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Kaula Lampur - On the way to India

I am going to India for a long vacation, for which I have been badly waiting. I know this time its going to be tough evading the marriage thing. My brother already gave me indication that he needs cleareance, looks like he is all set to marry with in the next 6 months, which puts more pressure on me. Anyways, this journey back to India is pretty interesting. I took Cathay Pacific airlines from LAX. The flight arrived in HongKong(HK) 3 hours late than usual time, which resulted in me missing the flight to Kaula Lampur(KL). So, instead of reaching KL at noon I arrived in the evening at arround 5:00 PM KL local time. The first impression of the airport was WOW. I must admit that KL has one of the finest airports in the world,though it did not surpass the HK airport. The best thing about KL is free internet. Samsung installed internet booths in the airport which are pretty convenient. I am writing this post from one such booths. I did not check if the airport in Hotspotted or not, which I will check in a while. One common problem that I encountered in this booth is the pervasive adware, It like the demons of Hindu mythological stories, its just everywhere out there on the internet.

The interesting this about this journey is that I am reading 'Gandhi', which I have been putting off for quite a long time. The book is pretty interesting and basically helping me to look at 'Truth' face-to-face. I am sure the book needs few more readings to get a wholistic perspective of 'The Mahatma'. I will keep you updated about my experiences of the book.

I think I need to stop writing more on this post, as there are quite a few people standing in the line to access internet. Ciao.

what... I am NOT ready to marry. and I did not gave any clear indications either. If you want to use "me pushing you to get married so that I can get a clearance to get married too" as an excuse for you to get married, thats Okay with me

Posted by your brother.

Go Mobile With Skype & Moto

As I am going to India soon, I thought I would checkout Skype. Guess what, Skype Accessories has this really cool gadget:

Get ready to take your Internet calls to a new level with the Motorola Wireless Internet Calling Kit – the world’s first Skype-certified Bluetooth solution. The kit, comprised of the Motorola H500 Bluetooth Headset and PC850 PC Adapter, enables you to leverage the power of Bluetooth® wireless technology to make Skype voice-over Internet calls without being glued to your computer. And, there’s no need to miss a Skype call if you’re away from your desk. Just forward Skype calls to your mobile phone, and if your mobile is Bluetooth-enabled, you can accept these calls on the Motorola H500.

Happy Thanks Giving To You All!

Ram:

Good luck on your trip to India. This should be a cool gadget to use in India.

Suhit

Posted by Suhit Anantula.

Hi Suhit,

Good to see your message after a long time. Guess, u must be swamped with your work load. How is it going with you?

Posted by Ram Dhan Yadav.

Tampa --> Dallas

Do the Tampa to Dallas Flight

A Tribute To Glen Mitchell

It is such a weird day! Just a few hours back I posted info about designer coffins and its just so hart breaking to know that my favorite radio host Glenn William Mitchell has passed away. Glenn is such an awesome radio talk show host. In the last 4 years of my stay in Dallas I have continuously listened to his wonderful shows. Without a failure, his shows always taught me something new. I could say that his shows played a very important role in developing my worldly knowledge, humor, communication skills and English in general. I am going to terribly miss his shows. I never met the man, but I dreamed of about the possibility of interning under him and learn for this wonderful man. I deeply mourn his loss and I am feeling a terrible loss.

Quit the world in Style

Via Seth Godin: :|: Life Art :|: makes designer coffins:

Acland is excited:'Oh… My… God… I just love this coffin. Now I can go out in style.'

wow..too good

Posted by Kajal.

Call Centers Discrimination -- Roots In Casteism

Taking up the issues of discrimination against call center employees Gaurav Sabnis writes:

People feel that the work in call centres is only about answering phones, and offers no satisfaction or growth or whatever. People expressing these opinions, will also, at other times exprss sentiments like "In Western countries, there is dignity in labour. No job is considered bad. Even plumbers, postmen, bus drivers etc are considered respectable people". Which is why the whole point behind trashing the nature of work in a call centre is lost on me. It is important work. It is necessary in the day-to-day lives of everyone. Customer service is of vast importance in today's marketplace. Now that we pay bills, book air tickets, and even rail tickets through call centers or back offices, how can we dismiss BPO work as below dignity.

In my opinion, this whole call-centre-bashing exercise is an unconscious expression of the deeprooted prejudices in our collective minds put in place due to the caste system. The whole idea of the caste system was, only a few jobs are respectable. All other jobs, be they menial or trade-related, were secondary. So what a brahmin does was admirable, while what the cunning sahukar or the filthy shudra does, was not.

Gaurav further reasons:

A plush restaurant, an expensive discotheque on a weekend, mobile showrooms, car showrooms, apparel showrooms..... all these domains which were earlier restricted only to the engineer-doctor-types or the rich-kids were now invaded by hordes of call centre employees. The "caste system" was breaking down.

So naturally a softare engineer would ask himself.... here I slog to get into an engineering college, then slog to get an engineering degree, the slog to get placed, and now I slog writing code. This fellow didn't give two hoots about his graduation, whiled his time away, had to deal with much simpler course material in college, and now all he has to do is turn up for an interview, answer phone calls in a foreign accent, and get the same pay as me? Where is the justice in this world?

It is this sort of subconscious thinking that makes us all take potshots at the call centre employees

Gaurav Questions:

I heard Chetan Bhagat say on TV "Call center jobs are there in India because no one in the West wants to do those jobs". I wonder if he followed the 2004 US Presidential elections where outsourcing was made a big issue because it was thought of as "job stealing". So if the jobs are so unwanted in the US, Mr. Bhagat, why is there a hue and cry over their being stolen?

Sandeep discusses the issue further in Call Centers and the Caste System:

The idea of the caste system was to provide a means of earning one’s livelihood respectably. Dignity of labour in other words. In its original conception, a person’s caste was decided on his inclination and what can be crudely translated as the “basic nature” of the person. Thus, if a person was a Brahmin by birth not inclined to studies/learning/renunciation and chose instead to master a skill or engage in business, he was free to do so and could move to become a businessman. As for the “cunning sahukar,” there’s only one point I’d like to make. If we go through the bulk of the backward class/dalit revival literature, the common refrain that runs through is woven around the great “Brahmin-bania conspiracy.” The word “Shudra” in Sanskrit can be expanded as shuchaat dravati iti shudrah. The word “shuchaat” is derived from the root, Shuch which means clean. Thus we have, one who brings about cleanliness. For the record, the original ideal of a Brahmin was to live in poverty and always engage himself in contemplation/meditation. This poverty he had to choose voluntarily. That is truly admirable.

Sandeep supports the prejudice by reasoning:

The most probable historical reason for Gaurav’s said prejudice can be traced to the turn of the 20th century. The British education system had begun to turn out its “finished products” whose learning was suited to oil the wheels of the Empire: the bureaucrats, the doctors, engineers and the rest. Native systems of knowledge and education were slowly being replaced. Thus the respect one derived from being recognized as a vedic scholar was transferred to that of being called saheb, babu, and the like. It is here, properly, that we can trace the root of calling some professions respectable. As I said, it has nothing to do with the caste system.

The current slamming of call centers as something despicable is the contribution of Leftists starting with the infamous Cyber Coolie article by Praful Bidwai. Everybody in their right minds–that includes people like Gaurav and myself–mostly the urban youth have long since been weaned away from the idea of a “respectable” and “non-respectable” job. However, the prejudice that Gaurav speaks of can also be seen from another perspective: from time immemorial, societies have given a special place to a man who works using his brain over someone who uses his physical abilities. For example: why is a political advisor given so much money and privileges over say a soldier? The same can be said of a corporate VP over say, a clerk. This prejudice exists everywhere.

Sandeep wonders:

Caste system was prevalent in India for as long as one can remember, but casteism was unheard of. The former enables social integration by respecting difference but the latter seeks to splinter society into a million islands of separate identities. We earlier could recognize the four predominant castes but today we have a few hundred sub-castes within each caste. Those below the Shudras are called Panchamas, and among the Panchamas, we have a right-left division, and then as if “Dalit” was not large enough, we have Dalit Christians, and a gargantuan “Other Backward Castes” which gives scope for further splintering. Where will it all end?

Kudos to Gaurav, who dared to connect the discrimination against call center employees to the deep-rooted casteism prevalent in Indian society that segregates jobs as “respectable” and “non-respectable”.

I seriously question the veracity of Sandeep reasoning for supporting the origins of the caste system. I keep hearing this bullshit argument that “Caste system was created with good intensions.” I don’t condemn the point that a person who is more talented needs respect and a honorable position in the society than a person who is not so talented, however I don’t see any reasoning why this talented persons children, grand children, great great great grandchildren should get the better treatment in the society even though they turnout to be total trash. I like to name this kind of thinking as a bootlicking, sycophancy, yada yada yada, last but not the least ‘casteist’. Sandeep, how can you even think of supporting the Frankenstein ‘caste system’ that breeds ‘casteism’ and discriminates against fellow Indian ‘human beings’ for centuries? I wonder if we can ever stop thinking that this evil discriminating caste system was created for good reasons.

I would like more details from Gaurav about how call center personnel are discriminated against. Are they not allowed inside restaurants??(cases like customers hangingup phone because of accent and knowing that call center is taking calls from India etc is a old story).

In my personal opinion Mr Sandeep is living in previous generation.

Posted by Kishore Dandu.

Indian IT Software Sweat Shops

Harshad Oak wrote and excellent article on how the psychology of average Indians is converting Software companies into sweat shops.

Recently, in an awards ceremony at a software company, the manager handing over the "employee of the month" award said something like "It's unbelievable how hard he works. When I come to office early, I see him working, when I leave office late, I still see him working".. These sort of comments can kill the morale of every employee trying to do good work in an 8hr day.

Companies need to stop hiding behind the excuse that the time difference between India and the west is the reason why people need to stay in office for 14 hours a day. Staying late should be a negative thing that should work against an employee in his appraisals. Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week .

Read the article 2 IT Survivors - Staying Alive In A Software Job

I constantly see promotion of this kind of work culture even here in USA. The consultants that represent many Indian IT shops slog an average of 80hrs per week. My personal experience: highly efficient software development teams are possible though well rested team members.

Hooofff My son stays in computer for atleast 16hours a day and he has severe backpain & dosent interact with family members :( he lives in his own world never comes out from his room ....8 hours is too much IT people should be given 5hours of computer work and remaining 4hours paperworks

Posted by PriyaRamani.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Employee_Grievance_Cell

Posted by Indian Patriot.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Employee_Grievance_Cell/

Posted by India Patriot.

22 Qualities that business schools look for

Business week has an excellent article listing 22 qualities that the business schools look for in a potential candidate. The qualities are:

1. Intellectual ability: A candidate who is smart and easily able to handle the demands of the schoolwork and, ultimately, the business world.
   
2. Quantitative orientation: A candidate who can "do" numbers.
   
3. Analytical mindset: A candidate who is able to think critically and tolerate complex, open-ended problems.
   
4. Success record: A candidate with a proven run of success.
   
5. Maturity and professionalism: A candidate who looks, talks and acts like a grown-up.
   
6. Leadership: A candidate who has created value by being at the helm in group-based activities and is comfortable in this role.
   
7. Ambition and motivation: A candidate who is aiming for big things and planning to play in the senior leagues.
   
8. Career potential: A candidate who has what it takes to go to the top.
   
9. Perseverance and mental toughness: A candidate with evidence of the gritty staying power and self-reliance needed to overcome adversity.
   
10. A strong, extrovert personality: A candidate who likes people and who is professionally (if not naturally) gregarious.
    
11. Active orientation: A candidate with a bias to action and getting things done
    
12. The killer instinct: A candidate who is not afraid of winning and seeing others lose.
    
13. Personal integrity: A candidate with good interpersonal values and morals
    
14. Community orientation: A candidate who demonstrates responsibility to community, society, and the environment, and who has an integrated, sustainable view of the role of companies in the world.
    
15. Team player: A candidate who works well with others and who operates smoothly and constructively in collaborative situations.
    
16. Diversity contribution: A candidate who brings interesting attributes, experiences, and depth of background to the group.
    
17. Intercultural experience and tolerance: A candidate who has demonstrated a tolerance for diversity in people and cultures.
    
18. Creativity and innovation: A candidate who is comfortable with change and ready to use it creatively.
    
19. Communication ability: A candidate who can write, speak and organize ideas well.
    
20. All-rounder: A candidate who is more than a suit, and who has an array of interests and passions in other things.
    
21. Recruitability
    
22. Likeability: A candidate who people enjoy having around. All else being equal, people always choose people they like as colleagues and co-workers
    

Almost all of the top brass in Enron(now defunct) has many of the above talents. Then all of them cooked together stuff to self-serve and destroy the world around.

Now-a-days it has more to do with business-savvy compared to a expensive, well networked MBA. Sure the top 10 MBA will open some doors(due to vast network). It will not guarantee next 'Warren Buffett'. It may make sure your salary quadruple due to working couple of levels above the ladder.

Historical example of street crud and pushiness being Steve Jobs, Ross Perot, Mr Bill(the dropout) Gates.

Posted by Kishore dandu.

The top 10 preventable health risk factors globally

Dr. Anirudha Malapani points to a WHO report and writes:

A report from the World Health Organization (WHO), Comparative Quantification of Health Risks, which estimates deaths and disability from preventable causes of major diseases , compares the impact of 26 major risk factors, and lists the top 10 globally as:

* Childhood and maternal underweight.
* Unsafe sex.
* High blood pressure.
* Tobacco use.
* Alcohol.
* Unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene.
* High cholesterol.
* Indoor smoke from solid fuels.
* Iron deficiency.
* Overweight/obesity.

t's a sobering thought, but most efforts which would help to improve health globally have little to do with what the doctor can do in the clinic ! Doctors take a lot of the credit for the health of their patients, but we need to realise that we can have a much greater impact if we take a more holistic approach. Doctors are supposed to be the "health specialists", but a good engineer who can provide clean drinking water to a village ; or a clever marketing expert who can making smoking "uncool" for teens; or an entrepreneur who can provide white LEDs to illuminate rural homes instead of unsafe paraffin lamps can do far more good to improve the health of the community !

I discovered Dr. Anirudha' s blog recently and instantly fell in love with it. I recommend it as a must read for anybody.

thx a lot for this infos my boyfriend smokes a lot any suggestion how to stop him from smoking ?

Thx

Posted by Kritika.

Hi Kritika,

I don't know if I can advise on not smoking as I myself smoke once in a while. However, my previous post on exercise habits might help you to educate him better.

Posted by Ramdhan Yadav Kotamaraja.

one thing about smoking compared to Alcohol in moderation: It is the worst you can do to your body.
I can consider daily intake of lots of soda(coke, pepsi etc) also makes one's health bad. Diet sodas I read are worse.

BTW some of the factors in the list are prevalent in advanced countries like US(that is understandable if you look at number of Starbucks in a town compared to Juice or Smoothie stores).

Posted by kishore dandu.

Gawwww, I am getting addicted to Starbucks..... The coffee is soo good man.

Posted by Ramdhan Yadav Kotamaraja.

Quality Of Life ???

RAVI ABHYANKAR writes a rather weird view on the Quality of life in India:

Once I took a broken showerhead to a frail plumber living on the pavement across us. His scantily dressed children were playing alongside. He checked the showerhead, then fetched a spare part and fixed it. “It will now work.” “Thank you, what do I owe you?” “Nothing,” he said.”You must take something,” I insisted. “I have no ambition to build palaces,” he said, refusing the money. This plumber was rich enough to be charitable to an expatriate manager. A “quality of life” survey cannot measure such richness.

The irony of India is that if a telephone/power/any other essential stuff / services provided by the government needs to be fixed, even an ordinary Indian has to bribe the employees through his nose to get the things moving. What kind of quality of life would an ordinary citizen enjoy where the system fails to enforce the accountability in fulfilling the fundamental duties.

I went to collect the monthly bill from the Nepali guard, who lived in a 100 sq ft room on the ground floor of our building recently. At his room, I found the door open and the guard, his wife, child and a guest, taking a siesta. They lay on the bare floor, utilising every inch. Embarrassed, I closed the door. In the evening, when I spoke to him, he happened to remark how lucky his family was to get a place like this in Mumbai. Is “quality of life” a concept that is absolute or relative?

The quality of life could be relative from the guard’s perspective, but his contentment comes from the bliss of being uneducated, ignorant and chronically deprived of basic resources. No wonder, India is called the third world country as its system fails to provide recourses necessary for a decent living to people like this guard and his family.

In 1988, as a tourist guide, I had accompanied three Russians to Mumbai’s Hanging Gardens. A shabbily dressed boy of about 10-12 years ran to us with some goodies. He began talking to the Russians — in Russian! He greeted them, told them the prices of the peacock feathers. He made them buy. Two months later I went to the same place with an Italian friend. I recognised the boy. He began speaking to Roberto, greeted him, offered him his wares—in Italian! The illiterate boy had developed a sales vocabulary in all the common tourist languages, and he unerringly recognised who came from where. The UN survey does not include a measure for wisdom or natural talent. Such boys are part of the 39 per cent “illiterates” of India.

This child must be studying in school, playing cricket and having fun with his buddies. It is such a shame that this kid has to use his wisdom to learn numerous languages to sell stuff to tourists. Talk about Child Labor!

My father once visited his multimillionaire friend. His friend suggested they go for a stroll. They walked. A few minutes later, his sandal broke. They went to a cobbler nearby. The cobbler was reading a newspaper. The multimillionaire pushed his foot forward. The cobbler looked annoyed at the distraction. “I need this repaired,” said father’s friend. “Please come at two,” said the cobbler. It was ten past one. “What do you mean?” “I take a break between one and two.” “I will pay you more for fixing my sandal urgently.” “It is not a question of money. I rest at this hour.”

I should admit that this is a good one, however I wonder what kind of living this cobbler is providing to his family and his kids.

I have seen firsthand the poverty in India and I know that the people that live in this poverty are relatively more content with meager amenities as their scope of thinking is limited by their illiteracy. Should we start taking such ‘Quality of Life’ as a benchmark?

hi to Ravi,

I read your article. I'm amaged to know how india is after readin this.

I'm now at Avaya
google my name and call me.

tnx,
praveen koduri

Posted by praveen koduri.

India - Democrazy

Economist has an interesting article explaining how India Democracy's Drawbacks are hurting the economic growth:

Indias service businesses have thrived because they have capitalised on India's strengths—computer skills, fluency in English—and are not hostage to its weaknesses. Yet those weaknesses are all too obvious, and are the reason why India on many counts still lags behind its neighbour-rival, China. India has lousy infrastructure, bumbling and burdensome regulation and restrictive labour laws. And economic reform now appears to have stalled in political recriminations.

Yes i agree with u indian politicans are only looking for votes "they will do anything to get votes & come to power"

Posted by PriyaRamani.

Success often hurts, and even mortally wounds

Think about driving on a crowded highway. Suddenly, the traffic slows to a near stop, then starts again, then slows again, all for no apparent reason. In highway engineering, these are called shock waves. They occur when the traffic load approaches highway capacity. At this point, the highway "changes states," and rapidly loses its effective capacity.

In distribution, managers sometimes encounter "full-warehouse syndrome." When a distribution center approaches capacity, it changes in fundamental ways. After a certain point, it becomes very difficult to find things and to maneuver around the facility. Cushions of time, space, labor, and communication that are critical to smooth operations become too small as activity approaches capacity. Just like the highway, the warehouse's effective capacity plunges rapidly.

Most business processes, and associated costs, have this two-state nature. They behave more or less as expected up to a point; then they explode. In the former state, they are controllable with ordinary business measures; in the latter, they look unmanageable using familiar techniques. Nearly all cost models ignore this fact. Generally, the key management action is to analyze where the state changes, causing costs to explode, and to find ways to keep the throughput below this point, or to figure out a way to manage the new state.

Jonathan Byrnes writes about Learning to Manage Complexity of a small business that is on a success curve.

http://www.makemedance.com/

Check out this cool iTunes Cingular - makemedance.com website. Have fun playing on the site. By the way, you can upload your image and dance to the tunes. Enjoy...........

New Category on Reservations

The comments that came up on the concept of reservations in India, in response to one of my previous post Building India started a new 'Thinking Process Thread' in my brain. That thread got fueled today at lunch when the topic of Muslim reservations in Andhra Pradesh came up.
I commented:

Reservations based on Religion are against Constitution of India India. The preamble of India declares India as a Secular country. Providing reservations based on religion is the fist step in making the country a religion driven country.

Immediately after the discussion I decided to dedicate a category to 'Reservations' and express my views on the subject of Reservations. So, keep looking for more stuff on the topic.

I did a cursory research on Indian constitution, and I found that the preamble of the constitution declares:

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;

IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.

The Preamble to the Constitution serves two purposes: -

A) It indicates the source from which the Constitution derives its authority;
B) It also states the objects, which the Constitution seeks to establish and promote.

The preamble is not a part of the Constitution of India as it is not enforceable in a court of law.

An interesting side note concerns the words "SOCIALIST" and "SECULAR" in the preamble. The original drafting used the words "SOVEREIGN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC". The two additional words "SOCIALIST" and "SECULAR" were introduced by the controversial 42nd amendment. The amendment was pushed through by Indira Gandhi in 1976, when she had dictatorial powers. A committee under the chairmanship of Sardar Swaran Singh made the recommendations after being constituted to study the question of amending the constitution in the light of past experiences.

After reading the preamble, I realized that the words 'SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC' gives me enough food for thought to write under the reservations category. I will try my best not to be biased while expressing my thoughts, but will surely try to instigate sensible discussions on the topic.

That very word 'socialism' and the workings of Mr.Nehru did us in for almost 40 years.
There is a popular belief in India that if it were Sardar patel as first PM; things would have been more progressive.
Thanks in part to Rajiv and mostly to Mr.Rao, the country is turning around in the right direction(hopefully).

Posted by Kishore Dandu.

Reservations against religion are not good for any country in the long term. In the begining, when reservations against religion was conceived(1950's), it was assumed that people from certain castes/religions are generally backward compared to other castes/religions. But it's no longer the case today.
Reservations based on economic situation makes more sense. But even that is not good. Instead of that all jobs, admissions should be purely based on merit. But at the same time, government should come up with grants, loans and subsidies for economically backward people to compete with others. Merit should be criteria.
Politicians are keeping this issue alive just to get their votes.

Posted by Reddy.

as pointed by Reddy "Reservations against religion are not good for any country in the long term" yes its true ...our politicians are corrupt assholes just to get votes from people they do everything...the supreme court has also warned the center not confront on this issue inspite the UPA government says they will bring amendment to constitution. reservation should be allowed in educational or juduicial system. this is real crap.

Posted by Ranjith.

Reddy:
There is no way we can pursue "Admission or jobs purely on meritocrocy". It simply will not cut it in india's perspective.
We need reservations for some more generations(because there isn't a lot change in suppression etc that can be observed in major parts of India, ofcourse it is practised passively now-a-days) But we need stricter enforcement, that only the needy claim the reservation. Not the guy whose dad is already welloff and those folks don't need this facility.
I am not saying it works in Texas. But here in texas there is rule:"Top 10% of a schools graduates can attend any public institute of their choice". That is the max in texas for meritocracy. If you fall beyond that 10% and you are from good school, you have to show other traits to getinto the university of your choice.

Posted by kishore dandu.

I just wanted to revive this topic to discuss on the present situation regarding reservations in India.

I feel it is a shame to increase the quotas and i hope there are more protests in the lines of 1990(remember Mandal commission anybody).

I have a post dedicated in my blog.

Posted by Kishore Dandu.

Reservation is NOT GOOD AT ALL, it is nothing but a support which usally handicaps tries to get and perform as well.

Posted by df.

Toddler Articles .com

Paul and his The ToddlerArticles.com team has created a new site with Toddler Articles. I wish they had about us section, which gives details about the site and work. However, I think its very helpful site for all those people who are trying to raise their toddlers.