2010 Main Events

My blog posts have dried up. I don’t want to give any justifications.

Its always interesting to look back to see the events that happened. I have been doing that almost every year in my blog.

Another year in Danbury, CT. This is my 3rd year in this small little New England town. A peaceful town this is, I would love this kind of life when I retire.

Some of the main events that happened in my personal life last year.

Visited India in April. Visited Mumbai, Kerala and finally Bangalore. Returned on May 8th and on the way stopped in Dubai for a quick visit to relatives and friends.

Ishika celebrated her 1st birthday in May. We had a party at the crown court hall, around 45 people attended it. Preksha and Ishika had their own individual cake cutting and then we served dinner to everyone. There were some games for the kids and adults. Overall a fun evening.

Travel

Visited many places this year. Major ones are

• Niagara falls

• Virginia beach
• Bronx zoo
• Beardsley zoo
• Hammonasset beach
• Six flags New Jersey
• Boston city
• Essex steam train
• Ottawa- Canada (me alone)

Summer was quite busy with all these trips and the big India trip.

Preksha

Preksha started her Kindergarten this year at Mill Ridge Primary school. She has her school bus coming at morning 07:45 and dropping her back at noon.

Preksha had her dance performance for the Diwali function organized by Indian association here. The program was covered by media and her picture appeared in the local newspaper too.

Lastly some significant statistics of this year for our family.

Books

We Read a lot of books thanks to Danbury Library. A reading history check at the my account in Danbury Library shows an astonishing number of 260 for the year 2010!!!! Its interesting to note the total number also 850 from 2008. Its all me and Preksha’s books.

Movies

Also, another interesting number is the number of Movies watched. Thanks to Netflix.com. My account history shows 71 Movie DVD’s were shipped to our home last year. Online watched movie count stands at 130. That is 200 movies in 365 days !! kind of unbelievable.

Grand Design - Review

The Grand Design by Stephen W. Hawking

My rating: 4 of 5 stars




It was Einstein’s dream to discover the grand design of the universe, a single theory that explains everything. Hawking, considered one of the most intelligent man alive today and the coauthor Mlodinow's with his exceptional writing style brings out this masterpiece; trying to explain the intricacies of the Universe we live in. The book tries to answer some of the basic questions we all ask every time. Why do we exist? Why are the laws of nature what they are? Did the universe need a designer and creator?



Authors have done a great job in explaining the scientific point of view while answering these questions. The last one attracted a lot of controversies due to its blatant attack on Biblical theory of Origin and creation. Hawking tries to prove that the Universe does not need a creator but can spontaneously appear out of nothing, each with different laws of nature.



The book gives us a lot of smart but simple examples and pictures and along with brilliant narration, this book has attained the status of a must have on your shelf. For grownups like us it’s like revisiting your old physics class and for younger generation it is the future reference book.

Public safety in India

I have been thinking about this for a long time. A tragedy in one school in Kumbakonam (TN) back in 2004 may be the first instance that prompted me to think about it. Today, on hearing the Carlton towers fire in Bangalore made me write this.

I am not sure if we have a department of Public safety in India at State level or Centre. Also, we don’t seem to have required policies and standards to follow for public safety. I think its the duty of BIS to come up with standards related to public safety. This like many of our quality standards like ISO and Bharat Stage norms needs to have different levels so that an organizations can choose and mandate minimum level of acceptance whenever the case arises. For example, Bangalore City makes level 1 of safety standards mandatory for all organizations that employ more than 50 people. similarly, state governments can say all schools should confirm to a particular level of safety standards. A city can mandate that all schools should conform to some level of safety standard in order to be qualified for approval.

This brings a lot of scope for this area currently totally neglected. We will have certifying authorities approved by BIS who in turn will be responsible certifying organizations and auditing them whenever they need to confirm to safety standard level.

For general public, it will become easy to understand the safety level of a place or organization or any public utility looking at the safety rating they have. It is also going to be a marketing point for organizations too just like quality standards.

Now, coming to levels of public safety it should be defined in such a way that minimum deterrence to risk and a basic plan in case of emergency should be available even at the lowest level. Awareness level among people in the organization also needs to be audited while awarding the safety level grade. Fire safety, crowd management, security training, emergency medical training are some areas that need to be measured while rating the safety level standards.

Nothing works in India without some money involved in it. I would propose a tax deduction percentage depending on the safety level rating being awarded to the organization to encourage this practice. This is something Financial ministry should actively consider as spending money on public safety should be encouraged in India to make sure we are spending money on preventable calamities.

This is not something that can be achieved in a short time, but some giant steps in this direction will surely take our surrounding a lot safer than now is. I can clearly see a lot of organizations that would gladly accept this and imbibe into them. But the real value will come when cities and communities accept them and encourage them.

Technorati Tags: public safety,carlton towers,bangalore,india,fire safety

The curious case of Toyota

Technorati Tags: toyota recall

[ VR7TV4YD77NJ]

2010 may be a memorable year for auto industry. What we are witnessing now is a live unfolding of a story, that is going to be part of numerous future case studies and management lessons. Recall of 8.5 million vehicles in US for potential sticky gas pedal issue has shaken and damaged the perception of Toyota among its customers and buyers. The fall of Toyota’s ‘Champion of quality’ image is nothing short of a intrigue filled fiction, I won’t be surprised if there are no movies inspiring from this.

While its quite difficult at this point of time to analyze deep into what went wrong, it is not so complex to see the repercussions and reactions that caused in the industry. Everyone is watching how customers are reacting. Every one wants to know how competitors are reacting. We have a marketing situation lab unfolding in front of us to learn from it. Future Kotlers and Druckers are already deep into the statistics of various studies at this time.

This is not something to be looked only in the context of Auto Industry and what transformations are going to be in store for it. The core dynamics of this change is going to be applicable to any industry of similar nature.

To me its plain ethics of marketing. Suspected relations between regulatory bodies and manufacturers are not so uncommon in US though less common than India. An issue as serious as this was successfully kept under cover and ignored for years, how is it possible without active assistance of regulatory bodies? Startling details of this complex unholy relationship is still coming out from the closet.

That is just one part of the question. Another more serious part is the so called reputation of responsible and responsive organization that forever seem to care about the customer above everything. Is that just another advertising line?

May be there is something else we fail to see here. Why do people buy Toyota? Do they make best cars available in the market or is it because they make the most value for money products. The answer may be no for both of this questions. People buy Toyota because they hear everywhere about Toyota as the leader and as the producer of best quality cars made in this country. If this is true, then its never going to be easy for a Japanese company to overcome this image. The damage is already done.

Sticking gas pedals are not just a Toyota issue, it seems this happens in many cars if you floor the accelerator. Recalls due to safety issue is also nothing new. 2008 saw Ford recalling more than 2 million cars. There are around 30 cases of death with suspected issue from Toyota cars from 2001 in US courts. The real issue here is the a perceived reluctance from Toyota to admit an address this issue in a timely manner. More irritating is how Toyota deals with issues like this in a closed door manner that seems to convey a authoritarian regime trying to save its face. That is not the kind of communication style an American expects to hear. Japanese may be better makers or cars but they still have a long way to go when it comes to marketing. As the saying you goes “the higher you climb the harder you fall”, this is a time to stop and look how you achieved what you have and make corrections to your path as you go rather than waiting to for the last moment.

2009: The year that was…

Looking back, 2009 will be remembered for many important happenings in our life.

Most event of course is the Arrival of Ishika Krishnan, our second daughter on May 17th 2009

In-laws visiting us in America was another memorable event. After Ishika was born we visited Washington DC, Atlantic City, Baltimore and NY city with In Laws.

This year will be remembered an year of Maximum Hospital visit for us!! Mainly due to Maternity and Baby visits. My insurance statement shows 43 visits in total and a out of pocket spending of more than $5000 excluding Insurance premiums  which is an extra $6000. Unimaginable!!

Preksha successfully achieved an admission into Mill Ridge Primary school and we moved to a home on Mill Plain rd.

 

Career wise, 2009 was an year of consolidation. Unlike the previous year, there were not many personal challenges and uncertainty. Compared to that 2009 went as planned and many things nicely fell in place. I got a star award from office and a client appreciation raised my intangible asset value higher!! Looking back it all looks very perfectly executed though there were many twists and turns.  Many things helped me. Concentrating on what I have was the major lesson. That helped me to see through difficult situations and sometimes react positively to get the best possible outcome at the end.

I spend considerable amount of time on reading books of my Interest in 2009. Thanks to Danbury Library membership and many suggestions from the internet I now have an impressive reading list. Some books have helped me change my point of view drastically this year. I hope to continue this habit as much as I can. I always used to think that I will never have enough time to do things like this. Now I know, I have as much as time as everyone else has.

Healthy resolutions are another major change this year. Changing the diet to include more fruits and healthy foods was successfully implemented this year. I have a fruit bowl as evening snack to carry to office every day now. It made a lot of difference. Hope to continue and improve this in the coming year too.

Overall a happy year on looking back.

My Most frequently visited websites

These are the sites I visit most in a day.

1. Gmail.com
2. Igoogle.com [customized to give me top indian news sites, weather, daily horoscope etc]
3. orkut.com
4. Times of India
5. Malayalamanorama
6. Facebook.com
7. mail.yahoo.com

The second list has sites I go for a definite purpose.

1. linkedin.com (networking)
2. weather.com
3. team-bhp.com ( Indian car forum)
4. Codinghorror.com (tech blog)
5. deals2buy.com (daily deals)
6. slickdeals.com (deals)
7. stackoverflow.com (tech questions)
8. joelonsoftware.com (tech blog)

Top 10 things that makes a great day!

These are some of the things that changes ‘Just another day’ to a great day. Totally my views.

1. Watching a quiet Sunset or Sunrise on a beach
2. A good after lunch nap.
3. Getting some time to read a book
4. Walking bare feet on the green grassy park or lawn
5. Meeting your best friends and talking about good old days
6. Watching a cricket match that India wins at the end
7. Visiting a Temple
8. Lying down on the terrace watch a starry sky .
9. Finding something Interesting on the Web
10. Day you get a new coveted thing or achievement

"The Child is Father of the man"

I have studied this Poem back in school and like many other things never understood the meaning of it completely. Now, after becoming a dad of two kids I am kind of getting an Idea what WordsWorth and Kahlil Gibran etc might have meant!!

Children do teach us a lot, everybody says that. But I don't think anyone really bothers to learn from them. When Preksha, my eldest daughter came to us in 2005 we felt totally changed. Bringing her up to a Preschool child was an amazing experience. So when we were ready to receive our second child Ishika in 2009, I was not feeling much anxiety as earlier. I felt I knew it all. Just like you feel you can beat the world after doing your first Project at work.

Most of the things that we can learn from a child does not come from them in the form of traditional teaching. That means, a child is not going to tell you something like your teacher did. They give you an opportunity to learn something like a Zen guru or Hindu Rishis have done.

I will list out some of the things here.

Patience and lots of them : This is something that you will learn really fast I guess. You have no other way if you want to get your child to do something.

Time Management: There is no time to waste, every moment is precious. This is true if like us, you don't have many caretakers for your children. Like Parents or Uncle Aunty's etc.

Managing your Expectations: You really can't cause any change but only can guide them towards it (whew!! that was a good one right!)

Giving up is not an Option: May be one of the best lessons. A child will show you the value of persistance.

Limitations do not exist: Yes, in a childs world there is nothing Impossible. This is one quality we should all keep burning inside us. Its the elders who introduce the word Impossible to them.

Judgement : A complete abscence of judgement towards other beings. We all have them, what they call cognitive judgements ( I still remember my MBA lessons you see!!). A child can accept anyone at her early stage, she does not carry a baggage of thoughts and pre-process that information before dealing with one person. This may be one of the best lessons a child can teach, as we can never really see another persons thought. We think we know what he is thinking or He will think or He thinks about us before dealing with someone known or Unknown. I recently read the book A new earth of Eckhart Tolle and he makes this point very clear. When we see a person we know, we need to understand that our knowledge about that person is like the tip of an Iceberg. The unknown is huge and that makes all the difference.

There are many more small lessons. Its just that we need to take time to learn.

Hello World from Ishika

Virtual Earth Article Published.

My article on Virtual Earth Implementation is published in ViaWindowsLive.com. Here is the link VE Maps using Georss and Pushpins

Its been around a month now that I have got interested in this technology. I am not officially in any project related to that, this was purely a personal pet project done at home during my offhours. Maps are great and I am attracted to them right from my childhood. Hope to do more on this in future.