Coming Soon....

Very soon I would have some interesting and exciting posts/pictures about my Sydney experience and places I visited after coming back to India....so wait and watch for more on this space!

The Vacation 2011

Well we have been waiting for this vacation since 3 months prior to our journey date i.e. 30th Otober...We had leaves squeezed out and planned, gifts bought(after lots of discussions and roaming around malls), tickets booked...the wait was full of anxiety and was worth it....

The total journey time was 24 hrs! i.e. starting from my House in Sydney till I entered my elder Sisters House in Gurgaon. The flight was tiring ( 14 hrs is tiring isn't it?) but the joy of coming back and meeting your own people had taken a lot out of it....
Anyways I met my elder sister , my Nephew ('Bhanja') after almost 2 long years...and was amazed to fine he has grown taller than me! Alas! I had been so proud of my Average Indian hieght...
Had a hectic 2 days running from one relative to another...though we were able to have some good time eating 'Rosogullas and Samosas' where ever we went and had a relaxed dinner together. Me and my Bhanja did squeeze out some time to play table - tennis in the morning. During these time-cramped holidays you feel bad when you are not able to meet some of your closed relatives...well this is how life is, we need to move on and I made it sure that the next time we come in, we got to meet them first.
We took a train ride on one of India's most respected trains the 'Rajdhani'. This train runs between most of the State capital cities in India to the Capital City of India i.e. New delhi...and now I had my Mom accompanying us in the long train journey from New Delhi to Kolkata, which made the journey a bit more enjoyable as she had her own way of keeping us engrossed in her gossip and jokes...and some of the time was spent guessing what food would be served next by the Indian railways catering team (Not sure how much we liked it, but the railway food however bad it may be had its own charm).....

We reached Kolkata on the eigth day of the durga Pujo i.e. the Ashtami. I was hit by the Durga Pujo mood immediately. We had to travel down to my ancestral home in Bhadreswar which is suburb around 40 minutes and the next 4 days passed by in one of the most memorable ways...starting with the opening of the Mandap in the morning, then rushing off to the market to buy few things needed urgently, to running off to have family lunch in the last batch, to meeting relatives after long time, to listening to artists who performed in our Mandap...it was an incredible 4 days!! On the day of dashami, once we returned from the Bisarjan (Immersion of the Idol), it felt so empty...but we looked forward for assembling next year again to celebrate Ma Durga's victory over the mahishaasur in a bigger and better way....
While travelling back to Hyderabad, I had opened up my 'Tasks to Do' list which had been prepared since last 2 months...I was bit anxious whether we will be able to tick off all of them. Because we had just 20 days in our hands and Hyderbad was boiling over the Telangana seperation issue due to which most of the Govt. Offices where closed....

We got down at Hyderabad (Secunderabad Rlwy station to be precise) in the evening of 9th of Nov; the hyderabad bandh was called off that day and had been postponed to next week...due to the Telengana agitation I expected the city to be a bit calm with Police check posts and agitations ; but to my surprise the city was as usual.... autorickshaws jostling for space, people on bikes (without helmets) overtaking from the wrong side, the huge APSRTC (Andhra Transport) buses; the decorations on the shops wooing customers for the up-coming Diwali and the Id celebrations...it was alive!
We had planned that my during our stay in Hyderabad my inlaws would come in and stay with us; so that we both spend a good time together.....in our humble abode. I was coming back to my house after more than 2 years and it immediately felt so good...not sure if its the EMI that we pay; but somehow we feel our house is in the best location, has the best sunlight and has the fresh air circulation... (I believe most of us feel so....)
For the next 20 days I gradually ticked off tasks one by one, and everynight we discussed what task we would need to do the next day? Where should we go for my bro-in-law engagement dress and ring?( ...did I forget to tell? yes My Bro-in-Law is getting married next year and the shopping has started, so that adds more excitement to this holiday...) or who are the relatives we should meet on priority? When should we take the doctors appointment for my mom's eye? where should we go for the Hyderabadi Biryani - Paradise or Bawarchi ..... slowly we drifted away from the other world we had in Sydney and we were totally drenched and soaked in the holiday mood....

The starting few days were spent running after the doctors for my Mom's and my other (better) half's health check up- sometimes I feel that today Doctors have become the most respected and rarely found beings of our society and Hospitals have become nothing less than 5****** hotels...but at the same time I was amazed to see some hospitals giving back to the society. Some days were spent, carrying the shopping bags (read it as driving - offcourse me and my Bro-in-law being the driver) from one mall to another. After entering the mall, my other half used to forget that money is a scarse resource , the only thing she remembered was the INR-dollar exchange rate :)

In the meantime something was breweing up , I had applied for my Mom's Tourist VISA and had requested the embassy for an early stamping so that my mom could come with us. We had very little hope, since the diwali holidays were knowcking on the door and we had very few days left...

I had one evening spent with my XL batchmates, where we became a bit nostalgic about the good old days spent in XL, the professors, some of our elite batchmates . Yes, we did discuss how our present job was the most boring yet the best because allowed us to come to a restaurant where one bottle of beer costed us 700 bucks!

Unlike Delhi, The 'meeting' list was almost complete in Hyderabad where I was able to meet one of my close friends ( meeting him after 4.5 years ), Visited my uncles new home and infact I met one of my engineering college friends after 8 long years!! ( See sometimes things just happen.)

We spent the Diwali evening on the terrace of our apartment with our neighbours, firing up crackers and enjoying every rocket that went up , closing our ears for every cracker that exploded and appreciating all the beautiful colours that illuminated the night sky. We had an amazing Diwali celebration together, the fun did not come from the excessive eating of sweets, or the loudest crackers or the gifts - but it came from being & celebrating together.

Alas, the saddest part of our vacation had come...the journey back. But sometimes certain things happen which make you feel good, My mom got her VISA on the last day just few hours before our flight - So the last item in the to-do list was ticked off!

We were coming back with the beautiful memories and the feeling that there's no place as good as good as 'Home' and that we would return back soon to spend more time together....!!

" Why do I want to do an MBA?"

" Why do I want to do an MBA?"
As the CAT season in india draws nearer many propsective students would try to pen down answer to the above question, in the most rich, verbose and intellectual sounding words.
But folks try to be honest and design your words such that it brings out an yearning for learning and growth.
Reasons could be many:
> - To understand the business intricacies at a holistic level
> - To understand the drivers of a Business
> - To understand how 'money' can be better utilised
> - To be in a better position to manage larger responsibilities
> - Last 9 years have been too focussed doing one thing, would like to expand my boundaries that I am flexible enought to do more.

Now some more Gyan:
People would genrally do an MBA because they believe:
> - It is a Short cut to More money
> - It is a Short Cut to more knowledge
> - It is a way of escaping the monotony of the present day work life
Everyone hopes, that MBA would be a capsule which would change the way life has been.

Honestly, it does change but few people are able to appreciate how it changes.
> - There's no gaurantee that it would change your take home salary
> - There's no gaurantee it would give you a promotion
But the thing that chnages is your thought process - the way you think . The way you look at problems and try to find a dolution.

It is something like this...Why shall I got to school, I can learn a lot from Common sense, my parents and the world around me...but end o fthe day we still go and find it very useful, don't we??
, 2011

Tipping point...

Well how many point did we witness in the past recent years?
1. The crash of global economy - Lehman Brothers and several others R.I.P.
2. The Arab crisis - Democracy is good but at what cost?
3. Indian Cricket team winning the WorldCup becoming the No.1 team in the world. - how long?
4. USA's Credit rating being downgraded - does it matter?
5. The Japanese Tsunami - the Fukushima Nuclear reactor damage and the cascading effect on questions raised on teh future of Nuclear reactor - What feasible alternative?
6. The elimination of Osama Bin Laden - would there be a new one ?
7. The Riots in Britain - So much so for a developed nation!
8. The Anna hazare movement - Does Violence matter....
Looking at the list makes me feel and think that are we sitting on a tipping point from where we might it see an all together new world tomorrow!

Crocodile Organisation

I recently visited a Crocodile sanctuary in Cairns and I was amazed to know that Crocodiles apart from Cockroaches are the oldest inhabitants of this planet. This has been possible only because Crocodiles have an amazing biological and anatomical structure which is best suited for the changes around and it can face the harshest conditions and environmental changes with ease.
Seeing this, what came to my mind is how we can build an Organisation which behaves exactly like a crocodile; stands the test of time and adapts to any changes across its environment without losing the competitive fieriness?
So, I thought of drawing an analogy between the two:

In case you are not able to read the tableail me kaushik_kc@hotmail.com and I shall send it across to you.

Uncertainity.....

Unrest in Middle East....

Earthquake & Tsunami in Japan....

Earthquake in New zealand and China...

Natural disasters across the world.....

Crude prices spiraling up....

Inflation hardening its grip over Asian countries.....

US yet to recover from the recessionary and Un-employment grip....

These sign do show that the world is slowly moving towards another uncertain and chaotic period.....

Has 'chaos' really becoming an inherent nature of this world?

Looking back in past ....I strongly believe and hope you would agree too, that last 10 years have been most dramatic.

We witnessed two world Economy slumps, due to reasons which are very close to human character - Religious fanaticalness (9/11) and Greed (2008 - Credit default swaps).

We witnessed countries getting run over by more powerful due to reasons which no one is fully sure of - Iraq, Afghanistan...

So where are we heading to..the more we ask this question the more we tend to get paranoid.....

Well this post is not all that negative, I think we tend to look at the negatives around us a lot more.... So next time you read a post like this, just don't read it....instead pass your 5 minutes, that you have already wasted, invest in something that makes you and people around you more happy.....after all life is beautiful, enjoy it and to end I quote the famous economist Keynes said..."in the long run we are all Dead!"

A changing Tide ...

The crisis in Egypt, has got all of us thinking that are we witnessing a tipping point in the history of the world; where the progress of a country is not decided by the politicians or religion biased fanatics but by its people.

Its high time, the policy makers of a country understand that it can no longer make policies which does not involve the citizens, it cannot have policies which benefits only a small mass of the whole community.

If we do not understand this now, the entropy amongst the masses would keep on increasing and very soon it would be out of the hands of the country rulers, politicians, dictators or Monarchs and nothing would matter then, neither the Queen nor Obama!

WikiLeaks...does it have any impact?

I appreciate that Wikileaks is the best that could have happened to international Journalism, but at the same time is it worth the scoop?

I believe 'No' and wouldn't mind if you disagree with me.....

To Support my belief, I would have to introduce you to a very important concept in strategy - the Nash equilibrium, named after John Nash, is a set of strategies, one for each player, such that no player has incentive to unilaterally change his/her action. Players are in equilibrium if a change in strategies by any one of them would lead that player to earn less than if he/she remained with his/her current strategy. For games in which players randomize (mixed strategies), the expected or average payoff must be at least as large as that obtainable by any other strategy.

Did I confuse you?

If yes, to put it in a nut shell, what I mean is the secrets that have been leaked out by wikileaks are nothing but information, which is of no use now or in future.

It could be exciting to hear that 'Australia thinks China as a big Problem for world peace, even though when Australia has good economic ties with China' or ' When Rahul gandhi says that he is concerned more about Hindu terrorism rather than any other form of terrorism'; but honestly this set of information holds no value.

Because, secrets are good as long as it is kept a secret and as long as it has value. So, information flushed out by Wiki leaks is niether a secret nor has any value, so it is nothing more than exciting information.

I know you might say, that wikileaks did bring out the American side of the Iraq or Afghanistan war which is very dirty and not acceptable to any human standards. But how does that change things, it happened in Vietnam war and it has hapened again.

So let us take it this way, every country has its own secret strategy to play which we can call as Plan A and als has more than 2 back up Plans called B and C up its sleeves to take care for events like wikileaks!

So, now I bring you to the most important concept in Strategy, which even mother nature agrees to - "Survival of the fittest".........

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Refer to the following link for more info on Nash equilibirium: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma

I turned 30!.......

As I was returning from my office, in evening, I was observing the city lights pass by the window in the train .....and could not stop myself from recollecting, how fast these last 30 years have been for me....all the people I met, I worked with, interacted with, My family members, friends, My teachers, My juniors, the amazing life changing moments.....just awesome, how everyone and each moment has a played a part in my life... Honestly, if I pause today and try to remember each one of them, it would be a hard task for me to get all their names....and I sincerely apologize for that..never the less, I thought why not try to get the list of such people and events....

1. My family: I believe my family has been a source of inspiration since my childhood, the way my parents toiled hard, so that we got the best education and resource. Their patience, honesty and the fighting spirit is something that I look forward to. My sisters have been my guiding angel throughout, without them, I might have wandered off.....

2. My experience in NDA SSB: It was in 1998, that I first came out of Raurkela, Orissa to appear for my SSB process in Bhopal. I came across 50 other guys from different parts of India, and I could see so much confidence in those guys, so much to learn, so many things on which I can get better.....I think that event made me more rational in my thought process, a very humbling experience.

3. My engineering college days: Well, I cannot write down a novel as Chetan Bhagat did, but I believe that most of us love our college days and wouldn’t mind in branding those days as "The golden days". It was a total life changing experience for me. I was able to make friends for a life time, it gave me the confidence of performing in front of a filled auditorium, it taught me stand up and fight for a good cause and the most important I met my soul mate there!

4. My Professors / Teachers: "Thank you "....is the only thing that we could convey to them, nothing makes you so much indebted as them. They come hold your hand take you from an ignorant world to an enlightened and go away....So selfless!! and all through that, we keep cribbing not understanding what a wonderful and amazing thing they are doing for us....until we are done with our classroom days..."Thank You Sir/ Mam"

5. My Soul mate - Ohh! I think that's one of the best things and most beautiful thing that has happened with me, She is an amazing person....I was fortunate to have her in my life and she indeed has been an amazing partner in this journey till now...and with her I would love to go another 30!...thanks Dear.

6. Professional World- Managers: I came across some inspiring and amazing managers; they were so caring yet pushed across their point so easily. There were people for whom you would like to come over and work and help even if it was a weekend...they were so damn convincing, honest and smart!

7. Friends / seniors / Juniors: hey...that’s another group of people who will push you over the mountain and then jump along with you and glide through the air with you and then land with you again...I cycled with them to the school, I danced with them, I drank with them till the morning sun, I cried with them, I bunked classes with them....you all are an amazing bunch folks....keep the fun running!!

I am sure there are many more....and I shall keep adding them....but looking at this list, I feel I am blessed, fortunate and Indebted.....!!

589 kms....to be precise!

We started from Hyderabad on the morning of 11th July, 2010. It had rained heavily throughout the night and the morning was colder. Me and my family had planned to travel down to Bangalore and experience our first long drive on our vehicle which is a Maruti Alto - The 'lets Go' car!
....From Hyderabad to our House at Bangalore its around 600Kms....The highway for most of its part is very good...except for some small diversions (60-70 kms stretch). We started at 7 in the morning and reached our home in Bangalore by 6:30 PM.......it took us 1:30 hrs to wade through Bangalore traffic! ...
The travel through the highway i.e NH7, was an amazing experience. Recent monsoon showers had opened up in front of us lush green mountains, with picturesque green farmlands and it seemed so tranquil away from the city noise....Remember this was the sceneray that we saw while driving at 90-110 Kms/hr!
After reaching Bangalore...we all took some rest...and went for dinner in night at 9:00 in one of the Bengali speciality restaurants in Kormangala.
So at this point you might think that my narration of the whole episode should end, but there was more masala (spice) to it.....
While returning, one of the front tyres got punctured around 100 mtrs from our house at around 11 in the night (fortunate that it was near our house)...so me and my brother-in-law changed the tyre and then we bought the car to our apartment ...it was 11:45 by then...but that wasn't how the ordeal ended....the final cherry was put when we locked the key inside the car, the duplicate key resting peacefully in Hyderabad at my in laws home....though we had the option of going to bed and forget about it till next morning, but unfortunately we had kept the stereo and lights on, which would have drained the battery overnight and would have added to our woes in the morning....it was 12:00 in the night!
We tried what ever we could,...and then a bright idea came to me..I called up the Maruti roadside service and to my surprise they came within 25 minutes...and everything came to an end by 12:45 in the night...fortunately my wife served us with hot tea and then we watched the FIFA worldcup final till 2:30 in the morning.....!!
So the saying goes.....the journey matters and at times its exciting till the very end.........

The last one year - 2009-10

I must agree that this blog should have been published at least 2 months back....but somehow, couldn't complete it till now. Well, better late than never.....

The journey started some where during the fag end of summer in 2008...the world had just woken up to the shocking demise of Lehman brothers and the good story was slowly turning sour...My work life had started showing signs of the same and it was getting dull day after day. This is when I thought that I should give a shot to my dream of doing a MBA from a reputed college.....in India off-course, wanted to be at close proximity with my family. Though everyone of us wants the best, but somehow God has his/her (not sure of the gender!) own ways to decided who gets what, and so I was given a chance to get my B-degree from XLRI, jamshedpur.

Talking about XLRI, it's one of the oldest colleges started in India in the year 1949 and has consistently been rated among the top most B schools in India. I was selected for a 1 year business program where the group size was 97 with average work exp of 7+ years. We had a diverse group of people in our batch coming from backgrounds like medicine, Army, Airforce, Architecture, Banking, Sales, Core engineering and off course the omni-present IT!
We started off with a three day preparatory program, which did give us a flavour of the subjects and the days to come ahead.....and believe me it wasn't a rosy one!

The next one month we started off with subjects like MAN(i)AC , QTMD (Quite Torture Mental Disaster) , MCN (ahh!) etc which were an eye opener for most of us....and we started gearing up for more sleepless nights and sleepy classes ahead....then in July we did get a break from the classes in the form of Village trip and the TSAF (Adventure Trip). The village trip was an amazing and humble experience, where we met village folks near a place called Jamadoba in Jharkhand and saw some amazing entrepreneurial spirit amongst them, in spite of the difficulties. Seeing them I realised how fortunate we are to get such opportunities...after that we had an exciting adventure journey with TSAF, where each one of us irrespective of their age and gender did all kinds of adventure tasks, starting from mountaineering, rappelling, boating..and what not.....I believe by the end of the 3 day adventure trip we all must have lost at-least 3-5 kilos and grown darker by a shade or two!

Soon, the first semester came tumbling our way and by the time we finished up with the gruelling 7 days of exams , the 2nd term started without any break...and then came even more tough subjects.....soon we were done with the second term (the fastest and the most gruelling term) and were getting ready for the international Immersion...By this time the whole batch was trimmed and grounded....people who were flying high the first day where grounded, people who were speaking in a low voice were debating like they have been doing this all their life....The placecom was elected and the brochure team was racing against time to get them out and send it through the various corporates......We had our part to play by posing for the photo shoot for the brochure and trying to give out the best look we had. By end of October we were off to different destinations across the world for our international immersion. Some went to US, some to Germany, few went to France and I accompanied the team which went to Manila, Philippines. International immersion was a great experience for everyone, specially for people for whom these was the first experience abroad. They not only experienced world class universities and professors but also world class cities, industries and other experiences !! . As soon as we were back, we were gripped by the placecom fever....there were debates , debates and yet more debates.....Placecom guys were trying to make both ends meet. On one hand they were trying to woe the companies and on the other hand answer the questions of the students. People gave advises and went ahead to help the place com. Also, there were others who gave advises and went ahead to their rooms....By the end of Feb most of us had their concentration on the placements rather than studies, professors gave in their best to rope in companies through their contacts. In these hard times we did experience some very good subjects (electives) and professors, and my personal experience was that if given some more time, I would have loved to take a few more electives!(though some of my batch mates might disagree with me.) Some of the students amongst us were instrumental in Strengthening the ties between us and the students of other flagship courses in the college, between the batch and the professors. In these hard times we saw some amazing leadership capabilities from some of batch mates and their true colours were inspiring...In the fourth term we went ahead to Mumbai, bangalore for placement week and we were fortunate enough to place most of our batch mates by the last day of our 4th term exam (April 25th)....and by the day of our Convocation (mid may)we had almost everybody placed or in line.. this was one of the greatest achievement for the placecom, for the batch, for the faculty and for the college....The convocation was presided over by the MD of Tata Steel, Mr. HM Nerurkar ..... we ended in a happy note... after all that is what matters, isn't it?
After 2 months, of that journey, as I write today, I strongly feel that the last one year was worth the investment and it wouldn't have been possible to go on that journey alone; fortunately we all got the support of our family, friends, fellow GMPians and Faculty.....and today we all remain highly indebted to them and have to prove that their effort and sacrifice didn't going vain....So all the best to the batch of 2009-10 GMP.....Go conquer the world.....!!

How to Go ahead? ...After a Failure...

After listening to the apology speech of Tiger woods, I was wondering as to what are the different ways people try to mend their ways after a failure (Self inflicted or otherwise). I could find only three ways:

1. Fight Back and turn your story into a success story;a story which would inspire.

Roger federer is one of them - he lost to Nadal when people thought him to be the invincible. He cried, licked his wounds and came back with a bang.

2. Get frustrated and depressed; get lost into the pages of history. Just fade

Paul Gascoigne: Just one missed penalty shot in the finals of 1998 world cup, turned his career. Drinking has taken heavy toll on him and he would eventually fade out....Sad, people say he is a player who had the potential to bring home the world cup for england!

3. Go about life as usual, with a feeling "who doesn't make mistakes? " or " show me a person who has never failed?".

Politicians: What better example then these group of people. We have innumerable of them.

So, thinking from neutral point of view, I strongly believe and suggest that one must keep fighting...Because you just don't wan't to fade out or die dirty!

The IPL fever...Back in India- 2010!

I was going through the advertisements of IPL 2010. The underlying theme that comes out clearly is - "Last time it was in South Africa and this time its in India, So expect a bigger and better show".

Its true that , last time players might have missed on the Indian playing conditions, teams have missed on the Indian cricket frenzy crowd - or should we call them 'The audience', management missed out on the opportunity to mint more money and the Cricket lovers of this sub-continent missed out on the excitement.

Things have started rolling on a positive note this year, except for the fiasco between IPl and Players from Pakistan. The IPL ads that have come up this year have been conceived by JWT and features all the team captains with the punch line " We missed you" - i.e. we missed the excitement of playing in India. One exception being KKR where, "dada" (Saurav Ganguly) says "Dada ne bhi aapko miss kiya" rather than saying " Humne (we) aapko miss kiya"...So you see example of a strong leader overshadowing a team!

Anyways what ever the situation may be I am looking forward for the excitement and My best wished with 'Dada'..... oops! KKR!

Links to the IP ads:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQYE72TLCoY

Organisation Intelligence:The data to Information to Pattern shift...

In the business environment today, the difference between survival and extinction often rests on a thin edge of higher efficiency in reacting to complex business situations and providing the basis for improved business decisions. This all is dependent on how we collect, assimilate and interpret credible data and it is here that Data mining and Data warehousing comes into picture. It helps us in improving the quality and effectiveness of assimilating data and interpreting it for future business decision-making process. Proper implementation of Data mining can help an organization achieve high return on investment decisions by exploiting one of the enterprise’s most valuable and often overlooked assets—DATA!

The basic function of Organisation Intelligence is:

Collecting Data -> Formatting it -> Converting it into useful information -> Trying to capture a pattern. This pattern helps the organisation to take a decision in devising a new strategy.

Through the diagram below, I have tried to capture the essence of this above statement:

Do we break the barriers ?


June 2008, the Jammu strike entered into its 2nd week and the blockage on national highway wasn’t removed. Tons of export quality apples were rotting in the barn of Kashmiri farmer’s, because there is no other way apart from the highway, to send them out for selling or export. The help is available, just few kilometers away, the Pakistani town on the other side of the border. But alas! They cannot trade, because it is an international border, which is sealed to stop infiltration of terrorists.

On the other hand, we witness free bartering system of agricultural and related products, amongst the bordering villages and towns of Nepal and India. This open trade across the border, seems to be boon for people on both sides of the border, but gives rise to nefarious activities like smuggling, drug pedaling, flesh trade and infiltration of terrorists (Maoists).

The big question is - what needs to be done? Should we keep the borders open, so that bordering villages and towns trade freely, or shall we seal the borders?

The only thing that stops us from saying an emphatic ‘yes’, is the security threat. As seen in the case of Nepal, though the free trade has been a positive gain for the bordering residents, but it has turned out to be a haven for antisocial elements.

So, is free trade the main culprit? No, it is the lack of proper manned security checks, like we have between Mexico and USA. Now that’s not an easy task, what we can do instead is, encourage free trade between the border villages / towns and handover an incentive to the villagers for taking care of the security concerns. In a way this would mean a social obligation for the villagers, failing which the borders would get sealed again and they would loose in the longer run. This would encourage the villagers to handle the security more stringently.

According to Assocham study, presently, Indian origin goods are traded through Dubai and Singapore to Pakistan, which is more than 25 percent of total Pakistani imports. This leads to higher cost of the product resulting in lesser demand. Also, there are lots of products like leather and sports goods, which we can procure from Pakistan at a much cheaper price than the prices that we pay now. At present annual (official) trade between the two countries is around $200 million and unofficial trade or smuggling via third countries is estimated at $1 billion. In other words, the volume of trade is much below the potential. Hence, facilitating free trade across the borders, would be beneficial to both sides, and the trade level would jump dramatically

Also, both the countries presently, invest heavily in maintaining the security of their mutual borders and have incur heavy expenditure in arming themselves up to the teeth, against each other.

Details of disparity between expenditures on defense and Education & Health care, of both the countries:
Country Total Expenditure layout for 2008-09 Defense Expenditure (%ge of total expenditure) Expenditure on Health, education etc.(%ge of total expenditure)
India (in INR Rs.) 617996 114600(18.5%) 28126(4.6%)
Pakistan (in Pakistani Rs. 2087027 311303(15%) 35712(1.7%)

As per budget layout of 2008-09.
http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2009-10/bag/bag3.htm
http://www.finance.gov.pk/admin/images/budget/Budget%20in%20Brief%202009-10.pdf


As the trade grows between the border villages/ towns, the power of the common citizens on either side would grow, employment would increase, lot of questions would get answered, conflicts would get resolved and who knows we might very well end up as being supportive and friendly neighbors. This in turn would decrease the defense budgets for each country and hope fully a huge chunk of it would be diverted towards building up of nations infrastructure, primary education and basic health care facilities.

As a whole, allowing free trade with no barriers and with a little incentive to the people on either side of the border for taking the onus of security, both the nations would be better off in the longer run.

Isn’t that what we are looking forward to?


______________________________________________________________________
Through the above essay I have tried to analyse the following principles of economics:
1. Free trade, without barriers, can make everyone better off
2. People respond to incentives.

References:
http://www.assocham.org

Learnings from Liefe....Through my eyes...

Well it is generally said that ' Experience is a comb that a person gets, when he has grown bald'.....I don't believe in that, A individual can always learn but given that :
* First and most important, One is ready to see their own mistakes... (believe me its the
hardest)
* One is ready to see this world through unbiased eyes....
* One is ready to have a burning fire for knowledge yet he/she remains calm and humble...
* One is ready to Listen, and say 'No' wherever its necessary...
* One is ready to make decisions and brave enough to sacrifice things for others
well being....(this is a hard one as well)
* Dream from your heart and never let your dreams die...they often come true..
* Last, but not the least do not try to see mistakes in others if it is not going to harm any one....
(just like the spelling mistake in my Tittle!)

Unfortunately life doesnot come with a crash course for learning life principles, then why not learn from each other's experience...This is my try to make your life better.....hope it works!

Tenacity......

Lets talk straight.....I am a bengali and I admire Saurav Ganguly a.k.a "Dada"!
Stop! before you start looking at my name and deduce that as being a bengali myself, I admire 'Dada"...No, I do not admire 'Dada" because he is bengali, I admire 'Dada" because he has prooved to be such a good example for the word "Tenacity" - (Noun) - meaning persistent determination.
Off course there are other examples and every one has his/her favourites.
Tenacity, the character so which is so much missing in our generation.

Today, when I (true to many others) fail in a admission test to a good college, I say that I do not have time to sit down again and take the test again next time.

Today, when I ( true to many others) fail to get a good salary upgrade , I wish to quit the company instead of staying back in it and fighting out for a better salary upgrade.

Today, when we hear about riots in other parts of the state, we easily start blaming the other religion instead of giving a determined effort in trying to mend the relation between the two.

Today, when we face failures in life we start blaming life saying that 'life isn't fair to me', instead of giving a determined fight back...

Just give this a thought, how would a person feel when he is ousted from a national team which he was leading, in front of the whole world media and when the whole country looked at him as a failure......he could have easily said that I give up and hang his shoes for a life time...

But he did not, he fought back...with a persistent determination -i.e. tenacity....

So if he can, can't we? after all we are all humans.....

Dravid Vs Ponting

Lets go! Scrutinize two different personalities and the environment they live in: Ricky Ponting and Rahul Dravid.
Rahul Dravid: Captain of the Indian cricket team
Success Rate as Captain(ODI): 53%
Personal batting avg: 41.5 (approx)
Indian Team batting average(2006 ODI): 30
Indian Team bowling average(2006 ODI):29

Ricky ponting: Captain of the Australian cricket team
Success Rate as Captain(ODI): 81%
Personal batting avg: 42 (approx)
Australian Team batting average(2006 ODI): 36.5
Australian Team bowling average(2006 ODI):26

Points that are worth noticing from the above stats are:
1. Both Captains have similar batting averages
2. Both countries have appreciable batting and bowling averages
3. BUT, Australia has a better success rate.

Now the question is WHY? the million dollar question which every Indian asks, every member in the BCCI is banging there heads on......

You may agree or disagree to the next couple of lines that has been put down as an answer to the above question (No, I do not want the Million dollarthough!) based on my personal observations.

August 2006: My job brought me to Melbourne, Australia. Since past 4 months I observed the people here and have come to conclusion that...unlike us, the Indians, they are very enthusiastic, Sporting, Professional and Sporting people.

They not only like Cricket, they also like Footie, rowing, football, rugby, swimming and lot many other sports....no surprise Melbourne is presently ranked as world's No. 1 sporting City, surpassing Sydney!!

So, people back here enjoy the game...be it on the ground or off the ground.
Aussies back here support their team but do not abuse it when they loose!
Aussies support every game, not expecting to win....but expecting to get the best enjoyment from it...

Hence winning or loosing doesnot matter to them...because they aren't looking for that....as a result they play with less pressure, more confidence and in a more winning fashion...

Hope.....this answers it all.....
Lets not play to win, lets play to enjoy
Lets not support a winning Indian Team and abuse a loosing one, Lets cheer them up for every match what ever the result is.......
Lets enjoy the game....!!!

Can we change?

I believe that No one on this planet would love to hurt anyone...But sometimes we do!Under the influence of Situations and Prejudice - the two great evils.
I have always envied the people who would remain calm and would say "yes" to what ever you ask from them....

Lets figure out this together.
When was the last time, you said "NO" to someone,when you could have said "yes"? (offcourse you won't say someone yes, if he/she tells you to kill someone!)
When was the last time, you made someone sad?
When was the last time, you had become the reason of someones smile?
when was the last time, you went to sleep with a smile on your mind?

If we ask ourselves these questions on a regular basis, I believe the answer would come from within us.(offcourse that doesnot hold true for politicians!)

Hope we would change when we meet next time!

Knowing the true colours.

7th, October, 2006- Melbourne,Aus.
Well, its true that you know a person only when you spend a lot of time with them or when that person earns a lot of money.
I experienced it in Melbourne, when I travelled down here to address my job needs.

People whom I have respected a lot (off-course not out of age) for their attitude towards work and life, have turned out to be hypocrites here!

People who had always returned a smile in India would turn their face away and say do not disturb me now!

And I strongly believe that this is the case with many of us,isn't it?

well, then the question is what exactly has happened? Have we changed as well?

To be true... I believe that one must not care if the other person behaves rudely or has changed a lot, just enjoy your life and see to it that you do not hurt others.

Because there are always other things and other people which/who are more important than these things.

Love life, Live Life ....