Bill Gates, The man who is loved and hated equally among the tech world is retiring today after being as one of the most revered and respected face in the computing industry. A person without whose fore sightedness, a personal computer might not be where it is now. His tenure at Microsoft is no doubt an eventful era where he built the company from scratch to a household name it is now.

He is relinquishing his office today, 27th Jun’08 to pursue his passion for philanthropy with much more commitment and cause.

He is one of my childhood icons and always I used to admire him for his foresight and business acumen. People might blame him for his buggy windows. But, no other OS comes closer to windows when it comes to ease of usability and affordability.

Microsoft derives most of the business from implementing Bill Gates ideas and thoughts. His basic idea of making a personal computer a center of productivity is still in vogue.

What started basically as a operating system company moved into every other Domain like Internet tools, Server space and office productivity software. Microsoft is also instrumental in the process, of creating an industry that thrived on developing third party applications for Windows Operating systems. He is instrumental is moving over from mainframe era, minicomputer era to personal computing era.

His business mind and acument is clearly visible by observing the way Microsoft works with partners where they drive the business by enabling them to manufacture the hardware that runs Microsoft’s software, vis-a-vis Apple Computers strategy of having control on everything right from the screw that holds to box to the software that runs the box.

Bill G’s position will basically be filled with two able people Ray Ozzie and Jeff Raikes. Hope Post Bill, Microsoft continues its leadership position as it was when he was at helm.

Finally the most aspired gadget is going to debut in India through Vodafone and there are many people including me who is looking forward to get my hands on it. It was always on my wishlist when I was in US. But, the cost and the fear of turning it a brick in case I want to use it in India desisted me from buying it.

Good part is that the phone that is going to be debuted is a 3G one and not the old 2G version. Though, I doubt how far the 3G technology will be useful. As far as I am aware, none of the Indian cell service providers have 3G capable network yet.

Coming to the price, Vodafone will surely price it closer to bomb. They want to catch on the fever and the marketing tells their intentions. No price mentioned but pre-bookings started.

I doubt how many prospective buyers in India will be aware of all those features available on iPhone. Most of them will be buying just to show off their status rather than for its features. If the price is going to be more than Rs 15K, I am going to buy a dash instead of IPhone. I am a Value For Money Buyer rather than a fancy monger. Hope Airtel will also come out with its offer and the competition will bring the price low for more affordability.

 

I thought of posting something from last 15 days. Better late than never.

It pained me a lot observing how just a demand to be recognized as backward by Gujjar community in one part of this country is pushing them to put the other citizens of country to trouble.

Very recently the highest civilian court questioned the goverment the basic essence of continuing reservations even beyond the stipulated time as mentioned during the formation of republic of India. It also expressed its alarm the way more and more castes are being classified as backward. Does this mean, we are becoming a backward nation? to put the exact words what the honourable court said, “nowhere in the world do castes, classes or communities queue up for the sake of gaining backward status“.

Even in my own state, Andhra Pradesh, a major caste is demanding themselves to be classified as backward class. Where is this leading to? why dont we have 100% reservation instead of letting the majority who are poor deprived of chance just because they belong to a forward class? Dont we a chance for a intelligent poor brahmin boy fortunate enough to get admission to a good business school based on his academics? why should he be giving way to a person who is a son of a collector but belongs to a reserved category based on the caste he was born? is this not descrimination? yes, a blatant abuse of what is prescribed in constitution.

Why dont our politicians think out of box and just allow the poor ( not based on caste, just based on their economic situation) to have reservations? why should people fight to be classified as backward? something is wrong, when we ourselves claim to be moving forward from developing country to developed country, why are some sections asking for backward tag? definetely there is a flaw in the thinking or the system.

Every politician who claim themselves to be messiah of the scheduled castes and backward classes claim to be a big follower of Dr B R Ambedkar. They think that they are implementing what Dr Ambedkar set in the constitution. But, his intention is to dissolve the caste barriers in the country by stipulating reservations for a limited amount of time from independence so that a generation of the backward class can get himself economically stronger there by lifting others in his family.

Due to our corrupt politicians who mostly are uneducated and are in the business of politics to make money which requires them to play people against people. This made the basic need of reservation as suggested by Dr Ambedkar to be mis-used and has widened the cracks in the society by pitching one caste against the other. Gujjars are demanding that they be included in STs because they want to prove a point and dont want to loose over Jats who are seen as the other dominant caste in Rajasthan. The Jats, a major north Indian community of peasants was given a OBC status by BJP govt to win over the vote bank. The fallout was that the Gujjar members of the list felt aggrieved because they had to share the limited number of jobs meant for the OBCs. On the other hand, the Meena’s who are classified as STs are opposing the inclusion of Gujjars as STs as it eats up their quota.

There should not be a small doubt who might be behind this. Obviously congress party want to prove a point when elections are nearby so that they can put the BJP government in dock.

I am hoping that time will come when people will realise that politicians are using them as paws for their own interests and wish they will revolt against reservations.

Before ending, I want to quote Nehru.

the only real way to help a backward group is to give opportunities for good education … Everything else is provision of some kind of crutches which do not add to the strength or health of the body

Read Nehru’s letter written to CMs opposing reservations here

Jai Hind

With the recent win of BJP in Karnataka elections, it is evident what the dance of democracy can do to politicians who take the power that people bestowed on them for granted. Humiliated Gowda should learn a lesson from this defeat.

In the recent past of Karnataka, people have seen all the reasons why politics is a hatred word for the ethic loving people. Gowda’s antics of supporting congress to stop BJP just because of so called communal tag attached to it and His over action of opposing his son who aligned with BJP for power and later betrayal are the biggest drama played on the stage of Karnataka politics. I cant stop laughing when the castiest Gowda talks about communal politics. As far as I can remember Deve Gowda is one of the worst PMs we have seen in this country. The image of a sleeping PM was a common site during his tenure.

Congress on the other hand lost one of the only two significant states it used to be in power in South India. This defeat comes as another one in the series of states where it lost elections in recent past. The most worrying factor for Congress party should be the establishment of BJP as a force to deal it to the south of Vindhyas. BJP which was always seen as the party that belong to COW belt ( Bihar, MP, UP, Gujarat, Rajastan, HP states) made a grand entry into the non-hindi speaking state of Karnataka. BJP got a big shot in the arm to continue this momentum when people in the states it rules currently are coming up for elections in less than a year time.

Post election, while BJP is basking in the glory of forming its own first ever government ( 10 days of earlier rule is a coalition govt), JD(S) and Congress are yet to learn the lessons from defeat.

The Congress still want to insulate PM and Sonia from any of the critics. Madam always can do no wrong. PM is always not interested in politics of blame. Its local politics, blame it on everyone to anyone for self defeat. S.M Krishna and Kapil Sibal should be commended though for acknowledging a better run campaign by BJP. All credit goes to Arun Jaitley the master manager.

Hope the people of Karnataka can see some development happening this time.

India along with China is witnessing the unprecedented economic boom fuelled by their educated and aspiring middle class. The aspirations of middle class are adding to more chaos than prosperity. One of the major concern that is happening in India (Never been to China- So, no comments on the situation there) is the lack of traffic sense by motorists coupled with the lack of planning by government agencies.

With the recent boom in opportunities and the burgeoning middle class incomes, there are more people who can afford private transport which means more vehicles on road. This increase in number of vehicles is pushing the already bad infrastructure to its limits. India is a place where encroachments are the order of the day and are taken by the vigilance authorities with a pinch of a salt. Most of the second level politicians make money by encroaching upon government land and selling it up to innocent people.

Most of the encroachments are either next to road by expanding the building beyond the approved layout or on the river banks eating into the catchment areas. The area where I live, Nizampet road in Hyderabad is a classic example of poor planning and bad civic sense. This is one area in Hyderabad which benefitted (??) due to the economic boom. When I bought my apartment couple of years back, there is almost nothing beyond our apartment. But, now this place is famous for all sorts of mad construction activity with tippers and ready concrete mixers pushing others on the road to occupy space for themselves. The road in Nizampet is hardly 50 ft wide and both the oncoming and outgoing traffic flows through this narrow stretch. Driving in this narrow stretch is a night mare.

When the going is so tough for vehicles, the same road needs to be shared for people who want to walk. If any thought of walking comes to mind, it is better to kill the thought than to dare the traffic. People here care a damn about the pedestrians. There is hardly any space earmarked for pedestrians. We need to be very careful while walking as a wrong step will land us under the wheels of the vehicle which will zoom past us with hardly inches of space separation. The footpaths if they ever are provided are occupied by the push cart vendors who sell everything from vegetables to cheap Chinese toys for kids. This is sharing the road along with the traffic and walking to the side. The toughest task is to cross the road to reach to the other side. You need to pray to almighty at least for few seconds requesting god to make sure that a motorist who is in hurry will not kiss you with his vehicle. This adds a headache to the motorist too as the people who cross the road are unmindful of the traffic will make way for themselves and might be a big hindrance for smooth flow of traffic.

Why don’t our city planners have a dedicated footpath as in advanced countries and punish those who are occupying the space? The strange part is the areas where the rich and affluent lives. Places like Banjara and Jubilee hills are having a well laid out footpaths and the officials are very good in evicting the encroachments of the same as the people from politician class and the IAS officials live there.

We are the second most populous country and we will have more people walking. When the balance of urban to rural population is shifting towards the former with more people coming from villages to cities in search of better prospects, it is high time we start thinking about giving space to people who want to walk instead of ride.

 

 

 

Another bomb blast, another Indian city, another set of innocent people killed for no wrong of theirs…whom to blame?? our government for thinking terrorism is a sensitive issue to tackle for vote banks? security forces for not being stern on their intelligence warnings? It has not been even 6 months since we had a last bomb blast in our country in Varnasi court complex…another one again…terrorists are having a very good timeline for letting the govt know that they are alive. No Doubt, the blasts have exposed the vulnerability of cities and its citizens, and the failure of intelligence

Looks like India is getting used to bomb blasts like Israel. But, Isreal is dealing with a much stronger enemy than India and they wont mind acting directly against any country using force when it comes to save their own people

Our favourite past time is to blame Pakistan for all the evil that happens, constitute a committee to look into the issue..

High time government does something before the news repeats with another city next time.

We Indians are very good at forgeting things and the past. We dont care for people who are killed neither we care for the security of those people who are alive.

May all the souls who died rest in peace and sympathies to all the families who lost their near and dear ones

India is a country that is thriving to get out of the “developing” tag to “developed” tag. But old habits die hard. Unless we make sure we have the basic civic sense to live and let others live in this god’s (??) country, I doubt if we can get ourselves called as civilized society.

This weekend I have been to Secunderabad Railway station to pick up my folks coming from our native (another favorite past time of India, will cover it in another post later on), I was there on time, but the train that brings them is late by a good 2 hours. I tried to make myself comfortable by buying a newspaper and looking for a place to sit. Here starts my tough time. All the places are decorated by artistic decorations (phew, should I call them pan stains??). Not giving up, I tried at least 20 places unsuccessfully expecting one or the other to be stain free. I ended my exploration on a neatly mowed grass lawn. But Alas, the guy who sat next to me made me to pardon goddess EARTH for my fellow Indians spewing on the face of her. You know what he done, he just spitting continuously next to me (hardly 1 foot apart) churning out saliva from his mouth just like a soap factory churns out soap from the conveyor belt…

When questioned, he put a strange face that read as if “Care a damn”…yes, I do care..

I have seen folks in western countries do this too..but, never seen this where generations after generations continue this as if it is their culture to SPIT…There are umpteen laws asking us to keep our city clean and also fining for littering and spitting. It’s not laws that we need to prevent people from not doing all these things. They hardly make a difference. It is attitude and realization among the citizens that such an act is not worthy of being called as a civilized one. Sadly I just can’t think of a better way to let a person know that it’s a bad thing, than to tell him on face…

God, please make this country for you and us a better place to live…Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

Its have been ages since I blogged last time. I’ve had an unintentional blogging sabbatical! Feeling uninspired, I didn’t feel the need to post. But from now on, I wish to keep this a regular thing to blog.

A lot of things happened in my life from the time I wrote my last post .

I moved back to India from US and now enjoying the life back in India. Work wise, I am kind of spending more time in Office but personally I am happy to be back in my own country and also near to my folks.

My kid who returned to her country with some kind of knowledge is happy with the kind of attention she is getting from all the grannies, grandpa’s, uncles and aunts.

I will make this blog more active by giving my views of life in India with my experiences.

Lured by the summer offer of airtel and the prospect of getting more minutes per dollar, I went ahead to recharge my airtel account( this being my very bad experience with airtel earlier) this weekend. On saturday, I tried to access www.airtelcallhome.com, I am greeted with a “this site is under maintenance message”. This stayed for 2 days. I thought, that the site is going to be fixed of all the errors it is blamed for and now I can trust Airtel as good as Reliance. But, it took be just 10 mins to realize that the site is more buggy than ever. Please read my horror story

 I tried to click on ”recharge my account” and I got a error page. Wary of recharging over internet, I called the customer service and I am promised that the site is still in updating mode and it will take 24 hours for the issues to be fixed. I logged on the next day to try my luck. This time, as promised the site is up and I am able to feed in my credit card details and clicked “Recharge” now. I am just kept on the page for more than 10 mins before greeted with the message saying that ” error in processing, account not recharged” or something like that.  I checked my account details to see that my account is still showing my old balance. To be sure, I checked online statement of my credit card only to find that Bharti Airtel actually blocked $50 against my purchase.

Bharti customer service people told me that they never received the money and hence there is a problem in processing. When I called my credit card customer service they are telling me that the money is blocked for the merchant and it is theirs now. Which means, that my $50 is gone. Even today, I can see that I am billed for the same by Bharti Airtel.

I feel Airtel site is a big scam. When they are claiming themselves as the BEST, they should actually test the system against their own money before playing with peoples money. I request all to let me know how I can complain agains these people.

Microsoft today announced to the world a new arrow in its arsenal. It is the all in one communication management software called ‘Response Point’. Supported by its OEM vendors, Microsoft claims that this will radically improve the way small business looks at its telephone system.  The following are the advantages that they claim from their website.

1. Got a LAN, you can have a neat telephone system with a minimal cost 
2. Need to call someone, no need to press any key, talk to the phone and you are connected..same to check voice mail and dial any external number
3. Need to dial an extension?…know the name of the preson you are dialling, just tell the phone the name..it will connect you ( virtual receptionist?)
4. Want to call directly from your outlook?…well they provide that
5. Moving to new location, take your phone and plug it in, tell the administrator and you are ready for using your phone in few mins…
6. Worried about new extensions, there is a anwer there too…:

Find more @ http://www.microsoft.com/responsepoint/default.mspx

It is looking like Microsoft is flexing its muscles for taking a integrated approach to small business needs.