Sunil Jalihal's BLOG

Romancing the Chilli

2012-01-24T12:38:00.002+05:30

Have been off Blogging for a while, was working on having this published..... Its now published, by Rupa Publications and available in leading bookstores in India and online at http://www.flipkart.com/ . Do buy a copy and let me know your comments. Happy Reading!!

Romancing the Chilli is a book about the enduring heritage of the chilli in India and across the world. Visually and intellectually stimulating, this book traces the history of the chilli in the Indian subcontinent and around the world, along with its morphological, genetic and farm-to-plate journeys.

The effect of the chilli on Indian and world cuisine, popular culture, the human body, its science, biology and applications are described in detail. Accounts of Chilli Bombs, Pepper Sprays, chilli colour extracts in cosmetics, influence on brands and movies such as Woman On Top & Mirch Masala will fascinate readers on the chilli’s far reaching influence on lives globally.
More than forty varieties of chilies from India, Mexico, China, Africa and their applications have been photo-documented. The Habanero, Jalapenos, Santaka, Peri Peri, Byadgi, Guntur and the world’s hottest – Bhoot Jolokia and many more are covered in this book.
The book includes more than forty-five traditional dry and wet chutney recipes from different parts of the country and a few from Mexico, Africa, China and Thailand. Each chutney is illustrated with snippets of history, gourmet tips and traditional health benefits of each.
Chutneys from across India, from traditional vegetables, fruits and oil seeds - flax seeds, niger seeds, pumpkin, gongura, dal, garlic, brinjal, kokum and many other chutneys will spice up the palate of readers!
Each chutney has been photographed in its historical and traditional context. The book has been thoroughly researched by locating traditional recipes, talking to grandmothers, gourmet chefs, chilli PhDs, chilli traders and farmers from various parts of India.

Of Living on a Farm

2011-10-16T16:28:00.003+05:30

Three years ago we decided to live on our farm at Lohegaon near Pune for a few months, while our home in the city was getting ready. Could we live on the farm – could kids go to school from there and will it be safe? Are you crazy? Don’t try to get this rustic – its OK in the movies and to stay for a weekend, but for longer – forget it! Advice, admonitions and opinions came pouring in from friends and family. We ended up living there for just over a year and learnt so much that’s worth sharing –

Waking up to dynamic mornings
As we settled down, and started waking up to those dynamic mornings, hearing different birds, the squirrels and absence of the doorbell ringing every 15 minutes, it was evident that it was going to be different! We needed to get used to natural sights and sounds and learn to appreciate the sound of silence! Each morning would be different, hearing a different set of birds depending on the time we woke up at.
As we started getting used to the new sounds, the sounds of man’s greatest and meanest machines – the Boeings and the Sukhois made us feel at home. At least it wasn’t the mundane sounds made by man – honking cars, two-wheelers, washing machines and mixer-grinders. Thank God for big monstrous mercies! We would wonder if we saw the same birds the day before – our daughter pulling out her Salim Ali book on Indian birds, trying to get the ornithologists term for the birds that we saw each morning.

Conveniences & Supplies
Where do we get our regular grocery supplies – the most frequently asked question was soon answered by some disciplined planning of weekly supplies. The small errands to call the grocer for the fresh coriander and mint leaves became unnecessary, all of it available in the kitchen garden a few steps away from the house. Fresh milk from the nearby gotha, the newspaper being delivered at the front door and the kids being picked up and dropped at our doorstep by a private van, made it easier than living in the city. I must admit that it helped that the farm is just behind Pune airport right next to a prominent Sukhoi squadron base of the Indian Air Force.

Gol Market – and the one shop wonders
The air-force base close by helped with a few more conveniences – complete with national integration of supplies from across the country – at the local Gol Market – the ubiquitous markets found in most defence colonies around India. The Gol Market has one shop for each commodity and service we required – one florist, one sweet meat shop, one grocer, a barber and a newspaper shop that - come Sundays had newspapers in at least 15 languages available for the people from all over India posted at the air force base to feel at home!

Feline Parenting
The farm had a sample of a few domesticated animals – one dog, a cow, a cat and a turtle and some fish in the well! Our cat, Mani soon got pregnant after the visit of a boka (male) cat from the neighbourhood. Our caretaker announcing that we will soon have a bunch of kittens to give us company. The cat soon became fiercely protective of the young ones in its belly, not allowing us to touch her any more. She soon disappeared and we found her up on the shelves of our store room with a litter of 4 kittens. Looking for her and the kittens the next day - they were missing and we found them in another corner of the house on a higher shelf and a few other places in two weeks until she settled with her kittens in a closed store-room. In about 3 weeks the suckling kittens began to play with each other and the mother protecting them nearby. After about a month, we found Mani, the mother of the newly born kittens relaxing and stretching out on a cushion on the chair in our verandah! A few of the kittens came along trying to get close to their mother – who gently pushed and shooed them away, getting them to learn to face the world. Her fierce protection of her kittens lasted one full month by which time she had taught them to hunt for mice and other food and then shooed them away to face the world on their own! In these days of human helicopter parenting, it’s something to learn - how we could be bringing up our children limiting our fiercely protective care to the human equivalent of the one month!

Cats & Dogs
Mani, our cat – relieved of her motherly duties was back playing with the dog Chikoo. Teasing him, running with him and angering him to end up in a hot chase where Mani landed up on the top of a 20 feet light pole with Chikoo trying to figure out how he could get up on the pole or bring her down from from her machan like perch – the helpless tiger waiting for Mani (a relative of the tiger species) at the base of the pole for more than half a day. The next day they were at it again running and teasing each other!

Learning about the Rains
Schools teach us all about the South West Monsoons – or do they? The rains began and the first burst of pre-monsoon showers with thunder and lightning helped accumulate some water in the bunded tank that we had cleaned up a month earlier. As I wondered whether the tank would fill up in the next rains our caretaker explained to me the 15 day periods during the rains – each governed by a nakshatra as he explained what he had known for many years and learnt in his vernacular school many years ago. Each nakshatra and its rains have its own characteristics – some have heavy rains and water flowing in from a distance – the type that can be bunded for storage but not good for the crops, some nakshatras the trickle yet percolating type – good for the crops as the water gets to their roots. The season ends with rains coming from the East, preceded by thunder and lightning – a reference to the receding monsoons that recede from East to West while most of the rains uptil then come in from the West.
This traditional and scientific knowledge seems to be lost on us now, where neither we nor our kids are ever taught about the season that is the lifeline of our (yet) agrarian country!

Watching plants grow
The kitchen garden with @ 20 types of herbs – sweet and normal mint, Italian and Thai Basil, Camphor Tulsi, Jaipatri/Cinnamon, Kachai, Turmeric lovingly planted – were in shock for a week, then stabilized and started growing. As they grew in different ways, it was a pleasure observing them as they grew slowly but surely and were then on their own. Patience, individual care and then wonderment - at how they all grew, giving us our herbs in the kitchen. Some of the ignored potted plants around the verandah grew by themselves without us noticing how they were doing, until we saw them one fine day flowering in full glory screaming – I can do it too, all by myself! We did our bit by putting together a list of native trees that we bought from a nursery run by Ketaki & Manasi – two eco-conscious entrepreneurs who run Oikos – they have grown beautifully without much care over 3 years; we still struggle with the names of these trees - and our guests were not impressed!

Seeing the seasons change
As the rains come pouring everything is green – for a few months; everything grows including the weeds. It’s impossible to remove the weeds, unless we used a de-weeding chemical. Do we need to use it is the question that we ponder on! We decide that it’s best done after the rains recede, taking care to de-weed just a small part of the garden. Come October, the sun shines in full glory, some of the trees bloom, in this mini-spring referred to by city folk as October Heat! The winters are cool, the green starts to brown and then yellow, some of the trees are in bloom, some have leaves that have turned white and some red. The Kate Savar (Silk Cotton tree, Bombax malabaricum), sheds it leaves, the tree is in full bloom with pink flowers, hardly any leaves remaining and then the flowers and the leaves are all gone. As we get closer to March, the well is almost dry, the Indian Laburnum is in full bloom with its brilliant yellow flowers and the Gulmohar and the Jacaranda the African imports are in full bloom too. The leaves start sprouting again in the heat of the summer, waiting for the pre-monsoons and then the rains that turn everything green again and - when the tank and the well will be full again! We are done with watching one full cycle of the seasons wondering if it’s the British who taught us to hate our “hot” summers ignoring everything that is in bloom during Vasant Rutu that had our poets write about in the days gone by.

Dealing with the dust!
Having travelled frequently to the sanitized, asphalted and cemented environs of Europe and America and living in gated communities in Bangalore and Pune where dust is at a premium – where you need to go to the ‘wilderness’ to find it – dealing with it on the farm next to dusty roads and a brick kiln – was quite a task. As the trucks passed the farm, clouds of dust seemed to settle on everything in the house. Getting the house cleaned every day was more than a chore! The dust got worse in summer, reminding us of the ‘dusty Indian plains’ often described by the British and that made them ‘go dullaly” – in Deolali, near Nasik, just @ 200 kms from our farm!

Satellite TV and the Dialup Connection to the Internet!
When we moved to the farm, we thought we could do without an Internet connection or Cable TV. We soon started missing both and work demanded that I needed an Internet connection – I could get one courtesy Reliance NetConnect, even though it was as slow as the erstwhile Dial-up connection operating at the lower KB range. TV connection was courtesy – the other wireless wonder – Satellite TV from Tata Sky. These two modern technologies helped us be in touch with the material world and could one day help people move to live on farms!

Inviting people home to the farm
Our friends and relatives came visiting once in a while. Most of them were curious to see the farm and see us living there! The usual questions – where are the lawns, the manicured trees and flowering plants – expecting a resort! Some questions about mosquitoes, dust, snakes and the dog that was not tied up! Some suggested we convert it into a proper resort, manicured and maintained, with the ACs, how it could be used for corporate get-aways to the manicured lawns and AC rooms. Some were interested in the trees and the kitchen garden trying to recognize what they were. They wanted more fruit trees that would yield an income. Those who were more inclined wanted to know which paddy was being grown and how it’s harvested! All were relieved that they did not have to drink well; hard-water and that we had some bottles of mineral water handy. “Fence it up and keep the villagers and snakes away” said many.

No more say the kids
Our 10th floor house in the city was now ready, with a small garden and a lawn to go with it and a functional farm next to our building. The kids were relieved that they were back in the city, but missed their long bus ride to school! They sometimes missed the openness of the farm but vowed not to visit the farm for at least a year! We did not go back to the farm much for two years; we are visiting more often now in the last few weeks, getting it back in shape – for guests who were expected to come from the big cities! Our caretaker - Jadhav, is happy that we visit him again and spend time on the farm. This year we are looking forward to spending the Diwali week at the farm; the kids sure that it won’t be for more than a week!

Whats Organic About Food!

2011-05-22T12:51:00.011+05:30

A few years ago, after having spent many years, in the “virtual” IT industry, I decided to take a sabbatical and do some “real” things. Having been an IT entrepreneur for a while, I thought the best way to do it was to setup a green business. It was becoming fashionable too!, was close to the earth! and the world seemed to need it? Or did it, really? Most friends were wondering what I was trying to do – they thought I was crazy, Indians did’nt care about Organic Food, it was only understood in Europe and in the US and even there it was purchased by a small percentage of the population! Thanks mainly to some good PR by large chains like Whole Foods that imported organic food all the way from New Zealand!

We invested in a Organic Food Store Chain concept and set out setting up franchise stores in Bangalore and Pune. We had to compete with the conventional food chains in the city, make the store “appealing” with good décor and setup all the “cold chain” equipment to preserve food and make it “look good”. So far so good. Friends showed up for the inauguration of the stores both in Pune and Bangalore. Sales on inaugural day were good, we thought we had hit a gold mine of a venture! Good press coverage, lots of curiosity and a pat on the back for our “noble endeavour”

A few weeks into the venture, with friends having tried our “organic groceries, ice-creams, salads, bread and fruits and vegetables” already, the new and curious customers came, asked many questions, enquired about prices and why there were no “Kurkure” like products in the store and never came back.

A lawyer, walked in asked all types of legal questions and wanted to know how some of the food in the store can be preserved without preservatives! “I have done work for some food companies and defended them in court, they tell me food cannot be preserved without chemical preservatives”. Reminded that our grand-mothers preserved jam with the concentrated sugar or jaggery itself being the preservative or the lime and salt in the pickle being the preservative, the judge in the lawyer wasn’t too convinced with the argument.

Another customer wanted to know what the “free ranging organic eggs were”? If they are free ranging and the hens and cocks are free ranging too, are the eggs still “vegetarian”? Wont they be “fertilized”. We had to go back to the supplier who explained that some of them could be fertilized, (explaining it in Marathi with terms like “Safal” and “Asafal” meaning successful or unsuccessful fertilization”) and the only way to know is to check out the yolk and look for the presence of a “dot” (Safal). Oops, the “vegetarian” egg eaters never came back to buy these eggs which were in any case beige in colour.

A husband and wife, walk in enthusiastically, twelve year old daughter in tow, wanting to know “whats great about organic food”. We diligently explain about toxic chemicals in food, the Cancer Express as a train in Punjab that is known to take cancer patients to a famous Cancer Hospital in Rajasthan is called and the excesses of pesticides usage during the green revolution that has caused this. Not convinced, the husband quickly says “But hasn’t life expectancy gone up since we started eating conventional (non-organic) food?” I repeat my cancer story and explain how the incidence of cancer has gone up in modern times. Not convinced, the customer retorts “Oh so many people died so young in the olden days, people didn’t even know how they died, maybe many died of cancer even as they ate only organic food those days”

A lady walked in one day, very serious about wanting to eat only organic food, was convinced that its good and how she would thenceforth eat only organic food. Lifting a bunch of Palak, turning it over she notices a few “holes” and asks “But wont there be insects in Organic Food, especially Palak”. We try to explain that its possible, but why its not entirely bad, she says solemnly “ Well I would love to eat Organic Food, but it wont be quite appropriate with the possibility of insects in my food. We are Jains you see! “

Organic Food and Prices, the most commonly asked question – “If no chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used to produce all this, why is it so expensive, you don’t even bother to spend on these basic inputs” And there were those who walked in and asked “Whats the fuss all about? Is’nt all food in India organic? Explain all about excessive pesticide usage to them and they would say “Hey farmers in Vidarbha don’t even have money to buy fertilizers and pesticides”. Tell people why we didn’t have (organic) apples in the rainy season, they would walk away telling us that everybody in town had them but us!

An elderly couple walk in with a bottle and some carrots they had bought the previous day, demanding to know how the carrot juice is reddish orange in colour! Perplexed and thinking that its what it should be we try explaining that its natural! Not able to convince them, we recruit our farmer supplier who happens to be in the store at that time to explain to them, hoping that they will be convinced by the farmer who’s closer to nature than us. The farmer is perplexed that he needs to explain this, and is even more so when the couple are not convinced, as they repeat their allegations about the carrots being “artificially coloured by chemicals”

Talk to people about the film “Super Size Me” that shows what happens when a person has all his meals at McDonalds for a few weeks and how it makes the person obese and they look at you as though we are one of those orthodox Swadeshis! Talk about the book “Fast Food Nation” and what it has done to America’s health and they tell you “But America is the most powerful nation on earth” and you are not so sure you want to answer any more questions about the “naturalness of food”

The last laugh was by a farmer whom I visited in the Konkan, near Murud Janjira. When an accompanying friend told him that I was into organic food, the farmer looked at me and said “Oh we know all about it, I’ll show you what we do”. After we had seen all the conventional farms (using the forbidden inputs) in the area including his own, he took us to a ½ acre plot right next to his home. There he showed us what they grew and ate, “This is where we grow OUR food, without a drop of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The other fields that you saw we grow crops to feed you guys in the cities”

We soon started pointing to the poster in the store that explained “Why Eat Organic Food” hoping that the poster with its “scientific data” would convince customers better! And I am now back in the IT industry, keeping my views on food all to myself! Here’s the information from the poster for all those who would still like to be convinced!
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Why eat Organic Food?
Most people agree that they would like to buy organic and biodynamic food. Yet, instead of prioritizing certified organic food, the majority stick with old, inferior buying habits of processed or conventional food. These non-organic foods are nutrition poor, contain toxic residues, taste inferior and are potentially harmful to the environment, you and your family. So why eat organic food – can you really afford not to!

Mineral Content of Food
A question that often gets asked is "Is organic food better?" Common sense says that it must be. Surely eating food without chemicals and harvested in a more natural manner is better. But is it? The answer is clearly yes. A Study from Rutgers University USA clearly showed this to be true.
Before these studies were carried out the idea that organic crops were nutritionally superior was widely accepted on faith alone. People hoped that the effects of organic cultivation were better for the earth. In recent years this has been proven time and time again. Researchers at Rutgers University in the USA, intrigued by the emphatic claim that "Organic is Better", decided to shop around for some answers. They went to a supermarket and purchased a selection of produce, which they analyzed for mineral content. They then went to a health food store and purchased the same products but grown organically and carried out the same tests. The Rutgers' team expected the organic produce to be slightly superior in this comparison, but the results were incredible! e.g. The amount of iron in the organic tomatoes and spinach (1938 and 1584) compared to the non-organic varieties (1 and 49). There is a huge difference. And we always thought we ate spinach for its iron content!!

Many other essential trace elements are completely absent in the non-organic foods whereas they occur in abundance in the organic varieties. Other studies came to the same clear conclusion.

Naturally Good Taste
Organic food is produced as nature intended. Crops and livestock are grown and reared naturally, at their own pace, without artificial fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, chemical feeds, growth promotion drugs or routine antibiotics. Because organic produce is allowed to develop more slowly, it generally contains less water (upto 70% less) and more solid matter, which means more nutrients and more flavour.

Would you like (70%) diluted taste of conventional food and the taste of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in your food?

Baby & Children's Health
Standards for safe pesticide use in foods have been based on adult tolerance levels. When selecting foods to feed your baby and children it makes sense to avoid foods with pesticides, since babies and children are far more vulnerable to the toxic effects of pesticides because of their small size, high metabolisms, immature digestive and detoxification system.
"More than 1 million children between the ages of 1 and 5 ingest at least 15 pesticides every day from fruits and vegetables. More than 600,000 of these children eat a dose of organophosphate insecticides that many federal governments consider unsafe, and 61,000 eat doses that exceed benchmark levels by a factor of 10 or more."
Surely, we all care for our children’s health!!

Its Better for the Environment – The Secret is in the Soil
Intensive farming exhausts the soil, depleting the natural minerals and trace elements essential for nutrient rich food. THE SOILS of many nations on earth - are low in levels of organic material; 80 percent of many nations’ soils have less than one percent organic matter. This reality is reflected in many countries like China, the United Kingdom and most European Union nations. Countries lose estimated billions of dollars worth of agricultural soils to degradation every year.
It is this degradation of our farmlands, which is the single greatest threat to sustainability. Farming is a mineral extractive industry, which progressively removes from the soil not only the organic fraction, but also minerals and trace elements. In India, the process of degradation of our soils costs us thousands of crores of rupees per year as a nation. Ironically, at the same time one of the factors in this degradation, chemical fertilizer is constantly rising in cost, both to the farmer and to the broader community. India’s fertilizer subsidy bill is Rs. 12,500 crores annually and keeps growing!
For the organic farmer, the soil and its natural fertility are paramount. Various non-artificial methods, such as mixed farming systems that integrate a range of crops with rearing livestock and crop rotation, green manuring are used to keep the soil in good health and replace essential nutrients.
Appropriate varieties, beneficial predatory insects and companion planting help build resistance to pests and diseases. Naturally strong crops grown in fertile soil take up a richer nutrient supply.

Wouldn’t we all like to safeguard the earth for our children and future generations?

This article was first published in the magazine - Reading Hour (http://www.readinghour.in/) in their inaugural issue in Jan 2011

JustDial - the successful multi-channel search service

2009-12-19T18:11:00.008+05:30

(via Business India, December, 13th, 2009 issue) First remember coming across the JustDial service, in the year 2000. We started using it extensively in Bangalore and continue using it after we have moved to Pune a few years ago. Always found the service to be very well run, with continuous improvements every few months and a prompt and courteous service. From giving information on the phone, as read out by the operator, they moved onto emailing answers to your queries, sending SMSes to both the enquirer and the businesses that were referred to the caller. A Caller database was added and they began to greet customers by name based on the caller-id.

We were once looking for a professional photographer for a book that we are working on. Called JustDial, got names and numbers of @ 10 photographers over email & SMS in a few seconds, started calling a few while we were called by a few of the photographers themselves in a matter of a few minutes. After some qualifications, reference checks and face to face meetings with two of the short-listed photographers, the deal was closed! I guess a committed and serious customer, a well qualified and hungry service provider and the (technological) swiftness with which a deal can be closed makes all the difference.

As I saw the progress of their service over the years, would always wonder how they were doing, here's how they have done over the years:

10 million monthly telephone callers seek information from their database of 4 million clients (up from 86000 in the early part of the decade)
Now adding directions information to the business addresses through geo-coding
Serves information over a number of service channels - telephone, SMS, WAP, Internet
100 Crore annual turnover
Now ready to go global having acquired 1-800-JUSTDIAL in the US, Canada and Australia
Has moved Indians who are not a predominantly DIY society to become one - now Indians do not hesitate to pick up the phone and ask for help
SMEs have been big beneficiaries of their service and are ready to pay for the service
They can answer pretty much any questions - sending flowers to friends, movies in town, nearest hospital, home delivery restaurants
Available in 240 Indian cities
Its website registers more than 5.6 million hits a day (up from 72,000/day in July 2008)
Service also gets 700,000 SMSes and 300K WAP messages a day (up from 100K and 6K from a year ago)
Dominates the 500 Crore SME market - directories, classifieds, ad-spends - providing SMEs a national platform with just a phone call
Started with a seed capital of Rs. 50,000/- and Sequoia Capital is now investing $8 million; the company valued at Rs. 500 crore

Are they ready to take on the US market which has over 1000 telephone search engines? Keep following the progress of this company. They are the guys who (instantly) connect "seriously opted in customers who look for specific services" with "SME businesses that are hungry to close deals"!

Tata Swach - better than the Nano?

2009-12-10T17:44:00.004+05:30

(via Business Standard) The Tata's announced their latest product, this time in the water purifier space, recently. Two variants of the "Tata Swach" water purifier, one priced at Rs. 799/- and the other at Rs. 999/- will be available in the market by the end of the month. This will enable the Tata's to take a larger share of the Rs. 10,000 crore water purification market.

The Swach purifier, has a life span of 3000 litres, which will last a family of 5 a full year. The filter uses paddy husk ash as a matrix, bound with microscopic silver particles to kill 80% of the bacteria that cause diseases. And India produces 20 Million tonnes of paddy husk ash a year, known for long to have water cleansing properties.

A great product, has all elements of "frugal engineering" and a great collaborative effort:

Needs no electricity, and uses local materials
Doesn't need running water like most other electricity powered water purifiers do
Complies with US EPA standards
Collaborative effort between three organizations - TCS, Tata Chemicals and Titan Industries (try getting 2 organizations in one company to work together!)
Great combination of nano technology, precision engineering and CAD technologies

This one is a coup. And notice the way Tata's launch their products - free press, stir the imagination of consumers, get their distribution networks in place, make consumers "line up" to book/buy the product. Many other companies would have done this after blowing up tens of crores.

Here's a toast to a great green product, to frugal engineering and frugal marketing. I am queueing up to buy this one!

PS: Here's my previous article on Water Management - Jalyatra - http://www.blogger.com/previous

Kas Pathar - The Plateau of Flowers

2009-10-28T12:27:00.009+05:30

Kas Pathar - i.e. the Kas Plateau is situated atop the Sahyadris near Satara. This plateau is known for its unique biosphere of the high hill plateaus and grasslands. Towards the end of the rains in September, the plateau comes to life with various types of flowers that carpet the floor of the plateau. According to a crumbling forest department board at the site, 150+ types of flower shrubs, grasses, orchids bloom here for a 3-4 week period. Many of these flowers are animal (insect) eaters!!

The Kas Lake is a bowl carved out of the mountains just south of the Kas Plateau. About 30 kms further south of the Kas lake are the backwaters of the Koyna Project. We visited the Kas plateau last weekend and enjoyed the serenity of this place. Let the crowds descend on MahaB, and leave Kas for the serious nature lovers. The Nisarga Organic Farm run by the Shindes of Satara grows more than 30 varieties of medicinal plants, including camphor tulsi, sarpagandha, cardamom, stevia, insulin, etc. Great location, overlooking the backwaters.

I would rate this location to be better than Lavasa, but hope no "city" comes up here. Next time we'll visit it when the flowers are in bloom and get some photos of our own, meanwhile enjoy these stolen from contributors on the web.

Special biospheres are always interesting, leaving one wondering how just a few square kilometers can have a very different type of vegetation. There are reportedly, @ 459 unique bio-sphere's in the world. We saw one in full bloom around the Cape of Good Hope a few years ago - "Cape West Coast BioSpehere", a world heritage site. This bio-sphere is the result of this unique location, caressed by the mixture of cold Atlantic winds and the warm Indian Ocean currents.

Does anybody know why the Kas Biosphere is unique? Here's an explanation from a nomination to UNESCO for world heritage status for the Western Ghats:

"The windward western slopes of the region receive more than 2,500 mm of rainfall annually, particularly during south-west monsoon (June-September). Three large rivers, the Godavari, Koyna and Krishna carry the rainfall from the monsoon rains eastward into the drier Deccan Plateau. The mountain range ascends abruptly on the western side from near sea level to the crest line and descends more gradually to 500 m on the Deccan plateau.

The deeply dissected terrain produces localized variations in rainfall and habitat types and creates Hotspots of endemism by limiting species distribution. The presence of numerous barren rocky lateritic plateaus locally called sadas is the unique feature of the Sahyadri. These plateaus possess very characteristic herbaceous ephemeral vegetation.

The Kas Plateau is one of the important sadas located in Satara district, at an elevation of around 1,213 m. The rainfall received is between 2,000 and 2,500 mm annually. Of the total area of 1,792 hectares under the Kas plateau, 1,142 hectares is recorded as Government Forest. "

Jadhavgadh - Heritage Hotel & Museum

2009-07-07T09:02:00.012+05:30

Looking for a different kind of Monsoon Destination last weekend, we decided to visit the otherwise "parched" areas of Pune district, on the southern side of the city. Saswad, Purandar and the area above the Babdev and Dive Ghats. The area is at its best during the monsoons and has some interesting places to visit, without the huge crowds that you encounter with any destination towards the west of Pune - Mulshi, Lavasa, Lonavala.

Purandar Fort (1398 mtrs, 4560 feet higher than Mahabaleshwar at 4500 feet) is one of the lesser known forts but forms the (far away backdrop) to the South Eastern part of the city as Sinhagad does for the South Western. We spent some time at the fort, could not see much with the clouds, mist and rain. Dont know if we missed anything though, since nothing much has been done to preserve the fort except a statue of Baji Prabhu in the lower fort.

On our way back we visited Jadhavgarh Fort Hotel, a 300 year old fort that has been restored and converted into a Heritage Hotel and is run by Vithal Kamat of Orchid Hotels fame. Well restored, well attended and serviced, but a bit pricey - this is perhaps the only heritage fort hotel in Maharashtra. Have heard of many heritage fort properties in Rajasthan and have stayed in a few Maharaja's bungalows converted to hotels (like the hotel in Kalimpong or the forest guest houses in Kabini) but this is the first that we have seen in Maharashtra. In order to ensure that no harm is brought to the 300 year old structure the 'Kholi' or Rooms of the hotel have been laid out in such a way that they seem to fit in naturally on the side walls of the fortress. You can even find in places, the original historic stoned wall as a part of the modern room. I hope this inspires similar restoration of other forts both in the heritage hotel and public forts category.

"Aai" - the best maintained museum in the country

What makes this hotel unique is also the museum that it houses, making it perhaps the only "museum hotel" in the world. This museum called "Aai", created out of Vithal Kamat's personal collection is an impressive structure housing an equally impressive collection of artefacts of the region. Well laid out, well lit and well attended. The musem is "economically" maintained by one manager-guide and a house keeping attendant. Not a spec of dust anywhere, not a missing bulb and all the artefacts are neatly and imaginatively displayed. Also has a few "engaging" pieces that visitors can touch and feel. We were told that this is only about 10% of Vithal Kamat's collection and the rest of it is at the Orchid Hotel in Mumbai. Have been there a few times, but wasn't aware that they had a museum there. Will check it out next time I am there.

Hope the Ministers of Tourism (of Maharashtra and India) have seen this museum! The National Museum in Delhi that houses some of the "symbols" of India and our civilization is nowhere as meticulously maintained as this museum. I hope our museums (and their trustees!)soon get some pride, character and clean toilets so that visitors can remember the artefacts they see rather than stinking toilets and the rude and disinterested officials that run them!

For all those in Pune, would highly recommend a visit to Fort Jadhavgad that is situated a km off the Pune-Saswad Road just after you've reached the top of Dive Ghat!

US Patents and Innovation

2009-06-09T10:14:00.006+05:30

Following my earlier article on the IPR Regime (http://suniljalihal.blogspot.com/2009/05/ipr-regime-whom-does-it-protect.html) came across an article from BusinessWeek (via Rediff). I don't think patents alone have helped innovation thrive in the US all these years. I think its their excellent Universities, their Venture Capital industry, huge domestic market that is full of "early adopters" and their well cultivated consumers hunger for more innovation that has been the main reason for its success. Their sense of scaling an idea and hard work to cross all the chasms from Innovators, Early Adopters to Mass market and their marketeers relentless work on this path has created markets out of Ideas.

The article talks about "the cost of protecting patents", the cost of lawyers fees and time to hand out patents that's "distracting" marketeers from taking a product to market.

The "Cost of Innovation" in terms of product engineering and marketing will soon become a major factor that will slowdown US innovation. Many other (low cost) countries now have large domestic markets and global platforms (like GSM in the mobile telephony world) and therefore have similar market access as the US has enjoyed for many years. This competition will slow down innovation in the US along with its (over) dependence on fresh immigrants to do much of their innovation.

Here's a link to the BusinessWeek Article ... (http://business.rediff.com/report/2009/apr/11/whats-stifling-us-innovation.htm)

Jai Ho - Rahmania!

2009-06-01T11:44:00.009+05:30

Rahman's first concert in Pune at the Balewadi Stadium grounds, last night was a tremendous draw, and we enjoyed it thoroughly. The atmosphere, the lights, the crowds and above all the mesmerizing music. Pune, showed up there in all its gaiety and took in all that Rahman and his troupe did on stage. All his hit songs, some simple works on his piano and the choreographed sequences. The technologically sophisticated stage with its two floors, the hydraulic lift and the massive LED screens, overawed the audience.

Ageless Music

We were not quite sure if we should take our kids for the show. How wrong we were, they enjoyed it thoroughly and knew all his music much better than we did. The crowd that showed up to take in Rahmania! had people of all ages - kids, college students in their party-wear finery, old women in their silk sarees. The middle aged like us who grew up at the same time as Rahman turned up in large numbers. Rahman, the "Mozart of Madras" from the deep South who along with Maniratnam took Tamil cinema all over India and delivered Chennai to the rest of the country.

Participative Concert - Versatility!

The concert showcased Rahman's versatility, range of music and an amazing display of songs from the early 1990s to a few months ago. He tried to make the concert quite participative, mingling with the crowds and even "interviewing" them. Lata Mangeshkar's visit to the stage and her kind words for the Oscar Winner and his humility to accept her praise brought two generational greats together on stage and was one of those occasions to cherish for life.

Musical Effects - No Rush, No Push!

Rahman's music - both its anticipation and after effects seemed to have both a mesmerising and sobering effect on people. No rushing, pushing while going in and surprise, surprise none while going out after his show too. There was No Honking! as the hundreds of cars made their way out of the stadium area at 11:00 pm! - Were they all inspired or mellowed by Rahman's music ? Wish his music is played at all public places and functions and we'll all be at our best behaviour and our streets a lot quieter.

Finally, using the Balewadi Stadium

The Balewadi stadium and the crores spent on it is finally being put to use. A number of events have already been held there since the CYG - LIC Games, Asian Badminton championships and even school events. Citizens would be glad to know that public money that was used to create the infrastructure is being put to good use and the facilities created are being maintained.

A few more things need to be done to make it world class - create proper parking, well defined walkways, large dustbins to collect the trash that is generated and some more permanent infrastructure for musical and other non-sports events. And make sure the hotel that was built there is functional!

IPR Regime: Whom does it protect?

2009-05-31T13:00:00.000+05:30

"Intellectual Property" that buzzword of technologists, capitalists and of the newly globalized world, has shaped the world over the last 10,000 years. The ingenuity of mankind has solved many puzzles, understood and harnessed nature, synthesized new products, mastered the human body and sent man into space. Human thought has created the communication and transportation revolutions which has (to borrow from Iridium's famous line) made "Geography to become History".

I don't claim to be an expert in world legal affairs, economics or on the benefits and ills of the patent regime in capitalism, I present here my views based on my personal experiences and raise a few questions!

How do ideas and products evolve?

How did all this worldwide innovation that harnessed the power of the human brain over a few thousand years happen? From Eureka moments of a few individuals where they came up with a completely new solution in a giffy or from inspiration of problems solved earlier, of incrementally building upon partial solutions of others? Many innovations, especially in today's age are worked upon simultaneously by many people all over the world and the solutions are not very different. Recent articles about Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection (and Evolution), point to the role of substantial ideas of one of his compatriots Thomas Malthus who sent him manuscripts of his ideas from half way across the world that Darwin built upon. Malthus did not mind Charles Darwin taking all the credit. Darwin just took a lot of those combined ideas to market! Therefore who owns the "Intellectual Property" and has the IPR?

Protect it through a patent?

Some years ago a start up that I co-founded "invented" some neat (8) ideas on mobility - location based advertising, unified messaging interface, universal mobility client, etc. Our board and investors discussed if we should patent them in the US. Costs, @ $50,000 per patent if done through lawyers based in the US and $5000 if done through lawyers based in India filing patents in the US. I talked to a few start ups who had filed US patents for their ideas - the verdict, yeah go ahead and file a patent - better to say its patented than to say its patentable, but remember it will not help get revenues or customers. The patents were filed and many of the ideas are now rolled out by many other companies, but we cant (and wont!) do a thing about it. Did companies "copy" our ideas? Maybe, but that's really a part of evolutionary thinking and how many different ways can the world solve a given problem - most people in a sector think alike, networked as they are.

Whom does a patent protect? The incumbents and the rich?

So we are not in a position to protect our patents! Can we raise the resources to get lawyers to protect them? Maybe we could? Is it worth it ? Maybe many million $s. Will we - no, we'll go invent the next idea and better monetize it ourselves next time by selling our products in the market. Sam Pitroda in one of the entrepreneur lecture series in Bangalore in 2004 talked all about his work in the US where he had filed more than 50 patents. He then came to India, setup CDOT and worked for a salary of 1$/month for many years. He then went through a heart surgery, his kids were to go to college in the US and found that he had run out of money and had to earn some again. He went back to the US, found and sued all those big companies that had violated his patents - including some who had PDA products, the "basic" idea for which he had filed a patent 20 years before" Sam Pitroda, could protect his patents, not sure how many others can do it and was it fair for him to sue based on a "basic" idea 20 years ago - well, he just used the current system to make some money and why not?

Another one to make the lawyers rich?

Large US companies and indeed many companies all over the world have a battery of lawyers that work 8x5 (they don't need to work 24x7 for the big bucks they make) helping their company file a few patents each day and then look out for patent infringements by other smaller or larger companies. So the big and rich companies protect themselves, make money by suing others and the lawyers get their big bucks by working a few hours each week. Filing patents seem to make the lawyers richer and the scientists and entrepreneurs much poorer without actually being able to protect their patents without spending some more money!

Secrets are best kept by not sharing them - but then how do you get the moolah?

Many IT products especially in the CAD/CAM area come with hardware locks. The software works only with the hardware lock dongle which is sold to the buyer of their million $ product. Can this be viable for sub $100 or even $100K products, I am not so sure. In the IT world we are sometimes not sure whether to show even prospects a presentation or demo and email them a PPT or just "show" it to them via Webex or through a video conference. And think of all the "trusted sales enablers" and contacts that one may need to send the information to. The only thing that will work is to carefully pre-qualify whom to send it to, but with an element of risk! Send it you will, since that's the way you will get it to market and make your moolah. Take it to market rapidly and have enough in it in terms of "new technology" so that you get time to take it to market before others catch up with you. If you cant, before others catch up, so be it.

Innovation is being globalized

Jenga toys - invented from an African idea of wooden building blocks, but patented by and taken to market by an American. Poly Al, a roofing material made from recycled "tetrapacks", invented in Kenya, perfected in Brazil and now being introduced into many parts of the world by Tetrapak! Mobile Ring tones, invented in Finland, created billions of dollars of business for many businesses all over the world. Could the inventors (especially in Africa) all have filed US patents (or for that matter a patent granted in India or by the UN) and then protected them by spending a quarter million $s in filling and then protecting them? Therefore, whats the way to protect your IP? By the ways of the jungle....

Let the wild jungles of capitalism - stay wild

True capitalism is about innovation, competition and democratic access to markets. Incumbents, like the lions and tigers of the jungle will mark and protect their territories with all their might and as long as they can. New comers need to be agile, swift and have new ideas to dislodge the incumbents. No problem, the new comers will work hard to take on and dislodge the powerful incumbents as long as they are not protected by the state through the "crutches" of "Intellectual Property Rights". IPR is the same feudal system of protecting incumbents and the powerful that democracies work at dismantling. Let the laws of the jungle prevail and not the crutches of a document of a half baked idea that was filed away somewhere. Let the brave hearts who ran with their idea, put their money, effort and life at stake, reap the rewards without the crutches!

Piracy is free publicity, expands markets - harness it

One of the companies that I am on the board of got a legal notice from Microsoft a couple of years ago. "Your company last bought a Microsoft product in 2000 and no more since then up to 2007. Your company must have grown in this time and therefore you seem to be using unlicensed Microsoft software, please explain" Hey, no contact from Microsoft Sales in the last 7 years to ask if we needed any more of their products and then this notice instead of working on pricing mechanisms that expand the market. The truth is that the company had definitely grown in revenues in that period but not in the number of people who needed MS-Office or a new version of their product. Many years ago when there were no Eastern Economy Editions, Asian Editions and Indian Editions of books, the footpaths of most Indian cities sold so many "photo-copied" books of foreign authors. Most of that has reduced/changed, with the cheaper (Rs. 99/-)editions and paperbacks that are now available. People don't need to "xerox" books anymore. Tally, arguably the best known Indian software product, has only its own pirated copies as its competitor. They ran an amnesty scheme to convert a lot of these into licensed copies, brought down prices and expanded their market manifold. The Netscape Internet browser over which Microsoft and Netscape bitterly contested a much publicized anti-trust suit is now sold FREE packaged with the PC/laptop and the first idea for the browser was itself invented at CERN in Europe! In many other instances, (alleged) trademark infringements can at best be called "unimaginative" where the person who copied it didn't use much imagination and just produced something "similar".

Our daughters aged 6 and 10, often come to us (usually the elder one) saying "She's copying me", expecting us to reprimand the "offender". We have tried several ways to explain that its the good ideas that are copied and that she should be proud of her idea that was copied, that she herself got her idea from somewhere else, but the complaints continue. Its still too early to tell her about the Laws of the Jungle!!

Attitude determines Altitude

2009-05-21T10:09:00.008+05:30

In corporate life (or indeed in any part of life - social or corporate) a high degree of importance is normally attributed to technical skills - whether its in technology, finance or administration. Whilst, the need for technical skills should not be underestimated, life over a period of time, often needs overcoming obstacles that will surely come up due to lack of resources or competition from others working in your field. Changes are inevitable over a period of time and the resilience to overcome the odds, the patience to wait for things to get better and for people or markets to be ready is a key ingredient for success. Many businesses are successful because they stayed the course in bad times and reaped the benefits of the good times or waited it out until a market matured.

R. Gopalkrishnan, Director Tata Sons, is one of those management professionals who has always focused on soft skills, HR, EQ and on "Effectiveness vs Efficiency". Effectiveness is always long-term and long lasting and efficiency (alone) is often short term. In his book "The Case of the Bonsai Manager" he explains in great detail, these aspects of human endeavour. Using facts from the plant and animal world he explains various management concepts, stressing on the soft skills of managers and working with people to build great teams and organizations.

In a recent article in Businessworld, "Its A Matter of Attitude" he reiterates this view of attitude, real world learning and a balance of technical and human skills being the cornerstone of success. Students should be humbled by the knowledge they acquire at B-school, not become cocky or arrogant about it. He says, "In cooperation with the Centre for Creative Leadership, the Tata Management Training Centre (TMTC) undertook research on what kinds of lessons leaders in India usually learn and how they learn them. The research paper suggests that leaders learn from three ‘worlds’ in which they participate — their ‘Inner World’ (self awareness, confidence, life goals), ‘World of Getting Things Done’ (operational skills, leadership, technical aspects) and the ‘World of People’ (managing subordinates, team play)

Read all about this in this recent article http://www.businessworld.in/index.php/Columns/Its-A-Matter-Of-Attitude.html

Bangalore is now a big city!

2009-05-17T12:34:00.003+05:30

I lived in Bangalore from 1991 to 2005. Lived in most parts of Bangalore starting from Rajajinagar, Basaveshwarnagar in the West, Koramangala in the South to Palm Meadows in the East and Jakkur in the north. In this period, I was witness to Bangalore growing from the quite, sleepy, public sector town with a spattering of small IT companies to a globally recognized IT destination. From the dream of most of the middle class to own a 60x40 "site" in the early 90's to many NRIs and local IT entrepreneurs to own a "million $ property" in gated communities like Palm Meadows by 2000. In this period, I also saw it transform in the corporate sector from a very South Indian cosmopolitan setup into a destination of professionals from all over India and from 2002 from many parts of the world.

Visited Bangalore last week after a gap of a few months. The very well organized new airport, includes a very visible bus system with plush buses and a professional service. Its the only airport I have seen in the world that has such a visible bus service and seems to be a part of the public consciousness with good connectivity and visibility in most parts of the city.

With the new airport and the road into the city, its B-Trac service, around 100 policeman in a 20 km stretch with Blackberry enabled offence tracking system (developed and deployed by my friend Suresh) its now a big city, acquiring some of the infrastructure of Delhi. The elevated roadway system from Silk Board junction to Electronic City and a few other infrastructure projects will clear some of the bottlenecks that make it almost impossible to estimate how much time it will take to a point in South Bangalore after getting from the airport to Mekri Circle in about 1/2 hour. Friends tell me about 2 hour drives for distances that could be covered in 1/2 hour earlier.

I stayed in South Bangalore and planned to visit a few friends in the Eastern part of Bangalore. Just could not make it! and just about made it back to the airport in time for my flight back to Pune (was a relief since missing flights due to traffic is quite common in Bangalore). After staying in Pune now for the last 3 years, where it doesn't take more than 1 hour to get from one end of the city to the other, I just could not plan effectively to make it through all parts of my visit agenda.

Bangalore is now a truly big city, and seems now to be logically divided into four parts, e.g. Whitefiled area can now be truly called East Bangalore! However it now needs to quickly execute all its infrastructure plans with a Comprehensive Mobility Plan and especially complete its Metro project and connect the airport to the city. Not many people can afford Air Deccan's helicopter service to get into the city!

Dot Hai Toh Hot Hai?

2009-05-01T07:58:00.010+05:30

The "Dot Hai Toh Hot Hai", public-service campaign run by Radio Mirchi, urging citizens to go out and vote in Pune on 23rd April, ran for more than a month before the polls. Many other campaigns were run by various sections of the print, television and online media.
Jagorey, conducted a well publicized campaign from Sept'08 urging citizens to register their names in Voter Lists and go out and vote on Voting Day.

I myself was inspired by these campaigns and even before these campaigns, out of guilt of not having voted regularly, wanted to vote this time. I had last voted in the 1990 Maharashtra Assembly Elections at a polling booth at Pali Hill in Mumbai for the first time. Didn't vote since then until last week. Same reasons as many many others - I am too busy!, Vote doesn't count, Don't know how to register for voting, etc. I was just fooling myself!

The campaigns were expected to galvanise educated Civil Society, particularly the middle class to go out and vote. Nothing of the sort seems to have happened. Voting percentages in a supposedly rights conscious city like Pune (the NGO capital of the country) was @ 40%, the lowest ever for the city. 26/11 was touted to be a "wake up call", " a galvanizing factor", "a catalyst" for CHANGE! Only 43% of Mumbai voted and South Mumbai the epicenter of 26/11, even less!

Is Educated Civil Society really waking up? I am sure they are and they will. But not yet, not as fast as some people hoped for. The "secession of the successful" continues and its not a priority yet for the middle class that seems to be doing well in any case. They think they are doing well in spite of the government and only due to their own "hard work". Humility is a lost virtue these days!

Several reasons are also being put out on how the system is screwed up and in spite of their 15 minute "hard work" to find their names in the Voters List, the screwed up system didn't have their names in the Voter Lists! This in spite of:

Jagorey starting their campaign (in Sept 08) and putting up a corporate style service to help find your constituency and filing for inclusion of your name in the Voters List
One of more than 14 documents being accepted as residence proof!!
The EC and district, city administrations putting out the first version of the Voters List for public verification, first in Oct 2008 and again in January 2009.
The verification of your name was a 10 minute job at a EC office in January with a name search done on a laptop - typing your name in English to find your name in the Devanagari voting list.
Huge coverage exhorting citizens to check their names in advance and take action to get their names in, right up to 31st March, a fortnight before voting day.
Plenty of websites pointing to "10 ways to check your name in the voters list" (e.g. smartvote.in).
Name search sites to look for your names online
SMS service where you could send a SMS with your name and get details of your voting booth.
Several corporators, political parties doing their bit to help people get themselves registered (We got our names registered with service from a local corporator in July 08)

This may almost sound like government propaganda! But its just the list of facts and humility to accept that a big and sincere effort was made by many to help people go out and vote. I don't know of any other "public transaction" that has got so much support from government agencies, NGOs and a section of active civil society. Yet, the convenient excuse "I wanted to vote, but the "System" is screwed up as I have always said...I told you so". Ludicrous comments like "I dont trust the EVMs, they all seem to be rigged". This after several newspaper articles and TV programs have explained in great detail how tamper proof the system is and there are 500 odd political parties and 100+ NGOs to "check" the system. Is there scope for the "System" to improve, yes sure there is. But then, there's a bigger scope for Civil Society to improve as well.

I think its a long way to go before "lazy, arrogant and selfish" civil society wakes up, takes the effort to get their names in voters lists and goes and votes even if they need to brave the 40 degree heat for an hour every few years. Even if voting was made compulsory as per L K Advani's suggestion, school-boy excuses and fake "I was ill" notes will be used to avoid voting. The only event that MAY galvanise educated civil society is if the government announces that citizens are no longer allowed to freely travel to the US/Europe/Australia for studies, jobs and visits! Then we MAY see the middle class go and vote out the proposal in large numbers!

I for one enjoyed the voting experience and didn't find any "irregularities" or "insincerity's" in the polling machinery! Here's hoping the "Go and Vote" campaigns continue and voting percentages improve in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls and Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

Las Vegas - Mecca of Tourism

2009-04-28T09:50:00.012+05:30

Its always wonderful to visit Las Vegas, the Disneyland for adults. The city and sites created in a desert, with its own unique economic model, stands testimony to the American Dream that created money at places that were once considered wastelands.

I have been visiting Las Vegas since 1996 and its been amazing to see how the number of hotels getting added to the skyline of The Strip just does'nt seem to stop. Spotted a few more new hotels coming up on a visit a couple of weeks ago, that is after I saw many more new hotels already added since my last visit in 2002. On my first visit in 1996 I was all ready to swear that The Strip had more (equivalent) hotel rooms than the whole of India. In 2002 I saw a few new hotels like the Venetian and the Bellagio, and this time a whole new Las Vegas downtown!

Some (serious) trivia about Las Vegas, that will remind us about this huge magnet that attracts hordes of visitors each year to its glittering neon lights:

Over 40 M visitors each year
Has more than 150,000 hotel rooms in an area of a few sq km (adding 2-8K new rooms each year)
Hosts over 22,000 conventions a year. Mind boggling to even know how many that is each day!

Here's many more astonishing Las Vegas Numbers at the University of Nevada ( http://cber.unlv.edu/tour.html )website.

And whats the recession done to Las Vegas?

Seems not very much on the surface; 3M visitors in March; hotel occupancy down only @ 10-15%; didnt see much effect on the attendance at the CTIA show, many more hotel rooms getting added this year! But hey, 10-15% drop is big in the hotel industry, where 70% occupancy for break-even is the norm! Hotels have already announced layoffs! Cab Drivers are doing @ 25 trips a day as compared to 45 each day - no wonder they are not too happy about the Las Vegas Monorail System. For the sake of a greener earth, hope this system succeeds - do you really need a car in the sights and sounds (of money) of Vegas!

Here's wishing all of you a great night at the heights of the open-air, Voodoo Lounge at the Rio Hotel & Casino where you can soak in the sights of The Strip from close to heaven!

The New World of Wireless Data - @ CTIA 2009

2009-04-26T08:24:00.008+05:30

Am back in the wireless data services world and have started travelling internationally again after a gap. It has been interesting to watch the wireless space without being involved in it on a day to day basis for the last couple of years. Am now back to working on it, building out a new set of ideas in the space.
Visited the CTIA show at Las Vegas, 1st - 3rd April. Several changes in the representation and thrust at CTIA since my last visit there in 2003. The Wireless World is one industry that seems to have weathered the storms of the recession in the US, with new innovations and aggressive roll-out of new Wireless Data Services. Many even hope that the wireless industry in the US will be the catalyst to pull the US out of the recession!

Here is some data and impressions from this year's CTIA Wireless Show:

Focus is on devices and native applications -
Apple, RIM are giving the US an edge over Europe through their iPhone and Blackberry Devices
Appstores from each of the device vendors is the hot (new) business concept to help app vendors advertise, help consumers discover their application and distribute and deploy them – Has removed the carrier from the equation
The CDMA vs GSM and complicated interdependencies in delivering Mobile Data Services and SMS has gone away in the US; GSM (T-Mobile) and 3G availability in the US has simplified the space
WAP and other Mobile Browsers are not the only way to access the Mobile Internet anymore – their noise was drowned; Only Opera had a presence with their Opera Mini and other browsers
Its not just Java in the device world anymore; J2ME is not the only force – iPhone Objective-C, Google Android, Blackberry JDE
Native Device applications are growing rapidly – focused, rich GUI vertical applications rather than a browser to access “content”
The Three Screens convergence – TV, PC and Mobile screens convergence – Microsoft – Connected Entertainment, Envivio is making a big push for this
Windows Mobile 6.5 and PCs will be soon be shipped with Embedded 3G
Nokia is losing ground – no longer prima donna of the industry – is late in launching its AppStore (OVi); No path breaking devices or concepts anymore
US companies have wrested the lead on MDS from European companies
Asian Device vendors are taking the lead alongwith iPhone and Blackberry – Samsung and LG are way ahead of the competition in hi-tech phones and new device concepts. Some neat phones with transparent keyboards, image projectors, mobile TV and other features.
Asian Vendors - Don't talk applications at all though!! Except HTC, the guys from Taiwan who have tied up with Google for Android and made breakthroughs through Android’s Application Marketplace
Google has made its presence felt in the wireless world through Android – not a force yet, but will be one when they integrate it with Google Maps (already done), Search Anywhere, etc.
The Middleware guys are gone – Only a token presence thru Oracle, Sybase, etc. HP, IBM and others are not talking much mobility anymore
MapQuest, Navteq, etc. are making Location Based Services happen – privacy fears for tracking and map assistance type applications seem to have reduced
All application vendors seem to be “behind” the device guys – RIM, Nokia, Apple (not present at CTIA) as opposed to with the middleware or network equipment vendors like HP, Oracle, TIBCO, etc. earlier
Microsoft Mobile devices are finally there, many device vendors have it on their devices
The Finland and DoCoMo Buzz has reduced substantially!! DoCoMo still leads with the best applications deployed by a carrier though
USSD and SIM Card based application vendors – couple of companies from Europe still had these – mainly for banking and operator based applications (pre-paid topup, balance enquiry) in Europe
A couple of Unified Messaging Platforms and Companies were around – but look more like the Mobile Middleware guys of Y2000-2002
Chinese companies have made an entry with their Antennas, Radio Equipment, Huawei and cheap mobile phones without the IMEI numbers!!
The Ringtone Buzz is dead – but its still an industry (even if on its last legs) - Will slowly get replaced by stereo quality music, virtual radio-stations, etc.
Greenphones – concept phones with green materials (LG), Solar Cells, Green Towers (that look like trees!)
Recycled Phones, Retrofitted phones, sold at 30-50% discounts – Reverse Logistics to collect discarded and non-functional phones, fix and sell them along with regular phones at retail locations -

eBook Readers - will they "rekindle" the love for books?

2009-03-23T14:39:00.004+05:30

Amazon recently launched Kindle - 2 their new and improved e-book reader. The first version was launched in 2007 and was an improvement over the one launched by Sony a couple of years ago. This is one device that promises to be useful and can change the way people read, bring them back to books, rather than "random" content on the net.

Some key points about Kindle-2:

Costs, $359 and is wireless enabled to download content (nay books!)
Comes with a wireless subscription and you pay for the book and not the number of bytes you download
Can hold more than 1500 books
One battery charge allows for two weeks of reading!
The screen is not back lit, has a white hue background much like paper book pages
Users can think of a book to read, download it in a few minutes and get started
Built to resemble a conventional book, with a leather cover, its a "conservative" device and gives comfort to all, unlike many devices which only geeks are comfortable with

Wireless Kindles will push the mobile application industry to build eReaders for mobile phones. Especially for information (unlike content!) like travel brochures and "rough guides" that can be easily read on mobile phones.

Kindle promises to restore sanity to reading habits. Arguably, the Internet with its hyper-links has facilitated random reading and given great flexibility of being able to find out what any new word means by clicking on it and reading about it on Wikipedia. Hey, but this takes people all around the Internet, often forgetting where they had started.

In discussions 8-10 years ago, on whether the Internet will take over reading habits and sound the death knell for paper books, I always argued that this wont happen until the PC/laptop becomes so convenient that you can use it like a paper book - lying in bed or on the couch, reading away for hours! I don't know what the statistics are on "reading postures" - but I am pretty certain a lot of reading is done in the loo and in bed or on the couch, in the horizontal position! The Kindle will facilitate this much like the paper book and help readers read in postures and positions they are most comfortable with.

I even see my kids drawing and writing in the horizontal position these days! So surely the Kindle will succeed and rekindle the fire for books (in the horizontal position). Here's hoping the Kindle will be the iPod of the book and newspaper industry, while it retains its old world links with paper books and its price falls below $100 soon!

Back to Blogging...and the Mobile World

2009-03-20T15:00:00.002+05:30

Have been off Blogging for a while, with a wireless network connection and a virus infected PC that made it a chore to even check email. Staying for a few months in the rural part of Pune (though its just 5 mins from the airport) the only connection I have had to the net is the one from Reliance. Like their adverts, No Regular Power, No Landlines, but a wireless network. Here I am back to blogging and to the Mobile Data Services (MDS) world from which I have been on a sabbatical the last couple of years.

After spending a couple of years with Organic Food, Waste Matters and Green Architecture (which I will continue following, more about these exciting areas in the next few weeks) I am back doing a few things in the world of MDS, that I started in 1997. Catching up with whats happening in the MDS world, its been heartwarming and a vindication of Peter Drucker's maxim, "The short term effect of a new technology is often over-estimated, and the long term impact often underestimated". Its been exactly that, some of the things that we did in 99/2000 and again in 2005, seem to be getting adapted now. With 10M+ new mobile subscribers being added each month in India and GPRS/EDGE finally becoming commonplace, its now ready to happen (the long term impact). Catching up with some friends from around the world on the MDS scene of the last 2 years, here's what I have gathered:

Telecom industry is still doing well, in spite of the global recession, especially in the Asia/APAC region. Globally voice revenues are drying up, with almost all carriers down to all you can eat voice packages and without much ground left for any innovation.
Walled Gardens are collapsing - Operators (as some of them liked to be called now as opposed to carriers) have dismantled their walled gardens. They couldn't manage them any longer, but don't be mistaken that they will become dumb pipes! They still own the customer relationship with the mobile phone user. However they are now allowing the mobile internet to happen!
Mobile Broadband is happening - Many new broadband connections are now wireless. My own Reliance Netconnect was the only way I could get on to the net. Convenience of buying a dongle and getting onto the net in less than an hour and better internet speeds are powering laptops to get onto the net from anywhere. Wireless LAN still needs hot spots and its not quite easy to get onto the net from anywhere. As handsets turn into computers, laptops are becoming more like mobile phones and mobile phone users are getting used to accessing the Internet wirelessly!
High End devices are becoming commonplace - At less than 15% of the device market, seems to be very small right now, but some of these smart phones and devices like the iPhone will be commonplace in the next two years, much like most basic phones became camera phones over the last two.
Appstores are changing deployment models - Apple AppStore and the ones launched by RIM, Nokia and Microsoft are finally providing application developers a way to deploy their applications and distribute them. Seems to be a cumbersome process, with application signing, licensing, etc. - but still a more sure way for application developers to release their applications to the devices they are intended for and popularize and monetize them. According to the Economist most iPhone users in the US have spent at least $100 on mobile applications since it was launched.
Its not just Ring Tones anymore - Mobile users seem to have gone past downloading ring tones. They are now downloading applications for their devices and enterprises are beginning to deploy domain specific applications for their employees and customers. Banking, Golf, Retail and Travel applications with richer interfaces than those provided by Mobile Browsers are bringing in the wow factor to these applications. More than 500 million application downloads from Apple's AppStore since its launch in July '08!
Mobile Browser vs Native Applications - This debate although still raging, is slowly being won by the richness of Native Applications on devices like the iPhone. Inability of browsers to exploit the richness of the technical interfaces provided by native device environments and to access Contact Books, arrived SMSes, Calendars on the device is tipping the scales in its favour. No wonder, Google invested in Android a OS platform for mobile devices rather than a better mobile browser technology.
Nokia losing ground (in high end devices) - the company that delivered Finland, elegant, functional mobile phones and smart messaging to the world has for the last 7+ years held a 40% market share. With the advent of smart phones from others like RIM and Apple, they are losing ground in high end devices.
GPS and Google maps are facilitating Location Based Services . Some of the privacy concerns about giving away location that had inhibited the adoption of LBS seem to have reduced since location is now given out to/by GPS satellites instead of carrier networks.

In India, wireless operators are still flexing their muscles with their adhoc support to MDS, their predatory pricing and arbitrary disconnections of Aggregators! Hopefully its their last hurrah before they finally make way for the wireless internet!

Here's looking forward to all computing devices becoming wireless, high end devices becoming cheaper, 3G coming to India soon after the elections and the catching up of MDS with the amazing proliferation of mobile voice services in India.

Delhi...moving ahead

2008-11-04T18:07:00.002+05:30

Visited Delhi recently, after my last visit in April. Its one place in the country where steady progress is seen on most infrastructure projects. It has now become a showcase of good changes in infrastructure and is fast moving towards becoming an international destination. My observations on this covered in an earlier post about Delhi and its tourist sites.

A few more roads and flyovers have been completed since my last visit, the next phase of the Delhi Metro has progressed well (despite the mishap of the under construction section that collapsed a few weeks ago) into NOIDA, Gurgaon, Akshardham and the Airport. The new Delhi airport has taken shape and the new expressways to Gurgaon and Noida are still in good shape! Didn't get to see the progress on the BRT, hope thats going ahead too.

The taxi driver who drove me from the airport to my hotel in NOIDA, was all pride and praise for the developments in infrastructure. "Naksha Badal Diya, aur do saal mein dekho saab, Commonwealth Games tak sub kuch ho jaayega. Metro bhi pura ho jayega". All he was cursing now were the old vehicles that break-down on top of a fly-over and block traffic! Asked him about the BRT, wasn't too happy with lanes being given away for buses, when he drives people around in his car! He takes the Metro everyday and is waiting for its expansion into Gurgaon, NOIDA and the airport.

BTW, the famed shoppers of Delhi were certainly a subdued lot, not much shopping and bargaining this Diwali. Thought only the stock brokers of Mumbai have been affected by the stock-market crash!

Came across another article about the changes in Delhi in today's Rediff edition, Delhi Unlovable? No Way. And here's another on Delhi and its old and new beauties, in concrete and in flesh. Take a dekho...

We are a "Soft" People

2008-10-11T22:05:00.002+05:30

Vinod Mehta in one of his columns in the Outlook magazine, commented on Advani calling the Congress and Manmohan Singh "soft" on terror. He said, "yes, Congress is soft and so is Advani and the BJP". Says no one in India has the gumption to take a tough stand on anything. I agree, we are a "soft" nation and that includes all of us - from politicians, corporate employees, parents, sportsmen to cops on the streets.
Being soft and the "Bechara Bhala Aadmi" has always been glorified in Hindi movies - the good "soft" guy always wins. The soft guys are the superstars in India - Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar - not Harbhajan Singh or Salman Khan and the aggressive baddies. We would never have a Douglas Jardine or even a Ricky Ponting be a superstar in India, they don't quite fit the "humble and soft" image of the Indian superstars.
Our softness extends to several everyday acts, tasks and anything that involves having to bear a little bit of physical pain, stretching ourselves or facing tough emotional circumstances. It includes, not pushing people to work hard, being soft on them - even at the cost of making them lazy!

Parents and Kids
Our softness, starts when we are kids. The only thing we are pushed "hard" to do by our parents is study. Compare the "hard" discipline that kids grow up with at home in the west, we think its being hard on our children if we get them to do things on time (such as having dinner or sleeping before midnight) or to get them to make their own beds, carry their school bags or do anything themselves. Parents who teach their kids to sleep in their own rooms are often considered to be hard (Hitler!) and heartless. Perhaps the very reason why most of us grow up not being able to do things on our own and grow up having no sense of responsibility or accountability!

Softness in the Corporate World
Many of us would have faced the situation of having to deal with under-performing or plain ill disciplined employees. Try getting their immediate managers to take strict actions against these errant employees or worse still, having to fire them for non-delivery. You would find that it hasn't been done even a few weeks after it was first discussed. Managers find this too hard to do, and the same manager who first complained about these employees not delivering find it "hard" to ask the person to leave or "soften" their stands, wanting to suddenly keep the "bechara" employee (in some other group in the company!). Ask even rational thinking employees to do the right thing in these circumstances and they "chicken out", leaving the hard job to be done by the highest level manager where the buck stops!!

Cops and Citizens
My father used to love the cops in Bangalore (the adjust maadi city) because they were "soft" as compared to the cops (earlier) in Pune, Mumbai. Any traffic violations (such as no license!) and they would let you go after a sorry! Even cops, whom we often find to be the bad and corrupt leeches, get soft on many occasions. Consider how much they would have earned in speed-money if they actually got "hard" with many more people and violations in broad daylight. Talk to some of them and they will use some of the "bechara" words to tell you how its not right to take action on bechara hawkers, traffic violators on two wheelers, cycles and other simple people. In spite of all the other hard things we hear about cops and what they do with ordinary citizens, we wouldn't have the chaos on the roads if they actually got tough with law enforcement.

Politicians and Citizens
I have been working on some projects that involve working with Municipal officials (bureaucrats) in Pune. Many of the seemingly "tough" decisions they take (such as having the road divider go the entire length of the road without the gaps near every shop!!) in the course of their day to day work and trying to work to professionally laid out plans are often overturned by local corporators, MPs and other politicians when a few "bechara" citizens complain about this "injustice". I am sure the politicians know well enough that this "overturned" decision will not ensure their victory in the extremely fickle next election. They still go soft! with citizens because they themselves are (soft).

Gentlemen of Indian Sports
Why India doesn't do well in sports, especially the "hard" ones is surely because we are soft with our youngsters. Coaches, parents, teachers and everybody else in the life of the sportsmen. We are supposed to be a nation of "gentlemen sportsmen", with no killer instincts, not able to push ourselves to win that coveted medal! (notwithstanding the odd aggressive sportsmen like Harbhajan Singh). Sportsmen need to work hard, often having to push themselves to the brink of hard physical pain for a few seconds, but then its not for us soft people! This is perhaps the sole reason for our non-performance at the Olympics. Many nations that have a much lower per capita income, worse infrastructure, more corrupt and bungling officials have won golds at the Olympics, but not us, the soft race!

Gardeners
Gardens, often need the owner or maali to be a little "hard" on his plants, such as having to prune them! or having to uproot plants (or even weeds) that have grown in the wrong place. Try this with my gardener and he'll let me know that its OK, its a plant that has a life! Why uproot it or cut it! It needs your patience and insistence that it just needs to be done, before the "hard" act of uprooting the plant in question or pruning it is actually done. Surely, the reason why many of our gardens look unkempt! as compared to the Arabian concept of "paradise"

When we as a nation start facing some "hard" options to grow, make money, to control terrorism, difficult recessionary times or face a war, we may perhaps toughen up and stop being soft! Until then we'll continue being the "softmen" that we surely are.

Frugal Engineering & New Business Models

2008-10-04T21:47:00.004+05:30

A recent issue of the Economist, brought out a detailed report on Globalization and its effect on developing and developed markets. The article analyzes the effect of the rise of corporations and businesses from developing economies and discusses how companies such as Lenovo, Airtel, Tata Steel, Embrarer are attaining global scale and acquiring well established brands and businesses from the developed world. At the same time, companies such as IBM, Cisco, GE are taking advantage of their presence in emerging markets and redefining their product, operational costs and business models. Key points from the article:

Globalization now means business flows in both directions between developed and developing economies. Its now all about "competing with everyone from everywhere for everything"
More than 62 companies from emerging markets are now part of the Fortune 500 list, expected to make up a third of the list in the next ten years
Emerging markets demand a new genre of products, often in more basic forms or smaller sizes than developed countries. Firms in these countries are in a better position to understand these needs of a large consumer base.
New business models are emerging - goods and services are being delivered in fundamentally different ways and at much lower costs
Frugal Engineering - similar to the concept that I described in my earlier post Minimalist Products, where specialized skills of workers from emerging markets are helping define new, value driven products.
Companies from emerging markets are more adept at making do with minimum resources and are able to make profits at low costs and while serving the "Bottom of The Pyramid"
The incumbents are striking back too, by evolving new business models, buying out the cost advantage, building a large presence in countries like India & China and by tightening their belts.

Read more of the Globalization Report ...

Clotheslines & Aesthetics

2008-09-08T20:30:00.002+05:30

Clothesline - a simple rope to hang and dry clothes in residential buildings. It hasn't quite remained simple over the years! It became the subject of several laws and bye-laws of city councils and municipalities across the world to govern aesthetics of residential localities. Many years ago, walking around South Mumbai, we would wonder which of the buildings were residential and which commercial. We would guess that any flats that had clothes hanging off them were residential and the others not! Perhaps it was also a sign of the building not being too upmarket or at least not governed by any specific bye-laws about (not) displaying their dirty laundry.

Drying Clothes around the world

During my travels I have often observed how people in different countries dry their clothes. In Singapore/Hongkong - well designed? dry balconies with pipes to insert bamboo sticks to dry clothes on. In UK, backyards with the long clotheslines. And in the US and now most of the western world- dryers! They don't believe in free sun drying any more, preferring to burn and pay for fossil fuels and quickly finish their laundry on Sunday afternoons. In India -clothes are dried just about anywhere, including the living room! A friend was telling us about how they once put out a blanket to dry in the front balcony of their flat in Haifa, Israel and had the community police knock on their door five minutes later.

Innovative products
Indian architects and builders though started paying attention to this in many of the flats and houses that were built after 1995- Utility/Dry balconies became an architectural feature. A new range of products including innovative clothes stands, pulley operated multiple clothesline frame followed by each clothesline operated by individual pulleys. For some reason these products were first available and used in Mumbai and Pune. We carried one such clothes stand from Pune to be inundated by requests from our neighbours in Bangalore to get them one. Many decent apartments now have clotheslines tucked away towards the rear side of the flats and high up near the ceilings in dry balconies. Some (actually few) Indians have now started using electrically operated dryers in their homes so that they don't have to hang their clothes out and wait for them to dry - if they have power in their homes when they want to wash and dry their clothes, that is.

Should Clothes Drying be regulated?

In India we barely follow any rules in public places or at traffic lights, let alone any rules or bye-laws that regulate what we should do in (or just outside) our homes. One such discussion had a colleague point out that such rules in the West frustrate them too, where they freak out inside their homes to compensate for all the rules they need to follow outside! While googling for contact information of pulley operated clotheslines sellers in Pune, (to hide away drying clothes in our new place) I came across two interesting and contrasting directions on this sensitive topic (wonder why this was never seen as a fundamental right in the US - the right to flutter your clothes much like flying the American flag is! :) ).

Seems a new rule in Mumbai is going to regulate this soon. Read more about it here in a recent news item in TOI. Another one I came across was this article on a Blog by Nita Writer, about a backlash in Canada against these rules.

Do we need to regulate this in India or allow time and our architects and builders to provide the infrastructure - aesthetic, practical, working, easy to use and let natural (and increasing) pride keep their houses looking good (inside and out). Or perhaps, in these days of global warming, regulate the use of dryers or at least tax them heavily in India and promote and give tax breaks to those who use the free dryer - sunlight!

Waterfalls and an African Tribe

2008-08-24T11:19:00.020+05:30

Western Ghats, in the monsoons – the verdant greenery, the numerous waterfalls and the overflowing rivulets. Every year in August, we do a “Waterfalls Trip” – seeing them when they are at their roaring best. This year we went to Yellapur, 70 kms from Hubli on the Hubli Karwar highway (part of the Karwar-Hampi road that connects the iron ore mines of Bellary to the west coast). This is a part of the Sirsi-Karwar-Shimoga section of the Western Ghats, a part of what is locally called the Malnad area.
The Hubli-Karwar road has some interesting significance in the area and in the country. I first went to see this road about 12 years ago (1996) as the first example of a modern, international quality road built in India. Great surface, perfectly banked curves, road markings and road signs, as I had seen outside the country. People talked about this road in Hubli and wanted you to see it! Seeing such a road in India at that time was both an assurance that it can be done and a hope that other highways in India would soon be of this quality. I have traveled on this road 5-6 times since then and am glad that the surface has remained the same - well maintained, smooth surfaces. This well built road is complemented by matching scenery - thick forests, great mountain valleys and numerous waterfalls..

Magod Falls
This waterfall, amongst the best known in the area and one which has the best access ( in this otherwise inaccessible area), has the Bedthi river hurtling down 675 feet in two steps. Seen from across the valley from quite a distance, through a misty haze that clears for a couple of minutes to give you a glimpse of itself. The approach to the view point of this waterfall has got better over the years – starting from needing to trek 5km+ to this place a few years ago to being able to now drive right upto the view point, park your vehicle, see the waterfall and have a steaming hot cup of chai. Look out for leeches in this area, amongst the wet rocks, ferns and grasses.

Sathodi Falls
This is another waterfall that needed a 10kms+ trek earlier and is now approachable by road upto 1 km away from the waterfall. A bunch of streams hurtle down @ 50 feet over a breadth of 25 meters. The stream then flows into the backwaters of the Kodasalli Dam, into the Kali River. We trekked around 5 kms each way with our brave kids, to reach the waterfall. Our vehicle, got stranded; stuck in a small, bad and sticky stretch of road, until 10 young people (a group of classmates in various IT companies in Bangalore, Mumbai who were on a picnic/trek) helped us out of the quagmire. Thinking its just a 2 km trek to the waterfall and back we ended up trekking 10 km. The trek itself was well worth it, to see this waterfall right there in the wilderness.

Jog Falls
Jog or Gersoppa – the most spectacular and famous of the waterfalls in the region and at @ 900 ft. believed to be the highest waterfall in the country (although the Barehipani Waterfall in the Simplipal National Park in Mayurbhanj, Orrisa is the highest at 1309 feet). On several visits here ever since 1977, I have seen this in various moods! Sometimes seen it a trickle, other times never saw it in the heavy mist, except for a few minutes during a stay of a few hours. My mother saw the waterfall when she was in school and used to tell us that they could hear the roar for more than 25 kms. This was before the Linganmakki dam and Mahatma Gandhi Hydroelectric project was commissioned upstream from the Jog. It probably attracts 50,000+ tourists on weekends and had a huge heap of garbage going down the steep valley a few years ago. Thankfully, this has all been cleaned up and work done by Karnataka Tourism to spruce up the infrastructure including the British and Mysore Bungalows that offer different views of the Falls.

Another well-known waterfall in the area is Unchalli Jog also called Lusington Falls. The districts of Karwar (North Kanara) and Shimoga have over 60 waterfalls in the area, seeing just a few is itself a treat to the senses.

Bamboo Shoots, Areca nut & Mushrooms
Yellapur is in the heart of Malnad territory or the Western Ghats that have amongst the highest bio-diversity in the world and you can find some interesting culinary exotics here. The heartland of the betel nut trade (along with the North East area of India) this tropical palm that needs the shade, moisture and rains of the Western Ghats has created many local fortunes. Raw, un-roasted Betelnut Fruit is sold here in the markets along with pepper, cardamom, forest mushrooms and bamboo shoots! Bamboo shoots pickle is a delicacy in this area and so are Yallaki Balehannu (Cardamom Bananas) those small 2” bananas that are famous as the South Indian bananas.

Siddhis - the lost African Tribe
Situated as it is in the midst of the thick forests, this region is home to a number of tribes. The Siddhis are one such lost African tribe that inhabit this area. The kids were amused to see Afro-Negroid faces amongst the village folk here, well settled that they are after being here for over 300 years. Their ancestors are believed to have been brought here mostly from Mozambique by the Portuguese and were bought by the erstwhile Maharajas as slaves. They escaped into the forests of Gir in Gujarat and Yellapur in Karnataka about 300-100 years ago and number around 50,000. Around 10,000 are in the Gir National Park area of Gujarat. Some of them became famous generals or rulers themselves – best known among them is Siddhi Johar of Janjira.

Melting Point – several cultures at the top of the ghats
The top of the Western Ghats seem to have been some kind of tiny melting points of various cultures over the years. These places are equally influenced by the culture and cuisine of the West Coast, the bio-diversity of the forests and the Deccan Plateau. Trade existed between the coast and the plateau in equal measure. This can be seen right from Pune, Kolhapur, Belgaum, Dharwad/Hubli. Yellapur is one such place influenced by the culture and cuisines of Karwar, the Yellapur forests and Hubli. A meal at a dinghy local restaurant revealed just that – cuisine ranging from from fish, banana, chicken to languages heard there amongst 10 people having dinner – Konkani, Kannada, Marathi, Siddhi with Hindi songs blaring on the radio!

Sagar - rosewood and sandalwood arts
On our way back to Hubli, we took a detour to visit Sagar, the place known for its betel nut/areca nut markets and its famous sandalwood, rosewood and ivory carvers. Sagar has a concentration of the Gudigars - families that for generations have been engaged in sandalwood and ivory carving. Idols, figurines and knick-knacks like pen-holders, agarbathi stands, cuff links, photo frames and paper clips and garlands and wreaths made out of thin layers of scraped sandalwood can be bought here. We visited a well known shop in the town – Sri Venkatesha Fancy Art Works (Ph: 98441 01369), where you can place orders for exquisitely carved rosewood furniture with intricate designs inlaid with ivory (its white plastic that’s used now)

Children's Advice to Parents

2008-08-10T18:47:00.005+05:30

Indian parents are known to be amongst the most pushy, globally!! (checkout all the feats of Indian and NRI kids on Youtube published by their parents). Until the 80s and in the ration economy, Indian parents pushed children into doing well academically so that their kids got through into an engineering or medical college and they had some hopes of landing decent jobs or go away to America to get a decent future. In the 90s as education and the economy was liberalized, and the number of seats at professional colleges increased manifold and so did the number and range of jobs, it would have been expected that Indian parents would start to relax and let their children grow up without their pressure and just let them be!

However, expectations from children just dont seem to have changed. Infact it seems to be increasing, with parents showering all their time and money on the one or two kids that they now have, inturn demanding that their kids excel and be "first in class" in everything they do. This is expected of them in academics (getting into IIT, IIM or AIIMS) as well as extra-curricular activites such as debating or playing the piano. As Kapil Dev, famously said after India's early exit from the last cricket world-cup, when the press and the middle class was comparing the non-performance of the Indian team with the solid performances of other teams "We cant compare ourselves with Australia, South Africa, West Indies. There parents take their kids to play football, to do white-water rafting or to play cricket. In India parents take their kids for Tuitions"

Recently read a National Geographic article about China's Parents putting pressure on their kids - dont know which country's parents are worse! Several other stories in the Indian press on exam pressures, student suicides and the great Indian Debate on the right way to bring up kids and give them a Wholesome Education continue to appear, while we continue to bringup our kids with the same pressure that we endured in the 70s and 80s.
Advice on bringing up children from philosopher-poet Khalil Gibran (via Tarun Malviya) is perhaps the best advice that we can get as parents. Here's some advice from Children to Parents on how they should be brought up - (via Krishna Mokhasi whose work in Hubli has been described in - Small Town Ideas: Wholesome Education in Hubli in one of my earlier posts)

Children's Advice to Parents
Some of the best advice parents can get is from children themselves. A fourth grade teacher asked her pupils to pretend that they were Ann Landers giving advice to parents on how to raise children. Here are some of the precocious bits of wisdom that resulted:
"Dont always be giving orders. If you suggest something instead of giving a command, I'll do it faster."
"Dont keep changing your mind about what you want me to do. Make up your mind and stick to it".
"Keep your promises, both good and bad. If you promise a reward, make sure you give it to me. If you promise punishment, make sure I get that too"
"Dont compare me with anybody else, especially a brother or sister. If you make me out to be better or smarter, somebody gets hurt. If you make me out to be worse or dumber, than I get hurt"
"Let me do as much for myself as I can. Thats how I learn. If you do everything for me, I will never be able to do anything for myself"
"Dont scream at me. It makes me scream back, and I dont want to be a screamer"
"Dont tell lies in front of me and ask me to tell lies to help you out. It makes me think less of you and less of myself even if I am supposed to be doing a favour"
"When I do something wrong, dont try to get me to tell you why I did it. Something I dont know why"
"Dont pay too much attention to me when I say I have a stomach ache. Playing sick can be a good way to get outof things I dont want to do, or going places I dont want to go"
"When you are wrong about something, admit it. It wont hurt my opinion of you. It will make it easier for me to admit it when I am wrong"
"Treat me like you treat your friends. Then I will be your friend and you will be mine. Just because people are related doesn't mean they can't be polite to each other"

Meeting Beneficiaries of Liberalization

2008-08-08T13:45:00.004+05:30

2008 has so far been a year of nostalgic memories, meeting old classmates, talk of days gone by and discussions of global wisdom to solve India's problems!! Our batch mates, Loyola Batch Of 82 got together at Pune in April this year, followed by one in North America where our classmates based there got together. The get-together numbers were quite impressive, over 80% attendance of the possible attendees.

Getting Together after 25 years
Meeting after 25 years and at an important milestone in all our lives, just after we've turned 40! We had classmates flying in from Canada, Dubai, Germany, Bangalore, Hyderabad. There were the usual no-shows, surprising its always the same few who are always busy or otherwise unavailable!
Several discussions followed on the reasons for the success of the get together. Was it?

Timing - 25 years after school, 40+ age, mid-life crisis
Technology - email, internet, phone, etc. that helped almost 95% of batch mates from Australia to USA to be traced and contacted
Efforts of a few - connectors and mavens (as they are called by Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point (http://www.gladwell.com/) of the batch to ensure all were personally contacted (in addition to the emails that went out to all)
A bachelor get together at 40+ with the prospect of belly dancers, booze and more.
One batch mate even suggested that the success was due to the fact that India, USA and the world are going through a tough time and all of us at our wise middle ages are searching for collective solutions.

I personally think its a bit of everything (from 1-4) and not limited to pt. 2 which many (especially in the IT sector) think is the reason for this successful get together.

What did everybody end up doing after school?

Our batch was divided by training into the engineers, doctors, accountants and a few who dared to think differently and joined hotel management and commercial art. The majority were engineers (mainly due to the new engineering colleges that sprouted in Pune at the time when we passed 12th standard) and many ended up in IT and in the US, irrespective of the engineering discipline they had studied (the herd mentality or the money?). Around 20% went to the US to study for their MS/PhD and continued working there. A few went into the hospitality sector working for hotel chains or airlines.
No one in the government sector, NGO space and just two in public sector corporations. No one joined the IAS, IPS or IFS. Maybe due to the heavy private sector and engineering influence in Pune where we grew up. Most joined the private sector in India, US, Dubai and a few other countries. Some, especially in the IT sector started their own companies (through VC funding) after working for a few large IT companies and made their exits. Most who came from a business family or took early risks started small businesses in construction, engineering,trading or started their own design agencies. Many classmates who studied medicine went to the US for further studies and stayed back, while a few started their own practices in Pune. Surprising exclusions - no lawyers or architects in our batch!

What are their 40+ plans?

Now that most of us have spent 20+ years in the industry, have had global exposure, solved corporate problems, designed and executed business plans, worked for major global MNCs, what do most of us plan for the second half of our careers? Well, not many who are planning any big career switches. A few have ventured out on a new course, some are "planning to" and most are not even thinking they need to change anything. The talk of their careers, bosses, money earned remains the same. Many though do want to either come back to Pune where they grew up or "plan to" do something meaningful for Pune. Being early beneficiaries of liberalization - both educational (1983-84) and economic (1991) I would have expected many more to be ready to take the risk to do something different and more meaningful or plain giveback to society. However the cliches of kids, financial security, careers, cars and houses still abound, although most would have the financial security to take a few risks and still maintain decent lifestyles.

Meeting men of valour

About 5% of our batch mates went into the armed forces. Don't know what global numbers are, but I guess this is a representative percentage for any group anywhere in the world. Sick of hearing corporate talk and the limited vocabulary of the corporate sector, I was glad to meet with some of them and hear stories of their careers. Fresh from the visit to Ladakh/Kargil where you see the work of our armed forces every kilometer, I could relate to a lot of the valour stories.

Army is as professional as MNCs

A batch mate who went through the IMA into the army, and has done well to rise up in the army ranks enthralled us with stories of the cold borders. We met him at sharp 7:30 pm at the RSI club (actually three of us did, most others didn't show up, much to the chagrin of the always on time army host). Stories of walking continuously for 3 days, waiting two hours seeing a soldier with rabies die in front of his eyes in his cell, of having one of his soldiers die in his arms in a border skirmish. Or of flash floods in Ladakh that killed some of his unit members in a matter of minutes or finding the body of one his soldiers after 9 months, frozen under a avalanche and still in perfect condition. His impressions of the movie Lakshya and Mission Kashmir and also the "royal traditions" of the army including immaculate,protocol based dinners, farewells and welcome parties. We spoke about the promotions in the army and how evaluations are done. For all those in the private sector,fairly and professionally much like in the MNCs! The only crib was that he would like to be back in Pune and wished the remuneration in the army would be much better, especially the hardship allowance in the high reaches of the Himalayas, from the present princely sum of Rs. 150/- per day!

To check what the 'Loyola Batch of 82' did in their middle years, check this space in another 10 years. A group that has seen the ration economy era, until the age of 18 and then been the first beneficiaries of educational and economic liberalization. In many ways, we are probably the torch-bearers of the new age in India and are in a position to act with lots of global capitalistic knowledge and exploit the opportunities while we temper our actions and avoid wastage and excesses by applying the wisdom of the ration economy.

Snow Leopards in Ladakh

2008-07-20T17:30:00.004+05:30

Ladakh is a land like no other, hundreds of mountain passes and monasteries, cold rugged deserts and the coldest inhabited place on earth after Siberia. Bounded by two of the world's mightiest mountain ranges, the Great Himalayas and the Karakoram, it lies athwart two other, the Ladakh range and the Zanskar range. Not quite in the popular tourist circuit like the Kashmir Valley, its a land of stark, rugged landscapes. A group of school friends getting together after 25 years, we travelled to Ladakh in August last year (2007), flying in to Leh from Delhi.

The land of rarefied air

The first part of any tourist's itinerary in Ladakh, is allocated for "acclimatization" so that tourists get used to the rarefied air of Ladakh before they undertake any strenuous activities like walking! Many discussions, scares and advice from people who had travelled to Ladakh (and lot more from people who had not travelled there!) advised us complete rest from 24 to 96 hours before we did anything! As soon as you land at Leh airport, oxygen cylinders are seen in the arrival area, making you involuntarily feel your pulse, heart rate and check if you are still breathing. After we had checked into the guest house, we thought the need for acclimatization was a bit exaggerated and mentioned this to the guest house owner, who warned us to stay indoors and sleep! We understood why as soon as we had finished our chai and headed up a flight of 10 stairs to get to our room, panting. We later learnt that Ladakhi people have special lungs to survive this rarefied air and so do their horses! After a days rest, we were OK and all set to explore Ladakh.

Rugged Moonscapes & Monasteries

As you approach the region of Ladakh, the aerial view is one of huge contrasts. The stark granite of the mountains, very high heaps of loose gravel and the only greenery that can be seen is in the narrow valleys. Geologically, the Ladakhi Himalayas have risen up from the sea, when the Indian Ocean tectonic plate and the southern end of the Eurasian plate collided 10 millions years ago. The sands of the sea was carried up to the summit of the mountains to create a combination of sandy deserts, moonscapes and hard granite backdrops.

Indus & the Zanskar

The mighty Himalayas and its snow are a quarter of the precipitation anywhere on earth and when the snows melt and the rivers bring water down to the Indian plains, they cause a quarter of the worlds sedimentation as well, carrying down everything from fine sand to large boulders. Amongst these is the set of melting glaciers that create the Indus and Zanskar rivers in Ladakh. These rivers merge at a point (with a spectacular visual colour difference of the two waters) and then flow down to the plains of the Pakistani Punjab, where our mother civilization existed a few thousand years ago. The Indus and Zanskar rivers are popular white-water rafting destinations and give spectacular views of the Ladakhi Himalyas from the valley floor along with the thrill of the roaring rapids, the real life roller coasters!

Meagre resources and harsh environments

Stretching the limits of human endurance, respecting the fine balance between humans and nature and to understand that man is just a spec in the universe who could live with about 1/1000th the resources that we now consume, you should spend some time in Ladakhi villages. Observe how they share resources, maintain their delicate environments and live with the bare minimum, growing barley, peas and potatoes in the summer and above all how Ladakhi's manage their water resources. Staying at the home of some villagers at Rumbak (setup as a Himalayan Homestay as a part of the Snow Leopard Conservancy program) which is reached after trekking a few hours through Hemis National Park, taught us this and much more. No wonder the Himalayas have been associated with asceticism in India since time immemorial!

Highland military - highest everything!

Ladakh has hundreds of military outposts, close that it is to the Chinese border and a scene of Chinese aggression and conflicts of 1962. All the roads in this region are built, managed and maintained by the Border Roads Organization (BRO) that has created some engineering marvels just to maintain connectivity with this part of the country. Everything here is the highest in the world - the roads (Khardung La Pass, highest motorable road at 18380 ft), the helipads, airport, golf course and even the public toilets! For details of the military sight seeing places in Ladakh and other places in India take a look at my earlier post on Military Tourism in India

Of Israelis & International Gourmet Food

Ladakh was on the international tourist circuit even before it became a domestic tourist destination. Only tough westerners (especially Israelis) could endure the cold, the physical exertion and enjoy the landscapes of a cold desert! Most Indians would rather prefer the green valleys of Kashmir, and have just begun to discover Ladakh as a destination. With this, influx from all over the world, where tourists spend many weeks and months in this region during a single trip, Leh is full of many restaurants and cuisines from all over the world. Israeli, Russian, French, German, Italian and English food (now what is that?) can be easily found replete with garden restaurants and its wood fired ovens. Ladakh is a particular favourite amongst a number of young Israelis who spend many months here, making a number of Israeli region dishes such as Humus a local dish of Ladakh. The local food consists of thukpa (noodle soup), momos (that popular Tibetan snack), yak cheese, khambiri bread, apricot jam and Ladakh's salt+butter based tea, onomatopoeically called gurgur chai. There exists an interesting connection between Ladakh and faraway Goa with both international tourists and restaurant staff. Many of the Maharashtrian, Goan, Bihari and other people in the trade here spend 4 months in Ladakh and move down to Goa during the winter along with their tourist friends!

The High Roads - Pangong Lake

Pangong Lake past the Changla Pass is the world’s highest brackish water lake at 14,256 feet above sea level. A place too easily arrived at is scarcely worth traveling to at all. Consider the ‘tired tourist’ who simply seeks solace in much talked about destinations, where he tends to relax and stroll the evenings away, buy a few souvenirs and sample the cuisine from the endless menu. And there’s the ‘tireless traveler’ - the learning by living person who opts for a destination in order to explore and experience the unknown. The 140 km 4 hour journey from Leh to Pangong Lake was as interesting as the destination, as we spotted yaks, dzos (cross between yak and cow) and pashmina goats (of the famous wool) on the way. A lake that extends for 160 kms, two-thirds of which is in China, and where you have absolutely nobody between you and the Gods! (a la Mansarovar)

Apricots & Tiger Hill
Our way out from Ladakh was on the Srinagar-Leh highway, a journey of @ 16 hours that needs a night halt at Kargil. The Kargil region is known for its apricot orchards and for Tiger Hill and Operation Vijay. The memorial in honour of the Indian soldiers who laid down their lives in the winter of 1998 is worth a visit and is described in detail in my article on military tourism. The journey into the Kashmir valley continues past a place which recorded the lowest temperature on inhabited earth (-64 degrees Celcius), past some amazing moonscapes until Zhojila Pass which overlooks the contrasting, green Kashmir Valley starting from Sonmarg.

Integrating Ladakh and Pune

After our visit to Ladakh, we sponsored a visit by the Ladakhi villagers whom we stayed with, to Pune and Mumbai. Three girls who are a part of the Snow Leopard Conservancy program (covered extensively in a recent National Geographic article) travelled to Pune from Ladakh on their own, experiencing many firsts. First flight, first time in a train, first time seeing Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and the sea! Angmo, Rigzen and Rinchen spent 10 days in and around Pune, Konkan and Tadoba and carried back fond memories of our hustle, bustle and our forests around Sinhagad. The girls displayed amazing confidence to undertake this travel all by themselves and topped it up with a confident presentation about Ladakh and the SLC program to an audience of 50+ people at a Rotary gathering.
We have now converted this into an annual program where we sponsor trips of Ladakhi villagers each year to Pune/Mumbai and promote ground level contact between our two regions. Anybody who wishes to support this endeavour, can write to me, I'll send you details and we'll include you in the program.

Minimalist Products: Value based product experience

2008-07-14T21:00:00.003+05:30

We live in a world of mindless excesses, driven by competition to give, get and ask for MORE! Product designers in almost every industry are asked to pack as many features as possible into every product release. Whether its cars, consumer electronics, software products, multi-vitamin tablets or houses, the emphasis is on more "functionality". At the very least new products are released with more "packaging".

Over the years, this has reached extraordinary proportions of competitive "wastage". In an era where costs of doing business has been increasing (in spite of cost savings through increased efficiency, outsourcing & off shoring), this competition, to mindlessly provide more! has had a cascading effect on costs and has clouded clear thinking of what a particular product was really meant for. Perhaps the concept of FAB (Feature Benefit) analysis, so dear to all MBAs, hasn't helped in reducing this undue emphasis on number of product features either!

MINIMALISM - the term was coined rather abstractly yet profoundly (several minimalists quoted here) - as a means of describing in laudatory terms, or in a reductive and strongly critical manner, the works by protagonists of the American scene in the late Fifties and Sixties. In the field of architecture, the term Minimalism was used, at times with caution and at others with determination, to connote the works of architects from profoundly different origins and cultural backgrounds, who had based their own work on a reduction in expressive media, a rediscovery of the value of empty space and a radical elimination of everything that does not coincide with a programme, also with minimalistic design overtones, of extreme simplicity and formal cleanliness. Preventing products from being corrupted, or hidden, by the incidental debris of paraphernalia of every day life.

The Japanese describe Minimalists as, er.... Essentialists. Probably says it all!

Today's Excesses

Driven by excessive competition to differentiate through MORE features, size and colour!, almost every sector and product category that you see in the market worldwide, has a huge excess of features, size or packaging that remains unused by more than 80% of the consumers. The marketplace is a virtual graveyard of dead features and excessive resources that could be better used to offer more "useful value". Most telecom equipment vendors in the 80s and 90s produced PBX switches with features in excess of 5000! Most customers used 10 features, seldom used 25, and never used 4900! Colour TVs, VCRs, DVD players and their host of features - most used, PLAY, FFWD, EJECT and on the remote control of the TV which has 25+ buttons, most used CH++, CH--, POWER! Cars have tons of features that most owners never get to know of or try them only on the day they drive home from the car dealer. Same with refrigerators, ACs, music systems and mobile phones. Even architecture and house construction has been deeply affected by this, where "doomsday design" makes architects and builders design the full house around a air-conditioning system that would probably be used for 60 days in the summer, rather than designing for fresh air and cross ventilation that would be useful all through the year.

Computer Software products are still worse, with the relative ease with which new features can be added. Probably about 50+ % of features are seldom or never used.

The pressure to pack more!

Excessive competition, convenient thinking that more features are the only way to differentiate products and pressure from the sales force that's only trained to sell on the "we've got more" credo puts pressure on product developers and packagers to pack in more. Conventional thinking, lack of a sales strategy based on "real usefulness", lack of customer education with data on usage levels of various types of features, keeps the pressure going. Some of this pressure, spills over beyond product features to more and wasteful "packaging". Bigger boxes, with more print, manuals, etc. All this costs money (a lot of it) and seldom provides satisfaction or value to customers, beyond the day when they bring the product home.

The need for Minimalist Products
"Minimalist Products" that give the best value to customers and focus on the product experience over its entire life cycle is the need of today. Minimalist products will bring down development costs and speed up time to market at a strategic level (not just through productivity tools that cost a lot of money). Besides, consumers will have a much better product experience, will find it easier to use, not being overwhelmed by its features, and will not "feel cheated about being sold useless features". This "truthful" experience over the entire life of the product will perhaps bring consumers back to the company that sold the product, to buy their next genre of products. The minimalism in the product experience can be stretched from product features to limited user manuals, minimal packaging and even over more user friendly pricing such as "pay per use", "lease rental" and "community shared" pricing, etc.

Managing and Marketing Minimalist products

How is this change in strategic product management thinking to be managed? By imbibing cost consciousness, value assessment in every transaction, especially amongst senior managers of a company. Every product spec. should be carefully reviewed to clearly rank features from the "essential" to the "frivolous" and product development funded for only the "essential". Product development should include a limited launch phase for "Feature trials & feedback" - thus dropping more features from the final product that are not essential. The product architecture should be clearly layered, so that customers who need additional features will get them when they pay for them, whereas those who do not need them don't. Sales & Marketing needs to focus on marketing a new philosophy, a new practicality, the offer of value based, right priced product and on the complete product experience over its entire life, weaning customers away from frivolous one day experiences that don't mean much the very next day.

India - Perfect place for minimalist products

Be Innovative, Think Out of The Box! much touted corporate mantras. Thinking out of the Box, is often possible "when you live out of the box". The box referred to here is conventional (or legacy) thinking of products as developed in advanced markets. India, with its emphasis on "value for money" products, consumers not wanting to pay for "frivolous packaging" and by virtue of not having a legacy of having all product genres with a host of (mostly useless) features already, is best placed to show the world how world class, minimalist, yet useful products can be built at low costs and sold at high margins! This as long as minimal doesn't get to mean Shoddy!

Tata Motors, Nano has perhaps shown us the way, for all other sectors to follow.

Chasing the Monsoon: Rain Around the World

2008-07-10T08:00:00.003+05:30

City folk normally have very little to do with the rains, forests, irrigation and agriculture. Therefore, I found much to my amusement, that we were tracking the progress of the Monsoons! and especially rains in the region around Pune and Bangalore quite closely. We're trying to green some hills around Pune and a friend is building a golf course near Bangalore. Rains, water harvesting and water as a resource had suddenly become quite critical for our projects. We started tracking the monsoons much like the Sensex or the international oil price!
Monsoons, the most awaited and discussed weather pattern in India (along with summer temperatures) and the nation's lifeline. Come May each year, the mangoes and the discussions about the rains begin. My childhood memories are full of the rains in the Western Ghats area where I grew up and the monsoon waterfalls in the ghats between Pune and Mumbai. More recently, the news about Michael Douglas starting work on Racing the Monsoon (although the movie is reportedly more about a diamond heist on a train), a sequel to the 1984 movie Romancing the Stone, got me thinking about all of my monsoon and rain experiences in India and around the world.

First Day of the monsoons - in Coorg

1st of June, the date cast in stone for most people in India and the Indian Meteorological Department in particular and the ETA of the annual Monsoons. All forecasts (tantamounting to "predictions of the future") of the monsoons are based on this date and the entire nation heaves a sigh of relief when the first showers of the monsoons arrive over coastal Kerala on or around this date. The "progress" of the monsoons is then tracked from this arrival date. One of the most endearing sights etched in my mind is seeing the first monsoon clouds on one side of the hills in Coorg (bordering Kerala). Dark clouds on one side of the hill and the sky pretty much clear on the other side. Imagine, seeing from this hill, dark monsoon clouds over the Kerala land mass and clear skies over the other slope towards Karnataka. This was around, 6 pm on 31st May. No rain on that day. We left for Bangalore the next morning at 6:30 am, and the monsoon rains started at 7:00 am on 1st June!

Monsoons along the West Coast - Konkan

The West Coast of India and the North East Region takes the brunt of the monsoon showers, shielding the rest of the country from a deluge that could have been devastating. For us not living in this part of the country, we probably don't know what monsoons really are. This is how one of our family friends who works at the University of NITIE near Mangalore described the monsoons to us, "Come visit us to see what the monsoons are. The season starts with a fortnight of extreme thunder and lightning in the pre-monsoon period, when power shuts down for most of this time, it rains cats, dogs and elephants for three months followed by thunder, lightning and no-power for another fortnight when the monsoons recede in Sept. Ask us what monsoons are!" Agumbe, a place in the Western Ghats (called Cherapunji of The South and known as the place where the teleserial Malgudi Days was shot) receives an annual rainfall of 7640 mm. i.e. about 25 feet of rain!

Monsoons the life giver

The forests of the North East and the Western Ghats have the highest bio-diversity in the world. A huge number of species are endemic to these parts of India and support an amazing variety of flora and fauna. From a huge variety of algae, ferns, orchids, butterflies to several species of amphibians. The fertile lands of the Indo-Gangetic plain are what they are due to the silt washed down every year and the monsoons that nurse these lands. Most of the water for drinking, irrigation and hydro-electricity is courtesy the rains during the monsoons. Even with just 100 hours of rain in most regions of India, it gives us sufficient water until the next monsoons arrive. Most of the agriculture in India is during the monsoons, and the hills, valleys and forests turn a verdant green teeming with all kinds of life forms. India's GDP takes a dip in the years when there's a bad monsoon with everything from tooth-paste to two wheeler sales taking a hit.

Monsoon Fury

As much as the monsoon rains are a life giver so are they a destroyer of lands, crops and peoples' lives. Ask the people who live along the Brahmaputra in Assam and Bangladesh. Rivers change course every year, sweeping away entire villages when they do and marooning many more where the only way to reach them is by helicopters flying overhead. I spent two days cut off from the world during the July 26th 2005, 1 metre Rain Deluge and the damage caused by the rampaging Mithi river (aka drain). A time when I waded through waist high water, with laptop on my head, my life story flashing through my brains in getting back to my hotel in Bandra, Mumbai. The only thing that worked in these two days in Mumbai was the resilience of the people that saw them help each other and peacefully "tide through" the effects of the deluge.

Rains around the world

Did you know that there is a North American Monsoon (NAM also called the Desert Monsoon)? These monsoons are active in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and California during July-Sept every year, but don't bring much rain to these deserts. A common discussion with many American colleagues (especially in the early 90s) were their questions about India's monsoons (since they would have seen images of floods in India on the telly the earlier night). A friend of mine, contrasting the deluge of the Indian monsoon, with the rain in California, told them "Compared to the monsoons in India, we could walk "between" the rain here in California".

Rains in UK? No monsoons here, just lots of drizzles all through the year!, was always interesting to see Brits expertly carry their big "brollies" racing through the side-walks of London to catch the next train to a place where it was likely to be raining too! And in Canada, I first discovered their rain when I thought I was lucky to see a snowfall for the first time in my life, only to be told that it was "freezing rain". Rain in Singapore is a daily affair, would begin to pour as I would be ready to take a taxi back to the hotel on my numerous visits there. In Africa, rains seem to be part of the folklore, as our ranger-guide in the Masai Mara explained to us, the great animal migration where 1.5 million animals (mainly widebeest and zebra) during Oct/Nov head for the southern plains from the Northern hills to catch the brief spell of tropical rain!

Singing in the Rain!

Ever noticed the difference between nursery rhymes taught in English medium schools and those in vernacular medium schools? One says "Rain, rain go away......", the other beckons the rain with, "Yere Yere Paawasa" (in Marathi or any other Indian language). Perhaps a sign of the difference between city folk and those closer to the earth in the villages. Lets all wait for Michael Douglas' film, take a walk in the rain, have piping hot cups of masala chai when its pouring outside and read the book Chasing the Monsoons by Alexander Frater. Enjoy!

Finland: Mobile Phones, Salmon, Reindeer & Aurora Borealis

2008-06-28T10:30:00.010+05:30

Finland - land of a thousand lakes (over 60,000 of them), 2850 miles of seashore and probably liveable only because of the "warm" Gulf Stream around it. The country that seems to fall off the world map, up there near the Arctic Circle, now better known as the land of Nokia, LINUX and Mika Hakkinen. A frozen country (a long time in the year in any case) with the hottest gizmo's and technologies. The country that created Nokia and the Billion $ ring-tone industry.

I first travelled to Finland in 1997, when Nokia had just launched their products in India, we had recently seen some mobile phones and when the Indian IT industry was still focused on the US. Finns were curious to know what India was doing in the IT industry and were glad to meet somebody who seemed to be knowledgeable!, knew some things about the world and who was friendly, unlike as they said "some people from parts of Europe south of their country" (a dig at some of our colleagues from other parts of Europe).

Most (un)wired country in the world

Can you think of any country where you can travel without any cash at all? Where its not even necessary to get a few $s worth of exchange when you step out of Helsinki's Vantaa airport? You could in Finland. Everyone from the taxi driver to buses and hotels accept credit cards or smart cards. Everybody carries the latest (Nokia) phones, GPS devices and Communicators. Kids carry the smaller and cheaper mobile phones and Finns are busy with their connected mobile devices - SMSing, WAPing, GPRSing, 3Ging, mobile chatting, WLANing and Bluetoothing! Linus Torvalds when asked why Finns are so techie and why they love their devices had said - "Come to Finland in the cold winter. You'll see that all you can do is s***w around or write code!" Many Finns proudly (re)quote this. Vesku Pannanen (inventor of ring-tone technology) while discussing the idea of a mobile applications platform, looked at me and said "we don't do generic platforms, we build lots of applications, launch them quickly, use them for six months, throw them away and build new games/applications"

Finns - A fun loving people
Most Finns (50%+) own boats, are obsessed with fishing, have saunas in their backyards (they invented them, though Swedes claim that too) are fun loving and love their communication gizmo's. Many of them also own summer homes, up north in Lapland where they go to in the summer and where you can see the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). A country that has more women amongst them than men, is very techie-entrepreneurial with many young pony-tailed CEOs who have seen the world (on motor-cycles!). On one of my visits, when I was with some of my Finnish friends at a local bar, they pointed to a lady at a table nearby and asked me "Do you know who she is? - She is one of our ministers". Nordic/Scandinavian countries are perhaps, the only part of the world, where you could have a drink with the head of state at the next table at a local bar!

Finns seem to have a great liking for maroon and olive green jackets, almost their national colour as it were, and can be easily recognized at various world airports by these jackets and their men with their broad and (mostly) bald pates. Most Finns have long last names spelt with double consonants (Saukkonen, Pannanen, Hakkanen, Raikonnen) much like the Estonians, Hungarians with whom they share cultural similarities (St. Petersburg is nearby, a part of Estonia)

Restaurant hopping in a boat!!
The towns and countryside of Finland has many lakes (such as towns called Nokia and Fiskars) and is quite a maritime nation. In the summer, most Finns spend time on their boats. My friend Esa, took me along on his boat, showed me all its parts and how to steer it through the (choppy & cold) waters. We went "pub/restaurant hopping" in his boat, moving from place to place, anchoring at places close to restaurants and pubs along the shores that looked good.

Finnish Food & Drink

Most tables at offices anywhere in Finland, have cookies, coffee, Finn-crisps, cheese always laid out, waiting to be served to visitors as soon as the conversation begins. Finnish banquets have huge spreads of different kinds of coarse grain breads, crisps, salmon, Baltic Herring, burbot roe (caviar equivalent) and many other kinds of sea-food. Kaalikaaryleet (cabbage rolls stuffed with vegetables, meat, breadcrumbs) is a popular, Finnish street food. Lappi Ravintola a Lapland Restaurant that we went to had a long list of items on its menu, but on closer examination, was just a list of various reindeer or salmon dishes, including their desserts! The log cabin style restaurant decor with back lit films of the northern lights, gave the restaurant much needed warmth in the cold winter. Finland is also know for its own brand of vodka - Finlandia and a bunch of wild berry based liqueurs (cloudberry, seabuckthorn, cranberry).

Winter or Summer - its always cold

I am not sure which place has worse weather, England, Seattle or Finland. It is cold and gloomy most of the year and is perhaps why its also known for high suicide rates much like Seattle. Everything freezes in winter, gets dark by 3 pm and for most people the Antarctic cant be any colder. Once on a cold winter night, sitting with my friends Esa and Peter at the Torni Bar, they asked me to guess what the temperature outside was. For the answer they asked me to turn around and see the temperature displayed on a large city-square LED board that displayed: -35 degrees Celcius! The summers are much better, especially with their 20 hour sunlight! and +10 degrees Celcius temperature.

eVector - the company with the Finnish inspiration

I once (Y 2000) co-founded a company called eVector - a product company (venture funded by Intel Capital, Reuters Greenhouse Fund, JP Morgan Chase) that built a mobile data services platform - a product that helped wireless carriers and corporates integrate and launch applications for mobile devices. An early inspiration for this product was our awareness of the mobility scene in Finland and our contacts with some Finnish companies including Hewlett-Packard, Finland and Nokia. When we launched our company at the Taj in Bangalore, I had invited a few of my Finnish friends and the Finnish press to the launch. In my speech, I acknowledged several people and Finland for being our inspiration. The Finnish press at the post launch press meet, wanted to know if we had stolen any intellectual property from Finland! I had to explain to them what I meant by "inspiration" and assure them that no code or technology had been stolen from Finland!

Those planning their next vacation, checkout Finland, the land of Nokia, most successful democracy and a place to see reindeer and the Aurora Borealis!

IRCTC - Most successful eCommerce site in India!

2008-06-16T19:00:00.001+05:30

Trust the Indian Railways to spring surprises! The largest rail network in the world by volume of traffic and literally the backbone of India. Business Standard reported today that, IRCTC was the most successful eCommerce site in India, generating 30% of India's eCommerce revenues.
The organization that first captured the imagination of Indians with a countrywide Information Technology system, the passenger ticket reservation system, has done it again, this time helping Indians book tickets online. Many years ago, while I was at CMC Ltd. (earlier a public sector company, now a part of TCS) the software, network and site maintenance activities for this humongous system (with a catchy name - IMPRESS), was a training ground for many CMC engineers to get trained on a world-class system. Built on a network of Digital's VAX computers, it was the flagship project of the company.

IRCTC, another public sector organization, under the Ministry of Railways first rolled out their e-Ticketing system on 2nd Aug, 2002. I have been using this site ever since and have seen them make improvements, add payment methods, ticket tracking, delivery mechanisms and travel history features over the years. Here's a list of the achievements of IRCTC's eCommerce site since it was first deployed 7 years ago.

Transactions increased from 220 tickets on the 1st day to 1.1 L/day now; 2.5 M tickets in a month
Participates in 14% of 800,000 daily seat/berth bookings of the Indian Railways
Last year 35.2 M passengers travelled on nearly 18.9 M tickets bought online
Ticketing revenues have gone from 27.16 Cr in 02-03 to 1800 Cr in 07-08
Revenues projected to be 3500 Cr in 08-09
Growth rates - 130% per year!!
Payments - 38% thru credit cards, 30% Cash Cards, 29% Net Banking and 2% thru Redeem PG and Rolling Deposit Scheme for frequent travellers and travel agents
A large percentage of tickets are booked online from the BIMARU states, especially UP, Bihar

IRCTC has shown that its not just a private sector company or a MNC that can roll out a world-class system. Get the best people together, give them the best resources, let them work without any political interference and the team delivers. CMC, CRIS, IRCTC have demonstrated that they too can roll out a great system, make it highly available, provide good customer service & delivery systems and increase revenues 130% yoy. IRCTC has also shown that eCommerce succeeds when a solid business and a product to sell already exist! Kudos to them and an inspiration for all sectors - public and private.

If the Indian Railways were to be inspired by IRCTC, improve their train services, passenger amenities, timeliness and the travel experience, it would go a long way to bring middle-class passengers back to the rail system and decrease the chaos and pollution on India's roads.

Biomimetics - Natural Inspirations

2008-06-15T12:30:00.003+05:30

Velcro - the ubiquitous, quick fastening strip used in shoes, jackets, bags and almost anything that needs to be fastened. Did you know that Velcro, which was invented in 1948 by Swiss chemist George de Mestral, by copying the way cockleburs (has seeds with spines) clung to his dog's coat. Cockleburs have millions of hooked spines that can grip any woolly surface. George, mimicked this by producing a strip with hundreds of "hooked hair" that could grip woolly surfaces. These two strips together came to be known as Velcro and has been the most utilitarian of inventions along with the Zipper.

The April 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine covers several research projects in "Biomimetics - science of mimicking nature" - projects that study animal and plant behaviour and mimic them:

Mechanical Thorny Devils- devices that mimic thorny devils - hardy lizards that live in the Australian outback and have the ability to suck out water from moist soil, dewdrops, etc.
Mercedes-Benz's bionic concept car that mimics the aerodynamics of the boxfish which helps boost its gas mileage to 70 miles per gallon
Lotus Effect Paints - wall paints inspired by the structure of the lotus leaf that creates a self-cleaning, water repellent surface through its nano-structures that cause water to "bead and roll away"
Whale Flipper wind mills - Windmills that mimic the scalloped edges of a whale's flipper that help generate more power at lower speeds and with less noise.

Many more examples of bio-mimetic projects are covered in this National Geographic article...

Jalyatra - Managing Water!

2008-06-11T21:00:00.014+05:30

A few of us friends have been working on creating a community that participates in sustainable development near Pune. The project has been put together by Sohrab Chinoy of ABC Farms who "finds river irrigated farming not challenging enough anymore and wants to now green a desert". Situated about 1200 ft. above Pune, on a hill slope overlooking the 4400 ft high Purandar fort, in a rain-shadow area (20-30 cm annual rainfall) on the Saswad plateau, our community will green a barren hill-slope by harvesting rainwater and stretch its usage through the year, build houses that are a maximum of 800 sq. ft on a 1 acre plot, use Laurie Baker's techniques of sustainable architecture and use alternative power sources such as Solar, Wind and Latrine Tank based Gas.
We have just started tree planting and water harvesting activities and I have been reading up on Rain Water Harvesting techniques. Came across a book called Jalyatra, a recent book authored by Nitya Jacob. An interesting book that chronicles traditional, decentralized, locally relevant water harvesting, storage and distribution techniques from Rajasthan to the North East and Uttaranchal to Tamilnadu.

Water conservation systems have been my interest for sometime now. First started with work I did while helping restore a lake in Bangalore in 2004 where I learnt of the system of interconnected tanks and lakes that existed in the areas of Bangalore and other parts of South Karnataka. Also observed, interesting water management systems in Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh during our recent travels. Ladakh, has an age old tradition of "responsible" water usage. The Indus river and several melting glaciers, are the source of water in the cold deserts of Ladakh. Every village of typically 10-20 houses, has "traditional rules" of water usage, where water in the main stream is not touched by the villagers. They have created and maintained "channels" from the main stream that are brought into the fields and the village. All water is drawn from these channels for use in the fields and in the house. Villagers with fields at the top of the slope, divert the main channel into their barley fields and then "call out" to their downstream neighbours when they are done with watering their fields. Water is then allowed to flow downstream to the next farm. In winter, when the melting glaciers are pretty much frozen and reduced to a trickle, they access water from underground streams for drinking water. All these channels are maintained and managed by local villagers and work without pumps, using gravity to manage flows to every field in the village.

Water management systems in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh which we saw recently were created by the erstwhile Rajas of the area and are based on a network of channels and streams that have been created from offshoots of melting glaciers and rivers. These channels still irrigate lands 100 kms downstream from the glaciers and river sources.

Returning to Nitya Jacob's book, here are some of the salient points from his book, an interesting read:

Of all the countries in the world, India gets the highest rainfall per square unit of land area. If we walled the country and didn't let any water escape into the sea, we would have about 1 metre of water over our land-mass, enough to meet our needs and more!
Most of the rain falls over 100 hours and needs to be used over 8000+ hours in the year.
Many extremely well planned water management systems existed in India over millenia and were used to create everything from an abundance of food, the cooling systems of the Rajasthani palaces, the fountain systems of the Mughal gardens and the Taj Mahal.
All the water management systems were mapped to the local conditions of geography and social practices and were based on decentralization, responsibility, accountability and judicial wisdom.
Some areas of the dry ravines of the Chambal (M.P.) and Rajasthan have created wonders with their ability to stretch the availability of water through till summer.
A wonderful, gravity controlled, bamboo channels based drip irrigation system in the Garo Hills in Meghalaya, where drops of water supply to each tree is controlled through the use of varying sizes of bamboo helps stretch the water of the monsoons through till the next one.
All "water keepers" in the villages are local people from the community that everybody "listens to".
In the Chambal, reformed dacoits are now changing villages with their passion for greening their villages through water management.
Large dams, projects, centralized planning and irrigation departments are created by politicians and businesses to make money. Small, but socially accountable systems are of no interest due to obvious reasons.
Indians (and the world) have moved from local communities getting together and taking care of their surroundings to depending on the government to do everything for them, including providing for and taking care of water! Not very decentralized or efficient and has taken "accountability" away from citizens.
Good news - Many parts of India have started reviving these water management systems with the involvement of local people, farmers, NGOs and government agencies.
One big negative point of the book - no diagrams, sketches, photos, maps to show how all these systems work. Like most Indians, lengthy prose without taking the trouble to make it easy for readers to quickly understand and use - no pictures!!

Time for decentralized water management
There has been considerable debate on the the mismanagement of the world's water resources. We have moved from surplus to scarcity (which is not only because of population increase) and the world and India in particular has moved to "outsourcing" of a community's responsibility to governments. Reflect over our (low) levels of participation in the needs of a housing society or a gated community and its maintenance and we'll all know that the apathy is just not in the villages.

Arrogance of Technology

2008-06-04T19:30:00.000+05:30

Technology has been the biggest catalyst of human development, democracy and economic empowerment in the last two centuries. From the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 1800s to the Internet Revolution in the 1990s it has given the world the fastest social and economic growth, and has, to quote Friedman, "created a Flat World". Technology has quickly brought many luxuries that were once afforded only by the rich, within easy reach of the masses.

Whilst, technologies have changed the face of the earth (some of them in a few years and others in a decade or two), the expectation that it "solves everything in a jiffy", has been gaining ground and CXOs have forgotten the "human factor" and the need to use technology effectively, patiently and appropriately. After all, technology is used by people, who still have the "failings" of human emotions and are creatures of habit. People at large have the inertia of an "earlier technology", need to compete and contend with human egos & powerful incumbents and await appropriate social change around them. Peter Drucker, famously explained, "The short term impact of a new technology are often OVER ESTIMATED and the long term effects are often UNDER ESTIMATED". At least in the short term, entrepreneurs, early adopters, investors and even the masses expect too much from a new technology.

Here's a list of some technologies that have impacted mankind in the last couple of decades and how its impact has either been over estimated or its side-effects disregarded, making people and businesses fall prey to "Arrogance of Technology".

Security and Star Wars - 9/11 was an unpardonable (for the perpetrators) event in America. I remember a discussion on US TV, where the anchor asked an expert whether the US had disregarded the "human element" in all the billions of $s that had been spent on Star Wars, AWACs and other programs rolled out to protect America and dominate the world! The reader's answers are welcome!
eMail has been one of the big inventions to help the world communicate better, so much so that letter writing which had been reduced to a dying art was resurrected by eMail technology and its wide availability. However the expectation "email sent, work done" is so widespread that people have forgotten that they are communicating with fellow human beings who have an ego! and a talk on the phone or a face to face meeting are still required for a lot of transactions to be completed!
eCommerce - In the (two short) years of the Dot Com boom, the arrogance of technology was at its peak, where anyone with a simple idea and the money to put it on the web, thought that he had a successful business going. This arrogance of "the web-presence being the business", even if the fundamentals of need, market, differentiated products were not met, was very quickly punctured by a rapid boom to bust cycle.
WAP, 3G, vs SMS - In a product (mobile value added services platform) that we rolled out in the mobile space in 2000, we integrated a number of communication channels (WAP, WEB, Voice, SMS) and concepts such as annotations for mobile advertising, persistent connections and the rest. WAP and mobile broadband through 3G were touted to be the great technologies (@ $5B of PE investment went into mobile data technology worldwide, including $10M in ours) that would have mobile phone users "browsing the web". SMS, a "simple" technology that was designed into the GSM stack for limited use of sending test messages is the one that mobile users lapped up and paid for.
Food - Green Revolution - Hybrids, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, genetic engineering - technologies that were to be the panacea of the hungry world! Worked well for sometime, gave incredible increases in yields, colour, size and shape! Slowly the colour, size and shape of human beings consuming this food also began to change and there was a cry to return to "organic or slow food"
Transportation - The gasoline engine and cars, the "freedom vehicle". A technology that created a construction boom to build roads and had most of the world ignore the need for public transportation. We all know how its become the one fuel which determines pollution levels and inflationary trends in equal measure.
Medical Technologies - The medical fraternity's invention of vaccines has eradicated communicable diseases and epidemics, helping raise life expectancy, ensuring that young children and the youth do not perish due to "silly diseases" and mastered "mechanical" organs such as the heart, lungs, limbs, etc. Many of the "chemical" organs such as the liver, pancreas and kidneys are yet to evolve cost effective and sure cures. The arrogance that Allopathy and Surgery can cure anything, irrespective of one's diet, has given people a false sense of near immortality and helped doctors become richer!
Retail - Almost every retail chain worth its salt has efficient supply chains, bar codes, billing systems, aisle management and other technologies deployed. The retail sector expects that this should bring in customers, generate revenues and make profits. The human element of staff training, product knowledge and good customer service is often forgotten in this surfeit of technology. A customer still does not get answers to product related questions and is unable to find 20% of items in his shopping list on the supermarket shelves at any point of time.

Technology and Behavioural Science
Does this mean that technology needs to be discarded for age old manual systems? No, infact it needs to be "re-invented" often! It needs to be combined with a study of human factors, side effects, customer preferences and regular reviews of the "current" effectiveness of the deployed technology. A technology or IT plan needs to be blended in with a Customer Interaction Plan and Employee Training to cover the "human element" in the business. Employees need to be constantly reminded that technology is just an enabler, and is not the be all and end all of the business. Businesses need to regularly undertake "constructive destruction" of the technology used in deploying the business.

Remember, an email doesn't necessarily get things done, a great billing system does not make for great customer service and medicines do not replace preventive health care, a chemical free diet or a good nurse!

Discovering Rabindranath Tagore

2008-05-30T21:00:00.016+05:30

Rabindranath Tagore , our very own Leonardo Da Vinci. Poet-Laureate, musician, painter, science writer, first Asian to win the Nobel prize, the man who gave Gandhi the title "Mahatma" and our nation, its national anthem. Tagore was instrumental in keeping the left brain of the nation active and kept creative traditions going in India, when most of the nation and Gandhi & Nehru were busy with the movements and politics of Freedom.

I hadn't read any books by Rabindranath Tagore until recently. I kept "encountering" him at various places in the country during our travels. A well travelled man, between 1878 and 1932, Tagore visited thirty countries on five continents including countries such as Peru, UK, Switzerland, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Italy & Mexico. During his travels he met several notable persons of his era - Benito Mussolini!!, Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Mann, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Subhas Bose and Romain Rolland.

"Discovering" Rabindranath Tagore (and other great people) in several places across India and the world during our trips has been an enlightening part of our travels. Descriptions of places by greats such as Tagore, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling and their ilk, helps us mere mortals see places in a new light. Here's a list of places where I discovered Tagore!

Karwar - Karnataka

I first discovered him in Karwar (other than school history books) on Rabindranath Tagore Beach and on the welcome sign as we entered Karwar "a place that inspired Rabindranath Tagore"! The place that inspired him to pen his first play in 1883 and write "The sea beach of Karwar is certainly a fit place in which to realise that the beauty of nature is not a mirage of imagination but reflects joy of the infinite and thus draws us to lose ourselves in it." His second brother was a judge posted in Karwar and Tagore spent a few years of his life there (aged 20) where he wrote many plays, poems and short stories.

Darjeeling

A taxi ride up to Tiger Hill at 4:00 am to watch the famous sunrise over the Kanchenjunga. Around 5:00 am, the sun rises and we don't quite get to see the first rays over the Himalayas. Too many clouds and probably too many people! Trudging back to our taxi, we have our sympathetic, Nepali driver ask us "Dikha nahi na shaab? Shaab, Bura mat mano, Rabindranath Tagore, hain na? Che (6) baar Darjeeling aaya, Kabhi sunrise nahi dekha". As if to say, "if the great man didn't see it, how would you?" Don't know if Rabindranath Tagore ever went to Gangtok, we saw the sunrise over the Kanchenjunga from our hotel window!

Jallianwallah Baug - Amritsar

During our visit to Amritsar, we saw as a part of the exhibits at Jallian Wallah Baug a famous letter by Rabindranath to the British government, returning his title of knighthood after the massacre by General Dwyer's troops in 1919. This protest inspired the nation to rise up against the British and launch a sustained campaign and freedom struggle until Independence.

Dalhousie - Himachal Pradesh

As we went on a early morning walk in the upper parts of Dalhousie, we chanced upon a sign that pointed towards "Tagore Bhavan", a place where Tagore spent a few months of his life in 1873 (aged 11 years). There, Tagore read biographies, studied history, astronomy, modern science, and Sanskrit, and examined the classical poetry of Kalidasa.The mighty Himalayas of the Dhauladhar range, inspired him to become what he did later in his life.

Argumentative Indians

Amartya Sen's aptly named book, that describes India's age old traditions of democracy promoted by several religions, kings and dynasties including Buddhist monasteries, Ashoka, Akbar, Vijaynagar empire and others has several references to Rabindranath Tagore and his life and work. Interesting comparisons between Gandhi and Tagore, their arguments, discussions and meetings is an interesting part of this book. Tagore, comes through as the more liberal, rational and the one with the scientific temperament, characterized by his disapproval of Gandhi's description of a earthquake in Bihar as "a divine chastisement sent by God for our sins — in particular the sins of untouchability".

Children's Stories

Looking for books for my children, I discovered a volume of short stories, poems and plays written by Tagore (Selected Writings for Children - Rabindranath Tagore edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri) when he himself was a child and his writings for children later in his life. This book is an interesting collection of poems and stories by Tagore that will make your children "think", providing no answers, raising questions and letting children ask many more! Great to stir the imagination of your kids on the stars, flying machines!, tigers, birds, and about siblings, if you can get today's kids to read his books!

Holidaying or Chasing Brands?

2008-05-26T09:38:00.009+05:30

In a recent article, titled "Goodbye India, Hello World - by Priyanko Sarkar, TOI, May 26th 2008", Priyanko questions the increasing trend of Indians flocking to foreign and "branded destinations" for their holidays. A welcome trend, where Indians are replacing the Japanese & Europeans in being the world's most frequent travellers. Where are they going to however? Visiting "city countries" such as Singapore, Hongkong, Dubai or Thailand. And if its in India- Goa, 10 times over!

Isn't travel supposed to broaden horizons?

Over centuries, travel to faraway lands had a sense of adventure and romance associated with it. Travellers intermingled with the local cultures, learnt something from them and gave back something from their own, to create new cultures. Travel is supposed to broaden horizons and expose people to new ways of thinking, new cuisines, customs & cultures. I once met a German teenage couple on a Frankfurt-Delhi flight - teenagers out to see India. They wanted to "explore life around the Ganges" and were travelling on a shoe-string budget (partly sponsored by their parents), without any specific agenda. They told me of a European custom where parents give their 18-19 year old children whatever money they can afford to so that their kids can "go see the world" for sometime! How romantic? A whiff of fresh air, when increasingly, people seem to want to travel within their "comfort zones" and to "branded destinations". Is this travel at all?

The Resort is the Tourist Destination!

Notice how people describe their holidays these days? "We went to a Club Mahindra Resort" or the Taj Exotica! The place they went to follows (if its a brand!) and they are completely stumped when you ask them what they saw, ate, experienced. I always wonder what people do when they go on a week long trip and stay at one resort especially in India where covering a radius of 200+ kilometers to see all the sites around is quite tiresome travelling out from this one "resort". So they stay back in this resort most of the time and come back after seeing the resort and eating Punjabi food, Pizzas or bastardized versions of local dishes (at those "colourful" buffets). All this, while they laugh at the poor old 60+ folks who take their once in a life time trip to Europe with SOTC with the comfort of maharaj-cooked Indian food.

Ask them what they saw and they would have missed out on some of the most memorable places in the area, because they thought it was passe or nobody told them about it. If its a vacation overseas, they may tell you quite excitedly about some malls, casinos, cars, airports that they saw, about "shows" in Las Vegas but nothing about The Grand Canyon nearby!

Aren't brands too common now?

We are a gregarious and vane species. We love to talk about the elitist things we did! Is going to a Club Mahindra Resort elitist anymore, or is it egalitarian now? Or visiting Disneyland, Goa or Singapore? How about trying some obscure locations, hotels and cuisines that you can "talk" about? Want to talk about a hotel, then stay at some of the great properties of the world once in a while (even if its for one night), high end Oberoi properties, Four Seasons, The Mt. Kenya Safari Club or The Royal Livingstone at the Victoria Falls.

Visit some obscure places, try the local cuisine and you'll hold your audiences spell-bound talking about it. Try Angkor Vat in Cambodia, Lake Naivasha in Kenya, Lapland Area of Finland and the 8 waterfalls in the Karwar region, Panhala, Arunachal Pradesh or Ladakh. Try foie gras and oysters in France, reindeer meat and salmon in Finland, crocodile and ostrich meat in Kenya and duck feet in Hongkong. In India, try out Chettinad food, Nethli fish fry, vathakulambu in Tamilnadu, Sarson Da Saag in Punjab, Mirchi Ka Salan in Andhra and you would at the very least make your audiences think about the shitty holiday they just had in Singapore where they did nothing!

Infrastructure in India sucks, but are we checking out infrastructure?

Ask people why they don't checkout "Incredible India" and pat comes the reply "Whats there to see in India? The infrastructure sucks, the Delhi Punjabis are rude!, whats there in the Himalayas and my kids want to go to Singapore?" Agreed, infrastructure sucks in India and it will take at least another decade for it to get better. Surely a country that is a microcosm of a whole continent with its 5000 year old history, its varied traditions, architecture, cuisines, natural sites and its varied geography does have something to offer for a vacation.

Having shown your kids the superb infrastructure of Singapore & Hongkong, its probably time to see India and show your kids too, so that they don't need to see it when they retire and come back at the sunset of their professional careers in the US (getting back to their roots), to see what their parents never showed them!

Telecom: Number Portability: Does India need it now?

2008-05-24T19:00:00.001+05:30

Here are some of my views on Number Portability, based on my experiences of the many years I spent delivering IT solutions to Telecom Service Providers around the world. One of the much talked about effects of the 1996 Telecom Deregulation Act in the US, was the creation of CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers) and ILECs (Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers). Forecast to be as far reaching as the breakup of AT&T into Baby Bells that created the earlier Telecom Revolution in the US, it created a flurry of activity amongst Telecom Service Providers and Telecom Solution Providers alike.
Local Number Portability (LNP) introduced various business process engineering projects and formalized the process of handling customer requests through Preorder, PostOrder, Billing and Maintenance processes. We, at a American MNC that I worked for at that time, earnestly went to work putting together a LNP solution. My team was responsible for putting together a solution around a Business Process Engineering platform that could help manage complex Interconnect OSS Business Processes. We started work on this and spoke to several CLECs and ILECs in the US and put together a solution that we thought would also be adopted all over the world. After about 2 years (by end of 1998), the project was abandoned since no carriers were implementing any solutions and the LNP mandate was postponed several times, to be finally implemented by carriers in a basic form @ 2004. In the process, carriers and solution providers in the US and around the OECD countries, spent upwards of $10B, without much success in driving the intent of LNP. There were several delays in implementation, fierce resistance and shoddy implementation. In the mobile world, MNP was finally (rudimentarily) rolled out in the US @ 2005, 9 years after it was first mandated.

Is Number Portability really required now?
TRAI in India, has already had a few false starts in mandating Number Portability in India. After initial discussions in 2001 it was decided to (rightly) wait a few years before mandating LNP in India after telecom penetration has gone past 20%. Here's whats been observed in LNP implementations around the world.

LNP implementations worldwide have shown prolonged delays in execution, plenty of money spent without real benefits to end customers. Hog wash implementations, through simple "call forwarding" from incumbent networks to the new networks, customer switches have been taking close to a month, as compared to the mandated 24 hours.
In places such as Hongkong, Norway, UK which implemented LNP, it was found that subscribers switch service providers in the first 6 months after LNP is introduced and stop! Most of these have been Pre-Paid customers who would have switched in any case, with or without MNP.
Most "decent" national footprint telecom service providers, provide similar levels of service, with customers experiencing similar problems with their new carriers after the honeymoon period is over. Great deal of churn is all that has resulted due to unfair practices by carriers to "buy" customers by helping them switch in to them.
Most Subscriber Private Phones, these days, remain just that, "private". Most are not even listed. Likely callers to a number are informed of the number on a "need to know basis". Informing a list of 50+ colleagues and acquaintances of a change in number is not very difficult and wont happen too often.
Most Business Numbers - are tied to a larger nationwide carrier. Free choice from amongst multiple carriers, already ensures that the corporation that's getting a set of numbers selects their carrier based on levels of service and range of services carefully surveyed before connecting up.

Power of the Contact Book
Most mobile phones (and increasingly land line phones as well) have contact lists and subscribers rely heavily on them, often not "remembering" any of the numbers that they have stored away. Once a number is stored away, it can easily be updated with a changed number when the subscriber changing his/her number informs the Closed User Group (CUG)! of "need to know" people. In fact, the Contact Book has virtually created a social revolution in the way homo sapiens manage (and forget) phone numbers.

Google Search and Online Directories
Easily accessible information on the Internet, can help look up any changed numbers if its so required. Companies who change numbers (once in maybe 10 years) could even use it as an opportunity to do some PR and increase contact with their customers! Solutions such as Plaxo, with its centralized contact books can help disseminate changes to CUGs through a few keystrokes.

Future Technologies - Name Lookup a la Internet
I am sure LDAP and DNS like services as on the Internet will soon be available to lookup phone numbers and other "public" information about subscribers on the fly. This will soon make a number and its "need for permanency" meaningless!

Based on past global experiences, current social changes and future technologies, TRAI in India, would be better advised to spend its energies on better concepts that truly keep service levels high and protect customers. Enforcing service providers to maintain mandatory Service Level Commitments, RTI (Right To Information) on Service Order Processing and increasing competition in other ways may be the more productive and efficient way of protecting the consumer!

IPL & Changing Loyalties

2008-05-18T00:36:00.006+05:30

IPL Cricket has caught the imagination of the Indian masses and how? Its well on its way to becoming one of India's (month long) annual festivals, along with its revelry, festive clothes and fireworks! Its appeal has swept away sports/cricket enthusiasts, women, teenagers and children alike and has affected the TRP ratings of Saas-Bahu shows on TV.

Subconsciously, its also changing the way Indians identify themselves with their communities around them. Regional chauvinism is giving way to "city chauvinism" and "opportunistic chauvinism"

Over the years, regional chauvinism has given way to a pan-Indianness that has taken root in the country (the various politically motivated regional chauvinism seen in every state every now and again notwithstanding). Some of the catalysts that have brought Indians together over the years, have been - the Independence movement, Indian Cinema, Idli-Dosa & Punjabi food, the Punjabi dress/kurta, Corporate India, travel/LTA, students studying away from home, inter regional marriages & Cricket!!

Regional Chauvinism in Cricket
Until a couple of decades ago, cricket, did its bit to fuel regional chauvinism. In "katta" discussions across the country, selection of the Indian team was always considered to be favouring the "other state/s". In the 70s & 80s the domination of Mumbai & Bangalore in the national team was resented and much debated in various parts of the country. Players still came from and belonged to a "state" and played for their Ranji Trophy sides. As state cricket organizations started asserting themselves, other states started throwing up national players from their hinterlands. Thus a Dhoni, grew up to captain the Indian side from less known Jharkhand.

Over to City Chauvinism - Or is it?
The IPL teams are based on individual cities - a more modern geographical entity that is easier to identify oneself with, encompassing all elements of the "cosmopolitan" and therefore its pan-Indianness. Many players in the League are playing for teams other than their domicile states and share the dressing room with lots more players from different continents. And the team captains? Dhoni from Jharkhand is the captain of the Chennai Super Kings and Shane Warne leads the Jaipur team.

What does this leave cricket followers with? Which team do they support ? or do they support their favourite players or icons. Indians seem to have taken this challenge in their stride and are already comfortable with this dichotomy. I myself found that I started with the Mumbai Indians as my favourite side since I have had an affinity towards Mumbai as a city and some of the Mumbai Indians were my favourite cricketers. By the time they had lost 3 matches in a row, I had dumped them and started backing the Rajasthan Royals since they were an unknown team that was surprising everybody. I came back to supporting the Mumbai Indians by the time they started winning their matches and when Jayasuriya cracked that quickfire ton that I was witness to live at the Wankhede stadium.
Surprised, at my changing loyalties I checked this out with many other followers of the IPL, including kids. Many had gone through a similar path (especially the guys from Bangalore who were previously supporting their home team).

Only Winners matter?

Loyalty towards a city team is a healthy trend, throwing away the regional chauvinism of yore and replacing it with loyalty for the more "cosmopolitan city". Moreover pride for a city will help make our citizens "city proud" and therefore build communities that take part in the improvement of our cities.

However is that all that we are doing, supporting a city? or are we backing only winners or perceived winners, others be damned? In this age of the Flat World, India is becoming flat too and all internal boundaries are disappearing- success, icons, celebrities and a iconic game! are the great unifier.

Military Tourism in India

2008-05-07T05:30:00.011+05:30

As disposable incomes, spirit of discovery & adventure and most of all "Pride" rise in India, domestic tourism is taking off. From Tirth Yatras, visiting native places to LTA led tourism, its now - tourism in many forms, eco/agri-tourism, wine tourism, adventure sports, sports/cricket tourism (driven by IPL!!).

With India's large military, long borders, huge spread in "strategic" and often picturesque sites in the country, its time for Military Tourism. A family that we met at the Wagah Border festivities recently, had come all the way from Shillong, to fulfill their 8 year old son's wish to be there. Military sites and festivities are beginning to catch the imagination of kids, thanks to seeing these on TV. International tourist circuits have their own mandatory visits to War Hero Memorials & Memorials of the Lost Soldier in many cities of the world. War and its intrigues are such a big part of worldwide history that they generate considerable interest in military sites.

Here are a few military related sites that we have been to in recent years (including DRDO, ISRO sites) and a few others that can be a part of the military tourism circuit.

Bangalore "Aero India" Air Show

The Aero India Show held once in two years since 1996 at the Yelahanka Airforce Base near Bangalore has become quite an international event. It is one of Asia's largest exhibitions of civil and military aircrafts (Jaguars, MIGs, F-16s, Sukhois...) and other latest products from the Indian aviation and aerospace industry. With its display of several military aircrafts, aerobatic shows, fly-pasts, helicopter displays and huge aerospace and avionics pavilions, I last remember how all hotel rooms in Bangalore were sold out during this event in 2005 (last show was in 2007, next show is in 2009). A great air-show and watching a Sukhoi "cobra manoeuvre" has remained etched in my memory for many years.

Ladakh - Kargil and Leh

Kargil, Operation Vijay - The site of General Musharaff's mis-adventure. The conflict that was seen live on TV by all Indians and perhaps the only military conflict that has been followed by current generation of Indians. The site of Tiger Hill, the Leh-Srinagar Highway and the well developed and maintained Operation Vijay Memorial is a must visit for all Indians. The jawans at the site take great trouble to take you through the details of the conflict and the men involved in re-capturing Tiger Hill. Close to this site is the world's second coldest inhabited place with a record of -60 degrees Celcius on 9th January 1995.

Hall of Fame is a decent museum constructed by the Indian army on the outskirts of Leh. Displayed here are biographies of eminent defence personalities, images and weapons used during the Kargil war, Siachen and its heroes. Particularly interesting were the newspaper clippings, weapons and photos of the wars fought by India & the detailed exhibition of a soldiers life, tools, shoes and clothes used in Siachen.

The DRDO - High Altitude Field Research Laboratory has some interesting research labs around high altitude, cold desert agriculture and animal husbandry projects. The scientists at this lab showed us around the vegetable cultivation and horse breeding projects where the high altitude Zanskar pony is being cross-bred with other horse breeds to serve the high altitude needs of the army.

Khardung La Pass, the highest motor able mountain pass in the world @18,370 ft. and the scene of a few conflicts with the Chinese. The road makes you feel on top of the world even while seated in the Toyota Innova! The military stories of two!! Param Vir Chakra incidents involving Col. Chewang Rinchen, and the souvenir shop tells you a lot about the conflicts that took place here. A map and picture of the entire Himalayan range from Afghanistan to Arunachal gives us an idea of the "massive wall" that protects our country.

Wagah Border @ Amritsar

The festivities of the Wagah Border, now a popular destination, where 5000+ people gather every evening (10,000+ on weekends) to watch the BSF Jawans and the Pakistan Rangers mock the hostility between two armies. This site came into the limelight with the "Bus to Lahore". The one and half hour daily ceremony, is your best chance to get closest to the India Pakistan border. Pakistanis watching the spectacle from their side of the border just a few meters away, brings the experience close to a India-Pakistan cricket match at Sharjah.

Sriharikota

Ever noticed, the small notch on our east coast on a map of India @100 kms north of Chennai? This notch is Pulicat Lake, one of India's largest Salt Water lakes that opens out to sea. A bird sanctuary that attracts many flamingos, painted storks and a number of other birds. Situated on a small island at the end of this huge lake is Thumba or Sriharikota, India's satellite launch site. We "discovered" this when we took a trip out of Chennai a couple of years ago to see this lake. After several frustrating enquiries about this lake (still not knowing that's where Sriharikota is) we reached the lake to discover signs to the launch site. Since we got here on a Sunday we couldn't take a round of the campus. However we could see several large models of our past and current launch vehicles right at the gate. We could also see a large Rocket strapped to the launch building as we learnt that a launch was scheduled in the next few weeks. With a series of impressive satellite launches under its belt, ISRO's launch site would be a great tourist attraction.

Pokharan

Ground Zero and the explosions here as a part of Pokharan II, which generated considerable pride amongst Indians worldwide and became, arguably, India's greatest PR exercise of announcing that we had arrived. The pride and the internet message deluge about how American satellites had been fooled lasted several months after the event. This site should be an interesting tourist site in the Rajasthan circuit, although I am not sure if tourists are allowed to see this site.

India's Naval Sites
INS Vikrant once India's aircraft-carrier is now a Naval Museum Ship, that is docked in Mumbai harbour next to the Gateway of India, is open to tourists curiously only during Navy Week and a little later (Nov & Dec). Another interesting site at Goa, attached to the Navy is the National Institute of Oceanography, that I saw as a kid. Remember seeing the large under-sea exploration capsules that scientists use for exploration. This organization is best known for being the owners of the Antarctica expeditions.

Project Seabird, the huge naval site at Karwar, covers @ 26 km stretch along the highway NH-17. Five!! picturesque beaches in this stretch, the backdrop of the western ghats and the sea so close to the national highway is one of the most picturesque parts of the West Coast of India (picture says it all). Karwar port is perhaps the only port where ships are docked a few feet away from the national highway. I have seen the Operation Seabird site @ 7 years ago, while it was still under construction and I understand its all done now.

Republic Day Parade

Every kid in India, grows up seeing this on TV every year on 26th January. As all of us know, its a huge attraction and draws many visitors from in & around Delhi and is a virtual show-case of India's military might. Every NCC cadet's goal is to be part of this parade!! With a tradition to invite selected world leaders to preside over the parade every year, its probably already on the international circuit.

Whilst visiting a lot of these sites may seem to be out of bounds for citizens, you would be surprised to know that it is not entirely so. Most of these sites have PROs and actually welcome people and take them around or is openly advertised open for citizens at specific times of the year.

Military Tourism - would go a long way in inspiring youngsters to join the armed forces. It may well help reduce the shortage of officers that the army faces. Combine this with some elements of introduction to the armed forces lifestyle - Officers Mess, RSI Clubs and the hundreds of Golf Courses that the armed forces own in various parts of the country and it could go a long way in getting youngsters to join the Armed Forces again.

Arrogance of Imports

2008-05-05T11:17:00.007+05:30

The recent, worldwide, inflationary trends in food prices, throws up a number of questions on the business wisdom of "core competency", "import if you cant make it efficiently", "outsource", & "insource" that has been much touted in the last 25+ years. Perhaps, these concepts have outlived their utility or at the very least need to be modified to suit the new "flat (but still real) world"
The developed world, mostly led by America, "discarded" a number of so called "lowly jobs" or in looking for doing only those parts of businesses that have scale, ended up importing everything else. Soon, an arrogance set in, where businesses thought that they could import or buy almost anything in the world (Build vs Buy decision heavily tilted towards Buying) and that they did not need to grow, build or manufacture anything anymore. Many of these earlier businesses, shut down due to their domestic inefficiencies and instead of "fixing" the inefficiences, the problem was solved through imports, without regard for its "strategic need" to fix it.

Is this, the right way forward in this multi-polar world, where many regions of the world are becoming wealthy and have huge domestic needs of their own? Whilst, its not a pointer towards going back to socialist ideals of "import substitution", we need to be aware of the following:

Are imports, a solution to domestic inefficiencies? Growing 5 things well but importing 100 other (food) items all the way from New Zealand (or Mexico or Bangladesh), is not very efficient
Food Exports will always be politically sensitive. Most countries will ban exports, whenever there is a perceived or real shortage of any commodities.
Talking to an erstwhile mango exporter from the Dapoli region of the Konkan, it seems that mango or many other food EXPORTS are not lucrative anymore with the additional (cumbersome) work required, the weak dollar exchange rate and the 90 day payment cycles. Its getting more lucrative selling at comparable domestic prices and with Cash On Delivery!!
Perishables (namely food), as is well known and as pointed out by Peter Drucker, dont transport efficiently. The cost per kg for transporting food is prohibitively expensive, especially in these times of high gasoline prices. Food just doesn't transport cost effectively! unless we cut out fresh produce and healthy food from our diets.
The fact that food security is surely more important than Energy or External security. We could still walk if there was no gasoline or power, but what if we didn't have anything to eat?
Importing Labour- Whilst labour always migrates to the place with the best paying jobs, and labour even works best away from home!! this would also be under pressure with stricter immigration enforced due to domestic pressure in the developed countries. Also labour would rather stay home if their home country has a booming economy.

Its an Efficiency, Social & HR issue
These problems of "throwing money at and importing solutions", need to be looked at as an "efficiency issue". There is a need to look at "real" sustained efforts at continuous improvement and solving inefficiencies of a strategic nature right at home. Give people the "right and hard" messages, that improvements are required through hard work and that no work is "demeaning". Is it possible to get people in America (or even the very many who are quitting farming in India) to get back to farming, when they were told all along that they could do better jobs?

Inspite of the "virtual, flat world", everyday life is still in the real world that needs to produce & transport food efficiently! Geography may be history now, but our stomachs haven't gone anywhere!

Look out for my next post on "Arrogance of Technology"

Delhi - Could it be an international tourist hotspot?

2008-05-04T17:00:00.006+05:30

Delhi a city that conjures up images of power, political intrigue, the bygone eras of the magnificence of the Mughals and a city that has inspired many authors from Khushwant Singh to William Dalrymple. A city that most people in the corporate world visit during trade fairs (Pragati Maidan) or for meetings with the high & mighty babus of several ministries. My previous visits to Delhi used to be for the very same reasons, to our offices inside the IIT Delhi campus, to fly out of Delhi's international airport and to meet BSNL, Airtel, Spice officials for tie-ups for SMS messaging.

Love it or hate it, we just cant ignore Delhi. Known especially to people from Mumbai, as a place that carries its power & money on its sleeves (& every other visible part of the body and around it), Delhi has come a long way in being India's showcase of what could be done with its infrastructure. Seeing Delhi as a tourist, and soaking in its sights was quite different from "driving past" its many sights (& sounds)

India Gate & Rajpath

Intended to be the Gateway to India, this road in Lutyen's Delhi, from the gates of Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate, remains to be my favourite roads in the world along with the Champs Elysees in Paris & the roads around the seat of Power in the US at Washington DC. For sheer scale, size, its panoramic view and the remarkable buildings around it, this ranks high on my list of favourites. The number of domestic and foreign tourists that one can see in this area, suggests that this is indeed the case with many other people.

Gardens of Delhi

A couple of years ago, I had seen the Lodhi Gardens listed in Time magazine's list of 25 sites to see in Asia/Australia. I was curious to see it and it sure is an interesting garden laid out around the tombs of several members of the Lodhi Dynasty. The driver was a bit surprised that we wanted to see this garden, but quickly added that Delhi has more area under gardens than Mumbai's slums! He then listed quite a few. As we drove through Delhi we noticed many of these and including the huge gardens around many historical sites such as Qutub Minar, Humayun Tombs, Red Fort and Rajghat area, it sure is a city of gardens, a sobriquet that seems to be reserved by Bangalore with a couple of decent sized gardens and many much smaller ones.

Graveyard of the Mughal & Lodhi Empires

Delhi, seems to be one huge (impressive) graveyard of bygone eras. From the Lodhis to the Mughals (& the White Mughals), spread all around Delhi, are spectacular tomb-sites of the kith and kin of these two empires. Many of these including Humayun's Tomb, Lodhi Tombs, the Rajghat area are well maintained and there are many more forgotten tomb-sites in every side of Delhi. Humayun's tomb, now a world heritage site and restored and maintained with help from the Aga Khan Foundation, its locally called the "Red Taj Mahal". The Qutub Minar, though not just a tomb, is surely the signature monument of the city and it was interesting to see the remains of a half built tower that would have been double the height of the famous Minar that was never completed.

Museums & Art Galleries

Nowhere in the league of international museums such as the Louvre in Paris, the Smithsonian in Washington DC or even other smaller museums in other parts of the world, Delhi has its fair share of museums and art galleries. The National Museum is worth a visit to see the artifacts of our mother civilization (Mohenjo Daro & Harrapa), Ashoka's edicts and some other sections such as the the Miniature Paintings section. Other 25+ museums include the Dolls Museum, Rail Museum, Philately Museum, Natural History, Ghalib Museum, Crafts Museum and even a Police Museum! For the connoisseurs of art, check out the India Habitat Center, Lalit Kala Akademi, National Gallery of Modern Art & the Triveni Kala Sangam.

Gandhiji's legacy in Delhi

Gandhiji didn't spend too much time in Delhi, in his lifetime, preferring to stay away from the trappings of power. However his presence is seen in Delhi at Gandhi Smriti (Birla House) where he lived the last days of his life and was assassinated and Rajghat where his mortal remains were cremated. The freedom struggle is well documented at Gandhi Smriti and so is Gandhiji's life. Rajghat, that "must pay homage" site for every foreign dignitary visiting India is well laid out and thoughtfully designed to handle the large crowds that visit this site.

Temples of Delhi

Like most other cities and towns of India, Delhi has its share of excellent temples & mosques. The Birla Temple here is quite different from the marble edifices that other Birla temples in Hyderabad, Mumbai and other places are. Brown and ochre coloured temple with a simple elegance and a bunch of great paintings makes this a must see. The Bahai Lotus Temple and its famed, elegant architecture akin to the Sydney Opera House, is a major magnate for a number of foreign and domestic tourists as can be seen in the accompanying picture. The latest addition to Delhi's list of temples is the Akshardham Temple. Its huge complex, apparently the largest Hindu Temple in the world, is quite a garish complex of structures, albeit with a lot of very detailed and commendable work on its ceilings and pillars. Visit this temple to also witness capitalism at work in the Hindu temples, at its own Food Court!

Delhi Metro - what infrastructure can be?
The Delhi Metro, the showcase infrastructure project that has been executed by a mind-boggling corporation of just 30+ people, true to its reputation, was a symbol of efficiency, cleanliness and timeliness. Smart Cards/tokens to operate its entry and exit turnstiles, timetable, route map and other information booklets easily available and fast moving trains that help cover distances in 1/4 the time that it used to earlier. We took a ride from one of its underground stations in Connaught Place to Jhandewalan near Karol Baug. The ride took us less than 5 minutes and for the first time in India, we didn't have to ask anybody anything! The Delhi Metro is truly in the class of the Singapore MRT, including its cleanliness without having to restrict carrying Durians or Jackfruits on its trains!!

With Delhi's pace of high quality infrastructure development, its bold measures of CNG based transportation, BRTS, expressways to Noida & Gurgaon and showcase projects such as the Delhi Metro and its existing tourist sites and tourism services culture, Delhi could well be one of the tourist hotspots of the world quite soon. Just needs a few "modern", signature buildings to create a modern Qutub Minar and a distinctive skyline of its own to get there. (even the much maligned Delhi Transport Corporation, now has international street furniture and outdoor advertising company JCDecaux, managing 200+ international standard bus stops).

Hope the politicians, babus and the people at large let this happen!!

Touring Punjab & Himachal Pradesh - II

2008-05-02T14:54:00.032+05:30

Himachal Pradesh, the state that has several valleys akin to the Kashmir valley, known for its apples and perhaps the state that introduced apple juice to the rest of the country through its HPMC outlets. Having seen the Simla and Kulu/Manali valleys earlier, we chose to holiday in the other lesser known valleys of Himachal - the Kangra Valley. Dalhousie & Dharamshala perched high in the Dhauladhar range of the lower Himalayas provide the better known backdrops to this valley. Away from the maddening crowds of the other two famous valleys of Himachal, the holiday was much relaxed without having to wrestle with other tourists at various places.

Parwanoo
Gateway to the Simla hills and a quick getaway for the residents of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali, Parwanoo with its Timber Trail Hotel, perched high in the hills and connected to the lower part of the hotel through a state of the art cable car, was a worthwhile introduction to the rest of Himachal that we were to see later. The hotel is well worth a night's stay with its great interiors, location & its facilities. The restaurant, well kept gardens and tennis courts was an added attraction. The (working) cable car, its location and architecture and its Swiss style chalets are hopefully a sign of things to come in India's hospitality infrastucture.

Dalhousie - The Viceroy's View

High up in the hills, steep road climbs and thick alpine forests characterize this lesser known hill station. Steep mountains, deep valleys & distant backdrop of snow-clad peaks, gives Dalhousie a "Viceroy's View" of its surroundings. Quaint British era cottages, boutique hotels, seen amongst tree clearings still keep this place in Lord Dalhousie's era. Literally winding our way through the campus of Dalhousie Public School, we got the impression that it would be a great place for academics and solitude!! No wonder, Rabindranath Tagore who spent a few months here, when he was 12 and the surroundings inspired him to be what he became later in life!
Khajjiar, a golf course of yesteryears, is a nice meadow setting with a central lake surrounded by high mountains and thick alpine forests. A few interesting "tourist attractions" have been created here, including large transparent rolling balls that are rolled along the floor of the meadow with tourists strapped (or trapped) inside. Roadside snow from half melted mini-glaciers were the added attraction on the way to Khajjiar. Chamba valley, along with its quaint town and nice backdrop of snowclad mountains gave us a chance to taste local Himachali food - rajma+chaval & berry chutneys.

Dharamshala
Better known for the Dalai Lama's government in exile, along with its cantonment areas of Mcleodganj & Forsythganj, Dharamshala is quite a busy place as compared to Dalhousie. Not as high or narrow as Dalhousie, the Tibetan presence here is the main difference from other places in Himachal. Some usual view points - lake, snow and valley view points alongwith some temples, monasteries, churches, and other structures of the 1800s in McLeodganj give Dharamshala a unique "rural cosmopolitan" feel. The main market is full of artefacts from Tibet (grossly overpriced, with rude Tibetan owners who dont care even if nothing ever got sold). The seat of the Dalai Lama, the monastery is tastefully built and has been the focus of much worldwide attention following the Chinese crackdown in Tibet. Gory 20' posters of photos of Chinese brutality in the premises of the monastery!! reminded us of all the means being adopted to get worldwide sympathy and support. There has been much debate about this and I leave readers with their own impressions on the Tibetan propaganda from the photos here.

Kangra - Valley of the Arts

The Kangra valley has been known for years for its kings, forts and paintings. Around 20 kms from the hills of Dharamshala, this place is a home of temples, rural architecture (characterized by houses with granite tiled sloping roofs), paintings and the toy train. Kangra Fort with an exquisite view of its surroundings and the imposing backdrop of the Dharamshala ranges, has been well restored and definetely worth a visit. The kids undertook an interesting toy train journey from Kangra to Jwalamukhi Road (a half an hour journey costing Rs. 3/- per adult, as compared to Rs. 11/- for the same journey by bus - interesting pointers to Warren Buffet's recent interest in investing in the US railroads!)

Kangra Paintings - the miniature school of art with Rajasthani origins, is known for its details produced in a space of @ 10" x 5". We spent some time with Mukesh Dhiman, one of the 50 surviving artists in Himachal engaged in this art. The range of rather bold and varied themes of these paintings - nudes, love scenes, hunting scenes, detailed sceneries, points to a high level of free expression in these "rural" areas. He showed us the mineral & vegetable extract based colours that they use for their paintings, quite interesting not just as a tradition, but because the paints preserve and travel better than the modern chemical based "Camlin" colours. Mukesh, tells us that Mumbai, with active support from Tina Ambani's foundation is helping preserve and promote Kangra paintings, with many of them adorning the walls of many classy hotels and museums. We did our bit by picking up a couple of paintings from Mukesh. For those interested in this form of art, I would recommend a visit to the Miniature Art section of the National Museum in New Delhi, where we saw a decent and detailed collection.

Palampur - Tea Gardens, Streams, Para Gliding and Art

Palampur was perhaps the surprise of the Himachal trip. Added into the itinerary solely because it had tea gardens, it turned out to be a the most picturesque places of our trip. Staying at a simple, informal boutique hotel situated at Neugal Khad in the Bundla chasm, run by an ex-airforce pilot, Suresh Bhasin, we could literally get a great view of the snow clad mountains from our beds. Right along the roads were several small canals (created by the local rajas) to channelize waters of the melting snow and which irrigate lands upto 100 kms away. The main attraction of Palampur is ofcourse its tea estates. Verdant green plantations of the same strains of tea as that in Darjeeling and its tea factory give visitors a peek into the business of growing, drying, roasting and blending of TEA, the roasted bacteria that gives about 50% of the world its morning cuppa. The other attractions of Palampur are Bir and Pilling, apparently one of the best para-gliding sites in the world and an interesting 8th century temple of Baijnath.

Andretta, a community that was created by British Author Norah Richards and made famous by the Sikh artist Shoba Singh (who first rendered the Sikh Gurus in painting form) was an interesting place to visit. Shoba Singh's house-museum and Gurcharan Singh's pottery studio have created a small and unique community quite similar to few other communities such as the Cholamandal Artists village near Chennai.

Himachal, a land of the pahadi people, high mountains and river valleys. Abundant water & hydel energy, a power surplus state, with 100% of its villages electrified & having running water supply (its amazing to see electric lines going up to remote houses perched high in the narrow valleys). Its roads and incentives for industry, good law and order, scenic beauty and good governance make Himachal an attractive destination for industry as well as tourists. Is Goa with similar characteristics (small lightly populated state) an overly hyped tourist destination as compared to Himachal ??

Travelling to Himachal in spring was especially beautiful, with the various types of pines, silver oaks, rhododendrons, small valley and apple flowers in full bloom. Plan your next trip to Himachal or any other part of the Himalayas in Spring!!

Take the RISK to be Happy!

2008-04-28T12:00:00.004+05:30

Saw this nice quote by Robert Anthony -

"Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, than risk being happy".

Well said, for all those 40+ guys out there in the corporate world, the world awaits your risk to do something meaningful, to do what you like and be happy. Take the risk to give up your monthly income, which is in any case only helping you to maintain status quo rather than helping you gain any altitude or help you to be happy.
Make way for the bright youngsters, become their mentors, use the wisdom gained over all the years of your professional lives and take up projects that will make a difference to the beautiful world and interesting times that we live in.

Read more about Robert Anthony and his quotes at http://www.drrobertanthony.com/

Touring Punjab & Himachal Pradesh - I

2008-04-24T10:11:00.024+05:30

Having lived in Bangalore for many years and seen most popular and offbeat tourist destinations in the south, a trip to North India is always special. I love the "energy" of the north, the rugged and stark landscapes, the food and the multiple eras of development and influences that are seen due to the zillions of invasions that this part of India has endured over centuries. The colder climes of the North are always a welcome novelty for Southerners and an inexpensive way of having kids experience snow and see that there is plenty of snow in India and not just in the European Alps or in the US!! (Its amazing how many people ask, "Oh you really saw snow in India?" After all, the 5000+ km Himalayan ranges are home to the heaviest volumes of snow anywhere and include places like Siachen which is the second coldest place on earth)

Travelling in Spring/April

All our previous trips to various parts of the Himalayas had been in the May to August time frame, essentially in mid to late summer. This time we decided to travel during early April or Spring (the oft forgotten season in India, in spite of Holi reminders!!) This worked very well with the North Indian kids still at school, most other people in the South still planning their holidays and therefore keeping the crowds away. Most importantly, the landscape of springtime with everything in full bloom, the carpet of flowers and huge swathes of snow still in the mountains helped experience the Himalayas true to its name. Travelling in the Punjab around Baisakhi with its landscape of ready to harvest wheat fields was a veritable, unplanned treat.

Punjab - Pride, Hard work and Community Service

The land of the five rivers (Beas and Sutlej - only two in Indian part of Punjab now) always fascinating from the outside for its hardworking, unconventional, entrepreneurial, brave people with a sense of community service, was all this and more. Our driver Sandeep Singh was an example of the pride and hard work of the Punjab. A professional to the core, always on time, courteous and hardworking, we saw in him all the virtues Punjab is known for. Proud of many aspects of the Punjab, he knew a lot about agriculture, having done it himself right since he was a kid. Such a change from the bored, lazy, unprofessional people that you see in the South and other parts of the country in the tourism trade.

Chandigarh, Amritsar & some parts of rural Punjab were all shining examples of urban communities living with pride and in far more order than other parts of the country. The Golden Temple at Amritsar - sparkling clean, local visitors engaged in helping out with various temple tasks and the humility with which "prasad" is served, all testimony to the virtues of this community. I have never seen a water body at any religious place in India being as sparkling clean as the Amrit Sarovar at Harmandir Sahib!! Jallianwallah Baug, that place which in many ways sparked off the outrage to get the British out of India was well worth the visit. Well kept place, well documented and maintained. This is one site every Indian should visit in their lifetime.

The festivities of the Wagah Border, now a popular destination, where 5000+ people gather every evening (10,000+ on weekends) to watch the BSF Jawans and the Pakistan Rangers mock the hostility between two armies. For more details, look out for my next article on Military Tourism in India. Attari railway station, the last station on the Indian side of the border with its Customs and Immigration sections, was reminiscent of the border stations (such as Calais) seen in France/UK along its trans European railway routes. Currently a couple of trains run from India to Pakistan through here, hopefully, some day Indians will be able to extend their trips to Amritsar up to Lahore and also get to see the main sites of Mohenjodaro and Harappa in Sind and the Pakistani Punjab.

Agriculture and Architecture in Punjab

Punjab, the granary of India. The bountiful crops, the canals and the Combine Harvesters. Approaching Baisakhi, fields were full with the golden hue of wheat. Covering every nook and cranny, right up to a few inches away from the rural homes, extending from the edge of the road right up to the horizon. The rural garages were full of tractors, tillers, combine harvesters and other agricultural vehicles not seen in other parts of India. Sandeep Singh stopped the car to show us a Combine Harvester, explained how it works and how quickly many bighas of land can be harvested. He explained how farmers grow Basmati rice with labour from Bihar in the rainy season (very little of which is consumed in Punjab, with most people eating rice only a few days in a year) and wheat in winter, with poplar plantations to get additional revenues. The newspapers in Amritsar and Chandigarh had lots of news around agriculture, procurement prices, water sharing procedures, water harvesting and other information.

Punjabi Architecture
Rural homes and urban buildings in Chandigarh, are mostly based on exposed brick architecture. Flat roofs, unplastered and unpainted houses and other buildings gave the architecture a natural and rustic look. If at all the buildings were painted, they were a yellow ochre, white or brown. The buildings seemed to "breathe" easily and blend into the surroundings. Whoever introduced plaster and gaudy paints to the building industry!! Most homes in rural areas were right in the "middle of individual farms", therefore well spread out and have not become high density, urban slums that most of our rural towns have become. I am sure, staying right there!! on the farm is another big reason for the huge agricultural productivity of Punjab.

Chandigarh

Le Corbusier's Chandigarh, the only modern, planned city in the country is thankfully still maintained as it was meant to be. Built around a plan that conceived of various types of public spaces from residential, shopping/business to gardens, its probably the most "efficient" city in India. The central stream (nallah) that flows through the city has been well used to create all the gardens around it. The Rock Garden and the Rose Garden are comparable to some of the best parks around London.
The Rock Garden (@ 20 acres), a labour of love by one man, Nek Chand who single handedly built the garden from waste material over a period of 12 years was the highlight of the city. Amazing use of waste material, great choice of the landscapes that have been created and especially the publicly usable spaces created in Phase III of the garden (mini stadium/amphi-theater) makes this one of the most unique gardens anywhere.
Chandigarh's Paris like tree lined avenues (4 lines of trees on each road), the icons that have been created for the city (such as signature manhole covers), the Chandigarh Tourism signboards about various sites and the orderly nature of everything in the city makes it a must see for being perhaps the only good example of modern India.

Punjabi Food

Food from the Punjab, so synonymous with North Indian food in all parts of India and indeed with Indian food itself in the UK and other parts of the world, is truly fascinating. Huge roadside Dhabas, anytime paranthas and lassi and that enigmatic dish - sarson da saag!! Amritsar, home to the kulcha (a stuffed parantha that is baked in the oven) and some old dhabas such as Bhrawan da Dhaba (120+ yrs old) alongwith food from Patiala, seems to epitomize Punjabi food. Haveli, a modern day air-conditioned dhaba chain from Jullunder gives tourists a glimpse of Punjabi food but did'nt seem to be very authentic, since we found the food to be Mumbai sweet!! Sarson da Saag, Makke Ki Roti and Gajar Halwa were not available anywhere this time of the year. Somebody needs to tell Punjabi/Shetty restaurants around the country that these dishes are indeed best cooked in the right season!!

Shopping for exotic groceries in Amritsar was quite an experience (we were actually taken to such a gourmet grocery place as part of the itinerary in Amritsar). Had never seen Asafoetida (Hing) in its correct (gooey paste) form before. For those who thought, the rock salt like substance sold all over the country as Hing is the right one, need to import some Hing from Amritsar. In fact the main difference between food in the Punjab and Punjabi food elsewhere seemed to be the quality of Hing in the food. Amritsar is the gateway to lots of original ingredients from Afghanistan, Kashmir and other parts of that region. Learnt about 7-8 grades of almonds and a live demonstration of high quality almonds from Afghanistan being compared with American Supermarket almonds that we were carrying with us. No prizes for guessing which one carried more "nutritional" content as seen by the amount of oil that could be squeezed out of a small piece of almond. Surprise, surprise, the size of a thali, roti, the amount of oil in the food was nowhere close to what Punjabi food is typically made out to be in other parts of the country. Typical lunch was just 4-5 items and a lunch thali looked more like a Gujju breakfast as compared to the 15+ item Gujju lunch.

Fascinating Punjab, with glimpses of Texas & Southall, anglicised names of dhabas, hotels, petrol stations and even universities (Lucky da Dhaba, Happy da Petrol Bunk, Lovely University!!) was true to its image of being the "manly" state of India. One vice of many men in other parts of India though - Smoking, seemed to be the least in India and added to the list of reality vs stereotype images of Punjab!

Wish you all a great time visiting Punjab!! Do write in with experiences that you may have had travelling to this part of India.

Are we a "Half Smart" People?

2008-04-03T18:13:00.005+05:30

Indians must easily rank amongst the smartest "thinkers" and "talkers" in the world (or so we at least seem to believe). We seem to think that we can move the world by just using our brains and tongues. Present even the most complex of problems to most Indians and we seem to be able to deliver a "strategy" and talk about it with aplomb. This can be done by almost everyone from entry level engineers, junior managers to CEOs and politicians. With these skills, we seem to believe that hard work and "getting it done" is somebody else's job. Everyone seems to be the high caste brahmin or babu/manager who wont do any physical work. Physical work for Indians is not just conventional manual labour. Work that involves any other part of our body other than our brains and tongue is considered to be "manual labour". This includes even tasks which are normally considered to be part of the "whole job" such as documentation, showing employees how things are done, following up with people on the phone to get things done, packaging a product, doing a spell check on our documents or just getting a job "executed" by following up on the strategy.

Why are things always half done in India?
Many foreigners who visit India, have this question. Incomplete jobs are to be seen in every sector, although we ourselves seem to think that its only true of the government sector or our city municipality babus. We are often seen as a people who pay no attention to detail or even complete anything. An European I once took on a trip to Halebid/Belur was visibly impressed with the attention to detail of our ancient arts. Hailing from Naples/Rome in Europe he went on to marvel at the attention to detail and execution as compared to the simpler art of Renaissance Italy. He wondered however as to what has happened to India since then, when we dont seem to even complete the simplest of jobs anymore.

Here are a few theories, as to why we may have sunk into this state over the years:

Emulating the British officers/Mughlai/Maharajas - In their quest to becoming babus by emulating their rulers, the generation of the 30s-70s took to being "managers" often emulating their well off rulers, oblivious to the fact that the rulers had the means to get things done or themselves worked hard in their own countries or environments.
Only duds do "physical" labour - The brahminical disdain for detailed work that was promoted by the initial bureaucracy and politicians. The emphasis was on how "bright" somebody was and how quickly he/she could deliver discourses on the solutions. This combined with no incentives for actually getting anything done, drove the middle class to take this easy route.
Only our servants do this? - Our caste/class system was conveniently used by the middle class to distance themselves from many of the DIY tasks even though it might have been faster to do things themselves rather than wait for servants to do it. This soon afflicted the servants, always aspiring to be the middle class themselves.
Hard Work - for the duds? - Our school systems with their emphasis on rote learning and passing written examinations with absolutely no emphasis on practical projects, teamwork and getting anything done to its logical conclusion, produced dis-incentives for any kids who would otherwise have been interested in "doing" things. The peer pressure has always been on being "smart" which means not doing any physical tasks.
Whats a "whole job" ? - Soon the concept of what the "whole job" is, was itself lost on our workers, managers and bureaucrats. Ask any workers or managers what their plan to complete some piece of work is, its amazing to see how little they think about all the steps to complete the job including cleaning up/debrief after the job.
Corruption - Any incentives or need to get the whole job done was completely killed by this all pervasive malaise. It was smart to leave things half done and yet make a profit by bribing officials rather than do anything honestly and well.

Its a leadership issue!!
While we would all like to blame this on levels lower than ourselves and think that good work ethic has been lost on the "labour class" or "young engineers/graduates" its clearly a leadership issue. And at all levels. (Un)willingness by leaders or managers to lead by examples of action rather than commands, suggests to the people assigned to the job, that its OK to have it half done or not at all. The earlier we as the managing class realize this the better it would be to build a nation that delivers.

Its this malaise of thinking & talking rather than DOING, that makes us HALF SMART people. We seem to know what the solution to anything is and are able to talk about it, but never get it DONE. Hopefully, the economic gains of liberalization and the perceived golden pot at the end of the rainbow will help change us into a nation of DOERS.

Small Town Ideas - Wholesome Education in Hubli

2008-03-19T17:29:00.007+05:30

This is an ode to an uncle of mine who retired recently (for the second time). Captain Krishna Mokhasi retired from the army about 1986. After retiring from the army, he returned to his native-place, Hubli in North Karnataka. He spent the next 20 years ferrying kids to school and gave several batches of kids an education!! while they were making their journeys to and from school!!
Twenty years ago, in a small town where everybody knows everyone else, he decided to do what no educated people from upper classes ever do. He bought himself an auto-rickshaw, got a license to drive one and started ferrying passengers in Hubli. He decided to apply his army background (where he had seen most of India from Goa to the Ladakh and Arunachal Himalayas), his understanding of needs of professionals, his love for kids and his passion for wholesome education and his army training on punctuality into a "service" that became the talk of Hubli over the years.
He wouldn't pick up passengers off the streets, but setup "contracts" with professionals, school kids and college students to drop them to their offices, schools and colleges. He even had a contract with an elderly Sikh couple to help them visit the local Gurudwara everyday.
Soon his professionalism, friendliness, timeliness and his passion to take care of kids helped him not only build a healthy business but changed the way many school kids grew up in Hubli.
In the process, he educated kids, parents, schools and teachers alike into making their kids into more complete human beings.
Here's a glimpse of some of the innovation he introduced, which made getting "admission" into his rickshaw as important as getting into the best convent or private schools in Hubli:

Started beginnning of the year detailed briefing for parents - giving them the details of what it means for children to travel to and from school.
Taught kids, parents, teachers about the best ways of travelling to school - helped devise the right sizes of bags, water bottles and other things that kids carried to school.
Parents, kids and teachers were taught the importance of time. He would never be late and left the kids and parents to fend for themselves if they were. He says, "Schools and Cinema Halls are the only institutions in India that maintain time, lets keep it going"
Insisted on having kids learn and talk languages other than their mother tongues and in English. Kids were encouraged to speak to other kids in a language other than their mother tongue.
Started birthday gifts and celebrations for all kids who travelled in his rickshaw. The birthday gifts were focused on building values, using sustainable materials and healthy food. He left the parents to indulge their kids with chocolates & junk food!!
Helped build leadership skills and values of responsibility and accountability in kids by rotating their roles of taking care of a number of activities related to their travel to school.
Annual picnics for all kids travelling to school with him with a focus on many activities that schools never even think of!
Donations to schools based on the needs of students as he heard and saw daily.
Feedback to teachers, parents and kids based on his observations of the kids. Many a "difficult" kid was reformed by him.

With all this and more, he redefined the simple chore of ferrying kids to school. He was soon called upon to talk at PTA meetings, Rotary Clubs and even had a few "management quota" school admission seats that were given away by schools based on his recommendations.

Krishna Mokhasi, retired last month after seeing more than 3000 students pass out of his "school". Many of the students who travelled to school in their kinder garten years are now doctors, engineers and parents themselves. Their kids then travelled in "Kittu Uncle's" autorickshaw much the same way in which they themselves did long ago.

He was given a tearful farewell by many of the schools, students, parents and alumni a few weeks ago, many of them wanting him to continue "giving their kids an education"

Managing Water!!

2008-03-07T19:45:00.002+05:30

Onto to my green pursuits, or "viable and sustainable" enterprises. Read an article in the latest National Geographic magazine - "Drying of the West". Talks about how the American West was created with the waters of the Colorado serving 7 states from Utah to California. Seems the "wet" period of the 20th century are over and the Colorado, Lake Mead and others are drying up. Time for everybody to wake up - from Australia, India, Europe through the US!! Use water sparingly. Apply green principles and plain viable business principles to treat water as a resource that needs to be paid for like gasoline. Here are some startling facts from the article:

Phoenix gets its water from 336 miles (500+ km) through a canal. Will the private sector ever do this in any of their businesses? Wont it be declared a unviable project before it starts.
Owens Lake outside of Los Angeles became a wasteland when the river that fed it was diverted in 1913 to quench the thirst of LA residents
Golf Courses - in the Mojave desert region take up 8% of the regions water! Creating lawns, greens, fairways where only hardy desert plants normally survive

Some actions are being taken, Las Vegas has prohibited new front lawns, limited the size of back ones, offers people $2 per sq. ft. to tear down existing ones and replace them with desert plants. However, take a look at any aerial photos of Phoenix or any other US cities and you'll see that most suburban homes have swimming pools that are used maybe a total of 100 hours in a year by 1.5 people each!

Whilst, India has huge other problems of "water distribution" where there is no water in homes 20 kms away from areas such as the Western Ghats that get the highest rainfall in the world and they need to be fixed, we need to be careful. Frugal use of water and "sustainable" projects where water needs to be paid for like any other properly valued resource like oil, is the need of the hour. Lets get used to seeing forests and trees that follow the seasons and go from green to brown to green as "greenery" and not vast expanses of lawns that are artifically kept green without paying much for the water that is used to keep them so.

This is not just a call by a NGO that talks of global warming but true democratization of business and making people/businesses pay for what they use, something that we all agree the Economic Reforms in India made possible - providing a "level playing field and getting away from subsidies"

Unusual & Meaningful Holidays for kids

2008-02-25T15:15:00.004+05:30

Come April-May and kids and parents alike are off on their summer vacations. Gone are the days when kids went away to their parent's native places and stayed with their grandparents, uncles and aunts and a host of cousins until the end of the holidays. There are no such options available today with nuclear families, working grandparents, uncles and aunts & small city houses without adequate outdoor spaces. Besides, this would be too boring!! for today's kids who need to compete with their peers on which "foreign" destinations they are going to for their summer holidays.
As disposable incomes grow in India, so has over indulgence of kids by their parents and their possesive ways where they try to live their lives through the lives of their kids. The Joshis, Swaminathans and Chawlas need to compete amongst themselves even over their kids summer holidays!! My daughter (9 yrs) wanted to visit the USA this summer to visit her cousins and because her friends are going to Singapore, Europe and other places. I told her that she will get to go on just one "foreign" holiday (paid by me) from 1st to 12th standard and she is free to choose the year when she would like to do this (3rd, 5th, 8th or 12th standard). After some persuasion, explanation on why, etc. she agreed to this. Next morning she gets up and says "But what about my US trip this summer"?
I am sticking to my guns on this one and did some research on some unusual holidays for kids that will hopefully help them appreciate nature, develop good social skills, teamwork, responsibility and other values while they get to see places and enjoy themselves. Here are a few that I have found:

Summer Training course at Bhonsala Military School, Nasik. Am sure many other military schools conduct these one month training courses in the country. As of today, this one seems to be for boys only.
Various eco-friendly adventure tourism camps conducted by Pugmarks Holidays (http://www.pugmarksholidays.com/) a completely kids focused Travel/Tourism company. They conduct simple introductory 4 day camping trips for 8-10 year olds to 20 day adventure trips to various parts of the Himalayas (trekking, rock climbing, white water rafting, skiing, mountain biking), Lakshadweep (snorkeling, scuba diving) to jungle safaris in Kanha, Ranathambore, etc. The best thing about them is that (over indulgent, possesive) parents are not allowed to contact their kids during these trips!! Parents can check out how the camps are going and what the kids did at the camp on a daily basis on their website.
Spending a summer holiday working at some media company, art studio, engineering company or any organization that the kid has some interest, aptitude for.
Historical tours, art tours and visiting places that are relevant to kids, roughly matching with what they have learnt in school in the previous (or next) couple of years
Visiting places that have unusual bio-diversity, bio-spheres, unusual physical phenomena (hot water springs, stalagmite caves, etc.), Galapagos islands
Sports Camps - cricket, football, tennis, golf, swimming, etc.
Some meaningful social projects - working with NGOs, working for a cause, etc.

As for "foreign" trips they can do that once in a 10-12 year period! (on a shoe string budget) and as many as they like later in life with their own money!!

I am sure kids will get to see Paris, Singapore, London, LA, Disneyland in their lifetimes, but doing meaningful activities, building social skills, making friends is what we can help our kids with.

Write in to me with any other holiday ideas that you may have for kids.

Skills Assessment - Can help bridge skills gap

2008-02-19T11:47:00.003+05:30

Merittrac (http://www.merittrac.com) recently won the NASSCOM IT Innovation Award. This company, born out of the need of the IT and ITES industries to manage their quality of recruitment and to "pre-qualify" candidates has been providing a much required service to the industry. Its one of those examples where an environment creates a new service or business model. The huge recruitment needs of the IT industry and the gap between Quantity and Quality gave rise to this service in India, which I am not sure is being used anywhere else in the world.
These assessment services must be throwing up a lot of data and statistics that can be used to perform a "gap and needs analysis" which can then be used by the education industry to focus their courses on offer. Continuing in the excellent statistical traditions of India with the Indian Statistical Institute, NCAER, Census Data, Election psephology this data can be harnessed to develop the right kind of curriculums.
My favourite is an assessment of values/soft skills - such as sense of responsibility, initiative, task based leadership, accountability, customer focus, drive for quality, sincerity, cost conciousness, honesty, etc. These are more big impact skills/values as compared to tech skills which can still be "taught" quite quickly. I am sure there is a way to assess these as well, even though they look difficult. Some of the best hirers can assess these thru a few questions!! When this "soft" assessment gains ground, this will itself make students aware that these are (seen as ) important for the industry and they'll focus on developing these "values"!!

Reinventing IT

2008-02-17T16:06:00.006+05:30

In my last post, I talked about the IT industry layoffs and the opportunities and challenges before it. In a speech by Anand Mahindra at a NASCOMM Summit recently, he advised the IT industry to reinvent itself. Coming from a person who leads companies in the Auto industry which has had to reinvent itself and in a space thats driven by "products" that need to be developed to compare favourably with a global playing field and where the basics of "Revenues vs Costs" applies at its stringent best, its advice that should be carefully considered by the IT industry.

Here's Anand Mahindra's speech at NASCOMM>

IT Layoffs: The opportunity

2008-02-11T18:10:00.000+05:30

Every now and again, IT industry layoffs in India (and other parts of the world too) create a furore and generate extreme reactions. IT companies declare that "its routine and is performance based", the stock market thinks that its a sign of a "slowing economy", non-IT folks think "it was overdue and much deserved for the obnoxiously high salaries that they get". Whilst, such layoffs are still a speck in the overall numbers, they should give an opportunity to the IT industry leaders and employees alike to rethink the way they work, train and deploy resources:

Use this to cleanup the system, cut costs (not just direct employee costs) such as travel related perks, outbound program costs and other "non essentials". Gives employees a clear message that the IT business, like all other businesses, runs on the real business basics of Revenues Vs Costs.
Give a message to society at large and aspiring IT aspirants in colleges and their parents that there is just that much growth that can happen in the industry and that IT engineers are just like all other engineers, where real business needs determine engineer demand. That there are many more sunrise industries that they should train for!!
Gets the stock market to realize that IT has had its run of 15+ years and that they should look for other industries that has true intrinsic value
Gives an opportunity to the IT industry to re-focus resources, manage the bench better and think of redeploying some of the bench costs to develop differentiating "products, processes and services" for the future. Get their best people on their bench and have them work on these, to create capabilities for the future. Juggle your bench to achieve this!!
Give a clear signal by getting the dead wood out, but at the same time give a differentiated "fast track" to their best by motivating them to create value and a signal that they will be valued for their initiative and unique contributions.
The public at large and IT engineer aspirants in particular that they need to train and (continually) work hard to retain their place in the industry and be part of the quality workforce that can then create differentiated offerings for the world.

The strengthening rupee and competition will force the IT industry to take these tough decisions, which in itself the IT industry has not been faced with or has been unwilling to do. The hegemony of middle level managers and HR managers who always seem to convey that they will lose their people if their salaries are not increased will also be held in check. These layoffs will force them to focus on other "values" such as responsibility, productivity, real motivation and leadership.

It will perhaps, also force a number of "over the hill" middle/top level managers who have reached their levels of incompetence to seek out other things to do in life and make way for younger, brighter engineers with new ideas!

Spring cleaning?

BLOGGING....finally

2008-02-07T12:54:00.000+05:30

BLOGGING....its utility and its power to democratize expression of thought has always fascinated me. Have been reading a number of BLOGs written by many eminent people and friends. A couple of years ago, we also did a lot of work on the technical concepts around BLOGs and how to support them on mobile phones. I first thought of starting my BLOG about 3 years ago, but never got around to starting one, until now!

With my experience of many kinds of organizations and travel to many countries, I have been narrating a number of experiences to family, friends and acquaintances. Many friends and my wife Padmaja in particular would keep reminding me on starting a BLOG so that people could read my stories when they chose to :) (rather than when I chose to tell them)

My sensibilities and interests span a plethora of areas and I would write about many of them including:
- Innovative Ideas - Technologies/Products, Business/Economic Models, Community Models
- Green stuff - organic food, sustainable architecture, Waste Management, natural gardens!
- Compelling Human Resource Development & Community Development ideas & initiatives
- Social Sector projects - Actions that are helping make our public space comparable to our private
- Education - whats right for our kids?
- Travel, Food, Fun things in life

I dont profess to be an expert on any of these topics, all my articles can be taken with a pinch of salt!! However I will express my opinion anyways, all articles can be taken to begin with "IMHO" (In My Humble Opinion, that Hinglish term that gives us the license to say just about anything)

Hope you find my writings interesting and useful.