Rang De Basanti - Movie Review

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder". That was the message on my fortune cookie after the Chinese lunch Friday afternoon. Friday night, I saw the movie Rang De Basanti and experienced the truth in that statement.

The first half of the movie is full of the kind of fun you can have with your buddies in India, some spectacular shots of Indian locations - historical, urban, country, colleges, dhabas, roads, neighborhoods, interspersed with sepia-toned footage of a "movie" about Shaheed Bhagath Singh and his posse of freedom fighters. What can I say? We Indians are an emotional people. That heady mix of visuals, dialogs, nationalism, masti and music, all set in India, played my heartstrings every which way, making me very nostalgic, yearning for my country and my people, who are on the other side of the world

Ironically, during the second half, when the movie actually becomes serious, dramatically weaves in a real issue (not made-up for the movie) of national importance and actually talks about doing something to make the country better, my reactions were more sedate and subdued. May be it's just me. May be I respond to unstated, subtle stimulus better than in-your-face dialogs. I do have friends who told me that their conscience was affected by the second half of the movie. Whatever it is, I am glad that the the movie did not portray the overtly filmi, jingoistic, parochial version of nationalism, like most other movies do. Regardless of my paradoxical reactions to the first and second half of the movie, I did enjoy the movie in its entirety.

Wow! What a movie it is! This will probably turn out to be one of the best Indian movies of 2006. A clean, wholesome package of entertainment and drama, along with a patriotic social message. Sounds like a marketing message, doesn't it? But the movie delivers on it. The fact that it is an Aamir Khan movie is just the icing on top!

Rang De Basanti has the foundation of a great story (as any good movie should). A young female English filmmaker comes to India with the intention of making a movie on Bhagath Singh and his group of freedom fighters. The filmmaker has a very personal interest in the movie because her grandfather happened to be the jailer of Bhagat Singh's coterie, and he kept a very detailed and personal journal about their last days. She gathers a group of young Indians to play the roles of the freedom fighters in her movie. The youngsters seem to live only for the sake of having fun in life. They have a jaded, pessimistic attitude towards the country, its state and its current issues. They feel no tie to the country's past, and no concern for the future. They only want to ensure that today is great. (There is a line by Aamir's character in the movie which which sums up their attitude: If we have one foot on the past and one foot on the future, we will piss on the present in the middle!"). Nevertheless, playing the roles of Bhagath Singh and his friends in the movie-with-in-the-movie, seems to awaken a tiny seed in the conscience and hearts of the youngsters. And then, quite unexpectedly, the group of friends are faced with a very personal crisis which is tied to a matter of national importance. What will they do next? Will they let their original jaded-faded attitude dictate their actions, or will the tiny seed sprouting in their hearts grow into something big enough to rock the country? That is the rest of the movie.

In the interest of not spoiling the movie for those who have not watched it, I will not divulge anything more about the story. Just suffice it to say that it is good story, nicely presented, with excellent character portrayals. The movie could have been shorter and tighter, but we may overlook that minor detail considering that it is entertaining through its entire 3-hour length. The way elements of Bhagath Singh's story - including the characters and even some dialogs - are juxtaposed into the contemporary story of the movie's protagonists is very impressive and innovative. There were times when I got so involved in watching the interspersed footage of Bhagath Singh's movie, the movie-with-in-the-movie, set in pre-independence India, I forgot about the original movie set in contemporary India.

Aamir Khan shows once again why he is the greatest Khan of Bollywood movies. He plays the role of the youthful character DJ with style, aplomb and convincing sincerity. One cannot imagine any other Khan being able to play that role. But more delightful is the fact that the lesser-known actors who play the other roles in the movie put on a more convincing act than Aamir himself. Perhaps because I already know Aamir Khan as a star actor or perhaps because his character DJ is by nature prone to dramatics, I thought that the performance of the other actors was more realistic than that of Aamir himself. Siddharth in the role of the quiet, brooding Karan, and Atul Kulkarni as the chauvinistic, fire-brand Laxman Pandy, are both very impressive.

Apart from the length of the movie, there are a few other minor issues here and there, but I won't nitpick! It's a good movie. Worth watching again. Full paisa vasool!

Yin-Yang of Blog Comments

Warning: This is a very sexist post.

Recently I came across two blog posts by Yahoo's Jeremy Zawodny and Caterina Fake. They are both writing about the news article Yahoo! gives up quest for search dominance, and subsequent reactions by different people (for example, Microsoft's Robert Scoble). I am not writing about this issue in particular. What I found fascinating were the comments left by people on Jeremy's and Caterina's posts.

I am fascinated because the comments on those two blog posts follow a general trend I have noticed on a lot of blogs on the Internet:

1. When the blogger is a woman, there is a higher number of "Good post", "I agree", "You are right" kind of comments. The more attractive the female blogger appears in her pictures or sounds in her writings, the more such comments.

2. When the blogger is a man, the number of "Good post", "I agree", "You are right" kind of comments are very, very less... almost nonexistent. It doesn't matter how good the post is and how many people actually agree with the blogger.

3. Among people who leave comments, women are more likely to leave "Good post", "I agree", "You are right" kind of comments than men. I presume when women leave such comments, they are exhibiting the famous female networking, supporting and exchanging confirmations type of behavior.

4. There are a few men who leave such comments on the blogs of women who appear or sound attractive. I presume men do that because of their compulsive need to be seen or noticed by the attractive woman.

Disclaimer: I am making no insinuation whatsoever that the contents of the blog posts which get "Good post" and "I agree" kind of comments are not praise-worthy. I concede that they may be quite worthy of the appreciation and affirmations they receive.

Full confession: As a blogger, I do like it when people leave "Good post", "I agree", "You are right" kind of comments on my blog. I especially like such comments when the topic is controversial, and I have come under flak from others for what I have written.

Update on Feb 27th, 2006:
For those still not convinced: Check this post and the associated TWENTY-TWO comments for proof of my very first point above! It is just a MUG, for god's sake. But then it's no ordinary mug, for goddess's sake. It is some cute-looking demigodezz's mug!

Update on Apr 16th, 2006:
Here's something worth a look: Lifehacker’s guide to weblog comments

Two-Minute Cooking School 6: Majjige Huli

Majjige Huli (Click for bigger pic)

Come on over for dinner! :-)

Note: Unless another language is explicitly mentioned, all non-English words below are in Kannada.

Recipe for Majjige Huli:
Majjige means buttermilk in Kannada. So, majjige huli is a curry made with buttermilk or curds in South India. In fact, some form of this curry is made all over India. The popular North Indian variation is called kadi. This curry may or may not have vegetables in it. I like this curry with ash pumpkin (boodhagumbalakaayi), chayote (seemebadanekaayi), cucumber. I absolutely love this curry with masala vada soaked in it.

Ingredients (with approximate proportions): Kadale bele (Bengal gram or chana dal - NOT chickpeas) a handful and a half, grated fresh coconut a handful, fresh green chillies, coriander or cilantro leaves, mustard seeds, jeerige (cumin), asafoetida, turmeric, salt, oil, curry leaves, dried red chillies, sour curds. You may use buttermilk instead of curds. In the US, I use buttermilk which is sold in cartons. You also need vegetables of your choice: watery vegetables like ash pumpkin (NOT creamy pumpkin), cucumber, certain grouds, chayote work best; brinjals, ladies fingers, drum sticks are alright.

Cooking steps:
Start by soaking the kadale bele in water for about an hour. Use a mixie/blender to grind the kadale bele, grated coconut, green chillies, coriander leaves, mustard seeds, cumin, asafoetida, turmeric and salt into a smooth semi-liquid paste. You may need to add some water to get the semi-liquid consistency.

Cut the vegetables into small pieces. In a cooking vessel, add a little bit of oil and fry the vegetable pieces until they are slightly soft and cooked. Take care not to overcook or burn them. When the vegetables are properly cooked, add the paste from the blender and stir well, adding more salt if necessary. Cook this for about 5 minutes, until the semi-liquid mix is uniformly hot.

Add water to the curds and mix well until it becomes a thick liquid like buttermilk. Add this into the cooking vessel, in which the vegetables and the semi-liquid mix have been cooking. Bring the whole mix to a good boil. You may have to watch the vessel closely because the curd/buttermilk mix might boil over.

In a small cup or vessel, heat a couple of teaspoons of oil. Add mustard seeds to the heated oil. When they start popping, add pieces of dried red chillies and curry leaves. Take care not to overheat or burn the mustard, chillies or leaves. This oil, mustard, chillies, curry leaves mix is oggarane (tadka in Hindi).

Pour this oggarane over the boiling curry in the cooking vessel. Mix well, cover the vessel and boil for a minute more.

Hot, yummy majjige huli is ready to be eaten with hot white rice, and happala (paapad in Hindi) or sandige (vadiyaalu in Telugu) or a spicy pickle.

Reference: Indian Cuisine Glossary
Related: Two-Minute Cooking School: Prospectus

Blogger: Google's Neglected Child

I can't believe what a neglected child of Google, this blogging service Blogger.com has turned out to be. When I wanted to move out of Sulekha's weblogs, I chose Blogger.com primarily because it belonged to Google. I thought that pretty soon, Google would add some great features to Blogger.com and make it the best blogging service out there. More than an year later, I did not expect that there would hardly be any improvements and I would actually regret moving to Blogger.com, instead of shopping around for some other better service.

Following are my reasons to be dissatisfied with Blogger.com in the past and now:

1. There is no facility for categorization of blog posts. I would like to be able to create as many categories as I want, and organize my blog posts by those categories. I would like to see a hyperlinked list of all my categories on the sidebar. This is a very basic facility that almost every other blogging service offers.

2. For some unfathomable reason, the site won't list over 300 of your past posts for editing. If you want see older posts, you have to use workarounds. I just can't believe that the might of Google can't fix this silly problem.

3. Audio blogging requires us to call a phone number and record the message! This is analogous to using a typewriter in the age of computers. Why can't we just upload an audio clip we have recorded by other means? If I want to post a piece of music, I don't want to do it through a bad quality phone line, I want to be able to record it, as best as I can, using a mic and upload the file.

4. Poor or non-working statistics facility. In an ideal world, site statistics should be an integral part of any blog or webhosting service. Everybody wants to know the statistics of their blog or website!

Those are the peeves I have for now. If I come across more things to complain about, I will add them here.

PS: Lukewarm thanks to Blogger.com for improving the picture posting facility. Earlier, we needed to use a separate application called Hello in order to post pictures to our blogs! What were they thinking?

Operation Hijack Bangalore

There is an unmistakable conspiracy afoot to hijack the Bangalore agenda, and so far the bad guys are winning.

I don't know where to start or how to go about writing on this subject in an organized and structured way. So, I will just jot down a bunch of questions/points and then expand on them one by one. Following are the questions/points which will be covered in this blog post:

1. What is Bangalore or Bengalooru? What is the background?
2. What is the Bangalore agenda?
3. Who are the hijackers and why are they doing it?
4. Hijacking the Infrastructure agenda.
5. Perception of the IT industry by non-IT folks.
6. Bangalore Demographics and Kannadiga angst.
7. Hijacking the Kannadiga agenda.
8. Reservation for Kannadigas in IT industry.
9. The anti-IT paradox.
10. Targetting Infosys.
11. Why should Bangalore be protected as the technology capital?


What is Bangalore or Bengalooru? What is the background?

Bangalore is the capital city of the Karnataka state in southern India. Among all the cities of the world, Bangalore is second only to the United States' Silicon Valley, in terms of popularity for its technical industry. Almost every major tech company of the world (from Google and Yahoo to Microsoft, IBM, Texas Instruments, etc.) and of India (from heavyweights like Infosys and Wipro to very small, hardly heard of companies) have their presence in Bangalore. Bangalore has turned out to be the capital of the world tech-work outsourcing industry, resulting in the addition of a new word into the English language: Bangalored! Playing host to technology companies is not new to Bangalore. For decades, Bangalore has hosted the headquarters of some of India's biggest companies such as HAL, ITI, HMT, BEL, BHEL, BEML, ISRO, etc. The technology industrial base of Bangalore accelerated the ascension of India as a major player in the world's technology market. It has made valuable contributions to the economic growth of Indian. Sometime in the far future, this very industrial base of Bangalore will be recognized in history as the core engine of India's renewed world dominance in the modern times.

Sustaining and growing such a large industrial base is not possible without having good educational institutions. As such, Karnataka state and Bangalore region have one of the highest concentrations of educational institituions in India. It is also not possible to support such a huge industrial presence by the local population alone. Moreover, Bangalore is relatively close to the borders of neighboring states Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh. Hence, there is a large presence of non-Kannadigas (non-natives of Karnataka) in Bangalore. It is estimated that over 70% of the city's residents are non-Kannadigas.

Among all the cities of India, Bangalore is the most favorable city for non-local people. A non-Kannadiga can live in Bangalore for decades, without learning the local language and have no difficulties at all. Locals of Karnataka are some of the nicest, accomodating ("adjusting" in local slang) and least parochial people in India.

Bengalooru is the correct pronunciation of the name of the city whose anglicized name is Bangalore.


What is the Bangalore agenda?

It is quite simple really: To provide for the healthy sustenance and improvement of living conditions for all the residents and businesses of the city, particularly the vast and highly successful technology businesses.

The above deceptively simple statement covers everything including cost of living, infrastructure, environment, people-friendly policies & processes (from being able to party late into the night to respecting and supporting the local language and local culture), business-friendly environment, and security (from criminals as well as terrorists).


Who are the hijackers and why are they doing it?

The Number 1 hijackers of the Bangalore agenda are the local politicians. They are doing this for two reasons:

1. Simply because that is what politicians do: try and grab power, and then stay in power by hook or crook. Principles be damned. Welfare of the citizens is flushed down the drain. They have no interest in nor inkling of the long-term strategy for the development of their constituency, city, state and the country's welfare.

2. There is lot of money, power and prestige associated with being in power in Bangalore, as the ruling party of Karnataka state. The many successful companies in Bangalore pay a huge amount of tax to the state's coffers. Any political party at both the state and national levels would like to get their hands on those huge funds.


Hijacking the Infrastructure agenda:

One of the most visible problems in Bangalore today is that of infrastructure. In particular, the road, traffic and drainage situation. Most of Bangalore's roads were never designed nor built for the kind of traffic they are experiencing today. Except for streets used for purely residential access or streets in remote locations, most of Bangalore's roads experience rush hour traffic during all hours of the day (except very late in the night) and on all days of the week. The noise and environmental pollution levels is staggering. The waste of time and fuel, as well as the stress levels due to dealing with such traffic is high. The dangers on the roads are very real (see: Accident Statistics for Workers of Electronics City, Bangalore).

The need of the times is for the road and traffic issue to be high on the city officials' sights. There has to be definitive short-term and long-term plans to deal with the current and future traffic growth. The situation has to be constantly monitored and periodic changes/progress made. If the government agencies are doing these things, the public are not aware of them. What we have seen so far is an Outer Ring Road around Bangalore and a few flyovers, which have definitely helped, despite having some issues of their own. What else is being done? There seems to be a bankruptcy of ideas and a dearth of action. Meanwhile, the traffic in the city is bursting at the borders of the roads.

In this situation, a mass transit system for the city is an emergency necessity. It has to be developed and implemented on a war-footing. Instead, the Bangalore Mass Rapid Transit project is progressing at a snail's pace. As per the out-dated homepage of the project, construction was supposed to start in June-July 2005, two years after the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation submitted the "DPR" (Detailed Project Report?) to the Government of Karnataka. It took all of two years to just get "in-principle" approval from the Planning Commission of India, another approval from the Pre-Project Investment Board and yet another approval from the Karnataka State Cabinet! In May 2005, H. D. Deve Gowda, objected to the project and sought fresh debates about the cost and feasibility of the project, about the choice of a light rail vs an elevated rail system! Over two years since the project's inception, after all the approvals were received, just before construction is supposed to begin, a debate was called for!

As per the current estimate, the project is to be implemented in 5 years from the start of construction. We can safely add a conservative 2 more years to this estimate owing to the pace at which things get done in India. At this rate, the project could be expected to be completed in the year 2012. If Deve Gowda's call for fresh debate had worked, it would have added another year or two to the project. What would be the traffic situation in Bangalore by the year 2014?

I am not an expert on mass transit systems to know if the questions and concerns Deve Gowda raised were valid. However, I do feel that the cost of delays to the project is far higher than any additional cost the city would incur by choosing one system of mass transit over another. I feel that Deve Gowda, who is a coalition partner of the current ruling party in Karnataka, but who frequently acts as if he is in the opposition, was trying to hijack the infrastructure development efforts to gain attention and political mileage.

Even worse than the story of Bangalore's roads and mass transit system is the story of Bangalore International Airport! Check out this page: Bangalore International Airport Watch. See the number of times the start and end dates have been struck and changed. The oldest start date is Oct 2002, the newest July 2005. The oldest end date was in 2003 and the newest one is in 2006. The ex-prime minister, Mr A B Vajpayee, performed the ground-breaking ceremony in Jan 2002. This ceremony is supposed to be the traditional starting of construction, but the construction has not started until three years later in 2005! A difference of 3 years. Three years may not seem to be a lot, but when you consider that the project was conceived in 1991, you get an idea of how long the project has been delayed before it could merely start!

During all that time, there were endless delays, along with the entry and exit of many a player and partner, because of political games. Many governments have come and gone, ministries have risen and fallen, chief ministers and prime ministers have appeared and disappeared. None of them could expedite the project and give Bangalore a good airport it deserved. Meanwhile, the airport project continues to be used for scoring political points as shown by the recent fall-out between Narayana Murthy and Deve Gowda. In my opinion, even if Narayana Murthy decided to quit when Deve Gowda accused him of not achieving much as the Chairman of the Bangalore International Airport Limited, he should have at least given a proper response highlighting his achievements. His exit, not fully explained, only darkens the issue, rather than shed any light.

Even the location of the airport well beyond the northern border of Bangalore is suspect. Most of Bangalore's technology companies, which form one of the biggest clientele of air travel to and from Bangalore are concentrated in the southern part of Bangalore. It would have made sense to build the airport closer to this region. Building it in some place along the Mysore road, would have not only been closer to the tech companies of Bangalore, it would have helped the development of the Bangalore-Mysore corridor as well. Instead, the airport is coming up in a place which requires travellers from southern Bangalore to travel all the way across or around the city, and then travel some more distance before reaching the airport. This will also have an adverse impact on the traffic situation in the city. I have read reports which alleged that the airport is being constructed to the North of Bangalore because vested interests (including Deve Gowda and his family) own large tracts of land in that area, and they wanted to increase the value of their land holdings.

With real initiative, the Bangalore International airport project would have been completed a long time ago. Not only that, with true vision, the airport would have been conceived as a major hub to the Indian subcontinental region, rather than being designed as just another Indian destination. Imagine how much more profitable the airport and the supporting businesses would have been if it could have been built as a hub where international flights and passengers could lay over enroute to the East and the West! That is the vision which should have driven the Bangalore International Airport project. Instead, the project seems to be driven and delayed in turns by the selfish interests and petty politics.

The Bangalore mass transit system, the Bangalore airport and other infrastructure initiatives in Bangalore are not coming up due to political initiative. They are coming up despite political obstacles and hijacking. Each of them has a long and labored birth, and by the time they become operational, the needs of the city would have grown well beyond the levels that these projects were supposed to address.


Bangalore Demographics and Kannadiga angst:

As I had mentioned above when describing Bangalore's background, a large part of the city's population consists of non-Kannadiga immigrants from other states. Even among people born and brought up in Bangalore, many people are from a non-Kannadiga background. This has been the case in Bangalore for a long time.

In any part of the world, when the percentage of immigrant population rises, there is bound to be some discontent among the local people. The immigrant populations take up the available land and resources, they drive up the cost of living and essential commodities, they bring in their own culture and languages which may result in the erosion of the local language and culture. In a city like Bangalore where the immigrant population reaches 70% or more, these things happen on a much higher scale.

The immigrants have not been very sensitive to Bangalore, its local people and their culture either. At best, they show apathy, disinterest and indifference to the Kannada language and Kannada culture. At worst, they behave in a way which hurts the local sentiments. The businesses which serve the residents of Bangalore gear their products and marketing towards the predominantly non-Kannada people. Often, they totally ignore the Kannada people. It is easy to perceive this as an in-your-face disrespect and insult towards Kannada language. Some very recent examples of such behavior include:

1. Sales and marketing people who cannot or will not speak Kannada in many of Bangalore's big retail businesses.
2. Lack of Kannada language programming on Radio City, Bangalore's popular FM channel.
3. Citibank's refusal to accept a document from a Bangalore-based customer (myself), because it was attested in Kannada. I will blog about this in a separate post.
4. Negative feedback and opinion expressed by a lot of non-Kannada residents of Bangalore to the issue of correcting the name of the city to Bengaluru or Bengalooru.

Understandably, such factors create dissatisfaction and distress among the locals of Bangalore and the Kannada populace of the rest of Karnataka. They are witnessing their own language and culture facing erosion in their own state capital. They cannot be expected to sit quiet.

It is worth noting here that a similar erosion of Marathi language and culture in Mumbai led to the formation of the very parochial Shiv Sena party, which has harassed non-Marathi people over certain issues, which has tried to use force in imposing Marathi language and culture in Mumbai, and which has tried to prevent non-Marathi people from filling certain employment openings in Mumbai.


Hijacking the Kannadiga agenda:

The dissatisfaction and angst of the Kannadigas is hijacked and subverted by certain politicians towards their own political ends and to settle petty scores. This is so obvious that I am surprised the Kannadigas don't see it themselves. Ideally, the primary agenda of a Kannadiga movement would be to protect and enrich the Kannada language and culture. Sadly, this agenda is hijacked my short-sighted people, achieving little or no constructive purpose for Kannada language and culture. Such hijackings only result in destruction and bad name to the Kannadiga movement. Examples of such actions:

1. Violence against Tamil and other immigrants during the Kaveri water dispute between Karnataka and Tamilnadu. The violence did not contribute to any resolution of the dispute. It badly affected many lives, brought a bad name to Bangalore and the Kannadiga movement.

2. Violence and unrest in the Bangalore city when anything happens to the popular movie actor Dr Rajkumar. Whether Dr Raj was kidnapped by a forest brigand or even when he falls ill at times, violence erupts in the city as if such violence would protect or serve Dr Raj's interests. Such violence only results in loss of public life and property.

3. The recent protest in front of Infosys office in Electronics City, Bangalore. The activists demanded priority and reservation for Kannadigas in filling job openings. This was once again an unproductive and misguided move. More about this in a subsequent section below.

It is unfortunate that under the instigation of certain short-sighted politicians with vested interests, the Kannadiga movement in Bangalore today has an element of anti-IT industry stance in general and an anti-Infosys attitude in particular. This is a pure and simple hijacking of the Kannadiga agenda.


Perception of IT industry by non-IT folks:

Today, Bangalore has become synonymous with India's IT industry. Any discussion of Bangalore's issues should include a discussion of its IT industry.

The IT industry in Bangalore and the rest of India came in quietly, under the radar. At first, the public and the central or state governments hardly noticed them. Why would they? Most IT shops were small. They did not occupy large spaces nor did they employ too many people. They did not bring in any large machinery, nor did they ship out any visible voluminous products in trucks. However, the IT companies could not be hidden for long. They were booking extraordinary profits (compared to other industries), earning in foreign currency, growing rapidly with buildings appearing all over the city like mushrooms on wet ground, and they were starting to employ more and more people! Before anybody could blink 10 times, the IT industry shed its new bride's veil and captured the attention of the whole nation like an extremely bright and beautiful new daughter-in-law captures the attention of the whole family. The IT industry in India could grow the way it did not because of government support, but rather because of the absence of government interference. In the beginning, the IT companies needed practically nothing from the government. The government hardly took notice of their existence. The industry grew free and happy. Due to its extraordinary success, predominantly by and for the middle-class people, the IT industry was the darling and pride of everyone in Bangalore.

However, the rapid growth of Bangalore's technology businesses, has resulted in an even more rapid growth of Bangalore's population and the accompanying problems. Cost of living in Bangalore is one of the highest in the country. The real estate market is skyrocketing. The traffic is bursting at the seams. What used to be the Garden City has now become a highly polluted city. The local people feel that the high-growth technology industry of Bangalore has contributed to these not so nice changes. In a leap of logic which is incomplete, inaccurate and fuelled by mischievous vested interests, the non-IT people of Bangalore have started to blame the technology companies as the root cause of Bangalore's woes. These companies are viewed as being apathetic to local people and their conditions, driven by a pure profit-motive. They are thought to have arm-twisted the government into giving them too many facilities and breaks at the cost of the development of the rest of Bangalore city and Karnataka state.

Read the following translations of Ravi Belagere's articles to get a glimpse of the thoughts and attitudes of the non-IT people in Bangalore towards its IT companies:

1. An Open Letter to Sudha Murthy
2. Nobody here is bitten by a (mad) dog to raze the city and rebuild it!


Reservation for Kannadigas in the IT industry:

Background info 1.: Dr Sarojini Mahishi Report and related info.
Background info 2.: FAQ on Discrimination of Kannadigas in IT industry.

I am in no position to comment on the general accuracy of what is presented in the FAQ above regarding the discrimination against Kannadigas in the IT industry. What I can say based on my 8 years in the industry, working for a Bangalore-based IT company is that, I have personally seen no region-based or language-based discriminations in the groups that I have been involved with. There are a couple of points though:

1. During the early part of my career, in the late 90's, I noticed that almost all the desktop and network support engineers working in my company were from Kerala. I don't know if this was because my company had hired a Kerala-based contractor to provide desktop and network support, or if the person recruiting for that group favored people from Kerala. This started to change during the early part of 2000s, and people from other regions started to appear in this group.

2. I have also heard from one friend that in the department he worked for, in this same company, there was preferential treatment given by the managers to "people whose names ended with -an" (tamilians).

My experience with human nature in general and with Indians in particular suggests that there is indeed some truth to region-based and language-based favoritism from managers and recruiting personnel. To what extent this is true, I cannot say.

Suppose we accept as truth that there is indeed a preferential treatment given to people from certain regions. The solution to that problem is not to shift the preferential treatment to people from another region. The solution is to remove any preferential treatment at all, and let people compete purely based on their merits. This is the proper way of doing things. Giving priority or reservation to any particular group of people would be counter-productive. It does nothing but replace one problem with many more.

Consider the following three main scenarios in which a company recruits most of its employees:

1. Specific requirement: When an IT company needs a person with a particular skill-set and experience to fill a specific project requirement, it cannot and will not wait to discriminate based on the person's caste, gender, region or language. There is a dearth of good people in the industry and no company can afford to get bogged down by such petty considerations. Doing so would be detrimental to the company's competitiveness and ability to deliver on the project.

2. Campus recruitment: I have spent the first quarter century of my life in Bangalore. I have spent the first half of my career in Bangalore. During all that time, I have personally come across no instances of a good college or a good student left out from campus recruitments by good companies. There are far too many companies in Bangalore and they are all looking for good people. It is natural that they would look for good people across the country. Karnataka does not have enough good colleges or good students to satisfy the recruitment needs of all these companies. If the companies had to comply with any reservation rules for Kannadigas or local people in any part of the country, they might end up having to fill the numbers with less-than-good candidates and this is not good for the entire industry as a whole.

3. General recruitment of experienced candidates: Occasionally, companies have general recruitment drives for experienced candidates. A combination of factors from points 1 and 2 above apply in this case also. Companies cannot make it a practice of preferring candidates from particular region or language without suffering serious adverse effect on their competitiveness and morale.

It may be true that the majority of the people employed in the IT industry of Bangalore are non-Kannadigas. However, I don't think it is true that deserving Kannadigas are not being employed. I am sure that every deserving Kannadiga gets an IT or ITES (IT-enabled Services) job in Bangalore sooner or later. S/he need not even travel to other states, unless s/he wants to.

If companies in Bangalore are forced to comply with any reservation policies to recruit only locals of Karnataka, they would have no choice but to move to more liberal and favorable places. Bangalore and Karnataka would lose out when that happens. This is not a threat or a blackmail. This is a case of simple economics. And please don't tell me that it is a good thing if IT companies move out of Bangalore. More about this later.

Coming back to the topic on hand: Just as it is not possible for companies to implement and follow a practice of giving priority to Kannadigas to fill vacancies, it is not possible for them to give preference to candidates from any other regions as a matter of general policy or practice. Read that again carefully. To repeat, it is not possible for companies to give preferential treatment to any other regional group (North Indians or Tamilians) for the same reasons mentioned above. So, if they are getting such partial treatment, it is only happening in occasional instances by specific managers or HR personnel, and not in general. That is definitely quite bad, but it is not as bad as Kannadigas in general being discriminated against.

What companies can and should do, is to put specific checks and balances in place to ensure that no such region- or language- or caste- based preferential treatment is given to anyone. There must be strict audits and severe penalties for individuals and companies who violate this rule. There must be internal and external boards to handle individual complaints when such practices happen.

The government can certainly pass such a law based on equality. But can a government that is run by political parties, which come to power playing caste-, region- and language-based politics have the guts and will to implement such laws? I doubt it. Once again, this is the case of the country's progressive practices being hijacked by political forces.


The anti-IT paradox:

The anti-IT stance of the non-IT Kannadigas in Bangalore is a fascinating study in the paradox of the average Indian's attitudes and opinions under the influence of politicians and vested interests. A similar paradox is played out in most other issues in India, when politicians hijack the agenda for their own narrow gains. Consider the following:

1. The non-IT Kannadigas in Bangalore are distressed by the deteriorating living conditions in Bangalore. The IT leaders in the city are also dissatisfied by the very same conditions. Yet, when an IT leader like Naranayana Murthy of Infosys gives out a statement criticizing the conditions in Bangalore, the non-IT Kannadigas get angry and worked up. It is hard for me to understand why they should get angry when Mr Murthy criticizes the very same things they don't like. If Mr Murthy's statements force the government to take notice and provide better infrastructure, the non-IT Kannadigas would benefit from it just as Mr Murthy and his organization would. Incidentally, around 7-8 years ago, the current Hosur Road was in a very bad condition. The road was improved by the government only after Mr Murthy's colleagues from Infosys and other IT companies staged a symbolic protest on Hosur Road with road repair tools, claiming to repair the road on their own. Now, everybody in the region enjoys the benefit of an improved road. Not just the IT industry.(It is a different matter that even this much improvement is not enough for that accident-ridden road).

2. The non-IT Kannadigas have been told that the IT industries have arm-twisted and blackmailed ("Give us this, or we will move our companies elsewhere!") successive Karnataka governments into providing special facilities to them. The reality is that, the government has not provided any special or extra facilities to the IT companies. What little has been done for the IT companies covers the bare necessities for any business to function. Especially when compared to what governments in other countries provide to all citizens, and when compared to what governments in other states are willing to provide.

3. The non-IT Kannadigas have also been told that providing facilities to the IT industry has drawn the government's attention and resources away from the rest of Bangalore and Karnataka. The implication here is that, if the IT companies had not forced the government, it would have diverted its attention and resources towards the improvement of the rest of Bangalore and Karnataka. Anybody who has grown up in India and believes this implication is extremely naive, if not downright stupid! Everybody in India knows how lazy and bigoted the political class is. If they could have their way, the politicians would all go to their legislative offices and chambers, take a restful nap and go back to their homes. Whatever little developmental efforts they directed towards the IT companies and their neighborhoods came after a lot of demanding and cajoling, pushing and pulling. Will any intelligent Indian truly believe that if the IT companies had not been provided anything, the government would have used those resources for the development of the rest of the city or state? No! A resounding N-O! The politicians would have just wasted away part of the money and pocketed the rest!

Points 2. and 3. above describe not-so-clever excuses provided by the politicians for not working to develop their constituencies. It is unfortunate that the Kannadigas have accepted such excuses and allowed themselves to be fooled.

4. The IT companies are accused by the non-IT people of not doing enough for the society. They are becoming the favorite whipping boys when any lack is perceived anywhere. Is there a lack of sufficient relief efforts when a natural disaster strikes? Blame the IT companies for not caring enough to share some of their hard-earned wealth! Is the infrastructure situation in Bangalore deteriorating on a daily basis? Blame the IT companies for not doing enough to improve the infrastructure situation. Does Narayana Murthy say that 75 percent of the fresh engineering graduates in the country do not have employment-worthy skills? Blame the IT industries for not improving the academic quality in India!

What the non-IT people should realize is this:
(i) It is not the core business of the IT companies to provide disaster relief, improve infrastructure, improve the quality of academic education in India. Certainly they can help and contribute towards these efforts. However, these are the core businesses and responsibilities of other organizations and agencies. There are other people who should take the responsibility for these and they can approach the IT industries for help and partnership. The IT companies will not deny the right approach. Is it fair to blame the IT industries for not doing something which is not their core business? Is it fair to let go of other people - like politicians and the government - whose core business it is to work towards the development?
(ii) The IT industry in India and in Bangalore is relatively new. Most of the achievements by the older companies have happened just in the past 10-15 years. Is it fair to expect them to not only earn good profits, pay their employees well and improve the general economy of the country in that short period of time, but also to directly work for the improvement of the living conditions of the city? If the IT companies are expected to do this, then what are the governments for?
(iii) Big companies like Infosys and Wipro have very well-organized and formal systems and processes to work for social causes.

Once again, I suspect that it is the work of the politicians and vested interests in shifting the blame to the IT industries for things they have failed to achieve. As it happens so often in India, people are gullible enough to believe the politicians and blame the IT industries.

5. The non-IT Kannadigas say that the IT industries have brought too many people from outside the state to Bangalore and this has led to all the woes of the locals: skyrocketing cost of living, crumbling infrastructure, heavy traffic and pollution. While it is true that the rapidly growing IT industry in Bangalore facilitated these changes for the worse, the industry is not the root cause of all these problems. This is something incidental which has happened in the past in other boom towns and will happen in the future also, anywhere in the world. Take the example of Silicon Valley of the USA to which Bangalore is often compared. Just like Bangalore, Silicon Valley had and has a large immigrant population. Just like Bangalore, the cost of the living has gone up there, and the local culture and living conditions have been affected. Whether the effect of such a growth is positive or negative on the city depends to a large extent on how the city administration handles the growth, in partnership with the businesses. In the best of circumstances, in the slowest of growth periods, Indian administrations cannot cope. It is not surprising that they have not been able to keep up with the pace of Bangalore's growth. Hijacking the infrastructure improvement efforts, as I described earlier, only contributes to this deterioration. The non-IT people should think a little more and view the problems with a broader vision. Then they would realize that they cannot blame the rapid growth of the IT industry alone. They would realize that the greater accountability lies with the city and state administrations.

6. The non-IT people view the IT industries as an exclusive and elite layer of the society which takes all the good stuff from the society, without giving anything back. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The truth is that the IT industry and its people are intricately woven into the fabric of the society. They are not working and living in a vacuum. The money that the IT industry pumps into the city's economy has created many times more jobs than the number of direct IT jobs. I would not be surprised if for every IT employee in Bangalore, there are at least 2 non-IT jobs created. Of these 2 non-IT jobs, at least one to one-and-half jobs would be within the Bangalore city itself. The other half to one job may be in the rest of the country. Even if the IT industry did not participate in any of the social welfare and improvement activities, just this single fact of pumping money into the economy and creating more jobs is a commendable achievement.

7. The non-IT people think that if the IT companies threaten to leave Bangalore and setup shop elsewhere because of the bad infrastructure situation in the city, it is quite alright. They think that the people of the city will not starve if the IT companies leave. Well, there is some truth in it. But it is also true that the millions of jobs which support the IT companies will go out of Bangalore. The general economic well-being of the region will come down. When that happens, Bangalore will not go back to being the peaceful and clean Garden City it once was. Human history shows us that when cities decline, they don't go back to being the peaceful self-sustained villages they once were. Instead, they decline into an uninhabitable and ugly wasteland of crime, poverty and disease. I am sure neither the non-IT people nor the IT folks nor any other well-wishers of Bangalore would like that happening to the city.

8. The non-IT people also think that the IT companies won't leave Bangalore all that easily because they would face similar problems in other cities and states; Bangalore, despite its infrastructure issues, is still a better place than most other states in India. This may also be true. But it is not just other cities and states in India which are vying for a piece of Bangalore's IT action and business. Other countries in Asia and elsewhere are also vying for pieces of the same pie. And they may have a stronger will and better sense to provide the kind of atmosphere which would facilitate the happy co-existence of the technology companies with the local population.

Everyone of the 8 points I have written above regarding the anti-IT stance of the non-IT people in Bangalore represents a paradoxical opinion and attitude of the Indian public. They seem to be opposing the very things which would bring them more benefits, with which they should be partnering. The people are sentimental and their sentiments are so easily hijacked by the unscrupulous politicians. Their emotions and energy are used by the politicians to shirk responsibility and accountability, to shift the blame onto others, and to achieve their own selfish ends. The public are by turns naive and unaware as well as willing and active participants in this hijacking.


Targetting Infosys:

In this hijacking saga of Bangalore, Infosys, one of the foremost IT companies of Bangalore and India, has been a special target of the non-IT Kannadigas. Infosys as an organization and Narayana Murthy, one of the founders of Infosys and its chief mentor, as an individual, have come under a lot of criticism. Such criticism is often short-sighted, shooting off the mouth type of statements which reveal a basic lack of understanding of the issues. It is hard to believe that just a short two to three years ago, almost everyone in Bangalore spoke of Infosys and Naranayana Murthy with pride. There are several reasons for targetting Infosys and Narayana Murthy. Following, I believe are the main reasons:

1. From the beginning, Infosys and Narayana Murthy have both been media-savvy. They have never been shy of the media, and in fact, have actively cultivated the media. In the old days, the technology reporting by the Bangalore edition of the Times of India was little more than organizational announcements composed in the offices of Infosys. As such Infosys has a high visibility in Bangalore as well as in India among all the IT companies. Especially for the non-IT people of Bangalore, Infosys is the face of the IT industry. So, it naturally becomes the target of their anti-IT sentiments.

2. Being the poster-child of India's and Bangalore's IT industry, Infosys and Narayana Murthy are looked upto by a lot of people in the country. Their words hold a lot of weight and influence. Especially when compared to the words of mere politicians. As such, when Narayana Murthy talks about the conditions of Bangalore, of India, about the performance of the governments and politicians, he gets a lot of bandwidth in the media, and the public attention that goes with it. Naturally, the politicians hate this. They cannot respond to Narayana Murthy's criticisms by solid performance because such honest and effective responses are beyond their meagre imaginations and corrupt capabilities. So, the only easy short-cut they have is to discredit Infosys and Narayana Murthy in the eyes of the public. They are trying every trick at their disposal to achieve this. So far, they have been successful in taking along the non-IT Kannadigas on this anti-Infosys and anti-Narayana Murthy ride. Fortunately, the rest of the populace is not affected by this... yet.

3. There is a more sinister reason for targetting Infosys and that is purely political. Infosys has not only been media-savvy, they have also actively engaged the government, especially the Government of Karnataka state. The state government partnership with Bangalore's IT industry in general and Infosys in particular was at its closest during the tenure of ex-chief minister of Karnanataka, Mr S M Krishna. During that time, the Bangalore Agenda Task Force was formed as a partnership between the government and the private industries to improve the governance of Bangalore. The task force was actively led and driven by the senior management of Infosys. Although the current ruling coalition government of Karnataka is led by the Congress party to which S M Krishna belonged, the ruling ministers, including the current chief minister of Karnataka, are not exactly his friends. Moreover, Deve Gowda and his party, who are the main coalition partners in the current government are quite opposed to S M Krishna and they consider him as their main rival. In a bizarre attitude of my enemy's friend is my enemy, Deve Gowda and his ilk consider Infosys and its managers to be their rivals since they were/are friendly with S M Krishna. In fact, some people believe that Deve Gowda's group is apprehensive about Infosys trying to engineer a come back of S M Krishna to power in Karnataka. Hence, they are trying their best to create trouble for Infosys and its management, particularly, Narayana Murthy.


Why should Bangalore be protected as the technology capital?

Why should Bangalore be protected as the technology capital of India? Why should any one city gain such a title and associated importance? Wouldn't it be better for the technology companies to be spread out all over the country so that it is beneficial to the local populations as well as to the companies themselves?

These are good questions to ask. There is an element of truth to them. Many companies are indeed located in other places across the length and breadth of India, and this will continue into the future, provided India continues to be an attractive destination for the technology businesses. The pie of IT businesses is too large to fit in any one city, be it the silicon Valley of the US or Bangalore of India.

However, when certain types of people or organizations come together in a particular place, sometimes they create a certain magnetic energy, a unique synergy, which attracts more and more similar people or organizations to the same place. Such a core group becomes the engine of accelerated growth. The resulting progress is far greater than it would have been if the people and organizations were spread out and did not come together in one place. This is a phenomenon that is observed in all fields, all over the world, including in the field of art, literature, academy, manufacturing, etc.

This is exactly how Bangalore became the technology capital of India, and accelerated the growth of India's technology industry. An industrial base was kick-started in Bangalore by the Indian government decades ago. More and more people have built on that base and the existing human capital of the region, and this has resulted in Bangalore becoming the technology powerhouse it is today. And the good fortune of Bangalore is spreading to other parts of the country. How many companies - foreign and Indian - initially setup shop in Bangalore, and then branched out to other parts of India? How many companies came to India lured by Bangalore, and then setup shop in other places of India? I don't know the exact numbers, but there must be hundreds of them. It is precisely in this way that Bangalore has helped spread the IT business to the rest of the country.

If there had been no Bangalore as we know it, perhaps the growth of the technology business in India might not have been quite so fast. I am not saying there would have been no growth. There would certainly have been growth. Only, we might not have experienced this kind of momentum and acceleration. In the fast-changing technology business, momentum and acceleration is extremely important. Losing momentum can and does often lead to total failure. Precisely for this reason, it is very important for both the Karnataka state and India as a whole to protect and preserve Bangalore's position as the technology capital of India by helping develop a conducive atmosphere there. Conducive to the people and businesses.. If Bangalore loses, the whole country loses. It is as simple as that.

Conclusion:

Bangalore is like an aircraft which is being hijacked by the terrorists who are disguised as the pilots. These pilots are the politicians who should ideally be flying the aircraft to safe heights of success. The residents of Bangalore - both the local people and the immigrants, and the industries of Bangalore are the passengers on the aircraft. The leaders of Bangalore's industries are like the stewards and navigators on the aircraft. The pilots are doing a bad job of flying the aircraft, they are leading it through turbulent zones and causing distress to all. Yet, they have cleverly manipulated a section of the passengers, the non-IT folks, into thinking that the stewards and the navigators are causing all the problems. These non-IT folks are directing their ire at the stewards and navigators, who only want to help the passengers. When this plane crashes, the hijacking pilots, the terrorist politicians, will easily escape with their safety gadgets and parachutes. The rest of us will suffer. The need of the hour is for all the stakeholders to participate in the development efforts as responsible partners, instead of targetting each other, playing the blame game and contributing to the general deterioration.

But then the story of this hijack is not unique to Bangalore. This has been played out in other parts of India, with other issues. Will Bangalore and its people be able to shake off the same old Indian instincts and responses and rise above? It is all upto each one of us.

Paradox of Love

Just saw the latest version of the movie Parineeta. What a beautiful story! A well-made movie.

The paradox of love is that, we hanker for and value so much the love which we chase after, which is given to us with reluctance... or not given to us at all. Yet, the love which comes to us easily and of its own will, the love which comes with no reluctance or difficulty, we don't seem to value or give it respect enough! We willingly give it pain, hurt, disrespect and neglect.

What fools we are! What a fool I am!

Related post: Old Groucho Marx joke and The Coolidge Effect

EOI - Extrinsic Obstacles Index

I am coining a new acronym: EOI, which stands for Extrinsic Obstacles Index.

EOI gives a ratio of extrinsic or unrelated obstacles to the total number of obstacles present between you and your objective, in a given situation, scenario or place.

EOI = extrinsic obstacles / Total number of obstacles (%)

The most convenient unit of measurement for EOI is percentage (%).


What are extrinsic obstacles?

There will be obstacles on the path to any objective. The obstacles can be classified as being intrinsic to the system and extrinsic to the system. Intrinsic obstacles are the obstacles which are a natural part of the system. Extrinsic obstacles are those which are not a natural part of the system. The extrinsic obstacles are usually introduced by some human factors, and could have been avoided. In an ideal situation, 100% of the obstacles are intrinsic. Meaning, all extrinsic obstacles have been avoided or preempted.

The following examples will make this more clear:

1. Suppose the objective is to buy and keep a basket of apples for two weeks, without access to a refrigerator. The intrinsic obstacles are the weather condition, the lack of a refrigerator, etc. Suppose the fruit seller unscrupulously added one or two bad apples into your basket. This is an extrinsic obstacle to your objective which could have been avoided.

2. Suppose the objective is to reach City B, which is 300 miles away, in 3 hours, travelling in a Lexus LS430. The natural, intrinsic obstacles to achieve this objective are the relatively large distance, the short time, the posted speed limits, the normal traffic conditions and the weather conditions along the travel route. Suppose you have a couple of passengers in your car who keep fighting and distracting you from the driving. This is an extrinsic obstacle which could have been avoided. Suppose you encounter a traffic jam on the route because some drunk driver caused an accident. This is another extrinsic obstacle which could have been avoided.

3. Suppose the objective is to hike 6 miles to climb a 3000 ft mountain in 3 hours. The intrinsic obstacles are the time, distance and steepness of the climb. The condition of the hiking trail, your fitness levels and weather are other intrinsic obstacles. Suppose you were stupid enough to carry a cell phone on the hike, and you were interrupted by calls every 30 minutes or so. The calls on the cell phone are extrinsic obstacles which could have been avoided. Suppose there were many intersecting hiking trails in the region and some vandal kids had messed up the trail signs, direction signs, etc. This is another extrinsic obstacle which could have been avoided.

4. Suppose the objective is to start and run a successful business. The intrinsic obstacles to be surmounted are the initial capital, finding a suitable location for the business, getting the right people involved as employees/partners, marketing and sales, dealing with the competition, complying by governmental regulations, etc. These are the typical challenges for any business. Extrinsic obstacles could be - corrupt government officials who are demanding huge bribes to give you certain clearances, unfair and illegal practices by the competition, bad employees who are deliberately undermining your business and creating problems for their colleagues, etc.


What is the use of EOI?

When choosing any objective and the path to take to reach that objective, we naturally try to choose the objective and path which presents the least obstacles. While doing so, it is also essential to understand the Extrinsic Obstacles Index (EOI) of the situation so that we make a choice with the least percentage of extrinsic obstacles.

By nature, intrinsic obstacles are part of the system. Usually, they cannot be avoided. They need to be tackled and dealt with. Often, intrinsic obstacles are so much a part of the system that they are not even viewed or termed as obstacles. They are simply milestones to be reached enroute to the objectives.

On the other hand, extrinsic obstacles are usually things which could be avoided. In the above examples:

1. The apples could have been inspected and the bad ones rejected at the time of buying.

2. The fighting passengers could have been dumped before starting the journey.

3. The cell phone could have been switched off before starting the hike.

4. The business could have been started in a country where the government officials are less corrupt, the judicial system is stringent enough to ensure fair competition and the prospective employee selection process could be rigorous enough to reject bad people.

The bad thing about extrinsic obstacles is that, dealing with them does not necessarily take you a step closer to the objective. It merely keeps you from regressing or going several steps backward. Switching off the cell phone does not make the hike any easier or faster, dumping fighting passengers does not make your destination any closer, an honest government official does not automatically ensure your startup will be a success. So, if the EOI of a situation is high, you might end up spending a lot of time and resources in merely ensuring that you don't go backward. If the EOI had been low, you could have used the same resources to get closer to your objective.

Another equally bad thing about extrinsic obstacles is that, they are not fun to deal with. They bring down your morale and spirit. The challenge of reaching a distant destination in a short time is fun. The challenge of hiking a steep mountain is fun. The challenge of starting and running a successful business is fun. These intrinsic challenges may be tough to deal with, but they spur you on. They are part of the game that you accepted when you signed up for the game. On the other hand, being distracted by fighting passengers on the drive, being constantly interrupted by phone calls on the hike, having to deal with corrupt officials is no fun. These factors take the joy out of the situation.

Another important thing is that, intrinsic obstacles by their nature, lead to innovations in your own field of interest. Extrinsic obstacles usually don't lead to innovations in your field. On the contrare, they take away valuable resources which could have fuelled your innovation.

For all these reasons, it is important to try and keep the EOI levels down.

Not all extrinsic obstacles can be avoided or controlled by us. The drunken driver, the vandalizing kids on the hiking trail are examples of factors not directly under our control.

This concept of the EOI can be applied to all types of situations - personal, public, professional. I hope it is of help for everyone to make better decisions and choices.

Another acronym coined by me: BQ - Bimbo Quotient.

2006 Changes

Following are my personal significant changes for the Year 2006:

1. Resignation: On 30th December 2005, I submitted my resignation to my company. This is my first full-time job. This is the first company I have worked for, since August 12th, 1997. Eight loong years! Never thought I would work for one company for so long. It has mostly been a good experience, however I wish the resignation had not happened under less pleasant circumstances. It is quite true that people's loyalties and departures are more towards their managers, than to their companies. I am not giving a clean chit to my company though. I am not happy with their policies, processes and attitudes as well. I hope that my exit process is at least quick and efficient. That is all I can say for now.

2. Joining an American company: Having resigned from my India-based company, I am going to accept employment from an authentic American company. This denotes an important stage of my separation from my beloved country. Although I am happy about the new job, I can't say I am happy about the separation from my country. We shall see how it goes.

3. Relationship silence: Starting from the last week of December 2005, I have opted for a great deal of electronic silence in my personal life, at least until the end of March. What this basically means is to cut off all communications from two people who have been closest to me during the past year (they are both in India, hence the communication has been mostly electronic - over phone and the Net). I had to do this because, as I told them, there was too much noise in our relationships and the noise was drowning out the music of love. Electronic silence also means that my contribution to online forums and this blog will be to the minimum. I shall continue to compose blog posts, but they will be saved as drafts until I am ready to publish them. This is also a partial reason for me to disconnect my cell phone connection starting from January 2006.

4. Cell phone disconnection: As I just mentioned, I have disconnected my cell phone connection - partly to maintain electronic silence, partly because I have been using so few of my cell phone minutes ever since I got a voIP phone, partly because I want to get a new phone (most probably, the new Motorola V360) from T-mobile and the discounted rates I want are not offered to exisiting customers, and partly because I want to see how long I can go without a cell phone. Perhaps I will write about my cellphone-free experience in a future post.

5. New Year Resolution: Finally, my new year resolution is not to be late for any meetings. I have been late to far too many meetings, far too consistently in 2005. Everytime I am late for a meeting, I shall put aside a dollar. We shall see how many dollars I will end up collecting. I was almost late to the very first meeting, on the very first working day of 2006 because I accidentally switched off my laptop before the meeting and waited for it to start up again. I abandoned the start up mid-way and rushed to the meeting... just in time!

Happy artificial New Year to all! I think Ugaadi, the first day of the Hindu calendar, signifying the beginning of Spring is the real and more natural new year's day, celebrated through all time, by cultures all over the world, regardless of what name they called it by!