Lens

Hey! Looks like you are a new visitor, you may want to subscribe to my Lens RSS feed. Or my shared links Convex RSSThanks for visiting!

After weeks of uncertainity and drama, finally the deal is closed.

The takeover was unique on two grounds: it was the largest overseas acquisition by any Indian firm, and it was the first instance of any domestic company acquiring a foreign company through auction.

Indians should feel proud for this.

First Sachin was discontinued from Airtel endorsement.

in 2004 when Airtel had signed on Tendulkar, the telecom service provider had said that Airtel and Sachin shared the same brand values…both were about being reliable, trustworthy and leaders in their respective fields

. ToI promptly followed up how it was about ‘hot selling icons’ and all.
And just 2 days later, there is a mega deal for approx Rs 135 crores !!

“In our research on Indian celebrity brands, it clearly emerged that the little master has gone beyond performance-linked popularity. His clean image and integrity provides him a natural affiliation with several brands we are associated with.”

Paulo Coelho’s interview in Indian Express
On India
..there is a very important lesson that I think your country teaches the whole world and that is tolerance.

Turning point:
Then, there was a moment in my life when I was 38. I had nearly everything, love, money, a house, but I was not happy. Then came the turning point. I said, why am I unhappy? I am unhappy because I am not doing what I want to do and that was to write.

On being sent to asylum:
It was because they said you have to be home by 11 o’clock. I said no, I’ll be home whenever I want. That was the last, I would say, drop in the glass.

About jail experience
But in the jails, they are only trying to suppress you as a human being, to put you in a state of fear.

On death:
A beautiful angel. Death’s going to kiss me.

About himself:
I am a very emotional person, yes; sometimes I am very calm and sometimes I am a warrior — it’s the same contradiction that you see in nature.

A message:
You have to face your fears, you have to overcome your moments of doubt, you have to believe that if you look for it there is always a solution….But to do that, you have to be brave. Brave enough to fight for things that are meaningful to you.

Why terrorists struck Bangalore Sad.

I saw this documentary (Link via: Scoble) “The other side of outsourcing” for Discovery done by Thomas Friedman (of “The world is flat” fame).

It is a must watch. I will just document/summarize what I saw and what are my reactions to it.

On one hand I was feeling very proud to be a part of a nation that is giving nightmares to the people of the wealthiest and mightiest country. On the second, when the documentary focuses on the other side, the other side that is disturbing, it saddens me. But not before I say to myself, it is all going to change and change has started already.

Let me go in the sequential manner as the documentary. Few minutes into it, I was utterly disappointed. For it seemed to think the outsourcing and BPO is reduced to call centers only. (About this particular topic, I will remind myself again that I have to document my thoughts and to link some really good links I have seen.) BPO is not just that. It sort of highlights the rosy picture of call center as lot of disposable time and lot of disposable money. Even though the other face of it was releaved, it could have been done in a more profound way. Well, there are lot of factors in call centers and no justice could be done in a short documentary.

Also at one point it greatly assumes that outsourcing is causing the westernisation. Agreed that there is money inflow and imitation is easier but the fuss about Valentine day celebration and other minor fears of westernization is not a result of outsourcing. What I mean to say is, outsourcing and westernisation as byproducts of globalisation stand at a same hierarchy, if not anything else but not definitely that latter is the cause of the former. These talk of “valentines day is bad, it is western”, “we gave KS to world but what should remain indoor should remain indoor” are opinions of certain individuals and do not represent the opinion of all. What I fear is that, given the wide audience of the channel/site, Indians will again be stereotyped to certain individual’s thoughts, just as many foriegners even today think India is a land of snakes, elephants and beggars.

Let me not digress and get on with documentary. It revolved around Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore !!) and captured the best and worst of it – but nothing particular to Bengaluru. The observations would apply to any other city as well. TF did an interview with U R Ananthamurthy, but nothing great worth mentioning about it. Then it shows RSS [not syndication, but a group of culture guardians] drills and some interviews with them. One observation is noteworthy – “World has become a market and humans are reduced to consumers.”

I was astonished to know 54% of Indian population is less than 20 years of age. So India’s face tomorrow will be literally the face of today’s youth.

As an example of glocalisation, TF mentions jadooworks. I must confess I came to know about it only now. There as a part of stress handling, employees undergo Yoga everyday. They not only employ artists to do animation on computers but also are preserving cultural heritage by creating an animated series on Krishna. Along with service industries, BPOs etc, these are the companies Americans should be afraid of , as they can steal the work from right under their noses. They can protest and get a bill sanctioned against outsourcing, but how can they stop the creativity and quality provided by companies such as these which are “creating” content as against servicing for them.
You should see the confidence to believe in Rajesh Rao of Dhruva Interactive, a gaming company. He affirmed, what we are seeing is just tip of iceberg and that tomorrow, India is going to be a super power. “We are going to RULE”.

As against the confidence of the hot blood, was the words of wisdom, experience and maturity by Aziz Premji, richest person in India. He declared the truth that we need to co-exist in this global market and that is only helpful to all of us.

Any dignitary visit to Bengaluru wont be completed without visits to two companies that are originally responsible to put India on a world map this faster. Wipro and Infosys. Rightly TF felt the Infy campus looked like a luxurious resort of Caribbean. He has not seen other buildings of Infy yet, like in Mysore etc, and he could take back a list of tourist spots in India to contain visits only to these campuses !

TF briefly spoke to Nandan Nilekani of Infy, Aziz Premji of Wipro and Ramesh Ramanathan of Janagraha.

I did not find the fears of Vimochana valid. They were only emotional and did not have right answers to TF. What villages need is better hygiene, better facilities (health education etc) but not the attitude “that cities are good only because you are used to it, villages will also be good if you get used to this”.

It saddens to see that there exists a completely different world just less than 2 hours journey from Bengaluru. The place which is calm, which does not have basic necessities like running water, health, education. [Quite ironically they have fresh air to breathe as against they do in Bengaluru]. This is not general to any one city. In India (I don’t know outside), there is a great polarisation/concentration at cities. I feel this will be the biggest problem of tomorrow. Unless the wealth, facilities and population does not spread evenly, we can not claim to have developed. Unless that happens, even when we project the glory of cities, at the back of our mind we realise that there is darkness in villages. Unless that happens we can not really smile and say “India is shining.” This is where people like Mohan Bhargav (Swades) can make a difference. So I was totally surprised when the documentary ended with such an example. It gave this entire documentary a great facelift and it answers the apprehensions of the wealth generated not being used properly. It is an initiative by Abraham George who has funded a school Shanti Bhavan out of his savings of working abroad/MNC. The students there are completely at ease with computers. One girl even beat TF in speed and who would mind losing to the children!

The smiles and hopes of these children gave a beautiful look to the entire documentary. Last few scenes just arrest you and you smile back as if you are acknowledging, “Tomorrow is going to be a great and happy day, for you, for me and for the entire world”.

Ps: I have immense respect to all the people whose names I have mentioned, just that I skipped “Mr” everytime.
I apologise for any wrong references/credits.
I am begging time to allow me to read World is flat.

About Subash Chandra Bose..

There is a saying in Kannada if I try to remember means (close to), that the family quarrels should be kept within the closed doors.
When we do not sort out our fights and blow it out of proportion, we are only going to be hit. As you can see here (Kannada newspaper link), the earlier events of Mr. Devegowda vs Mr.Narayana Murthy caused embarassing situation for PM Dr Manmohan Singh in Kuala Lampur.

Whose loss will it be if investors turn away?

Beware, everyone is being watched.

Two in this week - Indian Airlines becomes Indian. Hmm..Now let others too start thinking about it - Indian Railways, Indian Armed Forces, Indian Navy, Indian government ..heh! This reminds me of a email forward I got sometime back ..a pun on the renaming of Airport and CST and everything else as Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus, Chatrapathi Shivaji Airport etc. The joke went like this ..one Chatrapathi Shivaji speaks to another Chatrapathi Shivaji..both their schools’ name is Chatrapathi Shivaji, the colony’s name is Chatrapathi Shivaji, the roads’ name is Chatrapathi Shivaji, teachers’ name is Chatrapathi Shivaji and so on.

Second one is Bangalore to Bengaluru. I never expected this to happen. I always took pride when other cities became crazy and changed their names (Chennai,Mumbai,Kolkotta etc). Actually nothing is going to change if the name is changed. Only the signboards and address will change. One search and replace. People will continue to refer to it by its old name.
On the second thought, Bengaluru is actually not a change in name. Those who know Kannada know that is how it is pronounced in Kannada. Spelt/written in Kannada. So there was inconsistency earlier in the way the same name was spelt and pronounced in 3 different languages - ByangalOre in English, Bengaluru in Kannada and for some unknown reason Bunglor in Hindi. Now we can say the inconsistency is removed.
But why is it restricted only to Bengaluru..it should be extended to Maisuru(Mysore) -in Google earth it is already Maisuru!!, Mangaluru(Mangalore), Hubballi(Hubli), Belagavi(Belagaum), Chickamagaluru(Chickmagalore), Tumakuru(Tumkur) and so on !!

I saw this

He is an accused in the kidnapping case of a prominent businessman from Kolkata and a doctor from Jharkhand.

Most of the time he was supposed to be in jail, he was spotted at home or in restaurants

Singh is accused in the 2004 gunning down of prominent Patna surgeon N K Agarwal. The surgeon was attacked in his clinic. His crime: he filed an FIR against Singh, refusing to pay extortion. The extortion calls had come from jail. Doctors went on strike after that murder.

… and I thought Apaharan was a film ?!

Every once in a while I feel so shocked and sad that I can hardly speak, think or do anything for a minute.
Even after that, when I think, I will find myself lost in a series of questions for which there are no answers.
Gaurav remembers Manju.
News Item
Satyendra Dubey

Rahul Dravid. Anil Kumble. Vishwanathan Anand. Pankaj Advani. Narain Karthikeyan. Sania Mirza.

Indian Sports is shining….!!!