Rot in hell Bin Laden

For me, two facebook updates from my two American nephews summed up the general emotion / reaction of the world after President Obama made the big announcement earlier this week:

First said, "Justice prevails. Rot it in hell Osama."

Second, "Rip Osama. Rot in pieces."

These two kids were about 10 years old on Sept 11, 2001. Can you imagine how many kids across the world had the events of 9/11 embedded deep in their psyche?

Few thoughts related to this week's events:

1. We have always criticized US for taking stands which have helped them meet short term goals but has created long term problems for this world. Bin Laden was a creation of such policies. Given that context, my respect for Bush is increasing by the day because he took some hard decisions which acted as catalyst to long term changes happening in the Arab world - uprising in Egypt, Libya etc are good examples. Hopefully Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan will NOT be failed states in future and thanks to Bush, who started the clean up in a BIG way.

2. Full credit to Obama for a very meticulously executed plan to eliminate Osama - hats off to him. Very well done! BUT, let's also acknowledge that it was during Bush's regime, because of the means he used (including torture) to extract information, CIA got the leads that enabled Obama administration to zero down on Osama's location in Pakistan.

3. Obama had repeatedly said during his campaign that if he received credible intel on OBL's location in Pakistan, he will go in and take him down. He was ridiculed at that time for such statements but he did EXACTLY what he said during the campaign. Well done!

4. Obama's approval ratings have jumped up significantly this week, but economic policies of Obama is a huge issue in my opinion and being in s/w industry I see first hand how he is doing dis-service to competitiveness of US corporations through his protectionist policies. Well, even Bush failed on the economy front - so that's a very serious concern for US and to some extent I understand why many Americans are concerned about his second term, which BTW I think is INEVITABLE after this weekend's development.

5. Pakistan is at a very dangerous juncture right now and that should be a very serious cause of concern for us in India. Pakistan is at the edge and could head towards a civil war kind of situation, given the kind of jokers they have in their society - dysfunctional government, miserable President, all kinds of fundamentalist groups active in the country and ISI support to such groups. India/US may have to intervene in Pakistan next with military action to first take down their nukes and then prevent anarchy - that will probably be the toughest phase of war on terror.

Hope peace and justice prevails!

Regulate Real Estate Industry in India - Part 2

Watch me raise the issue and trigger a debate on this NDTV show. If you do not want to watch the entire show, go to the 9th minute of the show.



The same appeared on this prominent business daily as well - http://www.livemint.com/2011/02/27205858/Make-life-easier-for-honest-ta.html.

Indian IT Industry

It has been quite a run for the industry in the last decade and so far the three big boys (TCS, Infosys and Wipro) were almost at par as far as financial performance is considered. Start of 2011 - guess what, we now have four big boys (TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant) and financial results are no more each other's replica - each of these companies are showing it's strengths and weaknesses. And yes, you can argue that Cognizant is really not an Indian company, but it really is... other than the fact that it's headquartered and listed in US, everything else is pretty much the same. There may be a fifth big boy too in HCL in near future, let's see how that goes.

See some of these stats to notice the difference now:

Source: Business World

Would love to get views on the next 3-5 years - who will emerge as the winner?

Regulate Real Estate Industry in India

Times of India ran an article on 3rd Feb on how real estate companies are taking customers for a ride. I am sure many of the readers who have made real estate investments in India will relate to this. If you think about it and put a number to it, this could be the largest scam in India, larger than even the so called 2G scam – if you take the number of associated with it to be the true size of the scam!!  I think that number is a joke, but let’s stick to real estate for today. BTW, isn’t it sad that SCAM has become part of our daily vocabulary in India.

I will not go into the issues with real estate industry in India because the TOI article pretty much captures it – although that article is for Gurgaon market, I think it will hold good for any part of the country. The only additional thing I would like to add is by sharing something I know about another very interesting industry in the US – Death care industry, and then comparing that with real estate industry in India. Death care is a huge organized industry in the US with the largest player (Service Corporation International) being a $2 bn company. We Indians will probably find it funny but most people in US make prearrangements for their funeral and also pre-pay for it. The death care companies take money for goods (coffin, burial site etc.) and services (funeral) that will get delivered sometime in future. Now compare that with real estate in India – here also the builders are collecting money in advance for goods (house) that they will deliver in future. Even in the construction linked plan, they take significantly more amount of money upfront – something like 95% of the amount when construction status is 50%. 

BTW, in case you are wondering why didn’t I compare it with the real estate industry in US – I think in US builders cannot take money in advance from customers anyway (I am not sure though…) – they usually build properties and then sell it.

Now let’s see the difference from regulation perspective. In the US, death care companies are bound by regulation to keep the money collected in advance in a Trust account. The company is bound to give investment options for the money in Trust to the customer – that means, if I have made prearrangement for my funeral and have paid money in advance, I decide where it gets invested and gains from that investment are mine. Under no circumstance can a death care company take control of that money or recognize that money as revenue. In the event of death of the customer, goods are services are delivered to the family and only then can the company take money out of the Trust and settle accounts.

What do builders in India do? They take that money, delay projects by years, invest that money in future projects and pay a miniscule penalty to customers for the delay. Some even close shop or run away with the money. It’s almost like borrowing money from a bank for no interest. In fact, one way to look at it is that the customer is actually funding the builder and also paying interest to the bank on behalf of the builder because most of these investments have a loan component.

So, why aren’t politicians and babus doing anything about it? Well, if they regulate the real estate industry, where else will they park their black money and recirculate when needed!!

I think I will instigate media to run a sting operation on this scam. Prannoy Roy, Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, India TV… whoever else has a livelihood on sting operations, hope you are listening!

Vote for Nitish Kumar

When Nitish Kumar won the election defeating Lalu in 2005, on that particular day, we were at Grand Canyon along with Mom and Dad during their first US visit. It meant a lot for all of us as it meant great hope for Bihar to get out of the Jungle Raj and the mis management of the state for several decades - yes, I say several decades because even the Congress government in the state before Lalu's 15 years of Jungle Raj was no good - Lalu just took it to levels we could have never imagined! Coming back to that particular day in 2005 - we were all very happy, but Mummy was so happy that she decided to celebrate by wearing her best Banarasi Sari for the Grand Canyon tour! Later that morning, we took a helicopter ride to get a view of the magestic and beautiful Grand Canyon!

5 years after that, very proud that the man on which we had put all our hopes has not let us down. Now that the state is going through another election, I hope we Biharis will help ourselves by appropriately rewarding the man who didn't let us down.

Come on Bihar, let us make the best use of the most fundamental right that we have, let's give Nitish one more chance because 2nd Term to Banta Hai Boss.

CWG Mess

Someone save India from national embarrassment! Watching the CWG officials on TV today trying to justify the mess - you know what, that was so repulsive that I want to hand them over to Taliban and encourage Taliban to go medieval on their asses!

My God, come on guys!!! It's really shameful! What could have been India's show to the world has turned out to be exactly opposite.

BTW, why the hell is India part of Commonwealth anyways! Why to we want to keep the british legacy alive? If anyone can enlighten me on that, I will appreciate....

My most amazing movie experience

It was sometime in the year 2000 or 2001 that I was visiting my good friend Sumit Singhal in Omaha, Nebraska. I used to live in Kansas City, Kansas at that time and since Omaha was just 3 hrs drive, we were able to meet each other every now and then. Sumit and I share one passion for sure - Hindi Movies and so in one of my visits to Omaha, we were watching the all time classic - Sholay - on DVD. Like most Sholay fans, I had watched the movie umpteen number of times and this was the umpteenth + 1 and so I probably remembered each and every frame of the movie by this time.

Remember the last sequence where Viru is beating the crap out of Gabbar and when he is about to dabao his tetua with a danda - Thakur plays spoilsport with "Viru, Gabbar ko mere hawale kar do..." and uses Jai's waada to finally persuade Viru to handover Gabbar to him...

Watch this sequence - if you are a true Sholay fan, you will know what I am talking about when I say this is the most amazing movie experience I have ever had!

Just in case you haven't realized - Gabbar dies instead of the cop turning up to play spoilsport one more time!! This was the original Sholay climax but was later changed when censor board objected to it - can you believe those times in the 1970s. The censor board objected to a scene where a hard core criminal like Gabbar was crushed the way he should be crushed! Well, Indian censor board doesn’t control the US market and so we were able to watch this version by accident.

I specially like the part of the sequence where Thakur breaks down in Viru's arms - showing the immense pain burried in his heart - getting some sort of closure with Gabbar's death.

This was the most amazing movie experience that I have ever had – I was just short of pinching myself to figure out if what I just saw was for real. Later doing research on internet, I figured out this is the way Sholay’s climax was supposed to be and all this while we were watching “an alternate ending”!

After a long time.....

..... coming back to my blog. Believe me, every few days I get the urge to write something on my blog but time has become an extremely precious thing for me after coming back to India. Job demands significant travel and time and so couldn't write that often.

Today is a happy day for my family with a new addition to the family - a baby boy - my fourth nephew! Welcome my little one - cannot wait to see you. May God bless you with a long, healthy and a very fulfilling life.

For those of you wondering where I had disappeared - was very busy trying to balance between "settling down" and "travel related to work". A full 6 months after coming to India, life now feels like a bit settled down.

It was a nice long weekend in most parts of India and guess what - next weekend is also a long weekend and so is the weekend after next! A colleague told me that 8 of the 10 declared holidays in my company this calendar year was either on a Friday or on a Monday!! WOW! Much needed break from a very hectic schedule!

More later, will try to be a bit more regular - assuming atleast one person cares to read what I write here!! :-)

Airlines & Airports of India

After joining work in India, I have been traveling a lot and wanted to share some experiences with respect to Airlines and Airports. To start with, let's talk about of the Maharaja - Air India!! Last weekend I was in Pune attending a conference and was returning back to Delhi on Sunday, May 31 on Air India flight IC850. The flight was delayed by several hours, but I didn't mind that much because it gave me time to catch up on my reading and I finished almost 100 pages of Post American World by Fareed Zakaria, waiting for the flight at a restaurant within Pune Airport. Then finally boarded the flight at around 9:30pm and it was terribly hot inside the cabin - it usually is when you board an Air India domestic flight. Maybe they try to save energy, damn the passengers - anyway, that was also ok and I can live with that.

The aircraft itself gave a look as if it was atleast 30 years old, if not more, with real poor maintenance record - dirty seats, white tape patches on the floor carpet, worn out tray tables, white interiors giving a dirty yellowish look.... overall raised my discomfort with the flight! Then the flight took off and I got busy with my book again. For brief moments the flight was turbulent - I have realized that in India flights are more turbulent than what I have been used to in the US - so, even this didn't bother me a lot. Maybe there is a good reason for this pattern I see - or let's say, I hope so. The close to two hour flight was coming to it's end and we were about to land at Delhi airport.

Then came the most horrifying experience - just when the flight was about to touch the runway, there was some more erratic vibrations in the aircraft, which was pretty scary, and then the pilot aborted landing (just a few feet above the tarmac) and took off again! The sound of engine of that old aircraft was almost as if it was fighting hard to follow the instructions of it's commander. Then we ran into some more rough weather (I had not realized that we were trying to manouver around a thunderstorm during this landing attempt - maybe I was too engrossed in my book) and we could see the lightning and clouds outside the window. Putting the book aside, with all kinds of weird thoughts in my mind, I started praying! After a good 15-20 mins, the pilot announced that they had to abort landing because of rough weather and you know what - they are going to make another attempt to land at Delhi airport! Well, this time around, after 45 mins of the first aborted attempt and well past midnight, he did manage to land safely! While I am extremely thankful to the pilot for saving us from a potential disaster, I also wonder if Air India, Delhi Airport ATC and the Pilot commanding the aircraft made a wrong judgment call by trying to land under such weather conditions. The aircraft itself gave a worn out look and sound, for sure. Somehow, I didn't see this incident making news the next day or the day after, but there was another news about another Air India flight in Mumbai - AI and Jet planes in near collision at Mumbai airport. I was tempted to call up CNN IBN and report this incident at Delhi airport, but I didn't find time - I should have.

When I returned to India from the US in early April, I flew on the direct Air India flight from JFK to Delhi and on that flight, my experience was absolutely marvelous. Brand new plane, great interiors and ambience, excellent cabin crew, TV monitors on every seat with great entertainment options, landed before time etc.... But what's wrong with the domestic sector? If you are wondering why I am getting cynical based on one experience, consider this - an Air India agent at Delhi airport asked me for bribe to allow my excess baggage on the plane! This was the very first week I landed in India and was traveling along with my family from Delhi to Patna. The modus operandi was this - there was a guy at the baggage x-ray screening area, who was more than helpful to me, took care of my luggage and helped me take all of that luggage to the checkin counter after x-ray screening. Grateful to him, as I really needed help with my baggage, I tipped him generously for his help. Then the agent, who was an old man probably close to his retirement, told me that I had excess baggage and will have to pay for that. I requested him to allow it without additional payment as I had international connection (Air India used to allow this in past). The guy took his own sweet time as if he is trying to figure out a way but later I realized he was mustering courage to ask me for a bribe!! In a feable sound, he said "500 rupya us ladka ko de dijiye jo aapka samaan laya tha"! Amazed at what I just heard, I shouted back at him pretty loudly - "Kya"! I wanted him to say that again to me and make sure that I didn't misinterpret him. He was asking for Rs 500 as bribe for allowing my excess baggage which would cost me around Rs 600 - unbelieveable!!! Anyways, in a loud voice again, I asked him to charge me whatever needs to be charged and give me a receipt for it! I didn't do anything more than that because the old man looked embarassed and somehow I didn't want to create more problems for him.

There was one more 'not so pleasant' experience on that same flight, which I will reserve for now.... I think I have made my point. In one of my past blogs, I had mentioned that I will not write about the 'not so good' things about India and I stand by that. I am writing this experience because I am worried that if Air India operates the way I have seen it operate, then it could lead to loss of lives.


I will avoid flying Air India for sure. While we are on this topic, I hope that Manmohan Singh government's disinvestment plans include Air India on priority because clearly all the issues related to Government trying to run a business, still shows up with Air India. Same comment on airports - what an awesome job done by private companies on Bangalore and Hyderabad airport!! Well done guys, well done! Hyderabad has been the best so far - can compete with any world class airport anywhere in the world. Next is Bangalore - when I first landed in Bangalore, I had not seen Hyderabad airport until then and was very impressed with the airport and even the road that connected the airport to the city. It didn't look like India. While Hyderabad and Bangalore are green field efforts, Delhi's existing IGI airport is undergoing a major overhaul and even they are doing a pretty decent job. Very encouraging! So, this is how private sector has shown it's mettle.

Then comes the Airport Authority of India's effort to renovate Pune's airport - while the effort is commendable and they seem to have tried their best - but the end product is no where close to Bangalore, Delhi or Hyderabad. Another metro - Chennai - looks like they are not even making an effort. Now that the communists are off Manmohan's back, I really hope that there will be more action around disinvestment and infrastructure, followed by some amazing results.

Coming back to Airlines - pleasantly surprised by IndiGo Airline. Somehow they manage to be on time, all the time! Very professional cabin crew, brand new planes, good plan for corporate travelers - we get special treatment with a free (and pretty decent) meal, while others have to pay. Nice! Kingfisher - have taken flights on Kingfisher Red (erstwhile Deccan) so far, and the service continues to be good, although the aircrafts of Kingfisher Red are not as modern as that of Kingfisher. "Fly the good times" continues to impress. Jet - again no major change since last time - continues to impress. The same issue as Kingfisher Red with Jetlite (erswhile Sahara). Somehow the airlines have not been able to do a good job of integration after Merger/Acquisition.

• The Maharaja - Air India (which merged with Indian Airlines) - has IC Flight Codes as well as AI Flight Codes. The website clearly has not been integrated well. They still ask the user to go to different areas for AI and IC flights.
• Jet and Jetlite - they still have separate checkin counters and flight codes and probably maitaining different brand names because of loose integration
• Kishfisher and Kingfisher Red - similar issues but least evident.

Wonder how much of synergies (and so savings) have they been able to realize as a result of the mergers / acqusitions.

Overall, significant improvement in aviation sector since my last experience in India 3 years back. Safety remains a concern for me because most airlines are not making money and I suspect that they are probably cutting corners somewhere. I wish I am wrong and it wouldn't take a disaster before regulators have a hard look at this.

And Air India - I hope I am not forced to fly on your flights given your level of connectivity and the number of flights you opetate. I know I cannot avoid you completely, but I will do my best to minimize the risk of flying the Maharaja!!

18 years - how did they go by so fast!

When an event is so fresh in your mind and you suddenly realize that it has been 18 years since then, it starts to sink in that you are getting old!

Large number of advertisements in today's newspaper paying homage to Rajiv Gandhi, reminded me that today is 18th anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi's assasination; and that day 18 years back is still so fresh in my mind. Early in the morning I was getting ready to go for my Physics tution lesson and then news spread that Rajiv Gandhi was killed the night before. Maybe the event is still so fresh in my mind because something unique happened that day. On a sunny summer morning in Patna, suddenly there were dark clouds in the sky, lightning, heavy rains and almost a thunderstorm - as if the heavenly bodies were also in a state of shock, disbelief, anger and were mourning this senseless violence and as if the entire universe was crying. This storm on that sunny summer morning of May 22nd, 1991 lasted for only a few minutes; about at the same time, when the news broke in my town of the tragic event of previous night; and then it was bright and sunny again.

18 years later, what a week for Rajiv Gandhi's family!! What a week! Sonia, Rahul and to some extent Priyanka have orchestrated a major comeback for the Congress Party and that too on merits and not through dirty politics.

Not so long ago, this country (including me) had written off Congress Party and had embraced BJP as a viable alternative. Hats off to Sonia Gandhi for providing great leadership to this party and for bringing it back to it's old glory. Hats off to her for standing behind a decent and capable man like Manmohan Singh, and for giving up the most powerful post of India. It's hard to believe that in this era of coalition politics, Manmohan Singh is the only PM after Jawaharlal Nehru who will become a PM again, immediately after a 5 year term. In one of my previous blogs, I had said that people like Manmohan Singh can become the PM of India only by accident and you know what, I was wrong. Sonia Gandhi and Congress Party proved me and many other skeptics out there wrong by boldly projecting Manmohan Singh as the PM much before the elections, and then winning the elections by a handsome margin.

Hats off to Sonia Gandhi for the way she has ensured that Rahul Gandhi is not thrust upon the Party just because he is Rajiv Gandhi's son. She ensured that he works at grassroot level and won respect of citizens of India as well as his colleagues in the Party. Few years back, Rahul appeared as a underconfident young guy who was nowhere close to his father's personality and charisma. He appeared as if he is struggling to make his presence felt. From there he has come a long way under the able guidance of his mother. Amazed to see that this week Indian media compared him to his father and declared that he is probably a notch better than his father! Today, Rajiv Gandhi must be so proud of his family - a family which was heartbroken 18 years back and decided to stay away from politics forever after that sad loss. What a gradual come back - full credit to Rajiv's wife, Sonia Gandhi.

This very week, Prabhakaran was killed and finally the mastermind of Rajiv Gandhi's assasination was brought to justice. Not that they were wishing for this event to happen, but hopefully this would bring some sense of closure to the family.

I wish them well and hope they continue on the right path and achieve new heights through hard work, merit and capability and not because they come from a royal family. This week is yours and hope that you all will have much better times ahead.