This is amazing, it works

Technology works, not to create magic or inconceivable stuff but to remove the hindrances created by bureaucracy. When I first saw Jaagore ad, I was impressed but not motivated. It was a kind of cheek-slap ad but then we Indians have been taught to show the other cheek (we follow it not because we believe in the principle behind it but rather due to laziness or due to the marginal effort required (MBA stuff).

But then the Jaagore team kept on slapping, throwing cold water on sleepy faces in different ways. In the end I decided to give it a try. First I visited the site and created a form, which is quite simple. But then the biggest value addition is the mention of the ERO details alongwith with a mobile number. I tried calling the ERO but the response was that they have closed enrolment due to ongoing assembly elections and that he doesn't when they would open the counter again, my motivation went back to square one (system doesn't work). During this time, I explained all this to my colleague, who too registered online but then did nothing after that (average Indian). After couple of months, I received another follow up mail from Jaagore saying that enrolment in Delhi is ON and that I can do it now.

The Go-getter in me woke up. I called the ERO who didn't respond but then I used my Google skills (my perception about googling is that by now people have developed so many ways of googling, some efficient and some inefficient that there is a need to conduct Certified Training Programs, basic, advanced specialist etc in googling skills) and found out the landline number (someone will lift the phone, no caller ID hehehe) and found out the location where I need to submit the form BUT then the person said that the date for submission is gone. Alas, after so much effort, it's back to square one again. But then the go-getter wanted to finish it on some action note, so I mailed to Jaagore.com explaining what all happened and request them to check if what I found is true and if something could be done. I received NO RESPONSE. Average Indian Initiativee, after all, at that point it appeared to me that Jaagore's effort are limited to backend and to achieve real success we need local support too. I told about all this to my colleague who happily blamed the system once again like an Average Indian and I joined. After all the blaming, we decided to check with the ERO of his constituency and found that enrolment is open there.

I finally decided to physically check the whole thing and the next day turned up at the place where forms are to be submitted along with all the proofs. After some teething issues, I managed to submit my form and get an acknowledgement, which neither has a number nor a due date. I finally decided to rest the issue and came back. All this happened a month ago.

I kept searching the Delhi online voter list, which is hopeless as everytime I give my name, it brings me back the list of ALL VOTERS in the constituency. I nevertheless tried to check my name but it was useless (the data was as of Feb but I was hoping in vain that it will be updated regularly). Finally on last Saturday I wanted to give it a try again and visited the website of Delhi CEO (interesting abbreviation) and found a number where I can call to check the status. I called the number, gave all my details and then WOW, it worked, I got a alphanumeric number of EPIC (Election Photo Identity Card, :) ). Equipped with this information, I wanted to see my name in the voter list, I visited the site with no positive result again but found a link to a form in which I can punch in may mail ID along with my EPIC number and I'm supposed to get my voter details. I did everthing necessary and expected a mail by evening but looks like even the system is on Holiday.

But then the reason I titled this post "This is Amazing, it works" because at precisely 9:56 AM someone in the CEO office clicked on send reply to all mail requests and I got the enclosed mail along with my voter details, yuppie.

I now can confidently say, in India, world's largest democracy, systems work and that I am gonna vote this time. For those who missed the deadlines and lost motivation, I must say, there is hope. Once the elections are over and the new government comes in, you should finish submitting your Form-6, we don't know if the current political leadership will handle the hung situation like P V Narasimha Rao handled and avert a repoll. Both ways you will be a winner but till then let's Hope for the best.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Election <ceo@mail.nic.in>
Date: Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 9:56 AM
Subject: Voter & Ps location details :UBV1xxxxx6 at 27/04/2009 09:56:03
To: kiran.aalla@gmail.com


Voter & Ps location details UBVxxxxx6

Attachment: 090427r001s6717.html (removed)

Test Blog

I'm trying to experiment with the new feature blogger has come up with. Considering that I get most of my ideas at work, I suppose I can beat the proxy settings and keep posting on my blog. If this works, you can expect some very interesting posts coming your way shortly

Cheers
Kiran

It's Graduation Day at ISB

It's that time of the year again, when 400 odd ambitious and smart youngsters (some oldies too) look forward to receive their graduation certificate (though a dummy one) and toss their Hats in unison.

Lots of people have been asking me about how ISB Class of 2009 has fared in placements and I think last weeks newspapers covered it clearly and adequately. This batch, only after the founding batch has faced problems with placements, thanks to financial melt down and the bearish outlook. But according to me, this is best starting for a long and successful career, a career that is built on one's real capabilities and "Reality" and not on someone's bullish exuberance.

Campus recruitment is a market place in which it is the Employers (buyers)who should be desperate to get a right person for their organization but I don't think it is a place where a student targets a company or two and gets into them. I am not complaining about what happened to our batch last year but then I wouldn't have complained with what happened this year too.

By the time FT reaches this batch for its annual rankings after 3 years, I would bet that this batch would be atleast as good as other batches if not better. I wish each one of the Class of 2009 batch a great success in the year ahead. I hope that Class of 2010, which would be getting started sometime next week, keeps this in mind and doesn't focus on placements but rather focus on building capabilities to handle tough situations.

Feeling good that I have been able to finally finish this post. See you all shortly

Vote for

It's election time in India; slowly but steadily election fever is drawing away eye balls and air-time from the financial meltdown and recession

My tryst with voting this time got triggered by Jaagore. Though the Jaagore initiative didn't quite meet my expectation, it triggered action, which I think is a great achievement in the social space. I finally managed to locate my ERO and submit my voter registration form.

Other dimension of this election is that my earlier boss Shri Dr. Sravan Kumar Dasoju is contesting from Secunderabad parliamentary constituency (Andhra Pradesh). I had sensed this when I met him before moving to Delhi. This person has the energy, passion and guts to take a decision and follow it up with action. He was Head HR in ca reputed IT company in Hyderabad but then he listened to his calling. I hope there are more candidates like this.

With his background I'm sure he would add great value to national skill building initiative. He is so passionate to help people from rural background and those from backward sections, which I happened to witness during my short stint with him. Hat's off Dr. Sravan.

Very few believe in what their heart is saying and very few act upon it. By giving opportunity to such a person, Chiranjeevi, Praja Rajyam Party President, has done a great job. I wish people of this contituency recognize the opportunity to elect such a person who can positively influence livelihood of many sons and daughters of the country.

A website has been set up to support him and I urge all the voters of Andhra Pradesh and Secunderabad constituency visit this site Dr. Sravan's web page and learn more about him.

I located his speech on Youtube, which I think is average and doesn't fully convey what this man really is.


I wish him the best and wish that more people, who believe they can contribute through politics, take such step and change this country.

My thoughts, mixed randomly - 2

While I have abandoned the translation thing, I thought I would share something other thought that occurred to me while at ISB and is still with me.

My question was: How long would firms try to outdo themselves and analyst forecasts, quarter after quarter. And in this mad rush what exactly are they achieving or ending up doing. For me most of the business (and even human) world grows by exploiting nature. There are very few businesses that don't draw from nature. Human beings, as individuals are less potent than they are when they are organized into societies and further into focused institutions called business organizations.

Till a certain extent one can draw from the nature without really impacting the overall picture but as the exploitation crosses a certain limit, there will be impact, small but slowly growing into a devastating one. Once the damage is done, it is difficult to comment whether it can be reversed to any extent. Government, an institution that has been established by society to manage the common activities of the human society surely takes advantage of the authority and keeps on imposing taxes as a price for exploiting nature. But what is government made of? Nothing but other human beings; would these guys in government think differently than those in business? I doubt. They to respond to the situation and react in a way that at least doesn't harm them if not benefit them.

Nature, which we are exploiting without even blinking for a second, is slowly but surely undergoing significant change, definitely a damaging one. For an individual, life is normally in harmony with nature but organized business distorts the harmony and separates the individual from nature and in a certain takes away the sensitivity to Nature and the natural balance.

In our attempt to prove that Markets are perfect and that we can value anything intelligently, we are bothered about discounting the future cash flows and more about the underlying assumptions. And as far as I know, none of the analysts or financial modeling experts consider sustainability or impact of nature while determining terminal value unless the effect is substantial and is well known at that time.

We keep coming up different fads but I really don't see the conviction and belief to take decisions that have very little impact in the short term but have great impact in the future. Somehow we seem to be too selfish and don't care much about what happens after 20-30 years forget about 100-200 years or a 1000 years.

The ad on oil conservation in which the boy comes up with the idea of setting up a cycle repair shop when he grows is a nice depiction of our day to day behavior. We keep acting as if someone else has to come and tell us what to do. This is true even for the top men leading countries and corporations, they too are expecting to be told. If we don't tell ourselves what to do, surely nature will come up with another tsunami or a drought or a hurricane or something far more devastating and unexpected to give the message.

There is nothing wrong in leading a happy life but acting aggressively with Nature is not the right way to happiness.

May be on the extreme side but nevertheless with some truth in it, Stacy Blackman rightly says Did B-Schools Create the Financial Crisis?. Click on link to read more.

My closing thought is this - may be it is time for us to think and decide if what we were trying to do in the last few years in the name of different ideologies is correct or is there are a need to fundamentally change our approach towards the connection between life, business, nature and society and factor that into the day to day life.

Pics from Agra Tour

Some pics from my recent Agra Tour

My thoughts, mixed randomly

A deep thinking classmate of mine recently shared a link through his gtalk status message. The link led me to arecent post about the commencement address delivered by J K Rowling at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.

It's a great piece of reading and inspired me to come back to the blog that I have been ignoring for quite sometime. Coincidentally I came across a piece of paper on which I scribbled my thoughts long back, really long back, back then when I had no idea about what I would do in life.

I thought it would be idea not just to share the link that I could relate strongly but also share how my thoughts were long back and still are. Here it goes:

Victory brings delusions to our mind on the other hand failure brings wisdom and development of personality. Person who didn't experience is like the Lord who doesn't know truth. Failure hits truth on your face. Difficult situations evoke divine qualities such as humanity, empathy, unity etc. Great are the chances for a person to become a demon while in pleasure, for thinking to go bizarre and lead to destruction of the man.

Don't blame difficulties rather listen to silent lessons from them. Pleasure is a kind of intoxication. If you are weak, don't surrender to pleasures rather enjoy and let other enjoy life; don't become a pleasure addict. Not everyone may not be able to speak truth all the time, if you are like that too, at least accept the truth, you will slowly realize that only thing permanent is truth. Heart is like a horse, unless you tie the right blinders, it run towards the truth. If you don't do that, it will start wandering and start getting lost in the unreal illusions.

Huh, I never knew it takes so much effort translate something from my Telugu to English. So I take a break now and would come back later. Meanwhile go through
J K Rowling's address and give it a thought.