Written on Monday, March 16, 2009 by Rohan Koshy
The Upcoming Indian Elections made me think about how I’ve won the lottery. Not in the sense of this election actually, but in how lucky I am to be born at this time. The fact is that I’m incredibly lucky to be born into a country that has been and probably (I say probably) will always enjoy long stretches of peace. I imagine that this current generation is the luckiest generation of Indians to come along in the last 150 - 200 years.
Being born in this era means you've enjoyed virtually no major wars and the country is both independent and tolerant (for the most part). While a lot of people look at the situation and say - there's communal violence, there are bad roads, bad politicians, bad infrastructure, corruption and deceit and the list goes on and on, you cannot ignore the rewards of this society
When I look at myself, I feel lucky to be born here. I've been privileged to get the very best education here. More importantly, I've been lucky enough to live in a time of relative peace and have been able to pursue my own interests. India at this time continues to be the world’s second fastest growing economy. I've been born at a time when the country has been moving up the global ladder, has reaped the benefits of opening up the economy to the world and will continue to enjoy strong domestic consumption. Having my upbringing almost entirely in Pune has allowed me to witness the rapid growth of the economy. Where once you had only maruti 800's you now don’t give a second look to Audi’s and BMW's running amok around the city. In effect I’ve luckily been at the right place to witness how a growing economy can rapidly lift the standard of living of its citizens.
India, despite its problems, allows people here to achieve riches and create value and contribute without the fear of retribution. It still is secular and more than anything continues to allow anyone who achieves greatness in their fields to achieve recognition, regardless of colour or religion. That IS the good news
Slumdog Millionaire is not a spectacular film to Indians. While it is no doubt a fantastic film, Indians are used to seeing everything it portrays. The film correctly displays to opposite side of the effects of uneven capitalism. That's the bad news. The system as it currently stands is akin to loaded dice. If you're born here, into a decent middle class family, have a decent education and work relatively hard, it actually very hard for you to end up poor in the current scenario. India's growth will carry all those "lucky" enough to have won the ovarian lottery to greater riches and a relatively stable, (economically speaking) life. (Unless of course, there’s a world war or a massive war with Pakistan). But, and this is a big but, if you're NOT born on the right side of the fence, you have to overcome massive odds to enjoy the benefits. In most cases, you will continue to stay in an economically disadvantaged position. The classic case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer will remain.
The luck that we have had in being born into the right situation is what must be acknowledged by this generation. Whether you now live in America, Australia, Britain or anywhere else, you must acknowledge that you have been lucky enough to get the opportunity to use your god-given talents to contribute and basically follow your dreams to fulfill your destiny, whatever that might be. You have a duty to the country you live in because it gives you the opportunity to be rich. We cannot escape the responsibility that privilege has given us. You cannot say that as a believer in free markets that you don’t have to worry about anything else other than your own self interest. Society has given you all the tools to enjoy yourself and you must return that favour.
Consider this situation - A man has been working in a shoe mill for 40 years of his life. He works hard and does his job diligently. Unfortunately the Chinese have jus reduced the cost of production by 90%. His company has no option but to relocate all the plants abroad. IN this situation he has no transferrable skills. He's not going to learn java and xml and change careers. Society must, in some form provide a safety net. If all this "creative destruction" (i.e. the fittest, most innovative companies winning and the others going bankrupt) benefits society, then its side effects - the displacement of workers and the associated stress- must be picked by society as well. Society must pick up the tab, if it’s going to receive the benefits.
It's not just the government that must do that, but rather individuals. If you acknowledge that you've won the lottery then you must do what you can to benefit the ones who didn’t win.
That’s creative capitalism. It's like a volcano. Those at the top who enjoy the explosion of profits and money must use it to enhance the ones who don’t get the benefit.
By all means, play to win. Follow your passion and turn it into millions if you can Make as much money as you can but remember to give it away so that you can close the gap between the haves and have not's
Remember,
"The Man who dies rich, dies disgraced." - Andrew Carnegie.
Written on Tuesday, January 13, 2009 by Rohan Koshy
It's ironic that satyam, which means truth in Sanskrit, is the scene of what is one of India’s biggest corporate scandals. While there have been many scandals before, these pale in comparison with that of satyam's.
Emerging market risks include a whole list of factors but fraud on a scale such as this is beyond these "normal”, actually expected risks. India's problem was that the private sector was smart, dynamic and most importantly honest. The government was the problem. Now we have another one. The magnitude and duration of the fraud is both stunning and deeply disturbing.
Infosys has an impeccably honest and straightforward leadership but so did satyam it seemed. The shock comes from not only the scale of the fraud (close to 7000 Cr) but from the fact that it comes out of the industry which put India on the global business map. The IT industry, while being criticized for doing back office and BPO work, has no doubt brought prosperity and opportunity to an emerging, ambitious young generation of Indians.
The fact that the industry touted it's adherence to global standards, be it in terms of governance or facilities provided to employees makes it worse. That image is now tarnished.
While I agree that it does not represent the majority of the industry (satyam's employees are hard working, honest people), the fact remains that a lot of people had to be complicit in the fraud for it to have gone on so long and been at this scale.
A few questions,
1. What was PWC doing exactly?
There is absolutely no way that they could not have known. This is further borne out by the fact that after the botched attempt to buy maytas, Merrill lynch, which was asked to look at merger opportunities cut ties with satyam after just ten days citing "irregularities in accounting". They took ten days to find out what PWC didn’t find in 7 years?
2. How can no one else inside the company know?
I can understand that some independent directors may not have known. They may not verify the balance sheet statements simply because I don't think anyone does that but raju couldn’t have these figures on hand unless someone accounted for him. It means there are many more from top management who would know. There's no way that 7000 crores can be fabricated without someone knowing.
3. Was the margin really 3 percent?
This is really difficult to believe. What's easier to believe is that he used the profit to either a) pay down existing debt which he owed to his personal creditors or b) Use it to fund other purchases like land, or some such personal reasons. It's impossible to have such low margins in the IT industry. It may happen in the future but as business is now, there’s no way it can happen. What it means is that they money that was earned by the hard work and late nights of employees was sucked dry by raju.
4. Which banks are now in on this scandal?
The scandal will spread. NO doubt about it. The money is kept in banks. If there is no money, as raju claims, the banks should know it. This isn’t a small amount. The fact is that there definitely is some cover-up at the banks themselves. Even if forged statements were shown and the banks didn’t know this, wouldn't they have seen the quarterly statements and realized it was a big lie.
The bad news
Before we say anything about the image of the IT industry being tarnished and India Inc suffering a global PR nightmare, let's focus on those affected most - the employees of satyam. Working for an IT company I can testify that most people work pretty hard and are honest in their dealings. When you work hard and you see the company expanding at a good rate and maintaining margins, you do feel proud. They will feel duped. They’re hard worked has paid off. They have impressed customers and improved service. The customers have paid the money they deserved BUT their leader has sucked it dry. They've filled the bank and raju, along with his conspirators have drained it. That must really hurt.
The worse news.
Job cuts are imminent. It's difficult for the company to burn cash now at the rate they were before because they have no money in the bank. Innocent, hard working employees will face the brunt of the impact. Even senior managers who've spent more than a decade with the company will find that they have worked and worked and have been duped. I hope that there are no job cuts but it’s difficult to imagine such a scenario.
The crazy part.
Satyam won a corporate governance award a few months ago. Wonder what that stands for now.It seems unlikely that the awards panel looks into the authenticity of the company’s statements because that's not their job, it's the auditor's. In any case, what we've come to see is that awards may mean something, but it isn’t much. Performance in the market and the bottom line is quite clearly, THE bottom line.
The good news.
I have noticed on many message boards that satyam's employees are defiant and ready. It’s incredible to see a satyamite say - “We will script the biggest comeback in Indian business history". They realize that they're company is honest, just not the leaders. Can the turnaround happen? Probably. The company makes money. It's not a loss making business. Once the dust settles and the company starts smaller it can still come back. The short term need for cash and more importantly a strong vision is the main concern. A merger may also be an option but it looks unlikely.
Where do we go from here?
First things first. Find out what happened. No matter how long it takes. Make a big public spectacle of it. Let it ring loud and clear that there are massive consequences for trying to defraud the system. There have to be changes made to how authenticity of accounts and balance sheets are maintained. I admit this is pretty difficult, Business, no matter what anyone tells you, still runs on trust. We bill our customer by the hour. But the customer doesn’t verify whether every resource that billed on a particular day came to work or not. They can't. It's impossible. They have to trust us. We have to regard it as sacred and never attempt to breach that trust.
A little hope.
Warren buffett says - 'it's only when the tide goes out that you see who's been swimming naked'. Well the global financial crisis has taken its toll. Wall Street has been exposed for what it is and now companies that cashed in when the going was good, now face the consequences of all their bets going bad at the same time. A perfect storm if you will.
What we're now seeing is a cleansing of the global business digestive system. A detoxification. Capitalism has brought benefits, but like the saying goes - "anything worth working hard for is worth stealing". People will steal. Eventually though the tide reverses.
In the end, the tortoise does beat the rabbit. SAFE and steady wins the race.
Written on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 by Rohan Koshy
The recent financial turmoil that has caught the world's attention has brought with it a big debate about the death of capitalism. With the U.S and U.K taking major equity stakes in a majority of banks many have questioned whether this signals the end of laissez-faire capitalism. The reluctance of Henry paulson and George Bush to nationalise the banks was because they believed in the idea of "free markets" as it were. It is generally accepted that the government cannot regulate markets any better than the market participants (acting in their own self interest). Alan Greenspan, who is a big believer in free markets (having spent time with Ayn Rand) admitted that he had misjudged the potentially disastrous situation that would occur if the markets were left unregulated.
While I've read Ayn rand's books and certainly subscribe to part of her philosophy, i feel that the no holds barred laissez faire capitalism that she has supported would never really work.Working in your own self interest may certainly be the best thing for everybody but it leaves out one thing. Integrity. Self interest is totally skewed when integrity is taken out of it. When you're self interest is to make money no matter how much somebody else may lose then its not in everybody's self interest. It's also known by another word.Greed. Unfortunately that's what became of wall street at the end of 2007.
If i put a revolver containing only one bullet to your head and say ," If you pull the trigger I'll give you a million dollars" would you do it? While 80% of the time you'll get 1 million dollars you know that when you get it wrong, you'll get a funeral. Unfortunately it's not that easy in the real world. When a bank is leveraged 30 to 1, its pretty easy to see the bullet in the chamber but there are many reasons that could be given as to why this may be your lucky day. The biggest one being record company profits, which is what the banks were making. It's pretty hard to argue against record corporate profits. But eventually they got the silver bullet.
One more reason i believe that markets without regulation wouldn't work is perception. Greed is not the only reason for the fiasco. Usually humans first perceive a problem , then decide best course and then finally take action. I believe that there definitely is now a problem of perception. You may not act in your own "best" interests because you may not be able to perceive the risks. Most of the industry couldn't perceive the risk and so we chartered into incredibly risky waters. We couldn't see the storm so we couldn't take action. Credit default swaps(CDS) are supposed to insure you against the risk of default by a company. INSURE. Sound's safe doesnt it?Unfortunately it isn't. You may not be able to perceive the risk that comes with a $62 trillion UNSUPERVISED market. Too many counterparties chasing the same thing. Sometimes we need to be protected from ourselves and i suppose that's what we'll see now.
So does it mean the end of capitalism as in the old days? Yes. But risk tasking is a requisite for progress.Just because countries go to war does not mean democracy has failed. In the financial markets, getting 7% return instead of 6% is not worth it if getting that 7% could also mean biting the bullet.I suspect we haven't seen the end of it but a much more risk averse culture will rise from these ashes and capitalism will continue to create fantastic progress. That is, if we don't manage to break the banks in the process.
Written on Sunday, August 03, 2008 by Rohan Koshy
It's been so long since i wrote a proper post. A lot has happened since then. I've given a major exam and done well in it. Given myself a chance for something good.There have been few things to write about over the past few months but recently i watched a movie which made me want to write again.
First a disclaimer. I love Batman. I always have and i always will. Throughout it's 80 year history it has been one superb comic book franchise. Ever since I've read it as a kid I've loved it. Though i haven't really read all the episodes i hope that someday I'll cover them all. When i first watched memento i really loved it. When i came to know that the director of memento, Christopher Nolan would helm the effort to reboot the batman franchise i was thrilled. I saw Batman Begins and i was truly satisfied. It was dark and realistic and focused solely on the basics that make the batman comic series so gritty and enjoyable. I've waited 3 years for the dark knight to release and have followed the brilliant viral marketing campaign since it came out. So when i read the reviews for the movie my expectations became sky high.Overwhelmingly positive reviews have fuelled my expectations. And then i saw it.
It is brilliant. I don't want to go into a state of hyperbole but the movie really is awesome. Having taken care of the origins of batman, Nolan dives straight into the plot from the start. The movie is relentless in that there's way too much going on the figure it all out in one sitting. The actions scenes are great with you really feeling it's intensity. The plot is good and the pacing is spot on. Even at two and a half hours long you feel like they've actually left something out just to fit the movie into that much time. Christian Bale is the definitive batman. He plays it with an intensity that the caped crusader has not had before.
The movie undoubtedly belongs to one man. The Joker. The iconic clown prince of crime could not have got a better on screen portrayal than the one the late heath ledger has given him. He's scary, insane and brilliant.The movie starts with batman getting the upper hand over criminals but from the second the joker shows up you really feel like things are out of control. For the first time in a long time I've felt like the villain could win. That even he loses he gonna cause so much damage going down that the hero never wins. The joker is incredibly dark but not brooding. With some incredible lines. "Wanna see a magic trick?" , he really forces you to pay attention. The performance is riveting.
Harvey Dent's character is the emotional meat of the story. The joker doesn't give an emotional arc to the film. Harvey dent and his tragic story arc tie together the emotional backbone of the movie.
The end is awesome. Almost all the batman comics end with the hero in a worse place than when he started. The movie stays true to that.
All in all, its an unforgettable movie.
Don't worry about a thing my friend.
Why so serious?
Let's put a smile on that face :)
Written on Saturday, June 21, 2008 by Rohan Koshy
Personally i like this album, quite a bit. Coldplay, while changing their signature style, have maintained some of the stadium rock that has made them famous, and enjoyable to listen to.
Posted in
Coldplay
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Written on Saturday, June 21, 2008 by Rohan Koshy
Posted in
Champions,
Manu
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Written on Sunday, February 03, 2008 by Rohan Koshy
Recently i was sitting with a close friend of mine and we were wondering at how funny and ironic it was that we were 800 km away from home and we're sitting and doing the same thing we usually do when we're home. We realised that we were enjoying ourselves much the same as we do when we're home
I don't know who said it but it's true - "Human beings can adapt to almost any situation that presents itself'. Looking at me and my friend enjoying ourselves and pondering on the current paths most of my friends are taking i realized that it's totally true. We used to wonder how we'll ever survive out there once we got out of college but the fact is that once you get into a position you just find a way to make it work.With all my friends it's all the same. Getting out of college we've all been put into situations where we've gone away from home and challenged our beliefs, accepted new cultures and types of people and watched each other adapt to it all.There's no other way.
Until we got out of college your basic goal was to score as high as you can in the next exam and try to do it with as little studying as you could but once we've gotten outta college we've all been put into different places and worked with people different to us. A friend once told me that she was really worried about staying away from home as she had never done it before. I told her not to worry, that whatever challenges she faced she would find a way to survive. She asked me how i knew that for sure and i said that when you HAVE to find a way, you will find one and she has and is having fun chasing her dream.
Human beings adapt, or they shrivel and die. Thats the fact and most people really don't appreciate what an enormous power that is. People tend to tell me that this is who they are and that can't do something . And i wonder why they worry so much because if you absolutely had to do that then ofcourse you would. On the other end of the spectrum there are people who say that they can't sit still in a room and always have to be out and about. I feel like telling them to keep going and drawing lines and boundaries on their character so that they'll never venture beyond those silly assumptions.Sad.
Companies already inherently understand that they better adapt. If they keep running based on their assumptions of what they are then they end up taking those assumptions to the grave. Adapt or die simply means that either shatter your assumptions of yourself jump off the cliff and soar or simply wait to get pushed off and plummet.
So many of my friends have gone abroad and adapted to life there, accepted the cultures and way of living and found a way to handle it. They have no prior experience of living abroad and i'm sure it must have been a bit daunting to consider but the fact is that when you have to , you will.
Some people go through traumatic and heart wrenching breakups, a time when you wonder why everything goes to hell so easily and whether it's all worth it.The fact is that life has changed and has shattered and most people inherently adapt and spit fire and cry blood but they find a way to get back on their feet and dust off the dirt and start again.
I hope most people (me included) check their assumptions of themselves once in a while and consider really whether any of those matter so much. What i found is that if you have a purpose about you and a something your chasing then what life throws at you and where it puts you and what it asks of you isn't so difficult to handle .
Written on Tuesday, January 01, 2008 by Rohan Koshy
Happy new Year everyone!!
2007 is over and it's been a really eventful year.
Overall I've been very happy with what has transpired this past year.
It wasn't a great year but one event overshadowed all the rest and made it a really good one
A new year gives us all the opportunity to make a new start and more importantly to give us a chance to undo the past.
This year more than other is a year of focus and silent determination for me.Last year even though i faltered in most aspects of what i wanted to achieve i had the massive good fortune of sorting out my personal life.
So this year i have only one resolution
1. Don't repeat the mistakes of the past.
I know all the mistakes I've made in the past and how much it has cost me in terms of the future. At present there is no loss from those mistakes but I've realised that real loss lies in terms of the losses in the potential future that lies before you.
Don't do the same things again this year. If i can manage that, i know that i may not achieve what my final goals are but I'll definitely be on the right road and that, more now so than ever, is what matters
Here's Wishing you all a purposeful 2008
God Bless
Rohan
Written on Sunday, November 04, 2007 by Rohan Koshy
Love isn't Blind, it just needs glasses.
The ups and downs, the rights and wrongs,
The Gut wrenching lows followed by the euphoric highs,
Love is Love for all it's reasons
The One thats really makes it stick,
Is that end, after all that's said and done
It's all worth it.
Written on Monday, September 17, 2007 by Rohan Koshy
Are you tired? Stressed and stretched ? I didn't realise that everyone has managed to catch this very same boat. Fatigue is simply the no 1 reason why people feel so damn pissed with life.24 Hours are just not enough anymore are they? You have to be superhuman, and basically in six places at the same time. Better give it everything at work so that you don't get a reputation of a slacker. Just remember to get off work early enough so that you can go and meet your friends for dinner before you go off to party with some OTHER friends. Just remember to be everything to everyone. Just remember to forget about what you really want.
One of the reasons we're so tired is that we absolutely HAVE to have an opinion about everyone. I'm starting to realise how much of a strain this ends up being. Try to recognise a situation when you sit at the food court. You see many of the same faces everyday. Every time you see someone you make a thousand perceptions? Is he/she better looking. is he/she a good dresser, is he/she noticing me, and if so am i happy about that?. Now think of the strain when you do it for 200 people EVERYDAY.
Competition is something that really tires you out. Everyone knows that. The problem of competition isn't as simple as it seems but it has an underlying Genesis in the generation of "will". This generation has been taught you can achieve anything if you try hard enough. "Will" has replaced "faith" which was the buzzword of the last generation. The whole problem with "will" is that it makes a mockery of your intelligence and your emotions. Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't try hard enough but the problem is that when your told you can achieve anything you want like this your likely to try so hard that you can never rest peacefully.You work harder and harder and harder because your "will" will win in the end. It's something like this. Take your axe. Spend every second of your life sharpening the hell out of it and then keep chopping off trees.
At the end of all the hacking and chopping you'll realise that your in the WRONG forest. So what's happening is that you have all this super-intensive daily routines which are meant to achieve all your goals. Ill give you a perfect example of this super intensiveness : Work hard, Party harder. The know-it all , do-it all generation. Competition creates a sense of urgency , a feeling that makes you tense every second of the day when your not working. Your muscles are tense and your Will is so strong that your trying to achieve it all at whatever the cost. Fortunately our bodies and minds are not meant to function that way. That's why you can't keep to so many time tables. Eventually you fall off the competition bandwagon. The problem is that people start feeling worse because EVERYONE else is WINNING. So your losing. Win or Lose.This produces frayed nerves, intense will , broken dreams and shattered happiness. This is the religion of success that everyone follows now.Basically this religion demands that half way down the birth canal you better put on your Nike shoes and your Ipod and get ready to RUN.As fast you can, even if you don't know where your going.
So it's time to change the religion.
Use your head. Do what makes you happy and don't escape reality.
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Running against yourself
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Written on Friday, August 31, 2007 by Rohan Koshy
Life is Beautiful. God Bless.
Written on Monday, August 20, 2007 by Rohan Koshy
Crossroads and Certainty. That's what we all wish for. When you come to a point where a major decision you wish you had the certainty so that what you need to do is so clear that's it's not really even a choice.We've all come to these points quite a few times in the recent past. In college the cushion of security allows us to not worry about ourselves and just enjoy ourselves. In the real world, and i mean the real world is not in college, your out in the open,There are no visible rules, there is very little fairness and the non-linearity is absolute. In the past year i have had major breaking points.
The beauty of a breaking point is that it's always unexpected, a point where a decision made or NOT made can have massive consequences. If you believe there are no second chances at these points, then the weight of these decisions becomes apparent to you.I find that in life, you cant go back and do things again to make them right. I wish i had realised this in college. I guess it's called experience.
Recently i watched roger federer playing in the wimbledon finals going for a record equalling 5th title.Rafael nadal was actually playing better than him and i thought he was going to beat him.I realised that for federer it was maybe the biggest breaking point so far. At the end of the 4th set, nadal had all the momentum and all the pace.If it continued then federer would lose and with it would go the chance of equalling the record and more importantly having the chance to surpass.The only man in history.This is a breaking point. If you don't do the right thing here, there's no second chance.EVER.He came through.Wrote his place in history.With the speed of life we run at, every second counts.
Unfortunately for the last one year i have seen that the significance of these points are lost to some. If you use the same thought process for these decisions as the one you use to choose your toothpaste, you'll wonder why "fate" has smacked you in the face.Quantum levels jumps in your life occur only sometimes, but when they do, there's no going back.Do u stay in a job or quit. Do u continue in a relationship despite the hurt just holding on to your faith. Do you get into one hoping it all works out?.Where do you go from here?Inside. That's where we go for help.The internal compass.That's the guide that's unique to each one of us.I think somewhere deep down each one of us realises that only we can make decisions for ourselves. We've started to realise that if you're not sure of of where to go, you're truly lost and time is running at an awesome pace and there's almost no way to go back.I'm now averse to taking advice from people because i realise that only i know truly what i want.We go inside. Breaking point to quantum leap.
Written on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 by Rohan Koshy
Who are the real producers in the world? Who are the ones who drive the world? Who are the individuals who are pulling all of us forward? Answer : -The one’s who work and don’t talk to much. However they’re not in ‘ fashion’ today. Oh no they aren’t what WE want anymore.
These days how you say it and who you say it to are really more important than What you’re saying. So what we have now is an age where you have a few pulling many. The age where there are more pretenders than producers.
Recently I sat in on a soft skills session at work. Soft skills are the skills that you develop so that you can communicate more EFFECTIVELY. Ironically I found that many, no, most of the people there already knew all the ‘flash’ words that you’re supposed to know. ‘Active listening’, assertiveness and all that jazz. However the real change I saw in people at the end of that session was practically zero. In what was one really funny scene, a guy who has no patience and never listens to anyone and is so hard headed and set in his ways went on to talk about active listening. After listening to the hypocrisy I observed that he promptly went on boss over everyone else and did absolutely zero ‘active listening’ and proceeded to ruin the whole exercise.
This is the feature of times we live in. We know all the words. Be open, be positive, think out of the box, I think therefore I am. Those are just a few of the lines that spew from the mouths from just everyone. In the age of Internet and non-existent information borders everyone knows everything. It’s so sad to observe that all they are are words now. Nothing else. Maybe that’s why I almost cant watch anything on TV anymore. I prefer to watch all the fiction programming than the shows which are interviews with your film and sports stars. Take the case with music. I mean at some point you have to get bored with all those rappers who think they’re the best thing since sliced bread. You have money and you have 15 girls and huge mansions. We get it. But every song is about their ‘Bling’. You DON’T have class. I like rap but I don’t like most of those rappers. Even modern rock is all about rock bands crying about how they didn’t get love from their parents and how their girlfriends cheated on them and how their god’s greatest gift to us. That’s why you gotta love the old bands like Floyd and dire straits.
Marketing is absolutely the best example of all this. All flash and cash. Marketing is so far away from reality that it can get you to dream that you can become someone who looks like brad Pitt and think like Einstein. Every ad ends with the guy using the product and getting not one , but usually two girls to like him. Fantastic. Focus on everything that will not make you good at what you do.
When you go to a mall, do you ever get the feeling that everybody looks the same now? I mean we all wear the same clothes. Because everyone is wearing what’s ‘in’ this season, ironically they ALL look the same.
Even when i read blogs you notice people using poetic language to describe some very plain vanilla incidence. So a simple post turns into some sort of Shakespearean sonnet describing everything about the weather, the stars , the trees, birds and pollution levels of the place where the incident happened. It's all so wordy.
In the past, you were known by what you did not what you said. Then of course people got bored of it because there was no flash, no panache, no hype marketing behind it. It was not good to ‘look’ at. So now everyone is great at the presentation, the face.
But look under the surface and you’ll notice that the principles have not changed. The ones who produce, the ones who do, the ones who are working away not talking are the ones driving us forward. These are the ones I have to respect the most. Ironically these are the people who get paid the most. And most people wonder why. This is why the roger federers, sachin tendulkars and steven speilbergs of the world earn astronomical amounts.
I must admit that I belong to wrong side of this equation. For the longest time I used to love the people who could talk well and talk a lot. So I was like that too. All fart and no shit :P. But now I find an increasing affinity to the ones that don’t talk so much, the ones that don’t crib so much (everyone cribs a little, that’s OK ) but just are focused. These are the Go-to people. The ones who you talk to when you need to get something done. Always busy, they just have no time to waste. Especially at work I notice that in a team of 20 there will be 3 or 4 people who are relied upon all the time while the rest are just managing to get by. I like the technical people now, because they run things, they don’t talk. They actually walk the talk.
This is the age where how well you talk and how well you present yourself is of utmost importance. How you say it is now more important than what you say. The age of presentation. The age of Talk.
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Superficialism
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Written on Monday, July 30, 2007 by Rohan Koshy
Today was a frustrating day. You get these days where everything seems like a struggle. The sort of days where doing anything seems to take all your energy from you. I started to realise that this sort of friction is something that we just don't expect to have in our lives. You're basically hard wired to function so that what you really expect is that things will go to plan. This ofcourse is a fallacy, one i think most everyone including me struggles to accept in their lives. I mean this really is how we progress.
Nothing really goes to plan. You're always making adjustments to your plans. As someone once said "Planning is invaluable, but plans are useless". I agree with that statement. I don't know why but for us, the struggle with which we get things done is the norm of life, not the exception. Yet we continue all our lives to expect that things will pan out smoothly
Planning an evening with friends is an experience in frustration .So is getting all the paperwork in order for any sorta admission. It's like everything takes work. But we are forever struggling with inertia. The inertia that forms a dull thud in the back of your mind, saying that dont work so damn hard, sleep for ten minutes more, there is time before you need to leave.
I find it really funny that we seem to be continously fighting the urge to just rest, to sit and relax. Now everytime your mind says to chill, you have to fight it and say no!. This i hope doesnt continue for the rest of my life because maybe that's what self mastery is all about.
Life is an obstacle race. There are absolutely no straight, paved roads. It's filled with u-turns and potholes. Come to think of it, all human progress is like that. Two steps forward, one step back. You get a nelson mandela, and you get a world war too. Our progress is written in blood, over and over again. We cant follow the brain, we actually follow our hearts. We acknowledge this but never admit to the extent of it's truth. This is ironically part of the source of progress and the friction inhibiting it.
Life isn't perfect. NOT.EVER. This is just how it is. There's never enough time in a day, you never really feel comfortable with your body, you don't like the your level of competence. There's always a better job, always a way to earn more money, someone who looks better than you better clothes, bigger car, a better life.
STOP.
Written on Friday, July 27, 2007 by Rohan Koshy
It's happened again. Just like that i've lost someone. You were here and now your gone. You will be missed my friend. Rest in Peace :((
Posted in
Enough Already
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Written on Friday, July 20, 2007 by Rohan Koshy
We truly are the luckiest generation of Indians so far. I mean there are no boundaries and no limits to what we can do now. The geographies have all faded. The world truly is flat ( and no I'm not saying it because it's the slogan at my workplace)
The other day i happened to eavesdrop on a very lovely conversation on the way the changes in the world have now impacted the Indian culture. The guy basically was saying that Indian culture has now been degraded because of the influence of the effects of globalization.
I don't completely disagree with that statement, but i think a bigger issue now presents itself. Global culture. This word i think captures it now. We no longer live in a time where our cultures are distinct.
That may have been ten or fifteen years ago but not anymore.
The cultures are now blurred and a little indistinct. That's not to say that they have lost their originality, because that's the selling point isn't it? That's what's attracts the people from other cultures to us and us to them
Global culture really means that we now have a culture that's cannot just be defined just as pure Indian culture. It's a bit more than that.We're listening to global music.
The same music that debuts around the world is what we listen to. The fashion industry here is in tune with the rest of the world.We're listening to our ipod's, wearing our Nike's and listening to Greenday. This by the way is not american culture.
It's global. What happens in England, brazil or russia influences us just as much now.
We're implementing various Japanese technologies, using things like KAIZEN in our companies. My sister is learning Japanese and i know many people who already know Japanese.
Culture is spread very effectively through language and so we're imbibing all this culture from all around.
The Indian influence is now being felt everywhere. Hindi is everywhere. Bollywood is in the mainstream news all the time and expanding more and more. Yoga is in every country and every organisation now. And our culture spreads through these mediums to all the globe.
The cultures are now diffused. That's sounds good to me. Things like having faith in god, understanding and respecting people are now being mixed with the west's innovation driving, risk- tasking, easy going, partying culture. Add to it the far east's continuous improvement, zen culture and the like.
I haven't even mentioned the cultures from England and from south America and the middle east.
I am who i am. Global Citizen.
Posted in
Flat World Disruption
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Written on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 by Rohan Koshy
Captain (Dr.) Rajshree Gupta, Army Medical Corps (AMC), salutes the tricolour-draped coffin of her husband, Major Vivek Gupta of the 2nd Rajputana Rifles, who died fighting the enemies at kargil.
Thats how to handle what life throws at you with strength and dignity
Posted in
Courage
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Written on Tuesday, July 03, 2007 by Rohan Koshy
1. Figure out where your wanna go in life. Fast.Dont wait.
Frustration will grow if the actions you take are not coherent with the dreams you hold on to
2. People are different.
While that seems like a self-evident truth the impact of it is not visible until you actually live away from from home. Even though i'm not far away from home i now realise that not everyone is like me. There are fundamental differences in the way people think, act and in the things they believe. People from pune are not similar to people from other cities. Same goes for people from chennai and bangalore. This causes you to ironically be aware of what you like and what you want.I imagine this effect must be magnified for those not living in India now.
3. Life gets complicated after college.
Things arent simple any more. Why that is i'm not sure, but i'm sure it is so
4. Don't Trust people with everything you have until you've actually seen them go through a hard time or have been through one with them
I used to trust completely before, but unfortunately now i reserve my complete trust for only a select few. When the tough times come, people wilt, strong relationships shatter, and people choose to walk away rather than grit their teeth and get through it. Everyone really does seem to be in it only for themselves
5. Life isn't fair at all
What you deserve really is not too much bother to anyone else. Simply because they're busy wanting what they want. So you have to ask for what you want, and you have to grab for it.
6. The only exams you have to give are the ones you CHOOSE to give
While that should have been the norm from the start, now you only go the way you want to go. Nobody is forcing you to do anything with your life. Ironically it forces you to ask what you want and then go for it. I imagine thats how the system should have been designed in the first place.
7. Life is difficult but rewarding because your standing on the shoulders of giants.
Will explain when i write the next post.
8. Just because the coffee is free doesnt mean you have to drink tons of it. :-)
9. A vehicle is an absloute must!
10.The bed that you sleep on must be comfortable. Absolutely.
11. You CAN make extremely good friends even if you dont share common interests.
12. Many People in IT companies really have nothing to do except crib. And forward mails :P
13. When things fall apart they do so spectacularly.Life goes on. Run with it. Roll with the puches. Tomorrow is another day.
Posted in
Key Learnings
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Written on Thursday, June 28, 2007 by Rohan Koshy
I recieved this mail recently... It's been circulating around all the IT companies for a while now.
Have a read
I would like to express my transition from real freedom to assumed freedom. I am here talking about my transition from my college to the booming IT industry. I would like to pour my one year experience of the so called glamorous and fun filled IT industry.
We used to wander those spacious heat filled open grounds and dirty class rooms with just 50Rs. in pocket and plan the whole week with that budget. But now we wander along the well cleaned, fully air-conditioned corridors with about five to six credit cards in our pocket planning where to swipe the cards. Credit cards eagerly waiting to eat next month's salary. I can't believe that it was just one year before that the 50Rs. seemed to be lacks now, lacks seems to be nothing.
College canteen, Tea shops were the favorite hot spots where we spent hours together, having a hearty chat with our buddies forgetting the whole world. But now Cafe Day, Quickies, Baristas have taken those places. What a coffee cost 2.5Rs last year has now gone up to 50Rs a cup.
Those precious days where we used to laugh for nothing, while chatting or while playing or even when you fail in your paper because you have got 30 marks for a empty paper. But now you rarely smile except the smile for the forward you just received or the smile to your PM to impress him.
Hate ness and Ego were the words you haven't heard in those days. You smash or hit your friend for some reason and the next moment you walk along him with hands on his shoulders. But now you doesn't like the guy sitting beside you because he's getting a salary 10k greater that you or he's always being appreciated by your PM. True friends are hard to find here
In college if some one is talking badly about your college you can find your blood boiling inside even though you don't like your principal. But here loyalty is the lost word, whenever someone is talking badly about your company you join them to criticize your company. You join the company with the resignation day in the mind, is this loyalty. Don't mind I have also planned my resignation date.
You have seen the late nights only on the eve of the exam, where you rely on your friend to wake him/ her at night 1 or 2. And how can we forget those last minute tensions in exam, you remember that only just before entering the exam you find that you have forgotten to revise a important question that your friend suggested that it will surely appear on this exam. You rush back and flip those Xeroxed pages with tension. But today you work at least 2 days a week till 1 or 2 in the night to deliver something to your unknown client who is at US or UK. You are aimlessly typing at the useless word document that your PM asked you to finish with his tailor made smile. Loads of tension with calls from home, with your eye lids eager to kiss each other and you promise them to allow it a little later, cursing Bill Gates for inventing MSWord.
Writing all these to celebrate my first anniversary at this field. It seems I have been in my own desert where I have realized that I am moving from the warmth ness of the Oasis to chase a mirage. A mirage that promises a lot of thing, but still its just a mirage. When I turn back I can find thousands chasing that mirage with a ID card around their neck. I wish all the best for them.
I feel really sick reading these sorta mails. This is my response to that
1. You used to roam around with 50 bucks and you were happy. Now you have six credit cards and your not. Your blaming your job for that. It's called growing up. Get over it. And i dont have six credit cards. I dont even have one. No one asked you to get a credit card and if you got one, the try purchasing the brains to use it as well.
2. You had tea for 2.5 rs but it costs 50 at barista? So what . Go eat where you want. Nobody told you to go to barista just because you work in IT. It's called consumer choice.
3. You smiled once. You don't now. Awww.. your life is sad. If your job makes you so sad then quit. Everyone loved getting through exams by studying at the last minute. Unfortunately it works ONLY in college. So get over it.
4. Company gossip.... jesus.
5. You loved doing work only for one night in a semester. Now because you have to work more than once in a week you're complaining. In the real world people have to give it everything everyday to succeed, because if you dont then someone else WILL.
BALLS i hate this crap. Blame everyone else for your life..... culture
Posted in
Pettiness
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Written on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 by Rohan Koshy
Don't let your enthusiasm wane, a virtue as valuable as it is necessary; work, have aspirations, and shoot always for the moon... there where only the CHAMPIONS tread.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish
