Nano Ganesh and Nano Ganesh Hanuman

Yeah... You read it right... These are the names of a new device and its accessories. The device will help the farmer switch on a water pumpset by making a call from a landline, mobile or any PCO in the world.

I really dont know how useful this is going to be for a farmer and the names are amazing. Will the next device is going to be named Toyota Ram and Toyota Ram Lakshman. I think, even the Gods dont know.

Thanks for reading...

A lesson or two from Rajasthan Royals

A very interesting article.

By Sudheesh Venkatesh (The author is Head - Human Resources, Tesco)
Apr 10, 2008, Jaipur:
Neeraj Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Salunkhe, Mahesh Rawat, Siddharth Trivedi and a few others come for practice & trial matches for the Rajasthan Royals.
Shane Warne gets to lead a rag-tag team of cricketers labeled no-hopers and more disparagingly as the "mosquito squadron". Their skill is unknown, but the will seems to be there.
Apr 11-17, 2008, Jaipur:
Darren Berry, Jeremy Snape & Shane Warne, the think tank of Rajasthan Royals pick the team with clear roles for everyone. Darren tells the team
"Don't get away from your role. If you perform your role & I perform mine, we win".

Did I hear someone talk of the benefits of "keeping it simple"?
Warne does not know the opposition players, particularly the new Indian faces. Zubin Barucha is tasked to draw up an analysis of the strengths & weaknesses of each player of the rival teams.
He refreshes this before every match.

Did someone say "if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail"?
Warne meets every member of the team on a 1:1. He does a profiling of each one (almost like an MBTI or a 16PF!) and gets a firsthand assessment of their strengths & motivations.
He reportedly tells each one "We have nothing to lose. This is our moment under the sun. Let us go out there, play good cricket & enjoy."

In a Human Resources MBA course 101, do we read about the importance of "painting the vision & communication" ?
Manoj Badale the owner of Rajasthan Royals tells Warne "You sort out the cricket. I will sort out the business. Our lines will not cross".

Can there be a better demonstration of "role clarity - between ownership & management"?
Apr 19, Feroze Shah Kotla, Delhi:
The first match. The Royals lose to Delhi Daredevils. Warne keeps the faith that his side can bounce back.
While every team is doing elaborate video and computer analysis of the matches, Shane Warne plays inspirational videos for the team. He is understood to have told them "Do not worry about lengthy competition
analysis. In the end, you are only competing with yourself. Matches are won on the ground.

Use common sense. You play the ball, not the bowler".
Apr 21, Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur:
The underdogs, Rajasthan Royals beat Kings XI Punjab. Shane Watson, the senior Australian cricketer scores 76 but praises the young Ravindra Jadeja for his 36.

Did someone say "share the credit?"
Apr 24, Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad:
Warne and Graeme Smith, sworn rivals from earlier are now on the same side. The think tank, like with most teams, has differences of opinion on match strategy & team composition. They reportedly agree to a simple principle "We will honestly debate every issue. Our differences will remain within the four walls. When we meet the team we speak in one voice".

United we stand, divided we fall, don't we?
14 required of 4 deliveries. Andrew Symonds the bowler. Warne, the batsman. Warne smashes 4, 6, and 6 and sets up an unbelievable victory for the Royals.

Can there be a better demonstration of "leading by example". Warne practiced what he preached - he played the ball, not the bowler.
May 7, Dr. D.Y. Patil Stadium, Mumbai:
Away game against Mumbai. The Royals lose by 7 wickets, a big defeat.
Warne calls the team for a serious post-match chat. He is understood to have said "You slogged across the line. Was that part of the role we agreed? Sorry. If you breach the script, no place here". He makes it
amply clear that it is not reputation that matters - performance and performance alone matters.
May 9, Sawai Mansigh Stadium, Jaipur:
Warne plays Yusuf Pathan, a strong middle-order batsman, as an opener. Deccan Chargers, the rival team, is flummoxed. Pathan smashes 68 off 37 and wins the match off his bat.

Did someone say "true leaders, surprise the opposition, they are flexible and play horses for courses".
Mid May, mini- break, Goa:
The foreign players take a break from the busy IPL schedule and are off to Goa. Swapnil Asnodkar, the young promising lad from Goa invites Graeme Smith, Shane Warne & others home for dinner.
Warne and the foreign players jump into a car and head to the Asnodkar home. Grand-dad Asnodkar walks up to Warne with tears in his eyes and says in Hindi "I can die a happy man.
Shane Warne sitting in my lounge room...."

Can there be anything more inspirational for a modest young cricketer than to have the world's greatest bowler come home? Warne had gone beyond the cricket field & made his players, foreign & Indian alike, feel they were one big family. He had won Asnodkar's heart. After this, would Asnodkar do anything but the best, for his Captain?
Zahir, the bag man, lost his mother during the tournament, but stayed on. Why?
May 26, Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur:
Needing 15 runs of the last over, Ravindra Jadeja & Neeraj Patel are at the crease; young rookies, with little big-match experience. They are facing Dilhara Fernando the Sri Lankan seamer, before a sellout crowd and a TV audience running into many millions. Jadeja & Patel script an incredible victory, leaving the rival captain Sachin Tendulkar speechless.

The young guns snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Did a wise man once say "A diamond is only a piece of charcoal that was lucky to be under pressure"?
June 1, Dr. D.Y. Patil Stadium, Mumbai : :
In a cliff-hanger, the "Mosquito squadron “wins the IPL. Warne holds aloft the trophy and tells Dinesh Salunkhe, Mahesh Rawat, Siddharth Trivedi and the others
"It was great to be in the same team. Boys, we don't know if this entire group will be together again. Let us make sure tonight is one of the best nights of our life".

Did I study somewhere that great leaders celebrate success with their teams?
While the more fancied teams (e.g., Mumbai Indians, Bangalore Royal Challengers) and their cricketers went for astronomical bids, Warne and his team got the lowest bid.
In fact Warne did not go for a dollar more than his Reserve price of $450,000.

The Rajasthan Royals proved that great teams just do things "Better, Simpler & Cheaper"
At Tesco, the world's third largest retailer and a very successful business it is often said "A leader is one who can take you to a place, much further than what you imagined".

Shane Warne did exactly that for Rajasthan Royals. He got ordinary cricketers to do extra-ordinary things. He reminded the world that to win, what we need is performance, not icons!

Thanks for reading. Do post your comments.

Why Golf is a great game!!

I have always claimed that Golf is a great game and Ramu, my friend, never agrees. Read the following quotations from an article in TOI on 3rd Sept.

a) "I feel incredible. " Singh said. " I drove the ball beautifully all day and kept the ball in play, never got into much trouble. "
b) Singh again said" Its good to see my ball going in for a change"
c) He said" I have been watching every body else's go in. Its actually nice to stand over and make it like that. Its a great feeling. Ther's nothing better"
d) Weir said" there was more length in all of Singh's on Monday than there has been ever. "

:D Ofcourse, I omitted a few words here and there to make it funny for you guys.
Thanks for reading and happy festivities.
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

Interesting captions

I was going through the property classifieds in Times property section. The following are few captions
a) Make life worth living...... (So this house is the key to salvation to mankind. I am sure even Gautham Buddha never said something like this)
b) The place you will be proud to call yours......
c) Make a life special investing..... (What on earth does this mean)

Thanks for reading.
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

It happens in Hyderabad...

Yesterday a friend of mine and me were going for a cuppa at 11 pm in the night. I was driving the bike and my friend was on the pillion. He was enjoying the drive and was also smoking. At a cross, a cop, to be precise a constable, stopped us and said that smoking in public place attracts hefty fine. :)

We tried reasoning by saying that the law is not implemented as keenly as the OBC recommendations in institutes of higher education were implemented. But, the cop said that we can escape by giving him 200 bucks.

Thats when I played the trick that did him in. I told him that we wont pay any money now, but will come to the court of law, knowing fully well that a lone constable at 11 pm in the night has no authority or feasibility to file a case in the court of law.

The constable relented and atlast settled for 20 bucks. We gave him 10 bucks and a ciggy.

Probably we did break the law, but we felt smart at the end of the whole episode.

Thanks for reading.

How do chicken lay eggs...

Believe it or not, the egg laying process for a chicken begins in its eye. Chickens lay eggs only after receiving a light cue, either from natural sunlight entering a coop or artificial light illuminating a commercial egg hatchery. The light stimulates a photo-receptive gland near the chicken's eye, which in turn triggers the release of an egg cell from the chicken's ovary.

Most chickens lay eggs on an almost daily basis, unlike other mammals only release an egg every thirty days or so. The chicken also releases a small disk of material which surrounds the egg cell and provides nutrition. The chicken's uterus also fills up with albumen , the viscous substance we know better as egg white.

Meanwhile, a membrane forms around the inside uterine wall, which seals in the egg cell, yolk and albumen. Eventually a mixture of water, salt and calcium this membrane and form a thin but structurally sturdy outer shell. This shell is molded in the shape of the uterine wall, thus giving a chicken's egg its distinctive shape. While in the uterus, the egg's narrower end points downward, but it will later turn and be ejected wider end first.

Once the egg has fully formed, the chicken's uterus begins to contract in an effort to expel it. The egg moves down a vaginal canal towards an external opening known as a vent. The vent is a common opening for both egg laying and waste elimination, but a chicken cannot perform both functions at the same time. An internal flap known as a cloaca keeps the vaginal canal and the intestinal track separate until either an egg or excrement reach the vent. When a chicken is laying an egg, the cloaca descends and blocks the intestinal track.

Once the egg passes the cloaca, it is carefully expelled through a series of muscular contractions which essentially turn the vaginal canal and cloaca inside out at one point. Eventually the egg is pushed out through the vent and ideally lands intact on the ground. Many chickens let out an audible cluck at this point, but designated egg layers rarely display any other maternal concern. These chickens lay eggs every 24 to 36 hours at the height of their productive years, so individual eggs rarely attract their attention.

Once a chicken lays a certain number of eggs, it may stop producing more eggs and go into a "brooding" stage, a maternal stage in which the mother will sit on her eggs until they hatch. In order to prevent egg layers from brooding, freshly laid eggs must be removed on a daily basis. Chickens lay eggs as long as they believe they need more to form a proper brood. The egg laying process continues whether or not a rooster provides enough sperm for fertilization. A chicken cannot tell if an individual egg has been successfully fertilized or not

Sycophancy in the election year

Democracy is not better than the other forms of government for this reason. Sycophancy, otherwise how will you explain this.

This is a common mail from SimplyMarry to me. This is too bad a marketing trick. Is the site helping people get married/find their soul mates or is it acting as a disincentive. Please ponder.

Thanks for the read.

SAD makes BJP happy, says it's with NDA

Confused... SAD stands for Shiromani Akali Dal, a key constituent of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. For more info, read this.

Thanks for reading.

My current Mood...

The following lines describe the current phase of my life:

You said its over, I said thats ok and that I wasnt in to you anyway
I told you lately, you irritate me your laugh is too loud
Youre the last girl Id look at If you were in a crowd

Could you tell I was lying and hiding the truth away

And what I really wanted to say, Is you are incredible you are amazing
You blow my mind one of a kind.
You are incredible you are amazing, But sometimes telling the truth
Is easier said than done,

Dont leave baby - Now thats what I meant to say

My worlds not ending Ill be just fine
Thats what my mouth said But not what I felt inside
I told you baby, You are not the answer to all of my prayers
Cos I will find many other girls

Could you tell? I was lying and hiding the truth away And what I really wanted to say

Well I said I didnt care about what you felt about me Couldnt care less about what I said or done
I didnt mean it - its not what I meant to say

You know the truth is that I care About what you think about me

Maybe too much, Ive been puttin on a front I didnt mean it - and what I meant to say

Is you are incredible you are amazing You blow my mind one of a kind
You are incredible you are amazing, But sometimes telling the truth
Is easier said than done,

Dont leave baby now thats what I meant to say

:( Thanks for reading....

Britney searching a quieter, greener home

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Britney-searching-a-quieter-greener-home/329797/

If you have a spare room, please let her know...

If you ask me about the spare room at my house, I recently gave it to my friend Bhushan to occupy....

An interesting Commercial...

Nice Video

Anger and its consequences

Found this interesting post as a reply to Mr. Bachan's blog. It was about a gentleman on anger and its consequences. Nice read.

Panchapakesan V Iyer Says:
July 1st, 2008 at 9:45 am

Dear Sire,
Namaskaaram,
The kama and krodha has never done any good to individual or to the society at large. There have been many many precedence in our history & mythology, which repeatedly highlighted the fact that such person perish ignominiously.

I recollect a small story on how Anger and hatred could inflict a invisible wound that would leave scar in victims mind for his lifetime.

“There once was a boy who had a very bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that from now on, each time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into their beautiful white picket fence. The first day the boy drove in thirty-seven nails.

Over the next few weeks, he learned to control his anger — the number of nails he hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to go outside and drive those nails into the fence. When he told his father about this, he suggested that the boy now start pulling out a nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. Finally, the day came when the young boy was able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

That evening, he took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “Son, you have done well but look at the holes you’ve made here. Our beautiful fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger to the people you love, they leave deep, ugly holes just like these. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound will still be there”.

I pray almighty to bestow the moral strength, will-power and peace upon all.
|| LOKASAMASTA SUKHINO BHAVANTU ||

Namaskaaram,

Panchapakesan V Iyer

Thanks for reading..

Pilots missed the station...

On a long journey it frequently happens that you miss the station because you overslept in the bus/train. Have you ever heard a bus driver/train pilot missing a station because he/she slept???

It happened in an Air India Dubai-Jaipur-Mumbai flight that the pilots went past Mumbai to Goa, because they were sleeping... You dont believe me?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Plane_overshoots_Mumbai_as_both_pilots_go_to_sleep/articleshow/msid-3165569,curpg-2.cms

Thanks for reading...

'Opium financed British rule in India'

Amitav Ghosh in his new book says that Opium was the main contributor to the British rule in India. He also says that this led to large scale agriculture imbalance as farmers shifted from food grains to opium cultivation. Lord Warren Hastings also used Opium to balance of trade with China in the 1970s. Its an interesting article. You can read it at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7460682.stm

Thanks for reading.

Inflation linked salary...

When I was offered the job on campus, the inflation was around 4-5%. I was happy with the package and extremely thrilled with the take home component. I joined the company in May 2008 and the inflation was around 7.92%. This week the inflation is around 11.5%. The only thing that has remained constant throughout has been my salary. It has never increased.

I would strongly recommend that the salary of an individual should be linked to the inflation figures and revised every month. This should be apart from the performance apprisal every half year/quarter. The performance apprisal should not include the inflation component anymore.

Its just a thought from a frustrated mind. Thanks for reading.

Telangana and its problem to AP

Telangana is a dry, semi-arid part of a state which is the only one in the South of India to have the delta of two prominent rivers, Godavari and Krishna. This disparity has resulted in over dependence of one region on the other for necessities. Not to say about the misrepresentation of one region in the corridors of power. These coupled with other factors even resulted in Telanganna becoming a major contributor to the PWG problem in South India.

Till the TDP came to power for the first time in the 80's, Congress was the only major party of AP. TDP came into power with a huge majority and it was a happy ride for them. After coming to power in 1995, TDP ruled for 9 long years. Anti incumbency wave struck and in 2004, it lost badly winning only 49 seats out of 272 odd seats. Even though Congress got a clear majority, a chunk of Telangana seats were won by TRS, a party established with the goal of creating a seperate state for Telangana. As they say history repeats itself, even this party came to power, took up plum positions in the central cabinet and life was back to normal. Nobody cared for the creation of the seperate state.

The current developments in the state of AP is interesting. Either it is the fantasy of a largely unknown leader, who always remained under the shadows of Mr. Naidu to claim his share or is it a well thought out plan of Naidu to dilute the public support to Telanganna. This only time will tell..

ULIP vs SIP

Fresh into a job, I wanted to ensure that my savings gets into the right hands. Hence, I realised that I will do my own research and also talk to the so called Relationship Managers from various fund houses and brokerages.

This particular guy from one of the very aggressive fund house, contacted me and I gave him an appointment. This guy wanted to sell me an ULIP. He was speaking about the spectacular gains and doubling of my investment and all. When I asked him for the charges, he gave me some arbit answers. On further questioning, he said that they get a big commission on ULIPs and hence they want to sell it first. Then he suggested me to go for an SIP into a couple of MFs, say DSP ML 100, Reliance RSF and ICICI Pru Infrastructure.

I suggest to you guys the same thing. In ULIPS the NAV might double in say 3 years, but the charges are way too high than compared to MFs. And who said that a good MF doesnt double in 3 years??

Before doing your SIP do your research well. Once you put your money in a wrong product, then it might be difficult to recover even the capital from it.

Benefits of SIP :

Benefit 1 : Become a disciplined Investor. Investing is a marathon and not a 100m dash ! Do it brick by brick

Benefit 2 : Reach your financial goals. If you want to buy a car and do not know where the down payment is going to come
from, SIP is a perfect tool

Benefit 3 : Take advantage of Rupee Cost Averaging (see example)

Benefit 4 : Take advantage of Power of Compounding (see example)

Benefit 5 : Do all this efforlessly by signing an application form & with ECS

EuroCup 2008 - Austria verus Germany

Austria lost to Germany in the Euro Cup 2008, but they can be happy that they won this match http://www.stuff.co.nz/4585754a18075.html

Apart from the Austrian team, it was a delight for everyone who went to watch this match. At the end of the match, I am sure the traditional shirt swapping was not an option.

One of the players was quoted saying, ""I was supposed to hold the balls but I really have no idea how to do that"

Chinnaswamy Mudaliar says, "She was playing at the wrong place to hold the balls right"

An onlooker says "They might have to work on their technique a bit but it was definitely a rather pleasant game to watch and a very nice version of the 'beautiful game',"

Somnath Banerjee says "This guy is the true football lover. We would like the UPA Government to learn from this. "

At the end of the day, this was a beautiful game for sure.

Lessons from my cooking adventures

Lesson for today: Never ever boil an egg in a microwave, keeping the lid closed for five minutes. It will cause an explosion which will leave you cleaning the kitchen and eventually get late to office. :)