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.....................................