Fellowship from Notre Dame

I've got a $30,000 per year fellowship from Notre Dame. That almost covers the entire tuition fees of $34,000 per year. I had a telephone interview with them on the 4th of December and an email with an admissions offer on the 8th. I was really pleasantly surprised since they had announced Dec 20th as the notification date. Anyway, last night I got the fellowship offer.

I was obviously thrilled and could hardly sleep last night after I got the news. I kept worrying about not being able to sleep since I had a video conference interview with IESE today. I had the interview at Reliance WebWorld. It was my first experience in a video conference and it was a really great experience. The interview lasted for around 40 mins though they say it normally lasts for an hour. The interviewer said that I answered the questions very directly and to the point which made it shorter. Don't know whether it was a compliment exactly... They'll let me know the final decision on the 20th.

However, Notre Dame's fellowship offer has introduced a whole new variable for me to factor in. ND has given me the opportunity to finish the MBA completely debt free. At this point, it seems like an offer too good to refuse. Have to speak to someone who actually studied there I guess. Not that I've been admitted anywhere else so its not like I have much to choose from at the moment. But I don't even feel like applying to Chicago, CMU and Duke which I was planning to do in Round 2 and have even completed my essays for. It still hasn't properly sunk in, but without debt, I'm free to do anything I want or get any job I want after the MBA. I can move back to India faster if I don't have to worry about paying off loans and so on...

Anyway, I'm not complaining. So many more decisions are now to be taken.

Dinged or Donged

I got dinged (or is it called donged if I got dinged without an interview) by Wharton and Cornell. I guess I was initially kind of disappointed, though by the time the actual result came, I had more or less already discounted it. Anyhow, it made me finish my second round or late 1st round applications. I guess I'm counting on Babson and IESE now.

I felt better after a day or two, cause I feel that God knows me much better than I do, and that things will always work out for the best. So I might think that I know which college is best for me, but God will know better. Or whether its better in the long run if I do an MBA this year at all. This may sound defeatist but I think otherwise.

Finally sent in my ISB application today. ISB is the only place which requires your 12th standard marks and so I missed the first round while I applied for a duplicate marksheet. They're also the only place which asks that you send in paper recommendations and in fact, the entire application has to be printed and mailed in after submitting online. Contrast that to Notre Dame or Carnegie Mellon which even lets you sign the Applicant Certification and send in a scanned copy. Adding a third to the list of ISB's peculiarities, it is the only school which says that a 2nd Round applicant will have less chance since seats will fill up! Anyway, that was supposed to be my back up school but the future looks a little bleak...

Temporary Insanity

Over the last few weeks since I submitted my applications for a few places, I had the feeling that I was going temporarily insane waiting for the interview invites. Luckily being in India, I didn't have to check my email continuously, just at 3 a.m. ( or 5 p.m. EST). I was wondering whether it was only me, or whether all MBA aspirants go through a period of temporary insanity. Anyway, still haven't got any invites yet, but luckily have just got bored of waiting and have regained my sanity. Luckily, the Art of Living Class we had gone for two weeks ago seemed to be at the right time for me.

Anyway, now I'm working on my apps for a few more places with deadlines coming up. That keeps me busy, but being unemployed at the moment, still need something else to do. We have a guest at home now, a friend's friend's friend from Austria so I can show him around town for a bit. We also had some jive classes last week, so I'm thinking of throwing a jive party on Wednesday. I've also volunteered to take part in a seminar introducing Fair Trade to pineapple farmers in the area, as an interpreter - from English to Malayalam. I have to go tell my high school teacher since I was pretty bad in Malayalam back then.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in jiving, drop in on Wednesday, and if you're interested in pineapple farming or fair trade, drop in on the 20th of Nov.

Interviews, Submissions, Catching up

I Haven't posted in a long time, I think since the time I left for the MBA tour.

So let me start with that. I had an interview with Babson and with IESE. IESE was more of an informative interview while Babson was a full blown interview, my first interview for over 10 years, the last one being for admission for undergrad. The questions went something like this

"If you could go back and change anything you wanted about your career progress and choices, what would you do?

What do you define as success? What motivates you, what makes you happy?

Elaborate on a failure, what did you learn from it?

What industry or company do you wanna work for after graduating?

Have you had a frustrating experience working in a team where one person slacked off? How did you deal with it?"

I can't remember but there must have been more questions since the interview lasted for around 45 minutes. Mrs. Bates from the Babson adcom had also told me right in the beginning, that the last question would be what i wished that she'd ask, and that i'd have the whole interview to think about it. But of course, I could only think of that once I got back home. I think it went off well, though I can't say for sure firstly since like I mentioned, its been a long time, and secondly, don't know whether there is really any way to tell. She was agreeing with me a lot, like she understood what I was talking about, so I assumed it went off well.

IESE encouraged me to apply at the end of the interview and said that if they don't feel the candidate has a chance, they tell them straight off so that they don't waste time applying. So that was pretty good. The MBA tour itself was crowded and didn't have any information which hours and hours on the net didn't give me.

After Bangalore, I had gone to Mumbai to meet an old client to ask for a recommendation. I also went to Pune to meet Sunitha and Animesh and stay with them in their new house. I got back on Gandhi Jayanthi.

Had a couple of meetings with the bank last week and finalised everything, accepted a settlement offer they gave us and got the funds arranged for the initial deposit. For the past two weeks though, our papers have been buried in paperwork in the regional office and our files were misplaced and our branch manager had to give them duplicates, which happened only yesterday. So nothing has progressed since then, though it should be over by the end of next week, making me more or less fully unemployed.

Finally submitted my Wharton, Cornell and Harvard application after last minute debates on whether I should postpone my Harvard app to Round 2. My status has changed to "Under Review - Round 1" for Wharton and Cornell though Harvard still says only "Submitted".

Started working on my IESE and Babson applications, both their essays are somewhat different and IESE has a 200 word limit for most of their essays which seems very, very short.

Anyway, the long wait officially starts now I guess, and should know by the 19th of November if I Dont Get Through. If I get called for the interviews, then have to wait for another month or so...

The Roller Coaster Ride

People enjoy roller coaster rides. They like the slow climb up and the huge fall down, the loops, and occasional splashes. Imagine if while on a roller coaster, you fall into a dream; you are driving a car, trying to steer it. You plan to take the highway, the faster route. You think you have control but the car goes on completely unexpected turns, drops and climbs. You feel exhilarated at times, but more often you feel anxious, nervous, scared and worried about the next curve.

Life is like the roller coaster. However, most of us dream we are driving. To be more precise, life is actually like a roller coaster park. You can choose between different models, some high risk big thrills one and some which look relatively less scary or bumpy. The only condition is that you always have to be on one or the other.

Whichever model you choose, and whichever path, profession or option you choose, it will invariably have highs and lows, ups and downs. There will also be plenty of turns and loops you never saw when you chose the model from the catalogue of rides. If you think you are in a car, there’s bound to be frustration, uncertainty and fear. If you realize that you are in a theme park and these are all rides, and accept that you have to be on a ride, you can enjoy yourself. You will still be on the same rides but you can take the ups and the downs, comfortable and safe and calm and happy.

Feedback from IESE

IESE Business School in Barcelona has a cool feature for their application process where you get feedback on your profile. Basically you enter in a few details about your undergrad university, GMAT scores, and work experience. Within a week or so you get a response as to their initial feeling about the strength of your application. Basically, you'll know if you're eliminated right away. For someone as impatient as me, this seemed like a great idea.

Anyway, I got an email from from them within around a week, offering to help me with the admission process and answer any questions that I had about IESE. I sent them back a long email with my detailed profile and so many questions that they thought it was just better to call me and answer my questions.

I had a very helpful telecon with Mr. Anjan, Associate Director of MBA admissions, where I got answers to all my questions and a very good idea of the process and criteria. I'm also meeting them for an interview in the MBA Tour in Bangalore.

Talking of the MBA tour, I'm also meeting the people from F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College at the tour. Their focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, where they also say entrepreneurship is not necessarily about starting a business, that its also a state of mind. Anyway, the long wait continues.

Swadeshi for Industries

The Kerala state government is planning a new version of the Swadeshi movement used by Gandhi to encourage people from using home made cotton, boycott British made products and improve economic conditions by making India self sufficient. The Kerala state is hoping to revive the fortunes of ailing and sick industries in the state by assured demand for their products.

The idea is to buy requirements of government departments, as well as for the Kerala State Electricity Board from these sick industries, creating demand for their products and reviving them. Great Plan? I think not....

Firstly, why weren't these sick companies getting orders in the first place, and what caused them to be sick? In public sector companies in the state, the sickness would be primarily due to inefficiencies in the functioning, causing their goods to be more expensive or of a lesser quality for the same price as offered by a competitive unit. So is the normal process of inviting tenders and giving the order to the offer with the lowest price also going to be changed? Else, how would these industries get any orders?

Believe it or not, the state public sector units now get a 10% price preference in material supply to the government. This means, that the government is going to waste that much more of the taxpayers money, subsidizing inefficiencies in other public sector companies. If this was only for a period of say a year, where the ailing companies could utilize the fresh orders to revive themselves with the increased cash flows, and become competitive at the end of it, the plan might still have made sense. However, in this case, what is basically going to happen is that the public sector companies will use the 10% cushion to remain complacent and uncompetitive.

With KSEB and other government departments purchasing from these companies, they are sure to get lower quality products for the same price or even higher prices, making the service possibly even worse in the long term. Unless of course, KSEB et al could anyway afford to pay 10% more for purchases, and they are like sitting on piles of cash. In this case too, they could have opted to buy better quality stuff, rather than just pay for someone else's inefficiencies.

Just because an idea was good at one point in history, it does not at all imply that you can mutilate the same idea and implement it in a totally different context and hope to get results.

Passing the Parcel

The Employee State Insurance Scheme in India is basically the compulsory medical and life insurance policy which organizations are supposed to take for all their employees earning less than Rs. 8000/- p.m. This is a Central government authority, and they are pretty well organized and so on, though in my estimation at best 20% of the total employees must be getting covered by this. Anyway, they recently came out with a new scheme of Unemployment Allowance whereby a wage earner covered by the scheme will get Rs. 1500/- per month for six months on termination of his employment of permanent closure of the factory. Great!

In order to obtain the allowance, the company which was paying the insurance has to give a letter to ESI informing them of the closure. Simple enough. We went to the ESI office three days after the negotiations with the workers to enquire at the ESI office. Since it was a new scheme which was just passed by Parliament, they hadn't heard of it, and eventually looked through all the new notifications and confirmed its existence. We were given the format for the letter to be given and we gave it within a week.

The workers who had failed to get employment elsewhere (or weren't covered by ESI in the new place) were supposed to apply for the scheme and get it certified by the District Labour Officer or the Factories Inspector (both State Government officials) certifying their unemployment. The Factories Inspector refused since they said they would "know for sure" that the factory was closed and the workers no longer employed, if it was sold! The workers then approached me to accompany them to the labour office. I went first with them, thinking that the DLO would be more sympathetic since they are there to protect the interests of the workers from "exploitation from capitalists". The concerned official was not there and we left a letter for him. The next visit, the officer said he had never heard of the scheme and would have to consult his superior in the state capital. Each subsequent visit led me to another officer, each of whom said someone else in the department has to take the decision or that should have been taken by the Factory Inspector.

I wanted to help my workers out, 1500 bucks a month would be a big deal for them, especially since several of the older workers were now thinking of starting small shops or such, with the retrenchment compensation and gratuity which we gave them, which would take them few months before getting them regular incomes. Anyway, I even got the ESI people to call the Labour Office and tell them of the scheme and even send them a letter but nothing has come of it yet. Nobody is willing to take up any responsibility for their actions and in the process innocent honest hardworking people are getting penalised. The ESI office had initially given a deadline of two months to complete the application process but are willing to relax it a bit since they know of the functionings of government departments, but I don't know how long it can be extended. I've asked the trade union to take it up, but they are no longer interested since our workers are not employed anymore and not therefore giving any crucial support to the union. Should I take it up to ministers or to the press?

Our One-Time Settlement proposal with the bank is in another phase of passing the parcel with carefully crafted letters going between the Asst. General Manager and our Branch Manager. The bank had conducted a new valuation done by a different person than the previous 3 valuations done by them. This guy was a civil engineer and came out with a valuation stating that the replacement cost for the machinery is twice the original valuations, which works out to around 40% more than the price of new machinery. We requested a fresh valuation of our assets done by a Mechanical Engineer, since we know the only bank approved Chartered Mechanical Engineer in town is the person who has done the previous three valuations. Anyway, the passing of the parcel:

1. Our letter to the bank requesting a new valuation
2. The branch manager's letter to the AGM requesting a new valuation and asking the AGM to suggest a valuator.
3. The AGM sent back a letter saying that the Manager choose a valuator himself.
4. The Manager then sent a letter back saying that we had requested a Mech Engr and that he didn't know who was on the Bank's panel.
5. The AGM sends back a letter with the panel members list.
6. The Manager then sends a letter saying he thinks that the only guy is the previous valuator so asks the AGM whether its ok to take another valuation.

I'm still waiting for the AGMs reply to that. The main tactic in the letters is to try and corner the other person to make a decision. I think the Manager has got the AGM cornered now, so he'll probably have to take the decision, unless he finds some way to counter it without any decision being taken...

The parcel keeps getting passed and just sit and wonder when the music will stop. Btw, the 6 letters above are only a very small excerpt in the total list of correspondances between us and the bank and between the bank's office. The full list is much, much longer...

Only September and I already got my first "Ding"

I had applied to the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad's new programme in Management for Executives, the PGPX. The interview shortlist came out yesterday and I wasn't on it. I didn't really want it so I wasn't disappointed but was kinda suprised, especially since they had contacted me the day after my GMAT via the GMASS service. Anyway, the application was also kind of limited since they ask for essays only at the time of the interview, and the letters of reccomendation only at the time of accepting admission offers. I feel particularly in my case, coming from a small business background, and that too closing the business down, the essays are my biggest tool to put everything in context. I also think my letters of reccomendation, one which I'm getting from a supplier and one from a customer since I don't have any supervisors, will be pretty good. They used to be very appreciative of my progress and efforts and the decision to stop.

Anyway, looking on the bright side, I got to use "ding," a word I just recently learnt from other MBA Blogs. I also know feel somehow like a reapplicant, which means I have a desire to make it "this time around atleast". I am able to use it effectively, I have a much better chance of getting in, since a higher percentage of reapplicants get in. The best part is that I saved a hundred thousand bucks since they have a much earlier timeline than everybody else and you have to send your acceptance (and the initial deposit) by November 25th. If I had got admitted, then I don't know whether I would have turned it down, and might have chosen to pay that, which I would have lost if I got admitted into some place I want to go to more. So I guess, as always, everything happens for the best.

Freedom of Choice, and Fear of Death

Beks and I watched "The March of The Penguins" last night. Anyway, for those of you who haven't seen it yet, these penguins brave like severe winters and 70 mile hikes in absolute darkness and freezing cold to have progeny. After the mother lays the egg, the father then looks after the egg for like 2 months of the harshest winter ever while the mother goes back into the water to feed. All the fathers then huddle up together to try and sheild themselves from the cold and protect their eggs, without eating anything for like a 120 days. Many of them lose their lives to the cold.

Anyway, animals do all this out of instinct. I don't think they consciously make a choice that they want to have offspring, it is imprinted into them. I don't think a male penguin will say "Bollocks to that, I just wan't to stay here and have some good food, or try to swim to warmer places". Jonathan Livingstone Seagull is just a story.... If there was a particularly harsh winter, I doubt whether the next year whether the number of penguins deciding to risk it and mate will decrease.

Freedom of choice is "God's greatest gift to man". Free will is what separates us from animals. But it also brings a whole lot of other problems. So many times in my life, I have thought it would be just easier if we didn't have to choose, if it was predetermined and we had no other choice but to do things in a particular way. I think the biggest obstacle which arises from free will is our clinging to life. The penguins try to protect themselves and their young from predators but I don't think they really "fear" death as we do. They understand that death is as natural as life, and even if they lose an egg or an offspring to the cold, they don't get tied down by it and move on with their lives, continuing the same process next year.

I find this clinging to life, and fear of death is a paradox. Especially since most people (i'm not sure of the statistics here) know that they are not just the body. Since every observation needs a subject and an object, and since we can observe the body, we know we are not it. The same logic also tells us that we are not the mind, that we are something beyond it. Anyway, so why do we fear losing something which we don't even believe is "us". Why do we grieve for those who die? It is only attachment, and we don't really grieve for the dead but for the loss we feel.

Teachings of Flu

Don't worry, I'm not turning this blog into a religous blog and Flu is not an ancient Chinese Scholar.

Anyway, been down with a mild flu for the past two days. Luckily it kicked in just the day Beks got back so it also gave me an opportunity to be exceedinly needy. Anyway, am stuck at home with nothing to do. No energy to really think creatively (a.k.a. finish my essays) and at the same time, not sick enough to just pass out the whole day.

Since I had mentioned that every experience teaches you something, I was wondering what (if anything) a flu teaches you... What can alternate bouts of shivers and sweats teach you about life? Perhaps patience, perhaps boredom, dunno really. At least if you're in school, or working for somebody else, a fever can be a couple of days to stay at home, watch movies and so on. Btw, I watched Almost Famous today morning. But right now, the flu is equivalent of getting sick during summer holidays for me. I'm going to try and finish my Lord of The Rings marathon, finished the first two, and now onto Return of the King. Got the special edition DVDs from a cousin and each movie is around 45 mins longer! Thats a total of 6 dvds for the entire series.

The last time I got the flu, in Feb, a week in bed, and much higher fever and severe chills somehow gave me the confidence to decide to close down our company. The decision was something the whole family had been too nervous to make, not sure how it would turn out. I'm not sure how the flu helped me in making the decision, but at some point between the half sleep and continuing dreams, I saw very clearly that it was the right choice, and that it could be done. Anyway, waited till I got healthy again before telling my father about it, so that he wouldn't take it just as a sick persons ramblings or fears. At first he thought that I was making the choice because he was putting too much pressure on me, and my uncles suggested that we run it in an even smaller scale, but I decided firmly that we would close down, and that it could be done. Anyway, we never thought things would work out quite so well, but it often happens that things thought to be huge problems are not so, and some things we dont think about at all, actually turns out more difficult. Anyway, having said that, let me also mention that I don't believe in problems: just situations, whether you see it as a problem or not is up to the observer.

The Fool on the Hill, and Karma Yoga

Day after day,
Alone on the hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still,
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see that he's just a fool,
And he never gives an answer,
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning 'round.

The Fool on the Hill - The Beatles

The reply to juggler's comment in the previous post got me thinking more about detachment. A few years ago, I had an incredible urge to renounce the world, go off to the hills and live as an ascetic. But circumstances changed and things had to be done. Anyhow, I started work here, but was confused at times between "making money" and "self discovery". The fool on the hill is perfectly happy, and I would have been too, following a path of introspection and self discovery. Making enough to survive is really not that difficult.

On my recent trip to Spiti Valley in the Himalayas, I went to Kibber, a village which (somewhat dubiously according to the Lonely Planet) claims to be the highest village in the world. (The photo by the way is not Kibber, but Chandratal in Spiti). I met a Kibberite there and asked him how many people stayed in the village to which he quickly replied '420'. After a moments thought, he apologised and corrected himself saying there were only 418 people in the village. He said he had a family of four and around 1 1/2 acres of land where he farms peas mainly. (An acre of land there costs about Rs. 30,000/- he said). From that, he earns enough money to feed his family, pay all the bills and send his kids to school. He works for only around 4 months in a year during summer. I'm not saying that by having nothing you can be happy, I don't know whether he was happy.

Anyway, making enough to survive, I could have lived happily in contemplation. Since people who have "everything" are sometimes not happy, and sometimes people who have very little or nothing are happy, you can easily infer that happiness must be from within. Even in day to day life, things which make us feel happy or elated at a particular time might fail to do so the next time. So establishing that happiness is from within, then all we need are our physical needs.

So why does a person, who can easily have everything he needs to be happy, go out into the world? Why do we complicate our lives with all these things? Whatever the root cause was, we are now in a "material" world. It is impractical (and indeed impossible) to tell everyone to give up everything and "run to the hills".

This was obviously a dilemma faced by many people over many ages. The answer lies in Karma Yoga, the yoga of work. It basically says that to be an ascetic is relatively easy. It has its place in society, some people, at stages in their lives need to turn to that. But the most difficult yoga to practice is karma yoga. To live in the world, and yet live above it, not get dirty from it, to float like a lotus which grows in a muddy pond. It is pointless to say that we will live in the world and not use a computer or a tv, but one should see them only as tools, and not get attached to it. One can use all the luxuries in the world, but should be as happy if they are taken away the next second.

Krishna expounded the theory to Arjuna in the Mahabaratha. Arjuna was confused as to why he should engage in battle against his cousins. Krishna explains that one must do what one is called for. I believe this also to mean that one person should do what he has the skills to do. Arjuna had skills to be a great warrior, and he had a duty to his citizens to defend them. The Law of Karma, in my understanding, is exactly analoguous to Newton's Third law of motion; "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction". The Law of Karma states also includes a desire as an action. A desire sets the wheel of Karma turning and it goes on, through several lives if needed, till it meets an opposite reaction or fullfilment of the desire. Krishna advices Arjuna to disassociate himself and his efforts from the results of the action, thereby acting only out of compassion for his fellow beings, and not from any desire for a particular result. The end result is God-given and one has no control over it. This teaches acceptance.

People have a misconception that Karma is just an excuse to make up for failure and that people use bad Karma from past lives to explain if bad things happen to them. I however feel that rather than being an escapist's approach, Karma Yoga teaches you to not get stuck in the past, to learn from your experiences and move on, without brooding over spilt milk. This prepares one to confidently handle any adversity.

After looking after the entire operations of the company I feel that any businessman has a responsibility to society. He is creating employment and generating wealth, as well as paying taxes for the development of the country, and looking after the welfare of his employees. I slowly understood the social responsibility of running a business. Further, competition has a role too, in ensuring that consumers get the most out of their money. I found I could reconcile my beliefs with my actions and felt much happier. I feel that if a person has a "skills" as a manager, then one should utlise it to serve society and help his fellow man. I'm not saying everone should start a charity, but do what they're best at, and be true to themselves.

I try to detach myself from the results of my actions by not feeling elated with "successes" or sad with "failures". Everything has taught me something, and in the long run there are no successes and failures, just experiences. I still obviously have a long way to go, perhaps several lifetimes, but its not just about the destination, and I enjoy the journey as well.

(Disclaimer: I'm not some kind of hardcore Yogi or anything, I have intellectual conviction and am working, sometimes haphazardly, towards being what I believe)

Essays and Blogging

After spending hours writing and editing essays, typing more might be the last thing that some people might think of. I however like to OD on stuff. I guess that blogging is also a contrast and relaxation thing compared to essays. You don't have to worry about planning out what to say, structure, relevance, editing out, or sticking to any word limit. And also, you dont have to worry about expectations.

Worries about expectations of people on the adcom are just creeping up on me. I did my essays for my first couple of schools quite quickly without too much editing, except making it more concise and clearer of course. The first times were easy because I have never worked on an application proces before and so didn't think too much about it, and just wrote from the heart. So I guess the essays are very true to who I am, but now that its done, I am starting to wonder about whether I am the kind of person that adcoms think are suited for an MBA.

There's a lot of talk on websites and discussions on "Indian Male Admit Ratio" and "what are adcoms looking for and so on". Meeting, or atleast hearing Mr. Thomas Caleel, Wharton Admission Director, at the Bangalore reception was reassuring. He seemed pretty much like a regular guy, and didn't seem like he was hiding some secret to how they actually choose candidates. Anyway, back on the web for a couple of days and thoughts are creeping back. The Wharton student2student discussion is a very good place to go for some reassurance again. Faith swings like a pendulum between the poles of certainty and doubt.

Back to blogging and essays, I guess writing the essays one always has to use "judgement" on what to write, and what is most relevant to the topic. But sometimes after you edit out something, you stil keep thinking about it, and building up on it, and finally have to write it down somewhere, without caring about it. And Blogger comes to the rescue.

I don't know whether I'm lazy but I don't feel I can plan out essays on what the adcom wants to hear. I think its too much work, and anyway, after all the research and reading, I still haven't got a clear idea of what they are looking for. I feel that the weakest point in my apps are possibly my college marks which are anyway too late to change. My goals and stuff can't really be changed much, and my personal qualities can't be changed at all. BTW, I put my slight obsessive compulsive disorder as the personal quality that will help the Wharton adcom know me better.

At the end, if I don't get admitted anywhere, maybe I am not cut out for it. I guess I have to trust the adcom's judgement in deciding that. I can just hope to give them as clear an idea as I can of who I am and what is important to me, in a total of around 3000 words.

A good "houseperson"

(I wonder whether houseperson is the politically correct form of househusband? )

Since Beks started with her full time job like a month ago, and since I have been more or less unemployed except for short stretches, winding up things, I have taken over charge of the house. I have been getting used to the role, and studying what is required.

Management, like Maths and logic, is I feel a general discipline and you can use the same principles in most things you do. To be a good househusband or houseperson, is practically running a company. One has to think of inventory and purchases (of food items as well as soaps and stuff), production planning (what to cook? when to cook), supply chain management (washing clothes as soon as one set is dry and getting it ironed), cash flows (utility bills) and stuff. Luckily most of the strategic decisions are taken as a team when you're married, but the day to day stuff is all up to me.

I have to make sure that Beks doesn't run out of clothes or underwear, is fed (with a balanced diet if possible) and that everything runs smoothly. In India, a houseperson is also particularly concerned with Human Resource Development, teaching your maid to cook your favourite dishes, and mapping out weekly schedules of when the books need to be taken off the shelf and dusted and so on. One also has to choose between outsourcing (getting a cleaning agency, or giving clothes to the dhobi) vs doing it in-house.

Anyway, I'm coping with it and doing pretty well. However, making rubber flip flops were easier in a lot of ways, at least i didn't have to think of producing different colours every day or anything. And sometimes, getting an order to be supplied is easier than having to decide on what to cook everyday.

Now I'm home alone though, while Beks is with her parents in Chennai. When the roles of the houseperson was reversed, when Beks went on a trip, I would do everything else except make the bed. This was my primary task at the time (or atleast folding the sheets) and I used to use the "freedom" to leave the bed messed up, sometimes for up to a whole week till she got back. I think it was also a semi-masochistic tendency, since it made me miss her much more.

But now, I have imbibed the responsibility of overseeing the whole house, and taken ownership of the project. This is the first trip she's taken since she started working, and now everyday in the morning, the first thing I have to do is take off the pillows, fold the sheet and make the bed, tucking it in tightly, and that the designs of the bed sheet are aligned with the bed, just the way Beks has taught me to do it. I guess I'm becoming a better houseperson.

The Basic Plan (or Managing the Government)

Though India is progressing, I can't wait for my grandchildren's grandchildren to get the full benefit of "progress". I am going to speed it up by taking over the country, as an elected dictator. Well, I hope to get elected by a large enough margin, and several consecutive terms so it'll be practically like a dictatorship.

On to my mandate...
I believe that a government should be run like a large corporate. Except that while in a corporation's case, maximising income will be the main goal, for a government the main aim should be at the welfare of its people. So how does that make a government like a company? The government should basically learn from the way a corporation is managed, and take the best practices from it.

To start with, a company will reduce always try to reduce overheads and maximise efficiency. The government should really learn from this. For a company, a customer will not be willing to pay for inefficiencies in it, and will switch to another brand or supplier. In India I feel people evade so much tax partly because they feel (rightly so) that the government is wasting a large amount of their money. I feel that if the government is made totally efficient and transparent, and awareness is created, citizens will willingly pay taxes, and look down on those who don't. Further, once it is completely efficient, and not a penny of the taxpayers' money is wasted, the government can justify imposing severe penalties for evasion.

A company will aim at customer delight, and for a government, its citizens should be treated as the customers. I am a socialist and I believe that the government should maximise efficiency and subsequently spend the income generated on welfare, education and employment generation. However, I am not an "old school" socialist. I understand that to share the pie, we have to first bake the pie.

So as the elected leader, I will generate wealth for the country, and give equal opportunity to everyone, and as equitable a standard of living as possible, by uplifting the poor, rather than simply trying to drag down the rich.

Now on to the plan of action:
I believe as the leader of the country, I should function pretty much as the CEO of the company. A successful CEO should not just balance the budget, or project the next year's targets. He should give vision to the company, and motivate the employees and make everyone take pride in the organization.

So first, I do the MBA, get it over with and join a consulting company, to help Information Techonology and Communications companies formulate strategies, as well as help any company implement IT related strategy. Why IT? Well, I believe that nothing can speed up progress and increase efficiency in a company as good implementation of IT. In the case of the government, proper distribution and penetration of IT will not only drastically improve efficiency, it will also empower people, particularly in our largely rural setting. It will give people more direct access to the markets and the government, and keep up to date with all relevant advances.

To build a company, or a nation, I need a strong team. Networking with trusted leaders in every field and region of the country, I will build a team of energetic people who want to make a difference. After building the team, we will do an in-depth "market survey", which any manager will know is the first step in any project. After the market survey, we will prepare a business plan, with the road map for the next 20 years. I don't feel that a five year term is enough for any government to achieve any real goals. We will have to get the complete trust of the people, by explaining our plan to them, with road shows in all parts of the country, with question and answer sessions and so on. I hope that if prepared enough, we will win the first elections that we stand for, with a large enough margin to effect real policy change. The country needs a leader, not a politician.

About the blog:
I hope to incorporate all my ideas on implementing various management practices in government organizations and functioning which I come across. I will also try to write about how to learn from the current government's mistakes. Further, I aim to also collect and document my thoughts on leadership, ethics, and so on. I know I am not a management guru or anything, but believe that with focus, hard work and God's grace, I can really make a difference. Like I said, I'm on the lookout for a good dedicated team. If anyone has any advice to give, or have any ideas on how to run the country, leave a comment, or join the team.

The Long Wait

Now that I've got most of my essays ready for my top business schools, most of the stuff I have to do is jut clerical. And then I guess I just have to wait. December end seems like such a long time away, especially for someone as obsessive as me. I guess the time will go even slower now that there's not much work, with the business almost completely closed down. Speaking about that, I wonder whether it will ever completely finish. I mean I know it will, at some point, but having no control over it is so frustrating.

Decided to close the company down in mid-Feb and things started happening really fast. There were so many things to plan out and do, and things were happening much faster than we had originally thought. I finished over 90% of the work by May, retrenching the workers, selling off most of the stocks, selling our brand, as well as find a buyer for the factory. Till then, things were happening as fast as I could do them, the only real limitation on it, being my time. Luck played a large role (as I feel it always does in everything) in helping get through that so fast. In May anyway, I calculated that since I accomplished 90% of the work in three months, the remaining 10% should take me 10 days, and giving time for unforeseeable developments, I gave it a month to finish everything.

But life continuously surprises you. If in Feb, someone had told me that I would finish the most of the work by May, I would have thought it close to impossible. If someone told me in May by September, I would finish less than 10% of the remaining work, I would have laughed. But here I am, alone at home, having had to rush back mid-holiday to meet with the Bank manager.

This part of the job is teaching me patience beyond my expectations. I have had to go to the bank every single day for the past two weeks, playing the chess game of negotiating for a One Time Settlement. Well it would be sort of like chess, if you played chess by moving one pawn forward and then back for three months straight, without making any other moves. The majority of my work now includes just waiting. Waiting on the bank to make some move.

Like I had mentioned, I will be putting up a detailed post on banking later, maybe after the settlement is over, but I just want to mention that it is impossible for an organization to become efficient without some risk-reward ratio. The same lacks in the civil service, and a bank manager in a public sector bank is more or less like a bureaucrat. And I'm not blaming him, (well not right now anyway) but he is not motivated to make a difference, to help people, or even his own organization. He is only motivated to keep his papers clear. As long as that is taken care of, the bank could write off our entire loan amount, or force us to sell our house, and neither makes a difference to him, or to anyone else in the bank.

Anyway, planning to do a Lord of the Rings marathon session on Monday and Tuesday since its anyway a holiday here. Luckily the special dvd editions are 45 mins longer, and I have to wait that much less for the MBA admission results.

Government Funded Mafia, or a brief history of SIDCO

SIDCO, or Kerala Small Industries Development Corporation, was set up around 40 years ago to make life hell and completely quash entreprenuerial spirit in Kerala. Their website however says the following:

"This Corporation is rendering assistance to SSI's in the State, like providing Infrastructure facilities, distribution of essential raw materials, marketing of the SSI products,undertaking Civil and Electrical works etc. Moreover Kerala SIDCO is supplying Bitumen to Local Bodies as Nodal Agency and Paraffin Wax to small scale industries."

They also have text scrolling through the top of the screen saying "We serve small scale Industry on a Large Scale". Someone must be really proud of that line.

Even if this were true, this doesn't seem like much to accomplish over 40 years. Their performance figures give a slightly clearer picture. Comparing the two years given, you can clearly see the performance getting even worse. For example, out of the 135 idling units, they have rehabilitated all of 6 units in the first year, and none out of the 160 units the next year. On closer inspection you will find that even the 6 units "revived" in the first year, were given a total of only Rs. 2.2 lakhs, and that too from state government funds, and not from SIDCOs own funds. This my friends, is just the beginning of the dark and devious story of a modern day Lochness Monster.

My father, oh no actually my grandfather "purchased" land from SIDCO in the mid '60s. They had just been given a lot of funds from the Central Government, part of some misdirected scheme to help Small Scale Industries (SSIs). We were allotted the land and sheds back then, under a "Hire-Purchase Scheme" where we paid the rent every month, and a portion of the rent paid would be adjusted against the final value of the land as assessed by the time the paper work got done, and SIDCO got the title deeds for the property from the government which they would then transfer to us.

We started paying rent from 1965 or something, and whenever we enquired, the paper work was still getting done, and we continued without the title deeds to our factory. We were lucky, being a fairly well to do family, and we could raise some funds from other sources to run the business. The vast majority of the other "owners'" of the sheds in our Industrial Estate were genuine really small scale entrepreneurs. No bank would finance them without collateral (there's definitely a series of postings coming on banking to explain that and a lot more). Whats more, no bank would accept an allotment certificate from SIDCO as a realizable security. The banks were way smarter than the entrepreneurs in that case. Many people had to pledge their houses to get bank loans, which was of course the worst way to encourage an entrepreneur. SIDCO has ruined the lives of people who's business went down. They wait or travel all day from office to office, visiting bureaucrats, politicians, lawyers and anybody else who might perhaps be able to do something, anything at all.

In 1994, SIDCO came out with a final offer for "outright sale" of the factory and sheds. They fixed a new (considerably high) value for the sheds and said they would consider 75% of the rent paid as part of the purchase price. We took the offer up immediately, and somehow raised the funds to pay the balance amount. Out of the 46 odd units in the Estate, only 3 managed to raise enough money or initiative to "buy" the land and factories. With that SIDCO gave as allotment certificate allowing us to pledge the property to any financial institution, and gave us more assurances that the title deed would be given soon.

At this point, one may question, quite rightly, whether these SIDCO guys were part of some masochistic cult or just plain inefficient. The answer is neither. See, once the Central Government gave funds to SIDCO to "promote" industry, SIDCO just sat on their asses and didn't really do anything. They built a few hap hazard industrial estates and parks. However, anyone who was aware of SIDCOs practices would stay away from their Estates, and in fact, from Kerala itself. So SIDCO has like lots of employees, tons of them, and what do they do? Well pretty much nothing, if tea and lunch breaks don't get credits. Who pays them to do nothing? Well, SIDCO does, from the rent it charges. Once entrepreneurs get their title deeds, they'll stop paying rent, and SIDCO will go defunct. So, the employees union is actually objecting to giving the title deeds to the rightful owners.

Unfortunately, SIDCO employees unions were very strong and we are still waiting for the deeds. The Hindu on April 28th, 2005 reported the Chief Minister's statement that SIDCO estates property is going to be sold. They also report the CPI Leader Mr. E. K. Ismail's defense of the decision in his press conference on June 1st, 2005.

He said there were 621 small industrial units functioning from 17 industrial estates of SIDCO. The State Government did not have to spend any funds to start these industrial estates since were built way back in the 1950s entirely with Central Government grant, he said.

SIDCO too had made no investments in these industrial estates, though it had collected more than Rs. 5.27 crores from the entrepreneurs since 1975. The Government could have allotted the land and buildings in these estates to the entrepreneurs under the rules governing the subject, but that too did not happen all these years despite several requests from the entrepreneurs. They could not even borrow funds from the banks since they do not have the title deeds on the properties.

The people who run units in these estates could not be called big industrialists. Though the units are all small ones, they employ thousands of workers. The Government, through its decision to issue title deeds on the properties to the entrepreneurs, had done only what it should have done years ago.

Its more than a year now, and nothing seems to have happened. If all this above, didn't really give them the Mafia feel, they came out with a new regulation that to transfer the property, (which is rightfully ours, which they should have given us years ago, which they haven't spent one paisa on maintaining) the seller has to pay SIDCO 25% of the value they have assessed for the plot. If this isn't extortion....

The government should pay for this!

Winding up the company I knew would be a big process. I knew a lot of complications would arise and that everything had to be well thought out before the execution. But I must be some sort of psychic if I could predict for instance that the electricity board would case for extra power consumed in 1995 would surface now.

What more can you expect from these guys? And I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the receipts you get from the KSEB. If you don't treat it with the utmost respect and care that it deserves, it will most likely just tear in your hand. And to hope that we would have receipts from ten years ago. Looking through the files, as obvious, the receipts from the preceding and the subsequent month, of the month in question had miraculously survived. Useless junk always seems to do that, unless it senses that it might be needed at a future date, when it will disappear.

To start with, they first assess us for extra power used during a time of power cut in 1995-1996. I can't believe that future generations will not know of something as ludicrous as a power cut, where they actually give a quota of how much power an industry can consume. I guess I was lucky enough to not have to deal with the far more frustrating License Raj or the MRTP act. Anyway, returning to the topic of discussion, they issue us a notice in February, 2000 for extra power that we had used between January and August of 1995. If they had informed us of the extra consumption earlier, like after the first month for instance, we would rather have closed down production than pay the exorbitant rates and penal rates charged. We thought we could fight it based on the law of limitation, that you can't claim money if you haven't claimed it for three years, but apparently, those rules aren't applicable to the Electricity Board.

Anyway, we give a petition in the high court which presumably took six years to go through the case and finally directs us to negotiate with the Electricity Board. If that was the decision going to be made, I would have taken all of ten minutes to arrive at it. Now the board says we pay this with a "concessional" rate of interest of 12% as against their "normal" rate of 24%. Hadn't the Supreme Court come out with a ruling saying that those interest rates amounted to extortion?

Luckily, the solution is much simpler than the problem. In two words, competition and technology. Competition will force the State Electricity Boards (SEBs) to either become more competitive or shut shop. Personally, I feel they should just shut shop, and use license fees collected from private operators to distribute power to economically unviable areas, where private corporations might hesitate to go. Technology will free up hundreds on man hours, and possibly reduce the labour force by a sizeable percentage.

How did BSNL the state owned telecom giant transform itself. Around 15 years ago, there were no STD and ISD booths, and people had to wait in hour long queues in telegraph offices to make a long distance call, or dial a “Trunk” call. To those of you who had managed to blank out memories of trunk calls, sorry for bringing it up. Anyway, even after the introduction of direct dialing services, lines were always down or congested, and the people in the telecom department were amongst the rudest of the government staff. But look at them now, they offer state of the art services, the cheapest deals, and definitely acceptable customer care. They have retained their position as the leading service provider in the country, though “evil multinational corporations” have entered the market. And what about the common man, did he lose out on the deal? I think not, considering that to make a long distance call, one had to wait till ten at night and try a hundred times and finally pay 8 bucks a minute. Contrast that to now with India One, one buck a minute to anywhere at any time of the day.

Searching on the net, I cant find any evidence of massive DoT employees strikes or anything when it was corporatised. I wonder why the government hasn’t implemented a similar thing for the electricity boards. The electricity act of 2003 was supposed to change all this, but nothing seems to have happened yet. This is possibly due to more interest groups pushing the telecom reform, or stronger unions in the SEBs.

One last note on the KSEB union: The pay of the KSEB employees, like all government employees, are fixed by pay commissions and what not. However, one fine day, the employees start giving higher salaries to themselves. By the time the government caught on, or decided to act, several crores of rupees had already been disbursed over several months. A commission headed by a high court judge was set up to “review” the matter. On receiving several death threats from the union, the judge politely decided to leave. The matter got buried in some paperwork and not one employee has even been retrenched.

Ahem, change of plans...

Not been putting up posts for a long time because I was having an rethink of the whole dictatorship thing. I feel the main problem with a dictatorship would be the problem of succession. Once I pass on, who will chose the next dictator? Will I have to do it before I die? And also, will he or she be as loyal to their country as I would have been? People get seduced by power, and don’t like giving it up.

In a democracy, atleast the people will have no one else to blame for choosing bad leaders. So maybe I will have to run the elections after all, and maybe I will need your votes. However, I have realized that what we need is a leader. Not a politician who no one trusts, not someone who is chosen because he is the best candidate. What is required is a leader who’s only objective is to better the lives of people. We need someone with vision and the passion to convince people of his vision and get their trust to go through with the changes required. We should be proud of our leader, and he should make us proud of our country. Gandhi, though I am not defending or judging his policies, at least inspired the whole nation. For that matter, so did Hitler.

The leader's focus shouldn’t be on only vote-getting tactics or reservations. Setting up primary education is great and stuff, but the leader’s role shouldn’t be limited to that, or balancing the budget, or setting up nuclear power plants. He should also have a wider social message of love and peace and co-operation. And with the message and vision, he can gain the all important trust and love of the people.

I think I can be that leader. It might take a little longer to achieve than becoming a dictator, but with the long term good of my country in mind, I think I will do that. I may not have become President of college, but there’s hope for me yet!

How is it going to be different from the present government? Well, I would have had years in the private sector before I become the President or whoever is in charge and I will have the opportunity of implementing the best practices I have learnt into the government. Of course, once I am in charge too, don’t expect any drastic changes. It will take years of dedicated hard work before I can streamline and downsize the government machinery to an economically viable level, with quasi-privatisation with government supervision in all non-key areas and so on.

The list of reforms needed are too long to put down here right now. Ofcourse, managing human resources is the most important task of any company, and once government employees (my future employees) are made accountable for their actions, you can expect a world of change.

I am already working on an alternate to farm subsidies, reservations in private colleges, and carbon based fuels… Before long, I will have the answer.

P.S. Though I did mention that the focus shouldn’t be only on vote-getting tactics, I didn’t mention that it should be avoided altogether. Taking the Tamil Nadu chief minister’s promise of giving a colour tv to every household, I am in discussions with Steve Jobs to strike a deal for an iPod for all of you out there. A show of support at the earliest will ensure you one…

In Defense of Infrastructure Spending

In today’s economic thought, the importance of infrastructure for sustained economic development is well recognised. Several studies have been done on the subject such as The World Bank's World Development Report(WDR) of 1994 which discussed links that exist between infrastructure investment and economic growth and UNDP's Human Development Report(HDR) of 1996 which delineated the links that have to be created so that economic growth translates into human development. Reading them together, makes it evident that infrastructure investment and human development cannot be divorced from one another. It is however, of utmost importance to accelerate and sustain human development as well. No country, according to the HDR, that started with fast growth and slow human development has been able to sustain its growth without the corresponding increase in the productivity of the people.

However, to kick start and fuel growth basic infrastructure development is necessary, without which a country will remain uncompetitive and therefore unable to use its people power effectively in a global environment. India has serious inadequacies in its physical infrastructure which limits its growth rate. Given that resources are very scarce, all investments, including investment in brick and mortar, must be made to have a positive impact on human development. This is easier stated than accomplished. It will not happen automatically. A conscious commitment to keeping people's concerns at the heart of all investment plans must be nurtured, and innovative strategies must be devised. If the national development strategy is people-centered in this way, international technical cooperation also will have better and bigger impact. To implement strategies for long term development, a controlled environment will be more suitable.

A government should think of itself exactly as a very large company, with the profit motive which drives a company, to be replaced by a people development motive. A company to increase profitability will have to make capital expenditure from time to time. A company shying away from capital expenditure due to lack of funds or any other excuse would damage its profitability and competitiveness in the long term. Similarly, with the long term object of the welfare of the people in mind, a government has to make capital expenditure, not just in terms of infrastructure such as roads and electricity, but also by building schools and hospitals, as well as constant innovation to improve the efficiency of the government machinery. To say that they are always running at a deficit and therefore sit on their asses will obviously develop into a vicious cycle where the much needed revenues cannot be generated without the prior expenditure.

Two-thirds of India's people live in villages. The village in India is not at all idyllic. It is a hard place to live in. And the reason for that is lack of basic infrastructure. This lack can account for a good deal of the differences in capabilities and opportunities of people in villages compared to their counterparts in towns and cities. There is a positive relationship between human development, infrastructure development, rural-urban equity, and economic growth.

Kerala today is well equipped to accelerate growth and economic opportunities because it has established a good human development foundation. It has the highest ranking in India according to the Human Development Index developed by the UNDP. Between 1987 and 1992, Kerala's annual rate of growth in per capita income (6.2 per cent) was almost twice the average for India (3.8 per cent). With a little help from improving efficiency via infrastructure development, Kerala’s growth rate can easily cross over into double digits.

A lack of infrastructure increases the costs of manufacturing and therefore affects the final consumer adversely. For example, in China a truck can cover 1500 kms per day, whereas in India, the average truck covers only 300 kms. This will obviously increase the costs of freight substantially, and further will increase manufacturing costs due to the stocking costs which rise due to the delay in delivering goods. The bad roads especially in Kerala, cause tyres to wear out much faster than other states in India. And of course, there is also the time factor. In Tamil Nadu, a bus can cover an average of 65 kms per hour on any national or state highway. In Kerala however, an average of 40 kms will be considered good. On my day to day travel to and from Changanachery on a state highway, my car gives me an average of 13 kms to a litre of diesel costing me Rs. 2.5 per km. In Tamil Nadu however, I get an average of 19 kms to a litre which costs me only Rs. 1.74 per km, which makes it 43% more expensive in Kerala. Multiply that by the thousands and thousands of cars and so on, and you get your money for the highway right there.

Some people might be opposed to better roads, cause their products sales might be adversely affected if tyres and so on last longer… Ehem..

How will I collect my revenues and give maximum benefit to all my people? Well I haven’t figured it ALL out yet, but I know I can. In time.

The problem with a democracy is exactly what my good friend Paulose mentioned in his comment to my previous post, which is that in a democracy, people will get what the majority want, like cheap electricity, if that’s what they want. However, people have no idea of how best that they will get what they want in the long term, what will best for a better future for their children and for the country at large. Therefore, they might argue against introducing STD phonecalls, saying that only the rich wanted it. You all remember the time that we had to make trunk calls right? Well, if we had kept listening to them….

As a benevolent dictator, I will listen to my people, and do what’s best for them in the long term so that they have a better future. As a parent takes decisions for their young children, since what they want is not always good for them, as a dictator, I shall have to be firm but loving.

Evidence

In case any of you weren't convinced enough by my eloquent argument in favour of sidewalks, and not expecting much of people if they are told to act illogically, I now have photographic evidence. I set out on a quest today, picking up 2 volunteers, to look around the roads for problems with pedestrians. Luckily, we never have to look too hard for that.

My able bodied volunteers and I set out and captured these. I dont think the fact that I promised my volunteers chilled Red Bulls in Ettumanoor had anything to do with their dedication to the cause. If any of you are unconvinced about my arguments after this, please contact Meghant who'll "Buy you out", the same way Bill Gates buys out Homer Simpson.

where else is this guy supposed to walk?


the sidewalk suddenly turns into a ditch

blocks on a narrow ditch


the end result of chaos

Vote?

uh, just realised that if I'm dictator, I don't need your stupid votes. So ignore the comment about voting for me in the previous posts.

But not to worry, my laws will still be logical.

What the hell are those funny white lines doing on the road?

Kerala is a really crowded place. Like so crowded that you can travel between two towns like a 150kms apart and still not figure out where one town ended and the other began. The entire length of the roadside will be full of houses. Land as you can see is a precious commodity. Kerala also has one of the highest per capita vehicle ownership in the country. And all these people need place to drive their new cars.

One day someone in power will be traveling down the road, and say "Hey, this road needs to be widened". Some paperwork will follow, some contracts given and the road will be widened until there is no space between it and the walls of the houses on either side. (Well, it might not be actually done like this, there might be planning committees and district-wise budget allocations, but it often looks like it might as well have been)

People now walk out of their houses right onto the road. Not even 1 meter will separate the houses from the roads. Now when someone gets out of their house and walks to the bus stand, he or she will have to walk on the road, cause there's just no other place to walk. (Ok, sometimes, there will be a few inches of thick undergrowth, which they could walk on). Anyway, Mr. A walks from his house to the bus stand and to the corner shop and anywhere else on the main road. Where else is he supposed to, anyway? The cars have to plan accordingly, and not stick to the curves near a turn cause there could be people walking.

One day, Mr. A, comes into town, or rather a larger town, like one of the towns at the end of the 150 kms from the other one. He gets down from the bus, and he sees a shop across the road and walks across the road for it. He sees some people further down the road, waiting on the side, with white stripes drawn across the road. A policeman stands next to the line with a whistle. He wonders what's so sacred about the line that they are waiting there, rather than just crossing.

When someone is used to walking on the road his whole life, simply because that is the only place to, you can't expect him to not cross it. Hey, if I can walk on this sides of this, and since there is no demarcation of the sides from the center, I may as well walk over it right? Mr. A feels he has the right to cross the road at any point, it’s his right, he owns the road as much as the cars do. He doesn’t care about blocking cars up ahead, traffic blocks, fuel wastage. You got as much chance that Mr. A will know to stick only to the sides and not cross at random, as giving a dog a bone and telling him to chew only the left side. What’s the difference, he asks.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that stupid country folk come to the towns and cause the chaos. Even in towns, there are hardly any sidewalks, and even where there is, they will be too narrow to accomodate more than 2 people walking. Further, electricity poles, telephone switches, on the sidewalk will just force the person to walk on the road anyway. And when you can walk on it whenever you want, you can cross it whenever. Mr. A, was just lucky to come in just before school started to see those people waiting at the zebra cross. Who bothers about those normally?

The first step to safer and smoother traffic, is organizing the pedestrians. Atleast here its a lot better than the cows in Tamil Nadu. But city traffic jams and the slow movement of traffic here is caused only by the pedestrians. And you can't blame them. They have no other choice and they will not logically understand whats so special about some white lines and why they have to stop there.

Give people clear directions, in a simple logical way, that will make sense to them, and they don't mind following the law. Make the law illogical, and you might as well not make it.

Vote for me, and I'll make your laws logical.

Just an explanation...

Every day, I travel 45 kms, traveling to and from work in a rubber factory. On the way I cant help but notice the utter chaos on the roads. People crossing out of nowhere, those damn scooter guys cutting across, or just coming straight at you for no apparent reason. Worst of all are the bus guys. Its like you're a fresher in some college somewhere, and you don't address your seniors followed by a "Sir", they'll like whack you or something... anyway, I learnt to pay respects to the bus guys by taking my car to a corner of the road whenever I saw any. Driving my Maruti 800 at the time, I kept having a desire to get a Secret Squirrel matchbox kinda thing. If any of you have watched the cartoon "Secret Squirrel", you'd know his matchbox, which he just presses a button and it turns into a helicopter or a car or whatever was needed at the time. I didn't want a helicopter though... I wanted to press a button and transform my 800 into a Panzer or some cool sounding tank, and charge straight back at the busses.

Since then I've grown up a lot, moved from an 800 to an Indica, and started thinking more practically. Since my Singapore visit, a revelation occurred to me. If I became a dictator, I was sure that I'd be able to do a better job than whoever is supposed to be doing the job now. All I had to do was somehow or the other, find a way to be The Dictator. I'd be a benevolent dictator though, or benevolent but firm shall we say. I'd have to leave my rubber factory and see more of the world though. Study how everything is done elsewhere. And when I have adapted my knowledge and formed the perfect system for our country, I'll take it over. Things are starting to shape up, the first phase of my plan begins....