Another long wait is now over
All the rumors and speculations are ending. TI announced the changes to the world. May be a few hours before that it was internally also announced. 1000 people getting laid off immediately. A large part are contractors - so they might not be jobless as such. As long as their employers can find some space for them to earn money. Another 300 people will be at the mercy of someone who can buy the spin off business.
The internal mail came around 3AM in Japan. I was glancing the mails every now and then I open my eyes. Details are not yet known. Decided to spin off so-and-so business. So many people in that business will be at the mercy of the new masters. More people will lose jobs anyways. Starting tomorrow.
Who are the people who lose their job tomorrow? What will they do? Some of them will be getting it in office tomorrow. How many is some of them? How many will come to office expecting an "early release". How many families would expect their dad come back home early tomorrow? Which all houses and cars will suddenly show up as liability suddenly tomorrow? Which all people will be "technically" able to sleep a lot more in the morning, while they actually will not be able to sleep even minimum hours in the night? None of them are getting into the new vaccum because they did anything wrong. This is just because someone at a decision making level made some wrong decisions in the past. The value of the stocks they get part of the compensation is now going down. They have to get it straight. Lay off.
Insha Allah, I want to keep believing that I am not in list that gets the pink slip. May be I will know in a day. The new org. The new bosses. The new dotted lines. The new virtual teams.
Wait is not over. It will never be over actually. Changes will keep happening. You wait or not wait.
Tuesday, October 21
Monday, October 20
Credit Crunch
Picture of a houseboat on the backdrop of beautiful Kerala backwaters. He and she tucked away into the scenic silence.
If you can afford this vacation today, why wait?
So says the billboard that used to catch my attention - and made me lose my temper everytime - off Airport road in Bangalore three years back. Well, why should I worry?
The second line is what I hate - the new means of "affording" luxury - xxxBank Personal Loans. No collateral needed. They will give you a loan. Take it, spend it. The resort owners also have taken a loan. So the money flow from bank back to bank has to happen through you. Economic activity. You pay for the vacation, interest to the loan you took, interest for the loan resort owner has taken, pay your part for the billboard that invited you into the deal and then the profit for the resort. The value of the vacation is probably only 20% of what you spend in total. But still they know the art of making you feel you are happy. That you just could "afford" a vacation that you "deserved".
Vacation was not a word for working class in our childhood. We had Onam vacation, Christmas vacation and annual vacation for schools. When we go to our grandparents place. That was our vacation. It used to be save, save, save for our parents. Save for your childrens education - though education was close to free. Still, save for building your house. The primary need and the most important and many times first asset.
They say its spend, spend, spend for Indians now. Take loans and spend. Buy a car - why not buy a 10L+ car? You just pay so-and-so per month. You can afford that, can't you? Buy vacations. You work so hard (yeah spending time on orkut and facebook), don't you? Buy all "affordable" luxuries. Come on, kids can wait. Before that let us see life. Swipe the plastic card when you see something good. Don't worry about your savings. You know banks are helping you a great deal. The more cards, the more you "afford". Build up the liabilities day by day. Not assets. But believe, get convinced, that you are the proud owner of all these.
Our moms saved a lot of gold. For them gold was an asset that helped them in need. Their daughters now collect more gold credit cards. And monthly statements on each one of them.
I welcome a recession now. I know its hard. Many lose jobs. (May be its me. I am glancing on my mails every 10 min for the pending reorg announcement). But I think its better than later. Better fall from a 5 storeyed building than from a 10 storeyed one. When I wrote about loans couple months back, the Generation Y did not understand. People cannot wait for that vacation. Enjoy life today. Just remember one thing - you are able to jump start your life because your parents got you a safe jumping board. Not a set of loans that you should start paying back. Never its too late. Just compare with the worse. Comfort is a comparative feeling. And so is hardship too.
Why this recession? Because everyone went on loans. Money was made as a tool for virtualising barter system. Now money itself is being traded. Money market - I fail to comprehend this level of abstraction. Someone was telling me six months back - housing market is bad, but money is still cheap. I guess it means a low interest loan. I think if these loans were not there, the overall price index should come down. Now they create customers by giving loans. When people can "afford" more, the price goes up. A vicious cycle where only the bank officials make money (banks do not - they only have paper assets. Thats why they fail)
You dont have to be forced out of loans. You can decide by yourself to remain where you are and stop pursuing more luxuries. If you know the building foundation is not really good, you should start climbing down. Not climbing up. But they don't tell you that. All of them tell you banks are still safe, they still give you money and make you pay up their salaries. Just hold off. No more loans for another 5 years. After that you probably will get used to it. And might not need loans to pay back your loans. Can we do that?
If you can afford this vacation today, why wait?
So says the billboard that used to catch my attention - and made me lose my temper everytime - off Airport road in Bangalore three years back. Well, why should I worry?
The second line is what I hate - the new means of "affording" luxury - xxxBank Personal Loans. No collateral needed. They will give you a loan. Take it, spend it. The resort owners also have taken a loan. So the money flow from bank back to bank has to happen through you. Economic activity. You pay for the vacation, interest to the loan you took, interest for the loan resort owner has taken, pay your part for the billboard that invited you into the deal and then the profit for the resort. The value of the vacation is probably only 20% of what you spend in total. But still they know the art of making you feel you are happy. That you just could "afford" a vacation that you "deserved".
Vacation was not a word for working class in our childhood. We had Onam vacation, Christmas vacation and annual vacation for schools. When we go to our grandparents place. That was our vacation. It used to be save, save, save for our parents. Save for your childrens education - though education was close to free. Still, save for building your house. The primary need and the most important and many times first asset.
They say its spend, spend, spend for Indians now. Take loans and spend. Buy a car - why not buy a 10L+ car? You just pay so-and-so per month. You can afford that, can't you? Buy vacations. You work so hard (yeah spending time on orkut and facebook), don't you? Buy all "affordable" luxuries. Come on, kids can wait. Before that let us see life. Swipe the plastic card when you see something good. Don't worry about your savings. You know banks are helping you a great deal. The more cards, the more you "afford". Build up the liabilities day by day. Not assets. But believe, get convinced, that you are the proud owner of all these.
Our moms saved a lot of gold. For them gold was an asset that helped them in need. Their daughters now collect more gold credit cards. And monthly statements on each one of them.
I welcome a recession now. I know its hard. Many lose jobs. (May be its me. I am glancing on my mails every 10 min for the pending reorg announcement). But I think its better than later. Better fall from a 5 storeyed building than from a 10 storeyed one. When I wrote about loans couple months back, the Generation Y did not understand. People cannot wait for that vacation. Enjoy life today. Just remember one thing - you are able to jump start your life because your parents got you a safe jumping board. Not a set of loans that you should start paying back. Never its too late. Just compare with the worse. Comfort is a comparative feeling. And so is hardship too.
Why this recession? Because everyone went on loans. Money was made as a tool for virtualising barter system. Now money itself is being traded. Money market - I fail to comprehend this level of abstraction. Someone was telling me six months back - housing market is bad, but money is still cheap. I guess it means a low interest loan. I think if these loans were not there, the overall price index should come down. Now they create customers by giving loans. When people can "afford" more, the price goes up. A vicious cycle where only the bank officials make money (banks do not - they only have paper assets. Thats why they fail)
You dont have to be forced out of loans. You can decide by yourself to remain where you are and stop pursuing more luxuries. If you know the building foundation is not really good, you should start climbing down. Not climbing up. But they don't tell you that. All of them tell you banks are still safe, they still give you money and make you pay up their salaries. Just hold off. No more loans for another 5 years. After that you probably will get used to it. And might not need loans to pay back your loans. Can we do that?
Sunday, October 19
Time to Tokyo
Time to Tokyo was 13.5 hrs when we started. When the altitude as zero.
Time to Tokyo: xx hrs
I did not look at the screen for a long time. I had bought a Paulo Coelho novel - the Zahir - and was immersed in that.
I always go for an aisle seat on my flights. This time I could not get one. So I was stranded on a window seat. The only way to get out was to open the window and feel that I am not sitting down. The view beneath was too good to miss. A vast vast land of pure white snow. Looks like some small hills and valleys - but all white snow. Nowhere could I see a trace of life. Looked up the screen again.
Time to Tokyo: xx hrs
Altitude: 30000 feet
We are flying over Alaska. Alaska is now a fame thanks to the pageant VP candidate Sarah Palin. By the way, just checked Alaska on Google Maps Satellite map. Man, its so gorgeous! Much much more than Sarah Palin. Reminded me of the old Bombay Dyeing advertisement - a model clad in a designer bed sheet. Have a look today - around Anchorage.
I did not know Alaska was so much of ice. To me it looked like my mind. It has been so frozen for a long time. No reading, no writing. I tried hard to start jotting down at least a couple. I failed. The frozen mind stays solid. I say I am busy. Yes, I am. Doing what? What if my body and brain does a hundred push ups but my mind does not move? What I call so busy are like the small streams that flow on top of the snow. The speed of the stream just shows its ignorance. As if it is going to move the entire snow.
I want to read more and more. Today's pick was really good. Paulo Coehlo is such an inspired author. I am not qualified to understand even 10% of what he wrote. But that small percentage is good enough to do some mowing on the snow. A constant mowing is what is needed. I want the ability to mow when I think it need to be.
Ability - that's the key. Freedom is the ability to be free when you want to. For a short interval. Freedom to choose between different masters. To decide on the kind of slavery. Paulo Coelho sets out his journey to seek knowledge. What is knowledge? What do we learn in school. Mathematics - there is no knowledge. We only learn a way to solve a problem. Problems to be solved in pursuit of knowledge. Science says how things work. Basic need-to-knows when you want to learn something more. The ability to learn more. History is how mankind learned to learn. To know the footsteps that took us so far. Trace back to trails just to know how to know.
What is knowledge? Back to the Zahir..
Saturday, September 6
Google Chrome
Google is again in the news. Thats not a news.
This time they surprised many with a new browser. People who downloaded and used was not surprised though. Do I see a major GOOG difference out there? No. There is no menu bar and there is more space to view. Come on. I did not care about the extra inch. I dont have that in many apps anyways and I am not used to work on that top margin of my display anyways.
The tabs can be dragged out as a window. So what?
Apps can have shortcuts and they run on a disguised browser when clicked. Hmmm
Google says the browser is not any more a tool that is used to view pages. This is a platform for running apps. I vote mutiple times on this. This is the key. Web is now a new Ultra High Level OS. Not a window anymore. This is a door where you can walk into and play your role. This is a place for interaction.
I believe this is a browser for their Android. Happened to be for computers too. They wanted something like a Safari on iPhone. I dont believe they will compete in the PC market where IE still holds 60% share. But on Android they will have 100% share. They can create iPhone and S60 version of the browser and let users download. Again, not a browser. The Google Apps package. Google Gears.
You can also browse
This time they surprised many with a new browser. People who downloaded and used was not surprised though. Do I see a major GOOG difference out there? No. There is no menu bar and there is more space to view. Come on. I did not care about the extra inch. I dont have that in many apps anyways and I am not used to work on that top margin of my display anyways.
The tabs can be dragged out as a window. So what?
Apps can have shortcuts and they run on a disguised browser when clicked. Hmmm
Google says the browser is not any more a tool that is used to view pages. This is a platform for running apps. I vote mutiple times on this. This is the key. Web is now a new Ultra High Level OS. Not a window anymore. This is a door where you can walk into and play your role. This is a place for interaction.
I believe this is a browser for their Android. Happened to be for computers too. They wanted something like a Safari on iPhone. I dont believe they will compete in the PC market where IE still holds 60% share. But on Android they will have 100% share. They can create iPhone and S60 version of the browser and let users download. Again, not a browser. The Google Apps package. Google Gears.
You can also browse
Wednesday, September 3
Politics heating up
They are going to decide who the next Uncle Sam is. For a change some thought it would be an Aunt Sam. Not there yet though.
The US elections are really interesting. This year too so. There are only two contendors. This is a place they spend more time battling their own party men than fighting the real opposition. Too much focus on individual. Of course they election is for a monarch for the next five years. So it has to be vetted at the personal level. Less experience, young Obama with an older Biden against experienced old McCain with a young beauty queen Palin. Reformist Democrats vs Reformist Conservatives (!). Reform is one word they want to win. Though it is basically between War and no War. Tax cut for business vs Tax cut for low income. Abortion vs Pro-life.
They call it democracy. But the billions they spend in the professional exercises that last for years is mostly coming from businesses. What for? This is a democracy where if you pay $2300 you get to shake hands with Obama (at least during primary). All the payers are rewarded with access into the "democratic" system.
Good to watch on!
The US elections are really interesting. This year too so. There are only two contendors. This is a place they spend more time battling their own party men than fighting the real opposition. Too much focus on individual. Of course they election is for a monarch for the next five years. So it has to be vetted at the personal level. Less experience, young Obama with an older Biden against experienced old McCain with a young beauty queen Palin. Reformist Democrats vs Reformist Conservatives (!). Reform is one word they want to win. Though it is basically between War and no War. Tax cut for business vs Tax cut for low income. Abortion vs Pro-life.
They call it democracy. But the billions they spend in the professional exercises that last for years is mostly coming from businesses. What for? This is a democracy where if you pay $2300 you get to shake hands with Obama (at least during primary). All the payers are rewarded with access into the "democratic" system.
Good to watch on!
Tuesday, August 26
Back after Ijtima
Had been to Hudson Valley NY for MKA Ijtima. Three days and nights and back home to see Aiden and Ian getting sick - fever and body pain. So working from home today
Friday, August 22
New York this weekend
I am leaving for New York tonight. Khuddamul Ahmadiyya National Ijtima. This is the second time I will be in NY. First after 2001 - the WTC towers did exist at that time. I dont have time to check the non existent towers this time though..
Wednesday, August 20
Getting back online
Six months. Aiden is now a happy boy. He sits down, smiles, coos, plays with his soft toys. He kept us all busy all these days. Now he is part of our daily life. Cant even think of the days when he was not around..
Let me try get back online. A few lines a day..
Let me try get back online. A few lines a day..
Friday, February 1
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