Simplify your Life

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Do you still have an active item on a three-month-old "To Do" list? Are you too busy to sit with your family over tea in the evening? Do you suffer from "hurry sickness" - always in a rush to get somewhere but seldom enjoy the moment? Do you give excuses by blaming on time? If answers to these questions are YES, you need to simplify your life.

Major contribution to your "Stress" and "Lack of Time" today is the choices-overload in the market. And in time to come it is going to increase. When I was kid:

1. there were broadly just two categories of milk - Cow & Buffalo with no nutritional facts table. Today the choice is to have Full Cream, Toned, Double Toned, Zero-Fat etc. with the nutritional facts table mentioning calorific value, fat content etc. And one can get "Stress" in selecting from choices.

2. there was just one wheat flour which we used to get after finely grinding the wheat from flour mill. Today there are nearly about 50 choices in the market to pick from.

3. there used to be just one channel on TV - Doordarshan, instead Doordarshan used to be the TV. Today there are 150 channels with the options from TATA Sky to record other channel while viewing some other. Here TATA Sky is capturing the market of people suffering from "Stress" and "Lack of Time" and "Indecisiveness" in what to view and what not to on the TV.

Million Dollar question is "Were you happy then with less or no choice, or are you happy today with multiple choices?" In my opinion don't ignore the options, but downsize them to fit your need.

Fix the level of your satisfaction, and decide the one out of choices. Today if I ask you to search something on web using the best tool, you'll immediately go to Google without looking for options, and run the search in no time, because you have downsized and picked Google as your best search tool.
And if I ask you to go to Super Market, and bring the best potato chips, you'll go to the rack of chips, and will look around and will take more time to pick the best potato chips because you have not downsized on the existing options.

So my dear to get out of the stress and give yourself more time, Simplify your work, downsize your choices, and just don't sit after doing it once. Repeat it at some frequency (say 3-4 months) as by then new choices will be there in market to compare with.

To measure on if you are simplifying or not, you can ask these questions to yourself:

1. In your Job Role with the current company what are you simplifying for the Business?
2. In your relationship with people what are you simplifying for them?
3. How many things were you able to downsize out of choices last month?

If you don't evaluate and downsize on what is the best for you out of choices, anything will satisfy your need.

Know your "Shelf-Value"

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Are you employed with the Government of India? Do you have Job Security with current Employer? If the Answer to these two questions is NO, then have a quick check on your "Shelf Value" by asking these questions:

1. If you were asked to give a presentation to a group of 100 professionals from your industry in the next 2 hours, which three topics will you pick up? How many of these 100 professionals would be interested in listening to your topics? And how much is the longevity (in years) of your topics in the industry?

2. If you were asked to give names of 3 people from your Professional Network to recommend you. How many of these would be willing to hire or work with you today? Check your linkedin account to see what is your ratio of number of 'Recommendations' to the number of 'Connections'? Remember, networking is always two way. It is not how many connections you have, but how many people value your connection.

Running through these questions you'll get answers for:

1. What is the relevance of your skills in your industry?
2. What is the current & future demand of your skills?
3. How many professionals believe in your skills?

If the scores are low for these three questions, may be you need to think & plan about pumping them up!

Indian Innovation - 'Jugaad'

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There are Tens of Thousands of people from villages and slum India who apply 'jugaad' (make-shift-arrangement) everyday to solve problems without any outside help. But the only difference between them and those experimenting similar things in Hi-Tech Labs of Urban World is the 'recognition'. And so the 'recognition' goes to those who have 'funding' attached to it.

Most of the Indians or for that matter people from Brazil or Phillipines may be economically poor, but they are not poor in their mind. They have amazing creativity, ideas and innovation within.

The best example is that every single india born is not having english as his/her primary language. Their primary languages are Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati, or mostly Hindi. But they apply the art of creativity in learning English. I did the same! Truly speaking I was not able to converse in english till the age of 14. I am comfortable now.

There had been many thousands of grassroot innovations from villagers and slums. If you get a chance to go visit villages or slums and see their entertainment devices like TVs, DVD Players, Music Systems, you'll find innovation around it. Do you remember placing speakers in 'matka' (round clay pot) during childhood times just to get good bass and beats out of the music by investing low cost? There had been Kabir, Rahim and many Sufi Saints who were super creative in their thoughts even though they were poor.

Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory fails here, and so Enlightment doesn't come only after Physiological or Security needs are fulfilled. It is in everybody's mind! So start Innovating! go Creative! prepare and let prepare as many 'jugaad' you can to solve problems, and help poor people patent these 'jugaad' to set them free of poverty thru their creativity!



(Posting a video where poor indians of today innovated and solved some problems using their creativity - Appachan made a tree climbing apparatus, Md. Saidullah at age of 70 innovated cycle which can be used in flood as rescue device, Dhanji Bhai modified the scooter by self which dwarfs can ride, etc.)

When will the Black Gold go extinct?

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Most common resource of producing Energy which the generation-today can think of is Oil. And there had been debates on the 'End of oil' among them. Looking at the content of the raw material which had been and have been producing Energy to this world since last 200 years, we'll find Carbon & Hydrogen. However, there had been an interesting observation on the consumption of oil today. And it is that the Demand of oil is falling. Is it good or bad?

200 Years back world used to worry on after burning the Wood for generating energy. They used to think what if all wood is burned out? But then Wood became the past and Coal became the obvious source.

Then 100 Years later world started worring over Coal. It became the past and Oil became the obvious.

Today world is worring over oil. It will become the past as now people are on Natural Gas, Nuclear and Renewable sources. And the only factor behind making the past & the obvious is the Idea, Innovation & Technology.

The wood remained! The coal remained! & The oil will remain forever!

Move from "Fixed Mindset" to "Growth Mindset"

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There are two mindsets which can challenge your Intelligence & Motivation. "Fixed Mindset" & "Growth Mindset". They have a greater influence in the way you learn, perform & be creative. Problem statement today is as the age increases, Fixed Mindset increases and Growth Mindset decreases, resulting decrease in creativity & performance.

People whose intelligence is fixed and cannot improve, or improve slightly are of "Fixed Mindset". The traits which they exhibit are "smartness in the well". They prefer tasks they can already do well and avoid ones on which they can make mistakes and not look smart. Result, they may stay their original level and may not have improved performance.

People whose intelligence can grow and improve through challenge are of "Growth Mindset". The traits they show are "challenging themselves". They prefer tasks which increase their abilities, even if they fail at first, they like to put more efforts and can reach higher levels of achievement.

If you are getting trapped by "Fixed Mindset", answer these questions to move to "Growth Mindset":

1. Are you afraid of facing more challenges? What are the roadblocks?
2. Do you get motivated enough? What can motivate you to get out of comfort zone?
3. How can you improve your intelligence level?
4. When did you last applied creativity at work or at home or anywhere? Last when did you think like a child?
5. Do you make 'Escuses'? Do you often say 'You don't have time'?

ITIL - Hindi Way

Here is a translation effort by me on ITIL v3 Framework:

ITIL - सूचना प्रौद्योगिकी आधारभूत ग्रन्थालय

1. Service Strategy - सेवा कार्यनीति
i. Service Portfolio Management - सेवा संविभाग प्रबंधन
ii. Demand Management - मांग प्रबंधन
iii. Financial Management - वित्तीय प्रबंधन
iv. Supplier Management - पूर्तिकर्ता प्रबंधन

2. Service Design - सेवा प्रारुप
i. Service Catalogue Management - सेवा सूची प्रबंधन
ii. Service Level Management - सेवा स्तर प्रबंधन
iii. Risk Management - खतरा प्रबंधन
iv. Capacity Management - योग्यता प्रबंधन
v. Availability Management - उपलब्धता प्रबंधन
vi. Service Continuity Management - निरन्तर सेवा प्रबंधन
vii. Information Security Management - सूचना सुरक्षा प्रबंधन
viii. Compliance Management - अनुपालन प्रबंधन
ix. Architecture Management - वास्तुशिल्प प्रबंधन
x. Supplier Management - पूर्तिकर्ता प्रबंधन

3. Service Transition - सेवा अवस्थांतर
i. Service Asset and Configuration Management - सेवा सम्पत्ति तथा समाकृति प्रबंधन
ii. Service Validation and Testing - सेवा मान्यकरण तथा परीक्षण
iii. Evaluation - मूल्यांकन
iv. Release and Deployment Management - मुक्ति तथा प्रस्तरण प्रबंधन
v. Change Management - परिवर्तन प्रबंधन
vi. Knowledge Management - ज्ञान प्रबंधन

4. Service Operation - सेवा परिचालन
i. Event Management - घटना प्रबंधन
ii. Incident Management - घट् प्रबंधन
iii. Problem Management - समस्या प्रबंधन
iv. Request Fulfillment - निवेदन संतृप्ति
v. Access Management - अभिगम प्रबंधन

5. Continual Service Improvement - निरन्तर सेवा सुधार
i. Service Level Management - सेवा स्तर प्रबंधन
ii. Service Measurement and Reporting - सेवा माप तथा प्रतिवेदन
iii. Continual Service Improvement - निरन्तर सेवा सुधा

Time to improve Brake Lights

While driving in New Delhi most of the time you have to observe Brake Lights of the car you are following. There are Euro 4 norms on the roads today, but since decades there had been no improvements on Brake Lights. It is still a flip-flop indicator, like how it was in Ambassador of 1970s. If you apply brakes, the brake light will glow, and if you release it, it will stop glowing.

All you need is an extra skill of observation and reflexes. The skill is to judge the deceleration of the car applying brakes, and then send the signal to your reflexes so that you don't push your car into the front or another buddy following you doesn't bump his engine in your trunk. What a skill to master!

I see that breaking is not a flip-flop mechanism, there is a force attached to it. One applies brake with less/medium/hard force. But the output of this mechanism, the brake light doesn't talk about the magnitude.

Instead I would like car manufacturers to develop a Brake Light which should act as a "level meter". It can have about 10 distinct group of LEDs of Red lights (as shown in pic). These groups will be illuminated centre out, and more lights will be lit based on the strength of braking. For emergency braking, another indicator can be placed, and would be activated to warn drivers behind that emergency braking is taking place ahead of them.

This could minimize the possibilities of collisions! And is not a tough task to engineer and implement in today's world.

Enterprises bored of Earth now battling on Cloud

After the "Green Computing", next new Buzz Word is "Cloud Computing". And as a rule-of-thumb all technologies start slow with skepticism from especially large enterprises like IBM & Microsoft, which themselves send their Elephants & Horses in the Battle Field soon skepticism fades away as early adopters of the technology takes it and provide feedback.

Cloud Services came up as the need of clubbing Software as a Service(SaaS), Database as a Service(DaaS), Platform as a Service(PaaS), Software plus Service(S+S) etc.

CCRS Criteria (Cost Control Reliability Security) will decide in selecting one of the GIM Players (Google-IBM-Microsoft).

On doing a quick weapon comparison, here is what I see:

1. Microsoft announced its S+S strategy in 2007 as a foundation of the cloud computing model, and then came up with hosted messaging, exchange, sharepoint etc. IBM in turn prepared the answer as LotusLive suite offerings in 2008.

2. Windows Azure was launched in Jan 2010 as the developer, service hosting & service management platform. IBM had its Smart business development, IBM Cloudburst, CoD (Computing on Demand) ready against it.

But the cloud services platforms are in their infancy and have not yet matured either in business models or technology. But having GIM Players adds credibility to its future access. It is good to have low cost service, but the key questions are around: Security & Reliability. One who will focus on key points now instead of Marketing the existing solution should win the Battle!

Jodhpur – Land of SUN, Sand and the Blue

For the avid traveler, India presents an eclectic mix of cultures and topographies. The imperial state of Rajasthan is an epitome of the diversity India stands for. The arid Thar Desert, the Ranthambore and the Bharatpur National Parks, picturesque lakes, vibrant culture steeped in festivities, palatial forts at every bend of the street, scrumptious cuisine—Rajasthan is a veritable explorer’s delight!

In October 2009, I visited Jodhpur and Jaisalmer with my family. On family trips, I usually prefer travelling by train and buy those extra hours to unwind by playing games and cracking jokes. If you are travelling from Hyderabad, you need to board the Secunderabad Bikaner Express, a direct train from Secunderabad to Jodhpur that leaves every Tuesday. But since we wanted to commence our journey on a weekend, I opted for another route. We boarded the Simhapuri Express on Saturday, from Secunderabad (Departure time: 10 pm) to Warangal (Arrival time: 12:20 am). From Warangal we embarked on our onward journey to Jodhpur aboard the Chennai Jodhpur Express which departs from Warangal at 1 am. We reached Jodhpur at 11 am on a sunny Monday morning.

Founded in 1459 by the Rathore chieftain Rao Jodha, Jodhpur is located at the edge of the Thar Desert and dotted with magnificent forts, palaces, cenotaphs, temples, museums, gardens and colorful bazaars. The city is known as the Sun City for the bright, sunny weather it enjoys round the year. It is also referred to as the ‘Blue City’ due to the indigo tinge of the whitewashed houses around the Mehrangarh Fort. The best time to visit Jodhpur is between November and February.



Must-visit sites
A visit to Jodhpur is incomplete without a tour of the Mehrangarh Fort. Located atop a lofty sandstone hillock 400 feet (122 meters) above the city, the Mehrangarh Fort with its imposing turrets and battlements offers a breathtaking panorama. Its imposing walls house several palaces acclaimed for their intricate carvings and sprawling courtyards. The entrance fee for adults is Rs 30. You have to pay an extra Rs 70 for the camera. If you wish to hire a guide, the charge is an additional Rs 200. An escalator will take you to the top of the fort from where you can get a bird’s eye view of the city, including its indigo bleached buildings. It is a sight to behold!

While returning from the fort, consider stopping by Jaswant Thada, a white-marbled cenotaph built in commemoration of Maharaja Jaswant Singh II. The stones are extremely thin and polished, and emit a warm glow when the sun's rays sweep across their surface.



The Umaid Bhawan Palace is not only one of India's most opulent palaces but also among its most recent. This lavish art deco monument had an improbable conception: it was built as a public relief and employment project during a long period of drought. It took 15 years to complete the construction. In 1977, the palace was segmented into the royal residence, the Heritage Hotel and a museum. Visitors have limited access to the property—the museum is all you can explore. But for Rs 30, 000, you can gift yourself a night at the grand Heritage Hotel, now a Taj property. Needless to add, waking up in a palatial bedroom will be an experience you will cherish for a lifetime.

Shopping
Loosen your purse strings and surrender to the call of Jodhpur’s vibrant shops. The Clock Tower is the best place to buy spices, Rajasthani handicrafts and garments. Walk five minutes, and you reach the Tripoliya Market where you can bag the best deals on traditional Bandhani and Lahariya fabrics and garments.

Cuisine
Keep your hygiene consciousness at bay and sample the delectable street food around the Clock Tower. The Makhaniya Lassi—a saffron-flavored refreshing drink—along with Pyaaz ki Kachori and Mawa Kachori will satiate your hunger, but whet your appetite for more.

The Gypsy Restaurant in Sardarpura became our favorite haunt for finger-licking Daal-Baati-Choorma-Gatte-Chaas and the unlimited lunch platter. The
Kalinga Restaurant opposite the Railway Station is another haven for local cuisine.

Getaways
If you have the time to rummage through Jodhpur’s neighborhood, earmark Osiyan for a quick tour. Located about 65 km north of Jodhpur, this town is an oasis in the Thar Desert known for its ancient Brahminical and Jain temples and Rajasthan’s much celebrated sand dunes.