Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Just my interpretation from the book:

The book provides independent and neutral biography of a person who had arguably the most media attention and possibly one of the greatest visionaries in technical field.

The book is definitely motivational and has some shocking facts on how rude or ruthless the people at these higher management positions can be. The author had lot of discussions with Jobs and also many of the prominent people in his life. Though at times you feel the author might be biased towards Steve Jobs and praising him a lot, there are enough instances described in the book to provide a sort of neutral stance.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"
A principle that Jobs strongly believed in and we see that in all the Apple products (I cant speak of Mac as I haven't used it yet). All other devices, iPod, iPhone and iPad are extremely user friendly and do not need any kind of user manual to use. This is a primary feature that still differentiates Apple with others products.

Another line I liked - "Why do we assume that simple is good? Because with physical products, we have to feel we can dominate them. As you bring order to complexity, you find a way to make the product defer to you"

Steve has acknowledged the role of others who have worked at Apple and who have contributed immensely to the building and/or rebuilding of the company. Almost all the people in Apple who were interviewed by author mention the reality distortion field around Steve. People go to Steve to convince him that a particular task is not possible the way he wants it done, but they would end up getting convinced and even doing the task the way they thought is impossible."You did the impossible, because you din't realize it was impossible" he says.

"Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?"
He believed that consumer does not know what they want. This worked magically for iPod, iPhone and now iPad. Though none of these were new inventions, they were merely well packaged, well designed and ease of use that went well with consumers.

Though Apple popularized GUI with Macintosh, it was not the inventor. This was originally done by XEROX who could not capitalize on it and Steve stole the idea and implemented in Mac.
He believed in "Good artists copy, great artists steal"
Much later when Microsoft released Windows, Jobs blasted them saying they copied Mac. This is contradictory.

Jobs had pursued John Sculley to be the CEO of Apple very diligently and apparently these words are the one that finally made Sculley accept Jobs' offer: "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world"

Sculley was President at Pepsico when Jobs was trying to get him to be Apple CEO. It was Sculley along with other board members who fired Steve from Apple. Steve also did all possible things from his side to get himself fired. Board fired him unanimously.

He then went on to create Next and Pixar of which Pixar was a remarkable company having produced many of very good animation films.

Jobs has mentioned in the book that he wanted his children to know why he was not able to dedicate more time to them or wasn't a perfect father they would have wanted him to be. The book clearly outlines Jobs life in detail and also all the great products he brought out from Apple, Pixar and may be Next, the amount of work put in by Jobs but you do not see any justifiable reason for his ignorance towards family. He was never in control of family life the way he held Apple together. This can be inferred from the book that he realized this and wanted his kids to know and understand him.

Jobs maintained a very tight hold on the units in Apple and ensured they work together. He stressed on end to end control for any product; to have full control over both hardware and software and not to let user to meddle with the system by creating custom screws for the products. This created a closed Apple ecosystem the way it is today. An interesting review mentioned in the book on this model - "Why I won't buy an iPad?. There is a lot of thoughtfulness and smarts that went into the design. but there's also a palpable contempt for the owner. Buying a iPad for your kids isn't a means of jump starting the realization that the world is yours to take apart and reassemble; its a way of telling your offspring that even changing batteries is something you have to leave to the professionals"

Jobs has made lot of other interesting statements in the book about companies like Google, Microsoft, etc. His interactions with Bill Gates and comparison provided of the two pioneers is particularly interesting. Google being and advocate of open systems, Microsoft not fully open but believing in keeping hardware and software independent and Apple believing in integrated system to have full control on hardware and software. Jobs also says - "I have my own theory about why decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft. The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of product becomes less important. The company starts valuing the great salesman, because they are the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company"
I find this very true and see a lot happening in technology service companies especially the larger ones - No points for guessing the names :)

View from apartment balcony

Some photos on a partly cloudy evening

Hotel California ... Eagles

Inbox?

There is some guy by name Micheal Vincent who keeps finding me jobs in Richmond. Every other day, I get a mail on my yahoo with a subject "I found you a new job". Udayan Mukherjee gives a statement on CNBC that "2009 will be the Year of Sowing". Someone by name Babu G from jeevansathi.com sends a wish (Happy new year, happy mid year, mid month etc.) for every new day and asks me to respond to profiles on their website. A scrolling add by Naukri.com saying there are 2 lakh jobs available. And then the biggest news of the seasonn apart from slowdown "Satyam: A big Lie"

Definitely want to mention another very very big news "Pakistan's denial mode"!
This is not just overview of my Inbox, but pretty much the only things being reported everywhere. Any newspaper, new site will carry mostly news about Satyam, Pakistan, ads on marriage portals and job sites and news about slowdown.

While talking with some friends the other day, we were thinking that Infy hasn't started any layoffs where as all other firms are in news for layoffs/pink slips etc. We never have heard Infosys laying off people. Is it that all people are so good that they can't be laid off! (hard to digest) or is it that things happen without media publicity? Whatever the reason may be, the day Infy announces layoffs, it would not be recession but depression in economy.

Thats all the news for the moment...

Socha hai - our recording

So that I dont forget about this recording :)

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6928127

Life-cycle overview

Life on weekdays can be broadly classified into 3 -
1. Personal life
2. Office life
3. Bus life

Sleep consumes about 8 hours of a day.
Personal life will be consistant and predictable with same people around - 3 hours; Office life with high work load also remains pretty much predictable as even here you are interacting mostly with same set of people - 10 hours (including all breaks).

The third one, bus life where I spend almost 3 hours a day is the one with new people and things happening. Every other person in the bus feels like a strange character and as days goes by it only becomes clear that my initial thinking of character is indeed correct! :)

There are one set of people in the bus who are constant; every morning I board the bus, I am assured that I see those people sitting in the same seat everyday. We usually have a unique name for each of these characters. Then there is another set who are coming in the bus only temporarily. This set keeps on changing with time; some change residence, some change work location, some leave company and thousands other reasons. This changing set happens to be the most interesting pieces of the lot. The third set of course are random people who board different bus everyday, so there is nothing much to write about this set.

As I was talking, the second set - this is where I have seen lot of stranger(st) characters. By virtue of their characteristics, of course they get unique names (bean-1, tikla-1 etc.), but its amazing to see that these people live up to their names as long as they are coming in the bus. There are times when some people just want to come and sit next to me even though the whole of bus is empty, people just put all their weight on you and sleep with heavy snores (it was a tiring day in office after all).

And then there are some people in bus (esp. females) who I am terribly scared because of the angry looks they have all the time. Initially when I started going in bus, once or twice I flashed smile on some of these people, but the kind of cold response I got scared me and that was the last time I ever smiled at any stranger in the bus.

After much of search I managed to get a mobile with FM but no camera and now its mainly the FM (some station) and sleep along with economic times whenever I am awake that has become my companions for my bus life.
More on life cycle as life goes on ...

Karnataka-Goa Road Trip!

Mini Version!

The use of some catchy words especially "DushkarmigaLu" by our guide in Chitradurga fort, bad roads from davanagere, worst roads from dharwad to goa, beautiful beaches in Goa, surprisingly cleaner than expected beaches along the karnataka coast, tasty food in Gokarna mess, long long drives and much more were a part of our Karnataka-Goa Road Trip. Driving 1900 KMs over a period of 9 days doesn't seem like a big thing, it is hardly 211 Kms per day to take an average. The bad state of roads added to my fears of car performance and repairs but to my delight, the car was extremely good in good and bad roads and had absolutely no problems over the long drives.

Started from bangalore @7 in the morning and reached Chitradurga at 11.

<22-nov-2008>

Don't think, will continue as its almost an year... so posting whatever writtein :)

Karnataka-Goa Road Trip

Morning Blues in BTM!

After much negotiations with my laziness from 6:45 in the morning, I managed to get out of bed at 7:00 AM to get ready to catch 7:45 bus to Office. I had to run and stop the moving bus as I was slightly late, late by a minute to reach the bus stand which is next to my house. Looking at my discharged iPod, I thought I could sleep through for an hour to electronic city. One hour was the average time it used to take for 7:45 bus. When I opened my eyes, our bus was just few yards behind Jayadeva Flyover and traffic had stopped all the way till there. After sometime, I realized the road was choked all the way till Silk board and traffic hardly moving. It took over an hour to reach Silk board, a distance of 3-4KMs and I could see scores of IT people with badges hanging around their neck waiting for their company buses with available seating. Our Bus finally arrived at company campus after 2:15 mins travel.

Total Distance: 20 KM
Time Taken: 135 mins
From my high school knowledge, an average speed of 8.8 KM/Hr, pretty cool. The improvement in timing here could be result of lot of factors - continuous increase in people inflow to Bangalore, construction work on Hosur road, traffic (mis)management, (in)sensible driving etc. I heard from one of my friends that they have reduced the green signal time at silk board junction for traffic entering Hosur road to make Hosur road clearer. Well, I haven't stood there and measured the timings, but if that is the case then the recent increase in traffic on BTM road is well explained. As more traffic gathers on BTM road and less traffic is let out to Hosur Road, can we expect a day when traffic is still from Silk board all the way to Banashakari Temple? This could be something for Limca or even Guinness Book of Records.

America! America! - Part I

Posting this is a bit late though had written couple of months back :)
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The trip to Maine for white water rafting completed my 20th state visited in US out of the total 50. Wow! That feels good. I know I could have done better than this but 20 is not at all bad for 3 years and all these states are the ones where I have stayed atleast one day and/or one night.

Richmond happens be my second most favorite place to stay after Mysore not only because I got used to it after staying over 2 years but also for the wonderful group of friends I had there. My first 2-3 months in US was a hell; I had no idea what to do, where to go, I dint know much people and also am not very good with new people. Finally after this, I got a car and started to move around. I never took that car for a long drive though because of its old age, but got the momentum to go around the place. I dont recollect if my first big drive was Niagara falls or Indianapolis, I think its Niagara Falls. In US, I started driving from my second week of arrival and got local drivers license at the end of 2 months. Immediately after getting my drivers license, we (Soumik, Satya, Hemang) went for Virginia beach which was a 2 hr drive from Richmond. Before going for my first big trip, Niagara falls I had done quite a number of trips to Virginia beach. Niagara falls was followed by (I think) Indianapolis for Formula1 and then to West Virginia for white water rafting in New River the next weekend. Yup, that month with 3 back to back trips put life back in my life.


Niagara falls was a good trip and I was surprised to see so many Indians there. The place looked more like a tourist place in India with handful of non-indians. For every desi in US, Niagara falls is like mecca for muslims. Everyone would have seen this place, taken their parents once and/or any other conditions that can be imagined. The drive to Indy was more gruelling than Niagara. We were only 2 and I was the only one to drive. Watching F1 race at Indy was something I wanted to do for a long time and it finally happened June 2004. The race was amazing and I still remember Schumi overtaking Barrichello exactly in front of our stand which was on other side of pit-lane exit. FERRARI ROCKS! RED RULES!
The very next week, I went to white water rafting in West Virginia in New river where some of rapids in this were simply amazing. Infact our raft almost overturned in one of them. Couple of other rafts did overturn but somehow we managed to keep our raft straight. We also camped there the previous night and cooked in campfire. As usual, there was some struggle with veggie stuff but overall was fun and I surely would have enjoyed the serene beauty of Blue Ridge Mountains in West Virginia if I had stayed longer.

These trips were soon followed by New York and Atlantic City, my first time to a Casino. I had heard from others about the huge casino complexes but inside the casino, it was way bigger than anything I had seen or imagined. I started slow with slot machines of least denomination and losing some money, but then it got boring and I took to blackjack. I was reading and learning blackjack for more than week and that paid off. I indeed won a good amount in the begining but at the end lost. Well, I had a budget to lose and lost that plus some more.

The complete list of US states I have visited:
Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia


First VA Beach Trip:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6u3v4kzj.5jgbfhwn&x=0&y=oq5thg


New York Atlantic City - I
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6u3v4kzj.cchm16yj&x=0&y=a797rs


Indianapolis - I
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6u3v4kzj.1mdfe4sb&x=0&y=-q9jv41


New River Rafting
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6u3v4kzj.btdgihh7&x=0&y=qndkxn

WIMBLEDON '07!

Bjorn Borg was probably confused on whether he should be sad or happy over Federer's record equalling 5 consecutive Wimbledon titles. Something struck Federer when trailing 5-1 on set 4 which gave him much needed confidence when he held his serve and started fresh in the next and final set. He came back twice in the final set from 15-40 down to finally win the set and the Championship.

This match undoubtedly happens to be the best match I have seen till now. A 5th set that eluded Federer for a long time came against a "Never give up" guy Nadal. The match was so much tensed that I took a couple of rest-room breaks and also was sweating by the time match ended. It was simly superb, the quality of tennis by both the players was amazing. Federer's strong point for this match happened to be his serve. Though Nadal broke Federer 4 times in the match, Federer's serve came handy during the crucial tie-breaks and also when was facing breakpoints in the final set.The final 2 sets seemed more like a mind game and the one with greater mental stability won the set sailing on unforced errors by his opponent.Now I look forward to more such Finals in coming Grand Slams.



















The whole Wimbledon championship this time was quite interesting with one match running 5 days (Nadal-Solderling 5 setter) and other 5 hours (Jokovic-Baghdatis)! This is no contrast though; the 5 day match was because of rain delays. The events that I found to be most intersting are: Serena's win against Hantuchova even after that terrible cramp she had on the court, Jokovic playing Nadal in the semi-finals even when he seemed almost dead from first second of the match, Bartoli somehow making it to the finals with her strange serving action and double handed forehand and backhand, players like Baghdatis, Jokovic, Nadal, Federer playing everyday (or really long matches) for last 3-4 days to offset the rain delay and finally Nadal pushing Federer to 5 setter (he almost won there).

All in all, it was a happy ending that made Federer cry again! He also cried in Australia when Rod Laver presented him the Championship trophy. Hope I get to see Federer match on a grass court live before he retires or starts his fall from the peak.

My list of players to watch for in tennis to come - Federer, Nadal, Sharapova, Serena Williams, Jokovic, Baghdatis, Davydenko and Ana Ivanovic.

Maine Weekend Getaway

A minivan was what we needed to throw all the stuff we had for the rafting and camping trip to Maine; Buick Tenzera, the lucky one was packed to the max. Six of us from Malden after much postponing and convincing finally left for Millinocket town in Maine on Saturday, June 15 at 8:30 AM. We were on track with our planned 6 AM start. It was almost 6 hours drive to the camping spot Big Moose Inn in Millinocket. Bad songs after bad songs continued to rock the van while I drove the car for 80% of the journey till 12:30 PM when we decided to stop for lunch at Milo's Pizza (name of the town was Milo). I think the chef over there got a unique opportunity to try our for the first time in her life a vegetarian pizza; yeah, the pizza was bad but somehow 3 of us managed to finish a large pizza.

Millinocket is a small town in Maine surrounded by forests, hills and mosquitoes. After checking in to the camp site, we pitched our tents and then left for Baxter State Park which was suggested to us by campground manager for hiking. The hike to Kathahdin Stream Falls was pretty easy one and took merely an hour to reach. I climbed down to a rock just beside the falls, it was a nice place to relax except again for the mosquitoes. A 20 minute descent down the hiking trail and we were back in the parking lot. We continued towards Daicey Pond and some other nearby ponds in the same park where we saw Moose. This was the first time I was seeing that animal and it looks like a strange combination of donkey and horse.



The camp fire at our camp site went on for a long time till the 2 logs of firewood burnt completely to ashes all the while eating, drinking, songs and arguing. After a quick bath in the morning, we started towards the start point for rafting in a bus arrange by North Country Rafting. They were the company whom we had booked the rafting with. The driver of the bus, a woman in may be late 30s greeting everyone with a warm smile, succeeded in starting the old bus after over 15 mins flop starts. That day also happened to be a random day picked by state officials to inspect the rafts for safety. They inspected the raft, suggested some changes and went away after ensuring their suggestions were implemented. It feels good that these people take safety seriously.

White water rafting trip on Penobscot river started with a class 3 rapid and then followed a class 4 rapid. This class 4 turned out to be best of the whole trip even better than the class 5 (thats what they said). The rapid was like a reduced balmuri falls and sitting in front is always exciting with water splashing with maximum force. The fall in rapid was followed by surfing when we took the raft against the direction of flow of the stream. At the point where water falls, it forms a circle which helps the raft to stay at the same position without being carried away by the stream flow. The class 4 rapid was followed dead water for more than an hour and we just enjoyed the slow raft pace and sceneries along the way. The water was very cold and could dive and stay in only for 2 mins before getting back into the raft. We went through a few more rapids of class 3-4 before breaking for lunch, a veggie burger and some pasta and we were all set to hit the class 5 rapid which was just at the start of second half. The second half started from the hydro station when they released 32000cc per second from the dam. I was expecting something more drastic and thrilling compared to first class 4 but the class 5 turned out to be a longer class 4. This was followed by a couple more class 4 and class 3s. The first half of 6mi took over 2 hours because of long stretches of dead water but the second 6mi took may be just over an hour. The second half was fast and exciting for the guys sitting in front. I moved to back of the raft in second half and it mostly felt like sitting in balcony and watching a rafting movie. The back seat is very stable and you hardly feel like falling off even in class 4s. Our guide(I forgot his name, starts with "S"!) was the best there and we felt he took us through best rapids of the 3 rafts that were in water there.

The return trip to Boston was smooth without any incidents and we ended a great trip with tasty food from Spice n Hot.

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Check out the photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/shivaram.ms/MaineRafting

Maine Rafting

India & US!

A good article on India and US, Indians and US etc...

http://lifestyle.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2146444,curpg-1.cms

Addiction to Habits

Per dictionary, Habit is an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.
The extent to which one acquires these is very interesting. Habits like getting up early in the morning, having a cup of coffee, reading a newspaper etc. are the ones which most people hardly want to change. But how about something like running to read newpaper first in the home no matter what or fighting to sit on the same seat everytime to watch TV. Habits like these not only makes less sense but sometimes also annoys other people.

Here is one such instance in my previous workplace. I was working in an agile project which recommends team members sit in a single room during work hours and also occasionaly (once in few days or so) change seats to improve their working relationships with other team members. A senior team member was against this and insisted to sit in the same place everyday and also argued that changing routine like that reduces his productivity. Well, that might not be main reason for others to think twice before approaching him but was one of them. Sitting in the same place had formed his habit and he could not get his mind to work independent of his seating place.

Some of the habits are not an addiction but feels like they are being done involuntary. Almost every afternoon at 3, I go to starbucks for latte. I am not a coffee drinker and I dont like coffee, but I drink cafe latte in starbucks. The reason may be that its become a routine, a habit. Some days even if I am feeling like not eating or drinking anything, I go to starbucks and drink latte. This is also true with me watching Scrubs every evening on comedy central after I am back from office. I think this is not an addiction because even on the days when I am not drinking latte or watching Scrubs as I had to do something else, I dont feel like I am missing anything. I guess they are mostly developed habits for lack of better work.

A habit is good if it is not affecting you negatively. If it is, then it's about time you re-think your priorities and develop new habits :)

Kill Bill

Kill bill, a very entertaining movie with Uma Thurman doing a great action role. Though some of the action sequences look directly out of Thriller Manju's secret action book, it far better picturized and above all has Uma! Yeah, she carries the whole movie and surely the movie is a total entertainment. Soundtrack is cool, woo hooo song or music is great and Nancy Sinatra's bang bang is a classic (i mean really classic!).

Also there is moral that Uma preaches here and there in the movie during fights. She breaks a boy's sword into pieces and with a spanking sends him home to his mother! Ofcourse, under-18 are restricted from fights.

And then there is a total mix up of chapters in the movie. Ending is shown first with Lucy Liu already dead and Uma goes on to kill others who killed her family and her (atleast thats what they thought) after she left a group of assasins to lead a normal life. All of them who killed her (thats what they thought) face the wrath of wounded, could have been mom Uma after she wakes up from 4 years in coma. The main in her hitlist, Bill is a proud warrior or dharma yodha who does not want to kill her while in coma. Well, he doesn't know whats in store for him in Kill Bill II.

Quentin Tarantino would have been have serial killer and might have even become one of the greatest in that league if he were not a director. Hail hollywood for reducing crime to large extent by catching a could have been killer in its clutches.

Trailer of Kill Bill:

Prime Minister's landmark speech at CII’s Annual Session

Prime Minister's landmark speech at CII’s Annual Session

http://www.mbauniverse.com/innerPage.php?id=ne&pageId=326

A very impressive speech indeed, outlining some of the current problems in our economy and giving a ten-point charter for the corporate world to maintain a balanced economy. Some of the points being
- healthy respect for workers and invesetment in their welfare by companies
- corporate responsibility towards society should be more substantial
- employment to underpreviledged and backward classes
- invest in r&d, innovation, environment friendly methods
- promote socially responsible media
- resist excessive remuneration
- operation of cartels to keep prices high must end

Well, its is a deadlock, government cannot (or does not?) effectively control rising prices; corporate workers cannot afford a decent lifestyle and rising prices with lower pay checks; companies cannot afford to lose their employees and so offer higher pay; spending by the high-paid individuals encourage the cartels to keep the prices high; government cannot (or does not?) effectively control rising prices. The cycle continues.

How much does the government try to regulate the operation of cartels or works effectively towards controlling rising prices? We see almost all our Prime Ministers and Presidents talking about vision and n-point programmes which seem very good but hardly see anything being implemented. I would think that being a Prime Minister, the person should be able to drive almost anything which is in the interests of the nation ofcourse to its implementation. Agreed that running a nation is a big responsibility but there is no point in completing 5 years term in power and having laid foundation stones for 100 projects without actually completing any. Instead, ensure completion of 10 projects to full or atleast to feasbile milestones and they can still lay the foundation stones for remaining 90, that doesnt take much time!

title Post!

An extremely tiring day and as a matter of fact, I felt like I worked the whole day non-stop (except for lunch and coffee breaks) from 9:30A to 5:30P. To be honest, this is not something very common with me, especially at times when I am so over-confident that everything goes on as planned. Well, the effect of red pill seems to have died; "what red pill?", "which red pill?", "red pill?", "when did i take red pill?", I could hear the questions like a continuous never ending echo in my mind. Suddenly one of the neurons in an idle state is immediately picked up by a blue pill thought - "Morpheus and Neo could come in and out of TV because it is TV! WAKE UP!!". True, every person in this world is given a blue pill immediately after birth and the effects are permanent; that explains it.

The thought of failure is scary in any situation, it may be at work or home when you are trying to prove some point or disprove other's point or any other instance for that matter. I hardly ever argued before on anything, always preferred to be neutral in any argument. A sincere study (thats what I think) of GMAT does bring out those characteristics and asks you to take one side or the other in an argument. There will be neutral people who can referee the arguments and that referees would surely be non-GMAT people.

There is a goal, there is a path to reach the goal and if I miss the goal, I fall down; fall down to another playing field with similar goal. Yeah the blue pill is more than what I think, its not always just ignorance, its planning for ignorance to be less ignorant. The challenges of GMAT seem immense because I am weak in verbal but nothing thats unconquerable. I had to take a hot shower and write this blog to realize this. Well, does that happen in a Matrix? I guess not! No one ever takes bath in Matrix, so I am actually in the so called real world.

beep...beep...beep...beep... [loud distorted sound] ...beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppppppppp...

The effects of red pill seems to have gone and now I am back to what seems to be real world. Yahooooooooooooooo!!!
It's frustrating!

Federer ends Nadal's win streak on clay

Yeah! It happened! Federer won Hamburg Open beating Nadal... Perfect result.
That also ended Nadal's 81 match winning streak on Clay.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Sports/836732.html

Way to go Federer...

Moral Police!

I guess this is one of the topics thats being in existance for quite some time now and will continue to be there for SOME more time (hoping it to be just some!). Whenever some movie is made which talks about truth of our past, there are protests to ban the movie from releasing. An art student is beat up by some politicos and sent to prison for expressing his creativity. What about the law that gives freedom of expression?

When the movie Hare Ram Hare Krishna released in 1971 featuring Dum Maro Dum, were there protests from moral police for dragging rama and krishna? Haven't heard of any. May be people dint know of such a thing and moreover old times is always perfect! Some time back in bangalore, I was stopped by an old person while I was going to music instrument store with a guitar on my back. "What has happened to our culture" he started, I gave him a "don't eat my head" look and went on. I should have stopped and questioned him on his credibility in classical music but it was over, he was gone. These self appointed moral police are always there to comment on others in the name of culture but how much culture do they really follow? Above all what is Indian culture and who defined or defines it? I am sure this is a question that none of the so called moral police can answer.

What keeps moral police motivated? Do they really care about their version of Indian culture and trying to impose on others or is it that these are publicity stunts by political parties? Well, its true that political parties stand to gain a lot by supporting such activities but at the cost of fundamental rights of the victim.

However, I am not totally against such things, its just that I don't approve of their methods. May be there are better ways to do it than barge into an art exhibition with goons because an art student had a painting which offended them or destroy a theatre because they showed a movie which they din't approve of. Its about time that politicos and police act against such lawless acts and encourage a more civilized society. Also about time that we raise our voice against such acts; move towards a free society where freedom means what it sounds!

Federer goes coach-less!

Roger Federer recently announced his decision to part ways with Tony Roche, his part time coach for 2 1/2 years. It seems he also said that he is planning to go without a coach for some time. I am not an expert in this as my experience in sports compitetions is limited, but looking at the trends, it surely seems a bad idea for world No. 1 to be without a coach. As for Federer, he knows in and out of tennis and surely knows how to stay on top for a continued period of time, but thinking that mentoring from a Coach will be a distraction to his thoughts and methods doesn't seem to make a good enough reason.

On the other hand, this is not the first time Federer is playing without a coach. He has won slams without a coach and surely is capable of doing it again. The difference in points for ATP rankings between Federer and No. 2 Nadal speaks for the game that he has. He is arguably the best tennis player in the history of tennis. Its really amazing if you see the way he changed his game when he was raising up to become No. 1. Anyone who has seen just seen Federer for past 3 years or so will never believe that he was a very angry and expressive player who would often throw his raquet in frustration, but now its just the opponents who do that as many of the times they have no idea what's happening on the court! (a bit of exaggeration! thats fine!)

So far this year, except for the Australian Open, its been the worst for him. For the first time since he became No. 1, Federer has lost 4 straight tournaments leading to French Open. If we are looking at similar statistics for other players, it doesn't seem surprising but with Federer, it does. The French Open has eluded him from past many years. That is the only slam required for Federer to complete his Grand Slam collection. With French Open scheduled to start in 2 weeks (May 27), Federer in his worst form in years and also having fired his coach, winning the slam is a difficult task to accomplish. Add to this, Nadal, the king of clay has been playing extremely well and is winning tournaments in the run up to the French Open.

I really hope the no coach plan works out well for Federer and he goes on to win French Open! GO FEDERER!!!!!

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Link to Federer-Roche split article
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aomfoaLd.Rk8&refer=australia

Products are not made to last

People often complain that products are not made to last and they waste both natural and human resources. The usage of inferior raw materials for such products drive the costs down for consumer but is it really satisfying for a customer on a long run?

A product industry is mainly driven by customer's willingness to pay for a product. A cheap TV, I bought at walmart cost me one third the cost of a good quality TV. After an year, the picture went weak and quality showed significant deterioration. On the other hand, a good quality TV would easily come for more than 3 years without any significat degradation in quality. The cheap TV surely doesn't seem a good option, and with shorter life span, it is generating a lot more trash which is harmful to environment than it would if I were to go for a product that would last longer.

Lets take an example of automobile industry in US. The fastest growing automobile company in US, Toyota markets Carolla on its quality and dependability. The employees of Toyota surely take pride in manufacturing this product. Higher morale drives the company towards better products and innovation. On the contrary, the emplyees of a company making cheap cars show a great deal of despair due to increased customer resentment and complaints for their product. This is a good example of wasted human resource in companies making cheap cars.

That said, with a continuously increasing consumer market, we should aim at maintaining a good eco balance by reducing wastes either natural or human, and invest money in products that have better quality and last longer.

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People often complain that products are not made to last. They feel that making products that wear out fairly quickly wastes both natural and human resources. However, this approach is best for everyone such manufacturing practices keep costs down for the consumer and stimulate demand
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