Making History at Olympics

Yesterday while watching the closing ceremony at Beijing Olympics, I felt pride.

Pride about two very important things. That as a Foreigner living in Singapore, I watched with equal passion and trepidation that final between Singapore and China in ping pong game. I cheered every point that Singapore won. And I loved the fact that small TVs in different small shops or large screens in large malls were all showing the golden moments. And I loved the pride in my fellow Singaporeans hearts about this amazing winning feat which they won after 40 plus years of effort. It was a moment in HISTORY.

If Michael Phelps was a country, he would be placed high in the list of countries.

Secondly, I had written a while back about “will 1 be all …” in which I wrote about India and the fact that it takes a lot to get that 1 gold medal and I am not just proud of that moment but many more.

Today while reading on the net, I saw this article by Shekar Gupta which I completely agree with and wanted to capture for this discussion. I am proud of the fact that for once parents are getting out of their stereotyping the career of kids. They are quickly accepting the fact that “sports” can be a “career”! I remember in good old school days in one of the debate competition, we had a topic called “Padoge Likhoge Banoge Nawaab, Kheloge Koodoge Hoge Kharaab”! (means “if you read and write, you will become a “Prince”, if you play and jump, you will become a rot.). I distinctly remember one of our great debaters who happened to go ahead and represent my state “Rajasthan” in Ranji Cricket had come on the stage against the motion and had put across what he saw as the emerging “career” in sports. I did not have the guts then to go against my parents to do the unthinkable, and give a go at the sports that I loved.

And nothing more be said about sports than what Shekhar just pointed out. We are now witnessing the coming of age of that thought / philosophy on “Padoge Likhoge Banoge Nawaab, Kheloge Koodoge Hoge Kharaab”. There is nothing wrong then, and there is nothing wrong now. At those times, India required good quality professionals like Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers, Architects etc. Today we need good sports people to build our nation’s pride and status. Interestingly, Shekhar at the end points to a very interesting “PS” post script about Dingko Singh. You know what I am also absolutely proud about the “salt-of-the-earth” behaviour which is so Indian.

Telecommuting

Today I would like to look at this increasingly used model of working in Corporates. While many companies still believe in face to face as the only method of interacting within employee community, many have started on the path to telecommuting as a way of life. 

As a partial telecommuting professional, here are some of my experiences of the pros and cons. As always, there are two sides of the coin, and here too I have tried to keep it balanced.

POSITIVES:

1. We save a lot of carbon footprint if we telecommute. Think of cars, public transport etc that get reduced load since people are putting less pressure on the resources. Especially relevant for countries that see tremendous traffic jams during peak hours. And especially relevant also to countries where Car Pooling is considered almost a “crime” and looked down upon. On the flip side, it really puts the pressure on your own home infrastructure since you are consuming more Airconditioning, Lighting, Telephone and Wireless.
2. You get to see your family more (only for those who are married and have a family). 
   We used to joke about how our kids are growing up laterally coz we don’t get time to see them horizontally, meaning since you work so long hours, the kids go to sleep way before you land up at home. That way you only saw them growing up in their sleep. On the flip side, I do remember my wife asking me to take the kids to the school bus stand. They are yet to wake up to the fact that we are working, so what if we are still in our PJs. 
   One of the days I remember we were having a conference call and a very serious fight broke out about what should be the relevant strategy to move forward, and lo behold, there was a very naughty little voice that started talking baby gibberish. For a moment the whole conference went silent, and then the whole group broke out laughing. It seems that one of the participants son had picked up the extension and started giving his advice.
3. It improves your ability to influence your “work / life balance”. I have seen many people trying to juggle a budding career with priorities at home. In the process they lag behind in both the aspects of their life – work and home. And then it soon spirals into a trying to catch up on things game. On the flip side, it gives into the hands of most people an ability to do whatever you please with time. As you know non productive work does expand to fill up your time. So there is a serious concern felt by many that individuals do personal work when official work needs to take priority. 
   It’s like the Biology experiment of frog in water that is kept for boiling. At the end of the experiment boiling water brings the death of the frog. The frog does not understand the changes in the environment as it is subtle but keeps degrading to a point where it looses all its body controls to take corrective action. My point, this freedom to manage your time is a big responsibility and only the best know how to manage it well and to your benefit.
4. It reduces the infrastructure cost per employee. For many companies their sales reps, service reps, and logistics teams are constantly on the move. Does it make sense to have dedicated workspaces for such members when their most productive (read revenue generating time) is out with customers? On the flip side, there are employees like project managers, call center workers, product line managers, shopfloor folks and workers who need that infrastructure to support teams who are mobile. Using the same yardstick in the name of cost rationalization is a stupid idea.

NEGATIVES

1. It stifles brainstorming and creative thinking within groups. There are many instances when most admirable campaigns happened across the pantry with caffeine and smokes. The strongest of business strategies have happened when the boss has brainstormed with his employees on the fly in a “5 minutes” discussion which turned out to be great strategies on which companies spent millions of dollars.
   
2. It reduces your ability to socially network. Think Office Romances, those chance meetings that get you great jobs, those water cooler talks about office politics and some cool things to do. But what the heck, in today’s world of facebook, orkut and linkedin, many find it more convenient to be digital than physical.
   
3. Costs seem to reduce in short run, but over the long term cost structure of doing business will increase. Now I put costs as one of the primary positives earlier. However I mention it now. The reason is simple. If you see all the savings company gets above starts to tell on the balance sheets and profit & loss accounts quickly. Any cost savings gets reflected in hard currency saved. However, what these measures fail to measure is the ease of doing business which goes through the roof, in a negative manner. Imagine, the amount of money a company will need to spend to make its employees interact with each other. Imagine the amount of money spent to create knowledge sharing tools which at best are still very static. Imagine the cost of brain storming. When an employee gets a brilliant idea, he will not be able to share it instantly. It will need a formal ideas capturing mechanism, which again costs money. Imagine …

That’s all for today.

Kerala version of The Hotel California by The Yeagles

(not my writing ... just recieved this on email from a jokes group)

Just reproducing this hilarious piece.

On the road to Trivandrum

Coconut oil in my hair
Warm smell of avial
Rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance
I saw a bright pink tube-light
My tummy rumbled, I felt weak and thin
I had to stop for a bite
There he stood in the doorway
Flicked his mundu in style
And I was thinking to myself
I don't like the look of his sinister smile
Then he lit up a petromax
Muttering "No power today"
More Mallus down the corridor
I thought I heard them say
Welcome to the Hotel Kerala-fonia
Such a lousy place,
Such a lousy place (background)
Such a sad disgrace,
Plenty of bugs at the Hotel Kerala-fonia
Any time of year
Any time of year (background)
It's infested here
It's infested here
His finger's stuck up his nostril
He's got a big, thick mustache
He makes an ugly, ugly noise
But that's just his laugh
Buxom girls clad in pavada
Eating banana chips
Some roll their eyes, and
Some roll their hips
I said to the manager
My room's full of mice
He said,
Don't worry, saar,I sending you
meen karri, brandy and ice
And still those voices were crying from far away
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them pray
Save us from the Hotel Kerala-fonia
Such a lousy place,
Such a lousy place (background)
Such a sad disgrace
Trying to live at the Hotel Kerala-fonia
It is no surprise
It is no surprise (background)
That it swarms with flies

The blind man was pouring
Stale sambar on rice
And he said
We are all just actors here
In Silk Smitha-disguise
And in the dining chamber
We gathered for the feast
We stab it with our steely knives
But we just can't cut that beef
Last thing I remember
I was writhing on the floor
That cockroach in my appam-stew was the culprit,
I am sure
Relax, said the watchman
This enema will make you well
And his friends laughed as they held me Down
God's Own Country? Oh, Hell !

Will 1 be all, the trepidations of being an Indian

One of my friends raised a very interesting query – between Olympics Gold and Bomb Blasts in Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad, what are the moments that make me proud to be an Indian.

Before you go on please be aware that “However thin you cut the bread, it will have two sides” … and there is the downside to each of these aspects but what is good is what I am representing here.

Great question, and you know what I am proud of our …

Culture, 

Frankly the best description I have read about how great our culture is comes from a very simple and silly section of the book called “Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts. In one of the many trips that Linbaba or Mr Lindsay undertakes in the book, he is traveling to his guide friend’s place somewhere in South India. His description of the rush of people to the “Unreserved Bogie” at Victoria Terminus is both hilarious and significant to my discussion.

At the end of the experience he writes something on the lines of concluding that at the bottom of each Indian lies a set of excellent values that have been created in our culture like no other. On one hand, there are a whole bunch of people who are at each other’s throat trying to kill each other to get that one small piece of space in the bogie to sit, and on the other they touch a persons feet if the overstep in the crowded train later on when the train is running and every one is settled and sitting.

And you know what, I love the values that our system has taught us. It’s amazing how Happy, we Indians seem when compared to any of our global counterparts inspite of so many things that are not working in our lives on a daily basis. It is the basic values and principles that we are taught in our culture.

And you know what I am proud of our Education System.

While my son is today growing up in a totally different education system than mine, I am fully aware of the great things that I got from that Education System. I came across this great initiative in US that speaks of what the western world thinks about it.

And you know what I love our diversity.

Where else can you get the aloo kee tikki, kosha mangshor jhol, the avvial, the Konkani fish curry, the hyderbadi biryani, the ghewar, the chingdee maacher malai curry, the shorshe ilish all together. In fact there are dishes from various places that can keep your appetite whetted for 365 days a year two times a day without ever repeating a menu. And yet we need one common language of ENGLISH (a foreign language) to communicate with our own people. What was yesterday a bane to our society (that English, a foreign language is taking precedence over your own mother tongue) is today our Boon (as those companies who have fuelled India as the Call Center Capital of the world).

More in my next postings.

Indian Restaurants

Well being in Singapore and not writing about the Diaspora of food delights that exist here is a big Crime. So as a true Singaporean (at least I will be while I am here), I will use this space to chat about some of the food joints that I visit from time to time.

Being an Indian, my family loves to eat out at these joints, so I thought of writing about couple of these places that I have been visiting in the past few months.

Rangoli (226 Pasir Panjang Road, Pasir Panjang Village Singapore 118586 ph (65) 6777 6413)
Reaching Here - it is a row of shophouses that stands at the junction of south buona vista road and pasir panjang road. since 1993, it has been slated as a conservation site by the URA.
Food – my favourites are Samosas, Palak Paneer, Mutton Kheema, Chapati, Yellow Daal.
Rating – Food (3/5); Service (3/5); Presentation 3/5)

Zurna (417 /419 East Coast Road (S) 429004 Phone number 63461550)
Reaching Here – Get down at Kembangan MRT, take the south exit, take a taxi, make a right into Jln Kembangan, drive down the Frenkel Road, till you reach the East Coast Crossing. Take a right here and the shop is on the first block on the right side.
Food – tried the Bengali specialities like “Kosha Mangsho” – the literally gravyless mutton, “Chingdi macher malai kari” – the prawn speciality, dal, amongst others.
Rating – Food (2.5/5) Very Spicy; Service (3/5); Presentation (2.5/5)
I hope people visiting my site have a dekko of these places to give me feedback on their experiences.

My next on list to visit is Chilly Code and Bawarchi.