In the moment of success

In the World Athletic Championships of 2017 which was held in London, in the finals of 100 meters sprint for men, the reigning world champion Usain Bolt was running his last race before retiring. From 2008 on wards, almost close to a decade, he has not lost a single 100 meter finals in any majors. He was the winner of the last 3 Olympics and last 3 world championships in 100 meters for men. This occasion was supposed to be a fairy tale end to a great career, probably the greatest among the all-time great sprinters.

 In lane 8, 35 year old Justin Gatlin of USA was the runner. As soon as Gatlin stepped into the arena, the crowd started booing. He was booed every time he was introduced to the crowd at the London Stadium before in the 100m heats and semifinals. Justin Gatlin is a former Olympics champion of 2004 and World champion of 2005. Gatlin is also, the sport's most controversial drugs cheat. He was banned twice early in his career for doping offences. Gatlin, meanwhile was stoic and focused in the face of sustained booing, on that day inside the London stadium. 

At the sound of the gun, when the sprinters came off the starting block, it was Justin Gatlin who blazed past the other sprinters to capture the gold. Usain Bolt didn't make it to even silver. He had to settle for Bronze. The great man's last race didn't follow a perfect script.  

Gatlin, who at age 35 has long raced in Bolt’s shadow, reacted emotionally to the victory, letting loose a guttural roar as he saw the result flash on the scoreboard inside London Stadium. 

Justin Gatlin reacts after he wins the race in front of the crowd who continuously booed him for his drug tainted past

  

Despite clinching gold Justin Gatlin bows at the feet of
Usain Bolt

Amid his celebration, Gatlin took a moment to pay a tribute to Bolt who ran his final 100m race of his glittering career. Gatlin bowed to the Jamaican runner and then the pair hugged and congratulated each other. 

2 great athletes showed to the world how to handle their moments of success, in their own way. 

Usain Bolt, after an illustrious career, didn't get a sent off as expected, but he displayed his greatness by congratulating and supporting the winner while celebrating the end of his successful career. 

Justin Gatlin, served his time, exorcised his dark past and delivered one of his best performances to upstage the crowd's favourite. In that moment of success against all odds, he never forgot to respect his opponent and displayed a humility which elevated him from a drugs cheat to a respectable sportsman. 

Gig economy - Times to come?

Article by Ramesh Jude Thomas How people in the 'gig economy' will mint a fortune

Praveen has been a driver in Bengaluru for over a decade. 

Dedicated and polite to a fault, he spent the better part of that time with a well-known hospitality flag.

In a really good month, with overtime and tips, he would take home Rs 25,000. On average that figure would even out at around Rs 21,000.

Timings were unpredictable. And the better the month, the later the nights. Today he clears close to Rs 75,000 for the same effort.

As you might have guessed he is with a big cab aggregator. The car he drives is his own, he decides when he will open and close the app, and pretty much controls his ‘business’.

Simran (name changed) used to work with one of the big 4 MNC agencies as a creative group head.

Her story is not very different, except that her monthly take home was a lot healthier than Praveen’s.

She absolutely detested the job and dragged herself to work every day.

Right now she has a little studio of her own. Works long hours for sure, but decides and plans her trekking breaks at will, and earns a lot more.

Both Praveen and Simran are not exceptions.

They are part of an exploding global phenomenon which an associate recently termed the ‘gig economy’.

Apt metaphor I thought. Freelancer doesn’t quite cut it. These are not low priced, on-call vendor options.

These people could cost you top dollar for top drawer work, like a surgeon or a performer.

Are these then the primary building blocks of the new economy?

If you recall what EF Schumacher had said over three decades ago, it will be the small guy who drives the economy.

He keeps the big guys in business. What we are experiencing today is a distilled version of the same thing. This will only get more pervasive. 

So then will the big guys disappear altogether? Will there be no large, global brands anymore?

To answer that: Yes there will be, but not as we know it. Here’s why: Uber, Lyft and Ola are large brands, and subject to operating efficiency, they will continue to be significant players in the economy.

What will change is that they will increasingly own less and less capital assets and hence hire less and less people to man them.

In an increasingly disaggregated, economic environment, with high levels of stress, both companies and individuals seek greater flexibility and freedom. But not necessarily lower standards.

Consequently, a large band of high quality ‘giggers’ like Praveen and Simran will not only thrive but contribute significantly to the efficiency and reputation of global entities.

By the way, this is not a new phenomenon. The shipping firm Wallams owns no ships.

McDonald’s has very few restaurants. Many hotel chains manage other people’s properties under their flag.

All of this works well only for one reason. The fact that the brand owners viz. Uber, McDonald’s, the ad agencies or the hotel chains are very clear about what they are promising to customers, and pass on that expectation to the army of contracted hires.

This ensures that quality flows down the chain. They ensure that standards are met.

In the micro rating environment that we live in, this can be a brutal reality for brands that don’t stand up to scrutiny.

When was the last time you used a restaurant or a new hotel without checking the ratings on Zomato or Trip Advisor.

This implies that financial statements as we know them will become irrelevant.

Soon book value could become a meaningless investor metric.

‘Reputations’ and ‘recipes’ will drive the value of a businesses rather than size and location of the restaurant. Think about it.

Ramesh Jude Thomas is President & chief knowledge officer, Equitor Value Advisory.

France's brush with ISIS has lessons for India

There is profound alienation among the Muslims in France and the ISIS attracts followers in such a milieu.

Today’s India, in the Narendra Modi era, has a great deal to learn from France. Alienation exists in many regions of India in many forms.

The tragic happenings in Jammu and Kashmir should be an eye-opener.

When people revolt against State coercion, the nadir is reached.

Intolerance toward the minority communities or attempts to humiliate them or the refusal to go the extra league to build an inclusive society -- these are all evident today in our society. Much of it is happening in broad daylight, too.

If the lessons from the tragedy unfolding in France are properly understood, we have no reason to get sleepless nights over ISIS 'modules' and 'sleepers' in our neighborhood and the authorities can firmly and with transparency deal with its traces in India whenever or wherever they show up, if at all, as a freak phenomenon.

Read the complete article by M. K. Bhadrakumar, Former Ambassador to Uzbekistan and Turkey
http://www.rediff.com/news/column/france-brush-with-isis-has-lessons-for-india/20160715.htm

About M.K.Bhadrakumar
M.K.Bhadrakumar served in the Indian Foreign Service for three decades and served as ambassador to Uzbekistan and Turkey. Apart from two postings in the former Soviet Union, his assignments abroad included South Korea, Sri Lanka, West Germany, Kuwait, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He served thrice in the Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan Division in the Ministry of External Affairs, including as the Head of the Division in 1992-95. Mr. Bhadrakumar sought voluntary retirement from the IFS in 2002 and has since devoted himself to writing. He contributes to various publications in India and abroad and is a regular columnist for Asia Times and The Hindu. He has written extensively on Russia, China, Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan and on the geopolitics of energy security. He normally resides at Delhi, when not travelling and lecturing abroad.

Negotiating slow internet speeds, the Facebook way

As can be seen from the comparative graph, internet speeds in India are not great. In fact, India lags behind most of the developing Asian countries in terms of average internet speeds offered to their citizens.

Nevertheless, there are few companies who has leveraged this adversity of slow internet speeds and converted this into an opportunity. Facebook is one of those.

Facebook has over 142 million users in India, of which about 133 million access the social media platform through their mobile phones.
Also, about 69 million people in India use Facebook daily, of which 64 million access the platform through their mobile devices.
India is the largest market for Facebook outside of the US. At the end of December 2015, the US-based firm had 1.59 billion monthly active users.

Facebook launched Facebook Lite in June last year. This application was built to use less data and work well despite constrained telecom networks, specially in developing countries. Consuming less than 1 MB space, Facebook Lite supports over 50 languages.

Facebook Lite crossed the 100-million-user base mark globally within nine months of launch.
The growth was led by strong uptake in markets like India where internet speeds are traditionally poor.

Reference:

1) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Facebook-userbase-crosses-142-million-in-India/articleshow/51330777.cms

2) http://qz.com/725999/facebook-has-a-workaround-for-indias-frustratingly-slow-internet/

George Everest Who?

Sir George Everest was born on July 4, 1770 in Wales and came to India as a cadet in the Bengal artillery in 1806.

In December 1834, he bought an estate called the Park near Hathipaon in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India, where he built his office and residence. The house is known today as Sir George Everest's House and Laboratory, or Park House. The house is situated in Park Estate about 6 kilometres (4 mi) west of Gandhi Chowk / Library Bazaar, (the west end of Mall Road in Mussoorie).

He was largely responsible for completing the section of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. In other words, he drew the map from South India extending north all the way to Nepal, a distance of 2,400 km.

Mount Everest is named after Sir George.

Everest retired in 1843 and he returned to the UK, where he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was dubbed a knight in 1861, and in 1862 he was elected as the vice-president of the Royal Geographical Society. Everest died in London in 1866 and is buried in St Andrew's Church, Hove, near Brighton.

Trial post for Adi

Trial post for Adi

Kunjunni Maash

Latest from Common Floor

Since their inception, Common floor-Apna Complex combo has witnessed and staged quite a good number of nasty wars.
It has been mostly between individuals and individual driven. In a few situations when it became utterly difficult to accomplish the governance of this complex, the community has come forward, united to defeat the defaulting individuals involved so that they were unable to push their agenda.
But this latest of its kind is different, in the sense, it is the first time a small group of individuals as a part of implementing their agenda has resorted to the sophisticated techniques like

1. Infiltrate the decision making body and positions of power. In this case, management committee.
2. Resort to a planned coordinated propaganda campaign in the media(read as email forum) by twisting historical facts and publish it in a manner which is favorable to their agenda.
3. From the positions of power, indulge is subversive acts so that all the opposing elements to their single point agenda is removed from the equation.
4. Run covert campaigns and willful publish of data corrupted to suit their needs.

Leave the individuals or set of individuals who held the forum for ransom to push their agenda, in most cases the agenda being just the pacification of their ego, this new group of sophisticated manipulators are the people whom we should actually be worried about.

Why?

Because what is happening here is a true reflection in a microscopic manner of, what is happening in our country in general. Small groups with agenda and ideology has been making rapid progress in using new age media successfully in propagating their ideology in the garb of progress and development. The infiltration of these groups in all the walks of life is almost complete.

(To be continued........)

Analysing the influences

One of the funniest and catchy dialogues in the movie "Gangs of Wasseypur" was from the character Ramadhir Singh.

Ramadhir Singh: Hum abhi tak jinda hain kyunki hum sanimaa nahi dekhte.
Sab saale sabke dimaag me apni apni picture chal rahi hai, sab saale hero banna chah rahein apni picture me.
Ee saala Hindustan mein jab tak sanimaa hai, log chutiya bante rahenge.

(English Translation)
Ramadhir Singh: I have outlived all my enemies till now because I don't watch films.
Everybody's mind is corrupted because of films, everyone wants to be a hero.
For as long as there is cinema in our country, people will be fooled.

Kalki Koechlin

I remember reading an article by Kalki Koechlin in Tehelka a few years back. It mentioned how, when all of 6 years old, she ran away(actually, decided to run away) from her house after a tiff with her parents. After abandoning the running away plan and while coming back, she was picturing everything in her mind like mother running towards her tearfully, father putting down the phone in which he was calling police and hurrying to wrap her in a blanket, all in slow motion.

 However, the reality was different. As soon as she stepped in the house what she was got an earful of scolding for playing out in the rain and a slap for breaking her lunchbox. Kalki's article talks about, as adults how we tend to take ourselves very seriously and get caught up in the moment. We conjure up filmy condolences, music score and all, to satisfy our emotional outbursts. We tend to imagine ourselves as hero or heroines of the movies.
Now that sounds very similar to Ramadhir Singh's view point!

Kalki Koechlin with Anurag Kashyap

So, who is Ramadhir Singh?
Ramadhir Singh is a character in the movie created by Anurag Kashyap.
Anurag Kashyap is a famous Bollywood movie director.
Anurag Kashyap is married to Kalki Koechlin.
Now, we know where Anurag Kashyap got the lines for Ramadhir Singh.

Ha ha ha...very amateurish discovery of a well known fact.

But I guess, when a historian finds out the influences in Shakespeare's life which made him create the classics, it makes stuff for Phd thesis, isn't it?

Victoria's Tears

2013 Australian Open produced some incredible performances in both mens and women section. It produced some truly emotional moments, the HD transmissions accentuating every bit of those human drama.

In the women's final there was 23 year old Victoria Azarenka battling 31 year old Li Na who rediscovered her winning ways midway through the tournament and became the overwhelming crowd favorite. Coming into finals under a cloud of allegations on poor sportsmanship, taking an extended injury time at a crucial moment of her semifinal against the teenaged Sloane Stefens, Azarenka had to battle not just her spirited opponent in best of form but also a partisan crowd booing her at the first opportunity. A tumble in the second set resulting in a concussion and suspected injury won more fans for Li Na casting Victoria deeper into the villain mold.

Then like a true champion, Victoria put her head down, dug deep, shut out the taunts from the crowd and eventually prevailed over her opponent to stake claim on the trophy for second consecutive year. However, winning the final point opened the floodgates of the pent up emotions, Victoria breaking down like a child, wailing, tears streaming. That was one of those moments were we could see a human being laid bare stripped of ego letting go off the suppressed sorrow. The tears were not the tears of joy in winning the contest, but that of victim wrongly accused hearing the verdict absolving her of the crime. The tears were that of anguish and pain of being called a cheat. The tears were that of relief, of coming out clean and a feeling of being accepted back into the fold.

“This is a trophy that she suffered to win, so maybe that explained the tears,’’ said Sam Sumyk, who has coached Azarenka to consecutive Australian Open titles.

Buckle up

In Bangalore implementation of Seat belt rule has hit farcical low. Posse of policemen pounce on unsuspecting four wheeler drivers at busy roads and intersections in the city as a part of implementation, whereas, in the various highways connecting Bangalore to other cities, enforcement of the rule is next to nothing.

The question is, is the rule being implemented to ensure the safety of passengers or for the police men to make money?

Ripples; or rather the lack of it

This is how I wanted to exit, like an Olympic grade diver slicing into the water without not so much of a ripple. A smart guy would've concentrated on the quality of the dive, whereas an idiot like me concentrated on not making ripples.

When we lose big time, we can console ourselves claiming its a learning experience blah, blah... When we lose because you trusted the wrong person, what is the learning? Never to trust anyone?

Laser Assisted Automatic Braking

Laser assisted braking sensors on the front windscreen

I am amazed how little information is available in internet on the new jargon 'Laser assisted automatic braking' introduced by Volvo in their new car models like S60, S80 and XC60. It makes me wonder whether this just a marketing jargon.

However, coming from a brand like 'Volvo' it doesn't sound logical they would use some jargon without the technological backup. In fact, googling on the term found just one satisfactory description which says "Lasers mounted in key points on the car read how far you are away from an object. If you get to close they apply the brakes automatically to stop the car. Its basically to stop you backing into fences or other cars when your reversing."

The picture above shows the laser assisted braking sensors on the front windscreen of a Volvo model which lends credence to the description of laser assisted braking in the above paragraph.

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk is an online market place that automatically pairs tasks that are simple (yet too hard for a computer to do) with people who want to do them for money (often just a few cents).

The tasks are available to be executed and it is available in units of HIT(Human Intelligent Task). As a Mechanical Turk Worker, you can search and browse for HITs and click on the ones that interest you. After you accept the HIT, follow the instructions to execute the task and get paid paid through your Amazon Payments Account once the Requester approves the work.

Mechanical Turk Requesters are the ones who offer HITs. Data cleanup, categorization, content creation & moderation, feedbacks are a few of the common categories of tasks on offer. Registering to be a Requester provides the job providers access to an on-demand scalable work force who are flexible and provide high quality cost-effective results within minutes. And the payment needs to be released only if you're satisfied with the results.

At this point of time, the web portal claims to have more than 4.5 lakhs of HITs on offer.

Arsenal and Honda

Arsenal and Honda SIEL, though worlds apart in their chosen domain have lot of similarities in their current predicament. The first one is a top football club in English Premier league whereas the latter is the Indian arm of the renowned automobile manufacturing company, Honda, from Japan.

Arsenal looked totally left out in the last summer at the end of the transfer window. The coach cum manager, Arsene Wenger had bet big on upcoming talent than established players making Arsenal look like a bunch of inexperienced Amateurs.

In case of Honda, they were riding high in the Indian market around a year back with its City touted as the best petrol sedan. Honda never believed in discounts neither dilution of value of their cars. Irrespective of those, they were in such a fine position that buyers used to hoard any offering from Honda. But the steep hike in petrol prices put paid to their free run. With no diesel vehicle in their portfolio, Honda cars sale dipped.

Sticking to their years old method and being inflexible are widely regarded as the reason for both the company's current downward spiral. The EPL giants are still sticking to their method of spending little for new buys and Honda is persisting with the portfolio filled with petrol vehicles.

It will be huge relief for their fans and well wishers to see these trail blazing companies halt their decline and succeed.

Murthy speak

Assembling a team of extraordinary people who have displayed outstanding capabilities through their value system competence, low ego and high energy is crucial to the progress of any institution.

Different people run out of endurance and intellectual horsepower at different points of time. Some people drop out of the marathon since they do not see any value in an organization when their own time under the arc light is over. A leader's responsibility is to recognize this, provide them opportunities outside the organization, and usher in suitable replacements.

Minimalist foot wear

In a matter of an year or lesser, minimalist foot-wear is going to be the in-thing in foot wear fashion. You will be seeing a whole lot of branded running shoe fans going the minimalist way. You will be hearing a lot about the benefits of running bare foot against using jogging shoes.
Now, there is a small but growing set of researchers who are of the opinion that bare foot is the way humans should use their feet.

Ball man

Brands entering into art space has always evoked mixed reactions.It is a precarious feat for a brand to attempt because it can easily go wrong and have the exact opposite of the desired effect. A branded piece of art can be viewed as too promotional, too gaudy, too imposing and an intrusion into “public space.”
However, THEY are intruding into the art space and surprisingly, some pretty awesome results have emerged.

Nike’s 20-meter-high, 4.75-ton Ball Man made of 5,500 Brazilian Skill Balls was a huge hit during the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. It was on display, suspended from the ceiling in the Atrium of the Carlton Centre mall in central Johannesburg, strung together by over 10 kilometres of cable wire.

This certainly takes the scale to a whole new level.

Rahul Gandhi

Some how, seeing the actions of Rahul Gandhi, I get this feeling that he is going to die at a young age. He is such an open target for terrorists while embarking on his populist actions that, by this time a terrorist group would've identified loop holes in his security.
But even if something happens to him, we cannot blame him. After living his whole life inside a security cordon one could be pardoned for this indiscretion, even if it costs his life.

Nano at 7500

It slightly amazed me when I noted the fact that our Nano has completed 7500 KM in little above 4 months. It has done 2 long trips, one to Chennai and another to Velankanni, without a glitch. Other than that, it is clocking around 60 Kms during Selma's daily commute to Whitefield.

A list of items which are lacking in Nano would be;

1. Left side rear view mirror (infact, it even doesn't have provision for fitting one)
2. Bigger Fuel tank (our model has the max tank capacity of 15litres which means at one stretch we can do only 300KM if it gives 20Km/litre)
3. Boot access from outside (the boot inside Nano is accessed by folding the rear passenger seat which makes the boot useful for only medium sized bags and suitcases)
4. Provision for fitting a standard music system (as of now, the space provided will fit only a particular make of Clarion specially designed for Nano. But that system comes with only memory card and USB provision, but no CD or DVD. At 8k, it is not worth buying)
   

New Year resolutions

Let's keep Nano aside, for this post. It is New Year and is the time for many people to take resolutions. I don't recall taking any resolutions previously. But 2010 is an year which I really want to take some resolutions and stick to it.

Number 1 - I want to cultivate the habit of gifting. I resolve to gift at least 12 times in the year 2010. That makes it 1 gifting a month ideally.

Number 2 - I resolve to make atleast 12 blog posts in the year 2010.

There are some more, but the above two are the ones which I really feel, should be made as the New Year resolutions. Among the others, the prominent are;

• Get back to programming in this year 2010. Hope it works out.
• Buy an Enfield Bullet.
• Reduce the waist size below 34 and the weight to 70KG.