Sony Vaio – 53K Mistake

Most of the teenagers would buy a Vaio only for its looks. Moreover, the premium laptop these days is being promoted by Bollywood’s size zero diva Kareena Kapoor. I wonder whether she has time for using one. I certainly have. My horrid one year experience with one of them has forced me to come out from my 2 month slumber and blog.

August 2008 I decided to shell out a few extra bucks and buy a Vaio. Similar configuration was available in other brands such as Dell, HP etc for a much lesser price. But then, I was totally blinded by the looks and purchased VGN CR-353 for 53k. Mind you the superfluous purchase was before recession had started.

After about 8 months in March 2009, I started facing a peculiar problem. After working fine for a certain time, the laptop suddenly started to shut down randomly, without any connection to what I did. Initially, I overlooked the problem, as the frequency of the same was once a week. How could there be anything wrong with a Vaio.

In May 2009, the frequency increased and I decided to go to a Sony authorized service station. The concerned person told me that the problem is temporary. Solution is to use the laptop on battery for few days as the system gets over heated on direct supply. I trusted him on my life. How could a Sony service station engineer say anything wrong?

Well, I was in for a big surprise.

June 2009 I left for Mumbai and left the prized possession with my Dad. In my absence the problem kept on increasing and another visit to the service station resulted in the same reply. In August 2009, the guarantee expired and so did my laptop. Currently the system shuts down every time I use CPU intensive applications (Movies, Games or running time of more than 30min on direct supply).

The symptoms of overheating are:

· It works fine as long as you don't run any CPU intensive applications. But when you stress it, it works for a while (10-15 minutes) and shuts down.

· Once it does shut down, it will shut down sooner if you restart it without giving it time to cool off. Then the cycle starts again.

My Vaio is currently an ultra modern elegant looking typewriter. The only application that I can run on it is Microsoft Office. The good news is that I can run the advanced Office 2007.

Using the laptop is a very complicated procedure. It works on direct supply for some time. To avoid over heating it is switched to battery mode. When the battery is about to discharge it is again connected to direct supply. This switching of power supply increases the runtime to few hours. But one has to be very precise on time. This skill gets developed with time.

For those who are still not convinced, try this. Type “vaio premature shutdown” in Google search. You will get an astonishing 356,000 results. I wish I had done this before buying one.

My only suggestion for the prospective laptop buyers is - do not fall for the looks (Vaio or Kareena).

Omega

Training Room (spot me standing in the background)

“All things (good or bad) must come to an end” is a “remix” of an old English proverb. May 2009 witnessed the end of my teaching career. By mid May I knew that my 3 month stint would come to a stereotypic end, a sentimental farewell speech and exchange of mail ids (never to be used J). Instead, there was something challenging in store.

Few days before my retirement, the centre head informed me that Larsen & Toubro has approached him to arrange, 2 day training on Executive MBA (offered by IIM A). He wanted me to conduct the same. Both of us met the L&T officials and negotiated on the terms and conditions. During the meeting, we were informed that the training was for 17 senior managers with an average work experience of 8+ years. The managers would fly across India to attend the training.

The training comprised of the following modules

1. Quantitative
2. Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation
3. Verbal
4. Emotional Quotient/Personal Interview

Each module was of 4 hrs duration. I was responsible for 1st, 2nd and 4th modules. Handouts were prepared for all participants. A 2 hour simulation test was also prepared, to simulate the actual exam. Quantitative and Verbal modules were to be covered on Day 1 while the remaining on the following day.

Different View of Training Room

All the 17 managers were friendly and made me feel comfortable. I was surprised by their exuberance to understand new concepts. In fact, some of them had better concept clarity than regular CAT students. The training was effective as 10 of the 17 managers cleared the exam and interview combined.

The entire experience of conducting a corporate training gave me utmost satisfaction. My almost 3 month experience was a roller coaster ride. I got an opportunity to teach, conduct seminars and undertake corporate training. Although, I am retiring, but I will be following the profession with interest and I shall indeed be back.

Office Humour

J

“Born” Identity

A Sample National ID Card

Years back an amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne kept the audience on the edge of their seats, when he discovered his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy. Yes, I am talking about Matt Damon in a 2002 super hit spy film named “The Bourne Identity”.Seven years hence, its Nandan Nilkanai who is all set to give more than 1.2 billion Indians their identity.

For a huge country like India, providing biometric unique ID cards is a mammoth task. Hence, it was no surprise that ex-Infosys co-chairman was appointed as the chairperson. This decision also came as welcome change as most of the key national projects were kept in political and bureaucratic hands.

The project was due for a long time as the issues related to multiple identity markers had increased significantly. Government over the years has invested significantly in issuing cards such as ration card, voter id, passport, pan card, BPL etc. This has led to operational inefficiencies.

The national ID card would be the mother of all e-governance projects. In this post, I intend to educate the reader on the benefits. Whether the ambitious 2011 deadline would be met or not is another issue.

If executed, the card has umpteen gains:

• Most important is the security benefit. The problem of illegal migration can be better tackled.
• Poverty alleviation programs such as job guarantee or food security will gain, as the actual beneficiaries can be identified.
• In case of medical emergencies, vital information regarding the patient’s blood group etc stored in the card can be used to save his or her life.
• During election, the card would eliminate the possibilities of fake votes.
• Government can save money by plugging leakages and targeting subsidies efficiently.
• A single card would replace all other identity proofs (birth certificate, pan, ration card etc) hence making life easier.

The above are few of the benefits which have been made public at the initial stages of the project. It is up to the government, to ensure that previous errors are not repeated, and the entire execution is transparent. The stakes are very high, as we are not talking about a mere smart card but about a person’s citizenship, his “Born Identity”.

“Sir” Roger Federer

Federer has not yet received the honorary knighthood, but according to me he surely does deserve one. Last month in a marathon fifth set, Federer won his sixth Wimbledon and in the process eclipsed Pete Sampras record of 14 grand slam titles.

After losing to Nadal during last year’s Wimbledon finals, there were wide speculations that Federer’s dominance in professional tennis was coming to an end. Federer silenced his critics by winning his first ever French Open, and became only the sixth person ever to get a career grand slam. Some killjoys will undermine Federer’s last two grand slam victories, as he did not defeat Nadal. This eventually leads us to the ever green question “Is he the greatest ever”.

A glance at his immaculate career will answer the above question. Roger Federer is the only player ever to have

• 237 consecutive weeks as Rank 1
• Won 15 singles grand slams (In 6 years)
• Played 20 grand slam finals
• Played 10 consecutive grand slam finals
• Played 21 consecutive grand slam semi finals
• 4 consecutive years winning at least 2 grand slams
• 5 years winning at least 2 grand slams
• 3 years winning at least 2 grand slams
• 36 consecutive grand slam sets won
• Won 7 initial grand slam finals

The above are just a few of his numerous records. Just for information he has lost all his 5 grand slam finals to Nadal. For those who still are not convinced have a look at this table.

Grand Slam	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Australian Open	4R	Won	SF	Won	Won	SF	F
French Open	1R	3R	SF	F	F	F	Won
Wimbledon	Won	Won	Won	Won	Won	F	Won
US Open	4R	Won	Won	Won	Won	Won	—

Some people would suggest that the sport has evolved so much that it is irrelevant to compare players of different eras. I certainly do agree, but apart from Federer no player has ever dominated the game to this extent. The debate on greatest ever might seem endless, but everyone would agree that he is certainly the greatest player of this era.

Myopic Budget

Second innings of UPA is considered to be a victory of aam aadmi. Hence, this year’s budget has been framed keeping them in mind. The budget is majorly stimulus oriented and focuses on consumption to sustain growth. For the first time, in almost a decade the private sector has not been the focus.

The government has made no substantial effort to increase private demand. Instead, the focus has been on public expenditure. The good news is the roll out of goods and services tax. Also the decision to stick with tax breaks, removal of surcharge on personal income tax and abolition of fringe benefit tax, will act as stimulants for the private sector.

The expenditure on infrastructure is in line with the Planning Commissions estimate. To replicate its previous growth, India needs to double its capacity of ports, roads, power, and airports. Budget rightly addresses the needs of all the above sectors.

Budgetary support has been increased for a large number of existing flagship programmes. A major problem is that running multiple programmes is inefficient and increases subsidy. The gray area is that UPA has not addressed the problem of implementation. Instead they have only marked out new areas for public spending.

With fiscal deficit at astronomically high 6.8% of GDP, funding is a major issue. The budget did speak about disinvestment and fuel price decontrol, but the numbers were not very encouraging. The disinvestment target of Rs.1, 120 crore per annum is miniscule when compared to the Economic Surveys annual projection of Rs.25, 000 crore.

If budgets are about vision, then this one is definitely myopic. India’s widening fiscal deficit warranted a more prudent measure from the government. Excessive government borrowing to meet the fiscal deficit might lead to crowding out of credit to private sector. Increase in debt would also reduce India’s sovereign credit rating.

Budget 2009 has definitely been drafted keeping aam aadmi in mind. Whether it would improve his daily life is a big question mark.

Bread Upma

Bread is one of the most widely consumed breakfast item. It is generally used as a fast moving item. Maximum people consume it on weekdays as it doesn’t take time to prepare. It is generally accompanied with milk, butter and jam.

In this post we discuss a recipe which goes against convention, and combines the Western (bread) and Indian cooking. Preparation time is around 15 mins.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

• Wheat bread 8-10 slices
• 1 capsicum
• 2 onions
• 2 medium size potato
• 2 big tomato
• 1 medium bowl safal peas
• 1 lemon
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp jeera
• 1 tbsp dhania powder
• 1 tbsp chat masala
• 1/4 tbsp turmeric powder
• Some chopped green chilies (1-2) (only if you want to)
• Finely chopped coriander leaves (garnishing)
• Salt to taste

Procedure

Take oil in a pan and heat. Add the finely cut potatoes and stir till they turn pink. Add finely cut onions and stir till they turn red. Then add salt and other masalas specified in the ingredient list. After 2 min, add chopped tomatoes and stir. After 2 min, add peas and sauté the mixture.

Meanwhile remove crust from bread and break it into crumbs. Once the above mixture is prepared add the crumbs and stir. Add chat masala and lemon juice from top. Use coriander leaves for garnishing. Serve hot.

Fine Tune Your Quantitative Skills

A view of the class room (Spot me in the background)

Some of my class room students

After one and half months as a “cost center” for Career Launcher I was promoted to a “revenue generator”. The idea was simple. Get hold of some CAT aspirants, impress them by means of a fancy presentation (this is what students learn in their MBA) and lure them to join Career Launcher.

Guess what, among the entire experienced faculty the center head chose me to conduct workshops (he wanted me to torture other students as wellJ). The title of my first workshop is the title of this post.

I would not discuss the contents of the presentation. I have attached the same for your viewing. Kindly go through it at least once. In case you find it useful, refer it to your friends who are preparing for MBA entrance.

To view presentation in slide form use the following link Fine Tune Your Quantitative Skills

The workshop ran for about 75 minutes. It was a big success. Initially the ambience was grim, but after about 15 min things changed. Most of the students were able to connect with me and each one had a great time (not sure of how many concepts they understood).

Within a week of the event, almost 20% (a good number by the industry standards) of the audience joined Career Launcher (new bakrasJ). The center head was impressed, the students seemed satisfied, and as for me, I still haven’t been able to solve the questions discussed in the presentationJ.

P.S. Reference has been made to an old Career Launcher presentation.

Bandra-Worli Sea Link

June 30 witnessed an unprecedented inauguration of Bandra-Worli Sea link in Mumbai. The event was witnessed by a large number of frustrated and harried commuters. The sea link is India’s longest bridge and the first in the country to be built over open sea. It has been termed as an engineering marvel, as most of the blue prints have been indigenous.

The real reason for the celebration, according to me, is unknown. The most common and obvious reason is that 5.6km sea link, will supposedly reduce the 40 minute car journey from Bandra to Worli to seven minutes. I am not sure on this, given that traffic will accumulate at both ends of the bridge, not saving commuters too much of time. Traffic dispersal at either end of the bridge will have to be considered, it’s surprising to know that it was not anticipated while project planning.

The other reason could be the saving of tax payer’s money. The project which was initially valued at Rs.300 crores was supposed to be completed in 2004. As usual, the project got delayed by 5 years and the cost escalated to a little over Rs.1600 crore. So when the marathon construction finally got over, it came as a big sigh of relief to all tax payers (Another 5 years of delay would have meant an extra 1000 crores).

India’s infrastructure projects are marred by poor planning and execution. The inefficiency becomes more prominent when the numbers are compared with China. A similar project, Hangzhou Bay Bridge, was completed in 4 years. The only difference was that the bridge was a staggering 35.6 km long. India took a decade to build a bridge 1/6 its size. Moreover, China has built seven sea links in the last six years.

A major reason for the above inefficiencies is politics and red tape. No ruling party is ready to take a holistic view of a city’s development. Change in the landscape involves land acquisition and resettlement of thousands of people. Any mistake here would mean loss of thousands of votes for the government. Contracts are frequently renegotiated midway, the government is slow in obtaining clearances and the entire process is penetrated with red tape.

In this political and bureaucratic muddle, one should not forget the efforts of thousands of laborers. Some of them have given almost 10 years of their life to this project. The sea link is an outcome of the dedication and hard work of those thousands of common men and women.

BJP: Directionless?

The 15^th Lok Sabha election turned out to be a major political game changer. Within an hour of counting it was clear that Congress was on its way to become the single largest party. Compared to 204 seats of Congress, BJP was able to manage a paltry 116. In fact, as compared to 2004, it also witnessed a dip in national vote share by almost 5%.

BJPs whipping comes as a surprise, as they had a plethora of issues to campaign against the ruling government. Instead of hand picking the important issues, they opted for a negative blanket campaign. Venomous remarks by frontline leaders such as Varun Gandhi further tarnished the party’s image.

An important aspect which BJP did not give due importance was the circumstances under which the elections took place. Global financial crisis, terror attacks, insurgency in neighboring countries only meant that the voters were looking for – Stability.

“Aam Aadmi” (Common Man) wants a stable government which would ensure him job and safety in the future. Unfortunately, BJPs mandate was based on the past. They decided to raise the decade old issue of Ram Janmabhoomi movement. This movement has been a landmark for them, as it was instrumental in their 1999 Lok Sabha victory. But BJP totally overlooked the need of the hour. Destroying a mosque and constructing a temple at the same spot hardly holds any importance to today’s “Aam Aadmi”. The age old strategy of communal politics in order to polarize the electorate, unfortunately didn’t work for them.

Less importance to economic growth and lack of direction in the party, is ensuring BJPs loss of popularity among the youth as well as the urban middle class. These two segments were the main vote banks for the BJP since 1998. To regain its lost glory, BJP will have to reconnect with the two segments and devise a winning strategy.

As the Vajpayee and Advani era comes to an end, BJP will have to look for a new leader. The party will have to reorient itself so as to advocate reform and globalization. The party will have to discard the past and embrace the future.

Lemon Rice

Lemon Rice is one of the easiest dishes. If you are late from office and do not have the time and energy, then this is the dish (most of my dishes do not require time and effortJ). Preparation time is around 10-15 min. It is a very popular dish in South India and is cooked frequently during summer.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 bowl boiled rice (even previous days left over will doJ)
• ½ tsp haldi, dhaniya powder, mustard seed (rai seeds)
• 1 tsp saboot jeera
• 2 tbsp Oil
• 1-2 finely chopped onions
• 1-2 lemon
• 3-4 tbsp ground nut
• 5-10 curry leaves
• Some chopped ginger and chilies (1-2) (only if you want to)
• Finely chopped coriander leaves (garnishing)
• Salt to taste

Procedure

Take 2 tbsp oil in a pan and heat. Add the onions and stir them till they turn red (1-2 min). Then add salt, muzstard seeds, jeera, dhaniya powder, haldi and ground nut. Then add some ginger and chillies. Stir for some seconds and add curry leaves.

Once the seasoning is ready add rice and lemon juice to it. Mix well. If required add some water (2-3 tbsp). Use coriander leaves to garnish.

Note

• Crush the curry leaves with hand before adding. It increase the fragrance and taste (no scientific reason behind it, but it worksJ)
• On a non working day you can add potato, capsicum, boiled peas (safal) and dry fruits. This would taste better and also increase the quantity (BrunchJ)

Lemon rice tastes best with rasam (will discuss it later). For junta who wants to save time set dahi is the best option. Yummy!

How to Get a Job in Time of Crisis

I have had the unique opportunity of completing my MBA during peak of economic crisis. Not only did the struggling economy drastically reduced the number of jobs but also ensured that many students landed up in a different industry altogether.

Some months back, during one of my leisurely browsing I came across an extremely hilarious advertisement of Pepsi Max. The video shows how 2 people help one of their friends in obtaining a job.

The video can be accessed from the following link: Pepsi Max It

So now you know how I landed up with a jobJ.

CAT Goes Online

From past one month, the most widely discussed topic among CAT aspirants has been “CAT Goes Online”. Every now and then you would come across someone or the other speculating (in fact predictingJ) the online CAT format (including meJ).

At Career Launcher we noticed that following the announcement, uncertainty for the students increased dramatically. After every class, for almost 15 min, students unnecessarily wasted there time debating on the likely changes (actually I enjoy these after class conversationsJ).

In fact the news has been a major distraction. Many students have been left in disarray, as they do not know what the pattern would be like. This has affected their strategies as well as their preparation.

Considering the gravity of the situation, we decided to conduct a workshop for the CAT aspirants. Riding high on the success of my first workshop (only I think soJ), I was asked to take up this challenge as well. (Shall post the details of my first workshop later)

To view presentation in slide form use the following link CAT Goes Online

The initial turnout for our workshop was dismal. The first screening had an audience of only 8 students. Thanks to the electronic media and television, the topic was blown out of proportion. This increased the anxiety among the candidates and as a result the number of footfalls to our centre increased dramatically. In a little over 3 weeks this presentation has been run 6 times. Almost 190 students have benefited from it.

As more than a month has passed, since the announcement was made, I think most of you would find the contents of this presentation to be redundant. I still feel that you should go through this presentation at least once (might find something new).

In case you have any updates, feel free to comment.

All the best!