Using RTI Act

In 3 simple steps, churumuri shows how to use the RTI act effectively. The post also talks about how it was used in 4 scenarios. Very useful info!

Lessons from the Metroman

Guest lectures have been intellectually stimulating components of my Bschool life. This evening, we had a rather short talk from the Metroman of India, Dr. Sreedharan, the man behind the Delhi Metro (The Economist has done a piece on him last year). I liked his no-nonsense talk. He emphasised 4 things for a successful person.

1. Punctuality (He says this is a courtesy to the others)
2. Integrity (He says it is not only about honesty rather a sense of moral values)
3. Knowledge (You guys know it…)
4. Health (which in turn derives from 3 things – a. Balanced Diet b. Ample Sleep, Early-to-bed, early-to-rise c. Character)

Asking questions

One of my pet signatures reads “No question is stupid if I ask it!”. I am of the opinion that in any marriage, love or arranged, it is very important that the couple ask many many questions and get to know each other before they enter into a lifelong relationship. That’s what I told Anjali very soon after we started talking. Ok, ok, her full name is Geethanjali and I call her Anjali. Last month, NYT had a very interesting article titled “Questions Couples Should Ask Before Marrying”, which I found in its “Most Popular” section. Now, we are discussing all the points mentioned in that. I highly recommend it for all couples A very relevant example – “Does each of us feel fully confident in the other’s commitment to the marriage and believe that the bond can survive whatever challenges we may face?” MSNBC reviews this set of questions here very well. Its bottomline is “A strong couple won’t have trouble discussing important issues about compatibility and handling inevitable differences. But it’s short-sighted to think any answers lie in a list of questions”. There is a Muslim set of questions targeted at the male here, not all of which are good, but still worth a glance. What do you think, people?

A global warning

The third movie I watch in a NZ theatre is “An Inconvenient Truth” (Climate Crisis http://www.climatecrisis.net/), after Munna Bhai Part 2 and Ata Whenua. The only reason I go to a theatre this time is because I get a free ticket. The Skycity theatre in Auckland reminds me of PVR in Bangalore – the red ambience and the lighting is so similar. Ever since I heard of the movie many months ago, I wanted to see it. I don’t know if it will be released in India. So I use the free ticket here to watch that must-see film.

For starters, it is a documentary by Al Gore about global warming, its disastrous effects and how to avoid it. The way he illustrates the catastrophic consequences interlaced with humour makes it very interesting. His use of statistics, graphics and cartoons in the slideshow or presentation tell the point. His intended audience is the US people who are the only other big country (apart from Australia) not to have ratified the Kyoto protocol. The US is the world’s largest emitter of Green House Gases. I doze off whenever he sidetracks with his personal history. He jibes at other politicians a little and calls for political will to solve the crisis. The damage that we humans have caused to the environment is very significant. The Stern report (at a glance here) is serious indeed. It highlights the environmental and economic impacts. Al Gore has been working on this issue for a very long time and will advise the British government with possible solutions.

But not everyone agrees to this portrayal of climate change. Bjorn Lomborg, the author of “The Skeptical Environmentalist” opines on WSJ that the Stern report is flawed and the world has better priorities. Michael Crichton vehemently attacks this crisis as misleading in his novel, State of Fear. Also, a MIT professor says that there is no scientific consensus on the global warming crisis in his WSJ piece here. Politics and science cannot be mixed, they say. They do not refute most of the facts presented by the movie. So all I can do is protect the earth for our children, which seems a clinching argument.

As the movie says, the solution is in our hands. It is all about efficiency and a sense of thrift or carefulness we need to cultivate. Several tips to take action are here. They look like – use less hot water, recycle more, drive less and plant trees. You can also visit the Stop Global Warming site. I have seen that NZ (especially the YHA) is a pioneer in eco-sustainable activities. I learnt to be eco-sensitive more by seeing their work. Here I try to do my little bit by spreading the word around. I request my blogmates to link to this or write about it, maybe after watching the movie or reading the Climate Crisis site.

The death of Reservations

List of Computerised Railway Reservation Offices in India

No, it is not about THE reservations. I am not a serious guy, who has strong opinions about societal issues. This is a favourite activity of mine. Railway reservations, to be precise, are fascinating by themselves, just like reading the railway timetables. Back home in Thoothukudi, the railway station is very close to the sea. A thin road divides the old harbour from the main station. The station thus gets a pleasant sea breeze throughout. There used to be a good macroon shop on the way to the station and every trip to the station, be it to book tickets or to travel or to receive guests, included a stop by the bakery. Tickets were issued manually to start with. Being a small town, the station did not have much of a rush.

I got involved with regular reservations once I joined college. I always had a copy of the Railway Timetable and sometimes spent hours just reading the various routes and the trains. Vacation trips always were special, with all ‘oorkaaranga’ (town-mates) travelling together. People from towns on the way like Kovilpatti, Sattur, Virudhunagar and Madurai also joined us. I always cribbed about the partial treatment the Railways gave to Madurai passengers on the Pearl City. Student concessions were in demand till the final year, though in decreasing priority. The college office staff made us wait long times for such a simple issue of concession ticket. After that, we had to go to a railway station to endorse the concessions. What a pain it used to be! Most times we had to book our tickets first and then get them re-done with the concessions. Getting all the guys together and the concessions was a chore.

The Mambalam PRS complex comes first to mind. Being in the busy T.Nagar area, it was full of people especially as we used to get free only in the evenings or during the weekends. But we had no choice. We wasted two hours every time. All citizens used to abuse us given that we used to go in gangs of 2 or 3 and used to take maximum time at the counter. The counter folks did not help things by scrutinizing the concessions carefully and rejecting them for minor mistakes. “Boys” showed vividly what happens in T. Nagar. I used to hate the crowds that when I discovered the Besant Nagar Rajaji Bhavan office, I was simply delighted. That was at cycling distance from campus through the tree-filled lanes of Adyar. It took less time and at the end, you could have a stroll through the famed Elliotts Beach.

Come Bangalore. Indra Nagar was the first centre I visited. Innovations like seats while waiting and “one queue, multiple counters” were pleasant surprises. There were so many days when I will feel bored at office. On few such days, these booking counters gave me good rest. I shall take a book, read it there for an hour and get my tickets as well. I had the added pleasure of meeting my good friend RL during fewer of these days, who was looking for her job. The nearby parks proved to be our talking grounds. We commented on the many couples that frequented these parks in those times. When we moved to Wilson Garden, it was the turn of the Jaya Nagar 4th complex centre. Finding it in the maze of the shops there is a great trick by itself.

While at Bangalore, how can I forget the Tatkal days which had me at the Koramangala BDA complex by 6am, all decked for the day at office and still be 10th at the queue? (Of course, this might remind some of you about the passport experience of which I was part of, where the early morning 47A left you at The Passport Office, Shastri Bhavan very very early indeed and you are 40th or 50th in the queue.) This usually happens during peak holiday seasons when the trains seem to be full on the 50th day before the journey date. The Koramangala centre is one of the best, with thoughtful quotes, disciplined queue managers and flower pots to add. At Bangalore, there is the 23rd floor centre at the Utility Building on MG Road, which must boast of the tallest railway reservation counters in India. Walking up the stairs is a delight, except that you don’t have a choice when the lifts don’t work. But the sights of Bangalore up there make up for everything else. Where would you find a free skyline view of the city otherwise?

At Indore, it was a difficult time looking for the main reservation station. Here it is back to those dark ages when you had to stand all the waiting time. It reminds me that Southern Railway must be the most modern of them all. Later we discovered our very own Rajendra Nagar centre, which has 10 people at its peak. It is nice and quiet, typical of an out-of-the-city atmosphere. It had to happen. All the good times come to an end. I was not convinced when they talked about i-tickets. Who wants delivery when it comes at a price? But when they talked e-tickets, I was hooked inspite of the 25 rupees they charge for the convenience. From last April, I have not used any paper tickets at all. I know, I am losing out on a significant portion of my living experience, the physical booking touch. But I have to move on…

House hunting in Bangalore

The first time I was in Bangalore (2001), Alex and the others did the job for me. All I had to was occupy the single bedroom(BR) I got allocated to me in the 1BR house we rented in Nanja Reddy Colony off Airport Road. They went through the broker Baasha (a Kannada Jain) whose house we occupied. We paid a whopping 7k for that small house. Inspite of it being furnished, we were cheated the first time. When rents dropped very soon after its peaks in 2001, the place went for 5.5k when we vacated. The company had laid off one of our mates and so we stayed there for about 7 months. For the second house, I only identified Wilson Garden as midway between Bannerghatta Road and Residency Road. Prakash and the rest did the job that time through two brokers — for which we faced problems later. We were six of us in the pretty expansive house (owned by a Gult family) – a 3BR home we picked at a decent 7.5k. I stayed comfortably for more than a year and a half.

The first time I went hunting for one was when I intended to stay alone in 2003. I picked up the latest copy of Free Ads and looked for the cheapest possible option. There was a 1BR flat in Austin Town for 2.5k – a bargain in my opinion – given the rude start we had to rents in Bangalore. It was an old redox (red oxide) BDA flat built 25 years back. It had a equally-sized BR, hall and kitchen (I never used this), quite big for a bachelor with no material possessions except a few dresses and books. The owner was a Gujju businessman, pretty loudspoken. Satisified with the bargain, I happily paid the advance the same day and occupied it the next day. I stayed there for a little over a year and a half. I decided that it is time I got myself closer to where I work and so I intended to shift to Domlur. Gopi and I looked at a few places around the Airport Road junction and had almost finalized one when I made it here.

This time though, it was a little different. It is 2006 and I am looking for proper homes where Abi, my mom and Madhu can stay. Needless to state, I pick up the latest FreeAds and make a shortlist of the houses I can call/visit that day. Townhall is where she works and my choice of areas would be Basavanagudi, VV Puram, Jaya Nagar, Shanti Nagar and Wilson Garden. Abi says she doesn't mind commuting a little more if the home is perfect for Madhu. I start with one in Ulsoor – the Tamil heartland in Bangalore. I know it is quite far, but the landlord had advertised for a decent Tamil family — such ads are real funny — which I am sure we are one. I talk to his wife, check out the 2BR redox place on the 1st floor and am pleased to an extent. There is no separate entrance for the house, but it is spacious. Sometimes, the landlord is as important as the place and he looks gentle. He asks for 4.5k. I even take Amma to have a look. All along, she has been used to forcing herself to others' opinons and this time too, she didn't think too much and was okay with the place. The landlord and his wife are very elderly people and try to sell us the advantages of the place. He runs a temple nearby and I am sure Madhu would have grown to be a very religious girl if she lived there. I tell them I shall bring Abi later in the evening and promptly pay a token advance if she is satisfied. But doubts still linger in my mind.

Armed with a house at hand, I go ahead. I call the second guy who has a 2BR house for 5k at Sakkamma Garden, quite close to South End Circle. I manage to converse in the little Kannada I know with his wife. His name ends in some iah and is so tough to pronounce. I figure out that he is away and I need to come back later. The weather is a tad pleasant and threatens to rain just like it has over the last several days. I call the third guy, a Muslim banker at Jaya Nagar 4th T Block. The house is right on the T Block Main road, a lot closer to Abi's office and again I am satisfied with the 1BR home on the 1st floor and the banker. He quotes 6k as he has bachelors ready to pay the amount and is willing to reduce it to 5k for families as is the case with me. This house is definitely better than the last one, though the kitchen is smaller. The biggest advantage is its proximity to Abi's office. This guy also speaks about the many advantages of the house. I promise to bring Abi to have a look in the evening and go back to Sakkamma Garden.

This house is on the 2nd floor and is bigger than the other two. I seem to be progresing It is also much more nearer to Abi's place. The Kannada professor is a softspoken scrupulous guy and asks an astonishing (I mean, cheap, no no, rather value for money in mbaspeak) 5k for the 2BR house he is ready to rent. He does not speak too much on the greatness of the place unlike the others. I guess he must have got enough requests given the offer. I seem to be spoilt for choice today. Abi's Tata Indicom mobile, which I was carrying, calls it quits as I have exceeded the arbitrary limits it was set to. I call the last guy in Jaya Nagar 1st Block Siddapura, house to many nurseries. I am unable to locate a yellow water tank he had told as the landmark on the way to his house. I call him back and he says, "Just ask for XYZH aunty's home". I do that and easily locate his house. His wife — the aunty — is the ward member of that area.

The guy happens to be an Erode guy though he retains little of the characteristic "enungaa", which Abi also seemed to have picked up during her study in Coimbatore. He runs a PG here and I am impressed by his interactions with the guys around. Most of the inmates of the PG are Tamil boys. He shows me two houses, both being BR ones – one on the 1st floor for 6.5k and the other on the ground floor for 6k. These houses are easily the biggest of all the ones I have seen today. 6k is a little out of the budget in my opinion. I think it is fair that Abi decides after seeing the houses. I go to her bank. She sits on the 5th floor amidst some of the most senior people. I talk to a few of them before she is done with her work. Her work timings are till 5pm but she almost always stays till 6 as she cannot go before any of the senior guys who go out much after 6.

It has not rained at all today and I take her to the Siddapura house, just 0.5km away from the back gate of Lal Bagh (as I know it) or the Lal Bagh Siddapura gate (as the owner calls it). Abi also likes the place pretty much. She does not mind about the excess over the budget. Her only criterion seems to be that the house is in the ground floor which suits Madhu the most. Of course, she trusts my opinion that this house is the best of the rest, which come at lower rents though. She does not even see the other places. After a quick call to her hubby, we decide on this place. I go to the ICICI Bank ATM at Elephant Rock, one of my favourite ATMs to pay the token advance. We go back to have a round of Amma's food. I am very happy that my Bangalore knowledge has been put to use and 3 cheers to Free Ads.

Glory to the girl

is today and what do guys really think about girls? How I have tried to read women along the lengths of my life. Of course, there is the against Street Harassment or eve-teasing in plain terms. I have sometimes wanted to be a girl for the sake of knowing the other side. Thanks to my amma and Abi, it has been easy to grow up with a respect for the girl. At the cost of risking the ire of the girls here, teasing is an easy word and there is plenty of harmless teasing where the girls also enjoy the fun. The fun goes away when it becomes harassment.

Street harassment is very common thanks to the growing-up environment of the majority and the general apathy towards the victims in the society. It has been a really long time since we became prude thanks to the cultural invasions over the years. There will always be a few perverts in any society, but for the majority to behave in this manner means a moral weakness. Awareness or punishment is a short-term solution and clearly it requires primary education and parental nurture to make sure that the next generation does not stoop to such evil behaviour.

I have seen several instances as portrayed in ‘Boys’. I have listened to several stories like a true voyeur. I have known what it means to be felt in a crowded MTC bus. Is it fear or is it my morals that keep me away from such vulgar behaviour? If the ‘victim’ is willing to be party to my ‘evil’ activity, will I do it? One guy who did such a nasty thing told me it was so natural for him. How easily he justifies it. Violation of my private space is very disturbing to me. How can it be natural or fun when some pervert plays with my balls or abuses his power? Having several good friends in the other sex helps to a good extent. But there are the Jekyll and Hyde cases too who behave differently in different circumstances.

I am in awe of the girl for several good reasons. Girls are mini-mummies. Their selfless love is so amazing. I keep wondering if I can be as nice as so many girls are. How versatile they have been and how caring they are. It takes me a lot of effort to even think about caring and it all comes so naturally to them. Yes, glory to the girl for everything she does…

A fortune book

Before I realised that it has been a week since this page has been updated, I have been reading a book that has changed thought processes and opened up opportunities for business. It is aptly titled “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP)”. Before I started reading it, I thought it would be another of those best-selling books, interesting only to a select few. How wrong I was.

I had just read Abdul Kalam’s India 2020, a book with a vision of India being a developed country by 2020 and implementation tips for India in strategic and essential industries. Dr. Kalam is a passionate advocate of technology and outlines a roadmap for India in agriculture, agro-based businesses, chemicals, manufacturing, IT and strategic industries to be self-sufficient by 2020. For any one interested in sustainable development and fiercely patriotic, it is a must-read. The book ends with an action plan on how every individual and organisation could contribute to this vision.

This should have prepared me for the interesting insights the BOP book gives. Most of us would have heard rave reviews of the book (praise from Bill Gates and Madeleine Albright, among others). It is not one of those great books I would have missed to read, thanks to our library. The book’s premises fit in just over 100 pages and the rest of the 400page long book is filled with cases of success stories from India (as expected of a Coimbatore guy) and Latin America.

The first chapter is about the power of dominant logic or established beliefs in any entity. It provides figures to illustrate the market at the BOP and the need to change your mindset if you want to be successful there. Prahlad says that the companies need to create abilities to consume (provide credit through savings and the 3 As – affordability say sachets, access and availability). The second chapter talks about the need to innovate in goods and services and explains 12 principles of innovation like a focus on price performance, process innovation (think Aravind Eye hospital), education of customers (think ITC e-choupal), …

The third chapter says how the BOP could be a global opportunity in four different ways. First there would be local growth opportunities in big countries like India or China. Second, innovations in one market could be adopted to other emerging economies. Third, such solutions could also be used in developed markets, cutting down costs and benefitting the consumers. Four, challenges in management and innovation provide unique lessons that contribute to the growth of all the participants.

The fourth chapter talks about a market-oriented ecosystem, where MNCs, NGOs, governments and consumers form a network of relationships and engage in win-win partnerships. In the next chapter I discover Hernando de Soto (a Peruvian economist) and his Mystery of Capital. I strongly suggest that you read the previous link, where he tells us how capitalism has failed in developing/emerging economies mainly because of the phenomenon of trapped assets or the lack of property rights – that promote the formation of capital – which is a given in developed nations.

The fifth chapter talks about Transaction Governance Capacity (TGC), which means open, clear, honest and trustworthy transactions. The case of eSeva, an AP government initiative and the Centre for Good Governance, another AP government initiative, is discussed in this chapter. The last chapter talks about how sustainable development transforms the society. Women are seen as critical for development. HLL’s Project Shakti is a fine example. I have not read the book in its entirety. The cases are pending. I have read one Brazilian retailer’s (Casas Bahia) story, a Mexican cement (Cemex) tale and HLL’s Annapurana salt story. There is a mention of Tuticorin in the last story as a salt town in India. That should be reason enough for me to whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone who cares for developmental initiatives to reach all sections of the society, with reasonable profits as is expected for a business.

Bonus: Liberty is an important pursuit for a happy man and here is its philosophy. When you are at the site, you could also download a primer to economics called “The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible.”

Why Indians love to eat out…

Here’s my take on why I think we guys love spending our money at hotels, restaurants, fresh juice shops, fast food joints and the like.

1. Split personality effect: KFC estimates about 30 to 40% of Indians are vegetarians. There are a lot of Brahmins and other folks who won’t or can’t have meat inside their homes. In short, they are herbis inside and carnis outside. To satisify their desires and their buds, all they got is the eateries.
2. GDP effect: Indians, led by the great Amartya Sen, are very good at developmental economics. They are fully aware that if my Amma cooks and I eat at home, there is no addition to the GDP for her culinary skills (which I bet are out of the world, like any son) whereas when I eat outside I contribute to the GDP. The multiplier effect of each son, who thinks likewise, contributes about half the revenues of all these institutions.
3. Migratory effect: Rising urbanisation and better opportunities for speaking/typing more leads to increasing power in the purses of this generation Indians and a higher floating population. A judicious mix of these two factors results in the eating out phenomenon.
4. Relativity effect: All of us know Einstein’s famous theory about the time difference when you sit next to an intoxicating girl and when you put your hand into a fire if you were a kid that never grew up. We would rather spend our precious time in watching a match or the never-ending serial than cooking. In fact, the cooking is okay but the thought of having to wash the utensils puts us off.
5. Google effect: Every self-respecting netizen is aware of Google’s mission – to organise all the world’s info and make it accessible and useful. That makes it easy for me to find restaurants across the globe and for the chefs to find exotic recipes. The poorman’s pizza in Italy gets a new life as a premium snack everywhere else. I have had the stylishly named granita in another name and at a much cheaper price back home.

Bloody gift

I have a fear of needles just as many kids do. My doctors always knew I hated injections. Every time, they compared me with Abi who was fearless most of the times. In fact, my family doctor at home ensures that she always injects painlessly in my hip. She is so considerate of my arms and my fear. Whenever I get sick out of town, I don’t have a choice. I must say I have grown up(!) to allow myself to be injected ever since I have been in Guindy. But whenever I get sick at home, I let myself be pampered by my doctor who always keeps my fear top on her mind. I shall be the same little boy for all of them there.

Blood is another thing I used to fear. The first time I saw a goat being slaughtered at one of the temple festivals in my granddad’s village, I stopped eating mutton for 3 months. I hated the experiments with rats in our biology classes. I only listened to the different stories that people said about those experiments. In fact, I did not want to take up medicine primarily because of these two fears deep rooted in me and of course my aversion of drawings. I have always opted for the easy way out, never the one to do (hard) work.

College and blood donation have a perfect correlation. It is when you cross 18 that you become eligible to donate blood. Every collegian enjoys the time he crosses 18. One of my collegemates wanted to host a site which listed all donors in the country. One easy NSS activity was having a blood camp. There must have been a lot of blood camps during our college days. There were countless jokes about the juices, the fruits and the biscuits you get when you donate. The fear of the prick was always greater than my urge to donate. Abi beat me to this too. She proudly told me she donated blood at her college. I simply let any news of blood camps through my ears. I don’t remember any such event when I was at Bangalore. I’d have ignored the news.

It is the time of the annual blood camp at our bschool too. The first note about the camp, the instructions for the same and the multiple reminders did not create much impact on me. I shrugged it as I have always done in the last 8 years. At class, I turned around and asked a few of my neighbours. All of a sudden I realise that there are a lot of folks who share my fear of the needle’s prick. Well, I decided to be different. How naive I had been to think that I had been different in donating. With that, I took the plunge and join the hordes of bloody people who have been fearlessly donating their blood ever since they turned major.

At the camp today, I volunteered to be in the second lot. I was anxious. I was happy to find myself weighing 65kg. It felt different to lie on the bed. The fellow gave me a red object to grip. The prick was uneventful. But surprisingly my blood was flowing slower than normal. It must also have been hesitant. My anxiety decreased on seeing my neighbour who was so excited to donate blood fast. I gripped the red object tightly to make the flow faster. After a few minutes, I was done. I was still anxious to an extent. After some rest, I got the juice and the oranges. Yes. I have donated blood for the first time at 26. I hope, my change continues!