It is almost an year I have not stepped into the airport. Airport was intricate part of my business travel life. But it also was intriguing observatory point for human emotions. Among the crow-calls , orange alerts , gate jumpers , TSAs there were also real emotions.
There were people running in the arms of loved ones. People waving bye on soulful depart. Worried children scanning for their ever-present mom’s face. Travelers panicing to get into the gate at the last possible moment. Fathers cursing the info displays on teasing with ever present gate change. Young turks fuming on getting bumped off. Families moaning on delayed departure signs. And there is me , watching like one among the many camera just to get one glimpse of some hottie walking down the terminal like her own ramp, to make my day shine brighter. (Not much these days…I believe girls have scaled down their makeup due to recession)
Why I am blogging this because I came across MLTR’s song “Take me to your heart”
Recent Mumbai attacks makes our blood boil on the pathetic state of India. What would I have done if I ever the Prime-Minister of India.
Establish National Intelligence Group governing and combining all national, security and state-wide intelligence. This org would have direct liason with all international agencies
Increase NSG stations across 4 major metros with immediate effect. 6 major cities in 12months times. And to all state capitals within 2years time.
Increase NSG strength as this is the force which is going to be used often than army, navy and airforce.
Establish Director of Operations under National Intelligence Group. This is for all covert ops. It is easy for me to hit on specific targets rather than moving the armed forces for war/battle. You think the world is going to care if 10 commandoes carried a covert op killing 10 terrorists outside India.
Initiate a clearly formulated media policy on what to report, how to report (how many times to report) and what not to report. Make sure they understand the consequences for not adhering to the policy.
Initiate a national Crisis Management Group to oversee natural (tsunami) and man-made crisis. Chain-of-Command, media and public interface, accountability will be part of the group. Everyone needs to be accountable , including me, and punitive action should not be limited to firing the people from the position.
Ask Election Commision to put stringent conditions for anyone going to hold key posts like PM, Home Minister and Defence Minister. A career stint in Armed forces, Foreign affairs would do good. I don’t want 100% neta to be holding key posts. They will jeopardise more at the hour of crisis. Also enact 49-O policy giving people the right to refuse the choice of candidates.
Start a coaching class for all ministers and politicians on the following topics
How to muster political will.
How to stop blaming and start working.
How to build national wealth than your wealth.
How to take security seriously.
Effective letter writing for apologising and resigning
Travelling across continents, some little things stuns me. We all know Tortillas are like Chapathis, but did you know Chimichanga is like indian Poori. And “Goiya” in Madras(Indian) Tamil and Sao Paulo(Brazilian) Portuguese means same double meaning (stupid fool / gauva fruit). Malakan in Greek and Maakan in Tamil also means same (jerk) and can be used to refer a friend.
Summer meant a lot of time when I was in school/college. It meant
mangoes, vacations, lazy afternoons, cricket, tv, cinema, beach, grandma, chennai central, tinkle – chandamama, uncles, cousins, umlimited sleep, board games.
But soon, as you grow you take garbage. With hectic work I lost track of months, seasons. Work occupied so much in life, I feel I am overheated machine. Calls have dropped so much, I rarely pick up a personal call. Family and friends have been distanced.
What one comic book gave smiles, now one blog may give. If you are still thinking WTF is this about..this is about how ranting, gossiping and bitching is turned into an art called Blogging. After all everyone wants to be heard.
And if not for the bitching of above and innumerable personal blogs in my RSS reader, I would have be gone as a hermit long back.
I am building up work stress a lot. I used to shout alone until I got this free-gyan at 35k ft some weeks back.
Life is like a new movie. You never know whats going to happen. If you know the movie already you will not be interested.
Deadlines,promotions,power struggles in office-space will not matter in 3years from now. So why give a big-deal
Your relationship with your friends exists longer than your relationship with manager.
When you are promoted to father-ship, that’s the longest role in your life. So why give priorities to the roles existing for 8am-5pm. (Family comes first)
Have you invested in yourself before you invest in the market. You are more valuable to people around you than market is to you. (Health is more important than wealth)
When you fall in true love, make sure you never get out of it.
People tell you to think out of box. Have you ever though of people out of your box ?. Have you donated your kindness and not claimed tax-rebate?
I jotted it down so that I can make plaques and sell it on ebay. ;-)
Actually I didn’t get touch with my friends-circle often. Opportunity presented in god-gifted form with my ex-roomies visiting and ex-colleagues moving nearby. Let good times roll by!
My mood is even more up-beat after I listened to Seal in Toronto. I never knew soul form of songs or I could distinguish between indie-pop and hindi-pop until now. I used to be reserved for english music form, now I am all ga-ga for indie-pop & soul.
4 devils in project management which we cant avoid.
Business requirement :- They will never freeze and they change more times than womens’ mind.
Matrix Organisation :- Project manager is happy, line manager is happy..reportee feels crappy
Offshoring :- Its for operations mgmt. Which dumbo told them to apply to project mgmt. Anyone working as/worked as onsite co-ordinator can tell stories about it. Its not about indian offshoring quality but the very concept is not workable solution for projects atleast for tight-bound ones.
Status reports:- Its better renamed as story reports. Status reports mislead managers. They are like the sweet-pill to the bitter audit-review reports. Status reports hide the facts that we are behind schedules.
We know the pitfalls but we still use it . Why? As someone gave me a tongue-in-cheek philosophy “Its better to sleep with known hooker than unknown wife”.
Yesterday I was watching the CNN last round of debates at Reagan Library, CA. I was angry and laughing at the same time. McCain and Mitt Romney was talking about greenhouse gases. Any participation in cutting out Greenhouse gases should involve China and India as they are the biggest polluters! Excuse me!. China I understand because it is world’s largest powerhouse (but still I had my doubts) but India ??!!.
How the heck we should get involved when you guys drive big SUVs which gives better emissions than mileage?. How can you compete on mileage and emissions with your airlines and freeways system against Indian railways?.
If Presidential candidates are getting it wrong, then what will be the fate of entire Americans. It’s known satire fact that they cant place their geography nor do their math. Now they cant even get thing right.
A look at Y2000 CO2 emission revealed interesting things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions_per_capita
US emitted 22 (cubic?) tonnes of CO2
China emitted 3.9 tonnes of CO2
India emitted 1.8 tonnes of CO2.
When you emit, you better pay for it – not India and China.
For my second part of rant, I came across the news that Internet in India was spotty due to cable cut.
Take a look at the comments especially. Its so anti-India. Hey bro, here is a food for thought. When companies establish the offshore operations who gets the savings..the American corporate. GO and ask him to put the money back into US economy rather than some Caymans Island bank. You dont even know with whom you have to get angry at ?Pity you.
When you are taking Indian money through Coke, Pepsi and Gillette, we have to take money through IT and ITES, though they are paying peanuts when you convert it into USD. Most of the money still goes to the American corporate.
You are being fooled by your media, leaders and corporate – watch out
