America's immigrants

The top new item for this week has been the news of the US senate getting into their huddle to decide on legislation relating to guest workers and a contentious issue of illegal immigration that is plaguing the United States, more so than any other country. The western coast is already considered Mexican heartland and many would be surprised to know that most of the bus terminals out there have announcement in Spanish and English to cater to the obvious clients.

Let me put in my 2 American cents on this issue (and yes they are my cents which I bought back from states). Firstly the issue of guest workers aka H1B workers or specialised workers etc. This is a major problem biting the Americans in the ass. Any immigrant knows that the white man aka people who call themselves native Americans are not to congenial with having immigrants flowing into the country. These Fresh Off Board (FOB's) are a pain for them. Taking over their white collar jobs and steadily moving up the ladder with hard work and the determination to carve out their share of the American pie. Now that said they are faced with the problem of a declining economy which without the presence of these skilled workers will keep declining and the blue chip companies will keep moving out of the US and finding better pastures in places such as India and China ie the places where the same workers originate from. An with ever increasing problems of American students not wanting to pursue higher education there basically is no option but to keep inviting this alien workforce to come and pick up the creamy jobs. Well tough luck here.

Secondly is the problem of illegal immigration. By the very definition of illegal one would imagine that this is a non-issue. But remember the previous line wherein I said that the number of native American student pursuing higher education doesn't seem all that high, according to studies done by the US government. Now that said these same students in schools and colleges combined with the kids of the very same illegal immigrants have been protesting about the rights of these illegal immigrants, I repeat illegal immigrants. Wow only in America. If they were protesting about the human rights of these people or the way that they are being shipped in by the big farmers to do their crappy below minimum-wage work they I would've understood. But what rights does an illegal alien have, or should have? This just proves that countries regardless of their economic stature have the same class of politicians who will do just about anything to get or increase their vote bank.

I remember reading that the number of African Americans in the US represented the largest section of people in America, and the number of Mexicans/Spanish in the country was soon catching up. I am pretty sure that already the Hispanics represent the largest society with the States over the African Americans and the white/native Americans. Well whatever be the case seems like the native Americans better learn to be good to all these alien workers. From what I see the low end jobs are being lapped up by the Hispanics who need a better life and the higher end jobs are being offered up to the Indians and Chinese. So what's left is yours unless you mess with your Indian or Chinese boss and get fired or try to act rude with your Hispanic junior and get sued for racist behaviour.

Wow.. only in America right.

India's Commonwealth games blitzkreig

Desi Fun(da) ... and more.

The Commonwealth games are on and India is currently placed 3rd on the third day of the games. Its really thrilling to see the flurry of medals that has come our way in shooting and weighlifting. Melbourne seemed to be the playground for many of our shooters picking up medals left and right. It is suprising how much change can be brought in through inspiration. I am sure that many of these shooters have followed the path of hard work and dedication like Mr. Rathore who picked up India's lone medal, a bronze, at the Olympics in 2004 at Athens.

Also encouraging to see the weighlifters continuining their domination here even after some shameful acts of performance enhancing drugs stung us at the olympics. Even the table tennis pros had a field day and picked up the gold yesterday. Totally awesome.

Even if the contingent doesn't pick up any other medal in the remaining days this is already a very big achievement for us. I hope that the sponsors start showing some interest in sports other than cricket. I am sure their investment will be a percentage point of their investment in cricket but the ROI will be many times over. After all it takes guts to promote a struggling athelete and even more guts to stand by a struggling sport.

Cheers to our Commonwealth contingent (minus the babus and paedophilic masseurs who have tagged along)

To her

With 13 long stem roses a note says
(leaf 1)
"Ever wonder how odd a sunflower would feel amidst these beautiful roses?

(leaf 2)
....exactly
how inept these roses feel being in front of true beauty like yourself"

.. from a spineless admirer.......

Back to Mangalore

Desi Fun(da) ... and more.

Well the previous weekend was super. I went back to Mangalore with my mom (came over from Mumbai). After my previous trip in September 2004 this is the first time I went back there. Shameful I agree.

I left from Bangalore at around 10 Friday night and reached Mangalore city by around 6 am. I didn't want to wake up my cousin with whom we had planned to stay so I chilled at the bus stop and had some hot tea. Then I went over to their house by 7.30 and had a good breakfast. Mom came over by around 4. Was good to see her especially since I didn't get a chance to meet her after her minor operation on the thumb. But yeah all was well. My cousin's kids Freya and Riya had gotten a bit more free-er with me since the morning and we were just playing and talking kid-talk all evening.

The next day ie Sunday we decided to start the flying visits again. Started off by leaving Mangalore by 2pm and then reached Udupi and met with Eric uncle and family. Then from there to my aunts house followed by another aunt and then finally reaching my godparent's house late in the evening. He as usual was happy to see us and all excited too. Its always good to meet him and this time was even better as he announced that his elder daughter may get married in dec/jan. Still remember his kids being so shy and small whenever they came over to our house. Just reminded me that I am getting old and well also reminded me of that someone, who's name must not be taken, and who doesn't even pass a smile my way by mistake. I dont have any guts in that department sorry.

Well we had a sumptuous meal followed by gossiping between the cousins (our parents) on all families and ended up getting to bed late at 1 am. Then the next day we visited the other cousins who stay in adjoining houses and made a beeline for kinnigoli. Again on the fast track we visited my cousin Tona and family and Uncle Pinto and even got a chance to drop by at Lawrence's house and garage. Was good to see him after a long long time. Ofcourse most importantly we met up with my uncle and his wife and my grandmother, who all of 97 is become frail now and her movements are restricted to one room. Thanks to uncle they are managing with her care. God bless her and god bless them. I don't know what else can I do.

We came back by afternoon and then later went on to see some nearby areas in the evening and met another uncle. Saw some wonderful locations in Mangalore and was really wanting to stay back. Well the wonderful Manglorean girls could easily add to the arrows in my already pierced heart but well thankfully I didn't get a chance to venture into that territory.

Only downside of the trip was that I did not get a chance to taste the toddy/sur this time round. Well waiting makes the heart grow fonder they say. This wait is killing me along with the other wait.

Thanks Lani and Fancy for another memorable stay at my favourite place in the whole world.

Of Sania Mirza

Desi Fun(da) ... and more.

Now today morning's newspapers read that Sania Mirza has dropped down to #45 in the WTA rankings. For the absurdly naive millions of Sania fanatics that may turn out to be a shocker and many might even consider self-immolation in this maniac-driven society of ours, but how many of us level headed pre-Sania tennis lovers actually think that Sania has it in her to make it big?

Let me make myself clear. I give all due credit to Ms.Mirza for her hard work and getting into the top50. Moreover her desire to succeed had been really refreshing and invigorating in this die-hard cricket country of ours. And the exposure that she has bought to the game of tennis has been incomparable. Not even the gruesome twosome of Paes and Bhupati managed to get the interests this high.

But getting into the higher rug of the tennis elite is not a matter of simple desire. All of the top 100 have the desire to be in the top5 or top10. Heck even Anna Kournikova wanted to be numero uno but she simply couldnt back up the desire with the will and dedication required to be there. The first time I saw a pic of Sania the immediate reaction was that she looks like Lindsay Davenport of years before or like Monica Seles after her delayed comeback. Heck you can expect to beat the William sisters or Sharapova if you arent able to run after all those baseline zippers and then run onto the net to get that late drop volley. If Sania wants to be up there she needs a dedicated fitness coach, cut down on her hyderabadi meals and get in shape. The plus side for her is that she is young enough to do that and take a shot at doing what few of us can only dream about... some of us cant even make up that dream.

Bush and Musharaff - An unholy nexus

Desi Fun(da) ... and more.

While Bush finished off with his first ever visit to India there were protests all over the place. Well in Pakistan things went a bit further and a few bombs went off in keeping with the legacy of Pakistani terrorism. Well everyone who knows me knows my opinions on this matter. There is no demarcation or enimity between the Pakistani leadership and terrorists being trained in PoK. This has been shown to be true on numerous occasions, more recently during the Kargil conflict, the attack on the Indian Parliament and so on on so forth, where the assailants had Pakistani army identification cards on them.

What was more suprising was that the next day ie today (March 5th 2006) the newpapers across the globe report that Bush and Musharaff have signed a terror-pact for better cooperation between these two allies on the "terrorism" agenda that they have to fly the flags of freedom in the so called evil states in the world. But while this great agreement was being signed the opposition party leaders in Pakistan were kept under house arrest, many more party workers arrested for god know what reason.

America has always been stupid with its choice of allies while fighting its foes and this is just another shining example waiting to blow up in their face. They want to ally with a country that was born out of a rebel's idea of self-greatness while dividing the great Indian subcontinent on the basis of religion. Further this country has gone on to see less than a decade of true governance via democratic processes during its nearly 6 decade long independence.

Now if thats not an unholy nexus I dont know what is. Nice choice Bushie.

Sports Day at IEC - Sun Microsystems Bangalore

Desi Fun(da) ... and more.

Well two weeks of thrilling action coinciding with the Turin Winter Olympic Games came to a soft ending on March 1st here at IEC. We had the MICO sports grounds to ourselves to finish off all the outdoor sport finals and it turned out to be a great day to have fun and basically sweat it out, be our competitive selves. Many of my team mates turned up, especially since we intended to kick some ass in basketball, only to be denied in a thrilling loss right in the semifinals under the blazing sun.

It was an awesome day and for the first time I could see the really competitive and not so competitive side of people out there. Got to know some more faces in Sun and that was good too. But as I say there is just one winner at the end of the day, all the people following them are just the losers. So well it wasn't as eventful as I would have liked but hey I aint michael jordan or lebron james you know;)

But the real bummer was the dismal turnout. According to the organizers, and there were 50+ organizers/volunteers, there were nearly 600 participants in all the games. I guess their script didn't do a SELECT UNIQUE * from PARTICIPANTS | wc -l (those duke fanatics!!). It looked asif there were some 100 people who participated in all the sports. Well what was even stinkier was the fact that though transportation was provided people didn't bother to turn up and cheer their pals out there. For all of those who did not come, FYI procrastination is good sometimes to get your mind in tune.

Anyways we had a wonderful time. We got trained in the art of not being winners in nearly all the games. But Alok and myself managed to win the Foozeball trophy. Joe Triviani and Chandler Bing deserve all the credit! (also Ramesh and Joseph from our QB days)

Lalu Prasad Yadav

Desi Fun(da) ... and more.

All of us Indians are used to seeing illiterate, unsavvy and crumpled politicians talk out of their ass all the time. With the arrival of Lalu Prasad Yadav in the early 90s we saw a new breed and unique breed emerge. A seemingly foolish looking guy clad in the regular khaki kurta payjama (typical wear for the region of Bihar and most politicians) came out of nowhere and started being a major force in Bihar politics. His reign at the helm of Bihar, first by himself and later by his wife, came to an abrupt end this year with the reemergence of Ram Vilas Paswan, his long time rival.

But well Lalu has moved on to greater things since the UPA came to power. Being a supporter of "secular" forces Lalu smartly joined the Congress and allies to form the government at the centre and was made the Railways Minister of India. Little would people think that under his reign the Raiways has seen unique and impactful reforms to compete with the emerging flood of low-cost airlines. Lalu has managed to not only compete but in many aspect beat these carriers with unique schemes. Some of his projects include
* upgradation of canteen facilities at all railway stations
* use of earthen cups for serving water
* use of khadhi extensively thereby providing employment for the small scale industry workers
* unique upgradation scheme to facilitate retention of revenue via upgrading a waiting list passenger from lower class to the next higher class if possible instead of refunding the money
* now a new low cost ac train to for the common man
and am sure there are more that I can't recollect.

When Lalu speaks it is usually with a wonderful sense of humor and is always willing to make a joke on himself while subtly snubbing his opposition. He has worked wonderfully as the Railways minister and he deserves a pat on the back. Todays TOI reports that the Railways is infact growing at a rate surpassing the economy of India. That says a lot and it is wonderful to hear. The Indian Railways being "the" largest rail network in the world and one of the largest employers in the country has a lot to be proud of. With the Railways doing well these employees will definitely benefit and thereby bringing in the benefit of a successful PSU to the common Indian.

Am looking out for all the unique schemes he is keen on getting started this year in the Railway Budget (did you know that the Railways presents its budget before the Central Budget.. a kind of legacy which shows the importance of good transport infrastructure). Keep the good work going Mr Minister.

OpenSolaris acknowledges

Desi Fun(da) ... and more.

I was just going through the community fixes webpage at the opensolaris.org website. This was one fix that I started out with and then waited for a while to do a putback. When I mailed the list for a sponsor I was informed that it was being handled by another internal engineer as part of a larger set of features to be putback soon. So unluckily for me I couldn't do that putback. But hey they have atleast mentioned my name on the list so they are acknowledging that the work was done by someone else too. I love that.

Later I have worked on Eric Schrock's mdb challenge" and managed to win the apple shuffle he handed out as the prize. Cool thing was that I got to meet him too and hey it seems his dad grabbed a Nobel prize in Chemistry. So thats the closet I've been to a nobel laureate or prize:) Well hopefully I will get to do a putback of this dcmd soon and get another row on my name out on the above page.

Thanks guys.

Advice for a startup

Desi Fun(da)

I started off on my first job at a small startup back at PennState working with 5 other guys and one person who was supposedly one of the founders and ought to have lead the development effort due to his computer savvy skills and his knowledge of the field of chemistry we were dealing in. Suprisingly for a startup there seemed to be an equally large contingent of management aides on the payroll for the company. Going into all the specifics is not my intention. The dude gave me a swell letter of recommendation and hey for that he rocks.

Some points I would like people running startups to possibly have in the back or even better if its in the front of their minds during their daily work.

1. The whole benefit of a startup is the small team.
This leads to a friendly and competitive work environment which encourages learning and understanding of various problems faces while solving the same. Encourgage thought sharing, not just for how cool it sounds, but because it actually enables in arriving at the best solution for the problem being discussed.
And hey since most of you will be all crammed up in a small room somewhere don't keep emailing the littlest things to each other. Instead just howl out the question for everyone. Be a bit more personal.

2. Don't feel shy to fire someone.
You just have one shot at either making your company work or going bust in the dog-eat-dog world of venture capitalist begging. If there is a weak link get it replaced on the first signs of the same. Waiting means you just waste time, money, effort and worsen your chances, that too not just of yourself but of all the other hardworking people in the group.

3. Use the term workaround tightly.
A workaround is supposed to mean that you need to get around to working on it again sometime soon and replace the workaround with a solid and permanent solution. Keeping a workaround, around, for too long means there is going to be a disaster pretty soon.

4. Make your game plan and stick to it.
People will keep asking you if you can do this or that. You need to have a clear picture of what you are out there to deliver. Make sure that you have that picture clear in your mind. While talking to customers tell them about that picture. If you see too many people not seeing the uniqueness of your picture you need to go back to your drawing board and paint a new one. After you have done that stick to it. You need to keep this cycle to a minimum. Hint# If you have to re-paint your picture too often either you are not marketing your idea well or it just aint good enough to be appealing.

5. Know your prize horse and bet on it.
You will have few people working for you in a startup and you are bound to know each of them well. If not personally then you will definitely know how good they are at what they were hired to do. Make sure you ignite the passion in your prize horse and keep him/her as keen to get the whole thing successful as you are. If you can do that you have a chance to be in the race and probably win some too.

6. Push your guys.
Keep your guys on their toes. Make sure that each of them is being pushed to their maximum. Extract the most out of them and make sure that you are giving the most of yourself for them.

7. Don't feel shy to take a lesson from a stranger.
If someone comes up to you and says hey your idea sucks you should take that guy out to lunch and know exactly why he/she thinks so. You will definitely learn to improve on something from that lunch.

8. Make promises and deliver beyond them.
Being successful is not just about delivering what has been promised but delivering beyond the promises made. If a customer is promised ABC and you deliver AB he/she is going to be unhappy. But if you promise AB and delive ABC he/she is going to be thrilled out of his/her mind.

These are the few things that come to my mind. I used to discuss this a lot with one of my roomies, Pyush. He too worked in a startup and went on to form his own team and had promised that he would stick to these thoughts while leading the team. Hope he has, because I know he is a kick-ass guy and well if he could follow these simple and obvious things then the guys in his group would have gained a lot and so would he.

Though the rules are obvious. I thought I'd put it out here. After all people have made millions by writing the somewhat obvious into a bestseller and then coming back to say one more obvious thing (7 habits of highly effecitive people, or was it 8 habits or 9 habits ...)

disclaimer** the term guys is used loosely to refer to a male or female person. no sexism intended.

Yet Another one bites the dust

Desi Fun(da)

These past couple of months, December 2005 and Jan, Feb 2006 have seen a lot of weddings. Many of them are people I grew up with. There was Sheldon Rego, Gayle Dsouza, Gavin Dsouza and now the latest is Jasmine Mathias.

Congrats guys. Hope married life is treating you all well. In the unregulated revelry of one raunchy bachelor party last year we found the perfect song for you all.... Another one bites the Dust - Queen!!

Cheers, Best wishes and God bless to all the couples and dont forget to name your first borns after me:)

7 habits of HEPs

Desi Fun(da)

Due to some reasons that are still not clear we started talking about the book by Steven R. Covey titled "The 7 habits of highly effective people". Well it seems that the people who have read this book are highly impressed by it and especially the 7 habits that are listed in it.

Well to be frank I had seen this book at Heathrow airport while travelling back home and was about to buy the paperback because it seemed impressive and hey the chicks on the plane weren't going to start a conversation with me anytime soon and the 7 hour flight to Mumbai was a bit too much time for self-introspection. So well as I moved towards the counter what do I see in the just released section, but "The 8th habit of hight effective people".

What!! This dude may be a good writer and all but did he forget to read his own book? He sure as hell wasn't effective in putting down the list all 8 those single line sentences into one book. Now why would I want to read some advice from a jerk that himself proved, by releasing the second book, that he isn't effective at all. He has the gaul to release the second book and whats even worse"er" is that the damn publishers publised it and even worse"er" that people are buying and reading both ... come on people.

Ofcourse I haven't bought or read the book.

Rang de ...

Desi Fun(da)

Last week we finally got tickets for Rand De Basanti. As always the Aamir Khan starrer was well publicised and much awaited for the past few months. And well I admire that dude and his attitude, no doubts about that.

The movie started off well and the first half was awesome. It met and surpassed the expectations. The movie along with a superb cast and thoughtful dialogues managed to spark a sense of awe and admiration of the byegone generation of freedom fighters, some of whom I had left behind in my school history books and never bothered to think about again.

The "Go Back Simon" protests, the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai and most of all the massacre at Jalianwala Baugh sent a chill down my spine. What transpired at those horrendous events in Indian history were so aptly revived in this movie, enough to rekindle one's thought of how gory the path to our independence was. The bravery of the few who garnered the masses to start a revolution and iginite the passion of freedom within the people. The brave souls who had to give up their own freedom and get jailed to spread their word. The movie brought that out wonderfully.

But,... yes there is a but, then came the last quarter of the movie. And well did it disappoint. The concept of beating up an elderly mother of an Air Force pilot followed by her falling into her comma. The heroes turn mercenaries and what follows is a blood bath, starting with the death of a politician, a son killing his father and finally the reverred Black Cats coming into the AIR studios to kill the heroes.

What pisses me off is not the fact that this is a bad ending. Compared to today's hindi movies this ending was really good. But the movie maker had a wonderful opportunity to really ignite the masses with this movie. With the idea that our generation holds the key towards the rebirth of our nation into a place of integrity, love and pride. This movie could have been the Mein Kempf for a generation of Indians. For losing the opportunity to truely make a difference in today's India of indifference the people associated with this movie cannot be forgiven.