A father grumbled to his two young boys as he reluctantly put on his tuxedo: “Other kids make their mothers too tired to go out nights. What’s wrong with you two?!”
March 30, 2010
March 29, 2010
Good food
Why is it that restaurants advertise that their food is as good as home cooked food while one of the best way to compliment someone’s cooking is to say “its better than what is served in a Restaurant”
All this makes me wonder what is the definition of good food
March 28, 2010
Tractor vs Bus
Recently I had a debate with a friend over what is good for the society multipurpose machines or vehicles or efficient specialized machines and vehicles?
My friend’s assertion was that society is better off if we use experts, specialists, machines and equipment. 1 bus for commuting, 1 truck for transport, 1 tracker for ploughing the fields would consume less fuel, time, give more comfort and be less costly for the society than having 4 tractors doing all the above purposes. A tractor is a multipurpose vehicle which can do almost anything under the sun, but that does not mean that it should be regularly used to do it. After all its common sense that the wheels designed to function in mud and fields would consume more fuel on tarred roads.
My assertion was that there are 2 costs associated with any machine Capex and Opex. It is well known that most agricultural families might have needs that require them to work in the fields, transport produce and passengers. However they might not have the financial means to own 3 different vehicles for these specialized tasks. Also even if they can, they won’t be able to fully utilize them and hence making it expensive for the society.
For Opex, one has to take a leaf from the Queuing Theory. Multipurpose vehicles can adapt to the needs of the day. They can be deployed on the fields on one day, as trucks on another and as busses on the third. This way there will not be shortage in any of these varied areas and hence the rental that a farmer has to pay for these equipments would also be manageable. Finally the cost to the society is rental + operating cost. End of the day it’s the economics that guide these decisions in life. As long as village economy feels that their needs are not so large to justify specialist vehicles they won’t have one.
The debate could not be conclusive because soon we drifted to the professional services space. We questioned that for a company/team/project is it better to hire generalist or specialist. When is the tussle between expertise and flexibility which of the two should be given precedence.
Hence I am writing this post to ask for opinion from the readers.
March 27, 2010
Crisis vs Bankruptcy
A very proud moment had been when the Asian Tiger crisis of 1997 had no impact on India. Now even in this sub-prime crisis, when people were having Doomsday prophecy, India continues to grow by leaps and bounds. However recently I have started questioning Indian policies and whether the country is better/worse off due to them.
I have had the fortune to visit Europe during the sub-prime crisis and 3 countries in SE Asia after the Asian Crisis. People were unanimous that times are bad and they are poorer than what they earlier were. However they were not poor, the infrastructure is better than what is found in India, people have better skills and spirit. Hence no wonder within a few years of recession, it’s going to be prosperity and business as usual.
On the other hand, India in 1947 was economically better off than Japan, Europe or any country in the SE Asia. Over the years these countries witnessed several cycles of boom and recession while India has had nearly 7 decades of stagnation where the people were deprived of a decent standard of living.
Failure is the cost of dreaming and the recession is the cost of progress and development. Its high time that our policy makers realize that. “I have never met a rich guy who hasn’t lost a dollar, but have met several poor people who have never lost even a dime” – Rich Dad Poor Dad.
March 26, 2010
Why I do not use sms
I am not technologically challenged, but still I refuse to communicate via sms. My reasons are simple:
1. It takes a lot of time to type a sms, in caparison a simple short telephone call is more effective both in terms of time and money.
2. Then to have a meaningful conversation, one has to send sms back and forth. A phone call on the other hand is a 2 way medium where you get the acknowledgement of the message as well as its feedback immediately.
3. A stream of poorly framed text without any good punctuation or spelling can never represent me correctly. Tone, voice modulation, pauses, decibel level etc. say a lot the feelings of the speaker and how well it’s received and is missed by the emotionless sms. Chances of being misinterpreted are also higher on sms.
4. My email box has advanced spam filter which saves me from the agony of sifting through spam. SMS does not filter out all the advertisements or stupid jokes and forwards that seem to clutter my phone.
5. I believe that in life somebody or the other is constantly judging. Nobody gets impressed by a good sms, but a well drafted mail or a professional phone call can.
All said and done, I do sometimes use sms to pass forward postal address or telephones.
March 25, 2010
Bajaj Water Heater: My biggest mistake
We bought a water heater from Bajaj 1.5 years ago and I could not be more dissatisfied. Over the course of 2 winters the water heater has been out of service 2 times. Each time it takes at least 1 week of constant nagging before any of their service representatives even examines the equipment. Then now for over 10 days the water heater has been sitting in their workshop and they have not cared to repair it or keep us abreast with the updates.
Bajaj is one of the country’s largest industrial houses and has expertise in selling overpriced products made from obsolete technology and shabby workmanship. After all how hard can it be to make a water heater? Even if you look at its main industry, Bajaj scooter was made from stolen technology and has been responsible for several thousand of the road accidents. The reason being that the scooter was lopsided, i.e. its entire engine weight was on one side. Net result is that if you brake hard it will turn twist and maim the rider. Its flagship product autorickshaw/tri-wheeler is another example of outdated obsolete technology. It vibrates more than the vibrators, has so little power that one can walk faster and hence it is responsible for bulk of the traffic congestion and air pollution on Indian streets. No wonder South Mumbai and other cities have started banning/restricting their movement.
I cannot think of any reason why this business house survives or why anybody would want to buy its products.
Ankur Aggarwal
sree
Sandip Chaudhuri
vbr
Skabeesh
shobhendrasrivastava
