Friday, March 28, 2008
Mergers & Acquisition of a different kind …
We haven’t finished reading Tata’s M&A with Ford’s JLR – there is another kind of M&A happened that shook
D-Company taken over by Lashkar
It was on the lunch table we shared some of the lighter moments with the headline and associating with the management jargons …
- The VC has now joined hands with the Execution Entity … sophistication joins hands with crude methods … technology with core processes … revenge takers with fundamentalism … business with religion …
- Their Balance Sheet would include the assets as details of total arms and ammunitions acquired
- The ROI would be again total number of attacks/killings with number of ammunitions/ bombs bought
- Growth rate would be money accumulated in form of vasuli (regular D-Co stuff) and abductions in addition to the revenue generated through fake currency and other donations across the globe
- The Hit Rate would be defined as number of killings per attack
- The Goals & Objectives would list out number of bombings/ infiltrations/ mass killings/ suicide bomb squad generation/ … Appraisal will be done on a regular intervals …
- The Core Function of HR would be recruitment, training and motivation – to become human bombs and mass killings – incentives to be defined accordingly
- The best way to manage Pool/Bench – if pool increases – train them to be human bombs - to be deployed anywhere anytime … there will always be a vacancy …
- Plenty of Onsite Opportunities
Feel free to add similar musings …
Monday, March 24, 2008
Holi - Day
It was almost 15 years since I played my last Holi … actually last 14 years I wasn’t home during this festival … and that’s why this one was very nostalgic … I could recall a lot of things that used to happen or things I used to do so many years ago … especially after seeing the kids in the neighborhood doing the same stuff … Things have changed … but something haven’t to some extent … the ones that involve children and their innocence …
On the eve of Holi (chhoti holi) we used to do puja of Holika and Druv (made of cow-dung) and later at the community Holika – fire (dahan) … where after the small rituals, we used to get blessings of all the elders and have ‘thandai’ - cold flavored milk (without the bhang) … this ritual haven’t changed a lot … just that I don’t see kids so much enthusiastic about the whole session …
The next day morning used to start by around 8~8:30 am where in first thing we used to do is get ourselves coated with oil (mostly with sunflower oil). We used to prepare a bucket of color (at least one bucket, colors we used to buy a couple of days earlier) and then either through mugs or pichkari (a portable hand held spray pump – now comes in different shapes and sizes and materials) shower colors – from our balcony to all the people walking on the streets passing underneath. The ratio of them getting even a drop of that shower used to be very low (1 out of 5 or 6) … and the amount of happiness we used to get when the target used to achieve was immense … this is something I saw hasn’t change much … except that people are less on the streets … and lot of them are on a vehicle – mostly bikes – zipping around …
It used to be around 9:30 ~ 10 when community people used to come out and the local gathering used to get warmed up … with all the people, we kid also used to get a chance to color the elder people properly along with our age groups … this phenomenon has declined with the age and has taken different shapes … today the community scope got broaden and there are not too many people coming out for it … a reason for this is the way people apply colors to each other and the quality of color itself …
After this community thing … we used to gather with a few friends and walk around the city (and cycles) going to almost every friends’ place – having sweets (esp gujhiya) / namkeen added with either chai or thandai … I have strong feeling about this activity now … as friends have distanced out … not many like to entertain everyone at home … especially when dripping color can create a mess in a clean house … and the relationships are not as strong as they used to be …
There used to be lot of tolis with their bands (drums) which used to go across the town … which is now replaced by a gang of bikers or formation of a DJ based dance floor at every crossing you can say … with good holi music replaced by loud (really loud) music which not only dirty (double meaning – sexually explicit) but irrelevant too … one song though hasn’t lost its tradition is ‘rang barse’ … which is every second song that is being played (though now with added effects – which then destroys the beauty) … people used to hug each other … now the youth has created a tradition of ripping each other’s clothes apart …
As time has progressed, the quality of the colors used has also gone down substantially … they buy colors that doesn’t go easily … leading to the usage of varnish based paints too … not too sure why – but seemingly having a revenge … traditionally Holi was a festival to eliminate animosity, which seemingly has changed its purpose to make an opportunity to take revenge (playfully though) by painting others’ face red/painted … on the other hand, it also reflected who played how much of Holi – an unstated competition!
The worst stage of this event is clean up … loads of shampoo/soap/ other related stuff (like besan with malai …) is used to get back into normal looking human from dark – unrecognizable faces … everything you touch that time is colored in red/green … it takes almost an hour or two and even after so much of washing and cleaning, some amount of color remains … the skin gets really burnt if not dried …
The evening, is relatively better part of the process … where there are places with Holi-Milan samaroh (public meetings/ get-together) happens and people of all class and creed come in their better dressed format and greet each other … some of these have some entertainment stuff organized like hasya kavi sammelan or a local orchestra with loads of thandai being served. This was the time when I used to go around with friends – visiting everyone’s place – having loads of sweets and ending up at this place for final dispersion. This time I did see the cream of the business community gather at the central place – but the rest of the other Milan samaroh was not there … (or at least I was not aware of) …
At the end of the day … it was a mixed feeling … filled with nostalgia … missing those days where some of us friends used to spend hours and hours today … but getting drenched in different colors, I am not too sure if I would like to play again next year … but then next year would be a different issue altogether as I wouldn’t be alone next holi :)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Extended Expectations …
The things I have been scared of… have been coming true for me …
With my life now being extended … the new set of relatives (immediate and extended) have their own agenda that needs to be taken care too… everyone of them wishes or desires to please each other in multitude ways … and expects that I would follow the suite. There is nothing really wrong here; just that my philosophy is little different from theirs and after a point it really bothers …
Now a lot of these expectations are driven not by the immediate family members but by the extended family or the society at large … for instance, the girls family is expected to treat the boy royally… he should be pampered … bought umpteen numbers of gifts, sweets, etc … the boy is expected to pay visits to all the extended family – giving them an opportunity to showcase how well they can pamper and load you with stuffs …
As I never really cared about such things, I don’t even know the rules of such game… and there I loose the battle before it starts even … and then I get few words from the immediate family about the things I have done or rather have not done ….
I really wonder who made such idiotic rules and rituals (and expectations) … and why such fancy fanfare about the whole thing – creating an uncomfortable zone for both parties … when do we dump the typical ‘log kya bolenge’ (what would people say) attitude …
PS: so far I have managed to survive to a certain extent … but I can feel the shortage of ammunitions to encounter such events for long …
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Tracking Railways ...
After traveling long distances for almost 13 years now, I think real one can see and feel the real India … whatever said, Laloo has done something to revive the Indian railways for last few years they have been giving huge profits (without actually implementing any of the new age industry gimmicks) … now you get “relatively” cleaner stations, better managed stalls, improved onboard pantry services, booking services … I agree there are still lot more to do in terms of scheduling and delays, number trains and stoppages, faster trains, porter systems, policing and security – both on board and at stations, maintenance of infrastructure, tracks and trains …
After going through the gist of the Rail budget this time, I think Laloo should have focused a little more on the sustainability part of the increments he has done so far. A little more investments on maintenance and enhancements of the tracks, improvements in station services and processes like porter and security, passenger services … little more security by putting barbed / fixed fencing through the sides of the tracks … this will reduce the accidents on tracks … especially cattle and vehicular … other things that could be looked into include coach and engine manufacturing with reusing the older coaches (defining the retiring time of both engine and coaches) … improving the facilities at the unmanned/ manned crossings electrification of signals … usage of satellite phones (or at least upgraded walky-talky stuff – currently are basic versions) … automated signaling and train tracking mechanism … effective consumer grievance system …
I agree it takes time and investments … and with our expectations growing faster than the services rendered, this list would be endless …
this post was meant to be published a lot earlier ... just laziness delayed it ...
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