Musings of the Idle Mind

"Certified"

2011-03-15T01:35:00.000-04:00

Last week was an interesting one at my end...it was a week of certificates:
- I got a certificate of appreciation from my company for having completed 10 years (well, as of Apr -2010 but finally got one)
- Vaishnav got a certificate in his school for having come out as the student with the highest "reading hours" to his credit - he reads for about 30 minutes everyday.
- I got a life-time warranty certificate for the repairs done to my car after the minor accident when I got rear-ended on the main road...

A "certified" family huh?

"Sorry"? - that isn't in my dictionary!

2011-01-27T00:32:00.001-05:00

Vaishnav came back home today with a balloon in hand. His teacher presented to him on the occasion of his birthday (he turned 7 yesterday). She made the balloon special by drawing a picture of a cake and the words "Happy Birthday" on the balloon.

Vaishnav has a liking to such thoughtful presents and tries to keep them safe for a long time. Shortly after he reached home, Amruta (she's 3 now) smeared the picture and the words on the balloon. Vaishnav felt bad but then could not say anything as he adores his sister a lot. Seeing he was visibly disturbed, I asked Amruta to say "sorry" so he would feel better. But then, the following happened:

A: "Brother, that picture of the cake on the balloon...don't worry. Just take it back to your teacher, she will draw it again, okay?"

Letter to Santa

2010-12-05T09:36:00.000-05:00

Dearest Santa

Before you disqualify my letter based on age limits let me assure you I thought about it a lot.

I come from the era when kids did not have access to the advances in technology the world enjoys today. I am mostly assuming that your offices are up to date in embracing the latest tools to run office like say, exchange servers to send and receive mails at the least, and probably fax as well. You see these days a child does not have to worry about non-delivery of his mail because there is a very low possibility of the exchange servers like the giants of Google, or Yahoo failing to do their jobs. In my childhood the postal services were set in the manual mode. So while the postman that goes from door to door could have been a true hero, the system was still not as perfect. There were times mails got lost in transit, or got delivered very (and by that I mean very very) late. So when the technology arrived, we embraced it fast and ensured our kids do not end up with the same kind of troubles we had. Just in case you were wondering why you have so many emails this year and not letters stuck underneath the Xmas tree, that is the reason.

Why am I telling you all this? See, I know you are always inundated with requests from children across the world and with the ever growing population your staff might be a trifle challenged each year to keep up with the rate of increase. Yet, I am told you and your staff go to great lengths to ensure that every mail received is read and addressed. I remember I was fond of writing letters when I as very young but the whole concept of writing to you felt a bit awkward at first because I did not know you as much. Add to that the fact that everything I read about you said you would arrive through the chimney but my house did not have one. So I was not so very optimistic that you might choose to respond or even if you did, how would you come in right? That said, I think I did post a letter to you but I never heard back. Now that i think of it, i doubt it ever reached you. You see i used some scrap of paper that I found lying around, it might not have weathered your arctic cold well. That is if it really made beyond my local post office. There is a greater chance it might not have. So when my son ended up typing you a letter I felt i should just let you know that there is one pending from me as well and comes with "URGENT" marked all over it since it is long overdue.

I have grown through the years since i last sent you that mail, so the contents therein my be a bit outdated. I mean what is the point in asking you to give me a hand wound toy when every kid now enjoys a batter powered one? I sure do hope that you would give me some concession so I can re-do my list of requests. After having hit 5 and 30, and as a parent of two kids, I do realize that age is a limiting factor when it comes to carrying weight. You are so good at heart you never say 'No' to kids and want to hand deliver all gifts to place them under the tree, but I can understand. I will not add to that load. So here is my updated list (but my priority still stays, correct?):
1. Turn down the anxiety levels in every human mind to zero. I believe half the world's troubles are because mankind is so restless and impatient.
2. Let every heart know it is okay to be satisfied with what we have and that happiness multiplies when it is shared with others. Tell us that the key to happiness is not always hidden under money.
3. Help us help others everyday, everywhere, regardless of who they might be. Tell us that these boundaries do not matter to you and so should not matter to us when it comes to fulfilling other's wishes.
4. Help us educate ourselves to gain knowledge and not just degrees. Tell us of what you see out there so we realize we are acting like frogs in the well.
5. Last but not the least, check my son's letter and get him what he needs.

Now that I am using the latest technologies to get to you, I am positive you will get this note, and then if what the fairy tales say is true, you would definitely place me a note under the tree this time telling me of the status of the requests (my house has a chimney spout now).

Thank you.

Your friend
Sravan.

I, Me, Myself - the selfish me

2010-04-24T10:25:00.000-04:00

I, Me, Myself - Aarti's Mom put it so simply in words.

I never realized until today what agony my brother goes through each day trying to keep up with the world around him from the little that he is able to hear.

I was never around him when he went to his first tests or any of the later ones, nor when my Father and he went out to get a hearing aid. I never knew the kind of advancements that technology has brought about in this area with gadgets. I never realized the kind of detail that goes into creating or choosing the right gadget for a person. Today, when I was in that testing room with my brother and later when the doctor explained patiently the details of what is tested, why, and how they arrive at suggesting the right fit, I felt a deep pain within. Suddenly all those days and times when I almost vented out in desperation at my beloved brother not responding to a call, or needing a repetition of what was just spoken swarmed my thoughts to humble me enough, to make me realize how selfish I'd been in my thoughts all the while.

For 37 years of his life, brother passed on the need to use a hearing aid in both ears and limited himself to using a basic 1 channel model for his better ear. He used the basic model because during those days when he needed high end but costlier models our parents were investing the limited resources we had at hand towards my education. And, he never complained. Today, when the doctor marked a NR (No Result) for a frequency of sound brother could not detect (and will not be able to anymore), a tinge of pain shot through me. Brother's is a neurological condition whereby his hearing is impaired (since childhood) naturally. Just as my myopic condition deteriorates gradually so does his hearing. The rate at which my eye sight deteriorates is slowed down as I use my glasses dawn to dusk. And so does brother need his hearing aid and one that really suits his need. How foolish of me to not have realized that!

Nothing in my power's going to change what has passed by. I wish I realized it earlier but it is what it is. All I can do is help safeguard what is left. Whatever it takes of me.

Sources of water

2010-02-26T01:08:00.001-05:00

A few days ago Vaishnav was preparing for a class test and one of the topics was about sources of water. I asked him to list out what he believes are the various sources of water. He did, but only those that were in his text book - lake, sea, well, ocean. So I asked him to think of other sources as well, and not just rot what is given in the book. He was slightly worried if his teacher might not like the idea. Nevertheless, the next day at school he mentioned other sources - river, stream, brook...and he was happy he did not get into trouble.

Two days later, he was discussing with his mother: "Mom! I get my drinking water from the Aquaguard filter, and from my bottle at school. So they too are sources of water, right?"

Now, I am not going to say no to that!

Happy Valentine

2010-02-14T07:55:00.002-05:00

Share a thought of love, a word of care, and a heart full of wishes with everyone around. Fill the world with love and friendship.

Happy Valentine!

Coming soon - the much awaited TV!

2010-01-07T09:21:00.002-05:00

It's long been my dream that one of these companies wake up soon enough to take entertainment to the next level. Looks like it's gonna happen soon! I can't wait to see the 3D-TVs hit the markets.

Death! Who are you?

2009-12-06T05:35:00.002-05:00

మరణమా! ఎవరివోయి అసలు నీవు?
ఎవరిచ్చే ఆజ్ఞతోటి , ఎచటనుండి నీ రాక?
ఎవరినెప్పుడు ఎక్కడికి తీసుకెళ్లె నీ పోక?

కుళ్లు, కుట్రలతోటి అంతా కమిలిపోయిందిక్కడ
కారుకమ్మిన చీకట్లే మిగిలిపోయాయింకిక్కడ
కానీ ధైర్యంగా ఎదురీదుతూ బ్రతికేస్తున్నానిక్కడ
అందుకే, నాకు నేను ధైర్యశాలిననిపిస్తుంది
కానీ, నువ్వంటే నాకు భయమేమోననిపిస్తుంది.

ఎప్పుడో ఒకప్పుడు వస్తావని తెలుసెప్పుడు
నిన్ను దైవం పంపిస్తాడని అనిపించేటప్పుడు
ఏదో ఆశ తళుక్కుమని కనిపిస్తుందప్పుడు
ఇంతకంటే ప్రశాంతత ఎక్కడో ఉందనిపించినప్పుడు
నువ్వు నన్ను రమ్మన్నప్పుడు
గుర్తుంచుకో నీ గుండెల్లో -
కొద్దిపాటి కరుణంటూ నీకైనా అసలుంటే:

నువ్వెప్పుడు పిలిచినా , నేనప్పుడొస్తా, నదిసరే;
కనీసం అక్కడైనా ఇక నా మనసు
నెవరూ గాయపరచలేని, ఎవరూ నొప్పించలేని
స్థలమనేదేదైనా మిగిలుందేమో, మరి వెతుకు!

- Sravan (1943-2005) dt: 14-Jun-87

The one, the many

2009-12-06T05:31:00.003-05:00

మనసన్నదొకటి
భావాలు కోటి;
ప్రేమన్నదోకటి
రూపాలు కోటి;
లోకాలు చూపే
అందాల కన్ను
కనలేదు నిజము !
కదలాడె జగము!

- Sravan (1943-2005)

The wait

2009-12-06T05:19:00.004-05:00

గానమే ప్రాణమై మౌనమే ధ్యానమై
రాధ ఎన్నాళ్లుగా వేచెనో!

ఏ చల్లని గాలి మేనుతాకినా
ఏ పిల్లనగ్రోవి చేవిసోకినా,
గోపకిశోరుని గుసగుసలనుకొని -
మేనుపొంగ తిలకించునో!
ఆతడుకానరాక విలపించునో!!

ఈ కళ్లలో , ఈ గుండెల్లో
ఏనాటికైనా ఆనాటి బాధ
వెలలేని గురుతై నిలిచేనులే!

- Sravan (1943-2005) dt: 25-Jan-87

Self-sympathy

2009-12-06T04:53:00.003-05:00

కవిత, సంగీత కళాసరస్వతి
వెదజల్లే తన వెలుగుల్లో
విలసిల్లే తన హోయలల్లో
విరియగా నీలో విశ్రాంతి
కరుగును నవరస మణికాంతి.

- Sravan (1943-2005)

Life

2009-12-06T04:49:00.002-05:00

Life is a story in volumes three
The past, the present, and the yet to be -
The first is finished and bid away,
The second we are reading day by day,
The third and the last of the volumes three
Is locked up from sight - God keeps the key.

- Sravan (1943-2005)

Gift

2009-12-06T04:44:00.002-05:00

I have so little to give you
Nothing of silver and gold
But I have something to give you
That can't be bought or sold -
My friendship if you find it sweet,
My smile of greeting when we meet,
My tears to comfort you in pain,
My smile to cheer you up again.
My love today, my love tomorrow,
That which from nowhere I do borrow.

- Sravan (1943-2005)

ప్రకృతి!

2009-12-06T01:07:00.012-05:00

నాలో దాగున్న దైవమే నా నేస్తం
ఆ నేస్తానికి ఇదొక అభయహస్తం!
తనను తాక శక్తిలేని పుడమి తో కలవాలని
తనకుతానై ఒరిగే అంబరాన్ని అడుగు:
"ప్రేమం"టే ఏమిటో తెలుస్తుందేమో - వేచి చూడు!

చేతులు యెగాజాపి చేపట్టిన మ్రాను నడుగు
చిఱు కొమ్మ తన పళ్ళని నేలకేందుకు రాలుస్తుందో
"విశ్వాసం" అని అంటుందా? ఏమో విని చూడు!

చివరి ఊపిరి ఆగాక కూడా తనవాళ్ళని తనకోసం
వదిలి పోయిన చంద్రుడ్నడుగు, సూర్యుడు తనకేమిచ్చాడని;
"బాధ్యత" అనే సమాధానమిస్తుందా? చవి చూడు!

ఎండిపోయిన సెలయేటిలో ధారలుకురిపించే,
ఆకాశాన పయనించే మేఘాన్నడుగు అలా చేస్తుందెందుకని -
"సంస్కార"మంటుందేమో, ఒక్క సారి ఆగి చూడు!

అడవిలో ఉన్నా అరవక మానదు కోకిల తన ముక్త కంఠంతో,
ఎవరూ చూడడంలేదని మానదు విరిసి మురిపించే మల్లిక ;
ఎవరో చూడాలని నాట్యం చెయ్యదు పింఛం విప్పే నెమలి,
ఇతరుల కోసం గుబాళించదు కనువిప్పిన గులాబి.
ఎన్నో ఎన్నెన్నో ప్రకృతి మాత తనదిగా ఉంటాయి,
మనసులోని దైవాన్ని వెలికి తీస్తే రహస్యాలు తెలుస్తాయి.

"అహంబ్రహ్మాస్మి" అనేదానికర్ధం తెలియని
స్వార్ధం సొమ్ము చేసుకొనే "వేదాంతులు"; వింతలు
చూపించే మెట్టవేదాంతులు నిండిన ఈ కలికాలంలో
ఆకలిదే పెద్దపీటవేసుకున్న 'సన్నాసులు'గా, దైవం
తన సృష్హ్టిలోని దేనికన్నా అతీతంగా మనుసునిచ్చిన
మానవుడు అలా మారితే పాపం దైవమే నిట్టూర్చాడు
సగటు మనిషివి నువ్వెంతరా నేస్తం!
చప్పుడులేకుండా ఆ దైవానికి అంకితం అయిపో !
ఒక అంబరంలా, ఒక కొమ్మలా , ఒక చంద్రుడిలా , ఒక పువ్వులా!

- Sravan(1943-2005) dt:01.01.2004

"Toy Business 2"

2009-08-04T00:36:00.004-04:00

A slight tangent to the main thought here - If you understand Telugu, and love the life of parenting, or are looking forward to it anxiously, do watch the movie "Akasamanta" starring Prakash Raj.

Ok. Back to business. V did hold on to his dream of buying toys from the money in his piggy bank (read Toy "Business") . With Amruta's birthday coming up, he floated the idea of he buying her a gift with that money. Now, what could move parents more than knowledge that their kids show so much love to each other! "Absolutely", Bhavani and I said.

We encouraged V to count how much he had on hand to spend. Obviously, if he wants to buy a gift, he would do good to realize that he can only spend so much for the gift. He spent the afternoon, stacking the coins into similar groups, used his newly acquired Math skills to count the pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, and through a maze of rights and wrongs summed up his collections to around 18 dollars. Pretty impressive, right?

That evening, we all set out to visit V's favorite place "TS" as he calls it (now, can you guess what a kid's favorite shop could be that begins with a T and ends with a S"? Answer at the bottom). Before then, V already prepared a list of possible gifts he would get his sister:

doll
doll house
toy car (remote controlled)
Thomas and Friends

(you get the drift, don't you?)

We convinced V that there should be something like a Kitchen set in his list. Amruta loves playing "Mom". Once inside the shop, V put out his ultimatum - It is his money, so he has the final say as to what should be bought.

Shortly after we entered the shop, he approached us requesting we get the following items:

Deigo Rescue Center
Dinosaur collection box (thanks to Ice Age 3)
Handyman toolbox

So I gently reminded him we were here for Amruta. "Oh yeah! I forgot", he replied and put them back.

This time, he went around the girls' section. We found a high end Barbie doll (not sure if it takes care of itself because it was priced close to $80), a kitchen cabinet costing $119, and many other things essentially that did not fit the $18 target that V had. So we continued the search, and came across a kitchen set with 40+ pieces Amruta would love, and costing $14+, and a battery powered microwave that rings and dings like the real one labeled at $12. I suggested he get the kitchen set so Amruta can have her "girly" tea party. V now reminded me that it is going to be his decision. "Let's take the microwave. I can then play...er...show her how to play".

So Amruta's 2nd year birthday gift from her brother is going to be just that. And V gets to pocket $6 of his savings still.

*Answer: Toys R Us

Thank you Teachers!

2009-06-20T05:33:00.008-04:00

To you beloved Teachers I give my thanks this day

Happy as ever, that you came across my way.

All so joyful, you’re ever so wonderful,

Needless to say, you’re so very amiable.

Kind words yours on whose wisdom I depend,

You’re my Angels; each a true friend.

Oh! So close to heart these few years I hold,

Unforgettable memories and stories untold.

- Note to teachers on Vaishnav's pre-K graduation day.

The Toy "Business"

2009-06-07T22:59:00.004-04:00

6/7/09: A conversation with Vaishnav before bedtime.

The setting:
Bhavani puts Amruta (22 m) to sleep and starts checking her e-mails. I finish reading a bed-time story from Toy Story to Vaishnav (5 yrs) where Buzz Lightyear prepares to leave to outerspace before he finally decides to scrap the idea since there is no better place than Andy's room.

Vaishnav (V below) still isn't sleepy and rolls around on the carpet in the drawing room trying to make excuses and avoid having to go to his room all alone. Out comes his famous excuse and the following dialogue ensues.

V: "I can't sleep in that room. I am afraid of dark! I want to sleep in your bed".

(Now I know I got to boost up his confidence levels at this point. What can be easier than comparing him to his favorite cartoon friend Caillou! To my immediate advantage, this kid is always 4 years old. Yes, the title song goes :"I am just a kid who's four, each day I grow some more, I like exploring, I am Caillou!").

Me: "Do you realize you're older than Caillou now? You're graduating from Pre-K on 16th June. You'll be in Grade K next year! You're a big kid now. Yahoo!"

V (he already knows there is something like Grade 1 after Grade K):"Dad, which school will I go to after Grade 10?"

Bhavani: "The school that has Grade 11".

V: "There's nothing like Grade 11. Is there?"

Me: "Well, let's call it under-grad. After 10th, you'd have 2 years of under-grad, and then you'd go to graduation school for 3-4 years. You'd graduate from there to land up in a job, or do start some business, or..."

V: "Business? What is that?"

Me: "That's where you earn money!"

V: "Money? So then I can again fill up my piggy bank?"

Me (wasn't prepared for that!): "Well, kind of... yeah."

V: "Then I can buy new toys? Can I, can I? Please?"

Bhavani, Me: ""

He beats me!

2009-05-16T18:35:00.000-04:00

I still remember the day when I first went on stage at my school to participate in an elocution competition. I was in my 2nd grade, 7 yrs of age, when my Father encouraged me to participate and learn to talk in front of a crowd. The sheer joy of having been able to participate in a competition was unbeatable. I was so ecstatic that day when I not only successfully did my bit, but also brought home my 1st ever trophy.

Vaishnav is now 5 yrs old, just about completing his pre-K. I know my Father is looking down from Heavens to see Vaishnav hold up his 1st ever trophy after getting up in the front to participate in a Sanskrit Sloka recital. I hope this is just the beginning of a bright life ahead for my dear Vaishnav!

Trust

2008-05-14T08:16:00.003-04:00

Ever travelled in an auto rickshaw in Bangalore? A typical driver will unhesitatingly move his vehicle into a any narrow space he can find between two moving vehicles as long as he can fit it in there. He trusts that the other drivers will not sandwich him and his vehicle in that space. That is so noble of him, isn't it? To be able to trust the prize of his life into the hands of 2 total strangers!

And the passengers of the auto-rickshaw - they too trust the driver with their lives!

Skilled laborer

2008-05-14T08:13:00.004-04:00

Give this a thought -

A carpenter goes from India to Sharjah for work.
A Software Engineer goes from India to US for work.
Both are called skilled laborers.

The software engineer is treated with great respect back home by his relatives and society as "foreign-returned".
The carpenter still lives the hand-to-mouth existence on a daily basis.

What a paradox of human lives!

The happiness of going home!

2008-04-19T18:14:00.004-04:00

I am going to India after being away from my loving brother, family and all relatives for more than a year. I am yearning to be back there..and nothing can explain how happy I am right now at the very thought of that. Home-coming of a different kind and certainly of great pleasure.

See you when I am back.

Laws of Life

2008-03-26T18:15:00.002-04:00

Laws of Life

Murphy's First Law for Wives:
If you ask your husband to pick up five items at the store and
then you add one more as an afterthought, he will forget two of
the first five.

Kauffman's Paradox of the Corporation:
The less important you are to the corporation, the more your
tardiness or absence is noticed.

The Salary Axiom:
The pay raise is just large enough to increase your taxes and
just small enough to have no effect on your take-home pay.

Miller's Law of Insurance:
Insurance covers everything except what happens.

First Law of Living:
As soon as you start doing what you always wanted to be doing,
you'll want to be doing something else.

Weiner's Law of Libraries:
There are no answers, only cross-references.

Isaac's Strange Rule of Staleness:
Any food that starts out hard will soften when stale. Any food
that starts out soft will harden when stale.

The Grocery Bag Law:
The candy bar you planned to eat on the way home from the market
is always hidden at the bottom of the grocery bag.

Lampner's Law of Employment:
When leaving work late, you will go unnoticed. When you leave
work early, you will meet the boss in the parking lot.

Anand Mahindra's speech at Nasscom Leadership Summit on February 13th , 2008

2008-02-25T23:09:00.001-05:00

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/IT_industry_has_its_own_Hiranyakashyap_to_battle/articleshow/2782893.cms

Nasscom Leadership Summit has always been a place for good story-telling and provocative thoughts. This year, the spark came not from a software veteran or a BPO moghul, but a captain of an old economy industry. Anand Mahindra, vice chairman and managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra drew from mythology to call for game-changing innovation from the IT industry.

One of the tasks we at the Mahindra Group have set ourselves is to aspire to be recognized as the most customer-centric organization in India, and why not, in the World!

In order to walk the talk, every time I'm asked to speak at a conference, I have made it a default option to ask what the audience--my customers--might expect of me.

And so I found myself wondering what this conclave of IT wizards expects from a predominantly right-brained character like myself. You certainly haven't called me here to deliver a sermon on technology. And I wouldn't even risk doing that with Nandan (Nilekani) and Kiran (Karnik) sharing the dais!

Of course, I might have been able to do that by getting one of my IT colleagues to write this speech, but then it would have been comprehensible to you, but incomprehensible to me!

And although the title of this session is 'Building a Knowledge Economy for Growth', I believe that a) All of you out there have helped build the foundations of a knowledge economy, so again, you don't need me to pontificate to you about that and b) I think there are some urgent pressures and imperatives the industry has to deal with at this point.
So, I'm going to talk about something completely different: I will talk about the Trimurti.

Most of the Indians in this audience will know the Trimurti – the trinity in Indian mythology of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the sustainer and Shiva the destroyer. There is a wonderful depiction of this in stone, just ten kilometers across the bay, at Elephanta. Both as a businessman, and as someone who tends to see life in visual images, the Trimurti reminds me of India's IT industry. Think of it.

You people have gone through a stage, where like Brahma, you created something out of nothing. You created a new and global industry. You created a service sector that is today, a major pillar of our GDP. But most importantly, you created a perception of a new India, both in the world and in Indian hearts and minds.

CK Prahalad once told me that in universities in America today, there are almost unfairly high expectations from Indian students, because there is a huge perception that all Indian students are brilliant, outstanding. You created that perception. And within India, what you created was self-belief. You showed us what Indians could do, and now the rest of India believes that Indians can do anything. Brahma created a physical landscape; you sowed the seeds of a new mental and psychological landscape. In that sense, you are truly the Brahmas of the age of liberalisation.

But creation is only the first phase. You then have to move on to the next phase of sustaining that creation - to the realm of Vishnu the preserver. Creation is a one-time affair. Sustaining that creation is obviously a longer haul, subject to many attacks and crises. Perhaps that is why Vishnu comes not in one, but in ten incarnations.

Every time there is a new danger, he changes his avatar to a form best suited to meet that danger. At various times he has come as a fish, as a tortoise, as a dwarf. But his most interesting avatar came when he had to fight the demon Hiranyakashyap. Hiranyakashyap was a bad guy, who had obtained an amazing boon from the gods. Neither man nor beast could kill him; he could not be killed by daylight or at nighttime, within his home or outside it, on the ground or in the sky. All this made him pretty invincible – he went on a rampage, and only Vishnu could tackle him

The IT industry today faces challenges every bit as complex as those Hiranyakashyap posed for Vishnu. It is hit by a macroeconomic tsunami of adverse currency changes, rapidly escalating costs in both salaries and infrastructure and inadequate talent pools below the tier 1 and 2 institutions.

At the Company level, firms are begin to feel the penalties of poor differentiation and lack of focus (trying to be all things to all people); and an over-emphasis on high volumes and price competition.

Suddenly, the industry seems to have fallen off its pedestal; You are facing your very own Hiranyakashyap.

It's interesting to see how Vishnu dealt with him. How do you destroy someone who can't be killed by man or beast, inside or outside, by day or night etc etc. The demon pretty much had all bases covered. So Vishnu took on the Narasimha avatar to bypass the boon. Narasimha was a hybrid creature, half man half lion, and therefore neither man nor beast.

He killed Hiranyakashyap at twilight, which is neither day nor night. He killed him in the courtyard, which is neither inside a house nor outside it. And he killed the demon by placing him across his knee and tearing him apart, thus circumventing the terms of the boon that he could not be killed either on the ground or in the sky. Now that's what I call an innovative algorithm!

So what are the lessons for the IT industry in this story? Well, the first thing Vishnu did was to reinvent himself. It was not the gentle and contemplative Vishnu who fought Hiranyakashyap – it was the fearsome Narasimha avatar. Vishnu reinvented himself to suit the circumstances. The circumstances have changed drastically. Reinvent yourselves.

Do I have all the answers on the modes of re-invention? No, obviously not, otherwise I'd be out there filing patents, although I can suggest two broad approaches.

First, why don't we design business models that challenge traditional industry approaches and then transform our organizations, people and processes to execute. If we simply keep knocking on the doors of clients with our traditional offshoring options, we'll meet the fate of hearing aid salespersons: our best customers won't hear the doobell!

For example, software-on-demand and open source models changed the rules of the software game. Can we not try to change the rules of the game this time around? Why didn't we invent Zoom technology or Virtualisation? Thus far, India's brand of innovation has been identified with the IT industry, but is it truly innovative. Is it really game changing? Ironically, you can now look to the old smokestack industries for inspiration.

A few weeks ago, an Indian car company made a game-changing move. Maybe the Nano will ultimately not retail for a hundred thousand rupees. Maybe it won't have great margins, or replace as many motorcycles as it would like to, but it was a game changing move; it fired a shot that was heard around the world. Can the IT world make any such claim?

There was an old saying, apparently adopted by the IT industry, that the secret of success is to jump every time opportunity knocks. And how do you know when opportunity knocks? You don't, you just keep jumping!

So when are we going to stop simply jumping every time a client seems to sneeze, and actually create products and IP that become their own opportunities?

Let's look at new areas where India may have natural advantage. I remember C.K Prahlad telling us that we didn't realize how important it was to leverage emerging innovation ecosystems in our country. He gave us the example of how, due to a fortunate coincidence, India's IT and automotive industries were situated in roughly the same geographic clusters. So why wasn't, according to Michael Porter's competitive theories, a world beating automotive telematics industry taking shape here.

Why aren't IT companies using the massive potential of India's soft power, the film and TV business to exploit technological dominance of what Telco's call the 'last mile' but is actually the 'first mile' in the brave new interactive world?

Secondly, why don't we try to focus on a vertical industry (e.g., telecom) or horizontal domain (e.g., supply chain management) selecting the key dimensions of competitive differentiation – product vs. service, breadth vs. depth, speed of delivery, customer service responsiveness, fixed or outcome-based pricing, proprietary technology or intellectual property, and so on.

And let's be prepared to make hard decisions along the way – change people who don't fit, walk away from businesses that doesn't fit.

It's essential, while attempting this, however, to recognize that focus, differentiation and brand building require time and investment. Selling value or doing business differently than the norm tends to elongate sales cycles, which tends to put pressure on cash flow and we need to resist the temptation to broaden our offerings or slash prices just to win the business and keep people busy.

Along with re-invention, during the course of reinventing himself, Vishnu figured out the loopholes in the boon, and regrouped his physical and mental aspects to take advantage of these loopholes. That's something the IT industry can do as well. Its often been pointed out that in the Chinese word for crisis is also the Chinese word for opportunity I love that mindset. I truly believe that the adverse rate of the dollar can be viewed as the glass half empty or the glass half full. Sure it affects margins. But it's also a chance to take advantage of the loophole and buy yourselves what you don't have, so that you can regroup your structure to meet the challenge.

To me the fact that our currency is more valuable and our price earnings ratios are still higher than average, means that we can acquire the front-ends and the large IT businesses that we never thought we could before. And the bigger the better. If people are egging us on to leapfrog, then they should also cheer as you bid for companies that seem bigger fish than you. It's happening all the time today in the manufacturing sector—Tata Corus being the stellar example—and we at Mahindra, while starting from scratch, have inorganically compiled together a portfolio of acquisitions that make us the fourth largest steel forging company in the world today.

This is not without historical precedent. If you look at Japan and South Korea, both of them went through a phase of enduring the worlds' skepticism, then painstakingly building strong and competent domestic businesses, and then on the back of global liquidity support and strong price earnings ratios, compressing time by acquiring global firms and their customer credibility.

In effect, by acquiring the strengths and skill sets you need, you will regroup your profile and create a new entity, which can vanquish your challenges as effectively as Vishnu vanquished Hiranyakashyap.

And finally, while reinventing yourselves, you will have to bring in some of the aspects of the third element of the Trimurti – that of Shiva the destroyer.

Destroy for example the premise that cost arbitrage is the way to go. Recognize that the low cost, high volume offshore outsourcing battle has already been fought and won. Often, when strategic frames grow rigid, companies, like countries, tend to keep fighting the LAST war. If you are not already on the winners list, you need to think of other ways to compete on value and differentiation, rather than price and scale.

Destroy the premise that success comes only from size, and desist from comparisons with other Indian companies. There are still many IT companies in India who define success as "we want to be one of the top ten Indian IT companies". Why not, for example, "we want to be the world's #1 banking back office solutions provider"?

And lastly, perhaps the time has come to destroy the notion that the world may be your oyster but India is not. There is a huge domestic market in middle class and corporate India that has not been plumbed. Even selling to the bottom of the pyramid is profitable today. But it needs a creative destruction of the current mindset and a re-think on many of the assumptions we hold dear.

So, in conclusion, perhaps there really isn't that much distance between avatars in the mythological sense and avatars in the technology sense. Perhaps they are both symbolic expressions of the same reality. In their different ways, they both underline the same message – that it is necessary in any situation to reinvent, regroup and re-think our way out of whatever challenges confront us.

I'd like to close with one of my favourite quotes—such a favourite, that I can't even remember where I first read it:

My father thought the world would be same;

My children, however, wake up EVERY day thinking the world will be different.

Let's begin emulating our children. Time to wake up and make the world different .

Culture shock

2008-01-10T02:07:00.000-05:00

By no means do I wish to berate anyone by this thought. I am as much a person affected by this "culture shock" as are others who I know. I just cannot stop myself from wondering about the thought still. I spent a good five and twenty years of my life in my home-town of Rajahmundry, India and was brought up in kind of environs where tap water in the kitchen was not "drinkable", I was okay to run amock on the streets on my bike, and honk my signature horn "peep-peep, peep-a-peep" when I enter my street to let the household know I was approaching so hold the doors open for me, I tracked the posters on the walls along the streets, played with pebbles and puddles, and waded through water-clogged streets with much ease during the peak of monsoon. My dearest nephew, Sashi, recently visited Rajahmundry and found nothing changed much since those childhood days. But suddenly to my eyes - and Sashi's - this same town feels so "wrong".

When I first traveled outside India, I was told I'd face a culture shock and that I should brace up to face it. Little did I realize then, that it would be so overwhelming that I'd become polarized by the shock. Polarized not towards my culture back home, but to the new culture I got exposure to. While I very much appreciate the many "groomed" principles that are in vogue in these foreign societies, I also would like to remind myself that here the society was formed based on such principles. Back at my place, the society was formed first and then the principles got introduced. And in a society where dogmatic traditions ruled the roost for a major part for various other reasons too lengthy to elaborate upon here, there will be an inherent resistance to change.

Consider the concept of pizza in India. That "junkie" has now taken the nation by storm in most of the metros. But it is a totally "Indianized" version of the western fast-food. On any single day, on the race track of *my* sense of taste, the Pizza Hut version of the pizza back in India will win hands-down against its US counterpart. Now, that is not to mean that the pizzas in US are bad. They are good for the kind of taste the society here savours. It just does not fit in India where spices rule the roost. So also, any thing that looks so "right" here in US, may not look as much "right" back in India because ultimately it is a population of billion plus people living their life there day in and day out that decide on how "right" is it really for them. I may be visiting India may be once a year. It is not fair on my part then, to expect that everyone lives his everyday life as I do today in US. The societies are aeons apart in terms of cultural maturity defined by US standards.

The change in societal discipline will eventually happen though. For good or for worse, a new set of guidelines by which a society should live is slowly being defined and incorporated (thanks partly to the corporate world that is introducing to India the concepts from the outside world) but in its own Indian flavor - like that of Indian pizza. It will take time, effort and a lot of good and bad talk before it is totally embraced across the cross-section of the society. Till then, I should probably continue to tell myself when I go back to India that I am polarized person in a non-polarized surrounding. I will attract attention, and may not like what I see around me. But hey! that was what came through myself. I should not disown it for something I was part of for less than a year.

Blog rate

2008-01-10T02:03:00.000-05:00

My blog-rate seems to be like that of Aamir Khan's movie count/year. Now in retrospect, the title of the blogspot seems to qualify itself. This is my second blog in an year!
Phew! what a busy year it's been. I feel glad that I managed to keep myself as much occupied for so long.