A Visitor's Guide to the Lobos

Today is Christmas and we were having a family lunch at my sisters place. My brother Frank is getting married next week, and so the whole family including Don, my other brother had flown in with his family. It was a special occasion, with the complete Lobo family getting together in 1 place after several years.

Freia wanted to make it special and wanted to give everyone a gift. She recollected that 7 years earlier when the entire family had gone to Thailand and Singapore, she had presented a collection of poems titled “9” to each family and it was a hit. She thought of creating something similar. And came up with an idea of writing a small description for each of the family members.

And came up with her version of “A Visitor’s Guide to the Lobo’s”. It made extremely interesting reading and I must admit it was a pretty accurate description of each family member. The only exception of course being mine. And every family member agreed. That it was a pretty accurate description of each family member except one. Themselves.

Read for yourself and decide

What a Change - Passport in 3 days

Traditionally all of us Indians are used to criticizing the authorities and blaming the Government for the lack of infrastructure, inefficiency, incompetence and so on and so forth.

Earlier this week, on Friday, I had occasion to experience the awesome changes that have taken place not once, but twice. I think that it’s high time we learnt to appreciate the good things that are happening all around us. This is my attempt.

The Passport application required to be filled online and you had to take an appointment.
https://passport.gov.in/pms/Information.jsp

I took an appointment for Friday at 10.30. I reached the passport office around 15 minutes early. There was a waiting line for the 10.30 appointments and at exactly 10.30 we were allowed to go in. There was an option for getting a Tatkal (Speedy) passport in a few days or the regular process that would take around 8 to 12 weeks. I had opted for the Tatkal scheme, which required you to pay Rs. 1500 extra.

There was just 1 person ahead of me. She completed her process in a few minutes and mine too was completed in a few minutes. Payment took another couple of minutes.

Earlier the Tatkal application form needed a Letter of Verification from a Senior Officer in the Government. This was a difficult task, as most of us do not know Senior Officials in the Government. Now all you require is 3 documents, from a list of 14 documents. I had my Election ID, my PAN card, and a Bank Passbook. You also need to have a simple affidavit, a format of which is given on the site. Basically, all you need to do is follow the simple instructions on the website, and you should be able o get a passport easily and without any hassles.
http://passport.gov.in/cpv/TatkalScheme.htm

Since I wanted to apply for my daughters passport (who was not eligible for Tatkal), I then stood in the line for the regular passport. Here there were around 15 persons ahead of me. In around an hour, it was my turn and here too, the officer at the counter was quick and efficient. She checked the papers which seemed to be in order, and had completed the formalities in a few minutes. The payment needed to be made in another line, which too was short and did not take much time. Before 12, I had successfully completed the application process and was to receive my passport, 4 business days later, on Wednesday.

Whilst the experience with the passport authorities and officials was very pleasant, the experience with my fellow applicants was far from good. Many were trying several things to bypass the lines and rules, even though they were so well organized. A very fashionably dressed lady with an appointment for 12.00 was trying to bully her way in. A school teacher and her husband were standing in two different lines together and jumping from one to the other, delaying everybody and creating a nuisance. A fat, rich couple were elbowing their way ahead, breaking the lines, using their children. Interestingly, in all of these cases, where the passport office staff were present, they handled them politely but firmly and got them back to where they belonged.

The authorities have done their bit and made the process multiple times better than before. They’ve changed. When will we ?

p.s.: I received my passport on Tuesday, 1 day before the promised delivery date.

Tit for Tat

I recently read V. Raghunathans "Games Indians Play - why we are the way we are". Interestingly the cover has, "Foreword by N.R. Narayana Murthy", confirming the author's Indianness, in flaunting famous personality endorsements.

It’s a book that is absorbing and I agree with most of the authors views. The only view I completely disagree with is actually the basic premise of the book. He attributes a large part of the ills in Indian society to the way we are, and considers lack of effective implementation or enforcement. I believe that Indians, replicate most of the characteristics of global citizens and the primary reason for the ills is a lack of effective implementation and enforcement of laws.

In the book, the author refers extensively to the Game Theory and its variations. The one I want to touch upon is the "Tit for Tat" algorithm. This has been found to be the most effective solution in solving "The Prisoner's Dilemma". You can read more about the Tit for Tat theory and its application in "The Prisoner's Dilemma" at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tit_for_tat

Let me briefly touch upon what exactly does the Tit for Tat algorithm entail. Its actually as simple as the 3 words used. It responds in the same way as the competitor. However, it has a few rules. It by itself will not be the first to defect. But, if provoked by a defection, it will retaliate by defecting. It in a sense is a smart variation of Gandhiji's "Show the other cheek" theory. Here, you show one cheek and continue to interact in a fair manner. However the moment you are slapped, you withdraw both cheeks, and slap back at the first opportunity.

This has major implications in the way we do business, as well as conduct our activities. It has implications for both, the persons who are fair minded and conduct business or their lives in an ethical manner, as well as those who are selfish and would like to maximize profits. And that's what makes this strategy so amazing. It’s not only ethically and morally correct, it’s also the one that's likely to maximize profits over the long term.

Let’s examine its veracity and the expected behavior. There are 2 scenarios as mentioned above. Lets first take the case of the honest business person, which is considered as an oxymoron by most Indians. In any of their business dealings they would like to be fair. Hence they follow the first rule of not defecting first. They will continue to keep their end of the deal, as long as the counterpart keeps their part of the deal. As soon as the counter party defects, the theory suggests that so should they. This will give a message that a defection will be retaliated with a defection.

The defecting party has an option to no longer deal or try and deal once again without defecting. The Tit for Tat, will respond positively when the counter party initiates a positive interaction. Hence the ethical business person will have a maximum of any one losing transaction with any counter party. What makes this effective for the business is that ethical counter parties will love to deal with the "Tit for Tat" follower, since they always keep their end of the bargain. Interestingly, even the crooks’ will love to deal with them, since they never are the first to defect, and so they can never lose.

And now let’s take the case of the profiteers. They would like to maximize their profits. They are likely to deal with either opportunists like themselves or with ethical people. In the first case, they run the risk of the opportunist defecting and them losing before they have a chance to defect. Even if they manage to defect first, the opportunist having lost is unlikely to deal with them again. And so the dealing will last for a short time. When the opportunist deals with the ethical person, he will have 1 hugely profitable transaction. But then will lose an opportunity of dealing with the same party. Quickly their reputation will precede them, and they will have no one left willing to deal with them.

Hence to me it seems like behaving in an ethical manner is not only the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing to do. In addition to being good for the soul, it’s going to be good for business.

Handling people - Lessons from a novice

Amongst my many weaknesses, 1 of the major ones is social skills and handling people. I tend to get very judgmental and put most things in black and white. So someone is Right or Wrong. Hence I end up, calling Idiots, (or those I believe to be Idiots), Idiots. As is rather obvious, it ends up me alienating a lot of people. My new mature self, refrains from saying so, but I've been told that my demeanor and body language leave little for the imagination, and so I guess I'm not much better off.

Recently, Ivy became the Secretary of our housing Society. She's always hated administrative work and for 12 long years, she had diplomatically avoided becoming part of the Managing Committee or assuming any formal role. Several months ago, a grave injustice was done to a resident, and at that point she was outraged enough to gather support and reduce the injustice. (Read More)

Nevertheless, she wasn't able to bring about a change, since the member in question was part of the Managing Committee, was dictatorial in nature and the other members of the Committee were either too scared or just wanted to avoid hassles.

With the motivation of not being a mute witness to such gross injustice, she managed to motivate a few other like minded members to contest the elections and were elected. The members wanted her to become the Secretary and she reluctantly agreed, with a caveat of "Just 1 year". The Society was facing multiple issues, including, no money, no security willing to be posted here, no manager willing to work here, poor to nonexistent housekeeping, and so all. I was rather skeptical whether she and the other members would be able to do much, considering the mess that the Society was in.

They managed to surprise everyone. For starters, the Chairperson, and the Treasurer along with the other members were string in their resolve and willing to work hard. They managed to change the security and housekeeping, and improve the basic atmosphere. All this with major resistance and hurdles from 1 disgruntled but very powerful member and a few of her friends.

The part that was most impressive was the tackling of the defaulters. Several members had not paid outstanding for very long, several for years together. Personal calls made to them resulted in many of them clearing their dues within a few days.

But the part that was most memorable for me, was the way they handled people. They were sweet and polite, even in the face of ridiculous and ride responses. As an example a Member called and demanded to see the accounts, "Right Now". She went to the office, called the Member and said, "We appreciate your interest, and we'll be happy to share the accounts. Please come down". The member chickened out, realizing that the nuisance value that was being sought to be created was back firing. They were firm, and refused to be cowed down by rabble rousers and noise makers.

But what stands out is "How ?". They managed to handle all of the negativity with a smile, politeness and firmness. if only I can learn to handle people half as well as this team has, I shall consider it a major milestone.

The more important learning for me is that whilst we all know ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men (or women) do nothing’, it’s high time, we stood up and did our bit, instead of sitting back and waiting for others to clear our mess. Whether its in our society, our city and especially our country.

Fooled by Randomness

Fooled by Randomness is a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb on The Hidden Role of Chance in the Markets and in Life. Until I read this book I believed that Luck contributed 99% in determining success. Now I've revised that to 100%.

The primary premise of the book is that we commonly mistake luck for skill. And the author has in his engaging style, used the financial markets to illustrate his point very effectively. There are quite a few outstanding examples he has used that seem obvious and most people, including professionals like traders and even doctors would take decisions based on their understanding of the obvious. Yet, simple mathematics would show them how wrong they are. Let me give a couple of these examples to illustrate the point.

An example of a mistake cited in the book is one that most of us make in handling our financial investments. It revolves around probability, outcome and expectations. Lets say we engage in an investment strategy that has 999 chances in 1000 of making $1 and 1 (Event A) and a chance in 1000 of losing $10,000. The expectation is a loss of $9.

Event -  A
Probability - 999/1000 
Outcome -  $1      
Expectation - $0.999

Event -  B
Probability - 1/1000
Outcome -   (-$10,000)      
Expectation - (-$10)

Total - (-$9.001)

Whilst we are quick to spot the problem and hence not take this strategy in a normal bet. Yet we do it all the time in the financial markets. One of the probable reasons could be that the negative outcome is something which we don't anticipate and hence end up ignoring. We focus on the frequency and probability of a profit. The mathematical truth is that "frequency or probability if the loss, in and by itself is totally irrelevant; it needs to be judged by the magnitude of the outcome.

According to Mr. Taleb, one of the major issues that results in us making gross errors is our understanding or rather lack of it in probability and our inherent biases.

"Below is an account of a well-known test. A test of a disease presents a rate of 5% false positives. The disease strikes 1/1,000 of the population. People are tested at random, regardless of whether they are suspected of having the disease. A patient's test is positive. What's the probability of the patient being stricken by the disease.
Most doctors answered 95%, simply taking into account the fact that the test has a 95% accuracy rate. The answer is the conditional probability that the patient is sick and the test shows it - close to 2%. Less than 1 in 5 professionals got it right."

Are you too wondering how is it 2% ?

"Consider that out of 1,000 patients who are administered the test, 1 will be expected to be afflicted with the disease. Out of the population of the remaining 999 healthy patients, the test will identify about 50 with the disease, since its 95% accurate. The correct answer should be the probability of being afflicted with the disease for someone selected at random who presented a positive test is the following ratio:

No. of afflicted persons/No. of true and false positives = 1 / 51

Think of the number of times you'll be given medication that carries damaging side effects for a given disease you were told you had, when you may only have a 2% probability of being afflicted"

The takeaway for me is that in most aspects, especially the financial aspects, most individuals especially experts don't really understand the fundamentals. If you realize this, along with the realization that neither do you, you could become very rich, relatively quickly. I plan to try in 2012, and will let you know in Dec. of 2012 how it al worked out. Until then, happy trading.

US - Response to a slowdown

I just flew from San Francisco and the airport was busy, very busy. It seemed like most flights were full and overall it seemed like it was business as usual. Every single leg of mine in the US I have travelled and this is at odd times on weekdays, every single seat was taken up. The flights are so full that on my SFO - NWK flight, there were 45 standby passengers for upgrade to business. And this is after all business class seats were full. All 16 of them.

I was unable to see any visible impact of the global slowdown, financial crises, and various other bad news that seems to originate regularly from the US. And I guess that’s what makes this is the greatest country in the world. Wherever I went, I saw happy faces, busy shops, malls that were full. I've observed over a period of time that the best way to determine spending is not to check out the crowds in the shops or malls, but observe the lines at the checkout counters. These were long, with most customers having large shopping carts full.

Wherever I go, the conversation revolves around the current financial crises and the impact on businesses, both globally and worldwide. I guess that a lot of the impact may not be visible. Nevertheless, the feeling I got was that the atmosphere and the energy was far more positive than it was a year ago or even 2 years ago. This is based on simple individual observations, and since I'm neither trained nor an expert, it’s possible I'm imagining or just plain wrong. Nevertheless, I believe that we  are at the beginning of a reversal and that 2012 and 2013 is likely to be good years for the US. This, by extension means I'm predicting happy times ahead for the rest of the world.

I'm a contrarian, not by choice but it seems by virtue of what I think is likely to happen. As I write this the economic crisis seems to deepen not only in the US, but globally. Greece, Ireland, were already in trouble and now most of the other European nations including the UK, France and Germany have issues if their own. These are exactly the reasons I believe a turnaround is round the corner. When you are at the bottom, no matter what you do, chance are you'll end up going up.

All experts are predicting that 2012 and 2013 are likely to be worse years than 2011 and 2012. They were wrong in 2010 when they predicted happy days ahead, and I hope they're wrong this time too. In addition to making me feel good about being right, the bigger picture is that we'll have a happier, financially stable world.

India - US : Nonstop

Just got into Newark after flying nonstop from Mumbai. The journey of 16 hrs. was uneventful, yet interesting. Most people just cannot imagine how anyone can undertake a nonstop flight of 16 hours, which means you're likely to be inside the aircraft for over 17 hours.

I was flying Continental after several years. hadn't used Conti, ever since Air India had introduced a nonstop flight from Mumbai to New York. Now since that flight goes via New Delhi, I was flying Conti from Mumbai to Newark. The flight was scheduled to take 16 hrs and we got in an hour earlier.

My daughter who left for a field trip, a couple of days before put this journey into perspective, when she mentioned how lucky I was to have just a 16 hour trip and would reach the US, when it would take her longer to reach Madhya Pradesh for a field trip. Yes, we have come a long way from the 24+ hours it would take.

The flight takes off on time, just before midnight. By the time the plane levels off, and dinner is served, yet another hour goes by. In seat the personal entertainment system offers, video on demand. The collection of over 100 movies and 100 shows, and games, and ... means you have entertainment choices sufficient for several flights. I watch a movie and by the time, its over, we have just around 14 hours to go. The exact position, time left, height, temperature and the countries we're overflying is available on the Live Map.

The good thing about this night flight is that you're quite tired after a full day of work. And so, you get a good nights  sleep as soon as you try. 6 hours later, I awaken with sounds of movement in the cabin. It’s the breakfast service and we have 8 hours to go. Had breakfast, saw another movie,  a couple of coffees, and by now, we just have 6 hours to go. Time for another nap. And before I know it, I awaken with movement in the cabin. Its time for lunch, although it'll be 7 am in a few hours when we land. I guess they call it lunch, because its served after what they called breakfast.

The flight touched down almost an hour before schedule. The lines at Immigration took 1 hour and 20 minutes. Yes, you read right, 80 minutes in a line awaiting your turn to go through Immigration. It was fascinating to see all the people who keep grumbling about lines in India, criticizing our systems even when they have to wait 5 minutes, patiently and uncomplainingly standing in a line, with no attempts to do the great India line breaking trick. A couple near me had a connecting flight they were getting late for. The wife egged the husband to go check if they could be given priority and jump the queue. The lady supervising the lines firmly told him to get back in line, else he would be sent back to the end of the line.
 
Ironically, for most of us when in the US, officers remarks are firm, in India, the same gets called rude. I love the US, their systems and processes. And I love the way they enforce discipline, without prejudice or bias. If only, we could learn to be as disciplined, and behave the way we do abroad when we are back in India.

Fortunately, the rest of the processes of collecting baggage, customs, checking in again, security, were relatively faster and here I'm sitting at the gate awaiting boarding with around an hour to go. Another 6 hour flight to San Francisco, but relativity kicks in and its 1/3rd of the flying time I just completed. So it can't be too bad.

Fitness - Key to Health

Yesterday the enthusiastic youngsters at Web Access organized a cricket session at the Purandhare Ground at Dadar, in Central Mumbai.

You reached the ground after navigating through one of the most crowded areas of Mumbai, Dadar. And suddenly there's this huge open ground, surrounded by greenery, grass, trees, plants, ... It takes your breath away and you find it difficult to believe that this huge open space is there in the heart of the city.

I was part of the Yellow team (differentiated by our T-Shirts). We were first up to field. Within a couple of overs of fielding, I realized exactly how unfit I was. Given an over to bowl, confirmed my state of fitness. Managed to get 2 wickets and give away just 4 runs, if you conveniently ignore the 4 wides. At the end of the over, I was out of breath. And this was our first match.

At the end of 6 hours, with aching hands and legs, I was just happy that it was all over. We came in 2nd, which wasn't that great considering that there were only 3 teams. On the way back, I reflected, a nice way to reduce the aching bones, on how come I was so unfit. There had to be some good reasons. Translated that means, there must be someone I could blame. Unlike most other things, its difficult to find someone else responsible. I mean who could you find fault for you not exercising and not eating all the right foods.

One of the mysteries of life, all delicious and irresistible food is unhealthy and all healthly food is neither delicious nor irresistable. Why couldn't it be the other way around. We would have been the healthiest species on Earth as opposed to the unhealthiest. There we go, its nature's fault. For designing our bodies to be unable to breakdown food efficiently and effectively.

There is a big business opportunity waiting for the inventor of creating tasty and irresistible food, that is also very healthy. Whilst that problem is being solved, I'll need to figure out a way to become fit again. And since only deadlines work, my deadline is in the next 6 months.

So how will I know I'm fit. I guess if I can run a half marathon, it would mean that I'm reasonably fit. Unfortunately I didn't make it to the Mumbai half marathon, which is selection by lottery, this year either. So I'll just need to run it on my own. 26 kms in under 3 hours. Although I've given myself 6 months, lets see if I can do it in 4. That way, I have 2 additional months, in case everything does not go according to plan.

Am headed to San Francisco later tonight, and my fitness freak brother Don, is likely to make me work and walk for the privilege of staying with him. Luckily for both of us, its for just 3 days. So exercising would have to become part of my daily routine. Maybe a morning run. And equally important would be my diet. I think I'll try a light dinner plan. Soups, vegetables, fruits. If all of this doesn't work, then I'm in trouble anyway.

The best of intentions need to be given a good beginning. And so, I'll defer the start of this ambitious plan to when I return from my US trip. There's no point in not enjoying the culinary offerings of the world's melting pot, the US and New York. In any case, I need to drop 10's of kilos, so whats a couple of kilos more ?

Diwali - Festival of Lights or Sound ?

This week was Diwali and for all practical purposes a holiday week. Wednesday was Laxmi Puja, Thursday was Balipratipada and Friday Bhau Beej. As our friends in the US called it, "Indian Christmas".

The world is going through a financial slowdown and India is no exception. The Indian stock market indices had lost around 20% of their value since the last Diwali. So most people now had less than 8-% of what they had 1 year ago. The losses amount to over Rs. 1000 crores / hour of trading during the year. On a television show, the stock market wizard and current market favourite Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala made an interesting comment. "This was my worst trading year ever. And I got all my calls Right". That seemed to sum up the feeling of all those who traded on the stock market. Did everything right. Yet made huge losses.

Somehow it did not seem like the global slowdown affected the common man. The malls were full. The shops were brimming with people. On Dhanteras, the day that Indians buy Gold, lines to pay stretched for as long as 20 - 30 minutes with several additional counters. One interesting point I noted that a large proportion of those transactions seemed to be in Cash. This is not based on any scientific survey and is at best a dip stick observation. I continued my observation to restaurants and the same story seemed to be repeating itself. Hence it looks like a significantly large number of people have Cash.

You need not be Einstein to figure out that large amounts of Cash cannot be legitimately earned. Hence it seems like the only people who can afford the good things in life are the "Not Honest". So I guess what we learnt in school "Cheaters never propser" and "Honesty is the best Policy", is at best questionable. On an aside, if the government wanted to curb black money, all it needed to do was ensure that "Cash" is not accepted for any trasaction for more than Rs. 100.

Diwali is the festival of lights. And most Hindu homes are completely lit up. Traditionally Diyas were used, but now they have been substituted by extremely cost effective beautiful LED lights. Like all cost effective good things, "Made in China". The city looks beautiful, with brightly lit buildings and homes. And the city wears a festive look. Its a time of celebration and like all Indian celebrations accompanied by good food. Varities of sweets, completely delicious, totally tempting and irresistible. And of course, full of calories. So next month, shall be spent on losing the weight put on in the last week.

One of the only aspects of Diwali, that bothers me is the firecrackers. An Indian tradition where a lot of fireworkers are burst. The problem is the noise, smoke and dirt. The fireworks are burst through the day on Laxmi Puja nd the 2 following days. They increase the already high noise pollution levels to unbearable levels. Their smoke increases the already smoggy air, to smoggier. And their remnants dirty the city that could do with a major clean up. I just wish that we could do what many other communities across the world do. Community fireworks at pre-designated public places. Everyone has a good time without any of the issues.

And the millions of rupees that are burnt into nothingness, can be used in helping the million have what we are fortunate to have, "A Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New Year".

Etiquette. How important ?

Yesterday I attended a presentation on Business & Social Etiquette by Mr. Vincent D'Silva. Mr. D'Silva is an accomplished speaker of repute and has conducted I'm told 100's of sessions and trained 1000's in various aspects of business.

Mr. D'Silva is apparently so popular that you need to be able to book a year in advance if you want him as a trainer or speaker. The reason for the speakers popularity became obvious as soon as he started his presentation. He managed to have the audience captivated whilst he walked them through the various aspects and importance of etiquette, both business and social. He stressed the importance of etiquette and the links between success and etiquette.

I was intrigued enough to check out some aspects of the subject. Mr. D'Silva had kindly mentioned 3 websites which gave more insights into the subject.
www.executiveplanet.com
www.tips4me.com
and especially for women www.sitagita.com

Not satisfied, I searched a little more and amongst the various excellent resources I found one that was really very, very good.
http://www.ravenwerks.com/
and this section was just what I was looking for
http://www.ravenwerks.com/etiquette-communication/

The question to me however was how important is etiquette. I'm not referring to the part about acceptable social behavior. I'm referring to the specific business etiquette that have a long list of Do's and Dont's, such as "Never say Hi, when you pick up a business call".

I do realize that most of you'll are likely to disagree, but I think that social and business etiquette should be about doing what feels right. And what one is comfortable with. "Half shirts are worn by drivers and peons", is something that's said. And in some MNC's even if you are a photocopy repair person you wear a full sleeved shirt, take permission, fold it, finish your work, clean up, fold your shirt down and then go take the customers signature. In my mind that's plain silly. Just wear a half shirt. Or even an overall.

A lot of the etiquette are remnants of the British era, exported to most parts of the Western world. Whilst some of the traditional companies continue to follow a relaxed version of the traditional etiquette, most modern companies aren't particular about traditional etiquette. And the mantra is comfort. So if you're comfortable working in shorts and sandals, you're welcome to come dressed up like that. On Fridays. And all other days that you work.

I'm a fan of this culture. Do what you're most comfortable with. Just as long as your comfort does not make people around you uncomfortable.

p.s.: My wife happened to see Mr. D'Silva's presentation and was hopeful that I would start wearing smart clothes. Sorry Mr. D'Silva and Ivy, it'll need more than an awesome presentation to convince me that "Wearing Smart Clothes" is more important than "Wearing Comfortable Clothes".

Perception is Reality

I once told a friend, “You know what, perception is greater than reality”. His reply a true classic, “Perception is Reality”.

To begin with, why should there be a difference between perception and reality. Shouldn’t they be a reflection of each other. Whilst this may be true in the sciences, it doesn’t apply to human beings. We perceive things first . Later we put together in our minds, what we think are facts to make it seem that our perception is justified. And most of us, no matter how hard we try find it difficult to change our perceptions.

Surprisingly, perceptions are viral in nature. They have the ability of taking on a life of their own and spreading until it becomes a reality. Some of the classic perceptions, many of which seem to defy the facts. Here are my favorite 5.

1. Congress is a secular party
The complete Congress part machinery shouts itself hoarse claiming themselves and their allies to be secular. Its strange considering that the Congress Party has several tie-ups with parties like the Muslim League, both historically and currently. Additionally many of their programs revolve around sops for the minorities. Their definition, which strangely no one has questioned revolves around, Secular is equal to non pro majority, or pro Hindu.

2. Nuclear weapons are dangerous in the hands of small countries
The facts are that the only nation to have ever used nuclear as well as chemical and biological weapons happens to be the US. And that too, whilst it was a superpower. So where does this perception come from. It comes from the US and its powerful allies talking about the dangerous possibilities of nuclear weapons and how rogue states could misuse it.

3. Bill Gates and Microsoft are greedy and want to dominate the world
Bill Gates is one of the worlds nicest and most generous person. He has distributed a large chunk of his enormous wealth (over 80%) to social causes all over the world. And unlike most philanthropists has shied away from taking credit, except to the extent of encouraging fellow entrepreneurs to join in supporting social causes.

4. All politicians are stupid, lazy, and corrupt
A large section of politicians are the smartest, most hardworking and honest people in our society. Whilst there is no doubt that a large section of politicians are corrupt, in my mind, the very nature of politics will prevent them from being either stupid or lazy. They have to be very smart and hardworking to be able to interact and satisfy their constituents, all of whom are highly demanding. As regards corrupt, whilst many are in all probability corrupt, the fact that so many good things happen seems to indicate that many of them would have to be honest. Another benchmark would be looking at their personal worth (Including close family). Many of them are worth less than you and me, inspite of having devoted their lives to working for our causes.

5. Indian are smarter than Americans
This is this perception that most urbanites have, especially families with Indian Americans. Two obvious facts disprove this immediately. The first is that If we were so smart, then we would be far ahead of the US, which by any benchmark we’re not. The second is that as a nation, neither our IQ or any other parameter indicate any mental advantage. The reason for this myth is probably the fact that Indians in the US outperform the locals. However the reason for this is obvious. The ones that go there are the smarter once, definitely in the top 10 percentile. Comparing them with the general population will give skewed results. Compare them with the top 10 percentile, and you may arrive at different conclusions.

So whats the conclusion. Since we can't change the fact that "Perception is Reality", we need to be careful that we consciously convey through our words and actions, aspects that reflect the truth as we perceive it and thereby would like to perceived.

The dots finally disconnected – Goodbye Steve

Earlier this week on Tuesday, Apple launched the new iPhone 4S. The next day,  ((Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011) the company announced that Apple founder and former CEO Steve Jobs has died of pancreatic cancer at age 56.

The impact that Steve Jobs had can be fathomed by what my younger daughter Reia said. “Lets pay a real tribute to Steve Jobs. Let’s get an iPad 2”.

He had been hailed as the next great inventor after Einstein, amongst many glowing tributes paid him.  To my mind the genius of Steve Jobs was in his ability to make things simple for users. He seemed to follow Einstein’s thoughts accurately and effectively."Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."

What better way to say Goodbye to Steve than in his own words.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

"That's been one of my mantras -- focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains."

“There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I've ever seen is called television - but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.”

“A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition ... Stay hungry, Stay foolish."

“When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions”

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.”

And finally Steve Jobs at Stanford. Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life's setbacks -- including death itself -- at the university's 114th Commencement on June 12, 2005.

Ideas worth spreading

There are many occasions when you’d like to find something interesting. Search Google or Wikipedia and you have a few billion hits or websites to choose from. Go to youtube and you are slightly better off. Billion reduces to a few million. Nevertheless, so much to see and learn, so little time.

And there’s one place where you can go to. And you’ll be amazed. The presentations, the speakers, the ideas. Out of this world. It could be about a simple thing like English, or about forging, or about robotics or about bird like planes, or …

So  what exactly is TED ?
"TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader."

I started this blog by wanting to write a few lines of my favorite presentations, with links to them. But just as I was about to, I realized that the greatest joy I found was in discovering new thoughts, new ideas, new presentations, new … So I’m just going to let you go discover some pretty cool stuff.

Go check out www.ted.com.



To  sum up, as TED says “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world”

Rickshaw Unions - Fighting for “The Right to Cheat”

Unbelievable but true. That someone could actually fight for the right to cheat. It doesn’t end here. The cause is supported by political parties across the board. Let’s begin at the beginning.

Rickshaws and Mumbaikars have a love hate relationship. They love to hate but cannot live without each other. A year ago, a few ordinary people got together and started a "Meter Jam" campaign, a day when Mumbaikars would not use rickshaws. A way of showing the rickshaw drivers that they need to change or else. The 1st campaign tasted some success, but 3 successive attempts did not receive any response.

Last week Mumbai rickshaws suddenly went off the roads. The reason. Police has started a campaign to check rickshaw meters. Most rickshaws that were checked were found with tampered meters. The strike was to protest against the checking of meters. Unions got into the act. And since unions are run by political parties, they too wanted to be part of the solution, to a problem they created to begin with.

And the justifications were even more unbelievable. The first was that the only way rickshaw drivers could survive was by tampering with the meters and cheating the passengers. And of course, they would only ply on routes that were lucrative, and if it meant refusing passenger, well that’s yet another Right.

In India, all of us know and fight for our Rights. We forget about our responsibilities. The Union has a positive role to play. Ensure that its members the rickshaw drivers are taken care of. And so is the passenger. Here however the Union play an adversarial role. They bother neither about the rickshaw driver nor about the passengers. All they are interested is in the power of running the Union. And if it means that both the rickshaw drivers as well as passengers suffer, then guess what, yet another Right.

It’s sad that because of the internal clashes between the 5 + unions that exist, everyone ends up losing. The rickshaw drivers because they lose their livelihood on days of strike and several potential passengers on other days. The passengers who lose the convenience of a friendly neighborhood rickshaw. And the city which loses its claim to be a people friendly place.

Mumbai rickshaws and their drivers provide a service that is one of the most cost effective and efficient services, not only in India, but across the world. If only the drivers get together and form a group that disassociates from all unions and does their job, as best as they could. I’m confident that their business will go up by 100%. They may lose the 10 – 30% they gain by overcharging. But the additional revenue will more than make up for that.

Already there are a few nice things hapenning. Such as "Call a Rick." A few things that all of us in Mumbai would love to see
a. Rickshaws never saying No, and taking you wherever you want to go.
b. Meters that are not tampered.
c. Safe driving without unnecessary honking.

Even if 2 out of the 3 becomes a reality, I for one will increase my rickshaw usage from an average of Rs. 100 a month to about Rs. 1000. And you know the best part. I’ll still be saving money, (petrol and parking is expensive), the pain of driving. All in all. Happy Me, Happy Driver, Happy City.