Ambulance Coordination

During my recent drive from Madurai to Tuticorin, I noticed sign boards with emergency numbers all over the place. This was a welcome change from the earlier days when there was only one number to call - 100, the Police - I have heard several stories of how that number was either perpetually engaged or not reachable. Indian highways have the reputation of being the most dangerous in the world, with close to 90,000 casualties annually.

Now, the pendulam seems to have swung to the other extreme. There are more than four emergency numbers that can be used (1066,1033,1026 etc). I am glad to see this manifestation of private enterprise and competition.

Although its comforting to know that there are multiple options available now, I wonder if it wouldnt be better to have a central coordinating agent (a neutral third party) that would receive the emergency call and route it to the nearest available ambulance. This would be better than somebody calling 1066, 1033 etc successively trying to get an ambulance.

Sting Operations

I have read with glee the recent reports of sting operations organized by cobrapost.com that has lead to expulsion of 11 Members of Parliament, which is supposedly only the second time that elected officials have actually been punished for accepting bribes.

The BJP showed its true colors by refusing to condone the expulsion - This after several strong speeches declaring their hatred for corruption. Advani made a statement to the effect that the only fault of the MP's was that they were stupid enough to get caught !!

Anyways, the point of this post was my wonder at whether the journalists from cobrapost.com could not be arrested because they offered bribes (which is a crime too ...). Not that I want them to be punished, by any means, but I am just wondering ...

A ride on the wild side :-)

(This post is only for adults - Seriously)

Day: Christmas Eve, 2005
Location: Chennai
Cast: Ideamani, Burt, Novich, Seth

So, this cast of kanjupona (dried out) 25 year olds sets out to have a night of fun. After innumerable SMS's and calls to schedule things, three of them (Ideamani, Burt and Novich) get together at Adyar and head out to have some awesome biryani at Apsara Biryani, Santhome for Rs. 18/plate. Lip-smacking good :-)

A nice, country brute-style start to the evening.

Extended to its logical conclusion, the next step should have been Besant Nagar beach, a drink of tender coconut and back home to watch Sun TV. Nothing could be further from the truth ..... Read on, readers ....

Soon after the biryani, Burt-ji drops out of this quest for life's meaning :-)
Then, the other two head out the Platinum (the erstwhile Hell Freezes Over) at Quality Inn Aruna. After a hefty cover charge, the two hang out and watch the action. The women (of all shapes and sizes) are smoking enough cigarettes to rival a steel factory. Half of them are too drunk to see (that could be the only explanation for their dancing with the cast of "Planet of the Apes").

Ideamani and Novich look at each other and shake their heads. The India they had left a few years only existed in their minds, it seems. This was an alien land, populated by teeny-boppers that had come to age in the midst of tech-support and credit card sales. These kids belonged to a new half-generation, unhandicapped by the memory of an India that used to be the perpetual Ambassador car in the world's garage. Anyways, tequila is the best emulsifier and very soon IM and Novich were part of this new world ... But, then at 12:30 AM, despite the best efforts of the management ;-), the place was forced to shut down.

Novich and IM then call Seth, whose night has just begun. Seth is already at the next joint (place, not reefer !) and we are instructed to get there. Its 12:45 when we get there - 75 minutes past the official closing time. However, things are going strong there - A birthday party for a drunk-as-hell Dubai businessman is happening. It turns out that this dude is Seth's good friend. So, we get some champagne and sit down and watch the proceedings.

There is a group of about 10 people, all in their late 20's (All guys). All of them are married, most of them in the last 6-24 months. The conversation however is centred 100% on the following:

1. The best escorts in Chennai
2. Which actresses are "available"
3. Which brothel in Pattaya is the best ?
4. Some 16 year old school girl ...

Quite disgusting. Upstairs, this gang has booked a suite, with one girl from Mumbai hanging out there to provide any required "services".

Each of these guys is obviously filthy rich - Expensive phones, clothes and constant discussions about expensive holidays they had taken.

And then, when it was time to leave, the Dubai-dude was presented with the bill. He glances at it for a second, and then pulls out a wad of 1,000 rupee notes and counts of 75 of them. 75,000 rupees for 10 people, 7,500 per head, just for booze ! Kinda difficult to digest for two guys whose dinner earlier in the night had cost Rs. 55 (tip included !)

If you guys remember, I am a country brute, of Madurai and Raleigh pedigree. So, this was a major Culture Shock - Number I.

And then, we walk out to the lobby - Its about 2:30 AM - And there is a seemingly never-ending stream of actresses and models walking in with guys and taking the lift to the hotel rooms. So, this is why occupancy rates at Chennai hotels is so high !!

We get out of this hotel and we hear about a "private party" on East Coast Road. I quit at that point, but Novich and Seth head out there.

Today, I got Novich to tell me what happened there - Apparently the private party was'nt all that private after all. Apparently, there were close to 300 people there (as crowded as Satyam Theatre was how he described it). A huge number of girls, wearing the most atrocious "come and get me" partywear. This at 3:30 AM. Apparently, there was a cover charge and so these intrepid troopers opted out - But we could not get over the fact that Chennai now has so many girls that can stay out so late and actually choose to go to a party in the middle of nowhere, that could be busted at any time !

What happened at the Park in October seems to be just the tip of the iceberg ! Imagine if this private party place was raided ? Unimaginable. Culture Shock - II

I have nothing against people doing what they want with their lives, body etc ... Pls. have no doubt about that - I am not one to judge them. The purpose of this post was to highlight an aspect of Chennai that I did'nt completely comprehend. Its quite scary to me.

It highlights to me the fact that the rate of change of our attitudes is growing faster than our GDP - Which could give us a situation where we have a bunch of problems that were once perceived as being exclusively Western, without the right tools/support mechanism to handle them. All this free-sex and all is fine, but are any of these kids ready to handle a pregnancy ? Or a drug overdose ? Or rape ...

Dear Readers ...

In this holiday season, I thought it was time for a little bit of introspection ...

When I started my blog in April 2005, I didnt really know what I was in for. I knew that I had a few ideas that I wanted to share with the world. I had about 10 themes that I wanted to write about. Somehow, its kept going and I have almost reached 250 posts.

Its been a true labor of love and it has been one constant in my life for the last eight months threw craziness at work and life.

I am happy to inform you that my blog has reached the landmark of 10,000 visitors since I started in April 2005. The first few days, I would get between 0 and 2 visitors !!

I have met (virtually) several really cool people through the blog and I am thankful for that. Anou Bakshi of Project Why deserves a special mention for her determination to make a difference. I was happy to be part of the blog chain that conducted a raffle for Project Why that raised more than $1,500.

Dear Readers, thanks for your delightful comments that have kept me on track, kept me honest ;-) and kept me motivated.

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you all !

A scary thought ...

In the past, Imperial powers such as the UK, France, Portugal and Spain annexed territories for the following purposes:

• Natural Assets (Tea in China)
• Access to new markets (Construction of the Railways by British contractors)
• Tax Revenue
• Strategic Location/Importance (Gibraltar)
• Spreading their religion
• Access to warriors (Indian/Burmese soldiers during World War II)

Of course, each of these is important enough in today's context to justify imperialistic action - The US action on Iraq fits each of these objectives.

• Natural Assets - Oil, check
• Access to new markets - Halliburton, Bechtel, even McDonalds eventually ! Check
• Tax Revenue - Maybe not directly
• Strategic Location/Importance - Check
• Spreading their religion - This is why looney evangelists supported the war, check !
• Access to warriors - Guess who will fight the war against Iran ? Iraqis - Check

However another critical need for the US is a "low cost manufacturing base" that it controls. China is fine, but who knows what the Chinese government will want to do in a few years !! The need for the US is a new territory where it will not follow the minimum wage levels, environmental legislations it has put in place in the US. The US could go in and put the infrastructure up, keep wages artificially deflated and have all manufacturing done there - Maybe they would use China as the model.

Now, which country could the US annex ? North Korea ? Algeria ? Cuba ?

Indian Ghost Towns ...

India and China look like they are on track to follow the developmental path of the US. Our manufacturing and low-end service sectors are booming - Cheap manufacturing and call centers. Eventually, this development will feed and fuel the development of higher end revenue paths - Retail, financial services etc ...

In the US, as we know, manufacturing of almost any kind has become uneconomical and there is a large-scale push to move manufacturing overseas. This was not true 50 years ago -

Companies like US Steel, General Motors and Ford were huge producers on the US mainland - There were millions of people employed in this sector and there were large cities built around these plants - Steel in Pennsylvania, Auto in Michigan and Textiles in North Carolina.

Of course, most of these erstwhile manufacturing centers are dead now - And on the way to becoming "ghost towns". Flint, Michigan being one such town that comes to my mind.

If India and China follow the same developmental path as the US, will we have our own ghost towns ? Will Jamshedpur, the nerve centre of Tata Iron and Steel one day prove uneconomical to run, with rising Indian wages leading a shifting of production to Eritrea ?

Charity Park

This is a follow-up on my previous post (Well, sort of ...)

There are IT parks coming up everywhere in India - There are atleast four huge ones (> 1 Million sq.ft) coming up in Chennai right now that I know of. And then there is one in Coimbatore, and a few in Kerala, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc ...

There are even Food Parks being created in several places around India, where several food manufacturers can set up shop in a shared space. And Textile parks ...

The benefits are obvious - Centralization enables the sharing of certain services such as internet access, cafeteria, construction costs etc (for the IT Parks) and testing labs, water treatment, cold store (for the Food Parks) and (Dyeing, Pollution Control and Design (for the Textile parks). Of course, there are benefits of having enough economies of scale - Such as the ability to set up a dedicated power plant/generator/transportation service etc ...

Would this concept work for charities as well ? Why shouldnt multiple charities co-locate themselves (either physically or virtually) and share vital, expensive services.

Some examples of these services are financial accounting, marketing, advertising, web development, government liasion, airport pick ups, correspondence and several others. Instead of every NGO recruiting people to perform these functions for them, why not have a shared pool of resources that can be used on an as-needed basis by multiple NGOs.

This would serve the purposes of improving inter-NGO coordination (which is sorely lacking), increased purchasing/bargaining power and ability to hire full time resources (rather than contractors/part timers after whom NGO managers need to run).

I think this would work on a virtual basis.

Its just business.

Charity. NGOs. Social development. Rural rejuvenation.
India needs all of these. In large doses.

Social development work in India has always been dependent on people who resemble Mahatma Gandhi in philosophy and style of living. Being a social development oriented person in this country has become closely associated with giving up all material pleasures, sleeping on a dirt floor and spending every waking minute helping folks. I am proud that my country has produced several of these rare individuals. Each of them is doing a great job in developing a small adopted corner of India.

However, if India is to accelerate, there is critical need for a changed philosophy. Charities can no longer operate like a cottage industry and depend on super-committed individuals. There has to be a morphing of this system to one that is more business-like, fitting the following attributes:

1. Has to be self-sustaining
2. Has to elevate charitable work to the position of a credible career alternative
3. Has to make a profit, and that has to be the primary aim

Indians are exceptional at running businesses, while their records in running charities is definitely unremarkable.

Charities as such are unsustainable, in my opinion - Getting people to contribute continuously to a particular cause is difficult - People are fickle, people lose interest, people lose their money, they get anothr kid ...

Charitable work has to be a facet of a for-profit business. It cannot and should not be a primary focus.

For example, my father runs a factory that employs 350 people - Mostly unskilled laborers from a neighboring village. If the factory did not exist, most of them would be either unemployed or struggling in a large city. Each of the 350 workers are educating their children, treating their wives/husbands well, staying away from alcohol, using condoms and avoiding unscruplous money lenders.

My dad makes a profit and influences the lives of 1000+ people (including family members). On the other hand, if there was no employment, there would be a need for a huge government/NGO initiative to achieve the same levels of literacy, safety and security.

In Tuticorin, Ramesh Flowers has created employment for thousands of women - They collect flowers, dry them, paint them, scent them and make potpourri baskets (That are sold in stores like Target). This has lead to a great improvement to social development indicators in Tuticorin.

In my opinion, three things need to happen:

1. Enable employment and simultaneously encourage employers through taxation benefits to perform the role of NGOs as social development organizations
2. Remove the unnecessary guilt-driven obsession that several NGO workers have with staying away from all material possessions. Its not sustainable or desirable.
3. Make charitable work a realistic alternative for graduates of good colleges. If Infosys offers 3 lakhs to a fresher, a charity organization can offer 1.5 - A socially inclined student will take it.

It is unreasonable to ask a college graduate to make a choice between a comfortable Bangalore flat and the roadside of Benares.

My Caste

An article I wrote for our family journal "Mayan" some time back.

Recently, I had been to England to set up a project for Glaxo. After we had successfully finished our project, two colleagues (one Indian and one American), our boss (a Canadian) and me went to have dinner at an Indian restaurant. The restaurant was called Bombay Brasserie. The Taj Group of India runs it.

While we were eating, my professor asked my Indian colleague and myself about untouchability in India, whether it was still followed very strictly and so forth.

I was able to answer that it wasn’t followed much in today’s modern times. When I said this, my boss and my American colleague jointly started talking about how stupid they thought it was. I jokingly told them that if it was still followed, I would not be able to come within a certain distance of my Indian colleague (who is a Brahmin), let alone have dinner with him. We all had a good laugh over this, but when I was alone in my hotel room, I started thinking of how it must have been for our ancestors…

Their profession was Toddy-Tapping (the extraction of liquor from the Toddy Palm); they worked almost the whole day in the heat of Southern Tamil Nadu. They owned hardly any land and worked for the higher caste people who refused to even touch coins that had been touched by Nadars. In fact, they would ask Nadars to put the coins into water before they would touch it. They were forced to live outside the village and did not have access to the public well.

However, when Caldwell, the famous missionary came to Tinnevelly, he remarked that the most prominent feature he observed among the Shanars was their “downright insolence”! In fact, our “timiru” got us into a lot of trouble with other castes and that was why the British forced us to pay a “Timiru Vari”!

Some of the key factors that helped in the transformation of the Nadars from one of the lowest castes to the leading caste in Tamil Nadu are a refusal to accept a submissive role, hard work, education, very strong family and caste unity.

I believe that it is a tragedy that the younger generation is being brought up, largely ignorant of the glorious (and inglorious!) parts of Nadar History. The greatness of our caste to me is not that we started a bank, built a thousand schools and colleges, that we run the most successful businesses and that we are successful politicians, lawyers, administrators, doctors, engineers and housewives. It is that we have been able to rise up from the suppression of the past!

So today, when you walk into any commercial establishment, confident that you will be served, when you walk into a temple, confident that you will be welcomed, when you visit a doctor, confident that you will be treated regardless of the doctors caste, REMEMBER, it wasn’t always that way.

The past might seem to be very far away and even unreal, but we always need to be reminded of it, in case we forget about the importance of what made us what we are today – Hard work, education, family and caste unity.

Read more about the Nadars here ...

I will write more about Nadars when I can do so dispassionately ;-)

Corruption

India is undoubtedly a corrupt country - Very corrupt as a matter of fact.

However, are Indians inherently oriented towards corruption (both giving and receiving bribes) or is largely situational ?

Imagine, one day, if a manager at a top IT company started accepting bribes in return for promoting software engineers ? Would that prove the first option ?

Word Prediction ...

Now that I am in India, I am using SMS' much more than when I was in the US. And I noticed something funny. When I was trying to type the word "amma" (Mother in Tamil), I keyed in 2 (a-b-c), 6 (m-n-o), 6 (m-n-o), 2 (a-b-c).

Before I got to amma, the options that Nokia's dictionary gave me were (in order):

Anna
Bomb
Bona
Coma
Comb
Conc
Amma

I found it funny (and a little disturbing) that bomb and coma were used more often than amma !

False Impression

I recently read Jeffrey Archer's latest novel, "False Impression". It was disappointing, especially considering that it comes from the author of such classics such as "Not a Penny More ...", "As the Crow Flies ..." etc.

The plot was weak and predictable, there was an unlovable dimunitive female assasin and there was an annoyingly efficient dolt of a heroine.

(Its 4:57 AM, I am at Chennai airport waiting for a flight, after having stayed up the whole night - Thats the reason for the extra vitriol !)

One thing that struck me a couple of times while I read the novel was how similar the book's writing style was to Sidney Sheldon's !

Is Sidney Sheldon's new pen name Jeffrey Archer ?!

The road to failure ...

... is paved with inflexibility.

I believe that one major reason successful companies, individuals and families fail is their inability to modify their actions, attitude and behaviour in accordance with changing circumstances.

There are several commonplace sayings that are used to attribute causes to the downfall of a successful entity - "Its bad times" (Romba ketta neram, in Tamil), "Bad things never come alone" etc...

Lets take the case of families that have grown to a position of prominence through hard work and vision (My example is going to be India-specific). Once they are in that position, they automatically command a great deal of respect from the police, judiciary and the state administration through their power and money. In this position, there is a tendency for members of the family to become arrogant, reckless and lawless. These lapses are quickly brushed under the carpet by an accomodating administration.

However, if for some reason, the family business starts unravelling, all support from external agencies is qucikly lost. This is however, not the end of things. If the family members at once modify their behaviour and become more meek, they can probably quickly re-build their empire. However, unfortunately, most people dont modify their behaviour and continue to act as if they were in the past positions of power. This quickly becomes unsustainable and once one blow is stuck on the family (an arrest for example), the whole edifice comes tumbling down, with every old criminal/civil case being dug up from the dusty recesses of the administration.

Thats why once-rich families are considered to have "a whole lot of bad luck" and "bad times". They are sowing the seeds for this by their misbehaviour while rich, and worse, continued misbehaviour while poor.

The 11 MP's

I did'nt realize that the controversy over the 11 MP's taking bribes to ask questions in Parliament had a funny strain.

Check this out ... India Uncut

Life imitating art ...

Of course, great artists have always been influenced by life. And in several cases, life is influenced by art as well.

In my opinion, Tamil movies are a prime example of the latter. Rajinikanth, the famous actor is extremely famous for his stylish smoking with the cigarette performing wild calisthenics in the air before finding its way into his mouth. There are probably thousands of young kids that took up smoking in the hope of being as cool as their "Thalaivar". Research has shown that most addicts start smoking in their teens because they perceive it as being "cool".

The Union Minister for Health, Anbumani Ramadoss has ordered the ban of smoking scenes in movies effective Jan 1, 2006. I support the principle, but not the method of execution. What should happen is that every movie with a smoking scene should automatically get an "A" certificate. And there should be a concomitant enforcement of minimum age restrictions for these movies.

I believe that people have no right to complain about vulgarity in movies, when they happily take their kids to an "A-rated" movie (which requires the viewer to be 18 years of age). Blaming movie makers for spoiling their kids is as dumb a hell, when they are the ones that are disregarding the posted restriction. Pointing fingers at theatre owners is another escape route for these parents, but I have personally witnessed people fighting with theatre owners to take their 12 year old kid to watch a movie like "Abhay".

However, there is one common theme in Tamil movies that I believe could be done away with - Showing pretty, "modern" girls enjoying abusive treatment at the hands of thuggish characters (the "heroes"). Vijay is the leading proponent of this school, but I was upset to see that Surya has joined this group, with his movie "Aaru". This probably leads to most of the eve teasing cases that Chennai is so notorious for.

The town where millionaires ride mopeds ...

Tirupur.
Thats where I was yesterday. I was making a presentation to the Titupur Exporters Association (TEA). Tirupur has some of the largest exporters of garments in India. A lot of the T-Shirts, towels and shirts that you buy at Gap, Levi's et al are made here.

I had heard a lot about this town before. About the wealth, and about the flashy cars people owned there (I actually saw a Bentley).

So, I didnt quite know what to expect. It's a small town, with ridiculously bad infrastructure (most of the roads are less than 15 feet wide). I was amazed at how this town has become home to such large exporters ! A typical Indian success story, I thought.

I have spoken in several gatherings before, but I think this gathering had the highest net worth of them all :-)

And although all the exporters have S-Classes and Porsches, they only use them during special occasions such as weddings. During regular days, they use Santros and Indicas - And some even use mopeds !

Can I get a city in a small town, please ....

I am a small town boy - I was born and raised in Madurai, studied in Pilani and I have lived in Raleigh, North Carolina for the last few years. The only time I lived in a big city was when I did an internship in Bangalore in 2002.

Big cities have fascinated me. A plethora of restaurants, glamorous clubs, exotic & unconventional people, great entertainment, huge buildings and a certain disdain for "villagers".

I always wished to live in a big city. To be in the middle of the action, to see these huge buildings and meet the exotic people everyday.

And now, I finally got my wish ! I have lived in Chennai for the last month. And at the end of it, I have realized one thing - Cities are'nt all that they are made out to be. Yes, there are great opportunities for education, entertainment and other activities, but there is an almost equivalent amount of negatives in the form of traffic snarls, pollution, distances and crowds that one has to accept.

And people in cities are jaded. Or atleast, I feel jaded after a month in the city. Human relationships are extremely transactional here and I feel that the "oh-I'm-so-cool, whatever !" sneer that I once aspired to, is not a veneer, but the actual person !

I long for the big open spaces, the familiarity of knowing everyone, the friendliness of small towns. Where one knows the owners of every expensive car, where life is simple, where people are genuine ...

Is there a perfect compromise ?
Is there a place with all the advantages of a small town, whilst also having most of the features of a large city ?

As far as I have seen, Phoenix, Arizona seems fairly close.
In India, to some extent, Coimbatore, Pondicherry & Pune (because of their proximity to large cities), Ooty/Kodaikanal, Cochin, Simla.

Cities are great for a short visit, but I need to find a small town real fast :-)

Nurses, angels on earth ...

My dad had bypass surgery on Monday (9th). Its been a difficult last few days for our family, especially having to see my dynamic, oh-so-active father lying in the Intensive Care Unit, unable to move, with a respirator and food tube. And my sister in Japan must have been extremely concerned and frustrated at the distance, though we tried to update her regularly.

He is much better now and has been moved to a regular hospital room from the ICU. My mother is with him now, and all of us are relieved that he is doing well.

He had his surgery at the Madras Medical Mission (MMM), the premier heart care facility in South India. It was founded by the dynamic Dr. Cherian, the world's authority on neonatal heart surgeries.

I thought that the MMM was a model of efficiency, and especially striking was the superlative quality of the nurses. Knowledgeable, cheerful, attentive, active, kind, polite, gracious - I was stunned at the quality of nursing care.

I now rank nurses as the noblest people on Earth, for their absolutely invaluable service, at compensation levels far, far below that of doctors (Especially in India).

God bless nurses.

Security Checks

In some Indian airports, there are two sets of security checks. One is conducted with the governmental security force - This consists of a full body pat-down and waving a x-ray wand all over one's body.

The second one is conducted by the individual airlines. There is a super-fast pat down (about a second) and hang baggage is opened and looked at for about 2 seconds. The airline employees are usually in a hurry to get the plane off on time, and so their check is, in my mind, quite pointless.

I wonder why these checks are conducted ? (Does it reduce their insurance premium) and also, I wonder if these checks are admissible by law ?

PS: Definitely beats being shot dead though.

Purchasing Price Parity

Several years ago, I read an excellent article that said that the best way to compare costs of living in different countries was to compare the price of a soft drink, like Coke. At that time, the article said that the price of Coke in the US was five times the cost in India. Therefore, in order for a person in India to have a similar sort of lifestyle/social standing as a person in the US, he/she would only have to earn 20% of the US person.

In other words, if the average software engineer started his career at a salary of $60,000 in the US, an Indian engineer would enjoy the same comforts (relatively) with $12,000 (about 5 lakhs).

I wonder what the ratio is nowadays. After a month living in Chennai, I have started thinking that Chennai might be more expensive than Raleigh ! This comparison is not strictly fair, because Chennai is a city, while Raleigh is a small town. Chennai is definitely cheaper than, say, Los Angeles.

However, I am struck by how much money I spend every week in Chennai. I think I know why I feel this drastic difference.

1. Before I went to the US (pre-2002), my lifestyle was extremely simple - I was strictly a starving college student. Now, after a few years in the US, I have come to expect a certain standard of life that is probably slightly above what an average 25-year old in India expects - I think thats the problem !

In Chennai, and indeed in the whole of India, at the bottom rung of needs (very basic clothing, housing and food), things are very cheap (say 5% of the US cost) ... This is because of the huge volume (Millions of poor).

However, as you move up the value chain, things get closer to the US prices and at the very top, costs are higher than the US (cars, air conditioning, flat screens, computers etc..). A case in point, the Toyota Corolla costs 12 lakhs here (30,000$) as against $15,000 in the US.

Another example is gyms ! I pay 20 bucks a month for a basic gym in the US (weights, cardio etc). I went to a gym called O2 today and I was shocked ! 70$/month for a gym that has just 4 treadmills !!

This, I believe is because of the low volume of demand for these items, leading to a lack of economies of scale. So, if you want a truly high-end life in India, its probably going to cost you more (even in real dollar terms) than in the US ... Until more people become filthy rich (and willing to spend) in India !

Loud Whispers

So, me and a few friends are sitting at a bar in Chennai on Friday (Yup, we braved the floods to get a drink). And somehow or the other, the conversation shifted around to which bank I should use. (I might have brought it up myself).

When I told the others that I banked with ICICI, there were howls of protest. One friend called them motherf**(#$'s for de-activating his account, another said that their call center was clueless, yet another thought that their obsession with sending all decisions to Mumbai for approval was abysmal.

I then proceeded to repeat a comment I had heard about how ICICI was one of the banks most likely to fail (because of their aggressive loan-giving). We spent a good 20 minutes deriding ICICI.

Suddenly, we all noticed that the guys at the neighboring table had fallen silent and seemed to be listening to us. And one of my friends said to them "You guys work for ICICI don't you ?!" - And it was true ! They did ... Not for the bank though, but for ICICI Prudential Insurance.

And funnily enough, they agreed with most of our criticisms. This is the second time something like this has happened. The first time was on a train where I proceeded to tell my mother and grandmother about the owner of Nightingale Diaries (a hugely successful Sivakasi based printer) . I went on and on about how simple he was supposed to be, and how he only wore a simple dhoti etc ...

And some time later, a Dhoti-clad co-passenger introduced himself :-)

VIP or what ?

I live in Kilpauk, a residential neighborhood in the center of Chennai. And the name of my street is Balfour Road.

Throughout the immense rains of the last month, we have not lost power even for a minute (Touch wood !) I wonder if some VIP (Very Important Person) lives down the street from me or whether the TNEB (Tamil Nadu Electricity Board) has gotten its act together ?

Either way, I hope this situation does not change !

New Product Idea

With the floods in Chennai (again ...), loads of people are terrified of getting electrocuted by live electric wires that have snapped and fallen into water puddles. And of course if you want to get around Chennai, you have to wade through the puddle.

The product I propose is one designed like a walking stick, with a current detector at the tip. When a person is about to walk into a puddle, he/she inserts the device in first and makes sure there is no "beep".

Hmm, only snag is, its probably going to be another 16 years before Chennai gets decent rains :-)

Scales of Economies

I read this striking statistic on the web:

$12 will buy you,

One hour's work in Ireland,
One day's work in Malaysia and
One week's work in China !

Petrol smells like death

"Nothing's changed", says Jha. Read this article.

Chennai to Chennai

I knew this was going to happen !

I called up the customer support for Vonage, my US-based internet phone service. And guess who answers my call ? Some dude named Saleem from Chennai :-)

I asked him whether I could call him direct, instead of paying 10 bucks/minute for the "toll free" 1-800 number Vonage provides ....