Quotes

"You will remain mediocre if you keep solving problems which someone else asks you to. The greats are the ones who find the problems themselves and then set out to solve them".

"You are going back if you are not moving forward".

"The only constant thing in this world, is change. Be receptive to change and achieve success".

"You don’t have to do good things everyday. But you need to do it at least once in a while!!"

Analysis !!

Why am I doing such a pathetic job at writing? This was the question for which I set out to find an answer; and here are my findings:

1. The heat: Yes it may be surprising, but I felt that the mercury is getting to me... Even at the eleventh hour, the atmosphere is so hot and humid. It melts all the ideas and thoughts which I want to blog about. The proof is my current post- as the temperature fell (due to some unexpected, but most wanted showers in Bangalore) I am back at my writing pad.

2. Work: Not the quantity, but the quality; if you get to do some quality work, you can do quality things in other walks of life as well. But when you do crap stuff, it makes you get away from everything else...

3. No Reading: Directly relates to point 1 above. Someone wisely said ‘If you read a 100 books, you may just be able to write a page'. And, I haven’t read 100 pages :(. Given the heat, I just don’t know how I can sit at one place for more than a few mins.

4. Too much of sleep: Yes, I have been sleeping 10 to 12 hours everyday!! And that leaves very little room for anything else. I found out that the reason for me sleeping so much (Till now, I was a regular at the lack of sleep discussions) is the lack of motivation to do anything else.

So, there you go; Reasons for the long absence. Now, I want to start solving them 1 by 1. So that I can get back to my most favorite hobby asap :)

Any help in this regard is welcome.

PS: Guys howling that Sachin and NRN are unpatriotic, cut the crap!! Get a lesson on patriotism. Sachin was ready to wear the tricolour on his helmet day in and day out; Regarding NRN, read Sudha Murthy's books and you'll know that he is more patriotic than most of the people accusing him.

Defining Moment: Tata acquires Corus.

India has finally arrived on the global scene. And this was signified in a big way. Last week, Tata Steel acquired Corus- a British company, almost thrice as big as itself- in a bidding war with Brazil's CSN. The money that the Tatas will pay for the deal is a mind boggling $11.5 bil, making it by far the biggest acquisition by an Indian company ever.

What is note worthy here is the confidence and gumption which the Tatas and all the bankers backing them showed in the bidding war. Though many feel that the price paid is much more than what Corus deserved, the Tatas feel that their bet will pay off in the long run.

This acquisition, one of the many feathers in Tata group chairman Ratan Tata's cap, makes Tata Steel the 5th largest steel company in the world and 2nd largest in Europe. A remarkable achievement for a company which made an extremely humble beginning more than 100 years ago.

We must however not forget that the Indian attack on global companies started some time back itself. Just to name a few big ones-- Suzlon acquired Hansen Transmissions to become a global player in wind energy; Pharma major Ranbaxy took over Terapia; ONGC picked up several oil fields abroad. These are just to mention a few. Many more took place and many are in the pipeline.

We Indians can now proudly declare that our business lives up to the best in the world. Everyone believes that the best is still yet to come- what with the economy booming, more and more investors are coming forward to fund our companies. Add to this, the confidence of our business leaders is at an all time high and they are now more eager to leap forward than ever before.

World, beware - Here we come!!

The curse of being a Software Engineer

Last weekend, there was an occasion at a relative's place which I had to attend. I say, I 'had to' cos I normally avoid get togethers and not without reason. I believe they are just a platform for people to waste time gossiping about others. However, due to parental pressure, I had to attend this one.

As soon as I set foot at my relative's place, one of my mother's cousins smiled at me. Instantly, I knew that trouble was round the corner. She rushed towards me with a few people behind her. Then she started introducing me to the people around her.

Now, I don't have any problem with people introducing me; Just with the way it is done. They mention my name and immediately start off saying that I am a software engineer in such and such a company (which would naturally mean that I am an extraordinarily intelligent guy!) and the person who introduces me also drops a hint or two regarding my salary!!

I have also observed a common pattern in the people who are asked to undergo the misery of knowing me. If the person is middle aged, he sees me as a villain. He thinks that I am one of those criminals who installs computers at every possible place and hence cause job cuts for people like him!! Alternately, if the person is in his teens, he sees some Nobel prize winner in me and starts dreaming about himself in my position!!

In the days when I had just started working, all this made me proud. It made me feel really important. But as days passed by, this attitude of my relatives started irritating me to no end. Nowadays, whenever someone introduces me, I yearn to hear my father's name, or to know how the person is related to me. But alas, people are more worried about the future of IT companies! Interestingly, people talk of marrying off their daughter to me just on the basis of I working in a software company. To my misery though, the girls don't even give me a second look. Your daughter wants much more, my dear prospective father-in-law!!

Nowadays, I have observed one more interesting feature, given that there is at least 1 software engineer per family. People are now aware of the names of a few software companies. And they compare us depending on the company for which we work!

This is precisely the reason why given a chance I would skip any gathering, specially of my relatives. God knows when these people will understand that software engineers are also normal people who work for a living; In fact, we would work much more than most of the others and accomplish much less. I can take a bet that given a chance, most of the software engineers would opt for an alternate career. And, the so called big pay (which is not so big, after all)- well, it is the only take away for doing such continuous mindless work and inviting so many health problems due to our couch potato life style...

Looking back at 2006... And looking ahead.

The last year, for me, was a testing one in many ways. It was a very happening year with more failures than successes. Not that I expected it to be different. After a disastrous 2005, arguably the worst of my life, in which there were questions raised about me by my closest of friends, I could not expect the moon. So, in 06, the challenge was to overcome the debacle of 05 and regain the confidence of all people who had doubts about me. To a large extent, I must say I have succeeded in doing it.

On personal front, the 1st half was a disaster. I lost a person whom I had believed that I would not live to lose. However, after months of despair, I finally managed to come out of it to an extent in the 2nd half. Though I lost the friend, I realised I learnt a lot from the episode. I hope to carry these valuable lessons throughout my life. Things dramatically improved in the 2nd half of last year. This was mainly because I started studying very seriously for B-school entrance exams. Though the exams themselves didn't go entirely as expected, I am still satisfied. Studying for the exams reignited my enthu and helped in the other aspects of my life as well. I made many new friends and got closer to existing ones. Another very pleasant development was, I started to teach. I am thoroughly enjoying my new role as a teacher.

The professional front last year was a sea of changes. I had 3 manager changes-- does not mean no one likes to keep me. Just that people moved on, one of them a great manager. Add to this, my mentor and team lead also moved on. All this put a lot of pressure and responsibility on my shoulders. Still, I feel that I have managed to keep my head above water, though barely. Another very good development was, my friendships at office improved. To be precise, two of my colleagues, became really close to me. We share a great rapport and have very similar thoughts and interests. They have become my de facto guides at office.

There were plenty of disappointments too-- I regret that I could not read more. I read less than half a dozen books the whole year. Also, I could not write as much as I wished. I could have done my exams and managed many situations a lot better...

All in all, an average but an important year. Simply because I could have sunk into deeper shit. But, the turn around has happened and I am happy for it. I hope to carry the same momentum into 2007. There are several things I want to do this year... A few of them are:

--Take some time out for some social contribution. I really want to this.
--Learn a music instrument, preferably the piano (This has been on the list for more than 5 years now!)
--Read, read and read!!
--Write more often.
--Continue to teach.

--And many more...

Happy New Year

Here's wishing all of you a Very Happy and a Rocking New Year. May 2007 fulfill all your dreams and bring you loads of happiness.

The Rush for Retail

If you are one of those who follow business news closely, you would have realized by now that the most happening thing in India at the moment is Retail. Almost everyone, quite literally, has evinced interest in the booming Indian retailing industry and feel that organised retail is the way forward for future.

To mention a few: Reliance group has extensive plans to enter the Retail industry in a big way. The Tatas are also underway. Existing players like Pantaloon (with their Big Bazaar brand) etc are firming up for the stiff competition by having their own expansion plans. But the one that takes the cake is the alliance of Sunil Mittal's Wal-Mart. This move is said to be a masterstroke from Sunil Mittal.

But, why is everyone so interested in Indian retail? The answer seems pretty simple. Indian retail market is worth a mammoth 350 billion dollars. But only a paltry 20% of this is organised retail. The rest of the market is still with the small and medium roadside vendors. Herein lies the opportunity for growth. If anyone can capture even 5% of this market share, he will be having a 14-15 billion dollar Mcap. It is this money that is luring the whos-who of world retail to India.

However exciting these big numbers may seem, organised retail has its own set of problems. Firstly, crores of Indian families have small roadside shops and that is their bread and butter. Now with the big players planning to have so much coverage, these small players will be virtually wiped out from the scene. For the time being, this may be the case for only the vendors in big metros. But with the kind of money that is set to flow in, organised retail will soon enter small towns as well. What will happen to these vendors? People who had lived respectably till now by doing fairly good business, may be forced to do menial jobs for a living. Can the government do something to help these small shopkeepers? We need to wait and watch; However, at the moment, the future seems bleak.

There exists another not so obvious, but an equally dangerous problem. The retail segment is the last part in the customer supply chain. By this, I mean, it is the retail sector which is in direct contact with the customer. Therefore, anybody who is a major player in the retail industry will have the potential to control the country's economy. Now, the critical question arises-- Should we allow a foreign player to control our country's Last Mile, as it is referred to? This is a sensitive issue which needs to be addressed with due diligence.

Hence, organised retail, seemingly attractive at the first glance has more than its share of problems. We would be better off in solving them before the retail boom kicks in.