Bluff Masters

Last Sunday we decided to do an impromtu trip on the Scorpio to visit Shivasamduram. Asia's oldest power generation station is present here. Kaveri, the boon in the months with lot of rains and the bane in the months of no rains of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu falls down majestically here in two falls Bhara Chukki and Gagana Chukki.

We packed in lunch and drove. I thought 120 km could be covered in 2 hours. Little did I realize that 1 hour from Silicon Valley of India, you were really into the Silicon. There were stretches on the state and national highways where the road just disappeared! As the others were breaking and creaking about in the second gear, I thanked the Scorpio and screamed away leaving behind more than a small pile of dust! The falls were beautiful to see. But that is that. There is really nothing else! In a place like US, even a small trickle would be celebrated and local economy would be booming. Here we are with nature, and we had abysmal facilities. No rest rooms. One really has to answer the call of the nature in the nature. From dust to dust they say, it is water to water here :).

The Gagana Chukki side (I think) is where they are making some attempts to set up a viewing point etc. The other side (Bhara Chukki) is left open. It is dangerous as hell especially if you take kids.

At the risk of offending the red brigade, India needs to capitalize on these gold mines and develop them. These can lead to local economies developing and create employment in the area. When would be a day when we would have a thrilling boat ride to the bottom of the falls like the Maid of the Mist in the Niagra? When would we have roads (forget the good roads part for now) to these treasures so that more people can access them and when would we create clean environment for everyone to enjoy Bluff without the smell?

The most exciting part of the whole trip was the tense 5 s stand-off I had with a monkey trying to mess around with our bags. I was the hero who stood up for them before my kids. Little did they know Nature was beckoning me urgently at the sight of the monkey snarling at me!

Bliss at Bluff!

Amazing Game!!

People talk about great games! I think every generation has one. My generation had their great game today. India winning the 20-20 cricket world cup! What an amazing game!

It was wonderful to see these guys not lose cool and win one of the best finals that has been played. I think the game was a good tight one and not a slam bang contest. A very tight final with the game swinging from India to Pakistan and back. Finally, something had to give and it was poor Misbah! So close for Pakistan yet so far. India held their cool and made it happen.

A lot of lesson on team play, self belief and never give up...never ever give up.

20-20 is the future of cricket. I am happy that India won. Now we know that this is going to be the way cricket is going to be played in India.

Bring it on! Lets play!

Much Ado about the Man in Blue

All this noise that is being made about Ram and his existence. There are people denying he ever was there. There are people who talk as though they meet him everyday! And we are stuck in the middle of this escalating madness. Each one calling the other person a liar. Who is going to call the bluff is the real question!

End of the day Ram is helping...He seems to be a benevolent God. For the Grand Old man of Tamilnadu, he is giving the opportunity to brush aside all the other issues. The divine one is the carpet below which we will hide the family rule and other pesky issues. is this the final flicker we wonder? Or are there going to be other non-issues that are going to come out.

To the other old man, Ram is the walking stick. Injecting new life into a dead snake for him to flog again. In the days of increasing petrol prices and increasing emissions, get set for a rath yatra!

Then of course, there are the comrades. Desperately trying to get back to discussing their extinct philosophy. Talking against Ram or the Sethu makes them feel better.

So everyone in our age old tradition of obfuscation, is walking away from the real issue. Do we need to dredge the Sethu or not? I have been watching it from the periphery and hence I cannot really comment. But I do feel that meddling with something like this make not be the best way to go about. Is there a concrete case for the canal? I cannot seem to get it. Why the urgency? Why can't we focus on other issues...God knows we have millions of them. Why can't half the energy of the Grand old man go into linking the rivers of his once water rich state? Why can't the Yatra specialist just retire? Why can't the red knight wake up and save us from living his nightmare? Ram only knows!!!

Which of course leaves us to the aside on whether Ram exists? Does it matter? Really, I love the Ramayana for the story, for the imagery and the characters. Rajaji's Ramayana is so lucid and simple that you want to read it again and again. Chinmaya's Bala Ramayana that I grew up reading had me in raptures. My moms rendition of the Ramayana to the children as the refuse to eat has me in splits. Whether Ram exists or not, some of the lessons of the tale is what I think we should remember.

May be at the end of it all, Ram does exist through the values that we practice. Being a considerate and good human being. Ensuring that the people he rules enjoy Ram Rajya. May be that is a issue that we should have the Grand Old Men debate!

Powered by ScribeFire.

I like this 20-20 thing!

As I write this down, India is playing its knock-out match. In all probablity they will get knocked out. India scored 150 odd. I think their bowling is the weak link. Already given away 11 runs in the first over!!

Anyway this doesn't matter. I like this 20-20. I like it because of what it can be. It need not be just blind hitting. There is so much strategy in the game. I hope to see this come out in the next few years. And the two leagues in India are really going to help the game. It is the future my friends.

Here are two things that will make it awesome:

1. Television and Commentry: For crying out loud it is not a test match or even an one day. Can we have some exciting commentators please. And not all ex cricketers are commentators. Someone please tell the television people that. There has to be a complete rethink of how they want to package it and show it. On the ground there are 30,000 and they have a great time. There are 1 billion outside and we are getting a crappy commentry.Rethink smart people. This is not even pyjama cricket, this is bermudas!
2. Bowling: This is going to develop. You are going to get some amazing bowlers who can pitch the ball where you want to all the time. That is going to equalize cricket. Make it even stevens.

Can't wait for the first match in Bangalore!!!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Processes and Organizations

Any organization I see flaunts a process that they follow. Be it a company that makes software for others, kitchens, airports, and shop that sell lights, all claim that they are certified in one thing or the other. But a question that I often ask myself, coming out of a stinking toilet at an ISO certified airport, do they really know what they are talking about?

They shout out of the rooftops, "ISO, CMM, CMM-I, PCMM, Six Sigma." And you go in, you see the same thing again and again. The person who meets the customer, the person you interact with have no clue about the process they claim to follow. Don't get me wrong, I am all for the process. I guess I am a little puzzled at how companies ram it through and claim that all is hunky dory. It gets frustrating and yes I am cynical and completely disillusioned.

So what can be done...and more importantly what have I done. I have crystallized these as rules. Currently there are 4. Will add more as they come by.

Rule 1: One size does not fit all. You have to adapt. You have to customize. Every organization has to have its own stuff. You can't do a Kavya (Cntrl+C & Cntrl+V)

Rule 2: People come first, and then come processes. This is key. In a small company you can't put the process first. The people have to want it. They must, must champion it. You can't sit in your corner office and tell people what to do. Rather, have them tell you what they want to do. In a big company, the rule holds but it is run differently. A small group of people (hopefully, not everyone is super bright. There has to be some from the middle of the pile) who are practical, discuss, debate, fight and agree on the best way to do it. Then they roll it out.

Rule 3: Keep the processes logical, simple and easy to do. The lowest common denominator should be able to do it. And yes, all organizations have them. NO, your organization however good it is has them too. Digitize to mistake proof and idiot proof it.

Rule 4: The type of process you want is strategic, implementation is tactical. Processes cannot flow top-down, they have to flow bottom-up to meet the strategy. Essentially, I cannot sit in a glass cabin and tell the worker on the plant floor what is the process I think that (s)he can easily do. That has to come from the worker. I can only tell the worker, what I want from that process

These four rules will do. It will work for you if you give it a shot. It has for me....all the time