IndianMaze

This was a usual mail that I received nth time on the differences between East and West. I am not a great researcher who claims to have done extensive studies on either or both. However, this question keeps coming back especially when we are in business discussions that keeps many completely foxed. I recall an evening with my English boss and South African white senior discussing the frustrations of living/working in India. My boss just could not understand the meaning of completion of work "जल्दी ही " or "soon". He always said that the outcome could be from a few seconds to a few months. So how does one understand the word "soon"? South African senior would give two answers - a white man's answer and a black man's answer. And I, being typical Indian, would agree with all that would frustrate my boss even further. DEEKAY, how could all contrarian thoughts be agreeable by you? Therein lies the difference. Indians are used to living in a multi prong

The consumption habits of very rich and very poor are similar but for very different reasons. Very rich do it out of choice and paying a lot for it whereas very poor do it out of compulsion/non affordability Both consume - cotton clothes - high fibre, low fat diet - raw seasonable vegetables/fruits - low processed food - non branded items - drink lots of water Both also do a lot of things similarly - walk/cycle - expose to sunlight - socialise - sleep well - spend time with family - get pleasure from small things - like variety in life I am sure there are loads of others that you may have to share.

Human mind is a maze that is rather difficult to understand. It is full of linear thinking at large but unexpected complexities at times. Situations come when logic gives way to emotion etc. I was intrigued by Firo B when I did this exercise almost 25 years ago in college. What I have seen after all these years is that many of us do not want to believe what we are doing. A teenager is well aware of the exam the next day but just because the attraction of learning the new style of serving in tennis is far more attractive, time is devoted there. Nothing wrong with it except for either the preparation is satisfactory or the subject matter has been made dull by design. So much so for Indian education system that teaches the fundamental premise - success is quantification in terms of marks, title, money, size of house, car etc. Asians (Indians in particular) are termed as "Peacocks" in the terminology used by a beverage company. Consumption is driven more by what others say than s

It has been bugging me that I tend to observe a lot in others but what about the Indian in me? Am I any significantly different from what I see in others? Having worked globally and been educated in some of the best colleges, have I become a glbal person? As is usual with Indians - answer is middle of the road - yes and no. I have developed habits at work which are more global than typical Indian. But it is non work environment where my DNA rules and rules like crazy. High inertia is one. It takes me forever to move in my personal domain. Things can take its own sweet course. Make do with alternatives (buying vegetables is a pain so do with lentils, making chapatis is a problem, make do with bread and so on). Want to write a lot but family takes priority on holidays (work eats half of holidays anyways). Work is the identity of Indian diaspora. We work not only for self but as a symbol of what we are in the eyes of society. In a nutshell, I am like a (coco)nut. Two faces - international

The readers of this blog get to know of all the malaise in the society and rest through the eyes of others. I happen to be one of them till recently. I fell ill (no big deal) and went to an upmarket hospital where I was treated with respect, comfort and a long list of tests and medicines. The total cost of well over Rs 2,500. Problem increased and I got H1N1 test done. It came positive. Now there was no way but to go to a "Government" hospital and I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised with the efficiency, professionalism and the attitude of the staff. There were no queues ( at a time when most patients dare to go out and private doctors asleep) and the doctor on duty was very courteous. Apart from a routine check, he asked if I was a registered patient and hearing that I had not, he politely pointed me to the registration counter and showed me the kind of form to be filled. On reaching the counter, I was guided properly, offered a pen and the person behind the count

One of the common references made by people of upper youth (40+, a la upper ground floor) for kids (25 years old) is that they are short of hard work and irresponsible. Is it perception or is it a reality? End of the day reality is nothing but a perception seen with coloured glasses. Today's youth is in fact far more responsible than ever before. The key difference, as I see it, is about the attitude to life and living a full life. Unlike earlier times, where opportunities, resources and exposure were low, the time was largely spent in office/college and at home. Look at options today and the affordability quotient. Today's youth want all that without compromising on the content of each of the part played in life. Work hard is turning to work smart. Party hard is turning to party and network smat and so on. Professionals would have had limited ambitions a couple of decades ago. Dream would be to be a GM or at best a VP before retirement. Todays young want to be there by mid thi

News on 377 has created not only a huge amount of interest in a large number of people but thankfully has also generated a huge amount of humour. Post Bush and tired of Santa/Banta this is a good relief. Meetings burst into laughter when similarities are made with same gender sex for business situations. Are we finally accepting this socially? At least in some sections of society that is becoming larger day by day.

Over the last couple of weeks I had a chance to travel by road in five north Indian states. What a pleasure? The road network is becoming really fantastic. I started on National Highway 8 and then on to NH 1, 21, 22, 70,72 and 88 apart from many state highways. It is not the roads only that impressed me but also the new flourishing enterprises it has generated alongwith is the key to the trip. Many a voillages and towns that were cut off from nearby larger places are now well connected. Movement of people and goods is leading to a greater economic involvement and is helping in the inclusive growth mantra. I was also witness to an amazing incident - towns of Rahon and Samrala are barely tens of kilometers apart but could take upto 5 hours by road a few years ago and now less than half an hour. I could see a stretch limousine (a genuine one and on top of it a Lexus) in a small village wedding in the prosperous "Doaba" region of Punjab. On being generously invited (despite being

It has been quite some time that I penned any thoughts. It has been a busy schedule, some real rest forced and sometimes meaningless. On to other things. I am just back after a four country tour and have realised how lucky we are in India not to face the real heat of recession. I am going to stick my neck out now. Worst is behind us. Talent shortage still exists. All the companies that went overboard will have serious answers to give as talent hunting is going to be a real pain. Worse than before the dreaded R word hit us. Fear will prevent people from taking "logical" decisions. दूध का जला छाछ को भी फूँक फूँक के पीता है. (Once bitten twice shy) I feel sorry for those who lost their jobs and those freshers who could not manage a placement from campus but I can safely say that they will be first ones to encash the change. The real HR work will start now. Finally, sticking my neck out further, I think it all will start happening by September/October. I will write again on this

I may not agree on some points of the author but a worthy reading none the less. Sandipan Deb Fri, Feb 6 04:35 AM What does it feel like to be on the way home from work one evening, preparing yourself to tell the family that you don't have a job anymore? I have friends who have been through this, yet I can only vaguely imagine what goes through a man's mind in the moments before the inevitable confession to wife, child, parents. No one who hasn't gone through that moment possibly can more than vaguely imagine the feelings: the anger, helplessness, guilt, shame, fear. If one had a choice, one wouldn't want anyone to go through that experience. But I am also a person who has personally sacked perhaps two dozen people during my career. In the last three months, I have let three people go, on grounds of incompetence. But today, we know what the reality is, what the rules that run a market are. I have known young software engineers switching jobs thrice a year just for

I could not but put this great quote that may have been heard a number of times but as relevant now as anytime before. Yesterday is a cancelled cheque; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have, so spend it wisely. - Kim Lyons Good luck

It was an interesting chat at home while making a shopping list before going to a local supermarket. My better half, as usual, was in command and said "we need to be careful in spending money as there is a slowdown in the economy". I politely nodded my head and toed the line. Men are very impulsive buyers and I got lured by an attractive offer on bathing soaps. On putting the same in the shopping basked she looked at me as if I was the biggest fool in the world. "Are you even aware that how many soaps are lying at home?" There was a serious message in there. Most households (by and large in India) hold a lot more than required at home. This, in my opinion, emanated from old experiences of shortage. I dug a few old notes and my past experiences from FMCG market visits. On doing a bit of survey (to camouflage inefficiencies of our house), the results were startling: On an average (of 4 households that I checked in Metroplitan, nuclear family with two kids, uppermiddl

It was an interesting time at Holi last month. This festival is celebrated with full involvement of participants but with two view points. There are ones who celebrate it with a religious fervour and so wear new clothes etc. Then there are the ones who play with colours with same amount of intensity but use old clothes as clothes need to be discarded after all the colours that are used. This led to a clear thought as to how Indians are apt at recycling almost everything at home. This is not accounted for the carbon credits but is quite a phenomenon in both urban and rural India. It has become a part of the social norms as well. In a random manner, I recall instances where this has become a thread in Indian fabric. - ALL Indian households are visited by a कबाड़ीवाला ( a trader in discarded goods). Old newspapers, magazines, clothes, utensils, plastic goods are all sold and subsequently recycled - Every city has specialist tailors who have mastered the art of making clothes of children fr

India has always been a country where the spread of wealth is skewed. Last decade or so made middle class become richer at a rapid pace. Interestingly, it is this very "rich" middle class that is treating the downturn differently. In my travels across the country this week combined with visits to some shopping malles on the last weekend have given me this insight. The shopping trip to a mall and supermarket saw very thin crowd and the long queues were missing on the checkout counters. This was the case at Spencers, Big Bazaar and Reliance. Even Bikanerwala that is always buzzing with activity was quiet. PVR and DT cinemas have started a Rs 50 cinema ticket that was unthinkable for a multiplex till recently. Airlines claim that low fares in January did not entice anough travellers. Contrasting this with a monday morning flight of Kingfisher to Mumbai and that was absolutely full. Airport terminal was rather busy in Delhi. I must hasten to add that Kingfisher has removed "

India has become a significant market for the screen oriented products - mobiles, TVs and PCs. India has already become larger than US household market with more than 110 million houses with TVs. As far as mobiles are concerned, it is the fastest growing market in the world and as far as PCs are concerned - it is in the middle of the road. But the story is about convergence. It seems all converging towards dual screens - mobiles in hand and TVs at homes. It is changing the consumer habits in a manner that could not be envisaged. SMSs in India created a kind of world record in terms of numbers sent per annum apart from creating a new language altogether (very nicely used by Vodafone in their campaign in India). TVs have created a complete new era of knowledge, entertainment, talent hunt et al. Though a great event in a corner of India (Tilottama in Kolkata organised by a Bengali magazine called Sananda) has given many Miss Indias but it is music talent hunts like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa on Zee T

This is a unique feature of Asian (and particularly Indian) that what is communicated may not necessarily be what is meant. This becomes even more complicated when combined with the expressions and body movement. I have been utterly confused at times when the answer is yes but the head movement is from shoulder to shoulder which to my understanding depicts a no. Is it because of subconscious disagreement or is there another issue that is linked to more social issues? In any case, yes or no is also a function of the context of discussion. As is an old adage in Sanskrit मौन स्वीकृति लक्षणं (silence is an indicator of agreement). Is it a universally acceptable practice? Psychologists, NLP specialists, please decipher for my benefit!

This one is for the spirit of the most popular R situation world is in! This situation has given the opportunity to all organisations on a silver platter to do what they want and blame it on R. There are cases being reported that replacements are decided at lower costs and then current set of people being asked to go. Travel levels being downgraded from business to economy, economy to budget airline and budget airline to train to correct the cost base. Salaries and "perquisites" are being "rationalised" (euphemism for cost cutting) with a vengeance. There seems to be a case of sadistic pleasure that owners/bosses are having in squeezing subordinates/potential employees. The balance has suddenly shifted. But are they forgetting that reputations are built over a longtime but tarnished in a moment. A company is known to have downgraded the perquisites of all managers and recently the CEO was seem as wining and dining in a plush top class restaurant with his cronies. Wi

I must say that this mail has quite a bit of emotion in it. It was earlier in the week that I was awestruck with two bits of media information that I was exposed to. 1. Some person of reasonable responsibility in US administration mentioned (as reported in media) that for issuing pink slips, corporates must first target "foreigners". 2. In a hard hitting 1-on-1 interview, an experienced journo asked a very senior business magnate as to why his company is shrinking manpower in "West" and increasing in "East" or Chindia. Answers that business is shrinking in "West" and growing in "East" were completely brushed aside. At the same time is it not " immoral " (my interpretation from the interview) for the company to float subsidiaries in tax havens and, therefore, avoid paying tax to a "Western" country when the country needs all the money. Above two examples are from the countries that have been propagating the spirit of

The message was clear. US is facing a financial crisis. Americans need to contribute to get out of "conveniences". But the statements like "it will get worse before it gets better" without a timeline and references to a time of slavery etc are not comforting. American era may be ending faster than anticipated. Obama's inaugration speech was truly indicative of a man under pressure from the start. As any sportsman will confirm, it's all in the mind and followers just follow the leader and Obama has not set the bar high at all. My view is that it is heading south fast...... Contrast this with the situation in India. All that leaders are talking about is security and resolve to protect Indian at ANY COST. Economic issues are tackled with a view, yes it is a slowdown but we will still beONE OF THE BEST IN THE WORLD. No talk of worsening things, less spending by government. News headlines are all talking about shrinking bottomlines for profit and NOT LOSS issues.

It was a TV spectacle on Indian media as well. The stark difference was about the subtle message - Inauguration happened out in the open in front of hundreds of thousands people. Contrast this with Indian President/Prime Minister oath taking ceremony that is really grand in pomp and show but confined to a hall behind walls and in front of no more than a couple of hundred people. Yes, TV telecast happens but the message is not in the telecast. Also, the position is transferred at the designated time irrespective of the time of oath taking. It is another matter that outgoing team is sent off with dignity that seems absent in Indian case.

It is the sale season in the capital. All and sundry shops are showing big blown signs of "SALE". Customers run to get the bargains for all they wanted to buy. Somehow, sales on garments appear to be the biggest draw. There are many caveats to the sales. I spent good couple of hours trying to understand the psyche of "SALE" by outlets. As one shopkeeper mentioned to me, the key objectives of a sale are: - push non-moving stocks - push volumes - keep real discount levels low It is the 3rd point that got me intrigued and then I looked for what is actually happening. 1. Sale declares " upto 75% off SALE " Only about 10% goods are at the highest slab of discount. Almost 50% are on the lowest slab of discount which invariably is 20%. 30% of goods are not on sale. So the effective discount is 20%. 2. Buy 1 get 25%, Buy 2 get 1 free, buy 3 get 3 free. The hidden thing is that goods of higher price are billed and lower price are given free. Garments get sold o

This post originated from the news item that shares of one company were offered to employees of another which happened to be a customer. The whole idea of appropriateness or otherwise of behaviour is deeply rooted in the socio-cultural fabric of the society. Different cultures view gifts very differently. In many parts of Asia, it is perfectly all right to give/accept a gift that is more like a souvenir and is not measured by the cost/value of the gift. This is more pronounced in Middle East where it is a part of culture to offer gifts that are not "cheap". Is an offer of a merchant banker to a fancy dinner (with Chateau Margeaux, caviar et al) or invite to a 18 hole golf course in Scotland with best of malts, salmon, Grouse shooting, fishing et al different from offering a Mont Blanc or Waterman to a business associate? Where does the thin line vanish differentiating a gift from a bribe? As is said in Indian mythology that everything that you see is a result of the context t

Last few days have been Godsend for the economists who love to play the mind games. We have had amazing mixed signals, though the net effect is more sentimental than real. -ves - Satyam fraud - banning of many IT firms by World Bank (more on that in the next post) - strikes by transporters and oil industry officers +ves - better IIP numbers - lower inflation - higher credit offtake - announcement on infrastructure spending by government What is future holding for us is anybody's guess! I still maintain that India will be one of the quickest off the block from this downturn. I see a major positive outcome of the Satyam fraud as most organisations will clean up their balance sheets, if there are inaccuracies, and then going forward good news will be a real one. The euphoria being over, consolidation in various industries will bring in efficiencies. Shedding flab due to the circumstances will mean healthier businesses. A control on spending will ensure that investments will be put in

It was a usual day trip to another metro with early morning flight. The day did not start well and was feeling that I will miss my flight as morning scene at airports is busy, very busy. Anyways, after taking shortcuts and faster than normal speed, I arrived at the airport and was pleasantly surprised to see very little crowd. Walking into the checking in counter, I observed most counters bereft of passengers. I asked, "light flight?". Her answer shocked me in the economic downturn environment - "I am not complaining, it is less work for me." On the return the same evening, I arrived at the airport at the usual 75 minutes before flight and explored if I could take an earlier flight if available. The lady at the counter after punching in a few keys on computer responded; "I am sorry sir, usually you would have got it but thankfully after a long time we have flight going full. Why don't you rest in the business lounge as I see you came in the morning and must

Shocked to hear the fraud committed in Satyam by its top management. What were auditors doing? Indian Enron? Are there more skeletons in the cupboard?

The time change appears very apparent, all of a sudden, around the new year. I woke up to the fact that I am on the other side of eighty and so on. On the first tuesday of the new year, my better half coaxed me out of slumber to get into some action and finish long pending chores. I reluctantly agreed and offered a cup of coffee to her if she accompanied me. She thought of it as a great gesture whereas my motive was to share the "workload" - selfish me! It is only after we got on the road we realised that today is "tuesday" and local malls are all closed in "Gurugram". Once out of slumber, I offered to go on an extended trip to the old market of "Sadar Bazaar". It was, as expected, a flood of experiences. Shops, more shops and even more shops interspersed with street hawkers and crowded with people. On the road a kilometer long, there are at least 1,000 shops, 400 hawkers and probably 10,000 people at that time. Range includes or rather extends f