WiMAX + Android + Ad-Based Revenue Model

WiMAX + Android + Ad-Based Revenue Model

What do the above three things have in common?

Google!

Google is the master of Ad-Based Business Model. Google is partnering with Sprint for providing a portal for WiMAX customers in US. Google is the key force behind Android which is the open source OS + SDK targeted at Mobile Software development.

Google has become synonymous with success during the best part of the decade gone by. If this is not enough to guarantee success for the WiMAX + Android combination, then following are the technical factors that I think would guarantee success for this combination:

• WiMAX network would be open network unlike cellular networks till now that are closed to third parties. Any operator would be free to develop applications and the best will win, unlike current cellular networks where you need to give a good part of your revenue to the cellular operators.
• Android is open source. You would have the power to change anything in the mobile phone and there would be infinite companies that would come up to develop applications on Android. What this means is lots of competition and it is no hidden secret that competition means win-win situation for customers.
• Ad-Based Business model: Would you mind if your call rate is cut to half if you agree to receive an advertisement after the call you have made? Half the cost you pay and half the cost of your call is paid by the company giving the advertisement. This could completely change the cellular world.

Mere Doston Mere Pass Aao (Continued)

In the previous part of Mere Doston Mere Pass Aao I had discussed how Bollywood relates to our day to day life and what different scenes in Bollywood can teach us. The same stuff continues:

Deewar

In the scene from Deewar where Amitabh Bachchan is going Ga Ga on all the things he has managed to achieve in life, Shashi Kapoor says this single line which is arguably the most famous line in Hindi cinema:

• Mere Paas Maan Hai

In one line, he is able to teach millions of young people running mad after materialistic things that there is much more to life than money etc. Count the number of blessings you have and not the money (as they say).

Sharaabi

Amitabh invites Jaya Prada to his birthday party. Jaya Prada has lost a necklace worth 9 lakhs that was gifted to her by Amitabh. She reaches the party late and crying tells Amitabh that she has lost the necklace.

• Do aansun is aankh se gire, phir do us aankh se, phir do is aankh se gire, phir do us aankh se, phir do us aankh se gire, do is aankh se. Kitne hue? Nau lakh ke haar ke liye barah lakh ke aansun. Daddy hote to kehte: Vijay tumhe to business karna bhi nahin aata

Some things money can't buy, for everything else there is mastercard. Okie, no mastercard was there when Sharaabi was released, but in front of the his beloveds tears, even the best believe that money is worthless.

Things that have all right answers

How many times have you come across debates where everyone is right? Many. Just today morning, I was having a debate with a colleague on what is the right way of distributing work among the people by a manager. There were two approaches which we debated on:

a) Give all the features to the individual and let the individual decide how he wants to plan.
b) Give a single feature to the individual and after he has finished with it, give him second and so on.

Approach A: If someone loves to plan for himself, then he would love approach one. He would be interested in knowing what is expected of him for the next three months and he plans it accordingly. This has a good advantage in projects involving peoples brains as the brain might not be working every hour at the same efficiency. Also, you might want to balance your work with other personal things and so on. As long as you can commit that in three months work would be done, the manager would (or rather should) not be concerned whats going on in your life. This has lots of assumptions:
a) People commit and meet their commitments
b) Manager does not like to interfere a lot
c) Manager has faith in the employees
d) People raise concerns whenever they see them, instead of waiting for three months.

Approach B: The other approach is nice if you do not know how much time the different features will take. In this case, if you are giving multiple features to an individual, then instead you can ask him to work on one feature. If another individual becomes free, then he can pick up the second features instead of the first individual. It helps in delaying decisions till the right moment comes. This is also helpful because normally individuals finish the study phase for each feature before starting work on them.

We had lots of discussion on which approach is better. Finally it boiled down that there is NO SINGLE RIGHT ANSWER to this. Instead, it depends on the Manager-Individual chemistry and what suits a combination of them.

Following are the different options that can follow depending on the Manager-Individual chemistry:

Manager: Plans
Individual: Does not plan

Approach B

Manager: Gives Freedom
Individual: Plans

Approach A

Manager: Does not give freedom
Individual: Plans

Approach: ???? Will be cat and mouse where the manager will always try to pounce upon the individual.

Manager: Does not plan
Individual: Does not matter

Approach: Does not matter because your team is anyways screwed in this case.

Fifety-Nine or Unsath

A friend of mine took his dad for a heart check-up to a famous cardiologist (around 75 in age) in New Delhi. The cardiologist started asking questions to my friends dad:

Cardiologist: Whats your age?
Friends Dad: (A little confused) Fifety-Nine (a little pause) Unsath
Cardiologist: Fifety Nine Or Unsath. Bahut difference hai dono mein.
Friends Dad: (Lost in words) Fifety-Nine
Cardiologist: Do you smoke?
Friends Dad: Nahin
Cardiologist to Friends Dad: Lie down on the bed
Friend to his dad: Papa, bistar par late jaaiye
Cardiologist to Friends Dad: Remove your shirt
Friend to Cardiologist: Doctor, my dad does not know English.
Cardiologist to Friend: Mujhe pata hai. Tum chup chap kursi par jakar baith jao. Tabhi maine poocha tha Fifety-Nine yaan Unsath. He replied fifety-nine. I have been in US for seven years. No one speaks Hindi there. Aur hum yahan par bhi hindi bolne mein sharmate hain.

Narendra yaan Yogendra

Early last year I had bought a flat in Faridabad from a property dealer Narendra. I had booked a flat in Triveni-Ferrous (a combination of two groups who were building a society in Faridabad). I was personally keen on getting a booking in Triveni as it was more famous then (infamous now :)). When Mr. Narendra landed up in my house, he came with booking forms for TFI (Triveni-Ferrous Infrastructure). I wanted him to confirm that the flat would finally be booked in Triveni. He said "Worry not!" Some months later, I came to know that I have been allocated a flat in Ferrous (instead of Triveni). Mr. Narendra told me that Ferrous is equally good. Mr. Narendra had promised me that he would be giving me 4% discount on the booking amount. I was foolish enough to believe him. Some months back, I asked him for the discount. He stopped picking up phones and then one day he asked me to talk to Yogendra. Now this Mr. Yogendra (whom I have never met) and Mr. Narendra (whom I will never forget) have come up with this lovely business philosophy of "Here and There Everywhere but Indirectly Nowhere" which states that "Narendra and Yogendra are two good hidden friends who are enemies in front of the world. If you go here, he will refer you there and vice versa and in the end you will land up nowhere". This is a good business model if you are in it for a short term. It works somewhat like this:

1. Two good friends work up a deal beforehand on how to split the benefits
2. They form a team and come up with a business
3. They get lots of customers and sell them something
4. They suddenly fight one day (over anything doesn't really matter)
5. They create lot of confusion. More confusion the better it is for them in this model.
6. Customers run Here and There Everywhere
7. However they reach Nowhere because narendra yaan yogendra, sab ek hi thali ke chathey bathey hain

Its Quiz Time

You are sitting in a room with three switches. 3 bulbs in an adjacent room are connected to these three switches. Now you need to tell which switch is for which bulb. You can go only once in the other room.

A man dies and goes above. There he finds two doors - one to Heaven and other to Hell. There are two persons standing - one each in front of the door to Heaven and Hell. One of them speaks a lie and the other speaks truth. Now you can ask only one question to any of them and you need to tell which is Heaven and which is Hell.

A king gives a horse each to his two sons and tells them that they need to race to city X. The one whose horse is SLOWER will win. The sons are wandering over for many days. When they are dead tired and have no hope left, they meet a wise man. As soon as both of them have talked to the wise they, they jump onto the horses and start walloping towards city X. What did the wise man say?

Duniya Gol Hai Mere Dost

Once upon a time, when we used to go to school, we used to study Geography. The name of our Geography teacher was Mrs. Purewal. She was very strict but she used to take us to wonderful places near our school so that we could learn things. Once while we were having our Geography class, she asked us to open our Atlas. She took us to the page where the map of the world was drawn (something like in the shown image). Then she decided to test us and our intelligence. She asked us to pick the shortest path through sea from Japan to the West Coast of America. Some answers:

a) Japan to India to SA to US
b) Japan to India and through the Mediterranean Sea to US




I won't mind if you cannot stop laughing reading the above answers. I also laugh at it, but it was tough to remember this simple thing back then:

Duniya Gol Hai Mere Dost

Thing of the day

While going to my office in the morning, a policeman standing at a traffic light asked me if I was going straight. I said Yes and he asked me for a lift. I welcomed him in and we started talking (rather he started talking :)). As soon as I mentioned that weather has become old and in the newspaper there was a report yesterday that it was the coldest day for the past 5 years, his stories about the press began. These guys need to fill in all the pages. They need some stuff to write. Some of them just call the policemen and ask them about what happened and they would get a story sitting at home. They ask for a Crime Report which is published by the police everyday and make their stories out of it.

This reminds me of the famous saying:

Is duniya ka kya hai sabse bada gam
Ki uska gam hai mere gam se kam

Even if half of this negative energy could be converted into positive, India would march ahead at double its current speed.

Ga Ga Ga Ga

A colleague of mine has a one and a half year daughter. As she is growing up, she is learning new things and this includes the mobile phone. She has managed to learn to play with it and accidentally dial a number using the phone. On one such occasion, she dialed the number of another colleague of mine. When he picked up the phone, he started hearing voices of a small baby going "Ga Ga Ga Ga".

Similarly my wifes sister has a one year old son. He is also enjoying the world of mobile phones and thinks about it as more of a toy than a thing used to communicate. If you put a phone on his ears and someone from the other end speaks, he would listen for a couple of seconds and then remove the mobile from his ears.

A little older kids love the ring tone of the mobile phone. They would start from the first stored ring tone and keep playing each and every one of them.

Thing of the day

I had gone for the monthly hair-cutting ritual to my nearby barber shop. After the usual wait for a few minutes and enjoying the sun for the first time this winter, my turn came to get the hair cut. As I was getting it done, a young man was getting a massage done on the nearby seat. It was an interesting process. The person doing the massage took a machine, put it across his hands (like a glove which is open at the fingers) and plugged it into a socket. When he switched on the power, the machine started vibrating and so did his hand. He then used that vibration to do the massage on different parts of the body of the person. Saw such a machine for the first time....

Tagging my posts with labels

On last Friday, I was busy tagging all my posts on the blogs with labels. It seems easy but it is not. Arranging yourself and your life is one of the toughest jobs. Anyways, I managed to do it this time for at-least the posts I have made. Following are the categories till now:

1. Bollywood: My all time favorite category.
2. Finance: One of my favorites these days.
3. Humour: My kind of humour, which only probably I can understand. And now my biwi too because she has to laugh at it :)
4. Information: General information that I want to share
5. Learn One Thing: Tag the thing which I learn every day into a separate category
6. Personal: My personal life information
7. Philosophical: Kind of person I am, this category will beat all the others in its numbers.
8. Professional: Tids-bits from my office life
9. Religion: Not one of the most interesting categories for me, but I do believe in that force which makes us all follow the right path
10. Sports: Wowwww

Thing of the day

While watching Navjot Singh Sidhu on Aap Ki Adalat, I was amazed by the changes he has gone through his life. If he really changed the way he portrays, then he has done a great job. One incidence, about his meeting with Shahrukh 25 years back when Shahrukh was not a super-star, which was striking was:

I do not compete with anyone. I compete only with myself.

Call this comment arrogance of Shahrukh or his supreme belief in his abilities, the place where he sits today is really appreciable.

It also completely cuts the negative energy that might be present in your life totally.

As Sidhu puts it aptly in his own style:

Duniya ka sabse bada kya hai rog,
yeh soch ke mere baare mein kya kahenge log

Diwali Get-Together in our office

We had a Diwali get-together in our office. A small one from 4 till 4:30. The invitation for it said that we need to come prepared with Diwali stories from our past. Hmmmm.......

Anyways, some interesting tid-bits from it:

• It is used to celebrate victory of Good over Evil. That is the easiest one.
• Some use Rangoli to decorate their house during Diwali
• As a student, some guys used to hate Diwali Homework.
• Diwali Wishes change with years
• When we were young: New clothes
• Mid Age: Celebration through crackers
• Now: Sleep - Agony of engineers
• In south in some places, first diwali after marriage the guy goes to the girls house. He is treated like a King there. WoW or Duh
• You are woken up at 2 in the morning by the elders who put oil on you and then you bathe and so on - happens in south
• Time to thank for everything you are gifted by God with
• Time to thank God for so many people whose blessings are with you
• Lots of sales at lots of places
  

Thing of the day

While coming back from our walk after lunch, I noticed a person having a Tata Indigo get out of his car. When he got out of this car, the windows of the driver seat were half open. After he was out, he started walking towards a shop nearby. Then he pressed the Auto Lock button on the keys. As soon as he pressed that, the windows also closed. This was something I did not know. I always need to check manually the windows of the car when I go back home. Sometimes I need to come back at mid-night to confirm that windows are closed.

Try these good things out

Some good habits which we should incorporate in our everyday life:

1. Develop a habit to look at a list at the start of the day and end of the day
1. This will help in putting things which are in your basket immediately to this list at any point in the day and get you a reminder at the end-of-the-day
2. Try to learn one good thing everyday and note it down
3. Learn to tell good things to others if you think so
4. Try to concentrate on the thing you are doing and put it to a logical end to carry it on at a later stage, if there is a need to take a break in betweenPlan your financial in terms of targets to achieve twice an year
5. Do a small review of your financial at the start of the month
6. Spend some time during the week on how to build your wealth for short term

Mere Doston Mere Pass Aao

Mr. Natwarlal

This famous song from Mr. Natwarlal (An Amitabh Blockbuster release in 1979) reminded me once more of the enormous things one can learn from Bollywood.

Mere Doston Mere Pass Aao, Ek Kissa Suno

Amitabh calls on the kids to come and what follows is a brilliant story, only in a way Amitabh can do. Sung by him, it reminds me of the kisse kahanian (stories) that Grandmothers have in store for the younger ones and they need one every night.

Deewar

Similarly a scene from Deewar wonderfully summarizes how adjustments in relations can be equally happy for both parties. Amitabh is shown as a person who does not enter temple but always goes with his mother to the temple. He would stand at the footsteps of the temple. His mother offers him prashad from the temple. Amitabh is reluctant to take it and what follows is a dialogue from Shashi Kapoor which I can never forget:

Shashi Kapoor: Bhai, Maa isey prashad samajh kar deti hai, tum bhi mithai samajh kar kha liya karo.

Bluffmaster

Scene from Bluffmaster which defines love.

Abhishek to Priyanka: Na hasata hai, na rulata hai. Iska matlab abhi tak dil par kuch bhi asar nahin kar paya hai.

Love without emotions and its high and downs would be so cheyyyyy

There are numerous other scenes from the Bollywood movies, each of which has a story to tell. Love Bollywood and love the stories it has :)

Guru

There is a scene in Guru where Aishwarya is expecting a baby and standing in front of the mirror. Abhishek keeps his head on her stomach. Aishwarya asks "Kuch sunai de raha hai?" Then Abhishek (who is more fatter than usual in this movie, maybe for this scene) stands in front of the mirror and Aishwarya keeps her head on his stomach.

Abhishek: "kuch sunai de raha hai?"
Aishwarya: "Bahut kuch"
Abhishek: "Kya?"
Aishwarya: "Ismein mujhe bahut se logon ki awaaz sunai de rahi hai jo keh rahe hai ki hamein kaam do"

Talking about an inspiring scene for someone who wants to open a company for the well being of the nation. You cannot beat the above one.

My personal guide to Investing In Stock Markets

Are you planning to invest in stock markets? Thinking about making money and doing well. Here is my personal guide which I use to invest:

Divide your money into different funds at the start of the year. This will help you in setting targets and achieving them.

Planned Equity Fund: Money that you plan to invest into Equity at the end of the year. For me, the first year end target was 75,000

Planned Mutual Fund: Money that you plan to invest into Mutual Funds at the end of the year. For me, the first year end target was 75,000

Shopping Fund: Extra money that should be ready to be invested when market goes down. Keep a cap on it and do not be greedy when the market goes down.

Non Performing Assets: Take a regular look at the non-performing assets in your portfolio. The duration after which you review these assets would depend on how much time you can spare for your portfolio. Try to remove the non-performing assets and replace them with something which grows faster.

Year End Target: How much do you want your money to grow by at the end of the year? For me, I wanted my money to grow 15% at the end of the year. Conservative by todays estimates, but as a fresh entrant to the stocks, I wanted to play it safe.

Now the strategy is simple:

Invest in stock market through the shopping fund when market goes down.
Refill the shopping fund when the market goes up.
Keep the shopping fund constant.
Do not worry if Planned Equity Fund exceeds Planned Mutual Fund as long as the combination of two is below your limits. Equity is better if you know basics about stocks and have a good GUT feeling about stocks which you can back. For ex. My Equity Fund is more Loaded right now that Mutual Fund but I have a little more faith in my equity skills than choosing mutual funds.

If the planned fund goes above limits, then get it back to planned levels as soon as you get a chance. You will always have funds in your portfolio that are not giving returns as expected. Take a decision and get rid of them. DISCIPLINE your investments.

This can change the way we work!

The thing which we discussed (and I will go into the details a little later) today can completely change the way we work, only if we execute it. We have tried doing it some months back and it fell flat. The adrenalin flows for a day normally for these things and then everything comes back to the same level. Anyways, its good that we find the courage to discuss it again because if we are able to win this one, we would have what we call a "World Class Team"

What we did today was come up with a list of positive and negative points about the way we work? We are a bunch of guys who wanna work hard, do some good stuff and make money. We have been working together for around 3 years now and know quite a few things about each other.

Positive:

1. We are very fort right with each other. We say if any other person is doing wrong at his face and that is the hallmark of a good team.
   
2. We are almost at the same frequency.
3. Koi angrez nahin hai humme se, no doc / ppt only guy
4. We all want to work technically even after 5-8 years experience, so we can be very efficient
5. None of us is a politician
6. We have trust in each other
7. We are open to sharing our knowledge if the other person asks
8. Despite of cribbing and criticizing everything, we continue to work hard.

Negatives:

1. We speak in hindi even in meetings where people who do not understand hindi are present.
2. We are negative in our thoughts.
3. We look to criticize everything.
4. We do not focus.
5. We talk a lot and waste time.
6. We mix emotions with logic.
7. We do not show interest in meetings in which we are not interested.
8. Somo of us do not want to do Docs / testing
9. We do not take proper initiatives, we want to be managed by someone.
10. We want that every decision should be made after asking us, which is not possible.
    

People with Time Vs People with Talent

Karwa Chauth

October 29, 2007 was the day when the moon decided to play hide and no seek with the ladies in India. Karwa Chauth is a festival in India where the married ladies keep a fast and pray for long lives of their husbands. One of the infinite reasons why I love my wife :)

Some sound bytes from this festival:

Couple of years back on Karwa Chauth, the moon was not shining bright. Question asked: Why does the moon not shine so bright on Karwa Chauth?

Because there is so much demand for the moon, the voltage drops :)

Interesting ways to teach

We had a presentation from one of the new persons who has joined the team on a topic. He is going through the specifications and he had to explain one part of the specification to us. There are two things which are kind of blocking his speed of progress:

1. He is a fresher, so everything is new for him
2. He is reading a specification which assumes you have some previous knowledge about things and he has none

After the presentation, there was a look of exasperation on his face - I start at one point in the specification and end up somewhere else.

Now how to you make his learning process interesting?

It is always good to relate some new thing to something you already know. For ex. A person who has been for 5 years in the industry would relate a new project work to one of the older projects he has already worked on.

What does a fresher relate to?

He cannot relate to anything because he knows nothing. So it is important for his mentor to help him relate to things he might already know. For ex. he asked a question during the interview which was: What is preamble and how is it used?

Now preamble are certain bits of information which are used to separate two frames from each other. When we switch on a mobile, it might be switched on within a frame but we need to know the start of the frame. So mobile keeps waiting for the preamble to know the start of the frame.

Now the fresher knows neither preamble nor is right now comfortable with the notion of a frame.

BUT he knows cricket. Now how does cricket come in between all this?

To answer the question above, an over in cricket is like a frame and preamble is like taking a break between the overs.

When we switch on a mobile, it might be switched on within a frame but we need to know the start of the frame. So mobile keeps waiting for the preamble to know the start of the frame.

CHANGES TO

When we switch on the TV, it might be in between an over but we need to know when a new over starts. So we keep waiting for the break to know when a new over starts.

I BET HE WILL NEVER FORGET THIS ONE :)

Its does more bad than good

We have been taking interviews during the past few months for recruiting people to our company. There are many things we test people on. In addition to the technical details, there are lots of inter-personal things which come into play when you are being recruited to work in a team. In all these things, it does MORE BAD THAN GOOD to all who speak what they do not mean. For ex. We generally ask a person how comfortable he is on a topic before asking relevant questions on the topic. Based on his assessment, we then start from a certain level of questions and then go into easier or difficult ones. Now, if a person rates himself 7 out of 10 and then is not able to answer questions that I expect a person at rating 3 out of 10 to answer, then either I am expecting too much or he is thinking too highly for himself. Anyways, at the end of the day it is the other person looking out for a job. Being open on what you know and what you do not know is the BEST way to behave in an interview because there would alway be things which you would KNOW and things which you would DO NOT KNOW. So whats the harm in admitting it. Follow it up that you are more than willing to learn things which you do not know (of course only if YOU ARE READY to do this).

As the Aussies team have repeatedly said throughout the series:

Your words should be backed by your actions. It leaves a bad taste if only words flow and actions do not follow.

How tough is it to manage?

Day before yesterday we had our weekly status meeting. A fresher has joined our group and he is reading the specifications to get to pace. As he is a fresher and because he is reading any specifications for the first time, he is bound to have quite a few questions. So our manager assigns a person to help him in his queries. There are four persons in our group who could be assigned as freshers. While asking the fresher to be proactive and ask wherever he gets stuck, he asked him to collate all this questions and ask them once a week to whoever is his mentor. Huhhhh. Once a week :) By the time a week passes, things would be all confused within his brain. Ofcourse, if he starts asking whenever he wants to, that also is not the best way.

So what could be the best solution?

Ask the mentor how much times a week he would like to get interrupted?
Would he like fresher walking in without notice, with some notice or at some fixed time in the day?
Any other concern he might have!

Ask the fresher what he would be comfortable in?

Would he love to ask whenever he has a doubt?
Would he like to consolidate questions once a day / few days and then ask?

As a manager, the next step for you would be to find a middle path that makes both of them happy. Going by past experience, you would definitely be able to find one.

Ek Bhi Nahin

A friend of mine has two kids. Once when they happened to be out of house, a guest came to their house and they were received by the kids. The kids invited them to drawing room and made them comfortable on the sofas. Those were the days of KBC - a popular game show on TV where Amitabh Bachchan used to play a game with the people where he used to ask them questions and give them four options to chose. The kids were impressed and decided that it was time they played KBC. So they asked the guests:

Aap kitne gilas paani piyenge? Inmein se ek chuniye

1. 1 Glass
2. 2 Glass
3. 3 Glass
4. Ek bhi nahin

The guests said "2 Glass" (The husband and wife had come and both were thirsty). The kids (in Amitabhh style):

Bilkul Galat Jawaab. Sahi jawaab hai "Ek bhi nahin"

Performance Metrics for kids

Performance Metrics for kids - yup, thats true. They do exist, at-least in India. A colleague of mine is going through the admission process for his kid (2 and a half years old) in school. Following are some of the expectations schools have from a 2 and a half year kid:

• He should know the different colors
  
• He should know counting (more he knows better metrics he has)
• Should know A for Apple....

How do they test it?

They gave him a sketch to color which had a shape of mango on it. Now with this test, two things are tested in the kid:

• Whether he is able to recognize that the thing drawn on the sheet is a mango
• Whether he is able to remember that mango is yellow in color
  
• And if he does manage to pass these two, whether he is able to color it properly

Wew.......

As soon as the kid becomes one year old, it is common practice to start teaching him A for Apple, 1 to 10 etc. Everyone who will pick the kid up in their arms will try to teach him at-least one good thing. Its nice but its a little worrying. As long as you find innovative ways of doing it, great, otherwise, take care.......

Chote Bache (Kids)

There is a popular saying in Hindi - Chote Bache bhagwaan ke samaan hote hai (Kids are like God). This is True. And kids are funny too. Just watching their actions can be an experience in itself. A friend of mine narates great stories about his kids behavior at house. Some instances below:

• Ok, bye, thankyou - This is his ending statement after he is done with his talk on the phone.
• Chup ho ja nahin to bhaga kar shaadi kar lunga - This is the effect serials have on kids today. One of my friends tells that his nephew uttered this to his teacher. There wasn't anything funny after he said that though :)
• One of my nieces has a wonderful style of sleeping. She will put her legs in the air and sleep. Just looking at her makes it look funny.
• Ofcourse you cannot beat the kids at anything. One of my relatives son was shouting. I thought I could beat him at that. You bet. He beat me hands down.
• Papa, party: A colleague of mine used to take his son to the marriages they attend. Once they took him to a birthday party and now his son has changed his request from "Papa, shaadi" to "Papa, party"
• Try teaching A for Apple to them....... Send me a message if you are able to teach them without loosing your cool
• Bhaiya school jaayega - That was mine favorite when I was a kid
  

Different people, different reactions

Different people have different reactions to the same piece of news. This is quite common knowledge and I also completely endorse this fact. This was proved once again after this press release from CISCO declaring that is is buying Navini. For a brief background, CISCO is one of the biggest players in networking domain. Navini is a startup working on WiMAX (a part of Networking).

My reaction: Thats good for the technology. It has found an important supporter in CISCO. It is good for me because I am working on WiMAX and CISCO buying Navini means I am most probably working on the technology of the future.

A business friend of mine - his reaction: CISCO bought Navini for $330 million. Navini is such a small company. $330 million sounds cool - huh.....

One on One

It is a great learning experience to be in a Team. You know so many different ways of thinking about a thing that it amazes sometimes. Human Resource has always been an interesting aspect of management and more so in the world of Technology where everything is in the brain. If you cannot keep your employees happy, you are not tapping the potential of their brains to create value for your company. It is AS SIMPLE AS THAT. As part of ensuring you turn out fire before it spreads, managers and top management have what is known as One on One.

One on One is basically a meeting where an employee sits with his manager and discusses (almost everything which falls into the realms of discussion). It is meeting where in general it is assumed that there will be focus on things which are contentious, things which might be negative about you. This knowledge about what could be in hold for you prepares you in advance. There is nothing wrong because if you do not know you are in a hole, you will never get out of it.

So I had these one-on-one meetings with my top management some days back. Now as it turned out, it was different from one-to-one. It was two-to-one, as top management and my manager were both sitting there to discuss the things with me. There can be both negative and positives about this move which form the basis of a different blog post, but here are some excerpts from the meeting.

1. The Top Boss set the agenda for the meeting saying that he wanted to hear more of negatives than positives so that we can improve. Positives are already there and so nothing special to discuss.
2. My manager spoke about me - well he spoke nothing but positive things about me. I think this is not quite right considering this is once a while opportunity to tell what can be corrected. My fault I did not go out of my way to encourage him to do that.
3. My turn and some things which I think we can improve:
1. We are involved in decision making too late. It is common knowledge in software world that the later you change a wrong decision in a project, the more costlier it is.
2. We should get the buy-in of the stakeholders. I read it somewhere and I think it holds true for all teams - For any deal to be successful, it is very important to have buy-in of all stakeholders. If people feel it is their decision, they will go to any extent to make sure it is successful.
3. It is not a coalition government. You need to think what is best for the company. If everyone agrees, it is ideal. If some agree, it is good. If none agree, then change your decision as it will never work.
4. Everyone loves good work, so be careful while taking decisions. Different people have different mindsets, so you need to balance it. Managing people is almost a full time job if you want to do it well.
   

Theres something wrong in Google search!

There is something wrong in the way Google is returning my search results. I gave a string of 'VaibhavMadan Ladoo' for Google to search. It came up with two results - one of them was what I was expecting. So far, so good. Now I open the search result I am interested in and go onto that page. I expect my search keyword to be present in that page. But IT IS NOT. I am not sure what search algorithm Google used, but whatever it was it did not give me the perfect answer. Now my gut feeling on how it worked:

I read somewhere that google also indexes the links within a page. In the search result I got in my example, the keywords are not directly present on the page returned by Google but they are there in one of the pages for which a link was there. Now I think that Google also searched those links within the pages and happened to return this page. Because I knew exactly where the keywords are, I was able to go to the page where the intended result is. But if I do a random search (and that is what happens most of the time) I would never be able to guess this.

GOOGLE GUYS, ARE YOU LISTENING?

Or maybe, a chance for a competitor of Google to distinguish themselves from Google.

I would not really be happy if the keyword itself is not present in the page I open after a search result. RIGHT PATH TO THE WRONG DESTINATION ......

Pilot Project

I tried to search the web to understand the meaning of Pilot Project. I could not a satisfactory answer. But somehow this term has found its entry into the dictionary of our office as something which is being tried by a person for the first time. To elaborate, it is something which you are trying your hands on for the first time and it is not your forte till now, but you would like it to be. For ex. A software engineer who has been into testing and wants to move into development would consider his / her first development project as a Pilot Project which would launch him / her into the world of Development.

Not sure who is responsible for generating the term, but it has consumed a major portion of our lunch time discussions and has been the centre of lots of our office humour.

Kehat vaibhav suno bhai entrepreneur
Pilot Project ki leela se bacho dear

It is very funny!

We had gone to see Bhool Bhulaiya yesterday. As we had some time left for the show, we started doing some shopping and bought a T-Shirt for me. We took it along with us to the cinema hall. We were greeted at the cinema hall entrance by an employee of the hall who refused to allow us entry as we were carrying a poly with the T-Shirt in it. He requested us to go to the Basement and come back as we still had time for the movie (He had not looked at our tickets till now and yet he knew we had time left for the movie to start. I must admit he was a smart guy - all pun intended). We were in no mood to go 4 floors down to the basement just to put a T-Shirt at a counter and come back. I took the T-Shirt out, put it on and we moved inside. All this happened in front of the guy and he managed a small smile on his face. Seems funny and it is - however the purpose is all lost and suddenly the decision to not allow people to carry polythenes inside theatre seems absurd. They should put up some machinery to check that out. It is not that tough, I believe ................

What certain time means to someone?

I happened to call an Indiabulls representative at 3:25 in the afternoon. Following is an excerpt from the conversation:

Me: Hi Dheeraj, I am Vaibhav calling from Mayur Vihar.
Dheeraj: Hello Sir. (Thinks about a few seconds and then remembers)
Me: I was thinking about opening an account.
Dheeraj: Sir, Can I callback you in 5 minutes. Markets are closing

3:30 in the afternoon is the time when markets in India stop trading, so 3:30 has a special significance in Dheerajs life.

Similarly, in the good old golden days when we used to go to the school, 1:30 in the afternoon was something we waited for. After all, it was the time school closed. This time changed to 2:15 in the winters when the school started late.

People who used to work in the mills waited eagerly for the BELLS to sound at 6 in the evening. You could see bicycles in plenty coming out of the big doors which never seemed to be big enough.

Times of day at a multiple of 3 used to be of significance to movie goers in the past. Shows used to start in theatres at 12, 3, 6 and 9 before multiplexes came in.

After I turned into a Software Engineer, these times have lost their significance. There are not BELLS ringing for me to go home, no time for market to close :)

The Ladoo Principle

Whew! What all does a manager have to talk about to convince his reporting band. Ladoo is a sweet in India. The Ladoo Principle states that if a child is making noise, then offer a Ladoo to him and he will be quiet for a while. Repeat this everytime the child makes noise. Almost similar corollary can be drawn to the world of Software Engineers.

One of the favorite Ladoos which a Manager offers to the employees in the Service Industry is a chance to go abroad on a long term project. In the first half of first decade this century, traveling abroad used to be very lucrative - good exposure, nice money, chance to visit new places etc. I am not sure how much this still holds good with all the Re Vs Dollar ho halla. It used to work earlier.

The above Ladoo does not really work in the Product Industry as chance to travel abroad is almost next to Null. Most of the things you will do outside the office can now be done in the office also. So whats the alternative. Work :) You are doing one of the most critical components of the project. WOW, did I love this one! People in the team would love to do the module you have your hands on, but I believe in you and thats why I offered it to you.

Another Ladoo is to praise the employee when he cries. You are the sole person on whom this whole project depends, a leave won't move without your consent, you are one of the best performing employees, we can give you anything you want except money as you should not be money driven :) Gotcha...... He is talking about a Free Lunch.

With all these Ladoos being exchanged in every place you go, it becomes very important for a Manager to make sure he / she earns the credibility before offering the sweets.


Kehat Vaibhav suno bhai Software Engineer
Kahin too many Ladoos se ho na jaaye Diabetes Dear

What can a game of helicopter teach you?

Helicopter is a game that involves flying a helicopter through various hurdles which keep changing their positions and shape. As you move the helicopter from the left of the screen (if you are facing the screen, then your left) to the right, the hurdles will keep coming towards the right and you need to survive them. Game ends if you touch the hurdle or any of the top or bottom of the tunnel you are flying through. So what does the game teach you:

1. Life is full of hurdles and the fun is to keep escaping them unhurt.
2. Concentrate - The more you do, the farther you reach.
3. Never say die - There would be some hurdles which would seem impossible to cross. If you concentrate, then there is a good probability that you will cross them. But it is important that you do not loose hope. Many times my game ended as soon as I crossed the hurdle which I never thought I would be able to.
4. Keep trying - Of course some hurdles in the game can NEVER be crossed because there is no space to fly. BUT then it is not your fault. Keep trying and next time you might just by lucky.
   
5. Expertise is not developed in a single day or a couple of tries - You need to learn the game and it will take time. Do not loose patience.
   

Whats my Managers Manager upto?

Are you interested in knowing what your Managers Manager is doing?

If the answer to this question is YES, then either

a) You have been having lots of free time lately. If yes, then instead pick up a good book and read it.

b) Or You are concerned with where your company is moving. If yes, then turn the concern into action. Type the resignation letter and post it.

c) Or You are killing your free time. If yes, then just FORGET IT. You are in a hole and till you realize you need to get out of it, no one can HELP.

Bheja Fry

Director: Sagar Ballary

Theatre: Waves, Noida

Date: 13th April, 2007

Mast, Must Watch :)

Namastey London

Director: Vipul Amrutlal Shah

Theatre: Waves, Noida

Date: 6th April, 2007

Some days are just very interesting!

30th March, 2007 happened to be my last day with Conexant. As it was the last day, I had lots to do in terms of doing the paper work and saying Hi and Bye to everyone I had known for the past 4 years and 9 months stay with Conexant. As if this was not enough for the day, some thing interesting happened. We have a common parking area for cars. I came in late in the morning and I had to park my car in a zone where it had to be kept on neutral because it was located in front of other cars. After our routine lunch walk, we were going back to work through the parking area when I could not locate my car in the area where I had parked in the morning. The interesting day started. I started looking for the car but could not locate. When I finally managed to find it, it was located at 90 degrees to the original parking location. This could not have been done without the keys of the car or unless Vir Hanuman himself had done it. As the probability of the second option is almost next to none, I took a look at my pocket. Indeed the keys were still there. When I came close to my car, the stereo inside the car was playing and the drivers window was half down. The probability of the first option was also zero as the keys were there. So there had to be a third possible option of which I was not aware of. I asked the security guard how the car came there.

Vaibhav: Car yahan kaise aayi? Iski chaabi to mere pass hai.
Guard: Sir, yeh aapke car hai.
Vaibhav: Koi shak!
Guard (to his friend): Tabhi chaabi bahar nahin nikal rahi
Vaibhav: Kaunsi chaabi. Iski chaabi to mere pass hai.
Guard (finally with the whole story): Sir, hamein laga yeh Ravi Sir ki gaadi hai. Maine unse chaabi lekar isko theek se park kar diya lekin ab chaabi nahin nikal rahi.
Vaibhav (inside my mind): Lag gayi watt.......

How can a car be opened with another cars keys? It can even be started with another cars keys and moved around. Well, DAMM the car companies.

We tried getting the keys out but Fevicol ka mazboot jod tha, aise hi thode na tootega. We then went to a local Automobile market. The local mechanic (who knows everything about anything related to Automobiles) tried to get the keys out. Lekin Fevicol holds ground. He decides that the car lock needs to be opened. Hmmmmm. Now it was getting more complex. We decided to take the car to showroom before everything got opened by the mechanic bhaiya.

In the showroom, the mechanic tried to remove the key from the lock. We asked him why he was not opening the lock instead. He said that the lock is made in such a way that either the key would come out or the whole lock needs to be replaced. HIP HIP HURRAY to the mechanic bhaiya. A new car lock comes for 3.5 to 4K. After some effort the keys came out. THANK GOD for it.

Help Required!

Last week, my Mamaji wanted to confirm his tickets back to Germany. The tickets have to be confirmed with the Airlines 72 hours before departure. He had booked his tickets with Turkish Airlines. To confirm the booking, we had to make a call to the Turkish Airlines. Now the question is - How do we get the number?

Thanks to 22222222 - the number of yellow pages. I called them up and asked for help to get the number of Turkish Airlines. The customer care executive took my mobile number and within 5 minutes I got the SMS with the number of Turkish Airlines office in Delhi.

Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.

Director: Reema Kagti

Theatre: Shakuntalam, Delhi

Date: 22nd March, 2007

Eklavya

Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Theatre: PVR Rivoli, CP

Date: 24th February, 2007

Got Married

And here is the wedding card :)

IGI Airport to Punjab

Are you coming from outside India and want to go to a place in Punjab?

http://www.indocanadiantransport.com/online_booking.php

You can book a BUS ticket to a place in Punjab through the above link.

SALAAM-E-ISHQ

Director: Nikhil Advani

Theatre: Waves, Noida

Date: 28th January, 2007

Dialogues:

Hamara kal chahe jaisa bhi ho, hum milkar usey sundar banaye

Pyaar waqt se nahin, usse kiya jaata hai jiske saath hum waqt guzarte hain

GURU

Director: Mani Ratnam

Theatre: Satyam, Janakpuri

Date: 13th January, 2007

Kabul Express

Director: Kabir Khan

Theatre: Shakuntalam

Date: 6th January, 2007

Koshish Karne Walon Ki

Career Objectives

A few years back a cousin of mine was planning to give a MBA entrance exam. He was asked to pen down the reasons why he would like to join the institute. I tried to help him to pen down the things. Below is the stuff we wrote in the entrance form:

I want to be part of the elite group of the organization which helps in shaping employees lives. I believe that FMS would help me in developing all the necessary skills required to make a rationale decision about issues that wuold have an overall imapct on the lives of the employees. Someone had right said 'Life is too short to learn everything through experiece, so try and learn through the experience of others'. I hope that FMS, through its esteemed faculty, would be able to mould my experiences so that I can help people who come in my vicinity to make the right decisions. Ten years from now, I see myself heading a group of people whose future might be dependent on the decisions made by the top management. I hope that FMS would provide me with a framework that would help me in deciding what is the BEST for all and make that essential difference between the good, the better and THE BEST.

Painless Software Schedules

Some excerpts from the Article on Joel On Software

So, you have to make a schedule. This is something almost no programmer wants to do. In my experience, the vast majority just try to get away with not making a schedule at all. Of the few that make a schedule, most are only doing it because their boss made them do it, halfheartedly, and nobody actually believes the schedule except for upper management, which simultaneously believes that "no software project is ever on time" and in the existence of UFOs.

So why doesn't anybody make a schedule? Two key reasons. One, it's a real pain. Two, nobody believes that it's worth anything. Why go to all the trouble working on a schedule if it's not going to be right? There is a perception that schedules are consistently wrong, and only get worse as time goes on, so why suffer for naught?

Programmers are not interchangeable. It takes seven times longer for John to fix Rita's bug than for Rita to fix Rita's bug.

When you have to pick fine grained tasks, you are forcing yourself to actually figure out what steps you are going to have to take.

And when you haven't thought about what you're going to do, you just can't know how long it will take.

If you have to figure out what subroutines you're going to write, you are forced to pin down the feature. By being forced to plan ahead at this level, you eliminate a lot of the instability in a software project.

Most programmers have no idea how to guess how long things will take. That's okay. As long as you are continuously learning and continuously updating the schedule as you learn, the schedule will work.

Updating your schedule daily should only take about two minutes. That's why this is the Painless Schedule Method -- it's quick and easy.

A programmer should never, ever work on new code if they could instead be fixing bugs.

The schedule is not the place to play psychological games.

You might be able to get 20% more raw code out of people by begging everybody to work super hard, no matter how tired they get. Boom, debugging time doubles.

But you can never get 3n from n, ever, and if you think you can, please email me the stock ticker of your company so I can short it.

Not many of them are running business what-if scenarios... these are programmers, here

Ghar ke one liners

Jeetey raho, sukhi raho. Ishwar vidya de, bal de, budhi de, tandrusti de. Vidwan bano, maan-baap ka naam roshan karne wale bano.

Cha peesen, roti khaansen

Chottey.......

Guddo.......

Motto.......

Ved.......

Mammi, tun badi nikammi. Teri jaan nu bachen rovan, tun khele rammi.

DON

Director: Farhan Akhtar

Theatre: Waves, Noida

Date: 24th October, 2006

Dialogues:

Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin, namumkin hai

Log Don ko nahin, duniya ko chod ke jaate hai

Don ke peeche 11 deshon ki police padi hui hai

Tumhen maloom hai ki is pistol mein goli nahin hai, mujhe maloom hai ki is pistol mein goli nahin hai, lekin police ko to nahin maloom ki is pistol mein goli nahin hai

Why is execution so important?

Almost anybody can tell you what is theoretically right. I know it, you know it and almost everyone in the world knows it. BUT, who ensures that what is theoretically right is executed right. In the professional world, every day we have lots of meetings and everyday we take lots of decisions. YES, all those are right, BUT who ensures that they are executed. Planning takes 30 minutes and its execution 30 hours :)

Below is an E-Mail which I had sent on 7th Feb, 2004 to one of my Ex-Managers. Two and a half years down the lane, we are still trying to execute it. Had I led it to a proper closure that day and at that time, the cost now would have been too low and we would already have reaped the benefits.

Hopefully I would learn something from it and be careful the next time :)

Hi

I have tried to work on a framework with the help of which the automation of the testing of wireless STAs can be done (with the help of WirelessConfigurationTool package). It will require add ons to the code we have for PrismServer and PrismProfileChanged and implementation of test cases. I am giving a brief overview of the idea I have in mind:

There will be test suites and test cases within suites. Test suites are a group of test cases for which the settings of the AP will remain the same. Each test case will have some configuration information in the form of XML going to the PrismPCtl running on the DUT (depending on the test case being executed). The Wireless STA settings will be changed accordingly and the expected result noted.

Before triggering a new test suite, the user will be prompted for permission. This is required because before executing each test suite, the settings of the AP need to be changed accordingly. The prompt would give the user time to change the settings of the AP. This also can be automated by synchronization between the changing of settings in the AP and the transmission of new profiles to the STA.

The framework I have tried to make has the concept of test suites and test cases built in. It prompts the user before starting the test cases within a test suite. The full automation (i.e. automatic setting of AP after each test suite) is not yet done, but theoretically speaking it should not be a tough task.

The ADVANTAGES of automating the test cases are:

a) I think that after a fair deal of automation, only one day should be required per DUT for testing purposes. Thus it should save *lots of time*.

b) There is no need to *repeat the monotonous activity* of running the test cases reading a test case document, after we have considerable faith in the automation of test cases and they start giving the desired results.

c) It should *save lots of firmware dependent bugs* because it is not feasible to run the whole bunch of test cases manually after each firmware / UMAC revision is released (which have been quite frequent going by past experiences).

d) It should be *quite easy to append* new test cases to the test suite as more and more features become available (WPA, WPA-PSK).

e) The test suites test the wireless features and thus they *should be independent* of the type of DUT we are working on. For ex. the same bunch of test cases should work with a USB Cohiba or a PCI device attached to the laptop.

Thanks
Vaibhav

Good things I have learnt from my past managers

Change the circumstances and the same people will behave differently.

It is not the people but the circumstances which create the problem.

Separate the people from the problem.

What would I do if I am a chef of a restaurant and I have customers who are waiting eagerly for a meal? I would put some onion and start frying it. The smell would tell the customers that something is cooking and their patience level would rise. This would give me time to prepare what they want.

I can show you the path, but I cannot walk for you.

Why do I reject lots of resumes?

Some time back, I have been assigned the responsiblity to scan resumes for Linux requirements in our BU. The Human Resource team sends me a list of resumes which they believe should suit the profile, I go through them and then give my feedback to them. In the feedback, I am supposed to suggest to them about the candidates with whom we should go in for a telephonic interview. A thing which I had not been noticing and was brought to my notice by an E-Mail was that I was rejecting a lot of resumes at the initial scanning stage itself. Now that makes the job of the HR more tough because it means they need to get even more resumes. I was asked the reason on why I reject so many of the resumes. That made me think about what we are focused on.

I am working for the Wireless BU of a semiconductor company which is responsible for delivering sample network drivers for different BUS interfaces in Linux kernel and also other Embedded Operating Systems.

The above line summarizes the logic on the basis of which I shortlist candidates for telephonic interviews:

1. Wireless
2. Network Drivers
   
3. BUS Interfaces
4. Linux Kernel
5. Embedded Experience
6. Operating Systems

If the resume matches 6 out of 6 criteria, then he / she is my first priority. If the resumes matches 5 out of 6, I still shortlist them. Anything lesser would not do.

I am very much inspired by the following excerpt while shortlisting people (and I would be even more choosy if I had to run my own company):

An important thing to remember about interviewing is this: it is much better to reject a good candidate than to accept a bad candidate. A bad candidate will cost a lot of money and effort and waste other people's time fixing all their bugs. If you have any doubts whatsoever, No Hire.

For more details about the article, refer to The Guerilla Guide To Interviewing

And I Quote :)

How many times have you heard this quote doing the office rounds?

"Please do not tell it to anybody"

The end result of the rumour mills working overtime is that

"Everyone knows everything but no one knows anything"

Someone resigns and no one knows it
Someone does not resign, still everyone believes he / she has
Someone is promoted and no one knows it
Someone gets a new job responsibility and no one knows it

Did the Google Guys listen to me?

In my post "This is not fair" I had raised a question on Googles ability to search my posts properly. I had started adding a Category to each of my posts to make the search of the posts easier, but unfortunately the keyword search wasn't working properly. In the post, I had requested Google team (hmmmm, do they read all these posts or is it just sheer co-incidence) to check why it wasn't working? Now, they have introduced the CATEGORY FEATURE in the Beta version of Blogger. THANKS GOOGLE :)

Lage Raho Munnabhai

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Theatre: Liberty, New Delhi

Date: 2nd September, 2006

Khosla Ka Ghosla

Director: Dibakar Banerjee

Theatre: PVR Spice, Noida

Date: 7th October, 2006

Dialogue: Jaisi bimaari waisa ilaaj

DOR


Director: Nagesh Kukunoor

Theatre: Shakuntalam

Date: 8th October, 2006

What is required to get a business running?

[Lee Iacocca: Talking Straight]

Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them and reward them if they perform. If you do all these things effectively, you can't miss.

My thoughts

I think if you get good people, then most of the other things follow because Good People are Good :)

Why are rules important?

They make the game predictable and help you to understand where you are moving as a team.

Why is communication important?

My Ex-Manager used to say: Change the circumstances and the same people will behave differently. Communication is important to keep things in motion, to let the team know where its moving.

Why is motivation required?

Because I have seen N number of times that people refuse to work (directly or indirectly) because there is no motivation for them to do a thing. Motivation is required to make the positives clear to the team. Whats amazing about human nature is that sometimes even a negative thing is motivating if the general belief is that it helps the team? For ex. I have seen many people do a thing very efficiently (even though they may not like it) if they believe that they are doing it for a good cause (which in a team means for the betterment of the team).

Why is reward required?

Have you ever heard about a free lunch :)? I never have.

ARZ Kiya Hai

Din mein chein nahin
Raat ko neend nahin
Ji na lage kahin
Khuda, kya yahi pyaar hai?

Khuda: Nahin beta, private job walon ka yahi haal hai.......

A logical followup question: Am I tired today?

How dates were in the earlier days?

When is my mausis marriage anniversary?
It was at some date of September when it was neither too hot nor too cold.

What is my grandmothers age?
She is around 16 years (hmmmm, maybe 15 on the days she is feeling younger :)) bigger to her eldest daughter.

What is my grandmothers date of birth?
The worlds best kept secret

How do my relatives remember moments when I was born?
There was a song being sung on the radio in the background: Yashomati mayia se pooche nand lala..... (For a change, this date is well remembered :))

Even more amazing

My grandmother, around 76, knows English and she does not even know that :) The penetration which English words have made into the Hindi language is really amazing and my grandmother is an example of it. She knows that if a landlord asks his servant to do something, its an order. Two generations elder to her, one of our relatives was a Civil Surgeon (She knows who is a Civil Surgeon and the hindi for it is Bade Wala Doctor). She knows that if she eats something really oily, her whole digestive system becomes heavy (she understands what heavy feels like but doesn't know heavy is a gift from the English world to Hindi). The hottest discussion (and we had to involve my mother also in it, which hasn't been concluded yet even after her involvement) that came up was whether Ice Cream is a Hindi or English word. Now my grandmother and mother are pretty much convinced that its Hindi, but somehow I tend to disagree. The final conclusion of the debate was that we all agree to disagree :)

Its Amazing

I am reading "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" these days. The book is all about positive thinking and the changes you can bring in your life if you want to. One of the things mentioned in the book is that for a change to become a habit, it takes 30 days. Now the amazing thing which I felt going through by blog today was that in the piece I wrote some time back on Change, my attempt at inducing a change in some of my habits also took around 30 days. I had not read the book when I attemped to make changes in some of my habits, but the fact that the numbers of days it took me to change the habit comes out to be the same as those mentioned in the book is simply amazing.

Brand Value

In the all-hands meeting, there was a discussion on how to develop the brand value of a company in India. My thoughts on it:

When I joined my first company in 2000, I did not have an idea about the professional world. I knew all the tid-bits like C, Networking, OS fundamentals and stuff you can think off, but I did not know how to apply it. I still remember the first assignment I was given in Wipro was to find out the changes in code that would be required if we make a variable from 16 bit to 32 bit. I spent days to figure that out, but the days I spent figuring that out, I had mentors beside me who spent minutes everyday to help me figure that out. Those minutes were PRECIOUS for them on that day and for me today. But the reason they had those minutes for me was that Wipro culture was built that way. You help young people out and mentor them towards the right path. It was what I wanted as a fresher and it was what they gave me. That was the BRAND VALUE any fresher willing to learn should be looking out for.

When I joined my current company in 2002, I wanted to break the boundaries I had started to feel in my first company. My first company, being a big company, had a little buerocratic culture built in. Moreover, being a services company, it had the dis-advantages of not focusing on innovation and products. I had always wanted to get the system perspective and see products taking shape. It was something that would have been difficult to materialize there, and so I came to my current company. A small company focused on product development was the BRAND VALUE a two year experience guy was looking at.

When I had five years experience, I suddenly started thinking about my long term goals. A great amount of debate focused on what I wanted to be – An architect or a manager. A parallel ladder (with equal opportunities to grow in both ladders) was the BRAND VALUE a five year experience guy was looking at.

When I will have eight years experience, I think forming a world class team would be my prime goal. A team which works like a team, is devoid of politics, is ready to be there for others, does not think about boundaries (definitely not the yeh tera kaam tha kinds). A company which gives me the liberty to do this is the BRAND VALUE I would be looking at.

Beyond that, I think its too early to talk. But if we come back to the topic of the debate, I think a single company can very well provide the BRAND VALUES which people look for at different point of their careers. Mentoring the freshers was something that was missing in my current organization till now. I would not have recommended it to a fresher when I joined here in 2002, but with the effort being spent on the topic (freshers training) over the last year, it is one of the better companies to be at this moment of time. It is a product company and if you are the kind of person who wants to learn everything, it is encouraged here. With the All-Hands, I think there would (should) be focus on getting equality between the two ladders. It is certainly the BRAND VALUE all techies want in their company and I hope we get it in my current organization.

Quote: Iski smile meri smile se badi kaisi

Question: Who in the below picture is saying this to whom?
Is it Didi to bhabhi or bhabhi to Didi?