Social Stigma

Few of the life changing experiences usually are book reading, interaction with people and speeches. I came across one such speech on TED.com about the perception of success and failure. It was really fascinating to listen to it though it was a subjective perspective. As In, it was driven by what the host has seen so far in experiences with people.

Few of the phrases were catchy, such as "we are highly open to suggestions", "we are interested in the emotional rewards rather than material goods itself", "using a piece of information about a person and trying to estimate the actualy value of".

Like I said, this is one perspective the host had, and not that everyone does that for the mentioned reasons. But It was a well given speech, the format, the connecting points and the conclusion. He spoke of equality in modern society and a week later I read an article in rediff.com that listed India as one of the worst nations in terms of gender equality. In rural areas females are still ill treated, not shown the respect and lacking self esteem.

I was watching some documentary, that led to writing of this post. Not that I was not aware of these things, as I used to watch some programs in TV9, that used to expose all sorts of news. Disagreement of choice and motives could be a human instinct that could lead to a verbal expression of unhappiness. Leaving aside the gender, there could be any form of expression between individuals. But the sad thing is, there are still areas where women get beaten up.

Development is all about raising the bar. The situation in western countries or developed nations is good because self governance had come into existance about 200 years ago. India is under self governance only since 60 years. It will take time to reach such stage only with the education of a girl child. Be it the population, be it any other social evil in the context of rural India.

Road Ahead

The other day I saw a video of pranay misthri at ted.com. It just blew me off. I saw something similar in these lines when Microsoft discussed surface technology. Information about information, meta information. As always, I am not taking for or against stands, but generating an insight for the consquences on both sides. When there are soft wares that can predict customer buying patterns, softwares that suggest what you can do, softwares on browser that suggest singles in your area using information got from your laptop ip address, softwares such as twitter that give near real time updates, where do you think exists the thin line between privacy and so called meta information. An article that substantiates my thoughts was in business week where in the emphasis was on sharing user information by facebook with third parties. Of course there was a voluntary disclosure by the user, but are they really aware of it, noting all the above have become a hit with millions of users. Now the main question, all these babies of invention, are they helping people who really look for such information or is it paving a way that everyone "will" or "have to follow".

Coming to sprint layoffs, I have been working on developing automated business processes. I personally know guys who used to use my tool and work earlier with certain range of qualification and skills. Its not about sympathizing but expecting one to be on steep learning curve, at all stages of life, be it in college, happily married or settled. Struggle for existance has been an undeniable atomic concept, but how they prepare for it is what matters, and how often they have to be on it. Essentially getting a feeling that learning curve need not be steepest in college. Converging towards automation, with technologies such as cloud computing coming up firms can use pay per use services, that may lead to much more work force reduction on the user side, but may create opportunites who develop and suppot these.

The above paragraphs are unrelated yet have pointers to dynamics of technology.My opinion is not against technology, I dont say wheel shouldn't have been invented to make our travel simpler.Its is an argument within, wondering the downside consquences as well, as technology in earlier era and now are not the same, lets say in terms of consquences.

I enjoyed writing this post, sitting outside the apartment, enjoying the perfect pleasant weather of spring relishing the coffee. Only few days in a year you can see pleasant weather throughout a day, wanting to play volley ball or cricket. Summer evenings are also good, but my definition of pleasant is user defined :P

Interesting news today relevant to the above where one's loss is another's gain ... (4-13-09,Businessweek)
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2009/tc20090410_637212.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_top+story


"Wireless Carriers: Your New PC Retailer?
Move over, Best Buy. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and other mobile-phone providers are moving swiftly into the business of selling computers "

"The emergence of carriers as computer distributors could spell changes, good and bad, for PC suppliers. On one hand, consumers who may not have bought a $500 PC may be tempted by a $50 one. "It's about getting the next billion people online"

It was not destiny

If Slum dog millionaire won an oscar,


1. Director was lucky
2. Movie was a masterpiece
3. There was no competition
4. It was destiny


An aptly titled movie that is an eyecatcher for sure. The movie, based on a novel is well written fiction that is enjoyable. It revolves around a questionare being answered through clues from many incidents in life of a slum (dog). Its natural to get surprised when a slum (dog) becomes a millionare, where it could have been any common man, lets say who is not a millionare nor a slum (dog). With a neutral perspective, the concept is very new for a kudos, but it was destined to reach the list, considering the tremendous hype it has got.

Pondering about selling points with a different perspective it took me not long enough to realise that few of the incidents in the movie show India in very bad light. Slums, dogs and small incidents when people resort to anything for minor gains. These scenes were deliberately induced making insignificant to the story line. I some how feel there was a conscious effort to put all the ingredients to catch the attention of audience in west and hype it up using a solid script backing. Its not exactly knowing the pulse, but something like knowing what material would be appreciated. Commonman Millionaire would have been definitely different. I am not criticising, but

Slum(dog) made the difference.
It was not destiny.

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My friend Damu's comments, that I found superb, apt summary:
- " basically westerners ni indian gareebi and problems chupinchi .. shock chesi .. sympathy kottesi .. brownie points kottesaru ani chepthunnadu raa ..it was kind of duping the western audience "