Men and Women

I am asking my wife to let me know a topic about which I should dwell upon on the blog. I am waiting for a response, as usual in a typical professional fashion she has put me on the hold. (it's 5 Minutes since I had asked) May be thinking difference between men and women could be the topic I can write about.

On that, I had read the following books and I would recommend, people to read,it had helped me a lot. Remember, I had a Lady Boss for 6 years.It was a great time in my career. You may read about her here. I had also mentioned about her in my previous posts.Besides my ex- boss, a She friend at work, helped me understand women better. Her friendship also gave me a different perspective to know and understand "What Women Want" and for the first time(after 9 years of marriage in 2000, some Sagittarians are naive you may say !!!!) I had brought a gift for my wife on the wedding anniversary / birthdays and this is now a routine affair 17 years in to the marriage. Its also a coincidence that these three women who influence me a lot and lot are all Cancerians.

Please go through the following books, It for sure made a hell of a difference for me and I hope for you too.
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.

Why Men dont listen Women cant read maps.

Its 15Minutes still no response, I guess, she has forgotten about the question. Not surprised aren't you.

Ok, I was very fortunate to hear Peter Drucker interview, I had read some of the writing of the great man,but was amazed at his clarity and humility, when I heard this interview. Pl take time to listen to this great master piece. The 45 minutes are worth it. Let me know your thoughts. I also want you to hear the tribute to Drucker by Various management gurus.

Ok, Here is Mark and Mike in Flesh and Blood in a sense. You might have heard the voice but not the face,Pl see Mark here.

I am saddened by the events in Hyderabad. My heart goes out for the families of people who lost the dear and near ones.

40 Minutes in to Blogging still no response from my wife.Thats what women are. Of course, She has seen this and I have green signal to post this uncensored.

Until next time, Take it easy and take care,Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Class C cities Accelarating.

I am glad that I could find time today to sit in front of the Laptop.Its amazing that I haven't been out of Bangalore for 3 Months on business travel that when I got a chance on personal travel with my wife last week, it looked a new experience. You are so used to routine that a change is the thing you look forward to.

I was pleasantly surprised by the infrastructure available at the Madurai and Trichy airports. The facilities are much better in terms of passenger access, waiting area, catering etc. Infact Trichy airport expansion looks bigger than the present Bangalore Airport. This gave me a chance to travel on one of those rare occasions by Air Deccan from Madurai to Bangalore and to our relief the flight was on time. So some improvement. This visit also gave me a chance to visit the town Manamadurai in Tamilnadu. The town is 50 Kms from Madurai and famous for earthen pots. I did my First Grade here in 1969. I was with our uncle for a year as my father had been to Benaras for his higher studies. (He got his PG Degree when he was 28 and Ph.D at 58 in Corrosion Studies, more on thats for another blog for how I plan to follow his foot steps).

I was also amazed at the developments happening in Karaikudi, my home town. The one hour I spent on the morning walk shook me literally. I didn't recognize most of the buildings that have come up on the places I assumed something else existed. The houses of my school teachers, are razed and multi story shopping complex has come up. I couldn't even place the geographical coordinates to the nearness. Even street patterns had changed, so much so that my cousin who had come from New Jersey to meet my parents last week, missed the intersection to turn in for our house(He lived and studied with us for 3 years 15 Years back). Such is the mushrooming of real estate. The green trees and open space looks like thing of the past even in a C Grade town like Karaikudi which are quite and sleepy towns for educational excellence.

Changing subject, I am glad that Manager tools won the best Podcast award in the business category at Podcast Alley awards. I did my best to vote for Mike and Mark everyday. I am glad to see Anna too made it in the top 10. I am sure I had sent the Horstman's law to all in my email list.

Bye
Till next time, take it easy and take Care. Live Consciously.
Karthik.

Baby India 60.

I am sorry that I was away from Blogging for a couple of things,too many things happening at home front which involved lot of conversations on Sunday as well as personal travel. I apologize.

As India turned 60 yesterday,I just thought that I will choose the 44 moments (There I go thats my age) that kind of defined the India as a personality. The success, the failures, the shame, the People, the companies that made it possible.
Here I go. This is not in order of preferences or seriousness.

1. Emergency 1975. Country put to shame. Indian express fought it tooth and Nail. Yes, as a 12 year old boy I saw things happening with clockwork precision, trains were on time, government servants for a change worked.
2. 1977 Election, Saw congress routed. Being a right winger at that age, I still remember chasing news in BBC radio as Indian media was suffering blackout of results.
3. Moraji Desai/ Raj Narayan. The first non Congress prime minister who I consider as a man brought practicalities in to economy. Raj Narayan was our own Dan Quayle, of course more than a political comedian, he made sure that 2 prime ministers lost the job.
4. Death Of Rajaji. I think he left a deep remark in South Indian politics for making sure that congress is wiped out as an entity in south India. Ofcourse, its a case of fire to frying pan as I guess this alienated south Indians from national main stream.
5. 5day work week for government employees/ retirement age 60. Great move to make the work society less barbaric. I am a strongly against 6 day week as it inhibits productivity. This happened in 1985.
6. Thermax. The great Indian company which can give a run for any multinational in terms of work culture. I am told things have changed a bit in the recent past.
   
7. Sanjay Gandhi. I think his ideas were good, execution poor.
   
8. Rajeev Gandhi Assassination. Welcome to the real world of terrorism of suicide bombings.
9. Phokran II Testing. Made World take notice of India as a super power.
   
10. Rakesh Sharma, Indias own Yuri Gagarin.
11. Indias cricket win over England and West Indies in 1971. Cricket matured.
12. India winning world cup hockey in KL in 1975.
13. APJ Abdul Kalam The people president.
    
14. Viswanathan Anand The world grandmaster champion of chess.
15. Bachindra Pal, the first India women to claim Mt.Everest.
16. Jayalalitha crushing the Tamilnadu government employees strike. I hope the goverment guys learned a lesson, Im told that they still get nightmare, good for them to get that to work.
    
17. Jimmy Carter visiting India to begin the cold relations that Nixon had.
18. 1971 War. Deeds of Arumugam.
19. Sam Manekshaw/ Nanda/ PC Lal, the Architects of 1971triumph.
20. Kuldeep Nayyar who took heads on Indira Gandhi during emergency. The yard stick for the fourth estate. Of course Indira Gandhi was our own Golda Meir.
    
21. Justice HR Khanna of Allahabad High court. Who dare to cross path with Indira Gandhi.
22. Kanishka Bombings.
23. Kausalya Narayan/ Mohan Kumaramangalam death in plane crash in Delhi in May 1973,loss of emerging talents.
24. Alliance air crash in Patna. The last we heard of aircrash in India (Touchwood).
25. MGR Death in 1987, choas in TN politics.
26. Emergence of private airlines, made air travel a common place.
27. Sholay.
28. Deaths in Kumbakonam/ Srirangam fire accidents. Never this should happen.
    
29. Cargil War the heros.
30. Formation of BJP. The Hindu alternative and awakening.
    
31. Indian edition of Economist/ HBR, you can pay Rupees to get it, Great, so the world is coming to you.
32. July 26th rain and havoc in Bombay.
33. Shame of allowing communists to have a say in governance, else where the communism is in the museum.
34. Reliance Industries, The indian industrial giant.You can hate or love them.
    
35. Sam Pitroda/ Airtel Broadband. Virtual work made possible.
36. Modernisation of US consulate for visa process, previously it was a shame to see the rush and chaos for visa. Some American thought enough was enough.
37. Jumbo passport booklet, Thank god, with visa regime everywhere,you can atleast keep passport current for some more time.
38. Availability of mineral water everywhere.
39. Prannoy Roy/ Rajdeep Sardesai. Brought world class TV journalism in to India.
40. Removal of hand pulling carts in Tamilnadu in 1977, I am still pained to see this in West Bengal and other states.
41. Deve Gowda speech in Parliament, once he talked truth and sense.
42. Godhra riots/ 1992 riots, I don't agree with Violence, at least this brought the knowledge to the world that Hindus can retaliate. I guess in some way things were squared and peace prevailed thereafter, I have seen enough curfew in Gujarat in my 12 year stay.
43. Indian space program brought satellite TV home. Thanks to Dr Kasturi Rangan.
44. Movie Swades. If I ever go back to work in Indian companies, this movie could have been the trigger.

Karthik
Jai Hind.