It all started in 1991 (was in std 4) and I have been hooked to the same for years. Came as an optional course, for which we needed to give a relatively big amount, quarterly. For my father, allocating money on education and that too especially for me was never a problem. So I was inJ.

Initial few classes were very boring and mundane (may be I was expecting something else).Finally the day arrived and our teacher allowed us in the practical lab. For the first time I got to use one of the better versions of Babbage’s machine. I still remember 4 students were sharing a PC without knowing what to do. Our teacher did something with some black thin square thing and PC (later realized he was booting PC with floppy drive with MS DOS).Now comes the best part. The only thing I knew about a computer was :”It is fast and can do anything”J. So once left alone on the command prompt, I did my first test and checked PC skills by typing

C:\>  Where is Delhi?

And the prompt answer comes

Bad Command

Clueless about what had happened, I was shocked that it didn’t know where Delhi was? Why the hell people talk so much about computer then

Anyways, slowly I was forced to learn commands related to directory and file handling. Then comes a tool with a TURTLE, called LOGO. The whole year ended with moving that Turtle right, left in circle and what not. It was a good experience but definitely was much much much below my expectation (How come it didn’t know where Delhi was?;)).

Next few years I got chance to work on BASIC and then to C and then to C++. All same junk initial programs of palindrome, Armstrong numbers, factorials, sorting etc were conceptual but dull. [Still I was looking for my definition of CompJ].

In year 1997 got chance to use multimedia PC (courtesy School) and it was really fascinating to see a mouse click triggering voice, video and lot of information. It looked like fun. But there was only 1 PC of that kind and we were left to use our dumb B/W  PCs.

First year in College provided junker non graphical dabba black and white PCs. (Why only freshers , others had access to colored Windows PC lab).But that was the PC I was looking for. It had the thing that I expected from the PC from the first day, the Internet. Lynx was the tool  and Google and yahoo have their own fun. So I could be found stuck to those dabbas and doing all junk of searches and mails.

In later years, it has been part of my life in some form. In office I hate it for many things   but do acknowledge that without it ,life will be too difficult.[really???;)]

Hope fully I will get my lappy soonJ.

Negative voting concept has always suited my taste. Be it sending SMS votes in BIG BOSS for evicting celebrity member from the house or our Super Powers vetoing any resolution in UN Assembly, negative voting always doesn’t allow any initiative/plan to materialize until and unless everyone( who matters in case of UN at least J) agrees. It is something like if the decision is not almost unanimous, it cannot be implemented.

My tryst with the concept started in Jan 2005. During a management program at BHEL Hyderabad, like me all Engineer Trainees were asked to cast 4 votes (2 positive and equally numbered negative). We had a batch of 64 engineers and we knew each other well since two months of Induction training was just about to end. The instructor was well qualified and complete anonymity was maintained for votes. In our ballots we had to also provide the reason of liking (positive) and disliking (negative). So totally there were 64*4 =256 feedback votes (128 positive + 128 negative). The results and the aftermath analysis were surprising and interesting. People got all combination of votes. There were few who didn’t get any vote, positive or negative. The instructor suggested those people to interact more within the group and asked them to introspect why people are not at all bothered about them. Majority of people managed to get few positive or negative votes. Among all groups, three were distinctively different. One set of people got some average plus positive and very less negative impression another got average plus negative and very few positive and distinctly there was a set of people who got more than average +ve and more than –ve both votes. The instructor commented that the last group is always the talk of the society but not everyone like them. If they take their negative feedback in a constructive way it will surely help them in evolving as a better human being.

Let’s try to bring the above mentioned concept to Indian Democratic setup. While discussing this we need to keep following points in mind.

• Can it increase the number of Voters actually exercising their rights?
• Can it really result in bringing out better representatives?
• What if all candidates finally end up with negative counts?
• What if two or more candidates are at tie (say 0 or +5), but total number of votes that they received is unequal (+1000,-1000 & (+5,-5))?

Like the existing simple majority rule where the candidate who gets the maximum number of votes is declared elected, the negative voting concept coupled with conventional voting methodology has its own merits and demerits. But for people like me, it will surely help in pushing us to polling booths that cannot see people like Lalu Prasad, DeveGowda, Sharad Pawar, Modi and majority of highly acclaimed politicians in power. At least I can deduct one vote from their account.

While browsing through many 19+ channels on weekend night, one monotonic lecture initially grabbed my faint attention but after few minutes I was glued to television set for at least an hour. The platform was World Woman Forum and the man on the dais was Professor Muhammad Yunus. The only knowledge that I had about Prof. Yunus was that he had received Noble Prize for peace (2006) for his socio economic reforms in Bangladesh. It had always puzzled me how that guy having expertise in economics managed to get Peace award ( Noble Foundation  has a separate award in field of Economics).Speaking in plain, typical not so fluent, Asian English , he was addressing a large gathering of Women. His sentences were small but very meaningful and inspiring. He was talking about the initial hiccups, continuous dedicated efforts and eventually success of his Grameen Micro Finance movement. He narrated two incidents and they were enough to give clear insight of this great man and the reasons why he was selected for Peace prize and not in Economics.

For people like me who do not believe in going through long white papers, please find the main points of his address below.

• We need to change our mindset. The way Bangladeshi women have successfully done it and are inspiring other women, forcing corporate world and the Male world to rethink their notions is no magic but their own efforts.
• Poverty cannot be taken for granted for backwardness. In Grameen Bank movement, majority of the money (67 %) for lending come from the poor people. Collectively poverty can be fought in a better way.
• Illiteracy doesn’t stop you from going ahead. Prof Yunus says that majority of the rural population may be illiterate but they are not stupid. If proper platform is provided they can perform much better than the so called corporate world.
• Women Power cannot be matched. He says all the Grameen movement has been successful because majority of its volunteers (more than 80%) are Women. Once they are allowed to have decision making powers and challenge so called Male responsibilities, they can utilize resources in a much better way.

Now let me come to the two incidents and the point why he was given Peace prize (not Economics).

In the 80s, Prof. Yunus was fighting with all the banks with the accusation that they are not doing anything for Poor. In fact no bank was willing to lend money to poor people. This accusation didn’t bother capitalist banks, so Prof Yunus came with new strong accusation. He said that not only poor people, banks were also discriminating against Women. It hit bull’s eye. With data, he proved that more than 99%of the money that was lent was, given to Men. Moreover if a woman wanted to borrow money, banks made it mandatory for her to bring her husband. He questioned if men are not asked to bring their wives for approval for their loan why they have different rule for women. He says with our long male dominating society, these biases have become OKAY and acceptable. It is all about mind set. Men have forced it that Women cannot do it and Women who never got opportunity to excel economically don’t know how it works. Professor challenged this mindset and came with idea of Grameen Bank where he pledged to have at least 50% borrowers. Initially it was difficult for Prof Yunus and his students to motivate poor rural women to borrow money, but like many good things it also materialized after noble efforts. After analysis he could found that, the money borrowed by women is yielding better returns, both in monetary terms and more importantly in bringing social equality.

During one of the Bank Conferences, many corporate banks mocked of renaming Grameen Bank as Grameen Women Bank. Prof Yunus had a very simple answer. He told that he didn’t mind doing so but others need to change their bank name as A Men Bank, B Men Bank, etc. He told that only 87% of the borrowers were Women in his bank while more than 99% of the borrowers in other corporate banks were Men. So why double standards? Narrating this incident, he again emphasizes, we need to change our mindset. Somehow, in our mind we have got used to gender discrimination and everything that favors MEN is OK while if you talk about giving equal right to women it is seen as gender preference in our part of society.

The second incident is about their venture of Mobile Sector, now known as Grameen Phone. When Bangladeshi government was licensing frequency spectrum, Prof Yunus also applied for the same. The motive was to empower rural women with Mobile phones so that they can earn money from PCO. Moreover he wanted rural people to get benefits of Telecom revolution. When approached with his idea, the immediate response was no. No because officials believed that illiterate women could not handle modern devices.Prof Yunus convinced officials by saying that those rural women may be illiterate but are definitely not stupid. If using mobile phones can bring money to them, they can learn in 10 min. Moreover there cannot be 11^th digit for which they need to update themselves continuously. After several persuasions, he could extract one out of four licenses. That initiation not only helped in the uplifting the rural economic condition, but made rural people to play and exploit the technology for their success. After the success of Grameen phone, while attending one of the ceremonies in rural Bangladesh, just for curiosity, he asked the women there if they were facing any difficulty in handling mobile phones. One lady raised and told no problem at all. Same voice echoed by every one. Prof Yunus was surprised when another lady rose and challenged that he can make any call blind folded. If she could not call any given number, she said she will stop PCO business. Prof Yunus wished those government officials were to there who compared Illiteracy with stupidity. After narrating this incident, he said that he was not sharing that incident to show how correct he was. He was sharing because the incident had given him enough happiness and encouragement. Women then have not only realized their importance (which was not allowed by our society) but they have also got self confidence to believe in their unique qualities. They were ready to challenge anything and anyone.

The Noble Peace Prize that Prof Yunus was coveted with was not for his economic reforms, but for the Change - the Change in mindset that he has brought in Women, rural Bangladesh and the corporate world. With his vision, society may be still economically divided, but certainly, it is much peaceful and prosperous with rays of hope kindling everywhere.

IP creation has been Industries latest goal setting for its employees. Somehow it enables employers to have their won subjective notions justified during performance appraisals. But leave those loopholes, IP creation has always helped in bringing out and enforcing best practices and technologies in Industry.

Last few months have seen me going through many patent search engine sites like US Patent Office (www.uspto.gov) and European Patent Office (http://ep.espacenet.com) and Google New Patent Search (www.google.com/patents) .All these sites are exhaustive databases and after few trails you can extract relevant information. But one thing that always stuck me while searching is what if we devise (or may be already functional) an Intelligent Search Result Filter System for snatching new patents/ideas. For example if user( say John) has come with a new idea and is doing patent search, most probably if his idea is new and different , search engines will not yield relevant results. Moreover number of search results will be also less. Note that we can easily ignore outlier samples that may also yield  small number of relevant search results( due to invalid strings/ complex combination).If we can integrate all known Patent search results and keep our mechanism( may be a neural network with adaptive learning algorithm), we can trace back if someone has come with a new idea or not. If our system says that it is new Idea we can very well patent that idea before the originatorJ.Simple RightJ.

Please find a draft version with diagram below.

So what say , shall we patent this idea?

With the number of days of my Korea stay extending, my admiration and respect for Koreans is also shooting up exponentially. It has not developed suddenly but if you see their humbleness, generosity and mutual respect in every day to day interaction, you will be inclined to wish if it was part of our culture. Latest incident was my tryst with a Korean sales girl in a super market called HomePlus. I was looking for Dove shampoo and could not find any 100/200ml pack. All were big family packs. The 100ml versions were offered free with some other cosmetic stuff. I asked for the small pack of Dove / Head and Shoulder. The sales girl said Aanyo (No) and suggested me some other brand. Like many things don’t want to experiment with shampoo, so was about to leave without any purchase. The moment I was about to leave the Shampoo section, the sales girl came running  to me and handed me a 100ml Head and Shoulder shampoo as a Service/Complimentary ( I don’t know what she said).I asked her how much and she said it was free. I asked her again but the answer was same. She gave it for free. Dhanya hai Korea ki dharti!!!

Starting April 2005, I have spent lot of money on things which I could have easily avoided. Be it lavish only Auto [No bus] daily rides to office, biweekly Hot and Crispy at KFCs, buying anything at malls (thanks to the CCs) or frequent Flight tours (could have been restricted to train), money was never a matter of consideration for me. I have enjoyed all those ventures and had fun. Seriously, no repentance for any of them.

Now many things have changed and last December (2006) had a strong impact on me. After many years of reluctance, I had to land at my ancestral village, a small village in East Champaran. Taking pride in hosting Gandhiji’s first Satyagraha and also known for birthplace of Animal Farm fame author George Orwell, East Champaran (district of Bihar) is still far away in providing basic amenities to commoners. Compared to last time (some 10 years back), many new changes have come in people’s life but still much needs to be improved. Ten years back there was no electricity supply in our village. Now it has come but only for 2 hours in night, that too with low voltage. Casteism is as strong as before. People with so called lower caste are still unfit to avail many basic facilities. The then few landlines have transformed into cheap friendly mobile phones [thanks to lifetime free offers].Majority of the things were perturbing but had in fact very little effect on me. Anyway it is their ignorance and ill habits and they rightly deserve their present condition. If other places in country can do remarkable progress why can’t they. Moreover I was not going to stay there so anyway I should be bothered. But my selfishness does have some limits and I knew that somewhere I was wrong. The condition of children really made me sick. They were still going though the old conventional upbringing. Village school has got a new building but I doubt if the quality has improved since last time. Parents still don’t give enough importance to education and nutrition wise also children live in unhygienic environment. I know majority of them are very poor without land. Problem is not with the fact that they are currently in this condition. Problem is the fact that they have accepted the so called fate and are not willing to make any effort in right direction. Many times I am confused if they know right direction. I am telling this because the few educated villagers also still consider their daughters as liability and which finally ends up with early marriages, big families. This is true with so called educated, global urban India also where many well to do people do not hesitate in asking for some 1 Crore dowry and that too as their right. But unlike cities, girls in village have no say at all. All Facts were plain and I knew them beforehand but meeting them face to face was quite painful, embarrassing and that filled me with guilt. Painful because almost everyone who was suffering belonged to My village, embarrassing because now and then I will be introduced as one who has many places in world and guilt was obvious – Have I done any single thing to make a difference in anyone’s life? When I joined my second company there was an option of monthly contribution of some Rs 500 for some Child Welfare. I did think for some moment but eventually like many of us decided not to contribute. So, if I can’t make such monthly contribution and can have thousand rupees worth Hot and Crispies per month what’s the big deal? After all it is my money. Finally it has become a big deal now. Not that I have stopped hanging out at KFC but have started diverting funds at some meaningful ventures.

Samsung India (SISO) has associated itself with Child Welfare Ashram called “Geeta Ashram”. Its monthly program of visiting ashram caught my attention in June and one fine weekend I landed there. Situated near Mysore Road, ashram hosts about 50 children. It provides them shelter, food, stationery and takes care for their studies. Meeting them and interacting with them is one of the best experiences I had. I could not understand their language but the innocence on their face, the hope in their eyes and the talent (dance, play, sketches) did say many things to me. We can make difference in few lives. No need go in a big way step by step will do. After that there is no backing out. Apart from the known sites and organizations, if you know some NGOs in Bangalore which are helping children especially girls, please let me know. Moreover we can also make small group and can venture helping them in the best possible way suited to us. So, interested people please pour in.

Last month witnessed many experimental channels and movies. Although I knew but realizing the fact that “Boredom can force you to do anything”, was quite a different experience. Let me start with the background. Our guestroom Setup Box spiders only know to search Free To Air Channels. And you know what are free channels-Either monotonic government channels or useless private channels. Here we do get DD1 and is good in fact sometimes (is broadcasting India’s Tour to England).Some new channels like ETV and Sahara are also good source of Indian news. Leave them and majority of Tamil, Telgu, Kannada and Malayalam Channels, finally I initially I used to settle for Zee Smile/Zee Music and Star Utsav. One thing that I and majority of my mates here have understood is that you cannot have as repetitive and monotonic Channel like Zee Music. Let it be its songs, promos, Eye Candies, Bol Bachhan and in fact ads also, it will continuously come so many times that you will start hating them. Thanks to this channel now I have become a big fan[:(] of Akshay Kumar(Eye candy For the Month), Roshni Chopra(the cheapest promo in recent past),Nina Manuel(Nina at Nine)[still I can’t understand what is there in this Lady],and the list goes on…

Zee smile is also most of the times coming with some Tele Shopping Show (I think GTB).Many of us have in fact strong memories of those products. Be it Ganesh brand Panchmukhi Rudrakhsh or some junk Rupayaan cream with Jaya Prada giving big lecture, all have now string impact on us. The height is the ad (I don’t know remember which Channel it is) for Om ka Ramayana Agarbatti.In this both Lord Shiva and Goddess Pravati will be passing near by earth. Parvati will say that she is finding it very difficult to visit earth as it is much polluted. In response Lord Shiva will remark “Don’t worry Devi. Om brand Ramayana Agarbatti hai na!!!”

Star Utsav was the savior for us. The most happening 8:30 to 9:30 pm slot was booked by everyone for Disney hour :).

Browsing through the channels also peeped into old Saregama shows and Kichadi and movies like “Baton Baton Mein“,”Dil Se” and “Josh“.Dil Se is the movie I thought I should have watched earlier. Maniratnam movie with lot of sense and great acting by both Shahrukh and Manisha.Ofcourse Preity was there to add glamour. “Baton Baton Mein” starring Amol Palekar and Tina Munim was another eye soother. But the movie that enjoyed most was “Josh”. Generally I am not a fan of Ash, but in this movie she definitely looks amazing and attitude no match at all.

After Zee Music, the second most repetitive [surely not boring ;)] channel was FTV.

Apart from the above mentioned Free To Air channels, we have quality Korean Channels[Thanks to Korean people for not dubbing].Many English movies, live English Premier League and well labeled channels are good time pass here.

Let me turn to the Movie section now. By movies I mean DVD /CD movies. We are blessed with DVD player in every room. Last time limit was set by “Home Delivery”. Some how I think that our guest house video library takes pride in dumping all Height movies. Many of them I have never heard off. Let me start with a relatively good movie “Good Boy, Bad Boy”. It was real fun and was best among the lot, especially Isha SharvaniJ. .Now comes two great movies which exhausted all my energy and even forced me also (people say that I have lot of toleranceJ) to keep myself away fro DVD player for ever. “Jawani Diwani” and “Naksha” back to back backfired so much that I have pledged that I will never watch any Celina Jetly or Sunny Deol movie. Though I hated them before also [Still I cannot understand how Ms Jetly become the Sexiest Bollywood Herione], my hatred and anger against them has crossed all  kind of exponential limits.

Now finally I have settled for my usual stuff. Just Sleep, Sleep and Sleep…..If by any chance wake up, not allow others to sleep ;).

In my childhood, my sisters would always fight with my mom for the fact that why I only had the nickname. Both my younger and elder sis are very close to me and they will frequently tease my mom with allegationsJ that she loved me most. But they were also aware that that was not correct. In fact my elder brother is the most preferred child and he doesn’t have a nickname. I never missed an opportunity in exploiting this coincidence and now and then make my sis and brother jealous of it.

Now coming to origin of my nickname, it was given by my eldest sister [we are five siblings] and Jijaji. Somehow they didn’t find my name coherent with meJ.Right now still it [nickname] continues to be part of daily life. Not because everyone calls me with that but it has become part of my email id and in fact all ids. My official name is too common for web portals to generate some meaningful unique id out of it.

School gave me another nicknameJ and I was called with it throughout my schooling. I don’t remember who came with that idea but it was very simple one, my initials. Still my school friends call me with the same name. College was fun but somehow luckily I escaped from any new nomenclature there. Other wise like most of the creative namesJ , it would also have to be censored outside campus.

The best coincidence with my nickname [family] came in South Korea. Korean people find it very difficult to pronounce my official name. After looking at my mail id (mail2minku), they were really pleased and told me that minku was also common nick name there and they had no problem in addressing me with that. So after that I was minku for them.

I think I should stop now. Otherwise I am going to get a new one which surely refers to some version of junk.

Coming after long breakJ.Not because I was preoccupied with some hectic schedule, but for a simple reason -lazinessJ.

Last few months saw many good changes. Traveling to many places in south
India, attending marriage of good friends, working like hell (while(!death){ work;}) mode for few weeks and most importantly meeting many people and knowing them was a exciting experience.

Starting with Hogenhekkel in Tamil Nadu, then Anantpur in AP followed by Coorg and Nagarhole in Karnataka, journey continued with Kannur in Kerala and then Yercaud in TamilNadu .Thanks to all my fundoo friends, some of which motivated me and many of them whom I forcedJ.Every place was a new experience in itself and certainly helps in realizing our true Indian culture (unity in diversity).Till class 12, I had the habit of labeling people based on their place. For example, when I had to join engineering college at Kharagpur, I had lot of inhibitions against Bong land and people. My stay there not only widened my narrow thinking but also gifted with many good Bong friends, an interest in their food language and taught me important lesson of respecting each and every culture.

In a similar way I have learnt many things from all south Indian states. Their culture, food and gesture can help us to extract many good things which will surely help us in making a better human being. I think same is true with any culture. I have understood one simple thing. We cannot refute any culture because it is different from ours. They may be right in their own sense and we may be in our way. The important thing is we should mutual respect for each other.

The best experience for me in last few months was attending my friend’s typical traditional marriage. It was so serene and quick that I am also planning to have something similar to that for myselfJ.Some 1 k people and at the time of marriage it was almost pin drop silence. You cannot imagine that ambience unless you attend one.

Office also came as a big surprise in March. It was so hectic that “Holi” just remained a mere mention in calendar. Many night outs and run time challenges were really exciting and helped me in learning many things.

Let’s hope that coming months are also happening and exciting.

Why do you want to do MBA from IIMs? Ask this plain question to any MBA aspirant and you will get two answers. One is very genuine and comes directly from their heart and second is the pseudo response which is just a wrapper of all teachings of coaching classes and diplomatic diversions from the core answer. I am not blaming classes here because if you do not sharpen your raw answers with their help, even IIM Profs may not like your frank opinions. Finally it ends up with an answer which is an expected one from the interviewer .The interviewee doesn’t give a complete honest answer and same is the interviewer who doesn’t expect the same. Let’s take two scenarios one by one.

Candidate A replies: “Sir, IIMs are world renowned premier institutes which not only provide world class teaching under the guidance of esteemed faculty but also help in adding and sharpening our perceptions, knowledge skill set and attitude .A MBA degree from IIM will help me in harnessing my managerial abilities in a better structured way. This will not only help me personally but will also contribute in adding better managers in corporate world.”

Candidate B replies: “Sir, IIMs are world renowned premier institutes and a MBA degree from there will be instrumental in adding brand value to my skill set. Currently corporate world is doing well and there are lots of opportunities for MBAs. MBA degree from IIM will not only make me very market competitive but will also give me edge over other normal degree holders and thus will enhance my market value. Already I have 2 year technical experience and I am not sure if MBA degree from any normal college can enhance my earnings after two years, taking into account that that I will not earning during those two years and will incur cost on self. If you see the current Market boom and placement scenario at IIM, I believe doing a MBA from here will   end up with higher rate of return.”

Now if you ask   so called soft skill expert to analyze both the replies, he may very well label Candidate B’s reply as bit selfish, narrow and most importantly inappropriate. In appropriate because people do not expect that kind of answer. The fact remains that both candidate are going for MBA degree because it will enhance their earning capability many folds after two years.

Now let’s go to the second question with the following scenario. If a candidate gets a call from IIM B and IIM I, most probable question at I will be:”If you are finally selected at IIM B and I, which IIM will you opt for?” Like previous question’s answer again there is only one correct and mutually agreed answer. Wipe out any statistics that you have in your mind. I mean don’t point out the type of companies and the number of companies that come at B. Never ask them why I release second /third list fir selection and there is nothing like that at B. Also asking why I sends more GD/PI calls compared to B will jeopardize your chances of making into I. The appropriate answer and logic is simple. All IIMs are best(all have their own ego), so called inferior IIMs send more calls because they are very selective and  before final selection need to scrutiny varied sample space. So frame some no nonsense answer.

Another typical question that has always fascinated me is: “What is your weakness?” Some typical answers are:

1. I am work alcoholic and forget everything until and unless work is complete.

2. I get annoyed if things are not completed with perfection.

And list goes on with lot of nonsense junk

I still don’t know what may be the perfect answers,but  to be at the safe side I will not mind giving “appropriate” answers till it serves my purpose.I don’t care how honest or dishonest those answers may be.J