Ratan Tata's Vision

I've always been an admirer of The Tata group. I could quote several reasons. No one in my family or close circle has worked for the group, so this opinion is not biased. I have heard and read a million good things about the conglomerate. Their way of business, employee friendliness, non-bureaucratic work culture are few of the examples. The Vice chairman of GM operations in Europe quit GM to join TELCO. That is a testament of the company's quality. Contrary to all the the positive things about the group, their software consulting arm has a 'bad' reputation amongst the employees. That apart, I'm all in awe of the Tata sons. A 5.6 billion dollar bid for Corus Steel. No one ever had predicted that an Indian company would make such a valiant bid, irrespective of the sector. I should rather say a successful bid. Now the combined firm is trying to buy Brazil's biggest steel firm CSN. I still remember reading Ratan Tata's interview when he offered to buy Corus. He had mentioned that one of the major issues for the steel industry would be the availability of iron ore. To back his comments, he has offered to buy CSN which owns the world's largest iron ore mines. Corus had unsuccessfully attempted to buy CSN but now the combined Tata-Corus conglomerate will make a second attempt. Unlike some business zealots like Larry Ellison, Ratan Tata has made it clear that his group will not make a hostile bid. That's his vision. He has successfully used the cash from TCS in building one of the world's largest steel producing entity. He may look at other sectors and work towards M&A's in making the Tatas a more visible global brand. Way to go Sir.

Arranged Marriage, The 'Kickoff'

I couldn't think of a better title for this post. Atleast 10 guys have so far asked me how the arranged marriage 'phenomenon' works. For people in the US, who are used to dating for years or months before something like 'commitment' can be thought of, it seems weird that in India a guy meets a girl for a while and then they decide to spend the rest of their lives together. Its similar to how we in India feel about divorces. So I thought I'll put down my own experiences of 'meeting the girls' as I term it :).
Before I took off to India in mid august most of my colleagues thought I'd come back married in a span of 2 weeks. As I had predicted that didn't happen, neither did I get engaged, nor did I end up with a 'date'.
Just a background, traditional arranged marriages (my grandfather's generation 1920s to 1950s ) were arranged between close knit families or family friends who knew each other very well. If there was a prospective guy for a girl and vise versa the families would just sit together one fine day and discuss if the relationship was feasible. If found feasible they would ask the guy and girl to get married. No questions asked. My dad's generation (1960s - 1970s) a small change, In addition to all of the above mentioned practice of the previous generation the guy gets to meet and talk to the girl before they take a decision. However the guy gets the first say. Most of the times if the guy agreed, the girl had to agree. Once the relationship is fixed the guy and girl get engaged and after one or two months get married.
Now in this generation , several changes, rather drastic changes have occurred. First, its no longer the guy who decides first. The girl can meet the guy and then ask the guy to talk a walk without even talking to the guy. As the female to male ratio has dropped considerably, women know they stand a good chance of meeting quality guys. So they are in no hurry. To sum it up today's arranged marriages are more like 'arranged dates' and in some cases 'arranged speed dates' as the first girl I met pointed out.
For me the experience was quite enjoyable and frustrating at the same time. To meet girls day after day was painful, especially in Bangalore where it takes forever to reach one place from the other. I can't even give job interviews at that rate. Meeting the girl's parents takes a toll, like in one of the meetings the girl's dad asked me whether I cooked food or ate outside? I have no idea what's the relevance of this question. Oh another question is how's the weather in your city? How can you describe this - the weather here in Beaverton changes every hour sometimes. Setting up a 'meeting' in the parents' ( even at my parent's ) house just didn't work, period. One of the girls didn't even know my name - that was so embarrassing. Fortunately I did get to meet one or two girls in coffee shops. It was such a welcome change. One of the coffee shop meetings ended up in dinner. By the time we went home it was past midnight. Both the parents were sort of surprised. I called another girl to a coffee shop and her reply was 'can I get my mom also ???' I just burst out laughing over the phone. Had I known this girl for a while I'd have said 'Hey why not, bring ur grandma as well'.
So overall it was quite an experience. As I said earlier I came back single, much to the dismay of my parents. I failed to impress some girls and some girls failed to impress me. The entire process lasted for about a week after which I took off to chickmagalur, a beautiful town in the western ghats with my friends to chill out. I came back, met all my other friends, celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi, a very big festival in south and west India and boarded the flight to US.

Google, Apple and Sun

A few days back,Dr.Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO was elected as a member of the Apple board of directors. The Apple board has some prominent figures like Al Gore and Google's board has members like Paul Ottelini - Intel's CEO. The nomination of Eric has sparked off a flurry of speculations amongst analysts. All the speculations are hinting at one baseline, 'redmond rivalry'. In essence a move to get a stronghold of the markets dominated by microsoft.
Take a look at how Apple is striking at the market, their new intel based macs have the capability of running windows with the bootcamp software. Bootcamp will become a standard in leopard, the next version of OS X slated for launch in spring 2007. When Apple says spring 2007, it will be spring 2007 and nothing else. By giving consumers the 'choice' between Windows and Mac on the same platform, Apple will entice the users to the benefits of Mac and thereby potentially sideline windows/vista as the defacto operating system. So the doors have opened for apple to gain a foothold of the lucrative pc Operating system segment.
Another potential speculation is an Apple-Sun merger. The apple-sun merger has been on the cards since decades and both companies have shared and traded a lot of talent. Both the companies have an almost common product line except the low end servers made by sun. While Sun has been picking up stake in the unix server segment, thanks to Andy's brainwork, Apple has been picking up stake in the PC/laptop segment. A merger could provide sun with one of the best marketing and design teams while it would give Apple access to the lucrative server market where it can push the X-serve line of products. With Eric on the board, there won't be much of a future CEO conflict between Jobs and Schwartz.
Analysts are also speculating googling apple or in other words, bring in google's ideologies into some of apple's software products - potentially in the music segment. With Universal launching a free music download service, iTunes will have to go the same route with the revenues served only by ads and what better company to provide the ad framework than google?. Universal has several potential pitfalls - the songs cannot be burnt on cds and they wont play on iPods ( which account for 80% of digital music player sales ). Apple has the potential to offer free music downloads with revenues from ads/google adsense and keeping everything else same.
All in all, its quite interesting to watch how the three dominant valley companies collaborate in bringing better services and products to people and directly or indirectly affecting the redmond behemoth.

Passchendaele

Blood is falling like the rain
Its crimson cloak unveils again
The sound of guns can't hide their shame
And so we die on Paschendale

- Passchendaele, Iron Maiden

With the middle east on the brink of a full blown war and the horrific bombings in Bombay, I couldn't find a more appropriate song to listen to. This chartbuster from Iron Maiden was based on the siege of Passchendaele by the canadian forces during the first world war in 1917 which eventually led to the German defeat and the end of the war. Hard rock and haevy metal folks swear by this song, the guitaring is just mind blowing and the song brings out the gory and violence of the war and the anti-war emotions as well. Passchendaele, now called Passendale lies in the Belgian province of West Flanders.

Me and dancing

Though I like dancing a lot, I purely suck at it :). Something like
This

Video Courtesy : www.youtube.com

Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Charity

Am not a big fan of Microsoft windows or Dairy Queen ice cream, but am a fan of their owners. That 'fan following' just got intensified with the announcement by both Gates and Buffet about their dedication to charity. Forbes had interviewed the world's two richest men and good friends last year, and both of them had indicated their willingness for charity. Gates and Buffet have been ruthless businessmen, tranforming small companies to billion dollar entities. However, their spiritual and philanthrophical ideologies are taking them in a course that is shunning other businessmen. A total commitment of nearly 40 billion dollars to charity by Warren Buffet alone is indeed the greatest contribution the world probably has ever seen. Charity has been plagued by corruption all these years and though millions have been invested - only a small portion of the money have been reaching the end recipients. Now there is a new 'non-corrupt' leadership at the helm which will give the much needed respite for charity.

Apple again

A few months back I had written about Apple getting into the movie download business. Well Forbes has an article which hints at the same. Jobs is indeed in talks with movie studios to offer movies at a flat download rate of 10$ ( I predicted much lesser , 6$ ). More details in the article.

Its been almost 2 weeks since I blogged. No am not busy at work, just bieng lazy I guess and theres nothing eventful happening to blog about. I did go on a 3 day trip to Malheur national wildlife refuge, one of the best places in the world for an enthusiast birder. 3 days just flew by, and before I could realize I had to head back home. Obviously the main agenda was to take some pictures, and even though I shot about 4 gigs worth of pictures, hardly any of them were worth keeping. I was quite disappointed. Heres is one picture that I liked but the sharpness literally killed me.

The reservataion saga

Finally the government won their reservation battle and introduced 27% for OBCs in all national institutions. Hope they will increase the total number of seats in order to satisfy all sections of the society. All the peaceful attempts by students to avert this decision failed. Its possible that violent protests, communal clashes would have helped in pushing back the government but even in that case, government would have still won by using the army. However the latter attempt would have hampered the country's secularist reputation.
I can't believe Dr.Singh supported this reservation policy. I guess for the vote bank the congress government will stoop to any levels. Also I would have loved to see the technology companies oppose the move as they are the ones to be ultimately affected. Hardly anyone mentioned the issue. There are some sections of the society who were against the reservation protests. This snippet from yesterday's issue of deccan herald which indicates such a move is pretty frustrating.

"The All India Minorities Front has called for “social boycott” of anti-reservation agitators from June 1 as a “tit for tat” measure.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, AIMF National President S M Asif said the anti-reservationists are acting on behest of “communal forces and education mafia”. “Their protests are an insult to the whole nation, as 85 per cent of the population is pro-res-ervation. We will stop co-operating with those who are against the quota policy,” Asif threatened. Muslims have welcomed the quota proposal as “85 per cent of the OBC are Muslims.”
Arjun Singh absolutely deserves no respect. Literally he was smashed by Karan Thapar in his interview on IBNLive
The interview depicts his complete allegiance towards reservation like a blind belief.
May be the OBCs can make it to the elite institutions, but am sure the profs will make sure that only the deserving candidates pass out.

Soaring Gas Prices - A boon for the environment

Gas prices recently hit a national average of over 3$ a gallon in the US, which has had its ripple effect on the economy. Rising energy prices have forced the Feds to raise interest rates, commodity prices have shot up and ultimately people are frustrated filling up their gas guzzling SUVs and trucks. If it costed 20$ a couple of years back to fill a tank, it is costing 50$ today. Time magazine has an interesting article on who loses who gains because of soaring gas prices. Exxon Mobil reported a record 10 billion$ profit, yes PROFIT for the first quarter.
As they say, theres a limit to soaring gas prices too. Inspite of environmentalists fighting to save this planet from the enormous CO2 emmissions mainly from coal plants and automobiles, Bush administration and the black gold monarchs have been celebrating and sipping cocktails over their fortunes, showing the least concern for what they should be protecting first. Detroit is hurt, SUV and pickup truck sales have hit the lowest levels. Airlines are hurt, each dollar increase in fuel prices costs the airlines a whooping 365 million $ annually. The damage is just spreading everywhere and most importantly , the average middle class have been hit the most.
This has led people to cut back on their dependence on gas. A lot of people are now using or thinking of using alternative modes of transport to commute to work. Bikes have become the most popular followed by public transit.Until now it was just a few environmentalists and a small percentage of the population that were 'environmentally aware', now that percentage is slowly growing. Biking and walking are such good excercises, this week is bieng advertised as 'bike to commute' week in several cities. orgainzations are asking people to commute to work atleast one day to get started. So far the results have been good. people are publishing how their biking experiences have led them to shed weight, become more active and be more productive at work.
As people start to use less gas and the demand starts to decrease, the gas prices will begin to drop and people might get back to their old habits, may not be in the immediate future. In my experience, once you get used to the routine of biking or using mass transit its difficult to get back to your truck/car to commute. I walk to work since I live closeby. Its easier for me to take my car definitely but walking is more fun. Biking is a lot more fun.
These alternative means of commuting to work should help reduce pollution and even the profits of oil companies. Mother earth might finally have a reason to smile.

KILL ARJUN SINGH - will ya ?

Greed

"There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up" - Oscar Wilde
Whether a man admits or not, he is greedy by birth. The want to have everything to yourself is kind of evident in every child as it grows up. In my opinion it takes something to give up on greed.
Greed is mostly associated with money. The more greedy you are , the more money you want. Given this fact, right now I am going through a phase in which I 'think' I am succumbing to greed. Inspite of having sufficient money, I have this constant feeling that I need more.
This was not how I was before I left home for US almost 2 years back. Those days, money was the least of my concerns. I would spend thousands in a heart beat. Saving money was unknown. The only investment I had made was in my car. Sometimes at the end of the month I would ask my dad money for filling gas :).Inspite of all this I had one hell of a time. I never ever thought about investments, retirement or earning something outside my salary. It was one carefree life I lead. Monday go to work and plan for taking off on the weekend.
Now almost 2 years later, my concern for money has become immense. I find it hard to splurge. I think 10 times before buying anything.I no longer shop instinctively.I've invested heavily in stocks and mutual funds and these days there is a strong desire to earn money outside my salary. Aims such as becoming 'debt free' as early as possible are taking shape. All these things are driving me to believe that slowly am succumbing to greed. The need to have 'more' money. Yes 'more' so its never 'enough'. I dont know what to attribute this greedy feeling too. I agree that I was too careless in the beggining and spent recklessly, but I had a great time bieng like that. Now I am bieng conservative and not having as much fun as I used to have. There is a fine balance between bieng a lavish spendthrift and a conservative money launderer. It takes a while to achieve this balance in spending and hopefully I can get there soon without bieng sucked in totally to the world of greed.
On a positive note, I am learning about stocks and mutual funds like never before. The knowledge in this sector is so immense that it would take a lifetime to learn. Theres always change, you lose something and the next moment you gain something. Its this constant change that keeps me hooked to stocks, inspite of all my hectic work schedule.

Spring is here

and the tulips have just started to bloom

I got back from the Bahamas on Monday and ever since its been hectic. 2 days of group outing followed by training sessions. The group outing was great fun and we were fortunate to have 2 continuous days of sunshine,though much of the time was spent indoors. Most of our team members work remotely and we don't even get a chance to meet them. So this was a good occasion. Finally after nearly 3 years of thinking about Scuba diving, I got to do it in Bahamas. Could not get a PADI certification though, but I'll work towards it. Updated my travel blog with the Bahamas story. Am off to Pennsylvania next week and the next weekend is the spring long weekend break.

The Bahamas

Last week, while I was in LA, my boss asked me if I could go to Nassau, Bahamas to handle a deployment. Who in the face of this planet would say no, I needed a visa though. Fortunately, a week later the visa came through and its now time to fly to the islands. Have an early 6 AM flight. Couldn't sleep all night, was held up with some work or the other. Its 3.15 now, I'll shower and leave in an hour and sleep on the plane.
Bahamas as every one knows is famous for the white sandy beaches, superb nightclubs and not to mention the ever beautiful caribbean women. However it is also known to have the largest concentration of west Indian flamingos. Though am going on work, I'll manage to squeeze some time to hop around the islands.

Bangalore Traffic

Some hilarious quotes about the traffic situation in the garden city

Q: What is the most common disease in Bangalore?
A: RSI - Repetitive Stress Injury. No, not because of computers, but because of honking horns!

Q: Is the problem really that bad?
A: Just wait near a road hump. Most drivers honk the horn - hoping that the hump will go away.

Q: What is the most common psychological problem among Bangaloreans?
A: Owners of big cars are confused. They are not sure if they have bought the car or the road.

When the rest of the world's drivers see danger ahead, they press the clutch pedal, press the brake. A Bangalorean steps on the accelerator and then honks the horn.

Q: What is the surest indication that traffic sense of Bangaloreans is pathetic.
A: There is a board, which says "Red Means Stop"! (Honest! Denizens of Bangalore, go to Anil Kumble Circle and look up, there IS such a board.

Q: What is the second such indication?
A: Boards have started appearing which say something like "Go only when green".

Q: How does a Bangalorean park a car in a no parking zone?
A: Turn the hazard lights on, leave a hapless passenger inside and walk out.

Q: What are traffic lights in Bangalore meant for?
A: To be followed if there is a policeman nearby.

Q: There is a joke that the shortest measurable interval of time is the time between the traffic light turning green and someone behind you honking the horn. Why does this not apply to Bangalore?
A: Because you cannot measure negative time. The honks would have started even before
the light turned green. If they ever stopped at all, that is.

Typical of the directions you get in this city:
Q: How far is it from here?
A: Five minutes by walk, half an hour by car.

India's resilience to terrorism

The recent 'calm' after the varanasi blasts have clearly sent a messsage to the terrorists that whatever be ther motive, communal harmony will not be disturbed. Inspite of the BJP accusing the government, backlashing, calling a bundh etc , people in the holy city are back to normalcy and are not disturbed to pay visits to almighty.
On the other hand, what has been done to bring those terrorists to the courts ? Whoever carried out the Delhi blasts were classified as belonging to a certain group 'LeT' and thats it. The same happened with IISc shootings. People are resilient, yes but not bringing the terrorists to justice shows that people dont really value their lives. Is it the fact that there are a billion people out there that we are not concerned if 20 or 30 of us were killed ? In Isreal a bomb blasts and results in 2 deaths, rockets will be fired all over gaza. Its a different matter that firing rockets has not resolved the problem but it clearly sends a message that Isreal values its citizens.
The real reason or the urge to kill innocent civilians is not understood by me. Be it political, monetary or religious, the fact that common people who are no way concerned with any of these apsects are killed hurts. If killing is the mandate of terrorists, there are a handful of politicians out there.

World's most corrupt nations

Forbes had an article titled World's most corrupt countries and to no one's surprise 90% of the corrupt countries are in Africa, with the remaining 10% in Asia and Latin America.

Most of Africa is below poverty line, battling civil war, ethnic hatred, public massacre and rape. Not a single day passes by without thousands being killed mercilessly or children being raped and served as sex slaves.

What could be the root cause for all this : Abundant availability of rich natural resources.
For instance the Democratic Republic of Congo has the largest reserve of the mineral Coltan. What's so special about Coltan ? Its one of the main components of every cellphone, mainly used in heat resistant capacitors. In essence, without Coltan we wouldn't be seeing today's palm sized cellphones with all the 'cool' features. Coltan is mined by hand and the price is about $100 per KG.
Nigeria as every one knows has some of the world's largest oil reserves.
Sudan is also rich in Oil and Exxon-Mobil has some of its major refineries in Sudan.
Apart from these major resources, there are abundant natural forests, rich deposits of gold etc.

So inspite of all these natural resources, 90% of Africa lives under poverty and probably all the world's known maladies and diseases thrive here. Why ? Because of 'Highly organized and systematic exploitation'. The same concept used by British in India for nearly 300 years. The Coltan mines in Congo produce nearly as much as 400 - 500 million $ a year. Most of this money goes into the hands of smugglers and war lords who systematically take coltan out of Africa and into every cellphone manufacturer's plants.
In Sudan, even though Exxon Mobil has its refinery and miles and miles of pipeline pipeline local employment has got no boost. People still struggle for three meals a day.

How do the war lords get automatic weapons in bulk ? Surely they don't just pray for weapons and there it drops from the sky. I was having a chat with a Nigerian native a few weeks back and he mentioned of a UN plane carrying automatic weapons in Red Cross boxes that was intercepted by some rebel leaders.

South Asia is also in a similar situation ( but for India ). Countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma have been terrorist havens for decades and have some of the poorest economies. These countries are willing to sacrifice their economies for reasons as immature as 'jihad'. Can't they see the bigger picture ? or are they too reluctant to open their eyes ?

Personally, I 'feel' horribly sad for the current state of Africa and south Asia. I don't even have a clue what it would take for these countries to realize their worth and spring back to a 'good' economy. For sure, the 'civilized' world knows how to keep corruption alive in these regions and until someone realizes this and fights, there would be no end and Africa would still be called a 'Dark continent'. What a transition it has been over a period of time? The once 'cradles of human civilization' ( as we read in school ) are today the cradles of poverty and corruption.

Am posting a picture after a really long time. I had not taken a good one in ages and though this pic cannot be classified as 'good' I liked the subject a lot. Its a song sparrow and as we were looking for eagles and kinglets in Ridgefield National Wildlife refuge on a rainy day this bird just happened to be perched about 3 or 4 ft in front of us. These birds seemed to be quite friendly to humans and I was so thrilled to take this shot.

A new terrorist Haven

Interesting article on Rediff
http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/jan/30spec1.htm?q=tp&file=.htm

Travel blog updated with the trip to El Salvador.

The importance of good health

As the new year begins, some people are making resolutions, some are realizing its becoming difficult to live upto resolutions and some are already on the path of breaking their resolutions. There are some people like me who never really bothered about any resolutions at any point of time in life. I, at least don't consciously remember 'wanting' any kind of resolution. All I've ever wanted in life is 'good health', well that's a broad phrase agreed. So what, according to me does 'good health' constitute ? Mostly its about basic fitness. I personally want to be fit to an extent of being able to :

Walk 5 miles at the rate of 20 minutes a mile.
Run 2 miles at the rate of 10 minutes a mile.
Swim For half a mile and be able to stay in water comfortably for an hour.
Lift a minimum of half one's body weight from the ground up.

Being in good health means not having to take any kind of medications regularly. No pain killers, allergy medicines, sleeping pills etc. Am not sure if any of these are fitness related and can be prevented by regular physical activity but what I've noticed is that people who are generally fit don't have any of these ailments.

Good health also implies that the body should be able to resist minor fluctuations both externally and internally. For instance minor changes in temperature, exposure to rain, change in drinking water, minor injuries ( cuts, bruises etc ).

So what's the recipe for good health. There are tons of websites offering advice on food, exercise, dieting etc. I wont delve into any of these matters but based on my personal experience, can put up a recipe :

Upbringing in childhood : Play as much as possible, get dirty, get drenched in rains, fight, wriggle in mud and stay outdoors as much as possible. Learn to swim and cycle at an early age, they are great assets. Stay away from TV and video games and cultivate a hobby instead.
Regular physical activity : In adulthood do some physical activity everyday, period.Even household activities like wiping the floor, cleaning up cobwebs, washing clothes ( not in a machine of course ), drawing water from a well will suffice. If not anything walk for a mile. There is no need to shell out money on a gym, unless one wants to be a body builder or a professional athlete.
Social life and Laughter: There couldn't be a better medicine than a whole hearted laugh. People cannot laugh at everything, sense of humor varies but yeah the more you laugh, the more healthy are. Socialize as much as possible, its a great way to stay out of stress.
Good Food: Eat good food 4 times a day. Avoid excess red meat.
Smoking and Drinking: Say no to regular smoking. Half a glass of red wine with food helps in adding the much required anti-oxidants to the body.
Sing n Dance: Though it may not be apparent, singing or dancing regularly is one of the greatest contributors to good health. Again developing an interest in singing or dancing has a lot to do with upbringing.

So heres wishing everyone a healthy and fabulous new year and 'Happy Shankraanthi'.

Travel Blog updated with a short birding trip

Finally

my new website is up, www.varyinglight.com. Phew it was some effort. I also managed to start a Photo and a Travel blog. The website needs some grooming and some corrections , like a contact and copyright link is missing. These will be corrected in the next week or so.
So 2006 was a good start. I got to go to NYC and experience the new year hungama over there. The next day we went to some nearby ski resort and I had great fun taking pictures of my friends attempting to ski for the first time. Got to eat great Indian food in some of the finest Indian restaurants in the New York/New Jersey area. Got to see 2 intense and thought provoking movies: Munich and Syriana. These movies are not big time block buster hits but each movie has such a great message for the audience or I should rather say a 'select' audience. And tomorrow its work as usual.