If you lose, don't give up. If you win, raise the bar, rare back and do something else

For new booking, Press 1

2011-12-16T07:41:00.000-08:00

And that's what I did hoping that there would be hungry Jet Airways call center reps. ready to lap up new business. No Sir. Doesn't work this way in the world of Naresh Agarwal's organization. I heard the automated voice tell me: Please wait, your hold time is approximately 10 minutes. Are you kidding me!!!

No wonder. This is what happens when competition either is minimal or is pretty meek. This being Bhopal-Delhi sector and only other flights being that of Air India, where would someone go...so I am here, using the wait time with my phone on speaker writing a blog and wondering when there would be real competition in India. At least such horrible service levels would go.

"Your call is important, please stay on the line and someone would attend to you shortly" Already heard it 5 times and wondering how many more would come before I surrender my money to Jet Airways and give my regards. Who knows, if I am not polite, whether they would even let me board.

In God We Trust

2011-09-30T14:47:00.000-07:00

Arab spring is in full swing with demise of Gaddafi and protests in Syria. Yemen is also on the boil. New York Times in its article today claims that the struggle in new countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Libya is not between Islamists and Secularists but between traditional and liberal Islamists. The struggle is between the model offered by Taliban & Wahabbis on one end and that offered by Erdogan on the other. Even members of Muslim Brotherhood are breaking away from the premise that Koran should serve as the basis of future constitution.

I find the debate fascinating. Two leaders that shaped the ethos of modern India had very divergent views on religion. For Gandhi, religion was an important part of political discourse and important medium for mobilizing the population. For Nehru, religion had no space in politics. As Karl Marx would say : "Religion is the opium of the poor". I wonder if Nehru had given religion the required breathing space, would we have the RSS annoyance as we see today. Interestingly we have seen dictatorships from so called secularists all over the world: Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mumbarak and before him Anwar Sadat, Ben Ali and even Muammar Gaddafi.

So are we moving towards a world in which the state recognizes the role religion plays in shaping beliefs of the population, incorporates certain aspects of it and rejects the extremes so that focus remains on development. Turkey is an example. Even in US, Republicans have made religion their election plank against Democrats (though I would say that some positions on abortion, evolution and stem cell research are plain naive).

What is fascinating is how this would shape Arab world.Traditionally, Israel and US have supported governments that ruled with iron hand, were secular and implicity/explicity supported right of Israel to exist. Prominent countries that would fall in this category today would be Jordan and Saudi Arabia. A few months back, Egypt was also in this category. For this support, Arab population still hates US. If liberal Islamists come to power in elections in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, it would be interesting to see how things shape up for Israel & US. I think this would create a more lasting peace in the middle east.

Saurabh Gupta ko gussa kyon aata hai

2011-08-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

...not because I am from Kumaon (Jai Kumaon) and he is from Aravali but because of my desire to have fun at the end of a Murphy filled day in Hazira.

The sales call was long, much longer than we expected, then our driver (my dear friend Jignesh) made his Swift (bought thanks to our monthly payout of 75,000) a chopper and we still missed the Indigo flight. Sometimes, ontime delivery can hurt!!

So we are without ticket at the Vadodara railway station and the meal I get is stale pooris with aalo ki subji. You can imagine what kind of day this is turning out to be. We somehow manage one ticket in Vadodara Express and another one in Golden Temple Mail. Saurabh was in VE which was going to leave an hour early. So I ask him to check if he can manage the TT to get me a seat in VE. He puts in all the effort to get some agreement from TT and calls me. I get on the train and tell Saurabh that I am going to tell the TT that I thought Golden Temple mail ticket was valid in Vadodara Express. You can see the horror, and the disgust on Saurabh's face. ("Kapil, you Kumaon people are like that only. If you were doing it for money, I would understand. But its not for money. It is just to trouble me") So he tells me to do whatever I want and goes to sleep.

TT comes to me and asks me to show the Golden Temple Ticket. His words verbatim: " Your friend did not tell me that you want to travel using Golden Temple Mail ticket in Vadodara Express. Is he not educated? (I feel like answering: He went to IIT but his hostel was Aravali. It happens. Hostel can have that kind of effect on you") I don't know where these kind of people come from".

I am dying to stop laughing out crazy. None the less, in the daily bustle of a consulting life, how do I tell Saurabh that this was an opportunity to play a real prank and I would do anything to not let it go.

Mr. Billu inherits the famous mango apetite of his father

2011-05-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

My son calls it differently..it would probably spell like Mayngo. You know when he hollers it, he knows what he is asking for and he wants it now. Not surprising because a good mango can have that effect, even on an 18 month old. So even though I am getting ready to peal one for him in a kitchen corner, Billu would come running. He knows the smell, doesn't matter if its Safeda or Kesar or that wonder from Ratnagiri, he knows what is happening. And he doesn't know how to wait. He doesn't know that Daddy is doing it only for him. It has to happen now or it would become an incessant rant of Mayngo Mayngo Papa Mayngo.

I have 22 Ratnagiris in my bag today. Early morning I board the train from Delhi to Ludhiana, reach home, quietly put a couple of these babies in the fridge, let them shed some of their heat and then serve them to Billu...looking forward to it. For next 7 days, Ludhiana would be fine. Lets see if I can manage the next shipment of Alphonsos before North India mangoes: Dasheri and Langda take over. Thats the way you manage continuous happiness.

Why I Have Had Enough of Obama

2009-11-22T07:17:00.000-08:00

I was the biggest cheer leader of the current president when he was still a big underdog against a goliath called Hillary Clinton. Despite all odds, he won in Iowa and it was fantastic. Then he lost in New Hampshire against all that polls had to say and the fun had just begun. Then over the next 5 months of hard slog where Hillary tried to do everything to get herself in, he held on quite beautifully. Once the nomination happened, McCain was always going to be easy pickings.

Like a lot of other people, I had high hopes with Obama's presidency. 11 months into it, I am convinced, like so many others, I got infatuated with Obama bandwagon more because I was sick of Bush's and GOP's stupidity then any transformation that Obama would usher. I think problem lies also with my head. Like so many young folks who are leftist in the heart and rightist in the head, you seem to fall over for someone like Obama pretty easily. While the world has drooled over Obama's speeches, like the one in Cairo, I cannot avoid seeing it all from the prism of results. I don't think there should be any other yardstick. Obama has let Russia loose, bent over to the Chinese, let Netanyahu get away with building more settlements, goofed up big time on healthcare, hosted a dumb head beer party to strengthen race relations...list goes on and on. Now the Afghan war which in Obama's words was the "war of necessity" doesn't seem to be the necessity anymore. Suddenly, there are good and bad Taliban. Mr. Obama, I have 4 words for you: Get Your Act Together. Fuck all niceties and style because remember this; one of the most effective American presidents of last 50 years was also the most boring one. And the most exciting of them all took America to Vietnam and screwed up in Bay of Pigs!!!. Let go off your indecision, pick one thing at a time, and fix things up. You have enough political capital as of now...it won't be there tomorrow because there might be more Nobels on your way to make you the biggest laughing stock of the modern world.

Commode Thought!!

2009-11-22T07:10:00.000-08:00

While I wonder if I should write about this but my instinct tells me that a lot of people have had this experience. So here it is. I am in a bungalow in Surat where one rest room is kind of common to the place. In some ways, it is also the dedicated room for one of the people living here. So I go in to take a leak. The liquid that I am discharging at a reasonable velocity because of built up pressure is doing something. The guy before me probably did not flush properly or the stickiness of the material was such that the flush could not wash it off completely. So it might have happened that in the morning rush to office, the guy decided to not put extra efforts by putting some mugs of water on the turd patch. Now my liquid with its temperature, content and velocity is slowly washing off the tardiness of the person before me.

Clearly something good is happening....interestingly, not only for general good but for my own reputation as well. Why I say my reputation is because if I walk out with that patch still in the commode, then it might mean to the next person that I did it. There is no way to avoid that suspicion considering how quickly people reach conclusions in this fast world. So my discharge is now doing wonders slowly washing all stains off. For green activist, this is an absolute dream considering what waste they think using a flush is. For others too, its all good. For me, the thought that I have just scribbled down consumes the duration that I am standing in what generally is a relieving but pretty mundane activity.

Made in America

2009-11-22T07:02:00.000-08:00

This entry has been in the offing for almost 10 months now. I was in cold Detroit in January and at the airport, I am standing at the urinal. As I start taking a leak, I see a penny at the bottom of the urinal. I feel no inclination to stop discharging and honoring the smallest unit in American currency. What I do wonder is what Sam Walton would have done. In his autobiography, "Made in America" Mr. Walton talks about how he would pick up any penny lying on the road because he respected money so much. Now this is a noble thought from someone whose efforts still fawn billionaires on the Forbes list.

What wonders me is what he would have done for this penny. My bet is despite all his reverence for money god, he would not pick the penny showered with urine from multiple men. That brings us to an interesting point. While certain thoughts impress you and make you feel good that such big people were so humble, this humility is still a hostage to situations. This Detroit airport urinal is an example of such a situation. So when you read or see something, like this penny picking habit of Mr. Walton, try to put a perspective around it. Even the big Sam has to pick some pennies and leave some....even if the penny is "Made in America"

Ships, Father (to be) & Wife: The Real Iron Triangle

2009-08-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

I was hoping that this blog had not been deactivated. Things have been so hectic that the complete texture has changed. Southwest people actually took advantage of this disappearance and slowly munched away my Rapid Rewards points. I don't even know what other places I have incurred damages. In Pune, I pay rent for a place which I have stayed for 3 days in last 3 months. So it is good to know that my blog is here. Let me quickly update you all about where I have been and what things have happened.

The real change started 9th November when I got married. By the time I got back from honeymoon, it was work all over the place. One bid with a defence organization which didn't go anywhere followed with trying to get some other business. In between, I helped out some folks in sales in cold cold Toledo. Nothing worked. Then things rolled a little slowly and by the end of it, we were managing delivery of some ships out of Surat. So I landed in Surat and have been here since April. Shipbuilding is said to have 3D's...Difficult, Dangerous & Dirty and I am soaking in every bit of it.

So professionally, things have been somewhat peaceful though the work is extremely complicated. We have made some progress but it is still a long long way ahead. On the personal front, life has been a roller coaster...literally. Excessive travel has made it difficult for both I and Saumya. Last 1.5 months in Surat have been the most time we have spent together with only I being away for 5 days in between. The good news is I can look forward to a new member in the family in November. Both Saumya and I are super excited about this coming baby(though Saumya would say that I have been completely oblivious to everything!!!)

How I look...very different..I have lost quite a few hair and lost some weight too. Hopefully some of it is going to come back and some would become a trade off of what came in and what went away...as they say in some hindi song..
duniya main har kisi ko mukammal jahaan nahi milta
kisi ko jameen aur kisi ko aasmaan nahi milta

Finally, the fine taste of Cow Urine!!!

2008-12-05T06:27:00.001-08:00

Piss dilemma came back to hit me in a vicious way today. Our office was inaugurated in Pune today and since I and Saumya were the only couple present, we were asked to represent in the ceremonies which the priest conducted. I was fine with this role because I recently went through a big ceremony with all kind of recitals in my marriage.

So this thing started...and I am perfectly fine. Then this guy starts preparing something and everything looks fine. Milk, Curd, Honey, Ghee...and damn it...I see one more thing...some yellow liquid from a bottle...the bottle says in Hindi: Cow Urine. I am 100% sure that we would not be required to drink this mixture. Doesn't happen that way..he pours a spoonful in our hand and ask us to take it in....DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT...

I and Saumya officially are now part of that group of people in India who have drank cow urine. I used to hate that program on AXN where they would show people in Benares drinking cow urine before going to work. I would hate every bit of that episode because I really thought that it was creating an image of India that was not true( and really...as you can see in the picture..a child bathing in cow urine..that should be so rare). I was also sure that very few people have had the pleasure.Now I am sure that this problem is wide spread considering that priests are dishing it around in these kind of ceremonies.DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT...

My 9/11

2008-12-05T01:25:00.000-08:00

9/11 has a certain ring to it since terrorist hit America that fateful day in 2001. There are certain aspects of this date which are worth observing. If you are in America, 9/11 would mean 11th September. In Europe, India and a lot of the wider world, 9/11 would mean 9th November. So all depends on how you write your days and months.

My 9/11 was very interesting because it was wedding day for me in Jaipur. While the whole day and night, and following day was quite surreal, there are some observations which I thought I will share with the readers:

1) Clearly, dancing is not the forte for a majority of people who do end up dancing in an Indian wedding. It definitely does not come naturally in my family, proof being awful dancing by my father and I can definitely match him step by step for some awful steps. There were quite a few on the wedding day, especially Rob, who did try but was awful. I guess he should be given the benefit of the doubt because it was his first Indian wedding. If you had seen Bhupesh grind, you could see that he doesn't dance a lot but is super with wedding numbers...so take in some alcohol, get inspired a little and shake it for your friend somehow managing on top of that cranky horse.

2) India has a big eunuch problem and our party was not going to escape this menace. They do their job well and have you by your balls at the very time when you would definitely not get into an argument with them. Their deal is simple: give them good amount of money and they won't do what they can(too shitty to describe here). Not so easy for us...this one came to us and asked for money...my dad offered some which was much much below his expectation...and the nuisance started...somehow we managed to get away but not without our share of embarrassment.

3) Finally, a lot of people offer cash as a gift to the bride and the groom( Unlike some who really find and get time to come up with something really innovative). So we got our share of envelopes and believe me, the number of these envelopes during the period of the ceremonies can be quite substantial. I am wondering while sitting on stage( because after some time, what is happening becomes quite repetitive) what would be an average contribution if you take out the outliers...I am thinking somewhere between 150-200 rupees per household. I am also thinking with th total crowd around us that the number of households would be around 200. So that makes it around 40,000 rupees in gifts. Now this number does not seem very big to me and I am wondering if my mind is already in the recession mode where it has already factored in the suppressed desire of the participants to gift cash and save money in this turbulent time!!!

Swing States, Tendulkar, Manicure, Pedicure, Facial & Aircraft MRO

2008-11-06T09:52:00.000-08:00

Too many things happening in my head when I finally agree to visit the parlor which is a regular hangout for Saumya. I somehow have started believing that she would want at least some semblance of aesthetic symmetry from her partner in the event tonight( I am late posting this entry by 2 days!!) as well as on the wedding night on Sunday.

So I sit down and the guy convinces me to get bleaching done as well...I thought bleaching was a term used for clothes...anyways, I will let him do that to my face. He says that bleaching would take out the blackness from my face and facial would give it a glow....did he know that when he was using the word black in somewhat of a denigrating way, thousands of people some ten thousand miles away were beginning to line up to elect a black president for the most powerful nation of the world. So he is blurbing out things and I am resigning to yeses...because now Obama is in my head...what will happen in all these swing states...i think he will pull it off in Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Pennsylvania...what about the big two: Ohio and Florida...and what about Virginia...can he pick either Indiana or North Carolina...

So all these things are happening...and this guy starts applying a thick coat of some white cream on my face...I see that I can keep my eyes open so I decide to start reading the latest edition of the magazine Tehelka. Cover story is about Sachin Tendulkar and some chap called Suresh Menon has written it. I stumble upon a pic in which Sachin is throwing the ball and the caption says something like Sachin is one of the greatest fielder of all time...WHAT THE FU@#...but such is the nonsense that flies around when people really have to evaluate Sachin, that its better that you suck up your rage and move on..

So this cream thing sits on my face for sometime and then the guy removes it...I guess that was the end of bleaching phase...in the meantime, one guy has started working on my feet...I guess the phrase that can be applied is I AM BEING MANNED!! For some random reason, I am beginning to think about the kind of manning that happens in commercial MROs...8000 man hours of work packed in a week in 3 shifts on one airplane...you can imagine the kind of buzz around that baby....too much work I guess that is making me think about these things...but really, it is becoming a situation where I cannot be manned anymore...three people are working on me and too much male breath is hanging in the air...this thing has to end soon...but it doesn't....the work is hardly worth 30 minutes but even in a fixed price thing when your solution really is not worth much, you work with a time material mindset...so anyways, I am done with this ordeal after some 60 minutes wondering how big a win Obama would rack up...

With Obama Elected, A New Phase In My Life Will Start on 5th November

2008-11-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

The first polls on 4th November will close at 5:00 Pacific Time. That would be 5:30a.m. on 5th November here in India. In next 3 hours, America would have elected a president it so badly needs after 8 bull headed years of the incumbent. America would be sending a clear message to the world that it is ready to engage again. And hopefully, America would again be providing the leadership that is expected from the most powerful and the biggest economy in the world.

I will be using this auspicious occasion to start a life of my own. While America is electing Obama, I would be busy preparing for the first of several fucntions that will finally culminate into the wedding on 9th November. The function on 5th is called Sangeet and I will be on stage doing some moves myself along with Saumya. The practice has been tough and I even walked out once on the choreographer. But all that is past now. I practiced once, the video is in the camera and I am poised to practice some more. Hopefully, that should save better dancers of the night the embarrasement of being introduced by an awful awful dancer!! Needless to say, this night and other functions to follow would have one star and I would be a kind of side show...but I guess that is ok. I have seen the effort on the bride's side as well as the dresses and there is no way I can match that

Slow but definite gang rape of Maharashtra

2008-11-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

It is not enough that pretty much every thing is missing in Maharashtra. If you leave aside the sheer resilience of people going about their daily lives unperturbed with basic support, then there is pretty much nothing. I am going to get settled in Pune soon and believe me, whoever painted a very rosy picture of the place needs a tight kick from you. Very basic infrastructure is missing. There are no roads in very big areas of the city. Airport does not let flights take off or land after 7 and it is hell to find a cab. That does not mean that you will pay top money to rent any apartment.

So you would think that someone would start putting these things together. Pune was the favorite manufacturing destination for a very long time but then Sena did to industry in Pune what Communists did to everything in Bengal....go and ask for money from the industrialists or make life hell for them. No wonder, a lot of manufacturing has migrated to Chennai and Hyderabad. There still is a lot of industry left and especially because hiring people from so many colleges in Pune is easy. But the latest nonsense is classical. This whole hoopla about kicking out North Indians who are taking up jobs from Marathi people could be the final nail in a city which looks like a very very big slum. If it needed one final push, this might be it.

The Piss Dilemma

2008-10-31T00:00:00.001-07:00

The Deccan flight from Jashedpur to Calcutta is about to take off and the person with me finds himself in an interesting situation. His seat has signs of some liquid which looks like water. Problem is that this water does not smell but has a lot of drops on the back part of the seat. Now this being not a full service flight, waiting for the air hostess to come and do something about the wetness is too much hassle. So this person goes ahead, takes out his handkerchief and wipes the wetness away.

Alas! The smell is now all over us. But still we are not sure if it is coming from the liquid that just landed into this guy's pocket or something else. Well, after cleaning the seat, he decides not to sit on it...talk about sacrifice!!! So he is sitting next to me and I am talking aloud about what if it was piss, against all our fears. So the gentleman takes out the hankey just to make sure and YUK...it has to be piss...both of us would have puked...we tuck the hankey in the seat and are fortunate to find two vacant seats...doesn't matter that we were ascending and the seat belt sign is on...this was a true emergency!!!!

I have thought about this incident for last one week and wondered how the whole thing could have been different. One option( which can lead to deflation of your ego) was to bend down and go close enough to find signs of smell which would have proved conclusively that it was piss. Now that seems like a good idea now but at that time, how could you commit yourself to smelling piss volunatrily!!! Other option, as one of my friend Rajeev Singh suggested, was to carry a litmus paper( not sure if it is called pH strip) and see if the liquid shows some alkaline inclinations...well, I have heard that Rajeev has done this to bull's excreta too without reaching any conclusions!!!

So jokes apart, what do you do in these situation. It seems to be the work of an innocent kid with an insufficient diaper. And with so much ambience smell hanging in the Indian air, it does take some effort to really find out if the liquid in front of you is piss or not. I have one learning: I would never use my hanky to clean some liquid in front of me...its something to struggle with this problem but it is too much of a stretch to go out and get that smelly wetness all in your pocket!!!

Kennedy Slain On Dallas Street!!!

2008-09-20T04:03:00.000-07:00

This headline in Dallas Morning News of November 23, 1963 says it all. I am in Dallas for a customer conference and was staying at the Adolphus at the Main Street. Not far from there is the 6th floor of the then Texas School Book Depository Building on Elm Street where, allegedly, Less Oswald killed the president with a rifle shot in his head. This floor has been converted into a museum with videos from Kennedy's speeches and everything surrounding the assassination. The place is sombre as well as elating for the work presented. The most chilling part is to look out of the window down the Elm Street going into the highway and imagine what happened there on that fateful day. I find out in some of the literature in the museum that Kennedy actually had received a lot of threats from Texas for his pro-civil rights position and his numbers had fallen dramatically in this state which was Democratic at that time. Preparing for his reelection in 1964, he was out trying his best to be as close as possible to the people( and hence an open car)...and that was his undoing.

There are a couple of things which are interesting to note about Kennedy's presidency. He clearly evoked very strong responses from the young who enrolled in droves in the newly created Peace Corps.Another achievement was a road map he created for a lot of civil liberties for black people which came to fruition once LBJ came to power. The committment to land on moon was another example of his visionary capabilities. He also enunciated a very positive vision for America along with strongly standing up to the threat of communism. Probably, his biggest moment of glory in terms of foreign policy was the successful resolution of the Cuban missile crisis....not to forget that speech in Berlin which ended with Kennedy proclaiming Ich bin ein Berliner( I am a Berliner).

Having said that, foreign policy was one area where, I contend, Kennedy administration also committed massive blunders. Bay of pigs, escalation of commitment in Vietnam and erection of the Berlin Wall- all happened while Kennedy was at the helm. Interestingly, most successful foreign policy since 2nd World War was probably run under Richard Nixon who is considered the most uninspiring of all the US presidents in last 50 years( Did I forget Jimmy Carter???).

Anyways, it was quite a moment at the place where all this happened and it is still soaking in. To be so close to what was a sort of myth for a very long time with the video of Kennedy hit and the slow slumber into Jacqueline's arms and then her climbing up the rear of the car in her pink dress...everything happened right there...right where my eyes were.

I actually bought news paper prints from the souvenir shop of two editions of Dallas Morning News for November 23( with the headline: Kennedy Slain On Dallas Street) and one for November 26(35th President Finds His Peace On Slope In Arlington Cemetery), 1963 and they are just chilling. Imagine Texas in 1963, walking into a house to find a copy of these newspapers lying on the coffee table!!!

Veggie King, King Pommes, Tomato Ketchup and Coke at Zurich Airport

2008-09-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

...sounds pretty mundane to everyone who is reading this post? Well...not so soon. There is a story in this title too. So I am at Zurich airport and see my first Burger King in Switzerland. I am pretty sure there would be nothing veggie there but I decide to try my luck...so I go through the menu and to my delight, I find something called a Veggie King. I make sure with the guy at the counter and he confirms...so quick questions from him...you want fries? Yes...Tomato Ketchup or Mayonnaise? Tomato Ketchup...Coke? Yes....very good. I am all set for 13 Swiss Franks. By the way, I am kind of surprised by the preciseness of the questioning...are they trying to save money from people who waste Ketchup by taking tonnes of sachettes???? You never know what solution a consulting company might have puked out!!

The big surprise comes when I take a bite into the burger. I was expecting a soy patty like the one you get in US in the name of veggie burger. Not here...this one is a crisp mix veggie( potatoes, peas, kidney beans and carrot) burger and I am reminded of the wonderful veggie burger you can have in India in McDonald's. To the grief of all vegetarians, McDonald does not have anything veggie in their menu outside India. I am beginning to wonder how long it would be before they introduce at least a couple of items from their menu in India around the world. I have come across enough veggies especially in big cities in US and I am sure it is just a matter of time...

Valerio, Varun Matta and Brutal Defeats

2008-09-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

Squash used to be one game I thought I was good at. I actually was captain of our hostel squash team in 3rd year and a member in 4th year and we won Bronze both the years. By the way, Bronze reminds me of a pretty pussy performance from Varun Matta against a pretty pussy player called Shirshanka Das. Our whole strategy against a hostel depended on giving 2 games to their best players and winning the remaining three. That would have taken us to the finals where we would have a decent chance. Didn't happen that way courtesy a very bad game from Matta.

Times moved on from those good days of 1999, 2000. My game went completely downhill and I stopped playing altogether. In last three years, I started getting the opportunity to play again and at three crucial times, my game has let me down.. First I lost to a Berkeley guy at C4C tournament in 2006 at Stanford in 15 minutes before my friends in Bay Area could even arrive for cheering. I promised that I would quit smoking, practise hard and build up my stamina for next year. Same result in 2007 but this time I got many more points. I won the first game, was leading 5-2 in the second and ended up losing in three games to another guy from Berkeley. Definitely my hard work was not enough. I should have used some "Maa-Behen ki gaali" against this guy who was also from IIT Delhi and was now doing his MBA from Berkeley. I decided not to despite encouragement from Jasbeer who was cheering me from outside. So I decided to have my sleep( haar ki neend in words of Ashish Bhatia) and forgot about it.

Then came La Chaux-de-fonds and a guy at my client site about whom people told me that he was pretty good. They did not tell me more and I did not shy away from throwing a challenge at him. Soon the information started trickling in. This guy Valerio was a regular in tournaments near French border of Switzerland and was very very good....but the die was cast and I had to play him. The result was again a crushing defeat...9-0, 9-0 in swift 10 minutes even though he definitely was not playing at competitive level to give me some chance.

I guess time to do something about this recurring problem....these nights after defeats are pretty dreary..

My French Is Old...

2008-09-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

So airports in general are interesting places. You have so many people around you and you are still all alone. Interestingly I feel the same about marriages too!!! So I am at Frankfurt airport walking towards my gate to catch a United flight to San Francisco. Now this airport is crazy for the amount of walking you might have to do to reach from one place to other.

So I start walking and the gate for my flight has not been decided. I just know that it is going to be C something. So I sit down near C1 waiting for the exact allocation of the gate. There is this old female security person who is trying to explain something to this old guy. She waves some directions and he goes along. She looks at me, throws a smile and starts a conversation. I have absolutely nothing to do and I don't want to waste money on any duty free shopping as well. So I grab my chance and shower my attention on her. I guess she is sick of answering to so many people but really not talking to anyone.

First thing she says:" You know, my French is old"!!! I immediately ask her, " You mean, your French is bad". No, No...comes the reply. I used to know French when I was a teenager( and she promptly adds that people don't realize how old she is. You know, I am 50. I feel like shouting, I definitely knew you were not less than 50!!). So she tells me that she learnt French and Spanish in her teens but now can only understand it. So this guy to whom she was telling directions, he was French and she was having difficulty answering his questions in French.

She goes on to tell me how even if someone asks any questions in Japanese, she understands it a lot of times...why? because most of the time, people are asking for toilets which majority of the times are inside the gates and very few in general terminal area. So she has to keep reminding everyone to not go out otherwise they would have to go through security check again. People keep wondering how many languages she knows. I call this the language of experience. If you are a security guard at the airport and people keep stumbling upon you with questions, how many different type of questions they would have? Where are the toilets? What gate is my flight on? How can I reach terminal 2? When would the gate number be announced? So pretty much, you can have a list of 10 questions which would cover pretty much all the cases. Now this person has answered these same 10 questions for last 20 years and no wonder, she can answer anything asked in any language.

How long would it take to train someone to this level if you decide to lay off folks and then hire them again? I guess a lot of people struggle with this question these days...

The problem of too much proximity

2008-09-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

I got some time from my stay in Switzerland to visit Jungraujoch and the highest point in Europe. The trip was fantastic. I started at 7:00 in the morning and after my changes...La Chaux-de-fonds, Biel, Bern, Interlaken OST, Kleinn Scheddig, I reached Jungfraujoch...the final leg of the trip is all in a tunnel dug into a mighty mountain called Eiger. This tunnel is a wonderful example of the no-holds-bar engineering that you see in these parts of the world. You also wonder how much lead time people have in Europe with respect to engineering knowledge. I guess right from the time of Renaissance following the medieval ages, they have been at one thing or the other...Did someone whisper in my ear that Da Vinci had the design of an airplane??? Well, making Da Vinci part of any discussion is making sure that you really cannot discuss any other thing at all.

So 5 hours later, I am at the top of Europe...I walk around...see the glacier and all....and I am done in 10 minutes!!! Is there something wrong?? Did I have the same feeling at some other place as well? Yes...last year...Toronto...Niagra Falls...Prateek drove me down to Niagra...there was the huge Victoria Lake in between and I kept asking Prateek when will the falls come....I had assumed that there would be some buildup in terms of difficulty of terrain and all to get to such a big fall....Not at all...we drive all the way up to the fall...Ahhhhh...it was such a disappointment. To some extent, I feel the same at Jungfrajoch. The difference this time around probably was a wonderful train ride at a pretty steep terrain but it takes you right there...right there and that probably is my problem.

I like this big things at some distance...too much proximity kills my interest. I remember watching the mighty Nanda Devi from Auli more than 10 years back and the sight of that mighty mountain at a distance is still pretty vivid....not so much for either Niagra or Eiger...I went right there, felt them happen in front of me and the myth was washed away!!! Nanda Devi still remains at quite some distance...a 7000 meter plus mountain and when people decide to track it, they have to cross a ferocious Alaknanda on a rope...at times, an unlucky one even gets washed away....

Refusing Money From A Customer "Make My Trip" Way

2008-07-18T01:40:00.000-07:00

So now I am in India and I will try to be more regular at this place than I have been in the past.

One of my first shopping experience was with Make My Trip, India's premier travel portal. I try to book a flight using the website and they stop me from doing it because I have a non-Indian credit card!!! No problem. I try to find a way to go back and change the information I gave. No way. You have to start the booking all over again. I am pretty sure not many people are using this website. It is actually quite a surreal experience. If you have used it, you will know what I mean. None the less, this comes as no surprise. I was told that Internet in India is not used a lot for transactional purposes.

Now I try to use the next channel...a phone number in Gurgaon. The initial prompts are smooth and the system is quickly able to identify that I want to purchase a domestic ticket. Now comes the human interface. Someone called Arti picks up the phone and I tell her that I want a flight from Jaipur to Bombay on Sunday. Her first question is: Are you calling for informational purposes!! hahahahaha....these people are beginning to irritate me but I have some more patience left. I say no, I want to buy a ticket. She says ok...there are some flights on Sunday and I say I want the one with Indian Airlines in the morning. Her reply is awesome...rather than making sure to close the sale, she tells me whether she can put me on hold for as much as 5 minutes!!! Lovely....yeh jo des hai mera....whoever is managing the call center operations of makemytrip should be kicked in the a$%. I still keep the patience. Ms. Arti comes back every 2 minutes and asks 2 questions and then disappears...interestingly, she never took my credit card information. Talk about the desire to not make money...I am wondering if she looks like Indira Gandhi? or probably Prakash Karat!!!

Finally, she comes back to tell me she cannot buy travel insurance for me. I say bye bye and decide to write this post. Do I need to explain the problem with what just happened? I guess no...it seems pretty self evident.

I Think We Can All Use Some Sustenance...

2008-07-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

Congress Struggles To Come Up With Cool Name For Anti-Drug Initiative

If anyone ever wondered how the tax payer dollars are spent, then look at this clip from a congressional committee discussion at Capitol Hill. By the way, the congressman from Connecticut does get tired of bulls$%7ting and seconds the motion put forward by congresswoman from New Mexico to go for lunch....and how does he second it? By saying, "I think we can all use some sustenance"!!!!

Iron Problem in La Chaux-de-Fonds

2008-06-29T20:48:00.001-07:00

La Chaux-de-Fonds is 100 miles from Zeurich and it took us a full 3 hour train ride to reach here. The whole country is prettier than I expected..so I am going to have a section called 12 Swiss days where I would share my blurbs.

I have been awake for 2 hours now and it is 6:00a.m. Spanish fans shouted all night. Finally, a team that promises so much every year came through....if back in US, you want to compare Spain, then you would have to think of Duke in college hoops in past years....very strong in the early rounds and knocked out in the all important Round of 16 or 8. It doesn't happen this time and the singing went on till around an hour back!! After all, this is the first major win in last 44 years for a country which hosts one of the most competitive football leagues around the world and has had its fair share of superstars.

So I get up at 4:00a.m. and I don't feel any effects of the journey but I quickly figure out that there is one problem. There is no iron and there is no one at the reception. I am wondering if I know something that someone did at some point of time
...a guy on Shanghai trip(KC Blake was his name!!)...this was his solution:

Find the least wrinkled clothes out of the bunch you have, turn on the hot shower and let the bathroom have a lot of mist and hang your clothes in that mist for 10 minutes...take them out and quickly wife them off!!!

Voila...it works and I get a day to fix this problem...after all, business school did have something useful to offer!!!

Major Adjustments

2008-06-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

Sports is big in US as it is in almost all the places around the world. Did someone shout religion is bigger...well, sports would give religion or sex a run for their money!!!

Something that I did fairly well in last 3 years in US was to get myself into the
the three big sports of Baseball, Football and Basketball really quickly. It helped me all throughout my stay. People appreciated the fact that I took the extra effort to know an important aspect of American life. Sports also was a great ice breaker in
conversations near the coffee corner at work places of clients or otherwise.

Now that I have moved on, I am wondering what lies ahead..no matter how hard I try, I would have difficulty following all these sports which were such fine viewing on
television. But then again, shouldn't I move on to the sports in India if I will be based there? The answer seems to be an easy and an emphatic YES.

I solemnly swear that I would follow sports like Cricket, Soccer, Field Hockey etc. with the vigor with which I followed Indian sports before I left for American and American sports before I left US...Can someone tell me whats happening in Serie A? And in Spain...how is Barcelona doing? How is Ronaldinho? And who is coaching Chelsea?

...and the good thing is that I will be in Zurich on Sunday for a 2 week assignment...and there should be some craziness about Euro 2008 that Austria and Switzerland have been hosting. Final is in Vienna and I am sure I would be able to find some city square filled with people and a big screen in Le-Chaux-de-Fonds to cheer for Spain( the frustrating under achieving team of last 20 years!!) I think its time to start calling Football, Football and not Soccer!!!

I Wandered Far Away From Home..

2008-06-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

This is my 6th post under the "Final Two Weeks In America" section and I guess this one is going to be the last. I promised 10 but I will have to say sorry and promise some stuff from a new place I will be in 18 hours.

I am wondering if I should be nostalgic about the three years I just finished in US. These were wonderful times( except for the loss of Lakers this year and USC in last three years). Barack will soon be president and USC is expected to go all the way this year around....but should I be feeling nostalgic?

Juneja left for India last week and he asked me the same question...should I feel nostalgic? I said No!! I am asking the same thing from myself and I want to answer with the same emphasis...a strong No...but somehow I think I am gaining some cat character...getting attached to places....wondering what really is my home? So many cities have happened in last 10 years, Jaipur, Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Los Angeles, Portland, Mountain View, Santa Clara....and then in between, all those cities I spent a week to a few hours for consulting work...I really don't know where I now belong to. Is it good? Again, I don't know but I guess it reflects the times we live in. Being too emotional about one place seems to be so yesterday...so grand fatherish...almost something which should disqualify you for every job!!

So as a final observation of a ritual that started last week when I had lunch with Juneja near the jumbo point here at San Francisco, I go to the same place with my apartment mate Mit...the place was closed so we find a place to park the car, see some planes land a mile( I should start thinking kilometers!!) away in a gloom filled cloudy background. I let it sink for a minute...

And I am ready to move on...Did someone shout somewhere that Pune was a great place? Good to know that, I will be there soon!! I see that someone is waiting for me in Delhi too...

Let the good times roll...let the good times roll..

Can I upgrade from Economy to Business class? Sir, Why don't you go and f$%& yourself!!!

2008-06-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Great experience...another proof of why what is taught in the business school is such bullshit. You do all the classes on channel management and tons of other stuff but it never leaves the classroom and hits the road....at least for a lot of
airlines...definitely for Lufthansa!!!

I am going to travel for the first time with Lufthansa in a couple of hours and I am
already reeling with their stupidity. I bought an economy class ticket to Zurich and then found out that I can travel business on a company trip. So I call up Lufthansa and ask them how much money would it take to upgrade. They promptly refuse my offer to take more money and ask me to go and talk to the agent who issued the ticket( though she does tell me that there are 10 business class seats available). The agent is another masterpiece. She takes a day to return my call. When she finally calls back, she first makes me feel guilty( I am wondering if she is trying to remind me that choosing indulgence over sacrifice is so non-Indian!!) for trying to fly business and then tells me 3 hours later( after a lot of effort) that I will have to incur all kind of penalties to help Lufthansa earn more money. I think about it and then say No( Am I trying to spread sacrifice now? Well, talk about effects of bad company!!). I would rather travel economy then go through this torture.

Now I should have stopped but then again, I cannot believe this is happening. Someone somewhere surely would understand that I want to pay more money!! So I go to the counter and ask them for a upgrade. The Lufthansa rep tells me that I cannot pay money and get an upgrade. I will have to cancel my ticket and buy a full price business class( with the assumption that I am buying it 3 hours before the flight).

So I am beginning to wonder what the heck is going on. I am very irritated...the only logical reason I can think of is that there are very few people who pay cash to upgrade from economy to business and hence the system hasn't made a rule for such a case. But then, I also wonder if airlines can afford missing out on such exceptions considering that an international flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt would not earn more than 5000 dollars for Lufthansa(for domestic flights, on such long routes as LA to NY City the number is as low as 200 dollars!!). Well, talk about sacrifice all over the place...Lufthansa wants to sacrifice the money I want to give them and
they want me to sacrifice a more comfortable flight.No wonder, these airlines lose money all the time. In fact, I found out recently that airline industry in US has cumulatively lost money since deregulation in 70s!!

And by the way, what happened to channel management? Shouldn't a company try to push
business through direct channels or at least upgrade and earn more money from people who call up their customer service directly?

The Story of 2 Hs, USC and Lakers....

2008-06-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

In recent times, two Hs have troubled me: H1 and Hillary Clinton.

The day Hillary dropped out, it was such a serene feeling for so many reasons. David had triumphed over Goliath...the unbeatable Clinton juggernaut was dead and for all of us who love to challenge the odds, the hope was still alive. If Obama could beat Clinton, really, what is impossible? Seems like a perfect Adidas ad!!! I am sure Adidas would love to have Obama on with Impossible Is Nothing written below...not sure, how much Mr. President would be interested!!

The other H got nasty and I was amongst the 20% people who did their Masters from a US university but did not get selected in the lottery that was conducted. So what I planned to do in December is happening six months earlier. It was a sudden reality check because I needed to take some decisions fast. Bottom line is that all worked out well. I will be working out of the Pune office of my company starting 21st July.

Some part of me does say that if it had happened the other way, with Hillary getting the nomination and I getting my H1, I would not have been happy. To be forced to watch her day after day would have been worse than all the quick fire preparations I have had to do recently to go back.

Final two: USC and Lakers...I am hoping that USC will win a national championship this time around. We came close in my first year in US( Damn you Vince Young!!! Long Horns can kiss my A$#) and then it just slipped out. This year might bring a different result and I will be watching for it.

And Lakers...well, what could be said for what was a brutal ending for a beautiful season...131-92???? I am sure Kobe and the gang would do the unfinished job next year and I will be cheering from back in India!!!

Pregnancy Does Not Count in Palm Beach County, Only Penetration Counts!!!

2008-06-26T00:21:00.000-07:00

I am promising myself that before I leave, I will write at least 10 more entries....some kind of a final good bye to this country. So this is he first one in a series of 10 you will see in next couple of days before I fly off to Zurich.

Lets talk elections..this season has already had so much fun. For me, it is probably the first and the last one and I am sure I will be watching everything unfold from India. I was, and I am still, a strong Obama supporter. Despite whatever he might do after getting elected, and be assured: world is littered with stories of charismatic uld have crossed over the magic number of 270 electoral votes. It became all the more important because Al Gore could not even carry his home state of Tennessee. So it all came down to Florida....and as Tim Russert famously said at that time...it would be FLORIDA, FLORIDA, FLORIDA. Exit polls showed a comfortable win for Gore and all the channels, including Fox, declared Gore the next president. Then results started coming in from different places and it became plenty obvious that someone did not do a good statistics class. Sampling error was big and it messed up in a big way cascading into a number of as high as 10%. So as more and more results came in, Bush soon got a lead and Bush team led by Karl Rove were able to get Bush declared winner by first getting it out on Fox. Gore was on his way to a concession speech but soon decided against it when it became clear that the margin was much much less than 1% of the vote which would prompt an automatic recount and there were good chances that Gore might win especially if Palm Beach can contribute.

The biggest problems reported were in Palm Beach County. This county was home of a big Jewish elderly population and since Gore's running mate was Joe Lieberman, it was expected to go heavily democratic. It did not go that heavily for Gore and there were unusually high number of votes that were disqualified...and more surprisingly, Buchanan, who was a candidate of the independent party had a surprisingly good showing there. Now why is Buchanan's performance surprising? Because he came down hard on Jews during his campaign, even questioning the Holocaust. So two factors seem to have suppressed a very big win for Democrats: 1) Voters did not know how to punch the card(and important here is that chad had to come out at least from one corner and not just get "impregnated") and 2) too many people ended up voting for Buchanan whose name was next to Gore Lieberman thinking that they were voting for the latter.

It seems obvious that there was nothing Democrats could do about the latter situation but warring parties soon formed to squeeze out votes from the first situation. The whole story ended when Katherine Harris stopped accepting results after 5:00p.m. on Tuesday beyond which legal battles finally ended up in the Supreme Court where a conservative majority bench gave Bush his 1st term by 5-4.

What is the best lesson about that situation seems to be, and it is still true today,that America is so much divided between red and blue that such nonsense would still find partisan support. You would find very few people who would stand back from their loyalties and call the chaos of the situation by its proper name. There seems to be certain acceptance for "EVERYTHING GOES" during election time and it seems to have started from the 2000 elections with the way Bush went after McCain and how the verdict was finally given...when even the supreme court judges, each one of them, voted according to their political affiliations( I must note that independent research groups in a project after the election was long over concluded that Bush would have won in a recount).

When Texas Blows, Kansas Sucks!!!

2008-06-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

If you are thinking of some double meaning in the heading, then please don't stop yourself because Oklahomans want you to think exactly that. I have been working on a client site for two weeks in Oklahoma City and one thing that strikes right away is how much wind the place has. Sometimes I wonder if people with lesser than 100 pound weight aren't in danger of just flying away!!!

So at this client site, there is a lot of manufacturing activity and you get to meet some finer Southerners. And believe me, if something defines a Southerner, it is his straight talk, a fine sense of humor and a genuine warmth towards the other person( and trust me, if you started your life in US in Los Angeles, then when people talk to you in Oklahoma City, it is quite a difference)....and of course, the accent.

So this one guy at the client site tells me that the huge wind that blows all the time is because "Texas Blows & Kansas Sucks" or vice versa depending on the direction....I don't know what better way to communicate a fine rivalry...be it Sooners vs. Longhorns or anything else. These people love to crack jokes and laugh out aloud. So if you like to tell stories on just about everything and you have a hearty laugh, then South is the place for you.

Work Hard, Laugh Often and Keep Your Honor

2008-06-13T23:33:00.000-07:00

As I look back at my 3 years in US and the final two weeks that lie ahead, one fixture has been how much I have learnt from watching television especially cable news. I know that everyone loves to bash 24 hour news channels but I have my favorites. Tom Brokaw, Larry King, Anderson Cooper, Chris Mathews, Joe Scarborough....but the biggest of them all was Tim Russert....and it is so sad to write was and not is!!

When the news was developing in the afternoon about the sudden death of Tim Russert, Washington Bureau Chief of NBC News, the shock slowly transformed into some kind of a disbelief and then memories. Tim came across as someone who had a lot of passion for his job and it was obvious that it rubbed on the people around him. And the guy earned his reputation over the years doing a fine job every Sunday on Meet The Press. I have seen some of his interviews on Daily Show and Colbert Report too and you know that he loved talking, he loved explaining his world view and he loved to remain objective.

I will miss you Tim as the finest journalist I have seen on television and remember this line you wrote in a letter to your son, Luke, at Boston College:
"Work Hard, Laugh Often and Keep Your Honor"

The Red Blue Divide..

2008-05-31T22:11:00.000-07:00

I finally finished reading a book after a long long time. The book is called What's the matter with Kansas by Thomas Frank. American politics has fascinated me for a long time for the fact that in some ways, this country seems to have the most evolved electoral system. I know ,I know some of you are already scoffing at me...telling me to remember Florida in 2000...well, in some ways, what I am going to write based on what I gathered from this book does explain some of the divisiveness of that time as well.

So lets dive into it...if you like politics because of the associated intrigue and what might seem like irrational behavior on the part of voting population, then this book is a fine read. It looks into the evolution of Kansas from a predominantly Democratic state to a state that voted 80% Republican in 2004 presidential elections. The book also looks at one fundamental question: Why do rich folks like in Los Angeles overwhelmingly vote Democratic( despite knowing that Dems would raise taxes for the rich) and why poor folks in loads of red states vote Republican(despite knowing that spending cushion that they specially require is going to disappear under GOP rule). Answer is simple and if you look at, for example, Fox News and folks like Hannity and O'Reilly, you would know what the writer is talking about. First thing to understand is that people vote for people with whom they think they share their values rather than for people who stand for their economic interests. So values seems to override economic interests. Kansas was an experiment state for conservative movement in terms of low taxes for rich combined with social issues like evolution,abortion & sanctity of life( read Stem Cell research), gay rights and gun control( By the way, it is interesting that I read about Kansas because there are good chances that current Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius might be the running mate of Barack in the general election).

So in discourse after discourse, you will see how the discussion is hardly ever on economic issues. Democrats learnt it the hard way when Al Gore went on Larry King before the election in 2000 and promised tougher gun laws..come election time in November, and he lost every state in the south including his home state of Tennessee. Democrats pretty much have reconciled to not talking about gun control too explicitly these days but other big confrontational social issues still remain. Democrats want to keep Roe v. Wade, Republicans want to get rid of it. Democrats are for right to abort, stem cell research and gay union and Republicans are not. In fact, I am sure that recent ruling in California Supreme Court legalizing gay marriage would definitely stir up people on the right and might actually end up hurting otherwise buoyant Democrats' chances in November.

So bottom line, when you are trying to understand where all these folks from right and left are coming from, look at social issues and not economic ones. You will see that a lot of noise would start making sense. The fact that vast parts of America ( specially old economy states like Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia etc.) are all hurting economically but still support less government is really not because they want less government but it is because of value issues...you know how many people in America do not believe in evolution? Take a guess...full 51%!!!!

Your Mama Is So Ugly, She Will Make An Onion Cry!!!

2008-05-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

This ad caught my eye for the fact that it goes back to that age old way of abusing the other person: saying things about one's mother. Growing up, I remember learning tonnes of swear words which started either from "Maa" or "Madar". Less gross but more incendiary stuff involved permanently casting some one's mom into some role....case in point, we started telling a batch mate at IIT that her mom was probably Miss. India...seems pretty innocuous but soon made the guy completely mad...and he still gets mad on this invocation!!! Even a female friend recently used that age old simplistic swear phrase which calls for the unity of your mother and sister!!!

So coming back to the ad, it seems that invoking one's Mama has the same shock value even in US. And really, in a crowded market of energy drinks with competing brands like Red Bull, you have to try everything to get your voice heard. So Pepsi decides to use the perfect combo: Two sportsmen, a high energy sport like Ice Hockey( by the way, Amp is also painted all over the car of Dale Earnhardt Jr. in NASCAR, the other big heartland sport in US)and a lot of back and forth using Mama....seems like a very effective combination!!!

My Problem With Hillary...

2008-05-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

In recent times, I have found myself at loggerheads with people who support Hillary Clinton. I also think that, in some ways, it is wrong that she evokes such strong negative opinions in me. I like to stay balanced in my perspective about things in general but in this case, this doesn't seem to hold true. I am still trying to figure out why this is the case but in the meantime, I would try and present the reasons I have been able to find out till now. I am a Obama supporter and some of it might sound like the campaign talking points..so bear with me:

1) Hillary, for a long time and even today, portrays a picture of entitlement, an almost baffled look at people's inability to understand her rightful right to the post of presidency. This entitlement seems to come from the fact that she is Bill Clinton's wife and more importantly, went through all the trauma during Clinton's impeachment all the time standing through the humiliation thrown at the family. I strongly resent anything that people claim as their own based on anything else except hard work.

2) She comes across as too calculative...almost maniacal in everything she does. What further compounds the problem is that she has a lot of difficulty hiding this calculative nature....one day she is nice, next day she is shouting and third day, she is sobbing!!! I am one of those people who thinks that she should have divorced Bill after the affair broke out, and by the way this was not the first time Bubba did this...think about Jennifer Flowers and Paula Jone et.al., and by not divorcing him, she set a bad example for everyone around. I think the calculation must have been that she stood to gain more by the sympathy of a woman mistreated by her husband and still standing up to everything that came their way.

3) Third reason is her husband and the general tenor of her campaign. In terms of pure numbers, it seems obvious that she has lost purely for strategic mistakes rather than because Barack has been flawless. When she decided, for whatever reason and no wonder: sense of entitlement and over confidence must have played into it, to not compete in 11 contests in February, you know that not many people she surrounded herself with had the guts to tell the lady the truth....and we will look back and evaluate the role of everyone around her at that time....people like Patti Solis Doyle, Mark Penn etc. Again it plays into the common narrative you hear about big people and the sycophancy they feed upon. So it is not whether why she is sticking around even after there is no chance of winning. Its about not having the grace to accept reality. Anything and everything goes to get elected...change rules to count Michigan and Florida, tell the world that caucuses do not matter and then states that have voted for Barack will not help Democrats win the general election. Last time I checked, even I will win California, New York and Massachusetts if I was the Democratic nominee.
I had been a huge fan of Bill Clinton for a very very long time...especially for his extraordinary speaking style as well as the fine work he has done around the world post presidency. What was completely baffling was the role he took up in Hillary's campaign... Some people really can't forget those good old days of peddling in power and care little for the legacy they are leaving behind. Bill Clinton has spoken previously about his appreciation for Karl Rove tactics in 2000 and 2004 elections and it seems that he decided that the best way to fight was by bloodying everyone around. Sadly, it didn't work this time and Clintons are not ready to accept what the reality is. Last time I checked out, the only other place around the world where you can find a parallel for this is Zimbabwe and Clintons have some fine company in the defiant Robert Mugabe!!!

4) And then the Bosnia incident...and how smoothly she lied about landing up in sniper fire....and then rather than acknowledging her lie, deciding to tell the world that " She Misspoke"!!. You know what Hillary, people in my country, India, bear this crap all their life with politicians like Mayavati, Laloo Prasad, Mulayam Singh and all...but that country has more than 40% illiterate people and they have so little money that they drive their bicycle 30 miles to a get one meal promised in a campaign rally. America is slightly different and you really cannot hope that people will ignore this kind of nonsense easily.

So as you can see, except for the fourth reason, the first three reasons I mention have to do with my perceptions based on what I have largely observed on television and electronic media. I have a lot of friends who point out this flaw in my argument and I do agree that I might be wrong. But then, isn't a good leader, and we all know how desperately America needs one right now!!!, about inspiring people, showing a sense of character and making people believe that they are capable of doing better than what they deem is possible? And really, does anyone really think Hillary can do that?

New car market in India

2008-05-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

The Indian car market is booming with much higher pace than other developing countries. The reason for exciting leaps and bounds of Indian car market is due to availability of online car market, now any body can check the car prices in India. Let me first mention my favorite car Honda City - Take a look at Honda City Pictures.
The second reason of flourishing Indian car market is attributed to the availability of car loans, affordable rates of interest, smooth repayment facilities and the deductions offered to the customers by the retailers and also higher living standard of middle class.
The major Indian cars player like Tata, Maruti, Honda, Hyundai, Ford, Mahindra are trying to trap these middle class. These major car player applied constant changes in the existing car models with regard to design, innovation, technology, and colours, have led to a fiercely competitive market.
Maruti suzuki occupies a substantial share of 70% in the the small car market in India . Maruti udyog with its Maruti alto and legendary maruti 800 is the leader in the small car market. Other recent launch in this segment is Fiat Palio Stile by Fiat India Pvt. Ltd.
Mid-sized cars are normally cars with in the price range of Rs. 3-7 lakh. The mid-sized car segment is very demanding and popular has recently moved beyond the 1 lakh car target. The most popular launches in the mid-size car market in India are: Maruti swift and Maruti Swift dzire, Tata indigo, hyundai i10,hyundai santro, Honda city.
In Nashik, a car manufacture plant has been established as a result of a joint venture of Renault and Mahindra & Mahindra to manufacture a car,like Mahindra logan that mainly targeting the Indian middle class.

The most popular and latest car based on sales in India are :

	Honda city car price	Honda city car photo
	Tata Indica car price	Tata Indica car photo
	Maruti swift car price	Maruti swift car photo
	Maruti DZire car price	Maruti swift car photo
	Hyundai i10 car price	Hyundai i10 car photo
	Hyundai santro car price	Hyundai santro car photo
	Tata indigo car price	Tata indigo car photo
	Maruti alto car price	Maruti alto car photo
	Tata safari car price	Tata safari car photo
	Tata sumo Grande car price	Tata Sumo Grande car Photo
	Mahindra logan car price	Mahindra logan car photo

Given this stiff competition between car manufacturers, online car sites have also blossomed in India. One of my favorites is CarDekho for getting all new car prices in India. In addition it offers new car photo, reviews, new car dealers in India. Stellar feature is car comparison, here you can compare four car simultaneously on the other hand most of other car site offer you to compare only two car simultaneously.
Second feature which i liked was car finder because i could zero in to the new car of my choice in my budget and style. I was looking for sedan in the car price range of Rs 5-10 lakh having good mileage in this segment. Sort your results based on car by price, mileage, model name (A-Z) and colour, its depends on your preference. I had brand preference as well, basically new Honda car is my favorite for reasons of excellent mileage, low engine sound and low maintenance cost. The options i got were Honda City . I would probably consider Honda City ZX Exi.

One new entrant comparable to Honda City ZX Exi is Chevrolet Optra Magnum in the same segment and priced similarly. Though i like the honda city much more than the optra.

New cars in India scene is very exciting in India and with so many competitors in market. All these major player drive the Indian middle class and youth by betting on AAA i.e availability,accessibility and affordability. So choose your car wisely!.

Whose Side Are You Mother F***ers Anyway?

2008-04-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

Communist Parties in India do it again. They have banned protests by Tibetans in West Bengal. Now that must have taken some convincing to one's own consience for protest happy communists of India. Just today, there were as many as 19 calls for bandhs( sort of a shut down of activities) which were supported by government affiliates in Bengal.The country has lost so much money since independence because of almost ritualistic calls of bandhs that really, these people have no moral ground to tell anyone to not protest.

I have seen with exasperation the continuation of the nonsense that communists have become in India. While the bankruptcy of the ideology was proved by the fall of the Soviets in 1991, these pests still fester in India. Even when you look at the communist system in China, it is hardly what the Bolsheviks envisioned. China has a very open economic system and for obvious reasons, a closed political system. That doesn't seem to worry the communists in India. On agenda for them is to make sure that Indians continue to remain poor people so that they find it hard to understand the crap these people dish out.

Besides the Tibet issue, think about the Indo US civilian nuclear deal which is dying because of, no wonder again, the communists. The reason? Ask Prakash Karats & Yechuris and they will throw such mind boggling logic at you that you would first look at them in wonderment and then feel like hitting them hard in their balls. Same with any other reform this current government has tried( labor being a shining example). It really doesn't matter if the factory is shut down and the capital is stuck there and all the workers remain unemployed. What matters is that the owner should not be able to restructure his workforce to at least provide employment for some!!!

My frank opinion, all the top brass of the communist party, alive and dead, should be treated for treason and then sent to countries they seem to get inspired from: China, Venezuela, Russia et al. These people would know how patient the Indians have been with them when the whips would come out of the closets of the Zintaos, Chavezs and Putins of the world.

In An Absolut World, What Happens In One Country Doesn't Stay There..

2008-04-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

Check out this latest controversy that has happened because of vodka ad made exclusively for Mexican audience. The marketing department of Absolut Vodka prepared an ad which shows the pre 1848 North America with states like California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico shown in Mexican border. The attempt was pretty benign...a simple what if scenario...In an Absolut World( this is the punchline the company uses to communicate a dream world which you would find yourself in once you have had Absolut Vodka), Mexicans could again have the states they lost to US in 1848 war.

Now the problem came to the fore because these days, what happens in any part of the world doesn't stay there. What also inflamed the whole situation is the resentment which a lot of Americans feel with 12 million illegal immigrants from Mexico that live in parts of southwest as well as New York & New Jersey. Now it is accepted that Hispanic population has filled an important gap in the workforce especially in jobs that Americans do not want to do. Good examples of such industries are agriculture, meat packing, construction etc.

Prominent commentators like Samuel Huntington have talked about the way demography of certain states has been altered forever. It is now estimated that Hispanics form the majority of the population in at least 4 states. Besides demography, since Hispanics are almost all Catholics, it is also affecting the predominantly Protestant fabric of America. Hispanics today have become the dominant minority leaving Blacks behind. So many people already believe that this has in some way reverted the gains of the 1848 war back to Mexico, albeit, in a more nuanced way. This ad brought that feeling to the top.

It is to be seen what impact this would have on the sales of Absolut Vodka in the US but there are enough people on the right to make a substantial difference.

For The Clintons, You Are Either With Us Or Against Us

2008-04-02T09:56:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of you would say that this is something that Dubya said in the aftermath of 9/11 and it is unfair to say the same for the Clintons. None the less, if you watch the drama that this couple has pulled over benign and easily disguised Americans, its not difficult to see why nothing would change if Hillary is elected. I hate to sound someone who is completely consumed by Hillary bashing but seriously, these two people have tormented me in these fine times when I found a life partner.

As I have noted in a lot of other entries in this blog, I was a huge fan of Bill Clinton before he picked up a hatchet and started going around knocking people out. You either have to be with the Clintons or you are either naive, too romantic, too unrealistic or plan Judas like. How could you deny Hillary the right she has earned with all the experience while she was first lady dodging bullets in Bosnia and doing tons of other difficult things? How dare you decide to be against us? No wonder, when Bill Richardson decided to ditch the wife of his old boss, all hell broke lose!!

So when you think what would be happen if Hillary gets elected, you just have to see the rampage in the last 8 years. You just need to have one vote more than 50%, have a channel like Fox and throw sleaze at your opponents....create a distorted reality and keep telling..You are with us or against us.

Who Won The RCA?

2008-04-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

For those who are unaware of what RCA is, I don't really think this entry would make a lot of sense. In brief, those people who figure out that they would never go anywhere studying what was taught at IIT, RCA was the respite. The ultimate competition that completely consumed all the time you had.
I had the pleasure of this consumption for 4 years, first as a foot soldier and finally as the head of the student body from inside the deciding committee( or as they call it: The Prize Committee). Those were good heady days when all that mattered was winning the next event and cheering your heart out in sem hall or convo or SAC or wherever the event was. Cheering in itself helped accommodate those people, like me, who otherwise did not have a single talent to compete in some event.

Anyways, for a lot of us from 1997 to 2001, RCA was everything. We won it in all those years except in 2000 when a couple of professors with some students robbed it from us. We lost it in 2002 to a competing hostel called Vindy(full name is even more stinky!!) and then won it comfortably for the next 3 years. We have not been winning it for last two years, so when I found out that this year we won again, I was ecstatic. I was looking forward to going back to Kumaon and congratulating folks in person.
After I graduated in 2001, I had promised that I would not think about RCA again. This was pretty much the case for last 7 years except that during the time of February, an itch would start to at least know who won....just know...nothing more...no questions about which clubs we won and lost, no points, no judge related questions...nothing.

So I land up in Delhi and head straight to the hostel. To my indignance, I find out that we did win the RCA but shared it with Vindy. Now nothing could be more insulting. First reason for that is that there should be a difference between tigers and dogs. A tiger, which Kumaon always is, chooses what to eat and a dog, which I thought Vindy was and is, feeds on whatever people throw at him. Sharing RCA is like sharing a prize between two barking dogs and Kumaon is no dog. I was even more surprised to find out people from Kumaon who were so happy to have shared it. Now I don't know if I am being unreasonable or what, but sharing was always like losing( Check this pic of our victory in 2001 when it came closest to sharing with Vindy and Shivalik). Babars,Das, Pasus & Junejas of the world would concur.

So I am suggesting a simple thing. Kick out the RCA from our common room and give it to Vindy rather than holding on to it in 1st semester. At least, that would make people feel bad to win it alone next year. Tigers don't share their meals and Kumaon sure is a Tiger.

The Subtle Art Of Lying

2008-03-25T00:08:00.000-07:00

My inspiration,Hillary, is at it again...weaving and spinning her way out of creating and destroying things at the same time. Latest incident comes out of her benign reminder about how courageous she has been into foreign lands representing America's interests. So the supposed incident involves Hillary travelling to Tuzla,Bosnia as first lady to take part in some ceremony in 1996. She claims that there was threat of sniper fire and when she landed in C17 helicopter, all took evasive action and ran for cover. That truly is a hallmark of a courageous person and truly deserves accolades. It also shows the first hand experience of diplomacy in tight situations that she brings to the table.

Now this is the interesting part:
1) Her claims cannot be true for one simple reason. Chelsea was accompanying her on that trip and she wasn't even an adult at that time. Do you think any mother would expose her daughter to such danger for a photo-op?

2) And then today, the news broke out that everything Hillary said was a complete lie. There was no threat of sniper fire and she never had to take cover. So what does Hillary do? She comes out and says that she MISSPOKE!!! Imagine narrating a complete story about a war zone...your defining moment in foreign policy..and then saying you misspoke. But thats where the mark of a true leader comes in. If you are going to be leader of the free world, you should be able to lie with a straight face with the world looking at you and condemn the other person for not being able to lie with your own dexterity.

I love you Hillary. I truly love you. You prove that bad leaders do not exist only in India & Pakistan and other politically corrupt nations. They are right here in the oldest democracy,albeit, in a sophisticated garb.

China's Influence Seen From The Eyes Of Esteban Colberto

2008-03-22T03:17:00.000-07:00

Interesting things are happening in China these days. While the rioting goes on and there are lot of reports of excessive violence against the Tibetan rioters, the world seems to be silent. Does that surprise anyone? Well, if you look at the world the way it has changed in last 20 years, it would probably make a lot of sense. To be able to talk about China these days really requires a lot of guts. China has followed a very aggressive foreign policy in recent years and a lot could be attributed to the power vacuum that exists today because of the mess in which America finds itself in Iraq. This open ended commitment to the occupation has means that any opposition from America to what China does really does not have any teeth. No wonder, China has been able to carve some very strongly oasis of influence around the world: Asia Pacific region, Latin America and regimes like the one in Iran, Sudan, Nigeria and Venezuela.

Chinese have gone around the world looking for natural resources to fuel their economy. That means a lot of investment in Latin America either in countries that see China as a counter balance to American influence or a country like Brazil, which is the largest producer of iron ore around the world. Esteban Colberto( Spanish alter ego of Stephen Colbert) points this fact in his own humorous way...check out the embedded video.

Making Sense Of Prostitution

2008-03-17T22:13:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting topic and I would restrict myself to discussing the marketing aspects of the situation rather than the lurid details of the escort service which the governor of New York used.

The Emperors Club VIP is a high end prostitution ring which it now seems that Eliot Spitzer had been using for as many as 10 years. The now defunct site rated its girls on a scale of 1 to 7 diamonds. Hourly rate for a girl with 7 or less diamond rating could be around $1000/hour and those for above 7 could be as much as $5000/hour. Now the interesting situation arising out of this tiered pricing is that the same girl could be Kirsten charging $1000/night and Tiffany charging $5000/night.

Now lets look at the marketing aspects of this situation and try to generalize it beyond the business of prostitution.This ability to sell the same product at different prices based on consumer's willingness to pay is a marketer's dream. In case of prostitution, the job is made comparatively easy because of lack of information through which you can compare product/service offered as well as the inherent esoteric nature of product/service. Compare this to trying to sell cars. Toyota for long has grappled with the problem that consumers think that Lexus is a beefed up Toyota and if they really have money to spend, they would buy a Merck or a BMW rather than Lexus. Obviously having Lexus as a different brand for luxury, more expensive cars helps and in some ways tries to do the kind of rating that happens in The Emperors Club but the problem is too obvious. There are tons of people who cover cars on specific aspects, come out with ratings and do a killer job on comparing one model with the other. The girls in the prostitution ring do not have to go through this gruelling free market scrutiny.

Now price has been historically used to communicate better quality. It seems obvious what better quality would mean in escort services. How about cars? Quality has traditionally meant power. European brands have been historically considered high on the power vector. Japanese companies have tried to push the envelope on the reliability scale but I have always believed that you cannot compensate for awesome power with awesome reliability. As Kate Walsh would say in the now famous Cadillac ad:" The real question is: When you turn the car on, does it return the favor?"
I want to draw a comparison with the escort situation but for the sake of sanity, I will leave it at that.

What could be other ways of doing an efficient tiered pricing? Place your product in more exclusive channels. In case of this service, the channel was Internet and not the run of the mill shady pimps on dark streets.In case of cars, you really cannot afford to push a Lexus and a Toyota from the same dealership and not end up doing damage to your ability to charge extra money for Lexus.
Cosmetic companies traditionally do a great job in creating different brands based on pricing and channel management....think about Garnier and L'Oreal. But frankly, it would be a marketer's dream to be able to generate the kind of information asymmetry which exists in case of escort services....not sure if this marketer would like to claim this fact on his resume but I am damn sure, he will be a hell of a proud man to be able to accomplish it.

Democrats Fall In Love And Republicans Fall In Line!!!

2008-03-07T02:40:00.000-08:00

Republican Party proved again why it is called The Grand Old Party(GOP). Nomination of John McCain for the Republican ticket for this fall's presidential election proves a long standing trend...and what is the trend? Broadly speaking, Republicans fall in line for their grand old statesman. All Republican presidents except the current one in recent decades have one thing in common.Nixon, Reagan, George Bush Sr. and now John McCain(if he is elected in November) all lost their nomination bid the first time and then came good the next time around. Nixon lost to Kennedy, Reagan to Gerald Ford,George Bush Sr. to Reagan, and John McCain to the current president. And then when they ran the next time, the party was ready to reward them for their patience and perseverance.

On the Democratic side, I guess I don't need to explain why rather than falling in line, they fall in love. As opposed to McCain who still has a lot of selling to do to people on the right, Democratic Party loves its two candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.And interestingly, none of the Democratic president in last 50 years lost a nomination first and then came back to win the second time. Its almost as if once you lose, the party moves on to find its next standard bearer...one with whom they can fall in love again!!!

The Obsession With Processes!!!

2008-03-07T02:15:00.001-08:00

I visited Intel's plant in Shanghai in 2006 as part of the business school curriculum. While there were a lot of interesting things that I observed, one thing clearly stood out( and I am happy that I took a picture of it).

So I excuse myself to take a leak and come across this thing staring at me. Gone are the days when you expected all the neat graffiti from the previous contributor to the urinal. It is all about imparting learning and making your employees better...even helping them out with some leaking etiquette grounded in high school physics on trajectories!!

Intel is known for a very pervasive process control around the world and I am pretty sure that this picture exists in a lot of its plants around the world.One thing that I am wondering is that do people really get an opportunity to wet their feet? I though even in developing countries, every one came to work in some footwear!!!

Accomodating Fighting On The Playing Field

2008-03-07T01:21:00.000-08:00

Hockey or Ice Hockey( as it is known in the wider world)has a huge following in US. Despite the recent problems it has experienced in falling television ratings because of a labor dispute a couple of years back, stadium attendances are as strong as they have ever been. From my personal experience, I can tell you that getting a ticket for a Ducks game is as( or probably more) difficult as one for the Lakers game.

There is one unique aspect of this sport which I find fascinating. Fighting between players, to some extent, is legal in hockey. What you need to do if some player from the opposing team pissed you off is throw away your stick and start punching him in the face. This would incur a five minute penalty in which you have to sit out...seems like a pretty mild punishment for rowdy behavior? Well, a lot of people don't think so. One of my colleague is the head referee for Ohio State and according to him, such fights minimize the damage!! Think what would happen if you really want to take out your anger and start beating up someone with your hockey stick. That would be sure shot disaster with permanent injuries. Instead of that, the rules accommodate human behavior( which is you get angry on the field) by providing you a way to vent your anger without causing massive damage. Frankly, I never understood why these fights are allowed but I somehow tend to agree with the philosophy that went into this rule. And really, it works and that is all that should matter.

When I think about field hockey in India, I also remember fights that would break out between teams when the hockey stick would be used conveniently as the weapon of choice. That doesn't happen in hockey in America and that should be some empirical evidence in support of this rule.

Please don't tell me that you are thinking that this guy who made the rules to begin with was some conservative who was seeking to be grounded in reality....or probably HE WAS.

An Indian's Dilemma: To Wipe Or To Wash?

2008-03-07T01:09:00.000-08:00

I am not sure if I really need to discuss this topic here but I guess I will take my chance...be personal and share a dilemma which a lot of us Indians and people from other eastern cultures face when they land in US. I washed all my life using my left hand!!! And then I landed in US where you really do not have the luxury unless you go out of your way trying to arrange for it in your toilet. So, like so many other things, I was wiping in less than one month. I am always intrigued by the origination of this difference. It seems that lesser industrialized nation tend to wash and more industrialized tend to wipe....what is the reason? I really don't know.

Lets quickly observe some things before this post descends into the domain of the gross:

I believe that if you are not planning to bathe for a prolonged period of time, it might be a better idea to wash for obvious reasons. Other reason could be you will save trees by not wiping. Then you will save yourself from scratch marks on your underwear in case of a bad wiping job(as Carry Bradshaw discovered to her horror in Sex & The City). Finally, a more scientific one which I found on the web:

"Incidence of colorectal cancer varies widely from country to country. Countries which are more industrialized(and hence wipe) like United States, Canada, UK, Western Europe, Australia have a much higher incidence of colorectal cancer compared to less industrialized parts of the world like Asia, Africa, and South America."

I am right now fully into wiping but I guess I am not sure if it is the right thing to do!!!

Legalizing Drugs,William Buckley And Making Pragmatism Sexy Again

2008-03-06T23:20:00.000-08:00

The father figure of conservatism in America, William Buckley recently died at the age of 82. Interestingly, I got to know about him only at the news of his death. Since then, I found myself watching his videos on youtube and reading articles.

There are a couple of finer points about Buckley that I want to observe before we move on to the purpose of this post. He was a great debater with a very wry sense of humor and wrote enormous number of books and articles published in National Review and otherwise. For him a conservative seeks to be grounded in reality, in things that work rather than how things ought to be. This meant minimal government and a level headed,albeit strong, foreign policy. He opposed the recent surge in Iraq when the conservative movement across America cheered for it.

The irony of the conservative movement is reflected by the departure from the original thought that the movement experiences in present day America. Today, conservatism stands for a bullish foreign policy and more government with respect to enforcement(reflected in the support that acts like Patriot Act have got). Probably, 9/11 changed a lot of America in a profound way but by the very definition of conservatism, it should be possible to find solutions grounded in reality with minimal engagement from the government.

Lets explore an interesting issue...drug legalization. I am pasting a youtube video which is part 1 of a series of 3 videos you can find on the site. In this 1996 interview with Richard Heffner, Buckley contends that drugs should be legalized. This position today is considered to be the position of liberal Hollywood type of self destructive hippies!!! Buckley contended for legalization based on the economics of enforcement and if the estimated 125 billion dollars spent on enforcement at that time could be better spent somewhere else. He goes on to contend that despite a declared war on drugs, it was time to pull away like American did in pulling away from Vietnam and pulling away from prohibition. Now keep in mind, a conservative seeks to be grounded in reality. And the reality is that enforcements has created a black market and smugglers who can profit out a drug which cost much less in a pharmacy store. Since drugs are prohibited, they create a gap between supply and demand. The reality is also that it is not really difficult to get marijuana or cocaine if you have the money to pay for it.He also contends, with numbers, that as many as 95% of the people who did try drugs ended up not becoming addicts and there seems to be no reason to believe that legalization would push this percentage or number of addicts. If that be the case, why not legalize, spend some money on rehabilitation program for addicts and spend the remaining lot on constructive programs.

American prison population is an example of excessive enforcement. It takes more money to house a prisoner in jail then to fund 4 years of college education for an average American!!! And there are examples where you could argue for prohibition, if you support prohibition on drugs, on adultery and alcohol as well. The only reason it is not done is the excessive cost of needless enforcement. As Buckley said about adultery:" What would you do? Go and open up every motel room to see what is going on behind closed doors?".

Found Hell On Earth

2008-03-03T08:25:00.000-08:00

I read this story of Kashmir Singh today who was freed from a Pakistani jail after spending 35 years without a single visitor. Following the 1973 war between India and Pakistan, he was given a death sentence and had spent the last 35 years on the death row. He was a former Indian policeman and had become a trader of electronic goods and then was arrested in Rawalpindi for spying.

There are some good and bad aspects to this story. I recently noted in a post that resolution to big conflicts first need a decent dose of goodwill gestures. These gestures could be prisoner exchanges, movement of people across the border etc. The one example I quoted in the earlier post was the failure of Camp David summit to come up with a solution because people on the ground were not ready. A lot of people blame Yassir Arafat for that missed opportunity and many have noted that Palestine after its best efforts would never be able to get the amount of land that was offered in those negotiations personally supervised by Bill Clinton. I contend that there is more to the failure of those talks than just the instrangience of Arafat. The ground reality was that there was so much mistrust between Israelis and Palestinians that it was impossible to come up with a solution and sell it to people on the ground who would be affected by it. Not only Arafat but even Ehud Barak would have faced significant problems taking out settlements from some of the territories.

So coming back to this situation of Kashmir Singh. India and Pakistan have done a good job trying to lay the groundwork for an eventual settlement of the Kashmir issue. There have been prisoner exchanges, people can move across the border in Kashmir and meet their relatives on the other side, cricket is no more a battleground and contingents of parliamentarians and other sort of folks frequent often across the border. This presidential pardon for Kashmir Singh is another good news for the two countries. The bad news is that this took 35 years!!! Probably, it makes for a good case of Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied!!! Remember the Tolstoy story or the movie Shawshank Redemption?

Sometime Soldiers Are Better Than A Bushel Of Wheat

2008-03-01T18:42:00.000-08:00

President Bush was recently in Africa. He received a rousing welcome everywhere he went. To his credit, the amount of money this administration has committed to fighting diseases in Africa has been the highest. To many of us who feel strongly against a lot of policies of this administration, Bush does deserve credit for the amount of aid America has committed to Africa in last one year. My point builds on this engagement from America in the African continent.

Africa in recent years has seen genocides, civil wars besides the perennial problem of Malaria, Aids and other diseases. My contention is that American engagement needs to be much more pervasive. Clinton tried it in his years in office but lost support within US after the Black hawk incident in Somalia. Rwanda followed and America was woefully missing....one country that could have clearly made the difference. Something similar is happening in Sudan right now and Kenya is on the brink of descending into the familiar anarchy that is so prevalent in Africa. Interestingly, the bar is so low with respect to judging how a country is doing, we don't even talk about countries like Zimbabwe, Nigeria where corrupt governments have run amok. Some recent examples exist where America committed soldiers and had the desired effect--Kosovo, first Gulf war and Afghanistan being good examples.

American army's current engagements across the world has meant that even if the will of the American people is there to commit troops to troubled regions in Africa, there is hardly any soldier available to do so. Now here is a clear opportunity to develop goodwill for America where a lot of it already exists as the current trip from Bush has shown. How much better it would be if American could suffice its capital commitment with soldiers on the ground. The killing that is happening around the African continent would definitely decrease if militants there know that America is serious about bringing peace. Now I would contend that feeding a child in some refugee camp in Darfur is great but wouldn't it be greater to make sure that the kid never lands up in that refugee camp?

Shawshank Redemption?

2008-02-29T03:19:00.000-08:00

Latest numbers for prison population in US have come out and they are absolutely staggering. 1 in 100 adults in US is in jail. Demographically, 1 in 36 Hispanic and 1 in 15 Black adult is in prison. These numbers are higher than those in China and Russia, two countries where you can attribute the phenomenon to the still evolving political system...but to think that the biggest prisoner population would be in the most evolved democracy in the world surely needs some thought.

My take over this situation is definitely not definitive. Democracy is an interesting beast. Point in consideration: What does it take for everyone in the society to pursue freedom? The answer from this statistic seems to be that the goal of freedom for everyone also means denying it forcefully to those people who want to take away the freedom of others...

Or is it something else?

The Way To Bring About Change Is By All Manner Of Exchange

2008-02-26T14:48:00.000-08:00

New York Philharmonic performed in Pyongyang yesterday and this event is interesting from quite a few perspectives. First of all, this is the first exchange that has happened between US and North Korea for a long time. Since the time Madeline Albright gifted Kim Jong Il a basketball during the Clinton administration, nothing but acrimony has happened between the two countries. North Korea in recent years decided to pursue nuclear weapons and US came down, and rightly so, hard on it. 6 party talks followed and now North Korea has somewhat agreed to abandon its nuclear program.

So what does it all mean? These kind of exchanges have a very interesting effect on the overall tone of conversation. I remember when India and Pakistan decided to start cross border movement in Kashmir and Punjab regions. There were a lot of sceptics but then there was a story about how a Pakistani kid's life was saved because she could get a heart surgery in Bangalore. The problem with diplomacy is that it too often involves decision making at the top without creating the settings which would make the agreements acceptable on the ground. Think about what happened at Camp David. All the people at the table: Ehud Barak, Bill Clinton and Yasir Arafat were truly in a position to solve a problem that the world has faced for a long long time...the problem on Jerusalem...who gets what part of this interesting piece of land that is important for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. The problem with the summit was that Yasir Arafat never felt that he would be able to go back with a solution and sell it to his own people. Generations of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians had left too much mistrust amongst people on the ground. Oslo agreement in 1992 was the first right step but 6 years of relative peace was not enough. A whole generation had been brought up baying for the blood of the other side. Same is the case with India and Pakistan and you can very well say the same with US viz-a viz North Korea, Iran and Cuba. What India and Pakistan have done rightly is to let the healing happen. I don't think the healing has happened to the level where India and Pakistan are ready to sit down at a table and discuss Kashmir but it is happening. Probably 5 years down the line would be a good time to revisit things.

So this exchange between US and North Korea is definitely a right step. Same could be done between US and Iran. In fact, within US, there is a huge Persian population and that could be used as a bridge for starting some of the exchange activities...ditto with Cuba and the huge Cuban American contingent in Florida. Any agreement at the top has to be preceded by building up trust amongst people who would experience the effect of the agreement and this trip by New York Philharmonic is a good example of how to bring change using all manner of exchange.

Networking On An Airplane!!!

2008-02-26T01:20:00.000-08:00

Life keeps throwing up interesting surprises and this one is the latest. I met this guy on a flight from Dallas 5 months back. He was CFO of a company called SkyGolf, maker of GPS equipment used by professionals on golf courses around the world. In its space, the products produced by this company are the best in class. We start talking and he told me how he built this company from scratch in Mississippi with a couple of his friends. Revenues exceeded 250 million dollars and market valuation was more than a billion dollars. More importantly, they were able to keep all the equity between the partners in a very capital intensive business. Company was an obviously attractive target for firms like Garmin and things could not have been better.

So this person, Mahalingam Shrinivas, gave me his business card and we promised to keep in touch. Interestingly, his business card did not have his email address or the phone number. None the less, I thought he would be a great speaker for the entrepreneurship club at the business school. From that day on, we bumped into each other again once of the airport and another time at a restaurant in LA.

Well, I was flipping through my business cards yesterday and I came across Shrinivas' card and I thought I will try to find his email address on the web. I have been promising myself that I will send an email to him but somehow it never happened. So I start searching for him and then comes the shocker. On January 19th, Shrinivas was arrested by law enforcement agencies for embezzling more than 2 million dollars using his position as CFO of SkyGolf. He is now spending time in Madison County jail waiting for the verdict!!! Maximum sentence could be as much as 15 years.Check out the link: http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080119/NEWS/801190341

I am wondering what is the probability of meeting a crook like this on a flight!!! And no wonder, I don't need his email address anymore. So much for networking in business classes on an airplane..

My Birthright!!!

2008-02-14T02:24:00.001-08:00

This primary season is becoming fascinating day by day. One thing that fascinates me is the complete bafflement which Clintons seem to express at Hillary's inability to connect with the voting public. Its almost as if they are being denied their birth right. First it would be the husband, then the wife and when both are ready to go probably the daughter would carry on the great Clinton name.
Coming from India and the disgust that Gandhi family still evokes in me, this whole drama doesn't look very alien to me. Cross over into Pakistan and you see the Bhutto drama. The woman had a will which said that her husband should take over the party in case anything happened to her. What wonderful way to express your trust in democracy for which you supposedly sacrificed your life!!! Thank you for taking out whatever sympathy I felt for your loss of life.

Coming back to the Clintons, I think they are either supremely naive or just hopelessly arrogant. The comeback kid of yesterday, Bill Clinton, is saying things of such colossal nonsense that sometimes you end up wondering what you just heard was something that came out of Bill's mouth. I have heard Clinton numerous times on TV and had the opportunity to hear him in person once. I had immense respect for his ability to articulate really difficult concepts and rally people behind a good cause. All that is gone with the wind. What you see now are a pair of old whining arrogant couple who would stoop to any level to get Hillary in White House. She started crying yesterday because people won't understand how much personal it is for her to become president!!! I have only one thing to say. I am happy that I am in America and I don't have to go through the same old ugly stinking disgust that would have unfolded in India and Pakistan. This is America Baby...This is America...Crying and Whining and Shouting won't stick here!!!

Glengarry Glenross, Jerry Maguire, Executive Search & Controlled Aggression

2008-02-13T23:20:00.000-08:00

There are two great movies which every guy interested in sales must see: Glengarry Glenross and Jerry Maguire. GG is about a failing real estate office where 4 real estate sales people work, Al Pacino( Ricky Roma in the movie) being the best. Jerry Maguire is about a sports agent played by Tom Cruise who manages a football receiver called Rod Tidell.Both movies have acquired a cult status. Not many have seen GG though it came out in 1992 because it will never be on network television...reason? There are too many profanities to clear up..the word fuck is used 138 times!!! The question to ponder is: Who should a sales guy emulate: Jerry Maguire or Ricky Roma?

My contention in this post is that a sales guy should be a Jerry Maguire and never Ricky Roma. Ricky Roma is smooth when it comes down to talking to his customers and closing the sales...but it seems that too often,at least in one instance shown in the movie, he dupes his customers. Jerry Maguire on the other hand has his fortunes tied to one guy he is managing. Executive Search is an interesting business. Like any sales situation, you have a target and you are trying to achieve it. What is different about it, lets say from selling credit cards or a pound of milk, is that the commodity you are trying to sell(which is a job) would be consumed by the customer only 4 or 5 times in his life. The sale should accomodate this important fact. That brings in certain gravitas to the situation. You cannot just return the job you just picked up like you would a pound of bad milk you bought at Ralphs. It could be said that trying to sell real estate( as Ricky Roma does in GG) or managing a football player also requires certain extra consideration. The important thing to remember here is to look at customer life time value rather than just an instantaneous sale. A good experience with a head hunter would definitely result in two sure shot down stream revenue sources 1) Every time the guy needs to change a job, he would get back to you 2) He would refer to you every one he knows who is looking out. These two conditions would hold if you close the sale or not for the current positions you have.

Now I do not mean that you could keep waiting for future sales without closing a single candidate for the current position. The challenge is in accepting the gravitas of the situation with a sense of controlled aggression in trying to close the current positions. The trick lies in widening the net and trying to find the right candidate...and believe me, there are far more than just one or two for what you have. So the receipe for success would be a strong research effort, a good pitch( in good faith considering the long term downstream revenues from individual relationships)and playing the role of a match maker. Treat it as a partnership with the candidate, take care of him like Jerry Maguire does for Rod Tidell and you will see the fruits of your labor. It makes good business sense and it would make you happy too.

Now Glengarry Glenross has inspired a lot of people to develop sales organizations with the two mottos 1) Coffees for Closures only 2) First prize is Cadillac, second prize is a set of steak knives and third prize is " You're Fired". I know someone who worked in settings like these. I am sure it is absolutely wrong. The pressure to deliver immediate results at any costs will ultimately lead to what happens in the movie. The need is to, if the situation permits, work with your customer like Jerry Maguire does.

So two quick recommendations before I finish up this post.If you are looking to become a sales guy: 1) Check out these two movies 2) Be a Jerry Maguire even though you are tempted to become a Ricky Roma.

Day Of The Underdog

2008-02-04T06:23:00.001-08:00

Now that everyone has seen it all, written billions of pages about it, I would contribute my bit on a truly wonderful win....wonderful not because it proclaimed a dynasty, not because it is historic but for all but these reasons. When you see odds turn, when you see someone break out from a whole defensive line and complete a 32 yard pass, then you know it is the day of the underdog. I guess our basic nature tends to cheer for someone who is down, who has no chance...what fun is there in cheering for someone who is obviously strong, better in everything? The reason probably lies in the fact that this world has a small number of people who have achieved a lot and tons of people who want to achieve...Barack Obama would put in a simple phrase: Audacity Of Hope!!

So first, a quick blurb about the game. Plaxico Burress had claimed that Giants would beat Patriots 20-17 and the world was laughing at his foolishness. Tom Brady, in an uncharacterstic fashion, responded saying that if Burress had said 45-42, that would have at least done some justice to the way Patriots have been racking up the score board...hmm...interesting. Did you feel some invincibility factor catching up with an otherwise disciplined Patriots team? I guess, sometimes, success gets the best of even the best amongst us. Giants defence was expected to come good and they definitely exceeded the expectations hitting Brady 18 times and sacking him 5 times. On the offensive side, Giants were led by Eli Mannning. I am not a huge fan of the younger Manning but something has happened to him in last 4 games. Turnovers are not happening, he is not trying to prove anything and things seem to be finally settling down with him. Now it is not easy if you have an illustrious brother like Peyton Manning and you are part of the Manning family where their father was also a quarter back for New Orleans. You sometimes wonder if Eli would ever be able to come out of the shadows. He sure did yesterday. With less than two mintes left and Giants looking at a long 3rd down, Eli was faced with the monstrous Patriots defensive line all over him. He scrambled, tried to keep himself on the feet, kept pusing himself out of the mob and then threw a 32 yard scorcher( How much I would have liked if it was Brett Favre and not Eli Manning!!!)to David Tyree. On the receiving end, Rodney Harrison of Patriots was all over Tyree but somehow Tyree managed to jump a few inches more and grabbed an improbable catch. From there on, it was easy but till then, we were all ready to shut up, coronate the Patriots and get ready for the Boston swagger for a long time.

So I guess the lesson is simple and proved in one of the best settings of all. When you are down and out and no one is giving you a chance, and deep within, you don't know if you are capable of doing it...pull up your strings, promise yourself that you will give it your best shot and go out and do your job. You will see the tide turn and conventional wisdom thrown out of the window. It sure happens otherwise Ali would never have beaten Sonny Liston, India would not have won the 83 world cup and Hillary would have already become the President!!!

I am inhaling Obama for Super Tuesday...How about you?

Why Zacob Zuma Is Bad News for South Africa

2008-01-11T03:25:00.000-08:00

Jacob Zuma or JZ recently became the president of African National Congress and in on his way to succeed Thabo Mbeki when he steps down later this year. Why is this bad news? Well, for starters, the guy still has pending corruption charges in courts. He recently got out of rape charges with a very interesting line of reasoning. Lets look at everything one by one:

1) JZ has more than 20 children from 6 women and recently took over his fourth wife. One of the former wife is current foreign minister of South Africa

2) JZ was charged of rape and he had to say the following during his trial: He said it was his duty to have sex with the accuser because she was wearing a kanga, which is a short African wrap, and if he had not done that, she would have remained unfulfilled!!! He went on to say: : "In the Zulu culture, you cannot just leave a woman if she is ready". Zuma was finally found not guilty.

3) The other interesting aspect of this case is that the woman was HIV positive. At that time, Zuma was president of National Aids Council but did see enough reason to wear a condom while having sex. He thought that a shower would be enough. Now you are talking about a country where 1 in 7 adults have AIDS...so much for leadership at the top!!!

4) Finally, this guy is still facing fraud charges in defence contracts and tons of other things.

What is disturbing is that this country is not Congo or Liberia or Sierra Leone...this is South Africa, one country that has done a really good job in transitioning to democracy after the end of Apartheid. Post Apartheid, thanks to the leadership of Dr. Mandela, the country did not open up the balance sheet to retribute against white population. Mbeki has again done a reasonable job of taking the country forward. I am not sure that Jacob Zuma's credentials provide a lot of hope. It would be a disaster if South Africa goes the way a lot of African countries have went. This is the biggest and the best governed country in Africa. African continent needs a robust working democracy in South Africa to prove that democracy, peace and justice can work.

Greg Gutfeld's Hilarious Explanation Of The Choice Between Obama and Hillary

2008-01-08T00:14:00.000-08:00

I don't watch Red Eye on Fox that often but today I stumbled upon this hilarious Greg-a-Logue about the choice between Hillary and Obama. Read On:

"While watching the debates, I figured out why Obama is so popular and Hillary isn't.Obama looks pretty and we love him and Hillary looks constipated and you hate her. In a nutshell, Obama is a stripper and Hillary is your wife. Think about it. When you go to a strip club, you see the performer's best and only the attributes...you see her curves, and her implants. You don't see her meth habit, her biker ex-boyfriend, the box of severed ears that she keeps in her closet. But with your wife, you see the good and the bad...the very bad and this is why men sometimes prefer strippers to their wives. But once you leave your wife and date a stripper, you quickly find out that she is far worse than your wife. Your wife doesn't eat her own hair for example.If the elections were held now, Obama would win which is essentially like marrying a stripper after spending a weekend with her in Vegas doing lines off her butt. But unlike that entirely made up scenario which definitely didn't happen to me in 1992 when I was living in my car, a quickie election can't be annulled. Tie the knot with Obama, as shapely as she is, you're stuck with him for at least four years and that's why I recommend ditching both and voting for me."

Self Portrait From A Distance: Mitesh Does A Bheja Fry On Me!!!

2008-01-07T23:39:00.000-08:00

I have always cracked jokes on people. I did not know that someday it would come back to me. So when it did, it was a nice reality check and I thought that it deserves sharing for its literary value!!!For what seemed to be a very benevolent dinner to me, to my horror, someone turned it into an embarrsaing story. Read this piece from Mitesh(pictured here!!), one of the attendant at that July dinner in Bangalore:

"I would like to narrate a story that I believe will tickle quite a few bones and probably crackle a few too . The story is about our man KG.

As most of you probably know, KG recently completed his Amrikan MBA and has landed a job with a French consulting group in LA ala " Hollywood". While he is all excited to get back into the corporate world grind, the fact that gives him utmost satisfaction is the proximity of his house to that of Baywatch babe Pam Anderson's. In his own words "mere ghar ki hawa mein Pamela Anderson ki khushbu aati hai" . I guess, the wind does a good job in carrying the aroma 50 miles East. However, if the wind does an equally good job in carrying aromas 50 miles West, then I can assure you that Pam Anderson's days in her current house are numbered. Lord save her!

The reason I know so much about KG's recent life, and esp, about Pam's 'khushbhu' is because the man decided to grace us Bengaluruians (I am not sure if that is the correct word, but what the hell) with his presence very recently. He is probably getting packed to leave Bengaluru as I pen this story (if not, I am in trouble). So, KG was in town, for not a day or two, but the whole damn week. Yes, imagine the toll it took on us!

Anyway, coming straight to the point, while our 'normal' and 'unexciting' lives were disrupted by KG's arrival, at the same time, we decided to make the most of his visit. After all, it is not very often that you get entertainers of his quality in your town. The thought that his stay included a 'Friday' and a 'Friday evening' and a 'Friday evening dinner' sparked some imaginations. For those of you who haven't had the fortune to watch Bheja Fry yet, I apologize for the fact that you will miss the connection from here on....but I would highly recommend to watch the movie, lest you become a 'Friday dinner talent' for someone.

So our stage was set on this last Friday, at Chandu's place. Chandu made a very casual courtesy dinner invite to KG which he promptly accepted ...muahahaha!

The ball was set rolling from there on....enough guests were invited to the dinner party with an assurance for top class entertainment. I co-ordinated my commute to Chandu's place along with KG to ensure that the "talent" did not disappear or lose his way. Bang on time, at 9pm, we reached the venue. A 10 minute ahead warning to Chandu ensured that the remaining guests followed us immediately. As the party got rolling and introductions were made, KG was made to move to the centre-most seat on the pretext of facilitating interactions between newly met guests. While, it took a couple of initiations to get KG started, there was no looking back once he got into the middle of his stories. One after another, he kept telling us his deepest secrets and those of his 'friends'....how a Comp. Sc. junior had become a hustler in Seattle, how another Comp Sc. junior had lost 30kgs in last 12 months, how Juneja cheered for his lost squash battles at Stan, how he physically assaulted MB in his last visit to New Jersey, how his married friends had turned their backs on him, how Ashish Bhatia reacted on finding Bhokal to be the interviewer in his Goldman Sachs interview, and ofcourse everything about his new neighbour, Pam..... the stories never stopped, and our "talent" only kept falling deeper in the trap. The entertainment was much more than we could have asked for....it was amazing how KG connected to such a diverse audience of guys and gals and babies. Yes, Chandu and his wife, Ruchi were amazed to see their 15-month old lovely daugther, Tanya, laughing as KG kept going and on and on and on. At a point, KG got so engrossed in his stories that Chandu tried dropping hints to save some embarassment. I was told that I had been silent most evening and was asked to say something (in a bid to stop exploiting the "talent" further)...but KG was on such a high that stopping him was impossible! We even started talking about Bheja Fry and exchanged DVDs of the movie hoping that our man would get the hint and immediately get organized to save his (remaining) face amongst the five other strangers....but I guess, we were in for a lot more entertainment that night.

Finally, at midnight we decided to call it a day and headed home. That entire night I kept feeling bad for KG and wondered if we should have done that to him. However, the ill-feelings existed for only a day till I saw KG making two young lads from Kumaon his 'talent' at Bhokal's house. The radiance on his face as he excruciated the two second-yearites immediately evaporated any reminiscent guilt feelings that I had from the Friday dinner. I immediately decided to pen this story and make the 'talent' public....while I must say I was a sheep not daring to write about this while KG was still in town, I will certainly miss watching the look on his face as the reality finally descends on him . For now, I am off to the prayer room for the timely departure of his Air Deccan flight to the Pink City, so that by the time he reads this message, he is all snuggled up ...far away from the town once called 'Bangalore'!

Finding A New Kissinger: Fareed Zakaria for Secretary Of State in Obama Administration

2008-01-07T18:04:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard about Fareed Zakaria till now, let me introduce you to an absolute genius. This guy was born in Bombay to a former Indian parliamentarian Rafiq Zakaria. He came to US in 1982, did his studies at Yale and then a PHD from Harvard under Samuel Huntington( long time Harvard scholar and author of two wonderful books: Clash of Civilization and Who Are We)

Fareed hosts a show called Foreign Exchange these days. Prior to that, he was editor of Newsweek and wrote a great book called Future of Freedom. He has been part of numerous policy think tanks and is considered a centrist on foreign policy issues. On 12th September 2001, he wrote an article in Newsweek called " Why They Hate Us?" where he carefully laid out America's engagement in the Middle East and how things came to such an impasse that a radical Sunni movement managed to attack America at its heart. This article made him an instant rock star in foreign policy circles.

What makes him special is this: In an Obama administration, Fareed could be a great guy to do things which some of the recent administrations have completely failed in. Lets put this in perspective because Fareed becoming Secretary of State would be quite something. Imagine someone who is a non-American and a Muslim becoming American Secretary of State? This basic fact about Fareed and his great qualifications can make him a great ambassador where America has had the most trouble. He has also been a long time proponent of Kissinger style pragmatic diplomacy in which there are no permanent friends and enemies....someone who is more of a believer in Teddy Roosevelt style Real Politik as compared to Wilsonian ideals.

America needs a new engagement in Middle East, in Iran, in Africa and in the wider world. Fareed can have a great symbolic and substantive presence putting our broken foreign policy in place.

Obama's Imperatives:Laying Out A New Deal

2008-01-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

Now that everyone is jumping on Obama bandwagon, I have something to say about one weakness that he has: his supposed lack of experience and his clear vision for what he will do at least with respect to foreign policy. It sounds too close to everyone else on the Democratic side despite the myriad different positions one can craft considering the complex modern world. Here is my prescription to the situation. The premise of this prescription lies in two goals: 1) Any foreign policy layout should work at restoring & enhancing America's leadership in the free world 2) It should be pragmatic to reflect the day to day needs of American people. So here it goes:

1) America should open up a new front, not necessarily only militarily, on the African subcontinent. If there is any country on the planet today that can deliver order and well being to this left behind child, then it is America. Recent violence in Kenya is a great example and despite how much I like Obama, I cannot ignore the fact that he hasn't made a single statement about the tribal violence that has happened there. We all know about Sudan and Darfur. Somalia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Congo---institutions in all these countries would immensely benefit from America's involvement. And numbers show that people in these countries are not anti America as a lot of people around the world are. If America can communicate in unequivocal terms that it would support in every way possible(including militarily), efforts by African Union on stopping genocide, reconciliation and fair elections, then it would really do a world of good both for America and Africa. Africa can give back America the legitimacy it has lost in recent years and America can deliver order to this really difficult place. Barack being of Kenyan origin can specially use it to his advantage.

2) America should engage with Iran with a long term objective of making this Shia state its ally. It still baffles me why America did not engage Iran after the help they gave in the Afghan war. Till the time current president Ahmadinejhad is in place, it might not be an overt effort but once he is out in the next elections, it might be the time to pull off the kind of opening that Kissinger managed in China. This effort has multiple reasons: 1) Prolonged stability in Iraq requires complete support for Iran. 2) Iran on US's side takes out Hezbollah from the Israel-Palestinian equation 3) Iran has not produced any terrorist in what has been a primarily Sunni movement 4) It can really push countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia to do more domestically with respect to moving towards democracy. 5) Iran has a lot of oil.
Again, fresh president in Barack would be in a much better position to take up this initiative than the incumbent one. Too much water has flown under the bridge between the current regimes in both Washington and Tehran but Barack would be in a great position to move us away from this colossal policy failure.

3) Finally, America should launch a project for finding an alternative to oil on the lines of Manhattan Project or sending an American on the moon. The project should have a time mandate, complete freedom of capital and human resources and more importantly, unequivocal support of the President. With the world moving east with India and China catching up with America, the fact still remains that no country has the kind of resources that America can mobilize for such a project. And if America can really deliver a breakthrough in this space, that means a completely new industry with new jobs, revenues from all over the world and no more slush money to rogue regimes...and most importantly, proof that America still cares about this planet!!!

To Chris Mathews' Surprise, Jon Stewart Doesn't play (Hard)Ball

2007-10-04T01:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Chris Mathews was on Daily Show to promote his book: "Life Is A Campaign" and boy, he must have been fuming after the interview. Chris has been on Daily Show before and is very appreciative of the positions Jon Stewart has taken in recent years. That really does not mean that Jon will return the favor. Jon has shown his disdain for knee jerk debate shows in the past and Chris Mathews happens to host one on MSNBC. I am not sure Jon did it out of purpose but somehow Chris Mathews and his book got trashed.

I have read reviews about this book and I have heard it has some interesting stories about American politicians. Chris, these reviews said, makes the point that you have to treat everything in life like a campaign of a politician and you can learn from how politicians survive.

Jon started the interview by saying “The book claims that people can use what politicians do in political campaigns to help their lives. ... That strikes me as fundamentally wrong.” Chris Mathews was still settling down and didn't know what was unravelling. And frankly, I was disconcerted. I haven't seen Jon trash people on his show like this and he has had some people whom he just does not like.
Exasperated,seeing everything go completely wrong in 2 minutes, Chris Mathews shouted:" You're trashing my book" and in the most nonchalant way, Jon replied " I'm not trashing your book, I'm trashing your philosophy of life". Ouch!! That must have hurt.

Chris must have come to Daily Show reasonably certain that he will get a bump from the loyal audience that laps up every book that Jon covers on his show. But this was some anti-climax. I am not sure about the background of this whole situation, what transpired between Jon and Chris that it happened this way but you could see that the situation became very awkward. By the end, even Jon knew that he was not fair to the person. So in today's show, he tried to make some amends but I doubt if it will help Chris' book. It is dead at least for the Daily Show audience( which happens to be a 1.8 million strong very well read crowd)

Get Ready For The Same Old Blues!!!

2007-09-30T02:31:00.000-07:00

Today,Brett Favre will break Dan Marino's record for the highest number of touchdowns. In a world that changes on a minute by minute basis and in a world that is spinning, in the words of Stephen Colbert, this feat is enough to give me a vertigo!!

There are not many things which Brett has not done. He has won the Super Bowl for Green Bay, won the MVP thrice and he has started every game for Green Bay since 1992!! Now that is some feat...something completely extra terrestrial...something that just cannot be comprehended. This game is so physical and the pounding quarterbacks get, I don't even want to start thinking how he has done it. I think I need to stop writing otherwise my head will explode...but do watch Brett break the record today against Vikings. He will be playing the same old blues and soak it in....soak it all in. No one does it better than Brett Favre.

Learning Business from Kate Walsh!!

2007-09-30T02:04:00.000-07:00

Kate Walsh recently did an advertisement for Cadillac CTS in which she says something which goes like this:
"In today's luxury game, the question is not whether your car has available features like 40 GB hard drive..pop up nav screens or any other little things...the real question is: When you turn the car on, does it return the favor?"

When you turn the car on, does it return the favor!!!

I must have seen this ad tons of times in recent days and I don't think anything captures business reality of modern day world better than this. The fact of the matter is that things which you thought were super hi-tech yesterday are becoming a commodity today. Think about Intel and how the core memory business they were in got commoditized in the flash of an eye. What about Apple's products? Electronics is flush with examples of commoditization. Manufacturing for normal conventional goods is already a commodity activity. Don't Google and Cisco shell out commodities? Aren't airplanes commodities? And aren't cars commodities?

It is a matter of time, or I think it has already happened to some extent, that a basic level of human brain could also be thought to be a commodity. If your kid dropped out after high school and he learnt math as per what his teacher taught and nothing beyond, your kid might be a commodity produced by the school mass production system( at least for someone who is looking to hire for math skills)

So in this age of pervasive commoditization, where is the hope?

Let us go back to the car example. Mercedes Benz has gone through some massive onslaught in last two years for its poor quality. JD Power hammered it consistently. None the less, that star in front of the car still has its shine amongst all of us who grew up thinking of owning a Benz one day. The brand had such strong image and such strong desirability that the shine of the star has withstood the quality problems. Sales haven't plummeted the way they would have for a lesser known brand. So one way to escape the vicious magnet of commoditization in car industry is to develop a brand. There could be other ways as well.

So when Kate Walsh says:"The real question is: When you turn the car on, does it return the favor?", she is so right. All the luxury that you get in a car is commodity....it doesn't really turn you on. A Honda can have everything that is there in a Benz but it will never be a Benz....and for sure, you will never feel that IT RETURNED THE FAVOR!!!

Respecting the Dead

2007-09-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

I recently got an opportunity to visit some monuments in Washington DC. We started from Washington Monument, then walked over to Vietnam memorial. From there on, we went to the Lincoln memorial, the Korean Veteran War memorial. We finally finished at the Jefferson Memorial. There is something fascinating about visiting historic sites....something very sobering.

I read a book sometime back called "Faith Based Diplomacy". In this book, the author Douglas Johnston contended that faith, rather than avoiding it, should be used in conflict resolution. He stresses that all religions have quite a few common tenets and those could be used as starting point for negotiations between warring parties. One of these tenets is respect for the dead. For the reason of respect or fear for the wandering souls near burial sites or memorials, memorials can become oasis of peace in conflict ridden areas. In the Middle East, author suggests some sites including Deir Yassin, the corridor of the forced march from Ramallah in 1948 where a number of Palestinian villagers were massacred by Jewish irregulars and the site of Yeshiva where numerous Jewish students were slaughtered in 1929. My personal experience at burial sites or war memorials/monuments has been unequivocal reverence irrespective of the views I share about the events surrounding the memorial. It is no wonder that despite all the protests that happen in heated DC politics and these anti-war days, these memorials continue to remind us of the souls departed.

So I ended up soaking a lot of American history last week.DC area is flush with such sites. In fact, one of my colleague in Arlington office, Julie Holm, played the role of a wonderful host and took us around explaining the history behind every memorial. In fact, she does something very interesting. Leveraging on the immense history DC area has, she records weekly audio travelcasts with her husband Mark. You can go to their site http://washingtontravelcast.com to check out some of these. If you are planning to travel to any place of historical eminence in DC, there are good chances that you will find a travelcast on this site. Download it, put it on your iPod, plug in your earphones and learn some great stuff while walking.

Dying at 55!!

2007-09-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

The recent incident involving Kevin Everett of Buffalo Bills has brought out the issue of injuries in Football again to the fore.Kevin sustained a fracture and dislocation of his cervical spine last weekend and is still fighting for his life. I decided to research about this issue a little bit on the Internet and came across this shocking statistic that average life expectancy of a someone who has played for more than 3 years in NFL is 55 years. This against the life expectancy of 80 years for an average American. So 3 years in NFL shaves your life expectancy by 25 years!!! You can argue that when these people start playing NFL, they have been playing the game already for more than 15 years. None the less, this statistic is brutal.

Despite the fact that I love this game, I cannot stop thinking whether it is right to expose people to such risks for mass entertainment....for entertainment of you and me and millions of other people who watch this game. Are we any different from people who get fun out of seeing dogs fight? The most blatant form of such sports today are Ultimate Fighting, Boxing and Bull Riding. Administrators at the football league need to think about what could be done to save Football from such bad company. A couple of things could be done on an immediate basis...better lifetime medical support( you won't believe how much players earn after they stop playing...simply speaking, its minuscule for the majority of them...not to forget those who never make it to NFL but do sustain big injuries at College and High school level),better protection gear especially for head & spine and less crowded season. Some kind of tackles could be barred and in lieu, one more player could be added to the defence roster.

And then there are the 300 pounder offensive linemans...these people exist in the team because they are big and these people die because they are big. There sheer size is a danger to their well being in the long run. Can something be done about these positions?

Living America

2007-09-14T12:35:00.000-07:00

Last week, I invited some friends over for USC's opening football game. People came from as far as Toronto and Seattle. Except my boss and his date, everyone was Indian. So my boss decided to test the football knowledge of an Indian!!

First question: What is the Blind Side in Football? Bingo...I can write a full history about the blind side. I recently read a book by Michael Lewis( who has previously written Liar's Poker, New New Thing and Moneyball) that is called Blind Side. I have actually covered this book as well as the main character Michael Oher in the Sports section of this blog in an earlier entry.
Blind Side is essentially the left side of the quarterback( if he throws from the right hand)...essentially the side he cannot see while throwing the football. The person protecting this side of the quarterback is the left tackle. In this picture, the OT on the right side of of the QB is the left tackle.

Till 1985, this position was considered a normal position like any other in the offensive line but Lawrence Taylor( or just LT) broke the leg of Super Bowl winning quarterback Joe Theisman of Washington Redskins...reason? The left tackle for Redskins did not protect Joe Theisman against the ferocious LT who was playing at Offensive Linebacker in the legendary defence of the Big Tuna Bills Parcells. That incident became seminal in terms of bringing out the importance of this position of left tackle. Within a few years after that, left tackle position became the most expensive position on the field after quarterback. What you required was a huge man( at least 300 pounds) who had a lot of girth, long hands and could face a barrage of NFL size monsters and save the quarterback.

Well, I felt really happy to be able to answer this " What is the Blind Side?" so comprehensivel( It doesn't matter that I could not answer the next question!!). Answering any question is fun but this one was special since I have been in America for just over 2 years. And one thing that I have realized while travelling all over the country is that nothing starts a conversation better than football. Nothing is better to bring down the wall. I love football( Go Trojans!!) and I know it really helps.Even in this place, airport at Bloomington Illinois, from where I am writing this entry, if you are a Chicago Bears fan, you have a lot of friends. If you hate Bears, than better not talk about it!!

By the way, this trip to Bloomington is awesome from the perspective of how different it is from Los Angeles. Women do not mind having some fat on their body and people have time to stop and have a hearty conversation with you. Instead of buildings all over the place, you finally see some nice agricultural land. If you have lived in LA or New York or other big cities in US, places like these might seem very vanilla but this is what really makes America....majority of it. And these places decide who would rule in Washington, not the elite of the big cities.

English Of Course!!!

2007-08-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

Now that Sugandh has a job, I take my opportunity to post this entry again:

Sugandh Mittal is in the ragging period and he is asked ..do you debate? and he says..yes..and he is asked..in hindi or in english...he says "English, of course!!"..the story doesn't end here..

As things would turn out to be ...he was fined by Arjun Prasad Singh, our legendary maintenance secretary, for parking his cycle at an angle...APS (aka Mau) drew a perpendicular and proved that cycle was not parked properly..so sugandh( aka choosli) was fined...

Pasupathi( our house secretary) decides to help him...he takes him to the warden...and Sugandh starts explaining his side of the story...the first sentence he speaks is this.."Sir, during the intercourse period, we were told.."and warden is completely taken aback...he thought the ragging period was going on without any incidents...and here is this fresher( Sugandh) talking about intercourse!!! he has already started looking at Pasu..

so Mr. English Of Course( aka choosli aka sugandh mittal) wanted to say "Interaction Period" and ended up saying "Intercourse Period.."

So you can imgaine the power of the emphasis provided by a phrase called "Of Course.." and how carefully you need to think before you decide to use it...be ready to take the mantle which comes with it.

Jazz On A Tuesday Night In Detroit

2007-08-18T01:41:00.000-07:00

I was in Detroit a couple of weeks back. The highlight of that visit was a trip to the area around 8 mile road. Those of you who are not familiar with this seemingly innocuous name, this is the road around which the action happens in Eminem's movie "8 mile". Detroit has a long music history made famous by Motown Records, Marvin Gayes, Eminems and Kid Rocks of the world.

Wikipedia has the following description for the 8 mile road:
"Eight Mile Road is a road which forms the boundary between predominantly African American Detroit, Michigan and the city's mostly white northern suburbs. The term "8 Mile" therefore represents a barrier that is difficult to cross."
And really, when you go there, you can feel it. I can vouch for it because I have stayed in parts of LA which are exactly like this. Places which have a lot of history, culture but that have gone through changes because of changing demography & economic situation of people living in that area.

Detroit has consistently lost population in the last decade. Once it used to be the 4th largest city in US but now it is ranked at 11th. Manufacturing jobs in auto industry have slowly disappeared and you can see the effects. From just one look when your plan is landing, you can see that this place is definitely not rich.

So the first time we go in the 8 mile area, we are not sure if we want to spend too much time there. But as is true with any thing forbidden, we end up at the place a week later. Still, we are not sure about parking on the street...so we go out of our way to make sure that we park the car at a proper parking...so Detroitish!!!

It is Tuesday night and we end up in a Jazz bar called Baker's Keyboard Lounge. The Alma Smith trio are playing and I can't tell you how good or bad they are. But one thing is for sure...they sound phenomenal at that time. Probably because we are tired after a hard days work. Or probably the food( Baked Potatoes, Broccoli, Cheese & Sour Cream) is so bad that Music is the only thing that can keep me alive!! I am seated at an interesting angle from the stage because I can only see the back of the singer. I am sure she is female and her voice is incredible. I am beginning to assume that she will be young as well...turns out, she is not. But really, if I had seen an old woman like her not knowing that she can sing as well, nothing could have been more ordinary. But music I guess has that effect. It really brings out a completely different aspect of beauty. She sings some good numbers...the way Jazz should be....slow, smooth...something that will make you sleep. We hear the music for another one hour and then head back.

By the way, food in Detroit is very good specially if you like Mediterranean food. We actually end up going twice to this restaurant called LaSheesh on 12 mile road. I have never had a Garlic Chutney so plain, so simple and still so tasteful with Pita bread before..

Found Jordan. Still Searching for Ms. Andersons, Ms. Kidmans!!

2007-08-18T01:05:00.000-07:00

So finally, I hit some pay dirt in this expensive part of LA. You won't believe the kind of money I am paying for the place I am living in. But all that was forgotten when I saw Christa Miller( Jordan Sullivan of the popular show Scrubs...seen here in the picture) last weekend. Whoever said that the fabulous old sport of bird watching was dead, you have to see me look for starlets in this area. Alas, she looked fabulous from a distance but not that great from up close.

But really, that's not the point. The point is reward for the investment that LA has been till now. This monumental incident,a omen if you will, if it can become the first in a string of further high profile sightings, will finally vindicate my reasons to stay put in this city. And regarding whether these stars are beautiful or not, who cares? Like anything else in life, beauty after a certain stage becomes metaphysical rather than a quantity quantified. It becomes a philosophy rather than a characteristic. It becomes fluid rather than solid. So enjoy it in whatever form it is dished out at you and move on to the next search!!

And by the way, I also found out, thanks to Christa Miller, that stars do not buy toppings over their Frozen Yogurt...quite an important observation!! So if you are planning to get some frozen yogurt next time at Pinkberry, don't be a normal human being...be a star and don't buy toppings.

Getting Robbed for calling Customer Care: Doing Business the SPRINT way

2007-07-26T00:41:00.000-07:00

I just had a wonderful experience with SPRINT. I am finally getting close to the robbery that has happened to me in the last two years for the cell phone contract I have. In US, cell phone services are already very expensive and on top of that, I had to pay extra money to get a cell phone because I was an international student( and didn't have a SSN at that time). So my plan was...54 dollars/month for 300 minutes and no SMS messages( and I would pay if someone sent a message to me!!!). They also took a 125 dollar deposit for a year for not having a Social Security Number....and by the way, the phone is the worst piece of junk you can get anywhere in the world.

Well, the day I had been waiting for was finally arriving. I was ready to say Bye Bye to Sprint as soon as my 2 year contract got over. So I called up today, 4 days before the final date and told the first person who picked up in Customer Care that I wanted to cancel my contract and want some information about it. He said, let me transfer you to someone. So I said OK and then I wait for 15 minutes before someone comes online. And then this woman first talks to me in a weird way and then tells me that the contract would expire on 29th August and not 29th July. I am getting pissed for the way she is shouting at me. She kept insisting that 29th August was the final date of the contract and that I need to get my facts right...well, I DID!!

So I hang up and call again telling this time that I wanted to renew my contract. I get transferred in not more than 10 seconds and I am told that my contract would expire on 29th July!!

I have had really bad customer service experiences in the past but majority of them were probably because representatives were not trained properly. In this case, I am reasonably sure that the response of the woman to tell me a wrong expiration date was a decision which came from the top. So the rule behind the script would have been something like this:
1) If the contract is going to expire soon( some days might be specified here...probably 5 or 10) and person calls up to tell that he would not renew it, tell him to wait for the next representative.
2) Make him wait for at least 15 minutes.
3) If he is still on the phone, talk to him and tell him a wrong delayed expiration date.

I think the script went wrong when the woman got angry for my prodding. Really, if you have to fool someone, you have to be really cool about it.And if you have to super fool someone then you have to be supercool about it!!

More importantly, my point is this: My guess is that Sprint would have at least 60 million customers in US. Assuming a very conservative churn rate of 10% a year, you have 6 million customers leaving every year, which is 500,000 customers a month. If 5,000 of these customers get fooled by what just happened with average monthly bill of 30 dollars, that's 150,000 dollars added to the top line per month...

By the way, I have the Federal Communication Commission(FCC) number (1-888-225-5322)where I am going to call and complain about this. I hope my call was recorded( of course for quality control purposes!!) and I hope this malpractice comes out in open. For some reason, I am very certain that it was not an innocent mistake on the part of the harmless, and otherwise benign, call center rep.

Baggage of the Middle East

2007-07-13T01:58:00.001-07:00

On October 1 2000, 12 year old Mohammad Doura was killed in crossfire between Israelis and Palestinians. His picture of being shielded by his father and then both falling dead would remain etched in the minds of people for a long time. Not because he was a Muslim or he was not a Jew, but because it defined the point of no return for the intifada which Yaser Arafat started after returning from Camp David.
This picture started the recent middle east crisis after considerable tranquility of the 90s in the region. And if you think about the whole incident, it's nothing more than a picture of a frightened kid caught in the crossfire. Hundreds of kids get killed caught in crossfires in war zones across the world.But what this picture definitely did was leave an indelible impression on the mind of Palestinian public and Arab world in general.There have been stamps released capturing this picture and the baggage just kept getting heavier before it exploded in the incidents of the last 13 days.
I wonder what would it take to make these parties sit down and leave behind the past. Israelis have the problem of being always in the self sympathesizing mode where they think that all their actions are legitimate for what has happened to them from historic times. Palestinians and other Arab states like to talk only about the world before the 1948 war and don't want to look at the modern day reality.

I read a Tom Friedman book called "From Beirut to Jerusalem". The book starts with a very interesting introduction and I would type it here as it is. This generation in the Middle East has just too much of this baggage to do anything about the problem. Read on..this story from Mark Twain which is the introduction to Friedman's book illustrates this baggage problem really well:

"Did you want to kill him, Buck?
"Well, I bet I did"
"What did he do to you?"
"Him? He never done anything to me."
"Well, then what did you want to kill him for?"
"Why, nothing-only it's on account of the feud."
"What's a feud?"
"Why, where were you raised? Don't you know what a feud is?"
"Never heard of it before--tell me about it."
"Well," says Buck," a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him;then that other man's brother kills him;then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in--and by and by everybody's killed off, and there ain't no more feud. But it's kind of slow, and takes a long time."
"Has this one been going on for long, Buck?"
"Well,I should reckon! It started thirty years ago, or som'ers along there. There was trouble 'bout something and then lawsuit to settle it; and the suit went against one of the men, and so he got up and shot the men that won the suit--which he would naturally do, of course. Anybody would."
"What was the trouble about,Buck?--land?"
"I reckon maybe--I don't know."
"Well, who done the shooting? Was it Grangerford or a Shepherdson?"
"Laws, how do I know? It was so long ago."
"Don't anybody know?"
"Oh yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the other old people; but they don't know what the row was about in the first place."

Indian Accent: Pride & Prejudice

2007-07-13T00:13:00.000-07:00

Someone had an interesting observation recently. He thought that Indians have a bigger accent problem than Chinese because we are too proud about our ability to speak English....proud to the extent that we really don't like to work on the accent that we have. English in Indian accent has become an object of regular humor in media around the world since call centers started opening up in India. Purely from the perspective of call center industry, accent continues to remain an irritant in an otherwise runaway success story. As an Indian, I am proud of the fact that I have been speaking English for close to 15 years. I don't make grammatical mistakes and when someone observes that I speak good English, I am quick to point out that English is kind of native language to me. Some kind of an ego play is at work when I tell people about my English speaking capability.

Chinese, on the other hand, are starting from a clean slate. And they do not have the ego which us Indians have about our English speaking capabilities. So when you talk to Chinese the grammar might be missing, the vocabulary might not be rich but the accent is definitely not there. And we all know that Chinese government is pushing English in a big way in China at the primary school level. Talk to people on the streets of Shanghai and you would know that something is happening. Purely from the perspective of the call center industry, the next generation of Chinese will surely pose a big challenge to the existing Indian forte.

Musharraf's Blue Star & The Fine Art of Feeding a Monster

2007-07-12T23:28:00.000-07:00

Lets first quickly get ourselves updated with the terminology. Blue Star refers to the operation by the Indian Army in 1984 to purge militants out of the Golden Temple in the state of Punjab. Inside was held up Jarnail Singh Bhidranwale who became a relevant force in Punjab politics with the help of then prime minister Indira Gandhi but decided to turn against her soon enough.

What has happened at Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, has a lot of similarities with Operation Blue Star. Jarnail Singh Bhidranwale is widely believed to be the creation of Indira Gandhi to divide the Khalistan movement. It is wonderful how many monsters Indira Gandhi managed at any particular point of time. She boiled up the Sikh separatist movement. She created Tamil Tigers to have a say into Sri Lanka. And then his own son, Sanjay Gandhi...well, the balancing act had to become overwhelming at some time. Within a few months after Blue Star, Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her own Sikh bodyguard. Nothing has shaken the foundation of the Indian republic more than those days of 1984 starting from Blue Star in June and ending in the murder of more than 3000 Sikhs as revenge for Indira Gandhi's assasination.

Musharraf, after seizing power, used Mohammad Aziz of Lal Masjid to talk against Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. Aziz, with the help of Musharraf, soon became powerful enough to issue edicts about bigger things. Suddenly, girls in one of the
Madrassas associated with Lal Masjid started kidnapping women not Islamic enough in their deeds. And all this was happening not very far off from Musharraf's residence. So time was ripe to fight the monster. Musharraf, like Indira Gandhi, has done
just that. It seems that the first round of battle has been won by Musharraf. What is still not known are the longer term implications of this action. Time will tell...

Being able to create monsters,being able to tame them and then dispose them off, forms the basis of political power that is cold and completely impersonal. Musharraf has perfected the art of balancing monsters that have completely opposite interests. One the one hand are Americans who want him to fight Islamists. Their lies his core support and the basis for his international status despite being a dictator. Then there are the Islamists that were created by Pakistan but since 9/11 have become more of a burden. And finally, there is India...for keeping Islamists in control, Musharraf has to talk as well as send terrorists in Kashmir. Recently, a fourth monster sprang up in form of the dismissed chief justice of supreme court. By sending the army to Lal Masjid, he has tried to create the image of a fighter for moderate voices in Pakistan and consolidate his core constituency that was slowly shifting towards the fired judge.

In years to come, we will know the ultimate result of his policies but till now, Musharraf has done a fine job. As Niccolo Machiavelli would say:"For a Prince, Survival is not a mean but an end in itself". If this is the case, then Musharraf gets a perfect A.

"Development Is The Best Contraceptive"

2007-07-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

...so said Dr. Karan Singh in the first ever World Population Conference in 1974. India today has a population of close to 1.1 billion and it is increasing everyday. Though the rate at which it is growing has slowed down,it still remains one of the fastest growing populations of the world. But these days, you don't see much talk of population control. I still remember public campaigns on Doordarshan that would urge people to use birth control pills( Mala D) and Copper T(which still remains the most popular medium of birth control amongst Chinese women).

Well, at least two things have happened that has changed the perspective about population control.First, after Karan Singh gave his speech at the conference in 1974, his prime minister decided to do the exact opposite. India's prime minister, Indira Gandhi unleashed her son to enforce the most draconian measures the world has ever seen to control population. Males of fertile age were forced to undergo vasectomy!!
Though these measures did slow down the population, what has truly brought change is the development which India has seen since early 90s. Both income and education levels have gone up and people understand the need to devote their resources on 2 kids rather than 5. Another subtle change that has happened is that the population has suddenly become more of a resource rather than the burden for modern Indian economy. Because of this vast pool of humanity, India, despite rising wages in a lot of sectors, can sustain its cost advantage for a lot of time.

So as such, I believe that as income levels increase, we need not implement any extra measures of population control. What is needed is better approach towards enabling this population so that it can participate in the market economy. More than anything else, India requires massive and efficient investment into primary education and basic health care. The opportunity is big. This young population can become the biggest resource. It can also become the biggest deterrent if does not find the opportunity to participate in the wealth that is being generated.Already there are regions in India where this young population is creating havoc because they are not skilled enough to participate in the new economy.

A Dip In Ganges, A Breakfast of Mangoes and I Am still On My Way Back..

2007-07-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good end to a wonderful trip. I finally managed to bathe in the cold water of Ganges in Haridwar. People would claim that the water is not clean but I guess that is fine with me. I don't think there is any better experience in India than taking a bath in the cold water from the Himalayan snow....and ambiance is fantastic. So I take my dips along with a lot of other people, say whatever prayers I still remember and enjoy the wonderful chill in an otherwise simmering heat outside the river. I come back after 30 minutes in the river and then have a breakfast of mangoes. The variety is Dashari, predominant variety found in Uttar Pradesh. These taste specially good because I know that soon I will be relegated to tasteless, odourless Mexican mangoes in Ralps/Vons...

On the drive from Delhi to Haridwar, I also got to see the action which Tier 2 cities in India are experiencing. Lots of malls coming up, people thronging to wherever they can spend money and still it seems, they are not getting enough. I thought it was true about my hometown Jaipur as well. People in these cities get exposed to marketing campaigns which people in Bangalore, Delhi also see but when they want to spend the money, only a fraction is possible.If you want to find a 200 rupees/plate Dal Fry in Jaipur, you would either need to go to 5 star hotels or you can count the same 4-5 restaurants on your finger tips.I am convinced that the real action moving forward would be in these cities( at least in terms of return on investment though big cities continue to offer as well)

So at the end of it, I am wondering if I'm ready to sing a prayer from my catholic school which went something like...
"Coming home, coming home,
Nevermore to roam,
Open wide Thine arms of love,
Lord, I’m coming home"

Why Amitabh should be jailed...

2007-06-30T04:19:00.000-07:00

I have been a huge fan of Amitabh Bachhan like a lot of you. What has started getting on my nerve is the nonsense he represents these days. His movies are trash and if that was not enough, he had to grab land from poor farmers to prove himself a farmer of yesteryear.

First, lets talk about his screen presence. I haven't seen an actor so completely out of touch with aspects of image management. In fact, I was watching one actor on Larry King recently who has done wonderfully well in managing his persona. Al Pacino said that by being a recluse, he is able to deliver performances without being stereotyped in any particular image. Now think about Amitabh...he endorses cars, cola,hair oil, chocolates, banks and tons of other things. If you try to look up the Indian sky, what might be blocking your view is an Amitabh billboard. And if you are lucky enough to not see Amitabh or hear his voice in narration, someone else from the Bachhan family would be there to screw you over. And really, how many good Amitabh movies have we seen since he started freaking us out with his 30 movies a year schedules?
Just think what would happen when Abhishek and Aishwarya decide to produce a kid( heaven forbids if there are multiple products ) because then whatever roles remain for children will also go. Are we allowed to quarantine recently wed legally? Or can we set Sanjay Gandhi of the gone era loose on Abhishek?

In real life, Amitabh has done even more wonders. Till recent times, he had created an image of a come back man who wouldn't default on his obligations of Amitabh Bacchan Corporation Limited(ABCL). I am sure he was a role model for a lot of people in the way he worked at his age and repaid all the money due. A little initial help from crooks from a particular party helped. But now comes the story about how he tried to prove himself to a farmer to get land in Mumbai for bargain prices.

Mr. Bachhan, why don't you just stop what you are doing and live your remaining days in the glory you have accumulated? I promise no one will miss you!! And like Dolphin Free Tuna or "Manufactured in a Peanut free facility" , would someone come up with a certification called "Amitabh Free Movie"?

If Indian cinema has to start producing quality stuff, then the biggest expenditure for the worst content, Amitabh and his family have to be stopped.

Pimp My Ride: Hope of Deliverance

2007-06-30T04:11:00.000-07:00

I am watching this program called Pimp My Ride on VH1 and believe me, this thing is awesome. Rap star Xzibit is the anchor and in every episode, he "pimps" up a car. No wonder, the lucky owner is absolutely ecstatic. So when you see Xzibit standing at your door, your know that your car is ready to get new rim, tons of chrome, a super sanzzy look and loads of other stuff. Majority of the renovation conform to the ethos of gangsta rap but none the less, the final product is astounding.

So in this episode, it was Josh's turn. His 1988 Accord Legend was ready to become legendary and it did become one. Though it takes good amount of money to renovate a completely trashed car, I am sure the price for the content produced is still very little. It also makes for great viewing. The content also caters to the inherent desire we all have to get a big surprise out of nowhere.
For Josh if God had a face, it would somewhat look like that of Xzibit. Whoever said, or believes, that God is dead should think twice because Xzibit might be knocking on your door tomorrow.

Jared Diamond, Domesticated Animals and Arranged Marriages

2007-06-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

Jared Diamond's fascinating book Guns, Germs and Steel has a chapter called Zebras and Unhappy Marriages. He argues that though, it would seem, a lot of mammals qualify for getting domesticated, very few ended up being that way at least with the weight exceeding 100 pounds. The reason, he argues, is that for any animal to be domesticated at least six factors need to be hold true:

a) Diet: It would not make much sense to domesticate a carnivore species because a human would rather consumer 10,000 pounds of a herbivore than to feed it to an animal and get 1000 pounds of this carnivore.
b) Growth Rate: Slow growth rates would defeat the basic purpose of domestication( which is breed and get dairy or meat products fast)...so this rules out elephants and chimps.
c) Problem of Captive Breeding: Some animals don't like to have sex in the glare of their human master or other companions in the stable.
d) Nasty Disposition: Animals like Zebras hurt more zookeepers every year than lions!!
e) Tendency to Panic: Deers tend to panic at the slightest change in their surroundings
f) Social Structure

So, generally speaking, for an animal to be domesticated, it has to be a herbivore, needs to grow fast, should not mind mating at any time( or place!!), should be benign towards humans and needs to be comfortable with humans. It also needs to be comfortable being part of a hierarchy and should be ready to accept a human as the head of that structure.

Domesticating is a sort of marriage between a human and an animal. Arranged marriages presents an interesting variant of this domestication phenomenon( I am solely trying to draw some parallels here and in no way suggesting that those who are looking to get married through arranged marriage are engaging in any sort of domestication exercise!!). While normal marriage between two human beings might require matching of a variety of factors like physical attraction, similarity in thought and intellectual capacity, same religion/caste/class, in-laws compatibility, do you like( or hate) George Bush and whether you prefer eating a boiled egg from the sharp or the rounded side.Arranged marriage introduces a further constraint. You, or your parents or whoever is responsible for getting you married if you have failed to find a partner for yourself, now are trying to make these things happen rather than letting them happen naturally( which seems to be the case in love marriage).

The variety of factors discussed above to make a marriage work along with the fact that it is arranged should obviously restrict the number of possible matches. In case of large mammals, humans have been able to find only 14 matches( 5 main ones being Sheep, Goat, Cow, Pigs , Horses and 9 minor ones) to date...imagine, just 14 matches that have stood the test of time. What are the chances of finding an ideal match in an arranged marriage with more than 6 factors that have to go right?

Head, I Win and Tail, You Lose: The Story of Rahul

2007-05-31T04:20:00.000-07:00

Rahul is my classmate from business school and is, in general, very passionate and very opinionated. If he thinks something is right, it has to be right. The problem is that, in some cases, Internet can give you evidence for the contrary in milli seconds. After a late dinner last night. Rahul decides to claim that Freddie Mercury's real name was Fardoon Balsara. I would not have been sure but I had searched about Freddie Mercury yesterday morning and I knew that his real name was Farrokh Balsara. But the true Raymond man that Rahul is, he decided to bet. And bet an amount of 10 dollars....and lost in couple of seconds. Hail Wikipedia. Rahul decided to try his luck at other sources but it was all over soon. The fun did not stop here, in fact it was just beginning to unfold.

I am up 10 dollars and Rahul tried hard to get out of this hole by asking questions like 1) Who was Pakistan's first President?( I remember it was not Jinnah but was not sure who it was) 2) What is Area 51( and I thought people who believe in conspiracy theories about landing on the moon believed that the landing was staged in this super secret place in Nevada. Rahul disagreed..he believed it is associated with UFO conspiracies)..So he kept asking questions and most of the times, I was not sure of the answer. So I never decided to bet for 10 dollars. Now Rahul faces a beautiful dilemma and I am proud to have sacrificed material gains( 10 dollars) for pure unadulterated pleasure at the expense of someone else( not a bad deal for 10 dollars!!). I won't take the 10 dollars from him and the " Proud Bengali Hotmale " that he is, he has to either make me accept the money or beat me at a bet worth at least 10 dollars. And I will never agree to a bet unless I am 100% sure that I will win. For questions like above, I would just say that I am not interested in the bet. So from here on, Rahul either needs to give up his pride, which I can package as an object of ridicule in social gatherings, or he can keep asking me questions hoping I will agree to a bet. So bottom line is: he will never get me to bet on something in which I have the slightest chance of losing.

How wonderful life would be if all possible scenarios for your actions favored you!!!( and by the way, both me and Rahul were right about Area 51 but as you can see, I would never have given him a chance to redeem himself for something I was not absolutely sure of!!)

Nancy Grace Is Not In Tonight, She Is Out Raping Puppies!!

2007-05-28T02:41:00.000-07:00

I hope you have all watched Nancy Grace on CNN. Jon Stewart did a piece on her on 11th April after Duke Lacrosse players were found 'Not Guilty'. He ripped her for pronouncing these players guilty before the verdict. She did not come on her own show the day the verdict came in and Jon had this explanation: "Nancy Grace Is Not In Tonight, She Is Out Raping Puppies"!!

Well, I have been a huge Jon Stewart fan and one thing I love about him is how he takes on the news channels. If you look at shows of anchors like Glenn Beck, Keith Olbermann, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteran, Geraldo Rivera etc. you will see why people hate news today. These people cannot even agree on facts. What you get is mindless debate on useless issues.And then there are people like Nancy Grace who run sort of investigative shows that are nothing but a way to deliver a verdict based on their own prejudices. She decided when the story broke out last year that Duke players were guilty of raping a woman they asked to come to a party. Throughout the year, she built up the crescendo and then when she was proved wrong, she didn't even have the guts to say sorry!!

So no wonder, Jon is angry and very angry and two things have contributed to the new ferocious nature of this anger. First, things keep getting worse and second, Jon now has Colbert to complement him. Now Stephen takes care of, sometimes, mindless comedy and Jon can stick to what he knows best...political satire. Recently McCain came on his show and Jon ripped him for saying that walking through Baghdad was like walking in an Indiana market. I think his anger against McCain was also because he has been supportive of McCain's straight talking in the past and it hurts him that he has decided to tow the president's line recently. And it hasn't served him well. So expect more frontal attacks. Alberto Gonzales seems to be the recent target and why shouldn't he be?

Return of the Indian Brahmin

2007-05-26T03:35:00.000-07:00

Elections in the state of Uttar Pradesh have thrown up an interesting equation.Mayawati who is the president of the biggest Dalit party in India became the chief minister with the support of both Dalits and Brahmins( Dalits are people from the backward caste and Brahmins from the upper priest class)

There are two aspects to this alliance that can sustain it:
1) The major contention between a Dalit and Brahmin alliance is the divide created by reservation for government jobs. Since the opening up of private sector, public sector jobs are anyways not that lucrative and Brahmins would not mind leaving them. What they do get, and really want, is political voice. 51 of them got elected on the tickets of BSP, and they can use this new found political strength to stop the slide towards complete marginalization.
2) As Brahmins get political voice, they can start pushing for economic status based reservation. According to the recent census, only around 20% of Brahmins can be classified as rich and in terms of economic status, they are not doing well. Like any other caste, they clean toilets, pull rickshaws and do other menial jobs. Gone are the days when they could get on with their lives by just interpreting the scriptures. Now they would rather become a Narayan Murty then some priest in the village temple.

On a macro level, reservations have had some desired results. Certain opportunities did become available to some of the most backward castes and there are numerous examples of true beneficiaries. India's last president was a Dalit and that probably is a statement in itself. Overall, the level of discrimination has come down though one can still hear incidents that happen in some of the northern states. Accompanying reservations was also the general apathy that Brahmins suffered at the hand of the political parties. It made numerical sense as well. Brahmins constitute less than 5% of Indian population as against Dalits who constitute more than 15% of the population. While southern India already had very strong anti-Brahmin movements, last 20 years have seen the rise of strong anti-Brahminism in North India as well. Uttar Pradesh, which has the largest population of Brahmins, has not seen a Brahmin chief minister for the last 20 years and will definitely not see another one for some time to come.

Apathy of political parties meant that Brahmins lost faith in the political system and stopped going to the voting booths. The number of Brahmins elected in the Hindi belt came down from 20% to 10%. While the idea of wooing backward castes obviously made sense, time has probably come to see if Brahmins also constitute a vote bank. Both political parties as well as Brahmins themselves have realized this fact. While some, like Amarmani Tripathi and before him Sriprakash Shuka, decided to express themselves in militant ways, Brahmins in general have been forced to think tactically and find new partners to gain political voice. If they thought that the political system was corrupt and too lowly for them to consider it, they are now ready to jump into the mud for the political fruits that have been denied to them. Does this augur well for the state of Uttar Pradesh or other states where similar alliance can happen? Definitely not but this was probably their only chance to gain power and change the status-quo.

Marvin Gaye and The Star Spangled Banner

2007-05-18T00:45:00.000-07:00

Very soon, I will be finishing my two years of stay in the US and very recently I discovered two things: The Star Spangled Banner and Marvin Gaye.

Till a couple of weeks back, I was not aware of the Star Spangled Banner and its lyrics. As someone who has made a very deliberate effort to understand American culture, I am not sure how I took so much time to know what the national anthem of America was. It was created in 1814 by Francis Scott Key and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution in 1931. Although it has 4 stanzas, only 1st one is sung in general.

My interest in The Star Spangled Banner initiated after I listened to its famous rendition by Marvin Gaye in 1983 NBA All Star Game( Bravo Youtube!! One professor called Dennis Rook is talking about Marvin Gaye in the class and reminiscing that day when Marvin Gaye sung the Star Spangled Banner and a student says:" Probably, the video will be on Youtube". If I ever had any doubts that Youtube will soon be dead with all the law suits, this was one more proof that the real strength of the site is this kind of lost content!!) In fact, I discovered Marvin also very recently. As one of the original voices at Motown records, Marvin was a master of soul and R&B. While tracks like Whats Going On were about social issues there were others like Sexual Healing which were about the simple aching of getting down with his woman!!! His father, who was a priest and with whom he was living in 1984, killed him.

Coming back to the national anthem that he sung in his distinct style in 1983... Star Spangled Banner is incredibly difficult to sing and people before Marvin had tried to do different things with it. Jimi Hendrix was booed at Woodstock for playing it on guitar. Even for Marvin's version, and I find it absolutely fascinating, there seems to be a divided opinion. Stevie Wonder thinks that Marvin got no television after that performance till he died because "Because all the network executives couldn't handle a black man singing a sexy soul version of the National Anthem". Others seem to think that they have never heard anything more wonderfully done and only Marvin could have done it so beautifully.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

War, Existentialism and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"

2007-05-16T02:27:00.000-07:00

I am finishing up on my back log of great movies and yesterday I watched The Good,The Bad and The Ugly. As you know, the core of the movie is a simple treasure hunt in the Wild West that intertwines the fate of Blondie( Clint Eastwood), Tuco(Eli Wallace) and Angel Eyes(Lee Van Cleef). What wraps this basic plot are crisp dialogues, pure style and the best Original Sound Track ever. Imagine that the lead actor hasn't got a name and has to do with the name Blondie!! I am not sure if I understood what makes Blondie Good except for one scene in which he shows empathy for a dying soldier but frankly, it doesn't matter.

First fascinating sequence happens in New Mexico. Tuco and Blondie are caught in the middle of the American Civil War fought between Confederate and Union soldiers. These soldiers have been fighting to take control of a bridge over a river. The graveyard where the treasure is buried is near the site of the fighting. So, to end the war and make the two sides go fight somewhere else, Tuco and Blondie decide to blow up the bridge. Interestingly, the river is knee deep!!
This scene is fascinating for its symbolism. Here they are, these soldiers who have been fighting for a useless bridge when a treasure of $200,000 lies buried somewhere near them.But such is the beauty of a war. When you set this juggernaut rolling, it gains a momentum of its own. The reasons to go to war might disappear and new reasons might need to be discovered but the war goes on. What makes the situation even more interesting is the strict command and control structure in these situations where you are not supposed to question any order from your superior. We went into Iraq for WMDs, we found none. Then we decided to work for the noble cause of putting together a democratic government( Now that government representing the majority kills the members of the minority community fuelling a civil war). And, wait a minute, we also wanted cheap Iraqi oil to secure our oil supplies from the Middle East. Well, that has not happened either because of the security situation. But the war goes on...

The second fascinating sequence is the conversation between Tuco and his brother Pablo who has now become a priest. Tuco says to his brother:"Where we came from,if one did not want to die of poverty, one became a priest or a bandit. You chose your way and I chose mine. Mine was harder. You talk about mother and father. You remember when you left to become priest, I stay behind. I must have 10-12, I don't remember which but I stayed. I tried but it was no good.Now I'm gonna tell you something.You became a priest because you are too much of a coward to do what I do"...awesome...isn't it? Sartre would have smiled for the pure existentialism of this situation. For us to appreciate Pablos of the world, Tucos have to exist and for good people to exist, you need bad people to compare them with. And bad people deserve, at least, some credit for the role they play in this game of allocating moral judgements.Tuco does have a point, and in general he has one whenever he speaks, that it is not easy to be a bandit!!

Innovation On A Beer Bottle!!

2007-05-15T23:44:00.000-07:00

When you look at a bottle of beer, it is very easy to think that there is hardly any scope for something different in either the beer inside the bottle or the bottle itself. You would think that mantra for a beer company is simple--pour money into advertising to keep yourself visible to the customer and then keep dishing the same beer again and again.Not any more..I was watching this advertisement for Coors Light and was fascinated by the new bottle they are coming out with. The latest Coors Light bottle(which they call Cold Activated Bottle) features mountains on the bottle package that turn blue when the bottle has been chilled to the perfect temperature!! Isn't it awesome?

This packaging innovation is great from two perspectives: a) The benefits of this new feature can be communicated very easily and b) Customers would know from the very first time when they drink Coors Light what this new feature on the bottle means. the company says that the Cold Activated Bottle will be available on all 12-ounce Coors Light and Coors bottles at participating bars, restaurants, grocery, convenience stores and liquor stores this May. And really, the simplicity and some sort of "aha effect" when you see those mountains turn blue make it a marketer's dream.

The Sin City Pilgrimage: Money & Ritualized Consumption

2007-05-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

My first trip to Vegas just finished and I am ready to share my experiences. For some people, whatever happens in Vegas need not remain in Vegas!!

First,to say the least, it was an interesting experience. First thing that struck me was the fact that majority of the people sitting at the slot machines were old people. Imagine what must be going in the head of the Grand Pa when he is pulling those levers at 4 in the morning. I tried to understand this phenomenon but I am not sure I understand it fully. Some of my friends say that you lose the least amount of money and kill the maximum time on a slot machine. So for all these people, it is a way to kill time. But what about the interesting desire of hitting the jackpot every time you push a quarter in. And what about not hitting it almost every time!!
I observed some of these people and I am not sure if they looked very happy for killing time. Did I just stumble upon the reason why majority of people in this country are not happy with what they have?

Well, I spend 3 hours on the black jack table, lose money and then come back to the hotel. Next evening, we catch a taxi to go to the Monte Carlo Hotel where everyone is planning to meet...and guess which song is playing in the cab?

Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay and you're okay
Money it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I'll buy me a football team

I ask the driver to increase the volume and he asks me:"Can any other song be more appropriate in Vegas?"

The other fascinating thing about Vegas is the whole idea of ritualized consumption. Its as if people have to visit this place every 2 months or whatever and pay their dues in return for the sins..a pilgrimage to the Sin City? For some of my friends, these rituals mean 6 hours a day on the poker table, drinks and visit to the clubs. And it is very ritualistic. Ask someone who has been to Vegas frequently and he will tell you the time he wakes up in Vegas, what breakfast he eats, which places he gambles, which bars he goes to and you will soon know that for them it has a certain routine/ritual to it. Think about Super Bowl every year and what people do a night before it. Chips & Dips, Beer and asking friends to come over to watch the game on a big screen. Think of Thanksgiving & turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. And then think of Halloween. All have a healthy component of ritualized consumption and Vegas is no different. The gambling industry there survives on this mindset where people want to get away every now and then from their normal lives and indulge in things that would not be possible otherwise. From a purely marketing perspective, if you can make the consumption a ritual, there is no limit to what you can do...

Money get back
I'm alright Jack keep your hands off my stack.
Money it's a hit
Don't give me that do goody good bullshit
I'm in the hi-fidelity first class travelling set
n I think I need a Lear jet

India wins Kabaddi World Cup!!!

2007-05-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

Finally, something to cheer about...and guess what, I came to know about this news from Los Angeles times!!! Last month, India won the Pro Kabaddi World Cup in Bombay beating the Iranian team 29-19.

First, lets bring our American readers up to date about what Kabaddi is:
" Kabaddi's object is to tag players while holding breath.The game is played with two teams of 12 players (7 starters and 5 reserves) for two twenty-minute halves. Teams take turns sending an offensive player to the opposite side in an attempt to tag several of the opposing players while holding their breath and returning home. The "raiders" must chant "kabaddi-kabaddi" to prove that they are holding their breath while they tag the "anti" defensive players. If an "anti" is tagged he must succeed in catching the "raider" or is considered out. The "raider" must succeed in holding his breath until he returns home or is considered out. "
By the way, check out this picture that I found on www.jatt.com!! This site has some pretty cool stuff.

The game is extraordinarily combative and started in Punjab in India. Initially, it was restricted to the farming belt in North India( Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh)but is now played throughout the country. It is also the national sport in Bangladesh. While it is more popular in South-East Asia, there are Kabaddi leagues all over the world. I guess its time we look for our heroes from other sports where our performance has been much more consistent. I guess there might also be the possibility of finding audience for Kabaddi in countries like U.S. where contact sports are very popular. It would be fun to see Kabaddi give Arena Football, Ultimate Fighting etc. a run for their money( probably I am dreaming but who knows what might happen once people develop a liking for it!!)

Standing Up To Evil

2007-05-07T01:44:00.000-07:00

I just came back watching Grindhouse by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. The first part Planet Terror leaves you so helpless( and numb) that the second feature Death Proof feels like pure heaven.
Death Proof is about a serial killer Mike(Kurt Russell) who is a stuntman and likes to kill women on the road by hitting them with his stunt car( and he always survives in the crash, and so calls his car Death Proof). He peacefully kills 4 women in Texas and is able to get away with it because they were drinking and he wasn't. He then goes over to Tennessee and tries to do it to 3 other women, one of whom is a stunt woman from Auckland. These 3 women decide to test ride a 1970 Dodge Challenger and Mike decides to go after them. And guess what? The women fight back...against all odds...fascinating. Not only do they survive, they give Mike a full pay back. It is great to see the glee in his eyes turn first to surprise, then terror and then pure helplessness. Ah!! the full force of retribution.

Well, we all know that not all stories take such a dramatic turn. None the less, they do provide inspiration and they do prove that there is a way to stand up to evil. Even psychopaths feel the pain and even they die...its just a matter to time and it is the matter of someone standing up to the tyranny. I can still feel the joy when Zoe Bell gets out of her car and starts smashing Mike with a metal pipe. I am sure that I am not the only one cheering her in the theatre..and then the whole chase and the final end to all misery with the axe kick. By the way, another lesson from the story. The first 4 women who got killed were drunk, the latter 3 were not...so if a serial killer is on the road, your chances of survival are better if are not drunk.

Sarkozy, the American

2007-05-06T04:36:00.000-07:00

French people will start voting for the new President in a couple of hours and it is a classical left vs. right fight. On the right of the center is Nicolas Sarkozy and to the left of the center is Segolene Royal. Dividing the two are two key issues, what should France do with Globalization and Immigration?

First round elections threw up a strong contender right in the center called Francois Bayrou. He got 18% of the total vote casted and did not qualify for the 2nd round but does look like a very interesting prospect for the future. Now is the time for the tough choice for a lot of people who did not vote for either Sarkozy or Royal in the 1st round, As they say, first round is to vote for the person you like and the second round is to vote for someone you dislike the least.

The election might very well be decided by where Bayrou's supporters will vote and it seems that Sarkozy is holding on to his lead.He has to deal with some pretty tough problems. France has a 35 hour week with 210 maximum working days in a year. Compare this with US: 40 hour(minimum) week with at least 230 days in a year( this includes every conceivable leave you can think of). In a world with no competition amongst nation states, this would probably work( I am sure a lot of us at some point of time or the other have wished for the quality of life that can be afforded with a 35 hour week) but the problem is that things are much more complex. Economic problems for France have a cascading effect. Life expectancy like most of the developed world is at an all time high and the people who are living longer are covered by one of the most comprehensive medical system around the world. This system is paid for by the ever decreasing working population that has to bear the burden of one of the highest tax rates in Europe. Mainstream manufacturing migrated to Asian countries long time back, the concern is that any industry in general finds it very difficult to work out of France. Also, when France is not performing, it screws the report card of the whole of EU.

Europe in general has not done a great job on the immigration front. Some of the home grown terror in countries like Britain, as opposed to US, is blamed on the isolation of immigrant communities in European countries: Algerians in France, Turks in Germany and Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in Britain. I have no doubt that America has to be the role model for all countires on how to manage immigration( recent illegal immigration problem is an exception). No wonder that despite everything that has happened in last 4 years, there has not been a single home grown terrorist in America. Immigrants get the opportunity to assimilate and intergrate here. While some Scandinavian countries have slowly stopped immigration altogether, France inherited a huge population that came to France after Algeria got its freedom. All time high unemployement in France is hitting the immigrant youth specially hard. Sarkozy, who was also the interior minister under Chirac at the time of riots last year, is proposing a relaxed policy toward skilled foreign workers while tightening the laws for existing immigrants towards naturalization.

Sarkozy, as against all his predecessors, is running on a very clear policy platform. He has conveyed in no uncertain terms that it is time to make painful choices to make France better. And it seems that people seem to be listening. France will decide by Monday and we will know in which direction it is going to go.And by the way, Sarkozy is good news for America as well. His policies are so much influenced/inspired by American economic and foreign policies that some actually call him Sarkozy, the American!!

Miserly Republicans, Unprincipled Democrats?

2007-05-03T02:01:00.000-07:00

I recently came across a fascinating study done by Shanto Iyengar,Professor of Communication and director of the Political Communication Lab at Stanford University. It talks about how Republicans and Democrats donate. This data was collected through an online study and the exact methodology was not shared in the article published in Washington Post. What has been disclosed about the methodology is the following:
"To test the effects of race, participants in the study were asked to read a news article about Katrina victims. Some read a story featuring a white person. Some read identical stories -- except the victim was black, Asian or Hispanic. Then they were asked how much assistance they think the government should give to help hurricane victims. Approximately 2,300 people participated in the study."

It would be interesting to dive into the real numbers and see if there is some statistical play going on here.

So following are the key findings of the study:

1) Republicans consistently gave less aid, and gave over a shorter period of time, to victims regardless of race.

2) Democrats and independents were far more generous; on average, they gave Katrina victims on average more than $1,500 a month, compared with $1,200 for Republicans, and for 13 months instead of nine. But for Democrats, race mattered -- and in a disturbing way. Overall, Democrats were willing to give whites about $1,500 more than they chose to give to a black or other minority.

I consider myself a centrist with firmly Republican( like Fiscal policy) on some issues and Democrat( on climate change) on others. And I really haven't encountered the race question till now so it would be interesting to hear point of views and specific insights someone might want to share.

The need for http://kapigup.blogspot.com

2007-05-02T02:19:00.000-07:00

This blog has become a wonderful expression of things that I like to think about in my leisure time. It has been a constant companion like no one else in my first stay outside India. Now that I am finishing up school in one week, someone emailed me this picture and frankly, nothing captures my passion for my blog better than this. I have stayed hungry for things that are news worthy or deserve to be news worthy and I will continue to express myself on this page.

Kemal Ataturk & Sustainable Democracy

2007-05-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

Turkey is going through a very interesting turmoil right now. The government of Tayyip Erdogan decided to nominate his foreign minister Abdullah Gul for the President position. To everyone's surprise, Turkish army pushed back and said that they would not accept a president from the ruling Islamic party. You would think that this is yet another case of army interfering in the working of a well functioning democracy...seems like another coup brewing similar to the ones in Pakistan and Thailand. I contend, not really. This situation is very specific to Turkey and requires a little more understanding. It all goes back to the days of Kemal Ataturk.

Kemal Ataturk founded the Republic of Turkey after a successful campaign against Allied armies that had earlier defeated the Ottoman empire. Though in modern day definitions, he would qualify as a dictator but he did establish a very forward looking republic. Some people have called it "enlightened authoritarianism"!!.The state was to be strictly secular with women banned from wearing the hijab. in 1915 he wrote:
In November 1915, he wrote in his journal "The social change can come by (1) educating capable mothers; knowledgeable about life; (2) giving freedom to women. (3) A man can change, his morals, thoughts, and feelings by leading a common life with a woman as there is an inborn tendency towards the attraction of mutual affection"
He wanted Turkish women to be taught not only child care, dress-making and household management, but also the tools which they can use to become part of general economy.
Fascinating, isn't it? This when Istanbul at that time was the seat of the caliphate!!

So Kemal Ataturk left a legacy of a secular state with a strong belief in western values of economic independence and separation of religion and state.The legal system was based on western law rather than sharia.

Fast forward to modern Turkey. Turkish is definitely the most progressive predominantly Muslim nation around the world. It has even had a woman prime minister in 90s. The opposition from the Turkish army to the candidacy of Tayyip Erdogan first and then Abdullah Gul lies in the strong secular ethos that Kemal Ataturk left and the legacy still runs strong. Tayyip Erdogan leads AKP which is definitely not that Islamic in character from the standards of organizations like Hamas, Islamic Jihad or Mulim Brotherhood but from Turkish standards, it is definitely a religious party. No wonder that in support of army's position, more than one million people marched in Istanbul last week to express their opposition to the decision by Erdogan to run for president.

So I ask EU to think a little bit before denouncing what is happening on the ground in Turkey. Things are not black and white. No one wants to see the army anywhere except the barracks but sometimes the situation requires some drastic action. Even in case of Pakistan and Thailand, army intervened to stop phenomenally corrupt leaders. Nawaj Sharif had stifled opposition and was planning to declare himself Allah's representative when Musharraf kicked him out. Thaksin Shinawatra in Thaliand had embezzled tons of money and was becoming a public nuisance.
Clearly, if army can correct the corrupt leaders and then quietly go back to barracks, it would be great. Problems happen when they decide to hang on. Musharraf seems to be on that path but I still believe that he is a better alternative for both people in Pakistan and outside.

Finally, there are some broader lessons out of the things happening in Turkey. Kemal Ataturk essentially laid the foundation for a sustainable democracy. Secular state, gender equality, economic independence( and the existence of a merchant/middle class),universal education, independent judiciary and a working bureaucracy. He built this institutions using an iron hand and used enforcement rather than consensus but the legacy was long lasting. As soon as Turkey became multi party, democracy was there to stay. Democracy is sustainable only if laid on these pillars.( By the way, I strongly recommend reading Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria if you want to read a very compelling argument about the same) There are a lot of examples of countries that tried democracy without these tenets and fell into chaos but Turkey is on solid foundation and therefore, please think for a while before criticizing the army there.

Blades of Glory & Balls of Fury: The New Hope for Fringe Sports?

2007-04-30T01:06:00.000-07:00

I just watched Blades of Glory and I thought the movie was fascinating. I would put forward a business opinion about the whole idea of making a movie about Ice Skating.

Figure skating is a wonderful sport to watch but is hardly seen except during Olympics. Blades of Glory does a great service to this sport by exposing it, albeit from an entertainment perspective, to a huge audience. While other recent sports movies like Talladega Nights( about NASCAR), Coach Carter( Basketball) and Invincible( American Football) consolidate already popular sports, movies like Blades of Glory can open up completely new territories. Another sports movie recently released( Pride) brings the sports of swimming to the fore.

While the hard core followers of sports like swimming, ice skating or ping pong( table tennis) might argue that these movies hardly represent sporting excellence, these movies do bring in the much needed exposure to these sports. If people go to see beach volleyball for some sports and some bikinis, lets not worry about it for the time being. Don't worry too much if there is no routine called Iron Lotus in figure skating in which people get decapitated. Entertainment can be used effectively to build a critical mass and sports administrators should not hesitate in using this medium. I am sure that a some people will swtich on to figure skating events next year in Beijing Olympics because of Blades of Glory and when that happens, some of these administrators should send a thank you letter to producers of this movie.

Finally, look out for Balls of Fury. Balls of Fury will introduce a very popular but relatively lesser followed sports, Ping Pong to the American public. The movie is positioned as a classical marshal arts comedy but in this particular case, Ping Pong has replaced Kung Fu. And of course, you get to see the fabulous Christopher Walken in action!!!

By the way, if you did not observe it, I thought the placement for Robeks juice was pretty cool in Blades of Glory.

Green: The New Red, White & Blue

2007-04-29T16:37:00.000-07:00

This is the name of the article which Thomas Friedman wrote at the start of last year and was published in New York Times(http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/news/news_detail.cfm?id=48) . Let me first make the words of this title clear to the reader: Red White & Blue are the colors from which American flag is made and Friedman is this article contended that Green Energy will define what America will be in the future.

Like his earlier initiative called The World is Flat, it can be said that Friedman has sometimes trivialised a lot of things in this latest push as well. But what is important is the fact that when you read this article and watch his documentary called Addicted to Oil, you know very clearly what he is talking about. The strength of the argument lies in in its simplicity and its timing. He has a very nice way of coining terms for the issues involved and it works. Ask majority of Americans about what their opinion is about globalization and you would find that some it might have been shaped by the World is Flat. Same goes for this article and the documentary on Discovery Channel. Friedman is pushing an important issue to forefront of public debate here in America.

Today, green, or alternative, energy is important for America from two perspectives:

1) Petrodollars feed the rogues regimes that fuel the dictators and harbor the terrorists. Friedman rightly observes that every time the price of oil has gone up in last 50 years, democracy levels in middle east and other parts of the world where oil is found has gone down. Look around at regimes like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, Algeria, Nigeria, Venezuela and it doesn't take much effort to understand why they are shouting at the top of their voices. You can systematically map the ascent of Putin and his iron hand policies to the price of oil. America and countries like China & India are addicted to oil and when oil is bought on international markets, it ultimately ends up in the pockets of rogue regimes. The day we have an alternative energy source, these regimes would find it difficult to fund their activities because they will first have to feed their people. None of these countries is capable of even producing a safety pin and it won't be long when the need for change would be really felt.

2) America has lost its moral leadership with a very unpopular war in last 4 years. If America can lead the world towards innovation in green technologies and become the frag bearer for Kyoto Protocol, the world would be truly indebted. Today, America has the monetary and the intellectual capital to produce a massive breakthrough in this space. This issue needs America's leadership and America desperately needs issues through which it can regain its lost leadership. What is needed is the push from government of the size seen during Manhattan Project and Apollo Mission to the Moon. Complement this with tax breaks for fewer carbon missions and already existing private capital in this space, and we are not very far away from a massive change.

Using a gas guzzling Hummer is not macho and is definitely not American for the reasons listed above. Green is the New Red, White & Blue.

America's Hijacking By The Gun Lobby

2007-04-18T20:16:00.000-07:00

The massacre yesterday at Virginia Tech has shaken everyone. Whatever be the reasons for the rage of the killer, the fact is that he ended 32 lives. This country seriously needs to think about why Cho Seung-Hi had those guns and how did he end up getting them that easily?

I am sick of the fact that no one is talking about the real issue here: what kind of gun control laws should be there in America? You switch on news channels and you would see no debate on gun control, just some cursory mention. CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, none have a single piece about gun control.

The basis of the argument in favor of gun control is the Second Amendment of the US constitution which states the following:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
For all the people who lobby for guns, this amendment is the basis of their argument. What follows after that is a litany of lying and deceit. What follows is the classical example of how lobbies and special groups own America today.

I believe that no democracy is safe without the controls it exerts on itself. Free will and pure liberty to do whatever you want to can never be accommodated completely in a democratic society. What democracy can do is to provide maximum liberty possible within the constraint that someone else's freedoms are not trampled when you exercise your freedoms. The right to bear a gun goes against this fundamental premise. If the person walking next to me has a gun, he has the ability to inflict maximum damage on me and I have the right to be protected by the laws against this capability.

While the Virginia incident is still fresh, Georgia's senate was discussing a proposal relaxing the gun laws in the state. The proposal called for the following two measures:

1) Allow motorists to store handguns anywhere in their cars, instead of keeping them in plain sight, a glove compartment or front-seat console, as required under current law.

2) Prevents employers from banning their workers from having guns in vehicles in the company parking lot.

The bill was postponed till the next session because of obvious outrage in the short run that it would have created but the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Tim Bearden, R-Villa Rica thought "a bill like his would make it easier for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves in the case of attacks like the one in Virginia. I think now is the perfect time for it". Its not even ridiculous and its not as if people who were backing this bill are morons. These people are sinister criminals and they know what they are doing.

Many people think that Gore lost the 2000 election because of an appearance on Larry King show where he said that 9 mm Ruger and the .380 AMT semiautomatic handguns should be banned.Cho used one of these 9-millimeter Glock to slain students at Virginia Tech yesterday. Classical republican argument has been: "Guns don't kill people; people without love in their hearts kill people." but its not as if only Republicans are to blame. None of the Democrats, and definitely none of the presidential contenders, have come out since yesterday to talk of tougher gun control laws.

This country needs leadership and this country needs someone to break this nexus of the lobbyists and the government....otherwise its just a matter of time before the person in front of me or you would open fire....IT IS JUST A MATTER OF TIME. If this is not scary, I am not sure what is.

Vanity: My Favorite Sin!!

2007-04-12T00:15:00.000-07:00

Our dear Halvaai( meaning someone who makes sweets) has shocked the world. He asked me to not use his real name to save himself from answering the calls from all the beautiful women in Seattle area so I am using his alias in IIT Halvaai.

Halvaai recently relocated to Seattle from Bangalore and has been on a crusade which is really difficult to explain. First, for the record, let me state the facts clearly. He has gone down from 235 pounds to 177 pounds in 6 months without any drastic measures or surgery. The guy is super excited in his new found joy of being fit and appealing to the fit. He hits the gym everyday and knows what he needs to eat and when he needs to eat. No rules are broken and it has been a ball. So if you haven't seen his pictures already on orkut, I would request you to not waste a single minute.

What is the reason behind this change? I cannot explain it completely though I have a vague sense. I do know that both love and hatred can drive people to do things which they themselves thought were not possible. Now, I would not think that Halvaai is doing all this out of hate for someone but I can make a case for replacing hate with vanity. America is a phenomenal society and its very easy to slip down the path of supreme self love very soon. This phenomenon has recently boosted multiple industries and primarily on the dollars spent by Baby Boomers. Botox injections, wheat grass shots and pomegranate juice are all great examples with one common theme.

Now I am not saying that Halvaai is a Boomer. I think he should be around 26. So technically speaking, he is not chasing youth. He is in the middle of his youth. What might have changed since he relocated from Bangalore was his ambiance and what people around him expected from him. And what might have changed is that he would have looked at much older women around him that looked much younger than him. He knew pretty soon what he needed to do to be in this race. If you couple this general situation with the dreams that a lighter weight( along with his existing qualities) can fulfill, you can pretty much see where the ball was going to roll. The fighter that he is, and always was, the response was an emphatic home run or touch down or slam dunk...whatever you want to call it the American way.

My friend, good luck and welcome to the race and welcome to the chase...people tell me that it never ends but it must feel good.

Lest We Forget Srebrenica

2007-04-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

In July 1995, a renegade group of Serbian army that called itself Scorpions massacred 8000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.

Bosnia declared independence in 1991 and Serbs tried to maintain unity. Srebrenica had strategic importance to achieve this objective of keeping Bosnia in the fols and was predominantly inhabited by Bosniaks(who are Muslims). Skirmishes started happening in 1992 itself and in 1993, it was declared a "Safe Area". Safe Area in quotes because 400 Dutch Peacekeepers representing United Nations were going to keep it safe!!!

Well, in 1995, the world found out how safe this safe area was. In July, Serbian President Radovan Karadzic issued the following directive:

"Complete the physical separation of Srebrenica from Žepa as soon as possible, preventing even communication between individuals in the two enclaves. By planned and well-thought out combat operations, create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival or life for the inhabitants of Srebrenica."

Tensions started mounting and the peacekeeping force kept sending missives for reinforcements. None came...hail United Nations!!! Remember the scene from Hotel Rwanda?Well, 8000 men of combat age were taken out of refugee camps and were slaughtered. Yesterday, 4 of the perpetrators were sentenced in Serbia( first such indictment within Serbia of the numerous war crimes committed by the army there in the Balkan conflict). Radovan Karadzic is still at large.

Bottom line, United Nations needs to be revamped. There have been too many massacres in last 20 years and only a powerful international force with means and moral force can help. NATO did a good job when they decided to intervene in Kosovo to avoid the repetition of Srebrenica but they also ignored Rwanada Burundi. Why? This selectivity has to go. UN, and US being the most powerful nation in its roster, need to be much more forceful and develop much better quick mandates. That is the only hope otherwise the world is not short of people like Karadzic, Milosevic, Omar Al-Bashir, Charles Taylor, Foday Sankoh...the list goes on.

Finally, Some Gunshots..

2007-03-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

Finally, I got to hear some gunshots on the street where my apartment is...and for sure, it was a reminder that I live in downtown Los Angeles. At least a dozen people have died in gang related violence in this year within 2 mile radius of my place but somehow I had started to believe that I was immune to it...till it happened today.

Everyone was safe but I did see folks running for cover. I was planning to go out to get some food but then I decided to stay home and cook something. I think I have done a great job till now of understanding that in downtown, you don't go out after it gets dark. But when you hear gunshots in the afternoon, then you begin to think....you begin to question the frameworks which you have built for yourself..and that is what I am doing right now and I am not sure if I have a solution. Believe me, it is fun to know that you stay within 30 miles of Pamela Anderson but it is no fun to hear gunshots in broad day light. It helps keep things real but I guess sometimes its better to leave the reality behind.

Cheering when Texas scores: PRICELESS?

2007-03-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

I finally found this picture and it is crazy. 2006 was a bad year for all of USC football fans because of the two games we lost in the Rose Bowl. The first one was specially painful. Losing to Texas( and that massive machine called Vince Young) on 4th January was something...I still remember how the whole downtown went silent as Texas pounded two touchdowns in the last 6 minutes. And then, someone sent this picture and I was like..What The F*$#. In general, under no circumstances would I feel bad about anything the beautiful cheerleaders of USC do but this one was just too much....just a little too much!!!

Blazeflashed!!!

2007-03-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

Check out the site of this courier company called Blazeflash(http://www.blazeflash.com/). If you thought that India is jumping one full generation and going to the next level of technology, this site should definitely be a grim reminder.

Right now, this company is carrying my undergrad degree to Los Angeles from New Delhi. I was even told a tracking number and that's when I realized what was wrong. It first took me three "Next" tabs to reach the page where I can put my tracking number. By the way, the site is powered by some company called Tellusys( pronounced Tell-Us-Yes)!!!.

So coming back to the Next tabs, first page talks about 100% efficiency in tracking system!!! The next Next tab shows the picture of the new CEO and the final Next tab shows some graphs about company's growth. Goddammit...........finally I arrive at the page where I hoped I can enter the tracking number. I finally find the place where I enter the number and true to the 100% tracking efficiency, I am not able to track anything!!! One other awesome aspect of the site is a link called "Proximity with VVIPs". Check it out..http://www.blazeflash.com/proximity.htm

I have had my fill and I am scared that they have the custody of a very important document. I also have some words for the person who got this degree issued...Rahul Agarwal(suave in shades above!!!) is a great person, a great friend but now, I have the following to say to him:

Sending a copy of "Lost Degree" Ad to Delhi from Jaipur: 30 rupees

Tip to the courier guy from whom you collected the document: 10 rupees

Sending the degree by Blazeflash to Los Angeles and losing the friendship of a great friend: PRICELESS

The Indispensable Nation

2007-03-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

Today I heard Madeline Albright, secretary of state in Clinton administration and the first woman to have served in this position. Many consider her one of the better secretaries of state US has had, especially for her role in stopping the genocide in Kosovo. She can also be credited for getting very close to a solution to the middle east problem and visiting Pyong Yang to meet Kim Jong Il. Despite her successes, there is also a huge blemish on Clinton administration- Rwandan genocide-and Madeline Albright can be attributed some blame. She was first the ambassador to UN and then secretary of state when Hutus and Tutsis ripped each other apart.

I thought that she had one interesting insight about modern world and role for American in the same. The role of being the ultimate referee and an indispensable nation. America first made itself indispensable in subtle ways after the 1st World War at the Leagues of Nations.....Then, in very explicit terms in the 2nd World War. It is anyone's guess what would have happened if America had decided not to jump into Europe's war. Since the fall of communism, America again played that role wonderfully well by first kicking out Iraq from Kuwait and then intervening in Kosovo.

The current administration confused this indispensability with the license to do whatever they want to around the world. Iraq war is the example which people quote...there are numerous other example...unilateral pullout from Kyoto negotiations, problems with Europe, the whole axis of evil rhetoric...the list just goes on. I have said it at some other places in this blog and I repeat it. America earned some tremendous goodwill since the end of the 2nd World War and this administration squandered it all in 6 years.

Despite the current reputation of America around the world, the world still needs America's power and its moral force. The problem is that US has lost the moral high ground to preach people around the world. One way to regain that high ground could be to divert American power to solve problems in Africa...and there are plenty of them there. I don't think anyone would have any problem if America sends troops to bring some order in some of the worst war zones in Africa. Darfur is a great example. And what America recently did in Somalia along with Ethiopia is an example of what can be achieved. The whole world needs this indispensable nation and has the right to get it back from the clutches of incompetence.

Heckling The President

2007-03-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to hear George Bush Sr. today at a speaker series here in Los Angeles. The former president focused about his upbringing and the influence his family had on him while he was growing up, especially his mother. He also talked about how the value system he inherited from his family helped him become a better person and a better leader.

When he started answering questions, someone from the crowd stood up and shouted" Why didn't you teach these values to your son". He listened to it peacefully and then got up saying " Where is my cane?"...awesome....absolutely awesome response. For someone at his age who just had dehydration in this Los Angeles heat yesterday,to have come and delivered a speech for an hour and then get heckled is unfair. Irrespective of what your allegiances are ( and I must say that I am not a huge fan of the current president), it still doesn't warrant a hit job. And when you do a hit job on an old man like this guy, don't you lose the right to feel bad about what Chris Wallace did to Clinton on Fox News Sunday?

There was more shouting but overall the former president displayed fine composure. The second aspect which one needs to remember is that George Bush Sr. was a much better president when it came to foreign policy. His foreign policy, contrary to the current administration's policies, was very much grounded in reality. He went into Iraq by first legitimizing the fight in the Arab world and then getting France on board. No wonder, even after Saddam shot Scuds into Israel, none of the Arab countries decided to quit the coalition. Today, he also talked about how he decided to avoid public show of glee over the fall of the Berlin Wall. Democrats pushed him to do that but he had no doubt that it would only strengthen hard line communists and tighten controls in satellite states of Eastern Europe.

Overall, a great talk & a great event and irrespective of what you think of the Bush family, George Bush Sr. is a great speaker and will go down as one of the more successful American presidents.

Trusting A Dictator..

2007-03-10T02:40:00.000-08:00

Just came back watching "The Last King Of Scotland"....the movie is about Idi Amin and his Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan. I won't tell you why a movie about a Ugandan dictator is called The Last King Of Scotland but in general the movie is good. It is a grim reminder of the reality in a forgotten part of the world. Dictators in Africa are not a thing of the past and movies like these do contribute in generating awareness about plight of a whole continent.

Forest Whitaker has done a great job playing Idi Amin. Idi like tons of other dictators we know about is unsecure and supremely unpredictable. One day the Scottish doctor is his advisor, his best advisor and the only one he can trust, and next day he is nobody. The doctor soon enough knows that for anyone around this monster, the days are definitely numbered. Think of Saddam Husein( and his legendary purge right at the beginning of his reign) and Musharraf's famous purge of folks like Muhammad Aziz( guy who orchestrated the coup for Musharraf when he was in the air)....not to forget the biggest monster of all, Stalin.