go to the railway station to book the tickets.

I also found that the chances of my getting reservation was higher if I book my tickets from Kolkata. I used to board the 6.00 AM train from Durgapur to Kolkata, just so that I can go and stand in the line for booking my tickets to travel to my home town.

Those were expensive train reservations...

There was also a middle man in Durgapur who used to go to Kolkata to reserve tickets. He used to charge 20 rupees for a reservations. It was worth it.

While each of my train journey was worth a story, I will close the article with one of those incidents which in retrospect showed me who I am.

This was just after I had done my MBA in 1997. I was on my way back to Durgapur. During my MBA, I had done a project on analysis of Power sector in India. Having completed this project, I considered myself to be an expert in Power Sector. Remember, I also used to work in the Power Plant of SAIL.

The previous year, the Government of Orissa had initiated major reforms in Power Sector. They had created a new organization named 'TRANSCO' (Transmission Corporation of Orissa), and the consultant was PwC, which was based in Bhuwaneshwar.

Since I had done an MBA in Finance and was an expert in Power Sector, I thought that this was the perfect job for me.

Coramandal Express stops for just about 5 minutes in Bhuwaneshwar. On an impulse, I got down at Bhuwaneshwar.

Mind you, I had no idea about what I was doing. I did not know where was PwC based out of. I did not know if  they were going to recruit. I did not know anything about or anyone in the Organization. Still I got down at an unknown place with hardly any clue of what I was going to do.

PwC office turned out to be very near Bhuwaneshwar Railway Station. I reached the office Shabby and Dishevelled.

My objective was to meet Mr.Lakshmi Narayan who headed the Power Industry Practice in PwC in Bhuwaneshwar.

Needless to say, I was not even able to go beyond the receptionist. This tall, lanky, fair lady sweetly told me, who looked like a vagrant and did not belong to the posh ambience of PwC, that there is no vacancy in PwC in Bhuwaneshwar. She even refused to give me the contact details of Mr.Lakshmi Narayan.

Fair enough....

I shot my bolt. I felt stupid. I went back to the station, took the next train and returned to Durgapur.

It showed me that I was an impulsive person who is ready for adventure.

You know, for about 12 years, my life revolved around train journey. Train was the constant theme of my life. The Sun of my personal solar system and the nucleus around which the electrons of my life revolved.

Visit to the railway station brought back so many memories, so many experiences...

The weight reduction drive....

I weigh 83 Kgs now. My goal is to weigh 75 Kgs by 29th December, 2012.

I am approaching this scientifically and methodically. It all started with my reading the book 'Goals' by Brian Tracy. I am following each and every step as outlined by Mr.Tracy to achieve this goal. 

The most important first step as per Mr.Tracy is the Goal Statement. As per him, any goal statement should meet the three P's criteria. It should be Personal, Positive and in Present tense. It will help if the goal has a specific timeline associated with it. As per him, one should write down the goal for it to be directly interfaced with the Sub concious and the Super Concious mind. 

Based on this I made my goal statement. It reads as:

"I weigh 75 Kgs by 29th December, 2012"

This meets all the criteria. It is in Present Tense, it is not like 'I wish to weigh' or 'I will weigh' or anything. It simply says 'I weigh'

It is personal. 'I' weigh 75 Kg. You can't get more personal than that.

It is positive, of course.

I also innovated a bit. Whenever we start a goal, we always talk about a specific date which normally is the last date of the some month. Any month. For example, 'I will quit smoking by 31st of March', or 'I will start running from 1st of February'. What happens in such cases is that the date do not register very clearly in the mind. When I put 29th December, there is a clear direction to the Sub and Super Concious minds not to mess with the dates.

As advised by Mr.Tracy, I just went about writing down this goal on paper every day twice, once in the morning and one in the night, just before sleep. One doesn't want one's goals not being achieved just because they are not firmly etched in all the 'concious' minds...

Stands to reason, doesn't it?

Next step in the process is to take action. I paid 14000 of the precious doubloons and joined 'Talwalkers', a gym very close to the place I stay. There is a reason I joined this Gym. This has pan India presence and I can do my exercise in almost all the major cities in India. Since I work out of Mumbai but travel to Bangalore often, since my house is there, a gym with a pan India presence is beneficial to me. Other gyms were cheaper but they have only local presence. 

14000 is for annual membership. Works out to about 1200 per month. If I spend about 350 Calories per day in the gym, in a month I would have expended about 10500 calories, which works out to about 15 paisa per Calorie. Also you get some muscles and some healthy body.

Not a bad deal, that. 

Having paid the doubloons, I am now on a spending spree. I have already purchased two track suits. I also plan to buy a duffel bag. I have also started looking at Jabong.com for some offers on running shoes.

Once you jump into the water, you might as well get fully wet. Go the whole hog...

This is the third or the fourth day at the Gym. It is not very easy. They have all these expert trainers who make sure that no parts of your body are untouched (well except some parts) by their expertise. If there is a muscle to work upon, they would have me work upon that. 

So far only muscle that I knew was 'Abs' That too because of the recent craze for 6 Packs among the bollywood heros. Now I am reading about deltoids and factoids and cuboids....

A few things are sure. I will be going to the Gym almost every day. I plan to work on my muscles and will have some packs by 29th December 2012. Lot of my fat would have been burned and converted to muscles by then.

I don't know if I will touch 75 Kgs. But I know that I would have learned the names of almost all the muscles in my body.

That is progress....