Cleaning fish !!!

I am new to this aquarium thing. Just few months ago, up on kids request, I just bought a small 6 gallon aquarium and 6 fishes.

I carefully chose all the fishes I wanted, the colorful ones, made couples of each type.

Within a month I realized that, the water becomes dirty way too often. I ve seen other aquariums in other friends places. Much bigger ones. But do they also spend that much time, cleaning and recycling the water ?

So, when a close friend and a aquarium lover for many many years visited home for Diwali, I asked him how to keep it clean for longer.

He looked at all the fishes and said, you are lacking a "cleaning fish". One that would live on the filth created by water and other fishes. It just made sense, all of a sudden.

No system can sustain with just beautifully paired best looking participants. The most important participant is the one doing so called "dirty job".

It solves one of my professional problem. I know how to answer questions from my engineers who say why they are doing dirty job. Also, I now know, who are the ones to pay more attention and value in my own org.

Surrender plane ..

Ok.. Just a brief update. I believe there are 3 planes of human mind.

- Ignorance plane one has no clue about that subject

- intellectual plane - where one believes they can reason out and ask questions and find out the answers.

- surrender plane (sometimes called devotional plain), where no questions asked, no ignorance, yet complete acceptance and adherence.

They all happen in order top to down and one can be in one plane one type of subjects and in other plane other subjects.

I am in complete surrender plane w.r.t. something very physically painful I am going through now, knowingly, everyday. I have no intention of analyzing what results I ll achieve.
I have no expectations out of it. Just do what couple of guys tell me do everyday. Which is very painful. Yet, I am not ignorant about the contemporary science of this subject :)

Its fun to be in surrender plane !

Alternate Thinking

I gave my 7 yr old 2 jumbled words. The objective being find proper words from the same alphabets and write a good sentence using the two words.

The jumbled words were - "E C R A" and "T D Y U S".

I was 100% sure he will come up with "CARE" and "STUDY" and write a sentence using them.

What he came up with was - "RACE" and "DUSTY". Almost in a flash !

Sometimes, alternative thinking comes from including opinion of people with different exposures and experiences and passions.

When we hit the cealing of our thinking, diversity is the only thing that comes to rescue.

Growth needs the complete support structure ....

[ This is a story that would make sense to people who work in a global product comapany ]

Company - A global leader in making networking devices.

Products in case -

Alpha - a popular product, been for 6 years in market, liked by a few big customers. Ownership just transitioned from a US team to

an India team. Few months ago.

Beta - another successful product. Almost 4 times to revenue of Alpha. Complex. Current plan is to move the ownership to an India team.

Gamma - an upcoming product. Not much revenue generated yet. Lots of potential and lots of hype about it. There is a break away small team from the team that handles Alpha and Beta in India. A lot of focus. A lot of engineers want to move to that product. Both in US and in India.

Off late, just after the news of Beta being transferred to India, has caused a lot of action and noise in the entire community.

- This is top revenue generator for the entire BU.

- Has a solid roadmap for next few years to grow

- plenty of great work to be done and great exposure to variety of customers

- At the same, time when Alpha got transferred to India, some people lost their jobs in US. That sour memory is still alive in many heads. That causes existing US team owning Beta to shiver. They have all started a rush for Gamma. To be there first. They dont want to be the last ones hanging to Beta in US.

They may lose their jobs.

As a result, the roadmap for the India team, working on Gamma now, a small team working as an extended team, not in ownership mode, is losing roadmap. The Gamma bucket is being filled by the people exodus from Beta in US.

This is the back ground. Sorry about the length of it. But I had to provide this to explain the real story coming up.

Right after the declaration of transition of Beta, a couple of our top people wanted to leave from existing Alpha team (moving to Beta work).

Various reasons put forth.

- Gamma is a new product. Lets stay ahead of the product cycle. It will be easy for growth.

- One of these person thinks, he was already well received by Alpha management. Beta management will be new for him. He has to prove himself again.

Why not prove in Gamma instead ?

- One other person, dislikes Alpha and Beta management. Not sure why ? What he forgets is that he is rated in top ranking people. If the management is not taking care, how did he get to that spot ? But its his logic !

Betaal thinks there are key two reasons for these people to look at Gamma now. All the above are indirect way of articulating an internal fear.

- The previous partial team in Beta, is relatively stronger than Alpha. So top people moving from Alpha to Beta are feeling a bit insecured. Where would they stand among the stalwarts ? Better to go to Gamma that is not yet crowded with strong people and be the king.

- Another fear may be, there is not enough in Beta for so many strong guys to have their own identity and be visible and grow.

Aspirations to grow is the root of it. In a safe environment.

Growth needs support structure more than a next gen product. They are definitely not looking at their own history. They have grown fast using their knowledge, skills. They have established themshelves. They are going in to a product now (Gamma) where there are more than 100 ex-Beta guys in US is coming in. Where there would be shrinking ownership for a while for the India team.

The choice is between visible competition and invisible competition ( from across the pond). The choice is between established support structure that has rated them in top and creating a new support structure. The choice is between established roadmap and backing of great revenue and the challenge of being part of something new.

Both are good choices. But, if growth is the aim, stay where support is. Proven and recorded support. Running away from internal insecurity wont take you north of the growth chart.

Wishes .. not what they are, more who they come from !

Funny really it is !

Today, everyone is in a mood to wish Happy Diwali over mass e-mail media.

You may ask, whats funny about it. A lot I would say :)

There is a Dir, Engineering - who is a quick finger is wishing all on every occasion. Happy Diwali, Happy New Year etc.

He is on top of it.

Nothing wrong about it as such !

There is a lab admins, who sent a mail wishing all with some attachment, and that got hate mail responses.

Why are you attaching large files ? Spamming etc.

The Dir, I mentioned also did the same thing. No one questioned.

Bataal hopes, there will be a day - where the wish is what going to matter. And even better, not on an occasion. Always !!!

Betaal wishes all very happy life.Diwali or not !

Attacks of Christianism ..

What is happening in Orissa is all over the foreign media now. The news goes this way - the local people of two tribal districts of Orissa, are killing the Christian missionaries, burning their houses and asking them to vacate the place.

Pope has criticized it. Our prime minister calls it national shame, coming back from his trip to France.

As I just came back from a two week visit to this same locality, I am bombarded with questions and looks by my colleagues from US and other countries.

Here is the real conflict. Not sure all of you read this in the news paper this clearly :)

These two districts of tribal areas in middle Orissa is covered with thick jungle. This has been the chosen place for the missionaries to convert thousands of tribals every year to Christianism to meet there yearly quota of conversions.

Away from progress, neglected by government - its been an easy place for missionaries to spend their budget to build hospitals and english schools. If you need to be treated in the hospital, you need to be Christian. If you need an English education you need to be Christian.

Which is OK as a Win-Win.

Now, comes the real conflict. India government has quota's in jobs for the different sects of society based on cast. There is some quota for Scheduled Castes and some for Scheduled Tribes.

The idea there is to help the sects, grow up the social ladder of progress over a few generations.

Govt. also has a by-law that if the people who belong to the scheduled castes and tribes, convert to Christianism to avail schooling and other facilities, wont be able to claim jobs through that quota.

Now, that works not so much in favor of missionaries. So, they have created an infrastructure, where they convert people's religeon and divert a bit of money to local corrupt govt. to get them SC certificates so they can have the jobs from the quota too. One sect that has more representation gets the dual benefit while the other sect suffers (ST) .

And thats the root of the fight. With ST leader asking for thorough examination of caste certificates.

Story is half done so far. Enter the Mao's / Naxals / Anarchists, who rule the jungle.

They see an issue that can bring unrest to the forest region. What they do, is kill one Christian one day and kill one tribe one day. Keep the fire burning.

Missionaries have been there for decades. They all co-existed with local tribes and castes for long.

The addition of Mao's have made is poisonous.

What is good business ?

Now a days, everyone has a comment or two about the economy. Its on the top of everyone's mind. So, no wonder Betaal also has a comment.

Focus - Airlines in India.

Airlines in India are making huge losses. Lot of competition. Low fair. And operating cost is high.

However, there are two voices being heard from airlines, both the credit meltdown.

First - Asking govt. to give USD 1B bail-out package to ride them through the odd phase of economy.

Betaal thinks, it is a bad idea. Bad economic phases should innovate new business practices to get out of the slump. Not ask for ordinary tax payers money to bail them out. In my mother tongue there is a saying which translates like this -

" The miserly and the sincerely save money for their rainy day. When the rainy day comes, they dont need that money as much as the flamboyant, luxury seekers. But the same flamboyant lux people get away with the miserly and the sinierly money"

Second - Two big airlines, decided not to compete. Optimize flight timings, share code and destinations that do not carry full load all the time.

Right thing to do - Betaal thinks !

Staying calm in chaos ..

I ve taken a brief hiatus from blogging.. blame it on the Argentinian delegation visiting this week.

Yesterday, we were going out for lunch together. On a busy, main arterial road of the city, we saw a cow resting / sleeping happily.

All the vehicles slow down and take cautious turns around it and move on.

"Cows on the Raod" have been the bill board of India in other advanced countries for a while. Not so surprisingly, the Argentinian's wanted to stop the car and decided to take pictures of the cow and video of the traffic moving around it. It was worth a chuckle for them.

However, what I noticed, is that the amount of calm around that obstruction in the busy mid-morning road.

Most of the city drivers were cool with it. Slowly taking round abouts. More over the cow was also cool with it. Not bothering about the huge vehicles running around her.

Mankind has long tried to figure out this core mantra of rest to avoid the inherent urban rest-less-ness leading to stress.

Time to learn from that cow ?

Tale of two friends ...

I have two close friends who went to study engineering with me back in early nineties. Very talented ones at whatever they did and they do.

I ll have to name them for this short story. Sarath and Manas.

Sarath is dreamy and perfectionist. Technically strong. Painstakingly detailed. And for him, the pleasure lies in the journey and not at the end.

Manas is practical, business savvy, un-emotional and enjoys earthly things (good things).

Sarath is a strong believer of the devine, and can wash away all humanly pains by just praying for hours.

Manas is an atheist. When in a mess, he would rather plan a way out meticulously than praying to the questionable super power (God !).

Sarath is the innovator. Manas is the marketeer, the sustainer and the grower.

Sarath thinks he is the most superior creation of God ! Manas believes, supreme can be made and can be broken.

Back in late nineties, when reverse brain drain was not even born (as a concept), Sarath came back to a small town in eastern India (left a lucrative job/enterprise in USA that he was a co-founder of), to follow his dreams of empowering rural Indians. To guide the mass attention back to tradition and to bring back some values which are as dead as dodo in recent times. But he continued to work for the same company to fund his dreams, from the small city, with a premitive internet link that was available that time. Sarath's business was a single man telecommuting affair.

Time changed ! Big Indian brains in USA started looking towards home country starting 2002. Manas sold the idea of having off-shore unit for the same company. Came back to same city. Two friends joined again in work, this time in India.

Manas being the business savvy guy, moved the business ahead from a one man show to a decent size operation. Moved it from an innovation center to a business center. Moved it from cost to profit. He became the de-facto spokesperson of the India unit. People back at US, cheered him.

He had one issue at hand. For him to run at his pace, he had to get rid of Sarath - the creator - the dreamy innovator. His friend of years. Who even found him this job in US to start with.

And he did it ! Eventually.

Until this time, whenever I visited the city, I spent endless hours with both of them. I did the same this time too. But separately !

I am neither talented as Sarath nor business savvy as Manas to understand and apprehend the exact details of the rift.

Chori karo .. lekin pakde mat jao !!

This vacation is turning out to be "back to basics" educational !

One of my very close relatives, working as a bank manager in a nationalized bank, has been suspended from his work for last 4-5 months.

I was shocked to hear that as he comes across as an honest guy and was not expecting him to be suspended from work because of negligence or malpractice.

I asked him, how it happened. And this is the story.

He has been away from Orissa for a long time now. He is being posted in rural areas of Assam and West Bengal. While his wife and three kids have been in a city studying. He has never been home and gotten desperate.

He wanted to get close to his family and asked for a transfer to a different place.
The officer who was in charge of posting, asked him to talk to someone, who is no way related to the bank. He was suspicious but desperate. He went ahead and talked to that guy.

The guy told, you have to pay Rs 20K (bribe) for the officer to change your place of work.
After some thinking, he went back and said, OK.

Here is the funny thing. The person wanted the money in form of a DEMAND BANK DRAFT.

Who does it ? Who takes bribe in any other form that cash ?

That should have triggered some brain wave. But he was desperate.

He paid it in a draft.

The draft was caught be internal vigilance of the bank and he was suspended. Now waiting out the hearing.

Only as a post investigation, he came to know that the officer in question, is very ill famous for taking bribe for transfers. And vigilance was after him for that. He wanted a case, where he wanted to show that people offer him money but he does not accept it. What better than asking for a demand draft .. duh !

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This is the same guy, who fell for National Lottery scam on e-mail a year ago, and I talked him out of it !

Progress .. etc.

Yesterday my brother met a small accident on his motor bike.
As if he needed an excuse, and this was the trigger point, he ditched his bike (his main problem was kick starting it and the bike had grown unreliable over time too) and went to the show room to buy
a switch start scooter (Activa).

Went along with him, and saw the same dealership that was there 25 years ago too in this small city.

He paid the cash and rode the scooter home, all within 2 hours.

We went to buy a bajaj scooter, exactly from the same dealership, for our (would be) borther-in-law just 1 month before my elder sisters marriage 23 years ago.

And that time, it took us the entire month to get the scooter. Bajaj was importing some parts for the scooter and a portion of scooter price was being collected in US Dollar.

23 years ago, in this town very few people knew how to acquire US Dollar. We did not even have pass ports to go to a bank and exchange currencies legally.

It was a who tangled process of going through middle men in small infamous gullies of the city to get the money in USD. The process of paying the money, right amount in right currency and waiting for a month to get the "Humara bajaj" to be gifted to my bro-in-law on the day of marriage.

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Today India exports a large chunk of motor parts to the rest of the world. And one can even buy a Ferrari in Indian currency.

The Times are A changing :)

The after math ....

The aftermath of the event in our family has been tremendous and life changing. I was just back in India / bangalore and trying to settle down with kids health issues.

Father went in to a shock and became bed ridden from that time. He had a cerebral meningitis that claimed some of his brain cells in 1998. This event made it worse. He is not recovering that incoherent mental state since then.

My younger brother was working as Dermatologist in Vellore and was doing ok. It is a good hospital. He had to relocate with his family to Bhubaneswar to stay with my parents so that there is someone to take care of them.

My parents still refuse to go to Bangalore. They want to stay in this same city. So the options were limited.

A new city for a doctor becomes a lot of work. A doctor has to build his reputation before he earns any money.

Then rental house, buying of another flat over next year and half and moving away from the rental house. All the mess.

I ve just been of financial help so far to this family, but has never been able to help on ground zero ;(

The Termetor ...

Around 2000 this small sleepy town, where so far the only form of economy was govt jobs, and only form of wealth creation is Black money through govt. employment.

In the real estate scene, luxury apartments were beginning in this city. This is where I booked one apartment in a good locality.

All total 12 apartments were being built. Out of which, I had one, my wife's parents had one, and her uncle bought one. Out of the rest nine, 8 of them were also bought by people known to us very well.

So, strategically it was good for my parents. All known people. Good locality. And I could buy the place literally over phone from USA, without having to go through usual hassles of buying a house.

The trouble was waiting for all of us in that 9th apartment, that the builder kept saying, he has kept it to himself.

Once all of them moved in, we came to know that the last apartment has been given to Anjana. There are folk tales / legends about what kind of pressures, and blackmailing made the builder to do that. But I do not have any evidence of that.

Rest 11 common people did not really have to worry much. Infact with Anjana, her personal rifle born securities, added some security to the place.

Yes - she is awarded armed security by govt !!!

Life went along very well. She even participated in my brother's marriage. Used to call my parents as Papa and Mama. Whenever she fell sick, as no other doctor would be scared in the city to treat her, it would be my brother making a visit to neighbors house.

The good stuff lasted around 4 years. No issues.

Then one day, all of us witnessed a bloody out burst. Mid night, she was either intoxicated or in her second personality, hitting the journalist boy friend black and blue in the hall way of the apartment. Its the same journalist who was the witness to her rape case a 5 years ago in 1999.

My sister tried to calm her down and she started swearing at her (and her husband). Threw shoes at her.

I think the bad phase started that time. No one saw the journalist after that in the apartment complex.

Few days later, after a calm morning walk my father was returning to apartment and saw her again is bloody mood hitting the security guard of the apartment who happened to have dozed off. The poor guy was a part time student from a village, working as a security guard and studying through the night under the lobby light. Again, the degree of beating was severe. No one retaliates to her, as she has her own armed body guards given by govt. 24x7.

My father this time tried to intervene and got slap. And she told him, that he should vacate the apartment in 3 hours.

He was shocked and did not take it seriously. Next few days were like living in hell. She would cut off birds and throw blood in to our apartment. Throw raw eggs. Her house trash. It became unhygienic mess. Police said, can not do anything. Neighbors closed their doors and watched. That time, only my father and my mother were there. my brother in law wanted to defend. She threatened her with a "attempt to rape" court case.

When I came to know about it, I called her up and tried to reason with her. Same threat for me to.

So, finally my parents had to leave and find other accommodation.

Funny thing is, all other neighbors who were watching the show, became victims one a month ! For last 3 years, she is the only one living there.

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Day before yesterday, I went to meet her again. Trying to ask for a solution. Everyone warned me not to go. I just tried anyway.

She did have a chat with me for a few minutes, but no solutions yet :(

The Tormented and the Termetor ...

(This is my version of life story of a woman, who has, in last 3 years caused immense amount of destruction in few families including my own. This is obviously not in-line of what I usually write in my blog. But while vacationing at my native place since last week, most of this recent past is reliving itself. This is kind of long, be forewarned !!! )

Anjana was born with a silver spoon in her mouth in a bureaucrats family in Orissa in 1969. Seldom did she know that time that her lives trajectory would go unlike any other rich kid, from an elite family.

All her siblings are very talented, educated and ambitious people and a lot of people are proud of them. All of them grew up to be IAS / IFS officers.

Anjana was not like the siblings. She was (and still is) very attractive, the happy go lucky types and the trouble kid at home as well as at the school.

Most people who went to school with her, knows her as someone extremely moody and stubborn. Hardly anyone knew it was early signs of a developing split personality.

Her parents got a hint of it soon, and got her married (to another IFS officer) at an relatively early age. The thought process being, that once she is married and has some of her own responsibilities, her mood swings will get better. The childish nature will mature in to that of a normal human being.

But the problems started happening within a few days of her marriage. The very second day of her marriage, she saw her husband hugging his sister in law, which was a brotherly, affectionate hug in the middle of all the guests who were still there after the marriage was over.

And, she made a big ruckus of it, saying her husband has illicit affairs with his sister in law. Everyone was shocked.

The marriage chugged along for 4-5 years and she even had two boys. But, her duality was increasing day by day. One moment the nicest person on earth.

One moment the most violent, screaming, swearing madling.

After a lot of treatment that went in vain, she was admitted to Ranchi Mental hospital for treatment. The court ordered her children not to be brought close to her, as there was intermittent risk to their lives, being with her.

In Ranchi Mental Hospital, she got close to a Woman Empowering NGO. She was a charmer. She told the NGO that she was put in the mental asylum because she protested against continous dowry harassment by her husband.

The NGO, fought a case for her and released her from Ranchi and took her to a NGO Shleter in Orissa. By that time, she was divorced legally.

The NGO made her the spokesperson of their activities. She was in TV. Newspaper. Ambassador of woman empowerment. Voice against torture. She was (and still is) a charm when in her first personality !

The NGO has very less idea of her second personality. Once she was out of the asylum, and was a household name, staying in the NGO, she started her mischief again. Most of her mischief ended with some amount of blood. All were violent. Needless to say that the NGO could not keep her for long and she was on her own soon.

She came back to her parents. Within few days of coming back home, something small caused her to beat her mom up to severe bleeding. Her parents had to go to court asking for order to not allow their daughter to stay with them.

Courts take time. Her parents could not take that much long. One day they locked their house and left to an undisclosed location. Anjana was again on the street.

This is when she started using her already found celebrity status to steer towards politics.

Orissa had a long running congress government that time. On the fateful night of 9th Jan 1999, the the key event to change that in favor of the opposition started. Anjana was gang raped in the outskirt of Bhubaneswar late in the night. Apparently, she and her erstwhile boy friend ( a journalist), stopped by a road side dhaba 15 kms away from Bhubaneswar around 10:30PM in the night.

Her celebrity status and a jouranlist witness, both helped the event grab the front page of all the new paper. She lunched the formal battle against the congress govt. that day, accusing the that time chief minister of Orissa to be behind this dirty job.

(There are many theories about that nights happenings).

That event went so hyper that Congress high-command (Sonia Gandhi) asked the chief minister to step down. The state got in to another election, and the opposite party came in to power (it still is in power).

The new govornment treasured her. Every time any congress leader had any statement in TV or news paper, they put Anjana with a counter statement and opinion. She evolved in to the most powerful woman in the state.

(That's the back ground part. The making of Anjana in a nutshell. I ll continue with how we got to interface with her and the rest. Here on all the information is first hand).

To be continued ....

Permission needed !!!

.. to get in to my own house, that is !!!

Way back in 2000, I bought my first ever real estate from my own hard earned money. A small apartment for my parents to live in a very calm and safe locality for my native town.

Till that time, we as a family did not have a place to call our own. We have moved from government quarter to quarter and in between rented places.

So, obviously it was a moment of elation for me (even though I was living thousands of miles away in the states that time).

Subsequently, in 2005, my parents were thrown out of that house, with their belongings by a local small politician as she wanted the place to be vacated and she could. Very basic and premitive reasons indeed. Police could not help. Law could not help.

Total 12 families were there in that small apartment complex. 11 of them were evicted. One of them made all others to come to road.

When all the legal way would not yield any result, obviously we rented another place nearby and stayed while our own house stayed empty and unused.

Today, while walking by that house, I thought of getting in there and just to see how things are. Or may be just get it cleaned even if no one can not stay there. It still legally belongs to me.

There was this big lock on the main gate. I asked the neighboring people, who can give me the key to get in. And they said, either the person who threw all of you out or get a special permission from police to get in.

I went to police station with an hand written application. Stood in line for an hour waiting for the inspector to show up. Asked him, I need some support and if needed protection, to get in to my house.

They all know, who the only person staying there, and her love to stay alone. And everyone is aware of her powers and connections and abilities to destroy.

No one helped. No one even entertained the idea of accepting the application.

Spent around half day around the police station. Not something I do usually. And eventually came back.

..and it is a long story with this woman, who has evicted all co-owners of that apartment complex. I would document that in my next blog.

It is relatively easy, to fight something outright unfair and illegal in corporate world. When it comes to state level politics, I am so far away even understanding it !!!

Extortion ..............

"Dushera Bakshish" is something very common this part of the India. During this time, almost every support personality of your daily life will come over for a few bucks from you. The postman, electricity meter reader, the person who cleans the road in front of your house, the water connection official. All of them.

This has been pretty much a tradition. So, it does not really annoy anyone around here. This is expected.

What amused me this year is the new and creative ways, people are including themselves to that set of support personnel who are eligible for Dushera Bakshish.

The BSNL Broadband technician, cuts the broadband connection. The usual reboot and wait does not help. Then call the usual number.

Someone will pick up and say mechanically for this problem he would have to come to home and check. He comes home and before looking in to the issue, asks for Dushera Bakshish.

Thats where I asked him to fix it first. He smiled and said, no worries, we are the invisible support people and no one gives them the public bonus which they feel entitled to. They need to come home, show their value and take this bonus.

He even mentioned, this is arranged. Once the bakshish is given, and he makes a call from him mobile phone the broadband connection at home will start working.