Chilled out Sunday!!

Had a chilled out Sunday yesterday. It was Hemisha's birthday and so we woke up late, enjoyed a lazy lunch at the Pan Asian and then came home and crashed while watching the Seven Samurais - Woke up watched the finals of the IPLT20 and then did some reading, a late night sandwich and then woke up today all ready to face the new week. Life's been a blur lately with lots of travel and deal making as I'm getting close to launching the company that I've been working on for the past year and so this was a much needed break.

Amazing

I just saw this article today. I'm amazed. It talks about how they have photographed uncontacted tribes. I'm unclear about why an NGO called Survival International is fighting to keep them uncontacted though - I'm thinking would I have preferred it if the more advanced cavemen discovered my ancestor cavemen in the forest and left them there or would I have wanted the more advanced cavemen to have made contact with my ancestors and told them about fire, the wheel etc. and taken them along to find the best place in the forest to settle down and build a colony? Interesting thoughts these are on a Saturday afternoon.

Interesting Sunday

Me and Hemisha had an interesting Sunday. Started the day by tracking the elections in Karnataka (my home state) and then lunch followed by a late afternoon brainless movie - Be Kind Rewind - Do watch it if you want to see the English equivalent of a Govinda movie and my guarantee- you will use the word Sweded many times in the following week. Something interesting - we watched it at the new Oberoi Mall and seated with us during the movie was Kumaramangalam Birla and family - He's the 7th richest Indian. I was very impressed by how down-to-earth he and his family was. They stood in line with us at the box office, spent about an hour walking around the mall killing time before the movie and I guess had a good time through it. It's nice to see a billionaire from one of India's wealthiest families making efforts to ensure he and his family live a normal down to earth life. On another note, I'm definitely getting a feeling now that the change that started in India about 2 years ago is now becoming visible. You have the first of the world class malls, residential complexes etc. getting ready and it's exciting to see the country modernize itself. But thats the topic of another post!!!

Good Will Hunting - my fav. quote

Saw Good Will Hunting tonight - really enjoyed it. I thought I'd share a quote from the movie that really struck me. It struck me for it's simplicity and also for the contradiction that in spite of it being obvious when put so directly, we end up naively believing that we can read about things and substitute that for real life experience. This dialog really struck a chord with me. I've snipped it from IMDB.com

Sean is Robin Williams - a so-called failed shrink and Will is Matt Damon - a disturbed genius with a troubled past who was sent to Sean for counseling.

Sean: So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that. If I ask you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. And I'd ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, "once more unto the breach dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap, watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help. I'd ask you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn't know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms "visiting hours" don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. And look at you... I don't see an intelligent, confident man... I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you're a genius Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my fucking life apart. You're an orphan right?
[Will nods]
Sean: You think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are, because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally... I don't give a shit about all that, because you know what, I can't learn anything from you, I can't read in some fuckin' book. Unless you want to talk about you, who you are. Then I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't want to do that do you sport? You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief.

Finally -- google docs goes offline

I have posted earlier about how revolutionary Google Gears would be and how this will be key in google's quest to push microsoft over the edge. Google has finally launched google docs offline. This takes them now into direct competition with Microsoft. Now whats the next big thing ? Gmail offline if you ask me.

cheers,

Do techies get preferential treatment?

Yesterday myself and Hemisha caught up with Sunil Purushe – the big man from Rediff for dinner at Rice boat – a nice keralite food restaurant. The conversation at the end of the day went to an interesting topic – in short, my wife and Sunil felt that today techies get away with lots of things – casual dressing, reporting late and in general eccentric behavior which the rest of the working class are not allowed to do. They felt that organizations should enforce some sort of organizational discipline and there should be some norms for how people should go to work – e.g. people should not have long hair, be disheveled, wear t-shirts to work etc. etc. They felt that by giving preferential treatment to a section of people – companies were being very unfair and that is leading to techies feeling that they can get away with concessions in all areas.

I personally am very confused about this issue. We are in a day and age when organizations need the best people. A good programmer can do in a day what 20 mediocre programmers will not be able to do even after 5 days. These guys have high expectations and certain privileges have become industry norms. How are we as an organization going to attract and retain these people while maintaining a balance with the rest of the staff – sales, biz dev, accounting etc.

It would be interesting to hear the views of other people here. Anyone out there?

Insight from 37000 feet

I've written earlier about what I like in business ideas.

"I feel by virtue of being in senior management positions at another company that was a market leader, the founders firstly have perspective into a problem that comes from being at the center of the vortex and secondly they come in with a rolodex of contacts and an understanding of industry processes that will just help them get their new business off the ground faster."

The link here is a good example of that insight being crystallized by a company and then shared with the rest of the world. I love the fact that it comes from a company I have grown to adore and respect. Everyone will enjoy reading this. I think this is a good example of the insight that people get by being market leaders and being able to watch a large number of transactions or customer behaviors when you are the market leader. I'll probably write another post on this later. Enjoy the weekend!!

My failings

Hi Everyone,

This is going to be a very difficult post to write and its coming after I have had a really long day.


Over the years, multiple of my friends have told me what my bad qualities are and somehow most of them have a common thread - lots of my friends feel I am judgemental, nit-picky and sometimes tend to get focussed on very minor unimportant issues. I also get very argumentative and usually in the arguments come across as having a lack of respect for the other persons point of view - a common thing I get from others is that it is very difficult to convince me to see an alternate point of view when I have set my mind on something. This really worries me.

I feel today I'm at a stage of my life where I have achieved certain things - a fair deal of success in my personal and professional life, some good friends etc. I feel these habits are very dangerous and if I look back on the past ten years of my life they have probably cost me the friendship of many close friends and to have parted ways with business partners and to not be on talking terms with some ex-employees.
I know some of you might feel I am making a mountain out of a molehill but it's actually true - I do. To give you an example there are people who have probably borrowed money from me - 1000 Indian rupees and I for a long time categorized them as thieves and cheats. For such minor issues I have ended up being petty and spoiling my relationship with perfectly nice people who I would love to still hang out with.

I need to let go and relax. To forgive and forget. And to see things in shades of Grey instead of black or white. Why does this have to be so difficult? Why do I expect everyone else to be super passionate about their work and super committed and super hard working? Why do I set these high standards for myself and then keeping missing my own deadlines and keep scrambling for air? These are unfortunately some of my character flaws and I battle with them on a daily basis. These flaws end up hurting me as I end up disturbing my relationships with those near and dear to me and making me feel lonely.

So here's what I will try and do:
* set lower standards for myself and those around me
* as opposed to demanding that people show me the passion and expecting them to keep giving, I'll try and be giving in creating a nurturing environment for them
* I'll try and not think in black and white and slow down and think before I speak so I speak in Grey.
* will go out of my way to help people achieve the goals I have set for them.
* will try and not be strongly opinionated in general.

Sorry people for the long winded post but these character flaws disturb me and I want to work on then before I end up hurting anyone close to me. So next time you see me being judgmental or unnecessarily opinionated, point that out to me. You will be doing me a favor. Cheers,

Finally some good music

Had a very good weekend. Saturday and Sunday was the One Tree Music festival in Mumbai. Watching Robert Cray and Jose Feliciano live and in some very good weather was amazing. For some time I actually felt that Mumbai's gonna be a great place to be over the next few years and the place is slowly but steadily becoming a global cosmopolitan city.

Kalam Agenda for Republic day 2008

Ex- President A.P.J. Abdul kalam is a person who I really respect. He was a really good president and one who was able to inspire the country to rise above petty issues. Below is his message on Republic Day 2008 - nicely written (p.s. taken from Rediff.com )

Dear friends, let me share with you a seven-point resolve on the occasion of ensuing Republic Day 2008:

1. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind -- *What can I give?*

2. Whatever the mission I will do, my motto will be *to work with integrity and succeed with integrity.*

3. I will always remember that *my winged days, be not spent in vain*.

4. I realise I have to set a great goal that will *lead me to think high*, work and realise the goal.

5. My greatest friends will be *great human beings, great teachers and great books*.

6. I will firmly believe that no problem can defeat me; *I will become the captain of the problem, defeat the problem and succeed.*

7. My National Flag flies in my heart and I will bring glory to my nation.