Back in Black!

Back in black
I hit the sack
I've been too long I'm glad to be back
Yes, I'm let loose
From the noose
That's kept me hanging about
I've been looking at the sky
'Cause it's gettin' me high
Forget the hearse 'cause I never die
I got nine lives
Cat's eyes
Abusin' every one of them and running wild
'Cause I'm back

Couldn’t think of a better song to announce my return to the world of blogging! My world since the last post has changed way too much, and hopefully for the better! I finally cracked my nemesis for the first time, the CAT exam! More on that later at any rate. I no longer am in Pune, but am back in Bangalore, a new apartment to boot(one which I am being asked to leave as well)…I can’t resist paraphrasing the line from MIB II, New suit, new shades, new shoes, new tie with the new attitude. The days in Bangalore have certainly become longer, both with work and studying, leaving no time to do much else. Some good books I have read since the last time I blogged:
1) Freedom at Midnight – The story of independence of India as seen from the British point of view, Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre’s book is one which reads like an epic tale, of the struggle, Mahatma Gandhi as he was viewed by the other side, the deep divisions that the British saw among the Indians at the time between Nehru and Jinnah, the description of the power of the fast, these all led me to appreciate the odds that one man fought against a British system that existed for centuries.
2)Bonfire of the Vanities – A novel by Tom Wolfe, a book on New York at what he describes as the height of its power, the point at which it was the center of the world, like London in the 19th century was described by Charles Dickens, how the city had its own soul, omnipresent, and pressuring individuals from all directions.
3)Competetive Advantage of Nations – Book by Michael Porter. He extends his structural analysis of companies and the five forces model to analyze how nations should pursue a strategy. He gives the determinants for competitive advantage among nations, and uses case studies of the printing industry, the software industry among others to show for example, why the software industry was successful in US, the printing industry in Germany and so on. He also discusses what strategy a firm should follow in order to be a truly global company operating in many different countries.
4)Les Miserables – I reread this as part of a nostalgic experience from a long time ago, this being among my favourite books with the colourful characters of Valjean, the Bishop of D--, Javert, Thernadier, Pontmercy. The vivid descriptions of Paris after the Napoleonic wars, are so complete that historians refer to this book to find out about early 19th century France. As the title suggests this book is about the downtrodden, how the vicious cycle of poverty keeps them enslaved. However, the book is mainly about the evil of good, as it describes the struggle by Javert as he tries to reconcile the laws of society vs the good that a man can do. It raises several questions such as, is there a higher law that operates above the laws of men, and if so, which should we follow. Is it the letter of the law that we should follow or the spirit of the law. These questions are still valid to a large extent today, as discussions of what is right and what is wrong are debated daily today without borders across nations.
5)Star Trek novels – I probably have read close to 100 star trek novels over the course of the last two months, mainly being from the original series and the next generation. The novels might not be of the best quality, but it was more the characters which brought these novels to life. Star Trek was one of the serials I grew up with and Kirk and Picard were quite fascinating characters from those worlds, and William Shatner’s introduction to Star Trek, “Space... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before” did fire a lot of imagination as well.

Of men and swine!

This is a blog from almost a danger zone or ground zero for the swine flu epidemic India(so consider being written under duress!). As dramatic as that may sound, it’s the honest to goodness truth. In Pune, where daily deaths due to swine flu are the headlines, it has indeed caused a great consternation to all those living here. Due to disregard for regulations, government indifference, racketeering and plain robbery, the spread of swine flu is fast becoming unchecked and it is only a matter of time before it spirals out of control. With the hospital workers themselves getting infected while treating the patients, it remains to be seen, how soon it will be before civil unrest breaks out. Strong parallels are being drawn between the situation here and Mexico about three months ago when it had to go on a war footing to stamp out swine flu and the return to normalcy is still taking place. With the places of public gathering shut down, malls, theaters, and schools closed for a week and to be continued based on the situation is indeed dire. With most of the cases arising from the waiting lines in hospitals, it does seem like a Catch-22 situation, or rather the choice of Odysseus, between Scylla and Charybdis. However, I am completely fine so far, and I hope that this continues until the situation is under control.
The faults in our political system are being exposed in this crisis, as the blame game has already begun. They should realize that this is a crisis not of their own direct doing but one that has been in the making for many years now by the entire world, as research into viral diseases has decreased over the last decade as consumer drugs rose in both productions as well as sales. Dealing with the situation successfully now should be of utmost concern here. I think the Health Minister Azad was very forthright about this and his conclusions that the worst is yet to come and that we should be prepared for it a valid point.
Anyways, enough gloomy predictions and doom, I think the four Horsemen can wait a little longer before they claim the world. In the midst of all this, I find myself at office working much shorter hours than before (which is a good thing!), and just indulging myself writing this blog as well. Over the last couple of months, it had been a different life, as I had seen untold hours I was promised I would never see by my family when I studied to get into an IIT. I mean all this was exactly what I wanted to avoid when I studied.
Also, its been a year since I joined PwC, one long year filled with ups and downs, success and failure, problems and solutions. If I had to quote Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season o Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…” It was mostly a good year, filled with interesting people, and definitely a large change from my earlier life of being a student (although I am working towards being a student again!).

High Road Robbery

To recount a story which no doubt many Indians here would have gone through or will go through in their lives at least once would no doubt be an exercise in futility but my first experience of this is indeed, to mince words here, exhilarating. It was a beautiful Saturday morning on which my friend and I decided to take the bike out and go to a Tata Indicom showroom to get his phone fixed. (And when I say bike I mean a little scooty pep + that I have “borrowed/stolen” from a literally “little/tiny” client(and I mean her height here))) The economics of it became that it was either go about 10 kms further and fix the phone for 100 bucks or buy a new phone for 700. Adventurous that we were and the fact that we didn’t know Pune, we decided to go for a ride. Getting lost and turned later, we found ourselves on a bridge with no entry for two wheelers apparently although there were many two wheelers on the same bridge. Just at that moment, the policeman appears out of nowhere stops us and takes our keys. Here follows the conversation between the three of us(my friend, me and the policeman)Warning alert, in most of this moi was completely useless and thanks to my friend its all good.

Police: Show me your licence(Translated from hindi/marathi to English most of this)!
Me: No sir, I don’t have a licence.
Police: Come along, drag your vehicle and park it at the police station, come along(in a loud and bellowing voice).
Me: Yes sir. (In a sotto voce to my friend, How much money do you have, I have about 20 bucks in my purse? Also the thought running through my head was, ditch the bike and run, its not mine anyway)
Friend: I have some, it should be enough
Me: Sir, please let us go, we didn’t know it was no entry for two wheelers.
Police: Nothing doing, keep the bike and quietly go on your way. Tell me your name.
Friend: Sir, this is our first time in Pune, we were in a hurry that is why we had to take the bike from our friend.
Police: Show me the bike papers!
Me: Sir its in the bike. (Little did I know that they weren’t, and that the bike was uninsured and it failed a pollution test)
Police: You people are driving around a bike with no licence and papers and all!
Me: Yes sir, but please let us go sir. Please don’t book a case against us.
Police: Nothing doing. Here look at the fines you people have to pay.(Its in Marathi which we didn’t know, so he made up no’s based on things I suppose). It comes out to 1700 bucks.
Me: (To my friend in sotto voce), pay the policeman that much money and lets get out of here.
Friend: Sir, please sir, we were trying to find Mangalwar peth and got lost, sir we cannot pay that much right now. Please let us go.(Finally the policeman comes around and asks)
Police: How much can you people pay?
I take out my purse and find that even the twenty bucks I thought I had was missing.
Police: Chalo pick up the bike from the commissioners office. Get out
Friend: (He quietly removes a 500 at which point I see he has more money as well)
Me: Give him whatever he wants, how much ever you have, just give it to him. Give him the purse.
Friend: (In an exasperated tone) Shut up and let me negotiate. Get out of the way
Me: (In a very meek voice) Yes, yes.
Police: 600 rupees and all this could be forgotten
Friend: Yes sir.
Now the policeman changes his tone.
Police: Sir, where do you have to go? (He shows us the directions each time calling us sir and lets us go)

After that, we decided to turn tail, head back and buy a new phone which my friend curses me for. However, I suppose it is one experience all of us go through in our lives, and no matter how many times you hear of it from other people, it is still harrowing nonetheless.

And now breaking off from that story into a different mode of thought altogether, I started wondering about what a value system means and what it is supposed to be. Is it religion or is it personal or is it one that is imposed by a society, friends, family or yourself. This came into being mainly after being called conscience-less being by my manager as a joke, but I figured maybe it is. As a child of two religions, I grew up with two different belief systems whose fundamentals about good and evil are the same, yet different. I started wondering about what are values essentially? Is it being honest, being loyal, being fair and just, or believing in what you do? Not to philosophize at this point, but wondering about it made me think that the choices you make are what defines your value system. Whether the values you hold are right or wrong is not what I am debating about but rather what is it that defines that system. I suppose when you choose upon a particular course of action, you make the choice based on a certain rationale. Whether that “certain rationale” is rational or not is again open to debate, but that “certain rationale” is what the value system is I feel.

At any rate, books that I have been reading. One book that I have read just two days back would include an arbitrary book by Mills and Boone. No offense, but the less said the better about that. Otherwise, other readings would include “The Future of War” which was an enlightening read on what warfare is about, and how it has changed, how rules of engagement and technology has changed the battlefield yet kept the basic tenets of warfare the same. It is mainly about the US military and how US policies are meant to maintain the American hegemony. Other than that, a book called “Statecraft” by Margaret Thatcher, the iron lady herself. It is an assessment of world conditions from a political, economic and military point of view. It is a pretty interesting read as one of the things she deals with is the view of the Middle East from a European point of view and how they see Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

The Isshoes of Today(ok, a bad pun here)

A ghastly time to be blogging, but I feel as if I have no choice in this matter. Sandwiched between insane hours at the office and the solitude that sleep offers, writing is one of the best ways to cure a life devoid of any frissons for now. I wish I could say my life was copacetic but I wont complain about it either. Where to begin I suppose is one question that haunts me for now, with me running out of topics to write about in this blog. Since the last time I have written, I have not read too many books worth mentioning about over here. Most of them have been the read and forget types, to not wonder about.
One thing I did want to mention was the growing number of incidents of politicians having shoes thrown at them. With politicians across the world facing such an ire and the difficulty of the security to stop such a protest, it has spread like wildfire since the attack on Bush. I paused to wonder what it was about the shoe that made it the symbol, I mean why the shoe and no other apparel of clothing as such. If we go back to the sixties it was "Burn the Bra" era, then later came the afro era, the jeans era etc. Throwing the shoe is not an invention now as Nikita Khruschev had done earlier in the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis against Adlai Stevenson. Anyway, we see the shoe as just another part of what we wear, some use it for style and statement(most ladies I know), and some for brand endorsement money. Anyway throwing the shoe has now come to mean throwing the basest part of what you wear(the one covered with all the dirt etc, not unlike many politicians that we know of today) as a sign of protest against all that has come to represent politics these days. I digress at any rate on an offbeat topic which no doubt you have all read about, but still I have come to wonder at this new form of protest. We can also now see how trends follow across the world. From the first fling of the shoe at Bush, to now people in villages in India flinging shoes at politicians here, we can see the power of the media at work.
As to my current reading, I have just finished Balance of Power by Richard North Patterson, and it was an interesting read on how the gun lobby has an influence in the government, at how laws are passed in favor of the gun lobby, simply due to the amounts that they spend in endorsing their candidates for the House of Representatives and the Senate which then enact laws protecting the gun companies. At any rate, I do feel pretty sleepy and I have to get up for work tomorrow morning. So long and muchas gracias for reading this blog!

Falling into Infinity

The dates between my blogs seem to be growing, and I think it is futile to say anything about how or why it has been so. So skipping over the usual banter I think I can give a better description of time spent since my last post by the places I have been to since then. Traveling is a curse they say, but seeing new sights and people is definitely one I would not like to ever give up. So since my last post I have been to Hyderabad, Calcutta, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Roorkee, and finally back to Pune. It has been an all India trip of sorts and I did relish my time spent in each of these places, even if it made me bankrupt in this process.

Going back to Roorkee was a memorable one, meeting all my juniors and some of my classmates. It was a trip made possible more by luck than by design as my classmates who were with me in Program management made the trip from various parts of India. For three days we forgot that we had left the institute and felt ourselves as students again. Going back there, not as a student but as an alumnus, I felt proud that I had been there, and that I was able to enjoy the four years I had spent there. Small pangs of regret I did feel as I wondered how it would have been, had I not made the choices I had, mainly regarding academics versus extra curricular activities, however, hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

Anyways, beyond that trips to Mumbai were as fun as always and I really have to appreciate the vibrancy and diversity present there. If I could, I would call it the City of Blinding Lights to describe this city. The dichotomy that is present in Mumbai really surprised me though. From the world’s largest slum to the richest real estate property on Earth, I am surprised to see so many shades of Mumbai in this fashion. It really does remind me of the title of the book by Jeffrey Archer, As the Crow Flies.

So moving beyond these trips and all, I was thinking about a conversation I had with my friend the other day, about how people’s image of themselves changes as we grow and age. What we see ourselves as, our values, morals, character, who we are and how these change with time. During the conversation I was reminded of the book, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in which Dorian Gray on seeing a picture of himself is dismayed by the fact that the picture will stay the same as he ages and eventually withers away. A deal is struck to have the image age and contain within it a picture of his true self, he would remain the same young person. Eventually in the course of time, he locks the picture in an attic and tries to forget that the picture existed, and watches himself in the picture as his soul decays with his decadent means and ways. I couldn’t help but think whether I would be able to face my true self in this fashion. I don’t know the answer to that question, but I did agree on one thing though. Its each person’s life to live, make mistakes and learn, and its each person’s answer to his/her own questions that makes them who they are. Call it a very laissez faire approach to life or by any other term, there are obvious limits to where your freedom ends as well in this approach.

Going back to political commentary, I know my election predictions turned out disastrously as I predicted both the primaries and the main election wrongly; however, this has nothing to do with elections or predictions, which I will now leave to higher beings to do. Since January 20 of this year, the world’s eyes and at least one ear has been on the White House and its doings. Obama has taken the right steps ahead in closing Guantanamo Bay and his passing the finance bill through the senate. However, his system of working seems to be a bit mysterious as his general statements on the economic crisis seem to be just that, as no details are being released on the actual functioning of the rescue package. Also his neo isolationist policy seems to be the exact replica of Bush’s own isolationist policy which he tried to implement when he became president back in 2001. Events forced Bush to do otherwise, and it could be that the isolationist policy was what caused terrorism to flourish on a global scale. If Obama is doing this to distance himself from the previous administration, it could very well backfire on his own domestic agenda. The economic crisis has to be his top priority because economics is usually the indicator of the confidence of the people in their own country, and a crisis of confidence as Jimmy Carter said could be more destructive than any known weapon on earth.

Stepping aside from the foreign politics for a moment and entering into the far murkier world of Indian politics, it is that time again when the world’s largest democracy goes to election this year. I have not voted thus far in my life, looking upon it as an exercise in futility. However, even we in India face a turning point in our own country’s history. Whether we shackle ourselves to the point where we do not step forward or go along with unbridled corruption or not is in our hands now, and I sincerely urge all of those who have not voted to vote this year according to the issues that the party presents. Although voting in India might seem like a choice between Scylla and Charybdis we have to complete our duty towards the nation and its people. Not stepping into the adages of nationalism which could be more mind numbing than inspiring, it is the least that we can do for our fellow human beings. I think the call “jaago re” is appropriate in this sense.

Anyway, I will try to post more often these days, and for a small preview, it will be on books I have read since the last time I posted, so keep looking out!

Musings on a quiet Friday afternoon

Well, a while since my last blog, but it has been a hectic set of days since then as well, traveling between cities and friends. Also, I would like to thank all those people who wished me on my birthday, and for those of you who didn’t (grr!). Well, I have read a lot of books since then, (good books all!), some of them being, Nandan Nilekani’s Imagining India, Asimov’s End of Eternity, Niall Ferguson’s History of Money and many more. It has been a while since I critiqued a book and I figured I should go back to my original self when I do this.
The first and easiest book to tell about would be Asimov’s book. When I saw the book I was shocked that I missed a novel from the master and lord of science fiction. The book is about time travel and its consequences mainly. Assuming for a moment time travel is possible, and that a group called Eternity was set up to control all time movement, and historical facts to weed out the unusual over time and stop wars from happening, and other things to ensure a future which would be safe and sound, Asimov talks about the destruction that this would cause to the human spirit. The Unusual is what makes humans different from the rest, that one man can take on the world and plunge it into war or rise to glory and fame is what makes the world move and have paradigm shifts. The existence of Eternity would ensure mediocrity and a world where humans become more docile. Anyway, before spoiling the book, it is a must read for all, and the fact that it is short also helps. I have no critique on this book, other than to say, Asimov continues to be one of my favorite authors and he doesn’t disappoint with this book.
The next book would be Nandan Nilekani’s book Imagining India. He presents his views in a unique manner, and is unique due to the place that he is in now, the leader of one of the largest companies of India and one who is involved steeply in formulating government policies as well. In this book, he outlines what he sees as the problems of India, what he sees as the roadblocks in growth and development of India. From problems of population to bureaucracy to infrastructure, he talks about these problems giving possible solutions wherever he can. He admits that he does not have all the solutions but he provides his insights clearly and expresses himself in a lucid manner. Given my general aversion to Indian authors, I was enthralled to find a book which could talk to me as it were. Nandan Nilekani talks to the educated generation through this book. It is not a book meant to inspire or glorify his company or a biography, but an attempt to discuss his own thoughts, like a blog almost, albeit a bit long one. He talks about ideas in four different parts, ideas that have arrived, ideas in progress, ideas in battle, and ideas to anticipate. Overall, it is a good book to read, to expand your own horizons and see a person who solves complex problems in his own world, attempt that in our world as well.
Apart from these, I have read a lot of Alistair Maclean’s books over the last two weeks. Short and sweet, I like these books mainly for the action, the sarcastic wit of the main characters, and the tangled web plots that he weaves in his books. If you are a fan of fiction and especially war fiction, then Alistair Maclean is the way to go.
One other thing I wanted to comment on was the shoe throwing incident of Bush. The fact that a reporter who violated the norms of his profession, has turned into a cult figure among the masses in the Middle East is fascinating because it is an example of the unpopularity that American faces in the Middle East. Though I do not support the shoe throwing incident, it is not hard to see why it has happened. The only thing remains to be seen is whether Bush will face that in his own country once he steps down from the Presidency. Will his own people be able to embrace him after his mishandled and clearly bungled terms as President is a question that remains to be seen.
Lastly, I had just gone through Arundhati Roy’s essay on terrorism in Mumbai “9 is not 11”. Her last ending line left an impression on me:
“The only way to contain (it would be naive to say end) terrorism is to look at the monster in the mirror. We're standing at a fork in the road. One sign says 'Justice', the other 'Civil War'. There's no third sign and there's no going back. Choose.”

Are these the only two options that we have? What is ‘Justice’? Some would look at genocide as justice for the losses that they have faced and some would look at complete appeasement as justice. Both of these extremes are clearly wrong. Justice and Civil War are vague terms at best. If Civil War is defined as countrymen fighting each other, haven’t we been at Civil War for the last 60 years or so since partition. The future historians might choose to look at it that way. Brother turned against brother, son against father, and neighbour against neighbour. This does fit the classic definition of a civil war, however, does terrorism and anti terrorism come under the domain of a civil war? Will the doings of a couple of men change that?

Placements and Recession

Actually, credit where it’s due, I guess I was inspired to write this after seeing PDM’s blog. Initially I thought of commenting on his blog, rather I figured I should write my own blog concerning this as well. I agree with him completely, that this is not affecting just the guys in our college, but everyone. Not only the academic world but since this is a financial crisis, the business world in a large manner. Trust me on this when I say, we don’t know what will happen tomorrow really. Before the Japanese used to believe in the Divine Right of Kings, that the shogunate feudal system was always there and always will be. It seems that we have returned to such a system today, that we started to believe that businesses were always there and always will be. We have been jolted from that position, and the realization has come that, even the supply demand curve applies to jobs as well. In this scenario, the ones with the temperament to work hard and increase their skill sets are the ones who survive. I am not going to sermonize here, telling everyone to work hard and get higher CG’s or whatever. All I am saying is that don’t despair in this time. Eventually the cycle will trend upwards, it is the basic human nature I guess or whatever the psychologists want to call it. Eventually after a crisis, people do start moving again and the good times will return. It could happen one month, one year or one decade from now. Asking why me, why my time is not what we are here for. We do not choose the times we live in, but we can choose how we live it.
I, and most people would probably agree, yes, life might have been a lot easier if we had things handed to us, but the old adages do ring true during the difficult times. It is the early bird that gets the worm, the ant and the grasshopper story, the rabbit and the hare etc. I guess what I am saying is stop expecting that the name or rather the reputation of the institution that you go to is what hands you a job, or whatever. The competition is such that your knowledge and your willingness to learn is what counts. Many of us, and I myself have been guilty of it, have been involved in extra curricular activities throughout four years to the extent where we neglected our main purpose there, which was to study for our engineering. Whether we were interested or not is a moot point. We had selected that based on whatever factors, and it is a duty you owe to yourself to see it completed, and completed well. There is no such thing as a bad job, only a job not done well by you. There is enough freedom provided to each one of us to pursue our interests in addition to whatever we are studying. Right now, it might seem like we can afford to sermonize now that we are in jobs and all, but even in professional life, many times you are put in roles you do not want to be in, or in roles that you never imagined yourself in, despite your interests and all, more so than in college. Those who do their work in exemplary fashion, are the ones who do it enthusiastically despite their own reservations and have the energy to do more than just that, the ones that pursue their own interests outside of the work as well, are the ones that are really successful. So again, I ask you all not to despair as to what job you are in, or the fact that placement isn’t occurring soon enough or there aren’t enough companies out there. It may take time, but all of you will be placed eventually.
To juniors, who are seeing the placement season from hell, do learn some important lessons. First, I hope they break the myth of the CG. Those that tell you CG isn’t important, do take whatever rotten vegetable and throw it at them, really it is an all important figure, and unless your knowledge in any field is very high, it is a number that judges how hard you have worked through four years. There might be exceptions to this rule, but largely, lets say about 80% of the time, the rule works. Second myth, extra curricular activities are really important on your resume. They aren’t. No one really cares whether you were head of any section, or in any sport, (maybe schlum does, but again it is an exception to a general rule) or that you were in politics, or really that you were pretty important in the institute. Some people might argue differently, I mean sure being the General Secretary, or the Cogni convenor might help sure, but the amount of time and effort spent on it, is really not worth the returns. Do something in the institute if you like it, not because of its effect on a resume. I mean enjoy these activities while you do them. It is a great way to network in the institute and make friends as well. For some reason our institute rewards people who are extroverts to become leaders and all. Generally if you look at it, the introvert type of people are the ones that have good qualities to be leaders. It becomes more of a popularity contest that way, and many a time it is not the most able that becomes lets the head of a section or anything. Don’t mistake success in these fields to success in getting a job and all. In the end it is your knowledge, your willingness to learn and your personality that gets you a job and finally growth in your job.
I hope these words of comfort will help you guys through this difficult time. And of course to all those that have been placed, congratulations, and all those yet to be placed, good luck and do well.