Great Innings Grandpa

My Grandpa undertook the journey to his heavenly abode last friday. He was 99. When i first heard the news I was really upset,however over the weekend it dawned on me how wonderful a life he had lived. A complete and fulfilling life which any one would desire.

A man from a century behind us- he had seen it all. The life he has seen is something we read in the history books of today.Life under the British colonial India, Indian uprising under Gandhi and the Indian Independence - Lived under the world's first democratically elected Communist rule-Wars with Pakistan and China the slow and steady emergence of India as a superpower after the opening up of the Indian economy.

Although knowing him one of his favorite moments would have been the introduction of Television and telecasting of Live Cricket in India. The other passion of his life that i had seen was his garden. I had the privilege of living with my grandparents for a few years during my growing years and I vividly remember how precious his garden was for him and how many hours of toil he put into it.The times spend playing cards with my grandparents(No one could best my Gramdma)are one of the most wonderful little memories I keep treasured in my hearts.

He had played umpteen roles - Teacher/Administrator, Businessman,Husband, Father,Freedom Fighter,Grandfather,Great Grandfather,Gardener,Cricket enthusiast. Great Innings Grandpa and like one of your favorites Sachin Tendulkar you too picked up "the habit" of missing your century.Well played.

Welcome 2008

Yet another year passes by. 2k7 makes way for 2k8. Im not one to look into the past and delve into what all went right and what went wrong. Im sure Amazing achievements were made and Hideous crimes committed. Inspiration and indignation walked hand in hand. Aspirations attained and Dreams shattered.The only thing we have complete control over is the present. I will try to begin every day with a fresh thought,perspective and energy. Some wise man said -Nothing becomes impossible then.
BE the inspiration.May 2008 be yours,ours and mine.

A Mote of dust suspended in a Sunbeam

Carl Sagan epitomises our existence in this single line.
Watch the Video- 'Nuff Said.

Award Marketing?

Now who wouldn't love to receive awards. They are a sign of performance and achievement for any company/individual. A sign declaring to the world,Yeah ! We/I did it.But what if this was the exact emotion someone wanted to play on and make a smart buck?

We recently received the Frost and Sullivan award of Service Excellence for 2007. Our entire team was over joyed on hearing the news and were jumping on their desks and patting it each other silly ,basking in that warm feeling of a job well done. But then came the catch. We were required to pay an astronimical amount to Messers Frost and Sullivan to publicly use this award!!! And they had given awards not just for Best Sales and Best Service but a multitude of different names- Best Product leadership,Best Brand Leadership,Best Channel Leadership etc etc- You get the drift.On hearing this piece of info all the joy and merrimaking stopped and we were overcome by this dirty feeling. The apt descripton of the exact emotion was given by a collegue- The feeling that comes when you realise that the beautiful woman you wooed was actually a prostitute.

This incident got me thinking about Awards given in the Industry. Someone at F&S must have had a bright spark. He said -Lets split all those industries out there - B2B or B2C .For each of these industries lets spilt them into a million sectors ,split these sectors into a billion sub specialities and award companies in a kazillion categories in each of these and end up making a tonne of dough from them when they try to use these publicly.

I don't even know if its F&S who first has this idea or just copied it from the other consultants. The big question that arises here is the validity of these awards then. Do we win next year if our performance was still the best(Very likely as we won with over 60% score) but we didn't go ahead and BUY this award??

I know this isn't a very recent phenomena and has been going on for some time now.I guess like they say,you start to think only when you faced with the situation yourself. I'd like to throw open this discussion for all those who have an opinion on this matter.

Are such awards becoming Marketing gimmicks in the hands of the Awarders??Why ask the winning companies to pay for the award which they have rightly deserved according to the Consultants??Or is the research done in a way to give out as many awards as possible?? Let me remind you of the Best B-schools category given in India by all the Business magazines which rate the college of the "Planning Poiny tailed-dude" as no:4 after the 3 IIM's.... Are there better options like - Asking each of the competing companies to a small fee for participation and wait for the fair results to declare the winner. Im sure they are already making enough on the sponsorships of the Award ceremonies. Is this Award Marketing??

Marketing blogs list

Heres a quick list for all those who are searching for that list of excellent Marketing Blogs to read....Read your heart out ladies and gentlemen...

Don't Practice Swimming....SWIM

Scene 1 Take 1

Narrator: Some time in Early 2004 Yours truly went along for a ride with few friends.They were going to attend the selection process for a software company and were very tensed. Yours truly was bored and was just along going for the ride.

Round 1 of Selection: Written test- Aptitude

Almost all qualify including Yours truly.

Round 2: Written Test - Technical

Four of them clear including Yours truly. Almost all further tests attended by all four.

Round 3: Oral test - Technical

Yours truly has no clue and for most of the questions says "Pass"

Round 4: Oral test - Technical round 2

Only Yours truly has this special technical round.Again similar questions. Again "Pass" being the most popular answer.

Round 5: Interview with CFO

CFO: "Lets have a honest discussion here rather than an interview"

Yours truly : (Yeah Rite!) "Of course sir"

CFO : "So tell me,something about your future plans"

Yours Truly: " Well somewhere down the line I'd like to start my own business"

CFO: "How do you plan to do that?"

Yours Truly:(All smug)"Well i plan to work for a few years,get an MBA after that,work again for a few more years and then start the business"

CFO: "But then why don't you start one right now?"

Yours truly:(Surprised)"Well for starters I have no experience,I don't want to make any mistakes when I do start"

CFO : "I have just one thing to say, Does practicing outside a swimming pool for days with all the hand and leg movements make you swim from the first time you enter the pool??"

Scene 2 Take 1

Circa 2007

Yours Truly:I now KNOW what you meant sire.

Of Skaal,Gom bui,Santé,Na zdrowie,Cheers et al....

Well I'm back...again...I think...mebbe...not so sure anymore???

Just had a 2 week sojourn to Viking territory,Denmark....It was an eclectic mix of around 40 people who were there to "NETWORK"...The Danes,The Chinese,one silent French dude,one fiery Polish gal and us Indians.

And u know what I found??? I could try to be profound and say that the world is really a global village now and that thoughts of young people across the world are the same and all that stuff - but NO....that's pretty obvious(All the guys stamping on each other to impress the girls is ample proof)

I found that....Wait..... hold for it.....hold for it.....hold for it.....We have no Indian word for Cheers(Or at least none that seemed quite like it...I googled it and the best I could come up with is-Aap ki lambi umar ke liye...Yuck)!!! That was pathetic when i was hearing Skaal,Gom bui,Santé,Na zdrowie in full fervour(thats Danish,Chinese,French and Polish for the un initiated in the world of Cheers in different languages)
But do not fret my Indian mates,I didn't give up so easily...When everyone asked me what is the Indian word for Cheers i promptly replied-"We Indians don't waste our time talking when we have drinks in front of us..Its Pour and drink for us"

Denmark can be dead quiet for the average Indian with a population of 6 million(That's just Pune's population)...Nothing happens after 5 in the evening...Still the beautiful landscapes,cute little houses with gardens make it a photographer's paradise...Heck even my pictures look like they belong in a postcard.

I also found quite a few similarities.Beer drinking and cribbing about everything from football to politics is their favorite pastime( We just replace the football with cricket).

Also Danish humor was very similar to our Indian humor.Danes are the masters of sarcastic humor.Sarcasm has been developed into a fine art there. Straight faced and dead serious sarcasm that can tempt anyone into thinking they are being just plain rude...Im sure atleast the Chinese didn't get the joke...Hehehe

Overall it was an interesting 2 weeks there- had lots of bland food,caught an egg at full dive,found im an ENFP,that I need to slow down my English,played a Princess,drank crates of beer and after thousands of Skaals- had loads of fun.
Most importantly though - I can proudly say I Made quite a few good Friends...
Seeya when I seeya mates...Will miss the fun we had together...

Right now though I need to run off for some real spicy Indian food!!!

Citizen No:1

We have selected Pratibha Patil as the new President of India. Following Dr Kalam's footsteps is a tough ask for anyone, but all the drama that was the prologue to this Presidential term with all the mud slinging on both Pratibha Patil and Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat has made it almost impossible to Pratibha Patil to be a credible representative of all the citizens of the country.

Charges of mismanagement are raised on Pratibha Patil of the closed Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank and allegations of her protecting her brother on some murder charges.Similarly corruption charges on Shekhawat.All these will make sure that every child in the country will look at Pratibha with certain trepidation.

This shouldn't be the way a country looks at their Citizen No:1. For long the President is someone whom almost the entire country has been proud of. Now with the excess politicization of this office we have lost this too!!!Thank you very much

Somebody's gonna get hurt real bad

Tomorrow I go back home after getting my first salary.Have plans to buy things for Mom and Dad and bro and treat other relatives.Feels good that now i am in a position to do so.Wished my dad "Happy father's day" around a couple of weeks back and wrote that i admired and respected and loved him even though i could not say "My Dad's an ATM" anymore.

Life's changing yet again but at this new cross road im forced to think back about what Mom and Dad did for me and my bro.I used to hate all those scoldings and beatings Mom used to give for not doing homework and watching too much TV.Always scared of her oft repeated threat,Do this or Ill tell Dad! and the worry that Somebody's gonna get hurt real bad would push me to do whatever that she demanded.Even now im sure if she sees me sitting idle watching TV her first reaction might be to ask me to go and study.Hehehe

Now when i look back I guess it was all meant for this day when i am able to stand up on my own and have a personal sense of achievement. But this would not have been possible, if not for all those years of knocking sense into my head by my parents.So I now know when i stand proudly among my peers who I need to be grateful to.

MOM and DAD u guys are the best and thanks for everything you have ever done for me.For you it might just have be part of parenthood and unconditional love,for me it was my entire life.Praying you guys are always there to scare me with "Vicky,Do this or Somebody's gonna get hurt real bad !!!!" Love you always.

Move over Mr Bill Gates

Carlos Slim Helu              Bill Gates

Move over ol fella, theres a new richest dude on the block- Carlos Slim Helu. Neither is he slim nor is he the villain of a cold war era movie. He's worth about $ 67.8 billion, a $ 8.6 billion lead over Mr Gates. Hmm...$ 67.8 billion, that's only approximately about 8 % of India's GDP.

FYI his companies include Telmex and America Movil. Telmex owns 90% of Mexico's telephone lines. 13 seems to be unlucky for Gates as its been 13 years ,he's been on top of the rich pile.

Well ek din hona hi tha. Im sure soon some one else will come an replace Mr Carlos too. Just keeping my fingers (toes and everything else too) tightly crossed and hoping it is me.