Dreaming for Ideas

Even as the world mourns the passing of Steve Jobs, I am slowly beginning to understand how dreamers can change our lives. I now realize that when such dreamers make it their life's ambition to turn their dreams into a reality, persist with their dreams, become successful innovators and entrepreneurs, they change the way we live. Imagine how the world would be if Michael Faraday had given up working with dynamos and electricity because he was not sure how electricity can be used once it was generated. Or, Edison not bothering to perfect his Electric Bulb and discard it as a failure. No wonder such entrepreneurs, innovators and inventors are remembered for a long time. Mostly for all the right reasons. They also happen to be good idols for kids with dreams.

While I was still in college, a bunch of friends of mine wanted to go down the path of innovation and entrepreneurship following such idols. Whilst some did eventually become entrepreneurs, others took up jobs with their 'dream companies'.

I did not have any 'Dream Company' or a 'dream' to begin with because I was not sure where I was headed. A series of fortunate and sometimes not-so-fortunate events led me to be where I am today. In a sometimes dull, sometimes monotonous, sometimes direction-less and sometimes not-so-creative but overall a not-too-bad job. And I'm not complaining. That's because one can't complain when he is set all adrift in the sea on a rudderless raft and hopes to end beached up on a lovely sun-kissed island - or at least an island where you can survive by still being a vegetarian - one fine day.

While 'adrift', I did gather some survival experiences that helped me understand how things worked in the world of entrepreneurship. I had joined a small start up (started by a very bright entrepreneur and his very bright brother-in-law) that took up back office and Quality Assurance work of Silicon Valley start ups. These Silicon Valley start ups were mainly headed by IT wizards who had left their cushy jobs in their 'dream' companies and now felt that they could venture out on their own. Every venture was a ".com" whose two foundations were 1. a good/very good/brilliant/not-so-brilliant idea and 2. "HTML & ASP for Dummies". Our company took up QA work for such ventures. Though some of the ideas were neat, some of them were downright stupid. One even came up with a keylogger concept to capture stock trading done on the internet so that user need not bother with the additional step of saving his data on an excel sheet at the end of each transaction he did on several stock-trading websites. In today's terms this would have been a classic case of security breach and would have landed a lot of people on the other side of the law. Thankfully, it never worked. For some weird reason, despite being a newbie, I knew that not all of these ideas might work out. I was not wrong. Six months later, if I tried to type in the URL of the websites that I had painstakingly QA'ed, I'd get the 404.

Starting up is one thing but sustaining the idea (provided it was good) till it succeeded was a whole different ball game altogether. I must say that some of the websites did survive the six-month test but not for long. The only company that stood the test of time and still continues to outlive all others today happened to be the startup I worked for. It had taken up the dirty job of QA'ing webpages and became a leader in the world of QA. Yes, QA projects. Boring QA projects. A job no company would want to take. That's because while every self-proclaimed hotshot programmer and start up guru dreamed of writing zillions of lines of adventurous code, a QA engineer tested someone else's bug-infested, error-ridden, pathetically documented code while cursing his luck for ending up in such a job. Doing QA was not a new idea, nor a great idea (in fact a very boring idea) but building expertise in QA helped the organization grow to extraordinary levels. Lesson learned.

So, looking back I now realize that entrepreneurship need not always require a new or a non-boring idea but instead requires the will to survive with whatever expertise you build. No matter how boring it is. Till the time you don't have such a plan or a 'dream' or have a 'dream job' in mind, stick onto your sometimes dull, sometimes monotonous, sometimes direction-less and sometimes not-so-creative job. As they say, a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. And it might actually work till the time you hit that sun-kissed island. There is a fortune waiting in taking up things which others don't want to do. Till that time, as someone once said, "Stay hungry, stay foolish". And dream.

Whodunits or Howdunits?

Whodunits have a special place in my bookshelf. In fact, that's about the only genre I read apart from comics. And just like any other traveller, whenever I am on the go, I buy a paperback to make my journey a little less tiresome. Good ones keep me engrossed to the extent that sometimes I don't even realize that I have arrived at my destination. The not so good ones act as Valium and put me to sleep even before the journey starts. So either ways, they work for me.

And just like any whodunit connoisseur would agree, I like my detective fiction to be served in a particular way. The story should not have too much violence, should provide a lot of exercise for grey cells, should keep one guessing till the last page and last but not the least be ‘unputdownable’ (NY Times Bestsellers list parlance for top thrillers).

However, of late, I have come across novels that have plots that compel me to digress from what I'm reading or have a plot where technology solves the mystery in a matter of few pages. Stuff like hi-tech wizardry, special gadgets and procedures that are used to bust crime, description of the locales, their history, and so on have become an integral part of modern thriller fiction. Just like those CSI series on TV (which, of course I like). Though I am not against special stuff being included, sometimes they simply don't help in maintaining the unputdownable feel. For example, a Tom Clancy novel gives you so much info about weapons, aircraft, etc., that once you are through with the novel, you can’t but resist Googling about the weapons and the science behind them. But if you asked me about the plot, I would be hard pressed to recollect it.

When I was reading the “Da Vinci Code”, I stopped halfway through the novel and ended up reading so much about the Templars, the Freemasons and the Opus Dei that I could have written a separate thesis on each one of them. In the process, when I got back to the novel from where I had left, I had forgotten the main plot and some characters and so had to go back 50 pages to recapitulate what had happened thus far. Though it was annoying, in a strange way it was also satisfying. I am sure I would not have done as much research as I did even if the history of Templars had been my main project during Graduate School. But then, it was no longer an ‘unputdownable’ for me.

And then there are these other types of thrillers where a Doctor is a protagonist. In such stories, usually, the human characters take a back seat and the research and scientific work done by the Doc to unravel the criminal or a special cutting edge clandestine project that creates zombies or something to that effect becomes the main character.

Before I forget, the mobile phone is another invention that has taken some sting out of thriller fiction. In recent years, the mobile’s ubiquitous presence has helped in solving many cases. After the plot meanders for a while, someone finally remembers to figure out who last called the victim or establishes a pattern of calls from the billing details and et voilà, mystery solved!

I could go on but then I’d no longer enjoy these novels any more. Nor would you. In short, one does not need special skills to figure out the advancement in science and technology has changed the way thriller fiction is written. I’m sure that going forward things will change some more but I hope they don’t change by much.

And it is precisely for this reason that I long for the old-fashioned novels penned by Dame Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when things used to be lot simpler. Though a little less sophisticated, a lot depended on human nature and instincts than on anything else. Stories dealt with complex people hiding secrets and were set in an atmosphere that had well, atmosphere. In these stories, any kind of scientific research would be rudimentary and would not overshadow the main character’s quest for truth or the characters he would encounter and thus make them memorable forever.

For instance, have you ever noticed Hercule Poirot walk into the Coroner's office and ask for information on how the victim died and the established time of death? Or see Sherlock Holmes use fingerprinting techniques to identify a potential suspect? Or did Perry Mason ever depend on GSR (that's gunshot residue for non-detective fiction buffs) analysis and DNA (Di-oxy something.. just Google DNA) sampling to get his clients acquitted (Yes, DNA sampling did not exist then but that’s exactly my point) in the court of law? More than scientific evidence, it was the perseverance of these fictional heroes (and the genius of the authors thrown in for a good measure) and their constant study of the human nature that solved crimes. The stories made us relate to the characters, understand their emotions and intentions and finally break into wry smiles thinking, “Oh! How did I miss that? It was staring right into my face all the time.” Or how many times did you fervently wish that one of the characters who grew upon you was not the sheep in wolf’s clothing? Nevertheless, it was a totally different but efficient approach to solving fictional crimes back then. People might argue that this is no way to go about unravelling mysteries in the real world, but then that's the whole reason why I read fiction.

For me, whodunits are essentially complex math equations that can either be solved using a paper and pencil or by using a computer software. Using a paper and pencil takes time but it gives immense satisfaction. That’s because you spend considerable time mastering various formulae and techniques to understand, memorize and then analyze them thoroughly before applying them to solve such equations. Whereas, if you used a computer, all you would need to do is just type in the key parameters and it would spew out the results in a jiffy. This means that even if you are just about skilled at using the computer software but have not done your due diligence in Math, you can still solve the equation and get all the answers. But then you would never be an expert. For me solving how it was done does not always mean finding who did it. But if you are the type of person who thinks that the end justifies the means then I’d argue no further. Instead, I’ll pick up my copy of “The Adventures of Feluda” and enjoy Feluda solving crimes the old-fashioned way. So long.

3G and Hemingway 101

I am not much of a conversationalist. Many people have realized that I hold my conversation like I hold my glass of wine. Speaking of which, here I must mention that I am a teetotaler. But every once in a while, just so that people around don't think of me as the silent type, I try. And I take pride in the fact that when it comes to trivia, I'm a force to reckon with and can talk quite a bit about almost any topic under the sun. And that's not because I'm good at Jeopardy but simply because I rely on the fact that whether right or wrong, a lot of stuff I am talking about cannot be verified at least during the time the conversation is taking place. So, in short, I tend to get away with it. At least, so I thought. But all that seems to have changed. Recently, I went out for a team dinner with my boss. The place we had gone to was a typical American diner-cum-sports bar. Though the decor was that of a typical high-end diner, the thing that immediately stood out was old black and white reprints of a mustachioed man going about his daily life. Though the guy seemed vaguely familiar, I did not pay too much attention to them. But my boss (who unlike me, is a great conversationalist) brought it up. And here's a rough transcript of what happened (with my thoughts in brackets):

Boss: 'I've been here quite a few times but I can't figure out this place's fascination for Hemingway.'
Me: 'Oh, that's Hemingway, is it? I thought those are the pics of the guy who owns this place.' (Darn! So that is Hemingway. And I shouldn't have said the one about the guy and this place he owns.)
Boss: 'Oh, no no, that's definitely Hemingway.'
Me: 'Ok. Isn't he the guy who wrote a lot of books on some wars in Europe? I thought he was more of an European and less of an American. In fact, I think he was from somewhere in Europe. Perhaps the guy who owns the place wanted to bring some European flavor to an otherwise regular sports bar. Interesting.' (A-ha! This is going to be a good.)
Boss: 'It's funny, 'cuz I thought he was American.. hm.. now that you mention it, let's settle this here and now.'

And so he whips up his 3G iphone (oh-oh) and begins to browse. A couple of seconds later:

Boss (reading from the iphone): '.... (he) was an American author and journalist. Was born in Oak Park, Illinois...'
Me: 'Hm. Really? Illinois? Interesting. I didn't know that.' (Hemingway? American? Born in Illinois? Midwest? That's tooootally American. Or do they have an Illinois in south of France as well? Well, I'll be.... Surely he wrote about wars in Europe and lived in Cuba and 'Hemingway' sounds more British than American? Darn iphone.)
Boss: '.... spent time in Europe, Africa and Cuba...'
Me: 'Yea, I've heard that he covered a lot of wars in Europe during his time.' (There you go. I clear my name. I knew he was in Europe. But seriously, Hemingway? American? I missed by a continent and an ocean! Maybe he just spent his early life in US and later settled in Europe for good. Not unusual.)
Boss: '... and finally died in Ketchum, Idaho...'
Me: 'Wow. Idaho?' (Where did that come from? Not even close). 'No wonder they adore him here.... And the fries are really good.' (Darn! Ketchum, Idaho? Potato state? And here I was thinking that he spent his last days in Spain smoking cigars and sipping wine. These fries are really good. With Ketchup not Ketchum. Yum.)
Boss: 'Well, now that we know Hemingway's American...'
Me: 'Yea.' (Hemingway? American?)
Boss: '... I still can't figure out this place's fascination with him.'
Me: 'Yea.' (Who cares? At least in my current state I don't)

Beaten, bruised and totally humbled. I still can't reconcile to the fact that I had got it all wrong about Hemingway. The fact that I didn't know as much as I thought I did didn't help either. So much for claiming myself to be good in trivia. And so much for carrying out an interesting conversation. Seriously, I need to join a school where they teach you to be careful about what you say or how to be a good conversationality (I just made that one up: conversationalist + personality, you know). Lesson learned. Never mess with technology. Or 3G.

Vacationing in Monsoon

When was the last time you took a vacation and travelled aimlessly? For me it has been quite a while. At least travelling during vacation. I do travel but mostly on work. I do take a vacation but then I stay at home. In short, vacation and travel never seem to mix (at least in my case). So, when I warily tried to mix them, it proved to be a potent formula that was more powerful than the sum of the parts and did me a whole world of good. And then some. And here I must Thank the Weather Gods who behaved and didn't play Weather Witch during the whole time I was on road. That too despite a cyclone warning. A bit of rain, a tad of sunshine and a whole lot of good weather. Perfect for travel in a region that's notorious for its heat wave. Now, I can't wait for the next one. Here are some of the pics of locations around Visakhapatnam (Vizag), Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, Annavaram and Srikakulam.

The Distant Mountain

The Road not Taken

Coconut Trees standing as Sentinels against Rain

Annavaram

Let Me Introduce Myself...

Once in a while you get to do things you’ve never done before. That’s when you use the clichéd phrase, ‘There’s always a first time.’ A few days back, I was invited by my friend to give a one-class talk at a B-School he teaches in. Needless to say, a first for me. While he called it a ‘guest-lecture’, I myself wasn’t so sure. I wasn’t so sure because I have a tendency to get stage frights and I’m quite used to not thinking twice before I speak. Even as I was debating over it, a free lunch thrown in with a free tour of the beautiful campus became the clincher. Preparing myself for the worst (such as what if I lost my voice midway or what if I had to flee the lecture hall from an audience of man-eating monsters) I set off. Just so that things are set in perspective, I haven’t done this kind of thing before (ever) or at least never before such a high-level audience who can use names such as Einstein and Ozzy Osbourne in one sentence and can still make it sound sensible.

Well, the day started off smoothly. I arrived at the B-School without a hitch. It was just before the talk that things began to look a bit down. To start with, I get introduced to this bunch of handpicked ‘hotshot’ students who were the brightest of the lot in the class. Pleasantries exchanged, as we got down to the topic of the talk, I found that these students were expecting a presentation that would be more or less an equivalent of the keynote Steve Jobs delivers whenever he launches a new Apple product. Honestly, they might have been the best, but for me that’s a very tall order to beat. Even before I could recover, another particularly bright student said, ‘I’ve gone through your profile online and I could write a case study about you’, or something to that effect. Errrr… Considering that my presence of mind is not as sharp as I would want it to be, I put on a dumb smile and mumbled something that sounded like ‘scary’ while the students went on to explain how online searches these days could retrieve information about people. I listened to all this with amazement. Not because I didn’t know about Google and what its sophisticated search engine could retrieve but because I didn’t understand the curiosity factor I had created. Secondly, I’m not scared of being a case study myself. That is because for modern day B-School students, life revolves around case studies and for them every tiny feature of this planet and the rest of the universe post Big-Bang can be encompassed into a management case study that will make you think ‘Oh, I didn’t think of that.’

So, I’d be disappointed if I was not a case study already. But what bothered me was the fact that people had read up about me even before I entered the class. All this meant that expectations were already building up. There was also this small point that I wasn’t sure of the fact that whatever they had read about me was good. And last but not the least, I didn’t know a thing about the class I was going to talk to whereas it should have been the other way round. At least, just to get the right results.

Thankfully, a quick mental recap helped me remember that my online LinkedIn and Twitter accounts are two different entities which I haven’t yet linked to my other not so nice pages. By which I could safely assume that most of the info would be the goody goody part. Which meant that they didn’t know that I flunked a Math test in high school, or a gourmet meal for me means a foot-long Veggie Delite at Subway’s, or that I never break the speed limit when I drive. But then I could never be sure. In these days of Google, when 1+1 = google, people can actually search on my name and get stuff which I’d not want them to see. Say for example, this blog. If not the dark side, the blog would definitely reveal the bore I really am.

Whatever be the case, I walked into the hall introduced myself despite knowing that half the class already knew more about me than I did myself and then I talked, listened, talked some more, listened some more and yea, you get the drift. After a two hour session, I did feel that I had done my bit and hoped there was some takeaway for the class. I don’t know how the students felt, but I returned much wiser and much sobered. It was one of those days when the stars had sided with me (barely, so to say). In short, everything went almost well. And the lunch was well-worth all the trouble taken.

The main takeaway for me was that I am now more aware of how the information I post about me can be easily used to intimidate me. Moral of the story: Be very, very careful when posting something on your profile. Its always gonna come back to get you when you least suspect it. In short it’s best to keep some information to yourself so that you can use it to surprise people rather than make them feel that they know everything about you even before they meet you.

4th August - A Journey Begins

August 4th. It's a date I'll remember for a long time to come. Maybe forever. It was on this day few years back that I first set foot on a foreign soil. The United States. Alone and totally scared. Thus began a journey of overcoming fears, false perceptions and apprehensions. It was almost like my first day at school. It was an education that I would never ever receive in any University, School or College. I learned lessons about life, love, despair, failure, more failure and finally some hope followed by success. Since then, my perception about people, cultures and the world in general has changed for the better (I hope). In the process, I made some new friends and some 'unfriends' as well. And then there were some who were ready to help total strangers despite the limitations they had. Well, I don't know if those people I came across will remember me but I will not forget them. Thanks guys. And ladies, Thank you as well. Out of all these people, a man who would stand out would be Calvin Gross. He was one of the first Americans in the US I came in contact with. An Indophile, Calvin would go out of his way to help international students who were down and out financially and morally. Calvin used to be in-charge of the University's library and he made sure that any Grad who was having a hard time could be fitted in at least as a part-timer in the library. I wouldn't be exaggerating in saying that countless international Grad students who came in without proper financial aid will be thankful to Calvin and his library for years to come. His enthusiasm to help and his affection can well be seen from the fact that every Christmas, he would invite all the Indian Grad students he knew and also the employees of the University library to his house and treat them to superb Indian food which he himself would painstakingly cook the whole day long. For all of us he was a good friend and confidante we badly needed in a new country. As a friend he wouldn't hesitate to dip into his own life savings to help students pay their tuition. And as a confidante, he would always be willing to listen to your hard luck stories with patience and give support through kind words. And I am sure that he still continues to do so. Last heard, Calvin was suffering from rare a genetic disease that ran in his family that would eventually make him lose his vision. But I don't think that it will stop him from being a beacon for students like me for years to come. Indeed an unsung hero with a big heart. Looking back, I know for sure that I couldn't have done the same things as he did for strangers who came fresh off the boat without thinking twice. And he was not alone. There are so many such people I came across that I could write a book. And then follow it with a sequel. But let's leave it for some other day. When I look back now, I realize that I wouldn't have met these wonderful people across the world if I had not taken up a journey that started on an early morning flight to Atlanta on August 4th. More importantly, I wouldn’t have appreciated the difference such people make in others’ lives. Indeed a life-changing day.

To Catch A Thief

It all happened last Monday. It is not usual for me to receive calls at 7:30 am in the morning. This allows me to spend some extra time in bed in the mornings. But on this day, I received a call from my friend who was out of town at that moment. The news he gave was not good. His house had been burgled and he wanted me to go and check what was stolen and take up damage control measures. Such kind of event happening to a good friend obviously upsets you. Especially if you put yourself in the shoes of the victim. You feel like extending as much help as you can.

However, having faced such a difficult situation earlier, I also found it to be an excellent opportunity to exercise my grey cells. I've mentioned somewhere earlier in this blog that I am a big fan of detective fiction. And now an opportunity presented itself to test the ‘skills’ I might have unwittingly developed in all these years of reading this form of fiction. Yea, shameless of me to say so but I felt that I had to do my bit to make sure that my pal got at least some of his stuff back.

So I put on my virtual deerstalker hat, lighted my virtual clay pipe, checked my virtual silhouette and ventured out to the scene of crime. Actually there were three SoCs. Apart from my friend’s apartment, the thieves had hit two other houses in the same neighborhood. It had been a free run for them and it was surprising that they had not been caught or at the least observed. Needless to say, every house the burglars had hit that day was empty as the residents were away for some reason or the other. So they knew which houses to hit. Such daredevilry! The thieves had broken into these apartments by breaking the latch. They had also known where to search and what to search. It was as if they knew what they were looking for. They had first broken into the main bedroom’s cupboard where they literally hit paydirt in the form of gold and cash. Next they searched packed cases and other stuff but made sure that they left the rooms where they assumed nothing much of value would be found untouched. Overall, it was a professional job. At least more professional than my bumbling through the SoC. The cops came, registered a complaint and went. I was still searching for clues but it was apparent that I would not find anything that would help me catch a thief. But it was not the time to give up. I tried to figure out how the thieves had come and gone. I tried to figure out if it was an inside job by someone who knew when my friend and his neighbors would be out and so I cast a suspicious glance on the night watchman who had promptly gone to sleep locking his quarters by 10:00 pm that night (turns out that it is his usual time to go to sleep which the thieves might have know already) but nothing much came out of it. In short, it was an exercise in futility. It was clear that I would not be able to achieve what the cops could not. Disappointing. I realized that all these years of reading detective fiction had not trained a single neuron inside my brain to see something that others didn’t see. Unfortunate.

But whatever said and done, I did learn something. There are parasites among us who like to feed off our hard-earned fortune. Beware of them. If only my friend had taken a few simple precautions it would have helped him save such a loss. Few precautions such as:

• Put the jewelry in the apartment in a bank locker for safekeeping while traveling
• Install a good lock to the door so that the burglars cannot break or would have to make a big racket while trying to break in (I got it installed for them that day itself but it was obviously a case of locking the stable after the horses had bolted)
• Insure precious stuff
• Do not keep too much cash
• If you still want to keep precious stuff in the house keep it in a place where the these parasites will not think of searching (as I said these guys only searched the areas where they knew they’d find stuff but did not touch other areas) so that at least it frustrates them. Or install a very strong safe which would be unbreakable by simple tools such as a crowbar.
• Let your neighbors know about your travel plan (if you trust them enough) so that they can check out and report any suspicious activity in your house during your absence
• Be aware of whom you let into your house.
• Employ professional security people for round-the-clock security. If you cannot afford one exclusively, then try to involve the colony people to hire one for the entire colony

Lessons well learnt. After spending half a day trying to figure out how to help my friend have a safer home till the time he returned, I returned humbled with my own experience. Since my detective skills are now out for everyone there to see, I might as well be cautious and protect what little I treasure using the afore-mentioned tips. If you guys have anything to add to the list, you’re welcome do so.

'Auto'sport

Auto with Spoiler and Roof Rails. Looks like we'll have a new category of racing in WRC soon :-)

Judging A Book By Its Cover

By some strange coincidence, the last three books I have read happen to be on the subject of Economics. The books were, "The Economic Naturalist" by Robert H. Frank, "Undercover Economist" by Tim Harford and "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt and Stephen Gubner in that order.

My usual way of picking books in a bookstore is not by scanning the bestseller list but by checking which book has a cover that screams 'Interesting!!!'. One of the primary requirements in this regard is that the book should have an intriguing cover which tells a story about what’s inside. It is similar to a 90-second movie trailer that will tell you what to expect from the movie. In short, I am the kind of person who judges a book solely by its cover and not by what's inside. Which is why I find it strange that nowadays books on Economic theories seem to appeal to me the most. The covers of these books seem to be way beyond ‘Interesting!!!’ to me.

After reading them, I realized that without a doubt these are some of the most interesting books written on Economic Theory for the common man. But having said that, moving from regular easy reading, cold-war espionage and thriller fiction to Economics has been a radical shift, to say the least. On the other hand, it also goes to show that if people can write interesting books even on sleep-inducing subjects such as Economics (I could never get myself to stay awake during the Economics class in my High School) and then round it off with a nice cover, then those books will definitely sell and will help guys like me understand the workings of the real world, at least in theory. Which is why the blandness of our text books beats me! Why can’t we have text books that explain stuff with examples and anecdotes? Why do they have to be dry as a bone - a bone that’s been baking in the sun in the desert for too long - and too conceptual? Well, that way maybe studies would be more fun and easy to understand which is exactly the opposite of what our education system wants. For the guys who shape our education policies, studies have to be rigorous, tortuous and all other type of words ending with ‘ous’ that convey that going to school is no fun at all. Maybe this way the policy makers want fewer bright sparks to pass out and continue to be the torch bearers of our education system. Sounds like a conspiracy to me.

Well, anyways, conspiracy or not, these 3 books I mentioned earlier are a must read for a lazy Sunday afternoon for anyone who is remotely interested in Economics or for someone who wants a logical and convincing (if not always completely correct) explanation regarding why some things are the way they are. Even for a casual reader, these books can give some interesting insights. For example, the author of ‘Freakonomics’ analyzes crime, money and elections, education system in the US, even how our names shape our future and gives a us a new perspective of things using Economic Theories. And Tim Harford in his ‘Undercover Economist’ talks about why the coffee you drink costs as much and where does all that money you spend on it go. Similarly, ‘The Economic Naturalist’ explains how ordinary day-to-day things are designed or happen the way they are, through Economics. For example, why are milk cartons designed as rectangular boxes whereas colas come in rounded cans? Or why don’t manufacturers provide a light in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator? Commonplace but intriguing, yes? Definitely absorbing even from a casual reading point of view. In the process, one also gets a better understanding of such Economics concepts as perfect markets, perfect competition, cost-benefit analysis, ‘money on the table’, moral hazards, marginal costs, etc. In short, knowledge distilled into easy-reading.

And thus, I’ve learnt my lesson. I should always pick my books based on the cover and nothing else. Subjects can be boring or interesting depending on which book you are reading from. If you get the right books and the right material, things will begin to make far more sense and consequently will make even tough concepts easier to understand. And with my limited experience, I can say that books with interesting covers make for interesting reading. My ex-boss recently recommended a book called ‘Outliers’ which provides a similar experience. I think I will pick it up as well. That is, if its cover looks interesting. Needless to say, the cover always comes first.

Earth Hour?

And so we observed Earth Hour yesterday. Last year we had a 'Batthi bandh' campaign. But congregating at one place by lighting up several candles for an hour sounded a bit paradoxical and over-the-top. And did it make sense?

As per official sources, India, Asia’s third largest economy, faced a power deficit of 73,050 million units between April 2007 and March 2008. Due to this shortage we have something called load-shedding in several regions of the country every day. If we take this load-shedding into consideration, in the area where I stay, we observe Earth hour for 2 hours every day. In some areas, it has been as high as 9 hours. And in some other areas power is available for only 9 hours. So for me, Earth Hour in this part of the world simply didn't make sense.

But since I have been hearing and seeing advertisements about Earth Hour in TV channels, Internet, hoardings/billboards, re-tweets and every other medium of mass communication available plus the fact that significant amount of kilowatts of energy had been spent by roping in celebrities, tigers and the rest of the earthlings, with pangs of guilt, I did switch off as many lights as possible. But not all. I simply don’t believe that burning a candle or bumping into people and furniture for an hour is a good way to save power.

Having said that, Earth Hour can act as a good eye-opener for people who are not aware (or pretend to be unaware) as to what it takes to produce that one unit of power which they consume. And truth be told, people conveniently forget, overlook or simply ignore that there are better ways to save power because they feel that all those power-saving techniques do not apply to them as they don’t consume as much as others do or do not want to care since no one else does. But from my own experience, I’d say that they would be in for a pleasant surprise.

For starters, for more than three years now, we have slowly replaced all the regular electric bulbs in our house with CFLs. Agreed that disposing CFLs has environmental consequences after they are burnt out, but while they last, they are real power misers (Hopefully LEDs will take over soon). Though CFLs are expensive but even after considering the cost of the CFLs, since they tend to last much much longer than a regular filament bulb (one CFL actually lasted us for a little over three years) they are actually value for money. And for those rare occasions where we need brighter lighting we have the regular fluorescent tubes or tube lights.

Another way of saving energy has been to switch off and unplugging appliances (including this laptop) and chargers when not using them. Seems that if you leave some appliances on standby they still consume almost 85% of the power which they would use when they are switched on. But I think that a significant improvement has been because of the increased usage of CFLs. The electricity bill has come down by 50%. Yea, 50%. And considering the fact that power per unit in our area is not very cheap (compared to many other places) these are significant savings.

So, though we haven’t done anything that can be described as new and not contributed to Earth Hour the way we were supposed to, we have been significantly contributing to the Earth in our own little way not just for one hour but for several months now. After all, power saved is power produced, and we understand that.

Going Green - II

Greens for breakfast, lunch, dinner and desert as well!

AVM's Leader - My Opinion

I finally got to watch ‘Leader’ yesterday, a movie I was planning to watch for quite some time now. With careful promotion, the movie had managed to build up great expectations and at one stage I was more curious about this movie than 'Avatar'. So, it was with mixed feelings that I left the theater after the movie was over. I am not a film critic so please don't judge me about my filmi knowledge. Having said that, when I've been promised a good Dum Biriyani and I get a simple Pulao (without mirchi ka saalaan) after paying for the Biriyani, I think I have a good enough reason to complain. Wouldn't you? I liked the Pulao though. By which I mean that there are several things in the movie that appealed to me but there were several other things that let my expectations down.

Story in one line: A young US-based (aren't they all these days?) Chief Minister's son and scion of a political family Dr. Arjun Prasad returns home after a tragedy and becomes the Chief Minister (CM). As a CM, Arjun wants to achieve a better life for his people. AVM's Leader is this young man's story.

That takes care of the story. So what's the film like? To start with, Leader has some great actors who came up with fantastic performances. With the tone being set in the first shot itself, and with the current political developments in the state, it is easy to get involved into the plot right from the first scene. But as the story unfolds, there is a sense of the film moving from one chapter to the other with bits of the story slipping through the cracks as one chapter ends and the other starts. For a director of Mr. Sekhar Kammula's caliber, these slips should have been taken care of as some disconnects are left unexplained. For example, what happens to the CM's friend after the second half? Did she take Rs. 5 crores and fade away from the scene? Does the hero contest as an independent or as a party candidate after he resigns from the post of CM (because we don't see any of his party members accompanying him in his campaign)? What does he plan to do with the Rs. 100,000 crores that's been collected? Agreed that his one-point agenda is to bring out the hidden wealth but after that what? Perhaps, my inability to understand these subtle points could be due to my ignorance when it comes to politics. I could go on but anything more would only spoil the fun for someone who is yet to watch the movie. Also the vague reference to Lumbini Park bombings and the CM's decision following the incident seems to be more of a knee-jerk reaction than a decision that came from the cabinet or the Home Minister (who is shown as a caricature but considering today's political scene, is not totally off the mark).

I can understand why so many people I spoke to thought that the second-half was like a documentary. But in my opinion, the second-half had the meat that shows political strategies such as swinging power centers, shifting loyalties, moves and counter moves, going to the people and so on. But there is a big disconnect between the first-half and the second-half. While the first-half focuses on consolidating the power and building the foundation for achieving the set objective, it is only in the second-half where the CM's concern for the public is shown. This is totally ignored in the first-half maybe with the exception of the first song. All in all, the first-half and second-half are two different sections of the book.

Coming to other points, dialogues could have been an asset but they are not. Such movies can afford to have the luxury of good meaningful dialogues as the narration is not interrupted by songs or fights. And this was one of the reasons I wanted to watch this movie. However, in many scenes, the dialogues were a letdown. The line, 'I am Arjun Prasad and I am the Chief Minister' seems to have been picked from 'The American President' and seemed a bit out of place. But the line 'With these hands you must have touched Gandhi-garu' (Again a vague reference to Ocean's Thirteen's 'You shook Sinatra's hand. You should know better.'?) was good. What I really didn't like was the way the news channels sing praises about the CM (which of course again is not completely untrue these days). In my opinion, News channels are supposed to show news the way it is and not take sides.

About the cast, the protagonist RaNa is pitted against seasoned actors and there are some scenes in which his rawness shows when he is in the same frame as they are in. In many cases, the cigarette prop didn't work well either. But the flashes of talent are definitely there to see. If only his scenes were better directed. In my honest opinion, if he can refine his body language and acting skills he is going to go places in the future. About others, Harshavardhan shines (he has a great sense of comic timing). So does Kota Srinivasa Rao. Subbaraju seemed to be his ususal angry self from his Pokiri days in some scenes but was a perfect foil to RaNa. Suhasini definitely was the show stealer in her scenes. But the guy who caught my attention is the first MLA, the wannabe CM tries to buy off. When the MLA is told that the former CM liked him and was planning to give him two (or is it four) crores, his expressions swing from suspicion to shock to utter disbelief to happiness to unending loyalty (which of course is temporary) towards the new CM in all of 10 seconds. That's acting for you. Heroines, well, they could have had a stronger role but somewhere they got lost in the plot, never to return.

The movie also suffers from continuity problems. For example, when Arjun Prasad is declared as the CM, he walks out of the party office into a downpour and everyone gets wet in the rain. But when he reaches home and is greeted by his mother at the entrance, the sun is shining, his shirt is crisp and dry and everything else is dry as a bone as well. Another teeny-weeny observation is that in one scene, RaNa's watch shows a different time when it is supposed to be 8pm (small thing that can be ignored and left out but then a small detail that can be taken care of as well or maybe I was not paying too much attention).

I might keep complaining but overall, it is a good and honest effort that will not totally disappoint you. About the music, it was not intrusive and was well blended into the story-telling. It is good to see a different movie once in a while and I hope this movie will set an example for other filmmakers as well. Before signing off, let me mention, if I haven't already, that I am not a film critic and so my opinions might greatly differ from that of experts.

Catching Up During Outage

In work terms, it is an unexpected break. In management terms, it would be called 'loss of productivity'. In technical terms, the email and chat servers are down. Whatever be the case, it is a welcome break. While others are taking their mandatory coffee break secretly thanking the culprit who could have caused this outage, I am sitting at my desk trying to make the most of it. And making the most of it means writing this blog whilst contributing my two cents worth to a Management Paper my friend (a Prof) is authoring. Since I ran out of ideas for the Paper a full 3.5 seconds after opening MS-Word (faster than Porsche which take 4.9s for reaching 0-60), I have switched full time to write this post. This way, I can keep those nervous fingers of mine busy by playing the devil’s trill on the keyboard while still managing to meet the deadlines of the projects I’ve got myself knowingly and unknowingly involved into.

Speaking of which, in the past few months, I've been trying to do several things (I’ll call them projects for the lack of a better term) at once but nothing in particular which makes me feel that I have a distinct lack of focus and that I am going nowhere in particular. However, if I take the sum of the parts, somewhere I see some takeaway from all of them. Big or small, I don’t know. Also, in the process, I have realized (or learnt the hard way) that working on different projects simultaneously requires a certain amount of discipline and time management and a lot of panache. Otherwise everything can be thrown off track. And due to this accidental discovery, I now understand and appreciate that people who wear multiple hats and maintain the discipline to finish them on time really deserve to be the winners they are. This is also one of the reasons why I have stopped criticizing people who do a zillion things (such as acting, promoting, regularly appearing on Page 3, turning up at charity events, working out to stay fit, making up and breaking up, etc.) in a day and still feel fresh to party by sundown.

But since I am not so disciplined and have overshot my deadlines, I am sitting here instead of joining the watercooler gossip. It is an unjustifiable compromise since there is no bigger fun than catching up on news about the office’s regular Page 3 people and learning juicy tidbits about them (which you can always use to your advantage later on). Well, I will have to wait for the next outage. Otherwise, there is no way that I can finish giving inputs to the Paper I talked about earlier, work on a key project that’s been collecting dust on my desk for a while, study for an exam, complete an assignment for my class within the next 24 hours and most importantly, also read a book on Investment Banking (just for the heck of it). And these projects are somehow teaching me to make sure that I make use of every minute (I haven’t managed to take control of the seconds yet) I have at my disposal so that at the end of the day, I don’t end up sitting at my desk while the hypothetical clock tower strikes seven. Or eight. Or nine. Or later. It’s going to be a tough one but I’m hoping I will finish within a reasonable time provided I skip these unforeseen breaks. Meanwhile, looks like the email’s coughing back to life. So, its time to get back to work now. The Paper will have to wait and so do the rest of the projects. Till that time, my congratulations to all you great people who have mastered the elegant art of time management.

You say Twitter and I say Twitter

I have been fascinated by Twitter ever since I got the hang of it. My friend once gave me this tip about Twitter. If the number of people you follow is more than the people following you, then you are not worth being followed or simply put, you shouldn't be on twitter. So he makes it a point to make sure that he has more followers than the people he follows. So if what he said was true, then I am clearly not worth being followed or be on twitter. But I use twitter for a different reason altogether.

No, I don't use it to promote a business online and make loads of money or compete with CNN to have the highest number of followers within a certain date. Instead, I have been using it like my personal diary-cum-news feed. For example, I can quickly scan through articles from WSJ or NDTV for news, check out what a particular personality feels about a certain issue (in brief at first and if interested, follow the link and read in detail), get to know about the latest podcast from my favorite Science and Tech website, or follow the latest news about my favorite TV series, and so on. Which is the reason why I feel it is more powerful when you follow more people than people following you. It also leaves a lot less clutter to sort out from as I have noticed that over a period of time it becomes more like a scrapping portal among your friends. So you would end up with another social networking site instead of having an app that would allow you to sift and select information you'd want to read or tweet about. So, while my friend's looking for popularity, I'm looking for a medium that helps me keep in touch with the world in general.

And it works well that way, at least for me. Just like a scientist would want a high end computer to do number crunching and complex calculations, a gamer would want it to run MGS or COD. Same device different usages. And Twitter is no different. Same app different usages. And that's the beauty of Twitter. To each his own.

I, Robot?

A software engineer working in a reputed software company and his wife treat a minor housemaid (while fully knowing that child labor is a crime) like Fagin treated Oliver Twist. Students of a reputed University go on a rampage and torch city transport buses and destroy private property as a sign of protest. A highly-placed policeman harasses a teenager leading to her death. A student kills a girl who has spurned his proposal. In another incident, a student and his friend throw acid on a girl for a similar reason. See a common thread here? All these are acts of crimes that were committed by 'educated' people. Which makes me wonder whether somewhere our education system and family values seem to have taken a wrong turn in this era of so called technology and development? Or have we forgotten to 'educate' people to do the right thing? How else can one explain all these heinous acts committed by 'well-educated' people? People debate on making the law stricter so that people don't get away after committing such crimes. But why is there no debate on educating people about the lines that should not be crossed in a society? Is it that difficult?

I am glad that we still applaud movies like 'Avatar' (which has an underlying message about how we are at war with our environment) and '3 Idiots' (which talks about how we conveniently ignore to understand the difference between 'training' and 'education'). As the character in '3 Idiots' says, even a dog can be trained to do a job but not everyone can be taught to understand and execute. But once we walk out of the theaters, its life as usual. And so here we are setting new milestones in being brutal and unsocial and trying to get away with it through the use of power, influence and money.

To be honest, while on one side our education system has been successful in creating software wizkids, hotshot managers and respected researchers, on the other hand, its uglier side seems to have stripped us of our humanity and created a person who is indifferent to his fellowmen's life and rights. And shouldn't the parents also be blamed for turning the kids into such wrong-doers while pushing them into becoming over-achieving professionals? The evidence definitely seems to indicate so. Parents and teachers seem to ignore the responsibility of bringing up the kids as proper human beings while striving to create a successful life for them through heavy doses of learning. So the question is whether we will forget to live as human beings over a period of time and evolve into something supremely efficient but totally devoid of emotions because we were not told how to behave while we grew up? I fervently hope not. At some stage, we must outgrow the idea of education as a means of producing trained success-machines and think about turning education into a medium that would help create successful but socially responsible citizens. Only then can we say that our education system has achieved its objectives. Till that time, we will have to watch and read about 'Law & Order' TV series kind of crimes happening in real-life and cringe at the enormity of the crime committed.

Happy 2010

(courtesy: NASA. http://nasa.gov)

A Tale of Two Cities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Thus starts the novel 'A Tale of Two Cities'. At this point, over here - in Hyderabad and Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh - it just seems to be the latter. The events of the past few weeks (how I wish it were days) have left me confused, dazed and totally angry. Some of the decisions of the so-called seasoned politicians have fueled troubles beyond anyone's imagination. And there seems to be no letting up. What seemed to be a peaceful state now simmers with anger everywhere. It was like a bunch of eager kids opening up a Pandora's Box and running away not knowing what to do after opening it. The situation certainly is acting like a time machine that is ready to travel back in time. With all the 'bandhs', the state will soon come to a grinding halt. And then start to go back in time to the late eighties and early nineties where there were very little opportunities in sight and a definite lack of progress. I just wish all this stops before it even begins and hope that peace prevails before its too late. And then we can say, 'it was the best of times' and stop there.

Back From Vacation

Its November and I have just returned from my vacation (one whole week of it). Feels nice. Before the vacation started, there were several things on my to-do list. Post vacation, those things still remain. Without being struck off. To be honest, it was a deliberate attempt on my part to postpone these 'to-dos' so that I could catch up on the things leftover from my last vacation (which was around a year back, though it feels like ages now). Thus, I was finally able to finish a book which I left half-read from my last vacation. It took me a while to remember the plot and the characters (figuring out the good guys from the bad ones and so on) and by the time it all started to come back to me, the book was finished. Nevertheless, it felt satisfying to complete the book. Then it was the turn of tackling cryptic crosswords. I had been pushing myself to invest some time on cryptics for some time now. Now I am quite glad that I did. Cryptics are really great food for thought. In my opinion, its like having a good Mediterranean dish sitting in a small hotel by the seaside in a Greek resort town on a sunny day, if you know what I mean. The icing on the cake was that I stayed off my laptop during all this time. I might have just clocked 5-6 hours online for an entire week, which by my standards is not being online at all. Taking a break, going offline, catching up on my paperbacks and just doing nothing in general. Now I know how it feels getting away from it all. A feeling that can only be experienced when you can put off your regular 'to-dos' list away and bring out the vacation to-do list. Did I say that it feels nice? I am looking forward to my next one. Seems to be a long way off.

Tuesday: A Walk In The Rainstorm

The real fun for me started on Tuesday when a rainstorm lashed the city. It started with a tap-tapping noise on my hotel room window at around 3:00 a.m (yea, I was half-asleep half-awake due to the jet lag) in the morning and then went on to become a downpour later in the day. It was late in the afternoon that I gathered enough courage to venture into the chilly rain. The hotel staff were kind enough to provide me with an umbrella. I must say that I made full use of it in the streets that day and later also used it as a drip machine in the lobby area (so not nice of me). Using the umbrella, I might have dripped enough on the lobby floor to irrigate a small paddy field. I am sure that I will be treated as persona non grata as far as this hotel is concerned the next time I am there. Note to self, shake the umbrella well (outside) after use.

Anyways, bracing myself for the chill and the rain, I stepped out. Using my exposed face as a barometer (which was not a very good idea) for measuring the prevailing weather conditions, I decided that it was in my best interest to head straight (or dash, rather) to the nearest Starbucks and get a steaming chai. To start with, walking into a rainstorm is not the same as dancing in the rain but comes quite close once you get used to the wind and the rain (if you are covered and enjoy the breeze that sends chilly sprays onto your face once in a while). The chai made me lose some of my apprehensions and I headed to the B&N bookstore across the street and returned with my hands full of tomes that had been listed as NY times bestsellers. By this time, I was getting used to the constant downpour and was ready to endure some more of it. So the next stop was Chinatown to do some window-shopping (since I was on a tight, make that a very tight, budget). With all the shoppers in their colorful umbrellas and rain suits, the sidewalks looked as if they were filled with Chinese lanterns on a Chinese New Year Day. Two hours and $4.00 (yes, four, not forty) worth of shopping later, evening was beginning to set in and so it was time to walk down a few blocks into the downtown in search of a good place for dinner. The downtown does have a great selection of restaurants. On that day, any restaurant that offered a nice warm soup and a window side seating seemed quite inviting and so I headed for a nearby Subway (I know its not gourmet but it was the best I could do in those circumstances). After fortifying myself with a good sub, I finally decided to head back to the hotel and (h)air dry my totally damp shoes and feet. Though I did not accomplish much on that day, just walking into the rainstorm was an experience by itself. An experience worth saving for a rainy day.

Sunday: Columbus Day Weekend

Attending a mini Italian (make that mini Ferrari) car show (while the Blue Angels were flying overhead) followed by early dinner at a good restaurant rounded up my Columbus Day. Engaging and highly interesting weekend activities are some of the many perks for San Franciscans. I guess these weekends more than make up for the other daily downsides and inconvenience these city folks endure. In my case, since I was just visiting, there was enough stuff to keep me engaged throughout the week (I have been here so many times now that I sometimes act as a tour guide for some of my Bay Area friends).