The F1 Crisis.

Most will agree with me that F1 is not just a sport. Its a religion for millions around the world. The F1 circuits are considered the Meccas of racing. Here the fans breath the burnt rubber smell. A push on the acceleration is enough to give a kick. The chequered flag has been the cause for many a smile and  tear.

Fans do not follow F1, they live it.

The game is in a crisis now. The haven is almost devastated. Gods are at war.

Ferrari, McLaren and six other Formula One teams have announced plans for a rival series after heated negotiations with the sport’s organizers over a budget cap for next season fell through. These are tough times, money is in short supply. The chief cause of the F1 split was the $60 million voluntary budget cap proposed by FIA, the sport’s governing body, in response to the economic downturn. Teams not adhering to the cap would be subject to technical restrictions. This did not go well with the Big teams. Teams like Ferrari and McLaren have the competitive edge over the others because of the moolah they spend on the preparation and execution. This is what seperates them from the “also rans”.

Max Mosley, the FIA president, says about the rival series:  ”It’s not just difficult – it’s about as close to impossible as you can get, It’s pure fantasy. It’s never going to happen and the teams know it.”

I have no comments to make on this. But, yes, F1 is a fantasy for many of its millions of fans. Lets not spoil the fantasy. I hope the fighting bulls come to a amicable solution and do not do much damage to the fantastic China Shop.

Amen.

Confusing signs.

Economics is a confusing riddle. Its very easy to explain a phenomenon after it has happened than predict one. Some months ago, every one was congratulating one another on the success of the markets and irrational bull runs. No one could predict the bursting of the bubbles.

Now, when the world economy is in dire straits, every economist is trying to explain what happened. I don’t think a person having lost his job and with two kids and a wife waiting at home will be interested in knowing what happened. He will be more interested in knowing what will happen in future?

But most of the signs given by the economists and politicians are very confusing. Some one says we are on our path t recovery the other says recovery is too far to be seen with a naked every. Now, the recent comment is that the economy is stable , but recovery is far away.

I know future is very hard to predict but still there should be some mechanism developed in years of research in economics which could predict the short and the long term future. I know the path is dark and gloomy, but I pray we pass it soon and find a new future, a bright and shining one!

The lighter shade of Pink.

Having worked at Satyam for four years, every news concerning the company is of special interest to me. Every little win makes me happy, every little pain bothers my heart.

The recent decision of the new Satyam management to creat a “virtual pool” of resources is a new innovation in this recession. 

Rather than laying off people, the management decided to create a virtual pool of resources so that they can be called back whenever there is a need for the respective talent. A smart move! But, this comes with a rider, the resources have to manage with only 40% of their salary. 

Common guys, think of a person who has recently married or some one who has financial obligations of paying a EMI of his home loan or some one sick at home to take care of. It was not he who  started the crazy fall of Satyam. He would have never met Ramalinga Raju in his lifetime. He would have never even dreamt of meeting him. But, this one wrng act of a person overpowered by greed has ruined the lives of thousands of innocent folks. I feel the pain. I was a part of the same Satyam family. I still treat every Satyam Employee as my family member. 

The market scenario for jobs is also not very favourable. I hope and sincerely wish that NASSCOM or fomr other industry lobby comes forward to help these tense souls and relieves me of this pain.

The new USA: Made in China

The Americans have fallen. But not their pride!

Many of the big names in American business have been shut down, taken over or gone bankrupt. There was a time when “What was good for GM was good for America” today, what is bad for GM is bad for America.

I have a reason for saying so.

The American Investment banks hired the best of the brains around the world. Paid them “un-heard off” salaries. In return of these fat pay packages, the MBA grads tried their best to capture the greed of the people. And they did so. This lead to the fall of many of the banks they were employed in. Many others came crumbling down.

Huh! I have a suggestion: When you find you selves in a hole, first thing you do is to stop digging.

They say, when you feel you are getting raped every day, change the pimp or the whore house. Many of the foreigners working in the US changed the whorehouse and returned to their respective countries. The Americans changed their pimp. A new one was elected. Obama promised CHANGE!

Now, that the US economy has crumbled. Along with it, it has taken the world economy as well. The new Pimp has started selling the US economy to the world. The highest bidder will take it to bed. Now, China, India and the Russia have emerged the biggest investors in the US economy at this moment in time. China alone has bought the US treasury bonds to the tune of 750 b$. There are other reasons as to why China is so interested in buying the USTB. That can be discusses in some other post. But, the fact remains that the “bail out” or the “sail-out” packages given to the industry by the US State has been sponsored by the Chinese. Do not be astonished if everything (except the American pride!) manufactured or sold in the US at this time has a “Chinese dollar” invested in it.

The symbol of American macho image- The Hummer has been driven away by the Chinese. Major brands under the GM umbrella are being taken away by the European and Indian companies.

Now when the new buyers have started laying claim to the bed, Obama comes up with restrictions to outsourcing and job delegation. It’s like telling the customer that he cannot take off the clothes of the whore he has just paid for!

Curry Bashing: Down Under.

The recent attacks on Indians in Australia remind me of my cousin studying in a college under Melbourne University. This guy, J. Singh is a cousin of mine. A good-for-nothing guy all his life in India. A spoilt brat. Neither good at studies, nor at sports.

He grew up in a joint family in a typical Punjabi style. His dad is a business man. A hardworking business man into shaping forged iron machine parts. J. Singh was hardly interested in studies in school days. Some how managed to complete schooling and the B.Com. Spent a huge amount of money and got himself admitted into Masters in Commerce in an Australian college under the Melbourne University.

There are some collegees in Australia which can be easily named Khalsa Colleges. Only due to the fact that there are more Punjabis studying there than any other race. J Singh tells that there are 40 guys from Punjab in a class of 120 and out of these 40 about 20 are from Patiala alone. Its not an unusual incident if a teacher arrives in the class and hears a roaring “Sat Sri Akal” from the students. And, nw most of the teachers also have started replying back “Sat Sri Akal”.

Besides studying, J.Singh has been working at any and every odd job that has come his way. In a span of 4-5 years, he has not only been able to pay for his Education and stay, but also has been able to send a few lakhs to his parents in Punjab. No wonder, the Australians are not very happy at Indian students taking up their jobs.

Most of the students f rom Punjab follow a similar way. The somehow manage to reach Australia and then do odd jobs to pay for their fees and living. This has made the Australian education system earn more than $15billion industry. Its a complex web now. Students pay fees, pay taxes and study in Australia. But Almost none of the students who go from Punjab get the money for fees and stay from home. They earn everything from the kangaroo land and pay. Easy to understand that Indian students are becoming a source of cheap labour for small businesses in Australia. This has forced the local population to compete with the Indians at very low wages.

Now, when the economy has cooled down, there is already surplus labour in the market place, the australian are facing the pinch. And, hence the curry bashing.

No amount of protests and boycotts can restrain the anger of the people. Lets pray that the economy is back on its feet soon so that the curry bashing also stops!

My Respects for R. Motwani.

I have my respects for the Academicians. I have no explanation, but still I rever them like gods. May be I believe that they are the ones who instigate the flickers of innovation and inventions.

Similar was the case with Rajeev Motwani. The tragic death of the Silicon Valley guru has sent the tech fraternity into gloom This was the person who sparked the idea of Google and Paypal. He was such a force to reckon with in the Valley that Sergy Brin said in his message the “there is a chance that any technology you use today has a little bit of Rajeev Motvani behind it”. Such was the competence of Rajeev.

This might be a very short post, but the respect I have for Rajeev and others of his clan is unlimited.

My respects for these people. Adios.

Mending ties with the Muslim World.

A few days ago, when Barrak Obama went on a visit to the Arab world, the American said he was here for a new beginning. He wants to work closely with the Muslim World.

There is a fundamental flaw in the America’s policy towards the “Muslim world”. The American policy makers have come to identify the Muslim community as altogether a different world. When Obama talks of making a new beginning, it shows that there has been an “ending” to the relations with the Muslims and hence the “new begining”. This further alienates the Muslim population in the world.

A major fact that we forget here is that mending fences with the Arab countries does not necessarily mean getting the buy in of the entire Muslim population. Non-Arab countries like India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia have sizeable Muslim population (Infact more than all the Arab countries put togather). Thus, when a divide is made in the Muslim and the non-Muslim population, it affects the demographic structures across the World and not only in the Arab countries.

The biggest problem with us is that we donot know (and donot want to know) the diffrence betwee the Arabs, Muslims, Islamists, Extremists and Al Qaeda. This has led many to believe that every Muslim hates the west. Or, every person supporting a beard and wearing a cap (or a turban) is a supporter of Al Qaeda. A fact that is not true.

The same has come true for the Muslim hostility towards the West. Muslims also, have started showing mistrust in every move that the Americans make. Every foreign policy by America and the West is seen with suspicion. Every sanction, every donation, every relief work is always seen as a cunning tactic. That’s the mistrust we have in place at this moment. 

Let’s start understanding the difference between the Arabs, the Muslims, Islamists and the extremists. This will help us in addressing the issues related to each one of these categories judiciously and prevent alienation of the disgruntled segments of the world population.

I know a man: Gurjant Singh Part 2

I am back with Gurjant Singh.

Now, Janta used to bring milk from my uncles house in the village to my home in the city. One day my father gave him an advice which would change his future.

On my father’s advice, Janta started collecting milk from the village households and selling the same to the folks in the city. The quality of milk supplied by him did wonders to his reputation. He started with 5 Liters a month and gradually went up to 20 liters. He had kept some margin for himself. No wonders he started earning handome amounts of money and quit pulling rickshaw. Now, he was a full time milk vendor.

In about three years time, he made a small dwelling for himself and family, had a refrigrator and a color TV at home and also bought a motorcycle. He and his family ate well, dressed well and were very happy for themselves. As a side business, he started rearing and selling pigs. Now, that made people think of him as an enterprising businessman. He was well off. 

But not for long.

Money doe snot come alone. It brings all free advice with it. And, free advice doe snot  cost much until we implement it. So, now our man started thinking of investing the “excess” money he was earning. He had only some money to spare but a lot of advice and options to invest. He chose the riskiest option. High risk. High gain!

But that was not to happen. Instead he started loosing money. To make more money available for investment, he cut down on his family expenses. that was the beginning of the downward spiral of Janta’s success story. He had to sell his motorcycle. A small plot of land that he had bought. He could not pay the people from whom he bought milk. So, they stopped supplying him milk until he makes the past payments. As, he was not getting the required quantity of milk, he started loosing on customers. Customers who had yet to pay him started avoiding him. 

Yes, our man was in a really dangerous trap. He lost almost everything.

He had to quit the milk business because it was increasingly becoming nonviable. So, he came a full circle back to where he started. He started pulling the rickshaw again. But, his health would not allow him to do so for long. Now, the last I have heard of him is that he is working as a gatekeeper for a rice sheller. This earns him a meager income. His two daughters and Son are teenagers now. 

The worst part is that his son had to drop out of school and works as a daily wage labror to augment the family income. A full circle?

A man worked hard so that his childers did not have to work in others fields and factories. He was on his way to achieve the same. But, free advice did him in. I hope, his son works hard, earns good money and starts his own business. And I pray that for free advice his son consult the father and not others.

I know a man: Gurjant Singh: Part 1

Its been almost 27 years of me walking on the surface of this planet. And, I have met a lot of people in these 27 years. Most of my life till now, I have spent in my home town- Patiala. And, most of these people have been in Patiala. Then I have lived in Delhi, Hyderabad, Colombo and now Chennai. I know a lot of people in these cities too. At the outset of this post I would like to state that I am not here to boast of the very well known people, of people in high places orof  people who walk the power corridors. I am here to talk about some people who have been in my life.

I know a man by the name Gurjant Singh. Association of my family with Gurjant’s family goes to my grand dad’s time. Gurjant or Janta as most of the people around him call him comes from a family of the blood and sweat labourers. The ones with a strong back and a very uncertain future. Janta’s grand father was a servant in my family when my great grandfather Sardar Anant Singh was heading the Rapal Family. The Janta’s father was kind of a helper to my grandfather Sardar Natha Singh and Janta’s mother Chinti was a caretaker of my grandmother Sardarni Ajmer Kaur. Then when Janta was about 8-10 years old he was introduced into our family. All the children in our family called (and still call) him Janta Veera- Veera meaning elder brother. 

During the eighties the family structures across Punjab were changing. The feudal kind of setup was coming down to give way to a more modern and practical set up. So, Janta also ventured out to make a life of his own. He worked as a daily wage labourer with some other families and then as a construction worker. Finally, he started plying the manual rickshaw and was earning good to make both ends meet comfortably. He got married and had two kids. But, whereever he was, he kept in touch with The Family. 

Meanwhile our family also moved from the village to the city. Only one of my uncles was still in the village. Janta was still pulling the rickshaw and was finding difficult to raise a family of three kids. Every day he used to come to city pull the rickshaw all day long and then go back in the evening. Once in a while, Janta would act as a courier to bring some stuff from my uncle in the village and also take some stuff to him from my family in the city.

My family in the city was not happy with the kind of milk available in the city. So, we requested him to bring milk from the village for the family.

Janta used to sit a lot with my father and discuss everything under the sun with my father. The rains, the crops, the cows……He would seek advice and suggestions from my father on different matters. One fine day, my father gave him an advice that changed his life forever!

{To be continued…..}

The death of LTTE.

My 18 2009 will go down the corridors of history as a landmark day. TheLTTE and the Tamil resistance came to an end in Sri Lanka.

Or did it?

The Sri Lankan army had been fighting a long drawn war with the Tamil extremists since last two and a half decades.The war that has killed thousands and displaced lakhs. This war had almost taken the proportions of a civil war. The LTTE started as an umbrella organization that brought together a handful of organizations representing the marginalized Tamil civilians. Soon, LTTE came into prominence in 1976 when they came to the forefront of the Tamil rights movement in the north Sri Lanka. The movement soon turned into an armed struggle against the Government.

The LTTE developed a well organized military outfit that managed to give many setbacks to the Sri Lankan Army. LTTE had a strong support base among the Tamil population in the north.LTTE controlled most of the Northern Sri Lanka and the coastal regions on the east and the some parts of the west. Also, the military succese of the LTTE was attributed to the popularity of the LTTE with the local Tamil populace. Over the time LTTE turned ruthless in its aggression acts and started recruitment of child and women soldiers. Also, there have been allegations of  forcible recruitment of  soldiers. The FBI and Scotland Yard acknowledge the LTTE terror tactics as the most ruthless and well planned.  LTTE also inspired HAMAS and Al Qaeda to prepare suicide squads and recruit child soldiers.

IPKF and the revolt by Col. Karuna are considered to be the two major setbacks to the LTTE movement in Lanka. Col. Karuna joined the mainstream politics and returned back to Colombo last year. His joining the Government is considered the turning point for the LTTE. 

Last year, when the government started the “all out war” against the LTTE, not one would have thought that almost after only a year, the LTTE will be dead. The Sri Lankan government recently made Karuna the minister for national integration. I believe, It was not the government but Karuna who won the war. For had it not been for the crucial inputs given by Karuna, the Sri Lanka Army would not have advanced to the depth of the dense jungles ruled by LTTE for almost two decades.

The LTTE is also responsible for its own demise. There are some major mistakes committed the LTTE. Firstly, V Prabhakaran could have easily settled for a political package when he was in a bargaining position with major gains under his belt. He did not want anything less than  autonomy, which was not an option. Secondly, his own men turned against him as he became aggressive in recruiting people for his ranks. LTTE also used strong arm twist tactics for collecting money from the Tamils across the globe.  This not only made it unpopular among its own people but also gave a chance to the Lankan government to portray the Tigers as terrorists rather than the representatives of the Tamil population. The last major mistake committed by the LTTE was that it failed to convey its message to the international community and the mediators (international team led by Norway).

LTTE died on the 18th of May 2009 with the death of its leader V Prabhakaran. But, to assume that the Tamil problem in the island neighbour will be over with the end of LTTE is a big mistake. LTTE was the representative (some might disagree) of  the Tamil population in Lanka. The end of LTTE does not end the problems of the Tamils. The Government has to offer a social and political package to the Sri Lankan Tamils otherwise it will not be long before there is another military uprising by Tamils in the country under the aegis of some other Tamil organization.

Prabhakaran was not wise in taking some of hi decisions which shaped the future of his country. I hope and sincerely ra that the Sri Lanka President is wise enough to take some major decisions so that this problem raging from decades is brought to a logical end.