Bloggy Day!

Browsing the Web, their way!

2007-03-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

I just happened to be gazing at nothingness for a while now thinking about why and who decides how one can browse through the net. If you dont understand me yet, then you are doing well, dont lose hope yet! What I am talking about is how browsers save your tree of visited links, a history of browsing - to help you go back and forth. You can choose "back" to go back to the link where you came from and choose "forward" to come back to where you started. Now the oddity is you go back and "branch" to another link, you cant come back to where you started! Well... you just cant get "Back to the Future", can you??!! It looks like time has passed while you were in the past and your future is erased! Welcome to the present!

Beethoven's sixth sense!

2007-03-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

Beethoven, a musical genius! and I wont say more because all of my creative words will do no ounce of justice to the great that he was, is, and will always be! To think and live through multiple threads of melody from different instruments when all in a symphony evokes the deepest emotions is hard enough, and to do it when you are almost deaf is... "Bethoven"!
Listen to my favorite Beethoven's symphony - the romantic 6th performed by a veteran conductor Karajan (thanks to YouTube). It has the typical four movements but the best part is it has his experiment with programmatic music that beautifully evokes emotions (especially the first movement)!

Redesigned template

2007-03-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, so google has at last added some what you can call cool new features to the much neglected blogger.com. I realized it when I tried to change the blog template and I accidentally erased all my previous customizations - thanks to the ubiquitous "warning" dialog that we are all so used to blindly clicking 'ok'! I dont understand why blogger cant save the old structure. After my anger died down, slowly I crawled at sewing the bits and pieces of my old structure I had in mind. And in the process explored some new features of template customization, most of which can be achieved using mouse clicks but you also have the option to hand edit the template. My knowledge of XHTML is not great, but the beauty of XML is how much one can guess and learn from its structure without ever opening "XHTML for dummies"! So there... I hope you like the new content here, especially the new RSS feeds...

Five months of hibernation

2007-03-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hmmm... feels like waking up from a long night of uninterrupted sleep. The last few months of hibernation have been quite a journey of troubles and triumphs, failed actions and perseverance, of lightning strikes and eclipses, new thoughts and nostalgia, of acceptance and fight... of laughter and despair. And the journey of life continues with new dreams... hope to continue to pen a piece of my mind here as I face clear skies and new storms...

Mediocre mentality

2006-10-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

A lot is said about the mediocre mentality in India. They say quality sense is absent, there is no attention to detail etc. Comments like these come from none other than our own people. I cant blame them. But I'd like to know why this accusation is landing on the very same people who designed an organized language like Sanskrit. People who knew quality methods of agriculture and cultivation when much of the world was still hunting. People who brought out the temple architecture - with a distinct flavor of sculpting in each part of the country. The carving of facial expressions, the beading of stone rings (found in Sringeri) - if thats not quality and attention to detail I dont know what is. But why are we still mediocre?

Well, I think mediocrity crept in during the post independence period. Its amazing how economics can affect the attitude of masses. Take for instance, the economic theory adopted by Nehru that encouraged monopoly in every area. With monopoly there couldnt have been innovation - both the public sector and private monopolised in their areas. Without the much needed innovation there couldnt have been quality. The post independence generation were consistently exposed to low quality high cost products forcing them to believe India cannot produce high quality products. Not to mention the other side effect it had on people - get a government job and get paid salary regardless of performance and a hefty pension after retirement. Absolutely no competition!

Other post-independence government policies also affected the attitude - reservation encouraged only mediocrity. Trade unionism also made sure that people were averaged than distinguished. No incentive to perform, no need for innovation, no improvization, no expectation only meant degradation of quality. In fact a similar thing happened in China, only difference was the way it was reversed by the communist govt. With coalition politics in India, such a reversal is indeed just a hope.

Configured wifi on Fedora

2006-03-10T00:03:00.000-08:00

I finally succeeded in configuring the wifi driver for my netgear pc card a fortnight ago. Since then I also downloaded and configured some new windows look-alike fonts, some browsers, a movie player etc...! Everythingz fine now except the graphics - windows graphics looks far superior on the same lcd... dunno if thats the best linux can perform - am trying to tweak the X server installation. I also want to replace my ATI video card with a better one...

PS: For some reason I am unable to publish this blog from linux - I dont think its the browser, I tried firefox, mozilla and netscape. publishing from windows for now ;)...

Encouraging efficiency

2006-03-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

The IIMs are in the news again. And yet again for reasons not related to their excellence, but related to government interference. When will the fat political outfit get any sense into their minds? The IIMA's placement services will now come under the service tax net. Why? Because its easy for politicians to tax the efficiency in the premier educational institutions. When IIMs proposed to increase the fee structure to improve facilities and educational standards of one of world's most prestigious institutions, the stupid government had to put its foot down against it for reasons of affordability by the poor (which in itself is because of the government's other policies!). They want some useless ministry to monitor the profits and earnings of the institution (for lack of any better work to do). The education ministry has done nothing to promote education in urban areas, forget rural ones. But when it comes to taxing, no stone will be left unturned. The thugs are thinking of reservation in private companies, control in private and public supported institutions of any kind and now, tax the placement services of IIMs. Wah!! When Karnataka and Maharashtra attract foreign investment and bring in more money in taxes, the central government gives as grants to states such as Bihar for a laloo to fund his scams. Less productive states get more grants because they are "poor". They are not poor - they are only poorly and disgustingly managed. Show me one policy that rewards high productivity and efficiency?

The IIMs have long enjoyed the autonomy and autonomy has been the pivotal reason for their success not just as a premier institute but also as a great incubator to some of India's best managed rural businesses. The IIMs are run like efficient business houses, with a lot of collaboration from universities and industries both at home and abroad. The 21st century has brought in technology that has unprecedented ramifications in the education sector. However it takes careful investment in the right technologies to sustain the premier status of these institutes. They have to continually think about new ways to fund their activities. If the cost of business education in the US is any indicator, we know how the IIMs are struggling to keep pace while being haggled by the government. Besides, most of the placement service charges the institutes collect are spent on arranging the interviews, the facilities such as overhead projectors, printing scanning and other equipment. However, the companies may pay a higher gratuity (meaning extra) for having the luxury of handpicking their apprentices and for the institute's premier status. If this money is well spent on advancing the institutes fundamental agenda, I see the service tax as just a low hanging fruit for the government. Besides its not that they are not going to mop up millions from that, are they? While local private colleges are running scams by accepting huge sums of money supposedly meant for infrastructure, but misappropriated elsewhere, an efficiently run institute gets the axe for performing. Welcome home!

Chronic Competition?

2006-02-12T19:56:00.000-08:00

I've always wanted to write about typically influenced behavior. We know that there is terrific competition in all fields especially in India - the arts, science, medicine etc. But there is also this peer-to-peer competition between kids (and adults alike) of the same generation, relatives and friends. This is what I want to call chronic competition (for lack of a better word, feel free to suggest). In our local language, this can be called "paipoti" which goes to such an extent as might be used to mean antagonism. Its interesting how impressions are made and how everyone has an idea of that perfect life that they'd like to be in. For kids have to score astronomical marks (and probably have to come first in class!), as they grow up they have to get into the best schools, study only the perceived best subjects, get into the day zero company in campus, earn lots of money... it goes on and on. And it doesnt stop there. As adults have to carry the tradition further onto their personal and professional lives. Yet... yet, its rare that anyone is living that perfect life.

Everyone's life is different, can be different, can be *made* different by will. The spice to life is the uncertainty. Nobody needs to live anyone else's life. The more different its made, the more colorful it gets. Isnt that innovation all about? Everyone's mind thinks differently - its hopeless to make it think pathetically and boringly as another! Am I thinking differently enuf?

Caricatures by mad men

2006-02-08T22:35:00.000-08:00

Well the recent Danish newspaper cartoon controversy is definitely condemnable - although personally I do believe that Islam is extremely untolerant of the slightest of humor. Closer home here, an FM jockey made unprovoked jokes about Islam - whats with these RJ's, dont they have anything better but religion? However, the most extreme of reactions that I cant but wonder what kind of a mad man would paint caricatures of Hindu Gods as if in retaliation to the Danish act!!?? Such is the wonder of our very own M.F.Hussain who has time and again abused his artistic license and yes... turned in insincere apologies after the damage is done. If you ask me, I'd vouch for his permanent residency in a correctional facility.

Monopoly invented in India?

2006-02-07T15:47:00.000-08:00

I went to the pantry for my late morning tea. One of my colleagues who apparently had lost to me in ping pong was making his coffee. He said "How come I dont see you playing ping pong lately?". I replied "Its the season of Trump - the game". And then we were in a discussion about the game (Trump of Apprentice fame). I was telling him how close to Monopoly the theme of Trump was. It had become the after office past-time and we got close to addiction when we finally let go. Anyway, what was more interesting was what he told me regarding Monopoly. He is a Ukranian - in those bad old days of "commi" rule, he said "We used to get smuggled kits of Monopoly that were made in India" (I guess this is a fallout of India's non-aligned strategy!). And he thought this game was invented in India. Well... I dont know about that, but what struck me in the face was how east European countries were as backward as Asian countries because of communism (its another thing that we were backward with a bustling rich democracy!). Nevertheless this came as a moment of pleasant surprise and a lil pride.

Bonne journée!

Freedom at midnight

2006-02-05T22:26:00.000-08:00

Sometime ago I had written a blog with a review on the book by former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew. Recently when I was browsing for some econo-blogs I found an interesting blog on India and its future. It might look pretty deja vu and a harper, but nevertheless makes for a good reading.

Check it out Freedom at midnight.

Control freak

2006-02-03T14:53:00.000-08:00

Its been quite a terrible morning for me so far today. I woke up a lil early to start my work early and leave early for the weekend, but bham!!! just when I was thinkin' I have control over my life - found I had a flat tyre. Upon careful examination I was suspecting sabotage - someone had stuck a knife into my tyre. It was very clear. But who? I hardly know anyone in the community here. But it doesnt have to be someone from the community - we live in an un-gated apartment complex so the whole citizenry is welcome to enter and vandalize to glory!!

I looked in the glove compartment to find the free roadside assistance manual. Found the number and punched it in... only to be put on hold forever (when they say free assistance you need to take it with a pinch of salt, dont you??!!...). I said to myself "Screw them! I can fix it myself". After all I wanted to be early... wanted to be in control of my life... now was a chance... I better fix it myself!

I started to get the jack under my car... but wait!! there must be an easier way ;)... I opened my purse and the AAA card was flashing right at me!! Cummon... these AAA guys are very efficient... very controlled!!... I could use some of their efficiency. Punched in the number... ten minutes later I heard the noisy AAA truck pull over near my carport. A huge seemingly white guy jumped out and asked me "Whats wrong Sir?". He took a good look at it, and then said the very same thing I had feared. I asked him "Who would do this? and why?" almost thinking aloud again. He said "thats a very interesting question! where are you from?". I said "I am from India". He continued "so are you a sikh, arab, hindu... what are you?". Clearing my throat I replied "I am a hindu". He continued "well... someone aint like you Sir!!"... "see I am from Lebanon... but do I look like I am an arab?"... I didnt know what to say. I thought ppl had been educated against hate crimes (well I hope!). I may never know what really happened! Well racism apart, I had recovered from the day's wonderful start - so it was time to look forward for the day...

Blog comments' spamming

2006-01-30T18:18:00.000-08:00

I just enabled the anti-spam feature for commenting in blogspot (it asks you to type the word in the pix - the usual technique). Its gonna be a lil bit more effort for legitimate commenters - but I prefer it - it took quite an effort to delete spam comments.

Configuring Wifi on Fedora Core 4

2006-01-27T11:39:00.000-08:00

This blog is really a question. I recently installed Fedora (Red Hat Linux) Core 4 on my laptop. I was amazed to find that the installation was smoother than any OS I had ever installed. Just when I was thinking everything waz smooth I got stuck getting my wifi card recognized. I have a Netgear WG511T PCMCIA wireless card that uses the Atheros super-G chipset. Now from my google efforts I found that they do have a driver for this chipset for Linux. But I hit a dead-end when the link from Atheros to sourceforge was broken. Continuing my quest I found they had actually moved it to a new website www.madwifi.net or something like that. I followed instructions from there and a forum to download shareutils + build the source with my kernel - but as expected it didnt work.

The alternative of course was to use a NDIS wrapper or a commercial software from www.linuxant.com. This was interesting as a concept - the wrappers wrap around your windows driver so you wouldnt need a native driver. This really was for cards that didnt have a native linux driver. Besides, linuxant charges 20 bucks for their software so not truly open-source friendly.

My LAN card however gets recognized without a glitch. Thats nice because I can browse the net from within Linux and continue my pursuit. I also have a built-in Centrino wireless from Philips for which I couldnt find a driver. So... please help!

Education System - II

2005-06-15T03:01:00.000-07:00

Well hullo there!! its been a long time since I penned my mind over here. I just realised that I had the part II of my older blog "Education System" that was in draft status. My line of thought has since then faded so am gonna just stop where it last faded and hopefully rekindle my thoughts sometime. So here goees...

Education begins at home. A lot of parents think education is what is learnt in school and what teachers are for. But education is indeed a community affair. Children learn to imitate and follow better than do what parents tell them to do. So its futile to impress upon "do what I say, dont do what I do" theory because it wont work. In their learning, children make a lot of mistakes, which they should. And the parents (among others in the community) must be very sensitive in how they tackle children's mistakes in as much as not discourage them. It must be communicated that its ok to not know something, the emphasis must be more on learning it (if its really interesting to them). A lot of children although have creative ideas fail to make the point precisely for fear of this stigma.

The most essential skill to be learned is communication. Its the means of exchanging ideas effectively and the very basis of success. In my experience I have learnt that most children do have very creative ways of narrating events, but we seem to insist on brevity, for lack of time or patience or whatever the reason. This kills the creativity and children grow to become adults with inadequate creative communication skills...

Hole in the Wall experiment

2005-06-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

The Hole in the Wall experiment of NIIT is a unique concept of minimally invasive education. To test the concept, NIIT setup a computer terminal on a wall in a slum in Delhi. What they found was amazing - kids quickly learned to operate the computer without instruction. They learned through experimentation, by sharing and exchanging howto's and learned some english in the process as well. NIIT has now setup 108 such kiosks across the country in rural areas and urban slums (they have also setup in Cambodia).

The concept is to educate by stirring kids' curiosity. In rural areas where girls are not sent to closed room schools, the parents have no problem sending their girls to open internet kiosks. Some of the challenges NIIT faced in setting up kiosks in rural areas and the solutions they adopted are - unreliable electricity (solar panels with UPS backup), low bandwidth or non-existent internet access (VSAT links), tough weather conditions due to outdoor setup (completely boxed components with impact protectors) etc. This shoots up the initial cost of a kiosk to more than a lakh - one area where government investment and private participation must go hand in hand. Government of Delhi was one of the first adopters of this concept.

Check out Hole in the Wall.

Empowering rural India

2005-06-09T06:09:00.000-07:00

The Telecommunications and Computer Networking Group (TeNeT) of IIT-Madras draws faculty and allumni into developing various projects with rural Indian setup in mind.

My aunt who is a professor in IIT-M leads many projects in this group. This is what I was told about the "GramaTeller", an ATM targetted for basic banking and lending services in rural areas. Typically a rural farmer's credit requirement is perhaps a few 10s or 100s of rupees. This would enable her to sell her produce for a day. Currently this is fulfilled by informal money lenders who charge high rates of interest. Although banking is prevalent in many rural areas, paperwork for credit and other banking needs makes it less usable. This ATM aims to disburse small credit faster in a more organized way amongst providing other banking services as well.

Check out the other projects here.

Private inter-city bus system in India

2005-06-05T16:14:00.000-07:00

The private bus services between major cities and some even between small towns in India is a pretty unique concept. A lot of tier II towns and their connecting rural areas in India are not so well connected by train (which is by far the most economical transport for the masses). This leaves a wide gaping hole and a good business opportunity (although a little tricky) for private players. Hence, they carefully select the destinations to connect in order not to run parallel to cheaper modes of transport unless there is sufficient market for both or they can sell a unique niche.

In routes where train service is absent, there is an opportunity for ferrying both people as well as cargo. This is quite typical of many important routes connected by private buses. From hard parcels to food products to flowers, the buses get loaded upto more than half its own height. Many new bus builders build separate cargo spaces both in the belly and on top. With newer bus makers like the Volvo with superior power and the abolishing of bus-manufacturer-sells-only-chasis (I read this somewhere, not sure where!) the private bus companies can look forward to more technological support in this regard. K.S.R.T.C ferries only people, and runs between many not so profitable routes and still shows good profit, hence private bus services must be very profitable too. In a recent interaction with a private bus driver, I was told that on many routes the private bus companies can run empty and still not see the red.

In Karnataka, the private bus service between Udupi and Mangalore is a great example of efficient private transport. Kamat tourist who runs between Bangalore and Hyderabad ferries vegetables (that are cheaper and fresher in Bangalore) to Kamat hotels in Hyderabad (among other cargo of course).

As can be expected, advantages of private buses are that they are cleaner and better maintained for more comfort. However, since cargo also gets ferried in most cases, buses maybe delayed. For routes where traffic is less, the buses will be stopped at various points to fill the bus before leaving for the destination. Same might be the case at destination (if cargo gets unloaded before people do) which can be more annoying. Plying on Indian highways has never been an easy deal and one can only imagine the bus drivers' plight on routes that are less fortunate. All in all, I think private bus companies have done a good job in connecting many of India's towns and cities.

Education System

2005-06-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

Much has been talked about our education system. About private partnerships, government regulation, industry interaction etc. I think for one, fundamentally our education has been tilted more towards scientific knowledge. Not as opposed to spiritual knowledge, but we seem to ignore Civic sense, behavioral sense, mannersims and even communication. These are essentials to a community living, to co-operate for a peaceful co-existence. These are the protocol that everyone must agree and understand to "live and let live". Acquiring scientific knowledge must also be part of education but the basic essential education must be emphasised to be learned first.

For another, education is sometimes defined as an "enlightning experience", naturally therefore it should follow the path of participating, learning, making mistakes, correcting and practicing to perfection. Hence the underlying requirement is the will to attempt, to face failure and learn. Its always failure that teaches, and yet I feel our society has been harsh on failures. What this has led to is an uncomfortable educational experience, where people tread a carefully narrow path and avoid attempting new things or even learn from mistakes. It definitely cannot be generalized but is most often the case. Consider the road, where the very first instinct after a minor accident is to flee, rather than to apologize. Its a dishonor to make a mistake in the eyes of the society and thus people tend to fight against accepting it a mistake, than learning from it.

Education must also be holistic and not examination based. Most examinations and entrance tests are a single point of success or failure - such as the IIT-JEE. Also we need to move from knowledge based to application-of-knowledge based. The acquired knowledge must be put into use and the skill of applying what is learnt to benefit humanity must be the core of education. Since the process of learning requires time, a candidate's performance is best measured over a reasonable period of time. Open book exams are a good way to measure application of knowledge since real life is closer to that. Real life problems are solved not by memorizing and vomitting in a two hour long ordeal but by constantly acquiring relevant information and applying that to get a solution. Hence closed book exams must be complimented by open book ones.

End of Part - I. ;-)

Columbia controversy

2005-05-23T04:20:00.000-07:00

I just have one thing to say about the Nooyi episode. The gist of what she was trying to advice was to correct the perception of the rest of the world about the US, to not send the wrong message. If that were really her objective, she failed miserably to correct the perception of the rest of the class of 2005, and sent the wrong message herself! How typical?!!

You can read the transcript released by PepsiCo first hand here.
She seems to have a way of quoting, as can be seen here in the opening quote - 1968 movie "The Party" (a perfect example to quote in a FICCI seminar in Indian setting?!!)

Driving on US Roads - III

2005-05-22T00:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the third edition of driving on US roads. In this edition I want to devote to thumb rules and ethics (maybe these appear in the DMV handbook somewhere but who'd bother reading the fine print?). You would need to know atleast some of the basic untold rules especially when driving on freeways. For instance, on a two-lane freeway if you do happen to enjoy your surrounding nature more than watch your speed (in short, if you want to drive slow) you better stick to the right lane. This is an official rule, but what is unofficial is even if you are topping at the edge of the speed limit on a left lane there are gonna be souls wanting to test the freeway patrol's patience. They would "tail-gate" you if you happen to be in their way. How do you know if they are tail-gating? well... unlike in Bangalore where they'd leave no switch unpressed (whether it is the loud honk or the dimmer) here in the west they use a different switch. If you cant see the car's bonnet but can see only the driver and his windshiled in your rear view mirror, you know the guy behind (apparently turning red) is tail-gating you. They oscillate between coming too close to you and retrieving back... tail-gate!! You would need to switch to the right lane as soon as possible. If the red herring doesnt see your right blinkers soon enough, he will switch to the right lane himself and dangerously curve right back in front of you! Then you know he is a red hot herring!

Freeways usually run N->S or E->W. Accordingly they will be named for instance 101N or 101S based on which direction you are going. Of course the easy way to find how to get to each side is to follow the million sign boards. If you get overwhelmed by these, you can still find out by following a simple thumb rule. Just before an entrance to a freeway you will usually find a road over bridge across the freeway. If you want to get to the left of the freeway, you need to go over the bridge and take the entrance from there (you drive on the right side here remember?). While if to the right, you need to find the entrance before the bridge. Of course you will find road under bridges that sometimes trick you (especially where you pull over into a gas station on the freeway).

Off of the freeway is not an easy ride either. One of the most complicated in-city situations is in a road crossing with no traffic lights. You need to remember who came first! Man... who says we are dumb? Another is when the road you are entering into has a stop sign but not the one you are on. If you try to let them go thinking they came first, you are in for a cool surprise! They wont - they have a stop sign, not you! So you are king (atleast until you return). You might even be abused for your humanity! But how can you know if they have a stop sign? (naturally I assume you dont have laser equipped reflective eyes! whatever that means ;-)) The one way you can find out is look for an octogonal sign board facing the other road - stop signs are usually in this shape. But the DMV suggests you to stop only if you see a stop sign on your road - so you could even bulldoze straight ahead without bothering if you dont have one, but try me!!!

Welcome to my old friends

2005-05-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

Recently added some of my great old friends (Gops, Harsha and Balbir) into my Blog-network (on the side bar). And thanks to them for inspiring me to be a lil bit more creative on how my blog looks like (well, its a glorified way of saying - Thanks for letting me copy many creative things from your blogs!) HTML is truly open source you see...

Welcome to my blog guys... and do leave your mark on what you think about my blogs. Au revior!

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

2005-05-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

I am reading this book titled "From third world to first - the Singapore story" by none other than its most admired leaders - Lee Kuan Yew. I think the book was originally written in Chinese and translated to English, and is a great account of how Singapore grew from practically nothing to what it is today totally under his leadership. It probably is also a good text book for someone who is interested in juggling economics with political obstacles. I however felt it a little monotonous since its more of an account or a diary of the last 40 years of Singapore's independent existence, so my advice for you is not to do cover-to-cover soon, coz if you do you will miss the point (and probably end up not reading it at all!). This is not a gist of whats in the book but rather my opinions - Go read the book for yourself ;-)!

Its rather amazing that the birth of independent Singapore had to be an eventuality than done by choice (Singapore joined the Malaysian federation in 1959, but was expelled in 1965). Who would think about making a country the size of Singapore (300 sq km in all I guess) and better yet lead it to economic success? With such small land, no natural resources (no hinterland) and muddled with immigrants from many asian countries with different language and culture backgrounds... what ever parameter gets considered, the best bet I wudve thought was survival. Consider this - India became independent by choice (by struggle), by willfull intent for freedom and independence in 1947 which is 18 years before Singapore got its unwanted freedom. And in merely few years after independence Singapore was already chalking out steep graphs of flourishing economics, what India realised reluctantly (and unfulfillingly as well!) only many many years later. Singapore was and is still being run like a business house and just a very well managed one at that! Its hardly a dot in the international map, and yet its the world's number one in non-corrupted states. Its probably world number one in a lot of indices. Tourism is one of Singapore's best managed sectors (and revenue generating as well) - but anyone who toured Singapore in 1965 will agree there is nothing to see! Most stories are similar in pattern - from nothing to everything - from third to first!!

Classical economic theories of the 19th century never worked for the late 20th and early 21st century. The classic economic theory in short - government investment in most sectors, employment for people, closed markets, few imports but more exports etc. What this eventually led to (in both China and India) was the monopoly of the state enterprises, low quality products and practically no innovation due to lack of competition. Local private enterprises were monopolies in their respective markets as well and arm twisted and lobbied against government policies on growth and research. Remember Bajaj - even as late as the 90's, there was a waiting list for its scooters that were basically pre world-war european technology (forget about research, they were unwilling to increase the ouput!). To foster employment, the state enterprises were over employed which meant lesser productivity. The communal reservations and other casteist bases in India only meant more doom. It also increased the rich-poor divide with rampant corruption in the high hands of authority.

But Singapore would take a "not so treaded" path towards greater economic success. Singapore has had open markets by design since its inception. To turn the citizens of a small city state from wretched poverty to english educated netizens in less than a generation has taken a lot of toil and razor focussed efforts by Singapore's leaders. Lee mentions about negotiating American companies to set up their branches in Singapore as early as the 70's when much of ASEAN were sleeping towns! The military airport once used by the British was turned into one of the world's most technologically advanced Changi airport. And the flag carrier airline that was tied up with Malaysian (it was called MAS airlines... you guessed it right!) later became the number one airline in the world - Singapore Airlines had to break away from MAS to fly high!

Singapore has asia'a best financial infrastructure, one of the reasons why Lenovo is opening its headquarters there for the APAC and India region. To quench the thirst of its almost half a million residents, Singapore gets drinking water from Johore Bahru, Malaysia. I was told (by a guide) that Singapore makes a profit by just consuming malaysia's water... It's advanced industrial capacity water purifying infrastructure not only gives pure tap-potable water to its residents but also exports it back for a profit! When I went to Singapore in 2002 I observed a small radio device in a corner of every vehicle and wondered what it could be. Later found that its an automatic toll collecting radio that works pretty much like the EZPass in the US. But instead of toll gates, there are archs (on which is written ERP) that have sensors for each lane that talk to this radio device for automatic collection. The owner can top up the balance at any time. This is a convenience because most roads in Singapore are tollways.

Lee is however critised for his high handedness, soft autocracy and his emphasis on economic reforms more than political reforms. In a way he was also blessed with the elite chinese population which is also the majority in Singapore. Lee was also muddled in a controversy when he encouraged young girls to marry equally educated men. But all in all, Singapore is a success story of the later half of 20th century. Ciao!

Driving on US Roads - II

2005-05-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

I explored three western states the terrains of which range from mountainous to deserts and flat dry lands to greenery. We started from California going down south onto the I-5. After a distance we turned eastwards (maybe south-eastwards) and covered Nevada and Arizona. Talking about names and numbers again, the freeways are all numbered with prefixes that tell you whether you are on a state highway or a national highway or an international highway (well! in Indian language). They call them freeway, inter-state etc. The state freeways are named after the two letter state identifier (such as CA-237). The inter-state or the national freeways are named with the "I" in front of them (like I-5). And there are yet another kind like the US-101. Although I may not be accurate, my theory is these are the international freeways - 101 goes all the way to Canada in the north and perhaps into Mexico in the south.

Our next stop was Las Vegas. As you enter the state of Nevada, you get to see some spectacular flat dry lands - perhaps if your eyes are well nourished you could see a distance of many miles straight ahead. One of the features of US freeways I noticed was the rumblers on either side of the road. They are designed such that it makes a loud enough noise to wake you up should you sway into them. But why would you sway into them? If you've ever driven on freeways you know that freeway driving is one of the most boring things on earth! Unless you are kept awake by loud music or a loud partner(!), you dont even realise falling asleep. Despite this, I have noticed single people driving long in America (somebody teach them to be a lil bit more social). Because most freeways are multi-lane roads, there are also the buttons between the lanes that serve the same purpose as these rumblers on the shoulders. As we drove on I-5 I saw some visual pollution makers - the windmills. However there werent too many of them for too long a distance. A nap after a while I sighted lots of airplanes being parked in a huge area alongside the freeway. It didnt look like an airport, so I was wondering what it could be. Guess what? It was an airplane junkyard!! Welcome to America!

Ok... so that brings me to the last thing I want to mention about driving on US freeways (for now!) - the Rest Area! well... this really serves two purposes, one it keeps people from dying of pressure caused by controlling nature's call (although I havent heard of any deaths like that so far) and two it makes long distance truck drivers' life a lil bit more luxurious! (And a lot of them are sardars remember?) Seriously this is an amazing concept - behind which there is a lot of hard work. Imagine constructing (and maintaining) a good set of restrooms in the middle of nowhere. Getting drinking water, severage, electricity, phone, beverage, newspapers and magazines into all those restareas in the nowhere's of the US is not a simple task. But hey, if you'd otherwise die of controlling nature's call (coz you cant pee in the middle of nowhere's nature) then there better be rest areas no matter what it takes to build and maintain them. What you see in the photo above is the dry Nevada landscape as seen from a Rest Area!! You didnt expect me to shoot a Rest Area, did you?

Peep into some more photos here

Driving on US Roads - I

2005-05-03T12:30:00.000-07:00

In my last two business visits to the US, I must have driven more than 7000 miles. So I take the liberty of writing a few words about driving on US roads. Since I have quite a bit to write, I will make it into parts.

What overwhelms you the first time you land in US is most likely the freeway. Whatever city you land in, there probably will be a couple of them passing through. Personally I had a really nice time renting cars from Hertz (courtesy Cisco), and what with practically no limit on the kind of car I could rent, it was pure luxury. One thing that baffled me initially was that I could rent one by flashing my Karnataka license. Well, atleast my license was the latest technology RTO uses with scanned photos, signatures and holograms (I like it better than any US license) but the fact is people can rent with the kind of dirty books RTO used to issue earlier! I am however not sure if my Cisco corporate card did the trick!!, probably you know better. So there I am with a brand new 2004 Taurus with GPS and digital dashboard and other such cool accessories. Ford is not a car people appreciate greatly in the US (someone said they dont last). But this was a roaring beast for me. It generates about 300BHP enough to make gradients and freeway driving boring! But in all of my rentals from Camry, Celica, Taurus, Accord, Impala, Mazda, Malibu etc... I kinda like the precision of GM cars. The Malibu and Impala especially are real precision machines. They are features apart from other cars that still have to work on aerodynamics. The moment you start making high powered cars, you end up with a host of design issues on how to dodge the wind! Impala and Malibu are ones you can drive in a snowing road with high winds and still do 80-100mph with little hand pain. I drove a Camry once between Chicago and Champaign when it was midly snowing but wind speeds were a lil high, I felt like I had RSI after the 3 odd hours of journey. Not that its a bad car, but I think they need to work on their basics a lil bit. What I will agree however is the economy of Japanese cars especially the Accord. For its size and power it gives you the economy of a small car.

One of the interesting things is the GPS - America in a small handheld sized satellite device. The one Hertz gives you is branded "NeverLost", and true to that word it is! But you need to get used to it. Often I made the mistake of estimating the next turn in distance instead of finding the name of the street. It prompts you when you need to turn by counting down from 2 miles. The other mistake which can be costly is staring at it for longer than necessary. Perhaps Hertz should place it closer to the windscreen so you dont have to take your eyes off the road (atleast for people with myopic eyes!!). What GPS does to you however is it makes you get addicted to it and you will conveniently punch your address than remember the geography around you. I didnt like that part, so after I had had my date with it, I started renting ones without it (it was too addicting to have it and not use it!). US streets, roads, freeways, exits are all named or numbered so much that every lil piece of asphalt has a name! For someone like me who is more used to identifying routes by remembering the landmarks (kaaka angadi, or apartments etc) this was challenging enuf. When you ask someone the route in US, they will tell you "take north first, after two lights, take right on montegue, take a left on homestead"... what was that name again?!! Well, I got used to it too pretty fast... so dont lose hope yet!

My experiences with the consul

2005-04-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

This is one ritual that most techy Indians are familiar with - a visit to the American consulate. I was lucky to have had an appointment around the time when the consulate is least crowded. In the hot Chennai summer I probably would have passed out had there been more people. I completed the initial formalities pretty fast (I was surprised really - because this was my first visit although not my first stamping!) and was ushered into (fortunately) an A/C hall with interview counters and waiting area. As I entered the hall, I saw about 13 counters and about a 100 seats in the waiting area. Although I havent seen other consulates, I am told that this is the biggest among consulates in India. As I waited for a quarter of an hour, my number was called (it looked like it was a quarter of a day!). I was put in a queue on counter 12 and in the next few mins found myself talking to the interviewer. It was a breeze, although my expectations were that it would be a lot tougher. I was out of the consulate in less than an hour. I didnt realise that this would be the fastest experience until a week later when it took longer by three times for my wife (although the interview itself for her was breezier than mine, there were a lot more people). Talk about waiting outside the consulate while your kin gets interviewed. Its pretty much "care of footpath" which itself is not very well paved I should say! In the hot Chennai summer, with the bustling gemini flyover with few thousands of vehicles per min oozing out toxic smoke mixed with the 90% humid air, and you are talking about lets just say a dangerous concoction!!

The consulate itself is neatly organized, however I didnt see a billboard with details about the procedure. So its always a wonder what your next step is. I really pity the consulate officers while also appreciating their patience - they process something around a 1000 applicants everyday and yet be as fair with their judgment with each case (not to mention being presentable as well). The American immigration law is quite transparent, with visa denial provisions in specific categories (214b and 221g) and explanations are given to applicants.

Among things that can be introduced are a waiting room for relatives who accompany the principal applicant - with rest room and drinking water facilities. Since the Chennai consulate has jurisdiction over the four southern states, many people coming from far away places will be benefitted (in social India relatives and friends tend to share the anxiety and wait rather than drop their kin at the consulate and perhaps go to the beach!) Oh well, I guess its not a bad idea after all - my only cry is Chennai is too hot to enjoy the beach anytime expect late evenings! So long then...

The south Indian city of Chennai

2005-04-28T17:15:00.000-07:00

Well... people dont make trips to Chennai at this time of year, if they can avoid it. Luckily for us however Chennai was tamed by a heavy depression only a couple of weeks ago. The night journey was rather insignificant except for a mention of lack of sleep. We did a pretty good bargain with the autowallah I should say to take us to our hotel. Here in Chennai it appears to be a well understood mafia of auto drivers and the police. Not a single auto honors the meter (although most of them sport digital ones) and the police seem to be oblivious about it. Given this situation, your negotiation skills are pretty good if you can get the auto driver to agree to 10 bucks a km roughly, although for shorter distances you tend to pay more.

We checked in to this hotel called "Savera" which is considered 4 star in recent years (I think it used to be 5 star of yesteryears). It is pretty decent in terms of comfort, with a lot of standard features you find in hotels of its cadre. It however has 5 restaurants - continental, south Indian, mughlai and chinese among a pastry shop and a snack bar. Its proximity to city center and the US consulate keeps its occupancy rate high. Places that are close by include the Academy of Music which is known as the auditorium emeritus (if there's anything like that), US consulate of course and the Elliot beach at the end of the road. Lots of shopping malls and eateries such as Saravana bhavan are also around. A visit to the marina beach in the late evenings is a pleasurable experience. Its been kept a lot cleaner than it used to be. The pleasant sea breeze will definitely cool your soul after the end of a hard day! In short if you ever have to visit the city for your consular needs, this is one good hotel to stay at (watch for my experiences with the consul in another blog).

One of the marked features of this city (for a Bangalorean) is its transport system. The roads are wider than they are in bangalore so its a double advantage. Chennai is also a city along its length unlike a circular bangalore, so transportation is very efficient. For longer distances there are also trains similar to Bombay, but not as frequent and organized. There are also fly overs constructed over roads that have more intersections. I think this is a good solution to implement in bangalore as well in matrix like areas to make point A to point B journeys faster. Surprisingly most four wheeler drivers follow lane discipline (for a metro in India), however the taxi wallahs and their siblings of hurry are an exception like everywhere else. Chennai airport is also a lot more organized and clean but is smaller is size compared to Bombay and Delhi. All in all, among language fanatics, scorching sun and stinky backwaters Chennai is a city to cherish. Adios!

The Right Attitude?

2005-04-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

I was watching a TV interview with NRN last night. It was set in the picturesque Infosys campus in Bangalore (or so it looked). It was an informal chat with the executive as they walked past the clean and serene atmosphere. The theme was Indian political and bureaucratic setup. I dunno about you, but I feel that its competely unproductive to even spend as little time discussing and analysing this topic. But that wouldnt be. I could hardly notice how I sat through the whole show. The interviewer perhaps was instructed to ask the most provocative of questions possible. But NRN shielded all of them with ease and more importantly I felt I learnt something from the show when I otherwise would have turned my back the first moment. NRN didnt speak ill of any politician or bureaucrat (not that he couldve given a chance) but that wasnt all. He said he had good respect in our politicians and bureaucrats. The model we use does not encourage risk taking in the leadership, he said. But it leaves no stone unturned in demeaning a failure. People are afraid of failures, to the extent of being complacent to action due to lack of incentive. What NRN said was nothing new, but the way he made me look at what I thought was hopeless certainly was a learning. There is a postive way and a negative way. Its like saying either "half full" or "half empty". It seems obvious but things that are too obvious and simple are hard to learn, let alone to master. Sudha NRN in a recent article in ToI wrote "Happiness is not something you find around you, its your inside". Why did I couple these two sayings from a couple? Think!...

Frustrating life, I say!

2004-07-14T23:13:00.000-07:00

Well... huh!! its been a terrible experience the past night and early today. I dont understand how things can be so really baad!! Although most of last night I spent thrashing on the ping pong... lost 3-2 in the end however... I get really frustrated with increasing noise levels near my house. I usually dont want to oversleep but when I wanna do, I end up being woken multiple times by repeated honko-maniacs... the kind of people who cant move an inch without honking in residential areas. Couple it with screaming school children from the nearby slum whose only playground is unfortunately the badly laid road in front. Add some power problems and nasty driving on the road, here I am in the office with my heart pounding like hell!! am I surprised with under 30 deaths due to cardiac arrests and failure??

My first bloggy day!

2004-06-29T01:28:00.000-07:00

Well... this was something I had seen a lot on the net, but hadnt created one for myself. Thanks a lot to Google for making this happen... so long for a first bloggy day... hoping to have a lot of my mind in here soon!!!