AMRITKALA

I am delighted to blog this post sitting in our new Apartment "AMRITKALA". We completed the legal formalities Friday, 17th July 09 and so our move is complete. Amrit= Nectar of God and Kala is Time. So more reign for things that have god's blessings etc.

We managed to get the Internet connection and wireless phone in this area Subramanya Nagar, Bangalore where the last mile connectivity is yet to be established. So things would go on. We are in the process of settling down and I expect the process to complete soon. Yes we are the 3rd owner to move in out of this 110 Apt of Renaissance Park III. I expect others to follow in 4 to 6 weeks. As for completion of construction I would assume it is 3 to 5 months to complete, so we got to bear with the noise associated with them as well as construction from massive adjacent project of Brigade Gateway(Photo above).

Here is the google map of the Apt. coordinates.


Our achievement was all due to collective efforts put in by all of us as the Renaissance Park III Owners association who chased things at every stage over the last 15 months. Every project needs a great leader and we got one in Mr Suparna, about whom I had mentioned before. The managing committee of our association was helpful at all stages to help when required. Yes, Renaissance Builders also did their best, to be fair in these tough times, So thanks to all.

I am posting some of the photos of the house and ceremony which we did before we moved in.
Hope to resume regular blogging from Sunday........

Regards
Karthik

Rush Rush Rush

Last 10 days have been kind of rush with chasing for final completion of our apartment, Managing finance for shortfall (as usual and as expected dipping in to savings from my pension fund to take from government takes ages; so no help there- not surprising???!!!! ) Wimbledon also took time, seeing off parents to home town after 8 weeks here (With a surgery for dad)...... So Blogging took a back seat! (Lazy too!!!).....

OK, Take it easy and take care; Till then live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Balance, School children, Coffee, Good Boss.....

It is good to be back to blogging after last week ill health. It was tough times but it gave a chance to catch up on reading.....

One of the key aspect in life is work life choice. To choose and work balance between work and personal life. Both needs to be maintained, somehow in this part of the world one overlaps over the other most of the time. I saw an interesting aspect of this during my visit to Japan a couple of years back. On Wednesday evening, no one is allowed to stay late, they need to clear their work desk and leave for home. Exceptions are by prior permission from Boss's boss. A good chance to at least spend an evening with family. Wish some of our folks learn this and make a beginning.

I always wondered when I hear from my American friends that children participate in so many extra curricular activities!. I always wondered how do they find time for all such events beside studies. I got some of the answer from Lexington this week, that American children spend 32 Hrs a week in school with 3 months vacation vis a vis 45 Hrs a week here in India.(6 days) and 6 weeks holidays. No wonder there is time, but I am glad at least many kids there spend it usefully in extracurricular activities!. Good for them... I hope.

This article made me wonder!! May be it is a joke! That Comrade Chavez fears that President Obama is more to the left than himself or Castro!... Yes, the way economy is shaping up.. Staling may stir in his grave!!.

Here is an interesting snippet on the drink to which I am addicted. Coffee is good for health so says HBR so justifying my 7 cups a day (large 400 Ml cups)..... I almost gave up coffee in the year 2000. The addiction picked up during the Maiden USA visit in 2001 kicked in the habit back and since then the resolve has gone downhill... More so with cups presented in USA as souvenirs didn't help.. Talking of HBR, here is a great article I read by Prof. Sutton on How to be a good boss in bad economy. I only hope, we don't put this in to execution!! and as good to know. I begin to feel HBR is beginning to revamp itself under new editor Adi Ignatius. I wish him success and look forward to great compilation serving practical aspects of Management and leadership.

Mr Suparna, our good friend (Park III Home owners association) has forwarded me an email on Vivekananda university on Yoga here in Bangalore. Thought of sharing this information in the blogosphere.

Until next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik

Emotional Being!!!!!........

I am down with VIRAL Fever since Friday evening and hence couldn't post Sunday evening.The Bone crushing pain was horror and sleep deserted me for 3 nights. I am hearing many of my friends / colleagues here did suffer effects and didn't attend office last week.

I assume it was also linked to psychological/ emotional well being as some events / situations during last week were disappointing; from there on could have let the mental guard down!!. I guess there is connection between Physical well being and emotional state!!!......

Amidst all this, the good feeling Sunday was my son's team Winning the basket ball tournament and picking up a medal, certificate and a cash Prize of Rs. 151(US$3). I don't remember ever doing one!!!!.


Will post this weekend.
Until then take it easy and take care; Live consciously.

Karthik

Emergency, Traffic, Soderling, U-Turn.

This Blogpost is worked from IE8.0 for a change. The search for this blog post is done thro BING. Let me post my comments next week on how this worked out.!!!

As posted in my facebook page, My father has been hospitalised in Manipal hospital for an emergency (but not life threatening) surgery Friday evening. The surgery went well and he is recovering well. We hope to have him back home, Tuesday. The Manipal hospital (near my home so makes the commute easy)is one of the best hospital with team of good doctors and support staff. Yes, I do find the administrative section like paying doctor fees, getting appointment, retrieving medical reports are irksome and frustrating. I wish they could take advantage of technology, Medical Record management systems to manage information/ access/ for patient interaction better. !!

Also Friday was a significant day for other event, yes, if you had read my recent posts, I have been covering the progress about my upcoming home and issues etc. We did get an appointment to meet the CEO of Renaissance Holdings Mr Ramanj. The meeting went well in a cordial atmosphere(!!) and we got to understand each other's perspective and issues. The good news is that CEO has committed himself to end our Park III project, in about 4 to 6 weeks. We are also seeing some evidence like permanent Electric supply restored etc. I will for the time being put an end to this topic and lets review in say about 6 weeks to see where things stand!!.

Over the last 2 weeks, I had first hand experienced the perils of traffic jam in Bangalore. The heavy rains in low lying areas at which my office is located made experience of commuting a 10 mile drive in over 120 minutes.(twice in a week!!). Yes, the positive side for me is almost after 2 years, I switched on the CD system in my car and listened to the music/ FM Radio. Hmmm, something positive. The rains had its share of tragedy with 2 people being washed away in the open storm drains in to which they were sucked in by the flood waters. You would assume the city is safe!! Not so. Yes, there are changes in civic administration, but it calls for more of execution I would assume.

Who remembers a loser!, we may wonder. The way Robin Solderling, conducted himself in the presentation ceremony of the French open final at Roland Garros is an example of some times the winner gets overshadowed, the way we enjoyed himself made me wonder as to whether he had won the open?. He treated us to a great exhibition of Tennis. Well Done Sir.!!.

It was interesting to read Andrea Jung interview in which she says Fire yourself and do an introspection to come good. Very true!!, the issue is we don't let go the ego in us to do a self search!.

I leave with an interesting article which I read in WSJ, on the reverse brain drain the great U TURN. Who would have thought that thing would come to this!!!. Anyway!!.

Don't wait till next week, I am more comfortable with GOOGLE. Switched after doing half the blog.!!.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

PS: Meeting a school senior after 29 Years in the hospital yesterday. Dr Latha; whom I met in Hospital Saturday, is a senior (3 years) from my school at Karaikudi. Amazing is the human memory to recognise some one after 29 years in a split second!.

Temper, Kindle, Recession,Art of living, AF 447

Posting this blog with the multitask of watching French Open Men's final.

Saturday was a new experience for me from holding emotions/ temper perspective. As I had been indicating in the previous blog that I am planning to move to our new apartment, and I was indicating that the project at Renaissance Park III in Malleswaram, (Renaissance Holdings) is almost 18 months behind schedule. Yesterday, we had been given to understand that we will be meeting the CEO at his office to express our concern and request a speedy progress. When we reached the office, it was a shocker to see none of the senior executives had turned up and tempers of some of the flat owners assembled (About 40 of them) was flaring up; after a lot of angry exchange over phone, the mid level staff came to the office and met us stating that the project is slow progress but definitely not a no progress. After great reluctance, they have committed to bring the CEO to meet us next week. Let us see how things shape up!!. What saddens me personally was the lack of communication on progress, No regret at deadlines after deadlines being missed with no sense of remorse!. What was a shocker yesterday (with people who had come there by chance,) was other projects are also painfully slow. We hope to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, the market is slow; all projects by other builders are also delayed and flat owners having no say, but a honest, transparent communications and treating customer with dignity and respect as said by Gandhi would go some way!!. Looks like lack of emotional intelligence. Yes, some of the flat owners were in angry mode, but that is understandable.

Not sure that if I had mentioned about the Amazon Kindle, the new revolutionary ebook reader. Having seen a couple of them in old version over the last 18 months during the flights, I was impressed and the new Kindle version as well as Kindle Dx. No wonder it can be the Iphone of ebook industry. Yes, the price at 359$ is high and and is not available outside USA. I am sure with the popularity it would soon come out in other parts of the world.

The more I read international articles, the more it appears that India and China have escaped the deep effects of Recessions. Looks like the Decoupling has happened. I am seeing signs when I talk to my Indian company friends, who ask me back, "Recession,!! What Recession!!???". It is good to see India and China would lead the recovery. Of course, the effects on long term would be worth waiting and watching.

This week on the personal side, I attended the Toastmasters session as a guest and found it interesting!!. I might give a serious thinking to become a member. Worth the efforts it appears. Also, for the first time I attended the Art of living session conducted by Sampath Althur who did a great job guiding us to the right way. It was a great experience to undergo the session. While the activities, per se, were nothing more than an ergonomic stretch,I feel the effect of refreshingly different from within comes from the deep peace and the way breathing in and out which kind of cools you a lot. Let me see how I take this forward to the next level.

I leave you with tragedy of AF 447, and pray that the trauma of the family of dead is settled soon with the discovery of the wreckage and bodies. That will give the family members a chance to give decent funeral and feel an unknown is resolved. Also with the black box, when found would lead to the mystery unveiled and lessons learnt will be implemented to avoid recurrence and to take aviation safety to the next level.

As I finish blog, Federer has won Roland Garros, the last frontier for him.!

Till next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik

Illegal downlod, Bond, Travellers,Wave

I am back from a meeting of our association in which we discussed the inordinate delay about our Housing project of Renaissance project Park III. It looks like it is going to take more and more delay with things moving at snails pace in the common utility front like power and municipal water. Looks like we need to escalate the issues. Matters were not helped by the traffic chaos due to the Marathon relay arranged here today. Just wonder, when the public will have free access to roads without all the nuisance of rally, marathon, protests etc!!!!. Bangalore traffic has become nightmare!!.

I was not surprised to read that people all over the world are resorting to illegal downloads from sites. The articles show that in Aussie land, Uk the use of bit torrent sites is rampant and is a big concern due to the recession in which people care for every penny. This is more a personal experience as this week I spent about 85$ for renewing my wife's laptop Norton's account. The satisfaction of buying original stuff is amazing!!. Of course, I must make a disclosure that some of the info that comes from Bittorent sites are useful, no questions!!. It comes from a click of a mouse and of course, the charges you pay of 45$ per month, for your ISP provider is the cost for that I guess!!!.

This week marks 100 years of James Bond's secret service MI6. What a character!!, and thrilling the audience in both paper and celluloid. My favorite Bond actor has always been Sean Connery. No questions. Don't remember seeing the latest bond movies!! (Bump in to them in flights more to kill time!!).

It is coincidence that as I read about the violent attacks on Indian students in Australia this week. I read couple of articles about Aussies being the worst tourists abroad!!. It is not surprising given the adjustments needed to be a traveler!!. It is tough and needs resilience to fit in to local culture and a sense of emotional adjustment.

We agree that politicians are made of stronger stuff and don't let their emotions out!. So it was kind of strange to read about El Salvador's president weeping over his son's death and bring the perpetrators to justice. After all every one is human!!.

Google news on Working on Algorithms to see which employee would leave has interesting aspects of employee retention prediction. In a sense, scary that it becomes commercially viable!!. On other google news, watch out for Google wave, the interactive aspects of communication which would go to a next level. My feeling / excitement on seeing demo of Wave was the same as when I saw MS sharepoint about 3 years back!!! for data storage and interaction and which is part and parcel today for me at my work in Honeywell.

Ok, so on IPL Cricket, the Hyderabad team won the championship. It was a great result and personally satisfying one, more so they beat a team in the final sponsored by an Brewery brand!!!. I am also glad that I stayed away from live cricket having watched in total less than 20 Minutes over 35 days. Good for me!!.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik
Bangalore,India.

Iron Lady, WSJ, Toddler, expenses,

The week was a hectic one with the preparations for the house warming ceremony Friday for our new apartment at Renaissance Park III at Malleswaram. The last 3 weeks work was like about 3 years work to bring the house to speed with the chasing/ followup. The function went well, hopefully we should be able to move in the next 6 to 8 weeks.

I could not write about the Iron Lady I admire most,(Conservative of course, who else) Margaret Thatcher last week due to various issues covered and for want of time and space. It is 30 years since she assumed office and brought a turnaround to the British economy as well as the famous war. She and Golda Meir are the kind of leaders the world needs to turn things around. I am sure her leadership style would return to UK in the next 50 weeks!!.

Glad to see the Wall Street Journal print edition in India. While I follow WSJ articles online as well as through the Indian print partner Livemint till now. I need to decide on subscribing to it. The subscription price US$ 250 for 2 years at 50% discount, looks little high for a personal subscription. With the recessionary trends, I wonder any individual would ask for official subscription ??!!! Worth hearing comments!!!

It was an amazing story of toddler ordering an excavator for 15,000 $ thro online auction site. He wanted a toy and ordered it online. I recollect my cousin informing me that his son tried online buy once and burnt a hole in the wallet!!. Perils of online access.!!

Echoing my views on the Pathetic state of Indian TV coverage here is the column by Mahesh Vijapurkar. Very practical, best way is to go back to the old days of watching TV News twice a day (Morning and night).. Just wonder when the standard of Indian TV would improve????, not in my time. Anyway, I had stopped watching/ wasting time. It is less than 10 min a day!!!.

The expenses scam in UK is a big news, the speaker resigned an historic event. Wonder what the British would think, if they hear the way our Member of Parliament do things, to me what the British folks did is nothing compared to what our guys do here!!!.
But people are sensitive and politicians are thin skinned!!!.

Came across the NIGHT JACK Blog of a frustrating British policemen. Very Intestine facts. On the Blogfront, here is an interesting post by Anna Farmery on Blogging facts.

I leave this week, with the former South Korean president, Roh Moo -Hyun committing suicide over corruption and favouritism scandal. Not surprising there, the high moral and ethics that prevail in South Korea which I had witnessed. Our politician will say........../

Until next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Election, Balmer, Ramesh, Food, Counterfeit

So, the results of the Indian elections were out yesterday, Saturday and as with the election results over the last 8 months all over the world, it has been a disappointing results to take for me. The only silver lining I see in this election is people have voted overwhelmingly for a party with interests/ focus in the national main stream. So this at least gives the government of Dr Manmohan Singh, that comes in a free mandate to do reforms which are badly needed without the whims to attend of smaller, regional parties and the left which I feel should have been long consigned to museum as happened in other parts of the world. So in the interst of national development, we hope things start happening after 5 retarded years. Wishing the Prime minister good luck till next elections. May be, we await a leader who would do a turn around for our agenda!! There is always hope!!. (Labor waited 18years in UK, so a 10 is acceptable)

As a practice now a days I stay away from TV and followed the whole election (but for 15 minutes of TV) on the web. My classmate Thirumalai Rajan, settled now in Bay area, Frisco runs a blog called IDLY VADAI( A south Indian Breakfast dish) in which I followed the fortunes of politician from my state of Tamil Nadu. Interesting developments as well as shameful display of money muscle power.

Moving away from political chaos and mess, it was refreshing to hear Steve Balmer speak to upcoming students at Stanford on challenges and issues ahead in Tech world as well as in MS. Worth a listen from the Microsoft CEO. On another front, this week I tried MS IE 8.0 for a change after downloading, and I was pleasantly surprised, it is not bad after all. Although when I tried to set up weather (It is now raining since 2pm, 4 hours ago) for Bangalore in the browser, there were B and C grade cities, but no Bangalore( A city with 7 mio people!!!).

Of late, I have switched to spending more time on listening to the south Indian music more of instrumental types, which I find very very soothing. I hit up on a great fusion of Western and south indian music by Ramesh of Nadaswaram fusion. A fabulous one especially Malai Soodinal.(Garland exchange during Indian marriage). I am looking for the lyrics for the songs, can anyone help?

So, the recession effects are beginning to take efforts in this part of the world. I am seeing in some places where, canteen food is no longer subsidised and you got to pay for yourself and buy food. I am seeing amazing change in the crowd behavior that comes to canteen has dwindled and many many people carry packed food from home, I am yet to do the switch over. Also the good part is the wastage of food has shrunk dramatically. I see clean plates at the disposal points, a great feeling. Food waste is a crime. Also hearing from friends that some companies are switching to 4 day week. Hmmm, sign of times!!!. Lets hope things move back to gear fast.!!.

I was amazed to read about the counterfeit racket in Lima, Peru. What was shocking also there was an arrest of 90 year old woman in robbery attempt. Wonder where things are going????!!!.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Outage, Githa, House,Evil

I was away last week and was tied up to ceremonies due to death in family and so good to be back.

I was away in Bombay for the ceremony and for the first time faced power outage in Bombay, black outs are common. Being a regular visitor in Bombay for more than 24 years, this was a surprise and I was always felt that Bombay is immune from power cuts. Everything is relative in time, it appears!!!.

I got access to the audio of teachings of Swami Chinmayananda on Bhagavad Gita. ( 55 parts each of 2 Hrs!!). What master preacher he was!!, he has presented the complex aspects of Krisha's battle field teachings to Arjuna in an elementary form with a sense of wit and laced with real life incidents. Worth listening. I plan to spend 2 Hrs on Saturday/ Sunday for this.

We are nearing the completion of our new apartment, Renaissance Park III in Malleswaram, Bangalore. The Project delayed by a year, we hope to see some happy end to this ordeal, may be over the next 4 to 6 weeks. We are in better shape than many other projects which are in inordinate delay as well as being scared by news paper advertisements by authorities (DLF) warning of purchase of properties.

So after 20 days, yesterday, I spent 8 min to watch live 11 balls in IPL. It was an accident, but yes, the fact that I stayed away from this evil for 20 days is a good sign.

Ok, till next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Chagas, Twitter,Marc Dreir, Job Hunting, Ants

We use the term"Chagas" as a term for expressing something when a happy ending in an unexpected situation. I was therefore horrified to read an article that Chagas is the number one killer in Latin America. This is an insect bite in the face and causes Heart and intestine failure. I was shocked to read that it is as a dreaded killer as fearful as Malaria in Africa and still nothing being done in a large scale to combat the disease.

Many months back I listened to the podcast in the Stanford university thought entrepreneur series when Evan Williams spoke about his journey in creating blogger and his work with Google. I could sense that time, listening that this guy has untapped potential. It is great to see that the Twitter is his brain child. I like Twitter and created account in 2007 but is not crazy about it, but I appreciate the effort. His next revolution, as indicated, email.

Mark has come with a great podcast last week on freeing your calendar for accomdating your schedule to be effective as well as efficient. A must listen to improve your productivity thro delegation and how to do it.

Would you believe that there are 14,000 Trillion(yes) ants in this planet ?The weight of ant on earth is equal human being and that the biggest colony of ant is 2.5 sq.km in Indonesia. Interesting facts. I was amazed!!!. Ants use swarm intelligence to work and as an individual are idiots!!! Hmmm.

Many Tamil movie viewers of the 1960s, would have seen Thangavelu playing as a comedian fraudster, (cheating/ compulsory liar as a employee in famous company, while unemployed) in the movie Kalyana parisu.(Wedding gift). I was reminded of that story when I read this Fortune article, on How Marc Dreir committed fraud to the extent of 700Mio$ as an impostor. Read this exciting, sad story as they say, truth is stranger than fiction.

Fortune magazine recently covered a practical article on how to land in tough times. A practical guide to be ready when things do go dreaded.!!

I was always feeling disgusted about IPL. So here is a blog on FAKE IPL that exposes the idiotic things happening there!!!. So my IPL stay away from TV has extended to 9 days and I haven't watched a single ball. Yes, also TV watching is less than 10 min. Keeping the idiot box away.

Wayne has done an excellent podcast on Telecommuting with Kate Lister, worth listening.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

KID's blog, Esamskriti, Virodhi, TRUE/ SLANT, Bumptop

Glad to be back to blogging after a week gap, as I was tied to running around for the completion of the upcoming apartment (Reniassance PARK III in Malleswarm) which require inputs from our side. Hopefully we look forward to moving in about 6 weeks time. ( A year behind schedule) Also, last week, I had lot of catch up on reading the magazines, journals so thought of giving update of the blog a miss.

Ok, Seeing me doing blogging, My Son wanted to give a shot at Blogging and has created his website at Blogspot.com. He did this on his own and did this when we were away on travel, so great to see some independent quick decisions. His blog is called Sharavansstance. I must admit that while I am a right wing, conservative, pro Republican, traditional, orthodox in my views, I have no way influenced him in what he writes and always insisted kids to be on their own sticking to basic values of humankind. He is delighted at having found his apparently lost FIFA 08 CD as well as Chelseas wins over the last 10 days so away on seventh heaven to come back to real world as well in his summer vacation mood. Incidentally this the link to my Daughter Radha's blog. She has been doing it for a while but I never did mention!!!.

Of Blog I must mention that My good frined and ex-collegue Aparna Sharma had sent a link to her husband's site on esmaskriti. It captures the essence of Indian culture. Here is the link.

We celebrated our Tamil new year on 14th April, the Tamil new year is called VIRODHI. Virodhi means ENEMY in Tamil. I just wondered how it would shape. As Tamil new year calendar is 60 year cycle, my friend Dilip looked at 1949 to what it was, and we found that the Indian constitution was written that year. Was it good or bad omen!!!! I will leave it to readers judge!!!!!??????.

My resolution not to spend not more than 10 minutes per day at the television is going great. I am in to the III week and yes it is not more than that. Yes, when I have dinner got to gulp as the family watches some serial, so that 15 Minutes don't count. I am staying successfully staying from the poisonous IPL for the second day. Hope god gives me the courage, resolute to go that way.

I read Walter Mosberg review on TRUE/ SLANT and I had subscribed to it. Great resource to see live journalism. Also try the Bumptop reviewed by him. I have instantly downloaded and installed in this laptop. A great view of the desktop.

Parliamentary Election process is on India and it will be a 5 week process. I guess at the end of the day, We wont have chads and Hopefully a clear mandate for a stable, progressive looking government which can make up for the 5 years we lost!!!.

Today, I had been to the inauguration of the POLAR BEAR ® Ice cream parlour opened by good friend near Hebbal. Ice creams have become all season item. This gave me a chance to catch up some of my ex-colleagues from Astra Zeneca after 12 years.

Ok, Till next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously.

Regards
Karthik.

Copytrans, Transcend, MS MOUSE, Unhelpful souls.

I have to make this blog entry a brief one as I am in the midst of travel for personal family events over the last 3 days.

As indicated in my blog post last week, myself and my son should give kudos to our selves for successfully completing the IPOD copying back to Itunes. We did this thanks to the Software, COPYTRANS. It was one of the 19$, I had invested. I just installed and took a backup of the IPOD in the newly purchased Transcend 250 Gb hard disk as a backup Plan B. Then I added the IPOD library in to newly installed ITUNES and it copied all songs including play list(Though not the Smart play list) which I duplicated manually and deleted the play list. The only hitch is in doing all this IPOD needs to be restored and SYNC again. The job lasted almost 14 Hrs. (Despite copying rate of 20Mb/sec from my 2Gb RAM). I did goof up a bit in copying New Itunes library folder in an existing folder so it duplicated. So hard to delete all files there and reinstalled. (Yes My son did say to install in a new different path, I missed it by oversight). So a good job done.

As indicated I find Transcend back up portable disk a good one. I got at GLASGOW computers shop Brigade road. ( Got my Ipod docking station last year) Guy gives good discount and has all latest products. Like the cooling fan which Walt Mossberg discussed this week in WSJ was with him. I also purchased the cool MS ERGO Mouse. Worth the purchase, life turning for comfort. It gives a different sense to use mouse and addresses Ergonomic issues.

We had a frustrating experience, no wonder with whom you can guess, the government servants. For the travel we undertook, we need some change of plans which require some authorisation from railway reservation agents. Lalitha had taken a photocopy of her passport to submit, but had forgotten to take the original. She had the original ITIN card ( Called PAN Card). When she gave the copy to the officer at Bangalore cantonment reservation, the officer asked for original passport to check her identity, when she was told they would only want to see the passport to verify her identity or get photocopy of her PAN card. When Lalitha indicated that she is there in person and has one original to show, the argument fell on deaf ears. She couldn't find any photo copy shop nearby and had to spend 30 minutes to take a photo copy. Classic example of height of bureaucracy. I always felt 99% (I would assume many would agree)Indian government servants are unhelpful and frustrated souls. (Yes, My father was one!!!). Yes, the sad part is many private organisations, in recent past, in Multi national context are fast catching up this disease.

Ok, till next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Karthik

Restoring

The laptop in which I store all my music, Podcasts (35 Gb) crashed last week. I am working restoring the info from my IPOD since last night. Looks like will take a couple of hours more.
So I would post on that and other issues to discuss next week.
Till then Take it easy and take care; live consciously.

Regards
Karthik.

Shirdi, IPL, Varun, Lay off

I am back from Shirdi travel last week(Sunday to Tuesday). Great trip. Crowd was phenomenal close to 100,000 Sunday (2 Hrs in queue from 3 pm to 5pm) Monday was far less. The Sunday was the 5th day after the festival of colors "the Holi festival", so had a look of Sai Baba's photo carried on a chariot and the gaiety associated with the festival of colors. (First time seen the chariot in my 10 trips over the past 19 years).

Security and access are issues. Many places you have to walk barefoot so watch out for stained legs and its consequences, as my daughter almost has allergic symptoms. Lot of confusion on entry and exits, (Especially if you enter thro gate 3(Dwaraka Maii side) it will only lead to exit to GATE 1 and you have to enter again thro gate 1 to come in) confirm my firm belief that administrators make a mess of simple things. Big queue for mobile phone handover as it is banned inside samdi mandir, so leave mobile phones at hotel room.

Also the chance to touch Baba's samadhi is no more possible, it is all protected with glass. As I visit every time, I see that the man-divine interaction in a physical sense is getting withdrawn more and more. Anyway, You forget all the hardship and harassment when you stand in the sanctum- sanctorum and it is all just tears in your eyes that wash all the sins. So for that you can bear anything.

This visit I was helped by local personnel to get a VIP pass for the second visit Monday to samadi mandir, so it was a bonus.

Also as the cab driver told me, "the more you wait in queue, the more you get a chance to chant his name and hear about Sai Baba's deeds, that is what he wants, He does not want you to come to him in a easy/ quick access". That was an enlightening moment for me in this trip and a huge take away. So the next visit, I will be more patient to wait in queue and reach his sanctum sanctorum.

I would also mention that many people visit Shirdi do not take time to visit the Khandoba Temple. This was the place where Sai was first welcomed by Mhalsapathi and said "AAO SAI" (Welcome Sai).

Also the cab driver took us to the place where Sai Baba first meditated and stayed before moving to Shirdi. This temple is very near to the Kopargaon Train station on the main highway to Shirdi. There is a temple now called Tapobhumi Mandir.

Yes, This was my first trip on train almost in 2 years on Indian railways, lot of improvements on passenger facility / reservations etc. But the recession/ inflation has taken effect, I guess on food stalls on stations as well as quality of food served in train. (Still better from health perspective from local vendors on train stations I would assume!!!).

Ok, moving to other things, I am more than delighted that the IPL is moving out of India, I despise the bikini clad cheerleader version of this disgusting circus. Anything that takes off hype is welcome one more so in the middle of elections and exams. What a tragedy?? Would any body come and watch overseas!!!! How can they call Indian premier league of cricket when Indians play matches overseas??? Rip off !!!.

My friend Dilip has posted an interesting thoguhts on Varun Gandhi's speech.Good distill of the situation, but at the same time, having lived in Gujarat and seen the way things happen, it is not surprising that the emergence of Modi and Varun, as seen counter balance by some. All I can hope that in near future it doesnt lead to a Nazi like situation with a 21st Century Hitler coming to guide us all.

There was an intestine case study in March 09 HBR on lay offs. Very divergent thoughts.

OK, till next week, take it easy and take care, live consciously.
Vande mataram.
Karthik.

Early posting; Gold; Worst cities, Happy

I am posting this Friday evening as we are all are leaving for Shirdi tomorrow to have Baba's darshan and blessings.

I remember my grandmother telling that in her time (85 Years back) the price of gold was US $ 10 an ounce. So It is mind boggling to see Gold price predicted to hit US $ 2300 an ounce. Yes, 10 $ in 1920s would be a huge amount!!. Such are times!!.

Not Surprised to see Bombay, Madras, Delhi are listed in the Worst 10 cities for business people in the Business week survey. Lagos tops the list.

Realclearmarkets is a good site to keep tab on economic / business information. Marshall Goldsmith mentioned this site in his podcast with Wayne.

Feeling great to see West Indies won the cricket series against England. The happy days are back, I hope. As a die hard WINDIES fan( The only team besides Australia, I bother to follow) it cheered me a lot.

Till next week, Take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Sign of growth, Semantic Web, Loving Relationship, This yet that

This is the time of Performance reviews and discussions on compensation revisions. I am getting comments from my friends, that in these time of uncertainty, while at one end of the spectrum it is a great achievement to keep the job intact without worrying too much about pay cheque. There is an another school, which is oblivious to theses situations and measure the growth only in terms of Salary raise and cash components to take home and be happy about it and nothing else matters. I just wonder where the balance lies?. On behalf all those managers who are facing this dilemma, I have posted the question in the MT Forum.

Steve Pavlina is back with a fabulous 100 Minute podcast on discussing Loving relationship. Steve quote"This is a podcast about loving, intimate relationships that Erin and I recorded together this afternoon. We discuss the inner workings of our (almost 15-year) relationship in depth and share insights, advice, and stories regarding the various topics that touches lives". Worth listening, I enjoyed it very much and the discussion gave me some insight to improve my Loving relationship for sure. Thanks Steve.

I received a forwarded email from a safety manager in which the Wall street investment banking firm had appreciated his company's efforts and mentioned a line or two in their forecast report. I was just wondering who are these folks responsible for appreciating about these TECH focused activities? Do they really know or have a grip on what is happening? Do we take that with a pinch of salt and dance on the ceiling? I guess the whole mess, we are in today, is all due to the investment banks/ wall street making. It was like a saying in my mother tongue Tamil" Saitan vedam Odukiradu"( Satan Preaching Bible to the congregation!!). I dream for the day when Wall street tunes are no longer heard and people don't dance to it! The results are more focused on Technical performance/ producing quality people and decent margins. Not in my life time I guess!!.

I am reading "Toyota Way" by Jeff W Liker. This book is an eye opener, for those who want to learn the lean manufacturing. What I liked the most in the book is the concept" This YET That" which looks at contrasting aspects that go in to designing and building a world beater. A must read for any one who is on the manufacturing/ Supply chain side.

As I was reading the HBR Feb 09 on the "Breakthrough ideas for 2009" list. One of them "Semantic web" caught my imagination. I look forward to the day when search results for what we want is all bundled up and served in one page!!. That day may not be far away.

Ok, Till next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously
Regards
Karthik.

Oscars, 3000 £ Tips, Bad Boss, Childhood Memory

So the Oscars are out. As expected the Oscar committee went with the herd mentality and gives awards to the film that is popular without any logic. I didnt see anything fancy in the Slumcrap movie as classic as Titanic, No country for Old man, Departed or Gandhi. I still wonder how " Curious case of Bejamin Button" missed more awards!!.Any way that is how it goes. While I am a die hard fan of Old school of Indian music directors like Vishvanathan- Ramamoorthy, I have some inclination to listen to Illayaraja and AR Rahman. But the music for Jai Ho is nothing earth breaking to receive an Oscar as Rahman himself admits. If you listen to his Vandemataram (Salute to the mother land) or Mustafa mustafa or Roja, they are great tunes that turns you and melts you and would last and linger for ever. I guess 2 years down the line no one is going to hum Jai Ho. It will be gone with the Wind.

Rahman's Oscar also brings out the fact that you need a western touch to launch your career to the next level, it may be recognition, coaching or education be anything to go to the quantum leap as they call. I can even feel that in my case, the toughest jobs to sweat it out, the challenging experience, hands on,the most intricacy in learning were all in Indian companies till 1991. I guess the learning was almost complete in the first 6 y ears with 16 Hrs a day, 6 days a week, common thing and no big deal and the learning was tremendous (Not to waste time to get snacks / dinner on company expense!!). The recognition, rewards and the materialistic success all happened when I moved to the Multinational environment!!! Yes, the self refinement was amazing in the MNC environment. I guess the Indian system is more harder on people to hand out recognition and reward, may be sets the bar very high!! or praise and miss out the 12 elements of great managing.

I took this Web basics quiz, got 6 out of 20 correct, you may try it out!!.

It was fascinating to read the fortune article last week on Facebook, I didn't work my profile or so I thought. When I did enter my user name and password , Wow, there was my facebook profile created some time back. I had an inkling that I would have created and wouldn't have missed my presence in the most happening thing!.

Wow, here is a personal reflection, 2 Prisoners escaped while guards watched cricket match on TV in Australia. Reminds me of my childhood memory of listening to the radio cricket commentary of match in Jullundar (1974 West Indies in India) and letting thieves come in to my home and steal away the cloths put out for drying), still remember the scolding from parents.!!!. Wonder how the guards felt??.

I have subscribed to Dier Spiegel International web edition and was astonished to read this article in which a British banker tipped 3000 £ tip in the bar. No wonder the economy is hitting south. The article discusses the dismal state of UK economy!!.
Wayne Turmel, is coming out with webinar/ training session on How to create and manage remote teams on 30th March. I have attended Wayne' s great web meetings, live once last year and it is worth attending. Here is the link for registration.

I have been very very lucky that in my 24 years of career, (excpet for a period 7 months during the last millennium, when I had a bad boss who was agressive/ arrogant) I had been blessed to work under great bosses. If you are in such a unlucky situation, here is a series of podcasts from Mike and Mark on career tools. Basically it is to align yourself to his behavior and work out exit plan if it wont work out!!.

I leave you with the 100 best leadership blog list.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; live concisously.
Regards
Karthik.

10 years, Poll, Supremecourt, Vandelism.

This week completes 10 years of creating my hotmail ID. I can still remember the cybercafe location in which I created the Hotmail Account in Mangalore when I was working in BASF. I felt that time itself, Email and web was the way to work out things and they will break the knowledge barrier that existed based on geography. I can recollect the first exposure to the internet during my interaction with CII-EMD team in New Delhi. That became an addiction during the 3 week visit to Yokohama on AOTS Scholarship where anything and everything was on the web based applications. I am glad I embraced the internet and results were always great. Yes, Microsoft was Hobsons choice at that time. 2Mb storage space was a big thing and big file size attachment a big no. My son wonders how people managed files less than 2Mb. This was endorsed by Bill Gates and Steve jobs in their conversation with Walter Mossberg in 2007 at D5 conference when they admitted 128Kb in 1980s was a big thing. Long way ahead!!.

Linkedin has a poll option by which it is possible to post polls to collect data. I have posted one today on the support function that is required for carrying out day to day activities.

I came across this judgement by the honorable supreme court of India that it is no longer necessary to submit proof for getting tax deductions from employer for travel on holidays and conveyance. This is indeed a land mark judgement. I wish the tax deduction is made as an affair between employee and Income tax department. Many of you reading this would agree that the finance managers are so risk averse these days that they are hesitant of taking decisions and do an overkill sticking to the rule of law. A far cry from the finance managers of the 1990s who did things based on trust and judgement and principles of integrity and supported all functions as a job enablers!!. You can only dream of such kind of managers. I always miss such managers in an Indian context!!.

One of the mystery of the cricket was why was the Ashes test at Headingly, Leeds in 1975 was vandalized and spoiled us of one of the great finish in cricket history? Never followed up on that, I got the answer in this week's economist on the Obituary of Rose Davis whose husband's jail sentence marked vandalism of the cricket pitch as a way of protest.

Ok, Till next week, Take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Retrival, Kenken, Kindle, Friday 13th.

A quick check on the number of Blog postings, completed 125. Going good with one post a week commitment. Taken almost 40 months, so at 3 an average per month. Would like to see 200 when I hit 50 Months, lets see!! Stretch target!!.

I always believed that linkedin is a good tool to expand your network, it was a bonus for me to find out some of my college mates almost after 25 years. Ofcourse,the indirect way of some of the person who knows them were on linkedin as secondary connection and my search turned up to make them join on my network. Great dig tool I should say.

I read about the new number puzzle game Kenken which it appears more complex than Sudoku. I have wondered as to how people can doing that for hours together!!. I must admit I am never a fan of crossword/ number game/ puzzle etc. Never remember trying out one!!. Life is too simple to indulge in unveiling the unknown or complex issues.

This week, Kindle new version was released and there are raving reviews and there is hope that this will revive news paper reading!!. The price 359$ is little high for this part of the world. Lets see how it takes shape. I remember Ipod/ Iphone was distant dream even couple of years ago here, but it is now available at reasonable price! I would assume, Apple/ Google may come out with something to capture the market!!.
I was deeply touched by this reality story in Fortune, It really brings to us the situation of those affected by US recession across spectrum. Makes you wonder where everything went wrong and what is the quickest way out?

I am not a superstitious person, so dont bother much for the day and date. But still the events of this Friday the 13th made me to think about it!!. Yes, I remember the historic aspect in Davinci Code. The Plane Crash (Friday here in India) and Train accident which together took about 70 lives. Wonder, what could have been done different.

I leave with the link to the famous Tamil podcast on devotional aspect, Varam oru Allayam (Weekly temple visit in Tamil). Nataraj has done in an in depth research and makes a wonderful presentation. Worth listening for those folks, who believe that whatever happens to them is Divine's will.

Untill next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.