On the road (of life)

Nursery days - A basket with a book, pencil box & the snack box. Mom holding it in one hand and holding me in the other. Pulling me along. I was probably wondering "Why should amma pull me? why cant amma let me practice ABCD as I try to read the shop names". 15 mins walk.

School days - Carry heavy books in a bag. Hanging on 2 shoulders like rug sack bag. Walk till bus stop, while kicking the stones on the road. Sit in the bus(I was boarding at the starting point). The seat before the back door was preferred. 2 reasons for this. One, Learn the foot board lessons quickly. Two, help the footboarders by keeping their bags. 40 mins bus.

Pre-University days - Bag in the bicycle carrier. Style in heart. Bicycle with the friends group. Occasional impromtu races added to the thrill. 1hr of cycling with breaks at friends homes.

Graduate days - 2 to 4 books in one hand and a couple of slices of bread (breakfast) in the other. a pen in pocket. Run to the class in the morning. Walk back to hostel leisurely when the class is over. Rarely doubles in cycle. Then either you are holding 8 books or you are pedaling. 5 to 10 mins walk\run.

Early Working days - ID card in pocket. Helmet on head. Zoom. 15 mins drive to office.

Working days continued - 4+ kg bag - with laptop and some junk on the shoulders. A book in the arm. Early morning jog\walk to the bus-stop. Bak Bak when in mood. Or play cards. Or read books. 2 hours of travel.

Nostalgic Feelings -

• Nobody would ever hold my hand and pull me through.
• Miss the foot board adventures (as a friend puts it - There was a brotherhood among foot-board travelers).
• The most enjoyable travel was during PU days. Cycling in the roads of old Bangalore...How I miss it.
• Miss the gossip and breakfast on the run during graduate days.
• Miss the speed to reach office during my early working days.
• Now enjoy the chatting and playing during the travel.

When this stops...Something more interesting would come in the road of life...
     

I should not blog on Sachin

Still I blog on this person. An enigma. Called Sachin Tendulkar.

Back to the title - I should not blog on Sachin - Why?

Is there anything new that I can write about Sachin?
No.

There are tons and tons of articles floating in the net, print media, wired media, wireless. Probably someone in outer space would have also heard about yesterday's record of Sachin. There are articles of his wife, children, teacher, friends, neighbors, fans, enemies, critics, sponsors, statistics…oh spare somebody. Or spare something. There is also no secret of Sachin which is not published…Yes even his secrets are public, and we still call it secret.
I wonder what he would write in his autobiography (I think he will defineitely write it). Can Sachin score it big with his book? Yes. Without doubt. The fans and the critics would be hungry to read if he writes something new and fishy which they don't know.

But But But...I can still share a something about Sachin. This dialogue happened between me and my friend some months ago. And I doubt if he has shared this with others…So brand new news coming up in the lines below.
I once told my friend "Sachin is a great batsman". He said "No". "Sachin is the greatest batsman" he said. Ok. The conversation continued. Then I told "Sachin is the greatest batsman". He again said "No". "Sachin is the greatest cricketer". Ah!

This is a testimony to his great career. Great records. Great fan following.

Thanks Sachin for entertaining us so long!
(if I sound as if its an farewell speech…Sorry…Sachin is here to stay…Not go.)
    

Silver jubilee - Wishes

Silver jubilee is over. No wishes. No celebration. No party. No self congratulatory messages. I did not even notice it. Sad!

Its already 27th this year. Oh! How could I miss this? Sorry my dear.

The 25th was Business. The 26th was emotional. The 27th is the wishes. You know its better late than never.

Belated "Happy Silver jubilee". Congrats to "Lost in Thoughts" on the momentous feat of already having 27 blogs this year. Hope that we celebrate golden, platinum and whatever jubilees.
   

Dedication to the spirit

     
ಮರದ ಹಣ್ಣೊಂದು ಕೊಳೆತರೆ ಮರ ಸಾಯುವುದೆ ಮಂಜುನಾಥ |
ಮರದ ಬೇರ‍ೇಹೊದರೆ ಮರವಿನಿಲ್ಲ ಮಂಜುನಾಥ ||
ಮನುಜನ ಅಂಗವೊಂದು ಹೊದರೆ ಮನುಜ ಸಾಯುವನೆ ಮಂಜುನಾಥ |
ಮನುಜನ ಹ್ರುದಯ ಹೊದರೆ ಅವ ಹೆಣವಾದಂತೆ ಮಂಜುನಾಥ ||

Translation - 
(If a fruit of a tree rots, will the tree die Lord Manjunatha |
If the root of the tree goes, there is no more a tree Lord Manjunatha ||
If a organ of a human dies, will the human die Lord Manjunatha |
If the heart of a human goes, the human is a corpse Lord Manjunatha ||)

Background -
Over the weekend, I realized that a relative of mine lost a kidney. One of her kidneys had to be removed (for reasons best known to doctors). The family members are all very sad (rightly so). But she (the patient) was very courageous and showed great "HEART" in trying to calm down the emotions of her visitors. A kidney cannot kill the spirit. The spirit is in the HEART.

This blog is a dedication to her "Never say die" attitude. She may never read it.
 

Astrology Business - Part 1

Do you know whats the value of the "Astrology" business in India? Don’t expect an answer. I don’t know. I think, its not even considered for accounting. Or cant be accounted. Or the best question - Why should it be accounted? (This gives me a special kick…Asking questions which do not have quick answers.)

Knowing the people around me & watching some of the TV shows (especially the early morning ones), I feel there is a big market for astrology. Astrology, according to me can be as powerful as the media business. And if the 2 combine well, it’s a killer.

I am looking for partners to invest in this business.

Astrology Business Ethics -
First have belief in Astrology. You know Astrology is a business of "Trust" (not that other businesses are distrustful…you know what I mean, Right?).

Business strategy -
Hire some "so called" astrolgers and some "so called" good software techies (I need a few software apps). Actually no need of testers. The astrolgers are grouped into categories - General, Sports, Politics, weather and economy. Oh! And Terrorism. Sub categories could be state politics, cricket, earthquake, Iraq, Usa, Pakistan……Those are implementation specifics..Lets first strategise.

The group of astrolgers associated with a category will predict the future of the anything in that category. Some CLEAR examples -

1. Sports - Tiger WILL reveal his secret affair with a famous Bollywood actress if he comes to India without black eyes.
2. Politics - Abhishek Bachchan's 1st child WILL join SP when Amar Singh becomes PM.
3. Weather - The next big earthquake of the world WILL kill 100+ people.
4. Economy - Reliance WILL buy Tata group if Tata sells everything (to others) but Tea business.
5. Terrorism - Indian Mujahiddin leader, Mehsud Khurram Khan WILL stay in a hut in the Afghan border of Pak till daybreak tomorrow.

Look at the conviction. WILL in bold. That WILL build Trust.

Publicity -
Yes. Yes. Yes. Its automatic.
These are breaking news in every Indian channel. Don’t you think so?

And there would be TV debates over this. And there would be blogs. And the housewives will converse with the neighboring housewives. And cab discussions will ridicule this. And people will tweet this. And And And…Oh so many things can happen. Already counting rupees in crores. Just the sports prediction can fetch millions of speculations and rupees.

Now that you need time to count the dollars in your account & my wife is laughing and calling me to watch the latest Breaking news - "Replica of Micheal Jackson's stolen underwear WILL be sold in Bangalore's city market". I leave you.

Become a partner!
Bye partners! Sleep well & Dream well!

More in part 2.

When the pores open up

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
16.02.2010.
Night - sometime after I sleep. I did not check the time on my mobile.

I wake up suddenly (which doesn't happen often). Felt my forehead. Its wet. Same feeling as I caressed by neck. Bloody Sweaty. Am I sick? Confirmed No. Walked to the window to check if there is something called "WIND" to cool me. Leaves of the plants were sleeping without swaying. Wonder why they call window WINDow! Grrr!!!  Drank some water. Back to bed. Sleep.

The act repeats some hrs (lets put it some time) later. Perhaps it was already 17.02.2010. I did not bother to go to the window. This time more pores of the body had vomited out the salty fluid. Sweat. Arms, stomach all wet. More water went in to feed the hungry body pores. Glass empty. Body lazy to walk to kitchen to fetch more H2O. Sleep.

It happened again. The pores of my skin had done it again. Woke me in sweat. Frustratingly checked the time. 2:53am. Cant the clock run faster? Grrr!!! again. Went to the kitchen. Noisily drank and fetched water(for the next refilling). Realized that the artificial source of WIND was off. Fan. How couldn't I think of it earlier? Switched it on. Sleep.

Trinn...Trinn...(whatever sound). Its 5:20am. 10 more mins(grace period) of sleep warned the mobile. Grrr!!! yet again.

And ended a bad night...began an interesting day.

This winter was short and not cold.
Wonder what would it be at peak summer months! Power cuts. Mosquitoes. Heat. The pores. Grrr!! Where is my sleep?

Welcome Indian summer!
 

Why India lags in Innovation?

One agrees to it or not, we Indians lag in innovation when compared to nations like Germany, Japan, USA and France. Even if we disagree on this front, everybody have to agree that India has become an outsourcing destination not an innovation destination. Who is to be blamed (if at all there should be a blame) for this? Surprisingly, its the superiority and the inferiority complex of Indians that combine to pull India behind.

Inferiority complex
We love foreign. No harm. Harm is caused when we love foreign to the extent that we hate ourselves. Top companies think that we have to import goods and technology to make good products. There was a major project to reach outer space undertaken by a Indian research agency. When they were planning for this project, the first thought that came to the planners was - import the technology to manage the communication between earth and outer space. The consideration to use other research agencies within India was not done. Finally many parts of the mission came from abroad. But as a proof point to innovativeness, the organization set up an amazing hi-tech antenna developed and designed entirely in India.

How many times we talk about a local product cheaply? There is the foreign brand, the Chinese brand and then there is "the local maal sir". And in that priority. Locals are the most inferior. When we ourselves do not respect the local product, why would somebody invest into innovation of the same?

Superiority complex
Lets travel to a country where the innovation levels are better than that of India. Lets see their work culture and compare it with ours. Just to make it explicit - its an IT industry example.

A guy who is interested in coding continues to code for 20 yrs. He puts in all his effort into mastering the product and improving the product. Over a period of time the product is no longer a product, but is a passion. And passion drives excellence and innovation.
Lets come back to India. 10 yrs of experience, we see that the role of the person is to manage people...no technlogy. We take pride in telling that a person became a manager at 28 yrs. He or she automatically feels that they are superior over the others. Coding is considered inferior. This is a disease and spreads fast. The developers want to become managers and coding is considered a fresher job.

Now where is the innovation - It has to be from a customer requirement or from the developer coding the prj...Not the middle management. If the developers aim is to get up the ladder and become superior does he or she think of innovation?
(I wonder if today's brand of young managers can really do the management job for the next 20+yrs of their career. Wont it be boring?)

Indian manufacturing industries are slightly better in innovation. Because the guys there have put in years of service on the products they are building. The superiority complex of a manager is lesser there. During my college project at HAL, I have seen senior managers sitting on the lathe machine assisting the workers. A good lathe guy or a cutting specialist is recognised for his talent and is not looked down upon (paywise he gets less, but jobwise he commands respect). He continues to become an expert in that. The work is his passion and so he innovates using the lathe. This is at a grass-root level.

If one argues that Indians are less intelligent and hence less innovative, my one and only suggestion to them is -- come, stay, work in India. Understand Indian minds & society. Then you know how intelligent we Indians are.

Do we need to change? Changing minds can't be drastic.

Why do people "Love to beat me"?

Before you proceed, let me make 2 things clear. One, I am not answering this question. Two, this is nothing to do with Valentine's day though there is Love in the title.

There have been several instances in my personal circle and in my official circle when I find people immensely happy when I loose to them (in other words, they love to beat me). This could be a card game in the cab or official discussion or a casual discussion with whomsoever or if its something to do with family matters or nothing. The instances show that this is a feeling is not with one or 2 individuals but with different set of people, with varied backgrounds and varied knowledge about me as an individual. Some guys know "how dumb I am" (i don’t want to say "how intelligent I am". I want to be modest :-) Both are relative terms.). Some have seen only my jovial side of life. Some only my serious side. And they have not met each other even in this facebooked and orkuted world.

Still they share a common trait - "Feel happy when Manjunath is beaten by them".

Here are some examples -

• Person prefers to finish "last-but-one" in the card game, but plays all tricks to place me on the bottom of the winners list. If its not clear - winning is not the motto. Beating me is.
• Football betting - Same here, the person wants to beat me even if he doesn’t win.
• If you think cricket is a level playing field. You are wrong. There are guys who want to smash my bowling in particular (more often I oblige :-), not because I am a bad bowler, but to see them happy). But here in cricket, I am not singled out to beat...There are several of my friends who have a special (dis)liking to a special person (cricketwise only...not otherwise).
• Guy wants to prove my notion of any official work wrong. He is silent in the meeting until I open my mouth. And once that happens, in no time there are comments and counter-comments. The best part - our work is rather like those geometrical lines which never meet, nor go in same direction. Still proving me wrong is the biggest nasha\kick.

(I can see smiling faces reading this blog and know whom I am referring to, May be they are wrong!).

You think its common among enemies. But I don’t think these guys are my enemies. I can for sure tell that some of these "LoveToBeatManjunath" guys are my good friends (so far). Pretty sure that enemity is not the reason.
Monetary benefits - NOOO! The football betting or the card games are just fun time pass events. There is no money involved. Sometimes there is not even a juice involved.
Official growth - Again NOOO! And no further comments!
Is it that they have a similar fighting instinct on others - NOOO! In fact sometimes people gang up (birds of same feather ....) to beat me.

Then what?

PS -

• I have found that people who "LoveToBeatManjunath" have not harmed me. There has never been a physical assault on me. Never have I been verbally abused by these friends. And the big hope is that it stays this way.
• I do not know, if it is my arrogant personality (read both words separately) that makes them "LoveToBeatManjunath" guys. And I do not know - if I will change by knowing the reason. I may, if the reason is valid and the change is worthy.

As a tribute to St Valentine - Ending on a love note -
I love the way I am and I love to change..

And keep up the spirit of "LoveToBeatManjunath"!

If you know me well - you also know I am not serious about this.
 

Mind games - Change in Me

Got up in the morning today. Suddenly felt that something about me is going to change in near future. I have absolutely no signs of any change. Get a weird feeling that it could be my job. Could it be further studies? NOOOO! Don't know whyI am really thinking of this...

Yes, there's a reason. Recently a friend of mine showed me, how my sixth sense predicted something good that happened to another friend of mine. For reasons best known to me, I can't elaborate this again.
So my sixth sense is giving me a creepy feeling!

Is it a good change or a bad change? Let me face the inevitable and .."Aal iz well" (for now at-least).

Hey! As I write this, Realized again that I do not know when to put a comma(,) in a sentence. Makes the blog a hard read? English written communication needs to improve. Is that the change?

Just realized that the previous blog could have been named "Pati, Patni Aur Woh". 
Again, don't ask for elaboration. SAP employees probably can guess why.

Why 2 CEOs or why not?

Since the time when SAP announced that it will have 2 CEOs at the helm, there have been multiple comments speaking about the concept. Not all that has been spoken negatively is wrong. At the same time not all that is spoken positively on the topic is true. I also gave it a thought on this topic. Probably my thoughts are tangential to the business topic here. But, I feel there should be some logic of 2. Explain "why everything in the world around us are in twos?" And probably this can provide answers to the title of blog...

• We are born by the accident of 2 things…sperm and egg. (never heard of any use of one without the other)
• We all have 2 parents (and they have 2 parents too and so on)
• The govt of India, recommends 2 kids per couple…(ಆರತಿಗೆ ಒಬ್ಬಳು, ಕೀರ್ತಿಗೆ ಒಬ್ಬ …roughly translates to - a girl for household and a boy for glory...this could make the feminists flare up)
• We have 2 ways on the road, probably because of evolution from accidents.
• We generally have 2 ways into and out of a building…(remember the fire-exit of your office…if your office doesn't have one, quit today and look out for another job. Remember - Life (without burns) is precious).
• Of-course normally we have 2 hands(to type such crap), 2 legs, 2 eyes, 2 ears etc etc. 

Wait - If we are not in 2, then we are many…fingers (and hence the nails), hair, teeth, numbers, alphabets, languages (spoken and computer ones..isn't it sic!), mental states..blah blah (see this generally comes in 2)

But…Hold on, I am not done yet!
If you agree all - this blog is comprehended and controlled by just ONE (yes, not TWO) thing…The BRAIN. But the brain has 3 parts (don’t even try to doubt me on this Biology aspect. Blame Google if its wrong.).

This now explains everything. CEO's are the brains of the company. They comprehend ideas and control things. And Brain is really complex. Don’t think that SAP has 2 BRAINS. We have 3 parts of ONE BRAIN identified clearly. The world knows the names of 2 parts. All SAP stakeholders, analysts and employees know the 3rd part.

So everything falls in place now.

Q.E.D. (Quite Easily Done)

Disclaimer : This blog(not the blogger) is totally crazy. i.e. Reader cannot judge the writer's (in)saneness in this blog. Multiple reads are strongly recommended to find sense in this blog. Failure to make sense is clearly your personal failure.
    

First reactions

Got some replies to an early morning SMS sent by me from cab, about the breaking news I heard from a friend…
Wanted to share here…(not sure if it's legal to do it, but no names here).
Different words - Same emotions…Or is it ? Just observe the power of "What".

• What? Seriously na?
• What?!
• That’s really surprising..not a good news..
• Cant believe this
• What!
• Hmmm…Interesting!!! Something fishy.
• Oh why? after a good result. Hmm..
• Oh my God…
• Big news
• What? Is it ter in papers
• S*** man, sinking ship unless miracle happens.
• :-o
• What…Thought will happen by end of this year
• Nim ajji…ketta biscuit hakidya?

  
It's anybody's guess on what the news was!
  

Insects on leaves

I have a small roof top garden. This was after we had to destry our existing small garden on the ground floor for my car parking. I had published photos of my garden flowers before it paved way for my car. My previous blog showed the pics of my beautiful "Cobra plant" at home.

A camera in hand. In the garden. Sunny day.Green is ofcourse the color. But what if you find some dark, colourful spots on the greens. Shoot it...Then share it.

Now just pictures and no words....View the nature's insect designs on green leaves.

View all

Get your own

PS - To get the best view - View album in picasa - in full screen mode .

"Spotted Cobra" plant

Found a leaf of the not-so-beautiful plant on the roadside. Got it home - just because it looked different. Then realised that the end of the leaf is a plant. Carelessly threw it into a pot which already had plants. This was around 4 months ago.
Abracadabra - Today it blooms….Yes, it’s a good feeling.

Sadly, looks like the flower saps out all the energy of the plant and the plant may just die. Leaves are drying out. But the siblings of the flowering plant will stay in my pot. Happy and Blooming :-)

Picture(s) is(are) worth a thousand words!

View all

Get your own

But only words can explain what the picture shows! So here are the words...

What kind of plant is this?

•     Leaves hold the children and the future plant...Just take a leaf and show it the soil, and it grows into a new Cobra plant.
•     Leaves are the branches
•     Spotted but smooth skin
•     Shape of leaf resembles an elongated coffee seed (a central groove with no sharp edges)

As I know nothing about the colocial or the botanical name of this, I call it "Spotted Cobra plant".

Now explaining the name - Terms - Spotted and plant are obvious, but why cobra and not zebra nor cheetah?
The end of the leaf looks like the hood of a cobra :-)

PS - Watch the top view photo in full screen view to look at the amazing symmetry of the plant.

Failed Prj Manager @ home

This is what the renovation workers told us at home. Rather they did not "tell" me this, but "meant" it. I know both the statements do not mean anything unless explained.

We are having some renovation work going on at my home. This is the project. Now the details.

Requirements
The bathroom is being fitted with geyser (replacing the erstwhile water boiler). along with the geyser comes the shower set. The bathroom is also enhanced with a sink and wall tiles. We also replaced the kitchen's cement(red oxide) flooring with vitrified tiles (the anti skid types). The kitchen shelves will have to go under wraps ie we will cover the portions below the slab\platform by wooden doors. We need to have the housing floor tiles polished and the entire ground floor painted.

Timelines
Now that you have a fair assessment of the work...Take a guess on the estimated time to complete these tasks.
The contractor gave an estimate of 1 month. We are already 1 month into the work and we are just 50% done. Why the delay and what can be done?

Constraints
The contractor is just an interface for sourcing the workers.
Rolewise, contractor is similar to HR dept. Team managers provide requirements of personal with the job description to HR. HR talk to the candidates through headhunters and provide offer letters. Team pays the candidates from their cost centers. If you are wondering why the team  does not partcipate in the selection process, I have an answer - The team(including manager) has no bloody knowledge\experience in this field. Right from kind of tiles to sinks to cement to whatever, it has to depend on opinions of others (including the most jumbled\confusing source of truth - INTERNET). If you think Managers are all powerful, then you have no damn idea about the power of HR (no pun here haha).

Analysis
Looking into the work description, its clear that we need mason (to break the existing floor and wall plastering), electrician (for the geyser point), plumber (for the water points of sink and geyser), carpenter (for the wooden covering in kitchen) and the tile laying person. Pretty much everybody involved in a full fledged
house construction. This is the root cause for the delay.

To assemble everybody in a synchronous fashion is the biggest challenge. Why synchronous? Because the contractor told so. The painter can start his scrubing of walls in the bedrooms when carpenter is fitting the doors in kitchen and plumber is fitting sink in bathroom. But, "no" we have only one worker at a any point in time. So came the HR order. "Amen! Amen!" the confused Manager said.

The mason starts work, does it for a day and doesn't turn up the next day. "Sick leave boss". Hmm! There is no backup or replacement. He just can't be fired because its not humane (another of HR order). "Amen Amen". And its not just the mason who falls sick, its the plumber, the tile man, the carpenter everybody....Hale and healthy on day one and sick on say 2. So the team (including Manager) has only one thing to do. Wait, for the next working day!




Conclusion
And thus we are at 50% work done in 100% time. Hope to complete the prj in 200% time. But its only Hope! Remember that the last laugh is with HR.
Any project has 2 aspects - Quality and Budget. Clearly time budget management has been a failure. Quality seems to be good.
So I consider this as bad Prj Mgmt. Especially when the Prj team was the end customer!!

PS - Purposefully the monetary budget is hidden from you!

"Labour Union" and "Right To Information"(RTI)

This could be one of those blogs which try to link 2 un-linked topics.

Traditionally the "Labour unions" are formed in labour intensive industries to fight for the rights of the labourers. It was(is) believed that the management generally are profit oriented and disregard the concerns of its employees. So the employees ganged up to form a forumn called "union". What started from a finance point of view grew into wider topics - like work envoirnment, health care of labourers, education of labourers children etc. The union would be the interface between the mgmt and the labourers. Union was the mouth of the labourers heart. It got rights to check into the balance sheet of the company and got a pie of the profits into labour welfare schemes. Unions also ensured (by timely discussions and untimely strikes) that the labour laws are adhered to by the company. It's seen as a socialistic model to have unions.

To cut a long story short - Unions created transparency in the mgmt processes and ensured that the policies benefits the labourers. (In someways you could say that its democracy at work).
(Personally I may hate unions, but I indirectly owe a lot to unions of my dad's workplace. Without unions probably my dad would'nt get good salary and hence provide me a good education!)

RTI is a law in India that came into existance in the year 2005. I am sure that many do not appreciate the powerfulness of RTI. I have been part of one of the RTI applications, and I can very well say that it is a good tool. If you want to know what is coming up in a govt owned plot in your locality - approach the local corporation and submit an RTI application. You will get a written answer within a fixed span of time. Govt authorities are entitled to provide a reply to each RTI application. The example given is about the plot right in front of my house. Different political leaders gave different verbal promises on the purpose of this plot based on who asked the question. To get the right answer, RTI is the way to go. Now no politician can bluff his way ahead. The various tenders of Govt right from the Nehruvian era can be questioned now to get facts out. Looking at the big picture, it aims to bring in transparency on the functioning of the govt and hopefully reduce corruption. After the Sant Chatwal conterversy, Vir Sanghvi posted his RTI application about the Padma awards selection criteria. On this aspect, the Govt would be careful to have a clear process in place from atleast next year onwards. Isnt this transparency?

Do you see a link now? Transparency!!

Ofcourse both unions and RTI have their own pitfalls (No process is perfect...the great LEAN process of Toyota seems to fail them now). Union leaders have become corrupt and management take them on their side at times. Frivolous RTI applications kill the essence of RTI. RTI (like Lokayukta) is under the govt and may be amended to suit the Govt. But lets look into the positives.

In the age of "Clear Enterprise", RTI is a model to be followed by all Govts of world providing "Clear Governance". India has set an example here. Proud of that!

Basically the Unions question the management, RTI questions the Govt. And that's damn good.
 
Wondering about the origins..Socialism -> Transparency -> Democracy or Democracy ->Transparency->Socialism...
 
Why wonder ? Enjoy the great Indian democracy :-)

Evil Mind

I was going through the IEEE paper on the scandal "The Athens Affair". First of all, though the scandal is grave, probably it went un-noticed (by media) or did not receive the attention it deserved.

About the scandal - As the name suggests, it happened in Athens during the period of Athens Olympics in the last decade. It was discovered accidentally that the mobile telephones of some of the big names of Greece (including the then PM, defense minister) were tapped and conversations recorded.

Telephone tapping is nothing new...Remember President Nixon...Or closer home Mr Ramakrishna Hegde resigned as CM of Karnataka because of phone tapping controversy. 

The IEEE paper I referred to, is the a technical explanation of how such a mechanism was actually implemented. A couple of pages through the paper, I lost interest in the "HOW" part of the story. I was wondering on "WHY" and "WHAT NEXT"?. So clearly I was not interested in technical aspect of how the phones were tapped, but was more interested in the brain behind, reasons for the setup and the massive cover-up later.
Wondering " 'Why' did I loose interest in WHY?"…

One possible reason is  - I am not a hardcore techie (at-least not the hackers type).
Other reason could be - Reading thrillers rather than reading technical books has dropped the technical curiosity in me.

But a more realistic reason (or so I think) is - I cannot reuse the technical aspect of the hack (because security-wise the systems could be robust now). It could be of some use later in life, if I get to know why hackers hacked the phone. I may be in such a situation and hacking could be a solution then (WHY part). And more important - how I can save myself later, if caught (WHAT NEXT part).

Now that’s called "Evil mind". Isn't it?