Differences and Similarities

 I was born in 1960, and have been through six decades of life. What are the similarities and differences in each decade, or among various time periods?

Similarities

Family is still an important part of life and life support for most of us.

The middle class still believes in education as a transformational tool.

The politician has not changed much. Promises outpace real change.

Corporates rule the roost-though a different set.

Wars remain, fought for any stupid reason. 

Differences

Technology has enabled Work From Home, Travel (simulated), conversations across the globe, digital photography

Families are getting smaller in size, at least urban families

Agriculture is losing out to Services in contribution to the GDP.

Careers other than engineering have gained traction.

Globally, wars are supplemented by shootings, and more suicides than before.

Timing and Technology

 Why is it that Zoom became the big new thing (Cisco and videoconferencing had been around for ages)? Or Netflix? Or before them, Facebook, Or Google Search, Yahoomail? In India, Rediff.com and mail?

There is this matter of correct timing. Technology is usually available somewhere, but the timing has to be right. One day, there will be electric cars everywhere, though today they are not.

You may call it luck, but evolution, word of mouth and circumstances like COVID may push everything by a few years. Like Work From Home. I heard about this concept from IT companies around 25 years ago, but it happened only last year on a large scale, and may stay on in some industries at least.

Will humans be replaced by robots? Could be if the time is right! I might buy a few in the meantime, to massage my aching feet or do my laundry. 

Simple Joys

A smooth, well-used Hawaii chappal. When we lived in the U.S., this was a premium item that we carried from India, because the so-called flip flops sold there weren't Hawaiian-comfortable, I mean.

A belt which has enough holes in it to adjust to your changing waist-size.

A shoe that fits, and is comfortable to wear for a few hours.

A room at the right temperature-particularly, an airconditioned one.

A fan/light switch one can reach without getting up from bed. With all the technology around, why isn't this mandatory?

Passwords that remember themselves- biometrics, anyone?

Fog-clearing machines at airports-not so simple?

Not so simple ones- publishers who publish (and not argue about WHAT to publish), customer service people who serve customers, Indigo air-hosts/hostesses who serve you more than 10 ml. of water in a glass at slow speed, students who have no excuses, news channels that report news instead of hyperventilating, ...well,..this is going to take a long time. See you after a break. 

Prioritise

You have 24 hours in a day, like every one else. What you do with them, is mostly your own choice.

I try and do things that I like. I am also fortunate that I have the liberty to choose most of my working hours, which can be any time of day or night. Reading and writing can be done anywhere, and that's a blessing. Physical teaching is still classroom-bound, but that could change too, at some future point.

The point I am trying to make is simply that prioritisation is a key to achieving your goals. What those goals are, is likely to be partly driven by organisational necessity (I am assuming you work for one). So about 8-10 hours of the day may be spent in ways that maximise the organisation's output in terms of whatever they consider as "output"- it may be sales, processing of data, coding or civil construction.

But there are ways to do things smartly and use short cuts in most jobs, while maintaining quality. Some ways I have increased my output or learning, are by asking friends to help with things that I find tough to learn-new software, for example. My daughters taught me most of what I know about using social media, and a smartphone, which now help me both professionally and personally. Peers at work can teach you a lot too.

I am able to find time by keeping the phone at bay when I work. It's a great distraction, and keeps you looking at it in anticipation, if you have a net connection. So I don't. I can easily switch back and forth between mails, research and other things on my computer, when the phone is taken out of the equation.

So, prioritise and find your own short-cuts, and be more productive. You will both enjoy your work and get more leisure that way.

I Was Around When...

I was around when-

We did not have Facebook, Google, Orkut, Yahoo, Hotmail, Windows.

We did not have Mobile Phones.

We had only two models of cars and one major model of scooter in India.

We had to wait in line for Sugar, and Dalda (brand of hydrogenated cooking oil).

LPG was introduced as a cooking fuel, and had no takers.

Indian Airlines was the only domestic airline, unaffordable for most.

Hema Malini, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Tina Munim were yet to make their debuts in Hindi films. Aamir Khan and Sreedevi were child stars.

Film Duets were a personal thing between the hero and heroine running around trees, and not with two hundred guys and gals straining their muscles in unimaginable contortions around them.

"Kutte, main tera khoon pee jaoonga" was a violent dialogue.

Kissing on-screen was taboo.

There were three IIMs, known as A, B, C.

Why It Helps To Be Low Tech

In a world of high-tech, it helps to be low-tech. Here's why.

No one expects you to be available 24x7 for their moronic missions/updates/conversations.

You can claim innocence of any "ürgent" (never understood the meaning of this word) work that your boss wants you to do.

You can have undisturbed vacations.

You can ask for help (damsel-in-distress type) from the hi-tech folk. They are so thrilled with their superiority, that they will go out of their way.

You don't have to explain yourself, except for one explanation that fits all occasions- that you are a low-tech guy!

Wow, what a relief. You can't read this blog? That's because I am low-tech, man @@@..

Abdul Kalam-An Important Indian

He was unique. The highest office in the land did not change him. Lesser mortals change with much less, usually for worse. He seemed unconcerned about what the world was heaping on him- work, accolades, miseries (early in life), whatever..

His life was devoted to his work for many years, in the development of indigenous rocket/missile technology. But he was at his best talking to youngsters-children even, exhorting them to dream for themselves and India. Very inspiring.

As a teacher, his ability to simplify things was his greatest virtue, in my view. Maybe not just as a teacher. Just watched an old interview of his from 2008 by Mrinal Pande of Doordarshan TV. She asked him a wide range of questions, and he had an answer for every one of them. No evasion, straight answers, sometimes explaining new concepts such as a new index of how well a country is doing (in addition to GDP, how many people are pulled up from poverty each year plus how many people live in joint families-according to him, a positive support system) very easily, and very knowledgeable about his country and various initiatives-institutional and private. He also explained how we need technology in agriculture because he expected a drop in arable land, water and manpower in the food-growing sector. Open, innovative and positive.

No other person in high office in recent times has earned so much love and respect from such a wide range of people. Hats off to a great Indian. May we see more like him.

The Curious Case of the Malaysian Plane

Thankfully, it's a rare occurrence. And having been in some really stormy flights that seemed as if they would disintegrate mid-air, I understand that modern aircraft are fairly resilient. But that makes the current disappearance of a flight all the more intriguing.

My questions to no one in particular, are-

1. Don't we have a simple device that can help us track any flight after it falls off, even if it disintegrates? Apart from the black box, I mean. If not, is it possible to invent one, considering so many millions are now flying?

2. Can't our satellite technology which detects even small objects detect these planes somehow?

3. I am pretty sure military technology is pretty advanced. Can't some of it be applied in civilian distress management?

4. Shouldn't we be looking at rescue as early as possible after a plane goes off the radar? In this case, it was many hours before anyone did anything, it would seem.

5. Can someone (a hijacker, or a renegade pilot) simply switch off a plane's signals so it can't be traced?

6. Why not let passengers use some mobile phones if only to alert or send a message? Or enable the airline to send a coded SOS call if it loses height at an unacceptable rate indicating a disaster?

Of course, a stolen or hijacked plane is still a possibility, and if that is so, intelligence may help identify potential countries or locations where it may have flown.

A malfunction or a mechanical/structural failure is also a likelihood, either due to natural forces or a bomb.

Hope they find the truth soon.

Life and Technology

We used to debate in school on whether technology is a boon or bane, in the 'good old days'. Now, technology is a given, except to a few technophobes like  my generation.

The good that tech has done is tremendous. Communication technology has really changed lives for the better (mostly), except for some uncouth elements who do not have good usage etiquette.

The cost to an average user is also down, thanks thanks to competitive innovation by software and hardware manufacturers.

To me personally, tech is a great tool which attempts to enslave. This blog and Facebook, in particular, have helped me communicate with more people (since nobody has hacked these yet, I assume they are not totally pissed off). If you are able to keep it on a leash, it can be of great use- rather like Vishnu's Sudarshan Chakra, my favourite weapon of mass destruction. It can kill Bill, Tom, Dick, at will, but Krishna (Vishnu's avatar) uses it sparingly.

Likewise, the idiot box, the cell phone, gadgets of all descriptions. Apply your mind-don't lose it, is a good watchword in using any of these. People are more important. Maybe nature too.

The Curious Case of Compatibility

The compatibility I am referring to is not that of husbands with wives, mainly because that would need a platform much larger than a piffling blog. No, I am talking about compatibility of hardware. As in, apple and orange- or rather, Apple and Microsoft. Or Apple and vendors of Microsoft such as HP.

This is after watching a technician struggle to put an HP printer in touch with an Apple Mac at a colleague's office here. Many attempts later, the two pieces of smartware (too smart, if you ask me) refuse to shake hands, or whatever it is they shake in the technical world they inhabit.

Funny, you would think that millions of 'customer-centric marketing' lessons later, compatibility would be a given. Guess again. We marketing profs. shall carry on gamely, nevertheless...

A History of Technology- From my Viewpoint

We did use slates in school and at home, I believe. Not e-slates, the good old ones. This was around 1960 and beyond. Then, we had our blackboards and chalk in school. We had exposure to some technology through the radio, fairly gargantuan in size, through the sixties and seventies, and I remember you needed to renew a licence to operate/use a radio at home.

We heard of a contraption called Skylab which was sent into space and the collapsed back on to the earth around 1977 or 78. There was a story that a Sardar had named his kid Skylab Singh after this lab. Around 1982, the Delhi Asiad, colour TV entered our lives, having given us our fill of the black and white variety for a few years before that. I watched all the early TV shows like Chitahaar and the weekly movie in B&W.

The floppy drive computer with 256k RAM and disks of 5 and 1/4 inch was what I first used in the US in 1986. This was state-of-the-art then. Apple was floundering, though it had a loyal band of followers. The IBM PC changed everything pretty fast. By 1989, we had an early version of the net at Clemson, USA, but India did not have any place connected then.

In 1991, I taught SPSS using DOS at XIMB. Then, a few years later, it changed to WINDOWS, and became a lot simpler to use. I actually wrote my first book in long hand at Kirloskar Institute. Now I can't imagine doing that. The floppy gave way to the hard disk, the DVD and the pen drive. Now my car runs only a USB/pen drive and does not have a CD player of the older type! And my collection of 200 audio cassettes is suddenly redundant. I recently discovered a karaoke system that plays Hindi music and you can sing along to, thanks to cousins at Pune. It's a lot of fun at parties and get-togethers, and saves you the bother of remembering lyrics.

Facebook came along, and I found friends who I did't know existed- or rather, where they existed. Before that were hotmail, yahoo, and google, introduced to me by various friends. I am thankful to them for introducing me to this blogger too,as it is so easy to communicate with the world at large- I am continuously amazed by some of my reader stats, which seem to span the globe from Maryland, USA to Kazakhstan. I would have had no way to reach out to so many people otherwise. And benefit from reading their thoughts online.

Another great experience with technology was when I published my autobiography online with pothi.com a couple of years ago. That's technology in a nutshell, as it affected my life.

Retailing Conclave and Mumbai Alumni Meet

An interesting week that saw me in Pune, Mumbai and back. The occasions were a Mumbai alumni cum corporate meet. Followed by a Retailing Technology Conclave at Mumbai Exhibition Centre, Goregaon. I did not know of the existence of this Centre, the venue. It is a huge, sprawling place in the heart of the crowded metropolis and feels like a farmhouse. Excellent facilities for an exhibition. Lot of technology providers to retail industry had stalls there too. Many good speakers from industry-retail and branding/marketing from India and abroad. In all, a professionally done program which was useful to understand where Retail in India is going. Poised for the entry of multi-brand retailers from the world over, Indian retailers still haven't reached optimum efficiencies, barring very few.

Challenges they face include manpower related challenges. May be an opportunity for small town India again, for a lot of frontline jobs are to be filled in the next few years as these guys grow in size and stature. The Wal-Marts and Carrefours of the world will surely enter and spice up the proceedings. The session on Social Marketing or Digital Marketing by Mahesh Murthy was very good, with some interesting stats. For example, that Social Media have the same reach as IPL matches-every day! And are probably more trusted than multi-million rupee ads. Mostly, these are free to use by the marketers. Of course, with some caveats. Like, it requires IQ to make use of these intelligently.

The alumni meet saw around 120 IMT alumni and 20 plus corporate invitees turn up. Numbers that are encouraging!