Relocation

We have shifted to http://www.pawanverma.com

Regards,

PV

Legalisation of homosexuality in India

I am neither a homosexual nor a big Celina Jaitley fan but I am glad and relieved when Indian HC passed the verdict in favor of gays and homosexuals on 2nd July. A lot of discussions and emotional melodrama has been going on in Indian media on how some people get the wrong body and by the time, they realize that then gets too late, all blah-blah … might be true but not very convincing or appealing to me and thus this is not the reason why i am appreciating court’s judgement.

What’s really heartening in HC’s decision is that emphasis is given on Freedom rather than religious dictums, they weighed the equality more than the morality which demarcates the maturing society. We don’t want to be counted among one of the many non-liberal countries and decisions like this will have their significance.

I personally hate to see gays, i believe they look disgusting, neither they are soft and charming like females nor masculine and strong like males but my opinion is not the truth. The truth is that gays and lesbians exist and they are residing among us, hiding their identity from the society for the fear of being homosexual. Whatever, they are humans first and in every bare civilized society, they should not be deprived of their fundamental rights – the freedom of speech and the freedom of sexuality.

I believe this is a landmark decision and sincerely wish that one day Indian courts would ban all the castes and declare ‘Castism’ as ‘Racism’ with a jail of minimum 10 years. Amen !

Hamaari Saanson Mein

Listening Mehendi Hasan and giving solace to my soul. Would not dilute the post by writing my blabberings, somethings should be kept pure…

Insidepawan: Part III

Hey,

Change is constant and here it comes. I am relocating to Blogger, yes … from where i have switched around 3 yrs back. The Whys would be answered in the subsequent posts but till then I would continue writing at the following URL – http://insidepawan.blogspot.com.

Bye Bye WordPress !

Edited
——
I didn’t like Blogger and here i am back again 🙂

Thanks
Pawan

Globalisation or Anti-Globalisation?

The foundation of this post has been laid in the afternoon after there has been a forward on one of the bakar threads and it has been satirically replied by Rajiv. The forward was regarding support to Indian goods and boycott foreign products and unusually, a non-sense thread got some good view points.

Globalisation has been mostly hated in developing nations on the notion that rich nations and companies are spreading a colonial regime, utilizing poor nation’s resources, manpower and buying power (countries like India/China). There are lot of pamphlet circulations, e-Mail chains to support these causes with examples like Coke price being of 60P while its being sold at Rs. 9 etc. I agree, but would you wonder if i say that Coke is the dream marketing company of world’s best B grade student? Here product is secondary and how’s that being sold is more important and this conundrum reflects in the cost too. Some pretty basic Business funda. A very layman’s example to perhaps make it more understanable to junta: In my native place, Sand is mixed with cement in some proportion while building houses etc. That sand is free of cost and is being brought from the bank of Ganges river, but still you have to pay couple of hundred bucks to get that trolley in ur doorsteps because it involves the transportation cost, driver’s services and other labor. There is a price for free product !!!

This globalisation becomes more hated in turbulent times like present. USA is falling apart and nations are/might try to follow protectionism approach. There has been statements from PSU banks after ICICI reported big losses sometime back that they are safe as they have been wise enough not to expose themselves to US derivates. Good to hear but how many of them share the same pace of growth as ICICI? Even now, ICICI is the biggest bank while it was formally founded somewhere in 90s. No marks for guessing higher the risk, higher the reward theory.

This globalisation is not nothing new, nor it’s flaws and threats. It has been feared in different countries in different ways in different times. In 80s, Japan threatened world especially US with its superior technology, financial acumen and innovative practices. Toyota, Canon, Sony has been on buying spree and it was then thought that whole of US would be working somewhere under Japanese companies. All these companies have gone global by keeping their base in Japan, but still US survived and companies like GE not only thrived but fastly thrived.

And where’s the silver line in all this phenomenon? It helped in International trade and global economic integration resulting from it has led to raise of standard of living in developed and developing nations, facilitated the flow of ideas and people, strengthend the international laws and helped millions of people to come out of poverty. There is very dangerous tendency to curse globalisation during recession time and follow a protective economic approach (like debate going on in US to cut short H1 B, keep jobs inside etc) but it does more long term losses than short term benefits.

Every positive article covering recession quotes that recession is an opportunity and all the big companies like GE, Coca-Cola are borne out of big recession and that’s true too. It’s not the time to be protective, infact every government and its citizens should make meaningful contribution to the International trade. Banning Chinese toys or Indian outsourcing contracts would lead to an isolated world where trade would not be transparent, foreign participants would be deterred in the domestic markets, hampering innovation, raising the cost of the consumer products, limiting growth and ultimately leading to low level of living.

Regionalism, protectism, nepotism of any kind should not be promoted. If you hate globalisation, then you can’t condemn what Marathis are doing in Maharashtra with North Indians, or what Tamils are doing in Srilanka or what terrorists are doing in Kashmir. If Indian people should boycott foreign goods, then why not UP should bycott Maharashtra products and Kanpur should boycott Agra caricatures and then Sarvodya Nagar should boycott Saket Nagar’s maid and auto-walahs. The world would be restrcited to fences and all the international trade laws which has been set up after years of refinement would prove to be failure. Let’s not create more problems to this world which is already having enough of it’s issues.

Final word: Capitalism with all its flaws is the best way to prosper. However, describing this line would require another blog.

Goodbye,
Pawan

Slumdog Millionaire !

‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is in hype, owing to all the good reasons: Be it winning all the four prestigious Golden Globe awards (AR Rehman rocks and ‘Jai Ho’ is mesmerizing !), lot of critic’s acclaimation in film festivals across the globe. Just done with the movie and couldn’t resist myself to blah my thoughts on it.

Movie is excellent, story is brilliant, performances are up to the mark and cinematogrpahy says it all. I should be all pleased after the movie and believe me, i am except for one thing. This post is not going to be the review of the movie but of just couple of question and then a desperate attempt to identify those answers.

Q1. Why’s that India is still shown in plight ? India had been the land of snake-charmers and this is how it had fascinated westerners, right from Alexander age where his army was fearing the big animals over which Indian soldiers fight to English for whom Indians are not capable enough to rule India and they need English dictum. Perhaps, i am exaggerating and deviating from the topic but why couldn’t this movie depict India as less dirty and less third world country? Couple of instances like crippling children by a begging mafia racket are showing India in poor light even if facts are not overstated.

A: It’s human nature. The more agony, sorrow, pain you show; the more is the audience appeal. It’s a fact, movies are drama, the more melo-drama you can create out of it, the bigger hit it would be. Show misery, sex, prostitutes, corruption, protaganists, touch the audience’s heart and win all the critic’s acclaim and this is very OK & Tested formula. Right from Premchand to Madhur Bhandarkar, all have tried to show the deepest level of wretchedness and public love them.

Why is this Q at first place? This is big question, perhaps because it’s being directed by a Britisher and is being watched throughout the world. Global junta doesn’t watch every other Indian movie but this is the one which is perhaps going to have highest volume of viewers, critically acclaimed Best movie in/about India recently. Why does English always portray the dark side of India? Why can’t they see the economic growth, huge huge Indian middle class, it’s diversity and unity hand-in-hand? I am becoming a little mean and what else disturbs my conscience is that a Britisher has made better movie than many Indian and it’s getting acclaimation world-wide. India’s superactor Amitabh Bachhan has given a forgettable performance in ‘The Last Lear’, perhaps which could be Slumdog competitor.

Q2: More or less extension of Q1. Why can’t English make sci-fi, action, romantic movies over India? They find solace in Salaam Bombay, Slumdog etc…why?  Why don’t they make such movies there? In no Hollywood movie, I have seen any racism, a black Police inspector is as authoritative as its white counterpart, while racism is still there. Why doesn’t Hollywood portray this at their home?

A2: Warner Bros is not charitable institute but a pure commercial movie company. They would  show what public wants. Americans don’t wish to see and show racism on TV or to the world even though it’s rooted in their heart. At the same time, they are scared of India and China and while  watching such movies, they give themselves pat on the back. How can slumdogs Indians compete with the supergenes Americans. Lord, forgive them ! They are plundering another country horror for their entertainment. An excellent visual deragotory depiction of unfortunate India.

Undoubtely movie is vivid, moving and breathlessly exciting. Kudos to director for giving a good entertainer!

Mr. Raju: I stand by you !

While typing these words, i am not sure about my job. Not sure, when I have to pack the bags and leave States on a day or two notice. Further, i have never been proud to be working in Satyam or happy being a Satyamite, infact got sorry after getting placed in Satyam during institute placement time, as big bankers like Citi or consulting firms like PwC, KPMG have always fascinated me. But, at this juncture of time, Mr. Raju, i stand by you.

I understand with whole gravity the situation, Satyam fraternity and India Inc is in, but like as i have mentioned in the last post, Media frenziness is in no way accepted. Raju is projected as historysheeter who should be caught and put behind the bars. Obviously, World is not of failed ones but Raju has been a big man and one of the Indian icons. Things went wrong, terribly wrong, but where in the whole world, things are always perfect.

The main and only fault of Raju has been the inflatory books; From compliance perspective, it’s a big crime but from common man’s perspective, it’s something which we encounter every now and then. Right from IPL teams to fairness creams, everyone is selling themselves as the best. This media who has gone crazy while covering this event, has atleast 10 news papers which are most read in India. Satyam cashbooks have no debts, Raju has arranged some 1200 crores and put them without any trace in cash-books. He was running a company at 3% margin and still talking of acquiring, thinking big and deals all across the world. Don’t you see a man of big heart.

Indian IT companies are known for their bench stregnth. Infy, the most reputed corporate governors has been asking its employees to go on forced vacations or take a year of half salary leave or join some NGO. An engineer or MBA has not joined Infy to work in Infy foundation, nor is everyone shares the same philanthropic thinking like Mr. Murthy. Satyam has not laid off its employees instead of such turbulent time. If anyone is going to give example of sacking of some couple of hundred of associates, i am going to blast him.

Raju might not be cruel perfect corporate Business person, but he was trying to deal with situation with a bit of passion, a sense of hope and lot of patience; the indian way. He didn’t order sacking of 20K employees on a single day, nor did he sell any of the acquired companies. He didn’t close any of the philanthropic activities of EMRI or Satyam foundation. He was literally riding a tiger and trying to control that tiger so that 50K Satyam associates are not biten, alas, he could not let it happen !

More than Satyam, it’s the regulators who are at fault. PwC should be banned worldwide. Remember, it was not only Enron which got bankrupt in 2001, Arthur Enderson was also doomed. How can auditors sign the balance sheets?  Why would i not brand myself and my company as a successful, charismatic, Indian fastest growing, if noone is checking over me. It’s helping me to get good deals and client trust. Why for then all these auditors and consulting firms are paid the hefty checks ?

Further, i see the news that Satyam episode might give a jolt to Indian Industry. Why ? Because, US companies would not believe us anymore. I am not happy. Why the Indian mammoths have to look after those US companies which don’t have any money with them, which are asking loans of billions of dollars from government every month. We say that this is failure of Indian leadership, comeon, this is just one company getting failed, half of the US is failed at this point. And plus, what are the charges.. inflatory books? Raju has not bribed anyone (WB is altogther separate issue, don’t try to mix and match the things!), nor has taken billions of dollars of loans from anyone and nor is the company running in debt. Satyam is still profitable venture with no debts in account. According to some of these reckless auditor’s surveys, 70% of CFOs goof up their books on the order of CEOs, this is in US which boast of regulatory norms. When such is the culture of a nation, how can they distrust an Indian counterpart.

Raju has been trying to buy Maytas so that he can show transfer of funds and can then pay later but investors didn’t approve it. Don’t you see that as an honest attempt now?

I see that he has not done correct. Many of the shareholders, satyam associates sentiments have been hurt and he would be punished by the law of the land, but why is he being shown as another Harshad Mehta? What has Harshad Mehta given to us, he has given 50K jobs, a name to Indian IT, was the first to vision outsourcing model and made Americans fear on their land for their jobs, associated FIFA for branding to a country where football is nowhere except schools. He has been a gentleman throughout his 21 careers in Satyam except since last 20 days when Media started seeing a scamster in him. I still feel that he had been a great leader and a good human being, who had gone wrong somewhere in the things.

Satyam fiasco

Just done with the reading of headlines at Economictimes and there was something which has compelled me to write this blog. ‘Satyam Fiasco’ was the heading given, and there were couple of articles right from corporate governance to company’s investment strategy to company’s board members and prmotoers outlook. It was good read, though i would not agree to many of the points, or say that i have a different outlook.

Honestly, the recent turn of events have not been good; be it getting banned from World Bank or buy-back plans of sister concerns, Maytas Properties or Maytas Infra and then its abortion, and then resignation of one or as people say first board members. Satyam has already been in trouble over a leagal case with UK based UPaid and as reported, if the case does go against Satyam then it would be in deep trouble.

Being a Satyam employee, these news obviously interest me more than usual items and i am also concerned but definitely not very happy, the way Media has put reported the case. Guess, things have been made hyper and are presented in more bad shape then they really are.

Coming to Maytas deal and then the decision to take that back. Raju, one of the biggest industrialist of the nation is trying to promote his other family venture, put this forward as part of diversification strategy to all the employees and shareholders. Where’s the wrong in it? I understand that in this time of recession, putting this big cash deal might deprive Satyam from it’s huge built up cash pile and company can’t afford this. The same thing has been told by the promoters and company, respecting their views have taken back the decision. Why is this all the fuss and post-mortem of the things.

Journalists say after their analysis that it was plain case of family promotion. I say there is no analysis needed for this. It was. The recent events in Real Estate have been much worse than IT and Maytas shares have suffered around 50% fallback since a year time. But was it the first time in Indian history when such attempt has been made? Our whole india is a family run country. Check from 10, Janpath to your neighbourhood, every father is trying to promote his son with all his worth. Our politicians, our  Businessmen, our spoprts person, it’s like family affair. From Nehru to Rahul’s sons, they would be in Congress and would in Politics. From Jamsetji to Ratan Tata, Tatas have been doing great to serve the country. There are thousands of family lineages who have been serving in Indian army and are proud of that.  India is developing big but is still developing and it might take long time to have professional setup built in the country. Unlike Steve Jobs case, you can’t move the founder out of the company here.

Enough of examples! Its plain affair that Maytas need funds for its grand metro project in Hyderabad and which is very difficult to have in this bad time for real estate. Between, Maytas in well established name in Indian real-estate after giants like DLF and Unitech. Almost all the rocky area os Hyderabad, perhaps the future-biggest city of India is occupied by it and they are ambitious to acquire more which sometimes is seen as hungry corporate India to win over the world. Raju has his vision of promoting the project of Maytas which further de-risk the IT business of the the firm and after it has not gone well with the promoters, has taken it back. Media is proposing hostile take-over (not sure, how reliable the news is !) and such other stupid stuff.  Raju has been a responsible entrepreneur, have been several NGOs which are doing great job in serving the society. He is not the one seen on television channels everyday and providing his opinion on all the national aspects right from terrorism to politics like other Comapny’s top notch management. He knows to do Business and there are couple of things which go wrong but how do you present it to the world and to the common person that rests with Media. This time, we need more responsible media who should be involved into serious journalism and stop finding sensation on every action of corporates. Don’t forget that these are the few coporates who have made India what it is ? You can say that india confidence and IT uprising coming hand in hand have been a coincidence, i don’t think so !

16th-Aug 2008

Hmmm … The title date is my b’date but this blog is not about my B’day or how did I celebrate it or something related. Infact, This post is indeed about a day which I have spent and with amusing coincidence, the day turns out to be my ‘Happy B’day’ too 😀

I have been planning to visit the city since the day I turn up to States. Fine, I have other big plans to go to California to visit some of my relatives, to go to Philly … to my friends, to Canada but one is expected to atleast see his city before moving out. I have been searching about Atlanta, places to visit, clubs to spent some time, other area of interests every Friday night with a promise that I would be moving next day morning, and if I can’t find anyone then I’ll go alone, but next day, I got up at 10 and start making new plans. This plan thing sucks :- )

Anyways this historical account is not needed and I should say that it was a great day that I spent. I went out with one of my hotel friends to deposit money into the next-door bank. I was wearing Pyjama, simple loose t-shirt and chappals (not even sandals!). Unlike India, Bank took only 4 mins to complete my request and we went on for a long walk and then we found that we have come to one of the big bus stations. Me and My friend were talking about going to Downtown next day but when we have come there, we both say together that should we go now? And next min, we were in some Bus. My God…all my plans, tons of information and maps print-outs were at my desk and I was not needing them at all. Believe me, it’s not that easy .. like here, the road names have always confused me, e.g., I can find Riverside Parkway, Riverside Road SE, Riverside Road NW and so many Riverside things and that too, all are quiet far apart … It’s really a pain to be here without car and having a car without GPS.

So we were in Bus and my companion was pretty confused at the stop in which we have to get down. He use to ask the same question to everyone sitting on all his sides and it’s so embarrassing. You ask someone something, she explains you and then you ask the same thing to the person sitting next to her. Anyways, he is like old married guy and must have had his bad share of experiences before but for me, it was awkward but okie! Awkward things are interesting 😉

We reached to Downtown and it was really good. For the first time after coming here, I have seen so many people together. There is an area ‘Olympics Park’ which is like the centre of the city and all the major attractions like Aquarium, Coke Museum and CNN etc are 1-2 blocks away from each other, so that makes the place more happening. Hey, I have forgotten one thing to mention … as soon as we get out from the Metro station, I find a huge-huge public library and my dear old fatty ass- friend was in no mood to go and I forced him inside and spent around 30 mins after that he had become unmanageable and so we had to leave. Now, I have found my Saturday-pastime, I am going to go to that library, will spent entire day there … great, it sounds so pleasing! Then there is one ‘Underground Atlanta’ which makes me remember the ‘Palika Bazar’ of New Delhi. You can find all sorts of people, be it astrologer or guy painiting faces, cheap items with so many small restaurants and people around, it’s like any typical Indian market.

I don’t wish to dwell in the details of the places, which I have seen, there is always a better description available over internet. The funny part is I have been visiting these places of interest in my sleeping dress without even cleaning my teeth, forget about bath etc. Coming to room after a long tiring day, when I was lying on my soft bed, I was recalling my good old college days where such days were so common. I had gone to Agra from Gwalior without any plan, on my bike in scorching heat with no money in pocket. Another time, my friends put me into the cab while I was asleep and I opened my eyes on a national highway and I was like ‘What, When and How’??

My b’day was special this time because it gave me an unplanned day of my increasingly going routine life.

Moral of the story: No cooking !

It was a pretty weird cum stupid day. After searching Atlanta information over internet whole night, and finally deciding to wander around the city and leave by 9:00 AM in the morning, i got up at 11:00. I cursed myself but that’s it. I guess, one can understand, how difficult it is to roam in a city which you don’t know and when you also don’t have a car. You cannot book a cab by asking cab driver to take you to any place and there seems to be no public transport (such poor country!), this is how I find it :- ), Atleast there should be some auto-rickshaws :- D

Anyhow, there was an embarassing cum exciting moment today. I was cooking the ‘parathas’ in my studio and it was first time, and i don’t know but somehow i over-cooked them and they got burnt and a lot of smoke filled my room. I opened the window, put the AC on full and also put the kitchen fan on full (actually, i didn’t do any of the three things, it’s just like i thought of saying people, if they ask me about this case :-P), and i don’t know why but suddenly fire-alarm started ringing. I was sure that it was because of my room’s cooking smoke, i went out, told runnning people, not to panic, that everything is fine, but noone seemingly was believing my words, so i came back and contiued listening my songs. Suddenly, i listened fire-brigade alarm, OMG …. these people have called fire-briagde too. It was going crazy and i was embarassed that it’s because of me (though, you guys can see that there was none of my fault !, even Ami says that we should cook and should not eat frozen food ), these guys are taking all this pain. I went to front-desk, tried explaining the situation to receptionist and the main officer there but they wish to get confirmed themselves … OK fine … they came to the room, checked everything, AC was full, window was opened, kitchen fan was on, and re-assuring everything, they left.

I was embarassed at one hand, and plus i was feeling good at their attentiveness and their quick response. These guys come within 10 mins of fire-alarm ringing. It was impressive !!!

But the moral of the story: No cooking, especially parathas from now onwards 🙂