Monday, July 31, 2006

Dubai

hello world

Thursday, July 27, 2006

"Trans Vaginal route to the US"

An Indian doctor holding a US green card posts a matrimonial ad in a USMLE prep website.


He starts with: "well I thought so many of you want to move to usa. ....One way is to marry. no harm done."
But he soon reverses his stand: "why do you guys and girls want to come to US? Its not that great. " He rants on his racism experiences, how whites treat others like second class, and how Sep 11 changed everything...all the while not stating why he is still there.

My experience in the US and on returning to India tells that happiness is not in the place, its in what you want to pursue in your life. The work you do, the people in your personal life and your aspirations are what decide your level of happiness. It could be in India or the US... it just depends on which place better fits with your life goals.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Punjabi Century

This book is a rare gem, a mix of Russel Bakers 'Growing Up' and Ahmed Ali's 'Twilight in Delhi'. I picked it up for Rs. 40 at a sale. It remained on the bookshelf for 6 months before I took a look at it-but it only took me half a day and one night to finish it.
Prakash Tandon, founder of IIM A, was born in 1911. He traces the history of his ancestors from 1847, about the time the rule of the Sikhs (Sikha Shahi)ended, to 1947. Unlike the rest of India (apart from Hyderabad),Punjab was never ruled by the East India company. When the British took over, many welcomed the change and stability. The Khatris amongst the Punjabis were the first to embrace formal British education. By 1911,as Tandon notes, the engineering services in some districts were managed entirely by Indian staff.
As a child Mr. Tandon grows up in small towns and villages, moving with his father who works as an engineer managing the canal system. He describes a Baisakhi festival on the banks of a river in one such village in photographic detail. Later, he completes his education in a small town called Gujrat, at the foothills of what today would be Pakistani occupied Kashmir. Vividly described, the way of life of this small town, and the ups and downs of Mr. Tandon's family forms the core of this book.
Pran Nevile attempts a copy of this with his poorly written 'Lahore' but fails to get that emotional touch.
Much of this books success is precisely that- a story of a whole community told through the life of one family with a personal touch. The book ends with the parition and the family's crossing over to India at the wagah border.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Jugdish Sheths talk

Jug Seth, an entertaining speaker and Emory professor,spoke about India's integration with the Global markets this week. It appears that the major areas of emerging opportunities in India will be in retail, Healthcare and wellness (gyms/salsa instructors?), Education and design. He also predicted that in ten years the Bangalore -Hyderabad corridor would be the aeronautics hub of the country with majors like Lockheed and Northrop Grumman. He pointed out how the fall of communism,aging population in the west, and economic pragmatism were forcing the developed countries to depend more on India , China and other BRIC countries. There are some interesting factoids on his website-
>The average net worth of a US factory worker is $250000 ! That means a programmer in Bangalore averaging 7 lakhs in wages(after taxes) would have to work for ten years to reach that economic level (assuming the remaining 100K is from interest).

>One in 4 first time births in the US results in a miscarriage. It appears that for years people do not want to have children, so when they finally want it the body cannot adapt.
>Italy and Spain have the lowest birthrate in Europe, Italy being 1.2 children per woman.
>Average age of a woman is 39 years in Sweden (?not sure about the country)

I checked another interesting statistic when looking at the Swedish population site- in 1950 there were 50,000 marriages and 9500 divorces. In 2005, there were 44000 marriages and 20,000 divorces. The sudden jump seems to have happened between 1970 and 1980 (from 12,000 to present levels). Thats the time when women started working in the West... so my prediction is that we will see the same change happen in India in this decade(2005-2015) - and this will happen more in the software,BPO professions which have larger number of women working.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Build to last: The dull life of long lived companies

I am reading this Jim Collins book at the moment. Its not a perfect book but it raises a good point. It says the company is more important than a particular idea or technology. If we get stuck to an idea then we cannot change and react to the market.

I've looked at how I come up with ideas and notice that these ideas are things that I like doing- for me its graphics. Some of us want to start something because we would feel happy in pursuing a field we like and creating something good in that area.

But this same belief also restricts us from doing something that would be profitable. Many people won't probably start a real estate firm even if that pays more, or even a mainframe coding one ? At least I need a feeling of creativity in what I do- but this same belief goes against conventional business wisdom, where you have to do whatever work comes , and adapt to survive.

I feel uncomfortable about this conclusion of the book- it makes out business to be a dull numbers game , rather than a "big idea" story like Google. Yet this may be true- and we may have to look into ourselves to see that what draws us to business are ideas that are good for the business, however dull, as compared to what pleases our personal interest.