Urban Area: Community or a Marketplace

'Mumbai for Mumbaikars' might bring bad taste to your mouth or a sense of ownership based upon your political affiliations. Whatever be your reaction it is however increasingly becoming important for us to delve deeper to try and understand the core issues lest we must reject them as pure nuisance.

From a pure theoretical perspective the urban population can be broadly divided into two sections;

• Community dwellers, who inhabits a particular place and encourage symbiotic relationship between various members of the community. They largely like to take the ownership of the place for its general well being and associated identity. Such people have high tolerance towards problems as result of scarcity of resources.
• Market dwellers, who look at an urban area as a place where market operates and they themselves form links into the demand and supply chains. Such people have high preference for quality of life.

The stated difference in their value system creates competition resulting in clashes.

What can be done about it? well .. I'm not too sure will it help if market dwellers contribute back to the community of which they are part off to avoid being  tagged as parasites and community ensures that market operates in safety  thus creating  a conducive environment to attract better talent!!

Part of the answer also requires us to understand the larger picture and avoid such local focus. Will it not help if we have more balanced growth in .. sounds wishful.

Share your mind, who knows our ideas are heard and we do reach a resolution.. let us start from ground zero again..

Mar Java, Mit Java..

... and with European Commission's nod the last hope of keeping the Sun shining too went away, while the whole software and business community is still evaluating the takeover deal, I must express that I feel bad about the whole thing.. there is something which is not generating positive vibes... although, some of you might discount me for being emotional, I have at least one objective reason to support my point in case. Old timers will clearly be able to spot the difference that post acquisition all the Sun domains have been distastefully defaced and simply reflects the tyranny, greed and callous attitude of the raiders.

I, seriously hope similar fate is not vetted out to the open source initiatives.

In bad taste...

Reality television is truly a reality today and one can no longer ignore them. There popularity can be attributed primarily because it also involves its viewers. I used to love 'Boogie-Woogie' for their plain ingenuity and honesty in bringing recognition to dancing talent. The show was conducted wonderfully well.

With time however, the production value of reality shows have increased dramatically but I'm sorry to say that they leave everyone demoralized. Particularly shows like Roadies and Splitsvilla are truly disgusting.

My whole point is that such shows are increasingly creating a 'public acceptance' for foul and abusive language in public which is one very dangerous trend. They must mend their ways or else criminal action be taken against them.

Maya tumko itna bhi samajh mein nahin aaya!!

Dalit ki beti has done it again... this time she harps back on Manuwadis for targeting her for being partial.. why is it that congress is not targeted for creating 'brand' by naming every little thing after Nehru-Gandhi family member... Read more

I believe instead of crying foul, she can take a lesson here and help creating lets say an IT park in the name of Dr. Ambedkar (hmm.. that will not help BSP) or Kansiram (hmm.. that will help her) Maya Pragat Sangadak Sansthan etc as a matter of fact it doesn't matter if you are trying to bring token benefit for your party provided it brings considerable tangible benefit to people and help them improve their living... get creative Maya you can earn much more by helping people create wealth.. and you can really be in good history books.

School chalein hum...

Coming from a modest middle-class background I understand and appreciate the importance of education in securing one's future. Not that people from other background don't appreciate education or that careers in other fields do not exist. But, pragmatically speaking education can help you achieve sustainable living and it is crucial in managing one's self esteem, specially for those from related backgrounds. Probably, that sets the pretext for the heightened stress that parents and children undergo to secure better grades, which has even led to suicides etc in some really unfortunate cases.

The recent education policy aims to abolish school board exams quoting the need to remove [reduce?] the stress for school going children. A welcome step? Well, depends where are you coming from.. In case you feel it is a welcome step because it help reduce stress I'm not with you. My question is who are you trying to help? are you saying you can make their life a bed of roses? they are not going to have any stress? ever? May be your new system allows them to pass certain public exam 'without failing' but what next? are they going to spend their lives at school alone, studying? I believe, No.. some time or the other they need to face the industry, the real world.. believe me all that school work will look like a cake walk...

But, in case you do believe that abolishing public exams at school level is welcome step because now students do not have to study to get grades. Yes, as much as it sounds strange it is good. It is important to understand that education is not some material object [read grades/marks] that one gets upon completion of education. The real education is the state of mind. It is that great heritage of common sense that has been brought down to us over the ages. Now, with that material motivation removed students can now focus on learning rather than getting good grades, which makes them seeker. The motivation to learn is now from within, there are no socially defined pressures.

I understand what many of us might go through as a result of this void created in our lives. There are no 'goals' which might distract our 'normal' student and he may eventually loose his interest in studies and compromises on a lesser education ... which is good isn't it?!! think about it!!... he was not liking it any ways and at best would have remained a mediocre all his life even after a 'highly-rated-degree'. Only those who really appreciate their learning will continue thus saving a lot of resources.

In either case there are certain risk factors which need to be mitigated to avoid chaos:

• The 'normal' student who settled for a lesser education as a result of his ever increasing committment to his 'other-than-education' activities should be able to leave his education without any penalties
• He should be able to find an employment opportunity fit to his calibre.
• He should be able to return to his education in case he gets frustrated with his 'boring' work to seek creativity to gain theoretical understanding of THE World around him.

Learning should be fun.

Imagining Female Foeticide and Gay marriages and Prostitution

All along I was tagged as a happy-go-lucky person who would go out of his way to have fun.. for that one moment of 'nirmal anand' and the best compliment to me was when some called me a 'stress buster' and further asked what's your source of energy? how do you do that? In reply to which I would say I'm happy as I'm gay!!! and then everyone would burst out to laughter.. I dare say that again and people would take it really seariously .. thanks to the recent turn of events in our society. Recent court judgements have 'legalised' the gay/lesbian marriages leading to nationwide celebrations for their newly acquired "freedom". I was wondering what's the real cause for their inclination to the unantural carnalness... Is that their utmost frustration in finding the right girl? Is it because of acute gender imbalance in their community? Is it THE result of female foeticide in our country? I mean I'm also not in favor of moral poilicing but then isn't it banal and disgusting or may be I don't understand... so what's next? Let's legalize prostitution and earn more money for governement coffers..

The whole point is such act of recognition will only encourage impressionable minds to follow the next 'IN' thing to prove them to be 'COOL' and the by the time they will realize their mistakes it will be to late...

Buckle up - Enterprise Edition

Time and again people ask me, if I still think I made the right decision to cut short my 'coveted' foreign assignment to return India because I felt it 'did not add value'... well let time keep tab on that. My story is that... whatever role life gives you play it big [this one is lifted from Smirnoff's ad, we can even learn from a Daru company ;)].

We[Indian IT industry] started real small with back office support work but soon gained confidence of the world to provide medium to large scale system enhancements from where we incrementally we created value to achieve customer delight through our efficiency and professionalism. It is no wonder that today IT captains are trusted partners for very large scale system transformation exercises. In essence, we have incrementally moved up the value chain.

Now, it is important for us to move up to the next step where in we need to conceptualize and develop 'product(s)'. Definitely, this would be a much riskier business. But, then are there any options for us but to grow better. The world will truly respect our technical prowess if we 'create' new concepts and 'implement' them... and can there be better times than these. Here is why I think these are the best of time to go deep...

• Under the current scheme of affairs techies prefer to stay home because much of the quality work will be done off-shore and more importantly an increased focus on domestic projects gives them an opportunity to solve 'their' own problems. This tends to improve employee job satisfaction as it allows them to play 'lead' roles.
• Working on domestic projects will create more avenues where we can find generic 'patterns' to be created as 'products'.
• Investing into products will make employee confident about the longevity of vision of the organization leaders.
• Confidence breeds success.

NASSCOM is equally exhilarated to display the abounding capacity of Indian software companies representing products conceptualized, designed and made in India. It has come up with a logo as displayed above. You may wish to read more here

It is all in mind and we can definitely make a difference by shaping our reactions to the events in life.

Come On India - Dikha do !!

India's strong rupee

... these are new sets of challenges before us, now that we 'exporters' are facing an uphill task to complete, it is important to note that 'cheap' is out and need for 'quality' is in, some years back I read a writeup where the writer stressed the need for correction in our 'Incredible India' campaign from 'cheap' to 'cost-effective' and our associated mind-sets.

... now that we are trusted for our services, we need to be innovative and create value added services, and more importantly, we need to come up with more 'products' in place... to truly become a power to reckon with...

... and I truly second the writer when he says - '... an enviable problem to solve'

Opinion: Is it a disease or a symptom ?

... referring to this article, I have mixed reactions to share... may be I truly understand the concerns of NASSCOM when they rubbish the health minister's views towards the unhealthy work culture at IT/ITES work place, fearing increased government control or may be this can potentially scare away the investors or may be this can give voice to feelings of those who go through the grind everyday or may be we are not too sure of the real intent of the minister.... what if he is really concerned about the state of affair ? what if he is pointing towards a symptom of a bigger problem ahead...

frankly speaking, i strongly believe that government must work like an operating system, that runs the 'system' while hiding most of the underlying complexities... and based on the 'user-settings' can take control quartine it or point to a potential problem to enable 'user' to take an informed decision.


I would not like to start the usual 'yada-yada' of he great Indian Heritage of disciplined life... but isn't it high time we truly take note of minister's statement and try bringing some discipline in our lives... Cheers for a healthy India :)