tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86231180253466382452024-03-06T09:37:33.923+05:30doodling thoughts...Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.comBlogger176125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-86208281936631811442021-05-02T15:16:00.002+05:302021-05-02T15:18:48.670+05:30What if it's all a video game<p>What if we made a video game in which we can teleport ourselves into the characters for the duration of play and for that duration, we forget our true selves and live the lives of characters. The game deploys an advanced form of Machine Learning (ML) that allows it to design its own trajectory.</p><p>What if we are all in that game right now. We have built our virtual lives and families. We have developed what we call medical science that prolongs our lives in the game. But when we die, it's game over for the character and 'we' gain back our real consciousness. And hey, turns out mum is calling, food is getting cold. We may be left with certain emotions about how this particular session of the game turned out but since we know it was an artificial game, we don't give much thought to these emotions. Meanwhile, in the game, the family of the deceased is devastated by the loss and it changes the course of characters' entire game lives. The children grow up without a parent, the parents grieve for the loss of a child, and what not.</p><p>In early days of this game, real world players felt lingering emotions that needed to be addressed by therapy. But over time, a lot of resources got developed to help get over these emotions. Perhaps, a new branch of therapy developed. And then the industry became so pervasive that people learned to overcome such temporary emotions like nothing happened.</p><p>And a pandemic is just a new complication released by the developer in the 2019 update of the game. Just to spice things up for the real world players while the characters lives are ravaged.</p><p>As they say in our virtual world within this game, the soul never dies. Well, apparently, it doesn't. Because the same real world player will reincarnate in another character in the next session.</p><p>So enjoy while it lasts. It's not real. It can't be, with all that's happening in the world!</p>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-18308752791971136572020-12-25T02:18:00.005+05:302020-12-25T02:25:49.062+05:30The reason of being You!<p style="text-align: left;">-> If you were to go tomorrow, would you say you lived a meaningful life?<br />-> What is your identity?<br />-> What are your values? Do your life choices align with them?</p><p>I just finished 'When Breath Becomes Air' by Paul Kalanithi. He wrote this book just before his death. It's an account of his thought provoking journey from being a curious student to a doctor to a patient to a father, written with the clear perspective of someone who is terminally ill.</p><p>Some thoughts really stood out for me - </p><p>"You can't ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving." He says this in the context of actively engaging with death as he tries to help his patients beat death, while knowing fully well the deck is stacked against him and that death always wins. This is a beautiful phrasing of what we all experience everyday.</p><p>"Before operating on a patient's brain, I must first understand his mind: his identity, his values, what makes his life worth living, and what devastation makes it reasonable to let that life end." The context is the judgement a neurosurgeon has to make when planning high risk operations. A millimetre of difference can debilitate the patient in various ways.</p><p>"When you come to one of the many moments in life where you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world, do not, I pray, discount that you filled a dying man's days with a sated joy, a joy unknown to me in all my prior years, a joy that does not hunger for more and more but rests, satisfied. In this time, right now, that is an enormous thing." His message to his baby daughter who was 9 months old when he died.</p><p>"In the end, it cannot be doubted that each of us can see only a part of the picture. The doctor sees one, the patient another, the engineer a third, the economist a fourth, the pearl diver a fifth, the alcoholic a sixth, the cable guy a seventh, the sheep farmer an eighth, the Indian beggar a ninth, the pastor a tenth. Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete." He says in his search for truth.</p><p>When you see life from a dying person's eyes, it shines a light on how you've lived your own. And for me, sadly, it doesn't look good. </p><p>But it's never too late to begin to strive for that asymptote. My line will perhaps remain a bit farther from the curve but, if I start now then perhaps by the end of my life, I'd still have made a journey towards that imaginary point where the line meets the curve and perfection lies.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPtCG3VuwMLH5GY2MrNgtng0QEiQhQ5skJf1cqBHmZ8pl-FJj5bqI2mGQ0GBrJ4FKcCbhdAy_Njaqdseo0MfsSLAQuIDxG_LAHJ8fus9Nf5RyK0mAebiBxddQyLat6U0D5J8hSrTyJaHtd/s2048/IMG_0611.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPtCG3VuwMLH5GY2MrNgtng0QEiQhQ5skJf1cqBHmZ8pl-FJj5bqI2mGQ0GBrJ4FKcCbhdAy_Njaqdseo0MfsSLAQuIDxG_LAHJ8fus9Nf5RyK0mAebiBxddQyLat6U0D5J8hSrTyJaHtd/s320/IMG_0611.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-9581433588081463172020-12-20T23:55:00.017+05:302020-12-21T00:25:35.896+05:30Sodium turns 37<p>Every birthday is well spent reflecting. Reflecting on where you are, how you feel and what do you want to do differently over the next one year that aligns well with your longer term aspirations. It's easier said than done. I spent the day gardening today and didn't reflect much more than some winter sunlight.</p><p>But a line in my wife's card that accompanied my birthday cake note jolted me - "This is the oldest you have been and the youngest you will ever be again." It's true yet so easily forgotten. It made me come back to the milestone reflection at the end of my busy day.</p><p>I am an imperfect man. I am blessed (touch wood). People, in general, have been kind to me. Luck has favoured me as much as it hasn't. </p><p>I feel full of gratitude for what I have. My role in my family and my place in the socio-economic fabric gives me a degree of influence on those around me. And because of that I also feel a certain responsibility. My temperament, words, and actions matter more and more for those around me. Emotionally, I almost have to slow myself down, just so that I weigh everything I convey even subtly. Suddenly, the realisation that I am an adult is acute. Not just an adult who's eligible to vote. But an adult who can raise a man and make him a good human being. An adult who can be a good husband. An adult who can be an elder of the family. An adult who can lead people. These are all the things I want to be and, in the long term, I hope I will be.</p><p>So next one year is a year of that emotional maturity. It's a year of practicing gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, empathy and resilience. Of being a dad my son can always be proud of.</p><p>And on that note, it's a year of spending time with a fast growing baby, who'll never be 1.5 year old again, while trying to be a caring son, a good husband and a responsible sibling. It can feel too much but with some values and principles to drive the thinking, it's not impossible.</p><p>It's also a year of continuing to learn but with more stepping back; less wasteful distraction from digital devices, more reading and writing, about Macroeconomics and Sociology, both of which build more common sense; perhaps picking up this blog again.</p><p>Life is a journey and, as I begin a new year on this journey, I remind myself of these timeless lines from Robert Frost,</p><p><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The woods are lovely, dark and deep,</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">But I have promises to keep,</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">And miles to go before I sleep,</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">And miles to go before I sleep</span></p>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-2887399772784454912017-12-30T12:33:00.000+05:302017-12-30T12:51:44.842+05:30To start up or not to start up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
An well respected entrepreneur friend who's doing very well and has huge potential ahead of him asked me yesterday if I am considering starting my own sometime.<br />
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We got into a thought provoking discussion around why one should do so and how each of us was thinking about it. We also exchanged philosophical ideas that motivate each of us. I decided to write this to gather a balanced set of views from others that may help people who find themselves at such cross-roads.<br />
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For me an important question to ask is what really should be the motivation for someone to start their own. My experience has taught me that you should think about where you can have the most impact on the world. It can be either economic or social depending upon your interest. That doesn't matter because you can be an employee or an owner in either of these spheres.<br />
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Your impact in a corporate job depends upon the kind of role you're in and the kind of company you're in. If you're in a limited role in a low-moderate growth company you may have a higher chance of increasing your impact by joining or setting up a start up. The importance of the transformational nature of your start up idea is lesser in this situation. And if you're in a broader role or in a good trajectory in a fast growth company then you may have higher impact in the span of your career in a corporate role than through your own business. Unless you work on something truly transformational, by which I mean what the likes of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Uber did. They built platforms that were truly scalable and capable of providing opportunities to millions of more people and businesses.<br />
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I think the first situation is an easier decision. The second situation tests your judgement. You could say that, at the time of starting, you'll not know the true transformative potential of your idea, e.g., a lot of people didn't realize the potential of the idea of Facebook in its early days. But it's also easy to fail to question your judgement that what you're working on truly has unidentified potential.<br />
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Start up landscape is a mix of good and not-so-good in everything - ideas, business models, people. While some are fixing an important problem, others are getting influenced by the trend.<br />
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I am not perfect and I don't always find it easy to follow what deep down I believe is the right thing. But for this one my answer is focus on impact.</div>
Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-50118564590450977312016-11-09T16:23:00.001+05:302016-11-09T16:23:27.272+05:30The informal world<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was a democratic supporter because I thought Donald doesn't have the temperament to be a world leader. Yet Donald won the election by a good margin and swung many dicy states in his favour. What struck the chord with the public at large? Perhaps a part of it was the hope of Donald changing the trajectory of the financial prospects of a common American whereas with Hillary they could hope only the continuation of the current trajectory. But perhaps there was another subtle part at play.<br />
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Why did Donald's volatile temperament and inflammable words not swing the public opinion against him? The answer could be in the informal world we live in today. Remember when we were kids, our school teacher taught us extensive templates in which to write news reports, headlines, applications, letters, telegrams, etc.! But the communication media of today emphasise short, to-the-point, and direct language even at the expense of grammar and with complete disregard to whatever we were taught about syntax. People today have little time and energy for formality, for keeping two sides of their personality - a professional and a personal one. That's why you see people cheering to Barack Obama going to The Tonight Show and being himself. Deep within, who doesn't have thoughts and ideas that would make public scoff at them yet only few have the guts to come out in the open and put these in words. Donald did exactly that. He portrayed his true self. He didn't mince any words. He said what came to his mind. He said what he thought.<br />
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And this didn't happen suddenly. Barack Obama had already given a bridge from a typical formal behaviour to this completely informal behaviour. He was somewhere in between, folding sleeves while wearing a tie, appearing on prime time shows, recording an appearance with Jerry Seinfeld, orchestrating light moments with world leaders, etc. What Donald did was taking it further afar. He was completely informal. He didn't behave like a typical socially accepted 'leader'. He became one of them. Perhaps that's what stuck a chord with the public. What do you think?</div>
Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-27467128742670861352016-09-14T17:27:00.002+05:302016-09-14T17:28:43.223+05:30The world of driverless cars<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When driverless technology starts maturing and is proven to be safe, the cars will not require a manual override. So steering wheel will be taken out. The car will essentially have a navigation screen in which you fill the destination coordinates, choose the path, and press 'Go'.<br />
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Urged by regulators and governments, car companies will leverage this technology to reduce pollution, reduce energy consumption, and reduce road congestion. The cars will no longer look like the present day integrated vehicles with two seats in front and typically at least two seats in back (except in few high end luxury cars). The idea will be that if one person is travelling, why does he need to carry along an empty compartment! So the design of future will be modular. You would have a driving unit which will have one seat and will attach as many additional passenger units as required. Various flexible layouts of modular units will be possible depending upon how many units are travelling. So if only two people are travelling you can either connect the units side by side or front to back. If three people are travelling, you can either connect the units linearly back to back or like a current three wheeler with one unit in the front and two in the back. The software will automatically detect the layout and align the transmission and coordination between wheels of various units accordingly. The most visible impact of the modular design will be that it will significantly reduce traffic congestion.<br />
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Cars will be electric and will run on batteries. Batteries will be chargeable by either electric or solar power. You will not need a new extensive infrastructure of charging stations to support your hybrid driverless car. Batteries will be light and detachable. You will charge them at home by plugging into one of the sockets. There will also be a small inbuilt battery to store solar power in the interest of further fuel economy, energy conservation and environmental protection. The cars will also have an emergency mode of running directly on solar power though with significantly reduced performance. You will usually have spare battery banks like you have for mobile phones today. They will be working on various futuristic technologies like controlled fission of atoms and using water or air as a fuel. Perhaps you will see some trial runs of these technologies in your lifespan.<br />
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Driverless driving will improve inter-vehicle coordination on the road substantially so accidents will be rare and car bodies will mostly be scratch free. Reduced risk of damage will encourage higher borrowing of passenger units or even driver units from your neighbour, friend, or relative. If your friend lives some distance away from your home the driving unit can potentially autonomously go and return the passenger unit to the owner and then come back home itself. The cars will have embedded security technology to prevent theft when the car is travelling without you.<br />
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Insurance premiums will reduce significantly because of reduced risk of vehicular damage. To compensate the per unit realisation (i.e., premiums per policy), insurance companies will count on higher volumes (units sold) as cheaper technology becomes accessible to lower income groups also either through private ownership or through taxi services.<br />
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Various fleet management companies will operate driverless taxies and use a fleet management software commercially available from leading software companies. This software will act as an interface between various driving units and will help them talk to each other. If you booked a pick up for two people then the nearby driving unit accepting your request will either have the second unit on itself or will coordinate with another driving unit nearby which has a spare passenger unit. If no other nearby unit has a spare passenger unit then this driving unit will request additional passenger unit from the closest stand. Another driving unit will directly come to deliver it to your place while your booked driving unit comes to you from another direction around the same time. The time taken for such coordination will reflect in your pre-boarding waiting period for which you will of course not be charged. In case the driving unit that accepts your request has an extra passenger unit which is not required for your trip, it can either hand it over to another passing driving unit which may need it or leave it at the closest stand on the way either before or after you board.<br />
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For those who enjoy driving for pleasure, expensive convertibles will be available from a few car companies. They will look more like present day's integrated vehicles with multiple seats but will come with advanced automation and networking features. They will have both manual and driverless modes of operation. However, if you flout traffic rules intentionally or unintentionally, the traffic police's GPS driven network monitoring software will detect you and take appropriate action. You will not only be penalised for disturbing traffic but also be sued by insurance companies for any damage to other vehicles.<br />
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The changes will be easier for developed countries to adopt. However, developing countries will need to completely overhaul their traffic rules education and enforcement system to enable the driverless cars to drive without running over careless pedestrians or ramming into manual drivers with no knowledge of traffic rules. This will take time. For a while the divide between developed and developing countries will increase.</div>
Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-1060590373176673892016-09-13T21:20:00.004+05:302016-09-13T21:27:50.112+05:30What's with this personal data security!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A few days ago, there was this huge outcry about Whatsapp asking you to share your phone number with its parent, Facebook. A lot of informed people not only opted out of it but took it as their duty to educate the general public about the same. What right does a business have to access our personal information, even if for a service!<br />
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It's astonishing how valuable Whatsapp has been to our lives. It's a simple piece of software to which even our illiterate parents/grand-parents have adopted naturally. It has helped large families, alumni groups, teams, etc. keep connected with each other every minute of the day. It has filled a lot of available time in the everyday life of our retired parents with jokes, funny videos, motivational messages, and well with its fair share of hoax. It has united classmates from the previous generation. In ways unique to each individual context, it has added a lot of value to our lives. It has almost become an indispensable part of our lives. And it has done all this for free.<br />
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How do we price such an added value to our lives? How much are we willing to pay for this value? Perhaps nothing if you ask millions of people using it. Not until the last such service goes out of business not being able to pay for itself and we're left isolated, unconnected, undiscoverable. And it takes time after any such existing service goes out of business and before new one gains a critical mass to offer the same level of connectivity. If this happens 2-3 times, people will get tired of switching and perhaps the world will not be as connected much before the last service dies.<br />
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So here is a company asking for no money but just for you to share your phone number with its parent platform. A number which you've perhaps already put on your profile page on its parent platform, whether visible or invisible to the public. A number which you've perhaps shared with it so that it can allow you to reset your password using your phone number in case you forget it. A number which you happily give to every retail chain on the street just to earn 1% purchase value worth of loyalty points. Let's face it, you're anyways going to see ads on your Facebook wall. What will happen if this company is able to get a better picture of your preferences by linking Whatsapp? You'll get more relevant ads. It may actually end up saving you some time, improving your experience with ads, or adding to your gratification!</div>
Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-55772932783941034982016-09-13T20:49:00.002+05:302016-09-13T20:49:29.577+05:30Cute little babies!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I went to a tea lounge the other day in a market. After a few minutes, a small family came and sat on the adjacent table. They had a very little cute baby girl with them. Her mother put her up on the table beside me and she kept looking at me after that without much of a comprehension. It was very cute. But I couldn't help but think, however nonsensically, that...<br />
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...if babies were to be compared to a computer at that point of time, they would be a state-of-the-art hardware built to very high specifications but with a primitive operating system, like an MS DOS on a 2016 Dell machine!<br />
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Well, on second thoughts there is an important patch of code to this version of MS DOS, it supports machine learning!<br />
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Sorry folks, random meanderings of a wasted mind!</div>
Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-4552847855939458802016-09-09T16:26:00.002+05:302016-09-10T13:56:35.570+05:30Economics of e-commerce<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="p1">
E-commerce is an exciting new industry in India. A large number of horizontal and vertical players are battling it out to win. Everybody is bleeding. Everybody is experimenting with new ways of winning over customers' loyalty. Leadership is changing hands every few months. Employees aren't sure who to bet their careers on. Investors are hedging their bets by putting money in multiple competing players and watching with nervousness as newer players with deeper pockets keep entering and stakes keep getting higher. Leadership of traditional industries is confused whether to jump into it to protect their market share at high cost or wait for clarity at the risk of being too late. What happens eventually is sure to serve as an extremely important learning experience for businesses and the current generation of young leaders on how to do business, and not just in the digital world but also in any new worlds of the future.<br />
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But the fundamentals of doing businesses still remain. Business exists to generate a higher RoI than the opportunity cost of capital. If a business cannot generate a short term RoI higher than the interest of, say, a fixed deposit, yours truly as a retail investor would rather keep his money in a FD rather than buy the stock of that business. But if yours truly however invested for a living then he would perhaps be willing take slightly longer term bets and say that the business should give him a higher 8-10 year RoI than the opportunity cost of capital. He would perhaps not try to look beyond 10 years because the world these days changes so fast that the assumptions made in earlier years may become invalid by the 10th year.<br />
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But to make an informed call over an 8-10 year period, he would try to model some assumptions of how the business would do on some fundamental drivers. This will help him set clear targets for the business on these assumptions and from time to time take any hard calls required to get the business back on track on these fundamentals. If the business still doesn't get its act together then it will help him to pack his bags and exit while the losses are still low. But if yours truly was getting paid a sure x% of the funds under management every year, he will need to summon all his ethics not to be creative with these assumptions and not put money where the assumptions for a reasonable RoI are unrealistic. [Blame it on his principles but yours truly will also not hand over his dough to anyone who is starting up to be sold or make money. He would rather give his dough to people who have a real purpose and a set of guiding values for the business].<br />
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Yours truly deconstructed the economics of e-commerce to understand the underlying components. As an outsider if you want to roughly assess the likely success of a business, you could do the following steps:<br />
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<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Try to find out the annual losses so far.</li>
<li>Estimate the future annual cash flows based on your assumptions of how the business will do on each of the fundamental components as explained later in this post</li>
<li>Use your opportunity cost of capital as the discount rate and calculate the current value of all cash flows</li>
<li>Try to see how many years it will take for the business to give a positive NPV. Do you think the assumptions can be considered valid for these many years, given the pace of change? Is the NPV positive in your reasonable investment horizon?</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="p1">
<b>To try to understand the fundamental components, let's deconstruct the economics of the e-commerce, i.e., the equation of annual profitability:</b></div>
<div class="p1">
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<div class="p1">
Profit = Contribution margin - Marketing expenses - Fixed costs<br />
= [Unique visitors X Conversion rate (Orders/UV) X Average order value X Unit economics (Gross margin per order)] - Marketing expenses - Fixed costs<br />
= [Unique visitors X Repeat rate (Visits/unique-visitor) X Conversion rate (Orders/Visit) X Average order value X Unit economics (Gross margin per order)] - Marketing expenses - Fixed costs</div>
<div class="p1">
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<div class="p1">
As an investor, you want the above equation to return a positive value as soon as possible. For that you could set operational targets on each of the components for the management of the company and do periodic review to identify where the management needs help or where you need to take any extraordinary steps.<br />
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<b>Here is a look at each of the components in detail:</b></div>
<div class="p1">
<b><br />
</b></div>
<div class="p1">
<b><u>Unique visitors:</u></b></div>
<div class="p1">
E-commerce business is usually characterised by heavy network effects, i.e., the more unique visitors you have, the more sellers want to sell on your platform, and the more sellers you have, the more is the likelihood of visitors converting (i.e., doing a transaction on the platform). So a very important thing in building a good e-commerce platform is acquiring more and more unique visitors and increasing the value of your platform. Another way of thinking about this is that because of low barriers to entry, e-commerce is a low margin business so a high volume is required to make money. Hence, more the number of transacting users the better it is for the platform profitability. That's why businesses spend so much in customer acquisition early on even at the risk of sustainability. </div>
<div class="p1">
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It's because of this that e-commerce is expected to constitute almost 25% of the TV spending and 15% of the total digital spending in India in 2016. As a result of this competition to acquire the same customer, the cost of acquisition of customers has gone through the roof. Both digital and offline are so expensive that no sane assumptions around drivers of customer lifetime value (LTV) seem to justify the cost of customer acquisition (CAC) for e-commerce platforms. It takes a lot of creative accounting on the part of start-ups to convince the investors of the sustainability of their customer acquisition economics and business sustainability. Why are platforms spending so much then? Because if they don't do so they're anyway doomed to die so they might as well go all in! Everybody hopes eventually they will be able to build a loyal customer base that they can then mine.<br />
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A good customer acquisition strategy will segment the target customers into various groups each of which can be reached in its unique ways based on its behaviour, geography, etc. A very rough example is that digital channels will typically give access to urban, highly educated, mid to higher income group individuals whereas mass media (TV/Radio/Newspaper/Bill boards) will also give access to broader segments, e.g., tier -2/3 towns, low to moderately educated, and lower income group individuals.<br />
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In India the fight for urban customers in the top 12 odd cities is intense because they are the early adopters of e-commerce and also have higher purchasing power. However, the next phase of growth is expected to come from high volumes of lower income customers in tier 2/3 towns. That's where non-digital channels will become more important.<br />
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And when you reach a potential customer, the next important thing is what story you tell. That's why one needs to identify what they stand for and what differentiates them so that the customer will remember them. In Seth Godin's words, this is where business needs to create itself a purple cow that the customer will remember.<br />
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To assess company's performance on this dimension, an investor will need to keep a tab on the market share (Daily or Monthly active visitors on the platform as a percentage of the total Daily or Monthly active visitors on all platforms or as a percentage of the total internet users or as a percentage of Facebook's daily/monthly active users for a proxy of internet users). There is no right target for a market share. Whatever makes your overall equation profitable becomes the lowest threshold. Sustaining that market share will impact the other components of your economics which may lead you to revise your market share target. This will act as a continuous feedback loop.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<b><u>Repeat rates:</u></b></div>
<div class="p1">
Once you have acquired the unique visitors, you want to make them visit your platform multiple times, i.e., have high repeat rates, so that the life time value of your customers increases. You could do so either by push or pull.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Push typically works through digital marketing, e.g., contextual advertising, in-market advertising, re-targeting, emails, notifications, etc. The first three involve additional financial cost every time you bring the same customer back whereas the latter two have a reputational cost involved because if you overuse them you could be seen as a spammer. Companies also dole out attractive offers to make the customers repeat. In early days, this makes the economics unfavourable but businesses do it nonetheless in the hope of building a loyal base. However, with newer competition springing up every now and then with low barriers to entry, the road to loyalty seems to be long and tough.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Pull, on the other hand, works by creating a high level of brand awareness, a purple cow of the business. Yours truly hasn't seen a shortcut to building brand awareness. Companies he knows have built brand with extensive investments in mass media advertisements and positive associations with celebrities, all the time communicating the purple cow about themselves . Most companies are still trying to find out how to make content marketing work for them but rarely any has been able to do a good job in the current Indian e-commerce industry by mid 2016. Content marketing ideally needs to be pull based but a lot of current experiments border on blatant push.<br />
<br />
An investor will quickly need to assess how much of this repeat rate is dependent upon the direct cash burn in terms of various offers and how much upon the sustained indirect brand spend. The idea is to create such a purple cow that a business doesn't need to give loss making offers to make the customer repeat.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<b><u>Conversion rates:</u></b></div>
<div class="p1">
A registered user is good only if he/she transacts. You want them to transact as much as possible. your economics is highly sensitive to this metric. As mentioned earlier, this metric benefits from your market share because of the network effects. Apart from that this is a function of <b>typical product-market match, quick and easy discovery of right products on your platform, price competitiveness, quality of information you give, trust you build through product quality and service, and creating cross-sell opportunities.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
An investor could gather market intelligence around the conversion rates of various platforms to set a practical target for this metric. Or could also set a target based on where the economics of the equation works out. It helps to look at an e-commerce business in terms of different categories (e.g., mobile phones, women's bags, etc.) because then you could also do internal benchmarking of your conversion rate metrics across different categories and share best practices across the various category teams.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<b>For product-market match</b>, a good way is customer segmentation into different groups with unique category, style, price point, service, freshness, etc. needs. There can be multiple dimensions and one has to make judgement calls in creating the most logical segments which are homogenous within and heterogenous across. Then you've to ensure your selection composition on the above parameters reflects the composition of your target customer segments in the market. A simple example is that in apparel e-commerce, if 70% of your target customer can purchase only a sub-500 price point product then your selection composition has to reflect that. Please note that I am using the phrase 'target-segment'. If you want to build a business targeted only at higher price point customers, you don't need to build a sub-500 price point selection.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<b>Quick and easy discovery of products</b> on your platform is important because in the digital age the customer doesn't have a lot of patience of sifting through multiple pages or filters to find the right products. So personalisation based on past customer behaviour becomes important. This can be based on the individual's past behaviour if your technology is strong enough or based on the overall segment's affinity behaviour. A lot of platforms claim to be using personalisation algorithms but actually their technology is fairly nascent in India in 2016. Personalisation can happen around the specific category, price point, or brand, etc. preference of the customer based on their historical behaviour. Platforms can also leverage statistical methods over large customer sets to predict based on the historical large group dynamics what brand/category/style is the specific customer is likely to prefer.<br />
<br />
Other than that you have to continuously experiment with your product navigation to get the customer quickly to where he/she wants to be. This essentially makes product discovery easy on your platform. Identify where customers click the most when they get to your site/app, which pages they visit the most, and use these insights to put the strategically important links in those locations. Strategically important links could be of high conversion rate products, high margin products, or something else based on what your company strategy is at that point of time. Also experiment with new product features which encourage customers to engage more with your platform and discover new products. A very popular technique used by companies these days is the quick A-B testing and iteration to quickly identify what works and what doesn't. This is essentially experimenting a new feature on a test group vs. a control group to assess how the new feature works. Another aspect of aiding discovery is understanding the preferences of your customer groups and making the relevant products easily discoverable. For example, if your low price point buyers prefer some sort of value deals then you could create a page for such value deals on your platform and make that link easily discoverable on your website/app.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<b>Price competitiveness</b> is extremely important in e-commerce because it's very easy for customers to open multiple websites/apps and compare the prices of products. This comparison is easy in concentrated categories, e.g., electronics and electrical appliances, where a few products constitute a major share of category sales but is difficult in fragmented categories, e.g., apparels where a large number of brands and small sellers exist and within each brand/seller the selection is large. Nonetheless, even in fragmented industries there are some core lines which don't see too many design variations, e.g., innerwear or some standard colors/styles in apparels, and are easy to be compared for price range across platforms. It's important for a platform to be price competitive on such sub-categories. Platforms do it in three broad ways: <i>First,</i> develop an automated crawling engine which keeps track of prices of similar products across platforms and keeps changing price of those products on own platform to remain price competitive all the time. Leading platforms have also segmented products into very commonly searched/purchased products vs others and on the former they ensure they have the lowest prices even if on the latter they are expensive and make money. This method works better in concentrated categories. <i>Second, </i>they develop some sort of algorithm which estimates the expected price of a product based on its input materials and tries to see if the product price is broadly in range. This method is vague and less accurate so better suits when you deploy it on a sub-set of selection in fragmented categories. <i>Third, </i>they look at the conversion rates of various products with a hypothesis that lower conversion rate for a sustained period may indicate price uncompetitiveness. Once a platform finds that a product is not competitive on price, it can either take a hit on its margins to become price competitive or it can go back to the seller and ask them to be more price competitive. The former is quick and easy but negatively impacts the unit economics whereas the latter requires manually intervention and takes time but doesn't hurt the platform's unit economics. However, sellers do not always agree to make the products price competitive because the economics doesn't work out for them. In such cases the platform either punishes the vendors in some way or takes the hit itself. Doing business is not so easy after all!<br />
<br />
Price competitiveness is also a function of your business model, i.e., inventory based vs. marketplace. An inventory model adds fixed cost to operations but in categories like apparel it has clear advantages in price competitiveness over marketplace. An inventory based apparel e-commerce can procure bulk merchandise at attractive prices which allows it to offer lower prices than regular marketplace distributors while still making some gross margin. Any left over, so long as it's not fast fashion, can be offered at steep discount in next season. Many inventory led players in fact use this model as an advantage to create a perception of higher discounts on branded merchandise which marketplace distributors find difficult to match because they have smaller and usually current season inventories.<br />
<br />
Vertical integration is another way of being more price competitive because it reduces the number of parties involved in the transaction and because the platform is willing to accept lower in-house/contracted manufacturing margins compared to pure 3rd party manufacturer-sellers to gain scale through own e-commerce platform. The idea is to make a reasonable margin over the end-to-end value chain and generate cash by higher volumes.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br />
<b>Quality of information</b> you provide becomes important because customer cannot touch and feel the product on your platform. It's important to have a strong product on-boarding process which includes strong quality check of information about the product for comprehensive and accurate information. Companies currently do it in two ways - <i>One,</i> by throwing more people at the problem who review the product information bottom up, <i>Second,</i> by using a carrot and stick mechanism in which they push down the listings of vendors who have poor conversion rates or poor ratings or in which they show extensive customer reviews about the product so that any new customer can make an informed decision. Customer reviews also serve the customer as important peer feedback about the product.<br />
<br />
Building trust in your product quality and service is a no brainer in the interest of a long term business. It helps to have a clear set of values and purpose statements of your business early on which act as clear guiding principles to your employees in their day to day decisions. After all, it's day to day decisions which build customer's trust in your products and service. In emerging markets, heavy communication and innovation is required to build trust on the new offering. Some examples of communication are using stamps of quality assurance, return guarantees, secure payments, etc. on your platform pages. An example of innovation is cash-on-delivery service.<br />
<br />
Quality control becomes difficult with increasing scale of marketplaces. In such situations, many platforms identify a small, strategic group of sellers who constitute most of the sales and get the team to work closely with them in proactive initiatives in all areas of business, e.g., selection management, right pricing, reducing return rates, etc. This is easy in case of concentrated categories which are anyway dominated by big, well known brands but in fragmented categories the smaller set of vendors can be identified based on the scale of their business or some other parameter that indicates their strategic importance. The other sellers are left to be managed by self service technology and customer feedback.<br />
<br />
Typically, companies find it easier to maintain high customer experience by doing things in-house which enables a tighter integration into various processes. E.g., Apple's in-house hardware, software, and services enable a high level of customer experience by better performance through tighter integration. Similarly, in e-commerce, leading players have found that an inventory model helps create a better customer experience than a pure marketplace model. This is because you can tightly integrate logistics with your front end platform and reduce the dispatch and delivery time. This is how Amazon offers one day delivery. You can also do better product quality checks in an inventory model.<br />
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Vertical integration, in which companies get into private labelling, also helps higher level of quality control compared to a pure marketplace model where the platform can't always control what's offered by 3rd party sellers.</div>
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<br />
Once you've invested in acquiring a user, you want to maximise their lifetime value by creating more and more <b>opportunities for cross-sell</b> while remaining aligned with your purpose of existence so that your brand remains consistent in a customer's mind. There is enough literature on how to expand your product offering while maintaining your differentiation in the minds of customers. For example, Gillette expanded from just Men's shaving products into Women's hair removal products by interpreting their purpose as creating quality shaving products. They further expanded the interpretation to overall grooming products and expanded into Men's grooming products. Similarly, an Indian e-commerce platform that stands for enabling discovery of Indian traditional/Ethnic products finds sense in expanding into traditional pickles and eatables segment but not in Western wear segment, you know who I'am talking about! The higher opportunities of cross-sell make the economics of horizontal players (cross-category players) more attractive than vertical ones (single-category players). Due to this reason the lifetime value of the same customer tends to be higher for horizontal platforms than that for vertical platform. This means the horizontal platforms can have a higher customer acquisition cost than vertical platforms. This is another argument in favour of better economics for horizontal platforms vs. vertical platforms. However, the fundamentals of competitive dynamics ensure that in a crowded horizontal market the competitors bid up the cost of customer acquisition so much that it one by one everybody exits the game until eventually only the player with the deepest pockets, the maximum customer engagement, or the least cost remains.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Average order value:</u></b><br />
This has proven to be a tough metric to crack for most platforms. It can be broken into the following equation:<br />
Average order value = Units per order X Average selling price per unit<br />
<br />
Units per order can be influenced by recommendations at the time of product views or when products are added to the cart. Amazon does it very well by showing 'frequently bought together' or 'Customers who bought this also bought...". Higher trust in your product quality and platform service also favourably impact this metric. Two ways platforms have built trust in their product qualities is either by building a brand for themselves or by listing strong brands as part of their selection. In either case, a brand name usually increases trust.<br />
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Average selling price per unit tends to be a function of composition of your visiting user base and their purchasing power and to that extent tends to be beyond control. However, higher trust in your product quality and platform service favourably impact this metric.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Unit economics:</u></b><br />
This means that you make a positive gross margin on each of your orders. You could be cross subsidising products within an order in the interest of increasing your overall GMV and keeping your sellers' growth broad based as long as you make the required margin on an order to cover your marketing and fixed costs and leave the required profit for a reasonable RoA.<br />
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Private labelling through vertical integration improves the gross margin across the combination of manufacturing and selling because both activities now come under the same company. In this case the combined manufacturing and selling margin of the platform is lower than the sum of manufacturing-selling margin of the 3rd party seller and the marketplace fee of the platform. The platform hopes to gain volume by passing on part of the margin of combined operations to the customer and being price competitive. The whole idea is to generate reasonable cash at large volumes even if at lower percentage margin. That's the whole game of businesses characterised by network effects.<br />
<br />
In recent times and especially in business characterised by heavy network effects, businesses are disregarding unit profitability in the hope that once they have clearly established themselves as a preferred go-to destination in the minds of customers, they will make reasonable profit. The success of this approach has been proven in developed markets, e.g., by Amazon in the US. However, there is always a risk of taking it too far amid intense competition in a developing market characterised by low per capita purchasing power. There are two key risks: <i>One, </i>you get so much into the red during the investment period that recovering the investment becomes extremely difficult in a predictable time frame and <i>Second, </i>the still-low purchasing power of the customers in future makes it difficult for you to recover your initial investment.<br />
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As I said earlier, what will happen is a matter of debate but once the outcome becomes clear it will serve as an extremely important learning experience for businesses. Investors sometimes try to hedge their risks by keeping a clear timeframe in mind within which they expect the platform to break-even on a customer and if the platform misses this target for a few quarters then they wouldn't fund the platform anymore. These days (mid-2016) the thumb rule for investors seems to be that a platform should break even on a customer in 12-18 months because the repeat rates of customers tend to be really weak post that.<br />
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<b><u>Advertising:</u></b><br />
A new area which leading platforms have started using from last one year is advertising. Earning from advertisement goes directly to the bottomline of the platform hence is very attractive to otherwise unprofitable platforms. Advertising on e-commerce platforms happens in the following key ways: <i>One, </i>the sellers pay the platform to show their products as sponsored products in product search results, <i>Two, </i>some unethical platforms may also artificially push the advertisers results automatically in organic category listings, <i>Three, </i>sellers pay the platform to show their banners/links on several pages or on various assets of the platform. However, platforms will find out that marketing objectives from advertisements tend to be different for large brands vs. smaller sellers. Whereas large brands spend money from their marketing budget with an objective of strengthening brand awareness, smaller sellers do not have well defined business practices and do not set aside any marketing budget. In fact, the very fact that small sellers are not brands means that they also do not command enough margins that could fund large advertising campaigns. This means that small sellers tend to expect 1-to-1 attribution of any advertising money to increased sales. This is a huge ask on the part of e-commerce platforms which are otherwise occupied with many larger issues of their own. All of this leads to such advertising being primarily led by few well known brands and not a large number of small sellers.<br />
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E-commerce is a complex and exciting industry and no one seems to have cracked the winning formula yet in India. As the various players fight a bloody battle out, I hope they remember that the real skill is in making profitable businesses. Anybody can put a desk outside and pay people hundred rupees to come buy a eighty rupee handkerchief.</div>
</div>
Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-36615924143760515432016-09-09T15:08:00.002+05:302016-09-09T15:08:46.883+05:30Are your large acquisitions creating or destroying value?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A McKinsey research says large acquisitions destroy value more often than not. That research recommends a programmatic acquisition which is regular, multiple small acquisitions meant to fill specific gaps in an organization's capabilities, offerings, or geographical presence. IBM has been a poster child of such a program in recent two decades.<br />
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When I read such pieces of research, most examples tend to be older, preceding the research. I wanted to start documenting more recent examples that offer some learning on value creation/destruction through inorganic pursuits. Perhaps more failures will get highlighted but I will try to find successes too. I will keep adding new examples as they come up to my notice. If you know any new examples, pls share with me. So, here we go:<br />
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<b>HP Enterprises's divestment of its software portfolio:</b><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><u>Acquisition</u>: Britain's Autonomy Corp Plc in 2011 for $10.3 bn. Integrated into HP as a software business.</li>
<li><u>Divestment</u>: To Britain's Micro Focus International Plc on 8-Sep-2016 in a deal worth $8.8 bn ($2.5 bn cash and 50.1% equity in the combined company). Additional expense of $700 mn in one time costs related to the separation of the assets.</li>
<li>There will also be some accumulated profits/losses for the duration of ownership which I haven't tried to find.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Intel's divestment of McAfee:</b></div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><u>Acquisition</u>: McAfee (internet security software company) for $7.7 bn in 2011 and renamed as Intel Security Group in 2014</li>
<li><u>Divestment</u>: Sold 51% stake to investment firm TPG for $3.1 bn in cash on 8-Sep-2016. Brand name to be reverted to McAfee. TPG can leverage synergies with its other two investments in security start-up Tanium and Zscaler</li>
<li><u>Intel's investment thesis:</u></li>
<ul>
<li>Integrate McAfee security technology into Intel chips but no progress made</li>
<li>Get a piece of the emerging business of protecting corporations from sophisticated espionage, but newer players such as Mandiant, came to dominate the business</li>
<li>Gain from market share increase in PC security but PC growth itself slowed</li>
</ul>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-5106819088394504102014-12-29T13:07:00.001+05:302014-12-29T13:13:18.569+05:30House investment: Is there a business case?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When did your dad buy his first (and, in most cases, only) house? Perhaps mid 40s. But you want to buy your first house in early 30s. The reason you buy a house at this early age today is very different from why your dad bought his house during his mid 40s. He wanted to secure a roof over his head post retirement but you want to get a good return on your investment. Even if you can't afford a house large enough to live in, you feel a tacit pressure to buy a smaller one somewhere on the outskirts as an investment, just to sell off at the right time. But is it a wise investment option?</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A detailed analysis proves that unless you pick up stake just when a city is taking off (like Gurgaon in mid 2000s or may be the new capital of Telangana now), a house investment isn't a good investment at all. In fact, even a FD gives you higher and safer return.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Let's do some simple maths to understand better:</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Assumptions:</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Let's assume that you are a salaried employee with all white money so you're interested in an all white deal (this analysis will not be applicable to those with black money support because they can't invest that money elsewhere legitimately so whatever return they get on property is better than an otherwise no return). Let's also assume that you are married and want to buy in a joint ownership so that you maximize your loan eligibility and tax benefits.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Suppose you are interested in buying a two plus study house in Gurgaon for about Rs.1.4 Cr. (typically a Sohna road location). You want to finance Rs.25 lac from your savings, Rs.10 lac from your PF and the rest Rs.1.05 Cr. from a bank loan (you can avail a loan of up to 85% of Rs.1.4 Cr which is Rs.1.19 Cr so you are able to afford this house). And suppose you are paying a rate of Rs.9000 per sq ft (typical fully loaded cost of a Sohna road property if you've cracked a good deal), which means your house area will be 1.4 Cr/9000 = 1556 Sq ft.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Let's take two cases one by one:</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Case I: </b>You will self occupy the house.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Case II:</b> You will rent the house to a tenant and keep living in a rented house yourself.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Now let's see if the house purchase makes you richer or poorer over 5 years.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b><u><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Case I: You will self occupy the house.</span></u></b><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Annual cash outflow:</span></b><br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Interest on bank loan = 10.15% x Rs.1.05 Cr. = Rs.10.66 L</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Opportunity cost of your savings (had you kept this money in a FD, it would have grown by 8.75% FD rate and attracted a 30% income tax, thus returning you an annual 6.13% return) = 6.13% x Rs.25 L = Rs.1.53 L</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Opportunity cost of your PF (earns about 8.5% with no income tax) = 8.5% x Rs.10 L = Rs.0.85 L</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Total annual cash outflow = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.10.66 + </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.1.53 + </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.0.85 = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">13.04 L</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Annual cash inflow/benefit:</span></b><br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Income tax rebate under section 24 (Rs.1.5 L of income is deductible from taxable income for both owners) = Rs.1.5 L x 30% + Rs.1.5 L x 30% = Rs.0.9 L</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Saving of house rent that you would have otherwise paid (assuming you pay a rent of Rs.30,000 per month including society maintenance of Rs.3,000. With your own house you will still pay society maintenance but will save rest of the Rs.27,000 rent) = Rs.27,000 per month x 12 months = Rs.3.24 L</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Total annual cash benefit = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.0.9 + </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.3.24 = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4.14 L</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Net annual cash outflow = Total cash outflow - Total cash benefit</b> = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">13.04 L - </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4.14 L = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">8.9 L</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Resale value and the rate of return:</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Suppose after 5 years you have a better job, higher salary, or higher savings (say, you are an IT employee and you went onsite and saved some money) and want to upgrade your house, i.e., sell this one off and buy a bigger one. In 5 years, you would have incurred a cash expense of </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">8.9 L x 5 = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">44.5 L on this house. Besides all this, if you anyway planned to sell this house after 5 years then essentially the 6% registry charges that you paid also ends up being a sunk cost. Let's assume the circle rate for this property is Rs.5000 per sq ft so you paid 6% x 5000 x 1556 = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4.67 L for registry. So your total expenses on this property in 5 years are Rs.49.2 L. Also sunk is the 1% that you paid to a broker both at the time of buying and selling (=</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1.4 Cr. x 1% + </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1.4 Cr. x 1%) = ~</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3 L.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">With all these expenses, just to break even after 5 years you would want to net off Rs.52.2 L on your property. But selling after 5 years will also attract a long term capital gain tax of 20% so actually you want to sell at an appreciation of 52.2/80% = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">65.3 L. This means after 5 years, the value of your 1556 sq ft house should be </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2.05 Cr. (at a whopping Rs.13,174 per sq ft). On a per sq ft basis, we are talking about an annual appreciation of 65.3/5/1556 = Rs.840 per sq ft every year. And these numbers while look big, are just a modest 7.9% compounded annual rate of return (CAGR) pre-tax ((2.05/1.4)^(1/5)-1 = 7.9%).</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Think of these numbers in following four ways:</span></b><br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Do you think a 1556 sq ft house that you bought today at effectively Rs.9000/sq ft rate will go at the rate of Rs.13174 per sq ft in 5 years?<i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(To put it in context, 13000 is the rate at the most prime locations in Gurgaon today, e.g., MG Road and Gold Course Road and 9000 is the effective rate on Sohna road after including all hidden charges if you cracked a good deal. My guess is as good as yours but I would bet my money on Rs.11,000 per sq ft max after 5 years for similar locality under similar circumstances. MG Road and Golf course road rates did grow from Rs.5,000 in 2005 to Rs.13,000 in 2014 but at that time Gurgaon and the property bubble in Gurgaon was picking up. It's beneficial to invest at that stage. These rates in all Gurgaon locations have been constant or gone down a bit over the last 2 years as the property bubble became unsustainable during economic downturn. Also the rates tend to peak out as people find the rate of return in those areas small so take their money elsewhere. This in turn makes the area unattractive for future speculative buyers. Sohna road seems to have realized much of it's potential for a few years because it's already expensive and a lot of new inventory is coming up around golf course extension road and southern periphery road so people have many alternative options. But investment even in this new inventory isn't attractive because it can be shown through similar analysis that even that under-construction or just announced inventory is over priced to yield a good rate of return over 5-10 years).</span></i></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Do you think prices will increase by Rs. 840 per sq ft every year?<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> (Again to put it in context, prices have not increases at all in the last 2 years and most of these areas are already overpriced).</i></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Do you think the value of your Rs.1.4 Cr. house will increase by Rs.13 L every year? </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Think Sohna road to put it in context).</span></i></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Do you think a 1.4 Cr two plus study will get 2.05 Cr in 5 years? <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(Who will be the buyer? A typical salaried, middle class family with an annual 10-14% salary increment and 1-2 kids gathers around Rs.1.0-1.6 Cr for a small house)</i></span></span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So in case I (self occupied house),<b> should one not purchase a house at all?</b> <b>Yes</b>,<b> </b>buying purely for financial gain doesn't make sense (compare a modest 7.9% CAGR that looks too huge to realistically achieve in property with a FD that gives you 8.75% CAGR without risk easily). But <b>you should consider buying a house if:</b></span><br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A rented accommodation doesn't give you all the facilities you want (e.g., you like stylish bathrooms and rented houses all use cheap fittings).</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The particular house that you're interested in has sentimental value for you (e.g., you grew up playing in that house or you really like this location but the availability of house here is very rare).</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<b><u><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Case II: You will rent the house to a tenant:</span></u></b><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Annual cash outflow:</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Total annual cash outflow as calculated in case I = Rs.13.04 L</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Annual cash inflow/benefit:</span></b><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Income tax rebate under section 24 (as calculated in case I) = Rs.0.9 L</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Rental income (assuming you will get Rs.35,000 per month including Rs.3,000 maintenance for this house) = 12 x 32000 = Rs.3.84 L (I have assumed a rent on the higher side but because rent will slightly increase year on year, I am taking a constant average amount which is a bit higher today). You're allowed an income tax deductible of 30% towards general house maintenance which means you pay tax only on 70% of your rental income, which comes to an income tax of 3.84 x 70% x 30% (slab rate) = Rs.0.81 L. And if you rotate your tenant every 18 months and pay a brokerage of 15 days (Rs.15,000 every time), this also comes to an annual expense of Rs.10,000. Also, when you rotate the tenant, your house may be vacant for approximately a month every 18 months so a loss of Rs.32,000 every 18 months coming to annual loss of Rs.21,300. Plus your house will really need some miscellaneous expenses (e.g., seepage repair, paint) so let's deduct another Rs.15,000 per year. So you net rental income is 3.84 - 0.81 - 0.1 - 0.213 - 0.15 L = Rs.2.57 L.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Because you consider your house an investment vehicle in this case, you should calculate net gain/loss on this investment and claim tax benefit. This means if your net cash inflow from the house is 2.57 L + 0.9 L = Rs.3.47 L and your interest payout is Rs.10.66 L, you're incurring an annual loss of 10.66 - 3.47 = Rs.7.19 L. On this you claim tax rebate = 30% x 7.19 L = Rs.2.16 L (This option isn't available in case of a self occupied property, that's why we didn't consider it in case I).</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Total annual cash benefit = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5.63 L</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Net annual cash outflow = Total cash outflow - Total cash benefit</b> = 13.04 L - 5.63 L = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">7.41 L</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Resale value and the rate of return:</b><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In 5 years, you would have incurred a cash expense of 7.41 L x 5 = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">37 L on this house. Add the 6% registry charges on circle rate of Rs. 5000 per sq ft = 6% x 5000 x 1556 = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4.67 L. So your total expenses on this property in 5 years are Rs.41.7 L. Also add the 1% brokerage at the time of buying and selling </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">= ~</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3 L (as calculated in case I).</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This time just to break even you would want to net off Rs.44.7 L on your property. Accounting for a long term capital gain tax of 20% so actually you want to sell at an appreciation of 44.7/80% = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">55.8 L. This means after 5 years, the value of your 1556 sq ft house should be </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1.96 Cr. (at Rs.12,586 per sq ft). On a per sq ft basis, now we are talking about an annual appreciation of 55.8/5/1556 = Rs.717 per sq ft every year. And this is again just a modest 6.9% compounded annual rate of return (CAGR) pre-tax ((1.96/1.4)^(1/5)-1 = 6.9%).</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Now again think of these numbers in following four ways:</span></b><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Do you think a 1556 sq ft house that you bought today at effectively Rs. 9000/sq ft rate will go at the rate of Rs. 12,586 per sq ft in 5 years? <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(As I said my guess is as good as yours but I would bet my money on 11,000 per sq ft max after 5 years for similar locality under similar circumstances).</span></i></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Do you think prices will increase by Rs.717 per sq ft every year? <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(Again to put it in context, prices have not increases at all in the last 2 years and most areas are already over priced).</i></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Do you think the selling price of your house will increase by Rs.11.16 L every year?</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Do you think a Rs.1.4 Cr two plus study house will get Rs.1.96 Cr in 5 years? <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(Again, to put it in context, think of your average middle class salaried buyer who gets an annual raise of 10-14% and can perhaps gather up to 1.6 Cr of funds for a small house purchase in their early 30s).</i></span></span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So, if your objective was only investment, then this house is hardly going to give you a 6.9% CAGR pre-tax and there is too much risk of uncertainty even on getting this much from your house in 5 years. Compare that with a 8.75% CAGR pre-tax that a FD gives you risk free.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Another way of looking at this investment:</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And in case II, just theoretically, if we agree that the going rate of this house will be Rs.11,000 per sq ft then you only made (11000-9000) x 1556 = Rs.31.1 L from capital gain. The balance of 55.8 - 31.1 = </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">24.7 L over 5 years or </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rs.</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4.94 L per year should come from rental income. This takes your required rental income to a whopping Rs.2.57 L (rental income that we calculated for case II) + Rs. 4.94 L (gap needed to bridge to break even on your investment) = Rs.7.51 L per annum. Reverse adjusting for all the factors considered in point 2 of income in case II, this comes to a required monthly rental of Rs.84100, which is definitely not happening.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In this case the <b>ratio of your purchase value of your house to the average 5 year monthly rental</b> comes out to be 14000000/84100 = 166. It can be shown roughly that factoring for annual rental increase, around this house price, the ratio of house value to the monthly rental at the time of purchase should be anywhere less than 200 if your investment has to give you positive 5 year return (The calculation isn't different for 10 year, 15 year returns either).</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At current Gurgaon prices, this ratio realistically is more around 14000000/30000 = 467 which makes a house a bad investment option in Gurgaon. This is why I believe we're in a property bubble and should keep distance from it. While this calculation has been done for Gurgaon, in general, a residential house purchase turns out not a good investment option in any city unless you pick up medium term stake in a city that is just taking off.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Philosophically thinking:</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">All the above calculations were financial and they proved that house purchase is not a good investment option. But there are other associated costs as well.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In your early 30s, you are newly married and may be will soon have a baby. This is a great time to see the world together and </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">fall in lifelong love with each other. Once the baby grows up into a teenager, you will anyway have all sorts of practical pressures of life. But this time will not come back. Do you want to get into a Rs.1 Cr+ loan, get tied to a monthly EMI of Rs.1 lac+ at this stage and not have any spare money to go on that expensive Saturday night dinner date </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">with your young partner</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> or go on that summer vacation to Europe with your love and your still able parents?</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Chances are that you will do well in life and will have good money in your mid 40s (better than your dad in the then coveted government service) to buy a house and handle growing pressures of a family. Do think about retirement fund now, don't touch your PF, get an insurance term plan for about 6-8x your annual CTC, save 30% of your take home salary and put it in a balanced portfolio (FD, mutual funds, metal, stocks) but don't fret about a house yet. <b>It's sunny out there, take your partner on a date today!</b></span></div>
Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-29875540070286727582012-12-22T22:37:00.001+05:302012-12-23T14:16:42.318+05:30Badlo usey, na jaane kisey...Hoga aise, na jaane kaise!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was inhuman - the brutal torture and rape of a girl in a Delhi bus. We were disgusted by what we have made of our society. And so many of us started <i>hoping, </i>instead of dreading,<i> </i>that the world would end on 21st December 2012 as predicted by Mayans. The prevailing sense was captured best by a post doing rounds on facebook - <i>'I am not scared the world would end on 21st, I am scared that it will continue as it is'</i>. But the world didn't end. It went on and it went on unchanged. So some of us, in fact, many of us got out of our homes and started demonstrations at India gate for <i>something </i>that needs to happen somehow. The only things unclear were <i>what and how!</i></span><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We have gathered at India gate to demonstrate without a clear leader. When a group of people from among us demonstrators came out after meeting some officials in the Rashtrapati Bhawan, the crowd questioned the legitimacy of their representation and refused to listen to them.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We do not seem to have a clear demand. Some of us want capital punishment for rape in rare of the rarest cases, some want capital punishment for rape in all cases, some want a special session of parliament to bring this amendment to the law, some want the guilty in this specific case be lynched, some want the resignation of Home Minister, some want the suspension of Delhi police commissioner, etc. What seems to doom our demonstrations is the absence of a comprehensive set of structural fixes in our demands.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I heard a politician ask "if capital punishment hasn't deterred criminals from murdering people, will it deter criminals from resorting to this crime?" and found myself unsure.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Five policemen found in dereliction of duty will be suspended. But that's routine. Things will be forgotten in 2 months and those guys would be back in service. We are anyways short of staff in police. And the broader point is the state of our police staff. They are 'on duty' for long hours and sometimes 7 days a week, are paid peanuts in salaries, take bath in open outside the police stations (read <i>their office</i>), dry their laundry in the police station (read <i>their office</i>), can't easily touch most serious criminals due to their political connections (read <i>do not perform their duty because their bosses do not allow them to do)</i>, etc. If you and me worked under such conditions, what would be our quality of work! Despite those work conditions, because all of us have to feed our families, someone might supervise us into working from time to time by brandishing the stick of suspension but in absence of the underlying motivation, we would revert to our shoddy self as soon as the supervision fades.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Many of our political leaders are 70+ years of age. At our home, we do not expect family members of this age to be 'able' to take care of us youngsters. They speak feebly and walk with support. We urge them to take more rest, eat carefully and lead a retired life. I feel terrible then when people of this age have to run this entire country. Not that they are stronger of the lot, even they are speaking feebly and many of them walking with support.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's heartening to see that High court has taken suo moto cognizance of this unfortunate incident and set up fast track courts to hear rape cases. But a villager whose land was snatched by local influential people wants a fast track hearing equally badly because he can't feed his family without that land.</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thoughts will keep coming and I will keep updating this post, but the underlying questions will remain -</span><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Should we not demand judicial reforms, police reforms, and political reforms?</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Can those reforms not happen in parallel with economic reforms?</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Given the number of inconclusive public demonstrations on various issues lately, is it time that we make our demonstrations more effective by taking lessons from our rich pre-independence history (on proper public discourse to come up with a blue print of popular ideal state while agitating for change)?</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And a personal question to myself, should I not stop writing but do something about it?</span></div>
Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-31269444001789855242012-06-13T20:12:00.000+05:302012-06-13T20:12:34.401+05:30Bachpan ki woh ameeri..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">बचपन की वो अमीरी ना जाने कहाँ खो गयी...</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">जब बारिश के पानी में हमारे भी जहाज चला करते थे.</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> - गुमनाम</span></div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-13368078096786279342012-05-29T03:39:00.000+05:302012-05-29T03:41:12.986+05:30Rest in peace JEE...you will be missed!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yesterday marked the day when JEE was killed. I am extremely distressed at the disconnect politicians and bureaucrats have from the masses. I have done well as an IITian but had the system been so in my times, I would never have been an IITian.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A comment from Chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Vineet Jain, - "This will bring about a big change in the teaching-learning in the classroom" makes me wonder how this will happen. Will the quality of our secondary school teachers change over the next 10 years Mr. Jain? Have you even met tier 2/3 school class 12 teacher in the last few years Mr. Jain or are you only meeting the principals and directors of public schools in Delhi? Do you seriously believe a typical tier 3 city student has a chance of competing with a tier 1 city student in class 12. The only way the playing field can be leveled is if the poor tier 3 city kid spends a large amount of money to stay in hostel in a tier 1 city himself to study at the same quality place. Where a kid used to do so for only 1 year of JEE preparation so far, he would perhaps do so for 2 years of inter college too now.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This will just make small town students miserable. Even pandering to the wishes of unethical teachers who want to teach only at private tuition at home wouldn't help poor kids score in board exams because most of these small town school teachers anyways don't have their fundamentals in place. And if kids don't pander to their wishes, they are screwed in even bigger ways. My geography teacher in 10th didn't tell me in school that board exam has a 10 mark question on maps. He told so to his students at his private tuition classes and asked them to be quiet about it at school. I figured this only a day before the final board exam, tried desperately to understand maps at the last minute but ultimately lost on all 10 marks. Result - I scored just 63 marks in Geography, substandard looking at my larger academic record.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And why just go to a small town. I shifted to a mini metro city in 12th late in July, when 1st term exams were almost there. I scored 94 in those exams, thanks to a phenomenal tutor I had in my previous town. I used to study the legendary R.S. Agarwal book till that time in my own style. However, soon I figured that this maths teacher promoted a maths guide by a different author to the extent that he would beat us up physically if we were not showing hand-written solutions to the problems in that book. Now with my limited time, I had to give up my favourite R.S. Agarwal and switch to a different book just because this teacher was promoting it. It added one more adjustment to my already disturbed schedule (Remember, I had just joined this new school). Moreover, my freedom of solving the problems my way was lost. To me writing every line of solution in a notebook wasn't important but I had to do so to prove to this teacher that I was studying his 'favorite' book. All of this resulted in significant loss of time for me and I had 72 marks in my 2nd term.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Now, Mr. Sibal and Mr. Jain, I still made it to IIT because class 10 and class 12 DID NOT matter in my entry to IITs. Though my substandard knowledge from school education did put me a bit behind my metro public school counterparts but I made up for it through my hard work in the 1 year local JEE coaching. If you sit for an hour in a school's class 12 room and in a JEE coaching institute Mr. Sibal and Mr. Jain, you would figure out the difference in quality of education yourself. What we need Mr. Sibal and Mr. Jain is therefore not a change in entrance criteria for any exam but a change in the quality of our teachers. I am waiting for any such working plan from you Mr. Sibal and Mr. Jain.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Please forgive my language in this post Mr. Sibal and Mr. Jain but this is coming from the first hand experience of a person who seriously doesn't believe in your 12 year education system. Times change, systems change, why can you guys not be comfortable with the shift of importance from class 12 to engineering entrance? Has telecommunication not made India post irrelevant today, then why does our poor old class 12 have to remain relevant? Why can it not give in to evolution?!</span></div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-14808771422416878292012-05-29T02:58:00.002+05:302012-05-29T02:58:21.673+05:3012 years since school!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Man! Have I grown old or what? Just realized that thumb sucking babies who used to be in 1st when I passed 12th have themselves passed 12th today!</span></div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-90626878759317812012-05-20T01:05:00.000+05:302012-05-20T01:05:03.513+05:30What's with this God?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I think this often -<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We pray to God for more wealth, success in studies and business, but does God even understand these things? These things are part of the artificial web woven by human beings. We ourselves created this system and then are running madly to win in it. God only created nature. Human bodies are part of it. May be he can ease our physical pain out of some disease or old age. But does he understand money? Was he involved in creating our bad luck which led to some big loss in business? I mean the luck that he created may have given me fever sometimes but did that luck involve me losing an entrance exam?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And who created God? What is the origin of the ultimate?</div>
</div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-17138996896535270022012-04-28T13:47:00.000+05:302012-04-28T13:47:03.278+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Last weekend, I called security to send someone to clean the bathroom. Usually, it's a middle aged man who comes to clean the bathroom. He takes Rs.50 for each time he comes. But last weekend, a cute teen aged child knocked on my door. I wasn't sure what to do. I have had this debate within myself many times. As a principle, I decided long time ago that I will never employ children as domestic help. But at such times, when this kid is already cleaning 50 odd homes of society, would only me not letting him clean my bathroom help him go to school. One argument is that it has to start somewhere and I should contribute my bit. I don't disagree with this argument and this is why many times, I am the only one waiting behind the zebra line for traffic signal to turn green. But I also think that it's only a concerted effort on part of society that will help this cause. And given our society, only better law enforcement can bring that concerted effort. All of these thoughts crossed my mind in 10 seconds as I looked at that kid and I gave in. I get this nagging feeling that I was wrong and I should have done my bit. But this kid looked so cute and happy with where he was, I just gave in at that moment. I talked to him while he was cleaning, tried to understand him and tried to give him some feel of equality, love and respect. He supports his family financially along with his uncles, who don't earn much to provide for family. </span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Seven days passed after that and came this weekend.</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I called up security and asked him to send that same kid to my house. What happened to my principles? I don't know! He came in a very cheerful mood, started talking as soon as he came in and was very inquisitive. I switched the AC off with remote as I opened the balcony door. Apparently, he didn't know that an AC could be controlled by a remote and was excited to know this. He asked me if I wanted to engage him on a monthly basis. I asked him what the difference was, he could get his money every time he came in to clean. He told me his folks are planning to go to Vaishno Devi and he needs to save some money. If he gets paid for every time, he ends up spending it. The only way he can save is if he gets it in lump sum at the end of the month. Hearing his rationale, I agreed to have him clean my bathroom every weekend he can find me at home and take his dues at the end of the month. He agreed.</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As he finished cleaning the bathroom, he noticed some <i>namkeen </i>lying in a corner. He asked me for a paper to throw it away. Man! wasn't it a lesson for me in customer delight and commitment towards your job! How many times we crib on getting that additional work from our customer! He also asked me to come and check the bathroom if everything was okay. Then he asked me to give his money for this time. I asked him what happened to his savings plan. He said last night he and his uncles didn't eat anything as there were no vegetables at home. With this money, he would go and buy vegetables. I was speechless. I have heard about world hunger, I have seen it in movies but this was the first time someone was telling me on face and that too a cute teenage kid! I felt stupid, gave him his money and couldn't think anything for the next few seconds. As I heard the sound of elevator doors closing, I thought I could have given him Rs.100 instead of Rs.50, I should have given him the Parle G biscuits from my cupboard, I could have even asked him to sit for a while and made him a Maggie! But I acted like a stupid there. Did I fail him!</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Look at him, a kid with a lost childhood but still happy and dedicated to what he does! He dwarfs my problems.</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As my head clears, I have decided to find him again today/tomorrow and ask him to come to me to take some money to buy food whenever this happens the next time. But what can we do as responsible people to help such children? Is there a way this kid can go to school?</span></div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-34659699524612832262011-10-06T01:30:00.001+05:302011-10-06T01:31:37.425+05:30Get your vocabulary right..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Netaon ne yeh kaha, Netaon ne woh kaha...Neta corrupt hain, Neta ghooskhor hain.."</span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">They all are politicians damn it, not all are leaders!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Rajneetigya bolo, neta nahin!</i></span></div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-72153691743218317952011-10-06T01:26:00.001+05:302011-10-06T01:37:41.498+05:30Key to success..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I have been enjoying my vacation last two weeks and watched some episodes of KBC (Indian version of <i>Who wants to be a millionaire</i>). As I watched many contestants from various parts of the country sit on the hot seat and play KBC with the legend, Amitabh Bachan, I got a valuable piece of learning -</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Successful people are articulate.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Hearing about their backgrounds as they won the fastest finger first and then watching them converse with the host, I could see a high degree of correlation between the articulation of the contestants and their degree of success, success being measured by social and/or financial indicators. On the top right of this graph was the graceful host himself.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Of course, there are exceptions, as in sports. But you and I got the point, right?</span></div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-45868804870180531752011-10-06T00:56:00.005+05:302011-10-06T01:35:18.434+05:30Be poor, be rich, just don't be middle class...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The day before, Mom and I were returning home from Delhi and because of a traffic jam on our regular route, we had to make a detour through a lesser known village. After a long time, I saw groups of people sitting on <i>Charpaais, </i>enjoying <i>desi hukka</i>, and chatting happily. Everything was simple and it struck me how happy they seemed to be.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I couldn't help thinking -</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There are the Poor and mostly uneducated...they don't know much about possibilities and they are happy..</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Then there are the Rich and mostly educated...they know everything, they can buy everything and they are happy..</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Then there is the Middle class...they are mostly educated, they know most things, they know the possibilities but they can afford little of these..they have learned to aspire and they spend most of their life in aspiration - aspiring for a sofa, aspiring for a car, aspiring for an aeroplane journey, aspiring to make their children 'rich'...they are the worst placed of all!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Moral of the story - Be poor, be rich, just don't be middle class!</span></div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-15710798220702813122011-08-15T09:46:00.002+05:302011-08-15T09:57:35.691+05:30A letter to Google..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Dear Google,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Hope you are innovating well.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A few days ago, I checked your new launch Google Plus. It looks so much like facebook. The profile pic is at the same location, friend suggestions show up at the same location, wall looks similar, '+1' is just another name for 'like', comments work the same way, and most other things are similar. Okay, they say hangout is cool and may be a couple more features.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The reason I thought to write this is because all along I have respected you for how you have changed our lives and I am baffled if you don't understand some basics here. First of all, its <i>okay</i> if you lose the opportunity in one of the many areas. You don't have to win everywhere. Second, they teach in business school that when you can't win the game, change the game. Especially in games with strong network effects! With all your technology horsepower, what we expected from you is not a cheap imitation but a completely innovative alternative to the facebook style. How long do you think it will take facebook to imitate 'hangout' if it clicks with people!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Look at twitter. Is this kind of game changer too innovative for all your thinktank? And I expect 'no' for an answer here from you. That ability to innovate is certainly not a problem with you, it's something else you need to fix. May be direction but don't ask me, I am an outsider.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Some people tell me you gathered x million users the fastest. I wouldn't be surprised. You are so respected that people want to try when you come up with something new, anything new! But this kind of imitation puts you at the risk of losing this respect specially as a few more exciting facebook and twitter like alternatives come up. By the way, the right metric to measure popularity wouldn't be the number of users for you (for the reason I stated above), it would probably be the number of users who log on specifically to Google plus at least once a day for a period of x days, given the nature of social networking - an average user logs on to facebook multiple times a day.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Long story short, may be you should relate the cliche <i>With great power, comes great responsibility</i> to what you are doing here.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Best wishes</span></div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-27150624320767963262011-08-14T12:03:00.002+05:302011-08-14T12:06:04.937+05:30Heard somewhere..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;">ये मत सोचो कि कितने लम्हे हैं ज़िन्दगी में...</span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;">ये सोचो कि कितनी ज़िन्दगी है हर लम्हे में!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;">Don't count the moments in life...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;">Count the lives in every moment!</span></div></div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-78243502880252467352011-05-01T18:22:00.002+05:302011-05-01T18:32:01.711+05:30Inspiring quote<i>Some </i>is not a number, <i>soon </i>is not a date..<div><br /></div><div>..be specific.</div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-91251017193115452352011-04-21T23:25:00.009+05:302011-04-30T14:18:37.443+05:30Being consultant..<span class="Apple-style-span">There are three types of days in a consultant's life:</span><div><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span">When client is working and the Firm is working - Consultant works</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">When client is not working but the Firm is working - Consultant works</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">When the Firm is not working but client is working - Consultant works</span></li></ol></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Comp(ensatory) offs?!! What are they?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">But life is lousy for a consultant, I tell ya! Why? Here is how a friend put it:</span></div><div><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span">You work very odd hours.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">You spend a majority of your time in a hotel room.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">Your client pays for your hotel room plus your hourly rate.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">You are paid a lot of money to keep your client happy.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">Creating fantasies for your clients is rewarded.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">People ask you what you do and you can't explain it.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">It's difficult to have a family.</span></li></ol></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">I agreed till I 'stepped back' and realized that he had just made me look like a prostitute!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">But then sample my own experience when my girlfriend went to tell her mom about me:</span></div><div><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span">Her mom didn't recognize my B school's name (IIM is known to every infant in India but ISB is not)</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">She had never heard my Firm's name (my firm doesn't brand/advertise itself)</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">She didn't understand even my profession (my girlfriend was also not very sure how to explain. Poor girl just believed me when I told her that I also do something respectable)</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">She was convinced that I do something shady when she heard that despite being from an unknown college, working with an 'obscure' firm, in an unheard profession, I earn well.</span></li></ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Only three letters do justice to my feelings...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">...<b>WTF!</b></span></div></div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623118025346638245.post-31612587072400237512011-04-21T23:18:00.003+05:302011-04-21T23:25:05.399+05:30Shifting loyalties..<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px; ">I love writing blog but lately it went down on my priority list. A couple of days ago I saw a note on my blackberry that I had written on a flight in Jan this year. So I thought to revive my blog with this. Here it goes -</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px; "><br /></span></div>Enough! I have decided. Now on, I am going to take jet airways only. Their airhostesses are so much prettier than Kingfisher's! And the jet airhostesses said hi also to me, all of them.<br /><br />I feel bad for having lost 37 opportunities to spend time with them over the last 6 months. Those kingfisher airhostesses would say hi to everybody ahead of me but when I come, they would start looking at the passenger behind me as if I wasn't there!<br /><br />That apart, I admire NG's eye for beauty more than VM's who claims that he personally recruits his crew. But NG doesn't make any such claims anyway. It must be some obscure aspiring senior manager who is enjoying making offers (job offers I mean) to all those beauties who would otherwise not even notice him in the bar.<br /><br />So, tomorrow's flight to Hyderabad is a jet now. And the day after's to Mumbai too. This reminds me, my imminent hyderabad trip is giving headaches to my girlfriend these days. I am going to ISB to take mock interviews of people shortlisted by the firm but she thinks I will get laid by some chick there who really wants an offer (job offer I mean). Though I secretly suspect she is convinced that my looks are not going to do wonders for me but still she is somewhat insecure because of the cult status of my firm which I have made her believe creates a bright halo around my head that blinds all ISB students. I have tried explaining to her that these are only mock interviews (as if the ladies would seek appointments to sleep with me if I were taking real interviews) and even showed her my packed mock interview schedule but she still believes girls would find a way to nab me. She doesn't know that kingfisher's airhostesses don't even acknowledge my presence. But as this rationale is based on my looks, which, I suspect, she discounts anyway, it wouldn't convince her. So I wouldn't mention it to her. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >Why inflict humiliation on the self!</span><br /></span></div>Sodiumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09302021027808062215noreply@blogger.com0