Sentispeak

Right to Education - my thoughts

2010-04-03T04:05:00.002+08:00

Education for all is a noble idea. There is merit in giving every child the right to demand free education so that he can become Human capital for the country. In this post, I’ll concentrate on the contentious aspect of 25% reservation in all schools including Private unaided schools. This I think is misdirected and not well thought through. The reason why 18 crore children of school going age are out of school has to do with both supply side and demand side economics.

· On the demand side, economically disadvantaged sections have more imminent needs (food, clothing & shelter) to worry about education. Reservation is not going to fix that part of the problem. We need separate poverty alleviation and vocational education programs for this end.

· On the supply side, there are close to 10.75 lakh schools in India (1 million Government schools, about 30 thousand private aided schools and 45 thousand private unaided schools). But most of the Government schools are just primary schools and majority are in bad shape without roofs and toilets. India needs about 25 crore seats for children between classes 1 to 8^th. But our capacity is not more than 19 crore seats. We need to focus on increasing capacity, not on shifting the occupancy in the existing schools by reserving seats for some. Where will the existing children go?

What’s more, there are critical implementation questions for the 25% reservation :

1. First, Who are the economically weaker sections? In a country where the Black economy is as big if not bigger than the formal economy, is there a proven way of identifying who is economically weak? When all our reservations are based on caste (principle of affirmative action), wouldn’t having this bill implemented on the basis of economic status cause a problem?

2. The 2^nd question is what right does the Government have to mandate 25% reservation in schools which are private and unaided. This is akin to forcing reservation in the private sector. The Government can drive reservation in Govt and Private aided schools but the risk is that it will tamper with the only part of schooling in this country where there is some quality existing – the private unaided schools.

3. The 3^rd one is who will compensate the Private Unaided schools for reserving 25% of their seats as free and how will this compensation be arrived at? Will the Government re-imburse the school on fee lost or just cover the expenses incurred on the 25% students? Will schools pass on the higher cost of operations to the remaining 75% thereby escalating already high fees?

Lastly, there is the question of assimilation. Mixing children from economically backward sections with those from richer families might cause inferiority complex or even resentment. Private unaided schools have various ‘opt-in’ programs such as study tours, sports, classes for extra-curriculars which economically backward section students will not be able to afford. Even simple things such as the quality of uniform, the difference in pencil boxes, bags and notebooks will unnecessarily affect the tender psyche of a young 7 year old child. There are enough studies I have come across which detail the impact of assimilation of a wide spectrum of economic backgrounds at a very early age. We need to tread carefully here, lest we harm more than we help.

I hope the Government focuses on investing the funds in building capacity to provide Access to Quality Education to everyone. This can be done through Public Private partnership but for that we’ll have to lose the moralistic, ‘not-for-profit’ expectation from the Private sector.

why can't cricket go the soccer way?

2010-03-12T01:08:00.003+08:00

English Football has 5 leagues starting from Premier League to Championship, League 1, 2 and Conference. Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Holland - all have leagues too, where different clubs compete. For the better part of the year, clubs compete in their respective leagues for the honor of being the League winner. The League winner (or Top 3 depending on the country you compete in) goes on to the Champions League. Players belong to clubs and are paid massive salaries by their clubs. These clubs have physical presence and very loyal city based following. Sometimes, the following of clubs such as ManU, Real Madrin, Barcelona and Milan transcend their cities or countries.

Players also turn up to play for their country. These occasions are few and far between. Every 2 years, there is a big tournament - either a World Cup or a Continental Cup (European Championship, Copa America etc). Once or twice a year, countries play an International game and sometimes they play friendlies as practice matches for these big tournaments.

Why can't Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab, NSW, Bushrangers, Trinidad & Tobago become the equivalent of ManU, Real Madrid and Barca? They can have teams for the Test, One Day and T20 formats.

Why can't there be a Premier League in each country a la EPL, Serie A, Primera Liga & Bundesliga? Why can't there be other secondary league with a very clear ascendancy mechanism for clubs to higher leagues?

Why can't the primary support and following be for the club? Why can't countries play less no. of times among each other? Maybe even restrict this to a World Test Cup, World 50 over Cup and World T20 Cup?

Why does IPL need to have a window? Infact, international matches and World Cups (or Continental Cups such as Asia Cup, Commonwealth Cup etc) should have a window! Every 4 years.

Wouldn't having these clubs as the primary building block of cricket facilitate talent development better? Wouldn't it force all these clubs to become more rooted in the cities they claim to represent? In fact they could then invest in stadiums, training facilities, academies, scouts, trainers etc and become real clubs then the once-a-year 60 day circus they currently are.

Why can't cricket be more like soccer?

Leadership

2010-03-09T18:39:00.003+08:00

Leadership is a funny thing. There are tons of books written on the topic and still it remains an enigma. I'm trying my hand at making sense of the beast.

In very simple terms, a Leader is responsible for developing a vision of what's possible, gathering a bunch of people towards realising that vision, keeping them motivated through the journey, making course corrections wherever necessary and watching the progress till the vision is achieved. In fact, the vision is rarely achieved because it is a moving target, but more on that later!

In theory this sounds simple. However, there are differences in how people do each of the above, thereby creating different Leadership styles. I feel it is as important to understand why these differences arise as it is to categorize the differences themselves.

In my pov, there are three main factors that determine a person's Leadership style - Character, Situation, People.

Character is the intrinsic core of a person. It is an amalgamation of a person's ego, his self-perception, his degree of security, esteem and assurance. It directly manifests in a person's behavior. Some Leaders are therefore very authoritarian, others are more receptive. Some think position grants them the right to violate others' dignity, others steer from making this assumption. Some like a following, others a healthy debate. Some like to talk, others like to listen. But character only dictates the starting point. And often Leaders veer far away from the starting point depending on the situation and people involved.

Some situations lend themselves to more Transformative behaviors. Others need more transactional stuff. A crisis, for example, would need all hands on the deck. A steady state business on the other hand, would mean the Leader can 'let go' and focus elsewhere.

Ditto for people. Some people inspire confidence in a Leader to 'let go'. Others send signals that spark panic. Leaders respond differently to different people. If they know what to expect, they don't typically ask. If they know that promises made are usually kept, they won't peer over your shoulder. If they know that they'll get the bad news as fast as the good news, they won't second guess. In that sense, a Leader is as good as the person or team he is leading.

All being said, Leadership is a contract between the Leader and the Led. This contract depends to a larget extent on the kind of person that the Leader is (therefore pray that you are not stuck with an insecure person who derives his self-worth through others' affirmation). However, it also varies with the situation and can be influenced by the person who is being led.

This thought is very empowering. It transfers the Locus of Control to the 'Led'. It says that while you can't choose your Leader, you can choose his Leadership style for him!

The Problem with autonomy

2010-03-02T17:52:00.003+08:00

Recently, I have met a fair amount of people who want 'autonomy' in their work. I don't understand it. Autonomy, I believe has to be commanded, not demanded.

Whoever you are......you're answerable to someone. If no one else, at least your wife!

Rather than asking someone to leave you alone, isn't it better to make a follow-up unnecessary?! If you don't want to have someone give advice to you, ask for suggestions ahead of time. If you don't want people interfering, give them a heads up.

The best way I have found of keeping your managers from interfering in your business is to set the right expectations and exceed those expectations. That's not all, continuously keep them informed of the progress because some managers are impatient and they assume the worst if they are not told otherwise. And in case you realise that you are going to miss the commitment made, it is better to share the bad news early than your manager hearing it from someone else.

Lastly, having a reason for your failure is not as important as having a Plan B. The reason will get you past a tough discussion but the alternative plan will get you the results. Where you focus, pretty much determines how far you'll go.

The Right kind of questions

2009-11-19T01:20:00.004+08:00

I keep hearing people continuously complain about the culture of rote learning pervading our country. Everyone has a point of view on education in India but one thing most agree upon is that we create generations of rote learners through our schooling system.

As economists have laid out amply, human beings respond to incentives. There is also this other tendency among human beings that we can't manage what we can't measure. Put the 2 together and you have the root cause of the 'rote learning' problem.

Parents, Community leaders, educators and administrators all want to know whether learning is being achieved in schools or not. They also want to check this in an objective manner. (Whether the latter is a noble aim is questionable, but we'll come to that). So we need to create questions which have 'unambiguous' standardized answers. Most of such questions start with 'Who', 'What', 'Where' and 'When'.

Creativity is by definition indeterminate. You cannot predict what will happen if you ask a student to create. However, creativity is the highest form of understanding for only when you've comprehended, analyzed and evaluated can you create.

This raises the peculiar problem that you can't measure what you know is right, so you manage with what you can measure.

The other issue is that of incentives. Teachers are not really measured for performance in our country, and when they are, its for the wrong thing. If you have not finished the syllabus before the exams and a question comes from the 'uncovered' portion, you'll have parents come in the PTM and shout at you. And you are lauded if your class is in distinction (in an exam designed for memory). So what do teachers do in such a scenario. Without even reading Freakonomics, you could predict that they would complete the syllabus, teach for rote and test for rote and be hailed as a good teacher!

Students too are rewarded for scoring high in exams designed for memory. So they mug up the answers to the questions they expect for the exam, regurgitate during the exam and promptly forget afterwards.

What is the incentive for teaching for understanding? What is the incentive for learning for understanding? How do we measure whether understanding has been achieved when different learners manifest their understanding differently - making it hard for 'objective' scoring?

I don't have the solution for this . But I have some ideas :
1. Assessing a student's understanding through a portfolio that she makes and maintains through a year might spur application and creativity. A portfolio also allows students with intelligences different from the traditional 'linguistic - logical' to express their understanding in the way they prefer. It also ensure all emphasis is not on a year end examination.

2. This portfolio can be judged not just by a teacher but the community. Portfolios can be exhibited or published and readers or visitors can rate the portfolios. If an auction system can be worked out, students can actually see the market value of their portfolios - something far more concrete than marks!

3. Teachers can be rated on the total market value or rating that their class generates. This will incentivize teaching for understanding and not for rote

4. Teachers need to be trained to be constructivists and not instructionists.

5. At the higher secondary level, there could be standardized tests for each vocation or stream and students could take those to ascertain their proficiency for those fields. Such tests exist (JEE, CBSE Medical etc) but we can create a common test with special subject tests if required. This will facilitate entry into professional or graduate streams.

6. Any other idea that promotes 'real understanding'.

Why women wearing pants didn't need to be that way

2009-11-15T19:18:00.006+08:00

AWL County has an interesting employment system for stay at home moms. Realizing that the first 6 years of life witness the highest brain development activity, that Quality Early Childhood Care & Education directly impact an individual's later ability and that women with their nurturing, mothering talent are best placed to nurture the children's potential, AWL County pays the women to stay home and take care of their children. It has a salary structure that varies with the education and health of the mother and an incentive system that rewards initiative and patient behavior. Women in AWL County don't try to compete with the men in Corporate Jobs. Instead, they compete with themselves to be the best mother they can and thereby earn handsome salaries. Given that children exposed to Quality Early Childhood Care & Education turn out to be smart and productive citizens, the county more than recovers its investment in the stay-at-home moms' salaries. Women have dignity because they are being recognised for the work they are doing. Every year, innovative parenting practices that raise happy and inquisitive kids win rewards, thereby creating community heroes out of the mothers. Women are highly satisfied and motivated because they are doing what they are inherently good at and not trying to compete with men in jobs where they have an inherent disadvantage.

Further in AWL County, women also carry the portfolio of Home Ministers. Each Home Minister prepares an annual budget and have annual productivity targets. They work with their suppliers to drive down costs, innovate constantly to drive down operating costs and maintain quality and customer satisfaction at home through on time delivery and excellent culinary products. Again, they are recognized for best practices and those who achieve their profitability targets get to invest their profits in pursuits of their liking. Every year their, the top 5 Home Ministers are fetted and their name put on a roll of honor. Past winners come to felicitate that year's winners and the whole community applauds successful Home Ministers.

Ofcourse, AWL County does not exist but my guess is that if ever it did, it would not have seen the advent of the Women Liberation Movement. The reasons why women left their homes and their children to compete with men to gain respect, dignity and an affirmation of their value would not have existed in the first place.

AWL County also affords some ideas on how the idea of Dignity for Women could have been achieved at a lesser cost to families, children and women's happiness. Fact is that women are good in some areas - really good. And men suck in those faculties. Exceptions, of course exist everywhere. Similarly, men are good in some areas and womnen suck in those.......Ever been stuck behind a woman driver in Mumbai?

If we had just recognized each others strengths and done what we are best at, maybe we would have had a much better world. Now we just have them working harder and harder to prove to themselves that they are as good.........when they could have been great mothers, teachers and home makers and be recognized, valued and cherished for it!

Desperate Networks - a racy read

2009-10-20T14:45:00.003+08:00

If you are a TV junkie and love Friends, Desperate Housewives, Tonight Show and Lost...read this book.

On the sidelines, you'll realize how the best series on TV come to the audience because of random events. Some executive, somewhere, talking to someone comes across a script or idea he likes and one thing leads to another. To think that Desperate Housewives or Lost could never have been made, that Joey could have been thrown out of Friends, that Conan O'Brien had to wait 5 years before taking Jay Leno's seat...makes you wonder whether process is really bigger than people.

In the end, this is a story of the people behind the scenes who bring entertainment to our TV every night. Their whims and fancies guide which channel we switch to at 9pm. Supersize egos and edgy talent - this book covers a whole lot of ground in the US TV industry.

A switch in times......

2009-10-05T12:25:00.002+08:00

I recently switched from Times of India to Hindustan Times. Trust me, the changeover has not been easy. Having woken up with the TOI masthead for close to my whole living adult memory (except when TOI was Strait Times in Singapore), it was a bit disorienting to see a different bluish band on top of the daily awakener.

But once you get past the facade, a sense of pleasure has come back into reading. Times of India, I felt had become too commercial. On top of that, some of their journalism was becoming plain ignorant. I read some of their education reports for example with some horror, where facts were presented without any investigation and analysis to construe that International Schools in Mumbai were in fact more in number than either CBSE schools or ICSE schools. Also, sometimes I wasn't sure whether I was reading news or a paid placement.

Hindustan Times has been a refreshing change - more content, less ads. HT Cafe is the same - its thinner but that's because it is not filled with senseless paid Page 3 material. Their sports coverage is far superior to TOI - and I'm loving it!

Pati, Patni aur Woh

2009-10-03T17:51:00.004+08:00

What makes parents put their children through an experience such as PPW is beyond my comprehension. Is it money? Is it fame? I think it is just another example of the Indian 'Chalta hai' attitude.

Too often, I have come across people who don't say it in words, but still express eloquently how they think we are paranoid and OC parents. The two most frequent quotes I have heard are, " Hamare zamaane mein to itna nahi karte the.....phir bhi hum theek thaak hi nikal aaye hain!" or "Kuch nahi hota.....bachche apne aap barhe ho jaate hain".

I think people who have volunteered their babies for the show are well-meaning, loving parents. They don't really think they are doing anything untoward to the baby by putting her through the ordeal that is PPW. They would have been taken in by the assurances of the channel, the availability of doctors & nurses, the free flow of coke and pizza and the air conditioning. What can go wrong? 'Hum wahin pe the.....barhe achhe se khayal rakha ji unho ne bachchon ka' - they would say. 'Ek din mein kya ho jana hai......different experience ho gaya!' - would be the other response.

I don't really think the question is whether the experience (or nightmare) of spending 24 hours with strangers is detrimental to the child or not. The question is how far can parents take their natural right to decide what is right or wrong for the child till he is old enough to decide for himself. Where does one draw the line between eager and irresponsible parenting? Shouldn't we see the child's protests and cries as adequate evidence of his disagreement and accord it the respect it deserves? Or should parents conclude that they know what is best for their child and go with what suits their fancy?

PPW sickens me but this whole tamasha raises important questions on what is Good Parenting. The least we can do is NOT watch the show - else this TRP race will have cripples flying down ramps to see who falls the farthest!

something is not always better than nothing

2009-09-28T18:56:00.004+08:00

One of the comments to my previous post on the Education Policy being misdirected was that even though it impacts a miniscule part of the population, it at least does some good to some people. This falls under the traditional argument applied to a lot of our policy conundrums - Something is better than nothing.

Only in this case something is not really better than nothing. Let's investigate the reasons behind the decision to abolish CBSE class X exams. The decision purports to lower the stress faced by students in preparing for the exams.

But it forgets that the stress exists because a low score in Class X means not getting the Junior College or stream that the student wants. Since people wanting to change schools post X still have to take the Class X exam and nothing has been done to increase the availability of quality colleges.......how will the stress go away?

Classic case of taking symptomatic treatment without treating the underlying cause - it might have a placebo effect of garnering short term pubilicity and press induced fawning but in the long term nothing changes.

Unless we increase the quality of Junior College education and increase the availability of seats in 'in-demand' streams........Class X stress will remain - exams or no exams.

There's something wrong

2009-09-17T17:55:00.010+08:00

As I read the various papers and websites writing ad-nauseum on the current education initiatives being taken by Mr. Kapil Sibal and I hear the minister himself hogging limelight on the 'only-too-eager' TV channels, I get the feeling that there is something deeply wrong about the whole situation. Let me explain why -

In matters of public policy, priority should be given to address the most important issues that impact the maximum number of people. This needs no further emphasis. If you disagree, proceed no further and advise me why this is wrong.

If we agree with the 'Most important impacting Most people' criteria and apply it to Education in India then the announcements and initiatives in the last 100 odd days not only seem mis-directed, they also seem diversionary.

The most important issue facing Indian Education today is 'Access to Quality School Education for All'. There are 3 key concepts here - Access, Quality School Education and For All. The problem is that quality school education is accessible to only a very very minuscule portion of population. Out of 361 million children of school going age in India, my estimate is that the no. of school going children getting quality education is not more than 1 million.

Why is this important? Brain science says that more than 90% of your brain patterns are formed by the age of 12 – the age when the child is in school. So if we don’t fix it there, we are only going to be able to make cosmetic improvements to the human capital of our country. Also, consider this. If we don’t fix school education now, we are condemned till 2021 for that’s when students entering schools today will enter the workforce! (assuming 12 years of school education).

Why is it a problem? Quality of School Education is being provided at various levels today. See the graphic below :

Out of 361 million children of school going age, 219million are actually in school. Among them, most of the 20 million in Govt Schools in Rural India would fall in level 1 or 2 of the above graphic where either they appear as enrolled without any teacher or with high teacher absenteeism or without a school building or just about manage some schooling with a 10th pass person taking them through the motions of chanting tables and alphabets 100 times a day. Most of the remaining children going to Govt Schools (38+71 million) would fall in level 3.

The situation for the 90 million in Private Schools is slightly better in that almost all are atleast at level 3. A few thousand schools would fall in level 4 and 5 where there is learning beyond the classroom but rote learning and rote testing still prevails. And the school is still an assembly line of numbing every student into conformity.

A couple of hundred would fall in level 6 & 7 – the levels that can actually claim to be providing quality education. And taking 1000-2000 as average enrolments for these level 6 & 7 schools, not more than half a million children have access to quality education today in India!!!!

Ironical isn’t it for we are talking about abolishing class X exams in CBSE!! Let’s see how many does this impact. There are about 8 lakh children who pass out of CBSE Xth every year. Out of them, a large percentage opt for a Junior College or Vocational Stream (diploma) – people who would still need to take an exam. Even if 2/3rd stay in the same school, that still means only 0.5 million children.

So we are ignoring the need of 360 million children to solve the problem of 0.5 million children! Doesn’t it sound absurd to say the least??

The problem of Access to Quality Education for All runs at 2 levels.

First, Lack of access to Quality education is creating a huge demographic divide where the rich with access to better education are becoming better and the poor with either no access or access to poor education are becoming more disadvantaged.

While the logic of ‘you get what you pay for’ can apply to normal products or services, Education is a life skill. If you give poor life skills to a poor person, you’re preparing him to remain mired in the cesspool of few opportunities. This has to change.

Second, those who think they are getting Quality education by sending their children to so called ‘good schools’ are actually sending their children to education factories where they are numbed into conformity. Granted, these children are better off than their poorer counterparts (who don’t even get access to the information and knowledge that richer children can) but they are reaching nowhere near their true potential.

Any policy initiative in India has to target this fundamental issue of giving Access of Quality Education to All.

Quality should be uniformly defined. Let an independent, constitutionally formed body lead this. Availability should be left to the private sector. They can run and manage schools better than the government. Access should be enabled by putting money in the hands of the disadvantaged or poor, possibly through a coupon system, so that everyone can afford good quality education. The government can channel the money it currently spends on teacher salaries and a leaky school system towards this and manage its disbursement when the UID program is ready.

When everyone has access to an education that enables them to achieve their unique, true potential, half the problems we currently see will disappear. So isn’t it better to focus on the most important issue that impacts the most than applying band-aids to an ailing system?

Why the scare : the H1N1 virus

2009-08-13T13:59:00.003+08:00

Is H1N1 the biggest threat to life today? No. There's traffic, Mumbai locals, AIDS, measles, cancer, stress and myriad other reasons why India's death rate is what it is. Then why is there such panic around H1N1?

I believe it is the simple fear of the unknown. People do not know enough about the disease. What causes it? How do we recognize it? What to do if we are in the care of someone with H1N1? In the absence of knowledge, people clam-up. They become scared and fear has strange ways of ruling our responses.

The other unknown in H1N1 is the treatment & screening option available. If you get H1N1, you'll be made to experience something even worse - a Govt. Hospital! For those of us who have never visited a Govt. hospital in our life (these are exactly the people who are running scared shit), let me just say that they breed disease more than they treat it. We hear horror stories about staff apathy, vermin laced wards, spit covered walls and a general lack of hygiene and care.

Now, if the only screening and treatment option available for H1N1 is a Govt hospital, you'll pray to your Almighty that you never ever have anything to do with the flu!

Traffic, Mumbai locals, AIDS, cancer, measles, stress are knowns. You know what to do to prevent them (thought in the case of cancer that's less certain) and if you get hit by a car or a local (God forbid!) or come down with measles, cancer, AIDS (again double forbid!) you can go to your GP, nearby clinic or plush private hospital to get treated. Medicines are freely available at your nearby chemist and the whole thing seems to be under control.

For H1N1, it is a Govt hospital, it is bureaucracy, medicines are rationed - you'll only get them if they THINK you have the flu. So the risk and cost of getting the flu just spiral up.

In this situation it is better to be safe - stay indoors, don't go to school, don't visit malls, don't talk, don't breathe. Because the alternative, however improbable, is unpalatable - a rendezvouz with the opaque, kafkasque Govt machinary! You don't know what'll happen to you if you're in the care of the Govt.

Why the Maha GR for non SSC schools is exactly what should NOT be done

2009-08-09T11:26:00.005+08:00

I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall when the Maharashtra Government was deciding its latest resolution for non-SSC schools. It would at least help me understand the thought (if there was any!) behind this misdirected move.

Maybe it was another attempt to appeal to the Maharashtrian voter

Or was it an attempt to get back at the Central Board schools for blocking the 90% reservation GR earlier this year?

Or are they genuinely concerned about the SSC students but unable to improve their standard; are now trying to level the playing field by bringing down that of other boards?

Or is it the misguided fervor of linguistic fanatics who believe their mother tongue should be accorded the same respect by everyone else.

Or is it just a group of people without an education bone in their body, trying to formulate education policies for the state.

Whatever be the reason, the decision smells of a basic lack of awareness of ground issues.

1. You cannot force everyone to follow the same standard. Where are we living? A autocracy? Asking non SSC board schools to follow the SSC English syllabus till V is like asking the middle class to live in slums because we can't provide affordable housing for the poor.

2. Why should everyone learn Marathi? If I don't know which part of the country or world I'll be tomorrow, why would you force me to acquire a language that I have little use for?

3. Why should state dictate fees for a private unaided school? You have done nothing to bring up the institute and now you want to control it? Isn't it akin to price control of essential commodities - the bad effects of which is not lost on anyone, least on the Oil PSUs! When you control price, you are removing an incentive to maintain quality. How will schools hire good teachers? How will they upgrade the infrastructure required to improve delivery of education? How will they create forums and opportunities for students to go beyond books?

Economics teaches us a very simple principle. When supply is far lesser than demand, prices go up. Now, for the Govt to control prices, it has to do something much simpler - spur supply. Instead, it is choosing to subvert basic economics through the use of a fiat. But we know that permits and government interference do not work. They will spawn another era of corruption where schools are forced to grease the palms of education officers to increase fees. Politicians will become all important because their word will be needed for schools to implement changes they need. Ultimately, the child will suffer.

The Government has done such a pathetic job in state run schools. Why transfer that same adhocism, corruption, nepotism and anarchy to private schools? Why screw up something that's working instead of fixing what's broken?

If the Maharashtra Government is serious about making meaningful difference in educating the majority SSC students, they need to first significantly improve the quality of current SSC Schools and then open more of a higher level.

Let's start with school infrastructure. We need to upgrade the infrastructure of state run schools to bring them at par with private schools. A good school building, clean & well-lit classrooms, multi-media and well-tended grounds - all go a long way in making learning meaningful and joyful.

They say that the quality of education in a school cannot supass the quality of teachers. We need to bring in a significant step change in the quality of teachers. To attract the right talent to teaching, salaries need to go up. The BEd program needs to undergo a paradigm shift to improve the skills of teachers in today's world. Lastly, continuous training is important to keep these skills updated in this rapidly evolving world.

Maharashtra Government should focus on these 2 critical pillars if they are serious about improving the prospects of SSC students. Bringing everyone down to the lowest common denominator is not at all the right way to go!

An idea for change

2008-12-08T12:50:00.023+08:00

Over the past 2 weeks, I have been itching to do something. This is an itch I share with at least million other Indians ever since 10 terrorists (their no. is still being debated) killed hundreds and deflated the spirit of a billion. Different people have been doing different things. Candle-light walks, gatherings, black ribbons, passionate interviews on TV, postings on facebook or orkut, donations - each Indian has reacted in the manner he thought best.

There are also murmurings about not paying taxes till something is done, not allowing Taj to be rebuilt till something is done, not voting as a protest and a lot of other 'nots'.

There is also the fear that slowly the city is limping back to normalcy. I woke up today without the question of 'What is happening about the Mumbai attacks?" on my mind. The media is now talking about the new Maharashtra CM, the disgruntled Rane, the new economic package and the results of recent state elections.

I've myself been vacillating between taking part in protests and showing my anger to the Politicians to jumping right in and creating a political movement. I have been bouncing off some of these ideas with like-minded people and want to share these in this forum for your inputs.

My reading of the root cause is that India today has a weak and immoral Leadership. Or as someone said, "It is a great country, ruled by small people'. The leadership we had at the time of independence was driven by idealism and purpose. They wanted to prove to the world that they were worthy of the independence they had fought for. Some of their initiatives might have been mis-directed but they didn't have mal-intent. From those heights, where political debate was on ideology and policy, we have plunged to the current depth where small minded people decide each step with an eye on their micro vote-bank. Political debate is about seat manipulation, horse trading, scams. Leadership is infested with the criminal, the unread and the old.

It is to this state of affairs that we need a response - A cleansing from within. Because to expect the people who are both a product and a creator of the current system to change and suddenly become visionary, accountable and professional is delusional to say the least.

One of the reasons why politics is so dirty today is because it is funded via dubious means. It costs close to 3-4 crores to get elected as an MLA or MP in this country. And the elected representative has 5 years (sometimes less, in this age of coalition politics!) to recover it and make some ROI. Corruption and nepotism is an automatic by-product. The consequent pollution that gets established then keeps well-meaning individuals out of this politician-criminal-industrialist nexus. What we get eventually is incompetent, self-serving, small-minded people standing for election. Voters end up either choosing the least unattractive option, or choosing on the basis of dubious criteria or worse, not choosing at all. How do we expect people who come through such backgrounds and means to be able to lead this country into the Superpower status we already believe is legitimately ours?! Haven't we heard of GIGO - Garbage In Garbage Out?!

Here's a proposal then to address this problem:

Create a professionally run Public Party.

Purpose : To provide Transparent Governance, Inclusive Development and Proactive Security.

Values : This party will live by : Integrity, Respect for the Individual, Respect for Diversity, Accountability and Innovation.

Membership norms : Any Indian can be a member of this party.

Structure : The structure can be similar to a listed company. It will have members (instead of shareholders) who elect a Board. The party will be managed by a CEO and the leadership team.

Funding : The party will create an endowment fund to run its operations and pay its employees. The endowment fund will be invest its money responsibly to get a return enough to cover its expenses.

Roles & Responsibilities : Employees of the party will be responsible for whetting suitable candidates, recruiting and training and campaigning for them in elections. In case required, employees can also put themselves up for election. Their salaries will be paid from the income from the endowment fund.

The point of difference of this party will be :

Its Purpose - It aims for the Big 3 - Governance, Development and Security
Its values of integrity (honesty, truth) and accountability (promises made, promises kept)
It will take away the incentive for corruption by making politics a clean, well paying profession. Also campaign money will be funded by the members, not the candidates.
It will follow a tough selection process to get capable candidates
It will raise the quality of public discourse by focusing on issues that effect the nation, and not indulge in caste, religion, region and other divisive issues.

What is needed:

Like any start-up venture, it needs 2-3 committed people to start the party like a company. These people should raise seed funding to create awareness and an identity for this party. A collection drive to raise the endowment fund will take place and at the same time applications will be invited from candidates who can run for election. The party will sift through the applicants and then select candidates for the next election. It will prepare each candidates KRA and ensure that it links with the overall purpose and manifesto of the party. It will take care of all the procedures required to register the candidates, campaign for them and get them elected.

The performance of the party will be measured by :

the no. of candidates it will get elected
the delivery of the elected candidates against their KRAs.

I'm looking for people who can start this party up. And I welcome any suggestion or input to improve upon this idea.

Revelations from 26/11

2008-12-05T23:09:00.017+08:00

It's been 10 days since 10 terrorists entered Mumbai from the seas and violated the whole country's consciousness. 200 odd dead, 300 odd injured and a billion psyches raped - the toll is unimaginable. In terms of its effect on Indians, it comes second only to the Chinese aggression of 1962. Then, as now, we felt completely overrun by an enemy who was vastly better prepared and better equipped. Then, as now, the death toll on the Indian side was far higher than that on the enemy side. Then, as now, we felt naked, assaulted and helpless.

That war resulted in Nehru's slow death, Shastri's short stint and eventually the mutilation of India's institutions by Indira Gandhi. India hurtled towards corruption, nepotism and narrow-minded politics from that point; resulting in today's sorry state of affairs. Last week's aggression portends seismic changes of similar proportions but hopefully opposite polarity.

Three facets of last week's attacks have singed our sensitivity :

Frailty of our borders : When we go to sleep at night, we want to feel secure that our house is secure from intruders. That's why bolts and locks were invented. Likewise for our country. We should be able to sleep soundly at night, secure in the thought that unwelcome and nefarious intruders are not sneaking in from all sides. Over the last week, different people have offered different reasons why our borders can't be leak-proof. A former Navy commander said that even the US sea border were porous. A IIM-A batchmate said that having an enemy neighbour makes it impossible to ward off intruders. I say all that is bull. If we make this priority No. 1, it can be done.

It will take money - that means we have to pay our taxes.

It will take political will - that means that before we fund pilgrimages, statues and other political gimmicks; we fund fencing of our land borders in the North and East, training of our security personnel and patrolling of our coast.

It will take accountability - that means that 100% of the money goes into fence wires, boats and signalling equipment; not into constructing politicians farm houses or their imported cars.

Securing our borders has to be taken up with the utmost urgency so we prevent outsiders from coming in and spreading havoc. This is true for Kashmir, for West Bengal, Assam & North East and for the long coast-line.

The second aspect of this problem is to account for those who are already in. Sadly, today we have no single way of determining if the person behind you in the ticket queue is a real Indian or a Pakistani / Bangladeshi / Nepali masquerading as one. We share the same ethnicity. It is not as simple as White Austalia where a Chinese or a Lebanese can be identified just by looking at one. If the US and Singapore can have a citizen ID card, why can't India have one? This should be a basic mandatory for every citizen. You shouldn't be able to admit your child to a school, open a bank account, get a job, get a gas cylinder or kerosene, buy a vehicle - in short any transaction - without your citizen ID no. Profiling concerns be damned.

I know there are some real practical issues to be solved before we get there. Things like who to count as citizen? The millions who entered India during the 1971 war from Bangladesh? The lakhs who entered India during the Maoist insurgency in Nepal? The thousands who have come from Sri Lanka during the Tamil-Sinhalese war? Should we decide a year after which everyone is considered an immigrant? How would we decide who came when? These are hard questions but their intractability should not be an excuse for inaction. We've had Ration cards, PAN cards or Voter's I-cards but none of them have been able to solve this vexed question. A good starting point would be to take anyone who has either of the above 3 as a citizen and address the remaining on a case to case basis.

Inadequacy of our response system - I was embarrassed and frustrated in equal measure at the complete disarray of our response system. Consider this - 10 terrorist enter India. Have food in some place, open fire at Cafe Leopold. Some of them walk to the Taj Hotel. A couple go to CST and another couple to Hotel Trident.

At CST, they open fire, killing 57 people. Our security people run - not towards the oncoming terrorists in a well practised counter attack, but away from them - sometimes outsprinting the rushing passengers! And they are not really to be blamed. Their rusted rifles and blunted lathis were no match for the AK 47s of the terrorists. The terrorists then calmly walk out of the station, enter Cama Hospital, fire rounds, walk out, gun down 3 celebrated police officers - Karkare, Salaskar & Kamte, pull their bodies out of the Toyota Qualis, escape in the same vehicle, stop when they realise that it has a flat tyre, snatched a Skoda of another guy near the Trident and run away. This whole episode must have taken at least an hour to 45 minutes. And we didn't have a command and control system to blockade the area and arrest these terrorists to get intell on the broader plot????? If that doesn't make you fearful and angry, what else will?!

Now see what happened at the Taj and Trident. Terrorist enter the hotels, fire indiscriminately at patrons in their restaurants, take hostages, establish command centres in guest rooms, lob grenades to create destruction and panic. And what are our forces doing? First, a posse of ill-equipped policemen come and quickly realize that they are no match for the well-planned attackers. What happens after this is hushed up. But information coming out in bits & pieces reveals that our response was stunted due to bureaucracy and rank callousness. The Naval command centre that is less than 20 minutes from the site of the attacks wanted a written request from no less than the Cabinet Secretary (maybe in triplicate!) before they could send the Marine Commandoes. The National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan was at a party and which he finished at 11.30, a full 2 hours after news channels started relaying news of terrorist strikes. Eventually, at 2 am, the NSG commandoes were despatched from their headquarters in Manesar (where?). They boarded a rickety bus to get to New Delhi, took a slow Russian plane that got them to Mumbai in 3 hours and then a BEST bus without any steering vehicles navigated the traffic to get them to the attack site at 5 am. It had been 7 hours 30 minutes since terrorists had fired their first bullet!!

What does this tell you? Do you think that if tomorrow you are held hostage by a group of terrorist in your home, there will be policemen or commandoes to save you? No! Files have to be pushed, committee members have to be located, they have to debate the plan of action, buses have to be found, they have to be in working condition and all this is still hostage to the distance between your home and the NSG headquarters. Multiply all this and the possibility of you surviving is zero!!

Callousness of media - India has 120 news channels of various languages, scope and slants. Most of them have come up in the last 5-10 years, some in the last year itself. Most of them are managed by news-anchors who cut their teeth in Doordarshan news. Almost none of them seem to understand restraint and responsibility. What began on our television screens from Wednesday 9.30pm and continues unabated should never have been. Consider this -

I'm one of the terrorists in the Taj, sitting in one of the guest rooms. I switch on the TV to watch the news channel. The reporter tells me that Hemant Karkare, the ATS chief has come to the site. They show him without a bullet proof vest. I now know that it's the police that I'm up against. Ok, they are ill-equipped, I don't have to worry. At 2am, the channel tells me that the Home Minister has announced that the NSG commandoes will be despatched to Mumbai. Cool, I have another 3 hours before they can dream of landing here. Let me kill, maim and burn with impunity. Oh! another channel just mentioned that guests have gathered in the Chamber room. And there are about 150 of them. Thank you, let me go there and kill them. And who are they showing by the window. 201, 202...that's room no. 205 - there seem to be 3 guests there. I can go there and take them hostage.

Imagine another scenario. I'm holed up in Nariman House with the 5 Jew members already killed. The television channel is showing that a helicopter has been pressed into service. Hmmm, so they'll come from the roof. Let me strengthen on that front. Oh, they are showing commandoes come down the helicopter. How many are there? One, Two, three...ok, 8 of them. One of us can take the left door from the roof for providing cover and I can take them all.

What complete stupidity!! How can there be no information dissemination system to take over in such situation of national security? How can our media in their attempt to provide exclusives and boost their TRPs become unwitting pawns in the hands of the terrorists?!

In addition to the security issue, is the insensitivity of it all. There was a news channel shoving the mic in the face of a bawling father who had just lost his son. Camera-men rushed to click a man who had just been shot and was being dragged to a waiting ambulance. Wailing mothers, injured guests, rescued hostages - no one was spared. There is no respect for dignity of life, no regard for human loss - just a naked pursuit of TRPs.

If we are serious about our response to these terror attacks, we have to work on these 3 aspects - the frailty of our borders, the inadequacy of response system and the irresponsibility of our media. Who can do this is another question, left for another posting on this blog.

India's highways to future

2008-09-10T22:44:00.003+08:00

If you want to feel optimistic about India's future, drive down from Karol Bagh to Gurgaon via Ridge Road and NH8. The latter is truly worldclass. Smooth, wide, well-marked with proper exits and entry lanes, it's a pleasure to drive on. True, traffic is fast catching up to make it congested, but let's not quibble over details.

If you want re-assurance that this development is also touching small town India, check out NH1 from Pathankot to Damtal. The former is a small town in North Punjab with a population of 250K, the latter is a tiny hamlet with population in single digit thousands. NH1 between these two towns passes through hilly terrain and the awe that a wide, 6 lane road inspires over mountains is difficult to put in words.

I happened to travel on the above two stretches over this weekend and felt better with the experience.

But if you want to be reminded that in India, the more things change, the more they remain the same, you should exit NH8 and enter Gurgaon. The pothole mosaic that passes off as road is pathetic. Vehicles regularly scream in agony as they navigate the crests and troughs and often break down.

In the same vein, once you pass Damtal on NH1 towards Jalandhar, the road disappears. The potholes here are even more vicious. One vehicle had its axle broken into two on hitting one such death trap. Apparently, contracts have been issued for 4 laning of the road but the contractor is waiting for monsoons to get over. People, meanwhile, are paying the price for the 'soft launch'.

Here's hoping that NH8 transcends to the last mile and NH1 completes its majestic sweep beyond Damtal all the way to Jalandhar. That's when we can truly feel proud.

the right metaphor - clay vs. seed

2008-07-05T02:09:00.009+08:00

A couple of years ago, after a highly successful and deeply satisfying summer camp with school children in Dalhousie, I wrote a blog titled 'working with clay'. Having spent the last 9 months in Education in India, I feel the metaphor of children being clay might have been a bit misguided and erroneous.

The notion of a teacher as this all important agent who moulds destinies is misplaced. A human brain is not an empty jug in which you fill knowledge, nor is it an amorphous entity to which you give form.

The idea of a seed comes close to describing a human brain at birth. It carries its code inside - whether it'll be an oak or a grass. A teacher can give it the nutrition or environment to make it the best oak or the best grass it can be. But it is tough for a teacher to turn an oak into grass - if at all she is successful, it will be a very gnarled piece of grass!

This understanding has led me to redefine the role of education. Every child is unique, like a seed that carries its future within. The role of education is to enable the fruition of this potential, not guide a child to the norm of an 'ideal child'.

Now if every child is unique, how can an assembly line methodology work? How will one way of teaching work for everyone? Shouldn't education cater to the unique learning style of each student?

This is not a trivial challenge because school education is driven by syllabus targets and high teacher-student ratio. The focus is on finishing the prescribed teaching modules, testing it by rote based exams and moving the batch forward, to make way for the next one.

We can definitely do better. Technology can play a role. Teacher training will definitely play a role. But most important is to educate parents. To give them the knowledge that their child is unique and they are doing a disservice to her uniqueness if they benchmark her growth by uni-dimensional exam scores.

Over the next few posts, I'll share my experiences of developing an education pedagogy that caters to the needs of the learner, not of the teacher or administrator.

The Power of 10

2008-04-28T20:38:00.004+08:00

I've realized that it's extremely difficult to bring culture change in an organization. The best a leader can do is NOT underestimate the effort required. That's where the Power of 10 comes in.

Any message, for it to be absorbed and internalized, needs to be repeated at least 10 times. Any lesser and it can easily run off the thick oily layer of habit that most employees carry.

The power of 10 runs against the natural inclination to say something new & different each time you meet your people. Repetition seems boring in a culture of 'what's new?' But habit is the biggest enemy of change and the power of 10 breaks it in small but sure steps.

Beginning of a storm

2008-01-03T18:58:00.000+08:00

The New Year incident of a crowd molesting 2 women on Juhu Tara Road hit me like a rock. While the incident itself was enough to cause indignation, what really jolted me was the deeper issue it symptomized.

Over the last few years, I have been reading and hearing about the increasing divide between the haves and the have nots in India. And I have heard people worry that this will cause social unrest and upheaval. But, I have always felt that these concerns were overblown or shallow. There were bigger & deeper issues to deal with such as Infrastructure, Health and Education, which if done well, should take care of these symptoms. And in any case, any mass upheaval was still some decades away, was how I reacted.

Over the past few months however, I'm beginning to see patterns that indicate that the unrest and upheaval is not far. In Mumbai, the great immigrant magnet, you see this more than anywhere else.

The situation is still at a simmering stage but as these two incidents show, it doesn't take much for the lava to burst out:

A college student is driving his Maruti Swift on SV Road, when he accidentally hits a pedestrian who, in typical Mumbai style, is walking through peak traffic using his hand both as a shield and a traffic signal. Where the fault lay was debatable but the response from the crowd was bordering on the maniacal. They pulled out the youngster and proceeded to take out all the frustrations of their unfulfilled life on him.

2 NRI couples make plans to go to J W Marriot for New Year night reveleries which included a performance from Bipasha Basu. Clearly, there are more people who can't get in (the entry ticket was Rs. 11,500) than who could. When the 2 couples leave Marriot and are walking towards Hote Royal, the crowds from Juhu Beach (where else do you get free open space in Mumbai?) start to rile them with lewd comments. In a pure reflex action, one of the lady abuses the crowd. And the 'have-nots' who were smarting from being excluded from the 'high-life' take out their frustration at the women by tearing their clothes & molesting them.

These incidents are repeated in different forms and facets all over Mumbai everyday. Whether it is the laborer peeing at the outer wall of a Bungalow, pedestrians scratching cars while passing them by or the blank stares of a beggar at a traffic junction, deprived India snarls at rich India every second.

And where the underlying frustration doesnt find vent, it simmers as apathy or antipathy. Everyday, poor immigrants disembark from Patna express at VT and start their battle for survival. Everyday, a rich spoilt kid leaves his half-finished breakfast, goes down the lift and orders his driver to take him to a Multiplex in his Toyota. And the poor Bihari and the rich Marwari share the same road and air. If the Bihari's dreams are not realized, the situation is ripe for a nightmare on our streets.

Every Child is Unique

2007-12-27T16:17:00.000+08:00

Taare Zameen Par is a much needed breath of fresh air for the effete and constrained school environment in India. Although it might pass off as the story of a dyslexic child gaining recognition for his unique talent, the story is a commentary on us as parents, teachers and school administrators

Parents
I'm increasingly getting convinced that what India needs the most to improve its Human Capital is not better schools, or more universities but Parent Counseling. We, as parents operate from centuries old myths, stereotypes and misinformation. And the root cause seems to be the quest for the 'Ideal Child'. And the Ideal Child is defined primarily in terms of Verbal and Logic/Math capability. Guests check whether the child can count or read the alphabet. Parents want to teach their children the 'a,b,c' and the '1,2,3'. Schools test for 'A for apple' and 'count till 20'.

There is a need to redefine the 'Ideal Child'. Better still, we need to shed the notion of the 'Ideal Child'. Each child is unique. Some can read well. Some can count well. Some can draw well. Some can relate well. Some can imagine well. Some can model well. Some can sing well. Howard Gardner calls them Multiple Intelligences. And there are 7 of them. Each child has a grain of these intelligences but is overdeveloped on some and underdeveloped on others. Society needs each intelligence but parents tend to over-value language and maths acquisition more than other intelligences. This needs to change and Parent Counseling can play a massive role in this area.

I feel that embracing the philosophy of Multiple Intelligences will allow parents to respect their child's capability in whichever sphere it exists. It'll save children from the pressure and stress of being judged on limited and misplaced criteria

Teachers
Teaching in India is crying for Talent. Teaching is the last resort of the failed, clueless or in the case of women, the married. There are umpteenth reasons for it. Low salaries are the primary quoted reason. The absence of role models and their celebration is another big one in my pov. In a world, where a Mittal, a Modi, a Bedi, a Dhoni or a Khan are touted as 'Indian of the Year', where will young impressionable minds get the inspiration to become great teachers??

Even those who join the profession with the right intent are benumbed by the old and defunct 'BEd' course. Here, the vicious cycle of bad teachers creating worse ones manifests itself with age old paradigms on Human Development, Child Psychology and Cognition getting perpetuated and new research and learning remaining in Research Labs and books.

Once these teachers enter schools, they start the process of dousing any ambers of curiosity in the child with their inane, 'fingers on your lips', 'get out of the class' and 'Amit, you read the first paragraph and others repeat' routines. Teaching is one profession where there is little to no refreshing of skills and knowledge. Teachers use methodologies that existed when they went to school and sadly, all the modern developments and learnings on human cognition by-pass them.

I haven't yet touched the plight of government schools where teacher absenteeism exacerbates all the above issues (Although you can argue that a bad teacher can do more harm than no teacher at all!!)

I feel that New Age Schools run by the Private Sector can play a role in attracting talent to this profession. The Private Sector can also contribute in the area of teacher training if the right incentives for skill upgradation are provided. Technology can play a big part in this area by carrying centralized content to far off areas. If the Govt. pitches in by revoking the senseless Not for Profit Trust requirement for schools and Media plays its part in celebrating Teaching as a profession of nation builders, much can be achieved.

School Administrators
School administrators play a huge role in the area of teacher-student ratio, teacher recruitment & training. I'm a big supporter of inclusive education - every child has the right to learn. And every child can learn, as long as schools accept this as their responsibility and make provisions for the different intelligences exhibited by different students. If students learn in different ways, schools have to make the extra effort and investment in teaching in different ways.

This is possible only if the right teacher student ratio is maintained to allow individual differences in intelligences to be identified. Classroom design will need to follow to enable child centric methodologies vs. creating pulpits for sermons.

Taare Zameen Par touches on all of these in subtle ways. Whether it is the father who misses his child's uniqueness in his pursuit for the 'Ideal Child' or the teachers who perpetuate rote learning or the school principal who struggles with the dilemma of efficiency of administration vs. focus on each child - the movie portrays issues dogging education today.

Credit should go to the scriptwriter for a great story. Darshil has performed his role with amazing finesse for his age. And Aamir, the director, has resisted the usual producer-actor-director urge to focus on himself, thus allowing the movie to focus on the theme vs. the star.

Insecure Leaders

2007-10-30T15:42:00.000+08:00

Leadership, in my view, is all about creating a vision of what's possible and then creating conditions for your people to achieve it. There are tomes written on the art, craft and science of Leadership and I don't pretend to better this body of knowledge. What I do want to talk about is the pernicious effects of an Insecure Leader on the organization.

I believe that an Insecure Leader not only limits the distance a company can cover, he also vitiates the journey. And on this tedious, long and slow trek, he stunts his people's growth. Taken together it's a grim scenario.

An Insecure Leader believes that he knows best. Convinced in his omnipotence, he retains all decision making with him. He believes that there is 'one best way' to drive business and he knows it. And he limits his organization's potential by this outlook and his capacity. If everything has to be routed through one person, there are bound to be bottlenecks. If the process to achieve outcomes is mandated, people's inherent diversity is insulted. And although ideas often emanate from an individual flash of brilliance, they grow & develop through open discussion. An Insecure Leader prevents this democratic mutation from genesis to maturity.

People working under an Insecure Leader do not develop, unless you count learning what not to do, as important learning (which it is, but then learning by inversion is hardly fun). He doesn't invest in developing people because he fears that he'll lose his edge if he teaches them his insights. What's more he wants people to just execute his ideas, and hires people who are 'coordinators' and 'executives' and keeps them that way. There is no need to invest in developing people, since they are inherently dispensable.

It's in the culture and environment that an Insecure Leader has the worst effect. He promotes confusion and mistrust by keeping the complete picture in his mind and revealing bits and pieces to his people. He believes that fundamentally, people are out there to deceive & shirk and he has to control & police to get results. All authorization and approval rests with him. There are tonnes of unneccessary checks and counter-checks. And in the end, everyone is busy filling out forms, getting signatures leaving little time for growing the business.

Organizations that are stuck with Insecure Leaders do not go far. Because their potential is limited by his life span.

The Last Meter

2007-10-15T18:13:00.000+08:00

If you haven't witnessed the Last Meter you have either never driven on Indian roads or you are visually impaired. Since you're reading this, I suspect it's the former.

The Last Meter is the space that is occupied by vehicles that can't discipline themselves to stop when the light turns yellow but are too slow to cross the junction. They stay in the common junction area butting out of their end of the road and creating a bottleneck for vehicles coming from the right.

The Last Meter is the single biggest reason for traffic anarchy on Indian roads. It is also the most infuriating. Why it happens is a matter of conjecture. I'll take a shot at explaining it and invite you to add your two bits.

One reason could be genuine. While the 18 year old strapping stud might think he has the energy to beat the signal before it turns red, the 20 year old Maruti 800 that he's saddled with, simply doesn't oblige. Too slow to cross and too late to stop, it kind of ends up hanging in the middle. It can't go back unless it wants to maim the street urchin selling strawberries. It can't go forward or the guy coming from the right will jump out of his car and do what he's currently threatening to!

The second reason is Auto rickshaws. These are cockroaches of the road. Their ethic is that it's not important where the body is, it's enough to just jut in their snout. The snout of the auto rickshaw has higher legal claim on space than the handkerchief of a Mumbai local traveller. And the Auto rickshaw-wallahs are genuinely illiterate. Chaos is their culture. Order is anathema. Every other vehicle on the road is the enemy. It's a war out there and they are trying to secure all the trenches.

The third is the absence of roads themselves. If you don't know where it ends, you don't know that you're in the Last Meter. You might delude yourself into thinking that you are doing no wrong, that the guy coming from the right is in fact maliciously coming straight at you - you are just waiting for the signal to turn green! 'Why is he making those angry gestures' you might wonder! There is no white line to signal start of the junction, no lane for pedestrians to cross at the junction - no wonder traffic is Darwinian in its mood and method.

Lastly, I wonder whether people even know that they are creating the Last Meter. Or are they just thinking of escaping the hell that's Mumbai roads vs. worrying about the hell that they are creating. What's more, even if they were well meaning, do they know what the right way is? At a time, when driving license is a matter of Rs. 500 and a contact, who even knows traffic rules. In fact it's a wonder that people stop at all at a red signal. It won't be unimaginable for them to run at red like raging bulls - in fact some actually do that!

The Last Meter is symptomatic of India. There are no clear boundaries and no clear rules. Everything is negotiable - from the traffic signal to the traffic cop. Well, if the Nuke deal can comfortably rest on the Last Meter, how can you blame the poor guy with the Maruti 800?!

Temptation

2007-10-03T17:09:00.001+08:00

From the time I set foot in India, I have been tempted to record my experiences. The title of 'Diary of a returning NRI' sounded interesting and appealing.

I'm resisting the urge.

Writing being the cathartic instrument that it is, might trap me into complaining about events, people and places that assault the senses. And it'll be too easy to lose the big picture.

Writing being the selective exercise that it is, amplifies the extremes. Add that to my resident cynicism and what you get is an exaggerated version of the negatives.

Too often, we start believing what we write, not writing what we believe.

As far as India is concerned, I want to hold on to my belief about its future and my passion for its present. The Diary of a returning NRI will be written by someone else or it'll come in version 2 - with the benefit of retrospect.

Recounting History

2007-09-29T14:37:00.000+08:00

I've often thought that accounts of events should always be written in 2 versions.

One, the immediate, visceral, raw account of things as they happen. Capturing it fresh prevents rationalization and perspective from setting in and spoiling the true experience. It's like plucking fruits off a tree and munching on them atop the branches. The writer is just a medium in this case. Transmission loss is minimal and the reader can afford to transport herself to the event. The only biases induced are that of the writer's eyes - different people focus on different elements of a canvas - and of his language - not everyone can write like Michael Palin.

Second, the thought through account which finds meaning, pattern and motives in events through a retrospective lens. This allows the author to add his bit. It's like eating a fruit jam where the processing, sugar and preservatives enhance (or distort) the original taste of the fruit. The writer is not just a medium but also the filter. He chooses what to amplify, what to ignore, what to dissect, what to connect. The only truth is the event - no one can dispute it's occurrence - but your account will bear little resemblance to another account of the same event.

Both versions are important. The difference is that of emphasis. One is the truth and little else. The other a reflection of the author's intellect with the event just providing the spring board. The reader is better off in either case as long as she realizes the difference and digests accordingly.

Parting Notes for a small island

2007-09-26T17:08:00.000+08:00

From an island of order to a subcontinent of chaos is a long flight. As I countdown the last 24 hours of my stay in Singapore, I'm overwhelmed by nostalgia.

Singapore has changed from the one I saw when we first moved here in 2001. The most conspicuous is the choice in terms of cab companies. From the duopoly of Comfort and Tibs, now there are more than my brain can remember. The second is the construction boom. From the pits of the housing market in 2000, everywhere you see cranes and workers building nests for the 6.5 million residents expected in the next 8 years & the millions who'll flock to the IRs. The skyline has changed too - the Singapore flyer being a nice rotund addition to the skyscrapers at Shenton Way. The profile of people on the street is different. There are a lot more white collar Indians on Orchard Road now. The airport is bigger, more varied - with the imaginatively named Budget Terminal already operational and T3 coming up. Singapore Airlines has its own budget airlines. The North East railway line is on, making it easier to get to Mustafa & Clarke Quay. The 2nd Link is operational, offering an alternative to the clogged Woodlands checkpoint. Lee Hsien Loong is the Prime Minister of Singapore, relieving Goh Chok from his interim role. The NKF scandal is a scar on the public memory.

In spite of the change, Singapore in it's basic fabric is still the same - watchful, controlled, small. The PAP still rules unchallenged. The Strait Times still toes the official line. Dissenters are often prosecuted under spurious 'defamation' lawsuits. You still can't chew gum. Public debate is still shaped by ERP, GST and COE rates. HDB's are still the housing mainstay in spite of the proliferation of high-end condos. Chinese rule, Malays are still 2nd best. Racism still exists - the White man gets away with a lot and the brown man runs up against prejudices.

The constancy is not all regressive. Singapore still retains it's ability to look ahead - if not in political terms, at least in economic development terms. Whether it's the ability of SGX to emerge as a regional exchange of some weight, or Singapore port's attempt to become a maritime hub or the EDB's efforts in developing Singapore's bio-technology industry - they are all a part of Singapore's continual effort to prepare for the future. This is one lesson other nations and even companies should learn.

India offers many contrasts. I will not dwell on them. I'm excited by it's possibilities and am steeling myself for the challenges. I'm promising myself not to be affected by the inevitable delays & tardiness in services. And I will not make the mistake of comparing the two countries. I've signed up for a roller coaster ride atop the world's most exciting juggernaut and I'm going to enjoy it.

Adieu Singapore, Namaste India!

Watching my brain

2007-09-19T14:09:00.000+08:00

I've been wondering these past days at how human beings believe their world is deterministic when it is much more random. How we ascribe motives and skills to retrospective evaluation of success when it could just be a matter of chance. How such explanations lull us into a false sense of 'expertise'. How we see patterns, not because they are there, but because our brain craves for order. How we want to believe we make rational decision when in reality we are a slave of our emotions. How our brain is playing with us.

It's tough to separate yourself from your brain and watch how it fools you. But if you can - and I don't profess any particular skill at this - it makes for a fascinating spectacle. Remember your last meeting with a stranger? At the first glimpse, your brain starts trying to slot her. Tall, thin, fair - everything goes into creating an 'expected' personality. Audio and tactile cues add on and 3 minutes into the interaction, you either like the person, dislike her or couldn't care less. Anything post that is rationalization or amplitude variation on the already chosen scale.

By definition, each one of us is unique. And we are exposed to unique and almost infinite stimuli everyday. But our brain filters and fits. It has to, else it will be paralysed in processing everything.

Language, by itself, is an elaborate approximation tool to help us come to grips with the massive variation in emotion, thought and sight in this world. Our brain fits our unique sensation to an approximate available word : its 'fit' process working all the time!

How we make decisions is another example. If we were to make perfectly rational decisions, we wouldn't even be able to decide which side of the bed to get up from. That's where reflex, heuristics and 'rules of thumb' come in play. And almost always, we are driven by our emotions rather than our thinking. I know of a friend who had a 5 point scale on 10 attributes when he was meeting girls in the elaborate charade of arranged marriage. He just couldn't decide. Not only were there more combinations than he could handle, there were some 'things' (I suspect these were emotions) which were not on his list! Finally, after meeting some 20 girls, he gave up and married someone far from all points and attributes. They are a happy couple now.

Religion, especially monotheistic also pander to the brain's need for order. The notion that there is an absolute truth and one right path to reach it, is highly attractive. It takes away the ambiguity and decision making effort embedded in polytheism.

This is a fascinating journey. Realising that we are governed by our emotions and not our rationality is intriguing. Recognizing instances where our brain's need for order and fit, overrides a pursuit for what's right is amusing. And seeing that there is a lot more randomness driving events around us is comforting as it halts us in our endeavor to ascribe motives and causes to everything.

You might be wondering where I'm going with this. There are 3 implications of such thoughts in my mind:

One, recognizing that our brain will force us into stereotypes, profiling and prejudices is the first step to maintain a secular, non-judgemental outlook towards life, people and events.

Second, recognizing that there is a lot more randomness around us and resisting the urge to accord causality to coincidental events, will ensure that we do not fall into the trap of believing that we have 'THE ANSWER'. This belief can prevent us from being open to alternative scenarios, leading to rigidity.

Third, it impacts how we teach our children. Currently, knowledge is imparted in axioms and absolute truths while a better approach would be to present it as the 'current best'. The history of science reveals how knowledge itself progressed through trial and error vs. an unrelenting pursuit towards an absolute truth.

I'm no expert on this matter - far from it. I don't even know whether what I wrote is true. All I know is that this is an alternative reality. And all I commit to, is to learn more. Not to find the ultimate truth but to uncover lies that are accepted wisdom today.

Essential Reading for Managers

2007-09-12T12:34:00.000+08:00

As a manager you don't do much yourself. You rely on your people to perform in order to deliver your organization's goals. first, break all the rules can help you excel in this endeavor.

It's a provocatively titled book but its message is simple and intuitive - Recruit for Talent and Manage by Exception. It prepares a new manager against common pitfalls in managing people and offers an old hand a chance for reflection.

For me, the highlights of this book were in 2 areas -

One, the guidance to recruit for talent. In this, the authors are guided by the belief that underlying talents are unalterable for adults. Therefore, a careful calibration of the role and the talents required for it, should precede any recruitment. And the recruitment itself should be guided more by talent than by experience or grades. Skills and knowledge can be taught, not talent.

Two, the guidance to measure for outcomes, not for process. In P&G, we used to call this accomplishment vs. activity. Focusing on outcomes is liberating for both the manager and the employee since it allows for the individuality of the employee in achieving the outcome yet keeps him focused on what's ultimately important for the organization.

There were also some great nuggets on 'How to manage around a weakness' and 'Spending time with your best people'.

The power of reading ultimately is in the opportunity to reflect and resolve. This book forced me to think about each of the 9 people I have managed till date and ponder over my errors of omission and commission. I caught myself nodding when I recalled instances similar to experiences of great managers. I caught myself wincing when mistakes of average managers looked dangerously familiar. I calibrated myself on the 4 keys of great managers and mentally matched my people to the talent descriptions. More importantly, I made some resolutions towards the future.

If you are going to manage people, this book is recommended reading. If you're already managing people, this book is doubly useful - a kind of course corrector - since you can relate better to the examples.

Lastly, a word about its title - it's a niggle but one that grates on my nerves. The title is unnecessary sensationalist. It is misleading. The book's not as much about breaking rules of management as it is about finding what makes great managers excel. Breaking rules is not the guiding force for great managers; it's the belief that talent is unalterable and people are different. (Mis)guided by this (probably) marketing spin on the underlying thesis, the authors spend a lot of time in quoting prevailing behaviors of average managers as resident Management wisdom . This creates a sense of artificial tension when it could just be a comparison between average managers and great managers. There are no real rules that we need to break here!

I mention this only to manage the reader's expectation. Do not expect a revolutionary, new theory of managing people. Do not expect great revelations about how existing Management paradigms are all wrong. Instead, be prepared for common sense, brass tracks wisdom gleaned from great managers around the world.

Don't let the dissonance between content and cover detract from the fact that this great reading for any manager.

A wake up call

2007-09-11T15:58:00.000+08:00

An Inconvenient Truth is aptly titled.

If you wonder what's all the fuss about or worse, if you've never heard the term 'Global Warming', please watch this DVD.

If you're one of those fence sitters who are not sure whether it really is an issue, whether it's just cyclical weather phenomenon or whether the Greens are making a mountain out of a mole hill, this might help you understand the reason behind your ambivalence.

If you know that global warming is an issue, but haven't figured out what to do, this DVD will not only raise a sense of urgency but in closing, will provide some clues on taking action.

I believe that this DVD should be mandatory watching for everyone. Because the topic under discussion is not some woolly headed 'self-help' mantra, or an esoteric scientific theory - it's the fundamental question of our survival as a species, or more accurately, the survival of Planet Earth as we know it.

There are 2 areas where Al Gore and David Guggenheim do a great job. One, Gore adds romance and drama to the issue by running a sub text of his personal journey to becoming an advocate against global warming. This sub text runs through his childhood, his failed bid for presidency and the loss of his sister to lung cancer (made poignant by the fact that his dad ran a tobacco farm). This not only reveals and clarifies his motive for the viewer but also makes for a empathetic connection.

Second, it makes the science and data behind the case against Global Warming accessible to the common man. The data on temperatures back to 650,000 years from Antarctic drilling and CO2 emissions by-country are quite eye opening. The graphics on ocean currents and their distribution of heat energy is simple and instructive. The DVD packs such data, graphics and Gore's glib talking style in a potent combination to make it easy for the layman to understand the issue at hand.

Discussions on Global Warming are typically split into 2 camps - the Skeptics who wonder whether the effort required is really worth it, whether we aren't exaggerating the impact and the Radicals who are against anything that exhales CO2, who take the matter to a stifling extreme. Gore, though clearly leftist and green in hue, is a bit more balanced in his presentation of the issue and his stance on the solutions.

This DVD should spur you into action. It will force you to think. Pick it up & watch it. You owe it your future.

Neither foolish nor random

2007-09-08T13:46:00.001+08:00

If you haven't read Fooled by Randomness, make it a priority. It has to rank as one of my Top 5 non-fiction.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has an acerbic wit, sharp intellect and sound knowledge. Staying true to the book's argument, I wouldn't ascribe causality between these traits and the book's contents. However, while reading, I often caught myself wondering about the size of brain behind the weight of words.

The fundamental thesis presented in the book is that we consistently underrate and understate the role of luck and randomness in our lives. Our successes are always explained post-facto by a combination of skills, courage or some other precisely defined reason. We do not make provision for the role of randomness. We're more benign (or I'd say ready) in cases of failure where luck (or the lack of it) is often presented as the nemesis. But overall, as a species, we are more geared towards determinism vs. randomness

While this thesis by itself might not warrant a book, what makes for an interesting weekend of reading is the author's style and his short detours into various angles & subtleties on the subject.

I for one, found it highly enlightening. I must admit that probability has been a blind spot for me owing to a fortnight of typhoid I suffered at age 17 when the subject was taught in school (and here again I might be overstating the causality - it might be just random or I was genuinely incapable of understanding 'the likelihood that something is the case or will happen'). After reading Fooled by Randomness however, I can vouch for an increase in my understanding. That, in itself, is reason enough to pick it up.

If probability doesn't interest you, perhaps the fact that Taleb opens the door to Karl Popper and his theory of empirical falsifiability, is sufficient inducement. Don't be alarmed at the big words - what it basically means is that any theory is true only as long as it is not falsified. There are no absolute truths, only lies waiting to be found out. While it makes intuitive sense, seeing how knowledge has progressed through trial and error in the past - what is alarming is that we do not make provision for this 'knowledge impermanence' in our education system.

Taleb also takes you down a winding road of biases induced by our lack of understanding of probability. This makes for one of the most stimulating sections of the book. I remember hearing about conditional probability in school but I can admit understanding it only now.

You might ask - What is the benefit of knowing that randomness plays a larger role in our life than we think? Should it lead to fatalism? skepticism at people's success? general disregard for skills and hard work? Taleb makes a clear distinction that there are areas more subject to randomness than others. And he also offers suggestions on what to do in the face of randomness - most of them applicable to a trader but some such as stoicism and dignity, though 'soft', are applicable to anyone.

In the end, the value of a book is random - it's more about the reader and less about the author. I loved Fooled by Randomness. A weekend of mirth, a week of introspection and the falsification of some long harbored 'truths' made it an absolute treasure for me.

ps: I should thank Shiv for suggesting this book in response to my perennial complaints about typhoid robbing me of probability :-)

How the Swiss do it

2007-08-26T22:18:00.000+08:00

If you have a weekend to spare and want to read a contrarion point of view on investing, The Zurich Axioms fits the bill

There are 12 major axioms and 16 minor ones in the book. Max Gunther purportedly distills these axioms from his observations from Swiss bankers - those magnificently rich people who have made it in a landlocked, mineral-poor, small country.

Frankly, there are only 3 or at most 4 insightful 'axioms'. The others seem to just make up the numbers. Max Gunther does try his best to debunk oft quoted advice from wealth management experts - Diversify, Invest for the long term, Don't sell too early, Technical analysis etc. He also trashes experts who are ubiquitous nowadays on TV and newspapers spewing advice on anything and everything by quoting trends, correlations and causality.

His writing style is conversational and this is admirable on a subject such as investing where P&L statements, Balance sheets and ratios are de rigueur.

If you've read Peter Lynch or you get your hands on Fundsupermart's quarterly magazine or have had a chance to read any other book on stocks or investing, this is a good 2nd book. Don't read it as your introduction into investing.

Unshackling India: Barriers - Part 3

2007-08-24T00:07:00.000+08:00

In the last 2 posts in this series, I had talked about Illiteracy and Poor public health as two factors preventing our abundant human resources from being economically productive. But for even those who are able and ready, poor infrastructure either prevents or enervates their initiative.

A country's Infrastructure can be assessed broadly on 4 vectors. These vectors are either inputs for production or enablers of trade. The 4 is not an exhaustive list but is indicative of the strength of a country's infrastructure and is also instructive in where the malaise lies. The 4 are:

Power, Transport, Ports, Communication.

I'm not covering Sanitation here - not because it isn't important, but because it'll complicate the discussion. We'll come back to it in a later post when talking about solutions for Poor public health.

Let's look at Power. India's production of electricity is only 630 billion kwh. If you switch on a 100 watt electricity bulb for 10 hours, that's 1 kwh. Light it for 15 hours and you spend 1.5kwh - you get the math, right? For a country of 1.13 billion people, this means, we can afford only 558kwh per year per person!! That is 1.5kwh per day! Each person can basically light one electric bulb for 15 hours at this rate!

China produces 2500 billion kwh or 1900 kwh per person - each person not only gets a bulb, but a fan and some extra power to convert some iron into steel. The US produces 3980 billion kwh or 13,220 per person. While at some level, my 'Green' conscience tells me that's a bit too high with all its Greenhouse effects, a level between China and US should be our aim.

The list of pernicious effects of lack of power is too long to enumerate. Suffice to say that a nation cannot aim to convert it's abundant natural resources into usable products, if it lacks energy.

Next is Transport. Roads, Rails, Air and Waterways being primary modes of moving goods and people. In Roads and Rails, it's interesting to note that the issue is not of penetration but of quality and reliability.

India has 1.6 million km of metalled roads, 0.54 km per sq. km of land. That compares favorably with China (0.16) and US (0.45). Net, roads cover more land in India than in China or the US. The problem is in the definition. What passes off as metalled road in India would count as dirt track in a 1st world country. The fact that China has 34 thousand km and US has 75 thousand km of expressways and India has almost none reveals the real issue (yes, yes, we have the Mumbai-Pune expressway - but isn't it pathetic that we have a single stretch of 200km road to banner in 2.9million sq km country?). India's roads are simply not efficient or reliable enough to move goods and people at a speed that can be an enabler to economic growth.

On railways the story is similar. India has 21m of rail track per sq. km. China has 8 and US has 25m. So far, so good. But the average speed achieved on Indian tracks is 25km/h. If someone has data on China and US, please send it in, but it's safe to assume that it won't be below 25km/h.

A peek into airways and waterways is quite revealing. China has 13m of waterways per sq km. India has only 5 and the US has 4.5m. Waterways are the one of the most energy efficient manner of transportation and are a natural link from ports to the hinterland. We do not have a pan-Indian river system to ride on.

In airport density, the US is far ahead with 15000 airports - 1600 per 1000 sq km. India has 115 per 1000sqkm and China has 52 per 1000sqkm. Airports, historically have been better movers of people than goods so in a sense, it might not be the most important factor of transportation.

So here is the picture on Transport. China has ridden on it's extensive waterways and expressways. The US has its rail and road network. India has none. It's roads are dilapidated, railways is unreliable & slow and waterways, non existent.

The 3rd Infrastructure factor is Ports. In a way, they are an extension of our transport system. Too few and too tardy. Our interaction with the outer world doesn't make for good copy. The 12 Indian ports have 233 berths with a throughput of 465 million tonnes of cargo. Shanghai, by itself, has a throughput of 537 million tonnes!

The average turnaround time at Indian ports is 4 days. This is an improvement over the 8 days we used to take in the 1990's. Singapore has a turnover time of, guess what.....12 hours!!!! Even other ports have a turnaround time of 1 day on an average.

What this means is that goods take 3-4 days to reach our sea ports from our factories and farms. They then sit idle for 4 days at our ports. 8 days of inventory carrying costs on a GDP of $922 billion is humungus!!

Last on the list is communications. For all the talk of a mobile phone revolution in India, we have just 150 million mobile phone users. China has 450, the US has 220 million translating to a teledensity of 34% and 73% respectively as compared to India's 13%. 'We have some distance to cover' might be the understatement of the year!

This makes for a grim prognosis. 1/3rd of our population is illiterate. Out of the remaining 700million, almost 1/3rd is out of work either due to disease or malnutrition. What the able and educated can produce is constrained by lack of power. What is produced either takes inordinately long to reach the market due to poor transport or loses half its value in the time it takes to get there. Markets are inefficient because of poor communication facilities.

These are the hard problems. The one's backed by numbers and data. There are a lot of soft problems too - terrorism, separatism, fanaticism, rich-poor divide, lack of civic sense, lack of service culture etc etc. Most of these are symptoms of an underlying gap between haves and have nots. And that gap is driven by the 3 underlying factors we've talked about - access to quality education, quality health and infrastructure.

I wanted to emphasize the primacy of these 3 underlying factors because in discussions with friends, I have discerned various starting and ending points on this topic. For some, the rich-poor divide is the biggest issue we need to solve. For others, it is the Muslims vs. Hindus divide. Some call it the urban - rural divide. Still others, say that separatism is the biggest threat to the country. I think these are profiling variables not discriminating ones. If you group all those who are illiterate and unhealthy, there will be a pre-ponderance of Muslims, of rural folks and of poor people. The have nots will be the ones asking for a separate state - the perception that being master of your destiny is the panacea to all their ills. But you can't do anything about someone being a Muslim, Rural or Poor apart from conversion, migration and donation - and I bet, those 3 would never solve the underlying problem.

Net, if we can tackle illiteracy, poor health and infrastructure in an equitable manner, I believe we will cover a fair distance in achieving our goal of becoming the #1 economic power in the world.

Over the next few posts, I'll try to explore solutions to these issues.

In closing, I wanted to bring up a soft point - the Lack of a clearly articulated Indian identity. It is a symptom, the causes of which can be seen scattered over illiteracy, curriculum, history and politics. I do not want to vitiate this forum by delving into it now but later, when talking of solutions, we cannot but help pay due import to this issue.

Good, thought provoking book but not gospel truth

2007-08-23T19:12:00.000+08:00

Management leads by example - this is true not only for leaders but also for the discipline of Management Education. Case studies and examples are the best way to introduce and clarify concepts. Clayton Christensen uses cases from the Disk Drive industry and the Mechanical Excavator industry to answer the question he poses in the beginning - Why do great firms fail?

His answer - The Innovator's dilemma: The very capabilities that make firms great are the cause of its downfall when faced with disruptive innovation. He also peppers the book with interesting examples from other industries such as PCs, cars, retailing.

Another instructive section is his explanation of capabilities - the factors that affect what a firm can and cannot do. He breaks up capabilities into Resources, Processes and Values - something that managers at the helm can use at different stages of a firm's life cycle.

It's in the solution to the dilemma that I feel Prof. Christensen does not do enough. This is actually symptomatic of a general trend I see in popular management books where solutions are presented as a straightforward inverse of the issue. If current capabilities inhibit success in disruptive innovation, create a separate organization with new capabilities. If small opportunities do not fulfill the growth needs of a large company, embed the innovation in a small organization. If it's hard to estimate market size, plan to fail.

Reality is not that simple. Failure at great firms in the face of disruptive innovation is either because they did not 'see it coming' or executed incorrectly. His thesis presents solutions for the 2nd cause, not for the 1st.

In essence this problem from the perspective of the incumbent is that of balancing current business with future growth. Stated this way, it's not an either-or. A successful firm needs to do both - deliver current business and plan for future growth. Some of the future growth will come from sustaining innovation (for which the current organization is appropriate) but an unknown part can come from disruptive innovation. A separate, self-sustaining group, preferable under the CEO's watch is better positioned.

Prof. Christensen also does not cover the issue from the perspective of an entrant - the book would have been more complete if he had. For an entrant, the challenge is to find a consumer segment that wants his innovation. I feel that instead of stating and re-iterating the innovator's dilemma (which after a point starts to grate), he could have spent some effort in laying out a conceptual framework to help an entrant. Here, I find the concept of Points of Difference and Points of Parity from other management schools to be useful.

And even if you don't have a disruptive innovation but want to enter a market, there are important pointers in the book - though they are not laid out as such. Find a market where the existing products are over-designed for some people. Create an innovation that achieves Point of Parity for current important attributes and Point of Difference on a new attribute. Windows compatible software that is not as evolved as Microsoft Office, meets the basic word processing, computation and presentation needs of a significant part of the population but is significantly cheaper is a case in point. And to subvert the bundling problem, it can be downloaded.

The power of the book for a practising manager is that it asks an important question. And through its examples provides a fertile ground for you to introspect and ruminate over your experiences. The real value of the book resides in these connections that your introspection reveals.

Chak De India - commentary

2007-08-20T17:10:00.001+08:00

I thought of writing a commentary after chancing upon a reference on wikipedia. It said that the film opened to lukewarm response in India and UK and some critics have trashed the movie as being slow.

I loved the movie. I absolutely did. And it's hard to explain why; I always struggle to explain emotions. Contrary to opinions that persistently asking 'why' leads you to the root cause, I believe emotions can't be explained. One, because the very method employed to elicit an explanation causes an error - Claimed data is claimed. It undergoes rational processing that renders the response incorrect. Second, why explain something that is supposed to be felt. Try explaining a fragrance - they do that when explaining perfumes and it makes for a very poor alternative to some good ol' sniffing.

Anyways, coming back to the movie........

Chak De India uses hockey as the sub text to bring into relief 3 issues that afflict India sport - 1) Individualism, 2) Regionalism and 3) Using sports as a means to an end. More importantly, it offers a poignant commentary on the fickleness of Indian public where public adulation is driven by the most recent performance. Lastly, it directs one's eye to the disproportionate focus of India sport to that genteel pastime - cricket, at the expense of all else.

The movie is commendable for its bravery and instructive in its business acumen. Using 11 unknown faces, no leading heroine, no exhibition of flesh and no song-dance sequence is brave. Ensuring there was Shahrukh's face to pull crowds in, was smart.....else this might have ended being a late bloomer or a DVD wonder.

See the movie if you haven't. It'll 'stick' with you.................

ps: Tomorrow, I'll pick up the threads of the 'Unshackling India' series. Apologies for the longish hiatus.

The End of Poverty - Review

2007-08-16T00:38:00.000+08:00

Who is it for?

Anyone interested in developmental economics. Anyone interested in poverty. Anyone interested in getting a helicopter view of what has happened in the economies of Bolivia, Poland, Russia, China, India and Africa.

Who is it not for?

Footsoldiers, innovators or entrepreneurs looking for execution ideas that'll make a clear, verifiable and real difference in the lives of the poor. Wide-eyed arm chair philosophers looking for a magic bullet, an insightful idea that will make good conversation over coffee/beer.

What is it?

A planner's experience-laden fiscal plan on how much is needed to eradicate poverty and how to fund that investment. Peppered with anecdotes and events that affected economic transformations in countries we are interested in. Topped with exhortations and appeals to our moral, intellectual and human side. With a fair sprinkling of bashing of US war & tax policy.

What is it not?

An action plan to eradicate poverty. A repository of execution ideas that can be implemented by individuals, entrepreneurs or private enterprise.

Is it any good? Yes

Does it lay out the problem, spell out the investment needed to solve it and give ideas on how to finance it? Yes.

Does it delve into what to do with that investment? A little bit.

Does it give you a good understanding of development economics? Yes.

Does it make for an interesting read, was it educative? Yes, most certainly

Is this book the magic bullet that will eradicate poverty? Maybe not.

Does it talk about how to execute? No.
Does it go down to the trenches, dirty your hands and talk of real people. No.

Overall, a good read. I might add to this review after I've read the 'White Man's Burden'.

Unshackling India: Barriers - Part 2

2007-08-08T00:16:00.000+08:00

The last post covered Education and the lack of quality (skill and stance) and reach as a barrier to achieving India's goal of becoming #1 GDP country in the world. In this post, I'll explore Health as the 2nd big barrier.

Health is both a cause and effect of extreme poverty. And it's a very complex problem. Let me state the magnitude of the problem first.

25% of Indians do not have access to basic healthcare. Sometimes percentages numb our senses since they hide the people they represent. What this 25% means is that around 270 million Indians, when they fall ill, do nothing but wait. They wait for divine intervention or human fortitude or quacks or ultimately for...... death. These are people in remote villages, slums or shantytowns next to big construction projects - you can see them living each day on borrowed time.

With infant mortality of 34.6 per 1000 live births, 1 million infants die every year - laying waste 9 months of pre-natal investment. This is no small number. It means half of New Zealand dies as infants in India every year!!

For every 1000 adults of working age, 4 die of infectious diseases such as TB, Diarrhoea, AIDS and Malaria. That is 4.5 million preventable deaths a year!! More than the population of Singapore! Another 2 million die of nutrition related diseases. It's ironic that Singapore is trying to get up to a population of 6.5 million by 2010 to sustain its economic growth and we lose the same number every year to deaths that are preventable via sanitation, immunization and nutrition.

India has 25% of the world's population of blind people. Isn't that blinding infuriating?? 1/4th of world's blind people are in India!! - a direct result of Vit A deficiency and poor cataract treatment outreach.

With such vast swathes of people rendered economically ineffective, its not hard to see why India has not been able to harness its abundant human resources - a lot of them are just not fit to work!

What are the causes of this abysmal state of healthcare in India?

First is Poverty. Poor people just do not have the economic surplus to invest in nutrition, prevention and treatment.

Second is Budgetary failure. Indian Govt. has a) not allocated enough to fulfill its promise of universal healthcare and b) whatever is allocated doesn't reach the needy due to corruption and inefficiencies.

Third, is Lack of infrastructure. This happens on two fronts - 1) Lack of roads and refrigeration impedes reach of medication and vaccines, 2) Lack of sanitation compounds spread of infections.

Fourth is Lack of education. This again, works on two fronts - 1) The affected don't know and therefore don't take simple actions that can prevent a lot of infectious and nutritional diseases and 2) there are not enough doctors and health workers for our population.

Interestingly, most of the above are interlinked. And that's not surprising. Over the past 407 years (1600 - 2007) while the Western World went through its political, industrial and technological revolutions, India's GDP was stagnant for the first 340 years and grew at a meagre 3% for the next 30. Only in 1970 did we break into a more respectable 5-6% growth rate behind the Green revolution and from 1991, started galloping at 7%.

The first 370 years of the last 4 centuries made the pernicious factors of illiteracy, poor health and poor infrastructure intertwine into a massive ballast that keeps pulling the Indian ship down.

In my 1st post, I mentioned that in addition to Education and Health, the 3rd barrier is that we have not created conditions that allow our human capital to contribute. This primarily alludes to lack of Infrastructure but extends into 2 other vectors - 1) Governance and 2) Inefficiencies (corruption, intermediaries)

In my next post, I would explore this 3rd barrier in some detail

Unshackling India: Barriers - Part 1

2007-08-06T00:41:00.001+08:00

The fundamental barrier to becoming the World's Largest economy is the quality of our human resources. India has poor human capital - both in terms of literacy and health. If you're sick and/or unskilled, your economic value is low and your ability to improve your stock is impaired.

A secondary barrier is that we have not created conditions for our human capital to realize their potential (read: infrastructure)

What makes the issue complicated is the inter-twining of these barriers over the years, thereby blurring the lines between cause and effect. This vicious cycle needs some explaining.

India has a population of 1.1 billion. But 39% of population is illiterate. This in itself significantly curtails the economic value of our human capital. Here's a simple way of increasing our GDP by 60% - achieve 100% literacy! This will need twin efforts in 1) increasing school enrollment of Point of School Entry kids and 2) reducing drop out rates. The other 61% literate are not really off scrutiny. There are 2 issues that beset those defined literate - one hard & poignant, the other soft & regrettable.

Lets take the hard issue first. This issue is of skill (or the lack of it in our current education system). A recent survey by Pratham and another one by Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra revealed that out of those termed literate as per the 3 R's, only 23%, yes 23%!!! students were able to read/write a simple sentence or do a simple sum. Others just recalled their name as you would recall a logo or wrote their name as you would draw a caricature - there was no understanding aiding their memory. This finding is scandalous not only for its content but for the fact that it's not better publicised!! The issue is shifted from primary to secondary & from secondary to higher secondary levels due to teachers' vested interest in performance parameters & executed via a combination of teacher-aided cheating and manipulation of answer sheets in exams. Why, you would ask, are students not getting it? Why after spending 13 years in school, they are not able to gain understanding of language and arithmetic? The answer doesn't lie in the student's lack of ability but in 1) teacher absenteeism that besets Govt. schools in India and 2) lack of teacher training in engaging students. Later, we'll discuss causes of these behaviors and possible solutions.

The second issue among the 61% is soft. Its one of stance. Our current education does a poor job of imbibing values in our kids. Over the years this has come full circle where today's parents and teachers are themselves devoid of 1) civility 2) nationalism, 3) honesty and 4) dignity of labor. Our current education system also does a poor job of spurring creativity and multi-dimensional development in our children. Rote learning, extreme focus on year-end examinations and very low student-teacher ratio in assembly line classrooms inspires conformism and inhibits creativity. No wonder India is the world's back office and not its lab. Again, we will analyze causes for this and possible solutions in future posts.

Thus, lack of quality education - both its stunted reach and emaciated serving (skill & stance) - are barriers that need to be removed.

In the next post, we'll explore the state of healthcare and its negative impact on Human resources in detail.

In the meantime, would welcome any thoughts or perspectives on Education

Unshackling India : The Goal

2007-08-06T00:06:00.000+08:00

Any discussion on how to unshackle India should start with a disclaimer and a request.

The disclaimer : These are my opinions and they are biased.

The request is a corollary to the disclaimer : Please be indulgent and patient in equal measure.

Lets start with what's our goal - since problems and solutions are best talked in relation to a goal. Different people lay different goals for India.
-Improving living standards of our countrymen
-Removing poverty.
-Achieving complete literacy for Indians.
-Making India a superpower.
-Ridding India of corruption.
-Creating social harmony in India.
-Sundry others.......

To my mind, all these are either means to an end or a problem stated as a goal. They are either vague or too narrow. I want to set a concrete and broad enough goal for India. My goal is for India to become the World's Largest economy in terms of GDP (absolute $s). All other goals in my mind lead up to this goal. Stating the goal in economic terms also takes it beyond social, religious and regional overtones that run the risk of derailing our discussion.

Now, what's the barrier to achieving this goal, what are the causes of these barriers and what are some possible solutions?

Over the next few days, I want to explore these areas and would love to hear your thoughts. Does anyone have a goal that is more inspiring and concrete than this?

Integrity

2007-07-27T00:35:00.000+08:00

What makes you respect someone?

The answers range from intelligence, position, money, courage to aura, personality etc. But I feel the one thing that is critical to command respect is INTEGRITY.

Integrity manifests itself in different ways.

There's personal integrity. Simply, giving credit where it's due. And raising your hand when things don't go well. I've seen apparent Giants act like dwarfs when they hijack someone's work and present it as their own. I've also seen people look around for scapegoats when shit hits the ceiling when admitting a mistake would be much simpler. And I don't know whether its insecurity that guides their action or indifference that prevents them from doing what's right. But the upshot is that people don't respect them. Personal integrity is critical to inspiring trust. And trust is a pseudonym for respect.

Then there's process integrity. Simply, promises made, promises kept. Some people simply do not accord a lot of importance to their word. How would they get others to respect their word if they themselves can't? Its actually quite simple - Don't commit, if you can't deliver. And deliver once you commit. If midway, you know you'll not be able to keep your promise, go back and re-set expectations. Don't just not pay any heed to it. I feel people take on a lot more than they can deliver, simply because they can't say NO. And once they realise that they can't manage it, they again can't say 'I was wrong'.

There's also Professional integrity. Showing things as they are. Some people confuse perspective with showcasing. I do not respect people who present data selectively. Who decide on something and instead of acknowledging that they are going by their gut, resort to manipulating data to support their decision. If you don't see you manager being truthful, how in the world will you respect him?

Lastly, there's intellectual integrity. Doing what's right vs. doing what's acceptable. Everybody wants to be liked - it's a universal emotion. But in our quest for being likeable, we tend to agree to everything, we don't make tough calls, we don't say it as it is. Skirting around an issue tends to create swirls that can drown a whole organization. People might like you because you're pleasant, but they won't respect you.

Integrity is a pre-requisite for commanding respect. For people build their trust over a strong foundation, not on shifting sands.

The 3 moments of truth

2007-07-22T21:37:00.000+08:00

Leaving a company has 3 moments of truth.

The First Moment of Truth (FMOT), when after months of chewing on the thought of leaving and feeling around its taste on your tongue; you finally digest it in your mind. Its a simple click when everything seems to fall in place and a blinding clarity reveals itself.

The Second Moment of Truth (SMOT) is when you make the leap from thought to words. When you translate your decision into an action. Sitting across your manager and telling him its off is like a load off your chest. Now, its out there and now it will happen.

The Third Moment of Truth (TMOT) is your farewell party. Its the ceremony that completes the transition. Farewell speeches are signposts. They indicate a turn where you leave behind the past and face a new future.

How many Moments of Truth have you had?

A Cynic's view of meetings

2007-07-13T22:37:00.000+08:00

The one moment I dread most in big meetings is when the Boss rocks back in his chair, makes a wide sweep with his arm and asks, 'what do you guys think?'

Suddenly, everyone feels compelled to have a point of view. Even those who were either catching up on sleep or checking email on their blackberry, perk up, put their arms back on the table and pretend to be thinking hard.

Then the verbiage comes. This ranges from thinking aloud to thought through. As the baton is passed on, everyone pretends to say something different. Most of the time, people say the same thing in different words. Its not considered good to say, 'I don't have anything to add'.

After a while, it becomes comical as people start snatching at scraps. Comments start focusing on format, colors and typos.

Now the Boss is in a quandary. Having asked everyone their opinion, he can't just ignore them. He has to "build on" what others have said. If you're lucky, the nightmare ends in one round. Mostly however, someone realises that he failed to say something intelligent and is compelled to make amends. Rarely does the 2nd attempt break away from the band of inanity.

More often than not, you leave the room more confused than clearer. Not much is achieved. But keeping with the general tone, you also pretend to understand.

What you have definitely achieved is a climbdown from purity of individual thought to the lowest common denominator of democratic concurrence.

Is there a way out of this?

Keep me in the loop

2007-07-12T23:57:00.000+08:00

Most people I know, love being kept in the loop.

As long as they're 'kept in the loop', they are ok. The moment, they see something progressing without their knowledge, there is a reflex action of disagreement. Sometimes, disagreement precedes comprehension (or the lack of it!)

Isn't it funny that we are guided more by our need to belong than a desire to promote what is right?

Is it because we believe that nothing good can occur without our concurrence or is it that we don't want to face the possibility that our opinion doesn't count?

Don't we waste precious time and energy in alignments and building consensus? All this to satisfy an old tribal instinct?

If everyone leaves a fingerprint, what you get is a smudge-mosaic not a piece of art.

Courage

2007-07-09T23:57:00.000+08:00

During a discussion last week, we chanced upon talking about successful people. As is our wont, a theoretical argument ensued on what makes a person successful.

The first hypo obviously was intelligence. The person has to be smart. He needs to have brains. He needs to be able to spot opportunities.

The second one was luck. Even if a person is smart, has brains and is able to spot opportunities, he should be in a position where opportunities present themselves. Too many smart people never get to demonstrate their smarts because they have no luck!

Then there were many - lineage, hard work, peer group, pedigree etc.

The one that most appealed to me was courage. The smartest, luckiest and richest people won't amount to much if they lacked the courage to utilize their intelligence, leverage their opportunities and invest their wealth (mental and mercantile)

Courage is sometimes called risk taking. Whatever name you might give this quality, I feel that without courage, its hard to succeed.

A wide sweep across the human horizon would reveal that the happiest people had the courage to follow their conviction. They don't lay much store by peer approval. They don't try to live their parents' dreams. They do not forsake their current happiness for a future manna.

Courage is uncomfortable. Courage is disruptive. Courage is risky. But Courage keeps the 'if onlys' at bay. Courage helps you 'enjoy the journey'. Courage allows you to sleep with a smile on your lips..............

Having the courage to take the plunge separates the explorers from the squatters

ps: note that I have equated success with happiness because there is no better measure of success in my view.
pps: just want to acknowledge the person who brought up courage as a factor -thanks!

Living each day as if it were your last

2007-07-07T00:22:00.000+08:00

Over the last month, I've been enjoying work more than I have for a long time. I speak my mind, I think about the legacy I'll leave and I fight for what's right without getting hung up on the politics.

I don't care for the consequences of my actions as long as I'm sure my intent is right. I don't get stressed if my manager is. I don't get stressed if my reportee is screwing up. I don't get stressed if my MFT members do not show the same sense of urgency.

I smile a lot more. I smell the proverbial roses along the way. I'm generally happier.

I know this is because its my last month in my current job. But I wish I had spent my career thus far, taking each day as if it were my last.

Knowing that the worst that can happen is losing your job prevents you from losing more important things - your sleep, your self-respect and your pursuit of happiness........

Whatsay?

Blogosphere and Troposphere

2007-06-23T14:47:00.000+08:00

I'm for keeping the blogging world separate from the physical world. My position stems from my discomfort when someone walks up and says, "Hey, I read what you wrote last night! Pretty deep hanh! What's up?"

Having spilled my innards in a cathartic fit on blogosphere, I'm not ready to face those who witnessed it! I need to quietly slip back to reality. I need my cocoon of serenity. I need my mask of normalcy.

Being accosted about your post is like being pulled over by a traffic policeman for speeding in the Playzone video game! Its like your teacher shouting, "Get out of the class!" because you were having naughty thoughts in your mind!

side bar: Its funny how you are real in the virtual world and make-believe in the real world - well that's for another post :-)

Lets make conversation via comments. Lets be as forthcoming or inquisitive as we want to be. But please don't walk up tomorrow and say, "Hey, I didn't know that talking about your blog bothered you so much!"

Masks

2007-06-21T23:59:00.000+08:00

Sometimes a fake smile, sometimes a forced grin
Yesterday I had to put on a face that looked grim
Just now, am supposed to lock my brow - show interest
Tomorrow, I'll have to pull them up - in mock jest

Big room, big egos - a face that's pliable
Small room, eager eyes - a face that looks reliable
Talked down, don't agree - but face shows agreement
Asked anew, don't know - but face looks omniscient

Today I want to rip the layers of pretence
and search for my real face
I take off one mask and another and so on it goes
till I'm staring at nothing but empty space.

Winning..............not captivating enough

2007-06-17T11:18:00.000+08:00

When it comes to reading, the burden of sustaining my interest is with the book.

There are books, too many to innumerate here, that are un-put-downable. From the first line to the last page, they consume everything around you. Any conversation is time away from your dialogue with the author. Meals are series of morsels punctuated by stolen paragraphs. Office seems time away from what you should really be doing. Turning the last page is equal measure relief and regret.

Then there are others. They seem interesting in title and cover. You start with great expectations. And then the plodding begins. One page a day, a paragraph another time. Before you know, a month has elapsed and the book is still waiting with a bookmark wedged in its body.

What makes some books page turners and others bookmark holders? I don't intend to delve into the answer (assuming there's one) but just say that Winning by Jack Welch fell in the 2nd category for me. It begins nicely, is pacy, full of insight and real examples by Jack. But then it became an effort. I struggled to get back to it at the end of each day till finally I abondoned it with a bookmark still wedged. Nothing particularly wrong with the book - you might even like it if you hold Jack Welch in awe. But for me, Winning was just not captivating enough.

Am now on to Frames of Mind by Howard Gardner. Lets see how that fares........

Equality - the wrong end of the barrel

2007-06-15T15:32:00.000+08:00

The current fixation on conspicuous consumption among rich in India is laughable, if not pitiable.

Rather than fixing the root cause of inequality, Manmohan Singh is deflecting responsibility by drawing attention to CEO salaries and conspicuous consumption.

First, there can never by equality in society. Equality in opportunity - maybe but equality in economic status - never! The latter runs against the principle of natural selection. The strong, the smart and the spirited will always win. The weak, the mediocre, the diffident will always be left behind.

Setting a goal of economic equality is a recipe for disaster as communists all over the world have realised (except in Kerala and W Bengal!)

What government should gun for is Equality in Opportunity. This means giving everyone access to 3 basic things -
Quality Education
Quality Healthcare
Quality Nutrition

After this, let the abilities and efforts of individual determine the distance they cover.

Politicians however, in their pursuit of short-term populism, have little time for what's right. They'll earn cheap applause by targeting the rich and deflecting attention from their own shortcomings. This is a recipe for social unrest that they could avoid if only they focused on the causes. That, I'm afraid, is too much to ask from 5 year term deposits.

Pls leave your thoughts on what are the best ways in making the 3 basic things mentioned above, available to people.......

Will you do it even if you aren't paid?

2007-06-09T23:02:00.000+08:00

Anonymous mentioned that the true test of loving what you do is : Will you do it even without getting paid? Interesting, albeit a trifle utopian.

Here's another ponder: Is Job Love like Value Rating? (Avoided using Job satisfaction since its much abused like that other favorite - Work Life Balance!)

Value rating is Benefit over Price. Value can be high if the benefit you get is a lot more than the price you pay. Or, for a given benefit if you end up paying a low price. (This last bit was for the poets :-). Is Job Love: Return over Effort?

If it is, what drives Return higher? I think
Return = f(money, appreciation, ego fulfillment). For the poets, this means Return could be any or all or some of monetary remuneration, appreciation / respect and a feeling within you that you have made a difference.

What drives effort lower?
Most people believe that they put their maximum effort into their work. Few would get up and say, "Today, I'll only give my 60%". Haven't come across many. So in a sense, effort is a constant.

Another school of thought says that effort can 'seem to be' less if the work is enjoyable. Hmmmm......now its getting circular. Lets consider this a bit more.....

Maybe, Return is only about money. Maybe Job Love = Money/Effort. Maybe appreciation and ego fulfillment make the Effort seem lower rather than making the Return higher. They reduce the denominator, thereby increasing Job love........ you see where this is going??

Net, Job Love is not loving your job in isolation. It seems to be 'how much money you make and is that worth given the effort you seem to put. The money is real, the effort is a perception. What goes in the numerator or denominator is up for discussion........

Whatsay????

Doing what you love - how much is enough?

2007-06-03T17:29:00.001+08:00

Visual DNA was nice but lets get back to the thread of doing what you love. Got comments from both Type 1 and Type 2 - those who took the plunge early and those who are thinking of embarking on doing what they love. This post is for Type 2s ..........

Someone said, 'My dad was a soldier so I could be a farmer. And I'm a farmer so my son can be a poet'.

Doing what you love is easy if unencumbered by the need for earning a livelihood. It's also easy if the definition of livelihood is kept at a basic level.

Very often, this is not the case.

Most of us are from middle class backgrounds with no big inheritance to fall upon. Also, we have our ideas of a good life that include a house, a car, holidays, parties - enjoying life without a care for the wallet.

This necessitates building up a buffer to insure your lifestyle before you embark on doing what you love (unless, as wattman says, you love making money ;-)

So, how much is enough for that buffer??

A bit of financial modelling will tell you that in Singapore, you can get by comfortably with S$7000 a month. In India, the figure is about INR 100,000 a month. I guess, it'll be US$5000 in the US??

For simplicity, I'll stick to Singapore. Assuming, doing what you love will fetch you $2000 a month, you need to get $5000 from investments - translates to $60,000 a year. If you manage your investments well, you can get a return of 6% in Singapore. So you need to build a buffer of $1 million for financial independence.

That's what you gun for. The day you get to $1 million, Stop. This is the day you can start doing what you love, without any worry.

Of course, you can model different scenarios, different rate of returns, different lifestyle needs. The point is that if you're Type 2 and start today, there is a way to doing what you love.

The biggest challenge is stopping when you've made that $1million. Human desires have a way of creeping up on you and money has a way of making the resolve go weak :-).

Thoughts???

See yourself - Visual DNA

2007-06-01T20:01:00.000+08:00

Found this on Ganji's blog. Interesting....

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Finding what you really love to do

2007-05-26T17:28:00.000+08:00

Finding what you love to do is not easy. Lets admit this much. Often the answer gets confused with our hobbies or our interests. At other times, it gets buried under sheer inertia. Sometimes, the enormity of choices out there causes inaction.

Now, there is a minority who just knows what it loves. As early as school or Uni, these people know where their hearts lie. They are blessed. I envy them.

For the rest of us, its hard work.

We get into our 1st job without really knowing what we are getting into. Often, our choice is driven by Prestige or (mis)Perception. And before we know, we are stuck in the daily rut - hate going to work every morning, spend the day cribbing about our boss and return home jaded. However, the paycheck at the end of 30 days makes all this worth it - its the carrot that keeps us going.

For a lot of us, this is life. We do this routine for 20-30 years and the money we make keeps the questions in our head at bay. Again, these people are blessed. I envy them.

But there are some rebels, some mavericks who continue to be haunted by the pursuit of what they really love to do. This minority has 3 choices -

One, Leave the drudgery, take the plunge and start doing what you think you'd love to do. After all, there's nothing like actually doing it. But this is risky. What if you're wrong? What if 2 months into your new attempt, you realise that's not it? And how will you sustain your lifestyle while you're learning this?

Two, Make the best use of your evenings, weekends and breaks. Even better, take a sabbatical. Net, keep trying your hand at activities you gravitate towards. Always, try to ask yourself if you'd love to do this for an extended period of time. After, a while, you'll detect a pattern.

And you can find out what you love to do while keeping your day job and earning the money needed for your lifestyle. But this is a long, patient and draining process. You have to keep your resolve against Newton's 1st law - inertia.

Three, take one of those tests that help profile you. These give you a broad domain to operate in - a kind of filter to sort through all the choices. www.tickle.com has some and www.strengthsfinder.com can also help.

Any other that you've come across???

What is work?

2007-05-24T23:47:00.000+08:00

What is work?

I obviously don't intend to explain the definition of work as per ICSE Std IX Physics textbooks.

For most of us, work is something we do to make a living. Obviously, we all aspire to a certain lifestyle. And to realize that lifestyle, we need money. And we work to earn that money. Its quite simple, really.

The problem happens when you don't really love your work. But you still have to do it because you need to earn your living.

This gives rise to 2 questions:

Do we really know what we love?
Why does work and earning a living have to be linked?

Over the next few days, I'd love to engage in a conversation with you to answer these questions.

Strength Finder 2.0: My Results

2007-05-21T22:51:00.000+08:00

Got hold of this interesting book: Strengths Finder 2.0. Based on Gallup Organization's research into people's innate talents, the book talks about 34 themes that map the different talents that we have.

The book points you to a website http://www.strengthsfinder.com/ where you can take a test (using a unique code provided in the book) that tells your top 5 themes.

Mine were (in order):

Strategic
Intellection

Input

Futuristic

Ideation

If any of you have taken this test, do mention your Top 5 strengths. It'll be great to engage with people with similar strengths to share our experiences. It'll be even better to find people with complementary strengths (I, for one, can do with an association with someone who has Activator, Focus, Discipline or Analytical strengths!)

Looking forward to building a Strengths Network.

The Great Indian Novel

2007-05-10T10:28:00.000+08:00

Often, the best ideas deserve their acclaim because of their improbability. Shashi Tharoor's 'Great Indian Novel' is one such idea. It just seems miraculous for someone to conjure up a parallel between the great Indian epic and the great Indian freedom struggle.

Ofcourse, there are creative liberties and we should indulge the author with them. Ofcourse, there are times when the parallels are stretched but fiction by definition has a long rope. Ofcourse, umpteenth characters from epic and history are ignored but a tome of 418 pages can only accomodate so many.

The beauty of the story is in its idea and credit to Tharoor for sustaining its purity from start to finish. When reality offered no recourse, he resorts to dreaming, to extend the comparisons. When prose falters, he switches on his poetic abilities to carry the narrative further.

Often, the very act of printing a rumor gives it credence and when people repeat it in other forms and publications, they only serve to burnish its veracity. The book does it bit in furthering rumors surrounding the leaders of India by weaving them in its storyline. Whether it is Nehru's dalliance with Edwina, Gandhi's 'experiments with truth' or Morarji Desai's flirtations with urine - its all there.

The Great Indian Novel is great because it emanates from a moment of brilliance. A moment when Shashi thought that the Indian Freedom Struggle and its proponents share similarities with the heroes of the Great Indian Epic. The reader is richer for it.

Grand Trunk Road - Becoming Grander

2007-05-03T19:08:00.000+08:00

Yesterday's road journey from Jalandhar to Pathankot swelled my heart with pride and gave me renewed hope about India's future.

Four laning of NH 1 had started 4-5 years back and the 30 odd km section from Jalandhar to Bhogpur was finished 3 years back. Work in the remaining section had been progressing slowly.

Now after 1 year, I saw significant progress. Most of the piling and earthing work is completed. Bridge foundations have been laid and only small sections remain to be acquired and prepared. From Jammu, 4 laning has been finished till Samba. There's a flyover coming up that'll bypass Pathankot and meet NH1 near Malikpur.

In 2-3 years time, the time taken for a road journey from Jammu to Delhi will take 6 - 7 hours instead of the 12 - 14 hours it took 5 years back. This should have a multiplier effect and the end result is only limited by our imagination!

Delhi - improving

2007-05-02T04:04:00.000+08:00

Walked out of Indira Gandhi airport last night into an oppressive atmosphere of heat and dust. However, as the taxi pulled out of the airport, I was heartened to see wide roads, neatly marked and with paved footpaths running along. This was a marked difference from Mumbai where you drive out into a narrow lane, lined with slums and garbage.

Traffic was another thing though. People were taking to the wide road with gay abandon with scant regard to lanes. But I guess, that'll improve too with increasing education levels and a bit more effort on driving civility among Delhites.

Overall, Delhi seems like a much more agreeable place to live in than 5 years back and definitely more palatable than Mumbai. Safety - esp. for women - remains a concern and it'll be interesting to watch the trend on that front.

Virginia Kilings & Gun Ownership

2007-04-21T14:12:00.000+08:00

This might sound blithely ahuman. But from a macro point of view, there are a lot more crimes that are averted due to gun ownership than are commited because of it. The issue is very much in the nature of the problem.

When things go wrong they make news. When they are going right, they are seldom newsworthy.

How often do we hear of a person preventing a burglary, a rape, a kidnapping with the power accorded to him by a gun?? But when once in 365 days, an incident like Virginia takes place, it makes big news.

Even if we ban guns, criminals will still get them. Look at the situation in India or Latin America - countries where gun ownership is restricted. People with mal-intent still get their hands on guns. The cost of a fool-proof method to control and monitor gun ownership is impossibly high and the endeavor might even be foolishly impossible.

The question is should we equip our people with the tools to protect themselves or not? The positives of doing this far outweigh the negatives of a stray incident like Virginia Tech.

Financial Education for Kids

2007-04-16T23:29:00.000+08:00

I came across an interesting article by Keane Lee in Fundsupermart - the quaterly magazine issued by iFast Financial Pte Ltd., an investment administrator in Singapore. It talks about wealth accumulation and the different vectors that drive it.

It said , there are 4 things that determine your wealth accumulation ability:
1. Wage, W
2. Savings Rate %, S
3. Return on Investment, R
4. Time, T

Simple, isn't it?

Reading that article, I realised that financial education among kids in India is not that prevalent. Most kids learn this if they are lucky to be born into a Marwari or Sindhi or Baniya family.

Equipping kids with this powerful tool should be an important objective of education. Making it into an entertaining game should get it off the ground with them.

Working hours over a lifetime

2007-04-13T20:25:00.000+08:00

My theory is that every person is born to work for a FIXED no. of hours. You can choose to cover them over 32 years (as my dad did) or the way its going, cover them off in 10 years and be done with it all!

Incidentally there's also the theory that every person is born with a FIXED no. of breaths allotted to him/her. Thats why deep breaths and yoga increase your life span.

Schools in the new world

2007-04-10T23:09:00.000+08:00

Information is free and out there.
No one owns it. Its not stored in bound up books.

We need to point our kids to where this information is - Wikipedia?? Google??
We need to ask them the right questions to help with their search - Why?? How??
We need to ask these questions in an interesting manner - Projects?? Contests?? Games??

Does that sound like a new kinda school?

The right kind of questions

2007-04-08T15:04:00.000+08:00

Too often in schools the questions that are asked are:
Who?
When?
Where?

All the time I think that the questions that should be asked are:
Why?
How?

The first set relies on memory, the 2nd on reason. I'll anyday pick a person who can think to a person who remembers.

How to make money in India, long term

2007-04-06T19:54:00.000+08:00

India as a consumer market of 1.1 billion people is an attractive proposition for any Commercial Enterprise. Earning even $1 from each person is worth $1.1Bn. A lot of MNCs have bought this math and entered the country, expecting to make money with their existing models. Their assumptions are flawed at 2 levels.

One, the size of the 'consuming' population is not 1.1Bn but 800mn - the remaining 300mn live below the poverty line.

Second, the GDP per capita, even on purchasing power parity is $3700 - at best 1/12th that of the US.

Given these 2 factors, the expected size of prize of a business in India is at best 1/5th of that in the US. The math is 800/(300X12) ; 300 being the population of the US.

So, in order for an enterprise to make money in India at the levels that its huge population warrants, it should focus on improving the Purchasing power of Individuals. The single biggest known way of improving people's purchasing power is to improve their skills, i.e. through education.

Hence my plea: If you want to make money in India, invest for the long term, invest in educating its population. They'll grow up to earn more, consume more and by extension, put more money back into your pockets.

Hope some corporations embrace this long term business plan. I'm sure they'll see the returns in their shareholder value.

Sydney - why and why not

2007-04-06T11:30:00.000+08:00

Just came back from Sydney yesterday. I love the place - brilliant weather, great food. The only thing that stops me from moving there are the high taxes and high cost of living. A taxi anywhere outside of the main city will set you back by about 25 Aussie dollars. Parking and road tolls are excessive. And the taxes are insane.

If only Singapore could get Sydney weather - I yearn for 4 seasons in a year! And a harbour bridge. And some fabulous beaches. Mountains at our doorstep. Being able to look up and see clear, blue sky. Drive for 40 kms and still be in the same city.

But then, I'm not willing to give 40% of what I earn to the government for weather and views.

Education in India

2007-04-01T15:12:00.000+08:00

Education in India needs to improve on 2 parameters – the no. of people who have access to education needs to go up and those who get education need to get a better version of it. The first area is where Government and Public-Private collaboration of a massive scale needs to be undertaken. The second area is where I want to make a difference. In the current system, it is enough for students to read the chapters of their text book, learn answers to the questions at the end and regurgitate them in exams that move them to the next level. There is little being done to spur curiosity, to inspire discovery and to develop well-rounded individuals. Educational qualifications and knowledge bear little correlation.

We lack a vision of an ideal student – he is described more in terms of his behavior than his capabilities. The absence of the right vision means no clear definition of the means needed to achieve it. If we define our ideal student in terms of:

I. Capability
1. Multi-faceted skills
· Knowledge beyond text books
· Active in sports
· Can appreciate fine arts (music, dance, painting, sculpting etc)

2. Perspicacious
· Can analyze information and develop an independent point of view

II. Appearance

1. Civil Behavior
Makes the world around him a better place to live in. This is a wide ranging area that spans from respecting social hygiene (garbage, spitting, urinating at appropriate places) to social interaction (traffic rules, queues, courteous conversations)

2. Personal hygiene

Cleanliness in clothes and body (Body odor, Bad breath)

This needs efforts on 4 fronts –
1. Curriculum improvement to make it more well-rounded and experiential.
2. Teacher training to enable them to instill a sense of curiosity in students and help them discover vs. learning by rote
3. Parent education to enable a learning environment beyond school.
4. Supplementing school curriculum with after-school and holiday activities.

Credit: Picture on top from Getty Images

Doing what you love or Loving what you do?

2007-03-29T22:01:00.000+08:00

Are you doing what you love?
OR
Just loving what you do?

Uncomfortable questions. They can lead you to a journey of introspection. And you might end up with a disconcerting realization - and painful change.

The alternative is to avoid them. Blissful ignorance - makes for a smooth journey. Don't ask tough questions, you won't get uncomfortable answers. Why screw up a peaceful, calm existence?

Which side are you? Do you have the answer or are you just avoiding the questions?

Billion Blues

2007-03-24T17:50:00.000+08:00

Our Sri Lankan housekeeper Mary walked towards my brooding frame at the breakfast table today morning and hesitatingly asked, 'Sir, what happen match.....India won?'. Having stayed up all night to witness India's abject surrender, that didn't make for a great appetite.

Actually, all omens leading up to this match were kinda negative. First, the food at Chat Masala was spicier than we wanted and the Mojito a bit sweeter. Second, an office crisis meant we only started watching the match from the 18th over of SL innings. Third, I was watching it at Esh's place - 7 Indians & 1 Aussie in a Sri Lankan's home! And to top it all, Smits - my luck charm for India - left halfway through the Sri Lankan innings : Chamara, Vaas and Russell then took over to guide SL over 250.

I think the 1-tip-catch cricket we played in the intermission defocused us a bit and led to the madness in Uthappa and Ganguly (although Ganguly's bad hair day might also have caused the blood clot that fogged his brain). Tendulkar seemed to carry the burden of a billion Indians on his shoulders and that affected his agility - imagine taking a step forward with all that weight!! Yuvraj confused Tandoori chicken with Headless Chicken (they sound similar, esp. if you're munching Bingo) and lost his wicket in the process - I really want to know what he was running to. Poor Dhoni. He seemed to be in a real hurry to get back to shooting for Green Signal - didn't even wait for Murali to appeal. When Agarkar refused to acknowledge the common sense Dravid was offering for 3 consecutive balls and spooned a catch to mid-on, it became unbearable. I felt a pain in my chest; I think it was the sweet tea prepared by Vidya - hurts to see such affection :-).

I'm now counting my losses. Have to see how much all the airfare of my planned Carribean trip adds up to. Also, what do I do with the leave I have lined up. Maybe I'll go for a Vipashna session to clear my mind Will need that, else I'll have to endure a Billion Blues, thinking about the "if only's" from last night. If only Ganji had not gotten up from his sofa for a cig...........

Don't be misled!! Bermuda victory proves nothing

2007-03-21T01:52:00.000+08:00

I was not happy with Sehwag's century against Bermuda. Before you start wondering whether I'm doped or anti-national, let me state my case. My contention is that Sehwag's century will lull him into a false sense of security. He'll think that he has fixed his issue. Dravid will feel vindicated and include Sehwag in the team sheet against Sri Lanka with his chest puffed.

However, if you watched his innings against Bermuda closely, you would have noticed the persistent lack of footwork. It was rank bad bowling that allowed him to get away with it. Sri Lanka is not going to be as charitable. And if Sehwag and Uthappa (who doesn't seem to value his wicket as much as he should) fall early, the veterans will come under pressure, Yuvi won't be able to free his arms and Dhoni will be caught between attacking and defending - something his simple mind can't handle! I shudder to imagine the scoreboard.

My only hope is that his time on the crease would have given Sehwag confidence. He would also have gotten some warmth in his frigid leg muscles - there was some movement in the latter part - during his time in the sun. That just might be enough to turn around his form. At the moment though, its a far hope.

The burden of Sehwag

2007-03-18T11:53:00.000+08:00

There goes India's chance of progressing to the Super Eight. Bangladesh is almost certain to get 4 points (with their expected win over Bermuda). Sri Lanka won't be as toothless as India and will beat Bangladesh to get 4 points. India's only hope is to beat both Sri Lanka and Bermuda (which, on yesterday's performance doesn't look likely) and then pray that the run rate is favorable towards them.

But this post is not about India's chances of progressing into the next round. This article is about the old Indian trait of sentimentality over professionalism. Carrying Sehwag around in the team is a monumental mistake. He's at the moment an albatross around the Indian team's neck. He puts immense pressure on the rest of the batsmen by getting out within the first 5 overs. People like Sachin and Dravid have to then focus on steadying the innings vs. play their normal game. We have got to get away from keeping players for their history and choose the best 11 on the day. We have got to send him back to the nets and let him work out the demons in his head. We've got to stop hoping that he'll come good one day. Can we just start with Sachin and Ganguly - one of the most successful Indian opening pairs and let Dravid, Uthappa, Yuvraj and others follow?

My last worry is my planned trip to the Carribean for the semis and finals. I'm wondering what I would do if India crashes out of the World Cup even before the Super Eights. Well, I've heard that the Carribean islands are beautiful. Rum flows freely. The beaches are pristine. And well, catching Australia play the West Indies in the final will take me back to Mohali in 1995 when all of us witnessed Windies' capitulation at the hands of Shane Warne.

Carribean beckons!

2007-03-16T21:36:00.000+08:00

Finally, its on!

Am going for the Cricket World Cup in West Indies. 1st Semi Final in Kingston. 2nd Semi Final in St. Lucia and the final at Barbados.

It should be fun. Kashyap is joining from California with his friend Vigyan.

I hope for 2 things -
India makes it to the Semis. At least.
I find an easy way to travel between the 3 venues

Am gonna carry a sleeping bag and most probably, a tent for acco - Just in case there's no hotel or cruise boat available

Under Down Under - Epilogue

2007-01-18T19:43:00.000+08:00

Before we left for the trip, there were 3 things I said, I was looking forward to –
1. Vast, uninterrupted, undulating, Snow all around
2. Life on an expedition ship
3. Setting foot on Antarctica

Well, looking back, reality exceeded expectations on all 3 fronts.

The snow in Antarctica is like nothing I had seen. It’s everything. Antarctica is snow, snow is Antarctica.

It announces its presence as the 1st iceberg, even before you see land. It gives meaning to the fact that white comprises all colors. It re-assures you by adopting familiar shapes. You can see the Sydney Opera House, the Suntec Towers, even a Yog Kutir in the million icebergs around you.

It threatens you by imposing glaciers. As glaciers, it dwarfs you with their size, lulls you with its apparent stillness and then shocks you by suddenly relieving a hanging block into the sea and causing huge tidal waves.

It reaches to the sky atop high mountains. It stoops to the depths as the Bluetooth of huge icebergs. It envelops you in a 360 deg blanket by giving the sky a white brooding tinge, the horizon a white hazy glow and the seas a white cover. Land, rocks and pebbles try to fight a losing battle with it. They peer at you by snatching small patches for short times but their apologetic protrusions acknowledge the imposing rule of snow in the southernmost, windiest, driest, coldest, highest, and most lifeless continent.

Life aboard an expedition ship took some getting used to.

The first thing that hits you is confinement. Your cabin is inspired by Japan’s capsule hotels. The corridors require a single file. Turning around while sleeping is a battle against gravity – you have to almost raise yourself on the same place and hop to the other side. Its an acrobatic feat when on ground – becomes more challenging when the bed under you is rolling along with the ship.

The second thing is the rolling. It was worse on the Drake Passage and subsided in the calm waters of the Southern Ocean as we neared Antarctica. Lets take Drake first. We were lucky that we got the Drake Lake instead of the Drake Shake! But even the lake was tough for us. I threw up once. Smita was horizontal most of the time we were on the Drake. Shalini needed a shot from the Doc. Shankar managed by keeping quiet all the while.

Two thoughts come to your mind – what would it be like in a Drake Shake. Have heard stories that everything comes falling down and its hard to stay put. Second, how would the early travelers manage. We had comfortable beds and carpeted floors, heating in our cabins, railings to hold on to but in those ships life would be truly miserable!
Well, apart from the claustrophobic interiors and the rolling world around you, life was generally quite pleasant aboard.

Food was a pleasant surprise. I tasted cuisines from different parts of the world over the 10 days. The Vegetarians had a main course designed for them each meal. Landings were well managed. The Bar was well stocked. Our room was cleaned everyday with a chocolate left for the night.

Ship language was interesting. The captain’s navigation room is the Bridge. The front of the ship is the Bow and the back is the Stern. Left is Port side and Right is Star side. Things are pointed out in the fashion of a clock – there is a whale at 11 o’clock. There are penguins swimming along at 3 o’clock. Then there were the tags. Every time you leave the ship you turn your tag from yellow to black. Everyone has a tag corresponding to his/her name on a tag board.

This is the only way for the ship crew to know who is onboard and who is onland. This turning tag was an interesting and important ritual at every landing. Even though everything is taken care of, life aboard the ship is infused with a sense of adventure and everyone thrives on it.

Setting foot on Antarctica was special.

We actually paused for a moment to take in the occasion. We had hand painted an Indian flag with crayons which we promptly displayed on landing at Paradise Bay (Almirante Brown). To think that if I just kept walking inwards, I would reach the South Pole! To think that so many explorers lost their lives getting to this place not even 100 years back!

To think that no one lives in this continent we are stepping onto! I was overcome with emotion even though all we had done was walk out of a comfortable ship, don 5 layers of warm clothing, walk down a gangway of 15 steps, step onto a zodiac and step ashore.

The glaciers and icebergs around us and beyond held 95% of the world’s fresh water. I was glad that it was this way because if it were to be thawed into water, the oceans will rise by about 60 metres submerging a lot coastal cities.

Penguins are pottering around in their colony. A lot of them warming their eggs, some feeding their chicks and a lot engaged in pebble stealing. Pebbles are the Penguin’s currency – they need them to create a place for their eggs to thatch in the snow. They guard it more zealously than man does money. They steal them with more guile than petty thieves do. Looking at them brought to mind all the petty neighborhood fights so common in small towns. You feel like an intruder yourself – walking into a world that is not yours.

The serene surroundings command deference, they impose a responsibility on you to respect its purity. Being a responsible tourist in Antarctica is not difficult because even the tiniest infringement stands out in relief. The pottering Penguins, the unconcerned Seals and the blanket of clean white inspire you to keep it that way for others. Antarctica brings out the best in you.

There are also 2 things that were running at the back of my mind:
1. Sea sickness.
2. The Cold.

Sea sickness was an issue over the Drake Passage. We survived while going to Antarctica with medication. On our return it was a bit rougher. But overall, it was less of an issue than I had feared.

The cold was not a factor. We were well prepared. The thermals from Meters-Bonwe held on quite well. We could have done with a neck warmer – a scarf or something – but this was not a big issue. The parka from Quark was more than adequate. If I had known that our bottoms need to go over the rubber boots, I would have bought a couple more with side zippers. The Thinsulate gloves and cap stood up to the Antarctic chill. We actually cocked a snoot at the Cold with Polar plunges – one was soft while the other was hard.

I had expected the detour to Iguazu Falls and the stop over at Cape Town to be the icing on the cake. But it turned out to be a really thick and tasty icing!

Iguazu Falls are massive. Nothing in the Iguazu river betrays what its going to do as it winds its way in Brazil. It is just a small, non descript, river turning on itself from Brazil and suddenly dropping all its volume into this gorge. As you near the falls, you are engulfed in gusts of mist and between protecting your camera and securing your step on the wet railings, you just try to take it all in. You can’t even see the bottom as the water falls into the gorge – the mist hides it behind its veil. Peering down doesn’t help because you just get more waters on your sun glasses. Have you ever tried seeing through water droplets – it can be amazing, you can even spot a rainbow on your eyes! The Aventura Nautica that takes the boat right under the waterfall was exhilarating! Returning back to the hotel all wet is not pleasant but small change for the great experience. Being able to drive to Foz do Iguacu in Brazil for an evening of shopping and Mojito was the cherry atop the icing.

Cape Town is a place that reminded me of Sydney so much. They are on the same latitude. V&A waterfront is like Darling Harbor. Camps Bay is like Manly. Hout Bay is like Bondi Beach. The roads are similar. The cars are similar. The sea is as blue.

There are 2 differences. People are more friendly and helpful in Cape Town. Food is of a different kind – although Sydney has an equally amazing variety, the constituents are different here. You get Carribean, African, Brazilian in addition to the usual Chinese, Indian, Lebanese, Mediterranean that make up the numbers in other cities.

Cape Town is also a city that evoked the emotion – ‘I would want to live here someday’ from Smita at least 10 times. Prettier than the city – even though it’s a tough act to beat – was the Cape Peninsula and the drive around False Bay all the way to Cape Agulhas.

We went to South Africa thinking Cape of Good Hope would mark the southernmost point of Africa and where we’ll see the Indian and the Atlantic Ocean meeting. We returned educated that Cape of Good Hope had, well, no hope of being that. That credit goes to Cape Agulhas which at 20° East, is the point where the two oceans meet and Africa’s southern extremity exists.

The drive from Cape Town to Cape Agulhas and back was spectacular and reminds you of the Great Ocean Drive from Melbourne. Both bring up the bottom of their respective continental mainland and both combine rocky outcrops, sandy beaches with blue water to make a dramatic landscape. And driving around at night through small towns like Kleinmond, Gansbaai and Simon’s Bay looking for a place let us experience manufactured excitement.

Being able to watch India play South Africa at Newlands on the 1st day of the 3rd Test match was the cherry atop this icing. Here again, the denouement was similar to what happened in 2004 when we watched India play Australia on Boxing Day in Melbourne.

The trip to Antarctica was the high point of our Southern Hemisphere vacation. Till the next one comes along, we’ll be driven by its sweet memories. The next one, the next big one I mean, is a land trip from Singapore to Lisbon. It will take us to Beijing, Istanbul among other places and promises to be another exciting one. When? Well, 2012 seems like the right year for it.

IV - Drake Passage Part Two

2007-01-14T04:24:00.000+08:00

Displacement:
Melchior Islands 64°44’S 62°37’W to
Ushuaia 54°14’S 68°19’W
Duration:
62hrs. 5.30pm, 25.12.06. TO 7.30am, 28.12.06
Landings:
None

25.12.06.Evening
What lay ahead were 3 days of Drake Passage. We prayed for another Drake Lake but I had a lurking feeling that it’ll be a Drake Shake. We had had 4 days of magnificent weather and even with the pantheon of Hindu gods, our good luck could carry us only this far.

26 & 27.12.06. Sea, sickness and shots
Bravado typically follows alcohol and I did not escape this phenomenon. While Smita and Shalini smartly took the sea sickness pills, I was convinced of my invincibility against matters of balance (or the lack of it – that too in my ear!). Pay I did for this by throwing sick in the middle of the night and sleeping, clutching my stomach. I skipped dinner last night, had no heart for breakfast and was only able to get up and go down for lunch. A small nibble and we were again horizontal in our cabin.

Drake Passage was much worse on our way back. I got sick, Smita was horizontal most of the time, Shalini had to get a shot from Dr. Jo and Shankar saw the devil in the form of waves crashing over the ship’s bow (They had the front room and he could see water splashing onto the bow in big buckets as the ship not only rolled star to port, but also dipped wildly up and down). It was best to stay in your cabin or at most go down for one of Yar’s lectures. It was here that we saw meteorites; real ones! And one of them was older than our Solar System. It was weird holding it in our hands – something that predated not us, not our earth but the whole planetary system around us!

Then it was time to pack those layers and layers of woolens. It was tough work what with those bulky parkas, reams of paper and Port Lockroy shopping to fit in our already bursting bags. Partly by having Smita sit on the bag while I zipped it and partly by using the old roll ‘em up trick, we managed to pack everything neatly in 3 bags. Settle bills, pay the gratuities for the staff and we were ready for the farewell cocktails in the bar. Kirsten thanked her team and the captain, Rahul made a funny speech, I added in a bit for Rahul, we clicked lots of pictures and then got our certificates for kayaking, overnight camping and polar plunge. Sated, we returned to our cabins for our last night aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy.

28.12.06. Ushuaia
The popular image of farewells is teary and dramatic. Real life is much more mundane. Between, ensuring we had packed everything in, identifying our ‘checked-in’ bags, breakfast and holding on the gangway railing as we disembarked, there was little time for wistful glances at the ship, profound thoughts of what the trip meant and the meaning of it all. Then, suddenly everybody started saying that they had been among the best 36 people, that they had had the best time of their life, that the expedition staff was the most capable they had ever seen. Emotions cloud judgement or make what we want more important than what’s there. We said our thanks, our goodbyes, our ‘till we meet again’ and ‘keep in touch’ and then went our own ways. It was an unremarkable end to a remarkable journey and was better this way. What I want to stay in my memory is my first iceberg and not my last hug of Antarctica.

III - Antarctica at last

2007-01-14T03:29:00.000+08:00

Location:
Within 64° 41' – 64° 54' South, 62° 38'–52' West
Duration:
56 hrs. 10am, 23.12.06 TO 6pm, 25.12.06
Landings:
Seven

23.12.06. Morning. Icebergs Colony
After 3 days of nibbling at the edges, we finally set foot on Antarctica today, well almost :-). Cuverville Island is an Antarctic island but not part of the antarctic peninsula in the strictest sense of the word. It is almost like Singapore not being part of the Asian mainland.

The island itself is fairly non-descript by itself - I mean, by now, we are getting used to Penguin colonies and the interplay of snow and rocks - but its surrounding icebergs elevate it to the level of a wonder of the world. Imagine a setting where you can pick icebergs a la carte, from the buffet or even ask the chef to make one for you. They were in all shapes, sizes and orientation. We saw one like the Sydney Opera House, another like the Jodhpur Umaid Bhawan Palace, even one like Yog Kutir! And then there was one which looked like a million crystals coming together in a magnificient chandelier. It’s what you can imagine from what is offered to you. Almost 6/7th of an iceberg is under water and it presents itself as a turquoise blue 'bluetooth'. Its almost like an iceberg promises more than it reveals.

We zodiac-cruised around the icebergs, went whale watching, and saw icebergs ‘up, close and personal’. Whale watching was fun as our zodiacs took us real close to them and we could see them swimming and breaching. We could hear their snorting sounds and it was an amazing experience sharing the same water with the biggest mammals on earth.

Antarctica and its surreal beauty is incongruous to negative feelings. The serenity of the surroundings purges the mind off anger, frustration and disappointment. The calmness of glacier’s façade while it reins its hulking mass against gravity inspires similar disposition. The glacial waters and their gentle caresses to the ship soothe frayed nerves. And before you know, you've settled into a blissful admiration of nature's sculptures, forgetting any bitterness or irritation. I wish I could carry a piece of Antarctica with me to ward off frustrations at work! Maybe, I will :-)

23.12.06. Afternoon. In the world of Glaciers

Paradise bay is everything its name promises and more. It wouldn't hurt to add ‘ultimate’ as a prefix! Here's what you get - A massive glacier face presents itself to the sea. You feel dwarfed by its presence and numbed by its threatening bulk. You hope for some pieces to fall off so they break the imposing silence and yet you hope they stay put so your zodiac does not capsize with the resulting tidal wave. You get excited by getting close to the icebergs and then worried that it hides more below than it shows above. The silence is both eerie and loud, the expanse both limitless and limiting and the scale is both imposing and uplifting. It evokes a feeling you only read about in books. And even with all the vocabulary at my disposal, I would still struggle to describe it. You've just got to get here to experience it - language doesn't have words that do justice to it.

Kirsten, our expedition leader was driving our zodiac for the day as we Zodiac cruised around Skontorp Cove. We saw some Blue Eyed shags and Antarctic Terns during the cruise before landing on Antarctica. Yes! Antarctica! As we set foot on Almirante Brown – an Argentinian base on Antarctica, we felt like Explorers. Although, all we had done was purchase tickets for this trip, donned 5 layers of warm clothing, stepped on to the zodiac and stepped down ashore, yet it felt like we had crossed the 7 seas, braved the winds & waves and reached the last land frontier for humanity – Antarctica! Its weird, just the rarity of an action accords it some superhuman status. Anyhow, these are just reflections of an idle mind; when we were there, all we were interested in was to quickly pose with the paper Indian flag that we had painted with crayons and rush up to the peak for a bum slide.

23.12.06. Night. Overnight Camping
After 2 briefings over the last 2 days and a great barbeque dinner tonight, we picked up our sleeping mats and bags and headed towards for camping overnight on Antarctica. This had to be one of the high points of our expedition. It promised to be both the southern most and the coldest I have camped in my life.We got off the zodiacs, climbed to the ridge that Jamie had chosen for the camping site, picked our location and began the arduous task of flattening and hardening the snow. Untouched, the top layer is soft and fluffy and we would go almost knee deep in that location. We stamped around for 20 odd minutes to flatten it and lost all the energy we had gained with the sumptuous dinner! Erecting the tent was relatively easy given the demo session from Jamie and Andy. Once it was done, it was time for some quiet reflection on rocks that were jutting out of the snow near the shore. As we started walking towards the shore, we heard a huge thud & splash and turned around to discover that a glacier face across the bay had breached. The huge crash set off a wave and had icebergs bobbing up and down on water around us. The enormity of this coincidence amazes me. Imagine ice having been formed over 20 million years and hanging around here for that long only to fall off at this precise moment. I felt privileged to have witnessed this unique action of nature.

After some gazing and mulling over the meaning of life, the different colors of white and our role in the cosmos, it was time to return to our tents. If your idea of sleep involves getting into a closely hugging bodybag , having a thin layer of insulated material between you and the freezing snow, slipping on your sleeping mat because you didn't flatten the snow properly, being amidst wandering penguins while the temperature plummets to -5deg Centigrade, you would have loved this. As it transpired, I was left wondering why I was putting myself through this. From 11.30p to 4am, I remember most of the ticking seconds. I don't recollect the few minutes of snatched sleep but can distinctly recall Shankar's snores, some penguins wandering around and the loud rustling of my sleeping bag.Morning couldn't have come any earlier than it did. We hurriedly packed up our bags, dismantled our tent and tried to unfreeze the water bottle. Looking back, it seems more fun now than it seemed then.

24.12.06. Southernmost Point of our Life. Yet.
After the overnight camp on Antarctica, we came back to the ship, sleepy and weary-eyed. I promptly slumped to the cabin couch but Smita woke up sometime between a Soccer dream and a dream about us running for our lives from militants in Srinagar. That was to see the picturesque Lemaire Channel as our ship passed through it. Lemaire Channel is often called Kodak Canal or Fuji Funnel because it makes one gasp with wonder. Snow-clad mountains rise on both sides as the ship passes through a narrow strip of water, 11km long.

The ride through Lemaire Channel took us to Petermann Island – the southernmost point on our trip. Weather has been benign thus far. As per the ship tradition, one person is given the responsibility for managing the weather – as if he/she really has any influence! But at least it makes for a good lynching target, in case the weather screws up the trip J. The Indians have been asked to manage the weather since yesterday and seeing what beautiful weather we got in Cuverville and Paradise, Kirsten asked us to manage it today too.

Petermann Island had a colony of Adelie Penguins. These have a sheer black coat quite different from the Gentoos or Chinstraps. We walked all the way up the island to the point, where you could see the continent rise up and merge with the skies on the horizon. On our right, lay blue water with millions of icebergs and bergy bits adding a white/silver glitter. Just as we were getting ourselves clicked at the Southernmost point, a gentoo penguin pottered behind us – almost mocking our latitudinal achievement.

We then walked through knee deep snow to where Andy was sitting close to the Adelie Penguin colony. It was fun watching the pebble stealing routine of the penguins. Pebbles are the penguins’ currency. They steal it, store it, treasure it and exchange favors in return of them. Just then a skua landed in the middle of the colony and there was a sense of alarm in the colony. Skuas feed in Penguin eggs and chicks and it was intriguing to see this battle of the food chain on Petermann.

It was with a tinge of reluctance that we boarded the ship this time, knowing that we will be headed back to civilization here on. Even though, we would be stopping & landing at other places, Petermann marked the destination of our escape from the world and also the return to its humdrum existence.

24.12.06. Evening. Damoy Point & Port Lockroy.
As our ship was navigating water and icebergs on its inevitable journey northwards, Dr. Jo mentioned that there was a surprise in store. We thought that Kirsten had been able to wrangle out a landing at Port Lockroy – our only hope of going to an operational Antarctic base but she had another one up her sleeve, The Extreme Polar Plunge. Here’s what it entails:
Requirements:
1. Temporary loss of sanity.
Methodology
1. Strip down to undies or swimming trunks
2. Walk down the 12 odd steps of the ship’s gangway
3. Get a harness loosely tied around your waist
4. Say your prayer and Jump into the ice cold water of the Antarctic Ocean
5. Get half pulled, swim halfway back to the steps
6. Lift your by-now-numb leg to step on the gangway
7. Run up as fast as you can
8. Grab the vodka shot that Laura offers
9. Gulp down the vodka as you grab a towel and dry yourself
10. Run to your cabin to get under a hot shower
11. Emerge with your sanity and body intact.
Reward
1. Bragging rights
2. Certificate
3. Self satisfaction (yeah right!)

As we were thanking the sun for saving us after the Extreme Polar Plunge and rubbing our hands and feet to feel them again, Kirsten announced that yes, we will land on Port Lockroy. Port Lockroy also has the southernmost Post Office in the world and this was our chance to send ourselves and our loved ones an epistle from the most unusual place. Port Lockroy also offered us the southernmost shopping store in the world! We were not going to pass up this opportunity. So we promptly got ready to be the first ones to land, went around the base, shopped around for souvenirs and gifts and got the book ‘Of Dogs & Men’ signed by its author, Rick Atkinson who was one of 3 people manning this British base. Back in the ship, we had a sumptuous Christmas dinner and fell to a satisfied slumber.

25.12.06. Christmas in Antarctica
Today was our last continental landing and our last kayaking experience. By now, Louise, after some back and forth, had realized that despite her contempt for anything that didn’t kayak for miles and hours, there were people who just wanted to cruise, stop, admire and return. So we agreed to go out for a final kayaking session – no pressure, only the pure simple joy of moving your paddles in Antarctic waters and sometimes breaking some sea ice to make headway.

We reached Neko at 9.30 in the morning and went to shore to kayak. After an hour of kayaking, we landed for our final rendezvous with Antarctic mainland. As we walked inland, we realized that there was a massive snow-clad cliff, perfect for bum sliding but because we had spent time kayaking, there wasn’t enough left to hike up lest you ran. We, of course took the challenge. Half running, half trotting, we went up the cliff. When we felt the inside of our throats sticking together to close the passage, we scooped some ice and sucked on it. Looking down, we could see the team as specks on snow. Smita was waiting below with her camera, apparently to take shots but more to zoom in on me and figure whether I was coming down in one piece. I walked to the edge and then let gravity pull me over the cliff on the snow. All the while I was sliding down, I just tried to go feet down first. And once I got down and pledged that I have to learn snow boarding. Speed, snow and gravity make for a very potent combination!

Here on, it was time to say one final goodbye to the mainland, take a last wistful look at the penguins and capture the continent in our eyes. The last turn of our tags and we were headed back to civilization. There was another stop at Danco Island but I wanted my last landing to be the continental one (the real reason was tiredness). So we sat in the bar, downing vodka and cranberry juice as our ship left Antarctica behind.

II - South Shetland Islands

2007-01-14T02:55:00.000+08:00

Location:
Within 61° 00'–63° 37' South, 53° 83'–62° 83' West
Duration:
23 hrs. 8pm, 21.12.06 TO 7.15pm, 22.12.06
Landings:
Four

21.12.06. First Landing
Today, we set foot on land at Yankee Harbor - 62.35S, 59.50W. Yankee Harbor is on Mcfarlane channel off Bransfield Strait and is on Greenwich Island which is part of the South Shetland Islands. The South Shetlands consist of 11 major islands and several minor ones, totalling 3687 square kilometres of land area. Between 80 and 90 percent of the land area is permanently glaciated. The highest point on the island chain is Mount Foster on Smith Island at 2105 metres above sea level. Yankee Harbor was our first real encounter with Penguins on land (I'm discounting the small blue penguins that we saw in Philip Island off Melbourne in Dec 2004). Everyone went berserk looking for the best photo opportunity with the penguins. There were also some juvenile elephant seals lying around.

Penguins are skittish beings; and a bit daft. Their gait over the pebbles and snow makes for a comical show. Looking at them, it’s amazing how they are able to negotiate the terrain. Their walk is hard to explain. Its a combination of Charlie Chaplainesque steps, mini-rabbit hops, rolling off inclines and unsuccessful attempts at maintaining their balance for more than 5 meters. They seem to be color blind too. Imagine mistaking a bright yellow parka clad person for a fellow penguin, walking upto him and then realising its mistake, doing the step, hop, roll, fall routine in no particular direction. Andy, our resident marine biologist attributes it to short sightedness but I'm prone to believe its the bird brain together with color blindness :-)

Seals are another story altogether. They lie in supreme disregard of any foreign presence. Their slightest movement seems to be against their will, involving extreme effort of both mind and muscle. They peer at you in a manner which is equal parts disdain and indifference.

Landings are big operations. First, the ship stops and drops anchor. Then, zodiacs - small inflatable boats are lowered via a crane to the water and the staff go for a recce of the place. The gangway is lowered from the ship to reach the zodiacs. All this while we have rushed to our cabins to dress in 5 layers of warm clothing. The parka that Quark provided goes on as the outer most layer. The life jacket goes above the parka. The water proof bottom goes over the long rubber boots. 2 layers of gloves go on our hands. And then the back pack goes over all this. Sun glasses, cap and if we've managed to stay alive in the stifling heat of our cabin, we stagger to the board to turn our tags (more on this later). Then we walk to the bow of the ship to wash our shoes in an antibacterial liquid. That's when we're ready to board the zodiac. We walk down the gangway and gripping the expedition staff in a sailor grip, step onto the zodiac. Motor on, and we're off for a landing.

We had our first taste of kayaking at Yankee Harbor and it was not a good one. The briefing had already made us a bit nervous because it was sounding all hi-tech and complicated with the skirt that would seal the water, the pogey that would protect our hands but hinder our grip and the lifejacket that made breathing difficult. And then we saw the kayaks – they were very different to what we were expecting! And I think, either we didn’t explain our inexperience well or Louise failed to grasp what preparatory briefing is needed. So there we were at Yankee Harbor trying to make sense of the rudder, the peddle and her cries for ‘Try to go anti-clockwise’ while all the while trying to take time out to take in the penguins, the seals, the small icebergies and the mountain ice blocking the horizon. But inspite of all these ‘teething problems’, we had fun maneuvering the kayak.

22.12.06
On 22nd, we reached Half Moon Bay where a big colony of chinstrap penguins awaited us on land and a tough session of kayaking awaited us in water. Chinstrap penguins stand out because of the unmistakable black lines that go around the face – thus the name chinstrap. We were able to spot a Macaroni penguin who had mistakenly wandered off to this colony of chinstraps. We even saw some abandoned penguin eggs. And of course there was a lot of the pottering, falling, sliding penguin gait on display. After a short walk up and down the island, we began our 2nd kayaking trip.

This one was a bit better because we had fixed the rudder on our kayak and were a bit further up on our learning curve. However, we soon realized the Rick and Darcy were setting a really fast pace with most of us playing catch up. I was enjoying kayaking in the Antarctic waters and taking in the awe-inspiring scenery. What I didn’t like was pushing myself with the sole purpose of reaching a particular point in the fastest time. Louise called everyone together and asked us to bunch up so we don’t spread too far (this was for our safety since there was one safety zodiac for the group – in case someone capsized). We rounded up the kayaking trip with the realization that while some had come for real power kayaking, others had just signed up so they could experience being in Antarctic waters on a kayak and get close to the icebergs. It will be interesting to see how Louise resolves this conflict.

On 22nd evening, we entered Deception Islands - named so because its hard to tell from afar that the huge, singular massif is actually the remaining rim of an active volcano with water inside it. Entry is through a narrow 200 mts inlet where the caldera rim has collapsed and what makes it more interesting is a rock at 2.5mts depth almost in the middle of the inlet. This leaves about 95mts for the ship to pass through and tests the navigational skills of every ship captain who dares to unmask the deception.

Deception was one of the most exciting landing this far. First, our kayak ran aground as we were negotiating a narrow channel to get into a small bay. Smita and Shalini had (wisely) decided to skip kayaking and go for the extended walk among the different volcanic pools on the island. Dittmar and Verena also opted for the walk leaving Rick & Darcy, Shanks & me and Rahul & Paula in 3 kayaks with Louise behind us as kayak master. We started off well, with Rick & Darcy again setting the pace, Shanks & me following them closely and Rahul & Paula bringing up the rear. At this point, Louise, directed us to go to the small bay on our right through a narrow channel. As we were approaching the channel, I looked back to see that Rahul & Paula had fallen back and asked Shanks to slow down so they could catch up. By this time, Rick & Darcy had left us behind and even when we tried calling, they couldn’t hear and crossed the channel to the other side. As we lay waiting for Rahul & Paula, the wind picked up and started carrying us towards the rocks. Given our limited skills, we couldn’t maneuver the kayak and ran aground. It was exciting to get out of the kayak, pick it up and carry it across the narrow channel. By this time Rahul & Paula went backwards through the channel, their kayak being carried by the wind and water current and they having lost momentary control. Louise came up, directed us across the channel and then went ahead to get every one to bunch up. As we entered the bay on the other side of the channel, we realized we were short on safety cover, since the safety zodiac could not enter. We had a situation. So Shanks & I and Rahul & Paula waited in our kayaks while Louise got back Rick & Darcy. A tough conversation followed with Louise bringing up the lack of group ethic in staying together and its impact on safety, Rick calling out his frustration in not being able to kayak at the speed and duration that he wanted and we saying that lets split the group. Interestingly, no one overtly called attention to the security lapse and no one admitted to it. We've had enough of kayaking for sometime to come.

Anyway, we all left our kayaks, got into the safety zodiac and went to the landing site (from where we had begun kayaking). The wind had really picked up by this time and because we were wet, we were feeling doubly cold. So there we were, wandering on Deception Islands, looking at the seals – there were Weddell seals and a Elephant Seal – with the temperature plummeting to sub zero. It was at this point that, Kirsten announced the next exciting event of Deception Islands - a Soft Polar plunge. Here’s what a Soft Polar Plunge is:

Requirements:
1. Temporary loss of sanity.
2. Suicidal tendency
Methodology
1. Strip down to your swimming trunks in the open against a cold blast of wind
2. Run towards the ice cold sea
3. Run into the sea and dunk full body
4. Run back to the shore
5. Grab a towel from the expedition staff
6. Check whether your fingers and toes are still there - cause you sure can’t feel them!
7. Rub yourself dry
8. Try to wear clothes in whatever manner you can with stumps for hands
9. Run towards the zodiac that carries you back to the ship
10. Shiver all the way back to the ship
11. Wash your boots, turn your tag and get to your cabin
12. Strip down for a hot shower
13. Sigh of relief!
Reward
1. Bragging rights
2. Certificate
3. Self satisfaction (yeah right!)

Once everyone was onboard, Kirsten, our expedition leader - and an exceptional one at that - decided to take a quick stop at a historic whaling station in Deception Islands. In a 60 year span human greed led to 95% of the world's whales being massacred for their oil. The Antarctic treaty bans whaling but different countries and rogue operators nick in a few here and there.

I - Drake Passage

2007-01-14T02:26:00.000+08:00

Displacement:
Ushuaia 54°15’S, 68°19’W to
South Shetland Islands ~62°S, 59°W
Duration:
50hrs. 6pm, 19.12.06 TO 8pm, 21.12.06
Landings:
None

19.12.06. The Journey Begins
6pm, 19th December, we set off for Antarctica. Ushuaia turned very cold and windy just as we were about to board the ship – I wonder whether it was showing rage at us leaving or giving us a preview of what might lay wait for us down south. After locating our cabins, finding our baggage and discovering cute little welcome notes on our pillows, we went to the Upper Deck to watch Akademik Shokalskiy – our ship, pull away from Ushuaia harbor. Everyone was making agreeable noises in polite conversations. Partly because we were 4 of us and partly because we felt a bit self conscious, we tended to stick together.

Akademik Shokalskiy was commissioned in 1982 in Finland. Its a Russian ship with Russian crew and was used for research purposes by Japanese, European and American scientists before starting life as a passenger ship. It is ice strengthened and is as strong as an ice breaker – just that it doesn’t have the engine to actually break down swathes of pack ice. Its earlier Antarctic expeditions were from New Zealand but for the past 3 years, it has been going from Ushuaia. It is a cute, smallish ship and we are only 36 passengers on board.

Then, as the ship glided through the Beagle Channel, we gathered in the bar for an introductory briefing. The expedition staff looked measured and experienced. Kirsten, our expedition leader gave a small briefing on the trip. She talks in an even tone which is in equal measure re-assuring and forbidding. Captain Igor came in and in his broken English introduced himself and his crew, Chief Officer Nikolay and Chief Engineer Konstantin. While the Expedition staff is a mix of Americans, Scots and Australians; the crew is purely Russian. The staff manages the trip, the crew manages the ship. The Staff manage us, the crew manage the sea. The staff dictate displacement, the crew dictate duration. It is a neat division of responsibility based on recognition that while one can command machines, the other can do the same with men.

Then came the most exciting part of the day- the life boat drill. At the sound of 6 short bells and 1 long one, we had to don our warm gear, carry our life jacket and get as fast as possible to our designated life boat. The life boat was a complete new experience. I have never seen anything like that - I was expecting that we'll be in a raft or zodiac. Instead, imagine a rectangular steel tank. There were 2 rectangular holes along its length through which you get into the hollow of the tank. Inside, there's a protrusion that runs around the 4 sides, acting as seating area with seat belts. There's supposed to be food for about 3 days in the lifeboat, some water and a pipe with a hole to relieve yourself. Seemed equal parts comforting and intimidating. Comforting that there was something solid in case of emergency and intimidating that the expedition needed something so solid to fall back on!

20th December, 2006. Onboard.

Sea sickness was a big concern - it still is! Shalini was the most paranoid, starting up on Ginger and Ginger tablets from yesterday morning. Smita was more measured in her anxiety but cometh the hour, she too succumbed to her fears and popped half a pill plus a healthy dose of raw ginger. I was pressured to visit the ship doctor, gather my quota of prescribed pills and eventually pop one before going to sleep as others were taking their 2nd and 3rd. Ditto with Shanks. Thankfully, we have been fine till now though for short periods, we've had to lie down and pray that it doesn't set in.

Last night was interesting. Imagine your bed hinged at the middle along its length and going up and down by about 15 - 20 deg through the night. Also, the world around you is creaking at a constant, repetitive drone due to the rolliing ship. You keep yourself in place by either your feet hitting the wall or your head sliding up to the head rest. The curtain along your bunk bed slides up and down on the curtain rails revealing and hiding the porthole window in a rythmic beat. Given that natural light lasts from 4am to 11pm, that can mean sunlight streaming on your face in sync with the ship's roll. All this while you're trying to put the sea sickness demons in your mind to sleep and ignore the throbbing headache induced by the ill advised glass of wine! That was my first night on Akademik Sholaskiy!

Today, we barely made it to breakfast, skipped most of the morning lectures, stumbled onto the deck for some sun and were only fully in our senses by lunch time. It was a beautiful day - bright, warm and sunny. At 2, we had our 1st kayaking briefing. By the end of it, I was left with a feeling of nervous excitement. The bodysuit, the PFD - personal floatation device, the waterproof bag etc were cool stuff. We have never kayaked before and the cold antarctic waters would be the best place to start!

The water around the ship in the evening was all misty & the sky all cloudy to really see anything. Well, the mist is due to waters from the Atlantic and Pacific meeting alongwith the cold drift from the Antarctic. Its cool to be witnessing this churn at the bottom of the earth!

A word here about the lectures that are scheduled to break the monotony of being holed up in your cabin and to distract you from sea sickness. Our Expedition staff carries a lot of experience and knowledge between them. Kirsten, our leader has been doing Antarctic and Arctic expeditions for 6 years. She is all weather hardened, classic Australian cynic and as Trevor will tell us later, ‘dislikes everyone but penguins’. Trevor is a historian and adventurer in his own right. He recreated the journey of Earnest Shackleton’s Endurance to South Georgia by sailing in a similar boat and claims a mention in the Lonely Planet Antarctica. Yar Petryszyn is a Geologist with particular affection for meteorites. Andy is a Biologist who spent 2 years diving in Antarctica. Louise is a champion kayaker who will be our kayak master supported by Jamie. Dr. Jo is the ship’s Doctor.

Antarctica Trip: Overview

2007-01-07T20:42:00.000+08:00

Towards Under Down Under – An overview

From Ushuaia to Antarctica and back needed 10 days.

It took us through Beagle Channel and over Drake Passage to touch down at South Shetland Islands – a set of islands northwest of Antarctica. Here we went to three islands – Yankee Harbor on Greenwich Islands, Half Moon Island and Deception Island.
From these sub Antarctic islands we went via Bransfield Strait and Gerlache Strait to hit Cuverville Island in Errera Channel.
From Cuverville, the ship took us to Almirante Brown in Paradise Bay. Almirante Brown is an Argentinian station on continental Antarctica and where we camped overnight.
From Paradise Bay we went to the southernmost point of our trip – Petermann Islands via the scenic Lemaire Channel. (65"10.6' South, 64"7' West).
From here we sailed back up via Lemaire and Peltier Channel to Port Lockroy, a British outpost and the southernmost shopping centre in the world!
After Port Lockroy, we went up the stunning Neumayer Channel and then eastwards towards Neko Harbor on the continent.
Our last landing was at Danco Islands in the Errera Channel (yes, we went by this water body on our way down)
We then sailed northwest, pass the Melchior Islands. These islands lie between Anvers Island and Brabant Islands.
Then it was 2 days across the Drake Passage and back into the Beagle Channel before we hit Ushuaia.

From this world to the other – all in 10 days!!

Under Down Under - Pictures from the 1st leg

2007-01-07T16:42:00.000+08:00

Top 10 memories of Antarctica

2006-12-30T00:20:00.011+08:00

Top 10 memories of Antarctica

My first iceberg

Setting foot on Antarctica @ Almirante Brown (Paradise Bay)

Night camping on Antarctica snow at Almirante Brown!

Zodiac cruising among icebergs around Cuverville Island with Yar Petryszyn

Soft Polar Plunge in Deception Islands

Hard Polar Plunge at Damoy Point (near Port Lockroy)

Bum slide on Neko Harbor

Kayaking in Deception Islands with Shanks

Shopping in Port Lockroy

Wandering among the icebergs. Sumeet & Smita Cabin No. 426

2006-12-23T23:28:00.000+08:00

22Dec 64'40"S, 62'40"W. Today must count as one of the 'Best Days of our
Lives'. Seeing not 1, not 2 but countless icebergs up, close and
personal was something I had only dreamt of! They come in all shapes,
sizes and their shades of blue range from the mundane to the azure. We
saw a humpback whale too! The past few days, we spent at Yankee Harbor,
Half Moon Bay and Deception Islands - all fabulous sub-antarctic
islands. Look them up on the map. More Later! Frm Under Down Under.

The Power of One Big Idea: Fin Del Mundo

2006-12-19T00:17:00.000+08:00

Everything in Ushuaia is defined by one Big Idea - Fin Del Mundo (End of World). The train is tren del fin del mundo, restaurants are ristorante del fin del mundo, the lake is lago del fin del mundo, there´s even a toilette del fin del mundo!! Anything and everything here appropriates this idea as a suffix to their name. Its refreshing to see one Idea integrating every conscious realm of a people.

How good it would be if everything in India could integrate under the Idea of Land of Himalayan Bounty´ or under the Idea of Land of 3 seasons´. Even if a city such as Mumbai could come together as the ´City of Equal Opportunity´ - it can do wonders for the collective spirit of the city.

In the simplicity of a Big Idea and a single minded execution that ties everything to that Idea lie some solutions to our problems of division.

Ushuaia - fin del mundo

2006-12-18T16:39:00.001+08:00

Sunday, 17th Dec, Los Nires Hotel, Ushuaia. Post 2
Its crazy to be staring at sun rays at 9pm. Its even crazier to be woken up by sunrise at 3am. This place is disorienting us - used to as we are, to 7am sunrise and 7pm sunsets through the year in Singapore.

Ushuaia in summer seems to be on a revenge mission to get all the sunlight it missed out during the winters. Days are 19 hrs long with night just making a cameo appearance.

Dinner was zuppa asparagos or Asparagus soup, salad and wine. We - esp the 3 veggies have had enough bread and pasta for the past 5 days. We will drive to Lake Fugnano tomorrow in a Hertz car and that should be fun.

More Later
Frm Under Down Under
Ps: This couplet came up today in our chat-
ragon mein daurtay firney ke hum nahi kayal,
Jo aankh se hi na utra, woh lahu kya hai
(We're not enamoured by that which merely runs through the veins,
What's blood's worth if it doesn't show in your eyes) - a revolutionary's call to stand up and fight.
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

The southernmost city in the world!

2006-12-18T04:28:00.000+08:00

Sunday, 17th Dec, Ushuaia, Argentina
Ushuaia is everything that the southernmost city in the world should be and more. Although Aerolineas Argentinas made us wait 2 odd hours before we could board our flight from Buenos Aires, the turbulent ride indicated that getting to the Ushuaia will be special.

Our plane seemed to strain to touch the ground as if the convexity of earth at its southernmost point was making it hard for the protruding tyres to make contact. Finally, we landed with a thud and as we stepped out of the shed that passes off as airport terminal, we were greeted by a barren landscape that did full justice to being the last frontier of civilization on earth.

Los Nires is a delightful hotel. Its got a wonderful view of the Beagle Channel one one side and of brown mountains with a smattering of snow on the other. The rooms are cozy and spacious and the people are very helpful.

We spent yesterday walking the San Martin street in Ushuaia town. The town itself is a delight - stuck between snow capped mountains and a colorful port. The weather was cold, a bit windy with a slight drizzle.

Today, we went to Martial Glacier via a chairlift. The chairlift takes you to about a 1000 meters above sea level and then its a couple of kms to the glacier. It was fun to walk on the snow and we met Ashok, Rajendran and Rupel - people who would be with us on the Antarctic cruise. They were amazing fit for their age and actually walked down all the way while we took the chair lift back!

The Train at the end of the world - Tren del fin del mundo - is immensely avoidable. Like a lot of touristy stuff, it was a lot of fluff wiht no substance. Imagine being in a 60cm gauge train that moves at the speed of 10-15km per hour through territory that is nothing special save for a wide expanse of tree stumps and you would know what I´m talking about. And all this for 80 Pesos (abt 27USD) and 2 hours!! Never ever take the tren del fin del mundo even to save your life!

We have hired a car to drive around Ushuaia - there are a couple of good spots in a 100km radius around towm. Will let you know tomorrow how it goes
More later!
Frm Under Down Under

Under Down Under III

2006-12-15T21:44:00.000+08:00

15th Dec. 11.10am. Howard Johnson hotel, Florida St. BA
Yesterday was our full fledged day of holidaying - we scanned Buenos Aires like nobody´s business!

Went to the cemetery at Recolleta - where Eva Peron lies among other dignitaries of Argentinian history. This was followed by an extended lazing session at Plaza San Martin. We then went to La Boca - Maradona´s home suburb. Saw the colorful houses that are a hallmark of this area, experienced the neighborhood where he played - Boca Juniors stadium was close by. Were accosted by Maradona himself - it was only on close inspection did we realise that he was a look alike!! We rounded off the day at Michelangelo with a Argentine Tango performance. Michelangelo is a real high end place and a good lesson on how to package your culture for the tourist dollar. Given the food, drinks and performances it was dollars worth spent :-)

Buenos Aires for most part is strinkingly similar to a lot of cities we are familiar with. In its weather its a bit like Sydney. In its traffic, its a bit like Manila. In its culture richness, its like Italian cities minus the attitude. In its people, its like Mumbai - very pleasant and forthcoming in help. In its food, it has a bit of all of the above. If I blindfold you, bring you here and open your eyes here, you´ll have trouble figuring out where you are.

Today we are planning to go to Tigre. Dont know much about the place save for the fact that there is a lot of greenery, around a body of water (or the other way around)

More Later
Frm Under Down Under

Under Down Under II

2006-12-14T17:40:00.001+08:00

Thursday, 6am, Buenos Aires.
Today, I woke up to dull pink curtains, pale yellow wall paper and a low brooding ceiling. This is Howard Johnson Hotel in Buenos Aires, #04-01.

Buenos Aires airport reminds one of Mumbai. The only difference are the pretty immigration officers and the wide highway leading out of it. Otherwise, the crowds, chaos and confusion re-assured me that India is not alone in tourism anarchy.

The stop over yesterday (wednesday, 13th) in Cape Town was interesting. First, we almost choked on our Lattes (Shanks on his breezer) at the announcement to evacuate the terminal building due to security concerns. This gave rise to some confusion when the couple on the next table kept ordering more beer nonchalantly. It was only when they told us that the announcement was for Terminal 1 ( we were in 2) that we resumed our pursuit of a hindi movie dvd. Our infallible logic was that Gandhi's popularity would have had a halo on bollywood's in South Africa - can't argue with that!

Second, Cape Town became the 5th airport where yours truly's name has been announced to goad me towards the plane. This time though, there was comfort in numbers :-).

We've slept for 13 hours and at 6.30 are ready for a shower, breakfast and exploring Buenos Aires. I'm also hoping to catch a live soccer game here.
More later!
Frm Under Down Under
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Under Down Under 1

2006-12-12T17:55:00.001+08:00

So I left office early today for last minute packing up and generally to get into the mood for my vacation. This is something I have planned for a long time and finally I'm leaving for Antarctica tonight!

There's Shanks, Shalini, Smita and me - 4 of us going on this trip which'll take us to KL - J'burg - Capetown - Buenos Aires - Ushuaia - Antarctica & back with a detour to Iguazu Falls thrown in. For Smita and me, this was one of the 10 things we wanted to do before we had kids (the other few being going to Everest Base Camp, climbing Mt. Kinnabalu, Conducting a Summer Camp for kids, taking a sabbatical from work etc.)

There are 3 things I'm looking forward to as the time to board the flight comes closer -

1. Vast, uninterrupted, undulating, imposing Snow all around. I love the purity and stark beauty of Snow and hope there is no place better than Antarctica to see this in all its glory

2. Life on an expedition ship. These are Ice breakers or Ice strengthened ships brought down from the erstwhile Soviet Union for carrying curious passengers like us to Antarctica. If you've read Ernest Shackelton, you'd know that getting to this southern most continent takes a lot of cutting through ice packs and it was always fraught with dangers. But with these ships, its now easier and more manageable. I hope we don't get caught in stubborn ice packs and are able to get to and get back from Antarctica!

3. Setting foot on Antarctica. This has to be special. To be actually standing on the last frontier of landmass on Earth, take a whiff of pure air and look up at the gaping Ozone hole should be one amazing experience.

There are also 2 things that are running at the back of my mind:

1. Sea sickness. Don't know whether I'm prone to it or not. Don't know whether any of us will get it or not. But I just hope that the Ocean and us are long lost friends - we take to each other with nothing but joy. Shalini is going to get some patches to ensure we stay normal but hope we dont need them much beyond the torrid Drake Passage.

2. The Cold. Ya, we are carrying layers and layers of clothing. Am sure the parka provided by Quark expedition would be great, but I want to be able to move about my arms freely, be able to maneuver my Canon 400D without the hassle of two layers of gloves.

The icing on the cake promises to be the detour to Iguazu Falls and the stop over at Cape Town on our way back.

I'll be writing regularly to keep my travelogue updated. Do post any questions about the place and I'll try my best to answer via words and pics.

Cheers to Under Down Under!

Cameron Highlands - nature close-ups

2006-10-23T22:23:00.000+08:00

Bala's Chalet is pretty and cozy but sucks in terms of services. You'll do fine if you're immune to no room service, bland food, frequent follow-ups. If you love your bath water to turn ice cold just as you've applied soap all over - you'll not want to go anywhere else. And if you like to hear NO to every request ranging from an umbrella for wet weather, to help in lugging your bags from the 2nd floor - Bala's chalet is heaven!!

Cameron Highlands, where we went for a couple of days, during Deepavali - Hari Raya break doesn't have much to do. To be fair, it never claimed to be a hub of hectic activity. What you get is good weather with average temperature at 15C, good views with green mountains flirting with clouds and good walks amidst rainforests. Carry a book and pair of walking shoes and you'll do fine in Cameron.

Coming back to Bala's Chalet, all wasn't depressing. To its credit, it has a nice building - it used to be British school. The whole compound has an abundance of flowers and greenery. You walk out of your room to a view of the hills in the distance and a bed of flowers at your feet. Here are some of the flowers up close:

Sticking on for dear life!

2006-10-23T21:47:00.000+08:00

The water droplets hanging on for dear life from these sinewy leaves tell a tale that might be yours or mine.

The inclination to hang on to what's known and resist from trying what's not, pervades the vast majority of us.

We tend to over-estimate our risks and under-estimate our upsides. This is a perfect recipe for maintaining status quo, however sad the current reality might be. Too many people languish in their current jobs, & current lives because changing it means opening themselves to an unknown future - it might be better, but hell, it could get worse too!

When I saw this drop resisting gravity and sticking to the familiar embrace of the leaf, its resemblance to my life and of many I know hit home - and it hit hard.

World Cup loses its most exciting team

2006-07-01T22:11:00.000+08:00

In sport as in war, victory and defeat is delivered on the field much later than it occurs in the mind. Last night's quarterfinals between Argentina and Germany was lost in the South Americans' mind much before the penalties. They never seemed to recover from Klose's header in the 80th minute when they were already beginning to imagine their victory celebrations. I cringed at Klose's header. Reminded me of the FA Cup Final this year when West Ham thought they had won it only to be hit by a sucker punch by Gerrard. Here the characters were different but the denouement pretty much the same.

The turning point of the match for me took place in Pekerman's head. It came in the 72nd minute when Pekerman decided that he had won the match and he just had to protect his lead. He made a defensive move by bringing on Cambiasso for Riquelme. A midfield lock in front of his defense vs. a creative fountain behind his attack. Not satisfied by this, he inexplicably brought on Julio Cruz for Crespo instead of unleashing Messi on the Germans. The latter would have been a menace and would have distracted the Germans from the imminent task of equalizing - thus closing the game for Argentina in normal time. This, however, was not to be and the world was robbed of a true talent's performance and of a great team in the final.

Once Germany equalised, Argentina had no way of coming back. Short of their creative spark and lacking ideas upfront (in Messi's absence) they looked lost in extra time. Penalties were a formality - anyone who could read their body language could make out that they had lost the match in their mind.

It comes down to one man's decision. Last night, Pekerman gave in to his defensive instincts and the whole nation will pay the price for the next 4 years.

It comes down to the mind. Seeing their visions of victory evaporate with Klose's header and missing their creative catalyst, Argentina lost the match much before Cambiasso hit the ball in Lehmann's grateful arms.

Working with clay: Our experience from a Summer Camp in India

2006-07-01T12:26:00.000+08:00

Education in India needs several leg-ups. One of the most apparent ones is the lack of education for 40% of our population who are classified as 'illiterate'. Second, where a lot of private enterprise is being seen over the past few years, is to improve the quality of education among the 60% who are getting it. A recent survey conducted by the Department of Education, Govt. of Maharashtra realised that among those people who were officially classified as literate (based on the 3 R's) only abt 20% could do simple arithmetic or write their name - An alarming statistic, if it is representative of the country!!

Anyways, cutting to the chase, during our sabbatical from work last year, we decided to stop thinking and discussing these things and start doing something about it. From there, emerged the idea of utilizing the summer vacations to spend some time with kids. We wanted to focus on small town kids because the Metros have gotten enough of these things.

Over emails and virtual chats, we clarified the objective of this exercise in our mind. What did we really want to achieve? What did we want the kids to take away? How do we define success? There are so many things that you can do, so many avenues to explore, so many topics to cover making this the toughest and the longest part of our journey.

Eventually, we got down to saying that if we can show the kids a world beyond their textbooks, leave them with some tools to make learning fun and we get a sense of fulfillment out of it - THAT'S SUCCESS!!

The nitty gritties of which place, how many days, how many kids, the menu, transportation, agenda etc followed and suddenly it was 9th June. We had 17 kids in our hands and felt like potters working with clay :-)

What followed was 5 days of immense learning for us. We discovered reserves of patience that we did not know existed. We encountered countless questions from the kids - some of which left us scrambling into the deepest recesses of our minds & memories. We experienced parenting and the emotional highs & lows attached to it. It was an emotional roller coaster.....

The lows were handling kids patently lacking in manners - misbehaving & abusing their room mates, cheating in the games, creating a mess in their rooms, creating a fuss over food and generally carrying a sense of entitlement around themselves. They typically happened to be male kids from non-working mothers.

The highs were the conversations - How can we see Jupiter? What is that shining thing next to it? What is a black hole? What is a supernova? Is sun bigger than Pole Star? Is a galaxy bigger or a constellation? The Berlin wall is in Berlin, right? Is a tetra-pack bio-degradable?

It was amusing to see the sense of competition so deeply ingrained in them. Anything that won them points was important, anything that didn't was a chore. Their smiles when they won and their dropped heads when they lost were emotions of such contrast that we found it hard to maintain our equanimity.

But the biggest reward was their unwillingness to go home on the penultimate day. The camaraderie that got established between them over the 5 days was amazing. When we saw them exchanging phone no.s, emails (the few who had access to the net) and addresses - we thought maybe, just maybe, we have begun what could be a life long association.

At the end, for a first attempt - this was great! We had a lot of fun and left the camp with an overwhelming sense of fulfillment. And the kids responded positively to our stimuli. They had a great time playing the learning games, many took to reading beyond their text books - some doing it for the first time!, others started looking at the sky with new eyes - trying to see whether it was Ursa Major or Minnor, still others promised to imprint the world map on the retina of their mind.

There is a sense of power and responsibility when you are dealing with kids. They are like clay and you feel like the Potter who can give them any shape. It's scary and empowering in equal measure.

The stupidity of reservations

2006-01-08T20:04:00.000+08:00

The shameless attempts by the Congress and Aligarh Muslim University to accord it minority institution status and thereby reserve 50% of the seats for Muslims flies in the face of India's claim to be a secular state.

What is the need for such reservations?

If universal education at the primary level is the goal of the Government, shouldn't this enable everyone - irrespective of caste, creed or religion - a platform from where to find their deserved position in the society in a meritocracy? Where then, is the role for reservations at the Higher Education level? What's the overall strategy here?

If someone is not capable of getting into an insitute of Higher Education, what is the purpose of providing him the crutches of reservation? Won't this merely delay his eventual settling down to his steady state where his job/role fits his capabilities?

Vote bank politics is screwing the country and no one is thinking of the long term implication of such short sighted appeasements. Tomorrow, if Benaras Hindu University reserves 50% seats for Hindus, will it be acceptable?

People asking for reservations on each and every count of caste, religion and region is a dangerous trend that can tear the unifying fabric of the coutry (or whatever remains of it).

Can someone drill some sense into Arjun Singh, the HRD Ministry, the Congress and the Government? Manmohan Singh and P Chidambran - two of our learned politicians and our hope - are you listening?

An Agitated Me

All's well?

2005-11-14T21:18:00.000+08:00

India has won 6-1. Right? Wrong. Sri Lanka has lost 1-6. And that causes me to put a pause to the euphoric celebrations going around in the country.

We have 4-5 match winners now. Right? Maybe. The debutants have admittedly made better contributions than performances by earlier experiments. Still, I have a bit of a question mark over MS Dhoni given that his success owes as much to Sri Lanka's profligacy in the field than his clean hitting. Raina, Venugopal, RP Singh and Sreesanth need to prove themselves against quality opposition and that too, outside India before their promise starts deserving reputations. Only Irfan Pathan seems to have added a batting dimension to his contribution to the team.

In International Cricket, consistency separates champions from the pretenders. India needs to show that they have truly turned the corner by repeating their performance against South Africa, Pakistan, England and West Indies. Then we can start talking about being World beaters, champions or other such terms. Else, we'll soon start hearing about the danger of 'wholesale changes' & 'tinkering' if South Africa 'finds us out'.

Zaheer Khan needs to be brought back and the support staff should work with him to improve his fitness. He is a quality fast bowler and with teams such as South Africa, Pakistan and England we'll miss him. Sreesanth & RP Singh might even benefit from his presence and India could rotate them as per the situation in the series.

Another player we still miss is a quality spinner to support Bhajji. Murali seems like a stop gap arrangement at best and we need to quickly draft in new blood to be ready in time for 2007. Wonder whether Chawla is the right choice.

In a nutshell, the victory over Sri Lanka could be the beginning of a Golden Run or a flash in the pan. My gut tends towards the latter mainly because 1) success was achieved against a clearly under-performing team thereby over-stating our capability, 2) the balance in the team is skewed a bit too much towards experimentation making the team raw and 3) we are yet to prove ourselves abroad.

The jury is still out on Team India but this is one time, I hope I'm wrong.

Is this a sign?

2005-10-12T22:18:00.000+08:00

I was wondering yesterday whether this is a sign.

There seems to be an increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters around us. And all these seem to be linked in some deep terrestrial web.

Lets take the earth's crust and its upheavals. Earthquakes have flattened cities starting with the ancient town of Bam in Iran in Dec 2003, followed by the tsunami-causing Mega-quake off Banda Aceh in Indonesia in Dec 2004 and now in Oct 2005, we have one in Kashmir. Can't be mere coincidence. Infact, it was a bit bizzarre that National Geographic ran a story just a few minutes back on how this could be a seismic chain reaction.

And what about the might of water. The tsunami last year was triggered by a quake but those who drowned under the fury of the ocean would have been left wondering why a calm blue ocean suddenly turned into a furious grey monster. Then there is the cloud burst over Mumbai which not only killed thousands but brought a city of 12 million people on its knees. And the mud slides in Guatemala have already consumed a thousand lives.

Not to be left behind, winds too have unleashed their killer blow. Hurricanes, typhoons and storms are nothing new in the N-W Atlantic belt, the West Pacific belt and the Indian Ocean but Hurricane Katrina, Stan and Rita have come too close together to allow humanity to take a breather during the onslaught.

Maybe it's just nothing more than a heightened sense of awareness in a flat world where events in Guatemala affect us as much as those in Aceh and where New Orleans seems as close as Kashmir. Or maybe there is some connection between these deadly events.

Is Mother Earth telling us something??

Cricket World Series - A circus of well paid performers

2005-10-08T19:57:00.000+08:00

What are we all getting excited about?

On one hand is a team in desperate need of redemption and on the other hand is a motley group of uninterested players.

Australia, after their recent mauling at the hands of England have their confidence shaken. Some of the established stalwarts (read Hayden) have been shown the door. The others need to regain public confidence (and some self-belief too). What better way than to chalk up performances against a bunch of players for whom the matches are no more than a distraction from a well paid holiday.

The World XI is made up of uninterested stars with little in common. With no flag to play for, no national pride to fight for and no public egging them on, there is little reason to sweat and toil. It's more about showing up in a blue jersey to which no one owes any allegiance and making up the numbers for a fat packet and the opportunity to wine and dine with their like in one of the better holiday destinations in the world.

This is clearly Commerce winning over Cricket.