I want to be back in Bangalore

There is only one thing I can do better in Delhi. Taking public transport. Public transport is easier to handle if you know the local language. And Metro is really cool, despite the heavy traffic on Noida line!

But otherwise, in everything else – I am missing Bangalore. What can be more ironical than me practically getting looted in digitally printing a few posters here. Boom! At least the digital print shops in Bangalore have clearly laid out fixed prices. Even these businesses are run by the old-economy rules in Delhi

Pragati Maidan food outlets are very bad too. Overpriced, ordinary food and they randomly change prices. For the same ice-cream, I have paid 3 different prices by now; have bought sandwich at two different prices. For the sandwiches, I am going to buy them only at the metro station I daily walk to. Exactly the same sandwich (they all seem to have the same provider) for which I paid a minimum of 30 Rs. inside the maidan was for Rs. 10 there. And I mean it – EXACTLY.

These are some of the things I never thought you had to bargain for!

I want to be back in Bangalore. NOW

Is there any space for Indian modesty in professional life?

बड़े बड़ाई ना करें, बड़े ना बोले बोल।
रहिमन हीरा कब कहे, लाख टका मो मोल।।

Approx. translation: Great people do not praise themselves, they do not talk big about themselves. Who has ever heard the diamond claiming loudly that it is valued at lacs of rupees.

Modesty is one of the most valued traits of human character in Indian culture. The lines quoted above from the celebrated poet Rahim are something most Hindi speakers would have come across at some point of time or the other. There is a very famous Sanskrit shloka also, which I am currently unable to recall, which extols the virtue of modesty. I am pretty sure that most other Indian languages would have poems/sayings to similar effects. And its so much of a part of our upbringing.

I do not know if people from metros and bigger cities have had slightly different experience, but in the environment in which I grew up, you were not even supposed to accept complements by saying “Thank you”. If somebody complemented that you or your dress is looking good, you did not say “Thank you”. You said something to the effect “Oh! do not embarrass me”. If somebody complemented you for doing well in examination, you did not say “Thank you”. You said something to the effect “I was just lucky!”

You get the point, right?

Overall, you were not supposed to try to stand out, but were supposed to try and blend in. And no, this is not the kind of blending in that suppresses individuality. Somewhere the assumption behind all this was that if you are good, the world will recognize you. You don’t need to speak out for yourself. And in fact, you should not!

This principle suited most good people. It was just so much easier to keep doing your stuff well and the world will recognize you. And you know what! It worked. You just did your stuff. You did well in studies, you did well in extra-curriculars or even just one of them. You did not have to shout. The world recognized you.

And as you go to new places for studies, it would always be the same pattern. If you are not the shout-about-yourself type, people would not know you in the beginning. Not in the introduction/ragging period. But suddenly with the first exams, first opportunity for showing your talent, everybody spots you. They wonder where you were till then. And then they remember you. Not just for the rest of your stay there, but for many, many years after you have left.

It happens during student life.

If you have been an MBA student at some point of time, then there is a faint hint of things to come. Your marketing classes will tell you that making a better mousetrap is not good enough. You need to market it, sell it. But as a student, world will still recognize you, if you are good.

And then you enter the professional life. The story is different – totally. And not just for those who are in marketing. Even if you are in a role that will have nothing to do with the customer ever, you need to sell. You need to sell yourself to your boss, your colleagues, your company, even if not your company or its products to the customers. Otherwise, does not matter what you do or how good you are, you will be overlooked. The world will not discover you. It won’t even be enough to just shout our how much your real worth is. Because others will shout out an inflated worth for themselves and will get ahead. You have to shout out louder than the rest and you have to put a value higher than the others. You have to push yourself in front of everyone else; you have to reach on the top of the world by pushing every one down. Otherwise, the world will not recognize you. And don’t even bother with arguing for modesty anywhere. “You have to learn to project yourself in good light; become a professional.”, you well-wishing mentor will tell you.

If your are an entrepreneur, then there is even less scope for modesty. You, of course, have to sell yourself, you company and product to the customer. You have to sell it to everyone else too. To every potential employees, to potential vendors, (to investors), to the people you meet everyday, to your family. And you better appear confident even of the things you would rather accept you are not sure about. You better shout out loud about how great you and your company are. Else, you will not be heard. People do not have time or motivation or skills to assess your real worth. You have to shout it out well and shout it out for much more than your real worth. Because again, you are competing with those who are inflating the values they are shouting out.

What do you do with the baggage of your modesty, which asks you to just shut up and do your job and let the world discover you? It fails you.

Its not that Indian culture and its expectations are inherently impractical. The same culture said long back “सत्यम् ब्रूयात् प्रियम् ब्रूयात्। न ब्रूयात् सत्यम् अप्रियम्।।” “Don’t speak the truth, if its unpleasant”. How much more practical can you get! But, whey the hell did not one creating the foundation stones of this culture could see that world does not always discover what is good. You have to shout out your value some times. What went amiss? If modesty works only in certain circumstances, they should have taught us to have it only in certain circumstances. Somehow that does not happen.

If there is one thing about my upbringing which I find limits me and which I also find is impossible to leave behind, it is this lesson in modesty. I have learned to respond to complements with a “thank you” over time. But thats a mechanical learning. Shouting out is still an issue and it hurts!

What do you think? Is there a place for the modesty our culture teaches us in our professional lives? One thing I would like to give reference to is Nadeem’s post here on his experience of trying to find an alternative career in corporate world. Specifically

However, I must confess that the new rules are not easy to play by. Self praise is frowned upon in the Services and I still blush when I have to assure the HR recruiter that I am good.

Vanish Max Works!!!

So, after the charged up posts about IITs, 3 idiots and education system, here is a piece of peaceful domestic tip. “Vanish” stain remover works as advertised!

So, I had this dress that I wore to the birthday party of a kid (I wrote somewhere else that I am feeling like getting old. Attending more wedding anniversaries and kids’ birthday parties than friends’ birthday treats!). There was this beautiful and extremely tasty birthday cake there. But it had some funnny blue color in it, which accidently got onto my dress and stained it badly. Immediate attempts to put water only made the stain spread; so I did not try too hard. Since then it was just lying around. I could not trust my maid to hande the party dress and I was not sure even dry cleaner would agree to get that stain removed.

But recently, Abhaya decided to buy a trial pack of Vanish for some of his clothes. He hasn’t used it yet, but I decided to take a chance yesterday on my dress. Just put some detergent and Vanish in water and soaked the dress. After a while I saw that the stain had faded a bit. I tried rubbing it to remove the remaining. But that did not seem to be working. So, I just let it soak for a little longer. Went out to watch a movie and after coming back, a pleasant surprise was waiting. The stain was gone. No rubbing, no great cleaning skills, nothing. And it had not affected the color of the fabric. It did work almost like a magic.

And no Reckitt Benckiser has not paid me for writing this post Just thought it will help some other clueless-about-house-work-like-us people around me!

3 idiots – Finally!

Finally, after seeing even the worst located Bangalore multiplexes running houseful (even on weekdays) for many weeks, we managed to catch 3 idiots at Fame Lido today. Tickets were priced at a sweet 100 bucks

One of the commenters said he would like to see my review although he has already seen it. So, I’d assume that there is a demand for my review even this late Here I go.

One last disclaimer – this may have spoilers.

Following a common style of reviews on this blog, here are some points outlining my thoughts

• To me, this was not a IIT story. It could be closer to some other engineering colleges in India – but definitely not an IIT story. Reason? Despite having some bad apples IITs are better than these colleges. Read on.
• The students committing suicide are rarely mad geniuses, despite what media would like you to believe. The ‘Joy’s of the world are not the typical suicide cases. The geniuses I have seen usually fall in two categories
• • The poster-boys for students’ argument against compulsory attendance: These are the geniuses who are irreverent towards the system. They won’t attend classes; they would skip tests; they won’t be seen mugging things up in the library before exams; their only preparation for some of the exams would be sharpening their pencils; and yet they would score high grades leaving everyone puzzled. (Yes – a bit of Rancho – but that character is too overblown in other respects to be realistic)
  • The-misfit-into-system: Abhaya narrates the classic case of his classmate who easily coded game engines, which heavily used matrix algebra (matrix transformation etc.), but failed the basic course teaching that concept 3 or 4 times probably. They never fit in. They will get academic probations. Their class mates will philosophically ponder over the worthlessness of our education system citing their example. Many such people would finally manage to get a degree; some might even drop out. But they find their places in the world and those places are pretty good – even though they may not file 400 patents within 5 years of graduating
• Sharman Joshi’s character’s suicide attempt is probably closer to an average case. Its generally a combination of social pressure and academic pressure Although the nuances of the former are unlikely to get dug upon. Crying foul about the problems of education system is the simpler and easier thing to do for most people including media, students, parents and alumni in these cases. Also, these suicide cases are normally sans the dramatic, cruel “Mohabbatein” type administrator/director. There are incapable people in administration some times, but the director’s character is overblown again. No director runs an IIT like a personal property; not even the worst ones! They can’t I guess.
• The professors have been universally shown to be incapable. Thats far too unfair. The IIT I saw had some bad apples, but there were many faculty members, who were very good in their area and would never stifle you if you want to experiment and learn. Most of them are not world famous researchers, but most of them are not incompetent either.
• The movie sometimes reminded me more of IIM than IIT. IIT students are younger and more innocuous. The RG is less prevalent and RG attempts are more childish. Also, its difficult to imagine an IIT director/professor to be so much a “racer” in life. Its more of a b-school characteristic.
• Finally the characters do not look like the 17-21 year old engineering students. I am not talking about their looks. Rancho’s character is not that of a 17 year old coming to an engineering college. Trust me, no 1st year IIT student is capable of giving mature advice about relationships and talking the heroine out of a doomed engagement (how old was she by the way – that she was finishing her medical education and was already engaged? These guys were still in their first year… Hmmm.)! Nobody is such a genius in engineering, such a confident stud from day 1 in the college, such a great analyzer of people’s characters, so good with words, so natural a prankster, so mature a friend and so charming a lover – all at the same time – at an age somewhere between 17-21! There are some geniuses, few rarely mature people and then a bunch of Harmon charged teenagers who have the capability to work hard enough to crack the entrance examination! That’s it (no offenses meant – just trying to paint the realistic pictures). So, any young girls out there, do not look for a Rancho in the next IITian you meet. You are unlikely to find even a 50 years old who is so well rounded. He is too much of a “hindi film ka hero” Even other characters appear too mature – more of young professionals or MBA students rather than undergrads.
• They got one thing right about IITs though. The boys to girls ratio! Rightfully, there were a couple of girls thrown in a class full of boys. Definitely reminded me of most of my departmental courses!

So, overall, for somebody who has gone through the IIT system, the movie was not nuanced enough. It was too much of a “hindi film”.

But still watch it, because

• It is reasonably entertaining and funny, despite some stale e-mail forward jokes
• It explains why pencils are not good enough for space
• You do not want to tell your grand children that you did not watch the highest grossing Hindi movie of your time when it was released

But more importantly because it carries a message that needs to reach the parents in this country. Don’t force your kids to become a mediocre engineer, if he can be great wild-life photographer or a happy-with-his-profession writer! If this message reaches to some people, then I absolutely don’t mind that 45 year old Aamir Khan plays the character of a 17 year old student; the 17 year old character is more mature than most 50 year olds in this country; the depiction of IIT is not nuanced enough; the message is conveyed in too preachy a manner and that many a jokes in the movie are stale. I absolutely do not mind because it does not matter for the people to whom the message has to reach. In fact, it is probably better to leave aside complicated nuances and make the situation simple and entertaining – so that there is some chance of people listening to it.

Will the highest grossing movie do its bit for that aspect of our society?

Rigidity of institutions vs. rigour of discipline

It would sound difficult to believe but I was giving this “bhashan” to someone in my dream one of these days. Mostly my dreams are absurd, but this seemed to make sense even after waking up. So, I thought I’d just jot this thought down. Of course, I do not remember anything else from the dream – so it does not have much of context.

We have educational institutions and we have individual disciplines of education. The problem in our (Indian) system is that we are very rigid at institutional level – you decide or end up in a particular discipline and then you are stuck. The institution will not allow much of switching. Probably as a result of this, the rigour individual discipline can impose suffers. When the students don’t have much of a choice at the institutional level, the disciplines have to accommodate. So, the rigour they impose becomes less. You end up graduating in a certain discipline, when you understanding and knowledge is just not good enough.

The rigidity of institutions comes not only from the rules of the institutions, but also from the narrow point of view society takes with respect to disciplines. The point of view that put the various disciplines in a strict hierarchy and hence your family is happier at your being a mediocre engineer, but won’t give you a chance to come an extra-ordinary historian. So, even if institutional rules would allow you to have some flexibility, this societal pressure won’t. Overall, due to a combination of formal rules and informal society norms, we have rigid institutions.

Won’t it be nice to be able to replace it with a system where institutions are flexible, but disciplines are rigorous. Where you can experiment with and switch disciplines, but once you graduate in a discipline you have a level of understanding you can be proud of?

One of my friends is taking up a job at IISER Pune where she will be teaching and researching. These institutes are the result of a relatively new initiative by Govt. of India and MHRD to promote quality Science education. Unlike IITs, it seems that the departments of the students are not decided from the beginning. That sounds like a promising thing, even though the choices are still limited to only to Sciences. We might see more flexibility in the days ahead in our educational institutes. Let’s hope so!

Why hiring through recruiters is difficult for us

Recruitment industry is not going anywhere and there are situations in which hiring through recruiters work very well. There are two broad kinds of situation I can think of where hiring through recruiters works very well

1. When you can specify objective criteria for what kind of person you want: His degrees (including “eliteness” of institute), experience in specific companies or specific technologies, previous experience in a particular kind of role etc. Recruiters would do a very good job of finding people whom you otherwise would not have been able to reach or would have had to spend a great deal of time in finding them.
2. When you are hiring for a really senior level position (like say CEO for your funded start-up) and financial stakes involved are high: In this case, selection by objective criteria will not work. What you need is to talk to the relevant people, understand their motivations and skills, judge whether there is a mutual fit etc. A different set of recruiters would be willing to help you with these non-objective tasks also. It works because the stakes are high and you’d pay the recruiter a suitably high amount of money.

But hiring through recruiters is tough for us. We are not hiring a CEO level person – so financial remuneration for a recruiter will not be that high. Then the only thing they can do is get us relevant candidates based on objective criteria. And unfortunately objective criteria does not work for us. Any objective criteria we have in our list is merely a basic filter. We’d probably look at graduates – the actual discipline or place of study does not matter. We’d be able to list some specific skills like good communication skills, high comfort level with computers and Internet, people interaction skills etc. But these are not the kind of skills you can judge from the resume or the courses they have done. (I have seen computer science graduates, who almost seem scared of computers.) You need to dig deeper, look at specifics, interact with the person and so on. Plus since it is a small company, we also have to feel comfortable working with the person – because we all will be working very closely. Any affordable recruiter will not be able to help us with these things. Plus since the requirements are so subjective, the chances of errors are also pretty high. That is another reason I’d feel uncomfortable is shelling out cash to a recruiter to hire someone.

So, while we keep hearing from recruiters all the time, I guess it will be a while before we can go that route. Till then hiring will be a tough task that we have to do ourselves. Since we are at it – we have openings (non-CS) at Pothi.com. Check out and help us spread the word by circulating further.

Raat Gayi, Baat Gayi

There is nice, little Indian urban comedy, which is likely to get missed out amidst the houseful theaters of 3 idiots and Avtar. But you should not.

Some disclaimers though

• Singles-never-been-in-long-term-serious-relationship may find it too arbit. Married/committed-for-long people should find it funny; even if arbit, funnily so!
• The above is not because of explicit adult conversations (who is claiming innocence here) or talks of infidelity, but because of the subtle nuances involved in relationships which surface only after the “honeymoon phase” is over.
• The movie is not as funny as it could have been. Dialogues, writing could definitely have been better and funnier.

That said, it still is worth a watch for its well itched out characters, very good acting by all the cast members, the slight suspense and fun it creates, its comfortingly identifiable Indian urban settings and Rajat Kapoor (I know Vinay Pathak has gotten the award nomination, but I am falling for Rajat Kapoor).

The cast and crew together are the same as ‘Mithya‘, sans Naseeruddin Shah. The director and an actor have switched their roles (Saurabh Shukla, Rajat Kapoor). ‘Mithya’ was definitely more magical, but this should not be missed out on either.

Bangalore Book Festival

If you are in Bangalore and have still not visited Bangalore book festival, you would have to hurry up. Tomorrow is the last day. This year we also took a stall for Pothi.com and you can visit us at Stall No. 288.

On the personal front, this stall has been another entrepreneurial experience that taught me a lot. About people, readers, consumers, buying behaviour, manning a retail outlet etc. But it has also left us exhausted. It started on Nov. 6 and is going on till Nov. 15. Plus the days before and after, spent in preparation. Feeling tired and we are taking a day off on Monday. Hope to be able to catch a good movie.

And yeah – with Book Festival, we have also started the official Pothi.coms blog. You may want to subscribe to it.

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Kaminey

Kaminey has some catchy, funny original dialogues for sure. An example

इस दुनिया में कुत्ते का एक ही जवाब होता है – कमीने

It is unfair to not like the movie because it is not an “Omkara” or a “Maqbool”. Its not the same genre. And the genre it is from, it is a well executed movie. Pretty tight. I am not too much into the crime-comedy genre. So, I don’t have elaborate observations.

But acting is fantastic. And it feels great to observe that Shahid Kapoor is arriving as an actor. He is not just good as the rich or upper-middle class lover boy, he is equally at ease as a Mumbai gangster. And he has played the twin brothers – very different from each other – effortlessly. Unlike Saif Ali Khan as young sardar in Love Aaj Kal, neither of Shahid Kapoor’s roles look like it is forced on him. If he continues to choose wisely and experiments enough, we are looking at the next great actor probably. Priyanka Chopra and other actors have done well too.

So, definitely worth a watch.