The Yaxis Live by Rajesh Kumar

Dr C.K.Prahalad is no more. One had taken it for granted that he would keep coming out with one masterpiece of a book after another for eternity. Sadly, we make the same mistake of underestimating fate again and again.

I could hardly bring myself to agree to the idea of BOP in the way and manner I read it in the book. Angered, I made this post titled Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid – What I liked what I didn’t. Till I saw CK’s present this very convincingly at an event in Chennai. It changed my idea somewhat.

The New Age of Innovation, IMHO, was a bigger paradigm changer, though BOP got far greater popular acclaim. I felt that at least in part was due to the anecdotes on very popular brands in India in BOP. I felt that The New Age of Innovation should be a mandatory read for all CXOs, because, IMHO, the book sought to bring IT out of the closet to the boardroom. A path breaking idea, because I have myself seen how many a CXOs (except for the CTO and the CIO) think IT is a non-core and back room item.  I had even raised the question why modern day managers are scared of technology. My broader views on the New Age of Innovation were captured in this post here.

At Pan IIT 2008, I happened to watch Dr CKP. moderate a panel discussion involving some Tata group CEOs. At the end of the discussion, I managed to seek Dr C.K. Prahalad’s autograph on my copy of the New Age of Innovation.  I thought I would be the only one who has brought his copy, I found a dozen or so folks had done so. He asked me why I liked the book. I replied saying that this is the only mainstream management book that talks about IT. He looked at me straight and half dismissively said,”Yeah?”. My (then) seven year old daughter tried to take a picture and below is my treasure.

R.I.P Dr Prahalad. Let the debates started by you rage on. We will miss you.

This morning, I went to participate in the festival of democracy, also called general elections of India. I am speaking of the month long parliamentary elections in India, where I went to ‘cast my vote’. To be honest, I am not tremendously proud of the crop of politicians in this country or even heavily convinced about the ability of the traditional media to get into issues(and not personalities), which I sadly cannot follow much. But, I remain eagerly watchful for the arrival of the polling day- more than I perhaps waited for my birthday when I was growing up (Things have changed since I grew up. Now I absolutely detest the progressive arrival of my next birthday which inevitably happens, but then that is another matter!).

Having undergone a change of residence  between the last elections in 2004 and now, I had followed a long process to have my name shifted to the voters list in the new area. I have always been, and remain so on this date, very possessive of seeing my name in this list.

So, this morning, I appear at the polling both, a few hundred yards from my house, and decide to take my wife’s bycycle, instead of walking. When I reach the polling station with my EPIC, I get convinced I did a good thing by coming out to vote.

The polling station, like it mostly happens, was setup in a school. The heat was unbearable. The polling staff was in sweat and a few police constables we minding the orderliness of the queue which was about two dozen long and steady. There was no AC for the staff to work in, something that we take so much granted at our workplace. They did not have any laptops or any handheld devices either. Neither did they have any magnetic card reader or any RFID enabled card reader, which could quickly read my id from my EPIC, match it with a database and return a validation.

Rather, very patiently, a polling staff member saw my EPIC, located my name in the voters list which was in  the form of a book and called my name aloud. To the uninitiated, this practice of calling my name aloud is to allow the different party agents (who sit in the back row of the polling hall) to know who is in to vote, and to challenge in case an agent feels the person is not who he claims to be. Those agents sit with their own printouts of voters list and have usually done the groundwork in that neighbourhood to know most of the voters. Of course, nobody challenged me, but even in the crudeness of this process, I was mightly impressed that they were actually doing what they seem to be sitting there for.

After my name was located in the voters list, I was asked to move to the next table, where another polling official asked for an identification and a signature, onto a long notebook, something that we call as register in India. He also put an indelible ink mark, more a tradition than a purpose, on my left hand index finger. He did not have a pen type marker, but just a bottle with a basic brush, with which he was repeating with every voter.

Then came the moment. I was directed to take my position in the polling booth and make my choice. Those rough looking EVMs somehow seem to be a wonder to me. These machines are modular, and externally wired to each other and the presiding officer seems to have a control – he enables exactly one vote for every person. Once I pressed my selection, I heard a beep, and I was done.

What we generally miss to acknowledge is the massive force of polling officials across the country who generally travel to another area ( in the interest of neutrality perhaps), carry the voting machines (EVMs) with less than optimum resources (logistics and allowances), and repeat the process of voting from morning to evening for each and every person coming in. They travel by buses, climb mountains, even travel behind came backs in states such as Rajasthan. They begin several days early, usually stay away from their families for weeks and have no great arrangement for food or stay . Yet, they do succesfully manage to bring back  the opinion of India’s aam admi.

I go to cast my vote for these folks and they remain my winners. To those who did not bother to have their names enlisted in the voters list or did not consider stepping out to vote for one of these crazy reasons, bad luck pal. You missed something in life.

Certainly 2009 has seen very few posts. Today I woke up and realized that I am unnecessarily running two URLs – one on Blogger where I ran this blog earlier and had some 150 odd posts, and the second one being this one.

I have decided to merge the contents (my first experience at M&A, even if they both acquirer and acquirer aka target are mine!). So you would find lot more categories on the right panel and some of my very old posts.

I invite you to read one of my favourite posts, which is based on an imaginary conversation between ex-Presidents of India and Pakistan, the venerable Dr Kalam and Pervez Musharraf. Of course, this is humour and please take it that way.

I completely refrain from commenting on my workplace matters on this space but in the last fortnight have been absolutely bombarded from friends asking how I felt at  the corporate governance scandal at Satyam. When I tell them that I felt bad, some of friends feel quite disappointed. “You mean you are just feeling bad? You must be quite devastated, buddy”, some of them suggest helpfully. Others probe even further.

How does wife feel?

She’s alright.

And parents?

They’re supportive.

And how about in-laws?

They are calm?

What does your brother say? Is his company hiring?

I have not asked him and he has not told me.

And what are you doing about it?

Haven’t thought about it. Just came back from work.

Work? You mean you still have, mmmmm………..

At this point I cut them off. Can I call you later? I am rushing to a party.

Party? You have to hear the shock from the other side. As if gangrene has been discovered in my limbs and I am shaking a leg in party instead of wailing in pain inside an ICU.

I see the possibility of Sholay inspired dialogue sequence on this episode. This goes to all my friends.

Arre O Samba?

Ji Sardar.

Kitne Aadmi the?

Teen Sardar.

Teen, kewal teen?

Ji Sardar?

Woh Teen aur tum tirpan hazaar! Woh teen aur tum tirpan hazaar?!

Sharm aani chahiye. 

Ji Sardar.

Kitna Inam rakhe hain sarkar

Saat Hajaar Karore.

Saat Hajaar Karore?

Woh teen aur tum tirpan hazaar.Fir bhi kha gaye. Poora ka poora.

Ha. Ha. Ha.Ha.Ha

(And the Sardar drops dead in anguished laughter.  Compounded by his worthlessness and despair in only a pachis hajaar bounty on his head. R.I.P.)

I remember my very first trip to Mumbai. The year was 1993, and among my prized possession from that trip is a photograph of me standing next to the Gateway with the heritage section of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in the background.I was a student a that time and was home for a vacation when the family had to go to Mumbai. I have been to Mumbai numerous times after that have visited that spot for the awe inspiring view several time sometimes even for a few minutes. I had great curiosity to see this hotel from inside and last year I got my chance, when I went to meet someone on work. I loved the corridors and the interiors of this hotel. In recent times they showed this hotel on the TV as part of some travel series and me and my wife loved watching it. We even discussed jokingly that we should save enough for a vacation in which we stay in a sea facing room at the Taj Mahal Hotel. One day, we said.

I hardly enjoyed the coverage this hotel got in last 3 days over TV. This time I wanted to switch off the TV not because I could not bear the sight of the fire, the sound of the gun and pain inflicted by a bunch of mad men. The walls will be rebuilt, the furniture and draperies and the chandeliers would be back too but the sight of Taj Mahal Hotel has changed forever. 200 people have died. The ‘common man’ died.

It brought the worst of some men and it brought the best out of others. I would never have known NSG Major Sandep Unnikrishnan or Havaldar Gajendra Singh, but after their supreme sacrifice in this Mumbai tragedy, I felt connected to both of them. The Fire Service men, the policemen, the soldiers, the staff at the hotels. I personally felt very-very small, almost miniscule, resulting from by my sofa set view of TV vs their action on the ground. You guys live, we are dead.

India lives on. And remembers its dead. We will be back in business soon. Jai Hind.

A year back, when Chandrayaan was a less known item, I happened to read about it somewhere, and wrote a critical post doubting its journey to the moon. Some folks left comments calling me names (mostly anonymous, which I rejected). Others were more charitable, who merely doubted the knowledge of my imbecile self. I even picked up issues with one of them till I decided to put a tap on my own mouth.

Post the success of Chandrayaan, there is yet another set of comments that have poured in, on that old post, this time rightfully cheering hurrah for Chandrayaan and more scorn for me. I have allowed most of them to go through, except those in which I had concerns on decency. I want to let all those folks know that I am as thrilled on Chandrayan success as they are. In fact, I have written a subsequent post on Chandrayaan launch that they may want to check out. Cheers to Chandrayan.

Links:

• The offending post
• My recent post on Chandrayaan launch.

First the similarities:

• Both hail from the state of West Bengal .
• Both have a connection with the masses.
• Sourav floored the Lords, Mamata floored the Lords too.
• Both are all over TV.
• Both are in and out of the team.
• Both have the grit to take the opponents head on.

But then there are differences:

• Sourav is a sportsman, Mamata is a politician.
• One brought laurels to the country, the other brought, well, how do you spell s-h-a-m-e?
• People switch channels to see one and switch channels to avoid the other.
• You buy ticket to watch one, and buy (train) ticket to escape seeing another.
• Both are winners. But one led an Indian team against foreign teams, the other led a team against Indians.
• One feels slighted, the other slights others. 
• When Sourav wins, India wins. When Mamta wins, well, you guessed it right.

Ganguly dada has announced his retirement. Is Mamta didi taking any hints here? Wish some people could give their country this small little precious gift.

As an entity, Google keeps expanding its services and I am one of those who don’t bat an eyelid before trying them out. My friends think I am nuts about Google because I keep lecturing them about their cutting age innovation, how they induce trials and how they successfully build interdependencies on their products, and all so subtly.

Your confidence on all-that’s-free courtesy of Google starts to shake the moment you need their help. Last week, I requested for a migration of my Feedburner.com feeds to feedburner.google.com. It was executed overnight. Then I wanted to experiment ads in feeds and how they work and realized I need to move my blog feed to another account. There is a defined process for that, only that it failed to work, with the error message even suspecting if I really owned my own blog feed!

I tried an alternate one prescribed, that in effect said, release the feed link (URI) from one account and quickly recreate in the target account. I would never have done so myself, but this was Google saying so, to me it was God’s word.I tried, and it bombed. Now I am unable to claim my own feed back with the comment, this URI is take, please take another!

So, I searched for help, which took me to some discussion forums in which Google’s staff reportedly avatars itself to help panic stricken folks like me. After leaving multiple cries of help, I  am yet to see anyone avatar to help me out.  I am taking comfort in the fact that it has been only one working day since I made a help request, but what does not comfort me is the horror of other folks asking for help for about three or four weeks and hello, no avatars around to help.

It brings up a painful realization that there are no SLAs for free services. I have lost my RSS subscribers and praying some of them will again rediscover this blog. Is there anyone from Google reading this?

Update 1: Matt S from Google has responded, asking me to stand-by. There is hope.

Update 2: Matt S has restored the feed. Thanks Matt. The system works!

I have stayed away from this blog so long that I do not know where to resume. But I see that I have quite a few options.

Few gripes:

1. Chrome does not install on home PC: Nope, the installation system is not made for installs behind authenticated proxy. That’s true. Here’s Google’s humble admission. In 2008, Google forgets users in campus and corporate networks. Note: If you have also faced the same, please refer to this user provided solution. In my case, it worked. But after seeing Chrome for few days, I am wondering what the hype is about. Certainly, Firefox remains a browser of choice for me.
2. Symantec charges me wrongly: I have remained a Symantec (Norton Systemworks) customer for two years and this year despite me opting out of auto-renewal within the specified date, I found USD 49 charged to my card. What’s worse, the license provided did not work so I assumed they’ve corrected the transaction and invalidated the license. I manually purchased a renewal and am still struggling to recover my USD 49. Been about 4 weeks. The banks charged me its monthly interest as well, plus non payment penalty (since this was the only charge on this card and remained unpaid).Assumption as they is the mother of all …….
3. Car AC stopped working:Just as I believed that summer in Chennai is slowly giving way to relief, it has given a robust denial of such misplaced assumptions. And then, the car AC stops working while driving to work! With barely enough time on hand to visit the service station, I have been suffering a sweaty sultry car. Tomorrow I might decide to put a wet towel under the collar, unless it rains!
4. Reading a book on Steve Jobs. Its titled iCon. (Stay away if possible – an iPod tells you more about Steve Jobs than than this book)

Few good things:

1. Restarted my alumni blog. Still looking for partners.
2. Discount season at Landmark bookstore. I heard they are offering upto 50%. Thankfully, I did not visit them so I managed to save 100%. What a deal.
3. Noticed a nice site for ads with some finance content in leftover space. Check it out.
4. Found a star tortoise in the neighbourhood. 

Blocked the road with my car to make sure the cute fella crosses the road unharmed.

Few things to look forward to:

1. The festival season’s here!
2. Vacation planning’s starts now. School closes in exactly 90 days . Lots of places to go.  Train booking also opening tomorrow. Overnight must decide, wake up at 5 am , login to the site and keep trying till their ‘link’ works. If  you have done online ticket purchase on Indian Railways, you’d know exactly what the pain of ‘link down’ means. But wait, I am not starting yet another gripe now!

A Nielsen study published in June had this amazing discovery-  Norway and India are remain on top of 51 nations when it came to being bullish on their economies. This list of 51 includes countries in America, Europe, Africa, Asia , everywhere.

Norway, India, Indonesia and Denmark topped global rankings as
the most optimistic nations in Nielsen’s Consumer Confidence
Index.Aside from consistently high consumer confidence, the two
most optimistic nations in the world, Norway ….seven points ahead
of booming India.
 

After standing in a queue for over ninety minutes for getting limited amount of petrol this evening, I am not sure I am in agreement with these findings. Added to this the massive inflation and rising interest rates, which certainly are putting many dreams out of reach. And sentiment too. WTF!