Month: July 2010

This week’s links:

• The Top 20 Countries on the Internet, and the Future: from Royal Pingdom. India is listed at#4 but the numbers seem quite exaggerated.
• The “Street-fighting Mathematician” Q&A: from the New York Times. Answers by Sanjoy Mahajan.
• How LEGO revived its brand: from Business Week. We have all played with Lego blocks, so this story caught my attention. “The company’s problems began in the late 1990s, when it stopped focusing on design.”
• WSJ Asian Innovation Awards Finalists: The 12 companies. “In Asia, where some of the world’s biggest problems—and biggest opportunities—lie, several finalists offer innovations targeted to this region.”
• 7 Blunders that will haunt India: by Major General Mrinal Suman. “History is most unforgiving. As historical mistakes cannot be undone, they have complex cascading effect on a nation’s future.”

Abhishek’s vacation ends soon, and we are now on to our last travel, after Surat, China (HK, Shenzhen, Shanghai) and Chennai. This time, it is a 3-day visit once again to the Jain temples in Palitana. We will be going by train, like we did last year. It is a 13-hour train journey, and one I am looking forward to once again.

Train journeys have a charm of their own and with Abhishek also starting to like them, we have been making some plans of our own. One of the ideas I have given him is to go by Rajdhani to Delhi in either December or during his mid-term break next March.And then when he is older, to do the coast-to-coast train ride in the US.

Given that Abhishe’s school follows the IGCSE system, the vacations are in June and July. Having been used to vacations from mid-April to early-June while I was growing up, it will take some time getting used to this new vacation schedule!

I cannot but help think that we in India don’t have a clue how to solve the big challenges that we face. Whether it is getting 500 million out of extreme poverty or dealing with Naxalism or handling our neighbours (Pakistan and China) or even something seemingly simple as dealing with errant Ministers at the Centre, the belief seems to be that problems will solve themselves if we left them alone.

At a time when India needs leadership of the highest order, we are getting silence and seeing weakness. At a time when India needs big vision and rapid execution, we are getting inaction and petty thinking.

It is because We, the People of Middle India, have seceded and created our own mini-worlds that we inhabit, unconcerned about what is happening around. Some day soon, we will realise that this is the biggest mistake made by one of the largest collectives in the world.

In the past few weeks, I have read three thrillers on my Kindle that I have liked:

• Foreign Influence, by Brad Thor
• Rules of Betrayal, by Christopher  Reich
• The Rembrandt Affair, by Daniel Silva

I have read previous books by all the three authors, so was looking forward to their new ones. And I was not disappointed by any of the three. I read one of them through a lazy, rainy Sunday sitting at home — something that I hadn’t done for a long time.

In the end, it was a simple rule that has transformed departures at Mumbai airport. Airlines have been asked to shutdown check-in counters 40 minutes before the scheduled departure time, and have the engines ready 15 minutes prior. If they miss their departure slot, they are sent to the end of the queue. Within a few days, most departures are now taking place on time. I myself experienced this on Saturday morning.

Compare this to earlier when aircraft would queue up and take 30+ minutes to take-off.  Someone thought about the problem and solved it. We need more such people in India.

Now, if we could only fix some other issues with the airport. First, we need to reclaim the land that bas been lost to squatters so one more runway can be built. The two X-shaped runways limit the handling capacity. Second, landing still means 30+ minutes of hovering time – how can this change? Finally, Mumbai needs a new airport and for this a decision needs to be made now. It has been stuck for many long years.

One of the best places for South Indian food that I have come across in Mumbai is Madras Cafe at King’s Circle in Matunga.  It is a little far for us to go, but we go there once in a while with friends. There is invariably a queue so expect some waiting time at peak hours.

The taste is amazing, and the lightness of South Indian food can ensure that one could eat and eat and eat! Don’t get dissuaded by the simple setting – that’s part of the charm.

In early August, it will be two years since I re-started the blog after a short gap. Since then, I have made it a habit to post something new daily. Here is what I wrote a couple years ago on “Writing”:

One thing I do like is writing. The writing habit started when I was in college, from what I can remember. I started keeping a daily diary. It continued through IIT and then for much of my time in the US – though by then, I had stopped writing daily and made it occasional. I wrote for myself. I rarely read what I wrote after writing it. Writing gave me a way to think clearly and even arrive at decisions, when I needed to.

Over the past 15 or so years, I have a habit of keeping a book wherein I make notes. I also write a Diary page every so often – a more personal note, emptying what the mind is thinking. For some of the past few years, the blog helped refine my thinking on technology and entrepreneurship, opening up new worlds of ideas. And then, inexplicably, I stopped. And almost as inexplicably, I have restarted again!

The best blogs are the voices of single individuals – right from the head and heart. In my case, it is the same raw emotion that I want to keep sharing. And as I write on my blog, I have realised how much I love writing. I hope this time around it continues – daily, and forever.

This week’s links:

• The Top Idea in Your Mind: by Paul Graham. “It’s a disaster to let the wrong idea become the top one in your mind.”
• Estimating Lifetime Value: by Jeremy Liew. “You actually see a full customer lifetime, which can help in accelerating decisions about marketing and customer acquisition.”
• How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen. “On the last day of class, I ask my students to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves, to find cogent answers to three questions: First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail?”
• New Cities for Old: by R Jagannathan in DNA. “Creating new cities is easier than renewing existing ones for commonsense reasons. One, its costlier to construct infrastructure in overpopulated areas. Two, it will also take longer.”
• India’s Gandhi God-Kings: by Sadanand Dhume in The Wall Street Journal. “Opaque family rule is no way to run a political party, let alone a major economy and aspiring great power.”

I have been thinking about this idea for some time. The most recent trigger came in an Economic Times op-ed I read a few days ago arguing for an Indian shadow cabinet – like they have in the UK. I think it is a great idea, but I don’t think the Opposition in India will do it.

Given that the Opposition in India (the BJP and the Left) have basically become the Parties of No, there is a need for constructive Opposition where proper alternatives are placed, with the No. That will only happen if there are people who effectively ‘shadow’ the various government portfolios.

India needs an alternative set of policy ideas from the many that are being pursued by the Congress-led UPA government. Can we come up with “India’s Best Opposition” and use the Net to start a discussion on these ideas?

When we landed back in Mumbai, one of our checked-in bags was missing. (It arrived the next day – had gotten missed out in the transfer at Hong Kong airport from Shanghai.) As we went through the process of filling out the forms for its customs clearance, I became aware of the fact that as Indians arriving from China, our duty-free allowance was – hold your breath – Rs 6,000 ($130) per person.

In today’s day and age, why have such ridiculous limits? Why force people to lie their way through? Why make me give answers like “Oh, I think we only spent Rs 10,000 on the stuff we got in these bags, and the bag that’s coming tomorrow has about Rs 1,000 worth of stuff.”

The only objective of such limits seems to be to assist people at Customs supplement their incomes. How does one get these limits increased to sensible levels – or even removed?