Think outside the box

You are driving along in your two seater car on a wild, stormy night, it’s raining heavily, when suddenly you pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for a bus:

An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
An old friend who once saved your life.
The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing very well that there could only be one passenger in your car?

This is a dilemma that was once used as part of a job application.

You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus youshould save her first;
* or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and thiswould be the perfect chance to ! pay him back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.

The candidate who was hired had no trouble coming up with his answer. Guess what was his answer?

He simply answered: “I would give the car keys to my Old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams.”

Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations. Never forget to “Think Outside the Box.”

Pliaa.................

Having an Airport in Calicut(Kozhikode) was a long standing wish of the people of Northern Kerala. After a prolonged and sustained effort, Calicut Airport became a reality in mid 80's. Though it is called Calicut Airport, in reality the Airport is located nearly 30 kms from the city and is in the adjoining Malappuram District, and near to the University Campus.

We were MBA students then and being a holiday, we went to the Airport premises to watch the inauguration. Many spoke in Malayalam and quite a few in English. The chief guest was from outside Kerala. One of the leading businessman of Calicut (I don't want to mention his name) was known for his lack of English language skills. He was a rustic malayalee who can hardly speak one word of English (some say he can't even speak Malayalam properly, but that is another story). Someone impressed upon him that he had to speak in English since the occasion demanded it. The guy went about his task of preparing the speech in English. Since he had many knowledgeable guys working under him, getting a speech written in English was the easiest thing. The hitch was in reading it at the function as he normally stumbled while reading English.

Then he remembered what the then President Giani Zail Singh used to do. Gianiji will have his English speech written in Punjabi script(he couldn't speak English) and read it out(Years later, Sonia Gandhi was to write Hindi speeches in Italian and read it out).

Taking inspiration from the President of India, the business magnate burnt the midnight oil and painstakingly converted the English speech into Malayalam Script (his vanity did not allow him to ask someone else to do it).

On the D-Day, he strode confidently to the podium to speak. By nature, he was a nervous guy who never appears too confident in the Public. The initial salutations went off nicely. No one suspected that he was reading the English speech written in Malayalam script. Then he started stressing on the struggles and agitations made by the locals to get the Airport constructed.

He said ' The people of Calicut had made numerous pleas to the Government over the years.........................'

There was a stunned silence, followed by hoots and whistles. He again repeated the word 'plea' many times. Each time the booing became louder. He was baffled. He just didn't know what was wrong. The problem was that while he converted the word 'Plea' into malayalam script, he wrote is as 'Pliaaa'. And he repeated the word at least a couple of dozen times, much to the merriment of a bored crowd. Till the end of the speech, he didn't understand why the hell the crowd was hooting.

There are stories (in fact same stories) attributed to lecturers who are not proficient in English in various colleges. In Victoria College Palghat, the lecturer in question was a guy called Manickan whose English was mediocre (that is putting it mildly). Don't ask me whether the stories are true or not.

Our department was in the first floor. One day Manickan saw a student spitting from the first floor balcony and rebuked him ' Don't spit. Understanding people will suffer'.

He caught 3 students listening to cricket commentary in the class ' Both of you three get out of my class'.

Is Dr.Manmohan Singh a failed economist?

Despite desperate monetary tightening by the RBI, inflation has again risen to 11.45%. The government blames the international situation of food shortage and record oil prices for this mess. But how far is this true?

We need to go back in time to see when India last had a double digit inflation. It was in 1995. This is significant because that was the 4th year, the Congress government led by Narasimha Rao was in power. And guess who was the Finance Minister? A Dr.Manmohan Singh. And now, in the 4th year of the current government, headed by the same gentleman, we are again burdened with a double digit inflation.

The inflation touching double digit in the 4th year of governance is very symbolic. This is because the real impact of the monetary policies of a new government is felt only in the 4th and 5th year of Governance as macro economic policy initiatives takes about 2-3 years to really bear fruit (if that is the right word if one is destroying the economy).

So, we need to ask these questions. Is Dr.Manmohan Singh's economic policies an unmitigated disaster? Is he a failed economist? Is his economic management skills overhyped? Is he a one dimensional thinker, not being able to adapt?. I guess so, for the neo liberalization policies he has initiated has produced double digit inflation crippling the common man twice in a span of a decade and a half. It cannot be a coincidence.

It is a sad day when our leaders can't find a solution to such a critical economic problem which affects every single indian.

Good man or the Crook?

This has always been a vexing problem.

Who is better? A good man who is incapable or a crook who is dynamic?

Whom would you prefer to lead you?

Indians, with their deep religious moorings that espouses the cause of virtue, tend to tolerate the former and are not comfortable with the latter, who though devious gets things done.

The issue is not whether someone is good or not. It is whether what he does benefits the people at large. Some might argue that I am propounding the theory of 'end justifies the means'. In a way yes. Ultimately, whatever one does should benefit all.

Now you might ask what made me go into the above. It is because everyone seems to be unanimous in giving a clean chit to our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh just because he is a nice guy, forgetting the fact that his tenure as PM has been an unmitigated disaster whose hallmark has been indecision, pervarication and poor judgement.

We have a saying in malayalam 'Pavam dushtante bhalam cheyyum'. Loosely translated ' a good mans (not the exact meaning, more like a timid man) effect is that of what a villain does.

For me, give me a crook who is dynamic anyday. He at least gets the bloody thing done.

10 Principles of Good Design - Braun

Have you not had the feeling of instantly liking something the moment you have seen the product? This has more to do with good designing skills than anything else.

Braun is world famous for some of the finest products. Their 10 principles on designing listed below can be used as a guideline whenever you design anything in life,

Good design is innovative
Good design enhances the usefulness of a product
Good design is aesthetic
Good design displays the logical structure of a product; its form follows its function
Good design is unobtrusive
Good design is honest
Good design is enduring
Good design is consistent right to the details
Good design is ecologically conscious
Good design is minimal design

Come to think of it. You can use the above principles in anything you do, even writing a nice report.

Where was I on 25th June 1983?

We are celebrating 25 years of India's first (only) Cricket World Cup triumph.

Where was I on 25th June 1983? I had just started my second year of B Sc physics. Had already played age group tournaments and cricket was the sun around which the whole world revolved those days.

There was no television in Palghat (It took another couple of years for the low power transmitter to be installed) and I had to depend on my reliable Philips transistor (not the pocket transistor as I was following the match on BBC).

I can still remember the English commentators like John Arlot, Fred Truman and co dismissing India's chances with contempt. Though irritating, you couldn't blame them. West Indies under Lloyd were perhaps the greatest team the world has seen (there are many who might disagree claiming the Australian team of the late 90's and early 2000 were greater. I beg to disagree. Any team that has a top of the draw openers in Greenidge and Haynes followed by the great Viv Richards and Lloyd with Larry Golmes steadying the boat is unmatched. And they had a wonderful wicket keeper in Jeff Dujon. And who would want to face Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Malcom Marshall. And that too without the kind of protective gear that you have today. The WI were very very intimidating). And India? A bunch of cricketers who had not done anything of note till then in one day cricket. In fact we were all happy that India had reached the final and like Roger Federers opponents today, quite satisfied with being on the same arena with the undisputed champions.

The match started at around 3 pm Indian time. Remember it was 60 overs a side with red ball and white dresses. One day cricket those days was more akin to the longer version of the game than the spectacle it is today. You could still see 3 slips and a gully at the start. Conventional cricket strokes were the norm. No one played the slog sweep, or the upper cut or the inside out cover drive or the reverse sweep or the paddle. It was a different era. And a different game.

We had expected India to score at least 225-250 after their solid performance against the England in the Semifinal. But we were to be disappointed. Half way through the West Indies innings with Viv going great guns, my father had enough. He went to his bed room. I was in my bedroom listening to the commentary which waxed and waned over the Short Wave. When Malcolm Marshal got out, it was late in the night and I rushed to my fathers room and sat on the floor beside his bed with the radio placed strategically on the bed near him so that we can both hear the commentary clearly. We were living in a house which was quite isolated. When Mohinder took the final wicket, we just shouted 'we won' invoking a quick rebuke from the mother who was quite irritated with all the sound and noise. Many like me savoured the victory with the family. This is something that is missing these days.

It took a while for it all to sink in. It still hasn't 25 years down the line. We had to wait for the newspapers of 27th June to read all about it (the paper for 26th was already printed while India won). We spoke of nothing but this feat in the college for one week.

India went from strength to stregth after the World Cup triumph, though we never won another after that. But World Cup 1983 marked the arrival of India as a Cricket super power and today we lord over the Cricketing World, limitedly on the cricket field as one of the best teams and wholy on the administrative side. And spare a thought for the mighty West Indies. It was perhaps the beginning of the end for the all conquering West Indians under Clive Llloyd. A couple of years more of supremacy and then it has been downhill all the way.

There is a lot of nostalgia about following cricket those days. But then we feel nostalgic about everything about the past. Life goes on.

But for a country starved of sporting achievements, winning World Cup 1983 as an underdog, was truly wonderful

As(s) is the leader...........................................

It was pathetic to see our esteemed Finance Minister say in a TV channel that India is a victim of the fuel price hike and when he presented the Union Budget on 29th February 2008, 'no one' did envisage oil prices touching $ 140 per barrel.



I don't know who this 'no one' is. If it was the Finance Ministry mandarins, then they need to look at their market intelligence. It was common knowledge by January end that Oil prices were firming up and is likely to touch $ 150 by August. Where the FM got the idea that oil prices will remain sub $ 100, I have no clue.



He also mentioned that the Government can hardly do anything. This is true considering that the Government is incapable of doing anything. This Government has postponed critical issues on almost all spheres. It was obvious to all that the oil prices had to be raised at least 4 months back. But the government did not take any action as elections in Karnataka was around the corner. Finally, when they were forced to raise the prices, situation had gone beyond control.



But we need to go back a bit more to really find out how culpable our Government is. India had a dynamic Petroleum Minister in Mani Shankar Iyer when they started to rule. Now, I don't agree with many of Mani's view points. But you need to give credit to him. He broke all the conventional rules on energy procurement for the country and started to approach the problem with out of the box thinking. He took to the job like a duck would to water and initiated a multi-pronged approach ranging from opening channels to the OPEC countries, aggressively pursued the Iran-India gas pipeline, and waded into Africa where energy is avaialble for taking. Instead of supporting him wholeheartedly, as any sane PM will do, all kind of obstacles were put in his way. This was at the behest of the Americans, who saw an emerging alliance between Iran and India as a threat to their global plan. And guess what! Mani was kicked out of the Petroleum Ministry and given a portfolio no one wanted - Panchayati Raj and Sports. Later Sports was also taken away from him.



So, a very dynamic, intelligent minister who only wanted to secure India's energy needs for future prosperity was insulted, and downgraded. Will anyone take India seriously when they talk about energy any more in the future? And, we as a nation, lost a golden opportunity.



You need to remember that Mani was shown the door when a nincompoop like Shivraj Patil, who is, by unanimous opinion, is the worst home minister India has ever seen (that is saying a lot as we really had some real jokers as home ministers including a gentleman called Giani Zail Singh) still continues to hang on to his post despite internal security goof ups, total lawlessness, increased naxalite threats, growing militancy, and inability to punish terrorists.



The PM and FM is still taking credit for the 8 % GDP growth, but says inflation is a global phenomenon over which they have no control. And the FM had the audacity to state that Food prices have started coming down. I am sure FM is sleeping well, for he must have dreamt this. Cannot fathom how one can take credit for success but wash one's hand off failure. Well, they are taking a leaf out of their super PM, Sonia Gandhi. Every election Congress loses is due to local leaders inefficiencies, but every success (not that there are any) is attributed to Madam.

As(s) is the leader, so is the follower.....................................

Areas needing urgent attention 1

Certain things exasperate me as I cannot for the life of me understand why nothing is being done in these areas by the successive government.

Every one know that Indian Judicial System is one of the most lenient. Cases take ages to be heard and 99% of the cases lose their relevance by the time the first judgement is passed. The case:judges ratio is mounting. With population exploding, one would have thought the government would have taken steps to increase the number of courts and judges. But what we have are the same number of courts and lesser number of judges (this is because the Government just does not bother to fill the vacancies for political reasons). When we splurge so much on non productive social schemes which serves no purpose, surely we can get sufficient funds to strengthen the judiciary.

Another reason why Judiciary should be strengthened is because the civil society is moving towards anarchy and lawlessness is the norm than exception. This is totally unacceptable. We have one of the finest set of laws, the lacunae is in implementing them. The old adage 'Justice delayed is justice denied' is quite true. But in our case there isn't an assurance that Justice will be obtained even if it is delayed, it is impossible to get justice for anyone. In this aspect we are a egalitarian society. No one gets justice, poor or the rich.

Another area crying for attention is the Police Department. There are two aspects to policing. Crime detection leading to conviction and Crime prevention through intelligence gathering. Unfortunately, the police force in this country have always concentrated only on the crime detection part. Though that doesn't mean that they have a great record on conviction. In fact, the conviction rates are pathetically poor, for reasons like poor techniques, corruption, political interference and the slow judicial process. Our police hardly believes in Crime Prevention through intelligence gathering. 'Prevention is always better than cure'. Many committees have been formed on Police Reforms since 1980's but to no avail. The Police system is in a moribund state. When the common man loses faith in the Police, warning bells should start ringing. But the bells have been tolling so loud for so long but our leaders have turned a deaf ear. Earlier we modernise the police force, pay them competitive wages so as to attract the best talents, reduce political interference and incentivize them based on prevention and conviction rates, the better for the country...................to be continued

Don't they deserve a kick in the Ass?

The Breaking News says it all.

The Inflation Figures in India for the week ending 7th June 2008 stands at 11.05%, the highest in 13 years.

It means the inflation figures have crossed the dreaded Lakhsman Rekha of 10% and is twice the comfort level of the Government target of 5.5%.

If ever there is a classic case of SNAFU, this is it.

When I was a young Sales Officer making my mark in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, we used to have Sales Review Meetings regularly. Once, the then General Manager (South Zone), a soft spoken gentleman, told me how they evaluate the performance of the sales people.

"Son, we don't attach too much importance to the figures you people give, as we know you are geniuses at cooking up the sales figures. We know every sales area will have problems. What we look for are whether you are AWARE that a problem exists, have you APPLIED YOUR MIND to the problem on hand, do you have some SOLUTIONS and in short ARE YOU IN CONTROL OF THE SITUATION?. Well son, if you come short on any of those, we give you a kick in your ass"

Well, our genius trioka of Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahulwalia fail to pass on any of those above criteria on managing the economy.

So don't you agree that they deserve a kick in the ass?

Talented or Steady? - The recruitment dilemma

There are two philosophies that you can follow if you are recruiting people.

The first philosophy calls for picking people who are slightly more qualified for the job on hand in the hope that the candidate, once employed, will elevate the scope of the job, think beyond his job whereby adding value to the organization.

The second philosophy, which is more prevalent, follows the thought process that it is better to recruit people who have slightly inferior skill sets to the requirements of the job on hand. They should then be given training to ensure they carry out the work efficiently. After all the purpose is that the job has to be done properly.

I have always been a believer of the first philosophy. As an entrepreneur, I used to pick the best and pay them above the market rate. And it was a pleasure training them for they were very intelligent and able to grasp quickly. My pride was that each of my employee was worth four of my competitor. But the flip side was that, the job turnover was high with them soon outgrowing my company and leaving for greener pastures. This affected continuity and stability.

As I said, most organizations take the second route. They make it a point to recruit average employees so that they need pay less and are able retain them. While this give stability, the flip side is that hardly any dynamic or innovative ideas come from these employees. The organization will slip into mediocrity in the long run. And it becomes very difficult to get these people to grow into higher positions as they may not have the skills required. This will necessitate in having to bring in people laterally causing considerable heart burn and dissatisfaction among the current employees.

I still firmly believe in the first philosophy. Maybe because I am a dreamer. But I have no regrets. Because it is a pleasure to be surrounded at work with intelligent people

I Black.................................

This poem was written by an African kid. It amazed me that a Kid can be so perceptive and touched my heart. It brings out the absurdity of discrimination based on the colour of the skin in a simple manner.

"When I born, I Black,

When I grow up, I Black,

When I go in Sun, I Black,

When I scared, I Black,

When I sick, I Black,

And when I die, I still black..

And you White fella,

When you born, you Pink,

When you grow up, you White,

When you go in Sun, you Red,When you cold, you Blue,

When you scared, you Yellow,

When you sick, you Green,

And when you die, you Gray..

And you calling me Colored ??"

Anti Virus and the Policeman

Honest to god, the following incident is true and I am not making it up.

This happened during the later half of 1990's. I was an entrepreneur running a NIIT Computer Study Centre in Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. Being a small town, and heading the leading IT Training Centre, we were well known and had quite a few of the Who's Who of the town, like District Collector, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), as our students. These worthies come whenever they get time to upgrade their IT skills. You need to understand that computers were still latin and greek to the masses then, especially in semi urban and rural areas. Occassionally, these VIP's will enlist the help of our knowledgable staff to sort of technical issues in their computers as the support industry was in its nascent stages then.

One evening, when we were all busy, I took a call from DIG Dogra, (incidently, a perfect gentleman who had a keen interest in technological developments), who suspected that a virus had crept into his PC. He was in the process of creating a comprehensive database of criminals in the District, a pioneering project. The DIG wanted our help to clean the 'virus'. And, being the gentleman that he is, he offered to send a police jeep to pick my system administrator, Vishnu.

Vishnu picked up the 1.44 mb floppy containing the latest anti virus and casually put it in his pocket (those days the floppy was the only medium of portable storage) and waited. In due time, a police jeep screeched to a halt and out jumped a big, burly, very officious looking policeman, dark, having a handle bar moustache and a big paunch. He was quite intimidating.

Sounding very self important, he thundered " Are you people still not ready? DIG's PC has a virus and it needs to be cleaned immediately. DIG is waiting". (and for him, to keep the DIG waiting is a crime as his whole life revolves around pleasing the superior officer)

I calmly pointed to Vishnu and said, "he is the guy who will come with you'

The policeman looked at Vishnu with contempt. He didn't like what he saw. Vishnu, in his early 20's, though one of my best staff, was a simple guy, very lean and wearing an extremely casual dress. Typical nice boy next door look. Frankly, he did not think that Vishnu was capable of handling the job.

"Are you sending only one person?"

I replied one person was more than sufficient for the job on hand, which didn't too please him.

"Fine, take your bag and get into the jeep", he ordered Vishnu.

Vishnu, with a bemused expression, just walked towards the jeep. The Policeman, seeing that Vishnu was not carrying any bag or heavy kit, started hollering,

"Are you people making fun of the DIG? What do you mean by taking his requests so lightly? You are sending this boy with no bag. Where is the bag that is required to cure the virus? Where are his tools? Do you know that the DIG can crush you in no time? You people will be out of business......................blah, blah, blah............................." He raved and ranted for a while. (The poor guy had no clue as to what a computer is or what a software is or what a virus is or what an anti virus is. The simpleton thought that we needed a few stethescopes, emergency medical aids or alternatively some screw drivers and spanners to clean the virus. The image of a puny boy carrying nothing, in his opinion as he has never seen a floppy in his life, was a bit too much for him)

Our explanations fell into deaf ears as he was berating us in a loud voice. A small crowd, who were anyway intrigued to see a police jeep coming in, had started to gather in front of the institute. The scene was turning a bit ugly

Fortunately, the DIG called just then to enquire if the Jeep had indeed come and I explained the situation to him. He quietly asked me to hand over the phone to the worthy policeman and just said a couple of words to him.

There was a magical transformation. The raging bull, in a fraction of a second, became a nervous wreck and all we could hear was ,'Yes sir, sorry sir, you are correct sir, I am indeed an idiot sir' ,in a quivering voice

Highly embarassed, he somehow found the strength to walk to the jeep with Vishnu and drove off.

A few days later the DIG dropped in to say thank you and sighed "Rajan, everyone says that the administrative system is outdated and has to be modernized. Please tell me how the hell can I implement modern methods when I have such ****** working for me?"

I did empathise with him.

It is almost a decade since this has happened. Today, even a new born baby knows about a computer. But there are still millions of people like that innocent policeman, whom the changes have passed by.

An eye for Talent

I read this story on the web and thought it to be cute,

It's a fine sunny day in the forest and a lion is sitting outside his cave, lying in the sun.

Along comes a fox, out on a walk.

Fox: "Do you know the time, because my watch is broken"

Lion: "Oh, I can easily fix the watch for you"

Fox: "Hmm... But it's a very complicated mechanism, and your big claws will only destroy it even more."

Lion: "Oh no, give it to me, and it will be fixed"

Fox: "That's ridiculous! Any fool knows that lazy lions with great claws cannot fix watches"

Lion: "Sure they do, give it to me and it will be fixed"

The lion disappears into his cave, and after a while he comes back with the watch which is running perfectly. The fox is impressed, and the lion continues to lie in the sun, looking very pleased with himself.

Soon a wolf comes along and stops by the lion.

Wolf: "Can I come and watch TV tonight with you, because mine is broken"

Lion: "Oh, I can easily fix your TV for you"

Wolf: "You don't expect me to believe such rubbish, do you? There is no way that a lion with big claws can fix a complicated TV.

Lion: "No problem. Do you want to try it?"

The lion goes into his cave, and after a while comes back with a perfectly fixed TV. The wolf goes away happily and amazed.

Now let us pan our camera to the scene inside the cave.

In one corner are half a dozen small and intelligent looking rabbits who are busily doing very complicated work with very detailed instruments. In the other corner lies a huge lion looking very pleased with himself.

The moral of the story is that we don't have to do everything on our own, as managers, to offer excellent services that satisfies both internal and external customers. All we have to do is to identify good, skillful subordinates and delegate the work to them. Never surround yourself with inferior subordinates. If you want to be a successful manager, you should have a discerning eye for talent.

'May be'

Most of the unhappiness come out of our inability to manage expectations. Also, we are exhilarated when we have success while feeling extremely disappointed at failure. Somehow, most people are not in a position to handle fame and tragedy with equanimity.

Bhagawad Geetha tries to address this by talking about doing one's 'Karma' or duty without expecting any returns. By exhorting people to not expect returns, Bhagawad Geetha protects them from the feelings associated with success or failure.

There is a nice Zen Story on this..................

Once upon a time, a farmer had a horse. One day the horse bolted. The farmer's friends came to him to commiserate with him on his bad luck. He listened to them but just said 'may be'

The horse returned a few days later with 6 wild horses in tow. Everyone congratulated him on his good luck now. He simple said, 'may be'

A few days later, his only son fell down one of these wild horses and broke his leg. When the farmers friends talked about his misfortune, he said 'may be'

There was a war going on. A few days later the Army came in to take away all the able bodied young men to fight, but they left the farmers son back as he had a broken foot. When his friends gathered to talk about the farmers son's luck, he again just said 'may be'

Some might argue that the farmer's behaviour borders on fatalism. But if you look deeply, you will find that this is not passivity. The farmer is not judging events. He is accepting them for what they are. Sometimes it pays not to brood over what has happened, but stoically accept it and move on in life. This will also ensure that we manage our expectations.

RBI mumbo jumbo

One of the tricks used by Economists, top Finance Ministry personnel and others like that is to do some top quality gymnastics with words that stringed together makes absolutely no sense to the reader. The average guy thinks that all this mumbo jumbo is intellectual stuff and beyond his scope of understanding. The latest press release by Reserve Bank of India on rising the interest rates is one such. It is bad enough that RBI raised the interest rate by0.25% but their subsequent explanation takes the cake. If any normal man speaks like that in his daily life, he will be tied up and taken to the nearest mental asylum.

It took me a good part of the day to get the real meaning of the press release by RBI. I am reproducing salient part of the release.

“it is critical at this juncture to demonstrate on a continuing basis a determination to act decisively, effectively and swiftly to curb any signs of adverse developments in regard to inflation expectations.”....................... (it means, whenever inflation figures go up, which anyway happens every friday, RBI will resort to hiking the interest rate because they don't know what else to do).

"annual policy statement for the year 2008-09 (April 29, 2008) had stated, inter alia, that the overall stance of monetary policy in 2008-09 will broadly be to ensure a monetary and interest rate environment that accords high priority to price stability, well-anchored inflation expectations and orderly conditions in financial markets while being conducive to continuation of the growth momentum."......................(well, well........very lofty goals!! anyway those are the goals which RBI has no intention of achieving)

'Further, it was proposed to respond swiftly on a continuing basis to the evolving constellation of adverse international developments and to the domestic situation impinging on inflation expectations, financial stability and growth momentum, with both conventional and unconventional measures, as appropriate.'............... (constellation of blah blah blah................. I give up! This is beyond my limited abilities)

'The annual policy statement for the year 2008-09 (April 29, 2008) had referred to the unprecedented uncertainties and dilemmas that exist and added "while monetary policy has to respond proactively to immediate concerns, it cannot afford to ignore considerations over a relatively longer term perspective of, say, one to two years, with respect to overall macroeconomic prospects.' ........................... ( it means, RBI doesn't have a foggiest of idea what managing economy is all about and someone in the RBI did a magnificent job of saying everything when it is actually nothing)

'At the same time, it is critical at this juncture to demonstrate on a continuing basis a determination to act decisively, effectively and swiftly to curb any signs of adverse developments in regard to inflation expectations.'................. (in fact economy will do much better if these idiots at RBI don't mess it up regularly)

'In light of the above, and on a review of the current macroeconomic and overall monetary conditions and with a view to containing inflation expectations, it is essential to take appropriate action on an urgent basis.' .................. (and RBI hikes the interest rates. simple as that)

We are supposed to be ruled allegedly by some of the best brains in the country..........Prime Minister Manmohan Singh- a self proclaimed economist, Finance Minister P Chidambaram - A Harvard Scholar and Dy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahulwalia - another economist. The honourable PM has expressed his helplessness in controlling inflation after promising to curb it in two weeks in April 2008 (we all know what happened since then), Finance Minister has suddenly found a thorough disliking for the press and the cameras, and the Dy Chairman of the Planning Commission in a TV interview expressed the hope that inflation will come down by September. Now, you might think and he might claim that if this happens, it will be because of the steps taken by the Government and RBI. No such thing. Any idiot knows that prices come down after a good kharif season.

Extraordinary situations call for extraordinary actions and out of the box thinking. Forget about out of the box thinking, the trio of PM, FM and DCPC can't even think. They are so obsessed with their neo liberal economic policies that they are oblivious to what is happening in the real world of the commmon man.

Implicit needs

We talk of explicit needs and implicit needs in marketing. More often than not, marketers and individuals react to explicit needs without taking the trouble to find out the implicit ones. What people say they want, and what they actually want could be totally different.

Once a professional working in the IT industry walked into a recruitment agent's office and when queried about his career objectives said,

“I’ve got to get out of the IT industry, the work hours are long, it is a sweat shop and the industry is killing me day by day”

The recruitment counsellor empathised with him and gave him a bunch of forms to be filled that will enable him to facilitate the search in a different industry.

When the candidate did not return for a week, the recruitment counsellor called him up and set up another meeting. The candidate turned up late but had not filled even a single form.

Again on listening to his story about how IT industry is taking the life out of him, the recruitment agent threw in a harmless question,

“What will happen if you don’t get out of the IT industry?”

“My wife will divorce me.”

“Do you want your wife to divorce you?”

The candidate couldn’t keep the smile off of his face.

It was clear to the recruitment counsellor then that he would never change his job until it had given him what he wanted: a divorce, with his wife taking the initiative — and the guilt.

This was his implicit or hidden need. One needs to understand this. And one can’t help people change or find their mission when they have a hidden agenda.

We can but cry!

China has been making incursions into Arunachal Pradesh for quite some time now, more than 150 incursions have occured during the last one year. Any Nation with self respect would have beaten the Chinese back with force. Such an action would not have started a third world war, but rather sent a strong message not to fool around with India. And, last heard, we do have a very strong army which consumes a large part of our GDP. But listen to our Defence Minister A K Antony, "To a maximum extent, we will try to avoid confrontation". Pray tell me Why Mr Antony?

Still worse is the case of tiny Bangladesh, a tiny little nuisance of a country which was created in the first place by India. This country (a fraction of the size of any major state in India) in a sudden and outrageous move in 2006, backed by their country's Army, have uprooted pillars demarcating the Indo-Bangla border along Dhubri and Karimganj districts of Assam, and forcibly grabbed at least500 acres (2.02 sq km) of Indian territory. And what have we done till 2008. Zilch, nothing. The land continues to be under occupation of Bangladesh. What would you do if your neighbour occupies one feet of your land by shifting the fence in the border between your houses? If you have an iota of self respect, you will teach him a lesson that he is not likely to forget for a life time. But our rulers (non-rulers) are generous. Passivity is the name of the game.

Less said about our response to terrorism the better.

When will we have a government that has some spine?

Till then we can but cry!

Can someone answer these?

Why is it that materials sent through a SHIP is called a CARGO and those sent through a CAR (well truck actually or rather over the road) called a SHIPMENT?

Why is it that a game like FOOTBALL where the goal post is so big produces a score line of 1-0 or 2-1 but BASKETBALL where the ball is bigger and the basket ridiculously small produces a scoreline of 100-87?

Why is it that a White man who turns pink when exposed to sun and turns blue when he is cold, calls a Negro who is black all the time coloured?

Michael Douglas and Yesudasan

I had the privilege of watching interviews of two successful people from different industries from across the world on TV today morning.

The first was Michael Douglas. The celebrity Hollywood actor was quite candid and very lucid. One thing that struck me was his mentioning " I try to have with me for my projects, the best possible actors, technicians and directors. There is no question of ego or insecurity here. The only objective is to make a very good movie. Other things are irrelevant "....................Quite correct. Group goals always takes precedence over individual goals.

On switching to a Malayalam Channel, the famous cartoonist Yesudasan was heard explaining how the famous cartoonist Shankar influenced him in his formative years. Most of the cartoonist have a habit of concentrating on the face (head) of the individual portrayed in the cartoon and would not pay much attention to the other aspects of the body like legs, hand, fingers, dress etc. Shankar advised him to be perfect, pay very close attention to even the slippers being worn and then caricature the individual. This quest for perfection was the hallmark of Shankar's cartoons and also of Yesudasan's.........Something to be learned from this too.

We can apply both to our daily life. Can't we? Will make us much better persons

Fuel Price Imbroglio - 3

Another thing we need to look at is improving the public transport facility. The public transport in all the metros and most of the Class A towns have long since broken down. Once the backbone of the middle class transportation needs, today it has degraded to such an extent that they dread to use it. What we need is major investments in the public transportation infrastructure. Once this is achieved, Public Transportation can be subsidised to induce people to use it as against driving in their own vehicle. Concurrent to this, we can do some major town planning by having designated areas for offices and industries. This shall ease the planners job to have highly efficient transportation from residential areas to the offices. This is not an utopian concept, but needs lot of planning. Town planning is a concept that is not in the lexicon of Indian governments.

One of the reason fuel is highly taxed in India is that the revenue from the taxes goes towards meeting the ever spiralling non-plan expenditure, or in other words this goes towards paying the rent, bloated salaries of government employees and the various ministers. This segment is totally unaccountable and have zero productivity. For decades, government has been giving lip service to reducing non plan expenditure and downsizing the bureaucracy but hardly anything has been done, and will not be done. The common man, who pays the salary indirectly of these government babus, hardly get any service in return from them and frankly, then why should he pay for it. Stop recruitment in government sector for a decade, reallocate the existing staff and make it lean and mean. It is possible. The Indian private sector was overstaffed during the pre reforms era. During 1990's they made a conscious effort to restructure, reorganize and computerize. The results are there for everyone to see. They became fighting fit and ready to take the transnationals head on at the turn of the century. The competency of the Indian private sector didn't happen overnight. It was a well planned strategy that bore considerable fruit. We need to replicate this in the government services.

One of the bizarre policy of the government is that each household will be given only 8 cylinders per year and for extra they have to pay more. It is a basic rule in economics that the same product cannot have dual pricing in an undifferentiated market. This is one thing that is doomed to fail as the implementation depends on unscrupulous LPG distributors, who are veterans in diverting cylinders and hoarding (remember their diverting domestic cylinders for industrial purposes at a higher price creating scarcity in the lower priced domestic sector?)

In the short term, there is very limited options for the government other than raise the price. One thing they can do is to allow rupee to float against the dollar, which will result in rupee appreciating to the band of 36-38. This will reduce the burden of import cost as the oil payments are in US dollars. Why no one is talking about this option is beyond reason?

Another option is to diversify some of the funds that is being underutilized or wrongly utilized albeit with the avowed purpose of helping the poor like, loan waiver for the farmers, NREG (where the leakage is ridiculous with hardly 15% reaching the beneficiaries, free power to farmers and other social sector programs that are white elephants). I am not for a moment saying the poor should be punished. But it is a known fact that they anyway do not get the benefit of any of these schemes as they should. It is the middlemen who are getting fatter. Till we find an effective mechanism to ensure delivery of social sector programs efficiently, let us scrap them. The money saved can be diverted to meet oil imports which indirectly spurs growth.

Last but not the least. Crack the whip on tax collection - Corporate tax, sales tax, income tax, excise duty and customs duty. There is a leakage of more than 60% on tax collection. Even if we can get 1/3rd of this, it will more than make up for the current deficit and then it becomes a habit.

Government taking the stance that there are no options other than rising the prices is an excuse from the controlled economy era. The need of the hour is plugging the leaks, improving efficiency and increasing productivity. All Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram have to do is ask their Laloo Prasad Yadav how to do it. He did it with Railways (though it was started by his predecessor Nithish Kumar). Better still, handover the Finance Ministry to Laloo! This is not as crazy idea as it sounds. We have had enough of an economist and a financial whizkid (mis)managing our economy. Let someone who is rustic and street smart have his turn. He, at least can't do as much harm.

Fuel Price Imbroglio - 2

What are the solutions to the fuel pricing problem? There are two aspects to this - managing the demand and finding ways to pay for the imports. Let us look at demand side scenario first.

There has been lot of clamour for holding the price line, adjusting the cutoms and excise duty or revising the Sales tax to make Petrol and Diesel cheaper. What proponents of these measures dont understand is that by doing so, we are not curtailing demand. In fact we will be encouraging people to spend more of fuel, which is the last thing the nation wants. Fundamentals of economics tells us that as price goes up, demand comes down and vice versa.

The second argument is that increase in price of Diesel will lead to inflation and that of Kerosene will affect the poor man adversely. The first is true in one way, but subsequent governments have done precious little to manage the demand for Diesel. HSD or High Speed Diesel, which is a middle distillate is the biggest culprit as far as import of petroleum products are concerned. We just do not have sufficient middle distillates. But the Governments could have done something long time back. They could have banned production and use of all Diesel cars and also that of generator sets of low capacity used for domestic purpose. Diesel is highly subsidised. Why should this subsidy go to rich guys who use a Diesel Mercedez, or Indica or Tata Sumo? Similarly the people who use domestic gen sets are again the rich. Also, it is a known fact that gen sets and diesel cars are the biggest polluters. A law making all cars and gensets petol run would have led to better management of HSD. Also, poor planning on the Power generation front has led to almost all Industrial units running captive generator sets run on Diesel to ensure continuous supply of stable power. Governments have slept since 1980s on augmenting the Power generation and distribution capabilities. Free power to rich farmers, demand supply gap, power theft (the transmission loss in India is 40% which is laughable as more than half of this is due to theft), delays in new power generating stations and sheer bad management of the distribution front has led us to a virtual crisis. Take care of power generation and distribution, diesel demand will come down drastically.

The case of Kerosene is funnier. Every political party makes a hue and cry if Kerosene prices are increased, saying the poor man is affected as he depends on it for lighting and cooking. No one has any statistics how much of the very highly subsidised Kerosene is used actually by the common man. Most of them dont get kerosene at all from the Public Distribution System. It is a big racket. 40 -60% of low priced Kerosene goes towards adultrating Petrol and Diesel in a big way. Increase the price of Petrol and Diesel while holding the Kerosene price, and the guys who are doing the adulteration are the happiest as they make windfall profits.

India's energy demands are growing, no doubt. But have anyone given a thought to the waste in hydrocarbons in the country. Most of our roads are congested leading to huge traffic jams and wastage of petrol and diesel. Instead of taking 10 minutes to cover 15 kms in a city, it takes close to one hour. 50 minutes of engine idling is a colossal waste. Take the case of our highways. The average speed that one can maintain in a highway is less than 60kms per hour, more likely 45 kms per hour. In any decent half developed country, one can easily cover close to 80 kms per hour. This means each trip takes twice the time. Again a waste of precious fuel. Most of our heavy vehicles have such obsolete engines that they are all fuel guzzlers. No legislation has been done on this. Finally, the check posts on the state boundaries. It is a regular sight of heavy vehicles running their engines, waiting in the Sales Tax checkposts, Motor Vehicle checkposts and Octroi Collection centres for hours together. These checkposts dont serve any purpose, are the nerve centres for massive corruption and delay transhipment of goods by hours. A lorry takes 17 days to travel on an average from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. And this after 60 years of independance. What a crying shame. And the fuel lost? Millions of Kilo litres. And, anyway why do we want check posts within the country? Removing them will do more for national integration than anything other single thing. Let us also not forget the biggest consumer of Diesel - Indian Railways. They consume 60% of the diesel in the country. And this is because of the slow pace of the electrification. If railway electrification has been done on a priority basis (almost 90% of our power comes from non-hydrocarbon based generating stations), we will not be facing the resource crunch on diesel.

The Golden Quadrilateral, 6 laning of the highways, the north-south and east-west corridors would have gone a long way in solving some of the problems mentioned above. Despite his many follies, Atal Behari Vajpayee was spot on in focusing on the above. But this government, in a pique, has put the project on the backburner, which is a crying shame.

Another initiative of Vajpayee was the interlinking of rivers. This has its roots about half a century back. I cannot talk of the environmental issues, but genuinely feel a cost benefit study should have been done, because of all the three modes of transportation of goods - air, rail and water- waterways remain the cheapest by a long way, apart from being the most fuel efficient.

I was a Sales Officer in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation during the Gulf War in 1991 when oil was scarce. We all ran a SAVE OIL campaign, creating awareness amongst the various categories of consumers - motorists, industries and household customers - regarding methods to reduce wastage of precious fuel. It was very effective. Why are we not doing something like this? ...................to be continued

Fuel Price Imbroglio - 1

Everyone and then their uncles have written about the high prices of oil, the fuel price hike in India and its impact on the economy. Let me look at from another angle. After all I had been once an Oil marketing man myself during my stint early in my career with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation(and I shall try my best not to do a Government bashing).

The core issue is that we are large scale net importer of oil that has to be paid in US Dollars. Any increase in global oil prices will increase our import bill substantially. This should not a major problem as India has record foreign exchange reserves.

The second issue is that higher prices of Diesel will lead to increase in transportation costs that will ultimately result in higher inflation. Also any increase in the highly subsidised kerosene will adversely impact the poor (how far this is true is another question. the cooking and lighting pattern of the poor have changed during the past 2 decades).

Fine so far. What people do not know is that Government, both central and state, have taxed the fuel products to such an extent that nearly 40% of petrol and diesel prices goes towards central and sales taxes. In fact, it is said that Governments welcome a chance to raise the fuel prices as it means the taxes will increase and they will have more money in the coffers (Even the left front governments, who calls for a hartal everytime the fuel price is hiked, refuses to reduce the Sales Tax to ease the burden on common man. Such is their hypocrisy).

One of the reasons for the high global oil prices is the increase in the energy demands of emerging nations, of which India is the leader. Now, don't mistake me, I am not going to be a George Bush and tell you that we should use less energy. But this point of increased use of energy comes in to consideration while discussing the solutions.................to be continued

The Edsel Disaster

Marketing Disasters and the 'Edsel' Model from Ford is synonymous. So why was Edsel such a failure?. When the car was launched, it was supposed to change the way people looked at cars. But in the end it was destined to be doomed. Murphy's law worked overtime. 'Anything can go wrong will' and it did. Wrong concept, poor quality, disastrous marketing, wrong timing - you name it and Edsel had it.

Ford Edsel was supposed to be the 'car of the decade' when launched in 1957.

But half of the models sold proved spectacularly defective. If lucky, one could have got a car with any or all of the following features: doors that wouldn't close, bonnets and boots that wouldn't open, batteries that went flat, hooters that stuck, hubcaps that dropped off, paint that peeled, transmissions that seized up, brakes that failed and push buttons that couldn't be pushed even with three of you trying.

In a stroke of marketing genius, the Edsel, one of the biggest and most lavish cars ever built, coincided with a phase when people increasingly wanted economy cars. 'It was a classic case of the wrong car for the wrong market at the wrong time.'

Unpopular to begin with, the car's popularity declined. One business writer at the time likened the Edsel's sales graph to an extremely dangerous ski-slope. He added that, so far as he knew, there was only one case of an Edsel ever being stolen.

The saddest part was that US Automakers never learned the lessons from the Edsel disasters. They continued to make large, fuel inefficient, poor quality cars throughout 60's and 70's leading to the Auto Industry being taken over by the compact, efficient, sleek small car manufacturers from Japan.

Thank you Shane Warne

Much has been written about Shane Warne's captaincy in the IPL. There has been an earlier post from me on this.

What stood out was Shane Warne remembering every single of his players name in full and pronouncing it correctly ( A big achievement for an Australian - Try saying Swapnil Asgondkar and you will know what I am telling ). At every post match press conference, he was profuse in his praise of Swapnil, Ravindra Jadeja, Sidharth Trivedi, Neeraj Patel , Yousuf Pathan and so on depending on who performed well that day. He made his bunch of young non entities feel good, recognised their efforts and gave them confidence. They in turn gave their life to him. He also clearly defined roles for each player and led from the front. My enduring memory of the IPL was Shane Warne ensuring he is within the return crease at the non strikers end when the last ball was bowled and then taking off like a rocket to run the single that his team needed to win the moment the ball left the bowlers hand. Professional to the end. When Yousuf Pathan got out, Warne took the responsibility of seeing his team through in the tightest possible situation. Is there any wonder then that his team Rajastan Royals won IPL. There is a management lesson in all these. You dont need high fliers to attain your objectives (the ridiculous experiment of having icons who were paid 15% more than the highest paid player was a well deserved disaster), all you need is a team of performers who are willing to play out of their skins. Whenever Rajastan Royals were in trouble, one of the youngsters put up his hand and took the responsibility of seeing the team through. There was synergy. The adage that sum of the parts is always greater than one holds good in Rajastan Royals Case.

Contrast this with Yuvraj Singh and even MS Dhoni. At the toss, they were not even able to remember the name of the players who have been omitted or selected. It was so embarrassing. What kind of a message were they sending? True MSD did not point fingers after he lost, but said the team as a whole could have performed. But then he could have at least picked someone from the team who did well during the tournament and mentioned it at the prize distribution ceremony.

Back to Shane Warne. Forget his follies and his scandals. Just remember him for being a great cricketer who gave his everything on the cricket field and off it too. He also dispelled the myth that you need fancy computer analyst, high profile coaches and grand strategies to win on the cricket field. He had always scoffed at John Buchananan and his coaching methods. When he got a chance, Warne walked the talk and proved a point or two to the world. He showed to us that cricket is not about personalities, but utilizing the skills available at your disposal to the hilt with passion and determination. Thank you Shane Warne for keeping things simple and untangling the complexities surrounding cricket teams. It is after all a simple game that has to be played for joy. We salute you as a great player and a still greater leader. What a pity you never became Australian captain! Aussies loss is Rajasthans gain

Good and the Bad

We are always quick to jump to conclusions. As a child we ask thousands of questions. We refuse to accept even the obvious things. For example, I have seen children ask, "Why do you say earth is round when it is flat to my eyes?", " Moon looks bright and lovely and you tell me it is full of potholes, silly?","Why should I not wear a black dress to a wedding?", "Is there a god? But then where is he?"

As we grow older, we lose our ability to analyse and question the conventional wisdom. It is as if we are taking the easier way out by agreeing with the norm and are afraid to question the majority. This leads to us not developing reasoning and critical analysis skills that is so essential to succeed professionally.

I shall give an example. Let me start with a rider that I am not one of those atheist guys but quite religious and follow the sanatana dharma. Still, that has not prevented me from looking at some of the quirks in my religion.

We all accept Srirama as the 'Uttama Purusha' or the 'Ideal Man'. But I do have serious questions on this.

Was Rama right in honouring his fathers old pledge redeemed unfairly by his step mother and agreeing to forgo his right to be crowned prince when the whole country was demanding it. What about his duty to the people of his kingdom? He was by and far the most suitable to be crowned the prince of the four brothers. Was he not abdicating his duty to his people which should have come ahead of his duty to his father?

Rama's killing of Bali while he was fighting with Sugreeva (Rama was hidden behind a tree and used bow and arrow surreptitiously while Bali and Sugreeva were locked in a hand to hand combat) was totally reprehensible. Bali was in fact a wise king and highly respected. He was by no means a threat to anyone other than his brother. An eternal black mark in Rama's character.

Rama's treatment of Sita after his return to Ayodhya (based on a silly rumour by one of his people) also does not put him in proper light. To ask Lakshman to take Sita and excommunicate her while she was pregnant reeks of insensitivity.

Now, Now don't jump at me giving weird divine explanations for all these. All I am saying is that there are serious glitches in his life for us to say he is an uttama purusha. It is quite possible that the story has been changed over a period of time and these could be additions. It is known to have happened in almost all the mythologies. They have been mutilated as generations passed by when the stories are passed down orally and every orator using his imagination to embellish (or distort) the story as he deemed fit.

Now to continue my argument that we jump into conclusions quickly, let us take a look at the much hated Ravana. If Rama is considered to be the epitome of goodness, Ravana is the evil incarnate.

Ravana is reviled because he kidnapped Sita. He made a mistake there that has to be condemned outright. But then what about his behaviour after he took her to Lanka. He treated her with respect, never even touched her and wanted her consent before doing so. Evil? I don't think so.

Not many know that Ravana was a great Shiva devotee and he was also quick to learn from his mistakes. He once thought he was extremely strong, went to mount kailasa and lifted it. When Lord Shiva became aware of it, he gently pressed his leg from atop the mountain which ensured that Ravana's hands were crushed under the mountain. Ravana learned his lesson and was humility personified.

Similarly, when he heard about the immense strength of Bali, he went to take him head on, only to be beaten hollow by Bali who casually bound him using his tail and went about his business of praying. A humbled Ravana acknowledged Bali's prowess and made peace with him immediately.

When his brother Vibhishana disagreed with him on the war with Rama, Ravana instead of imprisoning his or punishing him, allowed him to cross over to the other side. That Rama accepted Vibhishana (who could be jailed for treason for siding with the enemy during a war) and used his knowledge of Lanka and its warriors to win the war is another instance that shows the uttama purusha in poor light.

I have utmost respect for the fine qualities of Rama. He was THE ideal man in all aspects barring a few. But spare a thought for Ravana. He is not as bad as he is made out to be. We need to take all the good qualities of Ravana and avoid the flaws in Rama's character.

It is the same in ones work place.We tend to demonise certain people not bothering to understand the good qualities in them while we tend to overlook the negative qualities in some who are acceptable to us because they are nice.

Of contracts

We live and die by Contracts in Business. The amount of time wasted on preparing contracts is phenomenal. It seems half the time of a successful manager is spent on either preparing contracts or making powerpoint presentations. Both hardly serve any purpose.

Incidentally, on powerpoint presentations, one of my friend who is a CEO was telling me that every organization should employ a professional powerpoint creator whose only job will be to create presentations. A novel idea but quite relevant in today's corporate world.

Coming back to contracts. I have held the belief that if the other guy is a crook, there is no need for a contract anyway as he is bound to break it and find out some loopholes in it to make you run around for donkey's years, especially if you are under the Indian court's jurisdiction. If the other guy is a honest person, then there is no need for a contract, as he is not at all likely to break a gentleman's word or an oral agreement.

Either way, a contract is redundant. I remember when I went to sign the contract to become a NIIT Franchisee in 1994, I was asked to sit in a conference room, dumped an agreement running into hundreds of pages and asked to review it in one hour. I didn't touch it but pressed the buzzer for the guys to come back in less than 2 minutes. There they were, couple of managers, a lawyer, the PRO etc etc., all armed with large dossiers and asked me officiously "Mr.Rajan, you can ask any doubts. We are here to clarify them"

I just looked at them and asked "Where do I sign?"

They were flabbergasted and went into a huddle. It was almost comical to watch. "Do you mean to say you have no queries? But you MUST HAVE queries"

Poker faced I told them " I have no intention of breaking any agreement signed by me. I know you would have taken utmost care to protect your interests and if I really want to break the agreement, I can find a smart lawyer who will pick a hole in any agreement. So be good and tell me where I should sign".

A frenetic discussion took place and they left the room. After a while, I was called to meet the CEO, Vijay Tadani, who thought I was not serious as I had not bothered to ask any clarifications on the agreement. They would not have signed the franchise with me but for the fact that I had established my credentials by bringing to the table a DD for Rs 3.5 lakhs.