Bangalore: Severe Dust Pollution

Bangalore was known for parks, flowers and pollens and its ashthamatic effect. Now, nobody worries about pollens anymore; huge dust cover across the city has taken over. Certain areas in the city has become completely unlivable but life still goes on. People walk on roads with dust cover, eat street food, take their small kids and stay there. Not sure how much damage to their lungs have already happened.

Across entire Outer Ring Road, there is endless flyover and subway construction. These constructions are being carried by corrupt and unprofessional builders without any responsibility, credentials or sensitivity. Result, a six months project stretches to 3 years, endless traffic jams, huge dust creation and absolutely zero accountability. It becomes very painful to witness 1000 vehicles in jam under a flyover undergoing construction, and not more than 2 people working on building it. These builders just dont give a damn.

And people have patience to remain stuck in jam everyday for 2 hrs, suffer in extreme dust surroundings and see the debris created by construction; but not even a single voice raised. Surprising ! We have just come to accept that nothing will change and accepted it as destiny.

Unfortunately, people have bought expensive flats in such areas and simply dont know what to do. They have to live there with small kids inhaling dust filled air round the clock. Tragic !

Constructions are necessary and they do happen around the world but there is governance, method and process to it. It doesn't happen in haphazard, messy and endless way. In developed world, sometimes you wont even feel that construction is happening in the vicinity, such care is taken to avoid any impact on people and their quality of living.

Apartments, Flyovers, Metro construction and complete lack of governance has made this city heavily infected with alarming level of dust. Either find a secluded area or give this place a skip.

Project Management Deficiet

The world is facing real Project Managers' supply deficiet. There are lot of PMPs and Prince2 certified professionals claiming to be PMs but don't even know the basics of project management. Result, unneccessary delays in projects all over the world.

Planning is not an inherent human trait, we are very random and unorganized animals; its not inculcated in our DNA. The examples of price that we pay for want of it  shows everywhere- delayed bank work, missed grocery items, unpaid utility bills, missed flights and endless complain about lack of time. The price that we pay in business for lack of planning though is severe, sometimes changes the fortune of the company.

In business, domain expertise is important to became a good project manager. Someone from brick-and-mortar industry won't be able to run an IT project and vice versa. A good project manager can really make a complex project look simple with efficient delegation of task and rigorous tracking. And a bad PM can make a even a simple project look complicated, they are project damagers, and they are omnipresent.

Industry has not yet realized the importance of having a good PM, they are selected randomly and the general perception is that anybody can do this job. Billion dollar worth projects miss their deadlines and enterprises bleed in expensive interest just because the entire thing was poorly planned and managed. Examples of delayed infrastructure projects are everywhere and if its public structures like flyovers, roads or bridges, the endless construction causes lot of pain as well.

Its high time organizations understood the true value of having a good PM and start spending time in training and building PM competency. Nobody wants the PM as the week link, because if that happens, then there is zero chance of success for the project.

Luck- Biggest Success Factor

You see lot of undeserving people doing so very well in life and start to wonder whether all these talk about hardwork, sincerity, creativity and talent holds any relevance. Frequently one sees a brilliant employee, a talented singer and great artist losing out to an average but lucky guy.

No one knows what works in this world; talent is definitely not the guarantee for success. Everything is based on people's perception; an average guy skills may be percieved superior. Sometimes I feel people do not want great work, they dont understand it and feel intimidated and insecure by it. Average becomes good because people can identify and relate with it.

There are filmstars with zero acting talent having bank balance of $100m, singers who can barely sing having millions of followers and sportsmen with lesser talent rated and paid very highly. Luck matters the most. I don't think the maxim 'harder you work, luckier you get' works all the time especially in comparative study.

One needs to be born with luck. There are people who took things casually and they were always at the right place at the right time and made it big without any planning. Life is beautiful for them. While there are others who worked hard and planned well but still struggled in life. Life is tough for them.

Unfortunately Luck can't be bought or learned; either you have it or not. If you are the unfortunate one, being the second best (sometimes last) will always be your best.

Big Data Analytics - Mapping humans behavioural DNA

Yesteryears, companies found it very difficult to learn about the buying habits, desires, likes and wishes of customers. A large country with diverse population and economic levels pose even larger problem in identifying the prospective customer. Result, large marketing budget with unsure outcome.

The web has changed the game by  becoming the single largest channel of human expression. Internet has become an important utility for humans for networking, ecommerce, explicit expression and information gathering. In the process, humans are leaving a big internet footprint, which says a lot about their charecteristics, desires, buying habits, likes and wishes. Something which product companies will be greatly interested in.

The more people interact with and spent time on Internet, more footprints can be generated and then analysed for insights. Web 2.0 and social networking like facebook, twitter and youtube are ensuring that people are spending greater amount of time regularly on the web and thus divulging more about themselves as a consumer.

Moreover, technology has made it easier to create various kinds of digital data easily and make it available on the web. Camera enabled phones & PCs, tablets and rapidly increasing bandwidth are facilitating creation and distribution of textual, photo and video data.

All this information on the web in structured and unstructured form- email, blog, tweets, facebook messages, videos, et al - are creating a massive data deluge. We're talking in terms of petabytes. And these are gold mines of information waiting there to be analysed.

One can build a complex algorithm and try to make sense out of this data historically or one can go a step further and provide real time analytics so that prospective customer can be gotton hold of at the moment when he is researching on buying something and is about to take a call.

Big Data anaytics also helps in gathering choices, opinions, problems and other traits of a specific demographic.

Investment in Big Data realtime analytics will rise in leaps and bounds. The benefits are many in terms of understanding humans as a consumer, employee and a citizen and then using this insights to make a productive decision.

Chakravyuh Movie Review

Prakash Jha has done it again; has come up with really intriguing movie on naxalism. I was very disappointed with Aarakshan, he messed it up big time with lack of sincerity. This time his movie has a good subject, a tight storyline, good screenplay and perfect treatment.

Naxalism has now infected almost the entire country and nobody is benefiting from the mindless violence. The fight for land has taken a different meaning over the years. It started with revolt against the landowners, the zamindars, the uppercaste people owning vast tracts of land. Now it has spread to the tribal belt, where politicians and industrialists, are trying to snatch their land for minerals and hence the resistance. The film depicts the reality, where tribals and poor people, living in vicinity of mining company or mineral industry are suffering while the industrialists are minting money in billions.

In India land comes at a premium and with new found development stakes have gotten even higher. In some areas, the prices have gone up by 1000 times and land is the easiest way to earn tons of money; fool the poor guy, snatch his ancestor land at meagre price and then sell it at a premium.

Corruption in this country is the root cause of almost all the evils. It directly affects the governance and the result is poor not able to rise economically even after 65 years of independence. And now they are getting frustated with the system and its reflecting in spate of violent uprising.

Jha's film shows both sides of story, innocent policemen getting killed and innocent tribals being exploited and leaves the judgement to the audience. The film is shot in authentic outdoor locales in tribal belts which adds to the reality.

Hats off to Jha for coming up with such well made thought provoking film. And somebody please bring sanity to the governance, every evil and problems in this country are result of its deficiet.

Barfi Movie Review - Piece of Art

I just went through the emotional ride of 'Barfi' and it was really satisfying. Bollywood has definitely come a long way and I think its getting ready to compete with the best in the world. Cinematography, editing, screenplay, background music and acting - this film excels in all departments. 

Its a story of a deaf and dumb, extremely lovable guy, Ranbir Kapoor and his love story. It was quite a challenge for the director to make a commercial film with such a protagonist. Comedy, tight screenplay and excellent production made the film look very commercial and yet soulful.

Its a Ranbir Kapoor film and I give him 10/10. I dont think anyone could have done any better. Not a word said and he still made so much impact. He is brilliant, he is perfect, really amazing to see the kind of talent he possess. No wonder even an engaged woman and a mentally challenged girl fell in love with him in the movie.

The only sore point for me was Priyanka Chopra's acting- sucked big time. PC is riding her luck since last 10 yrs and like SRK just forces herself to the audience. Its high time the industry bid farewell to this ageing actress. Just one expression in the entire movie, Sridevi of Sadma was greatly missed here. Fortunately she had very less scenes and the director used lot of camera tricks trying to make her acting look palatable with good success.

Anurag Basu has made this movie with lot of soul, freshness and energy. Each frame is a piece of art and the hard work of his entire team shows. I will be surprised if the movie doesn't sweep awards this year. Pritam background score is world class, the film with this subject would have failed without it.

Excellent movie, a must watch and will definitely inspire directors to attempt something fresh. This movie must be sent to global film festivals to showcase Indian talent. 

Wonder la Amusement Theme Park, Bangalore

** Checkout the six HD videos of Wonder la amusement park embedded in the blog **

Monsoon gave a skip to Bangalore this year, just clouds and wind but no trace of rains. I decided to try Wonder la amusement park, and play with water the whole day.

I took my car and a friend and in no time I was at toll gate of NICE (Bangalore-Mysore Expressway -Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Ltd) road near Electronics city. Paid Rs 80/- toll (hefty) and started my journey towards Wonder la, which is around 30 kms. The expressway is wide and smooth but doesn't go all the way to Mysore yet. We covered the distance in 3/4 hr flat ( tested my car at 180 kmph on the expressway).

It was Saturday and I was aware that its going to be crowded. First glimpse of Wonder la was people everywhere and the demographic 10-25 yrs around 80%. There is ample parking space (no fee) and the surroundings are neat and clean. There is an ATM and a snacks restaurant outside - it was only 10.30 am, so we spent the time having snacks and strolling outside. [there is a restaurant inside as well and water bottles are allowed]

There are more than 1/2 a dozen ticket counters, well manned and managed. Took our tickets paying Rs 730/- per head and entered into the campus. At the ticket counter, do not forget to buy the Valet. Valet is a wrist-watch type electronic swipe-able  thing which can be wore on the wrist, substitute for cash to be used at various food counters.  So one doesn't need to carry purse and cash and ruin the trip with fear of losing it; it comes with various denominations with service charge of Rs 20/-. So pay Rs 500/-, they will give you the valet, use  it for various food items and in the end return back at the ticket counter, they will refund whatever is left deducting Rs 20/- as service charge.

There is a very big locker building near the entrance. One has to pay Rs 500/-to secure a big locker( three sizes). On returning the key, they will refund the amount deducting a service fee of Rs 50/-. The locker key has a band and can be wore on the wrist, no chance of losing in the water. Do remember to keep the Receipt in the locker itself, its required to get the refund (I lost mine but the lady at the counter was considerate).
                      Besides thousand of lockers, the building has toilets and showers in adjoining area. Women and Men have lockers on separate floors, men in the basement and women in the first floor. If the weather is good, keep your slippers/floaters as well in the locker, if its warm take it with you, as you need to walk on slabs and concrete path.

People generally approach the park with dry rides first, then wet rides and finally the wave pool. On weekend really long queues at each ride. I did the reverse to beat the crowd.

I have experienced the wave pools before in Water World Mumbai, it was really impressive. Wonder la has also architected the wave pool very well. Three different sections, really wide, lot of benches to sit and watch, plenty of surveillance guards and a lighthouse as well.
                   The intensity of wave is perfect, if one really wants to experience the aggression, he has to go near the start of the wave. Thats where I spent most of my time and it was amazing, around six feet and relentless, took every ounce of energy out of me.
   
The water looked clean with tolerable amount of chlorine and at comfortable temperature, advisable to keep your mouth above it and go to the pool early before it starts getting dirty. Pool was really crowed btw.

After spending over 1 hr in the pool, we went to rain Disco Dance building. Rain dance happens every 1hr and its really good. Good lighting, lasers and plenty of water showered. People really seem to be enjoying this artificial rain and were dancing like crazy. There is separate area for couples/families and singles.

After rain dance I decided to take the wet rides. There are over 1/2 a dozen wet rides for all kind of hearts- faint to strong. I tried quite a few, not all, Wavy Falls are really sick. Every time you slide down, one has to take the stairs again to reach the starting point. People also spend lot of time in Play Pools, just lazing around and playing with their small kids.

We had lunch at the open restaurant near the wave pool. One can get tandoori chicken items, south indian meal, biryani and some other stuff. Food is okay, fair priced and the place hygienic.

Next we moved towards the dry rides. Since we started in reverse, most of the rides were empty now. We started with the Wonder Splash and Hang Glider and moved on to some crazy high thrill rides. High thrill rides do all kinds of spinning- revolution, rotation, sideways- with varying speeds and height, not for the faint hearted.

After completing the dry rides, it was close to 4 pm in the evening and we said it was enough for the day. Yes, there are some items as well, like musical fountain and documentary, which we gave a skip.

We took our stuff from the locker and claimed the refund, same with valet and started our journey back.

About Wonder la: It is a very well managed park. Courteous and well trained staff, neat and clean surroundings, secure rides and every thing seemed to be in place. A must visit while in Bangalore even though its a bit far. It has everything for all age groups and the money spent is completely worth it.

The entire Wonder la amusement park tour in 20 minutes:

Trip to Rameshwaram and Madurai From Bangalore

**Checkout the 6 HD videos embedded in the blog for visuals of Rameshwaram, Dhanushkodi and Madurai Meenakshi Temple**

After a rather stressful week, I decided to unwind by taking a weekend trip to Madurai and Rameshwaram. Getting train tickets at short notice is impossible so I booked a Volvo bus (Train{runs daily} is the best option {irctc.co.in} but one has to plan at least 3 weeks in advance). There are plenty of private buses plying on this route, fares vary from Rs 500-900. Expect mismanagement and lack of punctuality on these buses and only select the buses from top 3 travel companies. Its a overnight journey, takes around 8 hours and covers around 450 kms. My bus started at 11 PM and dropped me at 7 am near Periyar bus stand in Madurai.  

My itinary: (I wont change it for repeat visit as well)

Sat Morning: Reach Madurai in the morning and start immediately for Rameshwaram

Sat Evening: Overnight stay at Rameshwaram

Sun Afternoon: Leave for Madurai

Sun Evening: Visit Meenakshi Temple

Sun Night: Board the bus to Bangalore

A normal Indian traveler is interested in sightseeing and tries to cover as many places and as fast as possible. I don't like this idea, and I am more interested in soaking the place, taking in the ambiance and really relaxing and that means selected site visits only.

On reaching Madurai, I found out that the best mode of travel to Rameshwaram is train at 5 am and I missed that. They told me that govt bus stand is 8 kms away, so I opted for private bus to Rameshwaram-which is around 170 kms from Madurai. 

The auto rickshaw took me for a 1/2 km ride to a tour and travels company for private mini bus travel,  Rs 50/- snatched. The travel company was complete unorganized and mismanaged. One person taking bookings for over 20 people. He charged Rs 350/- for travel to Rameshwaram (Govt express buses charge somewhere around Rs200/-) . The old, filthy and uncomfortable minibus started at 9 am, 2 precious hour completely wasted; I wont repeat that experience. The travel company(unfortunately I forgot the name) was a cheat, I heard lot of people complaining about various tours that they mismanaged. And most of these people were from northern and eastern part of the country, traveling several thousand kms and have spent thousands of rupees and they were from lower middle class. Somebody should stop this rampant cheating. 

First Tip: The Madurai private bus stand is near the railway station (1/2 km) and Madurai govt bus stand is some 8 kms away. Always book the bus from Bangalore which claims to reach before 5 am. Never miss the local train to Rameshwaram, this is the best and hassle free mode of transport. Try to avoid private buses and private tours operators wherever possible.

                                            Rameshwaram

I reached Rameshwaram around 1 PM after 4 hours of journey. I had already booked a hotel, so I checked in. The town is really simple, laid back and completely reliant on the temple for its survival, the place has a religious feel to it. Most of the tourist do a day tour from Madurai to this place.

Took a cold bath and lunch and slept for 3 hours, somehow bus travel stresses me out. In evening I went to the sea shore to have a stroll. Pleasant breeze and beautiful view of the ocean, spent several hours there taking videos and enjoying all kind of eatables being sold. The town sleeps early as it rises early. I followed their routing.

I woke up at 4 am in the morning to do several things- a) Visit Ramanathaswamy Temple b) Take sunrise videos
Its really amazing to see how many people visit early mornings. There was 100s of vehicle lined up at the sea shore and town was abuzz with thousands of pilgrims. The sunrise is really breathtaking. It becomes even more beautiful with religious chants, buzz of pilgrims and people worshiping to the sun while taking the holy bath at the sea.

I took bath in the Kunds, took a dip in the sea and offered my prayer at the Ramanathaswamy temple. I opted express darshan for Rs 50/-.  One get a lot of time to see the idol at the temple, a welcome change from other religious places. 

At 8 am I decided to visit the confluence of Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean en route the ghost town Dhanushkodi. Dhanuskodi is a town/village at the southern tip of the Rameswaram island, at the eastern coast of the Tamil Nadu state of India. Hindu scriptures says that at the request of Vibeeshana, brother of Ravan and ally of Ram, Rama broke the Sethu with one end of his bow and hence the name Dhanushkodi, Dhanush meaning Bow and Kodi meaning end.

                  A severe cyclone in 1964 completely destroyed the flourishing town killing over 1000 people. Since then it has been declared a ghost town. 


Just before start of Journey in sand to Dhanushkodi, 8 kms from town (Rs 5/- bus), is a long and pristine beach. Travelers usually enjoy this beach and spend more time here. One can really spend hours and hours , amazing view of wide expanse of ocean and crisp sound of relentless crashing waves. Beautiful!

I hired a Mahindra Jeep (1970s model) for Rs 1000/- for the tour. Total distance to the confluence of oceans in Gulf of Mannar is around 18 kms, 10kms in land and 8kms in sand. The land part of the distance was covered in no time, one can even reach till this point through buses, fare Rs 5/-. The journey in sand is bit troublesome, normal vehicles will get stuck here and are not allowed.

One can see the remnant of Dhanuskodi town enroute-platform, church, school, railway tracks.

The beach at the confluence of ocean is really wide, pristine and breathtaking. Its a pity that mostly religious tourist come here and is still virgin for others. One can spend hours and hours here-place completely devoid of crowds and is very beautiful.


         The two oceans are very different in character. The Bay of Bengal is really aggressive with really strong waves crashing the shores, while the Indian Ocean is very silent almost like a river. The beach here can put world's top tourist destinations to shame (Pattaya beach is 100 times worse). I spent two hours here and felt like spending some more. Amazing place, its pity people take it as another sightseeing place. One should keep aside at least 6 hours for the Dhanuskodi and beaches around it and that won't be possible in a day tour.

The deal with the Jeep driver was to show me some other sightseeing places as well, but the time constraint of 4 hrs meant that I have to skip those. The sea beach is breathtaking and its deserves that 4 hrs and more.

I went back to my hotel and checked out. Took a auto (town bus also available every 10 mts, Rs 5/-)  for the city bus stand(Rs 50/-) and boarded an express govt bus for Madurai at 1 PM. The fare was around Rs 200/-. The unclean bus running at 60 kmph took 4hrs to cover 170 kms to reach Madurai bus stand at outskirts of city.

The people in the town speak fluent Hindi. There are lot of hotels for stay and restaurants serving authentic south Indian food. There is even a cyber cafe near the temple.

Rameshwaram Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rameswaram
Dhaushkodi Wiki/Cyclone Story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhanushkodi

                                                      Madurai
Meenakshi temple is around 8 kms from the Madurai Govt Bus Stand. I paid Rs 60/- for an auto rickshaw to reach there. There are lot of lodges and hotels in and around Meenakshi temple. I checked into one and negotiated the tariff for 4 hours stay, cost me Rs 500/-. I think there is locker at the temple as well for keeping the luggage.

Meenakshi Sundareshwar temple is really huge, ideal for huge number of pilgrims who visit here. All Indian temples should match at least this scale keeping the huge hindu population in the country in mind. I took ticket for entrance and for photography (Rs 50/- for still and Rs 500/- for video). Guards at the temple do ask for camera tickets so one shouldn't cheat to avoid embarrassment but one can sure take videos using normal digital cameras (paying Rs 50/-) which I did.

You will be greeted by temple elephant at the entrance and one can see people even taking blessings from the animal. I formed the queue and took the darshan of the deity, completely hasslefree. Bought the prasad by paying Rs 100/-, really unadulterated and made using pure ghee, and extremely tasty. I spend lot of time appreciating and taking videos of hallways, stone sculptures, various deities and temple architecture in general.

There is 'Hall of Thousand Pillars' within the temple premises and is a must visit. There is separate entrance and photography ticket ( I used the same photography ticket bought before and it worked). The hall has 985 stone pillars and lot of engineering and artistic sculptures and statues. The hall also has a small museum displaying the 1200 years of temple history.

It took me over two hours to cover everything in the temple and the experience was really very good. At 8.30 pm (temple open till 10.30 pm), I went back to my hotel room, checked out , had dinner and boarded my bus for Bangalore at 10.30 pm. There was mayhem at the Periyar private bus stand and my journey back was very troublesome. I will plan in advance and take train for all my future journeys.

[Foreigners are not allowed beyond a certain point in Meenakshi temple]

Meenakshi Temple Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Temple

Royal Travels-Redbus.in-Madurai to Bangalore

First thing first : *******Do not travel on this bus***********

Booked a ticket from Madurai to Bangalore on Royal Travels through Redbus. Reached the Periyar bus stand in Madurai 1/2 an hour early to board the bus. At the travels office, I was sitting with ease knowing that I will be informed when the bus arrives and journey will be hassle free. I was completely wrong.

First Shocker:  Zero information. Once the time for departure came, I started to inquire about my bus at the counter. The guy looked at the Redbus ticket, then stared at me, asking me to wait. I took three rounds of entire bus stand looking out for Royal bus, sweating profusely, with no success. I saw couple of other woman looking concerned late at night trying to find the bus as well.

Somebody from the management announced that SHAM travels bus to Bangalore has arrived and people started to leave. I got suspicious and enquired at the counter again showing my eticket. The guy said yes this is your bus.


Second Shocker: Royal Travels did not have any bus for Bangalore. Yes, there was NO BUS named Royal Travels.  I took my luggage and went to SHAM travel bus, there I was informed that even this is not my bus and instructed to go to the next bus standing.


At the bus gate they guy confirmed that yes this is the bus that I need to board. This was the same guy whom I asked 10 times before and he chose not to answer. He was expecting me to miss the bus so that he can sell the ticket to other waiting passengers. Extreme mismanagement.


Third Shocker: The bus was poor quality very old bus for the fare of Volvo. The bus finally started to move an hour late and I thought maybe the ordeal for the day was over. I was wrong again.


There was a very loud sound coming from bottom of the bus ( I suspect it coming from faulty axle). It was like generator sound blown into your ears. Very loud. The sound remained for rest of the trip, next 9 hours.

I was surprised to see people refusing to protest, instead using earplugs and trying to sleep. What kind of country have we become. The only guy who protested was an elderly person. He went to cabin to protest.

Fourth Shocker: The staff at the cabin threatened the elderly person to keep quiet and asked him to go back to the seat. Yes, the bus is being run by illiterate goons.

Fifth Shocker: The bus driver with such low quality old bus was driving at over 120 kmph. The bus was overtaking Volvo's and SUVs. The more the driver hit the gas the more unbearable sound the bus produced.

The entire experience was an ordeal which I want to forget in a hurry. The bus business has become huge and the time has come to provide structure & professionalism by involving established corporates. The utter mismanagement and illiterate goons employed at these buses are giving everyone a nightmare.

Redbus.in: The management of Redbus do have the information of wrong doings but they chose to look the other way for sake of revenue and business and include them for online booking. Ethics and integrity are foundation of a great business, which seems to be lacking in Redbus. Forget about customer service & satisfaction - this is too big a word for these guys.

Future of IT- Cloud and More

Technology is changing at a very fast pace and everybody is wondering where all of this is going to end. For the first time all the components of ecosystem are evolving at the same time and changes are disruptive. Advancement in end-user devices, virtualization technology, storage devices and telecommunication- all happening at the same time. And all of this is just making Cloud computing more feasible and viable, which may be the end game.

Ancient time, each town had its own power generation facility. If a new town was envisaged, the infrastructure included a power plant. Then they discovered that this not efficient, why not build a centralized power store which will store electricity form various power generation facility. The towns do not need to own its power plant, they just need to plug into already existing centralized power store, the Grid.
                       
Keeping ones most valuable possession with someone else takes lot of trust and this takes centuries to build. The bank that we see today has evolved over several centuries. But now the trust ecosystem is mature and system robust; making banks the preferred place to keep ones earning. The most valuable possession some place else with zero visibility on whats being done on it. Amazing !

Cloud mirrors both the Grid and Bank system. Its the IT implementation of 'Economics of Scale' concept. Its a global consolidation and centralization IT infrastructure, platform and applications bringing with it significant cost savings.

Every organization needs a messaging system. If there are 1000 organization in a  city, each will setup its own messaging infrastructure. The service needs architect, project managers, subject matter experts for implementation. The infrastructure needs skilled people to manage it round the clock. 1000 infrastructure requires 1000 messaging team to build and operate providing exactly the same service. Not efficient.
                           Cloud messaging service acts like messaging Grid and facilitates people to just plug into into the system instead of investing on infrastructure and skills. Cloud for a town will make 1000 messaging infrastructure redundant, Cloud for the world will make millions messaging infrastructure redundant. Advancement in virtualization, storage and telecommunication (bandwidth) will make this system viable. Result, a per user messaging license now costs $50/year instead of $1000/year, significant cost savings.

cont..

IPL 5 RCB Experience - Chinnaswamy Stadium

Poorly managed event by the IPL franchise at Chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore.

The ordeal starts, when you reach at the stadium and try to find a parking space. Comes the shocker, you can't park it at stadium even though it has space for 500 vehicles, one is supposed to go 1 km down the road to Shivaji Bus Stand to park. Its one-way traffic to the bus stand, what that means for you, is that you've to come back all the way walking.
                               One should park the vehicle in a mall or somewhere or use public transport to visit the stadium. Personal vehicle is a big hassle if you don't have a driver.

Electronic Ticket - If you've booked online then one should go at least 2 hr prior to the match. There is only one single counter manned by one guy at Gate 7 for provisioning gate pass to electronic ticket holders. Thousands with electronic ticket and just one counter, are these people absolutely nuts. I saw a 50 m queue and I had just 15 mts left for the game to start, I had to jump the queue. Not sure when the last person may have got into the stadium, not before 2nd innings that's for sure.
                                                 Why its so hard for these people to arrange at least 10 counters, what is the constraint, why torture people ? There were foreigners in the queue as well looking totally frustrated. Thanks  KSCA.

And the ticket prices are very steep. The minimum ticket available online is for Rs 1,250 and it goes upto over  Rs 1,00,000. I saw tickets being sold at Rs 250, Rs 500, Rs 600 in Pune for a stadium which is 100 times better and the support it got for the first match was tremendous. This RCB people are really very cunning.

The gate to enter the stadium is very narrow. People pushing each other to get into those passages. The return  is even more dangerous when all spectators rush at one go and that dimly lit passage becomes bottleneck and a absolute nightmare.

After paying Rs 1,650 you get a plastic chair which is not fixed. So, far too many chairs crammed into the first few rows, with people pressing against each other while seated. Extremely uncomfortable .

Watching sports at a stadium shouldn't become such a nasty experience. Experience is not just about what happens on the ground, it includes the overall experience. Tons of money is being collected every year, and so little being done. Its one the worst stadium in the country. Dirty walls, compound and surrounding, amidst maddening traffic, narrow entry/exit gates, poor ticket distribution and shoddy management. The whole experience becomes an ordeal, which no one wants to repeat, especially with family and kids.

I wonder why these people can't even do the basics right, why even after so much revenues stadium doesn't change and why people comfort and experience is not respected ? Promoters of RCB should be ashamed of themselves.

The New Born - Life's Biggest Change Agent

Human mind gets bored of things very quickly. When bored it loses enthusiasm, passion and interest. Life ensures that change is permanent and human minds is always engaged because of it.  Multiple seasons makes every year different and interesting. Marriage, kids and family- the changing relations and responsibilities- keeps the mind occupied and busy.

Kids have a very pleasant life in most of the cases. The child years are best, filled with innocence and happiness. The child grows up to become a youth. New found love and romance keeps one involved. Then job; initial few years are very interesting. As 20s dies away, human mind longs for somebody permanent, to call its own. Marriage brings couple of years of fun and post that mind again starts to feel restless. Kid arrives to bring with it new joy and happiness. The next few years, kids life becomes source of joy. The midlife opens new doors of opportunity in career and instills excitement. Kids grow up to become an adult and start their own journey. Journey continues with their marriage and kid. The arrival of children kid signals the beginning of the end of one's generation. One now becomes totally irrelevant and waits for life's second most important change agent- death.

Birth and Death are life's two biggest change agent. The arrival of new born signals the dawn of a new generation and end of a older generation. Its simply extraordinary to witness life in action with regular changes. The birth of a child is like arrival of a most beautiful guest. Such innocence and divine beauty; really kids are god's avatar. Small hands, beautiful smile, the laughter, the cries- everything so wonderful. Not sure who thought of this process or programmed it; greatest of all changes.

No body can escape the life's change agent. Time waits for no one. Every one has to go through this cycle. If one misses one of these change agent in one's life, mind becomes deride of all enthusiasm, excitement and happiness. It wanders aimlessly with no end in sight and gets sick. Humans cant be ever substituted by materialistic ambition or things; they have a very small shelf life in human mind. Wise people realized this centuries ago and created the concept of marriage which facilitates functioning of life's change agents.

The New Flat World

Sometimes when you look back at millennium gone by, you wonder how countries and their business functioned. Colonization, murder, slavery and war in the name of business and money. Your industry needs raw material, find a country which has in abundance, just capture the god damn country. Moreover, there was a gap in technology, knowledge and awareness, which facilitated in putting some countries to higher grounds. Millions benefited from this act of greed; living a very affluent, convenient and easy life for centuries. Thankfully, grounds are being leveled now and technology is playing a big role in it.

The dream of  'one world' was always there and people at various times in history contemplated on its viability. The definition, though, was never clear. Should the physical boundaries be gotten away with, should there be one constitution and law, so on and so forth. With serious differences in access to technology, resources and wealth, the idea never seemed probable. If 'one world' would ever come into being, a new kind of boundary should be defined and then it should be gotten away with.

Countries wealth now is judged by economic metrics which in turn is defined by the business houses there. Industries are playing big role in defining and influencing government action and policies. Businesses no longer work within the physical boundary of the country, their boundary encompasses the whole world now. They produce a product for the world collaborating with the world.

Entrepreneurs today build a global product leveraging the competency of various countries. They may use R&D of US, manufacturing of China and services of India to build a unique competitive product which can compete with the best in the world. Sony tried to do manufacturing in their own country with disasterous results. The labor costs play a big role, so while others are using a low cost destination, one can't just afford to ignore it. One cant wage a war to capture resources but one definitely can acquire it. Chinese and Indian companies are acquiring business from the west to add a competency or to meet a demand. It may have taken 100 years to build Ford but it doesn't necessarily means that every global automobile company will take a century to mature. One can get there in 20 years by acquiring design companies from Italy, factories in red and hiring best skills from around the world. Inorganic growth reduces the gestation period significantly.

Demand is the new king and its in the emerging market. Technology is facilitating the remote skill development and distributing knowledge capital. This unique demand will help in leveling the playing field and usher us into 'one world' era.

Art of Living Ashram Visit - International Center, Kanakpura Road-Bangalore, India

Art of Living is founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Guruji). The institution is involved in teaching yoga & meditation since last three decades and also does lot of social welfare activities - running schools, colleges, etc. for the needy. The foundation is present in over 100 countries.

International Center at Kanakpura road, Bangalore is where it all started and has a ashram where Guruji along with his disciples stay. The sprawling campus spans over several acres and has got hostels, several lecture centers, fountains and lot of plantation.

The center of attraction is VishaLakshi Mantap (VM)- place for all the major activities in the ashram- Meditation courses, Guruji discourses, satsang, etc. Beautiful building with traditional hindu architecture with enough space to accomodate over 500 people. Lot of cushions available to sit or lie down for meditation. The view from the first floor of the building is amazing with nice cool breeze flowing all the time.

The spiritual places must have lot of greenary- trees & plants, vegetation helps in relaxing the mind. Most of the people visit ashrams to run away from dust & pollution. This ashram has got lot of vegetation in and around. The ambience is really good and has got a calming effect. Thats how people should live, amongst nature- flowers, green trees, birds-in harmony with them. The concrete jungle is making people go insane.

The ashram provide rooms for stay- twin, triple & quadruple sharing basis, costing Rs 900, Rs 600 & Rs 300 resp. The hostels are very neat & clean. The waste management is really good, wont find any garbage lying around, a welcome change in Bangalore. Food is provided free to all the ashramities.
                  There are various courses in which one can enroll and learn yoga & meditation. Part I, Part II , Advanced, Yes+, etc. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar discovered Sudarshan Kriya, a form of breathing patterns, and is taught in every courses run here. The Kriya is very powerful and effective, and if done regularly, can really help to clean the cellar filled with lot of garbage in your head.

There is a Lake just behind the ashram and the views around it is very good. I spend some time sitting around the lake and appreciating the beauty of nature. One should take a stroll around it while there. Amazed to see the size of fishes available in the lake.

RadhaKunj is another must see place within the Ashram. This is where Guruji stays with other key disciples. This has got lot of vegetation, lecture halls and a big fountain. Few rabbits, a deer & some birds are other occupants.

The highlight of entire stay is always the Satsang- religious song sung in VM. Satsang happens every weekday from 6.30 PM to 8.30 PM. Some really good singers lend their voice to popular religious compositions. Everybody joins in and the effect it creates is really amazing. Some just go into medititation, some start dancing while others join in the chorus. Guruji, when he is around, delivers his talk post the satsang at this very place.

Art of Living has grown really big. Lot of sevaks are required to run the entire ashram & its various courses & establishments. Bangalore has grown big enough and come close to this ashram. The land of Ashram, running several acres, will be worth several hundred million dollars in future. Usually, these foundations running in the name of one spiritual Guru, do not survive post the passing away of founder. And bitter squabbling over property starts and ruins the sanctity of the institution.

It is to be seen how successfully they manage to come up with a succession policy. Finding a CEO is easy, but finding a suitable enlightened Guru these days is very difficult. Disciples world over need a leader to continue the good work as the Guru is their only guiding light. People renounce everything and devote their lives to spiritual Gurus, making them the purpose & motive of life. I wonder how they cope with passing away of their Gurus. The only motive of life dies, what next.

HRA Calculation - Income Tax Act 1961 - Section 10 ( 13A)- Rule 2a

Step 1: What is defined as Salary?


Salary = Basic Pay + Dearness Allowance (D.A.)
DA – Govt Employees (% Basic)

Private Sector – No D.A.

Step 2: Eligibility Criteria

Three conditions must be fulfilled:

A.HRA Component as part of package
B.Staying in rented accommodation
C.Rent is more that 10% of salary { Basic 40,000/ Rent>4,000}

Step 3: HRA Exemption in Metro & Non-Metro

Metro [Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkata] = 50% of Basic Pay
Non- Metro = 40% of Basic Pay

Step 4: HRA Tax Exemption Calculation

A.What’s your HRA allowance amount (salary slip)?

Ex:
Basic – Rs 40,000
HRA – Rs 20,000
Flexi – Rs 30,000

Ans: Rs 20,000

B.What’s your HRA Exemption amount based on location {metro/non-metro}?

Ex:
Location - Bangalore
Basic – Rs 40,000
HRA – Rs 20,000
Flexi – Rs 30,000

Ans: Bangalore [non-metro]= 40% x Basic = Rs 16,000

C.How much rent have you paid in excess of 10% of your basic pay?

Ex:
Rent Paid – Rs 15,000
Basic – Rs 40,000
HRA – Rs 20,000
Flexi – Rs 30,000

Ans:
10% of Basic = 4,000
Rent paid in excess of 10% of Basic = 15,000 – 4,000=11,000

D. Least of three rule- Income Tax Act, 1961

Least of following three is exempt from tax:

1. Actual HRA received
2. Rent paid in excess of 10% of salary (Basic + DA)
3. 40% of salary in Non-metro (50% if residing in a metro i.e., New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai or Mumbai)

E. Example

Rent Paid – Rs 15,000
Location – Bangalore
Basic – Rs 40,000
HRA – Rs 20,000
Flexi – Rs 30,000

1.Actual HRA received
[Rs 20,000]

2. Rent paid in excess of 10% of salary (Basic + DA)
[15,000-(10%x 40,000)] =11,000

3. 40% of salary in Non-metro (50% if residing in a metro i.e., New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai or Mumbai)
[Bangalore= 40% x 40,000 = 16,000]

Least of three = Rs 11,000

Yearly HRA exempted from Tax calculation = 11,000 x 12 = Rs 132,000
Taxable = 20000(HRA) x 12 - 132000 = Rs 108,000

Step 4: Proof

Rent is < Rs 3,000: No Proof Required

Rent is > Rs 3,000: Rent Receipts Required


Income Tax Act, 1961, Rule 2a