My Thoughts...

The Ajanta Experience

2007-12-12T07:43:00.001-08:00

I had a breath taking experience with Air India this time, while I was returning back to The US, after my 3 week vacation in India !
What a vacation I had !!! Lots of sweet memories about my marriage, reception ceremony !!!
My return flight was from Ahmedabad to Newark on AI-191 for date 9th Dec'07. As everybody knows, Air India has a reputation for regularly late flights. But I was in for a big surprise. The flight was scheduled to depart ON TIME ! Wow ! Is this a new Air India ? I was wondering.
This time I had an additional baggage piece, so I went to AI counter to pay $123 for the same. I gave them my VISA card, but they asked me for a cash ! I said, I don't have cash with me so please charge my card. They replied, that there was no person on duty who knew how to charge a card !!! I was shocked. What the hell ! Nobody in Ahmedabad Airport knew how to make a charge on card ? I argued with them, but it was pointless. I had to go out and ask my dad for the INR for the same.
As stated, the flight indeed took off at the right time: 3:50 am. I was in a bit sentimental mood, as the flight took off. As soon as it took off, the plane descended too much. Normally the plane does descend a bit to gain speed during the takeoff. I thought it was normal and i was afraid unnecessarily. But when i looked at the scared face of the air hostess, I knew something went wrong. Luckily, the captain controlled well thereafter and the flight was on its way to Mumbai !
We reached there at 5am. Once on the terminal, it was announced that the flight has developed some serious technical issues and that it will be delayed by 3 hours. We took off from Mumbai at 10:30am for Paris/Newark. After we travelled for about 3 hours, the captain made an announcement that the flight has developed some serious technical issues and that it was in everybody's safety interest that the flight be turned back to mumbai. We all got tensed hearing this. The flight then made a U turn for mumbai. The in flight tv screen showed that the flight was returning to mumbai on the shortest path, in a straight line. This indicated that they have asked for emergency air space clearance. The plane started catching up speed and started dumping fuel. It was a scary sight. For the first time in real life i saw mid air fuel dumping. Almost all passengers were praying for the safety of the flight. and thankfully the prayers were heard. We landed back in mumbai at 3 pm. We heaved a sigh of relief. Once landed, the captain made an announcement that, lunch will be offered in the plane, and by that time other arrangements will be made. After lunch we were out of the plane at 4: 30pm. The first thing we wanted to do is to call back home and let our family members know about this. Can you imagine, only 2 local phones and 1 std/isd phone were working !!! So there was a huge queue for this.... After this they took us to Hotel Ajanta at Juhu. People were really pissed off because the ride from airport to the hotel took 1 hour !!! It was gruelling us !!! We were told that the new flight will be taking off at midnight 1:30 am. It was not so good hotel. Not even 1 star !!! But all that matters looked small as compared to our in flight scary experience. We had but a nice dinner at 8:30pm and I went off for a nap till 2am. At 2 am the airport bus came in and it was announced that flight was about to take off at 5am.
Thankfully, it was a new plane. It was a 'Agra' and not 'Ajanta'. From then on, it was all in all an OK flight experience till Newark. This time too, Air India kept its name for late arrival. The flight was late by 40 mins. from its scheduled landing time, and 22 hours late in total !!!

I thank God, I am still fit and fine and alive !
But one thing is for sure, this will be my LAST trip by AIR INDIA.
I dont say that such incidences do not happen for other airlines. But the way the issues were handled post-incident, I swear NEVER EVER AGAIN by air india.
I purchased Air India ticket since i got it for a $1000, $300 less than other airlines. But the $300 additional expense is worth for other airlines. I now agree. Air India is the worst.
Even the food was pathetic this time round. Extremely oily food. My throat is all infected still !!!

You can travel by Air India if you :

1. do not have value for time and like being late in your commitments.
2. like pathetic oily food.
3. like continous crying of children, irresponsible parents of these children. It seems that NRI parents of these children like to boast of how mischievous our children can be.. as if there was a competition for this too......!!!
4. like disobeying the flight safety orders. Yes thats what all AI passengers do. if the captain says fasten up your seat belt for landing, passengers will be moving around for water, tea and free wafers...... its not that the announcement was only in English. Hindi announcements were made too. !!!!
5. do not have common sense, simple manners, honesty and modesty.

As for me, I will pay any amount for other airlines, but wont travel by Air India again, even if they offer me a free ticket !!!!!

Retire at 40: Here's how

2007-10-24T13:32:00.000-07:00

It's simple, but hard. Take 20% of your gross income every month, invest it in a balanced index fund and leave it there, then retire 20 years later with enough for a lifetime. Do you have what it takes?

A young, forward-thinking man wrote and asked this simple question:

Right now, I'm 20 years old. I am willing to take a large percentage off the top of my salary for the rest of my working life in order to be able to retire very young and live off of the proceeds of my investments and do volunteer work. How many years would I have to work if I saved 20% of my income?

He went on to name a number of other specifics about his situation, but they're really not important. If you were to take 20% of your annual income starting at age 20 and put it in a fund following the S&P 500 Index ($INX), that fund continued to grow at the long-term historical rate (12%) and you received a 4% raise each year, you could walk away from your job and live off the interest at age 41 matching your current salary -- or quit at 43 and be able to give yourself a 4% "raise" each year from the interest, which is probably the better plan because it combats inflation.

Raise the amount to 25% and you're done at age 38 and able to live in perpetuity at age 40.

Obviously, some people are going to balk at this and state that it "can't" be done. The truth is that it can be done if you have the willingness to live below your means and authentically behave as if 20% of your total salary doesn't exist.

It is challenging, don't get me wrong. Let's take the case of someone who makes about $60,000 a year. He brings home a paycheck every month in the amount of $3,200. In order to save 20% of his whole annual salary ($12,000), he would have to be willing to immediately take $1,000 of that take-home paycheck every month, put it straight into an investment and not touch it at all. This takes an amount of financial fortitude and will power that, quite honestly, most Americans don't have.

My advice to this young man is that if this is truly your goal, then it is achievable, and I offer the following points of advice:

Make that saving automatic. Figure out what exact dollar amount you need to remove from each paycheck to equal 20% of your total salary, then set things up so that amount is withdrawn automatically. Since you're planning on retiring so young, it will have to be placed into a non-tax-sheltered investment account, which is fine if you invest it right.
Buy and hold. Buy into a very broad-based investment, such as the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX), and just keep adding money to it and don't move it around. This will set you up to pay only long-term capital-gains tax when you withdraw it, meaning that your tax time in the future when you start liquidating it to live will actually be quite pleasant (just long-term capital gains tax, if that even exists then).
Learn to appreciate frugal living. With an e-mail like that, I'm already sure that you are more likely to buy a sturdy late-model used car than a new Lexus, but it's important to state just the same: You can easily save that 20% you're wanting to save by making good lifestyle choices. You'll find that if you've made the investments automatic, you'll easily learn to live on whatever is left over

The above article is a copy from The Simple Dollar nd is meant for informational use only.

The Political Way...........

2007-10-18T12:54:00.001-07:00

I always wondered, when our political leaders went on for a bhookh hadtal or something like that.., that how many days a human being can live without food ???
And here is what i found :

If a man does not get food he can survive for 60 days but without water he can live for a maximum 7 hours or more depending on the capacity of the person.
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Dont you think we should urge our politicians to go on pyaas hadtal ???? That makes more meaning ??? ;) What say ???

Should I eat Non Veg food ???

2007-10-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

I was a vegetarian while at home, then became an eggitarian and now I am an Omniverous animal ! I was seriously thinking the privious day, what does my religion really have to say about eating veg-nonveg food !!!! Here is what i found :

Meat is nutritious and rich in complete protein. Non-vegetarian food is a good source of excellent protein. It contains biologically complete protein i.e. all the 8 essential amino acid that are not synthesized by the body and should be supplied in the diet. Meat also contains iron, vitamin B1 and niacin

Humans have Omnivorous set of teeth If you observe the teeth of herbivorous animals like the cow, goat and sheep, you will find something strikingly similar in all of them. All these animals have a set of flat teeth i.e. suited for herbivorous diet. If you observe the set of teeth of the carnivorous animals like the lion, tiger, or leopard, they all have a set of pointed teeth i.e. suited for a carnivorous diet. If you analyze the set of teeth of humans, you find that they have flat teeth as well as pointed teeth. Thus they have teeth suited for both herbivorous as well as carnivorous food i.e. they are omnivorous. One may ask, if Almighty God wanted humans to have only vegetables, why did He provide us also with pointed teeth? It is logical that He
expected us to need and to have both vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian food.

Human beings can digest both vege-tarian and non-vegetarian food. The digestive system of herbivorous animals can digest only vegetables. The digestive system of carnivorous animals can digest only meat. But the digestive system of humans can digest both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. If Almighty God wanted us to have only vegetables then why did He give us a digestive system that can digest both vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian
food?

Hindu scriptures give permission to have non-vegetarian food
a. There are many Hindus who are strictly vegetarian. They think it is against their religion to consume non-vegetarian food. But the true fact is that the Hindu scriptures permit a person to have meat. The scriptures mention Hindu sages and saints consuming non-vegetarian food.
b. It is mentioned in Manu Smruti, the law book of Hindus, in chapter 5 verse 30 “The eater who eats the flesh of those to be eaten does nothing bad, even if he does it day after day, for God himself created some to be eaten and some to be eater.”
c. Again next verse of Manu Smruti, that is, chapter 5 verse 31 says “Eating meat is right for the sacrifice, this is traditionally known as a rule of the gods.”
d. Further in Manu Smruti chapter 5 verse 39 and 40 says “God himself created sacrificial animals for sacrifice, ... , therefore killing in a sacrifice is not killing.”
e. Mahabharata Anushashan Parva chapter 88 narrates the discussion between Dharmaraj Yudhishthira and Pitamah Bhishma about what food one should offer to Pitris (ancestors) during the Shraddha (ceremony of dead) to keep them satisfied. Paragraph reads as follows:
“Yudhishthira said, “O thou of great puissance, tell me what that object is which, if dedicated to the Pitiris (dead ancestors), become inexhaustible! What Havi, again, (if offered) lasts for all time? What, indeed, is that which (if presented) becomes eternal?”
“Bhishma said, “Listen to me, O Yudhishthira, what those Havis are which persons conversant with the rituals of the Shraddha (the ceremony of dead) regard as suitable in view of Shraddha and what the fruits are that attach to each. With sesame seeds and rice and barely and Masha and water and roots and fruits, if given at Shraddhas, the pitris, O king, remain gratified for
the period of a month. With fishes offered at Shraddhas, the pitris remain gratified for a period of two months. With the mutton they remain gratified for three months and with the hare for four months, with the flesh of the goat for five months, with the bacon (meat of pig) for six months, and with the flesh of birds for seven. With venison obtained from those deer that
are called Prishata, they remaingratified for eight months, and with that obtained from the Ruru for nine months, and with the meat of Gavaya for ten months, With the meat of the bufffalo their gratification lasts for eleven months. With beef presented at the Shraddha, their gratification, it is said , lasts for a full year. Payasa mixed with ghee is as much acceptable to the pitris as beef. With the meat of Vadhrinasa (a large bull) the gratification of pitris lasts for twelve years. the flesh of rhinoceros, offered to the pitris on anniversaries of the lunar days on which they died, becomes inexhaustible. The potherb called Kalaska, the petals of kanchana flower, and meat of (red) goat also, thus offered, prove inexhaustible. So but natural if you want to keep your ancestors satisfied forever, you should serve them the meat of red goat.

7. Hinduism was influenced by other religions Though Hindu Scriptures permit its followers to have non-vegetarian food, many Hindus adopted the vegetarian system because they were influenced by other religions like Jainism.
8. Even plants have life Certain religions have adopted pure vegetarianism as a dietary law because they are totally against the killing of living creatures. If a person can survive without killing any living creature, I would be the first person to adopt such a way of life. In the past people thought plants were lifeless. Today it is a universal fact that even plants have life. Thus their logic of not killing living creatures is not fulfilled even by being a pure vegetarian.

9. Even plants can feel pain They further argue that plants cannot feel pain, therefore killing a plant is a lesser crime as compared to killing an animal. Today science tells us that even
plants can feel pain. But the cry of the plant cannot be heard by the human being. This is due to the inability of the human ear to hear sounds that are not in the audible range i.e. 20 Hertz to 20,000 Hertz. Anything below and above this range cannot be heard by a human being. A dog can hear up to 40,000 Hertz. Thus there are silent dog whistles that have a frequency of more than 20,000 Hertz and less than 40,000 Hertz. These whistles are only heard by dogs and not by human beings. The dog recognizes the masters whistle and comes to the master. There was research done by a farmer in U.S.A. who invented an instrument which converted the cry of the plant so that it could be heard by human beings. He was able to realize immediately when the plant itself cried for water. Latest researches show that the plants can even feel happy
and sad. It can also cry.
10. Killing a living creature with two senses less is not a lesser crime Once a vegetarian argued his case by saying that plants only have two or three senses while the animals have five senses. Therefore killing a plant is a lesser crime than killing an animal. Suppose your brother is born deaf and dumb and has two senses less as compared to other human beings. He becomes mature
and someone murders him. Would you ask the judge to give the murderer a lesser punishment because your brother has two senses less? In fact you would say that he has killed a masoom, an innocent person, and the judge should give the murderer a greater punishment.

Over population of cattle If every human being was a vegetarian, it would lead to overpopulation of cattle in the world, since their reproduction and multiplication is very swift. God in His Divine Wisdom knows how to maintain the balance of His creation appropriately. No wonder He has permitted us to have the meat of the cattle.

Wanna be Successful ? Be aware of these TRAPS

2007-10-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

You may find a lot of articles telling you what to do to get success - as a person or as a organization ... Here is a list of 9 things which you may not do in order to get success !!! Read on...

Success leads to the damaging behaviors of a lack of urgency, a proud and protective attitude, and entitlement thinking. This leads to the tendency to institutionalize legacy thinking and practices. Essentially, you believe that what enabled you to become successful will enable you to be successful forever.

Trap 1: NEGLECT

Sticking with Yesterday's Business Model

By business model, I mean what you do and how you do it. It includes such issues as deciding what industry you will be competing in and what approaches you will use in carrying out all the processes necessary to compete in that industry. Will we manufacture something or contract it out? How will we sell our products or services?

Do we go through retail channels? How should we organize our sales force? Which segments of the industry do we want to ignore, and which do we want to compete in? What is the structure of our support staff? Which parts of the organization do we out source? What are our approaches to distribution and inventory management? What are the cost targets of the various components of the organization, like information technology costs and human resources costs? Does our model leave us satisfied with our gross margins, profit margins, and other such figures?

Organizations should be consistently reviewing all aspects of their business model, looking for areas that are weak and need to be overhauled. By weak, we mean out of date, too costly, too slow, or not flexible. In which areas of the business model are you at parity? In those areas, are there any bright ideas on how to achieve a competitive advantage?

TRAP 2: PRIDE

Allowing Your Products to Become Outdated

You may be super proud of your product or service today, but you have to assume that it is going to become inferior to the competition very soon. You need to hustle ad beat your competition to that better mousetrap, and you need to do it over and over.

The amazing thing about success is that it leads to a subconscious entitlement mentality that cause you to believe that you no longer need to do all the dirty work of getting out and studying consumer behavior in details, analyzing different sales approaches, jumping on the latest technology to generate improved products, and everything else that is required to stay ahead. The attitude is often one of believing that you have done all of that and have figured it out, and now things are going to be fine.

Until the early 1970s, typewriters were used to prepare documents. The IBM Selectric model was the standard. Then along came Wang Laboratories' word processor in 1976, providing a completely new approach. It displayed text on a cathode ray tube (CRT) screen that was connected to a central processing unit (CPU). In fact, you could connect many such screens to that CPU in order to handle many different users. Wang's device incorporated virtually every fundamental characteristic of word processors as we know them today, and the phrase word processor rapidly came to refer to CRT-based Wang machines. Then, in the early to mid-1980s, the personal computer emerged. Wang saw it coming but made no attempt to modify its software for a personal computer. PC-based word processors like WordPerfect and Microsoft Word became the rage, and Wang died. Wang fell into the trap of not updating its products, even though it basically invented the word processor industry.

We saw this behavior very clearly with the General Motors example. Its cars, while highly distinctive back in the 1970s, were allowed over time to look more and more alike, and the excitement factor for the customer disappeared.

TRAP 3: BOREDOM

Clinging to Your Once-Successful Branding after It Becomes Stale and Dull

Constantly achieving uniquencss and distinctiveness for a brand and also keeping it fresh and contemporary is hard work. Once a brand achieves some success, the tendency is to sit back and pat yourself on the back, allowing your brand to become dull and ordinary.

The Plymouth automobile was introduced by Chrysler for the 1928 model year as a direct competitor to Ford and Chevrolet. It was a sturdy and durable car that attracted a legion of loyal owners. Plymouth became one of the low-priced three from Detroit and was usually number three in sales, just behind Ford and Chevrolet. For almost two decades, Plymouth sold almost 750,000 cars per year and had a solid brand reputation in the low price range of being reliable but having a bit more flair than Chevrolet or Ford. Older readers may remember the 1957 Plymouth with the huge fins, as well as its Road Runner (beep beep!) model. Plymouth had a very clear brand positioning.

In the 1960s, the Plymouth brand began to lose its uniqueness. Chrysler decided to reposition the Dodge, reducing its price so that it was quite close to Plymouth's. Chrysler came out with low-priced compact and intermediate-size models under both the Plymouth trademark and the Dodge trademark. By 1982, Dodge, was outselling Plymouth. Throughout the late 1980s and the 1990s, Plymouth offered nothing unique. Sales continued to decline, while Dodge was quite healthy. In 1999 Chrysler announced that the Plymouth brand would be discontinued. The lesson is simple: when you allow brands to get stale, they die.

TRAP 4: COMPLEXITY

Ignoring Your Business Processes as They Become Cumbersome and Complicated

Successful organizations often reward themselves by adding more and more people and allowing processes to become fragmented and nonstandardized. This is often done under banner of refining the management of the business. It is also caused by business units and subsidiaries seeking more autonomy, which leads them to develop their own processes and staff resources. Before you know it, getting any kind of change made is very complicated.

Over and over again you read stories about organizations experiencing weak financial results, then finally coming to grips with the problem, laying off thousands of people and simplifying the organization.

We saw in our Toyota case study how aggressive that company is at constantly improving each and every process. Keeping that mindset of constant improvement is very difficult. Success usually leads to a decrease in the intensity with which you tackle such challenges. Also, success leads to a belief that since we are doing so well, we probably need to reward the people in the organization who are asking for their own building and lots of extra people to get them to the next level. Importunely, all those extra costs often lead to bloated processes and further fragmentation of how work gets done.

TRAP 5: BLOAT

Rationalizing Your Loss of Speed and Agility

Successful organisations and individuals tend to crate complexity. They hire a lot of extra people, since clearly things are going well, and those people find things to do, often creating layers of bureaucracy, duplicating capabilities that already exist in the organization, and making it very hard to react quickly to change.

Getting an organization to constantly think about retaining simplicity and flexibility is not easy. The account given in the previous chapter of Toyota's Global Body Line is a good example of doing it right. Toyota thought about agility ahead of time, and when it came time to build a brand-new car, such as the Prius, it didn't have to build a new plant or a new line. This enabled Toyota to get to market fast and save tens of millions of dollars compared with traditional approaches.

TRAP 6: MEDIOCRITY

Condoning Poor Performance and Letting Your Star Employees Languish

When organizations are successful, they have a tendency to stop doing the hard things, and dealing with poor performance is a really hard thing. It also becomes hard to move new people into existing jobs, because there is the burden of getting the new person up to speed and the perception that you are losing valuable expertise. Also, the really strong performers and to get ignored. Consequently, what happens in many successful organizations is that people are left in their jobs too long and poor performance is not dealt with as crisply as it should be. Unfortunately, this also leads to strong players not being constantly challenged.

Successful organizations are especially vulnerable to this trap, since companies that achieve success often have high morale and pride. And who wants to spoil the fun by dealing with the tough personnel issues, which is an onerous task for most managers? Any excuse to put it aside will be embraced.

TRAP 7: LETHARGY

Getting Lulled into a Culture of Comfort, Casualness, and Confidence

Success, and the resulting tendency to become complacent, often leads organizations and individuals to believe that they are very talented, have figured things out, have the answers to all the questions, and no longer need to get their hands dirty in the trenches. They lose their sense of urgency � the feeling that trouble might be just around the corner.

Considering our case studies on GM and Toyota, the contrast between their cultures is really striking. GM seems to exude pride and an attitude of "we are the real pro in the industry," while Toyota has a more humble personality that is all about constant improvement.

The leader of a group really sets the tone on this cultural complacency issue. The tendency is to become very proud of your success and protective of the approaches that got you there. It is those very tendencies that lead to an insular, confidence culture that makes people believe that they are on the wining team, while in reality, the world is probably passing them by.

TRAP 8: TIMIDITY

Not Confronting Turf Wars, Infighting, and Obstructionists

Success often leads to the hiring of too many people and the fragmentation of the organization. Business units and subsidiaries work hard to be as independent as possible, often creating groups that duplicate central resources. Staff groups fragment as similar groups emerge in the different business units. Before long, turf wars and infighting emerge, as who is responsible for what becomes vague.

Even worse, the culture gets very insular, with an excessive focus on things like who got promoted, why am I not getting rewarded properly, and a ton of other petty issues that sap the energy of the organization.

Another source of turf wars and infighting is lack of a clear direction for the organization and slow decision making on critical issues. When these kinds of management deficiencies occur, people are left to drift and end up pulling in different directions. That often leads to tremendous amounts of wasted time as groups argue to have it their way.

TRAP 9: CONFUSION

Unwittingly Providing Schizopherenic Communications

When an organization is success or stable, its managers often fall into the trap of not making it clear where the organization is going from there. Sometimes this is because they don't know, but they don't admit that, and they don't try to get the company's direction resolved. They do everything they can to keep all option open, with no clear effort to get decisions made and a plan developed. Such behaviors lead to speculation by the troops, based on comments that they pick up over time. Often those comments are offhand remarks that the leaders have not thought through. Or the troops hear conflicting statements coming form a variety of folks in leadership positions in the organization.

When employees receive confusing and conflicting messages and don't have a clear picture of where the organization is gong or whether progress is being made, they feel vulnerable and get very protective of their current activities. In late 1991, IBM's CEO,John Akes, announced that in the future, IBM would look more like a holding company and that "clearly it's not to IBM's advantage to be 100 per cent owners of each of IBM's product lines."

During the next 12 months, everybody was trying to figure out what he meant. And IBM made no attempt to start publishing separate financial information by product line in preparation for possible spin-offs. IBM also ignored Wall Street's suggestion that it create separate financial entries, with their own stock exchange symbols, for the products that were to be spun off. Employees and investors were confused. The IBM board of directors finally ended the drama in early 1993, announcing that Akers was leaving and a new CEO would be hired quickly. From 1987 to 1993, IBM shareholders lost $77 billion of market value.

Communications from the head of the organization, be it a small group or an IBM, are critical. People want to know where they are headed and how things are going. When the words and actions don't match, confusion reigns.

In the remaining parts of this book, I will discuss these traps in detail. In each part, I will give detailed examples of companies and individuals that in some cases have been hurt and in other cases have avoided these problems. My objective in each part is to provide specific actions that people can take to avoid the particular trap, or to rid themselves of the problem.

Excerpted from:

Seduced by Success by Robert J Herbold.

Robert J Herbold was hired by Bill Gates to be chief operating officer of Microsoft Corporation. During his seven years as COO of 1994 to 2001, Microsoft experienced a four-fold increase in revenue and a seven-fold increase in profits.

B H A R U C H

2007-06-04T18:32:00.000-07:00

Bharuch is my native place, situated on the banks of river Narmada in the State of Gujarat. Here is something worthwhile to know about this wonderful historic place :

Bharuch today is a large seaport city of more than a million inhabitants and a municipality in Bharuch district in the state of Gujarat, India. As a trading depot, the limitations of coastal shipping made it a regular terminus via several mixed trade routes of the fabled spice and silk trading between East and West, so that it became known to history by various names such as Bharakuccha, Bhrigu Kaksha (the domain of Bhrigu, an ancient Indian sage), Bhroach, as well as Bhrauch.

History

Bharuch was once but a small village on the banks of the Narmada River but that rivers inland access to central and northern India and with a location in the sheltered Gulf of Khambat in the era of coastal sea travel grew and prospered as a trading transshipment center and ship building port. Until very modern times the only effective way to move goods was by water transport, and Baruch had sheltered waters in a era without weather forecasting, compasses, and when shipping was necessarily limited to coastal navigation, and the general East-West course of the Narmada gave access to the rich inland empires at the upper reaches of the Narmada, including easy caravan access to the Ganges valley and Delhi plain.

Certainly by the 500s BC, the city was known (at least by reputation, via land-sea routes reaching the Levant) to the Arab and Ethiopian traders feeding goods westwards to the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Western Romans, Carthaginians, and eventually, the Eastern Roman Empires, and the Republic of Venice. It is likely even the Phonecians knew of it and so it has acted since antiquity as a link port to the luxury goods trade from the Far East and the interior of the Indian sub-continent to the civilizations of South-west Asia, the Middle-East, the Mediterranean basin including Northern Africa and Europe.

Mythological history

It was considered to be sacred among sages, and they would come to Bharuch and pray. In Bharuch, the celebrated Asura king Mahabali, conducted a great sacrifice. In this sacrifice, came a Bhrahmin boy named Vamana, who interfered with the king's sacrifice and put an end to his reign. A sage named Guru Shukracharya, in the lineage of Bhrigu, was the priest of king Mahabali.

Archeological history

Excavations near the banks of the river Narmada in Bharuch have revealed many archeological and architectural wonders, mostly temples. Later Bharuch was part of the Mauryas (322–185 BC), the Western Satraps and the Guptas. As part of the Sultanate of Gujarat, it was subsequently annexed by the Mughals, and finally by the British. It is also situated near a small village called halderva where two islamic priests were found performing miricles

It was known to Europeans as Barigaza (Greek) and probably had a settlement of Greek traders. It is mentioned extensively as a major trading partner of the Roman world, in the 1st century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The Periplus describes numerous Greek buildings and fortifications in Bharuch, although mistakenly attributing them to Alexander the Great (who never went this far south), as well as the circulation of Indo-Greek coinage in the region:

"The metropolis of this country is Minnagara, from which much cotton cloth is brought down to Barygaza. In these places there remain even to the present time signs of the expedition of Alexander, such as ancient shrines, walls of forts and great wells." Periplus, Chap. 41

"To the present day ancient drachmae are current in Barygaza, coming from this country, bearing inscriptions in Greek letters, and the devices of those who reigned after Alexander, Apollodorus (sic) and Menander." Periplus Chap. 47^[1]

Geography

Bharuch is located at 21.7° N 72.97° E^[2]. It has an average elevation of 15 metres (49 feet).

Commerce

Bharuch has always been prosperous because of its location on the Narmada River. Although water tends to be scarce in Gujarat, one never finds difficulty in getting water in Bharuch. As a result of this, agriculture and other linked commercial activities have flourished in Bharuch. Bharuch is also a central stopping point for many villages spread around its boundaries such as Palej, Valan, Vareydiya, Kamboli e.t.c. People from these small villages come to Bharuch when they want to shop for new clothes, or make a major purchase. Lately a lot of retiring expatriates have been returning to Bharuch and building new houses giving the economy a boost.

Modern Bharuch is one of the most heavily industrialized areas, not only in Gujarat but in India as a whole, with many large chemical plants producing fertilizers, paints, dyes, cotton, textiles, and dairy products. Bharuch has also advantage of Gujarat's biggest Liquid cargo terminal A very large plant of fertilizers, chemicals and IT Services-GNFC Ltd. (Company website) is also located in Narmada nagar,Bharuch City since 1976.

Large multinationals like Guardian corp, videocon, China light & power, BASF, Johnson mathey, Reliance, Tata's, Aditya Birla group, Welspun Stahl,aventis,wockhardt,rallis,pfizer,ciba, L&T,bayer,glenmark,UPL, Lupin, J B Chemicals, Gujarat Fluorochmicals Ltd. Dahej (a largest manf. unit for PTFE in India) etc. have set up Mfg. Units in and around Bharuch. Preferrably the most dense district of india in industrial terms.

Demographics

As of 2001 India census^GRIndia, Bharuch had a population of 148,391. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Bharuch has an average literacy rate of 78%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with male literacy of 82% and female literacy of 73%. 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Culture

There are many religions being followed by the people of this town. Usually there is a sense of harmony and co-existence without incident. However, there have been situations in the past in which this delicate social fabric has broken down. Today the city is considered to be a great example of communal equality.

There are various avenues for leisure time activities in Bharuch, and there are a few very good parks maintained by the municipal commission. There are river banks where people go for walks and strolls, as well as a couple of libraries and a few auditoriums. The auditoriums along with movie halls make the theatrical entertainment available in the city.

Of late there has been a boom in the retail sector in the city and there are new shopping malls and multiplexes opening up all over the place.

Wonders

The 150-year-old Golden Bridge connects Bharuch to Ankleshwar across the Narmada River.

The crowded but fascinating bazar of bharuch

Trivia

Bharuch is one of the Indian cities which has a Martian crater named after it. The other cities/towns are Amet, Bhor, Kakori, Poona (Pune), Rayadurg, Sandila and Wer

{The contents of this article comes from Wikipedia.org and the links here in point to the related descriptions within the wikipedia}

How credit scores work, how a score is calculated

2007-05-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder why you can go online and be approved for credit within 60 seconds? Or get pre-qualified for a car without anyone even asking you how much money you make? Or why you get one interest rate on loans, while your neighbor gets another?

The answer is credit scoring.

Your credit score is a number generated by a mathematical algorithm -- a formula -- based on information in your credit report, compared to information on tens of millions of other people. The resulting number is a highly accurate prediction of how likely you are to pay your bills.

If it sounds arcane and unimportant, you couldn't be more wrong. Credit scores are used extensively, and if you've gotten a mortgage, a car loan, a credit card or auto insurance, the rate you received was directly related to your credit score. The higher the number, the better you look to lenders. People with the highest scores get the lowest interest rates.

Scoring categories
Lenders can use one of many different credit-scoring models to determine if you are creditworthy. Different models can produce different scores. However, lenders use some scoring models more than others. The FICO score is one such popular scoring method.

Its scale runs from 300 to 850. The vast majority of people will have scores between 600 and 800. A score of 720 or higher will get you the most favorable interest rates on a mortgage, according to data from Fair Isaac Corp., a California-based company that developed the first credit score as well as the FICO score.

Fair Isaac reports that the American public's credit scores break out along these lines:

Credit score	Percentage
499 and below	2 percent
500-549	5 percent
550-599	8 percent
600-649	12 percent
650-699	15 percent
700-749	18 percent
750-799	27 percent
800 and above	13 percent

Currently, each of the three major credit bureaus uses their own version of the FICO scoring method -- Equifax has the BEACON score, Experian has the Experian/Fair Isaac Risk Model and TransUnion has the EMPIRICA score. The three versions can come up with varying scores because they use different algorithms. (Variance can also occur because of differences in data contained in different credit reports.)

That could change, depending on whether a new credit-scoring model catches on. It's called the VantageScore. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion collaborated on its development and will all use the same algorithm to compute the score. Consumers can order their VantageScores online at Experian's Web site for $6. Its scoring range runs from 501 to 990 with a corresponding letter grade from A to F. So, a score of 501 to 600 would receive an F, while a score of 901 to 990 would receive an A. Just like in school, A is the best grade you can get.

What's the big deal?
No matter which scoring model lenders use, it pays to have a great credit score. Your credit score affects whether you get credit or not, and how high your interest rate will be. A better score can lower your interest rate.

The difference in the interest rates offered to a person with a score of 520 and a person with a 720 score is 4.36 percentage points, according to Fair Isaac's Web site. On a $100,000, 30-year mortgage, that difference would cost more than $110,325 extra in interest charges, according to Bankrate.com's mortgage calculator. The difference in the monthly payment alone would be about $307.

Powerful little number
If you rented an apartment, got braces, bought cell phone service, applied for a job that involved handling a lot of money, or needed to get utilities connected, there's a good chance your score was pulled.

If you have an existing credit card, the issuer is likely to look at your credit score to decide whether to increase your credit line -- or charge you a higher interest rate, according to a credit scoring study by the Consumer Federation of America and the National Credit Reporting Association.

Buying a car? Most car dealers want to know your credit score when you walk in the door, says Bob Kurilko, vice president of product development and marketing for Edmunds.com, an online consumer resource for automotive issues. "They want to know how they can put a loan together for you."

The score has made it easier for many people to get credit, Kurilko says.

Before, it was up to individual lending institutions to come up with their own criteria, he says. "They would hedge their risk and tend to go conservatively. It's opened up lending to a lot more people."

Consumers' rights
Until recently, many Americans didn't even know this number existed because it was a closely guarded secret in the lending industry. In fact, lenders were prohibited from telling borrowers their credit score. The line of reasoning: The number was the result of analyzing complex financial data that the layperson would have difficulty understanding. Plus, if people knew their score (according to the industry mindset at the time), they might be able to change their behavior to manipulate the score and throw off the whole model, rendering it useless.

All that changed a few years ago, when consumers began finding out about the score and demanding to see it. In an unprecedented move in 2000, online lender E-Loan offered to give consumers their scores for free, with information explaining how the score is calculated and how they might improve it. Fair Isaac responded by cutting E-Loan off from its source of credit reports, effectively crippling its ability to lend money. E-Loan stopped giving away credit scores.

Public outcry on the possibility of people being denied credit based on bad information in credit reports led to several pieces of legislation -- and a much more open attitude about credit scores.

Fast forward to current day: Not only can consumers buy their score online from any number of sources, but everyone is entitled to a free copy of their credit report every 12 months from each of the three major credit bureaus -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The program rolled out across the nation one geographical region at a time with all consumers eligible on Sept. 1, 2005.

Key factors of your score
Just what goes into the score? Everything in your credit report, with different kinds of information carrying differing weights, says Fair Isaac Corp. Public Affairs Manager Craig Watts. The FICO-scoring model looks at more than 20 factors in five categories. (The VantageScore relies on slightly different factors. The Bankrate feature "New Vantage credit score now online" compares the FICO score with VantageScore. )

1. How you pay your bills (35 percent of the score)
The most important factor is how you've paid your bills in the past, placing the most emphasis on recent activity. Paying all your bills on time is good. Paying them late on a consistent basis is bad. Having accounts that were sent to collections is worse. Declaring bankruptcy is worst.

2. Amount of money you owe and the amount of available credit (30 percent)
The second most important area is your outstanding debt -- how much money you owe on credit cards, car loans, mortgages, home equity lines, etc. Also considered is the total amount of credit you have available. If you have 10 credit cards that each have $10,000 credit limits, that's $100,000 of available credit. Statistically, people who have a lot of credit available tend to use it, which makes them a less attractive credit risk.

"Carrying a lot of debt doesn't necessarily mean you'll have a lower score," Watts says. "It doesn't hurt as much as carrying close to the maximum. People who consistently max out their balances are perceived as riskier. People who never use their credit don't have a track history. People with the highest scores use credit sparingly and keep their balances low."

3. Length of credit history (15 percent)
The third factor is the length of your credit history. The longer you've had credit -- particularly if it's with the same credit issuers -- the more points you get.

4. Mix of credit (10 percent)
The best scores will have a mix of both revolving credit, such as credit cards, and installment credit, such as mortgages and car loans. "Statistically, consumers with a richer variety of experiences are better credit risks," Watts says. "They know how to handle money."

5. New credit applications (10 percent)
The final category is your interest in new credit -- how many credit applications you're filling out. The model compensates for people who are rate shopping for the best mortgage or car loan rates. The only time shopping really hurts your score, Watts says, is when you have previous recent credit stumbles, such as late payments or bills sent to collections.

"Then, looking for new credit will be seen as an alarm because statistically, before people declare bankruptcy and default on everything, they look for a life preserver," Watts says. Also, if you have a very young credit file, an inquiry can count for more than if you've had credit for a long time.

What doesn't count in a score
The scoring model doesn't look at:

age
race
sex
job or length of employment at your job
income
education
marital status
whether you've been turned down for credit
length of time at your current address
whether you own a home or rent
information not contained in your credit report

A lender may consider all those factors when deciding whether to approve a loan application, but they aren't part of how a FICO score is calculated, Watts says.

Credit scores are not perfect
The major drawback to credit scoring is that it relies on information in your credit report, which is quite likely to contain errors. That's why it's critical that you check your credit reports annually, or at the very least three to six months before planning to buy a house or a car. That will give you sufficient time to correct any errors before a lender pulls your score.

Watts says that the need for accuracy in credit files is one reason why it's good for consumers to learn about credit scores.

"There's a hope that as consumers know about credit reports and scores, they'll do more to correct errors and provide more oversight," he says. "If consumers can police the accuracy of their own reports, everybody gains."

Want to get an approximation of your score? Bankrate and FICO have teamed up to create the free FICO Score Estimator.

Thank God, India's out of Cup !

2007-03-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

There’s a brighter side to India’s exit from the World Cup. Something that can cheer up disappointed fans and angry advertisers. Sri Lanka has done a great favour to Indian economy by ousting the cricket team from the World Cup. There are about 80 million cable and satellite viewing homes in India.

According to TAM ratings, the average viewership of all World Cup matches held till now stands at about 3%, with India vs Bangladesh touching a high of 7.25%. To reach the finals, India would have played at least seven more matches.

Considering a TV Rating of 7.25%, at least 5.8 million people would have watched the match. This would have resulted in a productivity loss of 371.2 million man hours (5.8 million x 8 hours x 8 matches), apart from stress faced by mothers during exams.

About 3% of 81 million TV viewers (2.4 million) were ardent cricket fans and would have sat through all eight hours in the remaining 28 matches. Thus overall, Indian team’s ouster would result in a productivity gain of 481 million man hours of work (28x2.4x8 man hours), if put to use.

The Sri Lankans have given a boost to the Indian economy by saving 54,902 man years of work (one year = 8,761 hours). Indians can build seven phases of the Golden Quadrilateral connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai spread over 5,846 kilometres all over again, with this time saved.

A daily wage skilled labourer in Delhi earns Rs 17 per hour. If put to productive use, the 481 million man hours can produce Rs 817 crore of GDP, which is 63% more than BCCI’s annual revenues of Rs 500 crore, last year. It’s 401% more than the Rs 163 crore losses, corporate India has predicted to incur due India’s ouster.

The state electricity boards are also thanking Sri Lanka for the great favour. A TV consumes 45 watts per hour. Assuming a viewer will now switch off his TV by 12 midnight, it will save Rs 135 watts at least per viewer (not considering the electricity consumed by other appliances running simultaneously.)

This will save the electricity boards 324 million watts of electricity ( 3.24 lakh kilowatts) in just 28 days. According to estimates, SEB losses in India will touch Rs 1 lakh crore by 2008.

If disappointed viewers completely switch off their TVs for eight hours, it will save the government at least 8,64,000 kilowatts, along with many more lives — at least three Indian citizens have been reported to die due to cardiac arrest or suicide after India’s defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka.

Now are these reasons not good enough, to have a positive view of India loosing in the first round of the World Cup Tournament ?????

What do you say ????

{This article is quoted from The Economic Times March 25,2007}

In Search of Indianness Abroad.....

2006-10-23T07:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a good article that i came around.... i felt like sharing this article with you all and treasure it for myself, hence posting it....

In Search of Indianness Abroad.....
Authored by : Saurabh Saxena

It is always a treasured moment for an Indian to visit India for the first time after coming to an alien nation either for a job or higher studies. Moreover, you feel overtly sentimental as Air India makes a shaky landing at your preferred Indian airport. You feel like SRK of Swades as if you are coming for good without caring a damn for the completion of your MS degree. I still remember the excitement that had gripped my senses throughout my first journey back to New Delhi, needless to mention the pride of being an Indian, though I had done nothing to make my nation proud. As the plane landed and briefest of unexpected power outage took place inside the plane, exclaimed a modern NRI woman, "Welcome to India". If that was a sly remark for your motherland, the reaction of most of the other passengers laughing out loud (LOL, we refer in chat lingo) was more hurting and it left a scar on one of my most treasured moments. On one of the domestic flights in Uncle Sam's country, lights went off for a blink of the eye and fresh from the ignominy imposed by the NRI lady, I hit back "Welcome to San Francisco". And I received a stare from almost all in my vicinity. The difference was clear. That day I felt that the basic sense of Indianness is lacking in most of us living abroad.

So what is Indianness for us? After all, don't we celebrate with pride Team India's or Team BCCI's (whatever you may like) rare test win in WI after a dismal performance throughout the series? Don't we glorify the likes Mittals and Jindals, just because they were born in India and ignoring the fact that they have done nothing worthwhile for India otherwise? Don't we experience a sense of false pride when news channels across India claim that India will overpower US in years to come? Don't we salute our soldiers just two days before the Independence day or Republic day and forget about them for the rest of 360 odd days? Don't we hail the Indo-US nuke deal without knowing its highs and lows just because we feel at par with US? Don't we wish Shashi Tharoor to win the top UN post though that will not change the fate of millions back home? We do all this and more almost religiously every year and still we lack Indianness? I must be kidding, but that is the truth. I shall exempt Indians living in India from this discussion, not because they have patriotism flowing in their blood but because they interact mostly with their fellow Indians and not with the global audience. The protagonists for my discussion are Indians living abroad for the past several years (not all though), and few working professionals and students studying abroad who love everything about the west and hate everything about India. Unfortunately, most of them are still figuring out the Indian in themselves. And in this utter state of confusion they do not shy away from ridiculing India time and again and picturing a sorry state of India globally.

For me Indianness comes from within. The force that makes you stand against all odds defending your country's culture, tradition and its position in front of the so called firangis. But for most of us living abroad, we love to deviate in favor of the more luring opportunities provided by the goras. Fair enough as long as we don't put our country's reputation at stake. Unfortunately, it is not the case with most (or few, whichever seems more soothing) of us. We crib about almost anything and everything about our country in their presence just to give their bloated egos a high and in return expect some favors if at all. So we tell, often exaggerate to our white friends that Indian airports are the filthiest in the world, that it is a must to pay bribe to the custom officers if you want to reach home (I have been to India thrice and never have I paid bribe), that the education system facilitates rote power as all exams are closed book giving you no opportunity to learn and US education system is excellent as it allows for open book exams (ironically they still need us to fill their graduate seats), that you will see people spitting on roads almost every minute in India, that corruption is deep rooted in our system and that is why we have chosen to come here, that they prefer to call over their parents here than visiting India to avoid pollution and infections, that US was right in rejecting visa to Narendra Modi and for stripping George Fernandez, that Indian concept of arranged marriage is all crap and it is wonderful to go for live-in relationship, that there are always traffic jams and what not. Agreed, most of it is might be true but what does one gain by subjecting one's motherland to ridicule and sarcasm in front of strangers - yes strangers because even if they are our guides or bosses, they have nothing to do with India. Unfortunately, most of us fail to realize that it is the performance that earns favors from the goras and not mud slinging at one's heartland and praising their countries. And if that is not enough, then you have the famous North Indian - South Indian divide to showcase to them - that North Indians represent the real India or South Indians represent the intellect of modern India whichever side you are on. And still they call themselves proud Indians because they attend the India Day on 15th August to increase their visibility and networking in the Indian community.

Which country does not have its set of problems? So is US corruption free or for that matter aren't there any traffic jams on the I 90s in US? But they have great ambassadors to their country - their people. In my few years of stay here in US, I have never seen an American cribbing about Bush's foreign policy publicly in front of people from other nationalities even though most of them despise it. Never have they openly cribbed about the increasing rate of divorces, increase in crime, increase in corruption at the highest level, etc. There position might also not be rosy but they always present a united face in front of the rest of the world. And we fall short in this. If people like us who are working or studying abroad and can be expected to have at least some intellect, project India in a poor taste, why do we blame our politicians of ruining the image of the nation - at least we know they are illiterate, or for that matter why do we blame thousands of uneducated youth of taking up anti-national activities?

It's often said - "it is all in the mind" and this applies to all of us. We have to change our mind set. We have to learn to be great ambassadors of our country without being selfish unlike Aishwarya Rai or Amitabh Bachchan or SRK who speak about India only when they are in US to promote their movies or at an IIFA promotional event and that too when asked by media persons. We got to live and breathe India, no matter where we are and what we do. We do not need to crib about the state of our nation in front of few thousand Americans or Brits as they will neither help us in our promotions nor will help India anyways. Rather discuss (not crib) about our state with millions of fellow Indians and maybe you might inspire few Rang De Basanti heroes to take up the mantle of reigniting the Indian in you. And that is what Indianness is to me.....live India, love India and die India.

Vande Mataram

(Saurabh Saksena is an engineer in a reputed power company in Boston, USA. These are his personal views.)

A day in the life of a grad-student...

2006-07-19T06:28:00.000-07:00

6:30 Wakeup and lie awake in Bed
6:31 Realize you spent $18 on last night's dinner,
means no eating out for the next 6 weeks
6:32 Hit snooze button. Go back to sleep.
7:00 Wake up suddenly with heart in mouth when you
realize you didn't hit the snooze button--you turned it off.
7:01 fall asleep again.
7:44 Wake up with heart in mouth again.
7:45 Ready to go to school, will shave tommorrow,
will eat early brunch at
(Denny's/Penny's/Lenny's/Dinko's whatever
cafeteria).
8:03 Arrive at school
Realize your foreign officemate arrived earlier
today must have got more work done
8:04 Pass by Advisor's office, chat with Secretary to
find out if he is coming in today. He is, darn.
Need to start work on the draft due this afternoon.
8:15 Read electronic mail
8:20 Delete mail from students taking CMPSC201
regarding questions about the class.
Hate your TA job.
Depression: too much work to do today
9:00 For jumpstart: go to Pepsi machine.
9:05 Kick Pepsi machine; promise yourself to call up
the company and ask for your money back.
Wonder why they would beleive you.
9:33 Start printing out loads of stuff that may be
vaguely related to your work.
9:41 Early morning stupefaction.
Mutter racist comments to yourself about your
officemate.
9:43 Curse your officemate in a low tone he would not
comprehend.
Feel good about him not grasping English well.
9:58 Finger everyone in the department and most
people half way around the world (using the "finger"
command, of course)
10:19 Feel sleepy, should not have stayed late playing
tetris last night.
10:31 momentary panic attack!!!!!!!!!!!!
10:43 edit .plan file. write a shell program to edit .plan
more easily
10:59 Drop in at advisor's office and borrow something
you dont need & and kinda make him aware you are working
hard on your project.
11:05 perverted daydreams
11:11 read electronic news
mid-morning yawn time
11:34 Start typing junk at a very high key-in rate to
pretend you are working hard as your advisor passes by
from outside.
11:35 Press the BackSpace key for one and a half
minute until all the garbage you typed in is erased.
Realize that you can type more than 256
characters per half minute
11:41 Flirt with the new girl in the department
11:45 Print out some slides for afternoon's draft +
presentation
11:47 Print them again, you forgot to change the date
from last presentation
11:49 Print another copy in case this one gets lost
11:51 Completely forget about sueing the coffee-
machine company
12:15 Hunger pangs:
12:20 BigMac/Fries time
Drink a not-so-cold generic can of cola from your
desk. Ch-Ching, you just saved 35 cents by buying bulk
cola.
1:00 Group Meeting with advisor
1:14 sudden awareness of one's shallowness
resentment towards foriegn officemate for
sucking up to your advisor
Get reminded by your advisor that you need to do
some more work for your literature survey.
1:51 Advisor hands you the reddened copy of your
draft for corrections
1:51:02 The 49 second urge to murder advisor begins!!
1:51:52 Realize that he controls your
assistantship/grade/graduation
possiblity/graduation date/all job
opportunities/and the rest of your life.
1:52:53 Thank him
1:52:54 Thank yourself for not saying something
stupid to your advisor.
1:53:00 splitting headache #1
1:59 Check electronic mail, don't reply though, you are
too busy to do that
2:06 More generic cola
2:17 Oh No, it is my turn to cook tonite :-(
2:30 Sit through the class you were told to sit through
2:39 Look outside the window make unrealistic plans
to quit this degree program and take up a job.
Wonder why blonde girls are so pretty.
2:48 More perverted day-dreams.
Close the office door and open a few .gif files.
sharpen pencil
3:06 worry about never graduating
time to write a letter--NOT! no time for that.
rearrange desk
call up bank; see if you have any money
fear of losing aid next Fall
Read latex manuals to figure out how to put
&$%&% in %$^% format
3:43 watch the clock
make plans to do a all-nighter tonite
Vow to watch only 2 TV programs
4:58 Notice Advisor leave
4:58:01 Sudden sense of freedom
Go home for quick, short dinner break.
9:00pm Come into the office
9:01pm The hard working grad student you are, you have
to come to the office late at night to "get the work done"
9:03 Check electronic mail
Decide it would be a good time to attack those ftp
sites since network wont be loaded
Run into "since network wont be loaded" traffic
and get the pictures into your machine.
Compress all unwanted research/class directories
to make space.
Back up all your pictures
10:11 Admire pictures
Begin work; Realize you need references
Realize its too late today to go to the library
Sudden feeling of having wasted the day
10:49 Sudden feeling of possibly having to waste the
night Decide to turn in early and come back very early
tommorrow morning
Decide to play a Tetris on the system to put
yourself in a good mood.
11:15 Play game after game after game to improve your
score and get on the scoreboard.
Realize that your officemate is still at number 6,
two notches above you on the scoreboard.
12:20 Play until you beat your officemate into the 7th
place. A sense of achievment!! Yes, today was not
wasted!! Return home to find your roommate watching
David Letterman reruns on NBC. Tell him about the "hard
working grad student day you had"
Discuss philosophy with roommate
1:09 Think about becoming a philosopher and dining
with 4 others
(The Dining Philosophers problem, hee hee :-)
(Comp Sci joke)
Argue with him about politics, why people prefer
Japanese cars and whether it is better to set the heat to "hot"
or "cold" to defrost the windshields faster.
1:49 Realize neither of you have bought milk today
Get reminded of the "too much milk problem"
2:04 Forget about getting up early. Turn the phone
ringer off and go to sleep.

Want to succeed? Fail first

2006-05-18T00:35:00.000-07:00

'If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.' Thomas Watson, founder of IBM, uttered these famous words.

As you try to leave an impressive mark at work, a failure can bring unexpected twists and turns. How you deal with failure is what will ultimately help you succeed.

The question is: are you smart enough to learn from your mistakes?

What is considered workplace failure

While there's no standard definition of workplace failure, you know it's happening to you if you can associate with any of the following examples at your workplace:

Not meeting deadlines consistently

If you get the stick from your boss repeatedly for not finishing tasks on time, you seriously need to consider a course in time management.

If you have taken on too much workload and set yourself an unrealistic timeframe, you may have just set yourself up for failure.

Tip: Trust your instincts. When you feel bothered, speak up. It may take some guts initially, but it will save you face later. In case you miss the chance, request for a private meeting with the boss to explain your feelings about a short notice to meet a tight deadline.

Fighting with colleagues/ peers

In this age of teamwork, conflicts with people and petty fights with your boss definitely get labeled as failure.

Tip: Find common ground and never take sides in case of a conflict. If you are involving your supervisor, tell him/ her how the conflicts within the team affect your productivity and morale -- that way, you will not sound like a whiny complainer.

Not keeping promises

Your customer's product is not ready or has not been delivered. It's a massive service failure and you have no clue how to salvage the relationship.

Tip: Be honest with your customer and tell them you will do whatever it takes to fix the issue. Never hide behind policies or procedures.

Your clients are human and will appreciate your honest effort. The next time they give you business, surprise them with super fast delivery to gain the credibility back.

Making excuses

Constant excuses can label you as undependable; you could be considered overly defensive and resistant. You may be strong otherwise; however, if you're always covering up your shortcomings with excuses, your negative reputation will make you succumb to failure.

Tip: Face the facts and stop procrastinating. Take other people's help to get things done.

If you still fail, apologise and fix the issue without hiding behind fictitious explanations. If your boss says the report was late, you can choose to ignore but it does not become any less true.

My great idea bombed

You creative pursuits got the better of you and you spent the company's money designing a product so way ahead of it is time that nobody bought it. While you were expecting laurels for your creativity, your boss asks you for a report to justify the investment.

Tip: Acknowledge the failure but don't apologise; risk-taking is a skill required to succeed. Tell your colleagues you know one more way of 'How not to do it'. Analyse what went wrong and crack it the next time around.

First, take time out

"The problem with many young professionals is that they aim for a flawless career from the moment they enter the workforce. They have high aspirations and want to be seen as credible professionals with a 100 percent track record of success. They don't realise that nobody made it big without failing a few times and the ones who succeed are the ones who bounce back from their failures," says Rohini Verma, a Delhi based clinical psychologist.

Take time out to think about what's going wrong with your strategies. Don't be in a rush to get into the disaster recovery mode. Take a small break; go for a vacation or a long drive.

Try meditation or yoga to help you ease your mind and focus. The objective is to take your mind off work so you can think about workplace challenges from a new perspective.

Next, analyse your failure

There could be several reasons but, if you get to the bare bones, there are two factors that stand out:

You are stuck in the wrong job

This is a no brainer. You need to have the aptitude for the work you are doing. If you're in the wrong job, you tend burn out quickly and get tired of your job, which leads to more failures.

However, figuring what you want to do for a living day in and day out takes some consideration. Try to get diverse experience in many fields and then decide what you would like to do for a career.

You are just plain careless

Maybe you failed because of your own sloppy work, or you just did not spend enough time understanding what you were doing or you made some hasty decisions or misunderstood your job profile.

If these happen to be the reason/s, you need to listen, accept the facts and shape up for the job.

Now, take steps

Workplace failures are a part of life but, if dealt with well, can turn out to be life changing events. Here are some smart strategies to repair your workplace failures and mistakes:

Acknowledge your failure

Taking ownership for your mishap is the first and the most important step. Blaming others rather than yourself for the new product nobody seems to be buying will create tension at office and spoil your working relationship with others as well. You are much better off focusing on the actual sense of the issue and what went wrong.

Don't make it personal

Criticism of your work does not mean your colleagues/ customers are targeting you as an individual. If you goofed up during an important client presentation, it doesn't make you a bad employee nor does it negate your prior accomplishments.

Learn from your failure

So what if your idea bombed? You should use this to your advantage in preparation for your next big project. Analyse what went wrong or could have been altered. Maybe you could have done some more research, or could have tested your idea before you went public or perhaps taken the advice of some senior members of the team.

"Treat work life like a game of chess. One bad move does not mean it's the end of the game. If you take a grip of the situation, you'll always get the opportunity to strike back," says Prabh Sharan, training manager with Kingfisher Airlines, Mumbai.

Make genuine friends

Have people on whom you can bank in good as well as bad times. Take their advice. Ask them for feedback on your ideas and let them play the devil's advocate. In an already competitive world, any help you can get should be welcomed. Don't run the solo race.

Don't get emotional

You are bound to feel frustrated and upset when you miss an important deadline that impacts a client, but don't blow it by making it all public.

The angry young man title will not get you any rewards at the office. Maintain your dignity and be quick with your apology in order to salvage your reputation.

Never say die

'No guts, no glory' is a cliché worth repeating.

Failure can be one of the best teaching tools; the best part is it doesn't have to be your own mistake in order for you to learn from it.

In the words of Michael D Eisner, chairman & CEO of Disney Corporation, 'Recovering from failure is often easier than building from success.'

Even if you fall flat on your face, you can always use the valuable lesson you learnt on your way to the top.

Future of Java Technology...

2006-04-18T02:12:00.000-07:00

When Java was developed initially as OAK even its developers were not sure in which direction the technology will grow. And actually Java has taken an unexpected turn around as a development technology. It started its journey with embedded applications but people found it somewhat slow when compare to C++. Java made foray into web in the form of applets and ruled the world for sometime. But then came enterprise era with crusade of .NET and J2EE. In this article let us examine possible directions where there are chances Java will grow as development technology.

The Core (Dead???)

Some people say there is no need of separate Core Java, which is now known as J2SE. J2SE comprise of core Java components and libraries like core language library, utilities, SWT, Swing, Networking, Security etc.

For Thick Clients

Now-a-day people expect great performance from applications which are hosted over the net on some remote servers. Implementing thick client is one of the solutions to achieve better performance for such applications. Thick client means the implementation where client itself carries out some operations without interrupting server for small things. Java applets are most competitive candidate for thick clients. They can offer full-fledged stand-alone functionalities even though downloaded from a remote server.

As a Base

To develop advanced components and tools one always need to use the base library. J2SE provides basic libraries like language features, utilities and networking APIs. Even J2EE and other Java technologies are extended or developed over the top of such base libraries. With the changing times, J2SE or Core Java is not going to lose its importance.

For Desktop

Sometimes back people started to believe that Java is meant for web applications only. Java still can make its mark as development technology for stand-along applications. The only drawback of Java for desktop applications is degraded performance. Modern hardware can easily overcome this drawback. But at the same time Java comes with many advantages that applies to stand alone applications too, like platform independence, scalability, easy to maintain, flexibility etc.
Enterprise

The enterprise form of Java, which is known as J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition), is the most famous Java architecture in use in modern scenario. J2EE is a combination of many technologies bundled together to form a pack, which offers everything that is required to develop an enterprise application. It comes with features like flexibility, scalability, object orientation, security, persistence, caching, performance tuning and many more.

In Full Swing

At the time when .NET was launched in market people started to believe that .NET will enjoy monopoly in market of enterprise application development technologies. But Java made its comeback with J2EE as prominent technology for enterprise and web applications. It started offering everything compatible to .NET along with its age-old advantages like free of cost and platform independence. Because of such advantages more and more people started to select J2EE as their development technology to develop enterprise and web applications. It has been observed in one survey that the ratio of applications being developed using .NET and J2EE is 28-72. This shows importance of J2EE throughout the industry. Let us also analyze importance of components and technologies forming part of J2EE in enterprise applications.

* JSP/Servlets : All applications developed over J2EE technology are using either Jsp (Java Serve Pages) or Sevlets directly or indirectly. Servlets are in use since a long time, as they were developed to provide a Java alternate to low speed CGI technology. Jsp was introduced to compete with ASP of Microsoft. Jsp provides easy to design layer over Servlets. In most cases Jsps and Servlets are used as view and controller layer of the application if the applications if going to be developed in multiple tires.
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* EJB : Enterprise Java Beans better known, as Ejb is another important and most widely used J2EE technology. Usage of Ejb provides everything to the developer that is required for enterprise applications including container managed persistence, declarative transactions, caching, instance pooling, remote access etc. Ejb helps to make J2EE application more scalable. Most time Ejb is used to implement core business logic or the middle tier of the application. There is still a debate if Ejb is really significant for J2EE applications or not.
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* JMS : Java Messaging Service offers asynchronous communication between Java objects. It provides a standard way of such communication between JVMs using remote calls too.
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* JNDI : Java Naming and Directory Interface, which is widely used by Ejb, is one of the core components of J2EE. It makes possible to connect and access objects and resources fro directory services like LDap.

New Trends

People are always in search of implementing J2EE, a way that it can be used optimally. Several new frameworks, practices and design patterns are develop to make proper utilization of advantages of J2EE. Some of them are discussed here.

* Design Patterns : For enterprise applications it is very important that they are well designed prior to start of their development phase because they are large in scale. And to design a J2EE application there is always need for years of experience and expertise over technology. Some of the design patterns are MVC (Model-View-Controller), DAO (Data Access Objects), Session Façade, Front Controller, Composite View and many more.
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* Frameworks : Some organizations have developed their own frameworks over the top of J2EE. Purpose after developing such frameworks is to provide functionalities that are common for all applications so that applications can be developed within a short period of time. Also such frameworks implement best J2EE practices to achieve high performance and other advantages of J2EE. Some popular J2EE frameworks are Struts, Spring etc.
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* J2EE Best Practices : People have found ways to utilize J2EE framework in such a way that it can perform at its best and also it can be utilized with its all advantages like scalability, easy to maintain, flexibility, remote access etc. Such practices are used by many developers and proven to be useful to achieve such goals in J2EE applications. and are also known as J2EE best practices. Most J2EE frameworks and design patterns are implemented in such a way that they implement some proven best practices.
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* New Technologies : The Java community which is controlled by Sun keeps including new features and technologies to J2EE such as JFS (Java Faces Service), Java.net, Java gaming, Java AI etc.

Missing

It is not that J2EE has got everything that is required to develop an enterprise application for modern scenario. To compete with .NET it needs some more improvements in many areas.One major area is client side components. .NET comes with client side components those are rendered depending on type of browser used by the client. This features if going to be achieved by JFS but its implementation is not complete yet.

Another area where J2EE is lagging behind is, integration. It is not that you go and install some J2EE kit and start developing your application. You have install and plug-in many things to achieve your desired goals in a J2EE application. Java community should find a way to cop with this situation and provide more and more features and functionalities with its standard kits.

Real Hopes

There are some areas of communication and information where Java has proved it very useful. Java has a chance to grow more and achieve a lead in these areas.

Go Mobile

Mobile phone applications are very wide scope area where Java is being used for its portability and independence. Most of mobile phones operate over Java implementations. Sun has its own implementations names as J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition), but most mobile phone vendors have developed their own version of J2ME.

Apart from mobile phones Java applications are also significant for other small devices like palmtops, digital diaries etc. Because of its portability and independence from underlying hardware Java is being widely used to develop applications those can be accessed through small devices.

Embedded

This is the area for which Java programming language was initially intended for. But then people found it to be very slow for Embedded applications. But now a day Java is gaining more popularity to develop embedded applications. The reason after such popularity is its platform independence. The same embedded applications coded once can be used to control many different types of machines and devices. So the principle of reusability is gaining more popularity among embedded applications community and so Java.

Summary

After examining scope, usage and potential of different areas of Java technology we can summarize that it has still long way to go. Java has got a lot of potential to develop and grow in many areas. For existing areas like desktop applications and enterprise applications there are chances for Java to gain better role. Also it has got to grow in new areas of embedded applications in future.

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish(by Steve Jobs, CEO Apple Computers)

2005-08-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Advice to young programmers

2005-08-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

(This is the summary of speech Given by Alex Stepenov (Principal Scientist,
Adobe Systems) at Adobe India on 30 Nov 2004. )

1. Study , Study and Study

* Never ever think that you have acquired all or most of the knowledge
which exists in the world. Almost everybody in US at age of 14 and
everybody in India at age of 24 starts thinking that he has acquired all the
wisdom and knowledge that he needs. This should be strictly avoided.

*You should be habituated to studies...exactly in the same way as you are
habituated to brushing teeth and taking bath every morning. The habit of
study must become a ‘part of your blood’. And the study should be from
both the areas: CS, since it is your profession, and something from non-
CS...Something which doesnot relate to your work. This would expand
your knowledge in other field too. A regular study, everyday, is extremely
essential. It doesnot matter whether you study of 20 minutes of 2 hours,
but consistency is a must.

* You should always study basics and fundamentals. There is no point in
going for advanced topics. When I was at the age of 24, I wanted to do
PhD in program verification, though I was not able to understand anything
from that. The basic reason was that my fundamental concepts were not
clear. Studying ‘Algebraic Geometry’ is useless if you donot understand
basics in Algebra and Geometry. Also, you should always go back and reread
and re-iterate over the fundamental concepts.
What is the exact definition of ‘fundamental’? The stuff which is around
for a while and which forms basic part of the concepts can be regarded as
more fundamental. Of course, everybody understands what a fundamental
means.

*Here are few books which I would strongly recommend that every CS
professional should read and understand.

i. “Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs” by Albenson
and Sussman
I personally donot like the material present in this book and I do
have some objections about it but this is the best book I have ever
seen which explains all the concepts in programming in a clear and
excellent way.
This book is available online at http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

ii. Introduction to Computer Architecture: by Hennessy and Patterson.
How many of you have shipped the programs by writing them in
assembly? A very good understanding of basics of how a
computer operates is what every CS professional must have.
H&P Wrote two books on CA. I am talking about their first book,
the introductory text for understanding basic aspects of how a
computer works.
Even if you feel that you know whatever is written in that book,
donot stop reading. It’s good to revise basics again and again.

iii. “Fundamentals of Programming” by Donald Knuth.
The core of CS is algorithms and Data structures. Every CS
professional must have the 3 volumes of Knuth’s Book on
programming. It really doesnot matter if you take 30 years of your
life to understand what Knuth has written, what is more important
is that you read atleast some part of that book everyday without fail.

iv. Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson and Rivest
This book should be read daily to keep your concepts fresh. This is
the best book for fundamental concepts in algorithms.

2. Learn Professional Ethics

* As a CS Professional, you are morally obliged to do a good job. What this
means is that you are supposed to do your job not for your manager but for
yourself. This is already told in Bhagwatgeeta : Doing duties of your life.

* The direct implication of this is: never ever write a bad code. You don’t
need to be fastest and run after shipping dates; rather you need to write
quality code. Never write junk code. Rewrite it till it is good. Thoroughly
test every piece of code that you write. Donot write codes which are “sort
of allright”. You might not achieve perfection, but atleast your code
should be of good quality.

* Let me quote my own example in this context. You might have heard
about STL, The Standard Template Library that ships in with C++
compilers. I wrote it 10 years ago, in 1994. While implementing one of the
routines in the STL, namely the “search routine”, I was a bit lazy and
instead of writing a good linear order implementation of KMP which was
difficult to code, I wrote a best quadratic implementation. I knew that I
could make the search faster by writing a linear-order implementation, but
I was lazy and I did not do that. And, after 10 years of my writing STL,
exactly the same implementation is still used inside STL and STL ships
with an inefficient quadratic implementation of search routine even
today!! You might ask me: why can’t you rewrite that? Well...I cannot,
because that code is no more my property!! Further, nobody today will be
interested in a standalone efficient STL ...people would prefer one which
automatically ships out with the compiler itself.

* Moral is, you should have aesthetic beauty built inside you. You should
“feel” uneasy on writing bad code and should be eager to rewrite the code
till it becomes upto the quality. And to the judge the quality, you need to
develop sense regarding which algorithms to use under what
circumstances.

3. Figure out your Goals

* Always aspire doing bigger things in life

* “Viewing promotion path as your career” is a completely wrong goal. If
you are really interested in studying and learning new things, never ever
aspire for being a manager. Managers cannot learn and study...they have
no time. “Company ladder aspiration” is not what should be important for
you.

* You might feel that you want to do certain things which you cannot do till
you become a manager. When you become a manager, you will soon
realize that now you just cannot do anything!

* You will have a great experience as programmers. But if you care for
people and love people, you will never enjoy being a manager...most good
managers are reluctant managers. If you see people as people, you cannot
survive at management level.

* Always aspire for professional greatness. Our profession is very beautiful
because we create abstract models and implement them in reality. There is
a big fun in doing that. We have a profession which allows us to do
creative things and even gives nice salary for that.

* The three biggest mistakes that people usually make are aiming for money,
aiming for promotion and aiming for fame. The moment you get some of
these, you aspire for some more...and then there is no end. I donot mean
that you shouldnot earn money, but you should understand how much
money would satisfy your needs. Bill Gates might be the richest person
in the world; he is certainly not the happiest. Our lives are far better than
his.

* Find your goal, and do best in the job that you have. Understand that what
is in your pocket doesnot matter...what is in your brain finally matters.
Money and fame donot matter. Knowledge matters.

4. Follow your culture

I have seen the tradition that whatever junk is created in US, it rapidly
spreads up in the rest of the world, and India is not an exception for this. This
cultural change creates a very strong impact on everybody’s life. Habits of
watching spicy Bollywood or Hollywood movies and listening to pop songs and
all such stupid stuff gets very easily cultivated in people of your age...but believe
me, there is nothing great in that. This all just makes you run away from your
culture. And there is no wisdom in running away from your culture. Indian culture,
which has great Vedas and stories like Mahabharata and Bhagwatgeeta is really
great and even Donald Knuth enjoys reading that. You should understand that
fundamental things in Indian culture teach you a lot and you should never forget
them.
Finally, I would like to conclude by saying that it’s your life...donot waste it on
stupid things...develop your tests, and start the fight.

How to BELL THE CAT - A Consultant's Approach!

2005-05-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

With about a month or so to go, the question that junta is asking at this point is not "Do I have it in me to crack CAT?" as much as "Do I have it in me to crack me in crack CAT in a month?"

Now let us presume that you present your problem to a management consultant like say McKinsey, what would they come up with? Remember they would give you only strategic advice, no actual implementation level micromanagement. Here are a few pointers that could actually turn up in their analysis report:

(1) Don't boil the ocean

Simply put, don't try to do something unimaginably huge (boil the ocean) to bring results that are not proportionate (get salt). This ways you will just cause more anguish when you realize half way through that the latent point of boiling for the ocean is pretty huge. Another way to put it is: Work smart, not hard.

Try to come up with a list of possible tasks for CAT and try figuring out what the amount of effort required to do it is. At the end of it, you can either lessen the effort or cross it out completely. Here is an example. A lot of you may be wondering if it is really wise to "do" the word-list. Go through a realistic run of where you are. This is a good time to go through the kind of words given over the last 4 years (over which CAT has kind of streamlined the questions) and figure if you really need to go through those huge word-lists. Amazingly at the end of the exercise, you might want to do away with it all together, or go through a selective portion just to ramp up your rusted skills. (For example, you might decide to do only the "High Frequency" words from Barron's GRE.)

(2) Pluck the low-hanging fruits first
An important point that many students don't realize at this juncture, due to immense pressure, is that it makes more sense for one to consolidate what he/she knows, rather than make an immature attempt to try learning everything. Do not attempt anything that is difficult. I have seen many students coming to me at the nth moment asking if they should be attempting "Permutation Combination". My simple answer is - If you have not done it in your schooling, if you have not done it in college, if you have not done it through out your CAT prep so far, then the chances that on November 21st the neurons in your brain actually go into a synaptical surge and the answer will plop in front of you are .........well, to be frank - quite bleak! Rather I would strengthen topics I know well - percentages, profit-loss, mensuration etc.

On the flip side, is it wise to be completely ignorant about these topics? The answer is a resounding NO!!!! I strongly suggest you take out some time (a few hours perhaps from an otherwise eventful study schedule) for each of these dreaded topics and figure out which are the formulae and basic types of problem. The test-setters of the more diabolic variety are known to sneak in a few deceptively. Most test-takers are blissfully unaware of this till the coaching institutes print a bold "SITTER" next to that question a day after the CAT and the cutoff seems all the more further away. Better safe than sorry!

(3) Think out of the box

Edward De Bono once famously remarked "An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgments simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore."

Try to ensure that whatever you do from now on is not something that is mechanical or by rote, but something that involves you actively in the process. So take up each problem and try figuring out stuff like - can it work with some variation? How can anyone twist this problem? Is there a simpler way of doing this? How I can design a problem for someone along these lines? etc. etc. In short - try to "internalize" the problem you are solving.

A classic example is the mock CATs you have taken so far. Even for those questions which have helped you inch towards the elusive cut-offs - try to figure which were ill-considered attempts. I have seen many instances in the past when my reason for choosing a correct answer was preposterous to say the least (I have, in good humor and on occasions, picked up answers because, from among others, it "sounded" correct!) and yet managed to get them right. Try to sit and figure if the same problem has a better way of doing it.

(4) Peel the onion

Layer by layer......one thing at a time

Let us presume you have a problem with reading large data in DI. In short, number crunching is not exactly one of your virtues, (normally these are areas you would not touch with a ten-foot pole!), yet is a necessary evil which cannot be avoided (like say P&C). We need to figure out how best to deal with this.

Take a couple of the mocks you have taken and try figuring out how you have done in it. See what is it that actually stopped you from getting in the top percentile. "I suck at numbers" is an answer which will neither aid your morale nor help you analyze yourself better. Be more objective and tough. Speed? Bad at approximation? The questions were too ambiguous? Whatever the reasons - try making a list of those things. Now instead of racking your brain alone over what can be done for that, speak to someone at your institute. Better still, catch a friend/mentor who has "been there and done that" for his/her insights on what can be done to help bridge this gap. Remember that you may also use the "boiling the ocean" principle here and remove any ideas of indulging in frivolous activities like learning Vedic mathematics at this point.

(5) Pareto's principle

The 80/20 rule. Some of the variations are :
20% of the time goes in doing 80% of the tasks, 20% of the business brings 80% of the revenue,20% of the world controls 80% of the money etc. The point here is: Try to figure which is the 80% that is bringing you the marks and focus on that. I read somewhere what one of the CAT 2003 100%iler had written - he had wanted to maximize on Verbal and tried to get cutoff in quant. And sure he maximized in Verbal with a score of 45 (and just around 17.5 in QA)!! There is no use spending all 1hour in quant and getting 2 marks more than the cutoff and spending 20mins in verbal and get barely get the cutoff.

(6) Parkinson's Law

The law states - "Work expands to fill the time available to do it" I think the scourge of every self-respecting graduate is doing a "night-out" to write that college journal a day before the submission. And we carry this habit with us to the work place too. Just look around you it keeps happening all the time - software project, advertising campaigns, government decisions - you name it! So is it with CAT.

Set yourself challenging schedules and stick to it. Tell yourself you are going to analyze those dreaded mock cats which have been piling on a corner for the last few months. Sounds impossible right? But as the Nike ad says "Just do it!" Even if you are not able to complete it, so be it, at the least you started and finished in a go. Keep challenging yourself; try sneaking out every last minute you have to get something done. Do those distasteful tables when you are having your smoke after lunch. Do those obnoxious RC practices when you are reading the morning newspaper.
And remember you cannot really challenge yourself unless you have a hard target to achieve.

(7) The fish cannot bat and I cannot swim

Words from Boycott could not be truer in the CAT perspective. Realize what your areas of strength and areas of weaknesses are. But still at the end of the day there will be the odd ball "stud" who licks the field clean. So in your approach you would be wise if you remember to steer clear of any ego-issues. Don't try tackling that extra toughie DI problem set which goes into 3rd decimals of approximation or the arcane RC passage on Madhubani paintings just because you are out there trying to prove you too are one. The point in case is that if you were one, you would not have been struggling.

Last year there was this guy in IIT Chennai. He was a math and physics Olympiad with an IIT-JEE AIR of 12. He ended up with a 100%ile (and a score of 103 in CAT 2003!). He went on to join IIM-B. Realize that there are always going to be guys like this. Instead of worrying about them, realize that at the most there are going to be around 100 odd guys like this. Forget about them. Think about the 1100 others who are vying for the same seat as you. And if you are really bothered about such guys, then stock your fridge with some cold beer!

(8) Fail to plan then you plan to fail

Put in excruciating detail into the planning/scoping work before you start out. Make sure every waking hour is accounted for. Doesn't mean you have to go overboard and start planning to account for each minute. Rather, a detailed account of how you are going to spend time over the next month. A caveat to the fore-mentioned point. At times we do things just because it was in the original plan. Make sure your plan is flexible. If a week before CAT you figure that doing more practice in RC is going to pay off, so be it!! But make sure you constantly check your plan and ask "Is it the right thing to do?" rather than "Am I doing it correctly?"

(9) Life is what happens when you are busy making plans - John Lennon (1940-1980)

Some words of wisdom that I keep telling myself everyday, CAT or no CAT. "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. "

At the end of the day it is a just an exam. Nothing more. Nothing less. No reason why you should treat it differently. No reason why you should worry more. No reason why you should not think about other things in life. No reason why you should not keep your cool. If you were expecting a list of dos and don'ts I am afraid I might have disappointed you. But this is not meant to serve as one in the first place - the institutes are already doing a pretty good job of that. What I have done is tried summarizing a few points (which I believe are neither mutually exclusive nor collectively exhaustive) to give you a checklist against which you can verify the usefulness of everything that you would be doing from now on.

--By Psychodementia
(The author himself is a consultant working as an Associate - Technology for Sapient Corporation, who gave up any notions of cracking CAT after having failed for the third time last year)

The ExtraOrdinary story of Mittal Steel...

2005-03-24T21:19:00.000-08:00

London-based Ispat International (now Mittal Steel) and its founder Lakshmi Niwas Mittal recently became the world's biggest steel maker, and has been named by Forbes magazine as the world's third richest man.

How does Mittal transform poor performing steel mills into power-packed profit centers?

We bring to you an inside account written by written Gita Piramal and late Prof Sumantra Ghoshal. Sumantra Ghoshal was a leading management guru. Gita Piramal is managing editor, The Smart Manager. The two also co-authored a book: Managing Radical Change.

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Acquisitions is one of the three major routes for business expansion, the other two being organic growth and strategic alliances.

But why choose acquisition as a growth strategy? When is this strategy more appropriate? And, if you have chosen this strategy, what are the main do's and don'ts for managing it well?

While not quite an Indian company -- incorporated in Holland and headquartered in London -- Ispat International N.V. (now called Mittal Steel) is Indian in both its spirit and management. In less that a decade, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal has spectacularly expanded the company from a wire rod manufacturer in Indonesia to the largest steel producer in the world, largely through an acquisitive strategy.

He can buy 44 lakh Maruti 800s!
Lakshmi Mittal's $19-billion year!
In 1992, Mittal acquired a Mexican steel mill. From this case study, it is possible to distil some simple lessons about how to manage acquisitive growth.

There are, of course, some variations depending on the nature of the industry, the history of the acquiring company, and the specific circumstances of each individual acquisition case. But, overall, there is a certain commonality in the pre- and the post-acquisition phases.

The story of Ispat Mexicana (Imexa)

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal's (widely referred to as 'LN' both inside and outside the company) faith in DRI (direct reduced iron) technology governed his choice of acquisitions. He believed in its future long before others.

"This has spelt success for so many of my plants," he says. Starting in Indonesia in 1976, he bought mini steel mills using the DRI route in various countries and turned them around. Eventually in January 1995 Mittal acquired Hamburg Stahlwerke, the originator of DRI technology on which almost all LN's plants depend.

According to Peter F Marcus, director of Paine Webber: "Lakshmi Mittal championed the practice of mini mills becoming integrated producers through the use of scrap alternatives."

This faith created 'the only true global steel company,' according to the Financial Times, and Mittal's reputation as a doctor of sick steel mills. In 1991, this reputation brought the Mexican government knocking at his door.

In the early 1980s, the Mexican government decided to build a new steel mill -- Sicartsa II -- adjacent to its existing Sicartsa facility located in Lazaro Cardenas.

They invested $2.2 billion in a state-of-the-art facility, which included a pelletizer plant to produce iron pellets from ore, the first DRI plant in the world using the HyL III technology, electric arc furnaces, casters to roll molten steel into flat slabs and a mill to convert these slabs into plates to produce pipes for the then-booming oil industry.

Before the factory was completed, however, the end of the oil boom coincided with a faltering economy which forced Mexico to devalue the peso. The government curtailed investment in the planned pelletizer plant, which forced Sicartsa management to source high cost iron pellets on the open market.

The government also abandoned the planned plate mill, forcing the plant to sell steel slabs -- an intermediate product -- rather than finished steel plates. Three years after opening, the plant operated well below its capacity of two million tons per year and incurred significant operating losses.

Mexican government officials publicly blamed the management and employees of the factory for the losses, and decided to privatize both Sicartsa factories in 1991. Based on Ispat's reputation for turning around Iscoot, a steel mill in Trinidad, the Mexican government invited Ispat to join two other steel companies in bidding for Sicartsa.

The pre-acquisition negotiation process

The team: Mittal sent a due diligence team consisting of twenty managers representing all line and staff functions chosen from Ispat's Trinidad and Indonesian plants and instructed them to develop plans to turn around the plant.
Mittal also explained that some members of the due diligence team would have an opportunity to remain in Mexico if Ispat acquired the facility. There were no merchant bankers.

The team was divided into sub-units to look at specific are as such as finance, marketing, management and costs. Each team had to make specific recommendations.

"These had to be solid and do-able as the person making the recommendation could easily be called upon to implement it," said one manager. "This eliminates consultants and their ivory tower analyses. After this process, targets are fixed and LN largely steps out of the picture."

Each team's report provided a valuable check on the other's to eliminate biases and oversight.

The team's due diligence revealed a factory plagued by technical problems, running at 20% of capacity, producing low quality slabs and manned by a dispirited workforce. The Ispat team was impressed, however, by the recent vintage of the assets, a young workforce with an average age of 27 years, and the supporting infrastructure.

The team recommended bidding for the plant, and developed a turn around plan.

The bid: Ispat proposed acquiring all the Sicartsa II factory's assets and liabilities, excluding contingent environmental liabilities.
Ispat also bid for 50% equity stakes in several of the businesses that supported the Sicartsa II plant, including PMT, a producer of welded pipes, Pena Colorada, which provided the factory with iron pellets and Sersiin, which managed the deep water port facilities and distributed electricity. It took eight months to sew up the contract.

Ispat proposed a total consideration of $220 million, consisting of $25 million in cash and $19 million n in ten year bonds (at 15% interest) issued by the Mexican government and secured by a warrant for 49% of Imexsa (not Ispat) equity. Of the cash component, $5 million was a loan from Trinidad and $20mn came from LN's personal resources.

Ispat's bid outlined the company's five-year plan for improving Sicartsa's operations, and included a commitment to invest an additional $350mn, with a $50mn penalty if the company failed to follow through on its promised capital spending.

Ispat's proposal also included a clause capping the number of employees it would lay off at 100 of the 1,050 workers. Impressed by the business plan, the Mexican government selected Ispat's bid. Ten members of the due diligence team remained in Mexico to run various departments, including Dr Johannes Sittard the former head of Iscoot, who served as the managing director of Imexsa from 1991 to 1993.

The post-acquisition integration process

Stopping the bleeding:Ispat took control of Imexsa on January 1st 1992 in the midst of a global recession in the steel industry, and had to briefly shut down the furnaces because there were no orders for the steel and no place to store the finished slabs.
Despite the shut-down, Imexsa laid off only seventy people -- thirty fewer than the agreed-upon limit -- and ultimately hired an additional 270 employees.

The $220 million consideration which Ispat had committed to more than halved almost instantly. The plate mill which had been lying abandoned -- still packed in crates -- was shipped to a Korean company.

"Our focus is slabs and we didn't need the plate mill," RR Mehta, Imexsa's executive director told Business India. The deal brought in $135 million -- much of this went towards upgrading facilities.

Mittal recalled his first steps at Imexsa: "In Mexico we did what we do with every business . . . we sat down with management of the acquired company to discuss various options for improvement and we developed the business plan. We sat down with each of the departments to understand their problems and viewpoints and gave our input based on international experience and our due diligence."

"Together we set very aggressive targets because we don't benchmark companies based on local standards, but on international standards. If the management of the acquired company is willing to commit to these targets, they stay. If they have any problems following our business plan and vision, they go. The Imexsa managers stayed," he added.

Production Planning Manager Oscar Vasquez recalled his first meeting with Mittal: "In our first meeting, we presented two alternative production plans, one for 600,000 tons -- it was conservative and based on our past experience -- and another plan for 1.2 million tons. Mr Mittal saw both and said, 'forget the small plan, just let me know what you need to implement the second plan.' We expressed concern that we might not find a market for the additional slabs, but Mr Mittal said, 'You will have the volume because I'm going to take care of that for you'."

Mittal used Ispat Indo's sales network to identify Asian customers for Imexsa's slabs, including a contract for 400,000 tons per year with a Taiwanese steel manufacturer. Although these orders provided low margins, they allowed Imexsa to increase capacity utilization while improving quality to win more profitable business.

Imexsa also reduced costs by switching to suppliers willing to match the lowest costs provided at Ispat's Trinidad and Indonesia plants.

The next step was to quickly develop cost-consciousness and discipline among the Imexsa management team. Jai K Saraf, Ispat International's finance director, and Sittard instituted a daily meeting of the heads of each department in the plant, which began after the day shift ended at 5:00 p.m. and generally ran until 9:00 or 10:00 at night.

The team evaluated the previous day's cost, volume, productivity and quality performance, discussed the current day's results, and agreed on detailed targets by department for the following day.

Om Mandhana, purchase director, described the purpose of the daily meeting: "The idea of the daily meeting was to cut red tape. You got together all of the people involved to talk through any issues, and as a means of coordinating and resolving day to day problems. The idea was to take a decision then and there rather than refer to committees."

Raul Torres, melt shop director, recalled his first impressions of the meetings: "Before Ispat bought the plant, the boss just told us how we should do things, but the daily meetings were nothing like that. Dr Sittard asked a lot of detailed technical questions to force us to think through problems to their root causes."

"If we were consuming too much steel in the electric arc furnaces, for instance, Dr Sittard would ask: 'Why are you consuming this amount of steel? Is there leakage? Why do you have this amount of leakage? Are you losing steel in the slag? How do you plan to improve this? Is that the cheapest way in the world? Who does this best in the world? Can we adopt their technology?'"

"We had open and sometimes heated discussions, but once we agreed on the right thing to do, it was easy to get Dr Sittard's approval and any resources you needed to make it happen. But you had to commit to improvements -- how much you were going to achieve and by when, and the entire team monitored how you did against the promised target."

"And Dr Sittard was always asking for higher targets -- he always kept the pressure on us to increase volume and quality and cut costs."

Imexsa's existing cost accounting system reported only aggregate production costs on a monthly basis, and was first available three weeks after the previous month ended. One of the first things the new management team did was to implement Ispat's daily reporting system which provided overall figures for each day's operations by the next morning.

Led by Saraf, Imexsa's accounting department began collecting detailed volume, cost, quality and productivity data for each step in the production process on a daily basis.

Initially, Imexsa's accountants collected these data themselves every day, and analysed it by hand. To monitor raw material usage, for example, the accountants asked warehouse workers to track the volume of materials leaving the storeroom each day.

As the discipline steeped in, kudos flowed back. A JP Morgan report hailed Imexsa as the lowest-cost slab producer in the world, while Credit Suisse First Boston reported, 'At Imexsa, Ispat makes Nucor's cost position look almost amateurish.'

Imexsa could land a slab in the middle of American at $35 a ton below Nucor's cash cost of production of $210 a ton. And Nucor founder Kenneth Iverson acknowledged, "Ispat comes in and runs the operations very well. They control costs very very closely."

In 1992 -- the first year under Ispat ownership -- Imexsa increased shipments from 528,000 tons to 929,000 tons, decreased the cash cost per ton produced from $253 to $178, and earned a small profit.

From 1992 to 1998 Imexsa increased annual steel shipments from 929,000 tons to over 3mn tons, and improved productivity from 2.62 to 0.97 man-hours per ton.

Antonio Gonzales, the Pelletizing Plant Supervisor observed, "There is no feeling of having finished the turnaround . . . we keep resetting the targets, and now we are aiming for 4 million tons per year -- that's double our rated capacity."

In 1997, MRR Nair joined Imexsa as managing director from the Steel Authority of India, the seventh largest steel company in the world, where he had served as chairman and CEO and had been awarded the Best CEO in India award.

Nair cited four mechanisms for maintaining constant improvement at Imexsa -- i.e. daily meetings and reports, quality programmes, global integration and stretch goals.

01. Daily meeting and daily report: The daily meeting, now held each morning for one or two hours, continued to play a pivotal role at Imexsa. A typical meeting (in March 1998) was attended by representatives from each of the departments, most of whom wore the khaki Imexsa uniform.
A few of the managers however wore red Imexsa jackets awarded to recognize achievement of ambitious goals, such as increasing one of the DRI facility's production nearly 50% above its rated capacity.

On several occasions during the meeting, participants jokingly asked whether their targets were ambitious enough to earn a jacket. Nair guided the meeting with a series of questions, inquiring about the results of previous experiments to improve performance, asking what level of performance was budgeted for the following month, and probing why targets were not higher.

Nair left the room for extended periods on two occasions during the meeting, but the discussion continued with the members of the different departments discussing targets and experiments among themselves.

The participants frequently referred to the daily report which provided detailed data on cost, productivity, volume and quality for each of the departments.

02. Quality programmes: In 1998, Imexsa used standard quality tools, such as ISO methods, to describe existing processes. Imexsa's quality efforts won numerous international awards and earned it the British Standards Institute's prestigious Company Wide Recognition, one of only two steel companies in the world so honoured (Iscoot was the other).
More importantly, Imexsa's quality initiatives helped the company upgrade its products to serve more demanding customers.

Imexsa enhanced its product mix from 97% low grade steel sold into construction applications in 1992 to 47% of slabs sold for demanding automotive and coated plate applications in 1997.

Despite Imexsa's success, Quality Director Rafael Mendoza wanted more:

"Traditional quality programmes such as ISO 9000 provide excellent statistical tools for documenting your current processes, but they are not as useful in accelerating continuous improvement. For this we introduced benchmarking, Top 10s and internal agreements."

In benchmarking operating processes, quality team members looked at best practices within the Ispat network, the steel industry as a whole and also identified and studied related processes at global leaders such as Ericsson and General Electric.

When Imexsa management wanted to improve cafeteria service during the busy lunch hour, for example, a quality team studied the restaurant in a busy soccer stadium renowned for serving large quantities of excellent food quickly during half time.

Imexsa would only work with customers and technology suppliers who agreed to openly share information on new technological developments and applications, and in turn agreed to open their plants for benchmarking.

Mendoza was not worried that Imexsa would surrender competitive advantage by allowing other companies to benchmark the plant:

"In the steel industry these days, all companies have access to good ideas through customers, suppliers and consultants. The difference is who can implement them successfully."

In the Top 10 programme, each department identified projects to either cut costs or improve quality, quantified each project's financial impact (in US dollars per year), and rank ordered the projects from one to ten based on their bottomline impact.

Each project was assigned to a project owner charged with selecting a multi-disciplinary team to quantify the benefits of the project, develop an action plan and monitor progress against agreed process milestones.

In Mendoza's view, the Top 10 programme introduced a consistent discipline in translating proposed projects into financial results and allowed each department to prioritize its own projects for improvement.

In 1996 Imexsa initiated a systematic program for making internal service agreements between Imexsa's departments and monitoring service delivery levels against these agreements.

The head of the department receiving a service would meet once a year with each internal supplier to articulate their key requirements and agree on targets and concrete measures of service delivery. Before agreeing to target service levels, a service provider could request any prerequisites necessary to guarantee delivery.

The maintenance department might agree to provide preventive maintenance on time, for instance, provided that they were notified at least one week in advance of the scheduled downtime.

The head of the department providing the service was responsible for monitoring performance on a daily basis and reporting to the head of the internal customer on a monthly basis, who would sign off on the performance evaluation.

If a service provider repeatedly failed to meet goals, the failure would be elevated for discussion in the daily meeting, but this had occurred only once in the programme's first two years.

In 1998 Imexsa had 140 internal service agreements across 28 production and service departments and sub-departments in the plant. 70% of the agreements fulfilled 100% of the requirements, 11% of the agreements met between 95% and 99%, with the remainder fulfilling less than 95%. These internal agreements yielded significant improvements in operations.

03. Knowledge integration programme: The Knowledge Integration Program (KIP) was an Ispat corporate initiative designed by Mittal to "keep stirring the whole organisation."
A few representatives from each operating and staff function (twelve in total) at each Ispat plant would meet twice each year. These KIP meetings lasted two to four days, and rotated among the plants in the Ispat network.

Prior to the meeting, the department heads would send their suggestions for discussion topics to Ispat group headquarters in London, where the agenda would be set and then distributed to each of the participants in advance.

During the meeting, the participants would review their performance against targets, including major accomplishments and disappointments, discuss common technical problems, update each other on developments in their plant and commit to future targets. The participants also communicated between KIP meetings, as Torres described:

"If I have a question, I don't have to wait until the next KIP meeting. I can make a phone call or send an email to Canada or Trinidad. I probably exchange at least one email every week with them."

04. Stretch goals: Each department in Imexsa committed to annual targets for production volume, productivity and costs, and presented their plan for achieving these goals. The process was based on a firm philosophy of Ispat.
As described by Nair, "Senior managers should ask the departments what they plan to do, rather than telling them what to do."

At the same time, however, it was not a laissez fair. Nair and his team asked a lot of questions on the plans that were presented. "You achieved this level last year, why can't you do it again? They can achieve the level at another factory, what prevents you from doing the same? What can we do to help you achieve more?"

At the end of such discussions, while the targets were very demanding, they were owned by the departments instead of being perceived as coerced from above.

As Raul Torres described: "I feel the need to constantly improve performance every day, but its not forced on me by management. I'm not fighting against somebody else's budgets -- I agreed to the goal, and the best way to reach a goal is not with a big gun to your head. I set stretch goals because I want Imexsa to win."

"At first, I wanted Imexsa to be the best steel plant in Lazaro Cardenas, then the best steel plant in Mexico, but now I ask 'why can't we be the best steel plant in the world?' We always wanted to be the best, but we couldn't because the old management put up too many limitations."

FAITH, CONVICTION & PERSEVERENCE CAN MAKE MIRRACLES HAPPEN

2005-03-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

A very touching story I came across on perseverance. It was narrated by WIPRO Chairman in his convocation address to IIT. Here it is...

An eight-year-old child heard her parents talking about her little brother. All she knew was that he was very sick and they had no money left.

They were moving to a smaller house because they could not afford to stay in the present house after paying the doctor's bills. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and there was no one to loan them the money. When she heard daddy say to her tearful mother with whispered desperation, 'Only a miracle can save him now', the child went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jar from its hiding place in the closet.

She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Clutching the precious jar tightly, she slipped out the back door and made her way six blocks to the local drug store. She took a quarter from her jar and placed it on the glass counter.

"And what do you want?" asked the pharmacist. "It's for my little brother," the girl answered back. "He's really; really sick and I want to buy a miracle.""I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist. "His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my daddy says only a miracle can save him. So how much does a miracle cost?"

"We do not sell miracles here, child. I'm sorry," the pharmacist said, smiling sadly at the little girl. "Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it is not enough, I can try to get some more. Just tell me how much it costs." In the shop was a well-dressed customer. He stooped down and asked the little girl, "What kind of a miracle does your brother need?""I don't know," she replied with her eyes welling up.

"He's really sick and mommy says he needs an operation. But my daddy can't pay for it, so I have brought my savings". "How much do you have?" asked the man. "One dollar and eleven cents, but I can try and get some more", she answered barely audibly. "Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man. "A dollar and eleven cents --The exact price of a miracle for little brothers." He took her money in one hand and held her hand with the other. He said, "Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the kind of miracle you need." That well-dressed man was Dr Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specialising in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed without charge and it wasn't long before Andrew was home again and doing well. "That surgery," her mom whispered, "was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost." The little girl smiled. She knew exactly how much the miracle cost ... one dollar and eleven cents ... plus the faith of a little child.

Faith, Conviction & Perseverance can make miracles happen.

A Touching Story...

2005-03-05T10:44:00.000-08:00

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual. On Monday she gave each student his or her list.

Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered."I never knew that meant anything to anyone!""I didn't know others liked me so much."

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another.

That group of students moved on. Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student.

She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature. The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's teacher?" he asked. She nodded, yes. Then he said "Mark talked about you a lot."

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

"We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it." Mark's classmates started to gather around us. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."

Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."

"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. I carry this with me at all times, " Vicki said without batting an eyelash. " I think we all saved our lists."

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be. So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late....

THE LOVE THAT STARTED INFOSYS...

2004-12-24T01:27:00.000-08:00

Many of my friends and classmates insisted me to mail them the following article by Mrs. Sudha murthy(wife of Narayanmurthy of Infosys), hence i am doing it.

This is an article by Sudha Murthy (No introductions required). Both romantic and inspiring as the article is, one cannot but help concluding that the best thing to happen to Narayan Murthy that led to the founding of Infosys was his marriage to a woman as remarkable as Sudha.
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It was in Pune that I met Narayan Murthy through my friend Prasanna who is now the Wipro chief, who was also training in Telco.

Most of the books that Prasanna lent me had Murthy's name on them, which meant that I had a preconceived image of the man.

Contrary to expectation, Murthy was shy, bespectacled and an introvert. When he invited us for dinner, I was a bit taken aback as I thought the young man was making a very fast move. I refused since I was the only girl in the group. But Murthy was relentless and we all decided to meet for dinner the next day at 7.30 pm at Green Fields hotel on the Main Road, Pune. The next day I went there at 7 o clock since I had to go to the tailor near the hotel. And what do I see? Mr. Murthy waiting in front of the hotel and it was only seven. Till today, Murthy maintains that I had mentioned (consciously!) that I would be going to the tailor at 7 so that I could meet him. And I maintain that I did not say any such thing consciously or unconsciously because I did not think of Murthy as anything other than a friend at that stage. We have agreed to disagree on this matter.

Soon, we became friends. Our conversations were filled with Murthy's experiences abroad and the books that he has read. My friends insisted that Murthy was trying to impress me because he was interested in me. I kept denying it till one fine day, after dinner Murthy said, I want to tell you something. I knew this was it. It was coming. He said, I am 5'4" tall. I come from a lower middle class family. I can never become rich in my life and I can never give you any riches. You are beautiful, bright and intelligent and you can get anyone you want. But will you marry me? I asked Murthy to give me some time for an answer.

My father didn't want me to marry a wannabe politician, (a communist at that) who didn't have a steady job and wanted to build an orphanage... When I went to Hubli I told my parents about Murthy and his proposal. My mother was positive since Murthy was also from Karnataka, seemed intelligent and comes from a good family. But my father asked: What's his job, his salary, his qualifications etc? Murthy was working as a research assistant and was earning less than me. He was willing to go Dutch with me on our outings.

My parents agreed to meet Murthy in Pune on a particular day at 10 am sharp. Murthy did not turn up. How can I trust a man to take care of my daughter if he cannot keep an appointment, asked my father? At 12 noon Murthy turned up in a bright red shirt! He had gone on work to Bombay, was stuck in a traffic jam on the Ghats, so he hired a taxi (though it was very expensive for him) to meet his would-be father-in-law. My father was unimpressed. My father asked him what he wanted to become in life. Murthy said he wanted to become a politician in the communist party and wanted to open an orphanage.

My father gave his verdict. No. I don't want my daughter to marry somebody who wants to become a communist and then open an orphanage when he himself didn't have money to support his family. Ironically, today, I have opened many orphanages something which Murthy wanted to do 25 years ago.

By this time I realized I had developed a liking towards Murthy which could only be termed as love. I wanted to marry Murthy because he is an honest man. He proposed to me highlighting the negatives in his life. I promised my father that I will not marry Murthy without his blessings though at the same time, I cannot marry anybody else. My father said he would agree if Murthy promised to take up a steady job. But Murthy refused saying he will not do things in life because somebody wanted him to. So, I was caught between the two most important people in my life.

The stalemate continued for three years during which our courtship took us to every restaurant and cinema hall in Pune.

In those days, Murthy was always broke. Moreover, he didn't earn much to manage. Ironically today, he manages Infosys Technologies Ltd one of the world's most reputed companies. He always owed me money. We used to go for dinner and he would say, I don't have money with me, you pay my share and I will return it to you later. For three years I maintained a book on Murthy's debt to me. No, he never returned the money and I finally tore it up after my wedding. The amount was a little over Rs 4000. During this interim period Murthy quit his job as research assistant and started his own software business. Now, I had to pay his salary too!

Towards the late 70s computers were entering India in a big way. During the fag end of 1977 Murthy decided to take up a job as General Manager at Patni Computers in Bombay. But before he joined the company he wanted to marry me since he was to go on training to the US after joining.

My father gave in as he was happy Murthy had a decent job now.

We were married in Murthy's house in Bangalore on February 10, 1978 with only our two families present. I got my first silk sari. The wedding expenses came to only Rs 800 (US $ 17) with Murthy and I pooling in Rs 400 each.

I went to the US with Murthy after marriage. Murthy encouraged me to see America on my own because I loved traveling. I toured America for three months on backpack and had interesting experiences which will remain fresh in my mind forever. Like the time when I was taken into custody by the New York police because they thought I was an Italian trafficking drugs in Harlem. Or the time when I spent the night at the bottom of the Grand Canyon with an old couple. Murthy panicked because he couldn't get a response from my hotel room even at midnight. He thought I was either killed or kidnapped.

In 1981 Murthy wanted to start Infosys. He had a vision and zero capital... initially I was very apprehensive about Murthy getting into business. We did not have any business background. Moreover we were living a comfortable life in Bombay with a regular pay check and I didn't want to rock the boat. But Murthy was passionate about creating good quality software. I decided to support him.

Typical of Murthy, he just had a dream and no money. So I gave him Rs10000 which I had saved for a rainy day, without his knowledge and told him, this is all I have. Take it. I give you three years sabbatical leave. I will take care of the financial needs of our house. You go and chase your dreams without any worry.

But you have only three years!

Murthy and his six colleagues started Infosys in 1981, with enormous interest and hard work. In 1982 I left Telco and moved to Pune with Murthy. We bought a small house on loan which also became the Infosys office. I was a clerk-cum-cook-cum-programmer. I also took up a job as Senior Systems analyst with Walchand group of Industries to support the house. In 1983 Infosys got their first client, MICO, in Bangalore.

Murthy moved to Bangalore and stayed with his mother while I went to Hubli to deliver my second child Rohan. Ten days after my son was born, Murthy left for the US on project work. I saw him only after a year as I was unable to join Murthy in the US because my son had infantile eczema, an allergy to vaccinations. So for more than a year I did not step outside our home for fear of my son contracting an infection. It was only after Rohan got all his vaccinations that I came to Bangalore where we rented a small house in Jayanagar and rented another house as Infosys headquarters. My father presented Murthy a scooter to commute. I once again became a cook programmer, clerk, secretary, office assistant Nandan Nilekani (MD of Infosys) and his wife Rohini stayed with us. While Rohini baby sat my son, I wrote programmes for Infosys.

There was no car, no phone, just two kids and a bunch of us working hard, juggling our lives and having fun while Infosys was taking shape. It was not only me but the wives of other partners too who gave their unstinted support.

We all knew that our men were trying to build something good. It was like a big joint family, taking care and looking out for one another. I still remember Sudha Gopalakrishna looking after my daughter Akshata with all care and love while Kumari Shibulal cooked for all of us.

Murthy made it very clear that it would either be me or him working at Infosys. Never the two of us together... I was involved with Infosys initially. Nandan Nilekani suggested I should be on the Board but Murthy said he did not want a husband and wife team at Infosys. I was shocked since I had the relevant experience and technical qualifications. He said, Sudha if you want to work with Infosys, I will withdraw, happily. I was pained to know that I will not be involved in the company my husband was building and that I would have to give up a job that I am qualified to do and love doing. It took me a couple of days to grasp the reason behind Murthy's request. I realized that to make Infosys a success one had to give one's 100 percent. One had to be focused on it alone with no other distractions. If the two of us had to give 100 percent to Infosys then what would happen to our home and our children? One of us had to take care of our home while the other took care of Infosys. I opted to be a homemaker, after all Infosys was Murthy's dream. It was a big sacrifice but it was one that had to be made. Even today, Murthy says, Sudha, I stepped on your career to make mine. You are responsible for my success.

I might have given up my career for my husband's sake. But that does not make me a doormat... Many think that I have been made the sacrificial lamb at Narayan Murthy's altar of success. A few women journalists have even accused me of setting a wrong example by giving up my dreams to make my husbands a reality. Isn't freedom about living your life the way you want it? What is right for one person might be wrong for another. It is up to the individual to make a choice that is effective in her life. I feel that when a woman gives up her right to choose for herself is when she crosses over from being an individual to a doormat. Murthy's dreams encompassed not only himself but a generation of people. It was about founding something worthy, exemplary and honorable. It was about creation and distribution of wealth. His dreams were grander than my career plans, in all aspects. So, when I had to choose between Marty's career and mine, I opted for what I thought was a right choice.

We had a home and two little children, measles, mumps, fractures, PTA meetings, wants and needs of growing children do not care much for grandiose dreams. They just needed to be attended to. Somebody had to take care of it all. Somebody had to stay back to create a home base that would be fertile for healthy growth, happiness, and more dreams to dream. I became that somebody willingly.

I can confidently say that if I had had a dream like Infosys, Murthy would have given me his unstinted support. The roles would have been reversed. We are not bound by the archaic rules of marriage. I cook for him but I don't wait up to serve dinner like a traditional wife. So, he has no hassles about heating up the food and having his dinner. He does not intrude into my time especially when I am writing my novels. He does not interfere in my work at the Infosys Foundation and I don't interfere with the running of Infosys. I teach Computer Science to MBA and MCA students at Christ College for a few hours every week and I earn around Rs 50,000 a year. I value this financial independence greatly though there is no need for me to pursue a teaching career. Murthy respects that. I travel all over the world without Murthy because he hates traveling. We trust each other implicitly. We have another understanding too. While he earns the money, I spend it, mostly through the charity. Philanthropy is a profession and an art... The Infosys Foundation was born in 1997 with the sole objective of uplifting the less-privileged sections of society. In the past three years we have built hospitals, orphanages, rehabilitation centers, school buildings, science centers and more than 3500 libraries. Our work is mainly in the rural areas amongst women and children. I am one of the trustees and our activities span six states including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Orissa, Chandigarh and Maharashtra. I travel to around 800 villages constantly. Infosys Foundation has a minimal staff of three trustees and three office members. We all work very hard to achieve our goals and that is the reason why Infosys Foundation has a distinct identity.

Every year we donate around Rs 5-6 crore (Rs 50 - 60 million). We run Infosys Foundation the way Murthy runs Infosys in a professional and scientific way. Philanthropy is a profession and an art. It can be used or misused. We slowly want to increase the donations and we dream of a time when Infosys Foundation could donate large amounts of money. Every year we receive more than 10,000 applications for donations. Everyday I receive more than 120 calls. Amongst these, there are those who genuinely need help and there are hood winkers too.

I receive letters asking me to donate Rs five lakh to someone because five lakh is, like peanuts to Infosys. Some people write to us asking for free Infosys shares. Over the years I have learnt to differentiate the wheat from the chaff, though I still give a patient hearing to all the cases. Sometimes I feel I have lost the ability to trust people. I have become shrewder to avoid being conned. It saddens me to realize that even as a person is talking to me I try to analyze them: Has he come here for any donation? Why is he praising my work or enquiring about my health, does he wants some money from me? Eight out of ten times I am right. They do want my money. But I feel bad for the other two whom I suspected. I think that is the price that I have to pay for the position that I am in now. The greatest difficulty in having money is teaching your children the value of it and trying to keep them on a straight line... Bringing up children in a moneyed atmosphere is a difficult task. Even today I think twice if I have to spend Rs 10 on an auto when I can walk up to my house. I cannot expect my children to do the same. They have seen money from the time they were born. But we can lead by example. When they see Murthy wash his own plate after eating and clean the two toilets in the house everyday they realize that no work is demeaning irrespective of how rich you are.

I don't have a maid at home because I don't see the need for one. When children see both parents working hard, living a simple life, most of the time they tend to follow. This doesn't mean we expect our children to live an austere life. My children buy what they want and go where they want but they have to follow certain rules. They will have to show me a bill for whatever they buy. My daughter can buy five new outfits but she has to give away five old ones. My son can go out with his friends for lunch or dinner but if he wants to go to a five star hotel, we discourage it. Or we accompany him.

So far my children haven't given me any heartbreak. They are good children. My eldest daughter is studying abroad, whereas my son is studying in Bangalore. They don't use their father's name in vain. If asked, they only say that his name is Murthy and that he works for Infosys. They don't want to be recognized and appreciated because of their father or me but for themselves. I don't feel guilty about having money for we have worked hard for it. But I don't feel comfortable flaunting it ...it is a conscious decision on our part to live a simple, so-called middle class life. We live in the same two-bedroom, sparsely furnished house before Infosys became a success.

Our only extravagance is buying books and CDs. My house has no lockers for I have no jewels. I wear a stone earring which I bought in Bombay for Rs100. I don't even wear my mangalsutra until I attend some family functions or I am with my mother-in-law. I am not fond of jewellery or saris. Five years ago, I went to Kashi where tradition demands that you give up something and I gave up shopping. Since then I haven't bought myself a sari or gone shopping. It is my friends who gift me with saris. Murty bought me a sari a long time ago. It was not to my taste and I told him to refrain from buying saris for me in the future. I am no good at selecting men's clothes either. It is my daughter who does the shopping for us. I still have the same sofa at home which my daughter wants to change. However, we have indulged ourselves with each one having their own music system and computer. I don't carry a purse and neither does Murty most of the time. I do tell him to keep some small change with him but he doesn't. I borrow money from my secretary or my driver if I need cash. They know my habit so they always carry extra cash with them. But I settle the accounts every evening. Murty and I are very comfortable with our lifestyle and we don't see the need to change it now that we have money.

Murty and I are two opposites that complement each other... Murty is sensitive and romantic in his own way. He always gifts me books addressed to From Me to You. Or to the person I most admire etc. We both love books. We are both complete opposites. I am an extrovert and he is an introvert. I love watching movies and listening to classical music. Murty loves listening to English classical music. I go out for movies with my students and secretary every other week. I am still young at heart. I really enjoyed watching "Kaho Na Pyaar Hai" and I am a Hrithik Roshan fan. It has been more than 20 years since Murty and I went for a movie. My daughter once gave us a surprise by booking tickets for "Titanic". Since I had a prior engagement that day, Murty went for the movie with his secretary Pandu. I love traveling whereas Murty loves spending time at home.

Friends come and go with the share prices... Even in my dreams, I did not expect Infosys to grow like the way it has. I don't think even Murty envisioned this phenomenal success, at least not in 1981. After Infosys went public in 1993, we became what people would call as rich, moneyed people. I was shocked to see what was happening to Infosys and to us. Suddenly you see and hear about so much money. Your name and photo is splashed in the papers. People talk about you. It was all new to me.

Suddenly I have people walking up to me saying, oh, we were such good friends, we had a meal 25 years ago. They claim to have been present at our wedding (which is an utter lie because only my family was present at my wedding). I don't even know all these people who claim to know Murty and me so well.

But that doesn't mean I don't have true friends. I do have genuine friends, a handful, which has been with me for a very long time. My equation with these people has not changed and vice versa. I am also very close to Narayan Murty's family, especially my sister-in-law Kamala Murty, a school teacher, who is more of a dear friend to me. I have discovered that these are the few relationships and friendships that don't fluctuate depending on the price of Infosys shares.

Have I lost my identity as a woman, in Murty's shadow...?

No. I might be Mrs Narayan Murty. I might be Akshata and Rohan's mother. I might be the trustee of Infosys Foundation. But I am still Sudha. I play different roles like all women. That doesn't mean we don't have our own identity. Women have that extra quality of adaptability and learn to fit into different shoes. But we are our own selves still. And we have to exact our freedom by making the right choices in our lives dictated by us and not by the world.

"Shoot for the moon...even if u miss, u’ll be among the stars"

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do ... Explore. Dream. Discover."

DREAM,DREAM,DREAM. CONVERT THESE DREAMS INTO THOUGHTS AND LATER INTO ACTIONS...

2004-12-24T01:20:00.000-08:00

Am blogging after a mammoth time...but starting with an inspirational letter post.
This is a speech given by Abdul Kalam at a meeting in Hyderabad some years ago...
It was really inspiring to read... So i thought it is worth putting it up here... Read on...
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I have three visions for India.

In 3000 years of our history, people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards. The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self- reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?

I have a THIRD vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that, unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept. of space, Professor. Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr.Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.

I see four milestones in my career:

Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first satellite launch vehicle,SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These years played a very important role in my life of Scientist.
After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994.
The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material. A Very light material called carbon-carbon.
One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic callipers weighing over three Kg. each, dragging their feet around.
He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300-gram callipers and took them to the orthopedic centre.
The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on their legs, they could now move around! Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!
Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?

We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice. Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.

I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE?

Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance?

I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.

Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours.

YOU say that our government is inefficient.

YOU say that our laws are too old.

YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.

YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.

YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.

YOU say, say and say.

What do YOU do about it?

Take a person on his way to Singapore.

Give him a name - YOURS.

Give him a face - YOURS.

YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best.

In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores.

YOU are as proud of their Underground Links as they are.

You pay $5 (approx. Rs.60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5PM and 8PM.

YOU comeback to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU?

YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai.

YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah.

YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else."

YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai sala main kaun hoon" (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost."

YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand.

Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo?

Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston?

We are still talking of the same YOU.

YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?

Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr.Tinaikar, had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place," he said. "And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom everytime their dog feels the pressure in his bowels?

In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do thathere?" He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.

We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? "It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry." So who's going to change the system?

What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too....I am echoing J.F.Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.....

"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"

Lets do what India needs from us.

Thank you.
Abdul Kalaam.

World's Coolest Sportsbikes... A must see...

2004-10-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

A slide show of worlds 10 coolest sportsbikes presented by Indiatimes.

Will broadband start IT boom ver 3.0?

2004-10-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

Union Communications & IT Minister on October 14 announced the government’s broadband policy. Though the government allowed direct-to-home (DTH) operators to offer broadband services, it also rejected a number of recommendations made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The policy has also delicensed the 2.40-2.48 Ghz band for low power outdoor use.

Given the increasing power of the Internet, this policy was in the offing for a long time now. Now, that it is in place, a lot of things will become clear though it has left a number of sections disgruntled.

What is broadband?

Broadband is a transmission facility having a bandwidth sufficient to carry multiple voice, video or data channels simultaneously.

Each channel occupies (is modulated to) a different frequency bandwidth on the transmission medium and is demodulated to its original frequency at the receiving end.

Channels are separated by “guardbands” (empty spaces) to ensure that each channel won’t interfere with its neighboring channels.

This technique is used to provide 50 CATV channels on one coaxial cable.

The term “broadband” is widely used to describe Internet connections with download speeds which are faster than dial-up, including DSL services, cable modem services, as well as satellite connections.

What is India’s position vis-à-vis the rest of the world when it comes to broadband access?

Despite its reputation as an infotech powerhouse, India lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to broadband access.

The US is the world's leading broadband country with over 25 million lines and the figure is growing rapidly Japan has nearly 15 million, China 14 million, South Korea 12 million and Canada over five million.

India had only 82,000 lines till December 31, 2003. Globally, broadband lines crossed the 100.8 million-mark in 2003. The previous year, the figure was 62 million. So, one can gauge how fast this technology is growing.

What are the different types of broadband connections?

The main types of broadband connection are optical fibre network, DSL, cable and satellite. Newer technologies, like Wi-Fi, are also coming up.

Fibre optics technology can provide nearly unlimited bandwith potential and is steadily replacing coper network specially in intra-city backbone networks. This is being deployed in commercial buildings and some metros and big cities having high density potential broadband users.

Hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC), fibre to the curb (FTTC) and fibre to the home (FTTH) networks make use of fibre cabling into the last mile.

There are three types of DSL lines – symmetrical digital subscriber line (SDSL), ISDN digital subscriber line (IDSL), and asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL).

SDSL is a symmetric service - the upstream speed is the same as the downstream speed. SDSL can deliver high-speed data communications at up to 1.54 mbps. This service is delivered via a single copper pair of wires and is ideal for business applications that would have otherwise been served by an expensive T1.

IDSL is a symmetric service that can deliver high-speed data communication up to 128 kbps.

In many non-urban areas, the distance between a telephone company's central office and a user's business or home can be substantial. IDSL's strongest asset is its ability to reach up to 36,000 feet for the telephone central office. This is twice the distance of SDSL.

ADSL is an asymmetric service, which means the downstream speeds are faster than the upstream speeds. This service is ideal for single users with high-speed data needs. It is an excellent solution for home Web users who would like to conduct quick, efficient Web surfing, Internet research, large file downloads, video streaming, audio streaming, and 3-D image posting.

ADSL operates at speeds of 384/128 kbps or 768/384 kbps, depending on a user's distance from their telephone company's central office.

ADSL is an asymmetrical service that is most commonly offered by telephone companies. ADSL is not suited for business uses such as hosting Web or e-mail servers. In addition, ADSL often uses a bridge instead of a router which provides little to no security, making your network vulnerable to attacks.

ADSL is available in most urban areas and some rural areas where the distance from the exchange is less than 5.5 kilometers. This will also be dependant on line quality and testing.

After DSL, comes the cable connection. Your neighbourhood cable operator is already delivering digital information to your home or office in the form of cable television. This cable also has the ability to allow you to be connected to the Internet at speeds ranging from 128kb through to 1mb.

To receive broadband via cable you need to live or work in a location serviced by one of the cable providers, and have additional network equipment installed.

There are two forms of satellite broadband – one-way and two-way. One-way satellite broadband provides a fast download speed of up to 60 times that of a modem: 3 mb. This is only one way of course and your computer has to be connected to the Internet via a modem to request the data.

Two-way satellite broadband will provide a fast link in both directions, and should be available anywhere throughout the country. The downside is likely to be the cost of this option. Two-way satellite broadband is still in the R&D stage with no field trials planned yet.

Why is a broadband policy needed?

Broadband today is needed for enhancement of quality of life though a number of societal applications including tele-education, tele-medicine, e-governance as well as entertainment. Greater usage of broadband will also help in growth of GDP.

Demand for broadband is primarily based on Internet and computer penetration, which is low in India compared to a number of Asian countries.

High-speed Internet access is available in the country at various speeds from 64 Kbps onwards and an access speed of 128 Kbps is considered “broadband”. There is no uniform standard of broadband connectivity and various countries follow various standards.

It is because of this and to accelerate Internet and PC penetration that a national broadband policy has become necessary.

What is the standard set by the new broadband policy?

India’s new Broadband Policy 2004 defines broadband as: “An always-on data connection that is able to support interactive services including Internet access and the capability of a minimum download speed of 256 kbps to an individual subscriber from the point of Presence (PoP) of the service provider intending to provide broadband service where multiple such individual broadband connections are aggregated and the subscriber is able to access these interactive services including the Internet through this PoP.

“The interactive services will exclude any services for which a separate licence is separately required, for example, real-time voice transmission, except to the extent that it is presently permitted under ISP licence with Internet telephony.”

How many people will be helped by this new policy?

The new policy targets three million broadband users and six million Internet users by the end of 2005.

By the end of 2007, this policy is expected to touch nine million broadband subscribers and 18 million Internet subscribers.

The policy envisions targeting 20 million broadband users and 40 million Internet users by the end of this decade.

How does the new policy intend to boost broadband infrastructure growth?

The new policy encourages creation and growth of infrastructure through various access technologies which can mutually co-exist like optical fibre technologies, digital subscriber lines on copper loop, cable TV network, Satellite and terrestrial wireless technologies. It is for the service provider to decide which technology to use.

Copper loop using DSL can provide broadband services. The age and the condition of copper loop in the country can, at best, provide six million broadband connections.

BSNL and MTNL along with other owners of copper loop are expected to provide about two million connections by the end of 2005. Further, recognising that last mile copper loop is not a ‘bottleneck facility’ for broadband services, access providers shall be free to enter into mutually agreed commercial arrangements for utilisation of available copper loop for expansion of broadband services including content. Use of brand name being treated as a part of the value shall be permitted in such commercial arrangement.

The government also intends to make available transponder capacity for VSAT services at competitive rates after taking into consideration the security requirements. The Department of Telecom (DoT), in consultation with the concerned Ministries, will soon propose additional measures with regard to Open Sky Policy for VSAT operators. VSAT operators would be closely associated while determining the transponder usage charges.

Service providers will be allowed to enter into franchisee agreement with cable TV network operators. However, the licensee shall be responsible for compliance of the terms and conditions of the licence. Further, in the case of DTH services, the service providers shall be permitted to provide receive-only-Internet service after obtaining ISP licence from DoT.

The DTH Service providers will also be permitted to provide bi-directional Internet services after obtaining VSAT and ISP licence from DoT.

What are the other important features of this new policy?

The policy intends to boost spread of fibre networks keeping in view the long term perspective as they are able to provide huge amounts of bandwidth in the last mile as well as provide a true IP and converged network that can deliver high quality voice, data and video.

The 2.40-2.48 GHz band will be delicensed for low power outdoor use on non-protection, non-interference and non-exclusive basis.

The 5.15-5.35 GHz band shall be delicensed for the indoor use of low power Wi-Fi systems. For outdoor use, the band 5.25-5.35 GHz shall be de-licensed in consultation with Department of Space while delicensing in the band 5.15-5.25 GHz would be considered after the process of vacation.

In order to simplify SACFA/WPC clearance, the VSAT operators shall be allowed to start the installation process for VSAT terminals after a period of one month of submitting all relevant documents to WPC for SACFA/WPC clearance wherever the total height of such installation is less than five metres above the rooftop of an authorised building.

In the case of receive-only VSAT terminals and DTH with receive-only-Internet, no SACFA/WPC clearance will be required wherever the total height of such installation is less than five metres above the rooftop of an authorised building.

A transparent scheme is being outlined separately for time-bound frequency allocation, siting clearance and wireless licensing by removing the cumbersome procedures, computerisation and by setting predetermined standards.

To keep pace with technological advances, throughput and antenna size for VSATs are proposed to be reviewed periodically.

Commercial VSAT service providers having ISP licence shall be permitted use of same hub station and remote station to provide Internet service directly to the subscribers. Further, these remote stations shall be permitted to be used as a distribution point to provide Internet services to multiple independent subscribers.

The policy has assigned a very high priority to indigenous manufacture of broadband related equipments and shall endeavour to work closely with the concerned ministries and manufacturers associations so that the equipment are made available at an affordable price.

New Corporate Rules

2004-08-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

Transportation:

It is advised that you come to work driving a car according to your salary.

If we see you driving a Honda, we assume you are doing well financially and therefore you do not need a raise.

If you drive a 10 year old car or taking public transportation, we assume you must have lots of savings therefore you do not need a raise.

If you drive a Pickup, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.

Annual Leave:

Each employee will receive 52 Annual Leave days a year (Wooow!). They are called Sunday.

Lunch Break:

Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch as they need to eat more so that they can look healthy.

Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure.

Fat people get 5 minutes for lunch, because that's all the time needed to drink a Slim Fast and take a diet pill.

Sick Days:

We will no longer accept a doctor Medical Cert as proof of sickness.

If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

Toilet Use

Entirely too much time is being spent in the toilets.

There is now a strict 3-minute time limit in the cubicles. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the door will open and a picture will be taken. After your second offence, your picture will be posted on the company bulletin board under the "Chronic Offenders" category. Subsequent pictures will be sold at public auctions to raise money to pay your salary.

Surgery:

As long as you are an employee here, you need all your organs. You should not consider removing anything. We hired you intact. To have something removed constitutes a breach of employment.

Internet Usage

All personal internet usage will be recorded and charges will be deducted from your bonus (if any) and if we decide not to give you any, charges will be deducted from your salary. (note: Rs.20 per minute as we have 4MB connection).

Just for the record. 73% of the staff will not be entitled to any salary for the next 3 months as their internet charges have exceeded their 3 months salary.

Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplation, consternation and input should be directed elsewhere.

Welcome Address by Subroto Bagchi, Chief Operating Officer, MindTree Consulting to the Class of 2006 at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore

2004-08-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

" I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep - so the family moved from place to place and, without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father. My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system which makes me what I am today and largely defines what success means to me today. As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government - he reiterated to us that it was not 'his jeep' but the government's jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep - we could sit in it only when it was stationary. That was our early childhood lesson in governance - a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do.

The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father's office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix 'dada' whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed - I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, 'Raju Uncle' - very different from many of their friends who refer to their family drivers as 'my driver'. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe. To me, the lesson was significant - you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.

Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother's chulha - an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was no gas, nor electrical stoves. The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman's 'muffosil' edition - delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simple lesson. He used to say, "You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it". That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.

Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios - we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios - alluding to his five sons.

We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply, "We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses". His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant. Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions.

Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father's transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, "I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited". That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.

My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life, I saw electricity in homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan. My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script. So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper - end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe. In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness.

Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term "Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan" and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University's water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination. Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.

Over the next few years, my mother's eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, "Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair". I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, "No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed". Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes. To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light.

Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life's own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life's calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places - I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world. In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi. I flew back to attend to him - he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, "Why have you not gone home yet?" Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self. There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what is the limit of inclusion you can create. My father died the next day.

He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion. Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts - the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant's world.

My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions. In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking. Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.

Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said, "Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world." Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity - was telling me to go and kiss the world!

Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and Godspeed. Go, kiss the world.

A Mail from a frustrated victim of spams and forwards

2004-08-13T10:23:00.000-07:00

*I wanted to thank all my friends and family who have forwarded chain letters to me in 2003 & 2004.
Because of your kindness:
* I stopped drinking Coca Cola after I found out that it's good for removing toilet stains.
* I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected with AIDS.
* I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they cause cancer.
* I don't leave my car in the parking lot or any other place and sometimes I even have to walk about 7 blocks for fear that someone will drug me with a perfume sample and try to rob me.
* I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to dial a stupid number and the I get a phone bill from hell with calls to Uganda, Singapore and Tokyo.
* I also stopped drinking anything out of a can for fear that I will get sick from the rat feces and urine.
* When I go to parties, I don't look at any girl no matter how hot she is, for fear that she will take me to a hotel, drug me then take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.
* I also donated all my savings to the AmyBruce account. A sick girl hat was about to die in the hospital about 7,000 times. (Funny that girl, she's been 7 since 1993...)
* I went bankrupt from bounced checks that I made expecting the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL were supposed to send me when I participated in their special e-mail program would arrive soon.
* My free Nokia phone never arrived and neither did the free passes for a paid vacation to Disneyland.*
* Made some Hundred wishes before forwarding those ganesh vandana etc..now most of those 'wishes' are already married :( to somone else * Still open to help some from bulgaria who wants to use my account to transfer his uncle property of some hundred millions $.