Nehal Shah's Weblog

10 Reasons you should have a Gujarati friend

2014-04-12T06:13:00.001-07:00

Gujaratis are people that originate from the state called Gujarat in the western region of India. Its a flourishing state with cultural diversity. It is vibrant with its true colors of rich heritage, art and cultural traditions. Famous Gujaratis include Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dhirubhai Ambani, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Virchand Gandhi, Narendra Modi and Vikram Sarabhai.

In the words of early european traveller Ludovico di Varthema (15th century):

...a certain race which eats nothing that has blood, never kills any living things... and these people are neither moors nor heathens... if they were baptized, they would all be saved by the virtue of their works, for they never do to others what they would not do unto them.

Gujaratis in United States: Gujaratis attained prominence as merchants and hoteliers, and over 40% of the hospitality industry in the United States is controlled by Gujaratis in the 21st century. As time passed, the offspring of the initial Gujaratis have also made high levels of advancement into professional fields, including as physicians, engineers, and lawyers.

Foodie for sure: You can eat some great Gujarati cuisine! In snacks be ready for some spicy and fried dishes., Khakra, Dhokla, Faafda, Paatra. They are as heavy as they sound. You will feel the oil going down your throat and the meal will probably clog your arteries, but it’s worth it. Jokes apart, traditionally Gujaratis eat dal-bhaat-saak-rotli (pulse-rice-vegetables-bread) as everyday meals. When summertime rolls around, Gujarati folks love mangos! You can try keri no rus (fresh mango pulp)! Yum! Also, Gujarati moms will feed you until your stomach seems to explode. (A few minutes later without any shame, she will comment on your waistline.) They’re also very generous in the sense that they will always pack all the friends some food to go.

Dancing and clapping: No party is over without a Garba or Dandiya raas. Garba is a traditional Guajarati dance with a lot of clapping and turning around, while dandiya raas is a dance with sticks. Both are high-level energy dances for the Gujarati folks! Most of the time, you’ll hear your Gujarati friends complaining of being tired after walking for more than 15 minutes or have tendency of using the elevator rather than stairs. Well, don’t be too quick to judge their energy levels. These are the same people who will be able to dance to both garba and raas all night long without complaining of being tired during wedding season and Navratri.

Outfits: Ladies can easily borrow traditional Chaniya choli, a 3 piece outfit consisting of choli(blouse), chaniya(skirt) and odhni(long scarf). Male dress consist of Chorno (cotton drawers), Kediyu(short frill shirt covering upper part of the body) and phento (layered turban). These outfits are usually decorated with beads, mirrors, and embroidery work. A saree can also be worn in Gujarati style for a photogenic photo shoot.

Bargaining skills: Gujaratis have PhD in bargaining, the moment they are born. A must have with you in your shopping spree. Whether it’s online or in stores, you can trust that your friend is not going to stop until you get some sort of discount, coupon, deal, steal, or something in between.

Gujarati words: Being with your Gujarati friend, you will definitely learn some Gujarati words, “Kemcho” (How are you?) and “Aavjo(Bye, see you gain). The more you hangout with your Gujarati friend you will start to pick up more words, phrases and sentences. Believe me, its easy to learn Gujarati.

Gossip and drama: Your Gujarati friend will always have some sort of gossip and/or drama to share. It’s always fun to hear about it because most of the time, it is all nonsense and silly issues turning into big things.

Forever Food Supplies: Gujaratis are never short of their home-food supply. Your Gujarati friend will have enough stock while travelling too, especially yummy “Theplas” (spicy indian bread) with “Choonda” (grated raw mango pickle)

Great Gujarati weddings – Did I say lavish weddings! These tend to be 3-day events! You can have an amazing experience from attending a Gujarati wedding. You’ll have the honor of seeing the groom come on a white horse, more than 500 people, awesome food, amazing dance music, and uncles and aunties breaking it down on the dance floor!

Free tutor: Be it Science, Maths or management, your Gujarati friend is always ready to help. Gujaratis take pride in giving gyan.

Social reach will multiply many folds: Between extended family members and friends of friends, Gujarati folks tend to know a lot of people. They even tend to keep in touch with their 2nd and 3rd cousins. Most importantly, it show how family oriented your friend can be. (Meaning? You’re going to have a friend for life.)

Building World's Greatest Workplace

2012-04-15T07:37:00.001-07:00

Knowledge occupancy

2011-01-30T00:03:00.000-08:00

Four quadrants of knowledge in descending order of occupancy in human mind :

Things that you don't know 'that you don't know' (99.99999%)

Rest 0.000001 % is occupied by below 3 =>

Things that you know 'that you know',
Things that you know 'that you don't know' and
Things that you don't know 'that you know'

Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!

2010-10-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

It was inspiring to watch Sir Ken Robinson's speech on bringing revolution in education. It truly makes sense in giving a thoughtful approach to the idea of letting children evolve as per their passion, rather being forced to follow a linear approach to live and waste precious lives.

I particularly liked statements, "The great problem for a reform or transformation is the tyranny of common sense" and "Tread softly because you tread on my dreams", "Everyday and everywhere children spread their dreams beneath our feet and therefore we should tread softly"...

However, the speech does not offer any takeaways as no specific solution was recommended for the problem in discussion. It was good to wake-up to the issue, hardly being thought about.

Comparing the indian education system before the advent of British Raj, had solution to all the elements being highlighted in the speech. Children were offered formal basic education in Vedic maths, logic and religious scriptures, providing a perfect blend to develop and build a solid foundation for body, mind and soul. Students were expected to follow strict monastic guidelines prescribed by the guru and stay away from cities in ashrams.

It largely followed educating generations on the basis of castes and related duties that one had to perform as a member of specific caste. The Brahmans learned about scriptures and religion while the Kshatriya were educated in the various aspects of warfare. The Vaishya caste learned commerce and other specific vocational courses. Educating on the basis of caste would raise eyebrows in today's world, but viewing it from a different perspective, it provided specialisation to the communities, rather a child re-inventing the wheel in a complete new field of study. Such practice provided the child to quickly adopt the skills and a opportunity to develop it further, from where his father left. There were some cons too, like caste based education, dependencies and power.

Undertaking a careful study of ancient Indian education system to build a bridge with the current education practice could help bring Revolution in building stronger societies for generations to come.

False ceiling in Nehru Stadium collapses

2010-09-22T03:57:00.000-07:00

Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandreshekhar told, "The cables which were to be set up for the data network were placed on the false ceiling and due to the weight of the cables the ceiling fell off. It's a minor thing and it will be corrected. It's not a matter to be worried about"

Is CWG to degrade or enhance the image of the world's third most powerful nation?

MS-Speech Recognition

2010-09-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

Today morning, exploring my ThinkPad for its features, came across this Speech Recognition application from Microsoft. It took me through the wizard to setup the component which also involved certain training to the application, so that it recognizes my voice and words correctly during dictation in office files.

I also underwent additional training lessons, for the computer to reach better accuracy. Thinking the setup being successful, it would save my effort and time to type emails in office. It was time to try this out in MS-Word, I pronounced “Resource Augmentation”. Here is what it typed for several repeats:

Results of medication
He has also been taken
His last publication
This also, and they should
Results of an indication
Response of medication
The socks, and Asia
Just last publication
Response of engaging
His response, and they should
His last album information
Besides publication
It’s also published
Besides application
This last publication
Results of medication
Besides obligation
He decides to take
Response of medication
Besides of medication
And the sounds of medication
The size of meditation
Resource of medication
The source of many days
A source of meditation

….Finally, I gave up.

Cycling: Hobby Revisited

2009-11-10T21:50:00.001-08:00

After a gap of 15 years, googling to find some cyclists, I came across this wonderful website, which left me overwhelmed. It was a networking site exclusively meant for cyclists in India. I was overjoyed to find loads of people like me who were interested in cycling and searching for information.

In the foray, I met some cyclists who proved highly helpful to provide me all the information alongwith the contact numbers of the cyclists in my vicinity. Losing no time, I contacted them and sensing willingness of beginners like me, Vikram and Sunny organised a cycling event on Saturday from Borivali to Aksa beach.

Being new and with no bicycle, I went to a nearby cycle shop. To my dismay, the shop didn't had cycle fit for me, but the guy was tizzy enough to help and arrange a cycle for a day.

I had my bicycle and thereafter there was no looking back. Up in the morning at 6 am we met at Don Bosco school and my passion for cylcing kept me going. On the way I had opportunity to ride various other bikes like, Raleigh elevation MTB 2.0, Hero Nuage, L.A. MTB with disc brakes and all alloy Hero Thunder racer. While returning we had a quick breakfast from the local cycle sold idliwala.

On the way back I could feel the pain in my legs. Sun and pollution multipled the hardship to reach home. Nevertheless, satisfied and having revisited my old pastime made me forgo the pain. However, I had to relax for rest of the weekend.

Sixth Sense

2009-03-30T10:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, that’s true. In my previous post you read about the advent of Microsoft Surface with a huge price tag for commercial use. But, if Pranav Mistry has his way, the technology will soon become available for masses for the price no more than a mobile phone.

Pranav from the MIT Media Lab has developed a wearable internet-connected computer that can turn virtually any physical surface (like the wall, your hand or even a book in your hand) into a Microsoft Surface like table computer allowing you to interact with that surface using simple freehand gestures. Called Sixth Sense, a prototype of the device was recently demoed at the TED Conference by Pattie Maes (Pranav’s advisor) and it left the audience completely awestruck.

For instance, you could pick up any book from the store and the device will display ratings from Amazon.com on the book itself. Or you could project Google Maps on the wall and zoom & pan using fingers.

The video also show how you can display a pile of photographs on the wall of your room and arrange them using natural hand gesture similar to Microsoft Surface. Or do graffiti on the wall by moving your fingers in the air without touching real paint.

A newspaper can show live video news projected from the video camera of the "Sixth Sense" computer. Pranav says in an interview that any application, now on your computer or mobile phone, can be used inside Sixth Sense.

The device costs less than $350 to build but the price will obviously model "if" it goes commercial and reaches the "mass production" stage.

Microsoft Surface

2009-03-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

I hope most of you may have heard of Microsoft Surface. It’s a computer without a keyboard and mouse. It allows you to do almost anything at the sway of your finger tips, providing a very easy to use table computer with a magic of touch. Sway your fingers and there you are maneuvering the objects on the surface.

It’s also called Touch and Gesture computing. The line between the physical world and virtual world is thinning. For instance, Surface allows cellphones to introduce themselves to the buyers. Place the cellphone on the Surface and it displays all the details about that model. Place another model and it displays the comparison with the earlier model.

Plan your holiday with the maps visible on the Surface or juggle the photos clicked, zoom them or even edit them. As visible from the videos available on Microsoft Surface’s website, the screen does not follow a fixed or disciplined width or format. You can easily rotate the applications upside down or full 360 degrees.

This piece of technology is available in US for $16,000 and is strictly for commercial purchase only. On 19th March 2009 Microsoft UK team launched the device in UK with a price tag of ₤ 11,000.

Surely, it wouldn’t be that difficult next time, when you have to teach computers to your grandparents.

Soap business: Change in Indian Television

2009-03-19T02:53:00.000-07:00

I am not referring to the detergent business or, nor do I have plans to start one. Here I am referring to the soaps shown on Indian Television on almost most of the entertainment channels. All, with almost same set of story line involving some kind of disputes between family members. It could be between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law or two sister-in-laws fuelling their husbands to take up a fight or husband and wife.

How this era entered Indian Television when detective or comedy serials were prevalent? It all started with the advent of a soap called “'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi'” (Mother-in-law was someday a daughter-in-law) by Ekta Kapoor. Most Indian women as a general nature are inclined in gossiping internal matters of a neighbour or some near relative. This tendency was well captured by Ekta Kapoor who cleverly portrayed the gossips in this soap.

TRPs for the channel (Star Plus) rose sharply breaking all records, prompting other TV channels to follow. It brought a drastic change in the way Indian audience viewed television. However, this also had ill effects as it corrupted minds of youth, especially the women folks.

Action of the women vampires in these serials are being taken seriously and some women audience even go to the extent of practicing them in reality. The dramatization and overreaction to the smallest of the issue in the house as shown in these serials started getting replicated in reality. This has lead to bigger disputes and issues in the house, and finally break-ups. To prolong the episodes, producers and directors add more disputes and drama to make it more interesting and spicy. Some audiences are so engrossed that every comment or issue in the house are compared to the similar event in these serials and are followed up, the way they were in those teleserials. In reality, this has allowed stretching up of issues without giving any second thought to the results.

Audiences need to get more intelligent in terms of solving family disputes and not take support from such serials, which are just doing their business. Serials are not there to leverage solutions to the disputes, but are only a form of entertainment which should be forgotten with the end of episode.

If at all I am given a choice to watch any soap, I would prefer watching some comedy. They are the perfect form of entertainment that makes you laugh and forget all kinds of stress and woes encountered in a day.

The Road Ahead

2009-03-13T05:40:00.000-07:00

It’s been a long time that I wrote a post. Few of the hurdles in life kept me away from writing. At times, there are situations where we are forced to take some tough stand, without any of our fault.

On the road of life we come across some people whom we expect to enhance our journey, but not always. We are given a choice to either rely on them and help us, or not rely and continue with the journey. If good enough they will help you to achieve the target, but if not they can bring a major accident(disruption). Again it depends from situation to situation and person to person. There is no correct answer for it. It’s all about how your resiliency helps in coming over such events.

It’s very important to have a goal in mind. One cannot achieve much without a strong determination to achieve a target. Without goal, he/she will get distracted by the people around, and in the end will stand to have achieved nothing. Over and above he /she will find himself having lost good time and lagging behind today’s competitive world.

Your goal will determine the decision you make at such critical junctures of life. It’s good to face the hurdle, then turning away from the road of life. This will atleast keep you on the road and allow you to achieve the target. Positively, such events will make you more tough and strong, helping you to face bigger impediments with ease, and come out successfully.

Happy New Year 2009

2008-12-31T02:00:00.000-08:00

Year 2008 has been marked as one of the worst in the history. It all started with sub-prime crisis followed by world-markets crash. We saw oil prices climbing above $ 150 per barrel and witnessed wiping off some of BIG MNC banks like Lehman Brothers, Wachovia and saw companies like Citibank and GM tremor to the economic tunes.

US had to bail out Citibank and GM, preventing a big financial fall. This was followed by job cuts in US. Is it over or are we going to see some more of it in the Year 2009? There are mixed feelings among the economists. Some say there is more to come whereas some are of the opinion that, the worst is over. We also saw terror attacks here in India with Mumbai twice falling victim to terrorism, claiming hundreds of lives.

Surprisingly, it proved to be a best year for the Indian sports arena. Indian cricket won T20 as well as shooter Abhinav Bindra claimed gold medal at Olympics 2008. There were some outstanding performances by Sania Mirza (ranked 32nd in the tennis world) and Saina Nehwal (foraying into the top 10 badminton world rankings).

Hopefully, all of us would like to see Year 2009 bring peace and cheers to the people. This would become possible with controlled inflation, lower loan rates, affordable oil, etc.

Though, oil prices have fallen significantly, but more changes and reforms are required to bring back HAPPY OLD DAYS and normalize the situation. Wish Goodbye to year 2008 and welcome Year 2009.

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year 2009 !!

Serious security flaw found in IE7

2008-12-22T04:05:00.000-08:00

A week back a serious security flaw was found in Internet Explorer and everybody is been advised by 'MICROSOFT' not to use Internet Explorer for any confidential banking transactions until the new patch is released.

The new patch would be released at the earliest and Microsoft advices everybody to use the browser from their rivals until the patch is released. As many as 10,000 websites have been compromised since the vulnerability was discovered.

Other browsers, such as Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, are not vulnerable to the flaw Microsoft has identified. PC Pro magazine's security editor, Darien Graham-Smith, said that there was a virtual arms race going on, with hackers always on the look out for new vulnerabilities. "The message needs to get out that this malicious code can be planted on any web site, so simple careful browsing isn't enough."

"Every browser is susceptible to vulnerabilities from time to time. It's fine to say 'don't use Internet Explorer' for now, but other browsers may well find themselves in a similar situation," he added.

Scientoons

2008-12-18T02:17:00.000-08:00

Scientoons are the cartoons, based on science. They not only make you smile and laugh but also provide information about new researches subjects, data & concepts in a simple, understandable and interesting thought provoking way.

Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, Senior Scientist (Chemical Technology Division) at the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow, India coined a new name for such cartoons - SCIENTOOONS.

If you find science dull, dour and boring? If words like ozone hole, glycobiology, nanotechnology or mass spectrometry sound like mumbo-jumbo? You know whom to contact next time.

On December 5, 2007 in South African Science Communication Conference which was held at Port Elizabeth and was attended by experts from all over the world, Pradeep thought to announce his concept as a new science called scientoonics.

“SCIENTOONICS IS A NEW BRANCH OF SCIENCE THAT DEALS WITH EFFECTIVE SCIENCE COMMUNICATION BY USING A NOVEL CLASS OF SCIENCE CARTOONS CALLED SCIENTOONS.”

Scientoons have also been included as a subject in the syllabus of M.Sc. (Mass Communication in Science and Technology) in Lucknow University, Lucknow (India), Devi Ahilya Bai University, Indore, India, Makhan Lal Chaturevdi University, Bhopal India, B.Ed. course of Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Udaipur and more. Many other countries are also planning to introduce scientoons for science education and science communication.

Mumbai Local Trains

2008-12-15T04:08:00.000-08:00

Only local train passengers in Mumbai will know how helpful commuters try to be......

Last week, a hapless victim fell prey to the over enthusiastic Bombay's local train commuters.

Our hero, a man from Pune, wanted to go to Matunga, but as luck and trains would have it, boarded a fast train not halting at his destination. He panicked on realizing his mistake but by then the local had started moving.

On seeing his plight, a sympathetic co-passenger decided to come to his rescue. It seemed that he had been commuting by that particular train (6:03pm Kasara Fast) for the past 6 years and had noticed that the train always slowed down just before Matunga station and crawled at a snail's pace while passing through it. He told the man to jump out of the running train as it slowed down and that with a little bit of fleet-footedness, he would make it safely on terra firma. However, knowing the man's inexperience, he added some words of caution:

"Keep running the moment you jump or you'll fall. Just keep running." He stressed the word "running" lest the man not know the laws of motion. The train did slow down just before Matunga station and at the prompting of his mentor, our hero jumped out of the train and started running as if all hell had broken loose.

What he didn't realise, of course, was that he was running parallel to the train instead of running away from it. Meanwhile, the train slowed down further, so that the man was running faster than the train. In the process, he reached the door of the next compartment and the footboard commuters there pulled him in thinking he was trying to board the train! To his agony, the train picked up speed and sped past Matunga and his new co-passengers started to congratulate him on how lucky he had been, until he told them that they had actually undone what he had done with great difficulty.

Those standing at the door of his "ex-compartment" had witnessed the whole drama and just couldn't stop laughing at the poor man's situation, while he grinned sheepishly!!!

Ae dil, hai mushkil, jeena yahaan...., zara hatke, zara bachke, yeh hai Bombay meri jaan......................

Silence

2008-12-05T08:28:00.000-08:00

"Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute"

- MK Gandhi

That sounds true but not when communication is need of the hour. Study says 95% of the life problems arise either due to the lack of communication or improper communication. Communication plays a very important role in the life of any individual. It could be at home, office or at social events. Communication can bring two individual/groups/countries together as well as separate them.

It is not the materialistic needs that deter the quality of life, but good communication techniques. Even the most fierce enemies can be brought together, if they are ready to solve the issue through open dialogue. However, in most cases individuals misinterpret the actions of others according to their own will and wields enmity without communicating what they interpreted. They refrain from allowing a second thought to strike their mind, refuse to understand the act of others. Resultantly, start acting against the will of other individual and thus creating conflicts.

Cumulatively, this grows into a bigger battle and starts heading towards a point of no return and thus hurling heavy and irrepairable losses to both.

"Nothing great can be achieved through silence"

Thought of the day !!

2008-12-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

It's really worth thinking on the below thought :

"What a shame and disgrace to every citizen of India that the elite NSG Force was transported into ordinary BEST buses, whereas our cricketers are transported into state of the art luxury buses, these Jawans lay down their lives to protect every Indian and these cricketers get paid even if they lose a match, we worship these cricketers and forget the martyrdom of these brave Jawans. The Jawans should be paid the salaries of the cricketers and the cricketers should be paid the salaries of the Jawans.

An ace shooter shoots and gets gold medal, govt gives 1cr, another shooter dies while shooting terrorist, govt gives 5 lakh. WHO DESERVES MORE?"

Mumbai, meri jaan

2008-11-29T18:19:00.000-08:00

On hearing the news of recent spate of attack on Mumbai, I was very furious at the unscrupulous terrorist activity carried out by Jihadis. I wished to have been in the defence forces(my childhood dream) fighting out these militants.

I first got the news early morning on 27th Nov, when my sister called me from US. Since then, I couldn't keep away from the news and was closely watching every update on my PC. Even in office, I felt hard to concentrate on my work and kept returning to news websites for updates. It was difficult to see my home town bleeding.

Although, Mumbai is popularly known to be resilient, but it should not be taken as a cover, allowing another such incidents of brutality. Mumbai, the commercial capital is the pride of India where most of the business is transacted. Mumbai generates 5% of India's GDP and accounting for 25% of industrial output, 40% of maritime trade, and 70% of capital transactions to India's economy. Such attack on the pride cannot be tolerated. A war has been openly raged. People of Mumbai, intelligence and government should join hands to prepare for a battle to attack the ones who look at Mumbai with such intentions.

Witnessing the pictures of grieving parents, children, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters and friends, I see my problems to be miniscule to theirs. I feel apologetic for the people who keep fighting over the petty matters in their day-to-day life. I advise them to visit border areas or face such terrorists to satisfy their interest of fighting. They can atleast put their negative skillset to a better use.

India lost some of it's best and brightest individuals, at a time when India is closely being perceived as a new Super Power under development. I express my heartfelt condolence to the innocent people killed in the attack and salute to the martyrs who lost their life while performing their duties. Not to forget the brave joint operation by NSG commandos, Navy coast guards, Mumbai police and RAF. We are proud of you.

Constructive criticism

2008-11-24T04:07:00.000-08:00

Recently, while browsing through some of the management sites, I accidentally bumped into this site called wisegeek.com, which outlines the significance of constructive criticism :

“Constructive criticism is criticism kindly meant that has a goal of improving some area of another’s person’s life or work. Often constructive criticism refers specifically to the critique of someone else’s written or artistic work, in perhaps a teacher/student setting, that would allow that person to further improve the work or to improve their approach to future endeavors.

Parents also try to employ constructive criticism to help their children improve their lives. The trouble with constructive criticism is that not all people are receptive to it. They may either feel their self-esteem shrinking under criticism, or they may feel that all criticism is negative. This can destroy the intent of constructive criticism.

Communication is loaded with multiple intentions, especially in a parent/child or spousal relationships. Thus people may not know how to actually employ a critique of one aspect of a person without involving their own feelings or frustration that make a critique negative.

Generally, constructive criticism should address an area that needs improving. Constructive criticism should be a reasoned, unemotional response in an effort to teach. In spousal communication, constructive criticism is often shaped as the “I” message: “I feel X, when you say Y.” In parental relationships, constructive criticism generally works best when the timing is right. A child who has just lost a game, for instance, might be better served by encouraging words, rather than a performance critique.

In teacher/student relationships, constructive criticism tends to be far more helpful than a blunt critique of a student’s defects. Questions on a paper and also praise in some areas can make constructive criticism easier to receive. Although, some students do jump to the point and want to immediately know what they did wrong.

In all cases, constructive criticism runs the danger of being perceived as negative. In these situations, it is unlikely that any criticism will actually provide help. Even when a person tries to present criticism in a non-emotional way, it may still be considered a personal attack. The only way to approach this is by truly being constructive, kind and helpful, and realizing that not all people are going to appreciate what you might have to say.”

Economic burst, or economic opportunity?

2008-11-13T11:15:00.000-08:00

It all began with the subprime crisis in US at the beginning of this year and yet nobody is able to see light at the end of this dark tunnel. Nobody knows when this turmoil would wound up, for the happy times to return.

It has shut-up Analysts world over as the predictions have lost their sheen. Although, Indian economic situation hasn’t yet worsened to the extent of US, it surely is bound to face the waves from west.

Stock price of blue chips have tumbled by almost 60-70% than their peaks in January 2008, tempting investors to invest more money, but also fears them off from the continued shocks being passed by global cues. The big question is, is it the right time to invest or wait and watch the meltdown?

Economists say, “Recession is the best time to start a new venture. You get everything so cheap”. This looks true to an extent, you have ample money in hand during recession. Due to job cuts, people are ready to work at throwaway cost. Not only the cost, you get enough choices as well as skilled manpower. We also see property prices/rentals going down drastically. This makes way for cheaper option to setup or buy your own office.

Current phase is being looked upon as a normal economic cycle, by some. This phase has it’s turn every 5-7 years and lasts no longer than a year or two. Entrepreneur able to sail through these rough times will emerge a winner during economic boom.

It’s a matter of patience and perseverance.

Diwali

2008-11-09T22:47:00.000-08:00

Diwali is the festival of lights celebrated on account of Lord Rama’s, his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana’s return from 14 years exile and from a war in which he killed demonic king Ravana. It’s a five day festival and all these five days are exciting in every household of India. People get together, visit friends and relatives to pass good wishes. Children enjoy by bursting fire-crackers and houses are decorated with lots of oil lamps and lanterns. We had abundance of sweets pouring from all over. Traditionally, fifth day also marks the beginning of New Year for the business community as new books of accounts are opened and old are closed.

As a kid I remember we being given vacation home work during Diwali holidays and the most obvious assignment used to be an essay on Diwali. Above was a short summary of those essays.

This year we celebrated the festival at our new house in Pune. Atmosphere in Pune was very enchanting and was filled with fun and frolic amidst the economic slowdown. To double up, my sister and brother-in-law also joined us in the celebration. They were on a short visit to India. Although, this post has come little late than it’s time, wishing you all a very happy Diwali and prosperous new year ahead !!!

How to Forgive

2008-10-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest, thorniest and most difficult things we humans are ever called upon to do is to respond to evil with kindness, and to forgive the unforgivable. We love to read stories about people who've responded to hatred with love, but when that very thing is demanded of us personally, our default seems to be anger, angst, depression, righteousness, hatred, etc. Yet study after study shows that one of the keys to longevity and good health is to develop a habit of gratitude and let go of past hurts.Want to live a long, happy life? Forgive the unforgivable. It really is the kindest thing you can do for yourself. Your enemy may not deserve to be forgiven for all the pain and sadness and suffering purposefully inflicted on your life, but you deserve to be free of this evil. As Ann Landers often said, "hate is like an acid. It destroys the vessel in which it is stored."

Steps :

1. Realize that the hate you feel toward your enemy does not harm him or her in the slightest. Chances are, your enemy has gone on with life and hasn't given you another thought.

2. Look at the situation from an eagle's eye. Make a list of the good things that happened as a result of this awful experience. You've probably focused long enough on the bad parts of this experience. Look at the problem from a wholly new angle; look at the good side. The first item on that list may be a long time coming because you've focused on the bad for so long, but don't give up. See if you can identify 10 good things that happened specifically because of this experience.

3. Look for the helpers. Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers) related that, as a little boy, he'd often become upset about major catastrophes in the news. His mother would tell him, "look for the helpers." In your own nightmarish experience, think back to the people who helped you. Think about their kindness and unselfishness.

4. Look at the bigger picture. Was someone your "good samaritan"? In this biblical story, a traveler happens upon a poor soul who was beat up on the road to Jericho and left for dead. It's a lot easier to play the part of the Good Samaritan than to be the poor soul who is left bleeding and bruised on the side of the road. Perhaps this isn't all about you. Perhaps your trial provided an opportunity for others to rise to an occasion to provide you with help and support.

5. Be compassionate with yourself. If you've ruminated over this problem for a long time, steering this boat into a new direction could take some time, too. As you try to make a new path out of the dark woods of this old hurt, you'll make mistakes. Forgive yourself. Be patient and kind to yourself. Extreme emotional pain has a profound effect on the body. Give yourself time to heal - physically and emotionally. Eat well. Rest. Focus on the natural beauty in the world.

6. Learn that the Aramaic word for "forgive" means literally to "untie." The fastest way to free yourself from an enemy and all associated negativity is to forgive. Untie the bindings and loose yourself from that person's ugliness. Your hatred has tied you to the person responsible for your pain. Your forgiveness enables you to start walking away from him or her and the pain.

7. Stop telling "the story." How many times this week did you tell "the story" about how badly you were hurt and how horribly you were wronged? How many times a day do you think about this hurt? It is a stake driven into the ground that keeps you from moving away from this hurt. Rather, forgive your enemy because it's the kindest thing you can do for your friends and family. Negativity is depressing, physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally.

8. Tell "the story" from the other person's perspective. Actually imagine that you are the other person (the one who offended you) and use the word "I" when saying what that person would say. You, most likely, don't know exactly what s/he was thinking when this event unfolded but pretend that you do, and just go with the story that comes up in your head. Sit down with a friend, or maybe even the person you are trying to forgive, and tell the story as though you are that person. It is important to do this verbally and not just in your head. Realize in advance that this is not an easy exercise, but it holds great power. Just your willingness to tell the story from the offender's perspective requires a bit of forgiveness. Also, realize that this is not a contradiction to the preceding paragraph since this perspective will change your story.

9. Retrain your thinking. When your enemy and his or her evil actions come to mind, send him or her a blessing. Wish your enemy well. Hope the best for him or her. This has two effects. One, it neutralizes that acid of hate that destroys the vessel in which it is stored. The evil we wish for another seems to have a rebound effect. The same is true for the good that we wish for another. When you make yourself able to return blessing for hatred, you'll know that you're well on the path to wholeness. The first 15 - or 150 - times you try this, the "blessing" may feel contrived, empty, and even hypocritical but keep trying. Eventually, it will become a new habit and soon thereafter, the anger and pain that has burned in your heart will evaporate, like dew before the morning sun. This technique forces your mind to overcome the cognitive dissonance between hating someone and acting with compassion toward him or her. Since there is no way to take back the kind gesture to agree with your hatred, the only thing your mind can do is change your belief about the person to match. You will begin to say to yourself, "S/he is deserving of a blessing, and indeed, must need one very much."

10. Maintain perspective: While the "evil" actions of your "enemy" are hurtful to you and your immediate surroundings, the rest of the world goes on unaware. Validate their meaning in your life, but never lose perspective that others are not involved and do not deserve anything to be taken out on them. Your enemy is someone else's beloved child, someone's employee, or a child's parent.

The Persuasive Young Bania – Part II

2008-07-03T23:33:00.000-07:00

At 17, he left India to join his oldest brother in Yemen, where he worked as a petrol station attendant in Aden. Initially, Dhirubhai worked as a dispatch clerk with A. Besse & Co. Two years later A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell products and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s oil-filling station at the port of Aden. He also worked in Dubai for some time during his early years.

Very few people are aware of Dhirubhai’s first business. It was not in commercial capital Mumbai, but was started in Aden. In 1950s, the Yemini administration realized that their main unit of currency, the Rial, was disappearing fast. Upon launching an investigation, they realized that a lot of Rials were being routed to the Port City of Aden. It was found that a young man in his twenties was placing unlimited buy orders for Yemini Rials.

During those days, the Yemini Rial was made of pure silver coins and was in much demand at the London Bullion Exchange. Young Dhirubhai bought the Rials, melted them into pure silver and sold it to the bullion traders in London. That’s called benefiting through Arbitrage in modern economics. During the latter part of his life, while talking to reporters, it is believed that he said “The margins were small but it was money for jam. After three months, it was stopped. But I made a few lakhs. In short, I was a manipulator, a very good manipulator. But I don’t believe in not taking opportunities.”

Eight years later, late in 1958, he returned to India with a wife, first child and "a few lakhs rupees." He used that tiny sum to enter business exporting spices and nuts, but in the '60s entered the textile business. He bought plants and outfitted them with the latest spinning and weaving machines. His family used to reside in a one room apartment at Jaihind Estate in Bhuleshwar.

He decided that unlike most Indian businessmen who borrowed heavily from financial institutions to nurture their entrepreneurial ambitions, he would instead raise money from the public at large to fund his industrial ventures. In 1977, Reliance Industries went public and raised equity capital from tens of thousands of investors, many of them located in small towns. From then onwards, Dhirubhai started extensively promoting his company’s textile brand name, Vimal. The story goes that on one particular day, the Reliance group chairman inaugurated the retail outlets of as many as 100 franchises.

He had by then already succeeded in cultivating politicians. Indira Gandhi returned to power in the 1980 general elections and Dhirubhai shared a platform with the then prime minister of India at a victory rally. He had also become very close to the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, not to mention the prime minister’s principal aide R.K. Dhawan. He realised that it was crucial to be friendly with politicians in power, especially at a time when the group had embarked on an ambitious programme to build an industrial complex at Patalganga to manufacture synthetic fibres and intermediates for polyester production.

1986 was a crucial year for Dhirubhai. He suffered a stroke in February that year. A few months later, the Express began publishing a series of articles attacking the Reliance group as well as the Indira Gandhi regime for favouring the Ambanis. But, it was Dhirubhai who knew to fight back. The undivided Goenka family that used to control the Indian Express chain of newspapers – which carried on a campaign against the Reliance group in 1986-87 – is currently divided into three factions. Whereas the multi-edition newspaper has not entirely lost its feisty character, it is yet to fulfil its late founder Ramnath Goenka’s cherished dream of becoming a market leader in at least one of its many publishing centres.

Who remembers Swan Mills? Or Kapal Mehra of Orkay? Even Nusli Wadia of Bombay Dyeing is a pale shadow of what he would certainly have liked to be.

In 1976-77, the Reliance group had an annual turnover of Rs 70 crore. Fifteen years later, this figure had jumped to Rs 3,000 crore. By the turn of the century, this amount had skyrocketed to Rs 60,000 crore. In a period of 25 years, the value of the Reliance group’s assets had jumped from Rs 33 crore to Rs 30,000 crore

When he died, the Reliance group of companies that Dhirubhai led had a gross annual turnover in the region of Rs 75,000 crore or close to US $ 15 billion. The group’s interests include the manufacture of synthetic fibres, textiles and petrochemical products, oil and gas exploration, petroleum refining, besides telecommunications and financial services.

The Ambanis often scored because they stuck to their knitting or focused sharply on their areas of ‘core competence’. Dhirubhai’s sons, Mukesh (45) and Anil (43) are keen on effectively implementing their plans of diversifying into the ‘new economy’, into new areas like telecommunications, life sciences and insurance. Only time will tell whether, Mukesh and Anil prove to be worthy successors to their father. But one thing seems certain: they will try their level best not to be as controversial as Dhirubhai was.

The persuasive young Bania – Part I

2008-06-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

He is known by many names – a persuasive young bania, the polyster prince, man of the century, guru of equity cult and many more names to reckon. Born on December 28, 1932, in the family of banias, he was the third child of a poor school-teacher in a rural village called Chorwad in the State of Gujarat, India. Yes, I am talking about a great Indian business magnate, Dhirubhai Ambani. I came across this book The Polyester Prince : The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani, by Hamish McDonald. Below is an excerpt from a chapter ‘The Persuasive young bania’, which explores the roots, imbibed values and making of Dhirubhai Ambani :

Dhirubhai Ambani was a Gujarati and among the Gujaratis, the people of Kathiawar are renowned for their exuberance of speech, inventiveness and commercial drive. ‘This is the place of have-nots’, notes Sheela Bhatt, a former editior of the magazine India Today’s Gujarati-language edition. Kathiawar is a barren land, but out of stone they are capable enough to somehow draw water.

Kathiawari traders have more vibrant terminology than other traders. They were the first to go out of India for better prospects. Adventure is second nature to them. They have less hypocrisy. Dhirubhai Ambani was part of that culture.

In one sense, Ambani was born to be a trader, as his family belonged to a Bania caste, a section of the Vaisya category(Varna) in the traditional Hindu social order whose roles are those of merchants and bankers. This instantly provided a whole network of relationships, a community and social expectations that made commerce – taking a profit from buying and selling in markets, the accumulation of capital – an entirely natural and honourable lifetime’s occupation.

Vaisyas marshaled huge amounts of capital, which funded the campaigns of maharajas and nawabs and at times the British trade and military expansion when the budget from London ran short of operational needs. Centuries before the modern banking system, Vaisya shroffs or bankers were the conduits of a highly monetised Indian economy, remitting vast sums around India at short notice through a sophisticated trust system based on hundi (promissiory notes).

The commercial instincts of Gujarat’s Vaisya were encouraged by a convenient interpretation of Hinduism preached by the holy man Vallabhacharya in his wanderings around the region early in the 16th century. Vallabhacharya saw a personal god who created and sustained life, for whom living life to the full was a form of devotion. His school became known as Vaishnavism, as the focus of devotion was the god Vishnu’s playful avatar (incarnation) Krishna.

In his classic text on the Vaishnavas of Gujarat, the scholar N.A. Thooti pointed out that, Vaishnavism was a philosophy that justified their way of life and gave a divine purpose to their roles as providers and family members. It also fitted the rising social status of the Banias in Gujarat, overriding the formal varna hierarchy.

Ambani’s particular caste is called Modh Bania, from their original home in the town of Modasa north of Ahmedabad before a migration many centuries ago to Saurashtra. The Modh are one of three Bania castes in this part of Gujarat, who might eat meals together but who would each marry within their own caste. They are strict vegetarians. Their practice of Hinduism follows the Vaishnavite path. But the main object of their pilgrimages, on marriage or the start of a new business venture, is a black-faced idol with a diamond in his chin called Shrinathji, located in a temple at Nathdwara, a small town in the barren lands of Rajasthan.

Given the circumstances and poor upbringing, his religious values significantly contributed to the making of a man called Dhirubhai Ambani.

In my next post I will continue on another aspect of his life, which moulded him to become a successful business personality.

Microsoft’s Vista : Is migration really worth ?

2008-05-31T07:49:00.000-07:00

Nearly 16 months after Microsoft launched Vista, the company is still trying to convince some consumers of the operating system's merit. "Vista is a disappointment," says Shawndra Hill, operations and information management professor at Wharton and a Vista customer. "It's too complicated. We had Windows XP and were using it fine. Then Microsoft decided to provide us with something new. But there wasn't anything really new" about it.

Legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach says Microsoft faced multiple challenges with Vista. "Successfully building a software system as complex and interdependent as Windows Vista is a nearly insurmountable challenge, even for Microsoft. It's hard enough to make the operating system run reliably with all the legacy connections and potential software and hardware combinations, let alone provide sufficient innovation to justify an upgrade," Werbach says.

Although Microsoft executives disagree with the Vista naysayers, perception problems linger. Infoworld has an online petition urging Microsoft to keep XP in circulation. Dell is allowing professional customers to exercise their "downgrade rights" after June 30 when Microsoft will stop licensing XP to PC manufacturers. Downgrade rights, which come with Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate, allow anyone with those software versions to downgrade to Windows XP Professional. Dell will install XP at its factories if customers choose. Other PC vendors have similar offers. Microsoft's usual practice is to phase out an operating system as PC manufacturers and their customers move to the new one.

"Microsoft made a mistake with this one," says Wharton management professor Lawrence Hrebiniak. What's unclear is whether Vista suffers from a perception problem that can be cured with better marketing or whether it faces more entrenched problems. In its fiscal third quarter ending March 31, Microsoft had client revenues (what the software giant calls its operating system sales) of $4 billion, down 24% from a year ago.

Some of those analysts are beginning to worry. "The overall reputation problem that Vista has developed with both business and consumer users could be beginning to exert a material impact," said Tsvetan Kintisheff, founder of Sofia, Bulgaria-based Kintisheff Research, in a research note.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt declared at the company's annual shareholder meeting on May 8 that "the shift from PC-centric to Internet-centric computing is the defining shift of our generation." And Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has acknowledged that this shift was one of the primary reasons for Microsoft's bid for Yahoo.

Meanwhile, another technology called "virtualization," which allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on one PC or server, is diminishing the importance of products like Vista and raises questions about its future. The OS was originally intended as an abstraction layer between software applications and the computer's hardware. But with the new abstraction layer between the hardware and the OS provided by virtualization and products like Adobe's AIR that sit between the OS and desktop software applications, the role the operating system once played is becoming increasingly diminished.

Despite these new developments, Microsoft finds itself at a crossroads, according to Werbach. "The platform for most uses of PCs today is the Internet, not Windows. Windows plays an important role in the ecosystem, but it's not the center of the world in the way it used to be. Microsoft has made several attempts to integrate Windows and the web, but the center of gravity for innovation and monetization keeps moving to the network. Microsoft needs to decide whether it cares more about the next 5 to 10 years, or the 20 years after that."

Another radical shift for Microsoft would be to make Windows a more open platform where the company would give away the software to collect revenue from transactions and advertising. "The only long-term solution is for Microsoft to make a radical shift and turn Windows into a truly open platform," says Werbach. "Eventually, the big money is going to come from services and transactions, not software licenses. Microsoft understands this and is moving in the right direction, but it will eventually have to go much further. As long as it has the DNA of a software company, it will be weighed down in the new era."