Eye for detail

One of the things that I have struggled with a lot is my penchant to make silly errors, overlook mistakes, leave threads hanging

Also, I have been doing it for so long, it has become sort of an accepted side product of my work. However, it is too big a problem to be ignored and must be rectified -

I have thought about this a few times, on potential reasons, why it happens, what can be done etc etc

Potential Reasons - 

• Too much focus on form factor - on how the output should look, framing etc and less focus on the actual content - the key arguments being made
• Organization and structure  - The less organized I am, the more chances of error there are, the less structure I put in the the process of working, the  more chances there are that I depend on recall basis to get the work done. Surely quite unproductive
• Intellectual laziness- maybe related - but the unstructured and unorganized thought process means that I am trying to close a thread in a bit of hurry, more often than not in context of an external stimuli
• Distraction - Just too many open threads makes it easier to rationalize to move from one task to another

Given the same, here are the following things i can do that can help on immediate and long term basis

1. Have a to do list - keep at it. Spend half an hour on it first thing in the morning and keep at it
2. Have a process - ie if I am reviewing a report - have a process on the key aspects that I want to review - even better - share the expectations beforehand with the preparer. Similarly, if reviewing charts and graphs - 
3. Arrive at similar process / structure/ checklists SOPs for other tasks such as Reviewing of RFPs (checklist), Development of a note, A&M, CVs, Credential checks etc. Use ChatGPT to arrive at potential ways to review
4. Be more organized - Have organized folders, have organized to dos, have organized calendar, have organized communication
5. Read atomic habits - a lot of these things are not to be improved through a one time process, but needs a sustained effort which needs to be built through habits

I would work on the above. Will see if this improves my self perception

Ciao

The Debate Starts

This is what i wrote a few years ago at the start of IPL1

Also on a serious track, some of the celebrations was off putting for me, its alright for Shahrukh to cheer McCullum  hitting Zaheer as he is the owner, but the odd thing was that nobody mentions the odd bit of shifting loyalty and the transition. Its as if the official policy of the BCCI to not to comment on the contradiction and just hope that by pretending that strong city loyalties exist and behaving as such will make the crowd see it that way. Well I am not convinced and find it difficult to accept that i will ever cheer Zaheer getting hit for a six by McCullum

Revisiting the inherent contradiction at the start of the IPL - Whether you can support an Indian batsman getting out to a foreign player.

At the start of IPL, it was obvious that national team weight overpowers the city based loyalty. But i suppose there must be a few supporters who have crossed the rubicon. Also, I suppose, the fandom would have regressed owing to this being a post world cup tournament.

However, with trend towards fragmented viewership of sports, i think the gap will close over the next few years

Need Theory Stage 5

" You know, it’s kinda hard just to get along today
Our subject isn’t cool, but he fakes it anyway
He may not have a clue and he may not have style
But everything he lacks, well, he makes up in denial"

~ Offspring

Client Engagement of the Other Kind

This blog post has strange origin. I am sitting in my organisation's training room, trying not to talk with the person sitting next to me. In this training exercise, my team is competing against two other teams.

The team currently presenting has lifted one of my ideas. Things are not looking good considering the quality of their presentation. Also i must admit that I have to work more on my team dynamic skills. Everyone in my team has to be amenable to me and my whims, otherwise i start showing hostility or divisive behaviour and i really think that i am above all this. So it becomes a little disappointing. Even this behaviour may have worked except that, I dont really want to work or take responsibility but want people to show respect to all my ideas and anyway i will throw in a few arbit ideas as a joke.

Overall the whole exercise has been good. Met a couple of reallly nice people, conceptualised a couple of ideas about client engagement. Ofcourse met old cal friends too. gives u that warm feeling in that heart..replicated only by..

Team A has in the meanwhile managed to crack the case. Our team doesn't stands a chance. feeling slightly disappointed that i am part of a losing team. Ofcourse HR, the part in which i was involved, we are much much ahead of the other teams but still it was finance and production that mattered and we will suck bigtime in those.

P.S.
Course we lost in the final standings. And ofcourse HR part was the best. But we could have handled things much better and we were clearly the worst and least prepared team.

Overall the training exercise gets a rating of Good

The State of the Media

The media, both electronic and print has been consistently attacked over the last few years for being biased, corrupt or both- sometimes credibly, sometimes less so.

Given the space, that media needs to have in a semi literate country like India, it is imperative that the media players to counter such trend and forcefully. Obviously, what is needed is a dose of professionalism. And that means a higher entry barrier at all levels. There are too many newspapers, and news channels. The industry as whole is working in a low quality, high volume equilibrium and it would be difficult to just add a dose of professionalism. So the stakeholders need to take some key steps

1. Journalists- Reporters: There needs to be a industry wide code of conduct for camera persons/ reporters. This should take care of norms for privacy, national security, source protection, source revelation, off the record/ on the records etc, evidence towards publishing a direct quote etc, norms for getting response from counter parties.

2. No of channels, newspapers: There needs to be a consolidation in terms of number of news channels and news papers. Ideally 5-6 nationally integrated media houses with local presence and diversification across print and electronics

3- Regulation of content: Self regulation never works. Governments cannot be trusted, so difficult to suggest a remedy for malafide reporting. However once the consolidation happens, maybe a couple of community led media watchdogs could be useful.

Lets see if some movement happens over the medium term on these lines. There is a need for a credible voice and if a media house succeeds, others may follow

2014....

Hmm, the new draft settings for the blogger looks good. I think they have integrated it with Google docs. Makes sense. Google plus integration has also happenend. Overall a positive development.

The year is off to a decent start. A couple of Newzealand players have scored fast centuries. There is soccer in the evening. Plus some chicken is being cooked.

Work wise also, a couple of threads are up in the air. Anyways, will start work tomorrow only.

In the world of public finance, there is distinct need for two of the recent trends to converge. e.g expenditure management and IFMIS reforms. I think the acceptance of ICT reforms is much higher within the government community. A way needs to be found out to emphasize benefits of expenditure reforms by introducing ICT reforms

Also, in this day and age, cash to accrual conversion is also a distinct possibility.

Also, the collaboration framework needs to be finalised

Getting Back to Work

Lately, I have increasingly realised the benefit of working regularly for 8 hours. The gains of efficient work is tremendous. I do have a lot of time at hand.

I do understand that I spend a lot of time reading blogs and on twitter and a bit on facebook. I should not except that I do read a fair number of Economics and Development blogs which is slightly work related.

Obviously the other time waster for me is Sports news sites and course Vibhash. (The dude is so vella).

So, It becomes relevantly imperative that I do become a bit more organized in my time management and wok in a more efficient manner

The Bucket List of Small Things

Read this insightful piece by Pritish Nandy. Its a small piece but the two resonating sentences are

That’s the problem with success. In fact, that’s the problem with our lives. We are always chasing The Big Dream. It’s only when you fulfil your larger than life ambitions that you realise how hollow they actually were.

and

But then nothing on your bucket list is ever big or small. It’s what you make of them. Life’s about choices. Most of us are so busy chasing our standard template dreams that we never notice the ones on the sideline. It’s only when you get back to your list or update it from time to time that you notice all the stuff you missed out on

I have sort of tried to follow what Mr Nady is saying here. Have not done enough i must say, still it is nice to see that people more experienced than me think the same way after giving it a bit of thought.

For example, i don't really want to spend a lot of time and effort getting the best car or a large house when many other things will be more enjoyable which are not strictly measurable in terms of money or established sense of achievement.

World Cup 2011

Here is my first XI for India in batting order

1. Sehwag
2. Sachin
3. Gambhir
4. Kohli
5. UV
6. Dhoni
7. Pathan
8. Bhajji
9. PK
10. Zaheer
11. Munaf (Here, depending on Form/ Pitch - Nehra or Ojha)

The teams in terms of least expected to most expected to win (only test teams)

1. NZL
2. WI
3. Bdesh
4. Pak
5. Eng
6. Aus
7. Ind
8. SA
9. SL

So..there you go..we will come back in some time to this post

Crossroads and Fractals

As you guys maybe aware Mandelbrot died this week. He was best known for "Fractals", a function that is continuous everywhere and differentiable nowhere. Kevin Drum explains it as

It's the fractal image shown on the right. It looks pretty ordinary, but if you zoom in you start to see a lot more detail. Zoom some more, and there's even more detail. You can zoom forever, and you'll keep finding more detail no matter how fine a microscope you use, much of it surprising and unpredictable.

What this all brings is to the fact that, I think this is true model for life in general too apart from the financial instrument pricing model for which it is mostly used. The ability to arrive at crossroads and make decisions is limited only by our consciousness but its upto us to arrive at a working model for our decision making process.

The other side

As imagined

Random Day 1: The top boss here has no people skills. Can you imagine, he asked me to leave the swanky hotel and move to the guest house. Some other consultants are already in the guest house when I arrive. Hope they are nice

Random Day 2. Guess what, all of these are from IIMs. Two from IIMC and one from IIMA. None of them are particcularly good looking. Seem nice though

Random Day 3. Well, One of the IIMC guy seems cool. The other one is a bit painful. Always on the lookout to make fun of others, especially me

Random Day 4: Well the cool guy is leaving for colombo. Another IIMC guy is replacing him. Would be terrible. The IIMA guy is nice. Plus he likes the same food that I do.

Random Day 5: The new IIMC guy is weird..or as he likes to call himself 'arbit'. The old IIMC guy continues to be a bit of a pain. They are both FAT. Annother person in HR has joined the team. He seems boring.

Random Day 6: The IIMA guy turned to be most obnoxious of all. Had a fight. Am also not on talking terms with the new IIMC guy

Random Day 7: These guys are funny. Have again stopped talking to the new IIMC guy. He is very rude sometimes.

Random Day 8: Thank God,another girl has arrived in the guest house. They dont make as much fun of her as they do of me. I am sure it has nothing to do with my mannerisms.

Random Day 9: These guys are rude. Have again stopped talking to the new IIMC guy. The older one continues to be mildly painful. I guess the other HR guy is nice rather than boring

Philosophy and all that

Sweet video. Short videos are fun

Fallen from Sascha Geddert on Vimeo.

Right to food

This NYT article obviously is the kind of article that everybody likes about India. How despite all the bluster about growth and all, India is still a poor country and hunger and malnutrition abounds. Much of it is true however and India will have to literally "outgrow" this tendency.

Coming to many comments on article, I generally thing that Matthew Yglesias has much too simplistic take on many of the things that he discusses. However, in this case i do think that the simplistic take is the right one.

In terms of the empirical details, I’m sure there’s another side to the story. But it’s hard to think of any sound theoretical or ideological reasons to believe it would be better to try to give everyone a 77-pound bag of grain than to try to give everyone stamps or coupons. There’s a place for direct public provision of services in sectors where the private sector doesn’t deliver. But “stores that sell food” is something the private sector is more than capable of delivering. Poor people don’t get enough t eat because they can’t afford to buy the food, not because the private sector doesn’t create places to buy. Give people money and they’ll feed their families

Seems spot on.

Politics as Usual

I think given the Indian polity, the strong central government and weak opposition was too good to ask for. Right now, we have a weak central government and a weak opposition. There are two dangers here.

• The opposition becomes so weak that it becomes rational for them to be bought out rather than wait for actual power
• The Government becomes so weak as to try something really populist but bad (eg quota in private sector)

These thoughts are courtesy this article by Swapan Dasgupts

Tribute to Kishore Kumar.

Kishore Kumar is surely the best playback singer for me.. its astounding...the number of his songs that I like...however, i had no idea about many of his eccentricties. His Wikipedia page is a very good read

Kishore Kumar is said to have been paranoid about not being paid. During recordings, he would begin singing only after his secretary confirmed that the producer had made the payment. Once, when he discovered that his dues hadn't been fully paid, he landed up for shooting with make-up on only one side of his face. When the director questioned him, he replied "Aadha paisa to aadha make-up." (Half make-up for half payment).Once, Kishore Kumar refused to act because the director M V Raman owed him five thousand rupees. His brother Ashok Kumar persuaded him to do the scene. But, when the shooting started, he walked across the floor and, each time he walked a few places, he said, "Paanch Hazzar Rupaiya," (five thousand rupees) and did a somersault. After he reached the end of the floor, he went out of the studio, jumped into his car, and ordered his driver Abdul to drive away. On another occasion, when the producer R. C. Talwar did not pay his dues in spite of repeated reminders, Kishore Kumar turned up at Talwar's residence one morning and started shouting "Hey Talwar, de de mere aath hazaar" ("Hey Talwar, give me my eight thousand"). He did this every morning for a few days, until Talwar paid him.

The film Anand (1971) was originally supposed to star Kishore Kumar and Mehmood in the lead roles.Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the director of the film, was asked to meet Kishore Kumar to discuss the project. However, when he went to Kishore Kumar's house, he was driven away by the gatekeeper due to a misunderstanding. Kishore Kumar (himself a Bengali) hadn't been paid for a stage show organized by another Bengali man, and had instructed his gatekeeper to drive away this "Bengali", if he ever visited the house. When Hrishikesh Mukherjee (also a Bengali) went to Kishore Kumar's house, the gatekeeper drove him away, mistaking him for the "Bengali" that Kishore Kumar had asked him to drive away. Consequently, Mehmood had to leave the film as well, and new actors (Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan) were signed up for the film.

In spite of his "no money, no work" principle, sometimes Kishore Kumar recorded for free even when the producers were willing to pay. He recorded for free, for some films produced by Rajesh Khanna and Danny Denzongpa. On one occasion, Kishore Kumar helped actor-turned-producer Bipin Gupta, by giving him Rs. 20,000 for the film Dal Mein Kala (1964). When the little-known actor Arun Kumar Mukherjee died, Kishore Kumar regularly sent money to his family in Bhagalpur. Mukherjee was one of the first persons to appreciate Kishore's singing talent.

Many journalists and writers have written about Kishore Kumar's seemingly eccentric behavior. Kishore Kumar had put a "Beware of Kishore" sign at the door of his Warden Road flat, where he stayed for some time while his bungalow was being done up. Once, the producer-director H. S. Rawail, who owed him some money, visited his flat to pay the dues. Kishore Kumar took the money, and when Rawail offered to shake hands with him, he reportedly put Rawail's hand in his mouth, bit it, and asked "Didn’t you see the sign?". Rawail laughed off the incident and left quickly. Once, when a reporter made a comment about how lonely he must be, Kishore Kumar took her to his garden. He then named some of the trees in his garden, and introduced them to the reporter as his closest friends.

According to another reported incident, once Kishore Kumar was to record a song for the producer-director G. P. Sippy. As Sippy approached his bungalow, he saw Kishore going out in his car. Sippy pleaded him to stop his car, but Kishore only increased the speed of his car. Sippy chased him to Madh Island, where Kishore Kumar finally stopped his car near the ruined Madh Fort. When Sippy questioned his strange behavior, Kishore Kumar refused to recognize or talk to him and threatened to call police. Sippy had to return. Next morning, Kishore Kumar reported for the recording. An angry Sippy questioned him about his behavior on the previous day. However, Kishore Kumar insisted that Sippy must have seen a dream, and claimed that he was in Khandwa on the previous day.

Kishore Kumar was also noted for defying producers and directors. Once, a producer went to court to get a decree that Kishore Kumar must follow the director's orders. As a consequence, Kishore Kumar obeyed the director to the letter. He refused to alight from his car until the director ordered him to do so. Once, after a car scene in Mumbai, he drove on till Khandala because the director forgot to say "Cut".In the 1960s, a financier called Kalidas Batvabbal, patently disgusted with Kishore Kumar's alleged lack of cooperation during the shooting of Half Ticket, gave him away to the income tax authorities. Kishore had to face a raid at his house. Later, Kishore invited Batvabbal home, tricked him by asking him to enter a cupboard for a "chat" and locked him inside. He unlocked Batvabbal after two hours and told him "Don’t ever come to my house again.

Its not explicitly mentioned but you can guess that Kishore Kumar would have been one diificult man to work with. Mr Rama Verma here mentions some other incidents

Tales about his various eccentricities abound. How he married four of the most glamourous women in the film industry despite having sung "Kuven Me Kood Ke Mar Jaana ! Yaar Tum Shaadi Mat Karna !", how he had names for all the trees in his garden (Janardhan, Raghunandan, Gangaram, Jhatpatjhatpat and so on) and would converse with them at length, how he hoarded thousands of video cassettes from all over the world, (With a distinct penchant for horror films), how he would refuse to record a song correctly till he was paid his due in full, how he used to set his dogs on income tax officers and was imprisoned, how his voice was banned from All India Radio because he offended the powers that be at the time by refusing to sing free of cost for one of their shows, how Hrishikesh Mukherjee was denied admission in his house (Because of a sad misunderstanding. Kishore was expecting another man altogether and had asked his Man Friday not to let "That Bengali" in.) because of which the title role of the film Anand…..which was scripted specifically for Kishore Kumar…went to Rajesh Khanna, how he spent hours and hours locked up in his room practicing music and counting money…..there is no end really.

There is so much that one is forced to leave unsaid because of the restriction of the space available. Kishore's ironic and Saigallike laugh in songs like "Yeh Laal Rang," how Kishore would Live each word of the songs he sang rather than consciously give the appropriate inflections with the voice (One subtle example being in the last line of the song "Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas" where there is the slightest hesitation when he croons "Dar Dar Ke Kehta Hoon"), how he sat up all night with his brother Ashok Kumar when the latter's wife passed away and sang "Yeh Jeevan Hai" again and again…..and again….and again at the behest of Ashok Kumar who wept till he had no more tears left, how his version of so many songs became more popular when the same song had been sung by others in the same film, how he took on a morbid song like "Tomar Barir Shamne Diye Amar Maron Jatra Jedin Hobe" ("The day my funeral procession passes by your house") despite having suffered a massive heart attack and despite the song being turned down by Manna Dey and how he took it to great heights, how he effortlessly handled classical Raagas like Bhairavi, Pahadi, Lathangi, Bhopali, Chayanat, Shivranjini, Mishr Khamaj, Mishr Piloo and others, how he would change his voice to suit actors ranging from Amitabh Bachchan to Rajesh Khanna to Dev Anand to Deven Verma, how he could sing the same song with explosive joy and with devastating sadness ("Yeh Dosti" and "Jeevan Ke Safar Me Rahi" for example.), how Sunil Dutt coaxed him to give his very first public concert (When Kishore was so scared that he made Dutt stand in front facing the audience while he stood behind and sang with his eyes closed… like they did in the film Padosan, though for different reasons …..till Dutt quietly moved away and the audience burst out into thunderous applause…. ….an event which gave birth to one of the most entertaining live performers the world has ever seen)….

So, we get the picture of a man who was difficult to work and live with but his immense talent allowed him to marry some of the most beautiful women and being universally liked and spawning a generation of copycats.

Hello!!

Hi Folks,
Long time no see..Anyways....with new design features....the blog is back from its break.... as you will see in the side bar..i now have twitter account...so lets se eif i can make this a place where i record more thoughts and events..

regards,

Really!

Its a bit anti climactic. Isn't it? We all knew he can do it and almost everybody agrees he is the most deserving to cross the barrier. Perhaps thats what makes it a bit of "so what"? he IS that good.

Movie Review

Well, one of the fav blog topics are movie review...so here it is..

just saw 500 days of summer...Good movie but mostly a rip off of Kabhi haa kabhi naa..without the overacting of Shahrukh Khan of course...they even ripped off the ending.

Point of Five Point Someone

I have been saying this for a while and agree with Mr Sabnis here.

The only "message" I saw in FPS was that, if you can write grammatically correct english and can write a cheesy shallow story, there is a huge market out there composed of people who never read real books, but need some non-sleazy dumb book to mention when asked "which is your favorite book?".

Hear Hear!

Something Original

Happy New Year! Everyone