Mentor Minds

The Great Indian Jugaad

2010-12-28T01:21:00.009+00:00

When the initial foray was being made into the organized retail space by the Indian majors and select multinationals, we witnessed a huge backlash from the mom and pop stores, small vegetable vendors, politicians and some sections of the press.

Two key arguments against organized retail were:

It would kill the mom and pop stores
It would kill the small vegetable vendor (both small shops and the one who sells on a mobile cart)

Recently when i was in India, I noticed something strange happening in a Reliance Fresh - a national retail chain outlet near my house. The outlet opens at 8 am every day (including weekends). Between 8 am and 9 am, I noticed the shop was flooded by people who were essentially the small vegetable vendors and the owners of the mom and pop stores. At 8 am when the outlet opens it is filled with fresh vegetables and other fresh products with limited shelf-life like milk. These small vendors over time must have figured out that Reliance has driven suppliant chain efficiencies to an extent where it would be difficult for them to beat them. So they did the next best thing, to empty the shelves in the first 1 hour by purchasing everything and then playing their card of convenience and selling the same goods (vegetables and milk) at a higher rate.

Essentially the same organized retail segment which every one feared would kill the mom and pop stores and the small vegetable vendors is now feeding their lifeline (at least for now).

In the bargain, the main beneficiary of the organised retail segment – the consumer, in this case, is still getting ripped off by the higher prices as products change unnecessary hands before they reach the consumer. This is a discussion for some other day.

The key take away for me was the same set of people who threw stones and forced closure of the retail chain outlets when they first started have now started using them as part of their supply chain. This is what Swaminathan Aiyar calls the Indian “Jugaad” – they always find a way to work things out :)

Trust - Is trust fundamental for a nation to progress on all frontiers?

2010-06-08T13:36:00.007+01:00

Yesterday (June 7th 2010) I walked in to Redbridge Council Library along with my wife and 2 year old daughter. This Library was closed for renovation since December 2009 and re-opened in the last week of April 2010. It is located close (2 minutes walk) to the apartment where we live. It has a dedicated children's area where my daughter loves to spend time.

I walked through the aisles and found few interesting books to read. I walked up to the reception to enquire the process to check out books. The lady was extremely friendly, gave me a small piece of paper and pen, asked me to fill in the basic details like name, address, contact number and so on. It took 2 minutes to fill and another 2 minutes for her to generate a library card for me. She didn't ask me for an ID.

I asked her details on the Library's check out policy. She told me that i can check out 12 books at a time. Each book for a maximum period of 3 weeks. The late fee per book per day is 20p. I checked out three books yesterday. I asked her if i have to pay deposit money. She politely said "no" and reminded me that the money becomes due only when i do not return the books on time.

I went back home and started thinking about the whole experience to pick a few points that we can discuss:
1. Trust was the basic premise over which the membership was granted.
2. The whole experience was a very positive one. It took less than 4 minutes for the entire process from start to finish.
3. The Library is funded by the Local Council from the council tax we pay them every month (Council Tax is equivalent to Property tax that we pay the municipality in India)
4. The objective of the Library is to reach out to as many local residents as possible and spread the wealth of knowledge through shared assets (books, audio and video files).
5. Would the process of asking for a deposit, asking for an ID proof hinder the process of achieving its objective - I think YES.
6. Will a similar approach work in India - I am not entirely certain. The initial apprehension is that people will check out 12 books and never come back. But i am sure you all agree that we need to start somewhere.

Your thoughts / feedback welcome - as always.

Anger Management - Part II

2010-03-03T05:57:00.002+00:00

Very very sorry - I could not keep my promise of posting on this topic the very next day. One of well wishers, Aruna, reminded me of this and told that if you do not keep your promise on the blog which is read by many others, then i should not be making a promise at all. I promise that i shall be careful next time.

Continuing on this topic further -
Anger is dependent on so many factors - let me list a few.
1. Your impression and opinion of the person who you see as an instigator.

I am sure you will all agree with this. If you hold the person in high esteem and have a good impression already, your anger will never mount. Surprisingly you will not hesitate to concur with him / her, differ with him/her very slightly, not raise your voice at all etc. you may even give a smile (this has happened with me many times)

2. Your impression and opinion (preformed notions) of the topic which is under discussion

Just like a person with whom you are speaking with can cause the anger levels to flutuate, your issue / topic which is being discussed can also cause the anger levels to vary. For example, for the sake of discussion, if you already a strong proponent of a separate telangana, no matter however convincing the argument may be for a United Andhra, you are bound to lose temper or argue vehemently supporting your stance - this will lead to stress and anger.

3. Presence / absence of people around you during a heated discussion.

This also will have a huge bearing on your levels of anger when things go out of control during a discussion. For some, presence of people will act as a deterrent and for some it will be a stimuli. People who are very egoistic will not treat it kindly when in public and lose their temper easily. While others who are very wary of their personal image tend to control the flare up.

4. State of mind at the time of discussion - no explanation needed for this. You would often see people saying - "Orey vaadu manchi mood lo ledu, ippudu gelakkoddu...". It sums up very well this point.

5. Time of the day - Anger levels are low during morning hours and they are high towards the evening and night. This need not be a thumb rule, but is true in most cases, atleast in my case.

6. Prolonged suppressed feelings of hate and strong belief of being discriminated
Very common feeling between husband / wife and master / servant , employee / employer.
Nothing can stop when the threshold is reached. Anger loses all control.

7. Type of food we eat
I cannot vouch for the scientific reasoning behind this, but it is true to a great extent that people who eat lot of non-veg lose temper more easily, when compared to veg. Similarly difference in salt, spice and chilly, masala intake induce different levels of anger in those people.

8. Alcohol - this need not be explained further.

9. Behaviour of majority people around them (family atmosphere)- This is very true in faction ridden / conflict ridden families, when all we get to see around is shouting and screaming, we accept it as a right method to vent our feelings. lot of kids of today have very annoying temper and anger. They have very little tolerance levels. And i am sure you would have seen it in many cases around u. In such families, anger is a necessary means to win their wish. And everyone there understands it very well.

10. Impact from Visual Media (TV, Movie)
Look at any movie - the hero is shown as venting his anger against the villians and killing them, Even the super heroes - Spider Man, Super Man etc, tell us the same, our Puranas and mythology are also full of such stories of courage and valour but are misconstrued by the young Whta they understand and interpret from the whole thing is that showing anger is not a crime at all and what we fail to educate them is that anger has to be productive and not destructive. Which parent today has time to tell their kids ??? You tell me...

11. Impact and influence from their teachers
Once again we see many examples where teachers who should symbolize patience and compassion and use punishment very sparingly, are themselves promoting this dangerous trait. Their shout and scream at their students all the time is not sending any right signals to these kids. And these kids remember only such stimuli in the long run. Once again anger used destructively.

12. Friends and their influence
if you have more friends who are short-tempered and you will easily become one of them. Obviously if you have to win your way through this group you have to behave like them. What starts off as a way to get your presence felt there, slowly starts affecting your other aspects o of your life as well and other circle of people around u. Even before you know about it, you are deeply influenced.

There could be many more factors.
But then why I am writing these factors? It is because each one of us who is troubled by this state of mind, need to introspect and understand what made him that way, If there any stimuli that are constantly responsible for him to behave like that, is it possible to get away from them or stop them completely.

I will spend some time, in my next part in dissecting this problem further, and trying to arrive at ways to eradicate this from the root and at symptoms,

Please help me with your ideas too...it will be very encouraging.,

Anger Management - Part I

2010-02-11T12:33:00.003+00:00

Anger is the worst enemy of any person. We all know this very well and yet we all easily succumb to this temptation day in day out. It is not a vice by any standards, it is just a dangerous state of mind. A state which stays only for a few seconds, but leaves its dirty traces for a long time to come in every life it touches.

So how is that we can keep away from this? I am thinking this loud as among all of us winsix, I am worst affected by this - I am both a perpetrator and a victim to this malaise. Each time it happened I came out much more badly mauled than before, much more traumatized than before and much more victimized than before.

Counting 1 - 10, taking deep breath, walking away from the scene - none of these remedies seem to be practical. It may work only for mild anger situations but not deep anger situations. The only way seems to be complete self control all the time - what I mean here is that it requires complete inner transformation of an individual and not just a superficial makeover which is manifested just at the time of situation. Anger control should be addressed at the root and not at the symptomatic level. Most of the therapies today only address the symptom and not the root. Thus the solution is only short-term and only works occasionally.

Meditation and yoga may work - but i have seen many people who meditate also lose their temper. I am not finding fault with the technique of yoga itself - i am very confident that in the long run it will work miracles. But by that time it yields results, the disaster is deep and irrevocable. Moreover the solution we come up with should be easily understood by everyone and results should be seen much more sooner.

So let us dissect and see what it means by addressing the issue by root. I want all of you to put in your ideas as to whether you agree with my statement. Also each of you let me know what are you ways of tackling anger. We will evolve this into an interesting concept and see if we can come up with something valuable.

I will post more into the blog tomorrow...
Until then good bye guys...

My first blog - Why should we blog?

2010-02-09T11:07:00.007+00:00

Many thanks to Nandu - he has initiated a wonderful way of putting to use our urge to write down what we think and in way it is permanently stored for many years to come and even for our kids to see as to what our thoughts were. I am sure i would have felt really excited and thrilled had my dad written any such thoughts that went through his mind in some place and i get a chance to read them.
So then let me make an earnest effort to list why and how i find blogging really useful and healthy.

1. It gives us chance to give shape to our innermost feelings and jot them down.
2. Now a days there is nothing called personal and public - its all in the mindset. So i do not need to care much about the target readers if they can have access to what i write as long as i do not mind anybody reading.
3. You can peek through many different mindsets and understand people much more better.
4. Sometimes writing brings out the best side of a person which is normally hidden because of the introvertedness or some other limitations.
5. If the blogger decides to share some good articles he has in his collection, we can have access to them as well unlike emails where such articles are almost always lost in the maze. It is easier to retrieve from a blog than in an email pool.
6. Even though we may not be talking to each other regularly, blogs will remain as efficient mode of communication between the group members.
7. Once again unlike emails, bloggers tend to be more expressive. while i feel lazy to write more lines in an email, the moment i know i am posting a blog, i tend to more keen to open up more and write more. In a way, it is motivating us to tell more and know more which is good.
8. We leave a trace of our mindset and thought processes to our younger ones. We do not need to judge or debate as to whether it is useful or not for them...just the fact that these writings remain permanent in some remote storage for many more people to read itself is a good feeling.
9. Instead of spending time aimlessly on the internet, blogging is a good and meaningful time spent - better than chatting on the social networking sites or reading movie reviews.
10. This is a positive addiction - where the benefits are immense.
11. When you are hurt emotionally or need to offload the burden of your heart, just go and write a blog - i am sure one will feel very light.
12. If the blogs you write earn attention and fame, then there is nothing like it - there are numerous stories offlate as to people who made their way to instant fame and adulation from their blogs. No not that one should write the blogs with this end result in mind - but be frank - who does not want some recognition out of this habit.
13. Nothing is off the limit for a blog. I tried writing a dairy for the last three years like i was doing at school, but i could not. hopefully i will continue writing on this blog regularly. This will replace my dairy with a permanent footprint for ever.
14. Whether a blog can replace a dairy which is more personal and closer to heart is a debatable thing. but as long as you are an extroverted soul and do not mind to think out loud, it is a safe way and safer place to write your dairy.
15. A blog also allows us to express our opinions freely and fearlessly in all matters of relevance and interest. Shashi Tharoor is a classic example as to how he posts his heart irrespective of the impact his post might create. Infact I somehow feel that some excellent ideas are generated by blogs which are posted regularly - but most of such ideas die a premature death in this gigantic maze of blogs and bloggers
16. Ofcourse last but not the least your english writing will definitely improve, your thoughts will appear more streamlined, your written skills will shape up for the better, your deep down grudges will have platform to express themselves, your innermost feelings will find an outlet and its own set emphathisers, your will find critics to your posts who are ready to dissect you deep and bare if you are interested.

I can write a few more....but it will fall in one or more of the above categories. So i urge all of you to also start writing something.

I know Krishna is a wonderful writer. Praveen too. So they also can start writing somehting. Janani and JP will follow suit.

Universe conspires to make things happen

2010-02-07T20:09:00.004+00:00

This is a phrase I first heard from a friend of mine at IBM Kolkata (who incidentally is also a follower of this blog). It is true that if you desperately want something and you turn no stone unturned to make it happen then the universe will do its bit and make it happen. There are many instances where I recollected this phrase in my real life. I would like to narrate one such recent incident to pass on the essence behind this phrase.

Since Dec 2004 I wanted to visit “Sabarimala” (normal civil dress darshan). I kept postponing it till 2008. The Sabarimala shrine is open only for 2 months – from mid November to mid January and then 5 days a month for the rest of the year. In 2008, a group friends tried to co-ordinate dates to visit the shrine as a group, the effort soon fizzled out as some of the group members couldn’t make it. Towards the end of 2009, I was asked to relocate to UK and this forced me to complete few unfulfilled vows. Visit to Sabarimala shrine was one of them. A group of 4 finalised the date, but two had to drop out at the last min, that left two of us to go ahead and visit the shrine. We picked up the window of 5 days in October to visit lord Ayyappa. Our travel journey started in Hyderabad. After visiting Lord Venkateshawara on the hills of Tirumala by foot our journey to Kottayyam was planned by Kanyakumari Express which leaves Tirupati at 11:00 am and reach Kottayam next morning at 6 am.

The train was delayed by, stretch your imagination, 12 hours. I and Ravi reached Tirupati railway station at 11:00 pm and waited for this train on the platform for 2 more hours. The total delay was now 14 hours. We were worried a lot that our planning has now gone for toss. We decided to go with the wind and see if we could make it. As I indicated earlier, the shrine is only open for 5 days and our original plan was to make it to the shrine on the penultimate day. We reached Kottayam at 4:30 pm the next day and went out to see how we could reach Erumeli and then to the Sabarimala by the night. Every one in Kottayam was suggesting to hire a round trip car/jeep. However, we didn’t want to come back to Kottayam from Sabarimala. We wanted to go to Thekkady and then to Madurai before returning back home. The only choice left for us was to take a public transport bus from Kottayam to Erumeli. We were warned that since it was off peak season the frequency of the buses wasn’t good and that part of the journey being a ghat road, would take lot more time by bus than private hire. Left with little choice we started walking to the bus terminal from the railway station.

Some one in his mid 30s clad in a khaki shirt and white dhoti came from behind and asked us if we wanted to go to Sabarimala. We said “yes”. We told him we wanted to go to Erumeli and then to Sabarimala. He said he had come to Kottayam to drop some one and was going back to Sabarimala and was willing to take us to Erumeli, wait there for an hour for us to take bath in the holy Pampa river and have darshan of lord Ayyappa and visit two more temples in Erumeli, before we could continue our journey to Sabarimala. We were overjoyed, but didn’t reveal it to him, bargained on the fare and struck deal with him in a matter of few minutes.

The journey to Erumeli was very scenic as with most places in Kerala. The ghat journey was great with occasional stop over for a hot cup of tea with mouth watering authentic Kerala snacks. We reached Erumeli at 6 pm. Just as we were about to have holy bath in river Pampa, I got a call from a close friend and colleague - Jay from Hyderabad. He had planned to come with us but could not make it, so wanted to check how we were doing. He had been to Sabarimala many times and was well versed with all the places enroute. He advised us to visit three temples in Erumeli and then proceed to Sabarimala. With his timely guidance we had darshan of lord Ayyappa and visited the other two temples in Erumeli before continuing our journey to Sabarimala.

We reached the foothills of Sabarimala at 10 pm and bid farewell to the driver, thanked and paid him more than what we bargained initially. The river Pampa flows at the foothills of Sabarimala too. We took another dip in the holy river before starting our trek uphill. Jay called us again to check where we were and how we were doing. We told him that we are about to start our journey up the hill. He advised us to take enough water and glucose along with a torch as it might be dark over a couple of stretches on the hill.

20 mins into the hike, we realised the importance of Jay’s advise. The hike started getting steeper and steeper and we were loosing our levels of glucose very fast and had to replenish them very frequently. The clear sky, fresh air, water falls, an occasional pilgrim group returning back or on their hike like us and lots of shops open at this hour serving food, lemon soda, tea, coffee and the occasional rest area with planks are memories that will always stay with us.

We finally reached Sabarimala at 12:30 am in the night. We went to the pilgrim centre only to find that no accommodation was available and didn’t know what to do. Just then Jay called us again, this time to check if we reached Sabarimala. It was late in the night for him, but he kept track of us and was helping us at each step. When we told him that no accommodation was available, he gave us specific instructions to go to a particular place and meet a particular person who would help. We had slight difficulty finding the place, but once we reached that place, we were welcomed and shown a place to rest that night. We were very tired and needed this rest very badly. If not for Jay we would have had to spend that night with out proper rest.

The next morning, we woke up early in the morning, had darshan, and then called Jay to thank him for his timely help all through the journey. He suggested that we visit two more temples there, one of the temples has a ritual of rolling coconuts around and making wish for our loved ones, particularly children. We performed the ritual.

We had a sumptuous breakfast and then started our journey down the hill. This time it was more scenic in the broad day light. Lots of pilgrims were on their way back to the foothill as it was the last day of the 5 day window for October.

The journey continued... I will pick up the remaining part of the journey some other time. However, I will take this opportunity to highlight the theme for this blog post.

The universe conspired to make things happen for us at least on three occasions during this journey.

1. Man in 30s clad in khaki shirt and white dhoti comes from no where to help us reach our destination on time.

2. Jay, our friend calls us up, guides us at every phase of the journey and makes arrangements for our night’s rest sitting remotely in Hyderabad at such an hour when most of them would have gone into deep sleep.

3. All this timely help and co-ordination meant that we could complete our darshan of lord Ayyappa before the shrine closed for October.

Try and dig your memory for such incidents, I am sure you will find lots of them. The universe does conspire to make things happen. All you need to do is to desperately want something.

So strive for something so strongly that the universe is forced to conspire and make things happen for you.

Good Luck!

Work-Life balance

2010-02-05T15:04:00.001+00:00

My cousin sent me this quote today. I like it a lot and thought of sharing this with you. It comes from a veteran who lived / worked most of his life for Coca-Cola. He worked for Coca-Cola for 35 years and worked his way through to the top before retiring as the Vice-Chairman.

"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends and spirit - and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends and spirit - are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life."
— Brian G. Dyson

All Izz Well!

2010-01-27T00:18:00.003+00:00

Hats off to the makers of 3 Idiots for giving us these three magic words that can give a lot of solace to our heart and mind in these troubled and often out of control situations. We face issues day in and day out. Some of them are totally out of our control and out of our sphere of influence. However, they are the once that bother us the most. In such times keep you hand on your heart and say “All Izz Well”!

I firmly believe that the world economic recovery that we are curently experiencing does not have the fundamentals to sustain itself. It is bound to fail. How can you bank on a recovery without reform? Nothing major has changed in the world banking landscape. No major legislation or act. Unfortunately, we might see a major double dip – This time the depth of the fall will be far greater and painful than the last one. All major stock indices will see their 2009 lows tested and broken. Contrary to the popular consensus that gold is a hedge against an economic down turn, I believe this fall will not spare gold too. Gold will fall along with all other assets. The recession will be deep, painful and long lasting.

What control do you have over this gloom and doom scenario – None. So just say “All Izz Well” and hope that I am wrong.

Good Luck!

Follow the herd at your own peril

2010-01-25T18:30:00.002+00:00

Most of us have this herd mentality; we just follow a path treaded by most others because we consider it to be safe. The following incident drives home the point – though not very logical, I am sure you will remember it for a very long time to come.

In October 2009, I visited a number of places in Kerala along with my friend Ravi. When we reached Thekkady, we were told that the high court of Kerala imposed a blanket ban on boating. Thekkady is famous for its boating, so with the main attraction no longer in play, we decided to go trekking and had a gala time through the forest assisted ably by two very knowledgeable guides.

On our way back, we asked them what happened on the fateful day. One of them narrated the incident as if it unfolded in front of his eyes. There are a number of boats that are used to ferry the tourists on an 8 mile journey up and down the most scenic lake. This fateful boat was the newest and technologically the latest and most well built. This boat had two decks – the lower and the upper deck. The journey began with full load of tourists on both the decks, as they progressed; the guide noticed a herd of elephants on the shore to his left and announced the same. Immediately every one on the boat ran from their right to the left edge of the boat in a flash, the boat overturned, the bottom end of this lake is made of clay and the overturned boat got stuck in the clay. Most of the tourists on the lower deck survived while most on the upper deck got stuck in the clay and died of breathlessness before any help arrived. In all, about 43 people died. High court came down very heavily on the authorities and imposed a blanket ban on boating till further notice, suspended all those in charge in the tourism department and forced the authorities to come up with a safety plan for the future. I am sure the technical design of the boat should have taken this extreme scenario into consideration. We felt very sad and sorry for the lost lives, most of them very young which included a newly married couple from Andhra on their honeymoon.

Relate this story to what harm a herd mentality can do to you and forget the rest of the story. Never follow the herd. Think and act. Make your own choices in life and take responsibility for the consequences. Create and tread your own path to success.

Good Luck!

The art of negotiation

2010-01-24T20:54:00.003+00:00

I am sure most of you (like me) have read a lot on this topic. We face this challenge day in and day out. We are always negotiating... with our boss, our colleagues, our customers, our suppliers, our family members, relatives ... and the list is endless. An incident narrated by one of my managers when i worked for IBM had a profound impact on me. He told us one should try and learn the art of negotiation from the little kids around. He had a wonderful daughter. His daughter, when she wanted to watch a particular channel on TV, would successfully negotiate with her parents and grandparents. She would always win. When the parents are strict, she would run to the grandparents and use her soft skills and eventually win over her parents too. She would request, plead, cry.... do what it takes to get what ever she wanted. I tried to use this technique successfully when I bought an apartment, where I had to negotiate with the builder /property developer.

Few points that I would like to share on this topic are:
1. Prepare your mind set to win. Make it believe this is a do or die situation and you have to win.
2. When two people are negotiating, usually the one who has more patience and who is a better communicator wins.
3. You should do your home work. Work out all possible scenarios in your mind and determine what you are ready to let go in each scenario.
4. You should always endeavour to close the deal on a negotiation table. Scenarios which are viewed / perceived as win-win make both parties happy and set things up for a lasting relationship.
5. Never sit on the negotiation table when you are constrained for time. Negotiations usually run out of scheduled time and you should be prepared.
6. Never give up. The last resort should be to agree that you disagree today and agree to meet again (fix a date).

Try it in your next round of negotiation and share you success story with me.

Good Luck!

Systematic Investment Plan (SIP)

2010-01-10T10:18:00.005+00:00

Why SIP?
1. It enforces discipline in you to save money regularly
2. You can start with as low as Rs500 a month
3. It benefits immensely from the principle of rupee cost averaging
4. Historically, over a long period of time, SIP has consistently outperformed the returns available from other investment options
5. If you really have to – for a genuine reason – you can always opt out of a SIP (no lock-in period except for tax schemes-3 years)
6. The entry and exit costs of an SIP are zero

Choose the right SIP for you and start investing today. You have a broad range of choices from 100% equity to 100% debt schemes to suit your risk taking ability. These seemingly small drops of investment, if continued over a long period of time and enhanced to keep pace with your rising annual income, can contribute significantly towards securing a financially sound retirement for yourself or financial security for your kids.

Personally, I am invested in HDFC Tax Saver SIP. I started this when my little angel was born. Rs.5,000 gets debited from my salary account on 1st of every month and is invested into, predominantly, equities. So far I have no complaints – only a reason to rejoice. Below is the snapshot of my investments and returns so far.

(The following image is readable in its enlarged form)

I strongly urge you to start investing today. Select an SIP and enjoy the benefits over time.

The usual caveat, though i have nothing to benefit here: past performance is not necessarily indicative of future. You must consult your financial advisor before acting upon any information.

Good Luck!

What are you good at?

2010-01-04T19:32:00.001+00:00

Today is Sir Isaac Newton's birthday. We all know Isaac Newton as a well known physicist and scientist. A little known fact about Isaac Newton is that he lost 20,000 pounds (approx. $2 million GBP) in today's money) due to his speculation in the South Sea Company stock in the 1720s during the bubble. He later commented "I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people."

Moral of the story - Identify what you are good at and then excel in it.

Good Luck!

Begin with the end in mind

2010-01-03T01:07:00.002+00:00

The only certainty for each one of us is “death”. 99.9% of the people (including me) are not prepared for it. As Stephen Covey aptly puts it, when you begin with the end in mind the whole game changes – Things which are unimportant get faded away and the ones that are more important to you start getting more attention. You do things that are closer to your heart and you do them in a hurry not to a scheduled calendar which often gets postponed for the nth time. Family gets centre stage and every thing else moves to the periphery.

Life span is limited with no known scientific calculator to measure it before hand. The best we can do is to accept the fact that death could happen any time and fill every moment of it with cherished memories. There is no time for quarrel and egos. Keep smiling and have fun.

You must help your family prepare financially for the eventuality. This is a much easier task, but not widely practiced in India. Take a pure term insurance policy that covers risk of death. This is a must for every bread earner of the family. No excuses. There is lot information available on the net. Search and choose the right policy. The idea is to pay the lowest premium and enjoy the maximum term of coverage. The premium rates have come down considerably now and are in the range of Rs15,000 per annum for a sum assured of 1 crore for a person in early 30s. Use online premium calculators to calculate your premium with each policy provider. The thumb rule is you should opt for coverage of 10 times your gross annual salary. Do not club this with any other investment such as ULIPs. You get to loose. Keep your investments and term life insurance separate.

Love your family, don’t post pone the good deeds and don’t forget to take a term life insurance policy.

Good Luck!

Teachers shape our early life

2010-01-03T00:19:00.006+00:00

As I step into this New Year 2010, I went back in time to re-live my early schooling years and to say a profound thank you to all my teachers. Each one of them lived beyond their call of duty in shaping my academics, which then helped shape my personal and professional life. To honour their privacy, I will not name them here.

St. Andrews High School, Saidabad, Hyderabad (I studied here from LKG to Class VI).

English teacher: In class III, she insisted that we read all the signboards as fast as we could on our daily school bus journey (for some it was walk to the school, for some others it was a crammed rickshaw journey). I started reading the signboards (big and small from a moving bus) and over time picked up the art of reading them fast and comprehending them quickly.

She also made us listen to the “All India Radio” 8 am News in English every day and write notes while we heard the news on the “Live Radio” and then recite them in the early morning prayer at 9 am. This practice, I believe, helped lot of us sharpen our listening our public speaking skills considerably. She also suggested that we read “The Hindu” daily newspaper.

The then Principal: She picked select few students and took personal care in improving our skills in various subjects. I was fortunate to be among the select few. I never felt the necessity to go to a paid tuition, all the doubts got clarified in this forum.

David Memorial High School, Tarnaka, Secunderabad (Class VII to Class X)

The then Headmistress, who later left to work at another school in Habsiguda during our Class X. Even though she no longer was with our school, she spared her valuable personal time to teach us various subjects at her residence after the school hours and weekends to ensure that we excel at our class X state board exams. I truly admire her for her time, moral values and unselfish nature.

I first saw her at her office in my Class VIII, when I fought with her over a mathematics mid-term exam answer. The marks for the question in dispute would not only give me a 100/100 in Maths paper, but also help me topple the consistent class topper, Mr. X. I managed to argue forcefully and convinced her. She over wrote the marks with red ink and changed the totals and expected to see a smile on my face. I wasn’t smiling – she asked why? I didn’t have an answer. I guess I was still angry that things were not right the first time around and I had to literally fight to make things happen the right way. From that day to several years down the lane I enjoyed getting mentored by her. She taught us many subjects but more so many values and morals in life that we still try to uphold.

Mathematics Sir: Maths was my favourite subject. I completed class X mathematics during the summer vacation after class IX. So when the actually class started i had all the answers ready for each chapter. I was the first one to answer any question asked by our Sir. He was greatly impressed. He let me teach few concepts, this is the first time, I believe, I learnt teaching skills. This also meant that i had time to go that extra mile in answering tougher problems. This meant several sessions with our Sir, he taught me how to try and solve each problem in multiple ways.

I will write about my college, engineering and MBA teachers some other day. The important message is catch hold of good mentors early on in your life. Together with our parents and friends they truly help shape our destiny.

Good Luck!

6 idiots

2010-01-02T23:05:00.003+00:00

I watched the movie "3 idiots" today and it appeared to be a miniature version of our "6 idiots" (see me first blog post). The only difference was the 3 idiots in the movie meet after a long gap of 10 years, while the 6 idiots continued to be in touch from the date of graduation (engineering) and will continue to do so. The film tries to portray what good friends can do to you. We lived it in flesh and blood and can vouch for the true value of friendship. Please do watch the movie.

Yours 6 friendly idiots!

Happy New Year 2010

2009-12-31T11:33:00.001+00:00

Wish you a very happy new year 2010!

This morning, I saw this quote while i was chatting with a close friend of mine (Shanti Swaroop) and thought this is the best new year message for every one of us.

"Never believe in what your finger prints or lines of your hand predict about your future, because people who don't have fingers and hands also have future."

Start believing in yourself.

Good Luck!

New Year Resolutions

2009-12-31T11:21:00.006+00:00

I have seen people around me make a long list of “New Year Resolutions” on Dec 31st only to see them vanish into think air by the end of 1st week of January.

This year I made one resolution - Just one. Start blogging and continue to post at an average rate of one new post per day. I am declaring this in public as this is the best way to stick to your New Year resolution.

The top New Year resolutions worldwide are losing weight, quitting smoking and improving their work life balance.

A research study found that “people who attained their goals thought small, rather than big, dividing up the steps to achieving their goals into small manageable chunks. They also rewarded themselves when they experienced progress, mentioned their goals to their friends, frequently thought about the benefits of attaining their goals and tracked their progress.”

Here is what experts say:
• Make only one resolution, to ensure you channel your energy into attaining that goal
• Make resolutions well in advance of the new year to gather your focus
• Avoid previous resolutions, to prevent another failure
• Skip the usual resolutions and choose one that's unique to your circumstances
• Share your goals with friends and family to receive their support
• Give yourself small rewards as you see results during the process
• Track your progress through a journal, spreadsheet or via a notice board
• Don't give up after a temporary setback. Expect small failures from time to time and accept them

So choose you New Year resolution carefully and make it public. If you want to use my blog to publish your New Year resolution, click on the “Post a Comment” link below.

Good Luck!

Connecting the dots

2009-12-30T17:10:00.009+00:00

Every young individual should watch this legendary speech by Steve Jobs. The best thing about this video is, in about 15 minutes, it manages to put several things back in perspective for each one of us. It makes you think and visualise the dots from the past and helps you connect them. If you are left with some unconnected dots, be rest assured they will get connected in due course of time.

Steve passes on a very strong message in this video - try and do what you like in life with all the passion and you will realise that one day this seemingly bizarre thing that you did sometime back which never made sense then starts making a lot more sense as you start putting that skill to effective use.

The key, mind you guys, is the word “passion” in its true sense. It helps you excel in things as you put your heart and soul into it.

Pick up a passion and live it!

Good Luck

Friends for life - My first blog

2009-12-28T23:48:00.008+00:00

This is my first blog and is dedicated to my friends.

Year 1991: EAMCET counselling @ JNTU Masab Tank

I met my first of the five friends here. We fondly call him JP. My EAMCET rank was 422 and I could not secure admission in a government engineering college. My Dad consulted few of his colleagues and decided that ECE (Electronics and Communications Engineering) was the right fit for me. Don’t ask me why and how he arrived at that conclusion. I was happy to do Mechanical Engineering at Osmania University which was open for my rank. I was the first person to join CBIT ECE branch for that year. JP, whom I met at the counselling centre, followed suit.

Just 35 days later, the EAMCET counselling office announced re-counselling to fill in seats vacated by the more “intellectual guys” who left to scale higher peaks at IITs and BITS Pilani. The term they used then was “sliding”. I and JP managed to slide from CBIT to JNTU College of Engineering Anantapur.

We both had the dubious distinction of getting ragged at both CBIT and JNTU Anantapur, both were notorious in those days for heavy ragging.

Year 1991: Lepakshi hostel

I met the rest (4) of the five friends here at this hostel. All outstation freshers (1st Year Engineering) get admitted into this hostel. Janani, Ravi (We call him pothu), Praveen and Krishna. I and Janani were roommates. JP and Ravi were roommates. Krishna and Praveen were roommates.

There are several incidents that shaped our friendship at this hostel and several memorable events including the ragging, the big caste fights that took place that year (this one was unfortunate), the fresher’s party, shift from yearly exams to semester exams – which was a blessing in disguise for Ravi, whose heroic stunts left him paralysed for more than six months. Only God knows how he recovered from the spine injury without loosing an academic year.

Year 1992: #1 Parvathi Nilayam

This is the place that truly built a solid foundation for our friendship that will (I am sure) last for life. We all concluded that with the clashes between the hostels and other distractions we should take a house for rent and concentrate on studies. We managed to do the first bit (taking the house) and never really managed to do the second bit (concentrate on the studies).

We rented #1 Parvathi Nilayam, just off the campus, and had the best part of our lives during those 3 years. Krishna officially stayed at NB / Amaravathi hostel to continue to be eligible for his scholarship.

From early morning breakfast at “Seenu tea and breakfast” hut to the legendary cycle journey (rented at Rs2/- overnight) to a second show movie, to our favourite evening snack – cut mirchi, to our once a while late night parota at the highway dhaba, each one of them is still fresh in our memory.

Our frequent visits to the town by getting into one of our college buses and walking around the “Police Complex” – It was one of the popular commercial complex to hang around those days, to our steaming hot idli and an addiction to movies, those are indeed sweet memories for life.

We somehow managed to be known as the best team and had a good rapport with the Principal and the rest of the faculty. We really enjoyed the occasional dinner that we had at our beloved principal’s residence. We used to have it on the day of DD's (Doordarshan). “Chitralahari” - the 30 minute program which aired telugu movie songs. We also used to enjoy Chitrahaar – its hindi counterpart.

We were the most eligible bachelors in town and still secured the faith of our neighbours in the colony who used to send us sweets and savouries on every festive occasion and let us pick phone calls on their landlines (no mobile phones those days) from our parents every weekend.

We secured funding and managed an “Educational” trip to many locations in North India. We also went on a Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty trip by car.

Year 1995: Parents get-together

Just before we completed our final year engineering exams we managed to pull out the biggest and perhaps the best get together party (over 3 days) arranged by any one at that time. We managed to pull in parents, siblings, kin and kith of each of us. It was a get together of about 50 including our principal and several faculty members. We believed that this was the best way to keep our friendship long lasting.

As it turned out, I left for US to do my MBA, couple of them started working in Hyderabad, one in Chennai and one in Bangalore while Praveen went on to do his MBA at SVU, Tirupathi. Even though we all got scattered, our parents were and still continue to be in touch with each other.

We had a dream – this was conceptualised on the banks of Hussaign Sagar lake in Hyderabad. We wanted to have our own apartment - for just six of us. In the year 2002 we realised that dream - completed building our own apartment in Hyderabad. We stay together even today, nearly 20 years after we first met. And guess what – we named our apartment – “Parvathi Nilayam”.

I will share more events from our lives in the coming days. I want to leave this post with a small note. Friends are probably the only ones that we choose in life. I strongly urge you to make the right choice and choose friends for life.

Good Luck!