Arm Chair Revolutionaries ...

The arm chair Che Guevaras have woken up in India. With the media hype surrounding the swine flu pandemic, the papers are full of articles of how bad the health care system in India is. These are your revolutionaries who will go to any length lambasting the system without giving you one viable solution. This particular article that really ticked me off was in the "Mint". In the half page article, he mentions 3 incidents where he had to get a test done and how ill informed the people in the hospital were. I thought to myself, "Einstein, we don't need you to tell us that .. The whole world is trying to figure it out". I read a few of these in the last couple of days and pondered over what could I do ? Not much really other than keep my children safe at home, take precautions and avoid panic. In whatever state our health care is, its not the time to get compared to Singapore. That's certain.

The funny thing this time around is that the people who have been affected are not the usual suspects. It not the migrant laborer who lives on the footpath, not the cart puller who hauls your expensive stuff nor the guy who cleans your drains. Its the middle and upper class. Its people who took foreign vacations or had visitors from foreign countries. This situation has created an interesting canvas. People who have not seen the inside of a govt hospital in their entire lives, have suddenly realised that they need to contend with the govt health care system. And BAM .. the onslaught begins. The red flags are unfurled and the sabers are drawn.

There are many emails and articles doing the rounds that the chances of you getting hit by a bus are much higher than dying at the hands of the grim swine reaper. Almost all the material points to the fact that its not as bad as its being made out to be. Be safe and take sensible precautions. thats my mantra.

So to all the Guevaras, I say, please go back to your page 3 parties, your wine tasting and cheese sampling events and spare us your damn opinions.

As luck would have it, they were playing the movie "Outbreak" on late night TV yesterday. Talk about sensitivity huh ? :-)

Case of the Single grape ?

I have  had the fortune and misfortune of having my destiny and career tied to commercial airlines for the past 14-15 yrs or so. That has meant plenty of trans-atlantinc, trans-pacific, and local domestic Indian flights. And on all these flights, I have endured the food and survived. 

There is this one thing that has continued to stump me. Its the case of the single grape. If you have observed closely, the fruit bowl that you get with your meal will always (my experience is 99%) contain one single grape. And it will have pips (seeds) in it. And in 90% of the cases, the grape will be sour. 

Is that just a coincidence ? There must be a grater conspiracy in play here. Its my belief that its the airlines playing mind games with us. I am now going to start documenting this. I need a new facebook campaign. "We need atleast two grapes"

 

states of corporate growth ....the ladder to the top

Was out for a drink with a couple of colleagues and we got around to talking about the "Corporate Ladder". There were some very interesting comments made. The growth of an individual in an organization goes through phases that can be equated to the 3 states of matter. Solid - Liquid - Gas !

The "Solid" state :
We all start of with a "Solid" foundation. Good college education, depth in the field we work in, good at technology, good at coding, etc. We are sure of what we are and we can actually touch and feel our strength. Once we have done this for a while, we realize that there are younger people in the workforce now who can do a much better job. In our zeal and eagerness to be better and differentiated we proceed to what I call as the "Liquid" stage of your career.

The "Liquid" state :
This is the state we call "broadening" your horizons. Technology or core expertise become taboo. You move into the realm of middle management. Outlook, Excel sheets and power points rule your life. You still remember some technology, usually a few years outdated but you are now able to talk some "business" as well. In some interviews, I have been told by candidates that they have now abstracted out pure technology :-)

The "Gaseous" state :
This is the state you reach after you have been boiled and sizzled in middle management for a few years. In this state you make statements like "Our innovations power through and help customers realize their ROIs in much shorter time frames and hence reducing TCO". Now you are completely abstracted ! You have an army of people under you who are ready to carry out your commands. You have reached utopia. :-)

Lets take the analogy of a hot air balloon : you need to loose the "solid" stuff for the balloon to raise ! So if you want to get to the top , its the GAS you need.

Price of Vanity ?

So there I was in the gym toiling away the extra calories from the previous day .. And I see this orange Lambroghini drive up the road. The guy who owns this is a regular to the gym and is quite a speed buff. I have seen him drive up on a BMW bike, Ducati once and now a Lamborghini ! Has a Delhi number plate.

Well, I see that the passenger side seat is occupied and usually this guy is alone. So I am half expecting a gorgeous chick to get out and the treadmill heart rate monitor shows : "You are now in Cardio Zone". Now remember this rarely happens. I am usually walking/jogging in the "You are barely moving" zone.

The car door opens and out steps a security guard ! I am not F$%$%$ kidding. It was a security guard. So he parks the car on the side of the road and the security guard promptly takes over. So this guy actually drives around town in a Rs. 50 Million car with a security guard in his passenger seat so that he can guard the car. The price one is willing to pay for vanity. :-)

Humans continue to amaze and humour me.

Rock On !

I finally got around to watching the movie "Rock On" yesterday. Last time I had had to to make a choice between watching this particular movie and "Hell Boy II" , obviously Hell Boy had won. :-)

So after much ado about how I did not agree with the whole concept of mid life crisis and much cajoling by my wife (who had watched it in the theater without me), I slipped in the DVD.

I was hooked to it from the first frame. I think its an outstanding movie. Simple story line, no villains, just life as we experience it. The one thing that really struck me was the ease with which the subject of ego has been handled. There are no bad people, no malicious intents by anybody but still the sword of fate deals a blow which sets the course of the movie. The music is superb. There are a few cliched scenes but these you can live with.

After I finished watching the movie, I took my bike (wife's scooter really !) and went out for a ride at midnight. I just wanted the whole feeling of the movie sink in. It left me in a very positive frame of mind and enriched my thinking. Kudos to the team who made the movie. I would rate this one very high in my personal list. And now my dream of taking a bike and driving it to Leh is alive again.

Why I have begun to hate iPods !

I woke up to a wonderful day. So I decided to forego the visit to the gym and substituted it with a nice long walk in Lalbagh.

As I walked up the familiar paths in Lalbagh, I was quite self absorbed. I was listening to the birds, the various sounds of nature and the wonderful morning. I was enjoying the feeling of nothingness and generally quite happy. Then I started observing my fellow walkers. Almost everyone of them had the ubiquitous white earphone plugged into their auditory orifices. Here I was wondering why the devil would you want to listen to bollywood music (or whatever they were listening to) instead of enjoying the soothing sounds of nature. There were a few of the more moronic kinds who were playing the music on their speaker phones. I saw father-son pairs both with headphones. Husband-wife pairs both with headphones. There used to be a time, when the father took this son out on a nature walk to explain,talk and educate. Now they both listen to ipods. No talking.

I am not against listening to music, but I think communicating and meeting people takes more precedence for me personally. Have we become a race of people who don't want partake in anything other than ourselves ? A world of headphones and annoying cell phone users.

If you visit any of the better hotels in India or outside, you will see that the lift lobby , the lift, the restrooms, the reception are all equipped with LCD televisions. Even buses that ferry you from your flight to the terminal have these screens. All of them advertising and trying to sell you something that you don't need. No talking. No saying "hello" to the person next to you. Watch the damn TV and listen to your iPod.

However on the other side of the coin, you have social networking websites where people will pour their heart out. :-)

Its getting to be a weird world ! too weird.

In support of ckunte

A lot has been written about NDTV gagging Chyetanya Kunte for his post "Shoddy Journalism". The one I liked the most is here.

My post is to express solidarity for Chyetanya and the blogging community.

"Free Speech" is free. Try and stop it.

(hoooo .. i am scared now .. pls pls .. I dont want to be sued ... GOD oh God .. ! )