US based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, is entering India's sprawling retail market through a tie up with Bharti Enterprises Ltd. In the future, we will have many such cases of global retailers entering Indian markets, given the huge Indian consumer base and growth across all sectors of the economy generating a positive wealth effect of sorts.
According to KSA Technopak, a consultancy firm, the Indian retail market is projected to grow from US$300 Billion in 2006 to US$637 Billion by 2015 as GDP rises from US$804 Billion to US$1.7 Trillion over the same period. The bulk of the market is unorganised with less than 5% being classified as ‘organised retail’. The urban market is 45% of India's retail market, with the top 784 cities alone accounting for US$105 billion in retail sales. The rural market is dispersed over 627,000 villages, though it has a concentration around a core 100,000 villages that account for 50% of the rural population. Indian retail has a unique concept of ‘Kiranawallahs’, family run small shops.
With global players all set to capture the Indian retail, the Indian businesses have also recognised the opportunity and recently few large businesses have jumped into retailing. Reliance entered the retail market by opening its chain of Reliance Fresh hypermarkets in the city of Hyderabad. Reliance is expected to pump in close to US $ 5 billion in the next five years to build a chain of thousands of such shops across urban and rural India. The Aditya Birla Group is reported to be putting together a plan for a similar venture in the retail space. The group may invest upwards of US$3 billion to set up 6,000 stores within three years, with the first stores set to open by middle of next year. Pantaloon Retail, an earlier entrant to retail in India, has aggressive plans to double its retail space to 8 million sq ft within a year and to 30 million sq ft by 2010. It owns the most successful Big Bazaar/ Food Bazaar chain of retail shops. Godrej Agrovet and ITC (e-choupal) are large payers focusing primarily on the rural sector. Godrej plans to launch 1,000 Aadhar stores in rural India by 2010. The Tata Group is also getting involved in the business in a big way with Infiniti Retail venture. It has already opened its Chroma chain of consumer electronics shops across Mumbai. Global players like French retailer Carrefour, UK based Tesco are some of the other biggies in the pipeline waiting for their share of the action.
The Left is opposing such a generous liberalisation of the Indian markets. They believe that the scale and efficiency of the operations of the mammoth global retailers will hit the business of small family run Kiranawallah Shops and will leave millions of people jobless. The global players, on the other hand, are arguing that they will be targeting only the cream of the Indian consumer base in the urban India and will not affect Kiranawallahs in any significant way. They also argue that large Indian retailers like Reliance, Pantaloons, etc are also posing similar threat to the small retailers, if at all. Whatever may be the fate of the smaller retailers, the consumers will surely win with maturing retail market. Long used to shopping in packed and dusty marketplaces, they will flock to the neat, air-conditioned malls, fascinated by the convenience of one-stop shopping, a wide range of products to choose from, and significantly lower prices than they pay today. The savings will likely find their way back via higher consumption, helping drive the economy. Tax collections will also increase as more retail sales flow through the organised trade. Farmers and other suppliers who are able to deliver against the stringent quality requirements placed on them by modern retail will benefit from higher prices as middlemen get cut out of the supply chain. Landowners and real estate developers will laugh all the way to the bank as multi-billion dollar investments compete for limited supply of space.
So, what does the future hold for big retailers, Kiranawallahs and consumers?
As I’ve already mentioned, consumers are in for a good time for sure.
Contrary to general opinion, I think that the local Kiranawallahs are in a vantage position. They already have a loyal consumer base in place in rural as well as urban India. The young Indian consumer may be charmed by the large, brilliantly lit malls, larger than life shopping experience and loads of so called discounts, but small shops can counter these by their customised, personalised services. They will have to unite and achieve the benefits of scale which the bigger retailers enjoy. They will have to drastically change the way they services their consumers and innovate and they can survive this revolution in the Indian retail. The Kiranawallahs are placed in the vicinity of their consumers and this is where they score over the larger retailers. My local Kiranawallah almost knows all my family’s preferences right from the brand of the oil that we use to the quantity of wheat floor that we consume every month. For all my sundry orders like a loaf of bread, a bottle of ketchup, a pack of Maggie, I cannot go to a large retailer’s shop. My local Kiranawallah turns to my help in such cases. Indian consumer is not used to doing all his shopping for the month at one go. With the increasing share of organised retail in the Indian retail industry, the consumer will also have to transform itself into an organised consumer. If all small retailers in an area come together to give a basket of services to the consumers in the area then Kiranawallahs can very well survive alongside the big retailers. I really think that Kiranawallahs can see through this retail restructuring if they believe that they can counter bigger retailers and innovate.
As for large retailers, not everything is as good as it seems. There are already half a dozen players who have either announced their entry or are already operating in the organised retail. There will be enormous advertising and consumer education expenses that these larger players will have to bear. Immense competition in the large players will see a fierce price battle and will reduce the margins drastically. Foreign retailers cannot mimic their US or Europe business models directly into India as Indian consumer has its own characteristics and Indian market is like no other markets they’ve been before in. Only a few players with superior supply chain and consumer reach will survive this revolution.
Indian retail is trying to achieve in a decade what other developed retail markets have achieved in a span of two to three decades. This very fact makes this transition period very interesting. No one knows who will survive and who will not but consumers are surely in for a good time.
Sunday 3 December, 2006
Thursday 30 November, 2006
Grasshopper
The other day, a nice little green insect came into my bedroom (After a bit of googling I found out that it is called GrassHopper ;-)). Interesting thing is that, it too didn't have much work like me and thus a stage was set for a long photo-shoot. These are some of the stills from the shoot:
These are considerably scaled down versions of the original images. I can even zoom onto the little baby ( that's my assumption) in the insect's womb in the original pictures... That reminds me... Are insects oviparous?
These are considerably scaled down versions of the original images. I can even zoom onto the little baby ( that's my assumption) in the insect's womb in the original pictures... That reminds me... Are insects oviparous?
Friday 20 October, 2006
Friday 13 October, 2006
The Donkey
One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.
He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down.
A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.
As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
MORAL :
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
Update: 28th Nov 2008
I have been retold this story by one of my professors. The story is now called 'The Dunky Story'.
He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down.
A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.
As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
MORAL :
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
Update: 28th Nov 2008
I have been retold this story by one of my professors. The story is now called 'The Dunky Story'.
Tuesday 3 October, 2006
Can Dada make it into Blues once again?
Challenger Trophy is on. Though, Indian squad has already been chosen for Champions’ Trophy, this tournament provides much needed hope for many former Indian team members to get back into the team. Their performance vis-à-vis frontline Indian cricketers is their only chance of proving to the selectors that they have what it takes to be in the final 14 and who can know this better than Sourav Dada… Dada is playing in the Indian Greens (Least favorite team to win the tournament) under the captaincy of Mohammed Kaif. It is strange how life can quickly turn tables on you. Who could have ever imagined that the Legend, Sourav Ganguly will have to prove himself for a place in the Indian cricket team and that too under the captaincy of Mohammed Kaif? I don’t know why but when I saw tired-looking but determined Sourav Ganguly trying his every bit to perform, I felt sorry for him. I felt sorry more than I do when I see Salman Khan acting in the movies. I think Dada is really determined to make it to the final 14 and though his performance in the first match does not approve so, sooner or later he will stage a come back.
The challenger trophy reminds me of the chunk of time I have wasted watching the first two matches of the tournament. At times I ponder my sudden shot- term love for time consuming things as unimportant as the Challenger Trophy and prime time soaps as hackneyed as ‘Left Right Left’ when I am preparing for some exam or the other. I had developed a liking for ‘Remix’ last time round when I was to appear for my eighth semester exams.
Among the other things, I can now access orkut from my office… I am logged into orkut from 9-6 these days and every time I open orkut window to scrap someone, my ML peeps into my computer… I have a feeling that he thinks I am logged onto some matrimony site and badly searching for a girl to marry, thanks to the way orkut GUI has been designed… This has, by the way, softened his attitude towards me which is palpable from the kind of work I have been getting…
I have been thinking about saving tax these days… I have gone through considerable amount of material on investments, mutual funds and taxation in the past few days. I think the government is looting us of our salaries and that it would be better if we paid a monthly fee for all the services that the government is making us available. I have made a preliminary analysis of my risk appetite. According to it, I need to invest about 65% of my savings in the equity and related instruments. Now I also know that NSC is a damn bad idea for investing which yields 8% returns 5% of which is eaten up by the inflation. More about my investment tips in the posts to come…
The challenger trophy reminds me of the chunk of time I have wasted watching the first two matches of the tournament. At times I ponder my sudden shot- term love for time consuming things as unimportant as the Challenger Trophy and prime time soaps as hackneyed as ‘Left Right Left’ when I am preparing for some exam or the other. I had developed a liking for ‘Remix’ last time round when I was to appear for my eighth semester exams.
Among the other things, I can now access orkut from my office… I am logged into orkut from 9-6 these days and every time I open orkut window to scrap someone, my ML peeps into my computer… I have a feeling that he thinks I am logged onto some matrimony site and badly searching for a girl to marry, thanks to the way orkut GUI has been designed… This has, by the way, softened his attitude towards me which is palpable from the kind of work I have been getting…
I have been thinking about saving tax these days… I have gone through considerable amount of material on investments, mutual funds and taxation in the past few days. I think the government is looting us of our salaries and that it would be better if we paid a monthly fee for all the services that the government is making us available. I have made a preliminary analysis of my risk appetite. According to it, I need to invest about 65% of my savings in the equity and related instruments. Now I also know that NSC is a damn bad idea for investing which yields 8% returns 5% of which is eaten up by the inflation. More about my investment tips in the posts to come…
Wednesday 6 September, 2006
Appraisal, Increment and Job of Receptionist
I was confirmed into TCS last week with a not so bad rating (this actually means outstanding… but I don’t want to blow my own horn you see…). There was a formal evaluation of my deeds (or misdeeds) in TCS by my ML which turned out to be not so bad :-D. Most of the people I know were unhappy about their evaluation and some more research made me realize that this is a very common thing in the IT industry: ‘People not being happy with their appraisals’. The very thing was enough to put me into my favorite contemplating mood. According to me current evaluation practices are a complete failure (take my case for example ;-)). Reasons of failure are:
• Most of us are miles away from the reality and perceive ourselves to be what we want to be rather than what we are.
• We have this perception that animals belonging to the “Boss” category are here to damage our career and can do no good to us. True as this may be to an extent; this is not the truth always.
• Then again there are some unavoidable stupid practices like curve fitting, etc.
I personally think that the task of valuation of human resource in any organization should be strictly quantitative and should follow quantitative performance measurement rather than subjective appraisals. Old fashioned as it may sound, I think it is the only solution to making us realize about our shortcomings.
My company policy document says that my confirmation also lets me enjoy a salary increment and access to a host of company facilities (I am yet to know these facilities though). Jubilant I have already spent a considerable future income last week to celebrate my confirmation. On my hit list this time, were:
A cool 5.1 MP Sony Cybershot DCS W5 Digicam
A sleek HS-11W Bluetooth Headset from Nokia
More on these beauties in the posts to come…
After my confirmation, increment and valuation by seniors I could not keep myself from floating my resume on a few job sites just to find out my real worth in the job market. The results were shocking… After a few call centre job offers, today my CV was short listed for the job of a receptionist.
Conclusion: I am not in any hurry to change my job just now…
• Most of us are miles away from the reality and perceive ourselves to be what we want to be rather than what we are.
• We have this perception that animals belonging to the “Boss” category are here to damage our career and can do no good to us. True as this may be to an extent; this is not the truth always.
• Then again there are some unavoidable stupid practices like curve fitting, etc.
I personally think that the task of valuation of human resource in any organization should be strictly quantitative and should follow quantitative performance measurement rather than subjective appraisals. Old fashioned as it may sound, I think it is the only solution to making us realize about our shortcomings.
My company policy document says that my confirmation also lets me enjoy a salary increment and access to a host of company facilities (I am yet to know these facilities though). Jubilant I have already spent a considerable future income last week to celebrate my confirmation. On my hit list this time, were:
A cool 5.1 MP Sony Cybershot DCS W5 Digicam
A sleek HS-11W Bluetooth Headset from Nokia
More on these beauties in the posts to come…
After my confirmation, increment and valuation by seniors I could not keep myself from floating my resume on a few job sites just to find out my real worth in the job market. The results were shocking… After a few call centre job offers, today my CV was short listed for the job of a receptionist.
Conclusion: I am not in any hurry to change my job just now…
Saturday 19 August, 2006
KANK is Kyon Ki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.zip
Last week everyone on this planet seemed to have only one thing on their mind. Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna or KANK as they call it. A handful of channels had joined hands with Karan to trick everyone into watching this film. Yesterday, I was forcefully taken to the cinema hall and made to watch KANK and my verdict about the film is that KANK is Kyon ki Saans bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (or any of its counterparts) zipped into 3 hours...
Karan has managed to sign best of stars in the industry so that lack of good direction can be done away with. It is a story of two couples. They do not have so called successful marriages but are afraid to accept this fact. First couple is Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta. Preity plays this ambitious, intelligent, charismatic career oriented girl whose boss has hots for her. Shahrukh Khan is a good at heart but eccentric ex-footballer. He has lost his leg and thus his career in an accident right at the time when his career was at its peek. Preity has to assume the responsibility of "Ghar ka Mard" due to inability of her handicapped husband to earn money. Being a complete failure himself, Shahrukh Khan has a lot of broken dreams which he wants to fulfill through his son.
The other couple is Rani Mukherjee and Abhishek Bachchan. Rani plays the character of a simple girl who loves cleanliness and is not sure if she is really happy with her husband. Abhishek Bachchan plays Rani’s husband and he loves her very much. Rani is incapable of having a child and Abhishek every now and then makes her realize that he is okay with all this and will never ever make her aware of her incapacity.
Amitabh Bachchan and Kiron Kher are also thrown in to provide some nonsense comedy and some equally nonsense philosophy about love and life. Then, somewhere down the line, not happy with their partners, Shahrukh and Rani fall in love with each other. They know that this is going to tear apart their marriages but have no control over them and rightly so as Amitabh says before dying in the movie, “Mohobbat aur Maut, dono bin bulaye mehemaan hote hain, aur kisikaa saath naahi chodte…” After cheating their partners for quite some time, Shahrukh and Rani decide to let know their partners, the truth. After this, Shahrukh and Preity separate and so do Abhishek and Rani. However, as they always do, for no particular reason, Shahrukh and Rani pretend to each other that their corresponding partners have accepted them even after their misdeeds. Around ten minutes before the film ends, Preity meets Rani in a party and tricks Rani into spending the rest of her life with her eccentric ex-husband.
Touchy? I did not cry this time…
I’ve heard this from a few people. They say the movie is really touchy and addresses some of the complexities of human relationships. I must make a confession here… I cried like anything after I saw Million Dollar Baby, Titanic, Rang De Basanti and a bunch of other movies… But I did not cry this time (but again, neither did I laugh). So, for me the movie is anything but touchy…
Misdirected Direction
Is it Comedy? Is it a serious portrayal of extra martial relationships? I think it is nonsense. The film (if at all it tries to) fails to send across any message to the viewer… KANK has finest actors in the industry but the story does injustice to the acting skills of these actors. All of them have acted well but as a whole, the movie fails to make any mark. So, in all, KANK is shot completely outside India, at some of the most magnificent locations, with some of the best actors in the industry and all of this compensates for the poor direction or lack of it.
Box Office Story
Box office, however, has a different tale to tell. The movie has grossed record high earnings in US and UK. In the first week, the total earnings of KANK outside India are more than those in India. The movie is rated “Super hit”. This only means that a majority of Hindi film viewers have a different taste and expectations from Hindi movies and will ignore my post.
Why Kyon Ki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.zip?
Finally, if I want to summarize KANK, I will say “It is some nonsense comedy, nonsense emotional drama packaged in with best actors, poor direction by a lady ;-) and awesome locations. Though I may not believe it but people have liked it and I am now regretting my decision to watch it.” All of the above also hold true for those family soaps on TV at prime time like KSBKBT. Thus KANK is a KSBKBT.zip.
Karan has managed to sign best of stars in the industry so that lack of good direction can be done away with. It is a story of two couples. They do not have so called successful marriages but are afraid to accept this fact. First couple is Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta. Preity plays this ambitious, intelligent, charismatic career oriented girl whose boss has hots for her. Shahrukh Khan is a good at heart but eccentric ex-footballer. He has lost his leg and thus his career in an accident right at the time when his career was at its peek. Preity has to assume the responsibility of "Ghar ka Mard" due to inability of her handicapped husband to earn money. Being a complete failure himself, Shahrukh Khan has a lot of broken dreams which he wants to fulfill through his son.
The other couple is Rani Mukherjee and Abhishek Bachchan. Rani plays the character of a simple girl who loves cleanliness and is not sure if she is really happy with her husband. Abhishek Bachchan plays Rani’s husband and he loves her very much. Rani is incapable of having a child and Abhishek every now and then makes her realize that he is okay with all this and will never ever make her aware of her incapacity.
Amitabh Bachchan and Kiron Kher are also thrown in to provide some nonsense comedy and some equally nonsense philosophy about love and life. Then, somewhere down the line, not happy with their partners, Shahrukh and Rani fall in love with each other. They know that this is going to tear apart their marriages but have no control over them and rightly so as Amitabh says before dying in the movie, “Mohobbat aur Maut, dono bin bulaye mehemaan hote hain, aur kisikaa saath naahi chodte…” After cheating their partners for quite some time, Shahrukh and Rani decide to let know their partners, the truth. After this, Shahrukh and Preity separate and so do Abhishek and Rani. However, as they always do, for no particular reason, Shahrukh and Rani pretend to each other that their corresponding partners have accepted them even after their misdeeds. Around ten minutes before the film ends, Preity meets Rani in a party and tricks Rani into spending the rest of her life with her eccentric ex-husband.
Touchy? I did not cry this time…
I’ve heard this from a few people. They say the movie is really touchy and addresses some of the complexities of human relationships. I must make a confession here… I cried like anything after I saw Million Dollar Baby, Titanic, Rang De Basanti and a bunch of other movies… But I did not cry this time (but again, neither did I laugh). So, for me the movie is anything but touchy…
Misdirected Direction
Is it Comedy? Is it a serious portrayal of extra martial relationships? I think it is nonsense. The film (if at all it tries to) fails to send across any message to the viewer… KANK has finest actors in the industry but the story does injustice to the acting skills of these actors. All of them have acted well but as a whole, the movie fails to make any mark. So, in all, KANK is shot completely outside India, at some of the most magnificent locations, with some of the best actors in the industry and all of this compensates for the poor direction or lack of it.
Box Office Story
Box office, however, has a different tale to tell. The movie has grossed record high earnings in US and UK. In the first week, the total earnings of KANK outside India are more than those in India. The movie is rated “Super hit”. This only means that a majority of Hindi film viewers have a different taste and expectations from Hindi movies and will ignore my post.
Why Kyon Ki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.zip?
Finally, if I want to summarize KANK, I will say “It is some nonsense comedy, nonsense emotional drama packaged in with best actors, poor direction by a lady ;-) and awesome locations. Though I may not believe it but people have liked it and I am now regretting my decision to watch it.” All of the above also hold true for those family soaps on TV at prime time like KSBKBT. Thus KANK is a KSBKBT.zip.
Tuesday 4 July, 2006
A wise decision... Huh!!!
I have banned some very entertaining Hindi News Channels for viewing from yesterday night. I'll surely miss out something on the entertainment front but again, excessive laughter is also harmful for your health. Actually, I have been watching a lot of TV these days because I was stuck in the house as heavens broke out once again in Mumbai. I was surfing through all the news channels, hoping to see any news regarding 'Citywide Holiday' being aired on any of the news channels. Each and every news channel was breaking this news that "It is raining very heavily in Mumbai". Deepaks (News Correspondents) of every news channel were reporting from each and every remote corner of the city and trying to prove that their area is the worst-hit area in the city.
News Centre Lady: Aaj Takriban ek saal baad firse Mumbai sheher main Jhama-Jham (I like that word) barishne apna keher barpaa hain... Log abhi 26 July ka woh hadsaa bhulne ki koshishhi kar rahe the ke kudratne apne takat ka Mumbai wasiyonko ek baar fir andaza dila diya... Pichle chaar dinse Mumbai mein Musaladhar barish ho rahi hain aur Mumbaike sare nichle ilakon mein pani bharne laga hain... Is bareme aur jankari leneke liye chalte hain Hamare sanwaaddata Deepak ke paas jo is waqt Mumbai ke Andheri ilake main maujood hain Deepak hamein batayiye ke ab waha kaise halat hain?
Deepak: (Suddenly realizing that he is on camera and bringing India-Pakistan war wala emotion on his face) Aparna Pichle chaar dinse yahan jordaar barish chal rahi hain aur sheherke sare nichle ilakon main ab pani bhar chuka hain... Log abhi dare huein hain aur gharse bahar nikalneko katra rahe hain (On second thought, I realized that Deepak had conveyed exactly the same message as the News Centre Lady). Aparna, main abhi yahan Andherike J. B. Nagar ilake mein maujood hoon. (One more redundant sentence BTW, thatÂ’s where I live these days) Yahan subahse jordaar barish chal rahi hain. (Aaaah... This Deepak guy is getting on my nerves now) Jaisa ki aap dekh sakte hain yahan ab pani ghutnese bhi upar ja chuka hain (Huh, finally something new). Camera suddenly moves from Deepak to a sort of swimming pool in the middle of a road. A lot of people are struggling to move into the camera frame. Kids are jumping in the water and throwing water at the camera. Pretty girls are moving gracefully through the swimming pool as if these few moments of fame are going to bring them their first Bollywood assignment. Camera again moves on Deepak and Deepak again wears that same "India-Pakistan war" emotion. Yahan ab sare nale puri tarah bhar chuke hain aur kai nichle ilakon main logonke ghar mein bhi pani ja chuka hain. Jaisa ki aap dekh sakte hain kai jagah gadiyan bhi pani main doob chuki hain. (Has Tata Motors finally come up with Rs. 1 Lakh car that drowns in Ghutnetak aya hua pani?) Surprisingly Camera actually moves on a Maruti 800 almost drown in water. In the middle of all this, I got up and walked towards my window as I heard people shouting outside and to my surprise I found our very own Deepak standing near the end of the road where one could see some jama hua water... Deepak and gang were busy in that corner only and they had managed to spot probably the only drowning Maruti 800 in the Mumbai at the end of the road... Most of J. B. Nagar was free from water and still Deepak was busy gathering reports on something which was only a fraction of reality... I was shocked but resumed watching the exaggerated news again.
News Centre Lady: Deepak, wahan aur kitni barish hone ka andaza lagaya jar aha hain?
(Question of the day, I must say)
Deepak: Aparna, agar logonka kehena mane to aisi barish Mumbai mein har saal hoti hain... Logonka manna hain key eh yahan ke 100 saal purani drainage system ki problem hain aur na ki kudrat ki... (This guy will surely get a 0 in PI for relevant content. :-))
News Centre Lady: Deepak, Mausam vibhag ka kya kehna hain ke aisi barish aur kitni der chalegi? (Slightly changing the question so that Deepak can comprehend it)
Deepak: Aparna, Mausam vibhagka kehna hain ke kudrat ka yeh keher aur teen-char din tak chalega. Agar yahan aur do-teen din aisihi barish chalti rahi toh yahan ka sara janjeevan ast-vyast ho jayega. (What a short and sweet answer to probably the only sensible question)
News Centre Lady: Deepak, wahan prashasan kya kuch kar rahi hain aise halat se nipatne ke liye? And the news continued...
This tickled the ever busy contemplating neurons in my brains. I remember how media put an entertaining touch to the Mahajan story with news titled "“Bhai bana Khooni"” etc some time back... The other day some news channel was trying to find similarities between Rahul Dravid and Krissh. (C'mon how stupid can you get?) During Kargil war some channels had imported experts to discuss what will be the next move of Pakistan and the list goes on... I, therefore, in the best of my interest decide to give the same treatment to these channels as I did to those Prime time soaps long time back... From now on I will only be increasing TRPs of some quality news channels like CNBC TV 18 and CNN IBN...
News Centre Lady: Aaj Takriban ek saal baad firse Mumbai sheher main Jhama-Jham (I like that word) barishne apna keher barpaa hain... Log abhi 26 July ka woh hadsaa bhulne ki koshishhi kar rahe the ke kudratne apne takat ka Mumbai wasiyonko ek baar fir andaza dila diya... Pichle chaar dinse Mumbai mein Musaladhar barish ho rahi hain aur Mumbaike sare nichle ilakon mein pani bharne laga hain... Is bareme aur jankari leneke liye chalte hain Hamare sanwaaddata Deepak ke paas jo is waqt Mumbai ke Andheri ilake main maujood hain Deepak hamein batayiye ke ab waha kaise halat hain?
Deepak: (Suddenly realizing that he is on camera and bringing India-Pakistan war wala emotion on his face) Aparna Pichle chaar dinse yahan jordaar barish chal rahi hain aur sheherke sare nichle ilakon main ab pani bhar chuka hain... Log abhi dare huein hain aur gharse bahar nikalneko katra rahe hain (On second thought, I realized that Deepak had conveyed exactly the same message as the News Centre Lady). Aparna, main abhi yahan Andherike J. B. Nagar ilake mein maujood hoon. (One more redundant sentence BTW, thatÂ’s where I live these days) Yahan subahse jordaar barish chal rahi hain. (Aaaah... This Deepak guy is getting on my nerves now) Jaisa ki aap dekh sakte hain yahan ab pani ghutnese bhi upar ja chuka hain (Huh, finally something new). Camera suddenly moves from Deepak to a sort of swimming pool in the middle of a road. A lot of people are struggling to move into the camera frame. Kids are jumping in the water and throwing water at the camera. Pretty girls are moving gracefully through the swimming pool as if these few moments of fame are going to bring them their first Bollywood assignment. Camera again moves on Deepak and Deepak again wears that same "India-Pakistan war" emotion. Yahan ab sare nale puri tarah bhar chuke hain aur kai nichle ilakon main logonke ghar mein bhi pani ja chuka hain. Jaisa ki aap dekh sakte hain kai jagah gadiyan bhi pani main doob chuki hain. (Has Tata Motors finally come up with Rs. 1 Lakh car that drowns in Ghutnetak aya hua pani?) Surprisingly Camera actually moves on a Maruti 800 almost drown in water. In the middle of all this, I got up and walked towards my window as I heard people shouting outside and to my surprise I found our very own Deepak standing near the end of the road where one could see some jama hua water... Deepak and gang were busy in that corner only and they had managed to spot probably the only drowning Maruti 800 in the Mumbai at the end of the road... Most of J. B. Nagar was free from water and still Deepak was busy gathering reports on something which was only a fraction of reality... I was shocked but resumed watching the exaggerated news again.
News Centre Lady: Deepak, wahan aur kitni barish hone ka andaza lagaya jar aha hain?
(Question of the day, I must say)
Deepak: Aparna, agar logonka kehena mane to aisi barish Mumbai mein har saal hoti hain... Logonka manna hain key eh yahan ke 100 saal purani drainage system ki problem hain aur na ki kudrat ki... (This guy will surely get a 0 in PI for relevant content. :-))
News Centre Lady: Deepak, Mausam vibhag ka kya kehna hain ke aisi barish aur kitni der chalegi? (Slightly changing the question so that Deepak can comprehend it)
Deepak: Aparna, Mausam vibhagka kehna hain ke kudrat ka yeh keher aur teen-char din tak chalega. Agar yahan aur do-teen din aisihi barish chalti rahi toh yahan ka sara janjeevan ast-vyast ho jayega. (What a short and sweet answer to probably the only sensible question)
News Centre Lady: Deepak, wahan prashasan kya kuch kar rahi hain aise halat se nipatne ke liye? And the news continued...
This tickled the ever busy contemplating neurons in my brains. I remember how media put an entertaining touch to the Mahajan story with news titled "“Bhai bana Khooni"” etc some time back... The other day some news channel was trying to find similarities between Rahul Dravid and Krissh. (C'mon how stupid can you get?) During Kargil war some channels had imported experts to discuss what will be the next move of Pakistan and the list goes on... I, therefore, in the best of my interest decide to give the same treatment to these channels as I did to those Prime time soaps long time back... From now on I will only be increasing TRPs of some quality news channels like CNBC TV 18 and CNN IBN...
Sunday 25 June, 2006
Http://office.google.com
This URL is soon going to be a reality. Google launched its online spreadsheet editing software Google spreadsheets last week.
With reference to my earlier post, I reiterate that google is thinking about waging a war with Microsoft in its very own, dominated market of ‘Office Automation Software’. Think about the scenario where your boss has asked you to give a presentation on ‘Recent Bear Run in Indian Markets’. You go to Google’s search engine http://www.google.com/ and quickly search some statistical data about the recent crash. Next, you prepare your report using Writely, an online document editing software that Google has bought recently. Google provides you with a G-drive of 5 GB capacity. Your report is stored safely online on Google’s powerful servers and you don’t even have to worry about the backups. You also create a small presentation using Google’s online Presentation software (Google Presenter or something?). Then you mail a copy of the report and the presentation to your boss using Google’s Gmail, a web based mailing software. Next day you walk into the office without carrying your presentation. You can easily download it onto your desktop in the office from Google’s G-Drive. After your presentation, some of your colleagues show interest in the topic and tell you that they’ve lost a hell lot of money in the crash. They ask you if you can guide them about investing into a bear market. You decide to start a blog, ‘Baring the Bear’, that allows not only you but also many more people to write about their trading strategies in the bear market.
One thing to notice here is that you have carried all of the above activities without using something you are so used to, the ‘Microsoft Office’. Google has launched a lightly loaded, online alternative for almost all the software in the ‘Microsoft Office’ suite as can be seen in the table below:
| Microsoft Office Software | Google’s Online Alternative |
| Microsoft Office Word | Google Page Creator/ Writely |
| Microsoft Office Excel | Google Spreadsheets |
| Microsoft Office PowerPoint | ??? |
| Microsoft Office Access | Google base (I’ve heard) |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | Google Gmail |
All these alternatives are not as feature packed as their Microsoft Office counterparts but most of the small businesses can manage their daily office work with these alternatives. For example, most of my work in the office and at home involves creating some documents with basic formatting, creating spreadsheets with embedded formulae, etc and I could almost manage it without ‘Microsoft Office’.
Next in line should be an online alternative to “Microsoft Office PowerPoint’. Google also needs to do a lot of work on adding a few advanced features to their software like ‘Automatic Index Creation’ in Word and so on.
Sometime back I felt that replacing software that resides on your desktop with some web based application is almost impossible. However, Google has already proved me wrong with all its new generation web applications. I have already started countdown to the day when the term ‘Microsoft Office’ will be replaced by the term ‘Google Office’.
Monday 5 June, 2006
My N-Gage
Ever since I got my first smart-phone I wanted to write about "The New Generation Mobile Phones" and especially "My Nokia N-Gage Classic". I had bought it in the month of November year before last to celebrate my so-called good score in the 7th semester engineering exams (So-called because it was good when compared to my entire engineering academic performance till then… ;-)). It is a 3’’ X 7’’ black beauty that made my wallet lighter by around 10K rupees (No, I was not looted… It includes a 256 MB SD MMC). Actually it was the most precious thing I possessed then and it continues to be the most precious thing I possess till date (Yes I am earning these days but again I’ve become too lazy to go to mandi and buy some stuff apart from the fact I don’t like spending my hard earned money ;-)). I had done a lot of research on the Internet before narrowing down to this piece and among the other factors that influenced me to buy this one were its modest cost (other smart-phones where almost twice its price) and the fact that I can use it as a repellent for street dogs to bhagaofy them when I return home late in the night. Poor quadruped creatures really think that it is a stone and run away. :-D.
Going a bit technical it has a 104MHz ARM924 Processor, 3.4 MB System Memory, 3.5 X4.15 cm TFT screen, FM Radio, Hardwired MP3 Player, is enabled with Bluetooth 1.1, J2ME and GPRS and uses Symbian OS.
Going a bit aesthetic some people find its shape really sporty whereas some people think that if aliens use any mobile phone it is N-Gage.
I have increasingly grown dependent on the phone and now a normal life seems impossible without N-Gage. I get up in the morning with N-Gage alarming me at 6:30 sharp. The ‘Talking Clock App’ can play all sorts of monstrous sounds to wake me up. I am seriously thinking of recording my ML’s “Prasad, what are you doing today?” wala dialogue that he says with a “God, what an over smart, idiot you are” expression on his face to use as my wake-up alarm and frighten me up in the early hours. At eight o’clock it reminds me of important events of the day including anniversaries and birthdays. I never send any “Wish you many many happy returns…” SMS though, as ‘SMS-Timer App’ automatically does the job for me at 10 o’clock. While I am traveling to the office, I put on the headphones and listen to Malishka blabbering some useless stuff on 93.5 or at times the loads of Junglee Songs stored on my MMC. N-Gage has stereophonic output giving you an acceptable sound quality (though not as good as an IPod or a sony-ericsson W800i). In the meantime I update my daily expenses using ‘Money Manager App’ by adding an entry for the 11 rupees that I gave to the Rickshawwallah as I was a bit late as usual and was most likely to miss my bus. At this point, my analytical mind demands all sorts of statistical data about my expenses and I watch a tabular representation of all my expenses ranging from food to traveling. I frown after looking at a big 0 against the row having “Expenses on Girlfriend” header. After my bus reaches the office premises, N-Gage automatically switches to “Silent Mode” with ‘MiniGPS App’. It is one of the most intelligent Apps on my cell that actually uses and remembers the cell ids of different cells as I move around them and does anything from “Reminding me about buying a magazine when I pass by local Paperwallah or switch the cell off whenever I enter the office conference room. I immediately head towards the canteen when my ML calls up to know my whereabouts. Damn… I have ‘smartAnswer App’ working for me here… I press a short-cut key that plays traffic sound in the background and I tell my ML about the deadly Mumbai traffic and how I get stuck on road everyday (Probably he will give me a release from the project after listening to my sorrow story everyday ;-)). After making an entry of the lunch expenses in the canteen in the afternoon, I return back to my beloved chair and put the headphones back where they belong. Dhawal drops by in the lazy afternoon hours and challenges me to a one-on-one ‘Virtua Tennis Game’. After beating him badly in the game (He thinks I have better playing conditions as N-Gage's 9-way round cursor joystick allows me some magical shots that his bulky 6600 does not allow him to play) I get back to my work. At around 5:30 or so Yogita sends in a message on ‘Bluetooth Messenger’ to ask if I am going to join in for another half an hour of tea break in the canteen. I lock the PC, message Rohit on the Messenger about the important meeting in the canteen and get going. Late in the evening at around 8:30 Varun calls in from Chennai to update me about the newer problems that he’s introduced in his life on the day. He also uses some very decent language for our ML. I obviously have ‘Call Recorder App’ switched on to save our conversation for re-airing in the canteen at the evening meeting the next day. While coming back in the evening, I use ‘SmartMovie App’ to watch my Friends Collection on my cell. Watching on tiny screen is not very interesting I must say but kills time nonetheless. I go home and switch on my computer. I synchronize my mobile with the computer and also use ‘ProfiMail App’ to download my Gmail Inbox onto the mobile so that I can read mail whenever I have time. There are a hell lot of other things I do with my mobile like looking up meaning of words in the middle of a meeting when someone uses a word outside my limited vocabulary, Browsing from the mobile by sharing my computer’s internet connection over Bluetooth using ‘OperaMini App’and so on…
I wanted this post to be an informative one mentioning latest advances in the world of mobile phones and capabilities of Smart phones but it turned out to be an ode to my “Nokia N-Gage Classic”. I will cover technicalities of S60 phones in some other post.
By the way I still cannot stop myself from appreciating my phone a bit more and the latest news is that someone has recently offered me a resell value of Rs. 6000/- for my phone (Yes this time it is without that 256 MB MMC :-D). I am not going to give it up at any damn cost though.
Going a bit technical it has a 104MHz ARM924 Processor, 3.4 MB System Memory, 3.5 X4.15 cm TFT screen, FM Radio, Hardwired MP3 Player, is enabled with Bluetooth 1.1, J2ME and GPRS and uses Symbian OS.
Going a bit aesthetic some people find its shape really sporty whereas some people think that if aliens use any mobile phone it is N-Gage.
I have increasingly grown dependent on the phone and now a normal life seems impossible without N-Gage. I get up in the morning with N-Gage alarming me at 6:30 sharp. The ‘Talking Clock App’ can play all sorts of monstrous sounds to wake me up. I am seriously thinking of recording my ML’s “Prasad, what are you doing today?” wala dialogue that he says with a “God, what an over smart, idiot you are” expression on his face to use as my wake-up alarm and frighten me up in the early hours. At eight o’clock it reminds me of important events of the day including anniversaries and birthdays. I never send any “Wish you many many happy returns…” SMS though, as ‘SMS-Timer App’ automatically does the job for me at 10 o’clock. While I am traveling to the office, I put on the headphones and listen to Malishka blabbering some useless stuff on 93.5 or at times the loads of Junglee Songs stored on my MMC. N-Gage has stereophonic output giving you an acceptable sound quality (though not as good as an IPod or a sony-ericsson W800i). In the meantime I update my daily expenses using ‘Money Manager App’ by adding an entry for the 11 rupees that I gave to the Rickshawwallah as I was a bit late as usual and was most likely to miss my bus. At this point, my analytical mind demands all sorts of statistical data about my expenses and I watch a tabular representation of all my expenses ranging from food to traveling. I frown after looking at a big 0 against the row having “Expenses on Girlfriend” header. After my bus reaches the office premises, N-Gage automatically switches to “Silent Mode” with ‘MiniGPS App’. It is one of the most intelligent Apps on my cell that actually uses and remembers the cell ids of different cells as I move around them and does anything from “Reminding me about buying a magazine when I pass by local Paperwallah or switch the cell off whenever I enter the office conference room. I immediately head towards the canteen when my ML calls up to know my whereabouts. Damn… I have ‘smartAnswer App’ working for me here… I press a short-cut key that plays traffic sound in the background and I tell my ML about the deadly Mumbai traffic and how I get stuck on road everyday (Probably he will give me a release from the project after listening to my sorrow story everyday ;-)). After making an entry of the lunch expenses in the canteen in the afternoon, I return back to my beloved chair and put the headphones back where they belong. Dhawal drops by in the lazy afternoon hours and challenges me to a one-on-one ‘Virtua Tennis Game’. After beating him badly in the game (He thinks I have better playing conditions as N-Gage's 9-way round cursor joystick allows me some magical shots that his bulky 6600 does not allow him to play) I get back to my work. At around 5:30 or so Yogita sends in a message on ‘Bluetooth Messenger’ to ask if I am going to join in for another half an hour of tea break in the canteen. I lock the PC, message Rohit on the Messenger about the important meeting in the canteen and get going. Late in the evening at around 8:30 Varun calls in from Chennai to update me about the newer problems that he’s introduced in his life on the day. He also uses some very decent language for our ML. I obviously have ‘Call Recorder App’ switched on to save our conversation for re-airing in the canteen at the evening meeting the next day. While coming back in the evening, I use ‘SmartMovie App’ to watch my Friends Collection on my cell. Watching on tiny screen is not very interesting I must say but kills time nonetheless. I go home and switch on my computer. I synchronize my mobile with the computer and also use ‘ProfiMail App’ to download my Gmail Inbox onto the mobile so that I can read mail whenever I have time. There are a hell lot of other things I do with my mobile like looking up meaning of words in the middle of a meeting when someone uses a word outside my limited vocabulary, Browsing from the mobile by sharing my computer’s internet connection over Bluetooth using ‘OperaMini App’and so on…
I wanted this post to be an informative one mentioning latest advances in the world of mobile phones and capabilities of Smart phones but it turned out to be an ode to my “Nokia N-Gage Classic”. I will cover technicalities of S60 phones in some other post.
By the way I still cannot stop myself from appreciating my phone a bit more and the latest news is that someone has recently offered me a resell value of Rs. 6000/- for my phone (Yes this time it is without that 256 MB MMC :-D). I am not going to give it up at any damn cost though.
Thursday 18 May, 2006
World War 3 is Happening... Its between Google and Microsoft
Yes... I confirm it from my side... Goggle is ready to take on Microsoft...
Look at this... This is an online substitute for Microsoft Office... It is called Google Page Creator.
Though in its early development stages, it promises to be a sufficiently feature-packed tool very soon... At least feature-packed enough to meet my needs and needs of millions of people like me. Creating and editing documents on web appears a bit too weird but not when Google Page Creator is around. They've again got AJAX working for them along with a good interface design resulting into a fairly responsive web application.
You can put in images, do basic formatting like bold, itallics, text color, bullets, fonts, alignment. All in all a nice idea implemented into an excellent product. I did not really like the name though. Innovators as they are.. they could have come up with a better name I guess...
Only missing thing is a Spell Check feature (I'm sure I make more spelling mistakes than the number of words in my posts) and a Search feature for Images and Content... But looking at the overall package that is absolutely pardonable...
Sunday 7 May, 2006
Cancer cures Smoking...
We’ve come a long way from those old Nirma Nirma washing powder Nirma… adds to these more mature and entertaining ones…
Tuesday 18 April, 2006
The Reservation Thing...
BCCI to introduce 30% reservation for backward classes in Indian Team…
Indian Railways introduce 50% reservation for backward classes…
Passing percentage for backward classes reduced to 20%...
Backward classes need not pay taxes… Prime Minister…
Backward class people will live 30% longer… The Almighty (what the heck)
I will not be surprised if I get to read any of these in TOI in the morning some day. I had decided not to react on this “Reservation Thing” and express my views anywhere or sign any petition as petitions and protests are hardly paid any attention these days. But later I realized that this political stunt for votes has much more to it than just being a political stunt. This is the time when
Facts:
1. Government has almost made up its mind to increase OBC reservations in IITs, IIMs and other such premier educational institutes to 49% from current 27%.
2. Government has been urging India Inc. to introduce reservations in jobs for backward classes and is now hinting at introducing a law for the same.
India edging over India
Indeed there is a huge population in
Where’s the Competition?
Reservations kill the very element of competitiveness. We can introduce better basic education, schools and colleges, more seats and scholarships if we want more people to be a part of modern, developing
Brain Drain:
Thinking from the perspective of a student in general, if he is not able to fulfill his dreams here in
Government’ Stand:
Here's what our respected PM Mr. Manmohan Singh had to say about the stand of the government on the issue:
"We all need to ensure that no group feels excluded from enjoying the fruits of rapid economic growth"
Surely, we need to make sure that India as a whole profits from the massive economic growth we are going through today. At the same time we should not forget the reasons for this rapid growth. It is highly skilled low cost workforce in IT and ITES that has helped our economy gain this momentum. It is those ambitious entrepreneurs from IITs and IIMs that have catapulted
"Opening up the economy has meant diminishing job opportunities for the socially disadvantaged"
If there is a considerable difference between the skill set of “Socially Advantaged” and “Socially Disadvantaged” people then it’s a failure on the government’s part. It means that the government has failed to narrow down this gap. It is highly foolish of the government to expect the Indian industry to pay the price of its misdeeds by introducing reservations in jobs.
India Inc.’s Stand:
India Inc. has clearly signaled its disapproval on this matter. Industries should concentrate on increasing their stake holder’s wealth rather than anything else if we are to survive in the opened-up economy against other global players. Industry thinks that everyone should come forward and do something voluntarily to improve the condition of the socially disadvantaged but introducing a law and forcing things is not a solution.
Solution:
What next?
After strong opposition from the Indian Industry on “reservation in jobs”, the government has softened its stand a bit. Even the IITs and IIMs have not been informed about the new reservation policies. I hope this “Reservation thing” was a mere vote-magnet for the assembly elections and will soon be forgotten by everyone. If not so, we are surely in for a lot of debate and controversies.
Sunday 12 March, 2006
Teams of the world... It's Showtime...
A new season, a new beginning and a whole new look... Teams of the world... It's Showtime...
2006 promises to bring one of the most closely fought battles on the F1 circuits with Alonso all set to defend his crown and Kimi n Schumi fired up to challenge him. While everyone was away from all the action, there have been a few changes in the rules, teams and circuits as well.
Major rule changes this year include:
1. Teams now have to use 2.4 L V8 engines instead of 3.0 L V10s last year. This theoretically means lesser power, lesser speed and eventually a safer race. Some teams like Toro Rosso have been allowed to use last years V10s with a limit on their Revs which I'm sure is going to raise some eyebrows. For engine manufacturers, this change means that they'll have to work harder to make their new V8s stable and extract as much power from them as possible.
2. Last year's most controversial rule has now been taken back by FIA. So teams can now use 7 sets of dry-weather tires, 4 sets of wet-weather tires and 3 sets of extreme-weather tires. Does this mean that Bridgestones are back in the race? Only time will this but racing is surely going to get more interesting as drivers can draw out that extra bit of performance from cars without worrying about the tire ware.
3. Following its tradition, FIA has yet again introduced a new Qualifying format. It seems complex and promises to lessen advantage for front-runners. It consists of 2 mini-qualifying sessions of 15 minutes in which 6 slowest cars drop out. These are followed by a 20 minute session for top 10 positions. These first 10 cars have to start the race with the same fuel load as they had in the 20 minute qualifying session. The remaining 12 cars can change their fuel strategy as they wish. This means that teams at the end of the grid can be more flexible with their fuel strategy as compared to their counterparts starting at the head of the grid.
Teams for Formula1 Season 2006:
There have been loads of changes in the teams this year. Narain couldn't bag a race driver's seat in any team but managed to clinch a test driver's assignment at Williams. There have been a few additions in the F1 Family and a few divorces and marriages between engine and chassis manufacturers. Different teams and their drivers this year are:
Team name: BMW Sauber
Engine: BMW
Tires: Michelin
Drivers: Jacques Villeneuve, Nick Heidfeld
Team name: Ferrari
Engine: Ferrari
Tires: Bridgestone
Drivers: Michael Schumacher, Felipe Massa
Team name: Honda
Engine: Honda
Tires: Michelin
Drivers: Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button
Team name: Midland F1 (Earlier Jordan)
Engine: Toyota
Tires: Michelin
Drivers: Tiago Monteiro, Christijan Albers
Team name: Mclaren
Engine: Mercedes-Benz
Tires: Michelin
Drivers: Kimi Raikkonen, Juan Pablo Montoya
Team name: Red Bull (Earlier Jaguar)
Engine: Ferrari
Tires: Michelin
Drivers: David Coulthard, Christian Klien
Team name: Renault
Engine: Renault
Tires: Michelin
Drivers: Giancarlo Fisichella, Fernando Alonso
Team name: Super Aguri (New Entry)
Engine: Honda
Tires: Bridgestone
Drivers: Takuma Sato, Yuji Ide
Team name: Toro Rosso (Earlier Minardi)
Engine: Crossworth
Tires: Michelin
Drivers: Vitantonio Liuzzi, Scott Speed
Team name: Toyota
Engine: Toyota
Tyres: Bridgestone
Drivers: Ralf Schumacher, Jarno Trulli
Team name: Williams (Earlier Williams BMW)
Engine: Crossworth
Tires: Michelin
Drivers: Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg
My Predictions:
Now the most interesting part... My predictions for the season. I think Renault have done good enough to maintain their Drivers’ Championship. Constructors’ Championship however is a tough one to predict. It is going to be a cut throat competition between Mclaren and Renault but I think in the end Mclaren will have a slight edge on Renault in Constructors' as their Kimi-Montoya duo seems to be more promising than Alonso-Fisichella pair. All in all, good teams, good venues and good competition... What else can you ask for?
Saturday 11 March, 2006
Businessweek IT100
My company features in Businessweek's The Best of The Info Tech 100. It also stands third in the Most Profitable category (I wonder howz that possible ;-) ). Here's a comprehensive report from businessweek on most happening 100 IT companies in the world. Infy stands 10th in the report whereas TCS holds 12th place. Other Indian tech companies include Telecom giant Bharti Televentures in 19th place, Wipro in 23rd place, Cognizant in 32nd place and Satyam Computer Services in 85th place. Read More Here...
Friday 17 February, 2006
Back 2 Blogging...
I can access blogspot from my office now. This probably means a lot of blogging :-). Life has really changed a lot in the past few months. This transformation from a college student to a so called Professional has not been very easy for me... College was so cool... Actually, I was so keen to work when I was in college but now that I've started working, I feel college was much better...
Worst part of office is that everyday I need to get up early in the morning and reach office by 9. Even if I feel like not going to work someday(which I feel everyday), there's no option but to catch the same old bus on the same old street. Not that it matters to everyone in the office whether I turn up everyday or not, but these people will cut my salary if I don't sign the attendance everyday.
Life has become so predictable and so scheduled that at times I feel I'm actually running a life.bat file everyday and it is not very exciting. I've even managed to write down the code of my life.bat. It goes something like this...
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Filename:life.bat
:: Life of Prasad Shahane
:: A (buggy) software developer
:: Located in India (the land where all not so interesting work is outsourced)
@ECHO OFF
:: Equivalent of tolerate everything and "Awaaz Bandh"
ECHO A DAY IN LIFE OF PRASAD SHAHANE
:START
SET /A TIME= 6
ECHO %TIME% O'CLOCK
SET /A MINUTE=30
ECHO BATH,BRUSH,BREAKFAST:
PAUSE
:CONTINUE1
IF %MINUTE% NEQ 0 GOTO BATH_BRUSH_BREAKFAST
SET /A TIME=7
ECHO %TIME% O'CLOCK
ECHO CATCH BUS AND GOTO WORK
ECHO CHECK MAIL:
PAUSE
GOTO CHECK_MAIL
:CONTINUE2
ECHO MEETING:
PAUSE
GOTO MEETING
:CONTINUE3
ECHO WORK AS IF THERE IS NO TOMORROW:
PAUSE
GOTO WORK_AS_IF_THERE_IS_NO_TOMORROW
:CONTINUE6
SET /A TIME=9
ECHO %TIME% O'CLOCK
IF %TIME% EQU 9 ECHO TIME TO GO HOME :-) :-(.
PAUSE
ECHO LEAVE FOR HOME
SET /A TIME=10
ECHO %TIME% O'CLOCK
ECHO SLEEP
SET /A TIME=6
ECHO %TIME% O'CLOCK
ECHO ANOTHER DAY FULL OF HOPE IN LIFE
PAUSE
GOTO START
:BATH_BRUSH_BREAKFAST
SET /A MINUTE=MINUTE-10
ECHO PREPARING FOR WORK
ECHO %MINUTE% MINUTES TO GO
GOTO CONTINUE1
:CHECK_MAIL
ECHO DELETE ALL FORWARDS FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE ON BENCH ;-)
GOTO CONTINUE2
:MEETING
SET /A MEETING_TIME=0
ECHO DISCUSS TOPICS THAT ARE NOT ON AGENDA
GOTO WASTE_HALF_AN_HOUR
:CONTINUE4
ECHO GOSSIP
GOTO WASTE_HALF_AN_HOUR
:CONTINUE5
GOTO CONTINUE3
:WASTE_HALF_AN_HOUR
ECHO WASTE TIME IN MEETING
SET /A MEETING_TIME=MEETING_TIME+30
ECHO MEETING TIME:%MEETING_TIME% MINUES
PAUSE
IF %MEETING_TIME% EQU 30 GOTO CONTINUE4
IF %MEETING_TIME% EQU 60 GOTO CONTINUE5
:WORK_AS_IF_THERE_IS_NO_TOMORROW
ECHO PRs/ CRs
ECHO CONFUSION
ECHO MORE CONFUSION
GOTO CONTINUE6
:END
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
I understand that this code could have been much more elegent but given the limited time that I have and my awesome programming skills, this is all I could manage to put down.
PS: The Code actually works. Copy it in a life.bat file and run at your command prompt.
Worst part of office is that everyday I need to get up early in the morning and reach office by 9. Even if I feel like not going to work someday(which I feel everyday), there's no option but to catch the same old bus on the same old street. Not that it matters to everyone in the office whether I turn up everyday or not, but these people will cut my salary if I don't sign the attendance everyday.
Life has become so predictable and so scheduled that at times I feel I'm actually running a life.bat file everyday and it is not very exciting. I've even managed to write down the code of my life.bat. It goes something like this...
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Filename:life.bat
:: Life of Prasad Shahane
:: A (buggy) software developer
:: Located in India (the land where all not so interesting work is outsourced)
@ECHO OFF
:: Equivalent of tolerate everything and "Awaaz Bandh"
ECHO A DAY IN LIFE OF PRASAD SHAHANE
:START
SET /A TIME= 6
ECHO %TIME% O'CLOCK
SET /A MINUTE=30
ECHO BATH,BRUSH,BREAKFAST:
PAUSE
:CONTINUE1
IF %MINUTE% NEQ 0 GOTO BATH_BRUSH_BREAKFAST
SET /A TIME=7
ECHO %TIME% O'CLOCK
ECHO CATCH BUS AND GOTO WORK
ECHO CHECK MAIL:
PAUSE
GOTO CHECK_MAIL
:CONTINUE2
ECHO MEETING:
PAUSE
GOTO MEETING
:CONTINUE3
ECHO WORK AS IF THERE IS NO TOMORROW:
PAUSE
GOTO WORK_AS_IF_THERE_IS_NO_TOMORROW
:CONTINUE6
SET /A TIME=9
ECHO %TIME% O'CLOCK
IF %TIME% EQU 9 ECHO TIME TO GO HOME :-) :-(.
PAUSE
ECHO LEAVE FOR HOME
SET /A TIME=10
ECHO %TIME% O'CLOCK
ECHO SLEEP
SET /A TIME=6
ECHO %TIME% O'CLOCK
ECHO ANOTHER DAY FULL OF HOPE IN LIFE
PAUSE
GOTO START
:BATH_BRUSH_BREAKFAST
SET /A MINUTE=MINUTE-10
ECHO PREPARING FOR WORK
ECHO %MINUTE% MINUTES TO GO
GOTO CONTINUE1
:CHECK_MAIL
ECHO DELETE ALL FORWARDS FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE ON BENCH ;-)
GOTO CONTINUE2
:MEETING
SET /A MEETING_TIME=0
ECHO DISCUSS TOPICS THAT ARE NOT ON AGENDA
GOTO WASTE_HALF_AN_HOUR
:CONTINUE4
ECHO GOSSIP
GOTO WASTE_HALF_AN_HOUR
:CONTINUE5
GOTO CONTINUE3
:WASTE_HALF_AN_HOUR
ECHO WASTE TIME IN MEETING
SET /A MEETING_TIME=MEETING_TIME+30
ECHO MEETING TIME:%MEETING_TIME% MINUES
PAUSE
IF %MEETING_TIME% EQU 30 GOTO CONTINUE4
IF %MEETING_TIME% EQU 60 GOTO CONTINUE5
:WORK_AS_IF_THERE_IS_NO_TOMORROW
ECHO PRs/ CRs
ECHO CONFUSION
ECHO MORE CONFUSION
GOTO CONTINUE6
:END
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
I understand that this code could have been much more elegent but given the limited time that I have and my awesome programming skills, this is all I could manage to put down.
PS: The Code actually works. Copy it in a life.bat file and run at your command prompt.
Sunday 8 January, 2006
Google Technology
Here's what I stumbled upon the other day while finding some information on Google... This is really an example of how innovative and creative a technology company could be... Great going Google... Though the technology is around 4 Yrs. old, it still impresses me ;-)...
http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html
http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html
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