Irritated

At work, I assumed a couple of months ago that since I can work well with some people; I can work well with anybody. I am badly mistaken :(

People can be a pain. They make allegations without thinking and don’t care if they hurt you. And when you confront it, there is this stupid comment I have never been able to understand. They say, "Don't take it personally" I just don't know what this means. You pass judgment on a person and not expect them to take it personally. I wonder how they manage that.

Bloody Hell! That is what I think.


Pooooh! I am still angry and bothered. Don't know how to get rid of the acid and do some work before the weekend.

Thank God for week ends and friends.

Corporate Meetings or Power play?

I found that it is difficult to like or respect some people however hard you try. I have tried hard to get along with a new senior recruit in my office. More a peer than a boss but his job is more important than mine and so is his pay.

This guy actually told me today that he keeps people who have come for a meeting with him waiting to prove his importance. What, he needs to prove something to a vendor/consultant that he is superior?

According to him, if you are punctual for a meet, you do not have enough work. I wasted precious time today pandering to his ideas when I did not start my meeting with the consultants without him. Someday, I am going to get confident enough to tell this guy what I really think.

:P

Walking Through Life

Walking Through Life

This is a wonderful piece by Michael Gartner, editor of newspapers
large and small and president of NBC News. In 1997, he won the
Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Well worth reading. And a few
good laughs are guaranteed.

My father never drove a car.

Well, that's not quite right.

I should say I never saw him drive a car. He quit driving in 1927,
when he was 25 years old, and the last car he drove was a 1926
Whippet.

"In those days," he told me when he was in his 90s, "to drive a car
you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet,
and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life
and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it."

At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in:
"Oh, bull----!" she said. "He hit a horse."

"Well," my father said, "there was that, too."

So my brother and I grew up in a household without a car. The
neighbors all had cars -- the Kollingses next door had a green 1941
Dodge, the VanLaninghams across the street a gray 1936 Plymouth, the
Hopsons two doors down a black 1941 Ford -- but we had none. My
father, a newspaperman in Des Moines, would take the streetcar to work
and, often as not, walk the 3 miles home. If he took the streetcar
home, my mother and brother and I would walk the three blocks to the
streetcar stop, meet him and walk home together.

My brother, David, was born in 1935, and I was born in 1938, and
sometimes, at dinner, we'd ask how come all the neighbors had cars but
we had none. "No one in the family drives," my mother would explain,
and that was that. But, sometimes, my father would say, "But as soon
as one of you boys turns 16, we'll get one." It was as if he wasn't
sure which one of us would turn 16 first.

But, sure enough, my brother turned 16 before I did, so in 1951 my
parents bought a used 1950 Chevrolet from a friend who ran the parts
department at a Chevy dealership downtown. It was a four-door, white
model, stick shift, fender skirts, loaded with everything, and, since
my parents didn't drive, it more or less became my brother's car.

Having a car but not being able to drive didn't bother my father, but
it didn't make sense to my mother. So in 1952, when she was 43 years
old, she asked a friend to teach her to drive. She learned in a nearby
cemetery, the place where I learned to drive the following year and
where, a generation later, I took my two sons to practice driving. The
cemetery probably was my father's idea. "Who can your mother hurt in
the cemetery?" I remember him saying once.

For the next 45 years or so, until she was 90, my mother was the
driver in the family. Neither she nor my father had any sense of
direction, but he loaded up on maps -- though they seldom left the
city limits -- and appointed himself navigator. It seemed to work.

Still, they both continued to walk a lot. My mother was a devout
Catholic, and my father an equally devout agnostic, an arrangement
that didn't seem to bother either of them through their 75 years of
marriage. (Yes, 75 years, and they were deeply in love the entire
time.) He retired when he was 70, and nearly every morning for the
next 20 years or so, he would walk with her the mile to St. Augustin's
Church. She would walk down and sit in the front pew, and he would
wait in the back until he saw which of the parish's two priests was on
duty that morning. If it was the pastor, my father then would go out
and take a 2-mile walk, meeting my mother at the end of the service
and walking her home. If it was the assistant pastor, he'd take just a
1-mile walk and then head back to the church. He called the priests
"Father Fast" and "Father Slow."

After he retired, my father almost always accompanied my mother
whenever she drove anywhere, even if he had no reason to go along. If
she were going to the beauty parlor, he'd sit in the car and read, or
go take a stroll or, if it was summer, have her keep the engine
RUNNING so he could listen to the Cubs game on the radio. In the
evening, then, when I'd stop by, he'd explain: "The Cubs lost again.
The millionaire on second base made a bad throw to the millionaire on
first base, so the multimillionaire on third base scored." If she were
going to the grocery store, he would go along to carry the bags out --
and to make sure she loaded up on ice cream.

As I said, he was always the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and
she was 88 and still driving, he said to me, "Do you want to know the
secret of a long life?" "I guess so," I said, knowing it probably
would be something bizarre.

"No left turns," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"No left turns," he repeated. "Several years ago, your mother and I
read an article that said most accidents that old people are in happen
when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic. As you get older,
your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth perception, it
said. So your mother and I decided never again to make a left turn."

"What?" I said again. "No left turns," he said. "Think about it. Three
rights are the same as a left, and that's a lot safer. So we always
make three rights."

"You're kidding!" I said, and I turned to my mother for support. "No,"
she said, "your father is right. We make three rights. It works." But
then she added: "Except when your father loses count." I was driving
at the time, and I almost drove off the road as I started laughing.
"Loses count?" I asked. "Yes," my father admitted, "that sometimes
happens. But it's not a problem. You just make seven rights and you're
okay again."

I couldn't resist. "Do you ever go for 11?" I asked.

"No," he said. "If we miss it at seven, we just come home and call it
a bad day. Besides, nothing in life is so important it can't be put
off to another day or another week."

My mother was never in an accident, but one evening she handed me her
car keys and said she had decided to quit driving. That was in 1999,
when she was 90. She lived four more years, until 2003. My father died
the next year, at 102. They both died in the bungalow they had moved
into in 1937 and bought a few years later for $3,000. (Sixty years
later, my brother and I paid $8,000 to have a shower put in the tiny
bathroom -- the house had never had one. My father would have died
then and there if he knew the shower cost nearly three times what he
paid for the house.) He continued to walk daily -- he had me get him a
treadmill when he was 101 because he was afraid he'd fall on the icy
sidewalks but wanted to keep exercising -- and he was of sound mind
and sound body until the moment he died.

One September afternoon in 2004, he and my son went with me when I had
to give a talk in a neighboring town, and it was clear to all three of
us that he was wearing out, though we had the usual wide- ranging
conversation about politics and newspapers and things in the news. A
few weeks earlier, he had told my son, "You know, Mike, the first
hundred years are a lot easier than the second hundred." At one point
in our drive that Saturday, he said, "You know, I'm probably not going
to live much longer."

"You're probably right," I said.

"Why would you say that?" He countered, somewhat irritated. "Because
you're 102 years old," I said. "Yes," he said, "you're right." He
stayed in bed all the next day.

That night, I suggested to my son and daughter that we sit up with him
through the night. He appreciated it, he said, though at one point,
apparently seeing us look gloomy, he said: "I would like to make an
announcement. No one in this room is dead yet."

An hour or so later, he spoke his last words: "I want you to know," he
said, clearly and lucidly, that I am in no pain. I am very
comfortable. And I have had as happy a life as anyone on this earth
could ever have." A short time later, he died.

I miss him a lot, and I think about him a lot. I've wondered now and
then how it was that my family and I were so lucky that he lived so
long. I can't figure out if it was because he walked through life.

.... Or because he quit taking left turns.

August

August is my favorite month. You guessed it. I am August born. On the 1st, I enjoyed getting wet in the rain. On the 2nd I was going early to work so I had a lovely drive to my office which is about 30 kilometers away. I cruised along Marine Drive and stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the view. Office was okay and then my ride back was also fun although that took a lot longer thanks to the traffic in the evening.

If i saw beautiful Marine Drive on Thursday, Friday morning I saw Andheri which is usually a filthy suburb look rain kissed and sparkling. While I was in the train heading out towards town, I saw the Meethi River rushing full flow towards the sea. This river usually resembles a gutter and is more filth than water. But thanks to the combination heavy downpour and the high tide, it looked like a free flowing river rushing into the arms of the sea. The sea itself was a scene of nature's immense power and beauty. I specifically went out again at Lunch to see it at the Gateway of India. The perfect place to enjoy the sea on a rough afternoon.

On Friday evening, I had booked tickets for a Barkha ritu concert where Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and Pandit Chaurasia mesmerized the audition with each interpretation of Raag Malhar. A raga that is supposed to be played in this season and it is believed that it can invoke the rains. I really think these rainy ragas actually inspire Joy more than the rains. Rains are seasonal but the joy this one brings can be attributed to beautiful music.

The whole beauty of the season is that everybody is generally overjoyed and exuberant. You see strangers smiling at each other for no reason at all. Everything has its own special sparkle.

Thanks to the mood that was created by all of the above, I got my veena out on Saturday. Despite not having practiced for ages, I found that I could still play. I liked that feeling. I also remembered all my teachers over the years who enjoyed teaching me as much as I loved to learn from them. I was really partial to the Arts. I was more focused on my training in carnatic music, dance and then the veena than I ever was on my studies. Today, I am glad for that training. It makes me happy.

Disclaimer

One of my rare visitors was worried about reactions to a recent blog entry. To avoid any potential problems, here is my disclaimer.

I disclaim all liabilities arising out of material contained on this site and on its associated web pages.

:)

Difference between Caste and Religious Sect

My earlier blog on castes in India led to a discussion with my brother. He spoke about the religious sects and the wars that they have led to. I felt the need to clearly differentiate between caste and sect for him. Obviously, my first option was to google it and this is what google told me:

Caste: Caste systems are traditional, hereditary systems of social restriction and social stratification, enforced by common law or practice, based on endogamy, occupation, economic status, race, ethnicity, etc.

Sect: In the sociology of religion a sect is generally a small religious or political group that has broken off from a larger group, for example from a large, well-established religious group, like a denomination, usually due to a dispute about doctrinal matters.

Detailed Definition from wiki:
Caste is described by Oxford Dictionary as "each of the hereditary classes of Hindu society, distinguished by relative degrees of ritual purity or pollution and of social status" and as "any exclusive social class".[1] Though now one thinks of Hinduism when one thinks of caste, caste is from the Portuguese language, first used by the Portuguese to describe inherited class status in their own European society. Hinduism speaks of "Varna," and Indian societies speak of "Jati." In "A New History of India," by Stanley Wolpert, "[s]uch a process of expansion, settled agricultural production, and pluralistic integration of new peoples led to the development of India's uniquely complex system of social organization, which was mistakenly labeled the caste system by the Portuguese. For what the Portuguese called "caste" in the sixteenth century was, in fact the ideal Rig Vedic "class" (varna) system of Brahmins, Kshastriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras, whereas what Indians mean by caste is really a much more narrowly limited, endogamous group related by "birth" (jati)." In Hinduism, varna (categorization of occupations) is actually non-hereditary, individual, and can be changed. The word jati is used to describe any community, and not specific to any one religion. A person's jati (community) is the social group (with its own culture, religious practices, traditions, language, customs, regional origin, etc...) one is born into, and is hereditary. There are countless communities (jatis) in India. Many communities were known for certain occupations. Before universal education, like every where else in the world, job skills were often transferred within families and communities. A large number of communities follow Sanatana Dharma (the "Eternal Religion," aka Hinduism). Those communities (jatis) known for a particular occupation or related occupations that could be categorized into one of the four varnas (Brahmin, Kshastriya, Vaishya, Shudra types of work), were overtime known as belonging to one of the four varnas. However, jati's association with a varna can change. Who one can marry depends on the community (jati) they are from. Some communities the people traditionally marry other people within their own community. Other communities the people traditionally marry with people from other communities as well as their own. Each community governs itself, and this live and let live attitude is the main reason why so many communities were able to maintain their diversity while living among other communities.

Anthropologists use the term "caste" more generally, to refer to a social group that is endogamous and occupationally specialized; such groups are common in highly stratified societies with a very low degree of social mobility; that is to say, a caste system is one in which an individual's occupation and marriage prospects are determined by his or her birth and heritage. In its broadest sense, examples of caste-based societies include colonial Latin America under Spanish and Portuguese rule (see Casta), apart from India A significant practice, relationship or organization in a society or culture.

For more details on Caste: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste
For details on Sect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sect

International Holding Companies

NASSCOM decided to hold a series of lectures for its members. For some reason, they chose to talk to a group of decidedly SME firms on International Holding Companies. By the end of the discussion, when someone spoke out on the obvious expenses involved in setting up such a holding company, the speaker mentioned that it certainly does not make sense for a small enterprise to look at this option. The costs, he confirmed will be prohibitive and more importantly unnecessary when they will only be acquiring one or maybe two companies abroad.

Having said this, I still enjoyed myself learning about the various new concepts that exist in the business world. Just for that evening, I wanted to be an MD who creates wealth and uses innovative but legal ways to protect that wealth for the company’s shareholders.
As a typical middle class service oriented individual, I have always been averse to the risk involved in going into business. However, the thought processes behind the ideas that people have come up with for creation of wealth and the more baser urge that people at all levels seem to have to avoid or at least minimise taxation of the wealth created is very educative. Also amazing are the laws that have come into effect to effectively curb as many of such ideas as possible. The certainty of death and taxes is true even more today than it was before. The cat and mouse game between the Governments of the world and the increasingly global corporate houses continues and there are as many brainy ideas to ensure maximising tax collections as there are to evade taxes.

Most of the discussion was based on US corporate law with specific reference to Indian corporate houses. Specifically in relation to setting up an IHC in those countries that have a favourable tax system themselves as well as a favourable treaty with the US. They are called Tax havens.

Some surprising names that I remember are the Netherlands, UK and Ireland. Do you know that the corporate tax in Ireland is just 12.5%? When comparing this with the 35% payable here in India, it sounds like a no-tax regime. How do they possibly manage?
It seems places like the Cayman Islands and Malta are no longer considered the best option and it would not make sense to set up the IHC and not be in a position to prove “Substance over Form”. This caption basically means that the Holding Company is not really a paper company and must have a reason to exist in the chosen location.

The four main areas for tax impact while deciding on an IHC are:
Dividend
Interest
Royalty
Sale of shares.

Let us now see if I understood some of the concepts that stayed with me since that day.

The LSE’s Alternative Investment Market - AIM is the London Stock Exchange's international market for young and growing companies. Launched in 1995, AIM gives companies from all countries and sectors access to a market at an earlier stage of their development, by combining the benefits of a public quotation with a more flexible and less stringent regulatory approach.

The Delaware Company Concept – The Delaware General Corporate Law is one of the most advanced and flexible corporation statutes in the nation. Secondly, Delaware courts and, in particular, the Court of Chancery, have over 200 years of legal precedent as a maker of corporation law. Thirdly, the state legislature seriously takes its role in keeping the corporation statute and other business laws current. Lastly, the office of the Secretary of State operates much like a business rather than a government bureaucracy with its modern imaging system and customer service oriented staff. Delaware is also know as the First State because it was the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States; Delaware's business laws, its Chancery Court with nationally recognized expertise and governmental services make Delaware a corporate haven.

Thin capitalization law - A Corporation that gets its capital primarily as loans from shareholders rather than stock investment. The main tax advantage attempted here is the distribution of interest that is tax deductible, whereas distribution on stock is non-deductible Dividends. If the debt-to-stock ratio becomes excessive, the IRS may contend that the capital structure is unrealistic and the debt is not Bona Fide. The acceptable debt-to-stock ratio varies according to industry norms. If the corporation's debt is recast as stock, the corporation loses its deductible interest expense.

Limitation of benefits clause – A US law, the Limitations on benefits provisions generally prohibit third country residents from obtaining tax treaty benefits. For example, a foreign corporation may not be entitled to a reduced rate of withholding unless a minimum percentage of its owners are citizens or residents of the United States or the treaty country.

CFC regulations - CFC (controlled foreign company) regulations have been implemented by most western high-tax countries to prevent residents setting up and keeping profit in companies in low tax jurisdictions. Usually, the CFC regulations stipulate that resident shareholders shall be taxed directly for the profit of a CFC – regardless of whether any dividend has been paid. This effectively prevents a CFC from building up any capital. In addition the tax imposed on the shareholders will often exceed the domestic rate for company and dividend tax. CFC regulations are based on Jurisdiction and what may work in one jurisdiction may be a legal disaster in another.

Anti-inversion statute - The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (2) added Code Sec. 7874 to the Internal Revenue Code to combat the perceived abuse of inversions of U.S. corporations into foreign corporations.

I shall end here since the last one seems too difficult to understand.

Castes in India

I was talking to a new recruit at my office and she explained to me her uncommon name and surname. She has a typical catholic name but uses her caste surname that is typically Hindu.

It seems I was under the mistaken assumption that castes are only important to those who follow Hinduism for it is such an integral part of India that even religions that have nothing to do with the caste structure have integrated it.

I wonder sometimes if we as a nation have really come out of the 18th century to march on in the 21st? Our students take to the streets on reservation, we have caste wars publicised in all our news channels and people working in offices discuss each others sub sects and caste dynamics over lunch. They tell me, A Maharashtrian Brahmin has to be a miser who will never spend his money on eating out and a "CKP" loves food.

How do we get out of this mess? Is there a way out at all???

Alone

I started working 10 years ago and came to the job market as a very scared rabbit unsure of myself and sensitive to the slightest displeasure.

I was also scared of being alone anywhere except a movie hall. I never stayed home alone although I often went on treks alone and travelled alone to little known nooks and corners in India.

Then I joined work at a place I was comfortable from the very first day although I was really the odd one out in a crowd of extremely sophisticated people. In general, everyone was nice to me so I really did not mind being the odd ball here. But I was still afraid of many things and one of them was sitting alone in the marketing room when everyone else was on the field. I remember asking my big bosses to come out and give me company. Time passed and I started feeling comfortable in a big room all by myself. I was still averse to the idea but it was okay.
Today, i sit in a dark office inside a dark cabin with wooden walls and dark glasses around me and have no fear of the walls around me. One can get used to almost anything I suppose, given enough time.

Maybe it is good that I no longer fear being alone but every time i enter my room i feel i could just curl up and die and the world around will just not care. A sad thought for a week end morning.

To blow away the blues, I shall listen to some lively music and leave you with "The Daffodils"

William Wordsworth. 1770–1850

Daffodils

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced;

but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

A Joy ride

I had a great time today. This Sunday, I had planned on lunch with a friend at a previously unheard of Italian place. More about that later. First, I saw a few cars of the Haig vintage car rally and that was good fun :)

I set off on the empty roads in my Tata Indigo to see some beautiful Bentley's and Rolls. I saw quite a few of the little cars out on rally from a nice vantage point between Mahim and Dadar. I don't know about the upkeep and fuel efficiency but the cars looked so good. I saw a couple of them unable to complete the rally and settle for some gentle TLC at the neighborhood car mechanic and even that was good fun. Most of the cars were convertibles and the drivers seemed to be having a good time despite the heat. I sat in AC comfort and watched them go by in the sweltering Bbay heat. The drivers and navigators seemed to be doing quite well despite the heat. I saw two women with hats and bonnets looking quaint and lady-like driving a lovely vintage Bentley.

Before I knew it, it was time for lunch and I picked up my friend and headed to Penne at Juhu. I had read about this place in a foodie article on the Bestofbombay site and decided that I wanted to try it out. It is fun to go to a new restaurant and find out how good or bad the food is.
Somehow, from what I had read, I expected it to be a tiny nook with soothing ambience but it turned out to be fairly spacious with a lovely ambience. The veggie starters were not so great but the Pasta and the Desserts were good. My friend and I had a lovely time and spent a load of time enjoying the place, the food and the Company.
I then drove back home for Sunday siesta and got up to watch Massa rule F1 for a change at the Bahrain Grand Prix. It's funny getting used to F1 without Schumi but then I think when your idols retire you start putting your age in perspective.

Life goes on; I still have places to go and promises to keep...

The poor knee cap

I was rushing to get into a train this morning when I went sprawling. The cat call that stayed with me was a screeching "Aunteeeee, take care."

Here I was on the station floor and what bothered me more was not my poor doddering knee cap but someone calling me "Aunty." Getting old is no fun, feeling old is worse.

"Vera, Vera, What has become of you? Does anybody else here feel the way I do?"

Roads and Accountability

Who makes the decisions to dig at the MMRDA? They dig up newly made Concrete roads to do what they should have done before making the road, break water pipes repeatedly at three different places within 2 kilometers, wasting gallons of the precious liquid, start work on busy intersections with skeleton staff and waste time.

Traffic is forever stuck at narrow lanes left for zillion vehicles to pass while a man- hole is without a cover and left unattended for days together in this single lane that they have left us. Who is responsible? Who is accountable? Who will ask the questions? How do I do it?

I visited 2 other cities recently. Bangalore and Ahmedabad. Bangalore seems worse than us but Ahmedabad was great. The road works contractors work at nights, finish jobs they start within time. The city is small and there is hardly any traffic compared to Bombay but they still think it is important to care for the road travelers.

The MMRDA just puts up a board to suffer today for a better tomorrow; I have been seeing it for the last 6 years on the Andheri-Kurla Road. Every year there is a new plan, half done work and broken pipes. Roads are wider, traffic is higher, plans are bigger but nothing gets better. In some cities bridges are completed in 1 month, we take 6 months and still make uneven badly finished ones. No one asks any questions, the Government feeds the road mafia year after year the World Bank's dollars and they keep taking the sorry citizens who traverse these roads for a bumpy ride.

I waste time writing a blog to get rid of my anger and will be back on the road come Monday morning without a crib. Who will write that Petition? Who has the time? Who will make the time? My Mom says I should go and fight. File a Petition, go talk to somebody in the BMC. But I know I will not do anything. I will just go on finding ways to beat the traffic, leave early, stay late, work harder and forget the woes of the world in a comedy.

Are we really a democracy? Or is this a new form of slavery and autocracy or is it the Jungle?

New Year 2007

I made an entry in my blog again today after a long time. A New Year resolution is made to be broken but I resolved today to start blogging again. A few people I know who got me into the blog world seem out of it now but I came back.

A visit to Juhu beach is something I love. I went by this evening so I could start my New Year in a nice way. I met my friend and both of us spent a couple of hours walking along the beach and reminiscing about years gone by.