cleaning up my closet

... literaly. Today was a activity filled Saturday. I had a bath. and there is a reason for the same. Somehow I felt like cleaning my books closet today. And I have found it as an interesting task. When you clean your books closet after a very long time, lets say, 5 years. There are some books that I always wanted to read and bought but could not. And there were some books that I read that I am now ashamed of buying in the first place. That makes me realise that there must have been changes in me since that time.
One very interesting thing that I found in the closet was a old flannel bound diary. It was given to me by dad since it was last years and of no use. I was in Standard VIII then. This diary was special because I used it to write poems. I am not a prolific poet or anything like that, but I liked to pen a few words in a rythmic fashion to express what I observed around.
That made me realise that I have changed, I dont like to read leave alone writing. But, I want to write. Something tells me that I will be lighter if I do.
So, beware if you are reading this because you will be hit "poetry". Excuse if you dont like it.

Trust !!!

Its just 5 alphabets but means so much when not honored. I am thinking about this with a backdrop of Satyam's fraud that has horrified every shareholder in India. My nature of going overboard made me devise a rule never to trust a person who has done anywrong at any point in time or has not shown integrity in a situation of commercial loss.
This makes me go back to the B School class of Prof. Vinod Kalia. Prof. Kalia is an ex-VP sales and marketing of Escorts Farm Equipment. He gave us a case study which went as:
- A productive worker was found cheating the company for his commercial benefit.
- His supervisor is pressing charges against him and requesting for his dismissal from duty
- The implications of his dismissal are that the Union may go up in arms against the management and there would be some loss of production incase the person has to go.
Question for the management: Should he be let go?

We recommended that he should be let to continue as there would be a loss of revenue but should be given a stern warning. We were surpised by Prof. Kalia's verdict that the management should take a stand on either side and there is no mid-way when it comes to integrity. Although, we were not happy then as it costed us grades but in the hindsight the suggestion was good, to say the least.
It s the responsibility of the management to instill the belief in integrity, even at the cost of commercials loss. This is something that may be hard and harder to keep up with time. But, when you look in hindsight with an example of Satyam, unless you do that you have to make a bigger lie to cover the last lie. This lying will end only when the position will become absolutely unrecoverable. This may lead to loss of face, reputation, and disruption in the lives of many workers who have spent their time and sweat for the company.
So, in essence Integrity is not an option. Its a virtue that will make customers comfortable, employees loyal, management alert. So be it.

SaaS Gold Diggers

Every peroid has its "El Dorado Gold Rush". Its a period when everybody is "irrationally optimistic" about his chances of finding gold and arriving home as a winner. The current gold rush in IT business seems to be a concept called Software as a Service or SaaS. If you dont understand what it is, its a service where all your business applications are delivered like Gmail delivers your email to you. And I did not mean free. Imagine this. You dont have install any software or hardware or networking. Identify the software (over web) that is good for you and buy (using credit card) an internet connection. Done. 

Now the gold part - since its a web based service, all you need to do is to get a team together and write your own version of the software that a customer has been using for donkeys years. Be it a simple accouting software or a diary keeping software. You can create a business plan to achieve as much as you want. The calculation looks like this, there are X million users of this software @ Y $ per annum. I am providing the same service at 80% discount (since I dont have a massive marketing and sales engine) I can get atleast 1% of the market. Even this market will turn out to be in millions of users. And voila, you have numbers touching many millions. GOLD RUSH, incase you forgot. 

The people who actually found gold were the people who were selling tools for digging, or hotels for diggers or even "professions soliciting services for relaxation". If that is true (assumption), then who are the probable gold finders in this scenario:

- Infrastructure providers:

- Data centres:

- Software: Billing and reconciliation

- Payment services: credit card services providers

- advertisers: I think Google 

Leaving the thought open to explore who are these in today's world.

 

Cloudy, grey and cold

I havent started about Delhi weather yet. But I am talking about the conditions around. You dont understand, ok here's a clue. Go to news.google.com and find the top stories in India. Look what I got:
- something something 26/11
- 'cash-for-trust-vote' scam
- Terror camps in Bangladesh
- IAF starting preperations for attack on Pak
- Mumbai terror attack
I should stop now, adhereing to the madrasi rule of 5 (read paanch with your palm out and fingers away from each other).
What's this to do with the year end that it has always started to be so gloomy? I really cant solve the problem of terrorism except for not sniggering when they check my bag thrice (THRICE) while entering PTI. I really cant solve problem of economy by buying an extra pair of jeans or something like that. I really cant solve the problem of jobs except for finding one that pays me a bit more. . . . So what should I do?
I think that I should imagine the good times and what I should do today to enjoy those good times even more. I blindly believe that the good times will come. Imagine this, after some time when you click again on news.google.com you may see something like this:
- Sensex at a record high in last 25 years. PM Mannu says that India is poised to run the world.
- Britney Spears suit "malfunctions" at the show in Delhi
- India Inc. still short of 110,000 IT people. Special focus for middle level managers.
- Indian does a clean sweep at Commonwealth Games
- Domestic flights become even cheaper

With a imagination like this in my head and a promise of JD to myself on a cold winter night, I am looking forward to go through these times.

Hope for life and fear as well

This weekend was eventful. On the eve of Bakri-id, my cousin got 'processed'. He married a girl. To set the background, he is my maternal first cousin and a classical BE-MBA background. He got married to a girl who is a teacher in a school.
Like any Punjabi wedding, this marriage was fun and frolic. And ofcourse, full of dissatisfied relatives, loud noises, no adherence to time or care of discomfort to anyone. Sticking to the time (not as mentioned in the card), the baraat promptly arrived at 10:30 PM.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glflgxstqss


Please watch the video above to set the context right and believe me this was no different a marriage. The guy and the girl havent arrived when the massi made a comment. "I shouldnt have come, we have no role to play. My husband has no milni" and then he got one.
All was going well, till the maternal and paternal sides of the guy started arguing as to who will get the first snap with the couple. . . and ofcourse it was settled that the women will go together from both sides for the "1st snap" and then men never matter.

After the jaimala, when both sides were having dinner. Half of the population left because they were not invited to the table for dinner. After dinner, nobody was left to witness pheras. What happens after that nobody knows. Hope all went well and wish that the couple have a blissfull martial .. oops .. marital life ahead.

Those ripples ....not again !!!

Its a professional setting. I am meeting a customer and suddenly introduced to the heiress and daughter of the founder of the company. When she speaks, her lips get rippled which is kind of cute. But I batt my eyelids hard to make me remember, she is a customer and thats it only.
And those ripples made me remember someone else from the past. And these are not pleasant memories.
Anyways, I may be meeting the rippled lip girl sometime again next month.

Key for the open door

Picking the cue from the last blog and White Tiger's lines: 

While you were looking for the key, 

the door was always open

I always hypothise that if I had so and so I would have done so and so

That would have made me happier. 

Thinking on the lines above, maybe the option is always there

Desperately desire, strive for it and I will get it. 

Time to get started with something that I desire. . . 

Will post it once it is done.