Rang De Basanti

Well better late than never to write a review of such a film...

This film makes us think our ways of doing thing... it typically reflects on A R Rehman's thought when he released the "Ma tujhe Salam" songs to commemorate the 50 yrs of independence...we are doomed by this thought of "Chalta hey yaar"... we typically set standards for lower levels... we never try to change things for the better....We agree and give reasons why we are not potent enough to take initiative and change things...The film typically reflect and let us question these actions of ours...

Its when we are faced with adversity so severe that we take it upon ourself to change things... if we are not closedly linked to the advesity then we generally shun away from the action that needs to be taken... but what is more improtant... do we learn from the advestity the lessons of unity to be carried over when the advesity subsides? I seriously doubt it... we are frightened to get back to different way when it returns to status quo... I feel this is typically because we lack a vision statement... a common goal that all of us have to share... with our this super ordinate goal we are like horses pulling a carriage in all possible direction... its only when all of the horses get to move in same direction that the journey to a new destiny begins... it might need a charrioteer to do the handling.. some times its a leader, some times its advesity.... but arent we capable enough to find our own path!!! we need to define our purpose and try and align it with the greater cause, and actually appreciate the life we want to lead and to make it more meaningful.

The film touches various other perspectives but this is one which I think stands apart from all other messages that are given in the story line...

In seach of bangADi falls

The film “Chigurida kansu” made a mention of the so called bangADi falls, a small look up for more information from my cousins and I came to know that it was near Dharmasthala. I decided to try out the falls.

After the summer placements and IIMB, its generally a time to cool of a bit for the junta here some of the sections going on a trip to some place some others it is a trip to the Wonder-La. I decided to do an exploratory trek and chose bangADi to be my destination.

I reached Dharmasthala at round 630 am in the morning and had my breakfast after some freshening up. Then reached beltandaDi…. There was the very old hotel to home I am a usual customer when on treks – “Hotel Samatha”. I got my lunch packed and asked them for directions. I told them I waned to go to bangADi falls; they were a bit confused but directed me towards somanDakda… I climbed the bus in the direction towards CharmaDi and got down at the place. I enquired about the falls with the local pan beeDa stall. The told me that there is nothing like bangADi Falls; if you want to see all the falls shown in the film you have to go to bandaje arbi and hAnaDka(AnaDka) fall I told him I have done that already could you tell me something more about the “bolle faLLs”. I was a bit skeptical about the information. I could not belive that such massive information could be manipulated just for a film. He told me a bus would come in another 15 min that would take me to deDupe… you can get down ant kAjur and then walk toward killor (which is around 2 km.) I decided to try my luck once again and once in the bus decided to take a ticket to deDupe. This was the last stop of the bus. Along the route, I could spot the banDaje falls, I for some time went into the recollection mode… about my trek to the falls and the night in the forest. Things have changed quite a bit… some murder of a foreigner who was doing some research on the herbs here had been done around 6 months prior and the people were still in shock. A bit later I found the way to the AnaDka falls. The simple elegant falls I had gone to more than a year ago. Finally I reached deDupe, had a couple co passengers at the last point.

I asked my co passengers for some more information in case they knew of any falls at bangADi. The answer was negative. I then asked them if there was a way to killoor for there. The asked me to enquire down the road and find direction. I reached the stream which was flowing and asked the residents of a house nearby if following the path beside the stream would take me to killor. The answer was positive. It was a nice trek experience the first of its kind for me to trek through and beside the river to a place. From the bridge is was photography time for me, all along the stream I could find some cranes some kingfishers and some other birds which would fly across fishing and posing occasionally for my camera.

The trek beside the stream is till we reach the broken/incomplete bridge downstream. Once we reached there we asked again for direction, not the trek beside the steam was over, it was time for trek beside the farm banks and plantations. Another half an hour of photography was there for me… J There was a villager who was on this way to some ones house, I decided to have his company and asked him questions like when it had rained last… all these was to ascertain that at least boLLe falls near killor would have some water to keep me happy for the effort. He then showed me a hillock and told me… look gets to be a complete falls on its own when it rains. You will find water running down allover the hill and making splendid falls worth a camera shot. I recollected that this might be the hill that was shown in the film, quite possible!!! Well let me get back sometime to see this hill during the rains and capture the falls… now I need to see the new falls I am in search of….

Ah some distance ahead I had a buffalo block my way. It seemed to be confused seeing a crazy creature like me some where down the with camera hanging down my neck, a towel to wipe off the sweat that might come, a track suite and a bag to carry my luggage… it must have thought… “Oh God!!! What do I do now…. He doesn’t seem to be one whom I like… seems to have come from some other land…” I had my own plans for him… while he turned his head away to think I took my camera out showed it and asked it to turn towards me… surprisingly it did turn and I had my snap… I told thanks you, can you please give me my way… it immediately walked off giving me the route for further journey… The villager who was accompanying me was surprised and told… “Seems as thought he understands your language…” I gave a broad grin… and continued walking. In about 5 minutes form there I was near the Kolli Durgaparameshwari temple. I had been there once in bike when I was on a search for a route to Bandage from Jamalabad fort… it was an unsuccessful attempt then. I asked the nearby tea shop how much time I had till the bus would come. He told around 20 min. I decided to go into the temple and have blessing from the deity.

I sat in the bus waiting for it to leave… another 10 min journey from there and I was in killor. I was asking for directions to boLLe falls. I could either have an auto which would take me for some distance or a jeep that would take me a bit further. I decided to go by Jeep. There I found my guide Praveen who was also on his way back home. He volunteered to take me to the falls as the shrubs had covered the path and there was no real route that you could spot. The Jeep dropped me 3 kms ahead on the route... I think I had made up for around 45 minutes of my walking time by a 20 minute jeep journey. I got down at the stop, thanked the driver and went ahead with Praveen.

The trak for the jeep was all a mud road and it was not sure if the track was ready to use after a steam on the road. So we decided to get walking. Praveen was telling me all about himself, some information about the place, his ancestry and stuff like it. His Grandma’s home was almost the last house on the way to the falls. We walked along the jeep track that was being made usable (the rains generally spoil the track and these people have to rework on them every year.) Praveen also told me that you can get to lobo house from the route, which then can take us to the Kudremukh peak.

We reached the last house after an uphill walk along he Jeep track, and from there it was a trek in the forest… Ah! Finally something worth a trek… looking at the moistness I understood there would be leeches and I was always on the look out. We walked thought the shrubs that had grown to cover the route and made our own path to the falls. We had some nice experiences climbing over some fallen trees and some thorny hanging creepers. We reached the falls after around 20 min of walk though the forest. It was now time to remove our shoes search for some leeches just in case some had climbed over without a hint.

I settled down and after a small relaxing time decided to go to the base of the falls. This falls is very reachable and we can get to the base of the falls, very easy. Praveen as telling we can go to yevala from here, he told it is a nice place and the flowers there are really famous. I told I would come back to that place some other time. I was busy picking snaps of the falls. Many of the regular reader of my blog would know that I have crush on falls I was just sooooooo happy to be there. We then got back got the place were we had kept our bags and decided to have our lunch. We cleared all the plastic… put that back in to our bags… some more photo-shoot of the scenery and it was time for us to get back to killor. It was around 3:10 pm when we set out from the falls. On the way back the leeches seem to have woken up. The last time we went should have shaken them from the sleep they were in… we moved briskly and were able to get out of the dense shrub cover in some time. Then it was time for leech removal session. Praveen’s relatives were out with their set of medicine to kill the leeches... I removed my shoes and dropped the leeches. Now it was back to the jeep track. Praveen told he has a shorter route to his home from the place, and took leave from me. I thanked him for the help and guidance he had provided. I was on my way back picking snaps which I had missed due to the jeep journey… speaking to people on the way.. given them smiles and getting those in return….

After around 1 hour and 45 minutes of leisure walk thought he forest and then the jeep track I reached killor. I decided to get something to eat and sat in the bus that was destined to leave to beltangaDi. The bus started around 5:15 and I was in beltangaDi at 5:50. There I had my evening snacks and then reached Dharmasthala. I was tired and feeling too sleepy. I had my dinner and was waiting for the bus departure… Ah! The day has just passed…. I had not even for a moment thought of IIMB or the busy life of Bangalore… it was definitely going to come the next day… well why worry about all that is routine…I was with in search of my crush for the whole day and enjoyed every moment of it. As soon as I was in the bus it was bed time when I woke up I was near Nelamangala… Just another day… I had the whole day to rest and refresh myself for the course ahead.

Trek date: Nov 17^th 2007

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/sachidananda.bs/DedupeBolleFalls

KoteBetta

Trekking for me is the first option given a chance, and I would have not liked to miss the term break @ IIMB. My association with RHM has been quite old… I like the group that RHM has…so decided I would not spend time deciding on the trek, would just go ahead with them.

RHM had planned trek to Kote betta. As usual Arun had done all the ticket booking and food arrangements. We just had to accompany him to enjoy. To accompany all that we had Dean, who is another master at his PJs. After Edakumeri this was my next trek with RHM, almost after a gap of 3 months.

Arun had asked us to meet at the reception counter of the KSRTC bus stand at 10 pm. I was pretty much jobless so decided to set out from IIMB at 8 pm itself. I knew I would be early, but did not expect to be as early as 8:45pm. I had over an hour to spend at the reception. I decided to do some rounds on the bus stand and watch passengers in their hurry to get to their destination. KSRC bus stand was at its usual best with a lot of buzzing discussions by passengers some of them arguing with the ticket collector and loud announcements (I don’t even know who many will actually listen to it, when involved in their routine discussion.). Then there was the usual jam of busses in a hurry to leave the platform and get set to their destination.

I then spent some time looking at the road map that was painted on the wall of the bus stand. Looking at the approximate distances to each district head quarters from Bangalore… I still had some time to call my friends and discuss some nonsense. Finally at around 9:55pm Arun appeared, and we found our trek mates in some time. We had a round of introduction and then climbed the bus. We expected to reach Madikeri around 5:00 am.

The bus left the stand in about 10 min after we climbed and we engaged ourselves in routine discussions… some related to our experiences some relating to our beliefs… just a process of getting to know each other better. As time elapsed we were into deep slumber.

We reached Madikeri before the first rays if sun could touch upon the city, we were joined by another trek mate of ours there from Udupi. Our bus from Madikeri towards Somavarpet was @ 6:45 am. So we had some time to freshen up ourselves. We finished our usual round of freshening up and went to have our breakfast. I was quite hungry and had some good amount of breakfast. We also packed some for our journey later on.

We sat in the bus at 6:40 am and the bus started off as expected on time. Another around 30 minutes of journey and we were at “Hatty HoLe” meaning Hatti river. Our stop was just after a bridge, the river was flowing underneath the bridge in all might. We could spot some of the tree trunks it had pulled downstream after the heavy rains some days before. We took some snaps; the sun had just about risen above the mountains in the horizon and was shining in all might.

We had some coorg coffee at the hotel there, and then Arun started off with a formal round of introduction and some basic funda / plan for the trek. We were to walk along the road for most of the trek. Though the scenic beauty was too good the only thing I hated was trekking / walking on the well tarred road. We were to take a break at a hanging bridge which was around a couple odd kilometers from the starting point. We reached the hanging bridge at our own pace, and then decided to break for official breakfast of the trek. A couple of us were interested in photography and the hanging bridge provided a good position for photo shooting. We found some estate workers speaking to themselves and enjoying us take pics of them... they were so pleased to pose for our cameras… he what innocence in their looks... it was just too good the excitement on seeing us strangers. J

We got back to the road after about an hours break… a small distance further we got to a fork in the road; one was leading upwards towards an estate and the other to don’t know where it takes us. The river was flowing besides the road all along. We chose the right turn, we lost track of the busy running river from here. It was much silent trek from here. The asphalted road slowly turned into a mud road… did not even realize it. There were no vehicles this way.

We had all the time in the world to get the pictures we wanted. We were amazed by the numerous falls on the way to the peak of kote betta. We could not spot the peak from the place we began this trek. We could spot a not of mountains and clouds in the distance. I was a bit early to a fall on the road side and so decided to try and get some better pics of the falls. I had a small fall in the falls and so decided against the effort. After some good snaps from were I was, we realized there were leeches along the route. One of my trek mates had a leech on his feet. It hadn’t begun its job of sucking blood, just trying to figure out a suitable location and we spotted it... we removed away the leech and were happy about the achievement.

Another couple of small falls and some resting for the rest of the group to catch up we reached a much flatter range of the trek. Till now we were on a continuous ascent and were warned by localites of a bullock which would chase strangers – well we did not find any such bullock chasing us… but every time we spotted one we were discussing about a possibility.

We made our calls to our relatives form this open plain area. At a distance we could spot the telephone tower near the Raja Seat. We had a panoramic view of the mountainous beauty Coorg. I was missing the panoramic mode in my camera… cribbing I had brought a camera that had one. Leeches were once again on duty, biting a couple of our mates. After the exercise of leech removal we waited to catch up once again with our trek mates who had slowed down once again. We in the mean time we took some time off to make our calls back to our relatives in Bangalore.

We could spot the peak of Kote Betta from here, wow!! Was the expression I came out with as I could understand the reason the mountain was named so. Kote in Kannada means Fort. We could spot the mountains in a fort wall format. This might have been the reason these mountains be christened this name. We walked towards the visible peak. Each time we reached a certain height we would wait and look back to see the beauty all over… we could spot domestic cows grazing on adjacent peaks, some paddy fields at a distance, the river we left far behind, some smoke raising up from a distant village. The clouds would cover some of our view of the peak some time while at other times it would clear up and give us the majestic view of the “fort walls” of the mountain.

We continued on our journey, we could spot a group of people who were moving towards the peak as well making loud shouts, and running all the way up. We thought they might be some other group of trekker. We reached another small resting place and took some snaps till our ever slow trek mated could catch up. This we had decided would be our last stop before the summit near the temple atop the peak. As we rested we found clouds take over from clarity and cover the peak again. It was back to photography time, the wind pulling the clouds; it was such a great sight.

We started on our final stretch to the peak… it was quite a steep ascent and a short one too. We reached the temple area and just had enough time to click some pics of the valley below; the clouds were backing again to blur the view. There was a route beside the temple to another peak, but again the clouds would not let us explore that. So after having our lunch at the peak we decided to walk back. We spent around three fourth of an hour here. We could spot the first group of trekkers who were ahead of us coming down at a distance. They spoke to us and told they were localites and had come there just for fun.

We set back on our way once we found some drizzling. The stones get slippery and it would be difficult to get down. We started off and in no time we were facing all the slippery stones on our way… it was nice fun descending these stones. We could a big group of school students who were on a school trip to the peak on our way back.

We were out of the cloud and could spot the sun again. All of us decided to take a small nap on our way back. I wasn’t feeling sleepy and decided to try out some nice pictures of the scenery around. About an hours rest and we were ready to get back on the track. We took some nice group snaps before we could get back to the back journey. Dean who was on of our trek mates wanted to go on a Himalayan trek in December and so was preparing for the same. He was on complete run from the word go. I was the next in line and it was fun running the slopes.

We finally hit the asphalted road and were searching of a good spot to in the river where some of our enthusiasts could have a quick bath and relax. We found one, and it was just awesome place. The river was taking a small turn and it had estate on one side beside the road while on the other we had dense forest. We could find some small birds enjoying their moments of Joy and fly. We spent around a couple of hours beside the river. Our janata which was late decided to take its own sweet time to get back and join us. While we had couple of hours of joy beside the river they could manage only around 45 minutes of fun. The sun in the meantime decided to give me some awesome snaps, with its interplay with the flowing river. Ah like it… may be you got to check the pics to understand what I mean… any description would not match the sight.

Another 15 min trek beside the road and we were back to hatti hole…a cup of coffee to relax and some sharing of experiences we were all ready to get back to Bangalore after a days trek. We were waiting for a bus to somavarpet. We reached somavarpet around 7:30 pm, we decided to rent a room for some time and freshen up.

Our bus was at 10:00 pm. We climbed the bus and it was just a short time before all of us were in deep sleep. I woke up just a couple of kilometer from the KSRTC bus stop. Here I was back to the huzzle and buzzle of Bangalore… back to same life of routine ness… the same campus the same busy life

You can find the snaps here…
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/sachidananda.bs/KoteBetta02

Jog Falls

The life at IIMB is one which keeps u really occupied. The usual quizzes (some surprise and some not), the assignments which we delay to the last minute for submission, the usual L^2 parties... all this just keep you really occupied. Being a trek enthusiast, I was missing trek and travel a lot here. On this particular Saturday, I just could not resist the temptation to go on a trek and decided to go on the trek. This was after the term one mid term exams, some time just after the heavy rains and the awesome flow of the Sharavathi at the jog.

As usual, I did no look for company and decided to go all alone on the trek/trip. I set out on Saturday evening and reached the Majestic Bus Stand from where the buses start off on their daily routine of plying passengers. I reached the stand at around 8:15 pm and as is the normal case is with me, I don’t book tickets. I began searching for a bus which could give me tickets to Jog; the destined bus was to leave at around 10:00 pm. I had a hard time and could not find a seat in the bus which would take me to Jog. Instead the conductor of the bus asked me to get into a Shirsi bus which would take me to Sagara and then climb their bus from there. I took the suggestion and decided to try my luck at any Shirsi bus which could take me to Sagara. The next bus to Shirsi was at 10:15pm. I could find a seat in the bus and so wasn’t a problem… 10min after I got into the bus I got a co passenger who sat in the seat beside me and we started speaking to each other, he told me that this bus might go till Jog, you can take the ticket till there if you want to… I thought Ah! What a co-incidence… well I will take this bus directly to jog then. I bought a ticket to Jog and it was a cool journey from then. I was quite tiered and went into deep slumber right form the moment the bus left the Bangalore station. I woke up only when my co-passenger decided to get down at Sagara and was getting his luggage ready. I thanked him for the suggestion and help that I received and began looking out of the window eagerly to get a glimpse of the awesome paddy fields which made a green sea beside the road the bus was moving on. Occasionally there was a mild drizzle… all this would just make me feel so very close to nature… I was waiting eagerly to get down form the bus and have a look at the falls.

Finally the bus decided to give a stop J just a couple of kilometers before the Falls. I got out of the bus, thanked the driver and the conductor, wished them a good morning and turned around. I was standing in front of a bridge and besides it was a board, which read… “Welcome to world famous Jog Falls”. World famous… hummm rt… really world famous… it reminded me of the wave that the recent Kannada movie “Mugaaru MaLe” had created. One of the dance-song sequences was picturised in this location and the photography had a chopper’s snap of the falls. This has really created the interest amongst a lot of people to visit the falls. The recent showers and the full flow of the falls – some videos wee already out showing Jog in its full glory. The first thought on seeing this Jog in full glory was – Now I understand the anecdote of Sir M V saying “What a waste of energy!!!”

A couple of minutes after the bus had dropped me the road was completely silent, all that I could here is the water fall at a distance, some birds chirping. The bus which I could not climb reached the spot a couple of minutes later. I did not want to climb it as there were a lot of scenic things which I could capture in my camera; I decided to do the walking. There was a mile stone which was to directing me to Jog saying… you have 2 km more dude… Just enjoy the scenery and the music… I did exactly that. I had the entire road for myself – some times some tourist van would come honking for space, there wasn’t anything else on the way that would stop me.

I started my road trek of 2 Km with the bridge, Far off I could see the Sharavathi river take a turn and come to the falls… there were a lot of stones which stood in its path not vertical but as though hit on the head and about to fall down. The river over years has make its own empire… which even the hard rocks could not challenge. I continued further, clicking snaps of the wet road, wetted by the drizzle that had occurred some time back. Around a kilometer and some distance ahead, I got to the first guest house. I could see some people standing just at the edge where the river is about to fall, I found some monkeys playing this early in the morning… They were at their usual best entertaining and troubling people.

After some snaps at the falls I walked further to the main reception of the Jog Falls. There is a big banner welcoming us to the falls. I met a few friends who had been to jog directly from Bangalore in their Sumo. I greeted them and went back to have my Breakfast. I wanted to get a glimpse of the falls before I start off with my breakfast. I went to the sight seeing point opposite the falls. The falls was visible, not flowing in its full glory but thanks to the dam Up-stream we still had some water. Occasionally the clouds would cover the falls and disappoint the on lookers.

After the first “darshan” of the falls, I walked towards the shopping complex where I could find some breakfast. I decided to get to the foot of the falls after my breakfast. I did not have a hat to cover my head from the rain, you don’t have to worry either, we can purchase plastic hats which are Rs. 5 (I know it wouldn’t even cost a couple of Rupees to make it… but still it serves the purpose which it has to do.) I wore the hat and started my trek to the base of the falls. The drizzle began again and this time there was no stopping me… I began my descent down the hill slope. The rocks that formed the hill slope were slippery; many people were finding it difficult. I could hear some one shouting out to some one else because some one else is missing. The ascenders were having a tough time as well. The steep climb had drained them out of energy and they were complaining about heaven, the hell, scolding God and some even remembering enemies. Well its nature of human to complain and scold anything and everything when it is just beyond their capacity to do things.

I reached the foot of the falls in some time… all along the route I had the pleasure of not having to wait for any one and the leisure of clicking as many snaps as I needed. When I reached the foot, of the falls, it was an awesome experience; for a moment I felt this is where I belong…. I just want to be here. I felt as though I was back into carefree childhood days. I could feel the falls spray water on us to wet us, the clouds provided a hiding to the people from the view above and the breeze created by the water fall. I stood there thinking how majestic it looks, how simple the principle that governs this falls. Yet what power it creates.

I spent around half an hour at the foot of the falls and decided to get back. I started the climb and reached the viewpoint without much effort. May be my regular tsepak games at IIMB had improved my stamina and this ascent was not so demanding. There I get another realizations… regularity in what we do will improve our efficiency to levels which can marvel people.

The time was around 10 am. I had the whole day to get back to Bangalore. I decided to not worry too much about the travel time and just reach Bangalore. I reached back to Bangalore at 9:30 pm caught a bus to Jayanagar. A friend was there to pick me up reached the campus at 10:15pm..

I fell exhausted on the bed after the day long journey; I closed my eyes to relive the experience I had during the earlier half of the day. The 2 to 3 hours of pleasure I had spending at the falls, has given me enough enthusiasm for the remaining term. Wish I could have such experiences much more… well that is a trade off... I have to accept. My passion for treks and falls continue uninhibited at IIMB as well – I am happy about it.

some pics posted at
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/sachidananda.bs/JogFalls02

Bhava - U R Ananthamoorthy

Ah! finally I have read a novel in Kannada... my first one... and what more... it was authored by a 'Jyanapeetha Prashasti' winner!!!

'Bhava' - stands for something that is too heavy to take on...some thing like a burden. This story revolves around three generations . All three generations have their own burden to carry forward, each generation is bearing something folly of the earlier generation. Every generation is searching for a peace, that is so illusive.

The story deals with the mental plight and the conscience which a guilty man would have, @ some other point, you get the fight amongst idealism, belief, practicality, faith, emotions... and much more.

The plot is very well discribed, each time I rest to sit and think about this story, I get a different perspective...very thought provoking one. Each character is so thought about, its life style and thoughts just match the expected message so very closely... This is an awesome book to get hold of...

An awesome book, this was the first time I read any Kannada novel and realized first hand how immense the literature of our Kannada language it. just awesome!!! so much to pick up from it. I think this is the only point which makes Kannada the language with the highest number of the counties highest literary awards... closely competed only by Hindi.

Man! this book has boosted my interest in the language to a higher level; and rest assured will read many more Kannada books in future.

The copy of the book can be got from Sapna book House, costs around Rs 60/- around 95 pages that z all... but the message u get, u can carry on for your life.

"The Goal"-E.M.Goldratt

Oh! what a book on manufacturing... I am just bowled out. Just superb....

We have a course in operations management in this term and guess what, this novel is a read for the course... What a book this is... Really well narrated, its very easy for plant managers to map to this charter - Alex Rogo mentioned in the book.

The book gives a clear idea about the concepts that are to be looked at when making a manufacturing decision. The book gives the understanding that its not just the modern technology that will ensure success to the plant or may be to a division. It is more about understanding the constrains that a system has, the way to handle these constrains. It gives a thought on the financial picture that a company is in... the actual implications that might be present in the figures, and what it actually means to the firm.

The analogies that are given in this to book to a manufacturing process... is just too good. The thought process of Al, in the book shows the involvement that a manger is to have in order to succeed in this career.

The book clearly states the vision that a manager needs to have to be able to successfully manage an ailing plant/division....- He is to know "what to change?", "what to change to?" and "how to change?"

In the later part of the book after the novel is complete Goldratt gives his experiences after the book was published.. its worth a read...Some of the plant managers who read the book also reverted back to ask if Goldratt had been trying to get his book on their plant situation... its that real!!!

To conclude... its just an awesome book...worth a read.

Some ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goal_(novel)

chuck de India

Wow... finally a movie that is about India's National Game - Hockey. While we find a lot of movies on cricked already appear in Bollywood this is one different from those.
I appreciate this movie for the message of team work that is driven into the audience. SRK plays the role of coach Kabir Khan... Kabir has his own set of problem... he wants to prove his ability and his patriotism...
Kabir who was thrown out of the national team for missing a goal and let Pakistan win, has a hard time living with the disappointment, the allegation of being a traitor and much more... he has tried to comprehend his thoughts and is finding it hard to realize his dream of getting India the cup in hockey....
Kabir is given a team that has a lot of differences.... typical of India... Kabir realized the goal disorientation - the attempt to prove oneself superior than other in the team, internal politics and much more. Kabir handles all these problems, then has some problem with the board and finally gets the permission to go ahead.
With all this in the background Kabir and his team of girls win the world cup at Sydney.

The movie is one to cherish for quite some time to come thanks to the concept that it intends to deliver and the great 'slogan' - " chuck de chuck de India..."

My Father - Gandhi

This is one of the recent films I saw. This is one of the better movies I have seen off late. This movie is about Mahatma Gandhi's eldest son Hari.
This Akshay Khanna has played the role of Hari Das Mohan Das karma chand Gandhi, to life.
The movie depicts the internal conflict that Hari had to under go; his difference of opinions with his father. In his search for his own life which he did not intend to spend in the shadow of the great M K Gandhi, he falters and falters.... in every mode of his life. Some times it looks as though, Bapu did not understand Hari's aspirations, just went ahead with his own ideals and this is what forced Hari to take the route he did. Hari had big dreams for himself... he wanted to be a barrister like his father, he did not understand the orientation that Bapu had given to his own life. Bapu was an Icon with great principles and practices, but, Hari was an open challenge to him in most aspects. Hari wanted to study further, but was not gaining the necessary support nor the real passion to go ahead and make it big.
Having faced a lot of failure in his life, he had made his own world view, it is in this world view that he tied himself up, his want for an independent recognition and some easy way to get rich; got him to live his life in such a way as to question Gandhiji's ideology.

The movie depicts the struggle that a son faces when he has an Iconic father.... really a thought to ponder over.... there is an old saying In Kannada... which means there is not much grass under a banyan tree.

The indus spray story...

[This is my attempt to write a story / case based on the man org project that we had as part of our course... well this case is a mix of fact and fiction... take it in the spirit... nothing more... I dont intend to make any statements of judgment through this article....]

It’s very important to start a good story from the beginning, so here we start from how it all began.

Mr Shashidhar, with his entrepreneur spirit found a huge market for the tapping in the packaging domain. He decided to try his idea out, and started off pushing at 3M for a contract of packaging its aerosols and lubricants. 3M was the first company that he chose thanks to tow major thought process, - firstly the huge quantity of packaging that 3M has to do, and the potential gains if this was outsourced to Indus Spray, second 3M is known for supporting entrepreneur ideas, so all that Mr Shashidhar would have to do was get a buy in showing the lower costs and other benefits.

The road to an enterprise is not an easy task for its entrepreneur; nor was it any easier for Mr Shashidhar. He had to make a number of visits to the 3M Company before he could actually get the contract for packaging of the lubricants and the aerosols. Well it is surely not enough to start off with just the manufacturing of the products right away, he had to get the area for setting up his plant, and clearance norms so that he could get the packaging of the goods once the contract was confirmed.

While on one hand Shirdhar was trying for a contract on the other he was setting up his small scale industry for packaging. He set up the factory in Electronics city on the outskirts of Bangalore. Well why did he choose this particular location? The potential advantages that a start up would need, so as to let it grow into a larger firm is the answer. Electronics City, being on the outskirts of Bangalore, has access to lower tax rate (or is it a holiday?), the second most important criteria, is the cost of labor; the skill needed for this packaging was relatively less and so all that was needed was mostly unskilled labor. The location advantage coupled with the low labor cost was the major factor in choosing the company at Electronics city.

The company had access to low cost unskilled labor, but if all the work was to be done manually, it would be a huge overhead when there was a large order to be completed. This necessitated the need of some machined to enable faster and quicker delivery, the cost of labor was substituted by a one time investment in machinery. For this purpose, machinery was imported form Germany, and the necessary technical support was obtained from the Indian collaborator of the German firm, to set up the machinery and other related maintenance.

Having the necessary machines, the labor, and a location where it could handle the raw material and the completed goods, he was waiting to start off with the packaging once the deal struck.

The deal stuck and it was time to get to the shop floor for Mr Shashidhar, though he started of looking into the routine working of the packaging department, as time moved on, he realized there were other pressing needs to be catered to. There was the finance that had to be taken care, the accounting of the firm, the stores to manage the inventory; if Shashidhar was engaged in all these routine activity he would have no time to work on the growth plan of the company. He hired a person who could take the responsibility of looking into the daily handling of the company affairs, be it stores, or finance or even production. This person became the general manager of the company, who would look into the daily handling of the company. At this point the structure of the company was simple with just a General Manager who would look in the aspects of the company, such as the production, the accounts, the stores. He would report directly to The MD.

MD was involved placing the strategy for the company that he had started off with. He had to start gaining a suitable margin for the products that he produced, considering the large volume that was to be packed, and relatively low expenditure, a small margin on the product would do. There was virtually no transaction specific investment that Indus Spray had to do for the packaging of the products. The machines that were set up had a generic capacity and nothing much would change if 3M decided to let go with Indus Spray and a new customer would come in. This acted as an advantage; there was no transaction specific investment to be done for the 3M.

How ever, 3M was taking a major bet by outsourcing the packaging to such an upstart company. 3M was an established brand and a major leader in the lubricants and the aerosol industry. The packaging of these products had to be of a high standard, in case it has to have the advantage that is has, so it was taking a huge risk To mitigate the risk, it agreed to hand over the packaging of the products to Indus Spray if it agreed that it would be the only consumer it would cater to. This was a hard bet for Indus Spray, but it had to agree for two major reasons, the market that 3M gave and the reputation that would be earned on being earned due to association with 3M.

Indus Spray now had the order, now had such a big company as its client, 3M would supply all the necessary material, all that Indus Spray had to do was just pack the products and return to it. The initial consignment was mostly of lubricants to be packed. Well with all the material available, it is quite logical to assume that Indus spray could use all the material and make a brand of its own, why doesn’t this happen? Well the brand that 3M has serves as a hedge in such an attempt, even if Indus Spray made its own brand from the material supplied, it would not be able to make a head way into the market.

With continued association 3M gained confidence in the work that Indus Spray was doing. With trust being a major capital now, 3M decided to hand over the packaging of aerosols to Indus Spray. Indus Spray had to invest into obtaining the permission to use LPG for its production, was this transaction specific investment that Indus spray was getting into? First sight gives us that impression, makes us believe that 3M was getting a better grip in the contract than Indus Spray, well a deeper insight which the MD gave enabled us to clarify this confusion. Indus Spray wants to venture into the Deodorants packaging business, and this was a logical first step to obtain permission for use of LPG. Thus an investment that looked so transaction specific is what forms a part of the much larger gain to Indus Spray.

Now with 3M gaining confidence in the work that Indus Spray was doing it was time for Indus Spray to try and enlarge its client sphere. The MD who was till now occupied with the his co-ordination with 3M to build trust now had to shift focus, as the relation ship was quite stable, and growth is what “makes” a firm.

After 3 years of association with 3M, it was now time for the MD to look for new avenues to expand. For this he had to ensure that 3M gave the permission, and make a provision to let Indus Spray have another customer. After a bit of running around, 3M finally granted the permission to go ahead, Indus had to ensure that it did not hamper the deal with 3M.

The next client that 3M wanted to get in contact with was Natural Remedies. Natural Remedies was into the business of herbal medicines, the domain was completely different, and did anything differ? Well not much, with a generic capability in manufacturing and the association with 3M to back with, it was not difficult to see that Natural Remedies did not have much difficulty to collaborate with Indus Spray.

Natural remedies did have some minor modification to make from 3M in the caps that were needed, the nozzles etc. The supply of these nozzles and crowns led to association with another supplier. This business was slowly turning from the service of packaging to procuring the material for the purpose of packaging.

The margin was low and, the volumes were high and so it was a profitable business to be in. The competitors where not many, because the low margin on each product doesn’t let many firm get into, its also hard to find clients like 3M when you start off, who can give you the market that you need. These factors provide a hedge against a lot of firms entering into competition and let the market to the existing firms.

While Indus spray concentrated on the packaging of the products, being a low margin high volume business it could not spend a lot of amount on investment in maintenance, and fixed cost on permanent labor. To reduce these costs, Indus doesn’t have any permanent staff other than the GM. Other employees are daily/weekly wage workers and are hired as needed. The maintenance of the property, security is outsourced, which would reduce the cost of maintenance, and security. Here we find that the company has already outsourced the most possible area for outsourcing, the support staff. Being the cost leader is what has emphasized this move.

The packaging needed is rather uniform through out the year and doesn’t vary much except when a bulk deal comes from 3M. In case of such high demands, additional labor can be obtained by word of mouth and this gives Indus Spray and additional flexibility.

Other factors of environment needed for production like electricity which is not too regular considering that Karnataka is a power starved state, emerges as major hurdle in the production process. But again thanks to the employees who are flexible, ready to work during off peak hours and complete the production on schedule.

This gets into another dimension that is visible, the interpersonal skill of the entrepreneur. The commitment of the unskilled low cost labor, which is not a permanent workforce, shows the interpersonal capacity of the entrepreneur in reaching to the emotional need of respect that the labor posses. While this is one of the strong points of the company, there is a need for constant growth.

The company till now has been able to move from 3M to gain a new client in Natural Remedies, but does it stop at this? No, there is huge potential for growth, there are a number of packaging areas to enter into. The MD wanted to reap heavy profits and that is exactly why he entered into this business, so what does he do next?

Mr Shashidhar, went on to obtain an alcohol license, this needed a lot of work and is not hassle free. The long term aim of the MD and hence the company is to move into the high margin Deodorant packing business. Recently the company has been able to obtain the alcohol license that was needed for such a deo-packing industry. This gives it a boost into creating much higher profits.

Everything u desire- HarshDeep Jolly

This book by Harsh Deep, an alumni of IIMB, is a brief description of what one can expect to have when in the campus.
Personally I am not too happy with the way the book is written, not too great as a start off.. think he could have done a better job.. The narration is not all that great either... the only thing u can look forward to in the book... what to expect in the 2 yrs on campus, how u grow ur frnd circle and things like it.
The book has content to deliver but doesn't stand in any comparison to the creativity of Chetan Bhagat- "the 5 . some1"... well that differs from individual to individual rt... may be was expecting a bit more here... A bit more creativity form Harsh would have made it really big...
The story revolves arnd the main character hash and his set of friends... well this is harshdeep himself... and others are a combination of some of his close associates in college... deals the love life of a few ppl really nicely... and finally realizes what he goofed up himself.. this was sort of the only deviation from the otherwise badly narrated book... well pardon me if it sounds harsh but its my personal opinion.

Hudugaata-Movie Review

This is Ganesh's 3rd film as a hero... well not sure if it did become a big hit... but after the violence that marked the first day first show of the movie... it seems to be in news definitely.
I watched the movie long time back in june, did not get the time to blog.. now I get some time so here is what I felt about the movie...
The story line is very close to mungaru male in some sense...the basic difference its that in mungaru male the hero doesn't get his heroin in this he does... :)
well Ganesh has done a good job with his acting... Rekha her usual oomph!!! A lot of comedy sequences... to add... a nice entertainment...
Well the whole story doesn't imprint itself on the mungaaru male line... but u can surely see the attempt towards the end.... The story is about a long journey of Ganesh and Rekha to kanyakumari... this is THE story if u want to think so... well noting much to look for in this movie.. not on par with the expectations of a lot of fans of Ganesh..

Fermat's Last Theorem - Simon Singh

This is the first book written by Simon singh and a best seller.
Simon gives a lucid description of the journey to the conquest of the theorem...

Its really a historical book... describing the journey from Greeks, the formation of the mathematical concepts, to the proof of the theorem. This book gives a nice insight into the formation of the problem and the evolution...
Simon as usual has made it really interesting with an awesome narration... The book gives an insight into the mathematical world and into the lifes of a lot of mathematicians, some how died young others who challenged athority and gave a whole new perspective...
The fermat's last theorem was unconquered until the last decade... it has challenged the mathematicians for more than 250 years... so that shows what it meant to conquer it... doesnt it?
Fermat's thm.. required the culmination of a lot of fields of mathematics and a single minded and dedicated effort by Andrew John Wiles to complete this proof. It was for a man of Andrew's caliber to get to its proof... having been excited by the simple looking problem .... it became his child hood dream to realize the proof...
If I say, this book is a dedication to his effortsm it would not be wrong...

A book worth a purchase if u like to read abt maths and worth reading for any one....

Big Bang - Simon Singh

Big Bang - this is the first book I have read by Simon Singh… makes me feel I have to read more books by him... just loved the style of narration.

Simon Singh is not just a physicist but also a lucid writer, the style of his writing is just too good.

Big Bang this book deals with the creation of the universe and, is a historical account of the way the modern theory has evolved. It’s a brief description of how this, now famous, theory has evolved, so it essential has an element of History in it. That makes the description even more beautiful... now u don’t just know what the theory has but also have the way it has evolved. A really neat description of cosmological journey-right from ancient Greek to the modern world.
The account of this journey is really well presented, not at one moment did I loose interest and felt I wanted to take a break, its just so enticing, I just wanted to read further each time I took up this book after a break, but had to stop thanks to other works being a priority.
This book is not just about this particular theory but gives a neat account of other competing theories as well. The Steady State theory, the earth centric theory are the main ones - these are not dealt in detail but to a certain extent that might be needed for Big Bang and its story.
The effort of the experimental physicist is not undermined anywhere, they are given dew credit; the marvel of serendipity is also taken care.
Really a nice read, am sure it will generate an interest in any one for astronomical reading.

Challenge familiarity

Almost every one of us want to live in a familiar domain... we want to stay in the city that we are familiar with... we want to keep company only with those whom we already know... we want to visit only those places which we know and are accustomed to, we want things to be easy and laid out. In general its the cozy feeling that we want to stay with... we don’t want to try something that might involve a risk, some challenge in it... we want the path of least resistance...
Well form another angle do we really benefit from this sort of an attitude, I hardly feel at any point we might have gained from such an attitude. If we look back in life its always been rewarding one way or another to challenge this love for familiarity that we have.... each of our experiences show that when we tried something new and difficult we have come out with a new understanding and perspective to the particular work or a whole new experience that has mad us richer and more open which is essential to our life on a much larger scale...

Essentially I don’t find any reason why we should not try something new... of course that we have to have the time and the resources that might be needed for the particular purpose... So just go ahead and try the next time you are contemplating as to - "TO DO OR NOT TO DO!!!"

Me and efi

EFI - Electronics for Imaging.

Its been almost 23 month since I joined EFI... I stand now on the verge of entering into IIMB for my PGDM. I think its the time for me to look back at the stay at efi and concentrate on my experiences here.

Right after my grad exams in 2005 I took a break, and it was almost a month. I was feeling frustrated sitting at home. My on-campus recruit -Huawie had given me a joining date in September. I could not just wait that long. I got a call from efi for an interview on June 25 ^th... It was a Saturday and the venue was the old office of efi (above globus, Kormangala).
My interview was taken by Dyllon and then a round with Krishna... It was rather a simple interview... and was confident of getting in.. so was it to be.... I landed inEFI, to accept the offer letter and join the troupe of new recruit freshers. I joined on the 27 ^th of June 2005 in EFI as Associate Software Enggr (I am still that.... he he [:D]).
It was Poonam Bajaj who handed over a bag... with efi stitched on it and some other stationery material... We were guided into the conference hall that was then turned into a training hall for us. This was group of 13 freshers... We went through two sessions of training... the first week was on domain related stuff... a lot ofTLs coming in and giving us fundas... clearing our fundas...[I truly don't know how much of it has remained in my head... but used to note down all those points... [;)]] I only recallRajneesh and Venkat giving us fundas.. cant recall anything greater than that now. It was in these training sessions that I got my 2 best pals.... Vikas Shayana (Progressively sleeping!!!) and Vinay Setty. After this session of Domain knowledge, we went through a session of training in C++. Thanks to N S Kumar, I got to learn C++ with its "philosophy".
After the technical coaching we had a week's time to wander about, we made a trip to Nandi Hills, and got back, a freshers party at Three-Quarter Chinese. We then were called for a "one-one" session with Poonam to take note of our interests and try allotting us into the domain that we liked the most. It was also a feedback session on the training program. After about a couple of days during which we watched a movie inPVR, we got assigned to our teams.
I was inducted to Rajneesh's team that was working on CWS wx then... due to some reason this project got scrapped. It was my first interaction with a team at efi. Arthi K, was set as my mentor by Rajneesh. The initial task that Rajneesh assigned to me was learning wxWidgets. I used to browse through the help pages, look at the sample and then start coding the samples in my own way. this continued on for about 10 days after which I was given my fist assignment byRajneesh , It was to design a message box that would take in strings of any length and then wrap the string to some set number of alphabets and then display it. It was my first assignment and thanks to the initial "Josh" I finished this very quickly.Rajneesh then was on testing this application and suggesting modifications...It was all exciting one to learn this new library... very often I would stumble across something think.. "It must be hard to do" and then look at the code... debug get the thought process right and attempt it...this helped me learn a lot quicker... just to add to it.. I would try it out... and when it works, there was nothing more exciting than it.
After a couple of weeks of this assignment, Rajneesh took me to a meeting, it was here that I learnt my first major lesson, We had discussion on some stuff that was being planned and I was to do something (cant recall what) in it. After the meeting I went toRajneesh personally and suggested something, he immediately gave me an important lesson - "Man, if u want to tell out something, do it when you are asked for and people are listening. Don't expect people to speak for you, you will have to speak for yourself." These words had a great impact on me.
It was around this time that Arthi left the company and I was the only person working directly under Rajneesh for the CWS wx version. The work load was not all that great and it was just some samples that I was working on. Then Rajneesh got involved into HotFolders. I was still on bench nothing serious that I was doing. Around a week into the project, Rajneesh gave my first assignment, to develop a testing application for Filter that would be used in the Hot Folders Application. I was supposed to develop only theUI part and not worry about the implementation. This was the first application that I has to make decisions on how and what controls I would be using.... This was a very nice and thought provoking experience.
While professionally this phase was a learning one for me... there was not much of productivity that was put up for efi. I began understanding and appreciating what Rajeesh was doing... I began to appreciate the way he handled things.. not much of tension, very frank in his speech, helping if he can else just saying it our frankly... accepting he doesn't know when he doesn't now, and most importantly not letting himself down under any situation - in short I got to see a lot of idealizing things in him.. In short he is the coolest TL I have ever had. We got to know each other better and slowly transformed from a TL and a ASE to good friends. The common thing that got us very close was our interest towards book. We both were bibliophiles... and even to this day we keep discussing on various books..
After around a month of such kidding and being paid for all the party that I had, Atul called me in, and put me into a different team. Being without work, I was eagerly waiting for work.... No better time to come ah!!! Ya I got to join theColorWise team, headed by Venkat Reddy.
It was under quite a bad state at that time.... with Venkat trying to get it past the 'ALPHA' milestone and it flopping all the time. Is was around September end that I joined this group. Shiva andRajiv were already in this group from the gang of freshers-05. It is here that I got to meet another peculiar person - Kanhayia. Slowly down the line there was one more person to be added to this list.... Pankaj Bhalla. This trio - Kanhayia, Pankaj and myself, you would find them invariably doing night outs soon... [;)]
I was asked to solve a few defects in one of the common library - Select Profile by Venkat... These were mostly some UI changes. It was fun doing these things... not major work at all... later on this helped me become what Raghu to day calls me - 'A Sizer Expert' [;)] (I am not sure about that though.). Occasionally I used to get some logic related defect, but then it was not a major one, and could be easily handled. I can still recall vividly the first review of code thatVenkat did, the first check-in. Venkat wanted to teach me in a very affectionate way, but may be I was not mature enough to know all that. I was looking stars when he made changes, to the code, then build something, compile something somewhere, and finally get theexe. Venkat was waiting to get me into the release management of Color Profiler. After about 3 weeks into Profiler I began making builds.... and this was followed by an upload to the prerel. Our release was scheduled on Friday and Tuesday. Friday was then the day most of the releases were done, we did not have a RMS like we have today so every one had to use the same available bandwidth to upload the binaries to prerel. Invariable it would take 2 to 3 hours or sometimes even more than that.
Our product is an integrated product, that consists of a few applications that come from US. We used to get these binaries, then integrate it with our local applications that we develop and then copy these binaries after our testing (noQA then, it was just the developer verifying). We would fix the defect so locally that we would just test the fix for its working, not actually going through the complete flow to analyse the side effect... invariably we would find a defect at the last minute... andKanhayia would run back to his desk to fix it.. finally he would make some alterations and fix it (am not sure what exactly would be his fix in such a short time....[;)]) He was used to working under such pressure that he used to say - "it is only under such pressure that my Brain works properly man!!!"
It was a real pressure cooker sort of situation.. Venkat Reddy was under immense pressure... he had the art of getting extra time under any circumstance. I have not seen the similar art in Raghu... well you can't expect everyone to have everything, right? Kanhayia, myself and later on Pankaj all got into the similar situation... all a pressure cooker.. no one was better... occasionally we used to get some half an hour break in our work.. and then the work would get on. My friends used to say - "earlier u would return home at 6:00pm sharp... now even if the world break u stay atefi!!!" Well that was the state our work was in...
Around Feb the project that I was working moved from Venkat to Raghu.... and around a fortnight later i got my first feature development... Thanks to the expert guidance from Kanhayia and Raghu, I could finish this implementation quickly and it was a big confidence boost for me.
May be it was only Raghu who could get the process straight, not many identified there was a flaw in the sytem... slowly the process had to improve... what was more necessary was develping confidence between the two teams... the spec and related documents had to be worked out in a right way... we needed a local QA who could be quick enough in identifying the defects if any first hand... A lot of processes needed to be changed...
What the most striking realization was... there was not a proper structure for the module... This became our starting point. Raghu sat back and got the design diagrams for the project. At this juncture, Pankaj decided to leave our group and move on to another company... that was followed by Janaki Madam, and Sudheer's arrival into the team.... Once the design was ready it was a matter of setting the design right... but the problem was you cant correct it over night... it has to be done in a smooth manner...
In the mean time, Kanhayia decided to quit... we shifted to the new office. The process improved but the father of PrinterProfiler - KK was not there to watch it past all the marks to go to the market. I was the only fortunate one to have seen all the three phases. All through the initial phase of theQA we had Bhaskar, giving us company in all the late night shows.... he he [:D]
After the QA process got added we had to finish off the release of the project a bit early, and then both the QA and engineering got a bit more time to test the binaries.... Slowly the things started falling in place... That is what happens - when a right decision is taken, you make more better decisions and slowly bail yourself out of problem.
From Raghu, I learnt the art of withstanding the storm and taking the boat to the shore... it takes a lot of time and effort to rescue a sinking ship... I learnt a lot of things from him.

Now the Fun part:

There are a couple fun memories associated with my stay at efi....
1. The EFI cricket tournament -
I remember this was the first match of the tournament for our team... I was on a Saturday that we chose to play this match... And we had to make the Friday release.... [:)]...KK had left home early, Bhaskar and I were the only two members in the group who where present.... Bhaskar began his testing at 10:00pm... I decided to have a nap while he tested the product on 3 platforms.... he would inevitably take 4 hours to complete the whole process.. I began my nap on the floor at 11 and he was busy measuring.. at 1 he woke me up asking me to upload the binaries... the process got completed at 2 am and we reached home in the company cab.
Next day we had a match at 7:30am.... I landed in at the right time.. and we were to bat first... I don't know what was in my head but I made a quickfire 36 that helped us win the match.... [:)]

2. The Diwali celebrations at the new office.
I vividly remember this, we were all engrossed in our own work, Raghu got back from his native after a vacation. He called up a meeting of all his team members... and told we have this event here.... we want to get the first price in this. We began doing the planning that day and decided to give an attempt for the first price... The whole team went about doing things with missionary zeal, all of us contributing our bit to the preparations. We made a nigh out till 4 am in the morning, then got home... had a small nap changed our attire and got back.
This event gave me a lot of realization and self reflection thought... thank to the pot painting that I did. i began to question myself!!! The refection of this helped me realise a lot of thing about myself. It was then that I began preparing for CAT....

Now I stand here on the verge of quitting efi, its been one huge learning experience for me.. one who joined as a fresher.. I have been able to manage my day the way I want, that has been the best part of the life here.
I have only made a mention of those people whom I interacted a lot... this is not a detailed story so don't blame me, I have not added many experiences..

Prime numbers the pillars of Mathematics!!!

Well just a profound realization that I had recently, its about how important prime numbers are for Mathematics....

For a moment, it occurred to me that all the natural numbers except one and primes can be represented as prime numbers.... Am sure every one knows this.... its called prime factorization....

Just imagine if there were no prime numbers... there will be no numbers other than unity (1)!!!
Surprising isn't it? Yes but that is true…. It’s really hard to have anything if not for prime numbers and the operation of scaling them. Yes, call it scaling… multiplying one with another to get a composite number.

The analogy that I can draw from this understanding is… We can consider prime numbers to be “Bricks” that occur naturally in nature, we just pile up these naturally occurring bricks to form what we want… These Primes are for sure the pillars on which the whole natural numbers stand and hence our understanding.

These primes have not definite pattern of repetitions, they are scattered across the whole space… occasionally you stumble by them and start using them from then on… They are the pillars that hold the numbers… All the composite numbers are constituents built by just scaling them!!!

Beauty isn’t it…

Azim Premji Chairman and CEO WIPRO Technologies

Azim Premji stands today with numerous laurels and achievements. Premji has been honoured as being the - "Business Man of the year" - 2000, by Business India Magazine. From a beginning that was given to him by his ancestors to being a millionaire, it has been one huge journey for Premji. Born on July 24^th, 1945, Premji has today become an icon for most Indian budding entrepreneurs. Premji was doing his undergraduate program at Stanford University, in 1966 when he was called back to India following the sudden demise of his father. At the age of 21, he was entrusted with the responsibility of handling the family vegetable oil business.
Premji eventually sought—and received—permission to study arts courses by correspondence to complete the requirements for his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (2000) have both conferred honorary doctorates on him. At the first general body meeting of the company a shareholder had doubted Premji's ability in handling the company and had advised him to hand it over to mature management!! This spurred Premji and made him all the more dertermined to make WIPRO a success story! Success story indeed it has been, under his leadership WIPRO has grown a lot. Starting with the family business of vegetable oil, WIPRO later on diversified to get into various fields. From Vegetable oil it diversified into to bakery fats, ethnic ingredient based toiletries, hair care soaps, baby toiletries, lighting products and hydraulic cylinders. Thereafter Premji made a focused shift from soaps to software. Today WIPRO is a household name as a huge software company.

Under Premji's leadership, WIPRO has grown from a Rs 70 million company in hydrogenated cooking oil to a pioneer in providing integrated business, technology and process solutions on a global delivery platform. Today, WIPRO Technologies is the largest independent R&D service provider in the world. It also ranked among the top 100 companies globally with a turnover exceeding 2.3 billion US Dollars.

Premji started off in WIPRO with the simple vision to build an organization on a foundation of values.

Premji believes that ordinary people can do extraordinary things, the key to achieve the extraordinary is creating highly charged teams. He takes personal interest in building teams and leaders. He devotes significant amount of time as a faculty in WIPRO's leadership development programs. Premji has a fanatical belief in delivering Value to the Customer through world-class quality processes. This belief has driven Wipro’s pioneering efforts on Quality. Wipro was the first Indian Company to embrace Six Sigma, the first Software Services Company in the world to achieve SEI CMM Level 5 and it also became the world’s first organization to achieve PCMM Level 5 (People Capability Maturity Model). Premji equates Quality with Integrity – both being non-negotiable. In 2001, he was voted among the 20 most powerful men in the world by Asiaweek. He was also among the 50 richest people in the world from 2001 to 2003 according to Forbes. In April 2004, he was rated among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. His assets include 84% holding in Wipro Technologies (the remaining belonging to the co-founder of Wipro). In January 2006, he was the 10th richest man in the world. He has been awarded the prestigious Padmabhushana award in 2005 from the Govt of India. He is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Committee for Trade and Industry in India. Premji in put up in Bangalore, and has a family comprising of Wife: Yasmeen Premji Sons: Rishad Premji married to Aditi Premji; Tariq Premji Azim Premji Foundation

Azim Premji Foundation says it "Aims at making a tangible impact on identified social issues by working in active partnership with the Government and other related sections of the society". The Foundation was set up with financial resources contributed by Azim Premji. It believes that "Education is the vital element in the development and progress of our nation".

Programmes of the Azim Premji Foundation focus on "creating effective and scalable models that significantly improve the quality of learning in the school and ensure satisfactory ownership by the community in the management of the school". Azim Premji Foundation says it "dedicates itself to the cause of Universalization of Elementary Education in India."

Azim Premji's Eight steps to excellence Here is what Premji has to say about the secret of success

These are changing times. Yet in the middle of all the changes there is one thing that constantly determines success. Some call it leadership. But to my mind, it is the single-minded pursuit of excellence.

Excellence endures and sustains. It goes beyond motivation into the realms of inspiration. Excellence can be as strong a uniting force as solid vision.

Excellence does not happen in a vacuum. It needs a collective obsession as I have experienced the benefits of excellence in my own life. Excellence is a great starting point for any new organisation but also an unending journey. What is excellence? It is about going a little beyond what we expect from ourselves. Part of the need for excellence is imposed on us externally by our customers. Our competition keeps us on our toes, especially when it is global in nature.

But the other driver of excellence is internal. I have found that excellence is not so much a battle you fight with others, but a battle you fight with yourself, by constantly raising the bar and stretching yourself and your team. This is the best and the most satisfying and challenging part about excellence.

How does one create excellence in an organisation?

First, we create an obsession with excellence. We must dream of it not only because it delivers better results but because we truly believe in it and find it intrinsically satisfying to us.

We must think of excellence not only with our mind but also with our heart and soul. Let us look outside, at the global standards of excellence in quality, cost and delivery and let us not rest till we surpass them.

Second, we need to build a collective self-confidence. Organisations and people who pursue excellence are self-confident. This is because excellence requires tremendous faith in one's ability to do more and in a better way. Unless, we believe we can do better, we cannot.

Third, we must understand the difference between perfection for its own sake and excellence. Time is of essence. Globalisation has made the customer only more impatient. This may seem like a paradox: should we aim for excellence or should we aim for speed?

Excellence is about doing the best we can and speed lies in doing it quickly. These two concepts are not opposed to each other; in fact, speed and timeliness are important elements of quality and excellence.

Fourth, we must realise that we cannot be the best in everything we do. We must define what we are or would like to be best at and what someone else can do better.

Excellence is no longer about being the best in India. It is about being the best in the world. We have to define what our own core competencies are and what we can outsource to other leaders. Headaches shared are headaches divided.

Fifth, we must create processes that enable excellence. Today, there are a number of global methods and processes available whether it is Six Sigma, CMM or ISO. Use them because they are based on distilled wisdom collected from the best companies in the world.

Also, we must build a strong foundation of information technology, because in this complex, dynamic world, it is imperative that we use the most modern tools to keep processes updated.

Sixth, we must create a culture of teaming. I have found that while great individuals are important, one cannot have pockets of excellence. Quality gives ample opportunities to build a culture of teaming. Cross-functional teams that are customer facing can cut through an amazing amount of bureaucracy, personal empire building and silos and deliver savings that one would not have imagined possible.

The other advantage of building teams focused on quality is that the teaming culture eventually spreads to the rest of the organisation and teaming becomes a way of life.

Seventh, invest in excellence for the future. Future always seems to be at a distance. But it comes upon you so suddenly that it catches you by surprise, if not shock. What constitutes excellence in the future will be significantly different from what it is today.

In these days of severe market pressures, there is big temptation to sacrifice the future to look good in the present. We must certainly trim our discretionary expenses, but we must ensure that our investments in strategic areas that lead to excellence in the future are protected.

Finally, excellence requires humility. This is especially needed when we feel we have reached the peak of excellence and there is nothing further we can do. We need an open mind to look at things in a different way and allow new inputs to come in.

Otherwise, there is a real danger of becoming complacent or even downright arrogant. I would like to end my talk with a story that illustrates this very well.

A brilliant young professor went to meet a famous Zen master to have a discussion with him on Zen. He found himself in front of a modest house. He rang the doorbell and waited. A while later, he heard shuffling footsteps and the door was opened by the Zen master.

He invited the professor to sit with him on the dining table. The professor was a little disappointed with the shabby appearance of the Zen master. He started quizzing him immediately on comparative philosophies and the Zen master gave some brief answers.

When the professor began to debate with him on those answers, the Zen master stopped speaking and kept smiling at him. Finally, the professor got angry. He said, "I have come from a long distance just to understand the relevance of Zenism. But apparently you have nothing to say. I have not learnt anything from you at all."

At this point, the Zen master asked the professor to have some tea. When the professor held the cup, the Zen master started pouring tea into it. After some time, the tea started spilling and the professor shouted, "Stop! The cup can contain no more."

The Zen Master stopped and then, once again smiling, he said, "A mind, full of itself can receive nothing. How can I speak to you of Zenism until you empty your mind to learn." The professor understood and apologized to the Zen master. He parted from him, the Zen master -- a wiser man.

The author is Chairman & Managing Director, Wipro Limited.

src:http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/jan/17spec.htm

src: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azim_Premji http://www.answers.com/topic/azim-premji http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/jan/17spec.htm http://www.wipro.com/webpages/aboutus/azim.htm http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-heroes/azim-premji.html

Dif-equations and prediction

Well these are my personal view on what role differential equations have got to play.... read on if u think its worth...

As humans we are mostly interested in knowing what will happen to some thing in the future... What will happen to him? what will be the weather in 2 days, or some more thing else... the whole point is simple...
"I want to know what is going to happen..."

So what is it that a person gets to start off on prediction?
He has seen what has happened in the past, he can think what are the dependant and the independent parameters based on this experience.... he continues from here and makes an assumption as to the directly varying or indirectly varying and then comes up with an equation....
Well this was a crude that worked wonderfully with the initial understanding....
but, what the person currently sees is only a small portion of the whole, the smallest part of the system almost negligibly small instance that he considers... so at this particular instant if he has to form an equation it is better he forms a differential eqn, that is a better way to write it down.... so then if he has a differential eqn, and wants to know what happens in the long run, he just has to integrate and find out...

An example:
well now this is how I start my prediction... if the change is always a constant... lets say...
we want to measure some distance.... I see that I have been travelling some 3mt in 2 seconds... for a consistent amount of time.... so now I say this is a constant for every small interval of time say a second... I travel 1.5 mt So now I continue to write the differential eqn...
dx/dt = 1.5

now I integrate to form my equation.... X = 1.5t... I continue this way to form the eqn...


well there is a catch - in writing these dif-eqn... most of these are unsolvable... that's coz we cant predict to the minutest detail.... true rt!!!

Spider Man 3

I just got to see the Spideman-3 this Friday, I come back and have got to say - "Its just not what I expected from the film with the highest budget". I think it was not worth the amount I spent buying tickets at Innovative Multiplex.... Well on the other had I had something to pic from this film... I would rather concentrate on those than on the film and the story line...
The animators have done a good job... The Sandman and the wind related animations are really good... he keeps turning from a sand man into a human and back thatz a nice part...
The part I loved in the film was the fundas... Highly filled with fundas... though not like Matrix.. you can take a lot in case u look at it from different angle.
Here are some of the fundas I could pick up.

1. Every one gets through tough faces in life... and every one needs some help at some instance.. even if he is a super human...
2. The worm of revenge... makes u feel happy when u show ur rival that you are better than him.... but then it kills the naturalness in humans...
3. A man must lean to put his wife before him when it comes to making some decision in life...
4. It gives immense joy when you forgive some one who has hurt u a lot...

Well when it comes to the mistakes in the movie... chk out the link here...
http://geeks.onlygizmos.com/public_html//article.php?story=20070512131915386

The art of learning!!!

Learn from any one...and from everything.
This is a realization I got... may be many have a similar realization when they reflect back upon themselves.... Read on.... may be something might interest you.

Learning to me has been the most stimulating and exciting face in my life and will continue to be that way. There is a lot of knowledge out there, and we have to enlighten ourselves with it to live a more fulfilling and happening life.
I have realised that a lot of my fears have gone away by my habit (that's what it has become) of removing my ignorance... Learning and the knowledge it gives, puts me in a peace with myself. I have learnt to relax because I know now what my fears are exactly, I have learnt to counter them by my learning ability.
It has given me the strength to face defeat, I am in the process of learning so there is nothing that ensures victory all the while. I would like to take note here - "when I loose I don't loose the lesson." Its when I ruminate over my failure that I realise my ignorance in some of the portions. In such a phase, the process of learning makes the victory or defeat devoid of personal intentions and more open. In such a competition, we surrender our-self to the process of learning and not to the person who handles it. We don't take defeat or failure personal, we walk away with the satisfaction that we have realised we have to phase more... expose our-self more. The consequences become inconsequential!!!

In the process of this learning, I have learnt that we are never complete and in a lot of places I have had to learn it with a lot of ego clash (sorry cant help it... I have to improve that's it.). I only know now that we have a lot to learn from a lot of people.... its just our inhibition that prevents us from being more open. There is nothing that I can do without getting over my inhibitions... and all these are internal to me... I have to improve over time, with experience... I am no hurry.

I learn now from nature, from the people who help me, those who guide me, to whom I speak. Its been an appreciation all over when I look back to every single encounter with every single person, and every incident.

I am learning the art of learning is it!!!