Completed MBA, Bucharest et al.

I hope all had a good festive time.

I am delighted to inform that I had completed the MBA-HR course of IGNOU. It took 3 years, 6 semesters and 19 papers. (1 paper in the second attempt, which delayed the results by a year, Never had a clue as to how I missed the papers, almost all folks who attempted the paper in HR during Dec 2004, had to reappear and complete. I think this was great and I had lot of learning. I now had to complete the project work which I am doing on corporate social responsibility. I expect to hit the steam soon.

OK, Now to my Bucharest visit. I had a great time in Bucharest. Romania is an upcoming nation like India. The situation is no different with the growth. The only difference is unemployment is practically zero and so they are looking at Romanians from outside the country, (Romania is smaller than greater Bombay with 20 Million people, Bucharest is 2 Million) mostly in Spain etc to come back and build the nation. The traffic jams and disorderliness reminds you of Bombay. The accent people speak reminds you of the James Bond movie (Russia with love etc). The hotel Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel was very good.

I hope you are also aware that Dracula has its origin from Romania, so its also called the land of Dracula.

The great thing that attracted me to Bucharest are the Architecture, Bucharest has the world's second largest building which now houses the Romanian Parliament. There are many beautiful buildings. It appears, Nikolai Ceausescu, who ruled Romania in communist times from 1965 to 1989, built and showed many great things to Romanians how great things can be, showed people what better things are and never allowed them to enjoy it.

Of course, one of the other thing of striking nature was the prettiness of the women in Romania. I usually never bothered about that anywhere else to take notice, But this was a striking nature in them. I think there is something that is different and comes close to Indian beauty, I guess. Needless to say, I shared this with my wife as the first email from Romania and to few women friends I have, so the issue is settled I guess.

I had also chance to meet my classmate Krishnan, in New Jersy after 5 years, we met for the second time in the US the first one in 2001 after 18 years. I plan to find the rest of the guys of our college and lets see how it goes. We did our graduation in TCE, Madurai. Pl find the photo with his family taken in Morris town, NJ.

I am reading the book "Execution, the discipline of getting things done" by Larry Bossidy, the ex- chairman of Honeywell. Larry turned the company around. If you want to know about the Honeywell culture, that's the best book to read.

Take care and catch up with you soon

Karthik.

Liverpool

I thought I will do this Blog with the color of the Mersey Derby the football teams of the city, Liverpool and Everton.

So I got a chance to visit the Historic city, which is an hour drive from Preston and went around the city. The Albert dock which is one of the biggest port docks I had even seen extending miles and miles. The Liverpool skyline looks very Victorian the architecture very unique.

I had chance to stand on the banks of the Mersey river which meets in to the Atlantic on the coast of Liverpool.

The biggest moment was the 2 hrs I spent at the Beatles museum, I am sure many of you know that Liverpool is the birth place of Paul, John. It was great going thro the metamorphosis of the group. It was an emotional experience. Especially the last segment with John's Solo career where the song "Imagine" plays out. It is difficult to control your emotions.

This week travel and all the enjoyment was possible to the fantastic effort by my boss Anthony Wareham (He is based out of Manchester). Anthony and Kate took their time off from their busy and Hectic schedule, to take me to football, dinner, lunch as well as to Liverpool. Thanks to them, this was one of the most memorable weekends. It is a dodgy thing to push a weekend in business tour, this one was very different.

PL find the photos of the Mersey River, Albert dock and Beatles Museum.

Have a great week ahead.

English Football League

Today I had a chance to come to terms with the English football league. I had been to a I division English league match between Preston North end vs Sunderland. Preston is the place I stay and so I was in the home team fan club. I sat on the top grand stand view and was in the crowd of 20,000 people for this sold out match. The atmosphere was electric and something fantastic, after seeing cricket crowd in India, I should say this is different, with all the comments etc that come from the stands. It was a great experience to see live about English football over which you hear about Radio and TV of late now.

Preston won 4-1 for the records so there were plenty of goals.

I also visited the national football museum in Preston, This team was one of the premier founder of English football league in 1888, so has lot of historical significance and contributed a lot, It was great to see all the world cup action snap shots, as well as to hear about my English favourites like Linekar, Gascoigne, Cantana, etc etc and see the actions in replay in this huge museum.

I also bumped in to former Manchester United captain and Irish football player Roy Keane, Couldn't get his autograph though. So it was a good time and the 4 hrs went just like that.

Pl find some of the snaps.

Things are going great, I had a good time in USA and I look forward to my Romania visit. I am learning a lot here, and the scale of operations are huge to say the least.

I am reading Tipping point by Malcom Gladwell, Will comment about that book soon.

Take care

Karthik.

Mozilla Firefox

Snap 2.

This was a memorable snap, this was all done with team work at Monsanto Bellary site(The first site I assumed charge in 1999-2000,great team and caring people- ofcourse the travel to that place is another story) the date 5-5-06, is significant as that was the date I put in my papers. My mother and Daughter are in the background.

Snap 1, This was an unexpected pleasant surprise from Monsanto, this came to me after a month of my departure all the way from Australia. I was overwhelmed by this gesture I must say. This was all possible due to team efforts at Monsanto.

Take care
Karthik.

Wasting food and NW 042

It is almost 3 weeks I am in to my new job and I know that there are people out reading this blog who are keen to know how I am doing as well as expecting me post some information on the blog site. I am settling down and I am on a new learning curve, Of course I am still busy with working on some of the peripherals of the job change like arranging for House, Car etc etc so that takes a bit of your time and energy as well as distract you from focusing intensely. But overall, I feel I am entering a new phase and for some time it is time to get know the best practices and inculcate them. I will touch up on this later.

I am touching up on couple of thoughts which I don't know how many of you may agree.

1) I have traveled around the world a bit to substantiate what I say, the amount of wastage we in India do while eating food is simply unacceptable, more so when the food comes subsidised or comes at much less the price. I have seen in plenty of cases where people just fill the plates with food which in normal case can feed two or three and just waste it. Moreover, if probed, the answer is "The quality is not good", so what else to do but to waste it. We thought it will be worth eating but later found that it is not Worth eating it. Do we ever appreciate the fact that some one else is paying for it or some times, the food you waste denies some body who would otherwise you have happily ate that. I wonder. Just because it comes at much less price, we tend to take it for granted. I have also seen the same people, when going to restaurant with family or paying for it in actual, tells the bearer to pack the left over to take home. What a contrast is that because He has paid Evey dime for it?
I also see this phenomenon, where some facility is given, where people tend to take maximum mileage/advantage of it, be it a creche for working mothers, or Internet usage in office, we tend to feel that we should extract maximum use of it, like leaving the child as soon as its opened and pick up the child at couple of minutes before closure. Just because the facility is there and we have paid some money so lets take full advantage of it.(Some times I feel parents dont even think how the child would feel to spend 12 Hrs away from parents) Same is the case in corporate sponsored events, the hotel is kind of ripped as though people had never been to a 3 or 5 star before, taking this and that from the room and not even leaving the folder or wash cloth and some fitting too that were never suppose to be taken, and let some else pay for it when found out. I have heard from my HR consultants / event managers friends who arranged or coordinated the events lamenting about it. Why is this attitude, I wonder. I am not at all talking about the Drinking tamasha that Indians do in international flights, it is too well known fact. I leave it not to describe. Why is this attitude.

2) I am personally not surprised at what Happened in flight,NW 042,I have traveled in NW 41/42, 5 times to USA, I take the same flight every time to US via Amsterdam from Bombay. The Northwest crew are one of the best, polite and most helpful I have seen. So they would have been alarmed by something extraordinary. Please don't mistake me that I am against any religion, My best friends are in Pakistan and I have visited Pakistan 10 times, i wouldn't have traveled there, If I felt otherwise or had some bias.(I always had the option of not going there)

I think,We always feel that the rules to adhered are for some one else. I had been a witness to couple of incidents in which Indian passengers being deported back to India from the destination airport for their rule breaking and misbehaviour with Air hostess. I feel that in the present situation, you need to be really watchful and follow the rules or else pay the penalty. How many times I have seen our guys inside the aircraft not switching off cellphone, moving around aircraft either about to take off or land,paying no heed to the instructions warning by crew. Sadly most of the Indians I guess, feel, you can get Scot free also in overseas like we do here by breaking the law or not paying attention. Unfortunately this is not the case. Please do not mistake me for one minute that I justify what has happened. I too have undergone intense check including intense physical search at least in one or two sectors during my travel to USA every time over the last 5 years when I am picked at Random, (Ask my boss, who was with me last time it happened twice in 2 days in Chicago and New Jersey 3 weeks back, I told him that I get Privilege status and I bypass the long waiting queue by going thro that check). My hand bags go thro the Explosive or dangerous goods scanner. I have also been surrounded by passport control in Germany, on the streets, thrice in one day and answered questions for 20 minutes before being let go. So I know what it feels to come under the scanner. But the thing is you must respect the law of the land and adhere to it at all costs. There are no 2 ways, and you have only hobson's choice. If you don't like it, Don't go West, it's as simple as that. To call it racial or any other way is senseless. I think the countries are doing what they feel is right and actions are justifying results. I agree with Tony Blair's statement that after 9/11 and 7/7 or 11/7 whatever, Human rights and Civil liberties will have new meaning and frame of reference.


By the way this week reflects the 11th anniversary of launch of MS- Windows 95, How far computer usage have come. I remember the use of windows in 1996 when I saw the power point presentation (in Astra Zenecca when I was working)with audio and was zapped.

This week also reflects on personal side completing 21 years of ending college life, I still remember the telegram(Email was unheard, let alone Gmail) from Dr MRB our professor from GCT, Coimbatore sent in 1985,with words" Passed, Pl come and collect Mark sheets" Some events are etched in mind is it not. While I am in touch with some of the classmates, the % is less than 15%. I think the next generation will have more contacts. Speaking of next generation, I have some thoughts, which I will share later.
Take care
Karthik.

Kingfisher

There have been lot of responses to my Blog and People are generally Appreciative of the content. As I am preparing to spend a weekend at home, back from a week in Pune, I thought I would share some thoughts.

The Kingfisher trip this week to Pune and back was a kindof experience,it would Put Indian Airlines to feel great. When I phoned last Friday to telecheckin for the Saturday morning flight, the reply was no such PNR( I had confirmed ticket, I was wondering if I would sign in on Saturday with Honeywell, else Lalitha would say wait till the next auspicious day and I have learned the very very hard and tragic way, never to Ignore her on this, that's for another episode) then they called me after 2 hrs and said they have confirmed me and gave me the seat no 24F). I reached Airport Saturday, told 24 F while checking in and didnt bother to check the Boarding pass,(never did after Jet airways spoiled me well over 250 flights, and when I entered Aircraft, the Horror was Middle seat 8B.Hell of a time, I ordered coffee as Ididnt feel like having breakfast, as luck would have it, due to the turbulent weather conditions no coffee was served. (Cant blame them)

The worst to come and that was when I planned to return to Bangalore,last night. I reached the airport at 630pm for the 710 pm flight, they said technical delay at Ahmedabad and flight would leave at 8, and then 8 become 830, then 9,9.30,10,10.45, 1130 etc. At 945 pm I thought enough was enough and canceled the ticket and managed to get a seat for the Jet flight this morning.

The Station Manager was a poor guy, people mobbed him and he did his best, but he had no higher ups to turn to, looks like, as expected in crisis, all the bosses disappear, I guess. (He told us that his boss is Inside an aircraft, and not reachable !!!! can you beleive that) I am told the flight left Pune at 3pm this morning. I saw first hand, experience of mob hysteria, More men Coat and Suits screaming for attention, but you cant blame the passengers, Can you??This was my 3rd tist with Kingfisher (I have Hobson's choice for this odd route as Jet doesnt cover this sector that much) probably the last for some time to come. But the station manager was a great guy, handled very very well the situation.

I hope Kingfisher would have some learnings and would work plan B in future for such situation as they multiply their fleet. Their services are good and so are the aircrafts, But to win Jet Loyalists, business travelers like me, they need to go extra miles. I was comforted by their efforts that they did their best to accomadate as many passengers for the morning Jet Flight, but very few seats were there for grabs. I had a similar situation with Jet in Calcutta last year, when I had gone for an interview, I got a call that Flight was delayed 150 Minutes late, and thats it, The flight left Calcutta 150 minutes late, an aicraft was diverted and sent to Calcutta for this flight.

The silver lining in the whole episode was I got an upgrade to business class to accomadate more passengers.

By the way, it was great to see the Sun God on the flight back after 6 days, I was so thrilled to see him that I just stared straight back at him for a minutes and tears rolled down, I enjoyed it. It was pouring and pouring in Pune so much so that all my plans to meet my friends went in smoke.

I also bumped in to some of the BASF Mangalore plant guys in the hotel lobby unexpectedly, Met them after 7 years, some of them just look the same, some people dont grow old, I guess, unlike me.

Wanted to leave you with this sad story, How promising lives are cut short.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1763387,0006.htm

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=196303

Will try to Blog before Independence day.
Take care and Have a good time
Karthik.

Hiroshima Bombing week

Before I go in to Hirsoshima,This week was kind of a hectic week, Back from US travel, then Business travel and windup + all the farewell Lunch and Dinner and culminating with me Signing in for Honeywell Saturday here in Pune. The auspicious day and time plays a huge part and influence, I guess.

The farewell messages were very touchy from the Monsanto colleagues, from the way it sounds, I did my best to put things around, and 7 years is a lot of time, in today's context to interact with people and to make an influence.

I received a wonderful parting memento from my Bangalore Lunch colleagues,(The Lunch Lamblasters I should call) we are 12 of us form the lunch team and discuss and examine where the world is heading and find solutions. (How much gets activated is another matter!!). They presented me with a wonderful gift and here it is the slot, the god of good beginning and the goddess of wealth and wisdom.

Overall, I guess I had a wonderful time out in Monsanto, it is a great and vibrant organization and people are supportive and leadership ready to listen to your business and personal needs and try to work out practical solutions. The incentive plan and stock options were delightful carrots. Yes, every organization can improve a bit , I will put my money on, clear Career succession planning for people, they would have created a kind of ideal work place.

Today is the 61 anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. I think this event changed the world for ever I guess.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki

http://www.atomicmuseum.com/tour/dd2.cfm

Take care
Karthik.