E-maya

E-filing India Income Tax Return Incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in (fakepath error, null error)

2011-09-29T01:19:00.000-07:00

As all those of you in the accounts and audit profession may be aware, the corporate Income Tax returns are due by September 30th. It is mandatory for the returns to be digitally signed for corporate assesses.

As usual in the last minute rush, the biggest problem is when you are not able to upload the return due to an error in the incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in website.

Here are two common errors and their solutions:

Can not read the file for signing c:\fakepath\xxxx.xml

The problem is with Internet Explorer - to solve this problem - add "https://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in" website to your Trusted Sites - by going to "Tools -> Internet Options". Once you do this - the problem will go away!!

Error in Upload of ITR
null
Error in parsing XML file. please upload correct XML return

For this error, make sure that the email address mentioned in the Profile under MyAccount is the same as that which is mentioned in the return. If not update the email address and logout. Login afresh and try to upload again.

Please don't forget to update your digital signature in the MyAccount section of the website.

How to configure USB Hard Drive on D-link DSL-2750U Wireless N 300 ADSL2+ Modem Router

2011-07-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

Technology is funny. My old modem at home had suddenly started acting funny and would not auto-reconnect to the internet after a sudden power loss. So, I decided I needed to change the modem.

A few enquiries later, I learnt that it's really difficult to buy a modem alone directly - I would need to buy a modem+router combo. In other words, I have to junk my perfectly working Wireless Router to fix my Modem.

Well, as they say, que sera que sera.

D-Link DSL-2750U Wireless N Modem Router

I decided to use the opportunity and get myself a slightly better modem router which also has a USB port so that I can use my USB Hard drive (that is almost always sitting there unused since I am too lazy to plug it in) on the wireless network.

A little bit of research and after shortlisting two different makes of Belkin & D-Link - I decided to plump for the D-link DSL-2750U model.

So it came and I started getting everything up and running. All worked fine except the USB Hard drive. Can't seem to find any way of connecting to the hard drive from the wi-fi network. When I plug-in the drive to the modem, it lights up and is recognized. But how to access it from my laptop?

The manual talks about installing a USB Remote NDIS Device Driver or a USB ADSL 1.3 driver - none of which came with the packaging nor can I find it anywhere on the internet.

About four hours of hunting and going through the debugging system log - found the answer and for the benefit of other buyers of this generally useful product - here's the solution:

1. Plug-in the USB drive.
2. Switch on/Restart the model-router.
3. Wait for a few minutes till it finishes all the negotiations, etc. I would say five minutes is a good time to give it.
4. Make sure the USB Icon on your modem is lit.
5. In windows explorer - type the following path to access your hard drive

\\192.168.1.1\u_disk\usb1_1\

where the IP address is the IP address of your modem - default is 192.168.1.1.

If all goes well, you should be able to see your hard drive contents now! A good idea would be to map this location with "Map Network Drive" so you can access it easily whenever you want.

Look east, north east...

2011-06-08T03:25:00.000-07:00

One of the thoughts that often runs through my mind is about how little the rest of India knows about our country to the north-east.

With a background of having my ancestors having zamindari in Bogra district in East Bengal (now Bangladesh), becoming refugees and making a hometown in Calcutta and a brother-in-law from Assam, I must say I have an enduring interest in the north-east.

There is much to see and learn about the north-east. Like the north and south of India being very diverse and different from each other, so the north-east is really unique and different from the rest of India. In the last decade or so, there has been a lot more of understanding between the north and the south, and more and more people appreciate and understand the differences.

It would be great to have similar interaction and understanding and integration with the north-east. Our prime minister who represents the State of Assam and prime ministers before him have extensive schemes and money-spending programs to achieve this better understanding/integration.

But it doesn't appear to have yielded too much effort on the ground and the north-east remains a little known large corner of India.

Mountains of Arunachal Pradesh (credit: Appaji)

In my view - the best way is to encourage interaction. The government should provide a subsidy in the form of say Rs. 5000 on every air-ticket to any of the capitals of the north-eastern states from the rest of India (maybe with the exception of West Bengal given its proximity and business ties already existing). This subsidy could be directly provided to the airlines for actual tickets sold and traveled upon. It would be leakage-resistant and not easy to misuse. If the scheme were to run for a period of say two years - the incremental traffic to the north-east would boom. Every tourist from the rest of India would spend a large amount of money in the destination - the economy would improve. The awareness and understanding of the people and land of north-east amongst the rest of India would go up phenomenally. In my view, this 5000 would be very well spent as compared to so many other schemes that the government runs as part of its north-east development program.

What do you think?

Hidden Treasure at Emar Math, near Puri Temple

2011-03-02T06:13:00.000-08:00

Courtesy IndiaTV News

Like the stuff of so many hidden treasure stories, the Orissa police cracked a case and found more than 522 bricks of pure silver, each weighing between 35 to 40 kilos, in a hidden room inside the Emar Math.

The Emar Math is housed in a 200-year old dilapidated structure just a stone's throw from the world famous Puri Jagannath temple.

The total value of the of the silver is assessed at over Rupees 90 crore and weighing almost 20 tonnes. Apparently, each brick is embossed with seals of countries like UAE, Japan, China and Dubai.

Surprisingly the Indian press didn't give it large coverage, relegating it to small news items in inner pages of the newspaper. I would have thought a find like this should have been reported more prominently...

The Dune

2011-02-17T09:31:00.000-08:00

There's a desert. In the desert, there's a commodity which the whole world wants. Once you have had a taste of it, you get addicted and cannot be without it.

The desert is ruled as a fiefdom where there is a Baron who rules over the land and the people of the land. The natives of the land are treated as dirty, filthy, uncouth creatures who have weird traditions and silly beliefs. The Baron has his men mine the commodity for sale to the rest of the world.

There's an all-powerful king who is the leader of the world. He controls all the supply of this commodity. He controls the Baron and the appointment, change of guard and exit of who rules this land.

The king derives his power from his powerful army/weapons. The army is made strong and ruthless by having them serve in extremely hostile and inhuman conditions in terrible parts of the world. The king believes that although many will die while on those assignments - those who survive will be thoroughly ruthless and amongst the strongest.

A mafia controls the trading of the commodity. This mafia and its men are even more powerful than the king, because they know they can choke the supply of the commodity and thereby choke the king's hold over the rest of the world.

A Duke of this region has become powerful and has started having an army which is becoming as strong and may become even stronger than the king's army. The king plots to assassinate this Duke.

The local urban population of the desert areas suffer under the rule of the king's Duke but do not rise up in rebellion because they are busy trying to live their lives and hoping to rise up above their economic levels to match the foreigners.

I don't know if the above sounds like a story of the current world scenario... but it is my introduction to a wonderful story of a book called "Dune" written by Frank Herbert in 1965. Wonderful book, sci-fi mixed with politics and religion - a great read!

ISA Server 2004 Enterprise Edition - Installation, configuration tips and tricks

2011-02-10T10:59:00.000-08:00

I recently upgraded one of our servers from ISA 2000 to ISA 2004 (yeah, yeah, I know that sounds like really old technology) - but so it was.

Found that the upgrade was a far more bigger headache than it should have been because of some changes in the way ISA 2004 works as compared to the earlier version. Hence, here are some tips and tricks that may help you save some time and not spend few days scratching your head.

Make sure the Windows server is up to date and is 32-bit, mine was Windows 2003 32-bit.
Install the latest Windows service pack.
You can't or shouldn't preferably install ISA on your Domain controller.
You can join the ISA machine to your domain which we did.
Your ISA machine will normally have two network cards - one for the internal LAN and the other for the external WAN.
It is very important that you only specify the DNS servers of your internal LAN and not the external DNS servers of your ISP. In other words, your internal LAN card will have your internal DNS servers but your external WAN card should not have any DNS servers specified.
If this is not followed, your ISA Server will lose the domain credentials once you reboot the server and all systems will stop - the event viewer will have a "RPC Server unavailable" error along with many other consequential errors. This link is a good example of the errors you will encounter - http://www.eggheadcafe.com/aspnet_answers/isaenterprise/Aug2006/post27617673.asp
Do not specify a Default Gateway on your internal LAN card.
The default gateway on your external WAN card will be the Router IP.
The old ISA stored all its configuration data in Active Directory on the DC. ISA 2004 stores its data in an LDAP version of AD called ADAM.
This data is stored in what is called a Configuration Storage Server. Hence you cannot join the old ISA server enterprise as another array.
As a first step, you need to install the Configuration Storage Server. We installed this on the ISA machine itself - preferably install on a different machine for better redundancy.
Once this is installed, go ahead and install ISA Server 2004 and also the latest Service Pack 3.
ISA 2004 comes with a migration wizard that you can run on ISA 2000 and export the configuration as an XML file. Preferably run this wizard on the ISA 2000 server itself and export all the configuration to an XML file.
Please note that NO RULES are exported and cannot be migrated. The Export will basically take care of all the destination sets, protocols, etc.
Export at the root level and import also at the root level of the enterprise in ISA 2004.
This import will create the Enterprise policy which existed in ISA 2000 as a similar enterprise policy in 2004 with the objects but sans the rules.
For the ISA machine to allow internet access, you will need to configure DNS resolving.
On your domain's DNS server, go to Forwarders and for "All other DNS Domains" - add the IP addresses of your ISP's DNS servers. This essentially means that your network will route the internet access requests to your DNS server for resolving which in turn will retrieve the same from your ISP's DNS servers.
Once you have configured the DNS server for forwarding - create your DNS servers as Network Objects in ISA Server 2004 i.e. as Computer objects - give their name and IP address.
Now you want to create a rule "Forward DNS Requests to ISP" which ALLOWS all traffic from your INTERNAL DNS SERVER Computers to External Network and for ALL USERS.
Once this is done - you can check by opening the command prompt on your ISA machine and typing NSLOOKUP followed by a domain like google.com. IF all is setup well, you should get a response from your internal DNS server with the IP address of the requesteed domain.
Set the default gateway on the network card of your DNS server machine to point to the ISA Server box.
This is a good link to better understand the DNS configuration - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc302590.aspx
After this create an Network object for your internal domain (say ABC.com) and specify the IP range that your domain is using (for example 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.0.255).
Create a NETWORK RULE to take all traffic from Internal Network to External Network as NAT.
Add an Enterprise Rule to ALLOW all HTTP / HTTPS / SMTP / POP3 protocols from Internal Network to External Network for all users.
Go to your Array server node, under configuration, bind the Internal Network with the ABC.com object that you specified. This tells the ISA machine which are the internal IP addresses.
Under Configuration - General - Firewall Client configuration - change the "Outlook" entry from 0 to 1.
Under network properties - allow Web Proxy clients and set authentication to integrated, preferably with "Must authenticate" set to true.
Under the same tab, define the Proxy client settings for automatic configuration and give the name of your machine for resolution - isa.abc.com for example.

If all goes well, by this time, you will have your ISA Server functional and a client computer should be able to access the internet through your firewall. It's a good time to back up your configuration!

Book review: John Grisham - The Confession

2011-01-27T08:09:00.000-08:00

I haven't read a John Grisham for a while now and so picked up this new book anticipating another fast-paced racy legal thriller.

The Confession is fast-paced but a little dry. The story of a convicted serial-rapist dying of a tumor who decides at the last minute to confess and thus save a wrongly-convicted man from being hanged. All this through the help of a reluctant but righteous Lutheran priest.
But in reality the book is a die-hard votary and a strong plea for abolishing the death penalty. Set in Texas, the death penalty capital and in a "culturally" black-white separated community, the book is a great read if you are wanting to debate within the pros and cons of hanging someone.

But if you are like me, who picked it up for a great story and as a light read, its disappointing. Its a nice well-meaning novel which wears its conscience clearly on its sleeve - but its not the Grisham that I was looking to read!

Eureka - 3 feet of water at 5 feet!

2011-01-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

How to dig a well - by hand (open dug well)

It's been a long time that we have been trying to get some regular source of drinking water supply at the farm. The neighbors have started acting stingy in allowing us to draw water from their wells. It was about time that we made a 3rd attempt I thought.

Digging a well in a rural-Indian village is not a simple matter. There aren't that many people around still doing it, so first you got to find someone who is in this line of work.
Then there's the weather thing - you can't dig in the rainy season (duh, every thing will have water!). You should ideally dig in the peak of summer because if you find water at that time, it is very likely your well will always have water in the peak summertime in future. BUT, since well-diggers are few and far between, they are in high demand and it's very unlikely you will find somebody in the peak of summer to do this for you in your remote little farm!

Plus you have to know where to dig. This is a tough one - how do you know where to dig? Well, you get a water diviner - who will come and tell you where to dig. Amongst the many ways that they could do this (aside from using scientific equipment) - the two most popular ones involve the use of a coconut or the use of a y-shaped tree branch. It's quite an interesting thing to watch. The coconut water diviner will put the coconut pointy-side facing upwards in his open palm, arm outstretched at the elbow and then start walking around. At certain points, the coconut moves a bit - seeing adequate movement he slows and down and concentrates his steps in that area - and voila - at some particular point, the coconut just tips over out of the palm! The stronger the water current below - the faster / harder it will tip over. At this time, the water diviner can also suggest how many feet down they have to go to get the water. Talk about modern technology! The twig is similar - the diviner holds it in his two hands (one end each of the y) and the tail pointing out - as he walks around - the Y takes on a power of its own and starts to bend up-or-down as it senses water. I have tried both techniques myself with very little luck - neither coconut nor branch shows any inclination of moving!
If all this is not enough - there is one thing nobody can predict - rock. Water they can predict, but in the process of digging, if they find stone - then you give up. For that's the end of the well. Maybe there's water underneath the rock, but nobody's going to dig below that. How can you?

So anyway, we tried to make our first well two years ago - in the peak of summer - got the well-digger, got the water-diviner, chose a nice location near to the shed-house and started digging. About 15 feet in, a nice round hole in the ground ready, we hit some partially-hard rock. The diggers said they saw ghosts at night and promptly left next morning. So that was that of well #1.

Last year, we tried agian. New well-digger guy. Two water diviners - one coconut and one Y branch. Matched the locations till we found one that both agreed had plenty of water. They predicted there were three veins of water running below and all three joined at this precise spot. Imagine my good luck! Well (sic), we started afresh to dig a well. All went well. For 15 full feet. and then we hit partially-hard rock. My well-digger's men had stomach upset and would come back soon. Like in the next century. So that was that of well #2.
And so here we are in 2011 with well #3. Same well-digger of year 1. Promises that this time, we will make it happen, come what may. I was asked to be prepared to get dynamite if the need arose. Prices about double that of year 1. Desperation at about three times of year 1 and therefore price-elasticity is very high. On an auspicious note one morning they started. By afternoon, they had done about 4 feet. Late afternoon, 5 feet. And Boom - gushing water. Not a trickle. Not a small rivulet. Here was a gushing river - filling up the well with 3ft of water in 10 minutes! Hooray!

Now comes the balance hard work of actually making this well and finishing it. I hope to have good updates for you in the near future. Oh, to finish the class:
1. So you need to book your well-digger early - just after the rains. Like November maybe. Get him to start like in December. Once he finds water, he will go away and dig some more - at other people's farms and villages. He will keep doing this - find water and move on. No water in 2 days - abandon and move on. Then he will come back after a couple of months and make the concrete rings and leave them to set. Then he will come back in the peak of summer - ensure depth is adequate and water is still there. If it is - you have got yourself a nice well that you can now finish, seal and hopefully have perennial water supply.
2. Choose the lowest position in your farm - the lower you are (closer to sea level :-) - the more likely you are going to find water.

Hopefully we will end up with something like this.

More to come, stay tuned.

P.S. Images aren't our farm's. Copyright of images acknowledged.

Kid Dictionary

2011-01-17T08:56:00.000-08:00

Kids have an amazing way of looking at the world differently, and I am left speechless every other day when my 3-something suddenly comes up with a new one!

In an hopefully ongoing series, I am starting here with 2 interesting kid dictionary anecdotes.

Optimum
The other day my son standing in the backseat of the car suddenly said "you are going too fast, please drive little slowly." and I slowed down - then he said "you are going too slow, you must drive *warm*". Hmm... now what did that mean. So my son explained - "warm" like when you give me milk - not too hot and not too cold - just right. So now I realized for something to be "just right" or optimum - it has to be warm!

How to earn money kiddy-style
Then there was the time we went on vacation and I saw this really amazing house by the cliff, and jokingly told my son that he has to buy it for me when he grows up. He looked at me very seriously and said yeah, okay, no problem. So I said, how will you earn the money for it?

He said by eating 'raita' (curd) and we all burst out laughing. To encourage my son to eat his raita, I had on occasion told him that he would get a coin for his piggy bank if he ate raita. And that was his solution - he could earn money by eating raita and then buy me the fancy house by the cliff!

After the sunrise

2010-11-25T10:15:00.000-08:00

its a beautiful day
bright and full of sunshine
after all the pain
its a day to revive

yesterday there was thunder
and lightning
struck so many times
you couldn't have counted
every time it came
every point it touched
it lit up the darkness
making right the wrongs
making good from bad

the leaves are green
glistening from the rains
that came this afternoon
it washed away all the grime
it cleaned the land
and swept away the years,
a whole lot of memories too

last night the forests woke up
singing in a joyous chorus
in tens and hundreds
they sprouted
breaking the chains
reclaiming their right

there's laughter everywhere
children playing everywhere
playing with the birds and the squirrels
and all of god's creations
in the playground he's built

the seas are quieter
or so they seem to be
they weren't yesterday
its as if the tide
has turned today

yesterday he came
on his steed with wings
from shambhala he rode
the most beatiful horse
you have never seen

time to take stock
and rack up the numbers
it was a revelation
how quickly it all took place
at the end of the day
most didn't even have a chance
to look, less to speak

did you make it through
did you pass the night?
will I see you soon,
did you see the new sun rise?
and when you were judged
what was your score?

November 2010

Man mein Ram, Tan mein Ram

2010-11-04T11:46:00.001-07:00

On this Diwali day, I thought it would be nice to listen to this nice bhajan on Lord Ram

Ram naam ki loot hai 2x,
loot sake to loot
Antekaal pachtaye ga jab
Prane jayenge chhut

Tere man mein ram tann mein ram
Tere man mein ram tan mein ram 2x
Rom rom meinram re
Ram sumirle dhyaan lagale chhor djadat ke kaam re
Bolo Ram, Bolo Ram, Bolo Ram Ram Ram (2)

Maya mein tu uljha uljha dar dar dhool udaye
ab kyu karta man bhari jab maya saath chudaye,(2)

Din to bita daud dhoop main, dhal jaye naa shaam re,
Bolo Ram, Bolo Ram, Bolo Ram Ram Ram (2)

Tere man mein ram tann mein ram
Tere man mein ram tan mein ram 2x
Rom rom meinram re
Ram sumirle dhyaan lagale chhor djadat ke kaam re

Tan ke bhitar panch lootere dal rahein hai dera
Tan ke bhitar panch lootere dal rahein hai dera
Kaam, Krodh,mad,lobh, moh, ne tujko kaise ghera,
bhul gaya tu Ram ratan, bhula Puja kaam re

Tere man mein ram tann mein ram
Tere man mein ram tan mein ram 2x
Rom rom meinram re
Ram sumirle dhyaan lagale chhor djadat ke kaam re
Bolo Ram, Bolo Ram, Bolo Ram Ram Ram (2)

Bachpaan bita khel khel main, bhari jawani soya,(2)
dekh bhudapa ab to soche kya paya kya khoya,
der nahi hai ab bhi bande le le Uska Naam re

Tere man mein ram tan mein ram
Rom rom re ram re
Ram sumirle dhyaan lagale chor djadat ke kaam re
Bolo ram bolo ram bolo ram ram ram

796cc Ducati bike in India for under 5 Lakhs on-road possible?

2010-10-31T14:33:00.000-07:00

It seems almost unbelievable. But I have it straight from the horse's mouth, so to say. Met Graham at Cavala - he is the India points-person for Porsche and is busy setting up their Goa dealership right now.

Also happens to be launching the Ducati dealership. He tells me that they have firmed up plans to launch a 796cc Ducati bike made-in-Thailand that's gonna be launched here for under 5 lakhs on road! Could this be the Hypermotard?

Hard to believe - but here's keeping my fingers crossed!

Tuscany Gardens, Sinquerim, Goa

2010-10-31T14:19:00.000-07:00

The next time you are in Goa and want good Italian pizzas and pastas, head down Candolim towards Aguada and you will find a lovely restaurant in Sinquerim called Tuscany Gardens

We had a lovely time talking to one of the two owners - Line Shetty (Leena) who is Danish. A lovely girl who seems right at home in Goa and getting assimilated into our melting pot after marrying Avi Shetty - a Mangalorean-origin Goan - right down to the mangal sutra!

They were both running independent restaurants in the UK before deciding to start their own and moving to Goa.

Definitely - this is one of our must-dine places in Goa now. The thin-crust pizzas and the pasta we ordered were just heavenly. I highly recommend them!

Jimmy's Palace

2010-10-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

On a recent trip to Goa, I ended up visiting the Fort Aguada section.

After the customary visit to the Fort and the Church of St Lawrence, we saw a board that pointed towards the Central Jail and decided it would be worth a look-see.

The road curved and narrowed as we drove uphill on the side of a cliff and suddenly we were at a beautiful entrance comprising of some very nice landscaping, a domed gazebo with pillars in a lovely pink-and-white combination and some very nice flowers! Also a friendly solitary guard.

We asked him if this was the Central Jail (wondering to ourselves how Goa had such a fancy jail) and were told the more likely sounding theory - this was Jimmy's house. Jimmy who? we asked... Jimmy Gazadar said the guard. Can we see the home per chance, we asked? No, said the guard - boss is visiting. Can we take a photo? No, said the guard :-(

Well we decided to drive further down and realized the entire property is along the cliff face facing the ocean. At the end of the path is the central jail from where you can see the property and the ocean next to it.

It is a most beautiful house and a wonderful setting - straight out of the Mediterranean and also straight out of a James Bond movie!

This amazing property has been designed by Gerard Da Cunha, one of Goa's most famous architects. Rarely photographed from inside, it's owned by Jamshed Gazdar a.k.a Jimmy and has been known to host some amazing parties here. Jamshed was a Parsi gentleman from Mumbai and ran a large business in the logistics space. No no more, his son Cyrus is the current owner.

E-filing of Income Tax Returns - ITR Form 6 (can not read the file for signing fakepath)

2010-10-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

PLEASE READ THE NEW POSTING FOR SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM ON THE SAME SITE

As all those of you in the accounts and audit profession may be aware, the corporate Income Tax returns were due by September 30th and have now been extended to October 15th.

This year, it is mandatory for the returns to be digitally signed for corporate assesses.

If you have followed all the instructions of the IT department and are still getting an error when trying to sign the return digitally - especially if the error is

Can not read the file for signing c:\fakepath\xxxx.xml

The problem is with Windows 7 - the IT departments upload/signing applet doesn't seem to work well with Windows 7 - use Windows XP to upload and sign your return - it will work fine. It is not a problem of your signature or your Java version or browser - use Windows XP and it will be fine.

Free me, free me, free me now

2010-07-23T11:37:00.001-07:00

One day you came
A neighbor, a stranger,
a guest,
Maybe a friend
I didn't know you.

I opened my home and
I opened my hearth

I was innocent, I was kind
I was unprepared and
Maybe I was blind
I was alone..

Bound, ravaged and
Pillaged, now I lie
You had your way
Cut me off, changed my name
And called me yours

my lover,
Bruised and banished
A distant memory
wanders every night
In my dreams

My gods and my faith,
everything I believed in
Ransacked or destroyed
scattered in disarray

I am surrounded
By you and yours
You dress me up
And show me off
Another possession
A bauble to display
You are my king
And I am your slave

But I remain.

Underneath it all,
I still belong to him.
I thirst and I ache
For his touch and
His caress
His ways and his
adulation

I sit and I wait
My time will come
And my lover will return

You can take me,
You can break me,
You can ravage me and
Parade me,
Color me yellow and
brand me
But you can't change me
I am what I am.

I am... Tibet

I am alive.
Try as you might
I won't die
I am forever,
You can't take me down.

Free me now.

Anand Saraf - July 2010

Indra Cafe, Mysore

2009-09-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

Some time back while driving through Mysore and in need of a good breakfast, we decided to ask the locals for a local eatery - after some misguided directions and some silly suggestions - one good soul pointed us to the direction of Dhanwantari Road to Indra Bhavan. After a little bit of asking around, we found the place and then had to go around as parking was on the other side of the divided road.

Indra Cafe is a small clean place that served us *heavenly* dosas and really nice soft idlis made with finely ground batter. Along with that was good chutney and tasty sambar! I am really pleased to have found this place... my last few visits had led me to some newer eateries that looked fancy but food wasn't great. I would recommend this to most people!

Thinking about Indra Bhavan as most people seem to call it locally (and that's what you should ask for) led me to think of the other nice places to eat in Mysore that I had found.

One that comes to mind immediately is the Mylari Hotel in Nazarbad - a must try for dosas and idlis..

Came across this interesting list of places that I have now put on my "must try next time" list!

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell - book review

2009-09-29T11:02:00.001-07:00

I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers. It's an analysis of why or how successful people become successful.

Although the idea is good and there are some interesting insights, overall I think the book didn't really get me very excited.

**following content suitable for someone who has read the book, some spoilers ahead**

Malcolm starts out pretty well with the insight that some people are successful because of opportunities that come their way in which they had no hand in it - primarily using Canadian hockey selection as an example that favors children born earlier in the year. This is very true and does apply to other areas too especially in schooling.

However, after that, I tended to think that he gets a little confused - at some places he seems to want to say that people are successful because of things that happened to them, at other places because of the environment/age they were born in and at other times because they worked hard at it. Finally he seems to summarize it all in and say that everything has a hand in it - but that we know already - there isn't much insight in that.

I thought initially in the book that he seemed to be saying that more than innate ability and hard work - it was the opportunities, environment and other people's efforts that made successful people successful. But since that can't explain everything - he tempers it by saying that "of course these people had natural ability and worked hard".

The stories about the time of birth and about the opportunities that came to Bill Joy, Bill Gates and others are good examples of this.

Then he turns that around a bit - and seems to suggest that the "opportunity for hard work" was itself an opportunity - for example for the Beatles and for the Jewish garment workers turned lawyers.

There are two definite areas that I disagree with him.

First, about the opportunity presenting itself which caused the person to become successful. Here, Malcolm cites the example of Bill Joy (BSD Unix) as having gotten immense opportunity to code because of time-sharing of computers and that he luckily enrolled at a college that allowed him this facility. He further gives the example of the Beatles getting an opportunity to play regularly in Hamburg which allowed them to practice hard and hone their skills. Finally of Bill Gates who was lucky enough to go to a school that had the latest computers. To quote from the book -

We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that's the wrong lesson. Our world only allowed one thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time-sharing terminal in 1968. (emphasis mine).

I disagree with this hypothesis. I think Bill Joy must have been very hard working and talented. He was lucky that he went to University of Michigan that had a computer with time-sharing. But I think there were probably 50 other people who went to the same University that year and attended the same computer course and had the same opportunity to use that computer. And as Malcolm himself says - at least three other universities MIT, Carnegie Mellon and Dartmouth probably had that computer too and there would have been 50 odd people withe same opportunity to access the computer for long hours and who were born at the right time to be able to make use of that opportunity - so why did Bill Joy become the guy who wrote that Unix and become a legend? It can't just be because he was at the right place at the right time. Sure those were factors - but that is true for many others too. The same thing applies to Bill Gates and even to the Beatles. As Malcolm himself says that the Hamburg connection was to Liverpool and that there were many bands that went from Liverpool to play at Hamburg. It is conceivable that many of those bands also had the same opportunity to hone their skill and did practice for 10,000 hours each - but they didn't become the Beatles.

My second disagreement with him is with regards to the American schooling system and its concept of a long summer vacation. Malcolm makes the case that this is one of the primary reasons why American kids are falling behind. Now, this might be true and I can't positively say that the long summer vacation is right or wrong. But I definitely disagree with his emphatic bent to the other side. The other side being the Asian (Chinese/Japanese) concept of long hours and all time spent studying. It seems to me that what Malcolm is espousing makes kids work very hard and makes them pretty good at math - but it doesn't necessarily show me that it makes them capable to deal with life and to make a success of it. If I look at it from a different light - the Asian system makes kids "hard working" but not necessarily more "smarter or innovative".

As I see it, a lot more innovations came out of the United States, the US has the largest number of billionaires and possibly the largest number of "successful" leaders who made it big. All these people came out of the same education system. Asians on the other hand are considered very hard working and smart (intellectually) but aren't necessarily innovative or successful and as a general opinion - I would say lesser innovative ideas have come out of Asia than out of the US. Isn't it then that Malcolm Gladwell is actually asking for a system that will take the success out of the US rather than the other way around - it at least sounds debatable to me. Could Bill Gates have been successful also because he had those long summer vacations where he could go and work for other companies like TRW? Aren't the Indian kids who keep winning the spelling bee year-on-year also part of the same education system and enjoy the same summer vacation?

In the ending of the book, Malcolm Gladwell quotes the story of his own family starting with his great grandmother to make the case of how opportunities and timing have so much to do with success... reading this made me think of my own father who was one of seven children of a refugee grandfather running away from Bangladesh to Kolkata; and who took the unusual step (at that time in 1978) of taking up an overseas job in faraway Jakarta where even English wasn't spoken. That step probably led him to jump out of his circumstances and do much better than the rest of his siblings and many other such families. Now, I could make a case that the timing was right - he had finished his education in time, an opportunity for overseas work came along, etc and that all this had a major hand in him becoming successful in his own right. On the other hand, he had gotten married 5 years before, had just finished his degree, had three small kids all under five and immense pressure from everyone around that this was a bad idea. Also, such opportunities existed for many people in Calcutta at the time since some businessmen were investing overseas in different locations and wanted people of their community to work there. To sum, I would say that the individual ambition and will to take that opportunity were few of the key factors that made him successful. Of course, the timing and presence of opportunity had a role to play - but I don't think they were the critical success factors.

In the internet dot com world, we now regularly come across the saying that the idea is no big deal - there will be multiple people with the same idea at any given point of time - it's what you do with that idea, how you do it and how fast you do it and your own individual interpretation of the idea that will make you successful.

Another good example in this discussion is a comparison I read of Infosys and it's peers. We all know what a success Infosys has been. We also know that they started out in 1982 and struggled all the way till 1991 almost shutting down in 1989 (10,000 hour rule). We also know that circumstances favored them significantly because of Manmohan Singh opening up the economy and abolishing the CCI and freeing up the stock pricing regime - which allowed Infosys to go public and also use ESOPs to attract talent. So we could argue that Infosys makes a good case for Malcolm's theories - opportunity to practise, environmental factors, timing, etc just as he explains it.

However, dig a little deeper. Take the example of Mastek - which was very similar to Infosys. It also started in 1982. It too went public in 1992 taking advantage of the new IPO opportunities, opened a US office in 1992 and offered ESOPS in 1993. But obviously it has not grown anywhere near the scale of what Infosys has done. Why? What was the difference? A key difference was that in 1989 after all the tough years - Infosys decided to focus its energies on the export of software and Mastek decided to focus its energies on the domestic software market. We all know where the two decisions took these two companies. Similarly, why didn't Patni (where the Infosys founders worked) and who also had the opportunity of the 10,000 practice hours grow to the levels that Infosys did? Or for that matter Digital Equipment Corp, ICIM Fujitsu or PSI Data - all of which had been around since the late 70s? Or those which came later like my own IT employer who started in 1992 and closed down twelve-thirteen years later at a small size?

I think the insights put forward by Malcolm Gladwell in his book are interesting but simplistic. They do not really offer enough to be able to help figure out success better or how to be more successful.

It still remains as elusive for most.

Insane Motorsport-endurance rickshaw rallying

2009-08-04T03:07:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's how the organizers of this event describe their "Rickshaw challenge".

As part of the fund-raising programs for the free school that I am associated with, we provide logistical support annually for the Bangalore run of the challenge.

The thirteen autos arrived yesterday evening to our school to park their autos and were to leave this morning at a flag-off from the school.

Bangalore isn't the small town it used to be and the traffic, traffic rules and road-conditions make it an extremely ardous affair to navigate through! The rickshaws promptly lost their way in trying to reach the school from the map provided with two of them breaking down enroute!

Anyways, they all made it to the school, parked and made their way to the hotel for the night. Came back (hopefully refreshed) this morning to our school, after an introduction of our school, some speeches, a flag-off from the local MLA Mr. Ramalinga Reddy - they were off to Mysore.

They were directed to find their way to the NICE road and take a smooth exit out to Mysore road. Problem: on reaching there - found the NICE road is too upmarket for them and doesn't permit autos on its carriageway :-)

So... all of them now were on their own - having to figure out how to get out of the city. Not easy, if you ask me.

Driving to work, I found one of the autos stranded on the roadside near the Bannerghatta road junction on Hosur road - broken down and getting repaired. The two rallyists (!) Alexis and Marie from the UK found someone to guide them to a repair shop - but somehow they were guided to a place half-way into town!

They showed me the map in thier lonely planet and said the map didn't show the place they were at - which is a common problem in Bangalore since the city has been growing faster than they can update the maps. Anyways, all ended well - I got them some directions, an updated map and helped them get back on to the right route.

The great thing about this challenge besides the fun for the participants is that they donate part of the money raised to projects like ours. This is their website - http://rickshawchallenge.com

Murder on Hosur Road....

2009-07-24T00:19:00.000-07:00

My heart cringes everyday as I drive down from Anepalya/Neelasandra (where Bannerghatta Road actually starts) to Koramangala on Hosur Road. A once beautiful promenade stretching from the NIANP institute right upto Mico Corporate office at Koramangala full of beautiful old trees is being destroyed for road-widening. It's really sad to watch all these huge trees being cut down so mercilessly...

Pinching anyone?

2009-07-23T00:57:00.000-07:00

My two-and-a-half year old loves to pinch! He doesn't pinch everyone - just me and his mom. He does it to show affection and love when he is happy. And he only pinches elbows - rather the skin at the back of the elbow.

It's really cute and funny - he will say "Papa pinching beku" and then I should give him my elbow and he will grit his teeth and start pinching my elbows :-) and take his excess love out. If he is really excited and happy - I should offer both my hands!

A quick googling for pinchers turned up some results where the babies at this age do pinch - and its not so uncommon - but more out of frustration and anger. Mine doesn't really do it when he is frustrated or angry - then he just throws a tantrum and bawls.

I guess it will pass and is just another phase of growing up. But all-in-all - it's really cute watching him pinch away!

Incidentally, it's quite amazing too to see how kids pick-up their parent's OCDs :-) - I have a long-time habit that when I wear socks, I fold over the top portion of the sock where the elastic band would be... primarily so that I don't get those tight elastic marks around my leg. So as a matter of routine, when I put socks on my son's feet getting him ready for school, I did the same. This happened a couple of times. After that I was surprised to see that he was demanding that they be always folded over - from me in case I forgot and from my wife too - who couldn't figure out where he picked this funny habit from!

Lists, lists and more lists!

2009-07-21T00:25:00.000-07:00

Was just reviewing my list of things to do... are you that kind of a person?

I am a lost-case list-addict. I can't do without them. Can't function without them. If I lose my to-do - I honestly won't know what to do.

Although it has its share of critics, my view on this is that besides the fact that it helps me organize - it really clears up my head and leaves space to think of other things :-) Once I jot down an item on my list - I remove it from my thoughts - the list will remind me when I look at it next. This is a good thing - but very bad if I were to lose the list. It almost brings nightmares to my mind - as close to the feelings I get when I visualize sudenly losing my laptop.

On the other hand, there is nothing quite satisfying as being able to check off so many items from your list and watch them disappear of your to-do list! Some days, if I check four-five items off - I know that's been a good day!

I have a list for everything - for work, for personal, for life, for love, for issues, for things to buy, for projects; if there's something that needs more than one bullet to do - it's going on my list!

Given the importance of lists in my life, I spend a fair amount of time searching for a way to organize my lists and track them. At the moment, I am very happy to recommend ToDoList from http://www.abstractspoon.com - it's free, it's convenient, simple and I have been using it for a while with much satisfaction.

Coming up: papaya plants

2009-07-16T01:08:00.000-07:00

Have been planning to try and see how papaya plants will do...

Planting papaya is relatively easy... buy a papaya from the shop, see if you like it - if you do - then scoop out all the seeds from the center of the papaya. These aren't actually the seeds - the seeds are within them - these are essentially juice sacks encasing the seed itself.

Place these juice sacks-cum-seeds between a folded peice of newspaper and roll them with your hand till you pop the juice sacks - open the news paper and you will see smaller black coloured seed kernel - these are the actual seeds - clean them up and place aside on a dry paper, preferably in the sun, for at least a week. After this, they are good to use for planting and can be kept for almost a year!

When planting, choose a location and scatter some of the seeds in that spot. Choose some more spots similarly and scatter seeds in each of the spots. Scatter/sprinkle a few (10?) in each spot - not just one. Not all seeds may germinate - so you want to provide some extra. Cover the seeds with some mud/compost/mulch.

From those that germinate (which may take a couple of weeks) - see which ones are doing better and pull out those that don't look strong.

As they grow, you will have to see whether its a male or female papaya plant that you have got. Males don't give fruit - so you want to have a lot of females with maybe one male for every 15 females. You will be able to make out this by looking at the flower - the male will normally have long thin stalks coming out with flowers at the end of it whereas the females will have flowers right at the trunk of the plant itself.

Hope to try this soon!

Growing Mango Trees

2009-07-15T01:15:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I planted five mango trees!

I purchased the saplings for Rs. 50 each which albeit expensive, were apparently from good stock and of good "Mallika" variety. Mallika is native variety to India and is supposed to quite disease-resistant. Of course, the fruit itself I have tasted and like!

When buying the saplings, I was surprised to see that they are grown as graftings rather than from seeds and upon further reading, now understand that the best mango trees are grown as grafts from existing, proven and productive trees. Apparently, trees grown directly from a seed (albeit of a very tasty mango) will not give good fruit, take a long time to fruit and will be very fibrous. Some useful info is here http://www.tropicalrainflorist.com/mango_trees.htm

Mango trees can grow up to 90-100 ft in height and should start yeilding fruit in 3-4 years. They make excellent shade trees and grow a pretty large canopy so should be planted at least 50 feet away from existing structures. Although we have planted them fairly far apart - I didn't check the exact distance at the time - we chose five different spots and dug a hole and have planted them.

I hope to have more actual on-the-ground updates on my mango saplings going forward and hopefully will be eating its fruit in the forseeable future too!

All in all, a really satisfying activity! Much better than spending 250 bucks on a move ticket...

Take a bow Mr. Nilekani!

2009-07-09T23:50:00.000-07:00

I am so impressed with Nandan Nilekani. It takes a lot of courage, guts and drive to make this big jump that he is making.

He and his wife have already been making significant contributions on the NGO side... but to do this full-time - kudos to him!

I have been reading also about the various "obstacles" that he is likely to face, how it's all going to be a failure and hearing from cynics about how Infosys will make money, and how this will never work out.

I say - put a good man with drive to do something - something good will come out of it - inspite of all the obstacles. Whatever Unique ID we get from the quirkily named Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will be far better with Mr. Nilekani heading it...

Having said that - obstacles are there and duplication, errors, misuse, etc are all big ones.

My suggestion to the Chairman is that first attack at the base so that no new data gets generated wrongly. In other words - at hospitals at the time of birth - make it mandatory that every child when born gets a Unique ID - like a birth certificate - like a Social Security Number in the US.

Next attack the other end - people dying need a death certificate - make sure each such event gets logged into the UID - either to someone already in the system or by creation of a new record in the system.

This will at least get the new data correct - and then begins the onerous task of getting the existing population into the system.

For existing data, a good way to quickly get off the ground would be to provide a self-service portal where people with existing ID (like a passport) can logon and self-register, provide proof-of-ID and submit an application. This will make it much easier than to do a data collection effort. The applications can be scrutinized against the other ID database (passport) and if okay - can be integrated into the UID.

Of course that would take care of more urban than rural population - the primary political target for the UID. But there will be ways - for example take the Yashashwini database in Karnataka and you will get a good bunch of the population into the system with relatively "correct" info!

Wall of Equations

2009-07-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

Have been reading Asimov's Second Foundation on my daily commute, it's quite engaging and sometimes don't feel like putting the book down and starting the car on the green light.

I was amazed at the "wall of equations" which jump to life as you speak and gesture described in the book; leave no shadows as you move around in front of it... zoom-in and zoom-out based on your finger movements, have vibrant color and graphics! Amazing... because technology like that is actually now looking like a reality and some interesting prototypes are visible in the tech world.

Wonder if these guys read his description and then got inspired!

Here's the extract:

He depressed a lever on his side of the desk and the room was in darkness. But only for a moment, since with a gradually livening flush, the two long walls of the room glowed to life. First, a pearly white, unrelieved, then a trace of faint darkness here and there, and finally, the fine neatly printed equations in black, with an occasional red hairline that wavered through the darker forest like a staggering rillet.

"Come, my boy, step here before the wall. You will not cast a shadow. This light does not radiate from the Radiant in an ordinary manner. To tell you the truth, I do not know even faintly by what medium this effect is produced, but you will not cast a shadow. I know that."

They stood together in the light. Each wall was thirty feet long, and ten high. The writing was small and covered every inch.

A slow silence. The student pointed a finger and as he did so, the line of equations marched down the wall, until the single series of functions he had thought of - one could scarcely consider the quick, generalized gesture of the finger to have been sufficiently precise - was at eye-level.

"Before you obtain your Speakerhood," continued the First Speaker, "you yourself will have to make an original contribution to the Plan. It is not such great blasphemy. Every red mark you see on the wall is the contribution of a man among us who lived since Seldon. Why ... why-" He looked upward, "There!"

The whole wall seemed to whirl down upon him.

"This," he said, "is mine." A fine red line encircled two forking arrows and included six square feet of deductions along each path. Between the two were a series of equations in red.

Should buses stop at bus stops?

2009-06-24T23:42:00.001-07:00

A daily sight (and source of frustration) on my commute is seeing bus after bus lined up in the center of the road, traffic piling up behind it; trying to edge in to the right lane and traffic piling up in that lane - all the while, the driver nonchalantly awaits for passengers to get on and get off - and a swarm of commuters spreading in multiple directions - everywhere but inside the bus stand.

Why is it that we are not able to wait inside the bus stand and feel the need to reach out into the middle of the road to examine every bus that comes by?

Why is it that buses are not willing to come to a halt at a bus stop and feel the need to halt in the center of the road / or further away / or much before the bus stand?

Do buses stop like this because people are crowding around all over in front of the bus stop and leave no space for the bus? Or do people come out on to the road because buses never stop at the right place?

I don't know.

What I do know is that either which way, we shouldn't have this situation. Other cities in India itself are far better able to manage this simple issue - forget large ones like Bombay, even cities like Mangalore have it down pat - even down to queuing up (can we even think about such a possibility in Bangalore??).

If at all a start has to be made, it has to be made at BMTC - they need to strictly instruct their drivers to stop the buses at bus stops - not in the center, not before, not after - AT the bus stop.

Will Mr. Syed Zameer Pasha, MD of BMTC please hear my plea and do something about it?

The BMTC website is here: http://www.bmtcinfo.com/english/index.htm

Disruptive technologies

2009-06-20T01:41:00.000-07:00

Dwelling further on yesterday's ideas, another way to look at it is that man might solve these problems through some disruptive technologies.

For example, water-hydrogen/solar powered cars, heating, etc. will make energy from an infinite source. If we believe that most sci-fi is really not fiction but reality ahead of its time - then Asimov's ideas of mineral recoonstruction - from iron ore to gold, etc will make commodities infinitely more available... and existing technologies like reverse osmosis might become cheaper to make water more available...

Hmm... wonder which way things will go forward...

Fund managers should become farmers??

2009-06-19T03:11:00.000-07:00

A very interesting interview with Jim Rogers in the Economic Times. It was like he was saying whatever I have been saying/feeling. There are two excerpts below. The full article is here: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Interviews/Fund-Managers-can-become-farmers-Jim-Rogers/articleshow/4610704.cms

He touches upon two of my other thoughts - the coming commodities boom due to its finite availability and the collapse of the US dollar.

Global population is close to its peak and genetically-modified crops will increase productivity. What makes you so bullish on agriculture?

It doesn't matter. The world has been consuming more than it produced. Food inventories are at a multi-decade low. And we haven't had any bad weather. We had isolated cases of droughts and things. That may never happen again. But if it does, the prices of food would go through the roof.

If there is climate change taking place, the best way to participate is through agriculture or through agriculture products. There are many positive things happening. Right now, there is a shortage of everything in agriculture — seeds, fertilisers, tractors, tractor tyres. We have a shortage of farmers because farming has been a horrible business for the past 30 years.

What will you tell a confused fund manager who seeks your advice?

Become a farmer. The world has tens of thousands of hotshot fund managers right now. If I am correct, the financial community is not going to be a great place to be in for the next 30 years. We have many periods in history when financial people were in charge, we had many periods when people who produced real goods were in charge — miners, farmers, etc.

The world, in my view, is changing and is shifting away from the financial types to producers of real goods, and this is going to last for several decades as it always has. This may sound strange but it always happens this way. Ten years from now, it may be farmers who will drive the Lamborghinis and the stock brokers will drive tractors or taxis at best.

P.S. Two posts in a row... the reason is that I am thinking these days I need to write my thoughts down more - to organize and to not forget :-) - memory is failing!

Food, Inc

2009-06-19T02:58:00.000-07:00

Saw a news report yesterday about a new documentary about the american food system called Food, Inc.

On my way home - bumped into my building's association president - we were discussing our current big problem - our water charges take up 2/3rds of our already high building maintenance fees - and yet the water is not enough. I was very much against his suggestion that we dig another borewell... besides the environmental issue - most borewells are drying up in any case.

On a more promising note - the MoEF seems to have atleast caused some delay in approving the Gundya hydro power plant - complicated issue - because of the usual "dam" related concerns and also because it is relatively "micro" compared to other such projects - and I do believe run-of-the-river micro power plants may be a better alternative...

Food, Energy, Water - our next big three worries? conflicts? opportunities? all of them?

I am convinced it's all of them. And we all need to do something about it.

Citizen Police

2009-01-21T10:29:00.000-08:00

A recurring irritant on my daily commute is seeing so many people disobeying the traffic rules. The ones who irritate me the most are the people who go down one-ways, park on main roads under no-parking signs, stop during peak hours on the road with a driver inside as though that is not equivalent to parking and people who cause log-jams at traffic junctions by approaching from the wrong lane.

I keep thinking the fines should be increased so that it pinches. Then I think that there aren't enough cops on the roads to monitor all these... which in turn leads me to think that there should be a way to empower citizens to fine such law-breakers. But that option has too many grey areas - who should be empowered, who selects this empowered set and how do you prevent them from misusing that empowerment?

One idea that I think has a lot of potential is to create a public website which allows citizens to post photos of such law-breaking incidents. The traffic police can then send tickets for fines on the basis of such evidence - if required with a print of the incriminating image!

Anyone out there who can help get the approvals for such a system from the Police commissioner?

School updates

2009-01-18T23:27:00.000-08:00

It now appears it is quite difficult for getting admission even for a 2-year old! Out of the five other people that we know who also applied to the same school - none have made it so far. One has got "prospective admission" for three months which will be reviewed after that... another has got a second interaction lined up - because a sibling is already in that school - so they are going to give it another go...

Now I am feeling luckier... and empathizing with my friends' stresses...

School hunting!

2009-01-08T03:29:00.000-08:00

We have been school hunting for the last few months. Well actually, we looked around for schools in September, made up our mind for a particular one and then applied to it when "bookings" opened in November.

It's been an interesting experience and stressful too.

It appears there is a huge demand for schooling and most people keep telling me that Education is the best business to be in. In fact, few of my friends have started a play-school on a franchise from a national brand!

Initially, we thought it's too early to look for a school since he is just ready for play-school... but then realized that most schools are "admitting" students earlier and earlier... the 2 schools we shortlisted both belonged to the same group and had a play/kindergarten school that was a feeder school to the 2 primary schools. So it made sense if he got into their play school since he would automatically then go on to their regular primary school as well...

We kept a look out for when the school would start issuing application forms and on the appointed day in November, my wife to the school early at 6:30 am to stand in a queue to accept the forms which would be sold from 9:00 am.

The form had strict guidelines on when it has to be submitted - approximately four days from when it had been issued. The trickiest portion was that we had to decide which of the 2 primary schools we wanted to opt for him to finally go to after four years of play/kindergarten school. This decision cannot be changed once the form is submitted and so entailed a fair amount of debate, discussion on the schools, their methods, facilities, fees and so on. Plus discussions with friends whose children went to these schools about which is better. One school is better established, older but also follows the older system of education. It also has smaller school grounds and lower fees. The other one is newer, bigger grounds and follows a more contemporary education system but also has much higher fees. It also seems to have more "rich-kids" and hence the worry that our child may not fit-in or even worse, get spoiled!

To further complicate matters, the demand for the two schools differ - the older school has far higher demand from parents and therefore the chances of your child getting admitted in the playschool are much lesser if you selected the older school!

Working out all the permutations and combinations, ifs-and-buts, positives and negatives - didn't really take us forward towards a clear decision.

Finally, we decided at the time the form was being submitted, when my wife was at the school office to submit the form - over the phone and she filled it in and submitted the form. We opted for the new school. Positives were the education system that we liked - negatives were the high cost of fees and the possibility of the child getting spoiled... and of course a positive - potentially better chance at admission into the play school.

Then started the wait for the interview call which we received only in January. Meanwhile, came the distressing news of a common friends' child having been refused on an earlier day when their interview call had come. Apparently, the child did everything well but other kids did better than him. Stress levels were rising for me now!

My son isn't even two years old and we haven't really pressured him to "learn" per se - things like numbers, alphabets, nursery rhymes, etc. And then came various reports of how other kids his age could do many of these things - talk about pressure!

Anyhow, our interview call came. That morning, we made sure he was dressed nicely and looked like a nice little boy :-) and then we made sure we were well turned out and dressed well to! Then a quick prayer and off we went to the school!

The entire "interaction" was fairly well organized and stress-free as far as the child was concerned. There were quite a few other parents as well and you could tell from the forced care-free expressions that all the parents were worried - their child shouldn't suddenly get into a bad mood, should suddenly decide to behave badly, etc... and so were we!

Soon we were called inside - they told us only one parent can accompany the child inside - which we did know earlier . The plan was for my wife to take him in - but the previous night she suggested I should take him in - so along with him, I went in.

We were ushered to a table with toys and they asked that the child be seated and allowed to interact with the items available. Luckily my son played with the various toys - and seemed to know what to do with them. There were a few scary moments - when I didn't know what one toy was and when he suddenly refused to leave once we were done - he wanted to continue playing! Anyway, we made our way out - said Thank you and left.

We were under the impression that we would need to wait a week before the results would be announced and I was working at calming myself to not get stressed till we heard the results. Thoughts like the fact we had not applied to any other schools, or that they may suggest other kids did better than him, etc. played on my mind all that morning.

I was relieved of my misery later that afternoon though - my wife called and said she had received a call that our son was selected! Thank god for that!

It's been an interesting and learning experience... two things that I got out of it are:
1. The first debate was about the kind of school and the type of children that went to that school. Based on all the discussions and introspection, I have come to the conclusion that basic grounding of a child such as humility, care for others, ability to cope with different situations, rounded-ness, etc will come from the home... the school will have an impact - but a large part of this is not really dependent on the school but on the parents.

2. There was a lot of debate about the fees and whether you should opt for an expensive school which will pinch far more on the pocket and require you to stretch more. It seems to me that if we want our next generation to do better than us - we must send them to better school - which might invariably be a little more expensive that what you can comfortably afford. It's not just the quality of education - many schools may have equal or better and may be less expensive - I think it's the whole package - the kind of teachers, the kind of students who attend, the infrastructure, the culture, etc - everything put together will create an eco-system that moulds the child in certain way .

3. There was also a lot of debate about the whole system per se - and how the schools are making money, have unreasonable demands, etc. My view on the subject is that if a school is better, it will have more demand - the more the demand for the school, the more it can choose to dictate the rules and choose its pupils. Hence to be fair to the demands of a free market - we must recognize that they have a right to frame their rules - and play by them if we want to send our children to these schools.

WSJ Article

2006-06-10T03:59:00.000-07:00

My article on manpower shortage led to an interview with a WSJ correspondent which led to this story in the WSJ in January 2006...

India's Talent Pool Drying Up
Tech Sector Suffers as Wages Surge and Multinationals Splurge

By JOHN LARKIN

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Wall Street Journal, 1046 words
January 4, 2006; Page A9

MUMBAI -- India, despite its reputation as a bottomless well of back-office talent ready to scoop up American jobs, is having an increasingly difficult time finding qualified workers to fuel its booming services sector.

The cross-sector crunch is especially worrisome in the technology industry, where wages are rising 15% a year as call centers and software firms throw money at the increasingly shallow pool of youngsters who can hit the ground running. Consulting firm McKinsey & Co. says India's information-technology industry could face a deficit of 500,000 workers as soon as 2010, undermining its attractiveness as an investment destination.

Even if companies continue to find the talent they need in the near term, the rising wage bill is a troublesome long-term trend for India's competitive prospects -- and for foreign companies pumping money into the global outsourcing market. The emerging talent deficit is giving rivals such as Russia space to compete with India for high-end outsourced work such as software design and solutions, and allows aspirants such as the Philippines -- where English is widely spoken -- to better compete for call-center business.

"There are huge numbers of fresh [university] graduates who are just not hirable," says Anand Saraf, managing director of Iqura Technologies, a software firm in Bangalore, India. Mr. Saraf says he has lost contract work to other countries including the Philippines and Poland due to rising local wages. India, he adds, is becoming "an expensive place to do business."

At the heart of India's dilemma lies the subcontinent's antiquated higher-education system. It produces around three million graduates a year, but they are of such uneven quality that many aren't employable. This wasn't a problem when significant numbers of talented recruits were available to fill the first waves of jobs in the modernizing economy. But as the cream of each year's class becomes absorbed more quickly, companies are having trouble finding good, affordable talent -- from the lowliest phone jockeys to top executives -- as revenue and operations expand along with India's booming economy.

To be sure, some businesses are as yet untouched by the shortages. Marquee local software firms such as Infosys Technologies Ltd. continue to attract more than enough skilled applicants. The rest -- including large U.S.-based competitors -- have little option but to pay high wages to attract employees in fished-out talent pools in big cities such as Mumbai and Bangalore.

India isn't alone in suffering a skills shortage. The U.S. is sliding into one, due chiefly to early retirements by baby boomers and a lack of replacements. A skills drought in China is due partly to the fact that many of its graduates live long distances from the cities where jobs are being created and are unwilling to relocate, McKinsey & Co. says.

The demand for well-trained workers has prompted an explosion in wages for the most experienced Indian personnel. And attrition has reached epidemic proportions as workers job-hop to better salary packages. Pay for tech and banking executives, airline pilots, and engineers -- all sectors experiencing huge growth -- jumped between 25% and 30% in 2005.

Rather than hire ill-qualified graduates, companies are devising strategies to cultivate and retain valued workers. Software firm Sierra Atlantic, of Hyderabad, India, tries to discourage defections by taking midlevel managers to screenings of team-oriented war movies such as "The Dirty Dozen." Genpact, formerly General Electric Co.'s outsourcing arm, has opened store-front recruiting outposts in five cities.

Competition for talent is fierce. Larsen & Toubro Ltd., the subcontinent's largest construction company, loses 800 experienced engineers a year to software firms and multinational engineering companies, despite having doubled salaries over the past couple of years.

In response, the company has launched a global head-hunting campaign to woo back staffers lost to foreign rivals by offering salaries of as much as $100,000 -- a huge sum in India, where average annual income is just $620. As a hedge against losing more engineers, it started an in-house IT-solutions division, L&T Infotech, chiefly to give employees who want to expand their skills an option rather than resignation.

India produces a huge number of engineers, says L&T's chairman A.M. Naik, but most are graduates of mediocre private engineering colleges. "I spend more time on human resources than actually doing work," he complains. "The talent issue is going to decide who will win and who will lose" the race for profitability.

India's long-term challenge is to improve its higher-education system, say executives and educators. Fewer than 10% of high-school graduates opt for further education in India, compared with 64% in the U.S. Many of those who go to university find colleges that haven't evolved much from the British colonial era.

"Unless we drastically look at paradigm shifts in education, we won't get the numbers [of workers] we need for the future," says S. Ramadorai, chief executive of India's biggest software company, Tata Consultancy Services.

India's dozen or so top business and technology schools are on a par with U.S. Ivy League schools. They produce world-class graduates who form the subcontinent's corporate elite. But these people represent a rarified sliver of excellence in a system of 17,000 colleges and universities scarred by bureaucracy, substandard teachers and ossified curricula.

Politics is also shortchanging students, says Shiv Visvanathan, a professor at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology at Ahmedabad. Many state colleges, he says, are controlled by local politicians who arrange for the necessary licenses and get a cut of revenue. As a result, the emphasis is on making money rather than on academics. Some colleges can't afford library books and don't have enough classrooms.

The Indian government has tried to make headway by launching programs to improve tertiary education. Some experts believe the system eventually will deliver the teaching needed to equip young minds for the global economy. But change isn't likely to come quickly.

In the meantime, an army of unemployed recent graduates, estimated at more than five million, is expected to grow. Mr. Saraf, whose firm Iqura also has an executive-search business, says most IT firms now won't touch anyone with less than two years of experience. He says he regularly receives graduate applicants who have learned outdated computer languages.

"I've even had to tell [new hires] they can't wear slippers to business meetings," he says.

Scarcity in the midst of surpluses

2005-06-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

Where is the great largest-English speaking Indian workforce?

This is a period of great enthusiasm in Bangalore (and many other cities across India) with the software industry apparently booming. Its become difficult to keep track of headcount target announcements with each company trying to outdo each other. The newspapers are smiling with all the advertising revenue and hiring appears to be back at the pre-2000 level.

As an entreprenuer on both sides of the stick - we have a software services division which hires people and a staffing division that hires people for other companies - I am painfully watching the entire scenario unfold.

Attrition is an every day ordeal, as someone once said, you can't stem the river, all you can do is manage the tide. Employees routinely come with offers from the "headcount" companies which are 40% to 100% higher than their existing salaries, having been in their present job for barely a few months. Similarly, our clients in the staffing division can't stop complaining about the shortage of manpower and how they need to ramp up in the shortest possible time.

The big question I have is: where's the talent? Where is that humongous mass of “smart, amongst the most logical, ready to take on the world” set of Indians that India ostensibly claims to have?

All I see on an every day basis are a mass of mediocre professionals who are only interested in the next highest offer that can come their way; a mass of people with poor communication skills; people with barely any foundational skills; people who are extremely adept at cramming for an interview; people who are masters in the art of forging their work experience (we have had three incidents in as many months of companies calling us for reference checks of employees who never worked for us).

The dichotomy is that there IS a very large English speaking workforce – but whether it’s skilled or not is definitely in question. India churns out huge numbers of fresh engineering graduates every year – a large majority of whom are out in the streets looking for jobs even a year after they graduate. Recently, when a big-10 IT company put an advertisement out for a fresh graduate recruitment event, more than 7000 people showed up – to the extent that the company had to cancel the event and the police had to step in to manage the crowds.

Amongst the experienced set, the success rate of interviews to selection ranges from 1 in 10 to 1 in 25. That selection too I believe is more often out of the pressure to hire than an actual great candidate. With an offer decline or back out ratio running at 40%, candidates who are skilled (1 in 50 or higher), succeed in interviews across a large set of companies and then shop around for the best deal.

One of the things that amazes me the most is that I regularly see candidates who have interviewed at our services division and been rejected, go on and join a big-blue or a big-20 company. A few weeks later we even learn that the candidate has successfully gone on assignment to a client site.

Why are these companies hiring this mediocre manpower? How does it impact the India story – so hyped about? Is off-shoring and outsourcing really feasible on such a large scale?

Does India even have the manpower to meet that offshore requirement – and meet it with success? If it does, I would sure like someone to show me where they are!

I think we are very close to the 2000 scenario - a bubble about to burst - only this time its "off-shoring" rather than "dot com" that will be the cause. The India story is a good story – just as the dot com story was a good story for businesses with an actual value proposition. But we are running the same risk of hyperbole which caused the dot com bust – companies that hire mediocre resources to service customers that they were able to sign-on because of the India story – are only killing the story.

This is a new thing...

2005-02-09T23:36:00.000-08:00

Where will I find the time to write my first post!