Reflections

||Shri|| Book Review : The Rise Of The Sun Prince Ramayan : The Game of Life Book One By : Shubh Vilas This is a story that never grows old; a history that has been and will be told millions of times in the past 7000 years; and a practice, a tradition that will remain with us Sanaatan Dharmis as long as there is life on Earth. This is the story, the History of the Lord Ram himself, and his undying and mesmerizingly lovely story of his time of Earth with his lady love, Goddess Sita. That makes it a hard, an exceptionally hard story to re-tell; something to be taken up with great caution, tremendous knowledge – and above all, utmost devotion. Any retelling of The Ramayan that is taken up with the above 3 characteristics will be enticing, beautiful, lovely and fascinating. This is not a tale that can be anything less; not with its sublime beauty; this is a tale like no other – never has history been so enchanting, so beautiful as during the events of The Lord Ram’s lif...

BACKGROUND OF THE BOOK Being Mortal is a book by an American Doctor, Dr. Atul Gawande; a book written for an exclusively American / Western Audience, with little or no practical utility or learnings for the Indian Landscape, given the massive socio-cultural and economic differences. I do not deny the presence of a segment within India for whom this book is of some utility : but, given our population of 127 Crores, that segment as of now and for the foreseeable future forms a minority, might even be a miniscule minority. The book is about old age, and how to tackle the problems arising out of old age, and your parents {and your own} last years . RATING Paradoxically, I highly recommend this book for all of us; even more paradoxically {sorry for  butchering ze Eenglees Language like this} – I recommend reading this book despite my rating of 2 stars. That rating is basis its current lack of utility, massive socio-cultural difference between the landscape of the book and ...

THE BACKGROUND We are witness to, in the current socio-political mileu, increasing critical examination of especially The Mughal Period, which is being examined, at times without any basis in fact, threadbare on Social Media and the population at large. Therefore, the current book under review represents a timely intervention as well as a much-needed fresh look at the history of that period from a literary and cultural perspective . This is critical, since the Political, Military history is well established; the Economic History and the Cultural History is what needs further research and clarity Akbar-watches-Tansen-take-lessons-from-Bhakti-music-composer-Swami-Haridas Image Courtesy : Google Search Whereas the British Period is examined in great detail by Dr Shashi Tharoor, Jaswant Singh, NS Sarila and many other contemporary writers in the past 4-5 years, The Mughal Period shows a lamentable lack of authoritative research at least in the popular realm. What is more distur...

MEASURING PERFORMANCE Performance and its measurement is, at the best of times, one of the most complex tasks a modern organization can engage in; capturing all the small and big, vital and not-so-vital indices in the “chart” without rubbing too many people the wrong way and without causing heartburn is an impossible task. This is a task at which the best minds in this business have either failed, or had partial success at. Thus, let me at the outset clarify that this article is mindful of the above reality, and the enormity and the impact of the task I am analyzing. ARE CURRENT SYSTEM ADEQUATE? However, after a rather deep study and considerable mental mathematics that go along with it, I have come to the conclusion that while the current systems that I have seen are adequate, and do as reasonable a job as it is feasible to do under the given constraints and market realities – there remains tremendous scope for improvement. This scope covers topics that are increasingly rele...

The title of this article just about says it all… The Facebook Issue . This article is coming after a long self-examination and Facebook feed examination, with the explicit purpose of putting Facebook and its contemporary utility in Social Media with relevance to me as an individual. This deep introspective examination has lead to startling revelations to myself, which is what I am attempting place here, with an intent to support my decision to move my Social Media content away from Facebook due to issues arising out of the feed and the interaction that happens on it. MY HISTORY WITH FACEBOOK But first, the background. I came onto Facebook as a means to get in daily touch with family, find old friends, and keep connected with them. It then grew into a method of chronicling important events in my life through Photographs & Posts, that I could visit later. Both the above have given excellent results, and shall continue as important aspects of my digital profile with added sec...

YET ANOTHER INVESTOR ISSUE A headline on TOI drew my attention, when I read that a firm had allegedly illegally raised several hundred crores from the unsuspecting public, some 55,000 of them. I was initially surprised, then stunned, and  finally shocked at the article, and its implications. For starters, how did a company raise 600 Crores from the public, all of 55000+ people – without having the requisite approvals? This was stunning beyond measure. Where are the famous checks and balances? This news, and other such news titbits, introduce an element of needless risk in the minds of the people untouched by this event; it introduces doubt and uncertainty. Unitech isn’t a small company, in that it is quite well known and high-profile, with forays in Real Estate as well as Telecommunications. How does an investor trust any private company offering, regardless of size? There are mechanisms in place, of that I am aware – but are these enough? And, more critically, are these w...

BACKGROUND In my previous reviews on HBR { Harvard Busines Review } books, I have noted the penchant for a top-level approach; lack of data and concrete detailed examples as opposed to the shortened snippets they give. In this, the third HBR book I am reviewing, these errors are repeated; that said – this one is easily the best I have read from the HBR stable. In fact, this book is among the best Business Books I have ever read, though not quite The Best. I would highly recommend Middle Managers and above to read and absorb the contents THE BOOK The current book under review looks at Innovation; at the end of the book, I can honestly state that I understand not only innovation, but can also apply the concepts contained in the book to my real world experience in the Telecom Trade, and can identify errors and craft a rudimentary path forward which is clearly superior to the ones adopted by either self, or my managers at that point in time. The content has helped...

BACKGROUND The first Telecom Big Bang has happened- Vodafone & Idea… with this, hope is being expressed that the Telecom trade is now beginning to settle down. I wish I were as sanguine as some of my friends on this point; I fear that this may be the tip of the iceberg. I don’t lay claim that more mergers may happen; though that cannot be ruled out. There have been many exits already. But for this to translate into on-ground sanity will require a  lot more to happen… to understand this, we shall have to glance at the industry statistics in some representative parameters… SERVICE PROVIDER INDUSTRY IN INDIA There is no easy answer to this ills of the service industry in Telecom– the service industry isn’t in exactly a great shape. Let us look at a few examples to illustrate; Idea has a debt of 49K Cr, and has an ARPU of Rs. 157; Airtel has a debt of about 97K Crore, with an ARPU around 188, just to name two examples. Jio has already notched up 2,01,000 Cr Debt. Usage is...