Web Access Annual Day, Oops Week !

Last night was the Web Access Annual Day Celebration. It was the culmination of 1 week of plain, unadulterated fun, by the WA Team for the WA Team. The celebrations started on Monday, itself. There were several competitions.

Some traditional. Many not so traditional. So the events started with the  company being divided into 4 teams. The points gained by each team would be added together to come up with a final winning team.

Some of the traditional competitions were Carom, Table-tennis, Sudoku. The not so traditional included Team Theme, where each team members had to dress up in a theme. The judges made the event even more exciting by asking the teams to spontaneously perform .

Twins, an event where people had to come dressed similarly. Some of them were so good that I mistook one for the other, and wondered how someone who was quite tall in the morning became short in the afternoon.

Mis-match where people dressed up as badly as they could. And most who are normally well dressed showed us just how creatively badly dressed they could be. It might be appropriate to mention that I managed to become the WA Table Tennis champ. Thanks to Deepak who beat me every year, but was away in the US and luckily (for me) came in the next day.

There were the usual suspect competitions, such as Poetry Writing, Story Writing and Painting. I was amazed at the amount of talent unearthed and was left wondering what these artists were doing at WA.
The eve of the Annual Day has a Krazy Awards. Unfortunately I missed it, but I was given to understand that they were hilarious and brilliant. And no one was spared. Especially not me. On second thoughts maybe it was good I missed them.

The Annual Day was held at a scenic open air garden restaurant in Thane. The ambience was good, and the atmosphere electric. There were several performances put up by various groups. Considering the limited time that was available for practice, most performances were awesome.

The dance by the girls group of Anum, Ashwini  P, Ashwini R, Meenakshi, & Priyanka, deserves a special mention. It was Bollywood quality.

The highlight of the event was the awards ceremony. Hosted by Priyanka and the amazingly talented Deepak. His deadpan faced humor is subtle, classy and funny. I’d pay to see Deepak perform. The surprise was when the Debutante of the Year, the most awaited award was announced. And it was surprising to see that not 1, not 2, but 3 people won it. Pravin, Anum, and Jignesh.

And this in itself tells a story. A story of the number of talented people, I have the privilege of calling “Colleagues”.

The man who awakened the Nation

As a country most Indians have accepted the notion that corruption is a fact of life. And nothing can be done. Most indulge in it, in most cases to gain some advantage or benefit, and then blame it on the system. So when a old, frail man said he’s going to go on a hunger strike to get the government to take some action to reduce corruption, everyone, especially those in power gave it exactly 1 day before a sweet deal was made and we continued the way we did. And pretended that nothing had happened. And that’s when a strange unexplainable wave took over the country.

A wave of disgust at the state of affairs. And support for the 1 man army of Anna Hazare. Thousands of Indians spontaneously landed up at the venue of the hunger strike. Rallies that were filled with supporters of the movement were held all over the country. The social media was abuzz and inundated with support for the cause. Facebook conversations revolved around Anna and it became the no. 1 tweeted about subject.

The wave of support was reaching an intensity rarely seen before. And the Government started worrying. The spokespersons who were arrogant and blunt and trashing the fast suddenly disappeared. And the moderates started showing up at television studios for debates and interviews. And the tone took a U turn. The cause was just. Everyone, especially the government wanted exactly what Anna Hazare had wanted. And if he would break his fast, they could discuss and come to a mutual understanding.

But Anna Hazare happened to be not only a person who knew what he wanted, but knew the dangers of ambiguous assurances and empty promises. He had his list of demands. And nothing less would do. 4 days later, finally the Government caved in. And what was supposedly impossible because of legal complications happened overnight.

Today’s Newspapers ran this article
“Gandhian Anna Hazare on Saturday (April 9) called off his hunger strike bringing to an end his 98-hour protest after government issued a gazette notification constituting a 10-member Joint Committee of ministers and civil society activists, including him, to draft an effective Lok Pal Bill. Curtains were drawn on the anti-corruption campaign that drew instant nationwide support with a little girl giving the 73-year-old activist a glass of water at 10.45 am at Jantar Mantar, the nerve-centre of the agitation for a strong legislation to combat political and administrative graft. Earlier, Hazare offered water to some women, among the over 300 activists who had joined the fast. Social activists Swami Agnivesh, Medha Patkar and Kiran Bedi hailed Hazare's campaign as the Gandhian said he would to continue the fight for the "second struggle for independence".

Thus proving once again that in the land of Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhigiri’s principle of Satyagraha or non violent protest still works.

India – The World Champions ! Finally !!!

Late last night, India was crowned the champions of the most prestigious cricket tournament, the World Cup. Considering that this victory had come after 28 long years after our 1 and only cricket world cup, won by the legendary Kapil Dev’s Dare Devils.

That time around, we won when no one expected us to. This time around we were highly rated. Had a good world class team. And were favorites. We played well and deservedly won.

Several articles have been written about the great win and the greater celebrations. So I’ll pass. What I’d like to write about is the after effects, what happened on Day 1. And does any of it make sense. First up at the awards ceremony, an announcement was made. The BCCI awarded each of the players Rs. 10 million, and the coach Rs. 5 million.

So what’s wrong. 2 things. It seems cheap that the announcement should be made in public immediately after the win. Sort of sounds like the Big, Rich Uncle doling out sweets to kids for being well behaved. And then a distinction. You want to reward the coach. Be nice enough to make it similar to that of the team members. Not half. And whilst the act itself is fine, it could and should have been handled in a manner to make it nice for everybody.

And then all the state governments and cricket boards went into overdrive. To reward players. Those from their State, those who were popular. They were given cash prizes, most of the time Rs. 10 million each. Houses. Plots of land. And so on. They gave away or at least promised to give away a cumulative amount far in excess of Rs. 1000 million. And most of these States, Boards, … claim they have no money.

Interestingly the Indian Government Cabinet who seldom gets time to meet or discuss issues of national importance, took a strange decision at a meeting held a couple of weeks before the World Cup Final. To exempt the ICC from paying tax on the “Profits” generated by the World Cup. And the fact that Mr. Sharad Pawar is part of the Cabinet, also happens to be ICC President is pure coincidence.

As a nation, we tend to forget the basics. A victory is good. And needs to be celebrated. But giving away money to the cricketers who in any case earn 100’s of crores, just does not make any sense. Its not as if it makes a significant difference to any of them. But that money, used wisely could make a significant difference to not 1, or 10 or 100 or 1000 but tens of thousands of not financially sound Indians.

The Indian Cricket team has shown that sports wise they have what it takes. Maybe they can now show us that they are just as awesome human beings. And start by giving the public money that was doled out to them for charities that could use them to change many, many, many, many lives.

Graphology – Handwriting tells all

Yesterday I attended a 20 minutes presentation on “Graphology” by Mr. Vinit Bansode, who was described as a “Graphologist”.

“Graphology is the science of understanding the human mind through person's handwriting. When a person writes, the signal in the form of letters get decoded / printed on the paper by the fingers. Graphology aims at understanding & interpreting these signals through the writing. Using this we can know a person’s mind so the thoughts, character and behavior.”

His presentation was really interesting. He used a simple whiteboard and used examples to put forth his thoughts in a simple and lucid manner. Let me try and summarize.

His basic submission was that just as an ECG is a map of the heart, handwriting is a map of the mind. And he focused on the signature. A signature says everything or at least a lot about a person. I’m not sure I completely agree, mainly because most people especially in today’s world create their signature as kids. And I’m assuming that while the person grows, the signature needs to stay, because it’s just too complicated to change in the zillion places who have recorded it and then use it to compare if you are the same person.

The signature has 3 primary aspects it showcases. These are dependent on the clarity, angle and size. The clarity shows a persons clarity, honesty and transparency. So, if you have a legible signature, congratulations. You are clear, hopefully honest and possible transparent.

The angle shows whether you are moving forward, have reached your peak and are steady or have started your downward journey. By angle, he meant the direction of the letters. So signatures that are leaning upwards, are relatively the best amongst the options. And slanting downwards could show early signs of a depressive condition.

The size of your signature reflects the size of your thought process and ambition. So I guess a large signature is better than a small one. Some examples given by Vinit were the 3 typical Indian icons. Mahatma Gandhi, Amitabh Bachhan and Sachin Tendulkar. He also mentioned that typically politicians have extremely difficult to read signatures.

It was interesting to see that most people in the audience were actually signing on the notepad in front of them. And the gentleman next to me started on creating his new signature, Clear, Slanting Up and Big. Until Vinit’s final words probably shattered his dreams of changing everything instantaneously. Change has to be dictated by the mind, not by the head.

And Mr. Bansode mentioned he’s also a life coach. Using Graphology, he’ll help you achieve your goals. Had he said this at the beginning of his presentation, I’d have scoffed. At the end of it, I would like to believe that, maybe, just maybe, it could be helpful. You can visit Vinit’s website at:
http://www.freewebs.com/vinit_b/

Kindle – The Future of Books ?

E-books and e-book readers have been around for a few years now. And whilst there has been a lot of hype around them, they have always remained exactly that. Hype. The primary issues with e-book readers have been 3. The first was the ease of usage. And the 2nd the availability of the books. And the most important, the costs.

A couple of months ago, during a trip to the US, I noticed that e-book readers were in fashion. Whether it was the airport, or in the metro or at coffee shops, a significant number of people seemed to be reading e-books. And I concluded that e-book readers must now really be good.

A quick search showed that Amazon’s latest Kindle was being well received and had decent reviews. I had checked out the original version and it kind of sucked. Too big, too thick. And too expensive. But this time I was pleasantly surprised. Amazon seemed to have taken the exact cribs I had and recreated the Kindle, just for me. And possibly the million others who had the exact same cribs. What’s more the $139 price tag, made it affordable. And so I got a Kindle. As a present for Freia. Who loved reading books.

It’s really very nice. The navigation is straight forward. And its very intuitive. Read a book. And the next time you open that book, it opens on the page where you left. The last few books you are currently reading show up on the home page, and you click and are ready to start reading. The lettering is B&W and crisp. Beautiful print, that is as readable as any physical book. No reflection, no glare. And of course, you can even change the font size.

My younger daughter Reia is not a great book fan. Until I found a cool feature that might make her like, if not love books. A book reader. Yes, it has a feature where the Kindle will read the book for you. In a male or female voice of choice. And the voice quality is awesome. Not at all a typical synthetic machine voice. I’m pretty curious to find out how they’ve managed it.

The cost of books is still a little steep. ($2). But the nice part is that there are enough free books available. And their collection is pretty good. Which I suspect will grow bigger and better. The only real difference I found between real books and the Kindle is that you can’t share books at the same time. But then, hopefully prices will drop even further and each of us can have our own.

Dr. Manmohan Singh - Innocent ?

There has been a lot of major controversies that have come to light in the last few months. The Trimurthi of Scandals has been the Commonwealth Games, 2G Spectrum Scam and the appointment of the CVC (Chief Vigilance Commissioner).

In all the 3 cases, there seems to be no doubt that actions that were not legal have been taken. And this has been accepted by the Government, albeit unwillingly or with a push and a little help from an active judiciary. In the case of the Commonwealth Games, 1000’s of crores have been allegedly misspent or looted.

In the case of the 2G Spectrum Scam, an estimate by the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General ) of the losses is pegged at a whopping 1.76 lakh crores. That’s Rs. 176,000 crores or Rs. 1,760,000,000,000. That’s 1760 billion or 1.76 trillion rupees. A bind boggling number.

And finally in the appointment of the CVC, the Government went ahead and appointed Mr. Thomas, in spite of having pending corruption charges. This was in spite of an objection by the Leader of the Opposition, who was part of the Selection Committee. Interestingly there were 2 other candidates who were also recommended by the Government and were acceptable to the Leader of the Opposition.

The Government is headed by the Prime Minister. In all the 3 cases, the PM in addition to being the head of the Government was directly involved in a more direct manner. He was part of the Committee overseeing the CWG, had written to the telecom minister in the 2G case to exercise caution and so was aware of what was happening and chaired the Committee appointing the CVC.

He has acknowledged in Parliament that a mistake has been made. However in all the 3 cases, he has managed to pass the buck. To people lower down. I’m completely confused. An independent director is responsible for action taken by the Board, even when he or she is not directly involved in the running of the company. They are liable for civil and criminal prosecution. The Managing Director is accountable not only to the shareholders but also to the judiciary. In most cases they are prosecuted and action taken, even when the MD was in no way involved directly with the illegal action or event.

One would assume that the position of the Prime Minister of the country is far more important than that of a mere Director or Managing Director of a company. The stakes are higher and the implications impact not just the entire country, but also the future, both economically and socially. Yet no such standards seem to exist in politics.

Every single media, both print and television continue to talk about the integrity and honesty of our beloved Prime Minister. With due respect to our Prime Minister I beg to differ. In my opinion, YOU are responsible and accountable and the fact that you may not have directly benefitted from the scams does not make you innocent. You are not only as guilty as the direct perpetrators of these crimes, but even more so. We the people trusted YOU, and YOU let us down.

If you are half of what people claim you to be, this is your opportunity to prove it. Prosecute and recover all the losses incurred by the exchequer. Show us you mean business. And the money would be more than useful.

Miracle of Health

I have often heard people say “Health is Wealth”. Whilst I did not really disagree, it’s something to which I did not give any thought. Until last week. Ivy, my wife was very unwell and everything changed. It goes without saying that she was the most affected.

For the 17 years that we have been married, I don’t recollect her ever missing work, even when she was unwell. And Freia was having her Board exams. Fortunately since she was reasonably well prepared, and did not need Ivy’s help in her studies she was okay.

Ivy was having some kind of a fever that would be extremely high and then reduce, but would leave her completely drained. She was very weak and had no strength to even get up. Her appetite was non existent. She could not read nor was able to watch TV. Which meant that she was either sleeping or completely bored. And being an active person, who did not know how to do nothing, she did not know what to do with herself.

Her not being well meant that all of us missed her. Whilst we all did what we always did, go to school or work, eat good food, watch TV, it just didn’t seem to be the same. There seems to be a definite loss that does not make Life Fun, when a loved one is not an active part of the activity.

Ivy was not well for just 2 weeks. But it seemed like 2 months to us. And probably 2 years for her. After a week, she started recovering. And life was becoming normal. We all knew that Ivy was now fully well was when she screamed at us, “Why are you’ll watching TV instead of studying ?. Can you imagine we missed that and now we knew that “All is well.”

This was a small insignificant illness, where there was no real difficulty. Yet it played a role in our life. Imagine the pain that people go through when illness of a much more serious variety and of a significantly, sometimes life long illnesses strike people.

We only realize the importance of something, when we no longer have it. We never value our health and are often careless with it. We value money are extremely careful with it. We plan our financials very, very, carefully. I think we got it wrong. We should plan our health even more carefully. And treasure it. And do whatever it takes, to keep it fully fit.

In my book, “Health is Wealth” is probably an understatement.