Random Thoughts

Going back to Java

2009-08-04T20:48:00.003+05:30

Having been distant from Java for last 1 year or so, I think I started feeling that I am bit out of touch and might be missing the latest which might have turned up in CAFE during this period. I started to pick it up from CAFEBABE as that's where I left it ;-)

While googling for CAFEBABE, this is the link I found and I liked it a lot, even if for fun purprose. There are other links but not so precise with good insights about the history of the language. If you may wish to read.. http://suprgeek.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/a-java-old-timer/

Happy Reading

Jesus saves multiple copies now

2009-01-13T21:52:00.006+05:30

Hi,

If you live in internet world, you must have heard this joke about Jesus saves.

Yesterday, one of my friends showed me a huge library of e-books that he has kept for some day. There were over 1000 books amounting just about 4GB. He has just kept it with the intent of reading them some day. But, almost everyone knows that "that day" will never come ;-)

A question popped into my mind that how many copies of an e-book would be lying on different websites, people's desktops/laptops, pen drives or CDs..with each copy waiting for that double-click to happen so that a pair of eyes would read, even if vertical, through it. I remember the days in my school when we used to have floppies and we gave a hard though that which game do we want to copy on it.

Over time, storage has become so cheap. We keep a copy on laptop. Another copy on CD so just in case laptop crashed and never recovers. It's not done yet. Some would keep another copy of online storage drive for that special reason - *just in case*. This is true for almost everything...emails, photos, videos, almost everything most of which we wont see again but *just in case*.

World really changes fast.
~ Navjot Singh

The other side of NNPP

2009-01-09T21:56:00.009+05:30

Happy New Year,

You can think of me as a polar bear coming out of the hiberantion period. I was away for months because of some personal and professional changes in my life. A lot has happened in the past 6 months. Few frauds, more stores close down, more job losss, more confirmations fo recession leading to possble chances of depression. Everybody has read about it in great details so lets discuss something different.

I just heard a new buzzword i.e. NNPP. You wish to know more about it, please read this simple and precise article on the Net Negative Producing Programmer. Ideally, I agree on all the points but I tend to think from a different perspective also.

1. Many large scale companies with masses of employees need to have all kind of people. If you know what normalization curve is and how it is applied in the industries, you know where I am coming from. Usually, they have large base of can-do workers with top of can-think workers. Can-do workers are usually low-cost employees, mostly freshers, less than 2-3 year experience guys and may be with no engineering background or hired from T-3 institutes. Nothing against them as It is also not fair to seek the best of software engineering practices from these guys. With time or training, they may learn but till then they can do mistakes leading to higher defects and all that metrics stuff. For companies, the gross margin is high on these resources. So, in any typical project, you will see many of these kind. And for Time and Material kind of projects, it means more revenue if managed effectively. So, net-net, many service (not product) companies would like to have NNPPs.

2. Lets think from people perspective also. Although some good reasons are already mentioned about people not logging the defects. I have some more...more from day to day practice.

a. Managers dont say that they wont do it. But some may try to escape a few defects to meet or exceed some of their SLAs, to show their better control of the processes.

b. Developers invent reasons not to do it ;-). Reasons are vastly different covering different aspects of attitude..

+ Tool is not nice and I am not going to keep filling the excel files.

+ Even if I log, who is going to look at it.

+ Why should I log, my manager comes back and ask me the delete it or reduce the fix hours.

+ I already know that this is a bug. So, why not just fix it?

I spent 20 minutes writing this so I didnt code. Was I being NNPP?

¬ Navjot Singh

A wierd story

2008-07-21T02:22:00.003+05:30

Greetings,

Apologies that I could not write for so long. Well, there were two reasons. Firstly, I was busy in my personal life and secondly, I came to London for a month. Before coming to London, I took a book from my brother's collection.

I started reading the story whenever I traveled on the tube. My office was far enough from the apartment and there was nothing better to do in those 40 minutes. The story started very well to raise my curiosity with every page I flipped but it did not end very well. Maybe, I didn't wish the story to end at all. I felt attached to Christopher and I wished to know more how his life progressed in the society of so-called sane people. Anyway, this is Mark Haddon's story. Mark wrote it very well and in a very different manner from all the books I have read so far. He has depicted every character and the events in such a way that you can see the entire book rolling like a movie. The illustrations and the graphics and mathematical equations all support the story well. Although, it may seem bit overstretched at times but that is his characterization of Christopher.

Well, the story starts with a dog, Wellington, being killed in garden opposite to Christopher's house. He wished to find out who killed the dog and started writing a book about his findings but slowly, the story unfolds many events related to people linked to Christopher, his parents and Mr & Mrs Shears and Siobhan and many others. Only halfway through the story, you realize that Christopher is not like other kids. He lives in his own world and is very clear about his likes/dislikes of colors, people, subjects, places et. He didn't like crowd and he was very good in maths. He was smart enough to figure out his way from Swindon to London to live with his mother because he figured out that it was his father who killed Wellington and now he was scared to live with him. His mother, who had earlier left his father to live with Mr Shears, came back to Swindon for his son's wishes. One of the wishes was to sit through A-level exams for Maths and get A-grade and he finally did it.

The book is full of observations from a differently-able kid and shows the impact on individuals and relationships. Really an amazing book.

lovely book
Navjot Singh
PS - Book's name is 'The curious incident of the dog in the night time'

Salary Package - Trick or Treat

2008-06-03T20:15:00.004+05:30

Greetings,

Here is another good one from the Turmoil Inc, the hypothetical company being run by an indian analogy series of Dilbert.

However, there is a serious thought behind every genuine humour otherwise people don't like it. Companies are seriously resorting to find ways to retain talent. One of the adopted ways is to offer inflated salary packages. Companies are resorting to include Variable component, Performance Bonus, Earned Leaves, Super Annuation, Gratuity and what not just to make the annual package look like a mammoth. However, under the skin of it, you will not find much flesh but a skeleton of bones padded with hopes and promises.

Here's why!! Super Annuation, Gratuity etc are never monthly or annual income components. You receive them after 4-5 years but guess what; not many people stick in the compnay for so long. Variable components are also trickily planned and your performance bonus is also linked to organization, BU and god knows what else's performance so you will never get it full. Even if you get 50%, cheer up. And since when ELs have become part of your annual salary package but listen to today's HR managers and they will tell you a list of other options that they plan to bring under your CTC umbrella so that on papers, you look like a king but in reality you get to eat beans, not chicken. HR managers are happy with their ideas because people are happy to become victims to such policies.

~ Navjot Singh

Purpose In Life !!

2008-05-12T16:36:00.002+05:30

Greetings,

Right now, somebody sent me an inspirational and emotional email about PIL i.e. purpose in life of every human being. So, I just thought of bringing another perspective of it.

Remember.....when we were kids..each of us wanted to be "someone". Pilot/ Doctor/ Engineer and the list goes on. It needs a beggar's description to say that our parents/relaties/teachers had great influence over that choice. Slowly in the teens age, our priorities change..we started knowing ourselves and re-thought what we wanted to be. Now, the choice was different than earlier one because we could think of more options now. Doctor/ Painter/ Musician/ Journalist and some still stuck to become what they had originally thought off. Just after teens age, many realize that the world wouldn't allow us to do what we want. So, we choose what's liked by and acceptable in society. At that point, we just buried our *FIRST" choice. Maybe, that was our PIL.

Slowly, we got into the daily grind and some hard-life priorities hit our life. Somehow, "making money and performing daily chores" becomes one purpose for the MOST, who actually form the major chunk of our society. In the business, we lose our inner voice (maybe PIL again) and just goes on to do whatever is happening. We don't choose for ourselves, others do. Some people will still crave for what they really want to do. Out of these, some get successful and will be labelled as "celebrities" one way or the other. Rest will be labelled as "fools" by our saint society.

But if you get free time and you sit alone, something must encroach your mind and heart ---- "What am I doing? Where am I heading to? Is this what I wanted to do? Is this what's called as living a life?." But, this is what life is. Life is full of choices. Even if you choose not to make a chocie, you are still choosing.

By the way, in the larger context of life, nothing really matters. so chill out :-)
~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

Making your life simple?

2008-04-25T16:56:00.005+05:30

Greetings,

Just click on this infromative news and go towards the bottom of the article. You will see an array of images, 16 to be precise, unless they add more by the time you read that article.

If you are net savvy, you would know what each of these mean. If you don't know, you would never need to know. But my objective of this blog is just to highlight the fact that all those links were simple ideas with simple objectives but now collectively they add up to what I call as clutter of information which will lead the Internet to be more entropic.

One simple example that comes to my mind is a widget on iGoogle that lets you count the number of water glasses that you have taken in. See, how simple it made your stressful life that you don't need to count your water intake!!! How about adding another widget that counts the number of times you went to pee and then draw some trends over the weeks/months/years etc.

Let's make life simple!!
~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

PPP - Who is beneficiary?

2008-03-14T21:09:00.004+05:30

Greetings,

If you have traveled on NH-1 between Delhi and Amritsar, you have noticed a number of toll plazas. Toll plaza is a barrier point where you will stop your vehicle, pay for using the stretch of the road that a private builder has constructed and zooms ahead to stop by at the next plaza. In a stretch of 275 km from Delhi to Khanna, where I commute often, there are 2 toll plazas charging Rs. 110/- a side, when I travel by car.

All these toll collection centers are the revenue collection points of PPP projects, better known as Public-Private Partnership projects. In year 2007, Ministry of Finance has approved 37 projects under PPPAC category. In 2008, so far 8 projects are under the consideration. The project can be a highway project, flyover, bridge etc. However, mostly are highway projects trying to widen the roads, making them 4-lane, 6-lane, 8-lane etc. These projects exist because the state failed to keep pace with the infrastructure needs and humbly agreed that they can't do it themselves so they need more efficient people to work on their behalf. Let's understand this entire concept in one line. The taxpayer's money, which the government was supposed to utilize for building the infrastructure, is being given to some company to execute the project. So far, so good.

Just take any highway project. A car owner, who is a tax-paying citizen of this country, will first buy a car, pay the one time road tax and pay again to commute on the road. Now, in the name of the maintenance of the same highway project, private company is given the right to collect money from the public. Didn't that private company make margins on the project? Maybe. Maybe not. The company might have agreed to go into the long term contract of revenue sharing, rights of project-adjacent land development etc.

Whatever the agreement is that, I failed to understand WHY should the people give the extra money when they are already paying the taxes? What is the government using the taxes for? The government should pay the private company the money for executing, maintaining and whatever of the project. Finance Minister makes sure in every budget that the public is paying enough taxes. The government just can't say "Okay..Govt couldn't provide you better services myself. Govt is arranging for a private company which will provide you better services but public will have to pay more." I don't wish to pay more because this is the basic need that government is obliged to provide.

I really accept that some companies can provide better services and some people do want better services. Some people just can't afford to pay extra. Recently, the NH-8 highway stretch between Gurgaon and Delhi was put under PPP to decrease the commute time. Govt should have done that in first place. They couldn't and they let the private builder built that stretch and now the commuters have no option but to continue paying that extra toll for rest of their lives. The irony is that the traffic problem is still not solved.

Such companies, or rather Government and Private Company, should build a parallel project. NH-1 can be running in parallel just like in US where you have toll road and non-toll road. The right of choice should be reserved with the citizen.

Think, who is bigger beneficiary - Public or Private Company?
~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

Real Estate Globally - Where is it headed?

2008-03-14T19:07:00.004+05:30

Greetings,

I think by now, everybody, at least in IT and realty business, must have heard about Noida. Well, this is the city where I work and live and this is the city which has witnessed almost 4 times real estate appreciation in last 5 years. BPTP bagging the Noida land at awesome 5006 crore gives you an idea that investor's appetite hasn't gone down as such. Such euphoria reminds me of the same Dec/Jan for stock market.

Needless to say that real estate is lot safer than stock market but nobody is sitting out there who can guarantee you returns, especially in such global economy downturn. There are some pockets of real estate which have been virtually sitting at the same rates as they were in 1 year ago. Real estate developers and property brokers have formed such a net that they are not letting the euphoria coming down. If brokers are unable to create that aura, they will be out of business and might even be looking up to losses, assuming they themselves had invested heavily in real estate. Right now, their aura is as shiny as summer's sun in the noon because recently launched DLF's project near Manesar was reported to fully subscribed in flat 6 hours.

You can easily refer to the US, UK and Chinese and even Spain real estate and what happened to the entire housing sector starting first quarter of 2007. Reading this article on US real estate make the entire scenario look more gloomy but looks like this is what is happening.

Reading the ET Estate or speaking to real estate agents paint you a rosy picture but looking at global scenario, I wish to ask a simple question WHY India's market should be different? I think India's real estate bubble has already grown too much and maybe it's high time that government comes in with tighter controls to curb the real estate inflation. If RBI can follow China in increasing the interest rates to curb the inflation, moderate liquidity and slowdown the economy boom, they may also do same as China did for real estate sector.

Cash is King in 2008.
~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

IT - Sailing through tough waters!!

2008-03-01T12:59:00.003+05:30

Greetings,

If you come to of think of IT as a sea and various IT companies as ships sailing through the waters to find greener pastures, you would agree that waters have become turbulent in the pretext of US slowdown and it's impact across the world.

Forrestor has forecasted the slowdown in the IT spending worldwide. The declining dollar has seen the IT service providers growing at 10+% in 2007. They may not see the same growth but the declining dollar and economic slowdown in US would still help them achieve 5-6% growth in 2008. Some people also claim that the picture would become rosy yet again in 2009 with the expected growth around 10%. So, it looks like the overall picture is not that bad; if not that good.

BUT if you read between the lines, the growth trajectory is cutting down by 50%. When IT companies started their year, they must have started planning/budgeting for '08 keeping in mind the growth of '07 because the vision was that US slowdown would increase outsourcing. But, 3 events changed the overall outlook by end of Dec and start of Jan.

1. All of the major financials showed the multi-billion dollars sub-prime write downs in their quarterly results.
2. The fear that sub prime issues might spill over to primary market.
3. The problem of credit growth that Mr. Bush tried to solve using stimulus package.

All of the above led to the major fall in consumer's confidence in US economy which also got proved with real estate meltdown, new home construction figures, jobless data, retail spending figures in US. The companies were suddenly not just looking at reducing the costs by simply moving more jobs to offshore. You can do that but there's a limit to it. They were looking now at strategic long term measures to eliminate the non-productive businesses, basically eliminating costs altogether. Which simply means "I don't need this non-productive / loss making / not-part-of-my-vision business. Right now, I don't need people working in this business. I don't even care if people working in that business were outsourced or not. I may re-visit my decisions once the dust settles down as I don't know how deep the roots can be."

So, in my view, IT companies got caught on the wrong foot where they expected fatter order pipelines but in reality they faced the loss of business; may be just for short period. Even in recent NASSCOM summit, the expectation across the board was that things will turn good in second half of '08.

Hope my company's ship sail through.
~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

Correlation of IPO Grading and Stock Performance

2008-02-22T14:17:00.004+05:30

Greetings,

Before Jan 1, there was euphoria all around. Poeple would look at grey market premium and apply for IPO. I am trying to look at one other perspective. IPO gradings.

Let's see the ratings given by one of the established agencies, ICRA. It's not ICRA. For that matter, you can do similar simple comparisons for scrips graded by CARE / Fitch etc.

The first pick has to be Rel Power, graded 4 but everyone saw what happened to the scrip. Now, just compare it to the opposite say Allied Computers, graded 1 by the same agency but the stock is almost 3 times above it's issue price. Even in today's market, it is up 2%. See more for yourself. Check Ankit Metal & Power ..rated a grade 1 giving 100%+ returns over it's issue price.

One can certainly argue that in those times, market was favorable and it's not fair to compare the issues graded at different times in different market conditions. Let's try to compare the recent 2. J Kumar (rating 2) and Rel Power (rating 4). As checked around 2:30 PM today on MoneyControl, J Kumar is trading at 107, 2.7% below the issue price of 110. Rel Power is trading at 413.50, 8% below it's issue price of 450. 413 price is also because of the news of Bonus shares.

Now, a thought comes to my mind is that either all of these grading companies need to be graded or market is doing something fishy. ;-) With my limited knowledge, I am no brainer to judge this.

~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

I've got a decision to make!!

2008-02-21T11:59:00.004+05:30

Greetings,

Apologies for being off for so many days, I was busy playing with my sweet little daughter. When I go back home from work, her cute smile always drag me away from my laptop just to cuddle with her, spend time with her. Even in this simple situation of life, I made a decision to spend time with my lovely daughter than blogging. Now, I found some time so I thought I may share what I learned in last few days.

In our personal and professional lives, we make so many decisions; small..big..simple..difficult. I always believed that decisions using gut-feel are the best ones but still I ponder there must be someone in the management world who would have thought about step by step way of making decisions. Then, I bumped onto a book from Harvard Press. I loved the simplicity in which they have explained their 5 step (They say 5, I say 6 ;-) process for effective decision making. I just wish to share the snippet here without taking away from you the joy of reading the book.

Step 1 - Set the right context
* The same words can give different meaning, if put in different context. So, choose the right people to create the context of the problem.
* Agree on the approach to make the decision. Typical approaches are like Consensus, Majority, Boss's Verdict etc.
* Set the rule for open-minded Inquiry Method rather than Advocacy for a particular outcome.

Step 2 - Frame the problem
* Framing the problem correctly to yourself or others involved in decision-making is half-won battle.
* Some people are always biased towards certain outcome, whatever the problem is, so they may miss the original issue altogether.

Step 3 - Find the alternatives
* If you had only one option, you would not be reading this at all. The problem is that we always have many options and we need to choose the best of them. If don't have alternatives, find them because you may be missing something.
* Brainstorm, think creatively, this laterally..do whatever but find the alternatives.
* Now, reduce all those alternatives to a manageable set; which seems feasible and genuine.

Step 4 - Evaluate the alternatives
* Go through each of the alternatives found to see which will give you maximum benefit.
* There are number of methods available - Net Present Value, Prioritization Matrix, Trade-Off table, Decision Tree. Use anyone of them based on problem in context.

Step 5 - Make the decision
* Different people might find one alternative to be better than other. Typically, you may removed many options but now may have left with 2-3 only. Which one to choose NOW? I still have options ;-(
* Management world again suggest 3 techniques - Catchball, Point-Counterpoint, Intellectual Watchdog.

After you have made the decision, it is important to communicate the same to right set of people explaining the rationale behind the choice of the decision made. Go on the read the very potent and practical book from Harvard. You may buy it from Amazon or Harvard? Oh...another decision to make ;-)

What did you decide today?
~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

Which is better? Former or latter.

2007-12-28T00:05:00.000+05:30

Hi,

I just got this on my email and felt like sharing here.

Dad used to give us a measly Rs. 20/- per month,in that we were not only able to eat stomachs fill,but we were able to save too!! Now we earn a sum of 20K, we have no idea where it goes, let alone saving it!!
Which is better, the former or the latter?
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

6 subjects per year, 6 different teachers!One project since we joined and just one manager!!
Which is better, the former or the latter?
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

We used to make notes;we used to study for ranks! Now we scan through our mails;we struggle for our ratings!!!
Which is better, the former or the latter?
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

We have still not forgotten the people in the next section! Now we don't even know who sits in the next cubicle!!!
Which is better, the former or the latter?
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

After getting back from a tiring play,we used to do our home work! Now who knows/cares about home;all we do is just work!
Which is better, the former or the latter?
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

We knew our history and economics!!Now let alone reading books,we don't even catch up with the daily news!
Which is better, the former or the latter?
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

We had an aim in life;behind our backs we had our teachers!!Now we have no idea about the future nor do we find anyone who would tell us anything!
Which is better, the former or the latter?

Think about it.
~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

SAVE the Dollar!!

2007-12-12T17:01:00.000+05:30

Greetings,

I will be astonished if somebody has not heard about Sub Prime issue in US. But is it really the bad mortgage/loans that people need to worry about? I think there's more to it and it could get even worse. The credit crunch, the weakening economy, dollar slide in addition to the sub prime woes add more to the belief that US might be ready for recession. Some people are not ready to buy-in the recession compleletly but nobody is denying the possibility either.

Fed has resorted to the rate cuts to save the markets and infuse more liquidity into the market but if the dollar slide continues, Fed may even be forced to instead increase the rates even when recession lingers around the corner. Fed needs to balance the both.

YTD, Dollar as a currency has fallen significantly. Exporters to US, who did have contracts in USD have taken the major hits. The impact can be very painfully seen in the stock prices of Indian IT companies and other exporters as Indian Rupee has appreciated almost 15% against the dollar in this year. Airbus has already called Dollar's slide as *life-threatening*.

The decline in Dollar is led not only by economic weakness in US but there's more to it. The biggest problem with Dollar is that it has been the hegemonic currency for nearly 50 years; it sort of replaced Gold to become the common money for trade across the globe. It's not that dollar would lose it's place and countries would resort to some other currency as world's reserve currency. There are costs associated with it and is very difficult to choose any ONE currency; which could promise to give similar solidarity for decades as Dollar did. However, Euro and China's Yuan seems to be next best contenders. But let's see what could be leading to this threatening decline...

a. Dollar seemed to have gained the reputation of being stable currency for past many decades. Also, there was greater confidence of being well-regulated and transparent market in US. With that conviction gone now, net capital inflows to America seemed to have washed away.

b. Dollar is also effected by the consumer's sense of crisis leading to the all-time high speculative selling of dollars. This is one of the recent comments by Morgan Stanley's economist.

c. Central banks for many countries have kept their foreign-exchange reserves in the dollars. China alone seemed to have close to $1.4 trillion in reserves followed by Japan with $1 trillion. Imagine what can happen to dollar if all these countries think about cutting their losses and dump their dollar reserves.

d. Many countries, more importantly Gulf countries had been asked to peg their currencies by virtue of buying dollars. This would not let the Gulf currencies appreciate and US would still been able to buy the OIL in almost same price for years. But now, with dollar weakening, Gulf countries are finding it hard to curb their inflation and they would also like to change their exchange-rates; especially those countries whose currency is pegged against a basket rather than dollar alone.

So, there's more to dollar-decline than mere currency depreciation. I think American policy makers are smart enough not to let the dollar crash. I also think that other countries would also do their jobs to help the American's policy makers.

Outcry remains same...SAVE the Dollar!!
~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

Investors enjoy IPO Blitzkrieg

2007-12-04T18:30:00.000+05:30

Greetings once again. Apologies that I was away for some time but it was festival season in India and it is the best time to invest in yourself and your family.

Hmm...talking about investments!! For last few years, Indian stock markets have seen blitzkrieg. If we just go by 2006's data, India had the 8^th largest volume of IPOs in the world with Indian companies raising US$ 7.23 billion in the domestic stock markets. 2007 data is yet to be released but it's anybody guess that 2007 will be bigger and better than the previous one. As per NSE website, in 2006, 73 companies raise funds through primary market by launching the IPOs and in 2007, 86 companies have already raised funds and we still have one full month to go.

Raising money is good for business growth, expansion and diversification. But in recent past, it seems to me that some IPOs are being filed just to raise money for the promoters and the primary stakeholders. It seems to be easiest route to take some portion of the company to the public, dilute the promoter's stake and in result, hefty cash flows in to the promoter's bank accounts. FIIs, Corporates and even retail investors have such a frenzy over the recent IPOs that companies have been asking for higher valuations and still the issues are getting subscribed 30+ times.

One of the classic example seems to be much touted Reliance Power IPO from ADAG group. Their company Reliance Energy is already bidding for good number of projects, sitting pretty on investments by retail, FII and DII investors, holding on to huge cash reserves of Rs 9000 crore. God knows why they wish to rush to stock markets once again to raise Rs 2 billion so early. They could raise this money later as well when they will have visibility into their UMPP projects, which seems to be sole motive of Reliance Power. I really don't know what is it that they can't do within Reliance Energy that they want to create another arm Reliance Power when the UMPP leg hasn't even started their operations. Typically, a company creates separate arm when the arm has done enough and calls to be a separate entity. Now a days, companies live 2-3 years ahead in future.

Whatever, IPO market remains hot. Frenzy will continue to be seen among all kind of investors for all kind of IPOs. Keep raising chunks for yourself and help few Indians to feature on the "Forbe's Richest people in World" list.

~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal
PS - I will be investing in BGR Energy even though asking price seems beyond valuations ;-)

It's party time. Time to buy Gift.

2007-11-05T15:54:00.000+05:30

Greetings,

Let me ask you a simple question. How many parties have you attended in last 1 month? How many gifts have you given or received in recent months?

Our culture has evolved in recent years. If we call our culture a party culture now, I won't be too wrong. We always keep our eyes and ears open to identify a cause for party, find a reason to buy a gift. I envy the owners of Archies, Hanung (btw, have you sen Hanung scrip touching new highs?) etc. Maybe, it's our feeble attempt to find bit of happiness, although fake, in today's stressful times.

Even in late 90s, in *higher middle class families* if I may use this word, celebrating a birthday used to mean visitng gurudwara, going to school wearing anything but uniform with a pack of toffees given by mother. Bit more fancied families used to have some party with pastries, pakoras, rasna etc and probably take some pics using their Yashica or Kodak camera.

Now, even families with low incomes will celebrate the birthday like a wedding. Cards will be printed, invitations will be sent, return gifts will be bought. Either a caterer is arranged or party will arranged at McDonald, Papa John's or any lovely restaurant in the city but not home. If the family doesn't have a camcorder, a video guy will also be arranged.
For next few days, same video will be posted on YouTube, pics will be put on Flickr. Do you wish to add some more???

There are more days to celebrate and give/take gifts. Na na..I am not saying that population has increased and we have birthdays and anniversary days. Society and business have come together to find more days like Father's Day, Mother's day, Brother's Day, Sister's Day, Mother-in-law's day, teacher's day, engineer's day..the list is endless. If you are arduous enough to amke the list, you will find that the annual calendar falls short to accommodate all these days.

Ain't this blog writer wasting time writing this scrap? Go man, have a party but before that buy a gift!!
~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

Shopping Trends in Today's India

2007-11-04T16:10:00.000+05:30

Festival Greetings,

It's the festival season in India and Divali is on Nov 9. The papers are full of advertisments, markets are full of hoardings, SALE banners are seen everywhere. Every company wishes to see their profit / revenue charts going up for this month expecting higher sales. I also went to the market hoping the surge in number of visitors but I don't think I found anything special. Every weekend, the market is as much flooded as I saw this weekend.

I observe this as just one of the indicators of the changing lifestyle of our society. Earlier, people used to wait for Divali to buy the car, music system, TV, some gold or whatever. Now, people don't wait for this festival season to go out with their shopping lists. In my opinion, there are many reasons for this change.

+ First and foremost, many companies run their SALEs almost entire year. See Koutons for example.
+ Second, companies have stopped giving huge cash discounts as we had witnessed earlier. Now, the offers are more like "Buy 1, Get 1 free. ", "But X, Get Y free", "But X, Get N% on Y". The intent is to clear the inventory.
+ Third, I think companies also don't wish to focus their sales over one month; but they would like proportionate sales across the year. I read the similar remarks by a Samsung official as well.
+ Lastly, a view from the buyer's side and not seller's. Today's buyer don't plan their wish list like our parents used to do. They just see the ad, or see the same at somebody's place and intend to have it in their home the next day.

People would buy a thing when they want and not just wait for the festival season to come.
~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

Consumerism in India

2007-11-03T16:50:00.000+05:30

In India, times have really changed and I am no brainer to judge whether it is for good or bad. The west has already witnessed this starting early 90's till date and now people in US are already talking about low consumer spending and few even use the word "recession". India is witnessing a new wave of consumerism. During last 2-3 years, everyone in India must have witnessed the sudden surge in the number of the malls, factory outlets, number of brands, number of advertisements promoting those brands and more importantly number of people visiting those malls and buying those brands.

Till mid 90s, I don't think the youth were too excited by brands. Many were not even aware of the brands. I, for one, was quite happy when my mother bought me pair of NewPort jeans. I don't know what that brand was but I was happy to have a pair of jeans. In late 90s, i think youth started fancied about clothes. With the start of this century, I think most were conscious about brands. Lee, Levis, UCB, Freelook etc. become the fancied brands. Now, youth wanted a pair of lee jeans and not just jeans.

Similarly, everybody wanted to put latest electronics, 21 in tv is not good enough anymore, people want 29 in flat and that too plasma. Everyone wants iPod, laptop and not just desktops. People, even the 50+ years old, fancy flashing the latest Nokia N-series phone even though all they would use it for is phone calls and maybe SMSing. Everyone will eat out at least a week. Could you fancy eating out once a week even in late 90s? Everyone will go out for a movie paying 150 bucks per person and they will also buy popcorn which comes for 50+ Rs in cinemas but available outside for 10 Rs. There are similar observations you can easily make in our changing times.

So many questions come to my mind. Are people earning those many bucks to spend freely? Is it money that has become cheaper or people perspire less while earning that money or mindset has changed from "save money for old age and children" to "enjoy your life"? There are many more questions like these. I know for sure everyone would have their own answers to these questions.

Life is full of questions, the journey to death is all about finding answers to those questions.

~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

Daam To Na De Sakoon

2007-10-25T16:10:00.000+05:30

Sat Sri Akal (Greetings in Punjabi Language)

I chose to write the salutation in Punjabi today as I have something to write about Sikh culture. I recently bought a CD by Bhai Sadhu Singh which had a Shabad - "Daam To Na De Sakoon", which I used to listen when I was in my early teens. My father used to play this a lot. I never understood the depth of this Shabad at that time. Now, I DO.

If one listens to the sacrifices made by Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji as recited beautifully by Sadhu Singh ji, it's very difficult to stop oneself having tears in your eyes and bow down with deep respect to the majestic tenth Guru of sikhs. You may listen here http://music.punjabcentral.com/album/?album=3382&page=1&sort=4

In today's world, I cannot see anyone making those kind of sacrifices. Sacrifice of both parents, sacrifice of 2 elder sons fighting the battle of Chamkaur Sahib, sacrifice of 2 younder sons being buried alive in a wall at Sirhind.

Some one said such deep words about Guru Gobind Singh Ji

Qila chorr ghar tak bhi apna lutaya, bachpan mein apne pita ko kataya,
Akela hi firta raha woh janglon mein, Woh bharat pe aashiq fida ho raha hai.

When Guruji's 2 sons and mother lost their way and disciples asked to trace them, Guruji said

...Bichhar gaye sri mata bache pyare,
...The ghabraye sikh aa hazoori pyare;
...Kya fikar karte ho ai jaan nisaro,
...Yeh un bachon ka imtihan ho raha hai.

Foreseeing battle for day ahead, Guru ji said about two elder sons,

...Katayoonga kal tak yeh baaki ke jaakar,
...Akela reh jayoonga ghar ko lutakar;
...Kabhi bete waare kabhi waara walid,
...Yeh kishton se karza ada ho raha hai.

In Deep Respect.
~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

Future is DARK

2007-10-17T16:07:00.000+05:30

Greetings,

Amidst the IT outsourcing blitzkreig across the world, I contribute my cents working for a company in India. With 8+ years in this industry, i can't call myself a veteran but seasoned enough to observe and understand the industry trends and outlook.

When i meet my friends and/or colleagues over weekends and tea breaks, typically the conversation starts with "how and what they are doing". 9 times of 10, I will hear *kat rahi hai* (Just passing time) or "vehla hoon bhaaji" (I am idle). After that, for next 20-30 mins, we will keep jabbering about
+ This guy switched N jobs
+ That guy got N% raise
+ ABC bought a flat and made heck of money
+ How liquidity in indian stock market creating new bubble.
+ ABC quit because of onsite aspiration
+ Manager of ABC doesnt give good raise.
+ How this company is making me do a job much below my potential
.............and so on.

Well, the point I wish to make is that in this entire hoopla, hardly anybody is *working* in true sense. At the risk of being killed by Fixed Bid project teams, I can say that Most are under-utilized, have nothing much to do but run their minds scheming about second/third source of income. Many people actually use the company's telephones to run their business, use the company's network to trade on stock exchange or look ot propert portals etc.

People don't have enough work. If they have the work, mostly it's work much below the man's potential (which was judged at the time of hiring). In the end, fix this, document that, send report. Period.

Now, the (b)million dollar question is that where is this industry heading? I have couple of ideas but let's put that on hold for next blog of mine.

5 Masteries of Family Wisdom

2007-10-17T14:07:00.000+05:30

Now that I have read this new book by Robin Sharma. I also wanted to do exactly the same what Julian did -- Share the wisdom or knowledge, which I have gathered by reading it, with everybody.

The book is all about restructuring your thoughts to focus on the Things that really count in your life. *Most* will agree that the most important thing in life is FAMILY. This book gives you 5 principles that you can adopt in your life to bring out the best in your family.

Mastery 1 - Leadership in life begins with leadership at home.
+ Build a vision for your family.
+ Commit it to the paper.
+ Discuss with your family; get their buy in.
+ Make your action plan and execute it.

Mastery 2 - Don't scold the children. Mould the leader within.
+ Create human moments, then live them.
+ Praise the kids on jobs well done.
+ Stop condemning, start commending because good parents reward excellent failures.
+ Build the trust
...+ Keep your promises
...+ Be meticulous with your words
...+ Be an aggressive listener
...+ Be fanatically honest with your kids. Well, this doesnt mean you have to be rude to them.

Mastery 3 - Focus your child on greatness, not weakness.
+ Know thyself. The purpose of life is to have life of purpose.
+ Be a specialist. Be jack of as many things but be master of atleast one.
+ Bring special strengths and true talents out.
...+ Envision daily. Sit for 5 mins; your eys closed; try to visualize what change you wish to see.
...+ Set goals weekly
...+ Walk with giants. Read biographies, watch documentaries, visit places that had great impact on this world.
...+ Give graciously. What you gives; returns manifold.

Mastery 4 - To be an excellent parent, Be an excellent person.
+ Self renewal
...+ Rise early. I know many don't like it. But try waking it up at 5am (okay 6..) one day, you will feel top of the world.
...+ Keep a journal. Pen down your important life events. Do deep thinking on them.
...+ Take sabbatical. It's not selfish to find time for yourself. You need some private time.
...+ Care for your temple i.e. body. More fit is your body; more energy you will have.

Master 5 - Gift your child immortality through the gift of legacy.
+ Do one thing in your life that your kid can look upto.

Monk, Ferrari & Sivana

2007-10-10T18:41:00.000+05:30

I recently read another, so-called, self-help book. It is called The Family Wisdom.

I don't really grasp what all these self-help authors are trying to achieve in their lives. First, there are so many of them. Second, every alternate book seems to be trying to tell you the same. Only one thing changes -- the story or the tale of the fable. Even authors from HBS has turned to this story telling exercise. If you don't know what I am talking about, do read Our iceberg is melting.

Anyway, I am not here to scold these guys. They are doing good job in telling stories and minting hell lot of money by having *one monk travelled to India and publish many books*. What I wish to talk about is story-telling business.

I think the entire self-help business is turning out to be - "I am a better story-teller". There are 2 key elements in these stories. It has to be simpler (like a children story) and it has to be interesting (like a fiction).

I think it is working like a charm as proven by the fact that all these books are selling like hot cakes across the world. There are 2 reasons to this..
1. Life, professional or personal, is getting complex day by day. Last thing they want is some heavily worded, complex dose of discourse to show them a way to come out of the grind.
2. People like stories.

Stories are fun. Stories are touchy. People tend to link themselves to one of the characters in the story. That helps people to remember the story for long. How may stories do you remember that you read in your childhood? Now, compare that to number of theorems, formulas, geography lessons. Bingo!! You GOT it.

Now, if someone comes across some problem; it is intuitive for human mind to link that to the knowledge base he has already acquired through previous learnings. If a person remembers a story, probability is very high that he would also remember "how that character in that story handled that situation".

So, in nutshell, all these authors, who are evidently more close to basic human needs are making hell of money by telling stories to those, who have somehow got rapidly booted in complex, high flyer lifestyle, but still found themselves unhappy.

--Navjot Singh Sohanpal

Promises of Politicians??

2007-09-23T14:11:00.000+05:30

Greetings,

It seems to have become an habit of politicians to make promises; without even thinking whether they will be able to fulfill them or not? How long would they need to fulfill this? Can't solely blame on the politicians; they do what they are good at but public needs to ask the right questions.

Recently, Mr Sukhbir Badal announces so many things in a single go that even factory of hajmola won't be enough to digest that. Metro Rail, World Class air ports, AC bus stands and buses, international lifestyle. What not..everything has been offered by Mr. Badal. The biggest irnoy is that all these promises are made just 5 days ahead of MC elections.

Badal Sarkar has already spent more than 4000+ crore. The plan is to invest 5000+ crore on Jalandhar. Did he ever think where would he arrange the funds from to do what he just said? I like the money being spent on development of much needed infrastructure but the public needs to see the strategic plans as to how this money will be raised, how will it be spent, when will it be spent. Money just doesnt keep flowing in from World Bank, IMF, Central Govt etc. If you really wish to scale well, you got to learn how to run your state with your own resources.

But anyway, those talks are already over. WHY? Elections are over. There are more important things to do..Captain, Chahal, Dera, Virk..list goes on.

~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal

History Repeats itself!!

2007-09-23T13:01:00.000+05:30

Greetings,

During our history classes, most of us must have read about Zamindar system, where one person would control lands and lives of so many people and keep them as bonded labour. (Bandhuya Mazdoor in Hindi). Remember how all of us used to abhor that.

I reckon that hisotry is going to repeat itself. All biggies in India Inc are trying to take as much as they can out of Retail Pie. Reliance, Bharti, Future..you name it. Lets see how are they trying to do it.
Step 1 - Source directly from farmers. Reduce procurement cost. Use own inventory and distribution to be cost effective. Pass on margins to consumer.

Step 2 - Produce themselves. Self farming/contract farming. This will improve their margins even more.

Guess what? If this happens; which i believe will happen in 5 years time. Zamindar system will be back again..though in sophisticated manner. The transformation will go full cycle from bonded labour -> labour-> employees -> co-workers-> .......... employees -> labour -> bonded.

Slavery isn't dead. We just stopped recognizing it.

~ Navjot Singh Sohanpal