TUK TUK;

After ages it was back to business travel with the trip to Pune; Hectic week it was and it feels good; (Even Family felt that I needed to go out May be nuisance value increased!!).

As indicated in last post, My Manager Anthony Wareham was in India, I took the opportunity to see a bit of Bangalore with him.(Some places even first time for me after 10 years stay!!); We got to get a chance to go on a TUK TUK for 100metres on the Brigade Rd / MG ROAD to give him a sense of that.

The family got a chance to meet Anthony and he was kind enough to take time to visit our new home.(Well now 7 months!).

It was a disappointing experience with this JET CONNECT flight. No lounge use, no Food served it is a nightmare for a business traveler. The irony is that you don't know about the issue until you check in. NIGHTMARE...... Never expected travel industry to dive so low. Looks like they give USA Airlines a run for the money for lousy service in the name of no frills..... Tragedy.

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

Regards

Karthik.

Auto Driver; Furlough; Tweetminer; PREM JOSHUA.

Usually when you think of Madras; the capital city of Tamilnadu; (A city which I avoided at all costs even during transit to North India in the mid 80s, 90s) the first thing that comes to mind is the arrogant/ Untrustworthy attitude of Autorixa( 3 wheeled Scooter). So it was a refreshing change to see an Web site of Samson Autodriver; and all the accolades that are posted there. Great! Way to go!.Tech goes on and on. Yes, the Folks in Bangalore are different.

It was a week of Mandatory vacation for me; so I spent the time in Kitchen to explore some dishes; It was almost after 15 years full time in to Kitchen.(when Lalitha was away to home down during pregnancy) I did make following receipes.


VathaKuzambu.
Sambar
Kaadi Kichadi
Lemon Rasam
Cabbage Vegetable Dry.
Tomato Carrot Salad
Snake Gourd Curry. (Trichosanthes)
Potato onion curry DRY.
 
Yes some did come out well; others not to my liking. The family said it was Ok.
 
I came across site TWEETMINER a good tool to discover friends on Twitter. I had installed yesterday and the results in 24 Hrs are satisfactory.
I stumbled up on the MUSIC of PREM JOSHUA. It has been a revelation. Esply the Ganges album Water down the GANGES. A must listen for all. Worth spending.


I will be catching up with my Manager; Anthony Wareham almost after 19 Months face to face in Bangalore this week. The virtual world has shrunk the need to meet in flesh and blood (Still deliver performance and results!); Looking forward to the meeting and travel with him. 


Also This article caught my eye, People tend to leave job in the spur of the moment/ performance apprisal dissatisfaction. Mistake....


To all my Christian friends a pious Good Friday Observation and A Happy Easter.  Until next week; take it easy and take care; Live consciously.

Karthik.

Fire fighting; Biar miskin Asal Kaya Hati. Furlough, Birthday.

Arising out of the Carlton tower building fire in Bangalore which killed 9 people, we had taken up with our builder Renaissance PARK III to complete the Fire emergency system prepardness as soon as it is possible. Accordingly the builder took up the completion and Saturday the residents were requested to participate in a 1 hr Fire Fighting training program in which Sprikler system, Fire hose reel, hydrants, Fire extinguisher working were demonstrated to residents. This is a good move. We also discussed about fire alertness, fire prevention in a home environment. Prevention is the  key.
I almost had fits and rage when I saw these 23 Photos of Unsafe practices in a construction site; Clearly the Hazard recognition and awareness is the last thing in the workers who were carryin the work. Also in one photo The helmet caption (Biar miskin...) is Strong heart can overcome Hunger/ poverty (poor) is a telling state of affairs. I only hope that all are still alive and kicking..... I am taking the liberty of pasting photos from the original web site  to have the impact!.
Judging by the photos, it is one of the most dangerous professions in the world
Look for yourself.


























I am in the middle of my mandatory vacation the coming week; this should give me a good chance to go back to kitchen on regular basis and work the cusine for lunch, dinner over the next 5 days. Infact today lunch was worked by me. Gujarati Kadi Kichadi which I learned in Ankleshwar when Lalitha had gone for delivery of kids 1992/94 and I had to fend myself. Roop Singh Purohit was the cook at Bharuch (Maharaj as we use to call him in the company Guest house). I also look forward to catching up on lot of reading. Lets see...
Who could have imagined that Ipad would have Bing as the default search enginebecasue of Apple/ Google spat;  Truth as they say is stranger than fiction. On the social media front, today is Twitter's 5th birthday. It has helped to pass thoughts as microblogging but the interactive part is still a long way to go and happens only between select few and more of cotiere. I am finding BUZZ is more comfortable platform to exchange ideas and response also makes you feel listened..... 

On the political front, I am glad the women reservation bill passed its first hurdle; still a long way to go; Shd make thro.


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

Work Sation. MT; India Leadership, Blogging. Bugmenot.

Just wanted to share my work station at home; A good work place is required to focus/ engaged, more so when the norm is 14 Hrs a day. The second picture is WIMAX which helps me to stay connected when there was no last mile connectivity.
The key principles which help me sustain is also on sidewall.









































I am a self Confessed Manager tools fan and I consider myself fortunate to have stumbled on the site 3 years back. Since then it has been of immense help and I try to post my comments wherever I can.Most of my work principles are guided my Horstman's law which forms a part of display at my work cubicle. Therefore it was personally overwhelming when I received comment from Mark on the linkedin forum this morning. Thanks MT Team.
I am following @BillGates on Twitter; He sends out valuable links(obviously!). This is one such on what he learns and focuses. On the twitter trips and tricks I find this post helpful to increase response to your twitter page as well as get more followers. I also found Seesmic a good twitter interface and using it now to collect and post tweets in addition to Linkedin interface.


On, HRD front; Peter Cappelli dished out a great article on Leadership lessons from India. The article is well worth to learn aspects that trigger leadership and business. But,I am not sure as whatever is true in 80% of Indian organizations as it is more window dressing here more so when situation demands dog and pony show. Indian companies have a long way to go!!.. On the work front, I found this article interesting on 5 future trends. I agree with 4 of them except taking multiple job aspects tough in Indian environment.

With Facebook,Twitter all hammering in and getting info overload, there is a real threat that blogging which was an hype about 3 years back can lose it's significance. So it was refreshing to read this article on Blogging value add. Very true.

Google keeps dishing out Applications as well as web pages for user interface. Wave, Buzz etc. The new Statistical real time analytic is masterpiece which helps to micro analyze data. Cool one.

An useful apps/ web sits to register temp password without compromising personal data is always helpful. Bugmenot is a good app/web web interface to use to generate temp password,data.


On podcast front FT UK  dishes out Good info; icing being Lucy Kellaway's satire.


I am going thro Henry (Hank)Paulson's new book on the brink, good coverage to get inside preview of the 08 financial crisis. I am also going thro Spencer Johnson's Peak and Valleys.
Finally, Here is to wish all the people in Karnataka (Bangalore) Happy Ugadi the New year on Tuesday. While still I am far far away from picking the local language(13 years here!), the place has helped me learn and grow. So a kind of attachment is established more so when you don't have fond memories of your home state.
Till next week; take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.
1930 Hrs.





 

Roads; Carlton Towers; Budget

I just wanted to highlight the sad state of Roads in Bangalore. The photos above are not the roads in Rural area / Villages in India but at the heart of Bangalore at Malleswaram; outside our home. Repeated request to do something has fallen on deaf ears. What more can you say on governance! To add insult to Injury this road soon be a path to school and 1000s of apartment homes in the next 4 months. Tragedy waiting I guess. 

I am saddened to see the loss of NINE lives in the fire, due to lack of safety norms/ greed at the "CARLTON TOWERS" in Bangalore. This was the building right opposite Diamond District where I lived for 8 years till July 09; always wondered about the mushrooming bill boards and extensions and wondered where it would all lead to. The closure / disappearence of fire passage; the locking of fire exits; rooftop entrance locked for fearing people would use for partying(alchol) were flimsy reasons. Wonder where is the discipline/ governance and compliance to fire safety norms and rules. More so it was the lack of awareness on the employees part on emergency drills; rescue etc was lead to more panic and jumping down. As a safety professional I can only hope that this is a big lesson for companies big and small to learn and put in better fire safety programs in place.They owe it to their people. But would that happen; knowing Indian mentality of cut everything to get profits and business at any cost; I doubt more so with no straight forward legal aspects to enforce. We have one of the weakest/ opaque regulations; so nothing can be expected.

So, the budget is out and looks over ambitious; contrary to what many have showered praise;I stand by Mr Gurumurthy's article on Hindu in which he questions the discipline and brings out more of what the budget evades!!.. Well written...... Yes, the personal tax is ok for middle class; again it misses out the education, medical aspects which are also required to build the future of the country.

Ok; Till next week; take it easy and take care; Live Consciously.
Regards

Karthik