Transition Blues #14: Credit Cards and Issues

India is booming with credit card companies, you can pretty much get a $3000/- (Approx INR 1.5 Lakh) with just a job. People hawk credit cards forms on the road and will do anything to get you signed.

Today I became vicitm of Credit Collection Agency in India. This is second instance, but the trend in the behavior is alarming.

I received a call from HDFC collection department, demanding me to pay Rs. 1260/- immediately (In Hindi - Abhi ke Abhi, nahi to dekho) and started abusing language. The most alarming part is the supervisor - another Joshi (Ajinkya Joshi) was worse than this person Siddharth.

Last 2 hours, I have been trying to trace somebody responsible who can take any action, but alas, no progress. BTW, I have to yet receive the statement these guys are claiming I should be paying.

I have been reading about lack of respect for customer with Indian banks, specifically ICICI bank, but HDFC bank is also in the same league.
Basically, old Indian Jamindari (Landlord) culture teaches people to not respect peasants - so in this case I am a peseant who has credit card from HDFC- Landlord.

This is so distrubing that I am ready to pull out all my money from this bank, but do not know if others are better.

Thought you all might find this interesting, I will keep you posted about my progress with the bank.

Apple is still the anarchist - A thought!

Apple - known for challenging the status quo, innovating new elegant products and selling them with an advertisement proposing anarchist behavior.

You must have seen this Video - the Big Blue is smashed by a young women
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8


Now Think of iPod, Garag Band products - Rip and Burn is an advertisment that has changed the entire industry. Today people are not only comfortable with Digital Music but they are proud be buying music online.

Yes, agree that established Music Industry Players ended up loosing some sleep, but Apple does not care.

So . I am waiting for another Anarchist movement from Apple with iPhone, I am watching....hoping that Apple can teach some lesson to these big Telcos who wish to control Internet and control the Bandwidth delivery.

An interesting article: Must read

I have been experimenting RSS Readers and RSS Feeds. After looking at many and experimenting with many tools, I have finalized with Outlook RSS Reader.
Yes! - I am becoming a Microsoft User - may be one can say that I am becoming a Manager. :-(

I got to know Guy Kawasaki's Blog - How to Change the World, he refers to an interesting article, a must read.

The article is called “Data Visualization: Modern Approaches,” and it’s in Smashing Magazine. The article is really an eye-opener.

You must look at the Video @ TED site - about how the world population, life, age is changing, amaging data representation.

All examples around graphical representation of music items are really cool.

I would suggest that you look at this,

Transition Blues #13 : Women in New India

I work for an employer where a very high percentage of the new hires are young women, fresh from Colleges. This started the thought process that has resulted in this thought:

The changing demographics (Younger People), focus on women education (Free school education) and pure merit (Marks, GPA) based admission process is resulting in more women getting into Engineering schools.

Overall women are sincere, hardworking and perform better in different selection examinations; as a result, The Knowledge Industry selects more women. In knowledge worker industry, percentage of women is anywhere between 40% (IT Services) to 60% (BPO).

It is elating to see growing percentage of women in workforce in India. It is an essential step in building foundation of new India. Nevertheless, Why am I still concerned?

I believe India is not ready for handling this change in social fabric, specifically the speed at which this change is happening.

In India, the issue is not about diversity, but about how to deal with diversity in a Male dominated, collective group oriented society.

The Indian society is not yet ready for financially secure, independent women. The work culture in the knowledge industry is weird by any work hour norms - taxing work hours (60-90 hrs) are not suitable for traditional joint family. I am also not sure that work culture is ready for Women Managers or Women Leaders.

I have yet to see companies proactively planning for the impact of life changing events like getting married, having baby or having to take care of older parents or older in-laws in a joint family. Moreover, majority of India, outside of cities, is not ready for single women traveling, moving around freely- this security is an essential need for Women Executives.

To be fair, many women are at positions of power, at positions of making change, for better, but the cost is much higher than equally positioned male.

More I interact with women around me, at work, outside work, I can feel the pressure, and I can feel the hope and frustration arriving due to lack of respect – directly or indirectly given to women.
Did I see this in USA? I did, but the frustration level was not this much, pressure was not this much. American women are certainly more independent than current Indian Women. This building frustration, this building of emotions is what bothers me, concerns me. This can make or break new India.

Transition Blues #12: I drove to office today

I drove to office today. I guess the transition started 6 months ago, is coming to a closure. What did I learn in these "Unlearn to American Driving" attempts?

Driving in India is an Attitude not skill. I am skilled driver in America, but I had a safe, within boundaries, careful attitude. Driving in India is about dealing with ambiguity, uncertainty and chaos. Moreover, you need to be an aggressive driver, something that is not expected or not encouraged in USA.

One more learning is that you need to get comfortable with crowd and 2-wheelers. The willingness to accept a 2-Wheeler standing 1 inch apart of willingness to close mirror so that he can go ahead at a crowded junction is a must to safely drive in India.

Also, you need to drive with less data, more on Gut. You have to be able to drive like a "Running Back" carrying ball. You see everybody coming at you, but you have to chart a path, left, right, left, straight, left, right, you are responsible for moving ahead and you have to move ahead :-)

I do see lot of accidents on Highway where the traditional Indian Style does not work, where American Style is needed. Most of the accidents result in serious injury and fatality. I am seeing lot of positive improvements on implementing rules. Next week I am buying a sticker to put on my car "Proud to Follow Traffic rules in Pune".

More later....

Transtion Blues #11: My Driving Lessons

Yes.. I am learning driving in India. It has been a scary and amusing experience till now. Contarary to popular belief there are rules to Indian driving. I am sharing some of the ones I am learning along the way.

1. You HONK. Honking is necessary and expected. If you hit a pedestrian or a bicycle or motorbike or a Truck - you are off the hook if you had honked before telling him that you are passing him.
2. Driving is about Block Tackle - You do not want others to get ahead of you or you do not want incoming traffic to use the road. You drive to block everybody else but yourself.
1. While turning, you position, enter and then give signal. You ensure that you are not letting anybody move so that you get to turn.
3. You drive based on your gut instinct. You are interested in moving forward - from left or from right or by being in middle of the road.
1. You do not use mirrors. If you use mirrors, they will be broken by Motor-bike at signals. Normally Motorbikes come within few cm (single digits) of your car at all times
2. You do not "Look over shoulders". If you try, you will hit a bike or a person in front of you. You assume that all others will take care of themselves and you drive whatever you think is appropriate. You drive the way you see/think is fit to the situation.
3. You drive closer - I mean closer - means within 2-3 feets of car in front of you and within 1 feet of another vehicle on your left or right. You do not worry about them, you assume that they will safe and drive without worrying about any of the traffic.
   
4. Signals are 'Overloaded operators" like in C++ classes - Left turn signal means the car in front of you is turning left, but it also means you can overtake the car safely and car driver is asking you to overtake.
   
5. When in doubt, drive in middle of the road, specifically in way that your car is exactly in middle of the diving line between lanes. You can speed and nobody disturbs you because you are pushing everybody in front of you.
6. Drive Fast whenever you get chance, you can go from 0 miles (normal state) to 35 (Very fast in Pune) in 3 seconds, for few yards, then you are back to usual 2-3 miles an hour.
7. You drive on 1st gear, 2nd and may be, very rare - 3rd or 4th gear. You are lucky if you get to drive in 3rd gear for more than 15 minutes or you are driving outside pune.

I have a driving instructor , he teaches me how to block incoming traffic, how to drive closer to divider so that two wheelers will not be able to cross you. He also taught me how to honk and also teaching me driving on a crowded road i.e. crowd of 400 people at a road, buying selling in a bazar and driving through the bazar.

I will keep you posted my adventures ......

Transition Blues #10: A RAVE Party @ Pune

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1726487.cms

The Rave party culture has reached to India. After Hindu Festival, Holi, Pune Rural Police caught a huge group having a rave party near Pune historical SinhaGarh (A historical fort).

So whats new? ........

1. People are defending their kids, without having any realization of the situation. The defense is: The kids were drinking beer, not taking drugs, police should not have caught them. Are these parents gone mad?
The most surprising part is, if it is acceptable for kids to have beer at a party, so what is harm in sniffing some brown powder or white powder?

2. Media is enjoying the attention, spreading some stupid stories about the drugs. I sometime feel like sending these reporters DEA links to explain difference between GHB and Heroin.
Media is doing complete disservice by not being honest and clear about issues associated with many of the drugs normally used in the Rave Parties.

3. Usual overreaction and targeting of Orkut. The stories are similar to the ones one sees in US for myspace. Orkut is really popular in India and is being misused by half-baked, uneducated Indian Youth. The worry is that Google is ignoring the popular reaction. In a country, where eBay CEO was put behind bars for some video getting sold on eBay, Google will certainly get banned.

Summary - India is changing, rapidly and We do not know how to choose the right things from west. The copy-cat ideas are winning over the good ones.
That's the most unfortunate part apparent from Rave Party incident.

Transition Blues #9: Banglore Airport

Bangalore Airport is one of the classic cases of overgrowth of Indian Airline commute. During evening hours, there are more than 50-60 flights from an aging, military airport - converted to commercial airport.
The airport is like a Zoo and most interesting the security is really funny, they just look at you, follow a script, just look at your face and let you go. The airlines are really good, they will call you from the line and get you on a flight, without having to wait for the queue. There are many people waiting on the side to see announcement for the plane and then avoid the wait. Then the people in line start shouting at them :-) It is really a funny experience.

The funniest part is the airport bus's- the ones carry you to your plane, you must ensure that you are on right bus. Also, you must ensure that you are boarding right plane, because, in dark, crowded, BUS STAND, called Bangalore airport, you can be boarding a plane for Delhi, even though you wanted to go to Mumbai.

I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do when you visit Bangalore next time

Transition Blues #8 : Transition-07 Event

Last week, I attended an interesting event, Transition-07, that opened my eyes to few Indian realities.

The realization of Indian talent, specifically the knowledge, creativity and competitive spirit exhibited by young Indian minds, made me humble and respect the raw Indian talent more than ever.

Transition-07, was an event organized by my current employer - Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH). This event is focused on recruiting best talent from campus, early enough, as early as Third year (T. E.) and create brand awareness about Cognizant in school.

The event showed few realities:

1. Indian Talent is 'the best' when dealing with ambiguity, sheer hard work and preparation. There was a weired quiz content, all about lateral clues, lateral thinking, the parti were not only at ease, but were thriving under pressure. The best was that one kid recognized first painting by Adolf Hitler.

2. Demand is way higher than supply, Cognizant VP's and Senior Marketing Management was present in the event. The 'war for talent' as we call it, is at its peak. We even gave offers on the spot to the contest winners.

3. There is significant difference in polish and overall finish between rural colleges and city colleges. All colleges that were in final rounds, all were either from pune or from other cities. Moreover, All were PRIVATE well funded colleges a.k.a. the kids came from 'money' background, not the normal kids from struggling parents.

These young kids are aware of their opportunities and aware of their value, they are the future and anybody who related with them early enough is giving opportunities to them, but at the same time creating opportunities for self. These kids are going to stop only after making significant difference in today's world.

A good, humbling experience indeed ......

Transition Blues #7 KingFisher Airlines

I traveled on Kingfisher airline few weeks ago. They call it "The good times". It was an experience. Really good one, I must admit. The food quality, the plane with personal video for every seat, the service all of it was very good.

Just one observation though, the security video was more of a Beer Commercial than of a serious subject like Airplane security. I would suggest that you need to travel on "The good times" to experience what I mean :-)

I Cried ....

Few days ago, I was coming home via auto-rickshaw, near Vetalbaba chowk ( A crossing in Pune, near International Convention Center), a 4 year old girl was crying, not a simple cry or a beggar cry, but a desperate one. I looked around and seating on the road divider, was her mother, with another baby in her lap. The entire family was visibly hungry and the mother was pushing the daughter to go beg for something. The mother was visibly anemic and the baby in lap was without any clothes. The 4 year girl has barely any clothes on her and her cry was heart piercing. She was hungry and angry.

I have seen beggars before, the professional ones; but this literally made me cry, tears came to my eyes, before I could do anything, give some money or something the Auto-rickshaw moved on, and the picture stayed with me, till today.

I was angry, frustrated and most of unhappy. I was angry on myself, not for witnessing the event, but getting the jolt of reality, getting an understanding of disparity in lives. My daughter demands things those would be unheard of by that girl on the traffic signal.

I am frustrated because I can not do anything for that girl or for the millions who are in similar position. The helplessness is really driving me nuts, till today, even after 2 weeks. I do not have a satisfying answer.

I am unhappy, yes, I am! I do not know how I am going to continue dealing with this disparity, the problems and most of all, I do not know what can a small person like me do in this case or similar cases.

I hope god gives me strength to deal with similar situations coming in .....or... I will be crying visibly or when I am alone....