A Word is Not Enough

200X: A decade to digest

2009-12-28T17:17:00.007-05:00

I thought of many ways to look back at the last ten years and reflect. Everything from a version of "We didn't start the fire" to a chronological analysis was on the cards. Then I decided to go back to the basics - the alphabet. So I present to you the 33 things I best remember the last decade for:

Airports: Remember when you didn't have to take your shoes off before getting on a plane? Remember when you could bring a bottled drink on board? 9/11 changed all that and airports will never be the same.

App: There's an app for that! The phrase comes from Apple iPhone advertising, but could apply to the entire decade's gadget explosion, from laptops to GPS systems. If you don't own an iPhone you ain't cool!

Blog: I blog, you blog, he blogs ... How did we spend our time before blogging?

Blackberry: In 1999 a blackberry was a mere summer fruit. Introduced in 2002, the smartphone is now considered essential by corporate CEOs and moms planning playdates. Cell phones have almostl replaced land lines. On the downside, they've made cheating on a spouse more difficult — just ask Tiger Woods.

Columbia: the space shuttle that carried Kalpana Chawla and never came back...or came back in pieces.

DVRs: Suddenly, DVR-ing is a verb, and what it means is this: There's no reason to know anymore what channel your program is on, and what time....wait a minute, you still need that to program your DVR.

Eight: 8 Olympic gold medals at Beijing, 6 more from earlier editions, people still wonder if Michael Phelps was the result of a genetic mutation!

Florida: Elections were the fairest way to decide in a democracy. All that changed when George W. Bush claimed the presidency over Al Gore, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Florida Supreme Court's decision requiring a statewide recount was unconstitutional.

Google: This was the decade that Google became a part of our brain function and vocabulary. If you don't know something - Just Google it.

GPS: We can't get lost anymore — or at least it's pretty hard, with the ubiquitous GPS systems. But you'd better type in your location carefully: One couple made a 400-mile mistake this year by typing "Carpi" rather than "Capri."

Harry Potter: The West never really had rich mythology to boast of...until JK Rowling decided to change that. 7 books and 8 movies later...yeah the last book is now made into 2 movies..., Mr. Potter is the world's greatest wizard, ahead of David Copperfield!

iPod: An icon of the digital age, it's hard to believe this portable media player was first launched in 2001. Six years later the 100 millionth iPod was sold. To me it will always be the precursor to the iPhone.

Jackson: Michael, of course. The trials, tribulations and the end. He will always be remembered for Thriller and the millions of children he touched...I meant their lives!

Karim: Jawed Karim, founder of YouTube. Seriously, let's end this list and go kill some time by watching ... YouTube videos!

Lance: Armstrong - The ultimate sportsman.

Mumbai: Terrorism was not new to India nor to Mumbai, but 26/11 was exponentially, a new chapter. The Taj, Leopold Cafe, Victoria Terminus - historical landmarks and hubs of public activity in India's financial capital were targeted and homeland security was exposed.

Netflix: The DVD by mail service that brought prices down and gave me one more thing to procrastinate.

Oscars: 2009 will also be known as the Year of Rahman. His best music arguably was in the 90's but his legacy was defined in 2009 with twin Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire...and he is from my high school.

Peace: or the lack there off. Started with the war on terror, fought in the wrong place, of course. Terrorists were in Afghanistan and there were no WMDs in Iraq. So much for intelligence! Don't get me started on the Nobel!

al-Qaeda: (Ok, I cheated a bit with the phonetics.) The group that symbolized world terror with an event that proved that none was immune to terrorism.

Reality TV: As a nation, we became addicted to reality TV, from "American Idol" to "Survivor" At decade's end, the Salahis of gatecrashing fame give reality TV some unwanted attention.

Recession: We saw it at the beginning of the decade and much to our own bewilderment we saw at the end too. Dot Com burst followed by the Wall Street wiggle.

Starbucks: It's a cliche that there's one on every block, but sometimes it seemed like it — and millions now consider it normal to spend $4 or so on a coffee in the morning, ridiculous!

Texting: R u still rding this blg? Hp u r. E-mail is so '90s.

TV: Television screens became bigger and flatter. At the same time, though, people were watching movies and videos on the tiniest screens imaginable. Gosh I miss the old set with an hourglass figure and a nice rear!

Twitter: The new social network introduced tweets, retweets, follows and trending topics — as long as it fit in 140 characters.

Usain Bolt: You cannot find a more aptly named athlete. Speed redefined. Just don't fall down from grace, please!

Victory: Sen. Barack Obama's forefathers dreamed of becoming free. He became the leader of the free World. Tried to avoid this cliched mention, but can't. Too big of a moment.

Wii: In a sea of ever-more-sophisticated video games, this simple console became the decade's breakout hit by appealing to the non-gaming masses. Wiis became a center of family gaming, home fitness and even senior socializing.

Wikipedia: time to sell those big volumes adorning book shelves. Encyclopedia Britannica? Is that Latin for a British bicycle?

X-rated: Superbowls used to be PG13. They still are. But half time shows are a different matter altogether. Wardrobe malfunction became Janet Jackson's greatest contribution to the English language.

Y2K: the ultimate anti-climax as we welcomed the millennium. Fears of computers crashing and the world coming to a halt only materialized in Hollywood.

Zuckerberg: and co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin, launched Facebook from their Harvard dorm room. Can you believe this social networking site was once limited only to Harvard students? Silly Geeks! Now it's a time-sucking obsession for more than 300 million users globally and a whole new form of social etiquette: It's not official unless it is on FB.

Curb Your Enthusiasm - Seinfeld reunion

2009-12-10T17:20:00.001-05:00

"That ending was so much better than the one that I wrote." -Larry David says in an unusual display of humility. You almost wonder if he was talking about the ending to the reunion special, or the "Seinfeld" finale.

Here is my opinion on the "Seinfeld" finale: It's not that it didn't work because the characters were revealed to be selfish and shallow and awful human beings. We already knew that. It didn't work because Larry was worried that his audience hadn't figured this out on their own, and that he needed to tell them. And his need to make that point got in the way of the comedy. It wasn't an episode; it was a list of all the bad things Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer had ever done.

And he's always been adamant (including in a line in this episode) that he has no regrets about the finale. But I feel like Larry has given "Seinfeld" fans the ending they deserved but didn't get a decade ago.

In fairness, placing this "Seinfeld" reunion in the confines of a "Curb" episode makes it easy for it to stand out. It's all the good bits, none of the plot mechanics: just joke, joke, joke, joke, joke. But what we did see of it, here and in "The Table Read," felt much more along the lines of what the finale should have been: just one last collection of stories involving these four socially maladjusted people.

Now, as an episode of "Curb," I'd put this one a little behind "The Table Read," which had the benefit of introducing most of the reunion show jokes already - though this episode featured Jerry's wonderful rant about BlackBerry etiquette. But it still had plenty of inspired moments, whether it was Larry smiling through his pure hatred for Mocha Joe as he filled his tip cup with $20 bills, or the use of "Having said that" as a classic Seinfeld-style catchphrase.

The highlight, easily, was Larry's brief attempt to play George Costanza, and the bizarre meta moment of Larry David broadly playing the mannerisms of an actor who became famous for playing a shorter, stockier, slightly more lovable version of himself.

In the end, the episode provides the exact kind of happy endings that "Seinfeld" itself eschewed: the reunion comes together and is terrific, and Larry and Cheryl get back together, albeit with Cheryl getting an instant reminder of why she left the guy in the first place.

As a "Seinfeld" fan, I feel like I finally got all I needed to see of Jerry and friends. Having said that, I never seem to get enough of the fab five (I had to sneak that in!)

Golf Digest Magazine Cover: Obama/Tiger Woods

2009-12-05T11:11:00.007-05:00

The issue is available on newsstands now and CNBC reports that Golf Digest says it has no plans to pull it.

"10 Tips Obama can take from Tiger"? Huh. I can think of a few dozen. (Aside: "How to outsmart your buddies"? "Load it & let it go"? This cover is a gold mine of unintentional comedy.)

Tiger and Obama have a history; Tiger spoke at Obama's inauguration and later visited the White House. Obama, of course, has begun embracing golf despite being more of a basketball guy on the campaign trail.

There's also a complementary list -- 10 things Tiger could learn from Obama -- and there's plenty of opportunity for one-liners there as well. Or you could come up with a Letterman List of things that Tiger could learn from Clinton...Bill, of course.

P.S: Courtesy a friend: Heard Tiger is changing his name to Cheetah!

The US sneezes and Dubai catches a cold!

2009-12-04T13:26:00.010-05:00

Last week, when most Americans were busy eating turkeys, the world was hit with news that Dubai, one of the seven emirates in the UAE, now seems to be defaulting on its debt, rattling global markets. This photo feature in the NY Times presents a dark, but interesting picture of the situation.

Dubai had invested tens of billions of dollars in real estate, construction and other activities in a bid to lessen its dependence on oil exports. Diversification is not a bad way to hedge risk, financially speaking. But as they are now learning, dependence on real estate and construction, financed by inflationary credit is not really hedging. Wait a minute! Didn't the US already prove that to the world?

True, but a big difference is the strengths of the two economies - while the US economy is built on a strong foundation of innovation, financial endurance, technological brilliance and entrepreneurial spirit for more than a century, Dubai's is primarily that of an oil merchant, with a spattering of other businesses trying to take shelter in its tax-friendly shores. Dubai has merely exploited natural resources and has been importing talent from abroad with little skills and knowledge-transfer to drive its economy. In other words, the US can catch a cold, close a few banks, foreclose a few homes and survive the swine flu, but Dubai might not.

Also, given its heavy dependence on the US and Europe, this should not have been a surprise at all. Alas, the learning probably came too late for the Arabs.

It is difficult to say with certainty at this point what the repercussions will be. The most likely scenario is that the damage will be largely limited to the Arab Middle East as most of Dubai's dealings are made according to the principles of Islamic finance (which non-Muslims have limited stakes in) and that the repercussions for the rest of the world will be limited. However, a small risk exists that the problems will spread through indirect mechanisms to the rest of the world - definitely India and Pakistan whose expatriates have flooded the Gulf for years.

But, given Dubai's control over the oil supply of the World, it is only a matter of time before a bail-out package arrives from Washington DC, funded by the taxpayers of the US, for a lifetime supply of cheap oil - from Obama with love!

YGWYPF

2009-10-15T20:07:00.000-04:00

During my trip a few months ago to New York City, I picked up some “I Heart NY” t-shirts as souvenirs. After some haggling at one of the hundreds of tourist shops near Times Square (cheap enough so I felt like I didn’t have to take the subway to Chinatown), I happily packed up about 10 of them, brought them home, and doled them out to family and friends.

This is what they looked like after one washing:

You Get What You Pay For!

If Indian then IT...

2009-09-17T09:36:00.003-04:00

I was at a Kellogg networking session interacting with classmates, alumni and friends when one of my Indian classmates came over. After the initial ice-breaker (Chicago weather, usually), he immediately asked "I assume you are in IT?".

Though not probabilistically a bad assumption to make, I felt it was socially inappropriate. In fact, I felt offended. I felt like screaming - "I am not your typical Indian guy!" While I didn't make an attempt to guess his field of work, I felt he was crossing his social limits. It is almost like asking a woman if she was pregnant!

So what is it with Indians and stereotypes?

I remember a grill house in Dallas that I used to frequent where the server would almost always ask me and my friends - "Veggie burger?". My friend would get annoyed at this and order a double angus burger just to demonstrate the invalidity of the waiter's assumption.

Another typical restaurant situation is for the waiter to assume that my drink for the night is "water, no ice". I might still ask for it, but the waiter has no business to order my drink for me. These days, I say - "water, lots of ice"

The list goes on.

The point is that everyone tries his/her best to demonstrate that he/she is different. That being the case, to make Indians, or for that matter anyone a stereotype, is a cardinal sin!

Do we need paper receipts?

2009-08-16T10:11:00.007-04:00

On a recent trip to Walmart for "a few small, inexpensive items" that usually add up to a surprisingly large number, I got a long receipt measuring from my head to my waist. Given my 5'11" frame that was approximately 36 inches. Sadly, there are certainly longer ones out there. It’s crazy that every time we purchase something we’re handed a newly-minted, custom-made piece of trash made from paper, no less. The experience brought back memories of my recent trip to Switzerland, where I was asked in every store whether I want a ‘ticket’, if I said no, the cashier basically just did not print one out. It is not as if the store detective was going to grab me at the door, with a bag full of groceries in Migros or COOP …at least they have a way of reducing the amount of ’scrap’ paper.

If there’s anything the internet and behavioral psychology have taught us, it’s that smart, small ripples can have big cumulative effects. So it is time we solved this problem of producing junk every time we transact.

Let’s just make receipts available on an “opt in” basis, rather than assuming everyone always wants one. We’d save a lot of paper and ink. Also, with everything from shopping to friendships going digital, why not receipts. Stores should just capture receipts digitally, and make it accessible online if you want them. A great example is the Apple store which emailed the receipts of my last purchase. As always, the "fruit" company, as Forrest Gump famously noted, seems to be on the cutting edge of innovation!

If you were to take this idea further, here are a couple of thoughts:

1) Charge people if they want a printed receipt, with the money going directly to planting a tree with the Arbor Day Foundation. How could Whole Foods say no to this one?

2) Receipts are also a problem at restaurants (i.e., credit card slips). Let’s put e-signature screen at or in the tables to save on paper and send receipts directly to email. So easy. So environment friendly.

Let's say no to receipts!

Breakfast Italiano! - Eggs in tomato and basil

2009-07-29T22:22:00.000-04:00

It’s wet, it’s grey, it’s dark at 1 o’ clock in the day, there’s a recession, the country is falling apart, I’m working too much, I NEED comfort food!! OK, maybe it’s not that bad. This recipe is a perfect “pick me up” when you need something warm and comforting, it’s as far from “fine dining” as you can get, it’s wet, sloppy, requires lots of bread for mopping and is the perfect cure for a bad mood. There’s no way to dress it up, it’s simple, rustic and soooooo delicious. I love fried eggs anyway so the addition of tomato sauce makes it even better.

what you need:

1 x 400g tin of Italian tomatoes

4 eggs

1 small onion

1 clove garlic

olive oil

6-8 leaves basil

grated Parmesan cheese

sea salt and black pepper

tsp sugar

lots of crusty bread or Parmesan mash

what to do:

1. chop your onion and garlic

2. fill the base of a pan with oil, add your onions and garlic and cook over a low heat for 7-10 mins until soft but not coloured

3. add your tomatoes and cook for 10 mins until starting to thicken, season, add your sugar and basil and cook for a couple of minutes

4. add your eggs to your sauce

5. cover and cook until the white is cooked and the yolk is soft and runny

6. season and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese

7. serve with crusty bread and enjoy the childish fuzzy feeling of breaking the egg

eat, mop, slurp……….repeat!!

buon appetito!

Scared of heights? Try "The Ledge"

2009-07-16T00:02:00.000-04:00

For those scared of heights, the Sears Tower Skydeck was probably never on their list of “must-see’s.” But the new glass floored observation point will undoubtedly thrill those looking for the ultimate view from the United States’ tallest building.

“I’m not going out on that thing” is one common reaction to the just opened addition to the Skydeck, named “The Ledge.” But even more common is an exclamation of amazement (with perhaps a tinge of fear) from those who have stood looking between their feet 103 floors straight down. And yes, a very high percentage of the younger visitors do seem determined to lie down on The Ledge as you can see from the photo above taken opening weekend.

Maybe you have never been, or maybe you’re a Chicago native who has been to the top a number of times. Either way, with the Ledge you have a whole new reason to go.

Alternative Uses for Everyday Things

2009-07-12T23:49:00.000-04:00

The recently-launched AltUse website does exactly what you’d think it would do: suggest alternative uses for everyday objects around your home (Not in a “make a hat out of newspaper” kind of way, but more in a “coffee grounds make excellent fertilizer” kind of way). I would link to some of the more engaging entries—like the Aspirin Facial, or Toothpaste Bruise Healing—if the website itself wasn’t contstrcuted so poorly (you can’t link to individual entries, it seems, and some weird scripting prevents the use of the backward and forward navigation buttons). Despite these limitations, I like the idea that this database is out there and growing; the spirit of waste-not-want-not revised in a modern context.

Cash for Clunkers

2009-07-06T23:52:00.001-04:00

The Car Allowance Rebate System (acronym: CARS) is going into effect today. Commonly known as “Cash for Clunkers,” the program gives cash vouchers to people who trade in inefficient cars for new, cleaner ones. The New York Times’ Wheels blog summarizes:

Essentially, consumers can get up to $4,500 toward the purchase or lease of a new fuel-efficient car or truck if they bring in an old vehicle that gets a combined average mileage of 18 miles a gallon or less.

On paper, “Cash for Clunkers” hits something of an immediate domestic policy trifecta: it reduces our dependence on foreign oil; it saves Americans dollars at the pump, allowing for increased consumer spending (and the economic stimulus that generates); and it should help bolster the sputtering market for Detroit’s latest offerings.

And that’s not to mention the environmental benefits, which could be huge. (Does that make it a quadrafecta? A superfecta?) Gather this—American cars more than 12 years old account for only 25 percent of the miles driven in the United States, yet they produce roughly 75 percent of all automobile-born pollution, including greenhouse gasses and low-level pollutants like ozone and fine particulates that wreak havoc on the lungs of urban dwellers.

So now that the specifics of the program have been hammered out, how did we do? Bloomberg has more details:

Consumers will get $4,500 vouchers if the new car they are buying gets 10 miles-a-gallon better gas mileage than the model they are trading in. For light trucks, the improvement must be 5 mpg better than the older model, and for large light trucks, 2 mpg.

For a $3,500 voucher, the improvement for cars must be 4 mpg or better, for light trucks, 2 mpg, and for large light trucks, 1 mpg. The trade-in vehicle must be no older than a 1984 model and get 18 mpg or less in combined city/highway fuel economy.

New passenger cars purchased with the vouchers must get at least 22 mpg in city/highway fuel economy, light trucks must get at least 18 mpg, and large light trucks 15 mpg. Domestic as well as foreign models sold in the U.S. qualify.

Unfortunately, you can’t use one of these vouchers to buy an efficient used car. But the Sierra Club likes the program. They have a calculator up on their site that will show you the money and carbon you could save depending on your current car, new car, and annual miles driven.

Anyone out there planning to take advantage of this Cash for Clunkers program? What are you trading in and what are you getting?

Starting from Scratch

2009-06-28T03:02:00.007-04:00

I paid $5 to rent Righteous Kill from Blockbuster today with great enthusiasm and anticipation. After all, it was De Niro and Pacino, united for the first time since Heat. Half hour into the movie, it started to get stuck. I moved the movie forward and back with one result - frozen screen.

So I cleaned the DVD with a clean cloth to start with, with cleaning liquid 5 minutes later and was tempted to put it in the dishwasher for a hail mary, but then I noticed a thin line across the diameter of the disk. Urggh! Scratches!

So I started wondering if there was an innovative way to remove scratches from CDs and DVDs. I scratched my head for 10 mins and came up with this one.

The Banana CD scratch remover

What you’ll need:

A banana
A banana peel - you will get this as a result of peeling the banana - wow! how insightful
Some glass cleaner

Take a CD / DVD that has smudges and minor scratches on it. Better still if it is rented from BB and you were as frustrated as I was.
Using a circular motion, apply a freshly cut banana to it.
Next, wipe it down with the banana peel. The wax from the peel will help polish and further clean the disk.
Take a clean cotton cloth and wipe the entire surface of the CD / DVD. Be sure to apply moderate pressure while moving in a circular motion. This should be done for around 3 to 4 minutes.
Finally, spray the disc with glass cleaner and wipe it clean.

Voilà! Your scratched CD or DVD should now look like new! Please note that this trick will also help you repair scratched PS2 and Xbox CD’s and DVD’s.

Let me know if it works for you!

Michael Jackson Dead

2009-06-25T19:55:00.001-04:00

5:32 Pm. WSJ alert! I thought the market lost 400 points. Instead I found out the world has lost MJ.
I suspected OD; the article said cardiac arrest. Well, I might still be right.

Anyways, however mixed up or eccentric this man child was, we've lost an incredible entertainer/musical genius. One, that in my opinion ranks up there with the likes of the Beatles and Elvis. I find the news of MJ's sudden death very sad and disturbing. I grew up with his music. There isn't a Michael Jackson song that I hear that doesn't remind me of a certain time of my life. And I'm sure that goes for many.

I don't know if he was a creepy pedophile, maybe he was just a perpetual little boy trapped in a man's body, who never ever got to live his childhood as a boy and was desperately trying to. A naivety of sorts. A true Peter Pan who was severely misunderstood and tortured in his own mind.

He certainly touched the lives of millions of children, metaphorically, I mean. He will forever be remembered for his music and the moonwalk.

R.I.P. Michael, you are missed.....................

Back from Europe

2009-05-15T03:34:00.002-04:00

Just came back from Europe - Paris, Switzerland and Germany. Paris was Paris - wine, women et al. Switzerland was breathtaking - every time I opened my eyes, it was a postcard shot. Germany was relaxing - a good way to end the trip.

10 days, 3 countries, whirlwind trip - trip of a lifetime.

Here are some peeves, though:

1. While Switzerland has some of the most beautiful lakes in the world - Lake Zurich, Lake Luzern etc. why do Swiss drink bottled water for 5 EUR. BTW beer costs 3 EUR and wine costs 4 EUR. highly recommend either to water.

2. Are the Swiss hell bent on destroying what nature has given them by 1. smoking incessantly 2. smoking in all public places 3. making smoking a national pastime - 9 out of 10 people I saw had a light between their fingers!

3. Mona Lisa is overrated! Seriously!

Microsoft Zing - Is it the next big thing?

2009-05-01T09:30:00.000-04:00

Microsoft, home of the Windows and the Zune, has just announced that they're going to launch Bing, a rebranding and reformatting of their search engine. So far, they've earmarked $100 million just for the marketing.

Bing, of course, stands for Something to challenge Google. The problem, as far as I can tell, is that it is trying to be the next Google. And the challenge for Microsoft is that there already is a next Google. It's called Google.

Google is not seen as broken by many people, and a hundred million dollars trying to persuade us that it is, is money poorly spent. In times of change, the rule is this:

Don't try to be the 'next'. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new.

If Microsoft adds a few features and they prove popular, how long precisely will it take Google to mirror or even leapfrog those features?

With $100 million, you could build (or even buy) something remarkable. Something that spread online without benefit of a lot of yelling and shouting. Something that changes the game in a fundamental way. The internet works best when you build a network, not when you buy a brand. In fact, I can't think of one successful online brand that was built with cash.

PSBBians - Omnipresent

2009-04-15T15:20:00.003-04:00

Not the Malayalees, as popular jokes might say. Not the Chinese, as immigration stats might indicate. Not god, as theists might advocate. And definitely not peace as we all would like. But there is one species that inhabits every corner of the world: The PSBBian - yeah I wanted that to rhyme with the amphibian. Obviously Chicago is no exception.

I walk into an office party, expecting no surprises from the guest list; no Indians for sure I thought. Lo and behold! I come across this Indian guy who was drinking beer and talking to my friend. As the party progressed, I got a chance to catch up with him. As we discuss the weather, a nice opening with any stranger, and Cricket, never fails with an Indian, I found out that we was from my high school, PSBB, too, 2 years my senior. So we spent the rest of the party chatting in Tamil, discussing IPL, Vaaranam Aayiram and Sameera Reddy.

Always good to catch up with a PSBBian!

Meatball Sundae - Seth Godin

2009-03-18T02:54:00.000-04:00

As someone who has been in Marketing for the last four years, two of them in Internet Marketing, I often wonder how to convince my bosses that internet marketing really works. Our bosses often make me prove ROI before test a new marketing concept.

But, "What's the ROI of putting on your pants in the morning?"

I often feel like asking my bosses if in the past few months, they've made a product or service decision based on a direct mail piece they received or based on a TV advertisement. (Almost no bosses have). Then I feel like asking if in the past few months they've used Google or another search engine to make a product or service decision. (Virtually all bosses have).

Well now I have something else to ask. Is Your Marketing out of Sync? Buy a copy of Seth Godin's Meatball Sundae. It is an important book. Meatball Sundae will be your tool to help others in your organization to understand what you already get and what you are eager to implement. It will help you to get the buy-in to do the new rules of marketing that you know makes sense.

But first your bosses may need to transform your company.

Meatball Sundae lays out in a convincing manner the transformations that are taking place in business today. These transformations mean that everything needs to be looked at carefully, including marketing. But to just toss new marketing onto the top of obsolete business models is like putting whipped cream and a cherry onto meatballs to make a sundae. (Yuk).

Godin tells a story I really like. Josiah Wedgewood, a potter in England in the 1800's at the start of the Industrial Revolution, was the first to create a factory with a production line and job specialization. He built a showroom and shipped product around the world. And he sold bespoke pieces to royalty but first displayed those fantastic and expensive creations for several months so all could see. (Wedgewood was a marketing genius AND a business pioneer.)

Josiah Wedgewood took advantage of changes in society and technology and changed the way business is done, made millions, and founded a company still famous today. But his brother Thomas Wedgewood stuck to the ways that all potters have worked in the past, barely made a living, and is forgotten today.

Godin says fourteen trends are completely remaking what it means to be a marketer. And while these trends are transforming organizations that have the right approaches, they are crippling the organizations that are stuck with nothing but meatballs. Once again, marketing is transforming what we make and how we make it.

If you ARE the boss, you should buy copies for your board members and investors...

A R Rahman wins Twin Oscars, Slumdog Millionaire 11 and Resul Pookutty 1

2009-02-22T12:45:00.001-05:00

A. R. Rahman etched his name in history forever by winning two Oscar awards, for Slumdog Millionaire - best original soundtrack and best song. To cap it he even spoke in Tamil, which really gave me goosebumps. My wife and I were literall jumpin in joy as the secret was revealed. Truly historic moment indeed!

Earlier Resul Pookutty set the tone by winning his first Oscar.

Remarkable achievements, both!

A R Rahman wins 3 Oscar nominations

2009-02-01T02:36:00.000-05:00

AR Rahman is now officially the first Indian with most Oscar nominations. I'm speechless, spell bounded, and running out of adjectives here. I want to congratulate him and wish him best of luck. I think I'll be in tears of joy when he performs on stage in Kodak Theater. Man o man this year is turning out to be so good. First there was Obama's presidency and now ARR's first Oscar appearance. Astounding !!!!

There's no doubt that Rahman will win at least one award, but I wouldn't be surprised if he bags both. Regardless, this is an achievement in itself. Though Slumdog Millionaire's soundtrack is great, it is definitely not one of his best. So I see his nomination and potential award(s) as a lifetime achievement rather than for his best effort to date. A feat which comes as a token of appreciation for all the years of hardwork he's done. Yet another proud moment for India and all Rahman fans.

Jai Ho ARR !!

BTW, Resul Pookutty also won a nomination in the sound engineering and editing category. Resul will forever be known as "the other guy" who got an Oscar nomination, simple because he is overshadowed by ARR.

A R Rahman wins Golden Globe

2009-01-11T22:10:00.011-05:00

About 4 minutes and 28 secs ago, I witnessed a proud live moment in Indian cinema. A. R. Rahman won the Golden Globe Award for "original soundtrack in a motion picture" for Slumdog Millionaire.

The fact that Rahman beat the likes of James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer to the award is truly amazing. The shy and down-to-earth composer who had said earlier that “he was surprised” when he was nominated for the award has done the whole country proud by winning it, becoming the first Indian to do so. Shy as always, the Mozart from Madras thanked a billion Indians for their prayers.

Given that the Golden Globes are a precursor to the Oscars, will it be the first Oscar for India since Bhanu Athaiyya for Gandhi in 1982? Let's wait and see!

Updated: Video

Mumbai bleeds, Government sleeps

2008-11-28T08:39:00.009-05:00

I am filled with rage and helplessness over the events of the last 3 days in Mumbai. The fact is that India is vulnerable and Indians are insecure. The authorities ordained to protect the country have failed miserably and the country's defense and intelligence have collapsed. Watching the Taj Mahal hotel burn for two days has felt like living through Mumbai's own 9/11, for the Taj is not merely a five-star hotel, it is a symbol of the city's identity, an iconic link between its rich past and bustling present.

Indian Mujahideen, Deccan Mujahideen, Students Islamic Movement in India, Sadhus and Sadhvis - the list goes on, but irrespective of the instigators, the frequency and the flawless execution of these attacks have all but underlined the fact that India, known for its hospitality, is a welcome abode for terrorists. They can strike at will.

While I am appalled at the ineptitude of the government to take drastic measures despite 8 terror attacks in 3 months, the fact that newspaper reports are able to give more information than Shivraj Patil, the Home Minister, is rediculous. The Home ministry, in its current state is a far cry from the one that Lal Krishna Advani managed and it is time to fire Shivraj Patil.

It only took one 9/11 for the US to revamp its internal security and while traveling has been a hassle since, the US is far more secure than in 2001. I am not sure how many attacks it would take for the government to take a tough stand on terrorism. It is time to think out side of vote banks and politics and provide a solution that prevents such attacks rather than reacts to them.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter if the color of terror is saffron or green, it needs to be wiped out.

Saroja - Scissors Nikalo

2008-11-09T16:36:00.012-05:00

The decision to watch my first Tamil movie since Dasavatharam on a freezing Chicago night over hot bajjis turned out to be a good one until ...the bajjis got over.

Venkat Prabhu who gave us a simple, yet entertaining film, Chennai 28, has tried a different genre for his next offering. But having made the decision to dabble with a thriller in Saroja, he should gone all out at it and not confined himself to the rules of Tamil cinema - comedy and songs. If you take out the songs that act as brakes and a climax that promises to take you to Tokyo but lands you in Thoothukudi, the ride is not bad.

The plot is a cocktail of movies like Dil Chahta Hai, Easy Rider, Little Miss Sunshine and Home Alone and spans one day in the lives of four laymen visibly heading towards their thirties, Ajay (Shiva), Ganesh (Premji) and the Babu Brothers (Charan and Vaibhav), who have planned to see a cricket match in Hyderabad. They set out on their bizarre vehicle on to the Hyderabad highway with booze in hand, songs on lips and friendship in their hearts. The group comes to a scene of accident and is forced to go through a different route. Thanks to the chutzpah of the lead, they take a wrong turn and so does the story.

There is also a parallel thread involving troubled businessman Viswanathan (Prakashraj) whose daughter, Saroja, the nocturnal titular character, gets kidnapped and he solicits the help of police officer Ravichandran (Jayaram) to save her. As events go from bad to worse, the story threads knot and the four friends try to save their skin and return home alive, in the process meeting the hostage Saroja (Vega).

The screenplay is racy to an extent and Premji's comic sense lightens various tense moments in the movie - different, yet effective. Close friends addressing each other as "sir" was initially confusing and might even set off a trend, replacing meaningful words like "machi" and "machan" in the collegiate's lexicon. Cinematography, background music and lighting (or the lack thereof) contribute heavily to the mood of the movie and the director keeps the audience guessing the next direction the movie would veer into. Unfortunately, the climax doesn't quite live up to the built up suspense and the movie fizzles out. Jayaram is loud and his overacting kills the twist in the tale, which was a tad too trivial. The songs are a huge dampener and are out of place in a supposed road thriller.

Overall it is a good attempt at a different cup of tea albeit diluted with excess sugar and unnecessary spices (read myriad songs and unnecessary scenes).

Verdict: Overpaid Editor
Score: 2.5/5

Kapitalism

2008-11-08T02:08:00.002-05:00

When Obama made his now famous quote - "Let's spread the wealth", he was branded a communist by the McCain campaign. Later that night McCain voted in favor of a 750 billion relief package, as part of which the government bought significant equity in ailing banks. You might dismiss the development as a drastic measure that is needed in drastic times, but it is hard to ignore the fact that the the world's most prominent practitioner of capitalism has steered away from the very essence of free market ideologies, whether or not it openly acknowledges it.

The debate between free market vs. state control has been raging since the times of Adam Smith and wars have been fought on it. But one look at the two countries involved in the Cold War, conveys a paradigm shift in their market beliefs. While communism collapsed in the erstwhile Soviet Union and Russia has since become the cradle of capitalistic debauchery, the US has opened the iron curtain to communism, if not openly embracing it. In fact, the current economic crisis has been so devastating that once-cherished assumptions about the superiority of the U.S. economic model are now in doubt. Talks are also underway regarding a 25 billion relief package for the Big 3.

Call it industrial policy, or use the euphemism of "public-private partnership." But as America emerges from the rubble of the credit bubble and soberly confronts the task of building a strong, sustainable economy, the new credo will likely be "whatever works." The lawmakers of the country have slowly realized that this is not the time for ideologies, but desperate decisions, but subconsciously they also have to accept that no perfect theory can be practical. The middle ground, which America often refuses to take, is often the right answer. As the saying goes - it doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches the mice.

Blastphemy

2008-09-18T17:44:00.021-04:00

Following the recent string of blasts in India, starting with Bangalore and ending (hopefully) with New Delhi, has been a harrowing experience. The fact that my dad lives in New Delhi, has only compounded the anxiety factor.

But it got me to thinking...When did it all start? What was the trigger? Why do these blasts keep reminding us with frequent morbidity that differences exist in our society and the way some people deal with them is by killing people. Killing people doesn't necessarily kill the problem or the differences, does it?

It is interesting to note the most prominent terrorist attacks (I am loosely grouping riots and terrorists acts into one) since 1990 have all been religiously motivated - the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Mumbai serial blasts, Gujarat riots, Parliament bombing, Coimbatore blasts and now the latest ones. They also seem to alternate between the two prominent religions in the country, each trying to take vengeance for the earlier act of cowardice by the other. As these acts of tit-for-tat, an eye-for an-eye and a tooth-for-a-tooth continue into perpetuity, the country will soon be blind, toothless and eventually dead.

Following this trail of terrorist acts, I cannot but point at the demolition of Babri Masjid as the seminal moment in terrorism in India. It is hard to trace any other act of violence before or after (including the Sikh riots in 1984 and the riots following the partition in 1947) that has influenced the thinking of the nation, more so that of a few select people, more than Babri Masjid did.

A thoughtless act of destroying a place of worship that was allegedly usurped by a ruler belonging to another religion 300 years ago, has sown the seeds for almost two decades of bloodshed. What led to it? Religion? Communalism? Simmering feelings of hatred that simply boiled over in a momentary lapse of reason? Politics? It is hard to point the finger at one reason. But the unavoidable yet common thread that connects all potential factors mentioned above seems to be...God.

So, what if there was no God? Well, is there God, in the first place? The second is a profound question that has been the point of contention between theists and atheists for ages, which I am not willing to answer.

But the first question is easy to answer. Without god will there be religion? No. Without religion will there be religious animosity? No. Would there have been the Crusades? No. Would there have been the Holocaust? No. Would there be Jihad? No. Would there have been the Gujarat genocide? No. Would there have been the Babri Masjid Demolition? No. Would there have been 9/11, 12/6, 12/13 and 3/12? Never.

Why then, do we need God? Irrespective of his existence, if the most devastating acts of terrorism/genocide in our country, and the world in general, could have been avoided without him, wouldn't the world be a much better and safer place to live in without God? Aren't we better off without the notion of this all-powerful, omnipresent and omnipotent concept that seems to have gotten a few of us obsessed enough to kill. Aren't we better off seeing the God in fellow men and women than in the few names that we address him by? Aren't we better off following our conscience regarding the rights and wrongs of life than the preachings of the so-called messiahs? Aren't we better off without God?

Yes.

My Olympic Moments: Phelps, Bindra and Vince Vaughn's Olympic bid

2008-08-13T02:06:00.011-04:00

If watching Michael Phelps push the limits of human endurance over the last 5 days was the standout performance of this Olympics (so far, at least), Abhinav Bindra's gold medal was the cherry on top for me. As with most cakes, I am guessing there will only be one cherry for the Indians this time (or for some time to come).

While Phelps becoming the most celebrated Olympian of all time, surpassing the likes of Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz, was only a matter of time, Bindra's gold medal was a matter of "high time" for a nation of more than a billion people. For Indians who have often been embarrassed to see countries like Suriname and Zimbabwe win gold medals at the Olympics while India continued to falter at the biggest athletic stage, it is redemption of sorts. Shooting seems have become India's flagship sport during the last 6 years or so when the country has clearly fallen off the podium in Hockey. But what has surprised me is that we no longer have good track and field athletes (what happened to the good old Keralites who kept us in the hunt during the 80's? Have they all started driving their Santros to work).

Bindra's win in the Indian Olympics context is something to be cherished but it is at the same time a testament to individual achievement and not to India's sports system. Unlike China, which seems to have found a method to scout and groom Olympic champions through state-run programs, India seems to be content letting millions of dollars flow into Cricket while other sports die a slow and political death. If half the amount spent on the IPL had been spent on training talented sportsmen for the Olympics, our medals tally over the last few editions would have looked better than the beginning of the Fibonacci series.

To end on a lighter note, I was surprised to find that Baseball, a game hardly played in 5 countries, is an Olympic sport. What's next on the agenda - Dodgeball? Get ready Vince Vaughn!

Favre is a Jet

2008-08-07T22:35:00.004-04:00

Never could I imagine Brett Favre in anything other than green and gold. So I am still pinching myself.

As Favre led the Packers to the NFC championship game last year, where they lost to the Giants in overtime, his final pass was intercepted, setting up New York's winning field goal. That pick, a blemish on an otherwise brilliant season, may have haunted him and driven Favre back onto the field.

So as Favre goes from the wilderness of Northern Wisconsin to buzz of the Big Apple to join New York coach Eric Mangini, who is a year younger than his new QB, the land of Lombardi has lost its biggest attraction. It will be left to see if the Midwesterners will still take on the wind chill and drive hours to watch the cheeseheads play.

The Jets are hoping Favre can bring them some of the magic he created at Lambeau Field, a place where the sight of him dropping back into the pocket on a frozen Sunday and rocketing a ball downfield is as etched in Packers lore as legendary coach Vince Lombardi walking the sidelines.

As always time will tell if Favre should have preserved his legacy and stayed in his ranch in Mississippi or risked it all for one final tryst with glory.

Randy Pausch dies

2008-07-27T21:12:00.002-04:00

On July 25, 2008, Randy Pausch, Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and a pioneer in the field of Virtual Reality and Human-Computer Interaction, died from pancreatic cancer at his family's home in Chesapeake, Virginia, having moved there so that his wife and children would be near family after his death.

Late last year, doctors had told him he had just months to live, but he didn't want to dwell on dying. Instead, the Professor decided to give a humorous and life-affirming final lecture to 400 students and colleagues (well, thats what they all thought), now infamously known as "The Last Lecture". For anyone whining and griping about life and how unfair it is, the lecture is an eye opener; for everyone else, it is a moving and inspirational speech.

P.s: Thanks Madhu for fwding the video to me.

Singh is King - UPA wins Trust Vote

2008-07-22T11:17:00.002-04:00

Amidst claims of horse-trading the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh delivered an arousing speech and won the trust vote that would help move the nuclear deal forward.

Finally an end to the farcical drama staged by the Left.

Favorite Cricket Commentator: Cricinfo Poll Results

2008-07-13T10:18:00.007-04:00

Cricinfo (now part of ESPN) released the results of the "favorite cricket commentator" poll today.

Results:

1. "Favorite commentator": 1. Harsha Bhogle 2. Ravi Shastri 3. Richie Benaud
2. "Most Entertaining": 1. Tony Greig 2. Geoff Boycott 3. David Lloyd
3. "Most Unbiased": 1. Richie Benaud 2. Harsha Bhogle 3. Ravi Shastri
4. "Most Insightful": 1. Ian Chappell 2. Richie Benaud 3. Harsha Bhogle

As with any poll/survey, the sample population, mostly Indians, seems to have heavily influenced the results. This is evident from the fact that Bhogle was most people's favorite commentator and someone like Tony Cozier, who has less exposure to Indian audiences failed to even get a mention. Harsha is by far the best Indian commentator, light years ahead of Sunil Gavaskar and it is good to see him recognized for this services.

It is however not surprising to see the Channel 9 team score heavily in this poll since it is by far the best commentating team in the history of cricket broadcasting.

Led by the impeccable Richie Benaud, the almost tyrannical Commentary Team Captain and the father of television cricket commentating, with a penchant for "cream, bone, white, off-white, ivory or beige" jackets and the uncanny knack of conveying more through less, the team has the perfect mix of analysts and entertainers that every commentary team should poseess.

Tony Grieg is the master entertainer whose high decibel screams and thick bass voice adds value to any cricketing action while Bill Lawry, Tony's nemesis and keen pigeon fancier, is a man with an unusually large nose (as a result of a childhood bout with "proboscitis"), has a tendency to declare all batsmen out regardless of the actual result and an abiding and one-eyed love of the state of Victoria, Merv Hughes, leg-spinner Shane Warne and Australia (which he pronounces "Straya"). Ian Chappell is quite the calming influence on this team and provides the most insightful analysis on a game situation like no one else. One of the best captains ever, Ian often speaks ahead of the game and remains my favorite commentator.

While additions like Mark Taylor and Ian Healy (the worst commentator ever, along with Ranjith Fernando) have diluted the quality a bit, the fab four have been holding their ground since the inception of the team in 1980.

iRritated fans of iPhone

2008-07-13T02:13:00.006-04:00

Rants from an iRritated iPhone user, iNline with reports of all the glitches that went with the iPhone 3G launch.:

"Last year, iStood in a long line but iGot my iPhone for a premium price. iTalked the talk and iWalked the walk listening to iTunes all the time and iFound iLoved my iPhone. Then iFound out that the prices were slashed by $200. iSulked and found solace in the fact that iWas one of the first users of the one of the greatest iNnovations of this decade. Today with the new software, my iPhone is idead. iWish Steve Jobs would suffer the misery that iHave for more than five hours trying to figure out what why my iPhone is not working. iHave loaded and reloaded the iTunes software, repaired, looked for help and now off to the dreaded AT&T store to get help because the only phone call iCan make is to 911, iCan't even call AT&T for help."

iPhone 3G Reviews

2008-07-11T14:22:00.004-04:00

Except for the CNET review, which went online on July 11th, most newspaper reviews beat the phone to the market. Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg jumped the gun, publishing his online review of Apple’s new iPhone 3G on Tuesday night. Then, about an hour later, the New York Times responded in kind, posting their own review, by David Pogue and America’s third national paper, USA Today, followed suit, posting a review by Edward C. Baig.

So Apple (AAPL) fans eager to hear if the new iPhone is worth buying got their answer well before they decided whether or not to stand in line.

Once again, Steve Jobs has tightly controlled the initial wave of critical commentary by handing out advanced copies to his favorite reviewers — two of whom make a nice living publishing books about Apple products (Pogue writes “Missing Manuals” and Baig writes “For Dummies” books).

But if he sought to curry special favor — or control the timing — Jobs was only partly successful. Although Baig’s review is quite enthusiastic (”two thumbs up”), Mossberg’s and Pogue’s are what is known in the theater as mixed positive.

The money quotes:

Mossberg: “If you’ve been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service costs and the weaker battery life. The same goes for those with existing iPhones who love the device but crave faster cellular data speeds. But if you already own an iPhone, and can usually use Wi-Fi for data, you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade before deciding whether it’s worth getting the new hardware.”

Pogue: “So the iPhone 3G is a nice upgrade. It more than keeps pace with advancing technology, and new buyers will generally be delighted….But it’s not so much better that it turns all those original iPhones into has-beens. Indeed, the really big deal is the iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store, neither of which requires buying a new iPhone. That twist may come as a refreshing surprise to planned-obsolescence conspiracy theorists — and everyone who stood in line last year.”

Baig: “Extra, extra: iPhone 3G: The Sequel, is worth the wait….It’s cheaper, faster and a lot friendlier for business. Apple’s blockbuster smartphone already had nifty features such as visual voicemail, a splendid built-in video iPod and the best mobile Web browser I’ve ever used. With GPS newly added to the mix, this handheld marvel has no equal among consumer-oriented smartphones.”

At Least the G-8 Well

2008-07-11T09:25:00.001-04:00

OK, fine. There was a hiccup or two at the G-8 Summit. And, sure, they didn't reach a perfect state of accord regarding global climate change. But they tried. And there was one thing that everyone could agree on: the utter tastiness of the meal they enjoyed during a discussion of the global food crisis.

Iran's Missile Test Photos Photoshopped

2008-07-11T09:24:00.001-04:00

Yesterday Iran tested what is apparently a medium range Shahab-3 ballistic missile. The fear (or the fear they hoped to induce) is that they can now strike Israel. It's all part of the saber rattling going on between our hawkish leaders and theirs.

But the pictures of the test that Iran's state Sepah News provided to Agence France-Presse have clearly been doctored with Photoshop (or maybe open-source Gimp software; ha!). Apparently the point of the manipulation was to cover up a %25 failure rate in this test (one missile hasn't fired in the unaltered photo).

The manipulated shots made it on to the front page of the L.A. Times (among other papers) before the tampering was noticed. Sepah News later provided what appears to be an unaltered shot with no explanation.

As one commenter at the NYTimes says "I know that these missiles are part of a threat to wipe Israel off the map, but now they've proved that they have the Photoshop capabilities to do it.” We wouldn't say their Photoshop skills are quite that far along yet.

Hug your way out of your troubles with Mata Amritanandamayi

2008-07-11T09:13:00.001-04:00

While the Pope plans to participate in a televised and thus bound-to-be-ballyhooed Bible-reading marathon come October 5th, an Indian guru named Mata Amritanandamayi has reached out to her followers with a more hands-on approach.

Amritanandamayi, or Amma (Mother) to devotees, has been spreading her gospel of hugs since her teenage years in a India. On the first 2 days of her 3-day New York hugathon, she hugged 8,000 total strangers—some waiting up to 7 hours for the free embrace. After the undoubtedly awesome and experienced hug (estimates are she's at 27 million!), you even receive a Hershey’s kiss and a few flower petals. We think it's a beautiful idea: to nourish the soul through a touch wrapped in love.

Surrounded by a small army of like-minded volunteers, Amma offered her own serene, why-worry take: “If you ask a river, ‘How do you flow?’ it can only say, ‘I just flow.’ So likewise, I just flow.”

Rafa pulls off a Role-Reversal at Wimbledon

2008-07-06T18:54:00.010-04:00

Greatest Wimbledon final ever? Greatest players ever to play in a final? Greatest tennis tussle? Yes, arguably Yes and Yes . I could go on with adjectives that describe the 2008 Men's final at Wimbledon but if I were to use one word it was - sublime. Hardly have I seen two men throw winners at each other with the frequency of an electromagnetic wave for as long as they played (4 hr 48 mins to be precise). If the tennis elevated you to stratospheric heights, the glowing praise that the players showered on each other after the game only brought you back to moisture laden earth. The pair played out a semi-classic last year, but this one clearly made it to the top of the list.

There were three reasons Nadal won. Statistically, break-point conversion was where the game was decided - Nadal converted 4 out of his 13, while Federer managed only 1 out of 13. It merely highlights the fact that the winner handled the pressure much better and served exceptionally well on big points.

Secondly, Nadal's ability, as Safin had described earlier, "to run like a rabbit and hit winners from everywhere" ensured that Federer not only had to play extra shots to stay in the points, but also lost those points from seemingly winning positions. The number of times Nadal creamed winners from way out of the sidelines and from unbalanced positions was a sight to behold.

Thirdly, the main difference between last year and this was that Nadal truly believed he could defeat Federer at Wimbledon, a belief that was at an embryonic stage a year ago.

If Federer hadn't fought back to level the game from being 2 sets down and take it as far it ended up going, he wouldn't have been Federer. But for all his skill and effort he could only end up second best today. Nadal managed to pull off the near impossible, winning the French and Wimbledon in the same year (after Borg in 1980). To think that the only players in the modern era to win both the titles in their careers have been Laver, Borg and Agassi, puts this win into better historic perspective. Going by this year's form Nadal is clearly the better player and he has proved that his game is surface independent; the fact that he did so at 23 only opens up the world for him.

Federer has had a tough year, and this loss only puts the years he dominated into better perspective. Nadal has definitely caught up and Djokovic is not far behind, despite his slip on grass. All this means is that Men's tennis is set to enter the best 3-4 years of triangular rivalry seen since the days of Borg, McEnroe and Connors or Lendl, Becker and Edberg .

I hope the rivalry lives up to the expectations, but for these two players, exceeding expectations is like getting up from bed - just business-as-usual.

Dasavatharam and Dasavatharam: An analogy

2008-06-22T22:16:00.005-04:00

Below is a very meticulously thought out analogy between Kamal's Dasavatharam and Lord Vishnu's Dasavatharam formulated by my friend Yagna. Very well done indeed.

The 10 avatars described in movie Dasavatharam

1 Krishna avatar - Vincent Poovaraghavan Lord krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced.. he appears when asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of vincent's men are drugged at P. Vasu's.. sounds familiar???

2 Balarama avatar - Balarama naidu This is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it.

3 Mathsya avatar - Rangaraja nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown into sea, though vainly. what more clue do you want?

4 Varaha avatar - Krishnaveni paatti During the mukunda song, krishnaveni paatti does varaha avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second. there is the clue. Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs - life form inside the statue so as to protect.

5 Vamana avatar - Kalifulla khan remember in vamana avatar, lord vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla here symbolises vamana avatar.

6 Parasurama avatar - Christian Fletcher Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER… Guess what thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for ax] and kills everyone around. I have to check out if he really kills 21 people though.

7 Narasimha avatar - Shingen Narahashi first of all the name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher.. Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.. get it?

8 Rama avatar - Avatar Singh Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.

9 Kalki avatar - Govindaraj Ramasamy As you know, the hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!

10 Koorma avatar - George Bush This is the most loose adaptation I couldn't clearly comprehend. But if you look at the real koorma avatar, the lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth. This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom…
May be Kamal also indicates that.

Dasavatharam: Movie Review - When more is better

2008-06-19T10:12:00.024-04:00

Awesome! That was my reaction when the movie ended amidst sounds of "Ulaga Nayagane" and snippets of the make-up magic that went behind the scenes to develop this magnum opus. Finally a Tamil movie that connects chaos theory/intelligent design with bio-warfare, sand-poaching, Tsunami and god. Tough job, but in the end the screenplay and direction ensure that the movie comes out trumps!

I am a great fan of Kamalhassan and I am also his greatest critic when he ruins some of his best movie concepts with his over enthusiastic ego (e.g., Anbe Sivam). But I must say that I was blown out of my mind with Dasavatharam.

The movie starts off in the 12th century, highlighting the conflict between saivites and vaishnavites under the rule of Kulothunga Cholan and it caught me by surprise that religious persecution had reached such heights during the perceived golden rule of the Cholas, perhaps a gentle reminder that history is written by the victor and not the vanquished. The first 20 minutes take the audience to dizzying heights of grandiose and kick start the story, albeit with aroused curiosity and confusion in the minds of the audience.

The movie then moves to the state-of-the-art biological sciences labs in the US where a virus and its side effects are graphically demonstrated. Needless to say, the virus falls into the hand of the bad-boys and what follows next is a classic chase story that takes the viewer from the streets of Washington DC to the agraharams of Chidambaram, touching Japan on its way and finally culminating in the beaches of Chennai with the Tsunami of 2004.

Along the way we encounter a multitude of Kamals (10, to state the obvious), some of which are exceptionally portrayed and will linger in our memories for eternity. The one who casts a lasting impression on us is Indian RAW agent Balram Naidu who is outright brilliant with his Telugu accented Tamil and comic timing and is on par with the Palakkad brahmin from Michael Madana Kama Rajan. Next is Chris Fletcher , a former CIA agent who chases Govind, the scientist Kamal who is trying to chase down the virus. Fletcher's accent and body language blows you away and he reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Terminator movies with his shades, jacket, Harley and robot-like assassin mannerisms. Poovaragan, as a social activist stands out with his Nellai Tamil and exemplary body language, while the Japanese kung fu exponent comes close in this avatar race with terrific make-up. Kamal as President Bush is funny and authetic with his accent and IQ level I won't be surprised if Kamal has spawned a million Bushisms in India. My favorite dialogue is when Bush is briefed by his scientific aide on the effects of the virus and Bush says - "Don't explain if it is complicated!". The rest, apart from an aptly named Sardar, Avtaar singh, fail to make an impression but the movie compensates for it with crisp dialogues that are funny and intelligent and amazing action sequences that are on par with Asian/Hollywood movies.

Himesh Reshammiya's songs are good (especially since I listened to them after I saw the movie) and are expertly placed in the screenplay to carry the story forward. Kallai mattum and Mukunda stand out while O Sanam fits in well with the screenplay. Asin as the brahmin girl is effective, albeit irritating at times. Overall, credit must go to K.S. Ravikumar and Kamal for spinning a yarn that connects historical events, interspersing them with enjoyable scenes, songs, dialogues and stunts and for keeping the pace up, with distractions like Mallika Sherawat kept to the minimum. Watching the movie with my PhD-in-Biological-Sciences wife only confirmed that the research in the movie was fool-proof. (Spoiler Alert! - it was indeed a master-stroke to let the Tsunami produce the salt required to neutralize the virus).

There is a strong under-current of philosophy with the classic atheism vs. theism conflict reminiscent of Anbe Sivam, but Kamal does a good job of leaving it to the viewer to make up his mind by presenting two characters on either side of the fence. He also leaves the religious persecution bit to interpretation:

1. Man disposes against the will of nature, and nature restores equilibrium

2. Religious persecution existed in the 12th century (not to mention the crusades and the holocaust) and continues to haunt us today in the form of jihad, hindutva and the pseudo war on terror

Verdict: 8/10 overall - While the film deserves perfect Das (10) for make-up, dialogues, stunts and effort, some of the avatharams could have been better thought out. Truly international film from a truly international actor.

BMW Gina - the future car

2008-06-15T10:21:00.001-04:00

This was on Wired, and it's already been made popular on Digg, but it's amazing so I am blogging about it.

BMW's new concept car, the GINA Light Visionary Model, has a body made from futuristic fabric, rather than metal. We don't know what happens in the event of a crash or a fire, but we do know that it looks totally revolutionary. And at one point in the video, the car seems to be alive.

You might also take a look at this piece on MIT architecture lecturer Sheila Kennedy, who's creating designs for flexible photovoltaic materials, which could lead to the construction of soft, solar-powered houses.

Apple unveils the new 3G iPhone: "twice as fast at half the price"

2008-06-09T18:32:00.001-04:00

The wait is finally over. For all us Apple fans, who have been waiting for a cheaper yet faster version of the iPhone that is 3G compatible, the word is finally out.

Apple(R) today introduced the new iPhone 3G, combining all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built
with the recently released iPhone SDK. In the US the new iPhone 3G is priced at a stunning $199 for the 8GB model, and just $299 for the 16GB model.

iPhone 3G will also be available in more than 70 countries on July 11. Having waiting for 2 months since my contract expired so that I can lay my hands on this coveted piece of gadgetry, I am just thrilled.

"Just one year after launching the iPhone, we're launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "iPhone 3G supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync right out of the box, runs the incredible third party apps created with the iPhone SDK, and will be available in more than 70 countries around the world this year."

iPhone 3G gives users ever faster access to the Internet and email over their cellular network with quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA for voice and data connectivity around the world. iPhone 3G supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE networks and automatically switches between them to ensure the fastest possible download speeds.

Amazon Kindle: The future of book reading

2008-06-09T01:14:00.006-04:00

With everything going "e" and "m", it was only a matter of time before the Gutenbergian document migrated to the electronic world. The recently released Amazon Kindle is one of many devices (Sony Reader is another one) that are trying to iPodify the ancient habit of book reading and from the reviews in CNET it looks like it does succeed.

But as with music, it is again, only a matter of time before it gets bundled with cell phones just like the iPod got bundled with the iPhone.

At launch the Kindle was priced at $399 but as of May 27, 2008 it now retails for $359.

Obama vs. Clinton

2008-06-08T23:28:00.002-04:00

Hillary Clinton's quest to secure the presidential nomination has been an historic one. Despite a flawed campaign strategy, an inadequate (though massive) amount of funding, and some arguably sexist treatment from the media, she pressed on. On June 3, the night that Senator Barack Obama secured the nomination, she spoke to her supporters.

Her supporters exhibit some remarkable conviction. If she isn't on the ballot this November, will they really abstain from voting? Will they vote against the Democratic party on principle? We'll find out in five months.

Gas Price: $8/gallon

2008-06-01T20:27:00.002-04:00

Chris Pummer of MarketWatch offers eight reasons why paying $8 for gasoline would actually do us a world of good. Seriously.

To program or kill is the question

2008-05-27T18:51:00.003-04:00

Came across this interesting quiz that highlights the thin line that separates the "most wanted geeks" from the "most wanted".

Happy Memorial Day

2008-05-26T06:34:00.000-04:00

Nice and poignant image that captures the essence of war.

Guns 'N Roses

2008-05-23T06:17:00.000-04:00

Max Motors, a car dealership in Butler, Missouri, is offering a free handgun with every car purchase. The more disturbing fact is that sales have quadrupled thanks to the promotion. Owner Mark Muller "recommends a Kel-Tec .380 pistol, which he describes as 'a nice little handgun that fits in your pocket'."

Muller explains: "We did it because of Barack Obama. He said all those people in the Midwest, you've got to have compassion for them because they're clinging to their guns and their Bibles. I found that quite offensive. We all go to church on Sunday and we all carry guns."

Now that's one innovative way to increase the crime rate and the school shootings in this country.

Performance Enhancement in Sports (and Life)

2008-05-10T17:25:00.002-04:00

Progress is the essence of life. Improvement is the key to progress. Motivation is the driving force behind improvement. But what motivates people? Success? Power? Money? All of the above? None of the above?

Regardless, (I almost typed irregardless) people are always looking for improvement and enhancement - a way to age gracefully, perform better and longer, and, vanquish that all time undefeated opponent known as aging. We do that by Botoxing our wrinkles, lifting our faces, reconstructing our noses, tucking our tummies, augmenting our breasts and taking a little pill, whose name rhymes with the the most famous waterfall in the world, to make sure we're ready when, you know, the right time presents itself.

Yet, when athletes take performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), they are vilified. Many a great athlete has fallen from the pedestal of greatness to the doldrums of darkness with a single confessional press conference or a single report that revealed it all. Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Martina Hingis, Diego Maradona, Ben Johnson, Shoaib Akhtar - the list is as long as the Nile. Even average-Joes like myself take protein and vitamin supplements to maintain a balanced diet and control an ever expanding belly. The culture of personal physical enhancement has pushed the use of steroids and PEDs everywhere -- from Hollywood to the music industry to your next-door neighbor who wants to fight nature.Then, why the preferential scrutiny of athletes?

Athletic achievement is made to be measured and is available for instant analysis when performances improve, even incrementally. Athletes stand on pedestals, and pedestals are made to be toppled. A kind of moral ceiling hangs over sports, as degraded as that ceiling might've become in the 3,000 years since a bunch of Greeks began throwing javelins and racing chariots. Play by the rules. Play fair. Level playing field.

But what's happened is that many athletes have given performance enhancement a different meaning and a few of them have come, or have been forced out, of the closet to the extent that it is increasingly difficult to differentiate between excellent natural athleticism and drugs induced enhancement. Are the superstars of world sport truly great ones, or is it merely a matter of time before they fall from grace.

The truth is, sports do not define the culture -- they reflect it. Society's image of the ideal body is shaped largely by forces outside the chalked lines. And the belief that life can be improved, even extended, by drugs comes not from sports but from the burgeoning field known as medicine.

Sports bodies will soon have to decide whether to open the gates to PEDs and create a level playing field or continue to sweep things under the rug and play by the current rules. Either way, improvement and progress will continue to drive performance and life - natural or not.

Virtually Reality

2008-03-21T21:21:00.009-04:00

One of the buzz terms in the 80's was "virtual reality", where a user interacted with computer simulated environments to experience the surreal, an experience so immaculately developed that it was infinitesimally close to reality. People could land on Mars and Mercury, scale Mt. Everest on the treadmill, save the world from aliens and even rescue beautiful princesses from tyrants and marry them! (Yes, I am talking about Prince of Persia). The .com boom in the 90's saw the emergence of Amazon and eBay that opened up virtual malls and window shopping was soon replaced by browsing on deals2buy.com or xpbargains.com. The last 5 years the web has seen yet another development that could have a much more seminal impact than any of the phenomenons discussed above - "virtual communities". MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Orkut and the like, have changed the way people interact with each other, something that was not tampered with since the big bang theory (or the days of Adam and Eve, depending on your perspective).

Virtual Communities are slowly becoming the primary way people interact with each other, be it chat rooms in Yahoo, IMs in Google or scraps in Orkut . Members of these communities create Avatars (yet another Sanskrit word sneaking into the English lexicon after Yoga and Karma), which are essentially virtual clones of the users, and interact with other avatars. Blogs are in the process of replacing newspapers as the dominant source of information exchange, so much so that newspaper sites share the same technology as blogs and news reporters are increasingly indistinguishable from bloggers. Even job search and career changes are done through professional networks via LinkedIn or Doostang. Wikipedia has become the go-to site for information on anything, from Paris Hilton to the Hilton in Paris, replacing the big fat volumes that used to adorn our bookshelves.

So, what is news? What is opinion? How do we filter the facts from the subjective analyses? Who are our friends - the profiles and avatars that exist in Orkut and MySpace or the homosapiens that reside in realms of reality. What happened to god old fashioned meet-and-greet or phone-chats. In short, what is real? What is virtual? Have we tampered so much with 0's and 1's that all there exists is virtual reality?

Money for nothing and checks for free!

2008-02-27T01:50:00.017-05:00

"Money for nothing and chicks for free" - crooned Mark Knopfler in 1985, to express his views on the music industry. With a single syllable change, it applies to the Indian Premier League (IPL), the newly conceived 20/20 cricket league set up in a franchise structure like the soccer leagues in Europe or the sports leagues in the US.

While the IPL might turn out to be the most defining development to happen to cricket since the Packer saga in 1978, and might take the salaries of players to be on par with those of soccer stars and NFL superstars, yet, when players like Manoj Tiwary, whom I saw in a recent game in Australia and wondered how he even got selected, and Ishant sharma, who despite being the star of the Australian tour was a virtual unknown a couple of months ago, fetched $675,000 and almost $1 MM respectively, the deal seems to have more holes than a sieve.

True that when business tycoons like Vijay Mallya, Ness Wadia, and Mukesh Ambani are rubbing wallets with Bollywoood stars like Preity Zinta and Shah Rukh Khan, there are bound to be excesses. After all, isn't this the marriage between the two biggest passions of a billion Indians - Cricket and Bollywood?.

Let's take a look behind all the glitter and analyze if there is gold.

First and foremost factor in the success of a venture is the product, in this case 20/20 cricket. There is no doubt that it is exciting and probably the best suited version to really bring people to the stadiums and have fun after a hard day's work. But beyond an exciting and serendipitously successful World Cup, there isn't a proof that the version is worth the millions of $$ in bets that are being placed - huge risk with uncertain return - an investment that would make me look like Ford betting on the Edsel.

Secondly, the HR, in this case cricketers, are an impressive lot - established players and upcoming ones with its share of have-beens; overall some of the best players in the World are on display.

Thirdly, the cost of hiring these cricketers - a mind boggling $633 MM - is where the logic behind all this looks as thin as soup in a college mess. Given that the people and the companies involved in the league are some of the biggest in the country and are proven winners this is definitely not a joke. One look at the salaries and more importantly the $$/hour, which is astronomical, it reveals the lack of common sense. E.g., M.S. Dhoni is expected to earn $1500/hour, which according to The Economic Times was higher than what Mukesh Ambani, ironically one of the team owners, earns. Then there are other operating costs that need to be taken into account like those of marketing, support staff, travel etc., that will ultimately make the figure fatter than the priest at my wedding.

I am a great believer in creating a market before creating a product and more importantly earning a few cents before betting millions. The IPL fails on both counts.

Hopefully the IPL will not suffer the same fate as that of the Indian stock market in April 1992, when blinded bullishness brought about the fall of many a millionaire, and Lalit Modi, the brain behind the IPL, will do better than Harshad Mehta.

Get Paid to get Interviewed - NotchUp!

2008-02-03T10:10:00.000-05:00

I got an invitation from a friend of mine last week to join yet another exclusive, membership-by-invite-only, networking site called NotchUp. Having been an active member of LinkedIn, a successful and widely accepted business networking site, for the past 3 years I can vouch that it is very impressive when it comes to professional networking, job postings, referrals and forum discussions and I found it to be very useful when I was looking to change jobs last year. I have since gotten invites for similar sites like Doostang, Plaxo etc, but I am of the firm belief that when it comes to email addresses, credit cards, networking sites and girlfriends (or wives!), two is one too many to maintain!

NotchUp has a slightly unique selling point in that it is trying to replace pricey headhunters by actually paying people hundreds of dollars to interview. They are in a lot of ways the eBay of business networking, which seems to be the way entrepreneurs are going these days - adapt the successful eBay business model to various industries. Start-ups like Prosper are good examples of using an eBay-style P2P auction platform in financial credit services, rather successfully so far.

NotchUp is free to join, and you can even estimate how much you should ask for an interview with their calculator. For the type of professionals that they are targeting, I would actually say the price is about right. Since they seem to be different than the run of the mill networking site, I decided to sign up just to see how the model works.

From this article at NetworkWorld:

You say you wouldn’t interview with Company X if they paid you?

A startup called NotchUp is betting that’s a bluff.

Debuting this morning at Network World’s DEMO 08 in Palm Desert, Calif., NotchUp founders Jim Ambras and Rob Ellis tell me that 15,000 people a day are signing up for their new eBay-like employment service - based solely on word of mouth. The founders are convinced employers will pay hundreds of dollars directly to people they would like to interview — especially those not actively in the job market — because it will bring them better candidates faster.

So how does it work?

To get started, simply register, create a profile (which is similar to an online resume), and set an interview price. Your interview price is the price at which you’ll talk to prospective employers. Once you’ve created your profile, companies will search it and make you paid offers to interview if you have the skills and experience they’re looking for. Accept the offers you’re interested in, go to the interviews, and we’ll collect the money and transfer it to you.

Personally I feel, It’d be cool if this company merged with LinkedIn since this is complementary to what LinkedIn offers and it would definitely reduce the number of site memberships I have to maintain.

Hollywood's Dollies

2008-02-02T07:49:00.000-05:00

The popular perception is that that Bollywood/Kollywood (I am just going to call it Indiewood to refer to our neck of the woods) is the only place where the same actor donned multiple roles, sometimes as flimsy as playing brothers (with and without mustache) or playing father and son (ala all Sarath Kumar movies). Though multiple roles in Hollywood may not be as regular as in Indiewood, Hollywood is definitely not immune to it.

Peter Sellers' 3 roles in Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (one of my all-time favorite movies), Mike Myers' 4 in Austin Powers movies and Eddie Murphy's uncountable roles in Nutty Professor spring to mind immediately. I was curious to find out if Hollywood was more prone to "cloning" than what meets the eye and below is a complete list that resulted out of a little digging. If not anything, it is worth a nice bite of trivia or an ice-breaker for that SuperBowl party this weekend.

Rolf Leslie - 27 parts in the life story of Queen Victoria, Sixty Years a Queen (1913).
Lupino Lane - 24 parts in Only Me (1929).
Joseph Henabery - 14 characters in the Birth of a Nation (1915).
Robert Hirsch - 12 roles in No Questions on Saturday (1964).
Michael Ripper - 9 parts in What a Crazy World (1963).
Sir Alec Guinness - 8 roles in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).
Eddie Murphy - 8 characters in Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) and 7 characters in The Nutty Professor (1996).
Jerry Lewis - 7 characters in The Family Jewels (1965).
Peter Sellers - 6 roles in Let's Go Crazy (1951), 6 roles in Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974) and 3 roles in Dr. Strangelove (1964) and more.
Scott Mosier 5 roles in Clerks
Vincent Perrera 5 roles in Clerks
Mike Myers - 4 roles in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).
Terry Thomas - 3 parts in Arabella (1969).
Red Skelton - 3 characters in Watch the Birdy (1930).
Meg Ryan - 3 roles in "Joe Versus the Volcano" (1990)

It is noteworthy that Kamal Hassan's perfect 10 in Dasavatharam or Sivaji Ganesan's near-perfect 9 in Navarathri, though not at the top of the list are definitely in the top 5.

Super - Size it!

2008-01-29T21:40:00.000-05:00

Downgrades are not good. It is true for all things including bonuses, stock values and airline seats and the only ones that have made me happy, until last week at least, are tax cuts. But when I fit snugly into "medium" sized sweaters for the first time in my life (after I became large, that is) it was one those "Aha!" moments, that I could have captured and framed for eternity in my living room; more so, since I have achieved this by running 100 miles per month (5 miles/day) for the last 3 months and not by liposuction as I had originally intended to do so!

I have always felt that the clothing companies should do to apparel, what Starbucks has done to coffee cups. The official Starbucks sizing scheme mixes pretentious use of Italian, and lies. The correlation goes roughly like this:

"Tall", which in the context of a drink seems synonymous with "large",
"Grande", which of course is Italian for "big", and
"Venti", which means "twenty," the number of ounces.

They all mean - "a large cup of coffee".

Small, medium and large, in the context of clothes, on the other hand, are synonymous with "undernourished for an adult", "on the verge of obesity" and "obese", respectively. Other superlative extrapolations on either side, paradoxically, are not so superlative and only make things worse. In other words, no size is good.

One of my most embarrassing moments while shopping has always been when the girl at the showroom asks "What size are you, Sir?" and I reply "I am Large". Now, that just doesn't sound right. Also, why should a CSR be privy to the facts only my wife and doc know - that I am lazy, have lived in Wisconsin, and have a BMI of over 30?

So, here are my suggestions for clothes sizes:

"Zippy", which means active or energetic
"Zappy", which also means active or energetic, and
"Zesty"; well, they all mean the same.

Now that's what I call super-sizing, a pretentious mix of English, and lies. More importantly, it makes anyone associated with these adjectives feel like they are on top of the world! Thats more than a good reason to go on a shopping spree.

Rajnikanth - Entertainer of the year 2007

2008-01-21T12:38:00.000-05:00

"I am back", ala Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator II. It is finally nice to get back to blogging after a busy holiday season, travel, work, GMAT etc.

Came across this piece of news about Rajinikanth winning the NDTV Entertainer of the Year 2007 award from Dr. Manmohan Singh. Terrific speech in typical Rajni style, spiced up with questions from Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar. I loved his answer when cryptically asked "Is there anything Rajni kant do?"; he had the humor to respond with silence, which only he could have gotten away with it. Excellent viewing.

More importantly, it is the first time that a national level populist award (I am discounting National Awards since it is more to do with politics than anything else), usually the birthright of Bollywood, has been given to Kollywood. Nice trend indeed.

Catch Him If You Can

2007-12-17T19:42:00.000-05:00

I was at training today learning about credit card fraud and the highlight of an otherwise dull day was a video speech by Frank Abagnale Jr., the master forger turned fraud-fighter on whom Steven Spielberg based his movie Catch Me If You Can, that he had delivered at Discover (the company I work for). I found a speech on You-Tube which is almost the same as the one I saw and I thought I will share it with you (looks like he is also a master forger of his speeches). It is long but it is very interesting and humorous, especially when he talks about some of his early experiences.

An interesting point of debate is whether he would have been as successful in today's hi-tech and secure financial world, with all the fraud prevention guardrails, as he was in the 50's and 60's. My initial verdict is No since his success could be attributed as much to the "trust-all" mentality of the public that prevailed at that time as his own creativity. But a counter-argument could also be , given the fact that Identity Theft and other fraud activities that are still very prevalent, he may have broken the technological barriers and remained successful, albeit for a shorter period.

Nevertheless, it makes one heck of a story!

Russell Peters - Outsourced

2007-12-03T23:03:00.000-05:00

Came across this stand up piece from Russell Peters - comedian of Indian origin - which is a very rare breed indeed.

It is from his act called Outsourced. Some of his material is hilarious, especially his "brown" jokes. The bit about the Chinese super-hero is my favorite.

Phenomenon from Pannaipuram and the Lost Violinist

2007-11-28T22:48:00.000-05:00

My recent pseudo-single life has made me turn back to my favorite recourse in times of solitude - music. As I gouged through my huge collection for songs that I had less listened to in the past couple of years, I stumbled upon the theme song from Raja Paarvai, and it had that familiar effect that vintage Illayaraja always has on me - a feeling of high without a stimulant, banned ones at least. His compositions have this magical element that makes you forget everything but the dulcet tune and this one is no exception. In this era of techno thuds and the hodgepodge that is euphemistically referred to as remix, it was refreshing to listen to creative music at its zenith, albeit from 1981. It is sad that such originality, apart from an infrequently inspired Rahman, is too rare to find these days.

The piece is a gem as far as fusion goes, starting off as a carnatic duet comprising of violin and veena (ragam: pantuvaraali - Google can make even me look like a virtuoso) leading to a pulsating violin solo and then meandering into western classical (with drums) before culminating into a fusion crescendo that leaves you suddenly waking up from a trance. It has to be said that the ending crescendo is just as hair-raising as the beginning one in Poongathave from Nizhalgal. The format of the composition is very similar to the ones from How to name it?, particularly Mad Mod Mood Fugue. That being said, it is the violin, played by V.S. Narasimhan of the Madras String Quartet (who had played the instrument in How to Name It? as well), that elevates the piece to dizzying heights.

One of my greatest peeves with Illayaraja has been the recognition (or the lack thereof) that the performers in his orchestra have received. Musicians like VSN and Sivamani had played for him for years but it wasn't until Rahman changed this trend in the 90's that some, like Sivamani, got their deserved due.

Though I am well diversified when it comes to music (Rock to Rahman, Rap to Raaja, Bach to Burman - anything goes), if there was one music that I am allowed to carry with me to my grave it will have to be Illayaraja's compositions from the stone age - Raja Paarvai, Payanangal Mudivadhillai, Nizhalgal, Sindhu Bhairavi, Mouna Ragam, Johny and the likes.

P.S: Listen to this piece by VSN and the Madras String Quartet - absolutely transcendental!

Right to Click

2007-11-13T19:38:00.000-05:00

Rock star Mick Jagger once signed his autograph with an expletive, aggrieved that one day the recipient might make a profit from auctioning it without paying him a royalty. Years later he concluded that it was only fair if others made money from his name; after all, he had made millions out of it himself.

Maybe cricket administrators need to think the same way.

The latest move by the Australian Cricket Board to demand a fee from news agencies to cover the games and publish photographs is a classic case of "if-you-make-money-because-of-me-I-need-a-share". While a commission based system might work for TV broadcasting rights, it will not do so for news media. An analogy would be the NYSE charging the Wall Street Journal for publishing stock quotes or market updates. Royalty in the media is most definitely a No.

While such mercenary ideas usually originate from the BCCI and its bean-counting coterie, the Aussies have proven that they are not far behind in this regard. Unfortunately, while every such move by the BCCI has been widely criticized by the cricket pundits, the current crisis in Australia has hardly evoked a response from the pen-wielding experts, especially since it concerns the media. Surprising yet understandable, since all things Aussie are usually revered in Cricket.

Marketing is the key to any event and sport is no exception. By alienating the media the game might be deprived of its primary vehicle to reach to the masses. Sport and media share a symbiotic relationship where one cannot survive without the other and the administrators must realize that they are already the recipient of free marketing through newspaper coverage and the media is paying them through increased ticket sales. Hence charging them for coverage is definitely double-dipping.

Also, if newspapers start paying for the sporting event that they are covering they might want to play a role in influencing its outcome too, much like in Irving Wallace's The Almighty. After all they will then have become investing stakeholders and might rightfully want games to end the way that their returns are maximized. This will be a clear throwback to the doldrums that the game found itself in with the match-fixing allegations in the late 90s.

Sports and its organizations need to make money but they might be better off doing so with better quality of games and increased market share rather than resort to such ludicrousness. On the lighter side, they could at least be creative and subtle about their motives, like Shaq, who once said - "I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi and wear Reebok"

Azhagiya Tamizh Magan - music review

2007-11-06T21:50:00.000-05:00

Arrite, I am trying my hand at music review now. Why not? Isn't being a critic easier than receiving criticism.

Reviewing a Rahman album is a difficult thing to do because you don't want to make the mistake of doing it too soon. It is a well known fact that his music grows on you; 20-30 hearings is about an optimal period to start thinking about dissecting the notes. Having gone past that threshold, let us see how the Mozart from Madras fares with his latest offering, keeping in mind that it is for a mass hero.

Lets start with Ella pugazhum. You can't miss the striking resemblance to 6.5 kodi pergalin oruvan from A Aa; Rahman's vocals only strengthens the feeling of deja vu. Needless to say, it is Vijay's intro song. Nothing much to write about the lyrics - as usual glorifying the protagonist and advising the youth (as if they haven't heard it before). Nothing creative.

Kelamal Kaiyilae: This song is full of techno beats and resembles those songs that usually feature in side B as a remix of the most popular song of the album (For e.g., Chaiyya Chaiyya - Thaiyya Thaiiya from Dil se); only this time this is all you get. That being said, it is a very nice melody with soft beats in the background. If you choose to ignore the strong resemblance to "Then merku paravu katru" especially in the second interlude, it is a very nice song. Sung by Sriram Parthasarathy and Saindhavi - two new singers.

Maduraikku Pogathadi: This is currently my favorite. Classic folk beat that we have heard a million times, it is Rahman's throwback to his Kilakku Cheemayilae days. Sung by Benny Dayal, Archith, and Dharshana, it is a very peppy number that keeps you excited throughout the time and tempts you to shake a leg or two despite a touch of doli saja ke rakhna a.k.a. Jodi.

Nee Marilyn Monroe sung by Benny Dayal and Ujjayinee is a romantic song along the lines of shaka laka baby or hey hey enna achu unakku that seems to be growing on me. This song has a very fresh and catchy start, especially the "boom shaka lak" piece. The beat, techno sounds and the metallic guitar are very mellowed giving the vocals deserved prominence and the effect is mind blowing. Soft and peppy, this song is like vanilla ice cream over hot fudge brownies. Forget the calories and enjoy it!

Ponmagal Vandaal The song starts out with a strong statement - slow strong beats and Aslam's retro vocals transitioning to rap. The mixing is absolutely spot on. One of the best remixes that falls slightly short of Thee pidikka from Arindhum Ariyamalum (the best Tamil remix I have heard so far)

Valayapatti: Clear resemblance to Avalukku enna ambasamudram iyer hotel from Jillunnu oru kadhal, be it the thavil or the pitch of the male voice. Where the song stands out is the interludes where it transitions into serious Hindustani and Carnatic, a sort of ragamalika. The singers Naresh Iyer, Ujjayinee and Madhumitha have done a good job at a fast paced classical song. Lovable.

Overall, Rahman has tried to be creative within the realms of satisfying the masses. Personally, I think he achieved the perfect mix with Sivaji, but falls short of those high levels this time. While the songs, will definitely become chart busters, but for a couple of songs, it will be hard to listen to them beyond the initial freshness - definitely not a Pudhiya Mugam or Bombay. With plenty of resemblances to older Rahman tunes, I will have to say Azhagiya Tamizh Magan has too many twins to stand out in a crowd of Rahman classics.

GPA: 3/5

P.S: To download/listen to these songs go here.

Cricket Bloopers

2007-11-05T22:31:00.000-05:00

Here are some cricket bloopers that are hilarious. Ian Botham's short wide long-off is the best cricketing one, David Lloyd's "I will have two of those" is nice pun. Enjoy.

How to name it?

2007-11-05T20:13:00.000-05:00

Naming cricketing trophies after two greats from the respective countries has become a fad over the last few years. Australia plays India for the Border-Gavaskar trophy and their trans-Tasman rivals for the Chappell-Hadlee trophy (Don't ask me which Chappell and Hadlee, as I can remember at least 3 of each kind donning their national colors). Sri Lanka and Australia recently realized that they didn't know what they were playing for and decided to name their trophy after their two most popular (controversial?) cricketers. A little northwest of there, bitter rivals battle it out for an anonymous trophy, while one of them faces an emergency in their country. Some battles are definitely more interesting and important than a constitutional emergency. (Will the cricketers end up spending a month in the Mumbai Airport a la Tom Hanks in The Terminal?).

Isn't it high time that the rivalry that arouses the most extreme of emotions in the game got a name for its battles. Even the most one sided of them all has one. Yeah, I meant The Ashes.

Let's think through the various combinations of names that could rightfully adorn a trophy of this stature.

1. Imran - Kapil: two of the greatest all rounders ever and world cup winning captains.
2. Qadir - Kumble: two great tweakers, one who kept the art alive amidst towering fast bowlers in the 80s and the other who took all 10 pins down in a bowl.
3. I could be tongue in cheek and call it Manmohan - Musharraf trophy; after all what is cricket in these countries without politics. But then you will have to rechristen it every now and then to reflect the volatility of the governments.
4. Talking of politics, a political way of settling it could be calling it the Kashmir trophy - didn't Imran Khan once openly suggest that the Kashmir issue should be settled over a game of cricket, knowing fully well that for the best past of the 80's and 90's Pakistan had a much superior team.
5. A dark horse could be Khushwant Singh- Zia ul Haq for their contribution to numerous "sardarji" jokes in their respective countries.

I could think of numerous such pairs, for cricketing or humorous reasons, but if there was one moment that turned India-Pakistan cricket by its head- it wasn't Kumble's perfect 10, wasn't Imran or Kapil's exploits with the red cherry, wasn't Sachin's towering six over point off Shoaib Akhtar or the latter's twin strikes at Kolkatta - it has to be Miandad's last ball six off ChetanSharma at Sharjah . That moment marked the dominance of Pakistan in Indo-Pak encounters for nearly a decade and a half until India became more competent - India just couldn't recover from that momentary lapse of reason. More importantly, the two sides graduated from playing out dull draws to dishing out edge of the seat nail biters - a trend that has continued on till the recent 20/20 WC final. For the sheer impact of the moment on the rest of the games between the countries, the trophy should be named the Chetan - Miandad trophy.

Nevertheless, I am pretty sure that at least in the near future, the trophy will continue to be named after Pepsi or Samsung or whoever the sponsor is since neither board cares beyond what the sponsors bring to the game - money.

Government sponsored Genocide in Gujarat - says Tehelka

2007-10-25T20:41:00.000-04:00

Tarun Tejpal and his pack are at it again. Tehelka has implicated the Gujarat government in the 2002 communal riots, publishing gory first hand details of the massacre that is very disturbing. Their claims could have an impact on the higher echelons of the government including the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi.

The veracity of the claims and whether the implicated get punished is a different question altogether.

Profit and Philosophy

2007-10-25T19:18:00.000-04:00

I was compelled to name this post as I did since I thought it will be an appropriate follow up to my earlier one on profit and philanthropy - after all they are phonetically very similar and on a lighter note, when I was young and ignorant I thought philosophy and philanthropy were one and the same, neither of which I really understood.

I recently re-read Sun Tzu's The Art of War, a book I had read in grad school but never really appreciated its relevance then since I had neither worked in a corporate setting nor fought a war, and it triggered me to find out more about the impact of philosophy on modern business. After all, The Art of War, though originally a military treatise, has been revered and has found more relevance in the business world (sports & politics to some extent) than war in recent times. It is broadly read within the business world as the basic primer for competitive strategy and is widely regarded as the oldest and most definitive text on the topic.

Zen, which has been embraced by business leaders as a "way of life", probably comes a close second to the Art of War. Zen's emphasis on daily practice, teamwork and self improvement is a perfect recipe for success in the corporate world and leadership seminars often propose Zen concepts like the Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths, the five precepts, the five aggregates, and the three marks of existence as a means to solving to day today business problems.

Though Stephen Covey and Deepak Chopra's works are popular amongst business leaders, my personal thought is that their concepts are nothing more than simplified versions of ancient Chinese or Indian philosophies - nothing original. (Refer to this article for an illustration of my argument)

As I read more about the influence of ancient Chinese doctrines on business, I began to wonder if the business leaders and personality development gurus were oblivious to what the Indian counterparts of Sun Tzu had to say on this matter. After all, Lord Krishna's counsel to Arjuna was not too dissimilar to Sun Tzu's and it is not a small matter of coincidence that both the Bhagwad Gita and the Art of War are set in the backdrop of war! Just as in other spheres of business like manufacturing, outsourcing and technology, in philosophical influence too, if China is the first stop, India is the next, as this article from Business Week indicates.

While India has had a big impact on global economy in the last 15 years or so, its biggest impact yet might just be around the corner and the day saffron-clad swamis ring the opening bell at Nasdaq may not be far away!

An Eye for an Eye and Lunchtime Logistics

2007-10-21T11:49:00.000-04:00

In my ongoing tryst with innovation, I was fascinated by the companies that are repeatedly cited for being innovative, especially in the last 25 years - Apple, Toyota, 3M, Intel, IKEA, Disney, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Sony and Dell, to name a few from core industries and of course, Google, Amazon, EBay, MySpace (NewsCorp) and UTube from the times post-Internet invasion.

While the stories of these American/European companies have been well documented and their innovations well imitated by their competitors to become BAU, I was wondering if any Indian companies could be part of this elite group.

Though companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS and myriad other start-ups are the first ones to cross my mind, I wonder if their success was just a natural by-product of pre-existing economic conditions and HR abundance in India that resulted in cost-effective product/services development rather than through truly innovative products like those developed by some of the companies that are mentioned above. Since that would be a debate that I would like to take up on a different day, I have decided to focus on non-tech companies in India that have developed truly path-breaking products/services/operations.

The two organizations that I chose to be the most innovative - one from health care and the other from an industry it created out of its product - have both developed their systems out of the economic and cultural scenario in India, rather than use it as an excuse for stymied growth.

Aravind Eye Care System in Madurai, India: Founded in 1976, by the charismatic Govindappa Venkataswamy, M.D (or Dr. V as he was fondly addressed), grew out of the need for an eye care system that would be appropriate to and supported by the economic conditions in India. Dr. V's vision of providing quality cataract care to the masses of his country resulted in his brainchild that has evolved into a world leader in eye care, ophthalmic education, and the development of appropriate technology for cost-effective surgery. Its model has proven to be one of the most effective programs for addressing the enormous backlog of blindness in India. Designed to be self-sustaining while providing high-quality care to an underserved population, the fledgling hospital relied on fees paid by about 30% of patients to subsidize free care for the remainder, plus a formula based on low costs and high volume. The success of the system is also due to the non-regulatory nature of health care in India and the limited legal intrusion into health care as evident in countries like the US. The system has been widely acknowledged by many management gurus as one of the truly innovative services, none more so than C.K Prahalad in his book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

Dabbawallas of Mumbai: This is innovative services at its best. Born out of the cultural preference of home cooked food over cafeteria cuisine, the dabbawalla system overcame the logistic hurdles posed by a growing Mumbai in the 70s, and is widely recognized as one of the most innovative logistics systems by management gurus.

So what makes the dabbawallas so unique? And how do they work? I stumbled upon this Deck that explains the organization, their system and even their P&L.

As India continues to churn out innovations in IT, these two organizations have stealthily set the bar so high for services and operations innovation that it will be tough to reach, let alone beat. But hold your thought there; after all Wal-Mart is coming to India, and that can only be the beginning of a new era of innovation in India that could break new ground.

Fictitious Facts about Rajnikanth

2007-10-20T13:11:00.001-04:00

This was forwarded to me by an American friend who read my post on Sivaji and Rajnikanth. Thought I will share it with you. It is hilarious. Enjoy.

Top Rajnikant Facts known to man:

There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Rajnikant has allowed to live
Outer space exists because it’s afraid to be on the same planet with Rajnikant
Rajnikant counted to infinity – twice
When Rajnikant does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down
Rajnikant is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head
Rajnikant’s hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush in Poker
Rajnikant doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is
Rajnikant gave Mona Lisa that smile
Rajnikant can slam a revolving door
Rajnikant does not get frostbite. Rajnikant bites frost
Remember the Soviet Union? They decided to quit after watching a Padayappa on Satellite TV
There are no races, only countries of people Rajnikant has beaten to different shades of black and blue
Rajnikant’s house has no doors, only walls that he walks through
Rajnikant doesn’t actually write books, the words assemble themselves out of fear
Rajnikant can divide by zero
Newton’s Third Law is wrong: Although it states that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, there is no force equal in reaction to a Rajnikant turnaround kick
For some, the left testicle is larger than the right one. For Rajnikant, each testicle is larger than the other one
When taking the GRE, write “Rajnikant” for every answer. You will score over 1600
Rajnikant invented black. In fact, he invented the entire spectrum of visible light. Except pink. Tom Cruise invented pink
In the beginning there was nothing…then Rajnikant kicked that nothing in the face and said “Get a job”. That is the story of the universe
Rajnikant has 12 moons. One of those moons is the Earth
Rajnikant grinds his coffee with his teeth and boils the water with his own rage
Archeologists unearthed an old English dictionary dating back to the year 1236. It defined “victim” as “one who has encountered Rajnikant”
Rajnikant ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one
If you Google search “Rajnikant getting his ass kicked” you will generate zero results. It just doesn’t happen.
Rajnikant can drink an entire gallon of milk in thirty-seven seconds
Rajnikant doesn’t bowl strikes, he just knocks down one pin and the other nine faint
It takes Rajnikant 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes – no, he doesn’t have a TIVO
The Bermuda Triangle used to be the Bermuda Square, until Rajnikant kicked one of the corners off
There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Rajnikant lives in Chennai
Rajnikant once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink
Thousands of years ago Rajnikant came across a bear. It was so terrified that it fled north into the arctic. It was also so terrified that all of its decedents now have white hair.

Man from New Jersey

2007-10-11T20:43:00.000-04:00

I was at a training session today about innovations in the credit card industry and one of the speakers started with an anecdote about an innovative businessman, which I found to be very interesting. Thought I will share it with you.

They say in Manhattan, that you can identify a Man from New Jersey by his looks. One such man walked into one of the leading banks in Manhattan and asked for an immediate loan of $10,000. The banker, dressed in one of his finest of suits was skeptical; as would any New Yorker be of a Man from Jersey, and thought that it was an obvious set up for swindling money. His suspicions got confirmed when the Man from Jersey said that he wanted the money in an hour's time since he was catching a plane to go out of the country for 2 weeks. But, being a true banker, he still wanted to earn the business and make some money.

(I have deliberately tried to make the beginning narration sound like lines from Quentin Tarantino movies; remember David Carradine's narration in the chapter "The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei" in Kill Bill?)

"I can't just give you a loan of $10,000 without any type of collateral" the banker replies politely.

"Will my car do?" the Man from Jersey asks.

"Depends on the car" the banker replies

"What if it is a brand new Mercedes?"

"I should think so..." the banker replies, who promptly has the car driven into the bank's underground parking for safe keeping, and then gives the Man from Jersey $10,000. The Man form Jersey fills the paperwork at 7.99% APR and leaves.

Two weeks later, the Man from Jersey walks into the bank to settle up his loan and get his car back.

"That will be $10,000 principal, and $16.64 in interest" said the Banker.

The Man from Jersey promptly writes a check, gives it to the Banker, gathers his keys, and starts to walk away.

"Wait, sir!" Banker says. I've just got one question. Obviously you are wealthy. Why did you want to borrow $10,000?"

The Man from Jersey smiled "Well, when I got here I noticed the congested traffic and the obviously high parking rates of $20/hr and decided it was too much of a risk to park my car around town because it might get scratched up. Where else could I find a safer place to park my Mercedes in Manhattan for two weeks and still pay only $16.64?"

Now, that's what I call innovation!

Thank You

2007-10-05T23:02:00.000-04:00

I want to thank every person who has visited my blog in the last 3 months. The number of visits has crossed 1,000 as of 10/3/2007 and the site has logged its 300th unique visitor (No, it is not me clicking away to make up the numbers; I have excluded my IP addresses from all counters). While visitors from the US and India contribute 50% of the visits, followed by Australia, Canada and UK (25%), it has been very encouraging to see visitors from countries like Poland, Russia, Cyprus, Lithuania and Romania logging a significant number of visits. The site has also achieved significantly high organic rankings (as high as #3) on high traffic keywords on Google. The highest # unique visitors on a single day so far has been 35, recorded on 9/27; apparently Google likes people blogging about it.

Happy Reading!

Sincerely,
Naga

Open door policy - a classic Seinfeld moment

2007-10-05T21:44:00.000-04:00

One of the first things I noticed and slowly developed when I migrated to the US was to hold the door open for the man/woman following me to the door and people are generally appreciative of it. While it is always easier when you have someone following right behind, a tricky situation arises when the person is not close enough to pass the baton, and far enough that you have to go out of the way to hold the door open? As Shakespeare would have put it - To hold the door or not is the question.

Having found myself in one such awkward situation today, I decided to let go and was the recipient of the most scornful look I had ever received from the person who followed me (Classic Seinfeld (George Costanza) moment!), and that has made me write this post. Since I am pretty confident that the Fab Four in Seinfeld have not discussed this burning issue in day today American life, I would like to know from my readers if there is a thumb rule to this great tradition that I should know and follow.

Let me know your comments!

Profit or Philanthropy?

2007-10-03T17:37:00.000-04:00

On one of those happy hours after work, my colleague and I got into a debate on companies and their social responsibility. His view was that a company's only responsibility is to make money for its shareholders and that they should be blamed neither for problems in the society nor ignoring their responsibility towards society - pretty capitalistic indeed. My view was that though profit remains a company's primary motive and shareholders their primary focal point, companies must be profitable within the realms of social responsibility. Remember, I am not a communist by any means, neither am I a total believer in Ayn Rand and her theory of objectivism. I believe in capitalism where society plays a significant part - a middle ground of sorts.

So, profit or philanthropy? Competitive advantage or corporate social responsibility? Where does one end and other begin for a company (or an individual, for that matter). Can everyone, like Buffet and Gates have proved successfully, follow one up with the other? If all companies were socially responsible, wouldn't we all be buying groceries only from Whole Foods? Wouldn't every car manufacturer switch to hybrids?

When Nike faces a consumer boycott because of media reports on its labor practices in Asia or when McDonald's and KFC are held responsible for obesity in the US, it raises a debate in my mind - Are we right in pointing the finger at companies for flaws in the individual or the society? Or are companies and their practices the causes of the flaws that we are talking about? It is a classic chicken and egg question. After all, Who is John Galt?

In pursuit of more clarity on this issue, I came across this article in the Harvard Business Review by Porter and Kramer (yes, Porter of "Porter's 5 forces" fame), winner of the 2006 McKinsey Award for the Best Harvard Business Review Article.

Porter discusses both sides of the issue but agrees that there is a "moral purpose of business" and proposes a framework by which companies can integrate business and social needs into their value chain. Among the many cases he uses to highlight this concept, I found that of Nestle to be the most interesting (refer text below) and most explicit in highlighting how a company can contribute to economic and social growth while increasing its profits; a win-win.

Maybe there is John Galt!

Integrating Company Practice and Context: Nestlé’s Milk District

Nestlé’s approach to working with small farmers exemplifies the symbiotic relationship between social progress and competitive advantage.

Consider the history of Nestlé’s milk business in India. In 1962, the company wanted to enter the Indian market, and it received government permission to build a dairy in the northern district of Moga. Poverty in the region was severe; people were without electricity, transportation, telephones, or medical care. A farmer typically owned less than five acres of poorly irrigated and infertile soil. Many kept a single buffalo cow that produced just enough milk for their own consumption. Sixty percent of calves died newborn. Because farmers lacked refrigeration, transportation, or any way to test for quality, milk could not travel far and was frequently contaminated or diluted.

Nestlé came to Moga to build a business, not to engage in CSR. But Nestlé’s value chain, derived from the company’s origins in Switzerland, depended on establishing local sources of milk from a large, diversified base of small farmers. Establishing that value chain in Moga required Nestlé to transform the competitive context in ways that created tremendous shared value for both the company and the region.

Nestlé built refrigerated dairies as collection points for milk in each town and sent its trucks out to the dairies to collect the milk. With the trucks went veterinarians, nutritionists, agronomists, and quality assurance experts. Medicines and nutritional supplements were provided for sick animals, and monthly training sessions were held for local farmers. Farmers learned that the milk quality depended on the cows’ diet, which in turn depended on adequate feed crop irrigation. With financing and technical assistance from Nestlé, farmers began to dig previously unaffordable deep-bore wells. Improved irrigation not only fed cows but increased crop yields, producing surplus wheat and rice and raising the standard of living.

When Nestlé’s milk factory first opened, only 180 local farmers supplied milk. Today, Nestlé buys milk from more than 75,000 farmers in the region, collecting it twice daily from more than 650 village dairies. The death rate of calves has dropped by 75%. Milk production has increased 50-fold. As the quality has improved, Nestlé has been able to pay higher prices to farmers than those set by the government, and its steady biweekly payments have enabled farmers to obtain credit. Competing dairies and milk factories have opened, and an industry cluster is beginning to develop.

Today, Moga has a significantly higher standard of living than other regions in the vicinity. Ninety percent of the homes have electricity, and most have telephones; all villages have primary schools, and many have secondary schools. Moga has five times the number of doctors as neighboring regions. The increased purchasing power of local farmers has also greatly expanded the market for Nestlé’s products, further supporting the firm’s economic success.

Nestlé’s commitment to working with small farmers is central to its strategy. It enables the company to obtain a stable supply of high-quality commodities without paying middlemen. The corporation’s other core products—coffee and cocoa—are often grown by small farmers in developing countries under similar conditions. Nestlé’s experience in setting up collection points, training farmers, and introducing better technology in Moga has been repeated in Brazil, Thailand, and a dozen other countries, including, most recently, China. In each case, as Nestlé has prospered, so has the community.

Is Google DoubleClicking its way to dominance?

2007-09-27T17:49:00.000-04:00

Rarely do Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo! (YHOO) join hands on an issue, but when the firm on the other side is Google (GOOG), they are more than happy to do so. Ever since Google announced the $3.1 bn takeover of DoubleClick, the two software giants have been crying foul over the control it will give Google over Internet advertising.

While Microsoft - who also wanted to buy DoubleClick - is playing the role of the peeved loser pointing to anti-trust violations (no stranger to being the target of anti-trust accusations themselves), Yahoo seems more concerned about the future of advertisers on the web. To paraphrase, both companies are running scared of Google's latest attempt at dominating the webosphere, where it already holds sway with search (paid or organic). The fact of the matter is that Google’s purchase of DoubleClick would combine the two largest online advertising distributors from two dominant advertising channels (search and display ads) and thus substantially reduce competition in the advertising market on the Web - a shrewd move indeed by Messrs Schmidt, Brin and Paige.

Having spent the best part of the last two years on internet marketing analytics and having worked with both Google and DoubleClick, I can clearly see this being a seminal move. Here are the reasons - Google is the 800-pound gorilla in online advertising (It owns 56% of the core U.S. search market; Microsoft - 12%; Yahoo 23% - as of July 2007) and this merger doesn't change that. But at the same time, this deal clearly has the potential to ignite Google's efforts in the display ad market and down the road gives them the opportunity to create a platform that marries search and display ads in a way that it will be hard to fathom others imitating. Even the sky high price may be less a function of DoubleClick's current worth and more about what it can strategically provide for Google—and what it could have done for Microsoft or Yahoo!

Google seems to be following the most successful adage in business - "If you can't make it, buy it". Google's display efforts to date, like its attempts to expand outside of search in general, have been marginally successful at best. So in a lot of ways, it had to do acquire a company like DoubleClick. But what was surprising to me was the aggressive approach taken by Google towards dominating the industry - while it could have easily and conservatively sat on its riches from search, it decided to expand its horizons and give it rivals something more to think about.

As the legal battles and corporate counter-strategies unfold over the next few months (Microsoft has since announced the $6 bn purchase of DoubleClick's rival aQuantive), I can but only sit and admire a company that simply doesn't want to lose anything - not even a market share it doesn't have!

Fast and Furious...

2007-09-25T18:46:00.000-04:00

...two adjectives that would aptly describe the recently concluded 20/20 Cricket World Cup. Some might say "too fast, too furious", but I think the speed was just about right. This was the best cricket tournament since '99 World Cup - the last such one where at least 2 other teams (SA & Pak) were as good as the Aussies before the men in gold and green surged ahead to leave the rest of the world languishing in doldrums.

It is a common business transformation strategy to change a company's focus from its products and revenue to its consumers and many leading companies have turned around losing businesses by successfully implementing it. Cricket over the last 10 years had become a game run by lawyers/politicians for lawyers/politicians with focus on its product (ODIs) and revenue (broadcasting revenue). Along the way the needs and pulse of the consumer was forgotten. While on the verge of alienating the fans from the game, serendipitously or not, the ICC has just implemented one such successful transformation.

Despite numerous experts questioning the purity of the concept (Articles 1, 2 & 3), I am convinced that the game has received the perfect dose of caffeine to keep it going. While it definitely doesn't tamper with the purity and position of the more pristine form of the game that is test cricket, it certainly marks the beginning of the end of the 50 over game and nothing highlighted that more than the contrasting nature of the two world cups staged over the last 6 months - one whose winner was obvious 4 years before it started and the other whose winner was unknown until the last 4 balls were bowled!

While the purists correctly argue that test cricket is the true test of skills, truly close contests of the highest quality are too far and few in between to attract anyone but purists to the game. Over the last 10 years there have been only 2 mindblowing test series (Aus vs. India 2001 & Aus vs. Eng 2005) to satisfy the non-purist. Steve Waugh and his fearless Aussies revolutionized the game by scoring at an unheard of rate of 4 an over in tests, but few other teams could consistently match them to make things interesting. Arguably, the shorter version levels the field for a more even contest where ephemeral brilliance rather than sustained genius is sufficient to win games. But in doing so, it has unearthed the the key to closer contests and tighter finishes that has become a rarity in the game. Also, the average cricket fan does not have 5 days to watch the game in stadiums and appreciate the purity of the game. He prefers the luxury of Cricinfo to give him the executive summary. 20/20 has truly brought the fan back to the grounds.

And finally, to critics who site that the version may not produce a Sachin or a Lara, the counter argument is that Sachins and Laras are supreme talents that will show up and shine irrespective of the format of the game. It might be worthwhile to remember that SRT first announced his talent to the cricket world by taking the life out of Abdul Qadir (described by none other than Viv Richards as the toughest bowler he had faced) in an exhibition match in Pakistan before he went on to greater deeds and bigger stages. Hence the argument is moot.

Twenty Twenty is victory for the cricket consumer and hence I rest my case!

PhD - Passing with High Difficulty?

2007-08-14T18:21:00.000-04:00

About a year ago, when I read about Kamal Hassan being conferred a PhD by some random university in Chennai, I felt that the so called custodians of the Indian education system (most of them ex-convicts or politicians; well they are actually one and the same) have tampered with and squeezed enough profit out of undergraduate education through engineering colleges that they are now targeting the doctorate degree for their next butchering act (poor Masters, nobody cares about it). And now when I read about Vijay, I was reminded of a very bad pj that my friend used to tell when we were in 3rd or 4th grade - "What is Phd? Passing with High Difficulty." That is precisely what the acronym has been reduced to. I wouldn't be surprised if I don't hear about Ajith being offered one soon (after all, the thalai can never be lagging behind the thalapadhi). So as this burlesque act continues, like a uncontrolled nuclear reaction, the PhDs will multiply and eventually destroy the system.

So what does it take to earn a PhD in India - act in a few movies? Maybe I could digest this parody if the movies that we are taking about here were at least original. But that not being the case, (90% of the movies are being made are rehashes of English or still worse, Tamil movies) what did these so called experts in the art of movie making create to be worthy of the highest academic degree. Maybe the actors associations (Since most actors are owners of some Engineering college and are also affiliated with one of two political parties, actors associations are synonymous with legislative assembly/parliament or the Directorate of Education) got together and thought "well, we cant win Academy awards with the kind of movies we make, lets honor ourselves with something that a Kurosawa, Nicholson or a Bergman don't have - a PhD".

Well, to all my friends who are still slogging it out in research labs solving differential equations and developing inventory models to obtain that coveted degree, I really really feel bad for you, because I am taking off to Kodambakkam to get my PhD in...Copyrights Violation?

East or West, India is a land of snake charmers at its best

2007-08-12T13:50:00.000-04:00

I saw two ads on cable TV today (Vitamin Water & Tanqueray Rangpur) on different channels within a span of 20 minutes and interestingly enough both featured India, symbolized not by the Taj or the Himalayas, not Gandhi or Aishwarya (supposedly the two most recognized Indians in the world) and definitely not the sprawling IT corridors of Bangalore or Hyderabad. India was proudly represented by the antediluvian images of snake charmers and their pets showing off their latest moves. I would have had a good laugh had the ads shown a call center in Bangalore or Noida.

So what is it with the West and its perception of India as a land of magic, swamis, snakes and most bizarre of cultures and spiritualism. Is the West oblivious to the developments that have taken place in the country over the last 20 years, from becoming the services hub of the world to housing R&D centers for global leaders like GE and Intel and becoming the twelfth largest economy in the world in that process (with a GDP growth rate of 9.4% in 2006-07)? Or is it just a blurred vision of a few that keeps reinforcing the stigmatic images of the country that was made popular by BBC shows and the Indiana Jones adventures? A third possibility is that though the West has embraced India when it comes to recruiting its brilliant engineers, setting up its latest product centers or accepting the importance of Yoga and Karma in their day today lives, it continues to market the country to its common man as it has always done - deliberately choosing to ignore the sublime growth of a new nation, perhaps as a result of the inertia to preserve the mystique and exoticness that has been long associated with the country. Having spent the last 6 years in the US, my personal opinion is that it is the listless work of a few that continues to project India in such deprecating ways.

Shaolin Soccer

2007-08-07T20:40:00.000-04:00

I am not a big soccer fan and so I restrict myself to just the World Cups. (NBA, NFL, Tennis and cricket continue to hold sway over me). The glorified initiation that got kicked off with Maradona's genius in '86 never really grew on me as it did on some of my other friends who follow English Premier League and Spanish League with their own fantasy teams just like I follow NFL.

Recently I happened to watch a soccer game on TV as part of Copa America and it got me to wonder why the game never really got my adrenalin pumping. Even Golf, which I thought could never be a TV sport because of the snail like pace and Boxing, which always got me to wonder why the two guys are fighting in the first place, eventually won over me, but Soccer remains my neglected step-child. Why?

The primary reason is that the game's ultimate motive - to score goals - happens very infrequently. The average number of goals in in the 2006 World Cup was 2.27 (Source: Wikipedia, where else?). Assuming a 90 minute average time per game, that translates to a wait of 40 mins per goal. Though for the rest of time we might be treated to excellent dribbling, solid defense and swerving free kicks, 40 minutes is too long a wait for a single piece of action that moves the game forward.

So what can be done to make this game more appealing to me and the others (mostly Americans I would imagine) who share the same view of the most popular game in the globe. Here is a simple solution - take out the goal keeper.

What does this do to the game?

1. It takes away the use of hands from the game completely. All players are now bound by the same rules.
2. In my opinion if the person has taken the ball past the midfielders and defenders, there is no need for him to go past one more opponent who can can use his hands, to score a goal. Having a goal keeper in soccer is akin to having Shaq guard the basket in NBA for the full 48 minutes (imagine the scoreline of Basketball games in such a scenario) or playing cricket with 15 players, all of them planted on the boundary.
3. Taking goalkeepers out of the game would definitely improve the quality of defense and offense. All players are now forced to play tough defense and block shots and not rely on the goalie and to score, they must work the ball close to the goal and not take long shots; so control, dribbling, passing and movement are all better than the regular game.
4. Most importantly it would increase the number of goals scored in a soccer game without sacrificing its quality thus making it more attractive for people like me to watch.

What do we call this? Shaolin Soccer?

Getting nostalgic over a piece of paper

2007-07-29T19:18:00.000-04:00

During my recent visit to India, I happened to browse through the pages of the Hindu and suddenly I noticed how much the newspaper has changed in the last 20 years. Glossy colorful pages have replaced the black and white print and a new wave of journalists have taken over the pen - the Hindu had definitely changed. I couldn't help but get nostalgic just perusing over the edition.

My schooldays always started the same way - eyes scanning The Hindu, hot cup of filter coffee in one hand, and the other hand alternating between holding a bowl (davara) to cool down the coffee and turning the pages of the paper. I always started in the second last page - the sports section - which had a good share of R Mohan's late cuts from the cricket pitch and Nirmal Shekhar's verbal volleys from the tennis court and if it had news of a Lara/Sachin century or a Boris Becker triumph at Wimbledon, that was about the best way to start my day. It was then time to read the international news and especially during my younger days the active quizzer in me used to learn capitals of countries by looking at the city of origination of the news article. A quick glance at the city news on page 3 and the national headlines, and that was about what I could digest at that age. I slowly graduated to reading the middle pages (business, letters to the editor and the columns), but the routine has more or less remained the same over the years except that the paper has been replaced by my laptop - Cricinfo, Rediff and WSJ with a hot mug of tea on my left hand and the mousepad on my right.

Though the Hindu has grown in technology and quality of print, their quality of journalists has definitely diminished. With the exit of R Mohan, the quality of the Hindu's cricket coverage had plummeted to new depths. The likes of Vijay Lokapally and G Viswanath (not the cricketer) are a great insult to The Hindu‘s great cricketing history. S Dinakar and Sanjay Rajan are passable but Ram Mahesh has come as a breath of fresh air and seems poised to restore its glorious cricketing heritage.

Many fond memories - scanning S Krishnan’s ‘Between you and me’ column for the “Parthasarathy” joke every Tuesday, fighting with dad for the paper during the precious morning hours before school, religiously clipping the Know Your English column every week for future reference, appreciating the paper's effort to penetrate the young reader's mind with the ‘Young World’ supplement and appreciating the simplicity and humor in V. Gangadhar's ‘Slice of Life’ will be cherished for a dozen lifetimes. Nowadays, I eagerly look forward to Ramachandra Guha’s Past and Present, Sevanti Ninan’s Media Matters and Shashi Tharoor’s eponymous column, despite his tendency to make a reference to his books in every fourth line. The regulars who review movies – Chitra Mahesh, Malathi Rangarajan, Sudhish Kamath et al – need to be taught that lines like “Santhosh Sivan has done good camera work” does not constitute a review. Gautaman Bhaskaran is their Roger Ebert, if you can discount a propensity to make movies seem more ponderous than they actually are. And lastly, what’s a piece on The Hindu without a mention of its legendary crossword. Being a cruciverbalist myself, it took me a while to develop the patience (read skill) to finish a full crossword, but it was always fun cracking the cryptic clues.

Today, in an industry where smut sells and sensationalism is the norm, The Hindu is still standing rock-solid on its foundation of journalistic integrity. It has fallen a bit from the lofty perch it held earlier. Their political reporting is probably a little biased and the quality of the sports coverage has fallen from its glory days in the early 90s. But the fact remains that they prioritize news the way it should be (Their front page won’t be filled with all the gory details of the Big B’s abdominal problem like Times of India), write with a strong social conscience, haven’t sold out to the glamor mafia, and, in my experience, offer the best writing available in Indian newspapers today.

The Presidency is dead...long live the President

2007-07-22T15:21:00.000-04:00

I am as sad today as I was happy 5 years ago when I heard about the election of Dr. Kalam as President of India. After a famed reign at the highest office, inspiring a billion countrymen along the way, the aeronautical engineer goes back to the company of students and scholars, far removed from the muddled world of politics that prevented him from a second term. Like a lotus over dirty water, he was never comfortable with politics nor was he tainted by it, but nevertheless he blossomed amidst the politicians. Whether his successor will inspire the country or be swept away in the tides of politics will decide Pratibha Patil's legacy.

Wikipedia describes the POI as "the head of state and first citizen of India and the Supreme Commander of the Indian armed forces. The President's role is largely ceremonial, with real executive authority vested in the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. The powers of the President of India are comparable to those of the monarch of UK." To paraphrase, the POI is powerless and ceremonial; a rubber stamp of sorts. Why then do we need a President? After all, the qualifications needed to become one are as exploitable as those needed to get into nursery school. All the executive powers of the President that we studied about in 8th grade Civics being the reasons, the primary one is the fact that the President has discretionary powers which give him the ultimate power - to over rule the government on critical issues. So, the ideal candidate should have two important qualities - neutrality and objectivity. One look at the President-elect and I can see neither.

The POI is also the "first citizen" of the country and the face of the country around the globe. Hence the person should have distinguished himself in his chosen field of excellence, be it science, law or public service. A retrospective look at the past Presidents made me feel that most of them fit the description - most of them - be it the brilliant law maker in Dr. Rajendra Prasad (freedom fighter and President of the Constituent Assembly that framed the Constitution of India), the scholastic Dr. Radhakrishnan (of Oxford and Harvard fame), the idealistic S.D Sharma (Harvard Law) or the ultimate diplomat in K.R Narayanan (London School of Economics and Ambassador to the US, UK and China during the difficult NAM days). Along the way, there have been others like Zail Singh, who was more famous for his subservient attitude towards Indira Gandhi than his social reforms in Punjab. But no one brought more honor and elegance to the position than Dr. APJ - the people's president who increased the amplitude of the position and redefined its appositeness. So, who is Pratibha Patil? Is she the equitable doyen or the government's pawn?

For starters, she is a politician, and unlike some of the inspiring names mentioned above she doesn't quite tickle the "I am proud to be an Indian" nerve in your body. Nor has she achieved anything of note apart from being a Congress activist and the Governor of a state, a feat achieved by myriad others. Numerous controversies and allegations preceded her election and the one billion dollar question (one for each person in the country I suppose) is - Why her? Couldn't we find a candidate in the second most populous country in the world, that befitted the position and filled our hearts with pride? The answer is that the politicians didn't bother to find one and thats what makes me sad today.

Criticism of Greatness

2007-07-18T00:18:00.000-04:00

Is imitation the highest form of flattery? I think criticism is an equally exalted form and it seems to be the more attractive option when it comes to journalism.

I read two articles yesterday, one from The Guardian and the other from The Telegraph and I was surprised to find that the central topic of debate in both articles is the same - Tendulkar, his failure at Lords and the loss of his once brilliant armory of strokes, apparently replaced by a fear of the short ball and failure in general.

Interestingly both articles use success at Lord's as a measure of greatness, a huge flaw considering the fact that the single most stellar batting performance at Lord's is by a batsman, definitely not considered to be amongst the cream of all time greats (333 and 123 against India in 1990 by Graham Gooch). The last Indian name to make it to the Lords honors board is the person so affectionately named "Bombay Duck" and "Olympic Rings" (in honor of his 5 consecutive ducks against Australia) and I can bet the last dollar in my wallet that Ajit Agarkar will not feature in your all time cricketing XI. Also, given the number of grounds Sachin has played in, there are bound to be ones where he has a bad average; he averages a monumental 249 runs at Sydney, which certainly highlights the triviality of the argument.

The article in the Telegraph points to Sachin's meticulous preparation before a series as an evidence of his fear of failure. I find it amusing that, ironically, both articles also refer to the preparation that the genius made in 1998 to counter Shane Warne's bowling around the wicket and the 155 n.o that resulted out of it (an innings that I had the fortune of witnessing live from the pavilion at Chepauk courtesy of an umpire cousin). To me, what is evident is the will to succeed and not the fear of failure. I still remember watching the game and listening to Ian Chappell on the microphone pointing out to the moment when Warne came around the wicket for the first time in the match as the turning point. Sachin slightly opened up his stance, marched down the wicket and majestically lofted the first ball over midwicket for a six, dictating the tone for that series, at the end of which the spin wizard proudly admitted to having nightmares of Sachin dancing down the pitch. Admiration, it seems, is an even greater form of flattery.

Though the author correctly notes the decline in Sachin's game by referring to the fact that in the last three years, Sachin has scored only one century against a notable opponent (Sri Lanka), he fails to mention that the period was interspersed by serious injuries, often limiting his participation to one or two games followed by a long layoff. Every great sportsman goes through a patch of mediocrity but they often bounce back with minor technical changes to the surprise of the world. Tiger Woods did that by changing his swing a couple of years ago after a 3-year lean period. Whether Sachin follows suit - only time will tell.

Finally, whether Sachin Tendulkar scores a test hundred at Lords or not, whether he is addressed "Sir Sachin" in the near future or not, his greatness has diminished or not, is immaterial; I and more than a billion others will always remember the man as an entertainer par excellence, who gave good value for their time and money.

Federer Wins Five

2007-07-08T20:58:00.000-04:00

Ok, yet another Wimbledon comes to an end and yet another title for Federer. So what’s new? A look beyond the headlines and a contextual analysis of this match indicates that this might very well be a landmark match for this generation of tennis lovers.

Well, to start with there was a match, an even one at that, until the point in the fifth set when Federer hurried to the finish line like a rabbit towards carrot. Not since 2001 have I seen a final of fluctuating fortunes as this one. The match will be remembered for the quality of the tennis that the players were able to sustain for 4 hours and 5 sets, not once giving an edge to each other, with Nadal ensuring that Federer played a fifth set at least once in the finals en route to breaking Borg’s record of five consecutive championships. It was a clear case of aggressive tennis, with each player stretching the points with incredible athleticism and unimaginable shots. Michael Chang and Arantxa Sanchez possessed a similar knack of extending points albeit through high defensive lobs but these guys just kept hurling cannons at each other with each shot a definite winner against a lesser opponent. Yes, Federer was stretched. And for the first time in the last five years he looked vulnerable on grass (when Rafa had a 4-1 lead in the 4th set) - a frame worth freezing for any player aspiring to beat FedEx at SW19. Another key factor contributing to the evenness of the contest was the improvement of Nadal as a grass court player YOY. He seemed very confident at the net throughout the match and his serve was stabler than Federer’s for the most part. This is a key factor to note in the context of upcoming encounters between these two gladiators.

As I watched today’s match I could distinctly remember 3 Wimbledon finals that produced a similar high quality of aggressive tennis in the post Borg-McEnroe-Connors era that I had the misfortune of missing. Edberg vs Becker ’90, Agassi vs. Ivanisevic ’92 and Ivanisevic vs. Rafter ’01, in that order, would be best 3 finals that I ever watched and I will place Federer vs. Nadal ’07 right up there with them.

The ’90 finals was part of the famous trilogy that the 2 players enacted towards the end of the 80’s with the two previous encounters being one sided in favor of each player. The match which was a befitting end to the famous rivalry was one of the best exhibitions of grass court tennis. Edberg won the battle in 5 sets but the rivalry remains one of my fondest memories. In ’92 it was the battle between the man with the booming serve and the one with the best return of serve ever and what more can you ask on grass. Agassi shed his fears of grass to win the title in 5 sets and the hearts of Wimbledon fans forever. Goran lifted the trophy in 2001 winning the fifth set 9-7 and the match will always be remembered for him finally getting his hands on the trophy after thrice being stalled by the two greatest players of his generation (Pete Sampras ’94 and ’98, Andre Agassi ’92). Apart from being classics, the above mentioned matches also happen to be 3 of only 4, 5 set finals in the last 25 years.

Now that the context has been defined, what does today's match mean to tennis fans in the next few years. Given the high quality of the match, the maturity of Nadal as a player and its high ranking on the Wimbledon classicometer, the match might very well be remembered as the one that marked the maturity of the Rafa-FedEx rivalry which men’s tennis so badly needs. As with any prediction only time knows the answer.

Sivaji - The Boss

2007-07-07T23:41:00.000-04:00

Magical - that's the word that comes to my mind if I have to describe "Sivaji", Rajnikanth's latest celluloid offering, in one word. From the moment, the innovative title graphics replace the retro style placard title of the namesake yesteryear thespian, to the last time the bald super star says "Cool" in his inimitable style, the movie simply mesmerizes you, despite a slow paced climax. Rajni acts in a very niche genre of movies, the so called "masala movies", and he does such an awesome job of it that it really exposes the many other inspired actors who simply ape the man - be it his mannerisms, known more popularly as his "shtyle", his penchant for punch dialogues (usually with philosophical undercurrents) or his speed of speech, walk and action.

Whatever he does, he and only he does it best; so move away cheap imitators!

It is a typical Shankar movie evident from the thematic nature of the movie, the grandeur of the songs and stunt sequences and the conceptual style of song picturization. As with all his movies, the protagonist is a one man crusader against the evils that exist in our society with help from his buddy/uncle, this time fighting against the black money that has percolated into (or out of) the Indian economy.

Rajni plays an NRI returning to India with dreams of doing something good for the country (a dream that all B-School aspirants only write about in their admission essays), but finds himself roadblocked by a corrupt system. How the Super Star fights the system and changes the color of money (much like he does the color of his skin. Boy - our thalaivar is really capable of doing anything and everything!) to fund his ambitious projects is pretty much the gist of the movie. Comedy and romance dominate the first half with Rajni and Vivek tickling our ribs with their punch dialogues and idiotic ideas to sway the girl and Shriya Saran's svelte figure capturing our attention. The second half is all Rajni the super hero, as he ups the tempo to reach his goals and, as in all his movies, loses all his wealth only to recapture it all over the course of the next 30 minutes...of course he gets the girl too.

Rajni has retained some of his famous "swish-swooshing" hand movements, with some changes though. The cigarette has been replaced by a chewing gum (and sometimes red chillies!) that bounces off anything around him and lands perfectly in his mouth and he defies the laws of gravity by zig-zagging a coin in air without touching it, every time he scores a point against the bad boys. Fans who remember his "ithu epdi irukku" from "In the 16th year" will be treated to an equally enjoyable "cool" much in line with the NRI Software Systems Architect role he plays.

The chemistry between Rajni and Vivek is excellent and Vivek has been entrusted with the responsibility of miming some of the best punch dialogues of the movie like "chittor thandina kaatpadi, sivajia seendina dead body" and "Sixkku appuram seven da, Sivajikku appuram yevenda" . Nothing new from Shankar on the story or screenplay front but credit goes to him for restoring Rajni to his best remembered looks - a combination of Billa and Basha, and that goes a long way in convincing the audience. Sujata's dialogues add comedy and satire appropriately and Rahman's catchy tunes have been matched by brilliant visuals and choreography. Shriya looks pleasing to the eye and others like Solomon Pappaiya come and go, but the real vehicle that the movie rides on is Rajni and his charismatic screen presence. The way he ups the "shtyle" meter as he transitions from the NRI, to the Boss, to the "mottai boss" is mind blowing. His looks and performance are a pleasurable combination of retro and novelty and leaves the audience with nothing but continued loyalty to the true super star of Indian cinema.

Another big contributing factor to the movie's success I must mention, is the marketing. During my recent trip to India, I was amazed by the amount of coverage the movie was getting in national news channels like NDTV and CNN-IBN and it has really transformed Rajni from a Tamil Super Star to a truly national one, if not international. I guess the movie has become such an integral part of Tamilians that almost all conversations (phone or in person, local or ISD) begin with a "Sivaji pathutiya?" and anybody who answers in the negative is perceived to be living a wasteful life.

What more do I need to say, the name says it all - "pera sonna summa adhiridhulla!"

P.S: Below is a list of punch dialogues rumored to be in the movie before its release but aren't

Kanna, naan pakka dhan software, erangunan mavane hardware....(this is my favorite)
Kanna andha sivajikku nadikka mattum dhan theriyum, indha sivajiku nadikkavum theriyum adikkavum theriyum
unaku Aandavan vekkaraan da date annaiku unaku Shivaji vekkaraan paar vettu
Naan nallavanukku sami, Nayavanjaganukku tsunami
Kanna, vitukoduthavan ennaikum kettathillai, kettavan ennaikum vittukoduthathillai
Nallavanukku naan DHARMAN Kettvanukku naan YEMa dharman da