Maverick Communicator

#Truckspotting day #3

2012-01-24T22:02:00.000-08:00

Wednesdays it seems are for Trucks.

Apart from the usual sighting, it was a sorry sight to see ambulance caught between two big truckers, and ambulance guys finding it hard to wriggle out of that situation.

Chaotic scene everywhere on Western Express Highway, no wonder we spend so much time on road wrestling for our own space.

Imagine plight of two wheelers, and other smaller vehicles. All we ask for is a implementation of ban in entry of trucks during peak hours. Pictures below tell the entire story.

#Truckspotting development

2012-01-24T02:01:00.000-08:00

Happy to share that we already have 6 people volunteering for it. Thats not much, but better then three (original team).

Have found traction with CNN IBN - Citizen Journalist initiaitve, and hopefully they will see enough merit once we have suffecient documentary evidence. (Picture, time of day, truck no, place).

For benefit of all I have put these pictures out here.

We intend to keep this initiaitve live for at least a week, and submit the documentation to traffic CP by end of Jan'2012.

#Truckspotting

2012-01-19T21:37:00.000-08:00

So What exactly is truckspotting.

Simply put it is an initiative to stop entry of trucks (read heavy vehicles) within city limits (Western Suburbs - Dahisar towards south mumbai, Eastern Suburbs - Mulund towards South Mumbai) during peak traffic hours.

As per Mumbai traffic police, (022-24937755/24937746/25940303 , http://www.trafficpolicemumbai.org/) entry of heavy vehicles is not allowed within city limits between morning 7 to 11 and evening 6 to 10. This means, we the common citizens of Mumbai, should have access to the narrow expressways (western or eastern) minus the heavy vehicles.

That said, number of heavy vehicles, find their way in the city by means of bribing the traffic cops. Result is we get rowdy truckies driving freely, blocking our already choked roads. No wonder we find lot of trucks conked of on a flyovers, parked on sideways, not allowing to overtake, or simply blocking your way.

All this at peak time between 7 to 11 in morning and 6 to 10 in evening.

Your and mine net loss, we loose out on peace of mind on road, we either get late to office, or miss out on spending some time with our family while going back home.

I understand it is not healthy to point out only one form of vehicle (trucks) and blame them for all traffic ongestion problems, but if we were to break the problem into parts, Truck/Heavy Vehicle forms a significant chunk,and must be addressed.

So how does #truckspotting initiaitve helps ?

Well as citizens it is an effort to collect as much documentary evidence we can about truckers entering city during peak hours (remember morning 7 to 11 and evening 6 to 10), collate this information (with details like truck no, Time of day and location within city - remember we dont want to create false cases) with pictures (could be from your mobile phones) and upload on twitter with a hashtag #truckspotting.

Alternatively you could email pictures on truckspotting@gmail.com

Brand relevance - functional or imagery led.

2011-11-17T19:52:00.000-08:00

Came across a google doodle today, as each one of us would have come across these doodles at multiple time.

What suprises me is that the google logo is quite amorphous, changing often and has not fixed form. I dont imagine Google to be in a specific font, form, colour, background or context. Dont even know if they would have invested in creating a brand manual.

What comes to my mind when I think google is its functionality, its benefits, its utility. Dont really care what it looks like. So a functional elements of the brand score over the aesthetics/brand look & feel.

Does it point to an emerging trend amongst consumers. Do we want brands to be functionally relevant, and dont want them to spend money to create brand image, so that you and me will pay for it subsequently.

Is that a trend, or is it only relevant to digital space.

Good through to start the day ?

Balanced view about a visionary

2011-10-20T22:38:00.000-07:00

This article in Mint by Sandipan Deb quite amazed me. It is a beautiful piece, which presents a balanced view about Steve jobs.

I use a lot of apple products and am impressed with the customer centricity steve had in designing his products, however I feel that we often get swayed way too much by the aura of a brand and not look beyond it.

I like the attempt of Mr.Deb in sharing few shades of grey from aura called Mr. Apple. I am sharing the article as is and thank Mr. Deb once again for sharing these viws

Not a Very nice man to know

Picasso only as the greatest painter of all time, and disregard the fact that he used, abused and discarded countless women throughout his life for work and pleasure?
Steve Jobs, by any standard, was a magnificently creative mind: visionary, iconoclast, transformer, creator of a massive global subculture of cool. No business- man's death has possibly ever seen such a worldwide spontaneous outpouring of grief and eulogy.

But was Jobs a “good man“?

Well, everyone now knows from his 2005 Stanford speech that he was an adopted child: his biologi- cal mother gave him away soon af- ter his birth. It is less well known that in 1977, when his live-in girlfriend Chris-Ann Brennan became pregnant, Jobs denied paternity, and demanded she abort the baby. When she refused, he threw her out. When the child Lisa Nicole was born and a DNA analysis proved that he was the father, Jobs still refused to pay child support, even though mother and child were living on welfare. It took a court order to make him cough up the cash.

Jobs' attitude towards relation- ships with friends and colleagues was often bizarre, unpredictable and selfish. But the story of Alvy Ray Smith takes the cake.

After being ousted from Apple in 1985, Jobs bought Pixar, a computer animation company co-founded by Smith. What Smith and his team created transformed computer animation and made Jobs his first billion dollars. But after years of working together, Jobs went insanely ballistic on Smith during a meeting for writing on a whiteboard. In any meeting, Jobs had the “ownership“ of the whiteboard, and no one could violate that rule. Smith, feeling utterly humiliated, quit, leaving behind all that he had built. Jobs had Smith's name expunged from Pixar's official history. Smith ceased to exist.

In 1996, Gil Amelio was appoint- ed CEO of a beleaguered Apple and was given three years to turn it around. He appointed Jobs as a special adviser. Immediately, Jobs managed to get a highly damaging story on Amelio done in a leading business magazine, which also said that it was time Jobs was put in charge. Jobs then organized a boardroom coup and ousted Amelio. In effect, the Apple board reneged on its three-year promise to Amelio, paying no attention to the fact that he had taken over a company with hardly any money in the bank and had built up a $3 billion cash pile in just one-and-a-half years. This money bought Jobs enough time to figure out his strategy for Apple. Jobs, naturally, made sure that the world believed he was taking charge of a pauperized firm.

Of course, what followed is history: iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad.
But behind its “think different“ cool, Apple was using brutal business tactics. It bought the rights to SoundJam, an MP3 software created by a firm called C&G, then stole all the company's best developers, and effectively made sure C&G shut down. And the iPod was born (but then, Jobs, in a 1994 interview, had said that talent imitates, genius steals).

All Apple products became increasingly exclusionary: nothing it produced would operate on any other platform. In fact, in 2008, Apple sent a cease-and-desist letter to BluWiki, a non-commer- cial wiki provider, alleging that a discussion of how to get other hardware and software to interop- erate with iPod infringed Apple's copyrights. BluWiki sued Apple, which had to back off and retract. After Jobs' death, legendary software freedom activist Richard Stallman described him as the “pioneer of the computer as jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom“.

In 2006, it came to light that Apple, while granting stock options to several employees, including Jobs, had been backdating them to correspond with lows in the stock price, so the grantees could make higher profits when cashing out.
Stockholders sued, and it was proved that Jobs had been aware of this. He and 12 others agreed to pay $14 million to settle.

Nearly all of Apple's manufac- turing is outsourced to China and there have been consistent allega- tions of inhuman working condi- tions--which have apparently even led to suicides--and total disregard for environmental safety.
Last month, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based advocacy group, told The Wall Street Journal that it found Apple “stubbornly evasive“ and said its refusal to discuss sup- pliers (Chinese factories manufac- turing for Apple) “can only be seen as a deliberate refusal of responsi- bility“ for environmental issues.

Also, of course, as we all know now, Jobs did not seem to have do- nated a cent to charity. But it was, after all, his money and entirely up to him what he did with it. What is more interesting is that he would very often not bother to drive around Apple's parking lot and would park his Mercedes in spaces reserved for the handicapped, sometimes parking badly enough to take up two spaces. Staffers stuck “park different“ cards on his windshield. Not that it improved Jobs' parking habits.

Yes, Jobs was not a very good person. But then, maybe one should only look at what a genius created rather than what he was.

Mumbai traffic - possible solution

2011-10-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

Mumbai traffic solution.

Invariably all of us curse Mumbai for it's deteriorating traffic conditions. It does merit the treatment. Most of us curse politicians, auto rickshaws, best buses, roads and police in that order.

I too do the same. So much so for being a arm chair critic.

But what can I do besides that ?

Let me examine alternatives in front of me, which can potentially help ease out density of cars on road.

Option A) take a train. Ease of getting in and getting out of the train is a big deterrent and can be s potential bone breaker. Not to forget I am not getting younger, and the pain of getting a mode of transport from home to station and office is a big stumbling block. Ruled out.

Option B) pool a car with colleagues. Don't know of colleagues who stay near, and friends who share the same work load/schedule. Not to mention the problems of. Not being able to discuss everything on phone when someone known is am round. Ruled out.

Option C) buy a 2 wheeler. Exciting thought. A good reason to go in for that dream machine. Could be a Harley, or a home grown enfield. How about a scooty, works well with wife as well. But thought of risking the monsters on road, and the daily commute, it's a scary thought. Ruled out.

Option D) hire a drive. At least I am saved the trouble of driving, and can focus on work, chat, even it takes care of drunken driving. Good thought. But am I in any manner contributing towards reducing traffic density. Not really. Contrary adding to costs and tantrums of driver. Ruled out.

Do I have any more choice?

I think I do.

Just think of every corporate professional uses public infrastructure called taxis. My argument for usage of taxis is as below.

A) you don't get your vehicle on the road, thereby doing your bit of reducing traffic density.
B) you don't stress yourself by acting as a part time driver for at least 1 hour a day and braving those beasts on road, and giving your calf muscles a torture.
C) you avoid heartburn when some auto, taxi or SUV brushes past your priced vehicle and adds on to your things to do list on a weekend.
D) you can talk at length on phone, without being worried about cops.
E) you don't encourage creation of parallel economy of drivers who drive private cars v/s taxi drivers.
F) you can peacefully work on your tab or mobile device.
G) lastly you support livelihood of people have chosen to opt for taxi driving profession and not compete with them (though un knowingly) in the driving profession.

This may sound stupid or foolish soliton, but look around some developed countries like UK, Europe etc, where they levy congestion tax for private vehicles plying on the road. Your government can only create so much roads and bridges, they cannot overnight grow the infrastructure to keep pace with automotive (read private vehicles) growth rate. It's not practical.

I believe that depending upon budgetary considerations, each individual should encourage and use public transport and avoid creating a rat race of cars on road. Owing a car should not always equal to driving it to work,

Try it.

Bad Manager's diary

2011-09-29T01:21:00.000-07:00

During my working experience of a decade and half, I have worked with some good and some bad colleagues/seniors/peer. All have contributed significantly in shaping me. They have been an integral part of my professional grooming.

Today I came across an article which beautifully narrates what contributes to employees having a bad experience at work. Authored by Liz Ryan from Business Week, borrowed by ET, this note beautifully explains things which most of us (intentionally/un intentionally) say some point in time, and what they mean to your colleagues/juniors. Good read, and a special credit to Liz taylor for penning it down.

# 1 If you dont want this job, I'll find someone who does it : disgusting thought, Why in the first place you hired the person. As much as it is employees job to do things, it is senior/employers job to ensure necessary support, motivation & hand holding is done. Threatening employee will never deliver anything.

#2 I dont pay you to think : Then go and hire a robot. I may not think on same lines as you do, and I do respect that there can be often only one right thinking, but I still have a right to think. Change in thought process can be brought by delivering results, leading by example, and not by stating such things.

# 3 No social networking /entertainment sites while in office : ???????? Utter dis respect for the fact that every employee is a human being, and hence a social animal. How can you expect them to grow when thier exposure level is being clipped. To draw a line between excessive social networking and hence zero deliverable is a noble thought. But rather insist on weeding out the bad crop, and not keep a blanket dictat.

# 4 Who gave you permission to do that : Have you hired slaves ? Or still worst dogs who cannot wag a tail till you dont ask them to. Only machines work that way, and machines dont have a brain. With humans you can excercise limited authority, and talk them through the fact that why they are not allowed to take few decisions. It can be an aspirational thing for them to earn that authority and perform.

#5 Drop everything and do this NOW: Why ?. Did you earn the right to change somebody's calendar, because you did not plan yours ?. Urgent revertals are fine, and should be used to enhance service capabilities, but dont make it a norm.

#6 Dont bring me problems, bring me solutions : Could be a good way to encourage your team to think creative and be self starter. But dont act as if you yourself dont know the solution. Encourage creative thinking, and put ideas which lead up to the solution.

#7 When I was your age, I did so many things : Please dont burden me with your legacy or lack of it. I dont care what times you went through, and this doesent mean I dont respect your ordeals. But what is the relevance of those things - today. Its a different day, its a different world, different times. Why dont we together tackle it and not together live in your past.

#8 In these times you're lucky to have a job at all : Dont act GOD. A self respecting person will fend, and get his livelihood. Any job is not bigger than self respect, so please dont rub it the wrong way. You would rather control fools and egoists in your company by promoting someone who is humble, deserving, but dont act GOD.

#9 You are enjoying on my hard work/my money : So why dont your enjoy alone ? No successful enterprise is born out of ME ME ME syndrome. There is a cost of doing business and you got to pay that. Dont be a miser in thinking that I will earn but not pay, and if paying means it goes through your hard earned money, well you got to pay a cost for making more money.

About making a choice

2010-09-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

Today I made a choice.
Got an appointment with a business prospect with whom I have been trying to meet for over a month. Call it my bad planning, it never occured to me that the same day (Saturday @ 11) I have a commitment to my daughter for her open house.

I made a choice. And I am happy that I made it to my daughters open house. Made her happy.
As for the business prospect, I told him the truth. And managed to secure a timeslot the same day.

Goes to prove, prioritize your choices, be straight and honest about your moves, and you will succeed.

Experience is inversly proportional to blogging

2010-09-13T00:33:00.000-07:00

Quite happy to note that it has been 4 years since I started blogging. What is sad though is the fact that my posts have reduced as I have gained more in experience. Isnt it sad that the more you learn, the less you blog.

Need to find time out for more sharing.

The significance of Last Mile

2010-09-13T00:13:00.000-07:00

I have been a great fan of Last mile details, whether when travelling , or delivering a marketing pitch.

Last 8 years I have been a part of industry which thrives on creating beautiful communication - irrespective of medium used. What made me happy and sad was the way Retail communication was shaping up.

Happy because this was emergence of a new industry called Retail communication. Sad because the communication challenge at Retail was not addressed properly. A closer look at the value chain of Retail communication will tell you the sordid story.

The entire value chain was kind of passing the parcel game. Brand Marketers passed the parcel to Trade Marketing, which in turn passed the parcel to Media agency and which in turn did its bit to pass the work to Printers, fabricators and so on. Needless to say at every stage margins were added, and money poured in.

For a moment if one were to stop and relook at the entire value chain, it was the last mile link - that of implementation and control which is getting the least value. But was perhaps the most important link in the entire equation.

Talk to any retailer and he/she will vouch that it is the last mile which should be the first talking point. I would say Design, Concepts and Printing setup are all at par these days. What matters the most is what do you bring to the table as your last mile connectivity.

I would say this is a case of having a strong back end first which then goes and complements a strong front end.

Wonder how many players though are willing to pay for a strong back end.

The operationalization of marketing function

2009-02-09T03:10:00.000-08:00

Call it a recessionary trend, or emergence of something more disturbing, increasingly marketing function is being operationalized.

Aspect A

Management believes that marketing is a cost function, and only knows to spend budgets on campaign (s) which have little or no impact on sales or bottom line of business. Hence it is in the right spirit to curtail marketing to coordinate with media partners (agencies/vendors) and keep the all important budgeting function with commercial/finance.

If anyone has to be blamed for this perception it is us, the marketing fraternity, because we have succumbed to the "one up man ship of spends" syndrome. How many times have we really understood the ROI associated with the spend and hence established a near real, near possible co relation between what we spend and hence what sales has it contributed. Take a look at how various partners react to ROI question

Media seller/Owner - "Media will deliver reach, not response". Very valid point.

Media Agency - "Sales is a function of many external factors, which are beyond our control"

Marketing has to take onus for the spends, and align all important functions like Sales , Distribution, trade, and communication under one roof to deliver good communication, good product.

Aspect B

More disturbing trend is the commercial/Finance getting into marketing sphere and taking all important decisions on spend, actually negotiations, which generally are with less competent/value media partners.

Finance is least likely to rummage through media strengths and media efficacy of the various partners and hence take a informed negotiation call. And most likely negotiation value is reciprocal proportionate with the media strength. Thus skewing the negotiation logic more in favor of less powerful media partner.

However call it a recessionary trend, or a long term syndrome, more and more media negotiations which should be a marketing stronghold are being dealt by commercial/finance function.

Conclusion

While I am in no way making a case against Finance/commercial but amplifying my concerns about the strategic mistakes, or shortsighted approach to business amongst corporates.

2008-11-27T19:40:00.000-08:00

Last 2 days have been a flurry of media news denouncing terrorism in mumbai and glorifying spirit of mumbai, a city which never stops.

This has been the story everytime terrorism strikes mumbai. Politicians glorifying, saluting spirit of mumbai, and media amplifying this message to create a sheep mentality. Everybody in mumbai believes that he or she is contributing to this "spirit of mumbai" and hence continue with their life as if"nothing happended".

While I too believe in this "spirit of mumbai", what I hate is that arent we being taken for a ride by the politicians. Are politicians not using this opportuity to deprive us fo what we rightfully deserve.

If for a moment I defocus from the carnage of last 2 days, and focus on all the trauma Mumbai has gone through in last 2 years, and ask politicians what is it they have done to ensure saftey of common mumbaikars.

Terrorism threats, non existent infrastructure, pathetic public transport, polluted environment, pigeon holes to call home, unaffordable housing, all this and more is what we are living with. As if that is not enough for you to test our "Spirit".

Dont test our patience, dont test the spirit till it dies.

Imagine a scenario when mumbaikar decides not to take this shit lying down. Protest, not on streets but through changing our thought process. Making each one of reading this mail, believe that they can also change the city, they can force the politicians to be accountable. To excercise our right of being a pain for the authorities till they relent, and give in to our rights.

We need a change, and that change has to begin within us first.

As an individual I have taken a first step in sending this message to all politicians, and to all news channels.

If you too want to action this, please send it to your corporator, friend, politicians you know. Let them hear our mind, and hopefully .......change.

how to get things done

2008-07-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

It might sound like a typical "street smart" phrase "kam nikalna aana chaiye", but managing a team is much more then that.
Because getting things done from an outsourced vendor is much more easier then getting work done from an internal team.

I am learning the team management traits here, and relishing the learning phase. Basic principal of growth is to "not to do the tried and tested", however that still needs to be done. So who takes the tab. What I mean by "Tried and tested" is basic hygeine work of client servicing, or mere media planning basics.

This is where your team comes handy and useful (in ideal scenario). I say this not because I have a bad team, but I take p:ride in the fact that I have people who think,and who have their own thoughts on business.

I think as a manager of people one needs to understand the fine line of difference between a ruling and hence a mandatory "force down the throat decision" to more democratic and inclusive decision.

After all that is the term "Managers".

I am learning a new chapter in my professional life to drive things through people, and I must say it is a fantastic learning experience. An experience which on one hand teaches me humility and respect for people, on other other hand pushes me to have self confidence and self belief in what I am doing.

A very eclectic mix of people belief and self belief I must say.

Monsoon fury raising a storm in my mind

2008-07-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

Today mumbai experienced its worst monsoon fury this season. It has been raining constantly since yesterday night, and the whole of today morning. Wondering why this piece of weather info reflects on my blog today.

Well reason being today witnesses at least 4-5 key people missing in action from our prabhadevi office today (including me).

How does one justify this sheer lack of attendance in office on Tuesday morning (may not be so bright morning, but still). Well blame it on BMC (Bombay municipal Corporation .. for the uninitiated). I took at least 2 hrs. to travel a mere 10 km. from my residence in borivali (East) to Goregaon.

And to top it all there was a mis informed radio channels communicating about conflicting news of a high tide/low tide to make sure the listnership keep on rising.

All this apart, can this ever be tolerated in any other ambitious city. A city which is raring for growth, and equipped well enough with right talent. Not that my mind accepts.

I think this is a sheer apathy from government authorities to recognise needs of people of mumbai. But that is a often beaten to death discussion.

My objective of writing this post is to understand what can I do as a citizen of this country and this state. Can I for example initiate a non co operation movement with BMC/MMRDA/or what ever acronym authorities would like to adopt. A non cooperation to pay taxes, to use public transport (till they adhere to basic minimum requirements), etc.

Problem is I as an individual can do this, but that doesn't bother the politicians/bureaucrats. And to create a movement, you have to be a leader (strictly in political sphere) which current situations don't merit/allow.

Any ideas as to how to create a community, without actively seeking a political ambitions in life.

Agency - Your Partner or Whipping post

2007-12-14T02:10:00.000-08:00

When I think of any relationship, I always believe that it is meant to last. Otherwise it should not have begun. While the initial phase of any relationship is certainly a testing time (as for human being involved, equally so for partnerships) but you need to have realistic benchmark to judge efficacy of a relation.

My views are in specific context of client agency relationship which can be a beautiful partnership, or can be a failed relationship. A lot depends on deliverables from both the partner in any relationship.

As a client one is expected to deliver very critical component of the deal - and no it is NOT BUDGETS. Need for the communication and objectives to be achieved from the communication according to me are the most important deliverables from the client.

Agency has to gear up to deliver this to the client, which becomes a second important step towards a succesful partnership. Invariably problems start at this stage.

As a media practitioner I often wonder about my deliverables to the client. Being in a service Industry, beyond the concrete deliverables, I think the key differentiator is deliverables on time.

As a service provider it is very important to respect deadlines,and commit to the job taken in hand. Afterall a lot depends on your commitment to a client. Client makes his assesments/deadline setting post you committing to him.

This however starts a new debate in my mind.

What if the agency is expected to deliver quality service, at impossible pricing, and at break neck speed.

And if that becomes your benchmarking tool against a not so worthy competitor.

This however is the way few clients perceive at agency business. And I dont blame clients for that. Onus is on us agency guys to understand what we stand for. We certainly are not factories delivering a batch of media deliverables at 24 x 7 x 365 pace.

If I step back and look at my deliverables as an OOH Media professional, it is impactful, meaningful and competitive media deliverables. I think the deliverables are strictly in that order. Any change in priority of deliverables is not an agency working, it is a production unit with low cost inputs to deliver a sub standard product.

While I subscribe to the views that budgets may vary from campaign to campaign, but the basic premise should remain the same. Because being competitive does not neseccarily mean being "Cheap" or "Lesser Priced".

2007-08-31T07:42:00.000-07:00

Today I lost one of my very close friend. Abhijit vakil in many ways was a special friend. Talented, multifaceted, and very solution oriented person. Struggler throughout his life, he has been a friend I would miss throughout my life. I am a bit sad today, coz I remember small moments I shared with him. I am particularly hurt about the way life behaved with him, and future of his wife, son and daughter. 34 years is no age to die. I am also at loss as to why a battery of doctors have not been able to help him on cancer. Doctors literally played with his money and his hopes. After spending so much of time and money in hospitals like breach candy, all he got was a early death. Post this incident I have realised how life can be cruel at times and can snatch away your friends from you.

Critics

2007-08-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

Iam eager to explore opinions, opinions about me, my work, my approach to... Work, life, friendship. I often wonder that how does one improve upon self. Friends, colleagues do give you opinion. Is there someone who is reading this blog and bother to key in some real bad things, with a dash of some goodness which I demonstrated during working/ interacting with them$ feedbacks awaited.

Is there something wrong with your workplace......

2007-04-19T03:58:00.000-07:00

How often do we leave our office space with lots of thoughts, and complains about the way things are moving. Complains about how client(s) are creating problem(s), complains about how the whole process is fucked up. Lack of infrastructure, Lack of discipline, Lack of sincerity, Lack of quality manpower etc etc...

I dont think there is an end to this, but yes there is a supposedly (we will come back to this later..) solution to this. Just change the job. Bosses are not listening, colleagues dont pay a damn, pay scale is not right, will get a 30 % jump if I shift, these and many similar reasons work towards you taking the plunge.

Things are pretty well for a period of 2-3 years, and then .. bingo you get the same familiar feeling. Isnt that jobs becoming too predictable.

Not really.

I guess answer lies somewhere else. How often have I tried to change the way things are moving. How often do I believe that if things have to change, I have to drive it.

In my experience of over 10 year, I have worked across 4 organisations, and have found faults at every place. But have I tried to change them, or have I changed the place of work itself. I think I too choose the easy way out.

Going back to the supposedly phrase.... we think this is a better choice and hence go for it. But I think in this hurry to choose, we miss out on a major opportunity. Opportunity to change the things, and hence craft a organisation as per your and like minded colleagues.

Collective leadership is perhaps about finding such opportunities, finding such a team who think like you, and wre willing to work towards a common goal, and hence are partners in progress. Results when you find such a team are always bound to be favourable. Afterall you have not gone for an easy option, but dared to change things.

Schooling times for adults

2006-12-12T02:54:00.000-08:00

I had a good learning sessions recently when I was preparing for nursery admission for my daughter Ananya.

Admission form for school were available only for a day (creating demand....) that too between 9:00 hrs. to 13:00 hrs. Each form costing 100 bucks.They must have sold around 2000 forms in a matter of 4 hrs. That isn't a surprise the money school makes out of selling admission form.

What made me write this post is the experience I had after witnessing mad rush parents(including me...)showed for form collection. There was a long Q starting as early as 04:00 a.m.,that is good 5 hrs.before form counter opens. When I went there at about 07:50 a.m., I was welcomed with a long Q, in which I was numbered 193.

After waiting endlessly in that Q,and interacting with anxious parents,I finally could lay my hands on admission forms.

Form had very few relevant details to assess child's capabilities, but there was a column wherein parents monthly household income was to be specified.

Next day the same mad rush was to be repeated since we had to submit the forms,and there was a big Q again.

Now is the surprise.... all parents and children would be called for a "Observation" on a pre decided date, during which the committee will take notes.....

Then a "Lucky Draw" will decide who gets admission and who has to repeat this madness again at some other school.

As grown up and educated professionals, isn't it a pity that we follow such nonsense and nomadic way of ensuring our children get a good education. Standing in Q for 5 hrs, playing with our valuable time, that too for nothing guaranteed. "Lucky Draw" as if a child's career is

I know a simple solution could be pay a donation fee and ensure that you don't stand in a Q. But is that a solution??????.

For a school having a capacity of having 160 nursery students split across 4 batches, is it justified to sell 2000 + forms.Is it not a crime to create artificial demand.

A macro learning from this episode is that we have forgotten to keep a balance between demand and supply gap in our society.

I experienced this on a school front, but I also witness it on many fronts - e.g. Infrastructure (all roads are jammed, trains are packed,) Education (nursery to college the same story), Entertainment (no parks for kids....use internet to make friends)....

Our society is behaving like a mass scale production unit, which utilises its production capability to the fullest extent.... but has not been able to place its products in right places.

Street Children and us...

2006-10-12T04:34:00.000-07:00

I often go out for a drive in the night, or on a weekend with aditi,and ananya. Whenever we reach a traffic signal we are terrified by the sight of a poor child, or even infant in hands of a beggar, asking for alms.

Is it not a crime to make these children beg for money, when they don't even understand the significance of it. They are forced to beg, sometimes beated, sometimes drugged just to present a poor image, and gain sympathy.

I fail to understand that why cant government make child begging a crime, and the offenders should be put behind bars. There should not be a single child found begging. The mafia lord should be punished,so that they don't encourage this racket.

We have kind of immuned ourselves to corruption,and lack of action from government, but i cannot withstand an officer who ignores such nonsense and overlooks child begging.

I am going to find is there a law which prohibits child begging and can be used to impose this strictly.

Whenever I see a child begging,on a traffic signal,or railway station,my heart cries. What that child has done to deserve this kind of apathy.

When I see ananya needing so much of support from me and aditi, I cannot imagine how these street children grow up, and for what. Aren't parents to be squarely blamed for this.

A parent who cannot take responsibility of upbringing a child, should not have an ability to give birth to a child. I wish sexual capabilities of such individuals were directly linked to their responsible nature.

When the twain shall meet

2006-09-27T04:32:00.000-07:00

I have been practicing OOH media for last 2 years, and after having spent considerable time in different media forms (Print/Internet/DM), I am ariving at some strong convictions about where this medium is headed for.

I think this is one of the few mediums which do not have any content, and hence have a very limited stickiness. It this medium has to click, we need content to be woven around it. which is where we have seem emergence of medium like mall activation, 3-d , hologram innovation, which are a step nearer to creating content.

Someone who pioneers marrying content with OOH is going to rule, and will be the thought leaders in this 1000 crore industry.

2006-09-13T00:59:00.002-07:00

2006-09-13T00:32:00.000-07:00

I recently was introduced to orkut by a colleague of mine. Though I was aware of Orkut, never did I imagined that this tool has got possibilities of changing the social netowrking patterns of todays youth.

One it is simple, and quite engaging, two it is so very addictive to simply latch on to it for hours, together. I myself have been frequenting this website very often. As I write this piece of thought, I am wondering where these virtual networking tools are taking us.

When I was a young Adult, I used to crave for a social networking platform, and often that was limited to few close friends, who can make it to my place, because of proximity to my residence. These impromptou meetings were fun, because they were in real world.

Now I am experiencing these meetings virtually.

Does it take away the charm?

Does it make us more virtual ?

Is it not making us, and our children, limiting their physical reach to the outside world, because everything is available virtually?

I happen to learn about this websote called secondlife.com. It actually allows you to live a dual life. This virtual life is a replica of your real life, except for the fact that we get a chance to run our own life the way we want to. We become creator of our own life virtually. We become god.

think about it?

Is it not something amazing.

Need to connect with self

2006-08-14T00:50:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I remember scribbling words on my note pad, while I was in school. It was not a diary in true self, but yes a penning down of my thoughts for sure.

What I learned is that this marvellous art of writing - to self is like putting a mirror to your thoughts. What you do, what you think, the way you react, all reflect to the kind of personality you are.

My journey with so called diaries, has now found a more public platform through these blogs. While I am still cagey about a lot of things which I share - about me, my thoughts. Trust me - you will find enough information on to start a conversation with me.