Vacation in Bahrain

Vivek and I leave in an hour to Mumbai enroute Bahrain. We are going to see my parents. I'm going there after 6 years and this is Vivek's first visit. Quite excited about it. More from the Pearl Island...

The talkative Indian

Amartya Sen in "The Argumentative Indian" writes ---

Proxility is not alien to us in India. We are able to talk at some length. Krishna Menon's record of the longest speech ever delivered at the United Nations (nine hours non-stop), established half a century ago (when Menon was leading the Indian delegation), has not been equalled by anyone from anywhere. Other peaks of loquaciousness have been scaled by other Indians. We do like to speak.

Yes we do. "Do you want cream in your coffee?". "Yes, because I don't like dark coffee and it tastes good with cream. Maybe a little sugar too". Where just an "yes" or "no" would have sufficed, this is an answer you can expect from anyone in the Indian subcontinent.

We do like to write at some length. No e-mail is ever in a monosyllable. I wonder if our Western counterparts find that hard to cope up with. Is it good to be so long winded always? According to Amartya Sen it is. What I found interesting was Sen's analysis of how this talkative and argumentative tradition has actually shaped our culture, social and secular India and above all contributed to Indian Politics (1977 emergency) and democracy. A good read in all.

Regionalism Plagues at work

Having worked in 2 of the hot IT destinations in India - Bangalore and Pune, I have to admit that workplaces in Pune lack PROFESSIONALISM. People at work start ranting off in Marathi in official meetings with absolutely no tolerance or acknowledgement of other colleagues who maynot understand the regional language. Today, at a meeting, 3 coworkers went yap-yap-yap for over 10 mins when I lost my head and said, it would be good if they spoke in English. 5 mins was all it took to get back to Marathi. Don't they teach public manners or English around here in schools?

Categories: work, regionalism, pune

Common-sense vs Intelligence

Are Common-sense and Intelligence the same thing? Can a person with an IQ over 130 lack common-sense? The questions that determine one's IQ after all test only analytical and logical ability (both theoretical in nature). None of them cite any pratical situations. So I guess including common-sense as a part of IQ is partially incorrect.

My family has an undivided opinion that I am intelligent but lack common-sense totally.

Common-sense is the ability to think on your feet - pratical application of any knowledge you might have acquired either through experience or observation. Right? If the water flow in your faucet stops, what do you do first? Common sense dictates you check if the valve is open. And some people get out their plumbing tools :)

Internet access and Productivity

What started off as a casual comment turned into an interesting conversation with Vivek. This morning, he had suggested looking up at the user comments on Amazon for the book Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, considered GOD by investors. As I had expected, Amazon had been blocked at work under the category Â?ShoppingÂ?. Most of the web sites with reviews on the book were filtered by websense.

When I said this, he remarked, "Don'?t you think this sometime kills creativity and ensures your non-productivity"?. This is very true. Companies such as TCS, Cognizant expect their employees to code with no creative outlet whatsoever. By creative outlet, I mean reading blogs, rediff journals or anything of interest to the individual. I don't know the rationale behind blocking Internet access. Some call it security, some call it policy and misuse during cricket matches. Give it whatever tag you like, the fact remains that in this age denying something as basic is foolish and irrational to expect your employees to be abreast of all the developments in their respective fields!

An hour of reading will only rejuvenate the mind making one all the more productive! You are essentially creating a trap and if they believe in the illusion that employees are effective 10 hours because they have blocked all the distractions, then so be it.

These are some of the factors, not a component of the CTC :), that count towards making a great work environment and a satisfied working life!

Some questions lingering my mind :

1. Should there be time and space limitations for accessing the Internet?


2. While Internet might boost innovation and productivity in product companies, is it required in service companies where the main line of business is the ADM factory?


3. How is productivity measured in firms to arrive at a conclusion that labor productivity is affected by Internet access?


4. Does it not affect competitiveness when pitching for prospective customers?

Categories: work, internet, productivity

The Chocolate Fetish

Having tasted Lindt Milk chocolate for the first time in '92, my craving for the confectionery just grew over the years. Things were a lil different in India a decade earlier when Swiss chocolates were difficult to come by. So I would eagerly wait for Dad/Mom and later Vivek to get them. The packing appealed as much as the chocolate inside. Year after year for over 14 years, I have enjoyed eating them with only Godiva and Ghirardelli matching the truffles. Today, I finally dumped all the chocolate boxes that I have preserved for years as a memoir.

Categories: chocolate,, lindt,, ghirardelli,, godiva

State of Bangalore

CNN-IBN telecasted a program called "State of Bangalore", hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai on Saturday night, to reveal the results of the polls ran by Deccan Herald last week. Questions polled were --

“Should Bangalore be renamed to Bengaluru?”
“Should immigrants learn Kannada?”
“Should pubs be closed at 11:30 p.m.?
“Is Bangalore an unsafe city?”
"Famous personality of Bangalore?" - no, it wasn't Naranyana Murthy!

And all of these won a clear majority with an "yes". A manipulated poll, perhaps? It was firstly painful to see importance being given for something as insignificant as language (I'm sure a lot Kannadigas would disagree with me) over matters of infrasturcture and where very soon the commutation time between work to home and back would have to be counted in days. As one of them rightly said, the only thing politicians haven't been able to spoil is its climate (atleat until now)- Bangalore's biggest advantage! Unplanned development, poor governance were the factors attributed to its present state with promises of fixing everything flying in the air. Apparently, things have just gotten worse over the past few months. Am I glad to have left Bangalore?