Integration – the Engineering Way

It was our first semester at REC Durgapur. Regional Engineering Colleges, as you know, had seats reserved for each state of India, in proportion to their populations. So we had students from each part of India, with their different languages and cultures. Many of them had never come out of their states before. That was the place where they got a national identity. Everyone spoke Hindi and English; every one wore the similar clothes, ate the same food, shared the same hostel, and sat side by side: like brothers.

I remember it was a maths class. The professor was a Bengali (in fact all professors in our college were Bengalis, except one from Kerala). The professors always felt good while taking classes of first year students. He seemed to be in a mood. I still remember what he said:

“This concept of RECs is foolish. They think if students from all parts of India come and learn together, there would be a national integration! How stupid. In fact when students from different parts of India come and live together, there would only be hatred and dislike of each others. They have all passed different entrance exams; they are not all equally talented. Then they have got educated in completely different environments. When each state has an REC, why don’t they reserve all seats for the students of that domicile? If you think there would be any integration, you are foolish.”

We all giggled together.

Four years in our college gave us many more occasions to laugh. There were times when the professors told many nons (that is how non-Bengalis were called) in public that they were not welcome. There were times when there were secret meetings of Bengali students – over the growing ‘menace’ of nons! But in the end, we know – Satyameva Jayate!

Four years at REC Durgapur changed a lot of things. Slightest feelings of differentiation were erased from our memories. It all started from the ragging days. When one junior used the word ‘reserved category’ in front of one of the seniors, he was thrashed, by all 16 seniors, one by one. Then and there, that word was erased from our minds. During the ragging days, we ate together, suffered together and sang and danced together – how can any feeling of caste or religion survive! And those feelings couldn’t get up ever after. Hindu-Muslim divide – no trace. We had Muslims whom you couldn’t distinguish from amongst the class. North-South divides? No way, we had so many best friends, where one was from the north and the other from the south. For us, Rajnikant and Saurav Ganguli were both equally revered heroes. And even Bongs and Nons partied together; fought together and survived together.

Engineering is not only about studies; studies are just a part of it. I say four years in an Engineering College is like acquiring a complete way of life. A vision where everyone one is equal. We have already come across this many times: that engineers are logical. Don’t you think that when we ‘logically’ think, all are equal – and a ‘divide’ of Maharastra, Gujarat, Bengal, or Kerala exist only on geography and NOT in our minds?

The Kite Runner / Drinking – a sin? / Fathers' desires?

About the Book:

The Kite Runner is a beautiful yet scary novel by Khaled Hosseini. It is the story of Afghanistan. It covers the good and the tough times of the country; right from when it was independent, then under the Russians and finally when under Taliban. It is the story of a young boy and his servant who ran as a kite runner. It is a tale of how reality bites, how relationships change, and how sometimes, we don't change at all. The most touching part of the novel are the horrifying experiences which the characters go through. The biggest causality in Afghanistan was the lost childhood. Message is clear: the level of destruction that wars and the religious fundamentalism can bring to us is scary.

One warning: don't go after the title. The novel has excessive violence, sex and politics, the things that childhood should remain untouched with. I would recommend this book for adults only.

Is drinking a sin? Baba answers.

Amir asks his father whether drinking is a sin, as taught to him in the class by his religious teacher Mullah Fatiullah Khan. Baba says: (text abridged)

Baba: "First understand this and understand it now, Amir: You never learn anything of value form those bearded idiots."

Amir: "You mean Mullah Fatiullah Khan?"

Baba: "I mean all of them. Piss on the beards of all those self-righteous monkeys. They do nothing but thumb their prayer beads and recite a book written in a tongue they don't even understand. God help us all if Afghanistan ever falls into their hands."

Amir: "But Mullah Fatiullah Khan seems nice"

Baba: "So did Genghis Khan; but enough about that. You asked about sin and I want to tell you."

"I mean to speak to you man to man. No matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. Do you understand that?

Amir: "No, Baba jan"

Baba: "When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband; rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?"

"There is no act more wretched than stealing, Amir. A man who takes what is not his to take, be it a life or a loaf of naan; I spit on such a man. And if I ever cross paths with him, God help him."

"If there is a God out there, then I would hope he has more important things to attend to than my drinking scotch."

That is the bottom line: God has more important things to attend to than your drinking scotch. Quite a realisation for me. (Though I still won't go for it.)

Can you explain? 

At one point in the book, it is described that the kite-runner liked a particular story: the story about a father who killed a young man, only to realise later that he was his own son. But Amir didn't sympathise and said:

"After all, didn't all fathers in their secret hearts harbour a desire to kill their sons?"

Do you have any idea, what does the author mean by this? Why do all father, "in their secret hearts' harbour", desire to kill their sons? 

I have come across this idea for the first time, and am not able to understand. The most I can guess is that fathers may think that because of their sons, their "male dominance" in the family would get challenged. But I am not sure. What do you think?

What’s up?

French: I am learning French. The 3 months course has ended, and on this Monday there was the last exam. I hope I passed. I had learnt German while I was in engineering. I found German to be far easier in pronunciation than the French. Still I am filled with doubts regarding pronunciation. French is regarded as the most refined of the languages, and now I understand how!

Yoga: Thanks to our institute, that Yoga classes have been arranged, twice a week, 7:30 to 8:30 in the morning. Three batches of around 100 students each had registered, but I am not able to find them in double digits on any day. I too missed one session out of the three that have passed. (You know, boys don’t get up early). I like the experience very much.

Marico: The MD of Marico came to our institute to deliver his speech on “Marico’s journey”. He spoke on how he built up his business empire. I shall dedicate a separate post for this. A lot of guys were inspired/

Books: Finished reading Angles and Demons by Dan Brown. So far, my record was around 3 in the morning, when I finished Da Vici Code. This time, I was reading the book for some days, and then one day, I read throughout the night to finish the novel at 6:45 AM! Then I took a 3 hours sleep and was ready to move again. Also finished “The Kite Runner”. I shall write about this separately.

Wednesday, 17 Oct. 07

Newspapers of Tomorrow

Marcus Brauchli, Managing Editor, Wall Street Journal was in India recently to participate in HT leadership Summit. He is said to occupy the most powerful position in business journalism. Here are some excerpts from his interview with HT:

- Indian newspapers are among the truly independent newspapers of the world.

- I think newspaper industry in India is heading towards a consolidation. It will have to be more of a shake-out than mergers or buyouts. You are already feeling pressure from the internet, so the redundant newspapers will have to go.

- TV and internet would leave very little time for newspapers everywhere.

- I have a half baked theory that only one major newspaper will survive and people in influential positions will choose to read fewer papers. In most countries, including the US, there is room for one national paper. It will be like an island of clarity and authority in the vast and undifferentiated ocean of information.

- The dividing line between the business and general interest newspaper is also blurring. Our goal at WSJ is to provide the one newspaper you need to read.

Ref: HT Mumbai, 15 Oct. 07, P10

The views and insights of Mr. Brauchli are interesting and thoughtful. But his theory that there is space for only one national newspaper is questionable. Saying that there would be fewer newspapers is ok, but I don't agree that there would be only one newspaper. This condition would pose more risks than the gains. Competition is good for even the newspaper business. At present there are a great number of players, several of them survive only because they know and serve local readers very well. But as newspapers are going professional, like HT Media Ltd, and Jagran Group expanding, it would be difficult for smaller players to survive. Consolidation is a natural phenomenon in the life cycle of an industry, and then I think market would moves towards oligopoly (having few players). Having one national newspaper is having monopoly. Most of the times, governments don't allow any monopoly to form in critical industries. Though in the case of newspapers the government might like a monopoly, for political reasons, it is highly unlikely that it would actually promote or allow a monopoly newspaper to take shape. As a matter of fact, few monopolies are able to survive the competition unless the governments protect them. And Samuelson says, "In the long run, no monopolist is completely secure from attack by competitors." I think that the newspaper industry will have oligopoly, and not a single player monopoly. Even inside oligopoly, I believe in India we shall have collusive oligopoly, where the few firms in the market actively cooperate with each other.

Behind every successful woman, there is another woman

Nations like India to generate numerous success stories, because of the overlooked failures that the previous generations encountered and still secretly lament

On Sep 29, Mint came with an interview of Zia Mody (By Rana Rosen). At one place, Zia said: "My mother always thought she lost out on a higher education and was convinced she would have ended up far better than my father. So, she very often lived her ambitions and aspirations through her children. Always guiding us to be independent, self sustaining, honest to the value structure that we were brought up with, not to compromise our principles, and try to achieve more than what other people have achieved. Alpha mother."

You must agree that this is the case in most of the Indian households today, at least middle class households. The mothers didn't achieve their career ambitions due to family, societal, or marriage related limitations. Therefore, they live their ambitions and aspirations through their children. Although this is true for the fathers also, this is more common a pattern among the women in India. We had this very famous slogan, "teach a man and you teach an individual, teach a woman and you teach a family."

We can expect a revolutionary change in the education and professional scenes some years from now, when these kids, who were guided by the aspirations of their mothers, go and ask their share in the world!

What do you say?

Smile is a curve that can make a lot of things straight

They were waiting for their turn in the doctor's clinic. Atmosphere was gloomy, and no one was talking to anyone else. An old man came in, and sat down. He was looking very anxious and tense. Besides him, a lady was sitting with a 10 months baby in her arms. Next moment, the baby just looked up at him with that great big smile that is so characteristic of babies. The gentleman smiled back at the baby. Soon he struck up in a conversation with the lady about her baby and his grandchildren. And soon, the entire reception room joined in, and the boredom and tension was converted into a pleasant and enjoyable experience. (Incident taken from a book)

How often do we, adults, smile for others, like what the baby did in this incident?

My sister's baby boy is growing very fast. Now he is enjoying his broken speech, and has picked up a habit of talking over mobile phones. The next day I called up, my sis gave him the phone to 'talk'. He picked it up, started with maaaa and kept speaking In between he broke into laughter. Then again he would talk, and again another laughter. This continued for a long time, and now he was not ready to give the handset back! But why did the baby laugh? Because he was happy that he had got an opportunity to talk over the mobile phone, and his laughter was a very natural and humane way to express that delight.

How often do we, adults, express our delight in the form of a natural laughter, like what the baby did?

Faithfulness

One of my friends told me this real story. His father was posted in a small forest town at that time. One day, while he was passing through a stretch adjacent to the forest, 5-6 wild dangerous looking dogs surrounded him. There was no one else around. Suddenly, a small local dog arrived nearby and invited attention of the dangerous dogs. Then he started running away in a particular direction. My friend's father too ran behind that dog. The wild dogs, because of some strange reason, didn't chase him! He was safe. He then took that dog to his home and domesticated him. After a long association, one day, there was something wrong with the dog, may be he had eaten something wrong. He was eagerly waiting in the house, for his master to return from office. As soon as my friend's father came, the dog ran towards him, lovingly hugged him, played with him, and then moved away. He went to the bathroom, vomited blood, and after some time, he was dead.

I know many of us have stories like this. I remember the story of Sona, the female deer of poetess Subhadra Kumari Chowhan, which she described in her story. Also, I remember one story I read on some of your blogs, where the authoress described how she found and lost her faithful pet.

On the other hand, we as humans are faithful often not even to us; right? There are scientists who try to justifiably explain why men by nature are not faithful to their partners. And there are people who justify unfaithfulness to one's organisation by saying: everything is right until you get caught up. There have been numerous stories of rags-to-riches individuals, who were unfaithful to their masters. Faithfulness to one's country, motherland, family, parents, spouse, friends… ideally the wish list is long. I think the human tendency to justify things pulls us too low… In the changing times, will the pets be the only ones who will retain this basic quality?

Perseverance

A wild butterfly has entered my room. It is flying towards the tube light, hitting it and then coming back. It keeps doing this until it falls into some dark and congested place. While she was sitting on a book, I pulled the book and threw her out of the window. After some time, she has come back, and keeps moving towards the light. I know she will keep doing this till her last breath.

A long time back, when I used to prepare for engineering entrance exams, sometimes I went past 2 in the morning. I needed to get out of my room, in order to enter the main building. In those chilly winter nights, under the electric bulb, I used to see a procession of ants, moving, one before the other, night after night. They used to carry something with them, without any attempt of stopping and taking a breath. I knew they would keep doing that till their last breaths.

Why don't we humans have a comparable perseverance as that of a butterfly or an ant? Though scientists are famous for their disciplined life, and of course Yogis and monks "have it" in them, even they take several years of practice to reach that state. What about others? Have you ever seen an insect that won't run towards the light? Or a single ant who decides that from today onwards, she will not travel in a queue, but take a break in between, take a nap, or a peg or two? Or a papaya tree that decides to generate sour fruits? Why is that we humans, despite being the wisest of all, are the stupidest of all too? Why can't perseverance come naturally to all of us too? Our scientists are able to create a Dolly from a cell, but will they ever be able to selectively develop some natural characteristics in the human beings, such as perseverance? Why should humans learn that in a hard way, but the butterfly should inherit it?

Rahul Tiwary

Business: Forbes Asian Fabulous 50 List – 2007

Great news. A total of 12 Indian companies made it to the third annual Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 List.

The 12 Indian companies in alphabetical order are:

• Bharat Heavy Electricals
• Bharti Airtel
• Grasim Industries
• HDFC Bank
• ICICI Bank
• Infosys Technologies
• Larsen & Toubro
• Reliance Industries
• Satyam Computer Services
• Tata Consultancy Services
• Tata Steel
• Wipro

And, China got only 7 on this list!

References: [Forbes List] [Rediff]

Hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a theory in psychology that Abraham Maslow proposed in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. Maslow’s theory contended that as humans meet ‘basic needs’, they seek to satisfy successively ‘higher needs’ that occupy a set hierarchy. Maslow’s theory was regarded as an improvement over previous theories of personality and motivation.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: the four lower levels are grouped together as deficiency needs associated with physiological needs, while the top level is termed growth needs associated with psychological needs.

Deficiency needs must be met first. Once these are met seeking to satisfy growth needs drives personal growth. The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the lower needs in the pyramid are satisfied. Once an individual has moved past a level, those needs will no longer be prioritized. However, if a lower set of needs is no longer being met, the individual will temporarily re-prioritize those needs – dropping down to that level until the lower needs are reasonably satisfied again

The five levels are self explanatory and are explained in the attached picture also, therfore I am not describing them.

It is very interesting to understand the needs of humans, structured in this manner. Though someone can debate on the hierarchy, the fact remains that this model explains why a child cries, why a boy in your locality behaves in that manner, and why the subordinate of Hari Sadhu is frustrated….

Creative Destruction and Destructive Creativity

These days, I have observed that some young people are very proud of their creativity, which is destructive; in fact one of my friends claimed it as one of his strengths!

I remember this scene from in one B&W Hindi movie:

Johnny Walker and his son used to sell windowpanes. One bad day on streets, their sales were nil, and then they discovered an ingenious way to turn their fortunes. First, his son throws a stone and breaks the window of a decent apartment and runs away. Then the Johnny appears and is immediately hired to repair the broken window. By this way, they use their destructive creativity to open new avenues for their income.

I tried to understand creative destruction and destructive creativity, and was amazed to find out that in fact, these two terms are opposite to each other. Let us see some examples to understand this.

The example of Johnny Walker may immaturely conclude that it is the people like them who do this. But the phenomenon is too widespread. Destruction of colonies created markets for the European nations. If the farmers of Champaran didn't plant indigo in their lands and thereby their soil losing fertility, the cotton mills of Britain wouldn't have made that much profits. Of course, this is imperialism more than destructive creativity, but think about the first man in whose mind this idea came, that pure business (which East India Company started with), was not enough and colonization is the best thing to do. Recent example is the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq; there are credible reports of how much American companies earned out of contracts to rebuild the destroyed cities. This phenomenon of destructive creativity even spreads to modern companies and businesses. They have found that selling their new products is difficult, but success lies in moulding an entire generation into their target consumers: first they want you to grow obese, and then they will do weight loss therapy to cure that! And the creative destruction while firms compete is also well known. The monopolies destroy any new entrants into the market, which is one reason governments have been hostile to the big M&As (remember derailed GE-Honeywell merger?). In market though, there is some destruction that is inevitable; e.g. music CDs and VCDs destroyed cassettes and VCPs/VCRs. These are naturally happening creative destructions.

I can put the availability of foetus sex determination machines under this category. And the invention of Atom Bomb? These were all creative, but they destroyed many a things also in the way… A live example is the Setu Samudram Project, where government of India is willing to spend Rs 2600 Crore of taxpayers money (80% Hindus) to destroy a mythical bridge between India and Srilanka, in order to make some ships pass though and save some travel time. What overwhelms the protagonists is nothing other than the joy of Destructive Creativity!

In the way, I have mixed up the two terms: Destructive Creativity and Creative Destruction. Creative Destruction is defined as the process of 'transformation' that accompanies 'radical innovation'. This may be positive. For example, when competing companies and competing technologies destroy others, it is called creative destruction. Like digital MP3 players are destroying MP3 CD players. But, Destructive Creativity is the process involving generation of ideas and behaviours focused on 'harmful goals'. Examples, we can easily think of. But companies some times utilize this method to find the loopholes within their own systems, before some one finds it and use it to his/her advantage. E.g. in software companies, one of the desired skills of a s/w testing engineer is destructive creativity. 

The harms due to these tendencies are many. Things like ethical hacking may seem cool, but in general, destructive forces will never achieve for mankind, a minuscule of what pure creativity does. Getting broken glass replaced may not be a big deal, but the broken hearts and souls may never get their due. In the name of ethical destruction, or spreading civilizations, destructive creativity has already done substantial damage. Let us not idolise the destructive creativities. It takes years for a tree to grow, but our creative lots may take a few minutes to turn the clock back. There will be two alternative solutions, for example, for India-Pakistan conflict: diplomacy or a war. First is constructive and second is destructive. And hence, the biggest question in front of mankind is: how to ensure that creativity remains constructive and not destructive?

Business: Toothpaste Market in India

Toothpaste market in India is worth Rs 2200 Crore (2006).

In India, per capita toothpaste consumption stood at 74g in 2005, which is amongst the lowest in the world, compared to 350g and 300g in Malaysia and Vietnam respectively.

Toothpaste enjoys a country wide penetration level of 50%.

Rural: 39%
Urban: 75%

Oral hygiene continues to be under aggressive competition, with sales increasing by a modest 3% in current value terms in 2006 to Rs. 2,400 crs. Toothpaste accounted for a whopping 83% of value sales.

HLL's market share in the dental care market has grown from a mere five per cent in 1979 to an impressive 36 per cent today, whereas Colgate-Palmolive has been seen its market share decline from a dominating 75 per cent to a struggling 56 per cent.

Segments:

Popular Segment - Colgate Dental Cream, Pepsodent - Declining

Low Price Packs - Cibaca, Babool - Growing

Niche Products - Ayurvedic and Sensitive toothpastes - Stagnant

Freshness Segment - Colgate MaxFresh,Close Up,Anchor Gel - Growing

Price-based Segments:

Regular Segment: 100 gm: Rs 25-30

Low Price Segment: 100 gm: Rs 14-20

The Lower Price Point segment accounts for around 25% of total category volumes. Small and regional brands from the low priced segment are expected to perform well because they are often close to the market, respond faster to changes and are willing to learn from mistakes.

Colgate

Colgate has been present in the domestic oral care market (of India) for the last 70 years.

A dominant position in the toothpaste segment with a 48% market share in the domestic market.

1.5 times the second largest player.

Cibaca was acquired by Colgate in 1994 from Ciba Geigy.

The company today has two main brands in the toothpaste segment � Colgate and Colgate Cibaca.

Colgate Cibaca has risen to become the 4th largest paste brand in the country in volume terms after Colgate Dental Cream, Pepsodent and Close-Up

Pepsondent

Brand of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL, erstwhile HLL)

In a declining toothpaste market, HLL has managed to grow its brands and this has been attributed to Pepsodent’s value proposition being redefined.

Pepsodent’s share has been climbing steadily from 15.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2002 to 16.3 per cent in the quarter ending June 2006.

HLL's Dental insurance scheme, being launched through a partnership with the New India Assurance, offered a dental insurance of Rs 1,000 on purchase of any pack of Pepsodent.

Anchor

Anchor belongs to Anchor Health and Beauty Care (AHBC), a part of the Anchor Group (makers of Anchor Electrical switches).

Anchor White Toothpaste was positioned as India‘s first British Dental Health Society certified 100 per cent vegetarian toothpaste, in 1997.

Anchor and Ajanta price their offerings at more than 40% discount, giving the market leaders a run for their money. These low priced competitors accounted for more than 80 per cent of the growing "discount segment".

Top 5 Brands – Market Share (2006)

1. Colgate Dental Cream: 34%

2. Close-Up: 14%

3. Pepsodent Complete: 10-11%

4. Colgate Cibaca Top: 5.7%

5. Colgate Fresh Energy Gel: 3%

6. Other Brands: 32.3%

a. Anchor, Babool, Ajanta, etc

Company - Market Share (Value), 2006

1. Colgate Palmolive Ltd: 47.3%

2. HLL: 30%

3. Dabur: 7.2%

Source (Market share): AC Nielsen Market Information Digest India, 2006

Know how the names of your favourite companies came into being

Apple Computers: Apple was founder Steve Jobs' favourite fruit. He was three months late in filing a name for his business. So he threatened to name the company "Apple" if other colleagues don't come up with a better name. And the rest is history.

Google: It was originally called Googol, a word that represents 1 followed 100 zeroes. After founders Seargey Brin and Larry Page presented their projects to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to Google.

Hotmail: Sabeer Bhatia tried all types of names ending with mail, and fixed it as Hotmail, as it contained all 4 letters of HTML. Earlier it was referred to as HoTMaiL.

Hewlett-Packard: Founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Intel: Acronym for of Integrated Electronics.

Microsoft: Bill Gates thought the name was devoted to micro computer software. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the hyphen was taken off later on.

Motorola: Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for motor cars.

Sony: Comes from Latin word Sonus meaning sound.

Red Hat: Founder Marc Ewing lost his favourite red hat, which he had got from his grandfather. He searched for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return the red hat if found by anyone.