Saturday, March 5, 2011

The evolution of a geeky cook!!!

I still remember my first day of cooking. I was standing beside my grandma seeing her, artistically rotating the egg yolk over the pan and flipping it so cleanly. Even though its a cake walk and a nobrainer for her stature, I was awestruck and looking for a rehearsal of the same feat and asked for my turn. That's how it started. Although the start has been a miniatured version of omelette, it did gave me pleasure at that time to try it in front of my guru (though the flipping did spilled some oil on my hands). It did showed me some kind of achievement. But the talent went few folds...

I am not writing this for starting a gender war or for who is the best cook or how to perfect the art of cooking. I am just trying to relate some basic human behaviours with an example of culinary. I have started my full length cooking after coming to Engineering and it was a roller coaster ride. It was more of a survival act rather than a talent display. For example, 90% of students (especially male and I dont term geeks alone here) start their first hit on cooking with either egg or noodles coz it doesn't involve cutting or piercing anything. Believe me male counterparts are more scared of blood and needles than their female counterparts.

Once we get used to the basic cookery we try to transform from being a Human Resources manager to an Operations manager. Initially it was more of shielding ourselves from cuts and bruises, more concerned about what happens to us rather than how well it taste. But later its about how well it tastes and how to make it more tastier. Its a pure operational and quality process. Then a transformation to change management and trying new recipes. Its all about innovation and swimming through new channels of waters. There the resources like google and youtube comes into picture. Then the process slowly starts to emerge and perfection comes into picture. It gives a complete picture of how to make a better cook and how well each new addition add value to the final product. I have seen this uncanny evolution completed successfully in my friend Hari who has a greater kink of using knives, as smooth as a paint brush.

It is the evolution of any cook no matter whether he is a professional chef or a student who becomes one without a professional training. Infact I have just taken cooking as an example. We will come across these kind of stuff of learning from mistakes and blah blah blah. Right from the bicycle fall to car driving or placing a sweet chorus on class benches to actual drummers or a implicit lines on a white paper to a professional drawing, everything transforms from a survival instinct to an art. Some people may differ on Darwin's evolution of species but what we are doing is a terrific live proof of the one in our own lives.

I will end with a sweet note - Worlds best cook is none other than our own mom. So lets not compare ourselves with the masters of universe...:P

Monday, February 28, 2011

A tale of hits and misses!!!

The worst things hit harder when the chips are down and the mind is torn between integrity and logic. The diligence will rise...!!!

It started when I first heard Geofrey Boycott's kinky voice describing Amir Sohail's wicket in 1996 world cup quarters when Prasad bowled him clean..."You miss it, I hit it." Since then these words described every single unfortunate attempt I have come across to try hard but resulting in the sweet sound of croak of stumps behind. The incidents varied from much hyped Lagaan's oscar miss and when I saw Zidane shattering the hopes of entire hostel in my college in the final vs Italy to my own experience of missing my flight while falling asleep in the Sydney airport(:P).

The biggest test of nerves will come into action when all the chips are down and when a human or a system undergoes this phase. When I was testing a system of simulation of noise of an engine in IC lab in IIT chennai, I made the entire system to undergo the phase called breakeven point, which means the phase where the system starts to showcase the whiteflag attempt of breakdown. It is tested against the vulnerability and code is written to improve the efficiency whether it is 100% perfect or not. These situations are simulated to see the effect of one system over other which is a chain reaction. When the systems are linked together an upheaval in one part will form a continous effect over the entire system. We cant neglect the wear and tear but can reduce the disambiguity or upheaval by finding out the root cause and reverse engineer the process to undo the error. Human networks are no different.

When these kind of situations rise and when one misses the oppurtunity, the decision making abilities are struck and human brain will seize to function automatically. Different emotions will start to surface especially temper and heart breaks. In 90% of the situations Managers seek to find new methods to motivate the people around them externally and neglect the root cause of the problems. The theoretically impossible but practically proven "Butterfly effect" states that no matter how large the effect is, the root cause still follows the basic natural disturbances in the system. Its difficult to counter human emotions rised during these kind of circumstances. It will have a high on effect when these things are uncontrollable. All predictions and formulae blast off.

These kind of dynamic behaviours showcased are highly sensitive to human conditions and result in chaos such as financial crisis. However the mathematical models which are highly dependent on the past data or experiences will be dealt a blow when an entirely new phase in behaviours surface. How to predict that is a million dollar question. Systems and humans adjust to stability or comfort zone once these kind of imbalances occur.It's all about how effective is your damage control when you really miss what you are supposed to hit. After all it is technically impossible to generate a pure signal without noise!!!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

RIP Ramana garu...Adios The Jewel of Telugu Literature...!!!

I never knew that my post will start as an RIP note to the author I have been worshiping from past so many years. Mullapudi Venkata Ramana is no more. Its an obnoxious sentence. He is alive. He lives as long as the telugu literature lives in this world. He lives as long as the language lives. His literary works are contemporary and had tough notch sarcasm attached to what we call heavy dosage social issues. My teacher used to say the sentence " Ravi Ganchun cho Kavi Ganchun (The poet sees the world the sun cannot see). Ramana garu is one such an audacious writer whose pen has drilled down greatest mines of telugu literature with a flow.

His Sahiti Sarvasvam is a bible for modern Telugu Readers and Writers.His characters " Apparav " and " Budugu " will remain in telugu hearts forever. He never missed an opportunity to highlight the so called Ramana Touch to the most of the social issues. His works will take us to the world of 80's which are precious bridges between the old times and new generations.

He along with Bapu marvelled some extra ordinary movies like Sakshi,Pelli Pustakam, Muthyala Muggu, Sita Kalyanam etc. His Sita Kalyanam along with Bapu is a poetic recital of Ramayana and is taught as a lesson at London Scohol of Arts. After reading a few literary works by Mullapudi Venkata Ramana, one will know where does the characters from Bapu movies get their irony, satire and sarcasm from ..... The magic his words has created with Bapu's lens on screen is beyond any words ....Some of the jewels fallen from his pen...

"Asuya ghataina prema ki thermometer " says a character while trying to reason his possessiveness in Budhdhimantudu Movie.

"Cegatri, akasam lo murder jariginattu ledu, suryudu nethuru gadda la ledu" says villian in introduction and the way we perceive the character changes from there on in Muthyala Muggu ...

Take a raw emotion, add right amounts of sensibility, throw in capability for good measure, mix it up well with a humorous lightening rod, allow it to settle in a volatile container. The concoction sums up Sri Ramana's characters. His characters usually spread out on the far sides of the colorful spectrum. Either they are truly sensible, looking at the world without any hang ups or they are completely outlandish bordering on biting sarcasm, fantasy and cynicism.

Its too sad that his works are not published in any of the websites. Recently Chiranjeevi was furious over Padma awards jury of neglecting Bapu - Ramana. They delayed the awards for mighties and gave it to Dasari, Mohanbabu etc. I am not criticizing the winners, but now the award lost its colour. Ramana is no more...

Let me finish off this post with a dialogue between Budugu and Ceegana Peesunamba .....

budugu walks in front of a mirror, looks into it, folds his hand (in namaskaaram fashion) and starts singing:

okkade mahaanubhaavudu, aa okkadiki vandanamulu...

Pesoonamba rushes into the frame and starts yelling:

mashtaaru,veedu, paatanu khooni chestunnaadu

budugu looks at Peesunamba, obligingly and corrects his song, this time turned toward her:

iddare mahaanubhavulu,aa iddarikee vandanamulu...

Ceegana Peesunamba is pleased!


Meeru velli povachchu sir....mee sahityam mimmalni eppudu maa mungitlone unchutundi...

Badha tapta hrudayamtoh - Mee,
Tanuj

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Culture Change...naaah...what a joke...!!!

I have joined Hexaware as a Software Engineer back in 2006. The core values of the company being customer satisfaction by adding value, honouring commitments and instilling entrepreneurial attitude in the employees which is more or less a market type culture that can be seen at every corner of IT Services Company in India. But there was a little team inside the organization which is more aggressive and a type of Adhocracy behaviour, an R&D division known as Innovation Labs. Although we mainly focus on experiential learning and contingency oriented approach, organization’s level of interventions will be more as they are more inclined towards business processes rather than culture change which became a fooling around idea. Though we tried to behave more agile, we came to know company tried to understand the underlying value but not willing to change so we were forced to meet more market oriented and process driven approach where clients were driven ahead of employees. This type of behaviour will exert a sense of ownership and will make every employee more process oriented rather than an out of box thinker.

The three specific ‘dynamics’ of the organization culture that have the most influence on those organisational members’ behaviour are the enacted values, Sense-making device and Adhocracy type behaviours. Using enacted values the organization can strive for supportive and collegial kind of work environment with the employees which will enhance the value addition to the company. These approaches will be driven by managerial kind of teamwork and support. The paradigm shift has to happen with in the company by enacting the employee behaviour. According to McGregor’s Theory Y, management strive to make employees more ambitious and self-motivated and exercise self-control. So, by shaping the behaviour of employees by making the sense of their surroundings i.e., by making them understand why and what the organization does, employees becomes more visionary and will indulge them in a sense of ownership. Finally, instilling innovation in a company’s DNA is always a prized catch. It requires an unwavering, wholehearted leap of faith—backed by a major investment, not only of money, but of people, processes, and infrastructure. It also requires audacious goals, evangelism, consistency, education, training, diversity, expert tools, expert processes, and an environment conducive to creating sustainable innovation results that are aligned with financial outcomes. The world's most innovative companies are authentic in word and deed. And it all starts at the top.

The Google's leadership team's faith in their innovation initiative is real—individually and collectively. And because they believe, they evangelize. You have to believe—as they do—that this new way of doing business will lead to success. You have to believe—as Wall Street does—that innovation is essential, not just important. (The difference is simple: The important, you put on a to-do list; the essential goes on a to-die-for list.) IBM tried and still trying to instill the so called out of box culture which is a more adhocratic one. IBM can't be google, Google can never become IBM...

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Chance pe Dance!!!

After finished watching an awe inspiring Invictus, I never thought of writing a review nor even thought of posting a comment on any aspect of the movie. I am not even a legitimate source of reviewing legends like Morgan Freeman or Clint Eastwood or anyone who is related to the movie. The movie is an excellent depiction of Nelson Mandela ...AGREED... What I am trying to do here is to just trying to post my thoughts based on my friend's comment at the end of the movie. We both are business students and infact we were enjoying the movie in our own ways, but still I couldn't formulate the concept in the way he did at the end. Infact I was just enjoying the after effects of the movie the tastes and the heights of inspiration. The comment was..."A legend lived, his story ofcourse inspired. How good it is to formulate a book in the most inspiring way and how great it is to select this particular episode of his entire life to make a movie and make millions of business out of it." Definitely true. The movies right from the days of Ben Hur to Slumdog Millionaire were inspired on small episodes or small factors of human life but they all had one thing in common. That is human spirit and compassion. Aamir Khan said in an interview that he will do any kind of movie which will lift the human spirit. It's not like people will become Gandhis or Ghodses after watching movies, but its entirely other side my issue here. He just picked the ROI value of these human values, the spirits and compassions.
They caught the right ideas and implemented in right ways in right times to finish in profits. As a business student looking through that way is always advisable and profitable. I dont know how much this financial handling of creative inputs work, but true the Chance pe Dance works everywhere. No matter what and where it is. I was going through an article the other day about a normal Taxi driver becoming an Internet Enterpreneur. Here's the link
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Auto_driver_turns_web_entrepreneur-nid-65220.html
I dont want to give anything how ideation works or how people come up with some sparkling ideas. There are tons of books for it and more number of courses to study and specialize. But do the process enhance up on bookish knowledge? I want to revamp my Head's words once stating an example of John Nash getting an idea of game theory in a party and he told me that ideas sprang up after so much of efforts put forth in the past failures...definitely true...Patience is definitely one virtue of an intelligent ideation process. Reaping benefits in a second or an hour is definitely impossible...So all the John Nash's or Clint Eastwoods are not a day wonders...no matter what the back ground is...

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Disaster! Destruction! Roland Emmerich!

What's in the destruction of colossal structures that is awe-inspiring (awe is probably the wrong word here, but still...), leaving people agape looking at behemoths bite the dust? The sight of massive constructions, like the ones on the famous Strip in Las Vegas, razed down to the ground by controlled demolition experts setting off sequential explosive charges, and being watched on by hordes of cheering onlookers, makes a good case study for the psychoanalysts.2012...I suppose this movie could provide some amusement as an accompaniment to a slow evening where a drinking game is involved. Beyond that, the only thing this movie gives me cause to fear is the very real possibility of death by boredom.As long as world destruction is all just pure popcorn fun, here are top 10 ways of surviving in a Roland Emmerich's disaster movie

10. The lightning rule - never stand too close, or in fact, never stay in the vicinity of tall structures. Aliens, Godzillas and even natural disasters, like terrorists, have serious identity crises. They cry for attention attacking tall buildings, in the delusion/hope of making a serious statement. So, avoid tall structures, for the safety and the well-being of the character

9. The obscurity rule - never live in famous cities that has many landmarks. Chances of survival in obscure cities, like Wichita, Kansas, Rampachodavaram, Andhra Pradesh, India, are much more in an Emmerich movie, compared to a New York, LA, Tokyo (in exactly that order) etc.

8. The hyphenate rule - Be a somebody, who can do a lot many things, like writer-driver-computer technician-swimmer-part time pilot etc, as these skills would certainly come in handy in diverse difficult situations that the script..er..computer throw along the way. A one trick pony is destined to die.

7. The divorce/separated rule - Never be a third wheel in a 'blow hot - blow cold' relationship. That would greatly diminish the chances of the survival. Remaining in a divorce/separated situation is an ideal case that would keep the couple alive in question alive till the end of the movie, for the 'awwww.....' inducing heart-warming kiss and hug makeup in the climax.

6. The age factor - Hollywood, as a general principle, never kills off kids in disaster movies, as that would seriously hurt the box-office demographics. And for the rest of the folk, age acts like a half life, with exponential deterioration. The older a character is, the quicker he is going to die.

5. The pet factor - Animals are treated much more humanely than humans, as PETA watches Hollywood with a hawk-eye. So better off being a quadra-ped than a bi-ped.

4. The affirmative action exception - Exceptional minority candidates always make it till the end of the movie. Mediocre majority candidates MAY make it, but it is a given that mediocre minorities become the first casualties of invading aliens, stomping Godzillas or oncoming deluges.

3. The Blonde Identity - Blondes may have all the fun in real life, but not so in disaster movies, and the peril factor proportionally increases with their beauty. So the choice is quite clear, to dye or die!

2. The Uncle Sam rule - the benefits are great, they say, working for the Fedeal government, and that includes, quick quarantines, immediate evacuation in Air Force One/ Marine One / or any other motor vehicle bearing the suffix 'One', and round the clock military protection. So what if the take home pay is a little low!

1. The top billing rule - the one that trumps all the above. Receive top billing for the movie, and the character gets to see the end credits.

There is a definite 'David' trait (of David-Goliath fame) in every human being that rejoices when the mighty (men or structures) are brought down to their knees; their constant sense of insecurity, particularly in the face of the unbeatable/insurmountable, that gets soothed watching the mighty humbled. There could be no other logical reasons than the above for people 'enjoying' destructions, which reminds of the famous dialogue from the yester-years classic, 'Mayabazar' - "peLLi chaeyamanTae chaeta kaadu gaani...paaDu chaeyamanTaenaa....".

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Clever! Talented! Genius

The dictionary meaning of the word Genius goes like “exceptional intellectual or creative power or other natural ability or tendency” or “person or spirit influencing a person for good or evil”. What makes us different from them? Are we way behind them or its just a mean complacence which makes us mere audience to their audacious acts which are no lesser than mere immortal activities. Where do we find them? Is the act which they perform makes them special or are they born wizards? The fact is it’s the timing which they accomplish their acts into place makes them special. It’s not only the astute intelligence or larger than life performances which make them wow. It’s the sense of commitment or the dedication towards the act they perform, that makes the difference. Albert Einstein failed in his school math test. Beethoven was rejected at his musical auditions. Ramanujan was laughed on his face. Sachin was sent back from Dennis Lillie’s Cricket academy. In one way or other they never doubted themselves or their abilities. They doubted luck, timing or the situations and fought back.

I still remember the Jingle played by Key board player Dileep Kumar who went on to become A.R.Rehman. I still wonder against the act of Sachin’s audacious timing to pluck the ball off the air and sent over the fielder as if he is having all the time in the world to do it. Remember the Larger than life act of Maradona in the world cup dribbling past English players or John Nash’s cracking the code of Russians. I always wonder how these people do these stuff as if it’s a piece of cake to cut past. When I was reading the book “Three mistakes of my life” by Chetan Bhagat there was a character who hits the ball nothing less than a six. The writers justification is that the brain cells of the person work so fast that he can visualize the pace of ball slowly and so he can act faster than rest of us. I don’t know about the influence of action potentials or nerve impulses on the talent or believe it though. One of my friend talked about a theory stating that if a person concentrate on a single thing for 10000 or more hours in his lifetime then he will master that. Yeah definitely true. We don’t need a theory to prove it. All the people above are mortal examples. They practiced, committed to the act as their life’s up on it.

All of us are geniuses within. Its just the factors like Negative mind programming, Focusing too much on short-term, rather than long-term memory or Different learning modalities which makes us different from their genre. Reading books like “You can Win” wont help us. It’s the fire that has to start with in. After all this, one question still haunt my mind

“HOW TO BECOME A GENIUS?”