May 26th 2010, The Economist by A.A.K.
In India, the operators have roughly segmented the market using the acronym ABCD, which stands for astrology, Bollywood, cricket and devotion. The idea is that all Indians are fascinated by at least one of these things. Not everyone is interested in astrology, though, and Bollywood and cricket have seasonal appeal. Devotion, by contrast, has a perennial audience.
The manner in which a devout Indian communicates with his God has changed over the years. At my workplace, I often find a couple of my formally dressed colleagues who are in their mid-40s muttering prayers to the wallpaper images on their computers, which consist of pictures of their favourite deity. While they may still continue to carry a picture of their deity in their wallets, this new option fascinates them even more.
The telecoms operators have found different ways to be part of a typical consumer’s daily routine. Instead of waking up in the morning to a jarring beep from his alarm clock, his cell phone can sing a melodious aarti (prayer) that stimulates his senses at dawn. To experience this divine start to his day, he pays 30 rupees ($0.63) a month. Depending upon his religion, he can subscribe to daily quotes from his God which are fed to him, like medicine, three times a day at regular intervals. For this service he can either pay seven rupees for a “weekly pack”, or 28 rupees for a “monthly pack”, which includes a free screensaver. To accommodate variations in the popularity of local deities, the operators have customised their services for different regions. There are more Krishna followers in Gujarat (West India), whereas Kolkata (East India) is known for worshipping Durga.
Other devotional services can help with decision-making. Instead of referring to a physical calendar, subscribers can receive automatic alerts to tell them which dates or times of day are inauspicious for starting a new job or shopping for a car. And the caller tune, which is played to incoming callers as they wait for the person they are calling to answer, has graduated from being a bland beeping noise to a bhajan (devotional song). Bharti Airtel, one of India’s leading operators, has introduced a service which streams live audio aartis recited by bhatjis (priests) to mobile phones from the most important shrines. While the bhatji is intoning those prayers, he is also talking into a microphone placed near the idol. With the introduction of 3G spectrum, the possibility of video streaming is not far off. Given the devotion of Indian consumers to their mobile phones, all this gives the notion of an omnipresent God a whole new meaning.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
A prison sentence
More random musings:
All those prisoners whom we lock up, do you think it really makes any difference? Does the world feel any safer at night?
Of every innocent man sent to the electric chair, a son swears to avenge his death.
Of every hardened criminal, his network of thugs does not close shop when he goes to prison. In fact, prison provides new opportunities for business, new connections, new clients.
Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it. What the world would be like without blood-sucking lawyers.
Revenge: till you have it, you want it. But once you get it, you realize it doesn't make anything better.
Disclaimer: the thoughts in the post are heavily influenced by an overdose of over-dramatic TV shows.
All those prisoners whom we lock up, do you think it really makes any difference? Does the world feel any safer at night?
Of every innocent man sent to the electric chair, a son swears to avenge his death.
Of every hardened criminal, his network of thugs does not close shop when he goes to prison. In fact, prison provides new opportunities for business, new connections, new clients.
Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it. What the world would be like without blood-sucking lawyers.
Revenge: till you have it, you want it. But once you get it, you realize it doesn't make anything better.
Disclaimer: the thoughts in the post are heavily influenced by an overdose of over-dramatic TV shows.
Zindagi ek rail ki patri hai. Ek inch ka bend, aur meelon ki doori.
Remember the dialogue from Jab We Met? Apart from being hilariously funny (especially what follows this), it speaks a wholesome truth.
Yesterday in the bus, on my way back from work, I was sitting and thinking.
Of the last 3 distinct moments of happiness that I remember vividly are getting selected for JC in Singapore, Lafayette College for undergrad and more recently, for SEP in Canada. And how each of these decisions has changed my life.
If I hadn't decided to come to Singapore, I would right now have graduated from some uni in India and would either be doing Masters or a job. Assuming of course that I got admitted to a good college (read IIT), else I would right now be fondly remembered by friends and family as the loving daughter with such a bright future (LOL!), who fell trap to the fallacies of the Indian education system and the horrible competition and jumped off the school building.
If I had decided to accept the Lafayette offer, I would be in the US, living a very different social life (or so I like to believe). What is and isn't acceptable to me would be of a different standard, and I would not be missing the snow right now (yes I'm aware it's Spring right now).
In the long term, Canada may become but a small part of my life, but right now it seems equally significant to me.
It's amazing isn't it. How every small or big decision in your life changes the course that it takes. You may not even realize it at the time, but years later, you will look back at it and wonder. What if..
Yesterday in the bus, on my way back from work, I was sitting and thinking.
Of the last 3 distinct moments of happiness that I remember vividly are getting selected for JC in Singapore, Lafayette College for undergrad and more recently, for SEP in Canada. And how each of these decisions has changed my life.
If I hadn't decided to come to Singapore, I would right now have graduated from some uni in India and would either be doing Masters or a job. Assuming of course that I got admitted to a good college (read IIT), else I would right now be fondly remembered by friends and family as the loving daughter with such a bright future (LOL!), who fell trap to the fallacies of the Indian education system and the horrible competition and jumped off the school building.
If I had decided to accept the Lafayette offer, I would be in the US, living a very different social life (or so I like to believe). What is and isn't acceptable to me would be of a different standard, and I would not be missing the snow right now (yes I'm aware it's Spring right now).
In the long term, Canada may become but a small part of my life, but right now it seems equally significant to me.
It's amazing isn't it. How every small or big decision in your life changes the course that it takes. You may not even realize it at the time, but years later, you will look back at it and wonder. What if..
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Work culture: Singapore vs. India
Ever been annoyed with nothing to do and nothing to pass the time in an Indian office? Or ever been stuck with a never ending list of things to attend to immediately even after your designated leaving time arrives and passes by in Singapore? Sat and counted the number of hours left before work ends no matter where you are?
There are some subtle, some obvious differences as well as some basic similarities between work places around the world. Some are more relaxed, some more deadline oriented, while others operate with the sole purpose of killing their employees of exhaustion or boredom.
As Monica (in FRIENDS) so aptly put it, "Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You're gonna love it."
It all boils down to cultural differences of where we're brought up and the underlying similarity in human nature. Asia, Europe, Australia and US, all have a completely different set of work values. My non-expert, hearsay based perception is that Australia is much more relaxed, with as much emphasis on sports as there is on work, with an unparalleled sense of dignity of labour. Europe for some reason feels more structured to me, maybe because they've been around for and developed for much longer than the other fellas. Based on the recent economic crisis, US seems to conduct themselves with a devil-may-care-about-how-we-treat-the-world-as-long-as-we-do-well-for-ourselves outlook, while Asia is trying really hard to break out of their own more or less self-sufficient little worlds to take advantage of globalisation. Ok I acknowledge I may be way off the mark here, but heck, I'm entitled an opinion.
Singapore, like in everything else, amalgamates, or at least tries hard to amalgamate, the best of all worlds. Which means that it has a killer worklife, a crazy nightlife when you're out drinking with office buddies late at night yet make it to office in time the next morning and somehow outgrow hangovers in the process, as well as a strange mix of Asian-ness and global-ness in its feel.
But I'm drifting off here, as I often do when we start on the topic of Singapore and how hard they try to stay relevant by importing 'talent', 'teaching' creativity, smothering opposition, caning offenders, hanging people found with drugs, and of course, banning chewing gums (I mean seriously, WTH!).
There, I drifted off again. Ok so back to the issue of India vs. Singapore work places. I did a summer internship in a bank in India, 2 of the most mind-numbing summer months I'd say. But it did make me think about how the way people work differs in different places.
We all know how slack many of the Indian offices are, especially those government ones. People will leave their desks, walk around, go meet their friends, chat about politics, corruption, cricket, weather, toot their own horns etc etc. The first hour after they reach work, that too an hour late, is spent socialising and talking about what has changed in the past 15 hours since they saw each other. And the more senior you are, the later you reach work.
In Singapore, it is more clinical. If you know the people around you, good for you. Otherwise its more of a keep to yourself kind of working mode. The moment you reach work, you check the office mailbox, follow up on any correspondence, and begin work, almost as if an invisible Big Brother is watching you. Maybe he is, you never know with this democratic, read authoritarian, government.
There seems to be a greater sense of urgency when it comes to Singapore. The need to get things done on time without someone breathing down your neck seems ingrained into the fabric of daily life. Life seems slower in India, people are more relaxed. We live and breathe the saying "aaj kare so kaal kar, kaal kare so parson. Itni bhi kya jaldi hai, abhi toh jeena hai barson". (What you have to do today, do it tomorrow. What you have to do tomorrow, do it day after. What's the hurry anyways, we've got ages to live!)
Of course, everything in Singapore is computer based. Technology plays a key role in giving Singapore an edge at least over its Asian competitors. In India, the transformation has only just started, specially in government agencies. Many, many people still wouldn't know where to begin if you sat them down in front of a computer, and told them to access the files from there, instead of the big bundles of papers that are sent from one section to another, with their recycled cardboard-ish cover papers tied together with strings. In that way, Singapore is miles ahead.
Singapore work force also seems younger at the first glance. Or at least smarter, better dressed, more professional looking. Maybe I am just using the wrong example. There are of course up and coming companies mainly run by young professionals in India. Also, IT companies seem to be more populated by youngsters. But the older places of work (whatever that means) seem to be frequented by the older generation, where the proud possession of a paunch is a pre-requisite to fit in.
The concept of 'lunch' hours in India can encompass much more than the usual 1 hour break that is standard in Singapore. There is also a definite exodus of people as time nears 5:30pm, or whatever the working hours are like. People rarely stay back to work after that, and within an hour, the entire office is deserted. And there is that delightful concept of extra overtime pay in India, something that would make employers go broke if introduced in Singapore.
Many find the professionalism of personnel lacking and the amount of work minimal in Indian offices. I've personally seen that it is a matter of choice to work hard or not. I think that you can breeze through 40 years of service and stay at the exact same spot because you're content in the knowledge that as long as you don't majorly screw up, your job is safe; or go out of your way to work hard and really make great strides up the ladder.
I was actually surprised during my internship to find that many of the people were brilliant. Most people really did seem to be very well informed about banking, government policies as well as the latest news in the finance world. They were very interested in what they did, and had quite entertaining discussions over lunch, specially since everyone had their own interpretation ready at hand for every situation.
In Singapore, working hard is not a matter of choice. If you want your job tomorrow, you always have to stay on your toes. The rate at which people join and leave companies is really high, especially for start-ups. That's another thing about Singapore, start-ups ABOUND. You can't throw a stone in any direction in a conference without hitting someone who has started their own company. In India, getting a job in a company which no one has heard of is almost as bad as having no job at all. And your parents and relatives will keep reminding you of that distant cousin or neighbour's niece who got a job in such-and-such hi-fi company till you get one yourself or kill yourself trying.
The concept of hierarchy is important too in Asian workplaces. Your boss may be half your age, but you have to talk to him like he owns you. I remember being scolded for not being respectful enough when I didn't bow down and act like a slave to some GM. While Singapore has that Chinese-ness and hence Asian-ness when it comes to respecting those more powerful, it does provide more equality at least in the way in which one interacts with the higher management.
By the way, don't you agree that the middle management sucks everywhere? The people right at the bottom and right at the top are always the nicest and down-to-earth. It's annoying really. I guess the ones in between always have something to prove, to make people believe that they are important too.
On a side note, I don't think we in Singapore or India appreciate how natural English feels to us enough. Today, after a 10 minute call to a Korean association, I was not even able to establish whether the number I was calling was indeed the company I was looking for. Made me wonder why the whole world just didn't use English. But then as someone very aptly pointed out, all the jobs would go to the PRCs and we would be left to "khaak-chanofy".
With that, my rant for the day is done.
There are some subtle, some obvious differences as well as some basic similarities between work places around the world. Some are more relaxed, some more deadline oriented, while others operate with the sole purpose of killing their employees of exhaustion or boredom.
As Monica (in FRIENDS) so aptly put it, "Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You're gonna love it."
It all boils down to cultural differences of where we're brought up and the underlying similarity in human nature. Asia, Europe, Australia and US, all have a completely different set of work values. My non-expert, hearsay based perception is that Australia is much more relaxed, with as much emphasis on sports as there is on work, with an unparalleled sense of dignity of labour. Europe for some reason feels more structured to me, maybe because they've been around for and developed for much longer than the other fellas. Based on the recent economic crisis, US seems to conduct themselves with a devil-may-care-about-how-we-treat-the-world-as-long-as-we-do-well-for-ourselves outlook, while Asia is trying really hard to break out of their own more or less self-sufficient little worlds to take advantage of globalisation. Ok I acknowledge I may be way off the mark here, but heck, I'm entitled an opinion.
Singapore, like in everything else, amalgamates, or at least tries hard to amalgamate, the best of all worlds. Which means that it has a killer worklife, a crazy nightlife when you're out drinking with office buddies late at night yet make it to office in time the next morning and somehow outgrow hangovers in the process, as well as a strange mix of Asian-ness and global-ness in its feel.
But I'm drifting off here, as I often do when we start on the topic of Singapore and how hard they try to stay relevant by importing 'talent', 'teaching' creativity, smothering opposition, caning offenders, hanging people found with drugs, and of course, banning chewing gums (I mean seriously, WTH!).
There, I drifted off again. Ok so back to the issue of India vs. Singapore work places. I did a summer internship in a bank in India, 2 of the most mind-numbing summer months I'd say. But it did make me think about how the way people work differs in different places.
We all know how slack many of the Indian offices are, especially those government ones. People will leave their desks, walk around, go meet their friends, chat about politics, corruption, cricket, weather, toot their own horns etc etc. The first hour after they reach work, that too an hour late, is spent socialising and talking about what has changed in the past 15 hours since they saw each other. And the more senior you are, the later you reach work.
In Singapore, it is more clinical. If you know the people around you, good for you. Otherwise its more of a keep to yourself kind of working mode. The moment you reach work, you check the office mailbox, follow up on any correspondence, and begin work, almost as if an invisible Big Brother is watching you. Maybe he is, you never know with this democratic, read authoritarian, government.
There seems to be a greater sense of urgency when it comes to Singapore. The need to get things done on time without someone breathing down your neck seems ingrained into the fabric of daily life. Life seems slower in India, people are more relaxed. We live and breathe the saying "aaj kare so kaal kar, kaal kare so parson. Itni bhi kya jaldi hai, abhi toh jeena hai barson". (What you have to do today, do it tomorrow. What you have to do tomorrow, do it day after. What's the hurry anyways, we've got ages to live!)
Of course, everything in Singapore is computer based. Technology plays a key role in giving Singapore an edge at least over its Asian competitors. In India, the transformation has only just started, specially in government agencies. Many, many people still wouldn't know where to begin if you sat them down in front of a computer, and told them to access the files from there, instead of the big bundles of papers that are sent from one section to another, with their recycled cardboard-ish cover papers tied together with strings. In that way, Singapore is miles ahead.
Singapore work force also seems younger at the first glance. Or at least smarter, better dressed, more professional looking. Maybe I am just using the wrong example. There are of course up and coming companies mainly run by young professionals in India. Also, IT companies seem to be more populated by youngsters. But the older places of work (whatever that means) seem to be frequented by the older generation, where the proud possession of a paunch is a pre-requisite to fit in.
The concept of 'lunch' hours in India can encompass much more than the usual 1 hour break that is standard in Singapore. There is also a definite exodus of people as time nears 5:30pm, or whatever the working hours are like. People rarely stay back to work after that, and within an hour, the entire office is deserted. And there is that delightful concept of extra overtime pay in India, something that would make employers go broke if introduced in Singapore.
Many find the professionalism of personnel lacking and the amount of work minimal in Indian offices. I've personally seen that it is a matter of choice to work hard or not. I think that you can breeze through 40 years of service and stay at the exact same spot because you're content in the knowledge that as long as you don't majorly screw up, your job is safe; or go out of your way to work hard and really make great strides up the ladder.
I was actually surprised during my internship to find that many of the people were brilliant. Most people really did seem to be very well informed about banking, government policies as well as the latest news in the finance world. They were very interested in what they did, and had quite entertaining discussions over lunch, specially since everyone had their own interpretation ready at hand for every situation.
In Singapore, working hard is not a matter of choice. If you want your job tomorrow, you always have to stay on your toes. The rate at which people join and leave companies is really high, especially for start-ups. That's another thing about Singapore, start-ups ABOUND. You can't throw a stone in any direction in a conference without hitting someone who has started their own company. In India, getting a job in a company which no one has heard of is almost as bad as having no job at all. And your parents and relatives will keep reminding you of that distant cousin or neighbour's niece who got a job in such-and-such hi-fi company till you get one yourself or kill yourself trying.
The concept of hierarchy is important too in Asian workplaces. Your boss may be half your age, but you have to talk to him like he owns you. I remember being scolded for not being respectful enough when I didn't bow down and act like a slave to some GM. While Singapore has that Chinese-ness and hence Asian-ness when it comes to respecting those more powerful, it does provide more equality at least in the way in which one interacts with the higher management.
By the way, don't you agree that the middle management sucks everywhere? The people right at the bottom and right at the top are always the nicest and down-to-earth. It's annoying really. I guess the ones in between always have something to prove, to make people believe that they are important too.
On a side note, I don't think we in Singapore or India appreciate how natural English feels to us enough. Today, after a 10 minute call to a Korean association, I was not even able to establish whether the number I was calling was indeed the company I was looking for. Made me wonder why the whole world just didn't use English. But then as someone very aptly pointed out, all the jobs would go to the PRCs and we would be left to "khaak-chanofy".
With that, my rant for the day is done.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Why is it?
This is e caption for someone's profile pic:
"i miss snow; i miss running out in the snow in mere slippers;
i miss chapel hill; i miss ram village, the place i resided at, cooked, did my laundry and studied in the study rooms;
i miss the feeling of really enjoying what i studied under awesome, inspiring professors who never failed to make me laugh & had a way with motivating me to do my readings~"
You can so easily make out that it's about exchange. I wonder if the people who come to NUS on exchange feel the same way.
"i miss snow; i miss running out in the snow in mere slippers;
i miss chapel hill; i miss ram village, the place i resided at, cooked, did my laundry and studied in the study rooms;
i miss the feeling of really enjoying what i studied under awesome, inspiring professors who never failed to make me laugh & had a way with motivating me to do my readings~"
You can so easily make out that it's about exchange. I wonder if the people who come to NUS on exchange feel the same way.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Alice in Wonderland
Trippin out
Spinning around
I'm underground
I fell down
Yeah I fell down
I'm freaking out, where am I now?
Upside down and I can't stop it now
Can't stop me now, oh oh
I, I'll get by
I, I'll survive
When the world's crashing down
When I fall and hit the ground
I will turn myself around
Don't you try to stop me
I, I won't cry
I found myself in Wonderland
Get back on my feet, on the ground
Is this real?
Is this pretend?
I'll take a stand until the end
I, I'll get by
I, I'll survive
When the world's crashing down
When I fall and hit the ground
I will turn myself around
Don't you try to stop me
I, I won't cry
Spinning around
I'm underground
I fell down
Yeah I fell down
I'm freaking out, where am I now?
Upside down and I can't stop it now
Can't stop me now, oh oh
I, I'll get by
I, I'll survive
When the world's crashing down
When I fall and hit the ground
I will turn myself around
Don't you try to stop me
I, I won't cry
I found myself in Wonderland
Get back on my feet, on the ground
Is this real?
Is this pretend?
I'll take a stand until the end
I, I'll get by
I, I'll survive
When the world's crashing down
When I fall and hit the ground
I will turn myself around
Don't you try to stop me
I, I won't cry
Saturday, May 1, 2010
What are you scared of?
Aibohphobia - fear of palindromes (read the word backwards).
Anatidaephobia - fear that somewhere somehow a duck is watching you.
Androphobia – fear of men.
Arachibutyrophobia – fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Chorophobia - fear of dancing.
Decidophobia – fear of making decisions (commonly found in diplomats and Indian government).
Ergophobia – fear of work or functioning (commonly known as procrastination).
Gerascophobia – fear of growing old or ageing (also known as being a woman).
Gynophobia – fear of women.
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia – fear of the number 666.
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia – fear of long words.
Lipophobia – fear/avoidance of fats in food (anorexia?).
Luposlipaphobia - fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor.
Nihilophobia - fear of nothingness.
Nomophobia – fear of being out of mobile phone contact.
Ombrophobia – avoidance of rain (fear of umbrellas?)
Paraskavedekatriaphobia, Paraskevidekatriaphobia, Friggatriskaidekaphobia – fear of Friday the 13th.
Panphobia – fear of everything or constantly afraid without knowing what is causing it.
Phagophobia – fear of swallowing.
Phobophobia – fear of having a phobia (Bravo!).
Somniphobia – fear of sleep.
Spectrophobia – fear of mirrors and one's own reflections (ouch).
Technophobia – fear of technology (how to survive in today's world?)
Telephone phobia - fear or reluctance of making or taking phone calls.
Triskaidekaphobia, Terdekaphobia – fear of the number 13.
Venustraphobia – fear of beautiful women.
Workplace phobia – fear of the work place (also called being normal).
Xenophobia – fear/dislike of foreigners (America? jk).
Zoophobia – a generic term for animal phobias (fear of zoos?).
Anatidaephobia - fear that somewhere somehow a duck is watching you.
Androphobia – fear of men.
Arachibutyrophobia – fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Chorophobia - fear of dancing.
Decidophobia – fear of making decisions (commonly found in diplomats and Indian government).
Ergophobia – fear of work or functioning (commonly known as procrastination).
Gerascophobia – fear of growing old or ageing (also known as being a woman).
Gynophobia – fear of women.
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia – fear of the number 666.
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia – fear of long words.
Lipophobia – fear/avoidance of fats in food (anorexia?).
Luposlipaphobia - fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor.
Nihilophobia - fear of nothingness.
Nomophobia – fear of being out of mobile phone contact.
Ombrophobia – avoidance of rain (fear of umbrellas?)
Paraskavedekatriaphobia, Paraskevidekatriaphobia, Friggatriskaidekaphobia – fear of Friday the 13th.
Panphobia – fear of everything or constantly afraid without knowing what is causing it.
Phagophobia – fear of swallowing.
Phobophobia – fear of having a phobia (Bravo!).
Somniphobia – fear of sleep.
Spectrophobia – fear of mirrors and one's own reflections (ouch).
Technophobia – fear of technology (how to survive in today's world?)
Telephone phobia - fear or reluctance of making or taking phone calls.
Triskaidekaphobia, Terdekaphobia – fear of the number 13.
Venustraphobia – fear of beautiful women.
Workplace phobia – fear of the work place (also called being normal).
Xenophobia – fear/dislike of foreigners (America? jk).
Zoophobia – a generic term for animal phobias (fear of zoos?).
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