Around Me

Traffic in Thakur Village

2010-05-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

Back to blogging after long time. Let us see how long it lasts :-) Traffic in India is nightmare. We all know that. I am always put off when I go out. There are vehicles travelling in all directions. They are all ready to attack you. You feel like Abhimanyu - trapped. There are so many cars parked on the road. Half of the road is occupied by hawkers and other half by cars. I see my fellow Indians at ease working through the maze of traffic. They seem to accept the chaos. May be I also need to adapt myself. That is the only way you can survive the traffic madness.

Instant gratification

2009-03-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

In the world of internet time scales we want instant gratification so blogs take preference over newspapers. Blogs also take preference over books. For me watching great ads is one of the greatest time pass. In terms of entertainment value I find watching ads in youtube the best. The sheer creativity of these ads amaze me. Our ads in India are so boring.

Invertising.

2009-03-20T01:25:00.000-07:00

This is what I posted as a comment on Rajesh Jain's emergic blog.

----------------------------------------------------
Rajesh - I keep thinking of invertising and how it will affect our day to day life in coming days.
I wonder why it does not pick up. All my household items come from brands be it my electronic goods to tooth paste. A simple bar code or unique number on these items and a SMS should be able to kick of the conversation and the conversation can be mutually beneficial to me and the brand.For e.g. If I have bought a new music system from Bose then Bose can be interested in how my experience is with the music system. Here I think the conversation with the brand will be short if the brand does not have any add on to offer.Contrast this with a new cream or scent then the conversation can go for long. If I like the new cream , may be I will like some think else.
If I bought the cream some x days back then the brand can predict when I want it replenished. The nature of conversation will vary from each brand but it it will be beneficial to both brand and the customer. Is the idea picking up because personally I have not see any brands to do it. If they do it conversations are very short. I am in vacation so I have good time to think about these ideas which are of course not original and hashed from your ideas and the internet.

Vishal

Personality of Blogs

2009-03-19T23:41:00.000-07:00

Every blog has a personality like a person- some bring the child in you, some bring the smile, some become your friends and invite you to converse-put comments. Some scold you, some tell you are a fool, some warn you to converse. The world is indeed a stage and there are many blog in it ;-)

Ideology overload

2009-03-19T23:28:00.000-07:00

I have been reading books, blogs and my mind reels with information and ideology overload.There is a classic liberal,socialist, Austrian Enonomics and so on. They all fight and they all know what is right.I think there should be some common sense ideology also and it should be as simple as doing what your common sense says.

Vishal

Automation for SME

2009-03-17T08:18:00.000-07:00

If I look around I see lot of SME. I mean SME as grocery shop,medical shop, cloth shop, electronics shop. We can also add schools, small hospitals to this list. They all need to store information and that typically goes in books by manual writing. Is there is a value in automation for all these enterprises. The challenges are that automation for SME is still a costly proposition. The cost of software development for firms doing it will be as much as it for export. This means that unless supported by huge volumes there is no business model. Can mobiles help as mobile penetration is high ?

Our Roads

2009-03-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

The surest way to know if India has developed and progressed is not to see the GDP numbers. The day one can safely walk on the roads, we would have become a developed nation. What a nightmare walking on the roads. Our roads and vehicles on them perfectly demonstrate Brownian motion.

Communalism and Liberalism fight for my heart

2009-03-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

I had a English education. I stayed in a cosmopolitan place. I grew up as a secular person. I then started reading history, participating in internet discussions. I realized much of the history I knew was not correct. Now I am not sure one can ever know true history as history is history.
Any way I always believed and believe now also that Hindu society had not treated many of its own people properly but I also became aware of Islamic history of India. I saw Islamic terrorism as the continuation of oppression on Hindus for the last 1000 years.It made me communal and I was always there to defend the Hindu way of life. I was more of an anti-Muslim than an Hindu. I wrote strongly against Islam and Muslims in internet discussion. I was drawn to the RSS ideology and believed that an eye for an eye was required to fight Islamic terrorism.

As time went by and with more experiences I realized that we are all trapped in the times we live in. All societies go through the communal and liberal cycle.
The best societies are the ones which are liberal. Liberalism is what liberates all of us. Liberalism leads to modernism. Liberalism leads to happiness.
To be a liberal is tough and to be a communal is easy. The struggle between a liberal and a communal still goes on. I hope the liberal wins my heart.

Future Bet

2009-03-15T07:25:00.001-07:00

I think the future is going to be of multiple mobile devices in which Mobile phone would be one. We will be having many devices apart from Mobile and PC.
Investing in these technologies will reap benefit.
If one looks at many of our small SME business operations they do require a information storage and analysis device. A PC becomes overkill and a mobile may be too small device.
A netbook kind of device running on Android kind of OS and having the capabilities of PC and Mobile can do the trick.
Will this work ?

Government Intervention VS Free Market

2009-03-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

In these tough economic times the debate over Government intervention VS Free market continues. For me living in India I see every activity where Government participates is a recipe for disaster. Are there then perfect Markets ?
I do not know the answer but I think free market is the best solution to harness the power of individuals.

Posting Via Mail

2009-03-14T01:27:00.000-07:00

Checking how posting with mail will work.
Will be used from office where every thing is stupidly blocked for reasons best known to my organization.

Back to Blogging

2009-03-14T00:41:00.000-07:00

I am back to blogging. I have never done this before punctually. I hope to do this time. Why do I want to blog now ?
I hope to write what I observe around me so that in future I can see the trends in my thinking.
I think the key is to write punctually and write short.