2020

"America is certainly the land of opportunity". An Indian gentleman I met at a restaurant in America, told me on the first day I set foot there. This IIT  graduate was a middle aged person who had settled down in the States with a firang wife and self owned booming software outsourcing company.

Since then, more people have said the same things to me. A Pakistani who owns a fledging cab service. A cab driver with ambitions to start a country wide chain of veterinary centers. 

You then think why can't India be the same? People say that the infrastructure, the job oppurtunities, the easier life all are the main reasons that make America a land of opportunity. 

But I think it is something beyond these things.

The thing that I noticed most among people here was that they all have  a dream. A dream to be better. To lead a better life. 

The dream that makes a 52 year old mother to learn about a new software so that she can get a better job. The same dream that makes a Help Desk person in my company to attend evening classes at a university. 

I think this is the key difference. In India, people work to survive. The bar for people in India is much lower. The enemy is within.

Why is this so? Lack of role models? Maybe. America was after all built by people who wanted change. In the earlier times, you could only get into this country if you had complimentary skills. Even now, the stringent Visa policy ensures that they don't take in parasites.

But the winds of change are slowly but steadly changing the course of India. New age entrepreneurs are teaching us to dream big. 

It is probably for good reason that I keep hearing on the radio in the USA that India will be the next big thing in 20 years.

UPDATE: My cousin pointed out that 2009 + 20 != 2020. I was aware of this and the title of the post is a reference to APJ Abdul Kalam's dream of Vision 2020.

Social Networks

Orkut, Facebook etc are excellent tools for communication. They are also excellent contact lists.

Because there is no body language involved here, one can 'appear' to be nice and 'cool' to others easily and everyone can be happy thinking that other people really like them or think that they are 'cool'. I think that in essence is the reason why people flock to social networks.  

But now, what happens if that 'virtual reality' begins to affect reality?

For instance, I know a case where a likely bridegroom prospect was dropped because of some 'status' on that user's Orkut profile. 

Employers are now scanning social networks to scan employee activities and profile new candidates. 

Maybe this means that people will be more genuine in the future but still, a person in a different generation can easily draw different interpretations about people when they read profiles. 

Thankfully, social networks are now giving tools to protect privacy by giving options to users about what to hide and what not to. 

Bicycle for the mind

Computers are like bicycles for the mind. Steve Jobs makes this point beautifully in this video. 

Come to think of it, the software that we write are intangible abstractions in the mind.

They are like castles in the sky but having some very useful purpose. That is what makes programming very powerful and interesting because the only limitations are the limitations of the mind. 

This is what excites me most and why I love my job so much :)

On NRI's

What is the easiest way for an Indian to make money? 

Either be lucky and win a lottery or work a little hard and get a job in a foriegn country whose currency is disproportionately stronger than the mighty Rupee. 

The people who end up doing the latter, save money by living a austere life in that foriegn country. Once they have saved enough (usually indicated by retirement age in that country), they get hieghtened notions of love for motherland and jump on the next flight to India with a dream to live the next years of life in luxury in their country with the disproptionate wealth gained by converting currencies.

What does this activity mean for India? 

Once these NRI's come back to India with their disproportionate wealth, their consumption of natural resources also increase, inflating real estate prices the most. Remember that these people have not paid taxes in their working years but now consume the resources that are available because of the taxpayer money.

So, the people who stay back in India either because of their incapacity to go abroad or because of their stubberness to do something good in the country itself are paying the cost of this disproportionate wealth earned by the NRI's.

That doesnt mean to say that NRI's do not contribute anything. NRI investment in India's Industry means a lot. But it just ends up making making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

What is the solution for this?

My thoughts are that the government of India should have a 'disproportionateness quotient' for each currency and tax that amount when people convert the currency. This money should then be used in invest in Industry.

No truth left in Satyam

'Satyam' means 'the Truth' in so many Indian languages. Yet, Indian IT company: Satyam Computers has now been named as India's Enron. This link has the resignation letter from the Chairman who did the fraud.

Apparently, the reason for the fraud was poor performance leading to concerns over share value decline and take over from other companies and therefore loss of control for the promoters.

The Chairman was someone who was seen as a role model for entrepreneurs having built one of the top IT companies in India.

Why would someone who is so successful and reputed do this? After all, rational people evaluate the cost of a lie before doing it.

But it turns out, it is the success itself which causes people to do this: “Success is a menace. It fools smart people into thinking they can’t lose” - Bill Gates 

The Right Response

More than a month has passed since the Mumbai Terror attacks and the government is still in PR mode with Pakistan trying to win points from US. The inaction has left  more people angry with the Govt more than anything else. 

One wonders then what the right response to these attacks is, especially in the light of the recent Israeli response to Palestine 

India cannot certainly afford a full blown war, both economically and the impact of potential isolation from the rest of the world because of the war. The right response then should be tactical:

Stop all trade with Pakistan - I cant believe trade and travel routes are still open with Pakistan. 

Initiate global sanctions to force Pakistan to handover the list of terrorists demanded by India.

Freeze assets of terrorist organizations.

Hang Kasab  - India is probably the only country which will look for appropriate 'legal services' for the only terrorist captured alive in its territory.

Invest in R&D for alternate fuel - Money from Oil is the primary source of funds for Islamic Militants. 

Is it worth it?

What does it mean when days go by very fast? Work days travel quickly because you are busy as hell in those 10 hours at work. Weekends run out even more quickly because there is always so much to do.

The speed is thrilling but when you look back you always think whether it was worth it. 

The only way then is to ensure that you do what you love.